1 62 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



profoundly not the getting, but the spending of the 

 gold that will be his. He scatters a largess of 

 promises. The dear old governor shall have that 

 piece of land he covets. The Mater shall spend 

 her winters in the Riviera. Kitty will look sweetly 

 pretty in a pearl necklace. The dear old governor 

 coughs nervously; but Kitty and the Mater kiss 

 Johnnie; and they drop a tear or two together 

 afterwards; for they know in their hearts that 

 Johnnie's promises and cheques will be honoured 

 at only one place, the bank of Love. 



Let us skip the farewells, and follow Johnnie 

 to New York. As he is morbidly anxious that he 

 should not be mistaken for an American citizen ; 

 he wears a golfing suit instead of the frock coat 

 and silk hat that are as much de rigueur on Fifth 

 Avenue as in Mayfair. Crowned with a cap, he 

 parades his motley up and down a crowded thorough- 

 fare, serenely unconscious that only the bells are 

 missing. However, he lingers not in Gotham. He 

 pines for the Pactolian west, for the boundless 

 plains where he can spread his wings, and soar. 

 So he " takes the cars," and they take him across 

 that wonderful New World, which, despite its amaz- 

 ing charm and beauty, seems so very painfully new 

 to Johnnie. He is sure to air his impressions in 

 the smoking-room of the car, and he will believe 

 that the bagman by his side, who listens with such 

 courteous interest, is mightily affected. Presently 

 the bagman asks those two significant questions; 

 whence and whither; and in reply to the latter 

 Johnnie confesses vaguely that he means to make 

 his pile somehow and somewhere, but his plans as 



