No More Learning

Should they be compelled by a high sense of duty to make a
sacrifice of this nature, they would then of course retire from
the management. Having enabled it to win its way to popular
favor, they would permit the Compañia Limitada de Ferrocarriles
de la Ciudad de Tarazona y sus Alrededores to go it alone.


## p. 8129 (#329) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8129
Under the existing highly unfavorable circumstances, this mas-
terly line of action could not be pursued. Those who had been
the friends of his bosom before the Nicaragua catastrophe, stand-
ing ready to help in the organization of anything, and willing to
permit any number of shares of it to stand in their names, now
would have none of him. Their disposition was wholly that of
priests and Levites. They declined with maledictions to act as
directors. They declared in the most profanely positive terms
that they would not lend him a solitary imprecated cent. Yet
without some slight advance of ready money — his own scant sav-
ings from the Nicaragua wreck being about expended — he could
do nothing. His prospectus must be printed, and so must his
share certificates; and even the most sanguine of the bank-note
companies declined to execute his order save on a basis of fifty
per cent. deposited in advance.
The only line of action that appeared to be open to him in
the premises was to induce the Marques to come down with the
trifling amount demanded by the bank-note company, and to per-
mit the use of his name as chairman of the yet-to-be-organized
board. With that much of a start, the Colonel's hopeful nature
led him to believe that he could scare up a board of direction
somehow; and if he could not, he was prepared to fill in the gap
temporarily with a list of names copied from the nearest tomb-
stones. But when this modest plan - not including, however, a
statement of the source whence the names of his fellow directors
might be drawn - was formulated and presented, the Marques
,
toyed with it in a manner that provoked Colonel Withersby to
violent profanity in private, and that seemed more than likely to
end by driving him mad. One day he would manifest every dis-
position to fall in with the Colonel's proposals, and the very next
day he would treat the whole matter as though it had been at
that moment opened to him for the first time. That he continued
to accept the various entertainments, with their accompanying
refreshments, which the Colonel offered him, only made the situ-
ation the more trying. Having been begun, these hospitalities
could not well be abandoned. But it was entirely obvious to the
Colonel that they could not go on much longer unless he could
succeed in making some sort of a strike. As he put it, in the
mining phraseology that was habitual with him, the dumps were
cleaned up, there was nothing but wall in sight, and he had
either to open a
new prospect or go flat on his back on the
XIV-509


## p. 8130 (#330) ###########################################

8130
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
bed-rock. Truly, by this time the hole that he was in was a des-
perately deep one, and he was at the very bottom of it. With
all his vigor - and in the matter of cursing he had a great deal
of vigor - he cursed the hour in which the Marques de Valde-
flores had come out of Spain.
Being in this bitter mood, Colonel Withersby turned to Mon-
sieur Duvent and Mrs. Mortimer — whose disposition toward the
Marques he shrewdly inferred was quite as bitter as his own-
with a request for aid in realizing a little plan by which their
several sacrifices of cash upon the altar of a singularly barren
friendship certainly would be restored to them; and even might
be restored to them as much as fourfold.
In presenting his plan to his friends, Colonel Withersby's
supporting argument was statesmanlike. If the Marques were a
genuine Marques, he said, and as rich as he professed himself to
be, the loss of five hundred dollars, or even of five thousand dol.
lars, could make no possible difference to him. If on the other
hand he were a bogus Marques, and his wealth also a sham, no
harm could come from shearing him in so far as he could be
shorn, and thereafter turning him adrift to run away with the
flock of black lambs to which, as then would be demonstrated,
he properly belonged. Indeed, so far from harm coming of this
preliminary snipping, it would yield the valuable result of proving
beyond a peradventure the quality of the fleece; and so would
determine whether or not his, the Colonel's, time and talents
could be employed to advantage in endeavoring to effect the
more radical shearing that would remove every vestige of mer-
chantable wool. In brief, the Colonel's plan, the logical conclusion
from these premises, was that they should relieve the Marques of
a few of his Spanish dollars in the course of a quiet evening at
play.
Argument of this able sort, especially when addressed to per-
sons already more than disposed to fall in with its conclusions,
was convincing Mrs. Mortimer, it is true, - she was a cautious
person, who played slowly and prudently the interesting games
in which she was engaged, — did hesitate a little; but presently
said with an agreeable cordiality that the Colonel had done her
many good turns in the past, and that she gladly would do him
a good turn now by assisting to the best of her ability in mak-
ing his plan a working success. Probably there was a great
store of womanly tenderness and self-sacrifice in Mrs. Mortimer's


## p. 8131 (#331) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8131
nature. Indeed, the accumulation of these gentle qualities must
have been very considerable, for she rarely made any use of
them.
Monsieur Duvent did not hesitate at all. The chance of get-
ting a shot direct at the Marques delighted him. Unhampered
by the arbitrary and annoying regulations of a banking system
that he despised but could not defy, he felt a comfortable con-
viction that he could balance, even to the extent of tipping it
decidedly in the other direction, the account that stood so heav-
ily against him. He therefore willingly promised to provide the
five hundred dollars of visible capital that the occasion called
for; and even consented to divide with Mrs. Mortimer - in the
improbable event of failure to secure from the Marques at least
this trifling amount - the cost of the little supper that would pre-
cede the more serious entertainment in which their Spanish friend
would be requested to take part.
IV
-
BY THOSE privileged to enjoy them, as already has been inti-
mated, the coziness of Mrs. Mortimer's little suppers was justly
esteemed. Usually they were limited to herself and a single
guest; under no circumstances were they suffered to exceed the
sociable number of four. Mrs. Mortimer's tastes were not pre-
cisely simple; but she was of a shy, retiring nature, and she
detested a crowd.
On the present occasion it was pleasant to behold—had there
been anybody to behold it—the warm cordiality that was de-
veloped between these four agreeable people, as this charming
little supper moved smoothly along from the cocktails which
began it (cocktails before supper had the merit of novelty to the
Marques; he took to them most kindly) to the coffee that brought
it to an end. Mrs. Mortimer's fine social qualities enabled her
to make each one of her guests appear at his very best, and also
to appreciate at its full value his own appearance. She was well
acquainted with Colonel Withersby's best stories, and she skill-
fully led up to them; she understood Monsieur Duvent's profes-
sional disposition toward taciturnity, and covered it so admirably
as to give the impression that he was positively loquacious; when
the conversation showed the least tendency toward flagging, she
herself was as prompt to fill the impending pause with sparkling
anecdote as in its more lively periods she was ready still further


