,THE OLD GENTLEMAN, 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 
 
 '<*??* 
 
 THOMAS NELSON PAGE
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 THE OLD GENTLEMAN OF 
 THE BLACK STOCK
 
 THE IVORY SERIES 
 Each, 16mo, gilt top, 75 cents 
 
 AMOS JUOD. By J. A. Mitchell 
 Editor of "Life" 
 
 IA. A Love Story. By Q 
 [Arthur T. Quiller-Couch] 
 
 THE SUICIDE CLUB 
 
 By Robert Louis Stevenson 
 
 IRRALIE'S BUSHRANGER 
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 A MASTER SPIRIT 
 
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 MADAME DELPH1NE 
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 ONE OF THE VISCONTI 
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 By Cornelia Atwood Pratt 
 
 A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH 
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 THE MAN WHO WINS 
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 THE OLD GENTLEMAN OF 
 THE BLACK STOCK 
 
 By Thomas Nelson Page 
 
 Other Volumes to be announced
 
 THE 
 
 OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BLACK STOCK 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS NELSON PAGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1897
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTING AND OOKBINDINO COMPANY 
 NEW YORK
 
 PS 
 
 To My Daughters, MINNA FIELD and 
 FLORENCE FIELD, My Two Most 
 Constant and Indulgent Readers.
 
 THE OLD GENTLEMAN OF 
 THE BLACK STOCK 
 
 HE was one of my first acquaintances 
 when I came up to town to live ; for though 
 Ldid not learn his name for some time after 
 ward, I met him almost immediately after 
 I gave up my country identity and melted 
 into the sea of the city, and thenceforth I 
 always knew him, though, as I found many 
 others did, only as "the old gentleman of 
 the black stock." 
 
 Why I spoke to him that summer morn 
 ing I can readily understand ; but why he 
 spoke to me I did not know until long after 
 ward. I was lonely and homesick. I had
 
 2 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 not met any one except my cousin, who had 
 given me a place in his law office and was 
 most kind to me, but who was too busy a 
 man to talk much ; the two or three gentle 
 men, all older than myself, who had offices 
 on our floor, and the few people who lived 
 at the little private boarding-house in the 
 old part of the town where I had taken the 
 tiny hall-room on the third floor. All of 
 these last, too, were older than I, and seemed 
 so very much older. At twenty-one a few 
 years make a great difference. And all the 
 young people of my own age whom I saw 
 on the street appeared to know each other 
 so well, just as I had known my friends in 
 the country, and to be so entirely all-suf 
 ficient to each other, that it made me feel 
 pushed out and shut off from all the world. 
 So I remember that as I walked that morn 
 ing down the shaded, quiet street with the
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 3 
 
 old square houses on either side set back in 
 their big yards, I had forgotten my dreams 
 of the future, which had heretofore gilded 
 my little room and peopled my quiet office, 
 and was back in the past among the over 
 grown fence-rows and fields of my country 
 home. It was then that I met the old gen 
 tleman of the black stock for the first time, 
 and he spoke to me. 
 
 Of course, then, I spoke to him. I was 
 ready to speak to any one : would have 
 spoken to any one in the world ; had, in 
 deed, not yet gotten over the strange feel 
 ing at not speaking to every one I met, in 
 accordance with the country custom which 
 made passing any one on the road without 
 a bow a breach of manners. 
 
 I was strolling along an old street that 
 morning, looking at the old yards full of 
 trees and shrubbery in a tangled and some-
 
 4 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 what neglected state, which reminded me of 
 the yard at home, and had only half taken 
 in the fact that out of the largest and most 
 tangled of them, surrounding perhaps the 
 oldest and most retired house on the street, 
 had come some one an old gentleman who 
 had paused just outside his broken gate, and 
 was looking back at the trees behind him. 
 I insensibly followed his eye, and looked up 
 at the trees myself as I walked slowly along. 
 There were three or four big locusts, two 
 elms, and one beech, all large and very old. 
 The beech had a seat under it, and it was at 
 this that the old gentleman's gaze seemed to 
 be particularly directed. They, too, re 
 minded me of the country : everything did ; 
 and I suppose I must have had that in my 
 face ; for when I brought my gaze down to- 
 the ground again I was only a few paces 
 from the old gentleman at the gate, and
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 5 
 
 when I glanced at him I caught his eye and 
 looked away. I glanced at him again, for 
 there was something about him which was 
 unusual, quite as unusual as that square of 
 old houses and yards in a growing city, and 
 he attracted me. He seemed just to fit in 
 with them, and to be separate from the rest 
 of the people I had seen : almost as separate 
 as I was. So when I looked at him again I 
 tried to do it as if quite casually, and to 
 take in as much of him as I could in my 
 glance. The principal features which I 
 noted were a tall, slender figure neatly clad 
 in the manner in which an old gentleman of 
 his age should be clad, with a black broad 
 cloth frock-coat, somewhat more flowing 
 than usual, however, and a black stock up 
 to the chin, with a high, white unstarched 
 collar falling over it, such as I remembered 
 very old gentlemen used to wear years before
 
 6 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 when I was a child, but such as I had not 
 seen for years. This was all that I took in 
 of his dress ; for I caught his eye again as my 
 glance reached his thin and somewhat care 
 worn face, clean-shaven except for a white 
 mustache. His eyes were gray, and were 
 set back very far under somewhat heavy 
 brows, and I looked into them involunta 
 rily. He did not give me time to look 
 away again ; but spoke to me easily, pleas 
 antly, quite so much, indeed, as if he had 
 known me that it flashed across my mind in 
 the half-second which passed before I re 
 turned his salutation that he had mistaken 
 me for some one else. I replied, however, 
 "Good-morning, sir," and as a sort of 
 apology for my stare, said, " You have some 
 fine old trees there, sir," and was passing 
 on with a somewhat quickened step, when 
 he said : " Yes, sir, they were very fine once,
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 7 
 
 and would be so now if they could escape 
 the universal curse of age. You are fond of 
 trees ? " he added, as I had paused to avoid 
 leaving him while he was speaking. 
 
 ''Yes, sir; I was brought up amongst 
 them." 
 
 I was going on to say that they carried 
 me back to my home, but he did not give 
 me time. 
 
 " How long have you been from the 
 country ? " he asked. 
 
 I was a little taken aback ; for, apart 
 from the fact that his abrupt question im 
 plied that he knew I was not a city man, 
 I was sufficiently conscious of a certain 
 difference between myself and the young 
 city fellows I met to think that he meant 
 to remark on my countrified appearance. 
 So, with a half-formed idea that he might 
 explain himself differently, I simply said :
 
 8 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 "Sir?" 
 
 " How long have you been in the 
 city?" 
 
 "Oh, about three weeks," I said, with 
 assumed indifference, and still feeling a 
 little uncomfortable over the meaning I 
 assigned him, and gradually getting some 
 what warm over it, I moved to go on. 
 
 " Where are you from ? " he asked. 
 
 I told him the county. 
 
 "Oh, I thought so!" he said, and 
 scanned me so boldly and, I fancied, rude 
 ly that I said, quite shortly : 
 
 " Good-morning, sir." 
 
 It was only when I went over in my mind 
 afterward all the circumstances of the in 
 terview to see if I could find anything to 
 soothe my wounded spirit that I recalled 
 how gracious his manner was, and how 
 courteous his tone as he returned my part-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 9 
 
 ing salute, and decided that he could not 
 have meant to insult or wound me. 
 
 I asked my cousin who he was, and at 
 tempted to describe him ; but though I 
 went into some detail and, I know, gave a 
 faithful portraiture of him, my cousin, who 
 was a man about town as well as a lawyer 
 in extensive practice, failed to recognize 
 him from my description. 
 
 In time I made acquaintances, and in 
 further time yet I secured practice enough 
 to justify me in selecting more commodious 
 quarters than those I at first had in my little 
 hall room. And as I fell into city ways I 
 began to visit more and more, until I be 
 came quite as much of a city man, and, 
 indeed, of a society man, as a still very 
 modest income, coupled with some ambi 
 tion to increase it, would allow. Yet I 
 never met my old gentleman of the black
 
 10 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 stock in any of the bright houses I visited, 
 or, indeed, anywhere else except on the 
 street, and there only very rarely, perhaps 
 two or three times at most in the two years 
 which went by before I ever did more 
 than exchange his passing and pleasant 
 salutation.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 1 1 
 
 II 
 
 Two years or so after the summer morn 
 ing when I met him coming out of the 
 shady yard on that old street (it was, I 
 remember, in the month of May), I was 
 passing down a business street one morning 
 when a vehicle coining along attracted my 
 attention. It was only one of a number of 
 carriages that were coming down the prin 
 cipal driving street from the fashionable 
 residence quarter of the town, and were 
 turning into the chief shopping street of the 
 city ; but of all the number this one at 
 tracted my attention most. For whilst the 
 others were city equipages with showy 
 teams, and fashionable women lolling back 
 in the easy, or pretendedly easy, style of
 
 12 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 ladies of fashion when they honor the trad 
 ing section at the change of the seasons, 
 and who, if they knew me, condescended 
 to acknowledge my bow with cold super 
 ciliousness, this vehicle challenged my in 
 terest at once. It was an old country 
 carriage, and as I walked along through the 
 balmy spring-time air which felt like 
 feathers on my cheek, I had just been 
 thinking before I saw it of the country and 
 of the little willow-shaded stream where I 
 used to fish in spring when the leaves were 
 tender like those above me, before I became 
 a lawyer and a man of affairs. Just then 
 the old carriage came swinging down the 
 hill. It was antiquated and high-swung 
 and " shackling ; " as muddy as a country 
 wagon, and drawn by two ill-matched 
 though not ill-bred horses, spattered with 
 mud to their ears, their long tails tied up in
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 13 
 
 knots, and was driven by an old darky with 
 a low beaver hat and a high white collar. 
 It reminded me of the old carriage, with 
 its old driver, Uncle Balla, at home. But 
 what struck me more than anything else 
 as it passed me was that it was filled with 
 fresh young country girls, who, oblivious of 
 the restraining requirements of fashion, 
 were poking their pretty heads out of the 
 windows, three at a time, to look at every 
 thing on the street that struck their fancy, 
 and with glowing cheeks and dancing eyes 
 were chattering to each other in the highest 
 spirits, showing their white teeth, and go 
 ing off into fits of laughter over the fun they 
 were making for themselves, whilst a sweet- 
 faced lady, with gray hair and a patrician 
 profile, smiled softly and happily among 
 them, well content with their gayety and joy. 
 They caught my eye, for I never saw more
 
 14 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 roses in one carriage, and I had stopped 
 and was staring at them open - mouthed, 
 with a warm glow about my heart, and a 
 growing tenderness coming over me as I 
 gazed. I suppose I must have shown this 
 somehow. I may even have sighed, for I 
 thought again of my fishing days and the 
 country girls I knew whom these were like. 
 One of them particularly struck me, and I 
 thought I had caught her gaze on me, when 
 a hand was laid on my shoulder, and a 
 voice just beside me said : " My son, when 
 you want a wife, stop a carriage like that 
 and pick one out of it. You might almost 
 do it at random ; you could hardly go 
 amiss." 
 
 I turned, and there was my old gentle 
 man of the black stock. I smiled my 
 thanks to him and passed on, whilst he 
 walked up the street. I had not gone over
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 15 
 
 two steps when some one touched me, and 
 a gentleman, evidently a stranger in the 
 town, said to me, "I beg your pardon; 
 can you tell me who that old gentleman 
 is?" I turned, and he indicated my old 
 friend, for at that moment I felt him to be 
 such. He was walking up the street quite 
 slowly, with his head a little bowed, and 
 his hands clasped behind his back, as lonely 
 as an obelisk in a desert. 
 
 " No, I am very sorry, but I cannot," I 
 said. 
 
 "Oh, I thought I saw you speak to 
 him," he said, with a little disappointment. 
 
 " I did, but I do not know his name." 
 
 " I have rarely seen a more striking- 
 looking man," said he, as he went on. 
 
