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was rendered impossible by lord s and unexpected step and the clever mode in which he all inquiries or pursuit the failed therefore after a wearisome series of extending over many months mr at last obtained his liberty as long as he remained in lord had generously pledged his solemn word to abroad on condition that he quitted s a immediately after discharge thus placed himself i the reach of further nothing could be more agreeable to mr as may be supposed on his liberty than the very literal performance of his promise but just as he was in the act of stepping on board the packet to convey him to that haven of the discarded sur he found himself once more rudely seized by the shoulder and most consigned again to prison for debt another appeal to his generous cousin afforded mr the means at length of happily reaching paris and lord as soon as he received the welcome tidings immediately returned home urged as we know by the most potent of all motives during the period of his exile lord to the duty he had imposed on himself in order to rescue his worthless from the of his crime his family remained in perfect ignorance of his and never knew the exact place in which he was all their letters to him being directed under cover to mr to the care of a banker in by whom they were forwarded to their destination once abroad the desire to meet and find himself again in the society of the lady became lord s impulse he followed her to and soon all the sway her ardent imaginative formerly exercised over him was renewed with force heightened by the spell wrought by her extreme beauty the necessity of his before so irksome now became absolutely welcome to lord it permitted and that latent sentiment of distrust of the purity of the motives of others to which we before alluded as his most sin to win his old the beautiful and lady to her off from amidst the who knelt for her smile by the force of the passionate attachment with which he hoped to inspire her became from the upon which all lord s thoughts and actions turned the fervent homage of the handsome young englishman soon attracted lady s attention perhaps too his voice and language touched on a string which linked her still with the sympathies of days for how lord succeeded in suit his most sanguine hopes these pages have unfolded to the reader then lord continued his narrative and related to his wondering sister every incident of his connection with lord and his daughter dwelling with on lady s thrust and on to the proof pf her love at listened with breathless attention her very being seemed absorbed in the words falling from her brother s lips and with alternate smiles and tears she sat his eager oh i and after all this you risked your own life and s happiness for me what shall i say or do for you who so much for me dear i shudder at the sorrow i might have occasioned i exclaimed she in a voice faltering with emotion say not this dear for your injuries are mine should i have been worthy of s love if i could have seen you my darling sister scorned and insulted by an unworthy and not your quarrel but if you love me never again to this painful passage in our lives fortune to day seems to the ture with most glowing beams and even you my own may yet find the clue to true happiness instead of being by its shadow which would perpetually have haunted you as colonel s wife forced herself to smile unwilling to the sanguine joy which filled her brother s heart well yours is a most romantic history but still i that has great reason to complain oh had you seen her misery while laboring under this suspense why did you not fly to on your arrival in england i am ashamed to confess that after all s sacrifices a doubt of her truth and faith assailed me all your my mother s and even your own hinted at the with which mr was greeted at the suspicion with bitter pain that perhaps even her noble spirit bowed before the world s money and distinction and that she repented her love had been vowed to an obscure unknown i arrived in england apparently only to witness the accomplishment of my suspicion i beheld but never mind what that sight was which filled me at the time with despair suffice it when at length i found myself involved in another affair you mean colonel s challenge was nearer at hand than you of she saw you depart from she also witnessed our grief little imagining that had she entered the room ten minutes earlier anguish unutterable would likewise have been hers i saw her that same evening all my resolution to her the knowledge of what was impending nearly under her eloquent to share my destiny whatever it might be oh a life of the most homage feebly repay the debt i owe and what after you had so sealed her lips drew from the of her marriage her keen sense of honor brought that admission to her guardian which not even the suspense could before you know has lately been staying at and a friend of lady s a miss has fallen under suspicion of in making in the grounds at night but what could you or have possibly to do with this your lately dear have not been of a very exciting description lord smiled do you remember my sudden a few days ago surely you were not then enough to attempt to see exclaimed miss in extreme surprise never pleaded more than i do replied lord but come lord | 41 |
us below it would be neither courteous nor grateful to leave him longer to his own i shall ever feel indebted for his forbearance and kindness under anything but pleasing for a guardian to learn and when do you fly to her pardon ah i many a game have you played with her in days of but none with so subtle and a plot how can you ask such a question i with lord to and what then your marriage acknowledged do you bring here at once she shall decide lord has made the most urgent representations and that though she is now in my wife to the world s eye she shall at present appear only my as desires so shall it be i a surprising concession truly on your part after all your replied laughing and rising she linked her arm within her brother s i suppose you will make your home now mamma will be frantic with joy but dear what will become of you if i leave this aft said lord suddenly pausing s tell my dear sister that to morrow i appear at her doors a for hospitality rejoined laughing as she sprang down stairs and in another minute with her face glowing with smiles and animation miss was receiving lord s congratulations meanwhile at court all was silence and gloom lady on her return from did not weep but she was pale so very pale that when she entered the sitting room mrs started up in alarm lady s first act was to throw aside her bonnet and shawl the next gently to draw the knitting from mrs s hands and bid her listen then without preface she calmly imparted the whole of her history the old lady sat at first as if stunned under the communication her tongue appeared to to the roof of her mouth and when she recovered its use lady was gone nor did mr see more of her for many hours though she vainly sought at her chamber door incapable then of her mental mrs returned to the sitting room and throwing herself on the sofa wept fretted and tied and her cap strings and finally nearly destroyed her favorite knitting in state she remained until the clock struck when a peal of the door bell threw her into a fresh state of and fluttering with she was on the point of flying from the room in search of lady when her steps were arrested by lord madam to speak with you his you in the drawing room with me surely you are mistaken the earl wishes to see your mistress rejoined mrs anxiously no madam lord walked into the drawing room and desired me to give this message to you replied very well replied mrs then she continued muttering to herself i wonder what fresh catastrophe the earl has to announce which he is afraid to pour into that poor child s ear i suppose he has failed in his mission i knew he would the have too much sense for such knight but i will go and warn that darling child that lord is here as mrs was proceeding to put her design in execution she met lady on the staircase good gracious i you look like a corpse in its winding sheet groaned the old lady in despair oh my dear that you should ever have subjected yourself to this should wish to see me mrs i shall be in the little west parlor interrupted lady hastily passing love is the of every girl s existence i am persuaded that must have a heart of flint i what can i say to lord my only trust is in him to get us through this dreadful affair continued mrs to herself speaking in phrases then pausing a moment at the door of the drawing room to settle her cap and smooth her point lace apron she entered mrs made a movement of surprise when at the first glance she perceived that the earl was not alone lord stood at the window with his back to the door the moment she closed it however he turned full round and confronted her bless us and save us i mr can it be you exclaimed mrs retreating yes t is i indeed mrs always it appears destined to steal upon you when least expected but have you no welcome for your old friend asked lord laughing and extending his hand i don t know mr but for good company i see you in i should say that i had no welcome to give to one who has so cruelly used and deceived the best and fairest creature that ever breathed said mrs indignantly refusing his proffered hand how you could have the heart to desert to let tears be her portion constant as her daily bread when she condescended to forget every for you she who might and would but for you have matched with the highest in the land i suppose however seeing you with lord you are come at length to render the lady justice and the old lady s cheeks flushed for she was now roused up to the highest possible pitch of indignation i am here mrs to make every in my power i deserve your anger and feel as sensibly alive to my own as you can be i hope however when you know all the facts of the case you will be more in your judgment for i should be sorry indeed to your esteem well mr you always had a very particular way of your own in coming round people and i must acknowledge despite your past conduct i am heartily glad to see you are you satisfied lord with the explanations mr has volunteered i am perfectly satisfied mr replied lord infinitely amused and now what will you say when you learn that this whom you have | 41 |
so properly ip your old friend for a few moments the old lady seemed with astonishment the next she put on her spectacles and advanced close to lord are you indeed let me look at you yes like as two to your late father ah i see now why a lingering preference made me hope that would choose you though as a boy you were always the plague of my life how blind i must have been i well this is the happiest day of my life i always knew that it would turn out so and good mrs s tears dropped fast and thick on lord s hand which she held tightly grasped in her own dear mrs see that you have not quite thrown away all affection for me i may yet obtain your forgiveness said lord kissing her hand what a joyful day for yes where is she mrs lady in the small west room but had i not better break it to her no mrs i will myself tell her of my happiness lord i shall see you at to morrow said lord as he hastily quitted the room well of all wonderful things lord this is the most wonderful i exclaimed mrs after a silence of a few minutes wiping her eyes yes it is indeed seldom an step like s has so fortunate an ending mr i mean lord has such uncommonly winning manners that the poor child was into it why he her so by this suspense my imagination i dare say i shall hear all about it to night we are deeply indebted to you i am sure lord not in the least had before confided in me much would have been spared her but concealment is one of the of your sex i must now bid you farewell mrs for i have another visit to pay before i return home and i dare say you will not be sorry either for a little retirement to compose your thoughts tell i most heartily and truly in her happiness said the earl as he quitted the room for mrs was still too much overcome to be capable of any exertion save that of wiping her eyes i will not fail you may be sure lord i i shall just put on my bonnet and take an hour s walk on the terrace murmured mrs to herself perfectly that darkness was fast setting in lord s next destination was to the a mansion fortunately only two or three miles distant and on his road home dinner was over when the earl arrived and and his mother were together in the drawing room lady was sitting by the fire with her work table and lamp busily employed while her son opposite to her on the sofa he started up hurriedly when lord was announced while lady laid down her work and looked up with eager interest i what in the world brings you here at this hour exclaimed sir eagerly to tell you news which from certain peculiarities i detected in your manner this morning i presume you will pronounce the happiest that could greet you replied the earl lady i rejoice to inform you that not the slightest rests on miss character she is completely and her conduct instead of censure merits our highest admiration and applause it has been noble upright and honorable this is indeed most joyous news lord s character appeared so frank and clear that it was indeed grievous to think her guilty of deceit yet the evidence seemed if it was not miss who quitted her room who could it have been asked lady speaking at first in toned of great delight as she glanced at her son yet ere she concluded her voice subdued itself into doubtful accents so apprehensive she of raising hope in his bosom there never the slightest doubt in my mind my deaf mother that miss s innocence would be perfectly therefore i am quite ready to rest contented with ford s assurance to that effect without asking further explanations i shall go to to morrow and carry the tidings myself said sir hastily anxious to spare his friend the pain of entering upon the subject for a suspicion haunted him that lady was in some way connected the for which her friend had suffered the penalty lady however was less her son s future was at stake and she firmly repeated the question my dear lord may i not know the truth a mother s anxiety what was miss errand in the park at so late an she never left her room it was lady who availed herself of miss u s apartment as affording a exit from the house as well as of her bonnet and shawl lady i exclaimed both sir and his mother in the same breath lady came forward most nobly in miss s and i am to clear the latter from every suspicion and to reveal so much of lady s history as may be requisite for that purpose it appears that she and lord met abroad while the latter travelled under an assumed name they became attached and it was to meet lord that lady left my house the other night for reasons which recent events easily explain lord still preserved his after his return to england and lady knew not the real name and station of the man to whom she had promised her hand until an hour ago this morning she confided her history to me when in the course of conversation on comparing notes together became convinced that mr might be found at and most deeply rejoiced i am to find my supposition realized lord engaged to lady who ever dreamed of such a thing it is however a most suitable match and one cannot imagine lord s object in carrying on his suit exclaimed lady in astonishment then this explains | 41 |
mental anguish presently heard lord s voice in the hall she sprang to her feet and stood with changing color expecting his entrance again for a few brief seconds she listened to his voice then the library door closed and all was silent drew a long deep breath and sank back again on the sofa mechanically she took up her work then laid it aside again and her wanderings her mind perpetually dwelt on the terrible fear that the earl was about to leave her yet she still hoped that his purpose might not have been confirmed by active measures eagerly again listened for his approaching step and in her anxiety even accused the earl of cruelty in her suspense vainly she tried to read book after book she rejected in disgust she then took up a newspaper from the table before her and glanced down its closely printed columns suddenly her eye fell on the following words we are enabled to announce on most positive authority that the earl of is about to leave england for the continent on a special and important mission his we understand is expected at his mansion in square some day during the week to make final arrangements for his immediate departure the paper dropped from lady s hands she stood with sorrowful amazement for one moment she breathed heavily the next she caught up the paper and without a moment s hesitation opened the door and firmly walking across the hall entered the library lord was standing with a letter in his hand near the fireplace she advanced towards him lord can this possibly be true burst in low quivering accents from s lips while her little hand trembled nervously as she pointed to the paragraph lord fixed his eyes earnestly upon her her glance and the growing of her cheek seemed to a denial at his lips what you read is perfectly true though somewhat premature the letter that i put in your hands this morning t contained my definite of the mission said the earl slowly intently regarding her and you are going you abandon you leave me lord without warning without preparation is this well is it right exclaimed she vehemently ere i answer your question tell me what difference my absence makes to you lord will my most earnest most urgent entreaty induce you to forego your resolution will you bear with me a little longer and this decision and involuntarily clasped her hands while tears of anguish streamed down her cheeks no i will not your request can but proceed from an unworthy desire to witness another proof of your power over me i will not you such heartless triumphs said the earl bitterly turning away she sank on the if you care for my happiness my peace stay lord i you murmured she no your whole conduct that your peace will best be consulted by my absence then to that home from whence i took you in the vain delusion of your happiness with my own you have sufficiently shown me the impossibility of gaining your heart sufficiently indicated that neither time nor can make the least impression upon it you have persisted in a series of heartless there is however a limit to my i have exhausted every to win you and now i tell you i will no longer submit to live to your or to lead the life of restraint with you which have hitherto done you have excluded me from your confidence nay to such a point has your extended that i who long ago could have all i wished from your obedience have not even been admitted by you my wife to the privilege of intimate friendship this our mutual false position i have decided shall bitter as it will be to say farewell to you it h say it not lord have i not yet suffered enough not yet sufficiently the wrong that i once did you said she in a voice with tears what do these tears this agitation mean why do weep who have so often and my love said lord with emotion as he bent over her and gently took her trembling hand your love your love i oh what mean you lord and raised her pale tearful face with a glance of incredulous eagerness yes triumph as you will in listening to the confession of a love which no sympathy in your heart yet on the point of leaving you perhaps forever you shall learn from my lips should my whole past conduct have failed to you that love for you deep passionate love alone induced me to forgive your and to make you my wife you offered to renew our engagement you told me your heart was free oh why did you deceive me on this point why did you carry so far that a life of misery has been prepared for us both past had you frankly owned your affection was another s i would have resigned you even to that man most unworthy of you colonel since our marriage i have tried every device to win you sometimes i fancy that your heart but the next moment invariably me loving you still with passion i can no longer indifference no longer support the distance we have maintained towards each other during these past five months no neither would i if i could we must therefore separate scarcely breathed hope joy and love in the expression of her tearful eyes oh lord all your love and forbearance have not been in vain why did you not tell me all this before why did you suffer me so long to struggle with dark thoughts which grew strengthened and filled me with despair do you indeed still love me exclaimed she rapidly and passionately the love i have borne you every it is the one bright ray which | 41 |
sheds light and lustre on the past i have loved you through your bitter and disdain even after you cut me to the heart by the cruel coldness of your greeting on my return from italy then you were dear dear to me you are still so now but mark i i will accept no forced duty at your hands show me at least that you appreciate my character better than to attempt by a few kind words to the resolution that has been forming for months i have seen you smile on colonel have borne your with composure and apparent and be assured i can and will do so again with hasty unsteady steps she advanced her with and knelt by the side of the on which the earl had thrown himself how shall i for the misery my has occasioned but if this be any satisfaction learn lord that my most ardent love has long been yours that you alone have ever reigned in my heart which with joy and to hear the words you have spoken to be your loved wife is tor attain the summit of worldly felicity and bliss if you would the anguish i have inflicted leave me but for no other cause upon no other plea and she passionately threw herself on his bosom lord hurriedly arose the color mounted to his brow can it be that i have so entirely mistaken your sentiments no you do not love mc as i would be loved beware lest you deceive me a second time if i loved you not should i thus your and forgiveness oh lord believe me the feeling of your and contempt has been a daily torment far than i can express without your pardon or without that affection which i have so long with life would be will you refuse to believe what i say do you reject me lord and will you not speak and tell me that i am forgiven soon she felt herself folded in his arms that silent passionate embrace spoke to her more than words she knew that she was not yet banished from his heart tears of joy flowed down her cheeks oh tell me then for what purpose did you practice this cruel and persist in an which must have wrung your heart also why did you decree that w should live strangers under the same roof wherefore did you me when i would have told you of my love and flee from hearing those words which you have just now confessed thrill your heart with joy because i doubted your love and attributed your to compassion yes i too scorned that blinded by this delusion i fled your society for in your presence i felt i must betray myself but the cause the source of your doubts what was ity will you not tell me she raised her cheek wet with tears from his bosom hurriedly she passed her hand across her eyes yes i will tell you all all my folly and wickedness it was s at lady s influence over you first me to your supposed by encouraging the attentions of colonel it was the hasty conclusion that but for me she would now have been your loved wife which filled me with the bitter pangs of distrust and anguish yet in our first private interview after my return from abroad i told you that lady was nothing to me then i obtained the first little glimmer of the feeling which in your heart and it was this knowledge alone that encouraged me to in making you mine i imagined i had then convinced you of the utter of your to again to the subject after you became my wife i felt would be an insult to you you never had reason to think me guilty of the slightest breach of faith and since our marriage surely the most acute suspicion could not detect aught wherewith to feed upon oh to this we then owe the misery of the past six months i said lord reproachfully though his arm still lingered fondly round her i have lord greatly even i perceive beyond the limit of your forbearance but yet i must plead for my i was by your reproaches and frequent praise of lady and cut to the heart that she should be preferred in your esteem when you returned you met me with cold you left me to my own heart s bitterness apparently indifferent as t what course i took i feared your censure for i knew i deserved it had but one word of love issued from your lips even after our marriage was finally arranged you were still silent oh why was this when i knew that another had spoken to you of love by your encouragement of his advances could i ask you within the space of a few weeks afterwards to make such a profession of attachment as would satisfy me besides which you my efforts to win your confidence you made no endeavor to me you suffered me to depart from the you who had consented to become my wife seven days afterwards without one word of affection without an effort to ascertain whether the remembrance of your was from my heart again the evening before our marriage you a solitary musing to my society can you wonder if i amid such countless marks of to speak to you on the subject of my love i will not conceal also that i felt profoundly irritated at what i then yet could you have read my heart lord could you have seen the gratitude and joy with which it would have the smallest token of your regard even your affection might have been satisfied if you thus loved me what meant your tears your indifference on our wedding day surely if till then you feigned | 41 |
over you and your conduct presented such a of that i doubted the counsel she poured into your ear my impatience at what i conceived your studied neglect especially after her arrival here made me fear that her power was neither wisely nor exercised and yet had i s words i should have submission to your long months and even signed my at the cried but x ould you then have done so from your heart my own perhaps had your condescended to ask me replied with playful earnestness it appears that we have been like two people groping about in a dreary desert when if we had but advanced a little a beautiful garden would have unfolded to us its delights henceforth dearest let us have one will even as we have owned one love and let us the veiy semblance of which has wrought us such misery my own to be beloved by you brings indeed unspeakable bliss you me dearest i am yours and yours only i and with all my faults i will nevertheless prove to you that from henceforth i am your loving and devoted wife murmured her fair face kindled as she encountered the earl s glance and tears then involuntarily gathered in her downcast eyes there was a pause of a few minutes presently she exclaimed but what have you done about informing of her i confess i had not heart to day to write to her even these joyous tidings sets off for to morrow i was writing my letter of apology and explanation to mr when you entered for him to present as i promised to send it to the early to morrow morning see if what i have written already in your opinion does justice to your friend r and as i have little more now than my signature to add i will finish it immediately said lord rising and putting his letter into her hands it says i could possibly desire dear this surely will speedily bring her back to share my happiness exclaimed lady with a bright smile one question more dear without which our explanations seem imperfect how did you succeed in from colonel another time you shall hear dearest we will not now to the subject the joy this evening brings my own shall not be by aught of painful she smiled though tears in her eyes as she returned her husband s embrace then after a few minutes she seated herself by him at the table with what different feelings did now watch the words flow from his pen i how great the contrast between them and the suspense of the morning i she drew a sheet of paper before her and wrote a few hasty lines to for felt that her joy and were imperfect unless d by that dear friend she gave her note to lord to in his letter to mr then this duty of over and s fair fame completely le established long did they discourse together again every hour every day of their long months of coldness and passed in and as with throbbing heart and flushing cheek felt herself over and over again folded to her husband s heart and heard his lips murmur in her ear those words of passionate love which she had ever to hear most cordially did she vow within herself to t at sentiment of which had well nigh totally destroyed her peace chapter xxx vl well what letters have you brought from the this morning asked mrs walking to the garden gate to meet her son whose return from his daily pilgrimage to the village post office she had been anxiously awaiting oh mother what with our correspondence martin s shop bids fair to rival the general post office let me see first here is the times then a letter from an old of mine asking me to take a to the next a huge awkward for papa looks like a sick club circular nonsense you know very well what i mean are there any letters from d interrupted mrs impatiently my dear mother do moderate your anxiety i shall get through my list in time next comes a dainty looking having court in magnificent on the seal addressed to mrs and another of the same description to miss well give me these letters immediately and carry the rest to your father and mrs took the two letters from her son s hand and eagerly opened the one directed to herself well mother said as he slowly walked by her side and observed the well pleased smile which gradually itself over mrs s face well this letter is from lady and completely our dear s innocence i felt sore that lady had something to do with it though now i do not know in what way however it does not signify much as she says is explained so you see after your father and s ridiculous mystery i was the only one to hit the right nail on the head just as if i should quietly allow your sister to be sacrificed for a pack of scruples i well but mother i don t understand surely you did not write and accuse lady on mere suspicion well suspicion as it has proved your father and with their ways remind me of the wanted to catch the by it in cried mrs laughing heartily as followed by she entered the room where was engaged in giving a drawing lesson to her sister see here is a letter for you from court said mrs putting the letter into her daughter s hand then herself opposite to her to watch its effect dropped her pencil and took the letter more eagerly than she had ever done one before in her life as she read her fair face glowed with satisfaction and there you need not tell me i know that you are and | 41 |
heart should he ever resolve to match so lowly said vehemently i don t know wliat you mean by lowly but t is my opinion if sir offers to you that the advantage will be mutual he will share with you his riches and consequence but you will give him heart to enjoy them which is more than a fine wife probably would do lady is quite an exception to the general rule so pray do quote her but my dear what do you think sir will do now it was a thousand that this stupid affair when everything was going on so smoothly and now i understand all the ins of the matter i confess my dear i think that it was much about nothing with a vengeance to sweep from in that tragic style when your remedy in appealing to lay so near at hand i am sorry you think so dear mamma papa entirely of my conduct replied calmly mrs sat for some time in profound at length she said i should not wonder if the earl s letter does not contain a pressing request for your return to nor i mamma of course my dear you will go for lord is sure to insist upon it as a point of honor besides would be grieved indeed at your refusal you think with me on this subject do you not yes mamma to make you easy at should lord ask me i own i do not see the wisdom of saying no especially as it was my own act and deed to leave his house i think you are right my dear child then mrs after a pause i see your father is just returned from the so go now dear and rejoice his heart with the good news of your fair fame being re established in the mean time i shall walk down to the village and hurry on the to send your muslin gowns this evening in case of sudden emergency for you may be called upon to depart again at a moment s warning said mrs as she left the room made no reply for her mother s supposition appeared to her the most unlikely event possible but she quietly followed her out of the room and went to seek her father to whom she longed to impart the happy tidings of her in him always found a ready in her joys and sorrows for mr without forgetting his relative position as a parent possessed the happy art of winning and retaining his child s confidence to his advice she resorted on every occasion and it was difficult to say upon face beamed the brightest smile of affection when the study door gently opened and entered with lady s letter in her hand mr like his wife expressed surprise that no letter from lord announced his daughter s yet he felt that this acknowledgment not long and both and her father were too rejoiced at her release from a humiliating suspicion to feel very at the her over with mr returned to the drawing room and taking up her work resumed her seat mrs as she announced her intention of doing had walked into the village taking with her so found herself at liberty to pursue the thread of her meditations without danger of those perpetual and in the room which her mother s rendered of occurrence at times her needle busily sped at others the work drooped on her knee and she thought once again her young heart permitted itself to dwell on that short though brightest period of her life since her acquaintance with sir began and again her dream of love unconsciously revived in her l she felt also thankful for her for possessed too sensitive and feeling a heart to treat with cool disregard the malice and ill natured gossip of the neighborhood as to the cause of her sudden return home lady and mrs especially both over and over again confirmed the general impression that her visit would probably extend ov r some months besides which sir richard and his sister loudly expressed their astonishment and hinted that neither lady nor miss contemplated so speedy a separation when they took leave of them at on the previous day opinion therefore which seldom sides with the weak settled that on some account had incurred the earl s displeasure and consequently met with an dismissal from a version of the story received by most with the greater best as much jealousy had been formerly excited amongst the younger ladies of the county at miss s intimacy and influence at the v since her supposed disgrace however had been honored by a much larger share of s good will than formerly not however that miss her cause from a conviction that she had been hardly dealt with for this had no opportunity of deciding but because the rule of contrary was so strongly in her bosom that what others she could not refrain from therefore she talked loudly and publicly s assumed disgrace punishment and influence with lady yet miss almost daily visited her and even went the length of that she would not be married at all unless might be allowed to as her mrs meanwhile in her conduct towards the proceeded with more characteristic she felt that it was not quite safe to let drop until her noble declared their disgust by still more acts of indifference mrs however firmly resolved to follow the example whether he frowned or smiled especially as she had planned the scheme of a second grand entertainment to which he was to be invited on his first visit to the and till she satisfactorily ascertain his disposition towards she adopted an policy and directed her niece to do the same it was not long however before s sensitive spirit indignantly detected that her popularity by the worldly few was made greatly to depend | 41 |
upon the of her friends had she been a few years older perhaps might have borne these petty more for sooner or later in life every individual is made to acknowledge with the royal of that only so long as thou well unto men will speak well of thee still sat by the fire absorbed in these when a ring at the hall door startled her and feeling too to entertain visitors in her mother s absence she laid down her work and swiftly passed into the adjoining room intending to seek refuge in her own chamber after a brief interval she heard the sound of steps in the passage and then the door of her father s study opened and closed and all was still so concluding that the visit was to him from one of the neighboring clergy for mr was popular she quietly returned to the drawing room and resumed her occupation again presently mr just put his head into the room and retreated again leaving the door open looked up and then rose with the intent of seeking her father when her purpose was put to flight by the sudden entrance of sir for a minute her senses almost refused to the reality of his presence and she stood with heart and glowing cheek i said sir hastily closing the door and advancing towards her he her hand sir i i am here hoping to be tidings of your by lady s of engagement to lord sir paused he retained her hand it shook in his grasp dear i continued he i know not why i should address yea in this strain of cool compliment no i i came not to your alone for what is it to me who never believed you guilty of the thing laid to your charge no i am here to throw myself at your feet as i should equally have done had not a word passed lady s lips to tell you that i have long loved you and to you to confirm those hopes which your manner especially on the last evening we spent together at raised almost into the certainty that i am not indifferent to you i i know you wiu not trifle with me do you love me well enough to become my wife asked sir in a voice of passionate emotion trembled violently and covered her face with her hands sir saw that she wept my own i why do you not answer me nay i will be satisfied with nothing less than a direct that my love my devotion are rewarded by your heart continued he will you be my wife my wife and sir gently removed the little hands which concealed her face a few softly murmured words fell from her lips she was happy happy sir took her in his arms and folded her to his i i venture to and come in asked mr pausing on the threshold of the glass door opening on the terrace one fine morning about a week after the of the event hat exercised so important an influence over the destiny of our lady had not since seen her cousin a vivid blush her cheeks as she raised her eyes from her book oh yes come in charles if only it be to make acknowledgment of my iv not returning a stem fe as a punishment for your to think it necessary to a demand replied she to off her embarrassment mr entered the room and took a chair ot po ite to his he contemplated her silently and earnestly for some the happy expression of lady s beautiful appeared to strike him her full dark eye had lost that painful subdued look which ever seemed to rebuke the smile on her lip and her brow its air of melancholy she now met her cousin s gaze and yet too her expressed deep affectionate she thought that he looked pale and abstracted and the desire to console to reason him into greater confidence and content with himself and all the world strongly possessed her for some moments longer mr watched the varying color on her cheek i should not have presumed to visit you unless i had first obtained lord s permission have called upon him this morning said he at length in short constrained tone then it is only towards me that you harbor a spirit of resentment as the bitterness of your tone said lady sorrowfully towards you i no you who i enough of tell me do you expect me to congratulate you nay you not rejoice with me a little charles were you not sincere in all those for my happiness which made me hate myself for the pain i was upon one so kind and generous is it my fault charles that you persisted spite of my vehement assurance in a hope that i might one day return your love oh no i told you in language emphatic and clear that it could never never be i replied lady hastily and you therefore ask my sympathy mine i you expect such total of self i yet you have it for i love you still too too dearly not to rejoice at your happiness though it be reared on the wreck of my own but the bitter pang is that for this mr or lord you totally sacrificed me at a whim the creation of his jealous fancy you banished me from your presence without a thought of the pain your sentence inflicted no man had the right in defiance of your will to dictate such an action therefore stay charles you refused to be convinced of the of your attachment i had no other than to deny myself to you do you assert that no influence was exercised over you bj lord and that anxiety for my peace would alone have prompted | 41 |
this same course had his been totally out of the question demanded mr bitterly perhaps charles not quite so a one replied lady while a slight smile curled her lip no you cannot affirm it rejoined he you once promised to explain all this mystery now therefore tell me why did lord assume a disguise to win you lord s disguise was prompted in the first instance by the noblest of self sacrifices and afterwards this imperative necessity availed him to assure himself that no external circumstance influenced the gift i made him of my heart responded lady in a low tone to my mind a jealous like this is near akin to hatred quickly replied mr but you have not yet stated the nature of lord s self sacrifice continued he after a pause lord to save the life or liberty of a near relative who had deeply him hesitated not to adopt the only painful resource left him to his generous purpose and nobly throwing aside all the privileges of his station lived in exile and obscurity bound by a solemn vow not to his true name and rank until mr was safely beyond the consequences of his crime replied lady mr did not speak for some moments i remember perfectly well mr s arrest on the charge of and every one s surprise at the affair being suddenly hushed up in the mysterious manner it was at length said he slowly well i acknowledge this generous fortitude on lord s part was noble in the extreme nay his to his word is a deed worthy of the highest admiration and applause but six months have passed since mr obtained his discharge for what purpose then has he since persisted in you and rendering your life miserable by anxious can you not divine charles for what reason did i most reluctantly decline to receive you here on our former terms mr again made no reply and for a considerable time sat silently opposite to his cousin buried in deep thought lady leaned her elbow on the window and turned the leaves of the book on her knee exclaimed mr suddenly her hand you have not forbidden me to guess at the remainder of your secret for still i feel that you have not told me all there is but one thing which can explain the extraordinary arbitrary influence exercised over you by mr there is but one circumstance that could justify his demand and your obedience it is that this ring to which i once before alluded is not your mother s but was placed by lord on your finger ere you quitted italy is it so she hastily withdrew her hand the vivid color in her cheek tell me if it be so perhaps then i may reflect with less bitterness on the past may not feel so totally nothing in your estimation i owe you some explanation yes charles you are right my hand was not in my power to bestow from the very first day we met exclaimed lady hurriedly i see and you were drooping under the burden of your secret union with an unknown i read now the explanation of that anguish which made my heart to witness and this is love this is mr s love i exclaimed mr indignantly yes charles a love sincere and precious even for its distrust which i would not for the treasures of the world a love which spared me anguish indescribable even when convinced of my affection a keen and sense of honor induced lord to delay the recognition of his marriage until after that most unhappy encounter with colonel and i glory in my applause to his decision exclaimed lady her bright eyes flashing lady could not properly express herself otherwise than you have just done replied mr in his manner lady arose from her seat this is charles i did you visit me this morning only to insult and outrage my feelings i will tell you no more this bitter spirit is unworthy of my confidence said she moving towards the door forgive me the anguish of knowing you lost to me makes me heedless even of your resentment go not give me your confidence and i will be more cautious in my comments i will strive to remember that i see in you lord s wife exclaimed mr hastily rising and her the tones of his kindled lady s pity oh charles why will yon persist in talking to me thus listen dear cousin this subject after our present interview must never be renewed between us never i tou must try and forget me charles forget that you ever thought of me other light than that of an friend and sister now as you desire it and as i think that it is also due to myself you shall hear the whole of my history only remember dear charles i confide it to you in strict confidence none besides yourself lord and one or two others know of my private marriage or to lord as the earl properly that it shall be considered and lady then briefly in a clear and at times slightly faltering voice related to her cousin the principal passages of her connection with lord and when is the ceremony of your marriage to be performed again asked mr some minutes after lady concluded rousing from another fit of abstraction soon i believe but the time is yet uncertain replied lady hastily because on that day i mean to leave england i have already made arrangements for breaking up my establishment at do not attempt to me said he observing symptoms of surprise and disappointment on his cousin s face in a year or two i may return home rational and able to contemplate lord s happiness without a bitter murmur that my lot has been less blessed added mr sorrowfully for some minutes | 41 |
have done for once i have made arbitrary use of my power over you and have written to lord thursday next as the day on which you will confirm anew our union the earl perfectly in my desire and suggests moreover that the ceremony shall take place privately in church only in the presence of our respective families nay dearest it is perfectly needless assuming that pretty air of displeasure despite the fact that your hands are tied and that you have nothing for it but to submit graciously to the loss of the privilege so highly by ladies in general of to a species of warfare to delay their submission said lord and lord has he actually committed the of to your request without previously consulting me exclaimed lady indeed he has nay dearest i know you will suffer no foolish scruples to delay my happiness i must have you all to myself and long to carry you off to where you once so stoutly refused to follow me you consent her beautiful eyes fell under his gaze she attempted to rise from her chair no you are my prisoner until you promise exclaimed lord throwing his arm lightly round her promise next thursday to lay aside your ship and surrender at discretion nay i am very angry at this responded lady with downcast eyes though a smile on her lip consider as we conceal the past how strange this hasty marriage will appear in the neighborhood i care not and am resolved to be deprived no longer of your constant society beyond thursday next i am in a condition to prove with mr s assistance our marriage at and this if you will not consent to my proposal is what i shall immediately set about doing i love you too patiently to undergo a repetition of our courtship you are my wife and such i will immediately acknowledge you surely it is too late now to begin to play the i let me hear your decision said lord in those yet resolute tones which exercised such influence over her well my decision is that the length of time i have been yours considering that i love you dearly and considering that you leave me no choice in the matter i consent i rejoined lady though the color her cheek as a loving obedient wife ought to do ah you cannot over me now i said lord laughing as he kissed her glowing cheek i have been writing to this morning observed lady seeking to resume her work so has it seems she still to remain in paris for some weeks longer i am sorry to see that s selfish pursuit of pleasure makes her so deficient in her sense of what is due to her family as to remain the guest of mrs st priest a connection of the man who has so deeply injured her sister but do not let us talk of it makes me sad to think of what she might have been and what she is if she could only be drawn from mrs st priest s influence observed lady glancing at lord on his allusion to colonel perceiving then that for the first time since the his arm was by a she hastily added i hope you are not using your arm again without medical permission no i am quite well again so you need not fear dearest being subjected to the panic which assailed you in the at to that the slipping of a should have caused you so much needless alarm not needless your then might have been fatal rejoined lady shuddering my eagerness to see you doubtless made me greatly anticipate the hour i fixed for i waited a considerable time for you indeed as long as i was able i only discovered after my return the cause of the sudden which overpowered me the wound was too slightly bound for such an expedition for you may be sure i cautiously concealed my projected visit to suppose lord had you was then a stranger to the earl and should have devised some excuse but my anxiety afterwards became lord s visit was a release indeed from most terrible suspense though the day i had resolved to see you the earl displayed in my opinion most unjust partiality in his on our conduct it seems that you who were the principal escaped with the most courteous of whilst i literally felt overwhelmed with the of my offence as represented to me said lady with a smile the confession of your marriage to an unknown whose abode you could not even state was rather an appalling to make to a guardian we must acknowledge lord s very kind reception of my explanation and excuses must i suppose be attributed to his delight that you had not quite reduced yourself to the strait he apprehended i wonder whether we shall see before before we go to i said lady after a pause you will admire her very much i feel assured drove over to tell me yesterday of her engagement to sir which event you know your at nearly i am prepared to feel indebted to miss her noble deserves the reward of such a heart as s should she not be present on thursday next will write immediately and request it i am sure will come though i dare say lady has heard from her again but here comes dear i think you told me that she was going this morning to so she will bring us the latest news exclaimed lady as miss entered the room however had not been to for as usual lady s capricious her design the knowledge that her son had won and was on the point of marriage with the of for their previous union at was carefully concealed from her at first excited lady s rapture and | 41 |
the at i made no comment on the glaring of her excuse but having obtained what i wished i immediately took my leave to what has my past folly exposed you exclaimed earnestly and sadly now my own the past is more than repaired and i look back on it as other than the deed of her whose affection is the most precious treasure i possess replied the earl as his arm encircled her a few tears her dark eyes as she turned them from him and yet you would have left me murmured she reproachfully as my only resource dearest did not i well perform my promise never to over your affection yes you justly abandoned me to the punishment of my murmured she hastily pursuing her occupation there is still one more of your past which i ve to call you to account for what was the reason of your sudden and provoking desire to go to town soon after our marriage a vivid blush lady s face nay why did you refuse to let me go confess it was a most abominable act of tyranny on your part replied she hurriedly the question i know you do not now think so what whim then possessed you asked the earl laughing lady replied bending over her drawing but i do not intend to afford any further explanation of the matter replied she suddenly in her former lively tones turning towards the earl with a smile perhaps had i yielded to this sudden impulse i should have lost you forever i forbid my lord any more allusion to past events exclaimed she putting her hand across the lips it is however a most fact to know that my late imaginary rival is now beyond the reach of giving me further anxiety and to render my triumph and satisfaction complete i have only to make your acknowledge that i may for the future follow my own good pleasure and go to town when i choose may i do this provided you do not make an arbitrary use of your power and insist upon going alone replied lord she smiled then her hand from his grasp resumed her employment lord presently rose what is all this about are you filling this splendid looking volume with an essay on the hardships of matrimony asked he suddenly and taking her journal from its stand he quickly glanced over its leaves lady started hurriedly from her seat and took the book from the earl s hands a deep blush her beautiful face it is a i see did i not once before nearly surprise its secrets what treason have you been writing that its contents are so carefully guarded asked the earl attempting again to take the book from her her white hands retained their hold of the book with nervous eagerness i cannot indeed show it you dear this book was my solace our days of in my lonely hours i used to amuse myself with noting down all manner of absurd and it is therefore such a record of past follies that i should blush for it to meet your eye nay let me read let me read the workings of your heart during those days rejoined lord earnestly i cannot ask anything rather than this besides i do not choose to indulge your vanity by the perusal said she with a smile attempting to walk away with the book in her hand soon however she was detained by his arm give me this last and only remaining proof of love and confidence in your power to bestow let me read this record of your most secret thoughts trembled the tones of the earl s voice thrilled her heart and she felt it vain to resist such entreaty she now suffered him to take the volume from her hand her eyes were bathed in tears tears of emotion as he drew her again to his side with her fair cheek sometimes wet with tear then with smiles resting on his bosom she watched his progress so absorbed were they that they not the lapse of time and some hours afterwards was only roused from her trance of happiness by a low knock at the door it immediately opened and on the threshold stood some one apparently hesitating whether to advance or retreat a cry of joy d lady s lips as she started from her husband s arms and flung herself on the neck of her faithful friend we need not on s joy at the evidence which first greeted her of her beloved friend s new found happiness nor on the cordial almost welcome she received from lord a friendship and esteem which never after varied and which always as one of her privileges on the day appointed lord received from the earl lady s hand her noble energetic character suffered no from contact with the world she fulfilled the duties of her station and calling and though lights and shadows her allotted path in life blessings if in after years a blush would occasionally in lady s cheeks as she recalled her youthful at yet deep and fervent was ter gratitude for the happiness which had sprung and as she gazed on the noble intellectual countenance of her husband and felt that his continued love was her brightest earthly gift involuntarily words of would arise for that providence which ordained that abundant joy should result from what was once the source of the keenest misery and suspense mrs never quitted her beloved friend and pupil happy in lady s felicity her days glided by the greatest and most stirring event of her after life being the occasion when those objects of mrs st priest s the cotton anti and covers were gradually by delicate of silk and wool which finally transformed themselves into tiny articles of infant apparel it was perfectly marvellous to contemplate the extent of | 41 |
the good old lady s labors in this line for not only did she benefit by her industry but actually extended her to also unable as she to withstand the smile of that pretty lady within four months after lady s marriage became the wife of sir at lord s especial desire she was married from great and infinite therefore was mrs triumph though even her heedless was subdued when she gratefully spoke of her daughter s fortunate lot and of s happiness in possessing so warm and true hearted a friend as lady one likewise who had effectually and promoted her interest in life colonel met the fate of most men when in their base schemes on the happiness or reputation of others with this that his love for was deep ardent and lasting as it was selfish and her image perpetually rose to him while with unspeakable bitterness he was compelled to acknowledge that he was nothing to her nay he knew so absolute was her forgetfulness that not even a thought of him arose to trouble the calm tenor of her life now and then he caught a glimpse of her in public and the sight of her placid brow and happy smile added bitterness to his regrets after a year or two of reckless colonel quitted the army and himself to a life on the continent perpetually in search of that happiness which ever fled from his pursuit forgetting that they who would win this precious boon must first tjie principle as their guide for the of that peace which without it is vainly sought in her malicious designs mrs st priest discovered on her return home after an absence of six months that the local distinction for which she so toiled had vanished of course she found the doors of closed against her and sir and lord and lady followed the example of lord supported only by miss and her mother whom the former worried into her friend s quarrel mrs st priest incapable of head against such formidable had the supreme though well mortification of learning that the universal popularity she had hitherto enjoyed by hereditary or goodness of her own was merely an ingenious method devised by little people to pay court to great ones and that now on the same principle at the nod of the latter hitherto her supposed none could be more eager than her former devoted friends to hasten her despite this lesson mrs st priest nevertheless fought to recover her lost position but lady keenly alive to the peril she had escaped was too indignant when she reflected on the treachery of the plot for her overthrow and the audacity of the subtle in to with feelings so sacred ever again to hold out the hand of friendship and her was deemed in the neighborhood from the generosity of her colonel mrs st priest as was fitting she should do met with some compensation for the loss of her popularity though her promise had not been realized it was neither for lack of good will nor tion on her part therefore in due time the estate the wages of her contemplated owned her for its mistress in the autumn of the following year she quitted forever the scene of her humiliation and took up her abode in the northern county where her new possessions lay with a heart and perpetually the position her own evil conduct had ever with envy and discontent a lamentable spectacle in her of the misery wrought by the absence of high principle and perseverance in the path of mon restored to its of the soon after sir s marriage became the abode of lady and if example were wanting to exhibit the beauty of a life of christian and usefulness it was found in lady s character mr kept his word and went abroad the day after his cousin s marriage with lord after wandering for two years in various parts of europe he returned home heart whole cured of his disappointment lady during the period of his absence was mr s constant correspondent and whether with womanly ingenuity she cleverly seized the opportunity and contrived to interest him in the prospects and daily actions of her loved and cherished sister we cannot tell certain it is however that soon after his return lady had the happiness of seeing her long projected scheme realized and with feelings deeper and far more real than the feverish attachment she once professed for colonel at length became the wife of mr and we are bound to record that after this event he never waa detected in a lingering sigh or a passing regret as he d lord s domestic happiness miss married mr frank and partook with him to her heart s content of that life of and change which she loved so well under his skilful training she learned to bet on a race with a critical confidence worthy of the keenest and most lover of the turf while in her hunting she sometimes and kept at bay a whole field of yet always generous and mrs scrambled through life with amazing popularity amongst her set suited admirably to her husband who ever looked upon her as a in the rattle and excitement of her busy life whilst youth and health lasted thought herself at the summit of human felicity and at this point therefore we will bid her farewell sir s career after his union with miss w s a total contrast to that of his sister though at the period of his marriage his tastes and habits were very much in accord with hers the drooping sentimental soon after she became lady did not long delay her of the boisterous and of her husband s boon companions or in issuing the which from excluded them from her drawing room the same decree also struck at another grievance and from the like privilege | 41 |
