City and town life -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
“I couldn't leave Galton high and dry,” Tembarom explained when he came
in after rushing about. “I think I know a man he might try, but I've got
to find him and put him on to things. Good Lord! nobody rushed about to
find me and offer me the job. I hope this fellow wants it as bad as I
did. He'll be up in the air.” He discovered the whereabouts of the young
man in question, and finding him, as the youngster almost tearfully
declared, “about down and out,” his proposition was met with the
gratitude the relief from a prospect of something extremely like
starvation would mentally produce. Tembarom took him to Galton after
having talked him over in detail.
“He's had an education, and you know how much I'd had when I butted into
the page,” he said. “No one but you would have let me try it. You did it
only because you saw--you saw--”
“Yes, I saw,” answered Galton, who knew exactly what he had seen and
who found his up-town social representative and his new situation as
interesting as amusing and just touched with the pathetic element.
Galton was a traveled man and knew England and several other countries
well.
“You saw that a fellow wanted the job as much as I did would be likely
to put up a good fight to hold it down. I was scared out of my life when
I started out that morning of the blizzard, but I couldn't afford to be
scared. I guess soldiers who are scared fight like that when they see
bayonets coming at them. You have to.”
“I wonder how often a man finds out that he does pretty big things
when bayonets are coming at him,” answered Galton, who was actually
neglecting his work for a few minutes so that he might look at and talk
to him, this New York descendant of Norman lords and Saxon kings.
“Joe Bennett had been trying to live off free-lunch counters for a week
when I found him,” Tembarom explained. “You don't know what that is.
He'll go at the page all right. I'm going to take him up-town and
introduce him to my friends there and get them to boost him along.”
“You made friends,” said Galton. “I knew you would.”
“Some of the best ever. Good-natured and open-handed. Well, you bet!
Only trouble was they wanted you to eat and drink everything in sight,
and they didn't quite like it when you couldn't get outside all the
champagne they'd offer you.”
He broke into a big, pleased laugh.
“When I went in and told Munsberg he pretty near threw a fit. Of course
he thought I was kidding. But when I made him believe it, he was as glad
as if he'd had luck himself. It was just fine the way people took
it. Tell you what, it takes good luck, or bad luck, to show you how
good-natured a lot of folks are. They'll treat Bennett and the page all
right; you'll see.”
“They'll miss you,” said Galton.
“I shall miss them,” Tembarom answered in a voice with a rather
depressed drop in it.
“I shall miss you,” said Galton.
Tembarom's face reddened a little.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account