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CHAPTER I.
clean boy llko this ono had not boon
eont to her In her youth. You see,
tho worldly-wlso womnn knows that
It is Invariably tho layflguro and not
Prince Charming that a woman mnr
rloB, and that matrimony Is blind
man's buft In grown-up".
Many of ub lay tho blanio upon our
parents. We shift tho burden of won
dering why wo have this fault and
lack that grnco to tho shoulders of
our Immcdlato forbears. We go to
the office each morning denying that
wo have any responsibility; wo lot
the boss do tho worrying. Hut George
never went prospecting In hlB bouI for
any such drosa philosophy. Ho waH
grateful for having had so beautiful
ii mother; proud of having had bo
honest a sire; and If either of them
had endued him with false weights he
did his best to even up tho balance.
Tho mother had been as romantic
What's In a Name?
To possess two distinctly alien red
corpuscles In one's blood, metaphor
ically It not In fact, two characters or
Individualities under ono epidermis,
Is, In moBt cases, a peculiar disadvan
tage. Ono hears of scoundrels and
saints striving to consume ono an
other In one body, nngels and har
pies; but ofttlmcs, quite tho contrary
to being a curse, these two warring
temperaments becomo a man's ulti
mate bleaslng: as In tho cas of
Qcorgo P. A. Jones, of Mortimer &
Jones, tho great metropolitan Oriental
nig and carpet company, all of which
has a dignified, sonorous sound.
Georgo was divided within himself.
This ho would not havo confessed
oven Into tho trusted If battered car
ot tho Egyptian Sphynx. There was, as any heroine out of Mrs. nadcllff s
ky TiAROLD MACGRATH
AvtKor of HEARTS AND .MASKS
Uw MAN ON THE BOX etc;.
Illvisfraiioix by M.G.Kettte5:f-
COPYRIGHT lgil by BOBBS - MERRILL COMPANY
however, no demon-angel sparring for
points In George's soul. Tho difficulty
might bo Bet forth In this manner:
On ono sldo Btood Inherent common
sonso; on tho other, a boundless, ro
oeato Imagination which was like
wise Inherent a kind of nulxoto Imag
ination of Biiltablo modern pattern.
This niter ego terrified him whenever
it raised Its strnngcly beautiful head
and shouldered aside his guardian
angol (for that'B what common sonao
(s, arguo to what end you will) and
pleaded In that lumlnouB rhetoric un
der tho spoil of which our old friend
Hancho often fell asleep.
P. A., ns they called him behind tho
counters, was but twonty-clght, and If
ho was vice-president In his Into fa
ther's shoes ho didn't wabble round
in them to any great extent. In a
crowd ho wns not noticeable; ho
didn't stand head and shoulders abovo
his fellow-men, nor would ho have
been mistaken by near-sighted per
sons, tho myopes, for tho Vntlcan's
Apollo In tho flesh. Ho was of me
dium height, beardless, slender, but
tough and wiry and enduring. You
may boo his prototype on tho streets
a dozen times a day, and you may
also pass him without turning round
for a second view. Young men like
P. A. must bo Intimately known to
ho admired; you did not throw your
arm across IiIb neck, flrst-off. His
lialr was brown and 'closely clipped
about a head that would havo gained
tho attention ot tho phrenologist, If
not that of tho cannnl pusser-by. His
bumps, In tho phruscology of that
nclonco, wero good ones. For tho rest,
novels, whllo tho father had owned
to as much romance as ono generally
finds In a thorough business man,
which Is practically nono at all. Tho
very name Itself 1b a bulwark agnlnst
tho Intrusions of romance. Ono can
not lift tho Imagination to the pros
pect of picturing a Jones In rufllcs
and hlghboots, pinking a varlot In the
midriff. It smells of sugar-barrels and
cotton-bales, of steamships and rail
roads, of stolid routlno In tho office
and of placid concern over tho daily
nows under tho evening lamp.
Mra. Jones, lovely, lettered yet not
worldly, had dreamed ot her boy,
bayed and decorated, marrying tho
moBt distinguished woman In all Eu
ropo, whoever she might be. Mr.