shivering cold morning sound a sound and not till the rising voice of the told him that the ford was moving was he released from the panting he glanced once at his favorite tree elm twigs against the gold of sky and for sleep as for a he who had been a boy very of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and improbable adventures of each new day he escaped from reality till the alarm clock rang at in it was the best of advertised and produced alarm with all modern including cathedral alarm and a dial was proud of being awakened by such a rich device it was almost as creditable as buying ex pensive cord he admitted now that there was no more escape but he lay and detested the grind of the real estate business and disliked his family and disliked himself for them the evening before he had played at s till midnight and after such holidays he was irritable before breakfast it may have been the tremendous home beer of the era and the cigars to which that beer him it may have been resentment of return from this fine bold man world to a region of wives and and of suggestions not to smoke so much from the bedroom beside the sleeping porch his wife s cheerful time to get up boy and the sound the brisk and sound of hairs out of a stiff brush he he dragged his thick legs in faded baby blue from under the blanket he sat on the edge of the cot running his fingers through his wild hair while his plump feet mechanically felt for his slippers he looked re at the blanket forever a suggestion to him of freedom and heroism he had bought it for a trip which had never come off it gorgeous gorgeous cursing flannel shirts he to his feet groaning at the waves of pain which passed behind his though he waited for their he looked out at the yard it delighted him as always it was the neat yard of a successful business man of that is it was perfection and made him also perfect he regarded the iron for the three hundred and sixty fifth time in a year he reflected no class to that tin have to build me a frame but by it s the only thing on the place that isn t up while he stared he thought of a community for bis development he stepped puffing and his arms were his sleep swollen face was set in harder lines he suddenly seemed capable an official a man to contrive to direct to get things done on the vigor of his idea he was carried down the hard clean unused looking hall into the though the house was not large it had like all houses on heights an altogether royal of and glazed tile and metal sleek as silver the rack was a rod of clear glass set in the tub was long enough for a guard and above the set bowl was a exhibit of tooth brush brush soap dish dish and medicine cabinet so glittering and so ingenious that they resembled an instrument board but the whose god was modern was not pleased the air of the was thick with the smell of a heathen been at it again stead of sticking to like i ve re ed ly asked her she s gone and gotten some confounded stuff that makes you sick the bath mat was wrinkled and the floor was wet his daughter took in the morning now and then he slipped on the mat and slid against the tub he said damn furiously he snatched up his of cream furiously he with a of the brush furiously he his plump cheeks with a safety it pulled the blade was dull he said damn oh oh damn it he hunted through the medicine cabinet for a packet of new blades reflecting as invariably be cheaper to buy one of these and your own blades and when he discovered the packet behind the round box of of he thought ill of his wife for putting it there and very well of himself for not saying damn but he did say it immediately afterward when with wet and soap slippery fingers he tried to remove the horrible little envelope and crisp clinging paper from the new then there was the problem oft pondered never solved ot what to do with the old blade which might the fingers of his young as usual he tossed it on top of the with a mental note that some day he must remove the fifty or sixty other blades that were also piled up there he finished his id a growing increased by his spinning headache and by the in his stomach when he was done his round face smooth and and his eyes from water he reached for a the family were wet wet and and vile all of them wet he found as he blindly snatched them his own face his wife s s ted s s and the lone bath with the huge of then george f did a thing he wiped his face on the guest it was a embroidered trifle which always hung there to indicate that the were in the best heights society no one had ever used it no guest had ever dared to guests took a corner of the nearest regular he was raging by here they go and use up all the every one of em and they use em and get em all wet and and never put out a dry one for me of course i m the goat and then i want one and i m the only person in the house that s got the slightest bit of consideration for other people and and consider | 42 |
there may be others that may want to use the after me and v he was the chill into the bath tub pleased by the of that desolate flapping sound and in the midst his wife serenely trotted in observed serenely why dear what are you doing are you going to wash out the why you needn t wash out the oh you didn t go and use the did you it is not recorded that he was able to answer for the first time in weeks he was sufficiently roused by his wife to look at her iv mrs george f was definitely mature she had from the corners of her mouth to the bottom of her chin and her plump neck but the thing that marked her as having passed the line was that she no longer had before her husband and no longer worried about not having she was in a now and which and of being seen in she had become so to married life that in her full she was as as an she was a good woman a kind woman a woman but no one save perhaps her old was at all interested in her or entirely aware that she was alive after a rather thorough discussion of all the domestic and social aspects of she to for his having an headache and he recovered enough to endure the search for a b v d which had he pointed out been concealed among his clean he was fairly amiable in the conference on the brown suit what do you think he at the clothes on a chair in their bedroom while she moved about mysteriously and patting her and to his eye never seeming to get on with her dressing how about it shall i wear the brown suit another day well it looks awfully nice on you i know but it needs pressing that s so perhaps it does it certainly could stand being pressed all right yes perhaps it wouldn t hurt it to be pressed but the coat doesn t need pressing no sense in having the whole suit pressed when the coat doesn t need it that s so but the certainly need it all right look at them look at those wrinkles the certainly do need pressing that s so oh why couldn t you wear the brown coat with the blue trousers we were wondering what we d do with them good lord did you ever in all my life know me to wear the coat of one suit and the of another what do you think i am a well why don t you put on the dark gray suit to day and stop in at the tailor and leave the brown trousers well they certainly need now where the devil is that gray suit oh yes here we are he was able to get through the other of dressing with comparative and calm his first was the b v d in which he resembled a small boy wearing a at a he never put on b v d s without thanking the god of progress that he didn t wear tight long old fashioned like his father in law and partner henry his second was and back his hair it gave him a tremendous forehead up two inches beyond the former hair line but most wonder working of all was the of his spectacles there is character in spectacles the the meek of the school teacher the twisted silver framed glasses of the old s spectacles had huge circular of the very best glass the ear pieces were thin bars of gold in them he was the modern business man one who gave orders to clerks and drove a car and played occasional and was in regard to his head suddenly appeared not but and you noted his heavy blunt nose his straight mouth and thick long upper lip his chin but strong with respect you beheld him put on the rest of his uniform as a solid citizen the gray suit was well cut well made and completely it was a standard suit white on the v of the added a flavor of law and learning his shoes were black boots good boots honest boots standard boots uninteresting boots the only was in his purple with considerable comment on the matter to mrs who the back of her to her skirt with a safety pin did not hear a word he said he chose between the purple and a effect with brown among blown palms and into it he thrust a snake head pin with eyes a event was changing from the brown suit to the gray the contents of his pockets he was earnest about these objects they were of eternal importance like or the republican party they included a fountain pen and a silver pencil always lacking a supply of new leads which belonged in the upper pocket without them he would have felt naked on his watch chain were a gold silver cigar seven keys the use of two of which he had forgotten and incidentally a good watch depending from the chain was a large s tooth of his in the benevolent and order of most significant of all was his loose leaf pocket note book that modern and efficient note book which contained the addresses of people whom he had forgotten prudent of money orders which had reached their months ago which had lost their of verses by t and of the newspaper from which got his opinions and his notes to be sure and do things which lo he did not intend to do and one curious inscription d s s d m y p d f but he had no case no one had ever happened to give him one so he hadn t the habit and people who | 42 |
its shining walls rose against april sky to a simple like a streak of white fire integrity was in the tower and decision it bore its strength lightly as a tall soldier as stared the was soothed from his face his slack chin lifted in reverence all he was that s one lovely sight but he was inspired by the of the city his love of it renewed he beheld the tower as a temple spire of the religion of business a faith passionate exalted surpassing common men and as he down to breakfast he whistled the ballad oh by by by as though it were a hymn melancholy and noble chapter ii relieved of s and the soft with which his wife expressed the sympathy she was too experienced to feel and much too experienced not to show their bedroom settled instantly into it gave on the sleeping porch it served both of them as dressing room and on the nights gave up the duty of being manly and retreated to the bed inside to curl his toes in the warmth and laugh at the january gale the room displayed a modest and pleasant color scheme after one of the best standard designs of the who did the for most of the houses in the walls were gray the white the rug a serene blue and very much like mahogany was the furniture the with its great clear mirror mrs s dressing table with toilet articles of almost solid silver the plain twin beds between them a small table holding a standard electric bedside lamp a glass for water and a standard bedside book with colored illustrations what particular book it was cannot be ascertained since no one had ever opened it the were firm but not hard triumphant modern which had cost a great deal of money the was of exactly the proper scientific surface for the contents of the room the windows were large and easily opened with the best catches and and holland shades not to crack it was a among right out of cheerful modern houses for medium only it had nothing to do with the nor with any one else if people had ever lived and loved here read at midnight and lain in beautiful on a sunday morning there were no signs of it it had the air of being a very good room in a very good hotel one expected the to come in and make it ready for people who would stay but one night go without looking back and never think of it again every second house in heights had a bedroom precisely like this the house was five years old it was all as competent and glossy as this bedroom it had the best of taste the best of a simple and architecture and the latest throughout took the place of candles and hearth fires along the bedroom were three for electric lamps concealed by little brass doors in the halls were for the and in the living room for the piano lamp for the electric fan the trim dining room with its admirable oak its glass cupboard its plaster walls its modest scene of a salmon upon a pile of had which supplied the electric and the electric in fact there was but one thing wrong with the house it was not a home often of a morning came and in to breakfast but things were mysteriously to day as he trod the upper hall he looked into s bedroom and protested what s the use of giving the family a high class house when they don t appreciate it and tend to business and get down to brass he marched upon them a brown haired girl of twenty two just out of given to about duty and sex and god and the of the gray sports suit she was now wearing ted a boy of seventeen still a baby at ten with radiant red hair and a thin skin which hinted of too much and too many ice cream did not show his vague irritation as he in he really disliked being a family tyrant and his was as as it was frequent he shouted at well it was the only pet name in his except the dear and hon with which he recognized his wife and he flung it at every morning he a cup of coffee in the hope of his stomach and his soul his stomach ceased to feel as though it did not belong to him but began to be conscientious and and abruptly there returned to the doubts regarding life and families and business which had at him when his dream life and the slim fairy girl had fled had for six months been clerk at the leather company offices with a prospect of becoming secretary to mr and thus as defined it getting some good out of your expensive college education till you re ready to marry and settle down but now said father i was talking to a of mine that s working for the associated oh there s the sweetest little babies that come to the there and i feel as though i ought to be doing something worth while like that what do you mean worth while if you get to be s secretary and maybe you would if you kept up your and didn t go off to and every evening i guess you ll find thirty five or forty bones a week worth while i know but oh i want to contribute i wish i were working in a settlement house i wonder if i could get one of the department stores to let me put in a welfare department with a nice rest room and and chairs and so on and so forth or i could now you look | 42 |
here the first thing you got to understand is that all this and and settlement work and is nothing in god s world but the entering for the sooner a man he isn t going to be and he needn t expect a lot of free and all these free classes and and for his unless he em why the sooner he ll get on the job and produce produce produce that s what the country needs and not all this fancy stuff that just the will power of the working man and gives his a lot of notions above their class and you if you d tend to business instead of and all the time when i was a young man i made up my mind what i wanted to do and stuck to it through thick and thin and that s why i m where i am to day and what do you let the girl chop the toast up into these little for can t get your fist em half cold anyway ted junior in the great east side high school had been making like sounds of interruption he now say you going to whirled ted will you kindly not interrupt us when we re talking about serious matters aw said ted ever since somebody slipped up and let you out of college you been pulling these nut conversations about what and so so are you going to i want to use the car tonight oh you do may want it myself protested oh you do mr i m going to take it myself oh papa you said maybe you d drive us down to and mrs care ful your sleeve is in the butter they glared and hurled ted you re a perfect pig about the car course you re not not a tall ted could be bland you just want to it off right after dinner and leave it in front of some skirt s house all evening while you sit and gas about and the you re going to marry if they only propose well t to ever let you have it you and those jones boys drive like the idea of your taking the turn on place at forty miles an hour aw where do you get that stuff you re so scared of the car that you drive up hill with the emergency on i do not and you always talking about how much you know about and told me you said the battery fed the you why my good woman you don t know a from a not was ted lofty with her he was a natural a maker and of machines he in for the came that ll do now flung in mechanically as he lighted the satisfying first cigar of the day and tasted the of the advocate times ted honest i don t want to take the old boat but i promised couple o girls in my class i d drive em down to the of the school chorus and i don t want to but a gentleman s got to keep his social engagements well upon my word you and your social engagements in high school oh ain t we select since we went to that hen college let me tell you there isn t a private school in the state that s got as swell a bunch as we got in this year there s two fellows that their are say i ought to have a car of my own like lots of the fellows almost rose a car of your own don t you want a and a house and lot that pretty nearly takes the cake a boy that can t pass his latin like any other boy ought to and he expects me to give him a car and i suppose a and an maybe as a reward for the hard work he puts in going to the with well when you see me giving you somewhat later after ted persuaded to admit that she was merely going to the that evening to see the dog and cat show she was then ted planned to park the car in front of the store across from the and he would pick it up there were arrangements regarding leaving the key and having the filled and passionately of the great god they the patch on the spare inner and the lost their ted observed that her friends were a scream of a bunch stuck up four his friends she indicated were disgusting imitation sports and horrid little shrieking ignorant girls further it s disgusting of you to smoke and so on and so forth and those clothes you ve got on this morning they re too utterly ridiculous honestly simply disgusting ted balanced over to the low mirror in the regarded his charms and his suit the latest thing in old was skin tight with trousers to the tops of his glaring tan boots a chorus man pattern of an agitated check and across the back a belt which nothing his was an enormous black silk his hair was ice smooth back without parting when he went to school he would add a cap with a long like a blade of all was his waistcoat saved for begged for for a real fancy of with of a decayed red the points long on the lower edge of it he wore a high school button a class button and a pin and none of it mattered he was and swift and flushed his eyes which he believed to be cynical were candidly eager but he was not over gentle he waved his band at poor and yes i guess we re pretty ridiculous and and i rather guess our new is some i it is and while you re admiring yourself let me | 42 |
tell you it might add to your manly beauty if you wiped some of that egg off your mouth momentary victor in the greatest of great wars which is the family war ted looked at her hopelessly then shrieked at for the love o quit pouring the whole sugar bowl on your corn when and ted were gone and upstairs groaned to his wife nice family i must say i don t pretend to be any lamb and maybe i m a little at breakfast sometimes but the way they go on i simply can t stand it i swear i feel like going off some place where i can get a little peace i do think after a man s spent his lifetime trying to give his a chance and a decent education it s pretty to hear them all the time like a bunch of and never and never curious here in the paper it says never silent for one mom seen the morning paper yet no dear in twenty three years of married life mrs had seen the paper before her husband just times lots of news terrible big in the south hard luck all right but this say this is beginning of the end for those fellows new york assembly has passed some bills that ought to completely the and there s an strike in new york and a lot of college boys are taking their places that s the stuff and a mass meeting in s demanded that thi this fellow de be dead right by all these paid with german gold anyway and we got no business interfering with the irish or any other foreign government keep our hands strictly off and there s another well from russia that is dead that s fine it s beyond me why we don t just step in there and kick those out that s so said mrs and it says here a fellow was mayor in a preacher too what do you think of that well he searched for an attitude but neither as a republican a an nor a real estate did he have any doctrine about preacher laid down for him so he and went on she looked sympathetic and did not hear a word later she would read the the society columns and the department store what do you know about this still doing the as heavy as ever here s what that woman says about last night never is society with the big big s more flattered than when they are to partake of good cheer at the distinguished and hospitable residence of mr and mrs charles l as they were last night set in its spacious and one of the notable sights crowning royal ridge but merry and despite its mighty stone walls and its vast rooms for their their home was thrown open last night for a dance in honor of mrs s notable guest miss j of washington the wide hall is so generous in its proportions that it made a perfect its floor reflecting the charming above its polished surface even the delights of dancing before the opportunities for a that invited the soul to loaf in the long before the fireplace or in the drawing room with its deep its shaded lamps made for a sly whisper of all a or even in the room where one could take a cue and show a at still another game than that by and there was more a great deal more in the best style of miss pearl the popular society editor of the advocate times but could not abide it he he wrinkled the newspaper he protested can you beat it i m willing to hand a lot of credit to when we were in college together he was just as hard up as any of us and he s made a million good out of and hasn t been any or bought any more city than was necessary and that s a good house of his though it ain t any mighty stone walls and it ain t worth the ninety thousand it cost him but when it comes to talking as though and all that set of his are any blooming bunch of of of why it makes me tired timidly from mrs i would like to see the inside of their house though it must be lovely i ve never been inside well i have lots of couple oi times to see about business in the evening it s not so much i wouldn t want to go there to dinner with that gang of of and i ll bet i make a whole lot more money than some of those tin horns that spend all they got on dress suits and haven t got a decent suit of to their name hey what do you think of this mrs was strangely unmoved by the tidings from the real estate and building column of the advocate times street j k to thomas april x and this morning was too to entertain her with from recorded and he rose as he looked at her his eyebrows seemed than usual suddenly yes maybe kind of shame to not keep in touch with folks like the we might try inviting them to dinner some evening oh thunder let s not waste our good time thinking about em our little bunch has a lot liver times than all those just compare a real human like you with these birds like all talk and dressed up like a horse you re a great old girl hon he covered his of softness with a complaining say don t let go and eat any more of that poison for heaven s sake try to keep her from her i tell you most folks don t appreciate how important it is to have | 42 |
a good and regular habits be back bout usual time i guess he kissed her he didn t quite kiss her he laid lips against her cheek he hurried out to the muttering lord what a family and now is going to get pathetic on me because we don t train with this oh lord sometimes i d like to quit the whole game and the office worry and detail just as bad and i act and i don t mean to but i so tired chapter iii to george f as to most prosperous citizens of his car was poetry and tragedy love and heroism the office was his ship but the car his perilous excursion ashore among the tremendous of each day none was more dramatic than starting the engine it was slow on cold mornings there was the long anxious of the and sometimes he had to into the of the which was so very interesting that at lunch he would chronicle it drop by drop and calculate how much each drop had cost him this morning he was darkly prepared to find something wrong and he felt when the mixture exploded sweet and strong and the car didn t even brush the door and with many by as he backed out of the he was confused he shouted morning to sam with more cordiality than he had intended s green and white dutch house was one of three in that block on road to the left of it was the residence of mr samuel secretary of an excellent firm of his was a comfortable house with no manners whatever a large wooden box with a tower a broad porch and glossy paint yellow as a of mr and mrs as from their house came midnight music and laughter there were neighborhood of and fast rides they furnished v ith many happy evenings of discussion during which he announced firmly i m not and i don t mind seeing a fellow throw in a drink once in a while but when it comes to deliberately trying to get away with a lot of hell raising all the while like the do it s too rich for my blood on the other side of lived d in a strictly modern house whereof the lower part was dark red brick with a the upper part of pale like clay and the roof red was the great scholar of the neighborhood the authority on everything in the world except babies cooking and he was a bachelor of arts of college and a doctor of philosophy in of he was the employment manager and counsel of the street company he could on ten hours notice appear before the board of or the state and prove absolutely with figures all in rows and with from and new that the street car company loved the public and over its that all its stock was owned by and and that whatever it desired to do would benefit property owners by increasing and help the poor by lowering rents all his acquaintances turned to when they desired to know the date of the battle of the definition of the word the future of the german mark the translation of nice or the number of of coal tar he awed by that he often sat up till midnight reading the figures and in government reports or with amusement at the author s mistakes the latest volumes of and but s great value was as a spiritual example despite his strange he was as strict a and as firm a republican as george f he con the business men in the faith where they knew only by passionate instinct that their system of industry and manners was perfect dr proved it to them out of history and the of had a good deal of honest pride in being the neighbor of such a and in ted s intimacy with at sixteen was interested in no save those regarding the ages and of motion picture stars but as put it she was her father s daughter the difference between a light man like sam and a really fine character like was revealed in their appearances was young for a man of forty eight he wore his on the back of his head and his red face was wrinkled with laughter but was old for a man of forty two he was tall broad thick his gold spectacles were in the folds of his long face his hair was a tossed mass of greasy blackness he puffed and as he talked his key shone against a black he of old pipes he was altogether and and to and the of he added an of this morning he was in front of his house the grass between the and the broad stopped his car and leaned out to shout over and stood with one foot up on the running board fine morning said lighting early his second cigar of the day yes it s a mighty fine morning said spring coming along fast now yes it s real spring now all right said still cold nights though had to have a couple blankets on the sleeping porch last night yes it wasn t any too warm last night said but i don t anticipate we ll have any more real cold weather now no but still there was snow at yesterday said the scholar and you remember the they had out west three days ago thirty inches of snow at and two years ago we had a snow right here in on the twenty fifth of april is that a fact say old man what do you think about the republican candidate who ll they for president don t you think it s about time we had a real business administration in my opinion what the country needs first and foremost | 42 |
is a good sound business like conduct of its affairs what we need is a business administration said i m glad to hear you say that i certainly am glad to hear you say that i didn t know how you d feel about it with all your associations with and so on and i m glad you feel that way what the country needs just at this present juncture is neither a college president nor a lot of with foreign affairs but a good sound economical business administration that will give us a chance to have something like a decent yes it isn t generally realized that even in china the are giving way to more practical men and of course you can see what that is that a fact well well breathed feeling much calmer and much happier about the way things were going in the world well it s been nice to stop and a second guess i ll have to get down to the office now and sting a few well so long old man see you tonight so long ii they had labored these solid citizens twenty years be s fore the hill on which heights was spread with its bright roofs and turf and amazing comfort had been a wilderness of rank second growth elms and oaks and along the precise streets were still a few wooded vacant lots and the fragment of an old orchard it was brilliant to day the apple boughs were lit with fresh leaves like of green fire the first white of cherry blossoms down a and the earth chuckled at the as he would have chuckled at or at a comic he was to the eye the perfect office going a man in a correct brown soft hat and spectacles a large cigar driving a good along a but in him was some genius of love for his neighborhood his city his the winter was over the time was come for the building the visible growth which to him was glory he lost his dawn depression he was cheerful when he stopped on smith street to leave the brown trousers and to have the filled the familiarity of the fortified him the sight of the tall red iron pump the hollow tile and the window full of the most agreeable shiny spark with tire chains of gold and silver he was flattered by the friendliness with which moon and most skilled of came out to serve him mr said moon and felt himself a person of importance one whose name even busy remembered not one of these cheap sports flying around in he admired the ingenuity of the dial off by admired the of the sign a fill in time getting stuck gas to day cents admired the of the as it flowed into the and the mechanical regularity with which moon turned the handle how much we to day asked moon in a manner which combined the independence of the great the friendliness of a familiar gossip and respect for a man of weight in the community like george f fill er up who you for for republican candidate mr it s too early to make any yet after all there s still a good month and two weeks no three weeks must be almost three weeks well there s more than six weeks in all before the republican and i feel a fellow ought to keep an open mind and give all the a show look em all over and size em up and then decide carefully that s a fact mr but i ll tell you and my stand on this is just the same as it was four years ago and eight years ago and it ll be my stand four years from now yes and eight years from now what i tell everybody and it can t be too generally is that what we need first last and all the time is a good sound business administration by that s right how do those front look to you fine fine wouldn t be much work for if everybody looked after their car the way you do well i do try and have some sense about it paid his bill said oh keep the change and drove off in an ecstasy of honest self appreciation it was with the manner of a good that he shouted at a respectable looking man who was waiting for a car have a lift as the man climbed in condescended going clear down town whenever i see a fellow waiting for a i always make it a practice to give him a lift unless of course he looks like a bum wish there were more folks that were so generous with their machines said the victim of benevolence oh no tain t a question of generosity hardly fact i always feel i was saying to my son just the other night it s a fellow s duty to share the good things of this world with his neighbors and it gets my goat when a fellow gets stuck on himself and goes around his horn merely because he s charitable the victim seemed unable to find the right answer on pretty service the company giving us on these nonsense to only run the road cars once every seven minutes fellow gets mighty cold on a winter morning waiting on a street corner with the wind at his ankles that s right the street car company don t care a damn what kind of a deal they give us something ought to happen to em was alarmed but still of course it won t do to just keep knocking the company and not realize the difficulties they re under like these that want the way these workmen hold up | 42 |
the company for high wages is simply a crime and of course the burden falls on you and me that have to pay a fare fact there s remarkable service on all their lines considering uneasily fine morning explained spring coming along fast yes it s real spring now the victim had no originality no wit and fell into a great silence and devoted himself to the game of beating cars to the corner a a tail chase nervous een the huge yellow side of the and the jagged row of shooting past just as the stepped a rare game and and all the while he was conscious of the loveliness of for weeks together he noticed nothing but and the to rent signs of rival to day in mysterious he raged or rejoiced with equal nervous swiftness and to day the light of spring was so that he lifted his head and saw he admired each district along his familiar route to the office the and shrubs and winding irregular of heights the one story shops on smith street a glare of plate glass and new yellow brick and and stores to supply the more immediate needs of east side the market gardens in dutch hollow their patched with iron and stolen doors with crimson nine feet tall pipe tobacco and powder the old along ninth street s e like aged in filthy linen wooden castles turned into boarding houses with muddy walks and rusty hedges by fast cheap apartment houses and fruit stands conducted by bland sleek across the belt of railroad tracks with high perched water and tall producing milk paper boxes lighting cars then the business the darting traffic the crammed and high of marble and polished granite it was big and rejected in anything in mountains jewels muscles wealth or words he was for a spring enchanted moment the and almost unselfish lover of he thought of the factory of the river with its strangely banks of the hills to the north and all the fat land and big and comfortable herds as he dropped his passenger he cried i feel pretty good this morning in as starting the car was the drama of it before he entered his office as he turned from avenue round the corner into third street n e he peered ahead for a space in the line of cars he angrily just missed a space as a rival driver slid into it ahead another car was leaving the and up holding out his hand to the cars pressing on him from behind an old woman to go ahead avoiding a which bore down on him from one side with front wheels the of the car in front he stopped cramped his wheel slid back into the vacant space and with eighteen inches of room to bring the car level with the it was a adventure executed with satisfaction he locked a thief proof steel on the front wheel and crossed the street to his real estate office on the ground floor of the building the building was as as a rock and as efficient as a fourteen stories of yellow pressed brick with clean upright lines it was filled with the offices of lawyers doctors agents for machinery for wheels for wire for stock their gold signs shone on the windows the entrance was too modern to be with pillars it was quiet shrewd neat along the third street side were a western union telegraph office the blue shop s shop and the company could have entered his office from the street as customers did but it made him feel an to go through the corridor of the building and enter by the back door thus he was greeted by the villagers the little unknown people who inhabited the building and the doubtful looking lame man who conducted the news and cigar stand were in no way city they were living in a valley interested only in one another and in the building their main street was the entrance hall with its stone floor severe marble ceiling and the windows of the shops the place on the street was the building shop but this was also s one embarrassment himself he the glittering shop in the hotel and every time he passed the shop ten times a day a hundred times he felt to his own village now as one of the greeted with honorable by the villagers he marched into his office and peace and dignity were upon him and the morning s all unheard they were heard again immediately the outside was talking on the with tragic lack of that firm manner which say think i got just the house that would suit you the house in oh you ve seen it well how d it strike you oh oh i see as marched into his private room a with of oak and glass at the back of the office he reflected how hard it was to find who had his own faith that he was going to make there were nine members of the staff besides and his partner and father in law henry who rarely came to the office the nine were the outside a man given to and the playing of pool old mat general utility man of rents and of broken silent gray a mystery to have been a crack real estate man with a firm of his own in haughty resident out at the development an enthusiastic person with a and much family miss the swift and rather pretty miss the thick slow laborious and file clerk and four commission as he looked from his own cage into the main room mourned s a good smart s a whip but and all those the zest of the spring morning was smothered in the stale office air he admired the office | 42 |
with a pleased surprise that he should have created this sure lovely thing he was stimulated by the clean of it and the air of bustle but to day it seemed flat the floor like a the colored metal ceiling the faded maps on the hard plaster walls the chairs of pale oak the and of steel painted in olive it was a vault a steel chapel where and laughter were raw sin he hadn t even any satisfaction in the new water cooler and it was the very best of water up to date scientific and right thinking it had cost a great deal of money in itself a virtue it possessed a non conducting a water jar a non and machine painted in two tones of gold he looked down the stretch of floor at the water cooler and assured himself that no tenant of the building had a more expensive one but he could not the feeling of social superiority it had given him he i d like to beat it off to the woods right now and loaf all day and go to s again to night and play and as much as i feel like and drink a hundred and nine thousand bottles of beer he sighed he read through his mail he shouted which meant miss and began to dictate this was his own version of his first letter send it to his office miss yours of twentieth to hand and in reply would say look here i m awfully afraid if we go on like this we ll just naturally lose the sale i had up on carpet day before yesterday and got right down to cases and think i can assure you no change that all my experience he is all right means to do business looked into his financial record which is fine that sentence seems to be a little up miss make a couple sentences out of it if you have to period new paragraph he is perfectly willing to pro rate the special and strikes me am dead sure there will be no difficulty in getting him to pay for title so now for heaven s sake let s get busy no make that so now let s go to it and get down no that s enough you can tie those sentences up a little better when you type em miss your sincerely this is the version of his letter which he received from miss that afternoon co homes for folks avenue d st n e esq north american building dear mr your letter of the twentieth to hand i must say i m awfully afraid that if we go on like this we ll just naturally lose the sale i had up on the carpet day before yesterday and got right down to cases all my experience that he means to do business i have also looked into his financial record which is fine he is perfectly willing to pro rate the special and there will be no difficulty in getting him to pay for title so let s go yours as he read and signed it in his correct flowing hand reflected now that s a good strong letter and dear s a bell now what the i never told to make a third paragraph there wish she d quit trying to improve on my but what i can t understand is why can t or write a letter like that with punch with a kick the most important thing he dictated that morning was the form letter to be and sent out to a thousand prospects it was diligently of the best literary models of the day of heart to heart talk pulling letters on the development of will power and hand shaking house organs as richly poured forth by the new school of poets of business he had painfully written out a first and he it now like a poet delicate and say old man i just want to know can i do you a favor honest no i know you re interested in getting a house not merely a place where you hang up the old bonnet but a love nest for the wife and and maybe for the out be sure and spell that b e y a n t miss the garden say did you ever stop to think that we re here to save you trouble that s how we make a living folks don t pay us for our lovely beauty now take a look sit right down at the handsome carved mahogany and shoot us in a line telling us just what you want and if we can find it we ll come down your lane with the good tidings and if we can t we won t bother you to save your time just fill out the blank enclosed on request will also send blank regarding store properties in heights silver grove and all east side districts yours for service p s just a hint of some we can pick for you some genuine that came in to day silver grove four room a m i shade tree swell neighborhood handy car down and balance liberal terms cheaper than rent a artistic two family house all oak trim floors lovely gas log big heated all weather a bargain at over with its need of sitting and thinking instead of bustling around and making a noise and really doing something sat back in his revolving and beamed on miss he was conscious of her as a girl of black hair against cheeks a longing which was from loneliness him while she waited tapping a long precise pencil point on the desk he half identified her with the fairy girl of his dreams he imagined their eyes meeting with recognition imagined touching her lips | 42 |
with frightened reverence and she was any more mist he that winds it up i guess and turned heavily away for all his wandering thoughts they had never been more intimate than this he often reflected forget how old said a wise bird never goes love making in his own office or his own home start trouble sure but in twenty three years of married life he had peered uneasily at every graceful ankle every soft shoulder in thought he had them but not once had he respectability by now as he calculated the cost of the house he was restless again discontented about nothing and everything ashamed of his and lonely for the fairy girl chapter iv pr was a morning of artistic creation fifteen minutes after the purple prose of s form letter the resident at came in to report a sale and submit an advertisement of who sang in and was merry at home over of hearts and old maid he had a tenor voice chestnut hair and a like a s hair brush considered it in a family man to growl seen this new picture of the kid little devil eh but s domestic confidences were as as a girl s say i think i got a of an ad for the mr why don t we try something in poetry honest il d have wonderful pulling power listen mid pleasures and palaces wherever you may you just provide the little bride and we ll provide the home do you get it see like home sweet home don t you yes yes yes hell yes of course i get it but oh i think we d better use something more dignified and like we lead others follow or eventually why not now course i believe in using poetry and humor and all that when it turns the trick but with a high class ment like the we better stick to the more dignified approach see how i mean well i guess that s all this morning ii by a tragedy familiar to the world of art the april enthusiasm of served only to the talent of the older george f he grumbled to that tan colored voice of s gets on my nerves yet he was aroused and in one he wrote do you respect your loved ones when the last sad rites of are over do you know for certain that you have done your best for the departed you haven t unless they lie in the beautiful lane tile only strictly up to date burial place in or near where exquisitely plots look from dotted hill slopes across the fields of sole agents company building he rejoiced i guess that ll show and his old something about modern ni he sent mat to the s office to dig out the names of the owners of houses which were displaying for rent signs of other he talked to a man who desired to lease a store building for a pool room he ran over the list of which were about to he sent thomas a street car conductor who played at real estate in spare time to call on side street prospects who were unworthy the of but he had spent his excite ment of creation and these routine details annoyed him one moment of heroism he had in discovering a new way of stopping smoking he stopped smoking at least once a month he went through with it like the solid citizen he was admitted the evils of tobacco made laid out plans to check the vice off his allowance of cigars and the pleasures of to every one he met he did everything in fact except stop smoking two months before by ruling out a noting down the hour and minute of each smoke and increasing the intervals between he had brought himself down to three cigars a day then he had lost the a week ago he had invented a system of leaving his and box in an unused drawer at the bottom of the correspondence file in the outer office i ll just naturally be ashamed to go in there all day long making a fool of myself before my own he reasoned by the end of three days he was trained to leave his desk walk to the file take out and light a cigar without knowing that he was doing it this morning it was revealed to him that it had been too easy to open the file lock it that was the thing inspired he rushed out and locked up his cigars his and even his box of safety matches and the key to the file drawer he hid in his desk but the passion of it made him so tobacco hungry that he immediately recovered the key walked with forbidding dignity to the file took out a cigar and a match but only one match if cigar goes out it ll by have to stay out later when the cigar did go out he took one more match from the file and when a and a came in for a conference at eleven thirty naturally he had to offer them cigars his conscience protested why you re smoking with them but he it oh shut i m busy now of course by and by there was no by and by yet his belief that he had crushed the habit made him feel noble and very happy when he called up paul he was in his moral splendor unusually eager he was of paul than of any one on earth except himself and his daughter they had been in the state university but always he thought of paul with his dark his precisely parted hair his nose glasses his speech his his love of music as a younger brother to be and protected paul had gone into his father s | 42 |
his guests he pushed their chairs two inches forward and three inches back which gave an hospitable note then leaned back in his desk chair and looked plump and jolly but he spoke to the with firmness well brother we been having some pretty tempting offers from and a of other folks for that lot next to your store but i persuaded brother that we ought to give you a shot at the property first i said to it d be a rotten shame i said if somebody went and opened a combination and meat market right next door and ruined s nice little business especially leaned forward and his voice was harsh it would be luck if one of these cash and carry chain stores got in there and started cutting prices below cost till they got rid of competition and forced you to the wall snatched his thin hands from his pockets pulled up his trousers thrust his hands back into his pockets in the heavy oak chair and tried to look amused as he struggled yes they re bad competition but i guess you don t realize the pulling power that personality has in a neighborhood business the great smiled that s so just as you feel old man we thought we d give you first chance all right now look here i know f r a fact that a piece of property bout same size right near sold for less n eighty five hundred n t two years ago and here you fellows are asking me twenty four thousand dollars why i d have to i wouldn t mind so much paying twelve thousand but why good god mr you re asking more n twice its value and threatening to ruin me if i don t take it i don t like your way of talking i don t like it one nd i enough to want to ruin fellow human don t you suppose we know it s to our own selfish interest to have everybody in prosperous but all this is beside the point tell you what we ll do we ll come down to twenty three thousand five thousand down and the rest on and if you want to wreck the old and i guess i can get here to up for a building on good liberal terms heavens man we d be glad to oblige you we don t like these foreign any better n you do but it isn t reasonable to expect us to sacrifice eleven thousand or more just for is it how about it you willing to come down by warmly taking s part persuaded the benevolent mr to reduce his price to twenty one thousand dollars at the right moment snatched from a drawer the agreement he had had miss type out a week ago and thrust it into s hands he shook his fountain pen to make certain that it was flowing handed it to and watched him sign the work of the world was being done had made something over nine thousand dollars had made a and fifty dollar commission had by the sensitive of modern been provided with a business building and soon the happy inhabitants of would have meat upon them at prices only a little higher than those down town it had been a manly battle but after it drooped this was the only really amusing contest he had been planning there was nothing ahead save details of he muttered makes me sick to think of carrying off most of the profit when i did all the work the old and what else have i got to do to day like to take a good long trip something he sprang up by the thought of with paul chapter v s preparations for leaving the office to its feeble self during the hour and a half of his lunch period were somewhat less elaborate than the plans for a general european war he fretted to miss what time you going to lunch well make sure miss is in then explain to her that if calls up she s to tell him i m already having the title traced and oh b the way remind me to morrow to have trace it now if anybody comes in looking for a cheap house remember we got to that road place off somebody if you need me i ll be at the club be back by two he the cigar ashes off his he placed a difficult letter on the pile of unfinished work that he might not fail to attend to it that afternoon for three now he had placed the same letter on the unfinished pile he on a sheet of yellow paper the m see apt h which gave him an agreeable feeling of having already seen about the apartment house doors he discovered that he was smoking another cigar he threw it away protesting it i thought you d quit this smoking he returned the cigar box to the correspondence file locked it up hid the key in a more difficult place and raged ought to take care of myself and need more exercise walk to the club every single noon just what i ll do every noon cut out this all the time the resolution made him feel after it he decided that this noon it was too late to walk it took but little more time to start his car and edge it into the traffic than it would have taken to walk the three and a half blocks to the club as he drove he glanced with the fondness of familiarity at the buildings a stranger suddenly dropped into the business of could not have told whether he was in a city of or or or but to every inch was individual and stirring as always he noted | 42 |
that the building across the way was three stories lower therefore three stories less beautiful than his own building as always when he passed the shoe shine parlor a one story hut which beside the granite and red brick of the old building resembled a bath house under a cliff he commented ought to get my shoes this afternoon keep forgetting it at the office furniture shop the national cash register agency he for a for a which would add and as a poet for or a physician for at the men s wear shop he took his left hand oft the wheel to touch his and thought well of himself as one who bought expensive ties and could pay cash for em too by and at the united cigar store with its crimson and gold he reflected wonder if i need some cigars idiot forgot going t cut down my fool smoking he looked at his bank the and national and considered how clever and solid he was to bank with so an establishment his high moment came in he clash of traffic when he was halted at the corner beneath the lofty second national tower his car was with four others in a line of steel restless as cavalry while the cross town traffic and enormous moving and poured by on the farther corner rang on the sun skeleton of a new building and out of this flashed the inspiration of a familiar face and a fellow shouted h are you george waved in affection and slid on with the traffic as the policeman lifted his hand he noted how quickly his car picked up he felt superior and powerful like a of polished steel darting in a vast machine as always he ignored the next two blocks decayed blocks not yet from the and of the of while he was passing the five and ten cent store the lodging house hall with its lodge rooms and the offices of fortune and he thought of how much money he made and he boasted a little and worried a little and did old familiar sums tour hundred fifty this morning from the deal but taxes due let s see i ought to pull out eight thousand net this year and save fifteen hundred of that no not if i put up and let s see six hundred and forty clear last month and twelve times six forty makes makes let see six times twelve is seventy two hundred and oh rats anyway make eight thousand now that s not so bad mighty few fellows pulling down eight thousand dollars a year eight thousand good hard iron dollars bet there isn t more than five per cent of the people in the whole united states that make more than uncle george does by right up at the top of the heap but way expenses are family wasting and always dressed like and sending that eighty a month to mother and all these and me for every cent they can get the effect of his scientific planning was that he felt at once triumphantly wealthy and poor and in the midst of these he stopped his car rushed into a small news and shop and bought the electric which he had for a week he his conscience by being and noisy and by shouting at the clerk guess this will near pay for itself in matches eh it was a pretty thing a with an almost silvery to be attached to the of his car it was not only as the on the counter observed a little refinement the last touch of class to a gentleman s but a time by him from halting the car to light a match it would in a month or two easily save ten minutes as he drove on he glanced at it pretty nice always wanted one he said wistfully the one thing a needs too then he remembered that he had given up smoking it he mourned oh well i suppose i ll hit a cigar once in a while and be a great convenience for other folks might make just the difference in getting with some fellow that would put over a sale and co looks nice there certainly is a mighty clever little gives the last touch of refinement and class i by i guess i can afford it if i want to not going to be the only member of this family that never has a single luxury thus laden with treasure after three and a half blocks of romantic adventure he drove up to the club in the club is not and it isn t exactly a club but it is in perfection it has an active and smoke room it is represented by and and in the pool and the a tenth of the members try to reduce but most of its three thousand members use it as a in which to lunch play cards tell stories meet customers and entertain out at dinner it is the largest club in the city and its chief hatred is the union club which all sound members of the call a rotten dull expensive old hole not one good in the place you couldn t hire me to join show that no member of the has ever refused election to the union and of those who are elected sixty seven per cent resign from the and thereafter heard to say in the drowsy of the union the would be a pretty good hotel if it were more exclusive the building is nine stories high yellow brick with roof garden above and of huge columns below the with its thick pillars of stone its pointed and a brown glazed tile floor like well baked bread crust is a combination of t t and | 42 |
