Part 2 (1/2)

With the pa.s.sing of the flagons an electric current of good fellows.h.i.+p flashed around the circle. Stories that would have been received with but a bare smile at the club were here greeted with shouts of laughter.

Bon-mots, skits, puns and squibs mouldy with age or threadbare with use, were told with a new gusto and welcomed with delight.

Suddenly, and without any apparent reason, these burst forth a roar like that of a great orchestra with every instrument played at its loudest--rounds of applause from kettle-drums, trombones and big horns; screams of laughter from piccolos, clarionettes and flutes, buzzings of subdued talk by groups of ba.s.s viols and the lesser strings, the whole broken by the ringing notes of a song that soared for an instant clear of the din, only to be overtaken and drowned in the mighty shout of approval. This was followed by a stampede from the table; the banners were caught up with a mighty shout and carried around the room; Morris, boy for the moment, springing to his feet and joining in the uproar.

The only guest who kept his chair, except Peter and myself, was a young fellow two seats away, whose eyes, brilliant with excitement, followed the merrymaking, but who seemed too much abashed, or too ill at ease, to join in the fun. I had noticed how quiet he was and wondered at the cause. Peter had also been watching the boy and had said to me that he had a good face and was evidently from out of town.

”Why don't you get up?” Peter called to him at last. ”Up with you, my lad. This is one of the times when every one of you young fellows should be on your feet.” He would have grabbed a banner himself had any one given him the slightest encouragement.

”I would, sir, but I'm out of it,” said the young man with a deferential bow, moving to the empty seat next to Peter. He too had been glancing at Peter from time to time.

”Aren't you with Mr. Morris?”

”No, I wish I were. I came with my friend, Garry Minott, that young fellow carrying the banner with 'Corn Exchange' marked on it.”

”And may I ask, then, what you do?” continued Peter.

The young fellow looked into the older man's kindly eyes--something in their expression implied a wish to draw him the closer--and said quite simply: ”I don't do anything that is of any use, sir. Garry says that I might as well work in a faro bank.”

Peter leaned forward. For the moment the hubbub was forgotten as he scrutinized the young man, who seemed scarcely twenty-one, his well-knit, well-dressed body, his soft brown hair curled about his scalp, cleanly modelled ears, steady brown eyes, white teeth--especially the mobile lips which seemed quivering from some suppressed emotion--all telling of a boy delicately nurtured.

”And do you really work in a faro bank?” Peter's knowledge of human nature had failed him for once.

”Oh, no sir, that is only one of Garry's jokes. I'm clerk in a stock broker's office on Wall Street. Arthur Breen & Company. My uncle is head of the firm.”

”Oh, that's it, is it?” answered Peter in a relieved tone.

”And now will you tell me what your business is, sir?” asked the young man. ”You seem so different from the others.”

”Me! Oh, I take care of the money your gamblers win,” replied Peter, at which they both laughed, a spark of sympathy being kindled between them.

Then, seeing the puzzled expression on the boy's face, he added with a smile: ”I'm Receiving Teller in a bank, one of the oldest in Wall Street.”

A look of relief pa.s.sed over the young fellow's face.

”I'm very glad, sir,” he said, with a smile. ”Do you know, sir, you look something like my own father--what I can remember of him--that is, he was--” The lad checked himself, fearing he might be discourteous. ”That is, he had lost his hair, sir, and he wore his cravats like you, too. I have his portrait in my room.”

Peter leaned still closer to the speaker. This time he laid his hand on his arm. The tumult around him made conversation almost impossible. ”And now tell me your name?”

”My name is Breen, sir. John Breen. I live with my uncle.”

The roar of the dinner now became so fast and furious that further confidences were impossible. The banners had been replaced and every one was reseated, talking or laughing. On one side raged a discussion as to how far the decoration of a plain surface should go--”Roughing it,” some of them called it. At the end of the table two men were wrangling as to whether the upper or the lower half of a tall structure should have its vertical lines broken; and, if so, by what. Further down high-keyed voices were crying out against the abomination of the flat roof on the more costly buildings; wondering whether some of their clients would wake up to the necessity of breaking the sky-line with something less ugly--even if it did cost a little more. Still a third group were in shouts of laughter over a story told by one of the staff who had just returned from an inspection trip west.

Young Breen looked down the length of the table, watched for a moment a couple of draughtsmen who stood bowing and drinking to each other in mock ceremony out of the quaint gla.s.ses filled from the borrowed flagons, then glanced toward his friend Minott, just then the centre of a cyclone that was stirring the group midway the table.

”Come over here, Garry,” he called, half rising to his feet to attract his friend's attention.

Minott waved his hand in answer, waited until the point of the story had been reached, and made his way toward Peter's end of the table.

”Garry,” he whispered, ”I want to introduce you to Mr. Grayson--the very dearest old gentleman you ever met in your whole life. Sits right next to me.”

”What, that old fellow that looks like a billiard ball in a high collar?” muttered Minott with a twinkle in his eye. ”We've been wondering where Mr. Morris dug him up.”