 I do not know just why it was, but I 
 found myself shopping all that day. As 
 soon as I had gotten through with whatever
 
 1 6 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 I was doing, I went back up the street and 
 began to search diligently among the throng 
 of vehicles there for an old carriage. I 
 went up square after square looking for it 
 among the shining equipages with their 
 pompous coachmen and sleek horses, and 
 then, not finding it, went through the 
 second shopping street. But all was in 
 vain. It was plain that the driver was 
 feeding his horses somewhere at a livery- 
 stable. So I even went as far as to enter 
 three or four of the larger and more fre 
 quented stores on the street in the hope of 
 catching a glimpse once more of a pink face 
 and a pair of laughing eyes which I had 
 caught smiling at me out of the window of 
 the old coach. I had wandered fruitlessly 
 through several long floors, between aisles of 
 women's backs of every shape and species of 
 curve or stiffness, with attentive clerks or
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 17 
 
 tired women standing on the other side of 
 the counters, and had just given up my 
 search in despair and was returning to my 
 office, when I passed a milliner's window. 
 I happened to glance in, and there were my 
 rosebuds clustered together in front of a 
 large mirror, my especial one in the midst 
 of the group, with a great broad-brimmed 
 straw hat covered with roses on top of her 
 little brown head, shading her fresh face, 
 making, as she stood before the mirror pen 
 sively turning her little person from side to 
 side, one of the prettiest pictures in the 
 world. Fool that I was ! I might have 
 known that a girl would go first for a bon 
 net. She must have received a compliment 
 just then, though whether it was from one 
 of her sisters or from the glass only, I do 
 not know ; for at the same moment that she 
 turned to her sister, she suddenly smiled
 
 1 8 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 (thank Heaven ! the sister stood on the side 
 toward the window ! I just loved her for it) 
 a smile which lit up her face so that even 
 the over-sheltering hat with its roses could 
 not shadow it, but seemed only a bower for 
 the lovelier roses beneath. I had become 
 so engrossed with the pretty tableau that I 
 had forgotten I might be seen from within 
 quite plainly, and stood staring open-eyed 
 at my young beauty through the window, 
 so that when I became aware she was look 
 ing through the glass, past her sister, and 
 straight into my eyes, I gave quite a jump 
 at my rudeness. The look of embarrass 
 ment, almost bordering on horror, which 
 was on her face was all that I saw, and I 
 almost fled toward my office. I learned 
 afterward that had I waited I should have 
 seen her confusion give way to uncontrol 
 lable amusement over my flight. If I fled,
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 19 
 
 however, it was only a momentary stampede, 
 which my growing ardor soon checked, and 
 I stopped at the next corner, and crossing 
 over the street, waited to watch from a 
 more secure quarter further developments 
 at the milliner's. I had not long to wait, 
 for shortly from the door sallied the three 
 young nymphs, each under a new and wide 
 straw hat ; but only one now filled my eye 
 the wide-brimmed creation which served 
 as setting for the flower-garden above the yet 
 more charming flower-garden below, which 
 even at that distance I could see glowing in 
 the cheeks of the youngest, and possibly the 
 tallest of the three sisters. They passed 
 down the street arm in arm, laughing heart 
 ily, especially my little lady, at something 
 (I learned afterward at my sudden jump 
 and unexpected flight), and turned in at a 
 dry-goods store: one which I had already
 
 20 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 threaded that morning in my search for my 
 unknown lady. If there was any common 
 though unwritten law against a man's going 
 into a millinery store, there was, thank 
 Heaven, none against his going into a dry- 
 goods store; at least, if he could devise 
 some want which he could get supplied 
 there. I had the want, beyond doubt ; but 
 a sweetheart, if she were wholly unknown, 
 as happened to be the case with me, would 
 palpably not do; I could not ask for her. 
 So I cudgelled my brains for something that 
 I might ask for if I were halted within. I 
 finally lit on neckties. Neckties give time 
 in the examination and selection, and have 
 a sort of half-way place between a woman's 
 wear and a man's. So, having made this 
 resolution, I ventured in, and found the 
 same rows of backs, augmented somewhat 
 by new additions, bending over piles of
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 21 
 
 every conceivable stuff, and the same as 
 siduous clerks and tired women on the other 
 side of the counters. As I passed on I 
 heard many criticisms and some complaints 
 some harsh, some only petulant from 
 the women with backs, received for the 
 most part in silence by the women without 
 backs. Suddenly I started to find myself 
 quite close to the large hat with the roses 
 which I now knew so well. It was forming 
 a bower for the pretty head, at the moment 
 bending over a piece or pieces of some 
 lawny white stuff. Her gloves were off, and 
 the slender little hands were feeling the text 
 ure with a touch as soft as if it had been 
 cobweb. Her face, which I could see in 
 profile, was deeply serious. 
 
 "It is beautiful beautiful; I wish I 
 could get it," she almost sighed; "but I 
 am afraid it is too dear for me ; I have only
 
 22 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 so much to spend. Do you think you could 
 possibly find anything a little lower and 
 almost as pretty that you could show me ? ' ' 
 She glanced up at the shop-girl before her 
 with a little smile I was going to say al 
 most pitiful ; but the expression which came 
 on her face as she looked into the tired 
 eyes above her banished that. " Aren't you 
 very tired?" she asked, suddenly, with the 
 sweetest, tenderest tone in the world. " I 
 should think you would be." 
 
 "Oh, it's a pleasure to wait on you," 
 said the older woman, sincerely, as she 
 turned away to her shelves, pleased at 
 the tone of sympathy. And who would 
 not think so ! I, at least, did ; and, 
 overcome by a sudden feeling, as my 
 young rose - nymph whose face had lit up 
 at the praise turned to take a survey of 
 the crowd about her, I, abandoning my
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 23 
 
 idea of neckties, turned and hurried out 
 of the store. 
 
 It was a strange feeling, delicious to me. 
 I knew that I must be in love. I did not 
 even know her name; but I knew her 
 eyes, her voice, her heart, and they were 
 enough. 
 
 As I came out on the street there was 
 the old carriage coming slowly along down, 
 with the old driver looking anxiously to 
 one side, as if to recognize some given sign. 
 
 "If you want a wife, stop a carriage like 
 that, and take one out of it ; even at ran 
 dom you can hardly go amiss," had said 
 my old gentleman of the black stock, and I 
 believed him. 
 
 I could not resist the temptation to go up 
 and render my first act of assistance to the 
 family. I signed to the driver, and he 
 stopped.
 
 24 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 i 
 
 "You are looking for your young mis 
 tress? "I said. 
 
 "Yes, suh; mistis tell me to come and 
 stop right by two big rocks in front of a red 
 sto'. Dyah's de sto', but I b'lieve dee 
 done move dem rocks. I see 'em heah dis 
 mornin' when I went by." He gave an 
 other look. 
 
 "They are there still," I said, recogniz 
 ing the two carriage stones by his descrip 
 tion, " but those carriages hide them." 
 
 " Yes, suh; I never see sich folks in my 
 life. Dee'll put dee kerridge right in yo' 
 way, don' keer what you do, and dee won' 
 git out to save yo' life. Mistis told me to 
 be here by three, an' " 
 
 "Why, it's only half-past one now," I 
 said. 
 
 "Yes, suh; but I likes to be sort o' 
 promptual in town. See dem kerridges by
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 25 
 
 dem rocks now. I jes want to git in dyah 
 once, an' I boun' dee oon git me out agin 
 b'fo' my mistises come. I don' like dese 
 city ways, an' I never did like a citified 
 nigger nohow. I got a right good ways to 
 go too." 
 
 "How far do you live from town?" I 
 asked him. I was growing guileful. 
 
 " In and about eighteen miles, suh. I 
 start b'fo' 'light dis mornin'. I comes from 
 Colonel Dale's ole place. Hill-an'-Dale ' 
 dee calls it." 
 
 I knew at once then who my wild rose 
 was. The Dales were among the best old 
 people in the State, and " Hill-and-Dale " 
 was as well known as the capital city : one 
 of the old country places celebrated for gen 
 erations as the home of hospitality and re 
 finement. Colonel Dale had died not very 
 long after the war from a wound received at
 
 26 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 Gaines' Mill, and had left a widow and a 
 family of young daughters, whose reputation 
 for beauty had reached me even before I left 
 my old country home, though I had never 
 seen any of them, as their home was in 
 another county, quite seventy miles from us. 
 
 "Well, they are in that store now," I 
 said, to put his mind at rest. " At least, 
 one of them is. ' ' 
 
 "Is dee?" he asked. The next second 
 he gave a bow over my head. " Dyah's 
 Miss Lizbeth now," he said in some ex 
 citement, trying to attract her attention. 
 "Miss Lizbeth, Miss Lizbeth," he called; 
 " heah me, heah me." But it was in vain. 
 I turned in some confusion ; but she was 
 standing under her big straw hat just out 
 side of the door, looking alternately up and 
 down, evidently expecting someone who 
 had promised to come and had not. My
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 27 
 
 resolution was taken in a second, though it 
 set my heart to thumping against my ribs to 
 do it. 
 
 "Wait," I said. "I will tell her for 
 you." And I actually walked up to her, 
 and taking off my hat, said, "I beg your 
 pardon, but I think your driver is there, 
 trying to attract your attention." 
 
 "Is he? Thank you. Where?" she 
 said, so sweetly that my already bumping 
 heart began to bound. Then, as I indicat 
 ed the direction and she caught the old 
 man's eye, her face lit up with that charm 
 ing smile, which was like sunlight breaking 
 out on an already sweet and lovely prospect. 
 
 "Oh, thank you," she said again, trip 
 ping away, whilst I passed on to make it ap 
 pear that I had only happened accidentally 
 to see her driver's signal. 
 
 I turned a few rods farther on, however,
 
 28 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 as if quite casually, to get another peep at 
 her. 
 
 She stood on the very edge of the curb 
 stone, bending forward, talking very ear 
 nestly to her driver out in the street, but 
 just as I turned she caught up her dress with 
 a graceful motion and tripped over to the 
 carriage, showing as she did so just a glimpse 
 of the daintiest pair of ankles in the world. 
 Then the intervening carriages shut her out 
 from view, and I went on. 
 
 So the name of my prize was Elizabeth 
 Dale, and I had spoken to her. 
 
 I did not fail to pass along the street 
 again quite indifferently a few minutes be 
 fore three, and again at frequent intervals, 
 until more than a few minutes after three, 
 but though " them two rocks " were there 
 and "the red store," and many other car 
 riages came and went, the old coach from
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 29 
 
 Hill-and-Dale came not, and neither did its 
 pretty little rose-and-sunshine mistress. The 
 street seemed quite deserted. 
 
 I went home to my boarding-house with 
 new sensations, and if I was in love, I set 
 all rules at defiance, for I ate like a plough 
 man, and slept that night like a log.
 
 30 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 III 
 
 I did not meet my young lady again for a 
 long time, nor shall I pretend that all this 
 while I cherished no other image than hers 
 in my heart. I certainly carried hers there 
 impressed with great vividness for quite a 
 period for several weeks at least, I should 
 say and I always bore a sweet and pleasant 
 picture of her, never wholly effaced, how 
 ever much softened by the steadily inter 
 vening months. But I found that there were 
 other eyes besides hers, and other girls wore 
 roses in their hats and roses under them too. 
 So that though at first I formed all sorts of 
 plans, romantic and otherwise, to meet her, 
 and even carried one so far into execution as 
 to purchase a handsomely bound set of Ten-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 31 
 
 nyson to send her anonymously, and mark 
 one or two passages which described her 
 aptly, and should force her curiosity to pen 
 etrate my almost invulnerable anonymity, 
 yet courage failed me in face of the practical 
 act of sending anything anonymously to a 
 young lady whom I did not know, and after 
 a few weeks I made another disposition of 
 the books, sending them without change of 
 marked passages, and with a note which I 
 considered quite fetching, to a girl whom I 
 did know. 
 
 Still no serious results came from any of 
 this, and I applied myself somewhat more 
 faithfully to what I called " my practice," 
 and never wholly forgot the old Hill-and- 
 Dale carriage, with the pretty faces laughing 
 together out of the windows, nor became 
 entirely indifferent to the little Hill-and- 
 Dale lady of the big summer hat and the
 
 32 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 large sunny eyes. If I ever saw a pretty face 
 with a rose-garden above it, it was very apt 
 to call up a picture of a milliner's window 
 on a May morning ; or if I caught a glimpse 
 of a pair of pretty ankles, I thought of a 
 daintier pair, and a slender girlish figure 
 tripping with them out into the street. And 
 once or twice things occurred to remind 
 me of her. Once when I read in a paper 
 a notice of a pretty country wedding at 
 Hill-and-Dale my heart gave quite a jump 
 into my throat, and when I read that it was 
 the eldest daughter I was sensible of a feel 
 ing of relief. She had married an Episcopal 
 clergyman, whom I knew by reputation as 
 a fine earnest fellow and a good preacher. 
 The notice went on to speak of the beauty 
 of the sisters, all of whom had acted as 
 bridesmaids, and mentioned particularly the 
 charming appearance of the youngest : Miss
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 33 
 
 Elizabeth, whose character, it stated, was 
 as lovely as her personal beauty might lead 
 one to suppose. The notice evidently was 
 written by a friend. It went on to say that 
 there was a report that "another sister" 
 would soon follow the example of the eldest. 
 My heart had another sink at this, and I 
 could have cursed the writer for not giv 
 ing some intimation as to which sister it 
 was. 
 
 Another occasion when I was reminded of 
 her was when I saw the published notice in 
 a newspaper of the sale of the Hill-and-Dale 
 estate under a chancery decree. It seemed 
 that the old place had finally gone to satis 
 fy long-standing mortgages and later debts 
 accumulated through the years. This was 
 later on, though. I had been reminded of 
 them occasionally in the interim. 
 
