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MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT TO THE ATLANTA SUNDAY CONSTITUTION OCTOBER 12. 1902.
IN FIVE PARTS
Part Two
Red and the Black
Written 'or 7&>c Sunny South
HE gay appearance of Its
principal business streets,
whose buildings were fes
tooned with flags and bunt
ing, and the unwonted
number of people abroad,
arrayed In their smartest
attire, augured something
out of the ordinary to be
in progress in the Ken
tucky town of I# .
Diverse in its component
Individuality as was the
passing and repassing con
course of townfolk and countryfolk, of
careless childhood and rollicking youth,
of ogling swain and simpering maid, of
dignified Benedick and settled matron, It
was homogeneous in that, as the obvious
holiday spirit proclaimed, Its each and
every unit was bent upon pleasure. And
they knew that they wore not to seek in
vain for amusement, for It was county-
fair time; this w'as the red-letter day, and
the great annual event had caused an
irruption into the blue-grass town of Ken
tuckians for a radius of a hundred miles
about.
Two men strolled leisurely along, pick
ing their way through the crowds and
chatting as they went. One was tall and
dark—from a’l extrinsic tokens an east
erner. and of an age somewhere around
thirty-two. The other, a year or so
younger, was Carlton Wilkins, a resident
lawyer, between whom and his companion
there existed a close friendship which
extended backward to a period when they
had been lads together. Frequently the
former would Introduce his boyhood’s
chum to some passerby, and when the
names were pronounced it would develop
that the two had known each other long
before In the same place; In fact, James
Gardiner was now a stranger, in facial
aspect at least, in the country of his
youth; no one could have detected,
through the physical changes which had
accompanied hie evolution into the full
?«mf and flower of maturo manhood, tho
Identity of the nomely young "Jim” who
fyears before, upon the death of Colonel
't'Jard’ner, his father, had gone to live in
the great insular city. N had they
been able to Introspectlveiy view his
moral side, would they have recognized
it as the same. The external and the
Internal man had both undergone muta
tions—the one for the better, if an im
provement in looks might be called for
the better; the other, In some respects,
distinctly for the worse.
Something on the other side of the
street was drawing the stranger’s notice.
Since tirst perceiving them half a block
off he had been watch’ng, as if he knew’
them or had seen them somewhere be
fore, two ladies, evidently mother and
daughter. They were now almost directly
opposite.
“Carlton!” he suddenly spoke, in a tone
which denoted an unusual interest; “who
are those two ladles across the street?—
their faces seem familiar to me, the
younger one’s especially.”
Almost with the utterance of the words
there flashed upon his mind the picture
of a reckless roulette player, betw’een
w’hose features and the physiogomy of
the two ladies there was aq unmistakable
correspondence; and he had a premoni
tion that, notwithstanding his ignorance
of what part of the country the young
man came from, these persons were of
Law ton Phillips’ own blood. He under
stood now why he should have thought
that he had seen the two ladiep before—
he really had. It was on that hot night
one week before, after young Phillips’
visit to him, that there tarried before his
vision for a moment—strange freak of
the Imagination!—a phantom replica, in
mirage as it were, of these self-same per
sons.
"Why, that’s Mrs. Phillips and her
daughter, Helen!’’ said Wilkins, half in
answer to the question and half in ex
clamation of pleasant surprise. “I knew
they were coming into town today, but I
thought they wouldn’t be here until the
afternoon.”
Gardiner was wondersmitten at this vir
tual confirmation, although he did not
show it. He was about to put another
question, but was forestalled.
"Let’s go over, and I’ll introduce you,”
proposed his friend. Gardiner seemed
averse—why, Carlton Wilkins well knew,
from his knowledge of the man. The
reason was his casuistical scruples, on
account of the disrepute in which gam
bling and its votaries are held by so
ciety.
“There’re not many like you, Jim,”
he remarked. Taking him by the arm.
