HAITI E 
 HORNER 
 
 LOUTHAN
 
 ^j 
 <***J *
 
 THIS WAS A MAN!
 
 "Paul."
 
 "THIS WAS A MAN! 
 
 His life -was gentle; and the elements 
 
 So mix'd in Aim, that Nature might stand up, 
 
 And say to all the world, " This Was a Man.' 
 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 A ROMANCE
 
 Copyright, 1 906. 
 THE C. M. CLARK PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 Entered at 
 Stationer's Hall, London. 
 
 Dramatic and all other 
 RIGHTS RESERVED.
 
 TJO the 
 Ttyemory of 77?y JFfusband, 
 
 Overton Sarle jCouthan
 
 THE SONGS HEREIN ARE REPRINTED BY COURTEOUS 
 PERMISSION OF "THE SMART SET," NEW YORK, 
 
 AND THE GORHAM PRESS, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON.
 
 The only safety in our American life lies in spurning the 
 accidental distinctions which sunder one man from another, 
 and in paying homage to each rrjan only because of what he 
 essentially is ; in stripping off the husks of occupation, of 
 position, of accident, until the soul stands forth revealed, 
 and we know the man only because of his worth as a man. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 What care I for caste or creed ? 
 It is the deed, it is the deed ! 
 What for class or what for clan ? 
 It is the MAN, it is the MAN ! 
 Heirs of love and joy and woe, 
 Who is high and who is low ? 
 Mountain, valley, sky and sea 
 Are for one Humanity. 
 
 What care I for robe or stole ? 
 It is the soul, it is the soul ! 
 What for crown or what for crest ? 
 It is the heart within the breast. 
 It is the faith, it is the hope, 
 It is the striving up the slope ; 
 It is the brain and eye to see 
 One God and one Humanity ! 
 
 ROBERT LOVEMAN.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Prologue The Sins of the Fathers .... 7 
 Chapter 
 
 I Twenty Years After . . . . 1 6 
 
 II My Lady Heroine .... 26 
 
 III The Lowly Hero .... 36 
 
 IV Dinner and Discussion .... 49 
 
 V The Boss's Son 63 
 
 VI His Fiancee . . . . . 72 
 
 VII Father and Daughter .... 80 
 
 VIII Providence Prevents .... 89 
 
 IX " Something Desperate " . . . 98 
 
 X Scores Accumulate . . . . 107 
 
 XI Master . . . . . . 123 
 
 XII "None So Blind As Those Who Will Not 
 
 See" ...... 132 
 
 XIII "A Snapper-Up of Unconsidered Trifles " 141 
 
 XIV In League . . . . . . 14.9 
 
 XV Mistress and Man , . . . 156 
 
 XVI Sweet Danger . . . . . 1 70 
 
 XVII Darkness Deepens . . . . 187 
 
 XVIII Before Dawn I 9 6 
 
 XIX Dawn ...... 207 
 
 XX The Gentleman and the Hired Man . 218 
 
 XXI Richard Scores Even . . . . 225 
 
 XXII " Is This Your Son, My Lord ?" . . 231 
 
 XXIII Out of the Past .... 240 
 
 XXIV Dismissal ..... 246 
 
 XXV The Woman Who Listens . . . 2 c8 
 
 XXVI Mother and Son . . . 260
 
 XXVII Cruel With the Virtue Of a Man . . 274 
 
 XXVIII Like Father, Like Son ... 281 
 
 XXIX Love Against Pride . . . . 292 
 
 XXX Reading Between Lines . . . 305 
 
 XXXI Brother and Sister . . . . 313 
 
 XXXII An Unpretentious Champion of "Common 
 
 Clay" 322 
 
 XXXIII Master and Man . . . . 329 
 
 XXXIV She Stoops to Conquer . . . 343 
 
 XXXV The Lovers 357 
 
 XXXVI The Truth by Accident . . . 376 
 
 XXXVII The Conspirators . . . . 388 
 
 XXXVIII The Woman Who Deliberates . . 397 
 
 XXXIX The Fierce Vexation of Community . 409 
 
 XL The Betrothed 417 
 
 LXI " Unto Seventy Times Seven " . . 432 
 
 XLII Who is Guilty? . . . . . 441 
 
 XLIII "Friday Next" .... 454 
 
 XLIV Love Blinded 462 
 
 XLV Indecision . . . . . 471 
 
 XL VI As A Man Soweth . . . . 478 
 
 XLVII Father and Son . . . . . 489
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 THE SINS OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 " COME into the study, Eldreth, I must speak with 
 you. No, you can not see her; she is quite pros- 
 trated. It has been overwhelming, even to me, this 
 sudden knowledge that you have broken one of 
 God's greatest laws. And you realize, doubtless, 
 how this knowledge alone would deter me from giv- 
 ing you my sister's hand in marriage, even if I had 
 not learned beyond the shadow of a doubt " 
 
 The young Rector hesitated and lifted mild, re- 
 buking eyes to the friend whom he had loved, still 
 loved. 
 
 Pierce Eldreth remained standing near the door 
 he had just closed. There was an annoyed look on 
 his fair, handsome face, a glitter in his blue eyes, as 
 he exclaimed : 
 
 7
 
 8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Oh, you men of the cloth are always so un- 
 charitable with the mistakes of one's boyhood." 
 
 " Your little Richard is barely two years old, I 
 believe," observed the Rector coldly, " And when I 
 think that it was about two years ago that this girl 
 attached herself to my sister, volunteering to serve 
 her at the poor pay afforded in a country rectory; 
 when I recall her anxiety to leave Denver and come 
 to Eldhurst, the inevitable conclusion is 
 
 " That she wanted to be near her child, naturally," 
 concluded the other for him, " Though declining the 
 sum my father set upon her, stormily, insultingly 
 refusing it, yet she seemed willing enough to fall in 
 with his scheme of taking the boy and rearing him 
 as a gentleman here at Eldhurst. And she swore to 
 corroborate the story of my early widowerhood, and 
 to keep to herself what she seems after all to have 
 told you if only we would allow her to see the 
 child once in a while. Father was so impressed with 
 her beauty that his usual clear-headedness was 
 blinded to my plan (surely the wiser) of The Rescue 
 down in Denver, or the Florence Crittenden Home 
 for such as she, where she could have had her child. 
 But the old man got more than one set English no- 
 tion along toward the last. The good Lord left 
 him sense enough to see I couldn't marry her, else 
 there'd have been the deuce of a time; for father
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 9 
 
 never knew from actual experience what back talk 
 was." 
 
 " And the knowledge of the one fact mentioned," 
 resumed the Rector in his even, placid way, taking 
 up the thread of his earlier remark, " would alone 
 deter me from granting my sister's hand, even if we 
 had not learned from Marah's own lips last night 
 that your former illicit relations with her had been 
 renewed during this period of two years under my 
 roof barring the six months since my sister's re- 
 turn from college." 
 
 " ' We '? Good Lord ! she did not tell you all 
 this before Miss Allan ? " 
 
 The Rector nodded, quite beyond words; for 
 there was no repentance in the face before him, no 
 sorrow for sin, merely consternation at having been 
 detected. In God's eyes, how much better was this 
 one than Menendez, the Mexican outlaw, as yet un- 
 detected, hiding there at Eldhurst? 
 
 By and by he said in a low voice: " So you see, 
 Eldreth, my consent is quite out of the question, 
 even if my sister did not know. Good-night good- 
 bye ; " and he held out his hand. 
 
 His companion stared at him in haughty silence 
 for an instant. 
 
 " I did not call to beg your consent to our ap- 
 proaching marriage, Edwin Allan." 
 
 "Why then ?' ?
 
 io THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " To see her, and by God ! I'm going to do it." 
 
 " She will not see you." 
 
 " I'll have that from her, sir." 
 
 The young Rector lifted his serene eyes to the 
 flushed face, and he unwittingly uttered the words 
 best calculated to strengthen the other's purpose : 
 
 " Pierce Eldreth, do you think that my sister, best 
 loved of our blameless father and our sainted mother 
 now gone, daughter of a long immaculate line of 
 the purest, noblest New England blood, herself un- 
 sullied by so much as an impure thought; a queen 
 among women, white-settled and royal, my helper 
 in His work, do you imagine for a moment that 
 she would stoop to unite with one whose past, aye, 
 and whose present, are what yours are, self-con- 
 fessed?" 
 
 ' That is precisely what I am here to ascertain," 
 replied his companion coolly, " but I'll have my in- 
 formation first-hand. Miss Allan has reached her 
 majority, I believe." 
 
 Edwin Allan grasped the table edge with nervous 
 fingers and leaned towards the young man who 
 stood with clenched hands regarding him defiantly. 
 
 Ac that moment an inner door swung and a 
 young woman stood upon the threshold, a tall, 
 queenly blonde with a royally poised head and a 
 delicate, high-bred face. She was clad in some 
 long, sweeping white robe ; her hair indicated recent
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. n 
 
 contact with restless pillows and her eyes the recent 
 touch of tears. But the aristocrat was written over 
 her from head to foot; and you at once recognized 
 her strong points of appeal to a patrician like Pierce 
 Eldreth ; how he would ponder upon such a woman 
 to grace Eldhurst, upon the children to spring from 
 the marriage-bed, to perpetuate his old and honor- 
 able name. 
 
 The tense silence, the constrained attitude of the 
 two men at once betrayed to her the subject of their 
 discussion. Murmuring an apology, she was about 
 to withdraw, but her brother signed her to remain. 
 
 " Edith, Mr. Eldreth does me the honor," and 
 ever so slight a circumflex crept into the Rector's 
 tone, " to request your hand in holy matrimony," 
 and a curious little emphasis fell upon the last two 
 words, " I have assured him that there can be but 
 one answer, after Marah's story last night ; but one 
 answer from an Allan and the daughter of our 
 mother. But he wishes it from your lips. Speak ! " 
 
 Slowly, with her fascinated gaze passing from 
 the troubled eyes of her brother to the passionate, 
 entreating eyes of her lover, Edith Allan advanced 
 to the center of the study. Slowly her proud head 
 drooped, a delicate color staining her face and throat. 
 Involuntarily both men took a step toward her. In- 
 decision was so foreign to her that both remained 
 breathless lest they lose her words.
 
 12 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 "There is, there can be, but one answer," she 
 
 began. 
 
 " I pray God " interposed her brother, alarmed 
 by the expression of her face. 
 
 " I love you, only you," breathed her lover, ap- 
 proaching her with out-reached arms, " The woman 
 is nothing to me, nothing." 
 
 " Forgive me, Edwin," murmured the girl, stoop- 
 ing to kiss his hand with reverence and affection, " I 
 know all; have weighed all; yet yet there can be 
 .... but one answer," and turning she 
 stretched meeting hands to her lover's eager, thrill- 
 ing clasp. 
 
 Stunned, dazed, the Rector turned from the room. 
 As he closed the door behind him, the figure of a 
 slender, dark-haired woman started up from a listen- 
 ing attitude at the door-frame. 
 
 " Marah," he whispered, " Marah," and his voice 
 lingered tenderly, compassionately over the syllables 
 of her name. 
 
 But the woman staggered away, supporting her- 
 self along the wall, and she did not once look 
 back. 
 
 In the darkness of the porch, she leaned, faint 
 and nerveless. 
 
 " The ' woman ! ' she repeated whisperingly, 
 "' Nothing \ nothing!'" 
 
 A glowing point of fire pricked the blackness out
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 13 
 
 near the gate, and a taint of cigarros hung in the 
 May air. 
 
 The woman straightened tensely. 
 
 " Manuel ! Manuel Menendez ! " 
 
 Her summons was a mere breath, but the fire- 
 point described a swift downward arc, and a man's 
 form, dimly outlined, flung down at her feet. 
 
 " Senorita mia, thou deedst call ? " 
 
 She stooped. 
 
 " You are always here at the gate ; in the church, 
 even at choir-practice; under these windows. 
 Why?" 
 
 " A h, thou know-est." 
 
 "I? How should I?" 
 
 The dim form prostrated itself yet lower. " Te 
 adoro! " came breathing up to her, her dress-hem at 
 his lips. 
 
 She laughed contemptuously. " Te ador-o!" 
 she mimicked, "And is that all?" It was taunt 
 and challenge commingled. 
 
 The worshipful form straightened to its knees. 
 
 " No le comprendo ... a vd," he stam- 
 mered. 
 
 A pause. 
 
 The man leaped to his feet, his face thrust close 
 to hers in a vain endeavor to read her expression. 
 
 "All?" he whispered, " Dios! Dios!" Then 
 clutching her arm with two shaking hands, he
 
 i 4 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 panted: "Es posiblef Thou .../... 
 All? " 
 
 The darkness was heavy at the moment, the si- 
 lence heavier. But at length the fateful word fell : 
 
 " All" 
 
 " Hermosa mia!" His grasp tightened, his 
 breath quickened. " We thees vera night weel fly 
 far-r. My country no. Why, matteers not. 
 But far-r, now, thees vera night. Ees eet not so? " 
 
 She wrenched from him, crowding back into the 
 doorway. 
 
 " Tomorrow, if " 
 
 " Eef " he echoed with quivering eagerness, fol- 
 lowing her. 
 
 " We are to stay here here at Eldhurst ; you as 
 head-shepherd, I 
 
 " Si, si," he laughed musically, " As thou weelt, 
 qncrida mia, as thou weelt. Manana! " 
 
 " And wait ! one thing more. No, no, listen 
 to me! You are to tell him, your master, of our 
 that I love you; that I have loved you since first I 
 came to the Rectory ; you, Manuel Menendez, no one 
 but you. Ha! ha! . . . Then, tomorrow 
 You will not fail me, Manuel? .... As I 
 have loved no one else, ever. Tell him that. Yes, 
 yes, sometime . . . afterward ... not 
 yet ... I- Stand back! ... So. Re- 
 member: we are to stay right here; you are to tell
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 15 
 
 him tonight yet, that I love you, that I told you 
 so. What ? / fail you ? Never ! I swear it. Do 
 I not love you? Ha, ha, ha! . . . Oh, we'll 
 see ! Go, now. Go ! " 
 
 And the door was closed violently in his face.
 
 x6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TWENTY YEARS AFTER. 
 
 THE service was done, and the dying tones of the 
 rich organ still bore the benediction's plea above 
 the departing congregation. 
 
 Lilys Eldreth came down from the choir gallery, 
 music-roll and parasol in hand, and was about to fol- 
 low her uncle, who had disappeared through the side 
 door toward the Rectory, when a sign from her 
 father summoned her to where the Eldreth carriage 
 waited at the church door. 
 
 Lilys was a slim, lissome girl of perhaps twenty, 
 with the erect carriage, the superb vitality of body 
 and the quick grace of movement that bespoke an 
 active outdoor life; strong, supple little wrists and 
 firm ankles that told of tennis, golf and climbing. 
 Her dress to-day was an earth-born cloud of tulle, 
 which had an earthy and curiously individual way 
 of clinging to her ; the skirt just now held up from 
 the ground, exposing one small, high-arched foot 
 emerging from a foam of snowy lace. Her gypsy 
 face was shadowed by a wide ghost of a hat, one of
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 17 
 
 those skeleton nothings that nods elastically with 
 the wearer's every motion and seems momentarily 
 threatening to lift and soar. Her complexion was 
 flush-pink seen through ivory. Her eyes were stars 
 at dusk. The crimson poppies at her bodice 
 matched her full lips. As she approached the car- 
 riage, she spread up her white parasol, whose droop- 
 ing drifts of costly lace formed the ideal background 
 for her sparkling face and ringlets of jetty hair. 
 
 Howard and DeLacy bared their heads as she 
 stopped beside the carriage, and her half-brother 
 Richard made a move toward the driver's seat to 
 make a place for her beside their father. But no, 
 she said, she must talk with Uncle Allan about some 
 work on her herbarium for tomorrow. She would 
 get Nina and be home in time for dinner with 
 them consulting the tiny gem-studded watch at her 
 belt but now she was going to the Rectory. 
 
 She repeated this last in her slow, wilful way, 
 with her eyes on Paul's face; but he seemed fully 
 occupied with the fretful horses and did not look up, 
 though his heightened color attested his conscious- 
 ness of her gaze. Then she tossed her music-roll to 
 her brother, smiled into DeLacy's admiring eyes, 
 blew a kiss to her father and drifted away. 
 
 " You see she has a fashion all her own of getting 
 her way with me, as with every one else," laughed 
 Pierce Eldreth, as the carriage toiled along the steep
 
 i8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 road that wound from the church to Eldhttrst House, 
 " In her fair lexicon there seems to be no such words 
 as ' May I ? ' Once in a while she asks my consent 
 to some of her doings, but it's generally after the 
 doings." Then, as though picking up a previous 
 theme, " I doubt if she would go willingly. She's 
 quite attached to things hereabout. She's never been 
 away to school as Richard has. Her uncle has 
 taught her, and he and the boys of the place, Paul 
 and Pepito and the others, have made paths for her 
 among the hills, and they have regular runs after 
 bugs and flowers and what not. You see, her 
 mother died at Lilys's birth, and the girl has never 
 had a moment's restraint. She's as headstrong as 
 the colts she rides. Of course, if I said * Go,' 
 why " He ended with a shrug and a scowl that 
 went far toward explaining the implicit obedience 
 rendered by Eldhurst's army of employes, from the 
 lowliest sheepboy to the foreman. 
 
 " But I tell you it's a crime," argued DeLacy, 
 " such a voice as that in a little mission church for 
 the benefit of cowboys and half-breeds. Beg par- 
 don, but it's a clear case of sweetness wasted, 
 sweetness, volume, power. Mr. Howard acknowl- 
 edges he has done all he can for her," with a bow to 
 the old Chorister opposite him, " The East has con- 
 servatories, masters, opportunities ; you have money 
 and to spare. I think I never heard just such a
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 19 
 
 voice, such first-water purity, such peculiar carrying 
 power, such haunting after-glow. Her mother 
 sang?" 
 
 " Not a note ! " and Eldreth's glance sought How- 
 ard's eyes half-inquiringly, as though the thought 
 had never before occurred to him, " She wrote 
 songs, the words I mean; but she did not sing." 
 
 He fell into a revery from which he was roused 
 by his son. 
 
 " I don't see why she can't go, Father. Allan's 
 got her well ahead on book matters; has kept her 
 nearly up with me at the university." 
 
 "And I have talked conservatory to you for nearly 
 a year," put in the Chorister, " I do not know what 
 we'll do without her " The old man's voice fal- 
 tered and broke curiously; but DeLacy said in his 
 winning tones : 
 
 " Come, be persuaded, Eldreth. We must have 
 our way this time. My aunt will bring her party 
 down from Estes Park a week from tomorrow on 
 their way to Denver and thence direct to Atlantic 
 City. Miss Lilys has never been east, and she could 
 not see it under better chaperonage than Mrs. Scott- 
 DeLacy's. Your daughter can easily be ready in a 
 week's time." 
 
 There was a long pause as the horses toiled on 
 toward the summit of the hill. Eldreth was reflect- 
 ing deeply. DeLacy was studying his face eagerly.
 
 20 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Young Eldreth was sheltering a match in both hands 
 and trying to light his cigarette. The old musician 
 was looking off toward the Peak with blurring eyes. 
 Paul Menendez, pale as death, cut the straining 
 horses viciously, then pulled them down, and the 
 carriage started forward again with a lurch. 
 
 " Well then she goes ! " announced Eldreth de- 
 cisively. His brow cleared. He reached his cigar- 
 case to Howard and DeLacy. Then turning 
 sharply, as the carriage gave another lurch : 
 
 " Paul, you'd better learn to drive ! " 
 
 The service done, the Rector turned aside to his 
 quiet, book-walled study. He was in no mood for 
 the summer guests, the worldly talk and jest at 
 Eldhurst, nor for the lengthy dinner in the evening; 
 hence, avoiding his brother-in-law's eye and ignor- 
 ing the Eldhurst carriage, he shut himself in his 
 favorite room of the modest rectory which adjoined 
 the church. 
 
 That closing solo haunted him. It roused old 
 memories that beat their bars and wailed. It was 
 Lilys's voice and yet not Lilys's voice that had 
 winged the words : 
 
 " Oh Thou who shunned not Calvary, 
 My tortured soul pours out to Thee 
 Its anguished pleading : Help Thou me, 
 Thou loving One ! ' "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 21 
 
 For how could Lilys sing that, Lilys who was only 
 a child, and had never suffered ? 
 
 Nay, that other voice that Sunday after Sunday 
 for nearly two years had floated down from the 
 choir-loft above his head, that wondrous voice with 
 all its tell-tale changes. 
 
 At first, despite the woman's past, then unknown 
 to him, her voice had often the sweet, care-free tones 
 of Lilys's or of the lark's or the gurgling notes of a 
 mountain-brook in May. 
 
 Then, when Pierce Eldreth had come, a softer 
 note; a bird at dawn of spring; a brook caressing 
 loved, but hindering, stones. How that thrilling 
 undertone, engulfing him from above, would, in 
 spite of him, weigh his senses down, before the 
 wings of his spirit could gather strength to bear him 
 upward into his lofty theme. 
 
 Another change. The voice swelled, a gloria in 
 excelsis poured to love ; the bird at nesting time, the 
 cataract unchecked, the woman's voice, passion- 
 deepened. 
 
 Yet another change when the climax in four lives 
 had approached : grief, despair, wounded love and 
 pride ; the stricken, mateless bird ; the. torrent broken 
 on the cruel rocks. 
 
 That closing solo ; that last Sunday ; she had sung 
 it then, each note a wail, each syllable a prayer, 
 sweet, sweet, like liquid pearls, slow beading from
 
 22 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 threads of bitterness. She had sung and gone ; had 
 moved down the aisle, past the Eldreth pew which 
 held the bridal party, in its midst her own child and 
 his, the groom's had passed the church's door, nor 
 entered it again in all these twenty years. 
 
 Yes, it was twenty years since she had taken up 
 her self-imposed exile there upon the mountain side. 
 His study window framed her little cabin, a tuft of 
 brown upon the hill's green robe. In the near fore- 
 ground was the grave-yard, where gleamed a costly 
 monument. Aye, it was more than twenty years 
 since his sister had been laid to sleep beneath that 
 stone. Oh, double loss! And he had been left to 
 gaze from that window over the tomb of the dead, 
 up to the tomb of the living, to look and long for 
 twenty years ! 
 
 Why had she afterward grown so hard and em- 
 bittered, so inapproachable? Surely, she had for- 
 given ; for had she not risen from her own bed with 
 an infant and gone up to Eldhurst on that day of 
 gloom and death, when the little Lilys had been 
 left wailing and motherless? And yet it had been 
 but a momentary softening, for Christ had no dwell- 
 ing-place in her heart and life now, there in the 
 humble home where Marah Menendez lived in loneli- 
 ness with her son. 
 
 He recalled how, after a decade of widowhood, 
 she had led her little Paul, climbing the toilsome
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 23 
 
 path to Eldhurst House and stood him before Pierce 
 Eldreth, as the brothers-in-law sat in the western 
 veranda. It was the first day she had set foot upon 
 the hill since Edith's death, and now Paul was al- 
 most ten years old. 
 
 " Since Fate has robbed me of the man I loved," 
 and how her dark beauty had glowed as she spoke, 
 standing with her hands upon the shoulders of the 
 wondering boy, " has robbed you of a willing slave 
 who owed you much, life, protection, all; since 
 Marah Maitland can owe Pierce Eldreth naught, I 
 bring you all I have, this boy of mine. His services 
 are yours till the ten years bring him to manhood 
 and leave me no longer the say-so. Such was the 
 wish of Manuel Menendez who, he confessed, owed 
 his all to you. The daughter she left you, an 
 Allan and an Eldreth both, will find use for one 
 more slave. It is hard to give him up, his child 
 and mine, but Marah Maitland never owes, never 
 forgets." 
 
 Pierce Eldreth had heard her through, a bitter 
 smile upon his face, had said : " Thus should it be, 
 thus shall it be," and coldly signed her dismissal. 
 
 Marah had bowed low and deferentially to hide 
 the cruel light in her eyes ; had turned with just one 
 backward glance to note how Eldhurst's master 
 stood perplexed before that fearless boy with his 
 blue poet-eyes and hair of spinner's gold ; had passed
 
 24 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 where he, Edwin Allan sat, had laughed her mirth- 
 less laugh, muttering: 
 
 " The debt shall all be paid, Pierce Eldreth, all. 
 Thus should it be, thus shall it be. Amen." 
 
 As rose-trees on either side the stone wall of a 
 garden, so grew those three children, Richard and 
 Lilys Eldreth and Paul Menendez : the two within 
 the garden, protected, nurtured, trained with care; 
 the one without, overlooked, untrained ; the two up- 
 trellised by the friendly wall, the one buffeted and 
 whipped about by every hostile wind ; all climbing 
 upward, yet ever that high wall between the two 
 within and the one without the garden ; though near, 
 yet always the unmoved wall between; though the 
 closest companions, even playmates, still the wall 
 between ! 
 
 Pierce Eldreth, proud of birth and unbroken 
 family line, looked on and smiling boasted, " Blood 
 will tell." And once the Rector had heard Marah 
 repeat the words while looking on the three children 
 at play, " Ah, blood will tell." 
 
 And he, Edwin Allan, had looked on and vowed 
 in secret to help the friendless boy outside the wall; 
 for he saw the angel in the unhewn marble of the 
 character, in the hapless life thus bound through 
 youth and younger manhood to such a " slave- 
 driver " as Pierce Eldreth was known to be 
 throughout Boulder County. Poor Paul !
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 25 
 
 " He alas ! 
 
 Had lived but on this earth a few sad years, 
 And so his lot was ordered that his father 
 First turned the moments of awakening life 
 To drops, each poisening youth's sweet hope." 
 
 Aye, poor Paul ! If indeed, blood would tell, 
 what then of the blood coursing through the unfor- 
 tunate boy's veins? his mother, with her misspent 
 past ; his father, author of some unnamable crime in 
 his own country, a crime for which avenging justice, 
 gold-bought for a time, had finally overtaken him, 
 death in its most ignominious form. Yet, despite 
 this double heritage, Edwin Allan had undertaken 
 character-building for this offspring of crime and 
 passion. For was it not for just such as he that the 
 Pure One had died ? . And today 
 
 Of a sudden the Rector felt his eyes clasped by 
 soft fingers and a girl-voice cried : 
 
 "Who is it? Guess!" 
 
 " Lilys," he exclaimed as, undoing the clasp of 
 memory from his heart, he undid her fingers from 
 his eyes and drew the girl around into his vision.
 
 26 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MY LADY HEROINE. 
 
 How shall I write her down, this mountain child ? 
 A winged flash across the summer's smile ; 
 A tender bud up-pushing toward the light ; 
 A glancing ray upon a changeful stream. 
 
 How shall I write her down ? A winged thing 
 That lures to vain and passionate pursuit ; 
 A bud with dew and gladness on its head ; 
 A ray from heaven to 'lumine all the earth. 
 
 How shall I write her down ? Ah, flitting life, 
 Hast aught save gauzy wings and wayward will ? 
 O bud, once opened to the wooing noon, 
 And wilt thou aught deny him, aught withhold ? 
 O sun-born ray, once caught by Love's strong lens, 
 Mayst thou not kindle fires unquenchable ? 
 
 " WHAT, Uncle, dreaming dreams and seeing 
 visions in this book-stuffed room, a day like this 
 when my blood is fairly tingling for a gallop on 
 Bonita over the hills against the wind? I'd go yet 
 this afternoon if I dared; but I couldn't get back 
 in time to dress for dinner. And Paul couldn't go 
 with me this morning; had to go to town to meet 
 Mr. Nolan because William's wrist was too stiff to
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 27 
 
 manage the sorrels. Paul is always made to do 
 what the other men shirk. But even if he should be 
 let off, he isn't a bit entertaining any more; so 
 grumpy lately. He'd rather poke over some old 
 book than to amuse me. I told him I believed he 
 was yearning for solitary confinement; that was 
 when he had the audacity to quote to me to me! 
 
 ' There's times when I'm's unsociable as stone, 
 An* sorto suffocate to be alone ; 
 I'm crowded jest to think that folks is nigh, 
 An' can't bear nothin' closer than the sky. ' 
 
 If he goes with me, he carries his head up among 
 the clouds and sees nothing lower than the Peak; 
 goes with me ' in the flesh/ as you would put it, 
 while his unwilling spirit is miles and miles away. 
 Whatever is to become of me? " 
 
 A gesture of mock despair, a childish little laugh 
 that rippled off into the sweet lark-notes of a song; 
 then she perched herself up on the arm of his great 
 chair and tried hard to look woful. 
 
 " I fancy Paul has something more to do than 
 gather ferns for My Lady's summer house," smiled 
 her uncle, " Do you forget all that your father heaps 
 upon his young shoulders, especially since Ben is 
 having his rheumatism? Nothing goes direct to 
 your father. Max reports matters concerning the 
 Lower Ranch and the sheep to Paul ; Webb the saw-
 
 2 8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mill affairs; Wagner the crops; and even Bradley 
 the quarry matters, and through Paul, they reach 
 your father. He will eventually take Ben's place as 
 foreman." 
 
 " That's just it," nodded the girl, " that is exactly 
 what I am complaining of. Do you forget the day 
 Marah first brought him up to the House? Helene 
 had me out playing in the summer house. Papa 
 came dragging him out to me and said : ' Here, 
 here's some one for you to boss. He is for you, 
 exclusively.' Helene will tell you. And now, after 
 we've played and ridden and read and had such 
 jolly times together all these years, now when the 
 old place is dull as a graveyard, and summer is here, 
 now it's ' Paul, come here,' and ' Paul, go there.' 
 And what of me ? Who can ride so well or find 
 my specimens? Who knows the paths and the 
 mountains so well? And who can read so well, or 
 if we haven't a book along, who can tell pretty 
 stories about the rocks and trees and flowers till, 
 though we are alone in the woods, there seem to be 
 living, breathing, understanding creatures all around 
 us? Pray, what of me, if he must make all these 
 stupid reports and go to Denver and to Boulder on 
 business continually? 'Take Pepito,' Papa says; 
 but I will not. Pepito's dull, doesn't know quartz 
 from cobblestone, and he isn't company. I will not 
 do without Paul. He is mine."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 29 
 
 " Softly, child, softly ! " protested her uncle, lay- 
 ing a cool hand across her pouting red lips, " Slave 
 and feudal days are passed and gone, the days when 
 man could say to his brother-man, ' Thou art 
 mine, thy time, thy labor, thine all.' ' 
 
 " Not here at Eldhurst. Those men up at Quarry 
 Town, dull as the blocks they hew, mere hands to 
 wield the drill and hammer; Max's herders, as un- 
 thinking as the sheep they tend, mere feet to patrol 
 the sheep-folds; Webb's lumbermen, not nearly so 
 sensible as the trees they fell (if half of Paul's tree- 
 legends be true), mere arms to swing the axe and 
 guide the saw : aren't they all dependent upon Papa ? 
 Doesn't he feed and clothe and shelter them and 
 their families? Didn't their fathers work for 
 grandpapa? Are not employment, pay, protection 
 anything? He thinks for them just as the head 
 does for the hands and the feet, for what more are 
 they?" 
 
 " It is your father speaks, my child, for of these 
 things you know nothing. Alas! that from years 
 of my teachings you have gathered no crumb of the 
 world-wide, all-inclusive love of God. There is no 
 caste in divine love, no high nor low, nor rich nor 
 poor, as we know them. God gave His Son, that 
 whosoever will may come." 
 
 " No caste ! " echoed Lilys scornfully, " The half- 
 breed herder, dirt, dogs; sheep-washing, shearing,
 
 30 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 pasturing ; to eat, to sleep, to drink, to smoke. Then 
 you, my Uncle and Mr. Howard, both students still, 
 books, music, reading; thinking, preaching, advanc- 
 ing; to live, to rise, to do good, to be remembered. 
 Gaze on this picture and then on that, the one and 
 the other, and then say there is no caste, divine as 
 well as human." 
 
 " The one has a soul as precious in God's sight as 
 has the other, ponder that," admonished her uncle 
 impressively. Then he added as he lovingly 
 smoothed back her hair, " And Paul ? In which of 
 your pictures does he belong, little Lady Aristocrat? 
 Where shall we classify him, slave or equal, since 
 there seems to be no middle ground at Eldhurst ? " 
 " Who, Paul ? Why you know without asking." 
 " Aye, that I do," averred her uncle, " Listen : let 
 me tell you how he has spent his nights these past 
 years, while you and Richard and your guests were 
 banqueting and dancing or sleeping up at the House. 
 He knows these book-friends as well as I do, for we 
 have toiled and delved by night after his weary days 
 of fatiguing manual labor, I have taken him the 
 way I have taken you, nay, farther, higher; and he 
 has broken a wider way, and blazed many a by-path 
 unknown to you. Where you have swallow- 
 skimmed, he has paused, asking when and how and 
 why. For his is the rare spirit to whom all toil is 
 sweet, so Truth be at the farthest goal. Book-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 31 
 
 lover, nature-worshipper, poet-soul But I am for- 
 getting. The two pictures, the one and the other. 
 Where shall we classify the son of Manuel 
 Menendez? " 
 
 Lilys's large dark eyes grew thoughtful, unusually 
 so for them, as she admitted : 
 
 " Yes, I know. He makes Nina's Bible-class out- 
 lines and does all Papa's book-keeping and estimat- 
 ing, and writes all of his letters, and meets the busi- 
 ness callers. He is all you say, I suppose. I never 
 thought of it before. But," and pride flashed up 
 into the eyes, " for all that he is a Menendez, son 
 of a peon herdsman and of my mother's serving- 
 maid, while I, though no scholar, am an Allan and 
 an Eldreth, and Papa says blood will tell. Now, 
 uncle, you know you couldn't call him a gentle- 
 man." 
 
 The Rector reached for a small morocco Amiel 
 in the book-case, turned its leaves with the deft 
 familiarity of the true bookman and read : 
 
 "'Every one may become a gentleman even though he 
 may be born in the gutter It is the birth- 
 right of every one to rise. A man may be born rich and 
 noble, he is not born a gentleman. A gentleman is the free 
 man, the man who is stronger than things, and believes in 
 personality as superior to ... rank and power. It 
 means a character which possesses itself, a force which gov- 
 erns itself, a liberty which affirms and regulates itself accord- 
 ing to the type of true dignity It is more moral 
 
 than intellectual He watches over his language, 
 
 manners, . . . has dominion over his instincts and pas- 
 sions.'
 
 32 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 And in the light of this definition, is not Paul 
 Menenclez one of God's own gentlemen ? " 
 
 His companion laughed carelessly. '' Your ques- 
 tion isn't in the catechism, Mr. Minister, or else I 
 don't know my lesson. Maybe he is one of those 
 prove-the-rule exceptions. I don't know. I don't 
 care." Then the eyes grew merry again as was 
 their wont. " So he has come by night to study? 
 has had a secret from me all these years? Ah, he 
 shall pay for this this very week. I'll make him talk 
 by way of penance. He shall suffer. For he dis- 
 likes ' full speech; ' quotes ' Silence is vocal if we 
 listen well,' and once even recommended the rest- 
 cure for tongues. For he takes little liberties of 
 that sort, for all he is so humble in the presence of 
 the Little Mistress." 
 
 Her uncle smiled. " Since I am betraying my 
 disciple into the hands of the enemy, I may as well 
 tell it all, though he wouldn't thank me. For a long 
 time now he has taken all my work in the Mission 
 Night School up at the quarries." 
 
 " I am sure Marah does not know all this. For 
 once I asked her if he might not study with me, 
 thinking he might help me, you know. She only 
 laughed in that provoking way of hers and said: 
 ' Manuel Menendez's son study the classics ! ' But 
 she would not say yes. Who helps Paul in the 
 night school, Uncle?"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 33 
 
 "Nina with the older ones; Ruth Bradley with 
 the little folks; but either he or I must be there, for 
 Ruth is uneducated, and both girls have to cling 
 pretty close to the books." 
 
 " And does he ... do you and he love Nina 
 and Ruth for helping you? " 
 
 " Very much, dear. They are good girls, with 
 hearts full of love for those less fortunate than they." 
 
 To his surprise, Lilys suddenly leaned her head 
 upon his shoulder and burst into tears. 
 
 " My dear child," he began, when as suddenly she 
 brushed away her tears, sprang up and laughed her 
 girlish laugh. 
 
 " Oh, it's nothing, Uncle. Your sadness is con- 
 tagious. Confess, now : when I first came you 
 were sad; your thoughts were twenty miles away." 
 
 " Say, rather, twenty years away. It was longer 
 ago than that I last heard the solo you sang, ' The 
 Suppliant.' ' 
 
 " Ah ! Mr. Howard didn't want me to sing it ; 
 should have known that would determine me 
 the more to do it. Marah sang it when she was his 
 soprano. Was Marah's voice so beautiful ? I never 
 heard her, and Paul says she never sings around 
 home. You promised sometime to tell me her story, 
 didn't you? Was it true that Mr. Howard once 
 loved her? Couldn't some suitor have saved her 
 from throwing herself away on Papa's head shep-
 
 34 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 herd ? How could she do it ? He must have been a 
 very wicked man, for Mr. Howard says his hanging 
 was a just judgment. What had he done? " 
 
 " Where shall I begin answering, Senorita In- 
 quisitor? Yes, Marah's voice was marvelous. The 
 Mexicans of the Lower Ranch called her ' Senorita 
 Pajara' (Miss Bird) and the Indians gave her a 
 name signifying ' Singing Feather.' But, Lilys, 
 you must go. You have yet to dress for dinner and 
 your father was never a patient man. Your ques- 
 tions will keep." 
 
 " Yes, and you'll put me off the next time, just as 
 you are doing now. Helene always evades when I 
 ask her ; and the once I asked Papa you can't imagine 
 how cross he was; said it was an evidence of low 
 taste to take the slightest interest in people of that 
 class, and he didn't want to hear me mention her or 
 her tribe ever again. And it just makes me want 
 to know about her more than ever. I suppose Paul 
 knows, but of course I always felt a delicacy about 
 mentioning either of his parents to him. Tell me 
 one thing: Was Marah ever sweet and lovable? 
 She is so harsh and cold now to every one. Paul 
 says he cannot recall the time she ever kissed him, 
 except he made her. And they say he is so good 
 to her." 
 
 ' Yes, once she was loving and beautiful as a 
 painter's model. One man's selfishness changed all.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 35 
 
 But go, my child. The story is too deeply sad for 
 your ears. You would not half understand it 
 thank God ! Go, roam the hills and know the ways 
 of bees and birds, the love of rose and nightingale, 
 no gust of passion stronger than your own April 
 tears. Go, hear the pretty legends Paul tells of 
 trees and flowers and the winged things. Paul is 
 a safe and a wise teacher. Go, be a child in heart 
 and life. Let no one persuade you otherwise for 
 many a day. If you love me, you will please me 
 best by remembering what I am saying. There is 
 time enough Ah, Paul ! Come in."
 
 36 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LOWLY HERO. 
 
 THE newcomer was tall and lithe and fair, with a 
 touch of sun upon hair and cheek. His was a face 
 to be remembered, a face that, having once seen, you 
 felt unreasoningly drawn to see again and again. 
 The eyes were grave yet marvelously tender, and the 
 soul that looked through them attracted irresist- 
 ibly because it gave only momentary and but half- 
 revealing glimpses of itself; and you could but feel 
 that behind that dreamy, poetic half-smile there lay 
 a will that, however velvet-fingered, was iron- 
 wristed and steel-sinewed. There would be no mo- 
 ments of hopeless hesitation in his presence. He 
 was by nature positive, decisive, possessing that 
 rare ability to adjust and weigh arguments during 
 their presenting, so that his " Yes " or " No " often 
 seemed hasty. He would think rapidly and act 
 promptly in emergencies. Assertive, virile strength 
 spoke in the vigorous, well-knit limbs, the strong, 
 shapely hands, the firm-set mouth. He was a man's 
 man from his own choice, yet, as such, was uncon- 
 sciously attractive to women.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 37 
 
 Lilys turned a radiant, welcoming face to him 
 as he closed the study door, and had the Rector 
 known young hearts as well as he knew old books, 
 he might have noted the swift, involuntary meeting 
 of their eyes, the something inexplicable, something 
 primal, interchanged, all unconsciously, in the flash- 
 ing glance. 
 
 " I thought you never would come," she cried 
 innocently enough, " but now you're here, please 
 persuade Uncle that I'm not the infant he thinks 
 me. Why, I am nearly twenty and a half years 
 old ; as old as you are. For Helene told me that 
 Marah said you were just three days old when 
 she came up to nurse my Mamma the day I was 
 born. Three days are not so much to boast of, 
 Senorito." 
 
 " Mr. Allan will tell you that I am the older by 
 at least a century," he replied with a flitting smile, 
 and as he sank into a chair near the library table 
 he did in truth look old, even ill. During the 
 silence that ensued, he rested his elbow on the 
 table, his head on his hand, and kept his eyes fixed 
 on the carpet. 
 
 The girl moved to him as to a magnet, moved 
 away to the window, but returned as though irre- 
 sistibly impelled and hovered near him, pulling the 
 red poppies from her corsage bouquet and lightly 
 pelting the hand resting on the table.
 
 38 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Paul, this afternoon late, after our dinner, you 
 know, I want to go " 
 
 He shook his head, still not looking up. 
 
 " I am to drive Mr. Nolan back to catch the Den- 
 ver train." 
 
 " Of course ! " sarcastically, " I never want you 
 here of late but you've been told to do something 
 else." 
 
 She endured the second long pause as long as pos- 
 sible, then exclaimed with childish petulance, glanc- 
 ing from him to her uncle : 
 
 " Oh, such a pair of you such a polite, cheerful, 
 amusing pair ! Some day I'm going to run off from 
 this humdrum old Eldhurst, where they'd rather 
 do figuring and make reports than amuse the only 
 girl on the place, away off ever so far from the 
 same old mountains, same old sunsets : where it's 
 latin and botany and choir practice from morning 
 till night, and piano lessons and busy uncles and 
 cross brothers. Then you'll be sorry and wish for 
 the good old times we've had galloping over the 
 hills, and reading and singing. And you'll miss me, 
 too, with no one to sing to you, and no one to 
 boss you, and " 
 
 She paused. Her uncle smiled at her medita- 
 tively, his thoughts far away, and said nothing. 
 Paul's head drooped lower on his hand and he too 
 remained silent.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 39 
 
 " I'll not stay another minute," declared the girl 
 indignantly. " I'm going to find Sarah and some- 
 thing good to eat. Then I'll get Nina and go up to 
 the House and see if Dixie and Bert Delacy can't be 
 more entertaining than you two." And flinging the 
 last red poppy, she flounced out of the study, bang- 
 ing the door behind her. They heard her tinkle 
 the treble of the piano in the adjoining room, and 
 her laughing, bubbling voice reached them: 
 
 " Oh, I love the fields and hills, 
 
 And the shady woodland rills, 
 Where never earthly cares invade ; 
 
 But love and grief and pain, 
 
 They can never, never reign 
 In the heart of merry mountain maid. 
 
 Oh, the wind's soft kiss, 
 
 This my deepest bliss, 
 And I follow him through glen and glade ; 
 
 Oh, the dewdrop clear, 
 
 This my only tear, 
 Such a merry, merry mountain maid ! " 
 
 The Rector smiled, then sighed, as the melody 
 went diminishing off toward the kitchen; then he 
 turned to speak to his companion, but stopped short 
 at sight of his face. 
 
 Very evidently the young man had forgotten the 
 Rector's presence, for he had gathered all the pop- 
 pies and was first pressing the silken petals to his
 
 40 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 lips, devoutly, hungrily, then gazing down at the 
 kiss-crushed flowers as a priest might yearn above 
 his crucifix. 
 
 " Paul ! " Astonishment, reproach, grief, quiv- 
 ered in Edwin Allan's tone. " Paul! " he repeated. 
 The younger man did not lift his head. So well 
 he knew his beloved teacher's voice that he could 
 read disappointment and rebuke in the very intona- 
 tion. But a greater pain was at his heart and its 
 lines were etching upon his sensitive face. 
 
 " They are going to take her away in a week." 
 His voice was a half sob. 
 
 " The DeLacys ? Ah ! Howard and I have urged 
 it for a year. We shall miss her as we would miss 
 the sunshine 
 
 But he spoke to unhearing ears. 
 
 " A week .... a week," muttered his com- 
 panion, as though unable to grasp the idea, " only 
 seven days and seven nights to cry to God to stop 
 the sun and stars and then away, away, not 
 here . . with " He broke off, and flinging his 
 arms across the table, hid his face down upon them. 
 
 The elder man stood with compressed lips and 
 sorrowful eyes. 
 
 " I could never have dreamed this of you, Paul," 
 he expostulated, " you, who realize " 
 
 But the other silenced him with an eloquent 
 gesture as he sprang erect.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 41 
 
 " I know all you would say, Mr. Allan the 
 chasm between Pierce Eldreth's daughter and the 
 son of Manuel Menendez. I am well aware that 
 Eldhurst is not in democratic America where men 
 are born equal, but in feudal Britian where caste- 
 lines are dead-lines. I realize the value they set 
 upon high birth and pure blood. I know where I'm 
 classed. I know that when she wants to ride she 
 says, ' Paul, bring my pony,' just as her father says, 
 ' Pepito, black my shoes.' No later than this morn- 
 ing I heard her telling her father that she ' wanted ' 
 me all forenoon and when he denied her, ' Did you 
 not give him to me ? ' she asked, precisely as though 
 I were a piece of horse-flesh or a bit of furniture. 
 Why in God's name do you think I have stayed on 
 year after year, to endure taunts and slights and 
 insults if not because " 
 
 He ended by throwing out his arms in a helpless 
 way, and then began hurriedly walking the floor. 
 
 " But this is worse than folly ; it is insanity." 
 
 The young man turned upon him fiercely. 
 
 " Who more insane than the pride-blind father 
 who allows such daily, almost hourly, intercourse? 
 For ten years we have been as substance and shadow, 
 she and I. I have served her, followed her, pro- 
 tected her, humored, obeyed, amused her; have 
 heard her voice, known her inmost thoughts. Am 
 I made of wood, does he think, or that I am a
 
 42 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 boy? He has known my blood and parentage, yet 
 there have been no barriers, no restraints, save of 
 my own making. Had she been other than the 
 child she is, despite her twenty years, had I not 
 been what Edwin Allan's pupil must needs be, God 
 alone knows what might have befallen." 
 
 " Ah, I have been much to blame in this," mur- 
 mured the Rector, " I see how blind we have all 
 been. Why have you remained ?" 
 
 Paul laughed bitterly. " Because it was the re- 
 quest of him who, dying, left me the legacy of 
 tainted blood, a tarnished name and a hopeless debt 
 to Pierce Eldreth ; because, while I was yet too 
 young to understand, my mother refettered the 
 chain that bound me here; because I, myself, gave 
 him my maturer word to stay, one day when she 
 had been half gracious to me. And so, here I 
 am, with no personality, with nothing to distin- 
 guish me from the horse-trainer, the sheep-tender, 
 the stone-cutter; the semblance of a man, yet after 
 all but one of the conveniences of this well-appointed 
 estate." 
 
 He stopped in his walk before the chair of his 
 teacher, his strong gaze fastened upon him. 
 
 " No, no, my father was not the most unfortunate 
 of men, ill as was his fortune. For oh, believe me, 
 they were wrong who said that the very worst use 
 to which a man can be put is to hang him. That
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 43 
 
 is not the worst. A man may be a bondslave in 
 God's freest country; he may be manacled by the 
 debts and sins of the dead; he may be weighted by 
 the ball-and-chain of a master's malice, and, thus 
 shackled, may be made the daily scorn of scorners. 
 Add then a soul within him consumed with love for 
 that master's only daughter, a love which, if ever 
 wrung from him, would be spurned as insult or, 
 hold! does the wretch hunger? toss him the 
 stone, indifference. Does he thirst ? the gall of pity. 
 Add but these, and what is mere death to such 
 depths of misery? Pray, is it worse to die dis- 
 honored than to live dishonored? Tell me, Edwin 
 Allan." 
 
 The Rector buried his face in his hands, groaning : 
 " Ah, I see it all now. I have been to blame, greatly 
 to blame." 
 
 There was a lengthened pause, during which the 
 younger man stood with heaving chest, staring 
 down at the drooping poppies in his hand. With a 
 quick, passionate gesture he scattered them upon the 
 carpet. 
 
 " But I am going away now." 
 " Why go when she starts in a week ? " 
 " I am going for the week, tomorrow, to-night 
 yet. I have endured all I can." 
 
 " My brother will not consent. He himself goes 
 to-night to attend the Stockmen's Association in
 
 44 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Denver next week. Ben is still laid up. Eldreth 
 has the right to your time and services until you are 
 twenty-one : you have given him the right. He will 
 never consent." 
 
 " He must. He can not refuse me one week. I 
 haven't had a day for two years, not since Bradley 
 and I went to Ward prospecting. Ben wants me 
 to take him to Idaho Springs for the baths. The 
 Lower Ranch should be visited. I must get away 
 on some plea. Help me, for I can not stay." And 
 he passed his hand over his damp forehead in a 
 helpless way quite unlike anything his teacher had 
 ever observed in him. 
 
 " So you would break your thrice-pledged word 
 for want of a little self-control? You would run 
 away from your duties when you know how much 
 rests upon you, duties no other can assume? Not 
 the responsibilities of Eldhurst's management alone, 
 but there are the schools which, with my other 
 work, have outgrown my strength. You would go, 
 when you know that if Eldreth makes the proposed 
 cut in wages, either at the quarries or at the saw-mill, 
 there will be trouble which only you or I can avert ? 
 You would leave your mother who each month 
 grows more frail? You would go, thereby ack- 
 nowledging your weakness, your want of reliance 
 in the Strong Arm? I tell you such weakness is 
 not remedied by flight. A coward never won a
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 45 
 
 victory. ' To him that overcometh ' is the promise 
 made. Be yourself, Paul, stay, conquer ! " 
 
 But the young man shook his head. 
 
 " You don't know what you are asking, man. It 
 may be weakness to go; it is madness to remain. 
 She would be by my side, as she always is, and I, 
 knowing there were but seven more days, I might 
 Let me tell you one incident. It is nothing to her 
 discredit, for she is as innocent as a baby. Besides, 
 we have grown up here together. A few days ago 
 I was riding past the old orchard when she called me 
 to come to her. I found her under a high-branching 
 tree, trying to see how many eggs a certain nest 
 contained of a bird she'd been watching. There was 
 nothing about for her to stand on. I tried to pull 
 the limb down, but still she could not see. She 
 turned to me angrily. * Well, what are you stand- 
 ing there for, stupid ! ' she cried, stamping her foot, 
 ' Lift me up, can't you ? ' I took her in my arms 
 and held her while she prattled about the number 
 of eggs and the color, and did I think there would be 
 more or was Madame Robin sitting? and did I 
 know any more legends about robin-red-breasts? 
 What was I to her? A means to an end; a step- 
 ladder would have served her as well; while to me 
 good God ! and you talk of self-control you, 
 whose temperate blood flows evenly, who have 
 dealt so long with the spirit that you've forgotten
 
 46 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 what it is to be flesh and blood. I tell you again, 
 you don't know what you are asking when you 
 counsel me to stay. There's a limit," and again the 
 usteady hand across the forehead, as he turned to- 
 ward the door. 
 
 But his teacher intercepted him. ''' There is an- 
 other side to all this, and I must show it to you, 
 whether you go or stay. What I am about to say 
 will hurt, but neither of us has ever yet shrunk from 
 a truth because it was painful. Let us suppose it 
 possible that you win the love of Lilys Eldreth. 
 What then? Whatever doubts you may have of 
 your own strength, I, your master, do not fear that 
 you will ever bring to woman ' that only woe which 
 even love is powerless to console.' That is not in 
 the realm of the possible. What then? Marriage. 
 Now, I know Pierce Eldreth as few know him, his 
 thorough worldliness, his inordinate pride, his un- 
 bounded ambition for his children. He would 
 be unforgiving, inexorable. She would be disin- 
 herited, forever cut off and set adrift from her 
 family and social moorings. All her life she has 
 had ease, luxury, indulgences, high social position, 
 attention from the exclusive circle within the select 
 circle. These are the very air she breathes. Doubt- 
 less she would fling all away for the man of her 
 choice, like any other loving woman, but afterward 
 she would awake to find life without them unbear-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 47 
 
 able. You might win wealth for her, give her ease, 
 luxury and indulgences, your whole life and love. 
 But forgive me, Paul, you know that you are as 
 dear to me as a son could be ; but the world has dis- 
 tinctions; God knows you have found that bitterly 
 true. For all you are worthy, her equal in all 
 senses save one, yet to Pierce Eldreth and his world 
 that one eclipses all the others. And remember, 
 she has been bred in his world, has been saturated 
 with his doctrine till she talks with his voice, sees 
 with his eyes, has been so drilled in his creed that she 
 can answer by rote. She is as proud as he, not so 
 worldly because as yet inexperienced. But, sup- 
 posing she yielded and united with one her social 
 inferior, it is my solemn belief that very soon she 
 would wake to deplore, and live to regret. Your 
 world could not be made her world. She would be 
 out of her native element. You could very quickly 
 adjust yourself to hers, but not she to yours. Paul, 
 dear lad, I have been unsparing, but have I not 
 spoken truth?" 
 
 The young man was standing with his face turned 
 away, one hand strongly clenched. It was only upon 
 the repetition of the question that he said in a 
 strained voice : 
 
 :< Yes, your reasoning is right, but your supposi- 
 tion is inconceivable, absurd; so your fears are al- 
 together groundless."
 
 48 THIS WAS A.MAN. 
 
 " But if you find you must stay, promise me, 
 Paul- 
 
 The pause was long and painful to both. Then 
 the young man turned slowly, gave the other his 
 hand through a speaking silence, and was gone.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DINNER AND DISCUSSION. 
 
 DINNER was ending at Eldhurst. Lilys had been 
 merry throughout the meal, as fresh and lovely as 
 the floral decorations, as sparkling as the rare wines 
 served. John Howard, from the other end of the 
 table, smiled upon her fondly and sadly; her father, 
 absorbed as he was in his discussion with Lawyer 
 Nolan, glanced at her from time to time with 
 parental pride; while DeLacy took no pains to con- 
 ceal his growing passion. 
 
 But Eldreth was chiefly immersed in his discus- 
 sion, the subjects being those upon which he held 
 pronounced opinions. 
 
 " You see," he was saying, " the walking delegate 
 has heretofore had the good sense to keep away 
 from Eldhurst, till this braying ass, Ingham, came. 
 He keeps well out of my sight, for he knows what 
 I think of his organization-for-the-working-man 
 nonsense. I'll give him more than a hint if I get 
 hold of him. Bradley inclines too much toward 
 union views now, and he's too good a foreman to 
 lose."
 
 50 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Of course," returned the old Chorister smiling, 
 " you or Nolan, either one, can outdo me in an argu- 
 ment, how then can I face the two of you ? How- 
 ever, after listening to you, I am of my own humble 
 opinion still. I believe in both the organization and 
 the elevation of the laboring classes, else why would 
 I be here? Nina gives her time to Allan's mission 
 school up at the quarries and besides the church 
 music, I sometimes go up to the mill to help young 
 Baxter with his Sunday services. Ah, Pierce, if 
 Edwin were here, he could present our side so well 
 that I should have only to sit back and furnish the 
 applause." 
 
 " Edwin and I have some spirited tilts," laughed 
 Eldreth, " I won't venture who has the most broken 
 lances up to date. But what does a book-worm and 
 preacher know about handling such men as I have 
 to deal with on the ranches, at the quarries and up 
 in the pines? Better stick to his church and his 
 school, in both of which, it's my opinion, he's wast- 
 ing time. Both you and Edwin might be edifying 
 large and fashionable congregations in Denver, 
 judging from the ' calls ' you've ignored, instead of 
 casting pearls before these Swedes and Mexicans. 
 You see," turning to the lawyer, " my mother, 
 Emeline Huntington-Eldreth, was a devout church- 
 woman, rest her soul! religious in the superlative, 
 and fully persuaded that she had many miraculous
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 51 
 
 answers to prayer. She was great-great-grand- 
 daughter of Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, 
 one of the signers of the Declaration, and nothing 
 if not pious. One of her ' answers ' was the preser- 
 vation of my life through a fever; and she made my 
 father promise her on her last bed that he would 
 build a mission church here to commemorate my 
 recovery, which she deemed a gift out of hand from 
 the Lord Himself. She died in the East. My 
 father kept his vow. No sooner was this raw land 
 his, even before the house was completed, than up 
 went the church, altar, organ and all, and the rec- 
 tory, and Allan, then a struggling young New Eng- 
 land preacher with missionary instincts, who must 
 come west health-seeking, took the charge. After 
 the quarries opened, and the village of tenant cot- 
 tages was built for the men and their families, these 
 added to the regular ranch-hands and the colony of 
 Mexicans at the Lower Ranch, gave him a ' field,' 
 where he's squandered time and talent ever since. 
 And here must join him his college friend, Howard, 
 who must bring his daughter with a voice that would 
 grace a cathedral. I believe the three have had a 
 school up in the Swedish village for the past few 
 years, and some Y.M.C.A. dolt from Boulder goes 
 up to the pines Sundays to amuse the mill-hands. 
 Preaching and music are all right, harmless, help 
 pass their time. But what I do not believe in is
 
 52 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 educating them. The schools and the reading-rooms 
 are emphatically out of place, and exist only by my 
 tolerance. Education unfits them for their work, 
 makes them discontented and restless. Where their 
 ignorance is bliss, it's folly to make them otherwise. 
 The less a man knows, the less he has to worry 
 about." 
 
 " Education does not seem to have unfitted Paul 
 for work," remarked Howard, " for I presume you 
 class him along with the Mexicans and Swedes. 
 Yet Ben has been laid up over six months of your 
 busiest season, and I can't see but things move as 
 smoothly under that boy's management, whether you 
 are here or not." 
 
 " Ah, but there's everything in heredity," Eldreth 
 reminded him, " Paul's mother was, is, an unusual 
 woman for her station in life ; uneducated, it is true, 
 but strong-minded, high-spirited. She has gifted 
 him with considerable executive ability, the fellow's 
 chief value to me. Edwin, too, has done something, 
 for him in the book line, but you know the saying 
 * An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.' ' 
 
 " Let me see," reflected Nolan, " isn't he the son 
 of that headshepherd of yours, the man who met 
 justice (or was it injustice?) at the hands of vig- 
 ilantes some twenty years ago?" 
 
 " Oh, it was justice all right." And his host 
 laughed grimly.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 53 
 
 " I recollect the fellow. I was invariably called 
 upon whenever you sent him down to Denver, to bail 
 him out and head him back toward Boulder, getting 
 his ticket and staying with him till the train moved. 
 And this young man who drove me from the train 
 this morning is his son ? Oh no, he didn't introduce 
 himself, your men are too well trained for that ; but 
 I drew him out a bit on the way. Hu-m. . . m. 
 And yet you believe in heredity, Eldreth ? " 
 
 " Assuredly." 
 
 " But more in evironment, surely, in view of this 
 case." 
 
 " By no means. Heredity is the most powerful, 
 the most inexorable of laws, as strong as its kin, 
 evolution, as unfailing as gravitation. It shapes 
 a man, body and soul; it stamps the impress upon 
 him, not merely of his father, but of his countless 
 ancestors; it decides his ruling passions, his habits 
 of life, his destiny itself. Like begets like. Attri- 
 butes, physical, mental and moral, are transmitted 
 generation after generation persistently. Look at 
 the Rothschilds. It is not only wealth that they 
 have inherited, but the ability of wealth-getting and 
 of wealth-increasing. Take the Bach family: able 
 musicians for more than two hundred years. And 
 there are the Herschels, the Darwins, the Dumas ', 
 the Pitts any number of families where marked 
 characteristics have been ' handed down.' If other
 
 54 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 cases are less marked, it is only because the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics are less marked. Is there 
 any better authority than that which says : ' When 
 a man comes from his mother's womb, the gate of 
 gifts closes behind him ' ? Could environment have 
 suppressed star-gazing in the Herschels, or romanc- 
 ing in the Dumas', or statesmanship in the Pitts? 
 On the other hand, is environment able to put even 
 beet blood into a turnip? " 
 
 "I am not claiming that environment endows; 
 but it may revolutionize. Birth may close the gate 
 of gifts, but not that of opportunity. Heredity by 
 no means fixes either character or destiny, else this 
 son of a criminal may break law as well now as later, 
 since ' that rash humor which his father gave him 
 makes him forgetful/ and since he must break law, 
 however environed. It is a fundamental law that 
 every creature brings forth of its kind, but inherent 
 tendencies merely give trend to character. The law 
 of environment is as much a fixed law as is that of 
 heredity. If this were not true, hope must die from 
 the earth. As to the cases you cite, I say yes, most 
 emphatically, environment might easily have turned 
 the channel of talents mentioned or might have 
 choked them outright. If your ' handing down ' be 
 so unvarying, why has the world seen no second 
 Cromwell or Goethe? And what was there in the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 55 
 
 ancestry of Robert Burns or our own Honest Abe 
 to set them apart as unusual ?" 
 
 " That is an easy one," smiled Eldreth, " A father 
 may transmit to his son his ability for management, 
 we will say, but neither his energy nor his applica- 
 tion; or again, his musical talent, without patience 
 and perseverance. Thus family traits often die out 
 wholly or ' jump a generation.' But be sure it's all 
 there, potent or latent; for as the sage has said, 
 ' Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.' ' 
 
 " I'll grant all that and more. Your brainy man 
 may mate with an inferior woman, and their child 
 well, I know you'll say a chain is no stronger than 
 its weakest link; but I say their child's character 
 and destiny depend upon a hundred trifles, the ag- 
 gregate of which I call environment. Your brainy 
 man and his low-caste woman may separate. Which 
 one rears the child? Will not that question, rather 
 than how they have gifted him, decide his character 
 and destiny? Again, take the case of the young 
 man, our driver. An inferior father and a some- 
 what superior mother, you say. Now, I'll not ask 
 so much with what characteristics they have en- 
 dowed him, as : Where has he lived ? With whom 
 associated? Who has taught him, and what? 
 What of his work, reading, recreation ? And last of 
 all, is he disposed to make his own circumstances, to 
 follow that nobleman Sidney's ' Aut viam inveniam,
 
 56 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 out faciam '? ' Aut faciam! ' That is more potent, 
 even, than environment. If circumstances may re- 
 volutionize hereditary tendencies, what may not will- 
 power accomplish?" 
 
 " I'll answer that, lawyer-fashion, with a counter 
 question : If mere surroundings, your hundred 
 trifles, and your ' Aut faciam ' are so all-powerful, 
 why did that great Catholic archbishop say, ' Give 
 me the children of the land till they are five years 
 of age and Protestants may have them ever after ' ? 
 This is no argument for the power of heredity, but 
 it is one against ' Man is maker of his own circum- 
 stances.' The wise archbishop meant anybody's 
 children. But give him the children of Catholic 
 parents and he'll not require five years. As to the 
 fellow in question, it's all there father, mother, 
 grand-parents. He is a quotation from all his an- 
 cestors, and the quote-marks must come to light 
 sooner or later. He hasn't lived his life out yet by 
 some fifty years." 
 
 At this point DeLacy lifted his voice in a discus- 
 sion of the four young people at the other end of the 
 table : 
 
 " I appeal to your father, or to either of the other 
 gentlemen. Is it not true that should Miss Lilys 
 go abroad, let us say, for voice-culture even for 
 one year, ever after things would be different with 
 her? She would view the world through a more
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 57 
 
 intense lens, and even a twelve months would 
 broaden, enhance, alter her whole life?" 
 
 " There you have it, Eldreth," laughed the 
 lawyer, " I couldn't have answered you as well. 
 I'm certainly obliged to Mr. DeLacy for his oppor- 
 tune interruption. Look you. Upon the wag of 
 your head, whether it be up and down or sidewise 
 upon so small an act (one of my hundred trifles) 
 depend your only daughter's future, the development 
 of her talent, the sort of man she marries, her out- 
 look upon life that life itself. Are you con- 
 vinced ? " 
 
 " Far from it, my dear sir. For whether she 
 spends her entire life in this country or in the island 
 country of her ancestors, it is all one. Her talent 
 was born in her; the man she chooses will be a fit- 
 ting choice as (ahem!) were the selections of her 
 foremothers ; and her view of life is naturally, neces- 
 sarily, through the ancestral lens, ' handed down.' 
 Her environment whatsoever will leave essentials 
 unchanged ; for, again, it's all there the whole long 
 double line." 
 
 When the young people had delved again into 
 their own themes, Howard said : 
 
 ' You two have sidetracked wofully. We began 
 by talking about educating the common people, 
 elevating the masses. As to heredity and environ- 
 ment, I'm inclined to think you are both right.
 
 58 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Every child has the sacred right to be born well, 
 and no man should die without having bent every 
 circumstance to contribute to his utmost individual 
 development. And after all, this is closely allied 
 to our original subject. The masses have not, as 
 a rule, enjoyed the sacred right of being well born. 
 Shall we deny them, then, the right to such eleva- 
 tion as lies within us more fortunate to give them ?" 
 
 "Bah, John," scoffed Eldreth, "much of this 
 talk about elevating the masses is half-baked, mis- 
 guided sentimentality. What does elevation of the 
 lower class lead to, logically? The ultimate result 
 is a universal mediocrity. Why? Because it is a 
 leveling-down process as well as a building-up pro- 
 cess. Is the earth's surface growing more uniform ? 
 Yes, but what the valleys gain the hills lose. The 
 plains will rise in process of time, but it will be at 
 the expense of the peaks." 
 
 " You mean that the average gain will be in- 
 dividual loss?" 
 
 " Precisely. Where once the world's history 
 knew greatness in character, achievement, leader- 
 ship, ambition, there will come a general lifting of 
 the common people, from which, paradoxical as it 
 sounds, the individual can not rise so high." 
 
 " He should be able to rise all the higher, and 
 with more ease." 
 
 "Theoretically, yes; but the trouble will lie just
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 59 
 
 here : He will no longer care to. Socialism, we'll 
 not talk about : it is part sentimentality, part lunacy. 
 But socialism aside, it has always seemed to me that 
 even democracy, fully realized, is death to individ- 
 ualism, in that it throttles achievement, stunts 
 character, curbs leadership, kills ambition. Great 
 Britain, not America, is the best ruled of earth's 
 nations, I mean best for humanity. Her history 
 proves it. The monarchial idea is founded upon in- 
 dividual rule, which presupposes harmony, equili- 
 brium, wisdom. All this talk about equality and 
 majority rule is sheer nonsense. Majority-rule, the 
 underlying idea of our republican form, is nothing 
 more than mass-rule, yes, mob-rule, with now one 
 party in the ascendancy, now another; now one set 
 of principles, now another ; now one gang of dema- 
 gogues, now another. The result? Vacillation; 
 impulse and instinct against reason; follies and 
 crimes in the name of liberty; changes, but not 
 progress." 
 
 " ' In a multitude of counsellors there is safety.' ' 
 " Never was more plausible life sent bellowing 
 down the ages. Break a mob, and some of its com- 
 ponent parts may be trustworthy. But the aggre- 
 gate? What of the multitude that never counsels? 
 Look at the commune of Paris. There's the one 
 and sufficient answer to all democratic argument. 
 America will soon be echoing the answer with char-
 
 60 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 acteristic amendment. The age of majority but a 
 score of years; naturalization criminally easy; here 
 in Colorado and in a growing number of states, 
 the idiocy of the other-sex franchise, oh, we are 
 sailing bravely toward the maelstrom." 
 
 " But what will you do with ' The greatest good 
 to the greatest number ' ? That is not a plausible 
 lie." 
 
 " No ; but equality will never accomplish it, nor 
 mass-elevation, nor majority-rule. Men are not 
 equal, can not be made so. The masses will always 
 be mediocre, educate them as you may; and, as I 
 said, such elevation as they will take must be at the 
 expense of individualism, upon which alone depends 
 human advancement. Nor will majority-rule bring 
 great good to great numbers, for the average man is 
 as incapable of self-government as a child. He must 
 be ruled; his decisions made for him; his good ac- 
 complished by one the individual, the leader, the 
 thinker, the monarch. Why, your very religion, 
 John, is monotheistic, or and here I am unin- 
 formed in the sacred precincts of the sweet here- 
 after, will decisions be handed over to a majority 
 of the white-robed angelic ? If so, I am more than 
 ever resigned to be headed for that unlimited 
 monarchy glimpsed us by Dante." 
 
 " Papa," broke in Lilys from over her cup of 
 cafe noir, " was Dixie's mamma so much handsomer
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 61 
 
 and brainier than my mamma ? Mine was a gradu- 
 ate of Harvard Annex, and her people were real 
 Mayflower passengers, first cabin, at that. Any- 
 how," laughingly, " he isn't so much better looking 
 than I, even if the Boulder photographers do keep a 
 continuous display of his last seventeen poses. Nor 
 so much smarter, for all he has attended the State 
 University and I only recited to Uncle Edwin. And 
 don't Paul know ever and ever so much more than 
 Dix and I together ? Uncle says so ; and Paul never 
 went to school at all." 
 
 " Father will say we both get our brains and 
 beauty from him, irrespective of our mothers," in- 
 terpolated Richard, turning his dark handsome face 
 toward the others. 
 
 " I should think you children could find subjects 
 for disputes other than your respective mothers. 
 Both were beautiful and extraordinary women, else 
 I had not chosen them." 
 
 " Why, Eldreth, I didn't know you'd been married 
 twice," said Nolan. " Your son and daughter look 
 quite enough alike to have been born of the same 
 mother." 
 
 His host frowned, shoved back his chair and arose 
 as Lilys stood up. 
 
 " Yes," he lied smoothly, " the first Mrs. Eldreth 
 was a Southern girl, who did not live long. She 
 was a pronounced brunette, while Miss Allan, you
 
 62 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 know, was a first-water blonde. Lilys gets her dark 
 hair and eyes from my mother's side the house, 
 though she does not much resemble the Hunting- 
 tons. But come into the veranda, gentlemen. The 
 cigars, Richard. Miss Howard and Lilys will sing 
 for us from the parlor."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BOSS'S SON. 
 
 YOUNG Eldreth and DeLacy sought the far end 
 of the veranda apart from the elder men, the one 
 dropping into the hammock, the other leaning 
 against a window which looked into the parlor. 
 
 Herbert DeLacy bore about him that self-assured 
 air which accompanies social position and ample 
 means, together with extreme worldliness. He was 
 heavy-set, but his ease of motion might readily be 
 taken for grace. His eyes were a nondescript gray 
 and he used a monocle. His dark moustache was 
 close-clipped, accentuating the red of a sensual 
 mouth. His manner was pleasing, even winning, 
 and among those of his own standing he won and 
 held innumerable friends, particularly women. His 
 magnetism, though purely animal, was his most 
 powerful attractive force, a force against which 
 " all men and some women " did not sufficiently 
 account. 
 
 Richard Eldreth's was also an experienced face, 
 though more youthful. " His years but young, but 
 his experience old," And the character-lines of his
 
 6 4 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 face were tell-tale to the knowing. To the unknow- 
 ing, the young man was a continual puzzle. At the 
 university his career had been marked by periods of 
 alternate energy and indolence, of brilliancy in 
 work and of rebellion against exertion. First it 
 would be some class honors all but won, next his 
 father must hasten to prevent expulsion and dis- 
 grace. One week he was a delight to those who 
 loved him, the next their despair. Today he was 
 the fastidious epicure, even in his worst habits, to- 
 morrow his indulgences would be unnamable. Thus, 
 to the unknowing, he was a singular combination of 
 refinement and grossness. 
 
 Through with his studies, he would remain at 
 home, apparently happy in the society of his sister 
 and her best friend, Miss Howard, and there would 
 be music, reading of the best books, elevating con- 
 versation. For he had a fine voice and a natural 
 musical ability, which only his aversion to applica- 
 tion had left uncultivated. This period of home- 
 staying and the yielding to the higher attributes of 
 his nature would last only so long; then he must 
 plunge into the under side of the city's life, where 
 for a corresponding period his extravagances, ex- 
 cesses and escapades made even his father gasp and 
 wonder. 
 
 In appearance, he shared his mother's dark pas- 
 sionate beayty, though he did not resemble her,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 65 
 
 He was always faultlessly attired and at perfect ease, 
 whether clad in fancy knickers, golf stockings and 
 Tarn or in full evening-dress. He carried himself 
 with an indolent, dandified air oddly at variance 
 with his large, muscular frame. 
 
 " Come with me this evening, Bert, and I'll fur- 
 nish you a new sensation," he was whispering, as 
 the men settled themselves to their after-dinner 
 cigars. " What the deuce do we care for their ele- 
 vation-of-the-masses talk? And catch me going 
 to church again. Once a week's all I can stand, even 
 if Nina and the Babe do sing. Come with me. 
 Quarry Town's rare fun, Sundays, when those 
 clumsy, meaty, turkey-red Swedes would a-woo- 
 ing go, blue jumpers, horny hands, sweat and all. 
 Gads! but don't they scowl and mutter when I 
 saunter up that way and stop to chat with their best 
 girls. What was it they used to say when Caesar 
 approached ? Well, up in Quarry Town it's ' Hide 
 your wives and sweethearts; the Boss's son is com- 
 ing.' And such girls, thick waists and dish-washy 
 hands. A fellow with taste would run the other way 
 ' as far as God could furnish ground; ' and it would 
 have to be pretty dark if he screwed his courage up 
 to a kiss. But I've found one girl up there that I 
 can talk to without shutting my eyes or forgetting 
 my grammar; old Bradley's daughter, Irish extrac- 
 tion, the prettiest mouth and neck you ever looked
 
 66 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 at. Her ' steady,' Antonio, has recently been trans- 
 ferred up to the mill (praise the Lord !), comes down 
 only Sundays. He is part Mexican, and if his eyes 
 were daggers, I'd have been dead a dozen times." 
 