 During the two or three years which had
 
 34 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 passed I had formed many new acquaintances 
 in the city, and made some friends. 
 
 I had, of course, in this time, not only 
 learned the name of my old gentleman of 
 the black stock, but had also come to know 
 him personally. His speech to me on the 
 street corner that May morning, when, with 
 my heart in my eyes, I was looking into the 
 window of the old Hill-and-Dale carriage, 
 had excited me enough to make me take the 
 trouble to follow him up and learn his name 
 before my interest in the occupant subsided. 
 Indeed, my office-boy, William Kemp, proved 
 to be one of his old servants, and still wait 
 ed on him. I found that he was Mr. Miles, 
 Mr. Basham Miles, one of the old residents 
 of the city, and owner of the old house and 
 tangled yard at the gate of which I had first 
 encountered him, and where he still resided 
 when he was in town. He had once been a
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 35 
 
 member of the bar, and had had the reputa 
 tion of being very eccentric and very proud. 
 He lived alone when in the city, and took 
 his meals at the house of one of his neigh 
 bors, an old lady, who lived next door but 
 one to him ; but he was away from town a 
 good deal of his time, both winter and sum 
 mer, either visiting old friends in the coun 
 try, summering at some of the smaller and 
 unfashionable watering-places, or travelling, 
 no one of my informants knew just where. 
 He had had a brilliant opening at the bar, 
 for he was the son of one of the big lawyers 
 of his day: a man who had stood at the 
 head of his profession ; and had died with 
 what was deemed even better than a national 
 reputation : a State reputation, and he him 
 self had been in partnership with one of the 
 leading lawyers of his own time, a man who 
 had died the head of the local bar. Old
 
 36 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 lawyers still told stories of the cleverness and 
 skill of Miles and Thompson. But he had 
 suddenly given up practice, abandoned the 
 bar, gone abroad, and " dropped out." No 
 one of my informants knew anything further, 
 if they knew that ; for it was only by piec 
 ing together bits of recollection of old tra 
 dition at second hand, or Heaven knows at 
 how many hands, that I got this much from 
 the men of my own time. 
 
 Of course there were other stories, border 
 ing on or even reaching the scandalous ; 
 echoes of old gossip so plainly pieced out 
 and distorted that I will not even give them 
 the currency of a denial. There was one 
 unvarying suggestion that seemed to occur 
 often enough in the reports of my infor 
 mants to reach the dignity of what is known 
 to the law as general reputation. This was 
 that it was " something about a woman " ;
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 37 
 
 some said one woman ; some said two ', some 
 hinted at even a half-dozen. Some said it 
 was a scandal ; some said that it was a slan 
 der ; some only that he was crossed in love, 
 and gave up, soured and disheartened. The 
 more numerous part asserted the first. Men 
 are always ready to believe scandal of a 
 man. 
 
 I was interested enough to investigate far 
 ther, for somehow the idea of associating 
 the base and horrid life of a dtbauche 
 with my clean old gentleman of the black 
 stock, with his thin high-bred face, soft 
 and spotless linen, and kindly, firm, gentle 
 voice, seemed too repugnant to entertain. 
 His countenance was grave, it was true, but 
 it was the gravity of one who had faced sor 
 row, not shame; his eye was melancholy, 
 but it was calm, and his gaze direct ; and his 
 voice, which as much as either the face or the
 
 38 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 eye tells the true history that lies deep and 
 unchangeable within, was grave and sad, but 
 bore the unmistakable ring of sincerity and 
 command. So, unwilling to leave one who 
 was somewhat linked in my mind with the 
 object who at that moment engrossed my 
 meditation (for I am speaking of the days 
 immediately succeeding the incident of the 
 rose-filled carriage), I applied myself to the 
 further and more careful investigation of 
 these compromising echoes of old tradition. 
 And I learned that there was not one grain 
 of truth in any story which imputed to the 
 old gentleman the least act of dishonor. 
 
 The two or three old members of the bar 
 to whom I applied answered my opening 
 question in almost the same words. 
 
 I would ask them, "Tell me something 
 about old Mr. Miles." 
 
 "Miles? old Mr. Miles? Basham Miles?
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 39 
 
 What about him ? He used to be a member 
 of the bar, and the best lawyer at it. He 
 argued the case of Calthorp against Brown. 
 Have you ever read his argument? It's 
 the greatest exposition of Where's the re 
 port?" etc. 
 
 "No. But why did he leave the bar? 
 Was there ever anything ah, out of the 
 way about him any story of ah ? ' ' 
 
 "About Miles? old Mr. Miles? Basham 
 Miles? Why, no! Who says there was? 
 He was one of the highest men who were 
 ever at the bar. He left the bar because 
 [hunting through the book] gave it up be 
 cause which? Ah, here it is! Listen to 
 this. Why, he gave it up because he didn't 
 need it had plenty of money without it. 
 I'd have done the same thing if I had been 
 in his fix. I believe there was a woman had 
 something to do with it jilted him or some-
 
 40 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 thing, and he never got over it. Ah, here 
 it is ! [reading]' Calthorp's Ex'or against 
 Brown's Administrator and others.' Listen 
 
 to this ' ' And then would follow page 
 
 after page of clear, lucid argument, which 
 only a lawyer would appreciate fully. 
 
 " Why, sir, he made the court reverse it 
 self by that argument, and established that 
 for the law; and I want to tell you that's 
 not the easiest thing in the world to do, 
 young man." 
 
 This was what I got from three or four of 
 the oldest men at the bar, and I stopped, 
 satisfied. I had established the fact, which 
 I had already believed, that if my old 
 gentleman had "dropped out," it was his 
 own choice.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 41 
 
 IV 
 
 NOT long after that I met Mr. Miles. It 
 was at the house of one of the old residents 
 of the city, where I had become an occa 
 sional visitor, and where he had come that 
 evening to play whist. He remembered me 
 as his street acquaintance, and spoke of our 
 first meeting at his gate and our talk about 
 the trees. He made no reference, however, 
 to the incident from which my chief interest 
 in him then came. He evidently did not 
 know I was the one to whom he had given 
 the advice about stopping a carriage for a 
 wife. The absence of some member of the 
 family with whom he usually played whist 
 seemed to cause him keen disappointment, 
 and he appeared to regard it as so much of a
 
 42 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 misfortune that, partly through vanity and 
 partly through complaisance, I was induced 
 to take a hand. I quickly found that I was 
 "outclassed," and that the haphazard, "ac 
 cording to myself," game which I then 
 played was worse than nothing. I misled 
 him ; forced his hand ; lost him tricks, and 
 finally lost him the rubber. This was more 
 than he could stand. He would not play 
 any more. The rest of the time he stayed 
 he talked about his health. 
 
 I was feeling a little aggrieved over his 
 strictures on my game; but when he had 
 left, my host spoke of him with so much af 
 fection, and my hostess with so much pity, 
 that I was quite mollified, and meeting him 
 on the street next day I stopped and spoke 
 to him, asking him about his health, and 
 taking occasion to apologize to him for my 
 wretched performance the evening before,
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 43 
 
 and the annoyance I had caused him. He 
 appeared not only pleased at my attention, 
 but gratified at my inquiry as to his health, 
 and not only expressed regret for giving an 
 exhibition of what he termed his "constitu 
 tional irascibility," but invited me to call 
 and see him, excusing himself for "propos 
 ing so dull a duty" to a young man as a 
 visit to an old one, by suggesting that he 
 had a few old books and some other things 
 which I might find of interest for a half- 
 hour. 
 
 I went as I had promised, more from a 
 sense of duty, I must admit, than from any 
 other motive, even than from that of cu 
 riosity to see his old books. But I found, as 
 he had said, that he had a rare collection 
 both of books and of other things the 
 rarest I had ever seen. His house itself was 
 a curiosity : one of the old double houses,
 
 44 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 built on a simple and dignified plan, almost 
 square, with that adherence to the old, 
 simple, classic models adapted for room, 
 sunshine, and air, which we now call "co 
 lonial," because it is so long since we de 
 parted from them in the vain endeavor to 
 be showy and fine. It was as different from 
 the new houses near it as he himself was from 
 the other men on the street. A handsome 
 portico with Doric columns dignified its 
 front. The door, with a large fan-shaped 
 transom above it and a lock strong enough 
 to have secured the Bastille, was itself a feat 
 ure, and admitted you to the ample hall, 
 which ran entirely through the house to the 
 back door and a long back portico beyond 
 it. A stairway sufficiently wide to suggest 
 ampleness in the rooms above led on one 
 ^ide of the hall to the upper floor. The 
 front door was not only equipped with a
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 45 
 
 bell which, when I pulled the handle, 
 jangled for a minute or more somewhere 
 outside behind the house, but it was gar 
 nished with a large and handsome old brass 
 knocker of a classical design. Everything 
 was solid, and had once been handsome, 
 but struck me now as sadly out of repair. 
 Indeed, an air of neglect and loneliness 
 seemed to pervade the whole place. 
 
 When I entered, which I did not do 
 until I had both rung and knocked several 
 times and a negro woman had come around 
 the side of the house and after looking at 
 me had asked whom I wanted to see, I 
 found things much the same way within 
 that they were without. The hall was hung 
 with paintings, some of which seemed to 
 me fine, but they were dim and blistered, 
 and the frames were all dingy and old. 
 The room I was shown into was furnished
 
 46 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 with old furniture and rilled with handsome 
 things ; but everything appeared to me to 
 be placed without the least regard to either 
 fitness or comfort. The chairs were all 
 ranged back stiffly against the wall, and 
 vases and other bric-a-brac were scattered 
 around in a pell-mell, hopeless fashion that 
 was distressing. 
 
 The library, into which I was at length 
 shown, was the only exception to this con 
 dition. It was evidently a living-room, and 
 the fine old books redeemed everything. 
 Yet even there were signs of the neglect 
 which spoke from every spot : books piled 
 on tables and chairs, and even on the floor, 
 in a confusion which nobody but one long 
 familiar to it could have understood. 
 
 My host, however, who met me most 
 graciously when I was at length admitted to 
 the house, seemed to divine where things
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 47 
 
 were in that room at least, and made my 
 visit so agreeable that instead of spending 
 one half-hour with him I spent several. 
 He possessed a knowledge of books which 
 appeared to me rare, and possessed what 
 was more, that delightful art of endowing 
 books of which he talked with a certain per 
 sonality which made them seem like living 
 beings. He did not quote books so much 
 as he made them quote themselves. They 
 were not books but the men who wrote 
 them. He brought their authors in and 
 made them talk with you. He appeared 
 particularly fond of the poets and the essay 
 ists, though he declared there were very few 
 of either who were sincere. 
 
 " When you find a sincere man in a book, 
 sir," he said, "he is like a sincere man in 
 life. You know him at once, and he is rara 
 avis. The old ones were sincere. Shake-
 
 48 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 speare, of course" (I remember he said), 
 " because he knew the human soul, and 
 could not help it. It was as if he had stood 
 face to face with God, and dared not tell 
 anything but truth. Milton was sincere, be 
 cause he was a fanatic. Bacon, because he 
 was too wise not to be." 
 
 Of the moderns, he said, old Johnson was 
 almost the only essayist who was sincere, 
 and that was his value ; you could always 
 count on him; " a clear and vigorous man 
 who saw straight, and told it as he saw it." 
 
 The others were " nearly all posing, writ 
 ing either for popularity or for some other 
 miserable end. Why, sir," he said, "I have 
 piles of them there I will not even put on 
 my shelves ; I will not admit them to the 
 companionship of gentlemen. The poets at 
 least try to do something ; some of them do. 
 Goldsmith was sincere because he was a
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 49 
 
 poet ; and Wordsworth was. They had a 
 high idea of their profession as a lawyer, 
 for instance ; he may not have a large or 
 lucrative practice, and yet may be an orna 
 ment to the bar because of the high plane 
 on which he practises." 
 
 I asked him about Carlyle and Emerson. 
 He admitted the sincerity of both ; but Car 
 lyle he did not like because he was ill-tem 
 pered and sour, and was always sneering at 
 others. "Jeremiah, without his inspiration or 
 his occasion," he said of him. " He is not 
 a gentleman, sir, and has never forgiven 
 either the world or himself for it." Emer 
 son he put on a much higher plane ; but 
 though he admitted his sincerity, and ranked 
 him the first American literary man, he said 
 he did not read him. " He preaches too 
 much for me," he said, " and he is all texts. 
 When I want preaching I go to church."
 
 SO THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 He liked his poetry better than his prose, 
 though he declared it was hardly verse. 
 
