The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 24, 1903, Page 2

THE SUNDAY CALL. ~ s the fourth and last in- ment of “THE GENTLE- MAN FROM INDIANA.” If - ave been following this s week to week you may get ole novel complete by pro- the SUNDAY CALL of May and 24, inclusive. It is ab- ely impossible to secure Booth kington’s masterpiece in any or more attractive form. for the matter of that, one of e big ad ages of The Sunday Csll’s literary policy of not only fur- s readers with the best ¢s of the day, by the most fa- s authers in the world, but of each novel complete in most, four editions, are mno interminable waits between installments. It is an ffer never before equaled in Western ne with that up-to-date ary policy here is an announce- of exceptional importance and activeness. On NEXT SUNDAY E SUNDAY CALL will present eaders with the first installment f Emerson Hough's great American THE MISSISSIPPI BUB- To those who know good yve need be said. succession will fol- ow that thrilling new American v The Master of Appleby,” by s Lynn: “Chrittenden,” b¥ “The Turnpike House,” e, etc., etc. e to Harkless " ght ommenting f their mee rer name again em skele se of strong = such a matter. There ng the Fisbee's shame had not to suppress is story: the wraith pursued him from days of drink and de- m w Harkless had saved him w e first in his life. Meredith wondere m as did Harkless where he jourralistic d his extrem ere came August when Mere e hosp Roue t drugs and swathings were and his sole task was to gather The ti face was sallow was the cc of evening sha the cushions seeming gaunt shadow of t king and gra olled alomg abusing ometimes gratefully threat violence stone house with ospitable air of importunate rank; over the peacocks swung, ambulating avels in a green sea; and one ex- fine lady to come smiling and from the door. Oddly enough had never seen the place be ick Harkless wit a sense of Who lives there?” he asked Xt es there? On the left? Why is the Sherwood place,” Mere- swered, in a tone which sonunded a= if he were mot quite sure of it, but d think- his infoymation correct ' es lapsed into silence Me h’s home was a few block . the same street; a capa e « Western fash enties. In front, on the lawn, there was at n with a leaping play of water; rubbery were everywhere end there stood a stiff sentinel of Lombardy poplar. It was all cool and ncor e and comfortable: and, on the I3 shcitered from publicity by a mul- it ms and flowering plants. a business (a palpable fiction) he thought 1 look in o see ) be sent down to ¢ made him see nothing 1 done to des: ss whistled lux- ot—openly, hate explained of difference people thought he was. His host helped him upstairs after din- s he selected es wandered ten- ing with wea Meredith went himself out eep chair, and smoke and think of what's Tom laughed we expected shouldn’t they 'T You JEE, CAN'T YoU remember well?. sometimes.” ss on the tray and we're unsuc- on me that is worth s always our 11 reach the same all right o far as character goes, 1 fancy, the chances Pickle Haines: who'd have dreamed Pickle would shoot himself over e gain the whole wis- And neither of us is lack- bankruptey? has to find out about I'm rather give a to- of Pickle's i's difficult ? There was no answer. was directly in front and upon the carved wooden shelf, among tobacco jars and little curious, favors and the like, there were scattered a pumber of photographs. was that of to bring out the dogs; mmer at home just to of the mantelpiece, I'm spendin; give them daily One of these who looked you from a filagree frame; corner of fhe room have stood without her clear, serious eves seeming to rest upon yours. “Cherchez la - femme?” unconsciously. good fellow, eye for a girl stopped short, and photograph late, he unhappily remembered that had' meant, and forgotten, to take photograph out of n Meredith's was hardly repeated Tom, “Pickle was he had the deuce of an ou remember- saw the man and the looking at aved to look there never was =o poor and he theught A peg as himself whereon to hang the warm mantle of such He knew that other mantles hung on that had been moved by rs and visits from Carlow people, and he had heard the story of their de- cent upon the hospital and of the march Many a good fellow, too, had come to see him during his bet- ter days—from Judge Briscoe a friendship. and kindliness peg. for he room before the Cross-Roads was not the sort presehitment, of girl, even