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pubOne.info present you this new edition. 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

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819934660
Langue	English

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THE MAN WHO COULD NOT LOSE
by Richard Harding Davis
The Carters had married in haste and refused torepent at leisure. So blindly were they in love, that theyconsidered their marriage their greatest asset. The rest of theworld, as represented by mutual friends, considered it the onlything that could be urged against either of them. While single,each had been popular. As a bachelor, young “Champ” Carter hadfilled his modest place acceptably. Hostesses sought him fordinners and week-end parties, men of his own years, for golf andtennis, and young girls liked him because when he talked to one ofthem he never talked of himself, or let his eyes wander toward anyother girl. He had been brought up by a rich father in an expensiveway, and the rich father had then died leaving Champneys alone inthe world, with no money, and with even a few of his father'sdebts. These debts of honor the son, ever since leaving Yale, hadbeen paying off. It had kept him very poor, for Carter had electedto live by his pen, and, though he wrote very carefully and slowly,the editors of the magazines had been equally careful and slow inaccepting what he wrote.
With an income so uncertain that the only thing thatcould be said of it with certainty was that it was too small tosupport even himself, Carter should not have thought of matrimony.Nor, must it be said to his credit, did he think of it until thegirl came along that he wanted to marry.
The trouble with Dolly Ingram was her mother. Hermother was a really terrible person. She was quite impossible. Shewas a social leader, and of such importance that visiting princesand society reporters, even among themselves, did not laugh at her.Her visiting list was so small that she did not keep a socialsecretary, but, it was said, wrote her invitations herself.Stylites on his pillar was less exclusive. Nor did he take hisexalted but lonely position with less sense of humor. When Ingramdied and left her many millions to dispose of absolutely as shepleased, even to the allowance she should give their daughter, heleft her with but one ambition unfulfilled. That was to marry herDolly to an English duke. Hungarian princes, French marquises,Italian counts, German barons, Mrs. Ingram could not see. Herson-in-law must be a duke. She had her eyes on two, one somewhatshopworn, and the other a bankrupt; and in training, she had onejust coming of age. Already she saw her self a sort of a dowagerduchess by marriage, discussing with real dowager duchesses the wayto bring up teething earls and viscounts. For three years in EuropeMrs. Ingram had been drilling her daughter for the part sheintended her to play. But, on returning to her native land, Dolly,who possessed all the feelings, thrills, and heart-throbs of whichher mother was ignorant, ungratefully fell deeply in love withChampneys Carter, and he with her. It was always a question ofcontroversy between them as to which had first fallen in love withthe other. As a matter of history, honors were even.
He first saw her during a thunder storm, in thepaddock at the races, wearing a rain-coat with the collar turned upand a Panama hat with the brim turned down. She was talking, interms of affectionate familiarity, with Cuthbert's two-year-old,The Scout. The Scout had just lost a race by a nose, and Dolly washolding the nose against her cheek and comforting him. The two madea charming picture, and, as Carter stumbled upon it and halted, therace-horse lowered his eyes and seemed to say: “Wouldn't YOU throwa 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 knowwho you are? ”
So, Carter ran to find Cuthbert, and told him TheScout had gone lame. When, on their return, Miss Ingram refused toloosen her hold on The Scout's nose, Cuthbert apologeticallymumbled Carter's name, and in some awe Miss Ingram's name, andthen, to his surprise, both young people lost interest in TheScout, and wandered away together into the rain.
After an hour, when they parted at the club stand,for which Carter could not afford a ticket, he asked wistfully: “Doyou often come racing? ” and Miss Ingram said: “Do you mean, am Icoming to-morrow? ”
“I do! ” said Carter.
“Then, why didn't you say that? ” inquired MissIngram. "Otherwise I mightn't have come. I have the Holland Housecoach for to-morrow, and, if you'll join us, I'll save a place foryou, and you can sit in our box.
“I've lived so long abroad, ” she explained, “thatI'm afraid of not being simple and direct like other Americangirls. Do you think I'll get on here at home? ”
“If you get on with every one else as well as you'vegot on with me, ” said Carter morosely, “I will shoot myself. ”
Miss Ingram smiled thoughtfully. “At eleven, then, ”she said, “in front of the Holland House. ”
Carter walked away with a flurried, heatedsuffocation around his heart and a joyous lightness in his feet. Ofthe first man he met he demanded, “Who was the beautiful girl inthe rain-coat? ” And when the man told him, Carter left him withoutspeaking. For she was quite the richest girl in America. But thenext day that fault seemed to distress her so little that Carter,also, refused to allow it to rest on his conscience, and they werevery happy. And each saw that they were happy because they weretogether.