 " Best take care, old boy. Haven't you heard the 
 saying : ' Vengeance is of the Mexicans' ? " 
 
 " I may have to settle with him yet," laughed 
 Richard, lighting another Egyptian. " I've been try- 
 ing to get the governor to discharge him, but those 
 things are left to the foreman, whom the half-breed 
 takes pains to please, being anxious to hold his 
 job. One Saturday night this spring they had a 
 dance at Quarry Town hall, and I went up, though 
 the honorable citizens are never out to welcome 
 me, not in any great numbers. But I had fun 
 enough for twenty-four hours. The Mexican didn't 
 get down from the pines till late, and the way I was 
 monopolizing his sweetheart was no dream, but a 
 blood-stirring reality. Waltz? Sure; most as well 
 as Edna Whitney. If the governor hadn't sent for 
 me (some company here at the House) I'd be there 
 yet, heart-to-heart. I say, Bert, let's go coax the 
 little Bradley girl and one other to go down to 
 Denver for a lark. I'll be generous and whack 
 up with you What? Nina Howard? Not on 
 your life, son. She of the Titian hair and turquoise 
 eyes and tranquil temper is the girl I am going to 
 marry (to hear our papas tell it). Ha, ha ! It would
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 67 
 
 be a mild sort of lark she'd go on prohibition lem- 
 onade, with not too much lemon. Nope, there's an- 
 other girl up there, recently from Chicago. She's 
 pretty too. I have a hazy recollection of kissing 
 her. She'll not turn you down ; she's as anxious to 
 be a ' lady ' (!) as the Bradley girl is. I'll be 
 generosity itself and give you your choice." 
 
 " One, two, three, four, five," enumerated De- 
 Lacy, " all since I've been here. You ought to 
 move across the line into Utah, Dick, or secure for 
 Eldhurst a special-grant on plurality of wives." 
 
 " Not I," grinned his companion, " nor singular- 
 ity either, unless indeed I could emulate your noble 
 example at continuous performance in the divorce 
 courts." 
 
 " Humph ! I don't know but I'd as soon figure as 
 principal in a divorce suit as to be named as co- 
 respondent in one. Ahem! What did that little af- 
 fair cost your angry papa last week, anyhow ? " 
 
 " Shut up ! " with an apprehensive glance toward 
 the parlor. He let his cigarette go out in the suc- 
 ceeding pause, then came back to the present with 
 a regretful sigh : " But it was almighty interesting 
 while it lasted. Now I'll leave it to you (you ought 
 to know) if it isn't 'cheaper to kiss other men's 
 wives than to keep a wife for other men to kiss ' 
 eh?" 
 
 DeLacy shook an admiring head. " What a
 
 68 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 heathen you are ! You never have made a specialty 
 of resisting temptation, have you? " 
 
 " No more than you have. I say the best way to 
 treat a temptation is to yield to it and get it out 
 of the way. My fiancee is always prating about up- 
 rooting unholy desires, a method for supplying our 
 needs that's about as sensible as amputating our 
 fingers when we ask for rings. But you will come 
 with me to the city ? " 
 
 The other made a negative sign. 
 
 "Lord save us, he isn't growing virtuous?" 
 sneered Eldreth. 
 
 DeLacy blew smoke-rings in slow flights. " Got 
 to keep pretty straight before the ' governor ' if 
 I want to stand any show, don't I ? Recollect what 
 he said at dinner about the man she chooses being 
 a fitting choice? " 
 
 " Oh, the governor's so straight himself. I've 
 gotten onto a few things lately appertaining to the 
 swift days of his youth; and his youth seems pro- 
 longing itself. He never preaches to me, bet your 
 life. Didn't say a word last week when he had to 
 put up to those damned blackmailers; and when 
 I asked him if he didn't think her a beauty, he only 
 laughed. Come on, for he'll never know. You'll 
 get enough of the Babe, since she's going with your 
 party in a week. Accept my sympathy if you're 
 after a show in her direction. She's a spit-fire, I
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 69 
 
 tell you. That preacher's-sister mamma of hers 
 must have been a joe-dandy for temper. Besides, 
 you'll have to wait till she grows, or else take a kid 
 to raise. Twenty? I believe she is in years; but 
 about fourteen in experience. She is green, under- 
 ripe, undeveloped. You can tell that from her 
 voice, her form, her actions. This minute she'd 
 rather race ponies with Sam or go bug-hunting 
 with Pepito than have you make love to her; and 
 her idea of heavenly happiness is her swing in the 
 summer-house with Paul to read her fairy tales. 
 Why, she gets her last doll out every once in awhile, 
 honest ; and still has a secret hankering for Mellin's 
 food. She doesn't know what love means. Up 
 to date her kisses and hugs have been dealt out to 
 her judiciously by the governor, her parson uncle 
 and yours sincerely." 
 
 " I'd like to relieve you of the contract, all three 
 of you," sighed DeLacy, turning the blind-slats till 
 he had a good view of Lilys's girlish figure at the 
 piano, " only I'm reasonably certain I shouldn't be 
 judicious. Listen to that. Isn't that divine?" as 
 the blending voices of the girls came to them from 
 the parlor. 
 
 Eldreth's eyes glowed with gratified pride. 
 11 Why, there's nothing the matter with the con- 
 tralto; there's a woman back of that. But Babe 
 always sings love songs as though she were a dried
 
 70 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mummy, or as though love were a box of bon-bons 
 done up with white ribbons and silver tongs. Poor 
 Babe! She has much to learn." 
 
 The other waited till the song was ended, then 
 announced : " No, Dick, I think I shall remain. 
 These worthy guests of your father's will not stay 
 the evening out, I take it ? " 
 
 " Even if they don't, the governor and Lilys '11 
 have to have it out tonight. He hasn't told her yet 
 that she's to go, else she wouldn't have been in such 
 a May-time humor through the dinner. Look out 
 for a March tempest when he does." 
 
 " Nonsense ! you can't tell me a girl doesn't like 
 a complete new outfit, trunks of pretty dresses, travel 
 and all that. Don't I know girls? Got some little 
 sisters of my own." 
 
 " Well, you don't know my little sister. She's 
 a green-up when it comes to city ways. The gov- 
 ernor was so afraid some Pleb might touch her 
 dress-hem he wouldn't let her attend the public 
 school; so afraid some chap might look at her, she 
 mustn't go to university with me, oh no ! So she 
 hasn't been off the place except a couple of winters 
 in Denver since the governor's been in the House, 
 and then she had a perfect relay of chaperones. 
 She won't want to leave, and she's had her own way 
 so long with every one from Ben down to Pepito 
 that there's going to be a big storm with consider-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 71 
 
 able lightning when she runs up against the gov- 
 ernor's ' You've got to.' ' 
 
 " You don't think he'd yield and let her stay?" 
 anxiously. 
 
 His host laughed grimly. " You are not ac- 
 quainted with the Honorable Pierce H. Eldreth, 
 the member from Boulder, I see. You heard what 
 he said in the carriage as we came home? Oh. 
 she'll go; but I want to stand from under when 
 they come together, that's all."
 
 72 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIS FIANCEE. 
 
 THE two girls came out of the house. Lilys 
 had a pair of scissors and began cutting a bouquet 
 for her friend. As they passed about among the 
 shrubbery, five pairs of admiring masculine eyes 
 moved with them. 
 
 Nina Howard was older than her friend by three 
 or four years, and taller by a head. Hers was a 
 presence to be marked immediately in any assembly. 
 Admiring glances always followed her. Her figure 
 was perfection, her gowns of the quiet elegance 
 of ultra-refinement, always harmonious, as now, 
 from the tip of the jeweled aigrette in her pic- 
 ture-hat to the points of her aristocratic shoe. The 
 double line of her Puritan ancestors looked from 
 her clear eyes, and ' Gentlewoman ' was written 
 unmistakably over her person, manner and belong- 
 ings. She bore an air of dignified reserve which 
 melted in the presence of her father only. As to 
 her betrothed, she was the one woman of his wide 
 acquaintance of whom he stood at all in awe. 
 
 DeLacy looked reflectively at her as she stood 
 letting Lilys fasten a cluster of white lilacs at
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 73 
 
 her breast, and it was the look of an appreciative 
 connoisseur over a fine thoroughbred. 
 
 " Hu-m . . . m," he mused aloud, " I say, Dick, 
 if I were in your shoes, said shoes wouldn't stray 
 far from Eldhurst and such a figure as that." 
 
 "What in thunder are you talking about?" 
 drawled Richard, busy with another cigarette; but 
 when he traced the glance to its object, when he 
 noted the sort of glance it was, he came to his 
 feet with darkening face : 
 
 " You keep your damned eyes off her ! " 
 
 DeLacy whistled his astonishment, but he dared 
 not laugh. " I beg pardon. I "he began. 
 
 But the other cut him short. "All right," he 
 said curtly, " but she's not Edna Whitney, remem- 
 ber." 
 
 Then, as he saw Miss Howard about to draw 
 on her gloves, he reached for his hat, threw away 
 his cigarette and joined her. He was an inveterate 
 smoker, but he never indulged while with her. 
 He never asked to. No man would have asked. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," Lilys was laughing, as he 
 approached them, " I don't believe he's as bad as 
 you paint him. Dixie here could be blind-folded 
 and handcuffed and then teach him mischief. Dix 
 is simply incorrigible, the very worst outside the 
 Reform School, yet you won't hear a word against 
 him, and never scold him yourself,"
 
 74 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " My credulous little sister," exclaimed the young 
 man as he appropriated Miss Howard's parasol and 
 music-roll, " she does little else." 
 
 His betrothed sent him a reproachful glance, 
 then, with an arm round Lilys as they moved toward 
 the gate, concluded her interrupted remark : 
 
 " So, my dear girl, beware, for all I have surmised 
 of him will prove true." 
 
 " What's she giving you, Babe ? A sort of 
 Gypsy's Warning against the dark-eyed stranger? " 
 nodding toward DeLacy, who was coming slowly 
 down toward the gate. " ' Do not trust him, gentle 
 lady, though his voice be low and sweet ' ? Much 
 good, that. He's already got the governor's con- 
 sent, and that's all that is necessary round this 
 ranch. Wentworth '11 feel knocked out, and Nolan 
 junior and some others I might mention; but then, 
 monogamous marriages are the only lawful ones." 
 
 " Oh, Dix, do keep still about consents and mar- 
 riages. It's fatiguing after a warm day. Uncle 
 says I have years of study with him, and there are 
 also several years of music if I do all Mr. Howard 
 wants me to." 
 
 'That is right, dear," approved Miss Howard, 
 " there's time enough for such grave decisions. 
 One's girlhood is short enough at best." 
 
 " Now, Nina, don't be so superior," pouted Lilys ; 
 then, turning to DeLacy, " You are such a relief, 
 Engaged people are intolerable, if you've noticed,"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 75 
 
 "Yes, I've noticed. They are quite amusing; 
 that is, the masculine half," with a sly glance to- 
 ward his host. 
 
 But the thrust was momentarily lost, for Rich- 
 ard was looking at his fiancee as though he had 
 never seen her before. " Such a figure," DeLacy 
 had said, and by George, it was true; he hadn't 
 half noticed heretofore. Now his practiced eye 
 wandered over the undulating curves of her per- 
 fect form, noting the deep breast and the generous 
 hips as contrasted with the slender litheness of his 
 sister. Then, glancing up at his friend, his eyes be- 
 trayed the very look he had found so objectionable 
 in that friend's. He smiled guiltily, but, recovering 
 himself, closed the gate between the two couples and 
 drew Miss Howard's hand through his arm, looking 
 down at a certain solitaire on her finger with a 
 thrilling sense of proprietorship. Her faultless toi- 
 lets and unquestionable taste had always appealed to 
 his aesthetic sense, a sense which in him almost sup- 
 planted the moral sense. The deep gratification 
 he experienced in appearing in public with this per- 
 fectly-attired woman almost corresponded to the 
 religious joy of the fanatic in the feast-day proces- 
 sion. She little dreamed how strong an ally was 
 her French dressmaker in binding her lover to her 
 side. 
 
 " I was thinking," he said musingly, in reply to
 
 76 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 her inquiring glance as they descended the hill to- 
 ward -the church, " I was just wondering, you 
 know, how it would feel." 
 
 " Are you talking of shooting the chutes or of 
 smallpox? " smiled his fiancee. 
 
 " Of something more exhilarating than the one 
 and more fatal than the other even kisses. You 
 favored Babe with three just now, one right after 
 
 the other ; I counted, and " He ended by 
 
 pressing her arm warmly against his side. 
 
 The girl's manner chilled perceptibly. She with- 
 drew her hand and occupied herself with a ringlet 
 that threatened escape from the compact braid. 
 
 The young man shrugged his shoulders and 
 walked on, whipping at thistle-tops with the point 
 of her parasol. 
 
 " I think I'll ask you to excuse me from dozing 
 through another of Allan's sermons," he remarked 
 carelessly as they neared the church. " The Eldreth 
 pew isn't nearly so comfortable as the hammock." 
 
 " Certainly," she replied coldly. 
 
 " I'll be down in time for your solo and to walk 
 home, if I may; but I've got a straight two hours' 
 letter-writing," he improvised glibly, " and I owe 
 Bert some of my time, you know." 
 
 " Of course," she agreed frigidly. 
 
 They had reached the open door of the church. 
 He placed her parasol and music in the vestry and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 77 
 
 returned to where she stood withdrawing her gloves 
 and gazing off toward the mountain rim, where 
 prism rays flecked the western sky, paling the slen- 
 der crescent of a youthful moon. 
 
 Very deftly and delicately he began helping with 
 her gloves, smiling half inquiringly, half wistfully, 
 into her expressionless face. He slipped the gloves 
 into his own pocket with that same master-sense 
 of ownership; and when she did not at once with- 
 draw the hand he had bared, he moved imperceptibly 
 nearer and nearer till he touched her side and stood 
 looking down at her, his nostrils dilating with 
 quickening breath. Suddenly he stooped and buried 
 his face in the big bunch of lilacs on her breast, 
 reveling, bee-like, among the blossoms. 
 
 She drew back, murmuring with a tinge of rebuke 
 in her tone, "Do you want one?" and tried to 
 disengage a spray. 
 
 But the perfume and her nearness had stirred 
 his senses. All the wine he had drunk, all the 
 blood in his body, seemed contending for a too small 
 space in his head. He stood, his gaze fastened upon 
 the redness of her sensitive mouth, while he mois- 
 tened his own thirstily. 
 
 " I want more much more," he said unsteadily, 
 laying a heavy hand over the flowers. 
 
 She retreated beyond reach, speaking his name 
 sharply.
 
 78 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 He flushed, then laughed. 
 
 " Oh, hang it all, Nina, can't you be civil to a 
 fellow when he's just got back, unkissed for two 
 whole weeks. Come, let's walk awhile, away off 
 there beyond the tennis court and through the old 
 orchard, to where I had Pepito hang a hammock. 
 We're just far enough from the organ there. The 
 pipes sound like so many blending human voices. 
 The pink and white of the orchard look like anchored 
 clouds at sunset, and the perfume is ambrosia itself. 
 And there are only the stars. Just an hour. You 
 can be back in time for the closing anthem ; and I'll 
 promise not to be wholly idiotic. I'm sober; honest, 
 I am. Come ! " 
 
 But she remained as unresponsive as a statue. 
 " Young People's meeting begins in ten minutes," 
 she objected, without lifting her eyes from the 
 watch she was consulting, " and the leader is inex- 
 perienced, so it is my duty to be here. And Lilys 
 may not be in the choir this evening." 
 
 He stepped back without a word, lifted his hat 
 with exaggerated courtesy, and turned away. 
 
 " Confound the girl ! " he muttered savagely as he 
 reascended the hill, "she has about as much red 
 blood as a trout, and about as much passion as 
 a paving-stone. Her 'DUTY'! What with her 
 Young People's Meetings, her Mission Schools and 
 Lord knows what all, how much of her time and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 79 
 
 inclination am I to have for her wife's duty, I won- 
 der. Well, I'll have a word then as to her time; 
 and her inclination can go hang-, once she's mine." 
 He smiled meditatively, then sighed, then lighted 
 a cigarette. " Oh, all right, Mile. Icicle, Dickie 
 knows who will go down to the nice becushioned 
 hammock, so he does! The Spaniard sized it pat: 
 * If you can't get what you like, you must like what 
 you can get.' '
 
 8o THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FATHER AND DAUGHTER. 
 
 IT was as Richard had predicted, a stormy scene 
 between Lilys and her father that evening, and so 
 depressing in its effects that the choir had to get 
 along without its first soprano for the evening 
 services. 
 
 Lawyer Nolan and Mr. Howard had taken their 
 departure, and Richard had started on his tour as 
 conquering hero through Quarry Town, when her 
 father called her to come to him in the veranda. 
 
 DeLacy looked after her speculatively as she left 
 him at the gate, his pulse increasing pleasurably as 
 he marked the free ease of her fine body. Would 
 it reconcile her to going if she knew something 
 of his motive in getting her east? Such a child! 
 
 " A rosebud set in little wilful thorns, 
 And sweet as Western air could make her." 
 
 The man were fortunate indeed who succeeded in 
 awakening the girl-heart to the woman's. Both his 
 natural and acquired knowledge of women taught
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 81 
 
 him that the deep, forceful nature of this girl had 
 never been sounded; that no suggestion of passion 
 had as yet penetrated to the sleeping heart. In 
 this knowledge rested his strongest hope of winning 
 her. He felt that when her whole untrammeled 
 being should rise responsive to love's first sweet 
 call, were that call from highest heaven or lowest 
 hell, she would answer it, going all the way, if 
 need be. 
 
 Lilys ran up the steps and to her father's knee. 
 She was glad every one was gone except Mr. De- 
 Lacy, who would " keep." It was nice to be alone, 
 they two, before poor Papa must go again. She 
 thought politics horrid. A politician might as well 
 have no home. She was very sorry for him; and 
 she smoothed back his heavy hair with both hands 
 and kissed him on the forehead. 
 
 He would miss the match game of tennis, Dix 
 and Nina against Mr. DeLacy and herself, high 
 stakes. He hadn't taken time to see her new sun- 
 dial out by the summer-house, nor Royal's babies 
 down at the stables, and the dear woolly puplets 
 were playing everywhere. McCune had the roan 
 filly ready for her; she guessed she'd take it next, 
 with Bonita for the long climbs, since Bonita was 
 so hill-wise. Her butterflies were progressing. 
 Uncle said they would compare with the state house 
 collection. Of course, Paul had done most of the
 
 82 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mounting, but she knew the classifications as well 
 as he did. She and Nina were going to begin next 
 week on the duets, Mr. Howard's music w r ritten to 
 verses of her mamma's composition. When the 
 Scott-DeLacy party was gone she meant to have 
 Nellie and Fred Nolan and a few others, just a 
 small house-party, 
 
 But here her father managed to break in, and he 
 at once told her of her eastern trip, a week from 
 the morrow, with Mrs. Scott-DeLacy. She would 
 have a dressmaker and whatever she wanted, of 
 course. He had already spoken to Helene about 
 all that. She would be gone the conservatory year, 
 spending it with the very best of instructors. 
 
 The girl sat stunned and at first speechless. To 
 go away from Eldhurst, from everything! It 
 was like dragging up the mountain pines by root. 
 It was the breaking up of the old order of things 
 in preparation for the new, the unknown. Vaguely 
 she felt that things would never again be as now. 
 The first crisis of her life was come. This was her 
 first great sorrow, and it loomed large through the 
 mist of her fears. It broke over her in a spring- 
 torrent of strange emotions, and throwing her arms 
 around his neck and hiding her face on his shoulder 
 she wept. 
 
 Her tears spent, she pleaded not to go. How 
 could she leave Eldhurst, the mountains, the beauti-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 83 
 
 ful sunsets, her summer-house, her piano, Bonita 
 and Rob and Royal ? How could she live away for 
 a whole year from him and Uncle and Dixie and 
 Nina and Mamma Helene and . . . and . . . 
 everybody? 
 
 After her plea and her kisses, she waited. He 
 would certainly yield. Uncle would; Dix would; 
 Helene would. 
 
 He did not think it necessary to repeat that she 
 was going. He never had to repeat anything to 
 any one else on the ranch. But noting that she 
 waited, he repeated it, somewhat emphatically. 
 
 At that she sprang from his lap, the flash of her 
 eyes fairly scorching her tears dry. She would 
 see if she would go be driven away against her 
 wishes, just on account of her horrid old voice! 
 Wasn't she practicing hours and hours every day 
 with Mr. Howard just to please her father hours 
 when she'd rather be out on Bonita? And this was 
 all the thanks she got. Oh, she'd see if she'd go, 
 when she preferred to stay. The DeLacys, indeed ! 
 She'd thank them to attend to their own affairs. 
 
 Her father stared at her in amazement for an 
 instant; repeated this statement that she was going 
 exactly one week from the morrow on the noon train 
 from Boulder, repeated it this time not somewhat, 
 but very, emphatically ; then, lighting a fresh cigar, 
 began striding up and down the veranda, while
 
 84 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Lilys sat, dry-eyed and mute, in the far shadow of 
 the wisteria. 
 
 Pierce Eldreth's wrath increased with his strid- 
 ing. That she should dare to oppose her will to 
 his, his! She preferred to stay. No reason given. 
 Well, he would see. She might as well learn right 
 in the beginning who was master. Beginning? 
 Of course it was. All the other little things in which 
 he had allowed her to rule were trifles, keeping 
 Pepito or Paul from work for some whim or other, 
 how much she need study or practice, and the like. 
 But from now on, he'd speak to her just once, as he 
 did to the others. 
 
 Paul certainly chose an unpropitious time to pre- 
 sent his claim for a week's leave of absence; for it 
 was at this moment that he approached the veranda, 
 halted at the foot of the steps, in the broad white 
 light of the hall chandelier and, hat in hand, made 
 his plea respectfully, frankly, briefly. Ben was 
 worse and wanted to go to Idaho Springs ; he, Paul, 
 would like to accompany him. He could stop at 
 Spanish Bar and look into that placer matter, make 
 those collections in Denver, and be back in a week. 
 
 His employer stopped on the top step, looked the 
 suppliant from head to foot and gave utterance 
 to one sweeping malediction comprehensive enough 
 to include rheumatic foremen, placer matters and 
 collections in general. Was Eldhurst going to the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 85 
 
 devil, that there were insubordination and disorder 
 and disobedience everywhere? How in the name 
 of all that was torrid could he, Paul, go for a week 
 if Ben were going, and he, Eldreth, leaving for 
 Denver in the early morning to be gone till next 
 Sunday ? Certainly Ben could go to Idaho Springs, 
 if not to the scorching below, and good riddance, 
 but any fool could take him there, if he was so 
 blanked helpless. There was all that alfalfa to re- 
 stack. A nice mess Wagner's gang had made of it. 
 Two dikes in the main ditch and one lock in the 
 third lateral needed attention. Paul had better 
 hire a competent ditch-rider or do the riding him- 
 self. The saw-mills must be visited and overhauled 
 this week. They weren't turning out near their full 
 capacity, and he'd promised the lumber for the Long- 
 mont coal-mines this next week. The quarries were 
 the worst. Bradley must be growing childish to 
 permit such shirking. Then they were not working 
 out far enough north, either, where the ledge meets 
 the drift. Paul had better spend a day up there 
 this week; and while he was about it, he might as 
 well check the pay-roll and books. And he would 
 be good enough to go up there tonight and sound 
 Bradley about Ingham. If they were going to or- 
 ganize one of their condemned unions, he, Eldreth, 
 wanted to know it. 
 
 Then he could not go with Ben? The young
 
 86 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 man's eyes were lifted steadily, eyes wherein fear 
 had never cringed, nor a shade of servility. Their 
 glances met and parried; neither fell, and the pause 
 was stinging. 
 
 Go? No, sir, no. Let it end here. Had he not 
 said what was to be done? Did he need it written 
 out, or did he think he could recollect it? What? 
 In ricks or in the sheds? He could use his own 
 judgment, couldn't he, and not bother his employer 
 with such trifles? Antonio? No, he could not. If 
 Antonio Garia, or any one else on the place, didn't 
 like his work, he knew what he could do: but so 
 long as he was on the Eldhurst pay-roll, he'd work 
 where he was put and no back talk. Webb was 
 shorter-handed than Bradley. One thing more: 
 Half a dozen gentlemen would return with him next 
 Sunday for small shooting. He would go up to the 
 Lodge and see that it was provisioned and in shape. 
 
 Paul heard him through in silence, the master- 
 t to-slave tone making him clench his hands and set 
 his teeth. Eldreth stood frowningly regarding the 
 fair, positive face. He liked the young fellow, de- 
 spite his low lineage. Pierce Eldreth admired cour- 
 age, and there were both courage and spirit behind 
 those calm blue eyes that met his own so unflinch- 
 ingly. In these little encounters with Paul, he al- 
 ways felt the grim satisfaction of hacking against 
 true sword-steel. Again and again when he disci-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 87 
 
 plined Richard, he had wished vaguely that his 
 son were not so easily conquered. In the end, Rich- 
 ard usually went down thoroughly cowed before his 
 anger; but this boy always had lightnings in his 
 eyes and a smile on his lips that said as plainly as 
 words, " I would not, except I willed to," just as he 
 was smiling now. That little smile of Paul's, half 
 serious, half amused, always stirred him to the verge 
 of self-control ; yet the sensation of meeting a spirit 
 worthily antagonistic was really pleasurable. 
 
 Pierce Eldreth was a man of formidable dignity 
 and repellant coldness, with whom only his daughter 
 ventured to take little liberties. For the working- 
 man, for the poor, for the wretched, for the failure 
 in life, he had only scorn. Pity, leniency, even toler- 
 ance, were all but unknown to his haughty heart. 
 Among his equals he was the loyal and generous 
 friend; of his son and daughter he was both fond 
 and proud, particularly of his handsome son, who 
 was at once the pride of his heart and the thorn 
 in his side; but with his inferiors and his employes 
 whenever possible, through the foreman and sub- 
 he was unbending, unsympathetic, dealing with them, 
 foremen of his big ranches. Even with these medi- 
 ators, he made himself as inapproachable, and I am 
 afraid as disagreeable, as was in him, as in the case 
 of the young man now standing before him. 
 
 " Don't be in such a devil of a hurry to get off,"
 
 88 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 he ended, turning away, " when I see fit to grant 
 you a vacation, I'll inform you. Write to Ross 
 of Denver about those collections. Write tonight." 
 
 " If that boy looked like Menendez or acted like 
 Menendez, by the Lord, I'd not stand him a minute, 
 useful or not useful," he muttered, resuming his 
 walk as Paul turned away, " but he doesn't, nor 
 like her either." 
 
 And Pierce Eldreth, knitting his brows, tried to 
 bring his scheming, business-whelmed mind to con- 
 sider for the passing moment whom Paul Menendez 
 did resemble. But he gave it up, though half Eld- 
 hurst knew.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 89 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PROVIDENCE PREVENTS. 
 
 WHEN Paul reached the Bradley porch, he found 
 Ruth sitting in her low wooden rocker and some one 
 was seated at her feet on the upper step, some one 
 he could not recognize through the gloom. 
 
 " Good evening, Ruth," he said with lifted hat. 
 " Is your father home? That you, Tonie? " 
 
 " No, it's .... it's Mr. Richard," explained the 
 girl, hastily rising, " Father '11 be here in just a 
 minute. Take a chair, Paul." 
 
 " Hello, Menendez," nodded Richard carelessly. 
 " Thought you always went to church." 
 
 " Ruth promised to go with me," returned Paul, 
 settling himself in the large rocker and depositing 
 his hat on the floor beside him. 
 
 "Oh, did I?" giggled Ruth delightedly, "Your 
 recollection's most awful good, looks to me." 
 
 Richard leaned back till he again rested against 
 the girl's knees, and he slyly recaptured the hand 
 that hung at her side away from their companion. 
 
 " Don't mind the Menendez kid ; he's a joker," 
 remarked Eldreth, somewhat nettled by Paul's cool
 
 90 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 assurance. " You know we were talking of going 
 for a walk just as he came up." And he pressed 
 the plump hand he held. 
 
 Paul leaned back and clasped his hands behind his 
 head. " Ruth is too polite to cancel a previous en- 
 gagement, and I'm far too selfish to release her. 
 Ah, there is the first bell." 
 
 Richard took out his cigarette-case and, rising, 
 stood, feeling for a match. He was certain the girl 
 would follow him to the gate. But something in 
 Paul's face, dimly seen, restrained her. She went 
 only part way down the walk, murmuring : 
 
 "I'm awful sorry, Mr. Richard, but I did prom- 
 ise." 
 
 " Red Cliff . . . eight tomorrow . . . Some- 
 thing to ask you," he whispered with a hand-pres- 
 sure full of meaning. 
 
 " What would Antonio say ? " asked Paul re- 
 proachfully, as she resumed her seat. 
 
 "Why should he care any more than you?" 
 she queried, peering wistfully at him through the 
 gloom; then, noting the look of abstraction that 
 had already crept into his eyes, she added, " And 
 you don't care, not a little bit." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do, little sister," he replied, " and if 
 Richard Eldreth doesn't quit coming to Quarry 
 Town like a thief by night, I'm going to inform 
 one Michael Bradley. Eldreth has no business here."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 91 
 
 " I ain't your sister," snapped the girl, " and for 
 all you know the Boss sends him up here to keep 
 an eye to the quarries. Guess he's studied geo 
 what do you call it? about rocks, as well as you 
 have." 
 
 Paul smiled his flitting little smile. " If Mr. 
 Richard Huntington Eldreth were under oath, he 
 couldn't distinguish sandstone from sapolio. Ah, 
 good evening, Bradley. May I have half an hour 
 with you? You don't mind talking business on 
 Sunday?" 
 
 So for more than an hour, the ranch foreman 
 and the foreman of the quarries sat smoking wholly 
 absorbed in affairs concerning the men, their work, 
 the monthly output, freight rates, contracts, and 
 lastly, Ingham and the union. When the younger 
 man arose to go, the elder was saying : 
 
 " If the Boss thinks anybody else can get more 
 work out of them Swedes and Irish, he's wel- 
 come to a new foreman. I ain't no nigger-driver. 
 I've got the best crew-foremen I can pick, and every 
 man-jack of them works full time. Myself ain't 
 took a day off since you an' me located our hole 
 up to Ward; an' from the way that hole's showin' 
 up, you or me ought to be up there right now. As 
 fer workin' furder north in the quarries, you know 
 yourself how that hull ledge jest peters out. What's 
 the use of foolin' time workin' through that truck?
 
 92 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 An' about Ingham : he'll be here tomorrow, an' if 
 these here men want a union, I ain't the one to say 
 no, you bet. Good Lord, Paul, we've got some 
 rights, if we don't know much above drillin' an' 
 blastin'." 
 
 " You certainly have, Bradley," agreed the other 
 pacifically. " If the men wish to organize, well and 
 good. This is a free country. I'll meet this man 
 Ingham a moment in the morning when I come up. 
 Better put about three teams on the north side to- 
 morrow, work through that slant and see what's be- 
 yond. You know and I know that Mr. Eldreth 
 has not been in the quarries in person for many 
 months. You could not expect that. But I am here 
 to represent him, since Ben cannot be, and while, 
 personally, I prefer to take your judgment as to 
 the direction for blasting, I see nothing for it but 
 to carry out his orders to the letter; and this I 
 must insist upon. Good night. I'll see you in the 
 morning just before I open the office." 
 
 As he turned to go, he noticed for the first time, 
 Ruth sitting in her little rocker, her hat on, and a 
 hymn-book in her lap. 
 
 " My dear Ruth ! " he exclaimed, conscience- 
 stricken, " I do beg your pardon. We got to talk- 
 ing, you see and But why did you not speak ? Tell 
 your father right here and now that I may never 
 come again. I deserve just that."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 93 
 
 " You came to see him anyhow, you know you 
 did," she pouted, despite her father's presence. 
 
 " I'm afraid I did," he confessed, " Anyway it is 
 too late for church now, and it is certainly my loss. 
 A week from next Sunday for the morning service, 
 if Antonio will not be down, and I'll steal some roses 
 from Helene for you to wear." 
 
 " Don't want none of their old roses from up 
 there," she said pettishly; but nevertheless, she fol- 
 lowed him to the gate. 
 
 " Miss Lilys is goin' away, ain't she, for a whole 
 year ? " she asked, trying to catch his expression 
 through the dark. 
 
 " I believe so," he answered coldly, closing the 
 gate between them. 
 
 " And it's really true that she's promised to that 
 Mr. DeLacy. He's asked her father. Hilma said 
 Lena told her. Had you heard ? " 
 
 " How should I ? What business have you and 
 I, Ruth, with affairs up at the House ? ' Good 
 night," and he went abruptly. 
 
 " If that was Dick Eldreth I met comin' away 
 from here, I want it to be the last time, young 
 lady," remarked her father severely, before he left 
 her in the porch. " He's hangin' round Hilma An- 
 derson, too, and a-lendin' her father money without 
 interest. When fine gentlemen talk soft to girls
 
 94 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 like you, they don't mean no good, unless they talk 
 marry, which they never do. An' I'll settle him, 
 if he is the Boss's son. You stick to your kind. 
 Antonio's a good enough son-in-law fer me when 
 you're old enough." 
 
 "Is Paul our kind?" asked Ruth archly. 
 
 " I should say not," growled her father, " but he 
 wouldn't thank anybody to call him a gent, neither, 
 'cause he's a sight more'n that. Who was it got 
 all our wages raised last time all but his own? 
 Who stayed here day and night when your ma died ? 
 An' whose money buried her, I bein' swamped jest 
 then?" 
 
 But her question gave Michael Bradley an idea. 
 His and Paul's mine up at Ward was a bonanza, 
 if the expert's report meant anything, most as good 
 as anything Ward had yet shown up. Paul was a 
 straight, clean fellow, if his father had been a 
 reprobate; Ruth was pretty; and why not just keep 
 that mine in the family? 
 
 " Buenas tardes, Seiiorita hermosisima! " 
 
 " My sakes, Tonie Garia, how you scart me ! 
 
 Dear me, don't be so rough. Sit down, can't you? 
 
 How awful late you are. I might have been a-bed, 
 
 or to church. I've had two fellows tonight, fine 
 
 o 
 
 gentlemen, and both wanted me to go with them," 
 and the girl tossed her pretty curly head, eyeing
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 95 
 
 her lover by the light of the lamp her father had left 
 inside the door for her. 
 
 Antonio's black eyes glittered and his swarthy 
 face flamed, as he pulled her fiercely from her little 
 rocker to the porch bench beside him. 
 
 " I know who, for I met one of them as I rode 
 up the hill just now. If Menendez is keeping me 
 up at the mill for that reason, he's not the man I 
 think him, that's all. I'm not a cutter ; I'm a quarry- 
 man, and I belong here. As for the fine gentleman, 
 if ever I catch Dick Eldreth inside this gate, if ever 
 he touches the hem of your dress, I'll cut his dirty 
 heart out. I came the cross-cut and round the old 
 orchard, because of that bad culvert, and there he 
 was with Hilma in the hammock back of the tennis 
 court. And Pepito says he saw them once up at 
 the old quarries. Isn't Swensson a damn fool to 
 stand it? Ah! que necio! Murder? Sure. But 
 you keep straight with me and there'll be no need. 
 You are going to marry me, ME me comprehende 
 vd? " shaking her roughly by both shoulders. 
 :< You've promised, and so has your father, and 
 you'd best not play loose with me." 
 
 The girl, half-frightened, began to whimper, 
 " Tonie, dear, you hurt. It's you I care for, you 
 know." Whereupon Antonio's fierceness vanished, 
 a melting look crept into his black eyes, his hands 
 dropped from her shoulders to her wais* and he 
 drew her up against him, murmuring :
 
 96 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " There, there, poor little Ruthie. I'm a big 
 rough bear beside you, but I love you so. Yo no 
 estoy enfadado. There, do not weep, mi alma." 
 
 But when Ruth had put out her little lamp, some 
 hours later, and crept into bed, it was not of An- 
 tonio's black eyes and hot kisses she lay thinking, 
 but of the blue eyes, the strong unbearded lips of 
 Paul Menendez and of the flattering events of the 
 evening. " My dear Ruth," he had called her, and 
 how sweetly he had said, " Oh, yes I do, little sister." 
 Did he care? Could he be made a little speck 
 jealous? If she thought so, she'd go walking with 
 Mr. Richard right past Marah's when she knew 
 Paul was home. Mr. Richard was good-looking 
 too ; he had held her hand and kissed it too, before 
 they were interrupted. He had asked her what 
 she wanted for her birthday when she'd told him it 
 was next week, and she, after much coaxing, had 
 told him a heart-bracelet. But now, after what her 
 father and Antonio had said, she must tell him 
 that he wouldn't dare come there any more. But 
 there was Red Cliff, and who would blame her for 
 meeting him just this once? What could a poor 
 girl do, who was denied company at home? Any- 
 way, she must meet him somewhere to tell him about 
 her father and her betrothed. Hilma would crow 
 over her tomorrow ; but she, Ruth, would take pains
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 97 
 
 to let her know that he had been to Bradley's first 
 and that he took Hilma because he couldn't get her. 
 Mr. Richard had said he thought her much prettier 
 than Hilma, and Hilma should know that too. . . . 
 Well, she'd go to Red Cliff just this once; no harm 
 in that, with Tonie up at the mill.
 
 98 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " SOMETHING DESPERATE." 
 
 LILYS held her head very high when at last her 
 father passed her on his way up stairs, and she 
 vouched no word of good-night, though she knew 
 he was to leave in the morning before the family 
 was astir. 
 
 When she heard his room door close, she vented 
 her long-nursed wrath by walking wildly up and 
 down the porch, her arms flung out, her breath com- 
 ing more and more quickly. 
 
 She was too much absorbed in her troubles to 
 notice Paul when, returning to write the Denver 
 collectors, he unlocked the office, the room which 
 formed the L at the north end of the veranda. 
 And she neither saw nor heard DeLacy almost 
 ran into his arms at the office end of the veranda, 
 where the shadows were deepest. 
 
 She brought up short. He could not see her face 
 distinctly, but he heard her panting breath and the 
 sharp tap of her impatient foot and at once divined 
 the cause of her agitation. 
 
 When she recognized him through the gloom,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 99 
 
 she railed out at him as the cause of all her woes. 
 She considered his over-persuasion of her father 
 as outrageous, a breach of hospitality, shameful, 
 unheard of; and if she was made to go as one of his 
 party, she'd not speak to him all the way to Boston, 
 nor ever again so there ! 
 
 He did not enter a protest nor attempt self-de- 
 fense. It would have been more than futile; it 
 would have been impossible. Expostulation, oppo- 
 sition in what form soever, would have been lost in 
 the torrent of hysterical reproaches with which she 
 deluged his devoted head. He took it calmly. He 
 knew the sex; its little inconsistencies. He knew 
 that in a short time, his "outrageous over-persua- 
 sion " must stand in its true light as proof of his 
 growing passion for her. 
 
 So he waited till, exhausted, she flung herself 
 against the railing near him. Then he began in a 
 soft, reproachful tone : 
 
 " It is not possible that your brother was right, 
 that you would rather continue your living burial 
 here on this sequestered ranch than to go where 
 pleasure and triumphs and the world's adoration 
 await you? May I ask why you do not want to 
 go?" 
 
 The breath quickened, the foot's tatoo increased. 
 
 " No, no, you may not. Because I don't that's 
 reason enough; and I won't; or if I go, if I'm
 
 ioo THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 made to, I'll do something he'll be sorry for. Oh, 
 I wish I could do something desperate, wicked I 
 only wish I could. And I will yet if he drives me 
 away. He'll see ! " and she flung her arms along 
 the railing behind her, the very attitude of reckless 
 abandon. 
 
 DeLacy drew nearer and began stroking one of 
 her little clutched hands. 
 
 " It is a shame to send you so far," he soothed, 
 struggling with an impulse to crush the mutinous 
 little thing in his arms and stifle her with kisses, 
 " There are conservatories nearer, and indeed I 
 urged your own State Conservatory, which is high- 
 class, I understand." 
 
 " Oh, he won't listen to Denver. It's been noth- 
 ing but Boston, B-o-s-t-o-n, ever since he talked with 
 that aunt of yours; and I hate her and her Boston 
 and music and everything and everybody. Oh, 
 he'll be sorry. I mean to do something; there's 
 a week yet. He'll see." 
 
 His sympathetic fingers pressed round her venge- 
 ful little ball of a fist, and he came still nearer, 
 lowering his voice: 
 
 " I have it. For a week Dick has been at me to go 
 down to Denver. You come with us. There'll be 
 theatres, the Overland races, the gardens and Mani- 
 tou if you like. We'll have the time of our lives, 
 and you can kill your bird with our stone. We can
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 101 
 
 dodge your father all right. He always puts up at 
 the Brown. Will all this be wicked enough for 
 you? If not, command me! " 
 
 The girl laughed, but her laugh was not mirth- 
 ful. 
 
 " Good, fine. Dix shall take Nina, and we four 
 will stay the whole week long; no practice, no stud- 
 ies, no dressmaker nothing, only straight fun. 
 We'll go on the same train with him; will board 
 it just as it starts, and he can't help himself." 
 
 " You make me very happy," murmured the man, 
 his other hand closing gently over her relaxing 
 fingers, " how happy you know if you are not wholly 
 blind. O little one, don't you know you are beauti- 
 ful, glorious? Dieu des Dieux! Don't you know 
 you are a full-blown woman, wasting voice and 
 beauty and self in this desert? Why, you haven't 
 the vaguest dream of what love is love, the only 
 thing that makes life worth while. And you were 
 created to love, to be loved, to be desired, (devoured, 
 I had almost said!) ; you were made to know life, 
 the rapture, the heights, the depths. But we'll 
 have at least one week of real living, even though 
 after my aunt comes we'll see but little of one 
 another, that is, alone. Be kind to me, little girl, 
 and let me have you all to myself for one sweet, 
 short week. Let's cut Dick and the other girl. 
 Two is company. There's a train an hour earlier
 
 102 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 than your father's. He'll not know. He'll think 
 we are all in bed yet. And you can fix us up for 
 horses. Now, if you mean what you say; if it isn't 
 all a big Western bluff; if you really want to do 
 something that will count, come with me alone. 
 Chaperones are not necessities here in your free 
 West. You Colorado girls can do things like that 
 and still be proper of course. Never fear but I'll 
 fix it up with your father afterward. Why, if we 
 four went together for our little fling, he would 
 merely laugh at you. What would that amount 
 to?" 
 
 When he paused, she remained silent, and tak- 
 ing the silence as encouragement, he pressed his 
 advantage. 
 
 " And listen : If you want revenge that would 
 be revenge, make it Cheyenne instead of Denver. 
 I happen to know that he hates the town. So that 
 would be something like; only it will take nerve 
 on your part. Come, I dare you ! " 
 
 He could not see her face, near as he was; he 
 could only divine her intent from the attempted 
 withdrawal of her hand. He must not lose the ad- 
 vantage gained. With a sudden movement he 
 crushed her close against him, whispering with 
 his breath on her cheek, " Come ! I can give you 
 what you must have to be happy; what nature 
 meant you should have when she made you "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 103 
 
 And at that exact instant the office door opened 
 and a flood of light streamed out. The man leaped 
 backward and began fumbling at the wisteria, and 
 an awkward pause ensued. 
 
 Paul reached and extinguished the last of the 
 hanging lamps, came out and closed the door behind 
 him. He was a long time fastening it, the key in 
 the lock making the only sound. None of the 
 three moved or spoke for a full minute. Then 
 Paul's even voice said : 
 
 " I beg your pardon, but before I go I must give 
 you Mr. Allan's message, Lilys. He expects your 
 herbarium completed before you leave. The mal- 
 lows you lack are plentiful on the Lower Ranch 
 road and there are a few of the sedges and ferns up 
 the second right gulch of the canon." 
 
 " Thank you," she replied in a low voice and 
 moved away toward the open hall door. 
 
 But DeLacy, recovering himself, took a hasty, in- 
 tercepting stride. 
 
 "Then it is settled our arrangement?" 
 
 " And you had best secure them early, as the 
 day promises to be showery." 
 
 Paul was on the first descending step of the 
 veranda, the girl between the two men, and all 
 three in the white light of the hall chandelier. 
 
 DeLacy saw her turn, as though by compulsion, 
 and lift her eyes. With swift jealousy, he read
 
 104 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the anxious tenderness of the gaze that met and held 
 hers ; saw her quick flush answer that gaze. What 
 her eyes said, he could only surmise, as her back 
 was toward him. 
 
 " I will stop at the Rectory and tell Mr. Allan 
 you'llbring them by noon." It was an affirmation, 
 not a question. " Good-night" 
 
 Paul replaced his hat, took two downward steps, 
 then stopped. 
 
 There was a commingling of unreadable emotions 
 on the girl's face. She moved toward the veranda 
 steps, hesitated, then turned slowly and entered the 
 hall and paused with her hand on the banister. 
 
 DeLacy followed quickly. " Come, let us sing 
 till Dick gets home. It is early yet," he said with 
 studied nonchalance ; then, under his breath, " You 
 promised. I shall be waiting." 
 
 With a glance he could not interpret (it was 
 scarcely fear) she went on up the long stairway, 
 without looking back. 
 
 Deeply chagrined, he turned toward the parlor to 
 await her possible return. But he was intercepted. 
 With a bound, Paul Menendez confronted him, his 
 hands clenched, his eyes narrowing. 
 
 " No, you'll not be waiting." 
 
 DeLacy was taken by surprise, but he deliberately 
 put up his eye-glass and swept the coarse-clad fig-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 105 
 
 ure up and down, and down and up, with a glance 
 that was itself an insult. 
 
 " A . . . h, my good fellow," he drawled, " er 
 . . . er . . . whom have I the honor? Oh, the 
 coachman, I believe." 
 
 The " good fellow " went a shade whiter, but 
 his tense attitude did not relax. Though the East- 
 erner sensed danger in the pale face and steady eyes, 
 he questioned with insolent bravado : 
 
 " Pray, what will the coachman do? " 
 
 The monocle came down and their eyes met. 
 Stranger estimated stranger. Man measured man. 
 Paul's hands unclosed and his lips trembled into 
 a scornful smile. 
 
 " Nothing; for you will not be waiting." 
 
 DeLacy shrugged his shoulders. " There are 
 other ways ; other occasions." 
 
 Paul came closer. He spoke slowly, distinctly. 
 " Get her alone, just once, or dare to put your vile 
 hands on her again, and I'll break your head, you 
 damned cur." 
 
 The other moved backward slightly, but he put 
 a telling question, " What is she to you? " 
 
 Paul disdained reply, but to his deep vexation he 
 felt the hot blood leap even to his hair. 
 
 DeLacy's short laugh spoke volumes. " So that's 
 it. My Lady, who is so indifferent to her equals, 
 chooses her paramour irom among her father's
 
 io6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 stablemen. Good ! It'll be only a year, then he can 
 
 have her again, when I'm through " 
 
 * * * 
 
 The man got to his feet slowly, back near the 
 hall-tree, and stood swaying, one hand pressed over 
 his mouth. The crushing grip on his left wrist 
 served in a way to steady him, but the words spoken 
 close to his ear sounded far off and fragmentary. 
 
 " Coward . . . liar," these he heard unmistak- 
 ably, and ..." harm a hair of her head .... as 
 
 we are both living men have your life for 
 
 it ..." and something more about the earth not 
 being able to hide him.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 107 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SCORES ACCUMULATE. 
 
 RICHARD returned to breakfast Monday morning 
 decidedly unamiable, and that is putting it mildly. 
 He was hungry and sleepy and disappointed. He 
 had risen quite early for him, and all for nothing. 
 He had peered round Red Cliff in time to catch 
 a glimpse of Ruth walking back toward the quar- 
 ries and beside her, Paul, the bridle of his horse 
 over his arm. 
 
 These two had approached the Cliff from opposite 
 directions and Richard, well-concealed, had waited, 
 confident in the girl's tact to overcome so slight 
 an obstacle to their tryst. It was with chagrin, 
 therefore, that he saw the two walk away together; 
 and he set down score number one against his 
 father's foreman. 
 
 But he did not give up so easily. Straight 
 through the main street of Quarry Town he 
 marched, past the little red story-and-a-half cot- 
 tages that were all alike, and straight up to Brad- 
 ley's. But he did not stop; for there stood Paul, 
 the quarry superintendent and a stranger, while
 
 io8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Ruth with her sewing was in the rocker near by. 
 She did not lift her head, but he knew she saw him, 
 for under his gaze the blood dyed her face and neck. 
 After a few moments' chat at the gate across the 
 street with Hilma (the recent arrival from Chicago 
 and a contestant for Ruth's laurels as belle of the 
 village) he returned home, in his heart setting down 
 score number two against Paul. 
 
 At the House he found the reception-hall ob- 
 structed with packages, where a patient-looking wo- 
 man waited; and DeLacy, up since dawn, pacing 
 the breakfast room alone. 
 
 Helene opened the door. Would the gentlemen 
 be served now or wait for Miss Lilys? Mr. El- 
 dreth had been served and gone. 
 
 " Right now, old girl, I'm starving. And I hear 
 Babe coming. I say, Bertie, I'm off for Denver, 
 myself. That woman and those bundles in the hall 
 mean dressmaking for a holy week, and the Babe 
 will be in such a state of mind. You'll be glad to 
 make your escape. I'll bring you back Saturday, 
 fairly sober and in good time for the governor's 
 gang and the pot-hunting. Your aunt will not be 
 down till Monday morning." 
 
 " Dick," said his companion slowly, unfolding his 
 napkin, " she's in love, I tell you. She may not 
 know it herself yet, but I know it. I am acquainted 
 with the eternal feminine from A to and-so-forth,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 109 
 
 and then some, as you Westerners say. If she isn't, 
 for one thing, why doesn't she want to go away? " 
 
 " And for another thing, why is she proof against 
 your 1 2o-in-the-shade love-making? Eh? In love! 
 with whom, pray? The Parson, the bernards or her 
 doll-baby? Rats! I thought you really knew girls, 
 Bert." 
 
 " You'll see." 
 
 " See what? " laughed Lilys, entering and taking 
 the place across table from him. 
 
 " The most beautiful woman in Colorado, whom 
 all insist on miscalling ' Babe/ " promptly averred 
 DeLacy, scanning her face greedily for a sign of 
 self-consciousness at memory of last night's inter- 
 view. But she was stifling a half yawn behind her 
 napkin and was looking curiously at the still-red 
 finger-marks on his left wrist. He turned his hand 
 deftly back into his deep cuff and wondered if she 
 had overheard the altercation at the foot of the 
 stairs. 
 
 Richard was drinking his coffee gloomily. " You 
 don't get much service these days out of your 
 humble and one time devoted minion, Menendez, do 
 you, Babe? He seems to be pretty damned busy 
 with other people's business." 
 
 " Who is Men-en-dez? " questioned the alert De- 
 Lacy, quick to note the flush that mounted to the 
 girl's black hair. He pronounced the name with the
 
 no THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 buzzing " z " sound, instead of the soft, terminal 
 " th." 
 
 " One of the hired men, cow-puncher, coachman, 
 general roust-about." 
 
 " It's no such thing," flared his sister, " He is 
 Papa's foreman and book-keeper." 
 
 " And keeper of the keys ; a sort of trusty during 
 good behavior. He's the son of a servant-girl, com- 
 mon-law wife of a cross-breed sheep-herder, Mexi- 
 can peon, fugitive from justice." Richard was 
 enjoying the sound of his own voice to the neglect 
 of porter-house and omelette. Always voluble, his 
 unstinted helping to " the governor's scotch " had 
 further loosened his tongue. " You see, the gov- 
 ernor took up the cause of Menendez senior 
 (tender-hearted; we Eldreths all are!) and paid a 
 sort of instalment ransom for the fellow because 
 he was so sheep-wise. But the peon always went 
 round on the skulk, the nature of the tribe, kind o' 
 kept looking back over his shoulder. Well, one day 
 he forgot to look, or was too drunk, and they (who- 
 ever 'they' were) got him. He was found next 
 morning up the Canon, swinging gracefully by the 
 neck, and on his breast, in some Mexican lingo, 
 was a warning to all his kind, treachery being named 
 as one of his little failings. You may see the tree 
 yet well up the Canon, on the short-cut to the mill, 
 a big cotton wood, the Menendez family tree, if
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. in 
 
 you please, to which they point -withotit pride. The 
 execution limb is dead, and there are seven deep 
 notches, the number of vigilantes, supposedly. That 
 was some twenty years ago. His only son was a 
 posthumous affair; he did not honor our planet with 
 his presence until some weeks after his noble sire 
 had swung off it. Born in a hut, bred on a horse, 
 the infernal " 
 
 " He is too well bred to swear before a lady," 
 interrupted his sister, " and Uncle says he has ten 
 times your education. Who was it solved the 
 problem given up by your whole class, the solution 
 of which was afterward published in the University 
 Herald over your signature? " 
 
 " Oh, sure. He's a lexicon on legs, Socrates in 
 the saddle, Heroditus on horseback, combined 
 lightning calculator and Learned Blacksmith, special 
 annotated edition bound in blonde calf. You should 
 come up against him, Bertie ; he seldom fails to leave 
 his impression." 
 
 DeLacy puzzled over the laughing glance the 
 girl threw his way, but he pulled covertly at his left 
 cuff and maintained a wise silence. 
 
 " As I was saying, this triple extract of all that 
 is good and true and beautiful was bound out to us 
 to help reimburse the governor for part of the ran- 
 som graft. He was raised on the place here, was 
 turned over to the Babe and became a sort of gentle-
 
 ii2 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 man of the bedchamber. Used to fasten your 
 frocks and plait your hair, didn't he? Well, he nat- 
 urally grew puffed up and officious, after the man- 
 ner of inferiors with a little brief authority. I 
 recollect once he came near giving me a thrashing; 
 took virtuous spasms because I slapped Sis, whom 
 he considered his special charge. We were kids 
 
 " ' Once ' ! ' Nearly ' ! Oh, hear him," laughed 
 Lilys, setting her cup down. " Why, he pounded 
 you shamefully, though you were three years the 
 older and much larger then ; sat on you till I begged 
 for you. I recollect how frightened I was because 
 your nose bled so; also how many promises you 
 made him before he would let you up. And that 
 wasn't the first time nor the last time, either. How 
 about the night you hired Shorty Anderson to help 
 you whip him ? What did what did't he do to both 
 of you? Shorty lost half a month's work, and you 
 weren't presentable for a week. And who always 
 killed snakes for me? Who found me when I was 
 lost that stormy night when you were afraid to 
 join the searchers ? If a boy teased me and I wanted 
 him punished, to whom did I appeal, to Dix or to 
 Paul ? Oh, whatever else you may say, he is afraid 
 of no one, not even of Papa. And it hasn't been 
 so long ago that I heard him very bluntly inform 
 Mr. Richard Eldreth that he, Paul Menendez, was
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 113 
 
 foreman of this ranch and that he would be greatly 
 obliged if you would not try to countermand his 
 orders. Didn't he, now, out in the south hay- 
 fields?" 
 
 " Yes, he did, the impudent dog ! And if he 
 doesn't keep out of my way, I'll spoil that smooth 
 face of his." 
 
 " You'll let me witness the ' spoiling,' won't you, 
 Dix dear? And you'd enjoy it, too, I'm sure, 
 wouldn't you, Mr. DeLacy?" 
 
 " Well, you'll witness it all right if he doesn't keep 
 away from my little Irish girl. I've run up against 
 him with her only three times within the last twenty- 
 four hours." 
 
 Richard attacked his steak so assiduously that he 
 failed to note the quick alteration in his sister's face; 
 but DeLacy never once took his eyes from her. 
 
 " You see," ended Richard, " he is one of these 
 elder brothers to dear, defenseless little girls, being, 
 himself, absolutely pure like Price's baking pow- 
 der. He's the Parson's pet, the white-cross, 
 Frances E. Willard brand; none genuine without 
 ' Meddler ' blown in the bottle." 
 
 " But Ruth is engaged to be married to Antonio 
 Garia," faltered Lilys. 
 
 " And there is another fellow who's going to have 
 his beauty marred," remarked her brother. 
 
 The three quitted the breakfast-room for the
 
 ii 4 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 front veranda. The morning was gray with a hint 
 of moisture. The carriage stood at the block and 
 men were coming and going from the office, through 
 the open door of which Paul could be seen at his 
 desk. Lilys followed her brother to the hammock 
 at the far end of the veranda. 
 
 " Dixie," she began in an undertone, " I don't 
 want you to leave me alone with Bert DeLacy ever 
 again. Uncle Edwin wouldn't at all like the way he 
 talked to me last night. I do not know half he 
 means, but he almost kissed me and his mouth is 
 so big and wet ugh ! " And with her handkerchief 
 she rubbed vigorously at her left cheek. 
 
 Her brother sent up a whoop of laughter. He 
 turned as he lounged into the hammock and beck- 
 oned DeLacy, dropping one eyelid jocosely. 
 
 " Bert, me son, line up here and face your fair 
 accuser. Sir, this forlorn damsel is turbulent in 
 spirit for the very sufficient reason that you under- 
 took an osculatory application last night and you 
 didn't finish the job. She also wants an expurgated 
 reproduction of the josh you were giving her when 
 you made your attempt, expurgated, mind you! 
 She appeals to my honorable self. Now, Mr. Her- 
 bert Scott-DeLacy, shall it be pistols or the poker- 
 deck?" 
 
 The face of the accused was a study in purple. 
 
 " If only Miss Lilys had stayed to hear my plea
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 115 
 
 for forgiveness," he murmured abjectly, " She 
 makes no allowance for her beauty and power, nor 
 for man's peculiar weakness. Surely I have been 
 punished, knowing her displeasure." 
 
 The girl ignored him and pressed closer to the 
 hammock as though to make a further appeal, but 
 her brother cut her short. 
 
 " A . . . w ! come off ! Thunderation, Babe, 
 what an infernal racket about a kiss or two. Pity 
 you hadn't the sense you were born with. Bert's 
 a fool not to cut you for Edna Whitney or some 
 other full-grown woman. Run away and play with 
 your dollie now; don't you see brother's busy?" 
 And he stretched himself luxuriantly in the ham- 
 mock and reached for his Police Gazette. 
 
 Lilys whirled about, snatched up her riding skirt 
 and whip from a chair and her little heels fairly 
 clicked as she stalked straight down the porch. De- 
 Lacy started to follow, but stopped, swearing elo- 
 quently under his breath, as he saw her enter the 
 open door of the office. Richard kicked out at him, 
 chuckling gleefully. 
 
 " There, let her go tell her troubles to the hired 
 man. He can't any more than knock you down; 
 law against murder even out here in Colorado. Be- 
 sides, he'll be too busy playing Mother Winslow. 
 They'll be out in the bar,k yard pretty soon making 
 mud-pies. Now will you be good and go with me ? 
 Or are mud-pies more to your taste? "
 
 n6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 His companion shook his head pensively. 
 
 " No use trying to hide it; I'm certainly in Jove 
 this time an seriev.x. I don't like to leave; I'm 
 afraid for my chances. Dick, you don't any of you 
 seem to realize that girl's possibilities, nor how 
 near she is to their full blossoming. She's going to 
 make a magnificent, a wonderful woman, with her 
 thrilling nerves, her passionate senses. And hocv 
 she will love! How she will go to pieces at the 
 feet of her hero, and love and love and love him; 
 enough to satisfy a Don Juan ' 
 
 " Or a DeLacy. Permit me to add that he will 
 never die of ennui, thanks to her lightning-change 
 moods and her rapid-transit temper. Numbers 
 One and Two and even Three will be amply 
 avenged." 
 
 DeLacy laughed. " I'd damned well like the 
 chance to avenge them that way. Well, whoever he 
 is, he'll have to make that honeymoon his exclusive 
 business or quit the country, for she'll brook neither 
 rivals nor neglect. But just now she's asleep, 
 dreaming." 
 
 " Get busy then, Bluebeard, and wake her. My 
 fraternal duties don't extend to the call-me-early act. 
 I've a Galatea of my own. Besides, what are you 
 here for?" 
 
 '' You may search me," sighed the other. " Why, 
 I've talked to that girl as I never talked to woman
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 117 
 
 before, but she's asleep, I tell you, or else there's 
 some other man. The other night we were at the 
 piano, lights down, and we were alone. I had been 
 singing ' Answer/ you know the song : 
 
 ' Until into your eyes I gazed and knew 
 My search was o'er.' 
 
 I told her I felt that my search through earth's mul- 
 titudes for my affinity was ended here in this beauti- 
 ful West, where I had looked into her lovely eyes 
 Oh, hang it all, Dick, you know what damfool stuff 
 a fellow has to talk; they will have it. Well, she 
 dropped her eyes, then turned and looked from the 
 window, while I leaned over, fairly holding my 
 breath for her next words. I waited till the trainer 
 passed the window with an unruly horse, then she 
 looked up into my face with a sweet smile and I'm 
 condemned if she didn't ask me which I preferred 
 for breaking a colt, the scissor-bits or the long 
 curb!" 
 
 Richard choked back his laugh and offered his 
 cigarette-case by way of sympathy. 
 
 " But it will come, the awakening, and that's why 
 I don't want to go away ; I don't want to miss any- 
 thing. Dick, Dick, I know what a woman like her 
 could give to a man if she cared, and I'd give my 
 hopes of heaven, if I have any, to make her care."
 
 n8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 His companion sat up and leaning, spoke con- 
 fidentially : 
 
 " You needn't lose sleep, Bert. Listen : I'll give 
 you a straight tip. The governor's set on the 
 match ; he told me so. And that means that whether 
 she cares or not, whether she's asleep or awake, she'll 
 end by becoming Mrs. DeLacy Number Four (or 
 will it be Five?" this with a malicious twinkle). 
 " You've visited here enough to know that what 
 Eldreth senior says goes. She hates lessons and the 
 piano, but she studies and practices; she doesn't want 
 her voice trained, but it'll be trained. The Howard 
 girl and I bore each other to extinction, but it will 
 end in a wedding, see if it doesn't. When you and 
 Mrs. Four visit Eldhurst, ten years hence, I'll be the 
 model father of half a dozen little red-heads, sure. 
 The governor's It at this ranch; no X-rays needed 
 to see that. Babe's bound to give in, sooner or 
 later ; it's the only way. So whether you go or stay 
 this week will make no difference. And besides, 
 man, aren't you going to have a year of her? 
 Can't you wait a week ? Most men are April when 
 they woo, but you by the great horned spoon 
 you are the middle of August, real dog-days." 
 
 DeLacy sighed dejectedly and puffed at his cigar- 
 ette in silence for some minutes. 
 
 " Dick," he said presently, " I once knew a girl 
 in Boston, beautiful, rich, dead swell, and by George,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 119 
 
 if she didn't elope with one of her father's grooms ! 
 Those mesalliances are happenings of real life " 
 
 " Well, her father wasn't master of Eldhurst, 
 else there'd have been a hurry-up job for the under- 
 taker, with coffins for two, see? You're borrowing 
 trouble. Cut it out, I tell you. Don't be an ass. 
 Come, how about the city ? " 
 
 " But you've only one girl." 
 
 " Only one, thanks to the meddling hired man. I 
 ventured to approach my Galatea about a visit to 
 the city just for pleasure, but she would not think 
 of going on such an outing, no indeed, not prim 
 Mile. Nina of Prudeville. She couldn't leave the 
 dear dirty little Mexicans and Swedes of the mis- 
 sion school, her Duty, with full size, upper-case D. 
 She wouldn't, couldn't deceive her poor kind old 
 father; she wished I had more respect for her than 
 to hint such a thing, dearly as she loves me. And 
 she turned her big reproachful eyes on me, forty- 
 candle power. How could I ask it? how could I? 
 how could I ? She kept saying it over and over, like 
 a blasted phonograph with nothing else in its vo- 
 cabulary." 
 
 It was DeLacy's turn to suppress unseemly mirth. 
 
 " I'd like to say something about your fiancee 
 unless, of course, it's as dangerous to talk of her as 
 it is to look at her." 
 
 Eldreth smoked vigorously for a minute.
 
 120 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " My God, I'd like to hire some one to berate her, 
 since it seems I can't. So fire away." 
 
 " This is no berating. It is only that if I've read 
 her aright her surrender was made, even to the right 
 man, with a distinct reservation ; while your sister's, 
 to the right man, will be unconditional, unquestion- 
 ing. Miss Howard resembles not a little your far- 
 famed Colorado weather: nine months winter and 
 three months mighty late in the fall." 
 
 Richard laughed grimly. 
 
 " More reservation than surrender. If you'd wit- 
 nessed our parting last night boreal, icy, glacial, 
 b. . . oo. . . oo! But she kissed and made up 
 with her wandering boy, let him stay till ten-thirty, 
 sharp, half an hour longer than usual; and at part- 
 ing said she'd pray for me hanged if she didn't, 
 Bertie!" 
 
 " Then you're not going? " 
 
 " Who said I wasn't ? My feminine acquaint- 
 ance isn't limited to Boulder county. What's the 
 matter with the Whitney girls? And the Blue 
 Bell Burlesque Company 's at the New Curtis for 
 the summer. What's wrong with the little bleached 
 blonde chorus girls? Ever know one of them to 
 complain because a fellow nearly kissed her? Now, 
 here's another tip. Even if you stayed now and 
 kept every commandment, you'd not get Babe alone 
 for five minutes. I know what I'm talking about."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 121 
 
 His companion flushed causelessly and glanced 
 resentfully toward the office. " All right, Dick, I'll 
 go you. ' We are called away on particular business 
 and we leave our characters behind us.' But you'll 
 have to make it worth my while ; you'll have to lead 
 me into temptation to some extent brimming 
 buckets of red paint and whole flagons of forgetful- 
 ness." 
 
 " Oh, trust your Uncle Dickie for the jag of joy. 
 Ye gods ! but I feel like doing it up good and plenty 
 and then some. If I stay here another twenty-four 
 hours, Nina will have me distributing tracts and 
 singing 'Why Do You Wait, Dear Brother?' It's 
 that noon train or suicide. I'm low in spirits and 
 laudanum's cheap. Now I've got to be gone for 
 awhile, but we'll make our train O. K. The carriage 
 is ordered for it, 'cause I had a sneaking idea that 
 I'd not go by myself. You'll have time to patch it 
 up with the Babe and get that God-forsaken look 
 rubbed off. I've got to see about a horse. Heigh 
 you, Sam ! Bring up Hector to the cart. Come, 
 get a jump on you," looking at his watch. 
 
 The stable-boy stopped and touched his cap. 
 
 " Hector's double-harnessed for the field, sir." 
 
 " The devil he is ! Well, you know how to un- 
 harness, don't you ? " 
 
 " I dunno about it," hesitated the boy, his fingers 
 fumbling his hair, " I'd you see, I'd have to ask 
 Menendez first, sir."
 
 122 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Be damned if you do! You have that cart at 
 the block by time I'm down stairs or you'll be hunt- 
 ing a job. See? " 
 
 The boy paled to a dirty yellow and gulped twice, 
 but he shook his head. 
 
 " I jus' wouldn't dare to. Hector an' Hebe's 
 ready to hook to the hayrack. An' besides, I had 
 the strictest kind of orders not to let no horses out of 
 the stables this mornin' 'cept them as took Mr. 
 Eldreth to the train, an' I don't know how long the 
 order is f'r, not till Menendez says, you know." 
 
 " Men-en-dez seems to be much in evidence at 
 Eldhurst," sneered DeLacy. 
 
 Richard came to his feet with an ugly oath. 
 
 " I'll see about this," he glowered. 
 
 And he too entered the office.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 123 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 MASTER. 
 
 WHEN the master of Eldhurst was absent, it was 
 Paul's custom to spend part of each Monday fore- 
 noon in the office attending to the accumulated cor- 
 respondence, answering questions and giving direc- 
 tions. 
 
 The office of Eldhurst, as has been said, was a 
 large northwest room on the ground floor, forming 
 the L of the long west veranda, with both an outer 
 and an inner entrance. It had a large bookcase, two 
 roll-top desks, a safe, a typewriter, a letter-press 
 and other office fittings; and a low railing divided 
 the room, giving the back part semi-privacy. 
 
 On the walls, besides maps of state and county 
 and pictures of fast horses and pedigreed dogs, hung 
 a large map of Eldhurst itself, showing the Upper 
 and the Lower Ranch, portions under cultivation, 
 every ditch and sub- waterway, the roads, the quar- 
 ries, old and new, the Swedish village, the House, 
 the rectory, the Howard mansion, the church, and 
 even the scattered tenant houses. 
 
 Paul sat at the largest of the desks, which was
 
 124 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 covered with an orderly array of papers. He was 
 writing, his hat pulled low over his eyes. A boy 
 from the lumber camp was outside the railing, wait- 
 ing to take a letter to Webb, the mill superintendent. 
 In front of the house William stood at the heads 
 of the restless sorrels, and Sam was tying Bayonne, 
 Paul's saddle horse. 
 
 Lilys entered and came through the railing-gate. 
 She carried her riding habit and was still walking 
 emphatically. 
 
 Paul arose as she entered, removing his hat, and 
 without looking directly at her, asked how he might 
 serve her. 
 
 She would want Bonita by and by, she said; no 
 hurry. 
 
 At the moment Pepito came in. Would he bring 
 Miss Eldreth's pony, his foreman asked, saddle the 
 roan three-year-old for the new ditch-rider and then 
 prepare to accompany Ben to Idaho? 
 
 Paul sat down and continued writing. Lilys also 
 seated herself near the railing, picking up a Denver 
 paper and holding a long-stemmed " Hermosa " rose 
 against her lips. 
 
 The inner door opened and Lena, the maid's head 
 appeared. The dressmaker was ready to fit those 
 linings. Lilys looked up impatiently. Wasn't she 
 to have a moment free from that woman ? " But, 
 please," began Lena, whereupon the mistress
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 125 
 
 stamped her foot petulantly and the maid vanished. 
 
 Outside the railing half score of men had by this 
 time assembled. Paul wrote steadily, sealed half a 
 dozen letters, and then passed through the railing- 
 gate. Lilys idly listened while he rapidly disposed 
 of the men. 
 
 Here was the letter for Webb. Paul would be 
 up to the mill later in the week. 
 
 This was the new ditch-rider? And the young 
 foreman extended his hand with a winning cordi- 
 ality. All right about the recommendations. Wag- 
 ner, under whom he would work more directly, 
 knew of his experience, and that was sufficient. His 
 horse was ready; the stable boy would accompany 
 him and he, Paul, would overtake him at some point 
 during the forenoon. 
 
 Here was a note for Luis. Sheep-dipping would 
 begin at once. He would be at the lower Ranch 
 Saturday night. 
 
 Here was the mail for Boulder, part of it. Wil- 
 liam would return at once, as Mr. DeLacy and Mr. 
 Eldreth wished to catch the noon train for Denver. 
 
 Next the horse-trainer. How was the black 
 mare's shoulder? And there would of course be 
 Mr. Eldreth's Brownie to exercise. 
 
 Sam would take Ben and Pepito to town, but not 
 until more mail was ready. 
 
 And now, Wagner, that alfalfa. Yes, in the
 
 126 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 sheds, and all the extra men and horses must be 
 used, as the clouds threatened. In doubling for 
 the haul to the baler, he would of course put Hector 
 and Hebe in the lead, since they were too light for 
 wheelers. Three hours' earnest work should clean 
 up the east field. 
 
 One after another the men departed, and the fore- 
 man turned back to his desk. As Wagner reached 
 the door, Richard was entering and detained him 
 in a whispered conference. The sub-foreman hesi- 
 tated, then shook his head. 
 
 " Can't do it, Mr. Richard. Orders is orders. 
 Besides, Hebe won't work on the off side, and even 
 if she would, the black mare's shoulder's too bum to 
 put in." 
 
 " But I want Hector, I tell you. He's the only 
 decent one for the cart. Where are all the horses, 
 anyway? " 
 
 " Nothin' in from the range fit f 'r doublin'," 
 hesitated Wagner. 
 
 ;< You'll have to use the sorrels, then." 
 
 " O Lord ! they'd kill their fool selves. No, sir, 
 I'm here to do 's I'm told. If Paul says the sorrels, 
 why the sorrels goes; but it '11 mean slower work, 
 an' it's a run agin the rain now, with all that hay 
 down," edging toward the door. 
 
 " Well, I'm going to have Hector for an hour," 
 determinedly.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 127 
 
 Wagner raised his voice. " Paul." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Excuse me, but Mr. Richard wants Hector right 
 away an hour. How about it ? " 
 
 Paul considered, a shadow of annoyance touching 
 his brow. Richard's face reddened angrily; and 
 Wagner took advantage of the pause to repeat that 
 the mare's shoulder was pretty sore yet; that the 
 sorrels were only carriage-horses and mighty dog- 
 gone flighty, and that the new hay-racks were too 
 much for one team on the up-hill haul. 
 
 Paul silenced him mid-way to say decisively : 
 
 " I'm sorry, Richard, but you'll have to use 
 Brownie. Tell the trainer to bring her up, Sam, to 
 the cart." 
 
 Eldreth ground an oath of protest between his 
 teeth. " She won't stand without a groom " he 
 began. 
 
 " You've not a moment to waste, Wagner," ob- 
 served Paul, " I'll be with you in less than an hour." 
 
 " Hector and Hebe in the lead, sir ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " You try it, Jim Wagner," blustered the master's 
 son, "and we'll see how long you " 
 
 The sub-foreman nodded to Paul and disappeared. 
 Paul picked up his pen. 
 
 "Damn it all! What do you mean?" threat- 
 ened Richard, striding- through the gate and up to 
 the foreman's desk,
 
 128 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 The other lifted his strong, unwavering gaze to 
 the flashing eyes above him. " That the most ur- 
 gent business of Eldhurst must not be delayed for a 
 mere whim, and that my orders are not to be ques- 
 tioned," he returned quietly.. 
 
 Before the reply came, the door swung and Nina 
 Howard appeared. Richard whirled upon her 
 fiercely. 
 
