Evening star., 1909-07-16
CHAPTER vII-Continued.

Most men are better off without
friends | declared.
You're quite right. Phil he said. I
wish l could struggle on without them
out. somehow. I pick up so many
Because of your power to attract them
The man who has no friends usually
grows rich
You mean miserIy skunks-eh" | know
| the type.
Yes. she really rich man has few
friends. He's clever enough not 10 make
| any
Yes. But that requires more tact thah
| possess My forte is check. I believe.
I pride myself that If occasion require Ii
I can tell a lie perfectly. Indeed. in my
profession I've brought lying TO fine
art"
I'm that I quite believe YOU. my dear
Granny" I laughed You're better liar
even than an Old Bailey lawyer"
When necessity dictates"
Granville Cough was surely a man of
complex nature A light-hearted. careless.
| devil-may-care adventurer, without fixed
| habitation. but with hosts of friends. he
| lived in all the capitals of Europe by
| turn, few days here, few DAYS there,
until he was just as much at home IN
the Puerta del Sol. in Madrid. as in the
| Corso in Rome the NeTski. in Peters
burg, or our own familiar Strand. His
| friends, too, were of every station from
| princes and ministers of state, whom he
would invite to dinner, down TO those rag
| ced night birds. the scum Of continental
! city, who knew him to be a crook and
were ever ready to furnish him with in
forma tion or render him service
| T. perhaps, was the only man who
knew Granny Cough intimately Man!
these lines will have met him in London
and on the Continent-under different
| name. of course-always exauisitely dress
ed. always affable, and always aff1uent
| for never once within my experience has
! he ever allowed the world to believe him
anything but prosperous. 1t was one OF
| the tenets of his religion Put on a
bold front and order good dinner, ever
though you have to pawn your portman-
teau afterward,' he used to say.
! When Granny Cough put his wits to-
gether there was not q cleverer man or
the whole face Of Europe. / have known
| him to get the best of the most expert
diplomat and to convince minister OF
state against his WILL When he intended
to carry his point he would fix his oppo
nent with his big clear blue eyes with q
| look of intensity which seemed somehow
to hypnotic and fascfnate. How it was
| 1 cannot tell. In this chronicle of strange
events / am simply setting down what
actually occurred. I am not seeking the
reason of my friends marvellous and
| amazing power over his fellow-men; but
| / am relating a curiously romantic an6
extraordinary chain of facts of which
myself have been witness in this past
! year or so of my own cosmopolitan life
/ | myself have been a constant and
| homeless wanderer on the continent, like
| Cough, but in a different sphere. Cir
| cumstances, curious in themselves, haG
drawn us closely together. and now. al
the period of which I am writing,
! found that our lives had become, almost
| before l was aware Of 1t, closely associ
| ated.
| He was my friend. Men might call hin
an adventurer. Those whom he had be-
| friended-and they were many-migh
| hold up their hands in pous horror tina,
| they had ever associated with an out.
| slider. For that I cared nothing.
| l knew the true heart of the handed
| big-faced, clean-shaven man with the
fair curly hair. who always reminded
me of an overgrown boy. That hear,
which had sympathized with the starv-
ing woman and her child: that heart thai
loved little Myra Stapleton so dearly
which delighted in Nietzsches philosophy
and was now broken because of the das-
tardly treachery of a man whom he had
| foolshly treated as his friend.
| Again l looked at him, as he smoked
on in thoughtful silence.