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GLOBAL DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL POLICY

One Hundred Years

of Social Protection
The Changing Social Question
in Brazil, India, China,
and South Africa
Edited by
Lutz Leisering
Global Dynamics of Social Policy

Series Editors
Lorraine Frisina Doetter
University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany

Delia González de Reufels

University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany

Kerstin Martens
University of Bremen
Bremen, Germany

Marianne Sandvad Ulriksen

University of Southern Denmark
Odense, Denmark
About the Series
The intervention of states in fields such as health, social security and work, dates back to the
nineteenth century, and became more dynamic over time. Imperial Prussia, a social policy
pioneer, first showcased its progress at the Paris World Fair in 1900: the Prussian exhibit drew
large crowds eager to find out more about state pensions. Clearly, social policy had become a
matter of great interest to states and citizens alike.
Other nations soon embarked on implementing discrete social policies, thus turning the
twentieth century into a time of remarkable welfare state expansion. The end of World War II
marked a new departure, as an increasing number of countries outside the Western hemi-
sphere began to introduce social policy measures. States not only copied established forms of
welfare, but often developed measures sui-generis to meet their specific needs. While episodes
of policy retrenchment and ruptures can be observed over time, recent developments point to
an expansion of social policies in low-to-upper-middle-income countries of the Global South.
Social policy has thus become a global phenomenon.
It is generally accepted that the state is responsible for welfare and that domestic politics
and ideas have been a primary driver of its expansion. However, in an increasingly intercon-
nected world, social policy is implemented at the national-level but influenced by interna-
tional developments and relations. It is shaped by trade, migration, war, and colonialism. Just
as people travel, policy ideas follow. These factors merit scholarly attention and demand inter-
disciplinary collaboration to generate new insights into the global dimension of social policy.
This is what the Global Dynamics of Social Policy book series sets out to accomplish. In
doing so, it also contributes to the mission of the Collaborative Research Center 1342 (CRC)
“Global Dynamics of Social Policy” at the University of Bremen, Germany. Funded by the
German Research Foundation, the CRC leaves behind the traditionally OECD-focused anal-
ysis of social policy to stress the transnational interconnectedness of developments.
The book series showcases scholarship by colleagues worldwide who are interested in the
global dynamics of social policy. Studies can range from in-depth case studies, comparative
work and large quantitative research. Moreover, the promotion of scholarship by young
researchers is of great importance to the series.
The series is published in memory of Stephan Leibfried to whom our research on state and
social policy at the CRC is indebted in countless ways.

Series Editors:
Lorraine Frisina Doetter, Delia González de Reufels,
Kerstin Martens, Marianne S. Ulriksen

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16294

Open access of this publication was made possible through funding by Bielefeld University,
the Collaborative Research Centre 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy at the University
of Bremen, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research
Foundation) – Projektnummer 374666841 – SFB 1342 and Specialised Information Service
Political Science – POLLUX.
 Lutz Leisering
Editor

One Hundred Years

of Social Protection
The Changing Social Question
in Brazil, India, China, and South
Africa
Editor
Lutz Leisering
Department of Sociology
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld, Germany

ISSN 2661-8672     ISSN 2661-8680 (electronic)

Global Dynamics of Social Policy
ISBN 978-3-030-54958-9    ISBN 978-3-030-54959-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54959-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021. This book is an open access publication.
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 Preface and Acknowledgements

Citizens of Western and Northern Europe and some Commonwealth

countries tend to take the idea of the welfare state for granted, as an
essential part of a good society. In global politics, declarations and cam-
paigns of international organisations abound with terms like “social
rights”, “inclusiveness”, and “universal social protection”, suggesting that
the world is about to become a welfare state. However, the situation in
the Global South and many other countries is very different, and it is an
open question if substantial public welfare will ever become a principle of
a global society.
The future of public welfare institutions in the world is likely to be
shaped by non-Western countries. However, we do not know in what
ways: will Western ideas and models spread or will indigenous concepts
of the “social” create new institutional pathways? Will social issues be
subordinated to other societal concerns and other ways of integrating
societies, such as economic growth, nationalism, or religion? In short, we
do not know to what degree and in what ways the “social question” will
matter in the world to come. Social protection by itself is not a “sexy”
subject, but a range of old and new global challenges—such as climate
change, pandemics, migration, and precarious work—are demonstrating
the need for livelihood protection all around the world. While we do not
know the future, we can ascertain how the Global South has addressed
social issues in the past. This is the subject of this volume, which derives
v
vi Preface and Acknowledgements

from the Research Group “Understanding Southern Welfare”, which I

convened together with Ulrike Davy, a colleague from the law depart-
ment of my university, at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)
at Bielefeld University, Northern Germany.
The volume starts with the assumption that Southern countries have
their own social policy histories, external influences from foreign powers
notwithstanding, and that these histories are under-researched. We need
to know more about these histories—the agents, their ideas, interests,
activities, and structural constraints—to “understand” Southern welfare.
The volume delves into the national histories of social protections since
their beginnings around 1920. When we applied for funding, we said
that we would start in the 1940s, but during our research, we realised that
we would need to go back to the 1920s.
To understand Southern welfare policies and avoid Eurocentrism, we
give domestic actors a voice by analysing contemporary political docu-
ments. In theoretical terms, we have developed a new approach to analys-
ing social protection, which focuses not just on welfare programmes or
outcomes, but on the fundamental ideas and concepts that underlie social
protection policies, as articulated by Southern actors. We assume that
welfare programmes are only the visible surface; they are underpinned,
less visibly, by a range of ideas—values, beliefs, perceptions, and images
relating to social problems, welfare institutions, statehood, and society.
The Research Group, therefore, sought to investigate the ideational foun-
dations of Southern social protection. This kind of research has not been
done before.
I owe the idea of an ideational approach to my teacher Franz-Xaver
Kaufmann, the doyen of the German sociology of social policy, who,
despite his age, attended a preparatory conference. Kaufmann is one of
the few thinkers who has developed a genuinely sociological theory of the
welfare state in the institutionalist Weberian tradition, which contrasts
with the dominant political economy tradition rooted in Marxism.
Kaufmann’s concept of the welfare state as a cultural phenomenon has
inspired me. Focusing the Group’s analysis on ideas was a daring under-
taking, and I am happy that the members of the Research Group not only
could relate to this approach but also took it up in their research. I was
not sure if the approach would work out, especially since the volume is
 Preface and Acknowledgements vii