 " After all," he said, " the best of these 
 essayists to me is the first Plutarch, and 
 next to him the second Montaigne. Plu 
 tarch is as modern as if he had just written, 
 because he knew human nature. It is al 
 ways the same. Montaigne drew from him, 
 and the others from Montaigne. They have 
 all been pillaging him ever since he wrote. He 
 was a man who knew himself as he was, and 
 had the sense and the courage to be truth 
 ful. Montaigne was not so great as Plutarch 
 because he was less spiritual. But he knew 
 the human heart. Why, sir," he added, 
 with unwonted enthusiasm, " I am enough 
 like Montaigne to be his embodied spirit. 
 When I read Montaigne I feel as if I were 
 reading myself. It is a pleasure to me to 
 know that they are the two which we know
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 51 
 
 absolutely Shakespeare read. You cannot 
 get a man nowadays to tell you what he 
 really feels or thinks. Feeling has gone out 
 of fashion ; every one is trying to repress 
 his feeling, and he does not think at all. 
 Why, sir, we are all trying to say what we 
 think our neighbor thinks." 
 
 It does not seem to me now, recalling it, 
 that what he said was remarkable, or even 
 altogether sound ; but there was something 
 about his manner in saying it which im 
 pressed me. He appeared to be in strong op 
 position to the rest of the world ; to hold a 
 correct position; but to have a tendency to 
 push his views to extremes. He did not see 
 things precisely as they were, but through a 
 medium or atmosphere of some kind which 
 
 threw them a little out of line, as if a man 
 
 
 
 might look at objects through a pane of old 
 uneven glass. I observed the same thing
 
 52 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 when he spoke of old times and things. 
 His talk of old days was delightful, but 
 was mainly critical, his reminiscences be 
 ing, I thought, all a little tinged by some 
 thing, I would not call it sourness, but just 
 a bit off from the sweet savor of perfect mel 
 lowness, as if at some period he had been 
 shut off a little too much from the sun, and 
 had been under the shadow of disappoint 
 ment. 
 
 I left him with something of sadness, 
 passing out of the cheerless hall and through 
 the old weather-blistered door, and I was 
 not aware until I got into the sunshine 
 without how chilly I had been within. I 
 had an indescribable feeling of half sorrow, 
 half pity for the old gentleman, which did 
 not change until I met him again out-of- 
 doors, calm, dignified, and serene, with his 
 courtly manner.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 53 
 
 I met him occasionally after that, and al 
 ways with a feeling of mingled regard and 
 sympathy. I could hardly tell why ; for I 
 set him down as one of the most self-con 
 tained and fortunate of men a man who, 
 with enough means to gratify his tastes and 
 follow his own bent, chose to live just as he 
 did. In fact, I think I began rather to 
 envy him, for my little affair in which the 
 missent Tennyson figured had not ended 
 very satisfactorily to me: the recipient of 
 the volume had smiled more kindly than I 
 liked on a smooth-cheeked young man who 
 had an undeniable advantage over me in 
 the silkiness of his mustache, the freshness 
 of his complexion, and the nimbleness of 
 his heels, not to mention the matter of in 
 come, in which he probably quadrupled 
 mine. But I not only believed these were 
 the only advantages he had over me, but
 
 54 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 was conceited enough to have even a mild 
 contempt for him, which, nevertheless, did 
 not prevent my young lady from at first 
 openly favoring him, and afterward bestow 
 ing on him not only herself, but my Tenny 
 son as well, side-marked passages and all; 
 and I had not even the poor consolation of 
 thinking that he would see them and be 
 jealous, for I do not believe he ever opened 
 the book, or, for that matter, any book in 
 his life. Anyhow, the affair left me with a 
 certain feeling of discontent, not only with 
 the world at large, but a much harder 
 thing to bear with myself also, and I 
 rather envied my old gentleman of the 
 black stock and the quiet, untroubled life. 
 
 About this time the vision of the little 
 country girl with the big rose-covered hat 
 began to come back to me again, and took 
 its place once more in my recollection.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 55 
 
 DURING these years I had come to know 
 many old people in the town besides the 
 old lawyers and Mr. Miles : among them 
 several old ladies. I have always had a 
 fancy for old ladies ; I was brought up in 
 the house with a number of them, and as I 
 am fonder of little girls than I am of boys, 
 so old ladies appeal to me more than old 
 men. There is a certain something about 
 them quite indescribable. Some of them 
 have a beauty with which the beauty of 
 the most radiant belle can hardly compare. 
 But it is not of this beautiful class only that 
 I speak ; even when they are faded and 
 worn, when all tints have vanished and all 
 lines have subsided, with age which is con-
 
 56 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 tent to acknowledge itself graciously as age, 
 and does not pretend to a belated ado 
 lescence, there is a charm all its own. 
 There is a fragrance of rue and of rosemary, 
 as well as of roses and violets, and thyme 
 and lavender have their sweetness no less 
 than heart's-ease and lilies. 
 
 There were more of these old ladies in my 
 city than anywhere else I ever knew, and I 
 had come quite easily to know a number of 
 them. They seemed to be found fittingly 
 in the older and cheaper part of the town, 
 where the ancient, once comfortable, houses 
 still lingered, though it was no longer fash 
 ionable, or most convenient, and as my 
 practice had not yet enabled me to emigrate 
 to the desirable new quarter, I had quite 
 naturally met a number of them. There 
 are certain characteristics which are com 
 mon to them all. They all dress in black ;
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 57 
 
 they all live in the past, and talk of your 
 grandmother as if she were your sister, com 
 pletely forgetting your mother ; and they 
 all smile on the little children they pass in 
 the street. I am rather fond of children 
 myself, and have always followed a habit of 
 making friends with those on my street, a 
 practice from which I have at times found 
 certain conveniences to follow. There are 
 some inconveniences, of course, for in 
 stance, in seasons of snow, and also at other 
 times ; but they are inconsiderable. Occa 
 sionally at those recurring seasons when tops 
 come like winged ants on warm days in 
 swarms out of the ground, or from some 
 where else, I had to submit to the ignominy 
 of being stopped on the corners, and com 
 pelled to display my inability to make one 
 do anything except flop around on its side 
 like a headless chicken, before a party of
 
 58 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 young ruffians, every one of whom could 
 "plug " a top with mathematical accuracy, 
 or could " whip " it high in air and bring 
 it down whirling like a buzz-saw ; or I 
 would be held up on the sidewalk and com 
 pelled, against my strongest protests, to 
 jump a rope held by two of a group of pes 
 tilent little creatures, who would shout with 
 laughter as they knocked my hat off in the 
 dirt, threw sand into my eyes, and pursued 
 me down the street with jeers of derision ; 
 or I would have to play a game of marbles, 
 while I lost, or stood the chance of losing, 
 a client as well as the game. But, on the 
 whole, I think it had its compensations, and 
 my acquaintance with the old ladies and the 
 children in my quarter played an accidental 
 part in my knowledge of the history of the 
 old gentleman of the black stock. Oftener 
 than once, indeed, as I was playing with the
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 59 
 
 children, he came along and stopped to look 
 at us. 
 
 "Lucky dog," he said to me once as he 
 passed. "I would rather be able to play 
 marbles than to play monarch." And he 
 went on his way rather slowly.
 
 60 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 VI 
 
 BUT this was the way I came to hear of his 
 history. I happened to hear one evening a 
 conversation between two old ladies which 
 threw some light on the old fellow's past. I 
 was calling on one of them, whom I knew as 
 a friend of my mother's, and who had been 
 good enough to call on me when I was sick 
 once, and the other old lady happened to 
 come to see her whilst I was there. Her 
 visit, as I recollect it, was to tell her friend 
 of some old crony of theirs from whom she 
 had lately had a letter, and who had sent 
 her a message in it. She had brought the 
 letter with her, and they read it, and talked 
 about the writer, who they both agreed must 
 be older than either of them by several years.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 61 
 
 And then they drifted back to their girlhood, 
 when they were all three together at the 
 Springs one summer. It was forty odd years 
 before ; yet they went over it all ; recalled 
 incidents ; got them straight between them ; 
 discussed and enjoyed them again, down to 
 the partners they had, the flowers they gave 
 them, and the dresses they wore at the ball, 
 as if it had all been yesterday. They had 
 grown young again. In the course of their 
 discussion the name of Basham Miles oc 
 curred more than once. One of them de 
 clared that some incident occurred "the 
 summer Basham Miles was so attentive to 
 Betsey Green" ; the other thought not, but 
 that it was the summer after ; and she tried 
 to refresh her friend's memory by reminding 
 her of two immense bouquets their friend 
 Betsey had had, one of which they thought 
 Basham Miles had given her ; whilst they
 
 62 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 could not make out who had given the other. 
 And then it had turned out that Basham 
 Miles had given her neither, but had given 
 his to Anita Robinson, whom he had just 
 met, and whom he danced with that night ; 
 and one of Betsey's had been given her by an 
 old gentleman from South Carolina, for whom 
 she had sung, and Burton Dale had "come 
 back " and given her the other. "And that 
 was the beginning of his success," she said. 
 
 The circumstance was remembered, but it 
 failed to fix the year in my friend's memory. 
 Then the other said, "Why, don't you re 
 member that night I had on a lilac mull, and 
 you had on a white embroidered muslin?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, to be sure ! " 
 
 This fixed it. The girl's white muslin re 
 called it, with all its long attendant train 
 of circumstances, after nearly fifty years of 
 activity and change.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 63 
 
 ' ' My ! my ! How long ago that was ! 
 and yet it seems only yesterday," said my 
 friend quietly, softly passing her thin hands 
 over her black dress. Her eyes were no 
 longer looking before her, but back at the 
 past. 
 
 I wondered what she was thinking of in 
 that forty odd years where lay so many things 
 love-making, marriage, wifehood, mother 
 hood, widowhood, age; perhaps, for the 
 thin hands still smoothed softly the old black 
 dress, of the girl's embroidered muslin, and 
 the young girl it held in its fresh folds that 
 night. Her thoughts were not painful, what 
 ever they were, for a pleasant and placid air 
 rested on her face, and when she at length 
 awoke from her reverie it was with a smile. 
 
 Her friend, too, had been back in the past. 
 
 "What a handsome man Basham Miles 
 was then ! ' ' she said.
 
 64 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 ' ' I never thought so ; there was always a 
 self-consciousness about him which marred 
 his looks to me," said my friend. 
 
 " Oh, I think he was a perfect Adonis ! I 
 wonder if he has ever regretted not marrying ? 
 I think he was really in love with Betsey." 
 
 " No, not he," said my friend. " He was 
 too well satisfied with himself. I am very 
 sure Betsey never did. I wouldn't give Bur 
 ton Dale, with his kind old heart, for a hun 
 dred of him, with all his cleverness." 
 
 The conversation had interested me, and 
 I had sat still, putting off my departure, and 
 feeling a certain interest in their talk and the 
 train of reflections it had called up in me. 
 Still, I did not put the parts together; I 
 simply felt vaguely rather than saw anything 
 which concerned me personally. I had cer 
 tainly never thought of Basham Miles as an 
 Adonis, or as a careless and arrogant heart-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 65 
 
 breaker, and I followed the idea off into 
 reverie and vacancy, and was recalled only 
 by the mention of the name " Hill-and 
 Dale." The old lady who had worn the 
 lilac mull, and who was much the haler of 
 the two, was speaking, and I had lost a part 
 of the conversation. 
 
 "Yes," she said, "her health has been 
 very poor ever since the birth of her last in 
 fant, and then her mother's death, just after 
 Hill-and-Dale was sold, told greatly on her; 
 so she does not get to see me as often as she 
 did when she first came to live here, last 
 spring." 
 
 " I must go and see her," said my friend, 
 softly. " I will try and get there to-mor 
 row. I would have been before, but I walk 
 so badly now I find myself putting things off. 
 She brought her youngest sister to see me 
 not very long ago very like Betsey ; I could
 
 66 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 almost have thought it was Betsey herself as 
 she sat by me and talked to me." 
 
 "Elizabeth? Yes, she is like Betsey. 
 But not so pretty," said the other old lady, 
 rising to leave. 
 
 "I thought she was rather prettier; but 
 then I see so badly these days. Good-by ; 
 you must come again. Don't wait for me 
 to come ; I can't walk much, and " 
 
 " Oh, pshaw, Malviny Gray, you have 
 been trading on those three months of 
 superior age to me ever since you were 
 twelve years old, and I am not going to 
 put up with it any longer ! You are as 
 arrogant about it as Basham Miles used to 
 be about his intellect. Good-by." And 
 they kissed, laughing at their pleasantry 
 and going over many new things and 
 some old ones, and starting to take leave of 
 each other, and beginning again over and
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 67 
 
 over, as is the way with their sex of every 
 age. 
 
 I myself was leaving, so I saw the visitor 
 down the steps, and would have seen her 
 home if she would have let me ; but she 
 positively declined this attention, declaring 
 smilingly that I would think her " as old and 
 helpless as Malviny Gray." 
 
 As I went home I saw Basham Miles turn 
 in at his gate a little before me. His great 
 coat collar was turned up, and he had a 
 comforter around hisMieck, although the air 
 seemed to me quite bracing, and as he 
 slowly climbed his broad steps and let him 
 self in at his old stained door, I thought he 
 appeared more than usually feeble. 
 
