San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-24
Continued from Page 12)

AnScOmDe fanny loi io"i SSh2o
tons.
Of course there was way out
of it. Michael said, and better peo-
pie than the .Anscombes had ne
gotiated loans with Lazarus e. Co.
Stella urged this expedient af-
ter grasping the significance OF
SETTLING day" in the city. Ans .
combe must meet his obligations
there and gain time in which to
recover the losses incurred in the
Mexican Skies fiasco.
If her father wished it, she her
self would 60 to see the principal,
after making an appointment. why
not? She wasn't child and had
nothing in, common with the brain
less crowd that constituted modern
society; she Was capable Of han
ding a delicate matter like this and
would be clever enough to divert
responsibility from her father If,
bv any chance, her visit to the
moneylender became public knowl-
edge.
"And you would do this for me-"
said Anscombe. "You would find
out if the firm was disposed to
enter into negotiations" :,
~ would do it for Margot," said
Stella coldly.
His failure at this juncture
would interfere with her own plans
for the immediate future. On,
these men las they stared at her,
wonderingly), how easily they for
got the sorrows of others when
thew were beset by worries of their
own! Money, and the loss or the
gaining of it, occupied the whole
of their thoughts. Sentiment had
no significance for them. How
readily they would forgive wrong
if a price were Offered for the
forgiveness! The old pride and
dignity which her reading asso-
ciated with an earlier age were
gone dead.
Already the injury done to her
sister was fading from memory;
these two men, standing before
her, were ready to accept the
damnable logic of the age that
money could buy anything; that
Marcus Swete was privileged in
encompassing the degradation Of
any one so long as he had the
money to pay for his desires; that
even the law would smile on him
no matter what the depths of his
villainy.
Father and son, forgetting the
insult to their name, were ready to
fawn before this same Swete If he
would but rectify the financial
blunder they made in absorbing
his worthless stocks.
Money! Money! All the scarf
fying happenings Of human life in
Europe, the indescribable suffer
ing, the volume of prayers and pc
titions during the years when the
earth was being drenched with
blood-all this had worked no
change in civilized life, save a
more hectic scrambling for money,
and all the false excitement and
debauchery which money might
provide.
How cheap and contemplate
they appeared to her at that mo-
ment-father and brother! Pos
sessed of not vestige of the fine
old English pride that had marked
| the life and character of her pa
ternal grandfather, in whom the
blood would have heated till it
scalded, if he had lived to learn of
the shame that was brought on
Margot.
Money! Money! 1t might buy
most things and most people in an
age when the stability of charac.
ter had been undermined, but il
wouldn't buy Stella Anscombe.
Her fathers voice broke in or
her thoughts like the pitiful bleat.
ing of a child left outside in the
rain.
"Of course, if Sir James Prunt
hadn't let me down so badly,
might have wriggled out of this
hole. Five thousand went like
chaff before the wind"
"Sir James will return it in some
way, l suppose" she said, rather
YEARLY. Bankruptcies nowaday.
seem to be more or less method
of evading an awkward embarass
ment. Somebody threatens anc
replies: Very well, if you viii
not wait for your money, you shall
not have any of it,"
"You don't understand" sale
her father, drearily. "All men
all debtors-are not so constituted
Some of US have a little pride left.
Pride! Her lips began to cur
in derision. She checked herself.
81 will go to see Lazar,s & Co.,
she said. "Until then, perhaps vol
will endeavor not to breach thi'
wretched subject again."
She eft the room, and the in
slant she was gone Michael smiled
oI bic fa4har