not about the role of ideas in selected social reforms or selected periods of
time (which would be interesting enough), but about ideas in the evolu-
tion of social protection over 100 years. I hope that the readers of this
volume will see the yields of an ideational and pluralist approach to
studying social protection.
When planning the Research Group, we decided not to choose area
specialists from Western countries as group members (and contributors
to this volume), but to recruit colleagues from the countries under inves-
tigation or scholars who have roots in them. This approach was demand-
ing—we experienced difficulties finding appropriate researchers from
these countries.
One reason for the renewed interest in Southern welfare programmes
is the rise, since the 2000s, of so-called social cash transfer programmes
for the poor in most countries in the Global South. These programmes
provide a modicum of social protection to large sections of Southern
populations who had previously been excluded. In an earlier research
project, FLOOR, I undertook a comprehensive study of social cash trans-
fers, including the construction of a dataset that covers all Southern
countries (see www.floorcash.org). Ulrike Davy and Benjamin Davy (the
latter from TU Dortmund University) had led the law group and the
land policy group, respectively, in FLOOR. After FLOOR, we felt the
need to investigate select countries in greater depth. This led us to the
idea of case studies focused on middle-income countries since they might
shape the global future of public welfare. The literature has analysed
middle-­income countries mostly in economic terms—as “emerging mar-
kets” or liable to a “middle-income trap”—or in political terms—as new
democracies or authoritarian regimes—but much less in regard to public
welfare policies. We chose Brazil, India, China, and South Africa because
they represent different continents, political regimes, paths of economic
growth, and cultures.
This volume is not the result of just one conference. Rather, the con-
tributors mostly worked together as members of the Research Group
“Understanding Southern Welfare” over five years, beginning with prepa-
ratory conferences 2014–2016, continuing as fellows in residence at the
ZiF (March to July 2018), and concluding with a final conference in
2019. The ZiF provided both the venue and funds for our conferences
viii Preface and Acknowledgements

and the research in residence. Ulrike Davy and I had written the funding
application together with Benjamin Davy. Unfortunately, Ben had to
drop out in 2017 for reasons beyond his control.
The Research Group had two subgroups: the law group led by Ulrike
Davy and the social science group led by me and from which this volume
flows. The social science group included sociologists, political scientists,
global and comparative historians, and a political economist. Originally,
there was a third group, the land group, which we had to disband when
Benjamin Davy left, but the issue of land kept cropping up in the research
process. Gabriel Ondetti and Sony Pellissery switched from the land
group to the social science group. Gabriel’s contribution to the volume
focuses on land issues, and Sony has published separately on land issues
(see footnote).
I am indebted to the fellows in the law group. We learnt a great deal
from the legal approach to social policy, including the emphasis on con-
stitutions, courts, and human rights. The law fellows included Albert
Chen Hun-yee (University of Hong Kong), Octavio Luiz Motta Ferraz
(Kings College, London), Letlhokwa George Mpedi (University of
Johannesburg), Sarbani Sen (O.P. Jindal Global University, New Delhi),
and Ulrike Davy as convenor.
The ZiF is Germany’s first Institute for Advanced Study, founded in
1968, and provides a wonderfully secluded space for scholarship (https://
www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/ZiF/index.html). The Institute is situated at
the edge of a forest, in a purpose-built building with a modernist 1960s’
architecture, and includes apartments for the fellows and their families.
The ZiF provides a broad range of services that make scholars’ stays as
productive and pleasant as possible.
Research groups at the ZiF are interdisciplinary, and this Research
Group was also very international. For me and the fellows, it was a most
rewarding experience of scholarly exchange and learning—social science
is truly global. I am grateful to the fellows—the contributors to this vol-
ume—for engaging in this common experience. The ties between the
fellows are leading to further scholarly cooperation.
The Research Group was very active. During the residence period, we
had a weekly Jour Fixe, which included discussions on pertinent publica-
tions, guest lectures, and presentations by the fellows. We also invited
 Preface and Acknowledgements ix

external scholars from abroad to our preparatory conferences and work-

shops, as well as colleagues from other research centres at Bielefeld
University, such as the Center for InterAmerican Studies and the Institute
for World Society Studies. Fellows gave lectures at the University. The
Research Group also made a trip to the Federal Social Court in Kassel,
Germany. At the ZiF, we also had exchanges with another research group
that investigated global labour markets.
The Research Group organised a series of conferences and workshops,
which included invited external speakers, whom we thank for their con-
tributions, which supported the Group’s work: Workshop “Understanding
Southern Welfare—the B(R)ICS Countries”, convened by Ulrike Davy,
Lutz Leisering, and Benjamin Davy, 24–26 November 2014 (external
speakers: Sandra Liebenberg, South Africa; Niraja Gopal Jayal, India;
Marcus André Melo, Brazil; Yitu Yang, China; André van der Walt and
Sue-Mari Viljoen, South Africa; Augusto Zimmermann, Brazil; and
James Midgley, USA); Workshop “Social policies in Brazil, India, China,
and South Africa: Towards a Deeper Understanding of Southern Welfare”,
convened by Ulrike Davy, Lutz Leisering, and Benjamin Davy, 23–25
November 2015 (external speakers: Marcus André Melo, Brazil; Shitong
Qiao, Hong Kong; Andries du Toit, South Africa; and Vivek Nenmini
Dileep, India); Workshop “Towards Understanding Southern Welfare:
Preparatory Workshop for the ZiF Research Group”, convened by Ulrike
Davy, Lutz Leisering, and Benjamin Davy, 5–7 December 2016 (external
speaker: Prerna Singh, USA/India); Seminar (law group) “Social Policies
in Brazil, India, China and South Africa, Past and Present—Perspectives
from Law”, convened by Ulrike Davy, Albert Chen, Octavio Ferraz,
Letlhokwa George Mpedi, and Sarbani Sen, 3–4 April 2018 (external
speaker with a social science background: Frances Lund, South Africa);
Workshop (social science group) “Hundred Years of Social Security in
Brazil, India, China, and South Africa—the Rise of Social Ideas and
Policies, 1920–2020”, convened by Lutz Leisering, 12–13 July 2018;
Workshop (law group) “Social Rights and Values in Middle-Income
Countries—Brazil, India, China, and South Africa in Comparison”,
16–17 July 2018; Closing Conference of the Zif Research Group
“Understanding Southern Welfare—Social Policies in Brazil, India,
China, and South Africa”, convened by Ulrike Davy and Lutz Leisering,
x Preface and Acknowledgements

