Evening star., 1923-10-28


an engineer and his genius for ac-
counting and his judgment of men. he
had set one company after another
on it's feet. AS things went In the
world. he had made himself rich. AT
fifty he believed he had proved himseif
able to evade any failure. any trap any
exception to the long list OF successes
which had made the securities issued
by him sell merely because his name
was behind them.
Well. that was what had done for
him-that reputation. He had told his
friends he could take over this Polar
Forge Metallurgical Company and carry
it until 1t would be able to supply an
eager demand Of the Detroit automo-
bile manufacturers.
He remembered talking to Alice as
they had come home from the o.
bornes through spring night full OF
the scents Of hedges and sleeping gar
dens. eve got q prize, my girl he
had told her.
A prize? Everything had gone wrong.
Polar Forge had been like huge ugly
mouth, ever hungry. ever calling Tor
more. He shoveled wealth into II. he
borrowed on his own paper.
Six months more would have seen
the company on it's feet. Now he held
little piece of crumpled paper in his
hand-an example of arithmetic. His
creditors had asked in peremptory
fashion for the answer to that prob
lem, and the answer was that he was
ruined.
Nasty conventional phrase which
hoo
in melodramatic repetitions: Il am
ruined. / am ruined" No use to
think much now of beginning life all
over again Success slipped away at
the approach of old age when there
is no real rebuilding OF those houses
of cards blown down. His name by
word among the houses dealing in his
kind of securities! Gossip at the club!
Derision or pity--disgusting pity!
He must go home. This was Satur-
day night. No dining out - thank
heaven. But the family. The grave
faces-concealed grief. terror. disap-
pointment, dsi,lusionment.
There was Alice-dear Alice, with
whom he had loved and laughed and
Quarreled all these years. She would
say: Don't worry. John She had
always said that in the pinches. She
would pull her tiny handk erchief
through her fingers, now slightly
wrinkled, and try to laugh. But when
she knew that the house had gone too
what then? And her place-her
place in a comfortable social life. She
had been so fine. What would she say
now-at ruin? He had failed her at
Tn oh q
and say: "Don't worry, john But
the vision he saw Of her stricken face
represented, he knew, what would
have to be in her heart.
TIE could hear his stenographer
i i family. She knew. She was
telephoning some one there in the
sound-proof booth He had seen her
eyes Redeemed. She would get an
other job. Cold woman! Touched by
seeing him sink. But a quick recov-
cry! Depend upon 1t.
He laughed aloud. He had thought
of Cynthia, his oldest daughter
somehow the dearest. He had known
that he would have to let her go at
last. She was twenty-one now.
Some good, untarnished boy would
take her, and he had steeled himself
against that day, picturing all the
compensations of losing her and con-
Turing up, in advance, the days he
would spend occasionally with the
new family with their children COM
ing on like q new cycle of his own
self-expression.
He had comforted himself by think
ing that blue-eyed Cynthia could
marry a poor man il she wished. But
now! She might want to, but she was
used to luxuries-to having whatever
material things she desired.
Ruin! Ted alone would testify to
that. He'd go to college again for his
second year in spite Of all-but under
what conditions? Ted would have to
live with the grinds. And he'd have
to knuckle down to help in paying his
own way: tutoring and all that kind
of thing. A fine piece of business for
Bertillon's boy!
And Alice. the youngest. Seven
teen!. She would learn. through the
years Just how costly it Is to have a
father who has cracked-who at nifty
two Is sunk.
He thought Of a revolver in his
laughed at the thought. He was no
gutter. Life must 60 on.
Life must go on. Monday came the
reckoning! But now just time to go
home to dinner-to one more happy
dinner. They would all be there, and
once more, they in their ignorance
and he with brave front, could
laugh and chaff each other. They
would be gay. He would not destroy
this last feast of the family.
Suddenly he recalled Now little he
had done to squeeze the best out of
life with his beloved four. Had not
his wife and Cynthia and young
Alice and Ted drifted away from his
heart? What had Polar Forge done
to hint and the other companies?
They had taken him away from those
he loved and now had thrown him out
onto the junk heap of beaten men.
The stenographer had come out of
the telephone booth. Through the
thick-lensed glasses her pale eyes now
stared at him as II he were q kind of
curiosity. She knew. It was strange
that she, in her cold detachment,
should know what Alice did not
know, what his intimate friends and
the world still must learn. He was
ruined!
Anything else. Mr.. Bertfllon?" she
asked.
mo. I'm going home now" He
could hear his own voice as II it were
the intonations of q third person.
Monday" she said doubtfully.
rOh, yes-Monday." he said. "Thank
Sou. See you Monday"
X
\ >TIB did not buy the evening papers