Jones had had no dreams at all, and
had put the boy to work In tho Bhlp
ping department a little whllo after
tho college threshold had been crossed,
outward bound. The mother, while
Bweet and gentlo, had a will, Iron un
der velvet, and when sho held out for
Porclval Algernon and a decent knowl
edge ot modern languages, tho old
man agreed If, on tho other hand,
the boy's first nnmo should bo Georgo
and that ho should learn tho business
from tho cellar up. There wero sev
eral tilts over tho matter, but at
length a truce wiib dclr-d. It wan
ugreed that tho boy himself ought( to
have a word to spy upon a subject
which eoncornd him more vitally
than any ono else. So, at tho ago of
fifteen, when ho wan starting off for
preparatory school, ho was advised
to choose for himself. Ilo wau an obe
dient son, adoring his mother and idol-
mMMuM I III r 1
I -' - HI II I ' I, I .
i Ink
sgSjlSaSglfejj JSB Kits' 11
He Haunted the Romantic Quarter of the Globe; He Was Romantic.
,,ho observed tho world through a pair
of kindly, Bhy, bluo eyoB.
Young girls, myopic through igno
Tanco or silliness, seeing nothing be
yond what tho oyoB see, seldom gave
ihlm a second inspection; for ho did
not know how to make himself nt
tractlvo, and vmB mortally afraid of
tho opposlto, or opposing box. Ho
could bullyrag a sheik out ot his cam
els' saddlo-bogs, but petticoats and
laco parasols and small Oxfords had
-tho sumo effect upon him that tho
prodding stick of n small boy has
upon a retiring turtlo. But many a
worldly-wlso woman, drawing out with
-tact nnd kindness tho truly beautiful
thoughts of this young man'B soul,
adly domanded of fato why a sweet,
lzlng his father. Ho wroto himself
down ob Georgo I'erclval Algernon
Jones, promised to bocomo a linguist
and to learn tho rug business from
tho collar up. On tho face of It, It
looked like a big Job; It ull depended
upon tho boy.
Tho first day at school his misery
began. Ho had signed himself ob
Georgo P. .A. Jones, no small diplo
macy fpr 4 lad; but tho, two Initials,
stnndlng up llko dismantled pines l:i
tho mldBt of uninteresting landecnpo,
roused tho curioBlty of his school
mates. Hoys are boys tho world over,
and possess a finesse In cruelty that
only Indians can match; nnd It did
not tnko them long to unoarth tho fa
tal secret. For throe years ho was
Percy Algy, nnd not only tho boys
laughed, but tho pretty girls snig
gered. Many a tlmo ho had returned
to his dormitory decorated (not In
a'ceord with tho fond hopes of his
mother) with a Bwollen ear, or a
ruddy proboscis, or n green-brown
eye. There was a limit, and when
they stopped over that, why, ho pro
ceeded to tho boat of his ability to
solve tho difficulty with his lists.
Georgo was no milksop; but Perclval
Algernon would havo been ,tho Old
Man of the Sea on broader shoulders
than his. He dimly realized thnt had
ho been named Georgo Henry William
Jones his sun would have been many
dlnmoters larger. There was a splen
did quality of pluck under his appar
ent timidity, and ho stuck doggedly
to It. He never wroto homo and com
plained. What was good enough for
IiIh mother was good enough for him.
It seemed Just nn ordinary matter
of routlno for him to pick up French
nnd Germnn verbs. He was far from
being brilliant, but ho was sensitive
nnd his memory wns sound. Since
hlB mother's nmbltlon was to Bee him
an accomplished linguist, ho applied
himself to tho task as If everything
In tho world depended upon It, Just
ns ho knew that when the tlma came
ho would npply himself as thoroughly
to tho question of rugs and carpets.
Under nil this filial loyalty ran the
pure strain of golden romance, side
by sldo wjth tho lesser metal of prac
ticality. When ho begnn to read tho
masters ho preferred their romances
to their novels. Ho oven wroto poetry
In secret, and when his mother discov
ered tho fact alio cried over tho senti
mental verses. The father llad to be
told. Ho laughed and declared that
tho boy would some day develop Into
a good writer of advertisements. This
quiet laughter, unburdened as It wns
with ridicule, was enough to set
George's muse a-wlnglng, and she
ncv?r came bn"k.
After leaving college ho was given
a modest letter of credit and told to
go whoro ho pleased for :i wholo yc,ar.
George started out at once In quest
of th"o Holy Grail, and there are more
roads to that than thoro nro to Rome.
