THE -HOUSE- OF A' 
 
 ERCMANT* 
 
 RING 
 
 XEW 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM HENI 
 
 v BISHOP 
 
 o 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 


 
 THE 
 
 HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DETMOLD" 
 
 BOSTON 
 HOUGIITON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 
 (flTfe Oiliersi&e prratf, <JTamfcri&0e 
 
 1883
 
 Copyright, 1882, 
 BT HOUGHTON, MIIFLIN & CO. AND W. H. BISHOP. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Iloughton & Co.
 
 TS 
 100 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAG1 
 
 I. AN AWKWARD MEETING 1 
 
 II. THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE 21 
 
 III. AT MUSICAL MKS. CLEF'S 37 
 
 IV. A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE 47 
 
 V. A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND 57 
 
 VI. SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE ... 69 
 
 VII. PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE 82 
 
 VIII. A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE 101 
 
 IX. "To MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES" . . 110 
 
 X. IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES 129 
 
 XI. EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS . . 140 
 XII. OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE 153 
 
 XIII. SHOWING THE PERFECT FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIEND 
 
 SHIPS 172 
 
 XIV. CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA 188 
 
 XV. Ix TOWN FOR THE WINTER 212 
 
 XVI. THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES A POLITICAL ECONOMIST 226 
 XVII. THB PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE .... 247 
 
 XVIIf. AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN 261 
 
 XIX. A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL . . 279 
 
 XX. " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING" . 300 
 
 XXI. BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY . . 336 
 
 XXII. AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY 342 
 
 XXIII. A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY, BUT THE COURT 
 
 RESERVES ITS DECISION 374 
 
 XXIV. " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET " . . 383 
 
 XXV. OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION . . . 407 
 
 738943
 
 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 I. 
 
 AN AWKWAED MEETING. 
 
 IT was about four o'clock of a February afternoon. 
 A young girl sat in an open hackney coach amid the 
 most extreme bustle and uproar of New York. 
 
 She was looking out with interest at the front of 
 one of the great wholesale dry-goods stores situated 
 on that part of Broadway near Canal Street. Some 
 modest traveling trunks were strapped behind the 
 hackney coach. 
 
 The simple inscription on two zinc tablets attached 
 to iron columns of the front, was "Rodman Harvey 
 & Co." 
 
 The plate-glass windows presented to the street 
 only the cold shoulders, as it were, of some bolts of 
 the variety of textile fabrics contained within. At 
 this dignified height in trade a petty display is un 
 necessary. Whoever knew anything of the circum 
 stances knew that Rodman Harvey & Co. was one 
 of the oldest and strongest concerns in the metrop 
 olis. They knew that its head and founder was 
 prominent in every notable enterprise ; that he had 
 rendered patriotic services to the government during 
 1
 
 2 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 the war, and that he was stanch in the opinions of 
 the political majority, by which the government has 
 been chiefly administered ever since ; all of which 
 items had their effect in securing custom. The head 
 of the firm was, in fact, the firm itself, his partners 
 being men with but minor interests, brought in from 
 time to time to assist him, and seldom heard of by 
 name. He was rarely mentioned in the public press 
 other than as a " merchant prince ; " " one of our 
 leading merchant princes." The house of Rodman 
 Harvey & Co. offered, in its advertisements, " Special 
 Inducements to Cash and Short-Time Buyers," and 
 it sent out a swarm of ingenious commercial trav 
 elers to represent its interests through the length and 
 breadth of the land. 
 
 A companion for whom the young girl waited had 
 gone into the store. He now presently emerged, 
 having its chief proprietor with him. The two lin 
 gered in conversation, at first on a step, later at the 
 curbstone. l 
 
 There came out at the same time, a tallish, gentle 
 manly-looking young man, with a light beard. He 
 had a packet of papers in his hand, and seemed at 
 tending upon the merchant. He made as if to go 
 away, but was detained by the latter, as if for some 
 further conference. 
 
 This young man, having apparently nothing bet 
 ter to do while waiting, fixed his gaze upon the occu 
 pant of the carriage with a certain intentness. 
 
 " A rather tall, slender girl," he mused. " She has 
 nice brown hair with burnished strands in it. It is 
 ' banged ' over the forehead, and gathered into a 
 semi-matronly knot behind. Her skin is of a smooth 
 whiteness. Her eyes are dark gray, without trace of
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 3 
 
 blue. The eye-brows are rather heavier than com 
 mon, which gives a slight aspect of severity. Is she 
 severe, I wonder ? not that I take a wild interest 
 in knowing." "Dress 'half mourning,' " he contin 
 ued, "a bereavement, not too recent. Age, say 
 eighteen, not twenty-one, at any rate. Whom has 
 the sagacious Klauser with him now? Klauser, 
 the confidential, who goes over the road twice a year 
 to look after the security of the credits the over- 
 sanguine commercial travelers are inclined to ex 
 tend. Hardly his daughter? She must be yet in 
 Germany, pursuing her musical studies." 
 
 The young woman had given a slight start of an 
 noyance at the appearance of the merchant prince 
 at his own door-way. She had, in fact, reasons, 
 why she did not wish that he should recognize her, 
 in case he were likely to do so. In order to with 
 draw herself somewhat from observation, she turned 
 away a shapely head, assumed an unconscious air, 
 and began to study the doings in the street. 
 
 As in the margins of actual streams each foot of 
 the way presents its local eddies, so here, at every 
 portal, was'a separate stir of life. 
 
 There was a rise in the ground to the southward. 
 The sidewalks were black with hurrying humanity. 
 A concourse of loaded drays, trucks, vans, and white 
 omnibuses, these last shutting in their parcels of hu 
 manity, like a curious sort of freight also, filled all 
 the central space. It was rather a moving glacier 
 than a stream. The boxes and bales piled high upon 
 the wagons, with the swaying bodies, heads, and whips 
 of the drivers, were exalted impressively against the 
 sky. Behind them vanished an interminable per 
 spective of becolumned facades, cupolas, steeples, a
 
 4 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 dome, many-storied mansards fretted with dormers, 
 the whole made yet more fantastic with flaunting 
 banners and carved and gilded emblems of trade. 
 Into some such aspect the Yellowstone might fashion 
 the walls of the canyon into which it cuts its bed 
 deeper and deeper from the light. 
 
 The fresh young observer of the scene, her thoughts 
 involuntarily drawn away in the fascination of its 
 onward movement, had well-nigh forgotten her anx 
 ious preoccupation when she was suddenly aroused 
 to herself by a voice close at her ear. Its tones con 
 veyed decision and authority, and it was asking, 
 
 " And whom have you there, Klauser ? " 
 
 " Your niece, Miss Ottilie Harvey, of Lone Tree, 
 Illinois. I have had the pleasure of taking charge of 
 her on her return to school. She was just setting out 
 when I came to Lone Tree on my rounds, and we 
 made it convenient to travel together." 
 
 Turning round, embarrassed and overawed, Miss 
 Ottilie Harvey found herself in the immediate pres 
 ence and under the sharp scrutiny of a relative whom 
 she had particularly desired not to see. He was a 
 relative who played an important part in the imagin 
 ations and speech of the home circle she had left be 
 hind her at Lone Tree. He was the arrogant pros 
 perous kinsman in the family, a brother of her father, 
 who had had much poorer luck in the world. Be 
 tween the two brothers, thus diversely situated, there 
 existed, perhaps owing to fault on both sides, a chronic 
 feud, and this was just now at its most exacerbated 
 pass. 
 
 Rodman Harvey may have seen this niece before 
 as a child ; he probably had. He regarded her now 
 in a meditative way, shook hands with her, asked
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 5 
 
 after the family, and said she had the Harvey looks. 
 Then he insisted that she should alight, and come 
 into the store with him and Klauser, for whom he 
 discovered that he had some further need. She dared 
 not refuse, but did as requested. The young man 
 with the packet of papers, whose affair, whatever it 
 was, was not yet dispatched, remained of the party. 
 
 The roar of the street entered with them through 
 the open door of the dry-goods warehouse like the 
 section of an actual solid. 
 
 "It was too bad of you to bring me here, Mr. 
 Klauser," said the girl, finding a moment to complain 
 to him privately. " You know I was merely to have 
 a glimpse of my uncle's store, just as you were to 
 show me, on our way to the depot, the grand new 
 house he is building up town ; but I was not to see 
 him. You heard my father expressly interdict my do 
 ing so when you dined with us. You said that you 
 but wished to stop at the store for an instant, and 
 that it was wholly improbable that my uncle would 
 be here at this time of the day." 
 
 "Well, but your mother; you know," began 
 Klauser, a square-built, middle-aged man with a 
 slightly German accent. 
 
 " Yes, my mother ; she is weaker, or more poli 
 tic, perhaps, and given to suggesting that we should 
 throw ourselves in his way, and make advances ; but 
 my father does not wish it. He may be a little un 
 reasonable and violent sometimes. When he says 
 that my uncle has never done anything at all for us, 
 that is not quite correct, for I myself remember some 
 substantial favors. But it was my duty to obey him, 
 and you ought to have helped me." 
 
 " Well, but you know in the afternoon," said 
 Klauser, casting about for excuses.
 
 6 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " And there was another reason why I did not 
 wish to see him," interrupted the young complainant 
 impetuously. " I do not at all like his treatment of 
 the Hasbrouck girls." 
 
 The Hasbrouck girls were schoolmates of hers, 
 and it seemed that she had thought good to espouse 
 a cause of theirs which made a private and local mo 
 tive of resentment, in addition to the rest. 
 
 But now the merchant prince, as if having re 
 flected, turned to her in his impressive way, and said, 
 
 " Going back to school ; what school? " 
 
 " Vassar," replied Ottilie, hesitatingly. " I have 
 been there about a year. I am to graduate in the 
 coming summer." 
 
 " Your father must be doing very well to pay for 
 such schools as that, and thousand mile journeys back 
 and forth. Let me see ; there were five of you, were 
 there not?" 
 
 " There were five, but one is dead." The speaker 
 glanced involuntarily at her dark dress. She had 
 thrown back the fronts of a cheviot ulster, which, 
 with collar standing, enveloped her in half-military 
 fashion. It could be seen that her dark dress had a 
 neat furbelow or two, and was trimly fitted to a slen 
 der waist and corsage, as yet but little filled out. 
 
 " I think my father is not doing better than 
 usual," she said. " It has been my wish to do some 
 thing for my own support, in order to lighten, in 
 time, his burdens. He has not yet consented, but I 
 trust that he will. I thought that with the diploma 
 of a school of high rank I should be able to command 
 a a more profitable position as teacher. I have 
 been at home because my brother was going to the 
 Sandwich Islands, where he has got a place, and we
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 7 
 
 did not know when we should see him again ; and as 
 I did not go at Christmas " 
 
 She endeavored to disclaim in her manner any ap 
 pearance of appealing to sympathy. She was angry 
 at having to make these explanations, but they 
 seemed necessary to refute his distorted way of put 
 ting things. Oppressed by her idea of his impor 
 tance, she was not quite mistress of herself. 
 
 " So you have been here for some years," said Rod 
 man Harvey, exaggerating the case in a carping way, 
 "and have not thought it worth while to come near 
 us?" 
 
 " I have usually passed through New York very 
 quicker. And I knew that the family were a good 
 deal in Europe and then," stammered Ottilie, at 
 a loss to account more favorably for conduct which 
 he was pleased to represent in so heinous a light. 
 
 " Your father is a fool ! " burst forth the merchant 
 prince, as if under the stimulus of an irritating mem 
 ory. " You are not to blame for it, of course, but he 
 is a man who would try the temper of saints. I al 
 ways meant well by him. A person who made so 
 complete a wreck of his own prospects should be at 
 least amenable to counsel. But no ; he throws it 
 back in your teeth. It was the same thing when he 
 was in partnership with me. He is the same to-day, 
 and the same he always will be. I started him in 
 business at the West, after he had gone to pieces 
 here, and still he must quarrel with me. As soon as 
 he gets his head a trifle above water he must with 
 draw his custom, forsooth, from the old house of 
 Rodman Harvey & Co. As though his wretched lit 
 tle custom could make the smallest difference in the 
 world!"
 
 8 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Ottilie, though understanding tolerably well some 
 of her father's imperfections, would have liked now 
 to say many reproachful things in his defense. But 
 she was much more in danger of bursting into tears. 
 
 The veteran employee, Klauser, a politic person, 
 with traits of benevolence of his own, wore an un 
 easy and deploring air at the turn events had taken. 
 He was one who could listen, on his rounds, to the ti 
 rades of the less fortunate brother, without relaxing, 
 on that account, his vigilance in the service of the 
 other. He had taken a fancy to Ottilie as he had 
 seen her at her home. She had pleased him still 
 more on the journey, both by her looks and the exhi 
 bition of many amiable and vivacious traits. He ar 
 gued a favorable effect upon Rodman Harvey as well, 
 from the sight of her. The more she won him, 
 along the road, the more he racked his ingenuity for 
 a means of bringing about a meeting in some natural 
 way. Nothing better offered itself finally, than the 
 device of stopping briefly at the store, as for an er 
 rand, with the slender chances this presented. This 
 plan had succeeded admirably at first, but its un 
 looked-for developments caused its inventor to doubt 
 his fancied wisdom, and to dread the coming re 
 proaches for treachery which his conduct now well 
 merited. 
 
 The merchant prince, however, having vented suf 
 ficiently complaints which were, perhaps, intended to 
 justify to himself a long neglect of his brother's 
 family, and not desiring to increase further the dis 
 tressed look on his niece's face, now took a more 
 lively and cheerful tone. " I am not saying it is your 
 fault," he said. " I am only laying before you facts 
 that you ought to know. Your father should have
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 9 
 
 sent you to my care when you came here to school, 
 and then we would have done all we could for yon." 
 
 Having to take Klauser away to consult with Mr. 
 Minn, the head of the white goods department up 
 stairs, and designing, as it seemed, to leave her enter 
 tained in the mean time, he introduced, with a certain 
 flourish, the young man with the papers, which were 
 of a legal-looking sort. This individual had been 
 driven, before the discussion we have noted, into the 
 private office of the merchant prince, where all par 
 ties had been now for some little time ensconced. 
 The office was partitioned off from a side of the store, 
 near the front. The young man politely affected not 
 to hear what was said. He busied himself over a 
 map on the wall, stirred the fire, and moved an office 
 chair nearer one of the desks. Rodman Harvey ap 
 peared abstractedly to have lost sight of his pres 
 ence. But Ottilie knew very well that he had heard, 
 and she visited upon him a share of her mental re 
 sentment. She took him to be, perhaps, a private 
 secretary, before whom his employer was in the habit 
 of speaking with freedom. 
 
 " But that makes it none the more endurable," she 
 said, " that he should be a witness of my embarrass 
 ment and disgrace." 
 
 She chose to imagine in him an odiously conceited 
 and patronizing manner. 
 
 " This is Mr. Bainbridge, my lawyer. He is a fa 
 mous fellow for collecting, and drawing up docu 
 ments," said Rodman Harvey. " I always need to 
 have him up from Chippendale, Bond & Saxby's. 
 You must bear it in mind if you have anything of 
 that kind to be done." 
 
 And to Bainbridge he said : " This is my niece, Miss
 
 10 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Ottilie Harvey. You see they raise girls, as well as 
 pork and cereals, in the great West. If they were 
 all like this one we should n't complain, eh ? " 
 
 All this was quite an unusual display of facetious- 
 ness on the part of the merchant prince, who was not 
 a person of the humorous sort. 
 
 Mr. Bainbridge made talk of a facile, courteous 
 sort, but his auditor was cold and unresponsive. She 
 was very uncomfortable. She did not wish to be 
 there at all. Why did not Klauser return and take 
 her away? A small, well-fitting boot tapped the 
 floor nervously below the hem of her garment. The 
 light was becoming to her, as she sat in one of the 
 office chairs. It burnished yet more some strands of 
 her hair, and cast softly -modulated shadows upon her 
 white skin from under the projecting brim of her hat. 
 
 But the young lawyer, with a perfect understand 
 ing, perhaps, of the state of the case, persevered in 
 efforts which were at length not without a measure 
 of success. He spread before her a variety of ideas 
 without demanding a response. He said, this, of 
 course, for her peculiar benefit, that Rodman Har 
 vey was a very upright person and of substantial 
 well-meaningness, though his temper might be uncer 
 tain at times, through his many responsibilities. 
 
 He even ventured upon a little banter. He would 
 have liked to relax the perverse gravity of those 
 so strongly-marked brows. Perhaps she would have 
 smiled, if they had let her. He seemed so cheer 
 fully indifferent to her reserve that there was a 
 slight absurdity on her side in keeping it up. She 
 surmised that as a school-girl, and owing to the lack 
 of ceremony with which he had seen her treated, he 
 might take her to be younger than she was. This
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 11 
 
 was, in fact, the cale. She was twenty, instead of the 
 eighteen years at which he hud set her down ; and, 
 though she knew little, as yet, of New York, she 
 prided herself upon opportunities for seeing the world 
 she had had not at Lone Tree only, but at Cincin 
 nati and St. Louis, in visits she had made to those 
 places. 
 
 "New York is a city of processions," said Bain- 
 bridge, among other things. " They go up and down 
 a few grooves in its long, narrow space, till it is a 
 wonder they don't wear it down to the backbone. 
 When I walk up town for exercise sometimes, from 
 my office in the Magoon Building, I seem to be going 
 with a regular military column, horse, foot, artil 
 lery and camp equipage, complete. The noise of the 
 wheels on the Belgian pavement is like the rattle 
 and boom of drums." 
 
 " I was thinking that as I sat in the carriage," said 
 Ottilie. 
 
 " Procession of small shop-keepers and mechanics 
 in the Bowery," Mr. Bainbridge went on ; " proces 
 sion of thrifty housewives driving bargains on Sixth 
 Avenue ; procession of everybody and everything 
 on Broadway. All this down town is the laborious 
 drill for the procession of fashion and splendor on 
 Fifth Avenue, its dress parade." 
 
 "New York does not seem as large to me as it 
 ought to. Chicago is in some respects more impres 
 sive," said Ottilie. 
 
 " In what respects ? " 
 
 " I can hardly say. I have not analyzed them." 
 
 " But you must see more of it. We are really a 
 place of three millions of people, only kept apart by 
 a few nominal barriers. You must go down to the
 
 12 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 water s edge, and see how all the -surrounding coasts 
 are one bristling mass of cities as far as the eye can 
 reach. The sun heats up the business portion of the 
 island daily with a definite magnetic attraction, as it 
 were, so that a vast population from these, and from 
 the country fifty miles round about, is drawn to it 
 like mad. At night it cools off, and back they go 
 again to whence they came. How does that strike 
 you as a figure ? " 
 
 " I am not very partial to figures. Many Western 
 people," said Ottilie, "judge of importance by the 
 scale of proportions on the maps. They do not all 
 look upon New York, or, perhaps, the Eastern sea 
 board generally, with the supreme reverence it may 
 think its due." 
 
 Whether this were mere perversity, or real convic 
 tion, she was certainly found very patriotic to her 
 section. 
 
 " I have noticed that Westerners are rather banded 
 together," said Bainbridge, taking the offensive, " so 
 that you seldom get much information from them. 
 But now I will give you my conception of Lone 
 Tree, as I form it, from the name alone, I assure 
 you, never having been there, and you shall tell me 
 how far I am right." 
 
 " Very well," assented Ottilie Harvey. 
 
 " There is a green, or common, surrounded by 
 block houses. The lone tree itself is in the centre. 
 I am not quite sure whether it is a tall, blasted pine, 
 or an umbrageous oak, last of its kind, which has 
 retreated to the Rocky Mountains. At evening the 
 people assemble and compare notes on their escapes 
 from Pottawotamies and rattlesnakes during the day. 
 Sometimes they take hands in rites of mystic wor 
 ship or rejoicing around the tree."
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 13 
 
 " Easterners, on the other hand, are joined together 
 to be as wildly egotistical and absurd as possible," re 
 sponded the partner to this dialogue, flushing a little. 
 " Lone Tree is a place of twenty thousand people, 
 with a park, gardens, water-works, a public library, 
 and one of the best high schools in the country, 
 which sends graduates every year to Yale and Har 
 vard. It has three railroads centring in its midst, 
 and there is talk of heating it by steam. It is so 
 strange," she continued, impatiently, " that intelligent 
 people will make the same mistakes about us that 
 are made by Europeans, who fancy there are buffa 
 loes in New York city. The West has all the new 
 est improvements, the latest and best patterns in 
 everything. Indeed, it could hardly have any others 
 if it wished. It is only in the older communities 
 that you find inconvenient and lumbering things 
 about. You should see our railway cars. The West 
 is very ambitious, and imitative of what is good. It 
 has the young blood." 
 
 " The Pottawotamies prefer that kind, do they ? " 
 
 This sally was rewarded by the smile of which he 
 had been in search. It was worth the waiting for. It 
 showed even, white teeth, and illumined her face 
 quite enchantingly. A miracle had been wrought 
 with her pensiveness and severity, but the fatigued 
 expression soon returned. 
 
 " She has peculiar eyes," reflected the famous at 
 torney for drawing documents, continuing, mentally, 
 the analysis of her traits. " They incline to hazel ; 
 at least, they have little yellow points in them, amid 
 the gray, like a sprinkling of gold-dust. One might 
 like them better afterwards than at first. They 
 grow on you."
 
 14 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 The manner of her advent interested him. He 
 was a person whose fancy responded most readily, 
 let us say, to something a little removed from the 
 common. There was, too, as it happened, a men 
 tion of her in the document he had last drawn. This 
 was nothing less than a codification of the merchant 
 prince's will, which had been his work of that after 
 noon. She was down in that document, though she 
 knew it not, with her several brothers and sisters, 
 children of Alfred S. Harvey, of Lone Tree, Illinois, 
 each for the munificent sum of one thousand dollars. 
 Furthermore, he conjured up yes, he would admit 
 it, a faint memory of Madeline Scarrett. Madeline 
 Scarrett was married to that elderly widower and cap 
 italist, Elphinstone Swan, who had daughters older 
 than herself. She was one he had known in days gone 
 by, when he had put much more faith in woman, and 
 in the world generally for that matter, than at the 
 present time. He had, in fact, if we may step so far 
 into his confidence at once, been engaged to her and 
 then betrayed by her, as he believed, on mercenary 
 grounds alone. But Madeline Scarrett was a memory 
 over which he had ceased even to sigh. If Ottilie 
 resembled her it was but a point of slightly scientific 
 interest. He was a deeply experienced person. He 
 was a philosopher ; and he was not susceptible. He 
 c n uld make, with entire safety, such observations on 
 feminine nature or any other in the passing interest 
 of the moment, as he might choose. Just now he had 
 merely devoted himself to the task of rescuing a de 
 serving young person from a sense of embarrassment 
 natural in the circumstances. She was not a person 
 age of extreme importance, and the labor was purely 
 benevolent.
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 15 
 
 " Perhaps it might please you to step out for a 
 look at the store," he suggested. 
 
 They stood near the office thereupon and contem 
 plated a while an animated view corresponding in its 
 way to that of -the great thoroughfare without. Otti- 
 lie conceived with difficulty such a value in goods 
 and such a cohort of employees within the ownership 
 and under the direction of one man. She recalled 
 that her father had told her that the controlling spirit 
 of all this had once been on the verge of bankruptcy. 
 Heaps of goods, with buyers and salesmen half buried 
 in the midst, were scattered in chaos over the wide area 
 of the floor between iron posts. It was another Ant 
 werp Fury, or sack by beneficent Visigoths of trade. 
 The tiers of calicoes and flannels piled upon their 
 packing boxes, made favorable nooks here and there 
 to shelter some knots of employees who could with 
 draw for a few moments' gossip from the general ac 
 tivity. 
 
 Such a little knot observed the advent of Ottilie 
 and Bainbridge. They gave their attention, as was 
 natural, chiefly to the latter, since feminine visitations 
 were rare. The proprietor's daughter Angelica, a 
 dazzling belle, tripped in at rare intervals, perhaps 
 on matters connected with her allowance, and always 
 made a sensation. They knew that this was not 
 Angelica. 
 
 "The fellow with her," said McKinley, a man 
 with a moustache which rolled over like a brown cas 
 cade, after they had finished with Ottilie, " is the one 
 they call Bainbridge. He served the dispossess war 
 rants for Harvey the time there was so much trouble 
 about getting the sbanty tenants off the old Muffett 
 property, now ' Harvey's Terrace.' It 's about three
 
 16 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 years since the old man built those blocks of houses 
 up there. He 's given this party odd jobs ever 
 since." 
 
 " He does look like a go-ahead, plucky kind of cus 
 tomer," said one Widgery. 
 
 " Why I see him walkin' round among 'em as cool 
 as you please," assented McKinley " I was up there 
 the first part of it. I would n't ha' done it myself 
 for no money. It was a perfect fortress of a place 
 upon them rocks, and the squatters they had laid in 
 cart-rungs and bricks for a regular scrimmage. It 
 took a military company finally as well as the police, 
 to put 'em out. I recollect the rocks was painted 
 over with big advertisements of one of these here 
 complexion restorers. I says to myself, ' He '11 need 
 his complexion renovated pretty bad before he gets 
 through with it,' I says. I recollect thinkin' that. 
 He did n't though ; he came out all right." 
 
 With this the subject dropped, and the group re 
 turned to their former talk. One spoke of fashions, 
 another of the price of board and lodging, another of 
 a recent theatrical performance. " An actor when he 
 first comes on the boards, for me," said this last. 
 *' Compare Buskin now and ten years ago. I went 
 to see him the other night. Great Scott ! I wanted 
 to get my money back." 
 
 McKinley dangled one leg over a box, and paring 
 his nails with a penknife complained that Solomons 
 had taken away a customer of his. " He has always 
 inquired for me when he came to the store before," 
 he said, " and if he did n't this time it 's damned 
 strange." 
 
 Cutler, a dashing clerk in his shirt sleeves, thus 
 displaying to view a pair of crimson braces and elab-
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 17 
 
 orate cuff-buttons, took up a favorite topic of the 
 duty of marrying a rich girl. " A fellow puts in his 
 time and trouble, and managing ability, and all 
 that," said Mr. Cutler, " and the girl, she supplies 
 the money ; see ? It 's a regular partnership. You 
 want to find out first whether she really has the 
 money though. Do you understand what I mean ? 
 You can't go by appearances nowadays. It is n't 
 much good that her father has it either, if he won't 
 come down with it. He may fail a dozen times over 
 before he dies ; and then where are you ? " 
 
 " I hear you are going it pretty strong on that 
 good-looking school-teacher, up at Mrs. Proudfoot's," 
 said Mr. Widgery, opening a flank fire. " Is that 
 what you call carrying out your views? You had 
 better go for the plain one, Miss Finley, if that is 
 what you are up to. She has money in the savings 
 bank." 
 
 " Never you mind my views ! Mrs. Proudfoot's 
 is the champion boarding-place, and Harvey's Terrace 
 can't be beat. Ask Whittemore ! Nothing could 
 induce me to go back to Eighth Street now, after 
 having tried it." 
 
 " Oh, Whittemore, of course. It 's homesickness in 
 his case. He wants to be near Bridgehaven. See ? " 
 
 " It takes but half an hour in the horse-cars," said 
 Whittemore, " and when you get there you have 
 something worth while : good air, view of the river, 
 quiet, everything fine. Ask Klauser, rather ; he 
 knows. He has boarded at Harvey's Terrace ever 
 since Harvey put up houses there. Come up to din 
 ner, and for once in your life you '11 say you 've had a 
 square meal." 
 
 The anxious college graduate, Jobson, who was 
 2
 
 18 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 learning the business from the bottom up, at three 
 dollars a week, paused in his labor of wheeling a 
 truck about the floor to admire the careless ease of 
 manners in this favored upper stratum. 
 
 Ottilie and Bainbridge meantime had happened 
 upon that boon of conversation, a new acquaintance. 
 
 " As you are at Vassar," said Bainbridge, " I dare 
 say you may know the Hasbrouck girls ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed ; they are great friends of mine," 
 replied Ottilie, brightening. 
 
 " The family were friends of mine, too, formerly. I 
 knew them in Florida, where I planted oranges a year 
 or two, after the war. They were my neighbors. 
 Mrs. Hasbrouck was particularly civil to me at one 
 time, when I had run an orange thorn into my foot. 
 I dare say you never met with that kind of acci 
 dent?" 
 
 " Not to the best of my recollection." 
 
 " Well, it is rather painful, and slow in healing. I 
 was living in an uncomfortable, bachelor way, and 
 she drove over and looked me up. The girls were 
 mere children then. I saw them afterwards in Bal 
 timore, though, when they had grown up. Lulu and 
 Amy they were of the real Southern type. It 
 was a pleasure to hear them pronounce the English 
 language." 
 
 " Oh, yes, they are real Southerners. I had never 
 known any before, and perhaps that drew me to 
 them. I confess to a slight fondness for curiosities." 
 Bainbridge made a mental note of this as a taste not 
 greatly differing from his own. " They are such 
 frank and generous girls. And they tell you about 
 everything that has ever happened to them in such
 
 AN AWKWARD MEETING. 19 
 
 an amusing way. They mention all of their friends 
 and acquaintances by name, and generally the first 
 names. I am perfectly acquainted with a multitude 
 of people in this way. There are Bobs, Johns, and 
 Dicks, who have been their * sweethearts.' There are 
 * Judge Bibb,' and ' Major Cooper,' and the Wheeler 
 family, who had plantations near theirs, Scott 
 Wheeler, and William Henry Wheeler, and ' Brick- 
 House ' Wheeler, and I don't know how many more." 
 
 She had begun to attend a little more, as she 
 talked, to the looks of her companion. He had one 
 of those heads not too round, but high, clear-cut, and 
 symmetrical, which oftener excel in wisdom of the 
 acute and ingenious, than of the ponderous sort. 
 His features were strong and good. There was the 
 trace of an upright furrow between his brows, and a 
 noticeable small spot of gold sparkled in the front 
 of his otherwise excellent teeth. He might have 
 been twenty-eight. He was no doubt a person of 
 consideration, used, among other things, to the best 
 company, but he was hardly of an age to be her un 
 cle's leading lawyer. 
 
 " It was one of the Wheeler places that I occu 
 pied as a tenant," said Bainbridge. 
 
 " Was it, really ? You see, I know them very, 
 very well." 
 
 " The Hasbroucks are not in as good circumstances 
 as at one time, I believe ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ; the girls will probably be obliged to 
 teach. We sympathize and lay our plans together. 
 It is harder for them, of course, because they had 
 once such very different expectations. They were 
 defrauded of a part of their property by an agent, 
 one of their own people ; and it seems that my un-
 
 20 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 cle," hesitatingly, " has tied up most of the remain 
 der with a lawsuit, which gives them little use of it. 
 He claims it on an old debt, from before the war, and, 
 with his great resources, he will probably win." 
 
 " It does not act as an impediment to your friend 
 ship, it seems." 
 
 " It did at first. When the girls knew that I was 
 Rodman Harvey's niece they thought I would, of 
 course, side with him ; but when I came to under 
 stand the true state of the case, I soon let them know 
 that I was of their way of thinking, and sympathized 
 with no such oppression. Since then they have not 
 considered me at all to blame." 
 
 A certain naivetd in this statement was the result 
 of its earnestness. The speaker suddenly realized, 
 when it was uttered, who it was that she addressed. 
 She had been imprudent enough to betray her adhe 
 sion to an obnoxious cause to a stranger, and a con 
 fidential agent of the enemy. Would he make men 
 tion of it to his principal at an early opportunity ? 
 
 The merchant prince was seen coming back, and 
 this constituted the most valid of interruptions.
 
 n. 
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 THE merchant prince came back down the length 
 of his store, stopping for a word or two with this 
 person and that, and attended by a halo of respect 
 wherever he moved. 
 
 He was a small, spare man of sixty, with bushy 
 gray hair, which curled in a roll behind his ears. He 
 had a yellowish skin, tufts of gray side whisker, and 
 a mouth which, by long habit of compression, was 
 but a straight incision across his face. He had some 
 thing of a stoop. His dress was black broadcloth, 
 neat, but free from any air of excessive newness. He 
 carried one hand to his ear, in a way very imposing 
 to inferiors, to catch what you had said. In moments 
 of excitement his hearing was perfectly good without 
 this device. 
 
 He brought back with him his eldest son, Selkirk 
 Harvey. 
 
 " Selkirk," he said, " is in the white goods depart 
 ment, under Mr.' Minn. We are making a business 
 man of him. I wish him to be trained in accurate 
 business habits, for the responsibilities which are to 
 fall upon him hereafter." 
 
 Selkirk took a slightly deprecating air at this de 
 scription of himself. He had rather mopish manners, 
 and a dull but not disagreeable expression. His teeth 
 projected upon his under lip in the way which seems
 
 22 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 to be always pronouncing the letter " v." He was 
 more student than merchant. He had not, if the 
 truth may be told, developed business talent of a high 
 order, nor a keen scent for gain. With all parental 
 fondness, his father could not yet estimate him in 
 these respects as of a calibre equal to his own. But 
 there was time yet, and the family looked for Selkirk 
 to improve. 
 
 When presented to his cousin, he shook hands with 
 her in an elaborate manner, and afterwards stood 
 about, regarding her in silence, whether with favor 
 or the opposite it would not be easy to say. 
 
 Rodman Harvey took Bainbridge aside for a mo 
 ment. The matter for which he had detained him 
 required no great delay. When it had been disposed 
 of, he said further, " Oh, by the way ; just write into 
 the copy for the amended draft of the will, that this 
 niece is to have the share also of the one who is dead. 
 It seems that one of them is dead. Do you under 
 stand ? And bring me the whole in proper shape to 
 morrow." 
 
 " Very well, sir," answered Bainbridge, " it shall 
 be done." 
 
 Rodman Harvey was now ready to take his de 
 parture. His man, Joseph, was waiting without in 
 a buggy, behind a pair of fast-traveling horses. 
 Turning to Ottilie, in an affable mood, the merchant 
 pressed her hospitably to get in and go up town with 
 him. 
 
 "We are at the Bayswater Hotel as yet," he said. 
 " Our new house is not yet completed. They turned 
 us out of Union Square, you know. They wanted 
 the place for business. Our accommodations are nat 
 urally but limited, but we can keep you a few days
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 23 
 
 as well as not. Your aunt will be very glad to see 
 you. You will also meet my daughter. She is home 
 from Europe now. She will tell you all about her 
 travels." 
 
 "Thank you, so much," returned Ottilie, nerv 
 ously, with a secret dread lest her resistance might 
 somehow be overborne in spite of herself ; " but I 
 have only a short leave of absence, which has expired. 
 Every day is important. I really think I must re 
 turn at once." 
 
 "Well, another time, then ; another time. I shall 
 speak to your aunt about you, and she will bear you 
 in mind. You must write to her. She will make 
 an arrangement for some of your vacations. Since 
 you wish to teach, perhaps you could take hold of 
 our youngest, Calista, and brighten her up a bit. 
 She makes very hard work of everything. Or you 
 might call it a secretaryship to Mrs. Harvey, or 
 something of that kind." 
 
 Ottilie, still dissimulating, murmured thanks for 
 these embarrassing offers. She made her farewells 
 in a timidly smiling manner, and took her seat once 
 more beside Klauser in the hackney coach. 
 
 She renewed her reproaches to that faithless indi 
 vidual, as they rolled up town to the railway station. 
 Klauser defended himself in but a jumbled way. 
 He could plead only the comparative astoundingness 
 of the fact that Rodman Harvey should have been 
 found at his place of business at that hour. 
 
 " He thinks of withdrawing from trade," he said, 
 " and now generally gives his afternoons to mul 
 tiplying outside affairs. He will set up a new firm, 
 of which he wishes Selkirk to be the head. He will 
 go into politics again. I should not wonder if we
 
 24 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 saw him a member of the next Congress. He lost 
 the nomination the last time, you know, or per 
 haps you don't know, through the manoeuvres of 
 his rival, General Burlington. He could attend to 
 his other interests, his railways and the like, just as 
 well in political life, perhaps better. I have also 
 heard him complain sometimes of attacks of vertigo. 
 Trade is too confining for him. He " Klauser was 
 fast departing from the subject at issue. 
 
 " Still," said Ottilie, " you should not have done 
 it." 
 
 They had got on so well together, however, during 
 their long journey, that she had not the heart for an 
 enduring resentment. The young girl had practiced 
 her German with him, and had become interested in 
 his daughter. This latter was named Wilhelmina. 
 She was now at the musical conservatory of Leipsic. 
 Ottilie had asked him how long he had been in our 
 country, and fancied, perhaps, that he might have 
 been a child of the revolutions, with some romantic 
 story. To this he replied that he was, indeed, an ex 
 ile for political reasons, but he had come in '42, in 
 stead of '48, and it was due to an extra tax, which 
 made it bad for the business in which he had been 
 engaged. 
 
 " You see that I, too, have a German name," Ot 
 tilie had told him. " It comes down in the family. 
 My mother's father came from Hesse Darmstadt, and 
 settled at Cincinnati." 
 
 Klauser was expecting his daughter back in no 
 long time. " I hope you will do me the favor to 
 come and see what you think of her," he said, " if 
 you visit your uncle in the spring." 
 
 "But I shall not visit my uncle," she replied
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 25 
 
 sharply, wondering at bis obtuse lack of comprehen 
 sion. 
 
 The tide of life which had eddied deep and strong 
 in the purlieus of the lower city all day long, had set 
 upward on its return. It moved at a uniform pace, 
 and surged impatiently around all obstacles that came 
 in its way. Well-dressed young men from the busi 
 ness offices marched with breasts thrown out and 
 swinging arms. They made the miles in sturdy pe 
 destrian fashion, not forgetting to ogle, on the way, 
 the pretty shop-girls hurrying to the ferries. The 
 brokers drove, leaning sedately back in their coupe's. 
 The wild-eyed and distraught of the morning, who 
 had strained to be on time, to be competent for des 
 perate exactions, sinking, perhaps, under the frown 
 of taskmasters and dread of failure, came back more 
 languidly, respited for the day. 
 
 Strangers clustered in the porches and low win 
 dows of the hotels. The formal waiters at the luxu 
 rious restaurants began to stand with folded arms be 
 side their small tables, set with glass and silver and 
 snowy damask. Half a million cooks were giving 
 the last anxious thought to half a million dinners. 
 Half a million housewives were expecting the advent 
 of their liege lords and masters. If the click of all 
 the latch-keys which now began to turn could have 
 been heard in succession, it would have been a gen 
 uine fusilade. 
 
 As our acquaintance, Bainbridge, went onward in 
 the procession with the rest, his thoughts recurred, 
 from time to time, to the arrival of Ottilie, her amus 
 ing pique at himself, and the slender legacy which had 
 befallen her. 
 
 " I am glad her visit availed her even so much," he
 
 26 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 said. " She will get little more, should he take never 
 so great a fancy to her. Besides, she is not likely to 
 give him much opportunity." 
 
 He deemed himself justified in this view with 
 much positiveness. His general knowledge of the 
 merchant's character, and a glimpse of certain spe 
 cific aims for the distribution of his property which 
 he had obtained, both enforced the conviction. Rod 
 man Harvey had desired to have his last will and 
 testament, which, by successive alterations, had grown 
 a trifle cumbrous, re-cast into simpler form, and had 
 engaged the young man for this service. It was to 
 be couched in such clear and 'explicit terms as to 
 leave no room for impeachment by legal quibbles. 
 
 The expressed purpose of this document was to 
 found a family. The bulk of the testator's posses 
 sions were to go to his eldest son, chiefly in trust. 
 By him they were to be passed on, through a limited 
 species of entail, to the farthest generation possible ; 
 and it was hoped that this system would be contin 
 ued. 
 
 Further than this, Bainbridge knew his patron's 
 ingrained habit of disparagement of all who had 
 shown a less virile mastery of fortune than himself. 
 Their failure was too apt to be ascribed to voluntary 
 lack of effort. The merchant prince, perhaps, ex 
 empted his own children from the rule, as somehow 
 of a finer clay ; but for all others what was needed 
 was unaided exertion, that their full powers might be 
 developed under the goad of necessity. 
 
 " Whom did I ever have to extend a helping hand 
 to me ? " he asked. " And where should I have been 
 if I had waited for it? Have I not shown, by my 
 own career, that nothing of the kind is necessary ? "
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 27 
 
 The young attorney's clerk summed up his opinion 
 of the whole in a vigorous " Bah ? " 
 
 " Still, there are worse people," he continued, 
 within himself, "oh, much worse. His sins are of 
 omission rather than of commission, after all. Very 
 little is heard against him, even in the fierce light 
 that beats upon so influential a position. His occu 
 pation is useful to men. He is not one of those, at 
 any rate, whose life is a mere setting of traps, and 
 their wealth the spoils of the unwary. One should 
 make allowances. Perhaps I make too many allow 
 ances. I dare say, however, that that is what one 
 who needs them should do." 
 
 Musing thus, he came up again with Ottilie. 
 
 The central part of the serried procession had 
 been checked at the point where it debouches into 
 Union Square. The bronze Washington was there 
 on horseback, extending a majestic arm above, as if 
 to marshal it. The bronze Lafayette, holding his 
 sword and cloak to his breast, bowed to it with a 
 courtly grace. The gaunt, plain-visaged Lincoln, let 
 it be fancied, regarded it with that " Charity towards 
 all, and malice towards none," which was the motto* 
 of his blameless career. Sonorous commands re 
 sounded. Could it indeed be that the bronze Wash 
 ington was ordering which columns should deploy to 
 the left, which to the right, which should keep on 
 through the Park, with its leafless trees, its benches 
 preempted by tramps, and its fountain, around which, 
 though boarded in for the winter, the nursemaids still 
 trundled their charges ? 
 
 A cab-horse had fallen, and a great pair of wheels 
 carrying, slung in chains, a mammoth building-stone, 
 stopped the way. The stalwart police of the Broad-
 
 28 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 way squad endeavored to clear the chaos. The clamor 
 was theirs. The fallen cab-horse sank back supine 
 under the efforts to raise him. The affair seemed 
 vastly more that of others than his own. The driv 
 ers clutched their whips, and muttered curses in im 
 potent rage. 
 
 In the midst of all this Bainbridge caught sight of 
 her with whom his thoughts were still more or less 
 occupied. She was looking out pensively into the 
 confusion. The top of the carriage had been put up, 
 and the square opening inclosed her like a frame. Her 
 white skin, and hair, under the brim of her black 
 hat, were illumined upon the dusk interior like an old 
 portrait of the Flemish school. She did not smile 
 again at the young man, but bowed gravely as he 
 doffed his hat. Then, by an onward movement of 
 all the wheels, she was once more swallowed up. 
 
 Rodman Harvey, checked in this stoppage like 
 others, sat in his buggy at a point where a political 
 banner had been stretched across the street. It was 
 adorned with rude portraits of the candidates, and 
 was riddled, a cynic might have said, as a device for 
 baffling the wind, with as many holes as their repu 
 tations might expect to be before the campaign was 
 over. 
 
 The merchant prince looked up with interest at 
 this banner. He hoped that similar ones were to be 
 hung out for himself in the near future. 
 
 " Do you hear anything of interest about my pros 
 pects for the Congressional nomination," he said, sud 
 denly reminded by this, and turning to his son, who 
 sat at his side, " in the talk that has been set going 
 of late?" 
 
 " I have happened to hear Dr. Wyburd "
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 29 
 
 " Wyburd goes everywhere and sees everybody. 
 He is a repository of universal information. I sup 
 pose bis opinion ought to be good for something. 
 Well, what does he say ? " 
 
 " He honestly thinks that your having moved into 
 the district and put up so expensive a residence in it, 
 will conciliate public favor to your side much more 
 than formerly. He thinks that Burlington will try 
 Jor the nomination, and, failing to secure it, throw his 
 influence for a third person the same way as before ; 
 but this time the programme will be less successful." 
 
 "So say Hackley and Hastings," coincided hia 
 father. " Of course, it is very far in advance, but it 
 is well to take time by the forelock. Burlington is 
 a hard fighter. We shall have to look out for him. 
 Ever since he returned from his foreign mission he 
 has been looking for office. He is needy ; that is the 
 trouble. If it were not for that Burlington would be 
 well enough." 
 
 "It does not seem to me such a very great office," 
 said the son. 
 
 " You do not understand it. To represent in Con 
 gress the district of principal wealth and social stand 
 ing in New York is a very respectable thing, and 
 something that easily leads much higher." 
 
 The merchant prince felt vaguely that he should 
 be more comfortable in his mind if only with the 
 letters M. C. after his name. It would put him on 
 equal terms with his correspondent, the French dep 
 uty, whose silks and velvets of Lyons he imported ; 
 and the maker of his English woolen cloths, who 
 was a member of Parliament. With both of these 
 dignitaries he sometimes exchanged letters and small 
 jifts of personal courtesy, apart from business deal-
 
 30 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ings. For the founding of a family, too, all those 
 things which pass reputably into tradition, were use 
 ful as well as money. 
 
 " But now a little as to your own affairs," he said 
 presently to Selkirk, leaving this subject: " Mr. Minn 
 tells me that you are not as attentive as you might 
 be. You were away recently for a couple of days." 
 
 " I ran over to Philadelphia for a book-sale. It 
 was something very important. There were volumes 
 I wanted for my collection, which I could get no 
 where else." 
 
 " Nothing of that kind is important to a person in 
 your position. How often must I tell you so ? Your 
 old books and China plates may be well enough in 
 their way, but not for one who has something to do 
 in the world." 
 
 Selkirk murmured a protest. 
 
 " No, I tell you. I observe with grief your ten 
 dency to be led away by what is not to the purpose, 
 in your direction, just as your brother Rodman is by 
 an incorrigible recklesness, in his. Here are letters 
 from this new military school, for which he pretended 
 such a fancy, showing that he is as bad as ever. It 
 is a question whether they will be able to keep him 
 there at all. But you are to be the nominal head, 
 at least, of the new firm which I design to establish, 
 with Mr. Minn, Mr. Hackley, who wishes to come 
 in, as you know, and others, as your assistants. 
 It should be your pride and duty to be its real head, 
 both for the purpose of adding to what I may legiti 
 mately call the glories of the old house, and to the 
 sum of the fortune which I shall leave to your charge. 
 It may be that I was wrong in sending you to Har 
 vard. I was put into the traces at fourteen, and per-
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 31 
 
 haps I should have done the same with you. But it 
 is too late now. You know well the main purpose 
 for which I leave you this fortune." 
 
 " Yes," responded the heir. 
 
 " Anybody and everybody founds a library, a hos 
 pital, a university, nowadays. They are often brow 
 beaten, or flattered into it by the newspapers. It 
 seems to both your mother and myself much more 
 desirable to try to perpetuate our name by establish 
 ing a line of descendants in the community in such 
 a way as to always hold an impressive position. I 
 myself have no claim, to pride of birth. I am self- 
 made. Whatever we have of that kind is on your 
 mother's side. But the idea seems to me, too, a 
 good one, and it is not, like that of the hospitals and 
 colleges, overdone. Our laws, of course, as compared 
 with those abroad, are not framed to aid in carrying 
 it out. Still, something can be done. I have ar 
 ranged the whole in this manner. The will has 
 just been re-drawn to-day." 
 
 Selkirk gazed about with a rather wearied air, as if 
 he had "heard much of this before. 
 
 " I have given to your mother all my plate and 
 household effects, my horses and carriages, her own 
 apparel and personal belongings, my house at New 
 port, my farm at Brompton, Massachusetts, where I 
 was born, my residence now in course of erection at 
 the corner of Fifth Avenue and West Blank Street, 
 all these for her natural life, without impeachment 
 of waste. I have devised her, in lieu of dower, 
 twenty-five thousand dollars a year, to be paid out of 
 the residuary real estate. I have made liberal pro 
 vision for both my daughters. I have made a liberal 
 provision, also, for my second son, Rodman, Jr., this
 
 32 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 in the hands of trustees, to guard against the devel 
 opment of further unruly tendencies, which give me 
 already serious concern." 
 
 " All the rest, .besides such reversions as there may 
 be, is yours," the speaker continued, after a short 
 pause, during which the buggy narrowly escaped col 
 lision with another vehicle ; " all the rest is yours. 
 That is to say, it is yours to hold in trust for poster 
 ity. One half of the personal property will be yours 
 in full ownership ; the other half, together with the 
 real estate, will be handed down. I have expressed 
 my earnest hope and entreaty that when the proper 
 time shall arrive, you will follow the same policy 
 and aid to make the tradition of as binding force 
 as possible." 
 
 " I shall conform to your desire," said Selkirk. 
 
 " There is another, connected, matter, about which 
 it does not, of course, become me to hurry you, but 
 I trust you give it your attention. It begins to be 
 time that you were settled in the world. If such 
 were your disposition, I should have no objection to 
 your taking a wife." 
 
 " Yes," said the son, " taking a wife. Still " 
 
 " You should have no great difficulty in choosing, 
 with all the interesting young women there are in 
 society. What do you think now of Goldstone's 
 daughter ? or Miss Ada Trull ? You will want good 
 looks, I suppose. Or there is Lehigh Cole's girl. 
 She will have a very pretty fortune ; and your mother 
 would approve of her, or of any of these, in fact " 
 said the merchant prince, bringing the matter down 
 to a practical issue. 
 
 Selkirk showed but languid enthusiasm over these 
 young women. When pressed, he said in a hesitat-
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 33 
 
 ing way that he was not sure he greatly cared for any 
 of " the regular kind." 
 
 The up-town procession spread out once more into 
 the opening of Madison Square. It was reduced 
 now by constant depletion. Still, the bronze Seward 
 at the edge of the grass-plots, whose business it is 
 said to be to keep the tally of the passers-by on his 
 tablets, had enough and to spare to do. The trucks 
 and drays had rattled away east and west over the 
 broken pavements of the remote side streets to near 
 the rivers. They would stand for the night in front 
 of high, dingy, brick tenement houses, and serve as 
 tribunes for the sports of ragged urchins. The hon 
 est beasts which had drawn them, which had once 
 known the sweet air and herbage of farm pastures, 
 were led to ill-smelling, make-shift stalls where it 
 was much if they could stand upright. 
 
 The steaming dinners were served now ; the anx 
 ious housewives had met their spouses. The formal 
 waiters at Delmonico's, the Brunswick, and the rest, 
 had uncrossed their arms, and were flying hither and 
 thither with orders. Through the windows their ele 
 gant patrons could be seen smiling in their talk across 
 the small tables. The gas began to flare brightly 
 before the theatres, and leisurely persons to lounge 
 there filliping small bundles of tickets in anticipation 
 of the coming audiences. 
 
 Ottilie, in her railway train, was bowling along, in 
 the early night, by the shores of the stately Hudson 
 whose high palisades . reechoed to its rattling. A 
 telegram had been dispatched, that she might be met 
 at her journey's end. The many-winged many- 
 storied institution to which she returned twinkled 
 a
 
 34 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 with lights. A feathery snow had begun to fall, 
 adding to the carpet of white which lay before it 
 broken by dark clumps of evergreens and trees de 
 nuded of their foliage. 
 
 She was kissed and embraced on this side and that, 
 and sank down at last in a dazed way in her room. 
 She wished, in a homesick mood, that this need of 
 roaming the great wearisome world did not exist, 
 that the allotted term of her stay were over, and she 
 need never again leave dear old appreciative Lone 
 Tree. Unable to sleep at once, though tired, she 
 wrote a letter to acquaint her family with her safe 
 arrival. The missive expanded considerably beyond 
 its projected limits. She had taken many a note of 
 novel things on the way, which she wove into it. 
 She had passed Niagara in the night, having come 
 by this route for the first time. She had opened the 
 window of her berth, as they crossed the Suspension 
 Bridge, and heard it roar, and even seen the mist ris 
 ing. Rarely, perhaps, had the venerable cataract 
 roared and shaken its hoary beard for the pleasure 
 of a more brightly appreciative young person. 
 
 The staple matter of the letter was naturally the 
 unexpected meeting with her uncle. She described 
 his manner, at first fierce, then conciliatory. Ah, if 
 he only were what he ought to be ! It was a way of 
 speaking they often had at home. In early times the 
 children had been given to making great use of this 
 rich uncle as a deus ex machina in their projects. 
 Her brother Paul had figured him as leading by the 
 bridle a pony of the most desirable size and breed 
 for him. She herself had thought it probable that he 
 would walk into their abode some day and ask her 
 to put on her things and travel with him several 
 years in Europe.
 
 THE ASPIRATIONS OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 35 
 
 A young man who had formerly planted oranges 
 in Florida, and was now an attorney's clerk, was not 
 mentioned in this letter farther than as " an odd, pat 
 ronizing kind of person who overheard part of my 
 interview with Uncle Rodman." 
 
 Mr. Klauser having discharged his duty at the cen 
 tral railway station, took his way back, with a feel 
 ing of relief that the hardships of another campaign 
 were at length over, to his comfortable chambers at 
 Mrs. Proudfoot's boarding-house, in Harvey's Ter 
 race. At the dinner table, Mr. Mahaffey, ex-alderman 
 and now a functionary of the comptroller's depart 
 ment, with Dr. Gaffin the dentist, and Dr. Reinboldt 
 the druggist, welcomed him gravely, inquired after 
 the success of his journey, and fell to comparing 
 notes on the respective merits of the Erie, Central, 
 and Pan Handle routes to the West. 
 
 His young fellow employees, the clerks Cutler and 
 Whittemore, who were posted at an end of the table 
 in the near vicinity of the comely school-teacher Miss 
 Speller, and her bosom friend, Miss Finley, were 
 much less serious in their tone. They ventured upon 
 certain freedoms with Klauser by reason of long ac 
 quaintance. 
 
 " Aha, we saw you this afternoon," began Mr. Cut 
 ler. " Sly rascal ! This thing of bringing back fas 
 cinating young ladies from the West will bear look 
 ing into. If I might advise Mrs. Proudfoot, a rather 
 sharp eye should be kept on the doings of Mr. 
 Klauser." 
 
 " She was the daughter of the old man's brother," 
 replied Klauser. " And a mighty nice girl she is. 
 You don't find many such nowadays : a scholar, ac-
 
 36 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 complished, kind-hearted, no airs about her, and good- 
 looking into the bargain. I was proud to have her 
 in my company, I can tell you. She made everybody 
 in the parlor car like her, in the two days we were 
 coming on from Chicago." 
 
 " They say her father has n't a cent to bless him 
 self with ; never knows where the next meal is com 
 ing from." 
 
 " Nothing of the kind ! Not so bad as that ! " re 
 turned Klauser with heat. " They have a very pretty 
 homestead, and, as the principal merchant of the 
 place, Alfred B. Harvey has a neat business, which 
 with good management ought to yield him very fair 
 returns. Still, he is not the best calculator in the 
 world, "and he probably gets as little out of it as any 
 body could." 
 
 " Whatever took him off there to such an out 
 landish place, when he was at one time a partner in 
 the firm, and engaged in big affairs ? " 
 
 " Bad management, obstinacy, unpractical ideas. 
 He went into the coal business once, and failed. Then 
 he tried leather, and failed again. Finally, when he 
 was all broke up, his brother happened to have this 
 store at Lone Tree, which he had taken for debt, 
 and put him into it as a resource for supporting his 
 family. A. B. worked hard till he had paid for it 
 and made it his own, then went to wrangling with 
 his brother, as he had done pretty much always. 
 He is one of the most independent fellows you ever 
 saw. In some respects it seems as if his daughter 
 took after him." 
 
 Bainbriclge meanwhile was putting himself in 
 evening dress for a social engagement, a meeting of 
 the Harmonic Club, of which he was a member, at 
 musical Mrs. Clef's.
 
 III. 
 
 AT MUSICAL MRS. CLEF'S. 
 
 MKS. CLEF, a scion of the old so much esteemed 
 Knickerbocker stock, was a lady of excellent social 
 standing. She had had losses, and had reconstructed 
 her circle. She had contracted it to moderate di 
 mensions, and based it upon her ruling taste, which 
 was music. 
 
 She had the faculty of enlisting in her service the 
 leading professionals who appeared in turn. These 
 came willingly to a hostess of cordial, unconstrained 
 manners, a person of intelligent sympathy, and a 
 performer, besides, of no mean skill. She was said to 
 have played before Liszt and Thalberg. 
 
 In her pleasant apartments at the Brandenberg, a 
 fashionable semi-hotel on Madison Avenue, she had 
 old family portraits, and furniture of an elegant an 
 tique sort, which was a reminder of a former more 
 stately and expensive style of living. A famous 
 violinist, in a freak, had been allowed to write his 
 name across one of the door-jambs. 
 
 Mrs. Clef was of an easy liberality of views, and 
 encouraged ease in her guests. She was fonder of 
 young than elderly company, perhaps to keep off in 
 trusive suggestions of advancing age. She made a 
 delightful chaperon for certain young women, who 
 were accustomed to come often in search of her for 
 that service. She was usually ready at the shortest 
 notice for their excursions.
 
 38 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Most things were treated of here with a humorous 
 cynicism that nothing greatly shocked. Mrs. Clef 
 made a pretense of throwing off tiresome caution 
 with which the world is stifling itself, and said sharp, 
 bright things of people. It was generally with the 
 implication, however, that she thought little the worse 
 of them for it, and that she herself was subject to the 
 same sort of treatment, as a matter of course. 
 
 The graceless Huyskamps, who fell with a sort of 
 helplessness from one sin and folly to another, came 
 in for hardly more disparagement than the upright 
 Walkills, who, with large wealth and not a little 
 fashion, professed a strict evangelical piety. To the 
 fine large houses of the Walkills, in fact, a certificate 
 of church membership was almost a prerequisite of 
 admission. 
 
 The air of refined Bohemianism, together with the 
 excellent music, had attracted Russell Bainbridge 
 among others. In a desultory frequenting of society, 
 in which he was to be but irregularly counted upon 
 at best, he sought by preference those places which 
 promised variety. The worldly tone prevailing, too, 
 was that which he was pleased at present to call his 
 own. After an experience of life which had not an 
 swered to his sanguine wishes, he considered himself 
 a rather hardened person. Still, it is probable that 
 it would have much troubled the conscience of which 
 he sometimes made very light, to have greatly in 
 jured any human being. 
 
 To many of the ambitious, after the long miscar 
 riage of favorite plans, there is apt to come a period 
 of revolt. Since all that had been deemed sufficient 
 and of binding authority has proved so unpropitious 
 to cherished aspirations for happiness, perhaps there
 
 AT MUSICAL MRS. CLEF'S. 39 
 
 are other systems, other directions, in which it may 
 now permissibly be sought. 
 
 Bainbridge was passing a life, now unlikely, he 
 deemed, to be of special importance to any one, in an 
 attitude (if the contradictory traits may be joined) 
 of calm recklessness. " At least," he said, putting 
 his experiences together, " I shall have lived ; I shall 
 not have stagnated." 
 
 A volatile spirit and susceptibility to humor, not 
 wholly repressed by any adversity, played above this 
 tragic substratum, so far as it was genuine, just as 
 will-o'-the-wisps are said to dance cheerfully over 
 black and dangerous pools. 
 
 Mrs. Clef, in person, sang, swelling out her ample 
 throat and bosom in the process. Signer Banderoli 
 gave a comic duet from " Don Pasquale," with his 
 pupil, Miss Stella Burgess. He made that young 
 lady herself smile with his droll grimaces, though 
 she knew them so well of old. 
 
 Among those who played the piano with a notice 
 able degree of skill, was a Miss Emily Rawson. She 
 captured Bainbridge afterwards, as it seemed she 
 had sometimes done before, and led him away to one 
 of the chintz-covered sofas. 
 
 " What a stranger you are ! I had to put up my 
 glass before I knew you," she began. " Are you 
 never coming near me any more ? What made you 
 drop out of the reading club? As to that poor Ger 
 man class, you have set such an example that we are 
 quite in despair. Professor Blauvelt says we must 
 have fines. We think of going to the German the 
 atre in a body, a week from to-morrow night. Will 
 you not come ? " 
 
 She spoke in a high-pitched, agreeable voice, which
 
 40 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PEINCE. 
 
 conveyed in itself fashion and refined prosperity. 
 She was of plain but lady-like aspect, and richly at 
 tired. A dot of court-plaster coquettishly aided her 
 complexion. She appeared of a rather frail and ner 
 vous type, and perhaps not far from Bainbridge's 
 own age. 
 
 This was a young woman who, in her native city, 
 had " outgrown her set." Experiencing a certain mor 
 tification to see all her friends married about her, she 
 had set off, with an unenergetic, widowed mother, 
 upon her travels. They went first to Europe, where 
 they sojourned in numerous pensions, and the daugh 
 ter perfected her music ; then to the health springs of 
 Colorado and Florida. They had settled, finally, in 
 New York, as a portion of that star-dust which the 
 great city gathers, part come to seek its fortune, part 
 to spend it in the greatest variety of ways. 
 
 The mother had a feeble motto, " Whatever is to 
 be will be," but her daughter had latterly taken the 
 disposition of her own fate and of all their affairs 
 very much into her own hands. She was ambitious 
 both of the married state and a social career. Thus 
 far she had had no great success in any plans she 
 may have laid for either. Without money suffi 
 cient to impress itself upon so great a city, though a 
 snug amount in itself, she had been able to draw 
 around her only a somewhat miscellaneous circle, 
 composed of acquaintances of travel, the watering- 
 places, coteries of music, the languages, decorative 
 arts, and religion, into all of which she had 
 plunged in a craving for excitement and new oppor 
 tunities. 
 
 She had secured a great deal of Bainbridge's so 
 ciety by a pertinacious ingenuity of invention. They
 
 AT MUSICAL MRS. CLEF'S. 41 
 
 bad been associated in the pleasant intimacy of pri 
 vate theatricals, of musical duets, and classes in read 
 ing and the languages. She had even asked him to 
 come and smoke to her, ingratiating herself on the 
 side of his comfort. She believed in him, or affected 
 to, and predicted fine things of his future. When 
 he grumbled at ill-luck and poverty, of which he 
 made no sort of secret, she said, " We are all poor in 
 a genteel way." She professed simple and domestic 
 tastes, but at the same time artfully dangled before 
 him, under pretext of taking his advice on the price 
 of certain stocks and bonds, glimpses of her private 
 fortune. 
 
 Bainbridge, since his losses and the affair of Made 
 line Scarrett, hardly looked upon himself as an eligi 
 ble person from the matrimonial point of view. He 
 would not have been averse to continuing a platonio 
 relation with a person so prepossessing in many 
 ways, and one who had the good taste to appreciate 
 his merits so highly, but further than that he did not 
 wish it to go. 
 
 Miss Rawson secretly thought otherwise as to his 
 eligibility. She made her own estimate of the value 
 of his connection with the Hudson Hendricks, a family 
 of the first prominence, whose near kinsman he was. 
 With her income and the social advantages open to 
 him, she would have counted on making a bold push 
 to the front rank in society. 
 
 From certain signs, he hoped it was not a mere 
 masculine vanity, the young man had regretted to 
 suspect her of making what is called a ".dead set " 
 at him, and thought it prudent to rather withdraw 
 from the intimacy. He yielded himself now to her 
 old air of bon cameraderie ; he could hardly do less,
 
 42 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 but whispered to himself at the same time, " Suaviter 
 in modo,fortiter in re." 
 
 " I really fear I shall not be able to. An engage 
 ment " he began, in reply to her invitation. 
 
 "Oh, always some engagement; always some 
 thing ! You do not wish to." 
 
 " Oh, really " he protested. 
 
 She began to question him as to the doings of late, 
 which could have kept him away from her. What 
 was the McMurray-Bourdon wedding like ? " she 
 asked. " Were there as many guests at Mrs. An- 
 tram's ball as usual ? " She had the names and de 
 scriptions of leading society people at her tongue's 
 end, having acquired them from the position of a 
 very near observer. 
 
 He had gone to a Turkish bath instead of the wed 
 ding, he said, and an unconventional evening at the 
 Rembrandt Sketch Club, to which he had been 
 asked, instead of the ball. 
 
 This neglect of such choice opportunities in favor 
 of something very ordinary and " common " seemed 
 to Miss Emily Rawson little short of sacrilege. The 
 Antrams' ball was the principal event of the winter. 
 A team of wild horses could not have kept her from 
 either that or the McMurray-Bourdon wedding, if 
 the chances had been hers. 
 
 " Society and I neglect each other very much," 
 said Bainbridge. " I wonder it does n't cross me off 
 its books more than it does. I suppose people forget. 
 Mrs. Rifflard, for instance, must be in a very pretty 
 muddle, among her list of a thousand invitations. I 
 tell her my name when I go in. 'Mr. Bainbridge.' 
 ' Ah, Mr. Bainbridge ! It is so good of you to come.' 
 I doubt if she knows me from Adam. My Hudson
 
 AT MUSICAL MRS. CLEF'S. 43 
 
 Hendricks were good enough to start me very fairly 
 in that sort of thing some years ago. I have culti 
 vated it about as little it really seems amusingly 
 impudent to say so as the greatest snob in town, 
 young Kingbolt, or Austin Sprowle, or Sprowle 
 Onderdonk, for example, who assert that it is only 
 strugglers for position who make dinner visits, or 
 show any particular recognition of civilities offered 
 them. In my case, it is partly a native apathy, I 
 suppose, and partly I could hardly tell you what. 
 If I am treated ill, that stands for itself ; if well, I 
 consider it a case of false pretenses. There is at 
 tributed to me, no doubt, a bank account and other 
 advantages I don't possess." 
 
 " You think money then of so much conse 
 quence ? " 
 
 " Lack of it is the only crime that is not forgiven. 
 Its possession is the one thing interesting to hear 
 about. What is done in courts and camps is of no 
 moment nowadays. It is what is done in a bank." 
 
 "For my part," said Miss Rawson, with a rather 
 meaning air, " I consider family of vastly more im 
 portance." 
 
 To vary from a line of discussion which was not 
 uncommon, Bainbridge next told in an easy way, as 
 of an indifferent person whom she would never be 
 likely to see, of the visit of Ottilie to the store, and 
 of the interview at which he had been unwillingly 
 obliged to be present. 
 
 " Is she pretty ? You men always ask that. Noth 
 ing less will serve you." 
 
 " Oh, she is pretty enough. I should not call that 
 kind of looks particularly imposing. It all depends 
 on the character and manners. I should think she
 
 44 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 might have rather nice manners when not too much 
 out of temper. 
 
 " Since she is so very fine, I should think her uncle 
 would treat her better ; perhaps do something for 
 her. But he is a hard, disagreeable man, as I have 
 heard. I doubt if he ever did anybody a good turn 
 in his life." 
 
 " I have come to have a considerable regard for 
 anybody who does not do you a bad turn." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! you stand by him. I dare say you hope, 
 in time, to become his principal attorney." 
 
 " Perhaps that might be a good enough reason, if 
 it were so. But I hope I am candid enough to judge 
 of people somewhat apart from their relations to me. 
 I should say that affection was not Rodman Harvey's 
 strong point ; but that he was a very regular and up 
 right person in his dealings. I should say that he 
 would cherish a high ideal of commercial integrity, 
 if only for the neatness and symmetry of it." 
 
 Later on the same name chanced to be under dis 
 cussion in another group. Miss Rawson called to 
 Bainbridge vivaciously, 
 
 " Au secours ! Your beloved Harveys are in 
 danger." 
 
 Mrs. Clef was dissertating in her candid way on 
 an engagement, not long since made public, between 
 Angelica, the daughter of Rodman Harvey, and an 
 extremely well-connected, though, according to her, 
 stupid young man, Austin Sprowle. Sprowle had 
 been at one time a secretary of legation at Paris. 
 
 " They say they were engaged, or at least that 
 there was an understanding between them, for some 
 time before it was formally announced," said musical 
 Mrs. Clef. Some of the girls were rather ridiculing
 
 AT MUSICAL MRS. CLEF'S. 45 
 
 his appearance, at Mrs. Bloomfield's kettle-drum, and 
 Angelica Harvey all at once broke out, ' He is of the 
 very finest family in America, and I am engaged 
 to him ! ' She happened to be in one of her domi 
 neering moods, I suppose, that day. They say it was 
 positively dreadful, the way her eyes flashed ! How 
 ever, that does not prevent her flirting with other 
 men I see, and notably with that young Kingbolt of 
 Kingboltsville. The match was made by the two 
 mothers, at Pau. Family is Mrs. Harvey's hobby. 
 Having married as she did, she thinks that that is 
 the direction in which they chiefly need strengthen 
 ing. Her daughter shares the taste." 
 
 " I suppose the Sprowles are expecting something 
 very handsome in the way of dowry from Rodman 
 Harvey," said a divorced Mrs. Whipple, " but I should 
 be inclined to think, with this fancy of his for piling 
 up the largest sum possible for his eldest son, they 
 might be disappointed." 
 
 " The Sprowles are far from poor, of course," re 
 turned Mrs. Clef, " but people who have so many 
 generations behind them unconnected with trade can 
 not expect to compete with the vulgar modern style 
 of fortune. Young Sprowle is not, in fact, fine-look 
 ing," she continued. " One always has to think of 
 the knobs of his body. His feet stick out at an awk 
 ward angle, and he has one of those large, gourd- 
 shaped heads with nothing in them which ought to 
 be the despair of the phrenologists. It looks topply ; 
 his neck is so sfender. He never said a good thing 
 in his life. I wonder how she puts up with him, 
 she who is so ready with her tongue ; though she is 
 a vixen of a girl, too, and he has no great treasure in 
 her either."
 
 46 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " As to his doing anybody a bad turn," said Miss 
 Rawson, returning to the subject of Rodman Harvey, 
 " you know how excessively disagreeable he has been 
 to our friends, the Hasbroucks, about their prop 
 erty." 
 
 " The newly arrived niece would agree with you. 
 She took an early occasion to mention it." 
 
 Mrs. Hasbrouck has been here lately on a visit, 
 from Baltimore. She thinks of taking a house or 
 flat, in the spring, so as to be near her children." 
 
 " Why did you not tell me before ? I should have 
 liked to go and see her." 
 
 "How can I tell you anything when you never 
 come near me ? "
 
 rv. 
 
 A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE. 
 
 THE high board fence which had so long obscured 
 the works in progress on the new mansion of Rod 
 man Harvey was at length removed. On the day 
 following, which was a Sunday, the fact became one 
 of general notoriety. 
 
 Upon the letting out of the churches, at noon, 
 there streams along Fifth Avenue chief thorough 
 fare of the elegant quarter of brown stone and plate- 
 glass inhabited by the wealth and fashion of the city 
 a procession unique of its kind. In the charming 
 early spring days after the severities of the winter, 
 it becomes swollen to its fullest dimensions. Then 
 even very exclusive people, who properly consider 
 a promenade so open to all the world as beneath 
 their usual countenance, are often wooed to take 
 part. The Sunday in question was not only in the 
 genial springtime, but it was Easter, the great fes 
 tival of the Christian year, and a recognized occasion 
 besides for the display of new feminine fashions. 
 
 Now that the fence was down the new house of 
 Rodman Harvey, at the corner of West Blank Street, 
 was seen not to differ greatly, except in size, from 
 others in the neighborhood. It was of brown or 
 red sandstone, fifty or sixty feet in front, and perhaps 
 two hundred, with its various appurtenances, down 
 the side street. It had three liberal stories, and a
 
 48 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 mansard, topped with a gilded railing. A row of 
 classic window heads in its first story were of curved 
 form, those in the second triangular, and in the third 
 straight. A stone balustrade inclosed a low "area" 
 in front, and the basement windows were protected 
 by gratings with gilded spear-heads. 
 
 A broad flight of steps, curving hospitably out 
 wards, led to a porch with a couple of Corinthian 
 columns. Within this were heavily carven doors, a 
 paved vestibule, and lighter doors, with stained glass 
 panels. The long stretch on the side street was bro 
 ken up by a bay window reaching through the sev 
 eral stories. Then an expanse, relieved by panels, 
 with a sky-light above, indicated a picture-gallery. 
 Next to this a brick wall, higher than a man's head, 
 extended to two tall posts, topped with stone balls, 
 the gateway to low brick stable buildings. 
 
 The passers-by, who had long been alarmed by 
 blasting, and made to walk the plank over yawning 
 chasms, hailed with relief the end of their disquiet 
 udes. The sudden disappearance, too, of the high 
 fence, blazoned with its advertisements, was almost 
 as striking as had been its first initiation. It had 
 blazoned in the most florid style of art, complexion 
 renovators, velocipedes, the winter route to Florida, 
 and the " Evening Meteor," which, it is well known, 
 has a larger circulation than all of its contempora 
 ries put together. 
 
 It had blazoned, also, the attractive investment 
 system of the " Prudential Land and Loan Com 
 pany," which combined the savings of many to the 
 advantage of all. " For prospectus address the man 
 agement, Fletcher, St. Hill & Co., in the Magoon 
 Building, lower Broadway."
 
 A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE. 49 
 
 Whatever matters formed the topic of discourse 
 elsewhere, at the corner of West Blank Street and 
 the Avenue it was surely Rodman Harvey, just as 
 the same light cloud always hovers about a tall 
 mountain peak, though the particles of which it is 
 actually composed are flying past at the rate of sixty 
 miles an hour. Such as knew him little were now 
 glad to learn more ; and those who knew him better 
 were glad to tell all they knew. One could have ob 
 tained a very tolerable idea of the aims and history 
 of the merchant prince by no more than lingering 
 awhile, and paying heed, in front of the mansion he 
 had reared. 
 
 Aureolin Slab and the young architect, G. Lloyd, 
 went by, and stopped and looked up, and regretted 
 that what they saw should be in none of the new, 
 artistic styles, but simply a great nondescript monu 
 ment to a wasted opportunity. 
 
 " He was of mere farmer origin, of course," the 
 severely aristocratic, Roman-nosed dowager, Mrs. 
 Sprowle, was saying to her stalwart kinsman, 
 Sprowle-Onderdonk, who walked with her a little, 
 on his way to his breakfast at the Empire Club ; 
 "but I must say he has conducted himself in quite 
 a praiseworthy manner. His first wife was one of 
 his own sort, a wise Puritan virgin, who knitted 
 stockings, sang psalms, and quoted Cobbett and Poor 
 Richard. But the present Mrs. Harvey is one of 
 the old Muffetts, and all that could be desired, from 
 that point of view. Her first husband was thrown 
 from his carriage and killed, early in their marriage. 
 He left her little, and her own family, who had the 
 habit of spending everything, could not add much to 
 it. She inherited the Muffett place, however, which 
 4
 
 50 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Harvey built up into blocks of houses. She lived in 
 it when she first met him. I dare say she was hav 
 ing a stupid time. I remember that it was thought 
 quite a piece of presumption, his aspiring so high, as 
 he was not as rich as he is now, and nobody had ever 
 heard of him socially. However, as I have said, he 
 has certainly used his money in a very commendable 
 way. I have no adverse criticism to make either 
 upon him or his daughter. Your cousin Austin, my 
 son, seems very happy in his choice of her for a wife, 
 and, as you know, I have not withheld my consent." 
 
 Dr. Wyburd diner-out, dabbler in literary and 
 scientific matters in addition to the medical profes 
 sion, depositary of universal information spoke of 
 the beginnings of Rodman Harvey's fortune. " He 
 made most of it during and after the War of the 
 Rebellion," he said. " Previous to that he had ca 
 tered largely for the Southern trade. His credits 
 were extended over the South at the breaking out of 
 hostilities, and his losses were heavy. The Southern 
 merchants continued, and even increased their trade 
 with him, when they had withdrawn it from others 
 of more radical opinions. That was all very well for 
 the time, but when secession came and debts were 
 repudiated, it was quite another story. He was lucky, 
 I fancy, to pull through that scrape." 
 
 The dashing Cutler and steady-going Whittemore, 
 of the merchants' clerks, went by in their turn. 
 
 " The old man is a fearful obstinate person, when 
 he once starts in," said Whittemore. " They tell of 
 a bank at Bridgehaven, when he was in business there 
 in a small way, which refused him some accommoda 
 tion. He went to work and bought up its bills, and 
 presented the whole issue for redemption. The offi-
 
 A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE. 51 
 
 cers apologized humbly, and begged him not to wind 
 up the concern, but he went on and did it." 
 
 " What I like," said Cutler, " is to get him on the 
 subject of the economies he used to practice in those 
 times. He lets us have them occasionally as a re 
 ward of merit, when he comes around in his snoop 
 ing way and finds everything all right, instead of 
 skylarking going on. This thing of getting a cap 
 ital together by walking to save your car-fare, never 
 taking a drink or a day off, cannot be done now 
 adays. Trade is too large. Look at our place ! 
 a hundred and twenty employees, sales of ten and 
 fifteen millions a year. It takes a good many car 
 fares to equal that, eh ? The retail trade is worse, 
 if anything. The big concerns eat up the little ones. 
 It is no time for small fry." 
 
 " But a man would expect to go into the country, 
 somewhere, to begin," said Whittemore. 
 
 " No country for me ! none of that in mine ! I stay 
 here. Where will you find anything like this in the 
 . country ? " 
 
 Two slow divisions passed each other, one up, one 
 down the sidewalk, almost touching shoulder to shoul 
 der. The individuals composing them gazed into one 
 another's faces, nonchalantly, amiably, haughtily, im 
 pertinently, admiringly, distrustfully, according to the 
 mood and character of each. There were modish 
 young women and young men without end ; old 
 beaux, gray, experienced, and distinguished-looking ; 
 stately matrons; children in plushes and velvets, like 
 young princes of Vandyke. A sweet-faced girl, af 
 flicted with lameness and walking with a rose-wood 
 crutch, aroused a kind of pathetic interest. Mourn 
 ers lately from the cemeteries, seemed yet to carry in
 
 52 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 their garments airs from the laurel and cypress dells 
 where they had laid their dead. At one point a 
 tramp, his torn clothing held by a girdle of rope, 
 crossed from a side-street, like a wild beast from its 
 jungle, and gave the whole concourse a momentary 
 check. 
 
 The first parasols were out. Some of these were 
 in pure crimson ; others such was a fashion of the 
 time in concentric rings, black, scarlet, and gold, 
 like targets for archery practice. Bluish shadows 
 streamed from the figures along the pavement. The 
 sunshine, filtered through a slight haze, arising from 
 the burning of stubble in the country, had a qual 
 ity like a mysterious smile. The first leafage flick 
 ered on the willows and maples in the squares like 
 a tender yellowish flame. The generative feeling 
 of the time was in the air. Small housewives planned 
 to buy of the dealers, who would come about in their 
 wagons, pots of geraniums, and sods of grass for the 
 little city door-yards, tramped out by the serving- 
 maids in the winter. 
 