 " What are you doing here? " 
 
 She colored at the tone and the emphasis, and 
 replied with a touch of haughtiness": " I came to see 
 Paul." 
 
 " Well, you can't see him. This is the hired 
 man's busy day." 
 
 " Was there something special, Miss Howard ? " 
 asked Paul rising. 
 
 " N . . o, only about the problem young Hansen 
 couldn't solve, and," laughing embarrassedly, " I 
 couldn't solve it either, that is, not by substitution." 
 
 " You come with me," commanded her betrothed, 
 turning toward the door, as he took the book from 
 her hand, " I've worked through equations, myself." 
 
 " I will come to the school-room half an hour 
 early this evening," Paul assured her, bending, pre- 
 sumably to conceal a smile; but the smile faded, as 
 Richard's parting remark came back through the 
 door, something about giving a low dirty Greaser 
 so much authority to abuse.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 129 
 
 With Richards' and Nina's departure, the room 
 was cleared. For some time the strokes of Paul's 
 pen were the only sounds ; then he sealed and tossed 
 aside his letters, leaned back and pushed up his 
 heavy hair with a sigh of relief. 
 
 Lilys laid aside her paper and stood up. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Busy Foreman," she laughed, " are 
 we ready at last for the mallows and the sedges and 
 the ferns?" 
 
 The young man half turned in his chair. 
 
 " I do hope you have not been waiting for me," 
 he murmured, " You have seen how my time must 
 be spent to-day with your father away/' 
 
 The girl's cheeks flamed. 
 
 " And you have dared to keep me waiting all this 
 time, along with the hirelings, ME! You knew 
 very well that I expected you to go up the Canon 
 to get my specimens." 
 
 " You said nothing about my going anywhere, be- 
 lieve me," he expostulated gently. " Sam can ac- 
 company you, or " 
 
 " Sam, indeed ! I'll not go a step." 
 
 Pepito thrust his face in at the door. " O. K., ac- 
 cording to orders," he announced. 
 
 Paul arose. " Put Bonita back in her stall, then 
 go help Ben get ready." 
 
 The door closed promptly. 
 
 Paul rolled down the top of his desk, tested the
 
 130 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 fastening, then turned toward the door. Lilys 
 sprang to confront him, her eyes glittering, the butt 
 of her riding-whip upraised. 
 
 " Who told you to order my horse put away? " 
 she choked. " Who is master of Eldhurst, any- 
 way?" 
 
 " I am just now." The tone was low and even, 
 but the master spoke in attitude, tone, eyes. He 
 had caught her uplifted arm and was holding her 
 gaze no less firmly. Often in their early childhood 
 she had struck him in her blind anger, but now he 
 was pale, and there was a look in his eyes she had 
 never seen there, a look that made her own waver 
 and drop, just as her brother's had wavered and 
 dropped. 
 
 Silence then. He had not relinquished his libld 
 upon her arm, but as her hand sank nerveless, his 
 grasp relaxed and his fingers clung in almost a 
 caress. His gaze lingered sadly over the features 
 he knew so well : the full curve of throat and cheek, 
 the creamy ivory of the skin, the black fringe of 
 lashes, the vivid lips, passionately proud. 
 
 They were his only farewell, that lingering clasp 
 of her arm, that slow scanning of the loved face. 
 His breath came with difficulty; he was striving 
 hard for self-mastery. 
 
 Pulling away, the girl measured him disdainfully
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 131 
 
 for one stinging instant, then left the room, her 
 haughty head high. 
 
 And the busy young foreman took a precious mo- 
 ment to stoop for a long-stemmed rose that lay 
 crushed and dusty at his feet.
 
 i 3 2 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE." 
 
 LILYS locked herself in her own room, went down 
 at the window and, cheeks in palms, stared straight 
 before her. She saw Paul come out, mount Bay- 
 onne and ride away toward the haytields. She 
 wondered in a dazed way why she was not with him, 
 as she had intended being; wondered why she had 
 been turned from her purpose. 
 
 She saw the carriage return from town and re- 
 main at the hitching block for its second trip. She 
 had not changed her position when the cart came 
 plunging up the hill from the old quarries road, 
 Brownie's harness, every strap and string of it, 
 lather-lined, and Richard half standing in the cart, 
 sawing on her wide-open mouth. They brought up 
 at the block, the mare on her haunches in a tangle 
 of trappings and fly-net, so that William had to go 
 to the rescue, getting a sound cursing for his slow- 
 ness. Then there were more oaths and shoutings 
 for Sam to come get the blanked fool of a horse. 
 
 The girl at the window was still staring into 
 space when the rat-tat-tat sounded on her door and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 133 
 
 her brother's voice announced that he and Bertie 
 were off. She did not answer nor turn. She saw 
 them go down to the carriage, suit-cases in hand. 
 Both smiled up with lifted hats, and her brother 
 kissed his fingers; but she drew sulkily behind the 
 curtain and resumed her position only after the 
 carriage was well past the Rectory. 
 
 The shower came and sighed and whispered cease- 
 lessly amid the great trees about the House. Her 
 window grayed and ran with rain-pearls, cleared and 
 grew bright again. The clouds and the morning 
 passed, and still she sat with tumultuous breast and 
 clenched hands and anger-blind eyes, impervious to 
 the inviting smile of the now sunny sky. A red 
 bird tilted upon the vine outside her window, his 
 little throat swelling as he spent his ecstacy; but she 
 did not hear him. The rain-freshened breeze 
 touched her hot cheeks suggestingly, but she did 
 not feel it. 
 
 Paul rode in from his work. He looked warm 
 and tired as he swung down, but he drew his horse 
 into the shade of the big locust tree, loosened the 
 broad double cinches and eased the heavy Mexican 
 saddle before he tossed his hat to the ground and, 
 facing the slight wind, wiped his forehead. 
 
 Sam came running from the stables, touching his 
 cap, and led away the reluctant horse, Bayonne look- 
 ing back and " talking " to his master all the way to 
 the barn.
 
 i 3 4 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Sam had not touched his cap to Dixie, nor had he 
 come for Brownie without much profane shouting. 
 One would think that Uncle Edwin was right, that 
 the son of Manuel Menendez was a born gentleman, 
 judging from the way heads were bared and feet 
 came at his beck and call; when in reality he was 
 but a hireling, one of her father's servants, like 
 Wagner and Webb and Max. 
 
 Of course the men obeyed him, younger though 
 he was than most of them ; and it was small wonder 
 that look on his face as he had that morning de- 
 clared himself master of Eldhurst ! She was trem- 
 bling still from anger over it. Yet with her wrath 
 there mingled something of her father's satisfac- 
 tion of striking against true metal, and that keener, 
 subtler satisfaction of the strongly sexed woman 
 dominated by a masterful man. Not that she recog- 
 nized either source of her pleasurable sensations. 
 She was anything but self-analytic. She recognized 
 her anger that was all ; that was enough. 
 
 And in that anger, she delighted to style him a 
 sort of upper servant, because to her creed, fostered 
 by pride, prejudice and education, there was no 
 middle ground between the high and low. There 
 were only the two classes the elect and the socially 
 damned. Were you of the elect? That depended 
 upon how many generations you had known your 
 forefathers and how many figures it required to foot
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 135 
 
 your bank balance. Were you a social outcast? 
 Yes, if you worked and were grimy and sweaty and 
 hideous, and knew not your fathers, and had to be 
 identified at the bank. 
 
 Thus, her classifications were simple, all-inclusive 
 and time-saving. Just as Wagner was the best 
 irrigationist, Swenssen the prize drill-hand, and Sam 
 the finest horseman on the place; so Paul, being 
 somewhat educated, was the most capable of man- 
 aging during the master's absence, and in addition 
 he was perhaps the most entertaining when she, the 
 master's daughter, was bored. 
 
 So, to the left with them, all of them, to the shady 
 left, where she parted the luckless goats from the 
 heaven-favored sheep upon the right hand. And 
 between the two groups were social barriers as in- 
 exorable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians, 
 a great gulf which none of the luckless dared cross 
 not one. Thus had her father taught her by 
 precept and example; thus had it been; thus should 
 it ever be. And nothing, no one, had ever made 
 her, Lilys Eldreth, born to the purple, forget who 
 she was and to what station in life it had pleased 
 God to call her. 
 
 And yet 
 
 Paul was seated on a step of the horse-block now. 
 Against the massed background of locust leaves, his 
 profile showed clear-cut and fine He had
 
 136 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 not so much as once looked up at what he knew was 
 her window, but sat, pushing up his heavy hair to 
 the cooling breeze and looking off toward the gar- 
 dens to the south. 
 
 Ah, she could see now. Ruth Bradley was com- 
 ing from the gardens, basket in hand. She was 
 far off as yet, but running ahead of her and quite 
 near, came a mite of a girl, one of the children of the 
 Swedish village, with yellow curls flying and small 
 round face all aglow with anticipation. 
 
 Straight it ran into Paul's down-reached arms, 
 lifting a berry-stained mouth for his kiss. But the 
 young man was holding her laughingly at arm's 
 length, was protesting against the berry-stains, evi- 
 dently, for rising, he swung her to the top of the 
 horse block and taking his own pocket-handker- 
 chief, he scrubbed the tiny face till the child winced 
 and squirmed ; then he caught her to his breast and 
 kissed her heartily, lifting his head to look down 
 and talk to her, then bending again to kiss the beam- 
 ing face. 
 
 The girl at the window had slipped to her knees 
 and grasping the sill with both hands, was watching 
 the scene spellbound. Only the wordless murmur 
 of his voice came up to her, but she strained forward 
 and abated her breath to catch that murmur apart 
 from the prattle of the child. She followed his 
 movements much as you have seen one, wholly ab-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 137 
 
 sorbed, unknowingly imitate the motions of another 
 who is eating some coveted delicacy. When he 
 stooped and playfully burrowed with his lips into the 
 baby's plump neck, the girl's hand, all unconsciously, 
 moved to press her own bare throat, and with the 
 act, the blood crept up from her heart, a warm un- 
 bidden tide overspreading face and neck and throb- 
 bing under her palm. When he smoothed back the 
 child's hair and kissed its proffered lips, the watcher 
 gave a quick half-grasp and leaning with closed eyes 
 against the window-frame, moistened her own lips 
 and yielded to the strange, swooning sensation that 
 possessed her. And she kept her eyes closed, her 
 indrawn breath half suspended as though, having 
 inhaled some delicious but fleeting fragrance, she 
 strove to retain it, and the memory of it. 
 
 A giggling laugh jarred her back to the conscious 
 present. Ruth had arrived at the locust tree, had 
 set her basket of garden-stuff in the shade and was 
 holding one of her largest strawberries up to Paul's 
 lips, but just beyond reach. As she tip-toed before 
 him, Ruth looked more than pretty in her work- 
 dress of brown gingham, her pink sunbonnet down 
 her back, her blooming Irish face lifted. With one 
 hand she essayed to feed her companion ; the cup of 
 the other hand was heaped with choice berries. He 
 put the child down with some plaything from his 
 pocket, captured the berry-filled hand, transferred
 
 138 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the fruit to his own and began deliberately to eat, 
 tossing the stems at the girl's pouting, happy face. 
 
 Next Ruth brought a book from her basket and, 
 coming close to his side, indicated a certain place on 
 a certain page; whereupon he took a pencil and an 
 envelope from his pocket and with the block for a 
 desk, began figuring, with explanatory pauses, while 
 his companion leaned near, following attentively. 
 
 Leaned near? Indeed. More against him than 
 upon the block ; and the two bared heads were very 
 close together, at least so they appeared, viewed 
 from a front, second-story window. School work ? 
 A fine pretext. And why couldn't she take her 
 problems to the Rectory? And that book along 
 with her in the basket. Evidently, they had an 
 understanding as to meeting-places and times. 
 Three times in the last twenty-four hours, Dix's 
 word for it, and now again ! Pity they couldn't do 
 their courting somewhere other than at the front 
 hitching-block in plain view of the horse-trainer and 
 the half-dozen stable boys coming and going. Bah ! 
 they were common, low, both of them; a good 
 match. 
 
 The master's daughter turned from the window. 
 The room seemed stifling. She flung off her rid- 
 ing stock and wrenched at her dress-neck, panting 
 
 for breath That Bradley girl ought to be 
 
 ashamed to loll against a man that way. Uncle
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 139 
 
 said no girl who thought anything of herself would 
 do such things. Nina didn't with Dix, and they 
 were betrothed. So much for Ruth, Antonio's 
 fiancee. 
 
 As for Paul Menendez a fine foreman he, idling 
 all this time with a Quarry Town girl when he 
 should be attending to his master's affairs. Very 
 busy he had been when she, his mistress, had wished 
 a few hours of his time for her botany; his hours 
 were all filled with alfalfa and the ditches. But 
 Ruth Bradley that was a different story. O. . . h ! 
 and another button of the dress-neck gave way, as, 
 clutching at her throbbing throat, the girl walked 
 the room with hurried, but aimless feet. 
 
 She brought up before a French mirror and 
 stared hard at the flushed reflection. Well, what 
 difference did it make, she asked the dark flashing 
 eyes in the glass, the servants' doings and thinkings ? 
 What was it to her, Lilys Allan-Eldreth, the highest- 
 born, the most beautiful, the richest girl in Colorado, 
 if not in the 
 
 There, they were going now. Paul was carrying 
 the basket and they had the child between them, 
 each holding a hand, and they were turning toward 
 each other, laughing and chatting familiarly. 
 
 With the curtain-folds gathered in her working 
 fingers, alternately crushing and loosing them, she 
 gazed with burning eyes after the retreating figures
 
 i 4 o THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 till they passed from view under the hill. Then 
 suddenly, from no assignable cause, Lilys Eldreth 
 bowed her head to the window-ledge and broke into 
 a passion of weeping.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " A SNAPPFR-UP OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES." 
 
 WEDNESDAY evening of the same week, as Marah 
 cleared away the supper dishes, she watched her son 
 with musing attention. Since Sunday he had been 
 more silent even than usual; since Sunday he had 
 eaten scarcely enough to keep a child alive; since 
 Sunday he had almost lived in the hayfields, and 
 since Monday morning he had not been nearer the 
 House than the stables to get his horse. 
 
 Something was amiss. What? She did not en- 
 joy Paul's confidence. She had always to " go from 
 home to hear news " of his doings, of his rarely-ex- 
 pressed opinions. She never went to church, nor 
 to the Rectory. She had not been to the House 
 for more than ten years. She was intimate with 
 but few of the Swedes and Irish of Quarry Town. 
 Her cottage sat on a hillslope to itself, and she 
 would have been quite as isolated, quite as solitary, 
 but for her occupation of trained nurse. 
 
 This, Wednesday, afternoon, she had been called 
 professionally to see a child of the Howards' house- 
 keeper, and at the Howards' she had learned of the
 
 I 4 2 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 prospective conservatory year east for the daughter 
 of the House, learned that it had been decided upon 
 only since Sunday. 
 
 Marah regarded her son speculatively, a slight 
 smile twitching her thin lips. He had eaten less 
 than ever at supper and now sat, neglectful of his 
 customary after-supper smoke, his elbow on the 
 half-cleared table, cheek in palm, looking at nothing. 
 She had to ask him twice if he was through with 
 his coffee-cup. 
 
 At that he bestirred himself, brought from his 
 own room what looked like a large scrap-book, to- 
 gether with a pot of paste and some herbs rolled in 
 a paper. He turned back a corner of the table- 
 cloth, slipped off his coat with an apology to his 
 mother, sat down before the opened book and began 
 spreading on its page a native sedge, separating the 
 delicate spikes and rootlets with patient care. 
 
 Marah passed behind his chair on a roundabout 
 trip to the china-cupboard. Yes, the flower names 
 already inscribed on the page were in the loose, an- 
 gular hand affected by the up-to-date girl of the 
 period. 
 
 So far, so good. 
 
 "And she is to be gone a year?" was her next 
 step, covertly watching his expression. 
 
 " I believe so," he acquiesced, his expression be- 
 traying nothing but a deep absorption in a thin
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 143 
 
 blade of the whip-grass that insisted upon curling. 
 
 Ah, but you do not ask " Who? " my son. She! 
 The mother smiled sagely. 
 
 " The year will lengthen indefinitely, I imagine." 
 
 The whip-grass had consented to straighten and 
 was now being coaxed into succumbing to the wiles 
 of Sanford's best. 
 
 " He lives in Boston, I believe," was her next at- 
 tempt. 
 
 At last the tenacious Sanford had conquered. 
 He turned the page carefully and placed a heavy 
 book upon it. She made a final effort : 
 
 " Hilma told me you couldn't guess what ! " 
 
 He was deftly extricating a bushy little mallow 
 from a tangle of maiden-hair, but he said, indiffer- 
 ently and with a downward inflection : 
 
 " I'll answer for it that it isn't worth repeating." 
 
 " Then truth isn't worth repeating." 
 
 " Hilma said that Ruth believed that Lena 
 thought," smiled the young man, " Mother, mother! 
 I did not think it of you. You'll be founding a 
 Society for the Promulgation of Neighborhood 
 News, next, and inesting in a tea-caddy ! " 
 
 Marah shrugged her shoulders, but a determined 
 light glinted in her eyes. 
 
 " Does she love this man? " 
 
 His eyes were not lifted, but the voice was a 
 controlled as the hands ; " I do not know,"
 
 144 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " You have seen them together ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " Then what do you think ? " 
 
 " That she cares for no man." 
 
 She passed on into the kitchen to complete her 
 work. She was penetrating enough to know that 
 his answers had been honest; and besides, he rarely 
 deviated from the truth. He might decline to an- 
 swer, but if he spoke, you might depend it would 
 be truth. So he believed the girl did not care for 
 him, and perhaps she did not. But did he care for 
 her? 
 
 She called to him from the kitchen to know his 
 plans for the remainder of the week. 
 
 He detailed them briefly. 
 
 So? The farthest hayfields, the distant lumber- 
 camp, the upper game-preserve and the Lower 
 Ranch until Monday afternoon! And again the 
 woman smiled meditatively. 
 
 She returned to the sitting-room, rolled down her 
 sleeves, brought her sewing basket to the lamp, and 
 the coat he had taken off. 
 
 As she lifted the garment, wrong end up, several 
 articles fell from its several pockets : a small, worn 
 Testament, a pipe and what? a long-stemmed, 
 withered rose. 
 
 His glance lifted from the tangled maiden-hair. 
 She held up the pipe, and he reached his hand for it
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 145 
 
 with a " Thank you." She held up the little book 
 and he indicated the table-edge next her. Then she 
 stooped the third time and held up the rose by the 
 end of its stem. 
 
 Well done, boy! Not the slightest change in 
 your fair, fine face. You deserve exemption, but 
 
 " ' Only a withered rose-bud, 
 She wore it in her hair.' " 
 
 hummed the rich voice insinuatingly, " Son, son ! I 
 did not dream it of you. You'll be founding a 
 Society for the Prevention of Race Suicide, next, 
 and investing in a go-cart! " 
 
 The young man laughed appreciatively, though he 
 blushed like a school-girl. 
 
 "Oh no, mothei, when I haven't even a sweet- 
 heart." 
 
 " I know a certain pretty little girl who might 
 contradict that." 
 
 This time he asked "Who?" in an honest, 
 puzzled voice. 
 
 Marah enlightened him. 
 
 " Why, she is engaged to Antonio." 
 
 " And infatuated with Paul." 
 
 He turned his eyes upon her through a surprised 
 silence. " I think you are mistaken," he said pre- 
 sently, ever so slight an annoyance in his tone.
 
 146 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " You mean to marry some day ? Or will you 
 follow the chaste example of the celibate-parson ? " 
 
 " I mean first of all to get out of debt, else the 
 afore-mentioned cart will be no go," he jested, ris- 
 ing. " And out of bondage," he might have added, 
 but he never intentionally hurt even her who had 
 placed him in bondage. His next words came from 
 the depths of the pantry : " Where in Eldhurst 
 do you keep your irons ?. " 
 
 His mother waited till he came back, an iron in 
 either hand, then she carelessly flung the rose toward 
 the wood-box. It fell short and dropped upon the 
 home-made rug before the hearth ; and she missed 
 the shudder her sacrilege cost him, for he was pass- 
 ing behind her chair as it fell. 
 
 She went about mending the coat, he to finishing 
 his task to his own satisfaction. Silence lay be- 
 tween them. The woman reflected : " Hermosa," 
 a house-rose, conservatory-grown; certainly not 
 from any of the tenantry cottages, nor from the 
 Rectory, nor from Howard's, neither of which had 
 conservatories. She had seen such roses in Rich- 
 ard's buttonhole; and Monday when she was at 
 Andersen's, Hilma had boastingly flaunted a bunch 
 of the same sort. 
 
 " Have you been to Andersen's lately ? " she 
 asked, with sudden seeming irrelevance. 
 
 " Not since Shorty was hurt."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 147 
 
 Two months ago ; and this rose was comparatively 
 fresh-cut. Still, he had betrayed no emotion. She 
 glanced up at him as he bent over his work, and 
 watched the movements of his finely-trained muscles. 
 He did not break a rootlet nor a tendril of the 
 refractory ferns with which he was laboring, yet 
 when he finished, each feathery frond lay to the 
 hair's breadth in the place designed for it, and there 
 hadn't been a lost motion in so placing it. She 
 studied his earnest, absorbed face, dwelling upon the 
 firm lines of mouth and chin, delicate but strong. 
 Strength with repression. Power with control. 
 Virility with restraint. 
 
 She fell into a revery. She scarcely heard him 
 when he told her good-night, admonishing her not 
 to rise as early as he did, that he would see to his 
 own breakfast before he went to the hayfield. She 
 scarcely heard or saw. The mended coat lay under 
 her idle hands ; her eyes were on the drooping " Her- 
 mosa " on the home-made rug. 
 
 Repression, control, restraint all were graven 
 upon him. He managed the minutiae of daily af- 
 fairs as he placed the fern-fronds precisely and 
 with no lost motion. He was self-master under 
 whatsoever provocations of excitement or anger. 
 But wait. He had not yet loved. She knew his 
 heritage none knew it better. He had by nature 
 and by inheritance a marvelous capacity for loving,
 
 148 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 as marvelous almost as the power " She " possessed 
 of provoking love. So, when once the fire should 
 meet the touchwood, what then of curbs and checks ? 
 Woman is the supreme test of man. Would it then 
 be power with control? Passion with mastery? 
 Was there, among- the earth-born sons of men, so 
 rare a combination ? 
 
 She sprang up impatiently. " We'll see," she 
 muttered, " we'll see. Blood tells." 
 
 Some time after she had retired, had quit cough- 
 ing and lay quiet, she heard his door open softly, 
 heard him moving carefully with unshod feet. 
 His forgotten smoke, she thought sleepily. 
 
 But when she rose in the morning, his pipe lay 
 just where he had placed it, the evening before, on 
 the window-ledge. His pocket testament, even was 
 there where she had placed it, on the table-edge. 
 
 But there was nothing on the home-made rug be- 
 fore the hearth.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 149 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN LEAGUE. 
 
 THE week was passing. Lilys was viewing her 
 world through very smoky glasses. Every one 
 seemed in conspiracy to drive her from home; no- 
 body cared; Eldhurst was deserted, except the Rec- 
 tory. Silently and listlessly she went through the 
 fittings of her traveling-dress and the others. For 
 days her joyous laugh was unheard. Her piano re- 
 mained closed. She did not leave the House, nor 
 her room when she could avoid it. 
 
 For hours she would sit, gazing unseeingly from 
 her window. Again and again in the midst of her 
 reading or meditation would come without warning, 
 the realization that she was going away; and it al- 
 ways came overwhelmingly, as a new sorrow to her 
 hitherto untouched heart. Pride, rebellion, anger, 
 rankled in her breast. The most divergent schemes 
 suggested themselves of going to the Chautauqua 
 near Boulder, where Mr. Howard and Nina were 
 taking part in the music; of joining Dix and DeLacy 
 in Denver ; of appeal to her uncle, of open rebellion, 
 even of flight where she did not know. She did
 
 i5o THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 not ask herself why she did not want to go away, 
 whom it was she did not want to leave. She only 
 realized that in going she was leaving her girlhood 
 behind her forever, that after she returned it would 
 never be quite the same. How blessings brighten as 
 they take their flight! That girlhood had never 
 seemed so happy, so precious, as now when it was 
 vanishing. 
 
 Tuesday, Wednesday, and until Thursday even- 
 ing, she had not left the house. That evening she 
 noticed William, on his way from town, stop the 
 carriage at the foot of the hill and wave up toward 
 the lone cottage of the Menendez'. That meant 
 that he had mail for them. 
 
 When she saw Marah descending to him, the 
 resolve she had formed and rejected a score of times 
 in the past three days linked itself with an irresist- 
 ible impulse. It was one of those curious decisions, 
 distinctively feminine, which are born of protracted 
 vacillation. 
 
 Obedient to this decision, she found herself walk- 
 ing down the hill to where William had left Marah 
 standing. She took the Eldhurst mail from the 
 woman and still lingered, though the other, after 
 one searching look into the girl's tear-traced face, 
 turned silently away. 
 
 " Marah ! " cried Lilys with sudden passion, " you 
 do not care either. Nobody cares. Papa and Dix
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 151 
 
 and Herbert and Nina are all away. There isn't 
 a soul on this place sorry I am going away." 
 
 The woman studied the foreign inscription of a 
 ring she wore, a man's ring with a curious shield 
 design, and the unreadable expression did not leave 
 her dark, emotionless face. 
 
 " Why should I care? " she asked harshly, with- 
 out lifting her eyes from the ring, " What are 
 you, what is any one or anything to me? " 
 
 " But you won't let any one love you " 
 
 " Love ! " muttered her companion scornfully, 
 " There is no such thing under heaven ; it is a 
 myth, a name. Revenge that is the sweet reality. 
 If any man tells you he loves you, don't believe him, 
 for he will have only his own ends in view. Laugh 
 at him, girl; scoff at him. Tell him Marah says 
 he lies, and that she ought to know, whose very 
 name means bitterness. Has any man ever told 
 you he loved you? " 
 
 Lilys hung her head. 
 
 " Harry did once, on our tally-ho ride to Estes." 
 
 " Harry Wentworth," sneered Marah, " a news- 
 paper man, a poor society reporter. He has his eye 
 on Eldhurst and the income and the family jewels. 
 And you what did you answer him? 
 
 " Nothing. I made Nina ride with him coming 
 back, and I sat forward with Fred." 
 
 " And is he in love with you? "
 
 152 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Fred Nolan ? No indeed. When I am down in 
 Denver, if I don't go with Dix, I go with Fred, but 
 always in a party. Papa does not allow me to be 
 alone with any of them without a chaperone; and 
 Uncle says it isn't at all proper for young people 
 to couple off." 
 
 Marah smiled. " Not proper in Denver." 
 
 " Nor anywhere else, Manitou nor Estes, nor 
 even here at home. I am never alone with any 
 young man half an hour, even here. Helene will 
 tell you. 
 
 Marah smiled again, a gradual, peculiar smile, but 
 refrained from contradiction. 
 
 " And this Herbert DeLacy? He has asked your 
 father's consent to marry you. Did you know 
 that?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Do you love him ? " 
 
 "I ... don't know." 
 
 Her companion laughed a jarring, mirthless laugh. 
 " If you did you would not answer so. When 
 you fall in love, you'll know it; it's in the blood. 
 Do you know why this man can not, dares not, 
 urge an early marriage? " 
 
 " I never thought." 
 
 "Well, I'll tell you. He is not yet legally free 
 from Mrs. DeLacy Number Three; the matter is 
 now in court. To Mrs. DeLacy Number Two and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 153 
 
 her child he is paying a stiff alimony. Mrs. De- 
 Lacy Number One died of a broken heart, neglect, 
 cruelty and abandonment." 
 
 During this arraignment of the suitor, Marah 
 had watched her companion's face for some change. 
 But Lilys only shrugged her shoulders indifferently, 
 though it was all news to her. She knew the man 
 was a widower; that was all she had been told by 
 discreet brother and anxious father. 
 
 " So you would not care to be Number Four? 
 And anyway, who are all these, the Wentworths, 
 the Nolans, the DeLacys? The Honorable Pierce 
 Eldreth's daughter must not stoop; she must look 
 high, so high, when she marries." 
 
 "Don't, please don't talk of men and marrying; 
 it is positively sickening. I shall never marry 
 never ! " 
 
 Marah mentally itemized the points of the girl's 
 voluptuous beauty and smiled bitterly. " Non- 
 sense! Men are men; therefore you'll marry 
 marry and have half a dozen children in as many 
 years." 
 
 Lilys shuddered. " Never! Why, I'm not even 
 in love and don't want to be. I want to stay a girl 
 and ride and sing and just have fun ; and Uncle 
 says that's what I'm to do. But oh," and tears 
 welled up into the eyes, " I don't want to go away." 
 
 "Why not?" sharply, her piercing gaze on the 
 down-drooped face.
 
 154 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 "I ... don't know." 
 
 Her companion turned impatiently away and 
 started up the hill. Lilys followed. 
 
 " Don't go ... yet," she faltered. " I wanted 
 . . I came to .. I ... Where is ... Paul, 
 Marah?" 
 
 The light of 'an evil joy flashed in the woman's 
 eyes, but she turned aside, saying with well-feigned 
 carelessness : 
 
 " Over at Bradley's, likely. Shall I stop there 
 and tell him you want him ? " 
 
 The girl's cheeks flamed. " Certainly not." 
 
 " It's just as well. He doesn't get much time 
 with her, and he wouldn't like to leave." 
 
 The cheeks deepened to an angry red, and the 
 little foot stamped. " I think he would come if he 
 were ordered to come." 
 
 Marah smiled broadly, her face turned safely 
 away. " Oh, of course. He is here to obey orders. 
 He has fixed your herbarium, if that's what you 
 want of him; fussed a whole evening over some 
 weeds and things. He told me to give you the book, 
 
 fe 
 
 as he would not see you again." 
 
 All the rich color died out of the girlish face 
 
 and the chin quivered. She twisted the papers she 
 
 held into a tight roll and did not reply. 
 
 Marah came close to her side, saying rapidly : 
 " Tomorrow early, the mill ; the Eldora road till
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 155 
 
 it turns, then the sledge cut-off. Saturday after- 
 noon, the hunting lodge, the canon short-cut; the 
 wagon in the morning." 
 
 The eyes of the two met involuntarily, under- 
 standingly, through the gloom, and all in an in- 
 stant, Lilys's arms went round the woman's neck. 
 But Marah wrenched herself rudely away and al- 
 most ran up the hill. 
 
 Once she paused to watch the girl, lithe and grace- 
 ful as a deer, springing up the opposite hill, to listen 
 to the rippling notes of a mountain song. 
 
 " God ! that boy must be stone blind," she mut- 
 tered, " or else a coward, like his father. .... 
 They can't always keep her a child. She's going 
 to wake up one of these days and then? Oh, 
 we'll see, Pierce Eldreth, we'll see ! " and the chuck- 
 ling laugh merged into a cough as she slowly 
 mounted the steep path.
 
 156 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MISTRESS AND MAN. 
 
 Out from the steel gray scabbards of the east, 
 
 The dawn-swords flashed. 'Mong sheltering woods and hills, 
 
 The hunted shadows wavered, stood at bay 
 
 An instant, then affrighted slunk away. 
 
 The star of morning paled. The breeze awoke 
 
 And claimed the misty mantles of the woods ; 
 
 Then boldly drew their fleece-veils from the peaks 
 
 That blushed to crimson 'neath the sun's bold glance. 
 
 Oh sunrise, " daily miracle of God ! " 
 
 Thy lavishments of gold and rubies fall 
 
 And spend themselves upon a drowsing world, 
 
 And man the loser. 'Twixt the dusk and dawn, 
 
 The waking birds tell secrets ; wayside flowers 
 
 Uplift their lips, sweets-laden, for the bees ; 
 
 And Night, his woodland tryst but half complete. 
 
 Reluctant tarries for one last embrace. 
 
 Earth's breast is bared, her inmost heart revealed, 
 
 Her nfij^d most tender and her charms most strong, 
 
 For him who knows that hour 'twixt dark and dawn. 
 
 PAUL arose from his sleepless couch before the 
 stars had yet faded and, turning 1 his horse's head 
 toward the dark mountains, rode out into the dusk. 
 
 Always the mountains rested him. Wearied or
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 157 
 
 troubled, his spirit found comfort in their reposeful 
 massive strength. His eyes ranged familiarly the 
 length of the serrated purple chain that darkened 
 the west, knew every crag and crevice, every swell 
 and trough of its stiffened billows; its morning 
 lights, its evening shadows ; its smiles, its frowns. 
 
 And more than one characteristic had this Son 
 of the Mountains unknowingly drawn from that 
 noble pile. He had not spent his life in the shadow 
 of the Peak for naught. Unconsciously character 
 and creed had been formed, as was massed its ma- 
 sonry, rock upon unyielding rock. Great Nature 
 grants to him who is mountain-born and mountain- 
 reared not only falcon eye and sinews of steel and 
 heart of flint, but fortitude and spirit-ruggedness 
 and constancy that change leaves all unchanged. 
 
 Paul had these and more. For as his eyes had 
 dwelt upon those mountains, crest on towering 
 crest, huge, limitless, mysterious, sublime, imagina- 
 tion had sprung to rarer, dizzier heights than e'er 
 his swift and daring feet had trod. His soul had 
 grasped the majesty, the calm, the grandeur of the 
 mighty mountain-land, and stood rock-rooted to 
 the larger creed of Nature. All unconsciously 
 that wall of granite ribbed and steeled his spirit 
 round with steadfastness as with a coat of mail. 
 
 Despite a life of toil, his heart was song-filled as 
 the mountain pine that murmurs with the music of
 
 158 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the wind; and up from his deepmost being, his 
 fancy would wheel as the solitary eagle, to breathless 
 heights, even to the utmost peaks of the mountain 
 realm of thought. Dreamer, nature-lover, ever bow- 
 ing to beauty and grandeur, the poet-boy had very 
 early personified, idealized, that majestic Peak which 
 rose, a watchman in his signal turret, above the ir- 
 regular western wall. He would be like that Peak, 
 he had more than once told his boyish heart, as he 
 gazed upon its serene brow that reflected the dawn's 
 first smile, the twilight's last flush, while yet the 
 lower heights were dipped in night. He too would 
 rise above the mists and storm-clouds, though earth- 
 bound, like the Peak. And even his heart of a man 
 had drawn strength and serenity from that lofty 
 pile, so silent, so changeless. 
 
 But this morning, he did not lift his eyes toward 
 his noble friend, barely discernible through the 
 gloom, nor yet to the Maker of the Hills, whence 
 cometh all help. His head was bowed as he rode 
 slowly through the gray dawn, and before him 
 loomed the mountains, huge and dark as his own 
 sorrow. 
 
 Only three more days, three days, three days, kept 
 throbbing through his brain, and his heart sank 
 heavily as he forced it to face the year without her 
 near, and all the years to follow, all the future. 
 
 What a fool he was, what an utter fool ! Allan
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 159 
 
 had said so, and he was always right. As well might 
 an ocean-drop aspire toward the moon; some creep- 
 ing thing be enamoured of a star! It was fitting 
 that he had been halted like a cowardly deserter and 
 faced about to front the fray. The past years had 
 been one long fight against his love. A week, a 
 few days more or less, should make little difference 
 one way or the other. Repression had become 
 second nature to him; Eldhurst was an excellent 
 training-ground for the development of self-control. 
 
 Well, he had given Edwin Allan his hand, 
 which was a tacit " I will try." Resolve with him 
 usually meant accomplishment. And if it did not 
 in this case, and he smiled grimly, he would prob- 
 ably be given considerable aid in finding and keeping 
 his place. 
 
 His place ! The king within him roused at the 
 words, took up his crown and sceptre and cried aloud 
 that merit, ambition, achievement, soul-worth 
 these out-balance mere birth and blood and posi- 
 tion, make up equality among men. What differ- 
 ence was there between an Eldreth and a Menen- 
 dez? Why had he not the right of every free-born 
 man to win the woman he loved? Even Antonio 
 Garia and Gustav Swensen exercised that privi- 
 lege. Ah, but Ruth and Hilma loved their lovers. 
 Lilys had found him convenient, useful, perhaps, 
 in a sense, companionable, that was all. How like
 
 160 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the thrust of a cruel knife had been that last scorn- 
 ful measuring glance of hers ! 
 
 And again, Edwin Allan, you are right. " To 
 him that overcometh." Self-mastery that is the 
 supreme test of manhood. Besides, was she not 
 wholly a child, though her years full-numbered his 
 own? But his had been spun by Toil and reeled by 
 Care and portioned out by Duty. Hers had run 
 from Joy's swift spindle, through the fingers of 
 Mirth, and Love had measured them. He had well 
 epitomized her life when he carved upon her sun- 
 dial near the summer-house: " Non numero horas 
 nisi serenas." His life had known scant boyhood; 
 hers had been one sunny stretch of girlhood, and 
 hers was the slumbering heart of a child, a germ un- 
 quickened, a bud sun-forgotten. To him she had 
 never been less than the one central object of a 
 supreme, if hopeless, passion; to her he had never 
 been more than an underling, a convenience, at most 
 a playmate, and this last only through her own 
 condescension. And so 
 
 But hark! the quick beat of horse's hoofs and 
 a ripple of melody. 
 
 He had reached a point where the roads divided, 
 the one dropping toward the Lower Ranch, the other 
 rising abruptly toward the mountains. She was 
 coming swiftly along the ditch-rider's path across 
 the irrigation canal, which just here his road paral- 
 leled.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 161 
 
 One glimpse he allowed himself of blooming 
 cheeks and blowing hair, as she swung her little hill 
 pony across the ditch ; then he drew his horse to the 
 side of the road, and sat with uncovered head and 
 downcast eyes, waiting for her to pass. 
 
 But she did not pass. With two or three springs, 
 Bonita landed her beside him. 
 
 " Buenos dia-s, Don Senor Menendez," she tanta- 
 lized, well knowing how he disliked his father's 
 language, that he never used a phrase of it except 
 when compelled to interpret, and that he shifted 
 the burden of interpreting as much as possible upon 
 Pepito. " De que lado iremosf " 
 
 " Good morning, Lilys." His sensitive face was 
 flushing and paling by turns as she edged her pony 
 nearer and fastened her laughing eyes upon him. 
 
 " De-que-lado-iremosf " she insisted in her slow 
 wilful way. 
 
 " I am going to the lumber-camp." 
 " Your grammar is faulty. The context calls 
 for the plural pronoun first person, plural num- 
 ber." 
 
 " By the sledge-path, a hard trip " 
 
 " And of course I am just learning to ride ! " 
 
 " No road half the time and no rest " 
 
 " And I am so delicate, an invalid, in fact ! " 
 " And even then can not get back till long after 
 night, with all there is to do up there."
 
 162 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " And I was never out after dark in all my life." 
 
 " But 
 
 The laughter went out of her eyes. " Is it for 
 you to say what I may or may not do?" And 
 she struck his horse sharply and urged her own be- 
 side him, mountainward. 
 
 They rode forward in silence. The knolls leaped 
 wave-like into hills; the hills rolled up into moun- 
 tain-crests. The spurned road rippled behind them 
 like a wind-blown ribbon, its further end lost among 
 the breeze-billowed wheat of the lowlands. The 
 sun, rising to higher vantage, poured his gold upon 
 them, the snow-kissed breeze caught their breath 
 as they sped against it. The road plunged of a sud- 
 den into a canon's cleft, and the horses took a more 
 moderate gait for the long climb before them. 
 
 The heart that on a balmy morning feels the 
 warming sunshine, hears the song of birds, and 
 breathes the wild flowers' fragrance, senses all the 
 charms that woo to openness and joy; the heart 
 that nurses bitterness and gloom under such influ- 
 ences is scarcely a human heart. The sun will find 
 some crevice to steal in; and bird will follow bird 
 through one small loop; then balm of blossoms will 
 permeate the whole, till drop by drop the bitterness 
 is gone. 
 
 Thus Paul, highly sensitive to Nature's influ- 
 ences, yielded his gloom before her tender light,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 163 
 
 lifted his head and smiled. Nor was it all Nature. 
 Was there not yet another day of life for him? 
 And should he not take the gifts the gods gave him? 
 What matter that some whim or mere ennui had 
 driven her to join him? What matter that she con- 
 descended to him, the working man, in his work- 
 man's clothes? What matter if stubborn pride and 
 blinding prejudice hid from her the adoration in 
 his eyes, the involuntary homage in his every act? 
 What mattered all these? Was she not there by 
 his side, under his care and protection, dear, wil- 
 ful, beautiful child! 
 
 He turned and looked down at the trim figure 
 in its close-fitting riding habit, and his eyes grew 
 troubled as they took in the details of her brilliant 
 emotional beauty. How he loved her every curve 
 of the mutinous face, every line of the scornful lips, 
 every strand of the shining hair. How the man's 
 strong heart within him yearned over her girlish- 
 ness, her inconsistencies and the dangers to which 
 her own heedlessness and impulsiveness continually 
 exposed her. 
 
 His first glimpse of her as she overtook him had 
 told him that she was happy, so well had he learned 
 to read her moods. Nor was it any surprise to 
 find her amiable, though his last glimpse of her 
 on Monday morning was recalled with a pang. 
 But he had learned to allow for much, to forgive
 
 164 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 much though she never explained, never apologized. 
 And she was happy this rare June morning. Like 
 the morning, she was all smiles and song-snatches, 
 looking and acting but fifteen of her twenty years. 
 She did not ask herself why she was happy. She 
 was neither introspective nor analytic. It was quite 
 enough to feel that she was happy. Furthermore, 
 she meant to be happy for three more days, and after 
 that the deluge! He might be temporary master 
 of Eldhurst, but she was its permanent mistress, and 
 she'd have his services for the remainder of her 
 stay, or know why. Then when she returned from 
 the East, she would begin just where she had left 
 off with him and have absolutely her own way. She 
 would have an understanding with her father once 
 for all about this matter. Hadn't he said out in 
 the summer-house there in the very beginning that 
 this one was for her exclusively, and did she need 
 him any the less now ? For instance, there was her 
 herbarium ; what a relief it was to have it off her 
 mind. Paul was good to her, busy as he was. She 
 had not thought of it before, so much of service 
 she accepted as her natural right. But this morning 
 being unusually amiable and perhaps a bit repentant 
 over her recent treatment of the faithful fellow, 
 she was more gracious and condescending than he 
 had ever known her to be. Whenever he lifted the 
 sweeping boughs that she might ride under without
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 165 
 
 stooping, she rewarded him with a radiant smile; 
 and she laughed and chatted and chaffed with him 
 almost as though he were an equal. 
 
 She observed him too with closer attention than 
 heretofore noted with how little ostentation, with 
 what unconscious grace and defference he performed 
 thoughtful little services for her, such as starting 
 her horse again after the frequent breathing-spells, 
 guiding it in the best trail that she might have 
 both hands for her flowers, or her hat when the 
 gusts came, or the swinging down from his saddle, 
 cowboy-fashion, to pluck the blossoms she indicated. 
 
 He sat well in his saddle, too, western-wise, a 
 settled, easy seat, not rising forward with each 
 stride of the horse, English-fashion, a fashion 
 which so irritated her when riding with DeLacy. 
 And, yes, Paul was well-mannered and good-look- 
 ing. Well-dressed, he would be fine-looking, doubt- 
 less, with his vigorous, well-set frame, smooth- 
 shaven face and determined yet pleasant lips. It 
 rested her just to look at him. He seemed so 
 strong, so sure of himself that you might be sure 
 of him. And how the sun spun threads of gold in 
 his brown hair and what depths it added to his 
 eyes. Well-dressed, he would certainly be a hand- 
 some fellow. On the whole, he was rather hard to 
 classify; it had never occurred to her till the talk 
 with her uncle last Sunday. It was a pity
 
 i66 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Paul," she said meditatively, " you should have 
 been born rich. Do you know, Mrs. Scott-DeLacy 
 said so that time last summer when you drove the 
 four-horse tally-ho up to Estes for us. She said 
 you were really something of a gentleman." 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " cried the young man fer- 
 vently, " that is, if she would class me with her own 
 party. I recollect that drive, recollect the disgust 
 that possessed me over the artificiality, the soulless 
 courtesy, the insincerity, over the language used to 
 conceal real meanings. Are they women or painted 
 figures? Are they men or fashionable automatons? 
 What are the standards of value, anyway? woman- 
 liness or wardrobes? manliness or full pockets? 
 Forgive me, but if those Capitol Hill patterns and 
 those English cads are gentlemen, then I am phari- 
 saical enough to thank God I am not like them. 
 But are they gentlemen ? Measured by Mr. Allan's 
 standards, where will they stand ? ' A gentleman 
 is a man who is master of himself, who respects 
 himself and makes others respect him. The essence 
 of gentlemanliness is self-rule, sovereignty of soul. 
 . . The effort to be self-sufficient, the pride which 
 will accept no favor. Surely true nobility consists in 
 character, in personal merit, in moral distinction, 
 in elevation of feeling and language, in dignity of 
 life, in self-respect.' The foot-rule to measuring 
 Mrs. Scott-DeLacy's gentleman is : ' Tell me what
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 167 
 
 you are worth, and I will tell you what you are/ 
 But, ' Tell me what you are and I will tell you what 
 you are worth ' so say Edwin Allan and his kind, 
 to whom the rank is but the guiena's stamp." 
 
 " Yes, Uncle talked like that last Sunday before 
 you came, and he was talking of you." The tone 
 was meditative, self-persuasive. Had he been as 
 woman-wise as Herbert DeLacy, that tone might 
 have told him much that was going on in her heart 
 and mind. But he had studied only this one girl- 
 woman with her ever-varying moods, and he attri- 
 buted her kindly tone to one of the temperamental 
 variations. So he shook his head, his momentary 
 enthusiasm gone, and replied : 
 
 " But Mr. Allan is not the world. Your father 
 comes nearer representing it; and he quotes, not 
 Amiel, but DeVarigny: 'Seven or eight genera- 
 tions are needed to make a gentleman.' So you see, 
 the prospects are gloomy for my great-grandson; 
 and for my father's son, the case is quite without 
 hope." 
 
 " Still there must be authorities equally good " 
 
 " So there are. Emerson : ' How shall a man 
 escape from his ancestors, or draw off from his veins 
 the black drop which he drew from his father's or 
 his mother's life?' And Holmes: ' A boy's educa- 
 tion begins with his grandfather.' And Holinshed: 
 ' Gentlemen be those whom their race and blood
 
 i68 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 do make noble and known.' Lastly, there is the 
 Law and Prophets. The Prophet : ' Our fathers 
 have sinned and are not, and we have borne their 
 iniquities.' The Law : ' That will by no means clear 
 the guilty, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon 
 the children and upon the children's children unto 
 the third and fourth generation.' ' 
 
 " But Paul," she began persistently, " with you 
 
 He snatched her bridle-rein, starting the horses 
 abruptly, and as they rounded the sharp turn ahead, 
 he stopped as abruptly under the shadow of a 
 large tree. 
 
 It was a gaunt, unhappy cottonwood. There were 
 seven deep notches in the trunk, and one dead limb 
 extended gibbet-like out over the trail. 
 
 He sat his horse upright and in grim silence, his 
 eyes straight before him, a bitter smile touching his 
 lips. He was experiencing something akin to exul- 
 tation in thus calling her to the opposite side of the 
 chasm between them, and forcing her to look down. 
 This spot was his mental scourging-post, often 
 sought, the torture-place of his soul, and he suffered 
 the rapturous pain, the torment and delight of the 
 flagellant in having her now for the first time there 
 beside him in his proud humiliation. This was his 
 answer to her half-spoken protest; it was his object 
 lesson to her, rude, but unforgettable. If she had
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 169 
 
 even a grain of respect for his life lived out under 
 her very eyes, if she found in him an ounce of worth, 
 it must be in the full realization of his cursed in- 
 heritance. 
 
 As the girl sat looking up at him, she was tossed 
 by conflicting emotions. She had long known of 
 this tree on the little-used short-cut to the mills; 
 but she had never before come this way, as it was 
 considered a hard ride even for a man. Now for 
 the first time she saw the gaunt, hideous object, more 
 the gibbet than the tree, and the wild vine with 
 loosened end whipping from the extended limb com- 
 pleted the likeness. 
 
 Of the contending emotions, the sickening sense 
 of repulsion was uppermost, and she sat shrinking 
 away from her companion as from something in- 
 fectious. Then a sudden wave of reacting compas- 
 sion caught her. All the latent maternal within 
 her rose. She combatted a sudden inclination to 
 pat and comfort and soothe; and understanding her- 
 self so little, the inclination frightened her. But 
 she reached, laid her hand upon his horse's bridle, 
 and, urging her own pony, fairly pulled him from 
 under the tree. 
 
 And her act was vinegar to his open heart-wound. 
 That she should pity him ! 
 
 Awed by the sternness of his face, she did not 
 speak for miles of their onward way.
 
 i;o THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SWEET DANGER. 
 
 IT was one of those days with which June fore- 
 tells August, when the yet virgin summer stands 
 with reluctant feet on the line betwixt her woman- 
 hood and girlhood fleet. Her breath is only warm; 
 her clouds are not shadows; her joy is not yet rap- 
 ture; her sadness 
 
 Is not akin to pain, 
 And resembles sorrow only 
 As the mist resembles rain." 
 
 The morning wind filtered through the pines and 
 aspens with a murmur as soft as the kiss of a flute, 
 a melodious sixth to the clear soprano of the brook 
 that paralleled the trail. The faint moan of the 
 wood dove sounded far, while the near and fear- 
 less lark poured the pleasing monotony of his liquid 
 notes, like nothing so much as a tuneful declension : 
 "Sweet! sweeter! sweetest!" 
 
 They had left the narrow canon with its ribbon 
 of water and ribbon of sky, had mounted the steeps ; 
 had turned from the last glimpsed vista of the dis-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 171 
 
 tance-blurred lowlands with their far horizon-rim, 
 an unreal world aswim in molten yellow mist. Be- 
 fore them the stooping sky seemed transpierced by 
 the pine-points. Unsurmounted heights sprang 
 about them, and always the Peak serene and con- 
 stant. Suspended between two of the southern 
 summits, one white cloud-fluff " slept and its shadow 
 slept." 
 
 As the sledge path climbed, it dwindled to a faint 
 trail, then to mere zigzag openings among cliffs 
 and pines which none but the woodman's eye could 
 trace; though they still passed through occasional 
 miniature grassy seas whose wavelets, wind-whirled, 
 broke about their feet in foam-caps of tossing flow- 
 ers. 
 
 Nature in her June mood must again have glided 
 into the darker musings of the man and stolen their 
 sharpness ere he was aware, but he was presently 
 roused by other means. 
 
 For more than an hour, driven by his tumultuous 
 thoughts, he had pressed the horses, riding slightly 
 in advance, holding aside the branches as before, 
 sometimes guiding both animals, but not once look- 
 ing back nor speaking. In the agony of his bit- 
 ter musings, he would have ridden all the way full 
 length ahead, but the horses, reared together, fed 
 from his hand, inmates of one stall, were insepar- 
 able, and the foolish creatures insisted upon shar-
 
 172 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 ing the trail where possible, crowding together and 
 leaning one against the other during their stops for 
 breath. His own Bayonne, a fine throughbred, full 
 of patient endurance, knew his master's mood and 
 bent to his task, with infrequent stops. Bonita, 
 less enduring, lagged half a length with quivering 
 sides and cupped nostrils. 
 
 Rounding a sharp turn on the mountain side, 
 through the wilfulness of either Bonita or her rider, 
 the pony tried to gain his side (the outside of the 
 trail, as it chanced) but slipped, scrambled, then 
 clung desperately. Bayonne stopped unbidden and 
 flung himself against the rock wall, while his rider 
 with quick hand caught Bonita's bits, pulling her 
 head up sharply, and with a strong grasp on the back 
 of his companion's saddle, steadied the pony strug- 
 gling for equilibrium. 
 
 " Don't move. It's all right," his cool voice 
 sounded reassuringly. Then for the first time he 
 turned and looked at the girl. Her hat had slipped 
 down her back and her face looked pale. She had 
 reached instinctively and grasped his saddle-horn 
 and was leaning toward him in the endeavor to keep 
 the balance on the cliff edge. 
 
 With a supreme effort, as much of will as of 
 muscle, he helped the wavering little pony settle to 
 the safe side, and his own horse, though flinching 
 and quivering, pressed in still closer against the 
 sharp rocks. Then the group became motionless.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 173 
 
 " It is all right; only keep still," he admonished 
 as he relinquished his hold of the saddle and caught 
 her firmly about the waist. Then for one minute, 
 made sweeter by the danger, he thrilled with the 
 joy of the strong holding safe the weak, the beloved. 
 Slowly he drew her from the saddle and held her 
 slim, girl's body against his body. Her arms went 
 round him, her hair brushed his cheek. Left to him 
 at that instant, the choice might have been death 
 together on the rocks below, rather than life and 
 the near separation. 
 
 But whatever thoughts were rioting through his 
 brain, he was outwardly sane, even present-minded. 
 Shaking the pony's bridle free, with both arms he 
 lifted the girl clear of her saddle, holding her till 
 the pony, thus lightened, gained the surer footing 
 of the trail ahead. Then stooping, he gently low- 
 ered his burden and swung down beside her. 
 
 For a space of time neither spoke. She was even 
 paler, and her lips were quivering as she bravely 
 strove for self-possession. His heart smote him for 
 the selfish absorption that had urged him forward 
 at cost of her comfort, and he stood looking anx- 
 iously down at her as she leaned against his horse; 
 but he could not guess that it was from neither fear 
 nor weariness that she was trembling. His voice 
 lowered to a sudden tender compunction : 
 
 " I have been such a brute. Forgive me. We
 
 174 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 will take it easier from now on, no matter how late 
 we are getting home. Wouldn't you better rest 
 awhile? " as she turned toward her pony. 
 
 But she shook her head and insisted upon mount- 
 ing. She was dizzy, but not from her recent danger. 
 She was conscious of this only : that at the moment 
 of her peril, she had been stung from head to foot 
 and from foot to head with a wild, sweet sensation 
 as unfathomable as it was unfamiliar, and to ex- 
 perience which she would again have dared the 
 chasm's edge. 
 
 When he joined her and they rode slowly on, she 
 seemed abstracted. By and by she said, as though 
 reasoning aloud against this continued, causeless 
 trembling, " No, I am not tired and I was not much 
 frightened." Then she straightened in her saddle, 
 shook herself and commanded, with an assumption 
 of her old imperiousness : 
 
 " Talk to me, Paul. Tell me something." 
 
 Well would he have liked to tell her something. 
 For all his outward appearance of quiet unconcern, 
 his pulses were pounding madly and his heart itself 
 seemed beating against his sternly-compressed lips. 
 
 "Something? What?" 
 
 " Oh, anything. Only talk." 
 
 He thought he understood. 
 
 " There was once a king," he began, " who set 
 a spy upon the hearts of his people. But is it not
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 175 
 
 a greater art to spy upon the heart of Nature, to 
 try to interpret her deeper meanings, to follow her 
 plans, to surprise her, or better, to weary her by 
 unceasing vigils into revealing glimpses of her mys- 
 teries? . . . See that old oak on the verge of the 
 caving bank? The crumbling soil has laid bare the 
 roots, and there, just below the trunk-stock where 
 the roots begin to delve for nourishment, a large 
 rock, you see, is imbedded. From the first, the 
 tree has accepted the inevitable, at once grasping and 
 encircling its trouble. What can't be cured must be 
 endured, is an unvarying rule of Nature. So this 
 tree has lived all these years with a stone in its 
 heart." 
 
 Lilys lifted meditative eyes. That was just like 
 Paul. Who else could look at an old oak tree and an 
 ugly stone and find such things to say? But when 
 he looked down at her with his rare smile, his eyes 
 cast vague trouble into her heart and sent that sweet 
 pang shuddering through her again. 
 
 " But out along the foothill road," he went on, 
 " you recall there is a half-buried boulder, one of 
 those lost rocks of which geologists tell us, a poor 
 exile of whose homesickness no one dreams. Out 
 of the cleft in the very centre of the rock there has 
 sprung a tree, ever-green and bird-haunted. So the 
 lost rock has lived all these years with a hope in 
 its heart."
 
 i;6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 The girl listened and smiled. That sounded like 
 old times. How pleasant it was just to ride along 
 and forget everything but the trees and rocks and 
 birds. 
 
 " But," she argued, " it is one of your favorite 
 authors who says that Nature can not be surprised 
 in undress, which means, I suppose, that there is 
 one sacred garment of which she never divests her- 
 self. And yet by some, her symbols are so much 
 more easily interpreted than by others. Or is it 
 a case with ' the others ' of being blind because they 
 will not see ? " 
 
 " In a measure, yes ; and in a larger measure 
 because most would-be Nature-worshipers attempt 
 tc serve two masters. The first commandment of 
 Nature as of Revelation is ' Thou shalt have no 
 other gods before me.' To him whose eye is single 
 to her beauties her symbols are plentiful, their mean- 
 ings simple. Truly, ' the air is full of sounds, the 
 sky of tokens; the ground is all memoranda and 
 signatures; and every object covered with hints 
 which speak to the intelligent.' But all this is for 
 him who holds communion with her forms, visible 
 and invisible. Part of the world is too busy eating, 
 drinking and being merry to give her a thought ; the 
 other part is too busy toiling that the first named 
 may eat, drink and be merry. Thus Nature's shrine 
 is all but deserted." 
 
 He ended as they reached the place he had had in
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 177 
 
 mind for their mid-day rest, wh v e the horses must 
 drink and graze, and where the> would eat their 
 own luncheon. 
 
 While they waited for the horses, he rilled her 
 lap with mariposas and columbines, then stretched 
 upon the ground near her feet, while she rimmed 
 her wide hat with the blossoms. 
 
 " Paul, what is the very sweetest thing in the 
 world ? " she asked abruptly. 
 
 " Alfalfa honey," he replied promptly. 
 
 " Nonsense ! You know well enough how I mean 
 it. Revenge, your mother says; duty well done, 
 Uncle says; power, Papa says; love, insist both 
 Mr. DeLacy and Dixie. What is one to believe? " 
 
 Her companion shook his head, but remained 
 silent. 
 
 " Nina says it's love too," she went on, half mus- 
 ingly, " that is, the right sort of love. We were 
 all down at Howard's one night last week and I 
 had been singing Mr. DeLacy's favorite song, ' To 
 An Extinct Volcano.' It is like this." And her 
 lark voice bubbled out : 
 
 Thou wert wooed by the warring waters, 
 
 In the aeons long ago, 
 Ere thou dreamt of rising heavenward, 
 
 'Twas thy youth-time's fervid glow, 
 When the Sea for the Earth contended 
 
 With the Fire that raged below.
 
 i;8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Thou liftest thy face to heaven, 
 
 Serene, unmoved, alone ; 
 For the far-off faithful Ocean 
 
 No echo of his moan ; 
 For the clamorous Fiery-hearted 
 
 No touch save coldest stone. 
 
 Dost dream in thy storm-swept calmness 
 
 'Neath thy veil of spotless white, 
 Of a day when Ancient Chaos 
 
 Shalt loose the powers of night ? 
 Set free the prisoned Fire 
 
 Unleash the Ocean's might ? 
 
 Wilt sigh through the wreck and ruin. 
 
 For thy nun's white veil of snow, 
 While thou feelest fierce caresses, 
 
 As in aeons long ago, 
 When the Sea for thy love contended 
 
 With the Fire that raged below ? 
 
 " That's it, only of course you miss the crashing 
 volcanic chords of Mr. Howard's accompaniment. 
 Mr. DeLacy and Dix make me sing it over and over, 
 though they say I don't put heart enough into it, 
 since it is a love song." 
 
 Paul devoted himself for a moment to tossing 
 her the flowers that lay beyond her reach; then 
 he said lightly : 
 
 " More geology than love, I should say ; quite 
 a lesson in physical geography." 
 
 " Nina said it wasn't the right sort of love, with
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 179 
 
 its ' fierce caresses ' and ' wreck and ruin/ She and 
 Dix became quite excited arguing. She read us a 
 sketch from a magazine to illustrate her kind of 
 love. I begged the leaf of her; here it is," and she 
 drew a bit of paper from her bosom. "My, how 
 the two men did hoot and scoff at the writer " 
 (glancing at the signature) " ' Allan Marsden/ 
 whoever he may be, and at poor Nina too. Classed 
 both as ' sissies,' but I think it's pretty. Listen : 
 
 ' Desire, calling itself by love's name, is a counter- 
 feit to be guarded against just as the truth-like lie is 
 the most dangerous. But it is easily distinguished 
 from love. For desire is a self-worshiper, insatiate, 
 clamorous for possession, mad for the merely tan- 
 gible, and at close of its brief delirium of the senses, 
 dies upon its own sword, gratification. Love, though 
 sweetly human, though but a 'wavering image ' of 
 the divine, is far more than 'a self-sufficient pleasure 
 drenched with perfume and crowned with flowers.' 
 True love lias more of tenderness than of passion ; 
 yearns to comfort, to bless, to protect; it is selfless, 
 changeless, deathless. Love is at once the incentive 
 and the reward of life. It is the link between the 
 senses and the soul ; between here and the hereafter, 
 ' the soul embodied, the body ensouled.' It affords 
 us our only foretaste of heaven. . . . She smiles 
 upon me, and that instant holds an eternity of bliss. 
 She condescends to me, and in that ecstatic nearness 
 I appreciate Infinity. All Nature shares my happi- 
 ness. The birds carol my love for her ; the flowers 
 exhale love's priceless incense ; the heavens declare 
 the glory of love. My sleep is love-illumined ; my 
 toil is love lightened. Many waters can not quench 
 love, nor can time, nor absence, nor coldness. I
 
 i8o THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 exact nothing, hope for nothing. But I dream ; I 
 remember. I revel in the intangible, in the past. 
 The warm wind on my face is her breath ; the deeps 
 of heaven are her smile ; the murmur of the pines 
 the exquisite vibration of her tones. At sight of 
 a crushed rose, at memory of a chance touch, I 
 tremble, I thrill, I exult. These are mine, love's 
 treasures, of which even death can not despoil me ; 
 and they ' recompense for all the ills that have been 
 or may be.' ' 
 
 She glanced at him expectantly, but he made no 
 comment. He was lying with one elbow in the 
 grass, his bare head resting on one palm, looking 
 off up the mountain-slope with eyes that reflected 
 the deep luminous blue of the sky. He looked 
 serenity itself. She caught herself wondering what 
 were the ideas about love of one in his position of 
 life. Marah was so bitter, DeLacy and Dix so 
 deadly earnest about the subject, she experienced a 
 curiosity to know what Paul might have to say. 
 
 " Tell me a love story, Sefiorito, a real love story 
 though perhaps you don't know any? " 
 
 His eyes were still on the distant slope. She had 
 to repeat her question. 
 
 " Oh yes, I do," he replied, handing her another 
 mariposa, " one of the prettiest imaginable, and 
 I've been wanting to tell it to you for some time. 
 Does the Little Mistress know why the trees love 
 the birds? The Indians tell us that when the Great 
 Spirit rested from the labor of creation it was
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 181 
 
 upon a peak not our Peak, for it is too new. 
 From the summit He could view much of the New 
 Earth. He stooped and reached here and there, 
 caressing the land. And lo ! from each spot He had 
 touched, there sprang a tree, lithe and graceful, 
 but leafless. Then the Great Spirit smiled warmly, 
 and the leaves, green and clustering, shot from trunk 
 to tip of earth's trees. The trees loved them; the 
 summer cradled them; but the covetous autumn 
 smote them yellow and scarlet, loosed their hold 
 and drove them groundward, where they must soon 
 have perished. But the Great Spirit said : ' These 
 are too beautiful to die.' So, as they fluttered down- 
 ward from the trees, He revived and winged them ; 
 and each leaf became a bird that rose heavenward 
 in a rhapsody of song. Behold ! the red-stained oak- 
 leaf was the robin; the golden willow-leaf, a yel- 
 low-bird; the crimson maple-leaf, a cardinal; the 
 homely brown elm-leaf, the lark, plain in dress but 
 rich in melody. Every year the birds go south, but 
 they return and nestle in the trees, warbling to their 
 verdant sister-leaves who can only whisper in re- 
 sponse. And the mother-trees sway and shiver in 
 wordless ecstacy at each return of their lost ones, 
 loving with a love all unforgotten, ' yet- dumbly 
 felt with thrills moving the lips, though fruitless of 
 the words.' How do you like my love story? " 
 " It's ever so pretty, but I meant a really truly
 
 182 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 one about a hero and a heroine, a knight and a lady, 
 you know." She wished he would tell her Marah's 
 story. 
 
 " I know one of that sort, but it isn't cheerful." 
 
 She noted the quiver of his face. Was he think- 
 ing of his mother? 
 
 There fell a long silence. Her gaze wandered 
 off over the pine-tops, and into the fathomless blue. 
 There came to her the vague yearning she had felt 
 so often of late, the only feeling she had ever tried 
 to analyze, and the uselessness of the effort over- 
 whelmed her now as never before. A sigh escaped 
 her, and that was so unusual that he sent her a 
 swift, searching look. She was absently fingering 
 the crown of her hat, slowly pulling out the wild 
 flowers she had inserted with such care. Her eyes 
 were now bent on her task. 
 
 " Paul," she began hesitatingly, " I want some- 
 thing." 
 
 He sat up, but she stopped him with a gesture. 
 
 " No, you can't get it for me ; no one can, because 
 I don't know just what it is," with a sorry little 
 laugh, " I want it very much, but " 
 
 ' Yes ? " There was encouragement in the inflec- 
 tion. She had always been confidential, he sympa- 
 thetic. 
 
 She struggled for expression, at great loss for 
 words :
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 183 
 
 " I am fairly sick for it. I can not see it ; it is 
 a great distance from me and try as I may, I can 
 get no nearer. Nor will it come to me. It is 
 very beautiful, very satisfying. It sings to me, like 
 the birds of your legend; it sings day and night, 
 while I can only whisper responses, like your leaves. 
 Sometimes I think it is Nature, and I pray to her. 
 But she it moves from me. Sometimes I think 
 it is my mother, and I go to her grave there by the 
 church and beg her to come to me. I close my eyes ; 
 I hold my breath. I want her to hold me close ; but 
 I can not even throw myself at her feet. Then I 
 know it is neither Nature nor my mother; for it is 
 lovelier than than this day or this spot or even 
 than my mother. Sometimes," her pauses were 
 growing in frequency and in length, " sometimes it 
 seems close. I mean it seems all around me . . . like 
 a cloud or mist. But I want it near. I want to 
 rest in it ... to be, well, satisfied, you know; not 
 looking and listening all the time for something that 
 never comes. It is something I seem to have wanted 
 all my life, but just lately I've wanted it more than 
 
 ever It is making me sad. I don't know 
 
 what's the matter with me. It's the summer-, Dix 
 says, and the sun and the south wind. Sometimes 
 I cry, when there's nothing at all to cry about," 
 with the little laugh again that was half a sob, " ex- 
 cept that . . . that I want it, you know."
 
 1 84 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Yes, he knew. For one eternal minute he strove 
 against temptation, the temptation there within 
 arm's length of him, the eyes wistful, the lips tremb- 
 ling, the voice appealing to him for something which 
 he could get for her; something not a great distance 
 from her; something greater than Nature, more 
 beautiful even than motherhood; something in which 
 her wakening heart could rest and be satisfied. 
 
 As he lay back again with his elbow in the grass, 
 only a trifle nearer her, she could not dream that 
 he was righting down the desperate desire to take 
 her to his breast and put his life and soul into one 
 kiss. She could not dream it, for he began handing 
 back the wild flowers to her and his voice was ad- 
 mirably controlled : 
 
 " Have you told your uncle or your ? " 
 
 " I tried to, but he did not understand. He said 
 it was sinful to want when I have so much; that I 
 should enumerate my blessings, or pray when I feel 
 so. Then I tried to tell Dixie, and he told me to 
 go let the doctor see my tongue. I thought you 
 might ' : She looked up appealingly. 
 
 " I think I do understand ; but it is one thing to 
 understand, quite another to 
 
 " Now I don't want to hear you enumerate my 
 blessings," she cried petulantly, " I won't listen. I 
 know them. I can name them myself. But I 
 haven't all. There is something" she stopped and 
 tried for a word, " something more."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 185 
 
 His eyes looked tenderly at the troubled, wilful 
 face. " Yes," he said gently, " it is " He broke 
 off and began again. " I have no sister, you know, 
 and deal so little with women." He was feeling 
 his way, was testing his ground, if it would bear 
 weight and not precipitate him into the thin-crusted 
 crater. "A girl's heart (and you are a girl yet) 
 is a delicate, a lovely thing, half human, half di- 
 vine, it has always seemed to me, whose deeper 
 feelings and woman's impulses, her yearnings to- 
 ward the Infinite and the finite too, are all coiled 
 like petals close-sheathed within its fragrant self. 
 Or 
 
 1 Like a young bird when left by its mother its earliest 
 pinions to try. 
 
 Round the nest it still lingers and hovers ere its trem- 
 bling wings can fly.' 
 
 If the bud could feel, if the bird could think, those 
 feelings and thoughts, I imagine, would be some- 
 thing like what you have just told me : an impatience 
 for blossoming, a longing for plumed flight. Al- 
 ready those close-rolled petals yearn for the sun, 
 though they have never seen him, though he seems 
 far and vague. Already the fledgling feels ' pre- 
 monitions sweet of wings/ though the blue of high 
 heaven seems unattainable. Yet why be restless? 
 why sad? In good time the last and inmost petal 
 will lie trembling beneath the sun's kiss, all destiny
 
 186 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 fulfilled. In good time the little wings will stretch 
 with new-found power, all yearnings satisfied. And 
 some day, in God's own time . . . ." 
 
 His voice, grown tremulous with feeling, wavered 
 and fell, but neither noticed that he left an unfinished 
 sentence. For she was gathering, not so much the 
 spoken words, as their import. She was leaning 
 toward him, as though irresistibly impelled, her 
 task forgotten, her eyes on his face. His tones 
 seemed melting music. It was as though her soul, 
 long exiled, heard again its own language in native 
 purity. She felt the subduing contact of a larger, 
 truer nature than her own; felt her doubts melt 
 down to faith, felt strengthened to rise into the 
 patience of waiting, though not knowing why she 
 waited, nor for what. 
 
 He did not lift his eyes, but his face had taken 
 on a brooding tenderness that transfigured it like 
 a dream-smile. A wave of answering tenderness 
 swept her, culminating in a sudden almost uncon- 
 trollable impulse to reach and lift and caress the 
 lock of heavy hair falling over his forehead. 
 
 In her confusion and bewilderment, she dropped 
 her hand, which had half obeyed her impulse, to a 
 long-stemmed columbine lying between them. He 
 was reaching for the same stem; so, without pre- 
 meditation, his hand closed over hers, hers over the 
 flower.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 187 
 
 She sprang to her feet, tingling through and 
 through, her color surging in a sudden flood. He 
 came to his feet more slowly, murmuring an apol- 
 ogy; then stood as one who expects a blow in the 
 face. But instead of the stinging rebuke, she stam- 
 mered something about being ready to go, and he 
 turned sharply away to the horses. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 DARKNESS DEEPENS. 
 
 IN their saddles once more, they avoided 
 each other's eyes and kept the horses as far apart as 
 the narrowing trail would permit. He talked hur- 
 riedly, eagerly, clinging to the hand of Nature, so 
 to say. He told her why the willow-branches weep, 
 how the chipmunk got his stripes and the legend 
 of the colored sandstone. The quaint idea in the 
 last of a dust-crumbled rainbow won a faint smile 
 to the girl's troubled face. He talked on, of church 
 and mission school, outlining the plan of the work; 
 of her summer-house and the new rambler roses he 
 meant to plant round it in the fall; and he told her 
 of Bradley's valuable mine up at Ward, but did 
 not mention his own half-interest in it. 
 
 Closing an account of his last descent into the 
 mine, he said :
 
 1 88 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 ' You see, ages ago, these rocks cooling, shrank, 
 leaving cracks. Nature, being economical, at once 
 set about ' mending.' She draws from the rock its 
 very strongest material, and soon distinct crystals 
 appear zig-zag, like veritable threads, cross-stitch 
 fashion. So securely is this mending done that 
 when a sudden change of temperature occurs, with 
 the consequent shrinkage, the rock gives way any- 
 where else than at the cross-stitched vein. . . I won- 
 der is Mother Nature as kind to temptation-rent 
 souls, cross-stitching with the soul's strongest ma- 
 terial, and so making at last the weak spot the most 
 invulnerable? . . . You give that up, don't you, 
 Little Mistress? " 
 
 " I should say so. There's more geology than 
 love about that like my song." 
 
 " I'm not so sure about that," he replied quickly. 
 
 By mid-afternoon they reached the mill with its 
 grumbling saws, its whispering, whirling wheels, 
 its pyramids of rough lumber, its mounds of golden 
 saw-dust. Men and teams were busy, and the re- 
 sounding blows of many a sturdy axe could be heard 
 deep in the pines around, as the two rode into camp. 
 
 Webb, the tall, cadaverous foreman, came to meet 
 them, pulling off his cap. Lilys rested in his shanty 
 home with Mrs. Webb and the little Webbs, while 
 Paul accompanied the superintendent over the entire 
 camp.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 189 
 
 Now and again, as the two passed within her 
 range of vision, she could see Paul stop to shake 
 hands with one and another of the mill-hands, pass- 
 ing in and out among the workmen and their work 
 with the rapid and spontaneous sympathy which 
 characterizes the natural manager of men. Again 
 he would stop to caress or lift to his broad shoulder 
 some one of the little camp children who followed 
 them, or even to lay a kindly hand upon the pant- 
 ing side of a great draft-horse. 
 
 He must have taken supper with the men at their 
 quarters, for neither he nor Webb answered the 
 summons of Mrs. Webb for the lunch which she 
 spread for the Little Mistress in anticipation of the 
 long homeward ride. 
 