## p. 8132 (#332) ###########################################

8132
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
to stimulate it by sprightly repartee. Being conducted in the
French and Spanish tongues, - the Marques did not speak Eng.
lish,- the talk naturally followed the genius of these languages,
and was possibly a trifle freer than it would have been had
English been employed as the medium for the interchange of
thought. As the evening advanced, this liberal tendency became
somewhat more marked.
It was, however, in her demeanor toward the Marques that
Mrs. Mortimer's admirable qualities as a hostess most brilliantly
were displayed. Her gracious friendliness was manifested by a
hand frankly placed upon his shoulder as she bent over him to
offer coffee (her merry conceit being to serve this beverage her.
self); by exchanging glasses with him when she drank his health;
by her use of her prodigiously handsome brown eyes - and in a
hundred other artless and pretty ways. As to her cleverness in
creating conversational situations that enabled him to say bright
things, it really was astonishing. As has been stated, the dis-
position of the Marques at all times was friendly; under these
exceptionally agreeable circumstances he became positively effus-
ive. Yet, though his manner really was frankness itself, Mrs.
Mortimer's fine perception suggested to her mind the troubling
doubt that perhaps his effusiveness in some small part was
assumed. Possibly a similar thought was entertained by Monsieur
Duvent; but in the case of Monsieur Duvent, the fact must be
remembered that his professional experience had begotten in him
what might be termed an almost morbid suspicion of his kind.
Until the middle of the feast was passed, Colonel Withersby
also debated within himself whether or not the good feeling that
the Marques so liberally manifested was wholly genuine. After
that period — his own generous nature being then warmed and
stimulated by the very considerable quantities of the excellent
food and drink which had become a part of it — he dismissed all
such evil suspicions from his manly breast as being alike unworthy
of himself and his noble friend. The Marques, as he declared
heartily in his thought, was as straight as a string, and a jolly
good fellow all the way through. It was a peculiarity of Colonel
Withersby's temperament -a peculiarity that on more than one
occasion had betrayed his substantial interests — that his usually
keen and severe judgment of men and things was subject to
serious derangement by an access of what may be termed vinous
benevolence. Mrs. Mortimer and Monsieur Duvent, being among


## p. 8133 (#333) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8133
the most intimate of the Colonel's friends, were well acquainted
with this genial failing in his lofty character; and because of
their knowledge of it, they viewed with increasing alarm his evi-
dent intention to make the spirit of the occasion so largely a part
of himself. They were sustained however by the comforting
knowledge - bred of an extended acquaintance with his methods
- that even when the Colonel had associated an extraordinary
quantity of extraneous spirits with his own, he still could play a
phenomenally good game of cards.
Without thought of the anxiety that his cheerful conviviality
was occasioning his friends, the Colonel rattled away in his most
lively manner, and manifested toward the Marques a constantly
increasing cordiality. Indeed, by the time that they had reached
the coffee and cigars (Mrs. Mortimer was considerate enough to
permit the gentlemen to smoke) his disposition was to vow eternal
friendship with the Marques, and to seal his vow, in the Spanish
fashion, with a fraternal embrace. But in despite of this tend-
ency of his affectionate nature toward overflow, the confidence
of his friends in his sound judgment remaining unimpaired in
the midst of its alcoholic environment was not misplaced. His
heart, it is true, was mellowed almost to melting; but it also is
true that his head remained admirably cool. Sentiment with the
Colonel was one thing; business was another. His warm fraternal
feeling for the Marques did not for one moment interfere with
his fixed intention to work him, as he somewhat coarsely had
expressed it, for all that he was worth.
It was with this utilitarian purpose full in view that the
Colonel suggested — the pleasures of eating being ended but the
pleasures of drinking still continuing - that they should end their
agreeable evening with a quiet game of cards. Being gentlemen
of the world, the Marques and Monsieur Duvent readily fell in
with this proposal. Mrs. Mortimer, it is true, entered a gentle
remonstrance against so engrossing a form of amusement, on the
ground that it would check the flow of brilliant conversation, and
also, as she playfully added, would deprive her of the undivided
attention which was her due. The gentlemen however explained
that as the game would be played merely as a pastime, and for
insignificant stakes, it would not in the smallest degree interfere
with conversation; and they vowed and protested that under no
circumstances could they fail to pay their tribute of homage to
Mrs. Mortimer's charms. In view of this explanation, and of the


