subject of marriage—Lester's marriage, to be specific. Archibald Kane
never ceased to insist on the fact that Lester ought to get married, and that he was making a big mistake in putting it off. All the other children, save Louise, were safely married. Why not his favourite son? It was doing him
injury morally, socially, commercially, that he was sure of.
"The world expects it of a man in your position," his father had argued from time to time. "It makes for social solidity and prestige. You ought to pick out a good woman and raise a family. Where will you be when you
get to my time of life if you haven't any children, any home?"
"Well, if the right woman came along," said Lester, "I suppose I'd marry her. But she hasn't come along. What do you want me to do? Take
anybody?"
"No, not anybody, of course, but there are lots of good women. You can surely find someone if you try. There's that Pace girl. What about her?
You used to like her. I wouldn't drift on this way, Lester; it can't come to any good."
His son would only smile. "There, father, let it go now. I'll come around some time, no doubt. I've got to be thirsty when I'm led to water."
The old gentleman gave over, time and again, but it was a sore point with him. He wanted his son to settle down and be a real man of affairs.
The fact that such a situation as this might militate against any permanent arrangement with Jennie was obvious even to Lester at this time. He
thought out his course of action carefully. Of course he would not give
Jennie up, whatever the possible consequences. But he must be cautious;
he must take no unnecessary risks. Could he bring her to Cincinnati?
What a scandal if it were ever found out! Could he install her in a nice
home somewhere near the city? The family would probably eventually
suspect something. Could he take her along on his numerous business
journeys? This first one to New York had been successful. Would it
always be so? He turned the question over in his mind. The very difficult gave it zest. Perhaps St. Louis, or Pittsburg, or Chicago would be best
after all. He went to these places frequently, and particularly to Chicago.
He decided finally that it should be Chicago if he could arrange it. He
could always make excuses to run up there, and it was only a night's ride.
Yes, Chicago was best. The very size and activity of the city made
concealment easy. After two weeks' stay at Cincinnati, Lester wrote
Jennie that he was coming to Cleveland soon, and she answered that she
thought it would be all right for him to call and see her. Her father had been told about him. She had felt it unwise to stay about the house, and so had secured a position in a store at four dollars a week. He smiled as he thought of her working, and yet the decency and energy of it appealed to
him. "She's all right," he said. "She's the best I've come across yet."
He ran up to Cleveland the following Saturday, and, calling at her place
of business, he made an appointment to see her that evening. He was
anxious that his introduction, as her beau, should be gotten over with as quickly as possible. When he did call the shabbiness of the house and the manifest poverty of the family rather disgusted him, but somehow Jennie
seemed as sweet to him as ever. Gerhardt came in the front-room, after he had been there a few minutes, and shook hands with him, as did also Mrs.
Gerhardt, but Lester paid little attention to them. The old German
appeared to him to be merely commonplace—the sort of man who was
hired by hundreds in common capacities in his father's factory. After
some desultory conversation Lester suggested to Jennie that they should
go for a drive. Jennie put on her hat, and together they departed. As a
matter of fact, they went to an apartment which he had hired for the
storage of her clothes. When she returned at eight in the evening the
family considered it nothing amiss.
CHAPTER XXV
A month later Jennie was able to announce that Lester intended to marry
her. His visits had of course paved the way for this, and it seemed natural enough. Only Gerhardt seemed a little doubtful. He did not know just
how this might be. Perhaps it was all right. Lester seemed a fine enough
man in all conscience, and really, after Brander, why not? If a United
States Senator could fall in love with Jennie, why not a business man?
There was just one thing—the child. "Has she told him about Vesta?" he asked his wife.
"No," said Mrs. Gerhardt, "not yet."
"Not yet, not yet. Always something underhanded. Do you think he wants her if he knows? That's what comes of such conduct in the first place.
Now she has to slip around like a thief. The child cannot even have an
honest name."
Gerhardt went back to his newspaper reading and brooding. His life
seemed a complete failure to him and he was only waiting to get well
enough to hunt up another job as watchman. He wanted to get out of this
mess of deception and dishonesty.
A week or two later Jennie confided to her mother that Lester had written her to join him in Chicago. He was not feeling well, and could not come
to Cleveland. The two women explained to Gerhardt that Jennie was
going away to be married to Mr. Kane. Gerhardt flared up at this, and his suspicions were again aroused. But he could do nothing but grumble over
the situation; it would lead to no good end, of that he was sure.
When the day came for Jennie's departure she had to go without saying
farewell to her father. He was out looking for work until late in the
afternoon, and before he had returned she had been obliged to leave for
the station. "I will write a note to him when I get there," she said. She kissed her baby over and over. "Lester will take a better house for us soon," she went on hopefully. "He wants us to move." The night train bore her to Chicago; the old life had ended and the new one had begun.
The curious fact should be recorded here that, although Lester's
generosity had relieved the stress upon the family finances, the children and Gerhardt were actually none the wiser. It was easy for Mrs. Gerhardt
to deceive her husband as to the purchase of necessities and she had not
as yet indulged in any of the fancies which an enlarged purse permitted.
Fear deterred her. But, after Jennie had been in Chicago for a few days,
she wrote to her mother saying that Lester wanted them to take a new
home. This letter was shown to Gerhardt, who had been merely biding
her return to make a scene. He frowned, but somehow it seemed an
evidence of regularity. If he had not married her why should he want to
help them? Perhaps Jennie was well married after all. Perhaps she really
had been lifted to a high station in life, and was now able to help the
family. Gerhardt almost concluded to forgive her everything once and for
all.
The end of it was that a new house was decided upon, and Jennie returned
to Cleveland to help her mother move. Together they searched the streets
for a nice, quiet neighbourhood, and finally found one. A house of nine
rooms, with a yard, which rented for thirty dollars, was secured and
suitably furnished. There were comfortable fittings for the dining-room
and sitting-room, a handsome parlour set and bedroom sets complete for