Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-14
A STIRRING ROMANCE OF NEW YORK IN OUR DAY
By HORACE TOWNSEND.
Copyright 1883 by S. s. Mcclure.
IN THREE PARTS.

worthy young man, into partnership
with me, and il is not unlikely that he
viii some day be my son-ln-law as well .
And now 1 have some important business
to attend to, so you must excuse me.
He touched his electric bell once more
and Strange entered the room, passing
Jack with look of only half-concealed
triumph. The clatter, almost dazed at
the sudden SCATTERING of his hopes, and
as yet unable to comprehend what it all
meant, rose from his seat aud without a
word walked slowly out of the office
'There goes young fellow worth fifty
of you or me, Strange, - SAID Nugent ,
and I've treated him as if he were mig
ger.
"H IN, snarled Lemuel, "you ID
treat me in the same way, or worse, If
you dared. p"
"Certainly. But you see I don It
dare, - replied Nugent.
Jack, instead of descending to the
street VIXEN he left the office, stepped on
the elevator and was whirled up to the
seventh story of the huge building
Here he knocked at a door marked No {.
1913, but bearing no other sign, and when
he heard q deep voice roar FCome in,
he turned the handle and found himself
in large but plainly furnished apart
ment, in which the owner Of the voice,
who was none other than Harold Proud
foot, was sitting scribbling for dear life
at a table Uttered with books and pa
pers.
1t was a within of Proudfoot's that a
newspaper man should not live too far
from the center of his work, and as
he said he never knew when he
lo
had taken a couple of rooms at
the top of this tall Office build
ing, furnished one as a bedroom, the
other as a study, and here he spent a
majority of the hours which he did not
devote to actual Office work. He went
on writing, as though no one were pres
ent, for five minutes after Jacks en-
trance and then throwing down his pen,
turned to his friend and said, ''What 8
wrong?' In as few words as possible,
Houston explained the position of affairs
to him, and ended by asking his advice.
"You laughed at me, the night before
last growled Proudfoot, ''when 1
said your mine-owning friend had put
his foot into it some time, and that his
clerk was a rascal, but perhaps 1 was
right after all. "
''What makes you think that?''
HWhy, anyone with a grain of COM
mon sense would see that old Nugent has
in some way put himself into Strange's
power, and if you want to marry Miss
Nugent, ! advise you to put yourself on
equal terms with your rival by finding
out Nugent's secret.
CHAPTER X.
MR.. NUGENT GIVES WAY.
The next few months passed without
materially altering the condition of af-
fairs, though as far as Jack was con-
cerned he found the situation far more
bearable than he imagined would be the
case, when Nugent, with such brutal
frankness forbid him the house. Grace,
in fact, had risen to the occasion. She
absolutely refused to give her father the
assurance he demanded, that she would
not meet Jack. ''Of course, - she said,
you can prevent him from coming to see
me here, but shall see him, where and
when I can, outside the house. We are
in the Nineteenth century now, Dad,
dear, and hard-hearted fathers are moth
ing short of anachTonisms, and so she
spent more of her time than eyer at Mrs.
VandeYeer g, and here she and Jack dis
cussed their somewhat problematical
future, for one concession Grace did
make to parental authority. 81 won It
marry you, Jack, until Dad gives his
consent-no sir, you needn't go on
in that ridiculous fashion, be-
cause / have made up my mind, and. I
won't. But I've made up my mind to
something else, too, and that isl
won't marry anyone else, if Dad. persists
in not giving his consent, so.yo6 ought
to be satisfied. No, Jack, won't give
you another one.' Though what the
& 'one' might be no man, save Jack
alone, knoweth. The lovers met other
where than at Aunt James, for Grace
saw no reason why, because she was i'm
love with Jack, she should not enjoy
her first season, and so she went through
the usual round of pleasure of New
York damsel-the morning gallops in the |
park, the afternoon teas, the opera, the
balls, the theaters, the merry expedi-
tons to Tuxedo,or Hollywood, the pre-
fences at seriousness in the shape of
afternoon lectures given in crowded
drawing rooms by the latest fashionable,
English author, the =. circles of one
or .auother-she enjoyed
them all, though none the less, perhaps,
that wherever it was possible Mr.. Jack
was at her side, as devoted as though
tue tduiSS VI luS4I lON6 1du nlSI Will no
obstacle.
With Mr. Nugent matters had not
gone so smoothly. He had found that
what he iuwardly termed the one weak
act of his life, namely. his submission to
Strange's first demands. had borne bitter
fruit. He might have known, only
somehow men never do seem to know,
when they are bent on making fools of
that q knave such as Lemuel
would not rest content with his first vic
tory. but would ever be craving some
lew surrender on the part of his victim
and so it proved. Strange himself, in
-oXicated with his success, threw his
former cautiousness to the winds and
'ushed with an almost savage ardor into
the widest sort of speculation He
lreampt Of corners in every sort of COM
modify and bought rashly here, there |
ana everywhere as a preliminary step,
hen lacked the courage to advance still |
further, and so simply threw his money |
away. He lent willing ear to those |
promoters - who are fast assuming a |
definite position in the New York busi- !
less world, and whose mission seems TO |
De to bring the lamb and. the shearer |
nto communion with .incidentsL profit TO /
he sand PROMOTERS themselves. ne |
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