United States or Eritrea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We can live without him, but we cannot live without Esther. Ah that Tarpion! that base Tarpion! Probably he intends to marry her! It is none too soon to pull this bell. Now David Lockwin will enter, never to be driven forth. He will enter among his books. Never mind his books. It is she, SHE, SHE! Till death part them SHE is his.
A year back, when his tonsils swelled, Dr. Tarpion said they must be cut out. The house-keeper said it was the worst possible thing to do. The cook said it should never be done. The peddling huckster's son said Dr. Floddin didn't believe in it. Then Davy would wake in the night. "I tan't breathe," he would complain. "Yes, you can, Davy. Papa's here. Lie down, Davy. Here's a drink."
Tarpion," she says, relapsing into lethargy. Men seize David Lockwin, for he is bleeding profusely. "He terrifies her!" they exclaim. They wash his forehead. He has a long cut over the brow. Work fast as he may with court-plaster Esther is carried forth before the druggist can be in front to aid. People are full of praise for the heroic man.
The countenance of Corkey falls instantly. "Yes, just come from there." "Are things all smiling over there?" "Yes. They're too smiling." "Did you see Dr. Tarpion?" "Oh, I never see him! Things are too smiling! You'll never catch me there again." Lockwin starts. "She can't play none of her high games onto me. Bet your sweet life! If she don't want to listen to reason, it's none of my funeral.
"I am doubtless the sorriest knave that ever lived here," he mourns, but it only increases his determination to go directly to Esther. "I guess Dr. Tarpion will not throw me in the waste-basket! Seven thousand dollars!" David Lockwin feels as rich as Corkey. It is a mad thing he is doing, this pulling of the door-bell at the old home. The balcony is overhead. Never mind little Davy!
"I'm blessed if I know," answers Dr. Tarpion. "How long has he been in town?" "Not over two years." "Do you know anybody who knows him?" "He owes me a bill." "What was he sick of?" "Worry." The man and woman repass. The woman looks toward Lockwin and his dear friend the renowned Dr. Irenaeus Tarpion. Guests speak of Harpwood. His suit is bold. The lady is apparently interested.
But to think that Esther has not read a word of all he has written! David Lockwin hisses the name of Dr. Tarpion. Many is the time they have tented together. But how did the doctor know? He had only a type-written anonymous communication. Nevertheless this lover curses the administrator as the cause of the fiasco. "But for him my path would be easy."
Tarpion has hinted that Lockwin is not the ambitious man that he has seemed to be. Dr. Tarpion has hinted that it was only through strong personal influence that Lockwin has been held faithful to the heavy party duty that now lies upon him. Dr. Tarpion has hinted that Lockwin did not want the office if it did not belong to him. But Lockwin has had brain fever for nearly a month.
Often has the beautiful Esther Wandrell smiled upon the young men upon rich and poor alike. Why is she, at twenty-seven years of age, rich, magnificent and unmarried? Ask her mother, who married at fifteen. Ask the father, who for ten years worried to think his only child might go away from him at any day. "I tell you," says Dr. Tarpion, "Harpwood will get her, and get her to-night.
What you will do at any given time I'll not try to prophesy." The twain separate. However, of any two men in Chicago, perhaps David Lockwin and Dr. Tarpion are most agreeable to each other. From boyhood they have been familiar. If one has said to the other, "Do that!" it has been done. "I fear you cannot be spared from your other guests, Esther," says Lockwin.
Word Of The Day