“Ye needn’t be,” said David Joslin. “Ye kain’t pity a mounting man—he won’t have it!”
“Hell’s bells!” ejaculated the irate man whom he addressed. “I’m not trying to change any of those damned hill-billies down there. That’s not the question. I put it up to you that you’re here in New York, and you’ve got a chance to save up a little money to _buy_ your bally old education. You don’t have to lose any of your principles. It’s just _making good_—that’s all there is to it. If you want to make good you’re on. If you don’t—good-by!”
He rose from the table, irritated, his nerves still a-jangle; but a sort of compunction came to him, or perhaps the feeling that he was making a business mistake in crowding this man. A sudden half-smile came to his face as he turned when the house man brought his hat and stick for him.
“It’s a stiff gait we travel here,” said he. “Now I’m going to my shop to see if I can earn a dollar or two to pay the rent. I believe I’ll turn you over to my chauffeur and let him drive you ‘bout town for a day or so. You remember that kid that was there last night—one that sang and played to us—Polly Pendleton, her name was. I saw you having a good look at that young dame. Some calico, what? Yeh, some girl. Now, listen here—how’d you like to go up and have a little visit with Polly around eleven-thirty or so? I could fix it up. Touch of life, eh? Gad, she seemed to be interested in you somehow—scared or something. Now——”
David Joslin went suddenly white. “Ye fergit, I reckon—I told ye I was a married man. I’ve got a wife—we had two children, down thar in Kentucky.”
“Well, I’ve got a wife too,” rejoined Haddon contemplatively. “If I had any children I’d need that much more of something to make me forget my condition of servitude. I don’t know where the Missus has gone to, but she’s shook us this morning, that’s plain! You go up and talk religion to Polly, while I go down to the office and try to make a dollar and a quarter. Maybe you can save a human soul—eh? That’s up to you.
“Life is so short,” he went on presently, finding a cigarette in his pocket. “Why hang crêpe when life is so darned short? I don’t blame you for wanting to learn the alphabet and the multiplication table, but if a man came to me and gave me a chance like this, I’d postpone those things.”