the members rush into the as they were and hadn t much time for it thus did enter and to the group standing by the he how s the boys how s the boys well well fine day they back the coal dealer the ladies ready to wear for s department store and professor joseph k owner of the business college and in public speaking business english writing and commercial law though admired this and appreciated as a mighty smart and a good liberal it was to that he turned with enthusiasm mr was president of the club a weekly lunch club local chapter of a national organization which promoted sound business and friendliness among regular fellows he was also no less an official than esteemed leading knight in the benevolent and order of and it was that th election he would be a candidate for exalted ruler he was a jolly man given to and to with the arts he called on the famous actors and artists when they came to town gave them cigars addressed them by their first names and sometimes succeeded in bringing them to the to give the boys a free entertainment he was a large man with hair en and he knew the latest jokes but he played close to the chest it was at his party that had sucked in the of to day s restlessness shouted how s the old how do you feel the morning after the night before oh boy some head that was a regular party you threw hope you haven t forgotten i took that last little jack pot he was three feet from that s all right now what i ll hand you next time say notice in the paper the way the new york assembly stood up to the you bet i did that was fine eh nice day to day yes it s one mighty fine spring day but nights still cold you re right they are had to have blankets last night out on the sleeping porch say turned to the got something ask you about i went out and bought me an electric cigar lighter for the car this noon and good said while even the learned professor a man with a and salt and a pipe organ voice commented that makes a cigar lighter gives tone to the finally decided i d buy me one got the best on the market the clerk said it was paid five for it just wondering if i got stuck what do they charge for em at the store asserted that five dollars was not too great a sum not for a really high class lighter which was and provided with connections of the very best quality i always say and believe me i base it on a pretty fairly extensive experience the best is the in the long run of course if a fellow wants to be a jew about it he can get cheap but in the long run the thing is the best you can get now you take here just th other day i got a new top for my old boat and some and i paid out a hundred and twenty six fifty and of course a lot of fellows would say that was too much lord if the old folks they live in one of these towns up state and they simply can t get the way a city fellow s mind works and then of course they re jews and they d lie right down and die if they knew had up a hundred and twenty six bones but i don t figure i was stuck george not a bit machine looks brand new now not that it s so old of course had it less n three years but i give it hard service never drive less n a hundred miles on and oh i don t really think you got stuck george in the long run the best is you might say it s unquestionably the that s right said that s the way i look at it if a fellow is up to what you might call living the way you get it here in all the and mental activity that s going on with a bunch of live wires like the and here in the z a c why he s got to save his nerves by having the best nodded his head at every fifth word in the roaring and by the conclusion in s renowned humorous vein he was enchanted still at that george don t know s you can afford it i ve heard your business has been kind of under the eye of the ment since you stole the tail of park and sold it oh you re a great little but when it comes to how about this report that you stole the black marble steps off the post office and sold em for high grade coal in delight patted s back his arm that s all right but what i want to know is who s the real estate that bought that coal for his i guess that ll hold you for a while george said i ll tell you though boys what i did hear george s went into the wear department at s to buy him some and before she could give his neck size the clerk slips her some how know the size says mrs and the clerk says men that let their wives buy for em always wear thirteen madam how s that that s pretty good eh how s that eh i guess that ll about fix you george i i sought for amiable in answer he stopped stared at the door paul was coming in cried see you later boys and hastened across the he was just then | 42 |
neither the sulky child of the sleeping porch the domestic tyrant of the breakfast table the money of the conference nor the good fellow the and regular of the club he was an older brother to paul swift to defend him admiring him with a proud and love passing the love of women paul and he shook hands solemnly they smiled as as though they had been parted three years not three days and they said how s the old horse thief all right i guess how re you you poor i m first rate you second hand o cheese reassured thus of their high fondness you re a fine you are ten minutes late snapped well you re lucky to have a chance to lunch with a gentleman they grinned and went into the where a line of men bent over the along a sh of marble as in religious before their own images in the mirror voices thick satisfied along the marble walls bounded from the ceiling of bordered while the lords of the city the of and law and and laid down the law for announced that the day was warm indeed of spring that wages were too high and the interest on too low that babe the eminent player of was a noble man and that those two nuts at the climax this week certainly are a pair of actors though ordinarily his voice was the and most of all was silent in the presence of the slight dark of paul he was awkward he desired to be quiet and firm and the entrance of the club was the roman imperial the spanish mission and the reading room in chinese but the of the club was the dining room the of s it was lofty and half with an a somewhat gallery and believed to illustrate the of the open beams had been hand at s car body works the hinges were of hand wrought iron the studded with wooden and at one end of the room was a and stone fireplace which the club s asserted to be not only larger than any of the in european castles but of a draught more scientific it was also much as no fire had ever been built in it half of the table which seated twenty or thirty men usually sat at the one near the door with a group including professor his neighbor t t the poet and agent and jones whose o was in many ways the best in they composed a club within the club and merrily called themselves the to day as he passed their table the greeted him come on sit in you n paul too proud to feed with poor folks afraid somebody might stick you for a bottle of george strikes me you are getting awful exclusive he thundered you bet we can t afford to have our ruined by being seen with you and guided paul to one of the small tables beneath the gallery he felt guilty at the club privacy was very bad form but he wanted paul to himself that morning he had lighter and now he ordered nothing but english mutton chop peas apple pie a bit of cheese and a pot of coffee with cream adding as he did invariably and oh and you might give me an order of french potatoes when the chop came he vigorously it and it he always and his meat and vigorously before it paul and he took up the spring like quality of the spring the virtues of the electric cigar lighter and the action of the new york state assembly it was not till was thick and with mutton that he flung out i wound up a nice little deal with this morning that put five hundred good round in my pocket pretty nice pretty nice and yet i don t know what s the matter with me to day maybe it s an attack of spring fever or staying up too late at s or maybe it s just the winter s work up but i ve felt kind of down in the mouth all day long course i wouldn t beef about it to the fellows at the table there but you ever feel that way paul kind of comes over me here i ve pretty much done all the things i ought to supported my family and got a good house and a six car and built up a nice uttle business and i haven t any vices specially except i ing and i m practically cutting that out by the way and belong to the church and play enough to keep in trim and i only associate with good decent fellows and yet even so i don t know that i m entirely satisfied it was out broken by shouts from the neighboring tables by mechanical love making to the by as the coffee filled him with and he was and doubtful and it was paul with his thin voice who pierced the fog good lord george you don t suppose it s any novelty to ne to find that we that think we re so all fired successful aren t getting much out of it you look as if you expected me to report you as you know what my own life s been i know old man i ought to have been a and i m a of and oh i don t want to but you know as well as i do about how inspiring a wife she is typical instance last evening we went to the there was a big crowd waiting in the us at the tail end she began to push right through it with her sir how dare you manner honestly sometimes when i look at her and see how she s always so made up | 42 |
and of perfume and looking for trouble and kind of always i tell i m a lady damn why i want to kill her well she keeps through the crowd me after her feeling good and ashamed till she s almost up to the velvet rope and ready to be the next let in but there was a little of a man there probably been waiting half an hour i kind of admired the little and he turns on and says perfectly polite madam why are you trying to push past me and she god i was so ashamed she out at him you re no gentleman and she me into it and paul this person insulted me and the poor be got ready to fight i made out i hadn t heard them sure same as you wouldn t hear a factory and i tried to look away i can tell you exactly how every tile looks in the ceiling of that there s one with brown spots on it like the face of the devil and all the time the people there they were packed in like they kept making remarks about us and went right or talking about the little chap and that folks like him t to be admitted in a place that s sup posed to be for ladies and gentlemen and will you kindly call the manager so i can report this dirty rat and maybe i wasn t glad when i could inside and hide in the dark after twenty four years of that kind of thing you don t expect me to fall down and foam at the mouth when you hint that this sweet clean moral life isn t all it s cracked up to be do you i can t even talk about it except to you because anybody else would think i was yellow maybe i am don t care any longer you ve had to stand a lot of from me first and last rats now paul you ve never really what you could call sometimes i m always blowing to and the about what a whale of a i am and yet sometimes i get a idea i m not such a as i let on to be but if i ever do help by you along old i guess maybe saint may let me in after all you re an old blow hard you cheerful but you ve certainly kept me going why don t you divorce why don t i if i only could if she d just give me the chance you couldn t hire her to divorce me no nor desert me she s too fond of her three squares and a few pounds of nut in between if she d only be what they call to me george i don t want to be too much of a back in college i d ve thought a man who could say that ought to be shot at sunrise but honestly i d be to death if she d really go making love with somebody fat chance of course she ll with anything you know how she holds hands and laughs that laugh that horrible laugh the way she you naughty man you bet er be careful or my big husband will be after you and the looking me over and thinking why you little thing you run away now or i ll you and she ll let him go just far enough so she gets some excitement out of it and then she ll begin to do the injured innocent and have a beautiful time wailing i didn t think you were that kind of a they talk about these in stories these but the wise hard old married women like are worse than any haired girl that ever went boldly out into this here storm of life and kept her umbrella slid up her sleeve but rats you know what is how she how she wants everything i can buy her and a lot that i can t and how absolutely unreasonable she is and when i get sore and try to have it out with her she plays the perfect lady so well that even i get and get all tangled up in a lot of why did you say s and i didn t mean s i ll tell you you know my tastes are pretty fairly simple in the matter of food at least course as you re always complaining i do like decent cigars not those de you re smoking that s all right now that s a good two by the way paul did i tell you i decided to practically cut out yes you at the same time if i can t get what i like why i can do without it i don t mind sitting down to burnt with and store cake for a thrilling little afterwards but i do draw the line at having to with because she s so rotten bad tempered that the cook has quit and she s been so busy sitting in a dirty lace all afternoon reading about some brave manly western hero that she hasn t had time to do any cooking you re always talking about morals meaning i suppose you ve been the rock of ages to me all right but you re essentially a you where d you get that little man let me tell you love to look earnest and inform the world that it s the duty of responsible business men to be strictly moral as an example to the community in fact you re so earnest about morality old that i hate to think how essentially you must be | 42 |
underneath all right you can wait wait now what s talk about morals all you want to old thing but believe me if it hadn t been for you and an occasional evening playing the to o s and three or four darling girls that let me forget this joke they call respectable life i d ve killed myself years ago and business the business roofs for oh i don t mean i haven t had a lot of fun out of the game out of putting it over on the labor and seeing a big check coming in and the business increasing but what s the use of it you know my business isn t it s principally keeping my from same with you all we do is cut each other s throats and make the public pay for it look here now paul you re pretty near talking oh yes of course i don t really exactly mean that i s pose course competition brings out the best of the but but i mean take all these fellows we know the kind right here in the club now that seem to be perfectly content with their home life and their and that and the chamber of commerce and for a million population i bet if you could cut into their heads you d find that one third of em are sure enough satisfied with their wives and and friends and their offices and one third feel kind of restless but won t admit it and one third are miserable and know it they hate the whole go ahead game and they re bored by their wives and think their families are fools at least when they come to forty or forty five they re bored and they hate business and they d go why do you suppose there s so many mysterious why do you suppose so many substantial citizens jumped right into the war think it was all patriotism what do you expect think we were sent into the world to have a soft time and what is it float on beds of ease think man was just made to be happy why not though i ve never discovered anybody that knew what the deuce man really was made for well we know not just in the bible alone but it stands to reason a man who doesn t down and do his duty even if it does bore him sometimes is nothing but a well he s simply a in fact and what do you advocate come down to cases if a man is bored by his wife do you seriously mean he has a right to her and take a or even kill himself good lord i don t know what rights a man has and i don t know the solution of if i did i d be the one philosopher that had the cure for living but i do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull and dull as ever admit it and i do believe that if we out and admitted it sometimes instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity why maybe possibly we might make life more fun they drifted into a of speculation was uneasy paul was bold but not quite sure about what he was being bold now and then suddenly agreed with paul in an admission which contradicted all his of duty and christian patience and at each admission he had a curious reckless joy he said at last look here old paul you do a lot of talking about kicking things in the face but you never kick why don t you nobody does habit too strong but i ve been thinking of one mild bat oh don t worry old pillar of it s highly proper it seems to be settled now isn t it though of course keeps for a nice expensive in new york and atlantic city with the bright lights and the and a bunch of to dance with but the and the are going to lake aren t we why couldn t you and i make some excuse say business in new york and get up to four or five days before they do and just loaf by ourselves and smoke and and be natural great great idea admired not for fourteen years had he taken a holiday without his wife and neither of them quite believed they could commit this audacity many members of the club did go without their wives but they were to fishing and hunting whereas the sacred and sports of and paul were and bridge for either the or the to have changed their habits would have been an of their self imposed discipline which would have shocked all and citizens why don t we just put our foot down and say we re going on ahead of you and that s all there is to it nothing criminal in it simply say to you don t say anything to simply why she s almost as much of a as you are and if i told her the truth she d believe we were going to meet some in new york and even she never you the way does but she d worry she d say don t you want me o go to with you i shouldn t dream of going unless you wanted me and you d give in to save her feelings oh the devil let s have a shot at duck pins during the game of duck pins a form of paul was silent as they came down the steps of the club not more than half | 42 |
it was better to con your office help along and keep em happy stead of jumping on em and em up get more work out of em that way but this lack of appreciation hurt him and he turned on look here let s get this clear you ve got an idea somehow that it s you that do all the selling where d you get that stuff where d you think you d be if it wasn t for our capital behind you and our lists of properties and all the prospects we find for you all you got to do is follow up our tips and close the deal the hall porter could sell you say you re engaged to a girl but have to put in your evenings chasing after well why the devil shouldn t you what do you want to do sit around holding her hand let me tell you if your girl is worth her salt she ll be glad to know you re out making some money to furnish the home nest instead of doing the the kind of fellow that about working that wants to spend his evenings reading novels or and exchanging a lot of nonsense and foolishness with some girl he ain t the kind of energetic young man with a future and with vision that we want here how about it what s your ideal anyway do you want to make money and be a responsible member of the community or do you want to be a with no inspiration or was not so to vision and as usual you bet i want to make money that s why i want that honest mr i don t want to get fresh but this house is a terror fall for it the is rotten and the walls are full of cracks that s exactly what i mean to a with a love for his profession it s hard problems like that that inspire him to do his best besides matter o fact and i are against as a matter of principle we like you and we want to help you so you can get married but we can t be unfair to the others on the staff if we start giving vou don t you see we re going to hurt the feeling and be unjust to and right s right and is unfair and there ain t going to be any of it in this office don t get the idea that because during the war were hard to hire now when there s a lot of men out of work there aren t a of bright young fellows that would be glad to step in and enjoy your opportunities and not act as if and i were his enemies and not do any work except for how about it how about it oh well of course sighed as he went out did not often with his he liked to like the people about him he was dismayed when they did not like him it was only when they attacked the sacred purse that he was frightened into fury but then being a man given to and high principles he enjoyed the sound of his own and the warmth of his own virtue today he had so passionately indulged in self approval that he wondered whether he had been entirely just after all isn t a boy any more t to call him so hard but rats got to haul folks over the coals now and then for their own good unpleasant duty but i wonder if is sore what s he saying to out there so chill a wind of hatred blew from the outer office that the normal comfort of his evening home going was ruined he was distressed by losing that approval of his to which an is always slave ordinarily he left the office with a thousand directions to the effect that there would undoubtedly be important tasks to morrow and miss and miss would do well to be there early and for heaven s sake remind him to call up l soon s he came in to night he departed with feigned and he was as afraid of his still faced clerks of the eyes on him miss staring with head lifted from her miss looking over her mat around at his desk in the dark sullenly as a before the bleak propriety of his butler he hated to expose his back to their laughter and in his effort to be casually merry he stammered and was friendly and out of the door but he forgot his misery when he saw from smith street the charms of heights the roofs of red tile and green slate the shining new sun and the walls ill he stopped to inform his neighbor that though the day had been the evening might be cold he went in to shout where are you at his wife with no very definite desire to know where she was he examined the lawn to see whether the furnace man had it properly with some satisfaction and a good deal of discussion of the matter with mrs ted and he concluded that the furnace man had not it properly he cut two of wild grass with his wife s largest he informed ted that it was all nonsense having a furnace man big fellow like you ought to do all the work around the house and privately he meditated that it was agreeable to have it known throughout the neighborhood that he was so prosperous that his son never worked around the house he stood on the sleeping porch and did his day s exercises arms out for two minutes up for two minutes while he muttered ought take more exercise keep in shape then went in to see whether | 42 |
it s because they re required for college entrance and that s all there is to it personally i don t see myself why they stuck em into an up to date high school system like we have in this state be a good deal better if you took business english and learned how to write an ad or letters that would pull but there it is and there s no talk argument or discussion about it trouble with you ted is you always want to do something different if you re going to law school and you are i never had chance to but i ll see that you do why you ll want to lay in all the english and latin you can get oh i don t see what s the use of law school or even finishing high school i don t want to go to college specially honest there s lot of fellows that have from that don t begin to make as much money as fellows that went to work early old that teaches latin in the high he s a what is it from and he sits up all night reading a lot of greasy books and he s always about the value of languages and the poor doesn t make but eighteen hundred a year and no would think of working for that i know what i d like to do i d like to be an or own a big or else a fellow was telling me about it yesterday i d like to be one of these fellows that the standard oil company sends out to china and you live in a compound and don t have to do any work and you get to see the world and and the ocean and everything and then i could take up correspondence courses that s the real stuff you don t have to to some frosty faced old dame that s trying to show off to the principal and you can study any subject you want to just listen to these i out the of some swell courses he snatched from the back of his half a hundred of those home study courses which the energy and foresight of american commerce have contributed to the science of education the first displayed the portrait of a young man with a pure brow an iron jaw silk and hair like patent leather standing with one hand in his and the other extended with forefinger he was an audience of men with gray bald heads and every other sign of wisdom and prosperity above the picture was an inspiring symbol no lamp or torch or owl of but a row of dollar signs the text ran power and prosperity in public speaking a told at the club who do you think i ran into the other evening at the de why old that used to be a dead or alive shipping clerk in my old place mr mouse man we used to call the dear fellow one time he was so timid he was scared of the and never got credit for the work he did him at the de and if he wasn t ordering a feed with all the from to nuts and instead of being embarrassed by the like he used to be at the little where we in old he was them around like he was a i what we teach you how to address your lodge how to give how to tell dialect stories how to propose to a lady how to entertain how to make convincing selling talks how to build big how to create a strong personality how to become a rational powerful and original how to be a master man i cautiously asked him what he was doing laughed and said say old i guess you re wondering what s come over me you ll be glad to know i m now assistant at the old shop and right on the high road to prosperity and and i look forward with confidence to a car and the wife is making things hum in the best society and the getting a first class here s how it happened i ran across an ad of a course that claimed to teach people how to talk and on their feet how to answer complaints how to lay a proposition before the how to hit a bank for a loan how to hold a big audience with wit humor anecdote inspiration etc it was by the master orator f i was too but i wrote just on a with name and address to the for the lessons sent on trial money back if you are not absolutely satisfied there were eight simple lessons in plain language anybody could understand and i studied them just a few hours a night then started on the wife soon found i could talk right up to the and get due credit for all the good work i did they began to appreciate me and advance me fast and say old what do you think they re paying mo now per year and say i find i can keep a big audience fascinated speaking on any topic as a friend old boy i advise you to send for circular no obligation and valuable free art picture to w f author of the course in public speaking is easily the foremost figure in practical literature a of some of our leading extensive author of books poetry etc a man with the unique per of the master minds he is ready to give you all the secrets of his culture and force in a few easy lessons that will not interfere with other occupations co desk wa are you a or a o was again without a which would enable him to speak with authority nothing in | 42 |
or real estate had indicated what a solid citizen and regular fellow ought to think about culture by mail he began with hesitation well sounds as if it covered the ground it certainly is a fine thing to be able to i ve sometimes thought i had a little talent that way myself and i know well that one reason why a old back number like can get away with it in real estate is just because he can make a good talk even when he hasn t got a thing to say i and it certainly is pretty the way they get out all these courses on various topics and subjects nowadays i ll tell you though no need to blow in a lot of good money on this stuff when you can get a first rate course in eloquence and english and all that right in your own school and one of the biggest school buildings in the entire country that s so said mrs comfortably while ted complained but they just teach a lot of old that isn t any practical use except the manual training and and and dancing and in these you can get all kinds of stuff that would come in handy say listen to this one can you play a man s part if you are walking with your mother sister or best girl and some one passes a remark or uses improper language won t you be ashamed if you can t take her part well can you we teach and self by mail many pupils have written saying that after a few lessons they ve bigger and heavier the lessons start with simple movements practised before your mirror holding out your hand for a coin the breast stroke in swimming etc before you realize it you are striking guarding and just as if you had a real opponent before you oh baby maybe i wouldn t like that ted i ll tell the world i d like to take one fellow i know in school that s always shooting off his mouth and catch him nonsense the idea most useless thing i ever heard of well just suppose i was walking with or and somebody passed a remark or used improper language what would i do why you d probably bust the record for the hundred yard dash i would not i d stand right up to any that passed a remark on my sister and i d show him look here young if i ever catch you fighting i ll whale the everlasting out of you and i ll do it without holding out my hand for a coin before the mirror too why ted dear mrs said placidly it s not at all nice your talking of fighting this way well almighty that s a fine way to appreciate and then suppose i was walking with you ma and somebody passed a remark nobody s going to pass no remarks on nobody observed not if they stay home and study their and mind their own affairs instead of hanging around a lot of and fountains and places where nobody s got any business to be but if they did mrs well if they did i wouldn t do them the honor of paying any attention to them besides they never do you always hear about these women that get followed and insulted and all but i don t believe a word of it or it s their own fault the way some women look at a person i certainly never ve been insulted by aw shoot mother just suppose you were sometime just suppose can t you suppose something can t you imagine things certainly i can imagine things the idea certainly your mother can imagine things and suppose things think you re the only member of this household that s got an imagination demanded but what s the use of a lot of supposing supposing never gets you anywhere no sense supposing when there s a lot of real facts to take into look here suppose i mean just just suppose you were in your office and some rival real estate man some that you hated came in i don t hate any but suppose you did i don t intend to suppose anything of the kind there s plenty of fellows in my profession that stoop and hate their but if you were a little older and understood business instead of always going to the and running around with a lot of fool girls with their dresses up to their knees and powdered and painted and and god knows what all as if they were chorus girls then you d know a id you d suppose that if there s any one thing that i stand for in the circles of it is that we ought to always speak of each other only in the terms and a spirit of brotherhood and and so i certainly can t suppose and i can t imagine my any not even tha dirty society and there s no if and or but about it but if i going to somebody i wouldn t require any fancy ducks or swimming strokes before a mirror or any of these and suppose you were out some place and a fellow called you vile names think you d want to box and jump around like a dancing master you d just lay him out cold at least i certainly hope any son of mine would and then you d dust off your hands and go on about your business and that s all there is to it and you aren t going to have any lessons by mail either well but yes i just wanted to show how many different kinds of correspondence | 42 |
courses there are instead of a v the they teach us in the high but i thought they taught in the school that s different they stick you up there and some big stiff himself the s out of you before you have a chance to learn not any but anyway listen to some of these others the were truly one of them bore the rousing money money money the second announced that mr p r formerly making only eighteen a week in a shop writes to us that since taking our course he is now pulling down as an physician and the third that miss j l recently a in a store is now getting ten real dollars a day teaching our system of breathing and mental control ted had collected fifty or sixty from annual reference books from sunday school fiction magazines and journals of discussion one benefactor implored don t be a be more popular and make more money you can or sing yourself into society by the secret principles of a newly discovered system of music teaching any one man lady or child can without exercises special training or long drawn out study and without waste of time money or energy learn to play by note piano or drum and learn sight singing the next under the wistful appeal finger wanted big confided you red blooded men and women this is the profession you have been looking for there s money in it big money and that rapid change of scene that and compelling interest and fascination which your active mind and adventurous spirit think of being the chief figure and directing in strange mysteries and crimes this wonderful profession brings you into contact with influential men on the basis of equality and often calls upon you to travel everywhere maybe to distant lands all expenses paid no education required oh boy i guess that wins the fire brick wouldn t it be swell to travel everywhere and some famous ted well i don t think much of that likely to get hurt still that music study might be pretty fair though there s no reason why if put their minds to it the way they have to in a factory they couldn t figure out some scheme so a person wouldn t have to monkey with all this and exercises that you get in music was impressed and he had a delightful parental feeling that they two the men of the family understood each other he listened to the notices of mail box which taught short story writing and improving the memory motion picture acting and developing the soul power and spanish and and window poultry raising and well well sought for adequate expression of his admiration i m a son of a gun i knew this correspondence school business had become a mighty profitable game makes real estate look like two cents but i didn t realize it d got to be such a lar key industry must rank right up with and always figured somebody d come along with the brains to not leave education to a lot of and but make a big thing out of it yes i can see how a lot of these courses might interest you i must ask the fellows at the if they ever realized but same time ted you know how i mean some i don t know as they d be able to jam you through these courses as fast as they claim they can oh sure of course ted had the immense and joyful maturity of a boy who is respectfully listened to by his elders concentrated on him with grateful affection i can see what an influence these courses might have on the whole works course i d never admit it publicly fellow like myself a state u it s only decent and patriotic for him to blow his horn and the but of fact there s a whole lot of valuable time lost even at the u studying poetry and french and subjects that never brought in anybody a cent i don t know but what maybe these correspondence courses might prove to be one of the most important american inventions trouble with a lot of folks is they re so blame material they don t see the spiritual and mental side of american they think that inventions like the and the and no that was a invention but anyway they think these mechanical improvements are all that we stand for whereas to a real he sees that spiritual and movements like and and and are what compose our deepest and truest wealth and maybe this new principle in education at home may be another may be another i tell you ted we ve got to have vision i think those correspondence courses are terrible the philosophers gasped it was mrs who had made this discord in their spiritual harmony and one of mrs s virtues was that except during dinner parties when she was transformed into a raging hostess she took care of the house and didn t bother the by thinking she went on firmly it sounds awful to me the way they those poor young folks to think they re learning something and nobody round to help them and you two learn so quick but me i always was slow but just the same attended to her nonsense get just as much studying at home you don t think a fellow any more because he blows in his father s hard earned money and sits around in chairs in a swell with pictures and and table covers and those do you i tell you i m a college man i know there is one objection you might make though i certainly do protest against any effort to | 42 |
get a lot of fellows out of shops and into the professions they re too crowded already and what ll we do for workmen if all those fellows go and get educated ted was leaning back smoking a without reproof he was for the moment sharing the high thin air of s speculation as though he were paul or even dr he hinted well what do you think then wouldn t it be a good idea if i could go off to china or some place and study or something by mail no and i ll tell you why son i ve found out it s a mighty nice thing to be able to say you re a b a some that doesn t know what you are and thinks you re just a business man he gets to shooting off his mouth about or literature or foreign trade conditions and you just ease in something like when i was in college course i got my b a in and all that oh it puts an awful in their style but there wouldn t be any class to saying i got the degree of stamp from the mail order university you see my was a pretty good old but he never had much style to him and i had to work hard to earn my way through college well it s been worth it to be able to associate with the finest gentlemen in at the clubs and so on and i wouldn t want you to drop out of the gentlemen class the class that are just as red blooded as the common people but still have power and personality it would kind of hurt me if you did that old man i know sure all right i ll stick to it say i forgot all about those i was going to take to the chorus i ll have to duck but you haven t done all your home work do it first thing in the morning six times in the past sixty days had you will not do it first thing in the morning you ll do it right now but to night he said well better and his smile was the rare shy radiance he kept for paul iv ted s a good boy he said to mrs oh he is who s these girls he s going to pick up are they nice decent girls i don t know oh dear ted never tells me anything any more i don t understand what s come over the children of this generation i used to have to tell papa and everything but seems like the children to day have just slipped away from all control i hope they re decent girls course ted s no longer a kid and i wouldn t want him to get mixed up and everything george i wonder if you t to take him aside and tell him about things she blushed and lowered her eyes well i don t know way i figure it no sense suggesting a lot of things to a boy s mind think up enough by himself but i wonder it s kind of a hard question wonder what thinks about it course papa with you he says all this instruction is he says t decent oh he does does he well let me tell you that whatever henry t thinks about morals i mean though course you can t beat the old why what a way to talk of papa simply can t beat him at getting in on the ground floor of a deal but let me tell you whenever he springs any ideas about higher things and education then i know i think just the opposite you may not regard me as any great but believe me i m a regular college president compared with henry t yes sir by i m going to take ted aside and tell him why i lead a strictly moral life oh will you when when when what s the use of trying to pin me down to when and why and where and how and when that s the trouble with women that s why they don t make high class they haven t any sense of when the proper opportunity and occasion arises so it just comes in natural why then i ll have a friendly little talk with him and and was that up stairs she ought to been asleep long ago he through the living room and stood in the that glass walled room of chairs and swinging couch in which they on sunday outside only the lights of s house and the dim presence of s favorite elm broke the softness of april night good visit with the boy getting over feeling i did this morning and restless though by i will have a few days alone with paul in that devil but ted s all right whole family all right and good business not many fellows make four hundred and fifty practically half of a thousand dollars easy as i did to day maybe when we all get to it s just as much my fault as it is theirs t to get like i do but wish i d been a same as my grand but then wouldn t have a house like this i oh know he thought of paul of their youth together of the girls they had known when had from the state university twenty four years ago he had intended to be a lawyer he had been a ponderous in college he felt that he was an orator he saw himself becoming governor of the state while he read law he worked as a real estate he saved money lived in a boarding house on egg on the lively paul who | 42 |
was certainly going off to europe to study next month or next year was his refuge till paul was by who laughed and danced and drew men after her plump and gaily finger s evenings were barren then and he found comfort only in paul s second cousin a sleek and gentle girl who showed her capacity by agreeing with the ardent young that of course he was going to be governor some day where him as a country boy said indignantly that he was ever so much than the young who had been born in the great city of an ancient settlement in one hundred and five years old with two hundred thousand population the queen and wonder of all the state and to the boy george so vast and and luxurious that he was flattered to know a girl by birth in of love there was no talk between them he knew that if he was to study law he could not marry for years and was distinctly a nice girl one didn t kiss her one didn t think about her that way at all unless one was going to marry her but she was a companion she was always ready to go walking always content to hear his on the great things he was going to do the distressed poor whom he would defend against the unjust rich the speeches he would make at the es of popular thought which he would correct one evening when he was weary and soft minded he saw that she had been weeping she had been left out of a party given by somehow her head was on his shoulder and he was kissing away the tears and she raised her head to say now that we re engaged shall we be married soon or shall we wait engaged it was his first hint of it his affection for this brown tender woman thing went cold and fearful but he could not hurt her could not abuse her trust he something about waiting and escaped he walked for an hour trying to find a way of telling her that it was a mistake often in the month after he got near to telling her but it was pleasant to have a girl in his arms and less and less could he insult her by that he didn t love her he himself had no doubt the evening before his marriage was an agony and the morning wild with the desire to flee she made him what is known as a good wife she was loyal industrious and at rare times merry she passed from a feeble disgust at their closer relations into what promised to be ardent affection but it drooped into bored routine yet she existed only for him and for the children and she was as sorry as worried as himself when he gave up the law and on in a of real estate poor kid she hasn t had much better time than i have reflected standing in the dark sun parlor but i wish i could ve had a whirl at law and politics seen what could do well maybe i ve made more money as it is he returned to the living room but before he settled down he smoothed his wife s hair and she glanced up happy and somewhat surprised chapter vii he solemnly finished the last copy of the american magazine while his wife sighed laid away her and looked at the designs in a women s magazine the room was very still it was a room which observed the best heights standards the gray walls were divided into artificial by of white pine from the former house had come two much carved rocking chairs but the other chairs were new very deep and in blue and gold striped velvet a blue velvet faced the fireplace and behind it was a table and a tall piano lamp with a shade of golden silk two out of every three houses in heights had before the fireplace a a mahogany table real or imitation and a piano lamp or a reading lamp with a shade of yellow or rose silk on the table was a of gold chinese fabric four magazines a silver box containing and three gift books large expensive of fairy tales illustrated by english artists and as yet by any save in a corner by the front windows was a large cabinet eight out of every nine heights houses had a cabinet among the pictures hung in the exact of each gray were a red and black imitation english hunting print an imitation print with a french of whose morality had always been rather suspicious and a hand colored photograph of a room rag rug maiden spinning cat before a white fireplace nineteen out of every twenty houses in heights had either a hunting print a madame la print a colored photograph of a new england house a photograph of a rocky mountain or all four it was a room as superior in comfort to the parlor of s boyhood as his was superior to his father s though there was nothing in the room that was interesting there was nothing that was offensive it was as neat and as negative as a block of artificial ice the fireplace was by ashes or by brick the brass fire irons were of polish and the were like in a shop desolate lifeless things of commerce against the wall was a piano with another piano lamp but no one used it save the hard of the contented them their store of records made them feel wealthy and and all they knew of creating music was the nice of a needle the books on the table were and laid in rigid not one corner of the carpet rug was curled and nowhere was there a stick a | 42 |
rites of preparing for bed were elaborate and the blankets had to be tucked in at the foot of his cot also the reason why the maid hadn t tucked in the blankets had to be discussed with mrs the rag rug was adjusted so that his bare feet would strike it when he arose in the morning the alarm clock was wound the hot water bottle was filled and placed precisely two feet from the bottom of the cot these tremendous yielded to his determination one by one they were announced to mrs and smashed through to accomplishment at last his brow cleared and in his rang power but there was yet need of courage as he sank into sleep just at the first exquisite the car came home he into why the devil can t some p never get to bed at a reasonable hour so familiar was he with the process of putting up his own car that he awaited each step like an able condemned to his own rack the car cheerful on the the car door opened and shut then the door slid open grating on the sill and the car door again the for the climb up into the and once more before it was shut off a final opening and of the car door silence then a horrible silence filled with waiting till the leisurely mr had examined the state of his and had at last shut the door instantly for a blessed state of oblivion iv at that moment m the city of was making love to in her drawing room on royal ridge after their return from a lecture by an eminent english was s professional bachelor a slim man of forty six with an voice and taste in flowers and mrs mc was red haired discontented exquisite rude and honest tried his invariable first touching her nervous wrist don t be an idiot she said do you mind awfully no that s what i mind he changed to conversation he was famous at conversation he spoke reasonably of long island and the he had found in she promised to meet him in the coming though she sighed it s becoming too dreadfully nothing but americans and english and at that moment in a and a were drinking in s saloon on front street since national was now in force and since was law abiding they were compelled to keep the innocent by drinking them out of tea cups the lady threw her cup at the s head he worked his revolver out of the pocket in his sleeve and casually murdered her at that moment in two men sat in a for thirty seven hours now they had been working on a report of their of rubber at that moment in there was a conference of four union officials as to whether the twelve thousand coal within a hundred miles of the city should strike of these men one resembled a and prosperous one a yankee carpenter one a clerk and one a russian actor the russian jew quoted and at that moment a g a r was dying he had come from the civil war straight to a farm which though it was within the city limits of was primitive as the he had never ridden in a car never seen a bath tub never read any book save the bible mc s readers and religious tracts and he believed that the earth is flat that the english are the lost ten tribes of and that the united states is a at that moment the steel and town which composed the factory of the company of was running on night shift to fill an order of for the polish army it like a million bees glared through its wide windows like a along the high wire fences played on lined yards tracks and armed guards on at that moment monday was finishing a meeting mr monday the distinguished the best known in america had once been a prize satan had not dealt justly with him as a prize he gained nothing but his crooked nose his celebrated and his stage presence the service of the lord had been more profitable he was about to retire with a fortune it had been well earned for to quote his last report rev mr monday the prophet with a punch has shown that he is the world s greatest of salvation and that by efficient organization the overhead of spiritual may be kept down to an rock bottom basis he has converted over two hundred thousand lost and souls at an average cost of less than ten dollars a head of the larger cities of the land only had hesitated to submit its vices to monday and his expert corps the more of the city had to invite him mr george f had once praised him in a speech at the club but there was opposition from certain and ministers those whom mr monday so finely called a bunch of gospel with dish wa ter instead of blood a gang of that need more dust on the knees of their and more hair on their old this opposition had been crushed when the secretary of the chamber of commerce had reported to a committee of that in every city he had appeared mr monday had turned the minds of workmen from wages and hours to higher things and thus averted strikes he was immediately invited an expense fund of forty thousand dollars had been out on the county fair grounds a monday had been erected to seat fifteen thousand people in it the prophet was at this moment concluding his message there s a lot of smart college professors and tea in this that say i m a and a never and my knowledge of history is not yet oh there s a gang of book that think they know | 42 |
among unknown people who laughed at him he slipped away ran down the paths of a midnight garden and at the gate the fairy child was waiting her dear and tranquil hand his cheek he was gallant and wise and well beloved warm ivory were her arms and beyond perilous the brave sea glittered chapter viii the great events of s spring were the secret buying of real estate in for certain street officials before the public announcement that the avenue car line would be extended and a dinner which was as he rejoiced to his wife not only a regular society spread but a real sure enough affair with some of the keenest and the brightest bunch of little women in town it was so absorbing an occasion that he almost forgot his desire to run off to with paul though he had been born in the village of had risen to that social plane on which hosts have as many as four people at dinner without planning it for more than an evening or two but a dinner of twelve with flowers from the s and all the cut glass out staggered even the for two weeks they studied and the list of guests of course we re up to date ourselves but still think of us entertaining a famous poet like a fellow that on nothing but a poem or so every day and just writing a few down fifteen thousand a year yes and do you know the other evening told me her papa speaks three languages said mrs that s nothing so do i american and i don t think it s nice to be funny about a matter like that i think how wonderful it must be to speak three languages and so useful and and with people like that i don t see why we invite the well now is a mighty up and coming yes i know but a i ll admit a hasn t got the class of poetry or real estate but just the same is mighty deep ever start him about say that fellow can tell you the name of every kind of tree and some of their greek and latin names too besides we owe the a dinner besides we got to have some for audience when a bunch of hot air artists like and get going well dear i meant to speak of this i do think that as host you ought to sit back and listen and let your guests have a chance to talk once in a while oh you do do you sure i talk all the time and i m just a business man oh sure i m no d like and no poet and i haven t anything to spring well let me tell you just the other day your comes up to me at the club begging to know what i thought about the school bond issue and who told him i did you bet your life i told him little me i certainly did he came up and asked me and i told him all about it you bet and he was glad to listen to me and duty as a host i i guess i know my duty as a host and let me tell you in fact the were invited on the morning of the dinner mrs was now george i want you to be sure and be home early tonight remember you have to dress i see by the advocate that the general assembly has to quit the world movement george did you hear what i said you must be home in time to dress to night dress hell i m dressed now think i m going down to the office in my b v d s i will not have you talking before the and you do have to put on your dinner jacket i guess you mean my i tell you of all the that was ever invented three minutes later after had well i don t know whether i m going to dress or not in a manner which showed that he was going to dress the discussion moved on now george you mustn t forget to call in at s on the way home and get the ice cream their delivery wagon is broken down and i don t want to trust them to send it all right you told me that before breakfast well i don t want you to forget i ll be working my head off all day long training the girl that s to help with the all nonsense anyway an extra girl for the feed could perfectly well and i have to go out and buy the flowers and fix them and set the table and order the and look at the chickens and arrange for the children to have their supper iq stairs and and i simply must depend on you to go to s for the ice cream all i m going to get it all you have to do is to go in and say you want the ice cream that mrs ordered yesterday by and it will be all ready for you at ten thirty she to him not to forget the ice cream from s he was surprised and then a thought he wondered whether heights dinners were worth the io toil involved but he repented the in the excitement of buying the materials for now this was the manner of obtaining under the reign of and he drove from the severe streets of the modern business into the tangled of old town jagged blocks filled with and on into the once a pleasant orchard but now a of lodging houses and exquisite chilled his and stomach and he looked at every policeman with intense innocence is one who | 42 |
loved the law and admired the force and longed to stop and play with them he his car a block from s saloon worrying well rats if anybody did see me they d think i was here on business he entered a place curiously like the of days with a long greasy bar with in front and mirror behind a pine table at which a dirty old man dreamed over a glass of something which resembled and with two men at the bar drinking something which resembled beer and giving that impression of forming a large crowd which two men always give in a saloon the a tall pale with a diamond in his stared at as he stalked up to the bar and whispered i d friend of s sent me here like to get some gin the gazed down on him in the manner of an outraged bishop i guess you got the wrong place my friend we sell nothing but soft drinks here he cleaned the bar with a rag which would itself have done with a little cleaning and glared across his mechanically moving elbow the old at the table the say listen did not listen i aw say listen will say lis sen the decayed and drowsy voice of the the agreeable of beer threw a spell of over the moved grimly toward the crowd of two men followed him as delicately as a cat and say i want to speak to mr see him for i just want to talk to him here s my card it was a beautiful card an engraved card a card in the black and the red announcing that mr george f was estates rents the held it as though it weighed ten pounds and read it as though it were a hundred words long he did not bend from his dignity but he growled i ll see if he s around from the back room he brought an immensely old young man a quiet sharp eyed man in tan silk shirt checked hanging open and brown trousers mr mr said only but his and contemptuous eyes s soul and he seemed not at all impressed by the new dark gray suit for which as he had admitted to every acquaintance at the club had paid a hundred and twenty five dollars glad meet you mr say i m george of the company i m a great friend of s well what of it say i m going to have a party and told me you d be able to fix me up with a little gin in alarm in as s eyes grew more bored you to about me if you want to answered by his head to indicate the entrance to the back room and strolled away crept into an apartment containing four round io tables eleven chairs a and a smell he waited thrice he saw through humming hands in pockets him by this time had modified his morning vow i won t pay one cent over seven dollars a to i might pay ten on s next weary entrance he could you fix that up and just a minute s sake just a in growing went on waiting till casually reappeared with a of gin what is known as a in his long white hands twelve he snapped say but say cap n thought you d be able to me up for eight or nine a bottle twelve this is the real stuff from canada this is none o your spirits with a drop of extract the honest merchant said twelve bones if you want it course y understand i m just doing this anyway as a friend of s sure sure i understand gratefully held out twelve dollars he felt honored by contact with greatness as yawned stuffed the bills into his radiant and away he had a number of out of concealing the under his coat and out of hiding it in his desk all afternoon he and chuckled and over his ability to give the boys a real shot in the arm to night he was in fact so that he was within a block of his house before he remembered that there was a certain matter mentioned by his wife of ice cream from s he explained well it and drove back was not a he was the of most coming out parties were held in the white and gold of the at all nice the guests recognized the five kinds of and the seven kinds of cakes and all really smart dinners ended as on a in ice cream in one of the three the the round like a cake and the long brick s shop had pale blue of plaster roses attendants m and glass shelves of kisses with all the refinement that in of eggs heavy and thick amid this professional and as he waited for the ice cream he decided with hot at the back of his neck that a girl customer was at him he went home in a temper the first thing he heard was his wife s agitated george did you remember to go to s and get the ice cream say look here do i ever forget to do things yes often well now it s dam seldom i do and it certainly makes me tired after going into a pink tea joint like s and having to stand around looking at a lot of half naked young girls all up like they were sixty and eating a lot of stuff that simply ruins their oh it s too bad about you i ve noticed how you hate to look at pretty girls with a jar realized that his wife as too busy to be impressed by that moral indignation with which rule the world and he went humbly up stairs to | 42 |
