The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-03-14
CHAPTER ii
The Planning of the Cruise

when he was alone N TIE street with
Bettington.
walk as far as my studio" Bet
tingtOn suggested. isn't II strange
that we Should have lost sight of one
another. | feel guilty. It's
true I'm not often in New York.
Tubby, I'll not lose sight of you
now"
Bettington's studio Sas more col
lection of marine objects, a museum of
the sea, than a place TO work in.
There were two rooms at the top of
an old brown stone house on the
north side of East Thirty-fourth
street. He ha yearly lease of the
place and used il bur rarely. There
We're quaint tigureheads OF old sailing
ships now long broken up or sunk.
81 have not always led the simple
uneventfuI life Gibbons assigned to
me-" the painter said smiling. when he
noted his friends interest "Sit down,
Tuhby. while | make real coffee"
Later, he began: Il had a small
fortune when | left Harvard. | spent
most of il in seeing The world. With
what was left and some small savings
] have bought a camp. AT present
I'm hard-up, but there's plenty of
money in this very room if I'm ener-
getic enough to get it. | have sold
very few of my paintings. | have been
able TO afford not to. have commits
SiOnS for a number which have not
filled. That was selfish OF me. I'll
execute them and sell some OF these
canvases. Your girl Mary shall go to
Smith, and your boy shall have the
Tech. Seawater and paint shall take
them both there. Ii has been a for
tunate vening for ME. needed wax
ing up"
Unwin thought of how soon this
miracle might be accomplished, which
should give his children their oppor-
tunities. The narrow things at home
had trained him to calculate with
great niceness such adjustments. Bet
tingtOn planned to start for the paint
ing expedition within two days time.
He would start at Gloucester and wan
der up the coast, reaching his new
camp in far northern Maine in a
months time. 1t were wise, he
thought, to send Mary TO Gibbons
Office. The pictures might not sell.
Gibbons might offer the girl splendid
stipend. He might seek to make
amends for his brusqueness by unex-
pected kindnesses. Perhaps they had
wronged Alfred Gibbons.
Mary looked at him next morning
over the breakfast table and her eyes
asked the question Der lips did not
formulate.
smith. must wait just little,' ne
said. "but don't be cast down, Mary.
There is hope; you will yet win to
Northampton. Take an hour off this
very day and go and see the great
Alfred Gibbons. He wants to see you.
Commercially speaking, your fortune
is made. He is expecting you"
Mary Unwin had been almost a year
an inmate of the Office of Elgar Rad
way; she had quickly accommodated
herself to the routine of her work.
She worked always at top speed. as
did her employer himself and was
paid eighteen dollars weekly. The
people were kindly, and Railway
notorious as a Observation-Disclosures
mixed his pleasures with his work.
She was as free from harm when TAX
ing his dictation as she would have
been with a decent minded man.
1t was to him she preferred the re-
quest for an hour off. He was not
pleased.
''Pm busy" he grunted. "rm off for
vacation soon, and there's lot to
do. Don't be longer than ALI hour"
He looked at her curiOusly as she
went from the Office. AS a connoisseur
of women he admired her charm, but
she was worth more TO him in the
Office than out of it. Railway was d
vOluptuary of sixty who was finding
out that he lived now in soberer
age and could not adapt himself to it.
Gibbons victory pointed the moral.
He did not greatly fear Gibbons. He
comforted himself that after a few
weeks Oh the Sed Ie WOulO come DacK
refreshed for the big game.
He was thinking of Gibbons tri-
umph over the Memphis and Toledo
road, only made possible by the treach.
cry of trusted manager. when Mary
Irwin entered the office of her ia
Tiers one-time friend.
Gibbons was often * matter of spec
.uatiOn among the Railway staff. 1t
was known that he had once been
Railways clerk and bad left suddenly
breathing threats against his en-
'ployer. And 1t seemed he had de-
voted his life to getting even for
some grievance of whose origin none
in his Office had any definite idea.
Mary looked at him with curiosity
that had nothing to dc with his finan-
cial position. She looked at him as
one who had I'm the other years been
close friend of her poor, laundering.
clever. but unstable father. whom she
loved the more because she saw his
need.
Gibbons was not prepared for a
beauty. II was true. Irwin had fine
features and brilliant eyes, but one