66

And,

"It's true!" Herbert insisted. what's more, both those families have come here as spies."

Mrs. Felch now interposed. "But the Laidlaws don't live in movable houses. They're way up in the social scale, you know. They occupy hovels, and travel on foot."

"They do usually," retorted Herbert. "But they're here for a purpose, now, and I have reason to believe they've been supplied with funds by our own AntiWealth Society."

Herbert's father came to his support with the portentous murmur, "Things are drawing to a crisis." Whereupon Mrs. Cristopher inquired, in alarm: "A crisis? Why should they want to spy upon us? Have you been compromising yourself, Herbert?"

The young man slapped his betattered thigh with emphasis. "You have hit the word, mother," said he, as if it had been situated on that part of his person which he had just thumped. "But you haven't hit the sense in which it should be taken. I haven't compromised myself by disloyalty to the party. But I am compromising all the time, by not acting up to my principles. I live in luxury; I consent to remain rich. These very rags that I wear, and we are all so proud of, are shams."

The ladies looked shocked.

"It's too bad for you to say so," Mrs. Cristopher declared. "I made those rags for you myself with Maria's help."

"That's just it," Herbert retorted quickly. "They're not real rags; only make-believe. And look here!"-gathering in his fingers sundry fluttering bits of his costume-"just see these fancy touches of braid and embroidery on them!"

"They are my work," said his aunt, proudly. "And very pretty, too."

"It's a sign of weakness," he went on; "just the sort of thing that makes the Anti-Wealth people suspect me."

"But," objected his mother, "you say the Fergusons are acting as spies, too. How can both parties suspect us?"

Reduced to its lowest terms," said the son, "it's just this way. The Laidlaws think we're traitors to Anti-Wealth, and the Fergusons think we're ditto to Wealth. Understand?"

Mrs. Felch with her eyebrows and Mr. Cristopher with his lips inquired, simultaneously: "How?"

"By moving away from here,” answered Mrs. Cristopher.

"No," said Herbert, positively. "That won't do. I've had enough of dodging, and I'm going to stick right here and fight the thing out."

The truth is, Herbert had private motives, which he did not care to reveal. He was in love with Lelia Ferguson, the millionaire's daughter; yet he knew that Marian Laidlaw, the child of the distinguished and poverty-stricken Laidlaws, was decidedly in love with him. Now, although Mrs. Cristopher was quite ignorant of this secret, she perceived that Herbert was somehow master of the situation; and she yielded, saying: "Very well. If we are to stay here I may as well send these cards right over to our neighbors by Bridget."

A pleasing young lady, in a well-fitting black gown, answered to the summons for Bridget O'Hara, that being merely her assumed "work-name." For the scarcity of domestic servants, caused by the plenteousness of money, had latterly been counteracted by a rush of young women from the more refined, educated classes, who sought menial positions on account of the old and hallowed associations of house-work with

narrow means.

"See them yourself, Bridget," said Mrs. Cristopher, giving her instructions. "Chat with the ladies a little, and find out, if you can, just how they happened to bring their houses up here."

In half an hour "Bridget" returned with the news that she had made pleasant calls on the ladies of the two households and had been cordially received. Apparently they had known nothing about the Cristophers' being in the mountains, but were charmed to learn that they were here, and had accepted most of the proffered cards. In return they had entrusted "Bridget" with packets of their own cards; and Mrs. Cristopher diplomatically kept all of these, so as to put herself on good terms with both households.

The social conventions having thus

been complied with, Herbert presented himself at the door of the yellow house the next morning. Miss Laidlaw welcomed him cordially; but her fashionable and expensive dress only confirmed his suspicion that she was under pay as an Anti-Wealth spy. She was undoubtedly beautiful, with a beauty of an open, glowing kind, exhaling its geniality in the same way that a wood-fire on the hearth throws out soft warmth and golden light. She glowed because she could not help it. But Herbert sometimes felt that it would be agreeable to moderate Marian's natural ardor by interposing a screen, just as one does when the warmth of a bright fire becomes oppressive.

"It's a delightful surprise to find you here," he said to her. "But I am also surprised at your coming in such style. This house; that dress! My dear Marian, why prevaricate? Have you and your father gone back on your principles?" "What

Marian laughed radiantly. else was there left for us to do?" she inquired. "Papa is in the van of progress -one of the foremost and poorest men in the United States. Since we could hardly go farther forward on our principles, why not go back on them?"

Herbert suspected an insincerity. "I don't think you're quite in earnest."