 I did not meet him or see him again on 
 the street for some little time. But one day, 
 as I turned into a new street, I saw a figure 
 some distance ahead of me all muffled up and
 
 68 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 walking with the slow and painful steps of 
 an old man. 
 
 When I was still about half a block from 
 him his hat blew off and was caught in a 
 sudden gust of wind and whirled out into 
 the street. He stepped slowly down after it, 
 but before he could reach it a young girl, 
 who had evidently seen him through a win 
 dow, ran down from one of the little new 
 tidy houses on the opposite side, tripped out 
 into the street and caught the truant hat and 
 restored it to its owner ; and then, as he 
 attempted to wrap his comforter, which had 
 become disarranged, more closely around his ' 
 neck, she reached up and wrapped it deftly 
 about him herself, and, as he thanked her 
 warmly, as I could see even at a distance, 
 turned, laughing, and tripped back across 
 the street, her brown hair blown about her 
 little head, and ran up the steps into her
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 69 
 
 house, giving me just a glimpse of dainty 
 ankles, which reminded me of Elizabeth 
 Dale that day so long ago. I had recog 
 nized Basham Miles at a distance as his hat 
 blew off, but I did not recognize the young 
 lady who had rendered him the service ; in 
 deed, I did not see her face ; but I was sure 
 she was a stranger, for I knew every girl on 
 the street, by sight at least. 
 
 I was so busy speculating as to who the 
 graceful stranger was and looking at her win 
 dows that I forgot my intention to overtake 
 old Mr. Miles, who might have told me, and 
 he turned the corner of the street before I 
 could catch up with him, and went down a 
 cross street, so that I did not get a chance to 
 speak to him. He was walking more rapidly 
 than I had thought. As I was late, though, 
 I thought it was just as well, for I had ob 
 served that when I met him on the street
 
 70 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 now he talked more and more about his 
 health; and my chief regret was that 
 I did not find out who the new-comer 
 was. 
 
 As it turned out, I discovered later that 
 he did not know her. The next time I met 
 him he asked me to find out who she was, 
 and let him know. I suggested that I might 
 find some difficulty in doing so. 
 
 "Difficulty?" he said. "Why, sir, 
 when I was your age I knew every pretty 
 girl in town." 
 
 "Was she pretty?" I asked. "I did 
 not see her face. ' ' 
 
 " Pretty ! She was a beauty, sir. She 
 looked like an angel. I don't know that a 
 man is a judge of the beauty of a person who 
 runs after and catches his hat for him," he 
 added, his deep eyes lighting faintly with 
 a little half-gleam of amusement. "What
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 7 1 
 
 between rage and gratitude he is not in a 
 very judicial temper ; but she seemed to 
 me a beauty;" and he sighed and turned 
 away.
 
 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 VII 
 
 ONLY a day or two after this conversa 
 tion I am not sure that it was not the next 
 day I happened to be on a little street in 
 the same direction with, but several blocks 
 farther out than the quarter where my old 
 friend and I had our residences on the bor 
 der of respectability. The ground was so 
 broken there that the street was not half 
 built up, and such houses as were there were 
 of the poorest class. As I passed along I 
 was attracted by a little crowd gathered 
 around some object in the middle of the 
 street. They were shouting with laughter, 
 and my curiosity prompted me to go and 
 look to see what amused them. I found it 
 to be a very small and exceedingly dirty lit-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 73 
 
 tie boy, who certainly presented an amusing 
 enough spectacle. He was so little that it 
 was wonderful how so much dirt could have 
 gotten on so small a person. His clothes 
 were good better than those of the chil 
 dren around him but were covered with 
 mud from top to bottom as if he had been 
 making mud pies, which, indeed, no doubt 
 he had been doing; his hands were caked 
 with mud, and his face also was plentifully 
 streaked with it. Where it showed through, 
 the skin looked fair and the face refined. 
 He did not seern at all disturbed or dis 
 concerted by the crowd about him, or the 
 amusement he was causing, or the ques 
 tions put to him. All of them he answered 
 promptly and with perfect coolness. The 
 only difficulty was in our understanding 
 him : he was so small that he could not 
 talk plainly.
 
 74 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 " What is your name ? " they were asking 
 him. 
 
 "Urt'n Ale Avith." 
 
 ''What?" 
 
 "Urt'n Ale Avith." In a different key. 
 
 "What? Urt'n Ale Avith?" 
 
 "Nor. Urt'n Ale Avith." With some 
 impatience. 
 
 They changed the question. 
 
 " Where do you live?" 
 
 < At "ome." 
 
 "Where is that?" 
 
 "At 'ome." Evidently struck by their 
 denseness. 
 
 " What street? " asked someone. 
 
 " Witchen Cheet." 
 
 "Witchin Street?" 
 
 "Nor; Witchen Cheet." 
 
 "Where is that?" the crowd asked of 
 each other. No one knew.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 75 
 
 " What did you leave home for, honey?" 
 asked a woman, stooping over him. 
 
 " Wunned away," he answered promptly, 
 with a reawakening of interest. 
 
 ' ' Runned away ? ' ' 
 
 " Mh hmh," with a nod of satisfac 
 tion. 
 
 " What did you run away for ? " 
 
 "Id'n* know." 
 
 At this a child who had worked its way in 
 to the inner circle about him gave a shrill 
 explosion of laughter. The little fellow's 
 face flushed suddenly, and he walked up, and 
 doubling his little dirty fist, struck the child 
 as hard a blow as he could, which caused 
 a universal shout, and set the children to 
 whirling in the street and screaming with 
 laughter. For the first time the boy showed 
 signs of distress ; his little dirty mouth be 
 gan to pucker and his little round chin to
 
 76 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 tremble, and he dug one chubby black fist in 
 his eye. 
 
 "Warn do 'ome," he said, in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes, you shall go. Don't cry, honey," 
 said several women, pressing around him, 
 and one of them asked him : " Don't you 
 want somethin' to eat ? Ain't you hungry?" 
 
 " Mh hmh yes, ma'am," he said, with 
 a little whimper and correction of his man 
 ners. 
 
 " All right, I'll give you something. 
 Come along, and then we'll take you home." 
 And several of the women with motherly 
 kindness began to talk as to which could 
 give him something quickest. 
 
 "Which way is your home, little man?" 
 I asked, taking advantage of the break in the 
 crowd. He turned and waved his little arm, 
 taking in half of the horizon, " Dat way."
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 77 
 
 At least it was the half of the horizon 
 toward which I was going; so I said to 
 the women that if they would give him some 
 thing to eat, I would undertake to get him 
 home safely. This division of labor was ac 
 ceptable, and the woman who had first sug 
 gested feeding him having given him two 
 large slices of bread covered thick with jam, 
 and others having contributed double as 
 much more, I took the little stray's wrist in 
 default of a hand, both of those members 
 being full of bread and having taken leave 
 of his friends, we started out to find his 
 home. 
 
 We had not gone more than fifty steps 
 when he said, "I tired," or something as 
 near that as a mouth filled with bread and 
 jam would allow. This was a new phase of 
 the case. I had not counted on this. But 
 as there was no help for it, when he had
 
 78 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 repeated the statement again, and added 
 the request, "Pee tote me," I picked him 
 up, dirt and all, and marched on. 
 
 It was a little funny to find myself carry 
 ing such a bundle of boy and mud anyhow, 
 to which was added the fact that every now 
 and then lumps of blackberry jam were 
 being smeared over my clothes and face 
 and stuck in my hair, a process to which 
 the warmth of the day did not fail to con 
 tribute its part ; but it was only when I got 
 into my own section of the town that I 
 fully appreciated the ridiculousness of the 
 figure I must cut. 
 
 I would gladly have put my little burden 
 down, but he would not be so disposed of. 
 Under prosperity he had grown a tyrant, and 
 whenever I proposed putting him down, he 
 said so firmly, "No, no; I tired; pee tote 
 me," that I was forced to go on.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 79 
 
 The first person I met that I knew was old 
 Mr. Miles. He was muffled up, but still was 
 walking rather more vigorously than when I 
 last saw him before. He stopped, in appar 
 ent doubt as to my identity, and looked 
 rather pleased as well as amused over my 
 appearance, but expressed no surprise when 
 I made a half-explanation. The child, pos 
 sibly impressed by his pale thin face, sud 
 denly held out his chubby hand with a piece 
 of jam-smeared bread in it, and said, " Warn 
 lome?" It manifestly pleased the old fel 
 low, for he actually bent over and made a 
 pretence of biting a piece. 
 
 When I left him I took a side street. 
 
 I was going to a police station to learn if 
 any notice had been left there of a lost 
 child, but as I passed through a rather re 
 tired street, which I had chosen to avoid 
 observation from people I knew on my own
 
 8o THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 street, I heard a voice behind me ex 
 claim : 
 
 "Why, Burton, where on earth have you 
 been?" 
 
 Turning, I stood face to face with Eliza 
 beth Dale. 
 
 She was too much engrossed with the 
 child, whom I discovered immediately to be 
 her nephew, to notice me at first, and I found 
 myself abandoned by my charge, who im 
 mediately deserted me, leaving, however, 
 abundant mementos of himself on my per 
 son, and climbed into the outstretched arms 
 of his pretty aunt without a word, and began 
 to hug and kiss her with all his might. Nor 
 did I blame him, for, in fact, I should have 
 liked to be as small as he to have enjoyed 
 the same privilege. The three or four years 
 since I had seen her in the milliner's shop 
 had added to her beauty ; had filled out her
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 81 
 
 slim, girlish figure, and made it trim, and 
 had given thoughtfulness to her rosy face 
 and made it gracious as well as sweet. As she 
 turned half away from me, with the boy in 
 her arms, I recognized her on the instant as 
 the girl who had picked up old Mr. Miles's 
 hat for him that day in the street. The joy- 
 ousness of her nature was testified to in her 
 peals of laughter over her little nephew's ex 
 traordinary appearance, and her loveliness 
 of character was evidenced both in the affec 
 tion with which the child choked and kissed 
 her, and the sweetness with which she re 
 ceived his embraces, muddy and jam-smeared 
 as he was. All she said was : "Oh, Burton, 
 isn't that enough? You'll ruin aunty's best 
 dress." But Burton only choked her the 
 harder. 
 
 I offered to take him and relieve her, but 
 she declined, and he would not have come
 
 82 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 even if she would have let him. He just clung 
 the closer to her, patting her with his 
 chubby hand, and rubbing his dirty cheek 
 against her pretty one with delightful enjoy 
 ment, saying, " I 'ove my aunty, I 'ove my 
 aunty," and as she smiled and thanked me 
 with her gracious air for my part in his res 
 cue, I began to think that, faith, I more than 
 half did so, too. 
 
 The next day I met Elizabeth Dale on the 
 street, entirely by accident on her part. I 
 may almost say it was accidental on my part 
 also, for I had been walking up and down 
 and around blocks for two hours before she 
 added her light to the sunshine without. 
 She was gracious enough to stop and give 
 me a message of thanks from her sister, Mrs. 
 Davis, for my kindness to her young prodi 
 gal, and she added that if he had not eaten 
 of the husks of the swine, he had, at least,
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 83 
 
 looked as if he had played with them. She 
 even said her sister had written me her thanks, 
 but commissioned her, if she saw me again, 
 to say she would be very glad to have me 
 call and give her " the privilege of thanking 
 me in person ; " so she was pleased to express 
 it. After that, of course, I felt I could do no 
 less than call, and I was so gracious about 
 giving her sister "the privilege" she re 
 quested that I called that very evening ; and 
 as her sister happened to have a headache, I 
 called again only a few evenings afterward. 
 For by this time Miss Elizabeth Dale and I 
 were friends, and I now think I was almost 
 beginning to be more.
 
 84 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 VIII 
 
 I DID not see old Mr. Miles, to tell him 
 that I had discovered his young benefactress, 
 for youth is forgetful in the sunshine of pros 
 perity, and I did not call on him immedi 
 ately. One afternoon as I passed along his 
 street he was sitting out on the seat under 
 the old beach-tree, all muffled up in his over 
 coat ; but I was going to pay a call on 
 " Witchen Cheet," and was in something of 
 a hurry, so did not stop, and when I was 
 thinking of getting ready to call on him 
 some time afterward, William told me he 
 had left town for the summer. I did not 
 think of him again for a long time. 
 
