Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-02-13
CHAPTER ".

VAl great incentive to the useless
'66HaeI arts, the number of gentle
toez&9 men who became poets for
the sake Of Miss Betty Carewe need
not be considered extraordinary. OF
all that was written of her dancing,
Tom Vanrevel's lines, II Danced With
Her Beneath the Lights (Which he Ger
tainly had not done when he wrote
them, were perhaps next to Crailey
Gray's in merit, though Tom burned
bis rhymes after reading them to Graf.
ley.
As Crailey Gray never danced with
Miss Carewe, it is somewhat singular
that she should have been the insptra-
ton Of his swinging verses in waits
measure, "Heartstrings on a Violin .
the sense of which was that when a
violin had played for her dancing the
instrument should be shatter as wine.
glasses are after great toast. How.
ever, no one except the author himself
knew that Betty was the subject, for
Crailey certainly did not mention it to
Miss Bareaud nor to his best friend,
Vanrevel
1t was to some degree a strange CON-
radeship between these two young men;
their tastes led them so often In ,oppo-
site directions. They had rooms to-
gether over their offices In the "MadriI-
lon block" on Main street, and the
lights shone late from their windows
every night in the year. Sometimes
that would mean only that the two
friends Were talking, for they never
reached silent intimacy, but, even
after several years of companionship,
were rarely seen together when not in
Interested, often eager, conversatio
SO that people wondered what In the
world they still found to say to each
other. But many night the late shin
Ing lamp meant that Tom sat alone,
with brief or book, or wooed the
lorn hours with his magical guitar for
he never went to bed until the other
came home. And If daylight came
without Crailey, Vanrevel would go out,
yawning nightly, to look for him, and
when there was no finding him Tom
would come back sleepless to the DAYS
work.
To the vision Of the lockers on in
Rouen, quiet souls who lowered along
the walls at merrymakings and cheer
Iully counted themselves spectators at
the play, Crailey Gray held the center
OF the stage and was the chief come
dian of the place. Wit, poet and scape-
grace, the small society sometimes
seemed the mere background set for
MS performances, spectacles which he
also enjoyed, and from the best seat
In the house, for he was not content as
the actor, but must be the prince in the
box as we'll.
His friendship for Tom yanrevel
was In a measure that of the vine for
the oak. He was full of levities at
Toms expense, which the other bore
with grin of sympathetic compre-
hension or at long Intervals returned
upon Crailey with devastating effect.
Vanrevel was the one steadying thing
In his life and at the same time the
only one of the young men upon whom
he did not have an almost mesmeric In
huence. In good truth, Crailey was the
ringleader in all the deviltries Of the
town and had been SO long in. the habit
OF following every impulse, no matter
how mad, that he enjoyed an almost
perfect immunity from condemnation.
and, whatever his deeds, Rouen had
learned to say with chuckle that it
was "only Crailey Gray again."
Now and then he would spend sew
eral days in the offices of Gray s. Van
revel, attorneys and counselors at law,
wearing an air Of unassailable virtue,
hough he did not far overstate the case
when be said, tom does all the work
and gives me all the money not to
bother him when he's getting up a
case"
The working member Of the firm got
up cases to notable effect, and few law
yers In the state enjoyed having Tom
Vanrevel on the other side. There was
nothing about him of the foridity prev
alent at that time; he withered fora
tory" before the court; he was the foe
of jury pathos, and, despising noise
and the habitual voice dip ut the end
of a sentence, was nevertheless at
times an almost fearfully effective ora
tor So by degrees the firm Of Gray
g. Vanrevel, young as 1t was and in
spite of the idle apprentice had grown
to be the most prosperous In the dis
trict. For this eminence Crailey was
never accused of assuming the credit.
Nor did he ever miss an opportunity Of
making known how much he owed to
bis partner. What he owed, In brief,
was everything. How well Vanreyel
worked was demonstrated every day,
but how hard he worked only Crailey
knew. The latter had grown to depend
upon him for even his political beliefs
and lightly followed his partner into
abolitionism, though that was to risk
unpopularity, bitter hatred and worse.
Fortunately on certain occasions Van
reyel had made himself, II not his
creed, respected, at least so far that
there was no longer danger Of mob
violence for an abolltionist in Rouen
He was a cool headed young man or
dinarily and possessed Of an elusive
forcefulness not to be trifled with,
though he was quiet man and had
what they called fine manner" and,
not in the latter, but In his dress, there
was an echo of the beau, which afford
ed Mr.. Gray point of attack for sal
lies of wit.
These two young men We're members
OF cheerful band who feasted, laugh
ed, wrangled over politics, danced,
made love and sang terrible chords on