 When the books and the pay-roll had been 
 checked, the two mounted and turned homeward. 
 The foreman, still talking, walked along beside 
 Paul's horse, his hand on its mane. At the turn of 
 the road where they parted from him, Paul recapitu- 
 lated : 
 
 " As I said, Webb, Mr. Eldreth realizes how short 
 of men you are, yet this can stand as no reason 
 why the output of the mills should vary so from one 
 month to another. Given a certain number of men 
 and certain power, and allowing for breakdowns 
 and accidents, the monthly supply should be more 
 uniform. As to the condition of the roads, I men-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 tioned that to him after your last letter came, and 
 he allows for it. By the way, there at the lone 
 pine, where the haulers cross the stream, and where 
 they have been unloading part or doubling- all this 
 can be avoided by making a detour to the left and 
 fording further down where the banks are some- 
 what less abrupt. There is almost a natural ford 
 marked by a tree on the right bank, a tree with a 
 large stone embedded in its exposed roots. I noticed 
 carefully every foot of the ground as we came up. 
 Call the teamsters' attention to the matter. And 
 Webb, when Ingham organizes up here, as I pre- 
 sume he will, you intend joining the union yourself, 
 do you ? " 
 
 "I think so. Sha'n't you? You'd better come. 
 You belong to us, even though you are over us and 
 in a sense represent the other side of the question." 
 
 " We are all laboring men, for that matter, born 
 with our sleeves rolled up. Yes, I shall join at 
 the quarries, if they will take me even on probation, 
 Methodist fashion. How's the school? " 
 
 " First class. My kids just tickled to death. That 
 Baxters a big-hearted fellow, if he has got religion 
 bad. I don't go much on psalm-singing, and the 
 boys don't, but when it comes to reading, writing 
 and figuring, we all need them. Then the reading- 
 room they're all taking to that, I tell you. And 
 we don't forget, sir, that but for you, we'd ha' been
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 191 
 
 forgotten in these lines 'way up here in the woods." 
 " I think they were Mr. Allan's ideas rather than 
 mine. Well, good-bye. If I can't come up next 
 week, I'll see if I can spare you a few more hands." 
 
 " Paul, where did you learn so much ? " queried 
 Lilys as they galloped easily down the wood-road, 
 " lumbering, quarrying, irrigation, sociology, 
 poetry, legends." 
 
 " My, my ! " he laughed, 
 
 ' And still the wonder grew 
 That one small head could carry all he knew ! ' 
 
 Born in a hut, bred on a horse, as I've heard your 
 brother put it. If I have some fragments of knowl- 
 edge, I owe them to Edwin Allan, and indeed much 
 more than I can ever repay ; for it was his hand that 
 guided my stumbling steps to Nature's feet and 
 taught me to find God's wonders in her face. If we 
 grow like the men we hero-worship, then if I live 
 long enough, I ought to grow into a pretty decent 
 fellow, don't you think ? " 
 
 " I only wish I were half so good as you right 
 now," said the girl impulsively. 
 
 He shook his head, laughing. " I refuse to 
 wear a halo before my time, even for you." Then 
 gravely, " Good ? Ah, my dear Little Mistress, 
 you do not know me. But that is Garia with the 
 load off there. If you will excuse me I'll speak to
 
 192 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 him a moment. I'll not be long, for it is late. Poor 
 fellow ! he will be disappointed over not being trans- 
 ferred to the quarries." 
 
 Dismounting, he gave her his bridle-rein and 
 stopping Garia trudging along beside his heavy load, 
 began talking to him in tones she could not dis- 
 tinguish. But she could tell from the Mexican's 
 excited gestures that he was angry, and that Paul's 
 reasoning was of little effect. 
 
 After a while Paul turned to the w r agon and be- 
 gan pointing out certain poles of the load, and she 
 heard the words " worthless " and " waste of time " 
 and " in spite of orders." The half-breed pulled 
 sullenly at the rope-knot which bound the center of 
 the load and blindly jerked at a long and very 
 crooked pole. As he recklessly brought the heavy 
 butt to the ground at his feet, the lighter end, re- 
 bounding, struck Paul full in the breast and he 
 sank to the ground. 
 
 Lilys reached him before the Mexican. 
 
 " Antonio ! you have killed him ! " 
 
 The man knelt, trembling, beside her, his swarthy 
 face ashen, his heart quaking. 
 
 " Eso no puede serf " he whispered shakily, bend- 
 ing over the prostrate form. 
 
 But Paul sat up, stood up and motioned him back, 
 steadying himself with one hand against a tree. 
 For a moment he remained silent, one hand pressed 
 over his eyes. Then he said in a low, husky voice :
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 193 
 
 " Go back to your load. Take out those poles, 
 as I told you and drive on to camp. Let me see you 
 do it. Some day you may learn to distinguish your 
 friends from your enemies." 
 
 He stood while Antonio, cowed and silent, sorted 
 his load, tied the stay-ropes and started his team. 
 When the wagon was lost among the trees, Paul 
 sat down on the nearest log, and resting his head 
 in his hands set his teeth against the pain of the 
 blow. 
 
 As he bowed thus, striving for breath, he heard 
 his name, the one staccato syllable, and the tone 
 made him lift his head, so much was there in it of 
 commingled inquiry, fear, solicitude. He saw a 
 white- faced girl, with tightly-knit fingers and quiv- 
 ering lips. 
 
 " Paul ! " she repeated, laying a hand on his arm. 
 
 He got to his feet, trembling more violently un- 
 der that light touch than under the previous blow. 
 The pain was forgotten, the place, the lateness of 
 the hour, almost the gulf between them, as he stood 
 looking down into her eyes, his blood leaping 
 rapturously. For one heart-shaking instant his 
 soul rose in an agony of mad hope. There was in 
 her eyes more than in her tone. The terror in them 
 had died, and as he stood up, there shone the light 
 of relief and was it more than relief? 
 
 But he tore his gaze away and shaking off that
 
 194 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 delicious touch said, with what calmness he could 
 command : 
 
 " I am sorry it frightened you. You are very 
 kind; but it is nothing. The blow was on the 
 shoulder rather than on the chest. But we must go, 
 for we have a long road and a poor moon." Then 
 forcing a smile, " Bred in the saddle, I feel more 
 at ease there than on the ground." 
 
 Lilys turned coldly away, let him put her on her 
 pony, and they rode in silence the rapidly descending 
 path. 
 
 That look in his eyes! How dared he? Was 
 he forgetting that she was mistress, he the man? 
 . . . . Oh, such a blow as that. Why, he 
 must be hurt. Everything had gone awry since 
 Sunday. What a miserable week it had been. 
 . . His eyes what had they said? And 
 as he had lifted her to the saddle, the same sensa- 
 tion, exhilerating, exquisite, unknown to her till to- 
 day. It was inexplicable. He had put her on her 
 horse many, many times, but never just as he had 
 this time. She could still feel the firm pressure of 
 his hands about her. A certain vague shyness came 
 over her. She would not again meet his seeking 
 eyes, and she leaned away whenever the narrow path 
 crushed the horses against one another. She found 
 herself each time dreading, yet anticipating, this 
 brief enforced contact. She shuddered in her
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 195 
 
 saddle and thought of the long ride before them 
 with something between terror and delight. When 
 he unstrapped her extra wrap and put it round 
 her, she vaguely realized that it was not from cold 
 she was shivering; and she felt unaccountably glad 
 that the swift-descending darkness made it im- 
 possible for him to see her face.
 
 196 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BEFORE DAWN. 
 
 ELDRETH hunting lodge stood at the head of a 
 box of a canon which was a mere crevice in the 
 near mountain-side. The lodge was built of log, 
 was large and roomy and well appointed. It stood 
 in a small park-like clearing where the canon 
 divided into two narrower chasms, which in turn 
 lead up to little wooded parks rich in small game. 
 The stream which ran noisily past the lodge was 
 well stocked with several varieties of trout. 
 
 When Paul reached the lodge on Saturday it was 
 past noon. The doors were open, though the old 
 keeper was nowhere to be seen. The provision 
 wagon had come and gone. He could see the fresh 
 double tracks on the little-used mountain road. 
 
 When he entered the sitting-room, a lunch was 
 set for one, a small table having been drawn close 
 to the big fireplace in which burned a bright pinon 
 fire. He was grateful for Davis's thoughtfulness, 
 for he was hungry after his tramp up from Eld- 
 hurst and through the canon, a short-cut he had 
 taken on foot in preference to riding the tortuous 
 trail round the spur of the mountain.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 197 
 
 After lunching and looking carefully through 
 every room of the lodge, he stepped out and glanced 
 about the clearing. The air of the high-walled 
 canon was still and oppressive. He walked slowly, 
 following the sound of an axe. 
 
 This was the last of the most trying week of all 
 his life. This very night yet, he would go to the 
 Lower Ranch out of hearing of the whistle, out of 
 sight of the smoke of that out-going train Monday 
 He felt that he had reached the limit of endurance, 
 the last faint boundary between restraint and indul- 
 gence, the crumbling verge of all control. 
 
 How beautiful she was! what eyes, what a voice, 
 what a Cupid's bow of a mouth. The lines went 
 gliding through his mind : 
 
 " A man had given all other bliss, 
 And all his worldly worth for this, 
 To waste his whole heart in one kiss 
 Upon her perfect lips." 
 
 She had been unusually quiet during the ride 
 home last night, unaccountably so to him who knew 
 her so well. But not being able to see her face and 
 thus to read her mood, he too had kept discretely 
 silent. Perhaps she had been tired, perhaps a bit 
 sad at thought of leaving home. And he wondered 
 was there one regretful thought for their happy 
 childhood, now passed ?
 
 198 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 They had not reached Eldhurst until very late. 
 He had chosen not to return by the sledge path 
 which would have been hazardous after dark; and 
 the public road was many miles longer than the 
 short-cut. The lights were out at the House when 
 they stopped at the block. Was it a fancy that 
 she had clung to him ever so slightly as he lifted 
 her from the saddle? Even yet he could feel her 
 little hands on his shoulders, and the recollection 
 thrilled him through and through. Was it a fancy 
 that the kindness in her voice was for once unmixed 
 with condescension as she had thanked him when he 
 opened the door and lighted a taper for her? 
 
 She had said merely good-night, not good-bye, 
 though he would not see her for a year. Parting 
 from him meant no more to her than parting from 
 Bonita or the Bernards; while he he had lain 
 awake half the remaining night-hours musing upon 
 the mystic beauty of her face, his last sight of it 
 by the dim light, recalling the chance touch of her 
 fingers as he had placed the candle in them. 
 
 And over and over the experiences of the day 
 had passed through his sleepless soul, every change 
 in her child-eyes, every turn of her lithe body. And 
 his dream ! He was holding some one on the verge 
 of an extinct volcano over-shadowed by dead cotton- 
 woods, his eyes blinded by a too near candle, while 
 all the air smelled like a woman's hair; and he had
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 199 
 
 awakened weary from vain efforts to get away from 
 some one or something. 
 
 Well, he had " tried," Edwin Allan, he had 
 " tried." And now, thanks be to God, he was out 
 of the wilderness of temptation. He stopped, re- 
 moved his hat, pushed back his thick hair and took 
 a deep breath of the sweet mountain air. 
 
 Ah, it was well she was going, well in more ways 
 than one. Did she think they were children still, 
 could always remain children? How reckless, how 
 indiscreet she was. If she remained, there would 
 be a rude awakening for her ; it was inevitable. Sup- 
 posing she had heard that snatch of talk between 
 two of the stablemen this morning as he had heard 
 it? It had run something like this: 
 
 " Got in purty late las' night, didn't he? " That 
 was the trainer's voice. 
 
 " I'd have been a darned sight later 'an he was, 
 if I'd had such company." That was Sam's voice. 
 
 " A w, Sam, she didn't go 'way up there with 
 him. I seen him start alone; and when I saddled 
 f'r her, long time afterward, she put off straight f'r 
 the town road." 
 
 " Oh, she did. Well, he must have turned back 
 an' overtook her somehow er other, cause they got 
 in together. Reckon I orto know. Who sleeps in 
 hyere, huh ? Thought he was mighty foxy a-takin' 
 her to the House fust an' a-doin' his own unsaddlin'.
 
 200 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 But nobody gits in Eldhurst stables without Sammie 
 a-knowin' it. An' I come down, an' there was 
 Bonita in the stall with Bayonne, both wet where 
 the saddles had been. So now ! " 
 
 " Wall, what of it, young 'un ? Hain't her and 
 Paul been trottin' round this ranch together ever 
 sence they was knee-high? Reckon he kin take 
 care of her." 
 
 Sam laughed insinuatingly. "Oh, shore thing! 
 An' some of these days the Boss'll wake up an' find 
 he's got a son-in-law. Find he'd more'n that, if that 
 little beauty tagged me round like she does 
 Menendez." 
 
 " Git o-u-t, you fool ! 'S though she'd look twice 
 at him. Why, she's goin' to marry the tenderfoot, 
 DeLacy. Ruth told me so." 
 
 " It's you that's the fool, an' Ruth an' the tender- 
 foot an' the Boss whole shootin'-match. You'll 
 see. Leastwise if I was in Paul's shoes, you'd see. 
 Ain't much I wouldn't do to show them damned 
 Eldreths they ain't so bang-up as they think. Paul 
 won't, maybe; but 'twon't be because he can't. Put 
 Mr. Richard in his place with as pretty a girl an' 
 what would happen huh ? " And again that in- 
 sinuating laugh. 
 
 At this point Paul had confronted the two, and 
 the frightened stable boy had successively apolo- 
 gized, begged and made promises for the future.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 201 
 
 But Paul, sick at heart, had been forced to the point 
 of thanking God that she was going so soon and for 
 so long a time, he who but a week ago had been 
 praying God to stop the sun and stars in their 
 courses. 
 
 " Hello, Davis," he shouted, espying the keeper 
 of the lodge. 
 
 The old man dropped his axe and took off his hat. 
 
 " Hi thought you'd be 'ere before long, sir," in 
 the soft voice usual to the semi-deaf. 
 
 " I see Sam has come and gone, and that the 
 lodge is O. K. for Mr. Eldreth's party next week. 
 Now there's nothing but the ammunition, and then 
 we'll go up the gulches to the traps. Guess I'll stay 
 all night. Feels like a storm." 
 
 " Then you 'aven't seen 'er, sir? " 
 
 " Seen whom ? " But his own quickening heart 
 answered him swiftly. 
 
 There was a grin on the old man's face as he re- 
 plied : " Why, the Boss's girl, to be sure. There 
 she goes into the lodge now with a load of flowers." 
 
 Paul looked at him frowningly. That grin and 
 the insinuating tone angered him. He wondered 
 how many more quarrels he should have on her 
 behalf before the week was over. He said with 
 all the severe dignity he could put into a shout : 
 
 " I'll speak with her, Davis, and rejoin you in a 
 few minutes, when we'll go to the snares up thej 
 gulches."
 
 202 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 He found her down on the bear-skin before the 
 big fire-place, her swirling white skirts half 
 smothered with kinnikinic and cedar-sprigs. Her 
 too-transparent dress was of white, soft and volu- 
 minous. The waist and sleeves were shockingly 
 thin, showing her creamy skin through more webby, 
 airy stuff underneath, cross-barred with strips of 
 nothing and threaded with ghosts of white ribbons 
 all of which he very much feared could not have 
 been intended for mortal eyes, but for the life of 
 him he couldn't help looking. Scarlet ribbon bound 
 her slim waist and fastened the end of her heavy 
 braid. She seemed wholly and absolutely uncon- 
 scious of the presence of an intruder, so he had time 
 for a full minute of breathless looking before, 
 smiling and dimpling, she glanced up. 
 
 " You here, Senoritof Why, how nice! " 
 
 But his glance was full of grave remonstrance 
 now, and his mouth twice graver than his eyes. 
 He was silent, and the silences of some persons can 
 mean so much. Almost they were changing places, 
 that he should even imply a rebuke to her. She 
 sprang up and stood regarding him haughtily. 
 
 " Pray, is this not Eldhurst lodge?" she ques- 
 tioned, " Was I, Lilys Eldreth, supposed to know 
 that you would be sent here? Haven't I the right 
 to all Eldhurst without stopping to ask where its 
 employes may be at work? "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 203 
 
 As yet he had not spoken. She was accusing 
 herself. A pained expression came into his steady 
 blue eyes as they looked into her proud obstinate 
 face. He lifted his hand in deprecation and turned 
 silently away. 
 
 Her mood changed instantly. She came toward 
 him, searching his unreadable face. 
 
 " Is it that you have work and don't want a girl 
 around to bother? Do you ' sorto suffocate to be 
 alone'?" 
 
 Not want her ! Oh, that faint boundary line, that 
 crumbling verge ! 
 
 " Not that," he denied, hastily retreating, " but I 
 hear horsemen at the entrance of the canon, and I 
 have two or three hours' work with Davis. You 
 are not afraid here alone ? " 
 
 " Oh no. I will arrange the flowers. But you 
 must hurry back. Slight something; and we'll 
 read and sing, if the old piano's in tune. There'll be 
 half an afternoon and we'll have one more little good 
 time, won't we? " 
 
 " Won't we? " she insisted as he walked away to 
 a safer distance from all those cross-bars and ghosts 
 of ribbons. For answer he smiled back at her with 
 unconscious tenderness in his eyes. 
 
 When, some two hours later, he approached the 
 lodge from the rear, he heard voices at the front. 
 He entered the back door, traversed the rooms and
 
 204 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 paused at sound of his own name in Richard Eld- 
 reth's sneering- voice. Lilys was standing in the 
 front door, her brother was outside on horseback, 
 and now she was saying defiantly : 
 
 " I will not. I prefer to return with Paul. You 
 are in no condition to escort a lady, just back from 
 Denver as you are, and I dare say Bert DeLacy is 
 no better. So you may as well go on. What if it 
 storms? Why, I'll stay here if it pleases me." 
 
 A drunken laugh sounded, with something about 
 it being sure to please her, and something else about 
 her father. 
 
 " Go right home, and tell Papa the minute he 
 comes in the morning. I don't care. Tell him I 
 planned the rain and came on purpose to stay. I'd 
 stay now, Dix Eldreth, if you had the carriage right 
 here at the door. . It's my own business, and I'll 
 stay a week if I like, see if I don't ! " 
 
 All of Richard's parting shot he could not hear, 
 as the horse was pawing and stamping, and the 
 rising wind moaned ; but he caught the words " low- 
 born lover " and something about admiring her taste 
 for Greasers, as with another drunken laugh, the 
 man rode swiftly away. 
 
 The two faced each other in the sitting-room. 
 His brow had cleared, his eyes were smiling. Why 
 not, since the offender was beyond reach? Her 
 cheeks burned two angry crimson spots and on her
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 205 
 
 face such an indescribable expression, such a com- 
 mingling of new and strong emotions. 
 
 She went to the mantel and with her forehead 
 down upon the sharp edge, leaned there, her breast 
 heaving with suppressed feeling. He hesitated a 
 moment, looked at his watch, then walked to the 
 open door and studied the sky. 
 
 A great cloud, white at first, was puffing and boil- 
 ing up over the range, trailing off toward the 
 south, its dark shadow following beneath from 
 peak to peak. While he stood, the cloud-curtain 
 changed to a dull gray, then to dark blue, and 
 faint lightnings began to vein it. The sun dropped 
 behind the granite wall and the little clearing lay 
 plunged in the shadow of both mountain and cloud. 
 The rain was close, but his resolve was taken. 
 
 " Lilys, where did you leave Bonita? You must 
 be starting at once. You will barely escape the 
 rain by swift riding." 
 
 The girl sank into the nearest chair, covering her 
 face. " I came with Sam and sent him back," she 
 groaned, " Oh, I ..." And she sat clasping and 
 unclasping her small distracted hands. 
 
 "You did not bring Bonita? And there's not 
 another horse in reach, for I walked." Then noting 
 her distress and shame, he came to her and his 
 voice was as tender and soothing as a mother's to 
 her child : " Never mind, Little Mistress, I can get
 
 206 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 you home in time, and these won't be the first wet 
 miles we've measured together. Thank the Lord, 
 you're a flesh-and-blood Western girl and not a wax 
 doll. Get your hat, and be quick ! " 
 
 She obeyed him, with never a word about re- 
 maining there with old Davis, nor about the one 
 more little good time. He caught up the wrap she 
 had forgotten and followed her into the porch. 
 She stood watching while he fastened the door with 
 some difficulty against the increasing wind. She 
 looked the lodge over, and her companion and the 
 surroundings with a strange sensation at her heart. 
 The noisy brook seemed speaking with tongues; 
 the winds prophesying. Was it all a premonition 
 of the time when next they should stand on the 
 same spot, of all the changes between this hour 
 and that? Who shall say?
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DAWN. 
 
 THEY walked rapidly down the trail that swung 
 in and out and downward with the erratic meander- 
 ings of the little stream. The cloud had overspread 
 the sky and settled earthward, unfolding its volumi- 
 nous robes to the rising wind. The air grew chilly 
 with suggestions of dampness. The thunder grum- 
 bled distantly, and thousands of unhappy spirits 
 moaned through the pines and aspens. 
 
 Once he stopped to fold about her the extra 
 wrap he had caught up in starting, and she sub- 
 mitted passively, holding up her chin that he might 
 hook the clasp, but avoiding his eyes. Once he 
 asked was he walking too fast for her, and she 
 shook her head in silence. At the canon's entrance 
 where the footpath crossed the bridgeless stream, 
 he unceremoniously picked her up and without a 
 word carried her over the stepping-stones. 
 
 Out in the foot-hills it was lighter, but the wind 
 had fuller sweep and their progress was slower. 
 He took her arm and hurried her forward. Just 
 round the hill ahead, he reminded her, the buildings 
 of Eldhurst could be seen, the Rectory and Mr,
 
 208 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Howard's, but his mother's cottage was nearest, 
 on the next side hill, and he would take her there 
 till the rain was over. 
 
 For the rain was treading upon their heels. Sharp 
 lightnings rent the increasing gloom and warning 
 drops splashed round them. Beyond the hill they 
 were skirting and just at the foot of the one lead- 
 ing up to Marah's cottage, there was a huge over- 
 hanging ledge of rocks sheltering a hollow, cave- 
 like space beneath, no matter what the wind's di- 
 rection. Both knew of Hanging Rock, for they 
 were familiar with every foot of the country. They 
 gained it, as the rain came flooding down. 
 
 " You'd think I was brought up in Gotham, the 
 way I judge the approach of a mountain thunder- 
 storm," he said as he drew her under shelter of the 
 ledge, " Poor girl ! What a tramp I have given 
 you. Are you very tired? Are you cold? Want 
 my coat ? " 
 
 She shook her head, leaning away from him 
 against the back wall. He stood near the front, 
 looking ruefully out upon the steady downpour. 
 
 " See the deluge. Or, to be classical, ' Hark 
 you now! Would any but these boiled brains of 
 nineteen and two-and-twenty hunt this weather ? ' 
 Nineteen and two-and-twenty those limits include 
 both of us. But we're well punished for ' hunting 
 such weather/ For I'm afraid we are here for
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 209 
 
 awhile. But this hill drains quickly and the moment 
 it gives us the chance, we'll make one more little 
 run to mother's. Just now we'll have to make the 
 best of it. I know you're not afraid of thunder 
 and lightning." 
 
 He was devoutly wishing she were afraid ; for in 
 that case she would have to hide her eyes some- 
 where and .... All the while he was talking on 
 so carelessly, he was looking at her lovely face 
 in the half light, was thinking: "A man had 
 given all other bliss." Yes, all, everything. " And 
 all his worldly worth for this " Aye, this world's 
 worth and the next world's too, if he had any. 
 " To waste his whole heart in one kiss " Indeed, 
 
 yes, waste, squander, forfeit! One, only 
 
 one. This was the last hour, of the last day, of the 
 last of life for him. There was no tomorrow. Ah, 
 that trembling verge on which he stood was threat- 
 ened with a landslide. Those eyes, that mouth of 
 hers they would make a man forget promises, 
 consequences, honor itself. They would tempt the 
 glorified risen, and he was a mere man her father's 
 hired man, he told himself bitterly. . . . Yet one, 
 ONE, though the mountains "fall the next instant. 
 He turned toward her 
 
 " Paul, do you know why I went to the lodge 
 today?" 
 
 She too had been thinking confused thoughts.
 
 210 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 She was rushing to her life-crisis, her great heart- 
 dawn, at once an awakening and a revelation. But 
 the thickest darkness precedes the dawn, and just 
 now she was groping and stumbling in that dark- 
 ness. 
 
 All the way down her brother's taunts kept re- 
 peating themselves. Paul, her lover! An insult! 
 Yet the idea dyed her face and warmed her heart 
 with the same mysterious, delicious thrill that his 
 touch had given her. Lover, lover! No, no, she 
 would protest one moment, he with all his learning, 
 his goodness, his greatness of soul he could not 
 love her. Then she would hear that drunken sneer 
 " lowborn," and no, no, he with his parentage, his 
 tainted blood, his social standing, he dared not; the 
 thought was degrading. But did he? In all these 
 years, had the thought ever so much as suggested 
 itself to him ? Oh, she must know, she must this 
 mother's daughter of Eve. Hence her question. 
 
 "Was there any special reason?" he answered 
 half-wistfully. The momentary madness had 
 passed. He had been crushed so often. How could 
 he be presumptuous? 
 
 " Yes," and she watched keenly for a change in 
 his strong face, with long pauses between her state- 
 ments, " I knew you would be there . . . and I 
 wanted to ask your advice about about Mr. De- 
 Lacy."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 211 
 
 Positively, there was not a sign of betrayal in 
 face nor voice as, recoiling slightly, he said stead- 
 ily: 
 
 " Your uncle's advice would be far better than 
 mine." 
 
 Silence then; and she was no wiser for her " justi- 
 fiable lie." The darkness was just as deep, the 
 groping and the stumbling just as hopeless. 
 
 During the long silence, the cloud broke and the 
 rain ceased with the abruptness characteristic of 
 the climate and the season. Neither made a move 
 to go ; each was afraid the other would do so. He 
 was thinking that these were the last moments he 
 could be near her ever, perhaps; was fighting de- 
 spair itself. She was meditating how she might 
 know if he had ever dared to think of her as other 
 than his master's daughter; and if he had, how she 
 might break that fine self-command of his. There 
 were ways. 
 
 " We did not have our one more little good time 
 after all, did we, Paul ? " There was a pathetic 
 half-tenderness in her tone as she lingered over his 
 name. 
 
 He locked his hands fast before him and looked at 
 her steadily, the pain in his eyes deepening till 
 she grew dim before him. He made her no reply. 
 
 " Why don't you ask me to sing for you now, 
 here, one last song, one wee new song with such
 
 212 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 a ripply, crinkly waltz-air and such rare wicked 
 words. I am going away for a year, Paul for 
 a whole year." 
 
 " My God ! " he whispered under his breath, then 
 turned aside and stood silent, erect, white-faced. 
 She moved slowly toward him, into range of his 
 vision. Her hat was down her back, her wrap over 
 her arm and her hair blowing loose from its braid. 
 Then her voice, with all its witching sweetness, the 
 compelling power of an undertone he had never 
 heard in it, enhanced by their half-wild surround- 
 ings and accompanied by the drip-dripping of the 
 raindrops : 
 
 The Warm Wind kisses the Rose of May, 
 
 So daring ! 
 She turns not away, nor says him nay, 
 
 Who's caring ? 
 
 For buds will blow and winds must go, 
 If he comes not back, who'll know, who'll know 
 That she lay caressed on the Wind's warm breast ? 
 
 If he dares, who cares ? 
 
 The bold Wave kisses the Lily's mouth, 
 
 So daring ! 
 Though she knows he is fleeing away to the south, 
 
 Who's caring ? 
 
 For buds will blow and streams must flow, 
 He will ne'er come back. . Who'll know, who'll know 
 That she lay so fair on his bosom bare ? 
 
 If he dares, who cares ?
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 213 
 
 My Love he kisses me while he may, 
 
 So daring ! 
 I turn not away nor say him nay, 
 
 Who's caring ? 
 
 For lips will glow and my Love must go 
 As the wind and the wave. Who'll know, who'll know 
 That I reeled with bliss 'neath my Love's warm kiss ? 
 
 If he dares, who cares ? 
 
 Then only the rhythmic drip-drop of the rain, and 
 the beating of their own hearts. 
 
 Obedient to some power, both turned at the 
 same instant and looked breathlessly into each 
 other's eyes. Her head was thrown back, her 
 glance sifting up through half-closed lids; her lips 
 were parted, a wine-cup undrained ; her magnificent 
 hair (loosened whether by the wind's will or by her 
 own you must say) drifted about her white dress 
 like a dusky mantle, its passionate incense assailing 
 his nostrils. She was temptation incarnate; as fair 
 and 
 
 " Young 
 As Eve with nature's daybreak on her face." 
 
 And in all the great universe there were but 
 themselves and the mystery of descending night. 
 
 There was not a yard's saving space between 
 them. Something told him that the space must be 
 kept a dull something, akin to self-preservation. 
 He was trembling like the mountain aspen. The
 
 214 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 capacity for thought and action seemed to have 
 deserted him. There was a monotonous humming 
 in his ears. He experienced the dumb rage of the 
 starving animal tantalized by present, yet forbidden, 
 food. He tried to turn away, to look away, but in- 
 stead they were approaching each other as though 
 
 impelled, and he realized it Of a sudden the 
 
 blood leaped to his face. He snatched both her 
 hands, clutching them with unconscious fierceness, 
 and drew her swiftly to him. 
 
 But with a little inarticulate cry, she wrenched 
 from his hold and recoiled against the farthest wall, 
 flushing, quivering, shaken to the depths, one hand 
 flung up between them. He saw in her attitude 
 only the queen insulted; in her eyes only the un- 
 quenchable flame of pride mounting and consuming 
 all other expression. 
 
 This was the end, then ! He almost dragged her 
 from their shelter and on up the slope toward his 
 mother's cottage. 
 
 This was the end then! Out of the chaos of her 
 emotions she grasped one unmistakably, now. In 
 that fragment of time when he had drawn her to- 
 ward him, all but into his arms, her vision had been 
 cleared wholly. The darkness had flown. The cur- 
 tain of spirit had been lifted; the veil of sex had 
 been rent. She, the girl no longer, read her wo- 
 man's heart at last. Bent on drawing the truth
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 215 
 
 from him, she had wrenched it from herself; and 
 she knew, without the shadow of a doubt why she 
 did not want to go away, whom she did not want 
 to leave. 
 
 " Low-born." True. A fleeting vision of that 
 hideous tree swam before her. The humiliation, 
 the degradation came crushingly to her proud heart. 
 Yet over and above this feeling rose one far 
 stronger, a mad, uncontrollable desire for the close 
 strong clasp of his arms, as they had folded her 
 yesterday on the cliff's edge, but once more now, 
 And after that, what mattered anything? 
 
 But her thoughts were growing more confused, 
 more inextricable. He cared nothing. . . He had 
 not half yielded, even after her song, that shameless 
 song. . . . And now, a few more steps, and they 
 must part, PART ! And she loved him, O God ! how 
 she loved him ! The hills wavered and reeled about 
 her; it grew cold and .... so dark. 
 
 He turned solicitously as she stopped and stood, 
 her hands over her face. The wind whipped her 
 full skirts around him, her long hair across his 
 breast. She uncovered her face and lifted her eyes, 
 her lips voicelessly framing his name. Then she 
 swayed forward and he caught her up from her 
 feet. 
 
 Pushing open the cottage door and passing his 
 surprised mother, he carried the girl on into his 
 own room.
 
 216 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 When Marah struck a light and followed, she 
 found him sitting on the side of the bed with Lilys 
 folded close to his breast. But when the light re- 
 vealed the closed eyes, the corpse-like pallor of her 
 face against the blackness of her disheveled hair, 
 he started up, exclaiming: 
 
 " Mother ! She is dying" 
 
 " Fool ! " cried Marah, "haven't you sense enough 
 to lay a fainting girl down? What is it you have 
 said and done? Or," with a keen glance into his 
 face, " is it that you haven't said it, haven't done 
 it ? Give her to me. She will not die. They never 
 can when they want to. They live, and live and 
 live." 
 
 He laid her tenderly among the pillows, leaned 
 yearning above her for an instant; then the last 
 floodgate of his control gave way. With a groan 
 he fell beside the bed, gathering her to him again, 
 his face down in the swirl of her hair, his strong 
 frame shaken by a passion of silent sobs. 
 
 His mother stood regarding the tableau, her 
 hands on her hips, evil laughter in her eyes. She 
 was too experienced a nurse to feel anxiety ; already 
 she saw signs of recovery from the slight swoon. 
 Her laugh sounded, and with the coarseness that 
 so often came to the surface of her nature, she said : 
 
 " Well, hugging won't cure her when she don't 
 know what you're doing. You're pretty late in
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 217 
 
 the day with it. You couldn't keep her up to the 
 Lodge with you oh no! you must drag her down 
 here to me." 
 
 She muttered something else and left the room. 
 She closed the door noisily, but re-opened it softly, 
 just a crack, and applied an eager, gloating eye. 
 
 She saw him lift his head, withdraw his arms 
 and come slowly to his feet, though " his father's 
 look " was on his face as he stood gazing down, 
 the loving man, upon the sleeping woman, how 
 hungrily, how passionately! But the look passed 
 at once and there came the old brooding tender- 
 ness, sad, resigned, almost solemn. She saw him 
 bend, his hands fast-locked before him, and lean 
 close, as though committing the unconscious face, 
 feature by feature, to memory. 
 
 And this was all the eager, gloating eye saw. For 
 when the girl sighed and was about to open her 
 eyes, he turned hastily and retreated through the 
 outer door. 
 
 And a few minutes later they heard the swift beat 
 of horse's hoofs on the road to the Lower Ranch.
 
 218 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE GENTLEMAN AND THE HIRED MAN. 
 
 ONE warm evening toward the end of summer, 
 his day's work done, Paul was walking from the 
 House toward home. With his thoughts two thou- 
 sand miles east, he stopped at the group of out- 
 cropping rocks known as Red Cliff, leaned and be- 
 gan feeling for cigar and matches, when he was 
 startled by a voice from the interior of the rock- 
 cluster, a man's angry voice, which said : 
 
 " You are late again. I'm no sheep-herder to be 
 kept waiting like this, with guests at the House." 
 
 And Richard Eldreth emerged from the narrow 
 entrance, so close that the young men were literally 
 eye to eye. Both were surprised ; one of them em- 
 barrassed; but neither apologized, and for the in- 
 stant neither moved. Then Richard stooped to pick 
 up his hat, saying carelessly as he brushed it with 
 his handkerchief : 
 
 " Ah, Menendez. I took you for some one else." 
 
 " So I judge," returned the other drily. He had 
 drawn a cigar from one pocket, his knife from an- 
 other, and was cutting the cigar-tip with pains- 
 taking care. His companion watched through an
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 219 
 
 irritated silence while he wasted two matches. The 
 third match proving itself, the smoker calmly seated 
 himself upon the flat rock near the entrance and 
 leaned back with a sigh of satisfaction. 
 
 " You're wanted at the office," remarked Richard, 
 still with assumed carelessness, glancing at his com- 
 panion with languid toleration. 
 
 Paul smoked on placidly. 
 
 " Sure. Greaser up there the governor can't 
 talk to, and it's none of my funeral." 
 
 "Where's Pepito?" 
 
 " How in hell should I know ? " 
 
 Richard flicked some dust from the knee of his 
 trousers, then walked the semi-enclosure twice, his 
 hands in his pockets, observing from the corner of 
 his eye the movements of the serene smoker. But 
 noting that it was an entire absence of movement, 
 he turned and announced sharply : 
 
 " I can get along without your company see ? " 
 
 Paul nursed one knee with his clasped hands and 
 looked up at the sky. His companion's fists un- 
 closed, then closed, and his voice quivered : 
 
 " You heard me." 
 
 " Richard," said Paul slowly, " when I stopped 
 here I thought I was alone. But now you are 
 here, and I know why." 
 
 "Well, what's it to you?" 
 
 " Nothing ; except what it would be to any man."
 
 220 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 "Any meddler, you mean; and I'll show you 
 what happens to the breed when they poke into 
 the wrong man's business," threateningly. 
 
 Paul made himself more comfortable against the 
 rock. His companion took a stride nearer, his face 
 and neck an angry red. 
 
 " You'll go or take consequences." 
 
 The other smiled. Evidently he would take con- 
 sequences. Richard stood, nervously pushing up 
 first one cuff and then the other as he scanned the 
 coarse-clothed, muscular figure before him. Then 
 he turned impatiently aside. 
 
 " You hired men always have the advantage, 
 since gentlemen can not meet you on equal terms. 
 Arid this is not the first time you've dodged behind 
 your hireling's position to insult those above you. 
 You even threatened my friend and guest, De- 
 Lacy." 
 
 The accused seemed singularly undisturbed under 
 this serious charge. 
 
 " He told me afterward of your bullying, but 
 of course he would not soil his hands with you." 
 
 Only a lift of the eyebrows and a meditative 
 wreath of smoke. 
 
 " And I know why you threatened him. You 
 were afraid she'd get out of your sight half a day; 
 that she might learn a bit of high life among her 
 equals."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 221 
 
 He paused. How much further might he 'go? 
 The face before him was calm, though ashen. It 
 did not sufficiently warn him. 
 
 " But she stayed to learn a bit of low life, it 
 seems, under your virtuous protection." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " The tone was low 
 and even, though the eyes would have been suf- 
 ficient check to one less reckless. 
 
 " You didn't take her to the Lodge late one 
 stormy day that same week, dismiss Sam and stay 
 the night oh no ! " 
 
 Paul came to his feet with a bound. 
 
 " That's a lie and you know it." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ? Well, she didn't deny it when I 
 threw it at her next day; seemed proud of the dis- 
 tinction. So you might be man enough to " 
 
 A clutch of steel shut the remainder in his throat, 
 and a face with burning eyes and pale lips swam 
 before his vision as he was forced backward, down- 
 ward. 
 
 "Say it's a lie," breathed the pale lips; but he 
 was demanding an impossibility. " Keep her name 
 out of this, keep it out, I tell you," crushing the 
 head against the rock by way of repeated emphasis. 
 Then, his control returning, he relaxed his hold 
 and straightened. 
 
 " Get up ! " he commanded sternly. 
 
 The other obeyed sullenly, his face livid from rage 
 and other causes.
 
 222 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " She is your sister, and if you haven't common 
 decency, I'll teach you some. Now don't speak her 
 name again don't do it!" 
 
 Richard leaned against the rock till breath re- 
 turned, then he shook himself as though freed from 
 contamination itself. 
 
 " You keep your dirty hands off me," he panted, 
 " or " 
 
 The brothers took further measure of one an- 
 other across the narrow space, and the pause was 
 biting. The only sign of emotion in the younger 
 was in the fingers that tugged at the collar of his 
 flannel shirt as though it was too tight for him. 
 The vigilant eye he kept upon the elder seemed war- 
 ranted, for it discovered a hand moving stealthily 
 toward the hip pocket. 
 
 " I wouldn't do that, Eldreth," he advised. 
 Detected, the other laughed unpleasantly: 
 
 " Oh, this is your turn all right ; but my turn 
 will come, and then, Paul Menendez ' 
 
 Paul was taking another cigar from his pocket. 
 He was again self-master. His tone was quiet as 
 he said: 
 
 " You are right. In the present little matter the 
 advantage is with the hired man. Act the gentle- 
 man, then, and go." 
 
 " I'm damned if I will." 
 
 Paul's shrug of the shoulders said, " As you like." 
 He sat down again on the flat rock.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 223 
 
 " Stay and be hanged. What good will it do? " 
 
 His companion glanced up in the act of scratching 
 a match. " When the girl comes she will go with 
 me." 
 
 " With you, you!" with scornful incredulity. 
 
 " We will prove it if you have the nerve." 
 
 " Ah," taunted the other, " I was not aware that 
 I had the honor; didn't know . . ." and he fin- 
 ished in the vilest manner, in the foulest language 
 imaginable. 
 
 Paul threw him a glance of profound contempt, 
 then settled into his half-reclining attitude. 
 
 Silence fell between them. Richard readjusted 
 his elegant, but somewhat dusty, attire and leaned, 
 jauntily humming a snatch of light opera and ignor- 
 ing his companion. 
 
 Presently there was a light step, the crackle of 
 starched petticoats and the pronounced odor of 
 cheap perfume. 
 
 " Mr. Richard, is you there? " whisperingly. 
 
 "Yes; come." 
 
 The girl's figure appeared, a light shawl over the 
 head and about the face. 
 
 " I could not get away " 
 
 She stopped short as, pulling off the shawl, she 
 espied two men instead of one. 
 
 Richard came to her with easy confidence. " This 
 place seems to be infested with loafers. We'll go 
 elsewhere."
 
 224 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Paul arose and came slowly forward, throwing 
 away his cigar. The girl lifted him a startled look, 
 then shrank against the rock away from both of 
 them, her eyes traveling from one to the other. 
 Richard was, for the first time, shaken from his as- 
 surance by her expression of face. He caught her 
 roughly by the shoulder. 
 
 " Come," he said commandingly. 
 
 The shawl dropped from her nerveless hands ; she 
 hid her face and burst into sudden tears. Both 
 men waited, the hand of one, the eyes of both upon 
 her. By and by she left off crying and uncovered 
 a face that went red and pale by turns as she looked 
 at first the one and then the other. 
 
 " Come ! " whispered her lover, his fingers press- 
 ing into her shoulder significantly. 
 
 The other stooped and picked up her shawl, then 
 silently extended his hand to her. 
 
 She pushed the hair from her eyes with both 
 hands, again looked waveringly from one to the 
 other, then slowly gave her hand to Paul.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 225 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 RICHARD SCORES EVEN. 
 
 As Richard, muttering fervent but impotent oaths, 
 was nearing the House, his father called to him 
 from the veranda where several men sat smoking. 
 
 " Dick, go into the office, won't you, and dispose 
 of that Mexican? He's waiting yet. Sorry to 
 trouble you, but he will not go, and we're none of 
 us Spaniards enough to make out more than ' Eld- 
 hurst ' and ' Mexico ' and ' veinte y uno ' twenty- 
 one, I take it. Pepito's never in sight when he's 
 wanted, and I guess Paul's gone home." 
 
 " Saw the foreman up at Red Cliff just now with 
 that Andersen girl. Told him you needed him." 
 
 " Maybe she needed him," laughed one of the 
 men. 
 
 Eldhurst rose. " Well, rid us of the Mexican, 
 Dick, then join us in the billiard room; that is, if 
 you're prepared for Waterloo. Wentworth's got 
 on his fighting clothes, to say nothing of Warrior 
 Nolan and yours truly." 
 
 When Richard entered the office, a slight figure 
 rose and came from a far corner. He was a swarthy
 
 226 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 man of perhaps fifty. He wore corduroys and an 
 embroidered coat much the worse for the white 
 dust of the Colorado roads. He had about him an 
 air of simplicity, yet of gentility as well, and his 
 obeisance, while that of the low caste Mexican, car- 
 ried a certain superiority. The conversation was in 
 Spanish, very pure on the part of the stranger, who 
 began by asking a thousand pardons, but was he 
 upon the noble estates known as Eldhurst. 
 
 He was. 
 
 And, craving an additional pardon, but the owner 
 could he have the honor of one little word with 
 the owner ? 
 
 He was addressing the owner. 
 
 The stranger bowed again, very low, with a 
 sweep of the peaked hat. Ah, then, his long, weari- 
 some journey would not be vain, for the informa- 
 tion he sought was at hand. Here he drew nearer 
 and lowered his voice. He sought one, or two, it 
 was hoped, of the name of Menendez. It was very 
 desirable that he should find them. 
 
 The other's face was expressionless. He turned 
 carelessly and closed the door, then faced about 
 and scanned his companion rapidly, speculatively. 
 Menendez? Menendez? The name was somewhat 
 familiar to the owner of Eldhurst, but what of 
 it? 
 
 The stranger pressed eagerly nearer, yet his
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 227 
 
 speech was markedly guarded. One known as Man- 
 uel Menendez, dead now some twenty-one years, 
 had left a wife and a child, whether girl or boy the 
 stranger knew not; but he would learn of them. 
 The senor need not fear. He brought them good, 
 only good. 
 
 At that his hearer shook his head. He was sorry, 
 but the seeker was on the wrong track. 
 
 Why, was this not Eldhurst? 
 
 Ay, and he the owner. But no Spanish families 
 lived in the neighborhood, and he knew all of his 
 workers by name, was in close touch with them. He 
 employed no Mexicans; only Swedes and a few 
 Irish. But hold ! that name he had heard it in 
 connection with Oakhurst, a large estate in the San 
 Luis valley in Southern Colorado, which was doubt- 
 less the place sought. The names were so similar. 
 
 The stranger wavered. Eldhurst surely he had 
 not been mistaken. 
 
 He had certainly been misinformed. Oakhurst 
 was in the heart of the sheep country, where all 
 the employes were Mexican. It was there that he, 
 Eldhurst's owner, had heard the name Menendez 
 if that was the name. Was not the death of this 
 man somewhat . . . er . . sudden, unexpected? 
 
 The stranger's eyes lowered. He bowed his af- 
 firmative. His emotion was unmistakable. 
 
 Then it was the same, a story but dimly remem-
 
 228 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 bered. No, he knew no details, save that there had 
 been a ... in the West it was termed a lynching; 
 and he was quite sure that the man had never mar- 
 ried. But the owner of Oakhurst, if he, Eldreth, 
 were mentioned, would do all in his power for the 
 seeker. No, it was not a great distance; the train 
 at Boulder, change at Denver, then Monte Vista, 
 the nearest railway point to Oakhurst. Was that 
 all? 
 
 Richard had stood during the entire conversation. 
 Now he moved toward the door. The stranger fol- 
 lowed reluctantly, sighing " Dios miol" more than 
 once. 
 
 At the door he stopped and stood with bowed 
 head. He was no longer young, scnorito. He had 
 traveled weary miles. His mule was worn. He 
 himself was very sad, very heavy of heart, where he 
 had been so sure he would return light of heart. 
 He had promised glad tidings to those near to him, 
 but he had been misinformed, misguided, befooled 
 he, the bearer of good, only good. 
 
 His hearer was sorry, but twenty years are a 
 long time. Doubtless he would not know descend- 
 ants, should he find any. 
 
 Ah, but he would know. Any false claimant 
 must show the ring, the shield ring which must 
 still be preserved, since it was not . . . since it 
 had not been on. . . Then he floundered hopelessly.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 229 
 
 Richard had listened politely. Now he opened 
 the door. He had guests who were awaiting him. 
 Again he was sorry. 
 
 The stranger looked old and bent as he passed 
 wearily out. He staggered once, and kept mutter- 
 ing to himself, " Vestigia milla retrorsum! " 
 
 On the steps of the veranda he turned and bowed 
 low to the " owner " of Eldhurst, with a thousand 
 pardons for the intrusion, a thousand thanks for 
 his kindness, for which God would reward him. He 
 bowed with sweeping inclusion to the other senors, 
 then walked with slow dignity to the block and 
 mounted his drooping little mule. 
 
 Richard waited till mule and rider had passed 
 from sight, then turned with a sigh of genuine re- 
 lief. 
 
 His father laughed. " Struck a snag, did you, 
 with his 'Mexico' and his ' one-and-twenty ' ? " 
 
 " Mighty near. Didn't know my Spanish was so 
 rusty." 
 
 " Old chap had the manners of a prince," put in 
 Wentworth, the newspaper man, alertly. " What 
 was that he kept chanting to himself as he bowed 
 himself out?" 
 
 " Oh, something about not taking any backward 
 steps. Harry's nothing if not a reporter," and Rich- 
 ard winked at Nolan, " always copy-hunting for 
 that precious yellow sheet. No copy this time.
 
 230 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Your ' prince ' was fresh from ' Mexico ' ; ' one- 
 and-twenty ' years experience with sheep ; wanted 
 a job." 
 
 Pepito came panting up the steps. 
 
 " You wanted me, Mr. Eldreth, Sam said." 
 
 " Why yes," sarcastically, " about five hours 
 ago." 
 
 Pepito hung his head. 
 
 " I sure wasn't away that long, sir. I was only 
 doing a favor for Paul." 
 
 Richard glanced after him with a laugh and a 
 shrug. 
 
 " Been doing my little best along the same line," 
 he muttered, as he followed down to the billiard 
 room.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 231 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " IS THIS YOUR SON, MY LORD? " 
 
 LILYS did not come to her far Western home for 
 the holidays. The distance was too great. But 
 there came to her father and brother on Christinas 
 morning an excellent oil portrait of herself. Helene 
 received it early, and, following the instructions of 
 Lilys's letter to her, she unpacked and hung it in 
 the library as a surprise for them. 
 
 Pierce Eldreth and his son, with the Rector as 
 their only guest, ate a lonely Christmas dinner, the 
 first holidays his daughter had ever been absent 
 from Eldhurst. She was barely mentioned through 
 the meal; they missed her too keenly. No one 
 had as yet chanced upon the portrait in the library. 
 
 The meal was ending. Richard, as was growing 
 his habit of late, had indulged freely in all the wines 
 of the course dinner, and had settled into a dreamy 
 silence, leaving the conversation to the elder men. 
 Only when the saw-mill was mentioned did he rouse 
 himself to say, in the hesitating speech of semi-in- 
 toxication, that Antonio Garia ought to be made 
 to stick closer to his work up there; that he was
 
 232 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 down to Quarry Town pretty blanked often; and 
 that if his father wanted to give him, Richard, an 
 acceptable Christmas gift, he would present him that 
 fellow's discharge. 
 
 For answer his father gave him a glance half 
 inquiring, half mystified, and went on talking about 
 the growing dissatisfaction at both the mill and 
 the quarries, which he sweepingly attributed to the 
 unions organized the previous summer. 
 
 " I suppose I'll be losing Bradley when his con- 
 tract is out, along in May some time," he lamented, 
 " This ' Hopeful ' mine of his up at Ward seems 
 well named, and quite unlike the usual gold mine 
 ' a hole in the ground owned by a liar.' He 
 showed me his assayers' certificates. A fellow that's 
 struck such a vein as that doesn't want to boss 
 Swedes and Irish any longer than he's made to. 
 Wonder who's the silent partner? Some Eastern 
 capitalist, I imagine. He says he's sworn to secrecy. 
 I've half a notion it's DeLacy. At any rate he tried 
 to buy Bradley's interest last season. Say, don't 
 you think Bradley had the nerve to tell me that 
 he had asked Paul to quit Eldhurst and superintend 
 the ' Hopeful ' for him ? If I have to lose Ben and 
 Bradley and Paul all in a year's time, I'll be in a 
 pretty tight fix, as much as I have to be away. Has 
 Paul said anything to you about quitting? " 
 
 " It would scarcely be like him to speak of it to
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 233 
 
 any one else before speaking to you. He did tell 
 me that for some months Nolan has been urging 
 him to read law with him in Denver; in fact Nolan 
 himself told me that, and asked me to persuade Paul 
 to take up law." 
 
 " And spoil a good foreman to make a two by 
 twice lawyer. But that's like Nolan with his log- 
 cabin-to-White-House notions. He's too ultra 
 democratic by odds. And I suppose he has long ago 
 convinced the fellow that he has the making in him 
 of a great gentleman, too great for the mere man- 
 agement of these estates." 
 
 " You wrong him there ; for Paul has never felt 
 above his work. On the contrary, he is deeply in- 
 terested, keenly alive to every phase of it. You once 
 laughingly remarked that if you were to give him 
 unlimited authority, he would turn Eldhurst into 
 an experiment station rivaling that at Collins. Yet, 
 for all your ridicule, his ' administration ' has seen 
 fallow fields made fruitful, the irrigation system 
 almost doubled, increased output of hay, fruit, lum- 
 ber, wood, stone, all the regular products, to say 
 nothing of his oil well, at which you first scoffed. 
 And all the time you have been foot-free, as never 
 before, for your precious politics. He has accounted 
 to you for every cent of the great sums that pass 
 through his hands; has engaged the best of skilled 
 labor; has gone direct to dealers; has met your
 
 234 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 business associates, carried your correspondences 
 in truth, he has lived your business responsibilities 
 for you. As to making a gentleman of him, he is 
 already that." 
 
 " Nonsense, Edwin ! you out-Nolan Nolan. Why, 
 you can't take raw man-flesh from corral or quarry, 
 caution him against eating with his knife and split- 
 ting his infinitives, put a dress-suit on him and call 
 him a gentleman. Gentlemen are not minted from 
 such metal. At least ' seven or eight generations 
 are required to make a gentleman,' and even then 
 he doesn't always feel at ease in his dress-suit. A 
 gentleman has a gentleman's qualities, his own by 
 birth-right, transmitted unbroken through a distinct, 
 far-reaching line : good blood, high notions, fault- 
 less taste, pride of name and position. He is a 
 thoroughbred; rises to occasions; meets emergen- 
 cies more than half way; masters situations; and 
 he lives game and dies game." 
 
 " And what of his morals ? What of this blue- 
 blood apostle's creed? " 
 
 " Oh, as to that? Well, let me see. He is chival- 
 rous, generous, discreet. He might be guilty of 
 cruelty, but never of a discourtesy. He is a man of 
 honor, as those things go; never unfaithful to a 
 friend; he never lies, except for some woman's 
 sake. He takes the sweets of life, both the proffered 
 and the forbidden, and pays the price in full without
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 235 
 
 whining. Though full of the knowledge of both 
 good and evil, though disillusionized and ennuye; 
 whether loving or losing, suffering or sinning, 
 through all and above all, he is a gentleman." 
 
 His brother-in-law smiled reflectively over the 
 nodding head of the younger Eldreth and on up 
 to an old oil of a stiff-ruffed ancestral Eldreth 
 under Charles the First, a stern-mouthed, strong- 
 willed face, whose inquiring gaze seemed fastened 
 upon the group below. 
 
 " I am persuaded that most arguments arise from 
 failure to define terms used. But should we stop 
 the more carefully to define ' gentleman ' from the 
 world's viewpoint and from heaven's viewpoint, I 
 fear our argument might outlast your patience. 
 Be very sure of this though, that ' between society's 
 gentleman and God Almighty's gentleman there is 
 a gulf of folly and untruth so wide and so deep that 
 the one could not cross it if he would ; and the other 
 would not if he could.' About Paul's leaving Eld- 
 hurst, I have always taken it for granted that he 
 would quit when the contract his mother made 
 for him expires." 
 
 "And when will that be?" 
 
 " He is twenty-one in March some time. Paul 
 was born just three days before Lilys was, you 
 know." 
 
 Eldreth lifted his brows to indicate that he had 
 not recollected, then fell into a brown study.
 
 236 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Better give me ze zhob of bossing ze quarries," 
 muttered Richard, lurching forward almost into his 
 plate. 
 
 Helene opened the dining-room door, closed it 
 after her, and with the familiarity of half-equal, 
 half-inferior, said : 
 
 " Excuse me, Mr. Eldreth, but the girl Hilma 
 Andersen is out back and she wants to see Richard. 
 She says she must see him, and I can't get rid of 
 her." 
 
 " She zhust can't see me," objected Richard, 
 " Busy, tell 'er." 
 
 " I did tell her you were at dinner," explained 
 his old nurse, advancing to his chair, " but she won't 
 go. Better come for just a minute, Dickie," per- 
 suasively, " She's awfully anxious." 
 
 " Well. I zhust won't, though," persisted the 
 young man, clutching the table edge as though he 
 feared she might forcibly remove him as in his 
 boyhood days, " Don't receive in ze kitchen. Give 
 'er zhis," pulling bills from sundry pockets and 
 making a roll, " an' tell 'er to go 'way." 
 
 " What can she want, Helene ? " frowned Eld- 
 reth impatiently. 
 
 " I don't know, sir. She is crying, and says she 
 has no place to go." 
 
 " Well, Eldhurst isn't a home-for-the-friendless," 
 he exclaimed. Then turning suddenly upon his son,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 237 
 
 he asked with incisive emphasis : " Has this girl 
 any claim upon you, sir, that she demands your 
 presence at any time, guests or no guests ? " 
 
 Richard hung his head, mumbling. 
 
 His father stared hard at him. " I wish to God 
 your tastes ran a little higher than Swedish kitchen 
 girls!" 
 
 Sober, Richard had a wholesome and restraining 
 fear of his stern father; but being beyond that 
 stage, he looked up and remarked insolently : 
 
 " Get it honestly, don't I ? How about that little 
 affair of yours with the Maitland woman?" 
 
 The master of Eldhurst sprang from his chair, 
 and took one threatening stride toward his son, his 
 face livid. 
 
 " By God ! you shall marry your drudge for that ; 
 and Miss Howard will thank me " 
 
 Then he caught the gaze his brother-in-law had 
 fastened upon him. He sat down hastily, a crimson 
 tide creeping slowly over the fairness of his face. 
 
 " Go to the library, Richard." 
 
 The young man arose, half sobered by his father's 
 manner. 
 
 "What shall I tell Hilma?" persisted Helene, 
 retreating toward the door. 
 
 Eldreth threw down his napkin and turned ir- 
 ritably. 
 
 " Lord Almighty ! I don't care what you tell her. 
 Give her the money and more, and send her away."
 
 238 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 There was a painful pause. Edwin Allan turned 
 his serene, kindly eyes upon the housekeeper. 
 
 " Tell her to go down to the Rectory at once 
 and wait, and that I will follow her in a few mo- 
 ments." 
 
 When they quitted the dining-room, Eldreth led 
 the way to the library. 
 
 " Better spend the remainded of the day here," 
 he was saying as he opened the library door and 
 came face to face with Lilys's portrait which rested 
 on an easel, and was so placed that the light brought 
 out all the rare flesh tints, the luminous dark eyes, 
 the coils of jetty hair. 
 
 " Who is that ? " he gasped, nearly falling into 
 the Rector's arms. Then recovering himself, ' Why, 
 what a fool I am, Edwin. It's my own girl, and 
 she's sent it for Christmas." 
 
 " No, Pierce," said Allan after they had stood in 
 long admiration before the fine likeness, " I should 
 have had to go anyway. You know we have spec- 
 ial services tonight. I wish she were here for the 
 music. Ah . . . could I see you outside for half 
 a minute, Richard, before I go?" 
 
 " No sir, you zhust can't," declared that young 
 gentleman crossly. "Don't like lectures; get 
 enough from Nina. Going to shleep," and he 
 huddled down upon a divan and began pulling aim- 
 lessly at the cushions.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 239 
 
 Long after the door had closed upon his brother- 
 in-law, Pierce Eldreth stood before the easel, glanc- 
 ing meditatively from the portrait to the face of 
 the sleeper among the cushions, and then back to 
 the portrait once more. 
 
 The Rector paused once in his descent toward 
 his home and, first glancing cautiously around him, 
 drew from the depths of an inner pocket an old- 
 fashioned miniature in a worn case, opened it and 
 studied the face a dark oval face, with full Cupid's 
 bow mouth and coils of jetty hair. 
 
 " It is singular," he murmured, replacing the 
 miniature and walking slowly on, " very singular."
 
 240 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 OUT OF THE PAST. 
 
 ABOUT the first of March there came a letter for 
 Paul, postmarked Boston. Marah received it at the 
 foot of the hill, and after William had passed on 
 with the Quarry Town mail, she stood smilingly 
 studying the superscription. 
 
 Marah had failed rapidly during the past six 
 months. Her cough was deeper and more violent, 
 and into her large eyes there frequently crept a 
 strange, wild light that troubled Paul greatly. In 
 vain he entreated her to follow the physician's ad- 
 vice and prescriptions. She was not afraid to die, 
 she declared. When her work was done, she would 
 go. Life did not hold so many joys that she should 
 cling to it. In vain he pleaded with her to quit her 
 work of nursing and allow him to situate her more 
 comfortably than he could there in the little cabin 
 on the hillside. He told her confidentially of his 
 half interest in the Hopeful; assured her that his 
 father's obligation to Mr. Eldreth had long since 
 been discharged, with the interest, and that she 
 could live in Ward or in Boulder, with good help 
 and even some of the luxuries of life.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 241 
 
 But she informed him coldly that she had no de- 
 sire to live above her station in life; that they were 
 of the working class; that she intended to work to 
 the last and to die in their cabin, as he was pleased 
 to call it. The lower class, she said, never gain 
 by trying to ape the higher; blood will always tell. 
 
 So he had to content himself with adding grad- 
 ually, even stealthily, to her comforts; with hiring 
 a Swedish girl to do the work and to be company 
 for her when he should go from Eldhurst (soon 
 now, he promised himself) and with sending the 
 physician on frequent, if useless, visits to their 
 home. 
 
 While Marah stood, that March afternoon, study- 
 ing the superscription of her son's letter, she glanced 
 up at the sound of approaching wheels. It was 
 Pierce Eldreth driving his high-checked roadster, 
 Brownie. He came rapidly, but as the woman stood 
 squarely in the road, he was compelled to pull down 
 to a stand-still. 
 
 Though these two had lived all these years within 
 a stone's throw of each other and though they 
 occasionally encountered one another, yet they had 
 exchanged no word since Marah left her ten-year- 
 old boy up at the House, and today was Paul's 
 twenty-first birthday. 
 
 As the buggy stopped, she came round to the 
 side of it and lifted her eyes to the occupant, eyes
 
 242 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 deep with the memory and the misery of the almost 
 quarter-century since first his shadow had fallen 
 upon her. 
 
 His own eyes were held by the fascination of 
 hers for the moment, then they wandered over the 
 yet sumptuous form, over the yet beautiful face, 
 with its crown of midnight hair. For she was but 
 little over forty, and, given a happy life, would now 
 have been at the zenith of her woman's charms. 
 Over this man she had once held the power of great 
 physical beauty and feminine magnetism over a 
 thoroughly masculine, strongly susceptible, nature; 
 and now, for the one moment, she was all she had 
 ever been to him. Again he saw the innocent eyes, 
 the tempting mouth, the bare gleaming arms ; again 
 he heard her matchless voice as she had sung " Nay, 
 Kiss Me No More ! " a half-conscious protest 
 against the insistence of his love, that night in June, 
 the night that saw their love complete; again he 
 felt the sweet wild thrill of a first passion wakening 
 to riotous life. His stern face softened, his eyes 
 grew misty, and there vibrated a tender, half-for- 
 gotten tone as he spoke her name : 
 
 " Marah!" 
 
 Her eyes did not once leave his face and a half- 
 responsive smile hovered round her lips as she drew 
 nearer. 
 
 The fretful thoroughbred tossed her head nerv-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 243 
 
 ously, and the strong pull upon his wrists brought 
 the man back to present realities. Before him he 
 saw the woman whose betrayal of their relations 
 had all but cost him his wife ; the woman who after 
 having enjoyed his love and all that went with his 
 favor, after the betrayal which he might have for- 
 given, instead of holding herself sacred that she 
 might still have been his (for is not marriage purely 
 incidental?) had thrown herself into the arms of 
 his lowest menial, a social outcast, a self-confessed 
 fugitive from justice; had given to this Mexican 
 peon the perfect form that he, the master of Eld- 
 hurst, had fondled, the form that had borne his 
 child, an Eldreth! 
 
 His eyes flamed with the memory of his wrongs, 
 his wounded pride, his baffled passion. Instantly 
 she was conscious of the change, and intuitively read 
 his thoughts. If he had wrongs, what of her? 
 Her eyes blazed suddenly with the wild, strange 
 fire that now of late burned in them so frequently. 
 
 " Is the debt all paid and the interest? " she cried, 
 coming still nearer, " Does Marah Maitland owe 
 Pierce Eldreth anything? If so, take this." 
 
 She handed up the letter, scanning his quivering 
 face while he read the address in Lilys's unmistak- 
 able handwriting. 
 
 " From Edith Allan's daughter to Marah Mait- 
 land's son," she exulted, " But it must be the Eld-
 
 244 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 reth blood, for the Eldreths will stoop in their 
 loves; and blood will tell." 
 
 There was more than exultation in her low chuck- 
 ling laugh, as she watched him wrap the reins 
 around his wrist, deliberately strip the letter into 
 ribbons and give it to the wind. 
 
 " It has gone too far, Pierce Eldreth, for such 
 a remedy. You should have seen what I saw just 
 before she went away. No, he does not go to the 
 House, does not need to. Mohammed usually goes 
 to the hill. He has a room of his own up there 
 in his father's cabin. Oh, you shall see when she 
 gets home that is, if he is not tired of her. For 
 this moment she would exchange her soul for one 
 kiss of his my son. Say, is the debt paid ? " 
 
 The light of a demon joy glittered in her splendid 
 eyes. She sprang recklessly to the side of the buggy, 
 spreading her arms with a dare in her gesture, an 
 open challenge in her face. For in his blind, speech- 
 less wrath, he had snatched the whip from its hol- 
 ster and was holding it menacingly high above his 
 head. 
 
 Not for the space of a breath did she remove her 
 malignant gaze from his livid, working face. His 
 own eyes wavered, and when the whip descended 
 it came down along the back of the terrified horse 
 that sprang forward, plunging and snorting and all 
 but uncontrollable.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 245 
 
 Her mocking laugh followed him ; then as the 
 animal came under control further below, she 
 climbed the hill a few steps, turned back, stopped. 
 And out upon the still evening air there crept a tide 
 of wonderful melody that insinuated itself into the 
 very souls of the listeners. Rapture, ecstacy, pas- 
 sion, despair, contended for mastery in the outflow : 
 
 Nay, kiss me no more. Through this half-waking sleep, 
 
 I sense far below us a dangerous deep 
 
 The blind will stop short on the verge of a steep. 
 
 The impulse that urges the torrent's wide swing, 
 The ruin and rage that the cataracts bring 
 Lie back in the leap at the heart of a spring. 
 
 The spirit that lashes the maelstorm's mad swirl. 
 That crushes and wrecks in its pitiless whirl, 
 Was born of the foam that the playful winds hurl. 
 
 Oh, the pause of a soul at the yawning abyss ! 
 
 Oh, the wild surge of passion, the anguish, the bliss ! 
 
 Oh, the throb and the thrill of thy maddening kiss ! 
 
 The home-going workmen paused and looked at 
 one another. " The Senora Pajara," they said. 
 
 The master of Eldhurst set his teeth hard upon 
 a passionate oath and drove on, never once looking 
 back. 
 
 And Edwin Allan in his study lifted his eyes from 
 a half-finished sermon, drew a quick breath and 
 unconsciously laid a hand over the miniature in his 
 inner breast-pocket.
 
 246 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 DISMISSAL. 
 
 ELDRETH fastened his quivering horse at the 
 Rectory gate and found his brother-in-law alone in 
 the study. 
 
 " Edwin," he began abruptly, flinging down into 
 a deep chair, " you enjoy Lilys's full confidence, 
 do you not? " 
 
 " I believe I do, Pierce. She has had but few 
 thoughts and feelings she has not brought to me. 
 I have done my best in part to take Edith's place 
 with the poor, motherless girl." 
 
 " So I thought. Now, I'm going to ask you a 
 question, and I want the truth, whatever it brings. 
 I mean I don't want you to spare my feelings in the 
 matter. Did she ever hint to you that she was in 
 love? Was there ever a moment when you sus- 
 pected that she loved except as a daughter, a sister 
 and a niece? " 
 
 " Never," replied the Rector promptly. He was 
 answering what had been asked him, truthfully, ac- 
 cording to his knowledge. Why should he betray 
 Paul's miserable secret, since Lilys had never given,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 247 
 
 would never give the boy a second thought? Paul 
 would never betray himself, so Allan would prob- 
 ably never have to make known the suspicion that 
 of late years was strengthening in his disturbed 
 mind. " Never," he reiterated, " She is still a child 
 in thought and in action. I should think you could 
 tell that. As Richard says, if she loves anything it 
 must be Bonita or the hounds. She told Nina only 
 the week before she left for Boston that she ex- 
 pected to devote several years to music and to stud- 
 ies as outlined by Howard and myself; and when 
 we saw her off at the train and Nina laughingly 
 reminded her that she was pledged to return heart- 
 whole, she said, what I believe to be truth, that she 
 was leaving her heart here at Eldhurst. You know 
 she went with great reluctance. But why did you 
 ask?" 
 
 Pierce Eldreth drew a long sigh of relief. " She 
 is crazy, stark mad," he commented inwardly. 
 Aloud he said : " Oh, DeLacy asked me if he might 
 escort her some this winter past and I said yes, 
 under his aunt's chaperonage. I wondered if Lilys 
 had ever expressed her sentiments for him to you." 
 
 " No. I wish she had. I should have done all 
 in my power to turn her thoughts from such a 
 man." 
 
 "Why, what's the matter with DeLacy?" 
 
 ' You certainly can not be ignorant of his and
 
 248 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Richard's shameless goings-on all last summer, now 
 in Boulder and again in Denver. I suppose but for 
 Nina's and Lilys's presence, they would have 
 brought those Whitney women right here to Eld- 
 hurst. They did take them round and on up to 
 Estes." 
 
 " Oh, that? " laughed his brother-in-law, looking 
 relieved, " I thought from the way you spoke he had 
 robbed a bank or held up a train. You can't judge 
 a man by a lot of floating gossip. Why, he's of the 
 best blood of a fine old French family, heir of both 
 the Scotts and the DeLacys. He could buy and sell 
 Eldhurst with his pin-money." 
 
 The Rector sighed, but refrained from comment. 
 
 There came a knock at the study door; it opened, 
 but closed again from without. 
 
 " Come in, Paul," called Allan, " Was there some- 
 thing?" 
 
 " No sir, only to bring the review I mentioned. 
 My business was with Mr. Eldreth. Sarah thought 
 him alone. I beg your pardon." 
 
 " I shall be pleased to withdraw," said the Rector 
 rising. 
 
 " Do not, I beg you. It is nothing you may not 
 hear with Mr. Eldreth's permission." 
 
 " Be brief! " scowled his employer. 
 
 " I wish to be released from my place with you," 
 said the young man with simple directness, " I am
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 249 
 
 now twenty-one, and I believe the old obligation of 
 my father is discharged, the debt all paid and the 
 interest" 
 
 Eldreth bit his lip. " The debt all paid and the 
 interest " they were the woman's very words. He 
 looked annoyed, troubled; but he controlled him- 
 self. 
 
 " The busy season will soon be upon us," he re- 
 marked, rolling his cigar in his fingers and regard- 
 ing it thoughtfully, " Bradley is going to quit in 
 May and go up to his mine at Ward. I'm afraid 
 Ben will never be fit for supervising again. You 
 have been acting foreman for more than a year now, 
 with fair results. Let me make you so in fact. 
 The pay, you know " 
 
 The young man shook his head. " I thank you 
 for the honor, but I have other means of support, 
 other plans." 
 
 " Very well, sir, very well," cut in the other's icy 
 tones, " No need to beg for common laborers in 
 these days of road-walkers and tramps." 
 
 Paul winced, but he said dispassionately : " I had 
 no thought of asking to be released under thirty 
 days." 
 
 " You are at liberty to-day, sir, now." 
 
 His companion bowed. " Thank you," he said 
 with exasperating calmness. 
 
 " Do I owe you anything? "
 
 250 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 He opened the door but turned back to say: 
 " The books are in shape to date. The last mail 
 brought those blanks we've waited for so long." 
 (He used the plural unconsciously) "and I notice 
 in this morning's paper that bids are open for the 
 Springs and the Greeley paving. Bradley is above 
 his average for the corresponding month last year, 
 and feels sure he can handle either or both with his 
 present force." 
 
 " He'll handle them without his present force. 
 We've got to cut down somewhere." 
 
 Paul looked surprised, but forebore comment. 
 " Webb's last report is the only one unchecked. 
 You will find it in the upper left hand drawer. To- 
 day's mail has been answered and both places gone 
 over. Wagner's wife is ill and I have been taking 
 his place; but Sam can do that quite as well. I am 
 at your service for some days if I can assist your 
 new foreman. Here are the keys." 
 
 " There'll be no need to detain you," observed 
 Eldreth shortly as he pocketed the bunch of keys. 
 
 A vague smile touched Paul's firm lips. " Good 
 evening," he said, " Good evening, Mr. Allan." 
 
 The Rector's amused glance had traveled from 
 the face of employer to that of man during the in- 
 terview, and he but ill-concealed a smile at his 
 brother-in-law's discomfiture. They silently watched
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 251 
 
 the erect figure down the hall, the coarse, homely 
 clothes forgotten in the easy dignity of the carriage. 
 Paul always bore his fair head as though it wore a 
 crown instead of a hat. 
 
 " Were you wise in declining his offer to remain 
 the thirty days to help fit the new man? " 
 
 " It is always wise to give your men to under- 
 stand that your business can run on without them," 
 replied Eldreth crossly, " They get exaggerated no- 
 tions sometimes of their own importance. They 
 may as well learn first as last that Eldhurst depends 
 upon no one of them. I fancy the sun will rise 
 tomorrow all right." 
 
 " Whom have you in mind for Paul's place, if I 
 may ask ? " 
 
 The other laughed. " I wouldn't have him hear 
 me say it, but I'm hanged if I know. Webb knows 
 nothing but lumber; Max was raised at the sheep- 
 corrals; Garia is bright enough, but flightly, unre- 
 liable, and William drinks. Guess I'll have to be 
 my own foreman for a while." 
 
 " I do not envy you. It certainly requires every 
 moment and all the energy of a wide-awake, faith- 
 ful, decisive man, one who is strong enough and tact- 
 ful enough to handle men. All of these qualities 
 Paul possesses in the superlative, some of which, I 
 pride myself, I have helped to develop. I think 
 you know my great love for the lad, Pierce. He
 
 252 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 has, what I wish more young men could boast: 
 gentleness, with force of character; the God-like 
 gift of self-control ; a clean and wholesome heart, 
 the promptings of which never dyed a woman's 
 cheek with shame; a higher regard for his spoken 
 word than most men have for their written promises. 
 As I heard one of the Swedes put it ' If he promises, 
 it's done already right away.' Even while a mere 
 boy he chose the right, the kindly, the manly thing 
 to do instinctively, it would seem. I, his teacher, 
 know him as not even his mother knows him; and 
 I have always regretted your prejudice against 
 him." 
 
