Grosset _--_ Dunlap

“ I don't remember which city he calls 'home'; he is in New York a great deal. He really hasn't much home I presume; an unmarried man, whose parents are dead; it must be very dreary."
"Poor innocent child!" was Mrs. Dunlap's mental comment. "She really knows no more about the man than I do; I'm afraid not so much! For all that she could prove, he might be an adventurer of the sort that is careful not to have a settled home." ”

“ I had not seen Dunlap for a year, remember, and in the ordinary way I did not see him more than half a dozen times in twelve months, so that, all things considered, it was not so remarkable that I had overlooked the resemblance. A full beard and mustache, artificially darkened eyelashes, a shaven head and a white turban, are effectual disguises; but if you can imagine Dunlap—the Dunlap you remember—so arrayed, then you have Harûn Pasha. Imagine Harûn Pasha, dirty, bedraggled, a hopeless captive ... and you have the prisoner who crouched upon the straw in that noisome dungeon! ”

“ Cold-blooded reasoners, such as thee, would blast
All warm affection; asunder sever
Every social tie of humanized man.
Curst be thy sophisms, cunningly contriv'd
The callous coldness of thy heart to cover,
And screen thee from the brave man's detestation!
M'Donald. Boy, boy!
Bland. Thou knowest that André 's not a spy.
M'Donald. I know him one. Thou hast acknowledg'd it.
Bland. Thou liest!
M'Donald. Shame on thy ruffian tongue! How passion
Mars thee! I pity thee. Thou canst not harm,
By words intemperate, a virtuous man. ”

“ PETER B. KYNE'S NOVELS
May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
THE ENCHANTED HILL
A gorgeous story with a thrilling mystery and a beautiful girl. NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET
A romance of California and the South Seas. CAPPY RICKS RETIRES
Cappy retires, but the romance of the sea and business, keep calling him back, and he comes back strong. THE PRIDE OF PALOMAR
When two strong men clash and the under-dog has Irish blood in his veins—there's a tale that Kyne can tell! ”

“ Immediately after the decree was granted, Dunlap married Eleanor Vane. He never met or directly heard from Virginia again, though when she returned to Russia and took up her residence in St. Petersburg, the fame of her toilets spread even to Paris.
Society, always prone to crude antitheses, knew of Dunlap only that he had painted many of the most beautiful women of his time, that he had been twice married, and that each of his wives had been disfigured by a scar on the face. ”

“ M'Donald. Thou payest high praise to virtue. Whither now?
Mrs. Bland. I still must hover round this spot until
My doom is known.
M'Donald. Then to my quarters, lady;
There shall my mate give comfort and refreshment:
One of your sex can best your sorrows soothe.
(Exeunt.)
Scene, the prison.
(Enter Bland.)
Bland. Where'er I look, cold desolation meets me.
My father—André—and self-condemnation.
Why seek I André now? Am I a man
To soothe the sorrows of a suffering friend?
The weather-cock of passion! fool inebriate! ”

“ Dunlap felt a weight lifted from his mind. Whenever Eleanor was at home, he knew that the child was happy.
He had long ceased to expect any solicitude for her from Virginia. That had gone with everything else. It was one of so many disappointments that he took it rather as a matter of course, and it seldom occurred to him that it might have been otherwise. For two years he had been living like a man who knows that some reptile has housed itself and hatched its young in his cellar, and who never cautiously puts his foot out of his bed without the dread of touching its coils. ”

“ Dunlap left her quite to herself and thanked God for the tears.
"What shall I do if he comes and demands to be let in?" the girl asked suddenly, looking up at her deliverer. "He is so—so masterful; and he does not look at things as I do. He thinks that a few hours cannot make any difference. I know how he argued it out with himself that he could not leave me alone, and that he would shield my name by giving me his in advance, but I cannot do it, I cannot! And if he comes and insists upon talking to me, I don't know what will become of me. ”

“ Dunlap got away by the noon train and took the night-express for the West, canceling all her engagements for the week; she had more important work to look after. Not telegrams, nor long distance telephones, nor even carefully written letters could serve her now. She must go in person to try to explain, as best she might, to that dear girl who was waiting at home to hear from one to whom she had given her trust, to prove him to her mother as "good and noble!" ”