11–12 July 2019 (external speakers: Kinglun Ngok, China; Ravi Ahuja,
Germany; Leila Patel, South Africa; Sonia Fleury, Brazil; Sarah Cook,
Australia; Eberhard Eichenhofer, Germany; and Göran Therborn, UK);
Workshop (social science group) “Social Policy in Low and Middle-­
Income Countries: Perspectives of Comparative Research”, convened by
Lutz Leisering, 13 July 2019. Maria Virginia Lorena Ossio Bustillos coor-
dinated all events.
The chapters in this volume are all original, except for the chapter on
India (Chap. 5) by Ravi Ahuja, who joined the group at a late stage and
contributed a revised and shortened version of an earlier article. In addi-
tion to this volume, the fellows of the social science subgroup of the
Research Group have also produced a number of articles,1 and the law
group is editing their own volume.
Large-scale research endeavours incur many debts. First of all, I thank
the ZiF and its staff for enabling this Research Group and providing a
tremendously supportive environment for the fellows. The staff was
extremely committed to serving the needs of the fellows, and the Centre’s
financial and non-financial support was generous and unbureaucratic. I
particularly thank Nesrin Ak, Thomas Balls-Thies, Daniela Brinkmann,
Hans-Jürgen Brinkmann, Andreas Hellwig-Sellin, Marina Hoffmann,
Mary Kastner, Britta Padberg, Katharina Peters, Marc Schalenberg,
Claudia Schumacher and her team, Claudia Schunck, Mo Tschache,
Trixi Valentin, and others at the ZiF.
I am also deeply indebted to Maria Virginia Lorena Ossio Bustillos,
who served as coordinator of the Research Group. Lorena contributed to
the Group’s work both as a scholar, providing her legal expertise and
Latin American experience to the Group, and as an impeccable Group

1
Hu, Aiqun (2016) Social insurance ideas in the People’s Republic of China: a historical and trans-
national analysis. Transnational Social Review 6, 3: 297–312; Ondetti, Gabriel (2016) The social
function of property, land rights, and social welfare in Brazil. Land Use Policy 50: 29–37; Shi, Shih-­
Jiunn (2017) Reviving the dragon: social ideas and social policy development in Modern China.
Issues & Studies: A Social Science Quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian Affairs 53, 3: 1–25;
Pellissery, Sony, Amrutha Jose Pampackal, and Partha Bopaiah (2015) Caste and distributive jus-
tice: can social policy address durable inequalities? Social Policy & Administration 49, 6: 785–800;
Pellissery, Sony and Ivar Lødemel (2020) Property and social citizenship: social policy beyond the
North. Social Policy and Society 19, 2: 275–292 (the lead article of a themed section on “Property
and Social Citizenship” edited by the authors).
 Preface and Acknowledgements xi

organiser who was unceasing in her engagement. She also provided

invaluable efforts furthering the social relationships within the Group
and with the ZiF staff.
I also thank Benjamin Davy, who has been an inspiration due to his
creative, non-mainstream thinking. He also forged links with colleagues
from land-use studies and provided insight into land as a crucial dimen-
sion of social welfare that no longer figures in the collective memory of
European social policy but plays a major role in Southern countries.
I also thank Prerna Singh, who attended a preparatory conference.
Although she could not join the Research Group for personal reasons,
her sharp insights were important to the Group’s work. I also thank
Johannes Schmidt and André Kieserling from the Luhmann project at
my university for tracing quotes by Niklas Luhmann in Luhmann’s vast
writings.
I also thank Cansu Erdoğan and Timotheus Brunotte, who acted as
efficient and committed editorial assistants. My former secretary Else
Lück also supported the work, as did Tobias Böger and Kerem Öktem. I
am also indebted to my wife Maria, who hopes that this is the last
book I did.
I thank Aad Blok, Executive Editor of the International Review of
Social History, for allowing me to use a revised and shortened version of
an article by Ravi Ahuja for this volume.
I thank Jennifer Koester for her perceptive, sophisticated, and highly
committed language editing of the non-native speakers’ contributions,
and Wordvice for efficient organisation of the editing work. I also thank
Flora Thomson-DeVeaux for translating Lena Lavinas’ contribution from
the Portuguese. The ZiF funded both.
The publication of this volume in the book series of the Collaborative
Research Centre (CRC) 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” of the
German Research Council was enabled by Lorraine Frisina Doetter,
Kerstin Martens, and Irina Wiegand from Bremen University. I am most
grateful to them.
Last but not least, I was happy to have Sharla Plant and Poppy Hull as
very supportive and patient partners at Palgrave Macmillan. SPi
Technologies India provided high-quality copy-editing. Thanks also go to
xii Preface and Acknowledgements

the reviewers who provided extensive reviews on my book proposal. The

reviews influenced and improved our work.
Open access of this publication was made possible through funding by
the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1342 “Global Dynamics of
Social Policy”, Specialised Information Service Political Science—
POLLUX, and by Bielefeld University’s Open Access Publication Fund.

Bielefeld, Germany Lutz Leisering

May 2020
 Contents

Part I Introduction   1

1 Social Protection in the Global South: An Ideational and

Historical Approach  3
Lutz Leisering

Part II China  53

2 The Early Rise of Social Security in China: Ideas and

Reforms, 1911–1949 55
Aiqun Hu

3 Social Security: The Career of a Contested Social Idea in

China During the Reform Era, 1978–2020 91
Shih-Jiunn Shi

xiii
xiv Contents

Part III India 119

4 Social Policy in India: One Hundred Years of the (Stifled)

Social Question121
Sony Pellissery

5 Minoritarian Labour Welfare in India: The Case of the

Employees’ State Insurance Act of 1948157
Ravi Ahuja

Part IV South Africa 189

6 The Social Question in Pre-apartheid South Africa: Race,

Religion and the State191
Jeremy Seekings

7 A Racialised Social Question: Pension Reform in

Apartheid South Africa221
Marianne S. Ulriksen

8 (Re)formulating the Social Question in Post-apartheid

South Africa: Zola Skweyiya, Dignity, Development and
the Welfare State263
Jeremy Seekings

Part V Brazil 301

9 The Anatomy of the Social Question and the Evolution of

the Brazilian Social Security System, 1919–2020303
Lena Lavinas

10 Ideational Bases of Land Reform in Brazil: 1910 to the

Present343
Gabriel Ondetti
 Contents xv

Part VI Conclusion 381

11 One Hundred Years of Social Protection: The Rise of the

Social Question in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa,
1920–2020383
Lutz Leisering

