There was, it is true, the increasing delight of being in Isabel’s company, but alongside this delight grew a doubt—a doubt which the young man shrank from recognizing and debating, but which forced its presence upon his mind, none the less—a doubt whether it was the part of wisdom to encourage too much of a friendship with his sister-in-law. This friendship had already reached a stage where Aunt Sabrina sniffed6 at its existence, and she hinted dimly to Seth of the perils7 which lurked8 in the lures9 of a citified siren, with an expression of face and a pointedness10 of emphasis which clearly had a domestic application. There was nothing in this, of course, but the insensate meddlesomeness11 of a disagreeable old maid, Seth said to himself, but still it annoyed him.
More serious, though, was his suspicion—lying dormant12 sometimes for days, then suddenly awakened13 by a curt14 word or an intent glance—that Albert disliked to see him so much with Isabel. Often this rendered him extremely nervous, for Isabel had no discretion15 (so the young man put it to himself) and displayed her pleasure in his society, her liking16 for him, quite as freely in her husband’s presence as when they were alone. There was nothing in this, either, only that it made him uneasy. Hence it came about that, just when one set of inclinations17 most urgently prompted him to stay about the house, another set often prevailed upon him to absent himself. On these occasions he generally walked over to Thessaly, and chatted with John.
“John and I have so much to talk about, you know, being both newspaper men,” he used to say, with a feeling that he owed an explanation of some sort to Isabel. “And then I can see the daily papers there. That gets to be a necessity with a journalist—as much so as his breakfast.”
“I scarcely dare to read a paper now,” Isabel once replied. “It drives me nearly mad with longing18 to get back among people again. I only read heavy things, classic poetry and history—and then, thank Heaven, there is this embroidery19.”
It was at John’s, or rather on the way there, that Seth met one day a man of whom he was in after life accustomed to say, “He altered the whole bent20 of my career.” Perhaps this was an exaggerated estimate of the service Richard Ansdell really rendered Seth; but it is so difficult, looking back, to truly define the influence upon our fortunes or minds by any isolated21 event or acquaintance, and moreover, gratitude22 is so wholesome23 and sweet a thing to contemplate24, and the race devotes so much energy to civilizing25 it out of young breasts, that I have not the heart to insist upon any qualification of Seth’s judgment26.
Mr. Ansdell at this time was nearly forty years of age, and looked to be under thirty. He was small, thin-faced, clean-shaven, dark of skin and hair, with full, clear eyes, that by their calmness of expression curiously27 modified the idea of nervousness which his actions and mode of speech gave forth28. He was spending his fortnight’s vacation in the vicinity, and he was strolling with his friend the school-teacher, Reuben Tracy, toward the village when Seth overtook them. Seth and Reuben had been very intimate in the old farm days—and here was a young man to the latent influence of whose sobriety of mind and cleanliness of tastes he never fully29 realized his obligation—but since his return they had not met. After greetings had been exchanged, they walked together to the village, and to the Banner of Liberty office.
It was the beginning of the week, and publication day was far enough off to enable John to devote all his time to his visitors. There was an hour or more of talk—on politics, county affairs, the news in the city papers, the humors and trials of conducting a rural newspaper, and so forth. When they rose to go, John put on his hat, and said he would “walk a ways” with them. On the street he held Seth back with a whispered “Let us keep behind a bit, I want to talk to you.” Then he added, when the others were out of hearing:
“I have got some personal things to say, later on. But—first of all—has Albert said anything since to you about the farm?”
“Not a word.”
“Well, I have been thinking it all over, trying to see where the crookedness30 comes in—for I feel it in my bones that there is something crooked31. But I am not lawyer enough to get on to it. I’ve had a notion of putting the whole case to Ansdell, who’s a mighty32 bright lawyer, but then again, it seems to be a sort of family thing that we ought to keep to ourselves. What do you think?—for after all, it is mostly your affair.”
