Big Poker Site hazard of new fortunes 39

centre of the table, and lit a cigarette, which he began to smoke, throwing his head back with a leisurely effect, as if he had got to the end of at least as much of his story as he meant to tell without prompting. March asked him the desired question. "What in the world for?" Fulkerson took out his cigarette and said, with a smile: "To spend his money, and get his daughters into the old Knickerbocker society. Maybe he thought they were all the same kind of Dutch." "And has he succeeded?" "Well, theyre not social leaders yet. But its only a question of time--generation or two--especially if times money, and if Every Other Week is the success its bound to be." "You dont mean to say, Fulkerson," said March, with a half-doubting, half-daunted laugh, "that hes your Angel?" "Thats what I mean to say," returned Fulkerson. "I ran onto him in Broadway one day last summer. If you ever saw anybody in your life; youre sure to meet him in Broadway again, sooner or later. Thats the philosophy of the bunco business; country people from the same neighborhood are sure to run up against each other the first time they come to New York. I put out my hand, and I said, Isnt this Mr. Dryfoos from Moffitt? He didnt seem to have any use for my hand; he let me keep it, and he squared those old lips of his till his imperial stuck straight out. Ever see Bernhardt in LEtrangere? Well, the American husband is old Dryfoos all over; no mustache; and hay-colored chin-whiskers cut slanting froze the corners of his mouth. He cocked his little gray eyes at me, and says he: Yes, young man; my name is Dryfoos, and Im from Moffitt. But I dont want no present of Longfellows Works, illustrated; and I dont want to taste no fine teas; but I know a policeman that does; and if youre the son of my old friend Squire Strohfeldt, youd better get out. Well, then, said I, how would you like to go into the newspaper syndicate business? He gave another look at me, and then he burst out laughing, and he grabbed my hand, and he just froze to it. I never saw anybody so glad. "Well, the long and the short of it was that I asked him round here to Maronis to dinner; and before we broke up for the night we had settled the financial side of the plan thats brought you to New York." "I can see," said Fulkerson, who had kept his eyes fast on Marchs face, "that you dont more than half like the idea of Dryfoos. It ought to give you more confidence in the thing than you ever had. You neednt be afraid," he added, with some feeling, "that I talked Dryfoos into the thing for my own advantage." "Oh, my dear Fulkerson!" March protested, all the more fervently because he was really a little guilty. "Well, of course not! I didnt mean you were. But I just happened to tell him what I wanted to go into when I could see my way to it, and he caught on of his own accord. The fact is," said Fulkerson, "I guess Id better make a clean breast of it, now Im at it, Dryfoos wanted to get something for that boy of his to do. Hes in railroads himself, and hes in mines and other things, and he keeps busy, and he cant bear to have his boy hanging round the house doing nothing, like as if he was a girl. I told him that the great object of a rich man was to get his son into just that fix, but he couldnt seem to see it, and the boy hated it himself. Hes got a good head, and he wanted to study for the ministry when they were all living together out on the farm; but his father had the old-fashioned ideas about that. You know they used to think that any sort of stuff was good enough to make a preacher out of; but they wanted the good timber for business; and so the old man wouldnt let him. Youll see the fellow; youll like him; hes no fool, I can tell you; and hes going to be our publisher, nominally at first and actually when Ive taught him the ropes a little." XII. Fulkerson stopped and looked at March, whom he saw lapsing into a serious silence. Doubtless he divined his uneasiness with

Hazard Of New Fortunes page 38        Hazard Of New Fortunes page 40