Uneasy Money

hour was half-past ten in the evening; the day, the second day after the exodus of Nu

ake of trying to see it all at once. It had been his intention, when he came home after dinner that night, to try to restore the b

ombe's money. He had had time during the voyage to think the whole matter over, and this seemed to him the only possible course. He could not keep it all. He w

iss Boyd's absolute refusal to accept any portion of the money. This was a development which Bill had not foreseen, and he was feeling baffled. Wh

confronting an extraordinarily tall

stairs, a friendly soul who hailed from London and had been dropping in at intervals during the past two days to acquire the latest

Gate

ry to his well-being. It distressed Lord Dawlish to

in London,

en did he

our mont

ome in a

rather

being folded up by some invisible agency, and in this attitude sank into a chair, where he lay

m England,

es

New Yor

couple o

r foot or so until his knees were hig

come back and try to find your old pals, and they're all gone: Ike's in Arizona, Mike's in a sanatorium, Spike's in jail, and nobody seems to know where the rest of them have got to. I came up from the country two day

made sympat

o out of the city. I guess that must be what happened. I used to know all sorts of fellows, actors and fellows like that, and they're all away somewhere. I tell you,' he said, with

okpo

ce down on

t as he was about to ask his companion if he happened to know a Miss Elizabeth Boyd, who also lived at Brookport. It occurred to him that the question wo

n't so easy, you know, to think of fellows' names and addresses. I can get the names all right, but unless the fellow's in the telephone-book, I'm done. Well, I was tr

new him i

er here he lent you his flat? By

e's Cha

here to look him up. We used to have a lot of good

see him about any

w at the Forty-ninth Street Theatre, a Miss Leonard, and she insists on bringing a pal. She says the pal is a good sport, which sounds all righ

stranger slid a little farther into his chair and paus

king of goi

rd blasphemy. 'Going to bed at half-past ten in New York! My dear

id not want to have to dress and go out to supper, but there was something alm

good of you-

you would. You woul

he was in for

go and get into some clothes and come along

alm

oyd-Nutco

' crie

ich was too great to be conceal

s's. I expect he's always talking about me. You see, I was p

hing could not have been better arranged if he had planned it himself. From what little he had seen of Nutty he gathered that the latter was not hard to make friends with. It would be a simple task to cultivate his acquaintance. And having done so, he could renew negotiations with Elizabeth. The desire to rid himself of h

t yet over. He was conscious of a mild surprise that he had ever intended to go

New York has become a peripatetic pastime. The supper-party arranged by Nutty Boyd was scheduled

n Miss Daisy Leonard arrived with her friend. A

sunset of a fine summer evening, and she effervesced with spacious good will to all men. She was one of those girls who splash into public places like stones into quiet pools. Her form was large, her eyes were large,

was being addressed by Miss Leonard. To turn from Miss Leonard's friend to Miss Leonard herself was like hearing the falling of gentle rain after a thunderstorm.

r pardon?'

met you befor

real

an't thi

e a sentimental siege-gun, 'that if I had ever met

aren't you?' as

es

id she was crazy

so from y

hat she was crazy abo

hat I met you. I was in the re

had seen you!' inte

tt

id that she was c

'meeting you out at supper. Do you know a

Delaney, though the latter was one of his best

at Oddy's one Friday night. We all went

Bill's hearty gratitude thereby, 'where's the

restaurant with

t put in at Ithaca. 'Every darned thing different since I was here last. New

o tip the head-waiter, or there won't be any table. Funny how these places go up and down in New York. A year ago the whole manag

hat?' as

course. Didn't you know t

of ecstasy of wistful gloom. 'That will sh

invoked the

t the papers in yo

e I've read a paper for years. I can't s

they're Greek. They all are nowadays, unles

zy about these picturesque old English

*

Sport. He was conscious all the time of a dream-like feeling, as if he were watching himself from somewhere outside himself. From some conning-tower in this fourth dimensio

*

scenes re-enacts the joys of his vanished youth. The chastened melancholy induced by many months of fetching of pails of water, of scrubbing floors with a mop, and of jumping like a firecracker to avoid excited bees had been purged from him by the lights and the music and the win

he was feeling at her ease and had overcome any diffidence or shyness which might have interfered with her complete enjoyment of th

of it suddenly. At the beginning of supper his views on her had been definite and clear. When they had first been introduced to each other he had had a stunned feeling that this sort of thing ought not to be allowed at large, and hi

r father had been a circus giant and her mother the strong woman of the troupe. And for the unrestraint of her manner defective training in early girlhood would account. He began to regard her with a quiet, kindly commiseration, which in its turn changed into

youth, may be attributed to a certain extent also to the national habit of dancing during meals. Lord Dawlish had that sturdy reverence for his interior organism which is the birt

and on these occasions the Good Sport's wistfulness was a haunting reproach. Nor was the spectacle of Nu

ing through a tunnel and continue like audible electric shocks, that set the feet tapping beneath the table and the spine t

we?'

andicap was plus two; and he was no mean performer with the gloves. But we all of us have our limitations, and Bill had his. He was not a good dancer. He was energetic,

s memory-and swept him away. After which they descended resistlessly upon a stout gentleman of middle age, chiefly conspicuous for the glittering diamonds which he wore and the stoical manner in which he danced to and fro on one spot of not more than a few inches in size in the exact centre of the room. He had apparently staked out a claim to this small spot, a claim which the other dancers had decided to respect; bu

vicissitudes in the land of his adoption-which it would be extremely interesting to relate, but which must wait for a more favourable opportunity-he had secured a useful and not ill-recompensed situation as one of the staff of Reigelheimer's Restaurant. He was, in point of fact, a waiter, and he comes

ing over the table in the pursuance of his professional duties, along came Bill at his customary high rate of speed, propelling his partner before

falling and to assist Heinrich to rise from the morass of glasses, knives, and pats of butter in which he was wallowing. T

that so much glass had been broken and so many pats of butter bruised beyond repair. But of one thing, even in that moment of bleak regrets, he was distinctly glad, and that

s and explanations to his partner and soothing the ruffled Nutty with well

eye-witness of the whole performance, was resumin