Index 429
 Notes on Contributors

Ravi Ahuja is Professor and head of the Research Group “Modern

Indian History” at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Georg-August-­
University Göttingen, Germany. He joined the Centre as its founding
director in 2009. Before, he taught at the South Asia Institute in
Heidelberg, conducted research at the Centre for Modern Oriental
Studies in Berlin, and was appointed Professor of Modern South Asian
History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
Ahuja has worked on various aspects of India’s social history from the
eighteenth to twentieth centuries, including urban history, the history of
infrastructure, and the social history of war, on the social history of South
Asian seafarers, and the emergence of a labour-centred social policy in
mid-twentieth-century India. Ahuja published/edited seven books and
numerous articles in German, Anglo-Saxon, and Indian journals and
edited volumes.
Aiqun Hu is Associate Professor of Asian/Global History at Arkansas
State University and member of the Guangdong Institute for Social
Policy, China. She holds degrees from Chinese, British, and US universi-
ties. Hu’s research focuses on China’s social security in historical and
global perspectives, China’s pension reforms, global social insurance, and
global social policy. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Global
History, Journal of World History, World History Connected, and Chinese

xvii
xviii Notes on Contributors

Public Policy Review. Her book China’s Social Insurance in the Twentieth
Century: A Global Historical Perspective (2015) covers both Taiwan and
mainland China, and applies a unique global perspective.
Lena Lavinas is Professor of Welfare Economics at the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro, Institute of Economics. She is a member of the School
of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. As of
late, she has been working on the impact of financialized capitalism on
welfare regimes. Her topics of interest include healthcare and the links
between private and public provision, the financialization of college edu-
cation, the prevalence of monetary transfers over provisions in kind and
the collateralization of social policy. She wrote the book The Takeover of
Social Policy by Financialization. The Brazilian Paradox (Palgrave 2017).
Journals in which her articles have appeared include the New Left Review,
Development and Change, Latin American Perspective, New Political
Economy, and the International Social Security Review.
Lutz Leisering is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy in the Faculty of
Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany, and founding member of the
Institute for World Society Studies. He holds a PhD (econ.) from the
London School of Economics, and Diploma (MPhil) in sociology from
Bielefeld University and in mathematics from Bonn University. He has
done research on social policy in Europe and the Global South, especially
on old-age security, social assistance, international organizations, and the
global diffusion of ideas. His articles have appeared in leading social pol-
icy and sociology journals, including Journal of Social Policy, International
Journal of Social Welfare, Global Social Policy, and Journal of International
Relations and Development. He has published monographs with
Cambridge University Press (1999) and Oxford University Press (2019,
The Global Rise of Social Cash Transfers) and has edited a five-volume work
on German social policy (Springer 2013). He is a national and interna-
tional policy adviser and member of the Executive Board of HelpAge
Germany.
Gabriel Ondetti is Professor of Political Science at Missouri State
University. His research has focused on fiscal and land rights issues in
Latin America. His projects include a study of the political economy of
 Notes on Contributors xix

the tax burden and an examination of the diffusion and impact of the
concept of the social function of property. Ondetti’s research has appeared
in scholarly journals such as Global Social Policy, Journal of Latin American
Studies, Land Use Policy, and Latin American Politics and Society. He has
written books on the Brazilian land reform movement (2008) and the
politics of taxation in Latin America (Cambridge University Press,
forthcoming).
Sony Pellissery is a professor and Director of the Institute of Public
Policy, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He is a pub-
lic policy specialist with special interest in distributive justice across a
broad range of issues. After his doctoral degree from Oxford University,
he served as an associate professor at the Institute of Rural Management,
Anand. In 2009 he won the India Social Science Research award for his
academic contributions. His monograph The Politics of Social Protection
in Rural India (2009) investigates the limits of policies to reach the poor-
est sections where social forces constrain the state. His articles have
appeared, among others, in Journal of Social Policy, International Journal
of Social Welfare, Gender and Development, Journal of Social Quality, and
Social Policy and Society.
Jeremy Seekings is Professor of Political Studies and Sociology and
Director of the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of
Cape Town, South Africa, and Visiting Professor of Political Science and
African Studies at Yale University. He holds a BA and DPhil Oxon. He is
among the pioneers of a theoretically founded and empirically based
comparative study of welfare state-building in the Global South, covering
Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He also specializes in the poli-
tics and economics of distribution and redistribution in South Africa, in
the sociology of work, and race and class in comparative perspective. His
interests concern the making and implementation of welfare policy in
Africa and the Caribbean from the late colonial period to the present. His
numerous contributions to ­journals include articles in the Journal of
African History, Current Sociology, and the Journal of Imperial and
Commonwealth History. His most recent book is a co-edited volume, The
Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa (2019).
xx Notes on Contributors