in a flat to he continually the face of a man who had lost her. Antl it always went hard, Tom reflected. with men who strétched vain hands But there was openly ten- embarrassed stertainment seemed rather diverting in d, who fiddled at absent-minded way (they had the air of explained that was in town to lose her thought, ‘whose outstretched hands might not prove so vain. Why couldn’t she have cared for John Harkless? Deuce take the girl. Did she want to marry an Emperor? He looked at Harkless, and pitied him with an almost tearful com- passion. A feverish color dwelt in the convalescent’s cheek; the apathy that had dulled his eyes was there no longe: instead, they burned with a steady fire. The image returned his unwavering gaze with inscrutable kindness “You heard that Pickle shot himself, didn’t you?’ Meredith asked. There was no answer; John did not hear him “Do you know that poor Jerry Haines killed himself last March?’ Tom said sharply. . There wae only silence in the room Meredith got up and rattled some tongs in the empty fireplace. but the other did not move or notice him in any way Meredith set the tongs down, and went quietly out of the room, leaving his friend to that mysterfous interview. When be came back, after a remorseful cigarette In the yard, Harkless was still sitting, motionless, looking up at the pro- tograph above the mantelpiece They drove abroad every day, at first in the victoria, and, as Harkless’ strength began to come back, in a knock-about cart of Tom's, a lght trail of blue smoke floating back wherever the two friends passed. And though the country editor grew stronger in the pleasant, open city. Meredith felt that his apathy and listless- s anly deepened, and he suspected that, Harkless’ own room, where the pho- graph reigned, the languor departed for the time, making way for a destructive fire. Judge Briscoe, paying a second visit to Rouen, told Tom, in an aside, that their friend did not seem to be the same man. s altered and aged beyond belief, the olg gentleman whispered sadly. Meredith decided that his guest needed enlivening—something to take him out of himself; he must be stirred up to rub against people once more. And therefore, one night he made a little company for him; two or three apparently betrothed very young couples/ for whom it was rathet dull. after they bad looked their fill of Harkless (it appeared that every one was curious to see him): and three or four married couples, for whom the en- n remembering that they had forgotten the with pipe and dog, the undergraduate, or a trio of ¥ then would pas beflanneled figure heme for vacation, knickerbockers, or a band of young girls or both trio and band together; and from came the calls and laughter of romping children and the pulsating whirr of a lawn mower. sound Harkless remarked as a ceaseless accompaniment to life in Rouen; even in ght there was always and three or four bachelors, seemed contented in any place where they were aliowed to smoke; and one widower, whose manner sion whatever was gay enough for and four or five young women, who (Mer- host’s age, and had been “left over” out of the set he grew up with; and for these the modest party took on a hilarious and It is these girls that because they they're the the one widower remarked, ““They've been at it a long they know how, gnd light-hearted as robins. than people who have the middle of the some unfortunate cutting When the daylight was all the stars had crept out, strolling negroes patrolled the sidewalks, thrumming man- dolins and guitars, and others came and singing, making the The untrained, ing eerily In their = sometimes away. But there swung out a chorus from chipper character. didn’t see any good confldentially. night Vene- have more yous voices, chord- responsibili- All of these lively demoliselles fluttered about Harkless with commiserative pleas- and, in spite of his protestations, made him recline in the biggest and deep- est chair on the porch, where they sur- feited him with kindness and grouped about him with extra cushions and ten- derness for a man who had been injured No one mentioned the fact that he had been hurt; it was not spoken of, though they wished mightily he would tell them the story they had read luridly in the pub- They were very good to him. One of them, in particular, a handsome, dark, kind-eved girl, at once his cicerone in Rouen gossip and his waiting-maid. She sat by him, and saw that his needs (and his