The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 7, 1906, Page 2

The Sunday Call has secaved the serial rights of Alfred Henny Lewis' great movel of modera politics, “The President,” and to-day gives {ts readers the sixth installment of what is omeeded to be the best and stromgest work of this bril- liamt, trenchant writer, already so well known as the author of “Wolfville Days” amd “The Boss.” “The President™ , will % appesr in weekly instaliments % in The Sunday Call until com- % 3 pleted. g B e e hundred million those Mr. Gwyn: Bayard. 3 the Cit tered amc emve the simila lor k and the balance scat- e other I ng when they the Harley San Reve continued el y, turning now east until after t minutes of ntered a narrow thor- ich the street lamp on came ve the mame of Grant houses were sober and re- the steps of one of the t Storri and the San Reve passed into what in the he house had been ring-room was occupied by a stirring Warmdollar, who served as head scrub woman habit of office-holding, which t WE upon certain mna- sres like a taste for opium, Mr. Warm- dollar urged his claims for some ap- pointive place. The Bepators from his felt compelled to moder- themselves, the result of efforts being that Mr. was tendered a position as the Congressional ceme- tery, said last resting-place of great- ness-gone-to-sleep being a wild, weird tract in & semi-farmerish region on the fringe of town. Mr. Warmdeéllar ob- jected to the place, and the gloomy kind of its dQuties; but since this was before Mrs. Warmdollar had begun to earn & selary as scrubwoman, he was driven to accept. *“Take it until something better turns up,” urged one of the Senators, who had grown tired of having Mr. Warm- dollar on his hands. It was a blustering night of rain when Mr. Warmdollar entered upon his initiel vigil as a guardian of the dead Wet, weery, disgusted, Mr. Warmdollar sought refuge in a coop of a sentry- box, which stood upon the crest of a nill through which the road that bounded one side of the burying ground, had been cut. The sentry-box was waterproof and/to that extent a com- fort, being designed for deluges of the sort then soaking Mr. Warmdollar. Had there heen nothing b ur, Mr. Warmdollar might until his watch was might have continued to perform duties #md drew the emoluments place indefinitely. But the winds r &nd they blew down Mr. Warmdo septry box. Toppling into the v rolled merrily down & steep und then down- lay upom its fromt, door downwurd, in the mud. Mr. Warmdollar could not get out. Belng discouraged by what e had undergone, he broke into y ind cries like a soul weltering in tor- 3 The yells and cries engaged the heat- ed admiration of a farmers dog that dweit hard and the dog descended upoen the sentry box and Mr. Warmdol- iar, attadking both with an impartiality which showed kEim no one to split hairs Then the farmer came to his door, ar- ayed in a shiri and a shotgun, and emptied both barrels of the latter at Mr. Warmdollar and his sentry box— the agriculturist not understanding the 1se, s sometimes happens to agricul- turists, notably in politics. Following his baptism of dog and fire, Mr. Warmdollar crawled back to town and worked ne more. Mrs. Warm dollar was, named scrubwoman, while her dishedrtened spolse devoted him- sclf to stromg drink, &s though to color one’s nose and befuddle one’s wits were reat purposes of existénce. Being of gain, Mrs.Warmdollar had sub- her parlor foor to the San since Mrs. Warmdollar was curiosity had had its ed no questions h might prove em- rented Reve; 3 a lady Warmdollar, worked in being a draughtswoni ury build- ing and attach aff of the ervising architect. The place had anted the San Reve at the re- Senator Hanway, who was eunte by Mr. Harley, to i explained the San Reve's skill in plates and plans and the pro- priety of work. 8 The San Reve's apartments were com- sith chairs, lounges and otto- piuno occupied one corner, w or three good pictures hung the walls, In the bow-window a window seat piled high withe ons, from which by daylight one might have surveyed the passing show —adull cnough in Grant place. “Have you no kiss for your Storri, my 1 Reve? cried Storri plaintively, but still sticking to the lightly con- fident Reve accepted Storri's gal- though thinking on than Kisses, Then she r hat and wraps ana rerself in the glas! » was a striking figure, the San with brick-colored hair and eyes n gray. Her skin showed her nose, mouth and chin, wvoman, told of a dangerous y aroused. The eyebrows, too, had a lowering falcon triek that touched the face with flerceness. The forehead gave proof of brains, and yet the San Reve was one more apt to act than think, lcularly if she felt herself aggrieved. i must pry into a matter so delicate, n Reve was 2§; standing straight r, with small hands and feet, she displayed that ripeness of outline which sculptors give their Phrynes. “Storri,” said the San Reve, with a ness that promised the dis- le