 " Well, you wouldn't expect me to fall into his 
 arms, everything considered, would you ? " 
 
 " The fault is not his." 
 
 Eldreth shrugged his shoulders and picking up a 
 magazine, ran his eye over the table of contents. 
 
 " Ah," he exclaimed, " here's that man Marsden 
 again, I see, in an article, ' The Right Divine to 
 Govern Wrong.' Nolan called my attention the 
 other day to a contribution of his in Irrigation Age. 
 In the article he asserts (what is true, when you 
 think) that there is practically no relation between 
 the laws regulating water supply and the actual prac- 
 tice of irrigators, and that it follows that the laws 
 fail of their objects the economical use and the 
 systematic use of the supply at command. He gives
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 253 
 
 figures in proof from existing canal contracts, fig- 
 ures which bring to light more inconsistencies and 
 absurdities in our state laws and in our contracts 
 than I ever thought could exist. He closes by say- 
 ing that the magnitude and importance of the water- 
 supply question in the development of the West, so- 
 cial and industrial, as well as material, are very much 
 underestimated; points to the fact that the waters 
 are of far greater value than the land, and that their 
 distribution and the laws governing the same will 
 prove more potent factors than are dreamed in the 
 furtherment or hindrance of the up-building of the 
 West. He knows Colorado from soil to sky, and 
 water-rights by heart. I wish we could get such a 
 man to address the association once in awhile. He 
 is well-informed and practical ; writes like a Western 
 man." 
 
 " I do not know if he could be persuaded. He is 
 a modest man, as well as a busy one." 
 
 "You know him?" 
 
 " Quite well," smiled the Rector, " ' Allan Mars- 
 den ' is only a pen-name." 
 
 Something in the tone made his companion look 
 up quickly. " Not Nolan himself?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Not Howard?" 
 
 " Guess again." 
 
 " It might be yourself, if you were not more
 
 254 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 interested along other lines. There's not another 
 hereabouts could do it." 
 
 " Not I. Evidently you are unacquainted with 
 Eldhurst's own people, brother; you are absent too 
 much. You have just dismissed ' Allan Marsden ' 
 from your service." 
 
 Eldreth fell back in his chair. " Not Manuel 
 Menendez's son ! *' 
 
 " Even so ; but obviously not his father's son. 
 His mother's ? " ventured the Rector. 
 
 " Pshaw ! " growled his companion, " he doesn't 
 resemble her even in looks. Where does he get his 
 fair hair and eyes? " 
 
 " You can best answer that, and say also where 
 he gets his bearing, his intellect, his self-poise." 
 
 Eldreth whirled in his chair. " What do you 
 mean by that, Edwin Allan ? " 
 
 " Listen. I overheard two workmen as Paul was 
 passing through the quarries not long since. ' A 
 Menendez ? ' laughed one, ' oh yes, of course. A 
 blue-eyed, white-skinned Mexican, sure. Manuel 
 Menendez had a whole lot to do with that hair and 
 that walk of his. She must think we're all fools. 
 I know this ' And the end I did not hear, though 
 it's not hard to surmise. Then the other said: 
 ' Now I know whom he looks like I've just figured 
 it out. Why, that big picture in the chapel, of the 
 fine lady what's her name? you know, the one 
 who had the church built.' "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 255 
 
 Pierce Eldreth leaped to his feet, his chair going 
 over backward. " Good Lord ! My Mother ! " he 
 gasped, " Does any one think ? " He broke off, 
 walked away, but came back, stopping squarely in 
 front of his brother-in-law. " Well, you don't 
 think it?" 
 
 The Rector lifted his mild eyes steadily. " You 
 certainly must give me credit for being as penetrat- 
 ing as the quarrymen and the sheep-herders, know- 
 ing all that I know. Why, it was only last Sunday 
 that I heard a couple of shepherds from the Lower 
 Ranch commenting upon the resemblance between 
 Richard and Paul. The carriage was full of your 
 guests, and the two sat on the driver's seat to- 
 gether. And look at them yourself. For all the 
 one is so dark, the other so fair, there is the same 
 contour of face, the same straight brows, the same 
 delicacy of feature, the same build of body, though 
 not the same walk. Paul does not bear the faintest 
 resemblance to his mother; you, yourself, say so. 
 Nor does Richard. Yet these two, though unlike 
 their common mother, resemble each other. Again, 
 is Paul in the slightest like his father? Menendez 
 slouched ; Paul walks with a quick, clean step : the 
 one was cringing, tricky, all down-hill, so to say; 
 the other is courageous, his every tendency upward : 
 the one never opened his lips save for blasphemy or 
 some foul story ; the other speaks becomingly of holy
 
 256 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 things, and I question if he ever so much as thought 
 evil. I tell you, if this boy is the son of Manuel 
 Menendez, he is a living contradiction of all the 
 established laws of heredity. His father a peon? 
 There is not the hint of servility in the son's make- 
 up. His father, that incarnation of passion un- 
 curbed? Paul never in all his young manhood be- 
 trayed the shadow of an unworthy instinct. Ask 
 Ruth Bradley, or any other girl he has ever shown 
 attention. Ask Lilys, whom he has served inti- 
 mately from childhood. Watch him in the pres- 
 ence of women, and you will observe much of the 
 old-time gentleness and chivalry in his bearing to- 
 ward the other sex. No, somewhere not far back, 
 on one side or the other, ' his tribe were God Al- 
 mighty's gentlemen.' Mark me : there is not a 
 drop of that Mexican's blood in Paul Maitland's 
 veins; he is no more the son of Manuel Menendez 
 than I am." 
 
 His brother-in-law had stood during this speech, 
 his cheeks paling, his eyes staring blankly. Now he 
 took another stride or two, but came back to say 
 hotly : 
 
 " I don't care a damn what the hired hands think. 
 What I see fit to do is quite my own business. But 
 you were her brother, and, by God ! you've got to 
 believe me. What do you take me for, anyhow? 
 Do you imagine that woman was anything to me
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 257 
 
 after she gave herself to that mongrel? Is that my 
 style? Would that be like me, even if I hadn't 
 married the very day after she threw herself at him? 
 Why, look you : this son of hers is twenty-one, only 
 twenty-one and it couldn't be, I tell you, it couldn't 
 be. I know that you haven't a very exalted opinion 
 of my morals, and that we never could look at 
 things from the same view-point ; but I swear to you, 
 Edwin Allan, on my honor as an Eldreth, that for 
 the less than year your sister lived to bless my home, 
 I was true to her, no man was ever truer however 
 I lived before, or have lived since. A man might so 
 wound another woman, but Edith Allan never ! "
 
 258 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO LISTENS. 
 
 WHAT whim of fate was it that ordered the torn 
 fragments of Lilys's letter to be found by Ruth 
 Bradley? 
 
 She sat down by the roadside and pieced the 
 sheets together, strip by strip. It was a long letter. 
 Much of it she did not understand, for most of it 
 had reference to a conversation of theirs about the 
 mission school and work in general among the 
 poor ; and mention was made of the writer's change 
 of views on the questions discussed on their ride to 
 the saw-mill. She frankly confessed that his side 
 was the right side, and assured him that her 
 most pleasant anticipation in her return to Eld- 
 hurst, June first, lay in the fact that she in- 
 tended to undertake the school and mission work 
 with him and her Uncle and Nina, to cease her 
 frivolous, aimless life and try to deserve the respect 
 and gratitude of those dependent upon them. So 
 would they take up the old happy life in three 
 months more; only she would endeavor to be less 
 selfish, that she might be worthy to work beside him.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 259 
 
 She closed by begging him not to leave Eldhurst 
 on his twenty-first birthday, as she had learned was 
 his intention, but to wait till she came and they 
 would talk it over with her uncle. 
 
 Ruth put the fragments of the letter carefully into 
 her bosom, with a guilty little glance round and an- 
 other up toward Marah's cottage. Then she pon- 
 dered. If Paul had received that letter, it would not 
 now be lying torn by the roadside. Of that she was 
 certain. If he should yet read it, he would recon- 
 sider quitting Eldhurst. Of that too she was cer- 
 tain. And if he remained, instead of going to 
 Ward, what of her, Ruth? She knew why he 
 flushed and grew reticent whenever Lilys Eldreth's 
 name was mentioned; and she could read between 
 the lines of this letter the writer's profound respect, 
 her high regard, her deference to his opinion. 
 
 If she gave Paul the letter, which evidently some 
 one had read and destroyed (the Boss?), he would 
 change his mind about affairs of the House being 
 none of his affairs. He might lift his eyes even to 
 the only daughter of the House. Of course the 
 Boss would never hear to that, even though Paul 
 knew as much and was as good-looking as Mr. 
 Richard himself. 
 
 So, she would save Paul heart-aches and trouble 
 if she kept the letter from him. Of course 
 she ought to give him his own, or at least ask him
 
 260 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 about it. The Rector would tell her so; Paul 
 would tell her so; her own heart told her so. But 
 once he read it he would never, never look at her 
 again ; and now Miss Eldreth had been gone so long 
 and he had not to come at her beck and call, he was 
 beginning to come to the Bradley cottage oftener. 
 Again : If there were no misunderstanding be- 
 tween the two, Miss Eldreth would return and join 
 Paul in the school work, and then ? Oh, she knew, 
 she " felt " just what would happen, in spite of the 
 Boss, or any one else. And what right had Miss 
 Eldreth, who had everything, to come down and 
 take working girls' young men away from them? 
 How would it seem to live as she lived up there at 
 the House nothing to do from morning till night, 
 no meals to get, no dishes, no washing and ironing; 
 to have just everything to wear, rich furs, big hats 
 with real plumes, gloves for every suit, and slippers 
 and riding-boots and Oxfords, besides shoes, and 
 such jewelry, rings that flashed and sparkled, and a 
 watch; no mending nor making over last year's 
 styles; anything she wanted to eat and some one to 
 cook it for her; to sleep as late as she wished, to 
 give orders and ride and play tennis and sing in the 
 choir and have a houseful of company every season 
 and scores of friends and beaux that rich Boston 
 man and Fred Nolan and Harry Wentworth what 
 else did she want? Didn't she act now as though
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 261 
 
 she owned the earth? Didn't she look down on 
 every body who had to work? Once when she, 
 Ruth, had helped Helene at Mr. Richard's birthday 
 party, just as an accommodation, hadn't Miss Eld- 
 reth ignored, snubbed her, as though she had been 
 a common servant like Lena? 
 
 The girl's eyes flashed resentfully at memory of 
 the slight. Oh, she knew a way forever to " fix 
 things " between Paul and the Boss's daughter. She 
 hesitated about going quite that far, but .... 
 Well, she'd keep the letter awhile yet; she would 
 " see about it." 
 
 She ascended to Marah's cottage where she had 
 seen Paul go an hour before from the Rectory. She 
 had not talked with him for some time. He had 
 been to the quarries, but was always so busy with 
 her father, or else Tony was down from the mill. 
 
 She found the door ajar and no one in, though 
 she thought she caught a glimpse of some one lying 
 on the bed in Paul's room. She hummed softly a 
 bit of an Irish love song, took off her hat before the 
 sitting-room glass and inspected in turn her hair, her 
 cheeks, her lips and her brows. She was trying to 
 admire her long lashes through half closed eyes, 
 when some one entered from behind. There was a 
 low musical laugh, and before she could turn, some 
 one clasped her eyes with one hand, her waist with 
 the other and kissed her full on the mouth.
 
 262 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Paul ! " she stammered, crimsoning and making 
 a half-hearted effort to disengage herself. 
 
 " No, not Paul, either," cried a mocking voice. 
 
 Springing away, she turned and faced Richard 
 Eldreth, whom she had not seen these two months. 
 (For reasons of his own, that young gentleman had 
 seen fit to absent himself from Eldhurst immed- 
 iately after Christmas, spending the winter in New 
 York and Boston.) 
 
 " Prettier than ever, mavourneen," his deep 
 voice flattered, " Come, that wasn't half a kiss," 
 and he held out his arms to her. 
 
 But there was a burning light in his eyes from 
 which she shrank away. He dropped his arms, a 
 frown on his handsome face. 
 
 " Oh," he sneered, " if only I wore brown overalls 
 and a flannel shirt " with a rueful glance down at 
 his snowy shirt-front, his carefully creased trowsers 
 and his shining patent-leathers. 
 
 " I .... I don't know what you mean." 
 
 " If only I were my father's foreman, see what 
 my daily reward would be." 
 
 " Mr. Richard ! " she denied, coloring more 
 deeply, " he never kissed me in his life, never wanted 
 to." 
 
 " Then why did you call me Paul ? " 
 
 " Because your voice and his, your laugh and his, 
 are so much alike."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 263 
 
 " I should feel deeply flattered." 
 
 " And because I didn't know you was home." 
 
 " Just got back, and I came up to find you the 
 first thing." 
 
 " Oh, you're funnin'. You've been to Howards' 
 and you know it." 
 
 "Indeed, I have not." (He forgot to add that 
 Nina was not at home.) " William just brought 
 me from the train. And he hasn't put away the 
 carriage yet. Come, let us go for a drive. There's 
 no one over at the House except Lena." 
 
 "I .... came up on an errand and I must 
 wait to see Marah," objected the girl, retreating, a 
 little frightened by his manner and at finding her- 
 self alone with him. Had she been mistaken? 
 Was Paul nowhere about? 
 
 Her companion came nearer. " Why will you 
 always put me off? This is a nice way to treat a 
 fellow after he's been gone all winter; when he came 
 home on purpose to look into certain lovely eyes and 
 to hold certain pretty hands, since it seems he can't 
 get anything else." 
 
 Ruth looked down at her hands and tossed her 
 head with a half glance at her reflection in the 
 glass. "What else does a fellow want?" she 
 laughed, lifting her eyes coquettishly. 
 
 " Come here and I'll show you," and his eyes 
 riveted hers with sheer animal force.
 
 264 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Her cheeks scorched painfully and her heart 
 quickened, but she bantered lightly : " Oh, you 
 like blue eyes and light yellow hair best of all. 
 Hilma told me you said so." 
 
 Richard's glance flickered and fell. " Hilma ! " 
 he laughed, " What does that moon-faced, tow- 
 headed Swede girl know about my tastes ? No one 
 believes anything she says." 
 
 " I suppose you know she's married ? " 
 
 " Believe I did hear it," carelessly. 
 
 " Yes, New Year's day. They had fussed, but 
 Mr. Allan got them to make it up." 
 
 " Hope they're happy." 
 
 " Gus ain't very good to her. He won't let her 
 wear any of the pretty dresses she bought last fall, 
 nor any of the jewelry. He broke up her prettiest 
 chain and won't get her another, though he's been 
 promoted to crew-foreman, at much better pay." 
 
 " And how is your black beast ? " 
 
 My what? " 
 
 " Don Senor Antonio Garia, hewer of wood and 
 carrier of water." 
 
 " Oh, he don't carry no water and he oughtn't to 
 tut wood. He's up at the Mill yet, but he'd ought 
 to be here, because he's a quarryman, the best at 
 Eldhurst, if Gus did beat him over at Lyons last 
 week at the single drill contest. I s'pose you heard 
 that too. Hilma's braggin' to everybody."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 265 
 
 Eldreth made a gesture of disgust. " Oh, Ruth, 
 what do you care about the low quarrymen and their 
 doings? You are surely riot going to throw your- 
 self away on that dirty mill-hand, sweet and pretty 
 as you are, and turn down the Boss's son into the 
 bargain." 
 
 The girl was silent, weighing his words. 
 
 "Of course it's your privilege; mere matter of 
 taste. But every one wonders what pretty little 
 Ruth Bradley sees in that ill-favored Mexican mon- 
 grel." 
 
 " You . . . you shouldn't talk about him so, 
 Mr. Richard. Tony he loves me." 
 
 " Well, Lord above ! don't I ? Why have I hung 
 about Quarry Town like some outlaw for a five 
 minutes with you at the back gate? Why have 
 I come back home when everything here is stale, 
 flat and unprofitable ? With whom do I waltz ? Of 
 whom do I dream nights ? Whom do I love ? Tell 
 me!" 
 
 " Miss Howard, I reckon." 
 
 " Never mind about Miss Howard. You listen 
 to me. I'm not going to be trifled with any longer. 
 You're coming with me this week, or it's all off. 
 Your father's away from home for three days to 
 come, and the coast is clear everywhere. You've 
 not been to Denver for months. I've told you I'll 
 take you, show you an elegant time and get you back
 
 266 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 before your father returns. If any thing's said, 
 you've been visiting your cousin Maude's and you 
 didn't know I was within a thousand miles of Den- 
 ver. Not many girls have such a chance. And as 
 for jewelry, I might help you select some. My taste 
 is accounted fair," and he took occasion to trans- 
 fer from one pocket to another an astonishing roll 
 of bills. 
 
 Ruth's poor heart was in her throat now. He 
 was closer to her, his pleading face bent above her. 
 He was handsome, and so much higher born than 
 Antonio or Paul. Not many girls had such a 
 chance, but . . . 
 
 " I'm afraid. Oh, don't ask me." 
 
 " Afraid of whom ? of what ? " 
 
 " Tony. He's coming down tonight. Oh, my 
 sakes ! you don't know Tony. He he's aivful. 
 
 Her companion laughed easily. " Leave the little 
 half-breed to me. That will be my concern." 
 
 " But Tony wants to marry me," with a wistful 
 little emphasis on the name. 
 
 " Of course he does," he laughed, ignoring the 
 emphasis, but pressing nearer and capturing one of 
 her hands, " we all do." 
 
 " Father says that gentlemen never " 
 
 " Talk marry," he ended for her, " Now you 
 know better. Look at your cousin Maude. Wasn't 
 she waitress at the St. James, and didn't one of the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 267 
 
 boarders fall in love with and marry her? Come 
 now, be sensible. I thought of course it was un- 
 derstood between us." 
 
 The girl gasped. A proposal, and from the 
 Boss's son! " But but I " she stammered. 
 
 " Oh, I know; not right away; you're too young, 
 and you don't care to settle down yet. Of course 
 not. But you love me, Mavourneen, you won't 
 deny that." He had pushed up the loose sleeve and 
 was pressing quick warm kisses on the flesh of her 
 plump arm, adding between kisses, " And I shouldn't 
 believe you if you did deny it." 
 
 " Oh don't please don't," she pleaded faintly, 
 shrinking against the wall toward the door of Paul's 
 room, whither she had all the time been retreating. 
 Paul must certainly be asleep. If only -he . . . . 
 
 Richard followed, the soft arm held to his mouth 
 in a long pressure. " Come tonight," he pleaded, 
 his breath on her neck, " come to the first north 
 entrance, the side door beyond the bow-window. 
 I'll watch and let you in. Or if you'd rather, there's 
 the summer-house. We can go to the city yet to- 
 night. Anywhere any way. Oh Ruth, how 
 sweet you are! How I want you! How I want 
 you ! " Both arms went suddenly round her ; he 
 was crushing her against the wall. 
 
 " Paul, Paul ! " she wailed. 
 
 There was a quick movement in the room ad-
 
 268 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 joining and the door near them was thrown open. 
 Richard's back was to the door and before he could 
 turn, his collar was seized, he was lifted and flung 
 headlong against the wainscotting of the opposite 
 wall, while Ruth, pale and trembling, clung to Paul. 
 
 Richard did not rise, but lay with closed eyes and 
 blood-stained face. 
 
 " You have killed him you! " 
 
 It was Marah's shrill treble, as she darted through 
 the door and fell on her knees beside the unconscious 
 man. " Your own master, your own master ! " 
 she repeated, lifting malignant eyes to Paul's face. 
 " Ruth, bring me water." 
 
 Paul watched her wash the blood from Richard's 
 forehead, then turned to the frightened girl and 
 without a word, led her from the house.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MOTHER AND SON. 
 
 THE two gone, Marah sat down on the floor and 
 drawing the head and shoulders of the stunned man 
 into her lap, gazed down into the pale face with 
 yearning tenderness. 
 
 But the strange, unearthly light came into her 
 eyes. She lifted him still higher, cradling his 
 head against her full breast and rocking to and fro, 
 began to sing : 
 
 Is it death ? Is it sleep, my Dearie ? 
 
 Sleep, sleep ! 
 Ne'er to weep, ne'er to weep, nor weary, 
 
 Sleep, sleep ! 
 
 It is death, it is death, my Dearie ! 
 
 That's best. 
 I'll not weep, I'll not weep ; life is dreary , 
 
 Rest, rest ! 
 
 Richard Eldreth opened his eyes, tried to sit up, 
 but sank back, blinded by the pain in his head. A 
 pitying look came into the woman's eyes and she
 
 270 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 clasped her arms more tightly around him. He 
 struggled up to a sitting position, pushing her away 
 and leaning against the wall with closed eyes. She 
 crept closer, with the cringing look of a beaten dog. 
 He impatiently flung away the hand she laid on his 
 arm. 
 
 " Let me alone." 
 
 " Don't you want to lie down? " 
 
 "No. Where is he?" 
 
 " Taking her home." 
 
 The man uttered an ugly oath and got to his feet, 
 but sank into the nearest chair with a groan. Marah 
 was beside him in an instant, holding his head 
 against her and staunching the trickling blood. 
 
 " He shan't have her," he muttered. 
 
 Marah laughed. " He cares nothing for her. He 
 looks higher. And you'd best let him alone. He 
 has twice your strength. He could kill you." 
 
 " Well, what is that to you? " pulling away. 
 
 She drew him back and, leaning, whispered some- 
 thing in his ear. 
 
 " Good God ! and not his ? " 
 
 " Mine and his." 
 
 He sank back against her through sheer weak- 
 ness, staring vacantly up into her face. Then he 
 started up, saying quickly : 
 
 " But he has acknowledged me. I bear his name. 
 The will is drawn for me as well as for Lilys. I 
 have seen it. We share alike."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 271 
 
 Her smile was half contemptuous, yet her 
 thoughts were sad. There was no pleasure to him 
 then in finding a mother. He had never a thought 
 for her who bore him in misery and in shame, her- 
 self a mere child, betrayed, deserted? He was a 
 true Eldreth. And she dear God! how she had 
 starved for her baby, sacrificing her very self for his 
 material good, when sometimes she would have 
 given 
 
 His agitated voice broke her musings. " How 
 many know this? " 
 
 " Your father, of course, Edwin Allan and my- 
 self. Torture by fire could not draw it from your 
 father; Allan gave his promise more than twenty 
 years ago and he will never break it, and I know 
 how to keep a secret. The man with whom I lived 
 nearly a year did not dream it. Edith Allan knew 
 knew it when she took my lover from me; but the 
 dead keep all secrets," and she laughed loudly. 
 
 He pondered deeply for a time ; then his thoughts 
 fell from his tongue : 
 
 " And you never lived with him. Why, can't 
 you see, if it suited him, he could declare me un- 
 lawful and rewrite his will. What in blazes were 
 you thinking of not to live with him ? Where were 
 your wits, and he as rich as Croesus? Why didn't 
 he marry you ? " 
 
 " Why didn't you marry Hjlma. Andersen? "
 
 272 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 She paused for the reply he did not make, then 
 added bitterly : " She would grace the House about 
 as I would have. Oh no, it's ladies, snow-clean 
 creatures like Edith Allan and Nina Howard, that 
 the Eldreths must have as wives." 
 
 " But you were beautiful, at least. You must 
 have been. But you were a fool, just the same. 
 Think of Eldhurst ! And there were breach-of- 
 promise suits, secret marriage, any number of 
 ways." 
 
 She smothered the contempt in her eyes and then 
 they grew wistfully tender again; and this woman 
 who all her life had been strong and harsh, went 
 down on her knees beside the child of her love en- 
 treating : 
 
 " Call me ' Mother ' once, Richard, only once ! " 
 
 " Oh come now, don't be silly ! " 
 
 He rose unsteadily, but when he reached the door, 
 was compelled to lean with his hands to his head. 
 
 Slowly, almost painfully, his mother arose from 
 her knees, her face cold and hard again, and seem- 
 ingly older. She did not speak till she was close to 
 him, then she said sternly: 
 
 " I have not told you all, Richard Maitland." 
 
 She glanced about apprehensively in the gather- 
 ing shadows, then putting her lips close to his ear, 
 she ended her speech in the veriest whisper. 
 
 " The d-e-v-i-1 ! " he ejaculated, staring at her 
 aghast, "No t No!"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 273 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 He drew an audible breath, and a long silence 
 spent itself. 
 
 " And how many know that? " 
 
 " Two, in all the world." 
 
 "You and I?" 
 
 " You and I." 
 
 He sprang to her side. 
 
 " And this secret, Mother, dear Mother? " 
 
 He bent forward in the gloom, looking deep into 
 her eyes that were misty with joy now. 
 
 She lifted eyes and hand in mute eloquence to 
 heaven. 
 
 Then the hands of mother and son met in a long 
 clasp.
 
 274 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 CRUEL WITH THE VIRTUE OF A MAN. 
 
 PAUL hurried Ruth to her home in absolute si- 
 lence. She sobbed and shivered all the way, cling- 
 ing to his arm. Had he known less of men and 
 proportionally more of women, he might have 
 guessed at the truth. When he would have left her 
 at the gate with a brief though kindly good-bye, she 
 clung to him more closely. 
 
 " Don't go away mad at me, Paul. Please for- 
 give me. I just can't stand it." 
 
 " Why will you persist in meeting him ? " he 
 questioned, his grave rebuking eyes upon her, " I 
 would feel more sorry for you if you had not been 
 warned over again. You know your father's opin- 
 ion of him ; and heaven only knows what Antonio 
 would have done in my place just now. Dick 
 Eldreth is not the man for a good girl to listen to. 
 Why will you not understand me, Ruth? Shall I 
 have to make it plainer? " 
 
 " He wasn't there when I went up to your house, 
 and I didn't know he was comin'. Honest and true, 
 Paul."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 275 
 
 " Why, then, were you there? " he asked sternly. 
 " You met my mother at the foot of the hill. You 
 knew she was not at home." 
 
 The girl's face drooped. "I .... Don't 
 you know? " she whispered. 
 
 " To see Selma, the girl? " 
 
 " No," and her head bent lower. 
 
 " Oh, of course ; to see me about Antonio's trans- 
 fer to the quarries. Indeed, I have done all in my 
 power. I have even offered to take his place at the 
 mill." 
 
 She lifted her head with desperate courage. 
 " Who wants him here and you up there ? Oh, if 
 you was like any other man, you'd know so now ! " 
 
 Both her hands were clasped about his arm, her 
 pretty, eager face was lifted. He drew away 
 slightly to look into her eyes and so gather her 
 meaning. Then he unclasped her hands and put 
 her gently from him. The warm color mantled 
 her cheeks at his touch. 
 
 " Now . . . now you know, Paul," she 
 stammered. 
 
 " No, I do not," he denied firmly, " and you must 
 forgive me if I seem meddlesome in the matter of 
 your friendship with Richard Eldreth. But I am 
 your father's partner and Antonio Garia's friend, 
 and I could not look them in the face day after day 
 if I did not act in all things for their interests and 
 the interest of one who is so dear to both."
 
 276 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 She could but feel the gentleness of the rebuke; 
 but the strong regard, almost veneration, which he 
 always inspired in her susceptible heart overwhelmed 
 every other thought. Was there another such in 
 all her little world so manly, so sympathetic, yet 
 so inapproachable? Tears of disappointment welled 
 in her eyes. She knew he was slipping from her. 
 She bowed her head against his arm and sobbed: 
 
 " Oh, I will never look at Mr. Richard again, nor 
 at Tony either, if ... if ... I don't 
 care for either of them; you know I don't. Paul, 
 Paul! I love" 
 
 " No, no, my dear girl, you do not," interposed 
 the young man quickly, lifting her chin and looking 
 at her with a gaze she could not misinterpret, " You 
 only think you care for this one, other than your be- 
 trothed. You are too easily influenced ; it will work 
 to your own evil if you are not careful. Don't 
 cry; this one is unworthy a tear, a thought of your 
 kind heart. Go in, dear, and say your prayers for 
 him ; he needs them." 
 
 His meaning was unmistakable this time. She 
 sprang from him stung to her woman's pride. 
 
 " Hs is as worthy my thoughts as his sister is 
 of yours. If he follows me, I just guess it ain't no 
 worse than her a-followin' you right up to the last 
 minute she was here. Oh, you needn't frown. 
 Folks knows it how you two was till most mornin'
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 277 
 
 gettin' down from the mill that time last summer. 
 And didn't she ride up to the lodge next day, on the 
 supply wagon, like common folks, when she knew 
 you'd walked up, when she knew it was goin' to 
 storm and you'd have to stay all night as you did 
 with only deaf old Davis " 
 
 " Stop, Ruth Bradley! " Paul's face looked white 
 through the gloom, and his voice shook. " You are 
 repeating what you know is false. Ask Max or 
 Luis or any of the Lower Ranch men where I spent 
 that night. Ask my mother. Gossip has gone far 
 when it couples Miss Eldreth's name with one of 
 her father's men; and you are going to stop it 
 your part of it. Shame, Ruth ! Where is your 
 self-respect, your womanhood, your sympathy with 
 your own sex? And you a teacher, a Christian, a 
 follower of the Golden Rule! " 
 
 "Hold! you two!" 
 
 Antonio Garia sprang from his spent broncho at 
 the very gate before either was aware of his prox- 
 imity. Ruth turned deathly white, and shrank close 
 to her companion, for she knew her betrothed's tem- 
 per; but he only laughed while he tied his horse, 
 bantering : 
 
 " Now, Senor Menendez, if ycu think you are 
 through with my sweetheart, I'll be much obliged 
 for an hour or so and a kiss or two, if you've left 
 any no ? "
 
 278 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Paul turned him a frankly smiling face. " Plenty. 
 I'm ordinarily courageous, but not so foolhardy as 
 to covet Sefior Garia's belongings. I was just leav- 
 ing. Good-night, and good-bye to you both. I am 
 no longer foreman of Eldhurst. I leave for Ward 
 tomorrow night to manage the Hopeful." 
 
 " Yes, he was scolding me," pouted Ruth, leaning 
 listlessly against Antonio's broad shoulder and ab- 
 sently toying with his revolver hilt, " But he 
 brought me home and he called me his ' dear girl.' 
 Aren't you jealous? " 
 
 " Not a little bit," laughed her lover, hugging 
 her up to him with a bear-like squeeze. " Why that 
 poor fellow is so in love with the Boss's daughter 
 that he doesn't know if there's another girl in 
 Boulder county. And a man that can get the high- 
 est rose on the trellis isn't even going to see the 
 violets on the ground no ? " 
 
 " But he can't get her; it's too high up." 
 
 " Sometimes even climbing roses will trail. If 
 you'd have seen her up there in the woods when she 
 thought I had hurt him. And they didn't know I 
 looked back. I saw her hanging onto his arm and 
 looking up at him like . . . like .... 
 Well, no pretty girl had better ever look at me so, 
 that's all! Diantre! Can't get her! He's a damn 
 fool if he doesn't take her for half an asking. I 
 would, if I had to plant the rest of the family."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 279 
 
 " He can't, he can't," repeated the girl, pressing 
 her hand fiercely against that torn letter in her 
 bosom. Ah, she knew a way to " fix things " be- 
 tween Paul and the Boss's daughter, and who would 
 blame her for playing even with a man who had 
 as good as told her that he cared nothing for her 
 her, Ruth Bradley, the prettiest girl in all Eldhurst. 
 (Mr. Richard had told her she was.) Very good, 
 Paul Menendez, you have no taste for violets; you 
 shall have no chance at roses. Aloud she said pout- 
 ingly : 
 
 " I know. You think her prettier than me ; you 
 and Paul both think so." 
 
 His honest hesitation was sufficient answer, 
 though he said reflectively: " It must be the dress 
 that makes the difference. She can certainly get 
 herself up stunningly. Some think Miss Howard 
 the most beautiful, but she's too cold; a dead pearl 
 beside a fire-opal." 
 
 " Humph ! Maybe you'd like to cut Paul out for 
 the climbing rose?" And she writhed out of his 
 arms and flirted off to the other side of the gate. 
 
 He recaptured and kissed her severely before he 
 replied : " Not I. What would I do with a fine 
 lady? Put her up in the niche beside my Virgin 
 and say prayers to her? And what would she do 
 with me? Being used as a door-mat might prove 
 uncomfortable. Paul's different. His mother
 
 280 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 worked for the Allans and knows gentle ways; and 
 as to his father, Max says that Manuel Menendez 
 was no peon, for all he lived one, and Max ought to 
 know the castes of his own country." 
 
 " Well, I don't care," sulked the girl, " You and 
 Paul can just think Miss Eldreth and Miss Howard 
 prettier than me. I know who doesn't think so, 
 and I mean to flirt with him first chance I get, see 
 if I don't." 
 
 " You try it ! Saints on high ! try it only 
 once ! " he hissed, locking his sinewy brown hands 
 round her plump throat and shaking her threaten- 
 ingly. " Women have died for less than that my 
 own mother died for less! And I am my father's 
 son. Si, si! " 
 
 " Tony ! " she gasped, fear in her eyes, " it wasn't 
 me you said you'd kill it was him." 
 
 " Don't make me do either," he said gloomily, as 
 he turned toward house. 
 
 The next day when Paul came to talk with 
 Bradley about taking personal charge of the Hope- 
 ful, and while he was waiting for her father, Ruth, 
 smiling and unconcerned, asked him to address an 
 envelope to Miss Eldreth in Boston. One of the 
 mission school children wanted to send her a birth- 
 day card, she said. 
 
 And Paul, wholly unsuspicious, complied with her 
 request.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. 
 
 MATTERS at Eldhnrst went rapidly from bad to 
 worse that spring. Half a score of experienced men 
 declined to work under another foreman, and 
 frankly stated so when they asked for their time. 
 One foreman after another was tried, first some 
 stranger, next some one from the place. 
 
 While Max was trying to make his experience 
 as head-shepherd stand good for the handling of 
 men and the other lines agriculture, lumbering and 
 quarrying Luis, in charge of the flocks of the 
 Lower Ranch, let a bunch of lambs go down in a 
 freshet; scores were dying from some baffling af- 
 fection and, late as it was, the shearing was not yet 
 arranged for. Max promptly straightened most of 
 these matters when, excused from the foremanship, 
 he again gave his attention exclusively to the sheep. 
 
 The next three men were failures, each more 
 emphatically so than his predecessor. Whenever 
 Mr. Eldreth ventured to absent himself there were 
 looseness and shirking, in spite of the efforts of the 
 sub-formen, and, most demoralizing of all, there
 
 282 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 was no recognized authority, no final court of ap- 
 peal. 
 
 And Mr. Eldreth's absences grew more frequent 
 and more lengthy. He was absorbing himself in 
 politics, and it was whispered that his ambitions 
 stopped nowhere short of the United States senate. 
 
 The fifth experiment as foreman was a stranger 
 from the far East, wholly unaccustomed to Western 
 ways and Western men. He had been a crew-boss 
 in the Allegheny coal mining districts, and was 
 domineering enough to suit even Pierce Eldreth. 
 But he knew nothing of growing crops under irrig- 
 ation ; the mills under his foremanship kept lowering 
 their average output, and finally, in desperation, 
 Eldreth assumed direct management of his two big 
 ranches, himself, placing this Pennsylvania man, 
 Schmidt, in charge of the quarries when Bradley re- 
 signed in May. 
 
 At once the output of the quarries ran up, greatly 
 to Eldreth's gratification. What did it matter that 
 the men were discontented and grumbling? 
 Schmidt could hold them down. Thank the Lord 
 there was one little corner of Eldhurst to which 
 he did not have to run every day. Wagner had 
 always to be watched more or less closely; the 
 Lower Ranch had to be gone, over just so often ; and 
 there was Webb losing man after experienced man 
 and it was such a hard ride up to the lumber camp.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 283 
 
 Late in April the Greeley paving bids were opened 
 and the contract went to the Lyons quarries. Eld- 
 reth immediately laid off half the force at his quar- 
 ries. This while Bradley was still in charge; and 
 it had required all of his and the Rector's persuasion 
 in the union's called meeting to keep the other half 
 from laying down their tools. Unbeknown to Eld- 
 reth, Paul was called down from Ward to go to the 
 mill and talk to the union there, to prevent Webb's 
 resignation and the trouble that seemed in the very 
 air. 
 
 The latter part of May, Eldreth received private 
 word from reliable sources that the Springs paving 
 contract would probably go to an Eastern concern; 
 and he forthwith announced that there would be a 
 cut in wages at the quarries. 
 
 Bradley and Paul were both at Ward now (for 
 the Hopeful was breaking her record), Webb, as it 
 chanced, was in Denver, and Allan was ill, confined 
 to his bed. Schmidt had kept the men at work, it 
 is true, but there were complaints and threats and 
 open talk of a strike. 
 
 There was to be a called meeting of the quarries' 
 union for Saturday, when the matter would be 
 brought up; and the Rector lifted his burning head 
 and trembling hand long enough to pencil a note to 
 Paul, detailing the explosive situation, and begging 
 him to come down for that Saturday meeting to
 
 284 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 counteract the influence of Andersen and Swenssen 
 and Garia and the ether hotheads. 
 
 Paul came down from Ward Thursday morning, 
 and had a long reassuring talk with his old teacher. 
 Certainly he would do his utmost toward peace. Al- 
 ready he had seen for a few moments Andersen and 
 others of the ultra element up in Quarry Town and 
 he believed they would listen to reason. Nothing 
 would be decided upon till Saturday evening's meet- 
 ing which he, Paul, had been asked to address. He 
 had also been asked to act as mediator between the 
 men and their employer. Schmidt was very un- 
 popular, and Mr. Eldreth at best was greatly mis- 
 understood and misrepresented; but he would do his 
 best. 
 
 When Paul left the sick room, promising to re- 
 main at Eldhurst as late as possible Saturday night, 
 Edwin Allan breathed a long sigh, turned over and 
 sank into his first refreshing sleep for weary days 
 and nights. 
 
 Thursday, the first in June, was the day Lilys 
 was expected home from Boston. Paul had scarcely 
 returned from the Rector's bedside and seated him- 
 self in the cottage porch where his mother sat sew- 
 ing, when William pulled the carriage up before the 
 Rectory door. 
 
 Marah watched her son's eyes wander from the 
 unturned pages of his " Mining Laws " to where a
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 285 
 
 trim brown-clad figure was disappearing within the 
 Rectory. 
 
 After some delay, the carriage climbed the steep 
 hill to the House. They could see Wagner's band 
 of hay-hands, skirting the hill's base toward the 
 barns, stop and wave their hats in salute to the Little 
 Mistress, in response to which the trim brown figure 
 rose in the carriage beside her father and fluttered 
 a handkerchief. 
 
 When the carriage stopped at the block, they 
 could see Helene, Lena, Pepito, Sam and the others 
 surround it, and the brown figure was lost among 
 them. 
 
 Marah made a sudden little movement; Paul 
 lifted his eyes and, catching her expression, bent 
 over his book with a show of sudden interest, the 
 dark blood mounting to his face. 
 
 " You will see her? " queried his mother. 
 
 The young man shook his head. Scant confi- 
 dence was there between mother and son, less sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 " I go to the mill tomorrow to a meeting of their 
 union; Saturday to the meeting of the quarries 
 union, after an interview with Mr. Eldreth, and the 
 same night back to Ward if I can make the train. 
 I promised Bradley, who can not be at the mine." 
 
 Marah looked him over scornfully. Were her 
 cherished plans to be defeated, after all, by this
 
 286 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 strong-willed boy? Leaning back and swaying to 
 and fro in her rocker, she sang in her matchless 
 voice : 
 
 " 'So in that purple twilight my heart was overcome, 
 
 By the breath of your song, and I loved you though my 
 
 tongue was dry and dumb. 
 For you were a high-born LADY, and why should you 
 
 care for me ? 
 So I stole away not knowing you were singing to me 
 
 to me." 
 
 But the song and the taunting laugh which ended 
 it served merely to deepen the red in the fair face 
 bending above " Mining Laws." 
 
 " When will you see her? " persisted his tormen- 
 tor, " You can not always avoid it." 
 
 Paul arose, putting down his book. " When he 
 can take my hand as an equal; when the name I 
 bear is no longer a reproach ; when I have conquered 
 this cursed blood in my veins." 
 
 " Such blood is strong." 
 
 The lines about his mouth deepened. " Will is 
 stronger." 
 
 " And a name once stained " 
 
 " May be cleansed." 
 
 Her shoulders lifted. " I'm afraid you'll find it's 
 fast colors ; hand-dyed in the wool. Time may fade 
 it; but even so, there remains, will always remain,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 287 
 
 that unproffered hand of his. Therefore, you may 
 have to content yourself with viewing her from the 
 porch." 
 
 " That is very probable." 
 
 Marah cut her thread with a vicious whack of the 
 scissors, her lip curling disdainfully. " Oh, the 
 Eldreths! they are so high! They point with pride 
 to an unbroken line back, far back to is it Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror or Atilla Scourge of God ? This 
 on the paternal side; while on the distaff side, there 
 is the immortal Samuel Blue-blood Huntington, 
 Signer of the Great Declaration, be it ever re- 
 membered. So much for the Eldreths. As for the 
 Allans " lifting mocking eyes to heaven, " the 
 Allans owned and sailed the Mayflower, won the 
 battle of Bunker Hill and hold a first mortgage 
 on Plymouth Rock. The living representatives of 
 this noble combination should adopt as their coat of 
 arms a Pilgrim father passant on a field of alfalfa, 
 opposed to a Swedish stone-cutter rampant. Bah! 
 your walking delegate quoted it pat in that last 
 speech of his : ' The man who has nothing to boast 
 but his illustrious ancestry is like the potato the 
 only good belonging to him is underground.' ' 
 
 Even this brought no response, only a half smile. 
 
 " And besides, if a woman chooses to stoop, who 
 shall say no ? " she challenged. 
 
 He came and stood before her, saying with stern
 
 288 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 emphasis : " Hei unborn children, her very choice 
 himself, if he be not too weak, too blind, too mad." 
 
 The woman reddened, but flung back : " And a 
 man may be safely trusted to be all three, where a 
 beautiful woman is concerned." 
 
 " There are men who have no right to women, 
 beautiful or otherwise, much less to children, cursed 
 before birth." 
 
 " You preach well. The practice remains to be 
 seen. You have never been tested. You are a 
 disciple of the immaculate Edwin Allan, but you are 
 none the less your father's son. I have told you 
 before that you are like him." 
 
 Yes, she had told him before had missed no 
 opportunity; and now, as always, he flinched as the 
 lash descended upon the same unhealed wound. But 
 where he had heretofore borne the sting in silence, 
 now he said with quiet determination : 
 
 " Well, I shall be unlike him in one respect." 
 
 His mother laughed scoffingly. " Oh, you will, 
 will you ? Yes, yes, the man is strong and ah ! so 
 virtuous when he views her from the porch. But 
 find the woman, set them face to face, turn the key, 
 lower the lights and then, my word for it, the re- 
 semblance to his honored sire will be quite complete. 
 Oh, I know what you're thinking," as his face set 
 like stone, " but you are mistaken. What have the 
 man and his resolutions to do with it? It may take
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 289 
 
 two to make a business bargain, but for a love bar- 
 gain it takes only one, and that one the woman. Do 
 you imagine that Manuel Menendez ever dared to 
 confess his love for me, much less propose marriage ? 
 No. He was content to view me from the sheep- 
 corral until mark, now ! until I was ready." 
 
 Her son stared at her in a horror of amazement. 
 The small common ground between them quaked 
 and was rent anew; the opening gaped wider than 
 before. 
 
 " So you see, when Miss Eldreth gets ready to 
 stoop " 
 
 He made a quick dissenting gesture and turned 
 toward his chair. 
 
 " You think it impossible? that she cares nothing 
 for you? " 
 
 " Pray, let us discuss it no further," he requested 
 coldly, reaching for his book. 
 
 " One question, and I have done. You are at 
 liberty not to answer." 
 
 He had begun searching for his place in the 
 " Laws," but he left off and gave her polite atten- 
 tion. His mother fixed him with her piercing eyes, 
 leaning forward and emphasizing by beating her 
 scissors on the chair-arm. 
 
 " If this is so one-sided, why did she cling to me 
 that night of the storm when you brought her here, 
 weeping and begging not to be taken away from me ;
 
 290 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 why did she kiss me again and again there in the 
 dark and call me by your name? WHY? " 
 
 The book fell to the floor. Paul sat down weakly, 
 covering his face. 
 
 The relentless voice went on : " Why did she re- 
 fuse to be taken from your bed, and why ? " 
 
 " Don't, mother, don't ! " The whisper was re- 
 plete with physical pain. 
 
 " And when I had undressed her and put her 
 under the covers, why did she cry herself to sleep 
 clasping your pillow, and lie all night with her lips 
 against it? Why 
 
 "Oh God! Stop!" 
 
 Marah too had risen, the wild light flaring up in 
 her eyes. "'Impossible' you say? Fool! say 
 rather 'inevitable.' One-sided? with her marked, 
 branded with love-longing ; conceiving with the one 
 image love-traced in the darkness; passion her food, 
 her drink, her life." 
 
 She turned and moved from him, both arms flung 
 high, rambling on incoherently : " Set apart for him 
 alone, her arms for his neck, her head for his 
 breast, her lips for his lips. What can he do with 
 his will, his resolutions, his prayers? or they with 
 their petty social distinctions? Not heaven can 
 thwart it, nor the devil and all his angels. What 
 was to be shall be. Then, so he but see it, let me die ! 
 Marah Maitland never "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 291 
 
 It ended in a violent paroxysm of coughing, as 
 Paul, following, caught her in his arms, and, for- 
 getting his own misery, he soothed her with a wo- 
 man's tenderness. She tried feebly to push him 
 away, but he sat down, in her rocker, holding her 
 against his breast as he might a child, the light of a 
 great pity in his eyes. 
 
 Once she shuddered away from him, muttering; 
 but the next instant she took his face between her 
 thin hands and kissed his lips with feverish inten- 
 sity, then hid her face down on his shoulder. And 
 he held her close and strong till she fell asleep; 
 sat long, gazing with eyes that ached and blurred 
 across at the House on the opposite hill, thinking 
 sad, perplexed thoughts.
 
 292 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 LOVE AGAINST PRIDE. 
 
 IF Pierce Eldreth had experienced an unaccount- 
 able thrill as he stood before that portrait at Christ- 
 mas time, he underwent something like a shock 
 when he met his daughter on the up-train from 
 Denver that June morning. She seemed taller, 
 though her form w 7 as fuller, the very perfection of 
 womanly beauty. Her wealth of hair was coiled 
 becomingly, and there was a graceful, fetching air, a 
 regal bearing about her which she certainly had not 
 taken away with her. 
 
 During their stop at the Rectory, her uncle had 
 sat up in bed and embraced her affectionately, as- 
 suring her that she had not changed from his little 
 girl of a year ago; but his heart went faint within 
 him at sight of her rich dark beauty. 
 
 Greetings over at the House, she returned to sit 
 with him. As she passed down the hill, she stole a 
 glance toward Marah's cottage. She had heard 
 Antonio tell Pepito that he and Paul were going 
 to the lumber camp tomorrow to return Saturday 
 morning. Then he must be at Eldhurst now
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 293 
 
 She colored angrily and walked rapidly on to the 
 door of the open church. Here she was, fresh from 
 a gay social season in the East, enriched by new 
 friends and a broader experience, with the wide 
 world of Music spread out to invite her future 
 here was she, at home but a few hours, staring up at 
 the hut he called home, sighing like some love-sick 
 kitchen-maid, asking herself as to the whereabouts 
 of one who She banged the vestry door with 
 something of her old-time vehemence. 
 
 In the dim church, she paused to draw from her 
 pocket a crumpled letter sheet, traced in a delicate 
 German hand: 
 
 " You will comeback to us, Rose of the West, for 
 what were life without you ? A year more here 
 for us both, then to mein loved Berlin and then ? 
 God be thanked, your ' No ' was qualified. You will 
 try to love me, you said. Relent and let me come 
 to you there in your big West so I may help you to 
 try. 
 
 Ah, we were all so proud of you last night. Your 
 voice was superb. Living or dying, I shall hear it. 
 That last encore why did you choose that par- 
 ticular one ? It was tearful with farewells, a dirge 
 of sundering ties. Yet was I mistaken ? under 
 and below ran a current of gladness, the gladness of 
 outspread wings, the joy of home-returning, the 
 thrill of fond expectation. So my violin sings when 
 I am glad in spite of myself. 
 
 All the others were weeping because of your
 
 294 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 ' Farewell ! farewell ! No word we know 
 So full of love, so full of woe.' 
 
 but I because of that little joy-note ; for it roused 
 my old fear that there is another, one more worthy, 
 one better beloved. Oh, tell me that my fear is 
 groundless ! 
 
 Devotedly yours, 
 
 J. von B." 
 
 She crumpled the letter impatiently and moved 
 slowly up the darkened church, passing so close to 
 the young man behind the arch near the door that 
 he might have reached out and touched her. (Dis- 
 satisfied already with ' viewing her from the 
 porch '!) 
 
 She went to the side door next the Rectory and 
 called to her uncle through his open window : 
 
 " I'm going to try my wings in the little old 
 choir-loft again. Can you hear? It will either kill 
 or cure." 
 
 But she did not ascend at once. She sauntered 
 about, examining with childish interest the old fa- 
 miliar objects, the altar-cloth, the portraits and the 
 stained windows. Longest of all she stood gazing 
 up at the lift-sized portrait of Madame Emelie 
 Huntington-Eldreth, with its lofty brow and 
 dreamy, haunting eyes. 
 
 They were his eyes. The resemblance was more 
 than fancied. The whole face was his it seemed 
 so to-day more than ever feature for feature :
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 295 
 
 " A mouth for mastery and manful work, 
 A certain brooding sweetness of the eyes, 
 A brow, the harbor of grave thoughts, and hair 
 Saxon of hue." 
 
 And it had been by just such a dim light that she 
 had been held by that last unforgotten gaze, there 
 on the rain-drenched hillslope, now a year ago. 
 She had swooned, yet she had been dimly 
 conscious of what followed. All that night and 
 during the tedious journey eastward, she had re- 
 viewed those few crisis moments. She recalled the 
 blackness, the dizzy, sinking sensation; then strong 
 arms had lifted her, carried her . . . And 
 then? She strove for more. Had he kissed her? 
 Had he dared? Ay, her lips had throbbed and 
 burned all the hours of that long night as she tossed 
 about on his bed. She had dreamed that he had 
 dared; had dreamed it many and many a night 
 and she had not always been asleep when she 
 dreamed it ! 
 
 She had neglected her traveling companions, par- 
 ticularly DeLacy, who had suddenly grown unbear- 
 able to her; she had cared little for change of scene, 
 for the new life, even for music. She sought soli- 
 tude. She wanted to be much alone with this new 
 and wonderful awakening of her woman nature. 
 She strove to live again the transition moments of 
 her awakening. Over and again in memory she
 
 296 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 felt the magnetic strength of his arms enfolding her 
 as though never to let her go; the strokes of the 
 heart against which she had lain, the pressure of his 
 smooth sensitive lips on her mouth, stinging her 
 swooning senses back to life with all the shock and 
 ecstasy of love's first kiss. And in this memory 
 (purely physical, for, unlike him, she never ideal- 
 ized) she luxuriated with all the intensity of her 
 tropical temperament, till, hugged nightly to her 
 unsatisfied heart, it grew to be a sweet torment 
 her one lover's one caress. 
 
 Her lover, her " low-born lover " ! How her 
 pride had risen and struggled with her heart those 
 first few months, till she grew weary of the cease- 
 less strife. On the one side birth, position, pride, 
 thought of her father, of her world. On the other 
 side their boy-and-girl days and the memory of 
 them, his gentleness and protection; then those last 
 swift days, the thrill of his touch, the deep splendor 
 of his eyes, the haven of his arms, the sweetness and 
 fire of his kiss. O futile strife, old as the heart is 
 old! 
 
 When her pride was ascendant, she prayed to 
 meet him once more, only once; that she might 
 freeze, wither, crush him and his presumption in 
 having dared to look at her, his master's daughter, 
 with that look in his eyes. Then when her love 
 swung uppermost, she had scarcely the strength to
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 297 
 
 repress the longing that had sprung full-grown in 
 her passionate soul at the one touch of his lips, the 
 mad yearning to return to him, to cast herself at 
 his feet and in the ecstacy of self-abandonment be 
 wholly his, defiant of position, father, the world 
 and its laws. 
 
 Her homesickness, her loyalty to the " big West," 
 and all things Western had been her heart's allies. 
 And one day when she was more homesick than 
 usual, she had written (realizing that he would 
 never take the initiative and why), just a kind little 
 letter, altogether friendly, about the ranch and the 
 mission school and how she meant to help him, 
 if she might, and in others ways to be a better 
 girl. 
 
 How would he reply? Did he care? She had 
 not succeeded in breaking his self-command that 
 last night. Could it be that his indifference was 
 genuine ? No, no. Scores of trifling circumstances 
 recurred to her mind in contradiction. He had 
 loved her all his life; but she had position and 
 wealth, and so his pride had kept him silent and 
 would till the end of time, unless .... 
 
 Then his letter had come, quite promptly, his un- 
 mistakable handwriting. It had lain on the piano 
 till she finished her lesson and her vocal master was 
 gone. Then she had seized and opened it greedily, 
 to find her own letter torn into careful strips, and 
 not a word besides.
 
 298 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Ah, heaven's mercy! She had gone wild then. 
 In her mad determination to " do something des- 
 perate, something for which he'd be sorry," she fully 
 resolved upon an immediate acceptance of Herbert 
 DeLacy, upon the shameless waiting with him for 
 his legal release. 
 
 But some guardian spirit had directed that De- 
 Lacy be out of Boston for the fortnight, and upon 
 his return, at first sight of him, her revulsion of 
 feeling was complete. 
 
 Next she intentionally encouraged another long- 
 insistent suitor, a handsome young virtuoso, a fel- 
 low-student in the conservatory who had already 
 distinguished himself as an amateur violinist. He 
 was altogether desirable from everybody's stand- 
 point wealthy, high-born, in fact allied to the no- 
 bility itself; and he and Richard had become fast 
 friends during her brother's visit to Boston. 
 
 With true Western frankness she assured him 
 that she " wanted to love him," and " would try 
 hard! " But alas! love does not come even by hard 
 trying. And besides, love was already securely en- 
 throned. No, not her distinguished foreign suitor. 
 No, she, Lilys Eldreth, heaven-and-earth-favored, 
 born to the social purple, she loved one of her 
 father's hired men, no birth, no blood, worse than 
 no name, with the shadow of a gibbet over his life! 
 one low enough and vulgar enough and insulting
 
 THIS WAS. A MAN. 299 
 
 enough to tear and return a lady's letter. Oh, the 
 humiliation of it turned her sick. 
 
 Yet that same night, perhaps, she would dream 
 of pattering rain, of a darkened room, of an em- 
 brace from whose passionate strength her father 
 was trying vainly to withdraw her; and she would 
 wake to weep out her loneliness and heart-sickness, 
 to pray to die if only first she might once more 
 feel the clasp of his arms, the pressure of his lips. 
 Ah, if the struggle had been sharp before the episode 
 of the returned letter, afterward it was fierce, to the 
 death. For if her pride was undying, her heart 
 admitted no defeat. 
 
 But as she now stood in the darkened church, she 
 told herself that pride had fully conquered; that 
 it was ended. Never again to see him that was 
 all she asked of heaven. 
 
 And all the while, Paul was studying with wildly 
 beating heart, the changes a year had made in her : 
 greater suppleness of movement, fuller redness of 
 lips, a deeper, more subdued light in the eyes and 
 the subtle, irresistible aura of the full-blown woman 
 breathing about her. Her dress clung to her more 
 rounded figure in the same graceful, individual way. 
 Were she a princess she could not hold herself more 
 royally. Her whole dark passionate beauty was 
 intensified by a something he hesitated to name. 
 Was it that she had suffered ? Heaven forbid ! and
 
 300 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 a great wave of protective tenderness swept him 
 at the mere thought. Whatever the agent, her al- 
 ways potent attraction for him was increased many 
 fold, and holding there to the arch, he registered 
 an inconsidered vow to return to Ward and to 
 safety at the earliest possible moment. 
 
 She ascended to the gallery and he held his breath 
 expectantly. But she did not sing, only took a tone, 
 swelled it softly in a gradual crescendo, held it with 
 purity and power and let it throb away through a 
 slow diminuendo, like the dying intonation of a 
 rich-toned bell. Then she came down the steps, 
 trilling some light staccato notes softly as she moved, 
 shaking out the liquid tones into the stillness of the 
 church like the bubbling cadence of a nightingale. 
 Lastly, she took the octave tone above and ran back, 
 the eight golden notes gliding down one into the 
 other, " a brook of silvery laughter through the 
 air." 
 
 It meant nothing to the watching man when she 
 paused with hands grasping the side-rail and stood 
 looking again for a full minute up at the portrait 
 of her grand-dame ; but when she was safely across 
 the Rectory yard and in the house, he went down on 
 his knees before the portrait, his lips pressed upon 
 the side-rail where it was still warm from her 
 hands. 
 
 For some time Lilys sat reading and chatting with
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 301 
 
 her uncle and when by and by he dozed, she re- 
 mained at his side, idly reading a magazine article, 
 a short vivid allegory, " The Potency of Love." 
 How a forester had planted a climbing Rose be- 
 tween a straight young Poplar and a stunted Oak; 
 how, because the Rose leaned to the stunted tree 
 for her earlier support and because of the Oak's 
 jealous anxiety lest one fiber of her being find sup- 
 port other than his own strength, the dwarf Oak had 
 straightened and strengthened and striven upward. 
 In the end the forester had come, bent on destruc- 
 tion, had untwined the tender clasp of the young 
 Rose and given her to the more favored Poplar, 
 but so improved was the Oak that he had changed 
 his mind about the intended destruction. 
 
 She reread the article, for there was something 
 oddly familiar in the phraseology, glanced at the 
 author's name and when her uncle awoke, asked : 
 
 " Uncle Edwin, I have been thinking : If there 
 is so much power in love, as some claim, why doesn't 
 Dix's love for Nina do more for him? And why 
 did not papa's love for mama make a better man of 
 him, a man like you? Some one has said that we 
 grow like what we worship." 
 
 Her questions told him how great was the change 
 in her. A year ago she would not have asked them. 
 
 " But there are so many kinds of love," he said 
 in reply, " as many kinds as there are individual
 
 302 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 temperaments. Your father was proud of your 
 mother, admired, respected, deferred to her; but 
 his heart's strongest love had already been lavished 
 upon his first . . . his . . upon Richard's mother. 
 As to Richard, you are now old enough to under- 
 stand that he loves even so excellent a woman, in 
 the thoroughly masculine way, that is, selfishly, 
 sensually. It is singular," he mused, " that the men 
 of the house of Eldreth for generations back have 
 had the power of inspiring love in women morally 
 their superiors, from your brother's fiancee back 
 to Emelie Huntington's mother's mother, in each 
 case a love but little short of tragic in its capacity 
 for blind devotion. Such power of rousing to utter 
 self-effacement seems inherent in the Eldreth blood. 
 The history of your house proves it. But you ask 
 me why such love for such women has done no 
 more for these men. ' We grow like what we wor- 
 ship ' is but a half truth. While the object of our 
 love in part determines the kind of love, yet the 
 nature of the person loving has more to do with it 
 than the person beloved. In the cases you mention, 
 worthy objects are loved unworthily. On the other 
 hand, many unworthy ones are loved far beyond 
 their deserving, this being invariably true where the 
 soul of the worshiper is pure and given to idealiz- 
 ing. 
 
 Dante created a poet's dream from a flesh-and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 303 
 
 blood woman; and I have in mind an obscure mod- 
 ern instance in some points resembling the case of 
 the immortal Florentine. This humble lover's is 
 likewise a poet's soul, his love a lonely, subjective 
 passion; its object invested with ideal virtues as 
 entirely his own creations as are the verses of his 
 making. He loves love and the woman both in 
 one, love in his high conception of it. She will 
 ever remain in ignorance of his adoration, but what- 
 ever her merit, he will always hold her more than 
 worthy, and will strive himself to deserve the heights 
 on which he has placed her. Thus will his great 
 unrequited love work to his own good as truly as 
 though she were worthy of it and reciprocal. To 
 his greater good, it may be, because unrequited ; for 
 ' of times the thing our life misses helps more than 
 the thing that it gets.' Besides, it is the loving that 
 is beneficial, not possession of the beloved." 
 
 His answer told her much; more than her ques- 
 tions had told him; far more than he intended. 
 There was a strange sparkling light in her eyes, a 
 vivid spot on either cheek. She arose slowly, laid 
 aside the magazine and reached for her parasol 
 which she had brought in lieu of a hat. The Rector 
 smothered a sigh of relief. What if she had guessed 
 at his meaning! 
 
 " Uncle," she asked with abrupt irrelevance, 
 "who is 'Allan Marsden?'"
 
 304 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 He colored and stammered, seeking to frame a 
 reply at once truth and evasive; but she gave him 
 one swift, enlightened glance, then said in a tone 
 of unspeakable bitterness : 
 
 " Your poet-lover is to be congratulated upon 
 all that his well-controlled spiritual love has wrought 
 for himself. He has seen to it that this etherial pas- 
 sion shall benefit no one else ; but it must be admitted 
 that his preventive measures could never have origi- 
 nated in the heart of a gentleman. Even from the 
 view-point of unworthy flesh-and-blood, he is 
 a coward. Tell him so." 
 
 And before the astonished, bewildered Rector 
 could open his lips, she was gone. 
 
 Paul was untying his horse in front of the church 
 as the girl came out. Instead of passing out of the 
 Rectory gate, her nearest way, she went round 
 through the church-yard and down past the hitch- 
 ing-rack. 
 
 The eyes of the two met; hers looked beyond 
 him, over him, through him, but saw him not; and 
 with proudly lifted head, she passed him in freez- 
 ing silence.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 305 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 READING BETWEEN LINES. 
 
 " MAMMA HELENE," complained Lilys late the 
 next afternoon, " talk to me, tell me something. 
 I'm so .... It is so ...' 
 
 She sat down listlessly at her old nurse's feet and 
 leaned her head wearily in her lap. She had left 
 Lena to finish unpacking the several trunks, and slip- 
 ping into her thinnest, coolest Vassar gown, had 
 joined the housekeeper who sat sewing in the west 
 veranda. The House was deserted ; a summer quiet 
 hung over the entire place. 
 
 " So what, dearie ? " and Helene lovingly 
 stroked the flossy hair and patted the soft cheek 
 and neck, " You aren't homesick for Boston and 
 the tenderfoot beau already? " 
 
 Lilys made a wry face. " I should say not ! You 
 know I never wanted to leave; and there hasn't 
 been an hour during the past year that I haven't 
 been homesick for home and all of you. I only 
 meant," and involuntarily her eyes sought the lone 
 cottage on the left hill opposite, " that things here 
 at Eldhurst now are so . . ." She absently slipped
 
 3o6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the rings from her ringers, piled them into one 
 hand, and shifted them from palm to palm. " Well, 
 so ... different, you know." 
 
 " I don't think you'll find it so, dearie. Nothing 
 and nobody has changed up here. Fred is coming 
 from Denver next week to practice with Nina for 
 the Chautauqua, since you think you can't go with 
 her. And even after the wedding, week after next, 
 Dickie'll be right here the same as ever, and how 
 nice it will be for you girls to be together. And 
 you'll have company this summer same as ever and 
 a nice time; so how will it be different? Things 
 have changed some over there," nodding toward 
 Quarry Town, " Bradley's resigned, and Schmidt's 
 in his place. Gustav married Hilma did you 
 know? and it was high time he did, I should say. 
 Ruth's living with the Schmidts till her father's 
 ready for her, or till she's married. Paul's at Ward 
 and will soon take his mother " 
 
 " That's what you can talk to me about, Mamma 
 Helene," put in Lilys, " Tell me about Marah, all 
 you know about her, and let me ask questions. 
 Papa and Dix won't be up to dinner for an hour. 
 Uncle always puts me off, but you shall not." 
 
 Helene fastened her thread and bit it off before 
 speaking. " Ain't much to tell. She was a serv- 
 ant like the rest of us, only the Allans made much 
 of her and she got spoiled. She sang in the choir
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 307 
 
 and sat in the Rectory parlor sometimes. It was 
 just before they hired her that the old master, your 
 grandpa, died, and your Pa came here to take hold 
 of things. Dickie was about two years old ; and had 
 been sent here to live after his mother died some- 
 where in the South. I never saw her, and your Pa 
 never talked about her, though I know he must have 
 thought a sight of her." 
 
 " Uncle says he loved her better than he did my 
 Mamma." 
 
 " Well, if she was any prettier and nicer than 
 Miss Edith, she must have deserved it; for Miss 
 Edith was an angel, so sweet and gentle, yet proud 
 and high-notioned enough to suit your Pa all right. 
 After she came to the Rectory, where Mr. Eldreth 
 had gone often enough, for he always liked Mr. 
 Allen, now he went more than often, and we all 
 knew why. 
 
 One night, after Miss Edith had been home about 
 six months, Manuel Menendez and I were out there 
 in the garden. Manuel was head-shepherd and be- 
 longed at the Lower Ranch, but he used to be up 
 here a good deal. Talk about good-looking men! 
 That Spaniard had them all beaten; for Max says 
 he was a Spaniard and no Mexican. There wasn't 
 a girl at Eldhurst but would have followed him 
 round for one look from those black eyes of his, 
 for all there was some very good reason why he
 
 3o8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 had left his own country. Well, as I said, we were 
 out in the garden and your Pa came walking up 
 from the Rectory. He saw us and stopped and 
 said : 
 
 " ' Fix it up here at the House, Helene, for I'm 
 going to bring you home a mistress soon.' 
 
 " ' Yes, sir, that I will,' I says, and he went on in. 
 
 "'Wonder which one?' whispers Manuel, and 
 I've always thought your Pa heard him, for how he 
 did turn against Manuel after that! " 
 
 " What did he mean by ' which one ' ? " inter- 
 rupted Lilys. 
 
 " Why, Miss Edith or Marah." 
 
 " What ! my mother or her maid ? " 
 
 " Just so. You see, once in a great while, before 
 Miss Edith came, Mr. Eldreth used to take Dickie 
 down to the Rectory, and as I told you, Marah was 
 allowed in the parlor. Dickie took a great liking to 
 her, used to run away and go down there; the only 
 thing your Pa ever spanked him for. Manuel told 
 me (you can believe it or not) that he'd seen Mr. 
 Eldreth and Marah Maitland out driving together 
 after dark. But Manuel from the first time he ever 
 set eyes on her, was so in love with Marah that he 
 was jealous of Mr. Allan! Being Spanish, I guess 
 that was nature. But I always made allowances for 
 what Manuel saw and heard about Marah. 
 
 " Well, the very next night I was inside, and I
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 309 
 
 couldn't help hearing some voices outside in the 
 porch here. It was Mr. Eldreth and Manuel, and 
 Manuel was saying : 
 
 " ' I'm going to house-keeping myself tomorrow,' 
 says he, and then I did listen, and I could see 
 through the blinds. Your Pa was sitting smoking. 
 He laughed and said : ' That's a good arrangement, 
 for it keeps you here and her too, if that will suit 
 you right here at the House, I mean. She can 
 still be housekeeper and you can run things at the 
 Lower Ranch.' What? Why, of course he meant 
 me. Manuel had been hanging round the House 
 for months. But 
 
 " ' It's Marah,' says Manuel. 
 
 " ' Good God ! ' says Mr. Eldreth, jumping up, 
 ' That's a lie ! ' He said worse than that ; he swore 
 awful, and his face was like this sheet, and his eyes 
 were terrible. 
 
 " ' No, it's not/ Manuel says, his eyes a-glittering 
 too, ' ask her.' 
 
 " ' You you have dared to make love to her, 
 when you knew ' ' Not I,' breaks in Manuel, and 
 he was the coolest of the two. * She's known I've 
 wanted her; she didn't need to be told. Late to- 
 night while you were still at the Rectory she called 
 me. I was at the gate. And I don't need to tell 
 you that I went to her. What was said is our own 
 business ; but she is to be mine all mine. Mariana,
 
 310 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 manana,' he kept saying and smiling 1 so that his 
 white teeth showed. ' Manana' s ' the Spanish for 
 ' tomorrow/ you know. 
 
 " Then Mr. Eldreth he laughed and laughed. It 
 wasn't right laughing, but awful to listen to. 
 
 " ' I congratulate you/ he says. 
 
 " Manuel shrugged his shoulders and says what 
 I didn't hear all of, but something about it being in 
 Spanish nature to give a woman about as much as 
 in English nature. 
 
 " Mr. Eldreth quit laughing and came close to the 
 other man and his fists doubled together. 
 
 " ' You know what I can do or rather stop do- 
 ing/ he says in a queer tone. I never did know 
 what he meant, but those were his words. 
 
 " Manuel got pale and his eyes glittered more, but 
 he stood up very straight and looked your Pa right 
 in the eyes and says he : 
 
 " ' Yes, I know. But you can't keep me from 
 
 living while I live. So do it, and be ' You 
 
 know just how men talk when they're excited. It 
 was about even between them, for if Mr. Eldreth 
 looked like a lord, Manuel looked a prince. And I 
 was so afraid they'd quarrel worse that I interrupted 
 them. 
 
 " Manuel told truth, though nobody knows to 
 this day if there was a wedding. The very next 
 day she left the Allans and went to live with him
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 311 
 
 there on the hill. And the next day came the 
 wedding at the Rectory, with only Sarah and me as 
 witnesses. And then the next day was Sunday, the 
 last time Marah sang in the choir, or went to church, 
 for that matter. I was there to take care of Dickie, 
 and I had an awful time with him, for when Marah 
 came down the aisle past the Eldreth pew, he just 
 kicked and cried after her till your Pa had to take 
 him. I never could do much with Dickie, you 
 know. 
 
 " Well, none of us more than caught sight of 
 Marah for most a year. There was them two girls 
 that had lived together so long, married in a day of 
 each other, homing right in plain sight, and never 
 once speaking. Poor work I made trying to take 
 Marah's place with your Ma's clothes and hair. She 
 told me more than once. ' You're good, Helene,' 
 she'd say in her sweet way, ' but you're not Marah.' 
 
 " The wedding was in May, and it was along 
 about February that Manuel was . . . killed, you 
 know. Some of the mill-hands found him, and he 
 was brought down and buried up there by their cot- 
 tage. Your Pa didn't go a-near, and wouldn't let 
 any of us ; though, if it hadn't been your Ma was 
 as she was; I believe she'd have gone to Marah in 
 spite of your Pa, for I tell you she had a will of her 
 own. But her baby was about to come, you and 
 then she says to me, ' Oh, Helene, I must have
 
 3i2 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Marah now. She's such a good nurse. Tell her to 
 forget it all and come to me. I may never get up.' 
 For she was always delicate-like. 
 
 " Your Pa had been called to Pueblo some days 
 before and he did n't get home till the day after you 
 was born, too late to see your Ma alive. 
 
 " I went up after Marah myself, an awful stormy 
 March day, and she was pale and poorly herself. 
 Come to find out she'd a baby of her own three or 
 four days old, not a living soul with her the whole 
 time. It had been storming nearly a week. But 
 bad as she felt, she says ' I'll go,' and goes in and 
 gets her baby and starts. I hurried on down after 
 Mr. Allan ; your Ma had asked for him ; but he was 
 at Howard's, and by the time I got up there against 
 the storm, got him and we reached here, it was all 
 over. There laid your Ma with you by her and she 
 was too far gone to speak to poor Mr. Allan, though 
 she did try so hard. 
 
 " You know the rest ; how your Pa came next 
 day too late, and all about the funeral with flowers 
 and telegrams from everywhere; for I've told you 
 time and again. There's your Pa and Dickie now 
 and you aren't dressed yet for dinner. Run, dearie; 
 men never like to wait, 'specially for their dinner."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER. 
 
 THROUGHOUT the dinner, Lilys kept looking curi- 
 ously at her father. So he had loved Paul's mother, 
 better even than he had loved her mother. That 
 accounted for several things, but made as many 
 others mysterious. Throughout the meal, too, she 
 could feel his gaze fixed meditatively upon her face. 
 
 As they were about to leave the dining-room, 
 he took first one of her jeweled hands, then the 
 other, and examined her rings, saying laughingly : 
 
 " Well, I don't see that big DeLacy diamond. 
 Are we going to have a spinster in the House? 
 YouVe past twenty-one, Little Mistress." 
 
 " Oh, she's turned Bertie down flat," broke in her 
 brother, " wrote me so himself. He's awfully cut 
 up. Then there is the big German ruby, a gift to 
 the Baron's great-great from the Emperor Wil- 
 liam's great-great. But, all told, she may be wait- 
 ing for a band of virgin gold from ' The Hopeful/ 
 eh Babe?" 
 
 Since the affair of the letter with Marah, Pierce 
 Eldreth had not once, even in thought, associated
 
 3H THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 his daughter with his former employe. Now he 
 turned and swept her with his keen glance, while a 
 deep scarlet dyed her face. A year ago she would 
 have railed out at her brother, but now she only 
 clasped her hands before her and seemed on the 
 verge of tears. 
 
 " Richard," said his father sternly, " you will 
 apologize to your sister for the insult you have 
 offered her." 
 
 With his back to his father and his laughing 
 eyes on his sister's face, the young man made his 
 plea for pardon, kissing her hands in mock humility. 
 
 " Now Lilys, come with me," ordered her father. 
 
 In the library he faced her angrily. 
 
 " What did Richard mean ? Why should he con- 
 nect the name of Lilys Allan-Eldreth with that of 
 one who, till within the past three months, has been 
 one of your father's servants ? " 
 
 " Oh, I hate him, I hate him ! with all my soul, I 
 despise him. Do not speak his name to me, ever," 
 cried the girl vehemently; then in a colder tone, after 
 a pause, " I shall doubtless accept the great ruby, 
 and he will write you when I have written him." 
 