“I can’t see that Albert isn’t playing fair. It must be pretty nearly as he says—that he has put as much money in the farm as it was worth when he took it. It’s true that father’s will leaves it to him outright—and that wasn’t quite as Albert gave us to understand it should be—but Albert pledges us that our rights in it shall be respected, and it seems to me that that is better than an acknowledged interest in a bankrupt farm would be, which we hadn’t the capital to work, and which was worthless without it.”
“Perhaps you are right.” John paused for a moment, then began again in a graver tone: “There’s something else. How are you getting on on the Chronicle?”
“Oh, well enough; I get through my work without anybody’s finding fault. I suppose that is the best test. A fellow can’t do any more.”
“That is where you are wrong. ‘A fellow’ can do a great deal more. And when you went there I, for one, expected you were going to do a deuced sight more. You have been there now—let’s see—thirteen months. You are doing what you did when you went there—sawing up miscellany, boiling down news notes, grinding out a lot of departments which the office boy might do, if his own work weren’t more important. In a word you’ve just gone on to the threshold, and you’ve screwed yourself down to the floor there—and from all I hear you are likely to stay there all your life, while other fellows climb over your head to get into the real places.”
“From all you hear? What do you mean by that—who’s been telling you about me?”
“That you shan’t know, my boy. It is enough that I have heard. You haven’t fulfilled your promise. I thought you had the makings of a big man in you; I believed that all you needed was the chance, and you would rise. You were given the chance—put right in on the ground floor, and there you are, just where you were put. You haven’t risen worth a cent.”
“What do you expect a fellow to do? Get to be editor-in-chief in thirteen months? What could I do that I haven’t done? There have been no vacancies33, so no one has climbed over my head. I’ve done the work I was set to do—and done it well, too. What more can you ask?”
Seth spoke34 in an aggrieved35 tone, for this attack seemed as unjust as it had been unexpected.
John replied, “Now keep cool, youngster! Nobody expected you to get to be editor-in-chief in thirteen months, so don’t talk nonsense. And I am not blaming you for not getting promotion36, when there have been no vacancies. What I do mean, if you want to know, is that you have failed to make a good impression. You are not in the line of promotion. Workman doesn’t say to himself when he thinks of you ‘There’s a smart, steady, capable young man on whom we can count, who’s able to go as high as we are able to put him.’ No! instead of that he says—but no, never mind. I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Oh, you are mighty considerate, all at once,” retorted Seth, angrily. “Go on! Say what you were going to say! What is it that Workman says, since you’ve been spying on me behind my back?”
“Now you are talking like a fool,” said the elder brother, keeping his temper. “I haven’t been spying on you. I have only been commenting on facts which have come to my knowledge without seeking and which were brought to me by one who has your interests at heart. I have only been talking to you as I ought to talk, with the sole idea of benefiting you, helping37 you. If you don’t want to hear me, why I can shut up.”
Seth did not reply for a minute or so; then he growled38 moodily39: “Go ahead! Let’s hear it all.”
“The ‘all’ can be said in a few words. You have been wasting your time. I grant that you have done your work well enough to escape blame—but what credit is there in that? a million mechanics do that every day. Instead of improving yourself, elevating and polishing yourself, by good reading, by studying the art of writing, above all by choosing your associates among men who are your superiors, and from whom you can learn, you have settled down in a Dutch beer saloon, making associates out of the commonest people in town, and having for your particular chum that rattle-headed loafer Tom Watts40. Do you suppose Mr. Workman doesn’t know this? Do you suppose he likes it, or that it encourages him to hope for your future?”
Seth was silent longer than ever, this time. When he spoke it was to utter something which he instantly regretted: “I haven’t been able to gather from your old friends that you were altogether a bigot, yourself, on the subject of beer, when you were my age.”