Shih-Jiunn Shi is a professor at the Graduate Institute of National

Development, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. His fields of
research include comparative social policy with a particular regional focus
on mainland China and Taiwan, and EU social policy. He has conducted
research projects on the development of social policy in Greater China
and is collaborating with other scholars in research on East Asian Social
Policy, now also including Japan. Special topics covered include old-age
security, rural social security, federalism in welfare states, and the role of
ideas. His articles have appeared in renowned journals, including the
Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy & Administration, Policy and Politics,
International Journal of Social Welfare, Ageing & Society, and Public
Management Review.
Marianne S. Ulriksen is an associate professor at the University of
Southern Denmark, Odense, Department of Political Science and Public
Management, and the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies (DaWS). She is
affiliated to the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA),
University of Johannesburg, as a senior research fellow. Ulriksen’s research
areas include comparative politics, political economy of welfare policy
development, social protection, social justice, poverty and inequality,
resource mobilization and taxation, and state-citizens relations. Her
research work focuses on Southern and Eastern Africa. Her articles have
appeared in top journals like World Development, Comparative Political
Studies, Global Social Policy, Development Policy Review, Journal of
Contemporary African Studies, and International Journal of Social Research
Methodology.
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a memory like many others in a checkered career. Ah! done, boy?
Thanks. I’ll leave you the paper and call again.”
It is just twelve when Wycherley turns up at the hotel, and finds
Aleck awaiting him. No one would think the jolly actor had not eaten
a bite since the previous night. He has great command over his
system, and although the aroma of the soup almost overcomes him
he restrains his fierce ardor. Above all it is his aim to act the
gentleman.
“I see you’ve been up to your old tricks again, Claude,” says the
Canadian kindly, as he looks into the face of the adventurer.
“What d’ye mean, my dear boy. Surely four o’clock was too late for a
morning paper.”
“I had the whole thing from the lips of a party who was an eye-
witness—who heard you give your name to the poor woman you
rescued.”
“The deuce you say. I hoped it wouldn’t get out.”
“And I’m proud to know you, to be your friend, Claude Wycherley.
More than that, you builded better than you knew, comrade.”
“How now, Aleck?”
“This gentleman took the woman you saved to a boarding-house
near by. I confess something of curiosity, and a desire to hear her
story direct, led my steps there after breakfast. Then again I had an
idea she might be poor and needy, and, if so, I might second your
deed. At any rate, I walked down and found her. She glowed with
enthusiasm over your kindness, and described the whole scene so
eloquently that I could, in imagination, see you hanging from that
roof with one arm and supporting her—you who professed to be all
in a tremble at the prospect of climbing the Ferris wheel. I can
understand that now, my dear fellow, and know full well it was not
timidity that kept you back, but the sturdy desire to baffle Aroun
Scutari in the climax of his work.
“Enough of that. Now comes the surprising part of the business.
When I talked with the woman I saw she was much more refined
than her position would indicate. She asked questions, too, and
eager ones they were; questions about Samson Cereal, questions
that aroused my suspicions.
“Then I turned the tables and she confided her story to me, at least
the outlines of it. You could have knocked me down with a feather, I
was so astonished. Of course, you have never even guessed her
identity—how could you?”
“I don’t know. You mention Samson Cereal—a wife of his turned up
last night; perhaps she is another,” carelessly.
“Claude, you wizard, go up head.”
“What! is it a fact?” demands the amazed Wycherley.
“As true as gospel. His first wife. He was divorced from her before he
went abroad, and I have reason to believe she is the mother of this
bold John Phœnix!”
 CHAPTER XV.
HEARD AT THE SHERMAN TABLE-D’HÔTE.
No wonder Wycherley stops eating and looks at his companion in a
dazed way. The announcement made by the other is of a nature to
take his breath away. What sort of man can Samson Cereal be? It is
quite enough, he thinks, to have one wife, who was supposed to be
dead, turn up, but two of a kind—quite staggers him.
“Wait a moment, Aleck, until I collect my wits. Really, you have
knocked them helter-skelter with such a remarkable assertion.
There, now, go on with the circus. This woman, whom I had the good
fortune to assist, was once the wife of the old speculator, you say.”
“It is true. They were married when he was a young man—just at the
close of the War. I believe he met her in Kentucky, for she was a
native of Lexington, and called a beauty, and I imagine somewhat of
a flirt.
“Some years later a child was born to them, a boy. Samson began to
suspect his wife of being in love with a dashing Southerner. He was
a plain man himself, you know, and Adela—that is her name—admits
that he gave her no cause for such treachery. She lays it all to the
fact of her own mother dying when she was a child, and of her
father’s lax ways of living, and that she had never known a woman
friend whose advice could have saved her.
“Samson was just, but he was also merciless. The awakening came
like a thunder clap. He cast her off and applied for a divorce, which
was given him; also the custody of the boy, then four years old.
“Fearing she might attempt to steal the child, he sent him away, and
for years did not look on his face, because it reminded him of a
faithless wife.”
“Ah,” breaks in the actor, “then the mother and boy were very much
alike. Your speaking of Phœnix causes me to remember. She
reminded me of someone. I see it now. The resemblance is marked.”
Aleck smiles.
He can afford to do so now, since he has learned of the relationship
between Dorothy and the young miner. That both of them spring
from the same father. Her “sacred mission,” is plain to him at last, for
it must have a connection with some reconciliation between father
and son.
That is why Craig smiles. The teeth of his terror have been drawn,
and he no longer need worry about the possible rival who comes out
of the wild, untamed West.
“Later on Samson went abroad. We know what happened to him
there. He made a strange venture into the sea of matrimony, and, as
before, drew a blank. Coming to Chicago he entered upon the
speculative business, in which he has since become famous; but at
that time he was only a small dog, a drop in the bucket, and
unnoticed.
“I do not know what trouble came up. We have believed the beautiful
Georgian left him and fled to her native land again. Perhaps later on
we may learn more about this.
“At any rate, it was given out that she was dead. Dorothy believed
so, and in all probability does so to-day. We chance to know that
Marda the Georgian lives—that she is at the Fair, and has come for
some definite purpose.
“As to Adela—her life has been a sad one. Cast off by her husband
she went back to Kentucky. She was still lovely, and it was not long
before her hand was sought in marriage by a worthy gentleman.
Investigation brought to light the fact that in granting the divorce to
Cereal, the woman was still looked upon as married, and forbidden
to ever again enter upon wedlock while her husband lived.
“Thus Adela was forced to refuse the offer. She taught school; her
people moved West; and she has experienced many strange
vicissitudes of fortune, yet she vowed in my presence and in the
sight of Heaven that the one indiscretion named was the last of her
life—that her eyes were opened, her life saddened, and ever since
the day her husband put her aside she has lived in the one hope that
the time would come when she might redeem herself in his eyes.
She has not lived in vain. Whenever the yellow fever raged in the
South, there Adela could be found nursing the sick. She was the
angel of light in Jacksonville when the dread scourge wasted
Florida’s metropolis. Only for her own illness she would have been in
