THE FOOL'S TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13625, 19 December 1907, Page 3

THE FOOL'S TAX.

fOBUSHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

I f BY LUCAS CLEEVE. '"','■• Author of "The Rose Geranium," "The " , r Fool-killer," Etc., Etc. !!:§;'SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTER. 1 . ]tn. Morland. wife of a United States I gßiiator, with considerable wealth, receives m that her only son Harry has mar--1 • ried in Baltimore. Tho bride is one Grace 1 VoU» r « whom Mrs. Morland had forbidden I her Son to marry on account of her poverty S «nd obscurity. Mrs Morland is shocked at £ the receipt of the news. She had other plans I,' for Harrv's future She brings her husDand 1 on 'he scene, and Mr Morland. who is ac- ,■■ customed to do as his wife tells him. is 1 packed off to Baltimore with instructions to I reason with Harry, and. if possible, get a divorce. Harry sent a lotto* following his telegram, but Mrs. Norland's reply is that litis can never receive his wife, and by the I time his father, chasing him round on his * honeymoon, catches hi in up he hus begun to realise that charming as Grace Volncr is. - ' and much as ho loved her, the marriage had f!een a mistake. Harry meets his father. Ho t* is unfitted for work, and though somewhat ashamed of himself, he is persuaded to leave I "race aiH go on a trip to Europe, preferring I; - this to poverty. Mr. Morland undertakes to break the news to Grace. I How it all came about no one ever Quite , understood, but in a. years time Grace had consented to a divorce, and Harry was a free ' ' man Two year* later she married again. H As for Harry, he soon forgot her amidst the f" distractions of foreign travel. But what ; neither his father nor his mother noticed was ; . verv subtle change in his character. f Mr 'and Mrs. Morland have two daughters. I •Bertha and Mary. The Senator, who has ¥ found his wife unsympathetic, has lavished I all his love on them. Though rich and f* Powerful-but not as rich as he was reputed r to be-he was a lonely man whose heart carf ried a secret that, he shared with none. After ;* : i hall at the French Embassy, he returns lift home bv himself, his wife and daughters I' having gone in the carriage. He finds Bertha '$'■' Jitting no for him. she tells him that the I Marouis de Boia Fendu de la Ferromere has I proposed to her. and that she has accepted * kin The news does not please him. for he 1 dislikes foreigners. Mrs. -'orlaud. however. H}» delighted. Mary 9 the only one who snares j her father's feelings. ' { CHAPTER V. 2 BrT things didn't run so smoothly as I Bertha had hoped, though perhaps as I smoothly as she had anticipated. The I fact was that the French Ambassadress £ bad told the marquis that the Misses MorI land, were very big heiresses, and as he II had-como to Washington expressly to l i marry an heiress, tho Frenchman had j f rather run headlong into his engagement I; with Bertha. Later, someone said that i they didn't believe they were as rich as -. they were supposed to be, and everyone ]:; had added that of course it was im- * mensely in the senator's favour that he I wasn't a great deal richer. No one quite exI plained what they meant when they said Ithis, but apparently everyone understood. I Thinking over his luncheon at their

