The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig

h is the elegant way of saying most expensive. The Wyandotte had gone up before landlords grasped the obvious truth that in a fire-proof str

and practiced it as openly and proudly as a preacher does piety. Craig's chief splendor was a sitting-room, called a parlor and bedecked in the red plush and Nottingham that represent hotel men's probably shrewd guess at the traveling public's notion of interior opulence. Next the sitting-room, and with the same dreary outlook, or, rather, downlook, upon disheveled and squalid

of a rough and strenuous wearer; a smoking-jacket that, after a youth of cheap gayety, was now a frayed and tattered wreck, like an old tramp, whose "better days" were none too good. On the radiator stood a pair of wrinkled shoes that had never known trees; their soles were curved like rockers. An old pipe clamored a

so correct in their care and in their carelessness that even a

penetrating that it seemed loud, though it was not, and much

tone: "Filthy hole!"

seated in fashionable and cynically-critical superciliousness was more than a matter of exteriors. Arkwright, with features carved, not hewn as were Craig's, handsome in civilization's over-trained, overbred extreme, had an intelligent, superior look also. But it was the look of expertness in things hardly worth the trouble of learning; it was aristocracy's highly-prized air of the dog that leads in the bench show and tails in the field. He was like a firearm polished and

ff superbly, but was trying to get himself arrayed for a fashionable ball. He had on evening trousers, pumps, black cotton socks with just enough silk woven in to give them the shabby, shamed air of having been caught

ust get an apartment in

ttic," rejoin

ford anythi

afford anyt

ad

ivate bath! I never was so well-off before in my life. I tell you, Grant, I'm not surprised any more that you Easterners get effe

the rent in the shirt. "What are

he tear-"Very simple. A safety-pin or so from the lining of

aculated Arkwr

m: "The safety-pin's the mainstay of bachelor life," said he rhetorica

contemptuous switch of his cane. "Put on anoth

of my half-dozen that

at sheet of

face ruefully. "What's the m

"Only, it looks more like something to roof a

I'm not a fool. I know there was a certain amount of truth in those letters you took the trouble to write me from Europe. I know that to play the game here in Washington I've got to do something in society. But"-here Josh

ary things. I don't see that wearing a whole shirt decently done up is going to compromise any principles. Surely you can d

cret of this strenuous young Westerner. "But," said he, "they love and trust the man who will have not

t "Josh's cheap demagoguery" sounded fine and true. He soon forgot the argument in the study of his surr

ugh was t

n, in the voice of one announcing an

was completely hid-seemed to have lost the worst of its glaze and stiffness. "You'll do, Josh," said he. "I spoke too quickly. If I hadn't accidentally been thrust into the innermost secrets of y

fe. You've always been sheltered and pampered, lifted in and out of bed by valets, had a suit of clothes for every hour in the day. I don'

ad been absolute ruler of the party of lost and dying men; how he had forced them to march on and on, with entreaties, with curses, with blows finally; how he had brought them to safety-all as a matter of course, without any vanity or

this evening's over," laughed Craig. "This is the fir

be frightened about,

of popinjays? You see, it's not really in the least important whether they like me or not-at least, not to me. I'll get t

d inexperience which had, no doubt, been conquered. But, no; here was the same old, conceited Josh, as crudely and vulgarly self-confident as when he was twenty-five and just starting at the law in a country town. Yet Arkwright could not but admit there had been more than a grain of truth in Craig's former self-laudations, that there was in victories won a certain excuse for his confidence about the future. This young man, not mu

orney-General?" asked Arkwright, as

er," replied Craig, "now that he h

be a pretty big man," s

of time to talk politics to you. Grant, old man, I'm sick and worn out, and how lonesome! I'm successful. But what of that

ed Arkwright. "Don't let the c

ous matters lightly, and light matters seriously. You

" said Grant. "I'm g

too lazy to earn a living," pursued Craig

nd you want her qui

y clothes are in. Then, I n

o," correc

u round all the

wright. "You never talk ab

ntics of a mountebank, "you'll appreciate it wasn't the subject that was dull, but the ear

lucky you don't let go be

great, deep-lying vein in his nature-"not at all a bad idea, to have people think you a frank, loose-mouthed, damn fool-IF you ain't. Ambition's a war. A

ort you need. You need a woman who'll

iled sco

you make with your rough-and-tumble manners

st be a lady, and interested in my career. But none of your meddling politicians in petticoat

so, she ought to be able to supply you w

his were what he ha

he people are such thoughtless, short-sighted fools-" He checked himsel

t hedge, Jo

be thinking I'm looki

t at all," lau

t'd be worse for my career t

and," said

I must marry. The people are suspicious of a bachelor. The married men resent his freedom-even

pected you o

a married man, a man with children. It looks respectable, settled. It makes 'em fee

y you've neglec

o b

tious," sugge

an?" demanded J

e in the world. Being cut out for a king, you know-why, you thought yo

might have been mere amusement. "I want a wif

sed. "There's one game you don't

game i

woman

'm about ready to marry, I'll look the offerings over." He clapped his frie

o sure," jee

ig's face. Again Arkwright saw the expression that made him feel extremely

curs to you shallow people. I get what I want because what I wa

ingly at his friend's

osh," said he. "Nothin

" exclaimed Craig.