Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 14068-h.htm or 14068-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/6/14068/14068-h/14068-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/6/14068/14068-h.zip) GORDON KEITH by THOMAS NELSON PAGE With Illustrations by George Wright 1903 TO A GRANDDAUGHTER OF ONE LOIS HUNTINGTON CONTENTS CHAPTER I. GORDON KEITH'S PATRIMONY II. GENERAL KEITH BECOMES AN OVERSEER III. THE ENGINEER AND THE SQUIRE IV. TWO YOUNG MEN V. THE RIDGE COLLEGE VI. ALICE YORKE VII. MRS. YORKE FINDS A GENTLEMAN VIII. MR. KEITH'S IDEALS IX. MR. KEITH IS UNPRACTICAL X. MRS. YORKE CUTS A KNOT XI. GUMBOLT XII. KEITH DECLINES AN OFFER XIII. KEITH IN NEW YORK XIV. THE HOLD-UP XV. MRS. YORKE MAKES A MATCH XVI. KEITH VISITS NEW YORK, AND MRS. LANCASTER SEES A GHOST XVII. KEITH MEETS NORMAN XVIII. MRS. LANCASTER XIX. WICKERSHAM AND PHRONY XX. MRS. LANCASTER'S WIDOWHOOD XXI. THE DIRECTORS' MEETING XXII. MRS. CREAMER'S BALL XXIII. GENERAL KEITH VISITS STRANGE LANDS XXIV. KEITH TRIES HIS FORTUNES ABROAD XXV. THE DINNER AT MRS. WICKERSHAM'S XXVI. A MISUNDERSTANDING XXVII. PHRONY TRIPPER AND THE REV. MR. RIMMON XXVIII. ALICE LANCASTER FINDS PHRONY XXIX. THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE XXX. "SNUGGLERS' ROOST" XXXI. TERPY'S LAST DANCE AND WICKERSHAM'S FINAL THROW XXXII. THE RUN ON THE BANK XXXIII. RECONCILIATION XXXIV. THE CONSULTATION XXXV. THE MISTRESS OF THE LAWNS XXXVI. THE OLD IDEAL ILLUSTRATIONS She was the first to break the silence (frontispiece) "If you don't go back to your seat I'll dash your brains out," said Keith "Then why don't you answer me?" Sprang over the edge of the road into the thick bushes below "Why, Mr. Keith!" she exclaimed "Sit down. I want to talk to you" "It is he! 'Tis he!" she cried "Lois--I have come--" he began CHAPTER I _INTRODUCTORY_ GORDON KEITH'S PATRIMONY Gordon Keith was the son of a gentleman. And this fact, like the cat the honest miller left to his youngest son, was his only patrimony. As in that case also, it stood to the possessor in the place of a good many other things. It helped him over many rough places. He carried it with him as a devoted Romanist wears a sacred scapulary next to the heart. His father, General McDowell Keith of "Elphinstone," was a gentleman of the old kind, a type so old-fashioned that it is hardly accepted these days as having existed. He knew the Past and lived in it; the Present he did not understand, and the Future he did not know. In his latter days, when his son was growing up, after war had swept like a vast inundation over the land, burying almost everything it had not borne away, General Keith still survived, unchanged, unmoved, unmarred, an antique memorial of the life of which he was a relic. His one standard was that of a gentleman.