 I remember that summer very well, for I 
 was not the only person that stayed in town.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 85 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Dale was also there, and 
 though she went off once, to my great dis 
 content, to visit some relatives in the coun 
 try for a few weeks, she was in the city most 
 of the summer. It was astonishing how com 
 pletely her absence depopulated the town 
 and how equally her presence filled it. I 
 heard other men speak of the city being de 
 serted, but after she returned I did not find 
 it so. I do not think that I ever thought I 
 was in love with her, and certainly, at least, 
 I never thought of its being a practical mat 
 ter. I never dreamed of the possibility of her 
 being in love with me. She was far too beau 
 tiful and too popular to ever think of a poor 
 young lawyer like myself. In fact, marriage 
 was something on which I might dream, 
 but I never seriously contemplated it. I 
 thought I should marry some day as I 
 thought I should die some day, but I cer-
 
 86 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 tainly never thought of marrying Elizabeth 
 Dale. My dream then was rather of an heir 
 ess and a large mansion, as it had formerly 
 been of a princess and a palace ; and mean 
 time I lived in the third floor of a small 
 boarding-house, and never dreamed that 
 Elizabeth Dale would think of me a minute. 
 As far as I went was to timorously send her 
 flowers, or worship her beauty and hate furi 
 ously every man who had the impertinence 
 to look at her. If I used to see her almost 
 every evening, stroll with her on the shady 
 streets, read to her, think of her and plan for 
 her a great deal more than I did of my prac 
 tice, which had really grown some, as was 
 quite fortunate for the little florist at the cor 
 ner above me, though it was still far below the 
 large and lucrative practice which was to be 
 my stepping-stone to the chief-justiceship 
 it was only as a beautiful being whose mere
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 87 
 
 smile was more than all other rewards, and 
 all that I dared aspire to. I was not then in 
 love with Miss Elizabeth Dale ; I only ad 
 mired her, and hated those who were. 
 
 Almost the only time I thought of old Mr. 
 Miles that summer was one afternoon that 
 Elizabeth Dale and I were strolling through 
 the old street on which his house stood. As we 
 passed slowly along, exchanging the pleas 
 ant momentous trivialities which two young 
 people deal in in such cases, the old yard 
 stretching back looked cool and inviting 
 under its big trees. The seat under the old 
 beech looked convenient, and an air of 
 placid quietude and calm seemed to rest on 
 everything. I suggested going in, which 
 surprised her, but I told her the owner was 
 a friend of mine, and was absent from the 
 city, and then informed her that he was the 
 old gentleman whose hat she had picked up
 
 88 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 in the street that spring. The gate was tied 
 up, and I was about to cut the fastening 
 when she said she would climb over it, which 
 she did with my aid, and with the agility 
 which characterized her every movement. 
 We wandered about for awhile, and then 
 came to a stop under the old beech, which 
 showed on its gray scarred trunk the rough 
 traces of many a school boy's pride or lover's 
 devotion. Most of the carving was old, for 
 few entered that secluded yard of late, and 
 much was indecipherable. One pair of ini 
 tials high up enclosed in a heart I made 
 out as " B. M." and " E. G.," but my com 
 panion did not entirely agree with me. The 
 "B. M." she thought probably correct, but 
 the " E. G." only possibly so. " Those let 
 ters would stand for my mother," she said, 
 softly, " only she was always Betsey." 
 "Or, 'For Example,' " said I, with the
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 89 
 
 light wit of a young man. " Now, if I just 
 cut D. after that, and change the B. M., it 
 would be all right." 
 
 "Why, it would be like sacrilege," she 
 said. ' ' Whoever they were, they were, no 
 doubt, two lovers, and that old scar may be 
 the only trace left of them on earth. ' ' 
 
 I don't know whether it was that our con 
 versation began to grow a little too grave 
 after that ; but she suddenly decided that we 
 had better be going home, and notwithstand 
 ing my protests, she rose and started. 
 
 This was the only time she went with me 
 into the old yard, and the only time I 
 remember that we ever spoke of old Mr. 
 Miles. 
 
 As the summer passed and the autumn 
 came I began to grow restless and unhappy. 
 The trees had lost their greenness, and the 
 town was taking on its autumn look, and my
 
 90 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 happy summer evenings, with strolls along 
 the moonlit summer streets, or drifting out 
 on the river, were gone with the greenness of 
 the leaves, and something had come like a 
 frost over me and my happiness. I could 
 not tell just what it was, unless it were the 
 frequent visits to town of a young man, a cer 
 tain Mr. Goodrich, who lived in another 
 State and a larger city. I had met him once 
 in the early summer, and had thought noth 
 ing of him : not as much as I did of several 
 others who used to sit on Mrs. Davis's front 
 porch and interfere with my enjoyment there; 
 but now he was back in the city, staying at 
 one of the biggest hotels, and spending most 
 of his time all of it, I said at Mrs. Davis's. 
 I met him there every time I went there, and 
 though I do not think I would ever have 
 been base enough to murder him, I would 
 cheerfully have seized and dropped him into
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 91 
 
 some far-off dungeon to pass the rest of his 
 natural life in painful and unremitted soli 
 tude. My hostility to him was not at all 
 tempered by the fact that he was very good- 
 looking, and was reported to be exceedingly 
 rich ; nor even by the further fact that Miss 
 Dale was going somewhere to teach that year, 
 her scholastic term beginning a month or two 
 later than usual, on account of the absence 
 in Europe of the lady who had engaged her. 
 I gave myself so many airs about Mr. Good- 
 rich's "continuous business" (for such was 
 the cause assigned for his protracted stay 
 among us), and made myself so generally 
 disagreeable a faculty which I possess ex 
 tensively that finally Miss Dale gave me 
 clearly to understand that she would put up 
 with no more of my arrogance, and sent me 
 about my business. 
 
 The exact cause of our rupture was some
 
 92 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 speech of mine to the effect that it was not 
 only the poor, but the rich that we had al 
 ways with us, with some other observation 
 of like tenor bearing on Mr. Goodrich's 
 name, which Miss Dale considered offensive ; 
 and though I freely confess I would have 
 been mean enough to tumble down in the dirt 
 and eat ever so much humble-pie, if I had 
 thought it would have done any good, the 
 young lady was so inexorable in her indigna 
 tion that I found not the slightest ground for 
 hope that she would relent and accept my 
 apologies. I was accordingly forced to assume 
 the " high horse " as my sole refuge ; which I 
 did with what outward grace I might, though 
 I was inwardly consumed between conster 
 nation, regret, and rage. 
 
 The " high horse " is sometimes, perhaps, 
 a successful steed; but it is mighty poor 
 riding, and I spent an autumn as wretched
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 93 
 
 as my summer had been delightful, passing 
 my time meditating insults to my suc 
 cessful rival and punishment for my young 
 lady.
 
 94 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 IX 
 
 IN my time of tribulation I began to think 
 of many persons and things which I had 
 rather forgotten in the times of my prosper 
 ity, and among them was old Mr. Basham 
 Miles. I had not seen him on the street the 
 whole fall, as I generally did at that season 
 of the year, and one day I asked William 
 about it. He told me that he was at home 
 ill ; he had come back from the country sick, 
 and had been confined to his room ever since. 
 
 "Fact is, suh, I's mighty troubled 'bout 
 him," said theold servant. "He ain't gittin' 
 no better: jes gittin' punier an' punier. I 
 don' b'lieve he's gwine to last much longer." 
 
 This was serious, and I questioned him as 
 to what the old gentleman did.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 95 
 
 "He don' do nuttin', sep' set dyah all 
 day in de big cheer," he said. " He use' 
 to read read all de time, night an' day; 
 but he don' eben do dat no longer." 
 
 "Who is with him?" 
 
 " D'ain' no-body wid him, suh. He 
 won' have no-body. He never wuz no han' 
 for havin' folks 'bout him, no-how, strange 
 folks expressly ; he wouldn' even have a 
 doctor to come to see him, after old Doctor 
 Thomas die. He used to come sometimes. 
 Since den he wouldn' have no-body ; but 
 me and Jane got him to le' me go and ax 
 Doctor Williams to come an' see him, an' 
 he say he pretty sick, an' gi' him some 
 physic, but he wouldn' teck it, suh. He say 
 he gwine die anyhow, an' he ain't gwine 
 take no nasty physic. He got de bottle 
 dyah now in he room, an' it jes full as 'twuz 
 when I bring it from de drug-sto'."
 
 96 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 I said that I would go and see him. 
 
 "Yes, suh, wish you would; maybe he 
 would see yo', and maybe he won't. 
 He mighty fond o' you. He won' see 
 many folks. Several ladies been to in 
 quire after him, and Mrs. Miller, she an' 
 annur lady too, sen' him things; but he 
 won' see no-body, an' he won' eat nuttin. 
 I's right smartly troubled 'bout him, 
 suh." 
 
 I was troubled too, and repeated my in 
 tention of calling to see him. 
 
 "I tell you, suh," he said, suddenly, "a 
 man ought to have wife and chillern to take 
 keer on him when he git ole, any'ow." 
 
 I had not thought of this view of the case 
 before, but it did not strike me as wholly 
 unreasonable. 
 
 When I called to see Mr. Miles that 
 evening, he received me.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 97 
 
 I was shocked to find what a change there 
 was in him since I had seen him last. 
 
 I was shown through the cold and dark hall, 
 and by the vacant library, the door of which 
 stood open as I passed and the fireplace of 
 which showed empty and black, and up the 
 wide stairs to the room Mr. Miles occupied. 
 He was sitting up in his old arm-chair by the 
 fire, which was the only cheerful thing I had 
 seen in the house. If I had thought the old 
 man lonely when I was there before, much 
 more he seemed so now : he was absolute 
 ly alone. A row of books was on the table 
 beside him, but their very number was an 
 evidence that he had no appetite for them, 
 and only had them to taste. The only one 
 that looked as if he had been using it was an 
 old Bible. It lay nearest him on his table, 
 and had a marker in it. He was only half 
 dressed, and had on an old, long, flowered
 
 98 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 dressing-gown and slippers, presenting a 
 marked contrast to his general neatness of 
 apparel, whilst a beard, which he had allowed 
 to grow for a month or more, testified to his 
 feebleness, and added to the change in his 
 appearance. I never saw a greater picture 
 of dejection than he presented as I entered. 
 His head was sunk on his breast, and lone 
 liness seemed to encircle him round almost 
 palpably. I think my visit cheered him a 
 little, though he was strangely morose, and 
 spoke of the world with unwonted bitterness. 
 He was manifestly pleased, however, at my 
 coming to see him, though he dwelt on the 
 regret he felt at the trouble he caused me. I 
 tried to interest him in books and engage 
 him in talking of them. But he declared 
 that they were like people, they interested 
 only when one was strong and vigorous, and 
 deserted you when you were ill or unfortu-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 99 
 
 nate. " They fail you at the crucial time, 
 sir," he said, bitterly. " They forsake you 
 or bore you." 
 
 I said I hoped they were not so bad as 
 that. 
 
 " Yes, sir, they are," he said, testily " I 
 esteemed them my friends ; lived with them, 
 cultivated them, and at the very moment 
 when I needed them most they failed me." 
 
 He reached over and took up the old Bible 
 from his table. 
 
 "This book alone," he said, "has held 
 out. This has not deserted me. I have 
 read something of all the philosophies, but 
 none has the spirituality and power that I 
 find in certain parts of this." He laid the 
 book down again, and I picked it up idly 
 and opened it at the place where his paper 
 was. A marked passage caught my eye. " As 
 one whom his mother comforteth."
 
 loo THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 I laid the book back from where I had 
 taken it. 
 
 " That volume was my mother's," said the 
 old man, softly. " She died with it on her 
 pillow." 
 
 I persuaded him before I left to let me 
 send a doctor to see him; and coming away, 
 I went by and saw Dr. Williams, who said 
 he would go at once. 
 
 I called to see the doctor next day to ask 
 about him, and he said he was a very ill 
 man. 
 
 "He is going to die," said the doctor, 
 calmly. 
 
 " Well, doctor, ought not he to have some 
 one to stay with him? " I asked. 
 
 "Of course he ought," said the doctor; 
 "and I have told him so. But he is a very 
 difficult man to deal with. What can you do 
 with him ? He is going to die anyhow, and
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 101 
 
 knows it, and he says the idea of anyone 
 staying in the house with him makes him 
 nervous. I have told his man William to 
 stay in the house to-night ; but I don't know 
 that he will let him do it." 
 
 I went to see Mr. Miles that night, for I 
 was very anxious about him, and found Will 
 iam much stirred up, and sincerely glad to 
 see me. He had proposed to stay with him as 
 the doctor had directed, but the old gentle 
 man had positively forbidden it. 
 
 "He won' have nobody roun' him 'tall, 
 suh," he said, hopelessly. "Two or three 
 people been heah to see him to-day, but he 
 won' see none on 'em ; he'll hardly see me ; 
 an' he tell me when bedtime come jes to 
 shet up as ushal, an' let him 'lone. But I'm 
 gwine to stay in dat house to-night, don' 
 keer what he say," said the old servant, 
 positively.
 
 102 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 I asked if he thought he would see me. 
 And we agreed that the best thing for me to 
 do was to go right up and announce my 
 self. 
 