dress he had an impression of a dining room of cut glass candles polished wood lace silver roses with the awed swelling of the heart suitable to so grave a business as giving a dinner he the temptation to wear his dress shirt for a fourth time took out an entirely fresh one his black bow and rubbed his patent leather with a handkerchief he glanced with pleasure at his and silver he smoothed and patted his ankles transformed by silk from the sturdy of george to the elegant limbs no of what is called a he stood before the pier glass his trim dinner coat his beautiful triple trousers and murmured in by i don t look so bad i certainly don t look like if the back home could see me in this they d have a fit he moved down to mix the as he ice as he squeezed as he collected vast stores of bottles glasses and at the sink in the he felt as as the at s saloon true mrs said he was under foot and and the maid hired for the evening brushed by him him shrieked door as they through with but in this high moment he ignored them besides the new bottle of gin his cellar consisted of one half bottle of a quarter of a bottle of italian and one hundred drops of orange he did not possess a a was proof of the symbol of a and disliked being known as a even more than he liked a drink he mixed by pouring from an ancient boat into a he poured with a noble dignity holding his high beneath the powerful globe his face hot his shirt front a glaring white the copper sink a red gold he tasted the sacred essence now by if that isn t pretty near one fine old kind of a and yet like a hey want a little before the folks come bustling into the dining room moving each glass a quarter of an inch rushing back with resolution on her face her gray and silver lace party frock protected by a mrs glared at him and him certainly not well in a loose manner i think the old man will iii the filled him with a whirling behind which he was aware of desires to rush places in fast to kiss girls to sing to be witty he sought to regain his lost dignity by announcing to i m going to stick this of in the be sure you don t upset any of em well be sure now don t go putting anything on this top shelf well be he was dizzy his voice was thin and distant with enormous he commanded well be sure now and into the safety of the he wondered whether he could persuade as slow a bunch as and the to go some place aft dinner and raise and maybe dig up he perceived that he had gifts of which had been neglected by the time the guests had come including the inevitable late couple for whom the others waited with painful a great gray had replaced the purple in s head and he had to force the tumultuous greetings suitable to a host on heights the guests were the doctor of philosophy who furnished and comforting to the street company the coal dealer equally powerful in the and in the club the agent for the car who lived across the street and jones owner of the lily white which justly announced itself the biggest in but naturally the most distinguished of all was t who was not only the author of which daily in sixty seven leading newspapers gave him one of the largest of any poet in the world but also an and the creator of that add despite the search ing hy and high morality of his verses they were humorous and easily understood by any child of twelve and it added a neat air of to them that they were set not as verse but as prose mr was known from coast to coast as with them were six wives more or less it was hard to tell so early in the evening as at first glance they all looked alike and as they all said oh isn t this nice in the same tone of determined to the eye the men were less similar a hedge scholar tall and horse faced a trifle of a man with soft and mouse like hair his profession as poet by a silk cord on his eye glasses broad with coarse black hair en a bald and young man who showed his taste for elegance by an evening waistcoat of figured black silk with glass buttons jones a steady looking not very memorable person with a colored yet they were all so well fed and clean they all shouted with such that they seemed to be cousins and the strange thing is that the longer one knew the women the less alike they seemed while the longer one knew the men the more alike their bold patterns appeared the drinking of the was as a as the mixing the company waited uneasily hop agreeing in a strained manner that the weather had been rather warm and slightly cold but still said nothing about drinks they became but when the late couple the had arrived hinted well folk do you think you could stand breaking the law a little they looked at the recognized lord of language pulled at his eye glass cord as at a bell rope he cleared his throat and said that which was the custom ni tell you george i m a law abiding man but they do say is a regular and of course he s bigger n i i am and i just can t figure out what i d do if he tried to force me | 42 |
into anything criminal was roaring well i ll take a chance when held up his hand and went on so if and you insist i ll park my car on the wrong side of the street because i take it for granted that s the crime you re at there was a great deal of laughter mrs jones mr is simply too killing you d think he was so innocent how did you guess it well you all just wait a moment while i go out and get the keys to your cars through a of merriment he brought the shining promise the mighty tray of glasses with the cloud yellow in the glass in the the men oh have a look and this gets me right where i live and let me at it but a man and not unused to woes was stricken by the thought that the might be merely fruit with a little spirits he looked as a moist and held out a glass but as he tasted it he oh man let me dream on it ain t true but don t me slumber two hours before had completed a newspaper beginning sat done and and and scratched my head and sighed and and groaned there still are who d like the old time gin mill back that den that makes a sage a the vile and old saloon never their poison whilst i the spring can use that leaves my head at merry as clear as any babe new born drank with the others his moment s depression was gone he perceived that these were the best fellows in the world he wanted to give them a thousand think you could stand another he cried the wives refused with but the men speaking in a wide elaborate manner v ell sooner than have you get sore at me you got a little coming said to each of them and each squeeze it squeeze it when beyond hope the was empty they stood and talked about the men leaned back on their heels f ut their hands in their trousers pockets and proclaimed their views with the of a prosperous male repeating a thoroughly statement about a matter of which he knows nothing whatever now i ll tell you said way i figure it is this and i can speak by the book because i ve talked to a lot of doctors and fellows that ought to know and the way i see it is that it s a good thing to get rid of the saloon but they ought to let a fellow have beer and light observed what isn t generally realized is that it s a dangerous to the rights of liberty now take this for instance the king of i think it was yes it was in march he issued a against public of live stock the had stood for without the slightest complaint but when this came out they or it may have been but it just goes to show the dangers of the rights of personal liberty that s it no one got a right to personal liberty said jones just the same you don t want to forget is a mighty good thing for the working classes keeps em from wasting their money and lowering their said yes that s so but the trouble is the manner of insisted didn t understand the right system now if i d been running the i d have arranged it so that the himself was and then we could have taken care of the workman kept him from drinking and yet not ve interfered with the rights with the personal liberty of fellows like ourselves they their heads looked at one another and stated that s so that would be the the thing that me is that a lot of these will take to sighed they more violently and groaned that s so there is a danger of that oh say i got hold of a swell new receipt for home made beer the other day you take interrupted wait let me tell you mine beer rats thing to do is to jones insisted i ve got the receipt that does the business begged oh say tell you the story but went on resolutely you take and save the shells from peas and pour six of water on a of shells and boil the mixture till mrs turned toward them with yearning sweetness hastened to finish even his best beer and she said gaily dinner is served there was a good deal of friendly argument among the men as to which should go in last and while they were crossing the hall from the living room to the dining room made them laugh by thundering if i can t sit next to and hold her hand under the table i won t play i m goin home in the dining room they stood embarrassed while mrs fluttered now let me see oh i was going to have some nice hand painted place cards for you but oh let me see mr you sit there the dinner was in the best style of women s magazine art whereby the was served in apples and everything but the invincible chicken resembled something el e ii ordinarily the men found it hard to talk to the women was an art unknown on heights and the of offices and of had no but under the inspiration of the conversation was violent each of the men still had a number of important things to say about and now that each had a loyal listener in his dinner partner he burst out i found a place where i can get all the i want at eight a did you read about this fellow that went and paid a thousand | 42 |
dollars for ten cases of red eye that proved to be nothing but water seems this fellow was standing on the corner and fellow comes up to him they say there s a whole of stuff being across at what i always say is what a lot of folks don t realize about and then you get all this awful poison stuff wood and everything course i believe in it on principle but i don t propose to have anybody telling me what i got to think and do no american ever stand for that but they all felt that it was rather in bad taste for jones and he not recognized as one of the wits of the occasion anyway to say in fact the whole thing about is this it isn t the cost it s the not till the one required topic had been dealt with did the conversation become general it was often and said of that fellow can get away with murder why he can pull a raw one in mixed company and all the ladies laugh their heads off but me if i crack anything that s just the least bit off color i get the for fair now delighted them by crying to mrs youngest of the women i managed to s out of his pocket and what say you and me across the street when the folks aren t looking got something with a gorgeous awful important to tell you the women and was stirred to like naught say folks i wished i dared show you a book i borrowed from now george the idea mrs warned him this book isn t the word it s some kind of an about about customs in the south seas and what it doesn t say it s a book you can t buy lend it to you me first insisted sounds jones announced say i heard a good one the other day about a and their wives and in the best accent he resolutely carried the good one to a slightly ending it but the the back into cautious reality had recently been on a lecture tour among the small towns and he chuckled awful good to get back to civilization i certainly been seeing some towns i mean course the folks there are the best on earth but those main street are slow and you fellows can t hardly appreciate what it means to be here with a bunch of live ones you bet jones they re the best folks on earth those small town folks but oh what conversation why say they can t talk about anything but the weather and the ne ford by that s right they all talk about just the same things said don t they though they just say the sam e things over and over said yes it s really remarkable they seem to lack all power of looking at things they simply go over and over the same talk about and the weather and so on said ii still at thai you can t blame em they haven t got any intellectual such as you get up here in the city said that s right said i don t want you to get stuck on yourselves but i must say it keeps a fellow right up on his toes to sit in with a poet and with the that put the con in but these with nobody but each other to talk to no wonder they get so and in their speech and so up in their thinking jones commented and then take our other advantages the these sports think they re all get out if they have one change of bill a week where here in the city you got your choice of a dozen rent any evening you want to name sure and the inspiration we get from rubbing up against high class every day and getting jam full of said same time said no sense these too easy fellow s own fault if he doesn t show the to up and beat it to the city like we done did and just speaking in confidence among friends they re jealous as the devil of a city man every time i go up to i have to go around to the fellows i was brought up with because i ve more or less succeeded and they haven t and if you talk natural to em way we do here and show and what you might call a broad point of view why they think you re putting on side there s my own martin runs the little general store my used to keep say i ll bet he don t know there is such a thing as a as a dinner jacket if he was to come in here now he d think we were a bunch of of why i swear he wouldn t know what to think yes sir they re jealous agreed that s so but what i mind is their lack of culture and appreciation of the beautiful if you ll excuse me for being now i like to give a high class lecture and read some of my best poetry not the newspaper stuff but the magazine things but say when i get out in the tall grass there s nothing will take but a lot of old stories and and that if any of us were to indulge in it here he d get the gate so fast it would make his head swim it up fact is we re mighty lucky to be living among a bunch of city folks that recognize artistic things and business punch equally we d feel pretty if we got stuck in some main street and tried to wise up the old to | 42 |
the kind of life we re used to here but by there s this you got to say for em every small american town is trying to get population and modern and if a lot of em don t put it across somebody starts a telling how he was there in and it consisted of one muddy street count em one and nine hundred human well you go back there in and you find and a swell little hotel and a first class ladies ready to wear shop real perfection in fact you don t want to just look at what these small towns are you want to look at what they re to become and they all got an ambition that in the long run is going to make em the finest spots on earth they all want to be just like ill however intimate they might be with t as a neighbor as a of lawn and monkey they knew that he was also a famous poet and a distinguished agent that behind his were literary mysteries which they could not penetrate but to night in the gin confidence he admitted them to the i ve got a literary problem that s worrying me to death i i m doing a series of for the car and i want to make each of em a real little lar stuff i m all for this theory that perfection is the or nothing at all and these are as tough things as i ever you might think it d be harder to do my poems all these heart topics home and fireside and happiness but they re you can t go wrong on em you know what sentiments any decent go ahead fellow must have if he plays the game and you stick right to em but the poetry of now there s a literary line where you got to open up new territory do you know the fellow who s really the american genius the fellow who you don t know his name and i don t either but his work ought to be preserved so s future generations can judge our american thought and originality to day why the fellow that writes the prince tobacco just listen to this it s p a that such joy in pipes say bet you ve often bent an ear to that of speech about from five to f i f t y p e r by stepping on her a bit guess that s going some all right but just among ourselves you better start a system to keep as to how fast you ll from low smoke spirits to tip top high once you line up behind a pipe that s all with that of prince prince is john on the job always joy more in flavor always delightfully cool and fragrant for a fact you never such copper two smoke enjoyment go to a pipe speed o quick like you light on a good thing why packed with prince you can play a joy us straight across the boards and you know that means now that the agent that s what i call he literature that prince though there can t be just one fellow that writes em must be a big board of ink in conference but anyway now him he doesn t write for long haired he writes for regular he writes for me and i tip my to him the only thing is i wonder if it the goods course like all these poets this prince fellow lets his idea run away with him it makes elegant reading but it don t say nothing i d never go out and buy prince tobacco after reading it because it doesn t tell me anything about the stuff it s just a bunch of faced him oh you re crazy have i got to sell you the idea of style anyway that s the kind of stuff i d like to do for the but i simply can t so i decided to stick to the straight poetic and i took a shot at a ad for the how do you like this the long white trail is calling calling and it s over the hills and far away for every man or woman that has red blood in his veins and on his lips the ancient song of the it s away with dull and a fig for care speed glorious speed it s more than just a moment s it s life for you and me this great new truth the makers of the have considered as much as price and style it s fleet as the smooth as the glide of a swallow yet powerful as the charge of a bull elephant class breathes in every line listen brother you ll never know what the high art of is till you try life s the yes mused that s got an elegant color to it if do say so but it ain t got the originality of of speech the whole company sighed with sympathy and admiration chapter ix was fond of his friends he loved the importance of being host and shouting certainly you re going to have chicken the idea and he appreciated the genius of t but the vigor of the was gone and the more he ate the less joyful he felt then the of the dinner was destroyed by the of the in heights and the other prosperous sections of especially in the young married set there were many women who had nothing to do though they had few servants yet with gas electric and dish and and kitchen walls their houses were so convenient that they had little and much of their food came from and they had but two one | 42 |
or no children and despite the that the great war had made work respectable their husbands objected to their wasting time and getting a lot of ideas in social work and still more to their causing a by earning money that they were not supported they worked perhaps two hours a day and the rest of the time they ate went to the motion pictures went window went in and to read magazines thought of the lovers who never appeared and accumulated a splendid restlessness which they got rid of by their husbands the husbands back of these the were perfect specimens throughout the dinner had been complaining publicly about his wife s new frock it was he submitted too short too low too thin and much too expensive he appealed to honest george what do you think of that rag went and bought don t you think it s the limit what s eating you i call it a swell little dress oh it is mr it s a sweet frock mrs protested there now do you see you re such an authority on clothes raged while the guests and peeped at her shoulders that s all right now said i m authority enough so i know it was a waste of money and it makes me tired to see you not wearing out a whole of clothes you got already i ve expressed my idea about this before and you know good and well you didn t pay the least bit of attention i have to camp on your trail to get you to do anything there was much more of it and they all assisted all but everything about him was dim except his stomach and that was a bright scarlet disturbance had too much t to eat this stuff he groaned while he went on eating while he down a chill and of the ice cream brick and cake as as he felt as though he had been stuffed with clay his body was bursting his throat was bursting his brain was hot mud and only with agony did he continue to smile and shout as became a host on heights he would except for his guests have fled and walked off the of food but in the haze which filled the room they sat forever talking talking while he fool to be eating all this not and discovered that he was again the sickly of melted ice cream on his plate there was no magic in his friends he was not uplifted when produced from his treasure house of the information that the symbol for raw rubber is which turns into or c h suddenly without precedent was not merely bored but admitting that he was bored it was ecstasy to escape from the table from the torture of a straight chair and on the in the living room the others from their fitful talk their expressions of being slowly and painfully smothered seemed to be suffering from the toil of social life and the horror of good food as much as himself all of them accepted with relief the suggestion of bridge recovered from the feeling of being boiled he won at bridge he was again able to endure s inexorable but he pictured with paul beside a lake in it was as overpowering and imaginative as he had never seen yet he beheld the mountains the tranquil lake of evening that boy paul s worth all these put together he muttered and i d like to get away from everything even did not rouse him mrs was pretty and was not an of women except as to their tastes in furnished houses to rent he divided them into real ladies working women old and fly chickens he over their charms but he was of opinion that all of them save the women of his own family were different and mysterious yet he had known by instinct that could be approached her eyes and lips were moist her face from a broad forehead to a pointed chin her mouth was thin but strong and and between her brows were two and passionate wrinkles she was thirty perhaps or younger gossip had never touched her but every man naturally and instantly rose to when he spoke to her and every woman watched her with between games sitting on the spoke to her with the requisite gallantry that heights gallantry which is not but a terrified flight from it you re looking like a new fountain to night am i kind of on the yes i get so sick of it well when you get tired of you can run off with uncle george if i ran away oh well anybody ever tell you your hands are awful pretty she looked down at them she pulled the lace of her sleeves over them but otherwise she did not heed him she was lost was too languid this evening to pursue his duty of being a though strictly moral male he back to the bridge tables he was not much thrilled when mrs a small woman proposed that they try and do some and table you know can make the spirits come honest he just me the ladies of the party had not emerged all evening but now as the sex given to things of the spirit while the men against base things material they took command and cried oh let s in the the men were rather solemn and foolish but the quivered and adored as they sat about the table they laughed now you be good or i ll tell when the men took their hands in the circle with a slight return of interest in life as s hand closed on his with quiet firmness all of them over intent they startled as some one drew a strained breath in the dusty light from the hall | 42 |
they looked unreal they felt mrs and they jumped with unnatural but at s hiss they sank into subdued awe suddenly they heard a knocking they stared at s half revealed hands and found them lying still they and pretended not to be impressed spoke with gravity is some one there a is one knock to be the sign for yes a and two for no a now ladies and gentlemen shall we ask the guide to put us into communication with the spirit of some great one passed over mrs jones begged oh let s talk to we studied him at the reading circle you know who he was certainly i know who he was the poet where do you think i was raised from her insulted husband sure the fellow that took the cook s tour to hell i ve never through his po try but we learned about him m the u said page mr you ought to get him easy mr you and he being fellow poets said fellow poets rats where d you get that stuff protested i suppose showed a lot of speed for an old not that i ve actually read him of course but to come right down to hard facts he wouldn t stand three if he had to down to practical literature and turn out a poem for the newspaper every day like does that s so from those old birds could take their time priest i could write poetry myself if i had a whole year for it and just wrote about that old fashioned like wrote about demanded hush now i ll call him o laughing eyes forth into the the and bring hither the spirit of that we mortals may list to his words of wisdom ou forgot to give um the address avenue fiery heights hell chuckled but the others felt that this was and besides probably it was just making the but still if there did happen to be something to all this be exciting to talk to an old fellow belonging to way back in early times a the spirit of had come to the parlor of george f he was it seemed quite ready to answer their questions he was glad to be with them this evening out the messages by running through the till the spirit knocked at the right letter asked in a learned tone do you like it in the we are very happy on the higher plane we are glad that you are studying this great truth of replied the circle moved with an awed creaking of stays and suppose suppose there were something to this had a different worry suppose was really one of these had for a literary fellow always seemed to be a regular he belonged to the road church and went to the and cigars and and stories but suppose that secretly after all you never could tell about these and to be an out and out would be almost like being a no one could long be serious in the presence of ask how jack shakespeare and old the they named after me are along and don t they wish they could get into the game he and instantly all was mirth mrs jones shrieked and desired to know whether didn t catch cold with nothing on but his wreath the pleased made humble answer but the discontent was him again and heavily in the darkness he pondered i don t we re all so and think we re so smart there d be a fellow like i wish i d read some of his pieces i don t suppose i ever will now he had without explanation the impression of a cliff and on it in against menacing clouds a lone and austere figure he was dismayed by a sudden contempt for his friends he grasped s hand and found the comfort of human warmth habit came a warrior and he shook himself what the deuce is the matter with me this evening he patted s hand to indicate that he hadn t meant anything improper by it and demanded of say see if you can get old to us some of his poetry talk up to him tell him com sa va s a little the lights were on the women sat on the fronts of their chairs in that determined suspense whereby a wife that as soon as the present speaker has finished she is going to remark brightly to her husband well dear i think per it s about time for us to be saying good night for once did not break out in efforts to keep the party going he had there was something he wished to think out but the had started them off again why didn t they go home why didn t they go home though he was impressed by the of the statement he was only half enthusiastic when the united states is the only nation in which the government is a moral ideal and not just a social arrangement true true weren t they ever going home he was usually delighted to have an inside view of the momentous world of but to night he scarcely listened to s revelation if you want to go above the class the is a mighty good buy couple weeks ago and mind you this was a fair square test they took a stock car and they slid up the hill on high and fellow told me good boat but were they planning to stay all night they really were going with a flutter of we did have the best time most friendly of all was yet as he he was reflecting i got through it but for a while ther i didn t hardly think i | 42 |
d last out he prepared to taste that most delicate pleasure of the host making fun of his guests in the of midnight as the door closed he yawned chest out shoulders and turned to his wife she was beaming oh it was nice wasn t it i know they enjoyed every minute of it don t you think so he couldn t do it he couldn t mock it would have been like at a happy child he lied you bet best party this year by a long shot wasn t the dinner good and honestly i thought the chicken was delicious you bet to the queen s taste best chicken i ve tasted for a s age didn t it beautifully and don t you think the soup was simply delicious it certainly was it was best soup i ve tasted since was a but his voice was away they stood in the hall under the electric light in its square box like shade of red glass bound with she stared at him why george you don t sound you sound as if you hadn t really enjoyed it sure i did course i did george what is it oh i m kind of tired i guess been pretty hard at the office need to get away and rest up a little well we re going to in just a few weeks now dear then he was pouring it out robbed of i think it d be a good thing for me to get up there early but you have this man you have to meet in new york about business what man oh sure him oh that s all off but i want to hit early get in a little fishing catch me a big by a nervous artificial laugh well why don t we do it and can run the house between them and you and i can go any time if you think we can afford it but that s i ve been feeling so lately i thought maybe it might be a good thing if i kind of got off by myself and sweat it out of me george don t you want me to go along she was too in earnest to be tragic or insulted or anything save and and flushed to the red of a boiled of course i do i just meant remembering that paul had predicted this he was as desperate as she mean sometimes it s a good thing for an old like me to go off and get it out of his system he tried to sound paternal then when you and the arrive i figured maybe i might up to just a few days ahead of you i d be ready for a real bat see how i mean he her with large sounds with smiles like a popular preacher blessing an congregation like a humorous his of eloquence like all of masculine she stared at him the joy of festival drained from her face do i bother you when we go on don t i add anything to your fun he broke suddenly dreadfully he was hysterical he was a baby yes yes yes hell yes but can t you understand i m shot to pieces i m all in i got to take care of myself i tell you i got to i m sick of everything and everybody i i got to it was she who was mature and now why of course you shall run off by yourself why don t you get paul to go along and you boys just fish and have a good time she patted his shoulder reaching up to it while he shook with helplessness and in that moment was not merely by habit fond of her but clung to her strength she cried cheerily now up stairs you go and pop into bed we ll fix it all up i ll see to the doors now for many minutes for many hours for a bleak eternity he lay awake shivering reduced to primitive terror that he had won freedom and wondering what he could do with anything so unknown and so embarrassing as freedom chapter x no apartment house in had more resolutely in than the arms in which paul and had a flat by sliding the beds into low the were converted into living rooms the were each containing an electric range a copper sink a glass and very a maid everything about the arms was excessively modern and everything was compressed except the the were calling on the at the arms it was a venture to call on the interesting and sometimes was an active full blown high when she condescended to be good she was nervously amusing her comments on people were and of accepted that s so you said and looked she danced wildly and called on the world to be merry but in the midst of it she would turn indignant she was always becoming indignant life was a plot against her and she exposed it furiously she was to night she merely hinted that jones wore a that mrs t s singing resembled a ford going into high and that the hon mayor of and candidate for was a fool which was quite true the and sat doubtfully on stone hard chairs in the small living room of the flat with its mantel with a fireplace and its strip of heavy gilt fabric upon a glaring new player piano till mrs shrieked come let s put some in it get out your fiddle paul and i ll try to make dance decently the were in earnest they were for the escape to but when mrs hinted with plump does paul get as tired after the winter s work as does then remembered an injury and when remembered an | 42 |
you re worse you re a fool and let me tell you that paul is the finest boy god ever made every decent person is sick and tired of your taking advantage of being a woman and springing every mean you can think of who the hell are you that a person like paul should have to ask your permission to go with me you act like you were a combination of queen victoria and you fool can t you see how people at you and sneer at you was sobbing i ve never i ve never nobody ever talked to me like this in all my life no but that s the way they talk behind your back always they say you re a scolding old woman old by god that cowardly attack broke her her eyes were blank she wept but glared he felt that he was the all powerful official in charge that paul and mrs looked on him with awe that he alone could handle this case she begged oh they don t they certainly do i ve been a bad woman i m terribly sorry i ll kill myself i ll do anything oh i what do you want she herself completely also she enjoyed it to the of scenes nothing is more than a thorough humility i want you to let paul beat it off to with me demanded how can i help his going you ve just said i was an idiot and nobody paid any attention to me oh you can help it all right all right what you got to do is to cut out that the minute he gets out of your sight he ll go chasing after some matter fact that s the way you start the boy off wrong you ought to have more sense oh i will honestly i will george i know i was bad oh forgive me all of you forgive me she enjoyed it so did he condemned and forgave and as he went out with his wife he was to her i t kind of a shame to bully but course it was the only way to handle her i certainly did have her crawling she said calmly yes you were horrid you were showing off you were having a lovely time thinking what a great fine person you were well by can you beat it of course i might of expected you to not stand by me i might of expected you d stick up for your own sex yes poor she s so unhappy she takes it out on paul she hasn t a single thing to do in that little and she too much and she used to be so pretty and gay and she losing it and you were just as nasty and mean as you could be i m not a bit proud of you or of paul about his horrid love affairs he was silent he maintained his bad temper at a high level of outraged nobility all the four blocks home at the door he left her in self and the lawn with a shock it was revealed to him i wonder if she was right if she was partly right must have him to it was one of the few times in his life when he had his eternal excellence and he perceived the summer night the wet grass then i don t care i ve pulled it off we re going to have our and for paul i d do anything n they were buying their tackle at brothers the sporting goods with the help of fellow member of the club was completely mad he and danced he muttered to paul say this is pretty good eh to be buying the stuff eh and good old himself coming down on the floor to wait on us say if those fellows that are getting their for the north lakes knew we were going clear up to they d have a fit eh well come on brother i i mean here s your chance we re a couple of easy marks i wheel let me at it i i m going to buy out the store he on fly rods and gorgeous rubber hip boots on tents with windows and folding chairs and ice boxes he simple wanted to buy all of them it was the paul whom he was always vaguely protecting who kept him from his drunken desires but even paul lightened when a with poetry and discussed flies now of course you boys know he said the great scrap is between dry flies and wet flies personally i m for dry flies more sporting that s so lots more sporting who knew very little about flies either wet or dry now if you ll take my advice you ll stock up on these pale evening and silver and red oh boy there s a fly that red ant you bet that s what it a fly rejoiced yes sir that red ant said is a real honest to god oh i guess mr won t come a when i drop one of those red on the water asserted and his thick wrists made a motion of casting yes and the salmon will take it too said who had never seen a salmon salmon say paul can you see uncle george with his on em in some morning bout seven ni they were on the new york express bound for without their families they were free in a man s world in the smoking of the i p outside the car window was a of darkness with the gold of mysterious lights was immensely conscious in the sway and clatter of the train of going of going on leaning toward paul he pretty nice to be eh the small room with its walls of colored steel was | 42 |
well the clerk wakes a nice young fine lad not a day over seventy nine years old fought at the battle of and doesn t know it s over yet thought i was one of the i guess from the way he looked at me and van took me up to some thing i found out afterwards they called it a room but first i thought there d been some mistake i thought they were putting me in the salvation army collection box at seven per each and every i i ve heard the was pretty now when i go to i always stay at the or the la first class places say any of you fellows ever stay at the at how is it oh the is a first class hotel twelve minutes of conference on the state of hotels in south bend flint fort worth and jaw prices the man in the hat observed the tooth on his heavy watch chain i d like to know where they get this stuff about clothes coming down now you take this suit i got on he pinched his four years ago i paid forty two fifty for it and it was real sure value well here the other day i went into a store back home and asked to see a suit and the fellow out some hand me downs that honest i wouldn t put on a hired man just out of curiosity i asks him what you charging for that he says what d you mean that s a swell piece of goods all wool like hell it was nice vegetable wool right off the plantation it s all wool he says and we get sixty seven ninety for it oh you do do you i says not from me you don t i says and i walks right out on him you bet i says to the wife well i said as long as your strength holds out and you can go on putting a few more patches on papa s we ll just pass up buying clothes that s right brother and just look at hey wait the fat man protested what s the matter with i m selling d you realize the cost of labor on is still two hundred and seven per cent they that if their old friend the fat man sold then the price of was exactly what it should be but all other clothing was too expensive they admired and loved one another now they went profoundly into the science of business and indicated that the purpose of a or a brick was so that it might be sold to them the romantic hero was no longer the knight the wandering poet the the nor the brave young district attorney but the great manager who had an analysis of problems on his glass desk whose title of nobility was go and who devoted himself and all his young to the purpose of selling not of selling anything in particular for or to anybody in particular but pure selling the shop talk roused paul though he was a player of and an unhappy husband he was also a very able of tar he listened to the fat man s remarks on the value of house organs and as a method of up the boys out on the road and he himself offered one or two excellent thoughts on the use of two cent on then he committed an against the holy law of the of good fellows he became they were entering a city on the outskirts they passed a steel mill which in scarlet and orange flame that licked at the at the iron walls and sullen my lord look at beautiful said paul you bet it s beautiful friend that s the steel plant and they tell me old john made a good three million bones out of during the war the man with the hat said reverently i didn t mean i mean it s lovely the way the light that picturesque yard all with right out of the darkness said paul they stared at him while paul there has certainly got one great little eye for picturesque places and quaint sights and all that stuff d of been an author or something if he hadn t gone into the line paul looked annoyed sometimes wondered if paul appreciated his loyal the man in the hat well personally i think keep their works awful dirty bum but i don t suppose there s any law against calling em picturesque if it gets you that way paul returned to his newspaper and the conversation moved on to trains what time do we get into asked i think we get in at no that was last year s wait a minute let s see got a time table right here i wonder if we re on time sure we must be just about on time no we aren t we were seven minutes late last station were we straight why i thought we were right on time no we re about seven minutes late that s right seven minutes late the porter entered a negro in white jacket with brass buttons how late are we george growled the fat man deed i don t know sir i think we re about on time said the porter folding and tossing them up on the rack above the the council stared at him gloomily and when he was gone they i don t know what s come over these nowadays they never give you a civil answer that s a fact they re getting so they don t have a single bit of respect for you the old fashioned was a fine old he knew his place but these young don t want | 42 |
and and was silent a dog a good country dog black and gray a dog rich in leisure and in meditation scratched and and slept the thick sunlight was lavish on the bright water on the rim of gold green boughs the silver and and across the lake it burned on the sturdy shoulders of the mountains over everything was a holy peace silent they on the edge of the wharf swinging their legs above the water the immense tenderness of the place sank into and he murmured i d just like to sit here the rest of my life and and sit and never hear a or in the or and ted just sit he patted paul s shoulder how does it strike you old oh it s good there s something sort of eternal about it for once understood him in their rounded the bend at the head of the lake under a mountain slope they saw the little central of their hotel and the of log cottages which served as they landed and endured the critical examination of the who had been at the hotel for a whole week in their cottage with its high stone fireplace they hastened as expressed it to get into some regular he they came out paul in an old gray suit and soft white shirt in shirt and vast and flapping trousers it was excessively new his spectacles belonged to a city office and his face was not but a city pink he made a noise in the place but with infinite satisfaction he his legs and say this is getting back home eh they stood on the wharf before the hotel he winked at paul and drew from his back pocket a of tobacco a forbidden in the home he took a beaming and his head as he at it um um maybe i haven t been hungry for a of eating tobacco have some they looked at each other in a grin of understanding paul took the at it they stood quiet their jaws working they solemnly one after the other into the placid water they stretched with lifted arms i and arched backs from beyond the mountains came the shuffling sound of a far off train a leaped and fell back in a silver circle they sighed together iv they had a week before their families came each evening they planned to get up early and fish before breakfast each morning they lay till the breakfast bell pleasantly conscious that there were no efficient wives to rouse them the mornings were cold the fire was kindly as they dressed paul was clean but in a good sound in not having to till his spirit was moved to it he every spot and fish scale on his new trousers all morning they or the dim and lighted among rank and moss sprinkled with crimson bells they slept all afternoon and till midnight played with the guides was a serious business to the guides they did not gossip they the thick greasy cards with a ferocity menacing to the sports and joe paradise king of guides was sarcastic to who halted the game even to scratch at midnight as paul and he to their cottage over the wet grass and pine roots in the darkness rejoiced that he did not have to explain to his wife where he had been all evening they did not talk much the nervous and of the club dropped from them but when they did talk they slipped into the intimacy of college days once they drew their up to the bank of water a stream walled in by the dense green of the the sun roared on the green but in the shade was sleepy peace and the water was golden and rippling drew his hand through the cool flood and mused we never thought we d come to together no we ve never done anything the way we thought we would i expected to live in germany with my s people and study the fiddle that s so and remember how i wanted to be a lawyer and go into politics i still think i might have made a go of it i ve kind of got the gift of the anyway i can think on my feet and make some kind of a on most anything and of course that s the thing you need in politics by ted s going to law school even if i didn t well i guess it s worked out all right s been a fine wife and means well yes up here i figure out all sorts of plans to keep her amused i kind of feel life is going to be different now that we re getting a good rest and can go back and start over again i hope so old boy say it s been awful nice to sit around and loaf and and act regular with you along you old horse thief well you know what it means to me saved my hie the shame of emotion overpowered them they cursed h little to prove they were good rough fellows and in a mellow silence whistling while paul they back to the hotel though it was paul who had seemed who had been the protecting big brother paul became and merry while sank into he uncovered on of hidden weariness at first he had played to paul and for him sought amusements by the end of the week paul was nurse and accepted with the condescension one always shows a patient nurse the day before their families arrived the women guests at the hotel oh isn t it nice you must be so excited and the compelled and paul to look excited but they went to bed early and when appeared she said at once now we want you boys to go on playing around just | 42 |
have a hundred and eighty to throw away on the fee at the we ve got a bunch of real human fellows and the finest lot of little women in town just as good at as the men but at the there s nothing but these would be s in new york get drinking tea too much dog altogether why i wouldn t join the even if they i wouldn t join it on a bet when he had played four or five holes he relaxed a bit his tobacco fluttering heart beat more and his voice to the of his hundred generations of peasant ancestors iv at least once a week mr and mrs and went to the their favorite motion picture was the which held three thousand spectators and had an of fifty pieces which played arrangements from the and a day on the farm or a fire in the stone decorated with velvet chairs and almost sat on gilded columns with exclamations of well by and you got to go some to beat this admired the as he stared across the thousands of heads a gray plain in the as he good clothes and mild perfume and he felt as when he had first seen a mountain and realized how very very much earth and rock there was in it he liked three kinds of pretty bathing girls with bare legs or and an industrious shooting of and funny fat men who ate he chuckled with immense moist eyed at and babies and he wept at and old mothers being patient in cottages mrs preferred the pictures in which handsome young women in elaborate moved through sets as the drawing rooms of new york as for she preferred or was believed to prefer whatever her parents told her to all his bridge long talks with paul at the club or at the good red beef and old english chop house were necessary to for he was entering a year of such activity as he had never known chapter xiii it was by accident that had his opportunity to address the s a r e b the s a r e b as its members called it with the universal passion for mysterious and important sounding was the state association of real estate boards the organization of and it was to hold its annual at monarch s chief rival among the cities of the state was an official another was whom admired for his building and hated for his social position for being present at the dances on royal ridge was of the committee had growled to him makes me tired the way these doctors and and put on about being professional men a good has to have more knowledge and than any of em right you are i say why don t you put that into a paper and give it at the s a r e b suggested well if it would help you in making up the tell you the way i look at it is this first place we ought to insist that folks call us and not real estate men sounds more like a lar profession second place what is it a profession from a mere trade business or occupation what is it why it s the public service and the skill the trained skill and the knowledge and all that whereas a fellow that merely goes out for the jack he never considers the public service and trained skill and so on now as a professional rather that s perfectly bully perfectly now you write it in a paper said as he rapidly and firmly moved away n however accustomed to the literary labors of and correspondence was dismayed on the evening when he sat down to prepare a paper which would take a whole ten minutes to read he laid out a new fifteen cent school exercise book on his wife s sewing table set up for the event in the living room the household had been into silence and ted requested to disappear and threatened with if i hear one sound out of you if you for a glass of water one single solitary time you better not that s all mrs sat over by the piano making a and gazing with respect while wrote in the exercise book to the and of the sewing table when he rose damp and and his throat dusty from she i don t see how you can just sit down and make up things right out of your own head oh it s the training in imagination that a fellow gets in modern business life he had written seven pages whereof the first page set forth m ji a tt yo the other six pages were rather like the first for a week he went about looking important every morning as he dressed he thought aloud stop to consider that before a town can have buildings or prosperity or any of those things some has got to sell em the land all civilization starts with him realize that at the club he led unwilling men aside to inquire say if you had to read a paper before a big would you start in with the funny stories or just kind of scatter em all through he asked for a set of about real estate something good and impressive and provided something exceedingly good and impressive but it was to t that most often turned he caught at the club every noon and demanded while looked hunted and say you re a on this writing stuff how would you put this sentence see here in my manuscript manuscript now where the deuce is that oh yes here would you say we ought not also to alone think or we ought also not to think alone or one | 42 |
evening when his wife was away and he had no one to impress forgot about style order and the other mysteries and off what he really thought about the real estate business and about himself and he found the paper written when he read it to his wife she why dear it s splendid beautifully written and so clear and interesting and such splendid ideas i why it s just it s just splendid next day he and well old son i finished it last evening just it out i used to think you writing must have a hard job making up pieces but lord it s a pretty soft for you fellows you certainly earn your money easy some day when i get ready to retire guess i ll take to writing and show you boys how to do it i always used to think i could write better i o stuff and more punch and originality than all this stuff you see printed and now i m sure of it he had four copies of the paper in black with a gorgeous red title had them bound in pale blue and presented one to old the managing editor of the advocate times who said yes indeed yes he was very glad to have it and he certainly would read it all through as soon as he could find time mrs could not go to monarch she had a women meeting said that he was very sorry m besides the five official to the w a and wing there were fifty most of them with their wives they met at the union station for the midnight train to monarch all of them save who was such a that he never wore displayed buttons the size of dollars and we for the official were magnificent with silver and ribbons martin s little boy carried a banner inscribed the city zeal zest and in as the arrived not in but in the family driven by the oldest son or by cousin they formed through the station waiting room it was a new and enormous waiting room with marble and the of the river valley by in the benches were shelves of ponderous mahogany the news stand a marble with a brass down the echoing spaces of the hall the after s banner the men waving their cigars the women conscious of their new i r and strings of beads all singing to the tune of the official city song written by good old our kin and wherever we may be hats in the ring we sing of thy prosperity the who had a gift of verse for and had added to s city song a special verse for the oh here we come the fellows from the we wish to state in real estate there s none so live as we was stirred to patriotism he leaped on a bench shouting to the crowd what s the matter with she s all right what s best town in the u s a ith the patient poor people waiting for the midnight train stared in wonder italian women with old weary men with broken shoes road wise boys in suits which had been when they were new but which were faded now and wrinkled perceived that as an official he must be more dignified with wing and he up and down the platform beside the waiting driven baggage and red carrying bags sped down the platform with an agreeable effect of activity arc lights glared and stammered overhead the glossy i cars shone made his voice to be measured and he out his and e got to see to it that the lets the understand just who e they get off in this matter of wing uttered ing and swelled the blind of a was raised and looked into an world the of the wa r ey the wife of the f ss thrilled she was going to europe ir re ei c her was a bunch of and r i v bound book which seemed e he she picked up the book then out he w i v she was bored she must have looked straight at him and he had met her but she gave no sign she languidly down the blind and he stood still a cold of in his heart but on the train his pride was restored by meeting from and other smaller cities of the state listened respectfully when as a co from th metropolis of he and the value of a good sound business administration they fell joyfully into shop talk the purest and most form of conversation how d this fellow make out with this big apartment hotel he was going to put up do get out to it asked a m you said now if i d been handling it so wing was i hired this shop window for a and put up a big sign town for tiny and stuck in a lot of doll and some little trees and then down at the bottom baby likes this but papa and will prefer our beautiful and you know that certainly got folks talking and first week we the sang as the train ran through the factory district flame and power were red lights green lights furious white lights rushed past and was important again and eager iv he did a thing he had his clothes pressed on the train in the morning half an hour before they reached monarch the porter came to his berth and whispered there s a drawing room vacant sir i put your suit in there in tan autumn overcoat over his slipped down the green curtain lined aisle to the glory of his first private the porter indicated that he knew was used to a man servant he held the ends of s trousers that the beautifully garment | 42 |