Ono may be reasonably uro of get
ting Into Rome, whereas the Holy
Grail (diversified, variable, innumer
able) 1b always tho exact sum of a
bunch of hay hanging beforo old Dob
bin's nose. NovertiieleBB, Georgo gal
loped hlB fancies with loose rein. Ho
haunted romance, burrowed and
plowed for It; and never his spade
clanged musically against tho hidden
treasure, never n forlorn beauty in
distress, not so much aB chapter ono
of tho Golden Dook offered its daz
zling first page. Georgo lost some con
fidence. Two or threo times a woman looked
into the young man's mind, and In hla
gullelessnesB they effected sundry
holes In his letter of credit, but left
his soul Blngularly untouched. Tho
red corpuscle, his father's gift, though
It lay dormant, subconsciously erected
barriers. Ilo was Innocent, but ho waB
no fool. That ono yenr taught him
tho lesson, rather cheaply, too. If
there wns any romance In life, It enme
uninvited, and If courted and sought
was as quick on tho wing as that erst
while poesy must.
Tho year pnsBcd, and while ho hud
not wholly given up the queBt, tho
practical Georgo agreed with tho ro
mantic Pcrclvnl to shelve It Indefi
nitely. Ho returned to New York
with thirty-two pounds sterling out of
the original thousand, a fact that reju
venated hla paternal parent by somo
ten years.
"Jane, thnt boy Is all right. Porcl
val Algernon could not kill a boy llko
thnt."
"Do you mean to Infer that It over
could?" Sometimes a qunlm wrinkled
her conscience? Her mother's heart
told her that her son ought not to bo
shy and bashful, thnt It wns not in
tho nature of his blood to suspect
ridicule where there wns nono. Per
haps sho had handicapped him with
those names; but It won too late now
to admit of this, and useless, since
It would not havo remedied tho evil.
Jones hemmed nnd hawed for a
space. "No," ho answered; "but I
wiib afraid lie might try to llvo up
to It; nnd no Perclval Algernon who
lived up to It could put his nose down
to n Shah Abbas and tell how ninny
knotu It hud to tho square Inch. I'll
otnrt him In on the Job tomorrow."
Whereupon the mother sat bnck
dreamily. Now, where was tho girl
worthy of her boy? Monumental ques
tion, besotting every mother, from Evo
down, Eve, whoso trials In this direc
tion must havo been heartrending!
Georgo left tho ccllnr in duo tlmo,
and after that ho went up tho lnddor
In boundfi, on his own merit, mind
you, for hlB father novor stirred a
hand to boost him. He took tho in
terest In ruga hat turns a buyer Into
a collector; It became a fascinating
pleasure rather than a business. Ho
bocame Invnluablo to tho house, and
acquired somo fame as a Judgo und
an appraiser. When tho chief-buyer
retired Georgo was given tho position, J
with an Itinerary that carried him half
way round tho plnnet onco a year, to
Greece, Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and
India, tho lands of tho genii and tho
bottles, of arabesques, of temples and
tombs, of many-colored turbans nnd
flowing robes nnd distracting tongues.
Ho walked and alwayB in a kind of
mental enchantment.
Tho Biiave nnd elusive Oriental,
with IiIb sharp practices, found his
match in this pleasant young man,
who know tho history of tho very
wools nnd cottons and silks woven
In a rug or enrpet. So Georgo pros
pered, became known In strange
places, by strange peoples; nnd saw
romance, light of foot and eager of
eye, pass and repass; learned that
romance did not essentially mean fall
ing in love or reaculng maidens from
burning houses and wrecks; thnt, on
tho contrary, true -romance was kalei
doscopic, having more brilliant facets
than a diamond; and that tho man
who begins with nothing and ends
with something Is more wonderful
than any excursion recounted by Sin-
bad or any tale by Scheherazade. But
ho still hoped that tho iridescent god
dess would some day touch his shoul
der and lead him into that maze of
romanco so peculiar to his own fancy.
And then into this little world of
business and pleasure came, death
and death again, leaving him alone
and with a twisted heart. Riches
mattered little, and the sounding title
of Vice-president still less. It was
with a dlBtinct shock that ho realized
the mother and tho father had been
with him so long that he had forgot
ten to mako other friends. From
one thing to another ho turned in
hope to soothe the smart, to heal tho
wound; nnd nfter a Ime ho drifted,
as all shy, intelligent and Imaginative
men drift who are friendless, Into tho
silent and intimate comrado.-ihlp of In
animate things, such as jewels, Ivories,
old meials, rare woodo and ancient
embroideries, and perhaps more com
forting' than all these, good books.
