Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-24
By VI. A. FRASER.

wrest the Eclipse from Lucretia with the
Dutohman.
And now, in this fortieth year, had come
the entirely new experience Of an affection
his admiration for Allis Porter. In con-
hicted with every other emotion that gov
erned his being. All his life he had been
felhsh-ccnsidering only Philip Crane. his
mind embarrassed by anything but business
obstacles In his ambitious career. Love for
this quiet, self-contained girl, unadorned by
anything but the truth. and honesty and
fearlersness that we're In her big, steadfAst
eyes, had come upon hin suddenly and with
an assertive force that completely mastered
him.
BY a mere chance he had heard Allis give
her recitation, The Run Of Crusader" in
the little church at Brookheld. Crane was
not an agnostio, but he had interested him
self little in church matters, and Rev. Dole
mans concert, that was meant to top down
many weeds Of debt that were choking the
church. had claimed him simply because an
evening in Brookneld had come to hang
heavy on his hands.
Now, when Rev. Dolman received Philip
Cranes check for $50 the next day, to be
applied to the church encumbranee, he
sought to allay his surprise by attributing
so SAAk W AAo " VII RA1laAh6 NAhh
evening, Of course backed up by Providence.
II anybody had stated that the handspring
OF the gift had been the wicked horse racing
poem Of their denunciation he would have
been scandaliEed and full OF righteous dis
belief. It is quite likely that even Crane
would have denied that Allis' poem had in
spired him to the check, but nevertheless It
had.
The world Of feeling and sympathy and
goodness that had hung in her voice had set
a new window in his soul slightly ajar-so
slightly ajar that even now, months after
ward, the lovelight was only beginning to
stream through. When love comes to a
man at 40 he Ia apt to play the game very
badly indeed; he turns 1t into a very
anxious business and moves through the
light-tripping measure with the pedantic
dignity of a mlnuet dancer.
But Philip Crane was not given to making
mistakes; he knew that. like Crusader, 'his
best racing days lin the love stakes) were
over"-especially where the woman was but
a girl. So he sat down and planned 1t all
out as he planned to win the Brooklyn
Derby, months later. And all the time he
was as sincerely in love as II he had blum
dered into many foolishnesses, but his love
making must be of diplomacy. Even now
@.A N@g eS48 VI law ahAGA OA nE
side; Allis' brother was in his bank. more
or less dependent upon him. Ringwood itself
was all but in the bank; he stood fairly we'll
with John Porter and much better with
Allis' mother, for already he had begun to
ingratiate himself with Mrs. Porter.
He would cast from the shoulders Of Rev.
Dolman a tribe more of the load he was
carrying. He would send the reverend gen.
tleman another check.
Why he should think 1t necessary to pre-
pare his suit with 30 much subtlety he
hardly knew; In all reason he should be
considered q fair match for Allis Porter.
He was not a bad man, as the world un-
derstood him; he did not profess Chris
tianity. but, on the other hand, his life
was extremely respectable; he did not
drink; he was not given to p~rofane Ian
guage; even in racing. his presence seemed
to lend an air Of respectability to the
sport, and It was generally supposed that
he raced purely for relaxation. In truth,
1t seemed to him that it would be a deuced
good thing for the Porters.
In actually there were just two things
that stood in the way-two things which his
position and wealth could not obviate-his
age and the Porter pride. If Porter had
not been dubbed Honest John" early in
life, he might have been saddled with
Proud Porter" later on. The pride had
come up out Of old Kentucky with all the
other useless things-the horse racing and
the inability to make money, and the
fancy for keeping a promise.
Something whispered to Crane that Allis
would never come to him simply out Of
love; It might be regard. esteem. a desire
to please her parents. a bowling to the
evident decree of fate. Perhaps even the
very dinioulty Of conquest made Crane the
more determined to win and made him
hasten slowly.