The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-07-10
GREEN FANCY
By George Barr McCutcheon


white, softened over the shoulders and
neck with a fall Of rare valenciennes
lace. There was no jewelry-not ever
a ring on her slender, tapering fingers.
Mrs. Collier, the hostess, was an ell
derby, heavy-featured woman, decid.
eddy overdressed. Mrs. Van Dyke,
her daughter, was a woman Of thirty,
tall, dark and handsome In a bold,
dashing sort Of way. The lackadaisi.
cal gentleman with the mustache
turned out to be her husband.
my brother is unable to be with
ue tonight, Mr.. Barnes" explained
Mrs. Collier. "Mr. O,Dowd may have
told you that he is an iavalid. QUITE
rarely is he well enough to leave his
room. He has begged me to present
his apologies and regrets to you. An.
other time, perhaps, yeu VIII give him
the pleasure he II missing tonight"
De Soto's cocktails camb IN. Miss
Cameron did not take one. ODowd
proposed a toast.
ITO the rascals who went cunning
for the other rascals. But for them
we should be short at least one mem
Der Of this agreeable company"
It was rather startling. Barnes
glass stopped half way to his lips. An
instant later he drained It. He &C.
cepted the toast as a compliment from
the whilom Irishman, and not as a
tribute to the prowess of those mys-
teCfOus marksmen.
The table in the spacious dining
room was one Of these long, narrow
italian boards, Enthusiastically antique
and equally rare. Sixteen Of eighteen
people could have been seated with
out crowding, and when the seven took
their places. wide intervals separated
them. No effort had been made by the
hostess to bring her guests close to-
gether, as might have been done by
using one end or the center Of the
table. The serving plates were Of sill
yer. Especially beautiful were the
long-stemmed water goblets and the
graceful champagne glasseA They
were blue and white and Ola design
and quality NO longer obtainable *
cept at great cost. The esthetic
Barnes was not slow to appreciate the
rarity Of the glassware and the chaste
beauty Of the serving plates.
The man Nicholas was evidently the
butler, despite his Seventh avenue
manner. He was assisted in serving
two stalwart and amazingly clumsy
footmen, of similar ilk and nationality.
On seeing these additional men serv-
ants Barnes began figuratively to
count on his fingers the retainers he
had so far encountered on the place.
Already he had seen six. all Of them
powerful, rugged fellows. It struck
him as extraordinary, and in a way
significant, that there should be so
many men at Green Fancy.
Much to his disappointment he was
not placed near Miss Cameron at
table. Indeed she was seated as far
away from him as possible. There was
a place set between him and De. Soto,
for symmetl s. sake, Barnes con
cluded. In this he was mistaken ;
they had barely seated themselves
when Mrs. Collier remarked:
"Mr. Curtis secretary usually joins
us here for coffee. He has his dinner
with my brother, and then, poor man,
comes in for a brief period of relaxa-
ton. When my brother is in one Of
his bad spells poor Mr.. Loeb doesn't
have much time to himself"
Loeb, the private secretary, came in
for coffee. He vas a tall, spare man
of thirty, pallidly handsome, with
dark, studious eyes and features of an
Enthusiastically Hebraic cast, as his
name might have foretold.V His teeth
we're marvelously white and his slow
smile attractive. More than M dur
ing the hour that Loeb spent with
them Barnes formed and dismissed a
stubborn ever-recurring opinion that
the man wa not a Jew, Certainly he
was not an American Jew. His voice,
his manner Of speech, his every action
stamped him as one born and bred in
a land far from Broadway and it's
counterparts. II a Jew he was of the
east as it is measured from Rome
the Jew of the carnal Orient.
And as the evening wore ON there
came to Barnes the singular fancy
that this man was the master and not
the servant of the house! He could
not put the ridiculous idea out Of his
mind. y
He was to depart at ten. The hour
drew near and he had had no opportu-
nifty for detached conversation with
Miss Cameron. He had listened to her
bright retorts to O'Dowd's salHes, and
marveled at the eas and composure
with which she met the witty Irish
man on even terms
Not until the very close Of the eve
ming, and when he had resigned him.
self to hopelessness, did the opportu-
nifty come for him to speak with her
alone. She caught his eye, and, to his
amazement, made a slight movement
Of her head, unobserved by the others