while it lost no time, “why do t that house—the Harley house?” ri was in an easy chair, puffiing a r as though at home. The San Reve, lying, half sitting, reclined upon a They looked at each other; Storri to seem brave, the San Reve with staring courage, open and more real “You know, my San Reve, I have busi- ness with Mr. Harley. Let me tell you: ¢, through his relative, Senator > see the girl,” interrupted the . and the sullen contralto was of danger. “You go to see Miss not her father.” “And if I do?" Storro put his query blusteringly “You will marry her,” went on the San Reve,. who appeared to care as little for Storri's bluster as his kiss. “I never promised to marry you.” “I do not ask you to marry me. I want either your name mor your title. But »u promised me your love; I want that.” San Reve's tones were unruffled. did not 1ift or mount, and told only, > sionate resolution. “Storri, why did you bring me from Ottawa?” f it come to that,” retorted Storri spitefully, “why did you Jeave Ottawa?"” “I Jeft Ottawa for love,” the San Reve replied, as though considering with her- self. “I left Ottawa for love of you, just as four years before 1 came to Ottawa for love of another.” “You have had adventures,' remarked Storro sarcastically. “I have never heard your story, my San Reve; go on, I be- seech vou!” “T will tell you one thing,” said the San Reve, “from which you may wring a warning. My father was a showman—a tamer of lions and leopards. When I was 12 I went into the den with him to hold a hoop while he lashed those big cats through it. Yes, Storri,” cried San Reve, a sudden flame burst forth in her voice like an oral brightness, and as apparent as a fire in a forest, ‘“when to fear was to die, I have held aloft my little hoop to the lions and the leopards! And for all their snaris they jumped tamely; for all their threats they did nothing. I, as a child, was not afraid of a lion under the lash; am I now to fear a bear, a Russian bear, I, o am a woman? Why, my San Reve,” protested Storri, nd what has stirred your anger?” Storri was startled by the San Reve's fu rather than her revelations. Having a politic. mind to soothe her, he sought to take her hand. “Keep your attentions to yourself!” cried the San Reve: “I am in no temper for tenderness.” “Ah, as to that,” said Storri, turning proud, “I, who am a,Russian gentleman, yes, a Russian nobleman, shall not offend. Ye yawning and giving him- self an air, am relieved by your cold attitude. That is the folly of being noble! One cannot be attentive to those beneath one save at a loss of self-respect, Bah! my Czar, could he but see, would call his Sterri disgraced by the mere nearness of such as you.” “And you name your Czar to me!” re- turned the San Reve, now sneering calm, her cool contralto restored; ‘‘to me, French woman! And your nobility, too— that thing of Casplan mud! Storri, the BSan Reves were soldiers with Napoleon; your noble kind ran from them like bears. The San Reves stabled their horses in the audience chambers of your Czars.” The S8an Reve rippled off these periods in quiet, invincible scorn. Storri, beaten, frightened, began to whine. His bluster, his bombast, his nobility, his affected elevations, were allke broken down. He professed love; he said that he had wronged his S8an Reve. His San Reve was a goddess, a flower, a star! Would she make her Storri desolate?—her Storri who would die for love of her! The San Reve became sensibly com- posed; her falcon brow relaxed, her pirit took on & tranquil frame, her anger was cooled by the cooing contrition ot Storri. The Sam Reve permitted herself to be soothed. “Let us go nmo more in that direction,” waid the San Reve. “Such tauntings are but a childish barter of words.” The San Reve dellvered this sentiment in a serene, high way that brought her honor. Then she lighted a cigaretté and blew peaceful rings. Storri, encouraged in his soul by.the return of his San Reve to reason, solaced himself with a fresh cigar. The two smoked in silent truce. a “It was a love quarrel, my San Reve!" bLearing said Storrl. “Only a love quarrel!” assented San Reve. > 34 I AR Silence and smoke: with Storri timid, shrinking from fresh offense and further outbreak. Storri, fearing all who had no fear of Hhim, feared the San Reve. Nor were his vold of warrant: the San Reve was of that hot and blinded strain which loves and slays, “Your father dead,” sald Storri, pre- tending & perking interest, “your father dead, my San Reve, what then became of you?" “L fell Into the hands ‘of a doting old architect. of Paris. He was good to me; it was with him I learned my trade. No, 1 did not love him; but I was grateful, He died, and T came to Ottawa as a draughtswoman for the young engineer, Balue. I did not love Balue; he was tame. Ang then Ottawa, with those sod- den Canadians, their Scotch whisky, and narrow lives framed in with snow—how 1 loathed them! What a weariness of the heart they were, those