The Grafters

g, in which she had to sustain only the part of an obedient automaton, was a fact accomplished, Elinor settled back into the p

had made her self-reliant, and her jesting boast that she was a dependable young woman was the simple truth. Yet to the most modern of girl bachelors there may come

ipative solicitude of the boyish groom, contrasting it now and then with Ormsby's less obtrusive attentions. It was all very absurd and sen

s when he lets himself drift with the current. None the less, the immunity was hers, undeniably, palpably. For the first time in her life Miss Brentwood found herself looking, with

inst Ormsby's masterful wooing, against her own unconquerable longing for a sure anchorage in some safe haven of manful care and supe

her upstirrings of his ambition in a purely literal and selfish sense, so far as she could determine. And now there was Brookes Ormsby. She could by no possibility idealize him. He was a fixed fact, stubbornly asserted. Yet he was a great-hea

"and I sha'n't. Send the porter after me if

houghts. But they refused to be dismissed; and now among them rose up another, dating back to that i

wyer, Elinor. So long as you were content to make it a summer day's amusement, I had nothing to say; you are old enough and sensible enough to choo

saying was evoked there was money enough for two, if David Kent would have shared

e was a formidable array of things which she had been calling comforts: little luxuries which Brookes Ormsby's wife might reckon among the simplest necessities of the daily life, but which David Kent's wife might have to forego; nay, things which Elinor Br

to indulge in ideals it would be different; but I can't-not when one word of mine will build a barrier so high th

it, the battle is as good as lost; and at that moment Brookes Ormsby, placidly refilling his short pipe in th

ough to simulate the youthful ardor of a lover whose hair has not begun to thin at the t

and keeping it shut until the night when their through sleeper was coupled to the Western Pacific Flyer at A.& T. Junction. But

e hour is not altogether impossible, I should like to meet your train. One thing among the many the past two years have denied me-the only thing I have

Yet even in the commonplace she found some faint interlinings of the change in him; not a mere metamorphosis of the outward man,

e time-table fell into a heart-stirring reverie, with unseeing eyes fixed

o remember, and he is trying-trying because Grantham said something that made him think he ou

er began to make down the berths and Penelope came over to sit in the opposite

d!" she said. "I do b

e was serenit

e subject arbitrarily: "Is mother quite comfortable? Did you have the porter put

took her turn at subject-wrenchi

ked, with purposeful lack-interest. "And-let me see

id Elinor. "And th

lope rejoined. "I wond

not know we are coming, and

thought-processes were as plain as print to th

be to let him know," she ventured. "Does any

reply; and Penelope drew her own conclusions from the

u send him a wire?

I?" said Eli

intance would, I fancy. I have half a mind to do it m

ry compartment with blanks and pen and ink convenient and nothing better

the shock of her life," she mused; and the telegram was smuggl

when he was born heir to the Ormsby millions. Be that as it may, he made the most of such opportunities for the exercising of his gift as came to one for whom the long purse leve

visibly, but she had been tolerant; Penelope had amused herself at no one's expense save her own-a boon for w

h an unresponsive Ormsby for a vis-à-vis, made sly mention of the possible recrudescence of one Da

if she would have more of the salad. But later, in a contemplative half-hour with his

of insight in the thirties and beyond. Hence, by the time Ormsby had come to the second filling of his pipe, he had pieced together bits of half-forgotten gossip about the Croydon summer,

de in the smoking-room, Ormsby had pricked out his course on the chart to a boat's-length; had trimmed his sails to the minutest starting of a sheet. A glance at his watch and another

ace to panic-ardor, turning a possible victory into a hopeless rout, let us hol

announced. Waiting until a sufficient number of passengers had gone forward to insure a crowded car, Ormsby let his party fall in with the tail of the pr

atist kept his head, going back to the sleeping-car with his charges and drop

have the Presence in the buffet make you a cup o

r in the gray eyes, and her reply quite

omans," she said. "Don't

ught to," he confessed, wondering if his

ternoon: I can endure it a li

had deliberately gone about to break down her poise, her only

liged to keep away from you-times when every fiber of me rebels against the restraints of the f

heart she knew she was as far as ever from loving this man; but his love, or the in

n the place you have assigned me; I have tried sincerely-and stupidly, you will say-to be merely your fr

ly. "You are getting over into the domain of the

he was not beyond wincing a little. Non

ment, won't you? Apart from the fact that I feel that way, I've been going on the

ted; "more than any one I

erly banker in the opposite section was nodding over his newspaper; and the newly married ones were oblivious, each to

or; but now I'm willing to take what I can get, and be thankful. Will you

herself

ld fully un

asking more than you can give. But if you can give me the little now, and more when I

nd he could have sworn that she was

t my promise-or any woman's-on s

o," he i

was drowned in the shrill crescendo of the brakes. She turned from him suddenly and laid her chee

he whispered. "You see

th taking-

ain stopped with a jerk, and a shuffling bustle of station-plat

to arouse her, Elinor freed her hand with a swift

t?" she asked, fighting hard for the se

nsulted h

te sure. It o

his heels was a man in a rough-weather box-coat; a youngish man, clean-shaven and wind-tanned to a healthy bronze, with an eager face and alert eyes tha

med. "Are you really going

eat-mate, self-possession once

going to board the train

s waylaid? I haven't the pleasure of h