well known as that of business after the meeting from all over the state said you brother sixteen complete strangers called him george and three men took him into corners to confide mighty glad you had the courage to stand up and give the profession a real now i ve always next morning with tremendous asked the girl at the hotel news stand for the newspapers from there was nothing in the press but in the advocate times on the third page he gasped they had printed picture and a half column account the heading was sensation at annual land men s g f prominent in fine address he murmured reverently i guess some of the folks on heights will sit up and take notice now and pay a little attention to old vn it was the last meeting the were presenting the claims of their several cities to the next year s were announcing that de the capital city the site of college and of the knitting works is the recognized of culture and high class enterprise and that the big little city with the logical where every man is open handed and every woman a heaven born hostess throws wide to you her hospitable gates in the midst of these more invitations the golden doors of the opened with a of trumpets and a parade rolled in it was composed of the i dressed as at the head was big in the and gold and crimson coat of a drum major behind him as a beating a bass drum happy and noisy was leaped on the platform made merry play with his and observed and the time has came to get down to cases a in the wool sure loves his neighbors but made up our minds to this off our neighbor like we ve the milk business and the paper box business and j harry the hinted we re grateful to you mr but you must give the other boys a chance to hand in their bids now a fog horn voice in we ll promise free rides through the prettiest country running down the aisle clapping his hands a lean bald young man cried i m from i our chamber of commerce has me they ve set aside eight thousand dollars in real money for the entertainment of the a looking man rose to money talks i move we accept the bid from it was accepted the committee on resolutions was they said that whereas almighty god in his beneficent mercy had seen fit to remove to a sphere of higher usefulness some thirty six of the state the past year therefore it was the sentiment of this assembled that they were sorry god had done it and the secretary should be and was instructed to spread these resolutions on the minutes and to console the families by sending them each a copy a second the president of the s a r e b to spend fifteen thousand dollars in for sane tax measures in the state this resolution had a good deal to say about to sound business and clearing the wheels of progress from ill advised and obstacles the committee on reported and with startled awe learned that he had been appointed a member of the committee on titles he rejoiced i said it was going to be a great year old son you got big things ahead of you you re a orator and a good and ix there was no formal entertainment provided for the last evening had planned to go home but that afternoon the of suggested that and w a have tea with them at the inn were not unknown to his wife and he earnestly attended them at least twice a year but they were sufficiently to make him feel important he sat at a glass covered table in the art room of the inn with its painted on bark and being artistic in dutch caps he ate insufficient and was lively and naughty with mrs who was as smooth and large eyed as a cloak model and he had met two days before so they were calling each other and said say boys before you go seeing this is the last chance i ve got it up in my room and here is the best little in the like us say with wide flowing gestures and followed the to their room mrs shrieked h how terrible when she saw that she had left a i of sheer on the bed she tucked it into a bag while don t mind us we re a couple o little for ice and the bell boy who brought it said and glasses or mixed the in one of those dismal white water which exist only in hotels when they had finished the first round she proved by think you boys could stand another you got a coming that though she was but a woman she knew the complete and perfect of drinking outside hinted to say w a old it comes over me that i could stand it if we didn t go back to the wives this handsome but just kind of stayed in monarch and threw a party george you speak with the tongue of wisdom and el wing s wife has gone on to let s see if we can t gather him in at half past seven they sat in their room with wing and two up state their coats were off their open their faces red their voices emphatic they were finishing a bottle of and imploring the bell boy say son can you get us some more of this they were smoking large cigars and dropping ashes and on the carpet with windy they were telling stories they were in fact in a happy state of nature sighed i don t know how it strikes you but | 42 |
personally i like this loose for a change and kicking over a couple of mountains and climbing up on the north pole and waving the around the man from a grave intense i guess i m as good a husband as the run of the mill but god i do get so tired of going home every evening and nothing to see but the that s why i go out and with the national guard i guess i got the little wife in my but say know what i wanted to do as a kid know what i wanted to do wanted to be a big tha s what i wanted to do but chased me out on the road selling and here i m settled down settled for life not a chance oh who the devil started this funeral talk how bout hi drink and a er drink wouldn do s ny yea cut the sob stuff said w a you boys know i m the village come on now sing up said the old to the young i am dry i am dry said the young to the old so am i so am i they had dinner in the of the hotel somewhere somehow they seemed to have gathered in two other comrades a of fly paper and a they all drank from tea cups and they were humorous and never listened to one another except when w a the italian waiter say he said innocently i want a couple o ears sorry sir we haven t any no ears what do you know about that turned to says the ears are all out well i ll be said the man from with difficulty hiding his laughter well in that case just bring me a o and a couple o o french potatoes and some peas went on i suppose back in dear old sunny it the get their fresh garden peas out of the can no sir we have very nice peas in italy is that a fact do you hear that they get their fresh garden peas out of the garden in italy by you live and learn don t you you certainly do live and learn if you live long enough and keep your strength all right just shoot me in that with about two of french on the deck afterward wing admired you certainly did have that poor going w a he couldn t make you out at all in the monarch herald found an advertisement which he read aloud to applause and laughter old colony theatre shake the old dogs to the the of bathing in and his oh this is the straight steer the of the are the bunch that ever hit town steer the feet get the card board and twist the pupils to the show ever you will get on your in this fun the sisters are sure some and will give you a run for your is one of the lads and slips you a dose of real laughter shoot the up and down to and west for graceful they run under the wire and will blow the in their laugh mon something doing boys listen to what the bird sounds like a show to me let s all take it in said but they put off departure as long as they could they were safe while they sat here legs firmly crossed under the table but they felt unsteady they were afraid of the long and slippery floor of the under the eyes of the other guests and the too attentive when they did venture tables got in their way and they sought to cover embarrassment by heavy at the as the girl handed out their hats they smiled at her and hoped that she a cool and expert judge would feel that they were gentlemen they at one another who owns the bum lid and you take a good one george i ll take what s left and to the check girl they stammered better come along sister high wide and fancy evening ahead all of them tried to tip her urging one another no here i got it right here among them they gave her three dollars xi smoking cigars they sat in a box at the show their feet up on the rail while a chorus of twenty worried and respectable swung their legs in the more chorus and a made vicious fun of jews in the they met other lone a dozen of them went in out to bright blossom inn where the blossoms were made of dusty paper along a room low and like a cow stable no longer wisely used here was served openly in glasses two or three clerks who on pay day longed to be taken for danced with girls and girls in the narrow space between the tables whirled the a young man in sleek evening clothes and a slim mad girl in silk with hair flung up as as flames tried to dance with her he along the floor too to be guided his steps to the of the music and in his staggering he would have fallen had she not held him with kindly strength he was blind and deaf from era he could not see the tables the faces but he was overwhelmed by the girl and her young warmth when she had firmly returned him to his group he remembered by a connection quite that his mother s mother had been scotch and with head thrown back eyes closed wide mouth indicating ecstasy he sang very slowly and richly but that was the last of his and jolly companionship the man from said he was a bum singer and for ten minutes with him in a loud unsteady heroic indignation they called for drinks till the manager insisted that the place was closed all the while felt a hot raw | 42 |
desire for more brutal amusements when w a what say we go down the line and look over the girls he agreed savagely before they went three of them secretly made with the professional dancing girl who agreed yes yes sure darling to everything they said and forgot them as they drove back through the outskirts of monarch down streets of small brown wooden cottages of workmen as as they rattled across districts which by drunken night seemed vast and perilous as they were borne toward the red lights and violent and the women who was frightened he wanted to leap from the but all his body was a fire and he groaned too late to quit now and knew that he did not want to quit there was they felt one very humorous incident on the way a from said monarch is a lot than you haven t got any joints like these here raged that s a dirty lie i you can t find in believe me we got more houses and an all kinds o than any in the state he realized they were laughing at him he desired to fight and forgot it in such experiments as he had not known since college in the morning when he returned to his desire for rebellion was partly satisfied he had to a contentment he was irritable he did not smile when w a complained ow what a head i certainly do feel like the wrath of god this morning say i know what was the trouble somebody went and put in my last night s excursion was never known to his family nor to any one in save and wing it was not recognized even by himself if it had any consequences they have not been discovered chapter xiv this autumn a mr w g of was appointed president of the united states but was less interested in the national campaign than in the local election though he was a lawyer and a of the state university was candidate for mayor of on an alarming labor ticket to oppose him the and united on a with a perfect record for mr was supported by the banks the chamber of commerce all the decent newspapers and george f was leader on heights but his district was safe and he longed for his paper had given him the beginning of a reputation for so the republican central committee sent him to the seventh ward and south to address small of workmen and clerks and wives uneasy with their new he acquired a fame enduring for weeks now and then a was present at one of his meetings and the though they were not very large indicated that george f had addressed cheering throng and distinguished man of affairs had pointed out the of once in the section of the sunday advocate times there was a photograph of and a dozen other business men with the leaders of and commerce who back he deserved his glory he was an excellent he had faith he was certain that if were alive he would be for mr w g he came to and for he did not by silly represented honest industry represented and you could take your choice with his broad shoulders and vigorous voice he was obviously a good fellow and of all he really liked people he almost liked common workmen he wanted them to be well paid and able to afford high rents though naturally they must not interfere with the reasonable profits of thus nobly endowed and high by the discovery that he was a natural orator he was popular with and he raged through the campaign renowned not only in the seventh and eighth wards but even in parts of the sixteenth n crowded in his car they came driving up to hall south his wife ted and paul and the hall was over a shop in a street with and smelling of and and fish a new appreciation of filled all of them including don t know how you keep it up talking to three in one evening wish i had your strength said paul and ted exclaimed to the old man certainly does know how to kid these along men in black shirts their faces new washed but with a hint of under their eyes were on the broad stairs up to the hall s party politely edged through them and into the room at the front of which was a with a red throne and a pine altar painted watery blue as used nightly by the grand masters and supreme of innumerable the hall was full as pushed through the fringe standing at the back he heard the precious tribute that s the down the aisle with an impressive the speaker all ready sir let s see what was the name sir then slid into a sea of eloquence ladies and gentlemen of the sixteenth ward there is one who cannot be with us here to night a man than whom there is no more in all the political i refer to our leader the honorable standard bearer of the city and county of since he is not here i trust that you will bear with me if as a friend and neighbor as one who is proud to share with you the common blessing of being a resident of the great city of i tell you in all honesty and sincerity how the issues of this critical campaign appear to one plain man of business to one who brought up to the blessings of poverty and of manual labor has even when fate condemned him to sit at a desk yet never forgotten how it feels by to be up at five thirty and at the factory with the dinner in his hardened when the whistle blew at seven unless the owner in ten minutes on | 42 |
us and blew it early laughter to come down to the and issues of this campaign the great error by there were workmen who young cynical workmen for the most part foreigners jews but the older men the patient stooped and cheered him and when he worked up to his anecdote of their eyes were wet modestly busily he hurried out of the hall on delicious applause and sped off to his third audience of the evening ted you better drive he said kind of all in after that well paul how d it go did i get em bully you had a lot of mrs oh it was fine so clear and interesting and such nice ideas when i hear you i realize i don t appreciate how profoundly you think and what a splendid brain and you have just splendid but was she worried how do you know that public of and so on and so forth will always be a failure mrs i should think you could see and realize that when your father s all worn out with it s no time to expect him to explain these complicated subjects i m sure when he s rested he ll be glad to explain it to you now let s all be quiet and give papa a chance to get ready for his next speech just think right now they re gathering in temple and waiting for us m mr and sound business defeated mr and class rule and was again saved was offered several minor to among poor relations but he preferred advance information about the extension of paved and this a grateful administration gave to him also he was one of only nineteen at the dinner with which the chamber of commerce celebrated the victory of his reputation for established at the dinner of the real estate board he made the annual address the advocate times reported this speech with unusual one of the that has recently been pulled off occurred last night in the annual get together of the real estate board held in the ball room of the o house mine host g had as usual done himself proud and those assembled on such an assemblage of plates as could be nowhere west of new york if there and washed down the feed with the cup which inspired but did not in the shape of from the farm of president of the board and who acted as witty and efficient i o as mr was suffering from slight and sore throat g f made the principal talk besides the progress of real estate titles mr spoke in part as follows in rising to address you with my speech carefully tucked into my pocket i am reminded of the story of the two and pat who were riding on the both of them i forgot to say were sailors in the navy it seems had the lower berth and by and by he heard a terrible from the upper and when he up to find out what the trouble was pat answered an an how can i ever get a night s sleep at all at all i been trying to get into this little ever since eight bells now gentlemen standing up here before you i feel a good deal like pat and maybe after i ve along for a while i may feel so small that i ll be able to crawl into a with no trouble at all at all gentlemen it strikes me that each year at this annual occasion when friend and foe get together and lay down the battle ax and let the waves of good fellowship them up the slopes of it us standing together eye to eye and shoulder to shoulder as fellow citizens of the best city in the world to consider where we are both as regards ourselves and the common it is true that even with our or practically population there are by the last almost a score of larger cities in the united states but gentlemen if by the next we do not stand at least tenth then i ll be the first to request any to remove my shirt and to eat the same with the compliments of g f it may be true that new york and philadelphia will continue to keep ahead of us in size but aside from these three cities which are so overgrown that no decent white man i i nobody who loves his wife and and god s good out o doors and likes to shake the hand of his neighbor in greeting would want to live in them and let me tell you right here and now i wouldn t trade a high class development for the whole length and breadth of or state street aside from these three it s evident to any one with a head for facts that is the finest example of american life and prosperity to be found anywhere i don t mean to say we re perfect we ve got a lot to do in the way of extending the of for believe me it s the fellow with four to ten thousand a year say and an and a nice little family in a on the edge of town that makes the wheels of progress go round that s the type of fellow that s ruling america to day in fact it s the ideal type to which the entire world must tend if there s to be a decent well balanced christian future for this little old planet once in a while i just naturally sit back and size up this solid american citizen with a whale of a lot of satisfaction our ideal citizen i picture him first and foremost as being than a bird dog not wasting a lot of good time in day dreaming or going to or | 42 |
kicking about things that are none of his business but putting the into some store or profession or art at night he lights up a good cigar and into the little old and maybe the and shoots out home he the lawn or in some practice putting and then he s ready for dinner after dinner he tells the a story or takes the family to the or plays a few fists of bridge or reads the evening paper and a chapter or two of some good lively western novel if he has a taste for literature and maybe the folks next door drop in and they sit and visit about their friends and the topics of the day then he goes happily to bed his conscience clear having i contributed his to the prosperity of the city and to his own bank account in politics and religion this sane citizen is the man on earth and in the arts he invariably has a natural taste which makes him pick out the best every time in no country in the world will you find so many of the old masters and of well known paintings on parlor walls as in these united states no country has anything like our number of with not only dance records and comic but also the best such as rendered by the world s highest paid singers in other countries art and literature are left to a lot of shabby living in and feeding on and but in america the successful writer or picture painter is from any other decent business man and i for one am only too glad that the man who has the rare skill to season his message with interesting reading matter and who shows both purpose and in handling his literary wares has a chance to drag down his fifty thousand a year to mingle with the biggest on terms of perfect equality and to show as big a house and as swell a car as any captain of industry but mind you it s the appreciation of the regular who i have been which has made this possible and you got to hand as much credit to him as to the authors themselves finally but most important our citizen even if he is a bachelor is a lover of the little ones a of the which is the foundation of our civilization first last and all the time and the thing that most us from the decayed nations of europe i have never yet europe and as a matter of fact i don t know that i care to such an awful lot as long as there s our own mighty cities and mountains to be seen but the way i figure it out there must be a good many of our own sort of folks abroad indeed one of the most enthusiastic i ever met the of one hundred per cent in a that o and all ye burns but same time one thing that us from our good brothers the over there is that they re willing to take a lot off the and and while the modern american business man knows how to talk right up for himself knows how to make it good and plenty clear that he to run the works he doesn t have to call in some hired man when it s necessary for him to answer the crooked critics of the sane and efficient life he s not dumb like the old fashioned merchant he s got a and a punch with all modesty i want to stand up here as a representative business man and gently whisper here s our kind of folks here s the of the american citizen s the new generation of americans fellows with hair on their and smiles in their eyes and in their offices we re not doing any but we like ourselves first rate and if you don t like us look out better get under cover before the town so in my clumsy way i have tried to sketch the real he man the fellow with and bang and it s because has so large a proportion of such men that it s the most stable the greatest of our cities new york also has its thousands of real folks but new york is cursed with foreigners so are and san oh we have a golden of cities and with their renowned with its great and soap and with their steel city and and that open their gates on the bosom of the ocean like and countless other magnificent sister cities for by the last there were no less than sixty eight glorious american with a population of over one hundred thousand and all these cities stand together for power and purity and against i foreign ideas and with with with los with with a good live wire from or or is the of every like fellow from or fort worth or but it s here in the home for manly men and womanly women and bright that you find the largest proportion of these regular and that s what sets it in a class by itself that s why will be remembered in history as having set the pace for a civilization that shall endure when the old time killing ways are gone forever and the day of earnest efficient endeavor shall have dawned all round the world some time i hope folks will quit handing all the credit to a lot of eaten out of date old european and give proper credit to the famous spirit that clean fighting determination to win success that has made the little old city celebrated in every land and wherever milk and are known believe me the world has fallen too long for these worn out countries that aren t producing anything but and scenery and that haven t | 42 |
got one per hundred people and that don t know a loose leaf from a slip cover and it s just about time for some to get his back up and for a show down i tell you and her sister cities are producing a new type of civilization there are many between and these other and i m glad of it the extraordinary growing and sane of stores offices streets hotels clothes and newspapers throughout the united states shows how strong and enduring a type is ours i always like to remember a piece that wrote for the newspapers about his lecture it is doubtless familiar to many of you but if you will permit me i ll take a chance and read it it s one of the classic poems like if by or s the man worth while and i always carry this of it in my note book when i am out upon the road a poet with a s load i mostly sing a hearty song and take a and along a handing out my fine of brand of sweet sunshine and and stable lines of and jokes to and other folks to clubs and feel i ain t like other and then old major satan a who s always he gives his tail a lively and gets in quick his dirty work he fills me up with my hair the backward way he he makes me than a hound on sunday when the folks ain t round and then b i would prefer to never be a a round in cars and smoking fifty cent cigars and never more i want to i simply want to be back home a and ham with folks who whom i am but when i get that lonely spell i simply seek the best hotel no matter in what town i be st paul or k c in washington in or and at that inn it my dome that i again am right at home if i should stand a spell in front of that first class hotel that to the loves to across from some big if i look around and and wonder in what town i was i swear that i could never tell for all the crowd would be so swell in just the same fine sort of they wear at home and all the queens with on their beans and all the fellows standing round a always i ll be bound the same good jolly kind of bout politics and stuff and players of renown that nice talk in my home town then when i entered that hotel i d look around and say well well for there would be the same news stand fl i magazines and grand same of famous brand i d find at home i ll tell and when i saw the jolly bunch come in for eats at lunch and up in to large of french why then i d stand right up and i ve never left my home at all and all i d sit me down beside some in brown upon a chair of and murmur to him in a rush bill tell me good old how is your stock a then we d be off two solid a like giddy of weather home and wives lodge brothers then all our lives so when sam satan makes you blue good that s what i d up and do for in these states wherever vou you never leave your home sweet home yes sir these other are our true partners in the great game of vital living but let s not have any mistake about this i claim that is the best partner and the growing partner of the whole i trust i may be if i give a few to back up my claims if they are old stuff to any of you yet the tidings of prosperity like the good news of the bible never become tedious to the ears of a real no matter how oft the sweet story is told every intelligent person knows that more milk and cream more paper boxes and more lighting than any other city in the united states if not in the world but it is not so universally known that we also stand second in the manufacture of butter sixth in the giant realm of and and somewhere about third in cheese leather tar breakfast food and our greatness however lies not alone in prosperity but equally in that public spirit that forward looking and brotherhood which has marked ever since its foundation by the fathers we have a right indeed we have a duty toward our fair city to announce the acts about our high schools by their complete plants and the finest school systems in the country bar none our magnificent new hotels and banks and the paintings and carved marble in their and the second national tower the second highest business building in any inland city in the entire country when i add that we have an number of miles of paved streets and all the other signs of civilization that our library and art museum are well supported and in convenient and buildings that our park system is more than up to par with its handsome adorned with grass shrubs and then i give but a hint of the unlimited greatness of i believe however in keeping the best to the last when i remind you that we have one car for every five and seven persons in the city then i give a rock practical indication of the kind of progress and which is with the name but the way of the righteous is not all roses before i close i must call your attention to a problem we have to face this coming year the worst menace to sound government is not the but a lot of who work under | 42 |
cover the long haired who call themselves and and non and and god only knows how many other trick names teachers and professors constitute the worst of this whole gang and i am ashamed to say that several of them are on the faculty of our great state university the u is my own and i am proud to be known as an but there are certain there who seem to think we ought to turn the conduct of the nation over to and those are the to be they and all their milk and water the american business man is generous to a fault but one thing he does demand of all ers and and if we re going to pay them our good money they ve got to help us by selling and it up for rational prosperity and when it comes to these mouth fault finding cynical university teachers let me tell you that during this golden coming year it s just as much our duty to bring influence to have those fired as it is to sell all the real estate and gather in all the good we can not till that is done will our sons and daughters see that the ideal of american manhood and culture isn t a lot of sitting around the rag about their rights and their wrongs but a god fearing successful two regular who belongs to some church with and piety to it who belongs to the or the or the to the or or red men or knights of or any one of a score of of good jolly laughing lend a handing royal good fellows who plays hard and works hard and whose answer to his critics is a square boot that ll teach the and smart to respect the he man and get out and root for uncle samuel u iv promised to become a recognized orator he entertained a of the men s club of the road church with irish and chinese dialect stories but in nothing was he more clearly revealed as the prominent citizen than in his lecture on brass facts on real estate as delivered before the class in methods at the y m ca the advocate times reported the lecture so fully that said to you re getting to be one of the in town seems s if i couldn t pick up a paper without reading about your well known eloquence all this ought to bring a lot of business into your office good keep it up go on quit your said feebly but at this tribute from himself a man of no mean fame he expanded with delight and wondered how before his he could have questioned the joys of being a solid citizen chapter xv his to greatness was not without disastrous stumbling fame did not bring the social advancement which the deserved they were not asked to join the country club nor invited to the dances at the union himself fretted he didn t care a fat for all these but the wife would kind of like to be among those present he nervously awaited his university class dinner and an evening of furious intimacy with such social leaders as charles the the banker the tool and the fashionable interior he was their friend as he had been in college and when he encountered them they still called him but he didn t seem to encounter them often and they never invited him to dinner with champagne and a butler at their houses on royal ridge all the week before the class dinner he thought of them no reason why we shouldn t become real n like all true american and spiritual the dinner of the men of the class of was thoroughly organized the dinner committee like a once a week they sent out no old man are you going to be with us at the friendship feed the of the good old u have ever known the of turned out strong are we boys going to be beaten by a bunch of skirts come on fellows let s work up some real genuine enthusiasm and all together for the dinner yet elegant eats short talks and memories shared together of the brightest days of life the dinner was held in a private room at the union club the was a dingy building three old dwellings knocked together and the entrance hall resembled a cellar yet the who was free of the magnificence of the club entered with embarrassment he nodded to the an ancient proud negro with brass buttons and a blue tail coat and through the hall trying to look like a member sixty men had come to the dinner they made islands and in the hall they packed the and the corners of the private dining room they tried to be intimate and enthusiastic they appeared to one another exactly as they had in college as raw whose present and wrinkles were but jovial put on for the evening you haven t changed a they the men whom they could not recall they addressed well well great to see you again old man what are you still doing the same thing some one was always starting a cheer or a college song and it was always into silence despite their resolution to be they divided into two sets the men with dress clothes and the men without extremely in dress clothes went from one group to the other though he was almost frankly out for social conquest he sought paul first he found him alone neat and silent paul sighed i m no good at this and well look who s here rats now up and be a i finest bunch of boys on earth say you seem kind of what s matter oh the usual run in with let s in ami forget our troubles he kept paul | 42 |
beside him but worked toward the spot where charles stood warming his admirers like a furnace had been the hero of the class of not only captain and hammer but and in what the state university considered he had gone on had captured the construction company once owned by the best known family of he built state railway he was a heavy shouldered big man but not there was a quiet humor in his eyes a smooth quickness in his speech which and warned and in his presence the most intelligent or the most sensitive artist felt thin blooded and a little shabby he was particularly when he was or labor very easy and and gorgeous he was he was a peer in the rapidly american aristocracy inferior only to the haughty old i in an old family is one which came to town before his power was the greater because he was not by scruples by either the vice or the virtue of the older tradition was being placidly merry now with the great the and the land owners and lawyers and who had and went to europe squeezed among he liked s smile as much as the social advancement to be had from his favor tf in company he felt ponderous and live mc he felt slight and he heard say to the banker yes we ll put up sir s love for titles became a rich relish you know he s one of the big iron men in england horribly well off why old say george is getting than i am the shouted take your seats fellows shall we make a move said casually to right paul how s the old planning to sit anywhere special george come on let s some seats come on i read about your speeches in the campaign bully work after that would have followed him through fire he was busy during the dinner now cheering paul now approaching with hear you re going to build some in now noting how the failures of the class sitting by themselves in a group looked up to him in his association with the nobility now warming himself in the society talk of and they spoke of a dance for which had decorated her house with thousands of they spoke with an excellent imitation of of a dinner in washington at which had met a a princess and an english major general called the princess y t it be known that he had danced with her was thrilled but not so with awe as to be silent if he was not invited by them to dinner he was yet accustomed to talking with bank and who entertained poets he was bright and with say remember in junior year how we a sea going hack and chased down to to the big show madame brown used to put on remember how you beat up that that tried to run us in and we pinched the pressing sign and took and hung it on s door oh those were the days those agreed were the days had reached it isn t the books you study in college but the you make that counts when the men at head of the table broke into song he attacked it s a shame shame to drift apart because our business lie in different fields i ve enjoyed talking over the good old days you and mrs must come to dinner some night vaguely yes indeed like to talk to you about the growth of real estate out beyond your i might be able to tip you off to a thing or two possibly splendid we must have dinner together just let me know and it will be a great pleasure to have your wife and you at the house said much less vaguely then the s voice that prodigious voice which once had roused them to cheer defiance at from or or come on you all together in the long yell felt that life would never be sweeter than now when he joined with paul and the newly recovered hero in ax get an ax ax get who who the u l in the invited the to dinner in early december and the not only accepted but after changing the date once or twice actually came the somewhat thoroughly discussed the details of the dinner from the purchase of a bottle of champagne to the number of to be placed before each person especially did they mention the matter of the other guests to the last held out for giving paul the benefit of being with the good old would like paul and better than some boy he insisted but mrs interrupted his observations with yes perhaps i think i ll try to get some and when she was quite ready she invited dr j t the and a respectable lawyer named with their glittering wives neither nor belonged to the or to the club neither of them had ever called brother or asked his opinions on the only human people whom she invited raged were the and at times became so that longed for the refreshment of s well old pie face what s the good word immediately after lunch mrs began to set the table for the seven thirty dinner to the and was by order home at four but they didn t find anything for him to do and three times mrs do please try to keep out of the way he stood in the door of the his lips drooping and wished that or sam or somebody would come along and talk to him he saw ted about the corner of the house what s the matter old man said is that you thin one ma certainly is on the i told her and i would soon not be let in on the to night and she bit me she says i got | 42 |
to take a bath too but say the men will be some to night little in a dress suit the men liked the sound of it he put his arm about the boy s shoulder he wished that paul had a daughter so that ted might marry her yes your mother is kind of round all right he said and they laughed together and sighed together and went in to dress the were less than fifteen minutes late hoped that the would see the and their waiting in front the dinner was well cooked and plentiful and mrs had brought out her grandmother s silver worked hard he was good he told none of the jokes he wanted to tell he listened to the others he started off with a let s hear about your trip to the he was extremely he found opportunities to remark that dr was a benefactor to humanity and profound scholars charles an inspiration to ambitious youth and mrs an to the social circles of washington new york paris and numbers of other places but he could not stir them it was a dinner without a soul for no reason that was clear to was over them and they spoke laboriously and unwillingly he concentrated on carefully not looking at her lovely shoulder and the silken band which supported her frock i suppose you ll be going to europe pretty soon again won t you he invited i d like awfully to run over to rome for a few weeks i suppose you see a lot of pictures and music and and everything there no what i really go for is there s a little on the where you get the best in the world oh i yes that must be nice to try that yes at a quarter to ten discovered with profound regret that his wife had a headache he said as helped him with his coat we must lunch together some time and talk over the old days when the others had labored out at half past ten turned to his wife pleading said he had a time and we must lunch said they wanted to have us up to the house for dinner before long she achieved oh it s just been one of those quiet evenings that are often so much more than noisy parties where everybody talks at once and doesn t really settle down to nice quiet enjoyment but from his cot on the sleeping porch he heard her weeping slowly without hope iv for a month they watched the social columns and waited for a return dinner invitation as the hosts of sir the were all the week after the dinner received sir who had come to america to buy coal the newspapers him on ireland naval the rate of exchange tea drinking drinking the of american women and daily life as lived by english county families sir seemed to have heard of all those topics the gave him a dinner and miss pearl society editor of the advocate times rose to her highest read aloud at breakfast table the original and oriental the strange and delicious food and the both of the distinguished guests the charming hostess and the noted host never has seen a more affair than the dinner dance given last evening by mr and mrs charles to sir as we fortunate one were privileged to view that fairy and foreign scene nothing at or the sets of foreign could be more lovely it is not for nothing that is in matters social rapidly becoming known as the inland city in the country though he is too modest to admit it lord gives a to our smart such as it has not received since the ever memorable visit of the earl of not only is he of the british but he is also on a leader of the british metal as he comes from a favorite haunt of robin hood though now we are informed by lord a live modern city of inhabitants and important lace as well as other we like to think that perhaps through his veins runs some of the blood both red and blue of that earlier lord o the good the robin the lovely mrs never was more fascinating than last evening in her black net gown relieved by dainty bands of silver and at her exquisite waist a glowing cluster of ward roses said bravely i hope they don t invite us to meet this lord sight rather just have a nice quiet little dinner with and the at the club they discussed it amply i s pose we ll have to call lord from now on said it beats all get out meditated that man of how hard it is for some people to get things straight here they call this fellow lord when it ought to be sir is that a fact well well i sir eh that s what you call um eh well sir i m glad to know that later he informed his it s n a goat the way some folks that just because they happen to lay up a big go entertaining famous foreigners don t have any more idea n a rabbit how to address em so s to make em feel at home that evening as he was driving home he passed s and saw sir a large ruddy pop eyed englishman whose of yellow gave him an aspect sad and doubtful drove on slowly oppressed by he had a sudden and horrible conviction that the were laughing at him he betrayed his depression by the violence with which he informed his wife folks that really tend to business haven t got the time to waste on a bunch like the this society stuff is like any other if you devote yourself to it you get on but i like to have a chance to | 42 |
visit with you and the children instead of all this chasing round they did not speak of the again it was a shame at this worried time to have to think about the ed was a of who had been a failure he had a large family and a feeble business out in the of he was gray and thin and unimportant he had always been gray and thin and unimportant he was the person whom in any group you forgot to introduce then introduced with extra enthusiasm he had admired s good fellowship in college had admired ever since his power in real estate his beautiful house and wonderful clothes it pleased though it him with a sense of responsibility at the class dinner he had seen poor in a shiny blue business suit being in a corner with three other failures he had gone over and been cordial why young ed i hear you re writing all the in now bully work they recalled the good old days when used to write poetry embarrassed him by say i hate to think of how we been drifting apart i wish you and mrs would come to dinner some night fine sure just let me know and the wife and i want to have you at the house he forgot it but unfortunately ed did not repeatedly he to inviting him to dinner might as well go and get it over groaned to his wife but don t it simply you the way the poor fish doesn t know the first thing about social etiquette think of him me instead of his wife sitting down and writing us a regular bid well i guess we re stuck for it that s the trouble with all this class brother he accepted s next plaintive invitation for an evening two weeks off a dinner two weeks off even a family dinner never seems so appalling till the two weeks have disappeared and one comes dismayed to the hour they had to change the date because of their own dinner to the but at last they gloomily drove out to the house in it was miserable from the beginning the had dinner at six thirty while the never dined before seven permitted himself to be ten minutes late let s make it as short as possible i think we ll duck out quick i ll say i have to be at the office extra early to morrow he planned the house was it was the second story of a wooden two family dwelling a place of baby carriages old hats hung in the hall smell and a family bible on the parlor table ed and his wife were as awkward and as usual and the other guests were two dreadful families whose names never caught and never desired to catch but he was touched and disconcerted by the way in which praised him we re mighty proud to have old george here to night of course you ve all read about his speeches and in the papers and the boy s good looking too eh but what i always think of is back in college and what a great old he was and one of the best in the class tried to be jovial he worked at it but he could find nothing to interest him in s the of the other guests or the drained stupidity of mrs with her spectacles skin and tight drawn hair he told his best irish story but it sank like cake most moment of all was when mrs peering out of her fog of nursing eight children and cooking and tried to be i suppose you go to and new york right along mr she well i get to fairly often it must be awfully interesting i suppose you take in all the well to tell the truth mrs thing that me best is a great big at a dutch in the they had nothing more to say was sorry but there was no hope the dinner was a failure at ten rousing out of the stupor of talk he said as cheerily as he could we got to be starting ed i ve got a fellow coming to see me early to morrow as helped him with his coat said nice to rub up on the old days we must have lunch together p d q mrs sighed on their drive home it was pretty terrible but how mr does admire you poor seems to think i m a little tin and the best looking man in well you re certainly not that but oh you don t suppose we have to invite them to dinner at our house now do we i hope not see here now george you didn t say anything about it to mr did you no i i no i honest i didn t i just made a bluff about having him to lunch some time well oh dear i don t want to hurt their feelings but i don t see how i could stand another evening like this one and suppose somebody like dr and mrs came in when we had the there and thought they were friends of ours i for a week they worried we really ought to invite ed and his wife poor devils but as they never saw the they forgot them and after a month or two they said that really was the best way just to let it slide it wouldn t be kind to them to have them here they d feel so out of place and hard up in our home they did not speak of the again chapter xvi i the certainty that he was not going to be accepted by the made feel guilty and a little absurd but he went more regularly to the at a chamber of commerce luncheon he was regarding the | 42 |
wickedness of strikes and again he saw himself as a prominent citizen his clubs and associations were food comfortable to his spirit of a decent man in it was required that he should belong to one two or three of the and prosperity lunch clubs to the the or the to the odd fellows red men knights of knights of and other secret orders by a high degree of sound morals and reverence for the constitution there were four reasons for joining these orders it was the thing to do it was good for business since lodge brothers frequently became customers it gave to americans unable to become or such as high worthy and grand to add to the commonplace distinctions of colonel judge and professor and it permitted the american husband to stay away from home for one evening a week the lodge was his his pavement he could shoot pool and talk man talk and be and was what he called a for all these reasons behind the gold and scarlet banner of his public achieve ments was the background of office routine lists of properties to rent the evenings of and and stimulated him like brandy but every morning he was sandy week by week he accumulated he was in open with his outside and once though her charms had always kept him polite to her he at miss for changing his letters but in the presence of paul he relaxed at least once a week they fled from maturity on saturday they played as a you re a fine player or they all sunday afternoon stopping at village to sit on high at a counter and drink coffee from thick cups sometimes paul came over in the evening with his and even was silent as the lonely man who had lost his way and forever crept down roads spun out his dark soul in music n nothing gave more and than his labors for the sunday school his church the road was one of the largest and richest one of the most and in the was the reverend john drew m a d d ll d the ma and the d d were from university the ll d from college he was eloquent efficient and he presided at meetings for the of or the elevation of domestic service and confided to the that as a poor boy he had carried newspapers for the saturday edition of the evening advocate he wrote on the manly man s religion and the dollars and sense value of christianity which were printed in bold t e surrounded by a border he often said that he was proud to be known as a business man and that he certainly was not going to permit the old satan to all the and punch he was a thin rustic faced young man with gold spectacles and a bang of dull brown hair but when he hurled himself into he glowed with power he admitted that he was too much the scholar and poet to imitate the monday yet he had once awakened his fold to new life and to larger by the challenge my brethren the real cheap is the man who won t lend to the lord he had made his church a true community it contained everything but a bar it had a nursery a thursday evening supper with a short bright missionary lecture afterward a a motion picture show a library of books for young workmen though unfortunately no young workman ever entered the church except to wash the windows or repair the furnace and a sewing circle which made short little for the children of the poor while mrs drew read aloud from earnest novels though dr drew s was his was gracefully as he said it had the most features of those noble monuments of grand old england which stand as of the eternity of faith religious and civil it was built of cheery iron spot brick in an improved style and the main had lighting from electric in lavish on a december morning when the went to church dr john drew was unusually eloquent the crowd was immense ten brisk young in morning coats with white roses were bringing folding chairs up from the there was an impressive musical conducted by of the y m ca who also sang the cared less for this because some person had taught young mr to smile smile smile while he was singing but with all the appreciation of a fellow orator he admired dr drew s sermon it had the intellectual quality which distinguished the road congregation from the on smith street at this abundant harvest time of all the year dr drew when though stormy the sky and laborious the path to the yet the hovering and spirit back o er all the labors and desires of the past twelve months oh then it seems to me there sounds behind all our apparent failures the golden chorus of greeting from those passed happily on and lo on the dim horizon we see behind clouds the mighty mass of mountains mountains of melody mountains of mirth mountains of might i certainly do like a sermon with culture and thought in it meditated at the end of the service he was delighted when the shaking hands at the door oh brother can you wait a want your advice sure doctor you bet drop into my office i think you ll like the cigars there did like the cigars he also liked the office which was distinguished from other offices only by the spirited change of the familiar wall to this is the lord s busy day came in then william w mr was the seventy year old president of the first state bank of he still wore the delicate patches of side whiskers which had been the uniform of in if was envious of the smart set of | 42 |
the before william washington he was mr had nothing to do with the smart set he was above it he was the great of one of the five men who founded in and he was of the third generation of he could examine make promote or injure a man s business in his presence breathed quickly and felt young the reverend dr drew into the room and into speech i ve asked you gentlemen to stay so i can put a proposition before you the sunday school needs up it s the fourth largest in but there s no reason why we should take anybody s dust we ought to be first i want to request you if you will to form a committee of advice and for the sunday school look it over and make any suggestions for its and then perhaps see that the press gives us some attention give the public some really and news instead of all these and excellent said the banker and were enchanted to join him m if you had asked what his religion was he would have answered in club my religion is to serve my fellow men to honor my brother as myself and to do my bit to make life happier for one and all if you had pressed him for more detail he would have announced i m a member of the church and naturally i accept its doctrines if you had been so brutal as to go on he would have protested there s no use discussing and arguing about religion it just up bad feeling actually the content of his was that there was a supreme being who had tried to make us perfect but had failed that if one was a good man he would go to a place called heaven pictured it as rather like an excellent hotel with a private garden but if one was a bad man that is if he murdered or committed or used or had or sold non real estate he would be punished was uncertain however about what he called this business of hell he explained to ted of course i m pretty liberal i don t exactly believe in a fire and hell stands to reason though that a fellow can t get away with all sorts of vice and not get for it see how i mean upon this he rarely pondered the of his practical religion was that it was respectable and to one s business to be seen going to services that the church kept the worst elements from being still worse and that the s sermons however dull they might seem at the time of taking yet had a power which did a fellow good kept him in touch with higher things his first for the sunday school committee did not inspire him he liked the busy folks bible class composed of mature men and women and addressed by the old school physician dr t in a sparkling style to that of the more refined humorous after dinner but when he went down to the junior classes he was disconcerted he heard of the y m ca and leader of the church choir a pale but young man with curly hair and a smile teaching a class of old boys lovingly them now fellows i m going to have a heart to heart talk evening at my house next thursday we ll get off by ourselves and be frank about our secret you can just tell old anything like all the fellows do at the y i m going to explain frankly about the horrible a falls into unless he s guided by a big brother and about the perils and glory of sex old beamed the boys looked ashamed and didn t know which way to turn his embarrassed eyes less but also much were the minor classes which were being instructed in philosophy and oriental by earnest most of them met in the highly sunday school room but there was an to the which was decorated with water pipes and lighted by small windows high up in the wall what saw however was the first church of he was back in the sunday school of his boyhood he again that polite to be found only in church he recalled the case of sunday school books a humble heroine and a lad of he once more the text cards which no boy wanted but no boy liked to throw away because they were somehow sacred he was tortured by the stumbling of thirty five years ago as in the vast church he listened to now you read the next verse what does it mean when it says it s easier for a to go through a needle s eye what does this teach us please don t so if you had studied your lesson you wouldn t be so now earl what is the lesson was trying to teach his the one thing i want you to especially remember boys is the words with god all things are possible just think of that always please pay attention just say with god all things are possible whenever you feel discouraged and will you read the next verse if you d pay attention you wouldn t lose your place gigantic bees that in a of started from his open eyed nap thanked the teacher for the privilege of listening to her splendid teaching and staggered on to the next circle after two weeks of this he had no suggestions whatever for the reverend dr drew then he discovered a world of sunday school journals an enormous and busy domain of and which were as as practical and forward looking as the io real estate columns or the shoe trade magazines he bought half a dozen of them at a religious book shop and till after midnight he | 42 |
read them and admired he found many tips on appeals for new members and getting prospects to sign up with the sunday school he particularly liked the word prospects and he was moved by the the moral springs of the community s life lie deep in its sunday schools its schools of religious instruction and inspiration neglect now means loss of spiritual vigor and moral power in years to come facts like the above followed by a straight arm appeal will reach folks who can never be laughed or into doing their part admitted that s so i used to skin out of the sunday school at every chance i got but same time i wouldn t be where i am to day maybe if it hadn t been for its training in in moral power and all about the bible great literature have to read some of it again one of these days how the sunday school could be organized he learned from an article in the bible class the second vice president looks after the fellowship of the class she chooses a group to help her these become every one who comes gets a glad hand no one goes away a stranger one member of the group stands on the and by to come in perhaps most of all appreciated the remarks by william h in the sunday school times if you have a sunday school class without any and get up and go in it that is without interest that is uncertain in attendance that acts like a fellow with the spring fever let old dr write you a invite the bunch for supper the sunday school journals were as well rounded as they were practical they neglected none of the arts as to music the sunday school times advertised that c known to thousands through his sacred had written a new entitled yearning for you the poem by harry d is one of the you could imagine and the music is beautiful critics are agreed that it will sweep the country may be made into a charming sacred song by the hymn words i heard the voice of say even manual training was considered noted an ingenious way of the of christ model for pupils to make tomb with rolling door use a square covered box turned down pull the cover forward a little to form a at the bottom cut a square door also cut a circle of to more than cover the door cover the circular door and the tomb thickly with stiff mixture of sand flour and water and let it dry it was the heavy circular stone over the door the women found rolled away on morning this is the story we are to tell in their the sunday school journals were thoroughly efficient was interested in a preparation which takes the place of exercise for men by building up nerve the brain and the system he was to learn that the selling of was a and strictly industry and as an expert on he was pleased by the communion company s announcement of an improved and satisfactory throughout including highly polished beautiful mahogany tray this tray all noise is lighter and more easily handled than others and is more in keeping with the furniture of the church than a tray of any other material iv he dropped the pile of sunday school journals he pondered now there s a real he world ashamed i haven t sat in more fellow that s an influence in the community shame if he doesn t take part in a real religion sort of christianity you might say but with all reverence some folks might claim these sunday school are and and so on sure always some to spring things like that knocking and and tearing down so much easier than building up but me i certainly hand it to these magazines they ve brought george f into camp and that s the answer to the critics the more manly and practical a fellow is the more he ought to lead the christian life me for it cut out this carelessness and and where the evil you been this is a fine time o night to be coming in chapter xvii there are but three or four old houses in heights and in heights an old house is one which was built before the largest of these is the residence of william washington president of the first state bank the mansion preserves the memory of the nice parts of as they appeared from i to it is a red brick with gray and a roof of slate in courses of red green and yellow there are two towers one with copper the other crowned with the porch is like an open tomb it is supported by granite pillars above which hang frozen of brick at one side of the house is a huge stained glass window in the shape of a but the house has an effect not at all humorous it the heavy dignity of those who ruled the generation between the and the brisk and created a by gaining control of banks mills land mines out of the dozen contradictory which together make up the true and complete none is so powerful and enduring yet none so to the citizens as the small still dry polite cruel of the william and for that tiny the other labor and die most of the castles of the are now or decayed into boarding houses but the mansion remains virtuous and aloof of london back bay square its marble steps are daily he brass plate is reverently polished and the lace curtains are as and superior as william washington himself with a certain awe and called on for a meeting of the sunday school committee with uneasy stillness they followed a maid through of reception rooms to the library it | 42 |