Brunswick this summer. Her life is nearly spent—she has
consumption now—and it is the prayer of her last days that before
she goes he may forgive her; that some opportunity may yet arise
whereby she can win that pardon.
“Now about her boy. Once she found him, but dared not make
herself known, on account of the past. He suddenly disappeared
from the city where he was attending a military academy, nor could
she trace him again; but at the town photographer’s she found a
picture of him which she has carried ever since, no doubt to cry over
in her lonely hours, poor woman.”
Aleck hands over a card photograph. It is not a stylish picture, such
as our artists of to-day produce, but faithful to the life. It represents a
young fellow of about fifteen, a handsome, independent-looking
chap, with something of a Southern air about him, which is
heightened by the cadet suit of gray he wears.
“This settles all doubt,” remarks Wycherley; “it’s the young miner
from Colorado, whom we saw with Dorothy—her brother; and at the
same time I can see the poor lady I helped out of the Hotel des
Vagabonde fire.”
“You had your room in that tenement, Claude?”
“Yes,” reddening a trifle.
“And all your books, your bachelor trophies, your many comforts
were lost?”
“Everything. My luxurious divan, my chair, the like of which could not
be found in a Vanderbilt mansion, the wonderful oil paintings, gems
of art, the original collection of curios which a Sypher might not
despise—all went. But, Aleck, my boy, my entire loss didn’t exceed
five dollars, I assure you. What is that to a man who has won a
million.”
“Ah! your speculation then was a success?” smiling.
“A stupendous one. Wiped out all past debts and have a million
ahead. No time to figure it up yet; may be a couple of hundred
thousand either way, but that is a matter of small importance.”
Craig never ceases to be amused at the strange idiosyncracies of
his queer companion. He realizes by this time—perhaps from the
enormous dinner Wycherley is making—that the other has no
means, and it is really ridiculous to see a man without a dollar in his
pocket declaring so carelessly that a quarter of a million one way or
the other is a matter of little importance.
“One thing about this matter gives me pain,” the Canadian says
presently.
“You refer to Bob Rocket and his mission?” remarks the actor, still
busy with knife and fork.
“Yes. He comes to arrest John Phœnix, whom we know to be the
son of Samson Cereal.”
“That is unfortunate, but the young man has embezzled fifty
thousand dollars from the mining company, and the outraged law of
Colorado must take its course. You wouldn’t think of hindering
Rocket in the discharge of his duty, Aleck?”
“Oh, no! far from it. At the same time, I cannot help regretting the
circumstance. It will be a blow to Dorothy, who seems to think a good
deal of this half brother. They must have met before.”
“Perhaps corresponded. As for myself, I am amazed at the young
man’s foolhardiness. Why has he allowed the fatal attraction of the
Fair to detain him here when he should be across the lakes in
Canada. That’s the trouble with most men—they don’t use common
sense under such circumstances.”
“We’ve got more than we want of them over in Canada. If my country
should ever become a member of your Union, which, I grant you, is a
possible thing, though I’m not one in favor of it, there will be such an
exodus of boodle aldermen and other rascals as has never been
seen before; and no honest man in the Dominion will shed a tear.
Why, some among us favor annexation simply to save Canada from
being the dumping ground of your swindlers.”
Wycherley laughs at this, and hands his plate to the staring waiter
with an aside “a little more of that delicious roast beef—and be sure
to have it rare.”
“You visit the Cereal manse to-night, I believe, Aleck. I wonder if
John will be there. Perhaps he and his father in times gone by have
had a falling out, and Dorothy is patching up the peace between
them. Very clever of her. She’s a girl in a thousand, and
remembering who her mother was—begging your pardon, my dear
boy, as she may yet be a mother-in-law to you—I am amazed and
wonder where she got her sensible ways. Then there’s Bob Rocket
—I know the man to a dot—he’ll be around, and if it should so
happen that he receives his telegram in the midst of the festivities,
he’ll arrest his man right there. Twenty millionaires wouldn’t awe him,
nor would he respect the palace of the Czar of Russia. With the
majesty of the law back of him he’d do his duty.”
“Then we’ll hope that his instructions, having been delayed so long,
will continue to dally, at least until the evening is well spent. If Mr.
Cereal is reconciled to his son, it would be too humiliating to have
the boy arrested at his house. At any rate, I shall keep clear of it, and
for Dorothy’s sake would like to see John get away.”
This absorbing topic has monopolized their conversation thus far, but
having in a measure exhausted it, they branch out upon other
subjects.
At length the dinner is ended. Aleck presses his companion to relate
the stirring scene of the previous night, and is accommodated with a
yarn that has many comical features to it, for the actor is a genius in
discovering the ridiculous side of anything, though Craig declares he
is certain the affair was anything but humorous to those concerned.
All the while the Canadian is planning as to how he may make his
friend accept a loan, without hurting his feelings. In the end he
decides that the best way to do is to go squarely at the matter, in a
frank manner.
“Since you lost all you had in the fire, Claude, you must allow me to
make you a little loan. There, not a word, sir—I shall feel insulted if
you refuse”—passing over a fifty-dollar note.
Wycherley fumbles the bill with trembling fingers. “Great Heavens,
Aleck,” he says huskily, “it’s been many a long day since I’ve held a
bill like this in my hands. It makes me feel like something of
importance. Bless you, my dear boy. I shall repay it if I live.”
Together they leave the dining room.
“Try a weed,” proposes Aleck; and as he draws the fragrant smoke
Wycherley is fain to believe his morning sacrifice has met with its
reward, heaped up and running over.
Together they sit in the cool rotunda of the hotel, enjoying their
postprandial smoke, and exchanging remarks about various things of
mutual interest.
While thus engaged a tall gentleman with a gray mustache, and a
face on which great shrewdness is marked, saunters past and
glances at them. Then he returns and stops.
“I beg your pardon, gentlemen, but the clerk told me Mr. Aleck Craig
was over here. Do either of you happen to bear that name?”
He looks straight at the Canadian, as though easily picking him out
to be the man.
“That is my name, sir,” replies Aleck quickly.
“I am glad to meet you, Mr. Craig. I have a little business with you.
My name is Samson Cereal.”
 CHAPTER XVI.
ENGAGED.
It is a name to conjure with in the markets of the World’s Fair city.
Besides, this gentleman with the iron-gray mustache is Dorothy’s
father.
Both Craig and Wycherley spring to their feet. The latter smiles in a
peculiar way, as though he sees in this a heaven-sent chance to rise.
Perhaps his education in stocks, his enormous wagering against the
uncertainties of the market, may meet a reward. Everything comes to
those who wait, is the philosophy of this strange adventurer.
“I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Cereal. My friend Wycherley, sir. I have
had the pleasure of your daughter’s acquaintance since last winter.”
The elderly gentleman smiles. Aleck notes the firm mouth under the
mustache, and believes poor Adela will wait a long time ere she
hears words of forgiveness for that error so far back in the past, the
fearful blunder that ruined her life. Perhaps he does Samson Cereal
a wrong, but judging from his strong features he believes him to be a
stern man with whom justice goes before mercy.
“I have heard something about your meeting up at Montreal, and my
daughter has told me certain facts that occurred last night—facts that
stamp you a hero——”
“Sir!”
“Facts that make me proud to know you, young man. Let no false
modesty cause you to belittle the deed. I claim that when a man
takes his life in his hands and imperils it for parties unknown to him,
who may be in danger, he rises above the ordinary plane and
becomes a hero. Let us not argue the subject then. I am glad to
