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
Man Would Be An Old Story, Heard Afar Off With Different
Degrees Of Surprise, And Considered with Different
Degrees Of Indifference. A Man Has Not Reached the Age
Of Twenty-Six In any Community Where He Was Born And Reared
Without Having had His Capacity Pretty Well Ascertained;
And In boston The Analysis Is Conducted with An Unsparing
Thoroughness Which May Fitly Impress The Un-Bostonian Mind,
Darkened by The Popular Superstition That The Bostonians
Blindly Admire One Another. A Man'S Qualities Are Sifted
As Closely In boston As They Doubtless Were In florence
Or Athens; And, If Final Mercy Was Shown In those Cities
Because A Man Was, With All His Limitations, An Athenian
Or Florentine, Some Abatement Might As Justly Be Made
In Boston For Like Reason. Corey'S Powers Had Been Gauged
In College, And He Had Not Given His World Reason To Think
Very Differently Of Him Since He Came Out Of College.
He Was Rated as An Energetic Fellow, A Little Indefinite
In Aim, With The Smallest Amount Of Inspiration That Can Save
A Man From Being commonplace. If He Was Not Commonplace,
It Was Through Nothing remarkable In his Mind, Which Was
Simply Clear And Practical, But Through Some Combination
Of Qualities Of The Heart That Made Men Trust Him, And Women
Call Him Sweet--A Word Of Theirs Which Conveys Otherwise
Indefinable Excellences. Some Of The More Nervous And
Excitable Said That Tom Corey Was As Sweet As He Could Live;
But This Perhaps Meant No More Than The Word Alone.
No Man Ever Had A Son Less Like Him Than Bromfield Corey.
If Tom Corey Had Ever Said A Witty Thing, No One Could
Remember It; And Yet The Father Had Never Said A Witty
Thing to A More Sympathetic Listener Than His Own Son.
The Clear Mind Which Produced nothing but Practical
Results Reflected everything with Charming lucidity;
And It Must Have Been This Which Endeared tom Corey To Every
One Who Spoke Ten Words With Him. In a City Where People
Have Good Reason For Liking to Shine, A Man Who Did
Not Care To Shine Must Be Little Short Of Universally
Acceptable Without Any Other Effort For Popularity;
And Those Who Admired and Enjoyed bromfield Corey Loved
His Son. Yet, When It Came To Accounting for Tom Corey,
As It Often Did In a Community Where Every One'S Generation
Is Known To The Remotest Degrees Of Cousinship, They Could
Not Trace His Sweetness To His Mother, For Neither Anna
Bellingham Nor Any Of Her Family, Though They Were So Many
Blocks Of Wenham Ice For Purity And Rectangularity, Had Ever
Had Any Such Savour; And, In fact, It Was To His Father,
Whose Habit Of Talk Wronged it In himself, That They
Had To Turn For This Quality Of The Son'S. They Traced
To The Mother The Traits Of Practicality And Common-Sense
In Which He Bordered upon The Commonplace, And Which,
When They Had Dwelt Upon Them, Made Him Seem Hardly Worth
The Close Inquiry They Had Given Him.
While The Summer Wore Away He Came And Went Methodically
About His Business, As If It Had Been The Business
Of His Life, Sharing his Father'S Bachelor Liberty
And Solitude, And Expecting with Equal Patience The Return
Of His Mother And Sisters In the Autumn. Once Or Twice
He Found Time To Run Down To Mt. Desert And See Them;
of 1 Part 10 Pg 108And Then He Heard How The Philadelphia And New York People
Were Getting in everywhere, And Was Given Reason To Regret
The House At Nahant Which He Had Urged to Be Sold.
He Came Back And Applied himself To His Desk With A
Devotion That Was Exemplary Rather Than Necessary;
For Lapham Made No Difficulty About The Brief Absences
Which He Asked, And Set No Term To The Apprenticeship
That Corey Was Serving in the Office Before Setting off
Upon That Mission To South America In the Early Winter,
For Which No Date Had Yet Been Fixed.
The Summer Was A Dull Season For The Paint As Well
As For Everything else. Till Things Should Brisk Up,
As Lapham Said, In the Fall, He Was Letting the New
House Take A Great Deal Of His Time. Aesthetic Ideas
Had Never Been Intelligibly Presented to Him Before,
And He Found A Delight In apprehending them That Was Very
Grateful To His Imaginative Architect. At The Beginning,
The Architect Had Foreboded a Series Of Mortifying
Defeats And Disastrous Victories In his Encounters
With His Client; But He Had Never Had A Client Who Could
Be More Reasonably Led on From One Outlay To Another.
It Appeared that Lapham Required but To Understand Or Feel
The Beautiful Effect Intended, And He Was Ready To Pay
For It. His Bull-Headed pride Was Concerned in a Thing
Which The Architect Made Him See, And Then He Believed
That He Had Seen It Himself, Perhaps Conceived it.
In Some Measure The Architect Seemed to Share His Delusion,
And Freely Said That Lapham Was Very Suggestive.
