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
Presented at Several Courts, At A Period When It
Was A Distinction To Do So. He Had Always Sketched,
And With His Father'S Leave He Fixed himself At Rome,
Where He Remained studying art And Rounding the Being
of 1 Part 5 Pg 57Inherited from His Yankee Progenitors, Till There
Was Very Little Left Of The Ancestral Angularities.
After Ten Years He Came Home And Painted that Portrait
Of His Father. It Was Very Good, If A Little Amateurish,
And He Might Have Made Himself A Name As A Painter
Of Portraits If He Had Not Had So Much Money. But He
Had Plenty Of Money, Though By This Time He Was Married
And Beginning to Have A Family. It Was Absurd For Him
To Paint Portraits For Pay, And Ridiculous To Paint
Them For Nothing; So He Did Not Paint Them At All.
He Continued a Dilettante, Never Quite Abandoning his Art,
But Working at It Fitfully, And Talking more About It
Than Working at It. He Had His Theory Of Titian'S Method;
And Now And Then A Bostonian Insisted upon Buying a
Picture Of Him. After A While He Hung It More And More
Inconspicuously, And Said Apologetically, "Oh Yes! That'S
One Of Bromfield Corey'S Things. It Has Nice Qualities,
But It'S Amateurish."
In Process Of Time The Money Seemed less Abundant.
There Were Shrinkages Of One Kind And Another,
And Living had Grown Much More Expensive And Luxurious.
For Many Years He Talked about Going back To Rome, But He
Never Went, And His Children Grew Up In the Usual Way.
Before He Knew It His Son Had Him Out To His Class-Day
Spread At Harvard, And Then He Had His Son On His Hands.
The Son Made Various Unsuccessful Provisions For Himself,
And Still Continued upon His Father'S Hands, To Their
Common Dissatisfaction, Though It Was Chiefly The Younger
Who Repined. He Had The Roman Nose And The Energy Without
The Opportunity, And At One Of The Reversions His Father
Said To Him, "You Ought Not To Have That Nose, Tom;
Then You Would Do Very Well. You Would Go And Travel,
As I Did."
Lapham And His Wife Continued talking after He Had
Quelled the Disturbance In his Daughters' Room Overhead;
And Their Talk Was Not Altogether Of The New House.
"I Tell You," He Said, "If I Had That Fellow In the
Business With Me I Would Make A Man Of Him."
"Well, Silas Lapham," Returned his Wife, "I Do Believe
You'Ve Got Mineral Paint On The Brain. Do You Suppose
A Fellow Like Young Corey, Brought Up The Way He'S Been,
Would Touch Mineral Paint With A Ten-Foot Pole?"
"Why Not?" Haughtily Asked the Colonel.
"Well, If You Don'T Know Already, There'S No Use Trying
To Tell You."
of 1 Part 6 Pg 58
The Coreys Had Always Had A House At Nahant, But After
Letting it For A Season Or Two They Found They Could
Get On Without It, And Sold It At The Son'S Instance,
Who Foresaw That If Things Went On As They Were Going,
The Family Would Be Straitened to The Point Of Changing
Their Mode Of Life Altogether. They Began To Be
Of The People Of Whom It Was Said That They Stayed
In Town Very Late; And When The Ladies Did Go Away,
It Was For A Brief Summering in this Place And That.
The Father Remained at Home Altogether; And The Son Joined
Them In the Intervals Of His Enterprises, Which Occurred
Only Too Often.
At Bar Harbour, Where He Now Went To Find Them,
After His Winter In texas, He Confessed to His Mother
That There Seemed no Very Good Opening there For Him.
He Might Do As Well As Loring stanton, But He Doubted
If Stanton Was Doing very Well. Then He Mentioned
The New Project Which He Had Been Thinking over.
She Did Not Deny That There Was Something in it,
But She Could Not Think Of Any Young Man Who Had Gone
Into Such A Business As That, And It Appeared to Her That
He Might As Well Go Into A Patent Medicine Or A Stove-Polish.
"There Was One Of His Hideous Advertisements," She Said,
"Painted on A Reef That We Saw As We Came Down."
Corey Smiled. "Well, I Suppose, If It Was In a Good State
Of Preservation, That Is Proof Positive Of The Efficacy
Of The Paint On The Hulls Of Vessels."
"It'S Very Distasteful To Me, Tom," Said His Mother;
And If There Was Something else In her Mind, She Did
Not Speak More Plainly Of It Than To Add: "It'S Not Only
The Kind Of Business, But The Kind Of People You Would
Be Mixed up With."
"I Thought You Didn'T Find Them So Very Bad," Suggested corey.
"I Hadn'T Seen Them In nankeen Square Then."
"You Can See Them On The Water Side Of Beacon Street
When You Go Back."
