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
A Stranger As It Is. I Hope Mrs. Lapham Is Well? And
Your Daughter?"
"Thank You," Said Lapham, "They'Re Quite Well."
"They Were Very Kind To My Wife----"
"Oh, That Was Nothing!" Cried lapham. "There'S Nothing
Mrs. Lapham Likes Better Than A Chance Of That Sort.
Mrs. Corey And The Young Ladies Well?"
"Very Well, When I Heard From Them. They'Re Out Of Town."
"Yes, So I Understood," Said Lapham, With A Nod Toward
The Son. "I Believe Mr. Corey, Here, Told Mrs. Lapham."
He Leaned back In his Chair, Stiffly Resolute To Show That He
Was Not Incommoded by The Exchange Of These Civilities.
"Yes," Said Bromfield Corey. "Tom Has Had The Pleasure
Which I Hope For Of Seeing you All. I Hope You'Re
Able To Make Him Useful To You Here?" Corey Looked
Round Lapham'S Room Vaguely, And Then Out At The Clerks
In Their Railed enclosure, Where His Eye Finally Rested
On An Extremely Pretty Girl, Who Was Operating a Type-Writer.
"Well, Sir," Replied lapham, Softening for The First Time
With This Approach To Business, "I Guess It Will Be Our Own
Fault If We Don'T. By The Way, Corey," He Added, To The
Younger Man, As He Gathered up Some Letters From His Desk,
"Here'S Something in your Line. Spanish Or French,
I Guess."
"I'Ll Run Them Over," Said Corey, Taking them To His Desk.
His Father Made An Offer To Rise.
"Don'T Go," Said Lapham, Gesturing him Down Again.
"I Just Wanted to Get Him Away A Minute. I Don'T Care
To Say It To His Face,--I Don'T Like The Principle,--But
Since You Ask Me About It, I'D Just As Lief Say That I'Ve
Never Had Any Young Man Take Hold Here Equal To Your Son.
I Don'T Know As You Care"
"You Make Me Very Happy," Said Bromfield Corey.
"Very Happy Indeed. I'Ve Always Had The Idea That There
Was Something in my Son, If He Could Only Find The Way
To Work It Out. And He Seems To Have Gone Into Your
Business For The Love Of It."
"He Went To Work In the Right Way, Sir! He Told Me About It.
He Looked into It. And That Paint Is A Thing that Will
Bear Looking into."
of 1 Part 11 Pg 120"Oh Yes. You Might Think He Had Invented it, If You
Heard Him Celebrating it."
"Is That So?" Demanded lapham, Pleased through
And Through. "Well, There Ain'T Any Other Way.
You'Ve Got To Believe In a Thing before You Can Put Any
Heart In it. Why, I Had A Partner In this Thing once,
Along Back Just After The War, And He Used to Be Always
Wanting to Tinker With Something else. 'Why,' Says I,
'You'Ve Got The Best Thing in god'S Universe Now.
Why Ain'T You Satisfied?' I Had To Get Rid Of Him At Last.
I Stuck To My Paint, And That Fellow'S Drifted round Pretty
Much All Over The Whole Country, Whittling his Capital
Down All The While, Till Here The Other Day I Had To Lend
Him Some Money To Start Him New. No, Sir, You'Ve Got
To Believe In a Thing. And I Believe In your Son.
And I Don'T Mind Telling you That, So Far As He'S Gone,
He'S A Success."
"That'S Very Kind Of You."
"No Kindness About It. As I Was Saying the Other Day
To A Friend Of Mine, I'Ve Had Many A Fellow Right Out
Of The Street That Had To Work Hard All His Life,
And Didn'T Begin To Take Hold Like This Son Of Yours."
Lapham Expanded with Profound Self-Satisfaction. As He
Probably Conceived it, He Had Succeeded in praising,
In A Perfectly Casual Way, The Supreme Excellence
Of His Paint, And His Own Sagacity And Benevolence;
And Here He Was Sitting face To Face With Bromfield Corey,
Praising his Son To Him, And Receiving his Grateful
Acknowledgments As If He Were The Father Of Some Office-Boy
Whom Lapham Had Given A Place Half But Of Charity.
"Yes, Sir, When Your Son Proposed to Take Hold Here,
I Didn'T Have Much Faith In his Ideas, That'S The Truth.
But I Had Faith In him, And I Saw That He Meant Business
From The Start. I Could See It Was Born In him.
Any One Could."
"I'M Afraid He Didn'T Inherit It Directly From Me,"
Said Bromfield Corey; "But It'S In the Blood,
On Both Sides." "Well, Sir, We Can'T Help Those Things,"
Said Lapham Compassionately. "Some Of Us Have Got It,
And Some Of Us Haven'T. The Idea Is To Make The Most Of
What We Have Got."
"Oh Yes; That Is The Idea. By All Means."
"And You Can'T Ever Tell What'S In you Till You Try.
Why, When I Started this Thing, I Didn'T More Than Half
Understand My Own Strength. I Wouldn'T Have Said,
Looking back, That I Could Have Stood The Wear And Tear
Of What I'Ve Been Through. But I Developed as I Went Along.
It'S Just Like Exercising your Muscles In a Gymnasium.
You Can Lift Twice Or Three Times As Much After You'Ve
Been In training a Month As You Could Before. And I
of 1 Part 11 Pg 121Can See That It'S Going to Be Just So With Your Son.
