People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — ALITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS

By SSMORTON

[Copyrighted 1891, by S. S. Morton, and published by special arrangement] CHAPTER XI. — Continued. “Some of my friends!” thought North, in despair, as he cast another speculative glance up and down the street. “Heavens! what a situation—dunned on the public highway in .this belligerent manner! How could Noll have been so negligent? But then, it’s just like him—‘an unpardonably careless fellow in money matters,’ as Wee said. ‘Some of my friends’ —to whom can I apply? Clipper? No, he’s an editor; it would be setting aside all the traditions of the craft to assume that he has any idle cash. Warner? I have no means of estimating his financial basis; he might be a millionaire or a church mouse, for anything that his appearance indicates. Wee? It is the wildest nonsense to think of him! Col. Dayton is forever about the hard times; I heard him saying only this morning that it was as much as he could do to keep ,his head above water. To be sure, it would be simply a to be repaid as soon as I can recent a telegraphic check from my banker in New York; but I shall feel a little delicate about asking even that. Wymer? He is probably putting too much into the campaign fund to have any money to spend for other purposes; and besides, he wouldn’t do me this friendly service. Well, my list of acquaintances is canvassed, and to no purpose. In the name of all the unmerciful fates at once, what am I to do?”

His despairing question was answered most unexpectedly. It had scarcely "been formed in his mind when Warner upon the scene, sharp, busi-ness-like and observant as usual. He greeted North in a cordial way; then as he perceived Mr. Archer’s aggressive air and North’s perplexity and annoyance, and recalled Mr. Wescott’s reference to his own encounter with the old gentleman, Warner comprehended the situation at once. “1 say, North,” he exclaimed, in his impetuous way as he drew North aside confidentially, “is old Archer pushing for that money?” North assented with an expressive -shrug of his shoulders. “He’ll not give me time to turn ;around,” he continued in an undertone. “The note is overdue, I admit; but he -insists upon immediate payment, and I haven’t got the money in hand and -can’t get it without considerable delay.” “He won’t wait?” interrogated Warner reflectively. “Not ten minutes. He threatens to bring suit against me if I do not satisfy his claim at once.” “1 say, now, that’s rough! You’ll have to lose it, won’t you? Of course you’d have heard from Amity before this, if he were ever going to answer your letter. He has acted confoundedly mean after the handsome way you treated him when everyone else was kicking •him out of the way. What’s the amount, North?” “Two hundred dollars.” “That all?” “It’s all, but it happens to be enough to embarrass me for the reason already Warner looked rather blankly at Ndrth for an instant; then as if dismissing all idle speculation from his mind he said: “Now, see here; my bank is just around the corner, and all I’ve got to •do to make this thing straight with old Archer is to scratch my name to a •check. What d’ye say, North—shall I do it?” It is needless to say that North accepted this delicately offered assistance with a hearty: “Thank you, Warner! I’ll make it : all right with you before night.” “Hold on a minute—be back soon,” were Warner’s parting words as, with both arms swinging energetically and his nose high in the air, he started - around the corner at an alarming pace. “Warner is my good angel; judge, oh ...ye gods, how dearly I do love him!” thought North, in grateful paraphrase; then turning to his relentless creditor he added aloud: “This matter will be adjusted in a very few moments, Mr. Archer.” “Wall, wall, now, —ahem—l ain’t ■ takin’ on about it, Mr. North, since I • see you’re willing to ack fair an’ square,” said Mr. Archer in modified tones and with an obvious wish to make peace. “1 hope you won’t take no offense at what I’ve said, sir. Business is business, yon know, and has got <-to be ’teuded to.”

