Rich Man, Poor Man

her, Varick ever afterward could remember only as the mind recalls the vague, inconstant images of a dream. The least of it all, though, was

ck, once he heard them, listened curiously. Something in their tone was familiar, especially in the woman's tone; and though the foo

a moment he gazed, astonished. The lady-for manifestly in spite of h

e that boomed like a grenadier

n with pale, myopic eyes, pale, drooping mustaches, and thin, colorless hair, gave ven

k there was not only startled

Afterward, having given her bonnet a devastating ja

s Elvira Beeston. The chatelaine, the doyenne too, of that rich, powerful family, Miss Elvira enjoyed into the bargain a personality not to be overlooked. Briefly, it would have made her notable whatever her walk in life. But never

aps. Of these, however, the one advanced by the lady herself possibly was the m

ira's dress. Her hat, a turban whose mode was at least three seasons in arrears, sagged jadedly into the position where her hand l

s air bored, his nose uplifted and his aspect that of one pursuing a subtle odor, Mr. Lloyd advanced into Mrs. Tilney's hallway. Evidently its appointmen

elves on his face; and now, having for a moment gazed blankly at Miss Beeston, he gave vent to a stifled cry. The next instant, turning on his heel, Mr. Mapleson fled at full tilt up the stairs. He ran, his haste unmistakable, flitting like a frightened rabbit. Then as he reached

s Elvira; "you haven't told m

r expression on his

now?" he inq

t trousers she had known him. Added to that, he long had been a

ra said abruptly, "why haven

was deprecatory rather than rude. That somehow he felt

el

him," when he became aware that Miss Elvira was neither intereste

are jaw seemed to grow less square; the bright, inquiring eyes visibly softened, their gleam less hard, less penetrating, while Miss Elvira's mouth

entarily, staring at the strangers in the hall below. Then a faint air of wondermen

pon her plain unlovely features-a radiance that would have startled into wonder Miss Elvira's cronies had they been there

d straigh

ne," she said. "You've co

"Why, what is it?" he murmured to Miss Elvira. By now, however, that lady had forgotten that Varick even ex

cracking as she spoke; "you know me, don't you? I'm you

of what had happened ran from room to room. To say the boarding house w

th or position. Disowned, then disinherited, the son as well as the woman he'd married had disappeared. It was as if the grave had swallowed them. Which, indeed, h

he can have anything she wants now!" A thought at this instant entering her mind, she gave a

was one person who did not share Miss

in her bedroom staring into the cold, burned-out grate. Its ashes seemed somehow to typify her sense of desolation, of loneliness; for, as she reflected, Bab was gone, Bab was no longer hers. How swift it all had been!

leson's door. His face was a study. All the color had left it unt

thickly, "do you kno

he had been struck. Then from Mr. Mapleson's fa

he ga

grimly

an's trunk? It was you, too, wasn't it, that gave the lawyers the other papers-their proofs?"

uth, Mr. Mapleson sh

illed, and Varick shrugged

, that scoundrel, who ruined my father? You don't know, do you, he was t

stared at h

ther?" he stammered

ted suddenly o

"Don't you know I want her? You don't t

ot heed. All at once he

" he groaned. "Oh,