## p. 8134 (#334) ###########################################

8134
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
the game.
gallant declaration that accompanied it, the lady was pleased to
withdraw her objections, and even to consent to take part in
But she was a very stupid player, she said; and
she expressed much good-humored regret for whoever should be
unlucky enough to be her partner — she was so careless, she pro-
tested, and did make such perfectly horrid mistakes.
There was a trifling delay in beginning the game, due to Mrs.
Mortimer's professed inability to find the cards with which to play
it. She was perfectly sure, she said, that somewhere about her
apartment there was a little bundle containing half a dozen new
packs; they had been given to her quite recently by one of her
friends: where she had put them she could not remember at all.
Her memory was so outrageously bad, she added while continu-
ing her search, that her life was made a veritable burden to her.
Truly, Mrs. Mortimer's memory could not have been a very good
one, for the package had been presented to her - the amiable
anonymous friend to whom she owed it being, in point of fact,
Colonel Withersby — at a period no more remote than that very
afternoon; yet a good ten minutes passed before she could re-
member that she had placed it in a drawer of her escritoire' upon
receiving it from the Colonel's hands.
She laughed merrily over her own stupidity when at last the
missing package was found; and she laughed still more when,
having cut for partners, what she gayly referred to as the dread-
fully bad luck of the Marques made them allies against Colonel
Withersby and Monsieur Duvent. Their defeat, she declared, was
a foregone conclusion: it really was too bad! The
The Marques, for
his part, vowed that he was so indifferent a player that he would
be grateful to her for the mistakes which would keep his own
lapses in countenance; and politely added that defeat in her
company would give him a pleasure far superior to that con-
ferred by a victory in which she had no share. In the matter of
making handsome speeches the Marques de Valdeflores was not
easily to be outdone.
Yet in despite of Mrs. Mortimer's bad play, - concerning
which, politeness aside, there could be no question, and in
despite of the far from brilliant play of her partner, the game
for some little time went decidedly in their favor. This was in
part accounted for by the fact that the hands which they held
were phenomenally good, while the hands held by their adver-
saries were correspondingly bad. So marked was the run of luck


## p. 8135 (#335) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8135
in their favor — being most marked, indeed, when the deal lay
with Colonel Withersby or Monsieur Duvent — that the Colonel
swore in his bluff, hearty way, that the devil himself was in the
pack, and was manipulating it for the express purpose of punish-
ing him, the Colonel, for his sins; at which humorous sally there
was a general laugh.
However, at the end of an hour — by which time rather more
than half of the capital provided for the occasion by Monsieur
Duvent was arranged before Mrs. Mortimer in a gay little pile -
the Colonel said quite seriously that the luck of the pack certainly
was against him, and begged that it might be changed. There
was a smile, of course, at the Colonel's superstition; but the Mar-
ques promptly conceded the favor requested, and induced Mrs.
Mortimer also to grant it: which was not an easy matter, for she
declared that she needed all that good luck could do for her in
order to hold her own. The event really seemed to justify the
Colonel's superstitious fancy; for with the very first deal of the
new pack — he dealt it himself — the luck entirely changed. In
view of this fact, of the agreement that the stakes should be in-
creased so that the losers might have a better chance to recoup,
and of the marked increase in the number of Mrs. Mortimer's
mistakes, it will be perceived that there were several excellent
reasons why the handsome accumulation of gold in front of Mrs.
Mortimer should go even more quickly than it had come. But
oddly enough it did not go. The play of the Marques was made
in the same negligent manner that it had been made from the
start; but Monsieur Duvent observed — not without a touch of that
admiration which every professional, even though unwillingly,
concedes to professional skill — that its quality had entirely
changed. It was not brilliant, but it was cautious, firm, and
extraordinarily sure. When he dealt, his own hand was as strik-
ingly good as it was strikingly bad when the deal lay with the
Colonel or with Monsieur Duvent; Mrs. Mortimer's mistakes-
they were very numerous were handsomely covered, and even
sometimes were turned to advantage; his conduct of the game,
in short, was masterly - and the gay little pile in front of his
partner, so far from diminishing, steadily increased, Monsieur
Duvent shot an inquiring glance from under his bushy gray eye-
brows across the table at the Colonel. As understood by that
gentleman it meant, “Who have we got here, any way? The
Colonel's answering glance was intended to convey his strong
>>


## p. 8136 (#336) ###########################################

8136
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
a reserve
conviction that — to paraphrase euphemistically his thought the
cloven hoof of their adversary was invisible only because it was
covered with a neatly made patent-leather boot. At the end of
the second hour the entire capital provided by Monsieur Duvent
had changed hands.
At this stage of proceedings Monsieur Duvent and the Colonel,
taking advantage of an interruption in the game caused by the
serving of fresh coffee, held a short conference. Monsieur Du-
vent expressed decidedly the opinion that they had better stop.
The Marques, if he were a Marques, evidently knew more than
they did. The part of prudence wa
of prudence was to make the best of a
bad bargain and to drop him then and there. But the Colonel,
whose fighting spirit was thoroughly aroused, would not for a
moment consent to such ignominious surrender. He insisted that
Monsieur Duvent should provide another five hundred - merely
for a show, he said - and that the game should go on. By sheer
force of will — the Colonel was a most resolute person
- he suc.
ceeded in carrying his point. Sorely against his better judgment,
but still yielding, Monsieur Duvent produced from
fund in his private chamber the sum required; whereupon, the
coffee being finished, the game went on. But it went on
disastrously that at the end of another hour the fresh supply of
capital was exhausted, and Monsieur Duvent's thousand was ar-
ranged in front of Mrs. Mortimer in ten neat little piles. Grati-
fying though it was on abstract grounds to perceive his own
wisdom thus triumph over the Colonel's fatuous folly, there was
such substantial cause for annoyance in the situation that Mon-
sieur Duvent found no enjoyment in it. With a smile that lacked
a little in spontaneity, he suggested that they now had played
long enough.
In this temperate proposition, with excellent good-breeding,
the Marques at once concurred. But the Colonel — having con-
tinued as the night wore on to expand his spirits factitiously —
would not listen to it at all. He was for fighting as long as
any sort of a shot remained in the locker. He advanced this
view with emphasis; and suggested that in lieu of cash the
Marques should receive - should his very extraordinary luck con-
tinue-his, the Colonel's, written promises of payment, to be
redeemed on the ensuing day. Monsieur Duvent, of course,
could not reasonably object to going on when capital of this possi-
bly attenuated nature was employed; and the Marques accepted
SO
---


