Nor would he allow any one to
pay him for any service of this kind, even though he had spent days
engrossed in their affairs.
"Take money, suh, for helpin' a friend out of a hole? My dear suh, I
see you do not intend to be disco'teous; but look at me, suh! There's
my hand; never refer to it again." And then he would offer the offender
his card in the hope, perhaps, that its ample record might furnish
some further slight suggestion as to who he really was.
His popularity, therefore, was not to be wondered at. Everybody regarded
him kindly, total stranger as he was, and although few of them believed
to any extent in his "Garden Spot of Virginia," as his pet enterprise
soon came to be known around the Street, everybody wished it well, and
not a few would have started it with a considerable subscription could
the colonel have managed the additional thousands required to set it
on its financial legs.
Fitz never lost heart in the scheme,--that is, never when the colonel
was about. As the weeks rolled by and one combination after the other
failed, and the well-thumbed bundle of papers in the big blue envelope
was returned with various comments.
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