Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-03

with have invariably been the Scotch. 1t
may suit you to reviie the country from
which you get your living
''Oh, 1 meant nothing so serious, assure
you" the ponderous journalist said at once.
"Come, tell me what can do for you."
81 should like TO look at the Postofice
directory first, if may.''
Courtnay Fox waddled across the room
and returned with the heavy volume; Mr..
Bethune turned to the street and number
that had been furnished him by his spy,
and discovered that the name given was
Harland Harris-no doubt Vincent Harris
father.
"Ah, yes" the old man said. "Now 1
can tell you what want; and am certain
I have come to the right place for informa-
tion. For while you revile my countrymen,
Mr.. Fox, because you don't know them,
wonder whom among your OVID countrymen
who have any position at all-you don't
know?'
This was an adroit piece Of flattery; for it
was foible of the fat correspondent to affect
that he knew everybody-and knew no good
of anybody.
''0f course the man mean may be q
nobody-or a nonentity-and a very respect
able person as we'll, continued Mr.. Bethune,
''but his son, whose acquaintance 1 have
made, talks as if his name were familiar to
the public. Mr.. Harland Harris
''Harland Harris p the journalist e1-
claimed-but with much complacency, for
he might have been found wanting. Don't
you know Harland Harris?-or, at least,
haven't you heard of him?''
''I have lived much out of England" the
old man said.
"And you want me to tell you who and
what Harland Harris is? Is that it? Well,
then, 1 will. To begin with, proceeded Mr..
Courtnsy Fox, with a baleful light in his
small, twlnklIng eyes, ''he is a solemn and
porteDtous ASA pedantic prig-a COM
bination of a drill sergeant and school
master, with the self-suficieney of-ot-I
don't know what. He is an enormously
wealthy man-who breaches the Divine
Beauty Of Poverty; a socialist-who would
abolish the income tax, and have sll taxa
tion indirect; a communist-who can eat
only off gold plate. This sham Jean JACQUES
would not only abandon his children, he
would let the whole human race go to mis-
chief, as long as you lett him on a pinnacle,
with lecture in his hand. Harland Harrisl
Do you want to know anv more? Well,
will tell you this that long ago his vanity
would have inflated and burst him only that
he was defeated in his candidature for the
Lord Rectorship of Edinburgh University
and that let out little of the gas. But
even now his inconsistencies are colossal
almost a madness; 1 think he must be
drunk with a sense of his own superiority,
as George Sand says"
"He does not seem to have made a very
favorable impression on you," said Mr..
Bethune, slowly and thoughtiully.
did he ever on any human being?" the
other retorted. ''Not anyone that ever
heard oi!'
"And his son-do you know anything of
him?"
Mr.. Courtney Fox was not likely to admit
that he knew nothing.
"Oh," said he scornfully, 'the eufant
gate of the political world, Mr.. Grandson,
has made pet of him; and so people i'm
agine there is something in him. OF course
he'll talk for few years about universal
brotherhood and the advancement of
humanity and that kind of stuff; and then,
when he succeeds to his fathers money, he'll
make a bid for a peerage, or else marry
widowed and withered old Countess, and
subside into a solid, substantial, beet
headed bulwark of the Tory party. That's
the way Ihev all gor'
"WeIl, I'm very much Obliged" said old
George Bethune, rising. "And sorry to
have interrupted you. Good highland
thanks"
GOOD night" said the journalist, curtly,
OF reports and kilograms.
Next morning, when they were about to
set forth on their accustomed stroll, Maisrie
paused at the door for a second, and said
with a very curious hesitation, and face
grown rose-red-
Grandfather, what shall 1 tell Mrs.
Hobson you would like for dinner"
He did not notice her confusion; he an
swered. carelessly:
"Oh, never mind just now. Later on we
will see. Food is not of much Importance
in this hot weather."
Therefore she was silent for some consider
able time 1t was not until they had got
down to the Serpentine, and when he was
about to take out his newspaper, that she
ventured again to address him.
Grandfather, she said, timidly, "do YOU
think-Mr. Harris-expects us-expects
that we should dine together again this
evening? He did ask if we had no engage
newfoundland perhaps he may imagine
there is some understanding"
"Well, Maisrie," the old man made an
swer, with playful irony ''if your way of |
it is to be carried out, the arrangement |
wouldn't last very long. L don't suppose |
our little income could comfortably support |
three for any great space of time"
"Oh, but, grandfather" she said, per-
suasively, 'you know it was but right YOU
should pay; we were two, and he only one:
OF course, if we were to dine together
again-and he wished it to be his turn-you
might divide"
"I think, Malsrie," said he. somewhat I
sententiously, sit would be better for YOU to
leave our small financial affairs in my
hands. These things are well understood as
between men; 1t is easy to make an arrange
mept. Especially easy if you are the only
son of very wealthy man-what are few
shillings or few sovereigns one way or the
other to him? And 1 wish you to remem-
Der that young lady's purse is not usually
produced at a restaurant"
--'I am sorry if did anything wrong,
she said humbly; but-but 1
q stranger-or almost a
stranger-it was pity you had forgot
ten"
He had opened the newspaper, SO that the
subject was dismissed; and Maisrie was left
TO her absent dreams and reveries
All that day there came no message from
the other side of the street; and likewise the
afternoon wore away in silence; while Mais-
rie, whatever she hoped or feared, had not
again asked her grandfather what arrange
ments he proposed for the evening. About
s o'clock, however, there came q rap at the
door below. Maisrie was in her room up
stairs. Her grandfather was seated at the
little table in the parlor. drawing out in
water-eolor coat of arms; and he had al
ready finished the Bethune part of it-that
is TO say, the first and fourth quarters of the
shield were argent, with a fesse between
three mascles, or; and likewise he had sur
1t with the crest-an otter's head,
erased, ppr.; but as the second and third
quarters were still vacant it was impossible