## p. 8137 (#337) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8137
the proposal with a polite alacrity that quite touched the Colonel's
heart.
On the promissory basis thus established, but with the luck
steadily against the Colonel and his partner, the game was
continued until four o'clock in the morning. When this hour
arrived, the Marques announced placidly that inasmuch as he
was habitually an early riser, it really was time for him to go to
bed. He had greatly enjoyed his evening, he said; it was one
of the most agreeable and amusing evenings, in fact, that he
had ever passed. In handsome terms he smilingly congratulated
Mrs. Mortimer upon the good luck that had attended her bad
play, and insisted that two-thirds of their joint winnings should
be hers. Nothing could be more liberal than this arrangement.
In pursuance of it he turned over to her the two thousand dol-
lars represented by Colonel Withersby's paper, and slipped the
thousand dollars in gold into his own pocket as his own mod-
est share. Then he shook hands heartily with the gentlemen;
gallantly kissed the tips of Mrs. Mortimer's white fingers; and
bidding the company a most cordial good-night, left the room.
As the door closed behind him there was a moment of silence,
and then the Colonel accurately expressed the sense of the meet-
ing in the terse observation, Well, I'll be -!
-»
V
IN THE early afternoon of the day that had begun for them
so disastrously, a little council of war was held by the vanquished
in Mrs. Mortimer's apartment. In a general way, the council
was swayed by a common motive; but its several members con-
templated this motive through the media of widely different
moods.
Mrs. Mortimer, sitting with her back to the carefully adjusted
light, apparently was none the worse for her late hours; and she
was by no means cast down by the defeat that she had witnessed
but in which she had not precisely shared, Her net loss, after
all, was only half the cost of the little supper; and she was not
by any means certain that this loss was absolute — rather was
she inclined to look upon it in the light of an investment. Mar-
ques or no Marques, the Spanish gentleman had commended
himself heartily to her good graces by his obviously masterful
qualities in the acquisition of property. Mrs. Mortimer had
seen too much of the world to be dazzled by a title: that which


## p. 8138 (#338) ###########################################

8138
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
inspired her respect and won her esteem was substantial wealth -
and her liberal spirit held her high above all petty and trivial
objections to the manner in which the wealth was acquired. That
it actually existed was quite enough for her. She was absolutely
indifferent, thrrefore, as to whether the Marques de Valdeflores
possessed large hereditary estates in Spain or large hereditary
skill in playing games of so-called chance. In either case the
result practically was the same: he was a man of substance, with
whom the most friendly relations eminently were to be desired.
She had observed also with pleasure that his caution was equal
to his skill. Although herself the sufferer by it, she had com-
mended him rather than blamed him for his intelligent division
of their joint winnings. On the face of it, this division had been
characterized by a magnificent generosity; but no one knew bet-
ter than she did that the generosity was more apparent than real.
Before retiring, she had used twelve hundred dollars' worth of
Colonel Withersby's paper in crimping her hair, and carelessly
had thrown the remainder of these valuable securities into her
waste-paper basket. Some disagreeable reflections, it is true, had
attended her prodigal use of the impotentiality of wealth that
the Marques had lavished upon her; but at the same time, she
had been unable to withhold her profound respect for the deli-
cate adroitness that his conduct of this transaction had displayed.
His method had nothing coarse about it. It was not bludgeon
work: it was the effective finesse of the rapier. Mrs. Mortimer
was not a bad hand, in a ladylike way, at rapier practice herself.
She felt that could she but ally herself with such a past master
of the art as the Marques had proved himself to be, her future
would be assured. She came to the council therefore in the
spirit of doves and olive branches, with every fibre of her tender
being prepared to thrill responsive to the soft phrase of peace.
Her proposition was, the Marques having proved himself to be a
good deal more than a match for them, that they should cease
to regard him as an enemy, and should frankly invite him to be
their associate and friend.
In opposition to these peaceful views of Mrs. Mortimer's,
Colonel Withersby — coming to the council with the vigor and in
the temper of a giant refreshed with cocktails — was all for war.
The Colonel's pride was wounded; his finer sensibilities were
hurt. The very qualities which Mrs. Mortimer most admired in
the Marques — his delicate method, his refined skill, his perfect


## p. 8139 (#339) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8139
savoir-faire — were precisely the qualities which the Colonel most
strongly resented. It was cruelly galling to his self-respect to
be conquered with weapons which he perceived were infinitely
superior to his own, and which he also perceived were hopelessly
beyond his power to use. In the course of his rather remarka-
bly variegated career, Colonel Withersby repeatedly had received
what he was wont to describe, in his richly figurative language,
as black eyes; but he always had had at least the poor satisfac-
tion of knowing how and why the darkening of his orbs of vision
had been achieved. In this case however he did not know how,
still less why, his adversary had triumphed over him. Certainly
Monsieur Duvent had made no mistakes; save in the matter of
unwisely prolonging the play, he himself had made no mistakes;
and Mrs. Mortimer, to do her justice, had made all the mistakes
expected of her, and even a few to spare. Rarely had three
intelligent persons contrived a more effective programme; rarely
had such a programme been more exactly carried out. Humanly
and logically its results should have been honorable victory
attended by substantial spoils. Yet its diabolical and illogical
result actually was humiliating disaster attended by substantial
loss. Being at the best of times but a heathen, it is not sur-
prising that under these trying circumstances Colonel Withersby
raged; nor that raging, he cast his voice for war.
Monsieur Duvent, whose temperament was conservative, re-
jected the Colonel's truculent suggestions and ranged himself
with Mrs. Mortimer on the side of a profitable peace. Their
Spanish friend, he declared, speaking out of the wealth of his
experience of the world, evidently was not a Marques: he was
one of themselves. It was generally conceded, he continued, that
dog ought not to eat dog (Monsieur Duvent expressed this con-
cept, of course, in its French equivalent, les loups ne se mangent
pas entre eux); and it was universally admitted that when a
feast of this unnatural sort took place, only the dog who did the
eating got any real good from it. They themselves, he pointed
out, - especially he himself, since his was the capital that the
Marques had absorbed, -- occupied the position of the other dog,
the eaten one. Obviously that position was as unprofitable as
it was humiliating. Consequently, he concluded, their rational
course in the premises was that which Mrs. Mortimer had indi-
cated: to seek an alliance with this most accomplished person-
which should be continued at least until they had mastered the


