The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-09-01

GRAFTON. He was sufficiently independ,
ent-for he had done It alone-to have
been above the ordinary feeling Of
loneliness. Nevertheless. he WA tenn
peramentally lonesome, and at this
particular moment desperately so.
He had drifted into New York some
Is years before, utterly unheralded,
unnoticed. He had begun by filling a
small clerkship in q little dry goods
store. He kept at It until he owned
the store, and after that a larger store
On a better street. He had developed
a genius for trade, and an executive
ability in accord, until the original
little shop had expanded into a It,
story building covering a block on the
principal thoroughfare of New York
city, and it's owner had become a pow
er in tinance,-a merchant prince.
Such was George Gormly.
He was, too, a s~crupulously honest
man. He sold good goods. without
deceit. Things were as he represent
ed them. He established principles OF
accommodation in his dealings that
were unique when they were first in
stituted in New York. He made no
dishonest dollars. His money was
good everywhere because 1t was un-
tainted. He p%rospered exceedingly,
one expansion following another.
Eschewing speculation of any kind
and devoting himself strictly to the
business, he found himself in middle
life the head, the foot, the sole owner,
of the greatest enterprise of the kind
that the world had ever seen.
This had not been achieved lightly.
He had brought 1t about because, with
absolute singleness of heart, he had
put every ounce of strength and time
and talent, which in him amounted to
genius, at the service Of his affairs
Time, talent, and genius do not always
produce such results; fortune still
must be considered in the game Op-
portunity had favored Gormly. He
had succeeded in everything beyond
his own or a%nyone's widest dreams.
He might have gone on indefinitely
In his mercantile operations without
attracting special attention to himself
RSAo ia ~ " UCCu I'LL JIG
fact. That momentous happening was
his meeting with Miss Haldane.
1t had come about in a
place way enough. Miss Haldane.
deeply interested in social settlement
work and being brought in contact
thereby with some Of the poorer EN-
ployees OF the great Gormly establish.
p,nv,f bod oopolAal - onn ~ <h@
proprietor thereof to see if she could
not induce him to make some ado
quate contribution to the work she
had sc much at heart. Like every
other business man in New York,
Gormly was overwhelmed by chart.
table demands. His business was one
thing; his charity another. He m
ployed a special secretary to look aft
er the eleemosynary end Of his al.
fairs.
There were two reasons why the
secretary felt himself unequal to deal
with Miss Haldane and her demands.
The first reason was Miss Haldane
herself. She was a member of the
oldest and most exclusive circle in
New York society. Her family was
one of the richest and most esteemed
in that hive of multi-millionaries,
would-be-sOs, ~also-rans, and other peo-
pie. The second was the magnitude
of Miss Haldane's demand. She want
ed something like a million dollars.
This amount appalled, the secretary.
She realized that a man like GOrnly.
indeed most men if they had the pow
err, would much rather give a million
than a dime to an undertaking that
appealed to them. Still, Gormly, hav-
ing devoted his attention SO exclusive
ly to his business heretofore, was
rather staggered by the magnitude Of
the amount. He would have been
more staggered by it had he been less
so by Miss Haldane herself.
Miss Haldane had beauty. Thou
sands of people-women, that is, and
some few men-have that. She had
more, she had presence and person
ality. Hundreds of men, and some
few women, have these.
Those who have all three n either
sex are rare and come to view infre-
quently. Whether 1t was Miss Hal
danes undoubted beauty, or Miss Hal
danes exquisite breeding and man.
ner, or Miss Haldane's force Of char
acter and determination, that most i'm
pressed him, or whether his instant
subjugation was due to the influence
of all three, Gormly could not tell.
He was given to s~elf-analysis, as
lonely people usually are. By analyz-
ing himself he learned to analyze 9TH
ers. lntrospection and observation had
been great factors in his success. Here
again his experience was at fault; for
Miss Haldane defied analysis, as the
breath Of summer compounded Of .
thousand balmy scents cannot be re-
solved into its elements, save by the
hard scientist who is insensible to its
fragrance.
cTo BE coNrINUEDo