Evening star., 1902-08-23
CHAPTER VIII

AS a rule few visitors went to Ringwood
John Porter had been too interested in
MS horses and his home life to care much
for social matters Mrs. Porter was a
nome body. too, caring nothing at all for
society-at best there was but little of it
IN Brookfeld-except where it was con-
nected with church work. PERHAPS that
was one reason why Allis had grown so
close into her fathers life 1t was a very
small. seif-cOntained household.
Mike Gaynor had become attached to the
staff at RingwoOd this winter as a sort of
assistant trainer to Porter Dixon only
framed the Ringwood horses during the
racing season, Porter always SUPERVISING,
them in winter quarters. Perhaps il U,as
Porters great cloud of evil fortune which
mad cast its sinister influence out to Mix
because OF his sympathy for the master of
RinsWood; certain it is that the autumn
found him quite 'on his uppers'' as he
graphically described his financial stand
ing An arrangement was made by which
Mikes discOnsolate horses were fed at
Rlngwood, and he took care of both
strings. This delighted Aliis, for she had
full confidence in Gaynor's integrity and
good sense.
RInsWood; Crane, who came quite often,
and Mortimer, who went out to the farm
a couple of times with Alan
George Mortimer might be described as
tree. One might see in him, as in the tree
strength and stately grace; while another
might find him awkward stiff, uncornpro-
missing IN his angles, like an oak or giant
sycamore his figure. tall and square and
straight was rugged; even his face large
featured. square-jawed and bold-topped by
broad forehead. suggested the soemnity
that Alan had found so trying
or course a young man of all these
angles was sure to have notions. and Nor
timers mind was knotted with them; there
seemed no soft nor smooth places in his
timber. That why he had reason with
the butcher by energetically grasping his
windpipe the evening that worthy gentle
man had expressed himself so distastefullv
over Allis Porters contribution to the Rev
erend DoimanS concert. Perhaps a Young
of more subtle grace would have re-
ceived some grateful recognition for this
office, but the matter had been quite closed
out so far as Mortimer was concerned and
when Alan tried to refer to it afterward
he had been curtly stopped
George MortimerS chief notion was that
work was great thing-seemingly the
chief end of man. Another notion almost
equally prominent in his makeup-he had
derived IL from his mother-was that all
forms of gambling were extremely bad
business. First and foremost in this inter-
diction stood horse racing. The touch of it
that hung like a small cloud over the
Brookfield horizon had inspired Mrs. Nor
timer, as it had the other good people of
the surrounding country. with the restrict
thoroughbred horses were simply gam
blers-betting people. Her home was in
Emerson, a dozen miles from Brookfeld
Quite paradoXically, If Allis Porter had
not given THE Run of the Crusader
most certainly racing poem-n the little
church. this angular young man, with
stringent ideas about running horses, prob
ably would never have visited Ringwood.
Something of the wide sympathy that cma-
mated from her she told of the gallant
horses death struck into his strong nature,
and there commenced to creep into his
thoughts at odd intervals sort of gratui-
tous pity that she should be so intermina-
bly, mixed up with race horses. His origi-
nal honesty of thought, the narrowness of
his tuition, were apt to make him egotisti-
cally sure that the things which appealed
to him as being right were incapable of
variation.
At first he had liked ALAN Porter with no
tremendous amount Of unbending; now,
because of the interest Alls had excited in
him. the liking began TO take on a super
visory form: and 1t was not without
touch of irritation in his voice that Alan
informed his sister that he had acquired
second father, and with juvenile malignity
attributed the incumbrance to her seduc-
tive influence.
With all these cross-purposes at work it
can be readily understood that Mortimers s
visits to Ringwood were not exactly rose
leaved. In truth. the actors were all TOO
conventionaliy honest-too unsocialized-to
subvert their underlying motives.
Ailis. with her fine intuition, would have
unearthed Mortimers disapprobation OF
racing-though he awkwardly strove to
hide it-even II Alan had not enlarged upon