was as the library of a solid old banker as s side whiskers were the side whiskers of a solid old banker the books were most of them standard sets with the correct and touch of dim blue dim gold and glossy calf skin the fire was exactly correct and a small quiet steady fire reflected by polished fire irons the oak desk was dark and old and altogether perfect the chairs were gently s inquiries as to the of mrs miss and the other children were softly paternal but had nothing with which to answer him it was to think of using the how s tricks which gratified and and men who till now had seemed successful and and sat politely and politely did observe opening his thin lips just wide enough to dismiss the words gentlemen before we begin our conference you may have felt the cold in coming here so good of you to save an old man the journey shall we perhaps have a so well trained was in all the conversation that a good fellow that he almost disgraced himself with rather than make trouble and always there ain t any officers hiding in the waste basket the words died choking in his throat he bowed in obedience so did rang for the maid the modern and luxurious had never seen any one ring for a servant in a private house except during meals himself in hotels had rung for bell boys but in the house you didn t hurt s feelings you went out in the hall and shouted for her nor had he since known any one to be casual about drinking it was extraordinary merely to his and not cry h this me right where i live and always with the ecstasy of youth meeting greatness he that little face there why he could make me or break me i if he told my banker to call my that quarter sized and looking like he hadn t got a single bit of to him i wonder do we throw too many fits about from this thought he shuddered away and listened devoutly to s ideas on the advancement of the sunday school which were very clear and very bad his own suggestions i think if you the needs of the school in fact going right at it as if it was a problem of course the one and need is growth i presume we re all agreed we won t be satisfied till we build up the biggest sunday school in the whole state so the road won t have to take anything off anybody now about up the campaign for prospects they ve already used and given to the that bring in the most members and they made a mistake there the were a lot of and like poetry books and illustrated instead of something a real live kid would want to work for like real cash or a for his course i suppose it s all fine and to illustrate the lessons with these decorated book marks and drawings and so on but when it comes down to real he getting out and up customers or members i mean why you got to make it worth a fellow s while now i want to propose two first divide the sunday school into four armies depending on age everybody gets a military rank in his own army according to how many i members he brings in and the that lie down on us and don t bring in any they remain the and rank as and everybody has got to give and all the rest of that just like a regular army to make em feel it s worth while to get rank then second course the school has its committee but lord nobody ever really works good nobody works well just for the love of it the thing to do is to be practical and up to date and hire a real paid press agent for the sunday school some newspaper fellow who can give part of his time sure you bet i said think of the nice bits he could get in i not only the big vital facts about how fast the sunday school and the collection is growing but a lot of humorous gossip and about how some fell down on his pledge to get new members or the good time the sacred class of girls had at their party and on the side if he had time the press agent might even the lessons themselves do a little for all the sunday schools in town in fact no use being toward the rest of em providing we can keep the on em in he might get the papers to course i haven t got a literary training like here and i m just how the pieces ought to be written but take suppose the week s lesson is about jacob well the press agent might get in something that would have a fine moral and yet with a trick that d get folks to read it say like fools the old man makes with girl and see how i mean that d get their interest now course mr you re and maybe you feel these would be but honestly i believe they d bring home the bacon folded his hands on his comfortable little belly and like an aged may i say first that i have been very much pleased by your analysis of the situation mr as you it s necessary in my position to be and perhaps endeavor to maintain a certain standard of dignity yet i think you ll find me somewhat in our bank for example i hope i may say that we have as modern a method of and as any in the city yes i | 42 |
trust the to do a little for himself mr there s hardly a week goes by without his ringing up the paper to say if we ll chase a up to his study he ll let us in on the story about the swell sermon he s going to preach on the wickedness of short skirts or the of the don t you worry about him there s just one better in town and that s this that runs the child welfare and the league and the only reason she s got drew beaten is because she has got some brains well now i don t think you ought to talk that way about the doctor a preacher has to watch his interests hasn t he you remember that in the bible about about being in the lord s business or something all right i ll get something in if you want me to mr but i ll have to wait till the managing editor is out of town and then the city editor thus it came to pass that in the sunday advocate times under a picture of dr drew at his with eyes alert jaw as granite and rustic lock appeared an inscription a wood twenty four hours immortality the rev dr john drew m a of the beautiful road church in lovely heights is a soul he holds the local record for during his an average of almost a hundred sin weary persons per year have declared their resolve to lead a new life and have found a harbor of refuge and peace everything at the road church the are to the top of dr drew is especially keen on good singing bright cheerful hymns are used at every meeting and the special sing services attract lovers of music and from all parts of the city on the popular lecture platform as well as in the pulpit dr drew is a renowned word painter and during the course of the year he receives literally scores of invitations to speak at varied functions both here and elsewhere let dr drew know that he was responsible for this tribute dr drew called him brother and shook his hand a great many times during the meetings of the committee had hinted that he would be charmed to invite to dinner but had murmured so nice of you old man now almost never go out surely would not refuse his own said to drew say doctor now we ve put this thing over strikes me it s up to the to blow the three of us to a dinner bully you bet delighted cried dr drew in his way some one had once told him that he talked like the late president and say doctor be sure and get mr to come insist on it it s i think he sticks around home too much for his own health came it was a friendly dinner spoke gracefully of the and value of to the community they were he said the of the fold of commerce for the first time departed from the topic of sunday schools and asked about the progress of his business answered modestly almost a few months later when he had a chance to take part in the street company s deal did not care to go to his own bank for a loan it was rather a quiet sort of deal and if it had come out the public might not have understood he went to his friend mr he was welcomed and received the loan as a private venture and they both in their pleasant new association after that went to church regularly except on spring sunday mornings which were obviously meant for he announced to ted i tell you boy there s no stronger of sound than the church and no better place to make friends who ll help you to gain your place in the community than in your own chapter xviii though he saw them twice daily though he knew and amply discussed every detail of their yet for weeks together was no more conscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat sleeves the admiration of made him aware of she had become secretary to mr of the leather company she did her work with the of a mind which details and never quite understands them but she was one of the people who give an impression of being on the point of doing something desperate of leaving a job or a husband without ever doing it was so hopeful about s that he became the playful parent when he returned from the he peered into the living room and has our been here to night he never s protest why ken and i are just good friends and we only talk about ideas i won t have all this sentimental nonsense that would spoil everything it was ted who most worried with conditions in latin and english but with a triumphant record in manual training basket ball and the organization of dances ted was struggling through his senior year in the east side high school at home he was interested only when he was asked to trace some subtle ill in the system of the car he repeated to his tut father that he did not wish to go to college or law school and was equally disturbed by this and by ted s relations with next door though she was the daughter of that wrought iron fact mill that horse faced priest of private was a in the sun she danced into the house she flung herself into s lap when he was reading she his paper and laughed at him when he explained that he hated a newspaper as he hated a broken contract she was seventeen now her ambition was to be a she did not merely attend the | 42 |
showing of every feature she also read the motion picture magazines those extraordinary symptoms of the age of and illustrated with portraits of young women who had recently been girls not very skilful girls and who unless their every had been arranged by a could not have acted in the of the central church magazines quite seriously in with pictures of riding breeches and the views on and politics of beautiful suspiciously beautiful young men the plots of about pure and kind hearted train robbers and giving directions for making into celebrated authors these authorities studied she could she frequently did tell whether it was in november or december that the renowned screen and began his public career as chorus man in oh you naughty on the wall of her room her father reported she had pinned up twenty one photographs of actors but the signed portrait of the most graceful of the heroes she carried in her young bosom was bewildered by this worship of new gods and he suspected that smoked he the from up stairs and heard her with ted he never inquired the agreeable child dismayed him her thin and charming face was sharpened by hair her skirts were short her stockings were rolled and as she flew after ted above the caressing silk were glimpses of soft knees which made uneasy and wretched that she should consider him old sometimes in the veiled life of his dreams when the fairy child came running to him she took on the semblance of ted was mad as was mad a thousand sarcastic did not check his for a car of his own however he might be about early rising and the of he was in with three other boys he bought a ford built an amazing body out of tin and pine went round corners in the perilous craft and sold it at a profit gave him a and every saturday afternoon with seven and a bottle of in his pockets and perched on the seat he went roaring off to distant towns usually and he were merely neighborhood and with a wholesome and violent lack of delicacy but now and then after the color and scent of a dance they were silent together and a little and was worried was an average father he was affectionate ignorant and rather wistful like most parents he enjoyed the game of waiting till the victim was clearly wrong then he justified himself by well ted s mother spoils him got to be some body who tells him what s what and me i m elected the goat because i try to bring him up to be a real decent human being and not one of these and of course they all call me a throughout with the eternal human genius for arriving by the worst possible at tolerable loved his son and warmed to his companionship and would have sacrificed everything for him if he could have been sure of proper credit n ted was planning a party for his set in the senior class meant to be and jolly about it from his memory of high school pleasures back in he suggested the games going to boston and with for and word games in which you were an or a quality when he was most enthusiastic he discovered that they weren t paying attention they were only him as for the party it was as fixed and as a union club hop there was to be dancing in the living room a noble in the dining room and in the hall two tables of bridge for what ted called the poor old dumb bells that you can t get to dance hardly more n half the time every breakfast was by on the affair no one listened to s about the february weather or to his throat clearing comments on the he said furiously if i may be permitted to interrupt your private conversation hear what i said oh don t be a spoiled baby ted and i have just as much right to talk as you have mrs on the night of the party he was permitted to look on when he was not helping with the ice cream and the he was deeply eight years ago when had given a high school party the children had been now they were men and women of the world very men and women the boys condescended to they wore evening clothes and with they accepted from silver cases had heard stories of what the club called on at parties of girls their in the dressing room of and and a increase in what was known as to night he believed the stories these children seemed bold to him and cold the girls wore misty coral velvet or cloth of gold and around their dipping hair were shining wreaths he had it upon urgent and secret inquiry that no were known to be upstairs but certainly these eager bodies were not stiff with steel their stockings were of silk their slippers costly and unnatural their lips and their eyebrows they danced cheek to cheek with the boys and with apprehension and unconscious envy worst of them all was and of all the boys was ted was a flying demon she slid the length of the room her tender shoulders swayed her feet were as a s she laughed and to dance with her then he discovered the to the party the boys and girls disappeared occasionally and he remembered of their drinking together from hip pocket he round the house and in each of the dozen cars waiting in the street he saw the points of light from from each of them heard high he wanted to them but standing in the snow peering round the dark corner he did not dare he tried to be when he had returned to the front hall he the boys | 42 |
say if any of you fellows are thirsty there s some ale oh thanks they condescended he sought his wife in the and exploded i d like to go in there and throw some of those young out of the house they talk down to me like i was the butler i d like to i know she sighed only everybody says all the mothers tell me unless you stand for them if you angry because they go out to their cars to have a drink they won t come to your house any more and we wouldn t want ted left out of things would we he announced that he would be enchanted to have ted left out of things and hurried in to be polite lest ted be left out of things but he resolved if he found that the boys were drinking he would well he d hand em something that would surprise em while he was trying to be agreeable to young he was earnestly at them twice he caught the of time but then it was only twice dr in he had come in a mood of solemn parental patronage to look on ted and were dancing moving together like one body gasped he called there was a whispered and explained to that s mother had a headache and needed her she went off in tears looked after them furiously that little devil getting ted into trouble and the conceited old gas bag acting like it was ted that was the bad influence later he on ted s breath after the civil farewell to the guests the row was terrific a thorough family scene like an and without thundered mrs wept ted was defiant and in confusion as to whose side she was taking for several months there was coolness between the and the each family their lamb from the wolf next door and still spoke in periods about and the but they kept away from mention of their families whenever came to the house she discussed with pleasant intimacy the fact that she had been forbidden to come to the house and tried with no success whatever to be and with her in all ted to as they hot of and an of nuts in the splendor of the royal store it gets me why doesn t just pass out from being so every evening he sits there about half asleep and if or i say h come on let s do something he doesn t even take the trouble to think about it he just and says this suits me right here he doesn t know there s any fun going on an i suppose he must do some thinking same as you and i do but there s no way of telling it i don t believe that outside of the office and playing a little bum on saturday he knows there s anything in the world to do except just keep sitting there sitting there every night not wanting to go anywhere not wanting to do anything thinking us are sitting there lord iv if he was frightened by ted s was not sufficiently frightened by she was too safe she lived too much in the neat little room of her mind and she were always under foot when they were not at home conducting their cautiously radical courtship over sheets of they were off to lectures by authors and philosophers and to his wife as they walked home from the bridge party it gets me how and that fellow can be so they sit there night after night whenever he isn t working and they don t know there s any fun in the world all talk and discussion lord sitting there sitting there night after night not wanting to do anything thinking i m crazy because i like to go out and play a fist of cards sitting there then round the bored by struggling through the perpetual surf of family life new swelled s father and mother in law mr and mrs henry t their old house in the district and moved to the hotel that boarding house filled with red furniture and the sound of they were lonely there and every other sunday evening the had to dine with them on chicken discouraged and ice cream and afterward sit polite and restrained in the hotel while a young woman played songs from the german then s own mother came down from to spend three weeks she was a kind woman and she congratulated the on being a nice loyal home body without all these ideas that so many girls seem to have nowadays and when ted filled the with out of pure love of and she rejoiced that he was so handy around the house and helping his father and all and not going out with the girls all the time and trying to pretend he was a society fellow loved his mother and sometimes he rather liked her but he was annoyed by her christian patience and he was reduced to when she about a quite hero called your father you won t remember it you were such a little fellow at the time my i remember just how you looked that day with your brown curls and your lace collar you always were such a dainty child and kind of and sickly and you loved pretty things so much and the red on your little and all and your father was taking us to church and a man stopped us and said major so many of the neighbors used to call your father major of course he was only a private in the war but everybody knew that was because of the jealousy of his captain and he ought to have been a high officer he had | 42 |
that natural ability to command that so very very few men have and this man came out into the road and held up his hand and stopped the and said major he said there s a lot of the folks around here that have decided to support colonel for and we want you to join us meeting people the way you do in the store you could help us a lot well your father just looked at him and said i certainly shall do nothing of the sort i don t like his politics le said well the man captain smith they used to call im and heaven only knows why because he hadn t the shadow or of a right to be called captain or any other title this captain smith said we ll make it hot for you if you don t stick by your friends major well you know how your father was and this smith knew it too he knew what a real man he was and he knew your father knew the political situation from a to z and he ought to have seen that here was one man he couldn t impose on but he went on trying to and and trying till your father spoke up and said to him captain smith he said i have a reputation around these parts for being one who is amply qualified to mind his own business and let other folks mind theirs and with that he drove on and left the fellow standing there in the road like a on a log was most exasperated when she revealed his boyhood to the children he had it seemed been fond of had worn the loveliest little pink bow in his curls and his own name to he heard though he did not hear ted come on now kid stick the lovely pink bow in your curls and beat it down to breakfast or will jaw your head off s half brother martin with his wife and youngest baby came down from for two days martin bred cattle and ran the dusty general store he was proud of being a independent american of the good old yankee stock he was proud of being honest blunt ugly and disagreeable his favorite remark was how much did you pay for that he regarded s books s silver pencil and flowers on the table as and said so would have with him but for his wife and the baby whom and fingers at and addressed i think this baby s a bum yes sir i think this little baby s a bum he s a bum yes sir he s a bum that s what he is he s a bum this baby s a bum he s nothing but an old bum that s what he is a bum all the while and held long inquiries into ted was a disgraced rebel and aged eleven was demanding that she be allowed to go to the thrice a week like all the girls raged i m sick of it having to carry three generations whole damn bunch lean on me pay half of mother s income listen to henry t listen to s worrying be polite to and get called an old for trying to help the children all of em depending on me and picking on me and not a damn one of em grateful no relief and no credit and no help from anybody and to keep it up for good lord how long he enjoyed being sick in february he was delighted by their consternation that he the rock should give way he had eaten a questionable for two days he was and and esteemed he was allowed to oh let me alone without he lay on the sleeping porch and watched the winter sun slide along the curtains turning their ruddy to pale blood red the shadow of the draw rope was dense black in an ripple on the canvas he found pleasure in the curve of it sighed as the fading light it he was conscious of life and a little sad with no before whom to set his face in resolute he beheld and half admitted that he beheld his way of life as mechanical mechanical business a brisk selling of badly built houses mechanical religion a dry hard church shut off from the real life of the streets respectable as a top hat mechanical and dinner parties and bridge and conversation save with paul mechanical back and never daring to essay the test of he turned uneasily in bed he saw the years the brilliant winter days and all the long sweet which were meant for meadows lost in such he thought of about of men he hated of making business calls and waiting in dirty hat on knee yawning at fly being polite to office boys i don t hardly want to go back to work he prayed i d like to i don t know but he was back next day busy and of doubtful temper chapter xix the street company planned to build shops in the of but when they came to buy the land they found it held on by the company the agent the first vice president and even the president of the company protested against the price they mentioned their duty toward they threatened an appeal to the courts though somehow the appeal to the courts was never carried out and the officials found it wiser to compromise with copies of the correspondence are in the company s where they may be viewed by any public commission just after this deposited three thousand dollars in the bank the agent of the street company bought a five thousand dollar car the first vice president built a home in woods and the president was appointed minister to a foreign country | 42 |
to obtain the to tie up one man s land without letting his neighbor know had been an unusual strain on it was necessary to introduce about planning and stores to pretend that he wasn t taking any more to wait and look as bored as a player at a time when the failure to secure a key lot threatened his whole plan to all this was added a nerve quarrel with his secret associates in the deal they did not wish and to have any share in the deal except as rather agreed of the business ought to strictly represent his and not get in on the buying he said to rats think i m going to see that bunch of holy get away with the and us not climb in old henry well i don t like to do it kind of double crossing it ain t it s triple crossing it s the public that gets double crossed well now we ve been and got it out of our systems the question is where we can raise a loan to handle some of the property for ourselves on the q t we can t go to our bank for it might come out i could see old he s close as the tomb that s the stuff was glad he said to invest in character to make the loan and see to it that the loan did not appear on the books of the bank thus certain of the which and obtained were on of real estate which they themselves owned though the property did not appear in their names in the midst of closing this splendid deal which stimulated business and public confidence by giving an example of increased real estate activity was overwhelmed to find that he had a person working for him the one was the outside for some time had been worried about he did not keep his word to tenants in order to rent a house he would promise which the owner had not it was suspected that he of furnished houses so that when the tenant left he had to pay for articles which had never been in the house and the price of which put into his pocket had not been able to prove these suspicions and though he had rather planned to discharge he had never quite found time for it now into s private room charged a red faced man panting look here i ve come to raise particular merry hell and unless you have that fellow pinched i will what s calm down o man what s trouble trouble here s the sit down and take it easy they can hear you all over the building this fellow you got working for you he me a house i was in yesterday and signs the lease all o k and he was to get the owner s signature and mail me the lease last night well and he did this morning i comes down to breakfast and the girl says a fellow had come to the house right after the early delivery and told her he wanted an envelope that had been by mistake big long envelope with in the corner of it sure enough there it was so she lets him have it and she describes the fellow to me and it was this so i to him and he the poor fool he admits it he says after my lease was all signed he got a better offer from another fellow and he wanted my lease back now what you going to do about it your name is william w k oh yes that was the garrison house sounded the when miss came in he demanded gone out yes sir will you look through his desk and see if there is a lease made out to mr on the garrison house to can t tell you how sorry i am this happened needless to say i ll fire the minute he comes in and of course your lease stands but there s one other thing i d like to do i ll tell the owner not to pay us the commission but apply it to your rent no straight i want to to be frank this thing shakes me up bad i suppose i ve always been a practical business man probably i ve told one or two fairy stories in my time when the occasion called for it you know sometimes you have to lay things on thick to impress but this is the first time i ve ever had to accuse one of my own of anything more than a few honest it would hurt me if we by it so let me hand you the commission good he walked through the february city where flung up a of and the sky was dark above dark brick he came back miserable he who respected the law had broken it by concealing the crime of of the but he could not see go to jail and his wife suffer worse he had to discharge and this was a part of office routine which he feared he liked people so much he so much wanted them to like him that he could not bear insulting them miss dashed in to whisper with the excitement of an approaching scene he s here mr ask him to come in he tried to make himself heavy and calm in his chair and to keep his eyes stalked in a man of thirty five eye with a want me said yes sit down continued to stand i suppose that old nut has been in to see you let me explain about him he s a regular and he sticks out for every cent and he practically lied to me about his ability to pay the rent i found that out just after we signed | 42 |
up and then another fellow comes along with a better offer for the house and i felt it was my duty to the firm to get rid of and i was so worried about it i up there and got back the lease honest mr i didn t intend to pull anything crooked i just wanted the firm to have all the wait now this may all be true but i ve been having a lot of complaints about you now i don t s pose you ever mean to do wrong and i think if you just get a good lesson that ll you up a little you ll turn out a yet but i don t see how i can keep you on leaned against the cabinet his hands in his pockets and laughed so i m fired well old vision and i m to death but i don t want you to think you can get away with any than thou stuff sure i ve pulled some raw stuff a little of it but how could i help it in this office now by god yoimg man tut tut keep the naughty temper down and don t because everybody in the outside office will hear you they re probably listening right now old dear you re crooked in the first place and a damn in the second if you paid me a decent salary i wouldn t have to steal off a blind man to keep my wife from starving us married just five months and her the girl living and you keeping us flat broke all the time you damned old thief so you can put money away for your of a son and your fool of a daughter wait now you ll by god take it or i ll so the whole office will hear it and crooked say if i told the attorney what i know about this last street steal both you and me would go to jail along with some nice clean pious high up guns well looks like we were coming down to cases that deal there was nothing crooked about it the only way you can get progress is for the broad men to get things done and they got to be rewarded oh for s sake don t get virtuous on me as i gather it i m fired all right it s a good thing for me and if i catch you knocking me to any other firm i ll all i know about you and henry t and the dirty little that you of industry pull off for the bigger and and you ll get chased out of town and me you re right i ve been going crooked but now i m going straight and the first step will be to get a job in some office where the doesn t talk about bad luck old dear and you can stick your job up the sat for a long time alternately raging i ll have him arrested and yearning i wonder no i ve never done anything that wasn t necessary to keep the wheels of progress moving next day he hired in s place the of his most injurious rival the east side homes and development company and thus at once annoyed his and acquired an excellent man young was a merry playing he made customers welcome to the office thought of him as a son and in him had much comfort m an abandoned race track on the outskirts of a plot excellent for factory was to be sold and asked to bid on it for him the strain of the street deal and his disappointment in had so shaken that he found it hard to sit at his desk and he proposed to his family look here folks do you know who s going to trot up to for a couple of days just week end won t lose but one day of school know who s going with that celebrated business george f why mr ted shouted and oh maybe the men won t paint that town red and once away from the familiar of home they were two men together ted was young only in his assumption of and the only apparently in which had a larger and more grown up knowledge than ted s were the details of real estate and the phrases of politics when the other of the smoking had left them to themselves s voice did not drop into the playful and otherwise offensive tone in which one addresses children but continued its overwhelming and monotonous and ted tried to imitate it in his tenor you certainly did show up that poor boot when he got about the league of nations well the trouble with a lot of these fellows is they simply don t know what they re talking about they don t get down to facts what do you think of ken i ll tell you it strikes me ken is a nice lad no special faults except he too much but slow lord why if we don t give him a the poor dumb bell will propose and just as bad slow yes i guess you re right they re slow they haven t either one of em got our that s right they re slow i swear i don t know how got into our family i ll bet if the truth were known you were a bad old egg when you were a kid well i wasn t so slow i ll bet you weren t i ll bet you miss many tricks well when i was out with the girls i didn t spend all the time telling em about the strike in the knitting industry they roared together and together lighted cigars what are we going to do with | 42 |
good was sitting down his chair over shouting say sir i supposed of course you had a of waiting to lead you out to some god forbid but if you haven t what do you say you and me go to a there s a of a at the bill in a picture right o just a moment while i get my coat swollen with greatness slightly afraid lest the noble blood of change its mind and leave him at any street corner with sir to the palace and in silent bliss sat beside him trying not to be too enthusiastic lest the knight despise his adoration of and at the end sir murmured jolly good picture this so awfully decent of you to take me haven t enjoyed myself so much for weeks all these they never let you go to the the devil you say s speech had lost the delicate refinement and all the broad a s with which he had adorned it and become hearty and natural well i m to death you liked it sir they crawled past the knees of fat women into the aisle they stood in the waving their arms in the of putting on hinted say how about a little something to eat i know a place where we could get a swell and we might dig up a little drink that is if you ever touch the stuff rather but why don t you come to my room i ve some scotch not half bad oh i don t want to use up all your it s nice of you but you probably want to hit the hay sir was transformed he was yearning ob really now i haven t had a decent evening for so long having to go to all these dances no chance to discuss business and that sort of thing do be a good chap and come along won t you will i you bet i just thought maybe say by it does do a fellow good don t it to sit and visit about business conditions after he s been to these balls and and and all that society stuff i often feel that way in sure you bet i ll come that s awfully nice of you they beamed along the street look here old chap can you tell me do american cities always keep up this dreadful social pace all these magnificent parties go on now quit your i you with court balls and functions and everything no really old chap mother and i lady i should say we usually play a hand of and go to bed at ten bless my soul i couldn t keep up your pace and talking all your american women they know so much culture and that sort of thing this mrs your old good kid she asked me which of the galleries i liked best in or was it in never been in italy in my life and did i like do you know what he deuce a primitive is me i should say not but i know what a for cash is rather so do i by george but they laughed with the sound of a luncheon sir s room was except for his ponderous and english bags very much like the room of george f and quite in the manner of he disclosed a huge looked proud and hospitable and chuckled say when old it was after the third drink that sir proclaimed how do you get the notion that writing like and this wells represent us the real business england we think those are both our countries have their comic old aristocracy you know old county families hunting people and all that sort of thing and we both have our wretched labor leaders but we both have a of sound business men who run the whole show you bet here s to the real i m with you here s to ourselves it was after the fourth drink that sir asked humbly what do you think of north but it was not till after the fifth that began to call him and sir confided i say do you mind if i pull off my boots and stretched his feet his poor tired hot swollen feet out on the bed after the sixth arose well i better be along you re a regular human being i wish to thunder we d been better acquainted in can t you come back and stay with me a while so sorry must go to new york to morrow most awfully sorry old boy i haven t enjoyed an evening so much since i ve been in the states real talk not all this social rot i d never have let them give me the title and i didn t get it for nothing eh if i d thought i d have to talk to women about and thing to have m though annoyed the mayor most when i got it and of course the likes it but nobody calls me now he was almost weeping and nobody in the states has treated me like a friend till to night good by old chap good by thanks awfully don t mention it and remember whenever you get to the latch string is always out and don t forget old boy if you ever come to mother and i will be glad to see you i shall tell the fellows in your ideas about visions and real at our next club luncheon iv lay at his hotel imagining the club asking him what kind of a time d you have in and his answering oh fair ran around with sir a lot himself meeting and her you re all right mrs when you aren t trying to | 42 |
pull this pose it s just as says to me in oh yes s an old friend of mine the wife and i are thinking of running over to england to stay with in his castle next year and he said to me old i like first rate but you and me george we got to make her get over this way she s got but that evening a thing happened which wrecked his pride at the hotel cigar counter he fell to talking with a of and they dined together was filled with friendliness and well being he enjoyed the of the dining room the the curtains the portraits of french kings against of gilded oak he enjoyed the crowd pretty women good solid fellows who were liberal he gasped he stared and turned away and stared again three tables off with a doubtful sort of woman a woman at once and withered was paul and paul was supposed to be in selling tar the woman was tapping his hand at him and felt that he had encountered something involved and was talking with the eagerness of a man who is telling his troubles he was concentrated on the woman s faded eyes once he held her hand and once blind to the other guests he his lips as though he was pretending to kiss her had so strong an impulse to go to paul that he could feel his body his shoulders moving but he felt desperately that he must be and not till he saw paul paying the check did he to the piano by friend of mine over there me second just say to him he touched paul s shoulder and cried well when did you hit town paul glared up at him face oh george thought you d gone back to he did not introduce his companion peeped at her she was a pretty weakly woman of forty two or three in an hat her was thorough but where you staying the woman turned yawned examined her nails she seemed accustomed to not being introduced paul grumbled inn on the south side alone it sounded yes unfortunately furiously paul turned toward the woman smiling with a fondness sickening to may want to introduce you mrs this is my old acquaintance george growled while she oh i m very pleased to meet any friend of mr s i m sure demanded be back there later this evening paul i ll drop down and see you no better we better lunch together to morrow all right but i ll see you to night too paul ill go down to your hotel and i ll wait chapter xx he sat smoking with the piano clinging to the warm refuge of gossip afraid to venture into thoughts of paul he was the more on the surface as secretly he became more apprehensive felt more hollow he was certain that paul was in without s knowledge and that he was doing things not at all moral and secure when the yawned that he had to write up his orders left him left the hotel in leisurely calm but savagely he said to the driver he sat agitated on the slippery leather seat in that chill which of dust and perfume and he did not heed the snowy lake front the dark spaces and sudden bright corners in the unknown land south of the the office of the inn was hard bright new the night clerk harder and brighter he said to mr paul here is he in now then if give me his key i ll wait for him can t do that brother wait down here if you had spoken with the deference which all the of good fellows give to hotel clerks now he said with i may to wait some time i m s brother i ll go up to his room d i look like a thief his voice was low and not pleasant with considerable haste the clerk took down the key protesting i never said you looked like a thief just rules of the hotel but if you want to on his way up in the wondered why he was here why shouldn t paul be dining with a respectable married woman why had he lied to the clerk about being paul s brother in law he had acted like a child he must be careful not to say foolish dramatic things to paul as he settled down he tried to look and placid then the thought suicide he d been that without knowing it paul would be just the person to do something like that he must be out of his head or he wouldn t be confiding in that that dried up oh damn how gladly he d that of a woman she d probably succeeded at last and driven paul crazy suicide out there in the lake way out beyond the piled ice along the shore it would be ghastly cold to drop into the water to night or throat cut in the flung into paul s it was empty he smiled feebly he pulled at his choking collar looked at his watch opened the window to stare down at the street looked at his watch tried to read the evening paper lying on the glass looked again at his watch three minutes had gone by since he had first looked at it and he waited for three hours he was sitting fixed chilled when the turned paul came in paul said been waiting little while well well what just thought i d drop in to see how you made out in i did all right what difference does it make i why paul what are you sore about what are you into my affairs for why paul that s no way to talk i m | 42 |
not into nothing i was so glad to see your ugly old that i just dropped in to say well i m not going to have anybody following me around and trying to me i ve had all of that i m going to well i m i didn t like the way you looked at may or the way you talked well all right then if you think i m a then i ll just butt in i don t know who your may is but i know good and well that you and her weren t talking about tar no nor about playing the neither if you haven t got any moral consideration for yourself you ought to have some for your position in the community the idea of your going around places into a female s eyes like a love sick i can understand a fellow slipping once but i don t propose to see a fellow that s been as with me as you have getting started on the downward path and off from his wife even as a one as to go woman chasing oh you re a perfectly moral little husband i am by god i ve never looked at any woman except since i ve been married practically and i never will i tell you there s nothing to it don t pay can t you see old man it just makes still slight of resolution as he was of body paul threw his overcoat on the floor and crouched on a cane chair oh you re an old and you know less about morality than but you re all right but you can t understand that i m through i can t go s any longer she s made up her mind that i m a devil and lar torture she it it s a game to see how sore she can make me and me either it a find a little comfort any comfort anywhere or else do something a lot worse now this mrs she s not so but she s a fine woman and she understands a fellow and she s had her own troubles yea i suppose she s one of these whose husband doesn t understand her i don t know maybe he was killed in the war up stood beside paul patting his shoulder making soft noises honest george she s a fine woman and she s had one hell of a time we manage to jolly each other up a lot we tell each other we re the pair on earth maybe we don t believe it but it helps a lot to have somebody with whom you can be perfectly simple and not all this discussing ing and that s as far as you go it is not go on say it well i don t i can t say i like it with a burst which left him feeling large and shining with generosity it s none of my business i ll do anything i can for you if there s anything i can do there might be i judge from s letters that ve been forwarded from that she s getting suspicious about my staying away so long she d be perfectly capable of having me and of coming to and into a hotel dining room and me out before everybody i ll take care of i ll hand her a good fairy story when i get back to i don t know i don t think you better try it you re a good fellow but i don t know that is your strong point looked hurt then irritated i mean with women with women i mean course they got to go some to beat you in business but i just mean with women may do a lot of rough talking but she s pretty shrewd she d have the story out of you in no time well all right was still pathetic at not being allowed to play secret agent paul soothed course maybe you might tell her you d been in and seen me there why sure you bet i don t i have to go look at that property in don t i ain t it a shame i have to stop off there when i m so anxious to get home ain t it a regular shame i ll say it is i ll say it s a shame fine but for glory s sake don t go putting any fancy on the story when men lie they always try to make it too artistic and that s why women get suspicious and let s have a drink i ve got some gin and a little the paul who refused a second took a second now and a third he became red eyed and he was and in the found tears crowding into his eyes n he had not told paul of his plan but he did stop at between trains for the one pose of sending to a with had to come here for the day ran into paul in he called on her if for public appearances was over over painted and resolutely for private misery she wore a filthy blue dressing gown and torn stockings thrust into pink satin her face was she seemed to have but half as much hair as remembered and that half was she sat in a amid a of boxes and cheap magazines and she sounded when she did not sound but was exceedingly well well old dear having a good loaf while s away that s the idea i ll bet a hat never got up till ten while i was in say could i borrow your just dropped in to see if i could borrow your bottle we re going to have a party want to take | 42 |
and aspects compliments of not at s the all read mr s and said they understood it perfectly the meeting opened with the regular weekly retiring president was in the chair his stiff hair like a hedge his voice like a brazen of festival members who had brought guests introduced them publicly this tall red headed piece of is the sporting editor of the press said and h h the boys when you re on a long tour and finally get to a romantic spot or scene and draw up and remark to the wife this is certainly a romantic place it sends a glow right up and down your well my guest to day is from such a place s virginia in the beautiful with memories of good old general robert e lee and of that brave soul john brown who like every good goes marching on there were two especially distinguished guests the leading man of the bird of paradise company playing this week at the and the mayor of the hon thundered when we manage to this celebrated off his lovely of beautiful and i got to admit i right into his and told him how the appreciated the high class artistic performance he s giving us and don t forget that the of the is a and will appreciate our patronage and when on top of that we out of his duties at city hall then i feel we ve done ourselves proud and mr will now say a few words about the problems and duties by rising vote the decided which was the and which the guest and to each of them was given a bunch of president noted by brother h g the avenue each week in four were privileged to obtain the pleasures of generosity and of by goods or services to four fellow members chosen by lot there o was this en it was announced that one of the was joy the everybody i can think of a good to be buried if his is a free funeral through all these the were on peas potatoes coffee apple pie and american cheese did not lump the speeches presently he called on the visiting of the a rival the had the distinction of possessing state car license number ttie admitted that wherever he drove in the state so low a number created a sensation and it was pretty nice to have the honor yet c it only too well and sometimes he didn t know but what he d almost as soon have just plain or something like that only let any to get number away from a live next year and watch the fur fly and if they d permit him he d wind up calling for a cheer for the and and the all together sighted to professor be pretty nice to have as low a r as that everybody d say he must be an important how he got it ill bet he and dined the of the license to a you then addressed them some of you may fed that it s out of place here to talk on a strict and artistic subject but i want to come out and ask you boys to o k the proposition of a for now where a lot of you make your is in assuming that if you don t like classical music and all that you ought to oppose it now i want to confess that though i m a by profession i t care a lap for all this long haired music i d rather listen to a good band any time than to some piece by that hasn t any more tune to it than a bunch of fighting cats and you couldn t whistle it to save your but that isn t the point culture has become as necessary an and advertisement for a city to day as or bank it s culture in and art galleries and so on that brings thousands of visitors to new york every year and to be frank for all our splendid we haven t yet got the culture of a new york or or boston or at least we don t get the credit for it the thing to do then as a live bunch of go is to to go right out and it pictures and books are fine for those that have the time to study em but they don t shoot out on the road and this is what little old can put up in the way of culture that s precisely what a does do look at the credit and get an with first class and a swell conductor and i believe we ought to do the thing up brown and get one of the highest paid on the market providing he ain t a hun it goes right into and new york and washington it plays at the best to the most and people it gives such class as a town can get in no other way and the who is so short sighted as to this proposition is passing up the chance to impress the glorious name of on some big new york that might that might establish a branch factory here i could also go into the fact that for our daughters who show an interest in music and may want to teach it having an ai local organization is of great benefit but let s keep this on a practical basis and i call on you good brothers to it up for culture and a world beating they applauded to a rustle of excitement president proclaimed gentlemen we will now proceed to the annual election of officers for each of the six offices three had been chosen by a committee the second name among the for vice president was s he was surprised | 42 |
he looked self conscious his heart he was still more agitated when the were counted and said it s a pleasure to that will be the next assistant wi elder i know of no man who stands more for common sense and enterprise than good old george come on let s give him our best long yell as they a hundred men crushed in to slap his back he had never known a higher moment he drove away in a of wonder he into his office to miss well i guess you better congratulate your i been elected vice president of the i he was disappointed she answered only yes oh mrs s been trying to get you on the but the new said by chief say that s great that s perfectly i m to death congratulations called the house and to his wife heard you were trying to get me say you got to hand it to little this time better talk careful you are now addressing the vice president of the club oh pretty nice is the new president but when he s away little takes the and em up and the no matter if they re the governor himself and george listen it puts him in solid with big men like george paul yes sure i ll paul and let him know about it right away listen paul s in jail he shot his wife he shot this noon she may not live chapter xxii he drove to the city prison not blindly but with unusual care at corners the of an old woman plants it kept him from facing the of fate the attendant said you can t see any of the prisoners till three thirty visiting hour it was three for half an hour sat looking at a and a clock on a wall the chair was hard and mean and people went through the office and he thought stared at him he felt a defiance which broke into a fear of this machine which was grinding paul paul exactly at half past three he sent in his name the attendant returned with says he don t want to see you you re crazy you didn t give him my name tell him it s george wants to see him george i told him all right all right he said he didn t want to see you then take me in anyway nothing doing if you ain t his lawyer if he don t want to see you that s all there is to it but my god say let me see the he s busy come on now you reared over him the attendant hastily changed to a you can come back and try to morrow probably the poor is off his nut drove not at all carefully or sliding past the s curses to the city hall he stopped with a grind of wheels against the and ran up the marble steps to the office of the hon mr the mayor he the mayor s with a dollar he was instantly inside demanding you remember me mr vice president of the for you say have you heard about poor well i want an order on the or whatever you call um of the city prison to take me back and see him good thanks in fifteen minutes he was down the prison corridor to a cage where paul sat on a cot twisted like an old beggar legs crossed arms in a knot biting at his clenched fist paul looked up as the keeper unlocked the cell admitted and left them together he spoke slowly go on be moral on the couch beside him i m not going to be moral i don t care what happened i just want to do anything i can i m glad got what was coming to her paul said now don t go jumping on i ve been thinking maybe she hasn t had any too easy a time just after i shot her i didn t hardly mean to but she got to me so i went crazy just for a second and pulled out that old revolver you and i used to shoot with and took a crack at her didn t hardly mean to after that when i was trying to stop the blood it was terrible what it did to her shoulder and she had beautiful skin maybe she won t die i hope it won t leave her skin all but just afterward when i was hunting the for some cotton to stop the blood i ran a little yellow duck we hung on the tree one christmas and i remembered she and i d been awfully happy then hell i can t hardly believe it s me here as s arm about his shoulder paul sighed i m glad you came but i thought maybe you d lecture me and when you ve com a murder and been brought here and everything there was a big crowd outside the apartment house all staring and the took me through it oh i m not going to talk about it any more but he went on in a monotonous terrified insane to divert him said why you got a on your cheek yes that s where the hit me i suppose get a lot of fun out of too he was a big fellow and they wouldn t let me help carry down to the paul i quit it i listen she won t die and when it s all over you and i ll go off to again and maybe we can get that may to go along i ll go up to and ask her good woman by and afterwards i ll see that you get started in | 42 |
