Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/39

 For, seated at the next table to her was her brother, Templeton Blaine! The brother she had not seen for years!

He was with a man large and stout, a man nearing middleage, a prosperous-looking man.

Templeton, too, appeared prosperous. He was wearing a Prince-Albert coat, a high silk hat was on the chair beside him, and a cane. Templeton must have been extremely successful. His bearing, his attire proclaimed it.

Louella arose and walked over to her brother's side.

"I wonder," she asked softly, "if you could direct me to the Electricity Building?"

Something familiar in the voice made him glance up quickly.

"Mary!" he cried jubilantly. "Fancy meeting you here!"

He jumped to his feet and kissed her.

"It isn't so odd," said she, "for I've been told they expect thirty million people to visit the Exposition. It is natural then to meet some one you know. I'm here on a vacation," she hastened to add, before he had a chance to question her. "I work in a department store in Peoria."

"Well I'm here on a sort of vacation too," he told her. "I had business to attend to in Chicago so naturally I decided to devote a few days to the Fair." He turned to his companion. "Mary," he said, "I want you to meet my friend, Yekial Meigs, whom I have known for several years. He is a prosperous farmer who lives about five miles outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana." He did not think it necessary to add that Meigs had sought him out for advice on purchasing some railroad securities.

Yekial Meigs rose ponderously to his feet.

"Pleased to meet you," he murmured.

He looked her over from head to foot appraisingly. Meigs had been a widower for ten years. He lived alone on his farm, doing his own cooking because he was too miserly to hire help even though he could well afford it. He had much money invested in various enterprises. That was how he had first come in contact with Templeton Blaine.

Nevertheless Yekial Meigs worked like a wage-slave for long hours on his farm. He was chained to his plow. He was mean, niggardly, grasping. But he was well-educated and when the