The Story of Glass | Page 3

good many years my chief business seemed
to be getting over a bad knee I got when playing tackle on the Harvard
football eleven. We wiped up the ground with Yale, though, so it was
worth it. Of late I spend more or less time in seeing that Hannah does
not feed me too well and starve herself. Part of my business, too, is to
argue with disagreeable old lawyers like yourself, Carleton." Mr. Bob
Cabot chuckled. "When I am not doing some of these things and have
the surplus time I am incidentally an interior decorator. Oh, I do not go
out papering and painting; oh dear, no! I just tell other people how to

spend a fortune furnishing their houses. I advise brocade hangings,
Italian marbles and every sort of rare and beautiful thing, and since I do
not have these luxuries to pay for I find my vocation a tremendously
interesting one."
"You have set a worthy example in your own house," observed Mr.
Carleton, glancing about with admiration.
"Oh, I've done a little--not much. I like the old landscape paper in this
library; some of my antique furniture, too, is rather nice. I picked up
many of the best pieces in the South. The house itself came to me from
my father, and I have altered it very little, as I was anxious to keep its
old colonial atmosphere. Hannah and I live here most peacefully with a
waitress and inside man to help us. With Jean added to the household
we shall have just the touch of young life that we need. I am very fond
of children, and----"
"You seem very certain that Jean is to settle with you, Mr. Cabot. Now
let me own up to something; although Mr. Tom Curtis sent me to have
this talk with you and pave the way, it chances--no, chance is not the
right word--on the contrary it is an intentional fact that Mr. Tom Curtis
is at this very moment here in Boston."
Mr. Bob Cabot started.
"Tom Curtis here!"
"Yes. He is putting up at the University Club, and he wanted me to ask
you if you would be so good as to dine there with him to-night."
"So he has come over to enter the fray himself, has he? Well, well!
Why didn't he come right here? Of course I'll join him. I always liked
Tom Curtis. The only things I have against him are that he will live in
Pittsburgh--and that he wants Jean."
Mr. Carleton rose with satisfaction. At least part of his mission had
been successfully accomplished. He could afford to overlook the slur
on Pittsburgh which, as it happened, was his home as well as that of Mr.

Tom Curtis.
"Then I'll call up Mr. Curtis," he said, "and tell him he may expect you.
Will seven o'clock be all right?"
"Certainly. I suppose I shall not see you again, Carleton?"
Mr. Carleton hesitated.
"It is just possible that I may drop in on you and Mr. Curtis after
dinner."
"Oh, I see. A plot."
"Not at all. I have some business to settle with Mr. Curtis before I
return to Pittsburgh."
"Going back to that grimy coal hole, are you?" blustered Mr. Bob
Cabot. "How you fellows can live there when you might spend your
days in Bost----"
The door slammed.
Mr. Carleton was gone.
Shrugging his shoulders Mr. Bob Cabot glanced at the clock. He had
just about time to dash off a necessary letter, dress, and get to the
University Club.
"Hannah!" he called.
A small dark-haired woman appeared in the doorway. She had sharp
little black eyes that twinkled a great deal, and she had a mouth that
turned up at the corners; furthermore she had a plump figure neatly
dressed in gray, and a white apron tied behind in an enormous and very
spirited bow.
"Yes, Mr. Bob."

"Hannah, Mr. Tom Curtis is in town with a rascal of a lawyer. They
have come to see about taking Jean to live in Pittsburgh."
"Pittsburgh! My soul, Mr. Bob! You'll not let her go, of course.
Pittsburgh, indeed! Don't we know that Boston----"
"We certainly do, Hannah. Nobody knows what Boston is better than
we do. But Mr. Tom Curtis unfortunately was not born in Boston."
"More's the pity! Still, I suppose he cannot be blamed for that. It wasn't
really his fault."
Mr. Bob Cabot laughed and dropped a big, kindly hand on the shoulder
of the woman beside him.
"I will try and impress upon him all that he has missed when I see him
to-night. I am to dine with him at the University Club at seven."
"You're not dining out!" ejaculated Hannah in dismay.
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh, Mr. Bob! And fried chicken for dinner--just