to take so much trouble to be he was silent at dinner unusually kindly to ted and hesitating but not when stated her opinion of s opinion of dr john drew s opinion of the opinions of the ted was working in a through the summer and he related his daily triumphs how he had found a cracked what he had said to the old what he had said to the about the future of ted and went to a dance after dinner even the maid was out rarely had been alone in the house for an entire evening he was restless he vaguely wanted something more than the newspaper comic to read he up to s room sat on her blue and white bed humming and in a solid citizen manner as he examined her books s rescue a volume strangely named figures of earth poetry quite irregular poetry thought by and essays by h l highly improper essays making fun of the church and all the he liked none of the books in them he felt a spirit of rebellion against and solid these authors and he supposed they were famous ones too did not seem to care about telling a good story which would enable a fellow to forget his troubles he sighed he noted a book the three black by joseph ah that was something like it it would be an adventure story maybe about up on the old house at night he tucked the book under his arm he down stairs and solemnly began to read under the piano lamp a twilight like blue dust into the shallow fold of the thickly wooded hills it was early october but a frost had already stamped the trees with gold the spanish oaks were hung with patches of wine red the was brilliant in the darkening a pattern of wild flying low and above the hills wavered against the serene evening penny standing in the comparative clearing of a road decided that the shifting regular flight would not come close enough for a shot he had no intention of hunting the with the drooping of day his had an habitual indifference strengthened him there it was again discontent with the good common ways laid down the book and listened to the stillness the inner doors of the house were open he heard from the kitchen the steady of the a demanding and he to the window the summer evening was and seen through the wire screen the street lamps were crosses of pale fire the whole world was while he and ted came in and went up to bed silence in the sleeping house he put on his hat his respectable lighted a cigar and walked up and down before the house a worthy figure humming silver threads among the gold he casually considered might call up paul then he remembered he saw paul in a s uniform but while he he didn t believe the tale it was part of the of this fog enchanted evening if she were here would be isn t it late he in forlorn and freedom fog hid the house now the world was a chaos without turmoil or desire through the mist came a man at so feverish a pace that he seemed to dance with fury as he entered the of glow from a street lamp at each step he his stick and brought k down with a crash his glasses on their broad ribbon against his stomach saw that it was stopped his vision and spoke with gravity there s another fool george lives for know who i am i m traitor to poetry i m drunk i m talking too much i don t care know what i could ve been i could ve been a field or a james maybe a i could ve to this just made it up glittering noise of and and respectable boys hear that i made up don t know what it means beginning good verse s garden verses and write cheer up poems all could have written too late j he darted on with an alarming plunge seeming always to pitch forward yet never quite falling would have been no more astonished and no less had a ghost out of the fog carrying his head he accepted with vast he poor and straightway forgot him he into the house deliberately went to the and it when mrs was at home this was one of the major household crimes he stood before the covered eating a chicken leg and half a of and grumbling over a cold boiled he was thinking it was coming to him that perhaps all life as he knew it and vigorously practised it was futile that heaven as by the reverend dr john drew was neither probable nor very interesting that he hadn t much pleasure out of making money that it was of doubtful worth to rear children merely that they might rear children who would rear children what was it all about what did he want he into the living room lay on the hands behind his head what did he want wealth social position travel servants yes but only incidentally i give it up he sighed but he did know that he wanted the presence of paul ling and from that he stumbled into the admission that he wanted the fairy girl in the flesh if there had been a woman whom he loved he would have fled to her his forehead on her knees he thought of his miss he thought of the prettiest of the girls at the hotel shop as he fell asleep on the he felt that he had found something in life and that he had made a thrilling break with everything that was decent and normal n he had forgotten next morning that he was a conscious rebel but | 42 |
he was irritable in the office and at the eleven o clock drive of calls and visitors he did something he had often desired and never dared he left the office without excuses to those slave drivers his and went to the he enjoyed the right to be alone he came out with a vicious determination to do what he pleased as he approached the table at the club everybody laughed well here s the said yes i saw him in his said professor it must be great to be a smart like moaned he s probably stolen all of i d hate to leave a poor little piece of property lying around where he could get his hooks on it they had perceived something on him also they had their clothes on ordinarily he would have been delighted at the honor implied in being but he was suddenly he sure maybe i ll take you on as office boys he was impatient as the jest rolled on to its of course he may have been meeting a girl they said and no i think he was waiting for his old sir he exploded oh spring it spring it you what s the great joke george is while a grin went round the table revealed the shocking truth he had seen coming out of a at noon they kept it up with a hundred variations a hundred they said that he had gone to the during business hours he didn t so much mind but he was annoyed by that brisk lean red headed of jokes he was too by the lump of ice in his glass of water it was too large it spun round and burned his nose when he tried to drink he raged that was like that lump of ice but he won through he kept up his till they grew tired of the jest and turned to the great problems of the day he reflected what s the matter with me to day seems like i ve got an awful only they talk so much but i better steer careful and keep my mouth shut as they lighted their cigars he got to get back and on a chorus of if you will go spending your mornings with lady at the he escaped he heard them he was embarrassed while he was most agreeing with the coat man that the weather was warm he was conscious that he was longing to run with his troubles to the comfort of the fairy child in he kept miss after he had finished ha searched for a topic which would warm her office into friendliness where you going on your he i think i ll go up state to a farm do you want me to have the lease copied this afternoon oh no hurry about it i suppose you have a great time when you get away from us in the office she rose and gathered her h nobody s here i think i can get it copied after i do the letters she was gone utterly the view that h had been trying to discover how was miss mc knew there was nothing doing he said iv the car agent who lived across the street from was giving a sunday supper his wife young who loved in music and in clothes and laughter was at her wildest she cried we ll have a real party i as she received the guests had uneasily felt that to many men she might be now he admitted that to himself she was mrs had never quite approved of was glad that she was not here this evening he insisted on helping in the kitchen taking the chicken from the warming oven the from the ice box he held her hand once and she didn t notice it she you re a good little mother s now trot in with the tray and leave it on the side table he wished that would give them that would have one he wanted oh he wanted to be one of these you read about parties wild lovely girls who were independent not necessarily bad certainly not i but not tame like heights how he d ever stood it all these years did not give them true they with mirth and with several by jones of any time wants to come sit on my lap i ll tell this to beat it but they were respectable as sunday evening had a place beside on the piano bench while he talked about while he listened with a fixed smile to her account of the she had seen last wednesday while he hoped that she would hurry up and finish her description of the plot the beauty of the leading man and the luxury of the setting he studied her slim waist with raw silk strong brows ardent eyes hair above a broad forehead she meant youth to him and a charm which he thought of how a companion she would be on a long tour exploring mountains in a pine grove high above a valley her touched him he was angry at for the incessant family all at once he identified with the fairy girl he was startled by the conviction that they had always had a romantic attraction for each other i suppose you re leading a simply terrible life now you re a she said you bet i m a bad little fellow and proud of it some evening you slip some in his coffee and across the road and i ll show you how to mix a he roared well now i might do it you never can tell well whenever you re ready you just hang a out of the window and i ll jump for the gin every one at this in a pleased way stated that he would have a physician his coffee daily | 42 |
couple of hours in the new apartments had a flat which he had been holding for but at the thought of driving beside this agreeable woman he threw over his friend and with a note of gallantry he proclaimed i ll let you see what i can do he the seat of the car for her and twice he risked death in showing off his driving you do know how to handle a car she said he liked her voice there was he thought music in it and a hint of culture not a like s he boasted you know there s a lot of these fellows that are so scared and drive so slow that they get in everybody s way the safest driver is a fellow that knows how to handle his machine and yet isn t scared to speed up when it s necessary don t you think so oh yes i bet you drive like a oh no i mean not really of course we had a car i mean before my husband passed on and i used to make believe drive it but i don t think any woman ever to drive like a man well now there s some mighty good woman drivers oh of course these women that try to imitate men and play and everything and ruin their and spoil their hands that s so i never did like these females i mean of course i admire them dreadfully and i feel so weak and useless beside them oh rats now i i bet you play the piano like a oh no i mean not really well i ll bet you do he glanced at her smooth hands her diamond and rings she caught the glance her hands together with a of slim white fingers which delighted him and i do love to play i mean i like to drum on the piano but i haven t had any real training mr used to say i would ve been a good if i d had any training but then i guess he was just flattering me i ll bet he wasn t i ll bet you ve got temperament do you like music mr you bet i do only i don t know s i care so much for all this classical stuff oh i do i just love and all those do you honest well of course i go to lots of these but i do like a good right up on its toes with the fellow that plays the bass fiddle spinning it around and beating it up with the bow oh i know i do love good dance music i love to dance don t you mr sure you bet not that i m very good at it though oh i m sure you are you ought to let me teach you i can teach anybody to dance would give me a lesson some time indeed i would better be careful or i ll be taking you up on that proposition i ll be coming up to flat and making you give me that lesson ye es she was not offended but she was non he warned himself have some sense now you don t go making a fool of yourself again and with he i wish i could dance like some of these young fellows but i ll tell you i feel it s a man s place to take a full you might say a share in the world s work and conditions and have something to show for his life don t you think so oh i do and so i have to sacrifice some of the things i might like to tackle though i do by play about as good a game of as the next fellow oh i m sure you do are you married yes and of course official duties i m the vice president of the club and i m running one of the of the state association of real estate boards and that means a lot of work and responsibility and practically no gratitude for it oh i know public men never do get proper credit they looked at each other with a high degree of mutual respect and at the apartments he helped her out in a manner waved his hand at the house as though he were presenting it to her and ordered the to and get the keys she stood close to him in the and he was stirred but cautious it was a pretty flat of white and soft blue walls mrs with pleasure as she agreed to take it and as they walked down the hall to the she touched his sleeve oh i m so glad i went to you it s such a privilege to meet a man who really understands oh the some people have showed me he had a sharp instinctive belief that he could put his arm around her but he himself and with excessive politeness he saw her to the car drove her home all the way back to his office he raged glad i had some sense for once curse it i wish i d tried she s a darling a a lar and darling lips and that trim waist never get like some women no no no she s a real lady one of the brightest little women i ve met these many understands about public topics and but it why didn t i try m he was harassed and puzzled by it but he found that he was turning toward youth as youth the girl who especially disturbed him though he had never spoken to her was the last girl on the right in the shop she was small swift black haired smiling she was nineteen perhaps or twenty she wore | 42 |
thin salmon colored which exhibited her shoulders and her black he went to the for his hair trim as always he felt at his neighbor the building shop then for the first time he his sense of guilt it i don t have to go here if i don t want to i don t own the building these got nothing on me i ll well get my hair cut where i well want to don t want to hear anything more about it i m through standing by people unless i want to it doesn t get you anywhere i m through the shop was in the of the hotel largest and most modern hotel in marble steps with a rail of polished brass led from the hotel down to the shop the interior was of black and white and crimson with a ceiling of gold and a fountain in which a massive forever emptied a scarlet forty and nine girls worked desperately and at the door six colored to greet the customers to care reverently for their hats and to lead them to a place of waiting where on a carpet like a isle in the stretch of white stone floor were a dozen leather chairs and a table heaped with magazines s porter was an gray haired negro who did him an honor highly esteemed in the land of greeted him by name yet was unhappy his bright particular girl was engaged she was doing the nails of an man and with him hated him he thought of waiting but to stop the powerful system of the was inconceivable and he was instantly into a chair about him was luxury rich and delicate one was having a violet ray treatment the next an oil boys wheeled about miraculous machines the snatched steaming from a machine like a of polished and flung them away after a second s use on the vast marble shelf facing the chairs were hundreds of and and it was flattering to to have two personal slaves at once the and the he would have been completely happy if he could also have had the girl the at his hair and asked his opinion of the de grace races the season and mayor the young negro the camp meeting and polished in to his tune drawing the shiny shoe rag so at each stroke that it snapped like a string the was an excellent he made feel rich and important by his manner of inquiring what is your favorite sir have you time to day sir for a your is a little tight shall i give you a s best thrill was in the the made his hair with thick soap then as bent over the bowl muffled in it with hot water which along his and at last ran the water ice cold at the shock the sudden burning cold on his skull s heart his chest heaved and his was an electric wire it was a sensation which broke the monotony of life he looked about the shop as he sat up the rubbed his wet hair and bound it in a as in a so that resembled a plump pink on an ingenious and throne the begged in the manner of one who was a good fellow yet was overwhelmed by the of the how about a little oil rub sir very to the sir didn t i give you one the last time he hadn t but agreed well all right with eagerness he saw that his girl was free i don t know i guess i ll have a after all he and excitedly watched her coming dark haired smiling tender little the would have to be finished at her table and he would be able to talk to her without the listening he waited not trying to peep at her while she filed his nails and the shaved him and on his burning cheeks all the interesting which the pleasant minds of have devised through the revolving ages when the was done and he sat opposite the girl at her table he admired the marble of it admired the sunken set bowl with its tiny silver and admired himself for being able to frequent so costly a place when she withdrew his wet hand from the bowl it was so sensitive from the warm water that he was aware of the clasp of her firm little he delighted in the and ness of her nails her hands seemed to him more than mrs s thin fingers and more elegant he had a certain ecstasy in the pain when she at the of his nails with a sharp knife he struggled not to look at the outline of her young bosom and her shoulders the more apparent under a of pink he was conscious of her as an exquisite thing and when he tried to impress his personality on her he spoke as awkwardly as a country boy at his first party well hot to be working to day oh yes it is hot you cut your own nails last time didn t you ye es guess i must ve you always ought to go to a yes maybe that s so i there s nothing looks so nice as nails that are looked after good i always think that s the best way to spot a real there was an in here yesterday that claimed you could always tell a fellow s class by the car he drove but i says to him don t be silly i says the a look at a fellow s nails when they want to tell if he s a or a real yes maybe there s something to that course that is with a pretty like you a man can t help coming to get his done i may be a kid but i m a wise | 42 |
bird and i know nice folks when i see um i can read character at a glance and i d never talk so frank with a fellow if i couldn t see he was a nice fellow she smiled her eyes seemed to him as gentle as april pools with great seriousness he informed himself that there were some who would think that just because a girl was a girl and maybe not awful well educated she was no good but as for him he was a and understood people and he stood by the assertion that this was a girl a good girl but not too good he inquired in a voice quick with sympathy i suppose you have a lot of fellows who try to get fresh with you say do i say listen there s some of these cigar store sports that think because a girl s working in a shop they can get away with anything the things they but believe me i know how to hop those birds i just give um the north and south and ask um say who do you think you re talking to and they fade away like love s young nightmare and oh don t you want a box of nail it will keep the nails as shiny as when first harmless to apply and lasts for days sure i ll try some say say it s funny i ve been coming here ever since the shop opened and with arch surprise i don t believe i know your name don t you my that s funny i don t know yours now you quit me what s the nice little name oh it ain t so nice i guess it s kind of but my folks ain t my papa s papa was a nobleman in and there was a gentleman in here one day he was kind of a or something kind of a no i guess you mean who s telling this and he said he knew my papa s papa s folks in and they had a big house right on a lake doubtfully maybe you don t believe it sure no really sure i do why not don t think i m you honey but every time i ve noticed you i ve said to myself that kid has blue blood in her veins did you honest honest i did well well come on now we re friends what s the darling little name it ain t so much a much of a name i always say to ma i say ma why didn t you name me or something with some class to it well now i think it s a name i i bet i know name well now not necessarily of course oh it isn t so specially well known aren t you mr that travels for the kitchen ko i am not i m mr the real estate oh excuse me oh of course you mean here in with the of one whose feelings have been hurt oh sure i ve read your they re swell um well you might have read about my speeches course i have i don t get much time to read but i guess you think i m an awfully silly little i think you re a little darling well there s one nice thing about this job it gives a girl a chance to meet some awfully nice gentlemen and improve her mind with conversation and you get so you can read a s character at the first glance look here please don t think i m getting fresh he was hotly reflecting that it would be humiliating to be rejected by this child and dangerous to be accepted if he took her to dinner if he were seen by friends but he went on don t think i m getting fresh if i suggest it would be nice for us to go out and have a little dinner together some evening i don t know as i ought to but my gentleman friend s always wanting to take me out but maybe i could to night iv there was no reason he assured himself why he shouldn t have a quiet dinner with a poor girl who would benefit by association with an educated and mature person like himself but lest some one see them and not understand he would take her to s inn on the outskirts of the city they would have a pleasant drive this hot lonely evening and he might hold her hand no he wouldn t even do that was her bare shoulders showed it only too clearly but he d be hanged if he d make love to her merely because she expected it then his car broke down something had happened to the and he had to have the car this evening furiously he tested the spark stared at the his did not seem to stir the sulky car and in disgrace it was hauled off to a with a renewed thrill he thought of a there was something at once wealthy and wicked about a but when he met her on a corner two blocks from the hotel she said a why i thought you owned a car i do of course i do but it s out of commission tonight oh she remarked as one who had heard that tale before all the way out to s inn he tried to talk as an old friend but he could not pierce the wall of her words with interminable indignation she her to that fresh head and the things she would do to him if he persisted in saying that she was better at than at at s inn they were unable to get anything to drink the | 42 |
head waiter refused to understand who george f was they sat steaming before a vast mixed and made conversation about when he tried to hold s hand she said with bright friendliness careful that fresh waiter is but they came out into a treacherous summer night the air lazy and a little moon above let s drive some other place where we can get a drink and dance he demanded sure some other night but i promised ma i d be home early to night rats it s too nice to go home i d just love to but ma would give me fits he was trembling she was everything that was young and exquisite he put his arm about her she against his shoulder and he was triumphant then she ran down the steps of the inn singing come on well have a nice drive and get cool it was a night of lovers all along the highway into under the low and gentle moon were and dim figures were clasped in he held out hungry hands to and when she patted them he was grateful there was no sense of struggle and transition he kissed her and simply she responded to his kiss they two behind the stolid back of the her hat fell off and she broke from his embrace to reach for it oh let it be he implored my hat not a chance he waited till she had pinned it on then his arm sank about her she drew away from it and said with maternal soothing now don t be a silly boy mustn t make just sit back and see what a swell night it is if you re a good boy maybe i ll kiss you when we say night now give me a he was about lighting her and inquiring as to her comfort then he sat as far from her as possible he was cold with failure no one could have told that he was a fool with more vigor precision and intelligence than ne himself displayed he reflected that from the of the rev dr john drew he was a wicked man and from the of miss an old bore who had to be endured as the penalty attached to eating a large dinner you aren t going to go and get are you she spoke he wanted to her he i don t have to take anything off this well let s get it over as quick as we can and home and kick ourselves for the rest of the night he me why you baby why should i be now listen listen to uncle george i want to put you wise about this with your all the time i ve had a lot of experience with and let me tell you it doesn t pay to at the wooden house in which she lived he said briefly and but as the drove off he was praying oh my god chapter xxv he awoke to stretch cheerfully as he listened to the then to remember that everything was wrong that he was determined to go astray and not in the least enjoying the process why he wondered should he be in rebellion what was it all about why not be sensible stop all this running around and enjoy himself with his family his business the fellows at the club what was he getting out of rebellion misery and shame the shame of being treated as an offensive small boy by a like and yet always he came back to and yet whatever the misery he could not regain contentment with a world which once doubted became absurd only he assured himself he was through with this chasing after girls by he was not so sure even of that if in miss and he had failed to find the lady kind and lovely it did not prove that she did not exist he was hunted by the ancient thought that somewhere must exist the not impossible she who would understand him value him and make him happy mrs returned in august on her previous he had missed her and of her arrival he had made a now though he dared not hurt her by letting a hint of it appear in his letters he was sorry that she was coming before he had found himself and he was embarrassed by the need of meeting her and looking joyful he down to the station he studied the lest he have to speak to acquaintances and expose his uneasiness but he was well trained when the train in he was out on the platform peering into the chair cars and as he saw her in the line of passengers moving toward the he waved his hat at the door he embraced her and announced well well well well by you look fine you look fine then he was aware of here was something this child with her absurd little nose and lively eyes that loved him believed him great and as he clasped her lifted and held her till she he was for the moment come back to his old steady self sat beside him in the car with one hand on the wheel pretending to help him drive and he shouted back to his wife i ll bet the kid will be the best in the family she holds the wheel like an old professional all the while he was the moment when he would be alone with his wife and she would patiently expect him to be ardent in there was about the house an theory that he was to take his alone to spend a week or ten days in but he was by the memory that a year ago he had been with paul in he saw himself returning finding peace there and the presence of paul in a life primitive and heroic like | 42 |
a shock came the thought that he actually could go only he couldn t really he couldn t leave his business and would think it sort of funny his going way off there alone course he d decided to do whatever he pleased from now on but still to go way off to he went after meditations with his wife since it was inconceivable to explain that he was going to seek paul s spirit in the wilderness he employed the lie prepared over a year ago and scarcely used at all he said that he had to see a man in new york on business he could not have explained even to himself why he drew from the bank several hundred dollars more than he needed nor why he kissed so tenderly and cried god bless you baby from the train he waved to her till she was but a scarlet spot beside the brown presence of mrs at the end of a steel and aisle ending in vast barred gates with melancholy he looked back at the last of all the way north he pictured the guides simple and strong and daring jolly as they played in their wise in as they the forest and shot the he particularly remembered joe paradise half yankee half indian if he could but take up a claim with a man like joe work hard with his hands be free and noisy in a flannel shirt and never come back to this dull decency or like a in a northern canada plunge through the forest make camp in the a grim and why not he could do it there d be enough money at home for the family to live on till was married and ted self supporting old henry t would look out for them honestly why not really live he longed for it admitted that he longed for it then almost believed that he was going to do it whenever common sense nonsense folks don t run away from decent families and partners just simply don t do it that s all then answered well it wouldn t take any more nerve than for paul to go to jail and lord how i d like to do it six gun frontier town sleep under the stars be a regular man with he men like joe paradise so he came to again stood on the wharf before the camp hotel again into the delicate and shivering water while the pines the mountains glowed and a leaped and fell in a sliding circle he hurried to the guides as to his real home his real friends long missed they would be glad to see him they would stand up and shout why here s mr i he ain t one of these ordinary sports he s a real in their and rather cabin the guides sat about the greasy table playing with greasy cards half a dozen wrinkled men in old trousers and easy old felt hats they glanced up and nodded joe paradise the man with the big how do back again silence except for the clatter of stood beside them very lonely he hinted after a period of highly concentrated playing guess i might take a hand joe sure sit in how many you want let s see you were here with your wife last year wa n t you said joe paradise that was all of s welcome to the old home he played for half an hour before he spoke again his head was with the smoke of pipes and cheap cigars and he was weary of pairs and four of the way in which they ignored him he flung at joe working now like to guide me for a few days well soon i ain t engaged till next week only thus did joe recognize the friendship was offering him paid up his losses and left the rather joe raised his head from the of smoke like a seal rising from surf i ll come round tomorrow and down to his three neither in his cabin fragrant with of pine nor along the lake nor in the sunset clouds which presently behind the mountains could find the spirit of paul as a presence he was so lonely that after supper he stopped to talk with an ancient old lady a gasping and steadily old lady by the stove in the hotel office he told her of ted s future triumphs in the state university and of s remarkable till he was for the home he had left forever through the darkness through that northern pine walled silence he down to the lake front and found a there were no in it but with a board sitting awkwardly and at the water rather than he made his way far out on the lake the lights of the hotel and the cottages became yellow a cluster of glow worms at the base of mountain larger and ever more was the mountain in the star darkness and the lake a pavement of black marble he was and dumb and a little awed but that freed him from the of being mr george f of and freed his heart now he was conscious of the presence of paul fancied him rescued from prison from and the brisk of the business playing his at the end of the he vowed i will go on i ll never go back now that paul s out of it i don t want to see any of those damn people again i was a fool to get sore because joe paradise didn t jump up and me he s one of these too wise to go and talking your arm off like a but get him back in the mountains out on the trail that s real living iv joe reported at s cabin at | 42 |
nine the next morning greeted him as a fellow well joe how d you feel about the trail and getting away from these soft and these women and all all right mr what do you say we go over to box car pond they tell me the there isn t being used and camp out well all right mr but it s nearer to pond and you can get just about as good fishing there no i want to get into the real well all right we ll put the old on our backs and get into the woods and really i think maybe it would be easier to go by water through lake we can go all the way by boat boat with an no sir i bust up the quiet with a not on your life you just throw a pair of in the old pack and tell em what you want for eats i ll be ready soon s you are most of the sports go by boat mr it s a long walk look here joe are you to walking oh no i guess i can do it but i haven t that far for sixteen years most of the sports go by boat but i can do it if you say so i guess joe walked away in sadness had recovered from his wrath before joe returned he pictured him as warming up and telling the most entertaining stories but joe had not yet warmed up when they took the trail he persistently kept behind and however much his shoulders ached from the pack however sorely he panted could hear his guide panting equally but the trail was satisfying a path brown with pine needles and rough with roots among the the the sudden groves of white he became again and rejoiced in when he stopped to rest he chuckled guess we re it up pretty good for a couple o old birds eh admitted joe this is a mighty pretty place look you can see the lake down through the trees i tell you joe you don t appreciate how lucky you are to live in woods like this instead of a city with grinding and and people the life out of you all the time i wish i knew the woods like you do say what s the name of that little red flower rubbing his back joe regarded the flower well some folks call it one thing and some calls it another i always just call it pink flower ceased thinking as turned into blind he was in weariness his plump legs seemed to go on by themselves without guidance and he mechanically wiped away the sweat which stung his eyes he was too tired to be glad as after a mile of road through a swamp where flies hovered over a hot waste of brush they reached the cool shore of box car pond when he lifted the pack from his back he staggered from the change in balance and for a moment could not stand erect he lay beneath an ample tree near the guest and felt sleep running through his veins he awoke toward dusk to find joe cooking bacon and eggs and for supper and his admiration of the returned he sat on a stump and felt joe what would you do if you had a lot of money would you stick to guiding or would you take a claim way back in the woods and be independent of people for the first time joe brightened he his a second and i ve often thought of that if i had the money i d go down to s falls and open a swell shoe store after supper joe proposed a game of but refused with and joe went to bed at eight sat on the stump facing the dark pond save the guide there was no other human being within ten miles he was than he had ever been in his life then he was in he was worrying as to whether miss wasn t paying too much for paper he was at once and missing the persistent at the table he was wondering what was doing now he was wondering whether after the summer s maturity of being a ted would get busy in the university he was thinking of his wife if she would only if she wouldn t be so satisfied with just settling down no i won t i won t go back i ll be fifty in three years sixty in thirteen years i m going to have some fun before it s too late i don t care i will he thought of of of that nice widow what was her name the one for whom he d found the flat he was in imaginary conversations then i can t seem to get away from thinking about folks thus it came to him merely to run away was folly because he could never run away from himself that moment he started for in his journey there was no appearance of flight but he was and four days afterward he was on the train he knew that he was back not because it was what he longed to do but it was all he could do he again his die that he could never run away from and family and office because in his own brain he bore the office and the family and every street and and illusion of but i m going to oh i m going to start something he owed and he tried to make it i chapter xxvi as he walked through the train looking for familiar faces he saw only one person whom he knew and that was the lawyer who after the blessings of being in s own class at college and of becoming a had | 42 |
turned had headed farmer labor tickets and with admitted though he was in rebellion naturally did not care to be seen talking with such a but in all the he could find no other acquaintance and reluctantly he halted was a slight thin haired man rather like except that he hadn t s grin he was reading a book called the way of all flesh it looked religious to and he wondered if could possibly have been converted and turned decent and patriotic why he said looked up his voice was curiously kind oh how do been away eh yes i ve been in washington washington eh how s the old government making out it s won t you sit down thanks don t care if i do well well been quite a while since i ve had a good chance to talk to you i was sorry you didn t turn up at the last class dinner thanks how s the coming going to run for mayor again seemed restless he was the pages of his book he said i might as though it didn t mean anything in particular and he smiled liked that smile and hunted for conversation saw a bang up in new york the good morning bunch at the hotel yes they re pretty girls i danced there one evening oh like dancing naturally i like dancing and pretty women and good food better than anything else in the world most men do but i thought you fellows wanted to take all the good eats and everything away from us no not at all what i d like to see is the meetings of the garment workers held at the with a dance afterward isn t that reasonable might be good idea all right well shame i haven t seen more of you recent years oh say hope you haven t held it against me my you as mayor going on the stump for you see i m an organization republican and i kind of felt there s no reason why you shouldn t fight me i have no doubt you re good for the organization i remember in college you were an unusually liberal sensitive chap i can still recall your saying to me that you were going to be a lawyer and take the cases of the poor for nothing and fight the rich and i remember i said i was going to be one of the rich myself and buy paintings and live at i m sure you inspired us all well well i ve always aimed to be liberal was shy and proud and self conscious he tried to look like the boy he had been a quarter century ago and he shone upon his old friend as he trouble with a lot of these fellows even the live wires and some of em that think they re forward looking is they aren t broad minded and liberal now i always believe in giving the other fellow a chance and listening to his ideas that s fine tell you how i figure it a little opposition is good for all of us so a fellow especially if he s a business man and engaged in doing the work of the world ought to be liberal i always say a fellow ought to have vision and i guess some of the fellows in my business think i m pretty visionary i just let em think what they want to and go right on same as you do by this is nice to have a chance to sit and visit and kind of you might say brush up on our but of course we do rather get beaten doesn t it bother you not a bit nobody can dictate to me what i think you re the man i want to help me i want you to talk to some of the business men and try to make them a little more liberal in their attitude toward poor but why he s this nut preacher that got kicked out of the church isn t he and free love and this explained was indeed the general conception of but he himself saw as a priest of the brotherhood of man of which was an so would keep his acquaintances from and his forlorn little church you bet i ll call down any of the boys i hear getting funny about said affectionately to his dear friend warmed up and became he spoke of student days in germany of for single tax in washington of labor he mentioned his friends lord colonel professor had always supposed that associated only with the i w w but now he nodded gravely as one who knew lord by the score and he got in two to sir he felt daring and and suddenly in his new spiritual grandeur he was sorry for and understood her as these ordinary fellows at the club never could n five hours after he had arrived in and told his wife how hot it was in new york he went to call on he was with ideas and forgiveness he d get paul released he d do things vague but highly benevolent things for he d be as generous as his friend he had not seen since paul had shot her and he still pictured her as high colored lively and a little as he drove up to her boarding house in a back street below the district he stopped in discomfort at an upper window leaning on her elbow was a woman with the features of but she was and aged like a of old paper into wrinkles where had and this woman was dreadfully still he waited half an hour before she came into the parlor fifty times he opened the book of photographs of the world s fair of fifty times he looked at the | 42 |
picture of the court of honor he was startled to find in the room she wore a black gown which she had tried to with a of crimson ribbon the ribbon had been torn and patiently mended he noted this carefully because he did not wish to look at her shoulders one shoulder was lower than the other one arm she carried in fashion as though it were and behind a high collar of cheap lace there was a in the neck which had once been shining and softly plump so yes she said well well old by it s good to see you he can send his messages through a lawyer why rats i didn t come just because of him came as an old friend you waited long enough well you know how it is figured you wouldn t want to see a friend of his for quite some time and sit down honey let s be sensible we ve all of us done a bunch of things that we hadn t ought to but maybe we can sort of start over again honest i d like to do something to make you both happy know what i thought to day mind you paul doesn t know a thing about this doesn t know i was going to come see you i got to thinking s a fine big hearted woman and she ll understand that paul s had his lesson now why wouldn t it be a fine idea if you asked the governor to pardon him believe he would if it came from you no wait just think how good you d feel if you were generous yes i wish to be generous she was sitting speaking for that reason i wish to keep him in prison as an example to evil i ve gotten religion george since the terrible thing that man did to me sometimes i used to be unkind and i wished for worldly pleasures for dancing and the but when i was in the hospital the of the communion faith used to come to see me and he showed me right from the written in the word of god that the day of judgment is coming and all the members of the older churches are going straight to eternal because they only do lip service and swallow the world the flesh and the devil for fifteen wild minutes she talked pouring out tions to flee the wrath to come and her face flushed her dead voice something of the shrill energy of the old she wound up with a furious i it s the blessing of god himself that paul should be in prison now and torn and by punishment so that he may yet save his soul and so other wicked men these horrible after women and lust may have an example had and twisted as in church he dared not move during the sermon so now he felt that he must seem attentive though her flew past him like birds he sought to be calm and yes i know but it certainly is the essence of religion to be charitable isn t it let me tell you how i figure it what we need in the world is liberality if we re going to get anywhere i ve always believed in being broad minded and liberal you liberal it was very much the old why george you re about as broad minded and liberal as a blade oh i am am ii well just let me tell you just let me tell you i m as by liberal as you are religious anyway you religious i am so our says i sustain him in the faith i ll bet you do with paul s money but just to show you how liberal i am i m going to send a check for ten to this because a lot of fellows are saying the poor and free love and they re trying to run him out of town and they re right they ought to run him out of town why he if you can call it preaching in a in the house of satan you don t know what it is to find god to find peace to behold the that the devil out for our feet oh i m so glad to see the mysterious purposes of god in having paul harm me and stop my wickedness and paul s getting his good and plenty for the cruel things he did to me and i hope he dies in prison was up hat in hand growling well if that s what o you call being at peace for heaven s sake just warn me before you go to war will you in vast is the power of cities to the wanderer more than mountains or the shore devouring sea a city its character cynical holding behind apparent changes its essential purpose though had deserted his family and dwelt with joe paradise in the wilderness though he had become a liberal though he had been quite sure on the night before he reached that neither he nor the city would be the same again ten days after his return he could not believe that he had ever been away nor was it at all evident to his acquaintances that there was a new george f save that he was more irritable under the incessant ng at the club and once when v observed that ought to be hanged oh rats he s not so bad at home he eh across the newspaper to his wife and was delighted by s new red o and announced no class to that iron have to build me a nice frame one and appeared really to be engaged in his newspaper had conducted a pure food against commission houses as a result he | 42 |
had been given an excellent job in a commission house and he was making a salary on which he could marry and who wrote stories commission houses without knowing what they were talking about this september ted had entered the state university as a in the college of arts and the university was at only fifteen miles from and ted often came down for the week end was worried ted was going in for everything but books he had tried to make the team as a light half back he was looking forward to the basket ball season he was on the committee for the hop and as a an among the he was being rushed by two but of his studies could learn nothing save a oh these old of teachers just give you a lot of about literature and one week end ted proposed say why can t i transfer over from the college to the school of and take mechanical you always that i never study but honest i would study there no the school hasn t got the standing the college has fretted i d like to know how it hasn t the can play on any of the there was much explanation of the dollars and cents value of being known as a college man when you go into the law and a truly account of the lawyer s life before he was through with it had ted a united states among the great lawyers whom he mentioned was but ted i thought you always said this was a lar nut that s no way to speak of a great man s always been a good friend of mine fact i helped him in college i started him out and you might say inspired him just because he s sympathetic with the aims of labor a lot of that lack liberality and broad think he s a but let me tell you there s mighty few of em that in the he does and he s a friend of some of the strongest most men in the world like lord this this big english nobleman that s so well known and you now which would you rather do be in with a lot of greasy and laboring men or up to a real fellow like lord and get invited to his house for parties io sighed ted the next week end he came in with say why couldn t i take instead of the course you talk about standing maybe there isn t much in mechanical but the they got seven out of eleven in the new to chapter the strike which turned into two white and red began late in september with a walk out of girls and in protest against a of wages the newly formed union of w went out partly in sympathy and partly in demand for a forty four hour week they were followed by the union industry was tied up and the whole city was nervous with talk of a strike a strike a gen strike furious citizens trying to get calls through strike breaking girls danced helplessly every that made its way from the to the freight stations was guarded by a policeman trying to look beside the driver a line of fifty from the steel and machinery company was attacked by rushing out from the pulling drivers from the seats and while girls cheered from the walk and small boys heaved bricks the national guard was ordered out colonel who in private life was mr secretary of the company put on a long coat and stalked through crowds a in hand even s friend drum the shoe merchant a round and merry man who told stories at the club and who strangely resembled a dog was to be seen as a but ferocious captain with his belt tight about his comfortable little belly and his round little mouth as he to chattering groups on corners move on there now i can t have any of this every newspaper in the city save one was against the when the news stands at each was stationed a a young embarrassed citizen soldier with eye glasses or clerk in private life trying to look dangerous while small boys get de tin soldier and striking drivers inquired tenderly say joe when i was fighting in france was you in camp in the states or was you doing exercises in the y m c a be careful of that now or you ll cut yourself there was no one in who talked of anything but the strike and no one who did not take sides you were either a courageous friend of labor or you were a fearless of the rights of property and in either case you were and ready to any friend who did not hate the enemy a milk plant was set each side charged it to the other and the city was hysterical and chose this time to be publicly liberal he belonged to the sound sane right thinking wing and at first he agreed that the crooked ought to be shot he was sorry when his friend defended arrested and he thought of going to and explaining about these but when he read a that even on their former wages the girls had been hungry he was troubled all lies and figures he said but in a doubtful for the sunday after the road church announced a sermon by dr john drew on how the would end strikes had been about church going lately but he went to the service hopeful that dr drew really did have the information as to what the divine powers thought about strikes beside in the large glossy velvet was whispered hope the gives the hell ordinarily i don t believe in a preacher into political matters let him stick to straight | 42 |
religion and save souls and not stir up a lot of discussion but at a time like this i do think he ought to stand right up and out those to a f are you well said the rev dr drew his rustic bang with the intensity of his poetic and during the series of which have let us be courageous and admit it boldly the business life of our fair city these past days there has been a great deal of loose talk about scientific of scientific scientific now let me tell you that the most thing in the world is science take the attacks on the established of the christian creed which were so popular with the a generation ago oh yes they were mighty fellows and great of criticism i they were going to destroy the church they were going to prove the world was created and has been brought to its extraordinary level of morality and civilization by blind chance yet the church stands just as firmly to day as ever and the only answer a christian needs make to the of his simple faith is just a pitying smile i and now these same want to replace the natural condition of free competition by crazy systems which no matter by what high sounding names they are called are nothing but a naturally i m not labor courts against men to be striking or those excellent in which the men and the get together but i certainly am the systems in which the free and of independent labor is to be replaced by cooked up scales and and government and labor and all that what is not generally understood is that this whole matter isn t a question of it s essentially and only a matter of love and of the practical application of the christian religion i imagine a factory instead of of workmen the the goes among them smiling and they smile back the elder brother and the younger brothers that s what they must be loving brothers and then strikes would be as inconceivable as hatred in the home it was at this point that muttered oh rot said he doesn t know what he s talking about it s just as clear as mud it doesn t mean a thing maybe looked at him doubtfully through all the service kept glancing at him doubtfully till was nervous n the had announced a parade for tuesday morning but colonel had forbidden it the newspapers said when drove west from his office at ten that morning he saw a drove of shabby men heading toward the tangled dirty district beyond court house square he hated them because they were poor because they made him feel damn wouldn t be common workmen if they had any he complained he wondered if there was going to be a riot he drove toward the starting point of the parade a of limp and faded grass known as street park and halted his car the park and streets were with young men in blue shirts old men with caps through them keeping them stirred like a boiling pot moved the could hear the soldiers monotonous orders keep moving move on keep your feet warm admired their stolid good temper the crowd shouted tin soldiers and dirty dogs servants of the but the grinned and answered only sure that s right keep moving thrilled over the citizen soldiers hated the who were the pleasant ways of prosperity admired colonel s contempt for the crowd and as captain drum that rather puffing shoe dealer came raging by respectfully great work captain don t let em march he watched the from the park many of them bore with they can t stop our peacefully walking the tore away the but the fell in behind their leaders and off a thin between steel lines of soldiers saw with disappointment that there wasn t going to be any violence nothing interesting at all then he gasped among the beside a young workman was smiling content in front of him was professor head of the history department in the state university an old man and white bearded known to come from a distinguished family why a swell like him in with the and good they re fools to get mixed up with this bunch they re parlor but they have got nerve and nothing in it for them not a cent i don t know s all the look like such tough nuts look just about like anybody else to me the were turning the parade down a side street they got just as much right to march as anybody else they own the streets as much as drum or the american does grumbled of course they re they re a bad element oh rats i at the club was silent during lunch while the others fretted i don t know what the world s coming to or their spirits with captain drum came swinging by splendid in how s it going captain inquired oh we got em stopped we worked em off on side streets and separated em and they got discouraged and went home fine work no violence fine work nothing groaned mr drum if i had my way there d be a whole lot of violence and i d start it and then the whole thing would be over i don t believe in standing back and wet nursing these fellows and letting the drag on i tell you these are nothing in god s world but a lot of throwing and and the only way to handle em is with a club that s what i d do beat up the whole lot of em heard himself saying oh rats they look just about like you and me and i certainly didn t notice any drum complained oh you didn t | 42 |
eh well maybe you d like to take charge of the strike just tell colonel what the are he d be glad to hear about it drum strode on while all the table stared at what s the idea do you want us to give those love and kisses or what said jones do you defend a lot of that are trying to take the bread and butter away from our families raged professor said nothing he put on like a mask his jaw was hard his short hair seemed cruel his silence was a ferocious thunder while the others assured that they must have misunderstood him looked as though he had understood only too well like a judge he listened to s no sure course they re a bunch of but i just mean strikes me it s bad policy to talk about em doesn t he s got the fine italian hand and that s why he s colonel drum is jealous of him well said professor you hurt s feelings george he s been out there all morning getting hot and dusty and no wonder he wants to beat the tar out of those sons of guns said nothing and watched and knew that lie was being watched m as he was leaving the club heard protesting to don t know what s got into him last sunday drew preached a sermon about decency in business and kicked about that too near s i can figure out was vaguely frightened iv he saw a crowd listening to a man who was talking from the of a kitchen chair he stopped his car from newspaper pictures he knew that the speaker must be the notorious preacher of whom had spoken was a gaunt man with hair weather beaten cheeks and worried eyes he was pleading if those girls can hold out living on one meal a day doing their own washing starving and smiling you big men ought to be able saw that from the was watching him in vague he started the car and me i drove on while s hostile eyes seemed to follow him all the way there s a lot of these fellows was complaining to his wife that think if workmen go on strike they re a regular bunch of now of course it s a fight between sound business and the destructive element and we got to the s out of em when they challenge us but if i see why we can t fight like gentlemen and not go calling em dirty dogs and saying they ought to be shot down why george she said placidly i thought you always insisted that all ought to be put in jail i never did well i mean some of em of course leaders but i mean a fellow ought to be and liberal about things like but i thought you always said these so called people were the worst of rats woman never can understand the different of a word depends on how you mean it and it don t pay to be too about anything now these honest they re not such bad people just foolish they don t understand the of and profit the way we business men do but sometimes i think they re about like the rest of us and no more for wages than we are for profits george if people were to hear you talk like that of course i know you i remember what a wild crazy boy you were i know you don t mean a word you say but if people that didn t understand you were to hear you talking they d think you were a regular what do i care what anybody thinks and let me tell you right now i want you to distinctly understand i never was a wild crazy kid and when i say a thing i mean it and i stand by it and honest do you think people would think i was too liberal if i just said the were decent f course they would but don t worry dear i know you don t mean a word of it time to trot up to bed now have you enough covers for to night on the sleeping porch he puzzled she doesn t me hardly understand myself why can t i take things easy way i used to wish i could go out to s house and talk things over with him no suppose saw me going in there wish i knew some really smart woman and nice that would see what i m trying to get at and let me talk to her and i wonder if s right could the fellows think i ve gone just because i m broad minded and liberal way looked at me chapter miss came into his private office at three in the afternoon with mr there s a mrs on the wants to see about some and the are all out want to talk to her all right the voice of was clear and pleasant the black of the seemed to hold a tiny animated image of her eyes delicate nose gentle chin this is mrs do you remember me you drove ie up here to the apartments and helped me find a nice flat sure bet i remember what can i do for you why it s just a i don t know that i ought to bother you but the doesn t seem to be able to fix it you know my flat is on the top floor and with these autumn rains the roof is beginning to and i d be awfully glad sure i ll come up and take a look at it nervously when do you expect to be in why i m in every morning be in | 42 |
