Society had here a new way of enjoying itself. People built themselves elaborate palaces in the wilderness1, and lived in a fantastic kind of rusticity2, with every luxury of civilisation3 included. For this life one needed an entirely4 separate wardrobe, with doeskin hunting-boots and mountain-climbing skirts—all very picturesque5 and expensive. It reminded Montague of a jest that he had heard about Mrs. Vivie Patton, whose husband had complained of the expensiveness of her costumes, and requested her to wear simpler dresses. “Very well,” she said, “I will get a lot of simple dresses immediately.”
Alice spent one evening at home, and she took her cousin into her confidence. “I've an idea, Allan, that Harry6 Curtiss is going to ask me to marry him. I thought it was right to tell you about it.”
“I've had a suspicion of it,” said Montague, smiling.
“Harry has a feeling you don't like him,” said the girl. “Is that true?”
“I don't understand about it,” she continued. “Do you think I ought not to marry him?”
Montague studied her face. “Tell me,” he said, “have you made up your mind to marry him?”
“No,” she answered, “I cannot say that I have.”
“If you have,” he added, “of course there is no use in my talking about it.”
“I wish you would tell me just what happened between you and him,” exclaimed the girl.
“It was simply,” said Montague, “that I found that Curtiss was doing, in a business way, something which I considered improper8. Other people are doing it, of course—he has that excuse.”
“Well, he has to earn a living,” said Alice.
“I know,” said the other; “and if he marries, he will have to earn still more of a living. He will only place himself still tighter in the grip of these forces of corruption9.”
“But what did he do?” asked Alice, anxiously. Montague told her the story.
“But, Allan,” she said, “I don't see what there is so very bad about that. Don't Ryder and Price own the railroad?”
“They own some of it,” said Montague. “Other people own some.”
“But the other people have to take their chances,” protested the girl; “if they choose to have anything to do with men like that.”
“You are not familiar with business,” said the other, “and you don't appreciate the situation. Curtiss was elected a director—he accepted a position of trust.”
“He simply did it as a favour to Price,” said she. “If he hadn't done it, Price would only have got somebody else. As you say, Allan, I don't understand much about it, but it seems to me it isn't fair to blame a young man who has to make his way in the world, and who simply does what he finds everybody else doing. Of course, you know best about your own affairs; but it always did seem to me that you go out of your way to look for scruples10.”
Montague smiled sadly. “That sounds very much like what he said, Alice. I guess you have made up your mind to marry him, after all.”
Alice set out, accompanied by Oliver, who was bound for Bertie Stuyvesant's imitation baronial castle, in another part of the mountains. Betty Wyman was also to be there, and Oliver was to spend a full month. But three days later Montague received a telegram, saying that his brother would arrive in New York shortly after eight that morning, and to wait at his home for him. Montague suspected what this meant; and he had time enough to think it over and make up his mind. “Well?” he said, when Oliver came in. “It's come again, has it?”
“Yes,” said Oliver, “it has.”
“Another 'sure thing'?”
“Dead sure. Are you coming in?” Oliver asked, after a moment.
Montague shook his head. “No,” he said. “I think once was enough for me.”
“You don't mean that, Allan!” protested the other.
“I mean it,” was the reply.
“But, my dear fellow, that is perfectly11 insane! I have information straight from the inside—it's as certain as the sunrise!”
“I have no doubt of that,” responded Montague. “But I am through with gambling12 in Wall Street. I've seen enough of it, Oliver, and I'm sick of it. I don't like the emotions it causes in me—I don't like the things it makes me do.”
“You found the money came in useful, didn't you?” said Oliver, sarcastically13.
“Yes, I can use what I've got.”
“And when that's gone?”
“I don't know about that yet. But I'll find some way that I like better.”
They rode down town in a cab together. “Where does your information come from this time?” asked Montague.
“The same source,” was the reply.
“And is it Transcontinental again?”
“No,” said Oliver; “it's another stock.”
“What is it?”
“It's Mississippi Steel,” was the answer.