The proper tale of how the afore
said Iridescent goddess jostled (for It
scarce may bo said that Bhe led) him
Into a romanco lacking neither com
edy nor tragedy, now begins with a
trifling bit of retrospection. One of
thoso women vho wero not good nnd
who looked into the clear pool of the
boy's mind saw Uie harmless longing
there, and made note, hoping to find
profit by her knowledge when tho per
tinent day arrived. She was a woman
so pleuslng, bo handsome, so adroit,
that many a man, older and wiser
than Georgo, found her mesh too
strong for him. Her plan matured,
suddenly and brilliantly, as projects
of men and women of her class and
caliber without variation do.
Lato ono December nfternoon (to
bo precise, 1909), George eat on the
tca-voranda of tho Hotel Semlramls
In Cairo. A book lay Idly upon his
knees. It was ono of thoso yarns
in which something was happening
every other minute, ab adventures
go, George hnd never had a real .one
In nil hla twenty-eight years, and ho
believed that fato had treated him
rather shabbily. Ho didn't quite ap
preciate her reserve. No matter how
late ho wandered through tho mysteri
ous bazaars, either here In Egypt or
over yonder In India, nothing ever be
fell more exciting than nn argument
with a carriage-driver. Ho never cur
ried small-arms, for ho would not
havo known how to use them. The
only deadly things in IiIb hands wero
bass-rods and Icnnls-rncquets. No,
nothing over happened to him; yet
ho never met a mnn In a ship's smoke-
room who nnun't run tno gamut 01
thrilling experiences. As Georgo
wasn't a liar himself, ho believed all
ho saw and most of what ho heard.
Well, hero ho was, elght-and-twonty,
a pocket full of money, n heart full
of llfo, and as hopeless nn outlook, so
far as romnnco anj) adventure were
concerned, ns an old maid In a New
England village.
"Georgo, you old fool, what'fl the
use?" ho thought. "What's tho use
of a dcslro that never goes In a
straight lino, but always round nnd
round In a circle?"
Ho thrust nBldo his grievance and
surrendered to tho never-ending won
der of tho Egyptian sunset; the Nile
feluccas, riding upon perfect reflec
tions; tho date-palms, black and mo
tionless against tho translucent blue
of tho sky; tho amethystine prisms of
tho Pyramids, and the deepening gold
of the desert's brim. Ho loved the
Orient, always bo new, always so
strange, yet ever so old and familiar.
A carriago stopped In front, and his
enzo nnturally shitted. There Is cease
less attraction In speculating ubout
new-comers In a hotel, what they are,
what they do, where thoy como from,
nnd where thoy are going. A ftno
oldorly man of fifty got out. In tho
Bquaro set of his shoulders, tho flow
ing white mustache and imperial,
there was a suggestion of militarism.
Ho waB immediately followed by n
young woman of twenty, certainly not
over that ago. Georgo sighed wist
fully. Ho envied thoso polo-players
and gentleman-riders nnd bridge-experts
who woro stopping at the hotel.
It wouldn't be an hour after dinner
beforo boiuo ono of them found out who
sho was and Bpoke to her In that easy
style which ho concluded must bo a
gift rather than an accomplishment.
You mustn't suppose for a minute that
George wasn't well-born and well-bred,
simply because his name was Jones.
Many a Fltz-IIugh Maurice or Hugh
Fltz-Maurlco might have been But,
no matter. Ho knew Instinctively,
then, what elegance was when ho saw
It, and this girl was elegant, In dresB,
In movement. He rather liked the
pallor of her Bkln, which hinted that
sho wnsn't ono of those athletic girls
who bounced In and out of the dining-room,
talking loudly and smoking
cigarettes and playing bridge for six
penny points. She was tall. He was
sure that her eyes wero on tho level
with his own. The grey veil that
drooped from the rim of her simple
Leghorn hat to the tip of her nose ob
scured her eyes, so ho could not know
that thoy wero largo and brown and
Indefinably sad. They spoke not of
a weariness of travel, but of a weari
ness of tho world, more precisely, of
the people who Inhabited It.
