Light-Fingered Gentry

He talked of the work "they" would do, of the fame "they" would win; she responded with rapidly decreasing enthusiasm, finally listened without comment. Once, when he was expand...

"I'm making a fool of myself. I'm letting her make a fool of me," he thought angrily, as he stood in the entrance. "I'll not come again." But he had made this same decision each...

"Each of us," she replied, "can go on without the other. I can paint pictures; you can make money. The question is, what will we mean to each other if we go on together? We aren...

No reference from Armstrong to the fact that Atwater had planned to destroy him as soon as he had used him to get the O.A.D.; no reference from Atwater, beyond this smiling and...

The state of Armstrong's mind so preyed upon him that it affected even his giant strength and health, and his friends urged him to take a vacation. He worked only the harder, be...

"It's nothing in which you could be of the slightest assistance," replied he. "I've got myself in a mess--who was ever in a mess that wasn't of his own making? I jumped in, and...

"I'll be very glad to take you," Narcisse offered, on impulse. "Perhaps she's really got talent and isn't simply looking for a husband. Usually, when a woman shows signs of indu...

A few days, and Barry decided that their luck was in the last tailings. Armstrong's final move produced results that made the former tempests seem mere fresh weather. The petty...

Armstrong, studying Raphael's face, which instantly attracted him, wheeled toward the door at the sound of this name as if he had been shot at from that direction. He might not...

The body that is molded upon a spirit such as his--or hers--becomes as mobile to its changes as cloud to sun and wind. Boris's good looks always had a suggestion of the superhum...

"She's wrong," he said to himself. "But she'll not do anything foolish. She's the kind that can go in safety along the wrong road, because they always keep a line of retreat ope...

As he drew off the coat there floated to him a delightful perfume, a mingling of feminine and flowers, of freshness and delicacy, a stimulating suggestion of the sensuous refine...

"It does resemble you--here," said he. "And it doesn't suggest a palace or an antique store or a model room in a furniture display, or an auction room.... You work hard?"

Narcisse gave over trying to make him sensible where Amy was concerned, as soon as she saw upon what he was bent. "He wouldn't think of her seriously if she weren't rich," she s...

I.--A Matrimonial Mistake II.--A Feast and a Fiasco III.--"Only Cousin Neva" IV.--The Fosdick Family V.--Narcisse and Alois VI.--Neva Goes to School VII.--A Woman's Point of Vie...

As Armstrong, at Fosdick's house, was waiting in a small reception room just off the front hall, he heard the old man on the stairs, storming as he descended. "It's a conspiracy...

"Yes," interrupted Fosdick; "it's true, once in a while there's a big enough howl to frighten a few weak brothers. But not Josiah Fosdick, and not the O.A.D. We keep books bette...

The newspapers were shrieking for a "real cleaning of the Augean stables of finance"; the political figureheads of "the interests" were solemnly and sonorously declaiming that t...

Saturday afternoon, each debated writing the other, postponing the engagement. Neva had a savage attack of the blues; at such times she shut herself in, certain she could not ge...

"If I could find some way of detaching Trafford from Atwater," Armstrong had said to her as he was explaining. "But," he had added, "that's hopeless. He's more afraid of Atwater...

Fosdick stiffened as if an electric shock had passed through him. For the first time he lowered his eyes. Behind that veil, his brain was swiftly restoring order in the wild con...

"That's better!" exclaimed he, in approval of her docile tone. "And keep on trying till you get it right. You'll know. You've got good taste. If you hadn't, it'd be useless to t...

"Not at all, my boy," said Fosdick, clapping him on the back. "Our rivals have got up an investigating committee--have set on some of our policy holders to pretend to be dissati...

"My brother!" Tears glistened in Narcisse's eyes. "Yes--until he becomes some other woman's lover." She embraced Neva, and departed hastily, ashamed of her unwonted show of emot...

Armstrong straightened himself with a smile that gave his face instantly the look of frankness and of high, dauntless spirit. "No, I've got that down--and mighty short it is," s...

Within two weeks, Duncan was at the head of an association of agents gathering proxies from the policy holders to oust the Armstrong regime. Duncan and his fellow conspirators s...

Well as Armstrong knew him, he was for the moment impressed. The only born monsters are the insane criminals; the monstrous among our powerful and eminent and most respectable a...

Although she had long had ready her answer to that inevitable question, she waited before replying. "Not to pull Atwater's chestnuts out of the fire for him," said she slowly. "...

"I forgot a little matter," explained Westervelt confusedly. And he went uncertainly into his private office, had his secretary put the three ledgers and account books together...

Farthest from Drew and facing him sat the chairman of the committee, its youngest member, Roberts of Denver--a slender, tall man, with sinews like steel wires enwrapping his bon...