Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-21

| ton that if I offered myself to this lady
l should be declined with thanks. You
| have fretted yourself into a state of mine
that BODIES i'll for American philosophy.
J He was again belligerent. ~ may have
| occurred to him that l might know as
much as he. but at any rate he grinnedi
IL was a saturnine grin l did not like
I'm starving to death at the door OF
an inn, and you must excuse me. Have
you seen Hartley Virgins lately?'
Il have, indeed! He's taken to lonely
| horseback rides; he's off somewhere now
He hasn't the stamina for a contest like
| this. zone by one the autumn leaves are
falling" he added, with special intention
land l have given you your chance
! Thanks, li2ht-bringing Socrates from
the lands of the Ogalalas! For SO much
courtesy / shall take pleasure in reading
all your posthumous works. Let us cease
being absurd.
He laid his hand on my arm and low
cred his tone.
| Don't be an ass. If you and l both
know what's underneath all this mystery
we might come to an understanding"
| Il don't follow you. Please make a
light. like a man about to have an idea.
"You mean that you don't understand p
He eyed me doubtfully. uncertain whether
l knew not
You have implied that am incapable
of understanding; suppose we let it &c
at that
With this I left him and entered the
lowraftered office-it was really pleas
ant lOunging room, unspoiled by the usual
hotel-office paraphernalia. Dick had fol-
lowed close behind. and as paused,
hearing voices raised angrily in the dining
room beyond, l turned to him Nor an eX-
PLANTATION. AS the suitors had been the
| only guests of the inn since their advent,
having stipulated that the proprietor
should exclude other applicants for meals
or lodging, ] attributed the commotlon to
strife in their own ranks. Dick nodded
sullenly and bade me keep on.
You'd better take look at those fell
lows. I've quit them-quite out of it; re-
| member that"
| The dining-room door was slightly ajar,
and l flung it open.
! Ormsby, Shallenberger. Henderson.
Hume, GOrse and Arbuthnot had been en-
gagged with cards at a round table in an
alcove, but some dispute having appar-
emily risen, they stood In their places en-
gagged in acrimonious debate. AS near as
| could determine. some one OF them
| think it was Ormsby-wished to abandon
the game, which had been undertaken to
determine In what order they should be
permitted to pay visits to Hopef1eld in fu-
ture. the calls en- masse having grown in
tolerable. They were so absorbed in their
argument that they failed to note my APP
pearance, and ] stood unobserved within
the door. The dialogue between the card
players was swift and hot.
Its no good. l tell your cried Orms-
!
/ all take their chances together!
| "You ought to have thought OF that be-
fore we began. This was your scheme,
but because the cards are running against
you. you want to quit. 1 say We'll go
on This from Henderson, who struck
the table sharply as he concluded.
You knew Virgins and Dick Weren'
going in when we started, and you are
not likely to get them in now Your anx-
iety to cut the rest of us out by any
means seemss to have unsettled your
mind" shouted GOrSeL Il say let's drop
this and stand to our original agreement
that no man speak till the end of the
fortnight"
After that whole scheme has been
nothing fair in this business from the
start. We ought to have kept Arrowood
here and held together. And we ought
to have got rid of that Ames fellow-he
didn't belong i'm this at all. and instead
of protecting ourselves against outsiders
We have sat here like lot OF fools while
he's been making himself agreeable there
in the house-right there in the house,"
Ormsby's voice rose to q disagreed BILE
squeak as he closed with this Indictment
of me- Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met
my eye so warily that [ wondered
| whether he suspected that / knew of his
breach of faith with the other suitors.
Much dallying with Scandinavian litera-
ture had not lightened his heart, and
there was nothing i'm Ibsen to which he
could refer his present plight Shallen-
berger seemed to be the only one of the
{ group who had not lost his senses. He
was in the farther corner OF the alcove,
| out of sight from the door, but 1 heard
| him distinctly as he addressed the other
suitors with rising anger.
(TO be continued tomorrow.)