The Ralstons

THE RALSTONS
BY F. MARION CRAWFORD Author of “A Roman Singer,” “Pietro Ghisleri,” “Katharine Lauderdale,” etc. TWO VOLUMES IN ONE New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1902 All rights reserved Copyright, 1893, By F. MARION CRAWFORD.
Set up and electrotyped January, 1894. Printed December, 1894. Reprinted January, February twice, 1895. Two volumes printed in one, June, 1899; July, 1902.
Twenty-second Thousand Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

Alexander Lauderdale Junior was very much exercised in spirit concerning the welfare of his two daughters, of whom the elder was Charlotte and the younger was Katharine. Charlotte had been married, nearly two years before the opening of this tale, to Benjamin Slayback, the well-known member of Congress from Nevada, and lived in Washington. Katharine was still at home, living with her father and mother and grandfather, in the old house in Clinton Place, in the city of New York.
Mr. Lauderdale, the son of the still living philanthropist, and the nephew of the latter’s younger brother, the great millionaire, Robert Lauderdale, sat in his carefully swept, garnished and polished office on a Saturday morning early in April. In outward appearance, as well as in inward sympathy, he was in perfect harmony with his surroundings. He resembled a magnificent piece of mechanism exhibited in a splendid show-case—a spare man, extremely well proportioned, with a severe cast of face, hard grey eyes, and a look all over him which recalled a well-kept locomotive. He sat facing the bright light which fell through the clear plate glass. One of his hands, cool, smooth, lean, lay perfectly still, spread out upon the broad sheet of a type-written letter on the table; the other, equally motionless, hung idly over his knee. They were grasping hands, with long, curved nails, naturally highly polished. It was not probable that the great Trust Company, in which Alexander Junior held such an important position, should ever lose the fraction of a fractional interest through any oversight of his.