Then He Told Of His Encounter With The Lapham Family
In Their New House. At The End His Mother Merely Said,
"It Is Getting very Common Down There," And She Did Not
Try To Oppose Anything further To His Scheme.
of 1 Part 6 Pg 59The Young Man Went To See Colonel Lapham Shortly After His
Return To Boston. He Paid His Visit At Lapham'S Office,
And If He Had Studied simplicity In his Summer Dress
He Could Not Have Presented himself In a Figure More
To The Mind Of A Practical Man. His Hands And Neck
Still Kept The Brown Of The Texan Suns And Winds,
And He Looked as Business-Like As Lapham Himself.
He Spoke Up Promptly And Briskly In the Outer Office,
And Caused the Pretty Girl To Look Away From Her Copying
At Him. "Is Mr. Lapham In?" He Asked; And After That
Moment For Reflection Which An Array Of Book-Keepers
So Addressed likes To Give The Inquirer, A Head Was Lifted
From A Ledger And Nodded toward The Inner Office.
Lapham Had Recognised the Voice, And He Was Standing,
In Considerable Perplexity, To Receive Corey, When The Young
Man Opened his Painted glass Door. It Was A Hot Afternoon,
And Lapham Was In his Shirt Sleeves. Scarcely A Trace
Of The Boastful Hospitality With Which He Had Welcomed
Corey To His House A Few Days Before Lingered in his
Present Address. He Looked at The Young Man'S Face,
As If He Expected him To Despatch Whatever Unimaginable
Affair He Had Come Upon.
"Won'T You Sit Down? How Are You? You'Ll Excuse Me,"
He Added, In brief Allusion To The Shirt-Sleeves. "I'M
About Roasted."
Corey Laughed. "I Wish You'D Let Me Take Off My Coat."
"Why, Take It Off!" Cried the Colonel, With Instant Pleasure.
There Is Something in human Nature Which Causes The Man
In His Shirt-Sleeves To Wish All Other Men To Appear
In The Same Deshabille.
"I Will, If You Ask Me After I'Ve Talked with You Two Minutes,"
Said The Young Fellow, Companionably Pulling up The Chair Offered
Him Toward The Desk Where Lapham Had Again Seated himself.
"But Perhaps You Haven'T Got Two Minutes To Give Me?"
"Oh Yes, I Have," Said The Colonel. "I Was Just Going
To Knock Off. I Can Give You Twenty, And Then I Shall
Have Fifteen Minutes To Catch The Boat."
"All Right," Said Corey. "I Want You To Take Me Into
The Mineral Paint Business."
The Colonel Sat Dumb. He Twisted his Thick Neck,
And Looked round At The Door To See If It Was Shut.
He Would Not Have Liked to Have Any Of Those Fellows
Outside Hear Him, But There Is No Saying what Sum Of Money
He Would Not Have Given If His Wife Had Been There To Hear
What Corey Had Just Said.
"I Suppose," Continued the Young Man, "I Could Have Got
Several People Whose Names You Know To Back My Industry
And Sobriety, And Say A Word For My Business Capacity.
of 1 Part 6 Pg 60But I Thought I Wouldn'T Trouble Anybody For Certificates
Till I Found Whether There Was A Chance, Or The Ghost Of One,
Of Your Wanting me. So I Came Straight To You."
Lapham Gathered himself Together As Well As He Could.
He Had Not Yet Forgiven Corey For Mrs. Lapham'S Insinuation
That He Would Feel Himself Too Good For The Mineral
Paint Business; And Though He Was Dispersed by That
Astounding shot At First, He Was Not Going to Let Any One
Even Hypothetically Despise His Paint With Impunity.
"How Do You Think I Am Going to Take You On?" They Took
On Hands At The Works; And Lapham Put It As If Corey
Were A Hand Coming to Him For Employment. Whether He
Satisfied himself By This Or Not, He Reddened a Little
After He Had Said It.
Corey Answered, Ignorant Of The Offence: "I Haven'T
A Very Clear Idea, I'M Afraid; But I'Ve Been Looking
A Little Into The Matter From The Outside"
"I Hope You Hain'T Been Paying any Attention To That
Fellow'S Stuff In the Events?" Lapham Interrupted.
Since Bartley'S Interview Had Appeared, Lapham Had
Regarded it With Very Mixed feelings. At First It
Gave Him A Glow Of Secret Pleasure, Blended with Doubt
As To How His Wife Would Like The Use Bartley Had Made
Of Her In it. But She Had Not Seemed to Notice It Much,
And Lapham Had Experienced the Gratitude Of The Man
Who Escapes. Then His Girls Had Begun To Make Fun Of It;
And Though He Did Not Mind Penelope'S Jokes Much, He Did
Not Like To See That Irene'S Gentility Was Wounded.
Business Friends Met Him With The Kind Of Knowing smile
About It That Implied their Sense Of The Fraudulent
Character Of Its Praise--The Smile Of Men Who Had Been
There And Who Knew How It Was Themselves. Lapham Had His
Misgivings As To How His Clerks And Underlings Looked at It;
He Treated them With Stately Severity For A While After
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