Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-02-22

waning week on lawn ant' marsh, IN
covert and blind, or motoring madly
over the state or riding in parties to
Vermillion Light. Tennis and lawn
bowls came into fashion. Even water
polo and squash alternated on days too
raw for more rugged sport.
And during all these days Beverly
Plank appeared with unfagging per-
sistence and assiduity, until his ia
miliar, big, round head and patient,
delft blue, Dutch eyes became a mat
ter of course at Shotover. indoors and
out.
The accomplished establishment of
Beverly Plank was probably due as
much to his own obstinate and good
tempered persistence as to Mrs. Morti-
mer. He was a Harvard graduate
there are all kinds of them-enormous-
ly wealthy. and, though he had no par
ticular personal tastes to crafty, he
was willing and able to crafty the
tastes Of others. He did whatever
anybody else did and did it well
enough to be amusing, and as lack of
anybody from any section of the fash
ionable world, it seemed fair to infer
that he would land where he wanted
to sooner or later.
Meanwhile Mrs. Mortimer led him
about with the confidence that was
that in due time he would have house
parties Of his own at Black FellS-nOt
the kind he had wisely denied himself
the pleasure of giving, with such
neighborS as the Ferralls to observe,
but the sort he desired. However,
there were many things to be accom-
plished for him and by him before he
could expect to use his great yacht
and his estates and his shooting boxes
and the vast granite mansion recently
completed and facing Central park
just north of the new palaces built on
the edges of the outer desert where
Fifth avenue fringes the hundreds.
Meanwhile he had become in meas
ure domesticated at Shotover, and
Shotover people gradually came to
ride, drive and motor over the FellS,
which was a good beginning. though
not necessarily a promise for anything
definite in the future.
Mortimer. riding a huge chestnut
he could still wedge himself into a
saddle-had now made it a regular
practice to affect the jocular early
bird squire and drag Plank out of bed.
Plank's acquaintance among people
who knew Mortimer being limited, he
had no means of determining the lat
ter's social value except through hear
say and toadying newspaper or two.
Therefore he was not yet aware of
Mortimer's perennial need of money,
and when Mortimer laughingly allud-
ed to his poverty Plank accepted the
proposition in a purely comparative
sense and laughed. too, his thrifty
Dutch soul untroubled by misgivings.
Meanwhile Mortimer had come,
among other things, on information;
how much, and precisely Of what ma
ture, he was almost too much ashamed
to admit definitely. even to himself.
There was much about Plank that
was unaffected, genuine, even simple,
in one sense. He cared for people for
their own sakes, and only stubborn adj
herence to logged ambition had en-
abled him to dispense with the society
of many people he might easily have
cultivated and liked-people nearer his
own sort, and that, perhaps, was the
reason he so readily liked Mortimer
whose coarse fiber soon wore through
the polish when rubbed against by a
closer, finer fiber. And Plank liked
him aside from gratitude, and they got
on famously on the basis Of such mu.
tual recognition. Then, one day, very
suddenly, Mortimer stumbled on some.
thing valuable-a thread, a mere clew
so astonishing that for an instant it alb
solutely upset all his unadmitted the
cries and calculations.
| 1t was nothing-a vague word or two
IA forced laugh-and the scared ST
lence of this man Plank, who had blum
dered on the verge of confidence to
man he liked.
A moment of amazement, or half in
credulous suspicion, Of certainty, and
Mortimer pounced playfully upon him
like tiger-a big, fat, friendly, jocose
tiger:
"Plank, is that what you're up to-"
"Up to! Why, / never thought OF
such az
"Haw, haww roared Mortimer. Ell
you could only see your facew
And Beverly Plank, red as a beet
comfortably suffused with reinsurance
under the reaction from his scare, at
tempted to refute the others conclu
sions: ''It doesn't mean anything, Nor
timer. She's just the handsomest CIR
l ever saw. / know she's engaged.
only admired her a lot"
you're not the only man." said Nor
timer blandly, still striving to recon.
ellie his preconceived theories with the
awkward half confession Of this great
red listed, hulking horseman riding al
his stirrup.
81 wouldn't have her dream" STAN
mered Plank, 'that 1 had ever thought
| Of cI1oh q,