Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-09-06
CHAPTER XII.

THE DIVERSIONS OF A YOUNG Null
TI-MILLIONAIRE.
To be idle and lavish of money, 25
years old, with the appetites keen and
the need for action always pressing;
then to have loved a girl with quick,
strong, youthful ardor, and to have
had the ideal smirched by gossip, then
shattered before his amazed eyes-this
is a situation in which the male ami
NAL is apt to behave inequality. In the
language of the estimable Herr Doctor
Won Herzlich, he will seek those ave-
nues of modification in which the least
struggle is required. In the simpler
phrasing of Uncle Peter Bines, he will
"cut loose"
During the winter that now followed
Percival Bines behaved according to
either formula, as the reader may pre-
fer. He early ascertained his limita-
lions with respect to New York and its
people.
Say, old man." he asked Herbert
Delaney Livingston one night, across
the table at their college club, "are all
the people in New York society impe-
cunious?"
Livingston had been with him at
Harvard, and Livingston's family was
so VIGOROUSLY not impecunious that
the question was devoid of any per-
sonal element. Livingston, moreover,
had dined just unwisely enough to be
truthful.
well, to be candid with you, Bines,"
the young man had replied, in burst
of alcoholic confidence, "about all that
you are likely to meet are broke-else
you wouldn't meet 'em, you know" he
explained, cheerfully.> "You know, old
chap, few Of you western people have
got into the right set here; there's the
Nesbits, for instance. On my word
the good wife and mother hasn't the
kinks out of her fingers yet, nor the
callouses from her hands, by Jove!
She worked so hard cooking and wash
ing wooden shirts for miners before
Nesbit made his strike. AS for him
we'll, caviare, I'm afraid, will always
be caviare to Jimmy Nesbit. And now
the sons married a girl that had ev-
erything but money-my boy, Nellie
Wemple has fairly got that family of
Nesbits awestricken since she married
into it, just by the way she can spend
money-but what was l saying, old
chap? Oh, yes, about getting init
takes time, you know; on my word, I
think they were as much as eight years
hod RI cta RI N oil OF hot
first, you know, you can only expect
to meet crowd that can't afford to be
exclusive any longer"
From which friendly counsel, and
from certain confirming observations
of his own, PerciVal had concluded that
his lot in New York was to spend
money. This he began to do with
large western carelessness that speed
lily earned him fame of sort. Along
upper Broadway his advent was a
golden Joy. Tradesmen learned to
love him; florists, jewelers. and tailors
hailed his coming with honest fervor;
walters told moving tales of his tips;
cabmen fought for the privilege of
transporting him; and the hangers-on
of rich young men picked pieces Of lint
assiduously and solicitously from his
coat.
One of his favorite resorts was the
sumptuous gambling house in Forty
fourth street. The man who slides
back the panel of the stout oaken door
early learned to welcome him through
the slit, barred by its grill of wrought
iron. The attendant who took his coat
and hat, the waiter who took his order
for food and the croupier who took his
money, were all gladdened by his COM
ing; for his gratuities were as large
when he lost as when he won. Even
the reserved proprietor, accustomed as
he was to wealthy and careless ellen.
tele, treated Percival with marked con-