No More Learning

Mrs. Myrtle Vane, who
was connected with the press, perceived at least a society item in


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8120
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
-
the situation; possibly, should the Marques prove to be in any
way a scandalous personage, a half-column article for the Sun.
day edition. Mrs. Mortimer — who presumably was a person of
substance, for she occupied a handsome apartment on the first
floor, yet she toiled not, neither did she spin- listened to Marie's
account of the arrival of the Marques with an expression of
much interest. Thereafter she descended to dinner clad in rai.
ment of price that far outshone in splendor the modest beauty
of the lilies of the field -a species of vegetation with which, in
point of fact, Mrs. Mortimer had but little in common.
Dr. Théophile (French creole, expatriated from the island
of Guadeloupe) alone refused to accept the Marques at his face
value. «Pooh! ” said Dr. Théophile rudely, when Don Anasta-
sio called him into the office that evening and showed him the
magnificent name upon the register. "Pooh! He is not a real
“
Marques. That is moonshine. A nobleman of that calibre, Don
Anastasio, does not come to the Casa Napoléon. Now and then,
I grant you, you have here a rich planter from the Islands or
from the Spanish Main; and now and then a revolutionist who
has been lucky enough — as you were - to get away with some
of the revolutionary swag. But a genuine Marques, and from
Old Spain, and rich ? Oh no, Don Anastasio: that is only a
dream! If he is a Marques he certainly is without money; if he
has money he certainly is not a Marques — and the chances are
that he has neither title nor cash. I saw something in the Epoca
last week about a monté dealer who had to leave Barcelona in a
hurry. No doubt your Marques is that very man. ”
However, Dr. Théophile was a natural-born remonstrant. It
was he who assailed Don Anastasio's claim to martyrdom in the
royalist cause. The Doctor's contention was that Don Anastasio
would have lived a most miserable life, ending in an early and
uncomfortable death, had not good fortune wafted him hurriedly
out of Mexico and safely deposited him in New York; where
his days were long in the land, and very pleasant to him in the
comfortable haven in the Casa Napoléon that he had secured by
his judicious marriage with Madame. Don Anastasio, who could
afford to be heroic under the circumstances, denied Dr. Théo-
phile's points absolutely, and clung to the belief in his martyrdom
with an affectionate fervor - that did not in the least interfere,
however, with his contentedly wearing shabby raiment and soiled
linen, and faring sumptuously every day. Indeed, the excellent


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THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8121
food that Madame gave him to eat, and the sound Bordeaux that
she gave him to drink, would have gone a long way toward
squaring accounts with a martyr whose martyrdom had been of
a much more vigorous sort.
After this denial of the validity of the Marques there was
something of a coolness between Dr. Théophile and Don Anas-
tasio, that endured until too much of Madame's rich food, and
too much of that especial old Bordeaux, brought on one of Don
Anastasio's bilious attacks, and so compelled him to resort to Dr.
Théophile for physicking. Madame, who was short and round,
and of a most quick and resolute temperament, did not suffer
her resentment of the aspersions upon the genuineness of the
Marques to take the form of a mere coolness: it took the form
of a very positive warmth. In her native clipped and softened
French of Toulouse, she rated Dr. Théophile most roundly for
venturing to call in question the honor of the nobleman within
her gates — who, in a most nobleman-like manner, was running
up a bill at the rate of from five to seven dollars a day. To
this rating Dr. Théophile, in his much more clipped and still
softer French of Guadeloupe, replied temperately that he would
not then discuss the matter further; but that he would have
much pleasure in resuming it at a later period, when time in its
fullness should have tested their conflicting opinions in the cru-
cible of practical results. He was wise in his generation, was
this Dr. Théophile. His warrings were not with womenkind.
With a man, he said, he was ready at all times to do battle with
tongue or pistol or sword. But with a woman — no! A woman,
he declared, was an inconclusive animal. You might grind her
between irrefutable arguments until you had reduced her to
figurative fragments, and at the end of this somewhat shocking
process she simply would reiterate her original proposition with
a calmly superior smile. Yet the women liked Dr. Théophile.
There was current an old-time rumor that the cause of his leav-
ing Guadeloupe was a dismal blight that had fallen upon his
heart. A man whose past has in it a bit of sad romance like
that is an object of tender solicitude to every right-natured
woman; and he easily finds forgiveness on the part of such gentle
judges for saying evil things about the sex that has done him so
cruel a wrong.


