Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/125

Rh one goes to the surgeon or the priest or the lawyer, and takes an anæsthetic while he cuts it out.”

“Madam,” said Randolph Mason, “you talk like a diplomat: you say nothing at all.”

The younger Mrs. Van Bartan unbuttoned her coat and threw it back with the air of one who has ultimately decided to keep nothing in reserve.

“I have been married three years,” she began, “my father's name is Summers. In the good days of Virginia our family was wealthy, but of late years we have met with one disaster after another until the family became very poor, and the effort to maintain an appearance of respectability was a nipping struggle indeed.

“About this time the coal industries of West Virginia began to develop, and our city became a manufacturing centre. This brought in many Eastern capitalists, among them Michael Van Bartan, who established great iron mills, out of which he made a vast fortune. Shortly thereafter he died, leaving his widow and one son, Gerald Van Bartan.