 " For my part," Mr. Cutler went on. " I shall not 
 stick to dry goods any longer than I can help. Look 
 at McKinley ! He has drawn the same salary for the 
 last fifteen years, and he will go on drawing that and 
 no more if he lives to the age of Methuselah. I was 
 down to see a Mr. St. Hill the other day at this new 
 Prudential Land and Loan Company. He offered me 
 a place if I only had a little money to put up as a guar 
 anty. I have got to get into something pretty soon. 
 I don't mind telling you that I shall probably marry 
 Miss Speller, and then there will be two of us." 
 
 Whittemore thought it odd that Cutler, who so in 
 sisted upon worldly wisdom, should be going to marry
 
 A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE. 53 
 
 the quite impecunious public-school teacher, Miss 
 Speller. But she was very pretty, and no doubt, like 
 other would-be prudent men, he had yielded to fas 
 cinations which he had not properly estimated. 
 
 The sweet air seemed yet full of the chime of bells, 
 the notes of organ, harp, and viol, and of the clear 
 voices which had been singing anthems ; and it was 
 yet perfumed with the scent of all the lilies and roses 
 clustered around the fonts and chancel rails. 
 
 The Resurrection had naturally been the theme 
 in most of the pulpits under the line of steeples fol 
 lowing one another interminably down the Avenue. 
 But Mr. Haggerson had managed to combine with it 
 the fourth in his series to young men. The Rev. Mr. 
 Goswin found means to attack Romanism, the Rev. 
 Mr. Telfair to demonstrate the absurdity of suppos 
 ing a connection between ideas of supernaturalism 
 and morality. Mr. Dillman had drawn the lessons 
 of the City of Trebizond disaster. The Rev. Mr. 
 Gambit had taken up the parable of the barren fig- 
 tree, dividing his subject into three heads. The Rev. 
 Mr. Bashan had utilized the blowing down of the 
 walls of Jericho by the ram's-horn trumpets. How 
 simple, how apparently contemptible, were the 
 means ; yet how, at the fated Ifour and the final note, 
 the walls of the wicked, derisive city had crumbled 
 to inevitable ruin. An analogy, he thought, to this 
 might be found in the terrible force of public opinion 
 upon a reputation falsely enjoyed, and undermined by 
 consciousness of it. 
 
 The pastor of Rodman Harvey, the polished Dr. 
 Miltimore, hewed down no barren fig-trees, and blew 
 no rams' horns of judgment. He softened the as-
 
 54 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 perities of theology. He had a scholarly air, as of a 
 person delivering addresses before a historical society. 
 He devoted himself somewhat to reconciling a sup 
 posed inconsistency between the temporal and spir 
 itual welfare. Rodman Harvey had had one of his 
 sermons put in pamphlet form, and kept copies of it 
 by him, which he sometimes presented to new ac 
 quaintances, saying, " My good minister preached a 
 sermon the other day which pleased me so well that 
 I had it printed ; " and this by no means did his 
 business relations harm. Watervliet, the club wit, 
 was in the habit of complimenting the gentlemanly 
 tone of things at Dr. Miltimore's. 
 
 "He never touches on politics, or religion," 
 said Watervliefc. " He offends the susceptibilties of 
 no man." 
 
 Should Dr. Miltimore, then, have harrowed up the 
 feelings of his parishioners, on their sole day of rest ? 
 Why, the responsibilities of Rodman Harvey alone, 
 sitting there with his family around him in his crim 
 son-lined, oaken pew, were something incredible. He 
 was a stockholder and director in the Antarctic, Cos 
 mopolitan, and Union banks, the Alien-Mutual and 
 Planet insurance companies, the Western Mail line of 
 steamers, the Devious Air- Line, Rio Bravo and Wil 
 lamette, Onalaska, and Maumee Central railways, 
 the Vulcan Rolling Mills, Franklin Telegraph, Me 
 tropolis Gas, and "Featherstone Hay-Scale compa 
 nies ; the Chamber of Commerce, the Union League 
 Club, the Academy of Music, the Historical, Agri 
 cultural, St. Nicholas, and New England societies. 
 He was treasurer and first director of that excellent 
 society for the purification of municipal politics, the 
 Civic Reform Association. And even these, with his
 
 A SUNDAY ON THE AVENUE. 55 
 
 mines ; his great business house, involving the calcu 
 lation of effects of climate, seasons, and changing po 
 litical conditions on goods purchased in distant lands, 
 to be sold at distances as remote ; his family ; and 
 the supervision of his new mansion, Avere but a tithe 
 of the burdens which called for the extension to him 
 of a more than ordinary freedom from other annoy 
 ance. 
 
 Rodman Harvey issued from the porch of Dr. 
 Miltimore's church, accompanied by his wife, his 
 younger son, Rodman, Jr., and his younger daugh 
 ter, Calista, a tall girl of ten, with dull, blue eyes, a 
 profusion of yellow hair, and a languid, complaining 
 way of speaking. The younger son wore the uni 
 form of a military school, from which he had lately 
 been dismissed, a circumstance which seemed by no 
 means to weigh heavily on his spirits. 
 
 A handsome landau, with the front half let down, 
 awaited the family. There were two men in livery 
 on the box ; the strong, dark horses had brass- 
 mounted harness and small blankets of dark green, 
 embroidered with monograms, under their saddles. 
 The footman, Alphonse, called the attention of the 
 coachman, Joseph, who was gossiping with the coach 
 man of General Burlington, although there was a 
 coolness between their masters, and the landau 
 promptly drew up to the curbstone. 
 
 " Let us walk, mamma ; I am so tired of riding," 
 pleaded Calista. 
 
 Quite unexceptionable people were going by. 
 " Very well," said Mrs. Harvey, putting up a little 
 parasol above a plump face retaining a certain mid 
 dle-aged prettiness. " Joseph, nous allons nous pro-
 
 56 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 raener jusqu'a la nouvelle maison. Attendez nous 
 la!" 
 
 " Parfaitement madame," replied the careful Swiss 
 Joseph. 
 
 One of his merits was that foreign languages could 
 be practiced with him. He drove decorously before 
 to the new house, and there took up the family and 
 conveyed them to the Bayswater Hotel. 
 
 The elder son, Selkirk, was not present at the ser 
 vice. He passed his Sunday mornings over Herbert 
 Spencer, or in arranging his books, or he called upon 
 one Aureolin Slab, to whom he exhibited new ac 
 quisitions in Banko and old Kiyoto wares. 
 
 Nor was the brilliant elder daughter, Angelica, 
 present. She found Saint Barnabas' better adapted 
 to her spiritual needs. She had no great fancy for 
 historical society discourses. The service at Saint 
 Barnabas' was more like what one was used to abroad. 
 She would have liked to walk down an aisle with a 
 footman behind her carrying prayer-books, as is done 
 in England, but had hesitated as yet to put this in 
 novation in practice. At Dr. Miltimore's, at any 
 rate, there were not even prayer-books to carry. 
 
 While her family were being driven to their hotel, 
 Angelica Harvey was walking up from Saint Bar 
 nabas', attended by two young men, one on either 
 hand, engaged with them in lively talk. These were 
 recognized by the set which knew them, as Austin 
 Sprowle, her affianced husband ; and Arthur Kingbolt, 
 heir to that great property, the Eureka Tool Works 
 of Kingboltsville, Connecticut.
 
 V. 
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 
 
 YOUNG Kingbolt, of Kingboltsville, had the fancy 
 that morning to take a turn up the road in his dog 
 cart. He had invited to a seat beside him his friend, 
 and protg, though a man much older than himself, 
 Mr. St. Hill, the manager of the new Prudential 
 Land and Loan Company. 
 
 A large, high-stepping gray horse, with a quantity 
 of silver chains rattling about his harness, drew along 
 the box-like vehicle, with a light rocking motion on 
 its single axle. The master of this conveyance, half 
 standing, half sitting against its high cushioned seat, 
 with one hand well forward, the other near the breast 
 of his snug frock coat, with its bunch of violets at 
 the lapel, was as fine a picture of supercilious young 
 patriciandom as one would wish to see. He was of 
 a type not uncommon in the well-looking American 
 race. Almost any change in it must be for the 
 worse, and he might not grow old as gracefully as 
 some others of a lesser perfection of features. His 
 expression denoted petulance and self-will. There 
 was something terrier-like (of the best breed, be it 
 understood) in the trimness of his cut, his small 
 ears, his close-cropped hair polished with brushing, 
 his slight, dark moustache, and his glistening white 
 teeth. 
 
 While this one was perhaps twenty-six, his com-
 
 58 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 panion must have been forty. He was a much stouter 
 man, blonde, with a round, red face, above which he 
 wore a hat of the smallest size permitted by the 
 ruling mode. He had a glass in one eye. 
 
 The contribution of these two to the prevailing dis 
 cussion of the merchant prince was of a somewhat un 
 usual character. 
 
 " I am thinking of giving him a twist some of 
 these days," said Mr. St. Hill. 
 
 " Giving him a twist ? " 
 
 " Yes, if a man won't pay you what he owes you in 
 one way, I suppose you have a right to make him, in 
 another. I have a lot of his letters, which he would 
 not be at all anxious to have see daylight, especially 
 about these times, when he begins to have political 
 aspirations. I think I shall have to crowd Rodman 
 Harvey for about twelve thousand dollars." 
 
 " He ought to be good for anything against him in 
 the regular way. If you have a claim, why do you 
 not put it into the hands of a lawyer ? " 
 
 " Oh, this is an old matter, and barred long since 
 by the statute of limitations. He owed my father 
 for cotton at the outbreak of the war. When we ap 
 plied for payment, after it was over, he refused in 
 the most abusive terms. He said he had lost enough 
 by the South already, and we might see how we liked 
 it ourselves. At the same time, he was remorselessly 
 following up those who owed him there, even though 
 they had hardly a cent to bless themselves with." 
 
 " But you could have made him pay you then, you 
 know ; the five years' limitation was not out." 
 
 " It was pretty nearly out. Both my father and 
 myself had had the misfortune to be leather actively 
 engaged in what you call here the " rebel " cause,
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 59 
 
 and thought it advisable to go for a time to Europe, 
 finally to Egypt. We did not quite understand what 
 our rights were. When we did it was too late. I 
 wrote to Harvey from London, and it was then that 
 he sent the response I have told you of. I did not 
 have his letters then, nor have I had them, till within 
 a few days past, or I should have given him a turn 
 before." 
 
 " And these letters, what are they ? " 
 
 " Well, they show him up, you know, on the slav 
 ery question. He used to take niggers on chattel 
 mortgage for goods, or own them outright, and hire 
 them to the plantations. We had some of them on 
 a place of ours up the Ashley River. He and my 
 father used to be very thick at one time, and carried 
 on an intimate correspondence. The letters turned 
 up only the other day, at the plantation on the Ash 
 ley, after having been lost for years. The place was 
 racketed to pieces, by troops on both sides, during 
 the war, and has been in the hands of the Jews ever 
 since. The papers were picked out of a barrel, with 
 some other traps, by an old overseer of mine, who 
 sent them up here to me to see if they might be of 
 interest." 
 
 " Now, see here ! I 've been a friend of yours, 
 have n't I ? " began Kingbolt, when the scheme for 
 obtaining payment from Rodman Harvey had been 
 well laid before him. " I don't say anything about 
 what I did for you in Europe. You were rather 
 down on your luck, and I got you over here and put 
 you into the Empire Club, and gave you a send-off 
 in some good houses. Old Mrs. Sprowle was crack 
 ing you up only the other day on the score of family. 
 And now you have a big financial company in which
 
 60 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 you think there is a mint of money. And you have 
 some of my money in it, too, have n't you ? Very 
 well ! Now what I say about this bluff game is, Let 
 it alone ! Drop it ! See ? " 
 
 Perhaps the superior age of the protSge added zest 
 to the domineering air assumed by his young patron. 
 
 " You don't want to stir up anything of that kind," 
 he continued. " Your rdle is to go on and make as 
 many persons as possible favorable to your new en 
 terprise. You asked me, when you first came here, 
 what kind of a reception you were likely to meet 
 with, on account of having been on the other side 
 during the war. I told you that New York was too 
 big and bustling a place to devote much time to by 
 gones. I said it might make you a bit of a curiosity, 
 and be a point in your favor, and so it has. But 
 now, if you go to raking up those dead and buried 
 issues that people had rather forget, if you go to at 
 tacking one of the few men who has not forgotten, 
 but for some reason or other keeps up a peculiar 
 grudge about it, it will not be to your advantage 
 with the community. And as to getting money from 
 Rodman Harvey, you may dismiss that idea at once. 
 You would come out second best. Besides, I don't 
 see that it would be right." 
 
 This was rather an unusual display of morality in 
 one who was not known for squeamishness, but was 
 rather known for a readiness in putting things at 
 cross-purposes, if only for the sake of the sport. St. 
 Hill cogitated whether there were not some hidden 
 motive inclining his friend in Harvey's favor. 
 
 At this moment Rodman Harvey's beautiful daugh 
 ter went by, with Sprowle, to whom she was en 
 gaged. Kingbolt acknowledged her bow from the
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 61 
 
 sidewalk with effusion, and glanced back after her 
 when she had passed. 
 
 " It is too good a thing to give up. It is too much 
 money to forego," persisted St. Hill, in his argu 
 ment. , 
 
 " You '11 have to choose between him and me, 
 then," said Kingbolt sharply. " See here ! I think 
 I '11 get down. You can take the trap up by yourself. 
 I believe I won't ride to-day." 
 
 St. Hill saw him go back and join Angelica Har 
 vey. A sudden theory flashed into his mind as a 
 solution of his meditations. He put together eulo 
 gies he had heard paid by Kingbolt to the beauty and 
 style of this girl, with attentions he had witnessed, 
 engaged though she was, and securely fixed in her 
 choice by her own wishes, the plans of two prom 
 inent families, and the respect due the usages of so 
 ciety. 
 
 " Oho ! is that it ? " he said to himself. " He is a 
 little gone on the young woman, and so takes the 
 family under his protection. It is like one of his 
 whims. Well, we must wait a little for the wind to 
 blow round. It can't sit long in that quarter. The 
 prospect is altogether too slim, even for him." 
 
 It is not too much to say that Mr. St. Hill was 
 considerably disappointed. He had not even arrived 
 at the subject of a small loan he had in tended' to pro 
 pose, on the basis of the profits to be derived from 
 Harvey. And further than this, an interdict had 
 been laid on his scheme itself, which he could not 
 disregard without the loss of a friendship from which 
 he expected many substantial favors in the future, as 
 he had received them in the past. But he had occa 
 sion to know something of his friend's vacillation of
 
 62 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 purpose. He was encouraged to believe that in a 
 brief period Kingbolt would have forgotten Harvey 
 and his daughter, even to the bare fact of their exist 
 ence, and that he could then proceed again with his 
 design, for the present postponed. 
 
 There was not a group on the Avenue that drew 
 more admiring attention than the trio consisting of 
 Miss Angelica Harvey and her two cavaliers. Not 
 that the one to the right, her accepted suitor, was a 
 model of perfection in looks. He had, indeed, some 
 thing of the aspect pictured by Mrs. Clef in her 
 lively description. On the other hand, there was 
 hardly any mistaking his air of fashion, and of mem 
 bership in a certain circle. He affected a choice 
 elegance in costume. All of it, down to his gaiters, 
 was black. He wore a weed on his hat. He carried 
 his arms at an artificial angle, and balanced a small 
 stick between a thumb and finger. " Commonness " 
 was understood to be the chief avoidance of Austin 
 Sprowle. When under-secretary of legation at Paris, 
 he was said to have spoken of a number of ministers 
 who came and went above him in turn, as " common." 
 
 But the one on her left was a very handsome young 
 man. And then the young woman herself! She 
 had fine, large, dark eyes, which she rolled about vi 
 vaciously as she talked. She had a small dimple in 
 her cheek, and a smile which, in showing her fine 
 teeth to the best advantage, caused some little wrin 
 kles to appear around her quite enchanting nose. 
 
 Her costume was of some drab or pale yellowish 
 cloth, which fitted almost as closely as her skin. Two 
 distinct triangles of daylight appeared between her 
 arms and the contours of her shapely waist. Her 
 skirts waved off the hips, first this way and then
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 63 
 
 that, in the undulations of a walk which was divided 
 into syllables, as it were, like her name. At her 
 breast was a nosegay of yellow flowers. Kingbolt 
 always noticed in her some subtle touch of distinc 
 tion from the crowd. Yellow flowers, now ? It was a 
 small thing, but nobody else yet wore yellow flowers. 
 And be assured that when, through her example, 
 they should have become the mode, she would be as 
 far in advance again with some new bit of tasteful 
 ingenuity. 
 
 It was upon these two, Kingbolt and Angelica, that 
 interested glances were principally directed. So per 
 fect in every artificial appointment, so elastic in 
 tread, so comely and blooming, so airily free from 
 trace of self-distrust, a young Diana and her brother, 
 Phoabus Apollo, of upper society, they radiated 
 around them, as it were, a kind of awful splendor. 
 
 " I got down on your account," said Kingbolt. " I 
 saw you walking. I was going for a turn up the road 
 after my breakfast." 
 
 " How very good of you ! I have not seen you for 
 a long time. What is the news ? " 
 
 " I am bringing over an English tilbury. I like to 
 have something a little different now and then, you 
 know," he said, twisting a finger in a nonchalant 
 way into the front of his collar. " It has a rumble, 
 you know, for one's man. The horses have a silver 
 bar across their backs, and are harnessed up in this 
 way." He indicated with his hands. 
 
 " You must take me out in it." 
 
 " I think I '11 get a tilbury, too," said Sprowle, not 
 to be wholly relegated to the position of a listener, 
 merely because he was less fluent in talk. As to the 
 tilbury, he may have intended to get it, but probably
 
 64 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 not till after his marriage. The standing of the 
 Sprowles, fortunately, depended upon something be 
 sides a lavish expenditure of money. 
 
 Being of those who did not often take part in the 
 procession, the group set to making satirical com 
 ments, as on some display of curious manners and 
 customs of aborigines. 
 
 " I am told that many of these persons who make 
 such a fine appearance are mere clerks," said Sprowle. 
 " Indeed, I have seen some of them in the shops." 
 
 " I never go to shops," said Angelica. " I send 
 my maid. I order things directly from the manu 
 facturers, and get original designs for myself. Thus 
 you have things that the crowd cannot tiresomely 
 imitate. There ought to be some special dress for the 
 lower classes, for all that kind of people. Simple 
 caps and aprons, say, for the women, and blouses for 
 the men. Then mistakes could not be made." 
 
 " Yes, there ought to be a law, you know," said 
 Sprowle. 
 
 The clerk, Cutler, who prided himself especially 
 upon his dapper attire, and was hardily scanning the 
 fair proposer of the measure herself with an air of 
 connoisseurship, from the steps of the Windsor Hotel, 
 would scarcely have relished a proposition to put him 
 in a blouse, as a mark of his social station. 
 
 " I suppose you will be going out again a great 
 deal, now that Lent is over," said Kingbolt, suggest 
 ing a new train of thought. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so. I am back from abroad only 
 so lately that I do not find the novelty exhausted. 
 Besides one is so uncomfortable in a hotel. It will 
 be such a blessed relief when our house is done. I 
 went to two or three places every night last winter,
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 65 
 
 and was hardly ever in bed before two in the morn 
 ing. I sometimes wonder how I stand it." 
 
 " You are made of ^-on," exclaimed her affianced, 
 admiringly. 
 
 " I have done my share of all that," said Kingbolt. 
 " I used to lead the German continually, chiefly 
 while you were abroad ; but I have given it up. I 
 recollect going to ten young people's dinners, fol 
 lowed by ten large balls, in succession. New York 
 did not content me in those times, either. I used to 
 take in the country also. I made it a point to know 
 every society belle from here to St. Louis. I thought 
 nothing of running out to Cleveland for a wedding, 
 or Cincinnati for private theatricals. You would hear 
 about me out there, I dare say, even yet. But I am 
 not going in for that now. I shall just give a theatre 
 party or so pretty soon, may be a dance, at Del- 
 monico's, or the club house up at Jerome Park, 
 and then clear out." 
 
 " Where shall you go ? " 
 
 " To my place at Kingboltsville." He would have 
 liked to hear her protest against it ; but she only 
 said, 
 
 "What do you do there? It must be very stu 
 pid." 
 
 " Oh, I have my horses. I speed them on a race 
 track of my own. Then I get some fellows up 
 from here, you know. We are close to Bridgehaven, 
 which is quite a city. We shall probably be taken 
 in as a suburb. Then there is a social club of which 
 I am president. They have made me president of a 
 railroad, too. They make me president of almost 
 anything, you know, if I like. I have a lot of trus 
 tees who expect me to be around part of the time, 
 
 5
 
 66 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 and be nagged at about my property. And there is 
 building going on." 
 
 " Yes, I recollect when I first met you at Pau, that 
 you were traveling with your architect, to get up 
 plans for some industrial museum, or library, for the 
 improvement of your tenantry. I suppose it is fin 
 ished by this time." 
 
 " Oh, that rot ! No, I abandoned it long ago. 
 You can't do much for that kind of people ; they 
 would n't appreciate it. Besides, I could not stand 
 the person, that Lloyd, whom I took along with me. 
 He was an acquaintance of mine, and I thought I 
 could depend on him to do as I said. But you would 
 have thought that he was the one who was going to 
 do the building, and had hired me ! I had to turn 
 him adrift. No, my sisters, two widows, a good 
 deal older than I, are tinkering with a church and 
 a new wing to the house. They make me subscribe 
 to the church, though I started it originally, and half 
 finished it. That was another of my ideas. The 
 house has more wings than it knows what to do with 
 now. They went over awhile ago to the Maximoff 
 sale, at Florence, if you remember, and brought 
 back a lot of vases and things to put into the house 
 and the church." 
 
 " I used to go to school with one of the little Max 
 imoff princesses, at Geneva," said Angelica, by way 
 of reminiscence. "She had some trouble with her 
 spine. She took a fancy to me. They were enor 
 mously wealthy. They had one of their residences 
 there. When they sent their great lackeys to take 
 her out for an airing in the carriage, I was often 
 asked also." 
 
 They were continually passing, while engaged in
 
 A MAN OF FASHION DRIVES OUT A FRIEND. 67 
 
 such discourse, the people they knew. The two 
 young men were never done doffing their hats and 
 putting them on again. The old beau, Robert Rink, 
 sometimes spoken of as " the gray deceiver," Judge 
 Chippendale, Watervliet the wit, and Dr. Wyburd, 
 all looked with not less interest than their juniors 
 for the bow of the young beauty. Baron Au, of 
 the Pomeranian legation, and Bulbul Effendi, the 
 hideous little Turkish secretary, whom women toler 
 ated as a kind of bricabrac, chuckled over it audi 
 bly. De Longbow Rowley, upon failing to receive 
 it, though he was perfectly well known, it was a 
 trick Angelica had, occasionally, by way of keeping 
 them on their good behavior, said to Whitehead 
 Finch, 
 
 " /don't see that she is such a howling belle." 
 When Angelica met Ada Trull, whose blonde hair, 
 cut upon her forehead to an even line, resembled a 
 cap of gold, these two exchanged several sprightly 
 nods, in bright recognition of many things in common 
 between them. But with Alice Burlington, between 
 whose father and hers there was a feud, only glances 
 of a far-off pensive criticism were exchanged. 
 
 " She has the knack of making herself the most 
 distinguished figure in the company," said Kingbolt, 
 walking away after leaving her at the Bays water 
 Hotel. " She would do any man credit. Had I been 
 a marrying man in season, I could have found no 
 one who would have served my turn more completely. 
 She is haughty. I do not mind that. We would 
 have been haughty together. Why did I not see her 
 before?" he said. "Or rather, why were not my 
 eyes opened ? I had the same chance with her at Pau 
 as Sprowle, if I had wanted it."
 
 68 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Was it possible, after his large experience of life, 
 the atmosphere of sighs that had been breathed, the 
 swath of damaged affections he had left behind him 
 in his course around the world, that he could have 
 come to the absurd pass of being inconvenienced by 
 one irredeemably beyond his reach ? 
 
 " What in the world," he cried, "can she see in 
 that muff of a Sprowle, at any rate, to take up with 
 him ? " 
 
 Then he scoffed at himself for the unprofitable 
 speculation, and went down to join a group of his 
 friends, ruminating in the large windows of the Em 
 pire Club, with their sticks under their chins.
 
 VI. 
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 
 
 RUSSELL BAINBRIDGE also joined the Sunday pro 
 cession, which he had called the dress-parade of the 
 drill down town. He lapsed into a querulous mood, 
 as he went along, and began to inveigh against the 
 spring as an unsettling season. 
 
 " I dare say I shall be laying violent hands upon 
 some of these prosperous people next, out of pure 
 spite," he said to himself. 
 
 He met Bentley, with whom he had formerly been 
 intimate, leading his charming boys by the hand. 
 " Perhaps I should have made a very tolerable family 
 man myself," he said again. 
 
 But, immediately afterwards, meeting Madeline 
 Scarrett, with her invalid capitalist, Elphinstone 
 Swan, he reflected that, whatever turn fortune might 
 now take, this form of happiness was of course for him 
 impossible. 
 
 Well, perhaps it was better to have been disillu 
 sioned early. One is wiser for such experiences. 
 They are useful in the heavy play of life, which 
 comes later. But had he been in search of that 
 kind of wisdom? He could well have spared it. 
 Why had not his beliefs been left to him? Why 
 could not his modest ventures have been crowned 
 with success, as he saw those of others about him 
 crowned? "I had the economic virtues," he said,
 
 70 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " I was not afraid of work, and I think I should have 
 made a fairly exemplary use of success. T Ah, these 
 eternal Whys ! " 
 
 He checked himself, to inveigh also at Sunday, 
 when one is cut off from the duties that keep his 
 mind profitably employed during the week, as the 
 most unsettling of days, just as spring is the most 
 unsettling of seasons. 
 
 Well up towards Central Park, he encountered 
 Miss Emily Rawson, with a companion. This com 
 panion he recognized, with a movement of surprise 
 and interest, as no other than Ottilie Harvey. The 
 two had just issued from the ornamental iron gates 
 of Saint Adrian's. 
 
 " Will you not join us ? " asked Miss Rawson, in 
 her high-pitched, agreeable voice. " You and Miss 
 Ottilie have met before. I borrowed her this morn 
 ing. She came to hear me sing. I am going to put 
 her in a horse-car, at the end of my street, to get 
 back to early dinner at the Regina Flats. She is 
 stopping with the Hasbroucks, and they insist upon 
 it. I have been singing in the choir this morning. 
 Would you have come if you had been aware of it ? 
 I know you would not. You have not been at church 
 at all this morning. One sees that with half an eye. 
 Oh, you young men ! you young men ! You need 
 looking after." 
 
 She had an almost affectionate air in her banter. 
 She would not have been at all averse to looking 
 after this one herself. 
 
 " What were you sitting up so late over, last night, 
 that you could not have come to church ? Bishop 
 Caxton's sermon was something quite remarkable 
 even if you cared nothing about me ? "
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 71 
 
 " Perhaps I am a little sermon proof. And to tell 
 the truth there was something a little out of the com 
 mon. I have dissolved rny connection with Chippen 
 dale, Bond & Saxby. You see before you Russell 
 Bainbridge, Esq., Attorney and Counselor-at-Law, 
 Notary Public, Commissioner of Deeds for several 
 States, and so forth, and so forth, all on his own ac 
 count. I spent a good part of last evening in my new 
 office, down among the ghosts of lower Broadway. 
 The watchmen too flashed their lanterns at me and 
 wanted to shoot me for a burglar. It is up in the 
 mansard roof of the Magoon Building. As it contains 
 but two chairs, a table, and book-shelves, the problem 
 of producing a gorgeous effect became a rather diffi 
 cult one. Have you no cases you want undertaken, 
 no unlucky debtors you want persecuted ? I know 
 you are in need of a first-class bond and mortgage, 
 no commission to the lender. I have reason to be 
 lieve that, unless this opportunity is taken advantage 
 of, there will never be any others." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you shall have all my litigation. I shall 
 try to become as quarrelsome as possible. How long 
 will it take you before you are Judge ? " 
 
 " It may not be this week perhaps, nor even the 
 next. The law is proverbiably ' slow, but sure.' It 
 sometimes happens that the proportion of slowness 
 to sureness is rather large." 
 
 Whether the meeting had acted as a stimulus or 
 he had the faculty of putting his unpleasant moods 
 under control, at will, Bainbridge now conducted 
 himself with quite his usual animation. 
 
 They drew near in their turn the house of the mer 
 chant prince. 
 
 " Why do we not build palaces ? " said Baiubridge,
 
 72 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 in an impatient tone. " It is high time. Somebody 
 estimates three hundred fortunes of a million dollars 
 each, and plenty of these of from five to a hundred 
 millions, in New York. What are they expecting 
 to do with their money, these Croesuses ? Does ex 
 perience show that their children spend it to any 
 better advantage than themselves ? I should say not. 
 Here now is one more big, genteel house, with no 
 idea above that of a wretched little comfort. No 
 breadth, no grandeur, nothing monumental. Where- 
 ever there is a chance for an honest space of blank 
 wall in an American building they punch it full of 
 windows." 
 
 " I trust you are not forgetting Miss Harvey's re 
 lationship," interposed Miss Rawson. 
 
 " Not at all ; but that need not trammel our ex 
 plorations into the pure realm of the higher arts. 
 Besides, these opinions are eternal verities, as it were. 
 I get them from G. Lloyd and Aureolin Slab." 
 
 He directed a pleasant questioning glance at Otti- 
 lie, on the other side of Miss Rawson. He was won 
 dering what resentment, if any, she cherished for his 
 part in their peculiar first meeting now two months 
 ago. 
 
 Ottilie raised her eyebrows at some of his views. 
 She heard, for the first time, for instance, that com 
 fort was so very despicable an ideal, but she found 
 him amusing, and had no idea of taking further of 
 fense. 
 
 " Sardanapalus, now, Lucullus that kind of per 
 son understood the thing," he went on, confessedly 
 with the extravagance of one whose theories were 
 never likely to be put in practice. " For my part I 
 should have a house as big as the Sub-Treasury, or the
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 73 
 
 Post-Office. I should have perfumes burned at my 
 banquets, slaves with pots of jewels on their heads, 
 roast peacock with the feathers on, and a pearl or 
 two dissolved in everybody's wine-glass." 
 
 " And you would ride out in a circus chariot, I sup 
 pose, drawn by twenty -four white horses with nodding 
 plumes ? " 
 
 " I do not know but I should. On the whole, I 
 think I should, just to show that I was not to be 
 browbeatenjby other people's ideas of what was right 
 and proper for one with so much larger opportunities 
 than themselves." 
 
 " The people about you would be very insincere." 
 
 " I dare say I should not be very sincere myself, 
 but we should try to have a glorious good time, all 
 the same." 
 
 " You are dreadful to-day. I wonder we listen to 
 you. But here is our street. Good-by ! Can you 
 not come up on Friday evening ? Ottilie and the 
 Hasbrouck girls will be with me. Bring your violin. 
 Out of order? Oh, well, come without it, then. 
 Good-by I " 
 
 " Perhaps Miss Harvey will let me put her in the 
 car," volunteered Bainbridge. " Or," deferring po 
 litely, " perhaps she may even feel like walking 
 down, though I fear that would be too fatiguing?" 
 
 " I am an excellent walker," said Ottilie, hesitat 
 ing. 
 
 The delightful morning and the many novel sights 
 and sounds about allured her. If she had borne re 
 sentment it did not survive these fascinating influ 
 ences. She did the young man a tardy justice. After 
 all, perhaps it was not his fault that he had been 
 present at the disagreeable interview.
 
 74 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Thank you ; I will," she concluded. " One hardly 
 knows what distance is, in this entertaining New 
 York." 
 
 The arrangement may not have met with the most 
 perfect approval of Miss Rawson. She repeated her 
 farewells graciously, however. They saw her disap 
 pear down one of the blocks in the numerically en 
 titled cross streets. Its collection of red sandstone 
 facades, with their projecting porches, cornices, and 
 window heads, seen in profile, had somehow the as 
 pect of cliffs or palisades, the flights of heavy steps 
 serving for the bank of debris, at the customary angle 
 of forty-five degrees. 
 
 Ottilie said to Bainbridge that Mrs. Hasbrouck 
 had lately come to take up her abode at the apart 
 ment house on the French plan, known as the Re- 
 gina Flats, and that Amy and Lulu Hasbrouck had 
 brought her down to spend the short spring vacation 
 with them. " They would not take No for an an 
 swer," she said. 
 
 Bainbridge speculated as to whether she might 
 have quixotically refused for this some invitation to 
 visit her uncle's family instead. But she had not in 
 fact been subjected to the temptation, though she 
 may have somewhat expected it. The estrangement, 
 so far as she was concerned, remained as before. 
 
 "Are you as great a Westerner as ever?" The 
 young man inquired, when they had gone on some 
 little way, discoursing with gradually decreasing for 
 mality. 
 
 " Oh, bigoted" she replied, laughing. 
 
 She was dressed this morning in black silk, of a 
 soft character, fitting her neat figure excellently. She 
 had crossed a white handkerchief, bordered with lace,
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 75 
 
 over her shoulders and waist. In facing towards her 
 companion, she was obliged to turn the upper part of 
 her body, as the satin bows of her bonnet held her 
 round chin a little stiffly. They might be fancied to 
 take a certain pleasure in the embrace. The sun, 
 shining directly from the south, as its way is at noon, 
 was sometimes a little incommoding. To shade her 
 eyes, she held up a small morocco prayer-book, pressed 
 against the fringe of hair on her forehead, and looked 
 out at him from beneath it. 
 
 They went down, past the unfinished Cathedral, 
 the Moorish synagogue, the Egyptian reservoir ; the 
 castellated dwellings opposite, on the battlements of 
 which an Ivanhoe, or a Sister Anne, might have ap 
 peared ? They went down past the church of the 
 Heavenly Rest, with the angels trumpeting to the 
 heavens from its 'tower ; past the tall hotels and 
 apartment houses, past the random shops of tailors, 
 confectioners, and jewelers, recommending themselves 
 to neighborhoods where they were not greatly wanted, 
 by a profuse display of Eastlake decoration. 
 
 A few tender flowers were seen in the beds along 
 the base of the massive granite reservoir. In a door- 
 yard, a peculiarly warm and sheltered nook, a mag 
 nolia shrub had already opened some of its large 
 creamy blossoms, though the leaves had not appeared. 
 
 Ottilie exclaimed at the lovely sight. 
 
 " Such a tree might grow in the courts of Paradise," 
 she said. 
 
 " There is a lesson in it. It is very young and sim 
 ple," responded Bainbridge, affecting cynicism at the 
 expense of the poor plant. "It will find that such 
 a splendid effusiveness will not do. After it has put 
 forth all its flowers, you will see it adopt a foliage
 
 76 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 more in keeping with the conditions of a cold and 
 heartless world." 
 
 " How many interesting faces one sees in such a 
 crowd ! " said Ottilie, turning to it again. 
 
 " There are faces, occasionally, that almost give 
 one a pang. He is never to see them again. They 
 pass and that is the end of it. But no doubt it is 
 better that it should be so." 
 
 " You do not think they would wear, then ? You 
 think they would not prove worth your knowing ? " 
 
 "Perhaps I should not prove worth their know- 
 ing." 
 
 Bainbridge made himself her cicerone, and told her 
 what he thought might be interesting of the people 
 who went by. They met some of the upright Wai- 
 kills, and the wicked Huyskamps. They met Water- 
 vliet the wit ; young Stillsby, whose latest inanity 
 goes the rounds with Watervliet's latest gibe ; Blithe- 
 wood Gwin the journalist; Wrye the banker, who 
 was thought to carry Blithewood Gwin in his pocket 
 almost as easily as a copy of his journal ; Mrs. Stone- 
 glass, whose literary receptions are so highly es 
 teemed ; Mrs. Eglantine, who turns her social posi 
 tion to account for the benefit of strugglers, and 
 entertains her friends at other people's parties ; the 
 Hudson Hendricks, the Antrams, the Schinkos ; 
 Hackley and Hastings, two intimates of Rodman 
 Harvey. They met Daisy Goldstone, Ada Trull, 
 Alice Burlington ; and the Misses Gilhooley, daugh 
 ters of the ex-state senator of that name, who had 
 laid the foundations of his fortune at a corner grocery 
 in the " Bloody " Sixth Ward. 
 
 " What a variety of people ! And how do you come 
 to know about them ? " exclaimed Ottilie.
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 77 
 
 " Oh, I have been at the Misses Gilhooley's parties 
 as well as the Bourdons' and Antrams'. There are 
 no nicer nor quieter girls now, since their convent 
 education. It is an interesting class, that of the im 
 migrants who have arrived at prosperity with their 
 native traits unchanged. Refinement of speech and 
 manners is mingled with dialects and boorish coarse 
 ness. Gilhooley did not wish to leave the Sixth Ward 
 even after he was rich, but was prevailed upon to do 
 so by these daughters, who insisted that they wanted 
 their house on Madison Avenue while they were still 
 young, and not when too old to enjoy it. They 
 engage more or less in politics, and hold offices, 
 the wealthy ex-plumbers and liquor-saloon keepers. 
 They wish their children to have educational advan 
 tages superior to their own. This often results in 
 heart-burnings. They are purse-proud, too, and some 
 times cut their children off in good old country style, 
 for ' misalliances.'" 
 
 " You are a student of types and characters, 
 then?" 
 
 " A student very backward at his lessons, if so. I 
 have seen a random collection of people and places, 
 while drifting along ; that is all." 
 
 When Kingbolt and St. Hill were seen riding up 
 in their dog-cart, he had something to say of them in 
 their turn. 
 
 " Is it not severely disapproved of," inquired Ot- 
 :ilie, " their parading up like that, just as the 
 churches are letting out ? " 
 
 " As likely as not they take some credit to them 
 selves for going up with only a single horse, instead 
 of, for instance, Kingbolt's tandem, of alternate bays 
 nd grays. As a matter of fact, nobody is better re 
 ceived in society than he."
 
 78 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " They put up with his bad qualities in considera 
 tion of certain good ones, I suppose ? " 
 
 " I think they rather put up with his good quali 
 ties in consideration of his bad. But nobody ever 
 seriously disapproves of a person with such a prop 
 erty. Why, it must be five millions." 
 
 She gave him a reproachful glance. 
 
 " What is his occupation in life ? " she asked. 
 
 " Spending the revenues of the Eureka Tool Com 
 pany is a very pretty occupation." 
 
 " Well, how does he spend them?" 
 
 " He has numerous caprices. He went abroad with 
 young Lloyd, the architect, to get up plans for model 
 buildings, but quarreled with Lloyd, abandoned the 
 project, and brought back this St. Hill with him in 
 stead. He spent a hundred thousand dollars on a 
 church at Bridgehaven ; then left it. His latest hobby, 
 I believe, is the English sport of fox-hunting. He 
 has his friends in red coats, corduroys, and top-boots. 
 They go flying over the stone fences in Westchester 
 County in the most picturesque and dangerous fash 
 ion. He has corresponding whims in his personal 
 appearance. Sometimes he is very simple. Again, 
 he will wear gold buttons on his dress coat, half a 
 dozen rings on each hand, and bangles, like a woman, 
 and pack up a dozen suits of clothes for a two days' 
 visit. When he first went to Bridgehaven, in all his 
 magnificence, the good people held up their hands in 
 holy horror. They had never seen a ' swell ' before, 
 he said, and he thought he would show them what 
 one was like." 
 
 When this person alighted, as described, and came 
 back in company with the others, Ottilie had her 
 glance of interest for the trio.
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 79 
 
 " What a beautiful girl ! " she exclaimed, quite in 
 nocently referring to Angelica. 
 
 Bainbridge, embarrassed, found her looking at him 
 inquiringly. " Your cousin, Miss Angelica Harvey," 
 he said. " Mr. Austin Sprowle, to whom she is en 
 gaged, is the other one." 
 
 Ottilie was more embarrassed. Fate seemed to 
 force a confidence between them on this basis. But 
 she adopted the policy of entire frankness as the 
 best. 
 
 " There have been disagreements, as you know, in 
 our family, and I have seen little of these relatives," 
 she said. " My cousin is very accomplished, I sup 
 pose, as well as beautiful ? " 
 
 " I have the pleasure of but a slight acquaintance 
 with her. She ' speaks every conceivable language,' 
 as our friend Miss Rawson would say. That means 
 French and German very well, and Italian enough for 
 use in singing. She has visited titled people, and 
 been presented at court. She rides, dances, and con 
 verses. She does not always converse too amiably. 
 Some of the young men are said to be afraid of her 
 on account of the sharp things she says to them. She 
 is a student of character, now. She considers me, for 
 instance, an extremely matter-of-fact person." 
 
 " And Mr. Sprowle, what is he like ? What is his 
 profession ? " 
 
 " He is a genteel idiot, as I think. His profession 
 is the same as Kingbolt's, though he has not the same 
 money to carry it on with." 
 
 Ottilie was not wholly pleased. She would have 
 preferred her kinsfolk to be left to their attitude of 
 dignity, at least. 
 
 " I should hardly think my uncle would like such a 
 match," she commented more distantly.
 
 80 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " They take him for his family. That is what the 
 ladies want, and Mr. Harvey lets them have their own 
 way. Sprowle is the sixth in descent from an ances 
 tor who was a governor, or something of that kind, 
 before the Revolution. Sometimes he is quoted in the 
 fashionable intelligence as Austin Sprowle, Sixth, as 
 though he were a part of a regular dynasty. You 
 cannot do better than such a connection in the way 
 of aristocracy in America." 
 
 "But do you not think that every young man 
 should have some useful work to do ? " 
 
 " That is one of those things that come under the 
 head of ' Important if True.' Why should he ? If 
 the young millionaire were going to have a tremen 
 dous business talent, together with the power that 
 his money gives him, where should the rest of us be ? 
 No ! Polo, pigeon-shooting, racquets, coaching, yacht 
 ing, fox-hunting, are his proper field, unless he can 
 go into the arts. He should aim to hand down the 
 best possible constitutions to the next generation or 
 two. They will surely need them in the work of 
 accumulating fortune anew, when it has slipped 
 through their fingers in the natural course. Sprowle 
 does a little of all these things, but he is not very 
 good at any." 
 
 " He might at least do them well." 
 
 " Why, so he might ; but he does n't. It is a fine, 
 hearty, natural existence," he continued, in a moral 
 izing way, " like that of your Pottawatomies at Lone 
 Tree." Ottilie frowned momentarily at this. " The 
 polo mallet is the noblest implement of husbandry in 
 the world, unless we except, perhaps, the hickory oar 
 or the Creedmoor rifle. The wild young aborigine 
 of civilization, instead of going down town to an qifice
 
 SOME PERVERSE OPINIONS OF MR. BAINBRIDGE. 81 
 
 desk and a dyspepsia and a hectic flush, is off to the 
 chase in the glades of the forest. Ti-ra ! ti-ra ! the 
 rabbit, the quail, the snipe, the New Jersey woodcock ! 
 Back he comes at night, his sinews strengthened, his 
 pulses bounding. He throws down the spoils at the 
 feet of his primitive spouse. A few friendly savages 
 of the vicinity, in evening dress, gather around the 
 frugal mahogany to compare notes on the prowess of 
 the day. And so to well-earned repose, on silken 
 mattresses and eider-down pillows." 
 
 " But if he be as stupid as you say ? A bright, 
 intelligent girl might be capable of so much more 
 under better circumstances." 
 
 " Oh, if the wise married only the wise, and the 
 beautiful the beautiful " 
 
 And with this they were at the Regina Flats. 
 
 Ottilie saw that much of what he had said was, on 
 the face of it, drollery. But it was impossible at the 
 same time to decide what part also might not have 
 conveyed his own sentiments. She did not like such 
 a confirmed tone of ridicule. And she did not like 
 it in a person that he spoke of himself as one who 
 had drifted in life, and had not squared his doings to 
 a fixed plan.
 
 VII. 
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 
 
 THE Regina Flats was near Madison Square. It 
 was a very tall, red brick apartment house, with pic 
 turesque balconies and a slate roof of many stories. 
 Bainbridge, whose own lodging was not far distant, 
 renewed this morning the acquaintance of the Has- 
 brouck family, and began thereafter to make some 
 what frequent visits to their elevated quarters in the 
 Regina Flats. 
 
 He devised, also, some plans for the entertainment 
 of his friends and of Ottilie, their guest. He took 
 them to the opera and the theatre ; and again to a 
 dinner at one of the better restaurants kept in the 
 foreign style. With the novelty of this last Ottilie 
 was especially charmed. 
 
 The young man esteemed his income at this time 
 as too paltry to be husbanded in the least, and spent 
 it freely. He gave himself, in his association with 
 these girls, somewhat the air of a mature person min 
 istering to the pleasure of ingenuous youth. Per 
 haps he deceived himself with this view, but it was 
 one in which the three Vassar undergraduates (who 
 had no small idea of the importance of their ages and 
 station) would hardly have coincided. He found in 
 Ottilie an enthusiasm, an unhesitating belief in the 
 possibility of doing anything and everything, whereas, 
 by virtue of his own cynical enlightenment, he knew
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 83 
 
 perfectly well that little or nothing could be done, or 
 was worth doing if it could be. He said to himself 
 that this was an amusing contrast and a distraction. 
 
 They two had plenty of opportunity for talking 
 together. Mrs. Hasbrouck was of a social nature. 
 Though she could entertain now in but a poor way, 
 she soon had numbers of her compatriots who came 
 to see her and her daughters, and engaged their at 
 tention. 
 
 These were largely Southern migrs who, tired of 
 stagnating at home, had at last gravitated to New 
 York, to try and repair their broken fortunes. Most 
 of the men had titles derived from the land or naval 
 service of the extinct Confederacy, and a certain mil 
 itary way of carrying themselves, though now en 
 gaged in civil pursuits, often of an unpretending 
 character. Among those of the other sex who came 
 was the poetess, Mrs. Anne Arundel Clum. She had 
 written, in the heat of the struggle, 
 
 " Will ye cringe to the hot tornado's rack, 
 To the vampires of the North ? " 
 
 but was now the fashion-and-literary editor of the 
 " Saturday Evening Budget." 
 
 Ottilie learned something, in this way, of the 
 Southern element in New York ; something of per 
 sons who did not come as well as those who did. She 
 took occasion to repeat to Bain bridge stories of bat 
 tles and sieges she had heard, which gratified her 
 taste for the marvelous. She expressed an inter 
 est, also, in some taciturn young men with traditional 
 Virginian names, who showed themselves occasion 
 ally. They were studying medicine and engineering 
 upon scanty means. Whereupon Bainbridge strangely 
 found them of just no interest at all. She said that
 
 84 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Mr. Dinwiddie had related to her instances of a 
 touching fidelity and devotion between slaves and 
 their masters. Colonel Roanoke, in depicting the 
 ruin of the war, had shown how the valuation of the 
 State of Georgia, for example, had shrunk from six 
 hundred millions of dollars to but one hundred and 
 fifty millions, through the abolition of property in 
 slaves alone. 
 
 " How singular it would have been," speculated 
 Ottilie, " had the South succeeded instead of us. 
 Supposing it were now alongside of us as a foreign 
 country, with separate flag, and uniforms of its own, 
 and a long line of custom-houses! It would have 
 been interesting to travel in, would it not ? And 
 both sides would probably have gone on growing 
 more and more unlike as they got older." 
 
 " It might have partly taken the place of Europe," 
 said Bainbridge, " only we should not have regarded 
 it with quite the same abject reverence which is the 
 normal attitude of every good American." 
 
 " I do not wish to listen to any such sacrilege. 
 Europe is my dream." 
 
 " Oh, I shall not do Europe any harm ; but let it 
 keep to its own side of the water." 
 
 Ottilie talked, being led on by her listener to do 
 so, of the things of greatest moment in her present life. 
 She spoke of her studies, her friends, the routine of 
 the school. The characters in books she had read, it 
 also appeared, had taken a strong hold upon her. 
 She considered them worthy of not less animated 
 discussion than real persons. There were secretly 
 those among them she would have liked to imitate. 
 She would have wished to be like Ethel Newcome, 
 generously giving away half her property, herself re-
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 85 
 
 maining unknown ; or Romola, attending upon the 
 footsteps of the blind old scholar, her father ; or 
 Theresa, in " Picciola," softening the lot of the poor 
 prisoner of Fenestrella. 
 
 Whatever was magnanimous quickly moved her. 
 She was responsive, too, to music and fine poetry, 
 and had a capacity for getting pleasure out of simple 
 things. A shop window, an odd figure or an animal, 
 furnished material. With a quick observation, too, 
 she was sometimes rather ingenious in reflection. 
 
 Looking down into the street, for instance, from 
 their balcony, she said, " How strange that the whole 
 traffic should be for the purpose of supplying mate 
 rial wants ! First a dry-goods store, then crockery, 
 then millinery, then shoes, jewelry, drugs, hardware, 
 groceries. Only once in a long time, books, pictures, 
 or even flowers. Do you suppose, when we are suffi 
 ciently advanced, there will be just as many banners 
 hung out, wagons going along, clerks behind the 
 counters, and crowds passing in and out all shop 
 ping for something for the higher faculties instead 
 of the lower?" 
 
 But she was by no means an oppressively serious 
 person. Bainbridge was privileged to see her in 
 moods of a breezy playfulness, that bore out the fore 
 cast of her illuminating smile. She carried her 
 hands in the pockets of her jacket. She sometimes 
 whistled a little to herself, over a piece of embroi 
 dery. Seated at the piano, she threw out her arms 
 in wild despair or disdain over certain music. 
 
 There came up some of those discussions on ver 
 bal points so common by reason of the want of logic in 
 our language. Should " either " be pronounced e-ther 
 or z-ther. Should one say acclimated or accfo'mated,
 
 
 I 
 
 86 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 or spell certain words with double letters or single ? 
 These were the problems mooted. Ottilie secured 
 the large dictionary in her lap and bestowed herself 
 in an easy-chair. She had placed an ottoman for her 
 feet, the better to sustain its weight ; and this af 
 forded a glimpse of small slippers and pretty, blue, 
 clocked stockings. 
 
 "I say i-ther when I am afraid of people, and 
 e-ther when I am not," she announced, as her ultima 
 tum on that point. 
 
 " Webster gives but one Z," declared Bainbridge, 
 arguing a question of spelling. 
 
 " But I give two," she asserted with intrepidity. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you don't believe in 
 Webster ? " 
 
 "I mean to say that I believe in Ottilie Harvey." 
 
 But when she was forced, by general pressure of 
 opinion, to consult the authority, it was found against 
 her. She refused to announce the decision, shut the 
 covers abruptly together, and endeavored, by flagrant 
 subterfuges, to disguise her defeat. 
 
 The balcony of the apartment commanded an ex 
 tensive view. There could be seen from it the inte 
 rior of a city block, with occasional vines, a metal 
 statue or urn, in the depths of the small yards, di 
 vided by high fences, like bins. There was a glimpse 
 of Booth's Theatre, the Grand Opera House, and a 
 bit of the heights of Hoboken. 
 
 Ottilie had excellent eyes, and was pleased to make 
 tests of their ability. Her companions were some 
 times skeptical as to these. She read, for instance, 
 on the high wall of a distant manufactory, the in 
 scription, " Hackley & Valentine, Church, School, 
 and House Furniture." But Bainbridge scoffingly
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 87 
 
 declared it to be " Coffins, Millinery, and Assorted 
 Railroad Ties" 'instead. He pretended further to 
 discern the monogram on the seal ring of a man 
 leaning out of a window at the other end of the 
 block. When the glass was brought, however, it ap 
 peared that she was right. She endeavored to give 
 the credit for her good vision, somehow, to her much- 
 maligned West. 
 
 One afternoon she went out with Bainbridge to 
 visit studios and picture galleries. She was to be left 
 afterwards at Harvey's Terrace, where she wished to 
 call upon Wilhelmina Klauser, now returned from 
 her musical studies at Leipsic. The Klausers would 
 see to her safe return in the evening. 
 
 They went to Tenth Street, and Twenty-Third 
 Street, and thence to the well-known gallery of a 
 dealer in works of the best class, of the modern 
 schools of Paris, Munich, Rome, and Madrid. 
 
 Hardly had they entered this place when Ottilie 
 recognized her cousin, Selkirk Harvey. He was in 
 company with a richly dressed lady, and a man 
 who, though quite bald, was of a figure still young. 
 This latter spoke in an effeminate voice. The three 
 were grouped about a salesman, who expatiated on 
 the merits of canvases before them. Selkirk came 
 over presently and shook hands with her. Then he 
 led her back to make the acquaintance of the lady, 
 who was his mother and her aunt. She made, also, 
 the acquaintance of the gentleman with them, who 
 proved to be Mr. Aureolin Slab. 
 
 Mrs. Rodman Harvey stared at her niece in a way 
 no doubt permissible " in the family," and compli 
 mented her broadly, as if it were a surprising circum 
 stance that she should be so presentable a person.
 
 88 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " I have heard of you. Your uncle told me about 
 you," she said; "but I have been so busy I have 
 so many cares Nobody who has not been through 
 them can have the faintest conception. We are dec 
 orating and furnishing tha house now, and it seems 
 as if every mortal being connected with it had con 
 spired to annoy me. We are looking at pictures for 
 the gallery." She paused, as if for some observation. 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! " murmured Ottilie. 
 
 " What we had in Union Square are but the mer 
 est item towards filling up," continued Mrs. Rodman 
 Harvey. " Mr. Slab has been kind enough to give 
 me his assistance. What do you think of that ? " 
 pointing -very close with her parasol. " Is n't it too 
 dreadful? Here, Mr. Bainbridge, perhaps you are a 
 critic. Did you ever see such sheep in your life? 
 One would not have them at any price." 
 
 She waited for no replies. Ottilie thought her 
 style of conversation very fragmentary, and also that 
 it must be rather unpleasant for the dealer and for 
 Aureolin Slab. 
 
 But the dealer was used to people of many kinds, 
 and led on with unwearied patience from one to an 
 other of his Bouguereaus, Ge'rSmes, Jacquets, Knaus, 
 Von Marckes, Pasinis, Michettis, and Madrazos. He 
 dwelt on their desirability as investments, and en 
 forced his argument with anecdotes of the remarka 
 ble advance in price of certain names. 
 
 As to Aureolin Slab, this gentleman was never so 
 happy as when selecting a work for a friend. He 
 had lost the fortune he once possessed, and was no 
 longer able to do it for himself. He spoke now of 
 broken and pure colors, " mass," "focus," and " sym 
 pathies of lines, radiating and converging." He
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 89 
 
 spread his open palm at times before a picture, with 
 out other comment, as if paddling deliciously in its 
 combined excellences. 
 
 " If I had only thought, I could have sent for you 
 just as well as not," said Mrs. Harvey to Ottilie later, 
 when they were a little apart from the others. " Can 
 you not come to me now for a few days ? With 
 whom are you staying ? What Hasbroucks ? Oh, 
 those must be the people who have made your uncle 
 so much trouble ! " 
 
 " And I hardly think you ought to go about with 
 a young man alone," she added, glancing at Bain- 
 bridge. 
 
 Ottilie departed, having refused this invitation, 
 and not over-pleased with the scrutiny to which she 
 had been subjected, nor the unpleasant allusion to 
 her friends. Nevertheless, she had seen the purchase 
 by her aunt of an actual Ge*r6me, the photographs 
 of which alone, in the window of the principal pic 
 ture store at Lone Tree were esteemed a choice artis 
 tic treasure, and she was deeply impressed. 
 
 Her companion took pains to sound her as to what 
 change of sentiment, if any, had been operated by 
 the meeting. He found her more warmly devoted to 
 the Hasbrouck cause than ever. 
 
 " And you," she said, after some impartial remark 
 of his, " I do not understand how you can be friendly 
 to both sides." 
 
 "In international quarrels and this had a kind 
 of international aspect, you know the justice of 
 the cause is considered." 
 
 " I do not see that there is anything equal about 
 it. The Hasbroucks paid once, and now my uncle 
 wishes to make them pay it again. He has got the
 
 90 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 courts to decide in his favor, and it is only some 
 minor delay that keeps him from taking everything 
 they have. Meanwhile they have had little use of 
 their property for years. The Confederate govern 
 ment passed a law that debts of its own citizens to 
 Northerners were to be confiscated. This was one of 
 them. But it seems that after the war the Confed 
 erate laws were not considered binding." 
 
 " Well no, hardly," said Bainbridge. 
 
 " And so they must pay twice. I think it out 
 rageous ; that is what I think." 
 
 " The courts do not seem to think so, as you ad 
 mit." 
 
 " But they had to pay it," insisted Ottilie, impa 
 tiently. " They may not have wished to ; I know 
 they did not ; but their government made them." 
 
 " It was their misfortune, then, to have that kind 
 of a government. I fail to see where that benefits 
 Rodman Harvey. It simply raised a forced loan from 
 them, to that particular amount, whatever it was, 
 and matters between them and Rodman Harvey re 
 mained as before. We are sorry, of course, that it 
 is our friends the Hasbroucks, but the thing is per 
 fectly just. Your uncle, besides, has never had any 
 means of knowing what agreeable and deserving peo 
 ple they are, and he cherishes a peculiar bitterness 
 towards the South. Perhaps if there were anybody 
 to put the case to him in a very persuasive way he 
 might be induced to relent." 
 
 Ottilie may have been more impressed by this sug 
 gestion than at the moment appeared. But she said, 
 perversely, " I should not think lawyers would want 
 to practice their heavy arguments on mere ordinary 
 persons, unversed in legal technicalities. My aunt
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 91 
 
 said I ought not to go about alone with you, and I 
 do not think I will." 
 
 " Did she say that, now ? " he exclaimed, in a 
 hearty way, with a laugh. " Has it reached that 
 point ? Well, you and I know better. This is the 
 chaperon business, the latest great American prob 
 lem. A matron must be on hand everywhere, to play 
 propriety. Perhaps it is an indication of our grow 
 ing wickedness. At any rate, since communication 
 with Europe has become so easy, in these last years, 
 European manners are rapidly making their way 
 here. The amusing thing is to see aspiring young 
 women forcing it, as a pure piece of fashion, upon 
 their dazed mammas, who would never have thought 
 of it of their own accord. It has considerable vogue 
 already, however. If you lived in New York 1 dare 
 say you would come to it, since it is often convenient 
 to follow the mode, even when it is based upon ab 
 surdity. But let us not begin yet. Mrs. Hasbrouck 
 is a sensible woman, and she has not enforced the 
 rule. Besides, it has scarcely touched the interior 
 yet, and you and I well know what can be done 
 there." 
 
 This view seemed to Ottilie wholly reasonable. 
 She recalled so well the entire freedom prevailing at 
 home, and was met by this restriction so almost for 
 the first time, that the puzzling caution of her aunt 
 had seemed adapted to no other purpose than to bo 
 used, as she had used it, as a pleasantry. 
 
 By some favoritism in early times the rocky site 
 of the old Muffett mansion, now Harvey's Terrace, 
 had been exempted from the general grade. It rose 
 close by the East River, a kind of domestic Ehren-
 
 92 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 breitstein. All of its sides but that of the sloping 
 ascent from Second Avenue, were precipitous. At 
 one end of the cul-de-sac formed by the houses on 
 the top was the gate to a German garden and pavil 
 ion, which was utilized for Turnverein and Saenger- 
 bund feasts, balls of the Dennis J. O'Mulligan Asso 
 ciation, the Box-makers' Union, the Lady Violets, 
 and the Happy Seven, for political caucuses, and Fa 
 ther Mclntyre's lectures on the Ancient Greatness of 
 Ireland. Near the centre of the Terrace was left, 
 between the houses, a small space closed by an iron 
 railing, for a promenade and lookout upon the wide 
 river view. 
 
 Harvey's Terrace was very quiet and genial on the 
 April afternoon when our friends entered it. They 
 took the wrong turning at first, in seeking their num 
 ber. As they passed, something of the blue pros 
 pect, and the sails moving in the river, could be dis 
 cerned completely through the outer line of houses. 
 
 " It is like looking into the magic crystals in which 
 the old soothsayers used to pretend to read the proph 
 ecies of fate," said Ottilie. 
 
 They stopped by the railing, as they retraced their 
 steps, for the enjoyment of the view. There lingered 
 near it, also, a shabby old person, whose only object 
 seemed to be to warm himself in the early spring 
 sunshine. 
 
 A wooden oriel, projecting from the side- wall of 
 the house abutting at the left of the space, held, as 
 it were a bird in its cage, a blonde young woman, 
 sewing. 
 
 The river below was blue. It was ruffled by the 
 breeze, and the swift passage of steamboats, and 
 ships dragged in and out by tugs. The ships' masts
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 93 
 
 came nearly up to a level with the eye. An inter 
 minable expanse of red and black suburban city, 
 bristling with steeples, spread around the farther 
 shores. In the midst of the ruffled blue river lay a 
 number of islands, with singular buildings upon them. 
 These were explained to Ottilie to be the institutions 
 for the poor, sick, and criminals, housed by the great 
 city in the stern charity of self-protection. 
 
 It was the penitentiary that especially fixed the 
 young girl's attention, and exercised a kind of fasci 
 nation upon her. A long, low, sullen, granite build 
 ing, lying there under the great light and air, it 
 blasted the sight. A gang of convicts came out of it, 
 and marching in lock-step, moved like some strange 
 sort of reptile life across the ground, from which it 
 was hardly distinguishable in color. 
 
 A guard-boat, manned by convicts, and carrying 
 a keeper, armed with a rifle, was patrolling the island, 
 in the stream. There might also have been noticed 
 a yawl, which had put out from the shore, and, clum 
 sily handled, as if by inexperienced persons, was 
 drawing near the guard-boat. 
 
 Something as it were bitter rose in Ottilie's throat, 
 and a tender pity in her heart. 
 
 Bainbridge also was serious. " Great heaven ! " 
 he exclaimed ; " that there is but one life to live, and 
 some human beings must pass it like that ! " 
 
 " No, there is, there must be, another ! " said Ofc- 
 tilie, with fervor. " These inequalities convince one 
 of it more than anything else." 
 
 The shabby old person lounging in the sun, not 
 quite so inoffensive as he had at first seemed, notic 
 ing the object of their momentary interest, began by 
 way of overture at conversation
 
 94 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PKINCE. 
 
 " There 's them in it as shud be out, and minny 
 a wan out as shud be in it, so there is." 
 
 Bainbridge at first returned him a careless mono 
 syllable, but finding that he came so close as to an 
 noy Ottilie, said sharply, " Go off, will you ! We 
 don't want you here." 
 
 " I will not go off, then," said the man defiantly. 
 " Has any wan o' yez a better right ? Used n't it 
 to be me own house and home ? Used n't I to be 
 livin' here aisy and paceful, wud me neighbors, till 
 Harvey kem wud his lyers, and his police, and his 
 sowljers, and evicted us out of it? " 
 
 " Oh, if you are going to set up for the Last of the 
 Mohicans, or Philip of Pokanoket, brooding over 
 the ruins of empire, and that sort of thing," said the 
 young man humorously. " I dare say you have heard 
 of the Last of the Mohicans ? " 
 
 " I have not," replied the man sullenly, " nor the 
 first of them, nayther, wud your GeoAegans, and 
 Poky-Woky." 
 
 Ottilie could scarcely contain her laughter at his 
 discomfited air. But the movements of the awk 
 wardly managed yawl in the river were becoming 
 very peculiar, and she turned to watch them. It had 
 approached quite close to the patrol-boat, and the 
 armed guard seemed to be warning it away. 
 
 The man drew off somewhat farther, and, having 
 meditated his grievance, turned back with 
 
 " I did not hear o' thim, but I heard tell o' chatein' 
 a poor man out of his bit of a house and ground. 
 And I heard tell o' yourself, that was wan o' thim 
 that was helpin' wud it. And I heard tell o' chatein' 
 a bank, what is more," he added, after a pause, bend 
 ing out his head in increasing excitement. " Har-
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 95 
 
 vey's Terras, is it ? It 's over beyant, on the Island, 
 Rodman Harvey sliud be, be rights." 
 
 " What does he mean ? " asked Ottilie, turning 
 back, with an anxious expression. 
 
 " Nothing at all. He was one of the squatters, 
 who were put off when the land was wanted for use 
 ful purposes, and naturally feels sore over it. I rec 
 ollect him as particularly violent at the time. His 
 name is McFadd. They say he was a bank mes 
 senger once, but lost his position through shiftless 
 habits, and finally drifted to this place, where it cost 
 him nothing to live. 
 
 " See here, McFadd," he appended, for the benefit 
 of that person, " worse will probably happen to you 
 than being put off a piece of land that was not yours, 
 if you do not keep a civil tongue in your head." 
 
 " Others was knowing to it, besides meself," per 
 sisted McFadd, " plinty more. The prisident o' 
 the bank was knowing to it. A party be the name 
 of Hackley was knowing to it. A party be the name 
 of Gammage, of the same Antarctic Bank, was know 
 ing to it. Did n't I go to the prisident meself, 
 thinkin' I 'd get a bit o' satisfaction be rayson of it, 
 but divil the satisfaction did I get. What was the 
 word o' the likes o' me agin the word o' the likes o' 
 him ? But was n't I the missinger o' the bank meself? 
 and did n't I carry the tillygrams? and did n't I bring 
 Harvey to it, affrighted out of the life of him ? " 
 
 Bainbridge recalled that Gammage was an elderly, 
 broken-down personage, once an occupant of positions 
 of respectability, for whom he had of late obtained 
 an employment in addressing circulars at the office 
 of the Prudential Land and Loan Company. He 
 recollected having heard from Gammage, also, some
 
 96 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 formless hints to the detriment of Rodman Harvey. 
 These were nothing more, he was convinced, than the 
 mouthings of an impotent malice with McFadd, and 
 of a mind disordered by excesses with the other. But 
 the coincidence of the mention of the "name made 
 him determine to question, at a favorable opening, 
 the old clerk who had become his protg, and draw 
 from him whatever he might have to say, in more 
 definite form. 
 
 He was anxious now, for Ottilie's sake, to check 
 this flow of abuse. Before he could take any step to 
 do so, however, she uttered a little excited cry. It 
 was doubtful if she had heard the latter remarks of 
 McFadd at all. 
 
 The yawl from the shore had collided with the 
 patrol-boat, and capsized it. The armed guard, los 
 ing his rifle, which sank to the bottom of the river, 
 was forced to swim to secure his own safety. His 
 convict crew were soon helped aboard the marauding 
 boat, and supplied with fresh clothing. Their now 
 openly discovered friends at once turned back for 
 the shore, and pulled this time with the sweep of 
 trained oarsmen. So sudden and bold had been the 
 mano3uvre that they reached the covert supplied by 
 the freighting schooners, the coal and wood yards, 
 the shot tower, and the breweries fringing the water's 
 edge at Harvey's Terrace, before anything could be 
 done on either side. 
 
 McFadd was greatly excited. He raised and low 
 ered himself on his stiff knee-joints during the spec 
 tacle, and cried, " Heaven be wid ye, boys ! " 
 
 He now hobbled down from the Terrace to the con 
 cluding scene below, where heated policemen, with 
 clubs and revolvers drawn, had begun to beat a 
 grand battue among the lumber yards.
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 97 
 
 Ottilie, in trepidation lest the runagates should ap 
 pear in her own vicinity, now made haste to her des 
 tination, and took leave of her escort. It proved to 
 be the very house next at hand, and the bird-like 
 young woman in the window no other than Wilhel- 
 mina Klauser. The unusual incident they had wit 
 nessed together became the basis of an animated 
 acquaintance at once. At the boarding-house dinner, 
 at which Ottilie also took part, since Klauser had not 
 yet returned from down town, the whole subject of 
 the escape and of the prison in the neighborhood 
 was treated of, in but a facetious light. The senti 
 ment of McFadd was also heard repeated, to wit, 
 that there were many outside the prison who might 
 justly be in it. 
 
 The humorous tone was that which generally pre 
 vailed. The lively Mr. Cutler made many sallies. 
 The newest piece of gossip in the house was his en 
 gagement to the teacher, Miss Speller. It had just 
 transpired. They would be married within the 
 month, Ottilie was told. The quiet, plain Miss Fin- 
 ley, Miss Speller's inseparable friend, would go to 
 live with them. 
 
 The waitress, Sarah, offered the guests such alter 
 natives as " roast beef or boiled mutton," " baked 
 dumpling or boiled Indian pudding." 
 
 " I will take a little boiled tea, Sarah," or, " Some 
 baked bread, Sarah," said Cutler, by way of parody. 
 
 To which the flustered Sarah, unable to cope with 
 him on his own ground, said under her breath, "I 
 suppose you think that very smart. Well, / don't" 
 
 This afternoon made a deep impression on Ottilie. 
 The escape of the prisoners was an incident, indeed, 
 to be taken back to school and narrated among the 
 7
 
 98 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 experiences of her vacation. It proved to have been 
 a case of collusion with an influential prisoner. He 
 was in the boat, and the apparently ill-used keeper 
 had been well paid for his ducking. The rescue of 
 the others, some of whom were subsequently recap 
 tured, had been merely incidental. 
 
 Her active mind and sympathies opened quickly to 
 a subject with which she had never before been con 
 fronted at close quarters. She asked both Bainbridge 
 and others many questions about it. A party was 
 made up to visit the city prison, " the Tombs." She 
 talked with hardened malefactors, and accepted their 
 versions of the malice and errors of others, which alone 
 had placed them there, with great ingenuousness. 
 
 " Why is nothing done" she inquired, " to make 
 such people better, to prevent its going on ? If 
 women, now, had the authority, it seems to me they 
 would do something." 
 
 " I am sure they do a great deal," answered Bain- 
 bridge. " They send all the first-class murderers 
 flowers and quail-on-toast and their photographs, and 
 try to get them out and introduce them into the best 
 society." 
 
 But she was serious, and desired to learn what 
 steps had been taken for the permanent reformation 
 of criminals. He could think of nothing further 
 than a plan at Valencia, in old Spain, where forty- 
 three distinct trades are taught in the prison, and 
 the inmates allowed a share in the proceeds of their 
 labor ; and the Maconochie plan, by which convicts 
 of good behavior are finally left almost free of super 
 vision. But he had some pamphlets which he could 
 send her, on her return to school. 
 
 " Only you must tell me, when you have finished
 
 PROSPECTS FROM HARVEY'S TERRACE. 99 
 
 them," ho said, " which plan, on deliberate reflection, 
 you like the best. Will you not write me a purely 
 philanthropic note, setting forth your system for the 
 final settlement of these vexed questions ? " 
 
 It was not etiquette, at Lone Tree, to be hasty in 
 opening correspondence with young men, although one 
 might walk or ride with them to her heart's content. 
 
 "I am sure I shall not have any opinion," she re 
 plied ; " but if I should Well, I will see." 
 
 A considerable part of the pleasure of her vaca 
 tion had been due to him. She thought it a little 
 odd that he should care to be so considerate to her, 
 when his way was to scoff at everybody and every 
 thing else. He seemed to delight in representing 
 himself, too, to the worst advantage. One would 
 have thought that he was in favor of famine, flood 
 and pestilence, arson and house-breaking, and opposed 
 to all civilized observances. 
 
 As to money matters, he said, " What you have 
 spent, and that alone, you have had." And again, 
 " It is better to live rich than to die rich." 
 
 He perhaps put the climax to his preposterous say 
 ings with the statement, 
 
 " It is more heroic to be a martyr to error con 
 scious error, than truth. Then you have nothing 
 at all to sustain you, and it is pure, solid heroism." 
 
 With his apparent absence of convictions on all 
 the important matters of life, matters as good as set 
 tled beyond dispute, Ottilie thought him a person to 
 be looked at with serious misgivings, from any other 
 point of view than that of a very superficial ac 
 quaintance. 
 
 Miss Rawson thought it odd, too, that he should 
 care to interest himself in an immature school-girl,
 
 100 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " a mere bread-and-butter miss," when he so rarely 
 came to see her. He presented himself on the Fri 
 day evening when Ottilie was at her house. She 
 took occasion thereupon to compliment Ottilie to him 
 in an artful way. 
 
 "You see at once that she is not a New Yorker," 
 she said. " There is a certain lack of something 
 But I like it, you know. It is such a pity that her 
 uncle is so hard ! There is not the slightest possi 
 bility, I suppose, that he will ever do anything for 
 her. And her family, in that obscure Western ham 
 let, perfectly upright and honest, of course, but 
 so poor. He might do so much for them also." 
 
 And to Ottilie she said of Bainbridge with a mean 
 ing smile, which the young girl took to indicate a 
 kind of proprietorship, " Is he not charming ? You 
 must like him very much, or we shall quarrel."
 
 VIII. 
 
 A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE. 
 
 THE merchant prince had alighted from his buggy, 
 on his way down town, every few mornings, during 
 the building of his mansion, and become a familiar 
 figure in the neighborhood. He had peered into 
 corners, turned over bits of loose material with his 
 boot, and put sharp questions to his workmen, lift 
 ing his hand to his ear, in his awe-inspiring way, to 
 catch their replies. 
 
 When all was complete he paid off those engaged, 
 having first beaten them down to the lowest point, 
 and they departed in such contentment as they 
 might. To the general harmony there was one ex 
 ception. 
 
 The stone-mason, Jocelyn, had grumbled for some 
 time, claiming to have taken his contract too cheap, 
 and to be carrying it out at a loss to himself. There 
 had been no relief for this, however. He had been 
 obliged to acquiesce in the brusque opinion of Rod 
 man Harvey, that it was altogether his own affair 
 and he should have kept a sharper lookout. 
 
 But now, at the last moment, an off-set of some 
 hundreds of dollars was also demanded from him, for 
 a bit of defective stone-work. This, he thought 
 might have been spared him in consideration of what 
 he had already suffered. It was the last straw, and 
 it broke the camel's back. Jocelyn went away in a
 
 102 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 rage, vowing never to do another stroke of work for 
 so hard a task-master. He obtained such poor satis 
 faction as he might from retailing everything he could 
 learn to the disadvantage of Rodman Harvey. He 
 did not disdain even the scurrilous stories of the 
 shanty tenants, which he had heard while engaged 
 in building the houses in Harvey's Terrace. He 
 talked in his abusive way among other places, at a 
 Nassau Street restaurant, where he was accustomed 
 to lunch when coming to deposit funds in his bank. 
 
 Jocelyn, in his irritation, was disposed to deny the 
 plainest evidence of the senses. There was, in fact 
 an imperfection, in the corner-stone of the house it 
 self. There began to appear at once a scaling of the 
 surface a defect to which the red sandstone of 
 which New York is so largely built is subject, but 
 only with time, and hard usage by the elements. 
 This scaling continued. One day a lamina as thick 
 as a clap-board detached itself, and disclosed below a 
 very singular thing. 
 
 There was seen one of those large fossil bird tracks 
 found in the Connecticut River formation, from the 
 quarries of which the stone was derived. 
 
 " Anything connected with birds, you know, is 
 dreadful," Mrs. Rodman Harvey declared. She chose 
 to profess a superstitious awe at the occurrence, as if 
 it were a kind of harpy clutch of destiny upon the 
 house. " If a bird flies in at your window, now, 
 nothing could be worse. I have known so many in 
 stances." 
 
 But Dr. Wyburd held learnedly that it was not 
 certain that this was the track of a bird. It was as 
 likely to be that of the Otozoon Moodii, a reptile of 
 the Labyrinthodont order, and the Triassic period, 
 which had often attained to a height of twelve feet.
 
 A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE. 103 
 
 Selkirk approved of the odd foot-print from the 
 curiosity hunter's point of view. Angelica fancied it 
 more like a hand than a claw, and was pleased to 
 find in it a certain resemblance to the Muftett crest, 
 in use on their note-paper and carriage panel. It 
 might be taken as a testimony to their distinction 
 on the mother's side, come down expressly from the 
 Mesozoic age. 
 
 The block was therefore neatly surfaced again, 
 and the singular mark allowed to remain. As it be 
 gan to attract attention from passers-by, a magnolia 
 shrub was set out to partially disguise it. 
 
 After Harvey had finished his series of visits to 
 the house, he was followed by his wife and daughter, 
 who had taken the matter of decorating and furnish 
 ing particularly into their own hands. It may be 
 fair to say that Miss Angelica devoted her chief at 
 tention to her own apartments. She succeeded at 
 last in getting a sitting-room done to her satisfaction, 
 in pear-wood and gray silk plush ; and her bed-room 
 in flowered silk chintz and gilt, this last of a charm 
 ing general pink effect. 
 
 Mrs. Rodman Harvey summoned this-popular ar 
 ranger of interiors, then that. She gave a room to 
 each; then got one to going over the work of the 
 other ; and embroiled herself more or less with all. 
 She was aided by the suggestions of Aureolin Slab, 
 who, though pained to the heart by the exterior of 
 the house, deemed it his duty to save it to what ex 
 tent he could from a similar vandalism within. Then 
 came the dealers in the smaller objects of art, who 
 filled the rooms as full as they could hold of their 
 elegant wares. The result was of a magnificence 
 that the inexperienced in New York houses would
 
 104 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 hardly have inferred from without. It was finished 
 so as to be ready for occupation by the family some 
 what before the opening of the watering-place season. 
 
 There was time, for example, for a notable en 
 tertainment which took the form of a reception to 
 the President of the United States. The merchant 
 prince considered a house-warming, to which the 
 world should be invited on a liberal scale, a promis 
 ing means for the increase of his popularity. It hap 
 pened that the President was to be in town for the 
 dedication of some public monument, and accepted 
 his invitation. 
 
 If Mrs. Rodman Harvey had cares beyond the ken 
 of most mortals even at ordinary times, it may be 
 conceived that they were not diminished now. Her 
 husband, hearing her complaints, suggested, as he had 
 suggested before, that the experiment of taking Ot- 
 tilie to write her letters, and otherwise assist in light 
 ening her burdens, should be tried. 
 
 " Oh, you cannot have relations," objected the 
 brilliant Angelica, impetuously. " There are their 
 dreadful feelings ; and they always expect to be 
 treated as equals." 
 
 The idea apparently did not meet with Mrs. Har 
 vey's favor, perhaps because it had not at first been 
 her own. She was led by it, however, to include Otti- 
 lie in the long list of guests for the " reception." She 
 sent up to Vassar for her, asking her to come down 
 the Saturday before the entertainment being set 
 for Tuesday. It would be an easy way, at any rate, 
 to discharge obligations the niece might fancy them 
 to be under on the score of kinship. 
 
 Ottilie's invitation came late. She was asked to 
 reply by telegraph, and to start immediately, Could
 
 A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE. 105 
 
 she have had the option of writing, she might have 
 framed excuses ; but a refusal by telegraph must be 
 curt and ungracious at best. 
 