## p. 8140 (#340) ###########################################

8140
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
-
secrets of his superior skill. When they knew as much as he
did, said Monsieur Duvent, they could throw him over and have
done with him; just at present he knew a great deal more than
they, and it was largely to their interest to make him their
friend. There was no false pride about Monsieur Duvent. His
thirst for professional knowledge was inexhaustible, and he was
eager at all times to slake it at any source.
Colonel Withersby was not pleased to find himself in so con-
spicuous a minority; and he was open, not to say violent, in
expressing his displeasure.
His was a bold, aggressive nature,
and the cocktails wherewith he had refreshed himself had not
tended to take any of the fighting spirit out of him. Had he not
occupied the trying position of a dependent, — for without the
assistance of his friends he would lack sinews for his intended
war,- he would have been abusive. Under the existing circum-
stances he was argumentative. The Spaniard, he admitted, cer-
tainly knew a great deal about cards; in that line of gentlemanly
amusement, no doubt, it would be well to avoid any further trial
of conclusions with him. But when it came to dice the case was
different. In throwing dice, the Colonel declared with a sincere
immodesty, he had yet to meet the man who could get ahead of
him. Let him but have a square chance to settle matters on that
basis with the Marques, and all would yet be well. The others,
if they did not want to, need not appear in the matter at all. If
they would but set him up with a beggarly hundred — merely
enough to make a show with — he would ask no more of them.
Being thus started, he would go ahead and win the victory alone.
And finally, with the most convincing self-imprecations if he
didn't, the Colonel protested that he would divide on the square.
Monsieur Duvent stroked doubtfully his respectable gray mus.
tache. On the one hand he had great confidence in the Colonel's
skill in the manipulation of dice. On the other hand his estimate
of the skill of the Marques in all directions was very high. It
was altogether probable, he thought, that a man who evidently
had made so profound a study of the scientific possibilities of
pasteboard had pressed his researches not less deeply into the
scientific possibilities of ivory. If he had, then would the Colo-
nel be but as wax in his hands. Therefore Monsieur Duvent
hesitated; and with each moment of his hesitation his disposition
tended the more strongly to take the ground that he declined to
throw good money after bad.


## p. 8141 (#341) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8141
Fortunately for Colonel Withersby, the tender nature of Mrs.
Mortimer had not been appealed to in vain. As she herself had
said, the Colonel had done her many good turns in the past; and
she saw no reason for doubting that he might do her many more
good turns in the future — which latter consideration may have
been remotely the cause of the flood of kindly intention that now
welled up within her gentle breast. She was a pronounced free-
trader, and her knowledge of the world assured her that recip-
rocity could not always be only on one side. Had the Colonel
asked her to join him openly in carrying on his campaign against
the Marques, she certainly would have refused his request. That
would have been asking too much. But the Colonel's proposal to
fight his battle alone — and to divide the spoils in case he should
be victorious put the matter on a basis that enabled her to
give free play to the generous dictates of her heart. She there.
fore added her entreaties to his appeal to Monsieur Duvent for
assistance; and even went so far as to offer to join equally with
that gentleman in providing the small amount of capital without
which the little venture in ivory could not be launched.
Whether or not this liberal offer would have sufficed to over-
come Monsieur Duvent's parsimonious hesitancy, never will be
known. At the very moment that he opened his mouth to speak
the words which no doubt would have been decisive, there was a
knock at the door; then a servant entered bearing a great bunch
of magnificent roses -- all of which, however, being very full-
blown, were somewhat past their prime. An envelope directed to
Mrs. Mortimer was attached to this handsome yet slightly equivo-
cal floral tribute. Within the envelope was the card of the Mar-
ques de Valdeflores, on which was penciled the request that she
would accept the accompanying trifling souvenir of the very
agreeable evening that he had passed in her company and in the
company of her friends. In the right-hand bottom corner of the
card were added the letters P. P. C. In many ways Mrs. Mor-
timer was not a perfect woman; but among her imperfections
was not that of stupidity. As she looked at this bunch of too-
full-blown roses, and realized the message that it was intended
delicately to convey, the dove-like and olive-branching sentiments
departed from her breast — and in their place came sentiments
compounded of daggers and bowstrings and very poisonous bowls!
As for Colonel Withersby, having but glanced at the fateful
letters on the card that Mrs. Mortimer mutely handed hiin, he


