The Colonels Dream | Page 5

me the privilege of a visit from you."
She lingered a few moments and then went. She was the embodiment
of good taste and knew when to come and when to go.
Mr. French was conscious that her visit, instead of tiring him, had had
an opposite effect; she had come and gone like a pleasant breeze,
bearing sweet odours and the echo of distant music. Her shapely hand,
when it had touched his own, had been soft but firm; and he had almost
wished, as he held it for a moment, that he might feel it resting on his
still somewhat fevered brow. When he came back from the South, he
would see a good deal of her, either at the seaside, or wherever she
might spend the summer.
When Mr. French and Phil were ready, a day or two later, to start upon
their journey, Kirby was at the Mercedes to see them off.
"You're taking Judson with you to look after the boy?" he asked.
"No," replied Mr. French, "Judson is in love, and does not wish to leave
New York. He will take a vacation until we return. Phil and I can get
along very well alone."
Kirby went with them across the ferry to the Jersey side, and through
the station gates to the waiting train. There was a flurry of snow in the
air, and overcoats were comfortable. When Mr. French had turned over
his hand luggage to the porter of the Pullman, they walked up and
down the station platform.
"I'm looking for something to interest us," said Kirby, rolling a
cigarette. "There's a mining proposition in Utah, and a trolley railroad
in Oklahoma. When things are settled up here, I'll take a run out, and
look the ground over, and write to you."
"My dear fellow," said his friend, "don't hurry. Why should I make any

more money? I have all I shall ever need, and as much as will be good
for Phil. If you find a good thing, I can help you finance it; and Mrs.
Jerviss will welcome a good investment. But I shall take a long rest,
and then travel for a year or two, and after that settle down and take life
comfortably."
"That's the way you feel now," replied Kirby, lighting another cigarette,
"but wait until you are rested, and you'll yearn for the fray; the first
million only whets the appetite for more."
"All aboard!"
The word was passed along the line of cars. Kirby took leave of Phil,
into whose hand he had thrust a five-dollar bill, "To buy popcorn on the
train," he said, kissed the boy, and wrung his ex-partner's hand warmly.
"Good-bye," he said, "and good luck. You'll hear from me soon. We're
partners still, you and I and Mrs. Jerviss."
And though Mr. French smiled acquiescence, and returned Kirby's
hand clasp with equal vigour and sincerity, he felt, as the train rolled
away, as one might feel who, after a long sojourn in an alien land, at
last takes ship for home. The mere act of leaving New York, after the
severance of all compelling ties, seemed to set in motion old currents of
feeling, which, moving slowly at the start, gathered momentum as the
miles rolled by, until his heart leaped forward to the old Southern town
which was his destination, and he soon felt himself chafing impatiently
at any delay that threatened to throw the train behind schedule time.
"He'll be back in six weeks," declared Kirby, when Mrs. Jerviss and he
next met. "I know him well; he can't live without his club and his
counting room. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks."
"And I'm sure he'll not stay away longer than three months," said the
lady confidently, "for I have invited him to my house party."
"A privilege," said Kirby gallantly, "for which many a man would
come from the other end of the world."

But they were both mistaken. For even as they spoke, he whose future
each was planning, was entering upon a new life of his own, from
which he was to look back upon his business career as a mere period of
preparation for the real end and purpose of his earthly existence.

Two
The hack which the colonel had taken at the station after a two-days'
journey, broken by several long waits for connecting trains, jogged in
somewhat leisurely fashion down the main street toward the hotel. The
colonel, with his little boy, had left the main line of railroad leading
north and south and had taken at a certain way station the one daily
train for Clarendon, with which the express made connection. They had
completed the forty-mile journey in two or three hours, arriving at
Clarendon