Front matter

“SHE WISHED ME TO SUGGEST SOMETHING FOR HER TO DO” [See page 56]

“CHARGE IT”

OR

KEEPING UP WITH HARRY

A story of fashionable extravagance and of the successful efforts to restrain it made by The Honorable Socrates Potter the genial friend of Lizzie

BY

IRVING BACHELLER

ILLUSTRATED

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

MCMXII

Books by

IRVING BACHELLER

Charge It. Ill’d. 12monet $1.00

Keeping Up With Lizzie. Ill’d. Post 8vonet 1.00

Eben Holden. Ill’d. Post 8vo1.50

Edition de Luxe 2.00

Eben Holden’s Last Day A-Fishing. 16mo.50

Dri and I. Ill’d. Post 8vo1.50

Darrell of the Blessed Isles. Ill’d. Post 8vo1.50

Vergilius. Post 8vo1.35

Silas Strong. Post 8vo1.50

The Hand-Made Gentleman. Post 8vo1.50

In Various Moods. Poems. Post 8vonet 1.00

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1912. BY HARPER & BROTHERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1912

K-M

TO MY DEAR FRIEND

LEDYARD PARK HALE

ANOTHER HONEST LAWYER

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. In Which Harry Swiftly Passes from One Stage of His Career to Another 1

II. Which Begins the Story of the Bishop’s Head 11

III. Which Is the Story of the Pimpled Queen and the Black Spot 33

IV. In Which Socrates Encounters “New Thought” and Psychological Hair 45

V. In Which Socrates Discusses the Over-Production of Talk 55

VI. In Which Betsey Commits an Indiscretion 69

VII. In Which Socrates Attacks the Worst Doers and Best Sellers 75

VIII. In Which Socrates Attacks the Helmet and the Battle-Ax 84

IX. In Which Socrates Increases the Supply of Splendor 91

X. In Which Socrates Breaks the Drag and Tandem Monopoly in Pointview 99

XI. In Which Sundry People Make Great Discoveries 106

XII. In Which Harry Is Forced to Abandon Swamp Fiction and Like Follies and to Study the Geography and Natives of a Land Unknown to Our Heiristocracy 118

XIII. In Which the Minister Gets Into Love and Trouble 127

XIV. In Which Socrates Discovers a New Folly 139

XV. In Which Harry Returns to Pointview and Goes to Work 148

XVI. Which Presents an Incident in Our Campaign Against New New England 171

XVII. Which Presents a Decisive Incident in Our Campaign Against Old New England 176

ILLUSTRATIONS

“SHE WISHED ME TO SUGGEST SOMETHING FOR HER TO DO” Frontispiece

“WHAT DIDN’T THEY SAY? THEY FLEW AT ME LIKE WILDCATS.” 60

“‘IT’S THE VAN ALSTYNE CREST,’ I SAID. ‘IT’S A PROOF OF RESPECTABILITY.’” 86

“RADIANT IN SILK, LACE, DIAMONDS, PEARLS, AND RUBIES” 94

“HARRY’S PET COLLIE HAD COME UP TO THE BACK DOOR WITH A HUMAN SKULL IN HIS MOUTH” 148

“HE LOOKED LIKE A MAN WITH A WOODEN LEG” 188