And Marian answered: "I'm glad you said that, for I can return the compliment. I don't think you are in earnest, either."

"What!" he exclaimed, indignantly. "Don't I wear the party uniform and preach its doctrines incessantly?"

"Yes. But, all the while, you're only a man of leisure."

"Very well. The absolutely poor man is the man of absolute leisure-the man who won't work."

"That isn't fair," Marian objected. "My father is genuinely poor; but he is a shoemaker, and makes shoes every day. See! these are his." And she glanced down at her well-wrought walking-boots, which projected from beneath a heavy silk skirt.

drawback is, no one will wear the clothes I make. I've got a whole warehouse in New York, now, full of misfits that I manufactured."

'Oh, I didn't know that," Marian replied, softening. "Perhaps I've done you injustice."

"Let us be frank," Herbert proposed. "I don't understand how your father has obtained the means to make the journey here, and support such a house."

Marian was all smiles. "The means? Why, he borrowed the money-and hasn't the least intention of repaying it. Does that satisfy you ?"

"Perfectly," said Herbert., He was so astonished that he rose to take leave; but he did not go until he had induced her to promise an exchange of cards with the Fergusons, so that the three households might be on terms of a visiting acquaintance.

II.

HERBERT had hoped that, if the Laidlaws were detected in accepting money from the Anti-Wealth Society for spying purposes, he might accuse Marian of deception, and so break away from her with freedom to marry Lelia Ferguson. But now, when it turned out that Ebenezer Laidlaw had merely borrowed the money, the old man rose to a still sublimer height. How, then, could Herbert neglect the opportunity of marrying his daughter? The trouble is," he sighed to himself, "both girls are beautiful. Oh, if one of them were only ugly!"

If Marian was like the generous woodfire on an open hearth, Lelia resembled the soothing shadows that give grateful relief from the blaze. Her hair was dark; in her cheeks there was a natural tinge of carmine; and she affected Herbert's mind with an atmosphere of faroff, spicy fragrance. All this impressed the young man very strongly when he went to see her, soon afterward. They talked of their journeys in the long interval since they had met, and of the great automaton ball which it was proposed to give at the Vacuum Hotel, on top of the mountains. Both intended to send their automata there, and hoped that these might meet on the occasion.

Of course, if Lelia accepted Herbert and he wedded her, that would end his career of ambition to become povertystricken, and would shatter his political consistency. But suppose she rejected him where would be the harm, then? He was inclined to be quite sure, at this moment, that she would reject him. So, why not at least try the experiment? His mind would be easier after she had refused him. But the favorable moment passed by; and just as he was leaving the green house, Mrs. Ferguson appeared, and followed him to the porch. Engaging him in a seemingly idle conversation, while her daughter was beyond earshot, Mrs. Ferguson managed to show him very plainly that Marian Laidlaw had known the Fergusons were coming to the Catskills, and had herself engineered the whole plan of following them to the spot.

"Isn't it curious?" she inquired, innocently. "Here are copies of her ethergraph despatches, which Mr. Ferguson who is a government director, you know -got from the office. And here is something still stranger!" She produced a document, which read :

"Very curious!" Herbert confessed. "What does it mean?"

"That he borrowed the money for this excursion from my husband. His daughter persuaded him to do it."

Herbert went away with a new light on the situation. He perceived that Marian had come to his vicinity through motives not of political suspicion, but of personal jealousy. It was also clear that Mrs. Ferguson had made this disclosure because she wanted him to marry her daughter, Lelia. But he was troubled by the circumstance that the I. O. U. signed by Laidlaw might be used with damaging effect against a movement, already under way, for overthrowing the party in power and placing Laidlaw at the head of the government. Of this movement Herbert himself was one of the ringleaders. He must save Laidlaw, must mollify Marian's feelings, yet

secure Lelia for his wife. How was it all to be done? To marry the millionaire's daughter would be inconsistent with his own professions of loyalty to poverty.

At length he hit upon a plan. He would persuade Ferguson to abandon, or pretend to abandon, his wealth. It was a common thing for people, in the Tenth Populiad, to burn their houses, when they grew tired of them, or as a signal that they had joined the AntiWealth crusade. It would therefore be a politic thing for Ferguson, in the impending crisis, to give his house to the flames; and the incriminating I. O. U. must be burned with the house. The conspiracy could go forward, with Laidlaw at its head, and Herbert would marry Lelia, under the plea that her father was now poor; leaving Marian to solace herself with the dignity of being the daughter of a President. The best time for carrying out this design would be the night of the automaton ball at the Vacuum House; for it was then also that the Anti-Wealth revolt, as Herbert knew, was to culminate.

