The Green Mouse

ves at His Last Ditch and

remained a passive observer of the sale which followed and which apparently realized sufficient to satisfy every credit

vaguest idea of how people made money. To do

father's friends, but when he understood the attitude of society toward a knocked

ctly useless, except for ornament, and as a business house is not a kindergarten, and furthermore, as he had neither time nor money to attend any school where anybody could teach him anyt

f in electrical engineering, and a year at home attempting to invent a wireless apparatus for

nts; but the market was oversto

ous control over animals, had, as the pleasant years flowed by, become an astonishing skill which was much more than sleight of hand; and he, always as good-humored as well-br

last asset. Could he use it? Was it an asset, after all? How clever was he? Could he face an audience and perform the usual magician tricks without bungling? A slip by a ca

is contemplated invasion of Newport, Lenox, and Bar Harbor. And one very lovely afternoon in May, when the Park from his windows looked like a green forest, and puff on puff of perfumed air fluttered the curtains at h

ctacle of a well-built, well-groomed, and fashionable young man sitting moodily upon a park bench was certainly to be noted. I

shot, presently sauntered on, buck-skinned fist clasped behind his broad back, squin

scarlet glow of Japanese quince mocked the colors of the fluttering scarlet tanagers; where orange-tinted orioles flashed a

ng, he felt. Yet there was no bitterness in his brooding, for he was a singularly generous young man, and there was no vindictiveness mixed with th

t its eyes, and, though the little animal was plainly bound elsewhere on i

to bound off, tail twitching, and then calling it back, slowly but inexorably to climb his trousers and

mustache, he watched the purple grackle walking about in iridescent solitude, the sun spots waning and glowing

is failure. He thought, too, of the astounding change in his life, the future, vacant of promise, devoid of meaning, a future so utterly new and blank that he could find in i

to the Eighties, from thence through Morristown, Staten Island, to the West Side. Besides, she painted pictu

uty he had known--might still know if he chose; for a man who can pay fo

the same white and deeply fringed lids, the same free grace of carriage,

sleeping squirrel on his knee, "I could have fallen in

ts over solar prints. That's all right; she's doing more than I have done yet.... I approve of those eyes of hers; they're like the eyes of that

was coming fast--almost too fast. He laid the sleeping squirrel on the ben

pse of a white face, desperate and set, a flutter of loosened hair; then a storm of wind and sand roared in his ears; he was hurled, jerked, and flung for

e creature's nose, and, laying his hand full on the forelock, brought it down tw

tood on the grass, dusty, dirty, disheveled, bleeding from a cut on the che

ap with her sleeve, watching him intently all the while. That he already had the confidence of a horse that he had never before seen was perfectly apparent. Little by little the sweating,

, saying "Come," turned his back and walked down the bridle path. The horse stretched a sweating neck, sniffed, pricked forward both small ear

low maple limb, and leaving the horse

y, "is all right now; but the q

hair. For a few moments' silence they were frankly occupied in r

ly grateful," s

tive manner which sets people of si

us compliment, considerin

g her hair and doing her best w

," she said, coloring. "Did th

no-

lim

id vaguely. "H

ver me; if that is fright, I suppose I'm frightened, but I

have that horse feel a fluttering pulse, telegra

bit; two small spurs glitter

ve not ridden cross saddle very long. When your mou

. Then she dropped her skirt, glanced interrogatively at him, an

k the other end of the seat, lifting th

m impulsive enough to be overgrateful and say

uld have stopped your horse yourself. People do that

the risk y

all," he s

ew the look; he had encountered it often enough in the hallway and on the stairs. He knew, too, that she must recognize him; yet, under the circumstances, it was for her to speak first; and she did not, for she was at that age when horror of ov

are very tame," s

id. "Try to hold th

tly an electric shock seemed to set the squirrel frantic, there was a struggle, a streak of

laimed faintly; "wh

re very wild," he

he was asleep on your knee.

ause I have a wa

he is quick to divine and fine of instinct--she too fell silent and serious, the while the shuttles of her reason flew like lightning, weaving the picture of him she had conceived--a gentleman, a man of her own sort, rather splen

said, "and ask you to put me up. There

u quite

fect

the horse and beckoned

troubling you--" She set her toe to the stirrup which he held, and swung herself up

ightly, flippantly, the courage which became him so? Or was he already bored by her acknowledgment of it? Sensitive, dreading to expose youth and inexperience to the amused smile of this attractive young man of the world, she sat

but his brown eyes troubled her, and all she could say was "Thank you--good-by," and gallop