“Why, yes,” said Oliver. “What's that to you?” he added, in perplexity.
“Mississippi Steel!” Montague ejaculated again. “Why, didn't you know about my relations with the Northern Mississippi Railroad?”
“Of course,” said Oliver; “but what's that got to do with Mississippi Steel?”
“But it's Price who is managing the deal—the man who owns the Mississippi Steel Company!”
“Oh,” said the other, “I had forgotten that.” Oliver's duties in Society did not give him much time to ask about his brother's affairs.
“Allan,” he added quickly, “you won't say anything about it!”
“It's none of my business now,” answered the other. “I'm out of it. But naturally I am interested to know. What is it—a raid on the stock?”
“It's going down,” said Oliver.
Montague sat staring ahead of him. “It must be the Steel Trust,” he whispered, half to himself.
“Nothing more likely,” was the reply. “My tip comes from that direction.”
“Do you suppose they are going to try to break Price?”
“I don't know; I guess they could do it if they made up their mind to.”
“But he owns a majority of the stock!” said Montague. “They can't take it away from him outright16.”
“Not if he's got it locked up in his safe,” was the reply; “and if he's got no debts or obligations. But suppose he's overextended; and suppose some bank has loaned him money on the stock—what then?”
Montague was now keenly interested. He went with his brother while the latter drew his money from the bank, and called at his brokers17 and ordered them to sell Mississippi Steel. The other was called away then by an engagement in court, which occupied him for several hours; when he came out, he made for the nearest ticker, and the first figures he saw were Mississippi Steel—quoted at nearly twenty points below the price of the morning!
The bare figures were eloquent18 to him of many tragedies; they brought before him half a dozen different personalities19, with their triumphs and despairs. He could read in them the story of a Titan struggle. Oliver had made his killing20; but what of Price and Ryder? Montague knew that most of Price's stock was hypothecated at the Gotham Trust. And now what would become of it? And what would become of the Northern Mississippi?
He bought the afternoon papers. Their columns were full of the sensational21 events of the day. The bottom had dropped out of Mississippi Steel, as they phrased it. The wildest rumours22 were afloat. The Company was known to be making enormous extensions, and it was said to have overreached itself; there were whispers that its officers had been speculating, that the Company would be unable to meet the next quarterly payment upon its bonds, that a receivership would be necessary. There were hints that the concern was to be taken over by the Trust, but this was vigorously denied by officers of the latter.
All of which had come like a bolt out of the blue. To Montague it was an amazing and terrible thing. It counted little to him that he was out of the struggle himself; that he no longer had anything to lose personally. He was like a man who had been through an earthquake, and who stood and stared at a gaping23 crack in the ground. Even though he was safe at the moment, he could not forget that this was the earth upon which he had to spend the rest of his life, and that the next crack might open where he stood.
Montague could not see that there was the least chance for Price and Ryder; he pictured them bowled clean out, and he would not have been surprised to read that they were ruined. But apparently24 they weathered the storm. The episode passed with no more than a crop of rumours. Mississippi Steel did not go back, however; and he noticed that Northern Mississippi stock had also “gone off” eight or ten points on the curb25.
It was a period of great anxiety in the financial world. Men felt the unrest, even though they could not give definite reasons. There had been several panics in the stock market throughout the summer; and leading financiers and railroad presidents seemed to have got the habit of prognosticating the ruin of the country every time they made a speech at a banquet.
But apparently men could not agree about the causes of the trouble. Some insisted that it was owing to the speeches of the President, to his attacks upon the great business interests of the country. Others maintained that the world's supply of capital was inadequate27, and pointed28 out the destruction of great wars and earthquakes and fires. Others argued that there was not enough currency to do the country's business. Now and again there rose above the din26 the shrill29 voice of some radical30 who declared that the stock collapses31 had been brought about deliberately32; but such statements seemed so preposterous33 that they were received with ridicule34 whenever they were heeded35 at all. To Montague the idea that there were men in the country sufficiently36 powerful to wreck37 its business, and sufficiently unscrupulous to use their power—the idea seemed to him sensational and absurd.