 Pierce Eldreth's face beamed with a gratified 
 smile, but he at once proceeded to commit what he 
 would have pronounced the blunder of his life. 
 
 " That is well. But some three months ago I 
 was handed a letter addressed to this fellow in your
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 315 
 
 handwriting. Now that you have spent a year in 
 the East, now that you are a year older and a year 
 wiser, you will thank me when I tell you that I de- 
 stroyed it on the spot. It was doubtless some 
 trivial order about your belongings here at home ; 
 for there could be no other excuse for addressing 
 such as he. But if you have even a kindly feeling to- 
 ward him, gratitude for services rendered, let it end 
 here once for all. If you ever so much as speak to 
 him, I'll shut you up in St. Mary's so tight you'll 
 never see out. I'm in deadly earnest, girl. I would 
 rather kill you with my own hand than suffer the 
 disgrace of hearing your name linked with that of 
 Marah Maitland's son. You understand me?" 
 
 During this entire speech the girl had stood, her 
 face turned from her father. Now at its close, she 
 managed a faint affirmative, in what seemed to him 
 a choked voice. But no sooner had he quitted the 
 room than she went dancing down the hall a very 
 whirl of bubbling animal spirits. 
 
 At the dining-room door, she snatched and kissed 
 Helene with all but fatal results to the tray of 
 Haviland the housekeeper bore; then she swooped 
 in upon her unsuspecting brother who leaned against 
 the mantel, rolling a cigarette. 
 
 " Oh, Dixie," she cried, flinging herself upon him, 
 " hug me, hug me quick ! " 
 
 " Well, holy smoke ! you'll keep a second or two,
 
 3i6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 won't you?" saving his cigarette and moistening 
 down the last edge, " Now try to live while I light 
 it. ... There! How'll you have it?" putting a 
 languid arm about her shoulders. 
 
 " No, here, and both arms, Dix dear. Now 
 squeeze me up, close and hard and strong." 
 
 Mechanically he tightened his arms about her 
 waist, the look of a haloed martyr on his face. 
 
 " You don't call that hard? I mean a big Wes- 
 tern hug, a good-and-plenty hug." 
 
 Her brother groaned. " Well, I'm no fruit- 
 press. You remind me of a girl I read about. I'll 
 tell you. Now that Paul's gone you've no one to 
 tell you stories, though I'm afraid I can't fetch his 
 fluent Spanish-American style. Once upon a time 
 a girl had a date (I mean a tryst) with her steady 
 (excuse me, her knight) up in a hill-cave, some- 
 thing like Hanging Rock, you know ' 
 
 " Oh yes, I know. And was it raining and grow- 
 ing dark? " 
 
 " Little girls shouldn't interrupt. Well, upon 
 this occasion the girl got there first (they generally 
 do!) and the bear to whom the cave happened to 
 belong was at home, and he knocked on the butting- 
 in of the spoonies resented the intrusion, you 
 understand. Mr. Bruin sneaked up behind her 
 with both mighty arms extended, grabbed her in a 
 death-grip and hugged till his tongue hung out.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 317 
 
 And, would you believe it? that girl just lolled back, 
 pretty much as you're doing now, and murmured : 
 'Tighter, Bill!' Mr. Bruin fell dead; and the 
 spoonies are handing down his hide to a numerous 
 posterity. Fact. That was a Colorado girl, re- 
 cently returned from Boston, don't you think? " 
 
 " Sure!" laughed Lilys, snuggling in closer and 
 pressing his arm against her side, " Make love to 
 me grizzly fashion, smothery, you know. And 
 swear that you love me, swear it as though you 
 meant it." 
 
 "All right," puffing at his cigarette, " How'll 
 you have that? Mein Gottl ich Hebe dich! . . . 
 DIGS mio! te amo, te adoro! . . . Good Lord, but 
 I'm languishing for you! Is that fierce enough 
 for you, Babe? " 
 
 " I'm not a babe, thank you. I'm a woman ; I'm 
 a spinster; though I shan't stay a spinster longer 
 than well, two weeks, perhaps only one. That's 
 according." 
 
 " Wh-e-w ! " 
 
 " Oh, kiss me, Dixie, kiss me right on the mouth 
 while I count ten." 
 
 " And let my cigarette go out. Hardly. What's 
 all this tremor cordis about anyway, in the name 
 of love's lurid delirium, what? Oh, I see. You 
 want to shut your eyes and make believe it's the 
 other fellow?"
 
 3i8 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Lilys looked up with joy-brimmed eyes and nod- 
 ded rapidly. 
 
 " Do I look like him ? " 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " Well, you've got your nerve. Come, lean your 
 avoirdupois on the mantel till I catch breath. Bert 
 was sure right : the fellow that gets you will have 
 to make loving his exclusive business and work over- 
 time, or take to the tall uncut. But you'll give him 
 his money's worth now you've waked up. Do you 
 know, you are deuced good-looking, child ? " 
 
 " Pshaw! that's only a compliment for yourself; 
 every one says we are enough alike to be twins," 
 tip-toeing till her cheek pressed his and turning both 
 faces toward the mantel glass, " and we are alike in 
 a whole lot of other ways, though that's not a very 
 pronounced compliment to myself." 
 
 " Oh, we're blood-relation all right the p-i-o-u-s 
 Huntingtons, you know," making a face at the 
 double reflection. " But you haven't told me who 
 my prospective brother is. The violinist, Baron 
 Von Snigglef ritz ? " 
 
 " Not a baron." 
 
 " A count ? You're pretty enough and clever 
 enough and rich enough." 
 
 " No," impressively, " he is a prince. And oh," 
 tightening her arm about his neck, " I'm so happy ! " 
 
 Her brother eyed her for symptoms of lunacy.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 319 
 
 " Ah, of some microscopic island, sort o' Pris- 
 oner-of-Zenda-ish." 
 
 " No, of a very important kingdom." 
 
 He regarded her suspiciously. 
 
 " I believe you're lying; but even supposing. Of 
 course he's the youngest of ten, with nothing on 
 earth but one change of underclothing and some 
 future-perfect prospects." 
 
 " He can have anything he wants." 
 
 Richard whistled derisively. 
 
 " No doubt, afterwards. You'll hand him a 
 racing yacht and an heir to the throne first year 
 without the asking. But I trust you've made His 
 Highness understand that half, exactly half, of Eld- 
 hurst is Brother Dickie's, who'll soon be needing it. 
 Nina's named the day," rolling up his eyes. 
 
 But she wasn't listening. 
 
 " And he has a divine smile and deep eyes that 
 make your heart thump and heavy gold-brown hair 
 that falls forward and oh, he's the handsomest 
 creature the gods ever made six feet in his stock- 
 ings" 
 
 " Then you've seen him with his royal boots off? 
 How shocking! " 
 
 Lilys only laughed her girlish cadenza and took 
 up her eulogy : 
 
 " And he's b-i-g 
 
 " And can squeeze you up close and hard and
 
 320 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 strong, like Young Corbett or Mr. Bruin. Poor 
 devil! he has my sympathy; for he'll have to make 
 strenuous, no-intermission love twenty-four hours 
 out of every twenty-four, and then some." 
 
 " Just won't he, though ! O Dixie," half choking 
 him, " I love you and Papa and Nina and Helene 
 and Marah and Pepito everybody in the whole 
 world, don't you? " 
 
 " I'd make a few exceptions to your list; also a 
 few additions." 
 
 "And isn't it lovely here at home? See how 
 those beautiful rambler roses have hidden all the 
 lattices of my summer-house " 
 
 " Saved ! There comes Nina. Here's where 
 little Dickie makes his escape." 
 
 " Dear old Nina ! She's coming to practice our 
 duet for Sunday. All right, go. She'll kiss me 
 and hug me too." 
 
 Richard straightened primly. " She will kiss you 
 just once, a chaste kiss on the forehead, and you may 
 place your arm lightly (mark you !) part way round 
 her waist ... So ; but not for too long a time ; for 
 it seems to be in the Eldreth blood to be impulsive 
 and imprudent and impassioned, and all the other 
 imps. And when it's ten, out you go; door closes 
 automatically, and you'll best be on the proper side 
 of it. Now if it's Turn-sinner-turn music you two 
 are going to perpetrate, you'll kindly excuse me."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 321 
 
 But it wasn't sacred music that Lilys trilled as she 
 ran to meet her friend. It was : 
 
 For lips will glow and he must not go 
 As the wind and wave. Who '11 know, who '11 know 
 That I reeled with bliss 'neath my love's warm kiss ? 
 If he dares, who cares ?
 
 322 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AN UNPRETENTIOUS CHAMPION OF " COMMON 
 CLAY." 
 
 " BUT you can not bear the interview here in 
 your sickroom, Edwin, I'd better go up to the House 
 and have him come to the office," protested Pierce 
 Eldreth, as Pepito waited their decision at the door 
 the next afternoon. 
 
 " Oh, yes I can/' averred the Rector quickly, " I 
 must know the outcome of this most important con- 
 ference. These troubles are weighing on my heart. 
 I shall be so thankful to hear the final settlement 
 of them!" 
 
 Eldreth turned to Pepito. " Where is he? " 
 
 " At home, sir." 
 
 " Tell him that Mr. Allan wishes the interview 
 in his room here at the Rectory, and that I can 
 give him a short time. Then order the carriage 
 for five-thirty." 
 
 When the door closed, the Rector rose to his 
 elbow and reached for the newspaper on the stand- 
 table. " While we are waiting, I have something 
 to read you which I hope may weigh with you in the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 323 
 
 matter at hand, since it says about what I should like 
 to say. You know the workingmen's library was 
 dedicated at Ward this week. Nolan made the 
 dedicatory address. I was to have supplemented 
 him, but was unable to go. Quite a number went 
 up from Denver and Boulder; besides Nolan and 
 his son, there were Ingham and Baxter and Went- 
 worth and some other reporters. John went from 
 here and told me about it. ' Allan Marsden ' was 
 in the audience, and when it came to the informal 
 talks toward the close, he was called upon to speak, 
 but declined. Wentworth, as usual, was copy-hunt- 
 ing, and as he shares Nolan's admiration for ' Mars- 
 den,' they connived for their own ends. While a 
 party of men waited at the hotel for the down-train, 
 Nolan interviewed the young man ; Wentworth and 
 his reportorial pencil did the rest. John said the 
 lad was much in earnest; had no idea he was talk- 
 ing for print; doesn't know it yet. And the news- 
 paperman laughed and said he intended going armed 
 for a while as he always did where the ' inter- 
 viewed ' was so able-bodied and muscular. Here it 
 is. I'll have time for only snatches." 
 
 Eldreth knitted his fingers above his head, and 
 looked politely attentive to put it no stronger. 
 
 " ' Yes, I have always pleaded the cause of the 
 workingman,' " read the Rector, " ' These men who 
 fell the trees and guide the plow, those who hew
 
 324 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 and shape the rock, added to the workers in shop 
 and smelter and mine are they not the very salt 
 of earth, the masses, the people, the redeeming ele- 
 ment, humanity itself? Toil here is the great lev- 
 eler, labor the great beautifier, despite the bent back, 
 the calloused hands. Labor, all labor, is earnest 
 and holy, and I am thankful that I may call myself 
 a workingman. Why should the axe, the hammer, 
 the hoe and the needle feel themselves degraded be- 
 side the bank-hoarded dollar that toils for the 
 usurer? 
 
 " ' Jesus, the greatest advocate of democracy, 
 chose His Twelve from among the sound, simple 
 men of the people, who in every age, though un- 
 learned, are yet freer from the prejudices and the 
 errors of the time, and are ever more plastic to 
 higher teachings, more sensitive to spirtual impres- 
 sions than the so-called better class. Jesus, with 
 His " Whosoever " and His " Love thy neighbor " 
 obliterated social distinction once and for all time; 
 and founded the great Brotherhood of Man upon 
 the Rock of Love, against which the gates of hell 
 can not prevail. It is true that as yet the Brother- 
 hood is but a hetergeneous mass, unassimilative, and 
 warring one member upon another. But who de- 
 spises labor despises man; and who degrades his 
 brother dishonors the Father of All." 
 
 " Here the lawyer interposes, insists that the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 325 
 
 thinker will always rise above the mere toiler, and 
 quotes 
 
 ' Such hath it been shall be beneath the sun, 
 The many still must labor for the one.' 
 
 and some argument ensues for which I shall not 
 have time. Ending it, Marsden says: 
 
 " ' It is cause for thanks that somewhere below 
 the " better class " there lies the superlatively " best 
 class/' the fathoms of water under the froth; the 
 solid earth beneath the hanging-gardens. The class 
 that has always maintained the equilibrium; the 
 real, the natural, against the superficial; the class 
 which Nature moulds from her common clay, and 
 makes them living, breathing souls. This is essen- 
 tially true, for it is with humanity as with the indi- 
 vidual. Humanity looks to the tiller of the soil, 
 the plowman, the keeper of the vines, for her re- 
 newals, her infusions of red blood. Back to Na- 
 ture's sons of the soil, poor old Humanity! So 
 the individual looks to the sunshine, the pure air, 
 the trees, the bird-song, the river's tale, for his re- 
 newals, his reviving impulses. Back to Nature, 
 back to the good green earth, poor worn mortal, for 
 there is enough and to spare in thy Father's house. 
 Alas for him who hungers not to lie next the 
 ground, face to face with the rugged homeliness of 
 Nature, as well as with her beauties. Alas for him 
 who has not
 
 326 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 ' The secret learned 
 
 To mix his blood with sunshine and to take 
 The wind into his pulses.' 
 
 " Further along, Nolan has this to say : ' I can 
 not see but that, in this heterogeneous mass of 
 which you spoke, in the Brotherhood which might 
 be, I can not see but that the workingman pulls as 
 hard to the south as the employer pulls to the north. 
 It appears to me a sort of tug-of-war game, with 
 labor at one end of the rope and capital at the other. 
 For instance, on a large estate not so very far from 
 here, the mill and quarry hands insist upon schools ; 
 they have organized unions; and our brother Ing- 
 ham here is right now fostering a law for the 
 shortening of the already short working hours. 
 Now all three things, I happen to know, their em- 
 ployer strongly opposes ; yet the schools, the unions 
 and the law will continue to be encouraged by those 
 at the opposite end of the rope.' 
 
 " Then Marsden again : ' I admit that between 
 capital and labor there is enmity where there should 
 be co-operation. The one is dependent upon the 
 other. Take the typical skilled laborer, a stone- 
 cutter, we will say. Work he must have and just 
 compensation for that work. On the other hand, 
 the employer, your friend, of whom you spoke : 
 He cannot shape a sandstone slab, nor a cube of 
 granite. He must have the fruits of the cutter's
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 327 
 
 hands and skill, else he loses his profits, the prime 
 object of all capital. These two men are mutually 
 dependent. Really of the two, the cutter is the 
 more independent. 
 
 " ' As to the three things which your friend op- 
 poses, the schools, the unions, the laws education, 
 organization, legislation : There are no two sides to 
 the first. Surely there is no arguing over the ques- 
 tion " Shall a man, high or low, rich or poor, make 
 the most of his God-given faculties." Is not Carlyle 
 right : " That one man should die ignorant, who 
 has capacity this I call tragedy " ? 
 
 " ' Organization is a privilege, a duty of the work- 
 ingman, re-enforcing the individual with the multi- 
 plied strength of numbers. A workman is wronged. 
 Individually there might be no redress for him. 
 But the union stands behind each member, saying 
 to the giant corporation with all the reserve-force 
 assurance of a fellow-giant. " Right this wrong 
 else you will find yourself stripped of skilled labor." 
 Organization is essentially protective. 
 
 " ' Legislation also is a necessity. The estates 
 you mention have not even the minature conditions 
 held in the congested centres; know little of the 
 horrors of the sweat-shop, of crowded factories, of 
 child-labor, of man's strength and woman's life 
 ground into profits for soulless employers. But be- 
 fore the law came and even yet where it comes not,
 
 328 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 there have been and are still, we know, the over- 
 time, the midnight needle, " the wearied fibres 
 stretched with toil," manhood degraded, mother- 
 hood outraged, childhood enslaved, and all the other 
 nameless wrongs of working hours whose limits are 
 set by selfishness and greed. 
 
 " ' I cannot believe that God, who loves us all, 
 created some for the enjoyment of earth's beauties 
 and luxuries works of art, the sweet serenity of 
 books, travel, leisure, the lovely things of life; and 
 ethers still for the discomforts, the distortions, the 
 smoke, the close, sunless atmosphere of mines and 
 shops, the narrow path, the bookless home, with 
 never a moment for leisure, with all that is sad and 
 wearing and grinding in an unwelcome existence. 
 May it always be mine to lift a feeble voice for the 
 cause of the workingman, and even in a small way 
 to hasten the day of the eternal Brotherhood, the 
 great democracy, when Love shall be the only 
 law/ " 
 
 The Rector folded the paper, a pained look in 
 his eyes as he noted the smile on his brother's face. 
 " I realize as well as you do that the boy has said 
 nothing new, and that you look upon the whole 
 as the gush of youthful enthusiasm. But for the 
 matter of that, neither you nor I can say anything 
 new upon a subject exposed to the search-light of 
 more than one century. At least "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 MASTER AND MAN. 
 
 THE knock at the door interrupted, and Allen 
 thrust the paper under his pillow. 
 
 Paul entered, looking somewhat fatigued, for he 
 was just down from the mill by the sledge-road. 
 The Rector spoke cordially, his glance full of love, 
 and the former employer waved the new-comer to 
 a chair at the opposite side of the centre-table. 
 
 " I owe the honor of this call," began the master 
 of Eldhurst, pushing a vase of flowers from between 
 him and his companion, and fastening a keen glance 
 upon the young man's face, " I owe: the honor, I 
 believe, to Lodge Number One, Stone-cutters' 
 Union, Quarry Town, which you are here to repre- 
 sent. Is it not true? " 
 
 " It is, sir. At a called meeting of the committee 
 some days ago, I was delegated to see you upon my 
 return. They were hopeful that you might be led 
 to reconsider this second proposed cut of wages." 
 
 " If your honorable committee had been about 
 their proper business of drilling and hewing and 
 cutting, they would have had no time for the tom- 
 foolery of called meetings."
 
 330 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " It chances that those composing this committee 
 are among the men laid off," remarked Paul dryly. 
 
 Eldreth bit his lip, and there was a pause. 
 
 " Why were they hopeful that I might be led to 
 reconsider a once-decided course? Did they think 
 anything you might say would influence me?" 
 
 The young man colored, but said quietly : 
 
 ' They entrusted me with information with which 
 you are as yet unacquainted, and with authority to 
 come to an understanding with you." 
 
 "An understanding? A compromise is that 
 what you mean ? " 
 
 " In a sense, yes, sir." 
 
 " Pierce Eldreth compromises only with his 
 equals. Tell them so. When it comes to dealing 
 with his dependents, he dictates, they accept or re- 
 ject his terms, just as they see fit. The second cut 
 in wages goes on Monday. Schmidt is so in- 
 structed." 
 
 " They most sincerely trust that you will think 
 better of your decision, sir," remonstrated Paul 
 earnestly. 
 
 " Of course they do ! " laughed Eldreth. " Touch 
 a workingman's pocket-book if you wish to move 
 him." 
 
 " This has gone far deeper. You may not know 
 it, but for the first time in the history of Eld- 
 hurst, some of her people have known actual want,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 331 
 
 or would have known it but for Mr. Allan and 
 Mr. Howard. The families of the men laid off 
 have been all but destitute." 
 
 " Why don't they go elsewhere and work. No 
 one detains them here." 
 
 " What can these stone-cutters do within short 
 distances of their homes? The Lyons and the 
 Nolan quarries have all the men they need. Most 
 of the laid-off men are in your debt, and have no 
 desire to evade their obligations. All of them live 
 in your houses and are in debt to your merchant. 
 The greater per cent are men of families, and it 
 costs to move and maintain women and children." 
 
 " That's exactly it. Your workingman of the 
 lower class, first of all, knows but one trade; sec- 
 ondly, he is ignorant as a post about the proper ex- 
 penditure and the saving of money ; and thirdly, he 
 is invariably, monotonously, possessed of a large 
 family of small children. Improve him in these 
 particulars and I'll have employes with whom I can 
 reason." 
 
 Paul looked up quickly. " For several years past 
 the schools up among them have striven toward 
 these very ends. The manual element has entered 
 as largely as practicable, particularly into the night- 
 school work for adults. Financing has been made as 
 practical as possible, a sort of savings bank has long 
 been maintained with encouraging results; and the
 
 332 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 every-day needs of the little community have been 
 carefully studied in the selection of the branches 
 taught. I was under the impression that you tacitly 
 opposed the schools, that they existed only by your 
 tolerance. I beg your pardon for having wronged 
 you all these years." 
 
 It was the elder man's turn to color and he did 
 so hotly, but he affirmed loftily : 
 
 " Your impression has been correct. Schools 
 up there are as out of place as in Interior Africa. 
 Education serves only to puff up the lower classes, 
 both the blacks and the whites, makes them try to 
 ape their betters, unfits them for what they were 
 made for hewers of wood and carriers of water. 
 I said improve them in the three particulars men- 
 tioned, make them less the animal, pound some sense 
 into them, and then they might be reasoned with. 
 That was what I said, sir." 
 
 Paul made no reply, but a faint smile twitched the 
 corners of his mouth, noting which, his companion 
 beat a sharp tattoo on the table, keeping his angry 
 eyes on the young man's face and finally breaking 
 out with : 
 
 " And your schools don't do it, nor your petty 
 savings bank, and, least of all, your damned unions 
 don't do it. They are just as block-headed, just 
 as unreasonable, just as helpless, just as dependent 
 as ever, and will be till the crack of doom. You'll 
 have to agree with that."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 333 
 
 " No, sir," responded the other firmly, " I cannot- 
 But," diplomatically, " whatever my personal views 
 on the matter, they are not worth considering and 
 I beg that you will put them quite out of the ques- 
 tion. I am here, not to present my own opinions, 
 but to represent the several hundred men at the 
 quarries and at the mill who have intrusted me with 
 their interests." 
 
 " Ah, and the mill-hands also ? You are quite 
 heaped with honors." 
 
 Up came the steady gaze of the grave blue eyes 
 and the answer sounded without a shade of annoy- 
 ance: 
 
 " It is a responsibility not to be treated lightly, 
 an honor the highest a community of men can con- 
 fer upon any one man, and I appreciate it, I assure 
 you. You deplore their helplessness and dependency, 
 yet when they band together for strength, the only 
 strength for the weak, that of union, you sweepingly 
 condemn the means to the end, education and or- 
 ganization the end which you yourself desire, their 
 improvement ! But again I beg you, Mr. Eldreth, 
 to look upon me merely as a mouth-piece of these 
 hundreds of men, your faithful employes for years, 
 and to hear only their voices in mine." 
 
 The master of Eldhurst arose and began walking 
 the length of the room. The other two followed 
 him with anxious eyes.
 
 334 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " What do the quarrymen propose doing if your 
 mission fails this afternoon?" he asked, stopping 
 beside the table and looking down quizzically at 
 the young man's fair, impassive face. 
 
 " They hope it will not fail." 
 
 " You have not answered me. If you fail, what 
 have they up their sleeves ? " 
 
 " It would certainly be unbecoming in me to be 
 the bearer of threats to you, Mr. Eldreth, and believe 
 me, I came charged with none. I am here to ask 
 these simple questions : Will another reduction of 
 wages be made ? Can nothing be done to restore all 
 to the pay-roll ? Is there any hope that concessions 
 on their side may serve to effect a compromise? 
 Your answers to these, their respectful questions, 
 I am to repeat within a few hours before the whole 
 body of men." 
 
 " You call those respectful questions ? Well, / 
 call them damned impertinent! By what right do 
 they come nosing into my affairs my personal af- 
 fairs, sir? How many men do I intend to work? 
 And at what wages ? Gads ! aren't they my men ? 
 Don't / pay them, and with my own money? Why 
 in blazes should I give time and submit to be cate- 
 chized by you or any other man on my own particu- 
 lar business? Tell me that! But supposing I am 
 tolerant enough to send answers, and supposing 
 those answers be unfavorable, what will your pre- 
 cious union do? "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 335 
 
 " I cannot say. That will depend " He hesi- 
 tated. 
 
 " Upon what you advise them," ended the other 
 for him. 
 
 " To some extent," admitted the younger man. 
 
 Eldreth regarded him in reflective silence for 
 some time. 
 
 " Then I shall be able to infer from the union's 
 subsequent action what counsel you give them." 
 
 " I can scarcely be expected to assume full re- 
 sponsibility for the action of such a body of men," 
 objected Paul, " Besides, I return to my work at 
 Ward yet to-night. But I have promised Mr. Allan 
 to do my utmost for a pacific adjustment of this 
 matter, and I shall keep my word whatever " 
 
 " Whatever answers I send ? " sharply. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Eldreth was growing more and more exasperated 
 by the undisturbed calmness of the young man's 
 manner. 
 
 " And the mill union what will it do? " 
 
 " Its action, without doubt, will be in sympathy 
 with the quarry union." 
 
 " In other words, if the one body declares a 
 strike, the other will." 
 
 " If you will put it that way." 
 
 The elder man sat down and leaned far across 
 the table toward his companion:
 
 336 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Now, there's no use beating the devil round a 
 stump, Menendez. The situation 's this, in a nut- 
 shell : I pay certain men to do certain work. The 
 product falls in price. I lay off some men. My 
 privilege. I lose certain contracts. I cut wages. 
 Again, my privilege. Now, the men at work virtu- 
 ally say to me : ' You dare to cut our wages again 
 contracts or no contracts and we'll walk out. 
 Demand and supply be hanged ! Employers' rights 
 to the devil ! We are going to work at our old 
 wages or not at all. We are the only skilled labor- 
 ers in Colorado. You try bringing in non-union 
 men for our places and we'll see ! ' Now that is the 
 whole situation and you know it." And he sat back 
 in his chair challengingly. 
 
 " No, no, Mr. Eldreth, that is not the situation," 
 cried Paul, rising in his earnestness, " It is true 
 that the men are in your employ at certain regulated 
 wages agreed upon in the beginning. They have 
 been laid off, put on again, and again laid off; their 
 pay, small enough, God knows, has been reduced, 
 while all the time their rent, unreduced, has gone on, 
 their families have been maintained, and they are 
 not unmindful of their indebtedness to you for bare 
 shelter and food. It is as debtors that they approach 
 you, through me. Men, hard-working, faithful, 
 loyal men like Johnson and Peterson and Fredricks, 
 have come to me in the few days I've been here
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 337 
 
 and implored me to do all in my power for the 
 restoration of wages and the re-employment of the 
 idle. They have reminded me of their burdensome 
 obligations to you ; they have begged me to remem- 
 ber their little children. I, in turn, beg you to re- 
 member them ; for it is the helpless, those not re- 
 sponsible, who suffer most. I would go down on 
 my knees to you, sir, if by so doing, I could the 
 better plead their cause." 
 
 Eldreth looked a little amused, a little bored. 
 
 " Until within the past three months, you have 
 represented me to these men. I should like to have 
 heard how such an advocate of the laboring class 
 upheld the cause of the grinding capitalist." 
 
 "Your curiosity might easily be gratified; you 
 see Wagner and Max and Webb almost every day," 
 asserted the young man ; then he added boldly, " If 
 it is ever granted me to employ workers even in 
 numbers, no one shall act as mediator between my 
 men and myself. I shall never be misrepresented, 
 for I shall be my own direct representative. Nor 
 shall mere wages be allowed to supplant all other 
 ties." 
 
 His hearer caught a quick breath ; but he recalled 
 some argument in that article " The Right Divine 
 to Govern Wrong," and remained silent. After a 
 time he said : 
 
 " You don't mean to tell me that a strike has not 
 been talked of if wages are cut. I know better."
 
 338 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " If there has been talk it is ' unofficial.' Besides, 
 what other recourse have they? They are giving 
 more than value received at the present scale." 
 
 " That is for me to judge, sir; not they nor you." 
 
 " They cannot live and at the same time reduce 
 their indebtedness to you, and accept any lower 
 wages." 
 
 " Then why don't they get out and go to work ? " 
 
 " I have said why." 
 
 " Well, if they stay, they will stay at my terms, 
 strictly. Tell them so. Will they then resort to 
 the laboring man's cure-all, the strike? I am curi- 
 ous on that point." 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " What do you think? " impatiently. 
 
 " I fear they will, unless " 
 
 " Unless I come to their terms? " 
 
 " Pardon me, I was going to say unless the 
 cooler heads rule." 
 
 " I don't give a damn who rules. That reduction 
 goes on Monday, if I have to shut down the whole 
 business. Do you, does any one, imagine that I am 
 going to be dictated to by a lot of numbskull 
 Swedes and Irish? And if Webb and his gang 
 walk out for no better reason than ' sympathy,' 
 they will be a long time walking in again. That 
 is all. The interview is closed." 
 
 But Paul drew a letter from his pocket, opened
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 339 
 
 the sheet and silently spread it upon the table before 
 the other. It was the last card he had to play. Eld- 
 reth's eyes brightened as he gathered its contents. 
 
 " So we've got the Springs paving, after all ? 
 Well ? " As the other did not move. 
 
 " And Schmidt tells me that your bid was ac- 
 cepted with Stanger & Franklin on their court- 
 house contract; and in a letter which I just received 
 from Ben, he tells me you are solid with the Mc- 
 Murry Company for all their work on hand." 
 
 " Well ? " repeated his companion, " and to how 
 many of your friends the quarrymen have you 
 confided this private information as to my streaks 
 of good luck ? " 
 
 ' To none, sir, as you very well know," retorted 
 Paul haughtily. Then, immediately softening his 
 tone, he added, " T had ventured to hope that this 
 unexpected good fortune might not only remove 
 the supposed necessity for a further reduction of 
 wages, but would necessitate the employment of the 
 entire force." 
 
 Eldreth lifted his eyebrows, but before he could 
 speak, the Rector, half rising on his elbow, inter- 
 posed : 
 
 " Let me add my entreaties on behalf of the men, 
 brother. What are a few hundred dollars to you, 
 one way or the other, with such contracts as these 
 and more in view? Save all the trouble, perhaps
 
 340 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 bloodshed, with just a word. Let Paul tell them at 
 the meeting to-night that at least those employed 
 are to continue at the present scale. If not, he, I, 
 no one, can be responsible for the results. I fear 
 I am bedfast for a while." 
 
 His brother-in-law waited to light a cigar. 
 
 " It is no longer a question of dollars; no longer 
 a matter of loss and gain. It has passed that, and 
 resolves itself into just this : Who is running Eld- 
 hurst Pierce Eldreth, or a handful of quarry- 
 men?" Then turning, he bowed stiffly to Paul. 
 " You had my answer some time ago, sir," he said. 
 
 When Paul was gone, Eldreth surprised his 
 brother-in-law by lying back in his chair and laugh- 
 ing heartily. 
 
 " Talk about diplomats! " he exclaimed, " If that 
 boy had been in Woodruff's stead at the court of 
 Spain, the late unpleasantness might have been 
 averted. Isn't an ambassador ' an honest man sent 
 abroad to lie for his country ' ? This one would 
 answer all the requirements. Such delicate tact, 
 such subtle evasion, such clever doubling ! By Jove, 
 Edwin, he does you credit. I'd give half that 
 Springs contract to hear his talk before those men 
 to-night." 
 
 The Rector smiled, but said seriously : " It is no 
 laughing matter, as you will find out, Pierce. Years 
 of experience handling the interests of this place
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 341 
 
 would suffice to make a diplomat of most any one; 
 and Ben put more than you will ever know on that 
 lad's shoulders long before his past year as foreman. 
 And you did him an injustice when you hinted that 
 he did not justly represent you, his employer. I 
 myself have more than once heard him doing battle 
 for you most loyally; and in your absence he was 
 certainly undisputed master. He allowed no inter- 
 ference even from Richard. You will admit this : 
 that the past three months (or since his resignation) 
 have seen more open dissatisfaction, more unrest, 
 more changes among the men, than during the entire 
 year under his management." 
 
 " It's all their infernal unions, I tell you." 
 
 " You forget that the unions were both organized 
 some nine months ago, in the very midst of his fore- 
 manship. No, you are prejudiced against him." 
 
 " On the contrary, I rather like his superb audac- 
 ity, his sweet persistence, his rash boldness. Think 
 of the damned impudence of the fellow. What 
 other man on this ranch, or off it, for that matter, 
 would dare to talk to me as he has? That was a 
 nice dig he gave me about an employer having a 
 mediator between himself and his men. I'd like to 
 see him master of Eldhurst for a while and directly 
 represent himself from one end to the other." 
 
 " Well, you saw him do it for a year, or rather, 
 you were gone so much (thanks to his management)
 
 342 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 that you didn't see him do it ! ' Who governs most, 
 blusters least,' you know. But I know how vigi- 
 lantly he kept in touch with all of the sub-foremen 
 and their special lines, making each feel accountable 
 to him. And he is loved and respected, for all 
 he was so exacting. If he were in charge, I should 
 no more fear a strike among the men, cut or no 
 cut, than I should fear a flood from the ditches. 
 But he leaves tonight, after the meeting." 
 
 " And the dickens of it is," mused the other, " that 
 I've got to go to Denver this very evening right 
 away, in fact, and quite probably from there to 
 Chicago for Lord only knows how long." 
 
 " Why don't you ask him to stay till the danger 
 is well over ? " 
 
 " Simply because it is an unwise precedent ; be- 
 cause, as I told you once before, it never pays to 
 give any one man the idea that your business can't 
 run on without him. Like a compromise, it is dan- 
 gerous to your own interests. Besides, Edwin, you 
 talk like some frightened woman. Pray, will the 
 earth turn upside-down if a few workmen on the 
 hill lay down their tools? " 
 
 He smoked in silence for a time, then said de- 
 fiantly, as he rose to go : 
 
 " And haven't I a son of my own ? I'll have a 
 talk with Richard before I start. I fancy he has 
 enough Eldreth in him to swing things a couple of 
 weeks, if he once makes up his mind to do it."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 343 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. 
 
 SOME three or four hours between his evening 
 meal and the meeting of Lodge Number One lay 
 before Paul as he slowly descended the hill from 
 his mother's cottage. They were the most beautiful 
 hours of mountain regions, quiet, witching hours of 
 soft breezes, of waning light, of sleepy bird-calls. 
 
 He turned, unconscious of his direction, into the 
 road leading toward the Eldhurst stables. The 
 doors were open, though there was no one about, 
 the men being at supper. Bayonne, his favorite sad- 
 dle horse while an employe of the ranch, whinnied 
 eagerly to him from his stall ; and Rob, the monster 
 Bernard, fawned at his feet, whining piteously. 
 
 Paul turned back abruptly, and walked more 
 slowly, his eyes on the ground. He was not think- 
 ing of the interview just closed, nor of the meeting 
 yet to come, with his task of convincing men against 
 their will. He stopped outside the garden fence near 
 the summer-house, and leaning, lifted his eyes to 
 the Peak, which was reluctantly parting from his 
 sunset rubies and sapphires, and seemed looking ex-
 
 344 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 pectantly toward the brightening moon for her 
 promised silver. 
 
 Nor was he thinking of Nature's beauties and 
 blessings outspread around him. Memories of his 
 bitter-sweet boyhood were crowding upon his heavy 
 heart; of days when she was always near. He was 
 thinking how after his mother went to live with him 
 at Ward, as she had now consented to do, he would 
 have no occasion ever to come to Eldhurst. He was 
 thinking how, there within a stone's throw of him 
 at that moment, was the woman he loved, as in- 
 different to his comings and goings, as far distant 
 from him and his heart-hunger as the Peak itself 
 
 For one long year he had striven to put her out 
 of his life. He had never set himself so deter- 
 minedly to accomplish a result, and he had never 
 failed so ignominiously. Everything had favored 
 the accomplishment. A year is a long time. Boston 
 is a great way from Colorado. There had been no 
 word of communication between them. Yes, every- 
 thing had favored the end sought, everything save 
 his own heart. He was " cursed with constancy," 
 he told himself. 
 
 How could he forget her ? Every spot he visited 
 in his duties, every path he rode, every foothill and 
 cliff and fern-haunt, all were steeped in undying 
 memories of her. The pines, the birds, the moun- 
 tain brooks had but one voice hers; the shadowed
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 345 
 
 pools were her eyes, the breeze her sigh, the sun her 
 kisb. She had been gone twelve months, and not an 
 hour of the time but she had been held against 
 his heart. The mockery of it was well expressed 
 in the refrain of one of her songs : 
 
 " I spent a clay away from you, 
 And you were with me all the while ! " 
 
 It was just a year today since Hanging Rock, and 
 oh the pain and the rapture of the recollection ! But 
 for that day he had been stronger. If he had never 
 taken her in his arms, never tasted her lips, it 
 might have been different; but after that it was so 
 hopeless. Most potent of all the memories was that 
 of the look in her eyes just as he had caught her 
 fainting form there on the hillside. That look! 
 many a wakeful night he had lain pondering it. It 
 had been a confession, half-made, of what, if true, 
 would make a mortal foreswear heaven itself; it 
 had been an appeal, the weakness of the girl-woman 
 to the strength of the man. Surely, he could not be 
 mistaken. Yet perhaps it was, after all, the mere 
 creation of his own strong desire. Sometimes he 
 was so triumphantly certain, again so pitiably un- 
 certain. 
 
 In the broad glare of day, on the round of his 
 prosaic duties, he called himself a fool, a self-deluded 
 fool, and he had found no difficulty in convincing
 
 346 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 himself of his folly. But at night, in the silence 
 and the darkness of his own room, among the pil- 
 lows her head had pressed, he must fight over and 
 again a battle never lost, yet never quite won; must 
 beat down his soul-sick longing through wretched, 
 sleepless hours, lest it rise and master him to his 
 utter undoing. 
 
 And now came his mother's assertion : She had 
 called Marah by his name, clinging to her and 
 begging not to be taken away, had yielded back his 
 kisses Oh, at the mere thought, his heart leaped 
 into his throat and shook him bodily to its racing 
 hammer-strokes. Dear heaven, if only he might 
 know the truth ! 
 
 Yet again, there was her freezing, penetrating, 
 unseeing look, her deliberate, intentional slight, only 
 the day before yesterday ; and his heart fell like lead. 
 After all, what else could he expect? There was 
 but one ending for such madness. He had been 
 a fool not to go away three years ago. How this 
 love had burned through and through him, consum- 
 ing all else. Right now, to go away from Eldhurst 
 seemed a step he had no strength to take. He bowed 
 his head to the fence-top and groaned as in physical 
 pain. 
 
 As though in answer, there came subdued sobs 
 from the summer-house and what sounded like his 
 own name! Before he knew what he was doing,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 347 
 
 he had vaulted over the fence and was lifting the 
 curtain of matted vines and roses from the entrance 
 to the latticed bower. 
 
 It was She there on the rustic bench, her face 
 hidden by her arms on its back. She sat up and 
 half turned, but still kept her face in her hands. 
 She wore a house-dress of some pale rose-shade, a 
 dress which force of circumstances afterward made 
 her wedding-gown. It had been designed, however, 
 primarily for comfort; was loosely belted just below 
 the armpits, empire-fashion, and fell in shadowy 
 folds that followed and defined the curves of her 
 body. It was of shimmering silk, fine as spider- 
 threads, that clung and rippled and gave off dozens 
 of tones as it flowed downward and lay swirled 
 about her feet, a drift of rosy snow. The sleeves 
 terminated at the elbows in waves of soft white 
 lace; the low cut of the neck was an unpardonable 
 oversight of some absent-minded modiste. Over 
 the half bare shoulders and glowing throat she had 
 thrown a frothy lace scarf. Her coiled hair was 
 fluffed out round her face, and a half-blown " Her- 
 mosa " rosebud clung just above the left temple. 
 She looked half real but altogether dangerous in 
 the subdued light. Somehow he could not see dis- 
 tinctly. A rosy mist seemed to rise from the drift 
 of her skirts and send a blur across his vision. Per- 
 haps he had overestimated his strength in coming.
 
 348 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 He hesitated, his hand still lifting the mat of vines. 
 She began dabbling at her eyes with a little lace 
 handkerchief. She seemed to know who it was 
 without looking. Her sobs were realistic and con- 
 vincing. 
 
 " Lilys, what is it? What can I do? " He was 
 the boy for the instant, ready as ever to serve her; 
 the long absence, that slight of hers, unremembered. 
 
 " Go away ! Leave me ! " she sobbed, " Nobody 
 cares, not a living soul. My summer-house is over- 
 grown, my roses neglected; Bonita is gone, Royal 
 is dead and Rob so grieved for her that he doesn't 
 know me. Papa is away, Dixie's with Nina or Ruth 
 all the time, and you've resigned. Nobody cares." 
 
 Old habits are strong. All his life he had been 
 her companion, comforter, servitor. Her tears al- 
 ways moved him so. He approached a step or two 
 without realizing it, entreating her : 
 
 "Don't cry; please don't. They all care, only 
 they are thoughtless." 
 
 " Nobody cares," she reiterated, " you least of 
 all. And after all the good, good times we've had, 
 too. Have you forgotten our rides and scrambles 
 among the hills and the dear old mountains? Have 
 you forgotten the time my Tabbie was missing and 
 you left your work two days to find her, and how 
 angry Papa was when Ben told him, and how I 
 stood in front of you and wouldn't let him punish
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 349 
 
 you ? And have you forgotten the night I was lost 
 and hurt my ankle and how you found me though 
 everyone was out searching, and how you were 
 so glad you cried ? Have you forgotten ? " 
 
 Had he forgotten! The happiest days of his life, 
 watching over, amusing, working for her. But he 
 kept silent, and he dared not lift his eyes. 
 
 " Paul," she began, rising and reaching for a 
 honeysuckle-coral, " do you recollect what was said 
 when you were brought here to this very summer- 
 house, now more than ten years ago ? " 
 
 " Yes, Lilys." 
 
 A pause. 
 
 "Well, what?" 
 
 " That here was some one for you to boss." 
 
 " Oh yes, that ; and I've tried to do my duty in 
 that line," smiling through her tears, " but some- 
 thing else, after Papa had gone. Do you recall 
 what I said to you and to Helene ? " 
 
 " How is it possible I should forget?" 
 
 Another pause, then petulantly : 
 
 " Well, and how am I to know you recollect ? " 
 
 " You said you did not want some one to boss, 
 but some one to be kind to." 
 
 " I didn't say ' to be kind to,' you know I 
 didn't." 
 
 He glanced up almost angrily. 
 
 " Why do you bring these things up now? We
 
 350 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 could not always remain children. We are woman 
 and man now, and everything is changed." 
 
 " That is just it," and she began to sob again. 
 " Eldhurst isn't the same place, and I can't bear it. 
 Papa will be gone at least a week; Nina is eyes-deep 
 in her wedding-clothes and her Chautauqua music; 
 Dix is always at Howard's Saturday night, and 
 you " 
 
 " I must go to a meeting at the quarries," he an- 
 nounced, backing hastily toward the entrance, " and 
 then away yet tonight." 
 
 " No, no. Why should you go? " 
 
 "Why should I stay?" 
 
 Her eyes were agleam with laughter now safely, 
 for he was not looking at her. 
 
 " Why have you stayed so long? " 
 
 " Because we owed your father, and there was no 
 other way to pay." 
 
 " No, I mean now here, in the summer-house ? " 
 
 Slowly through the tan of his face a dull color 
 throbbed. His eyes remained downcast. " Because 
 1 am a fool." He spoke with slow re- 
 pression, but there was an undertone of warning 
 in his very control. 
 
 Her eyes, humid with tenderness and bright with 
 unquenchable mirth, were fastened upon his stern 
 face. 
 
 " It is stupid to be wise all the time." (Scarcely
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 351 
 
 could she keep the glad laughter out of her voice.) 
 " Stay and amuse me." 
 
 " I can do that without staying, if your memory 
 is good." 
 
 " Go, then, go ! " and she managed the little 
 sob again, " I told you nobody cares you least 
 of all." She really turned her back, as she said it; 
 but if she had full-faced him and stretched both 
 arms, she could not more surely have drawn him. 
 
 " God ! how hard you make it for me," he mut- 
 tered, but moving blindly toward her all the time, 
 " How like death you make it for me ! " 
 
 It is surprising how much one can see with one's 
 back turned. She faced about at precisely the right 
 moment, then, at sight of his face, put up both 
 hands to stop him. But he seized her soft arms 
 strongly. 
 
 " I love you God help me! / love you!" Each 
 word seemed torn from his heart by a force too 
 strong for him. " Dear heaven ! how I love you 
 with every breath I draw, with every thought, 
 waking or sleeping, with every fibre of my being, 
 to my soul's depths. You shall hear me ! " as she 
 would have drawn away, " You may look as you 
 looked at me the day you came; you may shudder 
 from my touch as now, you may deny me as you 
 will, but you shall stand still and hear me through, 
 once for all. I, Paul Maitland, hireling, illegiti-
 
 352 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mate son of dishonor and crime, am telling you 
 that I love you ; that I cannot remember when I have 
 not loved you; that I shall always love you. God 
 Himself cannot tear you from my heart. You are 
 all earth and heaven to me; my hope, ambition, de- 
 sire, strength, lie centred in you ; you are my whole 
 life; my Hereafter. Yes, I know what I am and 
 who you are, and all there is, and must ever be, 
 between us; yet / love you. Do you hear me? 
 Are you listening? There! " with a sigh that was 
 almost a groan, as his head bowed forward, " at 
 last it is spoken. Now show me my place, as only 
 an Eldreth can." 
 
 If only he had looked into her radiant face ! But 
 he did not, even when she murmured : " If you 
 wouldn't hold my wrists and hurt me so, I would 
 rather show you my place." 
 
 He dropped her hands then, and with a sudden 
 little movement she leaned and barely touched her 
 forehead to his shoulder, then as suddenly sprang 
 away, laughing her girlish, tantalizing laugh. 
 
 He did not move. His blood was leaping tumul- 
 tuously, and through his brain his mother's words 
 kept running : " Her head for your breast, her 
 arms for your neck, her lips for your lips." 
 
 He stood looking unseeingly at her, his hands 
 locked behind him, his eyes dark with pain. How 
 could she jest, when to him it was the deepest
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 353 
 
 wound a man can receive? He turned away, but 
 she drifted between him and the entrance, and stood, 
 her eyes sparkling, irrepressible dimples deepening 
 the corners of her mouth, which all but laughed. 
 
 An unaccustomed bitterness harshened his tone: 
 " Why am I here ? Why did you call my name ? 
 I have long acknowledged Miss Eldreth's beauty 
 and power; not one of her father's employes, past 
 or present, but do that. What further do you want 
 of me? Could you not leave me alone in my 
 misery? " 
 
 " Do you mean that you are sorry ' Miss Eldreth ' 
 came home? that you would rather never have seen 
 me again? Do you mean that? " 
 
 " I don't know I don't know what I mean," he 
 cried, one hand over his eyes, " I only know that I 
 must .... go." He reached for the vine curtain. 
 " Forgive me, if you can," he added hoarsely. 
 
 But she was at the entrance before him, the lace 
 scarf thrown off, her smiling, tearful face uplifted. 
 He looked down at her at the uncovered throat, 
 the flushed cheeks, the dark hair with its drooping 
 red bud he wavered, and his hand clenched itself 
 strongly upon the rose-stems, unheedful of the 
 thorns. She seized the moment of his inadequacy; 
 she leaned daringly near him, one soft, jeweled hand 
 on his rough coat-sleeve. 
 
 " You shall have your wish never to see my
 
 354 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 face again; but now you shall listen to me, even 
 as I was compelled to listen to you. It is you who 
 have changed, not I. I am what I have always 
 been ; what I was all that I was one year ago to- 
 day up at the there under " She broke off, and 
 something of his bitterness crept into her tone. 
 " But I dare say you do not recollect where we were 
 one year ago this evening." 
 
 " God ! girl ! what do you mean ? " 
 
 A soft flame played up into her eyes, a passionate 
 cadence in her woman's voice. " This : That you 
 are to let the mine-management go; that you are 
 to come back to Eldhurst. Then things can be just 
 as they used to be. Come, for the sake of the old 
 times ; come, because I want you to, because I .... 
 I want to be .... where you are, Paul." 
 
 He took her by her half-bare shoulders and 
 turned her to him and to the waning light, his 
 grave eyes searching her now downcast face. 
 
 " You talk like a child," he said sternly, " Even 
 though I should return to Eldhurst, things could 
 never be as they once were. Heaven knows I want 
 to be where you are ; but do you think I could come 
 back under the old relations and abide them ? Could 
 I see you, be near you day by day, and not forget 
 myself? What you ask is beyond human nature. 
 No, there is but one way in this world that a man 
 and a woman may be together; but one way, Lilys,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 355 
 
 and that is Nature's way and Love's way and God's 
 way." 
 
 " It .... it must be a very good way, then," 
 she stammered, but trembling away from him now. 
 
 He held her fast and drew her toward him, not 
 knowing that he did so. " But you do not under- 
 stand. I love you. I have told you, and you did 
 not stop me, did not send me from you. You lis- 
 tened to me. You are a woman now; you know 
 what a man's love means all that it means. Surely 
 you know, yet you Things would not be as they 
 used to be. It would not be a few daylight hours 
 together, the mounting of butterflies, a gallop over 
 the hills, with 'good-night' at close of day; but 
 instead Look up ! Look at me ! " 
 
 His long gaze burned its way to her inmost un- 
 derstanding. Her eyes fell again ; she drew a quick, 
 gasping breath and he could trace the rich heart- 
 tide as it swept her throat and face. 
 
 " Now do you understand me? " 
 
 " Yes," she whispered, her head drooping, her 
 fingers crushing the lace cobweb of her scarf. 
 
 " Does the Little Mistress mean that she would 
 come to me in that sweet way to me ? No, do not 
 speak, think ! think of that cursed tree up the 
 Canon; think of what your world would say; of 
 your future, of everything; and for God's sake, do 
 not say ' yes ' except you mean it for life and for 
 death." The intensity of his emotion quivered in
 
 356 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 his voice, in the hands that were moving downward 
 from her shoulders, on the lips nearing her own. 
 
 " I have thought for one long year, but I " A 
 more vivid crimson dyed her cheeks; she was half 
 laughing, half crying. " Oh, I don't care anything 
 about cottonwood trees, nor family trees. Paul, 
 Paul ! " flinging up both arms to him, " I don't care 
 for anything, can't you see ? only to be with you 
 to ... to belong to you 
 
 "Lilys!!" It \vas but a whisper, yet all the 
 lover's rapture and triumph were in the one word, 
 as he folded her to his breast with a passion that 
 was none the less imperious because it had been 
 so long controlled. 
 
 "You love me?" he breathed, incredulous still, 
 bending over the fragrant hair, " love me? But 
 tell me. Let me hear you say it ! " he pleaded. 
 
 She lifted a face all transfigured with her wo- 
 man's full surrender; and their young lips met in a 
 long kiss that made the giddy old earth sway be- 
 neath them and the walls of their rose-house whirl 
 dizzily. 
 
 And the light of the June sky faded ; the even- 
 ing breeze stirred the leaves of their paradise, and 
 a mother-bird in her nest high above them twittered 
 contentedly. They did not speak. What need, 
 when wooing winds and whispering leaves and 
 mated birds spoke for them? when their throbbing 
 hearts and clinging lips told all ?
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 357 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE LOVERS. 
 
 THEY sat orl the rustic bench within their tent 
 of honeysuckle and wild gourd and the glowing 
 splendor of the crimson rambler; and the minutes 
 sped, downy-footed. 
 
 Outwardly they were ill-sorted; he in his rough- 
 cloth dress of the working businessman, with his 
 strong browned hands and sunburned face; she in 
 her costly silk with its rare lace, her white hands 
 sparkling with rings which, though few, would have 
 ransomed several kings. 
 
 Yet ever since his entrance she had been approv- 
 ingly conscious of the nice details of his appearance. 
 A year had lost to him nothing of his grace of man- 
 ner; and she had noted with the pleasurable sense 
 of proprietorship, the well-knit figure, the broad 
 chest and shoulders, the restful strength in his 
 every pose and movement. Nothing escaped her 
 fastidious eyes the irreproachable collar and tie, 
 even the polish of the well-kept finger-nails. 
 
 He said little, nothing, in fact. Thrilled, stunned 
 as he was, he seemed content to sit beside her in
 
 358 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 a dazed, unreal happiness that found no expression 
 save in the hand that delicately caressed her hair 
 or her cheek. 
 
 But the girl reveled in her new-found bliss, ex- 
 ulted in possession. With childish abandon she 
 leaned, curving her palms about his face, pressing 
 her cheek to his. Or she would rise and draw his 
 head against her warm breast and lift and smooth 
 the heavy brown hair from his forehead. Then 
 down beside him again, in the close circle of his 
 arm, her eyes confessing all that failed her lips. 
 
 And joy bubbled from her heart and overflowed 
 into speech. She questioned him and answered her- 
 self all in one breath. How long had he loved her? 
 Not till he found she was going away? Slie had 
 loved him even when she wanted to strike him there 
 in the office ; longer than that, even when he found 
 her lost and they cried in one another's arms, boy 
 and girl of a dozen years; and even as long ago as 
 when he was brought to her there in the summer- 
 house and given to her. Wasn't he hers? Of 
 course! And had he ever loved Ruth? Had he 
 ever kissed her, or any other girl? But certainly 
 not; he wasn't like Dix. But why had he been 
 so blind, so dull, so stupid ? She reproached him for 
 the year apart and the next instant laid all their 
 unhappiness to her own horrid vanity and stubborn- 
 ness. She told him of her year's struggle against
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 359 
 
 her pride; of how she had finally rejected DeLacy 
 after her reckless decision to accept him ; and lastly 
 of the young Berlin violinist. 
 
 He questioned her gravely about this last one, 
 rumors concerning whom had already drifted about 
 as matters of the House always did. Then, with no 
 comment, he put her gently from him, went to the 
 high casement that opened west and leaned there, 
 his eyes appealingly upon the Peak, as though it 
 could answer the questions vexing his soul. 
 
 He was steadying himself, mentally as well as 
 bodily, in a courageous endeavor to find his bear- 
 ings, to readjust his future. The swimming tu- 
 mult of his senses, the unaccustomed throb of his 
 blood bewildered him. Realization of the last hour 
 came slowly. He had confessed his long-concealed 
 love in spite of repeated, fortified resolutions, after 
 all he had borne and resisted, here in one un- 
 guarded moment, transported from all power of 
 will and forbearance, he had told it. Most marvel- 
 ous of all she loved him! His breast was 'yet 
 warm where she had rested. No, he was not dream- 
 ing in his room in the dark. It was daylight. He 
 had only to turn. She was there. 
 
 They loved. What then? Had she thought? 
 sought her bearings? readjusted her future? Mar- 
 riage. And then? Ease, comfort, even luxuries, 
 he could give her, with such a mine as was his
 
 360 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 (or would be his soon) ; but she would be dis- 
 owned, cast adrift by kindred and society. She 
 must descend to his social level, must find her world 
 in his world, for " as the husband is, the wife is." 
 And all for him and his love ! 
 
 This was that selfish love which he had derided 
 so recently to his mother (wise little mother, who 
 had foreseen this hour!). This was the misalliance 
 he had said the very unborn should cry out against. 
 The unborn ! If Manuel Menendez had had no 
 right to a beautiful woman, to children cursed be- 
 fore their birth, what of Manuel Menendez's son? 
 What name had he, Paul Maitland, what blood, 
 with which to gift them? Would they not live to 
 curse him, as he had cursed his father? 
 
 Yet, what could he say to her of all this? How 
 make her understand? He had awakened in her 
 woman's soul a force beyond him to control, as it 
 was beyond him to resist. He knew her nature, 
 its headlong generosity. He knew she would leave 
 home, friends, fortune, to share whatsoever was 
 his, and call it happiness. He knew that she would 
 bear for his sake all the pangs woman ever bore 
 for man and call them blessed. 
 
 On his own side, did he not love her? Had 
 he not held her, but now, in that long, impassioned 
 embrace as a man holds, should hold, but one wo- 
 man ? Was she not his, by right of all laws, physical
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 361 
 
 and moral? Without her now, life would be hell 
 again; to part, death itself. 
 
 And yet her highest happiness, the welfare of 
 the one beloved? Did it mean union with him? 
 As though he had heard them but yesterday, Edwin 
 Allan's words struck upon his sensitive heart, hard 
 and uncompromising as hammer-strokes : " Doubt- 
 less she would fling away all for the man of her 
 choice, like any other loving woman, but afterward 
 she would wake to find life without them unbear- 
 able. . . . All her life she has had high social po- 
 sition, attention from the exclusive circle within 
 the select circle. These are the very air she breathes. 
 .... Supposing she yielded and united with one 
 her social inferior, it is my solemn belief that very 
 soon she would wake to deplore, and live to regret. 
 Your world could not be made her world. She 
 would be out of her native element." 
 
 Was it true? Was it? Oh, God help him! It 
 was a prayer. Though his hands were not clasped, 
 though his lips were not moving, yet his whole be- 
 ing kneeled, implored. Slowly his head bowed to 
 one arm on the high casement, and he leaned mo- 
 tionless, breathless. 
 
 " Paul ! " 
 
 Her voice vibrated with love-born anguish ; her 
 hands, strong with love-born sympathy, drew down 
 his arm. She held his hand against her breast and 
 yearned up into his sad face.
 
 362 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 "I know what you are thinking; I can feel it. 
 You are saying to yourself all those terrible things 
 you said on the way to the mills that day. I have 
 said them all, over and over, during the year. I 
 know them by heart and I don't care, I don't care ! 
 I have thought of everything. A year ago tonight 
 you held and kissed me, a mere girl then, and at 
 once I seemed to see clearly some things that before 
 had been mysteries. Now tonight you have held 
 me to you again and kissed my mouth and I ... I 
 begin to understand many more things things I 
 did not know even an hour ago. You have brought 
 me to life. You have made me love you, love you, 
 till there is nothing else for me but to belong to 
 you. If you leave me now, I swear to you I will 
 do that ' desperate thing ' I have always threatened, 
 only it is a woman's threat this time and it will 
 be a woman's deed, a something you can no more 
 prevent than you could help staying here with me 
 after you had once come." 
 
 He took her face between his firm hands and 
 looked down into her eyes with deep, still tender- 
 ness. 
 
 " Leave you? Leave you? ' The Lord do so to 
 me and more also if aught but death part thee and 
 me.' Yes, my Lilys, I have been thinking many 
 things; but they all lead back to this: Our love. 
 That is enough now and hereafter. The past I can
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 363 
 
 not alter, but I may amend. A stain may be re- 
 moved; a sin may be redeemed; an evil name be 
 made honorable and these shall be my purposes, 
 now more than ever. For your future, you shall 
 not know unhappiness if human love can ward it off; 
 nor bear one pang that man can bear for woman. 
 We have lost a whole year, or two, or three, per- 
 haps, but we must live the deeper, love the more, 
 to make good the joys that ' of and for each other's 
 sake we might have had.' I can not realize my 
 great happiness I, who have lived for a whole year 
 on the memory of a look and of a kiss on lips I 
 thought for others. No, I cannot realize it yet, but 
 oh, I thank God ! " 
 
 There was a deep thanksgiving in his voice that 
 was almost solemn, and on his face such utter, pure 
 content that made its radiance something to marvel 
 at. He pointed through the high casement. 
 
 " When I was a very little boy, I used to kneel 
 in the evening at our west window with my eyes 
 on the Peak and repeat the prayers Mr. Allan had 
 taught me. I had a childish belief that God dwelt 
 on the summit of the Peak. Afterward when my 
 life grew serious and hard from too heavy tasks and 
 too little kindness, I placed heaven much farther 
 off. I used to wonder where God kept Himself 
 that I could not make Him hear. I am wiser to- 
 night with all wisdom, wiser than the child, than
 
 364 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the youth. For I know that heaven is nearer than 
 the Peak, even here in our hearts He who gave 
 us love and each other must be with us, blessing 
 us, two already one." 
 
 She looked up into the serene and somber beauty 
 of his eyes and again as of old, thrilled from the 
 awe of contact with a nature larger,, purer than her 
 own. Ah, could she ever be worthy to work beside 
 him, ever attain to his stature ? 
 
 There under the lifting shadow of the Peak, he 
 outlined their life as it would be, the work he 
 longed to do, even in the prescribed field allowed 
 him the redress of grievances, the righting of 
 wrongs, the easing of hard lives, the cultivation of 
 waste places in the minds and hearts touched by 
 their own. The mine at Ward was a rich one and 
 would employ increasing numbers. This would be 
 their field at first, a field they must bless even as God 
 was blessing them. 
 
 The great hall clock up at the House struck the 
 half after what hour, neither could have told you. 
 The young man started guiltily. 
 
 " Your first order to me this evening was to go 
 away, to leave you. I have been a long time obey- 
 ing it, Little Mistress." 
 
 She clasped his neck impetuously. 
 
 " Don't go to the stupid union, Paul ; stay with 
 me."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 365 
 
 " Duty first," he said, but he laid his cheek down 
 against one bare arm and did not move to go. 
 
 " Lilys," he began after another delicious silence, 
 " if you've thought at all, where do you imagine I 
 am going to put you? " 
 
 " In a tent, if you like. I shall follow you about 
 all day anyway, as I've always done. And I can 
 cook too," she informed him proudly, " Nina and I 
 have both attended cooking school ; and I've helped 
 Lena with the dishes more than once." 
 
 He smiled one of his rare smiles, shaking his head 
 and holding up to her view her own dainty hands in 
 contradiction. Then : 
 
 " A tent it will scarcely be so bad as that. But 
 Ward is only a mining-camp, a very new one, with 
 sorry comforts for such as you. It will not be 
 Eldhurst; and you will miss society's favors, and 
 your summer house-parties, and the prestige of your 
 father's home hozv much you will miss that I am 
 powerless to give " 
 
 " Well, are you sorry ? " 
 
 " Sorry ? With you looking at me like that ? " 
 
 But he sighed, for many misgivings were weigh- 
 ing his heart. His mind ran forward to the future ; 
 hers seemed content to linger in the present. 
 
 " And have you thought," he asked by and by, 
 " what an altogether enviable task lies before me in 
 breaking this little matter to your father? Can you 
 not picture the scene ? "
 
 366 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 The girl started away with a frightened look, her 
 father's words sounding in her ears, " I would 
 rather kill you with my own hand than suffer the dis- 
 grace of hearing your name linked with that of 
 Marah Maitland's son." 
 
 " Write it to him while he is away," she pleaded 
 earnestly. 
 
 The young man laughed outright. " Our sweet- 
 hearts would make cowards of us all! Why, for 
 which one of us do you fear? I give you my word 
 I will not harm him." 
 
 " I hardly think he will do you any bodily harm 
 either," and she laughed too, surveying her lover's 
 stalwart proportions with proprietary pride. " But 
 you know that you two never talked five minutes 
 even about alfalfa or lumber without clashing." 
 
 " Oh, we like it! " he said grimly, thinking of the 
 interview just closed. 
 
 " He will never consent." 
 
 He held her away at arm's length. " What 
 then?" 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders in the adorable way 
 she had. " Take me with you to Ward, right 
 away." 
 
 " Don't look at me like that, else I might ! " 
 
 Her gypsy face sparkled and dimpled. " ' If he 
 dares, who cares ? ' " she hummed. 
 
 " He cares, otherwise to dare were very easy, very
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 367 
 
 sweet. No, it is going to be hard enough for you 
 hereabout with everything according to the high 
 proprieties. Even so, there will be unkind comment 
 which I can not prevent. The moment your father 
 returns (not for a week he told me) I'll come back 
 and rehearse that amicable little scene with him, 
 then, whether or no, you will go with me. And 
 now that meeting. It begins at eight." 
 
 He lifted the vine curtain, but she made no move 
 to go. She was leaning near him, the picture of 
 content. That " I'll come back " of his in no wise 
 troubled her. He was not gone to Ward yet, nor 
 was there any immediate danger of his going. 
 What ! leave her now ? Absurd ! impossible ! Had 
 she, Lilys Eldreth, ever hinted at coaxing any young 
 man to tarry at Eldhurst ? She usually felt tempted 
 to coax them to go. Once Dix had bet her that 
 she could not detain Harry Wentworth an hour be- 
 yond his absence-leave from his paper; had bet her 
 a thoroughbred colt he had just received from Ken- 
 tucky. She had won the colt, and with what ease. 
 She had only to intimate that if Mr. Wentworth 
 would remain over two days for her party she might 
 grant him one round dance ! He had had some un- 
 pleasantness with the Tribune afterward, but that 
 was his business, not hers. And once DeLacy had 
 lingered there a week, breaking several engage- 
 ments, business and social, for the sake of a ride
 
 368 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 with her up Boulder Canon on which ride, she had 
 taken Pepito to carry her specimens ! 
 
 And so ... did she not know men? Weren't 
 they all alike? Wouldn't the best of them do any- 
 thing for a smile or the promise of a waltz or half 
 an hour's teic-a-tete? As to " present company," 
 and she smiled up at him meditatively she had 
 given him promises for a life-time, to say nothing 
 of taking his many kisses. After he had yielded 
 her her own way and stayed; after an hour or so, 
 perhaps she might give him one kiss, just one little 
 one, her first to any man. She would see. 
 
 " I suppose you must go to that meeting," 
 she conceded, half petulantly, yielding the lesser 
 that she might win the greater, " I'm sure I can 
 stand it if you can. But after it is out 
 
 " It promises to be an all-night session, in the 
 midst of which I shall have to leave to make my 
 train, the last one to-night. I'm afraid I can't even 
 drop off at the rectory to tell Mr. Allan the result 
 of the meeting. I am under agreement to return 
 to the Hopeful this, Saturday, night. It is imper- 
 ative, as Bradley can not be there; is on his way to 
 Denver by this time, and is depending upon me." 
 
 She changed tactics then. She lifted moist eyes 
 and her lips began quivering like those of a very 
 little child. 
 
 " You can not be in earnest, Paul. You are
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 369 
 
 not going away from me so soon and for so long? 
 Why we have only just found one another, after 
 a whole wretched year apart. And to be apart 
 now ' 
 
 He would have taken her in his arms, but she 
 eluded him and ended her speech at the further side 
 of the summer-house. 
 
 " To be apart now would be like this, only you 
 couldn't even see me nor hear me then. No, no," 
 motioning him back, as he would have followed. 
 " Wait; stand still and think what it would be like; 
 think how you will miss me and want me think ! " 
 
 He had stopped where her command arrested him 
 and stood looking dejected enough to satisfy the 
 most exacting of inquisitors. It was too bad, but 
 she must discipline him. She observed his suffering 
 with exultation and let the moment one after an- 
 other drag away in silence, with her back half 
 
 turned Now she was sure he would not go, 
 
 but she was not quite through with him. 
 
 By and by she reached one hand, as might a 
 queen to a rebellious though penitent subject, but 
 again halted him as he was about to seize the 
 hand. She had not taken a step. He had come all 
 the way. He must surrender, and on her terms. 
 
 Near as he was, he did not touch her, since it 
 was her wish he should not; but she could feel his 
 ardent eyes, and rich waves of color answered his
 
 370 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 gaze. Still she would not look at him; her face 
 drooped through what seemed an age to the lover, 
 and she kept the distance between them. 
 
 " Don't punish me any longer," he pleaded humbly 
 enough, " I'll be very good ; and you shall say 
 what * good ' means." 
 
 At that, she gave a little exultant cry, flung back 
 her head and she was close-folded in his arms, the 
 uplifted crimson of her mouth clinging to his. A 
 moment of blinding rapture followed . . . 
 
 " Only the meeting, Dearest an hour two 
 hours," she breathed between her long kisses, " then 
 with me. I love you love you! " She ended 
 with her face still upraised, the soft, dangerous fire 
 in her eyes again, her caressing fingers clasping his 
 neck. Slowly she drew his head down, yet lower, 
 yet closer till his eyes closed, his senses swimming 
 he felt her tender young throat pulsing beneath 
 his lips. 
 
 His arm tightened convulsively around her till 
 she could scarcely breathe in his crushing embrace; 
 and for one stifling instant, he did not move. 
 
 " You will stay, Paul." It was not a question. 
 
 "If only I might!" he whispered breathlessly, 
 "if only! .... Don't, don't, DON'T!" He lifted 
 his head, recalling his truant control. He passed 
 a hand over his eyes with a short recovering laugh, 
 putting her forcibly from him. " "What do you 
 think a man is made of, anyway? "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 371 
 
 " Flesh and blood, of course," and the smiles and 
 dimples attested her now certain triumph. 
 
 " Well then, I can't stand this, and you ought to 
 know it, you witch! There. No, farther yet, and 
 not so much as your finger-tips. So. Now let me 
 try to think. Is it yesterday, or next week ? Where 
 am I? Is this earth or .... Ah, the meeting! 
 I had forgotten such trifles as Duty. Why, I've a 
 speech to make. \Vhat sort of one do you imagine 
 it will be? None at all, if I stay here another min- 
 ute. Really, solemnly, finally, Miss Eldreth, I must 
 go." 
 
 " Yes," complacently, taking up her scarf from 
 the back of the bench, " to Quarry Town." 
 
 " And to Ward." 
 
 "No, Paul no!" 
 
 " But I promised." His tone was unmistakably 
 final. 
 
 She looked at him despairingly, tears welling up 
 in her eyes. Oh, he was not at all like other men; 
 she had punished only herself. 
 
 " Don't cry, Lilys, I can't bear it. Don't make it 
 any harder. It is taking all the strength I've got 
 can't you see ? " 
 
 " You seem to have all the strength you need 
 for everything. But what is to become of me ? " 
 Her voice choked. " Only day before yesterday, 
 because Dix teased me about you, Papa threatened
 
 372 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 to shut me up with the St. Mary Sisters down in 
 Denver. He threatened even worse if he ever heard 
 our names coupled. Oh, I am so afraid. A week, 
 ten days something will surely happen. If you 
 can not stay; if you must go, take me with you to- 
 night. Paul, Paul! I want to be where you 
 are." 
 
 She was sobbing in earnest now, no acting; and 
 holding her up " close and hard and strong," her 
 " Prince " let her cry till his royal strength of soul 
 imparted something of itself through the steadfast 
 arms around her, through the breast against which 
 she lay. His eyes yearned down with a passion of 
 tenderness upon her little shaken form. With in- 
 finite gentleness he stooped and laid his lips to her 
 hair, his very silence soothing her, his man's strong 
 sympathy enfolding her. When she grew more 
 calm, he said : 
 
 " Listen, my darling girl. You are troubled, else 
 you'd think what you are asking. You would not 
 have me steal you away by night during your 
 father's absence. We are to go be very sure of 
 that; without his consent, yes; without his knowl- 
 edge, no. We can defy; but we can not deceive. 
 And do I so fear Pierce Eldreth that I can not face 
 him and ask him a man's question? No, he shall 
 consent; he shall be made to consent. Did Fate 
 clear away from between you and me all the mis-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 373 
 
 understanding and keep us both faithful so long; 
 did God save you from DeLacy and bring you back 
 loving and loyal, and all for naught? Think no 
 more about St. Mary's. You are going, not to 
 Denver, but to Ward; a bride, not a penitent. A 
 fortnight, even less, of preparation for your com- 
 fort, then we will be together I pledge you my life. 
 Can not my own wait and trust me ? " 
 
 He smiled down into her eyes with that firm, 
 tender smile of proprietorship that women so love. 
 
 " Come, be your old-time fearless self, our brave 
 Western girl. It is far harder for me than for you, 
 thus to find you and then to lose you even for a 
 week; yet is must be so. If I broke one promise, 
 how could I ask you to trust another? Good night, 
 my love. Very soon I am going to call you by a 
 sweeter, a holier name. Then a certain little mining 
 town, already of breathless altitude, will be even 
 nearer heaven; then my life-long desire will be 
 reality, for I shall have you, day after happy day, 
 night after sweet night, your head for my breast 
 Lilys! Lilys!" 
 
 Another long dreamful pause which he fills lover- 
 wise; then his arm about her shoulders, they reluct- 
 antly ascend the hill toward the House, a tear-bright 
 smiled wooed back to her April face. 
 
 " Oh, if only Papa were here," she sighs, glanc- 
 ing up at the unlighted windows, " to order us away
 
 374 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 from Eldhurst, you know, to drive me from home, 
 as he would, then you'd take me, ' just as I am 
 without one ' hat. Wouldn't you ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid I should, pretty pink frock, tumbled 
 hair and all. I'll take so much of you at any rate," 
 and he untangles the rosebud from her hair, touches 
 it to her lips and puts it securely away. 
 
 She draws from him smoothing hair and dress 
 and laughing at the fancied picture. " And no 
 gloves, and in these slippers. Wouldn't folks in 
 Boulder have a right to stare? and wouldn't we 
 cause a sensation up at Ward? For Marah isn't 
 home, you said." 
 
 " We would certainly be the amazement of all 
 beholders," he gravely agrees. 
 
 " And then you'd just have to miss your old union 
 meeting, though all Eldhurst went to smash, and 
 catch the eight-thirty train. Wouldn't it be lovely? " 
 
 " Even though . . ." he is helping with her hair, 
 but with doubtful results, " even though Mr. Allan 
 might decline to officiate yet to-night without the 
 authority of a Boulder county license, and the clergy 
 of both Boulder and Ward might be equally hard- 
 hearted. Would that be lovely ? " 
 
 Her answer, if answer she makes, is lost in the 
 folds of his coat where she hides her face. He 
 puts his own generous, if wrong, construction on her 
 silence. She has not thought. After all, she is
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 375 
 
 only a girl. Well, it is his to think for both now. 
 
 " I shall write you every day and dream of yon 
 every hour. So soon as I am free, I will come and 
 never leave you again, please heaven. For the very 
 moment your father says ' Yes ' (or ' No ' rather) 
 you are to be made mine, whether that moment be 
 noontime or midnight. Until then," lifting her face, 
 "you will long for me just a little, Sweetheart?" 
 
