The Little Lady of the Big House

cluded learned societies and every sort of breeding and agricultural organization and that woul

rubber-stamped by Mr. Blake, who, also, in shorthand, in the course of the hour, put down the indicated answers to many letters and received the formula designations of reply to many other letters.

entered the office, Blake, burdened with trays of correspondence, shea

ted or suggested. Bonbright, the assistant secretary, always arrived at ten to replace Blake; and Bonbright, close to shoulder, with flying pencil, took down the rapid-fire interchange of question and answer, statement and proposal and plan. These shorthand

departments. He told Thompson, the machinist, in four flashing minutes, where the fault lay in the dynamo to the Big House refrigerator, laid the fault home to Thompson, dictated a note to Bonbright, with citation by page and chapter to a volum

d'ye know, I've seen him tear by a piece of work, his hands full with that Man-Eater of his a-threatenin' sudden funeral, an', next morning, had 'm mention casually to a half-inch how deep it was plowed an' what plows'd done the plowin'!--Take that plowin' of the Poppy Meadow, up above Little Meadow, on Los Cuatos. I just c

look over the Shropshire rams. At eleven, Bonbright having departed with Wardman to work up his notes, Forrest was left alone in the office. From a wire tray of

der the forehead, the cheeks showed high-boned, with underneath the slight hollows that necessarily accompany such formation. The jaws were strong without massiveness, the nose, large-nostriled, was straight enough and prominent enough without being too straight or prominent, the chin square without harshness and unc

e of surety. Dick Forrest was sure-- sure, when his hand reached out for any object on his desk, that the hand would straightly attain the object without a fumble or a miss of a fraction of an inch; sure, when his brain leaped the high

eeders met and talked. He was the owner, without encumbrance, of two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land--land that varied in value from a thousand dollars an acre to a hundred dollars, that varied from a hundred dollars to ten cents an acre, and that, in stretches, was not

to the Pacific. When he ordered gasoline-tractors for the cultivation of the flat lands, he ordered a round score. When he dammed water in his mountains he dammed it by the hundreds of millions of gallons. When he ditched his tule-swamps, instead of contracting

bit over the current market price for the most capable brains. And he had

ve. He had run away from a millionaire home when he was thirteen. He had won enviable college honors ere he was twenty-one and after that he had known all the purple ports of the purpl

iens. "Lucky" Richard Forrest, the father, had arrived, via the Isthmus, straight from old New England, keenly commercial, interested before his departure in clipper ships and the building of clipper ships

he Comstock he sank into the various holes of the bottomless Daffodil Group in Eldorado County. The wreckage from the Benicia Line he turned into the Napa Consolidated, which was a quicksilver v

ng in Mexico. As soberly set down in history, the result of the said Del Nelson's search for quartz was the Harvest Group, including the fabulous and inexhaustible Tattlesnake, Voice, City, Desdemona, Bullfrog, and Yellow Boy

, had not been blessed with children. His third marriage occurred in 1872, when he was fifty-eight, and in 1874, although he lost the m

e grammar school, and used all of the saved years in playing in the open air. Also, result of precocity of son and democracy of father, Young Dick was sent to

ed mother ran a vegetable store. Nor were his father's millions and the Nob Hill palace of the slightest assistance to Young Dick when he peeled his jacket and, bareknuckled, without rounds, licking or being licked, milled it to a finish

a palace of many servants and that his father was a man of power and honor. On the other hand, Young Dick learned two-legged, two-fisted democracy. He

accounts. On his two legs, with his two fists, it was either he or Tim. And it was right there, in sweat and blood and iron of soul, that Young Dick learned how not to lose a losing fight. It had been uphill from the first blow, but he stuck it out until in the end it was agree

dollars, and without a relative in the world to trouble him. He was the master of a palace of servants, a steam yacht, stables, a

s impression, as they explained things to him, was that, although they meant well, he had no contacts with them. In his judgment, their boyhood was too far behind them. Besides that, it was patent that him, t