“And civility is civility," retorted North in a mental aside, “but you have behaved toward me like a backwoodsman and a boor!” Nevertheless he smiled with superficial amiability and glanced nervously up the street and wished devoutly that Warner would really hurry. “It’s a fine, ba’my day, on the whole,” continued old Mr. Archer, as he gazed upon the clear skies and the radiant sunlight with the condescendingly approving air of a competent critic giving his opinion of a fine effort that nature had intended expressly for his benefit. “ ‘Busmess is business,’ ” thought North, magnificently, “and it forms the only conceivable connecting link between yourself and me. You will please confine your observations to that one subject: it is the only common ground upon which we can possibly meet!” Nevertheless he bent his stately head to the inexorable yoke of “policy,” and uttered the most suave acquiescence. “Pollytics seems to be pretty much the order of the day, just now,” pursued Mr. Archer, probably with the benevolent intention of drawing out Mr. North’s conversational powers, which at that moment appeared to be somewhat limited; as with the point of his stout ivory-headed cane he industriously knocked the loose stones and pebbles off the pavement with as earnest application to the task as if it had been his regular occupation in life. “I hear that your prospects is mighty good, Mr. North.” “Ah! Here’s my opportunity to distinguish myself,” thought North, with a sudden inspiration of reckless nonsense. “I’ll make this simple old voter think that I’m a model of disinterested patriotism!” Therefore, assuming an air and attitude of stilted dignity, North answered with a slight wave of his hand as if he thus rejected all political ambitions and honors: “Oh, I have scarcely considered my prospects, Mr. Archer. The truth is, Ido not desire office unless I should become convinced that it was my duty thus to serve the public interests; and as to the present canvass, I may say that I have been the least active of all the candidates now in the field. If I am elected, I shall accept my election as the unmistakable call of duty, speaking through the ‘still small voice of the ballot;’ but in the meantime I shall give myself no concern, and to the probable issue very little thought. I am perfectly content to be the humble instrument to execute the will of the people. Duty, sir, duty is the grand pivotal point on which all my desires and ambitions turn!” Mr. Archer stared and nodded with an air of being very much impressed; and before North had time to recover from the severe mental exhaustion consequent upon this effort, a hand was placed lightly on his shoulder. Turning around quickly he saw Warner convulsed with laughter. “I say, North, don’t put it quite so steep! Too much allowance for stage perspective for an audience of one!” were his low-spoken words as, thrusting a roll of crisp banknotes into North’s hand, he hurried off before another syllable could be spoken. North looked after him with an amused air; then turning to Mr. Archer he said courteously: “If you will accompany me to my office now, Mr. Archer, we will conclude this business at once.”

Mr. Wescott, elaborately disposed in an easy chair after his own peculiar notions of making himself comfortable, was reading a newsaper in the quiet inner office when North and Mr. Archer entered. “Good morning, Wee. Take a chair, Mr. Archer, over here by my desk,” said North, airily, tossing his gloves down on the desk and nodding graciously to the junior partner. “I will count these bills, Mr. Archer, and you may run over them after me, if you will, just to see that there is no mistake.” And as he sat down at the desk, apparently absorbed in the business in hand, North said to himself with a keen sense of enjoyment, as he accidentally encountered a pair of eyes raised with an expression of contemptuous surprise from the paper that Mr. Wescott was not reading: “Poor Wee! I’m afraid this may give him concussion of the brain! I wonder if he will not fall on my neck and weep when old Archer is gone? He will at least think better of that rash determination to dissolve partnership!” “Wall, Mr. North,” said Jonathan Archer, as, having finally disposed of his business, he stood for a few moments beside North’s desk hugging his

cane as if it were some favorite delusion, “I’m free to say that I was mighty well pleased with the sentyments that you expressed in my hearing a spell ago. I can’t say as I’ve ever heard jest the same before, but I reckon you hit pretty nigh right every time. Now, sir, I’m free to say that I had about made up my mind to support Mr. Wymer this cornin’ election; but since I’ve heard your sentyments I’ve changed my mind consider'ble. So, Mr. North, I’m goin’ to vote for you, sir, and whatever inflooence I can pull shall all go in the same direction. Good day, sir! Good day, Mr. Wescott, good day!” • North, rising from the desk, laugh-

ingly bowed the old gentleman out of the office; saying to himself with a touch of good-humored satire: “And thus are swayed the suffrages of an intelligent and independent constituency!” CHAPTER XII. Par.—Good, very good; It is so, then. Good, very good; let It be concealed awhile —All’s Well That Ends Well. “And now, my dear fellow, if you can think of any other indebtedness, great or small—but especially small —that I may have incurred, which is exercising a peculiarly damaging effect upon my own credit and also through my business connection with you, upon yourself, I ask you in all sincerity, I entreat you in all seriousness, I adjure you in the sacred name of friendship, to bring the same to my remembrance at once, or else forever after hold your peace!” As he spoke thus with a provoking little twinkle in his eyes, North threw himself into an easy chair close beside Wee and leaned over confidentially toward that gentleman. Mr. Wescott, who still had his newspaper spread out before him, rustled it slightly as he gave his shoulders a petulant shrug, and without glancing up he growled: “What should I know about your private affairs? I’ve never meddled with them, so far as I art aware. Have I, sir?” he added, as he looked defiantly at North now for an instant. “No, no! a thousand times no!” cried North with ready volubility; when Wee dryly cut him short with: “Very well, then; that settles it.” “Ah, but my dear Wee, that does not settle it!” exclaimed North fervently. “Why do you fling cold water in this heartless way over my first real attempt at reformation? A sense of what I owe you in the way of reparation urges me on to this decisive, step. I wish first of all, of course, to redeem my own credit—now, right along, you know, while I have some to redeem; your judicious advice on that point touched a chord that has been vibrating ever since. But next to this I wish to restore to you all that you may have lost in public confidence by having been so long associated with me as my partner. This is simple justice to you, and a duty that I owe to myself. Come, now! Can’t you help me a little, Wee, in such a commendable undertaking? Stop reading that Daily Times upside down and give me the benefit of your wise counsel.” But Mr. Wescott was deaf to all appeals. Exasperated by an attack from which he had no ready response to de-