The ridiculous mother was not present at the races,but after Carter began to call at their house and was invited todinner, Mrs. Ingram received him with her habitual rudeness. As animpediment in the success of her ambition she never considered him.As a boy friend of her daughter's, she classed him with “her”lawyer and “her” architect and a little higher than the “person”who arranged the flowers. Nor, in her turn, did Dolly consider hermother; for within two months another matter of controversy betweenDolly and Carter was as to who had first proposed to the other.Carter protested there never had been any formal proposal, thatfrom the first they had both taken it for granted that married theywould be. But Dolly insisted that because he had been afraid of hermoney, or her mother, he had forced her to propose to him.
“You could not have loved me very much, ” shecomplained, “if you'd let a little thing like money make youhesitate. ”
“It's not a little thing, ” suggested Carter. “Theysay it's several millions, and it happens to be YOURS. If it wereMINE, now! ” “Money, ” said Dolly sententiously, “is given peopleto make them happy, not to make them miserable. ”
“Wait until I sell my stories to the magazines, ”said Carter, “and then I will be independent and can support you.”
The plan did not strike Dolly as one likely to leadto a hasty marriage. But he was sensitive about his stories, andshe did not wish to hurt his feelings.
“Let's get married first, ” she suggested, “and thenI can BUY you a magazine. We'll call it CARTER'S MAGAZINE and wewill print nothing in it but your stories. Then we can laugh at theeditors! ”
“Not half as loud as they will, ” said Carter.
With three thousand dollars in bank and threestories accepted and seventeen still to hear from, and with Dollydaily telling him that it was evident he did not love her, Carterdecided they were ready, hand in hand, to leap into the sea ofmatrimony. His interview on the subject with Mrs. Ingram was mostpainful. It lasted during the time it took her to walk out of herdrawing-room to the foot of her staircase. She spoke to herself,and the only words of which Carter was sure were “preposterous” and“intolerable insolence. ” Later in the morning she sent a note tohis flat, forbidding him not only her daughter, but the house inwhich her daughter lived, and even the use of the United Statesmails and the New York telephone wires. She described his conductin words that, had they come from a man, would have afforded Carterevery excuse for violent exercise.
Immediately in the wake of the note arrived Dolly,in tears, and carrying a dressing-case.
“I have left mother! ” she announced. “And I haveher car downstairs, and a clergyman in it, unless he has run away.He doesn't want to marry us, because he's afraid mother will stopsupporting his flower mission. You get your hat and take me wherehe can marry us. No mother can talk about the man I love the waymother talked about you, and think I won't marry him the same day!”
Carter, with her mother's handwriting still redbefore his eyes, and his self-love shaken with rage flourished theletter.
“And no mother, ” he shouted, “can call ME a'fortune-hunter' and a 'cradle-robber' and think I'll make good bymarrying her daughter! Not until she BEGS me to! ”
Dolly swept toward him like a summer storm. Her eyeswere wet and flashing. “Until WHO begs you to? ” she demanded. “WHOare you marrying; mother or me? ”
“If I marry you, ” cried Carter, frightened but alsogreatly excited, “your mother won't give you a penny! ”
“And that, ” taunted Dolly, perfectly aware that shewas ridiculous, “is why you won't marry me! ”
For an instant, long enough to make her blush withshame and happiness, Carter grinned at her. “Now, just for that, ”he said, “I won't kiss you, and I WILL marry you! ” But, as amatter of fact, he DID kiss her. Then he gazed happily around hissmall sitting-room. “Make yourself at home here, ” he directed,“while I pack my bag. ”
“I MEAN to make myself very much at home here, ”said Dolly joyfully, “for the rest of my life. ”
From the recesses of the flat Carter called: “Therent's paid only till September. After that we live in a hallbedroom and cook on a gas-stove. And that's no idle jest, either.”
Fearing the publicity of the City Hall licensebureau, they released the clergyman, much to the relief of thatgentleman, and told the chauffeur to drive across the State lineinto Connecticut.
“It's the last time we can borrow your mother's car,” said Carter, “and we'd better make it go as far as we can. ”
It was one of those days in May. Blue was the skyand sunshine