The Washington herald., 1914-10-11
tcop,risbt. lgi.l

dynasty, socially and IN every
way. Old man Keep was presi-
dent of the trolley line. the tele-
phone company, and the Keep
National Bank. But Fred, his son, and
the heir apparent did not inherit the
business ability of his father; or, if he
did, he took pains to conceal that fact
When Fred arranged an alliance with
Winnie Platt, who also was of the IN
nermost inner set OF Keepsburg, every
body said Keepsburg would soon lose
them. And everybody was right. When
single, each had sighed for other social
worlds to conquer, and when they COM
bined their fortunes, and ambitions they
found Keepsburg impossible, and they
left it to lay siege to New York. They
were too crafty to at once attack New
York itself. A widow lady they met
while on their honeymoon at Palm
Beach had told them not to attempt that.
And as she was the Palm Beach cor
respondent of society paper they nat
urally accepted \ her advice.
They agreed with the lady correspond
ent that il was far better to advance
leisurely; first firmly to>intrench~ them
selves in the suburbs, and then to enter
New York, not as the Keeps from
Keepsburg, which meant nothing. but
as the Fred Keeps, of Long Island, or
Westchester, or Bordentown.
The point from which the Keeps
elected to launch their attack was Scar
decentralization But the attack
did not succeed. Something went
wrong. They began to fear that the
lady correspondent had given them the
wrong dope. For, although three
months had passed, and they had played
golf together until they were as loath
to clasp golf club as a redhot poker,
they knew no one, and no one knew
them. That is, they did not know the
Van Wardens; and if you lived at Scar
boro and were not recognized by the
Van Wardens, you were not to be found
on any map.
Since the days of Hendrix Hudson
the country seat of the Van Wardens
had looked down upon the river that
bears his name, and ever since those
days the Van Wardens had looked down
upon everybody else. They were so
proud that at all their gates they had
placed signs reading, mo horses
allowed. Take the other road" The
other road was an earth road used by
tradespeople from Ossining; the road
reserved for the Van Wardens and
automobiles was of bluestone. It helped
greatly to give the Van Warden estate
the appearance of well-kept cemetery.
And those Van Wardens who occupied
the country place were as cold and TN
sociable as the sort of people who oc-
cupy cemeteries-except Harry" Van
Warden, and he lived in New York at
the Turf Club.
Harry, according to all local tradi-
tion-for he frequently motored out to
Warden Koopf, the Van Warden coun-
try seat-and, according to the news
papers, was a devil of fellow and in
no sense cold or unsociable. So far as
the Keeps read of him, he was always
being arrested for overspeeding, or
breaking his collar bone out hunting, or
losing his front teeth at polo. This
greatly annoyed the proud sisters at
Warden Koopf; not because Harry
was arrested or had broken his collar
bone, but because it dragged the family
name into the newspapers. =
The country place of the Keeps was
completely satisfactory, and for the pur-
poses of their social comedy the stage
setting was, perfect The house was one
they had rented from a man of charm
ing taste and inflated fortune; and with
it they had taken over his well-disci-
plined butler, his pictures, furniture,
family silver, and linen. It stood upon
an eminence, was heavily wooded, and
surrounded by many gardens; but its
chief attraction was an artificial lake
well stocked with trout that lay directly
below the terrace of the house and also
in full view from the road to Albany.
This latter fact caused Winnie Keep
much concern. In the neighborhood
were many Italian laborers, and on sew
eral nights the fish had tempted these
born poachers to trespass; and more
than once, on hot summer evenings,
small boys from Taryrown and ossin-
ing had broken through the hedge, and
used the lake as swimming pool.
"It makes me nervous" complained
Winnie. 81 don't like the idea of peo-
pie prowling around so near the house
And think of those twelve hundred con-
victs, not one mile away, in Sing Sing.
Most Of them are burglars. and if they
ever get out, our horse is the very FIRST
one they'll break into"
"I haven't caught anybody in this
neighborhood breaking into our house