 She had had repeated instructions from her mother 
 that it was a Christian duty, as it were, both to her 
 self and her family, to receive in an affable spirit 
 any overtures that might come from this influential 
 source. She remembered the arguments of Bain- 
 bridge, and she remembered the real Ge'rSme she had 
 seen purchased. The Hasbrouck girls themselves, 
 who surprised her meditating over the letter, urged 
 her to go by all means. The opportunity to meet 
 the President, they said, was not to be neglected. 
 She set out, therefore, and the feud in the family was 
 to this extent healed. She knew very well what she 
 should do for the Hasbroucks, could she ever gain 
 sufficiently the confidence of her uncle, their creditor. 
 
 The grand mansion proved for her a near realiza 
 tion of the rich properties she had dreamed of in her 
 histories and romance. "The bedstead in my aunt 
 Alida's room," she wrote home, ministering to the 
 eager curiosity that would naturally be entertained 
 there, " is of carved teak-wood, with a canopy of vel 
 vet and lace, and it stands upon a platform. I am 
 told by her French maid, Rosine, that it cost six 
 thousand dollars. All the toilet articles in my cousin 
 Angelica's chamber, are of ivory and silver," etc., 
 etc., etc. 
 
 There was a fire-place in the wide entrance-hall, 
 with vases and plates of Italian majolica above it, 
 warm rugs before it, and on each side a vase of cloi- 
 sonnS, taller than Ottilie's head. A flat porphyry 
 bowl, standing on a pedestal of old Japanese bronze, 
 as large as a baptismal font, was for the cards of 
 visitors.
 
 106 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 She climbed a stair-case so broad and easy that the 
 climbing was hardly an effort. It had lamps alter 
 nately of silver and porcelain, upheld by bronze fig 
 ures, and it had tubs of tropical plants along its plat 
 forms. In the picture-gallery her GerSme, with 
 plenty of other masters who pleased her even better, 
 when she came to know them, was now securely es 
 tablished. The immediate approach to the gallery 
 was by two short flights of marble steps, with a mar 
 ble balustrade between. On the way you passed the 
 soft bather, Musidora, in marble, faced by a twisting 
 Samson Agonistes. 
 
 The principal drawing-room, upholstered in silks 
 and plushes, in sulphur yellow, was in the lightly 
 severe yet elegant Louis XVI. style. It had a small 
 gallery projecting for musicians. A lesser drawing- 
 room in damasked rose-color, was fantastic with the 
 gilded rococo scroll-works of Louis XV. 
 
 It was her cousin Selkirk who interested himself 
 to go about with Ottilie and explain the puzzling va 
 riety of styles. She found a gravely rich Henri II. 
 library hung in old tapestries. The dining-room had 
 straight chairs and dark Italian cabinets, so rich with 
 carving that no vacant space of the natural wood 
 was seen. Besides the regular collection in the li 
 brary, there was in a small reception-room a series of 
 choice volumes in white vellum, inclosed in ebony 
 cases. 
 
 There were wrought and embroidered tissues of 
 silks and wools, crystal chandeliers with wax tapers, 
 porcelain lamps, their light softened by colored silk 
 shades, and tables to contain them covered with vel 
 vet and bordered with Venetian lace. There were 
 screens, clocks, musical boxes, statuettes, objects of
 
 A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE. 107 
 
 ivory, pearl, ormolu, blue China, and Limoges en 
 amel. The whole was one revel of glowing color and 
 luxury unstinted by thought of expense. 
 
 Ottilie was impressed, too, by her cousin Angelica. 
 She saw her first leaning, in a becoming attitude, on 
 the back of a fauteuil, in one of the rich parlors. 
 She bowed down in ingenuous reverence before the 
 many accomplishments of this young woman, her 
 costly education, her travels, her reception at foreign 
 courts. So many advantages, such beauty, and so 
 high-bred an aspect could hardly consist, it seemed to 
 her, with any but the most dignified and worthy 
 character. 
 
 She did not quite understand how her aunt need 
 really be so agitated over the management of her ser 
 vants, and all the rest. She thought one of the first 
 privileges of wealth would have been to purchase im 
 munity from vulgar cares. "Aunt Alida" took her 
 on her tours of inspection about the house, bustling 
 now with preparations for the festival. She made 
 her a sharer in many confidences, and found here a 
 jewel and there a ribbon which she forced upon 
 her with a lavish open-handedness which proved one 
 of her traits. 
 
 "There are times," she confided to her hearer, 
 " when it seems as if I must put on my bonnet and 
 leave all. I would fly to the ends of the earth, in 
 search of but one moment of blessed, blessed peace. 
 Fourteen mortal servants, the last thought of each 
 of whom is to do what they were engaged for, and 
 the first to persecute me." 
 
 The tasks of the bond- slaves of Egypt, it appeared, 
 the sufferings in Dante's Inferno, were but a baga 
 telle to her own.
 
 108 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Yet Mrs. Rodman Harvey retained a plump come 
 liness. Though often threatening, she did not put 
 on her bonnet for any more desperate purpose than 
 to go out with it wherever it was needed conforma 
 bly to the usages of the best society. 
 
 Nor did Ottilie reconcile herself at once to the full- 
 grown men in livery. They seemed clumsy and out 
 of place in-doors. She would have preferred, for her 
 simpler tastes, neat, trim maid-servants. The Eng 
 lish butler, William Skiff, with his baldness and false 
 teeth, was as imposing as a bishop. Alphonse, the 
 footman and waiter, had a sort of grenadier aspect. 
 He should have presented arms when you came in 
 at the door. If he had, that would have been some 
 thing worth while. The family had brought him 
 back with them from their last tour in Europe. 
 
 Angelica had a cultivated taste in servants. She 
 declared the most simply horrible thing in the world 
 to be a waiter with a moustache, instead of the con 
 ventional side whiskers and shaven lip. This view 
 of the horrible did not strike Ottilie as quite of the 
 profundity to be expected from such a source. 
 
 On the evening of Ottilie's arrival there came in 
 to play billiards with the merchant in his sumptuous 
 new billiard-room, his friends Hackley and Hastings. 
 These two men were cronies of Rodman Harvey, so 
 far as so staid a person could be said to have cronies. 
 Both, as it appeared, resided in the vicinity. With 
 Hastings came his wife, who was young and pretty. 
 She tripped up-stairs to the boudoir of Mrs. Harvey 
 for a confidential chat, while their husbands were 
 knocking about the ivory balls below. Ottilie was 
 presented to her. Quite an intimacy sprung up be 
 tween them, which was increased the next day by
 
 A FLAW IN A CORNER-STONE. 109 
 
 the young girl's admiration for two pretty children 
 whom she was accorded the privilege of seeing put 
 to bed. It ended in her being practically given into 
 the charge of this lady for the entertainment. Her 
 aunt and cousin were to have their hands extremely 
 full. She was not to receive with them, but to be 
 simply a minor guest among the great number in 
 vited, an arrangement that suited her taste ex 
 actly.
 
 IX. 
 
 " TO MEET THE PKESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES." 
 
 THE list of invitations, " To meet the President 
 of the United States," as the inscription on an im 
 pressive large square of pasteboard ran, was suffi 
 ciently large to include Russell Bainbridge. The 
 young man considered it desirable to appear at the 
 reception of a patron, who might be a more useful 
 patron yet. He had % a certain interest, besides, in 
 the new chief magistrate of the country, then but 
 lately installed into office. 
 
 He first paid a call or two, dropped in at a regular 
 weekly reception of the same date, and arrived at 
 Rodman Harvey's at about eleven o'clock. A fine, 
 drizzling rain was falling. The glowing roof of the 
 picture-gallery could be seen from a distance, lighting 
 up the humid atmosphere above it. A striped canvas 
 awning stretched down from the portal of the house 
 and across the sidewalk. Similar awnings were out 
 to-night at the fashionable restaurants and theatres. 
 
 By the awning's mouth lingered a few spectators, 
 kept in check by a policeman, watching patiently un 
 der their umbrellas the arrival of the guests. The 
 elegant men got down, with the collars of their 
 great-coats turned up and silk mufflers about their 
 throats. Wonderful creatures, in voluminous draper 
 ies of white, pale pink, blue, and saffron, followed. 
 Their skirts were gathered close about them, and
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Ill 
 
 they alighted upon the carpeted stone with dainty 
 rebounds. The carriages were ranged in an inter 
 minable file on either side of the street. Their wet 
 varnish glistened in the gas-light. The gas-lights 
 themselves were reflected mysteriously from the wet 
 sidewalks, as if black streams of fathomless depth, 
 somehow curiously solidified to bear the weight of 
 the figures which trod them. 
 
 The gloom without gave but the more effect to the 
 brightness within. Two orchestras were playing: 
 one in the music-gallery of the principal drawing- 
 room ; the other in a spacious temporary apartment 
 formed, for the convenience of the dancers, by roof 
 ing over the yard at the rear of the mansion. The 
 banisters of the grand staircase were adorned with a 
 wreathing of smilax and roses. A deep cornice and 
 wainscot belt of white flowers, starred with others in 
 color, extended around the small drawing-room. 
 Over the spot where the President stood, with the 
 hostess and her daughter beside him, hung a mam 
 moth ball of violets. 
 
 No expense had been spared, as the saying is. 
 Some elderly guests, brushing up their mature whis 
 kers at the mirror in the dressing-room, endeavored, 
 in a practical way, to compute it. There were those 
 who said, 
 
 " Harvey is not doing all this without an object, 
 either. He has his designs upon the distinguished 
 guest of the evening. He hopes to obtain from him 
 the office of secretary of the treasury. He has long 
 intrigued for it. This, chiefly, is what his late polit 
 ical activity means. He considers a seat in Congress 
 from the foremost district of New York, as a step 
 ping-stone. No doubt his not having taken part in
 
 112 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 national affairs before has been construed against 
 him." 
 
 " The health of the present incumbent is not 
 good," said one speaker. " In case of the appoint 
 ment of a successor, it is eminently proper that a 
 secretary should be chosen, for once, from the com 
 mercial metropolis of the country. Who more suit 
 able, in that event, so Harvey thinks, than him 
 self?" 
 
 " He knew the President of old, it seems," said 
 another. " He employed him in some railroad case 
 in the West. Well, I do not say that Harvey would 
 be my choice, but stranger things have happened than 
 that he should get it." 
 
 " I see that General Burlington is here," remarked 
 another. "He and the President were in the war 
 together. I suppose he has laid aside his difference 
 with Harvey for the time being, to come and pay his 
 respects. He is quite right. He is a level-headed 
 person, Burlington." 
 
 These elderly gossips were not above comments, 
 also, on feminine points, and on the current social 
 scandals. They retailed two late Huyskamp esca 
 pades. A granddaughter had run away with an ad 
 venturer, whom she had been in the habit of meet 
 ing in Central Park, instead of going to Madame 
 Bellefontaine's school, for which she started with her 
 books regularly. The second Mrs. Huyskamp, Mrs. 
 James, had also been seen coming out of a cemetery 
 with her head on the shoulder of Northfleet, a man 
 much younger than herself. 
 
 " That I deny in toto" said Watervliet, availing 
 himself of an opportunity to repeat a witticism which 
 had met with success at the club. "It stands to
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 113 
 
 reason. You cannot have old heads on young shoul 
 ders." 
 
 The indifferent feeling with which Bainbridge had 
 come to the party changed to something much more 
 like pleasure when he unexpectedly found Ottilie 
 there. That young woman colored a little on meet 
 ing him. She was reflecting as to what he would 
 think of her vacillation of purpose. 
 
 She was with Mrs. Hastings, who had presented 
 to her a number of young men. Among these was 
 young Stillsby, whose repute for wisdom was not of 
 the most profound. She had been impressed at first 
 by this person's air of fashion, then wondered, and 
 been amused, at the character of many of his sayings. 
 The new acquaintances hovered about her, and Bain- 
 bridge at first could have her to himself but little. 
 
 " You did not write to me, as you promised," he 
 said, seizing one of the opportunities. " I have lived 
 for nothing else ever since." 
 
 " You have lived very well then, apparently. Did 
 I promise to write ? Well, I have been busy. It is 
 but a short time now till our Commencement. And 
 by the way, since you remind me of it, I have used 
 your pamphlets in the preparation of my graduating 
 essay. It is to be ' The Reformation of Criminals.' " 
 
 " Bravo ! At last we have the matter settled. So 
 you are to graduate. And then ? " 
 
 " I return to my home in the West. Glad enough 
 I shall be to get back to dear old Lone Tree again." 
 
 " I am sorry for that. I thought perhaps you 
 might be intending to come here. Your uncle would 
 not leave you a great fortune, I dare say, but he 
 would not be bad to live with. If you should get on 
 as well with the rest as with him, I think you might
 
 114 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 count on a very tolerable existence. Why not re 
 turn?" 
 
 " Nobody has axed me, sir," she said, misquoting 
 the old ballad. Then, as if the subject were not a 
 wholly comfortable one, she changed it, with " Well, 
 you cannot deny that this is palatial." 
 
 " Oh yes, I can. Do not limit my capacity for 
 denying too hastily. In the palace there should be 
 a noble poverty of effect. They understand it in 
 Italy. There should be a few handsome things along 
 the walls, and the central spaces left free, for the 
 noble occupants to walk up and down in, with their 
 hands behind their backs, planning statecraft, wars, 
 and matrimonial alliance, with the princes, their 
 neighbors." 
 
 They were favorably posted for observing the guest 
 of the evening. 
 
 " I think I should wish to be like that," said Ottilie, 
 contemplating him. If I were a man I should want 
 to be very ambitious, and have as many bowing down 
 before me as possible." 
 
 " Oh, the point is to be something ; not to make a 
 lot of people think you are," said Bainbridge. 
 
 It was a fine and somewhat startling sentiment, 
 from him, but he delivered it with an air implying 
 that the object was of course impossible, and nothing 
 less was worth striving for. 
 
 The President was in some sense a type of his 
 kind. He had risen honorably from humble begin 
 nings. He had been farmer's lad, school-master, gen 
 eral in the civil wars, representative, governor of his 
 State, and diplomat. He was a person of sterling 
 worth ; yet he was hardly of merit sufficient in itself 
 to command the imposing recognition he had received
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 115 
 
 He had been chosen rather as a compromise candi 
 date, in the discords of greater leaders, who often de 
 stroy one another, under our system, and rarely attain 
 the coveted prize. His whole presence disclosed a 
 calm, well-regulated life. He was of a good, robust 
 figure, and neat and plain in attire. His dignity was 
 of a genuine, simple sort, arising apparently from 
 consciousness of his exalted success, but it had traces 
 of angularity. He gave all who were presented to 
 him a somewhat stiff shake of the hand. Pie had no 
 great fund of ingenious or gallant discourse at com 
 mand, but uttered now and then one of those mild 
 pleasantries, which pass on such an occasion and from 
 such a source as brilliant scintillations of wit. 
 
 As the pressure of new arrivals slackened, Rodman 
 Harvey, the host, was to be seen conversing with him 
 confidentially, and even giving slight taps on his 
 sleeve, by way of emphasis. 
 
 " Ah yes, indeed," said lookers on, " he will have 
 his secretaryship, sure enough." 
 
 Angelica, slender, erect, with along, simple "train " 
 of rich material stretched out behind her, stood like 
 some rare proud bird. Mrs. Harvey was in brocaded 
 satin, its front embroidered with seed pearls, garnets, 
 and other precious stones. From a collar of large 
 diamonds of the purest water depended a splendid 
 ornament of opal and diamonds. Her full bosom, 
 heaved with the pride natural to such an occasion. 
 She was all smiles and comely condescension. When 
 the guests had finally been received, she took the arm 
 of the President and walked through the rooms. An 
 gelica, had withdrawn with Kingbolt of Kingbolts- 
 ville, to take a turn in the dancing-hall. 
 
 It was at such times that Hodman Harvey was
 
 116 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 especially content with his spouse. This was her ele 
 ment. It was what he had had in mind when, at a 
 certain stage of his increasing prosperity, caught by 
 the subtile taste for fashion and display, he had 
 married the widow of the elegant Charles Battledore. 
 Perhaps, as he contemplated her, his thoughts may 
 have gone back to an earlier helpmate in the day of 
 small things, to her with whom he had trodden 
 ingrain carpets, and sat upon horse-hair furniture. 
 Conference with that wife had always been a matter 
 of the calmest reason. She had had no petulances of 
 a spoiled child, no preposterous stormings-about, aris 
 ing from slight cause and abating as easily. She had 
 been inclined to look upon his growing wealth as a 
 delusion and a snare, and had hardly increased her 
 scale of personal expenses to the last. 
 
 The young children by that marriage were dead, 
 with her. He thought of the group buried away to 
 gether in the rural graveyard of his native place. He 
 had been accustomed to alight from the train there, 
 on summer days, at long intervals, to pass an hour 
 beside their graves. There were wooden urns on the 
 posts of the gate, through which you entered from 
 the village green. The head-stones were stained now 
 and awry, the low mounds grown over with tall grass 
 and wild flowers. How very far away that earlier 
 life all seemed ! Could it be that he had ever been 
 bound in such intimate ties with so different a circle ? 
 Was it to be that in some vague future state the re 
 lation was again to be renewed ? 
 
 The dancing-hall afforded Bainbridge, also, a pre 
 text for taking Ottilie away. Dancing was an ex 
 ercise which he disparaged with some other things, 
 but his partner found him, to her surprise, no mean
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 117 
 
 adept in it. He even aided her in a new step, of 
 which she had got an inkling from the girls at school. 
 In consideration of this she could almost have con 
 doned some of his errors. 
 
 They found seats afterwards in the picture-gallery. 
 It so happened that it was under an orange-tree, by 
 the marble balustrade. Ottilie had an unusual ani 
 mation and color, and fanned herself vigorously. The 
 painter Millboard, wandering about, with little to do, 
 having few acquaintances in the assembly, made a 
 furtive note, on his thumb-nail as it were, of her ap 
 pearance as she reclined in a fauteuil with her fleecy 
 white draperies scattered about the nucleus of her 
 slim waist, arms, and head. 
 
 "Do see me!" she said, admiring herself whimsi 
 cally. " One would think I had always been used to 
 such magnificence, I take it so calmly. And as for 
 my poor dress, for the last hour I have quite forgot 
 ten it." 
 
 " You will find that the fashion reporters, if they 
 be worth their salt, have not been so remiss. It will 
 certainly appear in the papers." 
 
 "That shows how little you know about such 
 things. It cost but never mind what it cost; and I 
 had to make a good part of it myself. If you want to 
 see dressing, look at my cousin Angelica. I am glad 
 if you think it pretty, though. It is what I am to 
 wear on Commencement day. By good luck it was 
 just done, or I could not have come." 
 
 This was a further touch in a Cinderella aspect of 
 her situation, which had pleased him from the first. 
 
 " Oh, an orange-tree ! " she babbled presently, 
 catching sight of the boughs above her head, and 
 raising her fan to touch them. " Do tell me some-
 
 Ii8 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 thing about the orange-groves and the manner of 
 your life there ! " 
 
 " Shall I tell you about the silver blossoms and the 
 golden fruit which are sometimes both on the trees at 
 the same time, when last year's crop has not been 
 wholly picked ? There was a tree on my place which 
 bore one year seven thousand oranges. What do 
 you think of that ? " 
 
 " At that rate you must have made an immense 
 fortune." 
 
 " It was not in my time, though, no such luck. 
 It was only a tradition. In the first enthusiasm of 
 my venture I wrote some letters for a newspaper, 
 which were complimented as one of the most practi 
 cal treatises on orange-culture that had yet appeared. 
 When I got back, I hastened to secure the entree to 
 Mrs. Stoneglass' literary receptions on the strength 
 of it. Really, though, it was pretty grim satire, so 
 far as I was concerned. I was like one of those gen 
 iuses who go about lecturing on ' How to Get Rich,' 
 and have to jump out of the back windows of their 
 hotels for lack of money to pay their bills." 
 
 " You did not succeed very well, then ? I had in 
 ferred so." 
 
 " No, I did not succeed. One year a hurricane, 
 such as had not been known for half a century, ruined 
 me ; the next a frost, such as had not been known 
 for another half a century. You might have heard a 
 ton of coal fall but scarcely anything less on this 
 last occasion, as I woke in the morning and shouted 
 to the hands to rush and apply restoratives. But it 
 was all to no purpose. I took my leave of Florida." 
 
 " And then ? as you ask of me." 
 
 " I came into some more money presently, on the
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 119 
 
 death of my grandfather. Did I ever happen to tell 
 you that I was brought up by my grandfather ? He 
 bore me no grudge, it seemed, for the failure of the 
 orange speculation." 
 
 " It was n't your fault," interrupted Ottilie. 
 
 " It is n't for your faults that people generally bear 
 you grudges. I went next into the manufacturing of 
 a lawn-mower. I put one half of the money in that 
 and loaned the other half, as a temporary accommo 
 dation, to a very dear friend. The lawn-mower was 
 embarrassed by a crisis that overtook certain indus 
 tries about that time. The temporary accommodation 
 extended to my friend, for whom I would have done 
 anything under the sun, and in whose equal devotion 
 to me I had implicit confidence, proved of such per 
 manence instead that not only was it not returned 
 when it would have saved the lawn-mower, but I 
 have never seen it since. This dear friend was hope 
 lessly insolvent, and knew it at the time. He cleared 
 off to Colorado, and that is the last I have seen of 
 him from that day to this. And now you have my 
 whole financial story. It is a little monotonous, is it 
 not, three such mischances ? Nevertheless, it was 
 as I tell you." 
 
 " That, then, is what makes you so cynical ? " 
 
 " I do not admit that I am cynical ; but naturally 
 experiences of the kind hardly improve one 's tem 
 per." 
 
 " You do not think, perhaps," she suggested, "that 
 business may not have been your strong point ? " 
 
 " No, I cannot say that I had thought so. My 
 idea, on observing the countless thousands pouring 
 into the professions, was to try and do something 
 more distinctly practical and useful in the world. 
 Where was the fault with that ? "
 
 120 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Well, you must try again, and a great many 
 times more." 
 
 " At my age one does not try very much more. 
 He takes what is sent him. There are certain ad 
 vantages in the law, however. It is a way of getting 
 even. It affords delightful opportunities for rascal- 
 
 ity." 
 
 " At your age ? " Ottilie exclaimed, " Why, you 
 are a very young man ! " 
 
 Indeed ! Was it thus he impressed her ? They 
 were fast approaching terms of equality, truly. This 
 came of being betrayed into gravity, and making 
 confidences. He had not made them before, he could 
 not tell when. By way of recovering ground he be 
 came as flippant as possible. 
 
 Ottilie could hardly credit the occurrence, in this 
 society, of doings which would better have suited her 
 idea of the times of the Borgias. The suiciding, duel 
 ing, opium-eating, and eloping Huyskamps, of whom 
 she heard, were of the most excellent stock, if that 
 counted for anything. The grandfather, from whom 
 their money was derived, had been a beau in two 
 hemispheres, the companion of Louis Philippe and 
 Ludwig of Bavaria. And that the actors in these 
 dramas should still be welcome on terms of equality 
 seemed to her monstrous. 
 
 " You must know that this putting down of people 
 is not so easy," said Bainbridge, in his worldly tone. 
 "We good ones are not strong enough. The bold 
 and bad override us, and there is nothing to do but 
 to take it out in browbeating the weak and timid. 
 At the same time, I think it doubtful whether the 
 upper circle of society is so much worse than those 
 below."
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 121 
 
 " Worse ? " exclaimed Ottilie with ardor. " Ought 
 it not to be a hundred times better? With every 
 comfort and luxury, with opportunity to travel, to be 
 educated, to be cultured and perfected on every side, 
 it ought to admit of no comparison." 
 
 She put back some strands of her hair from her 
 temples and leaned forward, in the earnestness of her 
 argument. 
 
 " That is a point of view worthy of note, but I 
 doubt if you will find wealth and luxury to have ever 
 worked that way. First, there is the period of hard 
 ship and striving ; then, when the end is attained, the 
 splendid efflorescence, the decadence. For my part, 
 I ask, 'Why is this prejudice against decadences?' 
 They are the autumn, the legitimate fruition, of all 
 that has preceded. Why is the battle so much bet 
 ter than the victory? The poets and orators are con 
 tinually giving us to understand that the struggle 
 for freedom is particularly fine, while the peace and 
 plenty by which it is naturally followed are of no ac 
 count whatever." 
 
 "Oh, can you never be serious?" said Ottilie, look 
 ing at him half wearily. 
 
 Mrs. Hastings now came to find her charge to take 
 her to the supper-room. The tables were so heavily 
 laden with the plate and viands of the costly banquet 
 as to have required to be sustained, so the rumor ran 
 by extra braces underneath. Haricot's men, in 
 unexceptionable evening dress, responded calmly to 
 the demands made upon them. 
 
 " Deux glaces ! " they cried, " Trois glaces," pass 
 ing over these delicacies to the thicket of reaching 
 hands. 
 
 From time to time others made their way through
 
 122 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 the throng, bearing aloft new supplies of game, oys 
 ters, and salads, with deprecating cries of " Please ! 
 please ! " 
 
 Mrs. Eglantine approached the discreet financial 
 magnate, Bloomfield, taking his salad by himself at 
 a corner of the mantel-piece, and said, " I want you to 
 do something with my Missouri 6's. It is the only 
 chance I ever have to get at you. You know every 
 thing. And do you think Devious Air-Line is going 
 higher ? " 
 
 Mrs. Spi'owle said to Mrs. Clef, finding that lady 
 by chance in a chair beside her, " Why do we never, 
 have a gentleman for President ? " To which Mrs. 
 Clef replied good-naturedly, " Why, indeed ? " 
 
 Then Mrs. Sprowle, stopping Kingbolt, who was 
 hurrying by with some refreshment for Angelica 
 Harvey, asked him a question about his friend St. 
 Hill. " He is such an agreeable man," she said, 
 " of the best old Southern stock, which I have always 
 highly esteemed. I do not see him here to-night." 
 
 " He does not come here, I believe. There is some 
 misunderstanding, some difficulty of a business sort 
 between him and Harvey ? " 
 
 " Ah ! indeed ? I must ask him about it," she 
 said, and Kingbolt passed on. 
 
 Next, Austin Sprowle, who appeared to have the 
 most liberal leave of absence from the side of his 
 betrothed, came up to pay compliments, by way of 
 passing the time, to Mrs. Clef, who received them as 
 affably as though she had never said a disparaging 
 word pf him. 
 
 " How delightfully you are looking ! " he said. 
 " We have hardly met since last year, at Saratoga. 
 Saratoga is very good for us New Yorkers. We need
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 123 
 
 something of that kind, a certain a er varia 
 tion ; but we must not drink the waters, we must 
 not, really." His tone was almost tragic. 
 
 " When are we going to have another of our little 
 dinners at the Four-in-Hand ? " Mr. De Longbow 
 Rowley was asking of Ada Trull. 
 
 " Sh ! All that is over for the present. Somebody 
 has been telling mamma that from eleven in the 
 morning till eleven at night is too long for us to be 
 out with the drags. She has heard that Mrs. Gallo 
 way, our chaperon, was younger than most of the 
 girls ; and that some of you young men drank too 
 much champagne." 
 
 Bainbridge managed to bring about another meet 
 ing with Ottilie later in the evening, just before the 
 young girl's departure. Her prospect of going home 
 after her school days, and probably returning to New 
 York no more, was again touched upon. 
 
 " Of course I could never get you to write to me, 
 on any pretext ? " said the young man. 
 
 "No," said Ottilie. 
 
 " Suppose we agree to think of each other ? Sup 
 pose we fix a certain time and hour when you are to 
 think of me, and I of you. Perhaps some mysterious 
 electrical influence will pass between us. Remark 
 able scientific phenomena may take place. It is worth 
 trying." 
 
 " There is a difference in longitude. I should have 
 to remember you at eight forty, or nine twenty, or 
 something, when it was ten here. I could never cal 
 culate it." 
 
 " This is a very sad and solemn occasion, then. As 
 likely as not I shall never see or hear from you 
 again," he said.
 
 124 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 N ever," with a mock melancholy waving of 
 the head from side to side. 
 
 Bainbridge murmured, by way of parody, 
 
 " Two souls with numerous different thoughts, 
 Two hearts that beat as two." 
 
 " But perhaps you think I do not care," he con 
 cluded. 
 
 " Of course I do not. Why should you ? " 
 
 " I think I had begun to take a great liking to 
 you." 
 
 Ottilie would perhaps have been touched by this 
 had she thought him sincere, but she knew his rail 
 lery too well. " I wish I could say that I returned 
 the compliment," she replied. 
 
 " Why can you not ? " 
 
 " Well, you have tried to patronize me a good deal, 
 for one thing," she said, casting about for reasons. 
 " And then, I have hardly ever heard you utter a 
 sentiment I knew to be in earnest." 
 
 " Oh, is that it ?" reflectively. " But in your case 
 I assure you I am earnestness itself." 
 
 " So much the worse ! Nothing is less defensible 
 than to be heavy on a trifling subject." 
 
 In such tantalizing fashion, and with a bright 
 smile and a shake of the hand, she was gone. It had 
 been a pleasant acquaintance, and this was the end 
 of it. 
 
 The thoughts of Russell Bainbridge drifted after 
 her not a little, from his office, up in the mansard of 
 the Magoon Building, where his new-fledged law 
 practice was developing. He was of course as inca 
 pable of foolish sentiment now as the Magoon Build 
 ing itself. But she had been a bright, piquant per-
 
 TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 125 
 
 son, with excellent traits. Wherever she went, he 
 wished her well. 
 
 Meanwhile, for we need not leave at once the 
 scene of rare festivity at Rodman Harvey's, the 
 tete-d-tete which the daughter of the house had 
 granted Mr. Kingbolt had been in progress. The 
 young man had made, it seemed, but a short visit to 
 his estates, and then, for reasons best known to him 
 self, returned. The painter Millboard could hardly 
 fail to include Angelica in his hovering admiration. 
 
 A curiously simple skirt of lustrous, cream-white 
 satin fell down over her limbs, which its folds deli 
 cately outlined. The waist had no other support 
 than a small strap over each shoulder ; but she wore 
 above this a jacket of rare lace, amber-hued with 
 age. She had cast loosely about her neck a gossamer 
 scarf, which she drew together from time to time as 
 it became slightly disarranged. At some places the 
 leaf and snow-crystal patterns of the lace seemed 
 daintily printed upon the smooth, firm flesh. Her 
 arms were of a more pinkish tinge than her face. 
 
 They were lovely arms. They seemed capable of 
 weaving dangerous spells, even from a distance, and 
 Kingbolt of Kingboltsville had ventured into fatally 
 close proximity. 
 
 " I don't know when I have enjoyed a waltz so 
 much before," he protested, passing a cambric hand 
 kerchief over his forehead. " I had about given up 
 dancing, to tell the truth. I have hated to ask an 
 American girl to dance this long time. One does not 
 reverse abroad, you know, and I had quite got out of 
 the way of it." 
 
 " To what shall I ascribe this exemption in my 
 favor ? Your reversing is perfect ; I have no fault to 
 find with it."
 
 126 THE HOUSE OF A "MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Oh, you would turn anybody's head. And of 
 course a man is not going to let slip the opportunity 
 to put his arm around the most beautiful girl in two 
 hemispheres, if he can help it." 
 
 Miss Angelica had two very distinct manners. She 
 could assume, when she chose, and she often chose, 
 a chilling dignity ; but with her intimates she 
 professed to like natural people, and to hate nothing 
 so much as " the qf^ff kind." At this time, too, she 
 was permitting herself, towards some favored individ 
 uals, a certain sisterly policy, warranted, she deemed, 
 by her new situation. But this talk of Kingbolt's 
 seemed trenching on the bounds of the permissible 
 naturalness. She called him " Wretch ! " however, 
 and then inquired, 
 
 " Why do you waste such things on an old engaged 
 girl ? Why do you not go and say them to Daisy 
 Goldstone or Ada Trull ? I suppose you know that 
 I am ' another's,' as the novelists say ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, I know it." 
 
 " Why ! You say it as if you were sorry." 
 
 " I am, damnably," he broke out with a changed 
 manner. 
 
 The profane epithet had been half muttered, but his 
 listener heard it. It appeared that she had led him 
 too far. She had no objection to amusing herself a 
 little while her freedom remained ; but if it were 
 possible, after all they had both seen of the world, 
 that he were going to annoy her with an absurd ear 
 nestness, if he were going to look and talk in such a 
 savage way as that, it was high time to turn over a 
 new leaf with him, and that instantly. In the project 
 she had formed for the disposal of her hand, she was 
 fixed and inflexible.
 
 TO MEET THli PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 127 
 
 Kingbolt had already begun some farther words 
 in the new vein. Angelica looked about for a pre 
 text to repel them. It happened that Dr. Wyburd 
 was holding forth near by. Mr. Hackley, who, on 
 account of his intimacy with Rodman Harvey, as 
 sumed an unusual air of geniality and good-fellow 
 ship in this house, was his principal listener. The 
 doctor was saying, 
 
 " When you hear the first part of a good story, 
 you are pretty sure to hear the last. It comes to you 
 from different sources, and you finally put all the 
 parts together. Now I recollect a certain " 
 
 " Oh, an anecdote ! an anecdote ! " exclaimed An 
 gelica, jumping up, and joining this group. She 
 glanced back at Kingbolt as she did so, as a sign 
 that he might follow if he would. She returned 
 presently to her mamma. Whatever small contact 
 she may have had with the misguided young million 
 aire during the rest of the evening was marked by 
 the calmest indifference. 
 
 The mamma took it upon herself when the guests 
 had gone, and she was alone with her daughter in her 
 sitting-room, in the small hours of the morning, to 
 complain of the character of the tete-d-tete the latter 
 had allowed Kingbolt. She had observed it while 
 moving through the rooms on the arm of the Presi 
 dent. 
 
 " I could see," she said, " that Austin was not at 
 all pleased. It will not do to go on so." 
 
 Angelica, nettled, through her consciousness of rec 
 titude, refused to either explain or deny. 
 
 " If Austin is not pleased with what pleases me, so 
 much the worse for him," she said. "I will not be 
 found fault with. Leave me in peace ! "
 
 128 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 And she retired petulantly up the staircase to her 
 bed-chamber in flowered silk chintz and gilt. 
 
 Mrs. Rodman Harvey murmured after her a for 
 mula to which she was much given. It was intended 
 to convey a sense of an obstinacy out of the common : 
 
 " She is a regular Harvey."
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 
 
 THE Magoon Building stood in that part of lower 
 Broadway, near the head of Wall Street, whose im 
 posing structures loom nearer heaven every day. 
 
 In the Magoon Building were the offices of coal, 
 brick, cement, salt, and silver-mining companies ; 
 offices of attorneys, architects and trustees of estates, 
 offices of locomotive, sleeping-car, iron, and dynamite 
 works. There was the branch office of the Devious 
 Air-Line Railway, and of the Eureka Tool Works of 
 Kingboltsville. Young Kingbolt was sometimes met 
 with coming to this latter. 
 
 " What are you doing now, Russ ? " he asked 
 Bainbridge, whom he had known at college, and 
 passed on, without waiting for an answer. 
 
 There were offices that seemed never to be entered 
 but by stealth, others, as that of the Prudential Land 
 and Loan Company, always widely open, to show 
 their elegant mahogany counters. Feet were never 
 done clacking over the tesselated pavement, nor the 
 elevators flitting mysteriously with their human 
 freights from story to story. 
 
 The day after we saw him last, Bainbridge re 
 turned from lunch an hour later than usual. He 
 stood a few moments at his office window, gazing out 
 at the view. It commanded a corner of Trinity 
 church-yard, the historic graves of which, robbed 
 9
 
 130 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 now of gloom, are invested only with a sentiment of 
 gentle melancholy. The striking of the clock, and 
 the chimes in the belfry, which rang for service daily 
 at three, came across to him at that height almost on 
 a level. An expanse of roofs beyond, studded with 
 innumerable chimneys, like another cemetery in its 
 way, was terminated at the.water's edge by a palisade 
 of masts and spars. Over in the Jerseys could be 
 seen the steam of a locomotive or two, speeding out 
 into the country, thrown up in solid puffs, like clods 
 produced by a rapid burrowing. 
 
 " The tempter no doubt puts us young and needy 
 94ies up into these high places with an object of his 
 own," mused the young man. "Nevertheless," he 
 went on presently, " the kingdoms of the world and 
 the glory thereof, though interesting, certainly do 
 not offer from here overpowering attractions. So get 
 thee behind me, Satan." 
 
 A knock came at the door, and a senatorial-looking 
 man, with a dome-like bald head, gray moustache, and 
 clothing, which, though shabby, had a touch of surviv 
 ing gentility, entered. It was one Gammage, of whom 
 a mention has been made. His figure at a desk in 
 the Prudential L. and L. Company's office was worth 
 much more than the small stipend it commanded, 
 from the pure point of view of dignity. It was a 
 very decayed dignity now, however. A roving eye, 
 an unsteady gait, and an unusual lightness of speech 
 in one who was habitually serious, oppressed by a 
 sense of his position, told the pained eye the story of 
 a relapse into a ruinous habit. The face of this man, 
 instead of being flushed, was of a marble pallor, as 
 though his drams and opiates took hold upon his 
 very vitals.
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 131 
 
 "Purely social call. Don't dis turb yourself," 
 he said. " No business on hand. Just dropped in to 
 see how my young friend was getting along." He 
 seated himself without being asked, and appeared 
 in no haste to go. He had lunched, he said, with a 
 very pleasant fellow, Jocelyn the builder. Jocelyn, 
 it seemed, had been again abusing Rodman Harvey, 
 apropos of the account in the newspapers of the en 
 tertainment to the President. 
 
 " Jocelyn is right, too," said Gammage. " Rodman 
 Harvey is a bad man, a hard man, if ever there 
 was one." 
 
 " What did he ever do to you, Gammage, that you 
 should speak of him in such a way ? What do you 
 know about him ? " Seemingly this was" the oppor 
 tunity for securing information of which he had been 
 in search. 
 
 " He would not give me a situation, when I was 
 first down. May be I'd have been different then. 
 He knew me when I held my head up with the best. 
 He was not always so easy in his circumstances, either, 
 nor so high and mighty and strait-laced. Certain 
 things came under my obsiv my ob servation. 
 Because things are passed over, that is not to say they 
 are forgotten. I suppose he could afford to pay me 
 for keeping quiet, Rodman Harvey could. You would 
 not want to go into it, would you ? " he proposed, in 
 a maudlin way. 
 
 " Go into what ? " inquired Bainbridge, with an in 
 judicious sternness. 
 
 " Oh, of course, I did not mean I am too high- 
 toned " the shattered visitor apologized. 
 
 He rambled thereupon from the subject and was 
 only drawn back to it with difficulty. The ques-
 
 132 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 tioner heard then a story in winch, as in that of 
 McFadd, the names of General Burlington and Hack- 
 ley, now of " Hackley and Valentine," occurred as 
 persons who knew something to the detriment of Rod 
 man Harvey. It was incoherent and fragmentary and 
 highly improbable. Not to give it in the inebriate's 
 mind an exaggerated importance, he abandoned any 
 attempt to make a lucid system of its obscurities, pro 
 posing to defer inquiry into these, should it seem de 
 sirable, till Gammage could be met with in a sober 
 mood. He only asked whether the story had been 
 repeated to any others, to his employer, St. Hill, 
 for instance. 
 
 " No, not as I know of, not lately. Talking with 
 Jocelyn brought it up. You don't suppose I talk to 
 Mr. St. Hill, anyway, do you? He's too super 
 psilious. He takes no interest in poor folks. Be 
 sides, I have my suspicions, also, as to the usefulness 
 of the business transacted in that company's office. 
 I would not wonder, what is more, if there was a pur 
 pose afoot to supplant me in my clerkship. What 
 does he mean by advertising for young men with 
 small capital, to put up as deposits, I 'd like to 
 know ? " 
 
 " I advise you not to go back in your present con 
 dition," said Bainbridge. " You will certainly lose 
 your place. You had better go home and return to 
 morrow, with the best excuse you can offer." 
 
 " Why do you not take me to task ? Why do 
 you not plead with me ? " urged the wretched man, 
 breaking into a kind of luxury of self-abasement 
 under the cold demeanor of his friend. 
 
 "It is too late for that now, Gammage. Your 
 most solemn promises are of no avail. I must give 
 you up."
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 133 
 
 " Don't say that ! Don't say it yet ! You were 
 the only one to give me another chance. You took 
 hold of me when I was ragged and starving. You 
 told me there was n't one man in a thousand looked 
 as well as I did and that the streets was no place for 
 me. Didn't you say that? You put me out among 
 the farmers of Westchester to sober oft', and I did 
 odd jobs and writing for them. After that, at last, 
 you looked about and found me a place and I 
 I lost it, and then you got me this. Did n't you do 
 it ? Were n't you the only one who would trust me 
 again ? " 
 
 " Well, and this is my return for it." 
 
 These were certainly illogical doings for one pro 
 fessing so wholesale a bias against charity, and even 
 the ordinary humane impulses. 
 
 " But this is the last time. Something will stop 
 me yet. Don't say it is too late. Men have been 
 stopped. You will see." And Gammage, partially 
 sobered, shambled away overwhelmed with dejection. 
 
 In the course of a fortnight he had not again ap 
 peared. An inquiry for him at his office by Bain- 
 bridge was answered by Fletcher St. Hill in person. 
 
 " We had to let him go. Frankly, we had to 
 ' bounce ' him," said the manager, emerging from an 
 inner, private room, and airily dusting the sleeve of 
 his coat in a consequential way with a handkerchief 
 as he talked. " He was away two or three days every 
 now and then, and always came back in a beastly, 
 shaking condition. He was of little use to us at the 
 best. He had warnings enough and this time we de 
 cided to put an end to it once for all." 
 
 Bainbridge was led also by sympathetic interest to
 
 134 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Chaiiton Street, where the man had lodged. The 
 people there said that, as well as they knew, he had 
 gone back, after a deplorable debauch, to the West- 
 chester farmers. He had told them that he wished 
 to put himself out of harm's way. The details needed 
 to complete Gammage's story in case he had had a 
 mind to verify them, were thus placed effectually be 
 yond his reach, with that of others. 
 
 A new incumbent was shortly installed at the desk 
 which Gammage had occupied. Mr. Cutler, formerly 
 with Rodman Harvey & Co., was now seen lending 
 the splendor of his crimson braces, his ornate scarf- 
 pin and sleeve-buttons, to the service of the Pruden 
 tial Land and Loan Company. He was said to be a 
 young man who had lately married, and come into 
 control of some little property. 
 
 Though Mr. St. Hill had dusted his sleeve with his 
 handkerchief airily enough, he was a prey at this time 
 to unpleasant reflections. His company had adver 
 tised itself, throughout the small country newspapers 
 and elsewhere, as being the only one offering invest 
 ments which returned from two to four per cent, a 
 month, and the only one always standing ready to 
 buy in its own shares, at par, on demand. There had 
 been at one time a considerable stir of interest in re 
 sponse, but this had gradually subsided. One annoy 
 ing circumstance after another had happened, and the 
 enterprising manager saw himself, as he had unfortu 
 nately often seen himself before, beginning to be in 
 uncomfortable straits. 
 
 If we may be let into a secret, too, the responsibil 
 ity in the company was not so divided that great aid 
 and comfort could be sought elsewhere. The impres-
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 135 
 
 sion ran that Fletcher, of the firm name of Fletcher, 
 St. Hill & Co., was an elderly capitalist, of high 
 character and great wealth, residing in London, and 
 attending to the company's affairs there. The " Co." 
 was thought to indicate partners of a corresponding 
 sort. As the fact was, however, the Prudential Land 
 and Loan Company consisted solely of Mr. F., or 
 Fletcher, St. Hill. The fictitious London nabob had 
 grown up out of no more substantial basis than a 
 comma. A comma had unfortunately crept in as 
 errors will happen even in the best regulated com 
 panies between the two names of the advertiser, 
 and somehow got itself perpetuated. As to the 
 " Co.," that is a common enough assumption, to give 
 a fuller roundness and completeness to a firm name 
 and style. It is often for the satisfaction of such as 
 feel themselves vaguely more comfortable with the 
 idea that they have a number of persons to look to 
 instead of one. 
 
 Mr. St. Hill took out to-day some yellow old letters 
 to which reference has been made. Harvey's desire 
 for the congressional nomination was making talk, 
 and, as bearing upon this, he found them highly satis 
 factory. 
 
 " It is true that Kingbolt has not recovered from 
 his absurd passion for Angelica Harvey," he said, 
 " and would make a precious row if he knew of my 
 using them. But, on the other hand, why need he 
 know ? The chances are twenty to one that, whether 
 I succeed or fail, the secret will rest between Rod 
 man Harvey and myself. He cannot afford to spread 
 the scandal about, and whether / should care to or 
 not would be a matter to be determined afterwards." 
 
 His meditations resulted in a conclusion. " Yes,"
 
 136 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 he said, " I will make them serve my purpose. But 
 now as to the means ? " 
 
 He cast about for the most desirable means from 
 day to day while driven up town in his coupe", rid 
 ing his friend Kingbolt's saddle-horse " Jim " in the 
 Park, while calling at the fine houses on the Avenue 
 to which he had obtained the entrge, or dining at Del- 
 monico's or at the Empire Club. His accomplish 
 ments, his knowledge of the world, his risque stories, 
 and an impressive habit he had of permitting himself 
 always the best of every thing, had gained him much 
 consideration. It was a consideration, however, which 
 had been warmest at first, and was of a declining 
 order. 
 
 His reflections upon this matter were of such a de 
 liberation, however, and one delay after another so 
 interposed, that he had taken no step up to the de 
 parture of the Harvey family, with the exception of 
 its head, to their villa at Newport, and till Kingbolt 
 had set off in his yacht for the coast of Labrador, 
 leaving him, St. Hill, in possession of his bachelor 
 quarters and other comfortable appurtenances. 
 
 When the coast was thus clear he dispatched a 
 short note to Rodman Harvey reopening the subject 
 of his claim. 
 
 " The animosities of the war," he wrote, " have 
 now so far passed away, such time has elapsed for 
 mature reflection, that I trust my application may 
 be met in a different spirit. Since the validity of 
 the debt has never been disputed, I venture to hope, 
 from a person of such recognized standing in the 
 community, from one to whom his reputation must 
 be dear, a voluntary reversal of your former judg 
 ment."
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 137 
 
 Very delicately, like fingering the hair trigger of a 
 deadly weapon, the matter of the late receipt of some 
 old letters from the plantation on the Ashley River 
 was touched upon. " It is the pleasant interest I find 
 in these," he continued, " as recalling the cordial re 
 lations that had once subsisted between yourself and 
 my father, General Rockbridge St. Hill of Savannah, 
 which has especially moved and encouraged me to a 
 renewal of this appeal at this time." 
 
 Rodman Harvey returned much the same kind of 
 blunt refusal as years before. " I know of no such 
 claim valid in law," he said, "and I must decline to 
 be interested in any personal circumstances or remi 
 niscences of the writer whatever." 
 
 It was apparent, St. Hill thought, that he did not 
 remember the contents of his old letters with suffi 
 cient distinctness, or that he did not believe in their 
 existence at all. Could it possibly be, though, that 
 he meant open defiance? 
 
 Under the influence of a slightly more favorable 
 turn in his affairs which relieved his pressing needs, 
 he allowed more time to elapse. Autumn arrived, 
 and the election was at hand. Should this, too, be al 
 lowed to pass, his opportunity would be lost to him 
 for good. Too wily to put upon paper what might 
 be construed into the criminal offense of threats with 
 the purpose of extorting money, he sought and ob 
 tained a personal interview with the merchant prince 
 at his Broadway store. 
 
 Meanwhile Harvey had been enjoying the society 
 of a modest young person, some casual information 
 from whom, as it happened, was to have an important 
 bearing on the interview in question when it should
 
 138 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 take place. This was no other than his niece, Ottilie. 
 She had read her essay, and been on the point of 
 starting for home, when she was met by the entreaty, 
 almost command, to come and aid in taking charge of 
 her uncle's house for the summer. The invitation 
 was conveyed by the hands of the butler, William 
 Skiff. Ottilie's father, a more thick-set and belliger 
 ent-looking copy of Rodman Harvey, who was pres 
 ent at the Commencement, stoutly refused at first, 
 then gave a grudging assent. He accompanied her 
 to New York, and spent a night or two under his 
 brother's roof. During this visit Ottilie being, as it 
 \vere, a hostage, an unbroken truce reigned between 
 the brothers. 
 
 It was Harvey's desire to entertain in the new 
 mansion, during the absence of the family, some per 
 sons of a minor sort necessary to him in his political 
 campaign, who could be flattered so much in no other 
 way. His wife and daughter, had they undertaken 
 such a mission, would hardly have abstained from a 
 disdainful air which must have been fatal to the end 
 in view. He wished Ottilie, therefore, to preside at 
 his table instead, and have a general oversight of tho 
 house with its reduced force of servants, Mrs. Ambler, 
 the housekeeper, still remaining. 
 
 Ottilie imagined in the faces of the Hasbroucks 
 who were to spend the summer economically at a 
 farm in the Catskills a mute reproach, when they 
 learned of her own destination. The very first use 
 she made of some slight influence over her uncle, 
 which she fancied she possessed, was an attempt to 
 conciliate him in their favor as she had proposed. 
 He peremptorily refused and denied all the positions 
 she assumed. But it was in a description that she
 
 IN MAGOON BUILDING OFFICES. 139 
 
 gave him of her friends, what they had suffered from 
 others as well, and who it was that had injured 
 them, that some items concerning St. Hill came out, 
 which proved of value in the interview, as has been 
 said.
 
 XI. 
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 
 
 ADVANCING a little the pace of our story, for 
 the events of the summer must again be returned to, 
 let us see what the manner of this interview, 
 which took place in late October, was. 
 
 The merchant prince had breakfasted that day as 
 usual, before the rest of his family, whom he seldom 
 saw at the morning meal. The semblance of pillage 
 was actively in progress at the store on his arrival. 
 A cannel coal fire burned in his office grate. He 
 thrust his feet into a pair of slippers, of a handsome 
 sort, which his daughter Angelica had embroidered 
 for him in advance of some heavy demand upon his 
 purse. 
 
 He dictated letters to San Francisco, in reference 
 to waste lands he was redeeming ; to Cincinnati, to 
 resist the opening of a street through suburban prop 
 erty ; and to Chicago, to foreclose a mortgage. He 
 saw Mr. Minn about sending an order for Merrimac 
 prints at once, in anticipation of an ease in money 
 which would enhance prices. 
 
 His friend Hackley dropped in and brought reas 
 suring news of his, Harvey's, prospects in the elec 
 tion set for the first Tuesday in November. He then 
 spoke casually of his own proposed connection with 
 the new firm to be constituted upon the retirement of 
 Rodman Harvey. The talk was that Hackley should
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 141 
 
 raise a sum larger than Mr. Minn, in order to outrank 
 Minn in the order of importance. 
 
 " I cannot afford, of course," he said, " to play sec 
 ond fiddle to a person who, however well up in the 
 details of the dry-goods trade, has always taken so 
 much less conspicuous a stand in the community than 
 myself. The firm name must be Hackley, Minn & 
 Co., not Minn, Hackley & Co." 
 
 Harvey had put a number of advantageous things 
 in the way of Mr. Hackley at various times, and the 
 latter had nattered and fawned much upon him in re 
 turn. Perhaps he secretly cherished a belief that it 
 might not really be necessary to secure the whole of 
 the sum proposed, in order to take precedence of Mr. 
 Minn in the partnership, after all. 
 
 Harvey received, next, a man who offered him large 
 gains for the use of his name in the directorship of 
 a new mining scheme. He declined. He could not 
 afford to be mixed up in anything of a problematic 
 character. He bought then of a dealer, in such prop 
 erty, a new lot of defaulted bonds, of Western towns 
 and cities. With ability to wait, this was a very 
 profitable investment. 
 
 Over a luncheon, brought in from a down-town 
 branch of a fashionable up-town restaurant, he glanced 
 at the financial column of his newspaper. A report 
 of a serious illness of Rodman Harvey had served to 
 depress stocks, notably Devious Air-Line, of which 
 he was the principal holder. Happily, it had proved 
 a canard. A trifling touch of vertigo at his broker's 
 office had been magnified into a paralytic stroke, and 
 used with effect until the fiction was exploded. The 
 shares had i-ecovered, and even advanced beyond the 
 point of decline. Such notices, in his regard, were
 
 142 THE HOUSE OF A MEKCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 not infrequent, and perhaps in no other way was his 
 sense of power and self-importance more keenly grat 
 ified. These were the capitalist's pleasures, to see 
 his least movement, an indisposition, a journey, any 
 fugitive taste or whim, of a potent influence in the 
 weightiest affairs of men. 
 
 A visiting-card was now brought in by a boy who 
 sat without, to answer the summons of his sharp lit 
 tle bell. 
 
 " Show him in," said Harvey, after scrutinizing 
 upon it the name of a person with whom he had 
 lately had a brief correspondence, and Fletcher St. 
 Hill entered. 
 
 The merchant prince scanned his visitor with a 
 keen interest which changed so quickly, into a cool 
 impassiveness, that one would have hardly said that 
 it had existed. Yet the glance had served to recall a 
 type of features which he had once known well. 
 
 " I had the honor of sending you a communication, 
 some little time ago, on the subject of a an in 
 debtedness," Mr. Fletcher St. Hill began, after hav 
 ing taken a seat indicated. 
 
 " I had the honor of returning you an answer." 
 
 " It was naturally a disappointing answer." The 
 caller brushed his hat gently with his sleeve. " I 
 ventured to hope that, with the freer discussion of 
 a personal meeting, there might still be hope of 
 change." 
 
 " You had not proposed to undertake legal proceed 
 ings. That is satisfactory to know. You would have 
 been several years too late for that. You understand, 
 of course, that you could have done so, had you 
 availed yourself of your privileges. War suspends 
 but does not annul indebtedness, unless confiscated
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 143 
 
 by special enactment, and this was not confiscated. 
 You base your application now upon grounds of " 
 
 " Simple justice and consideration, as between man 
 and man. You do not deny the original validity of 
 the claim. I find, on lately arriving in this commu 
 nity, that you have the repute of being the support 
 of many worthy enterprises, a church member, and a 
 person of integrity. I was inspired with a lively con 
 viction that you would not permanently take refuge 
 from an honest obligation behind a legal technicality. 
 You have yourself demanded from debtors at the 
 South what was due you there under the same cir 
 cumstances. May I call attention, too, to the fact 
 that I personally was but little identified with the 
 with our" 
 
 " Rebellion, if that is what you mean," supplied 
 Rodman Harvey, sternly. 
 
 " As you please. I was very young, and passed 
 much of the time abroad. I will further urge as a 
 reason for consideration at your hands the situation 
 in which I find myself involved at this time. I will 
 trust in your discretion as a man of honor, and admit 
 that I have met with unexpected and serious difficul 
 ties in a business enterprise which I have undertaken 
 here. I am, in short, sir, at this moment, almost 
 without means." 
 
 He spread both hands wide open, by way of show 
 ing their emptiness of resources. He did not yet 
 display resentment. He did not bluster. This was 
 not at all the Southern fire, as traditionally under 
 stood. He was keeping himself in check, essaying 
 first a policy of ingenuousness and humility, on the 
 chance that this of itself might serve. 
 
 Rodman Harvey turned back in his chair, uphol-
 
 144 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 stered in Russia leather, in which he had turned a 
 little away at first towards his desk, and gazed at 
 his visitor with a level directness. 
 
 " As you were so young at the time," he began, 
 "though permit me to remark upon the expedition 
 with which you have aged, let me relate a small 
 chapter of history. There was owing to me at the 
 South, when it thought good to secede from the 
 Union, about a quarter of million of dollars. I have 
 never recovered so much of it as would pay the fees 
 of collection. I had been of a conservative, nay, 
 even more, of a friendly bias toward the South. I 
 had never assailed your ' peculiar institution ' of slav- 
 ery." 
 
 St. Hill received this with a certain significant ex 
 pression. 
 
 " I was one of those," the speaker continued, " who 
 knew that slavery had not been established in our 
 time, but had come down as an inheritance. As to 
 authorities, texts of Scripture, and the like, there 
 were almost as many on one side as the other, in 
 those days. I did not hold the present generation 
 guilty, and I looked to see the difficulties settled by 
 constitutional means. I liked the Southern people, 
 and had confidence in them. I sent them my goods, 
 on demand, up to the last moment. How was I re 
 paid ? By the basest ingratitude, a treachery that 
 no words can characterize. They betrayed me as 
 unconcernedly as if I had been their most fanatic 
 opponent. I became, with the rest, an * alien ene- 
 my.'" 
 
 "'The, payment of alien enemies is treason to the 
 state,' " he read from a newspaper clipping which he 
 hurriedly took from a pigeon - hole in his desk.
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 145 
 
 " ' Millions and millions, if it be not prevented, may 
 be sent to the enemy's country by Southern patriots, 
 magnifying with a narrow and perverted honesty the 
 duty of individual gratitude, over the holier obligation 
 of national fidelity .' Do you know who wrote that? " 
 
 "No," said his hearer, wincing. 
 
 " Your father, the late ' General ' Rockbridge St. 
 Hill, of Savannah. It was sent to me. His initials 
 are appended to it. Here ! You may see. He had 
 been my correspondent and intimate friend. None 
 understood my condition more thoroughly, and none 
 proved viler now than he. He it was, as I came to 
 know, who, by speeches, articles, and private letters, 
 organized a movement for the general repudiation of 
 debts. He wrote to my debtors, dissuading them 
 from any false sympathy for me, more than others." 
 
 " There may have been similar initials. I have 
 never heard that those were my father's sentiments. 
 I certainly recall newspapers which insisted that in 
 dividual debts were on no account to be repudiated. 
 And how many persons have there not been who 
 have since come forward voluntarily and paid what 
 they owed ? " said St. Hill, making a show of argu 
 ment. 
 
 " The time to pay was then, not now," cried the 
 merchant prince, striking his fist violently upon his 
 desk. " What does it avail that a few should have 
 come whining, five years later, with the money in 
 their hands, and a plea for new credits? I know 
 not how others have fared. I tell you only what hap 
 pened to me. It would have been 'a narrow and 
 perverted honesty,' you see, to have sent me the 
 funds for want of which an old and reputable house 
 was tottering to its fall. I was made to suffer the 
 10
 
 146 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 tortures of the damned. I was well-nigh ruined, body 
 and soul." 
 
 It seemed a curious violence for what had so long 
 passed, even if there were conceded to be excellent 
 provocation. Rodman Harvey possibly thought so 
 himself, for he continued more coolly, though still 
 with snapping eyes. 
 
 " Instead of payment, in those last days, when 
 ordinary years of anxiety were concentrated into 
 hours and minutes, came such newspaper clippings as 
 I have shown you. The South having now both its 
 crop and the price of it received in advance, was ad 
 jured to give of its fullness only to its own glorious 
 cause. 
 
 " Instead of payment came the rhodomontade of 
 your Barnwell Rhett : ' I would go to the fanatic,' he 
 said, ' the manufacturer, the plunderer, who has fat 
 tened upon us like the vulture upon garbage, and I 
 would tell him in thunder tones, This Union is dis 
 solved ! I would write on the walls of their banquet- 
 ing-halls, This Union is dissolved.' 
 
 " Instead of payment came intelligence that at 
 torneys would not aid in the collection of debts, that 
 the courts were closed for collections against citizens 
 of non-slaveholding States. There was news of the 
 riding on a rail, and bare escape with their lives, of my 
 agents. Instead of payment there were missions to 
 Great Britain' and the emperor of the French, to open 
 free ports and ruin utterly the ' mudsill ' merchants 
 of the North. Instead of payment came news of de 
 fault and disaster by every post and telegram. Will 
 you see now how all this was crystallized into legis 
 lation ? It is all here." 
 
 The merchant prince ran over with a mumbling
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 147 
 
 commentary another batch of papers, taken from his 
 pigeon-holes. 
 
 " Montgomery, Proceedings of first Confederate 
 Congress, May, '61, payment to alien enemies for 
 bidden, payment to Confederate treasury author 
 ized : Richmond, debtors to alien enemies held 
 to give information to government receiver under 
 penalty, debtors to alien enemies held to pay re 
 ceiver, and so on, and so forth." He cast the 
 papers suddenly aside, as if recognizing that the argu 
 ment was not worth his pains. " And you," he 
 went on, " of the people who have done this to me, 
 who gave me a day such as " But here he stopped 
 with a final air. 
 
 " I am to understand then," said St. Hill, with a 
 flickering, sardonic smile, " that my application is not 
 favorably received." 
 
 " You are to understand that I consider it the su- 
 premest effrontery. Even had the claim been tech- 
 ' ically valid, I should have resisted it to the last. I 
 would have spent twenty times the sum, before you, 
 or any of your blood, should have benefited from my 
 purse. As to your desiring to place yourself in the 
 list of my private benefactions, I fail to see that you 
 are an orphan asylum, a missionary establishment, or 
 a worthy object of charity in any way whatever. If 
 you are really in difficulties, with your fine new non 
 descript corporation, of which I have heard some 
 thing, I cannot truthfully say that I do not rejoice 
 instead of regretting the fact. Should your troubles 
 be but a tithe of what I was made to endure, then 
 you would know agony indeed." 
 
 St. Hill upon this changed his manner. 
 
 " I fear that you may not have sufficiently at-
 
 148 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 tended to my note concerning the letters of yours 
 now in my possession," he said. " They were not 
 destroyed at the time, in conformity with your cau 
 tion contained in some of them. They turned up the 
 other day, at the plantation on the Ashley. You 
 know the old place well. There is not much left of 
 it, but it had closet room enough, yet, it seems, to 
 contain these. They say you dropped the hint to 
 the regiment you fitted out to give the place partic 
 ularly bad usage should they ever happen to fall in 
 with it. They did fall in with it, and followed your 
 instructions." 
 
 " I had attended to the remark, and had thought 
 of offering you five hundred dollars for your pre 
 tended correspondence," said Harvey. 
 
 He was bending the caller's visiting-card into el 
 lipses, or pivoting it by the corners between a thumb 
 and finger, while he talked. 
 
 " You cannot yet have a distinct recollection of 
 their contents to offer so little. It would be a ridic 
 ulously small sum for such entertaining matter. I 
 must have the full amount of my claim." 
 
 " Then I have nothing further to say." 
 
 " You have given me an abstract of certain papers. 
 Let me give you one in return," said St. Hill, disre 
 garding this. " The letters are all complete and in 
 order. They begin long before the election of Lin 
 coln, extend through that agitating period, and up 
 to the very brink of the war. Letter one if you 
 allow me to display a few of a typical sort is a di 
 rection to lease out your slaves, ' House Molly ' and 
 ' Sue's Tom,' who have been with us, to a neighbor 
 ing plantation. Letter two takes the position that 
 the North and South are antagonistic in essence, and
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 149 
 
 had better separate quietly, each going about its des 
 tiny in its own way. 
 
 " In letter three you are certain that there will be 
 a peaceful separation, and you discuss a proposition 
 of much interest. You think of removing to the 
 South, to become the leading merchant of the new 
 Confederate republic. Charleston, Savannah, and 
 Mobile, when opened to the world as free ports, can 
 perhaps, one or all, be made to surpass New York. 
 As first in the field, with ample capital, and your 
 large connections already established, you may con 
 fidently expect to monopolize the business of supply 
 ing the vast back country, at the unprecedently low 
 rates to prevail under the new system. In letter four 
 you are less positive of non-coercion. A violent sen 
 timent is rising, the end of which it is difficult to fore 
 see. But the conflict at the worst must be short, 
 and can end in but one way, the success of the 
 South. You dally with the idea of removal still. 
 Blockade-running seems to have been spoken of as a 
 resource, during the brief continuance of the struggle, 
 if come it must, with the scheme above indicated to 
 follow. But to the former you are not quite favor 
 able. Letter five relates to a shipment of arms, ' to 
 keep down the niggers with.' This is the last in the 
 treasonable series. 
 
 "You begin almost immediately upon this com 
 plaints, and then unsparing abuse, because some of our 
 small traders, in a most strange and alarming crisis, 
 have not been able to comport themselves towards 
 you with quite the clock-work regularity of the pip 
 ing times of peace. All this would sound well in 
 a gathering of your political friends, would it not ? " 
 concluded the visitor, by way of a summing up.
 
 150 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " You are a fluent talker, Mr. St. Hill. You have 
 interested me in reminiscences to which it is long 
 since I have attended. A thousand dollars for these 
 alleged letters of mine." 
 
 " It must be the full amount of my claim, and 
 nothing less ! " 
 
 " Then, Mr. Fletcher St. Hill," said the merchant 
 prince again, " I must remind you that you have met 
 with a very obstinate person. Be good enough to 
 take yourself and your black-mailing scheme out of 
 my sight. There is the door." 
 
 He turned back to matters demanding his atten 
 tion at his desk with a very offensive air, and as if 
 the subject were finally disposed of. 
 
 " You will regret this. I shall find another cus 
 tomer for them," said the visitor, after a pause, as he 
 buttoned his overcoat irresolutely, and prepared to 
 depart. Greatly chagrined at his failure, he was not 
 sure that he should not have done better to accept 
 the lesser offer made him. But the matter was to 
 take even a worse turn still. 
 
 "No doubt," said Harvey, answering him, as he 
 had not at first appeared inclined to do. " It is what 
 I expected. They will make some little stir, in the 
 heat of the campaign. It is an old calumny, however. 
 I suppose I was not the only one who changed front 
 in face of the wicked attempt to destroy the govern 
 ment. At the same time, I would consider, were I 
 you, whether there are any circumstances in your 
 own situation and career upon which it would not be 
 well to have the full light of publicity turned. You 
 know, in the first place, though perhaps that is not 
 greatly to the purpose, that your father received from 
 his own government the amount of this claim you
 
 EMBITTERED RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SLAVE DAYS. 151 
 
 come so impudently to thrust upon me. You know 
 whether he and yourself were so well occupied to 
 your private advantage, in the business of the Con 
 federacy with which you were intrusted, that you 
 were able to retire after the struggle with a hand 
 some competency, the whole invested in the foreign 
 funds." 
 
 " Tut ! " he continued, as St. Hill gave a violent 
 start of indignation. " Of course these things are 
 not spoken of. A Southern gentleman emerging 
 from the ruin of his country's fortunes with wealth 
 despoiled from its very woes, is not at all a conven 
 tional figure. You know whether," he went on, " in 
 spite of your alleged tender youth, you sailed at one 
 time as officer of a slave-ship, taking advantage of 
 the new situation of affairs to reopen the trade with 
 the coast of Guinea. You may recall, also, some later 
 transactions not altogether of a reputable sort, the 
 collection of moneys for a certain Hasbrouck family, 
 and the like. You know, I say, as I do not pretend 
 to, whether some such allegations as these could be 
 worked up by a little investigation into a highly un 
 pleasant form." 
 
 St. Hill, having no longer a grand stroke in re 
 serve, clenched his hands in a furious temper. It al 
 most seemed as if a bodily assault upon Harvey were 
 imminent. 
 
 " You shall give me satisfaction for these outrages," 
 he cried. 
 
 But the merchant prince, showing so little fear of 
 violence that he still kept his back contemptuously 
 half turned, replied, " If you mean a duel, it is not 
 the custom here. Your own code, too, would no 
 doubt interpose obstacles, on the score of difference
 
 152 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 in age. All the satisfaction, I can give you in this 
 matter, I regret to say, you have already obtained." 
 
 Surely such a way of probing to the quick the sen 
 sibilities of people, even of an objectionable sort, 
 could result only from a high sense of rectitude, a 
 consciousness of a position altogether impregnable. 
 
 St. Hill took his departure, with a bitter personal 
 hatred added to the annoyance of his failure. He 
 did not at once market his wares elsewhere. He had 
 found the means of offense he had counted upon com 
 paratively idle, but he would search for others. If 
 there were any rusted spots in the armor of Rodman 
 Harvey's respectability, here was another person 
 ready to apply to them the biting acid of an enven 
 omed malice. 
 
 The clerks among their packing-cases without no 
 ticed in " the old man," as he departed, a somewhat 
 unusual sprightliness. He had relieved his mind, to 
 say the truth, that day, in a fashion that gave him 
 much satisfaction.
 
 XII. 
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 
 
 OTTILIE'S position, upon becoming a member of 
 the household of the merchant prince, some time after 
 the middle of June, was of an indeterminate char 
 acter. Her uncle treated her with the same consid 
 eration that he would have extended to a visitor of 
 his wife or daughter. Her aunt proposed to draw out 
 a regular schedule of occupations, but this plan, like 
 many others of that remarkable woman, after hav 
 ing been postponed till her return from the country, 
 was never realized at all. Ottilie had some scruples 
 about accepting the moderate allowance that was as 
 signed her before her duties should seem of a more 
 tangible sort. . 
 
 Her cousin Angelica was affable in a condescend 
 ing way ; but as the novelty of her presence wore off, 
 tried to throw upon her a number of burdens which 
 could hardly have been included in her duties by 
 any fair construction. Secretly, this accomplished 
 cousin would have liked to treat her as an upper ser 
 vant. 
 
 " Why not," she said, " since my father pays her ? " 
 
 She even appeared to look upon the allowance 
 made Ottilie, small as it was in contrast with the 
 magnificent sums lavished by herself, somewhat 
 grudgingly. She had that trait of parsimony so es 
 pecially odious and surprising in those who have
 
 154 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 never known either lack of money or the hardships 
 by which its acquisition is often attended. It was 
 a trait hardly likely to be known to her masculine 
 admirers, whose business it naturally was to bestow 
 and not receive. It was known, however, to small 
 tradesmen, and inferiors generally. 
 
 Ottilie felt herself stung, too, from time to time, by 
 intangible offenses of such a nature that she could not 
 always convince herself afterwards, as a conscientious 
 person, that they had really existed. The beautiful 
 and accomplished cousin was like a large, lithe cat, 
 which may scratch cruelly even when but stretching 
 its claws. But much of this came later, though a hint 
 of these small inconveniences is here conveniently set 
 down. 
 
 Ottilie did not at all mind being condescended to 
 somewhat, at first, by so superior and distinguished a 
 personage. 
 
 " How accomplished you are ! " she said to Angel 
 ica one day, in a warm admiration, which was drawn 
 out by some new example of a deftness extending to 
 a great variety of subjects. 
 
 " Well, I ought to be," replied her cousin, serenely 
 accepting the compliment as her due. " I am sure 
 I have had advantages enough. My father tells me 
 that the European part of my education cost him 
 twenty thousand dollars in gold, and gold was at a 
 premium then." 
 
 The reflective mind of Ottilie, besides, would have 
 pardoned much in consideration of a pampered and 
 luxurious bringing up, new evidences of which she 
 saw every day. Her aunt Alida showed her Angel 
 ica's christening robe and other effects of her tender 
 years. The robe was of the rarest old lace, there
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 155 
 
 was also a tiny ring set with a costly pearl, which had 
 accompanied it at the ceremony. The cradle was of 
 ivory and pearl, and had been covered with an ermine 
 quilt, having the infant's name in letters formed of 
 the black tails. There had been two nurses in those 
 times ; one a steady-going Englishwoman, the old 
 family nurse ; the other a robust shepherdess, brought 
 over from her home in the Juras for this especial pur 
 pose. 
 
 Then had followed a nursery-governess, with whom 
 Angelica had acquired the French tongue even earlier 
 than her native English ; then an infantine day- 
 school ; and then the long course of education abroad, 
 varied at one time by a short stay at a seminary of a 
 select character at an elm-shaded Connecticut village. 
 
 Among other small properties about which she 
 thought worth while to write home, though it would 
 be tedious to set them all down here, was a costly gold 
 bon-bon box, chased and enameled, which her cousin 
 had carried to school in her pocket. " Alas ! " said 
 this correspondent later, " when one sees all that it 
 takes to give us the few airs and graces, the petty 
 smattering of things we can acquire at the best, of 
 what obdurate material we seem to be made ! " 
 
 " She certainly is of a lovely, what you might call 
 artistic, taste in dress," wrote Ottilie. " At one time 
 you see her brilliant and Amazonian-looking, in a 
 cuirass flashing with bugles ; again in jackets braided 
 across the front, hussar-fashion. Or she will have a 
 girdle bordered with gold fringe following around the 
 lines of her charming figure, which she knows how to 
 pose in so many graceful attitudes. Again, she wears 
 India mulls, and other such textures, as soft as a 
 summer morning on our dear Kewaydin Lake. There
 
 156 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 is one white dress, with embroidery of blue flowers, 
 and another of gray satin with blue and pink forget- 
 me-nots, that almost drive even poor unenvious me 
 quite wild. Sometimes she appears with a Japanese 
 touch ; then like a court lady of the time of Jose- 
 phine ; and again, with hair rolled high and pow- 
 x dered, and a dot or two of court-plaster, like those 
 German beauties you see in the pictures of the time 
 of Goethe and Mozart. 
 
 " Her system is to get part of her costumes from 
 Paris, and have the remaining, possibly, too, the 
 most effective part, done here under her own super 
 vision, or even so far at least as some alterations 
 and happy new inventions of the minor sort go by 
 her maid Ce"cile, with the aid of her own hands. She 
 has a knack of leadership in these matters. She it 
 is to whom is ascribed the first use of a bonnet made 
 of natural instead of artificial flowers. When flowers 
 are not the mode she wears at her belt an immense 
 bouquet ; when immense bouquets are in fashion she 
 has none at all. She adopts certain stuffs which no 
 one had before thought of using for costumes. She 
 has some made to her own order by the manufactur 
 ers, and it is said they are told to break the loom 
 afterwards, that the patterns may not be duplicated. 
 These are her greater feats. She declares that if a 
 striking hat or costume of hers were imitated she 
 would burn it. But in reality she sometimes sells 
 them to a dealer who comes by the back stairs, and is 
 supposed to have a ready market for the cast-off 
 finery of the upper classes among minor actresses." 
 
 Breakfast at the Harveys was a movable feast. 
 The table stood, and William Skiff's services were 
 likely to be in demand, by one or other of the family,
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 157 
 
 till noon. Angelica took her light repast in bed, or 
 in the intervals of dressing, assisted by C^cile. Noth 
 ing could be more charming than a view of her in her 
 robes of lace and ribbon, as she reclined with a cup of 
 chocolate in her hand in one of her pink silk chintz 
 or gray plush fauteuils. Ce"cile did her abundant hair, 
 which fell far below her waist, pointed and delicately 
 stained her fine nails, laced her stays, and buttoned 
 the marvellous boots which were to bear her about 
 on her errands of pleasure and fashion for the day. 
 
 The time of the annual departure for Newport was 
 close at hand, and Angelica spent some part of every 
 day with C^cile, perfecting the toilettes which were 
 to give her the usual cachet of distinction for the 
 summer campaign. Ottilie, too, was drafted not 
 unwillingly, since it gave her the advantage of asso 
 ciation with her cousin in so informal a way into 
 this service. 
 
 As they worked, Angelica was pleased to show her 
 amiable side. She gossiped, in reply to Ottilie's def 
 erential questions, on that European school life, every 
 thing in connection with which appeared so fasci 
 nating to the younger girl. She had a refined and 
 beautiful manner of telling a story when she chose 
 to exercise it. Ottilie listened as if to the reading 
 of some delightful book of memoirs. 
 
 She complimented her cousin again upon this ac 
 quirement. 
 
 "We had much practice in narration at Paris," 
 said Angelica, accepting it as before. " I perfected 
 myself there. We used to have sewing and embroid 
 ering one morning in the week. A few of the pupils 
 in turn were appointed to entertain the rest with 
 stories. They must have prepared them beforehand.
 
 158 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Madame Batignolles-Clichy sat by and criticised. If 
 there were any straying from the point at issue or 
 drawling or hard drawing of the breath, or if there 
 were too many et puis, et alors, and lorsques in the 
 story, it had to be repeated till it could be properly 
 done. 
 
 " At Geneva," she said, " we had such a lovely 
 distant view of Mont Blanc, across the lake. Our 
 school was an old chateau. The owner had rented it 
 for economy's sake and gone with his family, to live 
 in the orangery. He was a nice old gentleman. We 
 often saw him. I have been back there since, and 
 tested his recollection of me. There he sat, as if it 
 were but yesterday, in his skull cap, on a stone bench, 
 in the sunshine. I let him look at me a long time, 
 when I came up, after alighting from the carriage. 
 
 " ' Tiens ! ' he exclaimed, at length, ' cest la petite 
 Angelica,' It is little Angelica." 
 
 " I left there when I was but fourteen. We used 
 to play hide-and-seek in the garden, and run on the 
 top of a wall along the lake front. A door opened 
 through the wall and gave access to the shore. I re 
 member how the water used to make a wavering on 
 the white curtains of our beds in the summer morn 
 ings. Once we saw one of the lateen-sails capsize 
 and three men drown." 
 
 " Were there many Americans ? " asked Ottilie. 
 
 " I was the only one at first. The rest were of all 
 nations, and many of noble families. Later other 
 Americans came. There was Edith Wynn, of Phil 
 adelphia, who afterwards made a brilliant match with 
 the Due de la Tribord-Babovd. I hear since that she 
 wishes she had n't. There was Lilly Weidenmeyer, 
 a very beautiful girl, who had lovely arms. She
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 159 
 
 would hardly ever consent to have them covered. 
 They were her death in time. She rested on a mar 
 ble mantel when heated with dancing, felt an icy chill 
 run through her, and died within a month, of quick 
 consumption. Alice Burlington was there also. She 
 ducked Madame's lap-dog in the fountain one day, 
 and I told of her, I hardly know what possessed me to 
 do it. I fancy that was the beginning of the trouble 
 in our families. I never see her yet without recalling 
 it." 
 
 " But now Paris ? " said Ottilie, coaxingly. " I sup 
 pose Paris must have been the most interesting of 
 all ? " 
 
 " At Paris we were close to the eccentric Duke of 
 Brunswick's. You never could tell, when you looked 
 out of the window, what color his house was going to 
 be next. Sometimes it was light blue, again dark 
 blue, pink, green, or yellow. He used also to have 
 his maid-servants ride his horses around the court 
 yard, in their ordinary dresses. There was another 
 school, of a commoner sort, on the other side of us, so 
 near that we could look over into its garden and see 
 everything that was going on. The poor girls had to 
 pass a regular muster every morning. We used to 
 see each one in turn hold out her hands, to a teacher, 
 to show her nails ; smile so to show her teeth " 
 (here Miss Angelica smiled in mimicry, displaying 
 her own white teeth to excellent advantage), "lift 
 her skirt above the tops of her shoes, and then swing 
 around, with a flourish, to let it be seen that her dress 
 was properly hooked up, and so pass on. 
 