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8142
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
descended to the office of the Casa Napoléon in little more than
a single bound. little more than two bounds he returned to
the first floor. Consternation was written upon his expressive
face, and also rage. In a sentence that was nothing short of
blistering in its intensity, he announced the ruinous fact that the
Marques de Valdeflores had sailed at six o'clock that morning on
the French steamer, and at that moment must be at least two
hundred miles out at sea!
VI
Dr. THÉOPHILE had but little to say when Madame told him
with triumphal sorrow that the Marques de Valdeflores had paid
his bill in full and had departed for his native Spain. Madame's
mixture of sentiments was natural. Her triumph was because
her estimate of the financial integrity of the Marques had been
justified by the event; her sorrow was because so profitable a
patron was gone from the Casa Napoléon. The few words which
Dr. Théophile spoke, in his softened French of Guadeloupe, were
to the effect that a man was not necessarily a Marques because
he happened to pay his bill at a hotel. Madame resented this
answer hotly. It was more, she said, than ungenerous: it was
heartlessly unjust. She challenged Dr. Théophile to disprove by
any evidence save his own miserable suspicions that the Marques
was not a Marques; she defied him to do his worst! Dr. Théo-
phile said mildly that he really could not afford the time requi-
site for abstract research of this nature, and added that he had no
worst to do. Madame declared that his reply was inconclusive;
an obvious endeavor to evade the question that he himself had
raised. Dr. Théophile smiled pleasantly, and answered that as
usual, she was quite right.
Had Madame only known it, she might have called Colonel
Withersby as a witness in her behalf; for the Colonel, had he
been willing to testify, could have made her triumph over Dr.
Théophile complete. Being curious to get down to what he
termed the hard-pan in regard to the Marques, he had made an
expedition of inquiry to the Spanish consulate on the very day
that that nobleman had sailed away.
"Certainly,” said the polite young man who answered his
pointed question: "the Marques de Valdeflores had been in New
York for nearly a month. His visit had been one of business:
to arrange with a firm of American contractors for the building


## p. 8143 (#343) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8143
of a tramway in the city of Tarazona. He had completed his
business satisfactorily. "
The Colonel's usual ruddy face whitened a little as he listened
to this statement. The tramway project really, then, had been a
substantial one after all! This was bitter indeed. But perhaps
it was not true; the young man might be only chaffing him. His
voice was hoarse, and there was a perceptible break in it as he
said, “Honest Injun, now - you're giving it to me straight ? ”
The young man looked puzzled. He was by no means famil-
iar with the intricacies of the English language, and his mental
translation of these words into literal Spanish did not yield a
very intelligible result.
Perceiving the confusion that was caused by his use of a too
extreme form of his own vernacular, the Colonel repeated his
question in substance in the Spanish tongue: Of a truth he is a
Marques, and rich ? There is no mistake ? »
The young man perceptibly brightened. “Oh, of a truth
there is no mistake, señor,” he answered. "He is a Marques,
and enormously rich. To see him you would not think so, per-
haps; for his habits are very simple, and he is as modest in his
manner as in his dress. You see he has given much of his time
to business matters; and he has traveled a great deal. ”
Colonel Withersby witlıdrew from the consulate. His desire
for information was more than satisfied: it was satiated. In the
relative privacy of the passageway outside the consulate door, his
pent-up feelings found vent.
“Traveled, has he ? » ejaculated the colonel, with a series
of accessory ejaculations of such force that the air immediately
around him became perceptibly blue. «Traveled! Well, I should
say he had!
I've traveled a little myself, but I'll be ” — the
Colonel here dropped into minor prophecy - "if he hasn't gone
two miles to my one every time! ”
LOVE LANE
From In Old New York. Copyright 1894, by Harper & Brothers
A.
S All the world knows — barring, of course, that small portion
of the world which is not familiar with old New York -
the Kissing Bridge of a century ago was on the line of
the Boston Post Road (almost precisely at the intersection of the


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8144
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
Third Avenue and Seventy-seventh Street of the present day),
about four miles out of town. And all the world, without any
exception whatever, must know that after crossing a kissing-bridge
the ridiculously short distance of four miles is no distance at all.
Fortunately for the lovers of that period, it was possible to go
roundabout from the Kissing Bridge to New York by a route
which very agreeably prolonged the oscupontine situation: that is
to say, by the Abingdon Road, close on the line of the present
Twenty-first Street, to the Fitzroy Road, nearly parallel from
Fifteenth Street to Forty-second Street with the present Eighth
Avenue; thence down to the Great Kiln Road, on the line of the
present Gansevoort Street; thence to the Greenwich Road, on the
line of the present Greenwich Street- and so, along the river-
side, comfortably slowly back to town.
It is a theory of my own that the Abingdon Road received
a more romantic name because it was the first section of this
devious departure from the straight path, leading townward into
the broad way which certainly led quite around Robin Hood's
barn, and may also have led to destruction, but which bloomed
with the potentiality of a great many extra kisses wherewith the
Kissing Bridge (save as a point of departure) had nothing in the
world to do. I do not insist upon my theory; but I state as an
undeniable fact that in the latter half of the last century the
Abingdon Road was known generally -- and I infer from contem-
porary allusions to it, favorably —as Love Lane.
To avoid confusion, and also to show how necessary were such
amatory appurtenances to the gentle-natured inhabitants of this
island in earlier times, I must here state that the primitive Kiss-
ing Bridge was in that section of the Post Road which now is
Chatham Street; and that in this same vicinity - on the Rutgers
estate - was the primitive Love Lane. It was of the older insti.
tution that an astute and observant traveler in this country, the
Rev. Mr. Burnaby, wrote in his journal a century and a half
ago:— “Just before you enter the town there is a little bridge,
commonly called the kissing-bridge,' where it is customary,
before passing beyond, to salute the lady who is your companion;'
to which custom the reverend gentleman seems to have taken
with a very tolerable relish, and to have found “curious, yet not
displeasing. ”