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8122
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
II
»
MEANWHILE, the Marques de Valdeflores — blissfully ignorant
of the doubts cast by Dr. Théophile upon his wealth and his
patent of nobility, and ignorant also of the very amiable designs
formed by the resident population of the Casa Napoléon for as-
sisting in the distribution of that wealth, and for rendering that
nobility commercially valuable — continued in apparent content-
ment to occupy Madame's best apartment, to eat largely of the
admirable food which she caused daily to be prepared for him,
and to drink most liberally of her excellent wines.
He was a very affable personage, was the Marques. «You
might think that he wasn't a nobleman at all! ” was Madame's
admiring comment when telling of the frank and entirely un-
affected way in which he had borrowed a dollar of Telésforo, the
Cuban negro, to pay his cab fare.
“You might know that he was not,” was the cynical comment
of Dr. Théophile, to whom this gracious fact was told.
Fortunately for the credit for hospitality of the Casa Napo-
léon, Dr. Théophile was the only one of the several dwellers
in or frequenters of that establishment who manifested the least
disposition toward standing the Marques off. The others, to do
them justice, more than atoned for Dr. Théophile's coldness by
their effusive friendliness. With a frank cordiality charming to
contemplate, they severally and collectively did their very best
to make him feel that, so far from being a stranger in a strange
land, he was very much at home among genuine friends. As
tending still further to emphasize this international comity, it was
even more delightful to observe the gracious friendliness with
which these friendly advances were met and reciprocated. Hav-
ing lived long enough in the world - he was a personable man,
in the prime of his mature manhood — to know how rarely the
perfect flower of friendship blooms, and possessing moreover
the open-hearted temperament of the South, it was only natural,
though on that account none the less pleasing, that the Marques
should do his part to show his grateful appreciation of the hos-
pitable kindness that was showered upon him. That he did his
.
part was admitted by everybody but the remonstrant Dr. Thé-
ophile, who declared morosely that he overdid it.
Mrs. Myrtle Vane, who sat beside him at the ordinary, suc-
ceeded in getting a good column article out of him on the very


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THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8123
.
-
first evening of their acquaintance. The Marques told her some
very racy stories about Spanish court life; and she worked them
up-her knowledge of Spanish, a language universally current
in the Casa Napoléon, enabling her to throw in a word here and
there that gave them local color — in a fashion that made them
still racier. As special correspondence under a Madrid date,
they were a decided hit in the Sunday edition. The editor vol-
untarily gave her six dollars and a half the thousand words, and
told her to go ahead and get some more. It was as good stuff
as he ever had come across, he said. certainly was admira-
bly scandalous. Mrs. Vane perceived that she had opened a gold
mine,- for the story-telling powers of the Marques appeared to
be inexhaustible, — and she worked it with a will. Feeling
under a real obligation to the nobleman who so considerably
was increasing her weekly income,- she was a kind-hearted soul,
not nearly so sophisticated as her very highly spiced illiterary
productions would have led one to suppose, - she was glad to
have an opportunity to show her appreciation of his kindness by
inviting him to accompany her, on a press order, to an evening
at the play. In the spirit in which it was offered, the Marques
accepted this polite invitation. It struck him that there was
something slightly pathetic about it. After the performance he
treated Mrs. Vane — at a certain restaurant well known for its
shady reputation and for the brilliant achievements of its chef -
to the very best supper that she had eaten in the whole course
of her life.
"He's a perfect high-toned gentleman,” Mrs. Vane declared
when recounting to Mrs. Mortimer rapturously - for little sup-
pers came rarely in her life — this extraordinary and delightful
-
experience. « He ordered all the highest priced things on the
bill of fare, and he set up the wine as if it was water; and he
never offered to do more than just nicely squeeze my hand. I
don't care what spiteful things Dr. Théophile says about him:
after that I know that he's a perfect high-toned gentleman all
the way through!
Inasmuch as Mrs. Mortimer, according to the repeated asser-
tion of Colonel Withersby, was a high-toned lady herself, it is
reasonable to suppose that she found pleasure in listening to
this handsome eulogy; and it is creditable to her generous im-
pulses to suppose, also, that when a few days later she invited
the Marques to a little supper in her own apartment, she was


