The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-05-08
CHAPTER I.
At the STAGE Door.

COurtlandt sat perfectly straight
his ample shoulders did not touch the
back of his chair; and his arms were
folded tightly across his chest The
characteristic of his attitude was
tenseness. The nostrils were well de-
fined, as in one who sets the upper
jaw hard upon the neither. His brown
eyes-their gaze directed toward the
stage whence came the voice Of the
prima epitomized the tension,
expressed the whole as in a word
Just now the voice was pathetically
subdued, yet reached every part of the
auditorium, hndling the ear with its
singularly mellowng sweetness. To
Courtlandt It resembled, as no other
sound, the note Of mufiied Burmese
gong, struck in the dim incensed cav
ern of a temple. A Burmese gong;
briefly and magically the stage, the
audience, the amazing CLEAN and scin-
tillation of the Opera, faded. He
heard only the voice and saw only
the purple shadows in the temple at
Rangoon, the oriental sunset splash
luk luG EOlutE hOAAAIf NAAg "eA' - -
lights of the dripping candles, the dead
flowers, the kneeling devotees, the
yellow-robed priests, the tatters of
gold-leaf, fresh and old, upon the rows
of placid grinning Buddhas. The
French horns blared and the timpani
crashed. The curtain sank slowly.
The audience rustied, stood up, sought
it's wraps, and passed toward the ex-
its and the grand staircase. 1t was
all over.
Courtlandt took his leave in leisure.
Here and there he saw familiar faces,
but these, after the finding glance, he
studiously avoided. He wanted to be
alone. Outside he lighted a cigar, not
because at that moment he possessed
a craving for nicotine, but because like
all inveterate smokers he believed that
tobacco conduced to clarity of thought.
And mayhap 1t did. At least, there
presently followed a mental calm that
expelled all this confusion. The goal
waxed and waned as he gazed down
the great avenue with its precise rows
of lamps Far away he could discern
the outline of the brooding Louvre.
There was not the least hope in the
world for him to proceed toward his
goal this night. He realized this clear
ly, now that he was face to face with
actualities. A wild desire seized him
to make a night of it-Maxim's, the
cabarets riot and wine. Who cared
But the desire burnt itself out between
two puffs of his cigar. Ten years
ago, perhaps, this brand of amuse-
ment might have urged him success
fully. But not now; he was done with
tomfool nights. Indeed, his dissipa-
tions had been whimsical rather than
brutal and retrospection never
aroused a furtive sense of shame.
He was young, but not so young as
an idle glance might conjecture in
passing To such casual reckoning
he appeared to be in the early TWEEN
ties; but scrutiny, more or less infal-
lible, noting a line here or an angle
there, was disposed to add ten years
to the score. There was in the nose
and chin a certain decisiveness which
in true youth is rarely developed. This
characteristic arrives only with man
hood, manhood that has been tried
and perhaps buffeted and perchance
a little dlsillusioned.
What was one to do who had both
money and leisure linked to an ire
sistible desire to leave behind one
place or thing in pursuit of another
indeterminately? fhe inherent ambi
tion was to make money; but recog
nizing the absurdity of adding to his
income, which even in his extrava
gance he could not spend, he gave
himself over into the hands OF grasp
ing railroad and steamship companies
or their agencies, and became for a
time the slave of guide and dragoman
and carrier. And then the wanderlust
deecended to him from the blood OF
his rowing Dutch ancestors, which had
lain dormant in the several genera
tions following, sprang into active life
again. He became known in every
port of call. He became known also
in the wildernesses.
Whatever had for the moment ap
pealed to his fancy, that he had done
He was alone, absolute master of his
millions. Mammas with marriageable
daughters declared that he was impos
sible; the marriageable daughters
never had chance to decide one way
or the other; and men called him a
fool. He had promoted elephant fights
which had stirred the Indian princes
out of their melancholy Indifference
and tiger hunts, which had, by their
duration and magnifcence, threatened
to disrupt the efficiency Of the British
military service-whimsica excesses,
not understandable by his intimate ac'
quaintances who cynically arraigned
him as the fool and his money.
But, like the villain In the play, his
income still pursued him, Certain
scandals inevitably followed, scandals
he was the last to hear about and the
last to deny when he heard them
Many persons, not being able to take
into the mind and analyze character
like Courtlandt's, sought the line of
least resistance for their understand
ing. and built some precious exploits
which included dusky island prin.
oesses, diaphanous dancers, and comic
opera stars.
Simply, he was without direction;