The Rise Of Silas Lapham By William Dean Howells Part 1, William Dean Howells [the red fox clan txt] 📗
- Author: William Dean Howells
Book online «The Rise Of Silas Lapham By William Dean Howells Part 1, William Dean Howells [the red fox clan txt] 📗». Author William Dean Howells
My Conscience Is Easy As Far As He Is Concerned, And It
Always Was."
of 1 Part 3 Pg 37
"And I Can'T Look At Him Without Feeling as If You'D
Ruined him, Silas."
"Don'T Look At Him, Then," Said Her Husband, With A Scowl.
"I Want You Should Recollect In the First Place, Persis,
That I Never Wanted a Partner."
"If He Hadn'T Put His Money In when He Did, You'D 'A'
Broken Down."
"Well, He Got His Money Out Again, And More, Too,"
Said The Colonel, With A Sulky Weariness.
"He Didn'T Want To Take It Out."
"I Gave Him His Choice: Buy Out Or Go Out."
"You Know He Couldn'T Buy Out Then. It Was No Choice
At All."
"It Was A Business Chance."
"No; You Had Better Face The Truth, Silas. It Was No Chance
At All. You Crowded him Out. A Man That Had Saved you! No,
You Had Got Greedy, Silas. You Had Made Your Paint Your God,
And You Couldn'T Bear To Let Anybody Else Share In its Blessings."
"I Tell You He Was A Drag And A Brake On Me From The Word Go.
You Say He Saved me. Well, If I Hadn'T Got Him Out He'D
'A' Ruined me Sooner Or Later. So It'S An Even Thing,
As Far Forth As That Goes."
"No, It Ain'T An Even Thing, And You Know It, Silas. Oh, If I
Could Only Get You Once To Acknowledge That You Did
Wrong About It, Then I Should Have Some Hope. I Don'T
Say You Meant Wrong Exactly, But You Took An Advantage.
Yes, You Took An Advantage! You Had Him Where He Couldn'T
Help Himself, And Then You Wouldn'T Show Him Any Mercy."
"I'M Sick Of This," Said Lapham. "If You'Ll 'Tend
To The House, I'Ll Manage My Business Without Your Help."
"You Were Very Glad Of My Help Once."
"Well, I'M Tired of It Now. Don'T Meddle."
"I Will Meddle. When I See You Hardening yourself In a
Wrong Thing, It'S Time For Me To Meddle, As You Call It,
And I Will. I Can'T Ever Get You To Own Up The Least
Bit About Rogers, And I Feel As If It Was Hurting you
All The While."
"What Do You Want I Should Own Up About A Thing for When I
Don'T Feel Wrong? I Tell You Rogers Hain'T Got Anything
To Complain Of, And That'S What I Told You From The Start.
It'S A Thing that'S Done Every Day. I Was Loaded up
With A Partner That Didn'T Know Anything, And Couldn'T
of 1 Part 3 Pg 38Do Anything, And I Unloaded; That'S All."
"You Unloaded just At The Time When You Knew That Your Paint
Was Going to Be Worth About Twice What It Ever Had Been;
And You Wanted all The Advantage For Yourself."
"I Had A Right To It. I Made The Success."
"Yes, You Made It With Rogers'S Money; And When You'D
Made It You Took His Share Of It. I Guess You Thought
Of That When You Saw Him, And That'S Why You Couldn'T
Look Him In the Face."
At These Words Lapham Lost His Temper.
"I Guess You Don'T Want To Ride With Me Any More To-Day,"
He Said, Turning the Mare Abruptly Round.
"I'M As Ready To Go Back As What You Are," Replied his Wife.
"And Don'T You Ask Me To Go To That House With You Any More.
You Can Sell It, For All Me. I Sha'N'T Live In it.
There'S Blood On It."
of 1 Part 4 Pg 39
The Silken Texture Of The Marriage Tie Bears A Daily Strain
Of Wrong And Insult To Which No Other Human Relation Can
Be Subjected without Lesion; And Sometimes The Strength
That Knits Society Together Might Appear To The Eye Of
Faltering faith The Curse Of Those Immediately Bound By It.
Two People By No Means Reckless Of Each Other'S Rights
And Feelings, But Even Tender Of Them For The Most Part,
May Tear At Each Other'S Heart-Strings In this Sacred
Bond With Perfect Impunity; Though If They Were Any
Other Two They Would Not Speak Or Look At Each Other
Again After The Outrages They Exchange. It Is Certainly
A Curious Spectacle, And Doubtless It Ought To Convince
An Observer Of The Divinity Of The Institution.