His Going through College Won'T Hurt Him,--He'Ll Soon Slough
All That Off,--And His Bringing up Won'T; Don'T Be Anxious
About It. I Noticed in the Army That Some Of The Fellows
That Had The Most Go-Ahead Were Fellows That Hadn'T Ever
Had Much More To Do Than Girls Before The War Broke Out.
Your Son Will Get Along."
"Thank You," Said Bromfield Corey, And Smiled--Whether
Because His Spirit Was Safe In the Humility He
Sometimes Boasted, Or Because It Was Triply Armed
In Pride Against Anything the Colonel'S Kindness Could Do.
"He'Ll Get Along. He'S A Good Business Man, And He'S
A Fine Fellow. Must You Go?" Asked lapham, As Bromfield
Corey Now Rose More Resolutely. "Well, Glad To See You.
It Was Natural You Should Want To Come And See What He
Was About, And I'M Glad You Did. I Should Have Felt
Just So About It. Here Is Some Of Our Stuff," He Said,
Pointing out The Various Packages In his Office,
Including the Persis Brand.
"Ah, That'S Very Nice, Very Nice Indeed," Said His Visitor.
"That Colour Through The Jar--Very Rich--Delicious.
Is Persis Brand A Name?"
Lapham Blushed.
"Well, Persis Is. I Don'T Know As You Saw An Interview
That Fellow Published in the Events A While Back?"
"What Is The Events?"
"Well, It'S That New Paper Witherby'S Started."
"No," Said Bromfield Corey, "I Haven'T Seen It.
I Read The Daily," He Explained; By Which He Meant The
Daily Advertiser, The Only Daily There Is In the Old-
Fashioned bostonian Sense.
"He Put A Lot Of Stuff In my Mouth That I Never Said,"
Resumed lapham; "But That'S Neither Here Nor There,
So Long As You Haven'T Seen It. Here'S The Department
Your Son'S In," And He Showed him The Foreign Labels.
Then He Took Him Out Into The Warehouse To See The
Large Packages. At The Head Of The Stairs, Where His
Guest Stopped to Nod To His Son And Say "Good-Bye, Tom,"
Lapham Insisted upon Going down To The Lower Door With Him
"Well, Call Again," He Said In hospitable Dismissal.
"I Shall Always Be Glad To See You. There Ain'T A Great
Deal Doing at This Season." Bromfield Corey Thanked him,
And Let His Hand Remain Perforce In lapham'S Lingering grasp.
"If You Ever Like To Ride After A Good Horse----"
The Colonel Began.
"Oh, No, No, No; Thank You! The Better The Horse, The More
I Should Be Scared. Tom Has Told Me Of Your Driving!"
of 1 Part 11 Pg 122
"Ha, Ha, Ha!" Laughed the Colonel. "Well! Every One
To His Taste. Well, Good Morning, Sir!" And He Suffered
Him To Go.
"Who Is The Old Man Blowing to This Morning?" Asked walker,
The Book-Keeper, Making an Errand To Corey'S Desk.
"My Father."
"Oh! That Your Father? I Thought He Must Be One Of Your
Italian Correspondents That You'D Been Showing round,
Or Spanish."
In Fact, As Bromfield Corey Found His Way At His Leisurely
Pace Up Through The Streets On Which The Prosperity
Of His Native City Was Founded, Hardly Any Figure Could
Have Looked more Alien To Its Life. He Glanced up And Down
The Facades And Through The Crooked vistas Like A Stranger,
And The Swarthy Fruiterer Of Whom He Bought An Apple,
Apparently For The Pleasure Of Holding it In his Hand,
Was Not Surprised that The Purchase Should Be Transacted
In His Own Tongue.
Lapham Walked back Through The Outer Office To His Own
Room Without Looking at Corey, And During the Day He Spoke
To Him Only Of Business Matters. That Must Have Been
His Way Of Letting corey See That He Was Not Overcome
By The Honour Of His Father'S Visit. But He Presented
Himself At Nantasket With The Event So Perceptibly On
His Mind That His Wife Asked: "Well, Silas, Has Rogers
Been Borrowing any More Money Of You? I Don'T Want You
Should Let That Thing go Too Far. You'Ve Done Enough."
"You Needn'T Be Afraid. I'Ve Seen The Last Of Rogers
For One While." He Hesitated, To Give The Fact An Effect
Of No Importance. "Corey'S Father Called this Morning."
"Did He?" Said Mrs. Lapham, Willing to Humour His Feint
Of Indifference. "Did He Want To Borrow Some Money Too?"
"Not As I Understood." Lapham Was Smoking at Great Ease,
And His Wife Had Some Crocheting on The Other Side Of The
Lamp From Him.
The Girls Were On The Piazza Looking at The Moon On
The Water Again. "There'S No Man In it To-Night,"
Penelope Said, And Irene Laughed forlornly.
"What Did He Want, Then?" Asked mrs. Lapham.
"Oh, I Don'T Know. Seemed to Be Just A Friendly Call.
Said He Ought To Have Come Before."
Mrs. Lapham Was Silent A While. Then She Said: "Well,
I Hope You'Re Satisfied now."
Lapham Rejected the Sympathy Too Openly Offered.
"I Don'T Know About Being satisfied. I Wa'N'T In any
Hurry To See Him."
of 1 Part 11 Pg 123
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