Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-14
CHAPTER XXI.
A Conference at the Allequippa.

On their return to the Allequippa Club
Walsh and Wingfield sought a quiet cor
ner of the smoking room and sat down to
take account of their adventures, Walsh
with a steaming hot whisky before him,
Wingied with his usual glass of kou-
miss. which he slipped sparingly. They
We're silent until Walsh's cigar had be-
gun to burn satisfactorily. 1t was he
that spoke first.
That little Estabrook mare has good
wind 7 never tried her in the snow be-
fore. There's zip in her legs. all right
1T was good idea of yours. the sleigh
ride. | wish l had your knack of telling
horse from goat. The beasts they
always sell ME wouldn't make good glue"
I'm
A proper interval was necessary to set
the mare apart from other subjects, and
they played with their glasses.
shes a little brittle Fragile; handle
with care remarked Walsh presently.
Wingheld blinked behind his glasses.
That mare-oh, no, / see!''
THAT woman up there. She's like glass
bright toierably transparent and easily
smashed
Il don't know about her being SO trans
Parent. IL seems to me she's pretty
clever-a little subtle. maybe. She doesn I
seem to have been anybody in particu-
lar, yet she landed the colonel with an
artificial fly
Walsh shook mis- head.
you're wrong She didn't land the
colonel. She couldn't have done it. She
wouldn't have had the nerve. An older
hand played the line and made the cast
but she was the pretty fly. all right
We'll, of course 1 didn't know re-
piled Wingfeld humbly. wondering again
at the ramifications of Walsh's knowl-
edge
Should you say she had the come
hither in her eyer"
Wing1eld had spoken lightly. but he
was rebuked by the unmistakable dis
pleasure in Wash's face. The old fellow
shrugged his shoulders, but when he
spoke there was kindness in his tone
She's kind o pathetic TO me. There S
nothing hard in her. AS / said, she s
like glass. and when that kind break il s
just get the broom and sweep out the
pieces, that's all. But 1 don't like to hear
the tinlle of broken glass. There amt
much satisfaction in seeing human nature
topple and fall off the shelf-men or
women. The strong ones. the heavy pot
terry. can drop hard and roll some; clay 8
coarser: but these weak ones-it makes
you sick"
Walsh was silent for moment; then
seeing that ne had checked Wingfield. he
asked:
How did the situation up there strike
you?"
1T was proper enough-quite beautiful
anu uOtleStic- OOnt suppose wayne
ever spent whole evening at home be-
fore in his life. How do you explain the
other woman-a sort Of chaperon rung in
To improve the looks of things?'
1T doesn't make any difference how she
got there: that amt our business; but l
felt better when / saw her there. She's
| good girl: she's all right"
Walsh's omniscience would have an
i noyed Wingfield if he had not so greatly
admired it. 1t seemed that Walsh not
| only possessed much information as to
the private affairs of the Craighill family
but that his knowledge covered also the
casual stranger within the Craighil
| gates.
who's the girl?'' he ventured. care
lessly; and Walsh's "Um'' seemed for a
| moment to have been interposed as q re-
buzz. But Walsh stirred his glass slowly
and replied:
1T certainly beats hill how things
come around. That girls grandfather
is one Of those old fellows that ought to
| have been rich If he'd had any sense. He
| owned lot OF coal land around here
years ago. but he swindled himself on,
| of 1t in one way or another. He got
cleaned out down here ana Moved up into
| the anthracite country, where he never