The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-15
Copyright 1907 by Max Penn berton, all rights reserved
ao. .C.kss. Es. S, o.c.

l 10 dress himself. He had last dressed
 in black clothes and a white waistcoat | for a school concert at Westminster when he was quite little lad-but his
 youth had taught him the conventions, ! and he had never forgotten those tra ditions of what his dead father used to | call the decent life" In his case the | experience was but rexersion to the primitive and he dressed with every | satisfaction, delighted to put off the | shabby old clothes and no less content 1 with his new appearance as a mirror | revealed 1t to him.
 | The dining room at Five Gables" was normally little dark in the day 1 time, for il looked upon the drive where ancient trees shaded it's lofty 1 latticed windows. At night, however Richard Gessner's fine silver set, off the veritable biacl; oak to perfection, and the room had an air of dignity and richness neither artificial nor offensive. When Alban came down to dinner he perceived that a cover had been set for him at the end of d vact table and that he was expected to take the absent masters place; nor could he fOrbear to smile at the solemn exercises performed | by Fellows, the young butler, and two | fuotmen who were to wait upon him. | These rascals, whatever they might say ! in the kitchen afterwards. served him at the table IS though he had been an eldest son of the house. If they had | expected that the ragged, shabby fel- low, who entered the house so stealth fly an hour go, would provide food for | their eXquisit ely delicate sense of hu- | nor they were wofully disappointed. | Alban ate his dinner without uttering a single remark. i And last night it had been supper in i the caves There must be no charge of | inconsistency brought against him if l -a1 | ton of an experiences A man may bridge | d great gulf in single instant of time. 1 Alban had no less affection for, no less | interest tonight in those pitiful lives than | yesterday but he understood that flood | of fortune had carried him for the time | being way from them, and that his desire | must be to help but not to regret them. Indeed he could not resist, nor did he ! wish to resist a great content in his | well-beng, which overlook him in so sub ! tie a manner. The sermons of the old | days, preached by many mad fanatic 1 of Union street. declared that any alliance | between the rich and the poor must be | false and impossible. Alban believed It | to be so. A mere recollection of the shame of poverty could already bring the blood to hls checks and yet he would have defended poverty with all the logic | of which his clever brain was capable. | So in q depressing silence the long din- ner was eaten. Mechanically and with velvet steps the footmen put dish after dish before him, the butler filled his rare ly lifted glass, the whole ceremony Of
 dining performed. For his own part he would have given much to have escaped after the fish had been served, and 10 have gone out and explored the garden which had excited MT Geary to such poetic thoughts. Not large eater Qor the East End does not dare to cultivate an appette) he was easily satisfied; and he found the mere length of the menu to
 be an ordeal which he would gladly have
 been spared. Why did people want all these dishes, he asked himself. Why, m
 wel-to-do circles, Is 1t considered neces- sary to serve precisely similar portions of
 fish and flesh and fowl every night at O clock? Men who work eat when they are disposed Alban wondered what would happen if such custom were in- troduced into the House of the Five | Gables. A synical reverie altogether from which the buffers purring voice awakened him.
 "Wil you have youracoffee in the Win 1 ter Garden, sir? MT Gessner always | does"
 Cannot l have it In the garden?" "Oh, yes. If you like, sir. We'll carry
 out ohair-the seats are very damp at
 night. sir"
 Alban smiled. Was he not sleeping on
 the rocking floor of the caves but twenty
 hours ago.