 " At Hanover," these episodic reminiscences con 
 tinued, " the young German officers used to walk 
 past, by threes and fours, very sentimentally, when
 
 160 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 we were taken to the afternoon concerts at the Thier- 
 garten. But any girl who showed a disposition to 
 flirt was sternly made to sit with her face towards 
 the shrubbery. Once a very bold young aid-de-camp 
 dashed by the school on horseback, and threw a 
 bouquet in at an open window. There could not 
 have been a greater excitement if a bomb-shell had 
 burst." 
 
 The narrator went on to tell of the steps she had 
 taken in due course, in Italy, to acquire the true lin 
 gua Toscana in bocca Romana, and nothing less. 
 
 Returning again to Paris, she said among the rest, 
 that school had adjourned, for the summer months to 
 a villa at Etretat, and lessons had depended on the 
 tides. 
 
 " A ridiculous proposal for my hand was made 
 here," she said, " by the son of a rich Paris grocer. 
 He had seen me walking on the sands, and sent his 
 mother to negotiate. The girls used to ask me after 
 that the price of sugar, and say, ' How is soap to 
 day, Angelica ? ' ' 
 
 The comfortable sitting-room of Mrs. Rodman 
 Harvey, on the story above the parlors, proved to be 
 both the central focus of authority and something of 
 a rendezvous for all the household. Angelica came 
 there for criticism on her new apparel, the yellow- 
 haired Calista to complain querulously of the difficul 
 ties in her studies. 
 
 This child displayed a curious shrinking encour 
 aged by neglect from almost every form of mental 
 effort. She seemed to cherish the idea that her in 
 structors, being sufficiently paid, could somehow learn 
 her tasks for her, as well as teach. But she was found
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 161 
 
 by Ottilie, who took some pains to win her confi 
 dence, to be of a certain slow shrewdness, and of a 
 generous and loyal disposition as well. The young 
 girl thought her not likely, under competent manage 
 ment, to remain always as dull as she seemed. 
 
 Selkirk dropped in at his mother's room to report 
 upon some commission he had undertaken, or, per 
 haps, to keep up an acquaintance which, with the 
 varied habits of the several members of the family, 
 often appeared in danger of lapsing altogether. Rod 
 man, Jr., came to help himself liberally to fine sta 
 tionery, and renew a nagging argument he had in 
 progress for the privilege of a latch-key. His father 
 refused this. His mother, more than once " for the 
 sake of peace," lent him her own. He had entered 
 the Columbia Grammar School now, and was sup 
 posed to be preparing for college. 
 
 " He may not be a saint" Mrs. Harvey took oc 
 casion to say to Ottilie, but she paused there. Some 
 kind of a saving clause seemed to be implied, yet it 
 would be difficult to explain just what it was. 
 
 Conrad, the cook, came in white cap and apron, to 
 confer on the day's dinner. Mrs. Ambler, the house 
 keeper, reported that she had been to market, arid 
 had given out the stores from the store-room a 
 place almost as large as a shop, and redolent of delec 
 table odors like Araby the blest. 
 
 Mrs. Ambler brought the latest news from the 
 servants' hall. John Welsh had come in from the 
 stables in a flushed condition the evening before, 
 and made himself very obnoxious at the dining-table. 
 Miss Angelica's maid, Ce"cile, had again been making 
 trouble in the laundry because her fine clothing had 
 been washed with that of a commoner sort. 
 11
 
 162 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " That girl is an image, if ever there was one," said 
 Mrs. Harvey. . 
 
 She rarely ventured, however, upon further inter 
 ference in the jurisdiction of her daughter. She was 
 afraid of this daughter, as even irrational and strong- 
 willed mothers may be of children stronger than 
 themselves. 
 
 One day the majestic-looking Alphonse, however, 
 it came about, slapped Mary Callahan in the face. 
 Who would have believed it? Who would have sup 
 posed that so formal and irreproachable a person, to 
 the view, could be so rude a barbarian underneath 
 it? Mary Callahan was the trim parlor-maid, who 
 wore pink calico and cleaned the mirrors and brasses, 
 and was often seen on the upper window-ledges, her 
 body half out, holding a sash in her lap while she 
 polished the glass till it shone again. Mrs. Ambler 
 brought the news that she was crying in her room, 
 and dressing in haste, with the avowed intention of 
 "going down to the court for a warrant." 
 
 It was a trait in Mrs. Rodman Harvey's character 
 that you could never tell upon which side she was 
 going to appear. Her judgments were sudden and 
 remarkable. Mrs. Ambler was accustomed to re 
 ceive from her all opinions alike with equal deference 
 and freedom from comment or surprise. She said 
 simply, " Yes, Mrs. Harvey," or " No, Mrs. Harvey," 
 as the case might be. Instead of espousing now the 
 cause of outraged beauty and helplessness, as might 
 fairly have been expected, it was precisely the un- 
 gallant Alphonse, the rude aggressor, a servant, it 
 should be borne in mind, however, of a kind much in 
 demand, and hard to replace if lost, whom Mrs. 
 Rodman Harvey supported.
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 163 
 
 " That Mary Callahan is a limb," she exclaimed. 
 " You will have to go to her and quiet her now, Mrs. 
 Ambler, to keep her from being ridiculous. But 
 afterwards, just put on your things and step down to 
 Galpin's, and see whom else he has got for me. Tell 
 Galpin it is too dreadful of him to treat me the way 
 he does ! Tell him it is too terrible of him to send 
 me such people ! " 
 
 Mrs. Harvey seemed to have divided her servants 
 into three classes, of her own, according to their 
 relative depravity. If the short-comings were com 
 paratively slight, the offender was only a " curiosity." 
 A considerable degree below this was the " image ; " 
 while the most aggravated and heinous form of all 
 was the " limb," whatever that might be. There 
 was great rotation in office, in the household, and 
 frequent recurrence to Galpin. Galpin, being well 
 paid, shrugged his shoulders, and said little, as was 
 the way of a number of other worthy persons whose 
 fortune it was to have dealings with Mrs. Rodman 
 Harvey. 
 
 The rows of servants sitting along the benches of 
 the intelligence office knew her well, and exchanged 
 philosophic reflections about her. She was spoken of 
 as " a woman a bit too free wid her tongue." 
 
 At the same time some mind of more impartial 
 scope among them might remark, " She do be over it 
 as quick ; and may be she'd be the first to be sorry 
 after." 
 
 It was in virtue of irresolute and forgiving traita 
 on both sides, no doubt, that many even of the worst 
 " limbs," persons whose departure from the house 
 had been attended by throes and convulsions, were 
 found reinstated, even after more dismissals than one,
 
 164 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 at their posts, and going about their affairs as though 
 no cloud had ever troubled the serenity of the domes 
 tic sky. 
 
 When Mrs. Harvey had brought matters to such a 
 pass that there appeared no escape, she threw off the 
 direction helplessly upon Mrs. Ambler, and rested 
 upon her own laurels till the way seemed clear again. 
 She had bad housekeepers, she said, who brought her 
 too many complaints of the servants, which showed 
 want of discipline ; and others who brought too few, 
 showing collusion. Mrs. Ambler, deferential in the 
 presence of authority, was of a good deal of self-re 
 liance when it was withdrawn. She indulged the 
 mild vanity of speaking of " my servants," and " my 
 kitchen." She seemed for the moment to have re 
 alized the happy medium. 
 
 Into all this Ottilie was initiated, as a part of her 
 new experiences. Her aunt professed to expect much 
 assistance from her. 
 
 " From no quarter, from no human eye," Mrs. 
 Harvey declared, " do I receive even such a ray of 
 aid and sympathy as might penetrate into the darkest 
 caves of ocean." 
 
 She complained guardedly at first, then more open 
 ly, of selfishness on the part of Angelica, with the 
 rest. " Angelica," she said, never too particular with 
 her metaphors, " would walk over chaos, mountains 
 high, and never raise hand or foot." 
 
 If an impulsive mother, however, she was also a fond 
 one. She bore no apparent grudge for her daughter's 
 selfishness. At the most trivial ailment of Angelica's 
 she manifested a concern which had no fault but over- 
 oSiciousness. She hastened to fetch and carry, pre 
 pared tea and medicines, and asked a thousand su-
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 165 
 
 perfluous questions, which, sometimes met with but 
 short answers. Ottilie once saw the charming patient 
 dash away a teaspoon held by her mother's hand so 
 vehemently that it fell clinking to the floor. 
 
 Good Mrs. Harvey had often occasion to repeat 
 her favorite formula: "She is a regular Harvey." 
 
 The card of Arthur Kingbolt of Kingboltsville 
 came up one afternoon, when the preparing of toil 
 ettes was going on as described. Angelica frowned 
 at sight of it. She was beautifully dressed, as usual, 
 and there was no ostensible reason why she should 
 not have gone down. She handed the card to Ottilie, 
 however, and said : " Please go down for me. Say 
 that I am otherwise occupied, that I cannot con 
 veniently see him. I wish the message to be rather 
 uncivil ; do you understand ? " 
 
 Ottilie had considerable trepidation at the idea of 
 meeting this grand personage, and especially as the 
 bearer of so ungracious a word. But some plainly 
 visible uneasiness of his own prevented his attending 
 to hers. His countenance fell when he saw who it 
 was that rustled down to him instead of Angelica. 
 Ottilie softened the message to what extent she 
 dared. Kingbolt babbled a commonplace or two 
 about the June races, the kind of a season it had been 
 socially, the increasing heat of the weather, and the 
 like, and took his departure. He had hardly deigned 
 to give her, she thought, a second glance. 
 
 " Little enough, poor I, just down from Vassar, 
 knew of the kind of season it had been socially," she 
 said afterwards, about this interview. 
 
 In truth, the numerous victims in a sentimental 
 way blonde and brunette, and in many lands to 
 the personal charms and the magnificence of King-
 
 166 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 bolt of Kingboltsville might now have felt a certain 
 sympathy for him. Rebuffed in advances of a vehe 
 ment earnestness, which he had allowed himself to 
 make to the betrothed of another, his affections, his 
 pride, and his confidence in his own distinguished 
 merits had all suffered cruelly. He was driven to de 
 spair. This refusal to see him completed the meas 
 ure of his humiliation, and, as he said, of his folly. 
 He had thrown himself into the scale against that 
 dolt of a Sprowle Yes, he had come to this, he 
 had condescended to it, and thus it had ended. 
 
 He put his yacht in order, bustling vigorously him 
 self about the preparations, and set off for a cruise. 
 At first in his misanthropy he was capable of ftying 
 a black flag, and becoming a terror of the main after 
 the most approved pattern. But the winds blew, and 
 the seas curled bravely round his prow. He took 
 part in the manoauvres of a squadron in the Sound ; 
 put in at summer resorts along the New England 
 coast ; rose and fell on the great tides of the Bay of 
 Fundy ; made Halifax, passed into the Bras d'Or, 
 and around Prince Edward's Island and the Magdalen 
 Islands, and so home again. 
 
 Much before the end of his six weeks' cruise he 
 figured to himself that he was entirely cured. He 
 went to Newport in the end of August. It was by no 
 means because She was there, but because it was the 
 correct thing to do. Sprowle Onderdonk had mar 
 shaled the Narragansett Gun Club, for instance, and 
 sport of many kinds was in prospect. 
 
 The day at length came when the family departed 
 for their villa, and Ottilie was left to the duties for 
 which she had been more particularly engaged. Har-
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 167 
 
 vey's campaign for the congressional nomination was 
 now begun in earnest. The people whom it was con 
 sidered desirable to dine were invited as proposed. 
 Hackley, served, with a great show of activity, as a 
 confidential agent, and procured the insertion of art 
 ful communications in the newspapers and the like. 
 The reconciliation of coolness of long standing was 
 effected. Sums of money were apportioned out and 
 placed in an occult way, as the saying was, "where 
 they would do the most good." 
 
 In the worst of the midsummer heat Harvey trans 
 ferred his headquarters for a fortnight to one of the 
 great hotels at Coney Island, then newly risen into 
 prominence, and took his niece with him. 
 
 Ottilie did not send for Bainbridge, preferring that 
 their meeting should come about, as it no doubt 
 shortly would, in some natural way. Miss Rawson 
 heard of her arrival and called upon her, partly per 
 haps in the hope of making the acquaintance of the 
 principals of this important family. 
 
 So considerable a time elapsed, however, before a 
 chance meeting with Bainbridge came about that 
 Ottilie perhaps found the surprise he expresssed at 
 finding her in town rather natural. 
 
 " I thought it possible that Miss Rawson might 
 have told you," she said. 
 
 " I dare say she forgot it," he answered dryly. 
 
 Ottilie had inclined to anxiety, remembering the 
 manner of their parting, but as he made no other ad 
 vances than those of an easy, unsentimental good- 
 comradeship, this happily vanished, and they were 
 soon upon their old friendly footing. Bainbridge, 
 not at any time too much pressed with business, had 
 more leisure than ever now in the dull part of the
 
 168 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 summer. He was employing a part of his time, he 
 said, and adding a trifle to his income, by writing oc 
 casional articles for a newspaper. She insisted on 
 his showing her some of these, and he allowed himself 
 to be persuaded to do so. 
 
 It stood the young girl in good stead, now, to have 
 been elder sister, and lieutenant of her mother in the 
 management of a large family. She got on well with 
 the servants and with Mrs. Ambler, the housekeeper. 
 She presided at her uncle's dinner- table with a de 
 mure composure. More than one of the masculine 
 guests regarded with approval the slender figure ap 
 pearing above the board, against its high-backed 
 carven chair. 
 
 The presence of Stoneglass, the editor of the " Me 
 teor," among others, had been secured in some appar 
 ently informal way. He was a person thought to 
 have peculiar influence with a party of independents 
 in the district, who held the balance of power. His 
 position on the nomination, with theirs, was not yet 
 determined, and remained a source of painful anxi 
 ety. Stoneglass was pleased at dinner to compliment 
 the merchant on his " little housekeeper." 
 
 " Few young women nowadays," he said, " know 
 anything of the good old domestic arts, so becoming 
 to their sex." 
 
 He recurred to the simpler days of his youth, when 
 housekeeping had been as regular a part of educa 
 tion as all the others. Harvey, finding him in this 
 vein, encouraged it with the anecdote about Ottilie 
 which he had heard from her father on his visit 
 that she had taken a prize, offered in her family, for 
 the best loaf of bread. 
 
 Stoneglass turned to her pleasantly from the talk
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 169 
 
 on serious matters. What were the views of a learned 
 young lady fresh from Vassar, he asked in banter, 
 on the question of specie resumption ? 
 
 Instead of the blushing disclaimer, which might 
 have been expected, she made him, to his surprise, a 
 little reply which was by no means wholly devoid of 
 sense. Thereafter, whether Ottilie had anything to 
 do with it or not, Stoneglass became, both in the 
 " Meteor " and out of it, a firm adherent of Harvey's 
 cause. 
 
 " Where in the world," her uncle inquired, when 
 the guest had gone, " did you come to have an opin 
 ion on the currency question ? " 
 
 " I happened to have just read it in a newspaper," 
 she explained, coloring. " Should I have told him 
 that ? " 
 
 But she did not appear to find it necessary to say 
 that it was a paper brought her by Bainbridge with 
 one of those occasional articles of his of which he 
 had spoken, and that the article was his. 
 
 Harvey had his niece read to him, and now and 
 then sing some ballad music for which he had a 
 lingering taste, seldom gratified by his daughter An 
 gelica. She read his financial column, with the in 
 cidental references to himself contained in it ; or 
 long reports which he had saved till evening, not 
 having had time to finish them in the morning. 
 
 These were often triads, extending over several 
 days, for defalcation, forgery, breach of trust, and 
 other financial crimes. For these cases, especially 
 when occurring among persons who had once enjoyed 
 the confidence of the community to a notable degree, 
 he showed a definite taste. 
 
 Ottilie ^entured to commend his political ambi-
 
 170 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 tions. " There are so many persons of position and 
 means," she said, ingenuously, " who remain selfishly 
 wrapped up in their own affairs, and take no part in 
 the government, nor aid in any way to improve the 
 general condition." She said she had heard that 
 nothing was so much needed in politics as good men. 
 
 It was at this time that she ventured to approach, 
 with trepidation, the subject of the Hasbroucks. 
 
 "Your interest is creditable, but misdirected," 
 Harvey replied to her appeal. " Let me hear no 
 more of sympathy for them or any of that section of 
 the country. Had it depended upon them, I should 
 have been a beggar in the streets to-day. That I am 
 not, that I escaped bankruptcy, is due I hardly 
 know to what it is due." 
 
 He proceeded to acquaint her with some of the 
 particulars which we have seen laid before St. Hill. 
 
 " I would not fail," he continued, " for then I 
 should have been impotent to resent the harm that 
 had been done me. I could not bear arms, but I 
 remained solvent, to strengthen the power of the 
 government, and pay for those who could. I put a 
 regiment in the field at my own expense. As my 
 Southern debtors had forgotten, together with my 
 dues, my favors and good will, I sent bayonets to 
 prick their recollections. No, let me hear no more 
 on this subject." 
 
 Why was he so bitter, and why so sweeping in his 
 resentment ? Ottilie asked herself. It had all been 
 so long ago, and her friends were women, who could 
 not personally have injured him. Others had escaped 
 bankruptcy, and even fallen into it, she was sure, 
 without cherishing such long and violent animosities. 
 
 She was humiliated and depressed at her rebuff.
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY'S ROUTINE. 171 
 
 She enjoyed no such place in his esteem as she had 
 foolishly imagined. She thought of going away at 
 once, but this could hardly have been done with 
 credit. It would not be understood. For the present 
 she would stay. 
 
 One small event succeeding after another dimmed 
 this impression. Her uncle Rodman certainly had 
 had provocation, and different natures take things so 
 differently. 
 
 He brought her one day a considerable sum of 
 money, directing her to distribute it in such charities 
 as she saw fit. He wished her to be assured that it 
 was not niggardliness or insensibility to distress that 
 caused him to withhold his aid from the Hasbroucks, 
 but a settled principle. 
 
 At the same time, perhaps, the candidate did not 
 forget that benefactions distributed from his house 
 would much redound to his advantage in the political 
 way.
 
 XIII. 
 
 SHOWING THE PERFECT FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC 
 FRIENDSHIPS. 
 
 THE circumstances of their new situation left in 
 town together, when all the world had gone out of it 
 contributed to the growth of the intimacy between 
 Ottilie and Bainbridge. There was no one to espe 
 cially remark upon the young man's calls, frequent 
 though they might be. Only Mrs. Ambler showed her 
 self discreetly from time to time in the large rooms of 
 the mansion. Bainbridge bid for her favor, also, by 
 remembering her and addressing to her an occasional 
 courteous remark. She had lived at one time, it 
 seemed, with his relatives, the Hudson Hendricks. 
 
 She told Ottilie, " They are elegant people, so easy 
 in their manners, that a body gets along with them 
 as well as if she were one of themselves." 
 
 But a stray figure or two would be seen in these 
 midsummer days on the whole length of the Avenue. 
 The windows of the deserted houses were darkened 
 with green shades, close-drawn. The entrance doors 
 of many were battened up as if never to be opened 
 again. A chance pull at the bell was answered only 
 by some frowzy charwoman, who looked up with 
 wrinkled forehead from the basement area. The 
 grass grew long in the door-yards. Oleanders here 
 and there showed their white and crimson flowers 
 against some bit of brick wall. The impulsive mag-
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 173 
 
 nolia shrubs were flowerless long since, and gave token 
 of their advancing age and experience. The bay and 
 rivers, around the city, were full of white steamers, 
 fluttering with banners, resonant with music, and go 
 ing on excursions. 
 
 " Do you not go out of town, also ? " Ottilie asked 
 her friend. 
 
 " Oh, I have been in the habit of taking a run to 
 Fire Island, or Lake George, or the White Mountains," 
 he replied carelessly ; " but the fact is that New York 
 itself is not the least desirable of summer resorts. You 
 cannot exactly swing a hammock in Madison Square, 
 nor cast yourself down with a book in front of the 
 Astor House, but you can take a more comfortable 
 lodging at half the price, walk in the shade of the tall 
 buildings, listen to the spatter of the water-carts, and 
 study the country cousin come to town." 
 
 "And of course you can make day excursions. 
 There seems to be so many attractive places to go to." 
 
 "I cannot endure them," asserted Bainbridge. 
 " What with the discomfort of the journey and the 
 return again to town, more sultry than ever by the 
 contrast, it is like eating the rind of a water-melon to 
 get the pulp, and afterwards eating your way out on 
 the other side." 
 
 Sometimes in the evening the pair sat in one of 
 the chintz-covered parlors, by a window which opened 
 on a balcony. The gas-light was not too brilliant. 
 Fitful puffs of air stirred the soft material of the cur 
 tains. Strolling German bands played in the side 
 streets, and the music was borne sweetly to the ear 
 from a distance. In the side streets the women of 
 families who did not go out of town till late, or not 
 at all, sat upon their doorsteps in white toilettes, and 
 held informal levees.
 
 174 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Bainbridge's visits were oftenest in the afternoon, 
 and Ottilie received them in the large picture-gal 
 lery. It was a favorite resort of hers in the long, 
 quiet, hot days. She liked to go there with a book 
 and look up from it and let her fancy wander away 
 to the endless variety of scenes and personages about 
 her. 
 
 There were coquettes, madonnas, vestal virgins, 
 and odalisques. There was Francis I. as taken cap 
 tive at Pavia, and Hannibal swearing eternal hatred 
 to the Romans. You drifted in a barge, with flower 
 pots at the stern, along a silvery French canal. You 
 assisted at a harvest in a Normandy apple-orchard ; a 
 gay dance of Hungarian peasants ; shrank in dismay 
 from a charge of Thor - like cuirassiers ; or looked 
 down at night upon a snow-clad farm in Ukraine, 
 white under the moon ; and you might hear, as it 
 pleased you, the faint sound of bugles, the lute of the 
 troubador, or the pan-pipes of Daphnis and Chloe. 
 
 Bainbridge thought the living, intelligent Ottilie, 
 as he saw her there, in her fresh, summer gowns, in 
 patterns of blue and white stripes, or small sprigs, 
 with her nice hair, her smooth skin free from blemish, 
 and a little high light at the tip of her nose, which 
 was made by the illumination coming from above, far 
 prettier than any of the pictured ideals on the walls. 
 
 They talked naturally more or less of the works 
 about them. These subjects led up to that of Euro 
 pean travel. 
 
 " Ah, if I could but travel ! " Ottilie exclaimed. " I 
 wonder if I ever shall ! But what do I say ? You 
 see before you a person who is traveling. I am in 
 Italy at the present moment, and writing back my 
 experiences to an intimate friend."
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 175 
 
 It appeared, when this enigma was explained, that 
 she had entered into the improving plan, with a class 
 mate, of carrying on a correspondence in the same 
 manner as if they were really journeying abroad. 
 They were to collect information as to the places 
 through which they imagined themselves to pass 
 from books or any other sources accessible. 
 
 " My correspondent is Alice Holbrook," she com 
 menced, " the one who " 
 
 " Oh, yes, the studious one, whose family wanted 
 her to marry her cousin. She did not wish to, how 
 ever, and sent him back his engagement ring. Aft 
 erwards her sister took the young man," supplied 
 Bainbridge promptly. 
 
 His companion gave him a glance of surprise and 
 reproach. " You are very observing," she said, with 
 a slight asperity. 
 
 " Bless you, I know them all by heart," he replied, 
 shamelessly. " I could n't know your school-mates 
 better if I had been born and brought up with 
 them." 
 
 Severity seemed thrown away on such a person, so 
 Ottilie went lightly on again. 
 
 " Alice is still in England," she said, " but I came 
 to Italy the first thing. I could not wait, I was at 
 Florence at the last writing, and about to start for 
 Rome." 
 
 Bainbridge was able to correct a few monstrous er 
 rors and impossibilities in her imaginary travels, at 
 which both laughed gayly. 
 
 Perhaps a vague fancy of the pleasure of seeing all 
 that again in company with such a charming young 
 enthusiast may have passed through his fancy. A 
 person like this, exclaiming over the picturesqueness
 
 176 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 which had pleased him in his time, and giving it new 
 interpretations, leaning on his arm in becoming fa 
 tigues in the galleries and steep streets, ah, per 
 haps, that might be even yet something worth while ! 
 
 They stood one day before the patriotic Hannibal. 
 
 " Let us swear an eternal friendship instead," pro 
 posed Bainbridge, imitating melodramatically the 
 pose of the young avenger of his country. He raised 
 one arm to heaven, and extended the other towards 
 the young girl. They were on excellent terms that 
 afternoon. She took his offered hand, laughingly, 
 with a becoming reluctance. Secretly she was pleased 
 to have the character of the relation between them 
 thus accurately defined. 
 
 They proceeded to talk of friendship, of the possi 
 bility of an enduring regard on the platonic basis be 
 tween the sexes. Bainbridge quoted La Bruydre who 
 asserts that it is possible. An understanding seemed 
 to be arrived at that they were never to be anything 
 more to each other than pleasant companions. They 
 knew each other's circumstances perfectly. The pe 
 cuniary reason alone, were there nothing else, should 
 be sufficient to put all thoughts of love and marriage 
 out of their heads. 
 
 " Nobody shall marry me but Miss Golconda Har 
 rington, whose income is a thousand dollars a day, 
 unless it be Miss Butterfield, who has five hundred," 
 asserted Bainbridge, making open profession of the 
 most glaringly mercenary motives. " Both of them 
 have reached forty-five at least, and they are tortured 
 with the dread that everybody who approaches them 
 is after their money. I shall feign, however, some 
 philanthropic or other crafty motive for getting at 
 them,"
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 177 
 
 " And I ? " said Ottilie. 
 
 " You ? you must marry one of the enormous 
 young millionaires floating about on every hand. 
 There is young Northfleet, who owns half a county 
 in Pennsylvania. Or Kingbolt of Kingboltsville. 
 Come, there is an excellent match. I select Kingbolt 
 of Kingsboltsville. I give my consent. Bless you, 
 my children," and he performed a benediction above 
 this imaginary union. 
 
 " Very well, then ! Enormous young millionaires, 
 and this one in particular, will please look out for 
 themselves." 
 
 " The fact is," he went on, "that after a certain 1 age 
 a person " (" the person " apparently meant himself) 
 " rarely has magnanimity enough to wish to increase 
 his burdens in matrimony. In his first romantic im 
 pulse, on the contrary, he would have been glad to 
 double his hours of labor, wear shabbier clothes, live 
 in a tenement house, or a wigwam for that matter, 
 and consider himself amply repaid by the least of the 
 dear one's smiles. I speak of the man. No doubt 
 the young woman, too, gets around to the same way 
 of thinking, always supposing that she has felt 
 any other way. Besides, even that kind of romanti 
 cism often defeats itself. Confined to each other's 
 company at close quarters, without a fresh stream of 
 outside life and ideas pouring in, they bore each 
 other presently, our beatific couple. They throw 
 plates at each other's heads, and get into the divorce 
 courts." 
 
 Ottilie seemed to be musing upon this. 
 
 " One estimates fashionable society at its proper 
 worth, of course," continued this philosopher, sagely. 
 " One may not care to go into it, but it is more com- 
 12
 
 178 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 plimentary to be asked, all the same. When you be 
 come householders you date and rank somehow from 
 that. You make a pretense of repaying the gorgeous 
 hospitality you may have received. If society does 
 not come down, with its two men on the box and its 
 supercilious eye-glass put up, to return your calls, 
 though you may not wish to see it the least in the 
 world, you must be offended. A proper self-respect 
 demands it. Presently there is an irreconcilable quar 
 rel, and that is the end of it." 
 
 This was hardly the way in which Ottilie had been 
 most in the habit of judging. But, though arguing 
 openly against his unfavorable way of putting the 
 case, she was inclined to admit within herself that, 
 for him, it might be reasonable. With the kind of 
 bringing up he had had, he must look upon many 
 things as indispensable which to her would not have 
 been so at all. 
 
 There was little that escaped the range of their 
 light discussion. Apropos of some feudal chatelaine 
 or Roman contadina on the walls, they exchanged 
 their ideas on feminine beauty and adornment. " A 
 woman should have a certain simple effect in her ap 
 parel, no matter how rich the material," said Ottilie. 
 " Angelica is an excellent instance, none better. 
 She should have an oval face, and a forehead from 
 which her hair can either be brushed up, if she 
 wishes, or worn low. It should not be too high, 
 which is harsh and brazen, nor too low, which is un- 
 intellectual. " 
 
 The speaker had a way of fixing her eye upon a 
 distant point, and wrinkling her smooth brow by way 
 of pursuing a line of thought the more accurately, or 
 finding a better word or distinction. These some-
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 179 
 
 times escaped her, when she was forced to end rather 
 lamely with a "you know." 
 
 " Could you, now, wear your hair brushed high ? " 
 the young man inquired, bending his mind with a cer 
 tain facility to the problem. 
 
 " No ; I fear it would not be at all becoming." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I think it would," he argued judicially. 
 " I should say that you had the right sort of a fore 
 head. You show rather more of it now, I believe, 
 than when I first saw you. You have adopted a kind 
 of compromise." 
 
 "You certainly are very observing!" she ex 
 claimed again, in a tantalized way. 
 
 Her thoughts flew back in alarm, and she endeav 
 ored to recall her appearance as it must have been at 
 that first meeting. Her panoply of fascination could 
 have been in but poor condition, after the long jour 
 ney, and in her sadness of mind. 
 
 "But I cannot help it," she concluded. " And 
 who would have supposed that men noticed things of 
 no importance ? That is to say, they are of impor 
 tance, but one does not expect at least you are not 
 generally confronted with so precise a recollection." 
 
 On his side, Bainbridge was of opinion that he 
 should have been taller. 
 
 " No," Ottilie was pleased to decide critically, " you 
 are just right." 
 
 She showed him, at his next visit, a picture of her 
 self taken in childhood, an old-fashioned ambrotype 
 of the kind in vogue before the photograph came in. 
 
 She took it from her pocket, saying, 
 
 " I happened to find this among the papers in my 
 writing-desk. You can see now what a fright I 
 should look with my hair up."
 
 180 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 It was a representation of a quaint little maiden at 
 the age, say, of ten. Her hair was short and confined 
 in a round comb. About her neck hung a conspicuous 
 locket. Her hands, in lace " mitts," were folded in 
 her lap. Bainbridge gazed at this little picture mu 
 singly, and returned to it a number of times. His 
 heart seemed to warm above it and go in search of 
 her whole past existence. 
 
 " I think I must have been a rather odd child," 
 she said in a reflective way as, observing his interest, 
 she contemplated it too. " I was very romantic, for 
 one thing, and also rather dissatisfied. Once, I tried 
 to persuade myself having read of such things in 
 the stories that I might have belonged to some 
 richer and finer family than my own and been carried 
 off and that perhaps there would be an inquiry for me 
 some day, and I should be restored to my ancestral 
 rank. Yes, really, as silly as that ! I used to think 
 about it in a dreaming way, without ever looking for 
 the evidence. I used to say, ' It might be, you know, 
 it might be." 1 It was not that I did not love my 
 own family dearly. I should have counted on coming 
 back to them in my magnificence, and sharing it with 
 them. But somehow things seemed so commonplace 
 in our tame little every-day life. Nothing happened ; 
 and there was so much that I wanted and could not 
 have." 
 
 " At that time I had never seen the sea," she con 
 tinued, nor even the lake at Chicago, which gives a 
 very good idea of it. There were distant blue hills 
 which showed at the end of the road near where we 
 lived. I recollect trying to make believe that they 
 were the sea, and the white dots of houses upon them 
 sails."
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 181 
 
 The young girl's curiosity about the sea was really 
 satisfied for the first time when she went with her 
 uncle to the gay bathing beach of Coney Island. She 
 did not soon lose her pleasure in it. 
 
 Bainbridge's aversion to day excursions did not 
 now seem to hold good. He made very many of 
 them, taking the boat at the foot of a street near his 
 office, and had long promenades with Ottilie up and 
 down the spacious piazzas of the hotels, and long 
 strolls on the sands. 
 
 " I am told that this island is something like the 
 Lido at Venice, where Byron galloped composing his 
 poems," said Ottilie. 
 
 " I dare say that is what Mrs. Anne Arundel Clum 
 is doing now," returned Bainbridge, remarking at 
 the moment a mutual acquaintance of the spring. 
 " She is riding wildly back .and forth in the omnibus. 
 She has passed three times within half an hour." 
 
 They talked of " studying the people," as they 
 looked at them from the piazzas. 
 
 " But they will not keep still for you," complained 
 Ottilie. " If I were a despot, I should have those who 
 interested me stopped, and detained till I was through 
 with them. I think I do not care for such superfi 
 cial study." 
 
 " Study me, then. I will keep still as long as you 
 like. Talk of understanding other people, I wish 
 somebody would tell me how I am going to turn out. 
 I should be very much obliged to anybody who would 
 do it." 
 
 " I was spoiled and too pampered in my bringing 
 up," he complained. " I had everything too regular 
 and conventional. The pine-knot and cabin-floor 
 principle is the thing."
 
 182 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " The pine-knot and cabin-floor principle ? " 
 
 " Yes. I should have read Virgil by the flicker 
 ing light of a backlog while stretched prone on the 
 hearth. I should have learned Euclid at the gray of 
 dawn, and in short respites from hoeing corn and 
 chopping down the forest primeval. Those are the 
 fellows who come to the front. I ought to have 
 taught school winters and taken eight years to go 
 through college instead of four." 
 
 " Those are the fellows," he repeated, pursing his 
 lips, and nodding with a sagacious air. 
 
 " That often results in offensive egotism and ped 
 antry. They succeed in spite of their obstacles, not 
 because of them, do they not?" discriminated Ot- 
 tilie. 
 
 The island, which from the steamer's deck, was a 
 more ephemeral Venice, of wood and canvas, deco 
 rated as for the carnival, was at the centre and one 
 end a tinkling Vanity Fair of hotels, pavilions, and 
 gay bungalows, devoted to the thousand amusements 
 of such a time and place. Towards the other end a 
 comparative isolation reigned. The waves broke 
 there, little troubled by bathers, and but a few prom- 
 enaders strayed along a wide beach of silvery white 
 sand. Back from the beach were sand dunes carven, 
 into sharp curves, always shifting, and interspersed 
 with bay shrubs and dwarf cedars. 
 
 The black rib or two of a wrecked vessel, pro 
 jecting above the surface, made a convenient seat. 
 Thither our couple betook themselves. 
 
 They watched the floods run up the sands, the foam 
 and green translucences in the tops of the breakers, 
 and the serene peace of the blue field beyond. An 
 occasional fishing boat or yawl came rolling and turn-
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 183 
 
 bling up in the surf close by them. Sometimes the 
 shadows of clouds crossed the field, making it black 
 and purple where they moved. The remoter sails 
 were lily white in the sun, and of a faint azure 
 against it. There were always distant vessels, over 
 by the Highlands of the Navesink, hull dow.n, as if 
 calmly foundering, instead of climbing up or going 
 down the horizon, as they were. 
 
 " We are in too great haste to press on," said Bain- 
 bridge, gazing out at the prospect with half-shut eyes. 
 " At least, I speak only for myself. We impatient 
 ones are apt to think too much of what we cannot do 
 and cannot have, instead of what we can do and have. 
 We are like the Irishman hanging on under the 
 bridge who let go to get a better hold. Now, this, 
 what could be more perfect ? A lovely impression 
 should be cherished as long as possible. To lie and 
 gaze at the sea might be a career in itself." 
 
 " It makes one melancholy," Ottilie returned ; " but 
 one likes a little of that. Perhaps a touch of it is al 
 ways desirable in the most perfect state of mind. 
 When I am happy I do not feel quite well. There, 
 that is like one of your absurdities ! But what I 
 mean to say is that when things have gone exactly 
 right, when some favorite object has been attained, 
 and for the moment nothing more seems left to wish 
 for, there is an over-elation and a slight sense of va 
 cancy. I lose my appetite, I cannot sleep, and find 
 myself presently going about with a headache, just as 
 if it were trouble that had arrived. How strange we 
 are!" ' 
 
 They noted one day near them on the sands a couple, 
 from Ottilie's hotel, whom they knew to be engaged. 
 This pair reclined under umbrellas, and the man was
 
 184 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 reading aloud, as they could observe, with an ani 
 mated pleasure in the text. The young woman 
 looked about her, and yawned behind her fan. But 
 when appealed to with some question or comment 
 she affected an interest equal to his own. 
 
 Our friends agreed that a tragedy was preparing 
 there, in such an evident difference of tastes. 
 
 " Probably nothing in the world could be worse," 
 exclaimed Bainbridge. " The infernal duration of it ! 
 To have a partner at one's side, mingled in every 
 thing, yet always remaining a stranger. She is chilly, 
 unappreciative, plans apart for her own instead of the 
 common weal, and finally, no doubt, seeks her ideal 
 elsewhere. It is amusing to the newspapers and 
 playwrights, but it is death to the participants." 
 
 *' The great point, after all," he dogmatized, " is 
 whether she will stick to a fellow, whether she 
 will pull through thick and thin with him." 
 
 " One would want to find perfect rest in marriage," 
 he continued, enlarging on the subject in a manner 
 for the time being at variance with that in which he 
 was accustomed to speak of Miss Golconda Harring 
 ton and his proposed mano3uvres for her fortune. 
 " One would not want to be always on the stretch, 
 mentally, either ; he could not afford to be on a per 
 petual picnic. He ought to get somebody who could 
 discount him fifty per cent., and like him even then. 
 It should be somebody who, in consideration of know 
 ing that he was immensely fond of her, and always 
 meant to do what was for her happiness, even if he 
 did not succeed, could like him even when she found 
 that he was twice as stupid as she had supposed. 
 There is little doubt that with the best of dispositions 
 and the most favorable circumstances there must
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 185 
 
 come some dreary times after the wedding. They 
 come even to intimate friends, who have no bonds to 
 hold them together, and how much more to married 
 couples ? " 
 
 " I know it," assented Ottilie, as if she also gave 
 up this poor human nature of ours in despair. 
 
 " But a wife might enter more into her husband's 
 affairs, I suppose, than some do," she went on, " that 
 would be one resource. Then she could read the 
 papers, and talk with him about them. But you 
 speak only of the man ; you do not say anything of 
 the allowances to be made on the woman's side. Of 
 course, she would have to be discounted, too, as you 
 call it, just as much." 
 
 " I do not admit it. She has her feminine attrac 
 tions, her pretty looks, added to the count. A man 
 is not supposed to have any particular looks, but the 
 first duty of a woman is to be charming. A number 
 of celebrated poets have said that, and I agree to it. 
 The first duty of a woman is to be charming." 
 
 " Nonsense ! That is the way men are always 
 talking. Little enough they know about it. They 
 mean, I suppose, that she ought to be as vain as pos 
 sible, and devote her whole silly existence to prepar 
 ing new toilettes. / say that she ought to cut her 
 hair short, wear spectacles, and bloomer costume, and 
 pay attention to nothing but the useful." 
 
 " Are there no rack and gibbet for such heresy ? " 
 cried the young man, springing to his feet. 
 
 But a part of his motive in rising was apparently 
 to " skip " a flat stone along the tops of the waves, 
 for he sat down again on the piece of wreck, and re 
 sumed, 
 
 " Women do not know what they are liked for
 
 186 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 not one of them in a thousand. That is the trouble. 
 They had better read the poets and find out. It 
 would largely reduce the business in the divorce 
 courts. As an imitation man, woman is not a suc 
 cess. A man does not marry to have merely a rough, 
 undelightful companion like himself. Nor is it, I 
 should say, the undiluted ambition to have children, 
 about whom there is no certainty that they will sur 
 pass even if they equal his own very moderate 
 level. He has no complexion, no dimples, no dang 
 ling ear-rings that cast little shadows on his cheeks. 
 Small pleasure too, I imagine, can be got out of his 
 way of doing his hair, or out of the bending of his 
 neck, or the intonations of his voice. I should really 
 be glad to know what there is in him corresponding 
 to all this for a woman to like I " 
 
 It might almost have been thought, as he regarded 
 her, that it was from herself he drew the attractive 
 details he so warmly cited. 
 
 "A woman would like manliness, I should say," 
 she replied hesitatingly. 
 
 " A man of the right sort wants some one to ideal 
 ize," said Bainbridge. " He wants to put her on a 
 pedestal, and be rapturous about her. If she will do 
 nothing on her side to keep up the illusion, what are 
 you to expect ? " 
 
 " But how about the irredeemably plain ones ? " 
 
 " There are none such," he replied gallantly. 
 "Fortunately, we do not all see with the same eyes. 
 And if there be gradations of beauty, as we must 
 admit, and some of it that almost approaches ugli 
 ness, by the general verdict, no doubt interior quali 
 ties are developed as a compensation. The irritation 
 in the oyster-shell produces the pearl ; the wrong side 
 of the rug is often of a subdued richness, surpassing
 
 FEASIBILITY OF PLATONIC FRIENDSHIPS. 187 
 
 the right ; and hyacinths give out their sweetest fra 
 grance at night." 
 
 " But I can tell you that a woman has her notions of 
 self-sacrifice and idealizing, too. If it be the wish of 
 a man of the right sort to put her on a pedestal, and 
 of a woman of the right sort to place him there, what 
 is going to be done when they meet. What a sculp 
 ture gallery kind of a time they must have ! " 
 
 " Oh, that is simple enough. They never do 
 meet." 
 
 They paced slowly homeward from these confer 
 ences at the wreck, leaving long wavering lines of 
 footsteps behind them. There was a heavy unrestful, 
 erratic, larger pair, and a light clear-cut, sincere, 
 perhaps gently-coquettish, smaller pair. Here and 
 there they had paused. Ottilie, drew letters in the 
 sand, or, bending lithe as a spear of the gray beach- 
 grass, described large circles nonchalantly around her 
 with her parasol. Or they picked up and discussed 
 some curious bit of sea-weed or a bright pebble or 
 shell. 
 
 " What is the name of it ? " Bainbridge asked con 
 cerning one of these last, since his companion had 
 shown a recondite acquaintance with the subject. 
 
 *' You would not remember if I should tell you," 
 was the roguish answer with which she covered her 
 own ignorance. 
 
 Then she placed the shell against one cheek and 
 the other, taking attitudes of mincing affectation, and 
 cried, 
 
 " The first duty of a woman is to be charming ! " 
 
 It would have been a fitting penalty for such mock 
 ery to cover her with a thousand kisses ; but only 
 as a friend ; surely only in the way of platonic 
 friendship and nothing more.
 
 XIV. 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 
 
 WHEN all that was possible had been done in town, 
 Rodman Harvey took his niece to Newport. He left 
 her there, presently, with his family, and went away 
 to Saratoga, to attend a convention of railway mag 
 nates. 
 
 It was thought, too, that the waters would be of 
 benefit in his slight attacks of vertigo, to which he 
 began to be subject with increasing frequency. 
 
 Bainbridge repaired to Newport also. Because a 
 person has postponed his vacation a little, that is no 
 reason why he should abandon it altogether. It is 
 still quite warm enough at the middle of September 
 to make a more refreshing temperature than that of 
 the city desirable. 
 
 No definite purpose ruled his proceedings. He 
 had nothing that he was about to do, nothing that he 
 was about to say. He looked forward only to a con 
 tinuance of his pleasant intercourse with Ottilie. 
 Obstacles, which he bad not quite foreseen, however, 
 arose out of her new situation, the number of people 
 with whom she was involved, and the whirl of gay- 
 eties. He found himself annoyed at first because 
 he could not see her often enough. But later there 
 was something even more serious. 
 
 A fortnight had elapsed when the young man 
 came strolling along the Cliff Walk, which by cour-
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 189 
 
 tesy of proprietors, passes, through turnstiles, along 
 the borders of the estates. He found Ottilie with a 
 book in a summer-house above the water. The tawny- 
 haired Calista, amusing herself on the beach below, 
 climbed up occasionally to take advice upon some 
 new marine discovery. 
 
 Bainbridge explained in a matter-of-course sort of 
 way that he had felt the need of a little change, after 
 all, and found Newport as good a place for it as any 
 other. 
 
 Ottilie pulled to pieces as they talked some coarse 
 daisies, gathered for her by Calista from amid the 
 hay which was being cut on the lawns. Afterwards 
 she read aloud in a pleasantly murmurous voice some 
 portions of Elaine, in the " Idyls of the King," the 
 book she had with her. Then she rehearsed her new 
 experiences. 
 
 " The Emperor of Brazil has been here," she said. 
 " I have seen also an English duke, an Italian prince, 
 with a delightfully musical name, and a Danubian 
 princess, who is also a literary ' swell.' As to cabi 
 net ministers, governors of States, senators, and gold- 
 laced army and navy officers, both domestic and for 
 eign, they are too numerous to mention." 
 
 " And you are in the midst of all this and a part 
 of it?" 
 
 " Only a very little in the margin of the stream, 
 not in the current. But Angelica is in the current ; 
 ah, yes, indeed. For her it is an incessant round of 
 dinners, balls, theatricals, fetea-champetres, and arch 
 ery and lawn-tennis parties at one of the beautiful 
 villas after another. Or else she is driving on Ocean 
 Avenue ; witnessing the polo games, or the shooting 
 or swimming matches ; going to sessions of the
 
 190 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ' Town and Country Club,' or the * West Island 
 Club's ' bass-fishing picnics ; or dancing on the yachts 
 and men-of-war in the harbor. It almost makes 
 one's head whirl even to be in the margin. I have 
 been out to some of the simpler entertainments and 
 we have a fair share of it all of course at our house. 
 I begin to consider myself quite a connoisseur in 
 social matters." 
 
 " And what difference do you find between fash 
 ionable society here and at your Great West ? You 
 should be able now to define our salient points, as 
 distinguished from those of your Cincinnatis and 
 Chicagos." 
 
 " I should say that there was more ease in enter 
 taining here. So much of it goes on that people 
 make a less important matter of it. Then there is 
 the class of purely fashionable young men, who make 
 no pretense of an occupation in life. We have very 
 few of them as yet. But I dare say you are expect 
 ing me to make wholesale admissions of inferior- 
 ity?" 
 
 " I thought perhaps you might have grown candid 
 enough for that by this time." 
 
 " Then you will be very much mistaken. I wish 
 I could see you try to pick out, by any difference 
 of looks and manners, some elegant Cleveland people 
 who were here last week. No ! Our society is 
 formed by exactly the same influences I mean the 
 main influences, as yours. It reads the same things, 
 sees the same musical and dramatic companies, 
 they all come to us after leaving you has the same 
 styles in dress, and the same trips to Europe. The 
 boys come to the Eastern colleges, and the girls, as 
 often as not, to the fashionable New York schools,
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 191 
 
 where they are said to learn to enter a room or a car 
 riage properly." 
 
 " Some of them afterwards have no carriages to 
 enter," she added, " which, no doubt, results in more 
 or less unhappiness." 
 
 Bainbridge admired the vein of excellent good 
 sense which underlay all of her opinions. 
 
 " But now, the coming young millionaire," he said, 
 " has he turned up yet ? " 
 
 " Not yet," she answered, laughing. " That is to 
 say, unless we count Mr. Kingbolt, who has chosen 
 to be really quite civil to me. Now I think of it, 
 he is the one we selected, is he not ? Well, he has 
 not proposed to me ; but I am sure that a number of 
 other girls, of much more importance, must have be 
 gun to be jealous." 
 
 " Now, there is an absurd passion," said Bain- 
 bridge presently, seizing the pretext for airing a fa 
 vorite opinion. " If you like a person, you like him, 
 for cause, for reasons good and satisfactory to your 
 self. It is not because you see him run after by 
 other people. That is, supposing you to be a person 
 of independent judgment and not a mere servile 
 imitator. The reasons are not always easy to give, 
 and they vary in each case, or we should all be fas 
 cinated by the same person ; but they exist all the 
 same." 
 
 " But all the novelists use jealousy as an incen 
 tive," urged Ottilie. 
 
 " They are as wrong about that as their descriptions 
 of the inducements to fall in love generally. They 
 usually make it depend upon some astonishing feats, 
 some heroic saving of life, fortune, or sacred honor, 
 by one or both of the parties, for each other. As a
 
 192 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 matter of fact, not one match in a hundred thousand 
 is made in that way. Lovers like to assume, of 
 course, that they would do those things for each 
 other, and perhaps they would ; but the occasions 
 do not offer. The couple simply walk, talk, and 
 dance a little together, are pleased with each other's 
 looks, study out such bits of each other's character as 
 they can, and presently the thing is done." 
 
 Fearing, perhaps, some personal application from 
 this, he added as an after-thought, 
 
 " Of course, persons do not necessarily fall in love 
 after having been through such a course as this, but 
 they fall in love when they have not been through 
 a blessed thing else." 
 
 The sea lay before them, blue and formal, in a wide 
 band as it appears in the scenery of theatres. The 
 locusts rattled in some trees near by. The heated 
 atmosphere had a wavering motion near the ground. 
 Tepid puffs from the lawn, mingling with the cooler 
 breezes from the water, brought odors of the new- 
 mown hay. 
 
 The Harvey villa crowned the long, gentle slope. 
 It was of wood, painted in tones of Indian red and 
 yellow ochre, and had numerous turrets, dormers, 
 and ornamented chimney stacks. Upon the wide 
 piazzas were willow arm-chairs with cushions. An 
 end of bright curtain stuff floated from an upper 
 window here and there. A tent, with tall spears and 
 tasseled cords, like that of a Persian satrap, was 
 pitched near the house. Portable fountains attached 
 to rubber hose whirled their arms wildly about, like 
 dancing dervishes, and sprayed portions of the lawn 
 and large well-kept beds of bluish heliotrope, scarlet 
 geraniums, and gray and purple coleus, with tall,
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 193 
 
 iarge-leaved plants of the Canna Indica, rising from 
 the midst. 
 
 Our friends ranged, in the pleasant desultory way 
 they had, over a wide variety of topics. 
 
 Ottilie was a person of large reading. She had 
 read everything that came in her way. Such, she 
 confessed, had been her plan, or lack of plan. She 
 had a fresh eager interest, which hardly excluded 
 information of any kind from its scope. She often 
 surprised Bainbridge by her excursions, acute as well 
 as vivacious, into some of the graver fields of thought, 
 into which such a person would not have been con 
 sidered likely to enter. 
 
 " ' Learning not vain, and wisdom not severe,' " he 
 said, playfully, applying to her this description of 
 what is probably quite the ideal manner of carrying 
 off such knowledge as one possesses. 
 
 " No, I am a mere collection of smatterings," she 
 declared, repudiating it, and began to ridicule her 
 own pedantry. 
 
 " I shall never admit that. And besides, it is not 
 what we know, but what we would like to know, 
 what our interest goes out to, that makes us what we 
 are. Do you not think so? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it is," said Ottilie. 
 
 They discoursed among other things on religion, as 
 two intelligent young Americans thrown together in 
 any degree of intimacy are soon apt to do. 
 
 " My family is thoroughly on the American plan 
 in that respect," said Ottilie. " My father is Uni 
 tarian, my mother Presbyterian, and I Episcopalian. 
 My brother is touched with some indefinite skeptical 
 notions, which I do not pretend to understand. He 
 calls himself at present an Agnostic, whatever that 
 
 13
 
 194 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 may be. There is no permanent support for a Uni 
 tarian service at Lone Tree, so my illogical father goes 
 to church occasionally with my mother or me. I was 
 originally Presbyterian myself. It was the dignity 
 and color of Episcopalianism, I think, that caused me 
 to change." 
 
 " I dare say I should have to call myself Agnostic, 
 too, if I called myself anything," returned Bain- 
 bridge. One sfcems to arrive at that after going the 
 rounds, just as the union of all colors produces white, 
 you know." 
 
 " Suppose you tell me just what an Agnostic is, 
 now that the opportunity offers. I shall confront 
 Paul with it." 
 
 " The Agnostic, I take it, is a person who, having 
 shaken off the theological burdens he once carried, 
 hardly knows any longer what he believes, or, worse 
 yet, perhaps does not greatly care. Such a pass 
 seems characteristic of the times. One is rather 
 drawn into it through remarking the outrageous 
 things that church people are constantly doing, 
 though we understand, of course, that it is in spite 
 of, and not in consequence of, their system." 
 
 " Oh, I am sorry," said his companion. " It can 
 not be a very comfortable state of mind. I am sure 
 that my brother is not happy. At least he will not 
 be permanently, though just now he is so very con 
 sequential about his new opinions that he will not 
 hear a word of opposition." 
 
 " It is not a very profitable one, at any rate, and 
 you will find me far from consequential about it. It 
 is a state of mind, too, that extends itself over things 
 in general. It begets too great an impartiality. It 
 is a soporific and not a stimulant. One course of
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 195 
 
 action is apt to appear about as good as another. I 
 think I have felt it even in those small articles for 
 the papers. One should be something of a fanatic. 
 How can he take on indignant airs, browbeat and 
 scathe the opposition, when himself only half con 
 vinced ? How do I know whether I am actually for 
 free trade or protection, soft money or hard, the con 
 trol of the corporations by the people, or of the peo 
 ple by the corporations, in the usual way, when so 
 much is to be said on the other side ? " 
 
 " Then why not get out of such a state of mind ? " 
 
 " Ah, that is a very different matter." 
 
 " But you must have convictions. I must give you 
 some of mine. Now let us begin. You believe in a 
 future state ? " 
 
 " What do some people want to live forever for," 
 he returned evasively, " when they pass the life they 
 have in such a wretched, petty way ? What do they 
 want to do beyond the stars, when they have seen 
 nothing of what is beautiful, noble, and tender, in 
 this world, even poor as it is ? " 
 
 She argued this point with him, insisting on the 
 possibility of development for all. 
 
 She continually said, " I would not do this," " / 
 would not do that," with great positiveness. 
 
 '''Your convictions are clear-cut enough," said Bain- 
 bridge. " You would be a sort of little Lady Macbeth 
 of the exemplary sort. You would nerve a man up to 
 deeds of desperate rectitude." 
 
 " Do hear me talk ! " she returned. " Anybody 
 would think I meant that I was perfection, but I am 
 really as weak as water." 
 
 She cast away some of the daisies she had had in 
 her hands, and brushed fragments of others from her
 
 196 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 lap with a kind of final air. There was a slight pause 
 in the conversation. 
 
 " What pretty hands you have ! " said Bainbridge, 
 presently, as if observing them for the first time. 
 
 " I think them very ugly," and she tucked them 
 into her belt. 
 
 " How curious it is," she reflected, " that he seems 
 to find so many things about me pleasing." 
 
 " Come, let us see what lines of fate are written in 
 them. Let us see what they have to say about that 
 coming millionaire," he demanded. 
 
 This was no doubt permissible between friends. 
 She reluctantly let him take one of her hands in his. 
 Bainbridge began with a jargon about the " line of 
 life," the " line of the heart," and other terms of 
 chiromancy. 
 
 All at once he said, " Oh, here is your millionaire, 
 sure enough. No end of money. He will be a per 
 fect Croesus." 
 
 But Ottilie soon drew away her hand. It had 
 been nervous and foolishly trembled in his from 
 the first, though there was no reason why it should. 
 She pretended to need it to point in an enthusiastic 
 way an incoming sail. She had flushed a little, and 
 offered no comment on his prophecies. 
 
 That was a charming morning, but a cloud came 
 over it at the close. Nor did it pass like some that 
 they saw occasionally darken along the ocean before 
 them. It expanded, instead, till all the moral heav 
 ens, for them, were overcast with portents of the com 
 ing storm. 
 
 It began, perhaps, with an account by Ottilie of 
 her uncle's fondness for cases of defalcation and for 
 gery, as heretofore mentioned.
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 197 
 
 " I am quite at home in them, I assure you," she 
 said. " There is a general similarity in all. First, 
 there is the shock of discovery, then what the offi 
 cers of the institution say, then what the neighbors 
 and friends say, and what the pushing reporters try 
 to make them say, when they do not wish to talk 
 at all. Then there is the conviction that the losses 
 are even greater than at first supposed. The criminal 
 flies and is pursued. Perhaps he escapes to foreign 
 shores. Or he is arrested and thrown into a common 
 felon's cell, or perhaps he commits suicide. All 
 the way through there is the agony of his stricken 
 family, possibly the insanity of one of its members, 
 broken by the shame and grief which have come 
 upon them." 
 
 " Pretty hard ! pretty hard ! " said Bainbridge, re 
 flectively. 
 
 "Oh, why will they do such things?" went on 
 the young enthusiast. " Why cannot this dreadful 
 temptation that drags so many down be resisted ? It 
 seems the peculiar vice of our times. The fate of one 
 does not deter others. Oh, how happy one ought to 
 be who is even honest ! It seems to me that I could 
 see gold and diamonds around me mountains high, 
 and never touch a thing. One can go hungry and 
 ragged. He might feel like a soldier on the march, 
 who has to go in the storm if need be, or when he is 
 sick, and to sleep on the bare ground, and dines when 
 he can. What happens then is not his own fault ; 
 he might have the comfort, at least, of saying, ' I do 
 not deserve it.' But once succumb to dishonesty ; 
 take the bread of others, which can only be eaten in 
 shame and bitterness ; once straggle from the ranks 
 into the hands of the guerillas and prowlers of the
 
 198 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE, 
 
 hostile country, ah, what comfort is open to him 
 then ? " 
 
 " A rather odd taste in your uncle, is it not ? " 
 
 " That is it," pursued Ottilie. " It sometimes 
 puzzles me. He even expresses sympathy, which I 
 should hardly think he would, since he is so precise 
 in his own ideas of rectitude and his business re 
 quirements." 
 
 There was for Bainbridge an unpleasant sugges- 
 tiveness in all this. The vague image of something 
 uncanny which might have been done by Rodman 
 Harvey seemed to follow him with a haunting per 
 tinacity. His thoughts went back to Gammage, 
 Jocelyn, and the palaver of old McFadd in Harvey's 
 Terrace. He gave his companion involuntarily one 
 of those glances betraying disquietude, in which in 
 telligence outruns speech, as electricity outruns the 
 mail. 
 
 It passed in an instant, however, and the bulk of 
 his trouble was to come from another source. 
 
 The interview was now broken in upon by King 
 bolt of Kingboltsville. This fortunate person, look 
 ing particularly well in a suit of white flannel, 
 carrying one hand in a pocket of the easy jacket, 
 came along the Cliff Walk also, and joined them. 
 He sat down, and had evidently no intention of at 
 once going away. Bainbridge was surprised at his 
 intimacy with Ottilie. From a number of references 
 it appeared that they had talked together not a little 
 before. 
 
 Bainbridge had taken what she had said of King 
 bolt as banter, of course. She had said " civil," and 
 he had understood civility, or almost that but this 
 was something very different.
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 199 
 
 He went away himself in a reflective mood, leaving 
 them together. 
 
 " It looks as though people were treating her very 
 well," he said. " It looks as though she were having 
 ' a good time.' Well, I am glad of that. It is as it 
 should be." 
 
 Kingbolt, was in fact, hovering about Ottilie a 
 good deal at this time. His motive must have been 
 a touch of that charming, pathetic sentiment which 
 leads the ardent lover to invest with a part of the 
 same fond interest both the family of the beloved and 
 everything in her vicinity. It is something even to 
 be near those who have been near her. 
 
 Kingbolt had come back considering himself cured. 
 But he had fallen in with Angelica again, and his 
 infatuation was again renewed. He had made new 
 advances, which had been repulsed, as of old. As 
 Angelica would hardly receive him, he bethought him 
 then of the pretext of calling upon Ottilie. Ottilie 
 was at first puzzled quite as much as complimented. 
 She hardly knew whether it was even permissible to 
 decline the attentions of so magnificent a personage. 
 But he talked to her more and more about Angelica, 
 and at last took her into his confidence. She had by 
 no means desired his secret, but having it, thought it 
 no more than right to keep it intact. She had been 
 obliged to study all her resources of non-committalism, 
 however, in dealing with him on this subject. 
 
 " Why," he exclaimed, " did she choose Sprowle 
 above all others? On what grounds could she bring 
 herself to like him ? If she had taken one of the 
 first-class foreign titles, as she might very well have 
 done, a person of distinction, of fine presence, 
 anybody, in short, but Sprowle," and he dismissed 
 his unwitting rival with an air of contempt,
 
 200 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Ottilie replied guardedly. " Of course Mr. 
 Sprowle is of a very distinguished family. His con 
 nections are very influential. His mother boasts that 
 the Sprowles were of high consideration when the 
 Rifflards were trading coon-skins with the Indians, 
 the Antrams trotting the Irish bogs, and the Gold- 
 stones their native German cabbage fields. As to 
 marrying a title, I have heard my cousin express 
 dissatisfaction with the way that kind of match often 
 turns out. She says that she long ago decided 
 against surrendering her own notions to those of a 
 foreign and very different social system, and immur 
 ing herself perhaps in some old feudal castle, beyond 
 all legitimate opportunities of resistance, should need 
 arise." 
 
 There could have been no great amount either of 
 new information or of comfort in what Ottilie said, 
 but the erratic young man found a relief even in the 
 privilege of talking freely of the cause of his pains. 
 
 When Bainbridge made his call the next day, Ot 
 tilie was really engaged in matters which prevented 
 her seeing him. He wandered aimlessly about New 
 port. The next day he found her on the piazza, it is 
 true, but Kingbolt was with her. On the next, King 
 bolt came up within five minutes. 
 
 Angelica too arrived this day, on horseback, with 
 a groom behind her. She wore her dark green 
 riding-habit, which fitted her figure to perfection, and 
 her silk hat shone with an exceptional lustre. She 
 was in good spirits, and caracoled her horse in a pe 
 culiar way as she came up to the block. 
 
 " Where did you get that trick ? " asked Kingbolt, 
 affecting with her an ease he by no means felt. 
 
 " From Monsieur Meigs, my riding-master at
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 201 
 
 Paris," she explained, but more to the company than 
 her questioner. " Twenty francs a lesson, and 
 twenty more for the two horses. I used to ride with 
 him in the Bois. No nonsense with M. Meigs, no 
 staring about, no frivolity. ' Eyes between your 
 horse's ears, mademoiselle ! ' Yes, M'seu Meigs, 
 M'seu Meigs." She straightened herself up and as 
 sumed a very stiff position in the saddle, in imitation 
 of the bluff and centaur- like aspect of her former 
 English riding-master. 
 
 When she had dismounted she sat and talked a 
 while, rattling her whip on the floor of the piazza. 
 
 " They let me have a pet black and tan, at school," 
 she said. " If you could have seen the bills for that 
 animal ! I suppose I was perfectly robbed in every 
 way, in those times. So much for the dog's food, so 
 much for dog's house, so much for cutting dog's ears. 
 Poor Niniche might as well have been an elephant. 
 Dear me, I am glad it all is over. Such extraordi 
 nary governesses as we had ! There was one I re 
 member, who kept her head tied up in a green veil. 
 She was of such a fascinating ugliness that, posi 
 tively I happened to be looking at her one day at 
 dinner, when she indignantly sent her plate to me by 
 the servant, pretending that I was trying to notice 
 how much she ate. The singing assistant at the same 
 school had the most extraordinary mouth ! I told 
 her frankly one day that I did not wish to learn a 
 method which disfigured people for life in that way." 
 
 Some small trait of parsimony, or shaft of cruelty 
 which had been directed at the expense of the help 
 less and unfortunate, seemed to appeal most to her 
 sense of Avhat was important, and likely to be enter 
 taining, in her reminiscences.
 
 202 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " And such husbands as they had, the mesdames 
 who kept those schools ! " she continued. " One was 
 a mild old gentleman, who occasionally got as far 
 with some inoffensive remark as ' I would observe, 
 chere amie,' when his wife nearly snapped his head 
 off with an ' est ce-que je ne sais pas pa, moi?" 1 
 Another used to turn up from South America or 
 Africa, or somewhere, as often as his wife got a little 
 ahead in the world, and force money from her. Once 
 he came just before dinner, and pulled the cloth off 
 the table, with all the dishes, in a grand smash." 
 
 " People seem to make a great fuss over a little 
 matter like that," ventured Kingbolt. " I believe it 
 was a favorite performance of mine when I was a 
 child. They used to put me in a padded room after 
 wards, to meditate. If I kicked around there I could 
 not hurt myself or the furniture." 
 
 Angelica paid this guest but little attention, and 
 presently, taking her leave, swept serenely in-doors. 
 
 " It is evident that he does not come on her ac 
 count," reflected Bainbridge. 
 
 This was the more evident when Kingbolt again 
 out-stayed him. He seemed to have even more things 
 in common with Ottilie than before. She wore a 
 high color, and her manner was fluttered. Bainbridge 
 chose to hold most of his own powers of entertaining 
 in abeyance, and this increased the general constraint. 
 
 He went away this trine with bitterness in his 
 heart. 
 
 " Shall I warn her," he meditated, " against so un 
 desirable a friendship ? Kingbolt is one of the rash- 
 est, most dangerous men of all his fashionable set. He 
 is gambling recklessly at tbis very time, losing heavy 
 sums night after night at the Club. Bah ! a fine
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 203 
 
 callow piece of business that would be, a warning. 
 Oh, yes, to be sure ! " 
 
 When he had not seen Ottilie, the day was wholly 
 wasted. He would not have come to Newport for the 
 pure pleasure of it. He would have taken his vaca 
 tion by preference at some much less conventional 
 place with his gun, for instance, among the moun 
 tains. Once when he did not find her, he went, 
 after all, to a fete-champetre, from which he had in 
 tended to absent himself on her account. There was 
 Ottilie in person, playing at lawn tennis as King 
 bolt's partner. The day following, he started out, 
 nerved with an indignant purpose. He would now 
 at last, demand an explanation. As he drew near 
 the grounds of the villa, on the Bellevue Avenue side, 
 Ottilie and Kingbolt emerged, seated high up in 
 state in the dashing English tilbury of the latter. 
 Behind them, with folded arms, as rigid as the 
 sphinx, was Kingbolt's English groom. Ottilie held 
 a pretty parasol above her head, and looked out 
 sweetly from below it, her face partially screened 
 by the lace border. Bainbridge had shortly before 
 passed Angelica herself, driving, over the high dash 
 of a roomy phaeton, a pair of cream-colored ponies, 
 with Ada Trull beside her. 
 
 The two were spread out in toilettes of rainbow 
 brightness, and he had mused to himself, " The air 
 hath bubbles as the water hath, and these are of 
 them." But neither, he thought, presented as ele 
 gant an effect as Ottilie. Her simplicity of style was 
 remarked upon by others, who did not know her, and 
 was commended as very " good form." She was 
 spoken of as being probably a Boston girl. 
 
 There were hardly two more uncomfortable young
 
 204 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 men, in their respective ways, in all Newport at this 
 time than Kingbolt and Bainbridge. Newport, how 
 ever, did not hold Bainbridge long. He called to 
 take his leave of Ottilie, and in the interview threw 
 out darkly enigmatic hints, and acted in a manner so 
 far from friendly that she was surprised and grieved. 
 He went away by the boat, leaving " the wretched 
 business to go on." He understood now her fluttered 
 manner, her embarrassment, perfidious that she was, 
 that day when he had taken her hand and read its 
 lines. Ah yes, perfectly well ! 
 
 "Do I want to marry her, then?" he reflected, on 
 the other hand, facing himself severely down. " Not 
 at all. I want to marry nobody. What should I 
 marry on, forsooth ? Nothing in the situation from 
 the money point of view has changed. She has 
 simply done, like a cool, prudent, and business-like 
 girl, exactly what I told her. She had my advice and 
 consent, my express injunction. Perhaps I thought 
 that her graces of mind and person were to be con 
 veniently hidden from every vision but mine? But 
 what more natural, what more precisely to be ex 
 pected, than that some one of these young men of 
 fontune should have the grain of sense necessary to 
 see that, with but half a chance, she would make one 
 of the most elegant young matrons in New York? 
 Money on her side need be no object if his fancy were 
 interested. That pair need not wait to marry, in 
 deed." 
 
 He reflected on the enormous discrepancy in for 
 tune between Kingbolt and himself. Then he re 
 flected on the incredibility of the fact that he, Russell 
 Bainbridge, should find himself involved, a second 
 time, in a serious disturbance of the affections.
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 205 
 
 " Ah, but we are platonic friends, to be sure," he 
 concluded with a sigh. " Friendship rests content 
 with the calmer mental satisfactions. It desires the 
 best good of its object, does it not? What better 
 could I wish for her than the greatest number of 
 millions to her fortune possible ? " 
 
 He did not know, in fine, precisely what he would 
 have had Ottilie do. How could she have known 
 the state of his feelings, when he had not known it 
 himself ? Still she ought to have known. She should 
 have given him the first chance, and pretended at 
 least to be sorry, and taken up with her dissolute 
 young Croesus afterwards. 
 
 How was it now with Kingbolt, when Bainbridge 
 had gone ? As there is apt to be a perverse fate in 
 these things, he came still to see Ottilie, but much 
 less often. The extreme measure of his attentions 
 had been lavished, as it happened, during the very 
 period of Bainbridge's stay. Angelica, for her part, 
 was pleased to consider this intimacy " very amus 
 ing." Had it been of longer duration, or perhaps 
 had she seen more of it, she would perhaps have 
 been led by a natural perversity to interfere. Ab 
 sent so much, however, in the whirl of her amuse 
 ments, she contented herself with an occasional small 
 innuendo. 
 
 Angelica, again, fell into the way of borrowing 
 small sums of money from Ottilie about these times, 
 always with an easy forgetfulness of repayment. 
 This she would do, slender as was her cousin's store, 
 rather than change the smallest of her own bank 
 notes. It almost seemed, as if she congratulated 
 herself upon these acquisitions with a glee beyond 
 their importance. Was it not " so much clear gain,"
 
 206 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 since it all came in the first instance from her fa 
 ther's purse ? 
 
 Kingbolt had finally an item of intelligence for 
 Angelica that commended him somewhat more than 
 usual to the favor of that young woman. He called 
 upon her one day, and found her alone, in a cool, 
 matting-carpeted drawing-room, whither she had re 
 tired from the glare of the heat. 
 
 " I thought you might like to know," he said, in 
 troducing his business hastily, " that 'Lady Angelica' 
 has just come in at the head of a big field of flyers at 
 Buffalo. Here is the dispatch." 
 
 He handed her the paper. It appeared that, ear 
 lier in their acquaintance, she had graciously per 
 mitted him to name after her a fine racing mare of 
 his. This animal was now doing remarkable things 
 on the Western circuit. Angelica took a certain 
 pride in the exploits of her namesake, as somehow 
 adding to her own importance. She listened with 
 interest while he confined himself to this subject. 
 But, what with the occasion, and her unusual soft 
 ness of mood, he had soon strayed impetuously very 
 far from it. 
 
 " There ! It is as I feared," she said, stopping him 
 with a gesture and a clear-eyed calmness more dis 
 couraging than anger. " You are going to make love 
 to me, and I shall have to send you away." 
 
 He burst out at this with what he had had so long 
 in his mind. " Oh, how is it possible," he cried, put 
 ting directly to her at last the question he had put to 
 Ottilie, " that such a girl as you can take up with 
 him ? It is /who want you, /who love you." 
 
 Had Angelica desired she might have said truth 
 fully, in reply to this, that she had not chosen her
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 207 
 
 form of happiness to consist of expansions of affection 
 and flutterings of the heart. She might have said, 
 too, on the other hand, that she was an excellent 
 judge in personal appearance, and could see very well 
 the difference between the comeliness of this aspirant 
 and the awkward proportions of Sprowle. Perhaps 
 her eyes even rested upon him with a certain ap 
 proval while she showed herself the most inflexible. 
 
 " But," she might have gone on to say, " I have 
 deliberately preferred a certain ideal of distinction. 
 You are the son of a manufacturer, who, like my fa 
 ther, would never have been heard of unless he had 
 made a fortune. I shall not have as much money in 
 marrying Sprowle as if I took you, but we shall be 
 very comfortable. Besides, I wish to marry a man 
 whom I can control, in order, under all circumstances 
 hereafter, to do exactly as I please." 
 
 Really, there was something almost touching in 
 this immolation of all the finer and warmer human 
 impulses upon the altar of a cool calculation. 
 
 " I cannot endure it. I have never been brought 
 up to be crossed," persisted Kingbolt in his attempt. 
 
 " It is time you began, then," exclaimed Angelica, 
 curtly. 
 
 She had to be very peremptory with him. It was 
 only upon his express undertaking never to annoy her 
 again with so hopeless a suit that she would even per 
 mit him to come to the house at all. He was apolo 
 getic and subdued, thereafter, and they conferred to 
 gether in a milder tone. 
 
 " It is useless to consider what might have been," 
 said the beauty, taking a philosophic air. " Fate has 
 decreed otherwise." 
 
 Kingbolt of Kingboltsville had moods after this
 
 208 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 which for him were little short of seraphic. The 
 breaking- harness on the fiery, wild-eyed, young mus 
 tang, which seems preposterous beyond belief at first, 
 has in the end its legitimate effect. The fiery, young 
 mustang is broken, as others have been before him. 
 Kingbolt posed now for merely a disinterested friend. 
 His new-found amiability embraced even Sprowle. 
 He gave out that Sprowle was not such a " muff " as 
 he seemed. He presented him, in token of amity, 
 with one of his fine English coaching-whips, having 
 an extra long lash. He even spoke of getting him, in 
 the winter, into the Capricorn, a little club within the 
 Empire Club, a coterie of select spirits, who had the 
 habit of dining together once a month. 
 
 Kingbolt did not lack fierce revolts, however. 
 When moved by one of these, he rode a hurdle race, 
 at the Aquidneck Course, which was the talk of the 
 town. It was done on a foolish wager, against pro 
 fessional jockeys, and he won in a tremendous canter 
 by three lengths. He confided to Ottilie that he had 
 been in hopes of breaking his neck in the course of it. 
 Again he told her, 
 
 " Half the time it is as much as I can do to keep 
 from sending a charge of shot into the infernal idiot," 
 meaning Sprowle by this pleasant description, 
 " at the pigeon-matches." 
 
 It was not long after this latter speech that she 
 was startled by hearing that Kingbolt had himself 
 been shot, by Sprowle, at the Narragansett Gun 
 Club's grounds. She was sure there must have been 
 an affray, and in the sequel his own vindictive plan 
 reversed. Angelica, also, had at first the idea that 
 the shooting was due to some absurd jealousy on the 
 part of her affianced, from whom such things were by
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 209 
 
 no means to be expected. But Sprowle Onderdonk, 
 the captain of the club, presently came- to the house 
 in person, and brought reassuring news. 
 
 " It was a mere accident," he said. " Sprowle fired 
 low, in a hurry, at a bird which flew over the specta 
 tors' heads. He is devilish awkward about some 
 things, you know. Kingbolt got a little of it in his 
 face. It won't signify. He will only have a few 
 scattering blue spots here and there ; that is all. It 
 won't injure his good looks a particle." 
 
 Ottilie was called back to town, to resume her 
 cares for her uncle. The rest of the family were to 
 remain until well into the autumn. The last that 
 she saw of Kingbolt, he waved her good-by from the 
 piazza of his hotel, where he sat with a green shade 
 over his eyes, attended upon by a sympathizing circle, 
 to whom the misfortunes of such a person seemed 
 misfortunes indeed. But she had been in town only 
 a few days when he presented himself, apparently lit 
 tle the worse for wear, and asked her once more to 
 drive. 
 
 " I came back to the city to get my own doctor," 
 he explained. " As soon as he had reduced the swell 
 ing, little trace of the damage remained, as you see." 
 
 He had a new Whitechapel cart at the door, the 
 horses harnessed in the tandem fashion. Ottilie al 
 lowed herself to be persuaded to go with him. 
 
 As fate again would have it, Bainbridge saw the 
 pair on their way up the Avenue. Grimly enough 
 he recalled that Sunday when the same driver and 
 his vehicle had been discussed by Ottilie and himself 
 from the sidewalk. The tone of her comments would 
 hardly have been so unfavorable now. Who could 
 doubt that it was all settled between them? As
 
 210 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 likely as not even the wedding-day was fixed. He 
 could almost hear the tender things they were saying 
 to each other. 
 
 Now the tender things which the two were, in fact, 
 saying were inquiries on Kingbolt's part after beat 
 ing about the bush as to how Angelica had taken 
 the news of his injury. This information had really 
 been the object of his present courtesy. 
 
 Then, when this had been disposed of, they dis 
 cussed the relative merits of side-lamps as compared 
 with dash-lamps for a dog-cart, and whether brown- 
 black with crimson wheels, or invisible green and ca 
 nary be preferable as colors. Kingbolt showed his 
 companion how, by an ingenious contrivance, the cen 
 tre of gravity of the vehicle could be shifted, so as to 
 be kept always over the axle, whether a groom were 
 carried or not. He also gave her points about hia 
 horses. He called upon her, from time to time, to 
 observe how he threaded narrow mazes and made 
 deft turns, which to her seemed dangerous. Ottilie 
 had acquired from her cousin Selkirk, who had taken 
 her out once or twice, some scraps of this kind of 
 knowledge, and now, by politeness, made the most of 
 it. 
 
 She endeavored to infuse into her salute to Barn- 
 bridge as much warmth as possible. He chose to con 
 strue this rather into her way of gloating over him, 
 and returned as frigid a bow as possible in return. 
 Ottilie could by no means account for this, nor did 
 opportunities soon offer for explanation. Bainbridge 
 ceased to come near her. She scarcely even saw 
 him any more. 
 
 She recalled his vagaries of speech, his professed 
 changeable ness of purpose.
 
 CROSS PURPOSES AT A NEWPORT VILLA. 211 
 
 " Ah, well ! " she sighed gently. " I am the object 
 of it in my turn. The friendly interest he expressed 
 in me has no doubt come to the conclusion that was 
 legitimately to have been expected." 
 14
 
 XV. 
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 
 
 ON their return to town for the winter, the Har- 
 veys began to plan their social campaign. They de 
 sired their first season in the new house, and the last 
 of Angelica's unmarried condition to be one of pe 
 culiar brilliancy. 
 
 Something had already been done, at Newport, 
 with the assistance of Mr. Sprowle and his cousin 
 Sprowle Onderdonk, in the way of talking over the 
 people who were to be invited to dinner. Those 
 men were very powerful, socially. It was on this 
 side that the advantage of the Sprowle connection 
 came in. They could put your name down for al 
 most anything, and there you were, safely chosen 
 among the elect. Mrs. Harvey, as a Muffett, had 
 substantial claims, of course, to consideration. But 
 her husband had less ; and what with this, and their 
 having been abroad so much, and for some time with 
 out a house of their own, there was danger, had they 
 been left quite to themselves, not only of making mis 
 takes, but even of being annoyingly overlooked. 
 