“ I had seen no more of Dunlap, and concluded that he was back in Assuan, or somewhere on the river, foozling with his irrigation again. I never had the clearest conception of the work of his department, by the way. An irrigation man once started to explain to me about his section, mixing up surveying paraphernalia in his talk, telling me something about an allowance of half an inch variation in half a mile of bank, or chat to that effect; but I couldn't quite make it out. My impression of Dunlap at business was very hazy ”

“ Of course, you can judge of the lateness of the hour from the fact that a group of moderately intelligent men tolerated, and contributed to, a chat of this nature. But what brings me down to the story is the few words which I exchanged with Dunlap at the break-up of the party, when he was leaving. ”

“ André. No, men will say that cowardice did urge me.
In my mind's weakness, I did wish to shun
That mode of death which error represented
Infamous: now let me rise superior;
And with a fortitude too true to start
From mere appearances, show your country
That she, in me, destroys a man who might
Have liv'd to virtue.
Bland. (Sheathing his sword.) I will not think more of it;
I was again the sport of erring passion.
André. Go thou and guide Honora from this spot.
Honora. (Entering.) Who shall oppose his wife? I will have way!
They, cruel, would have kept me from thee, André. ”

“ She could feel the passions surging in the man beside her.
"I saw Drummond again, to-day," she began. "Captain Gordon—"
The intense look of hatred that blazed in the eyes of Santos frightened her. What might have happened if he instead of Gordon had met her at the Junta she could not have said. But now she must guard against it. It flashed over her that there was only one thing to be done.
She rose and laid her hand on his arm. As quickly the look changed. There was only one way to do it; she must make this man think they understood each other without saying so. ”

“ It was Forest Caswell.
For a moment Constance stood irresolute, wondering just how to meet him, then she said, "Good evening, Mr. Caswell. I hope you will pardon me for asking you to call on me, but, as you know, I've come to know your wife—perhaps better than you do."
"Not better," he corrected, seeming to see that it was directness that she was aiming at. "It is bad enough to get mixed up badly in Wall Street, but what would you yourself say—you are a business woman—what would you say about getting into the clutches of a—a dream doctor—and worse?" ”

“ But some decks have the aces stripped from the ends, the kings from the sides. With this pack, as you can see, a sucker can be dealt out the kings, while the house player gets the aces."
Drummond brazened it out. With a muttered oath he turned to Watson again. "What rot is this? The stock, Watson," he repeated. "Where is that stock I heard them talking about?"
Mrs. Noble, forgetting all now but Halsey, paled. Bella LeMar was fumbling at her gold mesh bag. She gave a sudden, suppressed little scream.
"Look!" she cried. "They are blank—those stock certificates he gave me." ”

“ Every energy must be bent toward keeping the new scheme secret until it was carried out successfully. Not a hint must get to Drummond that there was any change in the activities of the Junta. As for the Junta itself, there was no one of those who believed implicitly in Santos whom Constance need fear, except Gordon. ”

“ Since that afternoon at Woodlake when you turned me back again from the foolish and ruinous course on which I had decided you—you have been more to me than life. Constance, I have never loved until now. Nothing has ever mattered except money. I never had any one else to think of, care for, except myself. ”

“ Virginia's child was a girl, a sickly baby which cried miserably from the day it was born. The listless, wailing, almost unwilling battle for life that daily went on before his eyes saddened Dunlap profoundly. All his painter's sophistries fell away from him, and more than ever his early destiny seemed closing about him. There was, then, no escaping from the cruelty of physical things—no matter how high and bright the sunshine, how gray and poplar-clad the ways of one's life. ”

“ There were four kings.
"I win," ground out Watson viciously, as he tossed down four aces.
Constance was on her feet in a moment.
"You are a lot of cheats and swindlers," she cried, seizing the cards before any one could interfere.
Deftly she laid out the four aces beside the four deuces, the four kings beside the four queens. It was done so quickly that even Halsey, in his amazement, could find nothing to say. Mrs. Noble paled and was speechless. As for Bella and Watson, nothing could have aroused them more than the open charge that they were using false devices. ”

