Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1909 — The Man Prom Home [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Man Prom Home

A NoveDzatlon of the Play of the Sane Name

By BOOTH TARKINGTON and HARRY LEON WILSON

SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I.—Daniel Voorhees Pike, a rising young Kokomo (Ind.) lawyer, hears that his ward, Ethel GrangerSimpson, is to be married abroad to the son of an English earl. Her father was his nearest friend and he has long loved tl?e girl. He goes abroad to arrange with her the business matters connected with her marriage. ll—Ethel Granger-Slmpson and her brother Horace, have become anglomaniacs and are spending much of their late father’s fortune in travel and entertaining. They become Intimate with Lady Creech, the Earl of Hawcastle, his son, Aimeric St. Aubyn, and Comtesse de Champigny, an adventuress and associate of the earl’s. They are at a hotel at Sorrento, Italy. Ethel promises to marry the son because she craves a title. Ill —The Russian Grand Duke Vasili is shortly to arrive at the same hotel Incognito as Herr von Grollerhagen. IV—The Earl of Hawcastle is in need of money and wants his son to get a huge settlement of money at his marriage to Ethel. An escaped Russian bandit is located at Sorrento. V—For Some reason the comtesse fears the alleged bandit is one Ivanoff. Aimeric tells his father Ethel has accepted him. Vl—Horace agrees to persuade hi 3 sister Ethel to settle $750,000 on Aimeric. Vll—Ethel tells Horace of her delight at the prospect of her coming marriage into the ancient family of the St. Aubyns. VIII—Von Grollerhagen arrives with Daniel Voorhees Pike on foot, their auto having broken down. IX—Harold, Ethel and the Hawcastle party are disgusted with what they term the “American manners” of Pike. She tells Pike of her Identity, ns he had failed to recognize her In her European clothes and European deportment. X—Pike refuses to consent as her guardian to her settling $750,000 on 6r m^l c ’ E t nd Ethel ls enraged at him. Xl—the Russian refugee meets Pike and the latter shows him a place to hide from the Italian police. Von Grol,Pike t 0 do this. XII— Ihe fugitive tells Von Grollerhagen and Pike how he came to be sent to the mines. Horace falls in love with the adventuress the comtesse.

CHAPTER XIII. TRE LETTEB. j|B Lady Creech and Hawcastle entered the garden, where Horace was still holding the band of the fair countess, they encountered Aliperic, who was strolling In aimlessly from the direction of the village. Hawcastle beckoned to hfin. ‘‘Anything unusual down there?” he asked, pointing to the village. “Rawther! Carabinieri still hunting that bandit chap,” said his hopeful son languidly. “Don’t mumble your words!” snapped the old lady, and Horace and madame turned sharply .and confusedly. Almeric made a gesture of Impatience and, putting his head cloge to bis respected aunt’s ear, shouted: "Hunting a bally bandit!” at which the old woman screamed sharply. Hawcastle took him by the shoulder. “What do they say about him?” he demanded. “That he Is still in the neighborhood,” replied his heir, with a languid sigh. “What did I tell you?” asked Lady Creech triumphantly. And the earl made a gesture of impatience. “Almeric, find your betrothed and bring her here,” he said. And the young man trotted off slowly. Horace came slowly forward. “What’s the row, sir?” he asked, and the earl smiled, * "My dear yoiing man,” he said, "1 congratulate you that you and your sister need no longer submit to an odious dictation.” He was about to say more, but at that moment Daniel came down the steps and walked across the grass to the motor. As he passed the group he smiled genially and observed: “Looks to me as If It was going tc clear up cold.” “Good afternoon, Mr. Pike,” answered the earl and motioned the others to leave. Pike merely nodded his head, and Hawcastle came up to him. “It is a pity that there should have been any misunderstanding in the matter of your ward’s betrothal," he said, and Pike smiled grimly. “Oh, I wouldn’t call it a misunderstanding,” he said, and the earl went on. “It would 111 become a father to press upon the subject of his son’s merits”— he began, but Pike cut him short. “I won’t talk with you about him,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” Hawcastle glared at him and was about to reply when Mariano entered with a letter on a tray, which he handed to the lawyer, who regarded it curiously. There was a growing menace In the earl’s attitude, and as his anger grew his suavity grew with it “There is another matter to which I want to call your attention,” he went on, and Pike answered him at -once. “I’ll talk about anything else with you,” he replied and looked up to see Ethel coming down the steps. She came forward to the earl and said: “You wished me to come here?” "I wish to tell you that I see light breaking through the clouds. Have another talk with our friend here, and, believe me, all will be well.” With a bow he left the garden, and Ethel stood staring after him. Pike looked up quickly from the letter he was reading and crossed over to her. "I’m glad you’ve come,” he said. “I’ve got something here I want to read to you. When I got your letter at home I wrote to Jim Cooley, our vice

