granite letters
over the portal.

"It's a good scheme, Corkey."

But the bride still stands under the lamp on the portico, statuesque as
Zenobia or Medea.

DAVID LOCKWIN

THE PEOPLE'S IDOL

BOOK I

DAVY

CHAPTER I

HARPWOOD AND LOCKWIN

Esther Wandrell, of Chicago, will be worth millions of dollars.

It is a thought that inspires the young men of all the city with
momentous ambitions. Why does she wait so long? Whom does she favor?

To-night the carriages are trolling and rumbling to the great mansion
of the Wandrells on Prairie Avenue. The women are positive in their
exclamations of reunion, and this undoubted feminine joy exhilarates,
and entertains the men. The lights are brilliant, the music is far
away and clever, the flowers and decorations are novel.

If you look in the faces of the guests you shall see that the affair
cannot fail. Everybody has personally assured the success of the
evening.

Many times has this hospitable home opened to its companies of selected
men, and women. 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. That is what this party is for. I've seen them together,
and I know what's in the air."

"Is that so?" says David Lockwin.

"Yes, it is so, and you know you don't like Harpwood any too well since
he got your primary in the Eleventh."

"I should say I didn't!" says Lockwin, half to himself.

At a distance, Esther Wandrell passes on Harpwood's arm.

"Who is Harpwood?" asks Lockwin.

"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.

"I should not think you would like that?" says the doctor.

"Why should I care, after all?" asks Lockwin.

"Well, if ever I have seen two men whose destinies are hostile, it
seems to me that you and Harpwood fill the condition. If h