The Stolen Singer

as to imply that they could if they would. They frankly regarded themselves as the elect of earth, if not of Heaven, always, however, with a

the name itself out of trade, and it had indulged its love of

d without being reconciled to the family. As to the spelling of the name, the family claimed ancestral authority as far back as King Fergus the First. Mrs. Van Camp, a relative by marriage-a woman considered by the best Hambletons as far too frank and worldly-minded-informed

er worthily or not, a part of the Hambleton pride. More than one son had lost his health or entire fortune, which was apt not to be large, in attempts to carry on a country place. "A Hambleton trait!" the

ally into the family, was generally understood to ha

ggist, and could afford, if anybody could, to be supercilious toward trade. But she wasn't, even after twenty years of somewhat restless submission to th

not hard-headed enough to be a good one. As for being a minister, well-no. Go int

sm, and a reservation of criticism that was a credit to hi

y impatient with any exhibition of laziness, the mother demanded a good accounting of her son's time. Aleck and Jim, who were born in the same year, ran more or less side by side until the end of college. They struggled together in sports and in arguments, "

ckade stuck airily up into the breeze. She had no part nor lot in the family pride, but understood it, perhaps, better than the Hambletons themselves. Her crime was

ng the family darling and the second a genius. Neither one could rationally be expected, "just at present," to take up the family accounts and make the income square up with even a decently generous outgo. And there were the girls yet to be educated. Jim had no special talent to bless himself with, either in art or science. He was inordinately fond of the sea, but that did not he

k, and cast about for the one successful business chance in the four th

nufacturing house, and made good. When he came to fill a position where there was opportunity to try new ideas, he tried them. He inspected tanneries and stockyards, he got composite measurements of all the feet in all

se fondness which a family gives to the member that takes the part of useful drudge. John, the pet of the parents, married, and had his own eyes opened, it is to be supposed. Donald, the genius, h

p to life, there came over him a fit of s

He forgets there are things that money can't buy, and in his heart he grows contemptuous of anything to be had 'without money and without price.' He can't help it. If he is thinking of trade nine-tenths of the time, his mind

ll, I believe I'm bankrupt, Aleck, in my account with ideals. I don't want to howl, and

ut to Lynn and look up Jimmy's case. He even devised a cure by creating, in his mind, an office in the biological world which was to be offered to James on the ground that science needed just his abilities and training. But when Aleck arrived in Lyn

s mind away from the study of lasts and accounts and Parisian models and sent it careering, like Satan, up and down the earth. Romance, which had been drugged during the transition from youth to manhood, awoke and coaxed

f it had not been, Romance had dangled her luring wisp o' light in vain. Several of his new schemes had worked ou

bin, with possibly the book of verses underneath the bow, or more suitably, in the shadow of the sail; and Aleck Van Camp and himself astir

id, to meet him at his club in New York. Then he made short work with the fam

the academy, almost ready for college and reckoned quite a queen in her world-"You be good and do my chores for me while I'm

o ahead and have a bully time and don't drown yourself. I'll drive the

king the daily suggestion that she chasten her language. By the time the family appeared, Jim

be a bit jolly without plenty of men about, and since Sue became engaged she really doesn't count. The boys will think they are running things, of course, but they'll see my iron hand

rotesting family, he got off, leaving Edi

isliked the club and left it, although his first intention had been to put up there. He picked out a modest, up-town

justified himself, as men will, by a dozen good reasons. The trig little sail-boat turned out to be a respectable yacht, steam, at that. She was called the Sea Gull. Neat in the beam, stanch in the bows, rigged for coasting and provided with a decent living outfit, she was "good enough for any gentleman," in the opinion of the agent wh

e, important, epochal. He laughed at himself and thought, with his customary optimism, that a vacation was worth waiting twelve years for, if waiting endowed it with such a flavor. Jim knew that Aleck would relish the s

on the program; a new name, quite unknown to Jim. His interest in the soloist waned, but the orchestra was enough. He thanked Heaven th

sharp attention to details-the director, the people in the orchestra, the people in the boxes; and then he settled down, thinking his thoughts. The past, the future, life and its meaning, love and its power, the long, long thoughts of

And then, in the zone of silence that lay over the listening people-silence that vibrated to the memory of the strings-there rose a little song. To Hambleton, sitting absorbed, it was as if the circuit which galvanized him into life had suddenly

n, free of my b

I shall

the sense of space, of wind on the w

rchestra and the people in boxes and the singer herself swam in a hazy distance. He shook himself, called somebody he knew very well

recall not only the song, but the singer, quite distinctly. It was a tall, womanly figure, and a fair, bright face

e having the real thing-'tisn't an alto,"

, engaged a taxicab and started for Riverside. The late summer day was fine, with the afternoon haze settling over river and town. He watched the procession of carriages, the horse-back riders, the people afoot, the children playing on the grass, with a feeling of comradeship. Was he not also tasting freedom

e lounging away after their day's toil. The unfinished edifice loomed up like a giant skeleton of some prehistoric era, and through its mighty open arches and buttresses Jim saw fleecy clouds scudding across the western sky, A stone saint, muffled in burlap, had just been swung up into his windy niche, but had not yet

ed, Hambleton decided that the strange sound had proceeded from its ambushed tonneau; and it was, surely, a human voice of distress. He stepped forward to the curb. The car was upon him, then lumbered heavily and swiftly pas

t, humorous expression was blotted out by fear. He stood for a moment rooted to the curb, watching the dark mass of the car as it

an you ov

n to run down one o' them Do