fend himself, he took refuge in a grim silence and kept his whole attention, outwardly at least, upon his newspaper. North lifted his eye brows with an air of surprise, as if he were utterly unable to understand such absolute stoicism. Leaning back in his chair he “gorgonized” the unhappy Wee for several moments with a “stony British stare,” apparently lost in contemplation of that gentleman’s hardened and depraved nature. Mr. Wescott, while betraying by his expression of heroic suffering that he was conscious of thjs provoking scrutiny, succeeded for a short time in keeping his eyes fixed upon the newspaper, which he rustled nervously now and then in his painful effort to appear unconscious; but there is a limit to human endurance, and he finally reached that point. Rising, without any visible change in his grave countenance, Mr. Wescott drew out his watch and calmly noted the time; then, with the air of a man who goes to meet a very pressing engagement, he took up his hat and withdrew from the office as if utterly unconscious of North’s presence there. “Well, that’s poetic justice!” soliloquized North, calmly surveying the field that he had won. “Wee drove me from the office when I was here before, and now I have compelled him to beat a masterly retreat. Mr. Wescott and I may therefore consider ourselves quits. But I cannot remain here to enjoy my triumph. Before the crowd of clients who are probably surging toward the office door can come upon me in the name of the firm and overwhelm me with their affairs, I will follow the example of the junior partner and ‘cut’ the office. I may now be able to carry out my original intention of calling on Mrs. Maynard, unless some untoward fate again interferes.” With this faint hope he left the office and started once more toward Delaplaine street, arriving at No. 33 without incident or delay. Mrs. Maynard came down to the draw-ing-room to receive him, looking so ill that he could not repress the exclamation of solicitude that rose to his lips. Her extreme pallor, heightened no doubt by the plain black dress that she wore, really startled him; and the heavy shadow of weariness, the pathetic lines of care that within a few short hours had appeared upon that proud, beautiful face, told of anxickis thoughts and genuine heart sorrow. Her manner, however, was light, as if her pride would not permit her to acknowledge the mental suffering that had so mercilessly left its traces upon her; and she smiled incredulously at North’s anxious inquiries. "The merest trifle,” she protested with

slight wave of one delicate hand as if she thus cast the trifle from her. “I read too late last evening, and a headache always rewards such excessive intellectual application.” And she sank languidly into an easy chair, after inviting North to be seated. “I fear that you are not equal to a discussion of the serious questions that are before the house this morning,” began North, his flippancy modified by the air of anxiety with which he was regarding her. This introduction of a painful subject which she nevertheless knew perfectly well was unavoidable, visibly distressed her; but she conquered her feelings bravely and answered without a tremor in her voice: “Serious problems sometimes appear less formidable after a candid and practical discussion, Mr. North. While I have no ground for expecting it to be

so in this case, I am at least confident that nothing can be worse than a continued silent brooding on the subject.” Notwithstanding the despondent resignation in the words, there was a suggestion of hope—a faint intangible hope that was very like despair—in her voice and in the swift glance that she raised to his face. She must have found very little encouragement there, for she instantly relapsed into a frozen calm which in contrast with her usual sparkling vivacity seemed like a strange, apathetic indifference; and clasping her hands listlessly in her lap she awaited his response. With a business-like air North drew from his pocket a note-book and pencil, which he placed on the small onyx table beside which he had seated himself. Then he turned to Mrs. Maynard, whose chair was but a short distance from his own and so placed that she was not directly facing him, though a very slight turn of the languid, graceful head would bring him in full range of her glance. Just now it was resting upon some point above and beyond North’s head, with an intentness that suggested an undercurrent of thought even more absorbing than the surface current that his words now brought before her. [to be continued.]

A LITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS BY S. S. MORTON

ELABORATELY DISPOSED IN AN EASY CHAIR

AS IF UTTERLY UNCONSCIOUS OF NORTH’S PRESENCE THERE.

MRS. MAYNARD CAME DOWN.