Part 19 (1/2)

”With all his shameless youth,” were the ”King's” unuttered thoughts, ”I could beat him at anything, except, perhaps, scribbling. I could live and prosper where he would starve to death.” And surging upon the ”King”

came the memories of his long, triumphant, and joyous struggle with wild nature. Then he approached the couple, and greeted Harley with the good-nature that was really a part of him. Sylvia, with s.h.i.+ning eyes, told at second hand, though not with diminished effect, the story of the night, and ”King” Plummer was loud in his applause. He did not care what criticism the supercilious might make, the act was to him spontaneous and natural.

”But I don't see why you should have been with Jimmy Grayson then,” he said, frankly, to Harley. ”You are an Easterner, new to these parts, and it isn't right that just you should be along when the interestin' things happen.”

Harley could not help laughing at the nave remark, but he liked ”King”

Plummer all the better for it. The ”King,” however, gave him no more chance to talk alone that day with Sylvia. Mr. Plummer showed the greatest regard for Miss Morgan's health and comfort, and did not try to hide his solicitude; he was continually about her, arranging little conveniences for the journey, and introducing Idaho topics, familiar to them, but to which Harley was necessarily a stranger. The ”King,” with his wide sense of Western hospitality, would not have done this at another time, but in view of the close relations.h.i.+p between himself and Sylvia he regarded it as pardonable.

The watchful Mrs. Grayson saw it all, and at first she regarded the ”King” with an approving eye, but by-and-by the approval changed to a frown. There was something forced in his manner; it was just the least bit unconvincing. It was clear to her that he was overdoing it, and in her opinion that was as bad as not doing it at all. Nor did she like the spectacle of a middle-aged man of affairs trying to play the gallant; there was another manner, one just as good, that would become him more.

She was impelled to admonish him again, but she restrained herself, reflecting that she had not improved matters by her first warning, and she might make them worse by her second. Nevertheless, she summoned the nominee of a great party to the American Presidency to a conference, and he came with more alacrity than he would have obeyed the call of a conference of governors.

”Sylvia is doing what it is natural for her to do,” she said, abruptly.

”Then, my dear, why find fault with me because of it?” replied the mystified candidate.

”I don't find fault with you; I merely want your advice, although I know that you can have none to give.”

The candidate wisely kept silent, and waited for the speaker of the house to proceed.

”Sylvia is your niece, and Mr. Plummer is your most powerful political supporter in the West,” she said. ”If she jilts him because of any fancy or impulse--well, you know such things can make men, especially elderly men, do very strange deeds. I speak of it because I am sure it must have been in your thoughts.”

The candidate stirred uneasily.

”It is a thing that I do not like to take into consideration,” he said.

”Nor do I, but it forces itself upon us.”

”It is right that Harley should pay her attention. They are members of this party, and they are of an age likely to make them congenial.”

”That is where the danger lies. It may not amount at present to anything more than a fancy, but a fancy can make a very good beginning.”

They talked on at length and with much earnestness, but they could come to no other conclusion than to use that last refuge, silence and waiting.

Meanwhile Sylvia was enjoying herself. She was young and vigorous, and she had a keen zest in life. She was surrounded by men, some young, too, who had seen much of the world, and they interested her; neither would she have been human, nor of her s.e.x, if their attentions had not pleased her; and there, too, was the great campaign throwing its glow over everything. She was gracious even to the ”King,” whom she had been treating rather worse than he deserved for several days. She seemed to appreciate his increased gallantry, and it was ”dear old daddy” very often now, whether in the comparative privacy of the Grayson family circle or in the larger group of the young correspondents and politicians. The ”King” was delighted with the change, and his own manner became easy and happy. He looked once or twice at the lady whom he considered his mentor, Mrs. Grayson, and expected to see approval and satisfaction on her face, too, but she was stern and impenetrable, and the ”King” said to himself that after all she was not so startlingly acute.

Sylvia was telling some anecdote of the West to her new friends, and, as the incident was rather remarkable, she thought it necessary to have confirmation.

”It happened before I was born, but you were there then, and you know all about it, don't you, daddy?”

”King” Plummer quickly nodded confirmation and smiled at the memory. The event had interested him greatly, and he was glad to vouch for its truth. He was pleased all the more when he saw the others looking at him with the respect and deference due to--his thoughts halted suddenly in their course and turned into another channel. Then he found himself frowning. He did not like the conjunction of ”dear old daddy” and of a thing that had happened many years ago.

The ”King” quietly slipped away from the party, and he noticed with intense gloom that his departure did not seem to make as much difference as it should. For a whole afternoon he was silent, and many corrugations formed temporarily in his brow, indicating resolved thought. Nor were appearances wrong, because the ”King” was laboriously dragging himself up to the edge of a mighty resolution. He was physically as brave a man as ever walked; in early and rougher days he had borne a ready Winchester, but this emergency was something new in his experience, and naturally he hesitated at the venture. However, just after supper, when Sylvia was alone in the drawing-room of the car, he approached her. She looked up at him and smiled, but the ”King's” face was set with the power of his resolve.

”Come in, daddy,” she said.

The ”King” did not smile, nor did he sit down.

”Sylvia,” he said, ”I have a favor to ask of you.”