 " For you and for the moment. Oh, I love 
 you ! " she whispers with a long, quivering sigh. 
 
 " God keep you, my Darling." There is a falter 
 in his strong voice. He holds her in a lingering 
 last embrace, drinking from her lips as a man drinks 
 from an oasis spring when he must turn and face 
 desert wanderings again. Then he rapidly descends 
 the hill. 
 
 And both are happily ignorant of what the week 
 is to bring.
 
 376 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE TRUTH BY ACCIDENT. 
 
 PAUL walked the deserted platform on the Colo- 
 rado and Northwestern station in Boulder awaiting 
 the belated train for Ward. It was long past mid- 
 night. He walked slowly back and forth in the 
 wavering circle of an arc light, his head slightly in- 
 clined, a smile on his lips and in his eye, as he 
 looked down at the withered memento in his hand. 
 
 There was cause for the smile. After he had 
 closed the gate of his paradise, supposedly for a 
 long fortnight, it had opened to him briefly once 
 again. He had stopped at the rectory, late as it 
 was, to tell Mr. Allan the action of the union, and 
 when he entered the sick-room, there was Lilys, de- 
 mure of manner, but with eyes eloquent with mis- 
 chief. Her innocent uncle, untaught in the ways of 
 women, gravely explained her presence there at such 
 an hour, by expatiating upon her unselfish devotion 
 to him and upon her solicitude about the threaten- 
 ing quarry troubles. And she had unblushingly 
 corroborated his statement. 
 
 But her lover had succeeded in bringing blushes
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 377 
 
 to the cheeks of the charming prevaricator by a 
 method all his own, and had ended by telling the 
 astonished rector the whole truth in the straight- 
 forward way characteristic of him. And if they 
 never received the blessing of the father, they al- 
 ready had what was more precious, that of the 
 uncle. 
 
 Then : She had gone to the gate with him ; and 
 he had returned to the porch with her, only to find 
 her at the gate before he had his horse untied 
 something important she had forgotten to tell him, 
 yet which she could not, for the life of her, recall 
 at once upon joining him again; so he must wait 
 while she tried to recall it. He had started as many 
 as .... ? . . . . separate and distinct times, and 
 each time it was harder than the time before. At 
 last he had managed to mount his horse, hopeful that 
 the animal might be able to do the rest. It had 
 been able, but it would be some time before the 
 poor brute could again go into active service. And 
 after all the haste, that confounded train was be- 
 hind time, time enough for at least another .... 
 
 The young man's meditations were broken into 
 by the arrival of a carriage at the side of the plat- 
 form the Eldhurst carriage. He watched William 
 swing the sorrels round in his familiar, dextrous 
 way, dismount from the seat and open the door for 
 his young master. That worthy walked straight
 
 378 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 to the telegraph office and came as straight back, 
 swearing in true Eldreth style over the lateness of 
 the train from Denver. He consulted his watch, 
 dismissed the carriage and he too began walking the 
 platform. 
 
 " Why, hello, Paul." 
 
 " Hello, Dick." 
 
 The two had come face to face under the big arc 
 light ; that " Hermosa " hidden away barely in 
 time. 
 
 " This damned train's always late," fumed Rich- 
 ard. 
 
 " Seems so," assented the other, slipping the 
 strap of his small grip from his shoulder and stop- 
 ping to light a cigar. 
 
 His companion also proceeded to light a cigarette, 
 neither offering the other the contents of his cigar- 
 case. Richard sat down on the edge of a trunk that 
 awaited the up train; Paul stood leaning against a 
 telegraph pole, his valise at his feet. They were 
 practically alone. They smoked in silence for some 
 minutes, then Richard said : 
 
 " You're just from that meeting, I take it. The 
 governor detailed me the situation. I suppose 
 they'll make me all the trouble possible ? " 
 
 " I think not. Only regular business was trans- 
 acted, besides consideration of wage-reduction next 
 week."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 379 
 
 " Will work go on Monday ? " 
 
 " Yes/' 
 
 "And the rest of it?" 
 
 " Will depend 
 
 " On how they're handled ? Well, it will not be 
 with gloves nor tongs. That whole gang up there 
 has been spoiled. Ingham and the Parson and the 
 rest of you have made them believe they are doing 
 Eldhurst a great favor by condescending to develop 
 her quarries. And I've no doubt by this time they 
 are persuaded that the only difference between the 
 village and the House is the elevation of their re- 
 spective hills. Well, the present administration may 
 show them a trick or two." 
 
 Paul made no comment. He did not always give 
 advice when requested, and in this case, the request 
 was lacking. 
 
 Through the silence that followed his thoughts 
 strayed far from union meetings and threatened 
 strikes. He smoked on, regarding the dark engag- 
 ing face of his companion, with new interest. The 
 same shadowy eyes with thick, silken lashes, the 
 same passionate, perfect mouth. Then too, the 
 same impatience of responsibility, the same reckless 
 disregard of consequences, the same disposition to 
 
 dance too near irruptive craters Yes, the 
 
 resemblance was strong, he had to acknowledge, be- 
 tween the woman he loved and this man whom he
 
 380 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 did not love. . . . After all, he was her brother ; in 
 her father's absence, the head of her house; and as 
 such, possibly an intimation was due him of the 
 very unexpected which was to happen so soon. 
 Anyway, it seemed the decent thing to do. So, for 
 once, he spoke on impulse. 
 
 " I'm glad we met, Dick, for there is something 
 I want to tell you. The tidings will be most un- 
 welcome to you, the situation unpleasant. You, I 
 think, will understand without detailing. For 
 some time I have known that you were acquainted 
 with the true state of affairs, not blind as all the 
 others have been. Of course the relationship of 
 brothers will be repugnant to us both. Since we 
 were boys, there has been no love lost between us. 
 So, when I claim my own (so soon as I come down 
 again) you will resent it, naturally, since my great 
 gain is your loss. Our kinship, however, yours and 
 mine, will be in name only, and fortunately there is 
 no law compelling us to live in the same county." 
 
 He paused, meeting Richard's astonished stare 
 with a half-smile and continuing: 
 
 " Mother Marah is kind enough to assume the 
 responsibility for my sudden good fortune. I fan- 
 cied from something she said that it pleased her to 
 believe the credit wholly hers; and of course I 
 indulged her, since, from Eden down, women have 
 been the responsibility-takers." He laughed softly,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 381 
 
 his mind running back to his interview with his 
 mother the day Lilys arrived from Boston, and he 
 ended : " At any rate, but for certain revelations she 
 made to me, I'm afraid I should never have gath- 
 ered the necessary courage." 
 
 Richard continued to stare up at him quite speech- 
 less. To his mind, alert and not wholly innocent, 
 the words he had heard were freighted with an im- 
 port all undreamed by the speaker. " Unwelcome 
 tidings," " unpleasant situation," "true state of af- 
 fairs," "relationship of brothers," " when I claim 
 my own," " my gain your loss," to Richard's 
 mind, all these could mean but one thing. And 
 if other proof were wanting, Marah was " respon- 
 sible for the sudden good fortune," through " cer- 
 tain revelations " she had made. Aye, certain rev- 
 elations she had sworn to him, Richard, never to 
 make, though she died for them. Yet she had be- 
 trayed them ; that was evident. The secret was out, 
 and to Paul, of all men. Oh, curse a woman any- 
 way always at the bottom of a man's trouble ! 
 
 " Well," he growled out at last, tugging sul- 
 lenly at a strap of the trunk on which he sat, " what 
 are you going to do about it ? " 
 
 "Do?" laughed the other, little dreaming the 
 construction that had been placed upon his words. 
 " Is there any question in your mind ? What would 
 you do? "
 
 382 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " What you will, I suppose fight it through. 
 But it won't be as easy as it looks. I for one will 
 do my little best against it, that I promise you. 
 Why shouldn't I? And then there's the governor. 
 Does he know ? " 
 
 " Assuredly not. Why, I myself have known it 
 only since dinner. I did take half a minute to tell 
 Mr. Allan ; but he is the only one." 
 
 " Humph ! And I suppose he is delighted, 
 charmed." 
 
 " He seemed so ; but being in that state myself, 
 allowance will have to be made for my impressions. 
 The whole thing is still so new to me that I'm not at 
 all sure of my own name." 
 
 " Well, being sure of it yourself and making 
 others sure of it you'll find, are two distinct proposi- 
 tions. It will be a pretty fight, with the burden of 
 proof all on you." 
 
 His companion gave him a quick, puzzled glance. 
 " I presume I'm dense, but I don't follow you." 
 
 " You don't think I am one to give up till the 
 last ditch on a transaction of this sort. I have some 
 influence with my father and with her too. Who 
 wants half a fortune when there's a fighting chance 
 for the whole ? " 
 
 Paul threw away his cigar and came a step nearer. 
 " We would do well to get together, Eldreth," he 
 smiled, " You are talking of one matter, I of an- 
 other, it appears."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 383 
 
 " I wish to the Lord we were ! Personally, I 
 prefer some other topic or no topic at all. You 
 surely don't flatter yourself that I relish the situa- 
 tion, appealing though it be, even to my sense of 
 humor. Oh, it's too cursed ridiculous! Borders 
 on the yellow, too, don't you think ? / the bastard 
 of your foster mother; you the legitimate of my 
 step-mother ! Unique, isn't it ? Harry Wentworth 
 would give his ears for such ' copy.' " 
 
 Paul fell back the step he had taken and stood 
 staring, in his turn, as though suddenly bereft of his 
 senses. For one instant his heart almost ceased. 
 Then his swift mind reviewed the dialogue by this 
 new and blinding light. He saw the whole from 
 Richard's standpoint; seized upon the truth, made 
 his by accident, and fitted it to its exact place. And 
 then .... He clung to the telegraph pole for 
 support, great drops forcing themselves upon his 
 pale forehead. 
 
 " Merciful God! " he whispered, " if I am what 
 you say what of her her my promised wife? '' 
 
 And then it was that Richard Eldreth could have 
 bitten out his blundering tongue; for he knew that 
 it had been the first to intimate to the man before 
 him his true position ! 
 
 Swinging round on the trunk with his back to 
 the agonized suppliant, he did more rapid thinking 
 in the minute that followed than ever before in all
 
 384 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 indolent, care-free life. Two ways were open to 
 him, and he ran each down to its logical conclusion. 
 Marah she had betrayed nothing. It all rested 
 with her, and he could influence her, sway her to 
 his wishes, absolutely. Let Paul rest in the knowl- 
 edge of the half truth, as now .... and the Eld- 
 reth fortune would be divided by three. That was 
 one way. But Paul had said " my promised wife." 
 Tell him the whole truth, and what then? He, 
 Richard, could influence his father, for he had long 
 known that he was the favorite child. Once that 
 marriage were consummated (misalliance, it would 
 be in Pierce Eldreth's eyes, viewed in what light 
 soever) and there would follow repudiation, disin- 
 heritance ; and the Eldreth fortune divided by ONE. 
 His choice was made. He turned about, for the 
 grasp on his arm was painful, the hoarse voice more 
 than imploring : 
 
 " For her sake, man, if you know, who is she 
 what is she? In God's name, tell me! " 
 
 " Oh, don't be a fool," he remonstrated, twisting 
 from the grasp, " The Honorable Pierce is not re- 
 sponsible for all of us. There are others, or were. 
 Give the Mexican some credit, anyway for the tropi- 
 cal temper and the torrid emotions and the good 
 looks of his race. The girl is no blood relation of 
 yours, at any rate, and you might have had her on a 
 man's terms any hour the past year or longer.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 385 
 
 That'll be the only way, let me tell you, for if Puri- 
 tan and peon blood are to mix for a new breed, it'll 
 never be with parental consent nor priestly sanction. 
 But you won't have to plead on bended knees. If 
 you don't know your name now, she never has 
 known hers in both senses. She's been over heels 
 in love with you ever since you beat me up for try- 
 ing to slap some sense into her. And she isn't a 
 beauty at all, and she hasn't trailed you round, all 
 places and all hours? Oh, you infernal fool the 
 chances you've let slip! The lady and the hired 
 man ! Clever, you are ! Why, ha, ha ! Marah 
 Maitland's the only bright one at Eldhurst. I won- 
 der the rest of you have kept out of the home for 
 simple-minded, you, the honorable sire, the pious 
 uncle and all concerned." 
 
 But Paul had heard nothing after the first two or 
 three sentences, and once comprehending their im- 
 port, he had staggered forward and collapsed upon 
 the trunk beside his companion, and now sat wiping 
 his brow and breathing heavily. 
 
 The faint whistle of a train sounded from the 
 south. 
 
 " So it seems you were right; that we were talk- 
 ing of wholly different matters. And you can't 
 deplore our ' getting together ' any more than I do. 
 Now, if you will pardon a brother's presumption, I 
 will again put my vital question: What are you 
 going to do about it ? "
 
 386 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 The man beside him made no reply. He arose 
 and walked to the extreme end of the platform, sev- 
 eral yards distant, and stood staring into the night 
 and into the future. Six hours ago and he had been 
 compelled to reshape his entire future. Was it all 
 to be done again ? Two ways lay open to him also. 
 He too thought rapidly with characteristic power of 
 adjustment, power to accept this, reject that, to esti- 
 mate and weigh truths for their right value. 
 Swiftly he followed those two separate lines to their 
 logical ends. 
 
 The man on the trunk sat his eyes riveted on the 
 silhouette of that motionless figure ; sat thinking his 
 own thoughts, and they too were characteristic. 
 
 The rumble of the incoming train sounded more 
 distinct; the platform began to tremble with trans- 
 mitted vibrations. Trucks clattered, lanterns glim- 
 mered and sleepy depot-employes appeared. 
 
 Paul came back with quick firm step. His brow 
 was clear. His choice was also made. He spoke 
 rapidly. 
 
 " Can I rely upon you to keep this secret? " 
 
 "Well, rather!" drawled the other, "It isn't 
 news I'd enjoy peddling about. Till you come 
 down, of course you mean? " 
 
 "No; always." 
 
 "WHAT!" 
 
 " It will depend upon you."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 387 
 
 The other sprang to his feet, thrusting out an 
 eager palm. 
 
 " Will you give me your hand on that? " 
 
 Paul turned, picked up his grip and slipped the 
 strap up over his shoulder, for the train had come 
 to a standstill. 
 
 " I would," he said coldly, " except that gentlemen 
 do not so seal compacts with men of my class. I am 
 a Menendez, remember. Still, my spoken word is 
 fairly reliable. Good night." 
 
 With hands plunged deep in his pockets and feet 
 wide apart, Richard Eldreth stood staring after him 
 as he swung up and disappeared in the smoker of the 
 now moving train. 
 
 " Well I'll be damned! " he muttered.
 
 3 88 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 THE reduction in wages at the quarries went into 
 effect on Monday according to program ; but the 
 counsel of the cooler heads prevailed, and Paul's 
 talk on Saturday night and his personal influence 
 among the men before he left sufficed to send them 
 to work Monday morning. Yet there were black 
 looks and talking in knots and much slackness in the 
 work, though the burly Schmidt stood over them in 
 person like a veritable slave-driver. 
 
 It was Antonio Garia and Marah who precipitated 
 the strike after all. In this wise: Antonio came 
 down from the mill late Saturday night to learn 
 the action of the quarries union, that he might report 
 it to Lodge Number Two. Like the others, he suc- 
 cumbed to Paul's persuasion, and promised surely to 
 return to the camp after he had spent the next day 
 with Ruth. 
 
 But when Paul had gone and Antonio after the 
 meeting found Ruth at home with the Schmidts; 
 when he learned that Richard Eldreth was to man- 
 age affairs in his father's absence and that he had 
 spent the early part of Saturday evening at the
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 389 
 
 Schmidts' instead of at Howard's, Antonio straight- 
 way forgot his promises to Paul, bribed Pepito, his 
 brother, to carry the report to the mill Sunday morn- 
 ing and sent a letter to Webb stating that while 
 the strike had not yet been declared it would cer- 
 tainly be in a few days, and that he thought it 
 scarcely worth while for him, Antonio, to return to 
 work. 
 
 This done, Antonio went straight to Schmidt's, 
 told Ruth to pack her trunk and come with him to 
 Marah's where he had arranged for her to remain 
 till Paul took his mother away. He said nothing 
 about young Eldreth; merely told her there was 
 going to be trouble in Quarry Town, and he would 
 rather she would not be there. 
 
 Ruth objected and coaxed and cried, but in the 
 end she yielded, for she feared this black-eyed, fiery- 
 hearted lover of hers. But she revenged herself by 
 sending a note over to the House by little Fritz 
 Schmidt explaining to Richard that she was going 
 against her wishes ; that she could not meet him till 
 Antonio returned to the mill; and whatever he did 
 not to try to see her at Marah's, with whom Antonio 
 had some sort of understanding. 
 
 When Antonio was leaving, after seeing Ruth 
 ensconsed in the Menendez cottage, ftfarah followed 
 him into the porch and looking into his eyes, ques- 
 tioned :
 
 390 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Are you men up at Quarry Town going to al- 
 low yourselves to be soft-soaped by the boy Paul 
 into coming to Pierce Eldreth's terms? Are you 
 slaves with no rights ? " 
 
 " But I promised Paul," hesitated Garia. 
 
 " Oh, promised Paul ! " mimicked Marah. 
 
 "What can I do alone?" 
 
 " Haven't you a tongue in your head ? Doesn't 
 it generally get what you want? Or is that true 
 only among your women friends ? " sneered his 
 companion, " His tongue is all that Paul used, but 
 he seems to have the whole lot of you fairly hypno- 
 tized. Eldreth got the Stanger & Franklin court- 
 house contract; Schmidt told me so himself, and 
 there are several others as good in view. Why this 
 reduction? Why aren't all the men at work? 
 W r hat good are unions, anyway ? Why are you, one 
 of their best quarrymen, kept up in the woods, in- 
 stead of being, by this time, a crew-foreman along 
 with Gustav? When you can answer these ques- 
 tions, you may talk to me about some petty prom- 
 ises better broken than kept." And she turned back 
 into the house. 
 
 Antonio's conscience protested feebly as he de- 
 scended the hill. He knew how much he owed to 
 Paul in Ruth's case; he'd feel like a sneak to try to 
 undo his good work at Quarry Town, and he away 
 too. He hated the Boss, it was true, and as for the 
 Boss's son
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 391 
 
 A small boy came running up the hill. Antonio 
 had seen him part from a certain well-dressed figure 
 in the House yard and come running down the 
 opposite hill past the summer-house, and 
 
 " Where are you going? " he called suspiciously. 
 
 The boy made a wide detour, fear in his eyes; 
 but he stumbled and the man pounced cat-like upon 
 him and shook him. 
 
 " To .... to see Ruth," whimpered the child. 
 
 " From whom ? Tell the truth, you son of a 
 Dutchman, or I'll put holes through you." 
 
 " From him," nodding toward the House where 
 the well-dressed figure could be seen slowly pacing 
 the veranda. 
 
 " And you've got a letter," hurling him to the 
 ground and jerking him up again, " Give it up! " 
 
 But only a bright silver dollar rolled from the 
 boy's pocket. 
 
 " No, I haf not, ach mein Gott, I haf not ! " His 
 consternation was too genuine to be doubted. He 
 would have given up his ears to that terrible man. 
 
 " What were you to see her for? What were you 
 to say? Out with it every word," insisted his 
 captor, one hand on his revolver. 
 
 " He said," gulped the frightened child, greedily 
 concealing his ill-gotten silver, " he dit say tell 
 her all right he vud see her." 
 
 "The devil he did!" muttered Antonio, "You
 
 392 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 dare to tell her one word of it and I'll kill you, that's 
 all. Come with me ! " 
 
 As he marched his little prisoner before him to 
 the quarries, his wrath fermented more and more. 
 Dick Elclreth sending word to his Ruth " All right, 
 he'd see her." Dios nos libre! What next? And 
 what was " allright " ? He would see her, and he, 
 Antonio Garia, there at Eldhurst. See her? Cuerpo 
 de Dios! he'd see hell first! Oh yes, it would be 
 " all right," sure. That did settle it. Marah would 
 see if he had a tongue in his head, and if love-mak- 
 ing was all it was good for ! 
 
 He went direct to Anderson's where Gustav 
 Swensson sat in gloomy silence at the bedside of his 
 sick wife; where Hilma's father, one of the men laid 
 off, sat brooding over his double wrong. From 
 them he went among the other idle men, and Ander- 
 son went with him. Then the two went after hours, 
 among those who were working at the cut wages, 
 and by ridicule, goading and misrepresentation, 
 subtly undid Paul's work. 
 
 And Marah, who was nursing Hilma, dropped 
 potent words on her journeys to and fro, and thus 
 the leaven worked. 
 
 By Tuesday night another meeting was called. 
 Antonio addressed it with fiery eloquence, and An- 
 derson, who was greatly respected, spoke a few 
 short, telling sentences in the young orator's sup- 
 port.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 393 
 
 The elder Johnson, one of the " cooler heads," 
 made a blunt, sturdy speech opposing them, and he 
 was followed by Peterson, who stumblingly re- 
 capitulated the dire results of a strike, as Paul had 
 detailed them, and reminded the men of their prom- 
 ises to their old-time foreman. 
 
 But before Peterson had fairly finished, Antonio 
 was on his feet. He talked with the fluency of the 
 natural orator, with the headlong passion of his 
 stormy race. He reviewed the wrongs of the quarry- 
 men, beginning far back; he called up the occasion 
 of the former cut in wages, and the unexecuted 
 threats of a strike made at that time. He asked the 
 men whose names had been stricken from the pay- 
 roll how fast they were reducing their debt to their 
 master with scornful emphasis on the last word. 
 He asked them how they liked eating Eldhurst 
 bread, living in Eldhurst houses, and handling Eld- 
 hurst scrip ? He dealt out the information that half 
 the force at half pay was expected to fill all the 
 Stanger and Franklin contracts for the season, the 
 Springs paving and heaven only knew how many 
 others, while that damned aristocrat pocketed the 
 profits and he and his white-handed son laughed in 
 their sleeves at the numbskull Swedes. 
 
 Johnson tried to make himself heard in the hub- 
 hub that followed Garia's speech, but failing, left 
 the hall followed bv his son, Fredericks, Peterson
 
 394 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 and a few others, leaving the meeting in the hands 
 of the extremists. 
 
 A strike was at once declared and the adjourn- 
 ment made in confusion. 
 
 Wednesday morning the quarries were silent as a 
 graveyard. Not a hammer was lifted. 
 
 "What are you going to do?" asked Richard 
 Eldreth when, called down to the office hours before 
 his usual rising time, he faced Schmidt, across the 
 paper-piled desk. 
 
 " Vhot pe you goin' to do ? You is Poss here 
 now," returned the quarry-foreman eyeing the 
 young man askance. " I know vhot I vud to, py 
 Gott!" 
 
 Richard shuffled a pile of unopened mail uneasily. 
 This was a new and welcome experience to him. 
 
 " I'll telegraph my father at the Brown to send us 
 up some new men from Denver. If he's already 
 started east, we'll get some from Boulder and here- 
 about. Go to town with William when he takes the 
 telegram; wait for and open the reply, and while 
 you're waiting, look around for non-union men. I'll 
 see you when you get back, Schmidt. Just now I'm 
 so infernal sleepy I don't know straight up. Why, it 
 isn't daylight and I just got in from town, not two 
 hours ago. Here's your telegram. I'm going back 
 to bed. Even if the new force comes from Denver,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 395 
 
 they should be here to-night, and at work by to- 
 morrow." 
 
 The telegram did not find its recipient in Denver. 
 The Brown Palace replied that Mr. Eldreth had left 
 for Chicago on Tuesday evening, with instruction 
 for mail to follow for ten days, care the Auditorium 
 Annex. 
 
 So Richard took a brace of " Scotch " without 
 the soda, added what he could to Schmidt's motley 
 collection of new men, mostly Italians recently from 
 Elclora and other near mining camps, and on Thurs- 
 day work in the quarries was resumed. 
 
 Not hearing from Webb by Pepito, and fearful 
 lest Lodge Number Two might weaken, Antonio 
 tore himself away from Ruth and broke all records 
 going to the lumber-camp. This was Thursday 
 night. 
 
 Ruth took prompt advantage of her bethrothed's 
 absence to send a message to the House with in- 
 formation of that absence. She believed that she 
 risked nothing by so doing. Her father was in Den- 
 ver, Paul at the mine, Miss Howard was attending 
 the Chautauqua which holds each summer just out- 
 side Boulder, and Antonio could not possibly reach 
 Eldhurst till after ten that evening. So the coast 
 was clear. Even Pepito was most of the time at the 
 rectory. 
 
 Now it chanced that Richard had quarreled with
 
 396 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 his fiancee on the Saturday before. Lilys being 
 unwilling to leave her Uncle's bedside, young Nolan 
 had been summoned from Denver to make tenor 
 substitutes for the soprano parts in the duets as- 
 signed Misses Eldreth and Howard on the Chautau- 
 qua programs. He had needed much practice, and 
 Miss Howard's time had been given wholly to him, 
 under her father's exacting tutorage; and in Rich- 
 ard's opinion this " monopoly " had been " out- 
 rageous." 
 
 Saturday afternoon he had sulked at the House 
 rather than hear her even " singing love to another 
 fellow ; " the early part of Saturday evening he had 
 passed with Ruth at the Schmidts ; the night he had 
 spent in Boulder with boon companions from Den- 
 ver. The next day he had absented himself from 
 services, both morning and evening, because " that 
 prig Nolan " would be in the choir ; and Monday 
 morning he had viewed from the House the de- 
 parture of the Howards and their guest for the 
 Chautauqua encampment, whence they would not re- 
 turn till the following Sunday morning. 
 
 So it was that half through spite, half through 
 ennui and wholly through recklessness, Richard de- 
 cided to respond in person to Ruth's laborious, mis- 
 spelled note. Life was threatening again to become 
 stale, flat and unprofitable, and a bit of pirouetting 
 on the edge of an irruptive crater might prove blood- 
 stirring.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 397 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO DELIBERATES. 
 
 RUTH " felt " that Richard would come; so after 
 she had helped Marah with the supper dishes, she 
 retired to Paul's room, which she occupied during 
 his absence, to dress for her " gentleman caller." 
 
 Paul had all but faded from her impressionable 
 mind. She was not one to cherish a hopeless at- 
 tachment, and hopeless it certainly was in face of his 
 brotherly attitude toward her. She had exhausted 
 her wiles on him ; had written him at Ward and 
 waylaid him at Eldhurst in vain. But anyway, she 
 had forever " fixed things " between him and the 
 Boss's daughter, and with that " fixing " she must 
 rest content. 
 
 So, for months, she had dreamed of the hand- 
 some wicked eyes of Richard Eldreth, in fact, ever 
 since he had kissed her there at Marah's the day of 
 their " understanding," if not engagement. In a 
 secret compartment of her little trunk she had con- 
 cealed a picture of him cut from one of the Denver 
 society papers, and nightly she gazed at it, building 
 castles which enlarged with her gazing. 
 
 But a merciful Providence seemed guarding An-
 
 398 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 tonio's foolish young sweetheart, for, though her 
 father was at Ward and her betrothed at the lumber- 
 camp, opportunities for meeting Eldreth during the 
 past few months had been rare. He had been gone 
 during the winter and all spring the House had been 
 full of men. There had been " stag doings," ex- 
 tended shooting tramps in the hills and prolonged 
 visits to Denver, and Miss Howard had seemed to 
 require the remainder of the young man's time. So 
 all that had passed between him and his " Quarry 
 Town girl," were a hurried whisper in the church 
 aisle before the members of the choir came down 
 from the gallery, and a snatched moment or two 
 at the back gate. 
 
 With the transfer of her sentiment from Paul to 
 Richard, her resentment naturally changed from 
 Miss Eldreth to Miss Howard. One of Ruth Brad- 
 ley's type seldom forgives the superiority she can 
 not deny, and Miss Howard's kindness to Ruth, 
 had, in that aspiring young lady's opinion, always 
 been alloyed with condescension. There had been 
 some little friction just lately. Miss Howard, as 
 head of the mission school in Paul's absence, had 
 found it necessary to put a stop to a foolish flirta- 
 tion Ruth was carrying on with one of the older 
 boys, and the interference was resented. And only 
 a night or two after that, as Nina and Ruth were 
 leaving the schoolhouse, they had met Richard, who
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 399 
 
 without a moment's hesitation gave his arm to the 
 former, with only a nod and a word to the other. 
 
 These matters rankled ; and Ruth devised a 
 scheme to serve herself and her revenge at the same 
 time. For she had made up her mind that she was 
 worthy a better match than a mill-hand. Had not 
 her cousin Maude married a gentleman? And was 
 not Michael Bradley now a well-to-do mining man ? 
 So his daughter's ambitions had mounted till she 
 pictured herself mistress of her self-built castle, 
 which castle grew more and more to resemble the 
 House on the hill. 
 
 But about her scheme: The great annual Festi- 
 val of Mountain and Plain in Denver would be held 
 a month earlier than usual this year, on account of 
 some big national convention, and already the 
 maids of honor, one young woman, supposedly the 
 prettiest and most popular, from each county, were 
 being appointed to attend the queen of carnival, 
 usually a Denver girl. Ruth had induced her father 
 to take up the matter of her appointment from their 
 county ; and armed with her photograph, his friends' 
 " pulls " and his own Irish eloquence, he had de- 
 scended upon the appointing committee on his 
 daughter's behalf. Of his success, he had assured 
 her, there was little doubt. This very week he was 
 in Denver, buying new machinery for the Hopeful, 
 and incidentally laboring with the committee,
 
 400 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Already she had planned her dress, a bright red 
 silk with big appliques of ecru all over it, rather low 
 neck and a very long train, her first. She had lost 
 sleep, picturing herself in the decorated carriages 
 with the other maids in the illuminated procession 
 attended by the gaily-attired outriders, Slaves of 
 the Silver Serpents, a most exclusive society to 
 which she knew the Boss's son belonged. The 
 Slaves' annual ball at the Brown Palace was a social 
 event; Ruth was a pretty dancer, a pretty girl, her 
 father a rich man and so her ambition ran riot. 
 
 This evening as she dressed for her high-born 
 lover, the excitement of castle-building gave added 
 color to her always blooming cheeks and a sparkle 
 to her eye; though there was animation enough in 
 the thought of her enviable position one lover 
 scarcely out of sight before the prompt appearance 
 of his rival. 
 
 Mr. Richard had said she was the prettiest girl in 
 Eldhurst, and her glass confirmed his judgment. 
 She had selected for this evening a pink lawn dress 
 with a vivid purple flower in it, had bound her waist 
 and her hair with lavender ribbons. Then with 
 trembling fingers she tucked in the high neck, pin- 
 ning it to form a low V in front, which opening she 
 edged with a piece of wide-meshed yellow lace, and 
 blushingly surveyed the effect. Why shouldn't she 
 expose her throat? Didn't even scrupulous Miss
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 401 
 
 Howard bare her shoulders, and as for Lilys Eld- 
 reth, her evening dresses were sights to behold 
 just no waist at all. 
 
 While she was delightedly viewing this careful 
 toilet in the glass, bowing and smiling to it, her 
 caller arrived. She could hear him talking with 
 Marah in the next room. 
 
 She paused in the act of fastening a bid red dahlia 
 in her hair. What was that he was saying? "Maid 
 of honor from Boulder county " ? Ah, then he 
 knew. But, listen : 
 
 " I doubt if she will accept. It was wholly un- 
 solicited, though of course no one will believe but 
 the governor pulled his political, and I, my social 
 strings. Anyway, after she'd given me the letter 
 from the committee she laid it upon the piano and 
 went on singing her Chautauqua songs as though 
 such appointments were every-day affairs and not 
 the ambition of every girl in Colorado, pretty or un- 
 pretty." 
 
 So Nina Howard was to be maid of honor from 
 Boulder! Tears of disappointment and anger rose 
 to the eyes of the listening girl. Unsolicited, in- 
 deed! Ruth knew better. It was a piece of spite 
 work on Miss Howard's part, just because she 
 knew that Richard cared most for her, Ruth. The 
 lines about her mouth hardened, and a look of de- 
 termination came into her eyes. She dusted more
 
 402 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 starch over the traces of her tears, poured half a 
 vial of Jockey Club over the front of her dress, 
 tucked a pale blue silk handkerchief into her laven- 
 der belt and with one last approving look at the re- 
 flection, entered the sitting-room. 
 
 If she had dressed to impress her guest, she suc- 
 ceeded. Well-bred as he was, he winced almost per- 
 ceptibly at first sight of her prismatic splendor. 
 With him, as has been said, a fastidious taste, both 
 natural and cultivated, all but supplanted conscience. 
 In other words, the aesthetic sense seemed the high- 
 est within him, often preventing a fall where the 
 moral sense would have failed him. Passionate as 
 he was, he could yet overlook his fiancee's natural 
 coldness because of the keen, sensuous pleasure af- 
 forded him by those " symphonies of subdued 
 color," her toilets. 
 
 So, upon Ruth's entrance, it required his life- 
 time training to render him politely unconscious 
 of her astonishing color-scheme : and his mother 
 watched him, amusement touching her usually un- 
 smiling lips. 
 
 But some girls are pretty in spite of dress. This 
 one had youth and health and bloom, a sumptuous 
 figure, a pair of full fresh lips and (tonight) an 
 air of coquetry very becoming to her. Lastly, she 
 was in love with him, which covered a multitude of 
 faults. There was a marked change in her. She
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 403 
 
 was all animation. She laughed immoderately and 
 talked rapidly and, in spite of Marah's presence, 
 hovered near him, showing him this and that, com- 
 ing and going, leaning an instant against his 
 shoulder, touching his hand, his knee, accidentally 
 of course, and never seeming to see the fire thus 
 kindled in the dark eyes that burned so intently up- 
 on her. 
 
 And again Marah observed without seeming to 
 see. She had witnessed these same wiles practiced 
 on Paul. At the recollection of the look in his eyes, 
 her smile faded. Aye, surely, blood will tell ! 
 
 For some reason the elder woman did not for one 
 moment leave the two alone. Richard inwardly 
 chafed ; but he was more than half in awe of this 
 daring little woman who acknowledged her shame 
 that she might call him son. It would never do to 
 antagonize her; she knew too blanked much. 
 
 But when he was leaving, Ruth being near the 
 outer door, he crossed rapidly to where Marah stood 
 and put his arms around her, drawing her toward 
 him and smiling down at her in the winning way he 
 had with women, old or young. 
 
 " Good night, Mother," he whispered, very softly, 
 his mouth close to her ear. Then he kissed her and 
 said aloud, laughingly, " I can kiss you before Ruth, 
 Senora, but how ever am I to manage it with Ruth 
 before you ? There ! " kissing her again, " isn't
 
 404 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 that worth your standing right here for three min- 
 utes while she tells me good-night in the porch ? " 
 
 Worth it? It was worth Ruth's soul! She lifted 
 her face all softened and transfigured, to her tall 
 son for a third kiss, then turned her back and 
 covered her eyes like a child at hide-and-seek, but 
 called after him : 
 
 " Three minutes remember." 
 
 There was a breathless moment in the darkness 
 of the porch after he had closed the door; then he 
 took the girl in his eager arms. 
 
 " At last ! " he whispered, " Now you are coming 
 to me. Your father and the black beast are both 
 gone, so is the governor, and Lilys is at the Rectory 
 all the time now. Even Helene and Lena are away. 
 So the coast is clear." 
 
 " Please don't," she pleaded, struggling feebly in 
 his embrace, " Tony'll be here any minute now. 
 Oh, I'm so afraid. Please go. Tony 
 
 " Tony be hanged ! Come, little lady, you sent 
 for me. What did you mean?" 
 
 "I ... I wanted to see you ; that was all I 
 meant, truly." 
 
 " Well, that wasn't all-I-meant-truly," he mocked, 
 " and you knew it when you wrote. Didn't I tell 
 you our last talk that I wouldn't be put off another 
 time? You've nothing to be 'so afraid' about. 
 We can go beyond reach, there being no blessed ties
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 405 
 
 that bind either of us here. But that's for you to 
 say. Come to the House, the side entrance next 
 the bow window and trust the rest to me. When 
 can you come ? " 
 
 There was no reply. He was holding her fast. 
 He could not see, but he felt instinctively that she 
 was hesitating at last! 
 
 "When?" he repeated, "I'll get this infernal 
 mess straightened in a day or two; if not we'll 
 shake the whole business anyhow and go to Cousin 
 Maude's say, Sunday just after dark. You will 
 come? " 
 
 Still no reply. She was shaking in his grasp as 
 from ague. 
 
 " It is ' Yes ' or ' No ' this time, Ruth; I am in 
 earnest." 
 
 Another long silence. 
 
 " I reckon it is ' No,' " he said, suddenly releasing 
 her, " Good night, mavourneen and good bye. 
 I wish you joy with your quarryman." 
 
 " Won't .... won't I see you any more ? " she 
 gasped, catching at his arm. 
 
 " Not till you've learned to say ' Yes'." 
 
 He descended the steps to the path, the path to 
 the gate. Then his quick ear caught her slight 
 movement, and her slighter whisper: 
 
 "Mr. Richard!" 
 
 He stood still, but he did not answer.
 
 4 o6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 "Richard!" 
 
 He met her not quite half way. The woman's 
 " half " of such a journey is always the greater. 
 
 "Is it 'Yes'?" 
 
 She covered her face with both hands. " Don't 
 go." 
 
 He took her hands from her face. " Is it 
 
 ' Yes ' ? " 
 
 " I love you," she stammered. 
 
 He drew her against him in silent exultation. 
 "Of course it is 'Yes/ you trifler, you gypsy!" 
 He was groping for her lips in the darkness. " And 
 of course you love me, and so you will come to me 
 of your own will. For you know how long I have 
 followed you and dreamed of you and wanted you." 
 Their lips met and clung. " I'll watch for you day 
 and night. Don't keep me waiting." 
 
 " Time's up," cried Marah's voice from the open 
 door. 
 
 He drew the girl from the path of the lamp-light 
 and spoke rapidly in her ear : " Listen, and don't 
 forget a word I say. If you can get away for so 
 much as an hour, hold a candle to your window, 
 then draw the blind, then the candle a second time; 
 and come to the side entrance of the House. The 
 evening you are sure you can get away for good, 
 hold the candle to your window three times, and 
 repeat your signal. If I see it and it's O. K., I will
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 407 
 
 set a lamp in the middle office window north. 
 Don't bring a thing, else they'll suspect. I'll get 
 you anything you want afterward. We can go 
 across country to Longmont for the train down, 
 and there are plenty of places on the map and off 
 it too." 
 
 "But Miss Howard," faltered Ruth. 
 
 "Well, what of her?" 
 
 " Every one thinks you are going to marry her." 
 
 He smiled in the darkness over that emphasis. 
 
 "Just as every one thinks you are going to marry 
 the black beast. Every one has another think com- 
 ing, hasn't he ? " 
 
 But in spite of this assurance that her triumph and 
 her revenge would be quite complete, she clung 
 to him, asking over and over the questions which 
 helpless women have asked since the world began: 
 " And you love me ? You will always be good to 
 me?" And each time he answered, just as men 
 have ever answered the questions. 
 
 The clatter of hurrying hoofs sounded on the 
 mill road below. 
 
 He held her to him, in spite of her fears, detailing 
 the candle-signals again with reckless deliberation; 
 held her and passionately kissed her bare throat, 
 and lastly, leaving the moist poison of his mouth on 
 hers, he walked slowly away in the darkness. 
 
 Marah held her lamp above her head and peered
 
 408 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 out. She spoke sharply : " Ruth, what makes you 
 so long? Is he there yet ?" 
 
 ' Yes, yes. He just come. I'm waiting for him 
 to tie his horse. We'll be in right away, Marah."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 409 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE FIERCE VEXATION OF COMMUNITY. 
 
 SCHMIDT had warned Richard that there would 
 be trouble if non-union men went to work. No 
 sooner had Lodge Number Two declared a sympa- 
 thetic strike than the lumber camp emptied itself in- 
 to the already crowded Quarry Town. 
 
 Foreman Webb came down at once and sought 
 an interview with his employer's son. The mill had 
 shut down for want of men; yet there were the 
 Longmont coal pits and the Little Star and the 
 Jolly Jack all waiting for their lumber, to say noth- 
 ing of the needs of Eldhurst herself. Would the 
 quarry trouble be adjusted soon, so that he and his 
 men could get back to work, or would non-union 
 men be put in up there also, under a new foreman ? 
 
 His employer's son informed him that he could 
 go to regions eternally warm and the mill with him. 
 He had his hands full just now with the blasted 
 Swedes. Whereupon, Mr. Webb politely tendered 
 his resignation, to take effect at once, and returned 
 to his family preparatory to moving from the de- 
 serted camp.
 
 410 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Antonio was in his element. Quarry Town was 
 overflowing with idlers and malcontents, fine ma- 
 terial for his purpose. Yet must he keep himself 
 well in the background; for he did not need to be 
 told that his arrest just now would be a sweet mor- 
 sel to young Eldreth's soul. 
 
 Thursday's ridicule of the awkward work of the 
 raw " Dagos " grew by Friday into abuse on the 
 part of the strikers and retaliation on the part of 
 the non-unionists. And when the stage of blows 
 and showers of stones and threats of worse was 
 reached, the Boss's son, deep in his June number of 
 the Smart Set when informed, gave utterance to 
 several expressive oaths and himself went to the 
 county-seat to have a number of deputies sworn in 
 " for the protection of life and property at Eld- 
 hurst." 
 
 He then complacently returned to his hammock 
 and his Smart Set. 
 
 All day Saturday the Italians worked under this 
 protection. 
 
 Meantime, Lilys had kept her uncle, who was still 
 confined to his bed, informed as to the progressive 
 steps of the trouble : Tuesday night's meeting and 
 its strike-declaration, the idle quarries, the shut- 
 down mills, the arrival of the Italian miners, the 
 coming to the village of the mill-hands, the clash 
 on Friday between the workmen and the strikers
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 41 1 
 
 and the summoning of the deputies Saturday morn- 
 ing. 
 
 Again and again she had gone to her brother and 
 entreated him to take a middle course, to use milder 
 methods, even to compromise till their father could 
 reach home ; but he curtly requested her to give her 
 woman's attention to what concerned women, as- 
 suring her that he was quite capable of conducting 
 his own affairs unaided. 
 
 The Rector sent for him and John Howard 
 sought him, but he as persistently returned word 
 that he was pretty blanked busy. So Allan, wholly 
 in ignorance as to what might be passing between 
 father and son, or whether Richard was acting 
 under instruction or independently, had to content 
 himself with sending his brother-in-law a wire at 
 each new step of the trouble. These telegrams, 
 written out by Lilys, were sent to town by the 
 trusty Pepito, since William was employed as Rich- 
 ard's aide-de-camp, and anyhow was drinking heav- 
 ily. 
 
 The week had passed with no response to their 
 dispatches, though they knew the address was cor- 
 rect, the Auditorium Annex, Chicago. But on Sat- 
 urday evening Lilys burst into her Uncle's sick- 
 room, breathless and excited, holding a yellow paper, 
 unmistakable telegraphic. 
 
 " See what I found under a mountain of un-
 
 4 i2 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 opened mail on the office desk, where William's 
 been piling everybody's letters all week. This has 
 been opened, too, you see." 
 
 He read from the sheet she held down to him : 
 
 REV. EDWIN ALLEN, ELDHURST, BOULDER, COLO. 
 
 Fourth wire received can't come for week or more send 
 for Paul full authority. 
 
 ELDRETH." 
 
 Late as it was, Lilys herself went to town with 
 Pepito to send her uncle's telegram to Paul. But 
 she received no response, though she had the mes- 
 sage repeated. She then duplicated the dispatch to 
 Michael Bradley. After what seeemd hours to 
 her, Bradley answered. Paul had been all day in 
 Frances, he told her, but must have gone on into the 
 country, as Bradley's telephone there had not found 
 him. The postmaster had taken the message, to 
 deliver it as soon as possible. Frances, she knew, 
 was without rail or wire connection with Ward, 
 the telephone being a private one between mines. 
 But with this she had to be satisfied. So she re- 
 turned to the Rectory, leaving Pepito with his own 
 horse and Bayonne to meet the Sunday morning 
 train from Ward. 
 
 Sunday morning rose clear and tranquil over 
 mountain and valley. There was an ominous quiet 
 over the little village of tenement cottages about the 
 quarries.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 413 
 
 Presently, to the surprise of all, the Italians filed 
 from their crowded quarters and clown into the 
 quarries, Schmidt and his deputies at their heels. 
 
 For the first time in the history of the big ranch, 
 work was to be prosecuted on Sunday. 
 
 But the sweet-toned church bell rang- out as usual 
 and Edwin Allan, weak and trembling, slowly as- 
 cended the high pulpit, leaning on John Howard's 
 arm. Song service had been announced, and the 
 church was crowded to hear Lilys for the first time 
 since her return from the East. The Rector con- 
 ducted the service in a faint voice, sitting through- 
 out the hour. He took for his text " Let us love one 
 another," and the good man's personality and life 
 pleaded even more eloquently than his tongue. 
 
 Throughout the anthems, choruses and quartettes, 
 the entranced listeners could thread that matchless 
 leading voice, subdued and softened though it was, 
 like a strand of warm glowing rubies among lifeless 
 pearls. In her one solo, " Love Divine All Love Ex- 
 celling," Lilys sang as they had never heard her. 
 All the skill with which her masters had reenforced 
 her natural ability rose unconsciously to her aid, as, 
 self- forgetting, she leaned over the gallery-rail and 
 poured out her plea for the divine love in the hearts 
 of men. There was more behind the incomparable 
 voice than mere trained expression ; there were ear- 
 nestness, love of souls, the desire to uplift. For the
 
 414 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 girl had knelt with her uncle before they left the 
 Rectory, and now the hearers felt that the music was 
 prayer no less than the invocation itself. 
 
 Then too, though they did not know it, she had 
 solved to her own satisfaction some of the mys- 
 teries of human life; and this, since last she sang 
 to them. She no longer needed to go about asking 
 " What is the sweetest thing in the world ? " No 
 longer needed to yearn for that vague " something " 
 which retreated, an ignis fatuus, before her. She 
 had found it in a pair of earnest blue eyes, in the 
 circle of a pair of strong arms, against an honest 
 manly heart, that something " very sweet and very 
 satisfying," greater than Nature and more beauti- 
 ful even than motherhood, the something in which 
 her wakened soul could rest and be satisfied. 
 
 And in the human love she had approached nearer 
 the divine, for the one interprets the other. The year 
 away had taught her much of suffering, which also 
 interprets love both human and divine. And, just 
 as her lover had spoken a week ago as he never 
 spoke before, spreading oil on the turbulent passions 
 of the listening men, so now, actuated by the same 
 incentive, stimulated by the same divine intoxicant, 
 this woman loving and beloved, sang hushingly, 
 quietingly, to the same passions, thanking God in all 
 humility for this first opportunity to supplement the 
 work of the man she loved.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 415 
 
 And a great peace fell over the congregation 
 which the low-spoken benediction seemed to shut and 
 seal in their hearts. 
 
 The tenantry went quietly home from the services, 
 the effect of which the Rector prayed might last 
 them at least throughout the day. For evening serv- 
 ices were not to be thought of. He went to bed at 
 once with a burning fever and Lilys sat beside him 
 all day. 
 
 Baxter failed to come from Boulder for the after- 
 noon service at Quarry Town hall, and only a hand- 
 ful of restless children greeted Howard and his 
 daughter at the mission Sunday-school at four. The 
 old Chorister could but notice the mob-like crowds 
 that filled the street as he returned home, and he 
 stopped at the Rectory to express grave fears for 
 the peaceful termination of that Sabbath day. 
 
 But the Rector had fallen into a light slumber 
 from which Lilys refused to waken him. She sat 
 beside his bed in the gathering twilight and prayed 
 for Paul to come. Woman-like, she felt that once 
 her lover were there, all would be well. The morn- 
 ing train from Ward had not brought him, nor had 
 any word come. The only other train down from 
 the mining-camp was not due till eight-fifteen, even- 
 ing. Pepito was waiting for it. She also must 
 wait. 
 
 Her last appeal to her brother had been fruitless.
 
 4 i6 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 He seemed preoccupied and distraught. Either he 
 had been drinking too much or he was troubled over 
 his recent quarrel with Nina so near their wed- 
 ding-date, with the invitations out. She naturally 
 felt a delicacy in asking Nina to appeal to him in the 
 matter of the strike. She knew that in the quarrel 
 Nina had been wholly blameless, and that Nina was 
 nothing if not proud. And Mr. Howard's appeals 
 had proven as fruitless as her own. 
 
 Darkness came on. The released Italians added 
 their numbers to the already thronged little street. 
 The crowd before Schmidt's cottage was particularly 
 dense and noisy; for in the basement of the house 
 were confined two of their number, arrested for 
 stone-throwing. Two flaming torches had been 
 fastened to the gate-posts, and the armed deputies 
 sat in grim silence along the front porch.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 417 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE BETROTHED. 
 
 RICHARD lay indolently in the veranda hammock 
 within easy reach of the bottles and glasses on a 
 small taboret. He was alone, but for William who 
 dozed in the office. The great house was dark save 
 for one dim light in an upper back room ; and silent, 
 save for the ticking of the hall clock and the sigh of 
 the evening breeze draughting through the side en- 
 trance next to the bow-window where the door had 
 been braced open. 
 
 The mental attitude of the young man could not 
 be guessed from his bodily posture. Arguing from 
 negatives, his thoughts were not near, for his back 
 was to the lights of Quarry Town and to the lone 
 cottage of the Menendez' on the left hill opposite and 
 he had not once turned toward the big square house 
 beyond the Rectory, a certain upper chamber of 
 which was was lighted now for the first time in 
 seven nights. 
 
 He had been lying for some time with his eyes 
 half closed, a half-consumed cigarette between his 
 lips, an uncut Town Topics in his hand. Now he
 
 418 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 swung 1 to a sitting position, poured a glass of wine, 
 drank it, poured another and drank it, but the third 
 glass he held half drained, and with elbows on knees 
 and head in one palm, sat motionless. 
 
 He did not stir even when he heard the light as- 
 cending tread, did not lift his eyes even when she 
 came up the steps and walked the veranda's length, 
 and he did not speak until she paused beside him. 
 
 " I knew you would come," and there was little 
 of welcome in his weary voice, " but the Lord only 
 knows why you women can't make up your minds 
 till the eleventh hour." 
 
 He was still studying the tips of his canvas shoes 
 when the wind fluttered a soft fabric against his 
 knees white silk mull and bore to his nostrils a 
 faint perfume white lilacs. 
 
 The glass shivered at his feet, staining his white 
 shoes with its blood-red. 
 
 "Nina!" 
 
 " Yes, Richard ; and I deserve your rebuke. I 
 am late for a mission so important. Yet you knew 
 I would come, even though when I went away there 
 was a difference between us." 
 
 She sat down on the settee and began pulling nerv- 
 ously at her gloves, continuing rapidly: 
 
 " I am here to say two things : one is * Forgive 
 me ' ; the other is ' Let me help you.' I was the 
 more to blame in our unbecoming disagreement "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 419 
 
 " You say that? " 
 
 " Yes, dear. Our difference seems trivial, indeed, 
 in the light of this week's troubles, all the difficulties 
 against which you are contending." 
 
 She waited, and as he made no reply, she re- 
 minded him gently, " I am asking your forgiveness, 
 Richard." 
 
 He had remained standing. Now he sat down 
 upon the other end of the settee, saying brusquely : 
 
 " Don't do it. It is not becoming to your severe 
 classic style. Of course I agree with you. The 
 woman is always to blame, especially when the 
 man's crime is jealousy, with an uncontrollable de- 
 sire for more kisses than the regulation one. I 
 don't know how to give absolution. I'm so seldom 
 called upon. Does the priest salute the fair peni- 
 tent? No? Well, I'll not be severe in the matter 
 of penance if the offense be not repeated." 
 
 With a frank smile she gave him one hand, still 
 gloved, and he bore it to his lips. 
 
 " I wonder," he mused, " to what extent you 
 would forgive me." 
 
 " ' Unto seventy times seven,' ' she quoted, 
 smoothing out her long glove on the seat between 
 them. 
 
 " I'm afraid you've passed those figure ' now al- 
 retty,' as the Swedes say, and that you'll have to 
 do some more multiplying."
 
 420 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Now my other purpose," she said gravely, 
 " Father and I are just from the village and you 
 have no idea what a spirit prevails up there. The 
 streets are thronged, and they are not all our own 
 people. Two arrests have been made, and there are 
 unrest and turbulence and open threats. Couldn't 
 you, couldn't we 
 
 " No use talking about it, Nina. I know what I 
 am doing; exactly what the governor would do if 
 he were here." And Richard arose with as much 
 impatience as he ever exhibited in the presence of 
 his betrothed. 
 
 " If only you would go down and consult with 
 Mr. Allan or let father come up and advise with 
 you." 
 
 '' You certainly have a flattering opinion of my 
 executive abilities. How is it you are willing so 
 soon to trust me with yourself and your affairs ? Or 
 will you want an advisory board of uncles and 
 fathers then, I wonder." And he smlied carelessly 
 down into the earnest face with its big serious eyes, 
 eyes warm with the confidence he questioned. 
 
 " My confidence in you is not, cannot be, under 
 discussion. But up there," with a gesture toward 
 Quarry Town, " you are meeting force with 
 force " 
 
 " What else is there to do, in heaven's name? I 
 suppose you'd have me turn the other cheek. That's
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 421 
 
 all a woman knows about handling those brutes. 
 Didn't the governor meet a representative from 
 their unions before he went away and all to no 
 purpose? Didn't he plan with me the day he left? 
 His back was scarcely turned before the strike was 
 on. If they are testing my metal, they will find it is 
 composed chiefly of lead, molded lead. I have 
 turned those deputies over to Schmidt and they are 
 there for business." 
 
 " But do you not think you or some of us should 
 be up there? 
 
 " Not when I can talk to a pretty woman. Don't 
 worry. Schmidt can keep down the outfit. I sent 
 him some courage a while ago by Sam the Wilson 
 brand, bottled at the distillery, so he'll hold the 
 fort till morning. Now I'd rather not discuss the 
 matter further, if it's just the same to you. It's bad 
 enough for a man to have to think about it." 
 
 The girl arose and began drawing on her gloves 
 again. He reached for his cap on the back of the 
 settee. 
 
 " You need not go with me, thank you. I came 
 alone and am not afraid. You must have a great 
 deal to do. Or I can stay and help you if I may. 
 There are no services this evening." 
 
 " I prefer to go with you. Those Dagos are a 
 low drunken set; no telling where they may be 
 prowling."
 
 422 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " It is very thoughtful of you, dear." She meant 
 it in the double sense. He was thoughtful in that 
 he ignored her suggestion to remain there any later 
 alone with him. She came and stood beside him on 
 the first step, giving him her hand with its unbut- 
 toned glove, palm up. 
 
 " I am surprised at you, anyway, Miss How- 
 ard," he said with mock severity, as he began fasten- 
 ing the tiny clasps of the glove, " that you should 
 venture to come to the House when you know Lilys 
 is at the Rectory, and the governor gone and even 
 Helene is not here to chaperone you. You are get- 
 ting reckless. What of your good name ? " 
 
 She laughed a pleasant laugh. " I fancy my name 
 is ' good ' enough hereabout to stand against one 
 such indiscretion, and your reputation " 
 
 " Go on. What of my reputation ? " 
 
 " Is such that a lady may spend an hour with you, 
 unattended, and still retain her good name." 
 
 " Thanks. Still I'm something of a sinner. I 
 shouldn't wonder you've heard things." 
 
 " Do you mean things against you ? Where ? 
 From whom, pray?" 
 
 He gave her a swift, keen glance. 
 
 " Oh, here at Eldhurst. You teach over there," 
 nodding toward the Swedish village. 
 
 ;< You cannot be in earnest. You cannot imagine 
 any one, my father even, coming to me, to me, with
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 423 
 
 the faintest ill report of you. I instruct in the vil- 
 lage ; I do not gossip. All I have ever heard against 
 you, you, yourself, have told me." 
 
 " And I have ' unpacked my heart,' to you, haven't 
 I? You know that I am addicted to muscatel and 
 Egyptians; that I kiss every pretty girl who's will- 
 ing; that I bet a little, and spend more and waste 
 most. But you'll correct all these little eccentricities 
 after I beg pardon, but what date was it you 
 named ? And, ahem ! after that date, you won't re- 
 mind me that it's ten, will you? and you'll let me 
 kiss you more than the regulation once, won't you ? " 
 
 The girl flushed warmly under his bold laughing 
 eyes, and he gave the gloved hand a squeeze before 
 she confusedly withdrew it. 
 
 " Sit down here a minute," he commanded, recov- 
 ering the hand and drawing her down to the first 
 step beside him. 
 
 She glanced uneasily toward the north hills and 
 shook a grave head. 
 
 " Oh, confound the Swedes! " he cried petulantly. 
 !< They won't turn the world over. Think of me for 
 thirty minutes. I've had no one to love, none to 
 caress for a whole strenuous week. You might be 
 nice to a fellow once in a while, by way of practice, 
 you know. So," and he began pulling off the gloves 
 he had fastened, retaining a bare hand. " Now 
 tell me all about this precious date of ours. It's
 
 424 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 to be a quiet affair, I believe you said; no flourish 
 of trumpets, beating of tom-toms, nor other evi- 
 dences of bad taste. I'm a bashful boy with no 
 mamma, you know. Whom have you asked to the 
 obsequies? " 
 
 " Only Fred and Nellie Nolan " 
 
 " All right." 
 
 "And Harry Wentworth 
 
 " The yellow journal," he groaned, " full ac- 
 count ; harrowing details. Who else ? " 
 
 " No one except father, and Lilys and Paul, of 
 course." 
 
 " Paul. Humph ! But I reckon one can't object 
 to one's brother, to be. Just isn't Babe a fool to 
 turn down Bert and Harry and her rich foreigner all 
 for that half-breed ? " 
 
 " I think you know I am very fond of Paul. He 
 has been a brother to me." 
 
 " So he is to most girls, even to her. That's his 
 long suit. He nearly broke my fool head once last 
 summer for hinting that he was something more to 
 her," and Richard rubbed his head with reminis- 
 cent tenderness. 
 
 " For a long time I had known that he fairly 
 worshiped her, but I did not dream he would ever 
 betray himself. I do not at all understand it, for 
 he has uncommon self-control." 
 
 Her companion laughed. " Well, 7 understand
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 425 
 
 it. What has control to do with it if you're in love 
 and the girl is pretty and the lights are low? Be- 
 sides, you don't know Babe and the sort of woman 
 she stands for, the woman to whom love is the Ten 
 Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, and 
 then some. Her heart is the charged mine; her lips 
 the fuse. Do but kiss her and something happens, 
 something that maybe the fellow wasn't looking for. 
 If he wasn't, worse luck, for she'd carry Saint An- 
 thony off his feet. No, you don't understand ; never 
 will understand the passion behind a resolution such 
 as hers. She too knew of his ' love unspoken ' long 
 before that ' uncommon self-control ' was shattered. 
 Also she was wise upon methods of shattering. If 
 any scruples whatsoever had risen in his mind 
 against marrying her, do you know what she would 
 have done? She would have turned her back for- 
 ever upon Eldhurst and all it meant to her, would 
 have followed to Ward, to the mine itself, and 
 would there have deliberately compromised herself 
 before he could prevent. Oh, she's the sister of her 
 brother, all right; has good red blood in her veins." 
 
 Miss Howard looked her incredulity. 
 
 " Yes, she would have done just that," he af- 
 firmed, " for when I accused her of formulating the 
 plan, she laughed and asked was I a mind-reader." 
 
 " After all, her plan was an altogether safe one. 
 for had she carried it out, he would have made her
 
 426 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 his wife before they were an hour older, as she 
 very well knew. But I cannot imagine Paul Men- 
 endez confessing his love and not offering marriage 
 in the same breath. With such as he, the one im- 
 plies the other." 
 
 " It did in this case, and why shouldn't it? He 
 has everything to gain by such a union. But he has 
 my sympathy, poor beggar ! She'll even up all my 
 old scores against him." 
 
 " They are very happy ; it is a delight to hear 
 her. And he is far from being a beggar. Mr. 
 Bradley told father that his silent partner in the 
 Hopeful all this time has been none other than Paul, 
 and that he, Paul, is to become sole owner within a 
 few days. That's why he isn't down here with 
 Lilys this week. They are making the transfer and 
 are also putting in some new machinery. Bradley 
 is to be his manager. All this in confidence, for he 
 does not wish his ownership known. He has not 
 told Lilys. She thinks he has nothing but his salary 
 as manager." 
 
 Richard whistled softly. " The Hopeful ! Well, 
 he'll need it. For Babe's something of a spender 
 herself, and she's bound to be disinherited if she per- 
 sists in this latest whim. In which case, incidentally. 
 Miss Howard's husband becomes sole heir. See?" 
 
 Nina sighed. " I don't like to think of dear Lilys 
 living way up at Ward, while I am mistress of her
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 427 
 
 old home. But she would go to far Mindanao if he 
 said so ; and you know your father insists upon our 
 living here. I had such a nice letter from him as 
 he was leaving Denver. He regrets that he can not 
 be with us on Friday next ; I am to have my choice 
 of the Huntington-Eldreth jewels, after Lilys, and 
 he said other nice things." 
 
 " And now you will have all the jewels, for none 
 of us will dare recognize her, except, I suppose, 
 Allan. Did you write the governor about Babe and 
 her new . . . brother ? " 
 
 " Indeed no. Paul insists, and rightly, that that 
 is his prerogative. But he will wait your father's re- 
 turn and tell him in person. Isn't that just like 
 Paul?" 
 
 " Sure. Fools have a penchant for rushing in 
 where angels would at least send up their cards. 
 Well, he has my best wishes. I don't covet his job. 
 And you may as well begin masses for his soul, for 
 there's every promise of a funeral instead of a wed- 
 ding. But you did not finish your list of our 
 guests." 
 
 " If we ask Paul, there is his mother." 
 
 " Of course; the inch always has its ell." 
 
 " And if you don't mind," timidly, " Ruth Brad- 
 ley." 
 
 Her companion sent her another searching glance, 
 which she misinterpreted.
 
 428 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " I know she is not one of us, but she is a good 
 girl and loves me devotedly and we have taught to- 
 gether so long, you know. But I have not asked her 
 yet, so if you " 
 
 " Oh, I don't mind ; that's your affair. And where 
 are we to spend our honeymoon ? " 
 
 " Here, I supposed." 
 
 " Not on your life. Consider my youth, my ex- 
 treme modesty, and name some sequestered spot far 
 from the maddening crowds of Manitou and its like. 
 Babe has named the hunting lodge the very place 
 " He " wanted, (because of pleasant memories 
 doubtless.) But there are other retreats in the wilds 
 w r here I may have you alone for one divine, foolish 
 fortnight, to teach you to love, honor and obey." 
 
 " I've learned all that," sadly. 
 
 " But some women need a post-graduate course." 
 
 He had slipped down a step or two and now with 
 a sudden boyish movement he leaned, resting his 
 dark head in her lap, his half-closed eyes upon the 
 two gate-torches of the Schmidt cottage, that men- 
 aced demon-like through the deepening gloom. 
 
 The girl ventured a hand upon the head in her 
 lap, an act so unusual that her heart quickened pain- 
 fully. Hers was a deep, undemonstrative nature, 
 habitually reserved and self-contained. She was 
 sadly conscious that her love and loyalty far ex- 
 ceeded those of her handsome, heedless lover, and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 429 
 
 throughout their engagement she had striven with 
 all a proud woman's strength to conceal the sorry 
 truth from those about her, most of all from him. 
 She must. He was so hot-blooded, so vehement, so 
 immoderate. 
 
 As for him, he had always taken her coldness for 
 granted, her passionless manner as a matter of 
 course. He called dutifully once a week, leaving 
 at ten and taking his one good-night kiss with be- 
 fitting gratitude. What difference did it make? 
 She was well-born, royal-mannered, would grace 
 Eldhurst, and her children would becomingly per- 
 petuate the old name. The woman one marries is 
 never quite like one's sweethearts. " Love me little, 
 love me long " must have originated with the same 
 idiot who invented monogamous marriage. 
 
 His meditations were interrupted by the hand on 
 his hair and what! Never before had he known 
 her to shed a tear, at least for him. He sat up, peer- 
 ing into her face. It wore an expression wholly new 
 to him. Over the high-bred features, usually so 
 serene, a faint pink was suffused that softened and 
 warmed them from within, like a lighted transpar- 
 ency. Little ringlets of the soft red-brown hair 
 had escaped the severe braid, and lay like tendrils 
 against her neck. The strong lips, the lowered eye- 
 lids were twitching. 
 
 He drew one sharp breath, caught both her hands 
 and crushed them against his heart, his cheeks, his
 
 430 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mouth. She drew back, but a richer color responded 
 to his caresses. He pulled himself up to the step be- 
 side her and thrust his face close to hers. 
 
 " By God, you do love me ! " 
 
 Her face congealed instantly, but there was evi- 
 dent effort in her controlled voice : 
 
 " Have you ever doubted it ? " 
 
 " But love, love I mean, like a woman, not a 
 statue. And you could, you could do it, once you 
 let yourself go. You're not wholly of marble, my 
 Galatea," with his boy's laugh, " You're part human 
 already. Let us see if you are not." 
 
 He brought her to her feet beside him, but she 
 held him away, her hands against his breast. 
 
 " Don't, Richard. Wait. Listen to me." 
 
 He dropped his arms at that, and stood scowling 
 at her rigid, forbidding form. 
 
 " ' Wait ' ? I've done nothing else. ' Listen ' ? I 
 know it by heart. Every since our betrothal it's 
 been ' Don't, Richard.' ' You shouldn't say this,' 
 ' You shouldn't do that,' * Desire is unholy ; we 
 should live white lives.' If our engagement hasn't 
 been dead-level white, whose has? During the en- 
 tire two years I've never known you to do one 
 womanly thing, to follow one live human impulse, 
 to obey your heart if you have one. And what 
 have you ever given me worth the taking? A man 
 may burn, starve, gnaw his heart out, while 
 you "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 431 
 
 He flung away and began walking the veranda, 
 his hands plunged deep in his pockets. 
 
 " And then you and your kind wonder in your 
 
 frigid souls why we men He broke off again. 
 
 then cried out, " Upon my word, I'm beastly sick 
 of the whole game. Am I a schoolboy to be cor- 
 rected and denied and straight-jacketed ? And after 
 Friday, what ? Oh, you'll find who's master. You'll 
 pay the score in full." 
 
 She was standing statue-like where he had left 
 her, looking with strained eyes away to the south 
 over the drifts of the young orchard. He at the far 
 end of the veranda stared north at the dull lights of 
 Quarry Town and at the lone cottage on the left hill 
 opposite. 
 
 And why, at such a moment, should a certain 
 window of that lone cottage suddenly spring to 
 light? And why did the light vanish, then appear 
 
 .... and vanish and appear 
 
 AGAIN ?
 
 432 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 " UNTO SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN." 
 
 THE man stared stupidly at the now darkened 
 window, and for the moment the moon-touched hill- 
 sides blurred. Then all the blood within him 
 leaped and clamored. 
 
 He started forward, but stopped, turned and 
 looked at the figure at the end of the veranda. 
 
 All unconscious of this by-play in their hurrying 
 tragedy, she was leaning against the lattice, and the 
 faint moon etherealized the refined face, the repose- 
 ful figure, the quiet elegance of attire, the unstudied 
 grace of attitude. He turned sharply from her, 
 steeling himself; but between him and the silhouette 
 of the solitary cottage there appeared that other 
 tawdry-clad figure, with its coarse flesh, its pert 
 Irish face. And his strong aesthetic sense rose in 
 revolt against the clamorous blood; the good angel 
 of Taste wrestled with Desire. 
 
 Again that signal window flamed and faded, 
 once, twice, thrice! But in a wave of uncontrollable 
 repulsion, he turned his back upon it. 
 
 " Nina ! " The tone was tremulous with appeal.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 433 
 
 She came to meet him, both answering hands out- 
 reached. He clung to them as a sinking man to a 
 spar. 
 
 His eyes questioned her. 
 
 " ' Unto seventy times seven,' " she whispered. 
 
 " And you love me? " 
 
 Again her eyes met his with the faithfulness of a 
 dog's. " I would die for you." 
 
 ' Yes, I know, but as a woman, soon to be all 
 mine? " 
 
 " So much that it hurts me ; it has seemed I must 
 tell you or die." 
 
 In her earnestness, she clasped his shoulders and 
 lifted the delicate beauty of her face close to his. 
 It was too much for the clamorous blood, too much 
 for half-formed resolution, too much even for the 
 steady respect he had always held for this one wo- 
 man. For Taste joined forces with Desire, the 
 aesthetic with the sensuous; the best within him 
 swung about and re-enforced the worst. With the 
 exultant cry of the brute at sight of its rightful mate, 
 he seized and crushed her to him, kissing her with 
 savage passion. 
 
 " Prove it ! Prove it ! " he panted. 
 
 " What why, what can you mean ? " She was 
 straining from his grasp and gazing at him with 
 fearsome questioning. 
 
 With his burning face pressed to hers, he stam-
 
 434 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mered : " Stay here with me now .... 
 and " He ended in a thick, half-articulate 
 whisper. 
 
 She recoiled in horror, as from pestilence itself. 
 
 " You are mad. You do not know what you are 
 saying." 
 
 " Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It's you who don't know 
 what I'm asking, all I am asking. It means every- 
 thing to us both. I can't go up to you. Haven't you 
 known that all this time? Come down to me, sweet- 
 heart, for my sake; for your own sake. It will be 
 counted to you for righteousness. This once, if 
 you love me, stay with me. Put your arms around 
 me, give me your lips, your whole love. I'm not 
 mad; I'm not even drunk. And I swear to you, I'll 
 never drink again, never look at another woman, so 
 help me God ! Come." 
 
 " Now God help me," she moaned, striving to 
 hide her shamed face, "And this from you!" 
 
 " Who but me ? " he whispered thickly, trying 
 to uncover her face. 
 
 But she broke from him and imperiously motioned 
 him back. As she turned toward the steps, he fell on 
 his knees before her, clasping her waist. 
 
 " Don't go, Nina, don't leave me the most God- 
 forsaken, most devil-tempted of men ; not now, not 
 till morning then it will be all right. You will 
 regret As you love me, Nina
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 435 
 
 She stooped and half lifted him, then met the 
 dangerous pleading of his eyes with pure rebuking 
 gaze. 
 
 " I do love you. God knows I would give my 
 body to be burned for you. But my soul Richard, 
 Richard, it is not mine to give. It is His, blood- 
 bought." 
 
 He stood a moment, dumb with baffled desire, 
 vainly seeking for one weak point in her defense. 
 
 "Then . . . you . . . will ... not .. stay?" 
 
 " God helping me, NO. Think of your own 
 soul " 
 
 The man broke into loud laughing. 
 
 " Yes, yes, my soul, my precious soul. Who'll 
 buy? It's for sale tonight, cheap. One little sin, 
 one little white sin, would redeem it, but she doesn't 
 think it worth the price, the woman who loves me. 
 Loves! Bah, the barefooted Mexican girl of the 
 Lower Ranch could teach her; the chorus girl, the 
 girl of River Front Slums all could tell her 
 that to love is to give. But I should have known: 
 head against heart; prude against woman; petty 
 scruples against human nature. Madame Grundy, 
 the conventions, the proprieties world without end. 
 Ha, ha ! " 
 
 He bent over the shrinking woman and dealt his 
 parting taunt. 
 
 " And so I would be drawing too heavily upon
 
 436 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 the future; anticipating the priest's mummery by 
 six whole days. Six orthodox days. Why, God 
 save us, woman, that was time enough to make 
 heaven and earth. And it's time enough to find 
 hell." 
 
 He went rapidly from her and flung open the of- 
 fice door. She heard the quick rasp of a match, saw 
 a lamp flicker to life. Then he sent the middle north 
 window-shade whirring toward the ceiling and set 
 the lamp on the sill. 
 
 William, the coachman, was snoring drunkenly 
 on the floor. His master kicked him vigorously. 
 
 " Get up, you damned log. The closed carriage 
 now." 
 
 The man staggered up grunting, and limped 
 away. 
 
 The master would have passed out and on up the 
 stairs, but the woman placed herself before him. 
 
 " Where are you going, Richard Eldreth? " 
 
 "To the devil!" 
 
 She caught his arm with both her strong white 
 hands. 
 
 " No! " It was half command, half plea. " Come 
 with me, dearest, come home with me." 
 
 " And stay till ten, and be shut out with one 
 chaste kiss ! Never again. There are women not so 
 chary with their gifts. Either you stay on my 
 terms or I go. It is not too late. Which is it? "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 437 
 
 And his hot hand closed over her fingers, his breath 
 burned her cheek. 
 
 " It is neither," she answered firmly, lifting an 
 unflinching gaze, " If you have no thought for me 
 in this, of my name, the woman's purity I dreamed 
 alas ! that you gloried in ; if you are reckless of your 
 immortal soul and its doom, think then, I beg you, 
 of your best mortal treasures of your name, your 
 honor, of the high hopes centred in you. Think of 
 that old name borne by stainless knights and irre- 
 proachable nobles hereditary gentlemen. Would 
 you drag its high splendors in the mire? Think of 
 the honor of your house, untarnished through all 
 the centuries behind you. Would you make it a 
 mockery and a by-word? And for what? The 
 brief, ignoble pleasure of an hour! Oh shame! an 
 Eldreth, the last of the Eldreths, false, coward- 
 false to his deserted self! " 
 
 His relaxed hands fell from hers; his chin sank 
 to his chest. But with firm fingers gripping his arm, 
 she continued her torrent of convicting words : 
 
 " What reasoning is this ? You would have me 
 commit sin to prevent sin ! You are beside yourself. 
 You have dared to speak words to me tonight which 
 I never dreamed of hearing from any man, much 
 less from him pledged to honor and protect. Rich- 
 ard drunk, mad (what you will) with power to hu- 
 miliate and degrade, must be vindicated by Richard
 
 438 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 sober. He must redeem himself and he will. You 
 and I, with father and Lilys and Mr. Allan, if he be 
 able, must go at once to yonder village and do our 
 utmost to quiet and disperse that mob, else God will 
 surely visit His wrath upon us for wilful negligence. 
 What right have we to idle here, what right to one 
 another, with that menace of evil settling over us? 
 How dare you think of leaving at such a time, with 
 helpless women and children, your sister, your 
 promised wife, all of us looking to you for very 
 safety? I am not asking what nor who calls you, 
 but only: Is it, can it be, a duty more imperative 
 than that which binds you here? O Richard, I 
 would give my peace of mind, my life, to save you 
 from sin. But you are not going to sin. I will not 
 believe you against yourself. You are coming with 
 me. You have not loved me. There is another wo- 
 man. At last, I am convinced, and you shall be re- 
 leased. But now there is but one thing your 
 duty." 
 