 Could the actual gradations, and heart-burnings on 
 account of them, in the upper class, be discerned by 
 those below, they might serve as a motive, almost 
 equal to that of Christian resignation, for a more con 
 tented state of mind. The stars are all a long way 
 off, and all shine ; but ah, the enormous gaps there 
 are between them !
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 213 
 
 Conferences, for drawing up the programme, were 
 held in the comfortable sitting-room of Mrs. Harvey. 
 Ottilie was present as amanuensis. She had many re 
 adjustments to make in her notes before all was com 
 plete. 
 
 Sprowle had taken advantage of his opportunities 
 to find out what people of note were going to do, and 
 carefully brought word. 
 
 " The Corlaers will give two balls," he reported : 
 " probably one at Delnionico's, and one at their 
 house. The Bourdons will give private theatricals, 
 and that sort of thing ; the Antrams a set of Ger 
 mans. There will be an unusual crop of ' coming- 
 out 'parties early in the season, Mrs. Schinko's, for 
 her second daughter, leading off about the middle of 
 November. The Vanderlyns will give only dinners, 
 as usual." 
 
 " Those Vanderlyns have reduced it to an exact 
 science," Angelica interrupted. " Their dinners are 
 their year's work. They make their preparations one 
 year for the next. They send their invitations never 
 less than three weeks in advance, so that there can be 
 no interference from ' previous engagements.' Two 
 months of the winter they dine people, three times a 
 week. Then they stop short and devote themselves 
 to accepting the hospitalities offered in return." 
 
 " They have a stunning good cook, you know," 
 said Sprowle. 
 
 " Yes, they have a superb chef, but I know very 
 well it is only for the time being. Vanderlyn has a 
 way of letting you know that everything they have is 
 got up in the house. They depend upon no vulgar 
 outside assistance, no, indeed. ' How can such a 
 person aw come into your kitchen or your din-
 
 214 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ing-room, and do anything, ye know ? ' he says. 
 'Why, he can't find a blessed pot or a kettle, ye 
 know,' " and Angelica pretended to twist up the end 
 of an imaginary moustache. 
 
 " You must look out for the Mondays of the Fam 
 ily Circle Dancing Class," resumed Sprowle. "There 
 are to be three during the winter, and one after Lent. 
 The ' Patriarchs ' will give three balls, as usual, on 
 Mondays, too, beginning early in December. The 
 young swells, the ' Bachelors,' take Thursdays, and 
 are to have two. Here is a partial list of the dates ; 
 I will let you have the rest as soon as possible. Yes, 
 all that will go on just as usual. Of course some new 
 things will be started, also." 
 
 " The trouble is that as soon as a thing gets well 
 agoing in New York," said Angelica, " it begins to 
 run down." 
 
 " That is so," said Sprowle. " All sorts of com 
 mon persons elbow their way in. You cannot tell 
 how they do it, but the first thing you know there 
 they are. The only resource then for the top swells 
 is to leave it, and start something else. There is one 
 novelty on the carpet already, in the shape of a 'La 
 dies' Ball,' to be under the patronage of a committee 
 of dowagers." 
 
 " Ah, yes," said Mrs. Rodman Harvey with inter 
 est, " the Ladies' Ball." 
 
 " Judging by the row they are having over the in 
 vitations, and the way black-balling is going on, I 
 should say it was to be the exclusive affair of the sea 
 son," continued Sprowle. " Mamma was a member of 
 the original group, of course, and you are all right. 
 That has been looked out for. By the way, when 
 your name first came up, to be added to the list of
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 215 
 
 managers, that young Mrs. Bergen Ap-Zoom a 
 flighty creature, you know, who has just got back 
 from somewhere, I could not tell you where had 
 the impudence to ask, * Who is Mrs. Rodman Har 
 vey ? I don't believe I ever heard of her.' ' You 
 may not have heard of her,' mamma replied, pretty 
 sharply, I can tell you, 4 but I would have you to 
 know that her daughter is shortly to marry my 
 son.' " 
 
 The speaker finished with a laugh, and seemed to 
 look upon the anecdote as very amusing. 
 
 " Well, I must say ! " exclaimed Mrs. Harvey, 
 flushing with anger. 
 
 " You use quite your customary tact in telling us 
 that, Austin dear," said Angelica, with far from an 
 admiring expression. 
 
 She marked Mrs. Bergen Ap-Zoom for future con 
 sideration, as a Seminole might have cut a notch on 
 a stick. But it was exactly in order to be placed for 
 ever beyond the reach of such slights as this that the 
 match with Sprowle was being engineered. Sprowle 
 did not quite understand his offense, and continued in 
 a rather mystified way with his information. 
 
 "I had better bring up Van Boskirk from the 
 Club, to see if there is anything I have omitted. 
 Van has it all at his fingers' ends. And you had 
 better have in Scatterthwaite, you know," he con 
 cluded, " and just glance over his records so as not to 
 send out invitations to people who have been dead 
 several years, and that sort of thing." 
 
 When the necessary emendations had been made, 
 Ottilie read out, with the proper date affixed to each 
 item, a list comprising two balls, three four o'clock 
 teas, and two " ladies' luncheons " on a large scale.
 
 216 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 There were also to be dinners, of from twelve to 
 twenty covers, every Thursday, from December up 
 to Lent. This was the more formal hospitality, 
 that of an intimate sort to be sandwiched between. 
 Their general " day at home " was to be Tuesday, 
 after three. 
 
 Scatterthwaite was afterwards summoned in. He 
 was a person wno united with the functions of a 
 church sexton a discreet supervision of the machin 
 ery of society. No wedding, funeral, or reception of 
 the first class was complete without his fostering 
 care, if it were only in distributing the invitations, or 
 watching the descent of the guests from the carriages. 
 By means of confidential communications made him 
 he was sometimes able to forestall, if he would, an 
 awkward duplication of dates, or a too great similar 
 ity of programmes. These can by no means be wholly 
 avoided, however, since the days of the season are so 
 few, the range of possible entertainments so limited, 
 and those who desire to avail themselves of it so nu 
 merous. 
 
 Scatterthwaite found it useful to keep such a rec 
 ord of the movements of society as could hardly be 
 done by simple individuals actually involved in its 
 whirl. He could supply the proper addresses, pre 
 vent the extending of invitations to persons long 
 since deceased, as Sprowle had said, and others fallen 
 into poverty or hopeless disgrace ; and he knew what 
 families had young sons and daughters coming up, 
 and now about of an age to be formally noticed. 
 
 Then Clocheville, the new caterer, who was mak 
 ing his way to favor, Haricot, spoiled by prosperity, 
 having grown so reprehensibly negligent of late, was 
 brought before the conclave. After him came Spang,
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 217 
 
 the florist. These were contracted with to furnish 
 services and the supplies necessary at the proper 
 dates, and carefully noted all in their little books. 
 Clocheville was only for the grander occasions, Con 
 rad and the resources of the house being sufficient in 
 themselves for the lesser. 
 
 The bulk of Ottilie's labors resolved itself into the 
 putting in order of her aunt's book of addresses, 
 which contained in all probably a thousand names, 
 and in sending out the invitations from it as occasion 
 demanded. 
 
 "Aunt Alida " had no talent for resigning any con 
 siderable part of the burdens of management. Her 
 active-minded, amiable niece was thus left with much 
 of leisure on her hands. She occupied herself in 
 keeping up her studies or practiced her music. She 
 associated herself in some charitable enterprises, in 
 which she became interested through some of the 
 quieter new acquaintances she had made. One of 
 these was a society for sending out poor children to 
 homes in the West, and she managed to secure places 
 for a number of the proteges in and about Lone Tree. 
 Another made substantial garments for the poor ; 
 and another was a " flower mission," which brightened 
 the bedsides of the sick in the hospitals. 
 
 She found Rodman Harvey inclined to respond 
 freely, at this time, to demands upon him for such 
 purposes. " The old man is going it pretty strong on 
 the charity lay, just now," said his clerk, McKinley, 
 at the store. " You hardly pick up a paper but you 
 find him presenting a stand of colors, or a barrel of 
 flour, or a silver pitcher, or a set of furniture, to some 
 armory or church fair, or something that way." 
 
 " Well, his head is level. He could n't play a bet-
 
 218 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ter card for election purposes no way," a comrade re 
 turned. 
 
 Ottilie's charitable tendencies were not shared by 
 Angelica. 
 
 " She will bring small-pox or some other dreadful 
 calamity into the house," she complained. " Sho 
 ought to be stopped, if only for Calista's sake." 
 
 Such concern in Calista's welfare was the more re 
 markable since her usual attention to the child was 
 no more than to criticise the sharpness of her elbows 
 and shoulder-blades, and push her out of the way. 
 This was a programme she was hardly likely ever to 
 vary from unless Calista should become a beauty. 
 
 " One would think that the rich had nothing to 
 do but give, give," Angelica proceeded. " They are 
 as poor as the rest of the world, if you look at the 
 demands upon them. I suppose papa will be begged 
 out of house and home yet. I expect to live to see the 
 day. What poor family, for instance, has to keep up 
 an establishment like this, eight horses, an opera 
 box, give dinners and dress ? I believe there is too 
 much luxury already among lower orders. I am half 
 inclined to subscribe to the theory that it is a mis 
 take to do so much for the weak and suffering. It 
 is better that they should die out. There would be 
 fewer people, but those remaining would be good for 
 something. All criminals ought to be shot, to save 
 the expense of their keep ; and the pauper sick ex 
 posed on islands, as in the good old days of the 
 Romans." 
 
 Ottilie had heard the self-same doctrines from 
 Bainbridge, told in his exaggerated way, and had 
 paid no great heed. 
 
 " Oh, he likes to hear himself talk," she said.
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 219 
 
 " He is like the son in the Scriptures, who said he 
 would not go into the vineyard, but really went, and 
 was so much better than the other one who said he 
 would, but did n't." 
 
 But in her cousin's mouth, though she used a ban 
 tering tone, the words had a different ring, almost 
 the air of cold conviction. The same trait appeared 
 in Angelica's line of comment on any case of magnan 
 imous effort or self-sacrifice, incidentally reported. 
 Such unbusiness-like proceedings appeared to excite 
 in her less admiration than contempt. 
 
 " That is all very well for those who like it," she 
 would say, " but you will not find me doing it." 
 
 She seemed to value herself upon her superior good 
 sense in this. She prided herself, too, upon her in 
 capacity "to be taken in." This was much to her 
 credit, no doubt, and a quality to be recommended to 
 others. 
 
 Still, considering that she never had been taken 
 in, nor suffered any of those disappointments which 
 often sow the seed of suspicion in natures originally 
 warm and confiding, a little more of the candor and 
 trust natural to ingenuous youth might have been 
 pardoned in her case. 
 
 As to simple pleasures, to contrast her with Ottilie, 
 she hated them. She understood only those of the 
 complex and costly sort, confining her interest as it 
 might be said, to that part of life which is grown 
 under glass. 
 
 She continued her borrowing of small sums of 
 Ottilie. The child Calista, observant of this, for 
 all her quiet way, took it upon herself to impart the 
 information to her mother. Mrs. Harvey insisted 
 thereupon on repaying the loans from her own
 
 220 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 pocket, against the protest of Ottilie. Angelica 
 made no offers of restitution even now. She re 
 ceived her mother's mention of the subject, on the 
 contrary, with an indignant air, made as if Ottilie 
 had brought the complaint herself, and took occasion 
 to show her resentment quite offensively. 
 
 An open little tiff occurred between the two for 
 the first time. Ottilie worsted her aggressor with a 
 gallant intrepidity, accompanied by a charmingly 
 dignified air. She broke down, however, immediately 
 after, and went sobbing to her room. 
 
 " I do think it a pity you two cannot agree," said 
 her aunt, as if the blame had been equal. 
 
 At this Ottilie redoubled her tears, and was almost 
 ready to leave the house. But the next moment 
 Mrs. Harvey came to her, dried her tears affection 
 ately, and assured her that justice should be done. 
 The matter came to the ears of the merchant prince, 
 also, and he sternly bade his daughter apologize. 
 
 " I told you how it would be, mamma ! " cried 
 Angelica, passionately, to her mother, when she had 
 withdrawn from his presence. " You cannot have 
 that kind of people, and their dreadful feelings." 
 She apologized to Ottilie, nevertheless, as she had 
 been told, making her peace with a certain haughty 
 grace. She said that she had been unconscious of 
 giving offense. 
 
 Rodman Harvey passed much of his time in the 
 house, in a plainly furnished office, opening from the 
 library. He had a safe there and some atlases and 
 statistical works, which he used in preparing his ad 
 dresses for the Board of Trade or the Civic Reform 
 Association ; and there was a writing table, covered 
 with green leather, at which he signed his checks.
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 221 
 
 He retired early, as a rule, and only went out to 
 gayeties where his interest or his dignity were likely 
 to be much enhanced. 
 
 If not in this office, or den, of an evening, he was 
 often to be found in his billiard .room. His cronies, 
 Hackley and Hastings, joined him there ; or his elder 
 son, Selkirk, took part with him in a quiet game. 
 His younger son, Rodman, Jr., whose appeals for a 
 latch-key still continued unavailing, was sometimes 
 invited down also, as a wholesome respite from his 
 studies. This youth secretly scoffed at his father's 
 game, without daring display too openly his own 
 superior prowess, lest he be questioned as to how he 
 acquired it. He repined at the necessity of frittering 
 away so much valuable time in slow fashion with 
 " the governor," when the pleasures he knew of 
 outside were going on without him. In this discon 
 tented frame of mind, he proved so severe a critic and 
 made so many disputes over the most innocent shots, 
 that he was far from being an agreeable companion. 
 
 Hackley and Hastings were the guests when Ot- 
 tilie was sent down, rather late one evening, with a 
 message to her uncle. " Ask him, please, for the 
 memorandum I gave him for the upholsterer," said 
 Mrs. Harvey. " I wish to add something. Oh, and 
 just say quietly, that one of the guests for our Red- 
 way dinner to-morrow has disappointed us, and I 
 wish him to find some eligible person to fill the va 
 cancy. Tell him to fix it in his mind ! I shall de 
 pend upon him." 
 
 The billiard-players extended a warm welcome to 
 the young girl as she came down among them. 
 Hackley gallantly insisted upon her making a shot 
 for him. She did this with no great willingness,
 
 222 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 showing in the process the unconscious grace of her 
 slender figure. 
 
 Mr. Hackley was short, well-fed, and bald. At 
 fifty he still gave himself the airs of a merry bachelor. 
 In the street he walked with a dignified bearing, 
 carrying his head a little on one side, and one hand 
 open behind him, with the palm outwards. 
 
 He assumed with Harvey a brusque air, as one 
 who spoke his mind without fear or favor. But it 
 might have been noticed that his sayings were gen 
 erally of a complimentary and not an offensive sort. 
 His way was to affect to give to gross flattery a cer 
 tain air of abuse. 
 
 Ottilie, with a quick intuition, distrusted the sin 
 cerity of his professions, and she did not like too 
 well the near proximity of his large bald head, and 
 large mouth and teeth. 
 
 She did not find that her uncle chose his intimates 
 with too great discrimination. Perhaps this was the 
 truth. In natures of a certain cold kind, self-centred, 
 without " magnetism," as the saying is, to whom 
 companionship is not an absolute necessity, there is 
 a degree of simplicity in these matters. Their friends 
 often choose themselves, instead of being chosen, and 
 fasten themselves on. To both these friends Harvey 
 had done many favors, chiefly of a financial sort. 
 
 Hastings was tall, large-bearded, taciturn, and non 
 committal. There was nothing in particular for him, 
 except, in Ottilie's eyes, his engaging wife, with 
 whom her friendship still continued. On the other 
 hand, also, he had nothing against him. He was as 
 taciturn as Hackley was talkative, attended to his 
 game of billiards in a business-like way, and nodded 
 intelligent acceptance of remarks rather than com 
 mented upon them verbally.
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 223 
 
 Ottilie, obliged to wait a little for the pportunity 
 to speak to her uncle apart, then to wait longer while 
 a servant was sent to find the required memoran 
 dum on his writing-table, sat down on a luxurious 
 cushioned bench affixed to the wall. 
 
 She heard the gentlemen talking about the man 
 sion, which was still too new a subject to be ex 
 hausted. 
 
 " Come ! " said Hackley, giving the air of an im 
 pertinence to what was really an opening for its 
 owner to indulge a little self-glorification, " the whole 
 thing cost you a good quarter of a million dollars." 
 
 " Worse yet," replied the merchant prince, smiling. 
 "A quarter of a million went for the house and 
 ground alone. Say two hundred thousand more for 
 the decoration, furnishing, and pictures. You shall 
 have it as it stands for half a million dollars. That 
 leaves but a bare living profit on the transaction." 
 
 " I don't just happen to have the sum about me," 
 returned Hackley, creating some amusement by pre 
 tending to feel for it in his pocket-book. " In fact, 
 there are often times now when I don't have a little 
 amount like that about me. What with speculat 
 ing, manufacturing, and so forth, in these late years, 
 sometimes making, sometimes losing, I have seen the 
 time, more than once, when a cashier's salary at the 
 Antarctic Bank, regularly paid, as of yore, would 
 have again looked to me like a very comfortable 
 thing. Perhaps none of us ever bettered ourselves 
 greatly by leaving the bank. Here am I, as you see. 
 Burlington, the president, got himself made a gen 
 eral in the civil wars, and minister to a foreign court ; 
 but glory and languages will not do to bring up a 
 family of daughters on. He has been unsettled in
 
 224 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 his affairs ever since. Then there was old Gam- 
 mage, the note-teller, you know, who went to the 
 devil with drink." 
 
 " It astonishes me, sometimes, to find such a roof 
 over my head, after all the old house of Harvey & 
 Co. has been through," said the merchant, following 
 this with a piece of retrospect of his own. " You 
 recollect some of its tough times, Hackley, yourself." 
 
 " Yes, I recollect." Hackley 's countenance wore 
 an evasive expression, and his comments led away 
 from rather than up to the subject. 
 
 " When I think of it I could not tell you how we 
 escaped. I could not, really," persisted Harvey. 
 
 Was it imagination on Ottilie's part, or did Mr. 
 Hackley look at his patron in a singular way, from 
 half-veiled eyes, and then as if in upon himself, in- 
 trospectively ? It would have been strange, indeed, 
 had Hackley known any means by which the house 
 had escaped, when Harvey did not know it himself. 
 
 " There was, then, an Antarctic Bank," reflected 
 Ottilie, nervously. " There was a General Burling 
 ton, and a Gammage, and this is the Hackley, as 
 specified by the vagrant McFadd, that day in Har 
 vey's Terrace, when the prisoners escaped." 
 
 "Pshaw!" she broke out. "What folly! To 
 imagine that if there had been anything, and so many 
 people cognisant of it, it could have possibly waited 
 till now ! " 
 
 The following afternoon Bainbridge happened in 
 at Rodman Harvey's store, to report upon some col 
 lections of a dubious character, which had been put 
 into his hands. 
 
 " By the way," said Harvey, as he was taking his 
 leave, " have you anything to do this evening ? "
 
 IN TOWN FOR THE WINTER. 225 
 
 "No," returned Bainbridge promptly, supposing 
 some further offer of employment at hand. 
 
 " Well, then, I wish you would excuse the infor 
 mality of the invitation, and come up and dine with us 
 at seven. We are to have the Hon. Lyman S. Red- 
 way. He is in town for but a few days, and we had 
 to catch him when we could." 
 
 Harvey had neglected till now to carry out the 
 instructions sent him by his wife to fill the vacant 
 place. This was a presentable young man, who 
 would do for a guest as well as another, and save the 
 trouble of further search. 
 
 " With great pleasure," said Bainbridge. 
 
 He cursed his hasty admission that he was not en 
 gaged, but could not now withdraw it. After all, 
 perhaps Ottilie would not appear at dinner. As to 
 the Hon. Lyman S. Redway, a distinguished political 
 economist, for whose character and attainments he 
 had the highest respect, he was a man well worth see 
 ing. At the worst he could devote his attention very 
 much to him. 
 
 7
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES A POLITICAL ECON 
 OMIST. 
 
 RODMAN HARVEY dined now a brother merchant, 
 now a magnate of the stock exchange or the rail 
 roads ; again, a military or naval officer of distinc 
 tion, or a high functionary of state. Or again, it 
 was one of his dignified foreign correspondents, or 
 perhaps some scion of nobility who brought letters 
 from these to facilitate his tour through America. 
 
 Once he gave a dinner to the great fortunes, in 
 which were some of those amassed with such fabu 
 lous rapidity of late in California. 
 
 The capitalist Goldstone said on that occasion, to a 
 lady at his right, " I suppose you will have no eyes 
 at all for me, with my poor little million." 
 
 Bainbridge entered the Harveys' drawing-room as 
 nearly as might be at the appointed hour of seven. 
 The hostess received him affably, asking, 
 
 " Where have you been ? " 
 
 Having thus recognized the fact of his previous 
 existence, she turned again in her bustling way to 
 other guests. She was dressed to-night in precisely 
 that toilette of maroon satin and diamonds which we 
 have seen in her portrait, by Huntington, as exhibited 
 at the Academy of Design. 
 
 Small groups were sitting or standing about, and 
 the rooms were full of that gently miu-murous, ex-
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 227 
 
 pectant conversation characteristic of the twenty 
 minutes before going in to dinner. 
 
 Angelica's pug Marmion, his neck ornamented with 
 a wide silk bow, to match his mistress' dinner dress, 
 trotted sedately about. Bainbridge stooped to pat 
 him. The favorite avoided the caress with a wearied 
 air, seeming to say, " Oh, no. That may do very 
 well, from strangers, for dogs in general ; but in my 
 case there is no necessity of anything of the kind." 
 
 It was rather late when Ottilie appeared and the 
 curiosity of Bainbridge was satisfied. He looked 
 around next for Kingbolt, but Kingbolt was not there. 
 The younger portion of the company consisted of 
 Sprowle, his cousin Sprowle Onderdonk, Ada Trull, 
 Daisy Goldstone, and a Miss Farley, daughter of an 
 ex-secretary of the navy, who was here with her 
 father and mother. There were also Selkirk Harvey 
 and a Miss Van Voorst of Albany, lately brought to 
 visit in the house for his especial benefit. 
 
 It began to be feared that a general indifference 
 to the female sex, in the son and heir, might extend 
 to the degree of not marrying at all, thus defeating 
 the ambitious hopes to be accomplished through him. 
 To contend against this, his mother was in the habit 
 of artfully throwing in his way young women of the 
 desirable sort and personal attractions, with the pur 
 pose of stirring at length his sluggish fancy. 
 
 When Bainbridge had identified all, he found, 
 besides those above, the dowager Mrs. Sprowle ; the 
 mayor of the city ; the governor of a neighboring 
 State ; Dr. Miltimore, the polished divine ; Dr. Wy- 
 burd, who could be depended upon to give a certain 
 animation even to the most abstruse topics ; Mr. 
 Hackley ; Blithewood Gwin, the well-known journal 
 ist ; and Baron Au, the Pomeranian consul-general.
 
 228 THE HOUSE OP A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 The eminent political economist was long in com 
 ing. Pending his arrival, a party was organized, 
 under the host's guidance, to explore the cellars and 
 similar appurtenances of the house below stairs. 
 
 " All that," said Rodman Harvey, " is the depart 
 ment upon which I especially pride myself. I claim 
 much of it as of my especial invention and contriv 
 ance." 
 
 It was thought at first that ladies could not go ; but 
 the ex-secretary's daughter, picking up her skirts in a 
 dainty way, set the example, and others, with Ottilie 
 among them, followed. Bainbridge remained behind. 
 
 These lower regions were found to be of a spa 
 ciousness and elegant neatness hardly surpassed by 
 those above. The party, on their return, displayed 
 much enthusiasm about them. The ex-secretary's 
 daughter, gesticulating with a pair of small, nervous 
 white hands, might have been heard explaining the 
 plan to Sprowle Onderdonk. 
 
 " The contrivances for hygiene and comfort," she 
 said, " are simply wonderful. The heater has a self- 
 acting gauge and regulator, so that the temperature 
 can never possibly rise above or fall below seventy 
 Fahrenheit. The air is filtered through cotton-wool, 
 the water through something or other which I forget. 
 There is an electric battery, so that the gas lights 
 itself, and no matches are necessary. And a hydraulic 
 elevator takes you up-stairs, if you like, without the 
 trouble of climbing." 
 
 " I should be afraid it would all blow up, you 
 know," said her listener with a bluff facetiousness. 
 
 The Hon. Lyman Red way now arrived. His title 
 was derived from service as a member of Congress. 
 He was a man of fine presence. He offered apologies
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 229 
 
 in a courteous way for having kept the company 
 waiting, showing that the delay had been unavoid 
 able. A number of the guests had met him before, a 
 few having heard his discourse of that very day on 
 the tariff question, before the Chamber of Commerce. 
 Those who had not already made his acquaintance 
 were now presented, and all went in to dinner. 
 
 Bainbridge had been speculating, with vague anx 
 iety, as to who his partner was to be. Mrs. Har 
 vey resolved it all at once by saying, 
 
 " I am going to ask you, Mr. Bainbridge, to take 
 in my niece, Miss Ottilie Harvey." 
 
 He offered his arm to Ottilie. Exchanging a con 
 ventional word or two, they moved onward with the 
 procession. Both, having made up their minds to 
 appear particularly at ease, found themselves, on the 
 contrary, particularly uncomfortable. 
 
 The table, around which the guests proceeded to 
 take their places, in the high-backed tapestry-covered 
 chairs, was a spot of genial brightness in the semi-ob 
 scurity of the dining-room. It was lighted by waxen 
 tapers shaded with colored silks. The illumination of 
 these fell softly upon a multitude of utensils of gold, 
 silver, fine porcelain, and Venice glass, and cloth of 
 snowy whiteness, open-worked along the edges and 
 showing a ruby velvet mat below. In the centre, an 
 antique galley of silver, laden with fruits and flowers, 
 rested upon a lake formed of a mirror, and having 
 banks of flowers. The walls around were gravely and 
 richly decorated with old tapestry, upon the ground of 
 which hung some paintings, chiefly portrait and fig 
 ure subjects in prevailing dark tones. 
 
 William Skiff, assisted by Alphonse, moved in and 
 out discreetly, serving the viands from behind a tall
 
 230 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 screen. An orchestra of stringed instruments played 
 softly in an adjoining room. Its music, instead of 
 conflicting with the- talk, seemed like a low accom 
 paniment to recitative, to bind all its fragments into 
 a certain unity and rhythm. 
 
 Ottilie and Bainbridge talked but little. The 
 young man's manner was distinctly frigid, and the 
 young girl had not the faintest idea of the cause. 
 The intervals of silence between them lengthened. 
 They gazed at the table and listened to the conversa 
 tion of the other guests. The " governor of a neigh 
 boring State," at Ottilie's right, developed a taste for 
 her society, and also a certain bantering way that 
 might not have been quite expected from one of his 
 station. 
 
 Baron Au, whose deficiencies in the English lan 
 guage by no means sufficed to check his tendency to 
 be a very effusive person, was heard setting forth his 
 daily practice from the point of view of hygiene to 
 Miss Ada Trull. 
 
 " I haf learn your American proverb : ' Times is 
 money.' I rise myself each morning at seven of 
 clock, take cold bat-z-th, so cold what I can, and 
 walk myself one hour in z-the streets." 
 
 "I should think you would rather speak French, 
 Baron," commented Ada Trull. 
 
 She was much too captivating to be quarreled 
 with for impertinence, and knew it very well. Her 
 blonde hair, " banged " over her forehead, was more 
 like a cap of polished gold this evening than ever. 
 
 Hackley, at Bainbridge's left, was discussing with 
 a neighbor the fruitful theme of stocks. Something 
 of what they said oddly fixed itself in his memory 
 and had its consequences afterwards.
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 231 
 
 " I confidently expect," Hackley declared, " to see 
 Devious Air-Line at one hundred and fifty before the 
 winter is over. Harvey is president, you know, and 
 everything he touches turns to money. It is in the 
 high-priced stocks, after all, and not the low, that 
 money is made. If I had funds, I should hold Devi 
 ous Air-Line for a big rise." 
 
 Whether Miss Van Voorst, who faced our couple, 
 was aware or not of the altar upon which she was 
 designed to be sacrificed, she could be seen paying an 
 amiable deference to the apathetic Selkirk at her 
 side. She had a dimple in one cheek of which it 
 seemed that an impressible person might have made 
 a great deal more account. 
 
 " Do you think her pretty ? " Ottilie asked, for 
 an appearance of civility, at least, should be kept up. 
 
 " Rather," Bainbridge answered. " Hardly equal 
 to your cousin, or Ada Trull." 
 
 The peculiarity about Miss Van Voorst was that 
 the lids of her almond-shaped eyes did not seem to 
 open quite wide enough for the full orbs of vision, 
 which gave a quaint, near-sighted look, not at all 
 unbecoming. 
 
 " It is strange that glasses, and the near-sighted air 
 should impress us, is it not ? " said Ottilie. " Not to 
 be able to see very well is rather distinguished ; but 
 if a person cannot quite hear, or taste, or smell, or 
 has lost an arm or leg, no merit whatever attaches 
 to those infirmities." 
 
 The exploring party who had been to the cellars 
 continued to compliment the merchant prince upon 
 his mansion. He received their praises modestly. 
 He even made a pretense that it was but a poor affair 
 at best.
 
 232 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " They turned us out of Union Square," he said. 
 "We found we could not afford to live on property 
 worth four thousand dollars a foot. So we crept in 
 to a shelter from the weather as best we could." 
 
 " I understand that I am found fault with, in some 
 quarters," he continued, " for not having built in a 
 more correct taste. I am aware of the existence of 
 certain fashionable new styles, ' Queen Anne,' 
 ' Queen Elizabeth,' and the like. But this is to be 
 borne in mind ; if you ever wish to dispose of a house 
 of the regular pattern you always have a customer 
 for it, while if it be out of the common you must wait 
 for somebody to come along who is educated up to it. 
 We are in such a transition state, too, through the 
 growth of the city, that it is but a question of time 
 and of a short one at best when any and all of our 
 houses will be torn down for stores, or readjusted as 
 they stand." 
 
 " If I had the caricaturist's faculty," said the Hon. 
 Lyman Redway, " I should represent private life in 
 New York in the guise of a brown stone mansion, 
 tearing up Fifth Avenue, with a rag, tag, and bobtail 
 of shop-fronts in full cry behind it. The chase began 
 at the Battery, continued all the way up Broadway, 
 and is now nearing the Central Park." 
 
 "Better pull them down before they tumble down 
 and crumble down of themselves, as they seem in 
 clined to do, with this soft brown sandstone so much 
 in use," pronounced the journalist Blithewood Gwin. 
 " Perhaps you have seen," to Redway, " and if 
 you have not you should, a curious antediluvian 
 bird-track that has lately appeared, on the corner 
 stone of this mansion. For my part, I never look 
 about me but I see surfaces flaked, corners gone, and
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 233 
 
 even stout balusters eaten away to a good half of 
 their substance." 
 
 " Mineral substances are contained in the slone," 
 began Dr. Wyburd. " Or the grains are imperfectly 
 consolidated, which admits of the absorption of water, 
 and freezing and thawing. I hold, however, so far 
 as that is concerned, that the bird-track in ques 
 tion " 
 
 " Bird-tracks, that is always such a bad sign," 
 interrupted Mrs. Harvey, half absently. She ap 
 pealed with a little anxious nod to the ex-secretary's 
 wife, who returned the nod in a confidential way. 
 
 " Bother signs ! Why are there never any good 
 ones ? " exclaimed Angelica. 
 
 " Where, then, is private life, being so harassed and 
 pursued, going to ? " asked Redway. 
 
 " Up in the air, with the French flats," suggested 
 Blithewood Gwin. " That is its only refuge, since 
 space is so scant on this narrow little island. I ex 
 pect to see, in time, flats higher than Cologne Ca 
 thedral. Why not, with that beneficent invention, 
 the elevator ? Why cannot an elevator be made to 
 run up a quarter of a mile? " 
 
 " Well, it would suit me if private life would seek 
 that refuge at once, and let my place at Fort Wash 
 ington alone," grumbled Sprpwle Onderdonk. " In 
 a general chaos going on there, they are cutting a 
 boulevard directly through the centre of it. The 
 worst of it is, it takes the old house in its course. I 
 am to give a garden party there shortly, the day be 
 fore they begin to pull it down. It will be quite a 
 historic sort of an occasion. Dr. Wyburd has agreed 
 to give us a poem. I should be glad " to the guest 
 of the evening " if you would come. Will you 
 allow me to send you a card ? "
 
 234 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Such a charming old mansion ! " Mrs. Sprowle 
 took upon herself to explain. "It is the Sprowle 
 country-seat, though now in possession of the Onder- 
 donk branch. It was built by colonial Governor 
 Sprowle. Almost everybody of note, both in the 
 old times and later, has been entertained there." 
 
 " It is probably in that high, rocky, part of the 
 town, overlooking the river, that the great residences 
 of the future will be built, before the up-in-the-air 
 period of which we are told begins," said the mayor. 
 " They will probably be on a scale of magnificence 
 beyond anything yet reached." 
 
 " Are we to think, then, that it can ever be safe 
 to greatly increase the present style of display ? " 
 Dr. Miltimore inquired. " An alarming spirit of so 
 cialistic revolt has already appeared, and who shall 
 say to what lengths it may reach ? Communism in 
 a republic, with all our safety-valves, our opportu 
 nities for expansion and legal redress, our equal 
 rights, which should obviate the need of it, is a more 
 dangerous symptom perhaps than under monarchical 
 governments, where it has a certain excuse for exist 
 ence." 
 
 " I have every confidence in the people," announced 
 Rodman Harvey. 
 
 " So have I. That is what we say when we are 
 running for office," said the governor. " Our friend 
 Gwin can put it in his paper. But, between our 
 selves, we recollect what we have seen in some of the 
 railroad strikes, for instance. Militia regiments loan 
 their muskets to the rioters, and timid officials fail 
 to take even such steps for repression as are open 
 to them ; though, to be sure, very little is open. 
 Abroad there are the standing armies to put down
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECOMOMIST. 235 
 
 disturbances. But suppose a really serious fight 
 breaks out here between capital and labor, or be 
 tween wealth and poverty, suppose a mob take it 
 into their heads, for instance, to be enraged at the 
 superior dwelling our host here lives in ; what is to 
 prevent their bringing it clattering down about his 
 ears?" 
 
 " You must let us get a crack at them with the 
 Narragansett Gun Club first," suggested Sprowle 
 Onderdonk. 
 
 " The side that can pay is all right," maintained 
 Hackley. " Your communists would rather take two 
 dollars a day, any time, to defend property, than pull 
 it down on speculation." 
 
 " Our government, perhaps our whole system, may 
 yet need changing," observed the ex-secretary. " I 
 am not one of those who believe that the last word 
 has been said, or perfection reached, republic though 
 we are. There is a great deal of clap-trap on that 
 subject. A government should be simply the most 
 efficient police and central business agency for the 
 public ; that is all. In itself it is entitled to no rev 
 erence whatever." 
 
 " I confess, for my part, that I do not easily con 
 ceive a more perfect luxury than this," resumed Dr. 
 Miltimore, gazing about him admiringly. " Perhaps 
 we do not sufficiently understand the point to which 
 we have already attained. If my good friend, our 
 host, will allow me to speak of him thus, I dare say 
 that in personal state as well as actual power and 
 scope of affairs he far surpasses many or most of 
 those great merchants of the Low Countries and 
 Venice and Tyre and Sidon, over whom history 
 makes such a stir."
 
 236 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Hear ! hear ! " cried several guests, clinking spoons 
 against their glasses in polite accord. 
 
 This should have been a rather proud moment for 
 Rodman Harvey, to be thus described and acclaimed 
 by such competent judges. Is there n6 one at hand, 
 in the fashion of the old classic triumphs, to whisper 
 in his ear, "After all, man is but mortal" ? Per 
 haps it is to the sage-looking William Skiff, bending 
 forward now for an instant towards his master, that 
 this duty has been confided. No, he but receives an 
 omitted direction concerning the wines. 
 
 The illumination at the table was peculiarly favor 
 able to Mrs. Rodman Harvey. By day her complex 
 ion began to have a parched look, and show deep lit 
 tle furrows, which had once been soft and mobile 
 lines, at the corners of nose and mouth, as if Father 
 Time had been so well pleased with them that he 
 had never stopped till he had graven them in. By 
 night there was still a good deal of it left. She now 
 went back a little upon the last subject, and turned 
 it her own way. 
 
 " Governments ? yes, I think so, too," she said. 
 " They ought to be changed. I am sure ours is very 
 far from perfect. If something could be done now 
 to establish by law the positions of the best people ! 
 I used to reflect upon it in Europe. There were my 
 children, brought up with every luxury and refine 
 ment. Why were they not just as worthy of titles as 
 many I saw enjoying them, without half their advan 
 tages ? Under the Empire, now Of course I was 
 not in favor of the Empire ; so much was said in the 
 newspapers Still, it was very pleasant. The Em 
 peror used to ride in the Bois every day, and he quite 
 got to know the children at the school where my
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 237 
 
 ^daughter Angelica was You remember, dear 
 He used to smile as he passed, when the pupils were 
 walking, and make the little Prince Imperial bow, too, 
 and kiss his hand. It was very charming. Do you 
 not think," to Redway, " something should be done 
 to give family its just rights? Do you not think a 
 great deal more ought to be made with us of the aris 
 tocratic quality ? " 
 
 "I should have to rule myself out so completely 
 that I dare not agree with you," returned the Hon. 
 Lyman Redway. " I find myself almost sharing cer 
 tain prejudices based upon the feeling you speak of; 
 but possibly you do not remember that I began life 
 as a shoemaker. I arn, as it were, my own ancestor." 
 
 He spoke, as his habit was, in a full manly voice, 
 and at entire ease, as if making the most agreeable 
 statement in the world. 
 
 " How delightful ! " exclaimed Mrs. Harvey, feign 
 ing, with difficulty, a polite enthusiasm. 
 
 " He is a bold one to beard the lions in their den," 
 said Bainbridge, allowing himself to find a certain 
 amusement in the circumstance. " Look at Mrs. 
 Sprowle ! Have you ever seen her wear a more su 
 premely Roman-nosed, uncompromising expression of 
 disdain ? She believes in the refinement and perfec 
 tion of types from generation to generation by careful 
 abstinence from any part in the useful work of the 
 world." 
 
 " How ! You abet scoffing at family, you who 
 are yourself so ' swell ? ' " returned Ottilie. " I have 
 it both from Miss Emily Rawson and Mrs. Ambler." 
 
 She held up two fingers of each hand curved in 
 wards in a way she had of putting an objectionable 
 word in quotation marks. It seemed as if the con-
 
 238 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 straint between them were going to thaw out, and 
 the sun to appear. 
 
 " Our basis for such distinctions is so weak," said 
 Bainbridge. " We descend from our little lawyers, 
 doctors, and store-keepers. They have had to count 
 their pennies, have kept but a beggarly servant or 
 two, and had the plow or the mechanic's bench but a 
 short remove behind them at best. The large, grand 
 way of living of the great families abroad, on the 
 other hand, might seem to beget correspondingly 
 large and noble ideas, though we see as matter of 
 fact that even that does not do it. Still if we had our 
 duke, now, with his two palaces, his three castles, his 
 four or five ' halls,' and hunting lodges ad infinitum ; 
 and a line of ancestors who had led armies and fleets, 
 swayed Parliaments, and been as magnificent as him 
 self for five or six hundred years, that would be 
 something like." 
 
 " This setting up to be better one than another," 
 said Ottilie, " seems universal, in some form, and 
 confined to no class." 
 
 " Of course it is. The butcher gives himself airs 
 over the baker and the candlestick maker, at one ex 
 treme of society ; and no doubt there are emperors 
 who look down upon vulgar, pushing little, upstart 
 kings, at the other. It is useless to rail at the trait. 
 We are to go on torturing one another with it, I sup 
 pose, till the end of time." 
 
 " Would you have no distinctions at all, no so 
 cial aspiration ? " 
 
 " A legitimate desire, I should think, would be to 
 wish to be as good as the best, but not any better. 
 Even that would do away with many a heart-burning. 
 I should say that an aristocrat, nowadays, should
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 239 
 
 have a good mind, good intentions, and be presentably 
 dressed, and healthy, if possible. He should be cour 
 ageous wedded to whatever is refined and beauti 
 ful, but not enervated, not afraid to march and leave 
 it at the word of command given by a higher duty. 
 Redway here seems to have most of what is needed 
 just at present." 
 
 They were getting on with a certain animation in 
 this matter, when Miss Ada Trull chose to lean 
 towards Ottilie, from the other side of the table, with 
 a pose and beaming smile which might have been 
 pure friendliness, or only intended for effect upon 
 some masculine admirer, and say, 
 
 " We are talking about Mr. Onderdonk's fete. 
 The Baron and I are going up on Mr. Kingbolt's 
 drag. I hear that you also are to be of our party ? " 
 
 " Yes," returned Ottilie. " Mr. Kingbolt has asked 
 me." 
 
 Bainbridge cut short a speech he had under way, 
 and withdrew into himself. Ottilie felt the change. 
 Something had distorted their old relations, as they 
 saw themselves distorted in the convexities of the sil 
 ver utensils before them. 
 
 The recent Bloomfield case came up for discussion, 
 among other topics. It was an old story. Bloomfield, 
 a snce reputable person and high financial authority, 
 had embezzled trust funds and lost them in Wall 
 Street. A number of society people, among others 
 the ingenious Mrs. Eglantine, had suffered cruelly by 
 him. 
 
 " It is the strangest thing," declared Mrs. Harvey. 
 " I would have trusted that man with untold mill 
 ions." 
 
 " To be sure you would, madam," commented Dr.
 
 240 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Wyburd. " That is precisely the sort of person who 
 can do those things. Without our confidence, how 
 could he secure the necessary opportunities ? " 
 
 " He admitted, when captured, that it was an inJ- 
 conceivable relief to him after the whole thing was 
 out," said the ex-secretary. " He declared that no 
 punishment could equal the torment he had endured 
 for months, in the vain endeavor to conceal his 
 frauds and redeem himself from the vortex of specu 
 lation." 
 
 " It shows the amount of comfort there is in such, 
 courses," said Dr. Miltimore. " And the truth of 
 the saying, ' Stone walls do not a prison make, nor 
 iron bars a cage.' He carried around with him, a 
 cage of his own making more secure than triple steel. 
 No doubt every instance in which he saw others ex 
 posed, while he still escaped, for the papers abound 
 with these cases every day, filled him with dread 
 and remorse, and served as a part of his punish 
 ment." 
 
 The guest Hackley fidgeted in his chair, and cast 
 furtive glances towards their host. 
 
 " Considering the opportunities afforded by the un 
 limited necessity for confidence that exists, and the 
 way we are all more or less cheated in smaller mat 
 ters," said the governor in a confidential tone to Ot- 
 tilie, "it may be that there is much more of this 
 Bloomfield business going on than is usually sup 
 posed. Possibly, even, it is only the few who come 
 to grief, while the majority tide over their infractions 
 of the law, their perils and difficulties, the chances 
 turning in their favor, and are never discovered. 
 Come ! that is a rather good idea. Your uncle, with 
 his large experience of life, should know. Let us ask
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 241 
 
 him. Ask him," he said, with a pretense -of egging 
 her on, in a mischievous way, "whether commercial 
 life is really teeming with dishonesty, temporarily 
 hidden : whether all of his business associates, if the 
 truth were known, are as bad as Bloomfield, or 
 worse." 
 
 " No indeed ; I shall do nothing of the kind," re 
 plied Ottilie. 
 
 But her neighbor appeared to find this way of put 
 ting his question by proxy too facetious an idea to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 " Your niece was asking " he began ; but his 
 voice was overpowered by other conversation. 
 
 "Your niece was asking," he persisted, this time 
 securing the attention of Rodman Harvey, " whether 
 there is an immense amount of Bloomfieldism in 
 business life, successfully consummated and never 
 heard of ? I think I shall have to refer her to you. 
 What is your opinion ? The point is, whether all of 
 you Chamber of Commerce men, to whom our friend 
 Red way has been expounding on the tariff, are merely 
 first-class peculators, embezzlers, and forgers in dis 
 guise, only waiting to be found out." 
 
 " You know I did not ask that, uncle Rodman," 
 protested Ottilie, in confusion. 
 
 She fancied she caught the eye of Bainbridge fixed 
 upon her with a peculiar scrutiny. Might not her 
 protest be construed into an indication that there 
 were reasons why she should not have asked the 
 question, if she had wished ? Pshaw ! What mis 
 understandings ! What an agitation over a nonsen 
 sical bit of pleasantry ! 
 
 Hackley at the question had dropped his dessert 
 spoon with a clatter. It fell upon his plate of Dres- 
 16
 
 242 THE HOUSK OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 den china with perforated border, and thence to the 
 floor. He stooped hastily for it, not waiting for the 
 servant, and came up with a flushed face, which he 
 mopped with a handkerchief. 
 
 But the merchant prince himself, entirely unflut- 
 tered, answered with a deliberative calmness. The 
 glance of Hackley might now have been thought to 
 have an admiring character, as who should say, 
 
 " Well, if you are not a cool hand, I know little 
 about it, that is all." 
 
 Rodman Harvey's smile was faint, it is true ; but 
 then his smiles were never broad. 
 
 "I am inclined to think," he replied, "that the 
 greater part of the dishonesty that exists comes to 
 light. The community has a certain safeguard, in 
 my opinion, in that the persons who engage in such 
 courses soon lose their heads under the stress of the 
 burdens and anxieties, and cannot long maintain the 
 coolness and sagacity needed for success to save them 
 from exposure." 
 
 The ladies rose and withdrew, rustling their silken 
 robes over the floor. The gentlemen remained a 
 while, to smoke some choice cigars made to Rodman 
 Harvey's special order. Though he himself touched 
 tobacco in no form, he thought it in keeping with 
 his dignity to give his guests the best. Presently 
 they joined the ladies again, in a music-room hung in 
 red damask, where coffee was served, with cordials in 
 little cups of crystal in Russian gold filigree. A trio 
 of excellent professional voices entertained the com 
 pany with singing. 
 
 In the freedom of the first breaking up, Baron Au, 
 showing in a stretching way his relief after the long 
 sitting, approached Daisy Goldstone.
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 243 
 
 " If you did hear me z-the horn to blow when I 
 pass your house on z-the coach, about ten of clock 
 last night ? " he inquired. 
 
 " Oh, was that you ? I thought it was Mr. Rowley, 
 or Mr. Kingbolt. They often do it when they come 
 by late." 
 
 Dr. Wyburd, moving easily about with his hands 
 behind him, caught the name last spoken. 
 
 "There is a fortunate person, young Kingbolt," 
 he said. " I should just like to have his income a 
 few months, that 's all." 
 
 "Is it really so very large?" Angelica inquired, 
 with interest. 
 
 "The Eureka Tool Works is on an enormous scale, 
 and, I hear, doing particularly well. I had especial 
 facilities for knowing a good deal about the whole 
 thing at one time, but that was years ago. Old Col 
 onel Kingbolt died, as you might say, in my arms. A 
 curious thing, I happened to be at Bridgehaven at 
 the time, and the family were good enough to think 
 that my services might possibly be of avail. It was 
 a trifle that killed him. He allowed himself to be 
 agitated over it in snch a way that it proved the im 
 mediate cause of his death. He was a particularly 
 excitable man." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ? " said Angelica. 
 
 " Somebody had tteed his name in the way of 
 forgery," went on the speaker, who needed but slight 
 encouragement to be discursive. " He got news of it 
 from some bank here in New York. It was rather 
 hushed up. There was something mysterious about 
 it. The bank officials would not give him names or 
 particulars, after they heard that the paper they held 
 was not made by him. Their refusal drove him wild.
 
 244 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 I never heard that there was any particular loss to 
 anybody by the transaction. It might have been an 
 error, a misunderstanding. At any rate, I never 
 learned more. This is one of the cases where a 
 favorite idea of mine, that if you hear the first part 
 of a good story you are likely in time to hear the 
 last, has not been borne out." 
 
 " But you may hear yet, doctor." 
 
 " Oh, I dare say. But it is of no consequence. 
 Only I sometimes think of it in seeing the son, and 
 remarking a certain resemblance between him and 
 his father. The circumstance I have mentioned 
 took place in the last days just preceding the out 
 break of the war. It came upon the top of the ex 
 citements of that eventful time. Kingbolt imagined 
 plots to undermine the great enterprise he had built 
 up. He had the gloomiest forebodings, too, of the 
 state of the country. He feared that the rebellion 
 was to be its disintegration and ruin. It came also 
 upon the top of a period of excesses, ending in some 
 thing like an attack of apoplexy, which had confined 
 him to his bed. Between ourselves, he was not a 
 man of the most exemplary habits. He was a hard 
 drinker, not regularly but by fits and starts. No 
 constitution less robust could have stood it so long. 
 A fine animal : handsome, full blooded, with curling 
 hair, a thick neck, a muscular arm, and a temper like 
 a Berserker's. A remarkable person in many ways 
 was old Colonel Kingbolt. Not so old, either, since 
 he was cut off at forty-seven, in the prime of his 
 days. He had made his own way up from the bot 
 tom, the regular American history." 
 
 " One gets so tired of the regular American his 
 tory," said Angelica.
 
 THE MERCHANT PRINCE DINES AN ECONOMIST. 245 
 
 " He had a remarkable inventive faculty and a 
 naturally fine mind, that would have commanded 
 respect anywhere. He had the good taste to marry 
 an amiable and refined lady, who no doubt kept 
 him somewhat in check. Now, to show you what he 
 accomplished entirely by his own exertions " 
 
 The doctor proceeded to give some details about 
 the Kingbolt manufacturing property. 
 
 Bainbridge observing Ottilie among the listeners, 
 chose, with that time-honored fatuity in virtue of 
 which lovers drag difficulties into their own way and 
 plant them obstinately there with both hands, to 
 represent her as drinking in eagerly the enumeration 
 of her lover's riches. He seized an early opportunity 
 to take his leave, and departed. 
 
 He walked a long way up the Avenue in the dark, 
 then down, and turned into the more cheerful bright 
 ness of Broadway. The audiences were now coming 
 out from the theatres. He saw young husbands, with 
 young wives who clung to their arms, and looked up 
 contentedly in their faces, as they trudged away home 
 ward, engaged in pleasant comments on the play. 
 
 He entered a horse-car, and there was a charming 
 young couple with a large sleepy child. They had 
 come, he judged, from the few words of talk they ex 
 changed, from spending a day in the country. They 
 said they were very glad to get home. The child, a 
 girl, lovable in the abandon of her sleepiness, with, 
 long legs in floss-embroidered stockings, which dan 
 gled to the floor, sat between them and held a hand 
 of each. 
 
 How sweet it was, that ideal of domestic happiness ! 
 "Am I a pariah, then," he said, "that it is never 
 for me ? "
 
 246 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 He sat late in his chamber, trying to read, but 
 giving way further to the bitterness of his thoughts. 
 
 Opening his window, in the still small hours of 
 the morning, he observed a great fire in progress at 
 a distance. Serpent-like flames were licking up 
 from a looming mass of dark buildings to the coppery 
 sky. He thought it might be the furniture factory 
 of Hackley & Valentine, and so the next day it 
 proved. The distance was too remote for any of the 
 uproar of the conflagration to be heard. It burned 
 a while as if in silence, and quite uninterfered with. 
 The interior of the block before him took a strong 
 ruddy glow. Every least object came out with a 
 vivid distinctness, down to the clothes on the lines. 
 
 Then the flames began to abate. Deluging streams 
 were being poured in upon them. The interior of 
 the block retired again into its wonted obscurity. 
 Then, upon the darkness of the night arose showers 
 of glittering sparks, scourged from the embers by the 
 water, and began to drift gently along the sky. It 
 was as if the destroyed property were transmuted 
 into a value a million times greater in some kind of 
 celestial coinage. 
 
 Or again it was like the pretty classic fable of 
 Jupiter searching for Danae, in the form of a rain 
 of gold. The assumed mercenariness of woman has 
 been a favorite complaint with lovers from the be 
 ginning of time. 
 
 " That is right," cried Bainbridge, humoring this 
 last conceit ; " that is right. To the northward ! 
 To the corner of West Blank Street and the Avenue 1 
 She is there. Danae is there."
 
 XVII. 
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 
 
 THE despised passion of jealousy had, after all, 
 done its work with Bainbridge. It had shown him 
 that he was violently in love. Forced to contemplate 
 Ottilie as the wife of another, he knew the desperate 
 pain it would cost him to lose her. 
 
 " Piece of my life," he cried aloud, " how shall I 
 tear you out of it ? What can I do without you ? " 
 
 It did not answer to recall the days of Madeline 
 Scarrett, and to charge himself fiercely with being of 
 a weakly susceptible disposition. Some obstinate in 
 terior voice kept repeating of Ottilie, in spite of his 
 assumed belief in her nn worthiness, 
 
 " She is what you only fancied the other to be." 
 
 The former experience, however, had made him in 
 tensely skeptical, and added to his natural fund of 
 stoical reserve. He knew that it was possible to 
 conquer and forget. 
 
 Such enforced conquests sometimes eat out the 
 vitals of a warm and generous nature, and leave it 
 like a forest tree through which a flame of fire has 
 run. 
 
 The brain of the young man seethed with a hun 
 dred contradictory plans. Before he had time to 
 carry any of them into execution, something occurred 
 to put a very different aspect on the case. 
 
 Meantime he had suffered himself to be drawn
 
 248 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 back, one evening, for distraction, to Miss Emily 
 Rawson's. That affable acquaintance affected at first 
 to take him for a stranger, who, by some mistake, had 
 got into the wrong house. She refused his hand, but 
 presently took it with a warm and friendly pressure. 
 She was embroidering a table cover, seated by an 
 astral lamp, which stood upon a small table, and cast 
 around a becoming light. She had taken a new in 
 terest of late in decorative art, a society where its 
 principles were advocated, and a wareroom where 
 articles made in accordance with them were offered 
 for sale. 
 
 " My design is something out of the common," she 
 said, holding the work up to inspection. " How do 
 you like it ? It was drawn expressly for me by Mr. 
 Lloyd, the architect. I met him at Bridgehaven, 
 where I spent a few days last summer. Bridgehaven 
 is not at all a bad summer resort. The air there 
 is very good. Mr. Lloyd and I were at the same 
 hotel. We spoke of you among others. He told me 
 you were classmates at college." 
 
 " Yes, we were classmates. We used to call him 
 simply ' G.' I recollect him better by that than by 
 his name. There was another Lloyd, known as ' A. 
 B.' It was necessary to distinguish them." 
 
 " That college life must have been so pleasant. 
 By the way, we were near the large property of an 
 other classmate of yours, Mr. Kingbolt." 
 
 Bainbridge heard this name with astonishment. 
 He had come here for some small aid in escaping the 
 memory of it, and it was the very first thing to be 
 forced upon his attention. 
 
 " Yes," the fair embroiderer went on, " there was 
 a glimpse from my window of Kingbolts ville, the
 
 THE PAST OP KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 249 
 
 factories, a private race-track, and the large stuccoed 
 mansion where the family resides. The conservatory 
 is immense. I was told that the original Kingbolt 
 bought all the land thereabouts for a song, and re 
 deemed it. The best of it is among the most desir 
 able residence property in the city, of which it now 
 forms a part. I saw the fortunate heir's mother and 
 sisters, but he himself was not at home. I was not 
 interested in him, however, at that time, but just 
 now I am. I want you to tell me about him." 
 
 " I don't know that I recollect anything in partic 
 ular. I am afraid I cannot help you." 
 
 " What was he like in college ? " 
 
 " We were not intimate friends. Bridgehaven 
 struck you, then, as a passable summer resort ? For 
 my part, I find chose interior Connecticut cities too 
 warm." 
 
 " Did he graduate with a high rank ? Was he a 
 hard student ?" the questioner persisted. 
 
 '" He was dismissed for some informality, I believe, 
 before arriving as far as that," said Bainbridge, with 
 a kind of final air. 
 
 " And is that all ? " 
 
 " Yes no I believe that is all." 
 
 " Well, that is not enough for me. Ah, here is 
 Mr. Lloyd. I shall ask him. Perhaps he has conde 
 scended to burden his mind with a little more detail." 
 
 Mr. Lloyd, who was in the habit of calling occa 
 sionally, entered now in fact to pay his respects. 
 
 " I want a description of Kingbolt of Kingbolts- 
 ville, whose place we saw last summer," said Miss 
 Rawson. " Mr. Bainbridge won't tell me anything. 
 I have reasons for wanting to know." 
 
 " I cannot be expected to say much good of him,
 
 250 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 you know," returned Lloyd. " Well, I was in his set 
 both in college and for some time afterwards, and I 
 dare say I understand him about as well as anybody. 
 He left the alma mater considerably earlier than the 
 rest of us, owing to circumstances, as the saying is, 
 over which he had no control. He dashed his money 
 freely, and lived in great luxury, for that primitive 
 time and place. It used to be said that he never 
 wore a suit of clothes a second time. That is a 
 period, you know, when fellows are very particular 
 about their clothes. Among other doings, he erected 
 a hall at his own expense for his secret society. 
 Bless me, how much we once thought of that non 
 sense ! There was no secret at all, you know, but wo 
 pretended that there was ; had a meeting place which 
 from the outside looked like a charnel-house, though 
 we did nothing but play cards, and drink claret 
 punches within ; and we went around with the 
 mysterious air of murderers. The hall cost Kingbolt 
 forty thousand dollars. He got his mother to per 
 suade his trustees to let him have the money. They 
 thought that perhaps he would be more contented, 
 take an interest in his studies, if they humored him. 
 It did not work so, however. The faculty, after a 
 good deal of forbearance, had to send him off. He 
 was really too much. They could not have main 
 tained discipline, if they had n't." 
 
 " He invited a number of us up to his place after 
 wards to celebrate his coming of age," Lloyd went 
 on, showing a certain zest in these reminiscences. 
 " When we got there we found him turned quite 
 serious. His trustees had talked to him, after he 
 was expelled, and made some impression. They de 
 scribed to him how his father had built up a great
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 251 
 
 business, -which had come to be known pretty much 
 the world over ; how he had been honored by foreign 
 governments ; how he had been mayor and governor, 
 and might have been ambassador, if he chose. They 
 said that the son ought not to throw away, and dis 
 credit the memory of all that had gone before. They 
 said that if he did not now wish to take a profession 
 he ought to go into the works and become competent 
 to manage them himself. To this Kingbolt finally 
 consented. When he had arrived at this decision, 
 nothing would do him but to wear a blue shirt and 
 jack-boots and carry a tin dinner-pail, like an ordi 
 nary hand, and begin by oiling up the machinery. 
 He never does, or at least never begins, anything by 
 halves. It was in this costume that he showed his 
 visitors through the works, fashionable girls and 
 all, when they went to the birthday celebration. 
 The festivities lasted three days, quite on the Eng 
 lish plan. It was an idea of his sisters, who had been 
 abroad a good deal. As for his mother, she was a 
 person who consented to almost anything. She was 
 lady-like and well-meaning, but weak. One could 
 easily see that. The fact is, Kingbolt had no partic 
 ular bringing up. He was never controlled. I was 
 told that his father as long as he lived, for he died 
 early treated everything the boy did as a huge 
 joke. He used to say that he had not made a suc 
 cess enough of it in his own case to lay down rules 
 for the government of others. 
 
 " ' Let him fight it out on his own account,' his 
 father would say. ' He must have some good traits 
 from his mother, and may be one or two that are not 
 so bad from me. Let him fight it out ! No doubt, 
 in the long run, the good will prevail over the bad.'
 
 252 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " So if the boy got black in the face with temper, 
 and smashed the crockery, they simply put him in a 
 padded room. If he kicked the governess with his 
 new boots till she cried, they comforted her with 
 liberal presents. His mother took everything in the 
 tearful, prayerful style, and wondered at him." 
 
 " They allowed him to kick his governess ? A 
 cheerful beginning, I must say," commented Miss 
 Rawson. 
 
 Bainbridge, who had been about to withdraw, found 
 himself listening in a kind of dazed way to this re 
 view of his rival's career. 
 
 " Well, at his coming of age," G. Lloyd went on, 
 " there were dancing, and illuminations, and distri 
 butions of presents, and driving gayly through the 
 streets of Bridgehaven in all the conveyances the 
 stables could turn out. Kingbolt was again ' one of 
 the boys,' and joined in the proceedings with a will. 
 If I had been parent or guardian of his, I should 
 have dreaded the effect of such a break in his newly 
 established routine. Whether it was in fact an enter-" 
 ing wedge, within the year he tired of being a horny- 
 handed son of toil, and came down and joined us in 
 New York. 
 
 " We had taken our sheepskins by that time, and a 
 group of choice spirits was assemWed in the different 
 professional schools. You recollect about it, Bain- 
 bridge ? You were one of us occasionally, before you 
 went into your manufacturing, orange-planting, and 
 what not." 
 
 " Yes, I remember," said Bainbridge, gravely. 
 
 " Kingbolt came down at first on a visit," pursued 
 Lloyd, " and the boys urged him to stay." 
 
 " ' If I do, what shall I do about my trustees ? ' he
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 253 
 
 asked us. ' Old Judge Bryan is continually harping 
 at me about the glories of the past. He would con 
 sider me hopelessly lost.' 
 
 " ' Hang your trustees ! ' I recollect Anthropoid 
 Walker replying. ' The old Judge will be only too 
 glad not to have anybody to overhaul his accounts. 
 Let him alone to embezzle your property in comfort. 
 You 've got a soul above axle grease. Come into the 
 law school with us ! Look at me ! I ascribe my fu 
 ture greatness entirely to that noblest of professions, 
 the law.' 
 
 " Let me see ! Anthropoid Walker and Zeus Bald 
 win we kept up the old nicknames were in the 
 law school in Lafayette Place. Sprowle Onderdonk 
 was another of the legal aspirants. He was older 
 than the rest, and we had not known him so well in 
 college, owing to his having been in an upper class. 
 But with his leisurely way of taking things he had 
 arrived at this. point only at the same time. He had 
 a good mind, that man, and with a greater pressure 
 upon him to use it, might have done something really 
 worth while. He still sticks to the law in a desul 
 tory way, I believe, and keeps an office. You recall 
 him as a man of ability, do you not, Bainbridge ? " 
 
 " I recollect a sledge-hammer style of argument he 
 had sometimes in the debates in Linonia," replied 
 Bainbridge. " We used to think he might succeed 
 in politics." 
 
 " I was a Brother in Unity, not a Linonian, my 
 self. Our college societies," to Miss Rawson, in 
 explanation of these names. " De Longbow Rowley 
 was studying medicine. That fellow was always 
 telling the most preposterous yarns, and keeps up 
 the habit yet. Whitehead Finch was in business.
 
 254 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 His family had got him a place in a broker's office, 
 allowed him two thousand dollars a year to keep 
 off the pangs of absolute starvation, and left him to 
 shift for himself. Gus Ramsdell also professed a pur 
 pose of becoming a shining light in commerce. He 
 had begun by entering the store of Rodman Harvey, 
 at three dollars a week, but found that this interfered 
 too much with his society engagements, and left. 
 They * did not know how to treat a gentleman,' he 
 said. He had not yet found another opening to his 
 taste, but represented himself as in search of one. 
 We used to charge him with looking for a place, and 
 hoping he would n't get it. Sprowle Onderdonk used 
 to say that Ramsdell had told him, to quote the exact 
 words, 
 
 " ' / am not going to work as long as I have my 
 health.' 
 
 " For my part," still went on the narrator, " I was 
 young and foolish then. I was in ,n architect's 
 office, paying the firm for the privilege of learning 
 the business. They had to catch me to make me do 
 it, though. I often went down to the office at two or 
 three in the afternoon, and left at four. If the prin 
 cipals were out, even this brief space was spent, as 
 likely as not, in fencing with a fellow-draughtsman, 
 with the T-squares. 
 
 " Well, this was the general character of the inter 
 esting circle to which Kingbolt now joined himself. 
 He set up handsome bachelor apartments, which soon 
 became a rallying point. More than once, after an 
 evening of lively adventures elsewhere, we all spread 
 ourselves out on his furniture, and passed the night 
 there. He gave small suppers, at which one of the 
 amusements was to shoot the necks off the chain-
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 255 
 
 pagne bottles instead of uncorking them. Such 
 rackets as we had ! Ah, yes, indeed ! With little 
 English hats on their heads, with sticks and eye 
 glasses, their hands in the pockets of their English 
 clothes, and quips and cranks innumerable at the 
 ends of their tongues, the group tore about from one 
 pleasure to another incessantly. I dare say we were 
 a sort of terror. We took boxes at the spectacular 
 dramas. We knew where the best beer was to be 
 had, the best Welsh rarebit, or anchovy sandwich. 
 We patronized the Tyrolean warblers at the Bowery 
 Garden, Herman's on Fourth Avenue, where leading 
 artists were to be seen, and Schwalbach's on Four 
 teenth Street, where actors resorted after the play. I 
 remember how the joints of beef, piles of oysters, the 
 green salads, and vivid scarlet of the lobsters, ar 
 ranged in ornamental pyramids on Schwalbach's 
 counter, impressed me the first time I saw them. We 
 were ' seeing life ' ; that was what we were after." 
 
 " You describe to me not only Kingbolt, but a 
 whole state of society," said Miss Rawson. " That 
 is more than I expected, but of course you do not 
 suppose that I approve of you." 
 
 " Oh, we reformed. I, at least, since I had my 
 living to make. They are all club men now, those 
 fellows, and great swells ; I have little or nothing to 
 do with them, except when I go and bore one of 
 them, unblushingly, for his influence in some build 
 ing contract. Athletic sports were a part of the pro 
 gramme. Not that we took any great part in them, 
 but it was the thing to be posted, and to be present 
 on all eventful occasions. The base-ball and cricket 
 games, the dog shows, the shooting and rowing 
 matches, those were the important things in life.
 
 256 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 A good running high jump would draw the coterie 
 away from their ostensible occupations, to Hoboken, 
 for a day. The long purses and Kingbolt's was 
 the longest attended religiously regattas at Sara 
 toga, or base-ball matches at Chicago or Baltimore. 
 If the university nine or boat's crew of our college 
 chanced to be passing through town, or the glee club 
 gave a concert, you may be sure that a patriotic ef 
 fort was made to give them as hilarious a time as 
 possible." 
 
 "And fashionable society? I suppose you were 
 great breakers of feminine hearts, for instance?" 
 
 " As a rule, society was rather looked down upon. 
 Still, we condescended to an occasional party. We 
 trained around in company, taking a sardonic view of 
 things and calling the debutantes 'young gushers.' 
 When it was over we bounded up-stairs, two at a time, 
 drawing cigarettes from our pockets as we went, bus 
 tled into our ulsters, got the loudest explosion out of 
 our crush hats they were capable of, and so not yet 
 being club men off to Delmonico's, Schwalbach's, or 
 other of the chosen resorts. I remember we enter 
 tained a kind of reverential awe of the older class of 
 club men we saw heading the important movements 
 in society and on the turf. Some of them were bald, 
 corpulent, weather-beaten, and with large whiskers, 
 the kind of men I for instance had been used to 
 seeing only as officers of banks and companies, dea 
 cons perhaps of churches. Occasionally, one of them 
 took his racing-stable abroad, and contested all the 
 great events of the European turf. An existence 
 which could keep a continuous interest in life for per 
 sons of that age must mean pleasure indeed." 
 
 " But thus you do not separate yourself from King-
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 257 
 
 bolt," interrupted Emily Rawson. " Were you all 
 exactly alike? You do not show how he differed 
 from the rest of you." 
 
 " He was more whimsical, that is all. He sepa 
 rated himself from the rest of us mainly by that. He 
 lets nothing stand in the way of a whim. He pursues 
 it to the bitter end." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! " said Emily Rawson. 
 
 And " Ah, indeed ! " mentally echoed Bainbridge, 
 in a dull way. This trait in Kingbolt was the knell 
 of his lingering hopes. 
 
 " He ran out to Colorado, now and then, for a 
 hunt," continued Lloyd. " He was not greatly given 
 to reading, and not a person of a romantic fancy, I 
 should say ; and for a time Europe seemed without 
 attraction for him. At length, however, he went 
 across with Gus Ramsdell. He proposed only a brief 
 stay, but it extended to several years, and left his law 
 course entirely in the lurch. The pair traveled, at first, 
 rather on the comic plan, modeled themselves after 
 the personages in a class of literature then a good 
 deal in vogue. They were locked up, for instance, at 
 Cologne, for beating a commissionaire, I am sure 
 he deserved it. Ramsdell came back, but Kingbolt 
 remained. The dignified side of things gradually 
 took hold of him. He picked up languages, and 
 titled acquaintances, and began to conduct himself 
 en grand seigneur. He registered as Kingbolt of 
 Kingboltsville. In those places comprising the 
 greater part of Europe where all the Americas, 
 their languages and peoples, are confounded as one, 
 and a corresponding ignorance prevails of their social 
 system, he was taken to be, in his own country, the 
 chief of a clan, or the lord of a barony at least. An 
 
 17
 
 258 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 African potentate who had bought machinery of the 
 Eureka Tool Works, and conferred a decoration on 
 the young man's father in old times, gave a hunt in 
 his honor. A splendidly caparisoned steed led by 
 slaves was sent out to meet him as he approached, 
 quite like the Arabian Nights. He killed a wild 
 boar, the tusks of which still ornament his rooms, 
 with other trophies. At least Kingbolt relates all 
 this. I dare say it is so. He was never particularly 
 given to stretching the point, like Rowley." 
 
 " Not particularly," assented Bainbridge, being ap 
 pealed to. 
 
 " He returned from Europe with new airs and 
 graces and plenty of new ideas about spending 
 money. He was elected now to all the clubs, and in 
 close relations with the older men he had been used 
 to revere. It was at this time that he distinctly 
 went in for a society career, and set up for a ' glass 
 of fashion and the mould of form,' in town and coun 
 try. Then he went off again, briefly, on an earnest 
 tack. I doubt if it was anything more than a para 
 graph in a newspaper that set him a going, a para 
 graph suggesting to rich men to do something to im 
 prove the condition of their tenantry. He ran across 
 me again, turned sober by this time, I assure you. 
 I had my living to get, and was able to follow that 
 idle group only about as far as you could throw 
 an elephant by the tail. Well, he ran across me 
 again, as I say, and took me to Europe with him to 
 perfect plans for an industrial museum and model 
 cottages. I was to have well, he promised every 
 thing ; and he meant it, I dare say. But he proved 
 an insufferable task-master. Our old intimacy went 
 for nothing. We quarreled violently, and he turned
 
 THE PAST OF KINGBOLT OF KINGBOLTSVILLE. 259 
 
 me adrift ; that was the way of it. It was devilish 
 awkward at first, I recollect, out of money, away 
 from home, and my time a*d labors gone for noth 
 ing ; but now I can look back at it more coolly. No 
 doubt I was somewhat to blame myself. He had 
 fallen in before this with a certain St. Hill, who 
 attached himself to him as a parasite, and probably 
 had something to do with inducing him to abandon 
 the philanthropic project. He brought back St. Hill 
 instead of myself. That man could give you points 
 enough about Kingbolt, I dare say. And that is the 
 extent of my information." 
 
 The architect drew a long breath, as if after having 
 talked interminably. 
 
 " Sure ? " queried Miss Rawson. 
 
 Positive." 
 
 " Well, we are very much obliged to you. Con 
 cerning his more public career, I knew more or less 
 already." 
 
 Lloyd and Bainbridge exchanged some casual re 
 marks concerning an art club, where, it seemed, they 
 were in the habit of meeting occasionally, and Bain- 
 bridge rose to go. 
 
 As he was passing out he met the Rev. Edwin 
 Swan coming in. This was the assistant at one of 
 the minor Episcopal churches, a deserving, quiet, 
 plain person of most respectable position naturally, 
 who was thought to be looking for a wife. Their 
 fair entertainer seemed fluttered at the encounter in 
 her parlors of so many desirable men. Each would 
 comprehend, she hoped, in particular the recreant 
 Bainbridge, that, though she were not in demand by 
 him, she was by others. 
 
 ** But I have not told you the reason of my inter-
 
 260 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 est in Kingbolt of Kingbolts ville," she said confiden 
 tially, at the threshold, to the departing guest. 
 
 " No," said Bainbridge. 
 
 "Well, I have seen him driving out our friend 
 Ottilie Harvey. I hear also that he paid her great 
 attention at Newport. I have my informants, you 
 see. ' Such things have been, said Private James.' 
 She would be an enterprising little minx if given but 
 half a chance. I am sure of it. Do you not think 
 
 80?" 
 
 " Very likely," said Bainbridge.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND ABOUND TOWN. 
 
 ONE morning, at this time, Arthur Kingbolt of 
 Kingboltsville awoke at nine o'clock, and rang the 
 bell for his body servant. Ten or eleven was his 
 more usual hour, and the services of Greenway, be 
 sides, were generally in requisition to rouse him from 
 his heavy slumbers. He had found the well-trained 
 Greenway in the employ of one of the smaller Lon 
 don clubs, and brought him over for his own service. 
 
 " Get to work now, Greenway," he said. " I am 
 going to get up." 
 
 The discreet Greenway first handed in the morn 
 ing draught of a " brandy cocktail " which his master 
 was accustomed to demand, as best adapted to his pe 
 culiar constitutional needs, then proceeded deftly to 
 shave him, while he still reclined under his rich Per 
 sian hangings. He next laid out a velvet jacket, 
 braided and faced with silk. While Kingbolt ex 
 changed for this the night-gown of China silk in 
 which he had slept, and rose, and lounged in an easy* 
 chair, with a cigarette and a morning paper, the ser 
 vant brought the articles of dress for the day's wear. 
 There might have been seen a store of clothing, hats, 
 boots, shoes, and walking-sticks, in an adjoining apart 
 ment, sufficient to equip a company. 
 
 The luxury of these chambers could hardly have 
 jarred even upon a feminine taste. The masculine
 
 262 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRIXCE. 
 
 element was shown in pictures of types of female 
 loveliness photographs of actresses and the like 
 of a rather free sort, and in weapons, and trophies of 
 the chase. There were the wild boar tusks from the 
 hunt with the potentate of Barbary ; there was the 
 head of a red deer, shot, with a Scotch lord, in the 
 highlands ; the head of a " big-horn " of Montana, 
 and another of a fallow deer of the Adirondacks. 
 
 " Get me a breakfast here, will you, Greenway ? " 
 directed the master, in a petulant tone. " It does n't 
 make any difference what. I '11 stand that villainous 
 club cooking no longer. No, on the whole, I '11 go to 
 Delmonico's. Don't forget," he added, in a parting 
 direction, " to take back that beastly driving-coat to 
 Millerick. What does he take me for ? " 
 
 When in the street, however, he changed his mind 
 again, and went to the Empire Club, after all. 
 Greenway thought he had rarely seen his master in a* 
 more capricious and irritable frame of mind than at 
 present. 
 
 Kingbolt was hailed in the lobby of the club by 
 some men who affected to take his appearance at that 
 time of day as a remarkable phenomenon. 
 
 " Turning over a new leaf, out to see the sun 
 rise, early dewdrop, and that sort of thing, eh ? " 
 said Whitehead Finch. 
 
 " I 'm not turning over anything. I suppose a 
 man has a right to get up, if he likes," the new 
 comer rejoined, not too amiably. 
 
 " Well, you can't keep the London style going a 
 great while here," said Ramsdell. " Lord, I 've tried 
 it ! I used to sleep till four in the afternoon, regu 
 larly. Over there in the fog, it makes no difference 
 when you burn your gas ; om part of the twenty-four
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 263 
 
 hours is as good as another. But here it is a different 
 matter. If a fellow does n't show himself in season, 
 the programme is made up without him, and he is 
 likely to get left." 
 
 " Your friend St. Hill is posted again quite a 
 stiff little sum," said De Longbow Rowley, nodding 
 towards the bulletin board, where various matters of 
 interest were officially brought to the attention of the 
 club. 
 
 Kingbolt walked over to it, and read the notice of 
 the extent of St. Hill's arrears. Such a delinquency 
 subjected the offender to embarrassment of this kind, 
 and after a certain time, if still unsatisfied, to loss of 
 membership in the club. On going to his letter-box, 
 he found a note from the same person which proved 
 to be an appeal to take down the announcement and 
 liquidate the writer's small indebtedness, as " a tem 
 porary accommodation," for which he would remain 
 forever grateful. 
 
 " There is getting to be too much of this sort of 
 thing. I am sick of it," he muttered, stuffing the 
 note into his pocket. 
 
 But when the rest made the bulletin the text for 
 an abusive discussion of St. Hill, it suited his perverse 
 humor to stand by the man. The Empire Club was 
 rather a noted place for gossip. The characters of 
 both men and women were often handled there in a 
 style hardly to have been surpassed by tea-drinking 
 spinsters of the old school. This, however, rarely 
 precluded the extending of the usual pleasant civili 
 ties to the victim, though fallen in with but the very 
 next moment. 
 
 " What sort of a company has the fellow got ? 
 What keeps him a-going, any way ? " inquired Gus
 
 264 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Ramsdell, who had long since come into property, by 
 inheritance, which placed him beyond the need of as 
 pirations, commercial or otherwise, connected with 
 the problem of self-support. 
 
 " It 's a swindle, as sure as a gun. That 's my 
 opinion," said Mr. Rowley. " I should not be sur 
 prised to hear of his being shown up and dropped out 
 of decent society, any day." 
 
 They are not dropping people for those things 
 now," said the elderly Watervliet. " The Texas 
 style is more in vogue. In Texas they don't consider 
 a man out of society till he is hanged." 
 
 Watervliet's own means of support were not al 
 ways of the most ostensible. A friendly hand, now 
 and then, stopped a gap in his exchequer. He varied 
 his sitting in the club window with an occasional long 
 voyage to the tropics in somebody's yacht, in the win 
 ter. In summer, he had been known to admit dep- 
 recatingly, in a rare moment of weakness, that his 
 livelihood cost him little more than his railroad fares. 
 He passed from one hospitable country house to an 
 other, in a continual round of visits. 
 
