His most intimate business associates had always found him suave2, persuasive3, and genial4 in every hour of trial. Never once had they heard a threat or an idle boast fall from his lips. He had the rare faculty5 of beating his enemies in a fight in which no quarter was asked or given, and coming out of it with his bitterest foe6 turned into a friend. This was one of the secrets of his fortune—an instinctive7 leadership among powerful men.
For the first time he realized that he had challenged the one man in all his personal acquaintance about whose character he knew nothing—his own son. For the first time he realized that they were strangers. He had been absorbed in the big affairs of life. He had taken the boy for granted. Since the death of his mother twelve [74]years ago, Norman had spent most of his time at school.
The Colonel had always been in command. His word had been law for so many years, it brought him up with a disagreeable start to find that the one man with whom his life was bound, and in whom his hopes centred, could dare thus to defy and flaunt8 his wishes. It was the most disgusting, enraging9 fact he had ever encountered. The longer he confronted the situation the more furious and blind his anger became.
Elena had timidly entered the room, and stood watching him gravely before she spoke10.
"Has he returned from that woman yet?" the Colonel asked with sudden energy.
"No, and I hope he will stay all day," she answered slowly.
"But he won't," the father snapped.
"I'm sure he will not," the girl sighed. "I don't like you to-day, Guardie."
"You, too, side with these fanatics11 then?"
"No. I hate them—hate everything they say and do and stand for. I loathe12 the very sight of them. But you were unfair to Norman."
"Unfair? How?"
"You allowed him the widest liberty to do as he pleased, think as he pleased, associate with whom he pleased, and then all of a sudden you sprang [75]on that platform and insulted him before his invited guests."
"How could I dream that he would commit such an act of insane treason before my very eyes?"
"You make no allowance for the spell of Barbara Bozenta's eloquence13. I don't like her, but she's a wonderful little woman, and I envy her her power over men."
"I'll end this folly14 to-day," was the Colonel's firm announcement.
"I'm not so sure," Elena warned.
"I'll show you!"
She came close and laid her hand on the Colonel's arm.
"Will you promise me one thing, Guardie?" she asked, tenderly.
The anger faded from the strong face, and his voice sank low.
"I'm afraid I've never been able to refuse you anything, child. It's on your account, I think, I'm most angry with Norman to-day."
"You promise?" she repeated.
"Yes, what is it?" he said, bending to kiss her smooth, white forehead.
"Promise to put all anger out of your heart and talk to Norman as a father, not as an enemy—won't you?"
[76]"An enemy?" the Colonel slowly asked.
"Yes. I thought you were going to strike him once. It would have been horrible. I never could have forgiven you for that. You've always been my hero, Guardie—I never saw you give way to anger before. I don't like it. You'll talk to him lovingly and tenderly as a father, won't you?"
"Yes, dear, for your sake, I will," he answered.
"Then I'll tell him to come. I asked him to wait outside until I saw you."
She turned and quickly left the room. In a moment Norman entered and stood facing his father.
The Colonel flushed with anger at sight of the insolence15 with which the younger man calmly surveyed him.
"Well, sir," the father said, at length, "have you nothing to say to me after what has occurred to-day?"
"I was under the impression that you had something to say to me," was the cool answer.
By an effort of will the older man crushed back an angry retort, smiled, and said:
"Sit down, please—I've a good deal to say to you."
Norman threw himself lazily into a chair, and continued to watch his father with a curious [77]expression of half-amused contempt. The Colonel stood in silence, evidently struggling with his emotions, and feeling for the right word with which to begin.
Norman anticipated him.
"Honestly, now, Governor, just between us, don't you think you were a little bit absurd to-day?"
"Absurd?" his father broke in with rising accent.
"Just a little childish about a piece of red, white, and blue cloth?"
"Perhaps so, my boy," was the answer. "Just about as absurd as you were over the red rag you lifted in its place. Why did you do it?"
