Graustark

enty-five hundred mile journey alone filled him with dismay. The country he knew; the scenery had long since lost its attractions for him; countless newsboys had failed to tempt him with the liter

Lorry did not have a dull m

ctant civility he apologized; a lady stood up to let him pass, and for an instant in th

ing from grouse on the Scottish moors to the rapids above Assouan. He had run in and out of countless towns and countries on the coast of South America; he had done Russia and the Rhone valley and Brittany and Damascus; he had seen them all-but not until then did it occur to him that there might be something of inte

had given him a wealthy mother, and as earning a living was not a necessity, he failed to see why it was a duty. "Work is becoming to some men," he once de

h on the Nile. He never tired of seeing things and peoples and places. "There's game to be found anywhere," he said, "only it's sometimes out of season. If I ha

the corner of his compartment, and he settled back in his seat with a pleasurable sense of expectancy. The presence in the next room of a very smart appearing young woman was prominent in his consciousness. It gave him an uneasiness which was the beginning of delight. He had seen her for only a second in the passageway, but that second had made him hold himself a little straighter. "Why is it," he wondered, "that some girls make you stand like a footman the moment you see them?" Grenfall had been in lo

n air of deference to the young woman which Grenfall did not understand. His appearance was very striking; his face pale and heavily lined; moustache and imperial gray; the eyebrows large and bushy, and the jaw and chin squ

on that she had not seen him. As they left the table and passed into the observation car, he stared at her with some defiance. But she was sm

orter. A coin was carelessly displayed in his fingers. "Do you s

as they can git thuh. I ain' ax um no questions, 'cause thuh's somethi

r thought

shine up to tha' young lady. She ain' the sawt, I ca

ne up to her. I only want to know who she is-just

out huh, suh, yuh know. 'Scuse me foh misjedgin' yuh, suh. Th' lady in question is a foh'ner-she lives across th' ocean, 's fuh as I ca

they cha

y way of Cincinnat

Chicago. He caught himself wondering if

her father and m

lady allus speaks Amehican to me, but th' old folks cain't talk it ver' well. They all been to Frisco, an' the hired he'p they's got with 'em say they been to Mexico, too. Th' young l

with them,

ks. Cain't say mor'n fifteen words in Amehican. Th' woman is hu

on't know

I cain't ver'

of Europe do

ia, I th

ean Au

guessin' at it anyhow; one place's a

f those dollars

y. It's a foh'en piece. She tell me to keep it till I went ovah to huh country; then I could

m the porter's hand. "I never saw one like it before. Greek, it looks t

seventy cents! That's reediculous, ai

r for it. You can have

he inward conviction that he was the silliest fool in existence. After the porter's departure he took t

tly jingling the coins. He passed her compartment several times, y

Uncle Caspar, who was hurrying toward his niece's section. A few moments later she came down the steps, followed by the dignified old gentleman. Grenfall tingled with a strange delight as she moved quite close to his

oment. There was an expression of anxiety, in her eyes as he looked up into them, followed instantly by one of relief. Then she passed into the car. She had seen him swing upon the moving steps and had feared for his safety-had

eyes upon the broad mirror in the opposite car wall. Instantly he forgot his paper. She was sitting within five feet of him, a book in her lap, her gaze bent briefly on the flitting buildings outside. He studied the reflectio

lf to become really interested in a Paris dispatch of some international consequence, he turned his eyes again to the mirror. She

he pretty face and a reluctant resumption of novel reading. A few moments later he turned back to the first page, holding the paper in

se to him. His paper still hung invitingly, upside down, as he had left it, on the chair, and the lady was poring over her novel. As he passed her he drew his right hand from his pocket and a piece of money dropped to the floor at her feet. Then began an embarrassed search for the coin-in the wrong direction, of course. He knew precisely where it had rolled, but purposely looked under the seats on the other side of the car. She drew her skirts aside and assisted in the search. Fou

gaily, a delicious fore

s if in a dream of ecstacy, but her eyes had fa

tion. Instantly, however, she regained her composure and dropped the piece into his outstretched hand, a proud flush mounting to her cheek, a look of cold reserve to her

to have tr

r. Again a mirror gave him a thrill. This time it was the glass in the car's end. He had taken but a half dozen steps when the brown head was turned slyly and a pair of inter

as he went to his section dizzily, he thought of the good fortune that had been his in other attempts, and asked himself why it had not occurred to him to make the same advances in

and asked himself what had happened to flatter his vanity except a passing show of interest. With this, he smiled and recalled similar opportunities in days gone by, all of which had been turned

he labels on his hat-box. He knew the places he had been to, and he recognized a new country by the annoyances of the customs house, but beyond this his ignorance was complete. The coin, so far as he knew, might have come from any one of a hundred small principalities scattered about the continent. Yet it bot

accommodations; and when the flyer arrived in St. Louis that evening he hurriedly attended to the transferring and rechecking of his baggage, bought a new ticket, and dined. At eight he was in the station, and at 8:15 he pas

n the manner that is always self-explanatory. She had evidently called the uncle's attention to him, but was herself looking sedately from the window when Lorry unfortunately spoiled th

oluntarily stared after his mistress as she paced the platform while the train waited at a station. Again, in Ohio, they met in the vestibule,

He had hoped to get Uncle Caspar into a conversation and then use him, but Uncle Caspar was as distant as an iceberg. "If there should be

up the steep mountain, higher and higher, through tunnel after tunnel, nearer and nearer to Washington every minute. As they were pulling out of a little mining town built on the mountain side, a sudd

work. A clear, musical voice, almost in his ear, startled him, for he knew to whom it belon

ar as to instruct another inquisitive traveler to go to a warmer climate because he persisted in asking for information which could not be given except by a clairvoyant. But

re was a drop of almost four hundred feet straight into the valley below. Along the sides of this valley were the entrances to th

She seemed glad to escape from the train and its people, and she hurried along, the fres

aw the train pulling out. Lorry had rather distinguished himself in college as a runner, and instinctively he dashed up the street, reaching the tracks just in time to catch the railing of the last coach. But there he stopped and stood with thumping heart while the coaches slid smoothly up the track, leaving him behind. He remembered he

cious of what had happened. A glance down the

s, flushed and excited. Regardless of appearances,

tance between them grew short, her blue eyes

has

d we-we a

elighted by

f angrily, looking at her watch. "Oh, what shall I do?" she went on, distractedly. He had e

st catch it." She had placed her gloved hand against a telegraph pole to

a slave. In her voice there was authority, in her eye the

re he straightened himself-"I would add a thousand to yours." He hesi

rapidly toward the little