The Moneychangers | Page 3

Oliver and Lucy had had since Lucy was old
enough to walk. And he told her the latest news about all their
neighbours, and about all the servants whom she remembered. He told
her also about his father's death, and how the house had been burned,
and how they had sold the plantation and come North.
"And how are you doing, Allan?" she asked.
"I am practising law," he said. "I'm not making a fortune, but I'm
managing to pay my bills. That is more than some other people do in
this city."
"I should imagine it," said Lucy. "With all that row of shops on Fifth
Avenue! Oh, I know I shall spend all that I own in the first week. And
this hotel--why, it's perfectly frightful."
"Oliver has told you the prices, has he?" said Montague, with a laugh.
"He has taken my breath away," said Lucy. "How am I ever to manage
such things?"
"You will have to settle that with him," said Montague. "He has taken
charge, and he doesn't want me to interfere."
"But I want your advice," said Lucy. "You are a business man, and
Ollie never was anything but a boy."
"Ollie has learned a good deal since he has been in New York," the
other responded.
"I can tell you my side of the case very quickly," he went on after a
moment's pause. "He brought me here, and persuaded me that this was
how I ought to live if I wanted to get into Society. I tried it for a while,
but I found that I did not like the things I had to do, and so I quit. You
will find us in an apartment a couple of blocks farther from Fifth
Avenue, and we only pay about one-tenth as much for it. And now,
whether you follow me or Ollie depends upon whether you want to get
into Society."
Lucy wrinkled her brows in thought. "I didn't come to New York to
bury myself in a boarding-house," she said. "I do want to meet people."
"Well," said Montague, "Oliver knows a lot of them, and he will
introduce you. Perhaps you will like them--I don't know. I am sure you
won't have any difficulty in making them like you."
"Thank you, sir," said Lucy. "You are as ingenuous as ever!"
"I don't want to say anything to spoil your pleasure," said the other.

"You will find out about matters for yourself. But I feel like telling you
this--don't you be too ingenuous. You can't trust people quite so freely
here as you did at home."
"Thank you," said Lucy. "Ollie has already been lecturing me. I had no
idea it was such a serious matter to come to New York. I told him that
widows were commonly supposed to know how to take care of
themselves."
"I had a rather bad time of it myself, getting adjusted to things," said
Montague, smiling. "So you must make allowances for my
forebodings."
"I've told Lucy a little about it," put in Oliver, drily.
"He told me a most fascinating love story!" said Lucy, gazing at him
with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I shall certainly look out for
the dazzling Mrs. Winnie."
"You may meet her to-morrow night," put in Oliver. "You are invited
to dinner at Mrs. Billy Alden's."
"I have read about Mrs. Billy in the newspapers," said Lucy. "But I
never expected to meet her. How in the world has Oliver managed to
jump so into the midst of things?"
Oliver undertook to explain; and Montague sat by, smiling to himself
over his brother's carefully expurgated account of his own social career.
Oliver had evidently laid his plans to take charge of Lucy, and to escort
her to a high seat upon the platform of Society.
"But tell me, all this will cost so much money!" Lucy protested. "And I
don't want to have to marry one of these terrible millionaires."
She turned to Montague abruptly. "Have you got an office somewhere
down town?" she asked. "And may I come to-morrow, and see you, and
get you to be my business adviser? Old Mr. Holmes is dead, you know.
He used to be father's lawyer, and he knew all about my affairs. He
never thought it worth while to explain anything to me, so now I don't
know very well what I have or what I can do."
"I will do all I can to help you," Montague answered.
"And you must be very severe with me," Lucy continued, "and not let
me spend too much money, or make any blunders. That was the way
Mr. Holmes used to do, and since he is dead, I have positively been
afraid to trust myself about."
"If I am to