The Pulaskian., 1920-04-08
ing to me about2 Rufus Gaston was


 my dissatisfaction with everything. Here were my two chums starting off to tEe war, and here was I, Spalding Nelson, twenty-six, strong in physique. save for a football knee" that had barred me from military service, thirst ing for excitement, left behind in the prosaie business world and now bid dpn to an uninteresting meal with two decrepit old relatives. I made up my rlind not to answer the note. My great uncle Rufus could go hang, for all of his millions. I would not go near him.
 The sight of my mothers letter lying unopened on my desk served to recall to me that 1t was she who had prevent ed my going. Poor mother! She and had been at cross-purposes ever since my fathers death while was a young ster. It seemed to me that always she had opposed everything wanted to do.
 After I left college she had found a place for me in the office of one of my fathers friends in the little western city where our home was. had been two years getting away to join Birge and Roller in New York Most of all she had set herself against my going to France She did not believe in war. I was the only man left in the family. She was far from well. If anything should happen to her, my young sis ters had only me to look to. When these pleas had failed to move me she had not hesitated to remind me that was in her debt.
 Unfortunately this was true My years at college had cost me more than my small patrimony. 1 had borrowed freely from her, expecting soon to be able to repay her. Like all young grad uates I had vastly overestimated my earning capacity. Three years had elapsed and I still owed her eight hun dred dollars.
 sI do not sec" she had written me, "how you can honorabIy feel free to go while you are in my debt. To furnish you funds at college your mother and sisters praetieed many economies. The girls are now reach ing an age when their expenses will be much greater. I need the money for them. The least you can do is to pay It back before you give up your posi- tion and go off on wild-goose chases."
 For this argument I could find no answer. My obligation to her was a debt of honor that must be paid be- fore I could be my own master. Each week l had been putting away five dol lars, and as it accumulated had been sending her money order.
 While I WAS debating what to do began to read my mothers latest let ter. The first part of 1t repeated her many arguments. She wrote:
 1.-Two days ago I received a letter from my fathers brother, Rufus Gas ton, upon whom you called when you first went to New York He asked about you and made me a proposition concerning you. I did not venture to give him an answer Your views and mine are so seldom in accord. gave him your address and suggested that he write to you himself. Probably he has done so by this time."
 Hastily I rescued my great-uncle's crumpled note from the floor and smoothed it out If Rufus Gaston-. with his millions and no direct heir had made proposition concerning me, his letter took on a vastly more inter esting complexion. Carefully I reread it, seeking for some hidden meaning between the lines, but 1t gave no clue to what he had in mind. He merely expressed the hope that l would be abla to dine with him and his wife in- | formally hext Thursday evening.
 What could 1t mean? It was at least well worth looking into Mir | Gaston was seventy-four. He had made a fortune in the South American trade retiring at sixty-fve. There was only 1 himseIf and his wife. On the Gaston side, through my mother, my sisters aud I were the only blood relations. I wondered If 1t could be that old Rufus was thinking of making me his heir-heir to the Gaston millions!
 As I penned a cordial acceptance of l his dinner invitation I determined to set myself to pleasing the old couple. whom had met only once, on the oc- casion of my call. A few years ago would have despised the thought of ca tering to wealth, but since 1 had dis covered how difficult it was to earn money and how much more difficult to save 1t, my views had changed
 I could hardly walt for the day he l had set for me to dine with them to arrive. I found myself approaching their residence fully three-quarters of al hour before the time named. When I discovered how early I was decided to lciter in the park for few min utes Old Rufus recently had given up his Avenue residence and now lived l in one of those stately apartment buildings erected in the East Eighties I turned into Central park opposite I T >--1