not-needs, too) were supplied and over-supplied: she could not let him move, and anticipated his last wish *though he was now amply help himself: and she fanned him as if he were a dying consumptive. They sat on Meredith's big porch in the late twilight and ate a substantial refec- tion, and when this was finished a buzz of nonsense rose from the remote corners ones had defensively themselves behind a’ rampart of They, having eaten, had naught to do, waiting a decent hour for Laughing voices passed the street, and mingled Meredith's fountain, and, beyond the shrubberies and fence, one caught glimpses of the.light of women moving to and fro, and of people sitting bareheaded on neighpor- ing lawns to enjoy the twilight. fresh, Aryan throats, of Meredit! the house south , wide world group about Hark- Arer't you feceling a fossil, Father Abra- A banjo chattered north, and soon a mixed chorus of girls and boys sang from there: o I'm waiting, waiting alone constituted herself Then a piano across the street sounded the dearthful harmonles of Chopin's fu- neral. march, take your choi flicking a spark over the rail all quarters, the youthful “Chopin, my had attache: tapped Tom's shoulder =aid the lady and were only departure. swered. - gratefu d I am the ho might be a pause have. a wide selection what is provided at present, I predict that within, the girl who lives us with the rangement, minutes a two doors south will Pilgrims’ Chorus, the middle, while home?" e r 1dies A does she away 1 leave him o s od a Through all there penetrated fr a sawish, scraped, vibration of ca pathetic, insistent g pa. fiil beyond be “He is in a terrible way t e widower. Miss Hinsd The violini e n Swift,” she explained to H. doesn’t agres with him. He used.to be such a pleasar is very much in love, and boy, b st winter he went quite mad over Helen rwood, Mr. Meredith's cousin, our beau ou know—I am so u'd be int sorry she isn't here; in meeting her, I'm sure—and he took up the violin.” “It is sald that his ¢ y took up chloroform at the same time,” sald the widower. “His music is a barometer,” cont! 1 the ‘lady, “and Dby it ‘the neighborhood nightly observes whether M erwood has been nice to him or not It is always exceedingly plaintive™ explained another. “Except once,” rejoined Miss Hinsdale. “He played jigs when she came home from somewhers or other, in June.” “It was Tosti's ‘Let Me Die,” the very next e ing,” remarked the widowe: “Ah,” sald one of the bachelors, * his joy was sadder for us than his mis ery. Hear him now.” “I think he mea it for ‘What's this dul] town to me, ™ observed another, with som “I would willing et make the town sufficiently exc for him— e % ere wers not an ordinance agaln the hurling of missiles,” finished t widower. he plano exec ceased to exec sistent and overpower! jo and the coster songs werd g even the colle and the neighbor to ‘the dauntless fiddle protest, for spoken chorus fr e collegé songs hs yod wa t Ya A Wetherford - back The “We all know ea Mr. Har Miss_Hinsdale, sn nignantly. “They 4 t othe M \ he™ Swift,” sald the widower Not : Do you hear him?—'Could me back to- m Douglas’? 'Oh, but it n't absence tha s 2 him and his ends ng women. ““It'is Brainard M hx s a mista dith, ‘as ea : 8 Jim's double qu will hear themy But ‘the Iaft§ wio had mentioned B ard Macat ried “in try to change the threatens to Be everywhere n ¥ try club pa noon; they was at the her last wee a take!’ I'm atrald looks rather bieak ior Wetherford speaker, tric, unless they understood that t will an the fall.” Miss § ndly expla ard Macauley toten Morning Jou \guished young ma ,.and per to less that Br with in » o was ea a tremen cess,” and su 80 tar; “one of delicate- n who et strong you know won't the lightning 'hurt you. really looked as if ~Helén Sherwood (whom Harkl really ought to meet) had actually been caug last, those tolld where: less ‘youths had lain sake. . He m the most inferesting m her little portrait of Harkless agree’ that pretty dull for M lovers? Mr. Harkless smiled it did Indeed passion for description of t was luminous. - Sh a man w suffering > Cappers nto your Despita 7 prattle ra Brainard Macauley for his wild with these p wheo, if they f h, had » . Harkles At ittered scar ing, though guests would astieally -the ournalist’s topies:’ bu the light v ly and thaus to brilliant a courtesy . wually tha man who 2 time af He wi n bed, and iith entered. *1 t me settle your ke I used to be, lavghed f I'm fear sas bil