 So I did it, and found him sitting up as 
 before. He looked if anything feebler than 
 he had done the evening before. He 
 talked in a weaker voice, and was more 
 drowsy. He said he could not lie down. I 
 made up my mind to sit up with him that 
 night if he did not actually drive me out 
 of the house ; so after a time, as he seemed 
 sleepy, I fixed myself comfortably in an arm 
 chair, which I emptied of a score of books. 
 I think my presence comforted him, for he 
 said little, and simply drowsed on. Toward 
 midnight he roused up, and having taken 
 a stimulant which the doctor had left him, 
 seemed stronger and rather inclined to talk. 
 
 The first question he asked surprised me.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 103 
 
 He said suddenly, " Is your mother liv 
 ing?" 
 
 I told him that she was. 
 
 " That is the greatest blessing a man can 
 have," he said. "Mine died when I was 
 ten years old, and I have never gotten over 
 her loss. I have missed her every hour 
 since. Had she lived, my life might have 
 been different. It might not then have been 
 the failure which it has been." 
 
 I was surprised to hear him speak so of 
 himself, for I had always thought him one of 
 the most self-contained of men, and I made 
 some polite disavowal of his remark. He 
 turned on me almost fiercely : 
 
 " Yes, sir, it has been a complete and 
 utter failure," he said, bitterly. "I was a 
 man of parts, and look at me now. A 
 woman's influence might have changed me." 
 
 As he appeared inclined to talk, I pre-
 
 104 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 pared to listen. He seemed to find a grim 
 pleasure in talking of himself and reviewing 
 his life. His mother's death he continued 
 to dwell on. 
 
 She used to sit out on that seat under 
 the beech-tree, he told me; and he loved 
 the tree better than almost anything in 
 the world. It was associated, he said, with 
 almost every happy moment he had ever 
 spent. 
 
 "Young man," he said, sitting up in the 
 energy of his speech, " marry, marry. I do 
 not say marry for your own happiness, though 
 Heaven knows I am a proof of the truth of my 
 words, dying here alone and almost friend 
 less, but marry for the good you may accom 
 plish in the world and the happiness you 
 may give others." 
 
 Not to marry, he said, was the extreme of 
 selfishness ; for if a man does not marry,
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 105 
 
 generally it is because he is figuring for 
 something more than love. He then told 
 me that his great fault was selfishness. "I 
 made one mistake, sir," he said, " early in 
 life, and it has lasted me ever since. I put 
 brains before everything, intellect before 
 heart. It was all selfishness : that was the 
 rock on which I split. I was a man of 
 parts, sir, and I thought that with my intel 
 lect I could do everything. But I could not. 
 
 "Young man, were you ever in love?" 
 he asked. 
 
 Under the sudden question I stammered, 
 and finally said, I did not know ; I believed 
 I had been, but it was over anyhow. 
 
 "Young man," he said, "treasure it 
 treasure it as your life. I was in love once 
 once only really in love and I believed I 
 had my happiness in my own hands, and I 
 flung it away, and wrecked my life. ' '
 
 106 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 He then proceeded to tell me the story of 
 his love-affair, and how, instead of being 
 content with the affection of the lovely and 
 beautiful girl whose heart he had won, he 
 had wanted to excel with every one, and to 
 shine in all eyes. " And I simply flung away 
 salvation," he said. 
 
 "I am not speaking groundlessly," he 
 said, "for I was not even left the poor con 
 solation of doubt as to whether I should 
 have succeeded. When at last I awoke 
 from my besotted condition my chance was 
 gone. The woman for whom I had given 
 up the one I loved, because I thought she 
 would advance me in life, proved as shallow 
 and heartless as I was myself, and, after I 
 had made my plans and prepared my house 
 for her, threw me over remorselessly for 
 what she esteemed a better match, and 
 married a rich fool ; and when at length I
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 107 
 
 went back to the woman I loved and offered 
 her my heart, which, indeed, had always been 
 hers, she had given hers to another. 
 
 " Heaven knows I did not blame her, for 
 though I had been fool enough to despise 
 him, he was a thousand times worthier of 
 her than I was, and made her a thousand 
 times happier than I should have done with 
 my selfishness. 
 
 "She told me that she had loved me 
 once, and would have married me had I 
 spoken ; but that time was long past, and 
 she now loved another better than she had 
 ever loved me. 
 
 " My pride was stung ; but I fell back 
 on my intellect, and determined again to 
 marry brilliantly. I might have done so, 
 perhaps, but I could not forget the wom 
 an I loved, and I was not quite base enough 
 to offer again an empty heart to another
 
 io8 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 woman, and so the time passed by. I had 
 means enough to obviate the necessity of 
 working for my support, and so did not 
 work as I should have done had I been de 
 pendent on my profession, and men who 
 had less than half my intellect outstripped 
 me. At length, having no incentive to 
 labor, I threw up my profession and travelled 
 abroad. In time that failed me, and I re 
 turned to my beech-tree only to find that I 
 had dropped out of the current of life, and 
 had exchanged the happiness of a home for 
 the experiences of a wanderer. 
 
 " I had lost the universal touch in all the 
 infinite little things which make up the sum 
 of life, and even my friends, with few ex 
 ceptions, were not just what they had been. 
 If they were necessary to me, I was no 
 longer necessary to them. They had other 
 ties ; had married, had children, and new
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 109 
 
 -.- 
 interests formed in my absence. I found 
 
 myself alone ; everywhere a visitor ; wel 
 comed at some places because I was agree 
 able when I chose to be tolerated at 
 others, but still only a visitor, an outsider. 
 
 " Then I fell back on my books. They 
 lasted me for awhile, and I read omnivorous- 
 ly ; but only for my amusement, and in time 
 my appetite was satiated and my stomach 
 turned. I had not the tastes of a scholar, 
 or even of a student, but only those of a 
 dilettante. I was too social to enjoy long 
 alone even books, and I did not read for use. 
 
 " So I turned to the world again, to find it 
 even worse than it had been before. I was 
 as completely alone as if I had been on an 
 island, and it was too late for me to re-enter 
 life." 
 
 I do not mean to give this as his connect 
 ed speech, for it was not : it was what he
 
 HO THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 | 
 said at times through the long night, as he 
 
 dwelt on the past and felt like talking. 
 
 Finally he broke in suddenly : 
 
 " Cultivate the affections, young man : 
 cultivate the affections. They alone give 
 true happiness. Take an old man's word for 
 it, that the men who are happy are those 
 who love and are loved. Better love the 
 meanest thing that lives than only yourself 
 Even as a matter of policy it is best. I had 
 the best intellect of any young man of my 
 time and set, and I have seen men with half 
 my brains, under the inspiration of love 
 and the obligations and duties it creates, 
 go forward to success which I could never 
 achieve. Whilst I was narrowing and dry 
 ing up, they were broadening and reach 
 ing out in every direction. Often I 
 have gone along the street and envied the 
 poorest man I met with his children on their
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK in 
 
 holiday strolls. My affections had been 
 awakened, but too late in life ; and I could 
 not win friendship then. That child that 
 you had in your arms the day I met 
 you was the first child I had seen in years 
 who looked at me without either fear or in 
 difference. ' ' 
 
 He sat back in a reverie. 
 
 The old man had, of course, mentioned 
 no names ; but I had recalled the conversa 
 tion of the two ladies that evening, and now 
 under his earnestness I was drawn to admit 
 that I had been in love, and feared I was yet. 
 
 He was deeply interested, and when I 
 told him that he had already had his part in 
 my affair, he was no less astonished. Then 
 I recalled to him the advice he had given 
 me on the street corner on that May morn 
 ing several years before. He remem 
 bered the incident of the carriage, with its
 
 112 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 burden of young girls, but had no idea I 
 was the young man. He was evidently 
 pleased at the coincidence. 
 
 "So you took my advice and picked a 
 girl out of that very carriage, did you?" 
 he said, with the first smile I had seen on 
 his wan face since I had been with him. 
 " Whose carriage was it, and what was her 
 name, if you don't mind telling an old 
 man?" he asked. Then, as I hesitated a 
 little, he said, gently : 
 
 "Oh, no matter; don't feel obliged to 
 tell me." 
 
 "No," I said; "I was only thinking. 
 It was the Hill-and-Dale carriage, and her 
 name was Elizabeth Dale." 
 
 "Elizabeth Dale?" he said, his eyes 
 opening wide as they rested on my face; and 
 then, as he turned to the fire and let them 
 fall, he said to himself, " How strange ! "
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 113 
 
 "Has she beauty?" he asked me pres 
 ently, after a reverie, in which he repeat 
 ed to himself, softly, over and over, ' ' Very 
 strange." 
 
 "I think she has," I said, "and others 
 think so, too. I believe you do yourself." 
 
 " How is that? I have never seen her." 
 
 "Yes, you have," I said. " Do you re 
 member your hat blowing off one day last 
 spring on Richardson Street, and a young 
 girl running out of a house bareheaded and 
 catching it for you ? Well, that was Eliza 
 beth Dale." 
 
 "Was it, indeed?" he said; and then 
 added: " I ought to have known it, she 
 looked so like her. Only I thought it was 
 simply her beauty which made the resem 
 blance. All youth and beauty coupled with 
 sweetness have brought up Elizabeth Green 
 to me through the years," he said, gently.
 
 114 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 "And the child who offered you the bread 
 and jam that day was her nephew. ' ' But he 
 was now past further surprise, and simply 
 said, 
 
 "Indeed!" 
 
 "Do you think she would come and see 
 me?" he asked me presently, after a long 
 reverie, in which he had been looking into 
 the fire. 
 
 I said I was sure she would if she knew 
 he wished it ; and then I went off into a 
 reverie, too. 
 
 " Cannot you bring her? " he asked. 
 
 " Why, I do not know yes, I suppose she 
 would come with me, only only Why, 
 yes, I could see if she would." 
 
 * ' Ask her to come and see an old man 
 who has not long to stay here, and who 
 wishes to see the girl whom you are going to 
 marry," he said.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 115 
 
 " But I am not going to marry her," I 
 said. " We barely speak now." 
 
 " Then the girl to whom you barely speak 
 now," he said, with something of a smile, and 
 then added, gravely, "the girl who picked 
 up his hat for him : an old man who knew 
 her mother." 
 
 I promised to do my best to get Miss Dale 
 to come and see him, and then the old fel 
 low dropped off into a doze, which soon be 
 came a sounder sleep than he had had at all.
 
 Il6 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 THE next day, after a long contention 
 with myself, I called on Miss Dale to pro 
 pose the visit which Mr. Miles had requested. 
 But the servant said she had gone to drive 
 with Mr. Goodrich. 
 
 Having screwed my courage, or whatever 
 it was, up to the point of visiting Miss Dale at 
 all, I found it stuck there ; and even in the 
 face of this last outrage to my feelings, in 
 going to ride with the man about whom I had 
 quarrelled with her, I called on her again 
 that afternoon, late enough to insure her re 
 turn home and presence in the house. 
 
 I will not undertake to describe my sen 
 sations as I sat in the little darkened parlor, 
 hat in hand and overcoat on, to indicate that
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 117 
 
 I had not called socially, but on business, 
 and business alone. I awaited the return of 
 the servant who announced me, in some 
 doubt, if not apprehension, for I was not ab 
 solutely sure that Miss Dale would see me. 
 So when the maid returned, and said she 
 would be down directly, and proceeded to 
 light the gas in the parlor, I found my heart 
 beating unpleasantly. 
 
 Then the servant disappeared, and left me 
 in solitude. 
 
 I looked over the photographs and into 
 the old books with which I was once so fa 
 miliar, and listened to the movement going 
 on upstairs. Then I sat down. But the glare 
 was so oppressive that I rose and turned down 
 the light a little. 
 
 Presently I heard some one or something 
 coming down the stairs, a step at a time, and 
 when it reached the point where I could see
 
 Il8 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 it through the door it proved to be Bur 
 ton. 
 
 " I tummin' down to tee you, "he said to 
 me through the banisters, calling me by my 
 name. For we had been famous friends that 
 summer. " I dot on bitches." 
 
 " Come on." I felt cheered by the boy's 
 friendliness. 
 
 He came in and showed himself off; 
 pointed out his pockets ; stuck his hands in 
 them and strutted around, and rode a cock 
 horse with all a boy's delight. I was just 
 feeling something of my old easiness when he 
 stopped suddenly, and striking an attitude, 
 said, 
 
 " I dot a horse." 
 
 " What ! Who gave it to you? " 
 
 "Mist' Oodwitch." 
 
 This was a blow. 
 
 " Mist' Oodwitch gave me this too,"
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 119 
 
 diving a hand into one of his pockets. But 
 I did not learn what it was, for just then I 
 heard another step coming slowly down the 
 stair. The boy heard it, too, and ran out to 
 meet his aunt. Fortunately I was sitting 
 somewhat behind the door, so I was screened 
 from observation and could not see what went 
 on outside. But I could hear. The first 
 thing was Burton's announcement that I was 
 there in the parlor, giving me by my first 
 name. Then I heard her say something to 
 him in an undertone, and he answered, 
 
 "No, no!" 
 