If The Husband And Wife Are Blunt, Outspoken People
Like The Laphams, They Do Not Weigh Their Words;
If They Are More Refined, They Weigh Them Very Carefully,
And Know Accurately Just How Far They Will Carry, And In
What Most Sensitive Spot They May Be Planted with Most Effect.
Lapham Was Proud Of His Wife, And When He Married her It
Had Been A Rise In life For Him. For A While He Stood
In Awe Of His Good Fortune, But This Could Not Last,
And He Simply Remained supremely Satisfied with It.
The Girl Who Had Taught School With A Clear Head And A Strong
of 1 Part 4 Pg 40Hand Was Not Afraid Of Work; She Encouraged and Helped him
From The First, And Bore Her Full Share Of The Common Burden.
She Had Health, And She Did Not Worry His Life Out With
Peevish Complaints And Vagaries; She Had Sense And Principle,
And In their Simple Lot She Did What Was Wise And Right.
Their Marriage Was Hallowed by An Early Sorrow: They
Lost Their Boy, And It Was Years Before They Could Look
Each Other In the Face And Speak Of Him. No One Gave Up
More Than They When They Gave Up Each Other And Lapham
Went To The War. When He Came Back And Began To Work,
Her Zeal And Courage Formed the Spring of His Enterprise.
In That Affair Of The Partnership She Had Tried to Be
His Conscience, But Perhaps She Would Have Defended him
If He Had Accused himself; It Was One Of Those Things
In This Life Which Seem Destined to Await Justice,
Or At Least Judgment, In the Next. As He Said, Lapham Had
Dealt Fairly By His Partner In money; He Had Let Rogers
Take More Money Out Of The Business Than He Put Into It;
He Had, As He Said, Simply Forced out Of It A Timid
And Inefficient Participant In advantages Which He
Had Created. But Lapham Had Not Created them All.
He Had Been Dependent At One Time On His Partner'S Capital.
It Was A Moment Of Terrible Trial. Happy Is The Man
For Ever After Who Can Choose The Ideal, The Unselfish
Part In such An Exigency! Lapham Could Not Rise To It.
He Did What He Could Maintain To Be Perfectly Fair.
The Wrong, If Any, Seemed to Be Condoned to Him,
Except When From Time To Time His Wife Brought It Up.
Then All The Question Stung And Burned anew, And Had
To Be Reasoned out And Put Away Once More. It Seemed
To Have An Inextinguishable Vitality. It Slept, But It Did
Not Die.
His Course Did Not Shake Mrs. Lapham'S Faith In him.
It Astonished her At First, And It Always Grieved
Her That He Could Not See That He Was Acting solely
In His Own Interest. But She Found Excuses For Him,
Which At Times She Made Reproaches. She Vaguely Perceived
That His Paint Was Something more Than Business To Him;
It Was A Sentiment, Almost A Passion. He Could Not
Share Its Management And Its Profit With Another Without
A Measure Of Self-Sacrifice Far Beyond That Which He Must
Make With Something less Personal To Him. It Was The
Poetry Of That Nature, Otherwise So Intensely Prosaic;
And She Understood This, And For The Most Part Forbore.
She Knew Him Good And True And Blameless In all His Life,
Except For This Wrong, If It Were A Wrong; And It Was Only
When Her Nerves Tingled intolerably With Some Chance Renewal
Of The Pain She Had Suffered, That She Shared her Anguish
With Him In true Wifely Fashion.
With Those Two There Was Never Anything like An
Explicit Reconciliation. They Simply Ignored a Quarrel;
And Mrs. Lapham Had Only To Say A Few Days After
At Breakfast, "I Guess The Girls Would Like To Go Round
With You This Afternoon, And Look At The New House,"
In Order To Make Her Husband Grumble Out As He Looked
Down Into His Coffee-Cup. "I Guess We Better All Go, Hadn'T We?"
of 1 Part 4 Pg 41
"Well, I'Ll See," She Said.
There Was Not Really A Great Deal To Look At When Lapham
Arrived on The Ground In his Four-Seated beach-Wagon.
But The Walls Were Up, And The Studding had Already
Given Skeleton Shape To The Interior. The Floors Were
Roughly Boarded over, And The Stairways Were In place,
With Provisional Treads Rudely Laid. They Had Not Begun
To Lath And Plaster Yet, But The Clean, Fresh Smell Of The
Mortar In the Walls Mingling with The Pungent Fragrance
Of The Pine Shavings Neutralised the Venetian Odour That
Drew In over The Water. It Was Pleasantly Shady There,
Though For The Matter Of That The Heat Of The Morning
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