Sho and her companion passed on
Into tho hotel, nnd if George's eyes
veered again toward tho desert over
which the stealthy purples of night
wero creeping, the impulse was me
chanical; ho saw nothing. In truth,
ho was desperately lonesome, nnd he
knew, moreover, that ho had no busi
ness to bo. Ho was young; ho could
at a pinch tell a Joke ub well as the
next man; and If he had never had
what he called an adventure, ho had
seen many strange and wonderful
things and could describe them with
that mental afterglow which still lin
gers over the sunset of our first ex
pressions In poetry. But there was
always that hydra-headed monster, for
ever getting about his feet, numbing
his voice, paralyzing his hands, and
never ho lopped off a head that an
other did not Instantly grow In Its
a dog; but ono can not carry a dog
half way round tho world and back, at
least not with comfort. What with
all theflo new-'anglcd quarantine laws,
duties, and fussy ships' officers who
wouldn't let you keep tho animal In
your state-room, traveling with a four
footed friend was almost an Impossi
bility. To bo sure, womon with
poodles. . . . And then, there wna
the bitter of ncld In the knowledgo
that no ono e,ver came up to him and
slapped him on tho Bhouldcr with a
"Hel-lo, Goorglc, old sport; what's tho
good word?" for tho simple fact that
his shoulder was always bristling with
spikes, born of the fear that some ono
wns making fun of him.
Perchance his mother's spirit, hov
ering over him this evening, might
havo been inclined to tears. For they
do say that tho ghosts of tho dear
ones nro thus employed when wo are
near to committing somo folly, or to
exploring somo forgotten chamber of
Piuidora'a box, or worse still, when
that lady Intends emptying tho whole
contents down upon our unfortunato
heads. If so be, they wero futilo
tearB; Perclval Algernon hnd accom
plished its deadly purpose.
. Pandora? Well, then, for the bene
fit of tho children. Sho was a lady
who was an intimate friend of the
mythological gods. They liked her ap
pearance so well that they one day
gave her a box, casket, chest, or what
ever It was, to guard. By some mar
velous method, known only ot gods,
they had got together nil the trials
and tribulations of mankind (nnd somo
of the Joys) and locked them up In
this casket. It was tho Golden Age,
as you may surmise. You recall Evo
and tho apple? Well, Pandora was a
forecast of Eve; she couldn't keep her
eyes oft tho latch, and at length her
hands Fatal curiosity! Whirr! And
everything has been at Blxes and at
sevens "since that time. Pandora 1b
eternally recurring, now here, now
there; she la a blondo sometimes, and
again she is a brunette; and you may
take It from George and me that there
is always something left In the casket.
George closed tho book and consult
ed his sailing-list. In a short time ho
would leave for Port Gald, thence to
Naples, ChrlstnuiB there, and homo In
January Business hnd been ripping.
ill J$M
, i m
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Thl Girl
Elegant, In Drees, In Movement.
place". Even the sword of Perseus
could not havo saved him, since one
has to get away from an object In
order to cutt down.
Had ho really over tried to over
come this monster? Had ho not wait
ed for tho propitious moment (which
you and 1 know never comes) to
throw oft this species from Hades?
It 1b all very well, when you are old
and dried up, to turn to Ivories and
metals and precious stones; but when
a fellow's youug! You can't shake
hands with nn ivory ropllcu of tho Taj
Mahal, nor exchange pleasantries with
a Mandarin's ring, nor yet conlldo Joya
nnd ills Into a casket of rare emer
alds; Indeed, they do but emphasize
one's' louellncss. If only he had had
Ho would bo Jolly glad to get homo
again, to renow his comradeship with
his treasures. And, by Jovo! there
was one man who shipped him on tho
shoulder, and he was no less a person
than tho genial president of tho firm,
IiIb father's partner, nt present his
own. If tho old chap had hnd a daugh
ter now. . . . And hero one comes
nt last to the bottom ot the sack. He
had only one definite longing, a
healthy human longing, tho only long
ing worth whllo In nil this deep, wide,
round old top; to lovo 11 woman and
by her be loved.
At exuetly half after six the gentle
man with tho reversible cuffs arrived;
and Georgo missed his boat.
(TO DE CONTINUED.)
J .
