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Updated: June 8, 2025
Thropp would have had to be far less comely than she was to be unwelcome. She had the ultimate charm of perfect timeliness. He greeted her with that deference he paid to all women, and she adored him at once, independently of his fortune. Adna said that he had always been an admirer of the old Dyckman and was glad to meet his boy, being as he was a railroad man himself, in a small way.
He lived mostly in the company of Kansas University men, and with the old University yell of "Rock Chalk! Jay Hawk! K U!" for their slogan, they stood shoulder to shoulder in every conflict. Lastly, he was a hero-worshiper at the shrine of his colonel, Fred Funston, and his captain, Adna Clarke; while in all the regiment, the fair face of young Lieutenant Alford seemed to him most gracious.
Thropp was already making herself at home, loosening her waistband and her corset-laces. Adna made himself at home, too that is, he took off his coat and collar and shoes. But Kedzie could not waste her time on comfort while there was so much ecstasy to be had. She went to the window, shoved the sash high, and discovered New York. She greeted it with an outcry of wonder.
They found him sitting in the parlor in his shirt-sleeves and stocking feet, and staring out of the window at the neighbors opposite. In Nimrim it was a luxury to be able to spy into the windows of one neighbor at a time. Opposite Adna there were a hundred and fifty neighbors whom it cost nothing to watch.
Adna pondered aloud, his claim-agent instincts alert: "Settlement, eh? What might you call settlement?" "Whatever you'd consider fair. How much would you say was right?" Adna filled his lungs and mouthed the deliciously liquid word as if it were a veritable aurum potabile: "Millions!" "What!" Jim gasped. Adna fairly gargled it again: "Millillions!"
After a deal of vain abuse of Gilfoyle for abducting their child and thwarting her golden opportunity, Adna asked at last, "What does Mr. Dyckman think of all this?" "You don't suppose I've told him I was married, do you?" Kedzie stormed. "Do I look as loony as all that?" "Oh!" said Adna. "Why, he doesn't even know my name is Thropp, to say nothing of Thropp-hyphen-Gilfoyle." "Oh!" said Adna.
Kedzie saw that the elevator-boy saw that she had been crying, but what was one shame extra? She had no pride left now, and no father and no mother, no anybody. Adna refused the offices of the pages who clutched at the baggage. He went to the cashier and paid the blood-money with a grin of hate. Then he gathered up his women and his other baggage and set out for the station.
The annual convention was about to be held in the metropolis, and there was to be a tremendous investigation of the insurance scandal. Adna was elected the delegate of the Nimrim chapter, for he was known to be a demon in a money-fight. And this was the glittering news that Adna brought home. Small wonder it spilled his coffee.
We'll see about this." He went back to his women folk and mumbled, "Come on up-stairs." They followed, Mrs. Thropp murmuring to Kedzie: "Looks like poppa was goin' to be sick. I'm afraid he et too much of that rich food." The elevator flashed them to their empyrean floor. Adna did not speak till they were in their room and he had lowered himself feebly into a chair.
Adna had traveled enough to know that the way to order a meal in a hotel is to give the waiter a wise look and say, "Bring me the best you got." This waiter looked a little surprised, but he said, "Yes, sir. Do you like fruit and eggs and rolls, maybe?" "Nah," said Adna. "Breakfast's my best meal. Bring us suthin' hearty and plenty of it.
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