 " Look at the way he took in that gudgeon of a 
 Stillsby," said Northfleet, continuing on the subject 
 of St. Hill. " He pretended to make a venture for 
 him in stocks, and sent him word presently that his 
 money was doubled. He did not pay the money over, 
 though ; you may be sure of that. He advised now 
 that it be put into another deal, which promised even 
 better than the first. Stillsby, of course, was de 
 lighted and advanced more funds. The upshot was 
 that he never got a cent. When the sum was big 
 enough St. Hill gobbled it. He regretted to say that 
 an unfortunate turn of the market etc., etc. Still,
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 265 
 
 he felt that if favored with a new opportunity he 
 could at once redeem the previous losses and return 
 a handsome profit on the whole investment. It 's a 
 very old dodge, fhat is. I say, that is what St. 
 Hill did to you, is n't it, Stillsby ? " the speaker 
 called to Stillsby, who had just come down the 
 stairs. 
 
 "Yes, sir, that's what he did. I put up He, 
 he, I" Stillsby stuttered, in his eagerness to tell 
 the story. 
 
 " Bah ! Wall Street is Wall Street," said King 
 bolt contemptuously, setting foot in the elevator to go 
 up to his breakfast in the restaurant above. " What 
 do people expect? " 
 
 " Yes, that is so, too," assented Stillsby, who had 
 the habit of agreeing with whoever spoke with au 
 thority. 
 
 When Kingbolt had breakfasted he found the 
 same men, with others, sitting in the conversation 
 room, by the large windows giving upon the Avenue. 
 A few who were reading newspapers offered laconic 
 remarks, from time to time, on subjects enlisting 
 their interest. 
 
 " I see there 's another duke, a great swell, coming 
 in by the French steamer," said Northfleet. " I sup 
 pose that pushing Mrs. Poyntz will go to his hotel, 
 grab him by the hair of the head, and have him on 
 exhibition before he knows where he is. Poor duf 
 fers ! They can't help it at first, I suppose." 
 
 '" I see old Elphinstone Swan has dropped off," 
 said Ilamsdell. " That must be what the club's flag 
 is half-masted for to-day." 
 
 " I thought that old buffer was dead ages ago," 
 commented De Longbow Rowley, yawning.
 
 266 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Not at all ; far from it," returned Finch. " I have 
 had my eye on his prospective widow. Madeline 
 Scarrett has made rather a good speculation of it. 
 Here she is, about as young and handsome as ever, 
 with all the old man's money to do as she likes 
 with." 
 
 After this, silence for a while. 
 
 Mr. Watervliet broke it with a low whistle, ex 
 pressive of keen emotion. " I see Canterbury Boy is 
 gone," he said. 
 
 " What ! No ! It can't be ! When ? 
 Where ? How did it happen ? " 
 
 There was a general letting fall of papers, and a 
 rapt manifestation of concern. 
 
 " At the Fashion Course, Long Island, yesterday, 
 at five in the afternoon," read out Watervliet, in a 
 melancholy tone. " Taken with bleeding of the lungs 
 at three o'clock, and expired at five. Only in the 
 seventh year of his age. By Jove, that 's hard ! it 's 
 hard." 
 
 This striking instance of the brevity of life, and 
 the vanity of all things mortal, cast a deep tempo 
 rary gloom over the company. Such members of it 
 as had won money in times past on Canterbury Boy 
 were moved almost to tears ; and even those who had 
 lost ignored the fact in the sudden shock of his tak 
 ing off. Anecdotes of his past began to be exchanged, 
 then others of a kindred sort, all pervaded by the 
 same pensive air. Finch recalled pathetically a horse- 
 owner who decked a pet mare, after her victories, 
 with collar and pendants of diamonds. Rowley re 
 lated the case of a veteran jockey who had desired to 
 be buried on the race-track at the three-quarter pole, 
 in order to hear the inspiring rattle of the hoofs 
 above his head.
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 267 
 
 This gloom lifted by degrees. Upon some chance 
 reference, the prospects of Rodman Harvey in the 
 coming election were spoken of. Harvey had dis 
 tanced General Burlington in the convention, and 
 secured the regular nomination of his party, and 
 banners, duly weighted and pierced, and adorned 
 with execrable portraits of himself in the usual way, 
 had long been hanging for him across the streets. 
 His rival at the polls was to be Michael Brannagan, 
 of Tammany Hall. Bets for and against Harvey 
 were being freely offered, when Sprowle Onderdonk 
 entered. 
 
 " Hang your bets ! " he cried. " Stir yourselves 
 for once, and come out and vote for him ! He is the 
 Sprowle candidate, you know. We want him elected. 
 His daughter marries into the family. See ? " 
 
 Kingbolt got up at this, and moved restlessly about 
 the floor. 
 
 " Well, count on me for one," returned Northfleet. 
 " By the vay, that 's another pretty girl they have 
 up there at the Harveys', the one they rather keep 
 in the background, the cousin what 's her name ? 
 Ottilie. You get a glimpse of her now and then, you 
 know. What is she like ? " 
 
 " Kingbolt can give you the points. Ask him ! 
 They were as thick as Siamese twins last summer, 
 sly dog ! " replied Onderdonk. 
 
 " What is she like, Kingbolt old boy, the de 
 mure Miss Harvey number two, the gem of purest 
 ray serene, the dark, unfathomed caves of ocean, 
 etc. ? " pursued the inquirer. 
 
 " On the intellectual lay, I believe. Wants to be 
 quoted to, and that sort of thing. Don't trouble your 
 self to pitch in ; you '11 never get ahead."
 
 268 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 The not over-bright Stillsby, on hearing this, crept 
 up to the library, and was soon buried deep in a lit 
 erature of large volumes of poetical quotations. 
 
 Kingbolt, leaving the club, passed Sprowle with a 
 surly " How are you? " treatment at which that per 
 son appeared surprised, having been accustomed to a 
 much more friendly manner of late. 
 
 Gus Ramsdell came out into the hall after him, to 
 say, " Don't forget the Capricorn dinner to-night ! " 
 Then, " Whither away ? I '11 join you. What do 
 you say to a game at the Racquet Club? Or will 
 you put on the gloves a while? I spent most of 
 yesterday over the ticker, watching a little turn I am 
 making in Wall Street, and to-day I want exercise." 
 
 " I have got to go and see my tailor," said King 
 bolt. 
 
 "Who, Millerick? By the way, so have I. Per 
 haps after that you will come up town with me to 
 a stable. Rickardson, with whom I used to have deal 
 ings, has opened a new place, and I have promised 
 him to drop in. I am on the lookout, in a general 
 way, for a new off-wheeler for my four-in-hand. I 
 think I ought to have something rather better in that 
 place. The chestnut is n't quite what he should be of 
 late." 
 
 When the pair entered Millerick's place, one of 
 the select shops on the Avenue, ornamented both 
 without and within in the new style of decoration, 
 the fashionable tailor came forward to meet them, 
 affably rubbing his hands. He was a tall, spare man, 
 with large side- whiskers. He wore a long frock coat, 
 of a spotless, technical sort of elegance. Kingbolt 
 raised his voice in complaint almost from the door. 
 
 " I have come to overhaul you about that driv-
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 269 
 
 ing-coat. Don't you know I could n't show myself 
 in a thing like that ? Where is it ? Yes, now, 
 here ! Could n't any human being understand that I 
 wouldn't be seen with such shoulders on me as those ? 
 You have Eastlaked your place all _over, you know, 
 Millerick, with your pictures, your gilding, and stiff- 
 jointed traps ; but you can't Eastlake me. I won't 
 have it. Well, it 's of no use ; I shall have to get my 
 things over from London, again, as before." 
 
 Millerick met this attack with an excellent grace. 
 " You are perfectly right, Mr. Kingbolt," he said, 
 tossing the garment aside, with a large air. " It is not 
 a proper coat for you. The fact is, we were chang 
 ing cutters. But you shall have another right away. 
 You will naturally want it for Mr. Onderdonk's 
 garden party, the day after to-morrow. It will be 
 quick work, but it shall be ready, and this time with 
 out fault, I guarantee." 
 
 " Oh, well, Millerick, if you are going to take it 
 that way," said the young Croesus, not to be outdone 
 in magnanimity, and it is desirable, after all, to 
 stand well with one's tailor, " you put it in the 
 bill, all the same ! I suppose it only wants a touch 
 here and there. Mistakes wilt happen, you know. At 
 any rate, let me have some kind of a coat by to-mor 
 row night. Do you understand? " 
 
 " Millerick is the only man in town who will do 
 that," he said, somewhat mollified by this exhibition 
 of his power, as he departed with his companion. 
 
 " He won't do it for me," said Ramsdell. " Ho 
 would see me in Jericho first. How do you manage 
 it?" 
 
 Ramsdell's acquaintance Rickardson was found in 
 a large, new brick stable, presiding over an auction
 
 270 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 of horses. He was posted up at a little desk at one 
 side, above a track on which the paces of the animals 
 were shown off. Spectators, for the most part livery- 
 stable keepers and others connected with the equine 
 interest in a small way, crowded thickly on the track, 
 with catalogues in their hands. They made way re 
 luctantly as each horse was sped around, and filled in 
 immediately after, as if such a thing as danger to 
 life and limb from iron-shod hoofs had never been 
 heard of. 
 
 " Anything in our line, Rick ? " called Ramsdell 
 up to the auctioneer where he stood at his desk. 
 
 " I should n't wonder if the next lot but one would 
 be worth your while a lookin' at, Mr. Ramsdell," re 
 plied Rickardson. 
 
 The " lot " just then before the house was quickly 
 disposed of. The next was brought out and run 
 around the ring by a stable-boy. The onlookers scat 
 tered to escape maiming for life, and closed up im- 
 perturbably, as before. This lot was a young filly of 
 excellent stock, but marred by some blemish, which 
 allowed her to go for a song. 
 
 " She 's a young un, and a good un ! " cried the 
 auctioneer. " Look wot you 're a gittin'. This mag 
 nifieent two-year-old filly at seventy dollars' bid ! " 
 
 The inexperienced filly tossed up her head against 
 the restraining halter, and stared in a wild-eyed way 
 at the crowd. 
 
 " This here magnificent filly at seventy dollars' 
 bid ! Eighty, do I hear ? At eighty dollars ! Eighty ! 
 Eighty dollars ! Last call ! At eighty dollars ! 
 Sanders," with a sudden fall in his voice. 
 
 The " next lot but one " now followed, the stable- 
 boy this time on his back. This candidate for favor
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 271 
 
 was described in the printed catalogues as " the chest 
 nut gelding Rob Roy, coming seven years old next 
 March : greatly admired at Long Branch last season ; 
 the property of a gentleman Agoing to Europe, and 
 got to be sold at any sacrifice." 
 
 Kingbolt gave a start at his appearance, and began 
 to study his points with keen attention. 
 
 " Ah ha a ! " cried Rickardson with a gusto. 
 " Here 's the stock you 're all a-waitin' for. Splendid, 
 fine, high knee action. Beautiful combined saddler 
 and driver. Send him along, there ! " 
 
 The stable-boy struck the animal with his whip, 
 and rode down the crowd, which escaped annihilation 
 by another in the usual series of miracles. 
 
 " There he is, all in a nutshell ! " continued the 
 sanguine auctioneer. " Let 'em see him walk ! There's 
 a. beauty ! Game, beautiful-gaited, without doubt the 
 most beautiful-styled young horse in New York I 
 best-styled and most promising young horse in North 
 America to-day ! " 
 
 But before any offer could be made for all these 
 attractions, Kingbolt, who had scrutinized every mo 
 tion of the so-called Rob Roy with a painful intent- 
 ness, pressed forward to the auctioneer's desk, and 
 throwing up one hand, cried out excitedly, " You 
 can't sell that horse ! There is no Rob Roy about 
 him. He 's my horse Jim. You just wait till you 
 hear from me ! Do you understand ? " 
 
 To Ramsdell, who in much astonishment had en 
 deavored to follow him, he said, " That 's Jim, as 
 sure as we are alive ! I let St. Hill have him to keep 
 for the summer, and here he is selling him out on 
 me. He has changed him, but I would know the 
 horse in a million."
 
 272 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Rickardson was disposed at first to put down this 
 unseemly interruption. " Beauty ! " he continued to 
 the audience, by way of keeping the sale still in mo 
 tion, while the pros and cons were being discussed. 
 
 Influenced, however, by the representations of Mr. 
 Ramsdell, he withdrew the chestnut gelding Rob Roy 
 from auction. He explained to the public that a 
 mistake had arisen among gentlemen, which would 
 no doubt be settled " fair and satisfactory" to all con 
 cerned. 
 
 " Was there ever a more stupendous piece of 
 cheek ? " said Kingbolt, in a towering rage. " St. Hill 
 told me that the horse had gone a trifle lame, and 
 been left at pasture. He would have told me after a 
 while, I suppose, that he was dead, and I should have 
 taken his word for it. And to think of what I have 
 done for that man ! Well, this ends it. By the way, 
 oblige me, will you, Ramsdell, by not saying any 
 thing to the other fellows, just now ! I was rather 
 crowded into defending him this morning." 
 
 Kijjgbolt was actively on the lookout for his knav 
 ish protege for the rest of the day. Up to the hour 
 of the Capricorn dinner, at seven o'clock, however, he 
 had not fallen in with him. 
 
 The culinary department of the Empire Club was 
 enlisted to do its best for these little Capricorn din 
 ners. The terrapin was to-day, accordingly, of a 
 flavor not to have been surpassed out of Maryland ; 
 the canvas-back done to a turn. The Chateau Latour 
 was comfortably wai-m, the Steinberg Cabinet iced to 
 the finest touch of perfection. The dishes called out 
 considerable discussion of a gastronomical order. It 
 was good form to be to a certain extent gourmet. De 
 Longbow Rowley laid down the axiom
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 273 
 
 " You can tell who a man is better by his style of 
 ordering a dinner than in any other way." 
 
 Anthropoid Walker, who had taken to politics, 
 and become a member of the legislature, had aban 
 doned on that account but few of the attributes of 
 swelldom. His accomplishments as a good fellow, 
 also, seemed to have stood him in good stead, in his 
 new career. He described a dinner he had given, 
 from motives of policy, to his brother legislators at 
 Albany. He boasted also of having been able to 
 distinguish from one another, by the taste alone, 
 seven different kinds of wine of a kindred sort, with 
 his eyes blindfolded. 
 
 " We have seen you when you could n't tell cham 
 pagne from water, and you know it," said Sprowle 
 Onderdonk. 
 
 Walker admitted this, but claimed that the ex 
 periment referred to was made at an earlier stage in 
 the evening. 
 
 The ages at which various wines are at their best, 
 and phenomena attending their decline, were touched 
 upon. 
 
 De Longbow Rowley declared that he had seen 
 port so old that it had turned snow-white. He forgot 
 precisely where or when, but would swear to the fact, 
 though the rest pooh-poohed it. 
 
 " All I know is," said Zeus Baldwin, who had 
 abandoned the law, and was now a doctor of medi 
 cine, " that they sell you, at one of the German cities, 
 a wine which they say dates back to the year 1600 or 
 so. It costs three or four dollars a thimbleful. It 
 has become a mere thick syrup." 
 
 " Oh, they fill it up, you know," objected North- 
 fleet.
 
 274 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Not at all ! " said Sprowle Onderdonk. " It 
 would n't be so beastly if they did." 
 
 Society scandals, sporting matters, and narratives 
 of personal adventure followed. De Longbow Row 
 ley was at the front, in accordance with his reputa 
 tion, with the most marvelous experience. It had 
 been met with, he said, in his second-but-one-be- 
 fore-the-last expedition in the wilds of Crim Tartary. 
 
 Whitehead Finch thought good to parody this, to 
 the delight of the company, with an egregious inven 
 tion of prowess and desperate doings on a Mississippi 
 steamboat. 
 
 " I was the only peaceable person on board," he 
 said, " and beset by a gang of bullies and cut-throats. 
 Alone and unarmed against such numbers, what 
 could I do ? The captain and crew were in league 
 with them, also. It was as much as my life was worth 
 even to show resentment. But they little knew the 
 sleeping lion they were arousing. They crowded the 
 mourner too far. Unable at last to control myself, I 
 rushed to a red-hot stove in the cabin, and bit a piece 
 out of it, just to show what I could do. For an in 
 stant those burly ruffians stood paralyzed. Before 
 they could recover I had flown wildly to the deck and 
 leaped over the bow. I took the precaution to spring 
 as far out as possible. It must have been some two 
 hundred feet. The desperadoes thought I had sui 
 cided, and I could hear their shouts of demoniac glee 
 rending the air behind me. But far from it. I 
 calmly waited till that ill-fated boat came by, and 
 seized her cut-water in my teeth, our family are 
 known, I may say, for their excellent teeth. With a 
 few ferocious yanks I toi'e the whole front out of her, 
 and she went to the bottom like a shot. Not a soul
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 275 
 
 but myself was left to tell the tale. I rarely mention 
 it. I, sometimes, almost regret having used such ex 
 treme severity. Still, in a pinch like that, a man 
 cannot always be expected to act with the coolness 
 that might be most judicious." 
 
 Rowley was accustomed through long practice to 
 take rebuffs of this kind with much good-nature. 
 
 " I wonder if this new French duke will be want 
 ing to marry an American girl, like the rest," he 
 asked, branching out in a new direction. 
 
 " American girls have got to marry somebody," 
 said Gus Ramsdell, " since they can't have us." 
 
 " Why don't we go over and take their titled 
 women in return ? " inquired Northfleet. " Come ! I 
 have a notion to go and propose to a Lady Georgi- 
 ana or Hon. Miss Percy something or other, for a 
 change." 
 
 " By the way, speaking of marriages," said Sprowle 
 Onderdonk, " I may as well give you a bit of news. 
 The day for the wedding of my cousin Sprowle with 
 Miss Harvey has been set, and the cards are ordered. 
 As I shall not have another chance of the same sort, 
 I intend to call my garden party of Thursday partly 
 a celebration in their honor. I have asked Dr. Wy- 
 burd to add a few lines of an appropriate hymeneal 
 sort to his poem. You must all come up in your 
 drags, and give the occasion as distinguished a look 
 as possible." 
 
 Kingbolt who had shown no great interest in the 
 gayeties of the feast, up to this point, lost now even 
 the little he possessed. His lack of appetite was so 
 glaring as to be openly commented on by the others. 
 
 " Has Dr. Zeus Baldwin been talking to you, 
 Kingbolt ? " cried Northfleet. " Your theory, doctor,
 
 276 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PBINCE. 
 
 I believe, requires that nothing be taken into the 
 stomach for twenty-four hours before going to bed." 
 
 " Forty-eight," promptly replied Dr. Zeus Bald 
 win. 
 
 The violent indignation Kingbolt had proposed to 
 visit upon St. Hill had in a measure evaporated be 
 fore he finally met with him, later the same night. 
 The offense had become of a lesser consequence, in 
 the new stir of emotion aroused by the announce 
 ment of Angelica's wedding-day. The time fixed, 
 and near at hand, for her final loss ? As long as this 
 was not actually complete he must always have en 
 tertained some lingering, unreasonable hope. 
 
 St. Hill was lounging in the reading-room, with for 
 him a downcast air, when Kingbolt came out from 
 the Capricorn dinner ; and this Lucifer-like spirit 
 then rather attracted than repelled him. Something 
 irregular and desperate was most in consonance with 
 his own mood. 
 
 The protege was at first startled and confused at 
 being suddenly taxed with his fraud. He pleaded 
 embarrassment in business, losses and delays in the 
 collection of his debts. Then, growing bolder, on 
 finding that the repi'oaches addressed him were after 
 all but of a half-hearted sort, he held that the at 
 tempt to sell the horse must have been some piece of 
 stupidity on Rickardson's part, and had not been done 
 by his, St. Hill's, order. 
 
 " How can a man half tell what he is doing, in 
 such a fix ? " he said. " Things like that staring 
 him in the face, for instance ! " He pointed to the 
 bulletin board. " I can't even decently show myself 
 here except at this time of night. I was in hopes you 
 would have taken that down."
 
 AT THE EMPIRE CLUB AND AROUND TOWN. 277 
 
 He spoke in a melancholy way, more in sorrow 
 than in anger, at the neglect of a friend, which 
 touched him in a very tender place. 
 
 " You are always in a fix, man, and I am sick and 
 tired of it ! " cried Kingbolt. " Why don't you econo 
 mize ? Why don't you do something for yourself? 
 You have the best of everything. You eat better 
 dinners and wear better clothes than anybody else. 
 You look as if you were worth about forty millions." 
 
 " I have to, old fellow," argued St. Hill. " When 
 a man is down on his luck, that is the time he has 
 to look his best. If he is really prosperous, it doesn't 
 make much difference. Besides, you cut off one 
 promising source of revenue I had. You recollect 
 how you prevented my giving Rodman Harvey a 
 twist." 
 
 " Twist the whole lot of them now, if you like, and 
 be hanged to them ! " 
 
 St. Hill did not disclose the fact that he had already 
 made this attempt and failed. He was astonished 
 anew, however, at finding his patron's infatuation 
 over, just as he had begun to act upon the belief that 
 it was confirmed, and this source of profit lost to him 
 for good. He had sold the horse in truth with the 
 purpose of reaping all the benefit possible from the 
 last stages of this connection. He cursed his folly 
 for having done so ; but Kingbolt's present demeanor 
 encouraged him to hope that he might reinstate him 
 self in favor, in spite of it. 
 
 Kingbolt was for a night of wild dissipation, and 
 the parasite readily fell in with his hnmor. They 
 joined to themselves finally a couple of kindred 
 spirits, met with among resorts the bare existence 
 of which important as is the part they often play
 
 278 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 in the lives of ornaments of polite society it is the 
 custom of society to ignore. 
 
 The quartette repaired to a gaming establishment, 
 provided with every convenience and luxury and very 
 discreetly kept. Before daylight the heir of the Eu 
 reka Tool Works of Kingboltsville had squandered a 
 sum which increased his reputation for prodigality even 
 with those to whom large figures were no novelty. 
 
 He awoke in his apartment that day, not at nine in 
 the morning, but four in the afternoon. There came 
 to him almost at once, the unwelcome reminder of an 
 engagement he had made to drive a coach-load of 
 friends to Sprowle Onderdonk's garden party on the 
 morrow. He devoted some reflection to the best 
 means of getting out of it, but none occurred to him 
 as very feasible. 
 
 " No," he decided finally. " I will appear before 
 Angelica at the fete, given to celebrate her coming 
 nuptials though it be, with a proud and contemptu 
 ous demeanor. It shall be made plain to her that 
 she is by no means the cause of agitation in my 
 breast she may choose to imagine."
 
 XIX. 
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 WHATEVER scruples or misgivings Ottilie Harvey 
 may have had in taking her seat on Mr. Kingbolt's 
 coach, on the day set for Sprowle Onderdonk's gar 
 den party, they were dispelled, for the time being at 
 least, by the novel pleasure of the ride. 
 
 The eyes of all pedestrians turned admiringly to 
 wards the imposing vehicle, as it rolled up the Ave 
 nue. The fresh-faced young English guard stood up 
 in his place, in the bold attitude of one of the angels 
 on the Church of the Heavenly Rest, and woke the 
 echoes with his horn. 
 
 Ottilie thought the great city more delightful than 
 ever. It was bathed at this season in an atmosphere 
 of liquid amber. The scarlet and yellow leaves had 
 begun to drift idly down in the squares from the rich 
 masses of foliage to which they belonged. The pretty 
 women, back from the country, promenaded in dresses 
 of darker and warmer stuffs, premonitory of the coin 
 ing winter. Strangers crowded into town, and the 
 streets were filled to their utmost. If the bronze 
 Washington at Union Square indeed supervise the 
 cohorts debouching before him he had need of all his 
 strategy now. Along Fourteenth and Twenty-third 
 streets, small dealers had spread out their merchan 
 dise of blue china, oriental fans and boxes on the side 
 walk itself. On some of these days there were pa-
 
 280 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 rades of militia regiments, and the young girl looked 
 out of her window upon swaying bayonets as far as 
 the eye could reach, as if the surface itself were in 
 motion. At evening the profiles down all the western 
 cross-streets were thrown out black against skies of 
 smoky orange and crimson, full chords of the color- 
 harmonies of which the falling leaves were but wan 
 dering notes. 
 
 " If Europe can be brighter, more picturesque than 
 all this," said Ottilie, " it must be lovely indeed." 
 
 She exchanged now but little talk, and that of a 
 conventional kind, with the persons about her. Her 
 acquaintance with most of them was but of a formal 
 sort, and Kingbolt was engrossed with his horses. 
 
 A number of the drags forming a junction consti 
 tuted a small procession. A somewhat circuitous 
 route was chosen, that the rendezvous might not be 
 reached too soon. They passed through the copses 
 of Central Park, then the transitional region above, 
 which was neither city nor country. There were 
 bowlders, shanties, and goats ; isolated blocks of new 
 houses, like sections of plum-cake sliced sharply off ; 
 and paved and sidewalked streets, forming causeways 
 across low grounds, utilized by thrifty Germans for 
 market gardens. The Elevated Railroad, that spi- 
 der's-web trestle with little stations high in the air, 
 like habitations of lake-dwellers, or chalets from the 
 land of dreams, which now traverses the region, was 
 still in the future. The parallelograms of crops in the 
 market gardens, fresh yet as in early spring, were 
 thrown down beside one another, like a series of rugs 
 in the royal Ottoman greens. 
 
 Farther on, th<> expedition threaded the embower 
 ing lanes of an area of handsome villas. Some were
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 281 
 
 of stone, ivy-clad, and all shaded with fine trees. Now 
 and then a policeman of the mounted force was en 
 countered slowly pacing his charger, or trying the 
 fastenings of a lodge gate, to see that all was well. 
 In the freedom of these secluded places the gayer 
 spirits began to give free rein to their several de 
 vices. Baron Au instructed Daisy Goldstone in the 
 approved method of winding a coaching-horn. Ada 
 Trull drew off her long mousquetaire gloves, and 
 essayed an accomplishment, which she fancied she 
 possessed, of producing shrill whistles through her 
 joined hands. 
 
 In fine the merry-makers turned back a little, and 
 came down to the Sprowle manor, on the Hudson, in 
 the last day of its existence. It was garlanded as if 
 for the sacrifice. The tall columns of the portico, in 
 the old-fashioned classic style, were hung with wreaths 
 and festoons. Large bunches of flowers were set out 
 in the old-fashioned wainscoted rooms, deprived now 
 of the greater part of their furniture, and swept and 
 garnished for dancing. On the morrow, at daylight, 
 the minions of improvement would begin to throw 
 down the shingles with a clatter from the roof and 
 tear the sheathing from the stout old frame. 
 
 The coaches were unlimbered and let stand upon 
 the lawn, where their canary, blue, and scarlet spark 
 led as vivid spots of color throughout the afternoon. 
 Luncheon was to be served under a tent at two 
 o'clock, and this followed by Dr. Wyburd's poem. 
 Archery and lawn-tennis were provided for such as 
 cared for these sports. Others walked in a neglected 
 old garden, full of box, yew-trees, hollyhocks, and 
 dahlias, or strolled away beyond the limits of the 
 grounds.
 
 282 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Baron Au organized a round game, rather worry 
 ing people into it, on the plea of a chill in the air. 
 He had seen it given with success, he said, at lake 
 parties at Saratoga, and elsewhere, and the Italian 
 and Turkish ministers had taken part in it, which 
 proved that it must be dignified enough for anybody. 
 
 Kingbolt simulated indifference well, as he had 
 proposed. He took part gayly in the round game, 
 danced with Ada Trull, and escorted Ottilie about a 
 great deal on his arm. 
 
 Angelica thought he must be contemptuous indeed 
 to console himself with such a rival as the last. She 
 would rather have seen him, too, with a certain air 
 of depression and gloom though, to be sure, what 
 difference did it make ? 
 
 Dr. Wyburd's poem proved to be a record of names 
 and doings, more or less authenticated, about the 
 Sprowle family given in a poor doggerel. Poetry, 
 perhaps literature in general, was not the doctor's 
 strong point, although he dabbled in it much to his 
 own satisfaction. A sufficient idea of the character of 
 his performance may be had from some such couplets 
 as these : 
 
 " Colonels Corlear and Robert, those men of strong will, 
 And Verplanck D. Sprowle, who built the first mill ; 
 Governor Cyrus, Chancellor Garrett, also first judge of court, 
 And Rufus, the patriot, whom no British gold bought." 
 
 The approaching union of Sprowle and Angelica 
 was mentioned in its turn. A clumsily turned com 
 pliment had been inserted in praise of the paragon of 
 youth and beauty who was both to confer and receive 
 honor by consenting to unite herself to the illustrious 
 Sprowle lineage. This was received with applause, 
 and the health of the pair was proposed in a eulogis,
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 283 
 
 tic toast. Sprowle rose to reply, but acquitted him 
 self in a manner little to the satisfaction of his crit 
 ical betrothed. 
 
 It might have been supposed that Miss Angelica 
 Harvey would be especially content in her choice, on 
 such a day of glorification of the family importance, 
 which had been her principal object in making it. 
 This, however, was hardly the case. Whether it 
 were that inopportune discontent which is said to al 
 ways hang about the culmination of human wishes, or 
 a regretful drawing of contrasts now at the last mo 
 ment, or merely a pique at the indifference of King 
 bolt, she was much out of sorts. 
 
 Kingbolt's indifference proved so well simulated in 
 the beginning and so poorly in the sequel, as to pro 
 vide New York society with something like a nine 
 days' wonder, and radically change the fortunes of a 
 number of our characters. 
 
 The company, scattered at random after the deliv 
 ery of the poem. Ottilie interested herself in the an 
 tiquity of the place and the series of attractive views. 
 From the high colonnaded porch there were vistas of 
 the river framed in the foliage of the great trees. 
 Now a white steamboat forged across them ; now a 
 becalmed sloop drifted into them ; or a puffing tug 
 passed with interminable slowness, by reason of a 
 long train of canal-boats in its tow. The hazy atmos 
 phere dropped a bluish veil between the foreground 
 and the distance. Over among the cliffs of the far 
 ther shore patches of the autumn foliage seemed as if 
 dimly burning. A row-boat, moving across the deep 
 shadow and reflection of that farther shore, drew a 
 long line of silver behind it. 
 
 There was talk, on the porch, of remains of revo-
 
 284 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 lutionary earthworks still existing in the vicinity 
 Stillsby pressed himself upon Ottiiie as an escort to 
 go in search of them. Not greatly versed in polite 
 arts for escaping boredom, she amiably accepted him. 
 This youth had primed himself to-day having hearth 
 an inkling of Ottiiie 's taste with a liberal stock of 
 poetical quotations, and was looking for an opportu 
 nity to put them to their intended use. 
 
 Kingbolt offered Angelica flippant " congratula 
 tions" of the usual sort, which secretly exasperated 
 her. Somewhat later, they two were left together, 
 removed from the rest, near the gate of the old-fash 
 ioned garden. With the situation thus, Angelica 
 could not forbear opening her mind a little. 
 
 She was looking particularly well to-day, Kingbolt 
 thought. He could see it with half an eye, though 
 affecting not to attend, and though he was in the 
 habit of finding each successive toilette the most fas 
 cinating. She wore her gray corduroy coaching dress, 
 with a wide-brimmed hat and feather to match ; and 
 around her waist a silver belt with a long chain de 
 pending from it nearly to the ground, holding a mul 
 titude of pretty trinkets, as vinaigrettes, tablets, dog- 
 whistles, and betting-books, which clinked as she 
 walked. 
 
 " I would rather you would not be angry with me, 
 if you are," she began. " If there is anything in 
 which you think I have been wrong, under the cir 
 cumstances, I am sure I am very sorry. I trust 
 that we shall part as friends." 
 
 She was very enticing thus, but Kingbolt thought 
 good to make little reply. He refused to be drawn 
 out of a reserved and gloomy air he now assumed, and 
 which the young lady thought much more becoming
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 285 
 
 to him than the other. By little and little, as if un 
 consciously, they had ventured into the garden, and 
 were pacing the principal alley. This alley led to a 
 retired bower on the crest of a well-wooded slope 
 which declined to the river. The bower was of lat 
 tice-work, in the Dutch style, with a roof painted red, 
 and finished with a weather-cock. Persons within 
 were invisible from the side of the house. Here the 
 two, having strolled to it, presently sat down. 
 
 Meanwhile Ottilie and her eccentric escort had 
 found the historic earthworks of which they had gone 
 in quest, and were retracing their steps by a pleasant 
 path up the wooded slope. Stillsby, proceeding by 
 gradual stages, had now launched fairly into his stock 
 of intellectual lore, and was looking for consequences 
 from the onslaught. He had quoted from " My name 
 is Norval ; " " Farewell, farewell to thee, Araby's 
 daughter ; " the " Maid of Athens ; " and the " Semi- 
 nole's Reply." The mystified Ottilie was beginning 
 to arrive at an amused conception of his object. 
 
 The interview in the bower had proceeded but a 
 little way, when Kingbolt burst out into a torrent of 
 reproaches and entreaties, as of old. Angelica had 
 reason now to repent her ill-advised course in allow 
 ing the subject to be reopened in any degree what 
 ever. She rose, in alarm, and would have gone away, 
 but Kingbolt detained her. She seemed obliged to 
 argue with him somewhat further, now that she had 
 once begun. 
 
 " How utterly without reason you are ! " she said. 
 " You talk the wildest nonsense. Just imagine for 
 one moment what a stir there would be, what an 
 upheaval in society, if the engagement of anybody 
 of consequence I do not say mine, but anybody's
 
 286 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 should be broken after having gone as far as 
 this." 
 
 " What is a hubbub of a few days, or a few weeks, 
 
 or a few months, for that matter, compared with 
 the happiness of a life-time ? I know you do not care 
 for Sprowle. How can you ? you, so beautiful and 
 superior. Yet you have got to go on with him not 
 merely for a little while, but all your life-time. Re 
 member that ! Oh, break with him, Angelica ! It 
 is not too late. Oh, break with him ! " 
 
 He caught her hand, but she drew it quickly away, 
 saying, 
 
 " Let me go ! I cannot let you talk so about him. 
 I am going back to the house." 
 
 " He is a milksop, a molly-coddle, a fool. I con 
 sider him but little better than Stillsby," pursued her 
 companion excitedly. " All the men know it. The 
 idea of his being able to appreciate a girl like you ! 
 And as to morality, if you come to that, he is not 
 a straw better than the rest of us." 
 
 As the young woman had not selected her future 
 husband chiefly on grounds of his superior wisdom or 
 morality, this argument was not as effective as some 
 other perchance might have been. 
 
 " No ! Impossible ! " she reiterated. " Do not de 
 tain me against my will ! Let us go back at once ! " 
 
 "Well, then, I cannot bear it, do you understand ? " 
 cried the lover, throwing out his arms in a wild way. 
 " It suffocates me ! It tears me to pieces! There are 
 fellows who talk about suicide. Plenty of them 
 would not do it, you know ; it is all talk ; but I be 
 lieve I am one of the kind who would. You will 
 hear nothing more of me till kingdom come, after you 
 are married to him. I cannot live, I tell you. I will 
 not live."
 
 A GAEDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 287 
 
 The blood rushed to his face and stalwart neck, 
 swelling out the veins. He contorted his body in a 
 writhing way upon the hips, and threw his arms 
 aloft, in the attitude of the young Orestes pursued 
 by the Furies. It must have been a spasm, now in 
 mature life, like those of his childish days, when he 
 had been shut up in his padded room. His fine fig 
 ure was displayed in these unconscious movements to 
 excellent advantage. 
 
 Angelica, approaching, laid a hand persuasively on 
 his arm. " Let us talk reasonably," she said. 
 
 " Reasonably ? There is no reason but in your 
 being mine 1 , and mine alone." 
 
 He turned quickly. His handsome eyes blazed 
 into her own. What an adulation was this, com 
 pared with the sluggish way of Sprowle ! She de 
 layed an instant too long in this dangerous proxim 
 ity. Kingbolt took her in his arms, and kissed her 
 passionately. She did not resist. 
 
 Ottilie, with her sentimental companion, was at 
 this moment emerging from the wood. 
 
 " Longfellow, now, is a nice poet," Stillsby was 
 saying. "You take his now that 'Excelsior.' I 
 call that A 1." 
 
 " Yes," rejoined the long-suffering Ottilie. 
 
 The embrace in the bower flashed full upon the 
 view of both. 
 
 " Hi ! " ejaculated Stillsby, his eyes starting from 
 his head in uncontrolled surprise. 
 
 But Ottilie managed to draw him back into the 
 covert of the foliage before they were themselves per 
 ceived, and they returned by another way. When 
 they had gone some little distance in silence, Ottilie 
 offered as a deprecating suggestion :
 
 288 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " It seems to me it would be better not to make 
 any mention of what we have seen." 
 
 " Oh, certainly not ! certainly not ! " her cavalier 
 hastened to protest, with alacrity, " if you wish it." 
 
 The warmer and more human impulses had pre 
 vailed, after all, over calm calculation, and the en 
 gagement of Angelica was definitely broken. She 
 was not less capable of acting upon impulse than 
 Kingbolt, it seemed, and she had the most obstinate 
 of wills to sustain any course upon which she might 
 enter. 
 
 The pair set to discussing the difficult problem of 
 their future. Mrs. Harvey would consent to the re 
 versal of her favorite plan only with extreme diffi 
 culty ; that was certain. The calmer and sterner 
 opposition of Rodman Harvey to the unbusiness-like 
 step was to be dreaded even more. Then Sprowle 
 was to be got rid of, and there was the presumable 
 rage of his mother and all the Sprowle connection, 
 though of these Angelica affected to make light. 
 
 She was very affectionate with her new lover, pet 
 ted and soothed him, but repudiated his suggestions, 
 which were more notable for a vehement contempt of 
 the obstacles than for tact. 
 
 " Leave it all to me," she said, finally. "Nothing 
 must be said or done just now. We must appear for 
 a while mere ordinary acquaintances, as before." 
 
 She began with her betrothed a course of alien 
 ating tactics, on the very journey back to town. The 
 next day, for he was fond of her, and came often, she 
 would not see him. The next, when he brought her 
 some present, she ridiculed it in an exasperating way, 
 saying, " You dear, good, stupid thing, do take it
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 289 
 
 away ! You have no more taste than Marmion." At 
 a subsequent meeting she gave out that she had 
 heard something against him, against his moral 
 character. Being pressed, she would not tell what 
 this was ; then said it was of no consequence, though 
 having still every appearance of retaining a preju 
 dice. She was absent-minded ; asked him repeat 
 edly, " What did you say ? " and paid no attention to 
 his answers. In short, she crowded into the briefest 
 space of time the greatest number of annoyances. 
 A saint would have been unsettled with less. When 
 at last Sprowle resented this conduct in a fairly vig 
 orous way, for him, she became hysterical. 
 
 " Go ! " she said, in the true spirit of the meek 
 wolf with the ferocious lamb. " All is over between 
 us. Nothing that I can do any longer is right. It 
 was not so once." She pressed her handkerchief to 
 her eyes, and went sobbing from the room. 
 
 She granted him another meeting, however. In 
 this, although her ultimatum of the day before was 
 not at first adhered to, she managed to make the 
 situation in the end more acrimonious than ever. 
 After this she wrote to Sprowle that she could now 
 see that they had never been congenial, though they 
 may have thought so. It would have been folly for 
 them to marry. She hereby canceled her engage 
 ment with him. It was to be considered absolutely 
 and finally at an end. 
 
 She hurried back to him his ring and other pres 
 ents. Efforts on his part to see her, repeated expos 
 tulations by letter, were in vain. He offered humble 
 apologies, though he knew not for what. He of 
 fered to have the wedding put off ; to wait for her 
 indefinitely. No, all was useless. 
 
 19
 
 290 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Through chagrin, he did not at once make known 
 to his mother what had happened, but went out of 
 town for a few days. Never in all his career as sec 
 retary of legation, his lounging in club windows, 
 participation in the observances of polite society and 
 athletic sports, had he met with or heard of such an 
 experience before. 
 
 The situation as between Angelica and her mother 
 settled itself only after such a violent contest as 
 might have been foreseen. It ended in the triumph 
 of the stronger will, as could also have been fore 
 seen. The girl declared her purpose to marry King 
 bolt irrevocably fixed, and that no power under 
 heaven should shake it. The defeated mother then 
 went reluctantly over to her side. They planned 
 together that the cause of the dismissal of Sprowle 
 should not be disclosed, not to Rodman Harvey more 
 than others. It was to be attributed to uncongen- 
 iality, a caprice, a quarrel, anything but the sub 
 stitution of a new lover. If Kingbolt should appear 
 afterwards, as what more natural than that there 
 should be other suitors ? and be accepted, no nec- 
 esssary connection need be found between the two 
 events. 
 
 This arrangement was foiled, however, by the in 
 discretion of so apparently unimportant a person as 
 Stillsby. The manners of Stillsby at the Empire 
 Club for the first few days after the scene he had 
 witnessed at the garden party were a marvel to all 
 who knew him. 
 
 " What the devil is the matter with the fellow," 
 asked Whitehead Finch, " smirking, and glower 
 ing, and snooping about like that? He seems to get 
 lighter in the upper story every day. He was well
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 291 
 
 enough when he first joined the club. I recollect 
 when he had almost as much sense as the average." 
 
 " Calibre of his associates. Dropped to the level 
 of the rest of you," said Watervliet, using the free 
 dom of a privileged character and an old bird. 
 
 To forbear from .adding to his own importance by 
 disclosing what he knew, especially when the news of 
 the broken engagement came out, and it was spoken 
 of as something mysterious and unaccountable, was 
 more than Stillsby, after heroic effort, was capable of. 
 He confided his secret to one and then another, and 
 the club was soon buzzing with it. It came in this 
 way to the ears of Sprowle Onderdonk, with others. 
 
 It was the afternoon of Election Day, as it hap 
 pened, when the political fortunes of Rodman Har 
 vey were being weighed in the balance. Sprowle 
 Onderdonk hastened to Stillsby, had the story out of 
 him, and was soon after closeted with his aunt, and 
 his cousin Sprowle, now returned to town. 
 
 The dowager Mrs. Sprowle ordered her carriage, 
 and drove to the Harvey mansion. She made her 
 way up to Mrs. Harvey's boudoir, where she had so 
 often been before on more agreeable errands. Her 
 black and vindictive aspect told the cause of her 
 coming, even before she had opened her lips. Ottilie, 
 who was in attendance, trembled at her violent re 
 proaches. 
 
 If " My dear Mrs. Sprowles " and " My dear 
 madams," uttered in the most deprecating way by 
 Mrs. Rodman Harvey, could have saved the day, it 
 would have been done. But it could not. Angelica, 
 however, hearing in her chamber above some rumor 
 of what was in progress, came down, in a semi-in- 
 condition, pale, disheveled, in a charming wrap-
 
 292 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 per of lace and knots of ribbon. She lent her assist 
 ance, engaged the enemy intrepidly, and, moved, 
 perhaps, by the consciousness of being wholly in the 
 wrong, had soon thrown all attempt at conciliation 
 to the winds. There was a vixenish quality in her 
 anger when at white heat which a lover of the ami 
 able in woman would not have cared to see. Mrs. 
 Sprowle retired down the staircase, breathing threat- 
 enings and slaughter. 
 
 " The brazen, brazen girl ! " she muttered. " That 
 ever I should have taken up with such people ! . . . 
 Oh, if I had but known this before ! " as she pulled 
 together the door of her carriage with a trembling 
 hand. 
 
 And again she said, at a conclave of the Sprowle 
 interest summoned to meet at her house that even 
 ing, " Oh, if I had but known this before ! " 
 
 If she meant that she might, in that event, have 
 done something to impede Rodman Harvey's election, 
 and strike at the women of the family through him, 
 it was now too late. At sunset Michael B^rannagan, 
 nominee of Tammany Hall, was beaten, and Harvey 
 duly elected next representative in Congress from the 
 most important district in New York. Baleful glances 
 might be shot across the street from the darkened 
 residence of the Sprowles, but these could not pre 
 vent that of the merchant prince from being brightly 
 illuminated, nor the coming of troops of admiring 
 friends to offer congratulations on his victory. 
 
 Towards eleven o'clock, when the returns were 
 verified, and there could be no dispute about the re 
 sult, the henchmen who had borne the heat and bur 
 den of the day arrived with a brass band to tender 
 a serenade. In the cheering concourse were many
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 293 
 
 of the merchant's clerks. They did not reside in his 
 district, and had not been able to vote for him, but 
 had felt the excitement at the store, where it had 
 relaxed the usual discipline for a day or two. They 
 had chaffed and offered wagers there with a zest that 
 would not have misbecome the Empire Club, and 
 they now came to hear " the old man ' ' speak. 
 
 He stood forth, his head bare, on the broad steps. 
 The noises about him were suddenly hushed. At 
 the Sprowle mansion, as elsewhere, was audible his 
 opening phrase, " Fellow citizens." Then followed 
 such fragments as " the proud satisfaction, the 
 momentous issues, one whose interests are identi 
 cal with your own, this great New York, this 
 imperial city of ours, washed on three sides by 
 rivers, with a bay capable of holding the commercial 
 navies of the world. Men of all nations and climes, 
 the enterprise, wealth, and skill of our people. 
 Thanking you once more for your kind attention, he 
 concluded, " I will bid you good-night ! " 
 
 There were more shrill cheers ; the band struck up 
 briskly ; there was a bustle of hand-shaking on the 
 steps ; some of the leaders were invited into the 
 house ; refreshments were passed around outside. 
 Then came more music by the band. It marched 
 away, its notes sounding fainter and fainter in the 
 distance, and the merchant prince was left to repose 
 upon his new honors. 
 
 Rodman Harvey made much less of the news of 
 the substitution of Kingbolt for Sprowle, when it 
 was broken to him, than his family had dreaded. 
 Whether it was that he was occupied with his own 
 affairs, and did not fully appreciate its bearing upon
 
 294 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 himself, or for other reasons, he appeared, after a 
 decorous amount of advice, to regard the choice of 
 Kingbolt with genuine favor. 
 
 " He has so much more money, you know, papa," 
 urged Angelica, anxious to make the case the most 
 secure possible. 
 
 " Yes, I know," he replied. The Eureka Tool 
 Works, and its founder, Colonel Kingbolt, are like 
 household words." 
 
 " The matter chiefly concerns you," he said to the 
 two women. " You made the first match for reasons 
 good and sufficient to yourselves, and now that you 
 are pleased to change your views I do not know that 
 I am called upon to interfere. Only do not let it hap 
 pen again. It is most unbusiness-like and reprehensi 
 ble. I trust that you have done everything, as far as 
 possible, to reconcile the Sprowles. They are a strong 
 clan, and their ill-will is a matter of consequence." 
 
 The women suppressed some of the aggravated 
 circumstances of the affair, and did not tell him that 
 it was war to the knife already with the Sprowles. 
 
 The news had its various effects in many quarters. 
 It came to Mr. Fletcher St. Hill upon the heels of 
 his fancied recovery of control over Kingbolt, and 
 caused in that financier a profound revulsion of feel 
 ing. Now, indeed, was his patron lost to him, and 
 it was time for him to make to himself new friends 
 in the mammon of iniquity. He moved his Pruden 
 tial Land and Loan Company two flights higher up 
 in the Magoon Building. He took himself, after 
 a while, with his grudge against Harvey, to the 
 Sprowles. They received him with open arms. He 
 was to aid them in working up a campaign. On the 
 strength of this Sprowle Onderdonk advanced him
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 295 
 
 money. St. Hill imparted, gradually, and under 
 strict pledge of confidence, his secret, and showed 
 Harvey's treasonable correspondence in his posses 
 sion. "My business relations are too delicate," he 
 explained, "and my situation here as a Southerner 
 too critical, to allow me to engage in a contest with 
 so powerful an adversary. There is no telling what 
 calumnies he might invent, and. even give a certain 
 currency, too, in return, through his recognized stand- 
 ing." 
 
 " These are good, but not enough," groaned Mrs. 
 Sprowle over the letters. " They would have in 
 jured him politically, but more is wanted." 
 
 " She would have liked to convict Rodman Har 
 vey of arsons, assassinations, the most heinous of 
 crimes." 
 
 The news came to Bainbridge by the mouth of G. 
 Lloyd, the architect, the day after Harvey's election. 
 It was a dismal, wet November day, one of those 
 that herald, in peculiarly disagreeable fashion, the 
 advent of winter. The rain beat like small shot 
 against his office windows, and scourged the ferry 
 boats and wandering sails before it like guilty things, 
 down on the wide yellow river. In the squares it tore 
 off the leaves by the handful, and endeavored to beat 
 them into the ground with a superfluity of malice. 
 
 The two met in the damp hall of the Magoon 
 Building, at noon, and their umbrellas ran little pools 
 upon the tile pavement while they talked. 
 
 " By the way, another lively exploit of our friend 
 Kingbolt," said Lloyd. " We were talking about 
 him, the other evening, you remember. Heard? " 
 
 " No," said Bainbridge. 
 
 " He has cut out Sprowle with Harvey's handsome 
 daughter, and got her for himself. Fact I "
 
 296 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Heavens No ! But is n't it pretty sudden ? " 
 
 " They say he has been dangling around her this 
 ever so long. I got it from some club men. People 
 saw them hugging each other at a garden-party up 
 the Hudson. That's what brought on the crisis." 
 
 Bainbridge walked about in the blustering weather 
 in a rapture. Perhaps he hardly noted that it rained. 
 For him it had suddenly become the most genial of 
 days. The sun was shining at but the slightest re 
 move behind the enshrouding vapors. 
 
 Ottilie not another's at all ? and still open to him? 
 He knew very well what he meant to do at the first 
 practicable moment for getting up town. He called 
 himself a million idiots for having so mistaken the 
 true state of affairs. What must she have thought 
 of him ? And he a lawyer, and presumably in the 
 habit of attaching something like its real value to 
 evidence ! He entered a florist's, and sent Ottilie 
 some flowers, accompanied by a note. 
 
 Ottilie, in her room, looking out of her window at 
 the dismal prospect, received, that afternoon, a paste 
 board box full of Jacqueminot roses. They were cut 
 with long stems, and laid in a protection of cotton 
 wool. Their dewiness and perfume were still upon 
 them, as if fresh from the conservatory. The young 
 girl had never had a more delightful compliment. 
 The inclement season trebled its charm. What did 
 it all mean ? She read the following lines : 
 
 DEAB Miss OTTILIE, I seem to have been la 
 boring under some stupid delusion. Happily, it is 
 past. I wonder if you will be at home this evening. 
 I shall give myself the pleasure of trying to find you. 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 RUSSELL BAINBRIDGE.
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 297 
 
 Delusion? What delusion? What was she to 
 understand ? Here was testimony enough, if more 
 were needed, that in Bainbridge one was dealing with 
 no ordinary person. She sat in an attitude of pensive 
 reflection, burying her face from time to time in the 
 lovely roses. She was greatly puzzled. At any rate, 
 he was coming to see her again, and of that she was 
 very glad. Suddenly she started up, seized her pen, 
 rang for a district telegraph messenger, and wrote : 
 
 DEAR MR. BAINBRIDGE, Thank you so much 
 for the flowers you have been kind enough to send 
 me. What a bit of tropical beauty and fragrance on 
 this blustering day ! I am sorry to say, however, that 
 I cannot be at home this evening. I am not wholly 
 mistress of my own motions, as you know, and my 
 aunt has made some arrangement for me which will 
 keep me away both this evening and to-morrow. I 
 consider it very unfortunate. But will you not come 
 very soon after that ? Your " delusion " is a great 
 mystery. What can it be ? I think I have had rea 
 son to fear some such delusion on your part as that 
 you had fancied you cared a little for yours truly, 
 but found you did not. With sincere regards, 
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY. 
 
 Could Bainbridge have found Ottilie in the first 
 flush of his enthusiasm, she would have heard from 
 him an ardent declaration of his state of mind, what 
 ever effect we may suppose it to have had upon her. 
 But this was not to be for some time longer. He 
 had a night and a day of enforced reflection. Even 
 after that he did not at once find her alone. Noth 
 ing, in fact, had changed in their circumstances, from
 
 298 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 the point of view of marriage. Were they not as 
 poor a.s ever ? It is only in the story-books, when 
 true-lovers take each other for better or worse, throw 
 ing prudential considerations to the win.ds, that every 
 thing else is immediately added unto them. " Rod 
 man Harvey would look at a proposal for his niece's 
 hand as an attempt upon his purse-strings, and would 
 close them tighter than ever. And who wishes him 
 to open them on my account, since he will not on 
 hers? "said Bainbridge. "No, let us wait a little." 
 He had an indefinite sense that something must turn 
 up to aid them. The immediate danger was over. 
 He would study out a solution of their difficulties at 
 leisure. Their former relations were resumed. Why 
 hurry, in fine, a situation which was so charming in 
 itself ? 
 
 He began to walk much in Wall Street in his noon 
 outings. He studied the backs of the capitalists who 
 had achieved notable success there, then crossed over 
 and met them face to face, and endeavored to divine 
 their secret. Some were of very ordinary aspect, 
 shamble-gaited, and of pinched and mean little phys 
 iognomies. They did not look happy, with all their 
 money, and plenty of well - authenticated stories 
 showed that they were not. But that was not to the 
 purpose ; so much the worse luck theirs. If he, Bain- 
 bridge, had it, he could be happy. 
 
 The dark mass of Trinity Church rose at the head 
 of the narrow, opulent street, its quiet old churchyard 
 in such contrast to the eager human life rushing by, 
 as if death and graves were the most improbable of 
 myths. Down the street jutted out the temple-like 
 porticoes of the sub-treasury and the custom-house. 
 The multitudinous needs of commerce had spun a cob-
 
 A GARDEN PARTY ON THE HUDSON, AND ITS SEQUEL. 299 
 
 web of telegraph wires across the sky. At places 
 they ruled it into squares like those of the ledgers be 
 low, and again converged in bundles like ships' cord 
 age. Trays of gold pieces shone in the windows of 
 the basement offices, as if here, indeed, Jupiters had 
 rained themselves down, having come, by mistake, to 
 the wrong part of town. The brokers waited in the 
 dark interiors for customers to take the glittering bait. 
 
 Bainbridge gathered up one day all his resources, 
 including a moderate loan from the Hudson Hen- 
 dricks, and went into Wall Street. 
 
 An idea had taken possession of him. Speculation 
 was not an ideal means of redeeming one's fortunes, 
 and no doubt he should be ashamed of it afterwards. 
 But it was a means, a possible means, and there 
 seemed no other. There was talk, just at present, of 
 unusual opportunities for gain. The market was ac 
 tively " booming." He determined to regard his 
 venture as an augury. To win Ottilie, if he suc 
 ceeded ; to give her up to a better custody than his, 
 if he failed ! Surely fate would be propitious to so 
 deserving a cause. 
 
 There was a plan of buying on a " margin," or 
 percentage, by which one secured control of a num 
 ber of shares vastly out of proportion to his small 
 capital. In this way, in the event of a rise a large 
 profit was reaped ; though of course, in the event of 
 a considerable decline, on the other hand, the capital 
 one put in was wholly wiped out. Bainbridge bought 
 shares of Devious Air-Line, on a margin. There 
 seemed a certain fitness in connecting himself with 
 the fortunes of Rodman Harvey. 
 
 Devious Air-Line remained stationary for a long 
 time. Then it dropped off a point or two.
 
 XX. 
 
 "LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 
 
 CONVENTIONAL lovers in the conventional stories 
 are always aware of the precise extent of the regard 
 they have for each other. It is generally a frenzy 
 amounting to madness. They take the earliest (and 
 every subsequent) opportunity of declaring it, and 
 thereafter it is of no will their own, but only the 
 most insuperable of physical obstacles, that keep 
 them apart. 
 
 But who shall picture all the fluctuations of feeling, 
 the misgivings, the blowing hot and cold, of lovers in 
 real life, where there are so many affairs besides those 
 of the heart demanding attention ; so much marrying 
 and giving in marriage, indeed, with hardly a pre 
 tense of affection at all ? Balked in his first intent, 
 Bainbridge did not renew it. His imagination hov 
 ered over Ottilie with an all-embracing tenderness, 
 but he did not make her any set speeches of affec 
 tion. 
 
 When they had met a number of times, and he 
 had not referred in any way to his note, Ottilie said 
 to him, 
 
 " Perhaps you do not remember that you have not 
 told me what your ' stupid delusion ' was. I am dy 
 ing to know." 
 
 Taken by surprise, he was hardly able to vary 
 from the truth with great ingenuity at so short notice.
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 301 
 
 He had hoped that as the matter had not been al 
 luded to so far, it would remain uninvestigated. He 
 gave to his admission, however, a flippant air, as if it 
 were of but the most trifling consequence. 
 
 " Oh, that ? Oh, yes ! " he said. " That was a 
 misunderstanding about Kingbolt, you know. I was 
 over-worked, or absent-minded, or something. I 
 often get things wrong. I fancied that it was you to 
 whom Kingbolt was paying court instead of Angel 
 ica." 
 
 Ottilie did not reply on the instant. She looked 
 at him with a gaze at once bewildered, reflective, 
 amused. What a compliment he paid her ! He had 
 been seriously considering her, then, an eligible part 
 ner for Kingbolt ; she, who considered herself so little 
 eligible for anybody. Why, the plain implication 
 was, too, that he, Bainbridge, had been jealous of her. 
 She dared not trust this hypothesis ; it was too wild. 
 But in the instant of making it her heart beat quicker, 
 and it' remained warmer towards Bainbridge ever 
 after. 
 
 " Oh, you thought it was I ? " she said. " That is 
 very interesting. If you could only have known how 
 he was boring me with his talk about my cousin all 
 the while, you would not have thought so. I hardly 
 knew what to do. I could not betray his confidence, 
 and yet I did not want it. I never supposed his per 
 sistence would have any result. So that accounts for 
 your So you thought " 
 
 She nibbled her lip with her even white teeth in 
 the effort to repress her smiles. But her smiles were 
 rather of keen delight, which she feared might betray 
 itself, than derision. 
 
 " The circumstances fitted into one another so per-
 
 302 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 versely. Your riding with him so much, you know, 
 and all that," said Bainbridge. 
 
 " And so you stayed away ? " She broke into a 
 merry laugh. 
 
 " Well, yes. I did seem to stay away." 
 
 " Do you not think you are of a rather peculiar 
 disposition ? " 
 
 " I advised you, you know," said Bainbridge, waiv 
 ing an answer to this question. " A companion of 
 that kind, if I had been right, would naturally have 
 taken my place. I thought I ought to furnish a clear 
 field." 
 
 " And no favor." 
 
 " Well, no ; not very much favor." 
 
 " You do me great honor, I am sure. Perhaps the 
 advice is good yet, in principle." 
 
 This was a critical passage for Bainbridge. The 
 tone and look of banter he assumed were likely to 
 give place at any instant to a blazing avowal of pas 
 sion. " I am well over it," he thought. 
 
 " Your cousin's new engagement is openly an 
 nounced, I hear," he said, changing the subject. 
 
 " Yes ; as the murder was out, boldness was the 
 best policy. I think they are doing a number of 
 things on that basis, still. It is a continual round of 
 dinners and theatre parties for Angelica. Mr. King 
 bolt gets his friends to give them, or gives them him 
 self, sometimes at Delmonico's, sometimes at his own 
 apartments, where he has suitable chaperons to pre 
 side. I have seen some of the menus of these dinners. 
 One is embroidered on satin, another is on a silver 
 tablet. Lovely presents are given the guests : fans, 
 sashes to match the ladies' dresses, gold pins and but 
 terflies for their hair, and satin bags of confectionery.
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 303 
 
 It is one rain of gifts for Angelica, besides : parcels 
 from the jeweler, the florist, and confectioner all day 
 long. Do you want to hear about her engagement 
 ring ? " 
 
 " Certainly I do. What is it ? " 
 
 " A diamond of five carats, in a plain setting. Oh, 
 how it glitters ! She has another ring, also a present, 
 with a pink pearl and two diamonds. It came in a 
 porcelain jewel case, in the shape of an egg, a little 
 jewel itself. This was inclosed in a teak-wood box, 
 elaborately carved, and this in a silk bag, drawn with 
 a cord. You would have screamed." 
 
 " I am almost tempted to now, at your feeling de 
 scription." 
 
 " Angelica has given him in return a lock of her 
 hair, a photograph for his dressing-table, a cat's-eye 
 ring, and a sofa pillow partly embroidered by her 
 self." 
 
 " You seem to take a certain interest in such mat 
 ters." 
 
 " I dote on them. I have my epicurean tastes, too. 
 Poor old Lone Tree ! I fear I am forever spoiled by 
 the leaven of luxury." 
 
 " I dare say she is very fond of him ? " suggested 
 Bainbridge. 
 
 " She must be. She adjures him affectionately to 
 be careful of his hands, for her sake. She thinks he 
 is ruining them by driving his coach, and other sports. 
 But, seriously, you see how she has offended and 
 defied the influential Sprowle family. If you could 
 have seen that old woman's face, the day she came to 
 reproach my aunt about it ! I was frightened to 
 death. What do you think she will do? What is 
 done in this fashionable life, when people bitterly 
 hate each other, and want revenge ? "
 
 304 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " That is one of the problems. Well, they have 
 their opinion of one another, and when they get 
 sympathetic listeners they state it. Good old-fash 
 ioned vengeance, in fact, appears to be dying out. 
 It is not a modern luxury. Few facilities are af 
 forded now for its indulgence. Mortal enemies do 
 not usually invite each other to dinner, and discrim 
 inating hosts do not put them next each other, if 
 they chance to meet." 
 
 " Could the Sprowles attack my uncle in any 
 way ? " added Ottilie, with anxiety. " They might 
 think it best to strike at my aunt and cousin through 
 him. Probably no other means would be so effec 
 tive. I am sure I should feel nothing more keenly 
 than any taint of disgrace that might attach to him." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " said Bainbridge. " They may an 
 noy him in some trifling way ; but if your uncle 
 really had any points open to attack, it is not likely 
 that he would be as stiff and uncompromising as he 
 is with everybody." 
 
 " Well, I shall feel easier in mind when my cousin's 
 wedding is over." 
 
 The merchant prince went off to Washington in 
 December, and took his seat in the House of Repre 
 sentatives. 
 
 Kingbolt and Angelica, having impressed their 
 new situation upon society to the extent they thought 
 needful, went away to pay a visit to the family of 
 Kingbolt at Kingboltsville. The young heir was 
 considerably overdue there. It was long since he had 
 conferred with his trustees, and they, having the 
 management of things so very much in their own 
 hands, began to look upon him almost as an inter-
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 305 
 
 loper. He owed it to his mother and sisters, also, to 
 introduce his betrothed to them. 
 
 His enthusiasm, which under ordinary circum 
 stances might have cooled somewhat, was kept aglow 
 by the opposition he met with. He squared himself 
 defiantly against it. It was a wonder he did not 
 come to blows with Sprowle Onderdonk. It was 
 probably due to the forbearance of the latter that 
 an outbreak did not take place. The two passed 
 each other in the lobby of the Empire Club for a 
 while with a haughty aggressiveness of mien. 
 
 " Still," said Onderdonk, " it would be stretching 
 a point for me to take it up in that way. It is my 
 cousin Sprowle's affair, the idiot ! If he can afford 
 to let it alone, I suppose I can. Besides, this fool of 
 a Kingbolt is not the culprit. It is the Harvey peo 
 ple. We must make them feel it, root and branch. 
 Perhaps we shall show them in time that slights are 
 not to be put on a family like ours with impunity." 
 
 Mrs. Sprowle spoke of Kingbolt in much the same 
 way. He was, according to her, " a poor dupe," " the 
 rich young plebeian whom those designing women 
 had got into their clutches," and who was more to be 
 pitied than blamed, even bad as his private character 
 was. 
 
 At Kingboltsville the heir went with Angelica to 
 take a glimpse of the great Works. " Would you 
 believe," he inquired, " that I used to come here my 
 self, with blue shirt and dinner-pail, like one of the 
 ordinary hands, and grease up the machinery? " 
 
 " Fancy ! " his sweetheart replied, with supreme 
 contempt. 
 
 It was a source of wonderment now to the young 
 man himself that, with his superior opportunities 
 
 20
 
 306 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 for enjoyment in the world, he could ever have al 
 lowed himself to be deluded by such absurd notions 
 of duty. 
 
 An evening party was given, and provincial so 
 ciety came out to do Angelica honor. The young 
 woman professed surprise to see how very well some 
 of these persons looked. She preserved with all of 
 them a chilly demeanor. Nor did she get on better 
 with the family itself. She privately termed the two 
 widowed sisters " frumps." They spent a humdrum 
 existence, ample as their resources were, looking after 
 small cases of charity, founding a church or a school, 
 or patronizing- some mediocre artist who came up 
 from New York to establish classes in " decorative 
 art." They dressed in black, though their bereave 
 ments were many years remote ; and when they 
 descended from a carriage you had a glimpse of rusty 
 gaiter and stocking. 
 
 Kingbolt's mother ventured an injudicious com 
 ment, in her timorous way, on his future bride. " We 
 all admire her so much, Arthur," she said. " She is 
 so brilliant in looks, so accomplished. I hope and 
 pray that she will make you happy. But if you 
 could only have chosen one a little less a little 
 more not quite so worldly-minded, perhaps, dear." 
 
 The son, resenting, in quite his youthful way, any 
 impugnment of the wisdom of whatever he might 
 choose to do, returned some brusque, impatient an 
 swer. His sisters said, " You should not speak so to 
 your mother, Arthur." Upon this, he flung himself 
 out of the room, agreeing with Angelica, that they 
 were hostile to her, as she said. The pair presently 
 left so unappreciative a society, and departed to visit 
 at Washington.
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING SWEETLY SPEAKING." 307 
 
 There Angelica went about on her lover's or her 
 father's arm. The great New York merchant had 
 been from the first put on important committees, and 
 taken a prominent place in Congress. His beautiful 
 daughter was something of a new sensation. She 
 gave statesmen from the interior such a lesson in 
 feminine elegance as they had not before enjoyed. 
 The newspaper correspondents, taxed to the utmost 
 though they are, sought fuller resources of word- 
 painting to describe her. Ottilie read some of their 
 glowing accounts of her cousin's appearance at the 
 afternoon receptions, the ball of the British minister, 
 the General of the army, Admiral this, and Senator 
 that. Angelica assisted, too, the " ladies of the 
 White House," who were glad of her, and some 
 what abashed by her ; and she dined more than once 
 in company with her father, at the President's table. 
 
 Angelica's opinion of the whole, in return, was not 
 favorable. "It is a perfect menagerie," she said. 
 " If it were not for the legation people, it would be 
 quite intolerable. No exclusiveness, no fixity, no 
 traditions ! Everybody goes everywhere. What 
 does a society based upon a little brief office-holding 
 amount to ? These furbelowed daughters, neices, 
 and cousins of the good bourgeois legislators, no doubt 
 think it heaven. Probably it is to them, who have 
 never seen anything else." 
 
 It was thus she stigmatized the multitude of pret 
 ty girls flocking from all parts of the country to the 
 gayeties of the place. She made herself as elegantly 
 severe in attire as possible, by contrast. Murray 
 Hill looked down disdainfully on Capitol Hill and all 
 its affiliations. 
 
 Kingbolt coincided, as a newly engaged lover
 
 308 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 should, in most opinions that she chose to express. 
 He amused himself, during his expatriation, with an 
 incidental run to Baltimore, where he knew some 
 pleasant fellows of the Maryland Jockey Club. He 
 picked up from a needy inventor hanging about the 
 Patent Office some ingenious new device in tele 
 graphic communication, which he set about having 
 put in operation between his house and stock-farm 
 at Kingboltsville. He proposed to Angelica that his 
 yacht should be brought around for a trip to Bermu 
 da ; but to this she did not accede. We may leave 
 them here for a little, and return to New York. 
 
 The Christmas season went by. Owing to the 
 change in affairs, there was not the amount of gay- 
 ety at the Harvey mansion as proposed at the begin 
 ning of the season. Mrs. Harvey took Ottilie about 
 with her more or less into society. She wished her 
 companionship, but never quite let her lose a sense 
 of her peculiar situation. Bainbridge took to going 
 out, also, to places where there was a likelihood that 
 he should meet with Ottilie. There were by no 
 means the same unconstrained opportunities for see 
 ing her at the house as before. He was still wheel 
 ing round the circle of obstacles by which he seemed 
 beset without finding in it any loophole of escape. 
 Devious Air-Line recovered the point or two it had 
 lost, but did not rise above the purchase price. 
 
 Sometimes Bainbridge said to himself, " I will not 
 marry her, for my own sake." That was his selfish 
 mood, and meant that he desired to take upon him 
 self no further burdens. 
 
 Again he said, " I will uot marry her, for Tier sake. 
 Why should I pull her down ? Have I not well 
 tested my capacity and prospects ? Without me she
 
 "LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 309 
 
 stands an excellent chance to be prosperous and 
 happy." 
 
 But still again he exclaimed passionately, " I will 
 marry her, in spite of everything ! " 
 
 He set off more than once to act upon this impulse, 
 but either did not find Ottilie when he would, or in 
 her presence recovered his equanimity. 
 
 Once he dropped in of a morning, at a " Shakes 
 pearean reading " at Chickering Hall, and saw her in 
 the audience, following carefully with a text in her 
 hand. She was reaping now some of those "advan 
 tages " of the metropolis, of which she had had so 
 exalted an idea. He knew of her going also to lec 
 tures at the Academy of Design, to old Dr. John 
 Jones's sonorous discourses on Reformers and Men of 
 Letters, and to the Rev. Wayland Howland on the 
 Cathedrals of Europe, illustrated by the stereopticon. 
 
 Bainbridge contemplated her awhile, at the Shakes 
 pearean reading, from a vantage-ground in the rear, 
 and went away without having made his presence 
 known. How attractive it was in her to sink her 
 personal comeliness, which many others would have 
 depended upon as a career in itself, and endeavor 
 BO ambitiously to fill her pretty head with mental 
 furniture ! It was a pretty head. The hair, except 
 a tendril or two which escaped, was drawn upward 
 from the delicate nape of her neck. One smooth 
 cheek was muffled by the bows of her bonnet. The 
 other, with long, dark eyelashes projecting from it, 
 showed its rounded profile, now more, now less, as 
 she turned. 
 
 The next meeting of the pair was at an afternoon 
 reception, or four-o'clock tea. They were at the cor 
 ner of a door- way and each held and tasted in a dilet-
 
 310 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 tante way a cup of the beverage which gave the en 
 tertainment its name. Bainbridge managed at the 
 same time to keep his hat and stick under his arm. 
 The rooms were full of a chattering audience, chiefly 
 ladies, in elegant street toilettes. These drove from 
 one to another of a number of similar receptions, in 
 progress at the same time, with card-cases in their 
 hands, and remained but a few moments at each. 
 
 " I saw you at Chickering Hall," said Bainbridge. 
 *' you are always giving yourself infinite pains about 
 some learned thing or other. You know more no\v^ 
 than any dozen other New York girls put together." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Ottilie, scandalized. 
 " Very well ; if you call it learned to go to a pan 
 orama, or an innocent little Shakespearean reading, 
 what will you say if I begin to talk Herbert Spencer 
 and Mill, and Tait's researches into the original atoms 
 of matter?" 
 
 " I shall say, don't do it ! " 
 
 " They are in the shape of rings, always in motion, 
 as if contending with one another," she went on 
 archly. 
 
 "The researches, or the atoms? Well," in re 
 sponse to a frown, " let primordial atoms delight to 
 bark and bite, if 't is their nature to ; but that is no 
 reason why we should." 
 
 " At any rate, persons who have everything to gain 
 and nothing to lose ought to be ambitious, and learn 
 all they can, do you not think so ? " Ottilie insisted. 
 " Besides, I shall never know enough to hurt me. I 
 sometimes think I should like to be a professor, 
 always learning something important, and arousing 
 an interest in it in others." 
 
 " You take a roseate view of professors. There
 
 LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 311 
 
 are a good many of a different sort. They are too 
 often chosen from the class of learners by rote, who 
 never have known what a genuine enthusiasm for 
 scholarship is. That kind but stifle the germs of it 
 in those confided to their care." 
 
 " A professor, after all," he concluded, " is a part 
 of the machinery. One would rather be a finished 
 specimen of the product." 
 
 It happened that this particular four- o'clock tea 
 was of a more elaborate sort than usual. The people 
 by whom it was given were spoken of as in an upper 
 grade of " stragglers." They still thought it desira 
 ble to commend themselves to favor by a lavish expen 
 diture of money, which would not be necessary later. 
 The display was commented upon with an admiration 
 thinly veiling contempt, by those who would not have 
 imitated it. Flowers adorned the banisters from top 
 to bottom, and were set about in forms of tea-kettles, 
 temples, swans, and ships, on the piano and other 
 furniture. Pretty children, costumed as flower-girls, 
 presented each guest at his entrance a choice nosegay. 
 A flower-wreathed silver fountain sprayed into the air, 
 instead of water, a delicate perfumery. 
 
 " Do you know that this is not orthodox talk for a 
 four-o'clock tea ? " said Ottilie. " You distract one 
 from looking about. You should tell me how very 
 difficult it is for men to attend affairs of this kind, 
 and how surprised you are at finding yourself here. 
 You should say that men have not the gift of small 
 talk, you know; and, if inclined to be humorous, 
 that it is really very dreadful to find one's self in such 
 a minority among the fair sex. I should remark that 
 it is said to make a fatal difference in a cup of tea 
 whether the milk or the sugar be put in first. ' Yes,'
 
 312 THE HOUSE OF. A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 you should reply ; and state further that if a cup of 
 tea be not perfect at the first mixing, no alteration 
 can make it so. Meanwhile, we should both be star 
 ing about the room, thinking whom we would like to 
 join, or have join us, next." 
 
 " So you are spoiled by luxury ? " Bainbridge in 
 quired, going back. 
 
 " I suppose I am. Still, I don't know. I want to 
 see a specimen of everything ; then I shall decide 
 which I like best. It may not be this fashionable 
 life, after all. It is a decadence, I fear. These 
 stories of the flirtations of married men with young 
 girls, and men with other men's wives, I do not 
 believe them, of course ; but it shows something 
 wrong that they get the currency they do." 
 
 But this was a line of subjects to be more freely 
 discussed with Mrs. Clef, for instance. 
 
 " What I should really like to see," Ottilie went 
 on, her face brightening, " is literary society. I 
 should like to meet the people whose names you see 
 in the papers, authors, artists, who discuss things 
 really worth while, and come to some conclusion about 
 them. The bright ones in this fashionable society 
 say sparkling, audacious, amusing things, but that is 
 all. Nothing is advanced, nothing settled." 
 
 " They would be glad to have a niece of Rodman 
 Harvey at the places where the people you speak of 
 assemble. I can drop Mr. Stoneglass a hint, down 
 town. I know his wife will be pleased to send you 
 an invitation, when her receptions begin." 
 
 " Really ? Oh, I thought it would be very diffi 
 cult. I supposed that my aunt, not being literary, 
 was not eligible. I had never dared to aspire to it." 
 
 "You will meet people whose names you see in
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 313 
 
 the papers, but you will find very little settled, my 
 poor child, even there. This is not a world, in fact, 
 where much is settled. Then there are writers from 
 whom one had expected a great deal, who are found 
 to have told in their books all they know, and per 
 haps even more. You get nothing further from them. 
 Still, having entertained us in print, it may be their 
 privilege to be as dull as they please out of it." 
 
 "But what will they think of me?" said Ottilie, 
 shrinking diffidently from the idea now that it was un 
 expectedly found feasible. 
 
 " The chief condition of comfort is to consider 
 what you think of people, not what they think of 
 you. I dare say, however, you will not be frightened. 
 They let me in. To tell the truth, literary lions of 
 the first magnitude do not abound in New York. The 
 best of them do not always turn out either, and when 
 they do they roar but gently. The field is left a 
 good deal to the minor lights. I fear you will be dis 
 appointed." 
 
 " Oh, no, I shall not. Anything in the shape of a 
 live author ! I recollect making a pilgrimage, once, ' 
 to get the autograph of a lady writer in our neigh 
 borhood, about as good as Mrs. Anne Arundel Clum. 
 We high-school girls at fifteen used to think she was 
 wonderful. If she had been Sappho, or Madame de 
 Stae'l, she could not have received us with greater 
 dignity." 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Stoneglass, on the whole, will be the 
 best for you," said Bainbridge, as if having reflected 
 on the several places available. " Stoneglass has 
 dined with your uncle, you say, and that will make 
 it pleasanter. He edits the " Meteor," and his wife 
 writes the bright Fanny Copperplate letters. She is
 
 314 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 better known than he, though his work is so much 
 more substantial. When his rivals wish to be ma 
 licious, they speak of him as Mr. Fanny Copperplate 
 Stoneglass. The entertainers are usually persons 
 who themselves dabble, in a minor way, in letters. 
 The right one to hold a salon of the traditional sort 
 has hardly yet arisen. She should be appreciative 
 and intelligent, of easy and friendly manners, and 
 surrounded by a certain degree of luxury. She 
 should not bore people with a small literary vanity 
 of her own, nor have axes to grind." 
 
 " When will Mrs. Stoneglass' receptions begin ? " 
 
 " Some little time from now. I will let you know. 
 They will probably be held Sunday nights, as usual." 
 
 "Oh! Sunday nights? We-11 " said Ottilie, 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 " Yes ; another of our imported customs. Sunday 
 afternoons and evenings are coming into favor for a 
 great deal of quiet sociability. Actors are free on 
 Sunday evening, for one thing. You may see some 
 leading actors at Mrs. Stoneglass'." 
 * Ottilie fell to reviewing the fitness of her mental 
 equipment for meeting this formidable company. 
 
 " I read so little now, compared with what I used," 
 she said ; " I do not keep up at all. I am quite 
 ashamed of myself." 
 
 " I, too, read almost nothing of late. It may be 
 that as life becomes more interesting, books grow 
 less so," said Bainbridge. " Perhaps we shall read 
 again later on, to contrast our own experiences with 
 those of fiction. I have had the last new novel of 
 Blank's lying in my room for a fortnight, and not yet 
 touched it. I hear it has a legal plot. I wish I 
 knew what it was without the trouble of perusing 
 it."
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 315 
 
 " Send it around to me ; I will read it for you," 
 volunteered Ottilie. 
 
 " Take care ! It is too tempting an offer. I may 
 hold you to it." 
 
 " I am not at all afraid." 
 
 He sent it around to her, in fact. At another meet 
 ing, not long after, she gave him a concise account 
 of the story in a way which would hardly have done 
 discredit to the best narrative powers of Angelica, or 
 Madame Batignolles-Clichy herself. 
 
 " Do you know it was very nice of you to do 
 that," said Bainbridge, holding her hand a moment 
 longer than seemed necessary, as she gave it to him 
 for good-by. 
 
 " Was it ? Well, I am glad you appreciate it." 
 