"On the impulse of the moment, to express my feeling of contempt for war, and my faith in my fellow man."
"Exactly. So I acted on the impulse of the moment to express my contempt for that crowd of fools and fanatics—my loyalty16 and faith in my country."
"I can't understand how a man of your age, poise17 and pride, culture and power, could be so foolish. A sixteen-year-old school-boy on the Fourth of July, yes! But you——"
"Norman," the Colonel interrupted, in even tones, "I'm sorry I've been too busy for us to get acquainted. It's time we began. It may [78]interest you to know that I, too, hate war—learned to hate it long before your Socialist18 orator19 was born—learned it in the grim University of Hell—war itself. Socialism has no patent on the hope of universal peace. I am a member of a peace society. I have always believed the Civil War should have been prevented. All the Negroes on this earth are not worth the blood and tears of one year of that struggle. Whether it could have been prevented God alone knows. When it came I volunteered—a drummer-boy at fourteen—and marched to the front beneath the flag you tore down to-day."
"I never thought of that, Governor—honestly, I never did!" the boy exclaimed.
"I went in," the Colonel continued, "with my head full of silly rubbish about the glory of war. When I beat the call to my first charge, and saw the men I knew and loved shot to pieces, and heard their groans20 and cries for water, I had no more delusions21. I worked on the field that night until twelve o'clock, helping22 the men who were wounded—enemies as well as comrades. I learned the brotherhood23 of man and the meaning of red blood in the big, tragic24 school of life, my son. Many a boy in gray, whom I had fought, died in my arms while my heart ached for his loved ones in some far-away Southern home.
[79]"But I knew the war had to be when once it was begun. I was fighting for the flag I loved—and I grew to love it better than life. To you it may be a bit of red, white, and blue bunting; to me it is the symbol of truth and right, liberty and human progress.
"My people in western North Carolina were all slave-holders and loyal to their state, except my father. He hated slavery, loved the union, and moved on westward25 before the war. I saw them bury him in the flag you tore down to-day, my boy.
"Many a night I've lain on the ground looking up at the stars before the dawn of a day of battle and seen visions of that flag flying triumphant26 in the sky. I've seen the men who carried it shot down again and again, and another snatch it from their dying grasp and bear it on to victory.
"I grew not only to love it, but to believe in it with all the passionate27 faith of my soul. I believe in its destiny, in its sublime28 mission to humanity. The older I've grown and the more I've seen of my fellow man, the wider I've travelled in foreign lands, the deeper has become my conviction that our flag symbolizes29 the noblest, freest ideal ever born in the soul of man; that we have but to live up to its standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and the kingdom of human brotherhood is already here.
[80]"After the war, I joined the regular army, not because I loved war, but because there seemed nothing else for me to do at the time. I was absolutely alone in the world. At twenty-five I was in command of a company on the frontier. I had not been in battle since the end of the Civil War, when suddenly I found myself surrounded by a horde30 of hostile Indians, and I had to turn my machine guns on them and mow31 them down. The slaughter32 was something terrific. As the last charge was made I saw a young squaw retreat in the face of a withering33 fire, walk backward facing our men, holding a bundle of something behind her body. She fell at last, riddled34 with bullets. I rode up where she lay, and found the bundle to be a little Indian baby boy. He was unhurt, and stretched out his hand to me in friendly baby greeting. I found the squaw quite dead, and discovered the child was not her own. She was simply trying to save it for the tribe. I took the child and educated him. But he went back to the free life of the plains. I found him again, and made him the gamekeeper of our mountain preserves."
"You mean Saka?" Norman asked.
"Yes. That night as I lay in my tent I saw war as it is—a hideous35, savage36 nightmare. From that moment I hated the service, hated its [81]iron laws of discipline, its cruel machinery37 devised for suppressing the individuality of its members. I saw that night a larger vision of life. I made up my mind to create, not to kill—to build up, not to tear down. I left the army and mastered mining.
