THE COST

By

DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER |
I   | A FATHER INVITES DISASTER
II   | OLIVIA TO THE RESCUE
III   | AND SCARBOROUGH
IV   | A DUMONT TRIUMPH
V   | FOUR FRIENDS
VI   | "LIKE HIS FATHER"
VII   | PAULINE AWAKENS
VIII   | THE DECISION
IX   | A THOROUGHBRED RUNS AWAY
X   | MRS. JOHN DUMONT
XI   | YOUNG AMERICA
XII   | AFTER EIGHT YEARS
XIII   | "MY SISTER IN LAW, GLADYS"
XIV   | STRAINING AT THE ANCHORS
XV   | GRADUATED PEARLS
XVI   | CHOICE AMONG EVILS
XVII   | TWO AND THE BARRIER
XVIII   | ON THE FARM
XIX   | PAULINE GOES INTO POLITICS
XX   | A MAN IN HIS MIGHT
XXI   | A COYOTE AT BAY
XXII   | STORMS IN THE WEST
XXIII   | A SEA SURPRISE
XXIV   | DUMONT BETRAYS DUMONT
XXV   | THE FALLEN KING
XXVI   | A DESPERATE RALLY
XXVII   | THE OTHER MAN'S MIGHT
XXVIII   | AFTER THE LONG WINTER

THE COST

I.

A FATHER INVITES DISASTER

Pauline Gardiner joined us on the day that we, the Second Reader class, moved from the basement to the top story of the old Central Public School. Her mother brought her and, leaving, looked round at us, meeting for an instant each pair of curious eyes with friendly appeal.

We knew well the enchanted house where she lived—stately, retreated far into large grounds in Jefferson Street; a high brick wall all round, and on top of the wall broken glass set in cement. Behind that impassable barrier which so teased our young audacity were flower-beds and "shrub" bushes, whose blossoms were wonderfully sweet if held a while in the closed hand; grape arbors and shade and fruit trees, haunted by bees; winding walks strewn fresh each spring with tan-bark that has such a clean, strong odor, especially just after a rain, and that is at once firm and soft beneath the feet. And in the midst stood the only apricot tree in Saint X. As few of us had tasted apricots, and as those few pronounced them better far than oranges or even bananas, that tree was the climax of tantalization.

The place had belonged to a childless old couple who hated children—or did they bar them out and drive them away because the sight and sound of them quickened the ache of empty old age into a pain too keen to bear? The husband died, the widow went away to her old maid sister at Madison; and the Gardiners, coming from Cincinnati to live in the town where Colonel Gardiner was born and had spent his youth, bought the place. On our way to and from school in the first weeks of that term, pausing as always to gaze in through the iron gates of the drive, we had each day seen Pauline walking alone among the flowers. And she would stop and smile at us; but she was apparently too shy to come to the gates; and we, with the memory of the cross old couple awing us, dared not attempt to make friends with her.

She was eight years old, tall for her age, slender but strong, naturally graceful. Her hazel eyes were always dancing mischievously. She liked boys' games better than girls'. In her second week she induced several of the more daring girls to go with her to the pond below town and there engage in a raft-race with the boys. And when John Dumont, seeing that the girls' raft was about to win, thrust the one he was piloting into it and upset it, she was the only girl who did not scream at the shock of the sudden tumble into the water or rise in tears from the shallow, muddy bottom.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!