Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/210

194 do it, if anybody can! Anyhow, it's worth trying. It may prevent instant annihilation."

"Goody! I'll run now and spend the rest of the day vibrating between the kitchen and the library. Cocktails and Panama, oysters and Russia, consommé and Japan, fish and the latest novel, entrées and recent art, politics with the roast, fads, fancies, philosophies! Brush up, brush up, Ellery! You'll need 'em all and more, for to-night we converse!" Flushing, dimpling, excited, she whirled through the office and ended in his arms. "Kiss me, you blessed boy, and don't worry! We'll pull through somehow. Good-by."

Radiant with triumph, sparkling with excitement in which there was still the consciousness of danger, Mrs. Jordan flashed an occasional comprehensive glance across the table at her husband. Between them lay the circle of embroidered damask and a bridal array of dining appurtenances. From the daffodil-shaded candelabra lines of lambent light stretched across the cloth, yellow glints played among glasses, and the very sunbeams of Marne danced in the wine. Tempered rays mellowed the resolute lines of James Bowers's face, and fell softly upon the features of his gentle, stately wife, whose white hair rose above her gray draperies like the crest of a noble wave. Mrs. Welles was Aurora, smiling from a haze of amethyst, and the folds of Louise's white gown gave back a faint glow where the light caught them. Both Mr. and Mrs. Welles had proved to be ideal dinner guests, of quick wit and wide interests, and the talk had ranged from Tammany Hall to the bronze god in a certain Japanese temple.

There had been moments of suspense, as when Mr. Bowers, who seemed to have yielded the tribute of complete response to the subtle influences surrounding him, had turned to his hostess, asking in an undertone: "Who is this young Welles? He appears a brilliant chap. What's his business?"

"Citizen of the world and heir of the ages," she had replied, lightly laughing. "He seems to have canvassed the earth, and I suspect him of having designs on Mars, the planet of war," she added, glancing audaciously at her husband's employer.

"Are you discussing Mars?" Welles, at her left, had caught the last word. "Have you seen the article in the current Æon?" The talk swept easily on to theories of interplanetary communication, and Mrs. Jordan's heart resumed a fairly regular rhythm.

In natural sequence followed a discussion of aerial navigation and its possibilities, including the achievements and hopes of M. Santos-Dumont; and here again Welles showed an intimate knowledge of detail and a breadth of comprehension that led Mr. Bowers to whisper to Louise further comment and question concerning the stranger within her gates. An allusion to the characteristics common to most inventors reminded Mr. Bowers of an erratic genius with whom he had had dealings, and thus, for the first time, the conversation touched upon the business in which all three of the men present were interested. The ball swung lightly, but at the point of contact it interrupted the breath of at least two of the party.

"The most indefatigable inventor I ever met," began Mr. Bowers, "was a man in my own line. I don't know how familiar you are with the possibilities of electrical apparatus, Mr. Welles ?" He paused for the reply.

To the younger guest the question seemed a bit of quizzical humor, indicative of the increasing complacence of one whose good-will he desired, and he replied in kind, smiling dryly:

"I once took a course in electrical engineering—by correspondence."

"Then you are probably in a position to appreciate the sublime audacity of my man Melvin's proposition. One step farther would have carried him over into the bottomless abyss of insolence, but he stopped on the brink, and, by Jupiter! his pluck was his salvation. I pulled him back, and he's working for me yet."

Louise endured the subsequent narrative, after one sharp glance at her husband, with the immutable smile of a lay figure, while her mind crouched, ready to spring the instant opportunity should offer. At the same time she wondered whether she dared suggest that the men should accompany the ladies to the draw-