frozen people! Then came you—Storri!"” The 8an Reve’s gray-green eyes burned with white fire. She got up from the couch where she had lain curled like a tawny lioness. “Yes; you eame!” purred the San Reve, and she stooped and kissed Storri with her fierce lips. - “Then for the first time I loved.” The San Reve recurled herself on the couch. Storri, Who had met her kiss valorously, considered whether he might not please her by solicitude in a new direction. fhere is one thing, my San Reve,” he observed, a show of feeling in his words. “Why do you tie yourself to that draughting? It grieves your Storri! Am I a pauper that my San Reve should work? Is Storri so miserly that the idol of his heart must be a slave?” The San Reve shook her head. I must have something to 'do,” she cxplained, a half-smile parting her rose- red lips. “I am Ifke those poor rats of which my father told me who must gnaw and gnaw and forever gnaw to wear away their teeth, which otherwise would grow and kill them. No, I like my work; let me alone with it Storri tossed his hapds and shrugged his shouldersin mute resignation and reproof. His San Reve would work; he consented, while he deprecated her so mad resolve. “Let us return to our said the San Reve. Storri quaked; he counld follow her trail of thought by menta! smell as the hound follows the fox. “Storri. tell me; do you love this Miss Harley "’ “My San Reve, Look In the mirror! Miss Harley.” ¥ The San Reve toyed with her cigarette. Storri, thinking on escape, arose to go. He stepped into the hallway for his coat and hat. Then he returned, and, giving his hand to the reclining S8an Reve, drew her to her feet. Storri, about to go, was beaming; the kiss he printed lightly on the San Reve's lips spoke of a heart relieved. The San Reve herself was amiably placld; her anger apparently had died with her doubts. ‘And you vo not love Miss Harley?’ “No; I swear by my mother’s grave! “By your mother's grave!” Then, voice deep as the mellow pipe. of an organ: “Storri, you lie!” Stgrri, aghast, was surprised into his usual defense of bluster. He startcd to bully; the San Reve raised her shapely hand. \ “Storri, let me showe you.” The San Reve took from the drawer of a cabinet a beautiful pistol. She partly ralsed the hammer and buzzed the libcrated cylinder. It gave forth clear, musica: clinks. “Do you see?’ sald the San Reve half wistfully. “I have this!” “You would not kill Miss Harley!” exclaimed Storri nervously. No! Storri, no!" “Whom then?’ and Storri moistened his dry lips. His S8an Reve was such a heathen! The thought parched him. “Whom would you kill, my San Reve?” This came off pleadingly. “Whom would I kill?” the San Reve repeated tenderly, stretching for a kiss. “I would kill you! No, not now, my Storri; but some time. My resolution is only born; It is not yet grown. Storrf, you must beware! I come of the race that kill! I have now only the tiny root of that blood resolution. Do not let us nourish it! We must de- stroy it—blight it with much love! I gpeak for you, for me!” The San Reve began to cry convulsively. *“I speak against a dark day! I feel, I know it! it is you, you whom I shall kill! And then myself—oh, yes, my Storri, you cannot go alone!” < ficst concern,” can you ask? I do not love how No, The San Reve threw herself weeping upon the couch; her gusty nature seemed torn by whirlwinds of passion and jealous love. Storri hung in the door, and the white of his cravat was not so white as his face.. He could neither go nor stay, meither speak no: go; craven to the heart, he quafled be- fore the stormy San Reve. An artist might have painted him as the Genius of Cowardice. s “Good night, my Storri” said the San Reve, her voice mournfully sweet. CHAPTER XIV. How They Talked Politics at Mr. G .. In accord with the requests of Mr. Gwynn, which with them had those graver aspects the requests of royalty possess for London shopkeepers, the president and general attorney of the Anaconda Alr Line came to Washing- ton, The Anaconda president was a short, corpulent man, with dark skin, eyes black as beads, round, alert face and a nose like the ace of clubs. The general attor- ney was no taller than his superior offi- cer, but differed from him in a figure so spare and starved that it snapped its fingers at description. As though to make amends for a niggardliness of the physical, Providence had conferred upon our legal one a prodigious head. A face- tious opponent once said that he had a seven and ajhalf hat and a six and e half belt, belng, as steamboat folk would put it, overengined for his beam. Both the president and the general attorney were devoted to their company, and nei- ther would have scrupled to'loot an or- phanage or burn a church had such dras- tic measure been demanded by Anaconda interests. » Once in town, these excellent officers lost no time in presenting themselves at Mr. Gwynn's. To their joy that unbend- ing personage was so good as to grant