New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American
“Tut!” said the old man. “Do you mean to tell me that with all the
money I’ve got you can’t get an hour or two of a girl’s time for
yourself?”
“I’ve put it off too late. She’s going to sail for Europe at noon day
after to-morrow for a two years’ stay. I’m to see her alone to-morrow
evening for a few minutes. She’s at Larchmont now at her aunt’s. I
can’t go there. But I’m allowed to meet her with a cab at the Grand
Central Station to-morrow evening at the 8.30 train. We drive down
Broadway to Wallack’s at a gallop, where her mother and a box party
will be waiting for us in the lobby. Do you think she would listen to a
declaration from me during that six or eight minutes under those
circumstances? No. And what chance would I have in the theatre or
afterward? None. No, dad, this is one tangle that your money can’t
unravel. We can’t buy one minute of time with cash; if we could, rich
people would live longer. There’s no hope of getting a talk with Miss
Lantry before she sails.”
“All right, Richard, my boy,” said old Anthony, cheerfully. “You may
run along down to your club now. I’m glad it ain’t your liver. But
don’t forget to burn a few punk sticks in the joss house to the great
god Mazuma from time to time. You say money won’t buy time? Well, of
course, you can’t order eternity wrapped up and delivered at your
residence for a price, but I’ve seen Father Time get pretty bad stone
bruises on his heels when he walked through the gold diggings.”
That night came Aunt Ellen, gentle, sentimental, wrinkled, sighing,
oppressed by wealth, in to Brother Anthony at his evening paper, and
began discourse on the subject of lovers’ woes.
“He told me all about it,” said brother Anthony, yawning. “I told him
my bank account was at his service. And then he began to knock money.
Said money couldn’t help. Said the rules of society couldn’t be bucked
for a yard by a team of ten-millionaires.”
“Oh, Anthony,” sighed Aunt Ellen, “I wish you would not think so much
of money. Wealth is nothing where a true affection is concerned. Love
is all-powerful. If he only had spoken earlier! She could not have
refused our Richard. But now I fear it is too late. He will have no
opportunity to address her. All your gold cannot bring happiness to
your son.”
At eight o’clock the next evening Aunt Ellen took a quaint old gold
ring from a moth-eaten case and gave it to Richard.
“Wear it to-night, nephew,” she begged. “Your mother gave it to me.
Good luck in love she said it brought. She asked me to give it to you
when you had found the one you loved.”
Young Rockwall took the ring reverently and tried it on his smallest
finger. It slipped as far as the second joint and stopped. He took it
off and stuffed it into his vest pocket, after the manner of man. And
then he ’phoned for his cab.
At the station he captured Miss Lantry out of the gadding mob at eight
thirty-two.
“We mustn’t keep mamma and the others waiting,” said she.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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