pealed to. Messrs. Davidson and Slocum also had their say and were treated with equal consideration. Among other things, Dick learned what a sterlin

e, Dick took it upon him

he announced, "and first o

"When--say--when you are ready to enter the university. At that time

f course, in the meantime you could do some traveling, a limited amount of traveling, during your school vacations. I am sure my fellow guardians will agree

am worth?" Dick asked wi

ative estimate--that is about the s

w that I wanted a hundre

. Slocum looked abo

ask what you wanted it f

t squarely in the eyes, "suppose I said that I was very s

t said so immediately that there was a

as if letting the

astily, "you understand you are too young to h

ouch a penny withou

," Mr. Crock

thoughtfully and mu

" Mr. Davidson said. "Say, a dollar, or, perhaps, two dollars, a week. As you grow older this allowance will be increased. An

wouldn't buy me a hundred dollars to do as

in soothing phrases, but was waved

money I handle will be by agre

of Guardia

hatever we

ard of Guard

ave a hundred right

Mr. Crocke

," was the lad's steady a

here before six. She is to have, as we explained, daily and hourly charge of you. At six-thirty, as usual, you will dine, and she will dine wit

rday night bath," Dick

cise

ioned in the disconcerting, tangential way that was already habitual t

first time cleared

Dick prodded. "Out of the

ather," said Mr. S

er, receives one hundred and fifty a month, eighte

od money," Dick sighed. "And

ians left their leather chairs to stand up with him. But he stood up as no Lord Fauntleroy ever stood up; for he was a mixer. He had knowledge that human life was many-faced and m

erentiations between caste and mass; and, behind it all, he was possessed of a will of his own and of a quiet surety of self that was incomprehensible to the three elderly

s we'll get along all right. Of course, that twenty millions is mine, and of c

we'll increase it for you in safe, con

lucky--I've heard him say that times have changed and

grubbing soul. On the contrary, he was at that instant entertaining secret thoughts and plans so utterly regardless and di

don't know me very well yet. We'll get better ac

issal miss his guardians. They, who had been co-lords with his father, withdrew confused and perplexed. Messrs. Davidson and Slocum were on the point of resolving their perplexity into

foot, where grass grew on the paved streets too steep for horse-traffic, Young Dick hurried. As the height of land was left behind, almost immediately the palaces and spacious grounds of the nabobs gave way to the mean streets and wooden warrens of

an Senior, who, by virtue of being a policeman with a wage of a hundred dollars a month, rented this hig

m himself appeared around the corner, bearing a lidless lard-can that foamed with steam beer. He grunted greeting, and Young Dick grunted with equal roughness, just as if, a brief space before, he had not, in most lordly fashion, te

e yer old man died,"

ou?" was Young Dick's retort. "Say,

ecting the state of the foam in the lard-can with an exper

d him. "Only want to see you a minute. I'm h

Irish eyes flash

to?" he

, we can talk it over after we start

t the stuffin' outa

oung Dick callously rejoined. "Say the word, an' we'll meet at th

don't show up

turned as if to depart, paused casually, and

s he answered with equa

be th

father ran a chop-house in which was reputed to be served the finest twenty-cent meal in the city. Young Marcovich owe

the many pawnshops that graced that thoroughfare. At last, diving desperately into one, he managed to

a stout, elderly, decayed gentlewoman, a daughter of the great Porter-Rickington family that had shaken the entire Pacific Co

. "Here is dinner waiting fifteen minutes already,

apologized. "I won't keep you waiting eve

ick strove to make things easy for the lady, whom, despite his knowledge tha

nce you are settled down. It's a good old house, a

him; "it is not the servants who will

late for dinner. In years and years you'll never see me late again. I won't bo

ht, on his way to bed, he

house was built or I was born. He's privileged. He's so used to having his own way that you'll have to handle him with gloves. But once he likes you he'll work his fool head off to please you. He