“Come on and don’t be foolish,” he said
seriously. “Haven't you sat at the table
with my people—haven’t you been wel
comed In my home? Besides, you’re not
a gambler at the present moment any
way.’’ he added with a laugh as he drew
the protestant along, explaining as they
went that Mrs. Phillips owned a large
farm abutting upon his own people’s
place, where she had lived with her
daughter and sons since the family’s re
moval from an adjoining county some
years before, and that between the two
households, and particularly between his
sister and Helen Phillips, existed the
closest relations of friendship.
“You are not like other women, you are the best woman I ever met.”
"There can be no doubt of it,” assever
ated Gardiner to himself after he had
been presented to the elder lady—a soft-
mannered little woman—and to her daugh
ter. and had noted the extraordinary re
semblance; "these are Indeed the mother
and the sister!” It was with much diffi
culty, though, that he brought himself
to believe the truth, notwithstanding Its
obviousness.
In the person of the girl before him he
saw symbolized the beauty, grace and
heartiness of the blue-grass maiden;
firm-limbed and supple of body, the ex
ercise of riding and much time spent out
of doors otherwise had given her the al
most redundant health which exhibited
Itself in the coral cheeks and the rare
clearness and brilliancy of her eyes.
These latter were of a shade of blue not
often met with; Gardiner thought it just
like the azure which at times gleamed in
his big opal scarf pin, and which he
deemed the most splendid coloring he had
ever 3een. Glorious dark-brown hair,
stray wisps of which were played with
by a passing breath of air, glistened
richly in the warm sunshine and waved in
untrained undulations above features of
symmetry and meaning in which an ob
servant beholder might have traced the
intellectual lines so distinguishable in the
visage of the absent brother.
"And you say your home is in Xew
York. Mr. Gardiner?” ino.uired Mrs.
Phillips. ^
"I've lived there so long,” was the re
ply. "that that, I suppose, is my home
now. 1 was raised, though, in this same
county, and, as a young man, lived here,
so that, in feeling, my real home is
hereabouts, and I believe I can say I'm
sorry that I ever left."
''Spoken like a true Kentuckian!” com
mented Carlton Wl’kins.
“I wish my son might think as you
do.” said the elder woman, “and come
back to us. He has been in New York
now what seems to me a long, long
time, although it is but little over a
year.” A low sigh escaped her, uncon
sciously.
Gardiner was about to make some gen
eral remark about the opportunities in
the east for young men, when Miss
Phillips addressed him.
”1 suppose it is useless to ask, Mr.
Gardiner,” she said in a musical voice
that sounded like the notes of an attemp
ered bell, "whether by any possible
chance you have ever come across Law-
ton—that is my brother’s name?”
Gardiner was prepared for this, and he
decided not to tergiversate with refer
ence to the direct question, but beyond
that he realized that he must be wary
what answers he gave.
“Lawton, do you say?" he rejoined,
counterfeiting astonishment "Why, yes
—I did meet a young man of the name
of Lawton Phillips not so long since, and
I really believe he looked a great deal
like you, but of course he may not have
been your brother.”
"What a coincidence!” exclaimed the
girl. “It must have been he. Did—” But
she was interrupted by her mother.
"When did you see him—was he well?”
the latter asked, earnestly,
“-He seemed to be. I met him one
evening about a week ago,” replied Gar
diner. “It was a little late and our con
versation lasted only a few moments.”
His manner of speaking was calculated
to leave the Impression, as he desired it
should, that he had been introduced to
Lawton Phillips in one of those cases
where a presentation is merely a per
functory civility intended to obviate err- v
barrassment, but the replies he gave to
other questions left the mother and sis
ter in no doubt as to the stranger's os
tensible chance acquaintance being tho
person in whom they were so much in
terested.
