I was more at my ease in the smoking room after dinner, where I had to tell the story about the theft of the purse in Steele"s store. The shrewd old merchant laughed heartily.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "_I have been offering your young man some advice, Sarah._"]
"I trust, Mr. Harrington," he drawled, "that now you are going to marry you will lose _your_ purse there in place of taking one."
They paid me considerable attention all around, and it gave me a pleasant feeling--all of which, I knew, was due to Sarah. I was nothing but a newcomer among them, but she was the daughter of an old friend.
And she had a wonderful way of her own of coming close to people.
I remember that we went later to the opera, which was being given in that big barn of an exposition building on the lake front where I had had my first experience of Chicago hospitality. We were in a box, and between the acts people came in to call. Sarah introduced me to some of them, and she held a reception then and there while Mrs. Dround looked on and smiled.
I forget the opera that was given,--some French thing,--but I remember how gay the place was, and all the important people of the city whom Sarah pointed out to me. Even as a matter of business, I saw it would be a good thing to know these people. Of course, the social side of life doesn"t count directly in making money, but it may count a good deal in getting close to the crowd that knows how to make money. Perhaps I began to have even a little more pride in Sarah than I had before, seeing how she knew people and counted for something with them. In the game that we were going to play together this social business might come in handily, perhaps.
In one of the intervals of the opera Mrs. Dround remarked as if her mind had been on the same idea:--
"You see Sarah"s sphere, Mr. Harrington?"
"Yes," I replied. "And the girl does it tip-top!"
She laughed.
"Of course! It"s in the blood."
"Well, it isn"t a bad thing, some of it," I went on with pride and content. "Strauss isn"t here, is he?" I asked.
"The Strausses never go anywhere, you know."
"He"s the biggest of them all, too," I said partly to myself.
"You think so? Why?" she asked, her brows coming together.
"He"s the biggest dog, and it"s dog eat dog in our business, as all over nowadays," I replied.
"Why now more than ever before?" she asked.
"It"s in the air. There"s a change coming over business, and you feel it the same as you feel a shift in the wind. It"s harder work fighting to live now than ever before, and it can"t go on like this forever. The big dog will eat up the rest."
"And you think Strauss is our big dog?" she asked with a smile.
I saw then where she had led me, but it was too late to be less frank.
"Yes," I answered, looking her in the eyes.
"Then how should one keep out of his jaws?" she went on, playing with her fan.
"Well, you can always get out of a sc.r.a.p and stay out--or--" I hesitated.
"Or?" she persisted.
"Put up such a fight that the big fellow will give you good terms to get rid of you!"
"I see. You have given me something to think about, Mr. Harrington."
"The time is coming," I went on, careless whether she repeated to Mr.
Dround my views, "and mighty quick, too, when that man Strauss will have the food-products business of this country in his fist, and the rest of us will be his hired men, and take what he gives us!"
"What are you two talking about in this intimate way?" Sarah broke in.
"The future," Mrs. Dround said.
"Business," I added.
"Business!" Sarah sniffed, and I knew I had done something I ought not to do. "And Nevada singing so divinely to-night! Come, Van, I want you to meet Mr. Morehead." And I was led away from our hostess to keep me out of mischief.
On our way home after the opera Sarah and I talked of Mrs. Dround. I had never met any woman like her, and I was loud in her praise.
"Yes," Sarah admitted slowly, "she seemed to like you. But did you see how she treated the Carmichaels? Just civil, and hardly that. n.o.body can understand Jane. She just does as she wants always."
"I believe she must have a great head for business. If she were in Henry I."s shoes--"
"I don"t see why you say that! I am sure you never hear the least word about business in their house."
I smiled at Sarah"s little show of temper, as she continued:--
"Anyway, it would be strange if she didn"t know something about money-making. Her father was old Joe Sanson--they say he was a half-breed and made his money trading with the Indians and getting Government lands. Father used to tell stories about him. We heard that he left her a great deal of money, but n.o.body knows much about her or her affairs. She"s so silent."
"I didn"t find her so."
Sarah apparently did not altogether share my enthusiasm for Mrs. Dround.
"Tell me," she demanded, "just what she said to you, every word."
"I can"t. She talks with her eyes, most."
"Oh, I hate to have men discuss business with women. It is such bad taste!"
"Why, Sarah, business is the whole thing for me. There isn"t anything else I can talk about except you."
"Talk about me, then. I shall have to keep you out of Jane"s way. I don"t want you to talk to her about things I don"t understand."
"Why not?"
She shivered and drew me closer to her.
"Because, Jane--I am afraid of Jane. She is so strong, and I am so weak.
If she wanted you, or anybody, she would take you."