Doctor Claudius, A True Story

he thousand and one informalities of its officials, are matters of interest indeed, but not of history. There are moments in a man's existence when the act of conveying half a dozen sovereigns to t

r eyes is that there is no elevator, so that they can run upstairs and get out of breath, and fancy themselves at home. Of course their apartments had been secured, and had been waiting for them a week, and the Countess was glad to withdraw for the day into the sunny suite over the corner that was hers. As for Miss Skeat, she went to the window and stayed there, for America was quite different from what she had fancied. Claudius descended to the lower regions, and had his hair cut; and the cook and the bar-keeper and the head "boots," or porter, as he c

f course; and the Duke, hearing of this from his man, sent "his compliments to Lady Victoria, and would she send him a rose for his coat?" So the Duke sallied forth on foot, and the little creases in his clothes showed that he had just arrived. But he d

probably go to Newport by the boat that evening. So they went "around right away," and indeed it was a circular journey. Down one elevator, through a maze of corridors, round crowded corners, through narrow streets, Claudius ploughing his way through billows of curbstone brokers, sad and gay, messenger-boys, young clerks, fruit vendors, disreputable-looking millionaires and gentlemanly-looking scamps, newspaper-boys, drunken Irishmen, complacent holders of preferred, and scatterbrained speculators in wild-cat, an atmosphere of tobacco smoke, dust, melons, and unintelligible jargon

the street; there were several people in the room they first entered

rds, for I did not suppose you would like to face 'the street' alone. Father," he said, turning to

, and seemed altogether a sturdy, hearty, hardworking man of business-rather a contrast to his son. He hoped that Claudius would come on to N

asingly long strips of white paper. The paper passed through a small instrument, and came o

and drink, than all the other evils of humanity

ess, to every club, and to many private houses in New York, by means of a simple arrangement of symbols-how "Gr. S." meant Green Swash, and "N.P. p

till night 'trente-sept, rouge, impair,' and then 'Messieurs faites votre jeu-le jeu est

ery like gamblin

doing. Besides, it tells you everything. Horse-racing, baseball, steamers, births, death

were seen disappearing into the dense crowd. Claudius and Barker walked on, and crossed Broadway; a few steps farther, and the Doctor was brought face to face with the triumph of business over privacy-the elevated railway. He

r, he looked out of the window, and asked whether the people in the first stories of the

verlastingly protesting against the outrageous things done by the other two-thirds. One-third fights another thi

there are so few poor in New York,

id Barker; "t

cal economy of this country with yo

here six months you will be willing to pay a

obliged to go on, and he put Claudius out on the platform at the station nearest his hotel, and which was in fact at

nd he seized Claudius by the arm and dragged him to the

r?" asked the Doct

hen I saw you, and as I have asked him to dinner I wanted to introduce you first. But he is always in such a hurry. Nowhere to be seen. Probably down town by thi

will all dine together the first night ashore-a man y

is

le of the whol

peerage?" laugh

and the Almanach de Gotha. Nobility and gentry, th

lways talking about the North Americ

he is coming." There was a

like." His Grace

ut rather differently from what I had expected." The Duke was fond of his sister, though she was much younger tha

f the sea and the open air, and I ha

dear, but I don't believe a word of it. '

t have had another man, you know, bec

ker, because he can play cards, and

y Victoria. "You remember, we talked about h

his way," said her brother. "Have you-

iteful. He says s

per from the end of his cigarette, which had burned badly. She did not answer at f

about,

Victoria smoothed her rebellious brown hair at the huge over-gilt pie

n't you do your hair like the American women-all fuzzy, ove

still looking into the glass. Then s

el

r would like to marr

ng! The Duke rose and walked once up and down the room; then he sat

uch nonsense

ons. Besides, she w

event him from wis

" He looked a little puzzled, as if he found it

Claudius married her, would

t know-yes,

great deal more than you like Doctor

d the Duke; "I have know

and why should he not thin

," in which expression the honest-hearted Englishman struck the tru

tleman, and that no one knew where he came from, and that he ought not to make love to Margaret, and so on, till I wanted to box his ears;" and she waxed warm in her wrath, which was really due in great part to the fact that Mr. Barker