## p. 8145 (#345) ###########################################

8145
JAPANESE LITERATURE
BY CLAY MACCAULEY
IVILIZATION in Japan bears date from a time much more recent
than that generally ascribed to it. The uncritical writers
who first made Japan known to Western peoples accepted
the historical traditions treasured by the Japanese as a record of fact.
In the popular imaginings of the West, consequently, Japan is a land
in which for at least twenty-five centuries an organized society, under
a monarchy of unbroken descent, possessed of a relatively high though
unique culture in the sciences and arts, has had place and develop-
ment. But during the last twenty years, competent students have
discovered that Japanese civilization is comparatively modern. They
cannot carry its authentic history much farther back than about half-
way over the course that has been usually allowed for it. No reliance
can be placed upon any date or report in Japanese tradition prior to
near the opening of the fifth Christian century. Undoubtedly there
was, as in all other lands, some basis for long-established tradition;
but the glimpses of Japan and its people obtained through the Chi-
nese and Korean annals of the early Christian centuries disclose the
inhabitants of these islands, not with an organized State and society,
peaceful, prosperous, and learned, but as segregated into clans or
tribes practically barbarous and wholly illiterate; the clan occupying
the peninsula east of the present cities of Kyoto and Osaka having
then become leader and prospective sovereign. Certainly before the
.
third Christian century was well advanced there was no knowledge
whatever of letters in Japan; and certainly too, for a long time after
the art of writing had been brought into the country there was
popular use or knowledge of the art.
no
1. - HISTORICAL SKETCH
The knowledge of letters was in all probability introduced into
Japan by Korean immigrants. Their language and writing were
Chinese. In the fourth century there may have been among the
Japanese some learners of this new knowledge. The Japanese claim
positively that in the fifth century their national traditions, hitherto
transmitted orally, were written down by adepts in the new art.
But whatever may be true of the earlier centuries, it is perfectly
XIV-510


## p. 8146 (#346) ###########################################

8146
JAPANESE LITERATURE
clear that in the first half of the sixth century many scholars came
to these islands from the continent, and were given positions of trust
in the administration of the doininant government in Yamato; and
that from the year 552 A. D. , with the acceptance of Buddhism by
those highest in authority, and the full inflow of Chinese influence
upon society, literature in Japan began to have permanent place and
power.
But literature in Japan and Japanese literature are two quite dif-
ferent things. They are as unlike as the Latin writings of mediæval
Germany and the German writings of later times. Japanese literature
does not date from the notable acquisition by the Japanese of a
knowledge of letters. Not with that, nor for a long time afterwards,
was any serious attempt made among them to express in writing the
language of the people. In all probability this was not done until
towards the end of the seventh century. The higher officials of State
and of the Church — the new Buddhism — had a monopoly of learn-
ing; and their writings prior to the eighth century were, so far as is
known, wholly Chinese in word and in form. But as the eighth cen.
tury opened, a medium for the production of a Japanese literature
was receiving shape. A kind of script devised from Chinese ideo-
graphs for the purpose of expressing Japanese speech was coming
into use: that is, Chinese characters were being written for the sake
of their phonetic values; their sounds, not their meanings, reprodu-
cing Japanese words and sentences. In this so-called manyokana the
first material embodied was in all probability that for which verba-
tim transliteration was necessary, such as ancient prayers and songs.
With this phonetic writing a literature distinctively Japanese was
made possible, and had its beginnings.
The earliest Japanese literary product now existing is a marvelous
summary of treasured tradition, called the Kojiki' or 'Record of
Old Things' (see page 8155), written by imperial command in the
year 712. The Kojiki' is a professed history of creation, of the
Divine genesis of the imperial family of Japan, and of the career of
this “people of the gods” down into the early part of the century
preceding its composition. To the student of Japanese literature the
(Kojiki' is especially valuable, because in it are preserved the old-
est known products of the purely literary impulses of the Japanese.
Long before the Japanese could write, they could sing; and there is
good reason to accept the songs given in the Kojiki' as heritages
from the much farther past.
Within nine years after the appearance of the “Kojiki, another
compilation of national tradition was made, bringing the story of the
nation down to the close of the seventh century. This work (year 720)
is called Nihongi' or Japanese Records) (see page 8156). But it
)


## p. 8147 (#347) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8147
is almost wholly Chinese in language and in construction. Its special
value, considered as part of Japanese literature, lies in its preserva-
tion of some old Japanese verse.
The chief depository, however, of Japanese literature in its begin-
nings is the treasury of poems (completed about 760) gathered dur-
ing the Nara Era,— the Manyoshū or Collection of Myriad Leaves
(see pages 8157 to 8161). In these books the choicest utterances in
Japanese verse then existing were garnered. They remain now an in-
valuable memorial of the intellectual awakening that followed Japan's
first historic intercourse with Korea and China.
But the manyokana, as a means for Japanese literary expression,
was altogether too cumbersome and difficult for continued and en-
larged use. Consequently, as writing in the language of the people
increased, the ideographs that had been utilized for phonetic purposes
became simpler and more conventional. At about the time the
(Manyoshūwas finished, from among these ideographs two syllaba-
ries, the katakana (757), and the hiragana (834), were formed, and a
free writing of the Japanese language at last became possible. These
syllabaries were gradually extended in use, and at the close of the
ninth century gained honored recognition as the medium for embody-
ing Japanese speech by their adoption in the writing of the preface
to, and in the transcription of, a new collection of poems made under
imperial order,- the Kokinshū? or Ancient and Modern Songs
(905: see pages 8161, 8162). These poems show at its full fruition
whatever poetic excellence the Japanese people have gained. They
are to-day the most studied and most quoted of all the many gather-
ings from Japanese song.
Japanese literature, having received a vehicle adequate to its ex-
pression, and indorsement by the highest authority, with the opening
of the ninth century entered upon an era lasting for nearly four hun-
dred years; an era in which, with the co-operation of the general
maturing culture of the empire, it passed through what is now known
as its Classic Age. During these four centuries the capital of the
empire lost the nomadic character it had had from time immemorial.
With the removal of the imperial family from Nara in 794, the capital
became fixed in Kyoto, to stay there for the next eleven hundred
years. Through these four centuries the national development was
for the most part serene. The ruling classes entered upon a career
of high culture, refinement, and elegance of life, that passed however
in the end into an excess of luxury, debilitating effeminacy, and dis-
sipation. During the best part of these memorable centuries Japanese
literature as belles-lettres culminated; leaving to after times, even to
the present day, models for pure Japanese diction. The court nobles
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries had abundant leisure for the


