The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1908-12-31

widow had brought him to rest. The
most intense and solems experience
OF a woman she had missed, for no
children had come to them, but her
husband had been her lover so long
as he lived. and she had loved him.
She had known great men; she had
lived through wonderful events; ard
often her hand had been on those
secret levers which move vast forces.
She had been in tragedies. if an in
yiolable coolnoss OF head, perhaps of
heart, had shielded her from being CT
them. The husband of her youth. the
nearest OF her blood. the friends Of
her middle life-all had gone into the
dark yet here she sat, with her
smooth skin and her still lustrous
eyes and her fragrant hands. keenly
smiling over her solitaire. The col
onel wondered If he could ever recon
cile himself with such philosophy TO
his own narrowed and emptied life;
sne was older than he, yet she could
still and a zest IN existence. All the
great passions gone; all the big inter
ests and still her. clever mind was
working, happy, possibly, in its mere
exercise, disdaining the stake, she
who had had every success. What q
vitality! He looked at her. puzzling.
Her complexity bewildered him, he
not being Of complex nature himself
AS he looked, suddenly he found him
self questioning why her face, I'm its
revival OF youthful smoothness and
tint, recalled some other face. recently
studied by him-a face that had worn
an absolutely different eXpression
having the same delicate aquiline nose,
the same oval contour the same wide
brows--who? who? aueried the colonel.
Then he nodded. OF course; 1t was
the man with the moles, the brother
He looked enough like Mrs Winter to
be her kinsmel At once he put his
guess to the test AUNT Becky" said
he. "have you any kin 1 don't know
about?"
Il reckon not. I'm an awfully kin
less old party said she serenely. u
was a Winter, born as well as mar.
rsad, and so you and Mel and Archie
are double kin TO me- | was an only
child, 80 | haven't anything closer
than third or fourth cousins, down In
Virginia and Boston"
Have you, by chance any cousin.
near or far. named Mercer?'
Resting her finger-tips on the cards,
Aunt Rebecca seemed TO let her mind
seSgch amid Virsinian and Massachu-
setts genealogical tables. why, Ger.
taimly," she answered after a pause.
there was Gen. Philemon Mercer
confederate army you know-and his
son, Sam Nelson; Phil was my own
cousin and Sam Nelson my second,
anG Sam Nelson's sons would be my
third, wouldn't they? Phil and Sam
are both dead. and Winnie Lee the
daughter, is dead, and poor Phii-the
grandson, you know--poor boy he
shot himself while at Harvard; but
his brother Cary is alive"
DO you know him?"
Never saw him but once or twice.
He has very good manners"
rs ne rich?"
''He was, but after he had spent his
youth working with Incredible indus
try and a great deal of ability to build
up steel business and had put 1t into
a little combination-no big trust,
Just genuine corporation-some OF
the financial princes wanted II for a
Club--to knock down bigger game,
reck0n-and proceeded to cheaper the
stock in order to control H. Cary held
ON desperately, bought more than he
could hold mortgaged everything
else; but they we're too big 70: him to
fight. 1t was in 1908. you know, when
they had an alleged financial panic
and scared the banks. Cary went "a
the wall and Phil with him, and poor
Phil killed himself. Afterward Cary
wife died; he surely did have mean
tirne. AnG, to tell you the tru0n, Ber
tie. I think there has been a little
kin@ in Carys mind ever since"
'Did you hold any OF Carys stockF
he was piecing his puzzle together.
Yves; but my stock was all paid for
Gnd held on 10 It; now 1t is over par
and paying dividends Oh. the prop
erty was all right, had Il been Kept IN
honagt hands and run for itself. The
trouble with Cary was that 10 order
60 keep control OF the property h
bought LOT OF shares on margins. ant
when they began TO run downhill, h'
was obliged to borrow money on his
actual holdings 20 protect his fictitious
ones. The stock went so low that h'
was wiped out. Re wouldn't take ny
Sdviee earlier in the game. and ! knew
that 1t would only be- losing money Z
lend II TO him, later-sliD. sometimes
have been rather sou.. l didn't
Would ] better try the spade. BERTHE
OF The dlamond?"
The colonel advised the spade H'
wondered whether he should repeat 4
his aunt the few sentences which h
had overheard from Mercer and Al
companion: but s. belief that old ag'
yorrles easily, added to his na'ura
mana disinclination TO attack the fem
inine nerves, tipped the scales agains
frankness. So instead. he began U
talk about Archie; what WAS he like
was he fond Of athletics? or was h
a bookish lad? Aunt Rehecca reporte'
that he liked riding and golf, but hi