"We shall see," Anthony chuckled. "This is our floor."
Wilkins--the priceless, faultless Wilkins who had been with Anthony for sixteen years--opened the door and, even though he were Wilkins, started a trifle at the sight of David and his cap. He flushed for the start, to be sure, as his master moved into the big living-room with his superb dignity, but when he had taken cap and coat and examined the suit beneath, Wilkins shook his head mentally. One shock had come that evening in the knowledge that Johnson Boller, whom Wilkins did not approve, was to be with them--but this young ruffian!
"Make yourself at home, David," Anthony smiled. "We"ll shed our coats and find our smoking jackets."
Johnson Boller with him, he moved to the corner bedroom, to face his old friend with:
"Well, what do you think of him?"
"He"s a bad egg," Johnson Boller said readily. "I don"t like his eye and the way he swaggers would get him six months in any court in town. Say whatever it is the devilish impulse prompts you to say and then fire him before he pinches the silver."
"Bosh!" Anthony said testily. "The boy"s awed and self-conscious--the swagger is a.s.sumed to cover that, of course. I mean what, in your decidedly inferior judgment, is his fitness as a subject for experiment?
Will he know opportunity when she is first set before him or will it be necessary to present her repeatedly?"
Johnson Boller laughed harshly and stared hard at his old friend. Under certain conditions, even the empty apartment on Riverside Drive might not be so bad.
"Say!" he demanded. "Are you going to keep that little rat here and argue with him till he admits that he recognizes whatever opportunity you"re going to thrust at him?"
"Essentially that."
"Well, if it"s an opportunity to earn an honest living, he"ll never see it--and if the chatter takes more than an hour I"m going home!" Johnson Boller snapped. "I"d have stayed there if I"d known you were going off into the abstract, Anthony. I wanted to talk to you and have a little game of chess and a bottle of ale and----"
Anthony smiled serenely.
"And the mere fact that a train of thought, only slightly unusual, has entered your evening, has upset your whole being, hasn"t it? Well, it"ll do you good to hear and watch something different. This boy will see opportunity before I"m done with him, Johnson, and the longer it takes the sounder my general hypothesis will have been proven."
Curiously enough, David had lost much of his grinning a.s.surance when they rejoined him. The impudence had left his eye and the boy seemed downright uneasy. He started and rose at the sight of them, and his quick, nervous smile lingered only a moment as he said:
"I think I"d better be going after all, Mr. Fry. It"s pretty late and----"
"Just a minute or two, and perhaps you"ll change your mind," Anthony said quietly, as he dropped into his pet chair. "You"ll permit a personal question or two, David?"
"I suppose so."
"Then--how old are you?"
"Twenty."
"Ah! Parents living?"
David nodded.
"And in rather humble circ.u.mstances, perhaps?"
This time David glanced at him keenly, queerly, for an instant--opened his lips and shut them again and ended with a mere jerk of a nod.
"How about schooling, David? You"ve been through high school?"
"Er--yes."
"And have you a profession?" Anthony pursued.
"No, I haven"t any profession?" the boy muttered.
"But you"re working, of course?" Mr. Fry asked sharply.
"What? Oh, yes," said David.
"At some mechanical line?"
"Oh, yes," David said.
"In just what line, then?"
And now, had Anthony but been watching, some of Johnson Boller"s suspicions must have seemed justified. There was no question about the way David"s very intelligent eyes were acting now; they darted furtively, wildly almost, from side to side, as if the boy were seeking escape. They darted toward Anthony and away from him and back to David"s shabby suit and worn shoes.
"I"m a--plumber"s helper!" the boy said gustily.
"Wait a second, kid!" Mr. Boller put in. "Let me see those hands!"
"Well, they--they haven"t had time to get roughened up yet!" David said quickly. "I just went to work yesterday."
"The boy"s lying, Anthony!" Mr. Boller said bluntly.
"I don"t lie, Mr.----"
"Boller," Anthony supplied. "And please don"t badger the boy, Johnson."
"I"m not badgering him," said Johnson Boller; "only that kid"s hands look more like a society queen"s than an honest workingman"s."
"They may be hands designed for better things. David! Tell me, are you quite satisfied to be a plumber"s helper, or was it the only thing you could find in the way of employment?"
"It was all I could find," David muttered, glancing at the door. And then, with his quick smile, he rose again. "I"d like to sit here and answer questions, Mr. Fry, but I"ll have to run along and----"
Anthony beamed at him over his gla.s.ses, fidgeting there with the impatience of youth, standing on one foot and then on the other. Anthony turned and beamed at the bookcase beside him, and selecting a volume, beamed at that, too.
"David," said he, "will you be seated long enough to hear a little poem?"
"What?"
"It is a very short poem, and one of my favorites," Anthony mused, and his stare at David grew quite hypnotic. "Ah, here it is--a little, wonderfully big poem by the late Senator John Ingalls. It is called--"Opportunity.""
"Aha!" David said rather stupidly.
"And now, listen," said Anthony, clearing his throat.
"Master of human destinies am I!"