 And all the while she is leading him, willing or 
 unwilling, down the steps and across the yard to- 
 ward the north. Out near the summerhouse, they 
 meet the closed carriage. 
 
 " William," she says in tones of quiet command, 
 " you are to put away the horses. They will not be 
 needed tonight." 
 
 The carriage turns about. The man at her side
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 439 
 
 lifts his hand, but it is arrested in mid-air. A sud- 
 den glare, too red for the moon, is enveloping them. 
 Flames are leaping from Quarry Hill. There are 
 confused cries, and by the fire's flare, the press and 
 sway of the crowd round the burning cottage can 
 be clearly seen. 
 
 They stand helplessly rooted to the spot, stand 
 in reality only minutes, though it seems ages, while 
 the flames mount, waver, and at last fall to a cloud 
 of dense smoke. 
 
 Some one comes running toward them up the 
 hill, and Sam's voice cries : 
 
 " Mr. Richard you ? Schmidt's house is afire, 
 one end, an' he's in t'other; dassent show hissolf. 
 An' he wants you quick ! " 
 
 Then it is the dazed man spring to life and action. 
 
 " Get me Bayonne ; don't saddle." 
 
 " Bayonne's in town waitin' f'r Paul, but I'll git 
 y' somethin'," and he disappears, running. 
 
 " Paul Oh, thank God! " bursts from the girl's 
 lips. Then, collecting herself. " But we cannot 
 wait for him. Let us go." 
 
 " You go to the House." 
 
 They have changed places once more. The mas- 
 culine dominates. Matter sways mind. 
 
 " Let me go with you, Richard," she entreats. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " They love me ; they will listen to me," she im- 
 nlores.
 
 440 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " They don't love me, but they'll listen." 
 
 He is examining his revolver by the uncertain 
 light. 
 
 " But there is danger, and my place is by your 
 side. It is still my right, not hers, the Other 
 Woman. You shall not stop me," she cries passion- 
 ately, " I will follow; I will crawl if I must! " 
 
 He stares at her in fascinated wonder. 
 
 And he has doubted this woman's love ; has called 
 her cold ; has all but deserted her for 
 
 Sam comes, pulling a barebacked colt. Richard 
 seizes the bridle, grasping a handful of the horse's 
 mane. She is close to him, but she does not inter- 
 pose nor speak. Her brave lips even smile. He is 
 going to danger, but also to his Duty. 
 
 " Go to the House," he repeats sternly. 
 
 " And you to that mob ? Never! " 
 
 She looks every inch the queen, facing him there 
 in the moonlight, defying him, standing upon her 
 right to share his lot whatsoever. 
 
 He drops the bridle then, takes one stride and 
 catches her in his arms. He pushes her head back 
 against his shoulder and gazes deep, deep into her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Great God ! " he cries, infinite self-contempt in 
 his tone, " what a fool I've been. There ISN'T any 
 Other Woman in all earth nor heaven. Wait 
 for me, my love ; stay with me, safe as a saint. I'm 
 coming back to you Richard sober!"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 441 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 WHO IS GUILTY? 
 
 WHEN her uncle awoke, Lilys told him the con- 
 dition of affairs and of Mr. Howard's fears. At 
 once he arose and dressed, saying they would go up 
 to the village and see what could be done toward 
 quieting and sending the people to their homes. 
 
 As they ascended the hill, gazing ahead with 
 straining apprehension, the sick man supported by 
 the girl, they could see by the gate torches and by the 
 now strengthened moon how the crowd had con- 
 verged and was packed before Schmidt's cottage, 
 which was still smoking at the rear, their first in- 
 timation that there had been a fire. 
 
 As they paused for rest by the roadside, they saw 
 a horseman from the House road with difficulty 
 force his way through the crowd before the gate; 
 saw him dismount and enter the cottage. 
 
 At this the Rector and Lilys pressed forward with 
 all haste; but almost immediately the cottage door 
 opened, two men emerged, the dark row of figures 
 along the porch came to life and all descended to the 
 throng below.
 
 442 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 There was what seemed to be a parley, while the 
 two watchers held their breath. Then several shots 
 rang out in quick succession. The mob surged, 
 wave-like, back from the gate, but at once closed in 
 again. 
 
 Before the sick man and his companion could 
 move or speak, the swift hoof-beats of a running 
 horse sounded on the stony path below them, and 
 they drew away to the roadside. As the rider 
 flashed past, Lilys recognized Bayonne. But before 
 the horseman reached the crowd, the white-clad 
 form of a woman ran before him into the very press 
 of the mob, and two more reports broke the stillness, 
 followed by a chorus of wild cries. 
 
 The rider flung down at the gate, and by the flare 
 of the torches they could see him motioning the 
 crowd away; could see the men fall back and re- 
 main; could see Paul stooping over some objects 
 on the ground. 
 
 "Ruth!" 
 
 "Tony, Tony, is it you? Oh, for heaven's sake 
 what's happened over there?" 
 
 Antonio dropped upon the upper step of Marah's 
 porch and stared before him into the white night. 
 In his excitement he did not notice that his compan- 
 ion had a shawl about her head and that the skirt 
 of her best dress, in which she was clad, was all dew- 
 draggled.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 443 
 
 " Marah's with Hilma, and I've been alone all 
 night ; it must be most morning. No one's thought 
 of me here all by myself, and oh, I've been so scared. 
 I saw the fire and heard the shooting and 
 
 " And you've been fairly eating your heart out 
 with fears for your lover. Why, how could you 
 stay away? Most of the women were there, and 
 both the ladies in their Sunday clothes 
 
 " Oh, tell me what has happened tell me ! " 
 
 To her nervous anxiety, wrought almost to the 
 point of exposure, his manner seemed more than de- 
 liberate, his speech unusually slow. 
 
 " You saw the fire," he began, " It was Schmidt's 
 house, though he'd put his prisoners in the cellar to 
 prevent that very thing. He'd had Andersen and 
 Scanlan arrested for assault. The shed kitchen 
 burned, but was pulled away before the rest caught. 
 Then Schmidt got scared and sent for the Boss's 
 son." 
 
 He paused, causelessly, and though he remained 
 silent for ages, it seemed to the listener, she dared 
 not press the narrative. 
 
 " As soon as he came, he ordered the crowd to 
 disperse, but they did not obey to any great extent. 
 Without a second order, he had the deputies fire. 
 The Hansen boy was killed and some Italians 
 wounded. (All this, of course, before Paul got 
 there.) Well, the crowd didn't break up even then,
 
 444 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 but kept jamming up to the gate, where Eldreth 
 stood just outside, right in the torch-light. Oh, he's 
 devilish brave in some things. Then some one 
 fired from the crowd and . . . ' 
 
 Again the narrator paused and sat with his eyes 
 fixed upon the trembling fingers fumbling with the 
 shawl-fringe. And again, she refrained from press- 
 ing him. 
 
 " . . . And Eldreth fell. And just as Paul 
 reached the gate, the sheriff returned the shot and 
 dropped his man Swensson." 
 
 Another long silence, and this time she had to 
 break it. 
 
 "And he Mr. Richard?" 
 
 " They took him over to the House and have sent 
 to Boulder and even to Denver, but cui bonof All 
 the doctors in the state can't save him." 
 
 The girl fell down upon the lower step and 
 for a moment not a word was spoken. Then she 
 lifted a livid face with accusing eyes. 
 
 " It's you have killed him, Antonio Garia; this is 
 your work." 
 
 He stared down at her. " I wish to God it was, 
 since you care so much. No, no es eso," he went on 
 coolly, pulling his revolver from its holster. " The 
 damned thing wouldn't go off," and he showed her 
 the cylinder with the six cartridges in place. He re- 
 garded the weapon reproachfully, then flung it back
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 445 
 
 with an exclamation of disgust. " They found Gus- 
 tav's, one load gone, still in his hand. But it's well 
 worth hell. Saved some hell here if he'd done it a 
 year ago." 
 
 " And all because of a little gold chain, a great 
 thing to shoot a man for. And she asked him for 
 it; he told me so himself." 
 
 "Ay que necio! " blurted out Antonio scornfully, 
 " You fool ! you. . . . you . . . Madre de Dios! 
 were yo uborn yesterday? Why, 
 
 He stopped for want of words and another pause 
 ensued. The girl did not look up as she hesitatingly 
 asked her next question. 
 
 " Did he ... did Mr. Richard . . . say any- 
 thing?" 
 
 Again the man waited long before answering. 
 Then he said, more than ever deliberately : 
 
 " He spoke just one short word, the name of the 
 woman God's mercy has prevented his marrying." 
 
 She started guiltily. " Who whose ? " she stam- 
 mered, " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Whose? Why, what do you mean ? He 
 couldn't marry but one of them according to law, 
 could he? Whose? Of whom does a man think 
 at a time like that? Did you imagine he'd call for 
 that divorced woman in Denver or for some of his 
 chorus girls or for some of his Quarry Town girls ? " 
 
 " Only ... I didn't know he was going to 
 marry her."
 
 446 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Oh, you didn't ? Really ! And the engage- 
 ment announced two years ago in the papers? You 
 didn't, and you teaching alongside her all that time 
 and she wearing that big Eldreth diamond? Well, 
 he was. The day was next Friday. My brother 
 mailed the invitations. You didn't happen to receive 
 one no? They were engraved on satin paper, 
 Pepito said, with a crest and a motto in a language 
 you and I couldn't read ; and they said : ' John How- 
 ard requests you to the marriage of his daughter 
 Nina, to Mr. Richard Huntington Eldreth.' Now 
 do you know which one he had decided to honor, 
 and which ones to dishonor ? Yes ? " 
 
 The girl was staring fixedly across at the House, 
 at the steady stream of light from the middle win- 
 dow of three, but she did not reply. 
 
 " And she was right there," pursued Antonio, 
 " just an instant before Paul. No fault of hers that 
 it's not she lying over there at the House with a 
 bullet through her. But, gracias a Dios! He 
 knows what He is about ; so she got before the man 
 only in time to catch the ball through the flesh of her 
 arm and a shade too late to save him. 
 
 " Oh, there's a woman for you, a thoroughbred, 
 a queen, a saint. They two had quarreled over at 
 the house (William heard it all), but knowing he 
 was going to danger, she followed to share it. Right 
 between him and that mob she ran, her face to it,
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 447 
 
 her arms flung out; and, bleeding though she was, 
 she and Paul lifted him together. She took his head 
 in her lap, wiped the blood from his mouth, and her 
 hands never shook; and there wasn't a tear, nor a 
 bitter word, though she knew his murderer was 
 there among us. Just leaned down to make out what 
 he was trying to say to her, and I tell you, when she 
 lifted her hand for silence, you could have heard a 
 mouse move. No wonder he loved her! 
 
 " While they were waiting for the carriage, she 
 motioned the sheriff to bring the prisoner nearer; 
 and she talked to him so low we couldn't hear, but 
 Sam, who was nearer, holding Bayonne, said after- 
 ward that she asked Gustav two or three questions, 
 just enough to get the truth, Eldreth being uncon- 
 scious by this time. Sam said she turned as white 
 as the man she was holding, but right away she 
 lifted up her head and told Gus he could go away 
 feeling easy about his wife; if she grew worse, she, 
 Miss Howard, would see to it that he was brought 
 back in time, and in any case the child should be 
 taken care of. Miss Howard herself would adopt it 
 as her very own if by any means she could gain the 
 consent of the Andersens. Poor Gus! his face till 
 then was as hard as rocks, but at that we all saw him 
 go right down by her and cry like a child and beg 
 she'd forgive him. And it was she comforted him 
 think of it! Took his handcuffed hand and said
 
 448 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 that his temptation had been great, and that she 
 would pray for God to forgive him. Oh, I tell you, 
 Old Eldreth is right; blood tells. Common folks 
 don't do those uncommon acts. 
 
 " As for the rest, the Italians will live ; Gustav's 
 wound is slight, he will live to hang " 
 
 " To hang! " she broke in, unable longer to con- 
 trol herself, " when you . . . you brought on the 
 strike with that speech of yours; when you are the 
 murderer you! " 
 
 " Como! de veras?" he cried in mock astonish- 
 ment, " Es posible? " Then leaning down to her, 
 his gleaming black eyes piercing her through and 
 through: "If my gun hadn't failed me (and I 
 never knew it to fail before) do you know who 
 would be guilty of that man's blood, Ruth Bradley ? 
 Not I, though I would be where poor Gus is 
 tonight. Tell me, who was it sent a message to 
 Eldreth last Sunday evening? Who had him with 
 her Thursday night in the absence of the man she is 
 pledged to marry ? Whom did I hear called ' Eld- 
 reth 's latest ' no longer ago than yesterday ? Dios 
 mio! and you dare to sit there and accuse me of 
 murder! " 
 
 He rose and began tramping up and down before 
 her. 
 
 " Si, si! A woman wins a man with her pretty 
 pink face and soft, innocent ways. He becomes her
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 449 
 
 willing slave, even though his father warns him 
 against the Anglo blood, remembering his own mis- 
 take. But he loves the pink face, he has tasted the 
 sweet mouth, and he will not be warned. He offers 
 her honorable marriage. But his love is not enough, 
 nor that of her father, nor of such friends as Nina 
 Howard and Paul Menendez. No sooner does her 
 betrothed look the other way than she must lift her 
 lips to the first scoundrel who has a flattering word 
 for her. Then when the mere thought of it rouses 
 the devil in her lover's heart (which is only flesh and 
 blood) he is an assassin, a murderer; while she, the 
 innocent, the immaculate es admirable! " 
 
 He was becoming more excited as he tramped, his 
 gestures more rapid, more frequent : 
 
 " I brought on the strike, you say. Muy bien; I 
 did. But if my promised wife had dealt a rebuff, 
 square and unmistakable in the face of the first 
 advance of that scoundrel, would I have meddled 
 with Paul's good work? Would I have made that 
 speech in meeting when he was away, and kicked 
 up this row ? Who stirred the devil in me ? Who's 
 at the bottom of the whole damnable business? 
 Who's answerable for three lives and a mix that may 
 never untangle? Who?' 
 
 He did not wait for an answer from the cowering 
 form on the lower step, but railed on: 
 
 " Hilma will die, but who pities her ? The love
 
 450 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 of an honest man was not enough for her either. 
 She too must have a fine gentleman lover. Well, she 
 got what she was looking for. Women do, mostly. 
 If they love the flesh, they get it ; if the spirit, that. 
 There is Miss Howard : she came near finding good 
 in the devil, merely because she was looking for 
 good. Even after that brute had quarreled with her 
 (for a cause that was all honor to her), after he'd 
 taunted her and threatened to go off with some other 
 woman if she denied him (some woman 'not so 
 chary with her gifts ') after all that, what? When 
 finds he must face that mob and death, likely, and 
 so comes to his true, sober self, then what? Why, 
 this, mark you well : When she pleads her right 
 above the other woman's to share his danger, there, 
 even before Sam, he takes her in his arms and tells 
 her the fool he's been; that for him here ISN'T any 
 Other Woman ; that she's to stay there at the House 
 as safe as a saint, for all he'll harm her. And when 
 he's dying, when a man tells the truth if he knows 
 how, he asks over and over, not God's mercy, but her 
 forgiveness, and says he's never for one hour loved 
 any one, body or soul, but her. And not a message, 
 not a thought for the Other Woman. I'm here to 
 tell you that if a man's got one little clean spot in 
 him, he's going to show it to the woman who's look- 
 ing for clean things; who's clean herself and de- 
 mands cleanness."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 451 
 
 He had stopped before her, and was hurling his 
 words like stones down upon the head hidden in the 
 shawl : 
 
 " He has never for one hour loved any one, body 
 or soul, but Nina Howard ! That's damned hard 
 on the Swede mother of that black-haired baby up 
 at Andersen's. And it's something for that Other 
 Woman to take with her to her grave, since it seems 
 to be the only word he's left her. God takes care of 
 fools, they say; never lets them quite fall; but if I 
 were that Other Woman, I'd not stop with thanks 
 to God. I'd crawl and kiss Nina Howard's feet for 
 the sanctified lie she told before us all about the 
 carriage. I'd give my life, such as it was, to Paul 
 Menendez who, once for all time sealed Sam's mouth 
 and fixed it so 's William will hold his tongue." 
 
 " Antonio ! " 
 
 With shaking limbs and chattering teeth she had 
 dragged herself and was clasping his knees. He 
 stood looking down at her with bloodshot, tragic 
 eyes. He did not stoop to her, but talked on, half 
 to himself: 
 
 " He shall have my life, such as it is, but Cuerpo 
 de Dios! will he ever trust me again? ever respect 
 me? He would not even let me help." His voice 
 choked and his chin sank to his breast. " He could 
 see I'd broken my promises to him, and he seemed 
 to know, in that way he has of seeing through
 
 452 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 things, that most of the row was my doings. Dios! 
 I felt like a sneak when he put his hand on my 
 shoulder and his eyes through me and said : ' Stand 
 here, Garia, and wait till I come.' Then he picked 
 out men all around me, Johnson and his son and 
 Fredricks and Old Peterson and Sam and my little 
 Pepito, to help get Hansen home and the Dagos in 
 and Eldreth over to the House, and they all looked 
 at me as though I were some low cur, I, who've 
 always stood right next to Menendez in everything." 
 
 The man lifted his head, a new light in his dark 
 eyes. 
 
 " But he'll see, if only he'll give me another chance 
 up at Ward with him. I'll show him yet that An- 
 tonio Garia, son of his father, can be depended upon. 
 For he said truth in his talk with me after the 
 others were gone : that the woman doesn't walk 
 God's earth who should be able to destroy a man's 
 usefulness, undermine his manhood, spoil his whole 
 life. I know that even Lilys Eldreth couldn't do it 
 for him ; and you shan't for me." 
 
 He stooped and gripped her shoulder fiercely. 
 " No, and you shan't spoil any other man's life 
 either." And he pulled her roughly to her feet, 
 glaring at her menacingly. 
 
 But she fell again at his feet, groveling and 
 whimpering. 
 
 " Get up ! " he said, moving backward, contempt
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 453 
 
 in his tone, " I ought to, I ought to ! My father 
 would do it in my place. But no estoy resuelto." 
 
 Even her imperfect knowledge of Spanish told 
 her she was safe. She scrambled to her feet and 
 stood, half fearful still, studying his expression. 
 
 " Tony," she whispered, edging closer to him, 
 " don't you love me ? You used to." 
 
 The fire dulled in his eyes. 
 
 " Yes," he said listlessly, " Yes, I love you ; I can't 
 do anything else." 
 
 She gave a little cry, the note of a spoiled child 
 at the gaining of its own way, and sinking against 
 his breast, lifted her lips close to his. 
 
 " And now we . . . we will ... ? " 
 
 He turned his face away from her, and looked off 
 toward the whitening east. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " we'll marry. I promised Paul."
 
 454 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 " FRIDAY NEXT." 
 
 RICHARD ELDRETH died an hour after they laid 
 him upon his own bed, not once regaining con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 The wires tingled with vain summons for his 
 father. The Auditorium Annex, when asked, replied 
 that Mr. Eldreth was out of the city, they did not 
 know where, but had retained his room with them, 
 with instructions to keep mail for another week. 
 
 So the funeral, delayed as long as expedient, fin- 
 ally took place on Friday, a minister from Boulder 
 officiating. The church was packed with towns- 
 men, and ranchmen from miles around. The flower- 
 covered casket rested at the foot of the chancel. In 
 the Eldreth pew sat the three mourners, Edwin 
 Allan, Lilys and Nina. The service was simple, all 
 three had wished it so; and the music of Howard's 
 choosing was especially touching. 
 
 The choir's second soprano was about to sing the 
 closing solo. The organ's muffled reverberations 
 intoned a deep, full chord, and the girl walked slowly 
 forward and stood throughout the murmured pre- 
 lude. She touched the first notes of the soul-cry
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 455 
 
 tenderly, pleadingly, her pure voice growing in 
 sweetness and power as the words' full meaning 
 took possession of her : 
 
 " O Thou, who shunned not Calvary, 
 My tortured soul pours out to Thee 
 Its anguished pleading, Help Thou me, 
 Thou Mighty One ! " 
 
 The organ interlude sighed into silence and the 
 girlish voice caught up the tone again, one single, 
 tremulous note, when what happened ? how was it ? 
 The tone was snatched from her, and she was left 
 standing mute and terrified, while her wondering 
 audience heard another voice, Lilys's voice, and yet 
 not Lilys's voice; deeper, sadder than death, wider 
 than the world's woe; another voice, uplifting the 
 failing, melody, and bearing it on, grandly, irresist- 
 ibly. 
 
 " Marah ! " 
 
 The electrified congregation sat upright and im- 
 moveable as, from somewhere back near the door, 
 she moved down the centre aisle, her arms slowly 
 uplifting, her eyes agleam with the strange fire, her 
 body swaying rhythmically to the swell of the har- 
 mony. 
 
 " My feet are pierced by many a thorn, 
 My human heart is passion-torn, 
 So weak for all the burdens borne, 
 Thou Loving One ! "
 
 456 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 She was at the foot of the chancel now, standing 
 beside the flower-covered casket; but her eyes were 
 lifted and fastened upon the compassionate face of 
 the Thorn-crowned One above the high altar. 
 
 Behold me ! At Thy feet I lie ! 
 
 Undone, for mercy thus I cry. 
 
 Uplift, uphold me, else I die, 
 
 Thou Pitying One ! " 
 
 As the strain ceased, her gaze descended to the 
 set face in the open casket, that beautiful face with 
 its long dark lashes and its soft damp hair. And 
 there rose a cry, piercing, heart-rending, the cry 
 universal of mother-love and mother-anguish for 
 her first-born. She threw herself down upon the 
 casket, her face against the face of the dead, and a 
 tiny stream issuing from her lips stained the calm 
 white face beneath. 
 
 Then the congregation found volition and speech. 
 A murmur rose. The officiating minister started 
 down the chancel steps; Allan opened the door of 
 the Eldreth pew, and the village doctor came pushing 
 forward. 
 
 But Paul reached her first and lifting the slight 
 figure in his arms, turned to the side door. The 
 people were pressing forward, but the way was 
 cleared for him, close-walled by awed faces. He 
 crossed the yard to the Rectory, Allan and the phy- 
 sician behind him.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 457 
 
 The Rector led the way up to an unused room, 
 her own in the old time, where a snowy bed seemed 
 awaiting some one. Paul iaid her down and hung 
 anxiously above her. The physician, put his hand 
 to her heart, felt the quick pulse, listened to the in- 
 coherent muttering and looked grave. Neither of 
 the men asked a question and he volunteered no in- 
 formation. He administered a drug and with ex- 
 plicit orders to admit no one, he returned to the in- 
 terrupted service. 
 
 The two sat at either side of the bed, each clasping 
 a hand of the sleeper. As she passed under the 
 opiate she uttered broken words that gave glimpses 
 of her past, so little known to one of them. She 
 spoke the names " Edwin," and " Edith; " she re- 
 peated how useless it was to destroy the letter; she 
 assured "Manuel" that she would be his; she 
 begged to see her little boy; she sang snatches of 
 the old love song, " Nay, Kiss Me No More " ; she 
 heaped bitter reproaches upon some one ; she begged 
 some one to call her " mother " just once ; and she 
 laughed her harsh jarring laugh, and gasped and 
 struggled and broke her long hair till Paul, his tears 
 falling, sat on the bed and held her as he would a 
 little child, till the opiate grasped her. 
 
 The Rector glanced covertly at his companion. 
 Did Paul guess what Richard Eldreth had been to 
 this woman, or did he think her reason shaken?
 
 458 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 And how had he accounted for the bitterness be- 
 tween his mother and Pierce Eldreth? for Eldreth's 
 hatred of the memory of Paul's father? for Eldreth's 
 very apparent antagonism for Paul himself? But 
 the young man's face was unreadable, and Allan re- 
 turned to the church, wondering how much Marah 
 might reveal of the sad past. 
 
 When he and the phyisician returned, the latter 
 cleared the Rectory yard alike of the friendly and 
 the morbidly curious. He even sent away Helene 
 and Lilys and Nina. He examined Marah's condi- 
 tion with great care, then passed from the room, 
 Paul following, an unspoken question in his eyes. 
 The physician gave a negative sign, his kindly hand 
 on the young man's shoulder. 
 
 " Only a few hours, at most," he said. " I 
 will return when I have seen Mrs. Swensson, with 
 whom also it is but a question of hours." 
 
 When Paul returned toward the sick room he 
 was surprised to find the Rector outside the half- 
 open door, pale, his eyes bright from excitement. 
 He laid a finger on his lips and drawing Paul close 
 to his side, pointed into the gloom of the chamber. 
 
 Marah was sitting up in bed, rocking a fancied 
 burden in her arms and crooning softly : 
 
 " Is it death, is it death, my Dearie ? 
 
 Sleep, sleep ! 
 
 Ne'er to weep, ne'er to weep, nor weary, 
 Sleep, sleep !
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 459 
 
 It is death, it is death, my Dearie, 
 
 That's best ! 
 I'll not weep, I'll not weep ; life is dreary. 
 
 Rest, rest ! " 
 
 The lullaby done, she stared into vacancy for a 
 while, then sighed repeatedly, " Only one now, only 
 one." Then, with a world of tenderness, " My poor 
 little girlie .... but three days mine ! " Next in 
 her harshest, most rasping tone, " Thus should it 
 be, thus shall it be ... Edith Eldreth .... 
 Marah Maitland . . . never forgets ! " 
 
 As she sank back, white and rigid among the 
 pillows, the Rector sprang to the bed, a great fear 
 stamped upon his face. Was she dead? Would she 
 never speak again ? 
 
 Paul resumed his place on the side of the bed say- 
 ing quietly : " She is raving again. I shall repeat 
 the opiate the physician left. Leave her with me, 
 Mr. Allan; you yourself are ill." 
 
 But the Rector pushed him firmly aside and went 
 down on his knees beside her. Her eyes opened, 
 and this time sanity shone from their depths. 
 
 " What has happened ? " she whispered. 
 
 " You have been ill," he replied gently, his sooth- 
 ing hand on her forehead. Then as he saw her eyes 
 closing, his fear seized his heart again, and he lifted 
 her quickly, speaking with sharp emphasis, " 111, 
 delirious, raving."
 
 460 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 The effect was magical. The eyes opened in- 
 stantly, and with quick comprehension, yet with 
 feminine subtlty, she asked : 
 
 "What have I ... told?" 
 
 " Your secret, that which all these years has been 
 devouring your soul and consuming your brain." 
 
 She fell back, staring up at him. 
 
 " I charge you, Marah Maitland, as a dying wo- 
 man, soon, so soon, to stand before the Judge of 
 Souls, I charge you, while yet you may, to right 
 this wrong you have clone ! " 
 
 There was a silence, to one an agonizing, 
 stiffling suspense. So much hung upon that fragile 
 life-thread Would she never speak ? 
 
 Paul learned against the headboard of the bed, 
 helpless to arrest or even to turn the flood-tide of his 
 fate. 
 
 " Forgive me, Edwin," moaned the sufferer, " I 
 have been punished too deeply. Ever in the night 
 I can see her glazing eyes, her horrified eyes, as 
 when I tore her baby from her arms and she knew 
 I was unrelenting. I cursed her dying ; but the 
 curse has followed me. Only I have suffered, and 
 Paul poor Paul, who has been so good to me. 
 . . . Ah, fools and dupes, to make a slave of one 
 
 of your own flesh and blood Will God be 
 
 pitiful, since I was not? " 
 
 Then it was the divine within him triumphed and
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 461 
 
 Edwin Allan soothed the passing soul with words 
 of hope, reminding her of the all-forgiving spirit 
 of the Son, bidding her rest on the mercy of the 
 Father. 
 
 She sank away, they thought forever and both 
 kneeled, clasping her hands. But her lips moved 
 and a look of ineffable yearning came into her 
 mother-eyes. 
 
 "Lilys!" 
 
 Paul arose but she clung to his hand and drew 
 him down, searching his face with those same elo- 
 quent eyes and rallying all her flickering life into one 
 question. The lips barely moved; there was no 
 voice; yet he knew. 
 
 "Above my own life, Mother, always; God hear- 
 ing me ! " he answered solemnly, pressing her hand 
 to his lips. 
 
 Then he swiftly left the room and the house ; but 
 before he was half way up the hill, Pepito overtook 
 and recalled him; and when he again stood beside 
 the bed, Edwin Allan had already heard the last 
 sigh of those lips; and the soul of Marah Maitland 
 had passed to where it would know no more heart- 
 hunger and no more bitterness and no more sorrow.
 
 462 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 LOVE-BLINDED. 
 
 THE remnant of the little family was gathered at 
 the Rectory, themselves to watch with the dead. The 
 undertakers were gone and all preparation for the 
 funeral perfected. 
 
 Lilys was in the garden, clipping white roses and 
 iris, while Nina was changing her dress in Lilys's 
 temporary room, the one off the study. The change 
 was slow work with her wounded arm, and she 
 thus became an unwilling listener to part of a con- 
 versation between two who entered the study. The 
 subject discussed she could at best only surmise, and 
 much of the conversation she did not understand 
 until afterward. 
 
 " Yes, I have known it," Paul's reluctant voice 
 admitted. 
 
 " You have known it? " came in the Rector's sur- 
 prised tones, "Why from whom? How long?" 
 
 " Something like a fortnight. I learned it 
 through an accident. I. ... would rather not ex- 
 plain." 
 
 " Certainly ; but this will put a new face upon 
 everything. You have thought ahead, of course ? "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 463 
 
 " I do not intend it shall be known." 
 
 " Paul! " gasped Allan's voice, " You would re- 
 linquish name and birthright and 
 
 But the other's even tone interrupted : " One can- 
 not well relinquish what he has never had." Then 
 with a touch of unaccustomed bitterness : " Why 
 should I force myself upon one to whom my very 
 presence has ever been an intrusion? No, one more 
 interview and I'll have done with him. Willing or 
 unwilling, he shall give me that which I ask. Eld- 
 hurst has nothing else I covet, save always your 
 friendship and the friendship of the Howards." 
 
 " That is not spoken like you, lad. If he has held 
 an antipathy for you, you are now acquainted with 
 the very human reason for it. Besides, this is a 
 question too wide and too weighty for the considera- 
 tion of personal feelings. A fortnight ago your 
 renunciation had another phase to it; for Richard 
 still lived." 
 
 " If in your opinion, he deserved consideration, 
 does not she? You yourself once told me that 
 pride, social position, honor of name and blood are 
 the very air she breathes. Shall I despoil her of 
 them that I may enjoy them I, into whose keeping 
 she has given her happiness No, no, the truth shall 
 be buried in that grave to-morrow with her who hid 
 it for twenty good years." 
 
 " Living Truth can not so be buried ; Justice i
 
 464 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 not so to be set aside for the sake of one woman's 
 pride. She herself would not permit it if she knew." 
 
 " But she must never know. Mercy is greater 
 than Justice. O Mr. Allan, it is more than mere 
 pride. Think of all that cursed name implies : re- 
 proach, shame, dishonor to man's laws and to God's. 
 I have lived all my life under its black shadow, and I 
 know. Do you think my hand could thrust her into 
 its darkness and myself step up into her sunlight? 
 Why should there be any change ? I am accustomed 
 to the name and all that goes with it. A man may 
 live down, may rise above such things. But she 
 a woman, a girl ; think of her, I beg you. All her 
 life she has been sheltered, shielded ; has enjoyed 
 high social position, the attention of the exclusive 
 circle within the select circle. Those are your own 
 words to me not a year ago. How can you think 
 of sacrificing her? Have I not sworn to the dying 
 to treasure her above life? What then are mere 
 name and birthright ? " 
 
 " Be silent! " commanded the other's stern voice, 
 " This inordinate love is blinding you to the right. 
 Strange reasoning, indeed, is this, for one usually 
 so clear-sighted. Your logic is singularly illogical. 
 Sit down, and listen to me." 
 
 The walking back and forth across the room 
 ceased and she could hear a chair move. Then the 
 Rector's voice pursued :
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 465 
 
 " Let me answer you. Why should there be a 
 change? Because an all-wise God has ordered it. 
 How can you thrust her into darkness and yourself 
 take her sunshine? You were willing something 
 more than a fortnight ago, are still willing, to draw 
 her down to share such shadow as yet remains upon 
 a name your life has all but redeemed. Why, then, 
 do you refuse to step up into her clear sunlight, 
 and higher, keeping her there, taking her on and up 
 with you ? For water does not more surely seek its 
 level than the wife her husband's social status. How 
 will she lose so much as an inch of worldy position? 
 Explain it to me, for I do not understand. Will not 
 honor of name still be hers, your name? Is she 
 not even now wholly wrapped up in you and your 
 achievement? And will she not more and more lose 
 herself in your stronger personality, in your love, 
 in her children ? She will thank me for telling her, 
 for after the first little shock " 
 
 " If she were to be told, I myself would tell her; 
 but she shall not know. Wait, Mr. Allan, I can 
 answer you, argument for argument " 
 
 " I have had samples of your very plausible rea- 
 soning. Love is a sophist of the first order when his 
 own ends are in view. I have not yet finished an- 
 swering you. You bid me consider her; but again 
 I say the question is too wide and too weighty to be 
 narrowed and lightened to a matter of personal con-
 
 466 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 sideration. Heaven forbid that in counseling you, 
 I should think of her, of you, of any one at the ex- 
 pense of the many, of such portion of humanity as 
 your life will touch. 
 
 " With, then, the greatest good to the greatest 
 number in view, let us examine the situation. If the 
 truth be suppressed, disinheritance follows the bare 
 announcement of her choice. You retire to your 
 life in a mining-camp, to a narrow field, your pen 
 hindered, your efforts embarrassed, your light under 
 a small bushel. The truth known, and you come 
 naturally to your own, the unhampered management 
 of all things Allan and Eldreth, gathering respon- 
 sibilities with the years. 
 
 " The Allan estate is modest, comparatively ; rich 
 only in heirlooms and family tradition. But the 
 Eldreth estate comprizes vastly more than these 
 broad acres. There is the ancestral home near Hart- 
 ford, with its people; some New York properties 
 with their tenants, besides the mines in California 
 with their workers. And, incidentally, all of these 
 are being grossly mismanaged by self-serving 
 agents. But it is with Eldhurst you will be per- 
 sonally identified, her colonies of quarrymen, 
 lumbermen, sheepmen and general care-takers. Her 
 interests are widening, her products increasing. 
 Her roll-call of human souls must keep pace from 
 year to year.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 467 
 
 " For the management of her varied interests, you 
 have demonstrated a peculiar ability; Pierce Eld- 
 reth acknowledges that. You are full of practical 
 plans for the betterment of these dependents; you 
 love them; they love you. Right now, during this 
 most trying time, your influence is proving out. 
 You and I have always dreamed of community work 
 realized here at Eldhurst, with all the attendant 
 blessings. What better field can you ask than that 
 for which Nature has fitted you, and to which 
 Heaven itself has led you through a peculiar prepara- 
 tion of life among the lowly, and by the instrumen- 
 tality of one whose intentions were certainly foreign 
 to His will? 
 
 " The past three months have furnished us an 
 example of mismanagement by mercenary hirelings, 
 with the master absent and absorbed in politics. Can 
 you, sole and rightful heir, retreat within the walls 
 of your own home, so-called, though established 
 under a false name, can you, shifting your cares 
 to others, stand aside and witness the continuation 
 of this misrule ; the growing of one feeble blade of 
 grass for every half-score that might be made to 
 flourish ? What a choice ! And I tell you 
 
 Being of the blood you are my blood 
 You have no right to choose ! ' 
 
 " If a man's own name be not his peculiar herit-
 
 468 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 age, if the bearing of it, together with the respon- 
 sibilities great and small which the bearing involves, 
 if the perpetuation of this name if the sum of all 
 these be not duty, then I, His Minister, know 
 neither duty nor God's will concerning man. Paul, 
 my more than son, would you evade these, curtail 
 your influence for good, prescribe your field of use- 
 fulness? Nay, you cannot answer even me. How 
 then will you answer Him who gave you your tal- 
 ents and requires of you faithfulness even in the 
 few things how? " 
 
 " God help me ! I don't know," groaned the 
 lover's voice ; " I love her that I do know. And 
 is that not enough, since she loves me? Oh! " and 
 she could hear the chair impatiently moved, " there 
 you stand, Allan, and talk coldly of usefulness, of 
 influence. What are these and the sum of them, to 
 love, of which you are ignorant incapable, perhaps. 
 You argue serenely of duty my duty to the 
 ' greater numbers ' that cumber earth. But what 
 higher duty have I than to the one the dear one 
 who loves me? Has she not condescended to my 
 level, consented to bear a name to which even I have 
 no right? Has she not flung away all for me? 
 You forget the great and generous gifts of a wo- 
 man's surrender : her whole ripe beauty, rapture of 
 caress, delight of companionship, responsive sym- 
 pathy, strength of passion to match and meet my
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 469 
 
 own, and then agony of birth that sons may call 
 me father. And I? Am I thus to take and take, 
 man- fashion, giving nothing? What have I to 
 sacrifice worthy the name? Wealth unearned, a 
 father thrust upon me, the tinkling cymbal of an un- 
 familiar name ! Yet these nothing to me are life 
 itself to her. You have said so. And again 
 think ! if the whole truth were to be told, 7 must tell 
 her. God ! how could I ? I who should, who 
 will, save her every pang man may bear for wo- 
 man! Let be! let be! What matter these baubles 
 of name and lands to ' which chance makes me 
 unexpected heir ' what matter ? Love that is 
 enough. My earth is already heaven . . . Thou 
 hast ravaged my heart, my sister, my spouse ! " 
 
 " Paul, hear me ! I " 
 
 But Nina had escaped out of hearing. 
 
 She walked the rose-hedged paths in search of her 
 friend, her head bowed, her eyes on the ground. At 
 sight of the slow-moving, sable-clad figure, Lilys 
 dropped her armful of flowers and springing for- 
 ward, impulsively threw her arms around her. 
 
 " Nina, dear Sister," she coaxed sweetly, " don't 
 think about him. You will grieve yourself ill. Oh, 
 it does seem all wrong. The best, the most deserv- 
 ing are the greatest sufferers first you and now 
 
 Paul " 
 
 " Hush ! " chided the other, " God knows best.
 
 470 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 His will be done. I was not thinking of the lost one, 
 nor of myself, the loser; I was thinking of you, 
 dear." 
 
 " Of me? Why, I am so forgive me, but it is 
 truth ; in spite of everything, I am happy, so happy." 
 
 " You may well be. And whatever befalls, what- 
 ever of thorns or of shadows or of sharp turns may 
 lie before you (and God alone knows!) never doubt 
 your husband. Trust to him and be content. For 
 he is as loyal and unfailing as the pole star, with a 
 love that is past all believing. O Lilys, fall on your 
 knees nightly and praise God for His noblest gift 
 the single-hearted devotion of an unselfish man ! "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 471 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 INDECISION. 
 
 " BUT nothing- can come between us, Paul ? " ques- 
 tioned Lilys reiterantly some four nights later as he 
 was leaving the Rectory for the Menendez cottage 
 where he had insisted upon stopping ever since his 
 return to Eldhurst. 
 
 Nina's earnest words the night they watched with 
 the dead had kept recurring to her all the interven- 
 ing days, and an unaccustomed heaviness oppressed 
 her heart, usually so care-free. Her uncle had on 
 this evening received a telegram from her father an- 
 nouncing his arrival on the morrow ; and the certain 
 knowledge of her father's opposition to her choice 
 in part accounted for her heaviness of heart. 
 
 Then too, she was troubled not a little over Paul, 
 but attributed his abstraction to grief for his mother. 
 This evening since the receipt of the telegram, he 
 had seemed more than ever preoccupied. She knew 
 him too well to connect his preoccupation with the 
 coming of her father. Of course he had all Eld- 
 hurst on his shoulders again, besides his own affairs 
 (their own affairs!) though everything was running
 
 472 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 on as smoothly as though he had never resigned 
 his foremanship. 
 
 All was well, and they were happy surely, and yet 
 as they lingered before the door of her room off the 
 study, her uncle and Nina having just said good- 
 night, he was standing, his eyes bent on the carpet 
 and his thoughts she knew, far astray. 
 
 " But nothing can ? " she repeated appealingly. 
 
 He recalled himself with an effort. " Only this," 
 he replied, laying his hand on the door-knob, and 
 turning he smiled down at her with a look in his 
 eyes she had not seen there even during these last 
 days when love and sorrow had drawn them so 
 close. 
 
 " Not even papa?" she murmured, flushing and 
 dropping her eyes. 
 
 " Not even papa," he assured her gravely. 
 
 She turned the new " band of virgin gold " upon 
 her finger in thoughtful silence. " If I were in your 
 place," she began. 
 
 He caught up the clause quickly. " Aye, if you 
 were in my place, what would you do tell me." 
 
 " I'd not hold you so tight, for one thing," 
 smotheredly. 
 
 " But you would hold me, firm and fast ? " His 
 tone seemed over-anxious. 
 
 " If I were in your place? Oh, but I can't fancy 
 it not even make-believe."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 473 
 
 " Try." 
 
 She laughed an amused laugh. " Very well. I 
 was born up in the little cottage; I played with the 
 Ouarrytown children, went to the public school, or 
 the mission school, and maybe I helped some at 
 the house, washing dishes " with a wry face 
 " or polishing the family plate. That dear little 
 room up at the cottage where you are now sleeping 
 is mine, with its home-made rug and muslin curtains. 
 I have always been my own maid, and my best dress 
 this minute is gingham. . . . Oh, I'm certain I 
 should long ago have given up in despair and 
 thrown myself into the arms of the first good-look- 
 ing quarryman whose house had one more room 
 than the cottage and whose pay would have insured 
 me at least a lawn dress. Or perhaps," musingly, 
 " Harry once told me that he wished I were a poor 
 girl, that then he'd have married me in spite of my- 
 self. But I imagine he would not, if I had been not 
 only poor but " 
 
 She checked herself in embarrassment. 
 
 " What has love to do with poverty or with 
 birth ? " he questioned a little sharply. 
 
 " But I was supposing myself in . . in your 
 place, you know." 
 
 " So am I supposing it. Wouldn't you have mar- 
 ried Went worth?" 
 
 " No, for if he could have overlooked ... I
 
 474 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 mean that I could not have forgotten should 
 always have remembered my " She broke off 
 with an involuntary shudder. Then she looked up 
 quickly. " Oh now I have hurt you ; but you be- 
 gan it ; you really insisted." 
 
 "But if it had been Paul instead of Harry?" 
 He attempted carelessness, but his voice quivered 
 in spite of his best effort. 
 
 She drew up one of his palms and cuddled her 
 soft cheek into it. " I ... do . not . know," she 
 whispered, " That would have been different. If 
 I had loved you as I love you now . . ." He had 
 to stoop lower to get the remainder. " I must have 
 been yours ... to take or to leave; for how could 
 I have lived " She ended with her lips pressed to 
 his palm. 
 
 He laid his other hand to her cheek and gently 
 forced her eyes to meet his. 
 
 " Say that again ! " he commanded, tenderness 
 blending with the triumph in his tone, " that I need 
 not live without you one hour after your father 
 comes; that whatever chances, you are mine to 
 take, not leave." 
 
 But she did not say it. When he had lifted her 
 face so that her eyes must again meet that new, 
 dazzling light in his eyes, words forsook her, and 
 her color, though she strove to obey him. 
 
 A silence . . then:
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 475 
 
 " Now don't let us suppose any more," coaxingly, 
 " In your place I'm certain I should never have 
 studied and striven and made of myself all that 
 you have in spite of ... of . ." And again the un- 
 trollable shiver. " ' Desperate things ' must have 
 been the rule with me in that case, rather than ex- 
 ceptions, as now. Lilys Menendez, so born, must 
 have gone straight to perdition, and gloried in the 
 going. You wouldn't have loved her; I shouldn't 
 have let you But don't, don't let us even make- 
 believe." 
 
 Her face had paled, her eyes were stars afire. He 
 smoothed her hair through a pause that on his side 
 was deeply abstracted. Had she looked at him, 
 she must have noted the quiver of pain about his lips, 
 the sad perplexity of his eyes. 
 
 " I must go," he announced abruptly, passing a 
 hand over his brow in the way he had when troubled. 
 
 " And nothing can come between us ever." 
 
 " Nothing. ' Nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come,' " he repeated 
 solemnly. " Come, tell me good-night, my darling, 
 for the last time in this way." And he drew her 
 to him in the strong, silent, masterful embrace of 
 the man sure of possession before the going down 
 of another sun. She felt the warmth of his mouth 
 through the ringlets of hair on her forehead, on 
 her closed eyelids, as he held her for neither knew 
 how long.
 
 476 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 A sweet faintness crept over her, every fiber 
 of her being quivered response. . . A hot hand 
 wrenched without warning at her heart, and some- 
 thing wild and lawless woke unbidden in her blood. 
 Ancestral forces far and near, conjoining, trouped 
 down the years and the ages, and flung dry fuel 
 upon her suddenly flaming senses hurled it, heaped 
 it prodigally, gleefully. A little-known voice rose 
 from the deeps of her being in words checked only 
 by the firm pressure of his lips to hers, reckless 
 words which, once uttered, would mean . . . She 
 swayed in his arms, one small hand against his 
 breast, pushing them apart, the other over her lips. 
 No! not again. Another such kiss, another instant 
 in the close prison of his embrace and . . . Her 
 startled eyes questioned his, then fear and maidenly 
 shame overcame her and she shrank away with a 
 sobbing breath. 
 
 Did he misinterpret her action? or was it that, 
 furnished with a knowledge not hers, he under- 
 stood her far better than she understood herself? 
 Whichever it was, he released her instantly, re- 
 treated a step, retaining but one of her hands, which 
 he raised to his lips with that delicate, deferent 
 courtesy seemingly a part of his nature. 
 
 " Forgive me," he pleaded, " I should not have 
 spoken as I did. I am nothing but a big brute 
 of a man, beside myself with all this unmerited joy.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 477 
 
 Go in there, and pray that I may in some way 
 deserve your woman's great gifts to me. Good- 
 night, my Lilys." 
 
 He opened the door of her room, resigned her 
 hand and turned quickly away. 
 
 But with one of those unaccountable turns of her 
 mercurial temperament, she flung herself before him 
 and clung about his neck, crushing her lips to his 
 with passionate fervor and whispering : " For the 
 last time! " Then she fairly ran from him, closing 
 the door swiftly and retreating to the farthest 
 window, leaned trembling and covering her face. 
 
 For what seemed hours to her, she lay with her 
 eyes fixed upon the little cottage on the near hill- 
 slope ; but sleep claimed her and still it remained un- 
 lighted. 
 
 Just as the " wedding-day dawn " was beginning 
 to whiten the east the Rector entered the little chapel 
 to prepare for his special sunrise service, and there 
 he came upon one kneeling with head bowed to the 
 low altar-rail. He paused unbetrayed and remained 
 as motionless as the figure at his feet. Slowly his 
 right hand extended above that unconscious head 
 and the sign of the Cross hovered in the sentient air. 
 Then he retreated noiselessly, his eyes moist, his lips 
 moving.
 
 478 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 AS A MAN SOWETH. 
 
 PIERCE Eldreth was hurrying westward as 
 swiftly as steam could bear him. He would arrive 
 on the afternoon of the fifth day after Marah's 
 funeral, and would of course come direct to the 
 Rectory. 
 
 Lilys tried to wait up for him, but she was too 
 worn from the strain of the last fortnight. She had 
 crept into the great chair with Paul, and was striv- 
 ing against the drowsiness engendered by the still- 
 ness of the study and her own weariness. 
 
 He was holding her just as he had held her that 
 stormy night in Marah's cottage, only now the face 
 against his breast was warm with life, the lips red 
 and responsive, and the eyes looked back into his 
 own with passionate devotion. But he held her so 
 comfortably and the study was so dim and quiet, 
 that by and by the tired lids closed and her lover 
 not moving a muscle, sat, his enraptured gaze on 
 her, oblivious to all else in the universe. 
 
 From the opposite side of the table, the Rector 
 regarded the tableau, smilingly wondering what 
 Pierce Eldreth would say or do should he that
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 479 
 
 moment open the study door! Then the smile 
 passed, and he uttered a prayer of gratitude that the 
 girl-heart so dear to him had been awakened by one 
 whose high soul would never exact, nay, would de- 
 cline to accept, all the lavish gifts her warm blood 
 and impetuous nature would unregretfully bestow. 
 
 The clock struck two. Paul stirred, smoothed 
 back the girl's hair and touched her cheek. She 
 opened her eyes and smiled dreamily, but closed 
 them again. 
 
 If Miss Eldreth would be kind enough to release 
 him from the duties of nurse, there were several 
 other duties with claims upon his valuable time. 
 She would better go into the bedroom now and 
 take some rest, else she would certainly be ill. 
 
 She would go, she agreed, if he would come and 
 sit beside her. 
 
 But no, he must see both Wagner and Johnson 
 this afternoon, and write the acting manager of the 
 Hopeful. 
 
 In that case, she would go with him to the grain- 
 fields and to the quarries and to the office. 
 
 By no manner of means. It would be the height 
 of impropriety for her to go trailing him about 
 over the premises, everything considered, wouldn't 
 it, Mr. Allan? She had done overmuch of that 
 already. There was scandal-spinning enough now, 
 didn't she think?
 
 480 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Well, but he was the tired one. Hadn't he 
 just come down from the lumber-camp? He'd be 
 ill, wouldn't he, Uncle? So if he would not lie 
 there on the couch and let her read to him, he would 
 please order Bonita. She was sorry to oppose him 
 now in the very beginning, but she was going with 
 him. 
 
 He would beg to remind her that from the bound- 
 ary-line of Eldhurst east to the Rocky Mountains 
 west, he was the only recognized authority; mon- 
 arch of all things surveyed and unsurveyed. If 
 she doubted it, he would respectfully refer her to 
 Wagner, Johnson, Max and Webb. 
 
 She thereupon sprang from the chair and re- 
 treated to her uncle's. He was a domineering, 
 iron-handed tyrant, worse than her father, and she 
 had her doubts about changing from one master 
 to the other. 
 
 He turned toward the door ; but somehow she was 
 there before he was, her back against it, her eyes 
 a challange, her lips a temptation. I'm afraid he 
 was not properly reluctant in accepting the challenge, 
 in yielding to the temptation. I'm afraid also that 
 they were indecorus enough to forget, for some 
 moments, the presence of a scandalized third party. 
 When they did recollect, her color was considerably 
 heightened and he was laughing at her. 
 
 But she smoothed her hair complacently, and with
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 481 
 
 the other hand triumphantly clutching his coat- 
 sleeve, led him back to a chair on which lay her 
 hat and riding-gloves. 
 
 With a glance of helpless, whimsical dismay to- 
 ward the Rector he picked her up and without 
 further ado carried her into the adjoining room, 
 closed all the inner blinds, and threatening to lock 
 her in if she did not at once go to sleep, he left her. 
 
 Eldreth found his brother-in-law alone in the 
 study. The unhappy father looked travel-stained 
 and haggard ; and the tidings he had gathered from 
 dispatches and the daily papers and from Pepito en 
 route from town had done the work of years in 
 aging him and in taming his inordinate pride. 
 
 Sarah brought a tray into the study and would 
 have wakened Lilys, but Eldreth said no, to let the 
 tired little girl sleep. So, while he discussed the 
 burden of the tray and afterward sipped his wine, 
 the Rector filled in the details of the eventful days 
 of his absence from home. Of Richard, he spoke 
 charitably, yet truthfully, laying much of the blame 
 of the strike at Schmidt's door. He told of Nina's 
 heroic devotion, of the funerals, of Hilma's death 
 and of Marah's death, this last, however with some 
 vital omissions. 
 
 " It was the death of her boy that killed her," 
 concluded Allan " this in conjunction with the fact
 
 482 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 that she had been somewhat instrumental in the 
 strike-troubles. Her lucid moments were measured 
 and her words few and broken ; but I gathered that 
 her life has been one long, premeditated sacrifice 
 to her revenge, which was to have been the reduc- 
 tion of your pride through the attachment of your 
 child for hers, the one reared to luxury and culture, 
 the other as coarse as poverty and ignorance could 
 make him. For this purpose she bound Paul to 
 your service; anl I unconsciously helped defeat her 
 plan by educating him in secret. She acknowledged 
 the futility of all vengeance save heaven's; she 
 had been the only sufferer. She admitted her part 
 in stirring up the trouble, and her punishment in 
 the death of her favorite child." 
 
 The narrator's head sank on one hand, and his 
 voice lowered : 
 
 " All her life here, despite her coldness and bitter- 
 ness, she has loved but one. Not the man with 
 whom she lived, adoring her as he did; not her 
 benefactor, as she styled me; but him who, in the 
 rose-flush of youth, called her womanhood to full 
 life, the father of her precious first-born. To the 
 last breath she gloried in her shame. With that 
 father's consent, she would now have it known that 
 the child had been hers. In the passionate love of 
 this man, she all but forgot the compassionate love 
 of God, and this in the hour of death ! And Pierce,"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 483 
 
 his voice sank to a whisper, " she died with this 
 man's name on her lips." 
 
 " My God ! Edwin ! Don't, don't ! " The master 
 of Eldhurst bowed his head to both hands and his 
 shoulders shook convulsively. 
 
 His companion rose and moved to a window, 
 and for half an hour no sound was heard in the 
 room save the ticking of the clock. 
 
 At the end of that time, Eldreth straightened 
 up, shook himself as though to free himself once for 
 all of old memories and asked abruptly, as though 
 he had just arrived: 
 
 "Well, Edwin, how's everything?" 
 
 The Rector came back to his chair, brushing 
 his eyes and clearing his throat. 
 
 " All right, I believe." 
 
 "Quarries shut down, or Italians at work?" 
 
 " Neither. Your own men are back." 
 
 " You don't say ! At restored wages, I suppose ? " 
 
 " No ; that's the beauty of it. He put on the 
 entire force, it is true, but at the cut wage, and every 
 man's at work this minute." 
 
 "I ... see. And the sawmill ? " 
 
 " Webb reconsidered his resignation, came back 
 all the way to say so; but of course he'd have to 
 have union men. His own men were given one 
 chance at their old positions, with many a hedging 
 proviso, I can tell you. In any case, they must all
 
 484 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 leave Quarry Town at once, that night. And they 
 left. Most of them went to work when the mills 
 started up. So much time had been lost that both 
 foremen were asked to work their men early and 
 late, and the men are doing the overtime cheerfully, 
 I understand, with both foremen well pleased." 
 
 "Webb and Schmidt?" 
 
 " No, Webb and Johnson, with Garia assisting 
 Johnson. Schmidt has been discharged." 
 
 "Well, I like that!" 
 
 " The men would not have done themselves jus- 
 tice under him after his high-handed doings. Be- 
 sides, you wired ' Full authority.' ' 
 
 " He seems to have used it. Anything else? " 
 
 " He talked a minute or two there at Schmidt's 
 gate that night. Until the carriage came, he de- 
 voted his time to Richard, as we all did, directing 
 the disposition of Hanson's body and the two 
 wounded men. Then when the carriage was gone, 
 he spoke quietly to the mob. He promised the 
 strikers a careful, impartial investigation of the 
 whole matter at once upon your return. He as- 
 sured them of full justice, whoever the sufferers. 
 He put it as a personal request that they go, each 
 man to his own home, save those who were to 
 minister to the bereaved families. He told them he 
 did not believe any part of Eldhurst needed military 
 rule, least of all the Swedish village, which had
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 485 
 
 always been the pattern of order for the other helpers 
 of the ranches. They must be their own sureties 
 for peace and order, answerable to him, personally, 
 as he intended dismissing the deputies there and 
 then. This he proceeded to do and they returned 
 to Boulder, taking their prisoner. Upon Schmidt's 
 request for guards for his house the remainder 
 of the night, he actually called for volunteers from 
 the quarrymen themselves, and got two! Then, 
 late though it was, he hustled the whole lot of men 
 from the Lower Ranch back to where they belonged, 
 with the reliable Luis at their head. Next he 
 marched the Italians off to their sleeping quarters 
 like so many sheep, assuring them that they would 
 be paid in full and dismissed in the morning. I 
 went to the House; he remained in the village all 
 night. And if you will believe me, Pierce Eldreth, 
 an hour after he got off his horse at Schmidt's gate, 
 in spite of the terrible, tragic happenings, the streets 
 of Quarry Town were as quiet and deserted as 
 those of ancient Pompeii. No talking in groups, 
 no excitement ; but every man to his own home and 
 lights out, save where the wounded were being 
 cared for. It was marvelous." 
 
 Eldreth laughed. " That boy is a general, and no 
 mistake. I once told you my opinion of his ex- 
 ecutive ability. This confirms it. I'll have to con- 
 fess that I rested pretty easy myself after I wired 
 you to send for him."
 
 486 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 " Yet, after all, it is not so marvelous," mused 
 the other, " when you consider that there is not 
 one family in the entire village but Paul's kindness 
 has at some time and in some manner touched ; not 
 a man of them but he has taken by the hand as a 
 brother. He has gone to them in sickness and 
 trouble and discouragements; he has taught their 
 children ; advised, sympathized, emptied his pockets. 
 His money buried Bradley's wife; he got Shorty 
 Anderson in at the Lyons quarries when you dis- 
 charged him; he took the Hanson's little crippled 
 girl to the hospital; he nursed Wagner's boy when 
 Marah had another case and so on through the 
 list. And besides, he possesses what is a rare gift : 
 natural executive ability tempered by a wise tact 
 that persuades without compromising itself; that 
 gains its own good ends by only seeming to yield. 
 Edith had the same gift. I have seen her manage 
 with ease the most-to-be-dreaded elements in our 
 slum work; change discord to harmony in our most 
 difficult church work as though by magic; and this 
 ac " He checked himself and added : " Then 
 as you know, he has a strong personality, a potent 
 magnetism. One of the strikers, one of the ring- 
 leaders, said to me afterward that he didn't know 
 why they dispersed ; not because they wanted to, or 
 intended to ; not because they hadn't wrongs, wrongs 
 unrighted, but well, because Paul had told them to, 
 because Paul was Paul ! "
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 487 
 
 " Yes," nodded Eldreth, " I know ; I've noticed. 
 During my own recent foremanship, brilliant, if 
 brief, I met that same spirit everywhere. Wagner 
 had decided upon a certain order of crop-rotation; 
 and did I, (/, Pierce Eldreth!) think that Paul 
 would have approved it? And I had to discharge 
 McCune, the best horse-trainer in Colorado, because 
 on two occassions he hinted that I didn't run things 
 as Paul did ! The boy got a great hold on the 
 tenantry sort of a personal magnetism pull. He's 
 modest enough, but he has an assertive individu- 
 ality, is a born manager of men. Only where does 
 he get it? There's where the marvel comes in. 
 It knocks some of my pet theories cold. I'll never 
 hear the last of this from Nolan confound him ! " 
 
 His brother-in-law smiled oddly, but confined 
 himself to remarking: "I was certainly proud of 
 my disciple. You couldn't have done better your- 
 self." 
 
 " Not so well ; for I'm afraid I should have 
 carried out poor Dick's policy sent for the state 
 militia and cleaned out the town." 
 
 A quick, firm step was heard on the porch. 
 
 " There he is now," whispered the Rector, " I 
 trust you will remember all he has done. The 
 Anderson-Swensson faction had fully planned to 
 burn the House; a member of it confessed after 
 Paul came; more mischief was prevented than you
 
 488 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 will ever know. So be considerate, if only for my 
 sake." 
 
 The other turned him a haggard face. " My 
 Lord! " he said brokenly " haven't I had my lesson? 
 If I had learned it earlier, I'd have a son alive to- 
 day. Now the old name must die."
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 489 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 FATHER AND SON. 
 
 When Paul entered, he was greeted by words 
 he had never hoped to hear from the lips of his 
 former employer : 
 
 " I want to thank you, Menendez, for all you've 
 done and for the way in which you've done it. You 
 have saved me hundreds of dollars and a number 
 of good workmen, to say nothing of time and 
 trouble." 
 
 But it did not escape Paul that the words were 
 unaccompanied by an extended hand, and that the 
 tone and manner savored of condescension. The 
 man seemed unable to render them otherwise. 
 
 The three sat down and talked the situation over 
 from beginning to end. When all had been covered, 
 Eldreth asked: 
 
 " By the way, what's become of the coachman ? 
 I noticed Pepito brought the carriage." 
 
 <; William's been laid off, sir, or at least he was 
 requested to go sober up, pending your arrival." 
 
 "Has Lena been dismissed?" queried the other 
 sarcastically " and is Helene still with us? " Then
 
 490 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 dropping his light tone, " Well, I presume I could 
 offer you no inducement to leave Bradley and return 
 to Eldhurst to keep things from going to the eternal 
 damnations when I am away ? " 
 
 Paul sent an amused under-glance toward the 
 Rector, laced his shapely fingers together and said 
 reflectively : 
 
 " I might, if . ..." 
 
 "If what?" questioned the elder man eagerly, 
 " I shall have to be gone a great deal from now on ; 
 and you have certainly earned the right to dictate 
 terms in this; so name your price." 
 
 " Mr. Eldreth," said the young man abruptly, 
 " I have the honor to request your daughter's hand 
 in marriage." 
 
 "To request WHAT sir?" gasped the 
 other, " I . . I did not understand you." 
 
 Paul repeated his request slowly and clearly. 
 
 Pierce Eldreth stood up, and sat down again. 
 Then he lay back in his chair and blinked at his 
 companion for a full speechless minute. 
 
 "Well, I'll be " he began; then turning upon 
 his brother, " There ! Edwin Allan, I told you it 
 was unwise, dangerous, to give any one man the 
 idea that your business couldn't run on without 
 him. Hear what this young fool is asking : the hand 
 of Lilys Eldreth, sole heiress now of my estate. His 
 price is high indeed! Why, you young idiot,"
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 491 
 
 whirling upon the young man, " the very last time 
 I mentioned your name to my daughter, she forbade 
 my speaking it again and declared she hated you 
 from her soul." 
 
 Paul lifted an aggravatingly placid gaze and re- 
 plied calmly: 
 
 " Ah, but that was before she learned I had never 
 received the letter she sent me." 
 
 Eldreth flushed and dropped his eyes for a mo- 
 ment, but he rallied: 
 
 " She loves a young foreigner, a nobleman." 
 
 " No, she merely tried to," corrected the other. 
 
 " She has accepted his ring by this time." 
 
 " I fear you are misinformed." 
 
 " You mean to tell me that a daughter of mine 
 has discarded such an offer, and for you?" 
 
 " Send for her ; ask her," with a gesture toward 
 the bed-room door, " It is unbelievable, I admit. 
 It was some time before I could credit it. But when 
 a girl consents to live with a man in a tent in a 
 mining camp, she must have some regard for him." 
 
 The father seized angrily upon one word of the 
 reply : 
 
 " A girl that's just it. You are both in pina- 
 fores yet striplings, fledglings, infants ! " 
 
 " You were a father before you were my age." 
 
 Eldreth rose hastily and walked to a far window. 
 The Rector looked imploringly at Paul, but the
 
 492 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 young man shook his head, and the embarrassed 
 silence continued. When Eldreth finally turned 
 from the window, he exclaimed in a quivering voice : 
 
 " I am a fool to argue with you. I wonder, sir, 
 you dare dream such a thing, you with but one coat 
 to your back and as you have said, but little better 
 than a tent to offer her ! " He made no allusion 
 to Paul's parentage. He was being considerate 
 of Edwin Allan's disciple! 
 
 There was the merest suggestion of suppressed 
 amusement in the younger man's tone as he modestly 
 announced : 
 
 " I am making something with my pen now and 
 then." 
 
 " Your pen ! Lord above, hear him ! Have you 
 any idea what it costs to keep Lilys Eldreth in 
 gloves and handkerchiefs every year?" 
 
 " I have still another source of income, adequate 
 for at least gloves and handkerchiefs, perhaps rib- 
 bons. I can satisfy you upon that point, sir. I 
 don't mind telling you, now you've consented." 
 
 " Consented ? Damn it ! who said anything about 
 consenting? " 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon if I misunderstood you. 
 But we had so hoped to go with your sanction," sig- 
 nificantly. 
 
 " Which implies you will go, sanction or no sanc- 
 tion ? " eying the speaker.
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 493 
 
 Paul did not reply; but there was a touch of 
 regret in his eyes as he looked past his questioner 
 and out of the window. 
 
 The master of Eldhurst scrutinized the figure 
 before him from the crown of the fair hair to the 
 soles of the trim feet, every inch of it, then back 
 to the face again, with its grave, half-smiling eyes 
 scrutinized it carefully and intently as though he 
 were looking over some rare curio for the first time. 
 Then he drawled: 
 
 " Young man, I have all my life admired nerve 
 in whomsoever if only it were the genuine, simon- 
 pure article ; but yours yours is the limit ! " Then 
 turning to his brother-in-law : " I believe I men- 
 tioned modesty as one of this young gentleman's 
 qualities. On the face of matters, I must be allowed 
 to retract. Modest ! Ha ! ha ! " He ended in a 
 sneering laugh that jarred unpleasantly. 
 
 Paul sprang to his feet, his eyes blue lightnings. 
 
 " Pierce Eldreth ! " and the usually firm voice 
 quivered, " this is no matter for laughing, as you 
 will learn. Do you think I am here for trifling? 
 Do you imagine anything you can say or do will 
 affect results? that anything under God's heaven 
 can keep me from possession of the woman I love? 
 Undeceive yourself. But I have extended to you 
 the courtesy customary between man and man; I 
 have waited your return ; have gone to the unneces-
 
 494 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 sary trouble of asking your consent. I am of age; 
 so is she. I can not recall a time when I have not 
 loved her; if you had not all been stone blind, you 
 would have seen it. As to her feeling for me 
 had I known the truth last June, she would to-day 
 be the bride of a year. For the rest, I am strong 
 and able to work; thanks to Mr. Allan. I can read 
 and write fairly, and my photograph does not 
 appear in the rogues' gallery. If you plead her 
 superiority, there is no argument ; I admit it. But 
 you yourself won a woman far your superior. The 
 average man does. I claim the right. My father 
 
 Eldreth had come to his feet. He took one men- 
 acing stride. " Your father yes, your father ! " he 
 cut in fiercely, " his past, his excesses, his cringing 
 guilt, his blood-stained soul what of them, of their 
 transmission to progeny ? " 
 
 Paul met him more than half way, his clenched 
 hands tightening, his control an apparent effort : 
 
 " Unfortunately, one may not choose his father 
 as he may his garments. True, there was his sin be- 
 fore my birth. I must expiate that sin? So be it. 
 But what expiation does your code require beyond 
 youth spent, toil unpaid, galling bondage, daily hu- 
 miliation, hourly insult, soul-crucifixion ? What 
 more? Are your standards higher than Edwin Al- 
 lan's? your requirements more exacting than Al-
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 495 
 
 mighty God's? And there is my inheritance, you 
 argue, never to be escaped. But no! not what I 
 inherit, but what I see fit to accept of that inherit- 
 ance that and that only counts. What! shall the 
 bestial indulgences of an irresponsible father once 
 and for all time quench the divine spirit, the upward 
 will, the purging fire m the souls of his children's 
 children ? I say to you : not ' eight generations to 
 make a gentleman/ nay, nor seven, nor six, but one 
 in the name of American Manhood, ONE! And 
 now, not the past, but the future. ' Instead of my 
 fathers, my sons/ whom I, by the grace of God, 
 even Paul Menendez, may * make princes in all the 
 earth.' Who shall prevent? Not you, Pierce Eld- 
 reth, nor a host like you. Now sir, I am asking your 
 consent to our union, or, denied that, a decent denial 
 with your reasons. It is a gentleman's question; 
 and I demand a gentleman's answer.' ' 
 
 Paul had regained his usual self-command; his 
 voice had steadied, his eyes had resumed their deep 
 serenity. His companion, at first fairly breathless 
 from the audacity of that speech, now stood with 
 relaxing fists, his glance at first defiant, now inquir- 
 ing, searching. 
 
 But behind the gaze that met and held his own 
 there lay a something he lacked, the mother-gift of 
 high moral worth the strong, unyielding fiber of a 
 gracious manhood. As he looked into the soul
 
 496 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 through those eyes, it came to him vaguely that his 
 own character, himself, appeared dwarfed and mis- 
 shapen in this man's presence, who was what he was 
 despite both heredity and environment. Surely, he 
 had never seen the real man before the man, self- 
 made, self-reliant, self-strong, standing in the place 
 he had made for himself, though nameless. Come 
 to look, here was something sturdy and respect- 
 compelling. 
 
 And there was yet another element deeper down 
 that held him with a new fascination, a subtle ex- 
 change of soul-force that flashed between the two. 
 Pierce Eldreth at last recognized unmistakably 
 something kindred to his own in this proud nature, 
 something mutually sympathetic grappling each to 
 each. 
 
 He did not speak, but he passed his right hand 
 slowly over his eyes, then even more slowly ex- 
 tended it that heretofore unproffered hand ! 
 
 There was an instant of hesitation, then it was 
 met by the close firm grasp of the other. 
 
 Edwin Allan came with misty eyes and stood, a 
 hand on the shoulder of each. 
 
 " Are you answered, lad ? Are you satisfied ? " 
 he asked the one. 
 
 "Wholly so." 
 
 " And you ? " he asked the other. 
 
 " It seems that T am that I shall have to be. I
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 497 
 
 must say ' He was still clinging to Paul's 
 
 hand and looking bewildered. 
 
 " No, you must not," laughed the Rector, " You 
 have said quite enough, both of you. It is my turn 
 now. Sit down and listen to me." 
 
 Weary little Lilys was awakened at length by the 
 sound of men's voices coming from the study. It 
 was almost dark. Her father had come and they 
 had allowed her to sleep. 
 
 As she smoothed her hair and the " pretty pink 
 frock " of Paul's liking, her lover's words recurred 
 to her : " The very moment your father says " Yes," 
 (or " No," rather) you are to be made mine, 
 whether that moment be noontime or midnight." 
 And she thought of their parting last night, flush- 
 ing warmly, though no eyes were upon her save 
 those of her own reflection. She knew he would 
 make good his words, for that very morning he had 
 gone to the county-seat on " important business 
 with the county clerk," as he had laughingly told her 
 and Nina. 
 
 But her father would say " No." That was fore- 
 gone. And the encounter would be disagreeable 
 enough. She braced herself mentally, as she tapped 
 for admission and entered at the same time. She 
 paused in the door the very door by which Edith
 
 498 THIS WAS A MAN. 
 
 Allan had entered the presence of two of the men 
 more than twenty years before. 
 
 " O Papa ! " she began ; but something in the 
 attitude and faces of the group arrested both her 
 tongue and her feet. She saw traces of actual tears 
 on her father's cheek, and he had been as she en- 
 tered, smiling proudly, yes fondly, up at Paul Men- 
 endez, who stood near his chair. Seeing was believ- 
 ing! 
 
 " Lilys," and Pierce Eldreth strove to render 
 steady his voice tremulous with his new-found happi- 
 ness, " Lilys, I have been driven into a close corner 
 from which you alone can rescue me. This young 
 gentleman, by simply pressing a button or two, has 
 set things to rights here; and now in payment, he 
 modestly asks both ranches; and he would also rob 
 your old father of a daughter that he may have a 
 wife. Come here to me, my child." 
 
 But Paul took a step toward her, reaching his 
 arms. 
 
 " No, come to me, dear," persuaded the Rector 
 lovingly, patting his knee, " I won't let them tease 
 you, and I will tell you the whole truth at once." 
 
 "But Uncle but Papa," faltered Lilys, slowly 
 advancing and trying to determine if it were all 
 jest or earnest. 
 
 " Yes, I think we'll have to allow you to call us 
 uncle and papa the remainder of our days," laughed
 
 THIS WAS A MAN. 499 
 
 Eldreth, " So ho ! " as she slipped past them both 
 and into the arms stretched to her, " then that tent 
 story is authentic? But if you snub me this way 
 for him, I may not let you pitch your precious tent 
 within forty miles of Eldhurst." 
 
 " Allow me to call them uncle and papa let us 
 stay here? Why, Paul, what does it all mean?" 
 cried the puzzled girl. 
 
 He smoothed back her hair with an unsteady hand 
 and looked down into her eyes, a Spartanlike smile 
 in his own. 
 
 " It means that his ' allows ' and ' lets ' are mere 
 graspings after a vanishing authority. For he is 
 no longer the ruling despot; he is uncrowned, de- 
 throned." 
 
 He gathered her closer against his heart, holding 
 her as one holds the best beloved into whose tender 
 flesh the necessary lancet is about to be thrust. 
 His strong lips quivered, his voice lost its forced 
 levity, and fell to a cadence of inexpressible tender- 
 ness: 
 
 " It means that for the hour I am to rob you of 
 your name, my darling, only long enough to re- 
 store it to you for life; that I, Paul Eldreth, am 
 master of Eldhurst, and you, as always, its Little 
 Mistress and mine! " 
 
 FINIS.
 
 .*. AN ANSWER TO "THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS " .-. 
 
 YARB 
 
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