Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1908-02-22

SEVEN

waning week on lawn and marsh, III
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 aIternated on days too
raw for more rugged sport.
And during all these days Beverly
Plank appeared with unfiaggimg per
sistence and assiduity, until his ia
miliar. big round head and patient,
delft blue, Dutch eyes became 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
intellectual development never barred
anybody from any section of the fash
ionable world. 1t 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
her perquisite, and the chances were
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
Shotoyer people gradually came to
ride, drive and motor over the Fells,
which was good beginning, though
not necessarily promise for anything
definite in the future.
Mortimer, riding a huge chestnut
he could still wedge himself into a
saddle-had now made 1t 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 a 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 comparativ'
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 thai
was unaffected, genuine, even simple
In one sense. He cared for people fol
their own sakes, and only stubborn ad
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 hii
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 {
closer, finer fiber. And Plank liked
him aside from gratitude, and they go
on famously on the basis of such mu
tual recognition. Then, one day, yer.
suddenly, Mortimer stumbled on some
thing valuable--a thread, a mere clew
so astonishing that for an instant 1t alb
solutely upset all his unadmitted the
cries and calculations
1t was nothing-a vague word or tw
"a forced laugh-and the scared 81
lence of this man Plank, who had blum
dered on the verge OF a confidence I
man he liked.
, A moment Of amazement, or half II
credulous suspicion, of certainty, an
Mortimer bounced playfully upon mfr
like tiger-a big, fat, friendly, jocos
, tiger:
"Plank, is that what you're up to-"
up to! Why, never thought {
such a.
"Haw, haw"' roared Mortimer. 81
you could only see your faeew
And Beverly Plank, red as a bee
] comfortably su1fused with reassuranC
under The reaction from his scare, a
tempted TO refute the others conclv
sions: 1T doesn't mean anything, NO
j timer. She's just the handsomest ri
: ever saw. know she's engaged.
> only admired her lot"
you're not the only man." said Mo
timer blandly, still striving to recol
Gle his preconceived theories with Il
awkward half confession of this grea