“ It was the code, telling of the safe arrival of the rifles, cartridges and the counterfeiting plant in New Orleans, a little late, but safe. "Sell cotton," meant "I sail to-night."
On the way over to the Junta, she had noticed one of Drummond's shadows dogging her. She must do anything to keep the secret until that night.
She hurried into the dusty ship chandlery. There was Gordon.
"Good morning, Mrs. Dunlap," he cried. "You are just the person I am looking for. Where is Santos? Has the plan been changed?"
Constance thought she detected a shade of jealousy in the tone. ”

“ It was evident that the Captain was much impressed by Constance. Yet she instinctively disliked the man. His cameraderie had something offensive about it, as contrasted with the deferential friendship of Santos.
With all her energy, however, Constance plunged directly into her work. Indeed, even at the start she was amazed to find that money for a revolution could be raised at all. She soon, found that it could be done more easily in New York than anywhere else in the world. ”

“ Papa's coming home to-day, John.
[Exeunt Servant and Children.
Mrs. Bland.
What fears assail me! Oh! I did not want
A letter now! [She reads in great agitation, exclaiming, while her eyes are fixed on the paper.]
My husband! doom'd to die! Retaliation!
[She looks forward with wildness, consternation and horror.
To die, if André dies! He dies to-day!—
My husband to be murdered! And to-day!
To-day, if André dies! Retaliation!
O curst contrivance!—Madness relieve me!
Burst, burst, my brain!—Yet—André is not dead:
My husband lives. [Looks at the letter.] "One man has power." ”

“ Dunlap," she began convulsively, "I hope you will pardon an entire stranger for breaking in on you so informally—but—but I can't—I can't help it. I must tell some one."
Accustomed as she was now to strange confidences, Constance bent over and patted the little hand of Mrs. Noble comfortingly.
"You seemed to take it so coolly," went on the other woman. "For me the glamour, the excitement are worse than champagne. But you could stop, even when you were winning. Oh, my God! What am I to do? What will happen when my husband finds out what I have done!" ”

“ A little errand uptown kept her longer than she expected, but by the late afternoon she was back again at her desk, on which rested a small package which had been delivered by messenger for her.
"I beg you won't think as badly of me as it seems on the surface, Miss Dunlap," remarked Brainard, stopping beside her desk.
"I don't think badly of you," she answered in a low voice. "You are not the only man who has been caught with a crowd of crooks who plan to leave him holding the bag."
"Oh, it isn't that," he hastened, "I mean this Blanche Leblanc affair. May I be frank with you?" ”

“ Graeme did not seem now to consider the fortune for which he had risked so much. The woman before him was enough.
"Will you?" he asked eagerly.
"I will do with them as I would for myself, better, because—because it is a trust," she accepted.
"More than a trust," he added, as he leaned over in turn and in spite of other diners in the restaurant took her hand.
There are times when the rest of the critical world and its frigid opinions are valueless. Constance did not withdraw her hand. ”

“ André. How speeds Honora? (Pause.) Art thou silent, Bland?
Why, then, I know my task. The mind of man,
If not by vice debas'd, debilitated,
Or by disease of body quite unton'd,
Hath o'er its thoughts a power—energy divine.
Of fortitude the source and every virtue—
A godlike power, which e'en o'er circumstance
Its sov'reignty exerts. Now from my thoughts,
Honora! Yet she is left alone—expos'd—
Bland. O, André, spurn me, strike me to the earth;
For what a wretch am I in André's mind.
That he can think he leaves his love alone,
And I retaining life!
André. Forgive me. Bland. ”

“ Bland. My father knew not André.
I know his value; owe to him my life;
And gratitude, that first, that best of virtues,—
Without the which man sinks beneath the brute,—
Binds me in ties indissoluble to him.
M'Donald. That man-created virtue blinds thy reason.
Man owes to man all love; when exercised,
He does no more than duty. Gratitude,
That selfish rule of action, which commands
That we our preference make of men,
Not for their worth, but that they did us service,
Misleading reason, casting in the way
Of justice stumbling-blocks, cannot be virtue.
Bland. Detested sophistry! ”