lvin Gray, and the days that
followed were a torture. It was a torment to avoid "Bob," for
self-denial only whetted his appetite to see her, and those cunning
plans he had laid at the time of their last meeting--plans devised
solely to bring them together--he had to alter upon one excuse or
another; he even forced Buddy Briskow to substitute for him.
Fortunately, there were certain negotiations requiring his presence in
Dallas, in Tulsa, and elsewhere, and it some what relieved his
irritation to put miles between him and the city he had come to regard
as his home.

The Nelsons' bank was known as the Security National, and it
represented the life work of two generations of the family. Bell's
father had founded it, in the early cattle days, but to the genius and
industry of Bell himself had been due its growth into one of the
influential institutions of the state. Other banks had finer quarters,
but none in this part of the country had a more solid standing nor more
powerful names upon its directorate. Bennett Swope, for instance, was
the richest of the big cattle barons; Martin Murphy was known as the
Arkansas hardwood king, and Herman Gage owned and operated a chain of
department stores. The other two--there were but seven, including Bell
and his son--were Northern capitalists who took no very active interest
in the bank and almost never attended its meetings. For that matter,
the three local men above named concerned themselves little with the
actual running of the institution, for the Nelsons, who owned
nine-tenths of the stock, were supreme in that sphere. It was only at
the annual meetings when directors were re-elected--and invariably they
succeeded themselves--that they forgathered to conduct the dull routine
business which is a part of all annual meetings. After they had
adjourned as stockholders they reconvened as directors, and again
mumbled hurried and perfunctory ayes to the motions put before them, so
that Bell could the more quickly get out his bottle of fine old
Bourbon, the one really ceremonious procedure of the day. The Security
National was as conservative, as rock ribbed, as respectable, and as
uninteresting as any bank could well be, and its directors were always
bored when election time came around.

In spite of the fact that the program this year was as thoroughly cut
and dried as usual, the day of the meeting found both father and son
decidedly nervous, for there were certain questions of manage