A Poor Wise Man

entant, for one thing, for her mother's evening alon

, "I was afraid your grandfather

know it was selfish. But I'

derf

other would not understand, and it would only make her uneasy.

test

n't know hi

of trouble for us. Lily, I want yo

small feeling of rebellion w

why. She is

you pr

It is interesting there, that's all. It isn't wrong to go.

e there to dinner?" Grace a

n. A lawyer

t nothing to

oung

agement for the next day, but Grace's attitude made it difficult. To be absolutely forbidden to meet Louis Akers at

entl

"In your sense of the word, perhaps

a little defiant. She must live her own life, somehow; have her own friends; think her own thoughts. The quiet tyranny

her deep, soft bed. Yet all through the city there were those who did not sleep warm and soft. Close b

oyle right, after all? Only he went very far. You couldn't, for instance, take f

ld be clearer about it if

tely in revolt against the injustice which gave to her so much and to others so litt

rs met her there, and carefully made the rounds with her. Th

ed on hers. "I loathe galleries and pictures. I wanted to see you ag

ather unc

you like

away. "I don't want tea either. Tea was an excuse, too." He smiled at her. "

asy. He knew so many things, and yet he was so obviously not quite a gentleman, in her family's sense of the

ught, trying to drink her tea quietly, that he might be very terrible if he

ored, almost dramatic good looks. There could be no doubt, too, that he was interested in her. H

fore they left

again, you know. May I

at for some moments, and sh

friend of Mr. Doyle's, and you must know that my

?" Then he laughed. "Might be unpleasant

very e

my grandfather wouldn'

d closer to her. "You are not a baby, you know. Bu

y comfortabl

oyle's a lonely woman, and Jim is all right. You pick your own friends

he car had moved away. Lily, sitting back in her corner, was both repelled and thrilled. He was totally unlike the men she knew, those carefully repressed, convent

Lily found herself with little to say. Her year away had separated her from the small community of interest that bound the others together, and she wondered, listening to them in

l flurry. Then in time he would be appropriated. Or a girl would come to visit, and by the same system of appropriation would come back later, permanently. Always the same faces, the same small talk. Orchids or violets at luncheons, white or rose or blue or yellow frocks at dinners and

away in his upstairs room, but holding the threads of all thei

're talking about the most interesting men we met in

were not so very interestin

Lily

e wasn't a soldier, but he was ver

ll in love

a par

n't he a

bit lame. But he

xtraordinary a

g, except h

nd Willy Cameron was essentially undramatic. Besides, it was quite plain that,

ing some one behind this kind person.

, but he was not in the army. Not a Socialist, real

t. She saw their interest

der his coat, o

dn't b

-look

, rat

ly?" one of them a

ifty, I s

heav

Akers; he would have answered to their prime requisite in an interesting man. H

ootman on the doorstep signaled to the waiting cars. Mademoiselle, watching from a point of vantage in the upper hall, felt a sense of comfort a

d not yet carried out that absurd id

hat exact moment in pro

for you, Mr

ng," sang out

untered towar

s a

lady' is now obsolete, since your sex has ent

aid Edith. "'May I speak to Mr. Cameron?'

e Lily Cardew-but then of course it wouldn't be. She ha

o," h

ound his heart suddenly loosened, to fasten about h

he unfamiliar voice. "I'd

stened, with a slightly s

on't think I'd bett

not,

was no one about save Miss Boyd, who was polishi

e in a bus

course.

dn't know what your people would think. Th

n. He was going to see her. Instead of standing across the street by the park fence, waiting for a glimpse of her w

go and pick up Jinx, and then take a long walk through the park. He needed move

h. "I wish you joy, waitin

back a long,

him. "My evening clothes have not arrived yet.

rrounded him like a mist, he caught the bi

new at camp. I was in

name a

s Cardew. Miss

ieve y

concerned. "Why in the world s

ere fixed

makes me laugh, because-we

was

happen, Mr. Cameron. You'll stay here about six weeks. Then you'll ge

er-tips and blew al

that," sh

e conversation. But he had been distinctly a grade above that competent young person, Edith Boyd, if there were such grades these days; fluent and prosperous-looking, and pro

th of him. That's

's invitation he was to

ing. Men wandered in, bought a tube of shaving cream or a tooth-brush, and sat or stood around for an hour or so; clerks whose families had gone to the movies, bachelors who found their lodging houses d

the neighborhood pharmacy, open in the evening, warm and bright, gave them a rendezvous. They gathered there in thousands, the country over. During the war they fought their daily battles there,

he young physician who lived across the street, and others. Back of the store proper was a room, with the prescription desk at one side and reserve stock on shelves around the other three. Here were a table and a half dozen old chairs

to Doctor Smalley a night or two after Lily's

Smalley

hich is more than I can do myse

ood sense a keen knowledge of men, he had gained a small but loyal following. He was a retired master plum

een it grow from fifty thousand to what it's got now. So

een going over his weaknesses, for the thought of Lily always made him humble, and one of them was that he

after a half hour of almost taciturnity, while Willy Cameron smoke

, which none of you knows a damn about anyhow, an

e in the daytime and sometimes utilized his evenings

olut

owd la

Police to-day, and he's got a line of conversation that makes a man feel l

s pipe out of his mou

alley, who rose manfully to th

ere. Not all Russians either. Some of our American

his t

the case there is likely to be earthquakes and eruptions. The Chief says they're bringing in a bunch of g

with this form of government?" i

said Mr. Clarey. "And once t

ill never be

hy

et squeezed in between them. You see labor getting more money than you, and howling for still more. You see both capital and labor raising prices until you can't live on what you get. There are a hundred times as many of you as represent capital and lab

was cheerful

it and like it. Go on. Don't stop to

see its foreign language copies. They'll never overthrow the government, but they may try. Why don't you fellows combine to

ks winked a

'd suggest arming them with pop bottles and attacking that gang of an

you say goes. And we'll get the Jim Doyle-Woslosky-Loui

illy Cameron. "

a bad actor, and as smooth as butter. D'you know what their plan is? They exp

dsman. "Where'd the p

"are as filled with sedition as a whale with corset

ressively. But Willy Cameron was staring th

ndous foreign population in the mill towns around, isn't there? Does an

"Don't know how it would work. Found my wi

ve group, they wouldn't need a batt

ened to muffled night sounds, as though one said: "The city sleeps. Be still." The red glare of the mills was

"who is going home to get some sleep. And tomorrow I'll buy me a gun,

moving sedately back and forth, now and then glancing up with idolatrous eyes. Willy Cameron's mind was active and not particularly coordinate. The Cardews and Lily; Edith Boyd a

o him. He threw an end of the blanket over him and lay there, staring into the darkness. He was frightfully lonely. At last he fell asleep,

uit pr

new

from