 After that I heard her low voice in a sort 
 of murmur, as she talked to him to try to 
 persuade him to do something; and his re 
 plies 
 
 " No, no ; don't want to do up tairs." 
 
 Then she grew more positive, and he 
 started, with a little whimper as he went up.
 
 120 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 I heard her say, " If you don't cry, I will 
 let you ride my horse the first time I go to 
 ride." This soothed him. 
 
 " Awe yite." And he went on up as rap 
 idly as one step at a time would take him. 
 
 There was a pause whilst she waited to 
 see him get up beyond the chance of return, 
 and then I heard her stir again. As she ap 
 proached the door I tried to appear natural, 
 but I felt myself decidedly discomposed. 
 
 She came in with a great deal of dignity 
 and, I must say, ease of manner. I, however, 
 was not to be put at my ease. I hardly 
 waited for her to make her little apology for 
 keeping me waiting. She had just come in 
 from a ride, she said, and had to take off her 
 hat. 
 
 It was not necessary to acquaint me with 
 her having been to ride. I knew that quite 
 as well as she.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 121 
 
 I, without delay, therefore, explained my 
 call, and relieved her mind of any misappre 
 hension she might be under as to the object 
 of my visit. I was still stiff and ungracious 
 enough, Heaven knows; and she was evi 
 dently a little surprised at my manner, for she 
 became more formal herself. But I had made 
 myself plain, and had set forth the old man's 
 loneliness with some skill. And though she 
 had stiffened a little, she said she would go as 
 soon as she could put on her hat if I would 
 wait. If not, she would get her brother-in- 
 law to take her after tea. 
 
 I said I would wait, and she left me. 
 
 I joined her in the little hall as she came 
 down-stairs again, and ceremoniously opened 
 the door for her and followed her into the 
 street. The only thing we talked of was 
 the old gentleman she was going to see, 
 and I was aware that my voice sounded
 
 122 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 very unnatural. Hers seemed as soft as 
 usual. 
 
 The trees on the street were leafless, and 
 the air was chilly and a little raw as the 
 dusk of the autumn evening fell. I led the 
 way to the next street, and let her in at the 
 broken gate where I had first met Mr. 
 Basham Miles so many years before, and 
 which I had helped her over that summer 
 evening when we read her mother's initials 
 on the beech-tree. We went up the long, 
 uneven walk, through the old yard toward 
 the now dark house, and I remember the 
 mournful way the white, dry leaves on the 
 lower boughs of the old beech rustled in the 
 chilly wind. 
 
 William opened the door after my second 
 knock, and looked with unfeigned surprise 
 at my companion. He said the old gentle 
 man was much the same, and he would see
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 123 
 
 whether he could see us. I determined to 
 take no chances, so, whilst William lit the 
 gas in the dark, cold library, I tripped up 
 stairs and went to the old gentleman's door. 
 
 I found him glad to see me, and as ready 
 as he could be to receive his visitor. So, 
 without giving him time to think much 
 about it, I acted on his half-consent, and a 
 moment later showed Elizabeth Dale into 
 his room. 
 
 She paused for a moment at the threshold 
 and then advanced, and as the old man tried 
 to rise to greet her, quickened her step, giv 
 ing a little exclamation as she protested 
 against his getting up. 
 
 I have never forgotten the picture they 
 presented. She sat by his side, and he held 
 her hand, so white and slender and fine, his 
 wrinkled long fingers clasped tremulously 
 around hers, as he begged her pardon for the
 
 124 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 trouble he had given her, and thanked her 
 for the favor she had granted him. He had 
 more strength than I had seen him show. 
 
 The fine old-fashioned courtliness of the 
 one and the sweet graciousness of the other 
 were counterparts, whilst the grayness and 
 feebleness of one and the roses and health of 
 the other set them in strong contrast. They 
 might have sat for Immortal Age and Im 
 mortal Youth. 
 
 In a little while she was holding the old 
 man's hand, not he hers, and as he men 
 tioned my name I drew somewhat apart and 
 left them together, he doing most of the 
 talking, and she listening and stroking his 
 hand as if she had been his daughter. 
 
 Presently he had been talking of his 
 youth in that house, and of the appearance 
 that part of the town used to present when 
 the hill was crowned with houses embowered
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 125 
 
 in trees he said, "My dear, did you ever 
 hear your mother speak of me ? ' ' His voice 
 was so gentle that I scarcely caught it. 
 
 I could see her embarrassment. She said, 
 very slowly, after trying to recollect : 
 
 "I cannot remember that I ever did." 
 And then, as if distressed that she might 
 have given him pain, she said, kindly, " She 
 may have done it, you know, without my 
 recollecting it, for I was a heedless young 
 thing." 
 
 How sweet her voice sounded, and what 
 sorrow was in her eyes sorrow that she 
 must have given that old man sorrow, though 
 she sacrificed all to truth. 
 
 He did not speak immediately ; but pres 
 ently he said, gravely, that he was not sur 
 prised. And then he added, quietly : 
 
 " My dear, I used to be in love with your 
 mother, and I never loved anyone else. I
 
 126 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 was most unworthy of her. But I have 
 carried her image in my heart all these 
 years. ' ' 
 
 Without a word the young girl rose and 
 leant over and kissed him. 
 
 Just then William opened the door and 
 brought in a waiter with tea-things for his 
 master's tea. It was not very inviting, 
 though it was the best the faithful William 
 and his wife could do. 
 
 Without a word of apology the young 
 girl stepped forward and took the tray, and 
 then, with no more explanation than if she 
 had done it every evening of her life for him, 
 she set to work to prepare the old man's 
 tea. 
 
 It was marvellous to see what a woman's 
 hands could do. Out of the somewhat 
 crowded and unappetizing waiter came an 
 order and daintiness which were miraculous.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 127 
 
 And when she handed him his tea in the old 
 blue china cup I knew that he could not 
 help taking it. The same instinct seemed to 
 teach her what was needed in the room, and 
 when she rose to leave a half hour later she 
 left behind her comfort and something like 
 order where before there had been only con 
 fusion. She left more than that she left an 
 old man cheered and comforted as he had not 
 been in years. 
 
 As she rose to go she said : 
 
 " I want you now to grant me a favor I 
 want you to let me come again. To-morrow ? 
 Will you?" 
 
 No one could have resisted that appeal, 
 least of all Basham Miles ; for she was leaning 
 over him, arranging a pillow for him as lie 
 had never had one arranged before in all his 
 life. 
 
 He could not answer her question ; he
 
 128 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 merely took her hand in both his, and raising 
 it to his lips, said, tremulously : 
 
 "God bless you ! " 
 
 The young girl bent over and kissed him 
 good-night kissed him twice, as she might 
 have done her father. 
 
 He said " God bless you ! " again; and 
 again, when she was at the door, he repeat 
 ed, "God bless you ! " 
 
 We came down the steps without a word, 
 and William let us out of the door. We were 
 down on the walk when I remembered that 
 I had not told him that I would come back 
 again, and I went back to the door. 
 
 When I came down the steps my com 
 panion was standing a little way down the 
 walk waiting for me, and I found she had 
 her hand to her eyes. I said I do not re 
 member just what I said ; but she walked a 
 little way off the walk, and sat down on a
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 129 
 
 seat under the nearest tree the old beech- 
 tree which Basham Miles treasured so. 
 
 "That poor old man," she sobbed, and 
 fell to weeping as if her heart would 
 break. 
 
 I never could see either a man or a woman 
 weep and remain unmoved. I dropped down 
 by her, and before I knew it I had forgotten 
 my pride, my jealousy, everything, and had 
 told her all that was in my heart. She did 
 not stop crying immediately, and she did not 
 say a word. But before I was through she 
 was sobbing on my shoulder, and she did not 
 take her hand away from me ; and when I 
 came out of Basham Miles's broken gate I 
 did not hate Hamilton Goodrich at all. In 
 fact, I was rather sorry for him, for I had 
 learned that he had received his final, though 
 by no means his first refusal that after 
 noon.
 
 130 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 We were too late for tea ; but I went in, 
 and Elizabeth Dale made tea for her second 
 time that evening, though her first time for 
 me.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 131 
 
 XI 
 
 WHEN I went back to Mr. Miles's, which 
 I did not do, I believe, until Elizabeth Dale 
 sent me, William told me that he had gone 
 to bed and was asleep, and had told him he 
 might stay in his room that night, and I 
 must not come till next day. 
 
 This I did, and that evening I took Eliza 
 beth Dale to make tea for him again. He 
 seemed really better, and his eye had a new 
 light in it, and his voice a new tone. 
 
 Elizabeth Dale went to see him every day 
 after that, twice a day, and sat with him ; and 
 other friends came too, and he saw them. 
 
 One evening Elizabeth Dale took her little 
 nephew to see him, and he enjoyed the child 
 and took it on his knee and played with it.
 
 132 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 In fact, he appeared so much better that we 
 were all talking about his being out again 
 all except himself. Therefore I was much 
 shocked the next morning when William 
 knocked at my door and told me he was 
 dead. He had retired that night about as 
 usual, and when William went to him 
 in the morning he found him dead in his 
 bed. 
 
 I went around immediately and found 
 several neighbors already there, for he had 
 more friends than he had known of. 
 
 By common consent it seemed that I was 
 the person to take charge of arrangements, 
 and William told me he had told him that 
 when he died he wanted me sent for at 
 once. 
 
 "An* dere's a letter for you, suh," he 
 said. " Somewhar in he ole secketary. He 
 writ it not long ago, and tole me he had put
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 133 
 
 it in dyah for you, and I wuz to tell you 
 'bout it when he died. He said dat would 
 tell all 'bout de 'rangements for de funeral 
 an* ev'ything. He knovved he wuz gwine, 
 suh, better'n we all." 
 
 Thus notified, some time during the day, 
 after I had telegraphed to his relatives, none 
 of whom were very near or had his name, I 
 looked for and found the letter. 
 
 It was a large envelope addressed to me 
 and sealed with his crest, and on opening it 
 I found a letter in it couched in most 
 affectionate terms, and giving explicit di 
 rections as to his funeral, which he said was 
 to save me and others trouble. 
 
 He requested that he might be buried in 
 the simplest manner and with the least ex 
 pense possible, and that his grave should be 
 by his mother's. 
 
 There was one singular request : that a car-
 
 134 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 riage should be provided especially for Will 
 iam and his wife, and that William should 
 be one of the men to lower him into the 
 grave. There was in the envelope another 
 envelope, also sealed and addressed to me, 
 and on the back was endorsed : 
 
 "Holograph Will of Basham Miles: To be 
 opened only after his funeral." 
 
 The relatives (there were only one or two 
 of them to come) arrived next day. And 
 that afternoon, as the autumn sun sank below 
 the horizon, the little funeral procession crept 
 out to the old and now almost disused cem 
 etery looking toward the west, and in the 
 soft afterglow of the evening the remains of 
 Basham Miles were laid to rest beside those 
 of his mother, over which rose a beautiful 
 marble monument with a touching inscrip 
 tion, which I knew was written by him.
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 135 
 
 There were not a great many people in 
 the church, and they were nearly all old 
 people. Among them I observed my two 
 old ladies who had told me of Basham 
 Miles when he was young. They came 
 together in their old, black dresses, the 
 younger helping her senior by three months 
 quietly along. 
 
 The relatives, of course, walked first. But 
 of all there I was sure that there was no 
 sincerer mourner than the young girl who 
 came last. With her veil drawn close about 
 her little head she sat far back in the church. 
 But I knew that it was that she might weep 
 unobserved. 
 
 The will was opened in the presence of 
 witnesses that night, as the relatives had to 
 return home. It was all in Basham Miles's 
 handwriting, and covered only a single sheet. 
 It left a certain sum to his servants, William
 
 136 THE OLD GENTLEMAN 
 
 Kemp and Jane, his wife, to buy them a 
 house and lot of their own ; left me his 
 library ; left his watch to Burton Dale Davis. 
 And then gave, ' ' The old Bible, once his 
 mother's, together with all the rest of his 
 property, of every kind whatsoever, to Eliza 
 beth Dale, youngest daughter of Elizabeth 
 Dale, formerly Elizabeth Green, now de 
 ceased." 
 
 I was appointed executor. 
 
 The sole condition he proposed to Eliza 
 beth Dale was that she should try to have 
 the old beech-tree in his yard spared as long 
 as was practicable. Even this was particu 
 larly stated to be but a request. 
 
 But I feel sure that he knew it would be 
 as binding on my wife as if it had been in 
 the form of an express condition, and that 
 so long as Elizabeth Dale should live, the old 
 beech-tree, under which Basham Miles re-
 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK 137 
 
 membered his mother, and on which he had 
 carved her mother's name in his youth, 
 would stand in proof that Basham Miles was 
 not forgotten.
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below. 
 
 REMINGTON RAND INC. 2o 213 (533)
 
 *4*S 
 
 JHE OLD GENTLEMAN, 
 OF THE BLACK STOCK