House the day after the ball at the Em-

$ bassy, the Frenchman grew pensive. They ! ' had been very nice to him, especially the I mother, but he had felt that the senator was I looking him over, and he had not, as he ') had expected, been drawn into the library 1 and told what the settlements were. This i, gave him to think, as the French say. i , As a matter, of fact, he didn't know i|' 1 enough about America to understand the § - very great distinction there is between the lexes. i■' l He had been told that Americans would i pay anything for a title, but he didn't | I know that it is only the women who are I given that way. The men despise titles, H and when they allow their daughters to I buy them it's in much the same mood as they would allow them to buy a silver--1 haired poodle, or a high-stepping hackney, *f; or anything that takes their fancy. '•..". L'\", The senator had given him a very good I;I cigar, and gone to the senate, and left | him with the,women. Mary had gone to I,' lie down, Mrs. . Morland had gone out 1 driving, and Bertha had taken him to if, , Chevy Chase in her automobile. They [|, didn't any of them, seem in a hurry to 1 purchase, and he felt . like a discarded ft waist on a bargain counter. That Bertha | was still charming meant nothing. Aft* a.matter of fact, Senator Morland 1 would have liked to take the young man ■ into his library, and ask him what he meant to settle on his daughter, and to f toll him that she hadn't a cent in the ' world. If the man was after her money, & as he supposed, they would soon get rid | of* him that way. What kept him from doing so was the fear lest, if they should | get rid of him, that his wife and daughI. ter would never forgive him. But he v didn't mean to hurry matters up. It \_ would be quite time when the young man |; came to him about it; meanwhile, they | would get to know each other better. He had had a rather stormy interview I with his wife that morning. He had |. ventured the remark that he was sorry | that she had hooked a foreigner, and his l' wife had asked what on earth he had to comf plain of; that half the girls in Washing- | lon,would give their eyes to marry him, j. »nd that the Ambassadress had told her £ that he belonged to one of the finest •j\ families in all France. !'; "Well, they don't count for much in : these days," the senator had given forth, | and Mrs. Morland had shrugged her :|- shoulders with a sneer, which seemed to I convey the impression that she thought ; his remark vulgar. Finally, she had ask- | ed him what he intended to give Bertha, \ and he had told her that he didn't feel \ like giving anything. '|> To this she replied that he never had considered his family; that she had supI posed when she married him that he was i rich, but that if he couldn't give Bertha § anything, she supposed he was poor. She even hinted that a senator had no § right to be poor, that he was imposing | on the credulity of the people; that if he ,| hadn't the fortune to enable his daughters I to marry the kind of men they were | thrown amongst, they should never have | , come to Washington; to which he retort- \ ed that if she were prepared to-give, up Washington, no doubt he could manage I "to give Bertha something. He felt as % -if he had scored one when he saw her t * change of expression. | Then bad come the interview with the '{. marquis, in which he liad been politely I firm. There is a good deal of sincerity in |- the fortune-hunter; ono should, at least, I give him his due. Asked how he intended f. to keep a wife, ho bad no hesitation in in- -; forming the senator that he could not $,- marry without a million. The great name H of Bois Fendu needed that to keep itself \ afloat, and his property was mortgaged. i Much as he loved mademoiselle, he could ;" not marry without a million. I The senator laughed. i";, "Why don't you do something?" ho had asked the young man, and the young man, I' hi an official manner, which was not without 3 solemnity and respect, had told him that ;, tuere was nothing that a Bois Fendu could ;' do, that his title in itself prohibited his | inspiring confidence, even as a charbonn»r; and the senator was inclined to-be-:fc;''.:lieve it. i" A Bat ' ie idea of giving Bertha a million I dollars was- quite out of the question. To I* ■ give a million dollars to Bertha would mean §, to give another to Mary, when her turn B came—his sense of justice made him feel I this— and to live on the remaining million I *ould mean the curtailing of theirl expenses § and their way of living, which he was quite v sure his wife would never consent to, even .» lor Bertha's sake. - $>■■■■ Naturally, the marquis said, it was a |:i ; T ery delicate question—he wished that the I Joestion of money did not have to enter i into love; but the senator declared that ft.. >• was better to be business-like, and in--1 S* d him that he couldn't afford to give I'.\jjwtha anything like that at present, |. though he might expect it at his death. j!;, J*™ the marquis retired to tlie Embassy I .jo consider whether it would be better to *'?«, on expectations, and to marry Bertha w 'th whatever the senator was willing to I ?! Ve ' or w h e ther he could gracefully retire fit- ? the scene as', regards the Morlands, 1 and search elsewhere for a richer girl. ■ out his cousin, the secretary, who had I v* I****1**** a little more about America, told 1 «m that, nothing but immediate flight p|R?Uld fterve his purpose if he wished to reft. ; Washington would be made untenable iiS , Z when it became known that he had : Proposed to Berth i for her money, and S!^* n her over when he found she* hadn't liS" t * b ' and that it was not likely that. I Miyone else would feel inclined to take him l|:r|W rebound just now. His faith in I vTP<>wer of titles was decidedly dimin--1 "' P.LILI ■ . ; v ■.. .-