But he had a talk about it one evening with Major Venable, who laughed at him. The Major named half a dozen men—Waterman and Duval and Wyman among them—who controlled ninety per cent of the banks in the Metropolis38. They controlled all three of the big insurance companies, with their resources of four or five hundred million dollars; one of them controlled a great transcontinental railroad system, which alone kept a twenty-or thirty-million dollar “surplus” for stock-gambling purposes.
“If any two or three of those men were to make up their minds,” declared the Major, “they could wreck the business of this country in a day. If there were stocks they wanted to pick up, they could knock them to any price they chose.”
“How would they do it?” asked the other.
“There are many ways. You noticed that the last big slump39 began with the worst scarcity40 of money the Street has known for years. Now suppose those men should gradually accumulate a lot of cash in the banks, and make an agreement to withdraw it at a certain hour. Suppose that the banks that they own, and the banks where they own directors, and the insurance companies which they control—suppose they all did the same! Can't you imagine the scurrying41 around for money, the calling in of loans, the rush to realise on holdings? And when you have a public as nervous as ours is, when you have credit stretched to the breaking-point, and everybody involved—don't you see the possibilities?”
“It seems like playing with dynamite,” said Montague.
“It's not as bad as it might be,” was the answer. “We are saved by the fact that these big men don't get together. There are too many jealousies42 and quarrels. Waterman wants easy money, and gets the Treasury43 Department to lend ten millions; Wyman, on the other hand, wants high prices, and he goes into the Street and borrows fifteen millions; and so it goes. There are a half dozen big banking44 groups in the city—”
“They are still competing, then?” asked Montague.
“Oh, yes,” said the Major. “For instance, they fight for the patronage45 of the out-of-town banks. The banks all over the country send their reserves to New York; it's a matter of four or five hundred million dollars, and that's an enormous power. Some of the big banks are agents for one or two thousand institutions, and there's the keenest kind of struggle going on. It's not an easy thing to follow, of course; but they offer all kinds of secret advantages—there's more graft46 in it than you'd find in Russia.”
“I see,” said Montague.
“There's only one thing about which the banks are agreed,” continued the other. “That is their hatred47 of the independent trust companies. You see, the national banks have to keep twenty-five per cent reserve, while the trust companies only keep five per cent. Consequently they do a faster business, and they offer four per cent, and advertise widely, and they are simply driving the banks to the wall. There are over fifty of them in this city alone, and they've got over a billion of the people's money. And, mark my word, that is where you'll see blood spilled before long.”
A couple of days later occurred an incident which gave him a new light upon the situation. His brother came around one afternoon, with a letter in his hand. “Allan,” he said, “what do you make of this?”
Montague glanced at it, and saw that it was from Lucy Dupree.
“My dear Ollie,” it read. “I find myself in an embarrassing position, owing to the fact that some business arrangements upon which I had counted have fallen through. The money which I brought with me to New York is nearly all gone, and, as you can understand, my position as a stranger is a difficult one. I have a note which Stanley Ryder gave me for my stock. It is for a hundred and forty thousand dollars, and is due in three months. It occurred to me that you might know someone who has some ready cash, and who would like to purchase the note. I should be very glad to sell it for a hundred and thirty thousand. Please do not mention it except in confidence.”
“Now, what in the world do you suppose that means?” said Oliver.
The other stared at him. “I am sure I can't imagine,” he replied.
“How much money did Lucy have when she came here?”
“She had three or four thousand dollars. But then, she got ten thousand from Stanley Ryder when he bought that stock.”
“She can't have spent any such sum of money!” exclaimed Oliver.
“She may have invested it,” said the other, thoughtfully.
“Invested nothing!” exclaimed Oliver.
“But that's not what puzzles me,” said Montague. “Why doesn't Ryder discount the note himself?”
“Maybe he doesn't know it. Maybe she's trying to keep her affairs from him.”
“Nonsense!” Oliver replied. “I don't believe anything of the sort. What I think is that Stanley Ryder is doing it himself.”