Together They Blocked out Windows Here, And Bricked them
Up There; They Changed doors And Passages; Pulled down
Cornices And Replaced them With Others Of Different Design;
Experimented with Costly Devices Of Decoration,
And Went To Extravagant Lengths In novelties Of Finish.
Mrs. Lapham, Beginning with A Woman'S Adventurousness In the
Unknown Region, Took Fright At The Reckless Outlay At Last,
And Refused to Let Her Husband Pass A Certain Limit.
He Tried to Make Her Believe That A Far-Seeing economy
Dictated the Expense; And That If He Put The Money Into
The House, He Could Get It Out Any Time By Selling it.
She Would Not Be Persuaded.
"I Don'T Want You Should Sell It. And You'Ve Put More Money
Into It Now Than You'Ll Ever Get Out Again, Unless You Can
Find As Big A Goose To Buy It, And That Isn'T Likely.
No, Sir! You Just Stop At A Hundred thousand, And Don'T You Let
Him Get You A Cent Beyond. Why, You'Re Perfectly Bewitched
With That Fellow! You'Ve Lost Your Head, Silas Lapham,
And If You Don'T Look Out You'Ll Lose Your Money Too."
The Colonel Laughed; He Liked her To Talk That Way,
And Promised he Would Hold Up A While.
"But There'S No Call To Feel Anxious, Pert. It'S Only
A Question What To Do With The Money. I Can Reinvest It;
But I Never Had So Much Of It To Spend Before."
"Spend It, Then," Said His Wife; "Don'T Throw It Away!
of 1 Part 10 Pg 109And How Came You To Have So Much More Money Than You Know
What To Do With, Silas Lapham?" She Added.
"Oh, I'Ve Made A Very Good Thing in stocks Lately."
"In Stocks? When Did You Take Up Gambling for A Living?"
"Gambling? Stuff! What Gambling? Who Said It Was Gambling?"
"You Have; Many A Time."
"Oh Yes, Buying and Selling on A Margin. But This
Was A Bona Fide Transaction. I Bought At Forty-Three
For An Investment, And I Sold At A Hundred and Seven;
And The Money Passed both Times."
"Well, You Better Let Stocks Alone," Said His Wife,
With The Conservatism Of Her Sex. "Next Time You'Ll
Buy At A Hundred and Seven And Sell At Forty Three.
Then Where'Ll You Be?"
"Left," Admitted the Colonel.
"You Better Stick To Paint A While Yet." The Colonel
Enjoyed this Too, And Laughed again With The Ease Of A Man
Who Knows What He Is About. A Few Days After That He
Came Down To Nantasket With The Radiant Air Which He Wore
When He Had Done A Good Thing in business And Wanted
His Wife'S Sympathy. He Did Not Say Anything of What Had
Happened till He Was Alone With Her In their Own Room;
But He Was Very Gay The Whole Evening, And Made Several
Jokes Which Penelope Said Nothing but Very Great Prosperity
Could Excuse: They All Understood These Moods Of His.
"Well, What Is It, Silas?" Asked his Wife When The Time Came.
"Any More Big-Bugs Wanting to Go Into The Mineral Paint
Business With You?"
"Something better Than That."
"I Could Think Of A Good Many Better Things," Said His Wife,
With A Sigh Of Latent Bitterness. "What'S This One?"
"I'Ve Had A Visitor."
"Who?"
"Can'T You Guess?"
"I Don'T Want To Try. Who Was It?"
"Rogers."
Mrs. Lapham Sat Down With Her Hands In her Lap, And Stared
At The Smile On Her Husband'S Face, Where He Sat Facing her.
"I Guess You Wouldn'T Want To Joke On That Subject, Si,"
She Said, A Little Hoarsely, "And You Wouldn'T Grin
of 1 Part 10 Pg 110About It Unless You Had Some Good News. I Don'T Know
What The Miracle Is, But If You Could Tell Quick----"
She Stopped like One Who Can Say No More.
"I Will, Persis," Said Her Husband, And With That Awed
Tone In which He Rarely Spoke Of Anything but The Virtues
Of His Paint. "He Came To Borrow Money Of Me, And I
Lent Him It. That'S The Short Of It. The Long----"
"Go On," Said His Wife, With Gentle Patience.
"Well, Pert, I Was Never So Much Astonished in my
Life As I Was To See That Man Come Into My Office.
You Might Have Knocked me Down With--I Don'T Know What."
"I Don'T Wonder. Go On!"
"And He Was As Much Embarrassed as I Was. There We Stood,
Gaping at Each Other, And I Hadn'T Hardly Sense Enough
To Ask Him To Take A Chair. I Don'T Know Just How We
Got At It. And I Don'T Remember Just How It Was That He
Said He Came To Come To Me. But He Had Got Hold Of A
Patent Right That He Wanted to Go Into On A Large Scale,
And There He Was Wanting me To Supply Him The Funds."
"Go On!" Said Mrs. Lapham, With Her Voice
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