Perhaps it was because Mrs. Phillips
thought she might glean some ulterior in
formation respecting her son. or the char
acteristic and inborn attribute of hospi
tality common to ail inhabitants of that
country may have been the actuating im
pulse-very likely the Invitation partook
of both motives. But, whatever her rea
sons, she desired Gardiner to pay her
home a visit before he should return to
New York.
“He Is going to spend some time with
me, Mrs. Phillips, and I’ll bring him over
myself," promised Mr. Wilkins.
“Poor old lady!” commented tho latter
when the two men were alone.
"Yes—poor woman!” repeated Gardiner
after him.
Wilkins gave him an Inquiring glance,
seeing which, his friend continued, "I
happen to know that her son has been
gambling heavily in New York."
"You don’t say!” exclaimed the former.
In great amazement. "Are you sure It’s
the same Lawton Phillips?"
"There Is no question about it,” was
the response; "the boy is the masculine
counterpart of the girl.”
"A most wonderful coincidence,” ob
served Wilkins.
"Yes. it is rather queer,” was the
thoughtful assent, "that I should come
down here and meet up with his people.
I felt as soon as I saw them that they
were his mother and sister and that was
one of the reasons why I didn’t want to
meet them—I felt it with that certainty,
and foresaw their embarrassing question
ing-embarrassing to me because of my
connection with the young fellow.”
He then related the history of his deal
ings with Phillips, including the return
of the $5,000,
"I must say that I never before heard
of money being given back in that way,”
said Wilkins. "You are a gambler-phil
anthropist, as it were."
Gardiner laughed. “No, hardly that,”
he gainsayed. "To come down to the
fine point, It was really selfishness. You
see the boy was so cut up over it. The
thought of his extreme distress haunted
me somehow or other- -strange as that
may seem," he added with a smile, “and
as I didn't want to have anything like
that on my mind while on vacation I
sent him the money." And thus he passed
It off.
"Old Jacob Hicks," said Carlton npon
Gardiner's finishing, "who loans money
here and who consults me at times, told
me he had let Mrs. Phillips have $10,000
within the past year—$5,000 only two of
three months ago, taking a mortgage on
her farm as security. I surmised that
she was procuring some of it for Lawton,
and from her disturbed appearance of
late I suspected he had been unfortunate
with It or hadn’t used It rightly, although
I could hardly entertain the last belief,
for Lawton had always been a model boy;
he didn’t have a single bad habit that I
know of. and he really went to New York
to go Into business, as he told you.”
"I hope, then,” said Gardiner, "he’ll
now carry out that Intention.”
Life emldst the blue grass and Its ely-
slan fields 1—whose bourn the wanderer
revisits with a feeling of pride and with
memories of bygone times dear to the
heart. Autumn in the roiling blue-grass
country!—in the depiction of the beauties
of which the eloquence of Demosthenes
might have found ample scope and among
whose glories Wordsworth, with his pas
toral-loving nature, might have stricken
from his lyre songs of sweetest melody.
The trees, still arrayed in brilliant ves
ture of multifarious hue but slowly cast
ing off the proud attire, were soon to
stand forth from their divestiture, cloth
less and uncovered, in the first state of
the couple of Eden; and the whole world
of flora was preparing for the somnolent
touch of winter and the sleep through its
long night to the morning of spring. The
harvests were over, the crops all gathered;
the gentle swell of seas of golden grain,
the emerald com with its tossing plum
age, and the acres upon acres of tobacco
and exuberant clover were no longer to
be seen. In their stead iay the bare earth
with their barns and granaries plethoric
ungarnished beauty of the brown fields,
with their bams and granaries plethoris
rich
with the wealth wrested from th
soil by sturdy husbandmen.
The Wilkins mansion stood back fully
a mile from the pike, being reached by a
private road, which was flanked on either
side by fields devoted to the production
of hemp—now shorn and here and there
dotted with huge garnered stacks of the
fibrous plant. A row of giant elms In
front and other trees surrounding did not
admit of a good view of the house—once
painted a dark red, but now of a rusty
brown—until one had approached with
in a short distance, when Its two stories
of brick and the trellised vine-embowered
piazza became visible. A solid, comfort
able edifice it was, that carried well the
years it had seen, for here, encompassed
by palisades of ancient forestry, it had
rested for three-quarters of a century,
tenanted by successive generations of the
Wilkins lineage.