Consul In Lotulon, to look up " those Hawcastle folks and write me here bow they stand.” “Yon did that!” sbe cried In anger. “Yon had the audacity to pry Into the affairs of the Earl of Hawcastle!” “Why, I’d ’a’ done that if It’d been the governor of Indiana himself,” he replied, with surprise. “Besides, Jim Cooley’s ‘home folks.! His office used to be right next door to mine in Kokomo. I haven’t opened, the letter yet, but I haven’t much doubt but Jim ’ll have some statements in it that’ll show you I’m right about these people." “How do you know that?*’ she demanded heatedly. “Because I’ve had experience enough of life”— “In Kokomo?" she asked scornfully. "Yes, ma’am,” he answered. "There’s Just as many kinds of people in Kokomo as there is In Pekin, and I didn’t serve a term in the legislature without learning to pick underhand men at sight Now, that earl, let alone his having a bad eye—his ways are too much on the stripe of T. Cuthbert Bentley's to suit me. T. Cuthbert was a Chicago gentleman, with a fur lined overcoat, that opened up a bank in our town, and when he caught the Canadian express three months later all he left in Kokomo was the sign on the front door. That was painted on. But. there, here’9 the letter. Read It for yourself.” He handed it to her and watched her while she broke the seal and then began to read: Dear Dan—The earldom of Hawcastle ls one of the oldest In the kingdom, and the St. Aubyns have distinguished themselves In the forefront of English battles from Aglncourt and Crecy to Sebastopol. The present holder of the title came into it by incident He was a younger son's younger son and had spent some years In Russia in business under another name. Nothing here in his English record ls seriously against him. though everything he has ls mortgaged to the handle. She finished with a look of triumph. “What a terrible indictment!” she said scornfully. “So that was what you counted on to convince me of my .mistake? 1 shall tell Lord Hawcastle

that you will be willing to take up the matter of the settlement the moment Us solicitor arrives.” Pike shook his head sadly. “No, I wouldn’t do that, because I won’t take up any settlements with him or any one else.” * “Have you after this any objection to my alliance with Mr. SL Aubyn?’ she inquired, her anger at white heat “It isn’t an alllanoe with Mr. St. Aubyn you’re after.” he replied calmly. "You’re after something there ain’t anything to. If Pd let you buy what yon want you’d find it as empty as the judgment day the morning after. You think because I’m a jay country lawyer I don’t understand Why, we’ve got the same thing al home. There was little Annie Hoff meyer. Her pa was a carpenter and doing well, but Annie could not get into the Kokomo Ladles’ Literary society, and her name didn’t show up in the society column four or five times every Saturday morning, so she gets her pa to give her the money to marry Artie Seymour, the minister’s son, and a regular minister's son he was! Almost broke Annie's heart and her pa’s, too, but he let her have her way and went in debt and bought them a house on Main street. That was two years ago.” Pike paused momentarily. “Annie’s working at the deepo <faudj stand now,” he resumed, “and Artie’s working at the hotel bar—in frontdrinking up what’s left of old map Hoff meyer’s—settlement!” She flung away from him in a temper and then wheeled on him in a flash. “And you say you understand—you. who couple the name of a tippling yokel with that of a St. Aubyn, whose j ancestors have fought on every field of i battle from Crecy and Agincourt to the : Crimea!” “But you won’t see much of his ancestors!” complained Pike. “He bears their name,” she answered. “That’s it, and It’s the name you want. Nobody could look at you and not know it wasn’t him! It’s th# name! And I'd let you buy it if It would make you happy—if you didn’t have to take the people with it Don’t you see they’re counting on it? The earl—he's j counting on living on you.” The In- | dlanlan became excited. “Why, a Terre Haute pickpocket could see that! And this old Lady Creech—she’s counting on It, and this Frenchwoman that’s with them—lsn’t she trying to land yonr brother? The whole kit and boodle of them are on the track of John Simpson's money!”

'"I guv* Aimeric my promise. It was forever, and I shall keep It,” sbe answered slowly, as if ahe had been Impressed with hia earnestness. He looked at her quietly. “I’m not going to let you,” be replied. “Then I’ll throw your Interference to the winds. I shall marry without your consent.” “Do you think they’d let you?” Pike asked quickly. For a moment she stood still, and then came the sound of the guitars from over the wall. Pike went on after a time. “Sounds kind of foreign and lonesome,” he said. “I’d rather hear something that sounded more like home—‘Sweet Genevieve,' for instance. You know It, don’t you?” “I used to,” she answered, hanging her head. “It’s old fashioned and common, isn’t it?"# “That’s why I like it, I guess,” he answered. "I couldn’t get you to sing It for me before I go borne, could I?” She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “I’m afraid not," she answered and went quickly into the hotel, leaving him looking after her curiously. (To be Continued.)

“What a terrible Indictment!” she said.