## p. 8148 (#348) ###########################################

8148
JAPANESE LITERATURE
(C
culture of letters, and they devoted their time to that, and to the
pursuit of whatever other refined or luxurious pleasures imagination
could devise. For instance, among the many notable intellectual dis-
sipations of the age were reunions at daybreak among the spring
flowers, and boat rides during autumnal moonlighted nights, by aris-
tocratic devotees of music and verse who vied with one another in
exhibits of their skill with these arts. The culture of literature in
the Chinese language never wholly ceased; but from the ninth to the
thirteenth centuries the creation of a literature in the language of
the people was the chief pastime of the official and aristocratic Jap-
anese. Before the rise the Shogunate at the close of the twelfth
century, no less than seven great compilations of the poetry of the
times were made.
Especially notable among the works of this classic age are the
prose writings. Critics call attention first to the diary of a famous
poet, Tsurayuki: notes of a journey he made in 935. from Tosa
where he was governor, to Kyoto the capital. This diary, the “Tosa
Nikki' (see page 8164) is said to be not only a simple and charming
story of travel, but to be the best extant embodiment of uncontam-
inated Japanese speech. Then there remain from the same epoch
many romances” or “tales," monogatari, now much studied and val-
ued for their linguistic excellences. Probably the earliest among
them, the “Taketori Monogatari? or (Story of a Bamboo Cutter' (850–
950: see pages 8165, 8166), which tells of the fortunes of a Moon
maiden exiled for a while in this world, is said to have, for purity of
thought and language, no rival in Japanese or Chinese fiction. The
Ise Monogatari' or Story of Ise (850-950) has also admiring critics.
Its prose and poetry are both studied as models to-day, its poetry
being ranked next to that of the Kokinshū. The (Sumiyoshi' and
the Yamato Monogatari,' too (900-1000: see pages 8162 to 8164) must
be named as choice tenth-century classics. The culmination of Japan-
ese classic prose, however, as nearly all critics agree, was reached
with the writing of the Romance of Prince Genji' and the Book
of the Pillow': the 'Genji Monogatari (1003-4), and the Makura no
Soshi' (1000–1050), both appearing early in the eleventh century (see
pages 8166 to 8170). They are the work of two ladies of the court,
Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon. The (Genji' romance leads
all works in Japanese literature in the fluency and grace of its dic-
tion; but the Pillow Book) is said to be matchless in the ease and
lightness and general artistic excellence of its literary touch. These
works stand as the consummate achievements of the classic age in
prose. They mark also the end of this memorable literary epoch.
At the close of the twelfth century Japan became a battle-field for
civil wars. War and the interests of war became supreme. Learning


## p. 8149 (#349) ###########################################

JAPANESE LITERATURE
8149
and letters were gradually relegated to priests, and literature soon
ceased to exist. The Chinese language again became the chief vehi-
cle of whatever literary work was done.
From the twelfth century to the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate
in the seventeenth century, the empire passed through its Middle or
“Dark Age. During these five centuries, although numerous writ-
ings for political and religious (see page 8178) purposes appeared,
but little work of importance for the history of Japanese literature
was produced. Some collections of verse may be excepted from this
judgment. Two bits of prose writing, the Hōjōki(1212 ? ) of Chomei
(see pages 8170, 8171), and the “Tsure-zure gusa' (1345 ? ) of Yoshida
Kenko' (see pages 8171, 8172), have qualities that make them espe-
cially noteworthy. The “Höjõki,'— the meditations of a hermit priest
in a mountain hut, written near the beginning of the thirteenth
century, — simple, fluent, vivacious, and yet forcible in style, - are
esteemed as preserving for the language an excellence like that of
the Makura no Sōshi. And the Tsure zure gusa' or Weeds of
Idleness,' short essays composed in the fourteenth century, is the last
notable example of the form and speech that gave to the classic
age its commanding position in the development of pure Japanese
literature. The Weeds of Idleness, moreover, has the distinction
of opening the way for the literary speech that came into full devel-
opment in the seventeenth century, and has since been the language
of the literature of Japan. In these essays, Chinese words were set
into Japanese forms of speech without doing violence to Japanese
modes of expression. The "Tsure-zure gusa' has thereby the double
merit of embodying the highest literary excellence of a past age, and
the beginnings of a new linguistic development.
Further, the mediæval centuries are of importance to the literature
of Japan from the development in them of a form of musical drama
called the No no Utai (see pages 8173, 8174); originating in the an-
cient sacred dances and temple amusements cared for by the priests,
- the only men of letters of the time. These lyric plays are dateless
and anonymous, but they have considerable literary worth. Accom-
panying the severer sacred drama and serving as interludes for them,
many comedies, kyōgen, written in the ordinary colloquial of the day,
were produced. These comic writings possess small literary but much
linguistic value.
The next noteworthy event in Japan's literary history was the re-
vival, under the early Tokugawa Shõguns, of the study of the ancient
imperial records, and of the writings of the classic age.
The great
first Tokugawa Shogun, leyasu, at the beginning of the seventeenth
century subjected and quieted the warring clans of the country.
age of peace, to last for the next two hundred and fifty years, was


## p. 8150 (#350) ###########################################

8150
JAPANESE LITERATURE
a
then entered upon.