"Your leather-lunged agitators38 say that I stole my millions from the earnings39 of the men who worked for me. A more stupid lie was never uttered. I invented improved mining machinery. I made deserts blossom and gave employment to thousands of men who couldn't think for themselves. I did their thinking for them, and set their tasks. I have made millions, and have added tens of millions to the wealth of the West."
"If labour is the creator of all wealth can one man ever earn a million dollars?" Norman interrupted.
"Manual labour is not the creator of wealth. The brain which conceives is the creator of wealth. The hand which executes these plans is merely the automaton40 moved by a superior power."
"Yet nothing could be accomplished41 without it," persisted Norman.
His father lifted his hand with a gesture of command.
[82]"We'll not discuss the theory of Socialism to-day, my boy. I grant you have plausible42 arguments which skilful43 demagogues are using with more and more efficiency. I don't object to your study of this subject. I'm rather pleased at the serious turn your energies have taken. What I do object to is your continued association with the kind of people who made up that crowd to-day—people who make the agitation44 of the revolutionary programme of the Socialists45 a daily profession, people who are seeking to destroy modern civilization itself."
"You will have to come down to earth, Governor," Norman said, "in your indictment46 of these people. The time has gone by when you can scare anybody with a few high-sounding phrases. If modern civilization is rotten, it ought to be destroyed, and who cares if it is?"
"The issue between us, my boy," the Colonel continued, gravely, "is not an academic one. It is not open to discussion. Some of the people you are associating with have criminal records. If they continue their present wild harangues47 they will be shot down like dogs in the streets. I cannot afford to have my name even under the suspicion of sympathy for them, through you. Do you understand me?"
[83]"I think I do," Norman replied, holding his father's steady gaze.
"You are my son and the heir of my fortune. But you must remember that I am the master of this establishment."
"I am aware of that fact, sir," the boy replied, in cold tones.
"I trust that it will not be necessary, then, for me to repeat to you my first positive order—that you will immediately sever48 your connection with the Socialist Club, and never again appear in public or private with the three people who were on that platform to-day."
"It will not be necessary for you to repeat your order," the young athlete replied, with a curious smile and a slight tightening49 of the lips.
"I thought as much."
Norman laughed, and the Colonel's eyes began to blaze.
"What do you mean, sir?" he sternly asked.
"That it will be unnecessary for you to repeat your order, for the very simple reason that I'm a man. I've the right to do my own thinking, and I propose to do it."
With a quick stride the Colonel confronted the young rebel, his breath quick and laboured, his face aflame with unbridled rage.
"You dare thus to defy my wishes?"
[84]"If you put it that way, yes."
The Colonel stepped to the door and opened it.
"You will obey my order or get out of this house never to enter it again. Take your choice!"
"You mean it?" the younger man asked, with sullen50 emphasis.
"Exactly what I say," was the cold reply.
Norman turned without a word, seized his hat, and left the room. As he reached the end of the corridor, and placed his hand on the front door, his father's voice rang out suddenly:
"Norman!"
He paused, and looked back without taking his hand from the knob.
"You can't be such a fool!" the Colonel cried.
"It looks that way, Governor!"
He opened the door, softly closed it, and was gone.
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收听单词发音
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1
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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suave
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| adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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flaunt
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| vt.夸耀，夸饰 | |
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enraging
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| 使暴怒( enrage的现在分词 ) | |
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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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fanatics
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| 狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
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loathe
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| v.厌恶，嫌恶 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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15
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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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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brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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28
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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symbolizes
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的第三人称单数 ) | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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31
mow
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| v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆 | |
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32
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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38
agitators
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| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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automaton
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| n.自动机器，机器人 | |
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41
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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44
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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45
socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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46
indictment
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| n.起诉；诉状 | |
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47
harangues
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| n.高谈阔论的长篇演讲( harangue的名词复数 )v.高谈阔论( harangue的第三人称单数 ) | |
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48
sever
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| v.切开，割开；断绝，中断 | |
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49
tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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50
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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