 She looked brightly up at him ; but somehow her 
 face flushed under his glance, and her eyes fell. He 
 hesitated over her hand, but dropped it without say 
 ing anything further. 
 
 Ottilie permitted herself reveries and speculations 
 on the basis of the jealousy to which Bainbridge had 
 confessed. It was the wildest of suppositions, of 
 course. It would have meant that their association 
 had not been purely platonic, after all, and nothing 
 was more firmly established. But supposing now, as 
 a mere hypothesis, that he really could like her in 
 another way, he was the kind of person one would 
 be rather glad to marry. His looks pleased her ; she 
 admitted it. He was manly-looking, of a certain dis 
 tinguished air ; people would be apt to notice him in 
 a crowd. 
 
 " They say very nice things of him, too, in contra 
 diction of his own account of himself," she went on. 
 " Judge Chippendale praises his legal acquirements,
 
 316 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 and his personal courage in the affair with the shanty 
 tenants. You never get a word out of him, though, 
 on the subject. He is more serious than he used 
 to be, too, almost reasonable enough sometimes for 
 anybody. I knew that he never believed his own 
 wild theories. It was only his way of talking. How 
 well we have got on together ! How sympathetic and 
 appreciative he is with me, when sympathy has been 
 by no means common ! We have not seemed to tire 
 each other ; at least I hope I have not tired him. 
 Whether we agree or disagree, our discussions are 
 equally grateful." 
 
 She would have liked to do something very warm 
 and affectionate for him, as for a dear brother. 
 Once when she had sat down to write letters home, 
 she scribbled almost inadvertently on the paper, 
 
 Mr. R. Bainbridge. . . . Mrs. Russell. . . .Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bainbridge. . . . Mrs, Ottilie Bain 
 
 But at this point she exclaimed, " Ridiculous ! " tore 
 up the paper hastily, and looked over her shoulder 
 in blushing alarm, lest by any chance she might have 
 been observed. 
 
 " He to marry a poor girl," she went on, " with 
 his tastes, his needs, his ambitions ! If such a one 
 had any conscience she would refuse to become a 
 burden upon him, even if he were so foolish as to 
 ask her. He should have the best wife in the world. 
 He must have one who will be an advantage to him, 
 aid him to rise, not draw him back." 
 
 These were possibly far-fetched scruples, but such 
 as they were, they were those of Ottilie Harvey. 
 
 Ottilie was sometimes taken to her aunt's box at 
 the opera. Bainbridge, whose relaxation was music, 
 went also, in a more modest way. He could see that
 
 "LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 317 
 
 the same class of fashionable men fluttered about the 
 Harvey box, probably by force of habit, as when 
 Angelica had been there. One night, of a number, 
 he sat with his eyes fixed upon Ottilie's slight figure, 
 at a distance. The love passages on the stage were 
 of unusual tenderness. He heard in the melodies, the 
 supplication, and pathos, an echo of his own affection. 
 He went to pay his respects in her box. The opera- 
 going men of unexceptionable good form were there. 
 Mrs. Rodman Harvey was saying to one of them, in 
 a languid tone, 
 
 " We have no more voices. Grisi and Malibran 
 were the last of the giants. The light style of sing 
 ing is destroying our music." 
 
 Bainbridge found Mr. Northfleet, of the Empire 
 Club, bending over Ottilie. " The German music is 
 more bracing and tonic," he overheard him say, with 
 an elaborate, languishing air, a manner that had 
 won him success with the fair sex before now, 
 " the Italian sweeter, cloying, if you will. But give 
 me the sensuous Italian music, after all ! There are 
 times when it draws you out of yourself ; fills you 
 with vague, ineffable longings." 
 
 " Like going through Tiffany's in the holiday sea 
 son," returned Ottilie, with her luminous smile. 
 " Yes, I have felt that way, too." 
 
 Thus she parried the sentimentality of these per 
 sons, and seemed to stand less in awe of them than 
 formerly. But there were too many of them. Al 
 though no aspirant so flagrant as he had taken King 
 bolt to be appeared in the field, Bainbridge no longer 
 knew whom not to dread, whom not be jealous of. 
 
 One memorable afternoon he was passing through 
 the street in which the Hastings family resided. It
 
 318 - THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 abutted at the Avenue upon the massive Egyptian 
 reservoir. The shadows had already begun to climb 
 the opposite row of houses. He walked on the shaded 
 side, but was presently sensible of a light flashed in 
 his eyes from across the way. Looking over, he saw 
 that it was the mischievous little Hastings children 
 who were playing him this trick with a mirror from 
 an upper window. They replied to an admonitory 
 shake of his forefinger with laughing shrieks. Ottilie 
 Harvey appeared in some confusion behind them. 
 
 " I have been looking after them for an hour or 
 two," she explained to Bainbridge, holding parley 
 down to him from the window, " while my friend 
 Mrs. Hastings has gone after a new nursemaid. You 
 will not think much of my discipline." 
 
 At the instant Mrs. Hastings herself rolled up. 
 " Are you planning an elopement, or is it only a ser 
 enade ? " she asked gayly, alighting from her coupe". 
 " Well, come in ! I will help you. Perhaps we have 
 a rope-ladder in the house. You must stay to din 
 ner," she insisted hospitably. " We need somebody 
 to carve. Mr. Hastings is detained down town, and 
 will not be at home." 
 
 Bainbridge, not unwillingly entered the house with 
 her. Ottilie brought the children down to the parlor, 
 and made many apologies for their bad behavior. 
 They were a boy and a girl, charming in their dainty 
 attire ; a little over-boisterous and spoiled, but lovely 
 to the height of the ideal. 
 
 At the dinner-table, Bainbridge, in Mr. Hastings' 
 place, had quite the air of a man of family. A par 
 rot, kept on a stand at one side of the room, was 
 loosed from a large tin cage, at dessert, and practiced 
 the feat of eating a grape and a bit of sugar from his
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 319 
 
 mistress' hand. He vouchsafed, with his cold air, to 
 come also to Ottilie. She had for this pet, as for 
 others, an abundant stock of affectionate murmurings 
 and cooings. There was some talk on matters of 
 cookery between her and the hostess ; not of the epi 
 cure's sort, but such as good housewives indulge in 
 who have masculine tastes to look after, and feel a 
 due sense of the responsibility. Mysterious formulas 
 of " two of flour, one of saleratus, and one of sugar," 
 were mentioned. Ottilie said, 
 
 " I always make my salad dressings with cream as 
 well as oil." 
 
 Mrs. Hastings was busy, it appeared, with induct 
 ing the new nursemaid into the duties of her office, 
 for a considerable time after dinner, and our two 
 young people were left alone. Ottilie sat down at 
 the piano, and played a little, ever and anon turning 
 back to talk. 
 
 " I have been this morning to Harvey's Terrace," 
 she said, among other things, " and have heard of a 
 case which distresses me. The elderly school-teacher, 
 Miss Finley, who went away to live with the pretty 
 one, her friend, married from there, has come back in 
 a pitiable condition. It seems that she let Mr. Cut 
 ler, the man her friend married, have her money 
 her savings of years to invest, and cannot get it 
 back. Neither can she get any interest. The young 
 man has put it in as a special deposit in some com 
 pany where he is employed, and probably lost it. 
 The poor girl cannot eat nor sleep. She may lose her 
 place in school also ; for of course a person so dis 
 tracted is not fit to teach." 
 
 " A sad case, indeed," commented Bainbridge. He 
 thought, however, quite as much of the good heart
 
 320 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 and charitable energy of her who recited it as of the 
 case itself. 
 
 " I want my uncle to do something. I shall men 
 tion it to him the next time he comes on from Wash 
 ington. The young man was formerly in his store. 
 Perhaps he can force him or his employer, in some 
 way, to restitution." 
 
 The traits of the Hastings infants, in another turn 
 of the conversation, became the starting-point for an 
 exchange of sagacious views on education. Bain- 
 bridge alleged that the method of training of most 
 people, his own at any rate, was wholly indefensible. 
 
 " What is wanted," he said, " is a scheme of educa 
 tion based upon the scheme of an international exhi 
 bition. First, the primary materials ; then the forces 
 of nature; then the forces as utilized by machinery; 
 then the products of machinery ; then man in his 
 history, manners and customs, governments, and fine 
 arts. The chimera of study for the mere sake of men 
 tal discipline should be discarded ; something of real 
 interest should be learned at the same time. The ele 
 ments of the various branches of human knowledge 
 should be reduced to their lowest terms, and given to 
 the child at a very early age. In infancy one thing 
 is as easy as another. At that flexible time of life 
 everything is possible. The child should be put in 
 possession of all his physical powers, too. He should 
 make the most of his arms, legs, eyes, and voice. In 
 distinctness of speech should not be tolerated ; neither 
 should awkwardness of carriage. With proper man 
 agement, the eye might be trained so that drawing 
 would be as easy as writing. It should be a mere 
 matter of choice whether a memorandum were made 
 with a picture or a paragraph."
 
 "LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 321 
 
 " Oh, indeed ? " said Ottilie. 
 
 " Yes," the theorist went on ; " the child should 
 learn geology, botany, and natural history, and get 
 an idea of the artistic beauty in common forms and 
 lights and shadows. With this, he would have some 
 thing to amuse his walks abroad. He would be kept 
 from the mischief traditionally waiting for idle hands 
 and vacant minds." 
 
 " But with all that," said Ottilie, " you would 
 hurry your infant into an early grave. Good health 
 is of much more importance." 
 
 " But I say good health," protested the young man. 
 " I say physical exercise, the more the better. And 
 only the broad, simple features of the sciences to be 
 given." 
 
 " That is all very well for Julius Ca3sars and Napo 
 leons and Admirable Crichtons, who can do fifty dif 
 ferent things at once, but you will kill the child," 
 insisted Ottilie perversely. 
 
 There was a certain penetrating feeling of domes 
 ticity in their situation. By a little stretch of the 
 imagination it might have been they who were at 
 home, and Mrs. Hastings their guest. They com 
 mented with favor on the small house, abounding 
 with evidences of a refined taste. 
 
 "But I thought you cared for nothing on so mod 
 est a scale," said Ottilie ; " though an establishment 
 like this is expensive enough, goodness knows. I 
 recollect your scoffing at the idea of any residence 
 smaller than the Custom House, or Saint Peter's at 
 Rome." 
 
 But nothing was more to Bainbridge's taste at 
 
 this time than details of economy, accounts of cheap 
 21
 
 322 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 rents, of making much of slender incomes, and the 
 like. 
 
 " I suppose persons might do with less if they 
 really loved each other," he said. 
 
 " If they really loved each other," said Ottilie, in 
 a dreamy voice, and with half-averted head, " per 
 haps they would think very little of their circum 
 stances. Nothing that they could do, no surrounding 
 of their lives, could seem tame or commonplace." 
 
 Bainbridge was standing by her at the piano, osten 
 sibly for the purpose of turning the music. His 
 heart throbbed so, upon this, that he thought she 
 could hear it. " I must speak. I will," he said to 
 himself. He walked to a small table near the centre 
 of the room, perhaps to collect his ideas. The even 
 ing paper, carelessly thrown there, lay before him. 
 His eye fell upon a line of it which stood out with a 
 startling distinctness. 
 
 There had been a flurry in Wall Street, and De 
 vious Air-Line had fallen five per cent. He took his 
 hat, and left the house. 
 
 The next day the flurry in Wall Street continued. 
 The omen for which he had been waiting declared it 
 self. His poor " margin " was wiped out, and he was 
 left, besides, a debtor for the sum he had borrowed. 
 
 " Better luck next time! " his broker cried to him, 
 cheerfully, as he hurried away from the conclusion of 
 the transaction with a face of deep despair. It was 
 so marked that Judge Chippendale, meeting him, 
 noticed it, and had the story from him, in the first 
 unguarded moments of his agitation. " Nothing 
 wonderful about that," said the judge, with but a 
 scant sympathy. "It is out of just such persons as 
 you that Wall Street lives. Better have the expe-
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 323 
 
 rience now, while you are young, than later. It will 
 be money in your pocket, in the end. If you had 
 succeeded, you would have come to the same result 
 later in life, when you could not have stood it as 
 well." 
 
 So they could afford to talk to him, they who had 
 not lost, they who knew nothing of his hopes, noth 
 ing of the disappointments of his past life. He 
 rushed up to his office to be alone. Ah, yes, he was 
 young. He set to work to eradicate this idle pas 
 sion of love from his heart. As a philosopher and 
 man of experience, he knew that it could be done. 
 He knew that its growth was a matter of proximity ^ 
 habit, repetition of charming impressions, and that it 
 could be diminished, and made to disappear, by ab 
 stinence from the food on which it had fed. No 
 doubt the requisite period of time could be definitely 
 calculated. He had early acquired a dreary kind 
 of knowledge. He knew that men may survive in a 
 calloused way, the keenest of agitations, till these 
 pass away, and become as a dream ; and that happi 
 ness is not necessarily put down in the programmes 
 of all of us, desperately though we may strive and 
 agonize for it. 
 
 He determined to go a journey. As he was shut 
 ting up his office, Mr. Fletcher St. Hill, who had 
 moved nearer to his vicinity of late, accosted him. 
 
 " Oh, by the way," said St. Hill, " I dare say you 
 can tell me where to find a person by the name of 
 Gammage ; a respectable old gentleman, you know, 
 who formerly did some light work for me. If I knew 
 of his whereabouts I could give him a job of copy- 
 ing." 
 
 " He is not in the city. He is up in the country 
 somewhere."
 
 324 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " I should not mind paying his expenses to town, 
 if I could find him," said the inquirer, with an eager 
 ness not wholly suppressed. 
 
 " I really cannot help you. I do not know where 
 he is," responded Bainbridge, coldly. 
 
 This was, in fact, true. The person with whom 
 Gammage had last lodged, among the farmers of 
 Westchester, had brought Bainbridge an account of 
 the old clerk's doings there, and reported that he had 
 taken a small agency of some kind, and disappeared 
 from view. He had gone back into the remote in 
 terior, this informant said, to a considerable remove 
 from the lines of railroad, and not returned. 
 
 Some little time after, on his return from his jour 
 ney, our young attorney saw Gammage advertised 
 for in a " personal," over the office address, and ap 
 parently the initials, of Sprowle Onderdonk. As 
 neither St. Hill nor Onderdonk would be likely to 
 want the broken-down teller of the Antarctic Bank 
 for his own merits, Bainbridge could but suspect 
 some purpose to annoy Rodman Harvey by means of 
 him. They were moving, then, in that matter ? He 
 was very sorry, not for Harvey's sake, but Ottilie's, 
 though he was trying so hard to forget her. Noth 
 ing was to be done, however. He only trusted that 
 Gammage had retired so far as to be permanently 
 beyond their reach. 
 
 Bainbridge's journey was into Central Pennsyl 
 vania, where he took in person some collections con 
 fided to his care. On his way back he fell in with 
 Emily Rawson, on the same train, and they traveled 
 a part of the way together. This led to a renewal of 
 their intimacy. He wanted distraction. As well 
 take such as she could furnish, he said, as any other I
 
 " LALAGE, SWEETLY SMILING, SWEETLY SPEAKING." 325 
 
 He was not likely, at any rate, to meet Ottilie there. 
 His steps almost drew him perforce, when he set out 
 on his walks, in the direction of poor Ottilie, now 
 again cruelly neglected, but he resisted the impulse. 
 
 The sympathy of Emily Rawson, although she could 
 have at present but a dim idea of what she was sym 
 pathizing with, was grateful. She had him "smoke 
 to her " again, and play his violin in accompaniment 
 to her piano. How they philosophized now, more 
 than ever, on the elusiveness of happiness, the unsat- 
 isfactoriness of life ! Why could he not like her ? he 
 asked himself. She was made to be liked. She was 
 womanly, accomplished, tender, restful. Her expe 
 rience gave her an added charm. He could find no 
 fault in her but that, perhaps, of liking him a little 
 too well. 
 
 One evening at the piano, without any ostensible 
 cause, she let her head fall upon her hands, and wept. 
 Bainbridge tried to soothe her. He asked, solicitous 
 ly, " Oh, why ? What does it mean ?" She replied 
 that it was but a nervous mood, and meant nothing. 
 
 Weakened, unstrung, by a purely physical impulse, 
 he had well-nigh offered himself to her, though not 
 for one moment forgetting Ottilie, and added this 
 new feature to his complications.
 
 XXI. 
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 
 
 WHEN Bainbridge had not appeared for some time, 
 Ottilie grew vaguely restless. 
 
 After the events last narrated she indulged in an 
 unusual amount of day-dreaming about him. How 
 warmly he had bent over her that evening at Mrs. 
 Hastings' ! How the charming domesticity of that 
 occasion had appeared to take hold upon him also ! 
 What had he been intending to say to her ? What 
 had he had in mind to say, too, that other evening 
 after she had read the book for him, and he had 
 stammered over her hand, in thanking her for it? 
 She was almost afraid of the next meeting. The 
 idea of it made her heart throb faster. 
 
 Ah, if he might care for her ! If it might come 
 about, in some improbable way, she knew not how, 
 that they could always remain together! In the 
 gravity of her twenty-one years, she endeavored to 
 lift the veil of the future. Without Bainbridge in 
 the foreground it all wore a very chilly look. She 
 had before her a useful career, duties to many and to 
 herself ; she had not the slightest right to count upon 
 him, and there are so many other matters than those 
 of sentiment for a well-regulated person, such as she 
 desired to be, to think of. 
 
 Still, a natural bias towards romance, strong within 
 her, was yet unsubdued. She dreamed what young
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 327 
 
 girls, and at some time all good women, dream of 
 a strong protecting arm to shield her from the hard 
 ships of the world ; a person to whom she could look 
 up with reverence, and yet whom she knew that on 
 occasion she could twist about the smallest of her fin 
 gers. He should be so misguided as to think her an 
 adorable person, even if few others did. He was to 
 go in and out about his affairs every day from a home 
 and fireside which she was to regulate at her own 
 sweet will, like her doll's house in childhood. All 
 this moved in a fluttering way through her fancy. 
 She could conceive of but one figure that fitted into 
 her pictures of domestic happiness. 
 
 He did not come, however. She missed him 
 greatly. It could not be that he was engrossed with 
 more important affairs, for she heard of him else 
 where. She knew of his going to Miss Rawson's, 
 from the information of that lady herself, who came 
 to call on her. Miss Rawson spoke of the Hasbrouck 
 girls, and renewed in Ottilie something like a pang of 
 self-reproach, as if it had been treachery on her part 
 that she had not been able to do anything for them. 
 
 Then the visitor chattered about Bainbridge. She 
 dwelt upon his charming qualities. " I see him now 
 constantly," she said, watching the effect upon Otti 
 lie, " though he at one time almost gave me up." 
 
 She took out programmes of some private theatri 
 cals, in which his name was prominently set down. 
 They were to be given at her house. She begged 
 that Ottilie would come. 
 
 " Girls love to have the man in whom they invest 
 their vanities admired," says the tranquil Coventry 
 Patmore. 
 
 Probably nothing is truer, but it is not in this way,
 
 328 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 with these dangerous airs of proprietorship. Ottilie 
 tortured herself with the idea that it might be Emily 
 Rawson who was the cause of her troubles. She 
 cried over it after the visitor had gone, but then res 
 olutely put the feeling down : " I will not be so 
 silly," she declared to herself. 
 
 Recollecting what had happened before, she wrote 
 to Bainbridge, making some pretext for him to come ; 
 but he declined. Still, his reasons for doing so were 
 plausible, and had not the air of being trumped up. 
 
 Then, one day, Bainbridge left a formal card at the 
 door without inquiring for her. She was really at 
 home, and he had not tried to find her. It seemed 
 terribly significant. She thought herself definitely 
 abandoned. 
 
 Shortly after, they met at one of Mrs. Clef's musi- 
 cales, to which Ottilie was asked for the first time. 
 Emily Rawson was there and played selections, as on 
 a former occasion. Bainbridge paid her much atten 
 tion. It was done with a purpose, though, we may 
 confess for him, it almost broke his heart. He was 
 in the midst of his manful effort to put his passion 
 down, and deal with himself on philosophic princi 
 ples. 
 
 He conducted himself towards Ottilie with an elab 
 orate courtesy. 
 
 " This New York of ours is such an enormous place," 
 he said, "that it defeats itself. One deprives himself 
 of great pleasure, and is in danger of losing valued 
 acquaintances, through the sheer impossibility of get 
 ting about." 
 
 " I thought perhaps it might be another miscon 
 ception," said Ottilie, bravely, "something that 
 might need to be explained."
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 329 
 
 She made this essay from a sense of duty, with a 
 timid little air of uttering a pleasantry. Bearing in 
 mind the needlessness of their former misunderstand 
 ing, she did not think it right that this opportunity 
 should be allowed to pass, even if the overture must 
 come from herself. 
 
 She saw an agitated expression overspread the 
 countenance of the young man, and felt that he but 
 left her the quicker for the attempted explanation. 
 
 Presently Miss Rawson said to her, " Do you know, 
 this is the very place where I first heard of you? 
 Mr. Bainbridge gave me such an entertaining ac 
 count, the evening of the day he met you at your 
 uncle's store. We sympathized at your peculiar 
 situation." 
 
 They had sympathized over her together, then ! 
 She had afforded them entertainment ! They had 
 had this good understanding, then, long before she 
 was ever heard of ! Ah, what a poor, inconsequen 
 tial person she was ! 
 
 With bitter pangs of jealousy she persuaded her 
 self that this was the key to the enigma, this the fatal 
 rivalry in which the destruction of her own happiness 
 was involved. 
 
 " In Emily Rawson are united," she said, "most of 
 the traits of which he is in search. Her accomplish 
 ments, her fortune, her knowledge of the world, her 
 interest in purely mundane things, her sprightliness 
 and intelligence, would all attract him. As likely as 
 not there was something between them before I came. 
 Perhaps I was but a stop-gap, a light distraction dur 
 ing some interval, some lover's quarrel." 
 
 She made herself miserable with this notion, though 
 trying all the while to repudiate it. " If he has used
 
 330 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 me as a pastime, oh, it was cruel, it was unworthy," 
 she said, bristling with a certain fierceness, "and I 
 ought to hate him ! " 
 
 Then she recalled, to do him justice, that he had ad 
 dressed her no word of love, further than might be 
 contained in his slight pretense of jealousy of King 
 bolt. On the contrary, he had advised and enjoined 
 her to marry on the same mercenary basis that he 
 professed himself. 
 
 The days passed, and still he did not come. The 
 young girl grew paler and thinner. Her aunt as 
 cribed the deterioration to the languor of the spring, 
 which was now again at hand. Mrs. Rodman Har 
 vey had little time, however, for close observation of 
 persons of minor importance. Her hands were full 
 of the wedding of her daughter, for which the date 
 had been set and the preparations were actively in 
 progress. 
 
 Ottilie had fits of weeping. At times the sense of 
 loss gave her intolerable pain. She could not con 
 ceive the possibility that any other person could ever 
 fill the place of Bainbridge, or her feeling towards 
 him abate. 
 
 She had a wild impulse to write to him and pour 
 out her affection in unmeasured terms. Could women 
 never rise to that ? Was there nothing better than 
 cold convention and usage? Perhaps if he only 
 knew how much, how much, she loved him, it might 
 awaken in him it might palliate the unheard-of 
 effrontery. Was there no sacrifice, no heroic evi 
 dence of her affection that she could devise? Only to 
 let him know of its depth and unselfishness, then to 
 retire forever from his sight, there seemed a certain 
 ideal, and desperate hope of satisfaction even in this.
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 331 
 
 Must her heart break in silence ? She recalled the 
 case of one Clare La Salle, of Lone Tree, whose de 
 fiance of public opinion, and infatuation for a lover 
 against the opposition of her parents, had seemed to 
 her at the time most indelicate and shocking. She 
 felt a tenderness for this misguided girl now, and 
 almost counted herself in the same category. 
 
 She did not, however, write to Bainbridge that she 
 could not live without him, being aided to resist, no 
 doubt, by the strength of the popular prejudice 
 against such conduct. Nor did she take any other 
 step overpassing the strictest bounds of maidenly pro 
 priety. These little dramas are played ont in silence, 
 the anguish lived down. They have their few inco 
 herent moments of manifestation in solitude, in fevers, 
 and in dreams. Ottilie wept, and, rising sometimes 
 to look at her flushed face and swollen eyes in the 
 mirror, said : 
 
 " I am a shameless, disgraceful girl." 
 
 The invitations to Mrs. Stoneglass' literary recep 
 tions had been sent her (on a hint given by Bain- 
 bridge to that hospitable lady) and declined. She 
 no longer felt in a mood for this diversion. One 
 evening Mr. Stoneglass called, to offer an invitation 
 in person. 
 
 " We have feared," he said, " that you have not 
 cared to come, on account of Sunday evening. We 
 have a number of church-going friends who feel in 
 the same way. Still, it is the most convenient on 
 several accounts, and with our way of thinking we 
 cannot see any harm in it. We are to have, however, 
 the well-known authoress, Mrs. Jane Claxton Shafts- 
 bury, of Boston, on Thursday of this week, and hope 
 that you will come then. You will be sure to see
 
 332 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 there a few, at least, whom you know, and Mrs. 
 Stoneglass and myself will look after you to the best 
 of our ability." 
 
 " I used to read the books of Mrs. Jane Claxton 
 Shaftsbury in childhood," replied Ottilie, " and should 
 consider it an honor to meet her. I shall be very 
 glad to go, I am sure." 
 
 It would have been rudeness, she thought, to de 
 cline further. At one time she would have hailed 
 such an opportunity with delight. 
 
 As the guest went down the steps, she stood a mo 
 ment, pensively, at the window, leaning her forehead 
 against the sash. It was a warm, damp evening, and 
 the window had been raised, to cool the room, still 
 kept at winter heat by the inexorable self-acting fur 
 nace. Ottilie saw a dilapidated figure slouch out 
 from under a lamp-post, and accost Stoneglass, appar 
 ently asking alms. Being repulsed, for vagrants of 
 the kind were a common annoyance on the Avenue, 
 it went back into the darkness. 
 
 Presently, as she was turning away, there came by 
 another form, the outlines of which made her heart 
 momentarily stand still, then throb the faster. It was 
 Bainbridge. The vagrant again came forth. It could 
 be seen that he had a fine and venerable head. He 
 put his hand on the arm of Bainbridge, and as the 
 young man would have shaken him off in disgust, be 
 sought, in a voice, part whistle and part croak, 
 
 " Do something for me, Mr. Bainbridge, for 
 Heaven's sake ! The price of a night's lodgin' ! You 
 was the only one that kep' me up. You was the one. 
 You" 
 
 "Gammage! Here?" exclaimed the young man, 
 with a start of vivid surprise and concern.
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 333 
 
 " They av avertised for me," said the respecta 
 ble wreck, whimpering. " I had money, plenty o' 
 money. I don't know where I 've been. I must ha' 
 got astray. Do something for me, for Gor A'mighty's 
 sake!" 
 
 " What can I do for you, Gammage ? What can 
 anybody do for you in this condition ? Do you know 
 where to go, if I give you the price of a night's lodg- 
 ing?" 
 
 "No, I do not, I do not. Come ! " cried the man 
 with a desperate air of revolt and loathing at his own 
 lost condition. 
 
 " Then what can I do with you, except to get you 
 locked up ? Say yourself, Gammage I Now, is there 
 anything else possible ? " 
 
 " Don't do it, Mr. Bainbridge, don't do that ! 
 You was the only one Your mother was the no 
 blest Your father used to " 
 
 " Yes, yes, I know ; but that was when you had a 
 house of your own to be taken to, and an affectionate 
 family, and a position in the world. But now what 
 are you? Had they business for you, the persons 
 who advertised ? " he inquired under the stimulus of 
 a new thought. " What did they want you to do ? " 
 He lowered his voice solicitously, for it was in front 
 of the house of Rodman Harvey himself that they 
 found themselves. 
 
 "Mr. Onderdonk and Mr. St. Hill? yes, they 
 wanted me. I signed an affidavit for them. It was 
 an old matter, a matter that took place many years 
 ago." 
 
 " Great heavens ! Not that that bank story in 
 volving Rodman Harvey, the one you told me at 
 my office ? " cried Bainbridge, with a gesture of repul 
 sion and dismay.
 
 334 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " I never signed anything but the truth," answered 
 the ex-bank teller, partially sobered, and resenting 
 any attachment of blame to himself. 
 
 A hack came by at this moment. Bainbridge sum 
 moned the driver, who was waving his whip in the 
 air in an inviting way, and, entering with his protege, 
 drove off. 
 
 Ottilie had heard all. She had dwelt dreamily, at 
 first, upon the figure of Bainbridge, acquired this new 
 evidence of his goodness of heart, then awakened 
 with affright to the subject-matter of the discourse. 
 
 "It is this, too! " she exclaimed, finding a new and 
 powerful reason to explain the defection of Bain 
 bridge. " Oh, I fear it is this ! He knows of some 
 thing to our detriment, and withdraws in time, before 
 the blow has fallen. He will not connect himself with 
 disgrace and downfall. Oh, if I could but warn my 
 uncle." 
 
 But it was hardly a subject on which she could 
 write to her uncle. Nor, when he returned from 
 Washington, did she feel free to speak to him about 
 it. This was his last visit, too, preceding that when 
 he would come to attend his daughter's wedding. 
 Ottilie had found her uncle just and considerate be 
 yond her expectations. If misfortune were in store, 
 it seemed her duty to offer him the solace of her pres 
 ence and sympathy. If any unlawful act could be 
 laid at his door, she was sure it could only have been 
 done in one of those moments of overwhelming press 
 ure of which he had sometimes spoken, in his com 
 ments on the fall of his contemporaries. She would 
 not believe that he could ever have been a corrupt or 
 hardened character. 
 
 There was no alleviation for her varied wretched-
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 335 
 
 ness. Cold tremors of apprehension mingled with 
 her tears of despondency on her own account, as sud 
 den snow-flakes whirl down amid the rain. 
 
 The course of events may now be somewhat rapidly 
 advanced. The Sprowle faction had got upon the 
 track of an old story against Rodman Harvey, and be 
 gun to follow it up. It developed in importance as 
 the investigation proceeeded. It was St. Hill who 
 first brought it in. He had heard it in a vague way 
 from some one who adduced the builder Jocelyn as 
 authority. He had thought it worth while to visit 
 Jocelyn ; then to hunt up McFadd, in his squalid ten 
 ement house in the vicinity of Harvey's Terrace ; and 
 then to take steps for finding Gammage, who, he was 
 chagrined to learn, had once been a clerk in his own 
 employ. 
 
 St. Hill was quite out with his patron Kingbolt 
 now. There were numerous persons, employees and 
 others, who were speaking about his Company indig 
 nantly on account of losses through it. The once 
 brisk Mr. Cutler, who had made such haste to em 
 brace the " desirable opening " offered him, still hung 
 on in a disconsolate way with small hopes of recover 
 ing either his arrears of salary or the money of the 
 unfortunate Miss Speller. Through the mediation of 
 Ottilie he had called on Rodman Harvey, and laid the 
 case before him. Affidavits of some sort were drawn 
 up between them, but there was at present no open 
 manifestation. The merchant prince, still in quest of 
 his post as secretary of the treasury, could not yet af 
 ford to attack, or even allow to be overthrown, a per 
 son who, in his downfall, might retaliate with incon 
 venient disclosures.
 
 336 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 It was Sprowle Onderdonk who took the leadership 
 of the anti-Harvey cabal, and figured, instead of his 
 more timorous cousin, as the champion of the 
 wounded honor of his family. He was a bold and 
 resolute person, endowed with abundant administra 
 tive capacity. He scoffed at the story first brought 
 in by St. Hill, who presented it with an air of ela 
 tion. 
 
 " A very timely discovery indeed ! " he said. 
 " Why did n't you get something from Herodotus or 
 Pliny the Elder ? And a choice Falstaff's brigade of 
 witnesses you have to sustain it! If that is the best 
 you can do, man, you had better turn your attention 
 to some more profitable field of labor." 
 
 Still, the idea, for want of a better, was persevered 
 in. Gammage was discovered and his affidavit se 
 cured. The advertisement in the newspapers had 
 at last reached him in his seclusion. He ventured to 
 town, was well paid for his trouble, and fell into the 
 condition described. 
 
 It was not till a vastly more important accession 
 was gained, however, in the person of Rodman Har 
 vey's once devoted henchman, Hackley, that the case 
 looked really promising. The theory of Bainbridge, 
 that revenge is not a modern luxury, and finds few 
 opportunities for its exercise in this civilized life of 
 ours, bade fair to be overthrown. 
 
 Rodman Harvey, at Washington, devoted himself 
 to his new duties with his accustomed energy. His 
 opening speech, on the Currency Question, was highly 
 commended. He took the best appartments at the 
 Arlington Hotel. His dignified attitude ranch im 
 proved his prospects for the succession to the secre 
 taryship of the treasury, the present incumbent of
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 337 
 
 which continued in very uncertain health. He de 
 clined somewhat in physical vigor. He was a hard- 
 worked man. There were long night sessions at the 
 Capitol, where the ventilation was bad ; and he had 
 more of his attacks of vertigo. 
 
 He was harassed also at this time by escapades on 
 the part of his younger son. Rodman, Jr., now en 
 tered into possession of the desired latch-key, and 
 a Freshman at Columbia College, was discovered fig 
 uring, with some of his mates, by way of a lark, as a 
 " supe " in a spectacular drama at Niblo's Garden. 
 He revolted against the severe discipline with which 
 this act was visited by his father, left the parental 
 roof, and remained absent for several days, being 
 lured home only by promise of forgiveness. 
 
 The elder son, Selkirk, also showed disappointing 
 traits. On the eve of succeeding to the principal 
 place in the new partnership, and becoming a figure 
 in the world on his own account, he begged to be re 
 leased from commercial life altogether. He made the 
 proposal that he should be allowed to occupy his 
 time with his books and bricabrac, or take up one of 
 the arts or sciences, as had been done by young 
 Blankenhorn, in somewhat similar circumstances. 
 Rodman Harvey would of course listen to no such 
 degenerate idea. 
 
 It depressed him very much, however, and was a 
 cause of delaying the formation of the new partner 
 ship. Since his son, who should have been its prin 
 cipal promoter, took but so languid an interest, a 
 different order of consideration was required, and 
 things were allowed to remain for a while as they 
 were. This was very unfortunate, as it turned out, 
 since it resulted in a disagreement with his warm ad- 
 22
 
 338 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 herent and eulogist, Hackley, and his final loss and 
 desertion to the enemy. 
 
 Hackley was incommoded by the postponements 
 and demurrers. His factory had been burned behind 
 him, and he left " standing in the gap," as he phrased 
 it. This, however, was a comparatively small matter. 
 The main disagreement was about the capital he 
 was to put in. He had lost his factory, and this was 
 a pretext for failure to contribute the amount first 
 agreed upon. He confided, however, in the good of 
 fices of Rodman Harvey to establish him in his proper 
 place in the new firm ; but this the merchant prince 
 was not willing to do. The faithful and experienced 
 Mr. Minn, he said, was opposed to a distribution of 
 rank not based upon proportionate capital. Nor 
 would he credit Hackley with a part of his own capi 
 tal to be left in the concern. He said, in a testy 
 mood, that business and sentiment should be rigidly 
 divorced, and the having conferred favors in the past 
 constituted no obligation to go on conferring them 
 indefinitely. 
 
 Correspondence on this subject extended over a 
 considerable time, with growing bitterness. Finally, 
 Hackley, in an injudicious huff, not at all expecting 
 to be taken at his word, repudiated the partnership 
 and Rodman Harvey altogether. Being really taken 
 at his word, however, he sulked, complained, and 
 spoke of himself as a very ill-used person. It was 
 now that he fell in with the hostile cabal in the per 
 son of Sprowle Onderdonk. 
 
 The meeting was brought about through the con 
 trivance of the latter, who at an opportune moment 
 sounded Hackley on the remote transaction with 
 which his name, as well as Rodman Harvey's, was
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 339 
 
 connected. Hackley at first pooh-poohed the notion 
 of doing anything with it. 
 
 " Oh, my dear sir, really ! " he protested, as if it 
 were wholly absurd. " He is too strong in the com 
 munity, you know, and the matter is so very old. He 
 is at the President's table continually, and everybody 
 knows that he is the favorite for the successorship to 
 the portfolio of the treasury when the secretary drops 
 off." 
 
 "So much the better reason," declared Sprowle 
 Onderdonk, greatly encouraged to find his informa 
 tion not only not dissipated into thin air by Hackley, 
 but confirmed and sustained. " He is going down, I 
 tell you. He is going to be smashed. You had bet 
 ter be with us than against us." 
 
 The pair sat on one of the benches along the sides 
 of the marble-paved lobby of the Fifth Avenue Ho 
 tel. Sprowle Onderdonk had pushed his hat back 
 upon his head, and talked with an earnest and reso 
 lute air. They* spoke of General Burlington, for 
 merly president of the Antarctic Bank, who should 
 have even a fuller knowledge of the affair than 
 Hackley. 
 
 " It is strange," said Hackley, " that he has never 
 cared to use it, often as he has been opposed to Har 
 vey politically." 
 
 " It is intelligible enough," said the other, seeking 
 a plausible explanation. " Probably he did not wish 
 to draw attention to the affair, on his own account. 
 The manager of a financial institution never likes to 
 admit that there has been any irregularity in it un 
 der his regime. He may have something to clear up 
 himself ; not criminality, of course, but perhaps cul 
 pable carelessness. I have taken occasion to sound
 
 340 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 him a little in a discreet way, but have drawn noth 
 ing from him." 
 
 " He is discretion itself, Burlington is," com 
 mented Mr. Hackley. 
 
 " At the same time," said the other, " if he is put 
 on the stand, he will tell what he knows. He is 
 straight and reliable, I think. When the other tes 
 timony is all in, he will have to get up and either 
 confirm or deny it ; and it does not look as though 
 there were going to be very much denying." 
 
 " Oh, there would be no use in going into court 
 with it, and putting anybody in a formal witness 
 box," protested Hackley ; " that would hardly do. 
 The matter is too ancient, and must be outlawed and 
 doubly outlawed by this time." 
 
 " My idea exactly," said Sprowle Onderdonk. " Of 
 course not. What we want is the moral effect of it. 
 We must play it against him politically. His pres 
 ent situation makes him excellent game. All we 
 want now is a fitting opportunity, and I have one in 
 mind. The disclosure should be d propos of some 
 thing. Harvey will come on from Washington in 
 about a fortnight to attend his daughter's wedding. 
 He has promised to attend at the same time the an 
 nual meeting of the Civic Reform Association, which 
 is to be held probably at this hotel two days be 
 fore. He is both treasurer and first director, and 
 has to make his report. I am sure he will come. 
 If he should not, of course we can explode the thing 
 in the newspapers." 
 
 " He is a very methodical person. I dare say he 
 will come," said Hackley, with a ruminating air. 
 
 " He will hardly be made secretary of the treas 
 ury before that, and if he is afterwards I shall be
 
 BY FAR LESS FAVORABLE TO THE PLATONIC THEORY. 341 
 
 much mistaken. I also am a member of the Civic 
 Reform Association. I shall make a little speech, 
 and give the Harvey s a souvenir, by way of a wed 
 ding present, that they will be likely to remember."
 
 XXII. 
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 
 
 THE Stoneglass family lived in a comfortable 
 house of the English basement pattern, at a consid 
 erable remove westward from that first meridian of 
 respectability, Fifth Avenue. 
 
 Ottilie Harvey presented herself there, on the 
 evening of the reception to Mrs. Jane Claxton Shafts- 
 bury, accompanied by her aunt's maid, who was to 
 return for her in the carriage. The lower floor of the 
 house was devoted to the purpose of dressing-rooms 
 for either sex. The guests deposited their outer cloth 
 ing in neat bundles along the bank before plunging 
 into the stream of social gayety above. 
 
 Stoneglass perceived Ottilie as she was coming up 
 the staircase, went to meet her, and brought her to 
 his wife, who received her affably. 
 
 It had been said of Mrs. Jane Claxton Shaftsbury 
 that she was one of the few literary persons who 
 knew how to dress. The remark was that of the 
 poetess, Mrs. Anne Arundel Clum, who by no means 
 possessed the same accomplishment, though she may 
 have prided herself upon it ; but this did not pre 
 vent its being strictly true. Mrs. Shaftsbury really 
 did dress very well indeed, and was a person, besides, 
 of gracious and amiable manners. 
 
 Ottilie, in a rather dazed way, found herself pay 
 ing this well-known authoress compliments on her 
 writings.
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 343 
 
 "You must have heard this so often," she said, 
 " but pray have patience just once more ! It is such 
 an unusual opportunity for me. How could you ever 
 consent to make Miriam's Memoirs so short ? And 
 oh, why did you not let Ernestine marry Eckford, in 
 * Hearts and Hands ' ? " 
 
 " Did you really care, child ? " said the kindly 
 celebrity. " These are our rewards. It pleases me 
 so much to think I interested you." 
 
 It would have been an occasion indeed for Ottilie 
 could she have controlled the mournful feelings by 
 which she was possessed. What material for a letter 
 to her early friends of the Lone Tree High School, 
 who had been accustomed, like herself, to put Mrs. 
 Shaftsbury's books under their pillows at night ! 
 
 She was escorted about the room by Mr. Stone- 
 glass and others, and heard fragments of a great va 
 riety of conversations. The names of the people 
 were very often mentioned to her in full. They had 
 a certain important air, even when you did not rec 
 ognize them. You seemed always on the point of 
 remembering something notable they had done which 
 had for the moment escaped you. 
 
 Within a brief space of time she had met a mem 
 ber of a great publishing house ; Colonel Bowsfield, 
 the South American traveler, who had lectured in 
 the Star course at Lone Tree ; Ringrose, the poet, 
 whose verses she had pasted into her scrap-books ; 
 Professor Brown, whose specialty was the popular 
 ization of science ; and Professor MoMurdock, the 
 Shakespearean reciter, whom she had heard at Chick- 
 ering Hall. 
 
 There were Temple, the historian ; Camden, an 
 elderly journalist, known, also, for contributions to
 
 344 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 the magazines, and a leading social spirit at the Lotos 
 Club ; Flitchbrush, the painter ; a tragic actress, and 
 another prominent in " society " parts. The actress 
 of tragedy reclined languidly in an easy-chair, and in 
 the course of the evening recited a selection from 
 Mrs. Browning. The society actress shifted from 
 one to another of various carefully studied poses, that 
 the lines of her slender figure and excellent profile 
 might be seen to advantage. 
 
 There was Jane Scrim who wrote a good deal of 
 matter of small importance with a spiteful tang, and 
 had a termagant air corresponding with her literary 
 style. She was continually flying about from one pro 
 fession to another, representing each as an extraor 
 dinary new departure, and calling upon gods and 
 men to take notice. Mrs. Sevenleague had crossed 
 alone the dangerous wilds of Bungaleeboo. Count 
 Altamont, whose title was somehow shady, though 
 genuine, posed for traveller, poet, and amateur in all 
 the fine arts, and was popular with the female sex. 
 He had brought with him a protggg in the shape of 
 an Indian boy, in full feathers and deer-skin, whom 
 he had procured in the wilds of the West. He repre 
 sented that he proposed to take charge of his musical 
 education. 
 
 Mrs. Anne Arundel Clum shook hands with Otti- 
 lie. Dr. Wyburd also came forward, and greeted her 
 demonstratively. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " you find me here. I should have 
 been good at this sort of thing if I had been allowed 
 to follow it. As it is, I only woo the muse a little, 
 in a fragmentary way, in such poor intervals as I can 
 snatch from my engrossing occupations. I come here 
 but seldom, yet not for want of inclination and desire.
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 345 
 
 The genial companionship of people of letters is tonic 
 and reviving. The mind is apt to rust out in our 
 purely fashionable life. It is here, in fact, that I feel 
 myself most at home." 
 
 There were present other journalists besides Cam- 
 den, as a young Mr. Skate, lately attached to that 
 able review the " Slate," the editors in chief of the 
 "Musical Tablet," the " Art Vignette," recently 
 started in opposition to the " Art Kaleidoscope," 
 and the " Hebrew Exodus." The assembly had a 
 very cosmopolitan air. 
 
 Mr. Skate, on being presented to Ottilie, said that 
 he rarely came to these places, but his reason was of 
 a different sort from Dr. Wyburd's. It was contempt 
 instead of lack of leisure. He said it was refreshing 
 to find some one to whom he could express a few frank 
 opinions, some one out of the regular gang. He 
 went on to give the policy in criticism which he en 
 deavored to carry out in the " Slate." 
 
 " I have too short principles," he said. " Nothing 
 good can be produced in America. Our civilization 
 is too new and raw. It may appear to be good, but 
 that is an error. On the other hand, nothing very 
 bad can be produced in Europe, which is saved by its 
 centuries of culture, its storied monuments, its natu 
 rally profounder way of looking at things. Having 
 thus simplified matters, one merely points out the 
 degrees of badness and goodness, and concentrates 
 upon a new way of saying things. I would hardly 
 wish this to go outside as coming from me, but I have 
 devoted much thought to the position, and am satis 
 fied of its correctness." 
 
 The Indian boy, most notable of the curiosities, as 
 sured Ottilie, in a sulky way, that he wore no such
 
 346 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 clothes at home, and had no musical taste whatever to 
 be cultivated. His Reservation was a civilized place, 
 with farms and schools, and the people appeared in 
 European dress. This theatrical outfit had been made 
 to order for him at a costumer's in the Bowery, and 
 Count Altamont was toting him about to add to his 
 own importance. 
 
 Ottilie wondered that the poet Ringrose should ap 
 pear so young. He was just beginning to show the 
 first approaches of middle age. She had somehow 
 thought of him as older. He was a nervous, quick- 
 speaking person ; not gloomy, but with a trace as of 
 a permanent trouble on his countenance. He bright 
 ened at a compliment she paid him in quoting some 
 lines of his which had impressed her in a peculiar 
 way, and treated her very affably. Perhaps they 
 got none too much praise, after all, these sensitive 
 organizations. Ringrose had letters in his pockets 
 from brother celebrities. He showed Ottilie some 
 of these. 
 
 " He conducts a correspondence with all the learned 
 of his time," said Mr. Stoneglass, coming up. " It is 
 like the age of Erasmus. They condole with each 
 other after their peculiar freemasonry, and no doubt 
 despise the profane vulgar as it deserves." 
 
 Ringrose received this sally with a deprecating 
 smile. 
 
 " I have just had a letter from Canto," he said. 
 " He incloses me a poem and wishes me to tell him 
 exactly what I think of it. I think it the best bad 
 poem I ever saw. It has his usual knack, his deft 
 ness ; but when you come to look for ideas there is 
 nothing in it. Form alone may do in the picture, but 
 not in poetry. For my part, I confess that I like
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 347 
 
 subject in my picture also, though it is not the thing 
 to say in these Impressionist days. We had the 
 whole discussion over last night at Flitchbrush's stu 
 dio. They call 'story' in a picture 'literary,' 
 that is the disparaging epithet they apply to it ; but 
 if they can find nothing worse to say, I remain quite 
 unmoved." 
 
 " An interesting place, that of Flitchbrush," sug 
 gested Mr. Stoneglass. 
 
 " Yes," said Ringrose. " You should go around to 
 one of his evenings," to Ottilie ; " that is to say, if 
 you are at all of Bohemian tastes, as I fear you are 
 not. His studio is a remarkable place, decorated 
 with rugs and miscellaneous traps, and full of port 
 folios of things to look over. People drop in infor 
 mally of Wednesday evenings, and tea is passed about. 
 Mrs. Flitchbrush sews at a bright costume for a lay 
 figure, as a good mother of a family might mend the 
 apparel of her children." 
 
 Flitchbrush joined them. " I was speaking of our 
 discussion of last night," said Ringrose. 
 
 Upon this, as is so apt to be the case, the same dis 
 cussion again arose. 
 
 " A picture should be decorative before every 
 thing," said Flitchbrush. " If it can get a subject 
 that lends itself to this purpose, so much the better ; 
 but decorative it must be, at all hazards." 
 
 " Art has a higher mission," asserted Ringrose. 
 
 " It has its own mission," rejoined Flitchbrush, 
 " and nothing else." 
 
 In an adjacent group it was being disputed whether 
 newspaper criticism should be signed or not. 
 
 " It should be signed," declared the historian, 
 Temple.
 
 348 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " It should not be signed," declared the journalist, 
 Camden. 
 
 " I say it should," said Temple again. He was a 
 small man, with an almost boyish briskness of speech 
 and manner, though near the age of fifty. He was 
 not a very great historian, but he had some excellent 
 ideas. 
 
 " It is an insufferable outrage that some work of 
 mine, over which I have spent months, perhaps years, 
 should be at the mercy of some anonymous penny-a- 
 liner, who has nothing to lose by printing the first 
 rubbish that comes into his head. He may even be a 
 competent person, and only tired, cross, or hurried ; 
 or he may be incapable of forming an opinion entitled 
 to respect. All the same, in it goes, and a bias is 
 created which is not recovered from, perhaps in a 
 generation. Suppose it to be a new play. The 
 critic hurries away from it, somewhat before mid 
 night. He wants to go to bed, and discriminating 
 writing is by no means easy at best. Why should 
 he earn his salary in a difficult way when an easy 
 way will do ? He damns or praises at his own sweet 
 will. His only rule is to be quick about it. No, let 
 the opinions be signed. If they amount to anything, 
 they will stand on their merits ; if not, they will be 
 taken from whence they came, like the kick from the 
 traditional mule." 
 
 " A newspaper man's life would not be worth hav 
 ing, under those conditions," protested Mr. Camden. 
 " He could not show himself, for scowling looks, 
 when generally he had done no more than his duty." 
 
 "I sign everything /write," said the belligerent 
 Miss Scrim. " I put my town, county, and street ad 
 dress to it. They always know where to find me, if 
 they want me."
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 349 
 
 " It would create a school of criticism, and give it 
 a place in literature," continued Temple. " Look at 
 the school of critical writers which has arisen in 
 France under this system." 
 
 Mr. Stoneglass talked to Ottilie of the fine quali 
 ties, as a man and a citizen, of her uncle. He hoped 
 to see him soon in the treasury department. 
 
 Colonel Bowsfield made mention to her of experi 
 ences in the service of the Khedive of Egypt. Mrs. 
 Sevenleague, who had lately returned from a career 
 in London society, gave her an account of Browning, 
 Swinburne, and a new American writer who had 
 lately gone there, and was making a stir. 
 
 " Is he as bright as the conversations in his books? " 
 asked Ottilie. 
 
 " We met him only once, at Lady Ludgate Hill's,'* 
 said her informant. " He talked exclusively about 
 the weather." 
 
 She said of a leading English novelist of the 
 younger school, " We saw a great deal, of him when 
 in lodgings in London. He was quite devoted to a 
 young lady of our party. At one time it looked very 
 much like an engagement." 
 
 Ottilie could hardly believe that this was real ; that 
 it was indeed she who was hearing at first hand of the 
 very greatest personages, figures to which her imag 
 ination had always gone out with reverence, and this 
 from others of a kindred sort. But she was accept 
 ing it forlornly, and forcing an interest, instead of 
 kindling with enthusiasm. A little while ago it 
 would have been impossible for anything to be more 
 to her liking, but now the virtue had somehow gone 
 out of it. 
 
 " These wretched -little human affections of ours,
 
 350 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 how engrossing they are ! " she sighed. " Of what 
 possible consequence is this feeling of mine, yet it 
 rises up and eclipses the universe." 
 
 The one person in all the world with whom she 
 could best have enjoyed the new experience, the one 
 who would have caught its quaint humors, its con 
 trasts, its fresh and typical aspects, was ruthlessly 
 torn from her. A sense of this grew so keen as to be 
 at moments almost intolerable. It seemed as if the 
 hour of departure would never come. She looked 
 often to see if Rosine were not in waiting with her 
 cloak in the hall below. 
 
 Temple, planting himself squarely before her, said, 
 " What do you do ? I think I have read your poems. 
 It is always fair to ask that question at Mrs. Stone- 
 glass'. Everybody here is supposed to have done 
 something of note," 
 
 Ottilie felt her fraudulent position, in trying to 
 pass on equal terms in a circle of such distinction, at 
 length justly exposed. 
 
 "I I only appreciate," she stammered. 
 
 But the apparent severity of the brisk little histo 
 rian proved to be only his manner, and not offense. 
 Finding that he had an excellent listener, he talked 
 to her a long time exclusively about himself. Pres 
 ently he accosted the member of the great publish 
 ing house on the subject of a proposed new volume. 
 This led to a wrangle, half-humorous at first, on the 
 disproportion between the profits of publisher and au 
 thor. 
 
 " You grind the faces of the poor," said Temple. 
 "You seize the lion's share, and put off the author, 
 the real producer, without whom you could not exist, 
 with a beggarly pittance."
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 351 
 
 " I can demonstrate to you," said the publisher, 
 " that the ten per cent, received by the author really 
 comprises the larger share of profits." And he began 
 in an elaborate way to so demonstrate. 
 
 " That is all very well, all very well ; but mean- 
 while the author starves in his garret, and you roll 
 hither in your carriage." 
 
 " I would have you to know, sir, that I came 
 hither in a horse-car." 
 
 " And I on foot," said the brisk historian, with a 
 triumphant air in having the last word. 
 
 From time to time the hostess, Mrs. Stoneslass, 
 
 7 o ' 
 
 implored silence, by proxy of some polite masculine 
 volunteer, and introduced a performer. 
 
 A very dark young woman at Ottilie's side favored 
 her with particulars of her early education, taste in 
 books, and the like. She seemed rather young to 
 have attained distinction on her own account, and Ot- 
 tilie set her down as only allied to it by family ties. 
 
 " From my earliest years," she said, " my family 
 took pains to gather about me only /the most intel 
 lectual and refined. I have never known what it is to 
 associate with anybody not intellectual. My taste in 
 literature has been formed in the same way. I care 
 for no characters in books who would not be suitable 
 companions for me in real life. My father was a man 
 of the greatest talent. You must have heard of him, 
 Chester A. Skadge. He wrote poems, plays, es 
 says, everything. But he esteemed more than all his 
 old family name." 
 
 " Oh, I am sure he must have been quite right," 
 said her auditor sweetly, which caused the young 
 woman of exceptional advantages to dart at her a 
 look of suspicion.
 
 352 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 A small, gentle-speaking lady on the other side 
 who did not prove quite as gentle as she seemed 
 confided to her, next, an opinion of the American fic 
 tion of the day. 
 
 " It is very little, very pretty, very very dainty," 
 she said, joining a thumb and finger to aid in express 
 ing the idea. " But when you look for breadth, for 
 scope, fire, magnificence of conception, what a disap 
 pointment ! Why do they give us no great, noble, 
 typical women ? And what do they do, their insig 
 nificant characters ? Nothing in the world but sit 
 around and talk. Not an incident, not a circum 
 stance, of an extraordinary sort ! " 
 
 " Is it not pleasant to see life as it is, I mean 
 the best part' of it, to have the writers try to find 
 the poetry and romance around us ? " ventured Otti- 
 lie. " I am sure it is as genuine as if it existed in 
 a remote age, or under some very exceptional circum 
 stances. And I sometimes think that there is noth 
 ing so charming, either in booKs or out of them, as 
 just the right kind of conversations." 
 
 But she stopped in trepidation. Had she actually 
 the temerity to contradict such people as this? 
 
 Some of the performers brought forward by Mrs. 
 Stoneglass were musical. Among others appeared Wil- 
 helmina Klauser, daughter of the confidential agent 
 through whose stratagem Ottilie had been first in 
 troduced to her uncle's notice. The German girl had 
 developed, it seemed, a talent quite out of the com 
 mon, which caused her to be in much demand. Her 
 blonde hair was bound up in fillets, like that of a clas 
 sic nymph. She was retiring by nature, but her 
 music inspired her. Seated at the piano, she dashed 
 off her selection with an almost masculine vigor.
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 353 
 
 The most, however, were of the histrionic order. 
 Recitations seemed an entertainment much in vogue. 
 The distinguished tragic actress kindly gave some 
 thing, as has been said. Professor McMurdock, the 
 Shakespearean expositor, followed. Count Altamont 
 placed himself crosswise on a chair for a steed and 
 pretended to be a cavalier engaged in some remark 
 able exploit. The poem in which this was set forth 
 was his own. 
 
 When he had finished Mrs. Stoneglass gave a little 
 ecstatic cry : " How lovely ! How perfect ! " and 
 clapped her hands. 
 
 She liked to encourage her performers, and keep 
 them in an obliging vein. She congratulated the 
 Count on his poem also, saying, 
 
 " Authors, we know, like pretty women, must be 
 flattered." 
 
 " But when one is both author and pretty woman, 
 then what is to be done ? " returned the Count, with 
 a languishing glance. It was perhaps such speeches 
 as these that gave him some of his popularity with 
 the fair sex. 
 
 In a corner apart stood a little group of .rising 
 poets, who r with talent and ardor, were not without 
 some of the eccentricities of youth and their calling. 
 It was whispered to the hostess that Mr. Edson Jud- 
 son, of this group, had a poem in his pocket, which 
 he had delivered with great acceptance to the circle 
 at a dinner at a restaurant, just before their coming 
 hither. 
 
 Mrs. Stoneglass insisted that Mr. Judson should 
 repeat the performance, and he allowed himself to 
 be persuaded. He announced in a few dignified 
 words of preamble that science was his chosen iuspi- 
 
 23
 
 354 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ration. He made no secret of his belief that modern 
 science afforded a deeper and truer inspiration than 
 any the effete past could boast of. His poem was an 
 ode to Vortex Atoms. It had a sufficiently learned 
 air, but was not so wholly lucid as poems very often 
 are. 
 
 A Mr. Okenberg, described as a writer of short 
 stories in the magazines, was introduced to Ottilie. 
 He had a lively, rather caustic way of talking. He 
 appeared to enter into her situation, and undertook 
 explanations of curious phases of the things about 
 her. 
 
 " That is James Edson Judson," he said of the 
 young poet who had just finished. " He is a broker. 
 He has been dubbed, by some friendly hand, a ' poet 
 of the future,' and delights in the title. His best 
 things, however, are not done in pursuance of his 
 theory." 
 
 Mr. Edson Judson retired to his circle, and was 
 received by them with beaming countenances. He 
 had taken occasion, before retiring, to mention to 
 Mrs. Stoneglass that the poem of Mr. George Glad- 
 win Ludlow, delivered at the same dinner, was, in 
 its way, even better than his own. Mr. George Glad- 
 win Ludlow was, upon this, invited forward in his 
 turn. His effusion was of a gloomy, suicidal cast. 
 
 " If the other two members of the group are asked 
 to recite," Mr. Okenberg went on, " Wixon will give 
 comic squibs; the other but no, Hurl pool will 
 never be allowed to recite. These last are connected 
 with the press, in one way or another, and pursue 
 the journey to Parnassus in the intervals of more 
 active occupation. They rarely come here. I don't 
 know what brings them to-night. As a rule they
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 355 
 
 take their pleasure in a less trammeled, more Bohe 
 mian fashion. Each has his specialty. Just as that 
 of Juclson is science, of Ludlow, suicide, of Wixon, 
 comic squibs, the grand specialty of Hurlpool is to 
 fly in the face of all the received proprieties. He is 
 a literary Ajax defying the lightning. He seems de 
 termined to be original, at any price. He is great on 
 orientalisms, and on renditions of Scripture in an easy 
 fashion of his own. His verbiage blazes with light 
 and color. He says that the bane of American let 
 ters is the preposterous deference shown the ' young 
 person.' He would have all departments of life 
 thrown open as material for literature. He would 
 have literature made for adults, and not for babes in 
 arms, and sighs that he was not born a Frenchman. 
 Perhaps he is not as bad as he seems. He has an 
 excellent warm heart for his friends, and looks at 
 himself with a kind of innocence. In the clique his 
 effusions are received without especial objection. 
 The theory most in vogue among them is that of 
 art for art's sake. One subject is looked upon as 
 about as good as another. The members have their 
 little eccentricities of appearance, as you see, the 
 literary Ajax a smile of calculated brightness ; the 
 poet of the future, the raven locks and slouch hat of 
 a murderer in a melodrama ; the suicidal poet, the 
 blonde beard and spectacles of a socialist philosopher 
 of Montmartre. The humorist alone is dapper and 
 clean-cut. It is a saving grace, after all, humor ; it 
 keeps us out of a multitude of scrapes." 
 
 A long-haired, elderly man, much more eccentric 
 in aspect than any of the clique described, now ap 
 proached. 
 
 " Here comes Chalker," said Okeuberg. " He
 
 356 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 says ' the genius is half d d fool,' and counts him 
 self a genius. He is running at his own expense a 
 weekly called the " Scroll." He maintains that it is 
 needed to keep in order, and eventually supplant, the 
 " Slate." He is extremely sanguine about it. It is 
 crammed with vagaries. If the " Slate " has its vaga 
 ries, also, they are at least based upon a keen, worldly 
 wisdom. He is engaged upon a great work of hy 
 pothetical analysis. He tells me that he will show 
 what sort of a novelist or playwright Napoleon would 
 have made ; how Turner would have led armies, and 
 Beethoven managed a paint-pot. 
 
 " I think I have a couple of new subscribers for 
 you, Chalker," he said to the object of this descrip 
 tion. 
 
 " Don't bring me subscribers, my dear young 
 friend," returned Mr. Chalker. " But if you have a 
 couple of new ideas, bring them in. That is what 
 we want." 
 
 The recitations were resumed. The professional 
 elocutionists of the masculine sex were distinguished 
 by clean-shaven faces, to secure the greatest play of 
 expression. One of them imitated musical instru 
 ments, the sounds of animals, leading actors, and per 
 sonages in public life. 
 
 It appeared that the young lady who had described 
 to Ottilie her fastidious bringing up by the late 
 Chester A. Skadge, also possessed this talent. She 
 went forward to the middle of the room, stood a few 
 moments with a portentous fixity, and suddenly burst 
 out with, 
 
 " Oh-o-o ! young Lochinvar-ar is come out of the 
 west." 
 
 Her eyes were opened to their widest and fiercest
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 357 
 
 tension at first, and this was followed by a capacious 
 smile. Her words were accompanied by gesticula 
 tion after the Delsarte system. 
 
 The selection seemed almost a herald's flourish of 
 trumpets to usher in an important new arrival. 
 
 Lanes, or rifts, occasionally opened through the 
 crowd. All at once, down such a lane, Ottilie dis 
 covered Bainbridge. He had apparently just come 
 up the stairs, and was shaking hands with the host 
 ess. The lane closed again, and he had not discov 
 ered Ottilie. She turned pale, and leaned for a mo 
 ment against the wall. 
 
 She had opportunity to recover, however, before 
 he came up. Mr. Okenberg was once more talking 
 to her, and Camden the journalist, and Ringrose the 
 poet, and others were close by. Bainbridge had a 
 preoccupied air as if looking for somebody. 
 
 " Ah," he said, touching Camden's arm, " have I 
 found you ? I have been at your lodgings. They 
 said that you would probably be here." 
 
 He did not observe at once the presence in which 
 he stood. He awoke to it with a start. He endeav 
 ored to cloak this against suspicion, by an extra 
 assumption of indifference. He finished in a word 
 or two the business he had with Camden, and then 
 spoke with Ottilie. The rest gave him the prefer 
 ence for a moment, still maintaining their places. 
 He politely inquired for her impressions. There were 
 topics enough for conversation in the novel scene. 
 Ottilie schooled herself to reply impassively. Noth 
 ing is more chilling to expansions of ill-regulated affec 
 tion than dread of the disdain of its object. In the 
 presence of Bainbridge she was phenomenally calm. 
 But she- kept her glance averted.
 
 358 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " They are not at all too friendly in speaking of 
 one another," she said. " Several of them have 
 abused Mrs. Shaftsbury to me, and then in turn each 
 other." 
 
 " The axiom might be laid down that people who 
 are equal to disliking the same thing, are not neces 
 sarily equal to liking each other," said Bainbridge. 
 
 They spoke of some of the more pronounced indi 
 vidualities. " They have ideals of their own in per 
 sonal appearance, you see," said Bainbridge, hardly 
 knowing how his words ran. " They desire to estab 
 lish a correspondence between their looks and excep 
 tional positions. They take their profession with a 
 profound seriousness, wish us to think they make 
 a sort of priesthood of it." 
 
 " It is a rank charlatanism," said Okenberg. " If 
 I were a poet, I should model myself on a butcher- 
 boy in appearance. The technical poet, the techni 
 cal thinker, the technical anything, is my aversion. 
 Poetry is the singing voice of the soul as opposed to 
 its common speech. Most of us have our little touch 
 of it somewhere. Whether a man have more or less 
 of it in him is not a reason why he should make a 
 guy of himself. Poetry, thought of any kind, is not 
 conjured out from under a particular kind of hat, as 
 if it were a trick in legerdemain. I tell you there are 
 reputations that consist entirely of an uncouth name, 
 a cloak, and a slouch hat, and nothing else." 
 
 " Charlatanism or not, it is probably what the pub 
 lic prefer," said Bainbridge. " We do not want our 
 ideas furnished to us by exactly the same order of 
 beings as ourselves. Given a sufficient difference in 
 appearance, and way of doing things, and we shall 
 half delude ourselves into the belief that we are deal 
 ing with a race of a foreign and mysterious sort."
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 359 
 
 " I saw you talking with Mrs. Plumfield," said 
 Ringrose to Ottilie, " the gentle-looking little lady, 
 of positive opinions, who has just turned this way. 
 She gave you her opinion of American fiction, I dare 
 say?" 
 
 " Yes," assented Ottilie, in surprise. 
 
 " She asks why there are no great, noble, typical 
 women in it," interrupted Okenberg. " I am sure I 
 can't tell her, considering how very common they are 
 in real life. You ladies, though, are great extremists. 
 You want in a novel either one of two things. There 
 must be a heroine of portentous seriousness, who per 
 forms none but the most magnanimous deeds, or else 
 she must be continually climbing fences, with un 
 kempt hair and face stained with blackberries, when 
 the discriminating young man turns up who is to be 
 the arbiter of her destinies. Now that I have ascer 
 tained what you need, however, I propose to conform 
 to it and turn it to pecuniary account. I conceive 
 a happy compromise. My next heroine shall be a 
 Joan of Arc who is first discovered sliding down the 
 banisters. 
 
 " I detest compromises," said Miss Jane Scrim, 
 catching the word. 
 
 Mr. Okenberg looked as if he moderately detested 
 Jane Scrim. 
 
 " Then I hope you will take more kindly to my 
 second great original idea. It is a plan to ameliorate 
 the condition of elderly spinsters, a hardly used race, 
 both in fiction and out of it. I consider it worth 
 oceans of platform agitation." 
 
 " Yes ? " fiercely. 
 
 " Let us combine to slowly but surely advance the 
 ages of our heroines. My last heroine was nineteen.
 
 360 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 My next shall be twenty-two, the next twenty-seven, 
 the next thirty, and so on. The charming time of 
 maidenhood, the ideal period for first love and matri 
 monial sentiment may thus be made to extend, say 
 to fifty." 
 
 Ottilie did not quite like this. " Mrs. Plumfield 
 thought our fiction deficient in incident," she said, by 
 way of diversion. 
 
 . " Nobody will ever make that complaint about her 
 story," said Okenberg. " She has written a novel, 
 perhaps you may not know it. She hawked it around 
 to all the publishers, and then-printed it at her own 
 expense. Not that that is anything against it, for 
 about the last man in the world to know a good 
 thing when he sees it is a publisher. It is crammed 
 with murders, abductions, and explosions of nitro 
 glycerine. The hero has ' a throat like a marble 
 column,' and lives in a bandbox, and his sweet name 
 is Cyril Gurle." 
 
 " The ' incident ' school has gone out," pursued 
 Okenberg. " We have come to understand, with 
 Schopenhauer, that ' the rank of a novel is according 
 as it depicts more the inner and less the outer life.' 
 Mental and moral incidents, in their effect upon 
 character, are objects of interest vastly more worthy 
 of contemplation than runaway horses and exploding 
 locomotives." 
 
 "And are the other kind to be ruled out alto 
 gether ? " asked Ottilie. 
 
 " Nothing is to .be ruled out ; but writers will nat 
 urally be graded according as they cater to a childish 
 taste for marvels or to something more enlightened. 
 There is a rank of physical incidents, too. There 
 are plenty of happenings which are strange, poetic,
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 361 
 
 stimulating to the imagination, and worthy of inter 
 est in themselves, just as are lovely people, places, and 
 aspects of nature. The other day two ocean steamers 
 passed each other in such a fog that neither could be 
 seen from the other, yet so near that voices could be 
 heard from one to the other. I call that a good in 
 cident. Put the heroine on board one, the hero on 
 the other ; see ? He hears her voice as if out of the 
 air. It is some critical turn in their affairs ; see ? 
 That would be as good as an equal space of any but 
 the very best of my own, or Blank's conversations. 
 No, on the whole, nothing, or almost nothing, should 
 be ruled out. ' Hitch your wagon to a star ! ' Hitch 
 it to the great passions, the forces of nature, the feel 
 ings of weirdness and mystery that stir dimly in 
 every human breast. The work must be done with 
 the broad Homeric touches, too, as well as the fine 
 ones, if it expects to live. It must not be too civ 
 ilized, too sophisticated. Over-sophistication may 
 possibly be the next vice of our literature." 
 
 " The bane of our literature is the caprice of 
 magazine editors," insisted Bowsfield, the traveler. 
 " Does-anybody suppose for one moment that I would 
 send in an article unworthy of my reputation ? Let 
 the writer be true to himself. Look at Wordsworth. 
 Immediate recognition is no test of merit. Words 
 worth was the best judge of Wordsworth ; you, 
 Okenberg, are the best judge of Okenberg ; and I, 
 Bowsfield, of myself." 
 
 He tapped himself proudly on the breast. 
 
 " One bane of American letters, as of American 
 art," said Okenberg, "is the abject reverence for 
 everything European. We are not seeing enough 
 with our own eyes. A curious thing, because we
 
 362 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 have been accustomed in so many books and pictures 
 to scenes laid abroad, we have fallen into the way of 
 thinking that the only proper place for them. We 
 do not reflect that the foreign writers and picture- 
 makers have used the people and places about them. 
 Supposing they too thought it necessary to go abroad, 
 whither would they repair ? The London of Dickens, 
 the Paris of Victor Hugo, are their own familiar 
 stamping-grounds. The best literature and art have 
 always been home-inspired." 
 
 Thus the talk went on. Ottilie had but small part 
 to take in it, but with what an intelligence she an 
 swered! Perhaps the others saw in her a trace of 
 sadness, and tried to divert her from it. Bainbridge 
 had conquered his flushings and paleness. His eyes 
 wandered yearningly over her face. He thought 
 he had never known her so thin before. Could it be 
 that she also had suffered ? To what advantage she 
 appeared in every company ! He had been well 
 along on the road towards freedom, as he deemed. 
 He relapsed into his slavery with a headlong impetus. 
 He must have speech with her. He began to devour 
 her with his eyes. He would have liked to seize her 
 in his arms, in the midst of them all, and bear her 
 away from their senseless babble, as is said to be the 
 custom, as part of the matrimonial preliminaries, 
 among some barbarous tribes. 
 
 " You must not judge us too hastily, you know," 
 said Okenberg, choosing to represent Ottilie as an in 
 vestigating person, whose mission it was to severely 
 formulate literary society. " Perhaps you have n't 
 seen the best of us. You must come again and often. 
 A new-comer is apt to see the odd features too much. 
 Our entertainers are the nicest people in the world,
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 363 
 
 but all sorts of persons turn up here. One sometimes 
 has to think that the literary faculty, instead of 
 strength, is a form of weakness. If we really under 
 stood life, we should command it, reap its principal 
 rewards, comfortably live it, instead of passing our 
 time vaguely speculating about it. You see the pre 
 posterous egotism and conceit of some of us. There 
 are persons here who would talk you to death about 
 their own superlative genius and never turn a hair. 
 There are people with every apparent advantage in 
 the world, who know no more of Chesterfield than 
 if they had been brought up in the heart of Africa, 
 and some of them call themselves thinkers, the 
 more 's the pity." 
 
 " I think I would draw it milder," suggested Mr. 
 Camden. " It will not do to unfold all the dark 
 secrets of our prison-house at once. You will frighten 
 our visitor away, and that would be a great calam 
 ity," he added, with a gallant bow. 
 
 " I am not the ill-natured critic you affect to 
 think," Ottilie disclaimed. " It all pleases me very 
 much. I am only too flattered to be allowed to be 
 here." 
 
 " Well, there are ideas" said Okenberg, taking the 
 back track, " plenty of them, bubbling and seething. 
 It is better than stagnation, after all. The people 
 have something more in them than what mere money 
 will buy. I don't know but I have patience with 
 most of them, except Bolster. Bolster is literary, as 
 the Irishman played the violin, * by main strength.' 
 He has money, and publishes a volume every year at 
 his own expense. He has never known what it is to 
 have a single unaffected human impulse or turn of 
 expression. In manner and matter alike he sets your
 
 364 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 teeth on edge. And yet he passes, in a way, for a 
 literary man. Publishers ought to be held to pains 
 and penalties for such things." 
 
 Bainbridge drifted away from the group, proposing 
 to seek a favorable opportunity to return to it and 
 secure Ottilie to himself. It dissolved presently, in 
 the shifting way in which things pass in such assem 
 blies. Ottilie exchanged some words with Wilhel- 
 mina Klauser, who told her the later news from Har 
 vey's Terrace. 
 
 "Miss Finley is worse," said Wilhelmina. "She 
 goes about crying and saying that she is losing her 
 mind. Mrs. Cutler, her former friend, pretends to 
 be indignant that anybody could suppose her husband 
 to have done wrong. Perhaps it really was not so 
 much his fault. He may have been taken in. I 
 have heard that he has been to see prominent persons 
 to find out if there is not some way of getting re 
 dress." 
 
 " He has seen my uncle," said Ottilie. " I think 
 that something will be done." 
 
 The knot of minor poets were now discussing with 
 heat the problem whether the genius is in advance of 
 his time, or only its very mouth-piece and essential ex 
 pression. There was no uncertain implication that 
 this was a question in which they all had a personal 
 interest. This was mingled with talk upon the char 
 acters of editors, rates of payment, and the rise and 
 fall of journals. 
 
 A group of young playwrights considered the de 
 cline, or rather failure to arise, of the American 
 drama. It was laid to the incompetency, and fiendish 
 hostility to native merit, of the managers. A mem 
 ber whose sole claim to authority was founded on a
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 365 
 
 poor dramatization of a French novel, which had run 
 two nights in the country, described bis method of 
 work. 
 
 " I have a miniature theatre of pasteboard," he 
 said, " on which I arrange everything in advance. I 
 fix even my exits and entrances. When I have once 
 established a certain exit or entrance, no manager 
 under heaven shall change it." 
 
 " He has read me some of his things," remarked 
 Camden to a neighbor. " I recollect one in particu 
 lar, a comedy, at which he laughed till the tears ran 
 down his cheeks, and positively there was not a touch 
 in it to provoke the faintest smile." 
 
 Ottilie stood near the piano. The case of pathetic 
 hardship she had heard from Wilhelmina had in 
 creased her own sadness, and at the same time ap 
 peared to make it selfish. 
 
 "I make my own griefs," she sighed; "those of 
 others are made for them." 
 
 Bainbridge came up to her again. At length they 
 were alone. 
 
 " How well Mr. Okenberg talks ! " she said, by way 
 of breaking an impending awkwardness. 
 
 " He is somewhat of the order of that potentate 
 who ' never said a foolish thing and never did a wise 
 one.' He does not always carry his good ideas into 
 practice. Still, he has time before him," responded 
 Bainbridge. 
 
 He fidgeted, looked to the right and left, then sud 
 denly, in a changed, almost husky tone, " I wish you 
 would come and sit down with me for a while. 
 There is something I want to say to you. I can find 
 places." 
 
 " I do not think I ought to," Ottilie murmured ;
 
 366 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 but opposition died on her lips, and she followed 
 him. 
 
 He led the way through the crowd and found some 
 chairs in a corner. The people standing and moving 
 in front of them insured a sort of privacy to their in 
 terview. 
 
 " 1 did not know that you were here," began Bain- 
 bridge. " I had not the slightest idea of it. I 
 thought you would have accepted an invitation ear 
 lier in the season. It is only by the merest accident 
 that I am here myself. I had to find Mr. Camden, 
 in connection with a piece of work I am doing for his 
 paper, and I was directed to this place. It is going 
 to make the greatest difference to me that I have 
 come. I have something I must say to you." 
 
 " If it be to account for your extraordinary keeping 
 away from me, of late," faintly, " perhaps it is quite 
 in order." 
 
 " I did not expect to see you," repeating himself in 
 his agitation. " I had made up my mind not to see 
 you." Ah, he had made up his mind not to see her ? 
 " Do you know why I stayed away ? " 
 
 " No," answered Ottilie. " I thought perhaps 
 It was said The report went around that you 
 were engaged to Miss Emily Rawson." 
 
 " What nonsense ! " he cried indignantly, half start 
 ing up. And yet, perhaps indignation was not 
 greatly called for. His own conduct had given ex 
 cellent color to such a report. He was somewhat 
 cooler upon this, and acted with greater self-posses 
 sion. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I have been trying the severest 
 experiment of my life. I have been trying to see 
 what sort of a martyr I should make. But I am not
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 367 
 
 of the stuff for martyrdom. I recant, I retract my 
 errors, or am perhaps ready for worse ones. The 
 rack, and thumb-screw frighten me. Had it ever oc 
 curred to you that I might be in love with you ? " 
 
 " No," said Ottilie with a violent start, opening her 
 fan to aid in concealing her emotion. 
 
 " You had not thought that all that pretty inter 
 course, that charming friendship of ours, was, on my 
 side, love, that it was bound to result in it? You 
 made me so unspeakably fond of you that " 
 
 " How ? I made you so fond of me ! " These 
 were the dearest words she had ever heard in her 
 life, and they gave her a feeling almost of faintness, 
 but she answered as if refuting some kind of asper 
 sion. 
 
 " Simply by being what you are," he went on, 
 " the loveliest character, the most beautiful and ador 
 able being, in the world. Simply by giving me your 
 companionship, by letting me be with you." 
 
 And all this had to go on with bated breath, and 
 no other demonstrations than such as would have 
 been proper to conversation on the most ordinary top 
 ics. Bainbridge bore with difficulty the enforced re 
 straint. He would have liked to sink literary and all 
 other society, for the time being, to the bottom of the 
 sea. 
 