this afternoon in an hour or so ye es perhaps i could give you a cup of tea i think i ought to after all your trouble fine i ll run up there soon as i can get away he meditated now there s a woman that s got refinement class after all your trouble give you a cup of tea she d appreciate a fellow i m a fool but i m not such a bad get to know me and not so much a fool as they think the great strike was over the beaten except that seemed less cordial there were no visible effects of s treachery to the the oppressive fear of criticism was gone but a loneliness remained now he was so that to prove he wasn t he about the office for fifteen minutes looking at blue prints explaining to miss that this mrs scott wanted more money for her house had raised the asking price raised it from seven thousand to eighty five hundred would miss be sure and put it down on the card mrs scott s house raise when he had thus established himself as a person and interested only in business he sauntered out he took a particularly long time to start his car he kicked the the glass of the and the holding the wind shield spot light he drove happily off toward the district conscious of the presence of mrs as of a brilliant light on the horizon the leaves had fallen and they lined the of the streets it was a day of pale gold and faded green tranquil and lingering was aware of the meditative day and of the of blocks of wooden houses little shops lots needs up needs the touch that people like mrs could give a place he as he rattled through the long crude airy streets the wind rose keen and in a blaze of well being he came to the flat of she was wearing when she admitted him a frock of black cut modestly round at the base of her pretty throat she seemed to him immensely he glanced at the and colored prints in her living room and you ve fixed the place nice takes a clever woman to know how to make a home all right you really like it i m so glad but you ve neglected me you promised to come some time and learn to dance rather oh but you didn t mean it seriously perhaps not but you might have tried well here ive come for my lesson and you might just as well prepare to have me stay for supper they both laughed in a manner which indicated that of course he didn t mean it but first i guess i better look at that she climbed with him to the flat roof of the a detached world of wooden walks clothes water in a he at things with his toe and sought to impress her by being learned about copper the of passing pipes through a lead collar and sleeve and flashing them with copper and the advantages of over iron for you have to know so much in real estate she admired he promised that the roof should be repaired within two days do you mind my from your apartment he asked heavens no he stood a moment at the over a land of hard little with large and new apartment houses small but brave with brick walls and beyond them was a hill with a of yellow clay like a vast wound behind every apartment house beside each dwelling were small it was a world of good little people comfortable industrious in the light the flat was and the air was a sun tinted pool it s one fine afternoon you get a great view here right up s hill said yes isn t it nice and open so dam few people appreciate a view don t you go raising my rent on that account oh that was naughty of i was just seriously though there are so few who respond who to views i mean they haven t any feeling of poetry and beauty that s a fact they haven t he breathed admiring her and the absorbed airy way in which she looked toward the hill chin lifted lips smiling well guess i d better the so they ll get on the job first thing in the morning when he had making it and and masculine he looked doubtful and sighed s pose i d better oh you must have that cup of tea first well it would go pretty good at that it was luxurious to in a deep green chair his legs thrust out before him to glance at the black chinese stand and the colored photograph of mount which he had always liked so much while in the tiny kitchen so near mrs sang my queen in an intolerable sweetness a contentment so deep that he was wistfully discontented he saw by moonlight and heard plantation to the he wanted to be near her on of helping her yet he wanted to remain in this still ecstasy languidly he remained when she in with the tea he smiled up at her this is awfully nice for the first time he was not he was quietly and securely friendly and friendly and quiet was her answer it s nice to have you here you were so kind helping me to find this little home they agreed that the weather would soon turn cold they agreed that was they agreed that art in the home was they agreed about everything they even became bold they hinted that these modern young girls well honestly their short skirts were short they were proud to find that they were not shocked by such frank speaking ventured i know | 42 |
you ll understand i mean i don t quite know how to say it but i do think that girls who pretend they re bad by the way they dress really never go any farther they give away the fact that they haven t the instincts of a womanly woman remembering the girl and how ill she had used him agreed with enthusiasm remembering how ill all the world had used him he told of paul of of of the strike see how it was course i was as anxious to have those beggars licked to a as anybody else but no reason for not seeing their side for a fellow s own sake he s got to be broad minded and liberal don t you think so oh i do sitting on the hard little couch she clasped her hands beside her leaned toward him absorbed him and in a glorious state of being appreciated he proclaimed so i up and said to the fellows at the club look here i do you belong to the union club i think it s no the tell you course they re always asking me to join the union but i always say no sir nothing doing i don t mind the expense but i can t stand all the old oh yes that s so but tell me what did you say to them oh you don t want to hear it i m probably you to death with my troubles you wouldn t hardly think i was an old i sound like a kid oh you re a boy yet i mean you can t be a day over forty five well i m not much but by i begin to feel middle aged sometimes all these and all oh i know her voice him it him like warm silk i feel lonely so lonely some days mr we re a sad pair of birds i but i think we re pretty nice i yes i think we re lots than most people i know they smiled but please tell me what you said at the club well it was like this course is a friend of mine they can say what they want to they can call him anything they please but what most folks here don t know is that is the bosom of some of the biggest in the world lord you know this big british nobleman my friend sir told me that lord is one of the biggest guns in england well or somebody told me oh do you know sir the one that was here at the know him well say i know him just well enough so we call each other george and and we got so together in that must have been fun but she shook a finger at him i can t have you getting i ll have to take you in hand wish you would well saying you see i happen to know what a big noise is outside of but of course a prophet hasn t got any honor in his own country and his old hide he s so blame modest that he never lets folks know the kind of an he travels with when he goes abroad well during the strike drum comes up to our table all up fit to kill in his nice hi cap n s uniform and somebody says to him the strike well he up like a pigeon and he so s you could hear him way up in the reading room yes sure i told the strike leaders where they got off and so they went home well i says to him glad there wasn t any violence yes he says but if i hadn t kept my eye there would ve been all those fellows had in their pockets they re lar h rats i says i looked em all over carefully and they didn t have any more n a rabbit i says course i says they re foolish but they re a good deal like you and me after all and then or somebody no it was you know this famous poet great of mine he says to me look here he says do you mean to say you advocate these strikes well i was so disgusted with a fellow whose mind worked that way that i swear i had a good mind to not explain at all just him oh that s so wise said mrs but finally i explains to him if you d done as much as i have on chamber of commerce and all i says then you d have the right to talk but same time i says i believe in treating your opponent like a gentleman well sir that held em i always call him he didn t have another word to say but at that i guess some of em kind o thought i was too liberal what do you think oh you were so wise and courageous i love a man to have the courage of his convictions but do you think it was a good after all some of these fellows are so cautious and narrow minded that they re prejudiced against a fellow that talks right out io meeting what do you care in the long run they re bound to respect a man who makes them think and with your reputation for you what do you know about my reputation for oh i m not going to tell you everything i know but seriously you don t realize what a famous man you are well though i haven t done much this fall too kind of by this paul business i guess but do you know you re the first person that s really understood | 42 |
what i was getting at listen to me will you fat nerve i ve got calling you i oh do and shall i call you george don t you think it s awfully nice when two people have so much what shall i call it so much analysis that they can all these stupid and understand each other and become acquainted right away like ships that pass in the night i certainly do i certainly do he was no longer in his chair he wandered about the room he dropped on the couch beside her but as he awkwardly stretched his hand toward her fragile fingers she said brightly do give me a would you think poor was dreadfully naughty if she smoked lord no i like it he had often and pondered smoking in but he knew only one woman who smoked mrs sam his neighbor he lighted s looked for a place to deposit the burnt match and dropped it into his pocket i m sure you want a cigar you poor man she do you mind one oh no i love the smell of a good cigar so nice and so nice and like a man you ll find an ash tray in my bedroom on the table beside the bed if you don t mind getting it he was embarrassed by her bedroom the broad couch with a cover of violet silk curtains striped with gold chinese and an amazing row of slippers with ribbon wound shoe trees and stockings lying across them his manner of bringing the ash tray had just the right note of easy friendliness he felt a like would try to get about seeing her bedroom but i take it casually he was not casual afterward the contentment of companionship was gone and he was restless with desire to touch her hand but whenever he turned toward her the was in his way it was a shield between them he waited till she should have finished but as he rejoiced at her quick crushing of its light on the she said don t you want to give me another and hopelessly he saw the screen of pale smoke and her graceful hand again between them he was not merely curious now to find out whether she would let him hold her hand all in the purest friendship naturally but with need of it on the surface appeared none of all this drama they were talking cheerfully of of to of once he said delicately i do hate these i hate these people that invite themselves to meals but i seem to have a feeling i m going to have supper with the lovely mrs to night but i suppose you probably have seven dates already well i was thinking some of going to the yes i really think i ought to get out and get some fresh air she did not encourage him to stay but never did she him he considered i better take a she will let me stay there is something doing and i mustn t get mixed up with i mustn t i ve got to beat it then no it s too late now suddenly at seven brushing her away taking her hand stop me you know we here we are a couple of lonely birds and we re awful happy together anyway i am never been so happy do let me stay i ll gallop down to the and buy some stuff cold chicken maybe or cold turkey and we can have a nice little supper and afterwards if you want to chase me out i ll be good and go like a lamb well yes it would be nice she said nor did withdraw her hand he squeezed it trembling and toward his coat at the he bought preposterous stores of food chosen on the principle of from the store across the street he to his wife got to get a fellow to sign a lease before he leaves town on the midnight won t be home till late don t wait up for me kiss good night he back to the flat oh you bad thing to buy so much food was her greeting and her voice was gay her smile he helped her in the tiny white kitchen he washed the he opened the olive bottle she ordered him to set the table and as he trotted into the living room as he hunted through the for knives and forks he felt utterly at home now the only other thing he announced is what you re going to wear i can t decide whether you re to put on your evening gown or let your hair down and put on short skirts and make believe you re a little girl i m going to dine just as i am in this old rag and if you can t stand poor that way you can go to the club for dinner stand you he patted her shoulder child you re the and the loveliest and finest woman i ve ever met come now lady if you ll take the duke of s arm we will in to the feed oh you do say the things when they had finished the supper he thrust his head out of the window and reported it s turned awful chilly and i think it s going to rain you don t want to go to the i wish we had a fireplace i wish it was like all get out to night and we were in a funny little old fashioned cottage and the trees like everything outside and a great big log fire and i ll tell let s draw this couch up to the and stretch our feet out and pretend it s a wood fire oh i think | 42 |
that s pathetic you big child but they did draw up to the and propped their feet against it his clumsy black shoes her patent leather slippers in the they talked of themselves of how lonely she was how bewildered he and how wonderful that they had found each other as they fell silent the room was than a country lane there was no sound from the street save the of the of a distant freight train self contained was the room warm secure from the world he was absorbed by a rapture in which all fear and doubting were smoothed away and when he reached home at dawn the rapture had to contentment serene and full of memories chapter the assurance of s friendship fortified s self approval at the club he became though was silent the others at the table came to accept as having for no visible reason turned they argued with him and he was and enjoyed the spectacle of his interesting he even praised professor said that was carrying a joke too far but argued no fact i tell you he s got one of the keenest in the country why lord said oh who the hell is lord what you always him in for you been him for the last six weeks protested jones george ordered him from you can get those english high by mail for two apiece suggested that s all right now lord he s one of the biggest in english political life as i was saying of course i m myself but i appreciate a like because interrupted harshly i wonder if you are so i find i can manage to run my own business without any and like in it the of s voice the hardness of his jaw disconcerted but he recovered and went on till they looked bored then irritated then as doubtful as he thought of always with a stir he remembered her every aspect his arms for her i ve found her i ve dreamed of her all these years and now i ve found her he he met her at the in the morning he drove out to her flat in the late afternoon or on evenings when he was believed to be at the he knew her financial affairs and advised her about them while she lamented her feminine ignorance and praised his and proved to know much more about bonds than he did they had and laughter over old times once they and he raged that she was as as his wife and far more when he was but that passed safely their high hour was a tramp on a ringing december afternoon through snow drifted meadows down to the icy river she was in an cap and a short coat she slid on the ice and shouted and he panted after her with laughter never slid on the ice he was afraid that they would be seen together in it is impossible to lunch with a neighbor s wife without the fact being known before nightfall in every house in your circle but was beautifully discreet however she might turn to him when they were alone she was gravely detached when they were abroad and he hoped that she would be taken for a jones once saw them emerging from a and let me make you with mrs now here s a lady who knows the right to come to mr jones though he was a man of morals and of machinery seemed satisfied his fear not from any especial fondness for her but from the habit of propriety was that his wife would learn of the affair he was certain that she knew nothing specific about but he was also certain that she suspected something indefinite for years she had been bored by anything more affectionate than a farewell kiss yet she was hurt by any in his irritable interest and now he had no interest rather a he was completely faithful to he was distressed by the sight of his wife s slack by her and of flesh by the tattered which she was always meaning and always forgetting to throw away but he was aware that she so long to him caught all his he heavily tried to check them he couldn t they had a tolerable christmas was there engaged to mrs was tearful and called her new son was worried about ted because he had ceased complaining of the state university and become suspiciously he wondered what the boy was planning and was too shy to ask himself slipped away on christmas afternoon to take his present a silver box to when he returned mrs asked much too innocently did you go out for a little fresh air yes just hi drive he after new year s his wife proposed i heard from my sister to day george she isn t well i think perhaps i ought to go stay with her for a few weeks now mrs was not accustomed to leave home during the winter except on violently demanding occasions and only the summer before she had been gone for weeks nor was one of the husbands who take casually he liked to have her there she looked after his clothes she knew how his ought to be cooked and her made him feel secure but he could not drum up even a dutiful oh she doesn t really need you does she while he tried to look while he felt that his wife was watching him he was filled with visions of do you think i d better go she said sharply you ve got to decide honey i can t she turned away sighing and his forehead was damp till she went four days later she was curiously still he affectionate her train left at noon as he saw it grow small beyond the train shed he | 42 |
longed to hurry to no by i won t do that he vowed i won t go near her for a week but he was at her flat at four m he who had once controlled or seemed to control his life in a progress but and sane was for that fortnight borne on a current of desire and very bad and all the of new acquaintances those furious new who demand so much more attention than old friends each morning he gloomily recognized his of the evening before with his head throbbing his tongue and lips from he counted the number of drinks he had taken and groaned i got to quit he had ceased saying i will quit for however resolute he might be at dawn he could not for a single evening check his drift he had met s friends he had with the ardent haste of the midnight people who drink and dance and rattle and are ever afraid to be silent been adopted as a member of her group which they called the bunch he first met them after a day when he had worked particularly hard and when he hoped to be quiet with and slowly her admiration from down the hall he could hear shrieks and the grind of a as opened the door he saw fantastic figures dancing in a haze of smoke the tables and chairs were against the wall oh isn t this she at him had the loveliest idea she decided it was time for a party and she the bunch and told em to gather round george this is was in the less desirable aspects of both at once and she was perhaps forty her hair was an ash and if her chest was flat her were ponderous she greeted with a welcome to our little midst says you re a real sport he was apparently expected to dance to be boyish and gay with and he did his best he h about the room into other couples into the into chair legs as he danced he surveyed the rest of the bunch a thin young woman who looked capable conceited and sarcastic another woman whom he could never quite remember three and slightly young men fountain clerks or at least born for that profession a man of his own age immovable self satisfied of s presence when he had finished his dutiful dance took him aside and begged dear wouldn t you like to do something for me i m all out of and the bunch want to couldn t you just down to s and get some sure he said trying not to sound sullen i ll tell you i ll get to drive down with you was pointing to the thin sarcastic young woman miss greeted him with an how d you do mr tells me you re a very prominent man and i m honored by being allowed to drive with you of course i m rot accustomed to with society people like you so i don t know how to act in such exalted circles thus miss talked all the way down to han bon s to her he wanted to reply oh go to the devil but he never quite himself to that reasonable comment he was the existence of the whole bunch he had heard speak of darling and she s so clever you ll her but they had never been real to him he had pictured as living in a rose tinted waiting for him free of all the of a heights when they returned he had to endure the patronage of the young clerks they were as friendly as miss was hostile they called him old and shouted come on now sport shake a leg boys in coats boys as young as ted and as as chorus men but powerful to dance and to mind the and smoke and he tried to be one of them he cried good work but his voice apparently enjoyed the companionship of the dancing she to their bland and casually kissed them at the end of each dance hated her for the moment he saw her as middle aged he studied the wrinkles in the softness of her throat the slack flesh beneath her chin the muscles of her youth were loose and drooping between dances she sat in the largest chair waving her her admirers to come and talk to her she thinks she s a blooming queen growled she to miss isn t my little sweet rats it s a plain old maid and dog flat oh god i wish i was home i wonder if i can t make a now his vision grew however as he applied himself to s raw but vigorous he blended with the bunch he began to rejoice that and the most nearly intelligent of the youths seemed to like him and it was important to win over the surly older man who proved to be a railway clerk named the conversation of the bunch was full of to people whom did not know apparently they thought very comfortably of themselves they were the wise and beautiful and amusing they were and accustomed to all the luxuries of dance halls and and in a cynical superiority to people who were slow or they oh did i tell you what that of a said when i came in late yesterday oh it was per ly oh but wasn t t d say he was simply what did say to him think of the nerve of bob trying to get us to come to his house say the nerve of him can you beat it for nerve some nerve i call it did you notice how was dancing wasn t she the limit was to be heard agreeing with the miss that persons who let a night go by without dancing to music were | 42 |
and poor fish and he roared you bet when mrs don t you love to sit on the floor it s so he began to think extremely well of the bunch when he mentioned his friends sir lord william washington and he was proud of their interest he got so thoroughly into the spirit that he didn t much mind seeing drooping against the shoulder of the youngest and of the young men and he himself desired to hold s hand and dropped it only because looked angry when he went home at two he was fully a member of the bunch and all the week thereafter he was bound by the exceedingly the exceedingly wearing demands of their life of pleasure and freedom he had to go to their parties he was involved in the agitation when everybody to everybody else that she hadn t meant what she d said when she d said that and anyway why was going around saying she d said it never was a family more on learning one another s movements than were the bunch all of them knew or indignantly desired to know where all the others had been every minute of the week found himself explaining to or just what he had been doing that he should not have joined them till ten o clock and for having gone to dinner with a business acquaintance every member of the bunch was expected to to every other member at least once a week why haven t you called me up was asked not only by and but presently by new ancient friends and and if for a moment he had seen as withering and sentimental he lost that impression at s dance mrs had a large house and a small husband to her party came ail of the bunch perhaps thirty five of them when they were completely under the name of old was now a of the bunch since each month it changed half its and he who could recall the days of a fortnight ago before mrs the food had gone to and had got sore at was a venerable leader and able to condescend to new and and at s did not have to work at being hostess she was dignified and sure a clear fine figure in the black frock he had always loved and in the wider spaces of that ugly house was able to sit quietly with her he repented of his first at her feet and happily drove her home next day he bought a violent yellow tie to make himself young for her he knew a little sadly that he could not make himself beautiful he beheld himself as heavy of but he danced he dressed he to be as young as she was as young as she seemed to be iv as all whether to a religion love or find as by magic that though hitherto these have not seemed to exist now the whole world is filled with their fury so once he was converted to discovered agreeable opportunities for it everywhere he had a new view of his sporting neighbor sam the were respectable people industrious people prosperous people whose ideal of happiness was an eternal their life was by of and kisses they and their set worked all the week and all week looked forward to saturday night when they would as they expressed it throw a party and the thrown party grew and up to sunday dawn and usually included an extremely rapid expedition to nowhere in particular one evening when was at the found himself being lively with the friendship with men whom he had for years to mrs as a rotten bunch of tin horns that i wouldn t go out with not if they were the last people on earth that evening he had come home and about in front of the house off the walk the ice like made by the steps of by during the recent snow came up still a george cold again to night what do you hear from the wife she s feeling fine but her sister is still pretty sick say better come in and have dinner with us to night george oh oh thanks have to go out suddenly he could not endure s of the more interesting about totally uninteresting problems he scraped at the walk and sam appeared working hard exercise cold enough for you to night well just about still a say while she s away i know you don t care much for fights but the and i d be awfully glad if you could come in some night think you could stand a good for once stand it young i bet old uncle george can mix the best in these united states i that s the way to talk i look here there s some folks coming to the house to night and some other live ones and i m going to open up a bottle of pre war gin and maybe we ll dance a while why don t you drop in and it up a little just for a change what time they coming he was at sam s at nine it was the third time he had entered the house by ten he was calling mr sam old at eleven they all drove out to the old farm inn sat in the back of s car with once he had tried to make love to her now he did not try he merely made love and dropped her head on his shoulder told him what a was and accepted as a decent and well trained with the assistance of s bunch the and other companions in forgetfulness there was not an evening for two weeks when he did not return home late and with his other faculties he yet had the s gift of being able to drive when | 42 |
to the long slide of a hill he crawled down both on round a corner came a less cautious car it it almost them with its rear in relief at their escape the bunch shouted oh baby and waved their hands to the agitated other driver then saw professor laboriously crawling up hill at the he was sure that recognized him and saw kiss him as she you re such a good driver at lunch next day he with out last night with my brother and some friends of his what driving slippery s glass thought i saw you up the avenue hill no i wasn t i didn t see you said hastily rather perhaps two days afterward took to lunch at the hotel she who had seemed well content to wait for him at her had begun to hint with melancholy smiles that he must think but little of her if he never introduced her to his friends if he was unwilling to be seen with her except at the he thought of taking her to the ladies of the club but that was too dangerous he would have to introduce her and oh people might and he on the she was unusually smart all in black small black hat short black coat loose and swinging and austere high black velvet frock at a time when most street were like evening gowns perhaps she was too smart every one in the gold and oak of the was staring at her as followed her to a table he uneasily hoped that the head waiter would give them a discreet place behind a pillar but they were stationed on the aisle seemed not to notice her admirers she smiled at with a lavish oh isn t this what a looking had difficulty in being lavish in return for two tables away he saw all through the meal watched them while watched himself being watched and tried to keep from s gaiety i felt like a to day she i love the don t you it s so live and yet so so refined he made talk about the the service the food the people he recognized in the all but there did not seem to be anything else to talk of he smiled at her fluttering he agreed with her that was so hard to get along with and young such a silly lazy kid really just no good at all but he himself had nothing to say he considered telling her his about but oh it was too much work to go into the whole thing and explain about and everything he was relieved when he put on a he was cheerful in the familiar of his office at four o clock called on him was agitated but began in a friendly way how s the boy say some of us are getting up a scheme we d kind of like to have you come in on fine shoot you know during the war we had the element the and walking and just the plain common dead to rights and so did we for quite a while after the war but folks forget about the danger and that gives these a chance to begin working again especially a lot of these parlor well it s up to the folks that do a little sound thinking to make a conscious effort to keep these fellows some back east has organized a society called the good citizens league for just that pose of course the chamber of commerce and the american and so on do a fine work in keeping the decent people in the saddle but they re devoted to so many other causes that they can t attend to this one problem properly but the good citizens league the g c l they stick right to it oh the g c l has to have some other purposes here in i think it ought to support the park extension project and the city planning committee and then too it should have a social aspect being made up of the best people have dances and so on especially as one of the best ways it can put the on is to apply this social business to folks big enough so you can t reach em otherwise then if that don t work the g c l can finally send a little around to inform folks that get too that they got to to decent standards and quit shooting off their mouths so free don t it sound like the organization could do a great work we ve already got some of the strongest men in town and of course we want you in how about it was uncomfortable he felt a back to all the standards he had so vaguely yet so desperately been he i suppose you d especially light on fellows like and try to make em you bet your sweet life we would look here old ive never for one moment believed you meant it when you ve defended and the and so on at the club i knew you were simply those poor like at least i certainly hope you were h well sure course you might say was conscious of how feeble he sounded conscious of s mature and eye you know where i i m no labor i m a business man first last and all the time but but honestly i don t think means so badly and you got to remember h s an old friend of mine george when it comes right down to a struggle between decency and the security of our homes on the one hand and red ruin and those lazy dogs for free beer on the other you got to give up even old he that is not with me is against me | 42 |
ye es i suppose how about it going to join us in the good citizens league i ll have to think it over all right just as you say was relieved to be let off so easily but went on george i don t know what s come over you none of us do and we ve talked a lot about you for a while we figured out you d been upset by what happened to poor and we forgave you for any fool things you said but that s old stuff now george and we can t make out what s got into you personally i ve always defended you but i must say it s getting too much for me all the boys at the club and the are sore the way you go on deliberately and his bunch of hell hounds and talking about being liberal which means being and even saying this preacher isn t a professional free love artist and then the way you been carrying on personally joe says he saw you out the other night with a gang of all to the and here to day coming right into the with a well she may be all right and a perfect lady but she certainly did look like a pretty gay skirt for a fellow with his wife out of town to be taking to lunch didn t look well what the devil has come over you george strikes me there s a lot of fellows that know more about my personal business than i do myself now don t go getting sore at me because i come out like a friend and say what i think instead of behind your back the way a whole lot of em do i tell you george you got a position in the community and the community expects you to live up to it and better think over joining the good citizens league see you about it later he was gone that evening dined alone he saw all the of good fellows peering through the window on him fear sat beside him and he told himself that to night he would not go to s flat and he did not go late chapter xxx the summer before mrs s letters had with desire to return to now they said nothing of returning but a wistful i suppose everything is going on all right without me among her dry of weather and hinted to that he hadn t been very urgent about her coming he worried it if she were here and i went on raising like i been doing she d have a fit i got to get hold of myself i got to learn to play around and yet not make a fool of myself i can do it too if folks like let me alone and stay away but poor kid she sounds lonely lord t don t want to hurt her he wrote that they missed her and her next letter said happily that she was coming home he persuaded himself that he was eager to see her he bought roses for the house he ordered for dinner he had the car cleaned and polished all the way home from the station with her he was adequate in his accounts of ted s success in basket ball at the university but before they reached heights there was nothing more to say and already he felt the force of her wondered whether he could remain a good husband and still out of the house this evening for half an hour with the bunch when he had the car he upstairs into the familiar warmth of her presence help you your bag no i can do it slowly she turned holding up a small box and slowly she said i brought you a present just a new cigar case i don t know if you d care to have it she was the lonely girl the brown appealing whom he had married and he almost wept for pity as he kissed her and oh honey honey care to have it of course i do i m awful proud you brought ft to me and i needed a new case badly he wondered how he would get rid of the case he had bought the week before and you really are glad to see me back why you poor what you been worrying about well you didn t seem to miss me very much by the time he had finished his of lying they were firmly bound again by ten that evening it seemed improbable that she had ever been away there was but one difference the problem of remaining a respectable husband a heights husband yet seeing and the with he had promised to to that evening and now it was impossible he about the thrusting out a hand to lift the but never quite daring to risk it nor could he find a reason for slipping down to the store on smith street with its he was laden with responsibility till he threw it off with the speculation why the deuce should i fret so about not being able to she can get along without me i don t owe her anything she s a fine girl but i ve given her just as much as she has me oh damn these women and the way they get you all tied up in for a week he was attentive to his wife took her to the to dinner at the then the old weary and shifting began and at least two evenings a week he spent with the bunch he still made of going to the and to committee meetings but less and less did he trouble to have his excuses interesting less and less did she affect to believe them he was certain that she knew | 42 |
he was with what heights called a crowd yet neither of them acknowledged it in matrimonial geography the distance between the first mute recognition of a break and the admission thereof is as great as the distance between the first faith and the first doubting as he began to drift away he also began to see her as a human being to like and dislike her instead of accepting her as a comparatively part of the furniture and he that husband and wife relation which in years of married life had become a separate and real he recalled their high lights the summer in virginia meadows under the blue wall of the mountains their tour through and the of and the birth of their building of this new house planned to comfort them through a happy old age they had said that it might be the last home either of them would ever have yet his most softening remembrance of these dear moments did not keep him from barking at dinner going out f few hours don t sit up for me he did not dare now to come home drunk and though he rejoiced in his return to high morality and spoke with gravity to and about their drinking he at s and meditated that a fellow couldn t ever learn to handle himself if he was always by a lot of women he no longer wondered if wasn t a bit worn and sentimental in contrast to the complacent he saw her as swift and air borne and radiant a fire spirit tenderly stooping to the hearth and however he on his wife he longed to be with then mrs tore the decent cloak from her and the astounded male discovered that she was having a small determined rebellion of her own m they were beside the fire place in the evening she said you haven t given me the list of your household expenses while i was away no i haven t made it out yet very we must try to keep down expenses this year that s so i don t know where all the money goes to i try to but it just seems to i suppose i t to spend so much on cigars don t know but what i ll cut down my smoking maybe cut it out entirely i was thinking of a good way to do it the other day start on these and they d kind of disgust me with smoking oh i do wish you would it isn t that i care but honestly george it is so bad for you to smoke so much don t you think you could reduce the amount and george i notice now when you come home from these and all that sometimes you smell of you know i don t worry so much about the moral side of it but you have a weak stomach and you can t stand all this drinking weak stomach hell i guess i can carry my about as well as most folks well i do think you ought to be careful don t you see dear i don t want you to get sick sick rats i m not a baby i guess i ain t going to get sick just because maybe once a week i shoot a that s the trouble with women they always so george i don t think you ought to talk that way when i m just speaking for your own good i know but all that s the trouble with women they re always and and bringing things up and then they say it s for your own good why george that s not a nice way to talk to answer me so short well i didn t mean to answer short but talking as if i was a not able to one without calling for the st mary s a fine idea you must have of me oh it isn t that it s just i don t want to see you get sick and my i didn t know it was so late don t forget to give me those household accounts for the time while i was away oh thunder what s the use of taking the trouble to make em out now let s just em for that period why george in all the years we ve been married we ve never failed to keep a complete account of every penny we ve spent no maybe that s the trouble with us what in the world do you mean oh i don t mean anything only sometimes i get so sick and tired of all this routine and the at the office and expenses at home and and and and wearing myself out worrying over a lot of that doesn t really mean a thing and being so careful and good lord what do you think i m made for i could have been a good orator and here i fuss and fret and worry don t you suppose i ever get tired of i get so bored with ordering three meals a day three hundred and sixty five days a year and my eyes over that horrid sewing machine and looking after your clothes and s and ted s and s and everybody s and the and and going down to the to market and bringing my basket home to save money on the cash and everything well with a certain astonishment i suppose maybe you do but talk about here i have to be in the office every single day while you can go out all afternoon and see folks and visit with the neighbors and do any thing you want to yes and a fine lot of good that does me just talking over the same old things with the same old | 42 |
crowd while you have all sorts of interesting people coming in to sec you at the office interesting old that want to know why i haven t their dear precious homes for about seven times their value and bunch of old the everlasting out of me because they don t receive every cent of their by three g m on the second of the month sure interesting just as interesting as the small now george i will not have you shouting at me that way well it gets my goat the way women figure out that a man doesn t do a thing but sit on his chair and have with a lot of and give em the glad eye i guess you manage to give them a glad enough eye when they do come in what do you mean mean i m chasing i should hope not at your age now you look here you may not believe it of course all you see is fat little sure handy man around the house the furnace when the furnace man doesn t show up and pays the bills but dull awful dull well you may not believe it but there s some women that think old george isn t such a bad they think he s not so bad looking not so bad that it hurts anyway and he s got a pretty good line of and some even think he shakes a wicked at dancing yes she spoke slowly i haven t much doubt that when i m away you manage to find people who properly appreciate you well i just mean he protested with a sound of denial then he was into semi honesty you bet i do i find plenty of folks and nice ones that don t think i m a weak baby that s exactly what i was saying you can run around with anybody you please but i m supposed to sit here and wait for you you have the chance to get all sorts of culture and everything and i just stay home well almighty there s nothing to prevent your reading books and going to lectures and all that is there george i told you i won t have you shouting at me like that i don t know what s come over you you never used to speak to me in this way i didn t mean to sound but it certainly makes me sore to get the blame because you don t keep up with things i m going to will you help me sure anything i can do to help you in the culture line yours to oblige g f very well then i want you to go to mrs s new thought meeting with me next sunday afternoon mrs who s which mrs the field for the american new thought league she s going to speak on the sun spirit before the league of the higher illumination at the oh new thought thought with a egg the it sounds like why is a mouse when it that s a fine for a good to be going to when you can hear drew reverend drew is a scholar and a pulpit orator and all that but he hasn t got the inner as mrs calls it he hasn t any inspiration for the new era women need inspiration now so i want you to come as you promised iv the branch of the league of the higher illumination met in the smaller at the hotel a refined apartment with pale green walls and plaster wreaths of roses refined and refined frail gilt chairs here were gathered sixty five women and ten men most of the men in their chairs and while their wives sat rigidly at attention but two of them men were as devout as their wives they were newly rich who having bought houses hand painted pictures and were now buying a refined ready made philosophy it had been a with them whether to buy new thought christian science or a good standard high church model of in the flesh mrs fell somewhat short of a prophetic aspect she was pony built and plump with the face of a haughty a button of a nose and arms so short that despite her most indignant she could not clasp her hands in front of her as she sat on the platform waiting her frock of and green velvet with three strings of glass beads and large folding eye glasses dangling from a black ribbon was a triumph of refinement mrs was introduced by the president of the league of the higher illumination an young woman with a yearning voice white and a she said that mrs would now make it plain to the simplest intellect how the sun spirit could be cultivated and they who had been thinking about one would do well to treasure mrs s words because even and everybody knew that stood in the van of spiritual and new thought progress didn t often have the opportunity to sit at the feet of such an inspiring and as mrs who had lived the life of wider usefulness through and in the silence found those secrets of mental control and the inner key which were immediately going to and bring peace power and prosperity to the unhappy nations and so friends would they for this precious studded hour forget the of the seeming real and in the of the deep lying pass along with mrs to the realm beautiful if mrs was rather than one would like one s and yet her voice had the real professional note it was refined and it was calm it flowed on without one till was her favorite word was always which she pronounced ways her principal gesture was a but thoroughly blessing with two fingers she explained about this matter of | 42 |
gone and got him into these mix and made him all and nervous and too many cut em out he wanted peace for ten days he did not see nor to her and instantly she put upon him the which he hated when he had stayed away from her for five days taking pride in his and how greatly must miss him miss reported mrs on the like t speak t you bout some was quick and quiet mr oh george this is i haven t seen you for weeks days anyway you aren t sick are you no just been terribly rushed i i think there ll be a big revival of building this year got to got to work hard of course my man i want you to you know i m ter ambitious for you much more than i am for myself i just don t want you to forget poor will you call me up soon sure you bet please do i sha n t call you again he meditated poor kid but she t to me at the office she s a wonder sympathy ambitious for me but i won t be made and compelled to call her up till i get ready these women the way they make demands it ll be one long old time before i see her but i d like to see her to night sweet little thing oh cut that son now you ve broken away be wise she did not again nor he but after five more days she wrote to him have i you you must know dear i didn t mean to i m so lonely and i need somebody to cheer me up why didn t you come to the nice party we had at s last evening i remember she invited you can t you come around here to morrow evening i shall be alone and hope to see you his reflections were numerous it why can t she let me alone why can t women ever learn a fellow hates to be and they always take advantage of you by yelling how lonely they are now that isn t nice of you young she s a fine square straight girl and she does get lonely she writes a swell hand nice looking plain refined i guess i ll have to go see her well thank god i got till to morrow night free of her anyway she s nice but hang it i won t be made to do things i m not married to her no nor by going to be i oh rats i suppose i better go see her thursday the to morrow of s note was full of at the table at the club talked of the good citizens league and it seemed to deliberately left him out of the invitations to join old mat the general utility man at s office had troubles and came in to groan about them his oldest boy was no good his wife was sick and he had with his brother in law also had troubles and since was one of his best had to listen to them mr it appeared was suffering from a peculiarly interesting and the had him when came home everybody had troubles his wife was simultaneously thinking about the impudent new maid and worried lest the maid leave and desired to her teacher oh quit you never hear me about my troubles and yet if you had to run a office why to day i found miss was two days behind with her accounts and i pinched my finger in my desk and was in and just as unreasonable as ever he was so vexed that after dinner when it was time for a escape to he merely to his wife got to go out be back by eleven should think oh you re going out again again what do you mean again haven t hardly been out of the house for a week are you are you going to the got to see some people though this time he heard his own voice and knew that it was though she was looking at him with wide eyed reproach he into the hall jerked on his and gloves and went out to start the car he was relieved to find cheerful and brilliant in a frock of brown net over gold you poor man having to come out on a night like this it s terribly cold don t you think a small would be nice now by there s a woman with i think we could more or less stand a if it wasn t too long a one not over a foot tall he kissed her with careless he forgot the of her demands he stretched in a large chair and felt that he had beautifully come home he was suddenly he told her what a noble and misunderstood man he was and how superior to and the other men of their acquaintance and she bending forward chin in charming hand brightly agreed but when he forced himself to ask well honey how s things with you she took his duty question seriously and he discovered that she too had troubles oh all right but i did get so angry with she told that i told her that was an awful and told me had told her and of course i told her i hadn t said anything of the kind and then found had told me and she was simply furious because had told me and of course i was just boiling because had told her i d told her and then we all met up at s his wife is away thank heavens oh there s the floor in his house to dance on and we were all of us simply | 42 |
furious at each other and oh i do hate that kind of a mix up don t you i mean it s so lacking in refinement but and mother wants to come and stay with me for a whole month and of course i do love her i suppose i do but honestly she ll my style something dreadful she never can learn not to comment and she always wants to know where i m going when i go out evenings and if i lie to her she always around and around and finds out where i ve been and then she looks like patience on a monument till i could just scream and oh i must tell you you know i never talk about myself i just hate people who do don t you but i feel so stupid to night and i know i must be you with all this but what would you do about mother he gave her masculine advice she was to put off her mother s stay she was to tell to go to the deuce for these valuable revelations she thanked him and they into the familiar gossip of the bunch of what a sentimental fool was of what a lazy was of how nice could be course lots of people think he s a regular old when they meet him because he doesn t give em the glad hand the first crack out of the box but when they get to know him he s a but as they had gone through each of these before the conversation staggered tried to be intellectual and deal with general topics he said some thoroughly sound things about and and but it seemed to him that general topics interested only when she could apply them to or themselves he was conscious of their silence he tried to stir her into chattering again but silence rose like a gray presence and hovered between them i he labored it strikes me it strikes me that is maybe will get a decent job then silence desperately he what s the trouble old honey you seem kind of quiet to night am i oh i m not but do you really care whether i am or not care sure course i do do you really she on him sat on the arm of his chair he hated the drain of having to appear fond of her he her hand smiled up at her and sank back george i wonder if you really like me at all course i do silly do you really precious do you care a bit why certainly you don t suppose i d be here if i didn t now see here young man i won t have you speaking to me in that way i didn t mean to sound i just in injured and rather childish tones almighty it makes me tired the way everybody says i sound when i just talk natural do they expect me to sing it or something who do you mean by everybody how many other ladies have you been look here now i won t have this humbly i know dear i was only i know it didn t mean to talk it was just tired forgive bad but say you love me say it i love you course i do yes you do oh darling i don t mean to be rude but i get so lonely i feel so useless nobody needs me nothing i can do for anybody and you know dear i m so active i could be if there was something to do and i am young aren t i i m not an old thing i m not old and stupid am i he had to assure her she his hair and he had to look pleased under that touch the more demanding in its softness he was impatient he wanted to flee out to a hard sure man world through her delicate and caressing fingers she may have caught something of his she left him he was for the moment relieved she dragged a to his feet and sat looking up at him but as in many men the of a dog the of a frightened child rouse not pity but a surprised and cruelty so her humility only annoyed him and he saw her now as middle aged as beginning to be old even while be detested his own thoughts they rode him she was old he old he noted how the soft flesh was into folds beneath her chin below her eyes at the base of her wrists a patch of her throat had a minute like the from a rubber old she was younger in years than himself yet it was sickening to have her yearning up at him with rolling great eyes as if he shuddered his own aunt were making love to him he fretted inwardly i m through with this around i m going to cut her out she s a decent nice woman and i don t want to hurt her but it ll hurt a lot less to cut her right out like a good clean operation he was on his feet he was speaking by every rule of self esteem he had to prove to her and to himself that it was her fault i suppose maybe i m kind of out of sorts to night but honest honey when i stayed away for a while to catch up on work and everything and figure out where i was at you ought to have been and waited till i came back can t you see dear when you made me come i being about an average bull headed my tendency was to resist listen dear i m going now not | 42 |
for a while precious no right now and then sometime we ll see about the future what do you mean dear about the future have i done something i t to oh i m so dreadfully sorry he resolutely put his hands behind him not a thing god bless you not a thing you re as good as they make em but it s just good lord do you realize i ve got things to do in the world i ve got a business to attend to and you might not believe it but i ve got a wife and that i m awful fond of then only during the murder he was committing was he able to feel nobly virtuous i want us to be friends but i can t go on this way feeling i got to come up here every so often oh darling darling and i ve always told you so carefully that you were absolutely free i just wanted you to come around when you were tired and wanted to talk to me or when you could enjoy our parties she was so reasonable she was so gently right it took him an hour to make his escape with nothing settled and everything horribly settled in a barren freedom of icy northern wind he sighed thank god that s over poor poor darling decent i but it is over absolute i m chapter his wife was up when he came in did you have a good time she i did not i had a rotten anything else i got to explain george how can you speak like oh i don t know what s come over you good lord there s nothing come over me why do you look for trouble all the time he was warning himself careful stop being so disagreeable course she feels it being left alone here all evening but he forgot his warning as she went on why do you go out and see all sorts of strange people i suppose you ll say you ve been to another committee meeting this evening i ve been calling on a woman we sat by the fire and each other and had a whale of a good time if you want to know well from the way you say it i suppose it s my fault you went there i probably sent you you did well upon my word you hate strange people as you call em if you had your way i d be as much of an old stick in the mud as you never want to have anybody with any to em at the house you want a bunch of old that sit around and gas about the weather you re doing your level best to make me old well let me tell you i m not going to have overwhelmed she bent to his and in answer she mourned oh dearest i don t think that s true i don t mean to make you old i know perhaps you re partly right perhaps i am slow about getting acquainted with new people but when you think of all the dear good times we have and the supper parties and the and all with true masculine he not only convinced himself that she had injured him but by the of his voice and the of his attack he convinced her also and presently he had her for his having spent the evening with he went up to bed well pleased not only the master but the martyr of the household for a distasteful moment after he had lain down he wondered if he had been altogether just ought to be ashamed her maybe there is her side to things maybe she hasn t had such a time herself but i don t care good for her to get up a little and i m going to keep free of her and and the fellows at the club and everybody i m going to run my own life in this mood he was particularly objectionable at the ers club lunch next day they were addressed by a who had just returned from an three months study of the political systems divisions resources and of germany france great britain italy and he told them all about those subjects together with three funny stories about european of america and some spirited words on the necessity of keeping ignorant foreigners out of america say that was a mighty talk real he stuff said i but the grumbled four bunch of hot air and what s the matter with the they aren t all ignorant and i got a we re all descended from ourselves oh you make me tired said mr was aware that dr a i was sternly listening from across the table dr was one of the most important men in the he was not a physician but a surgeon a more romantic and sounding occupation he was an intense large man with a boiling of black hair and a thick black the newspapers often his operations he was professor of in the state university he went to dinner at the very best houses on royal ridge and he was said to be worth several hundred thousand dollars it was to to have such a person at him he hastily praised the s wit to but for dr s benefit in that afternoon three men shouldered into s office with the air of a committee in frontier days they were large resolute big men and they were all high lords in the land of dr the surgeon charles the and most of all the white bearded colonel snow owner of the advocate times in their presence felt small and insignificant well well great pleasure have chairs what c n i do for you he they neither sat nor offered observations on | 42 |
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