Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-10-30
CHAPTER Il-contlnued.

made the figures seventeen and twen- |
ey-seven. Then he made the figures |
Shirty-two and forty-two. He black
ened them with repeated tracings as
ne unused. This done, he put seven
teen under twenty-seven and thirty
two under forty-two. He made the
subtraction and studied the two tens.
A swing door opened softly and his
executive clerk reappeared with a soft
tread
Some papers for your signature,
sir" he said as he slipped them on the
blotter in front of Westerling. "And
the 132d-no order about that, sir?"
he asked.
None. 1t remains!" Westerling re-
piled
The clerk went out impressed. His
chief taking to sums of subtraction
and totally preoccupied! The 1920 to
Temain! He, too, had question-mark
In his secret mind
Westerling proceeded with his math-
Ssmatics. Having heavily shaded the
tens, he essayed sum in division. He
found that ten went into seventy just
seven times.
"One-seventh the allotted span of
Mfe!" he unused. Take off fifteen
years for youth and fifteen after fifty
aive-nobody counts after that, though
I mean to-and you have ten into
forty, which is one-fourth. That is
good deal. But it's more to a woman
than to man-yes, a lot more to
woman than to mani"
The clerk was right in thinking
Westerling preoccupied; but it was
his coffee the name of Miss Marta Gal
land, in the list of arrivals at a hotel,
had caught his eye in the morning pa
per. A note to her had brought an
answer, saying that her time was linn
ited. but she would be glad to have
him call at five that afternoon.
Westerling realized that the ques-
ton of marriage as a social require
5ment might arise when he should be-
soome officially chief of staff with the
retirement Of His Excellency the field
marshal. For the present he enjoyed
ihis position as bachelor who was
the most favored man in the army too
much to think of marriage.
1t was little surprising that the
bell that the girl of seventeen had
'rung in his secret mind when he was
ON one Of the first rounds of the lad
der, now lost in the mists of lower
stratum Of existence, should ever
xtnkle again. Yet he had heard its
mote in the tone Of her prophecy with
each step in his promotion; and while
the other people whom he had known
at La Tir were the vaguest shadows of
personalities, her picture was as def
mite in detail as when she said: you
have the will! You have the ambi-
Sion!" She had recognized in him the
power that he felt; foreseen his ascent
to the very apex Of the pyramid. She
was still unmarried, which was
strange; for she had not been bad
looking and she was Of fine old fam.
lily. What was she like now? Com
F..
Many of the people he had known In
his early days appeared so when he
met them again. But, at the worst, he
looked for an Interesting half-hour
The throbbing activity of the streets
of the capital, as his car proceeded on
She way to her hotel, formed an ener
getic accompaniment to his gratifying
backward survey Of how all his plans
had worked out from the very day OF
Che prophecy. Had he heard the re
mark of great manufacturer to the
banker at his side in a passing limous.
ane, There goes the greatest captain
of Industry Of US ALI" Westerling
would only have thought: Certainly
am chief Of staff. l am at the head
pf all your workmen at one time OF
another!" Had he heard the bankers
answer, "But pretty poor pay, pretty
small dividends!" he would have
thought, Splendid dividends-the divi
dends of power!"
He had caste contempt for the mer
nf commerce, with their mercenary
EdlA dUOuL CT0ulL anu udTh6J PRICES
and also for the scientists, doctors, en-
gineers, and men of other professions
who spoke Of things in books which
ne did not understand. Reading books
was one Of the faults Of Turcas, his as
sistant No bookish soldier, he knew
had ever been great general He re
sented the growing power of these
leaders of the civil world, taking dis
tinction away from the military, ever
when, as man of parts, he had t.
court their influence. His was the
profession that was and ever SHOULD
be the elect. penniless subalterr
was gentleman, while he could never
think of a man in business as one.
All the faces in the street belonged
to a strange, busy world outside his in
terest and thoughts. They formed
N@hat was known as the public, Otter
IN, III III al \, -