River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-12-02
CHAPTER XIII.
Gail First!

Gall First!
Allison, springing forward with a
jerk as he left Jim Sargent's house,
headed his long, low runabout up the
avenue. He raced into the park, and
glanced up at the lookout house as
he sped on past; but it was only
f1eeting look. He needed no reminder
of Gail. AS he passed Roseleaf inn,
he slowed down. The roadhouse may
have given him, and probably did, an
other reminder of Gail, in such a man
ner as to concrete him into logical
thought; for he slowed down the ter
rife speed which had been the accom-
paniment of his unreasoning emotion.
The driving required too much con-
centration for specific thought.
With this turning of his mental atti-
tude, even the slow running of the car
seemed to disturb him, and, about
half a mile past Roseleaf inn, he came
slowly to stop, sitting at the wheel,
with his head bent slightly forward,
and staring at the spot where the road
way had ceased to roll beneath his
machine. Presently he became aware
Of the cold, and running his car to the
side OF the road, he stepped out, and.
buttOning his coat around him, crossed
a fence and walked through the mar
row strip of trees to the river bank,
where he stood for moment looking
out upon the misty Hudson, sparkling
under the moonlight. He began to
walk up and down the bank presently,
the turf sinking spongily under his
feet, and it was noticeable that his
pace grew more and more rapid, until
he was striding at a furious rate of
speed.
The man was in a torment of pas
sion. He had spent lifetime in the
deliberate acquisition of everything
upon which he had set his will; and it
was one of the things upon which he
had built his success, that, once he
had fixed his desire deliberately upon
anything, he had held unwaveringly to
that object, employing all the forces of
which strong men are capable; patient
waiting, logged persistence, or vicious
graphing, whichever was best adapted
to gain his ends.
Gail! If there had been tender
thoughts of her, they were gone now.
It was so that he had conferred his
mind upon her, and himself and his
will, until, in all creation, there was
nothing else but that was trivial; am
bition, power, wealth, fame, the COM
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nothing, except as they might lead to
her!
So it was that he had come this far.
and the roadway to his present height
was marked by the cripples he had
left behind him, without conjunction.
without mercy, without compassion.
Bankrupts strewed his way, broken
men of purpose higher than his own.
useful factors in the progress of hui
man life, builders and creators who
had advanced the interest of the com
monwealth, but who had been more
brilliant in construction than they had
been in reaping the rewards of their
building. 1t was for Allison to do this.
1t had been his specially; the reaping
Of rewards. 1t had been his faculty to
permit others to build, to encourage
them in it, and then, when the build
ing was done, to wrest it away from
the builders. That marked him as the
greatest commercial genius of his
time; and he mad much applause for it.
Women. Yes, there had been wom-
en-, creatures Of a common mold with
whom he had amused himself, had
taken them in their freshness, and
broken them, and thrown them away:
| this IN his earlier years. But in his
maturity, he had bent all his strength
TO greater passion; the requirement
of all those other things which men
had wanted and held most dear, among
them acquisition, and power, and sue
cess. Perhaps it had been bad for him.
this concentration, for now it left him
at the height of his maturity, with mis-
taken fanc!cs, with long pent fires,
with disproportionate desires. Bring
ing to these. he had the tremendously
abnormal moral effect of never hav-
ing been thwarted in a thing upon
which he had set his mind, and of be-
neving, oy past accomplishment that