## p. 8124 (#324) ###########################################

8124
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
actuated by an amiable desire to repay his kindness to her friend
in kind.
Mrs. Mortimer was a delightful hostess, and her little suppers
were renowned. To be sure, those who partook of them were
apt to find that in the long run they came rather high; but this
trifling drawback upon a pure enjoyment of her hospitality was
immaterial, inasmuch as, with a characteristic thoughtfulness, she
uniformly selected her guests from that moneyed class which is
superior in matters of amusement to considerations of expense.
On this particular occasion, it is needless to say that the
Marques enjoyed his supper with Mrs. Mortimer. That Mrs.
Mortimer enjoyed her supper with the Marques is a matter less
absolutely assured. When he bade her good-night, bowing over
her hand very gracefully, and with a gallant and high-bred
courtesy kissing the tips of her white fingers, it is undeniable
that he left her in a decidedly bewildered state of mind. All
that Mrs. Vane had told of his dignified reserve she perceived
was true. Her acquaintance with the higher nobility was ex-
tremely limited. If this were a fair specimen of that class, she
was fain to admit that its members were anything but easy to
understand. Her one coherent concept in the premises was the
unpleasant conviction that her little supper had not been an
unqualified success.
Nor did Monsieur Duvent, as the result of his lavish expend-
iture of friendship upon the Marques, receive any very adequate
return. Having traveled a great deal professionally in Spain, he
began his friendly advances by intelligent encomiums of that
country. The Marques met his complimentary comments by the
polite declaration that praise of his native land always was dear
to him, but that it was doubly dear when bestowed with accurate
discrimination by one who obviously knew it well; after which he
made several exceeding handsome speeches to Monsieur Duvent
in regard to France. Their talk running lightly upon the more
superficial characteristics of their respective countries, there was
nothing forced in Monsieur Duvent's remark that he had been
much struck — he did not add that his opportunities for being
struck in this fashion had been decidedly exceptional — by observ-
ing the passionate and universal devotion of the Spanish race to
gaming. In reply the Marques courteously denied that the taste
for gaming was universal among his countrymen, but at the
same time admitted frankly that it was very general; he even


## p. 8125 (#325) ###########################################

THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8125
added smilingly that he shared in it himself. To permit one's
self to be carried away by this passion, he observed with an
admirable morality, was a most serious mistake; but within due
bounds, he continued with a morality less severe, he knew of no
amusement more interesting than judiciously conducted games
of mingled chance and skill, played for heavy yet not excessive
stakes.
Naturally this discourse was very exactly to Monsieur Du-
vent's mind; and still more to his mind was the prompt accept-
ance by the Marques of the obliging offer to afford him an
opportunity for gratifying his taste for gaming in New York.
As for the moral reflections that had accompanied the avowal
by the Marques of his amiable weakness, Monsieur Duvent
attached but little importance to them. In the course of his very
extensive experience in these matters he frequently had heard
expressed sentiments of this temperate sort; and as frequently
had seen them scattered, in time of trial, like smoke before the
wind.
What very much surprised Monsieur Duvent, therefore,–
when in due course the Marques was introduced into the quiet
and intensely respectable gambling establishment in South Fifth
Avenue, — was to observe that the temperateness of his new
friend in deeds was precisely in keeping with his temperateness
in words. The Marques played with a handsome liberality, but
also with a most phenomenal coolness. He followed his luck
boldly yet prudently; he dropped his bad luck instantly; and his
experienced wisdom was manifested by the obvious fact that he
adhered to no "system,” and recognized in the game no principle
save that of the purest chance. At the end of an hour or so,
when he nodded pleasantly to Monsieur Duvent and withdrew,
the bank was much the worse for his visit. Monsieur Duvent,
whose income was largely in the nature of commissions, was
decidedly dissatisfied. In this case the commission had gone the
wrong way. The unpleasant fact must be added that in the
course of the subsequent visits paid by the Marques to the quiet
banking establishment,- fortunately he did not come often, - his
aggravating good fortune remained practically unchanged. Being
only human, Monsieur Duvent suffered his friendship for the
Spanish nobleman appreciably to cool.
(


## p. 8126 (#326) ###########################################

8126
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
III
(
COLONEL WITHERSBY's acquaintance with the Marques opened
under circumstances so auspicious as to inspire in the breast of
that eminent promoter the most sanguine hopes. At that par-
ticular juncture the Colonel, as he himself expressed it, was
“in a blanked bad hole. ” He had made the fatal mistake, in the
hope of larger winnings, of standing by the Nicaragua tramway
enterprise until it was too late for him to get out before the
smash. As the result of his unwise greed he had lost — not
what he had put into the tramway company, for he had not put
anything into it, but what he had expected to take out of it.
Further,- and this was where the pinch came,- his reputation
as a promoter had been most seriously injured. Owing to cir-
cumstances over which he had had entire control, the Colonel's
reputation - either as a promoter or as anything else - was of
a sort that no longer could be trifled with. There was very little
of it left, and that little was bad. But until this unlucky twist
in Nicaragua, his shrewdness in invariably getting out before
the smash, and his handsome conduct in uniformly giving the
straight tip to his fellow occupants of the ground floor, always
had enabled him to smile at disasters in which only the inno-
cent suffered; and presently, with a fresh supply of innocents,
to make a fresh and not less profitable start.
In the Nicaragua affair, no unpleasant reflections were cast
upon the Colonel's honesty by his immediate friends; had any
one suggested that he possessed a sufficient amount of honesty to
catch even a very small reflection, they doubtless would have
smiled: but they frankly and profanely admitted that their con-
fidence in his sagacity was destroyed. In their coarse but hearty
manner they declared that they would be blanked before they
would chip in with such a blank fool again. When the most in-
timate friends of a promoter use language of this sort about him,
it is evident that his sphere of usefulness in promotion must be
materially contracted. In the case of Colonel Withersby it was
contracted about to the vanishing point. In his prompt military
way (he had served, with a constantly increasing credit to himself,
as a sutler in the late war) he perceived how shattered were his
frontiers, and how gloomy was the outlook toward their rectifica-
tion; and therefore it was that he described himself as being


