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Dumont. It is their first child, the first grandchild of the Dumont
and Gardiner families. Mother and son are reported as doing well.
Scarborough spent little time in the futile effort to guess what coward
enemy had sped this anonymous shaft on the chance of its hitting him.
His only enemies that interested him were those within himself. He
destroyed envelope and clipping, then said to Pierson: "I neglected to
celebrate an important event not long ago." He paused to laugh--so
queerly that Pierson looked at him uneasily. "We must go to Chicago to
celebrate it."
"Very good," said Fred. "We'll get Chalmers to go with us to-morrow."
"No-to-day--the four-o'clock train--we've got an hour and a half. And
we'll have four clear days."
"But there's the ball to-night and I'm down for several dances."
"We'll dance them in Chicago. I've never been really free to dance
before." He poured out a huge drink. "I'm impatient for the ball to
begin." He lifted his glass. "To our ancestors," he said, "who
repressed themselves, denied themselves, who hoarded health and
strength and capacity for joy, and transmitted them in great oceans to
us--to drown our sorrows in!"
He won six hundred dollars at faro in a club not far from the
Auditorium, Pierson won two hundred at roulette, Chalmers lost
seventy--they had about fourteen hundred dollars for their four days'
"dance." When they took the train for Battle Field they had spent all
they had with them--had flung it away for dinners, for drives, for
theaters, for suppers, for champagne. All the return journey
Scarborough stared moodily out of the car window. And at every movement
that disturbed his clothing there rose to nauseate him, to fill him
with self-loathing, the odors of strong, sickening-sweet perfumes.
The next day but one, as he was in the woods near Indian Rock, he saw
Olivia coming toward him. They had hardly spoken for several months.
He turned to avoid her but she came on after him.
"I wish to talk with you a few minutes, Mr. Scarborough," she said
coldly, storm in her brave eyes.
"At your service," he answered with strained courtesy. And he walked
beside her.
"I happen to know," she began, "that they're going to expel you and
Fred Pierson the next time you leave here without permission."
"Indeed! You are very kind to warn me of my awful danger." He looked
down at her with a quizzical smile.
"And I wish to say I think it's a disgrace
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