. And at that moment the senator's house in Massachusetts Avenue was not a pleasant place to stay in. There had been no explanation, only for two or three days the marquis had not been seen, and Bertha nad cried a good deal. It was her mother who said the least, anxious as she was for the match, principally, perhaps, because so man of the daughters of her friends nad failed to become engaged this year. •But she saw the force of the senator's argument. A million to each of the girls would certainly impair the habitual expenditure, and Mrs. Morland had an exaggerated idea of the importance of her position. It. was Mary who settled the matter for good ana all. She told her father that she was not to be considered, if it helped mati' unselfishness amazed her father, and he wondered where on earth she had inherited such a disposition. " I want you to have the same as Bertha, whatever it is," he told her. But she. informed him that the only man siio would ever marry, wouldn't dream of marrying her till he had made enough to keep her, which led her father to suppose that there was something between her and the very distinguished-looking voung man who didn't belong to the smart set. '• He won't want any money from you," she said, from which statement her father gathered with some relief that she was going to many a typical American. At this juncture anyone who didn't want money him * d , to Lira very much to be commended, and he began to look upon his eldest daughter from another point of view. Nothing surprised him more than that his only source of comfort should bo his plain daughter, from whom ho had expected nothing. Hut notwithstanding her generositv, Man- discussed. her sister's marriage with her sister m plain language. The fact that he stayed away made her verv doubtful as to the happiness the marquis would provide. for her sister, and she told Bertha so. "Why, its just as if you were buying him, she had said to her, and Bertha laughed and said: "So I am: but why shouldn't one buy what one longs to have? Besides, dear, it isn't quite that," Then she explained that; it was so different in Europe, and with those old families. It was considered dreadful to work, and his mother would never hear- of his doing so. Ho had told her twenty times that he would rather marry her without a cent than lose her.

But this Mary did not believe, only she realist that Bertha would never bear the disappointment now. It had even needed a certain amount of diplomacy to get him back without seeming to do so. Mrs. Morland had to hint to a friend who know the French Ambassadress that, of course, the senator was prepared to pay a million if it was for his daughter's' happiness, but that be was very much against a foreign marriage; that he was so devoted to Bertha that ho could not bear to part with her. This was repeated to the marquis through his cousin, the secretary, and after some discussion, it was resolved between the two young men that the marquis, should write and ask to see Bertha before he left for Paris, in order to bid her farewell.

It was April now, and the tiny green budding tilings which make Washington so beautiful looked as if they were uttering little cries of joy. The senator disliked doing it, for it looked as if they were all rehearsing a plav, but when the marquis came to bid farewell, he sent him a message through a servant, asking him to give him a few moments' interview. At this interview he told him that if he was sure that he was going to make his daughter happy he would give the million dollars.

" Her happinessthat will be mine ; she shall supremely happy," the marquis promised, and the senator could not help noticing that ho was a very good-looking man.

Whether she would be supremely happy or not, the reader can perhaps? gather from the letter lie wrote to a friend in French, the day his engagement to Bertha was announced.

"Pouf! I have landed my fish at last, but, mon cber ami, it is hot so easy to land American fish. The husband, " the father, does not count at all, except as a banker, and as a banker he is extremely difficult to deal with. He "wants security, and I offered him my title; but he is "a business man did not seem enough. But the young lady herself did the rest; she is tres eprise, and her happiness has been taken as collateral. She is pretty; type Americain blonde, yeux bleus,*and an adorable figure, but not to be compared with La belle Corinne'— none of her finesse or her ejprit. But she will do well enough, and beggars mustn't be choosers. I might have done better in New York, perhaps; but it is fatiguing, you know, running after an heiress, and "then apres tout, a million dollars, cen'est pas si ural, and when the old bonhomme dies there is more; there would be more still, but there is another daughter, laide a faire peur. Tell Marbceuf that he will be paid; lie won't believe it, but tell him all the same. If you see Madame A., tell her 'que rien n'est change.' She will understand; so do you, perhaps, but you must appear as if you didn't when you tell her Au revoir. When Madame A. received the message she lauglied. " Ce pauvre Henri," she said; but she was glad that he was marrying a little American, since he must marry. She had always been so afraid that he would marry Louise de Morli Pervanche, and she was a woman of whom one might be jealous.

(To be continued daily.)