Everything had to be kept secret, however, even from his father, who was not admitted to the full confidence of

the revolutionists. Outwardly, matters moved on in a placid, genial way for some days longer. The members of the three households, their formal exchange of cards having been settled, mingled freely in a number of pleasant picnics, balloon ascensions, and other little entertainments; and Cristopher senior devoted himself innocently to the futile effort of reconciling Laidlaw and Ferguson in their political views. At one moment, he began to think he should succeed. This was when the group had gathered in Ferguson's platinum-lined library, one afternoon, and were chatting about public affairs.

"The pension system is being carried altogether too far," Ferguson announced. "I didn't object so very much when Congress granted pensions to every one who could prove himself a good citizen; and it was natural enough to go on and pension those whose fathers were good citizens, although it made a bad precedent. But now that it is proposed to award pensions for the good citizenship

of great-grandfathers and grandmothers, I draw the line. I'm disposed to resist firmly."

"Why?" asked Mrs. Cristopher, sweetly. "Isn't it ungallant to treat great-grandmothers as if they hadn't been worthy?"

"I don't wish to be impolite to the ladies-even dead ones," said Ferguson. "But while the first aim of all this pensioning seemed to be to keep everyone rich, I'm afraid it will gradually result in poverty. The whole nation will become pensioners, and so grow lazy and poor. That's why I'm opposed."

"And I," Laidlaw spoke up, stroking the bristles of his unshaven face with a horny hand, "am also opposed to it; but because I think it will help to keep everybody rich."

Sanguine Mr. Cristopher fancied he could somehow unite them on the basis of their double opposition. But his hopes were dashed when Laidlaw went on to assert that he intended shortly to introduce a Bill for the Promotion of Mendicancy, and that he favored a return to unrestricted immigration of foreigners, so as to flood the country with paupers. Furthermore, he made an argument against the existing law of capital punishment, which provided that criminals should be "whiskeyed" to death.

"But you know," protested Mrs. Ferguson," how splendidly it has worked in bringing about prohibition."

"It did work splendidly at first," the revolutionist admitted. "When the people were deprived of whiskey, and it was set apart for the sole use of criminals, there was a tremendous increase of crime and we were able to get rid of most of our bad characters. But the reaction long ago set in. People don't want whiskey any more, and so they won't commit crimes. The result is, society is loaded down with bad characters, who under the old customs would have drunk themselves to death at their own expense."

The illustrious shoemaker ended by defending the recent resumption of the custom of electing a President. For, in the Tenth Populiad, the long prevalent system of running the government by a Congress without any head-i.e.,

without any executive head-had been given up. It was found that dispensing with a President caused a fatal decline in American humor, impertinent gossip, and abusiveness.

Laidlaw was willing to sacrifice his own feelings, for the sake of preserving these fine old national qualities; but his opinions were so unpleasant to the Fergusons that Mrs. Cristopher thought it best to break up the present sitting of the friends. Herbert was undisturbed by this; because he succeeded, before he left the house, in making an appointment with Lelia to meet her the next day, alone, in a woody nook of the ridge. I have something of the greatest importance to say," he explained; "in fact, several things." But his tone conveyed to her that there was one thing in particular on his mind, and that it related to her. He fancied that there beamed from her eyes a soft, auspicious light, which beckoned to him like the rising evening star.

66

Meanwhile, during all these days, Herbert had been in close conference with Laidlaw, at every available opportunity, upon the subject of the coming cataclysm. He was obliged to visit the yellow villa, on this particular evening, in order to perfect sundry points; and, after finishing his talk with the shoemaker, he found it unavoidable to sit down with Marian for a few minutes, in the drawing-room. That young lady sparkled with joyous anticipation. She was fully charged with the effervescence of the revolution, and moreover she seemed to be brimming with an expectation amounting almost to certainty that the triumph of the Anti-Wealth conspiracy would be accompanied by her union with Herbert. Notwithstanding that as yet he had said nothing at all about marrying her, Laidlaw seemed to take it for granted that the young man was to become his daughter's husband, simply as a matter of detail; and now Marian said to him, as he was taking his depart

ure:

"I must tell you that papa is immensely pleased with you, of late. He reminded me to say to you, lest he should forget it, that our house-which, considering that it's a borrowed one, is all the more valuable-is yours." With