meet you for your own sake—glad to know you. Let us sit down
again. I have something to say that is of deepest importance to me.”
He drops into a chair, with one of them on either side. Both the
young men show signs of excitement, and the veteran speculator is
the cool one. Aleck is saying to himself:
“Dorothy has told him how she came to know me—what can he want
to see me for,” and his bachelor heart persists in keeping up a trip-
hammer accompaniment that is rather singular in a man who has
been born and reared in the country of ice and snow.
As for Wycherley, his thoughts run about in this wise:
“Here’s Samson Cereal, the great grain operator, king of the wheat
pit. Let me study him well, since fate has decided that I am to be in
the same line. What would he say if he knew I had plunged on the
markets and came out two million ahead on yesterday’s deal—what,
indeed? I must use my ears—who knows but what in the course of
his everyday talk he may drop some hints that I may seize upon, and
use as a ladder upon which to mount to future success.”
“Mr. Craig, am I right in presuming that this is the gentleman who
was with you last night on the Midway?” begins the operator.
“We were together much of the evening. In one sense he has as
much claim upon your thanks as myself, for only through him was I
enabled to do Miss Dorothy a service,” replies Aleck, with the
generous impulse of making his comrade “solid” with the great
manipulator of wheat.
Samson Cereal gravely turns and holds out his hand.
“Allow me, sir; I appreciate the favor,” he says in the singularly deep
voice that has many a time electrified the swaying masses of brokers
and operators on change.
“You are perfectly free to speak upon any subject, sir,” adds Aleck.
“That being the case, I will no longer pique your curiosity, gentlemen.
Am I right in believing that you have through accident learned certain
things connected with a very wretched episode in my life?”
Aleck’s cheeks flush under his gaze, for somehow he feels as
though Samson reproaches him.
“I beg you to believe, sir, I have not pried into your private affairs
through morbid curiosity. A peculiar chain of circumstances, link
fastened to link, one thing leading to another, has given me some
knowledge of certain unhappy events far back in your life. I have not
sought them, and once in my possession they shall go no further,
depend upon it.”
His earnest manner, his frank expression, serve to convince the
wheat king that what he says he means.
“Mr. Craig, I earnestly hope you will never have to encounter the
family troubles that have darkened my past.”
Aleck secretly indorses this. It is bad enough for a bachelor of some
thirty summers to think of being wedded once, let alone several
times.
“Twice have I breasted the stormy seas of matrimony, and some
fatality seemed to follow me. Both ventures ended in my being
bereft. My first wife was a Kentucky girl. I have sealed that book so
long ago that it may not be torn open now if I can help it. The boy
who came to me as the fruits of that unhappy union resembled his
mother so closely in features that I could not bear to look upon him.
He was at school, a military academy, until seventeen. Then
something like remorse came upon me. I had married again, and my
little Dorothy was more than twelve. I believe she influenced me—
God bless the sunbeam! At any rate I sent for the lad, and started
him in life.
“All went well for a short time. Then another blow fell upon me. I was
being systematically robbed. In my office was a safe. I had
numerous clerks, and John was one. Never dreaming of the truth I
set a detective on the watch, and one day he brought me his report.
It incriminated my own son. At first I was amazed, horror-stricken.
Then my anger arose. I sent for John. He came in smiling, for he
was light of heart. I told him deliberately what I had found out. He
turned very pale and trembled. Fool that I was, I believed these were
evidences of guilt. Then he looked at me proudly and denied it all. I
have a furious temper, Heaven forgive me! I upbraided him, called
him names, and even coupled his mother’s disgrace with his
downfall; declaring that her treacherous nature had descended to
him. Then I told him to go. I remember how proudly he drew himself
up and said:
“'You are my father—you send me from you without a hearing. I will
go—I will change my name and never see you again until this blot is
removed from my character.’
“I have never seen him from that time, but he is in the city to-day—
he will be at my house to-night. Dorothy did it all. Through some
woman who was nursing a poor sick man, she received word to
come to the Hahnemann hospital, where he had been taken. She
went, and found a dying man with a confession written and
witnessed—a wretched man who claimed to be the detective I
employed. He had found no trouble in locating the guilty party, but
being eager to make more money had compromised with the thief
and agreed to implicate John.
“It seems Dorothy and John have corresponded all this while, and
she wrote him to come on at once, telling him of his vindication. An
agreement was made to meet in the shadow of the Ferris wheel, and
hence she has haunted that place of late.
“I am a stern man, but I hope a just one. Feeling that I have wronged
my boy, I am eager to apologize, to make amends. Unfitted for
business, even on this day when of all others I should be at my
office, for I have momentous deals on foot, I decided to step in here
and meet you, for I can assure you, Mr. Craig, I take a deep interest
in your welfare. Perhaps you are not aware of it, but I know several
of your people up in Montreal and Toronto, and can remember
nothing but kindness received at their hands.”
“I am glad to hear it, sir. On my part I feel it my duty to inform you
that one whom you have looked upon as dead is in Chicago,” says
Aleck, while Wycherley chuckles as he wonders which one is meant,
and then fearing lest his ill-timed merriment may cause the great
operator to look upon him with suspicion, he turns it off into a cough.
Samson Cereal fastens his eyes upon Craig, as though he would
read his soul.
“You refer to whom?”
“The lady you ran away with twenty years ago, near the Bosphorus
—the mother of Dorothy.”
“Good God, man, is she alive and in Chicago? And now I remember
—he is here—we met on the Midway and scowled like two pirates.
He has not forgotten—but she alive! Then they two must be leagued
to do me injury, perhaps through Dorothy.”
“You are both wrong and right, sir. He came here to execute the
vengeance that has slumbered twenty years, but knew nothing of her
presence until last night, when he snatched off the gauzy covering
from the face of the Veiled Fortune Teller of Cairo Street, and beheld
—Marda, once your wife, stolen from his servants. I don’t know her
motive in coming here, nor where she has been all these years, but
have some reason to believe it is the natural mother love for her
child that has brought her—perhaps she comes to stand between
Aroun Scutari and his prey.”
Samson Cereal reflects. He is no longer excited, but singularly cool.
When personal danger threatens, this man can be like a block of ice.
It is this trait that has helped him reach the front rank in his chosen
profession.
“You speak of his vengeance—have you an idea what he means to
do?”
“Ah! I see Miss Dorothy failed to tell you all.”
“Then suppose you supply the missing link.”
“This Turk plays a game of tit for tat. You stole his bride. Patiently
has he waited as only a Turk could wait. Now he comes to win a
bride by running away with your daughter.”
“Curse his impudence! I’ll have his life for it! I’ll lock him up or wring
his neck.”
“Good enough, sir, but I’d let him get to the end of his tether first.
Give him rope enough, and he’ll hang himself.”
“I expect you’re right, Mr. Craig. Pardon my impetuosity. It’s seldom
I’m aroused like that. I wanted to make your acquaintance, for
something tells me we are fated to see more of each other. You are
coming around to-night, of course. Bring your friend with you. I must
be off to see if that confounded telegram has arrived.”
Aleck and Wycherley look at each other.
“He’s looking for a telegram too,” mutters the latter; “wonder if one
will come for me from Vanderbilt or George Gould, asking me to take
charge.”
“Well, gentlemen, I wish you good-day. Market’s on the rise—a little
excitement—Consolidated——”
Wycherley clutches his arm.
“Don’t tell me sir, it’s gone higher?” he exclaims, his face elongated,
his eyes distended.
“Why, yes—two cents above yesterday’s highest quotation.”
The actor puts one hand on his heart, and his whole attitude is one
of bliss.
“Aleck, my dear boy—do you hear that? I had the audacity to back
Consolidated again with half my pile. It means another million to me.”
“What!” roars the big operator, aghast.
Mr. Wycherley recovers himself, while Aleck turns aside so that his
smile may not offend the peculiar fellow he calls friend—the warm-
hearted oddity who has in times past tried nearly every vocation on
the list, only to find himself a round peg in a square hole, and who is
still vainly groping for his true business in life.
Wycherley does not lose his usual assurance in this moment of trial:
“I backed Consolidated yesterday, together with some mining stock,
and the rise boomed me to the skies, two million or so ahead.
Indications warned me to hang on to Consolidated longer, and I went
in heavy; with the result that to-day I am again a million ahead.”
He proudly takes out that wonderful notebook and shows the figures
that tell the story.
Samson Cereal looks at the book and then again at the owner.
“Who were these tremendous deals made with, if it is proper for me
to ask?”
“One Claude Wycherley.”
“Don’t know him.”
“Myself.”
Now a light begins to dawn upon the mind of the old speculator; a
grim smile breaks over his face showing that he is amused.
“Oh, I see! How long have you been indulging in this romantic
pastime, Mr. Wycherley?”
“About three weeks.”
“Faithfully every day?”
“Just as the market held out. I never bought haphazard. My early
experience told me that was ruinous policy—that it was like a game
of chess—each move was but the single play of a series—each
move must have a meaning.”
Again that shrewd head of the veteran wags—such talk pleases him.
“What success have you had from the start?”
“In the beginning, very bad. You can see here I went deep in the
mire. Then I began to reason, and had gleams of success. The
second week was a see-saw, with Claude Wycherley a million or two
in the soup. This last week everything I touched turned to gold, and
I’m three times a millionaire—on paper.”
“Young men, good-day. You may come around to my office to-
morrow, if at liberty. I have a place for you to fill. We’ll harness this
genius of yours to common-sense dollars.”
Then he leaves the hotel.
“Aleck, my dear fellow, catch me—I’m going to faint. Did you hear
what he said? In a week it will read Cereal & Wycherley. Think of it,
ye gods! Fortune at one bound. I’m in the saddle at last. Good-by,
follies of the past with your haunting ghosts—welcome a golden
future; perhaps, who knows, egad, a wife!”
 BOOK THREE.
What Happened at the Grain King’s Palace.
 CHAPTER XVII.
COLONEL BOB WAITS FOR HIS MESSAGE.
Ablaze with light is the palatial mansion of the millionaire operator.
Sweet strains of music float out upon the misty moonlight, and are
lost in dying cadence upon the waters of the great lake, that gently
lap the pebbly shore so near the stately pile.
All that wealth can do to beautify and adorn the house has been
done with a liberal hand. In these days of magic all one has to do is
to press the golden button, and master minds accomplish the rest.
The parlors look like fairy bowers. Green plants and rare exotics are
everywhere, and the taste with which they are placed reflects credit
on the decorator artist. Among these scenes wander many of
Chicago’s gallant sons and fair daughters.
Dorothy as the hostess is as lovely a vision as the eye of man ever
beheld, and her father looks the wealthy merchant prince to
perfection, though perhaps one might see an uneasy gleam in his
eyes at times, and he glances toward the door frequently, as though
expecting someone of more than ordinary importance.
The gay reception is in full swing when Aleck and Wycherley arrive.
Both are of course in evening dress, for the ex-actor under the
circumstances has wisely invested the loan made by his companion.
As the future possible partner of the great Samson Cereal, he must
make a creditable entree into society. Besides, a dress suit is a good
nucleus for a loan at “my uncle’s” on a rainy day.
Once inside they make their way to where Miss Dorothy, assisted by
a lady friend, receives, and meet a hearty welcome from both herself
and her father. If Aleck was far gone before, his case is hopeless
now, for the young woman presents such a picture of feminine
beauty that he is even awed to think of his boldness in daring to
aspire to win her. Still, deep down in his heart, he secretly exults to
remember that less than twenty-four hours previous he held all this
loveliness in his arms. Aleck is quiet, a thorough gentleman always,
and for reasons of his own he keeps near Mr. Cereal. Knowing the
secret of the other, he feels that he has a deep interest there.
As to Wycherley, he makes himself right at home, and being
introduced moves among the guests with charming freedom. An old
traveler of his stamp can adapt himself to either terminus of “society,”
and under other circumstances, should fortune throw him among a
herd of tramps, or into a camp of darkies, he would be found the
jolliest fellow of them all, telling tough yarns, singing songs, and
picking the banjo. A wonderfully versatile chap is this same
Wycherley. To see him now, as he saunters gracefully about, one
would believe him a representative of Chicago’s highest circles, and
much curiosity is aroused as to who he may be. His bearing, his
name, both are very distingué, and many speculations are indulged
in as to whether he is from Boston or New York.
“Ah! Aleck, my dear boy, this is living. Just think what fortune has
done for me in a short twenty-four hours. I believe I’m on the
highroad to success. There are many lovely girls here, and backed
by substantial dads, but I shall not commit myself. I can’t quite forget
the black eyes of the Spanish cigar girl at the Fair, who made such a
sieve of my heart that it would do for a housewife’s use. But this is
very pleasant, dear boy, exceedingly so. I fancy our host looks
careworn.”
“I’ve seen that all along. It may be anxiety about the coming of his
son John, who, as you may have noticed, has not yet shown up.”
“Yes, and it may be with reference to that momentous telegram he
was expecting,” declares Wycherley, who has not forgotten.
“Have you seen anything of the Turk?”
“Jove! you didn’t expect him here—no, you’re joking; but I have met
someone I know. What did I tell you about his ability to get there?”
“I’m in a fog, Claude.”
“Well, look down the room—just bowing over the hand of Miss
Dorothy—I never dreamed he was a society man.”
“Bless me! Why, it’s Rocket!”
“Bob Rocket, dead sure. Listen, the old gentleman introduces him to
the banker’s wife—she who sparkles with a fortune of diamonds
worth a king’s ransom. What does he say?”
“Mrs. Bondclipper, allow me to introduce an old friend of mine,
Colonel Robert Rocket of Colorado. I met him on a Western trip
years ago, when he was in the Legislature. Our Western men are
coming to the front, you know, and I believe the colonel represents
some of these great mines you hear so much about in the papers.”
“Well done for Bob! Of course his only object in coming here is to
keep an eye on John. I only hope and pray for my part—I mean Mr.
Cereal’s peace of mind—the exposure doesn’t take place before all
this company.”
“It would be needless. We must, if necessary, find some means of
avoiding that.”
“Ah! you don’t know Bob. Just as soon as he gets that telegram, he’ll
make direct for his man, and all Hades couldn’t stop him.”
“Very good. We must watch him, then. Just as soon as a message
comes, if it does arrive, one of us—myself—must see John and
inveigle him out of the room, while you fall in with the colonel and
distract his attention.”
“Count on me to do my best. Both of us are interested now in
avoiding a scene on account of our prospective relations with
Samson Cereal. There now, don’t give up, Aleck. Ah! he comes.”
“Who—the messenger boy?”
“Pshaw! no, it’s John.”
The young man has entered the room. He makes a decidedly
striking appearance, for, although not quite six feet in height, his
figure is that of an athlete. Aleck takes to him on sight.
“What a shame such a young god should have descended to the rôle
of a defaulter,” mutters Wycherley in the Canadian’s ear.