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THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
8127
“in a blanked bad hole. ” His profane emphasis was borne out
by the facts.
Naturally the coming of the Marques de Valdeflores at this
critical juncture was regarded by the Colonel as nothing less than
providential. Not only was the acquaintance of a rich nobleman
desirable on general principles, — since such a personage might
reasonably be expected to subscribe liberally to any stock, and to
give strength to any company by permitting the use of his name
on the board of direction, — but the Colonel saw much that was
comforting in the opening possibility of shifting his promoting
interests from Spanish America to Old Spain. In the colonies he
was forced to contend against the adverse influence of his own
widely diffused reputation as a far too skillful financier - a reputa-
tion that most seriously militated against his promoting anything
whatever. In the parent country, as both hope and modesty
advised him, there was a fair chance that he might carry on
business quietly, unhampered by his own renown.
Taking this cheerful view of what a friendship with the Mar-
ques was likely to do for him, he spoke only the literal truth
when he told that nobleman that he would have much pleasure
in showing him the town. As the event proved, the Marques
was not desirous of seeing the town within the full meaning of
the Colonel's words; but he repeatedly did accept invitations to
the theatre, and also accepted cheerfully the refreshments of a
vinous nature offered to him by the Colonel, with an excellent
hospitality, in the intervals and at the ends of the several per-
formances which they witnessed together. That on these and on
all other possible occasions he should have his attention pointedly
directed to the subject of tramways was a foregone conclusion,
for tramways were the very essence of the Colonel's life. What
was more surprising, and to the Colonel eminently pleasing, was
the fact that he manifested in regard to tramways an intelligent
interest. He mentioned, by way of explaining his possession of
so unusually large a fund of accurate information upon this sub-
ject, that he owned some shares in a tramway company recently
organized in Madrid. The enterprise had turned out very well,
he said; so well, indeed, that he greatly regretted that when the
shares first were put upon the market he had not taken a larger
block. This was a sentiment that the Colonel never had heard
advanced by a single one of the numerous purchasers of shares
which he himself had floated. It surprised and delighted him.


## p. 8128 (#328) ###########################################

8128
THOMAS ALLIBONE JANVIER
Here indeed was a field the working of which promised well.
And so vigorously did Colonel Withersby proceed to work it, that
within a week he and the Marques were discussing energetically
the details of a plan for building an urban tramway - eventually
to have suburban extensions — in the city of Tarazona. That the
Colonel never before had so much as heard the name of this city
- it was selected because the most considerable of the estates of
the Marques lay near to it — did not in the least interfere with
his going into the enterprise heart and soul. The name was a
good one for a prospectus. That was quite enough for him. He
sat down quickly at a writing-table and wrote a prospectus, –
his skill was prodigious in this line of composition,-in which he
proved conclusively that the Compañia Limitada de Ferrocarriles
de la Ciudad de Tarazona y sus Alrededores was the most prom-
ising financial enterprise in which the investing public ever had
been permitted to purchase the few remaining shares.
But pleased though the Colonel naturally was at having thus
struck what had every appearance of being a pay streak of phe-
nomenal thickness and width, he was not a little disheartened, as
time went on without materially advancing the Tarazona tramway
enterprise, by the conviction that the ore was of an eminently
refractory type. So far as projection was concerned, the Marques
was all that the most sanguine promoter could ask; but in the
matter of coming down to the hard-pan, to use the Colonel's
phrase, he left a good deal to be desired. Under other and more
favorable circumstances the Colonel's vigorous method would have
been to get his scheme into tangible shape by the organization
of a company, which he then would have asked the Marques to
join as chairman; and by the printing of some thousands of cer-
tificates of shares, a considerable portion of which he would have
« placed with his friends, and the remaining more considerable
portion of which he would have asked the Marques to purchase.
Then he would have strewn the prospectus broadcast throughout
the land. If it took, and there was a demand for the stock
well, then the Colonel and his friends would see that the de-
mand was supplied, even at the sacrifice of their own holdings.
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.