Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-30
CHAPTER XIII.
The Fourth Messenger Of Job.

AhS l. ouA III NxAOoSCASSA VI wv.
The rain Caleb Conover had so eagerly
desired as a check on fair weather re-
formers election day zeal began soon
after midnight. and with it a gale that
is still remembered as the big November
wind"
The wind whips dashed the many-win-
dowed Mausoleum, and the roar and
swirl Of dashing water echoed from roof
and veranda cover. The autumn gale
blasts set the naked trees to creaking
and grooming like sentient things. Here
and there huge branch was ripped from
it's trunk and ploughed cash in the
lawns withered turf. More than one
maple and ash on the Conover grounds
crashed to earth with a rending din that
was drowned in the howl of the storm
belated equinoctial was sweeping
the Mountain state driven on the breath
OF a tornado such as not one year In
twenty can record, east of the Missis-
sippi. Its screaming onset unroofed
houses, tore up forest giants, wrecked
telegraph lines, buffeted fragile dwellings,
to their fall and dissolved hayricks into
miles of flying wisps
Yet none of the three members of the
Conoyer family, sheltered within the
Mausoleum, We're awakened by the bel
low of the cyclone, for none were asleep.
Lefty. alone in her great. hideous bed
room. lay alternately praying and weep
ing in maudlin comfortlessness over her
absent daughter; and at sound of the
hubbub outside wept the more and
prayed with an added terror.
Gerald, despite the early start he must
make in the morning. was still dressed.
and was slouching back and forth in his
suite OF apartments. muttering occa sion
ally to himself, and at other times paus-
ing to gaze lifelessly ahead of him AS
the ever-louder voice Of the storm broke
in on his thought he stopped short in
his aimless march. his dry lips witch
Ing and on his face the nervous terror
OF suddenly awakened child He sham
bled into an inner chamber unlocked
and opened a drawer in his chiffonier
1umbled for a moment OF two with some
thing he took therefrom, then closed and
locked the drawer and returned to the
light In a few moments the nervous
ness had died out Of his face and bear
ing. and with a return of his habitual
listless air he had resumed his walk
Caleb Conover. stretched on camp
bed in the corner of his study, smiled
contentedly as the rain beat in torrents
on the panes But when the gale waxed
mercer and the rain "a last ceased he
frowned
Going to blow off clear and cold after
all! ne grumbled, turning over. And
the weather bureaus the only one that
can't be fixed"
But even the Shrek of the storm could
not long hold his attention The rail-
roader was vaguely troubled as to him
self Heretofore, like Napoleon's, his
steel will had been able to dictate to Ma
ture as imperiously as to his fellow
man. When he had commanded the pres
ence Of Sleep, the drowsy god had has
tened on the moment to do his bidding
He had slumbered or awakened at wish
On the eve Of his greatest crisis he had
been unable to sleep like a baby. Yet
Tor the past few weeks he had been
aware OF subtle change. Sleep had de-
serted him, even as had so much else
that he had loftily regarded as his to
command. ~
He had acquired an unpleasant habit of
ala fny
study of his of seeking in vain to recover
ms oid-time power of perfect selma stery
Thought Memory, Unrest-a trio that never
could unduly assail him in saner hours
now had way of rushing in upon the in
somniac with the extinguishing of the last
light. Tonight these unwelcomed guests
were lingering still longer than usual and
all the Conovers dominating will-power
failed to Danish them
At length he gave over the struggle and
| let his vagrant fancfes have their will
Was he growing old. he wondered, that his
forces-mental. physical and political-thus
wayered?
Worry? He had heard others complain of
it. and he had laughed at them. Nerves?
Those were for women. Not for a man
allied him? He had been this way ever
since-ever since Yes. it was the night
Anice Lanier left that he had first lain
awake.
Anice Lanier! He had never analyzed his
feelings toward her. He had been duly
satisfied to know that in her presence he
ever had an unwonted feeling of content
of sure knowledge that she would under
stand; that she was as unlike his general
idea of women he himself differed from
his equally contemptuous estimate of other
men; that he was at his best with her. Had
he been less practical and more given to
hackneyed phrases of thought, he would
have said she inspired him.
But now? The rairoader could not et
force himself to dwell on the Earring end
80 II hot 10 vi cd RI ipI of Ill
else. Blanche? Yes. there was a nice sort
of complication. wasn't it? Another inter
national marriage and the usual ending
thereof
These foreigners can give us poor
Yankee jays cards and spades at the bunco
game!'' he unused, half-admiringly. They
beat our con- men hands down, for they
don't even need to pay out cash in manu-
featuring green goods and gold bricks, and.
they don't get jagged when they're found
out. Whenll American girls get sense?
When their parents 20, presume"
And this unwelcome answer to his own
question brought him back to the memory
of his joy at hearing of Blanches pro-
posed marriage to d'Antri. 1t had seemed
his social yearnings. AS father of a prin-
cess, he had in fancy seen himself at last
exalted a-lid the close-serried ranks OIL that
class to whom only his wealth had hereto
fore entitled him to ingress. And money!
even his money-had failed to act as open
sesame. But surely as father-in-law to a
prince
Even the very patent fiasco attendant on
his one e--ort to use this relationship as a
master key. to the portals OF society lad not
wholly discouraged him. Later, when,
practically by reclamation, he should have
won the governorship. and when the Prin-
cess d'Antri's European triumphs should be
noised a-road in granite, surely then
But now there was no question of accla-
nation. If he should win 1t would be by
bare margin. He knew that And. as for
Bianche-well. IL he could keep the worst
of the scandal out of the American 1pers
and make people think his daughter had