The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1915-07-09

SSulosS ~hOtunOeIen Is yours. COUNT I
Tarnowsy," said I. 1T Is for you to
say whether his whim shall be graft.
fed"
His lips twitched. l saw his hand
touch the bullying coat pocket with a
swift passing movement.
will you be good enough to sign.
Mr.. Smart" be said coldly. He glanced
at bis watch. MY time is valuable.
When can you give possession?"
The day the deed Is transferred"
THAT will be in less than three days
! have satisfied myself. that the title ia
clear. There need be no delay"
We signed the contract after l had
requested P%oopendyke to read it aloud
to me. 1t called for the payment at
$1,000 kronen. or a little over $4,000.
at the time Of signing. His lawyer
handed me a package OF crisp bank
notes and asked me to count them.
did so deliberately, the purchaser look.
ing on with a sardonic smile.
Correct said /. laying the package
on the table. he bowed very deeply.
"Are you satisfied. Mr.. Smart, that
there are no counterfeits among themY"
he inquired, with polite irony; then to
his lawyer: take the gentleman's re-
ceipt for the mount in the presence OF
witnesses. This Is u business transac-
ton, not a game of chance" 1t was
the insult perfect
As be prepared to take his depar-
ture he assumed an i%nsinuating air OF
apology and remarked to me
II owe you an apology. Mr.. Smart
There was a time when l did you an
injustice. suspected you Of keeping
your mistress here. Pray forgive my
error"
Five days later was snugly en-
sconced in the ducal suit at the Bris
tol. overlooking the Acknowledgements.
bereft of my baronial possessions. but
not at all sorry. My omance had been
short lived. 1t is one thing to write
novels about medieval castles and
quite another thing to try to write a
novel in one of them. | trust | may
never again be guilty Of such arrant
stupidity as to think that an American
born citizen can become a feudal baron
by virtue of his dollars and cents any
more than an American born girl can
hope to be a real. dyed in the wool
countess or duchess because some one
needs the money more than she does.
1t would be quite as impossible. con
trariwise. to transform Il noble duke
into a plain American citizen. SO there
you are, even up
My plans were made. After q fort
night in Vienna l expected to 60 west
to London for the autumn and then
back to New York. Strange to relate.
| was homesick. Never before had my
thoughts turned so restlessly. 50 visit
fully to the haunts of my boyhood days.
l began to long for the lights Of Broad
way (which | had s%cornfully desptsed
in sother days. and the gay peacockery
Of Fifth venue at 4 In the afternoon.
1t seemed to me that nowhere In all
the world was life so joyous and blithe
and worth while as in "old New York;"
nowhere were the theaters so attract.
i've, nowhere such restaurants. Even.
in retrospect. the subway looked allur.
ing, and as for the Fifth e stages.
they were too beautiful for words.
All, what a builder of unreal things a
spell Of inconsistencies may become II
one gives il half a chance!
As for Schloss Rothhoefen. | had 1t
on excellent authority mo less a person
than Conrad Schmick himself, that
barely had | shaken the dust of the
Mace from myself before the new mas
ter put into execution n most extraor-
binary and incomprehensible plan of
reconstruction. In the first place. he
gave all the servants two weeks notice
and then began to rnZe the castle from
the bottom upward instead Of the other
way round. MS a sensible person might
have been expected to do. He was
knocking out the walls In the cellars
and digging up the stone floors with
: splendid disregard for that ominOus
thing known as a cataclysm. The
grave question in the minds Of the
! servants was whether the usual and
somewhat mandatory two weeks no
tice wouldn't prove a trif1e too long aft
er all. In fact. Hawkes.. with IN inspira
ton worthy Of an Office boy. managed
to produce a sick grandmother and got
away from the place at the end of one
week. although having been paid In full
! for two.
I The day on which l left for Pari!
. still saw Tarnowsy at work. with hi!
| masons. heroically battering down thu
walls of the grim old stronghold, ant
I l chuckled to myself. 1t was quit
evident that he hadn't found the hid
I ing place up to that time.
After several days in Paris ! tool
myself off to London. l was expecting
) letters at Claridge's, where l Away
u take rooms-not because l think it
e the best hotel in London. but becaus
l am to some extent a creature of hab
it My mother took me to Claridge'
when l was a boy. and l saw a won
derful parsonage at the door. whom
WAS nloaao6 IN call tho king. Eve