im. "My guest, too, and on my yacht," he went on; and it did his sister good to see him angry-"it's true he brought him, and introduced him to me." Then a bright idea struck him. "And if Claudius were not a gentleman, what the deuce right had Barker to bring him to me at all, eh? Wasn't it his business to find out? My word! I would like to ask him that, and if I find him I will." Lady Victoria had no intention of making mischief between her brother and

r junior if he came in th

he Duke after a pause, during which his an

a; "he sent some flower

at. Would you like to

h was about eighteen months, but she had already caught that matron

Claudius, if he is an

fled feelings by making much of the man who was "a gentleman." But they were right, for Cla

early for New York-they went back to their hotel, and dispersed to dress for dinner. The Duke, as he had told his sister, had invited his friend to dine. They all sat together waiting his arrival. Pun

over such a wonderful cranium from the admiring gaze of phrenologists. A sweeping moustache and a long imperial of snowy white sat well on the ruddy tan of his complexion, and gave him an air at once martial and diplomatic. He was dressed in the most perfect of London clothes, and there were superb diamonds in his shirt, while a priceless sapphire sparkled,

fiance to age, and there is a kindness which laughs at the world's rough usage. These are they who have returned good for evil, not having learned it as a lesson of righteousness, but because they hav

looked up in a way peculiarly his own, without raising his head. He had of course heard in New York of the strange fortune that had befallen Claudius on the death of the well-known Mr. Lindstrand, and now he stood a minut

s face lighting up with coming reminiscences, "but

little changed,

mediately began telling her a story of her grandmother, with a verve and graphic spirit that enchanted Margaret, for she liked clever old men. Besides he is not old. It is not so long since-well, it is a long stor

tiful with a single band of gold through her black hair, laughed her assent, and said it was hopeless for the men of this day to enter the lists against the veterans of the ancien régime. And Claudius was not in the least hurt by the comparison, odious though it would have been to Mr. Barker, had he been

ed. The proposition was carried unanimously, the Duke making a condition that he should be left in peace and not "entertained in a handsome manner by the élite of our Newport millionaires"-as the local papers generally have it. Lady Victoria would not have objected to the operation of "being enterta

e had not yet learned to look at Mr. Barker in the light of a rival, he thought this would be rather con

thought of the mighty wooings of the heroes of his Northern home, and he felt in him their strength and their constancy. What were other men that he should think of them? He was her accepted friend of all others. She had said she hoped to find in him what she had never found before; and were not her words "always, always!" still ringing in his ears? She had found it then in him, this rare quality of friendship; she had found more,-a man who

his glance comprehended the pair, and loved them. He thought they were like a picture of the North and of the South; and the thought called up memories in his brave old breast of a struggle that shook the earth to her foundations, and made him think of problems yet unsolved. He sat in his place silent for some minutes, and the broad brown hand stroked the snowy beard in deep thought, so that the conversation flagged, and the Duke began to talk about the voyage. But Mr. Bellingham took his brimming glass, filled with the wine that ripened in the sun when he himself was but a little boy, and he held it a

k. And Margaret, moreover, was especially friendly to-night, for she too felt the difference, and recognised that, after all, life on shore is the freer. There are certain conventionalities of a drawing-room that a man is less likely to break through, more certain t

ps in toil and danger, and they have not thought much about it. But one day they wake up to the fact that these little or great things bind them, as forming the portion of their lives that have touched; and as they talk over the incidents they remember they feel unaccountably drawn to each other by the past. Margaret and Claudius knew this on the first evening they spent together on shore. The confusion of

ogether, and hardly noticed them, but Mr. Bellingham's bright eyes stole a glance from time to time at the beautiful pair in their corner, and the stories of youth and daring and love, that he seemed so full of this evening, flashed with an unwonted brillia

o disturb the couple, but yet determined to do it. He rose, therefore, still talking, and, as the Duke rose also, cleverly led him round the chai

cdote of Margaret's grandmother, which delighted every one, after which he bo

chat and a cigar, and the ladies to their rooms. But Claudiu

ay for you?" he asked,

y. May there be many l

said Claudius; "go

-good-night

en, especially Russians, are accustomed to omit any title or prefix, and to call their intimate friends by their simple names, and it means nothing. But her voice was so wonderful. He never knew his name sounded so sweet before-the consonants and vowels, like th

Doctor had opened, put the gas out and went away, shutting the door for the night, and leaving the room to its recollections. What sleepless nights