Vicky Van | Page 5

tryout."
Vicky Van settled herself into her seat with the happy little sigh of the
bridge lover, who sits down with three good players, and in another

moment she was breathlessly looking over her hand. "Without," she
said, triumphantly, and knowing she'd say no word more to me for the
present, I walked away with Cassie Weldon.
And Cassie was good fun. She took me to the piano, and with the soft
pedal down, she showed me a new little tone picture she had made up,
which was both picturesque and funny.
"You'd better go into vaudeville!" I exclaimed, as she finished, "your
talent is wasted on the concert platform."
"That's what Vicky tells me," she returned. "Sometimes I believe I will
try it, just for fun."
"You'll find it such fun, you'll stay in for earnest," I assured her, for she
had shown a bit of inventive genius that I felt sure would make good in
a little musical turn.

CHAPTER II
MR. SOMERS
It was nearly midnight when Steele came, and with him was a man I
had never seen before, and whom I assumed to be the Mr. Somers I had
heard about.
And it was. As Steele entered, he cast his eye around for Vicky, and
saw her at the bridge table down at the end of the room. Her back was
toward us, and she was so absorbed in the game she did not look round,
if, indeed, she heard the noise of their arrival.
The two men stopped near the group I was with and Steele introduced
Mr. Somers.
A little curiously I looked at him, and saw a large, self-satisfied looking
man wearing an expansive smile and expensive apparel. Clothes the
very best procurable, jewelry just inside the limits of good taste--he

bore himself like a gentleman, yet there was an unmistakable air of
ostentatious wealth that repelled me. A second look made me think Mr.
Somers had dined either late or twice, but his greetings were courteous
and genial and his manner sociable, if a little patronizing. He seemed a
stranger to all present, and his eye roved about for the charming hostess
Steele had told him of.
"We'll reach Miss Van Allen presently." Steele laughed, in answer to
the glance, "if, indeed, we dare interrupt her game. Let's make progress
slowly."
"No hurry," returned Somers, affably, beaming on Cassie Weldon and
meeting Ariadne Gale's receptive smile. "I'm anchored here for the
moment. Miss Weldon? Ah, yes, I've heard you sing. Voice like a
lark--like a lark."
Clearly, Somers was not much of a purveyor of small talk. I sized him
up for a lumbering oldster, who wanted to be playful but didn't quite
know how.
He had rather an austere face, yet there was a gleam in his eye that
belied the austerity. His cheeks were fat and red, his nose prominent,
and he was clean shaven, save for a thick white mustache, that drooped
slightly on either side of a full-lipped mouth. His hair was white, his
eyes dark and deep-set, and he could easily be called a handsome man.
He was surely fifty, and perhaps more. Had it not been for a certain
effusiveness in his speech, I could have liked him, but he seemed to me
to lack sincerity.
However, I am not one to judge harshly or hastily, and I met him half
way, and even helped him in his efforts at gay affability.
"You've never been here before?" I asked; "Good old Steele to bring
you to-night."
"No, never before," and he glanced around appreciatively, "but I shall, I
hope, come often. Charming little nest; charming ladies!" a bow
included those nearest.

"Yes, indeed," babbled Ariadne, "fair women and brave men."
"Brave, yes," agreed Somers, "to dare the glances of such bright eyes. I
must protect my heart!" He clasped his fat hands pretty near where his
heart was situated, and grinned with delight as Ariadne also "protected"
her heart.
"Ah," he cried, "two hearts in danger! I feel sure we shall be friends, if
only because misery loves company."
"Is it really misery with you?" and Ariadne's sympathy was so
evidently profound, that Cassie Weldon and I walked away.
"I'll give Ariad her innings," said the vivacious Miss Weldon, "and I'll
make up to the Somers kid later. Where'd Vicky pick him up?"
"She doesn't know him at all. Norman Steele brought him
unbeknownst."
"No! Why, Vick doesn't allow that sort of thing."
"So I'm told. Any way, Steele did it."
"Well, Vicky's such a good-natured darling, maybe she won't mind for
once. She won't, if she likes the little stranger. He's well-meaning, at
any rate."
"So's Ariadne. From her smile, I think she well means to sell him her
latest 'Autumn In The Adirondacks,' or 'Lady