Fortunately John did not get angry; Seth honestly admired and envied his elder brother’s good temper as he heard the reply:
“That’s neither here nor there. Perhaps I did a good many things that I want you to avoid. Besides, there was nothing in me. I am good enough as far as I go, but if I had worked on a daily paper till my teeth all fell out, I should never have got any higher than I was. With you it is different; you can go up to the head of the class if you are a mind to. But the beer saloon isn’t the way—and Tom Watts isn’t the guide.”
“He is the only friend I have got. What was I to do? It is easy enough to talk, John, about my knowing good people and all that, but how? That is the question? It isn’t fair to blame me as you do. All the men like Workman and Samboye—I suppose you mean them—hold themselves miles above me. Do you suppose I’ve ever seen the inside of their houses or of their club? Not I! You dump a young countryman in a strange city, new at his work, without knowing a solitary41 soul—and then you complain because he gets lonesome, and makes friends with the only people who show any disposition42 to be friendly with him. Do you call that fair play?”
“Well, there’s something in that,” John replied, meditatively43. “Some time I’m going to write a leader on the organized indifference44 of modern city society to what becomes of young men who deserve its good offices and drift into beer saloons because they are not forthcoming. It would make the Banner immensely solid with orthodox people.”
“You wouldn’t have wanted me to go to the Young Men’s Christian45 Association, I suppose?”
“No-o, I don’t know that I would. I don’t know, after all, that you could have done much differently. But you’ve done enough of it, do you understand? You have served your time; you have taken your diploma. It is time now to quit. And I can put you on to a man, now, who will help you on the other tack5. Do you see Ansdell, ahead there?”
“Yes;—is he the man who told you about Workman and me?”
John ignored the question. “Ansdell is one of the cleverest men going; he’s head and shoulders over anybody else there is in Tecumseh, or in this part of the State. For you to know him will be a college education in itself. He is more than a big lawyer, he is a student and thinker; more than that, he is a reformer; best of all, he is a man of the world, who has sown more wild oats than would fill Albert’s new bins46, and there’s not an atom of nonsense about him. He knows about you. We’ve talked you over together. He understands my idea of what you ought to be, and he can help you more than any other man alive—and what is more he will.”
“It was he who told you about me, wasn’t it?” Seth persisted.
“If you will know, it was and it wasn’t. All he said was that he had heard Workman speak of you; that he had got the idea from his tone that you were not making the most of your opportunities; that he thought this was a great pity; and that if he could be of any use to you he would be very glad. That is all—and not even your sulkiness can make anything but kindness out of it.”
This practically ended the dialogue, for the others had stopped to let the brothers come up, and John shortly after left the party.
The three men had a long stroll back to the hillside road, with a still longer lounge on the grass under the elms by the bridge. Seth watched and listened to this swarthy, boyish-looking mentor47 who had, so to speak, thrust himself upon him, very closely, as was natural. Did he like him? It was hard, he found, to determine. Mr. Ansdell was extremely opinionated. He seemed to have convictions on almost every subject, and he clung to them, defended them, expanded them, with almost tearful earnestness. His voice was as strong and powerful as his figure was diminutive48; he talked now chiefly about the Tariff49, which he denounced with a vibrating intensity50 of feeling. Seth knew nothing about the Tariff, or next to nothing, but he admired what Ansdell said, mainly because it was said so well. But he grew quite enthusiastic in his endorsement51 when he heard his Editor, Mr. Samboye, used as a typical illustration of the dishonesty with which public men treated that question. After that he felt that it would be easy to make friends with Mr. Ansdell.
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1
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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renovation
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| n.革新，整修 | |
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tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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6
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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7
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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8
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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9
lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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10
pointedness
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| n.尖角，尖锐；棱角 | |
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meddlesomeness
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12
dormant
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| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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13
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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14
curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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16
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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21
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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24
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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25
civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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29
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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30
crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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31
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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32
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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vacancies
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| n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺 | |
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34
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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35
aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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36
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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40
watts
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| （电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
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41
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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42
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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43
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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44
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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45
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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46
bins
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| n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
mentor
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| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
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48
diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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49
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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50
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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51
endorsement
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| n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注 | |
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