The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1915-02-05
CHAPTER II-contInued.

Rudu6 tue u5uIcb pONChlOSh uiu N"SA
ky-seven. Then he made the figures
khirty-two and forty-two. He black
ened them with repeated tracings as
be unused. This done, he put seven
teen under twenty-seven and thirty
kwo 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,
Hir," he said as he slipped them on the
Dlotter In front of WesteTling. And
the 132d-no order about that, sir?"
ne 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
femain! He, too, had a question-mark
IN his secret mind.
Westerling proceeded with his math-
smatics. 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
aifel" he mused Take of fifteen
years for youth and fifteen after fifty
klve-nobody counts after that, though
mean to-and you have ten into
forty, which is one-fourth. That is a
good deal. But it's more to a woman
than to a man--yes, a lot more to a
woman than to mani"
The clerk was righs in thinking
Westerling preoccupied; but 1t was
not with the international crisis. Over
ais 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
tied, but she would be glad to have
aim call at five that afternoon.
Westerling realized that the ques
tion of marriage as a social require
ment might arise when he should be
come officially chief of staff with thu
retirement of His Excellency the field
marshal. For the present he enjoyeC
ais position as a bachelor who wa
The most favored man in the army to-
much to think Of marriage.
1t was little surprising that tn
bell that the girl of seventeen hal
Eung in his secret mind when he wa
on one of the first rounds Of the lad
der, now lost in the pists Of lowe
stratum of existence, should eve
kinkle again. Yet he had heard 1t
note In the tone of her prophecy wit
each step in his promotion; and Will
the other people whom he had know
at La Tir were the vaguest shadows @
personalities, her picture was as def
mite In detail as when she said: "Yo
have the will! You have the amb
tion!" She had recognized in him tn
power that he felt; foreseen his ascer
20 the very apex of the pyramid. Sh
was still unmarried. which wa
strange for she had not been BAT
looking and she was Of fine old fan
lily. What was she like now2 Con
monplace and provincial. most ikel.
Many of the people he had known
his early days appeared SO when b
met them again. But, at the worst, b
looked for an interesting half-hour
The throbbing activity of the street
OF the capital, as his car proceeded Q
the way to her hotel, formed an enc
getic accompaniment to his gratifyir
backward survey of how all his plaI
had worked out from the very day
the prophecy. Had he heard the r
mark of a great manufacturer to d
banker at his side In passing hmou
Inc. There goes the greatest CAPITA
of industry of us ALI" WesterliI
would only have thought; "Certainl
am chief Of staff. am at the he'
Of all your workmen at one time
another!" Had he heard the banker
answer, But pretty poor pay. pref
small dividends!" he would ha
thought, Splendid dividends-the di'
dends OF power!"
He had a caste contempt for the m
of commerce, with their mercena
talk about credit and market price
and also for the scientists, doctors, {
Eineers, and men OF other profession
who spoke Of things In books viii
he did not understand. Reading boo
was one Of the faults Of Turcas, his
sistant. No bookish soldier. he kne
had ever been great general He
scented the growing power OF the
leaders OF the civil world, taking q
tinetion away from the military, ev
when, as a man Of parts, he had
court their influence. His was
profession that was and ever sho'
be the elect A penniless subalte
was q gentleman, while he could ne'
think OF man in business as one.
All the faces in the street belong
20 a strange. busy world outside his
terest and thoughts. They form
What was known as the public, OF
nakans ! elatter about things VII