them a personal audience. ichard was present—such, as you have discovered, being the invariable usage with Mr. Gwynn. After the latter had shaken each visitor by the hand, a shake of mighty formality, he sat in state while Richard dld the talking. Mr. Gwynn was a spectacle of ity when posed in a chair. He hed * Limself on the edge of that plece of fur- niture, and for all the employment he gave its back it might as well have been a stool. Mr. Gwynn maintained himseif bolt upright, chlnupoltn“t:d l"’:nm, with a general rigidity ¥ that made preliminary interview, o hm-d?;? ‘3,' ‘unylelding ”:d. T W ‘effective, = ‘a kingly slonable ones such as the president and general attorney. When the four were S ek e e e bl . y e @ .7 Mr. Gwynn at Wlfllm-ifll It had been decided by Mr. Gwynn, so Richard laid bare, that the future of the Anaconda would be advanced by the nom- ination of Senator Hanway for the presi- > - - a L oad FROM ACRO33 THE 37PEET F_AGENTL cATl BEE dency. It would pleasure Mr. Gwynn were he to hear that the president and generaf attorney shared his confusion. If such were the flattering case, Mr. Gwynn would be delighted to have the president and general attorney call Senator Hanway, and consider what might be done toward the practical furtherance of his hopes. In short, the situation, word and argument, was precisely the same as when the visitors came on in the affair of Speaker Frost. Incidentaily, Mr. Gwynn was to give a dinner in honor of Senator Hanway. It was understood that certain of that statesman's friends would take advantage of the occasion to an- nounce his candidacy. The dent and general attorney were to be nvited to the dinner. Mr. Gwynn would esteem it an honor if they found it convenient to be present and lend countenance to the movement in Senator Hanway's favor. Throughout this setting forth, the presi- dent and general attorney advant- ‘age of pauses and periods to bow and ‘murmur agreement with Mr. 's opinfons and desires as Richard. ‘them off; the murmurs and nods were ‘as “Amens 3 " and must have been grat s o aonseer Stiovsiy . Dt ent_and, general ai % faction as the elevation of Sen- ator Hanway to the White House. They nof e @ Anaconda but the meflz.:’ril fi# .mmlru‘lmm@d- e of the world at large, would be subserved thereby. They would confer with Sen- ator Hanway as Mr. Gwynn suggested. much saf HAV TV WAITING FOF ;IIJ'M : wiriyde - AN \ A TR &\ ) N W N\ { i and géneral attorney, with Richard, at once sought Senator Hanway; since it ‘was no later than eleven in the morn- ing they caught that great statesman before he started for the Senate. He greeted them with dignified warmth, and, aided by Richard, who conversa- tionally went ahead to break the ice, the trio quickly came to an understand- ing. Senator Hanway talked with a free- dom that was of itseif a \compliment, when one remembers how it had ever been his common strategy in this busi- ness of President-catching to appear both ignorant and indifferent. Senator ‘Hanway explained that the thing just - then was the nomination. It would be ‘necessary to control the coming Na- tional Convention. Governor Obstinate was a formidable figure; he was popu- lar with the people; and, although Gov- ernor Obstinate was a man who would d ous if armed with those 7 own that they would push s “what In his opinion might be accom. plished by the president and general at- torney and the great railway system et for e Governor the mat perhaps in better taste—hers Senator Hanway smiled with becoming modesty— if others were permitted to do that If his good friends of the Anaconda who had come so far in his honor—a mark of regard which he, Senator Hanway, could never forget nor underestimate— gave him theit company to the Capitol, . he would be proud to make them ac- quainted with Senators Gruff and Loot and Toot and Drink and Dice and others of his friends, and those gentlemen would g0 more deeply into the affalr. The presi- dent and general attorney, he was sure, could so exert the Anaconda influence that the delegations from those States through which it ran might be selected and controlled. Senator Hanway and the president and general attorney departed in high good feellng to meet ‘with those statesmen named, while Richard sought’ Bess to _hear word of his made those who ment and, first filling them with meat and wine, make them stirring speeches to So hot were they that the president they controlled. It would be wiser, and bring them to the candidate’s support. + Y From the initial dinner adiate, and others ha until a whole population sidered fed and filled middle of the, street while the other half banked the curbs in screaming, kerchief- waving lines of admiration. ‘And thus has it ever been since that far-distant morn- Ing of Eternity whem Time with his scythe let down the bars and went upon after fo assemble. it would have a look of spontaneity that was of prime im- portance. No other could do this so well