Part 11 (1/2)
”If you want Hannibal, perhaps papa would oblige you. I certainly would do all I could to persuade him.”
CHAPTER VI.
”HOW THE WOMEN STARE!”
The next day Archie Weil lunched with Lawrence Gouger. He wanted to talk with his friend about the young author and auth.o.r.ess. Gouger listened with interest to the story he had to relate, and nodded approval when it appeared that Archie had behaved admirably thus far in relation to Miss Millicent.
”Do you know anything about Mr. Fern?” he asked, when the other had reached a period.
”Nothing.”
”Well, neither did I, a week ago, but I have taken pains to inform myself. He is a highly respectable elderly party, who deals in wool. He married a very beautiful lady, who has now been dead eight or ten years and he lives altogether in the society of his two daughters. If you succeed in getting Millicent's book on the counters you will earn his everlasting grat.i.tude. They say he is not literary enough himself to be a judge of its merits, and if she has fifty copies to present to the family friends it will probably be all he will ask.”
Mr. Weil uttered a low whistle.
”I don't know what the family friends will say of it,” he replied, ”but I call it pretty warm stuff. If the list includes many prudes they will hardly thank the girl for sending such a firebrand into their houses.”
”Pshaw!” said Gouger. ”The world is getting used to that sort of thing, and they won't mind it a bit. Besides, they will be so lost in admiration of their cousin's name on the cover that they will think of nothing else. What did you make out of her? Is she as innocent as I predicted?”
Archie poured out a gla.s.s of Ba.s.s' ale and sipped it slowly.
”Quite,” he said, as he put it down on the table. ”And she's no dunce, either.” He went on to tell of the trap he had fallen into. ”I'm dying with impatience to get her and Roseleaf together. They'd make an idealic couple.”
Mr. Gouger inquired what he was waiting for.
”Oh, I want to do the thing right,” said Weil. ”I want to learn her as thoroughly as I can, before I bring him upon the stage. It will take three or four evenings more to hear the rest of her novel, and another to discuss it. I shall get around to him in about a fortnight, at the rate things are going. He will keep. What do you suppose he is doing now? Writing poetry! He sent a piece a few days ago to the _Century_, and they accepted it.”
”He will be gray when it appears,” said the critic. ”It takes a long time for anything to see the light in that publication.”
”But in this case an exception will be made,” said Weil. ”They have a.s.sured him that it will come out in their very next issue. He will be so proud to see his name in print that I expect to find difficulty in holding him back. A poet who appears in the Century has certainly stepped a little higher on the ladder.”
The critic agreed to this, and remarked that such a man as Roseleaf should give his whole attention to poetry.
”Wait!” cried Archie. ”Give him time. See him after he has fallen head over ears in love with charming Millicent Fern. There is something in him, I feel sure, and between that dear girl and myself we will bring it out. By-the-way, there is a character I want you to meet,” he added, as Mr. Walker Boggs came into the room. ”You have never had the pleasure, I think, though you have heard me speak of him.”
Mr. Boggs had his attention attracted by a waiter who was sent for the purpose and came with great willingness to occupy a seat with Mr. Weil and his friend.
”We were talking of a New York merchant just now,” said Archie, when the introductions were over, ”and it occurs to me that you, who know almost everybody, may have some knowledge of him. He is in the wool business, I hear, and I think you once told me you had done something in that way.
His name is Wilton Fern, and he lives at Midlands.”
”Do I know anything about him?” echoed Mr. Boggs. ”I should say so. He was my partner for seven years, and I still have a little stake left in the concern, on which I am drawing interest.”
Mr. Weil showed his astonishment at this statement. What a very small world it was, after all! Then, after pledging his friend not to mention that he had ever discussed the matter with him, he went guardedly into the particulars of Miss Millicent's book, and of his having called at the house for the purpose of pa.s.sing judgment upon it.
”I didn't know that was in your line,” replied Boggs.
”Well, it was this way,” answered Archie. ”Mr. Gouger's decision didn't exactly suit the young lady, as it was not very favorable. Mine will be quite to her taste, as I view her abilities in a more favorable light.