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The Man Who Could Not Lose By: Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916) |
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by Richard Harding Davis The Carters had married in haste and refused to repent at leisure. So
blindly were they in love, that they considered their marriage their
greatest asset. The rest of the world, as represented by mutual friends,
considered it the only thing that could be urged against either of them.
While single, each had been popular. As a bachelor, young "Champ" Carter
had filled his modest place acceptably. Hostesses sought him for dinners
and week end parties, men of his own years, for golf and tennis, and
young girls liked him because when he talked to one of them he never
talked of himself, or let his eyes wander toward any other girl. He had
been brought up by a rich father in an expensive way, and the rich
father had then died leaving Champneys alone in the world, with no
money, and with even a few of his father's debts. These debts of honor
the son, ever since leaving Yale, had been paying off. It had kept him
very poor, for Carter had elected to live by his pen, and, though he
wrote very carefully and slowly, the editors of the magazines had been
equally careful and slow in accepting what he wrote. With an income so uncertain that the only thing that could be said of it
with certainty was that it was too small to support even himself,
Carter should not have thought of matrimony. Nor, must it be said to his
credit, did he think of it until the girl came along that he wanted to
marry. The trouble with Dolly Ingram was her mother. Her mother was a really
terrible person. She was quite impossible. She was a social leader, and
of such importance that visiting princes and society reporters, even
among themselves, did not laugh at her. Her visiting list was so small
that she did not keep a social secretary, but, it was said, wrote her
invitations herself. Stylites on his pillar was less exclusive. Nor did
he take his exalted but lonely position with less sense of humor. When
Ingram died and left her many millions to dispose of absolutely as she
pleased, even to the allowance she should give their daughter, he left
her with but one ambition unfulfilled. That was to marry her Dolly to
an English duke. Hungarian princes, French marquises, Italian counts,
German barons, Mrs. Ingram could not see. Her son in law must be a
duke. She had her eyes on two, one somewhat shopworn, and the other a
bankrupt; and in training, she had one just coming of age. Already she
saw her self a sort of a dowager duchess by marriage, discussing with
real dowager duchesses the way to bring up teething earls and viscounts.
For three years in Europe Mrs. Ingram had been drilling her daughter for
the part she intended her to play. But, on returning to her native land,
Dolly, who possessed all the feelings, thrills, and heart throbs of
which her mother was ignorant, ungratefully fell deeply in love
with Champneys Carter, and he with her. It was always a question of
controversy between them as to which had first fallen in love with the
other. As a matter of history, honors were even. He first saw her during a thunder storm, in the paddock at the races,
wearing a rain coat with the collar turned up and a Panama hat with the
brim turned down. She was talking, in terms of affectionate familiarity,
with Cuthbert's two year old, The Scout. The Scout had just lost a
race by a nose, and Dolly was holding the nose against her cheek and
comforting him. The two made a charming picture, and, as Carter stumbled
upon it and halted, the race horse lowered his eyes and seemed to say:
"Wouldn't YOU throw a race for this?" And the girl raised her eyes and
seemed to say: "What a nice looking, bright looking young man! Why don't
I know who you are?" So, Carter ran to find Cuthbert, and told him The Scout had gone lame.
When, on their return, Miss Ingram refused to loosen her hold on The
Scout's nose, Cuthbert apologetically mumbled Carter's name, and in some
awe Miss Ingram's name, and then, to his surprise, both young people
lost interest in The Scout, and wandered away together into the rain... Continue reading book >>
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Fiction |
Literature |
Short stories |
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