The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-19
CHAPTER XII.
Bargain and Sale.

The Bachelors did not usually mus
ter full table at Sunday dinner. All
Clarkson dined at noon on Sunday
the most of the bachelors were for
tunate enough to be asked out
Wheaton was not frequently a diner
out by reason of his more slender ac-
quaintance; and to-day all were pres
ent, including Raridan, the most tickle
of all in his attendance. It had
pleased Wheaton to find that the 9TH
ers had been setting him apart more
and more with Rartdan for the daily
discipline they dealt one another.
They liked to poke fun at Raridan on
the score of what they called his mad
social whirl; there was no such resent
ment about it! they were themselves of
sterner stuff and had no patience with
Raridans frivolties; and they We're
within the fact when they assumed
that, if they wished, they could go
anywhere that he did. It touched
! Wheaton's vanity to find himself a
joint target with Raridan for the ar
rows which the other bachelors, fired
at folly.
The table cheer opened to-day with
debate between Caldwell and Cap
| tain Wheelock as to the annual cost
to Raridan of the carnation which he
habitually wore in his coat This,in the
usual manner Of their froth was
treated Indirectly; the aim was to con
tinue the cross-firing until the victim
was goaded into a scornful rejoinder.
Raridan usually evened matters se-
fore he finished with them; but he af-
| fected not to be listening to them now.
I st was reading an article in the
Contemporary Review the other day
| that set me to thinking, he said,
casually, to Wheaton. TT: was an
effort to answer the old question
is stupidity a sin?' You may not re-
call that a learned Christian writer
I am not sure but that it was Saint
Francis de Sales,-holds that stupidity
| is a sin. -, = .. -. ~ 7, a.
The others had stopped, baffed
and were listening to Raridan: They
never knew how much amusement he
got out Of them; they attributed grea
learning to him and were never sure
when he began in this way whether
he was speaking in an exalted spiritua
mood and from fullness of knowledge
or was merely preparing pitfall FOL
them.
! There was no common room at The
Bachelors, and the men did not NEE
except at the table. They loafed il
their rooms, and rarely visited on
another. Raridan was the: most SO
cial among them and lounged in OF
one or the other in his easy fashion
They in turn sought him out to de
|
fects and to ask him why he neve
had any interesting books. The book
that he was always buying-mino
poems and minor essays, did not temp
them. The presence of LIllustraZion,
Italiana on his table from week t,
week amused them; they liked to lool
at the pictures and they had once gon,
forth in body to the peanut vende
at the next corenr to witness a ties
OF Rarldan's Italian, about which the,
were skeptical The stormy interview
= that followed between Raridan an
the Sicilian had been immensely enter
,, tanning and had proved that Rarida1
could really buy peanuts in a foreig,
tongue. tho the fine points which h
tried to explain to the bachelor
; touching the differences in Italian dia
lects did not interest them. War;
hlmself was interested in Italian dia
lects for that winter only.
, wheaton went to his room an
made himself comfortable. He re
supplements, dwelling again on tn
events of the carnival. He had save
:, all the. other papers that containe
carnival news and now brought ther
, out and cut from them all reference
to himself. He resolved to open
kind of social scrap book in whic
to preserve a record of his social do
ings. The joint portraits of the kin
and queen of the carnival had not We
; been very good; the picture of Eve
lyn Porter was caricature In Rarj
:: dams room he had seen a photograp
of Evelyn as a child; it was very pret
: ty, and Wheaton, too, remembered he
. from the days in which she wore he
hair down her back and waited. i
l the carriage at the front door. of til
2 bank for her father. She had live
5 in a world far removed from hi,
then; but now the chasm had bee
l bridged. He had heard it said in tn
r last year that Evelyn and Wary wer
l undoubtedly fated to marry; but otI
t ers limited darkly that some easter
: man would presently appear on tn
/ scene.
All this gossip Wheaton turned owe
/ in his mind, as he lay on his dival
81 with the cuttings from the CIarkso
!, papers in his hands. He remembers
a complaint often heard in Clarkso
4 that there were no eligible men there
e he was not sure just what constitute
;. eligibility, but as he reviewed the me
3 that went about, he could not see. thu
8 they possessed any advantage owe
q himself. It occurred to him for til
: first time that he was the only unmal
t Eried bank cashier in town; and tn
/, in itself conferred a distinction. Fl
8 was not so secure in his place as h
should like to be: if Thompson die
e there would undoubtedly be reorgaI
). ization Of the bank, and the few share
q that Porter had sold to him woul
e not hold the cashiership for him.
h might be that Porters plan was
4 keep him in the place until Graz
; grew up. Again, he reflected, the ma
lWho married Evelyn Porter would BIZ