 "I am not at all adorable," returned Ottilie, "if 
 you only knew me. Nor am I beautiful ; I have never 
 been told so. My mirror informs me too truly on 
 that point. And there are excellent reasons why I 
 ought not to let you talk to me in this way. I must 
 not listen to you." 
 
 " I knew that I should never be able to see you 
 again without telling you all. Now you have heard
 
 368 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 it. To pass your house, even to walk in the direction 
 of it, to call you to mind, has given me thrills and 
 pains of the heart. I must show what I have been 
 through. I am completely unstrung, I am good for 
 nothing." 
 
 " Then why did you keep away ? " 
 
 " Because I was magnanimous. Now that I have 
 relapsed into my selfishness, I have come back. I 
 tried to sacrifice you to your own best good. I have 
 never made a secret of my worldly circumstances. 
 At the last period of our intimacy they had become 
 notably worse than ever, and so I took myself off. I 
 wanted to do nothing to interfere with your pros 
 pects, the brilliant match you might well enough 
 make. You recollect how we talked of these subjects 
 in the summer. When I thought Kingbolt was mak 
 ing up to you, I tried in the same way to give him a 
 clear field, though I was tortured with a jealousy I 
 cannot describe." 
 
 " And you were really jealous of Kingbolt ? " 
 
 The insensate, delightful idea ! The blood again 
 coursed warmly through all her chilled members. 
 
 " Madly. And since then I have been jealous of 
 all the world. The advice I gave, the principles we 
 laid down, are as good as ever ; but oh, I love you so 
 dearly that I have not been able to prevent myself 
 from coming to you with a foolish proposition. I 
 have come to ask you to be mine, in spite of all that 
 we have said ; to try and conceive an existence from 
 the romantic point of view, without all of those things 
 that we may once have thought so necessary. It is 
 better that I should have made you this offer, at any 
 rate. Now you have but to refuse me. I shall have 
 the comfort, at least, of knowing that I have done all 
 I could."
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 369 
 
 " There is just one ray of light," he went on, be 
 fore Ottilie, gasping for breath, could begin her an 
 swer. He spoke now with a nervous haste, as if to 
 postpone as long as possible the adverse decision, 
 though the instant before he had professed himself 
 resigned to it. " A letter has reached me to-day, 
 which may prove of significance. It informs me that 
 my absconding debtor and quondam friend, of whom 
 I once told you, has turned up in Denver, with the 
 appearance of a prosperous person. He is thought 
 to have met with success in mining. In that case I 
 shall be able to recover what is due me. I am going 
 to take a journey thither ; who knows what may come 
 of it ? And besides," he continued, as if not willing 
 to have the decision rest wholly upon so problematic 
 a resource, and with a boastful air new to him, "I 
 shall presently get a large practice. I must. Fortune 
 cannot always run in the same groove ; and when it 
 turns it can turn in but one way." 
 
 It touched Ottilie deeply to see him almost humil 
 iate himself before her, like this. But she was re 
 volving certain ideas. 
 
 " No," she said ; " this is a sudden impulse. It is 
 against the sober judgment you had formed. Let us 
 renew our former friendship. That will do, will it 
 not?" 
 
 " It is too late for friendship. It never was friend 
 ship. I have analyzed it thoroughly." 
 
 " You exaggerate what you are pleased to call my 
 brilliant prospects ; and you greatly disparage your 
 self," returned Ottilie. " You are good enough for 
 anybody. You must not think that it is reasons of a 
 mercenary kind by which I am influenced. I esteem 
 it a very great honor you do me, I say it mo.st 
 
 24
 
 370 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 truly, but I am obliged to decline. I cannot marry 
 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, do not say that ! Oh, why ? " he pleaded in 
 a wretched way. " Then you have never cared for 
 me?" 
 
 " On the contrary, I have cared for you, and I do 
 like you, very, very much. There, I am glad to have 
 told you that, though it must not alter my decision." 
 
 For the first time the people in the vicinity may 
 have had some slight suspicion that these two were 
 not talking exclusively about the weather. 
 
 " Drop your hand by your side a moment ! Let 
 me take it in token of gratitude for even so much," 
 Bainbridge asked. "They will not see. Just an 
 instant ! " 
 
 " They will see. I am very foolish," she said, con 
 senting. "There! there!" and she drew the hand 
 away again from his ardent pressure with some diffi 
 culty. 
 
 She continued firm, nevertheless, in her refusal. 
 She had her secret ideals of duty and self-sacrifice, 
 and they were perhaps higher than his. She recalled 
 perfectly well what his theory of a comfortable ex 
 istence had been. She had no right to take advan 
 tage of an injudicious enthusiasm to hamper him, and 
 possibly prevent its realization forever. 
 
 Bainbridge asked for whys and wherefores, put 
 ting himself forward for a person excellently adapted 
 to the comprehension of reasons. She incautiously 
 relented so far as to furnish him with some. He de 
 molished these with a fierce energy, and Ottilie was 
 driven into her intrenchments. Unless the garrison 
 had resources not yet drawn upon, it seemed in im 
 minent danger of having to haul down its colors.
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 371 
 
 The hostess came bustling along at this moment, 
 and begged to present a new acquaintance. Usage 
 demanded that Bainbridge should yield his place. 
 He did so, with an ill grace, but kept near, trusting 
 to Ottilie to recall him. 
 
 Fragments of discourse from adjoining circles were 
 heard. Mr. Okenberg was saying, " I shall put such 
 a character through about ten thousand words." Or, 
 " Such an idea is worth about six thousand words." 
 
 " I should have been very good at story-writing, 
 do you know," said Dr. Wyburd, with much compla 
 cency. " I should have drawn a great deal upon real 
 life. I have had the fortune to fall in with such a 
 variety of experiences." 
 
 He began to give specimens by way of establishing 
 the character of his material. " You alter, of course, 
 and magnify any given incident to suit your pur 
 pose ? " he said. 
 
 " Yes," assented Okenberg. " We could not get 
 along without that." 
 
 " Well, there was my patient, Colonel Kingbolt, 
 for instance, killed by the wind of a shot, as you 
 might say. Nothing ever actually hurt him. He 
 was notified of a forgery in a New York bank. The 
 bank telegraphed him, ' Have you issued such and 
 such acceptances, now in our hands ? ' date and 
 amount given, but no name. He telegraphed a neg 
 ative, and demanded details, but these were refused. 
 Renewed applications met with no better success. 
 He got it into his head that there was some infa 
 mous plot against his credit, and allowed himself to be 
 worried to death. It was rather curious they should 
 have refused the particulars to a person of the col 
 onel's importance. This might be represented as
 
 372 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 one of those cases, such as you read about, where the 
 facts were suppressed in the interest of influential 
 parties." 
 
 " Yes, that could be worked up. Most anything 
 can be worked up, you know," said Okenberg. "You 
 could have the son of the deceased, say, come to New 
 York, and into relations with the persons who com 
 mitted the crime. One of them might be, say, his 
 prospective father-in-law. The whole matter might 
 be exploded on the wedding-day. Nothing lends it 
 self to sensational possibilities better than a wedding- 
 day." 
 
 " But, unfortunately, you cannot construct your 
 little romance so in this case," broke in Stoneglass ; 
 " that is to say, if it is going to be founded on real 
 life. Old Colonel Kingbolt's son is about to marry 
 the daughter of Rodman Harvey, as soundj solid, 
 and upright a merchant as ever lived. Mr. Harvey's 
 niece is with us here to-night," he added by way of 
 making a little parade of his guest. 
 
 " It is very soon, I believe, Miss Harvey, that your 
 cousin marries Mr. Kingbolt ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Ottilie, flushing, " within a fort 
 night." 
 
 When Bainbridge was at last able to resume his 
 suit, there were no longer any traces of yielding. 
 
 " No," she said ; " go your journey to the West, 
 and forget me. That will aid you to begin." 
 
 " I can never forget you ; it is not possible." 
 
 " Do you not know of excellent reasons why you 
 should ? " examining him searchingly. 
 
 *' I know of nothing that does or ever can conflict 
 with my ardent devotion to you." 
 
 He would not concede that he took her meaning, if
 
 AN EVENING IN LITERARY SOCIETY. 373 
 
 he really did. Admission and conference would but 
 strengthen her fears. 
 
 " There is something I cannot speak more 
 clearly," pursued Ottilie. "I have an impression, a 
 dread. It is necessary to wait." 
 
 " But let it be an engagement ! Then we can wait 
 as long as we like. What folly ! What cobweb 
 fantasy is this ! Come, we understand each other. 
 You are not afraid of me. We are engaged. I shall 
 call it so." 
 
 " No," she persisted. " Obstinacy is said to be a 
 Harvey trait. You will find that it is mine. You 
 must go your journey. I am not to be persuaded." 
 
 " Nothing shall induce me," she was saying in 
 wardly, " to cast upon him, in addition to all the rest, 
 the possibility of disgrace which I feel to be impend- 
 ing." 
 
 Her carriage was announced. Bainbridge insisted 
 upon going down to put her into it. " I am coming 
 to see you to-morrow to talk it over again," he de 
 clared, at the last moment. 
 
 " It will not be of any use," she returned. "And 
 perhaps I shall not be at home."
 
 XXIII. 
 
 A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY, BUT THE 
 COURT RESERVES ITS DECISION. 
 
 BAINBRIDGE went next day to see Ottilie, notwith 
 standing the prohibition laid upon him. He found 
 her at home, in one of the luxurious rooms where he 
 had already passed so many pleasant hours. 
 
 "It is an unpropitious place to woo," he said, 
 glancing around, "but I have come again to try and 
 persuade you to leave it." 
 
 He poured out a new flood of affectionate entreaty, 
 and Ottilie renewed her objections. But she had 
 passed a night of mental conflict, which had weak 
 ened her. How could she effectively resist when so 
 betrayed by her own situation, and sustained only by 
 the drear sense of duty? The young man, in his 
 impetuosity, was unconscious of himself, of all his 
 qualms, scruples,* and cynicisms of the past. He re 
 minded her, in his persistence, of a teasing child who 
 will not be gainsaid. 
 
 " Oh, waver ! Oh, be weak at least ! " he urged. 
 " Firmness is not becoming in a woman. She should 
 vacillate ; she should be irresolute, and yield. Come, 
 let us be engaged ! " 
 
 " You can break it off, you know," he offered, as 
 a happy solution, " in case you do not like me." 
 
 He had taken her hand. " This is the finger for 
 the ring," he went on, singling out the slender mem-
 
 A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY. 375 
 
 her in question. " I have in mind a diamond, which 
 has long twinkled to me in a knowing way in a cer 
 tain window. I shall bring it to you. We must 
 have you photographed in your wedding-dress, to 
 look at in future years. You will be so lovely in it." 
 
 These apparently trivial considerations, tossed off 
 in the heat of his eloquence, affected Ottilie, from 
 her feminine point of view, with a potency that some 
 of greater importance might not have had. 
 
 She saw the ceremony, her new dignity as a wife, 
 
 the long perspective of happy years by his side. He 
 
 - had combated every position but that of devotion to 
 himself, by which alone she was deterred. 
 
 " We should have to live in a kind of Bohemian 
 way, of course, at first," he pursued, going on to ar 
 range all these details, though she had not yet con 
 sented. " We should take some sort of a flat, and 
 have rugs and a divan and photographs in it. We 
 could give tea, you know, if you wanted company. 
 For my part, I want only you. Nothing would suit 
 me better than to fly with you to a desert island this 
 minute." 
 
 Ottilie was astonished at her own marvelous power 
 of negation. To be so importuned to do what her 
 whole being called out for, what appeared to her 
 the most delightful thing in the world ? Was ever 
 woman so deliciously beset ? She rallied, however, 
 but it was only for some such poor defense as that 
 of gunners who try to resist with clubbed muskets 
 when the enemy is already in the works in over 
 whelming force. 
 
 " No," she began, with an effort at a precise air, 
 " g your j urn ey, dear. By the time you have re 
 turned "
 
 376 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 The caressing epithet had escaped her lips inad 
 vertently, and set him on fire. He was no longer to 
 be controlled. He threw an arm about her. 
 
 " Say you love me," he cried, "since you do ! Let 
 us have no more of this." 
 
 " I love you, dear Russell," she replied, yielding to 
 him with exquisite languor. 
 
 " I could not hold out. It was beyond mortal en 
 durance. I want to be yours, and I want you for 
 mine," she said. This had an appearance of delight 
 ful candor, but, considering that she had wildly de 
 bated whether to write that she could not live with 
 out him, she hardly thought it candor at all. " But 
 you are not to give me any ring, and it is not an en 
 gagement yet. I must wait." 
 
 " How long ? " 
 
 " Ah ! who can say ? After my cousin's wedding. 
 If nothing happens then, I will fix a date in the fu 
 ture ; and then if there is nothing, but I do not 
 wish to talk about it. I do not wish to explain. 
 Something must be cleared away. Perhaps I may 
 yet have to give you up. Perhaps all must come to 
 an end between us, hard as it is to think of." 
 
 " Perhaps stuff and nonsense ! I want to hear no 
 such absurd suppositions." 
 
 " I could bear it better now than before, since I 
 know that you love me. I so longed and prayed for 
 your love. You do not know what happiness it is for 
 me to tell you this. The memory of what has passed 
 would sustain me, even if we should never see each 
 other again." 
 
 " Well, it would n't me, I can tell you." He repu 
 diated any such fantastic idea of comfort. 
 
 She was really inflexible now. Nothing could
 
 A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY. 377 
 
 shake her. Bainbridge had to be content with the 
 assurance of her affection ; that, after all, was the 
 important thing. The important thing ? It was the 
 ineffable thing. 
 
 Others no doubt had loved and been loved in their 
 time, but nobody could assure him that it had been 
 in a manner wholly like this. Once, when they two 
 were sitting together, Ottilie bent forward, touched 
 his hair lightly, and kissed him on the forehead. 
 Then she blushed deeply. The timid boldness of 
 this caress from such a source gave him an exquisite 
 pleasure. To have won of his own deserts such a 
 pure and beautiful affection, in no sense to have 
 bought or compelled it, was it not a reward for 
 many trials ? Was it not alone something to have 
 lived for ? 
 
 His heart at this time bubbled over with kindness. 
 It was fortunate for beggars or any other of the 
 wretched who came in his way. He would have liked 
 to share his beatitude with the whole human race. 
 
 " Ah, it is happiness that is good for us," he cried, 
 " and not betrayal and defeat." 
 
 But his nervous system was at an extreme tension. 
 A word, a tender passage in a book, a sweet chord of 
 music, affected him unduly. " It is too much," he 
 declared to Ottilie. " I shall not be worth the pow 
 der to blow me up." 
 
 They had but a few days before Bainbridge's de 
 parture. Fortunately, the bustle for Angelica's wed 
 ding allowed them to be much together unobserved. 
 It may be supposed that they indulged their share of 
 the usual lovers' babble. The old questions When 
 did you like me ? Why did you like me ? Where 
 did you like me first ? were asked. They ex-
 
 378 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 changed now all the fine shades of their respective 
 doubts, hopes, and fears, which they had so long 
 carefully concealed from each other. There was now, 
 also, the case of the former flame, Madeline Scarrett, 
 to be analyzed. Ottilie withdrew her hand from the 
 narrator's while this was being done. 
 
 " You are," he declared, " what I only fancied her 
 to be. She was a cold and heartless woman, incapa 
 ble of warmth of feeling or intelligent appreciation. 
 Not that she had much to appreciate, you know." 
 
 " Could you go back to her ? Could you ever like 
 her again ? " Ottilie asked, with a charming irrelev 
 ance. 
 
 " Yes, I think of going back at once," he said. 
 " Her husband is dead now, and she is a rich widow." 
 
 But Ottilie was too content now to allow herself 
 to be discomfited by his banter. She looked upon 
 Madeline Scarrett with a lively wonder and indigna 
 tion. She must be a kind of monstrosity, a person 
 without the most ordinary perception of the relative 
 merit of things. 
 
 Some minor flirtations of the young man were also 
 to be gone over and cleared up. He humorously as 
 cribed whatever slight sentimental fancies he might 
 have indulged to some hallucination, his lack of 
 knowledge of women, and particularly his lack of ac 
 quaintance with her. This having been done, Ottilie 
 gave him back her hand and beamed upon him once 
 more with the full measure of her approbation. 
 
 It was presently her turn. Her manner was much 
 less forward now, though Bainbridge aimed 4o con 
 duct the inquiry with a discretion befitting so deli 
 cate a subject. Two or three young men, in their day 
 and generation, she admitted, had been very pleasant.
 
 A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY. 379 
 
 In fact, there had almost always been some one 
 not that there was any one you could really count. 
 A boy sweetheart had given her a carnelian ring. 
 
 " Then there was a young man, the winter I passed 
 at Cincinnati," she said, "who wrote me original 
 poetry. He represented me as such a very remark 
 able person, that really If he had only made me 
 a little less extraordinary. But I do not think I 
 cared then for the very poetical kind. I was sorry, 
 of course, that he should want to go on so." 
 
 Bainbridge called him Petrarch, and her a stoical 
 Laura, turning a deaf ear to his sighs. " The poor 
 poets," he said, " have always got more kicks than 
 half-pence. It is lucky for me that I could not string 
 together rhymes. I should have been capable of 
 writing Iliads and Odysseys about you ' r and then 
 you would have had nothing to do with me either." 
 
 He well conceived that there could have been 
 others by whom she might have been admired as by 
 him. But she was not old in love-making. She had 
 had no experience which had touched in any but a 
 superficial way her girlish fancy. 
 
 The eye of affection transfigures, and it might 
 have been difficult for the calm outsider to discover 
 all the perfections attributed to Ottilie by her lover. 
 He instructed her in her charms with such a prodigal 
 praise that she was buoyed up by a divine self-pos 
 session. If half were true, if every least motion, 
 tone, and look of hers could give him pleasure, she 
 might well afford to dispense with other critics, and 
 comport herself with a sweet dignity. He analyzed 
 exhaustively each of her features. 
 
 After the manner of that poet who wrote odes to 
 Celia's Eyebrow, he could have made memoirs in
 
 380 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 succession upon her unusual eyes ; her slightly re 
 trousse nose ; her long dark lashes, which curved so 
 fascinatingly outwards. He recalled that he had once 
 thought her expression severe, that day when, wait 
 ing Rodman Harvey's convenience, he had stared at 
 her in her hackney-coach. 
 
 " If you but knew how horrid I thought you 
 then ! " said Ottilie. 
 
 Nor was this praise of physical perfection confined 
 to one side alone. Ottilie insisted that her lover's 
 eyelashes were longer than her own. She found an 
 exceeding comeliness in his looks also. 
 
 " Oh, no," he said, disclaiming this, as if it were a 
 gross and needless invention. " I have never set up 
 for anything of that sort. It is too late for it to be 
 discovered at this time of day." 
 
 " Yes, I tell you," she persisted. " You are a very 
 handsome young man. You are a very prepossessing 
 person." 
 
 In speculating about the sensation of being loved, 
 as it was his way to speculate a little about every 
 thing, he said, " It makes a great difference from 
 what source the affection comes. It is not all equally 
 flattering, though equally devoted. It must be a dis 
 criminating person, one who is a judge." 
 
 "So you think me a judge?" she queried, de 
 lighted. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you are a judge. You are quite capable 
 of forming your little opinions." 
 
 In this mutual glamour, intoxicated with each 
 other's intensely genuine flattery, they stood upon a 
 height from which the world of ordinary experience 
 stretched out below them, commonplace, arid, and 
 map-like.
 
 A PLEA BY AN INGENIOUS ATTORNEY. 381 
 
 " I ought not to let you go on so. It cannot last ; 
 it is too lovely," said Ottilie, her apprehensions re 
 curring. " Still, for the little while you are here, 
 perhaps it may not be so wrong." 
 
 She did not know when the smiling prospect might 
 change, and she have to lament the altered gods and 
 the sea black with ruffling storms. 
 
 The final appeal of Bainbridge to be allowed to 
 leave her as his engaged wife met with no more suc 
 cess than all those preceding. He set out, therefore, 
 upon his long jaunt by rail with the affair in this con 
 dition. She was a friend simply. He was to wait 
 indefinitely the mysterious period which she put to 
 the realization of his wishes. 
 
 He aspired most ardently for a prosperous result 
 from his mission. As he jogged interminably on 
 ward, looking out of the window at the fleeting coun 
 try, making brief halts at commonplace towns, doz 
 ing or half dozing in his sleeping car at night, he 
 was lost for the most part in sweet reveries of her. 
 
 He wrote to her from the way stations. His love 
 seemed to be changing his whole view of life, of mor 
 als, of religion. The cynical, jovial persons for whom 
 he had lately professed admiration, how were they 
 really turning out? He began a new inquiry into 
 character, and examined the sources which had made 
 the most admirable one he knew of what it was. He 
 called himself weather-cock. 
 
 " Am I turning conservative ? Shall I deny all 
 my negations ? Is the truth or falsity of things 
 shaken, then, by my liking her ? " he soliloquized. 
 Then again he said : 
 
 " Perhaps what is good enough for her is good 
 enough for me. Let us stand or fall together."
 
 382 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Sudden dreads of the contingencies of life swept 
 across his mind. Was it possible that this affection 
 could be imperiled, or wiped out forever, by a broken 
 rail or bit of defective boiler flue ? No, it must go 
 on. It must not be compassed by the span of . a few 
 brief years ; there must be a never-ending future for 
 its beatific continuance. 
 
 As he had formerly been one of the most careless 
 of travelers, he became now one of the most finical. 
 When a man is loved, when he has such a happiness 
 awaiting him, it adds worth to existence. He is 
 valuable freight, by no means to be carelessly handled. 
 As to turning out refractory tenants from shanty- 
 town, it is probable that he would now have given it 
 a very different order of consideration.
 
 XXIV. 
 
 "THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 
 
 WHEN Kingbolt of Kingboltsville had been absent 
 from town and free from the goad of opposition and 
 notoriety for some time, he began to have his furtive 
 moments of retrospect. Was it, after all, the most 
 desirable thing to marry ? The men of his age were 
 not marrying. Old Robert Rink was still driving 
 his coach and enjoying life as a bachelor at sixty. 
 
 " Marriage may have its hampering aspects, even 
 under the best of circumstances," reflected Kingbolt. 
 " This giving up your independence, and taking a 
 companion, to tote round, whose tastes and wishes 
 are more likely than not to conflict with your own, 
 is matter for serious consideration." 
 
 However, he was now committed. It was satis 
 factory to know, at any rate, that he was to have a 
 partner who would gratify his sense of pride and self- 
 importance better than any other he had ever seen. 
 On the whole, he could not say that he was sorry. 
 
 A certain stimulus continued to be furnished, too, 
 by the thinly disguised opposition of his family. 
 " They are always nagging, in their pusillanimous 
 way," he said, " at somebody or something which 
 pleases me." 
 
 A mysterious episode, of the last days preceding 
 the wedding, was the receipt of an anonymous letter. 
 It alleged a connection between Rodman Harvey
 
 384 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PKINCE. 
 
 and the death of his father. The cause had been 
 some proceeding of Harvey's, which would not bear 
 honest looking into. 
 
 " Bah ! " said Kingbolt, tossing it contemptuously 
 away. " There are always infernal meddlers about 
 trying to break up any match that promises well. 
 It is a pretty time of day for such a story now. I 
 think I should have learned something of it in the 
 course of a life-time if it had been true." 
 
 He had heard, it is true, an account of some worri- 
 ment by which his father's death had been acceler 
 ated, but the idea of connecting Rodman Harvey 
 with it was preposterous. Shortly after, his dismissed 
 protege, St. Hill, had the impudence to call upon 
 him, and broach this very subject. He suggested 
 that a public scandal was impending but, by proper 
 means, a bribe to himself, might be averted. 
 Kingbolt taxed him with writing the letter and put 
 him out-of-doors. The young Crossus made as little 
 of the story as it deserved ; but what with this and 
 other annoyances would have been glad if the wed 
 ding were fairly over. 
 
 He gave a farewell dinner to his bachelor friends, 
 which was signalized by much jovial speech-making. 
 He gave also a breakfast to his ushers and best man, 
 at which they were presented with handsome scarf- 
 pins. He sent Angelica a pair of diamond earrings 
 and a magnificent bridal veil. 
 
 After the latest mode, the wedding ceremony was 
 to take place in the evening, at seven. The brides 
 maids, six in number, were to walk up the aisle un 
 attended. They were to be costumed somewhat in 
 the style of the French directory, and carry baskets 
 of flowers. The bride and groom were to meet at
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 385 
 
 the chancel rail. Dr. Miltimore would marry them 
 by a combination service of his own, for which he 
 had obtained repute. Angelica was, naturally, an 
 authority in the arrangement of these details. The 
 participants were assembled at her house for rehear 
 sal, and again at the church, that there might be no 
 awkwardness. 
 
 This last occasion was on the Tuesday preceding 
 the Thursday for the wedding. It was evening. The 
 gas was lighted, the organ pealed out its grand 
 march, the procession was formed, and the effect of 
 the ceremony realized so far as might be without the 
 flutter of the fifteen hundred guests, and the bright 
 toilettes in the pews. 
 
 Rodman Harvey himself appeared at the rehearsal, 
 but could remain through only a part of it. He was 
 obliged to present himself, according to promise, at 
 the annual meeting of the Civic Reform Association, 
 to make his report. He had come on from Washing 
 ton the same day, and looked fatigued. As fortune 
 must have it, too, on the very afternoon of his arrival, 
 the invalid Secretary of the Treasury at last sent 
 in his resignation. It would probably have been bet 
 ter could Rodman Harvey have remained actually 
 on the ground, at the President's call. He would 
 go back, however, at the first moment. His nomina 
 tion might even be received by telegraph. The news 
 was the talk of the clubs and hotel lobbies. 
 
 In excusing himself to his daughter, Harvey 
 said : 
 
 "I am of such little importance in the show that 
 my mistakes will never call for criticism." 
 
 The Fifth Avenue Hotel -was bustling this evening, 
 
 25
 
 386 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 like the caravansaries in the neighborhood, with the 
 peculiar life that makes them a rendezvous. Knots 
 of well-dressed loungers looked from the portico at 
 the rolling cabs, the theatre-goers, the shameless 
 women flaunting by, and across to the dim obscurity 
 of the lights and benches among the trees in the 
 park. The green weather-doors closed after each in- 
 goer with a thud, as if keeping for purposes of their 
 own, an audible tally. 
 
 Within, was a great scuffling of feet over the tes- 
 selated pavement. Acquaintances presented others. 
 There was a great talking of politics, trade, and gos 
 sip, and a placing of fingers in the palms of hands 
 and on the sleeves and lapels of coats, as an aid to 
 illustration. Young men about town without a club, 
 came hither. Insatiate dealers in stocks engaged in 
 further transactions, or studied the tape of the tele 
 graphic indicator, coiled up in its basket. McKinley, 
 salesman for Harvey & Co., had come in search of a 
 country customer, to whom he was going to " show 
 the town," expecting in consequence the larger 
 order on the morrow. Guests of the house sat and 
 smoked on the benches, stood conferring near the 
 elevator, with door-keys in their hands, or wrote let 
 ters in a room at the rear, hung with files of news 
 papers from all parts of the country, and scattered 
 with advertisements, even to the blotting-sheets on 
 the table. 
 
 One of the green weather-doors was brusquely 
 thrown back by Mr. Sprowle Onderdonk. It nearly 
 knocked off his feet Mr. Fletcher St. Hill, who had 
 been awaiting his arrival. 
 
 " You should look out for yourself," said Sprowle 
 Onderdonk carelessly, as his coadjutor picked up his
 
 "THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 387 
 
 hat with an air of meekness. Fletcher St. Hill was 
 hardly the important figure that he had been a year 
 since. 
 
 It seemed, from the talk, that he was looking for 
 ward to a fee, to be more or less liberal according to 
 the success of the enterprise they had undertaken. 
 
 "Has Harvey come yet?" asked Sprowle Onder- 
 donk. 
 
 " Not yet. I have been keeping a sharp lookout 
 for him." 
 
 " And the others ? " 
 
 " Mr. Hackley has already gone up to the meeting. 
 McFadd is here, in the best coat he ever had on in 
 his life. I got it for him, I hope you will remem 
 ber that. He will pass for a very respectable person. 
 He is keeping out of sight just now, till we are ready 
 for him." 
 
 " And what success have you finally had with old 
 Gammage ? " 
 
 " I have tried in every way to get him over to our 
 side and bring him along, but nothing will stir him. 
 He is not drinking now, and is obstinate as a mule. 
 That man Bainbridge where his interest comes in 
 I don't see has influenced him against us. You 
 recollect the devil of a time I had to find him again, 
 after he was got away from us. He has never been 
 of any use since. Still, we have his affidavit, and 
 that will serve our turn. He says he is sorry he gave 
 it, but that does n't alter the fact." 
 
 " Well," commented Sprowle Onderdonk, "his af 
 fidavit will do for the present. On the whole, I think 
 we are in luck. General Burlington is in Barbadoes. 
 It will be two weeks before he can be communicated 
 with. Not that we need be afraid of anything he
 
 888 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 might have to say ; he can only testify in one way ; 
 but an absent witness is better for our purpose, just 
 now, than a possibly unwilling one. We can be as 
 bold as we like. Yes, I think we can call it a very 
 pretty case." 
 
 " I ought I want to offer a final caution about 
 those letters of mine," suggested St. Hill, with a 
 nervous air. " You are not to use the letters them 
 selves, nor draw attention to me. I have too many 
 other difficulties just at present, and really ought not 
 to be in this business at all. You are at most to 
 sketch the treasonable situation they disclose as a 
 preamble to your more telling charges, and without 
 names. And you are to stand by me in any conse 
 quences that may arise supposing Harvey to defeat 
 us, after all, and select me as a victim." 
 
 " Oh, of course we are not going to get you into 
 trouble," returned his interlocutor in his bluff way, 
 with a mixture of contempt. 
 
 Fletcher St. Hill appeared reassured. 
 
 Rodman Harvey entered the lobby holding a mo 
 rocco-bound account-book under his arm. If the 
 green weather-doors, keeping tally, had any sense 
 of impending evil, they may be supposed to have 
 rocked back and forth upon themselves in a crooning 
 way. The merchant prince walked with his quick, 
 nervous step, and, casting a keen glance right and 
 left, passed up the stairs to the parlors secured for 
 the meeting of the Civic Reform Association. 
 
 The two whose talk we have noted, followed at 
 their convenience. St. Hill first went in search of 
 the ex-bank messenger, Peter McFadd, where he was 
 in waiting, and took him along. 
 
 The Civic Reform Association stood ready to do
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 389 
 
 excellent work in the future, as it had in the past. A 
 large number of the most reputable citizens saw the 
 necessity for such an organization in the actual con 
 dition of the city's misgovernment and oppression of 
 tax-payers. There being no particular crisis at pres 
 ent, its annual meeting did not call forth so large 
 an attendance as some previous. Still, there was a 
 select assembly of persons of the highest respectabil 
 ity. Ex-Governor Antram occupied the chair. 
 
 Among the younger element were some purely 
 fashionable club men, who appeared for the first 
 time. They had been brought by Sprowle Onder- 
 donk, on the promise of " fun," as a claque for his 
 support. Dr. Wyburd, who went everywhere, was 
 present of course. 
 
 The meeting was called to order, and routine busi 
 ness disposed of. The reporters, at the table pre 
 pared for them, took a few notes, with a languid air. 
 They had no appearance of expecting to find any 
 thing interesting. It came at length to a question of 
 the reelection of Rodman Harvey to the position he 
 had held for another year. He had made a report, 
 which had been accepted in the usual form. 
 
 At this point Sprowle Onderdonk took the floor. 
 His figure seemed larger than usual. He had a por 
 tentous, leonine air. His club men pressed close 
 around him, in expectation. His very first words con 
 tained a thunderbolt. 
 
 " I object to the re-nomination of this man ! " he 
 cried. " I protest against Rodman Harvey's being 
 allowed henceforth to have any part or lot among us. 
 I protest in the name of common honesty and de 
 cency. I will state my reasons why." 
 
 A tremendous excitement arose. The assembly
 
 390 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 looked with astonishment at this audacious disturber 
 of the ruling harmony. Though an attorney and a 
 person of considerable social weight, it was not rec 
 ollected that he had before taken any notable part 
 in its deliberations. 
 
 " I charge," he went on, " that he was a traitor to 
 his country in her hour of worst need. If that might 
 be passed over, I charge, furthermore, directly and 
 unequivocally, that he is a forger. I hold in my 
 hands the proof of what I say." 
 
 " Hear ! hear ! " cried his supporters, standing by 
 him as per agreement. Part of the audience thought 
 that he must have been drinking more than was for 
 his good, and were for ejecting him. A larger part, 
 with that secret delight in the calamities of others, 
 which is a perverse human trait, or perhaps having 
 long entertained malice against the merchant prince, 
 were willing to hear all that was likely to be said. 
 The newspaper reporters had pricked up their ears 
 and become vastly more animated. The chairman 
 was obliged to pound vigorously with his gavel, for 
 the restoration of order. 
 
 " That young man shall be held to a strict account 
 ability for his words ! " Rodman Harvey exclaimed, 
 and was seen pointing a bony forefinger with intense 
 directness at his assailant. 
 
 " It is what I expect. It is what I demand," thun 
 dered the other. " By the leave of this honorable 
 body, I charge that he is not a safe person to be 
 trusted with its funds. It is high time that fraud 
 and hypocrisy were exposed ; it is time the whited 
 sepulchres were opened. We have sat here and list 
 ened to his glib talk on the potency of moral ideas, 
 his cant as to the works of regeneration, which are
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 391 
 
 to make our city a pattern to the world. But moral 
 reforms are not propagated from such sources. Moral 
 regeneration is not the work of felons, though yet 
 unpunished." 
 
 " This is a most scandalous spectacle," cried the 
 editor Stoneglass, rising indignantly, " and I call, 
 Mr. Chairman, for its suppression ! It is no place 
 for the indulgence of vituperation and private malice. 
 If there be any charges, worthy of the name, against 
 our respected treasurer, against one who, as we all 
 know, may at any moment be called to manage the 
 finances of the nation, let them be put in writing and 
 brought before a proper committee." 
 
 " Let it go on ; I desire it to go on," insisted Har 
 vey, in a voice now high and shrill. " I have been as 
 sailed in my private as in my public integrity. These 
 preposterous accusations must be met now and here." 
 
 This readiness looked like innocence. The mer 
 chant prince had, indeed, if innocent, too critical in 
 terests at stake, to allow charges of any seeming im 
 portance to hang over him. 
 
 Sprowle Onderdonk drew papers from his breast 
 pocket, and unfolded them with a deliberate air. " I 
 have to display," he said, " a picture of baseness, 
 hidden till now with consummate duplicity. I shall 
 show that it began in treason to the country, and 
 ended in the more vulgar, if less heinous, crime of 
 forgery. I shall show that the latter was relied upon 
 to save the criminal from the ruin into which he was 
 about to be precipitated by the miscarriage of the 
 former." 
 
 The rumor had got out that something extraordi 
 nary was in progress at the meeting of the Civic Re 
 form Association, and the room began to fill up from 
 below.
 
 392 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 The impeacher of Rodman Harvey opened his case 
 with the letters to the elder St. Hill. He gave dates, 
 names, everything, explicitly, and in full. He had 
 no idea of making anything less than the best of his 
 case, through consideration for the feelings of a tool 
 in his employ. 
 
 Fletcher St. Hill was in despair. He tried by 
 gestures to attract the attention of the reader ; then 
 approached and touched him on the arm, but was 
 rudely repulsed. He fancied that the eye of Rodman 
 Harvey blazed at him with wrath, as indeed it did, 
 now that his part in the conspiracy was disclosed. 
 He left the hall quaking with apprehension but too 
 well founded. 
 
 The merchant prince hastily summoned a person 
 in whom he had confidence. There was no longer 
 any motive for withholding the richly deserved pun 
 ishment. " I have in my desk," he said, " a fully 
 prepared case against this man for a swindling opera 
 tion, upon a former employee of mine. There is also 
 a collection of testimony to other doings, which will 
 send him to the penitentiary. I am not feeling well, 
 and may not be at the office to-morrow. Go and 
 place the papers in the hands of the district attorney 
 at once ! " 
 
 " Rodman Harvey was ready," the accuser contin 
 ued, " to throw his fortune and personal weight into 
 the scale of the Confederacy. He extended such cred 
 its to the South, up to the last moment, as no loyal 
 man would have dreamed of doing. Caught in his 
 own wiles, justly punished for his treasonable designs, 
 he was on the brink of insolvency. Let me show by 
 what means he extricated himself." 
 
 " This is infamous, infamous," muttered the mer 
 chant prince.
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 398 
 
 He stood, leaning one hand upon the back of a 
 chair, and was seen to shake his head in a strange 
 way from side to side. This was perhaps taken by 
 those who saw it for a gesture of energetic denial, but 
 it was in fact an irrational effort to dissipate the gath 
 ering fogs of his old enemy of vertigo. Surely, surely, 
 it ought to leave him untroubled in a time like this. 
 
 " There came a day when he had a vast indebted 
 ness to meet, after the admitted failure of all his nat 
 ural resources," Sprowle Onderdonk went on. " The 
 balance against him at the Antarctic Bank was over 
 whelming. In the morning he confessed his inability 
 to meet it, and begged an extension, which could not 
 be granted. Before the close of business hours, how 
 ever, he had met it. Among the deposits made by 
 him in this interval were three certain pieces of com 
 mercial paper to a large aggregate amount, which 
 were fraudulent." 
 
 " Let me here explain," the speaker interpolated, 
 " that I personally intend no invoking of the outraged 
 law, no prosecutions, if indeed the law can yet be 
 invoked, after so long a delay. I leave that to those 
 whose department it is. My motive is no more than 
 to protect this body and society at large against the 
 further depredations of the man. My belief is, 
 though it may now be too late to trace them fully, 
 that his forgeries were on a large scale, and that it 
 was thus he saved his credit. I advise that the books 
 of the Antarctic Bank, and all other institutions with 
 which he had dealings, be carefully examined. I am 
 able at present to cite but three specimens, yet these 
 are more than sufficient. 
 
 " The pieces of commercial paper in question," he 
 resumed, u were of the nature of acceptances. We
 
 894 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 may suppose that his intention was to take them up 
 before they had matured and should be forwarded to 
 their ostensible maker. They purported to have been 
 signed by a certain Colonel Kingbolt, of the Eureka 
 Tool Works at Kingboltsville. The fraud, however, 
 was almost immediately discovered, and was confessed 
 by Rodman Harvey, when taxed with it at the bank." 
 
 At this, the sensation was greater than ever. The 
 names and incidents had struck particularly upon the 
 alert ears of Dr. Wyburd. " What do I hear ? " he 
 said, "the Eureka Tool Works? a forgery on 
 Colonel Kingbolt ? Rodman Harvey ? the Ant 
 arctic Bank? Will extraordinary things never cease 
 to happen within my cognizance ? It is the last part 
 of the good story of which I so long ago heard the 
 first." 
 
 He edged his way sedulously nearer to the front, as 
 one who had a special right to be there, owing to ac 
 quaintance with the case. 
 
 " This is false, so wholly false! " ejaculated the 
 merchant prince in a husky voice, speaking with dif 
 ficulty. His friends thought he was acting very 
 strangely. 
 
 " I present in evidence," continued Sprowle Onder- 
 donk imperturbably, " the sworn statement of the 
 note-teller of the bank at the date, one James Gam- 
 mage, who still lives in this city and can be sum 
 moned. He certifies that the acceptances as de 
 scribed came into his hands. Something unusual in 
 the signatures attracted his attention. He conferred 
 with the cashier, Ambrose Hackley, who agreed with 
 him in finding them peculiar. He dispatched a tel 
 egram of inquiry to the Eureka Tool Works. A re 
 ply was received, declaring any acceptance of the
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 395 
 
 kind to be forgeries. He thereupon notified General 
 Burlington, the president of the bank. General Bur 
 lington summoned Rodman Harvey. The latter, a8 
 the witness was informed at the time, and believes, 
 confessed to the making of the pretended commercial 
 paper. No criminal proceedings were instituted. He 
 states that he was afterwards reprimanded, as having 
 exceeded his authority in sending th telegram of in 
 quiry without previous consultation with the presi 
 dent. I offer next the affidavit of Peter McFadd, 
 messenger of the Antarctic Bank at the time. Mr. 
 McFadd is a very respectable person, and is here pres 
 ent." 
 
 Upon this, McFadd contrived to stand forth prom 
 inently, in his good coat, with the object of drawing 
 upon his respectability the attention it deserved. 
 
 " Mr. McFadd testifies to having read a telegram 
 of inquiry addressed to the Eureka Tool Works, and 
 also a reply to it, of the character described in the 
 former affidavit. He swears that he was sent to sum 
 mon Rodman Harvey to the office of the president of 
 the bank, and that Rodman Harvey exhibited, both 
 on arriving and departing, such an agitation as he 
 should suppose that of a guilty man. He was em 
 ployed to return to Harvey certain papers, which he, 
 the deponent, understood to have been tampered with 
 or irregularly fabricated. When it became a question 
 of their restoration, he learned that one of the papers 
 was missing, and, after considerable search, was not 
 found, but given up as lost. He says that it is his 
 recollection that Rodman Harvey was considered to 
 have committed some serious irregularity which was 
 passed over, for prudential reasons. 
 
 The merchant prince, having recovered his equa-
 
 396 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 nimity, perhaps at the slightness of the case against 
 him, interrupted with a remark of the kind that had 
 been drawn forth from Sprowle Onderdonk himself. 
 
 " I hardly know whether it is worth while to call 
 attention to the paltry character of the testimony. 
 The affidavit of James Gammage, once respectable, 
 but for years a besotted victim of drink, can no doubt 
 be had at any time on any subject, by whoever will 
 take the trouble to dictate it. The ex-bank messen 
 ger McFadd is of little better habits. He lost his 
 place for cause, if I remember rightly, and later was 
 one of a number of squatters ejected from property of 
 mine, needed for better uses." 
 
 " We expect to have our witnesses impugned," vo 
 ciferated Sprowle Onderdonk. " But let us see if as 
 much can be done with the next one. I now present 
 the sworn affidavit of Ambrose Hackley, ex-cashier. 
 He desires to corroborate the statement of James 
 Gammage, which he has read. He recalls, further 
 more, having received and, under instructions, replied 
 to a number of letters from Kingboltsville, pressing 
 for particulars of the forgeries. Under instructions, 
 he returned only evasive and uninforming answers. 
 His recollection is that the matter was purposely and 
 deliberately hushed up by the aid of the president of 
 the bank. He does not assail the character of Gen 
 eral Burlington. He does not attribute his action to 
 a collusion with the criminal, but to a wish to avoid 
 scandal and excitement at a peculiarly critical time 
 in the fortunes of all financial institutions. Mr. 
 Hackley is here, and ready to furnish any further par 
 ticulars that may be desired. General Burlington is, 
 unfortunately, absent at Barbadoes, but he also will 
 be heard from."
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 397 
 
 Mr. Ambrose Hackley now stood forward in his 
 turn, in a conspicuous way. The former sycophant 
 had braced himself for the ordeal of meeting his pat 
 ron's eye, but not with entire success. An emana 
 tion of confessed meanness pervaded his whole face 
 and figure. 
 
 " Do you say this, Hackley ? " demanded the mer 
 chant prince, almost breathless, and trembling with a 
 new excitement. "Will you let such a statement, 
 such a wicked and libelous distortion, go out upon 
 your authority, no matter what our recent relations 
 have been ? " 
 
 " It is as I have always understood it," asserted the 
 sycophant, assuming an extra air of bravado. 
 
 " Do you not know, do you not know well ? " 
 the merchant prince began to question him, shaking 
 a quivering finger, and his naturally limited voice ris 
 ing almost to a shriek. 
 
 But Sprowle Onderdonk went on like fate, and 
 bore down these interruptions sonorously. 
 
 " Ambrose Hackley deposes," he said, " to having 
 found, in a waste-basket, one of the fraudulent ac 
 ceptances, some time after it had been given up for 
 lost. At first through inadvertence, later through 
 unwillingness to revive the memory of an unpleasant 
 occasion, and later still as a matter of curiosity, he 
 kept this paper. He has it still in his possession." 
 
 With this, Sprowle Onderdonk appeared to have 
 ended. The audience buzzed loudly, and Rodman 
 Harvey gathered himself, with effort, for a reply. 
 
 " It must be produced," he began, " that paper. 
 
 It will speak for itself. It will be seen General 
 
 Burlington will say Can this association for one 
 
 noment suppose But it will be more convenient 
 
 "roceed in regular order."
 
 398 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 In regular order, ah yes, that is it ; a defense 
 should proceed in consecutive order. Ah, this leaden 
 heaviness ! He endeavors to brush it away from be 
 fore his eyes. The first point to be met, the first con 
 sideration let us see ? 
 
 The merchant prince succumbs to a feeling of 
 nightmare. In it a vision of error, hatched in secret, 
 follows him through the years ; gathers malevolent 
 powers in the darkness ; expands at last and leaps 
 upon him, colossal, and terrible, in his moment of 
 physical weakness. It is all easily explained but 
 ah, when the head is so thick, so thick ! 
 
 " The libel of treason is very old. It was used 
 against me when I was a strong supporter of the gov 
 ernment, and was sending troops to the front at my 
 own expense. These letters must be looked into. I 
 know not what may have been added to them. Now, 
 as to the second part " 
 
 Surely this was but a short defense, if it were all 
 that was to be devoted to the first part. The mer 
 chant prince rested more heavily on the back of his 
 chair, and breathed in a stertorous way. He stared 
 around him deliberately. He had an air as if he had 
 been speaking for hours. 
 
 " For forty years " he began again. " I will 
 say It is in famous. The old house of Rodman 
 Harvey & Co. has never been assailed." 
 
 He pulled at his plain watch-guard, then at his 
 neckcloth. Ah, this was not a condition of mind and 
 body to meet the crafty, well-concocted plot of ene 
 mies ! All at once he sank, collapsed, into his chair, 
 and thence, before the outstretched hands could save 
 him, in an inert, disorderly mass to the floor. 
 
 Dr. Wyburd's presence at the front proved unex-
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 399 
 
 pectedly useful. Pie pronounced the malady par 
 alysis. It is thus that, finding men still eager, sleep 
 less, indefatigable in affairs after it has touched them 
 with a premonitory finger, it finally lays its heavy 
 hand upon them. 
 
 It appeared that a man might rise from a modest 
 origin, gather an enormous fortune, marry into a 
 station above his own, devise a plan for leaving his 
 wealth, by limited entail, so as to found a patrician 
 family ; it appeared that he might rear a daughter as 
 beautiful and haughty as a young goddess Diana, 
 who was to marry a young Phrebus Apollo of her 
 own sort ; and that the entire structure might be 
 toppled to ruin through an original flaw in its corner 
 stone. 
 
 It appeared that such a man might rise to high 
 honor ; represent the great metropolis in Congress ; 
 be the friend and intimate of the President, and next 
 in succession to the most important office in his gift, 
 and yet be subject to defeat from a despicable cause. 
 
 For defeated Rodman Harvey certainly was, cut 
 to pieces, routed beyond hope of repair. Irrespective 
 of their merits, his enemies had proved their charges 
 on his body, as in the days of trial by mortal combat. 
 There would be no necessity now for a weighing of 
 the evidence by President and Senate before making 
 a cabinet appointment. The case could be decided 
 upon medical grounds alone. Rodman Harvey would 
 never again be fit for human employments. 
 
 When he was brought home to his wife in this 
 state with his helpers and sympathizers around him, 
 she met the cortege with consternation and woe. She 
 invariably saw herself, however, in the foreground of 
 every prospect.
 
 400 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 " Oh, had I not trouble enough," she bemoaned, 
 " that this must come upon me ! " 
 
 But then, to do her justice, she set to work with 
 zest to perform all such services as lay within the 
 range of her limited capacity. 
 
 Ottilie, too, was present, ^nd wrung her hands 
 over this sad arrival in dismay. She had the circum 
 stances of the attack, in a guarded way, from the 
 friendly Stoneglass. He endeavored to make it less 
 serious than it was, but her swift imagination flew 
 on far beyond him. It was this that she had dreaded. 
 The hints and forebodings of evil which had gained 
 such a hold in her breast had come to pass. She 
 read the accounts in the newspapers, which, after 
 their way, made it as lurid as possible. 
 
 The inexperienced girl could not conceive an ef 
 frontery that could make such charges in such an as 
 sembly, unless they were true. She thought none 
 of the family could ever hold up their heads again. 
 She looked tearfully at Angelica, at Selkirk, at her 
 aunt, at Calista. Her own happiness was forever 
 shattered. Bainbridge was lost to her. 
 
 " Oh, my prophetic soul ! " she cried. " He will 
 hear of it even before his return. Now he will know. 
 Now he will understand my reasons. Alas, there is 
 little danger, when he should endeavor by every le 
 gitimate means to rise, that he will try to overcome 
 them now ! " 
 
 The enemies of the merchant prince had it all 
 their own way in the press for a considerable time. 
 Stoneglass, indeed, endeavored to make light of the 
 story ; but making light of it on general principles 
 was not sufficient against an array of facts and fig 
 ures, and in the absence of any responsible word of
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 401 
 
 refutation. Harvey seemed to have fallen thunder- 
 smitten, as if upon the exposure of his real character. 
 None but a guilty man, it was argued, would have 
 been so affected. It was clearly a case of divine in 
 terposition. The ram's-horn blasts of judgment had 
 blown upon this falsely-enjoyed reputation, and it 
 had gone down. 
 
 Kingbolt of Kingboltsville learned of the scandal 
 from his morning paper. He was buried in dazed 
 reflection over it at his apartments, when he was 
 summoned in hot haste to the hotel where his mother 
 and sisters were staying. They had come down to 
 attend his wedding of the morrow. They, too, had 
 just read the news. They beset him strenuously to 
 put off the wedding. They begged him to proceed 
 no further in the business, unless investigation should 
 yield a clear refutal of the charges ; and this they 
 did not deem possible. They assured him that the 
 family name and interest were at stake. It would 
 seem to them something monstrous should he consent 
 to ally himself with one who, besides dishonesty, had 
 been the cause of hastening his father's death. 
 
 Kingbolt endeavored to repudiate this counsel in 
 his usual way, but it had its effect, after all. He 
 would admit that the case was devilish annoying; 
 and there had been annoyances and to spare already. 
 He promised nothing, but said he was going to see 
 Angelica. 
 
 He saw Angelica, who had no elucidation for him. 
 She only felt indignantly that it was a shameful libel. 
 The house was in a turmoil. The wedding must be 
 postponed a few days, pending Rodman Harvey's 
 condition, at any rate. He lay comatose, his pulse 
 extremely high, and vanishing by turns. It was 
 
 26
 
 402 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 thought that he might die at any moment. The in 
 vitations were countermanded. Kingbolt could not 
 forbear saying, even to Angelica, that the matter 
 was extremely annoying. 
 
 During the few days of this postponement he read 
 more newspaper accounts, talked more with his fam 
 ily, and consulted, confidentially, with some disin 
 terested friends, at the clubs and elsewhere. These 
 last admitted to him, confidentially, that the case 
 looked to them also devilish awkward. He went up 
 to Kingboltsville, and wandered about there. 
 
 " It was not altogether ' good form,' you know, of 
 Angelica to throw over Sprowle the way she did, in 
 the first place," he reflected, " though of course I 
 should be the last person in the world to complain of 
 that. The Sprowles are a very vindictive faction, and 
 they have shown a specimen of their power. It is 
 not pleasant to think of being pursued by such peo 
 ple. Of course they will include Angelica and my 
 self whenever occasion offers. They have a reputa 
 tion for never letting up. But the scandal itself is 
 even more important. Everybody seems to think 
 that I ought to be particularly shocked by it, even 
 if nobody else were." 
 
 After having suffered himself to be torn for what 
 seemed an eternity by conflicting emotions, Kingbolt 
 of Kingboltsville decided that he was a person of 
 sufficient importance to take a bold step. He de 
 cided too that he might as well take it at once. He 
 sat down and wrote the following note : 
 
 MY DEAR ANGELICA, I think the wedding had 
 better be still further, or indefinitely, postponed. Per 
 haps, under the circumstances, we ought not to marry
 
 w THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 403 
 
 at all. Of course I do not mind what has taken place, 
 on my own account, but it would be an unpleasant 
 beginning for us. The abandonment of the wedding 
 need not attract great attention. It can be accounted 
 for by your father's condition. In fact, I feel that 
 after what has occurred it will really be impossible for 
 me to consider our engagement binding. A personal 
 meeting between us will not be necessary. In any 
 event I should hardly have time for it, as I sail for 
 Europe to-morrow. 
 
 This note was mailed and the writer took the next 
 day's steamer as he had announced. 
 
 Angelica was thrown into a state that may easily 
 be imagined. This seemed even a greater calamity 
 in the house than that of its owner. Mrs. Rodman 
 Harvey, overwhelmed by all these genuine evils, 
 after dealing so long with purely fictitious ones, could 
 offer her but little comfort. 
 
 Angelica, humbled by the whim of a nature as 
 ruthless and even more willful than her own, after 
 hysterical fits, weepings, and communings with her 
 broken pride, finally went off to pay a long visit, the 
 real situation of affairs being kept from the public. 
 
 In the disaster that had befallen his father, Sel 
 kirk seemed to find at last something like a profes 
 sion in life. He developed a surprising talent for 
 the new order of ministrations that now arose. No 
 hand so deft as his, no volition so ready, in attendance 
 upon the helpless bulk that had once been a mer 
 chant prince. He lifted his father affectionately in 
 and out, and supported his tottering steps. He would 
 commit to no other the duty of driving him out in a 
 peculiar springless carriage, which was arranged for 
 the purpose of giving him exercise.
 
 404 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 He neglected for these cares those of his commer 
 cial station down town. His father knew of it, and, 
 when his feeble means of communication with the 
 outer world had so far advanced, protested against it. 
 His ambition was not yet quenched, moribund as he 
 lay. It was a source of grief to him that his elder 
 son and heir should be recreant, even though employ 
 ing his time in such a service. 
 
 The younger son, Rodman, Jr., on the contrary, 
 took advantage of the state of things to leave his col 
 lege and start for the West, on a trip chiefly con 
 nected with match games of base-ball. 
 
 Ill news travels far as well as fast. The attack 
 upon Rodman Harvey went out, like all metropolitan 
 news of moment, into the country. It came to Bain- 
 bridge in a chance copy of a Chicago journal, to 
 which the district where he found himself was trib 
 utary. The story lost nothing by distance, and was 
 made appetizing by dashing alliterative head-lines. 
 
 " Knickerbocker Knaveries. Another New York 
 Nabob Shown Up," he read. 
 
 His heart sank with apprehension ; but it was for 
 Ottilie, not himself. He ran to the nearest telegraph 
 office, and sent a message. 
 
 Had Ottilie been called upon to act as a nurse in 
 the first few days she would have proved of but slight 
 use. She was too full of tremors and distractions. 
 She had a certain awe of the poor atrophied figure 
 that lay before her. By degrees, however, intelli 
 gence revived in it. Its eyes could be seen to follow 
 persons wistfully around the room. Her awe was 
 succeeded by a profound pity. 
 
 One day, after somewhat more than a week had
 
 " THE TOILS ARE LAID AND THE STAKES ARE SET." 405 
 
 passed, and she sat alone by the bedside of her uncle, 
 the dead-lock upon his faculty of speech was removed, 
 though in other respects he was little less inert than 
 before. His mind went at once to his interrupted 
 defense on the day of his overthrow. Ottilie would 
 have gone for some others, but he prevented it. He 
 directed her to bring pencil and paper, and note 
 down what he said. He apparently felt that his 
 present capacity might be of but short duration, as 
 the event proved. His newly-recovered voice died 
 away presently to a faint articulation, in which con 
 dition it permanently remained. 
 
 Selkirk came in to her aid presently. They went 
 with the statement, when complete, to Judge Chip 
 pendale, Hastings, Stoneglass, and others. 
 
 The alleged forged acceptance in the hands of 
 Ambrose Hackley was carefully examined, other 
 testimony taken, and General Burlington communi 
 cated with in the West Indies. A cheery reply was 
 received from him. Though rival and political op 
 ponent of Rodman Harvey, he professed himself a 
 man of honor, above distorting an equivocal situation 
 to the injury of even an enemy. 
 
 A committee of the Civic Reform Association was 
 called, and a report prepared, which soon put an en 
 tirely new aspect upon the affair, both before the 
 association and the public. 
 
 Nothing of all this had yet taken place, however, 
 and Ottilie was still sitting in the deepest shadow 
 and dejection of the calamity, when a telegram from 
 Bainbridge was received from the far West, couched 
 in these terms : 
 
 " Have read accounts. Is that all ? I love you. 
 Have succeeded beyond expectations here. Start to 
 morrow by through express." 
 
 so
 
 406 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Was that all ? He presumed to make light of the 
 disgrace. He loved her still ? What a person ! He 
 must be lost to all moral considerations, to all respect 
 for public decency, to treat it so. She knew what 
 she had to do, all the same. But he was coming 
 back. How noble, how generous, he was ! It would 
 be her comfort to think of it in all after time.
 
 XXV. 
 
 OTTILIE HAEVEY CLEAES UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 
 
 WHEN Russell Bainbridge returned to town, he 
 hastened with all dispatch to the Harvey mansion. 
 
 A curious sight met his gaze at the threshold. An 
 old, old man, in a dressing-robe, was being supported 
 in a slow promenade up and down the hall. A stal 
 wart attendant upheld him by each shoulder. At one 
 side walked Ottilie, holding a book and bunch of 
 keys ; at the other, her cousin Selkirk. 
 
 To this complexion had Rodman Harvey come at 
 last. He was borne along like some strange fetich. 
 His feet swung in and out mechanically and dropped 
 upon the pavement with a dull thud. There was no 
 virtue in his splendid surroundings, no magic in the 
 memory of the sway that had once been his, to break 
 the benumbing spell upon his faculties. His eyes 
 alone lived, jewels embedded in a strange, unwieldy 
 setting. 
 
 He recognized Bainbridge, and a faint mumbling 
 escaped his lips, Ottilie bent to catch it, with the ear 
 of a ready sympathy. Bainbridge remarked with a 
 pang how strongly she showed the trace of her anx 
 ieties. 
 
 " Uncle Rodman says, ' How do you do ? ' ' ' she 
 said. " He will shake hands with you." 
 
 There was something very sweet in this. It was 
 as if she were interpreting the lisping accents of a 
 child.
 
 408 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 Bainbridge, with a certain awe, took three palsied 
 fingers of his patron's hand in his own. Tears started 
 from the eyes of the merchant prince, and dribbled 
 down his cheeks. They were sedulously wiped away 
 by his attendants. 
 
 " Why was he so affected at sight of me ? " asked 
 Bainbridge, when this interview had ended, and he 
 was enabled to withdraw with Ottilie into one of the 
 reception-rooms adjoining. 
 
 " I do not think he was unusually so," she ex 
 plained. " He remembers you, and that alone suf 
 fices to excite him. He has no control whatever over 
 his faculties." 
 
 Bainbridge listened with a sympathetic air, for a 
 time, to further details of*the sad case. A pause 
 ensued. 
 
 " Well, I have returned, and you know very well 
 what for," he broke out, when he could no longer re 
 frain. " They have fair railroads, and travel toler 
 ably fast, in that model West of yours, as you say ; 
 but to me they seemed only to crawl. I thought I 
 should never get here. You knew that I would come 
 back and renew my application at the earliest possi 
 ble opportunity, did you not ? You understood per 
 fectly well that this sensational incident could make 
 no difference to me ? " 
 
 " No," returned Ottilie. " I thought it would. ' I 
 was not sure that you would come back." She di 
 rected at him an anxious, inquiring gaze. 
 
 He took both her hands in his, and swung them a 
 little back and forth affectionately as he addressed 
 her. " Never let me hear you talk in that way 
 again ! " he said. " Poor old Ottilie ! You have 
 been so troubled with all this. We must put an end
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 409 
 
 to it. I have come back to marry you, and at once. I 
 trust there are no new bugbears in the way, since you 
 see you cannot frighten me with the old. Come ; I 
 am going to have your aunt's consent, if that be a 
 necessary preliminary." 
 
 " Stay," said Ottilie, detaining him, as he made a 
 feint of going on the instant. " And you really 
 mean to say that you are not afraid of taking a share 
 of this stigma, with which the town, perhaps the 
 whole country, is ringing ? " 
 
 There was something benign and at the same time 
 mysterious in the smile with which her words were 
 accompanied. 
 
 " No, I do not seem to mind it. You used to 
 charge me with moral insensibility. Perhaps this is 
 a case of it. Moral insensibility may have its advan 
 tages, after all." 
 
 " But Mr. Kingbolt has thought it so serious that 
 he has broken off the match with Angelica." 
 
 " I always had my opinion of that fellow," receiv 
 ing this news with a manifestation of disgust. " It 
 is hard on Angelica," reflectively ; " but, between 
 ourselves, there are persons who require a certain ad 
 mixture of adversity to bring them to a proper con 
 sideration for the rest of the world, and she is pos 
 sibly one of them. Still, even adversity does not 
 always do it." 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed Ottilie. " She is extremely 
 unhappy. I am sure we ought to have nothing but 
 sympathy for her." 
 
 "Well, sympathy let it be, then. But as to the 
 scandal itself, it is written that the sins of the fathers 
 shall be visited upon the children, but I have never 
 heard that those of the uncles were. That would be
 
 410 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 a little too much. If they were, though, I will say 
 that I should not mind shouldering some trifling re 
 sponsibility of that kind. How am I to show that I 
 love you? There are no ordeals, no tests." 
 
 Ottilie had never known him more magnanimous, 
 confident, tender, irresistible. 
 
 " Well," she said, all at once changing her manner 
 to one of ravishing brightness, " since you are quite 
 sure that you do not care, since you are pleased to 
 make light of this odium upon our family name, it 
 does not exist. It is all a mistake." 
 
 " A mistake ? " 
 
 " Yes. Had my uncle not been so suddenly stricken 
 he would have explained it away on the spot. The 
 evidence is in the hands of Judge Chippendale, a 
 committee of the "Civic Reform Association, and 
 others, and will shortly be issued. It is a complete 
 vindication. Oh, you cannot know what a weight it 
 has raised from my life ! A dread, nourished by cir 
 cumstances recurring with a kind of fatality, had 
 grown upon me for months. I used to dream the 
 most terrible things. I saw my uncle among those 
 convicts we looked down upon that day from the 
 Terrace. I awoke and found myself crying, and beg 
 ging them to let him go." 
 
 " Poor child, poor child ! We ought to have talked 
 it over together. I feared to give your suspicions ex 
 aggerated importance by appearing to understand 
 them." 
 
 Bainbridge had the details of the attack upon the 
 merchant prince well in mind. He had pored over 
 them in his newspaper, seeking flaws from the legal 
 point of view, and was prepared to appreciate the 
 points of the defense.
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 411 
 
 "My uncle Rodman," said Ottilie in substance, 
 " has come to look differently from before at many 
 things in his past life. He has confessed to me that 
 he fears that he was at one time too inconsiderate of 
 all but pecuniary advantage. He adjusted himself to 
 the world as he found it, giving no thought to reform 
 it or resist objectionable tendencies. As to the senti 
 ment of patrotism, he says that it had never been 
 aroused to prominence in his breast by any threat of 
 danger to the country. His attitude towards slavery, 
 now so heinous, was that of what was called the ' con 
 servative ' element of the time. He says that, however 
 it may appear in the letters, which have possibly 
 been added to, he did not really foresee the bloody 
 conflict that arose. He thinks that he could never 
 have been drawn to actually side against the govern 
 ment." 
 
 " It is hardly what one would call a striking de 
 fense, from the modern point of view," said Bain- 
 bridge. " Still, he amply compensated for any tem 
 porizing conduct at first by his vigor later on." 
 
 " Fortunately, the rest is more satisfactory. Let 
 me show you, as it has been explained to me, the 
 baseless character of the allegation of forgery. Uncle 
 Rodman was on the brink of ruin that day, as they 
 claim. He had been refused an extension at the Ant 
 arctic Bank, and sat in his office, expecting failure, 
 and unable to raise hand or foot to avert it. In his 
 well-nigh distracted condition, he scribbled on paper 
 before him imaginary notes, bills, and acceptances. 
 * Thus and so much,' he said to himself, ' such and 
 such a name or names as indorsers, would save me.' 
 They must have been like those visions of water con 
 jured up by travelers perishing of thirst. There was
 
 412 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 no imitation of signatures, no other handwriting than 
 his own, no regular aspect to the papers at all. 
 Some of them were but half written, others covered 
 with scrawled flourishes or multiplications. But 
 some of these got into the bank with commercial pa 
 per that was really genuine." 
 
 " I begin to see," said Bainbridge. " A danger 
 ous error, but, I imagine, a very infrequent one." 
 
 " Dangerous indeed," Ottilie went on. " One 
 would have thought that they would have been at 
 once thrown out, as showing on their face what they 
 were ; but it was not so. Now it so happened that 
 this day was one of the most remarkable in a peculiar 
 time. Under the influence of the imminent prospect 
 of war, the prices of commodities were advancing al 
 most from moment to moment. Small dealers every 
 where were desirous to buy, to realize the further rise 
 themselves. Orders by mail, by telegraph, and per 
 sonal visit poured in at an unheard-of rate. The act 
 ual sales and money receipts at my uncle's store on 
 that day have never been equaled, before or since. 
 He was aroused from his lethargy to new hopes. 
 With the almost miraculous resources thus obtained, 
 and new exertions which he was encouraged to make 
 outside, before the close of banking hours his credit 
 was saved. The greater part of the sum demanded 
 was paid in. Little is done calmly on such occasions, 
 as you may imagine. Messengers, buyers, and sales 
 men were rushing wildly in and out, demanding the 
 proprietor's attention. How it happened that the 
 pretended acceptances became mingled with the oth 
 ers, and went into the bank for deposit and collection, 
 cannot now be explained, but by some fatality they 
 did. Two of them bore the name of the great manu-
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 413 
 
 facturer, Colonel Kingbolt of Kingboltsville, then al 
 most a household word. This was the germ of the 
 calamitous consequences we have witnessed." 
 
 " But why but how? " Bainbridge began to ask. 
 
 " That is what I am going on to tell. The presi 
 dent sent for uncle Rodman. As everything is im 
 portant in a bank, it seems that he thought it his 
 duty to do so. They had a little chat together, and 
 all was amicably explained. My uncle insisted on 
 sending the bank messenger to bring the waste-bas 
 ket from his store, to show just how the scribbling 
 had been done, and how insignificant it was. Thus 
 there was no appearance of forgery, and furthermore, 
 as my uncle's bank account did not need the amount, 
 no motive for it. The petty circumstance would 
 never have been heard of again except for two rea 
 sons. An over-zealous employee, new in the service 
 of the bank, had telegraphed to Kingboltsville. Sec 
 ondly, when the pretended acceptances should have 
 been returned to uncle Rodman, one was missing. It 
 was not seen again until it turned up in the hands of 
 his enemy Hackley, who had retained it all these 
 years for his own purposes. It was plainly seen by 
 Judge Chippendale and the committee, when they in 
 spected it the other day, and compared it with Col 
 onel Kingbolt's writing, that it was uncle Rodman's, 
 without disguise, and there was but the faintest re 
 semblance between the two. The committee had 
 considerable difficulty in getting it from Mr. Hackley, 
 who knew well enough the weakness of his cause, but 
 dared not refuse." 
 
 " Artfully planned on the part of Mr. Sprowle On- 
 derdonk," commented the listener, when the story 
 was finished. " I would not have given him credit
 
 414 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 for ability to make so much of so little. And boldly 
 planned as well. They could not have expected to 
 do any permanent harm with it. It must have been 
 meant only as a bombshell in the enemy's camp on 
 the eve of the marriage of his daughter and his prob 
 able appointment to the cabinet. They were favored 
 by the state of his health. The Sprowles have well 
 repaid the affront offered them." 
 
 " Upon the conclusion of that day of exciting ex 
 periences my uncle fell ill of a fever," pursued Ottilie. 
 " Thus you see that it is an occasion marked in bis 
 memory in numerous ways. He scored up all his suf 
 ferings to the account of the South." 
 
 She paused, then resumed, in a lingering way. " I 
 do not know whether I ought to tell you this," she 
 said, " but I tell you everything, and it will go no 
 farther. Uncle Rodman admits to me that while he 
 sat helpless at his desk he had a terrible temptation. 
 Had other means not intervened, he is not sure but 
 he might have done what he has been charged with. 
 He says, ' They might have made me a forger. ' ' 
 
 " ' There, but for the grace of God, goes John 
 Knox reformer,' " broke in Bainbridge. " You know 
 the quotation. We all know something of the feel- 
 ing." 
 
 " He could not bear the thought of going down to 
 ruin from such a cause," said the young girl. " It 
 was a certain dallying with this temptation, that ac 
 counted for his agitation, in having suspicion cast 
 upon him shortly after. He half felt it to be just, 
 though he had not gone to the actual point of yield 
 ing, nor committed any tangible crime. It was this 
 that added the keenest edge to his hatred of his 
 Southern debtors. Their betrayal had driven one of
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 415 
 
 his exceptionally strict ideas of commercial upright 
 ness to such a pass. Had he succumbed, the fault of 
 this, with the rest, would have been at their door. It 
 was this, too, it seems, that accounted for his inter 
 est in the cases of which I have told you, which I, in 
 my too ready apprehensiveness, took for remorse and 
 guilt." 
 
 " He is not bad, then," said Bainbridge. 
 
 " I cannot think he is bad. He has been over-am 
 bitious, rigid, in certain peculiar ideas, and warped by 
 a strong sense of injury. I am sure there must be 
 many worse." 
 
 " Well, since it is out of the way, and there is no 
 need of our standing by it, it did have a somewhat 
 ugly look. Let us rejoice as at a happy deliverance, 
 for your sake, dear Ottilie, since it made you uneasy, 
 not mine ! I would have gladly put up with fifty 
 times as much. But I cannot dwell on gloomy sub 
 jects to-day. Let me tell you of my success in Colo 
 rado. My friend, the absconding debtor, came down 
 at once on seeing me, without putting me to the 
 trouble of legal proceedings. He was able to pay, 
 and did so, with what excuses for his past conduct he 
 could trump up. I, overjoyed to get my money, was 
 not too particular in my scrutiny of them. The sum 
 is a modest one, but it will do to begin life upon. 
 Come, now, dear child ! come, dear little mistress of 
 all the arts and sciences, a date for the wedding, a 
 very speedy one ! " 
 
 How sweet were his epithets of affection ! Such 
 things are said a thousand times, but ah, those earli 
 est times ! 
 
 " We need no long engagement," he went on. 
 " Our whole acquaintance has been a kind of engage-
 
 416 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 ment. It seems to me that we know each other very 
 well." 
 
 " My family will be very much surprised." 
 
 " Families always are, you know, but they get used 
 to it." 
 
 " There are so many things to be done." ' 
 
 " Don't do them ! Let them wait ! " 
 
 " Well, in a year." This by way of trying him. 
 
 Bainbridge opened his eyes in amazement. " I like 
 that ! " he said. " A fortnight ! " 
 
 " Oh, oh ! Three months, at least," insisted Otti- 
 lie, amazed in her turn. This limit, however, after 
 sufficient pleading, was cut down to six weeks. 
 
 " My uncle will perhaps object," she urged later. 
 u He may consider me necessary as a nurse." 
 
 " That is one of the very reasons. You are fagged 
 out. You will break down. You can come back if 
 you are really wanted. And, another thing, I am not 
 quite sure that I feel sufficient confidence in my own 
 surpassing merits to leave you too long. It has been 
 the greatest wonder to me that some of the young 
 millionaires have not snapped you up before now. 
 They have eyes in their heads, I suppose, and I am 
 sure they have tried. There is no telling, even now, 
 whether they may not make their inducements too 
 strong. Human nature is weak." 
 
 " You are trusting, I must say. No, they have not 
 snapped me up. They have not tried, except of 
 course that ridiculous Stillsby, and my cousin Sel 
 kirk." 
 
 " Your cousin Selkirk ? " cried Bainbridge in con 
 sternation. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; but I heroically refused. I tell nobody 
 else ; only you. I shall have no secrets left presently.
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 417 
 
 It was only the other day. It came about, perhaps, 
 through the intimacy into which we have been 
 thrown by our care for his father. He had never made 
 love to me before, unless it be making love to ex 
 plain his collections, and take me out to drive once or 
 twice. He declared, in his backward, hesitating way, 
 that I was one of the reasons why he had not married. 
 He complimented me by saying that I was different 
 from other girls, though how I am so different, I 
 really don't know. He would esteem my advice and 
 help in the management of his property. I told him 
 that I could not think of marrying so near a relative 
 on any account ; nor would I, though some do, you 
 know. That alone was a sufficient excuse. We had 
 a talk of considerable length. Selkirk is amiable and 
 easily influenced, and yet not without strength in a 
 certain way. I left him well disposed towards me. 
 I am sure that it was only a fleeting fancy, and he 
 will think no more of it." 
 
 Bainbridge was lost in admiration at this, as if she 
 had made an extraordinary sacrifice for him. He 
 drew her towards him. 
 
 " But you want somebody whom you can put 
 upon a pedestal," she demurred. " No mere ordi 
 nary woman will do." 
 
 " I have put you there long since, darling Ottilie," 
 he said, rendered more ardent by her tantalizing ways. 
 " You see before you the most abject of idolaters." 
 
 " Take care ! Perhnps it is better not to touch 
 idols; the gilding may rub off." But then she re 
 signed herself deliciously, with, 
 
 " After all, one feels rather topply on a pedestal, 
 at first." 
 
 "I wish I could make you understand how utterly 
 27
 
 418 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 without personal needs I have become," said Bain- 
 bridge, " how good I want to be to you. I wish there 
 were some way of letting you alone enjoy all that I 
 have, or ever could have, while I but looked on and 
 saw it done. For me the one thing important is " 
 
 " ' Whether she will stick to a fellow; whether she 
 will pull (through thick and thin with him,' " she in 
 terrupted, mimicking his sage talk of the past sum 
 mer, almost as a resource for not weeping with hap 
 piness. " Well, she has, and she will." 
 
 She laid a soft, round cheek against his. 
 
 It was a pleasant sight to see, as it was often seen 
 now, the fair young girl seated by the chair of the 
 invalid. It was a pleasant sound to hear, her fresh 
 young voice, raised in contrast with his mumbled 
 tones. She amused, as it were, a child, but such an 
 old, heart-weary, tragical child ! Bainbridge could 
 not conceal his enthusiasm over her. Mrs. Rodman 
 Harvey looked at him with interest, contrasting him 
 with Kingbolt, and said to Ottilie, 
 
 " Here, child, let me look at you ! Have we indeed 
 had such a paragon in the house all this time, with 
 out knowing it ? " 
 
 Bainbridge paid some calls with Ottilie, among 
 other places, at the Hastings'. The visit so strongly 
 recalled the last evening they had spent there, that 
 he was scarcely lucid in talk with Mrs. Hastings. 
 His thoughts wandered continually to his betrothed. 
 She sat across the room in a fresh, simple toilette 
 that became her admirably. She tapped her parasol 
 against her small boot as she conversed. 
 
 " She is mine," he said to himself, in a kind of won 
 der. " She is mine."
 
 OTTILIE HARVEY CLEARS UP A PAINFUL SITUATION. 419 
 
 The roar of the streets now boomed for him, as he 
 came up town, a triumphal march. The sky, from 
 his office window, seemed of a more delicate azure, 
 the sunshine of a finer quality, in the part of the 
 town where Ottilie was, as a city is indicated at night 
 by the glow in the heavens above it. 
 
 He chanced to fall in with Mrs. Elphinstone Swan, 
 who already began to wear her widow's weeds with 
 a certain worldly air. 
 
 " Are you never going to speak to me again ? " 
 this lady asked. " I should still value your friend 
 ship. You did not understand me." 
 
 She made other efforts to draw him back to her, 
 but without avail. Whether prompted by a late re 
 pentance or a new inspiration of coquetry, they 
 hardly caused him even a bitter reflection. To him 
 she was utterly dead. 
 
 It was again spring, and the white blossoms of the 
 magnolia shrubs were in bloom. It might have been 
 remarked that that which had been planted before 
 the corner-stone of the Harvey mansion, so singularly 
 marked with the fossil print, had now a much less 
 mission to perform. The bird-track, if bird-track it 
 were, had disappeared, little by little, through the 
 continued flaking of the stone, till it was well-nigh 
 obliterated. The superstitious might now have con 
 sidered that the omen also had exhausted itself, and 
 would be of no further avail. 
 
 The mind in the helpless frame of the merchant 
 prince still gave evidence of vigor ; but in the pale 
 white light that shines from a near approach to an 
 other world he saw many subjects as he had never 
 seen them before. He remitted debts, among others 
 that which had so long hung over the Hasbrouck
 
 420 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. 
 
 family. Ottilie had the pleasure of being the first to 
 convey to her old friends the delightful intelligence. 
 
 Miss Emily Rawson was married presently to the 
 Rev. Edwin Swan. She turned her superfluous en 
 ergy into channels of benevolence, and all the good 
 works in the parish had reason to be glad of her ac 
 quisition. At about the same time came news of the 
 great frauds in the Eureka Tool Works of King- 
 boltsville. Judge Bryan, the principal trustee, was 
 a defaulter, and young Kingbolt was hurrying home 
 from Europe in alarm. People said unsympatheti- 
 cally, that if the heir had ever taken the pains to 
 look after his own affairs this could never have hap 
 pened. 
 
 The ambitions of the merchant prince were as keen 
 as ever, but he had been disappointed in the traits of 
 his children. He was called away presently to his 
 long rest. The notable bodies of various sorts with 
 which he had been connected passed resolutions of 
 respect to his memory, and transmitted copies to the 
 bereaved family, and a stately column of polished 
 granite arose above his remains at Greenwood. 
 
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 opened it was found to have devised a large share of 
 his property to charities and institutions of learning. 
 
 It also devised, " in affectionate remembrance 
 of her devotion, and many amiable qualities," a 
 handsome fortune to his " beloved niece Ottilie Har 
 vey, wife of Russell Bainbridge." 
 
 The opportunities of her new position scintillated 
 before the vision of this charming young legatee like 
 a shower of sparks.
 
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 A Catalogue containing portraits of many of the above authors, 
 with a description of their works, will be sent free, on application, 
 to any address.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444
 
 A 001372283 o 
 
 Bishop - 
 The house of a 
 181 merchant prince. 
 
 PS 
 
 1100 
 H81