James Gardiner had spent three weeks,
fleeting in their passage, as the guest of
this house—a period fraught with much
meaning to him; indeed it was this latter
fact that had made the days so evanes
cent.
The life and the scenes were new only
in the sense that long absence or desue
tude imparts a novelty to things once
familiar; and his delight was two-fold;
he lived over the days of his nonage and
he enjoyed the respite from the din and
strife of the city and from—yes! from
that Inner din and strife, that wheel with
in a wheel, for which he himself was re
sponsible. Every minute in the day con
tained a pleasure for him either me-fal
or physical, from the savory 6 o’clock
breakfast until the noiseless night closed
down and, bounding Into the astonishing
ly high, old-fashioned bed which formed
a conspicuous article of furniture In the
spacious guest chamber, he became half
submerged In Its softness.
The footing upon which Gardiner was
received Into this household was pecular.
In a word, Carlton Wilkins was fully
aware, as has been shown, of the char
acter of his friend's occupation, and un
der conditions different from those that
existed would have been censurable for
presenting him at his hearthstone. The
other members of the family were not so
well Informed, although they had heard,
through the Interval of years since Gardi
ner, the youth, had left their midst, that
his vocation was what might be called
dubious, and they frowned upon tt, with
out knowing its exact nature. But the
relations between the family and its vis
itor's father and mother during the life
of the latter and the friendship between
Carlton and “Jim” even from their child
hood. had been so close and enduring
that all were glad, after the lapse of so
• long a time, to welcome and entertain
him, whatever his shortcomings. As for
Gardiner's own oourse in the matter, he
had intended to stay at the hotel in the
town during the balance of his sojourn.
Knowing that If he went to the Wilkinses
he would be thrown into contact more oc
less with members of the Phillips fam-
lty, he was particularly reluctant to go;
but Carlton argued that as the two would
spend the most of their time In hunting,
fishing and the like he need not concern
himself on that point, and by dint of
much urging and persuasion brought his
friend to accede to his desire.
And so thither the gentleman proprie
tor of a glided gambling house removed,
participating in the social amenities of
the country homes and shooting and rid
ing—the last sometimes alone, sometimes
In quite a party going to a nearby village
to some entertainment, and sometimes—
ah, many times!—with Helen Phillips. He
found that there was a much closer bond
between the two families than he had as
sumed from what he had been told by
Carlton, Miss Phillips Being an especial
( friqnd of the latter’s widowed sister,
Alice, and coming frequently to the house
on horseback. In this way he saw her of
ten, and little by little they came to be
quite a lot together, to Gardiner’s own
surprise and rather to the wonderment of
Carlton. They seemed naturally to gravi
tate towards each other.
During Gardiner’s first visit to the
Phillipses, In which he had been accom
panied by Carlton Wilkins, had been
arranged for a day or so afterwards a
riding party, composed of young peo
ple of the vicinity, to Georgetown, 4
miles away, where the members were
to lunch, returning in the evening. From
that time forward he continued his
visits. While he felt that he was a mean
and foisting Interloper, the circum
stances of his acquaintance with Lawton
Phillips wove about these people a pe
culiar interest to him—an attraction
which might be compared with that of
the candle for the moth; and in respect
to the young woman he was impelled on
by some puissant and Irresistible fasci
nation that triumphed over all ethical
barriers.
In the beginning he felt a bit strange
and awkward in her presence, a sensa
tion not to be wondered at, since the fe
male society which he had been accus
tomed to for years was of that kind
best described as questionable—types
.that, long harbored, tend to cause, a
man to forget that women still live who
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