The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-10-23

pure strain Of golden romance, side
by side with the lesser metal Of prac-
ticality. When he began to read the
masters he preferred their romances
to their novels. He even wrote poetry
in secret, and when his mother discov-
cred the fact she cried YER the sent1-
mental verses. The father had to be
told. He laughed and declared that
the boy would some day develop into
a good writer Of advertisements. This
quiet laughter, unburdened as 1t was
with, ridicule, was enough to Set
Georges muse a-winging, and she
never came back.
After leaving college he was given
a modest letter Of credit and told to
go where he pleased for a whole year.
George started out at ono in quest
Of the Holy Grail, and there are more
roads to that than there are to Rome.
One may be reasonably sure OF get
| ting into Rome, whereas the Holy
Grail diversified, variable, innumer-
| able) Is always the exact sum Of a
bunch Of hay hanging before old Dob
bins nose. Nevertheless, George gal
loped his fancies with loose rein. He
haunted romance, burrowed and
plowed for It,; and never his spade
changed unsteady against the hidden
treasure, never a forlorn beauty IN
distress, not SO much as chapter one
of the Golden Book offered its daz-
| cling first page. George lost some con-
fidence.
Two or three times a woman looked
into the young mans mind, and in his
g%uilelessness they effected sundry
holes in his letter Of credit, but left
his soul singularly untouched. The
! red corpuscle, his fathers gift, though
It lay dormant, subconsciously erected
barriers. He was innocent, but he was
no fool. That one year taught him
the lesson, rather cheaply. too. II
there was any romance in life, 1t came
unlimited, and If courted and sought
was as quick on the wing as that erst-
while poesy must.
The year passed, and while he had
not wholly given up the quest, the
practical George agreed with the ro-
mantle Percival to shelve It indef-
| nitely. He returned to New York
with %thirty-two pounds sterling out Of
the original thousand, a fact that reju-
venated his paternal parent by some
ten years.
Jane, that boy is all right. Perci-
val Algernon could not kill a boy like
that"
do you mean to infer that it ever
could?" Sometimes a Qualm wrinkled
her conscience. Her mothers heart
told her that her son ought not to be
shy and bashful, that it vas not in
the nature of his blood to suspect
ridicule where there was none. Per.
haps she had handicapped him with
those names; but it was too late now
to, admit Of this, and useless, since
1t would not have remedied the evil.
Jones hemmed and hawed for q
space NO." he answered.; 'but
was afraid he might try to live up
to 1t; and no Percival Algernon who
lived up to it could put his nos down
to a Shah Abbas and tell how many
knots 1t had to the square inch. III
start him In on the job tomorrow"
Whereupon the mother sat back
dreamily. Now, where was the girl
worthy Of her boy? Monumental ques-
ton, besetting every mother, from Eve
down, Eve, whose trials in this direc.
ton must have been heartrending!
George left the cellar in due time,
and after that he went up the ladder
in bounds, on his own merit, mind
you, for his father never stirred a
hand to boost him. He took the in
terest in rugs that turns a buyer into
a collector; 1t became a fascinating
pleasure rather than a business. He
became invaluable to the house, and
acquired some fame as a judge and
an appraiser. When the chief-buyer
retired George was given the position,
with an itinerary that carried him half
way round the planet nee a year, to
Greece, Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and
India, the lands Of the genii and the
bottles, Of arabesques, Of temples and
tombs, Of many-colored turbans and
flowing robes and ~distracting tongues.
He walked and always in a kind Of
mental e~nchantmept.
The suave and elusive Oriental.
with his sharp practices, found his
match In this pleasant young man,
who knew the history Of the very
woods and cottons and silks woven
in a rug or carpet. So George pros
pered, became known in strange
places, by strange peoples; and saw
romance, light Of foot and eager Of
eye. pass and repass; learned that
romance did not essentially mean fall
ing in love or rescuing maidens from
burning houses and wrecks; that, on
the contrary, true romance was kalei-
doscopic, having more brilliant facets
than a diamond; and that the man
who begins with nothing and ends
with something Is more wonderful
than any excursion r~ecounted by Sin
bad or any tale by Scheherazade. But
he still hoped that the ~iridescent god
dess would some day touch his shout
der and lead hlpl into that maze Of
romance so peculiar to his own fancy.
And then into this little world Of
business and pleasure came death
and death again, leaving him alone
and with a twisted heart. Riches
mattered little, and the sounding title