The Portland daily press., 1898-02-09
CHAPTER I.


fion that every chair at his handsome
old mahogany table would be occupied.
The colonels dinners were in them.
selves worth riding many miles for, and
the colone!'s after dinner talks. supple
mented by the best Havana cigars, were
worth staying many hours for. The
young men in the county of Apologize
all regarded him with envious admi-
ration and always spoke of him as "a
gentleman Of the old school. "
Forced to define a gentleman OF the
old school, they would no doubt have
described the colonel as "a man who
would sooner cut a throat than lie or
cheat, would wing his man with the
most punctilious regard for the regula-
tions Of the code, who ranked cleanii-
ness far above godliness and had not
an ounce of littleness in his whole COM
position"
The colonel's physical composition
was Of the most liberal description. He
was big man with a clean shaven,
massive lower jaw and beautifully
chiseled month, whose upturned corners
were more suggestive of smiles than
Eneers.
His marked popularity among women
made it perpetual marvel that he
should have escaped matrimony and
was still, at the age Of 55, free to call
his men friends about him for sumptu-
GUS dinners, over which butler in
stead Of wife presided.
III fr1y,y oh 7I7cf a G
his mother had left it; servants trained
to anticipate his every want, planta-
ton bringing him in an income for a
prince, and, oh, well,' said the minis
ter's wife, cit was simply inexplicable,
his not marryingl There must be some
thing behind it all -
Applegate authorities were of the
opinion that there was nothing at all
behind it. The colonel's life was known
to his old friends and neighbors as
clean story writ in large primer. He
had grown up in their midst right there
in that stately old white pillared man.
sion, perched high on grassy terraces,
and, with the exception of two or three
years spent in Mexico, where he had at
one time "gone into Mines" his whole
life was familiar to local chroniclers.
TWAS only newcomers, like the min
listers wife, who ever questioned the
methods Of life pursued behind the long
green shutters of the Bascom house.
The county Of Apologize and the town
of Cloverdell accepted the colonel just
as he was-a great big jolly fact, full
of a boundless charity for his. fellow
man and always ready to make good
the shortcomings of others, whether it
was a matter Of finance or OF moral
delinquency. He was the idol of the
Ladies' Aid society and the Willing
Workers because he could always be re-
lied upon to make good any deficit in
the countless charities precariously sus-
tanned by their efforts.
If there was anything that the Clo-
verden people did thoroughly under.
stand, it was Colonel Merriman Bascom
and his ways.
And yet the colonel was about to
spring an immense surprise upon his
friends He had piece of information
to impart which he thought warranted
a formal gathering. 1t was going to
prove bombshell in the ranks of his
followers and perhaps ALLEVIATE the last
one of them.
Having entire confidence in his cook,
who knew we'll that it was as much as
her place was worth to send the NAL
lard ducks to table shade over or IN
der done, and in his butler, who knew
the exact number of wineglasses to put
at each plate and was infallible touch
ing the proper sequence of claret and
champagne, it was unusual for the colo
mel to display any anxiety concerning
the dinner arrangements.
But on this particular occasion he
fitted restlessly from his dressing room
to the dining room and thence to the
buffers pantry, tasting the half mixed
salad dressing and passing crude COM
ments on everything in the most exas-
perating fashion, getting snubbed by
his cook, which had the effect Of send
ing him back to his dressing room,
where he resumed his interrupted toilet
with an absentminded Indifference to
results, botally foreign to his usual pre-
else regard for appearances.
He endeavored to explain his feverish
restlessness to the handsome. perplexed
face that frowned at him from his mir
for as he tied his lavender silk scarf.
"You see. this is no ordinary dinner
It is a crisis, an epoch, a turning point
in more than one life What in the
deuce the fellows will all think Of it
can't even conjecture, but I'm taking
the only possible horn of the dilemma
How will get through with it is an
other thing can't guess"
These reflections seemed to superin-
duce a sudden accession of heat. He
flung up the nearest window with vio-
lent energy. and, stepping out upon the
veranda, stood there. hopping his broad
forehead until he had reduced his fresh
cambria handkerchief to moist, limp
rag.
This necessitated return to his bu-
reau drawer for fresh one He saturat-
ed it with good cologne. tramping up