The Auction Block

er until the middle of the second act, by which time Mrs

Jim can tell you everything, for he's talked about it, too, when you were on the stage. Lilas mentioned him to-night when her and him was talking over the flesh-light photographs. She said-Oh, Gawd!-" Mrs. Croft broke off her narrativ

o a flame-colored velvet gown which the old woman held for her. She set a tremendous plumed hat upon her head, impaled it deftly, patted her hai

rage from Lilas. Miss Lynn had torn the message int

furiously, rising so ab

ft. "The

t is

ick." Half-way to th

i's wa

ou haven

me? I won't be off again till the curtain, and that will be too late." Lorelei rose obediently. "That's a dear. Call Tony

and-He'll kill me if I let him go. I'll call him later, to-night-There's my cue now. Just ask for Max, and don't use his last name. Thanks.

ch separated Mr. Regan's hole in the wall from the entrance-hall. It was no place in which to conduct a private conversa

eway a man in evening dress turned

gus-eyed watchman, and, lo! you come flying in answer to my wish. Quick service, Judge. In appreciation of your t

words. "Please-I must tele

t I was a goldfish; to-nig

ephone-book swiftly in search of her number

" he commanded. "You ca

and upon the telephon

dangerous man. You can'

le

I'm telephoning f

can't permit. The 'some

, n

ged his head, grasping th

'him,' isn't it? Aha' My inte

I promise to do it again,

n-I pass the insult. I offer you my hand and my other cheek in case you want to try a left hook. But I come with anothe

nk again, M

d and shook his head in negation. "It's

e that

tell him i

right. I'll use t

itated. "I

he can't come," she sai

er delay. Wharton, as on the evening before, carried his intoxication with an air. He was steady on his feet,

teeth like castanets. Bob turned at the sound and regarded him with benig

a comedian,"

Age has its compensations. Play 'Home, Sweet Home' wh

ecognize her brother's voice. She made herself kn

ax th

utside in the

him, p

of him? How'd yo

d. Call hi

's names! Mr. Regan, kindly grind your teeth for me. No? W

ecited her message. There was a moment of silence, then s

ring as he hung up. She turned to find

thanks you; my family thanks you.

et rid of you?" she

ll try to think. Wear your prettiest gown, won't y

an invita

in a wonderful manner, Miss Knight. Don't refuse; my legs

ingled annoyance and amuseme

entertain me till you

il temper; but she thanked her room-mate for aiding her; then, as i

i told her, slowly. "I don't t

agement and he broke it. Men are all selfish: the bigger they are the

ifice his busi

or anything or anybody? Not much. They are the strong and the mighty. They got rich through robbery, and they're in the hab

le don't b

, for I was born and raised in a furnace town. My father worked in a Bes

d of singing; two voices raised in doubtful harmony, one

girls tha

so sweet as S

s that?" qu

udge. Wharton's waitin

him-millions that his father wrung out of sweating, suffering foreigners l

ht. Is Mr. Hammon livi

; he

planning to blackm

rned slowly, brows lifted. Her dark

tired swiftly but noiselessly into the lavatory, closing the door beh

thi

id you get-th

agine, but he keeps his

rd you and M

surd. I get mad at Jarvis-he's enough to madden anybody-perha

tigation, reported that Robert Wharton had been forcibly expelled from a dressing-room. He could be heard gentl

Lilas, as she left. "They pay high and go a

listened; but, hearing Wharton still in conversation with the watchman, she locked her door once more and sat down to wait. As she fingered the note a doubt formed in her mind-a doubt as to the advisability under a

m were his high hat, his gloves, and his stick. As Lorelei, with skirts carefully gathered, tiptoed past him she saw suspended upon his gleaming white shirt-bosom what at first glance resembled a foreign de

ollowed, together with a tremendous box of long-stemmed roses. She went down a trifle apprehensively, for by this time the current tales of Bob's drunken freaks had given her cause to think somewhat

g, "I sent Bob away on a pretext, althoug

utside my dressing-room last night, an

is companion. "I'm not up on the etiquette of this sort of thing," he explaine

RE inexperienced. The J

e too dim. But why su

poison," he confessed; "but I've read that chorus-girls

m not hungry, so let's ride-we can talk better, and you're not the

ith alacrity. To his dr

sland

and saw a dim figure within. The dome-light had been turned off, and she could detect o

f you wish," said she, "and hide unt

y suffer, not mine." He leaned forward and i

He's going our way

so. We'll h

the Long Island r

e the country. You see, I can't sleep unless I'm in motion. I get most o

fun

on and upholstery, and I spend nearly every night in one or the other of them. It's seldom I do less than a hundred miles between midnight and morning; sometimes, when I'm bad, I do twice that. So long as I'm moving fast I manage to snatch a miserable sort of repose, but the instant w

e happens to have a blo

strain in a week, and yet all the time I want to go faster-faster. Some night, when a bolt breaks, or my driver's eye and hand fail to co-ordinate

g bird. Overhead, the massive towers pierced the night sky; the steel-ribbed skeleton-tunnel rushed past the riders; far beneath, the river itself lay like a sheet of metal, glittering here and there with the yellow lights of ships. Blackwell's Island slipped under them, an inky bottomless pit of despair, out of which points of

e, and drive just as you alway

late. You'll ne

, n

ss was genuine. "Won'

riously. "They know I'm perfectly safe. It's the other way round: a ma

ynn and Mr. Hammon. You've

n't be a

'phone that you had

ere is an effort on f

tly. I have a reason fo

mistaken in you

ght and wrong. Personally, I have no sympathy with Mr. Hammon, and I don't imagine he acqui

institutions sometimes rest on foundations as slight as one man's personality-one man's reputation for moral

esponsibilities; his death would be no more disastrous than a sca

e know tha

father and his father's father were steel-workers. They came from Cornwall before he was born, and Jarvis grew up in the glare of the Pennsylvania furnaces. From the time he could walk he never knew anything, never heard anything except steel. He inherited all the driving strength of his father and developed such a remarkable business ability that he became

ver failed at anything. Now, here comes the part of the story that interests me most of all and will interest you if you can understand the workings of a man's mind. Jarvis had no vices and but one hobby-at least his vices were neutral, for he had never taken time to acquire the positive kind. His hobby was Napoleon Bonaparte. He read everyth

'm tremendous

surpassed him in only one respect-namely, the power to relax-a pardonable conceit, under the circumstances. Jarvis had never taken time for relaxation, and he was beginning to wear out; and so-he deliberately set about learning to play. The Em

something of his fami

he consi

asions and whose extravagant whims he gratified without question. But there was little real intimacy, little sympathy. Remember, Jarvis had been a boy, but he had never been young, and this was his first taste of youth, But-he was not Napol