“How do you mean?” asked Montague, in perplexity.
“I believe that he is trying to get his own note discounted. I don't believe that Lucy would ever come to us of herself. She'd starve first. She's too proud.”
“But Stanley Ryder!” protested Montague. “The president of the Gotham Trust Company!”
“That's all right,” said Oliver. “It's his own note, and not the Trust Company's; and I'll wager50 you he's hard up for cash. There was a big realty company that failed the other day, and I saw that Ryder was one of the stockholders. And he's been hit by that Mississippi Steel slump, and I'll wager you he's scurrying around to raise money. It's just like Lucy, too. Before he gets through, he'll take every dollar she owns.”
Montague said nothing for a minute or two. Suddenly he clenched51 his hands. “I must go up and see her,” he said.
Lucy had moved from the expensive hotel to which Oliver had taken her, and rented an apartment on Riverside Drive. Montague went up early the next morning.
She came and stood in the doorway52 of the drawing-room and looked at him. He saw that she was paler than she had been, and with lines of pain upon her face.
“Allan!” she said. “I thought you would come some day. How could you stay away so long?”
“I didn't think you would care to see me,” he said.
She did not answer. She came and sat down, continuing to gaze at him, with a kind of fear in her eyes.
Suddenly he stretched out his hands to her. “Lucy!” he exclaimed. “Won't you come away from here? Won't you come, before it is too late?”
“Where can I go?” she asked.
“Anywhere!” he said. “Go back home.”
“I have no home,” she answered.
“Go away from Stanley Ryder,” said Montague. “He has no right to let you throw yourself away.”
“He has not let me, Allan,” said Lucy. “You must not blame him—I cannot bear it.” She stopped.
“Lucy,” he said, after a pause, “I saw that letter you wrote to Oliver.”
“I thought so,” said she. “I asked him not to. It wasn't fair—”
“Listen,” he said. “Will you tell me what that means? Will you tell me honestly?”
“Yes, I will tell you,” she said, in a low voice.
“I will help you if you are in trouble,” he continued; “but I will not help Stanley Ryder. If you are permitting him to use you—”
“Allan!” she gasped, in sudden excitement. “You don't think that he knew I wrote?”
“Yes, I thought it,” said he.
“Oh, how could you!” she cried.
“I knew that he was in trouble.”
“Yes, he is in trouble, and I wanted to help him, if I could. It was a crazy idea, I know; but it was all I could think of.”
“Oh, I understand,” said Montague.
“And don't you see that I cannot leave him?” exclaimed Lucy. “Now of all times—when he needs help—when his enemies have surrounded him? I'm the only person in the world who cares anything about him—who really understands him—”
Montague could think of nothing to say.
“I know how it hurts you,” said Lucy, “and don't think that I have not cared. It is a thought that never leaves me! But some day I know that you will understand; and the rest of the world—I don't care what the world says.”
“All right, Lucy,” he answered, sadly. “I see that I can't be of any help to you. I won't trouble you any more.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
rusticity
|
|
| n.乡村的特点、风格或气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
civilisation
|
|
| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
picturesque
|
|
| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
harry
|
|
| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
improper
|
|
| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
corruption
|
|
| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
scruples
|
|
| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sarcastically
|
|
| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
lookout
|
|
| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
outright
|
|
| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
brokers
|
|
| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
eloquent
|
|
| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
personalities
|
|
| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
sensational
|
|
| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
rumours
|
|
| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
gaping
|
|
| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
curb
|
|
| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
din
|
|
| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
inadequate
|
|
| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
shrill
|
|
| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
collapses
|
|
| 折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
preposterous
|
|
| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
ridicule
|
|
| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
heeded
|
|
| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
slump
|
|
| n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
scarcity
|
|
| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
scurrying
|
|
| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
jealousies
|
|
| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
treasury
|
|
| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
banking
|
|
| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
patronage
|
|
| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
graft
|
|
| n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
hatred
|
|
| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
hawk
|
|
| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
wager
|
|
| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
clenched
|
|
| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |