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Show " You needn't ask. Brigham told me to bring you around to-day. That's why I followed you up." " He did! " I exclaimed. " Bolt the door, Mr. Senby. We'll try the suits again. I can't wait for tailors if I'm going to see the Prophet." " This one was about the best," responded the merchant, picking out a fashionable broadcloth suit that his experienced eye told him would fit me fairly well. " Brother Chilcott, if you will kindly watch the door, I will fetch boots and linen." He was out and back again in two minutes. I changed into the other suit and new garments behind a screen, and Mr. Sen by deftly fttted me with patent leather boots. Going out into the store, I selected a silk hat. My borrowed costume was left to be sent horne by the merchant. "That's more like, Dave," commented Chilcott, eyeing me approvingly as we stepped into his carriage and drove up the street behind his finely matched bays. " Brigham goes in for an easy fit h1rnself, but he knows a gentleman when he sees one. Get a little more meat on your bones, and all the girls will be pestering you with their sparking." " You don't mean to say that the women do the courting here ? " " They do when they want to. What's more, you're not supposed to refuse to marry them, unless you have a rn1ghty good excuse." I did not inquire what would be considered a sufficient excuse. I was bracing myself for the meeting with the man who, I now realized, held me and all that was dear to me in the hollow of his hand. For Lucy's sake, if not my own, I must play a careful game. The street in front of the " palace " was thickly sprinkled with brethren and sisters who wished to advise with Brigham on questions of business or personal conduct. Chilcott did not go through the larger public office. He led me direct from the street THE MORMON LION 8r into the Prophet's private cabinet, without the formality of knocking. A number of Church dignitaries stood about the room. Brigham sat humped over in a big swivel chair, his broad-brimmed hat pulled far down over his eyes. He was cutting himself a quid of Virginia tobacco and at the same time dictating to a secretary an answer to a complaint that had been sent in from the outer office for his decision. Chilcott introduced me in a whisper, to several of the other callers, and all ~hook my hand with great affability. Presently Brigham ceased dictating and looked around the room, nodding to three or four newcomers. He stared from me to Chilcott, and then, recognizing my face despite my new clothes and trimmed beard, signed me to the chair vacated by the secretary. After he had squirted a stream of tobacco juice into the cuspidor beside him, he greeted me with genial humour : "So David's not afraid to come into the Lion's den, hah?" "Not when it's the den of the Lord's Lion," I replied with studied respectfulness. " Allow me to se1ze the opportunity to thank you for the loan of your splendid carriage. Your greys would outstep any pair I ever saw." He beamed with gratified vanity. " You've an eye for horseflesh, Dave. As for the loan, we're all doing what we can to make up for the blunder of that dirty cuss, Richards. Had he seen to the forwarding business with proper zeal, the last two trains would have come through as easy as the first three." " Thanks to your generous aid, only a fourth of our company perished, instead of all," I added. " But a whole hundred and fifty lost to the Kingdom! " he grumbled. "All the more need for every rnan•and woman to do their duty. Brother Chilcott tells· me you're not married." F |
