The Washington times., 1913-02-16
CHAPTER V.-(Continued.)

u It's to be feared he had
always hard-headed way
Of considering matters in s. the
light of, equity as distinguished
legal morality. This is not to be taken
as an attempt to defend the man. but
rather as statement of fact; even as
the context is. to be read as an account
of some things that happened rather
than as a morality. r--'". = =
Even when he did at length make up
his mind to go home 1t wasn't because
he felt that duty called :; him. plain,
everyday, human curiosity had some-
thing to do with determining him. de-
sire to see how New York was manag-
ing to get along without him: that, to-
gether with a dawning Apprehension
that there, was an auncomfortable
amount of truth in the antiQuated
bromidion about the surprising little
ness of the world.
He was in Melbourne at, that time
with Lynch, his partner. Having pros
pered and laid by lump. of money,
they had planned to finance their hold
ings in the traditional fashion-that is,
to let in other peoples money to do the
work while they rested and possessed
their souls and drew dividends on a
controlling interest. Capital In Mel
bourne had proved eager and approch-
able; the arrangement they desired was
quickly consummated; the day the pa
pers were signed Whitaker passed old
friends in the street.
They We're George Presbury and his
wife. Anne Forsythe that was-self-
evidently tourists looking the town over
between steamers. Presbury, with no
thought in his bumptious head Of meet
ing Hugh Whitaker before the day of
judgment, looked at and through him
without a hint Of recognition; but his
| wife was another person altogether.
Whitaker could not be blind to the sur
prise and perplexity that shone in her
eyes, even though he pretended to be
blind to her uncertain nod: and long
after only his back was visible to her
! he could feel her inquiring stare boring
into ii.
The incident made him think; and he
| remembered that he was now man
| of independent fortune and Of newly idle
hands as well. After prolonged consid-
Grafton he suddenly decided, told Lynch
| to look out for his interests and expect
him back when he should see him, and
booked for London by a Royal Mail
boat-all IN half day. From London
Mr.. Hugh Morten crossed Immediately
to New York on the Olympic, landing
N the month of April-nearly six years
to day from the time he had left his
native land.
He discovered a New York almos.
wholly new; an experience almost in
evitable, If one insists on absenting one
self even for as little as half a decade.
Intimations of immense changes were
| borne in upon Whitaker as the steamer
| worked up the bay. The Singer Build
ing was an unfamiliar sky-mark. to say
nothing Of the Metropolitan Tower and
the Woolworth. The Olympic docked
| structure. new since his day, and Whit
aker narrowly escaped row with a
| taxicab chauffeur because he smiled i'm
! pertinently when requested to drive to
the Fifth Avenue Hotel
A very few hours added amazingly to
the catalogue of things that were not
as they had been; a list SO extensive
and impressive that he made up his
mind TO maintain his incognito for a
few DAYS. until familiar with the ways
of his home.
He was quick to perceive that he
would even have to forget most Of the
slang that had been current In his time
(as well as. of course-unlearn all he
had picked up abroad) and set himself
down with attentive ears pricked for
ward and an open mind. to master the
new, strange tongue his countrymen
were speaking. If he were to make HIM
self Ineligible to them-and them to
him, for that matter.
So he put I'D at the Ritz-Carlton
precisely as any foreigner might be ex-
pected to do. and remained Hugh Nor
ten while he skulked around the city
and found himself. Now and again in
the course of his wanderings he encoun-
tered well-remembered faces. but al
ways without eliciting from the slight
est CLEAN of recognition: circumstances
that only went to prove how thorough
ly dead and buried he was in the es-
timation of his day and generation.
Nothing. indeed. seemed as he remem-
bered it except the offerings In the thea
ters. He sat through plays on three
successive nights that sent him back
to his hotel saddened by the conviction
that the tastes of his fellow countrymen
in the matter of amusements were as
enduring as adamant-as long-enduring.
Some day Che prophesied) New York