"The name of the gentleman who left this afternoon?" She called to Ella, one of the waitresses, in her second year at Wellesley. "What was it, Ella? I forget."
As the house was closing for the night some informality was possible. Ella sauntered up.
"What was what?"
Tom's question was repeated.
"Oh, that was the great Henry T. Whitelaw. Big banker. Partner in Meek3 and Brokenshire's. They say that he and a few other bankers could stop the war if they liked, by holding back the cash. Don't believe it. War's too big. And, say! He was the father of that Whitelaw baby there used to be all the talk about."
Miss Padley looked up, her cheek resting on her hand. "You don't say! Gee4, I wish I'd known that. I'd 'a looked at him a little closer." She turned her
[Pg 263]
tired greenish eyes toward Tom. "Your name is Whitelaw, too, isn't it?"
He grinned nervously5. "My name is Whitelaw, too, only, like the lady's maid whose name was Shakespeare but was no relation to the play-actor of that name, I don't belong to the banking6 branch of the family."
Ella exclaimed, as one who makes a discovery. "But, Siegfried, you look as if you did. Doesn't he, Blanche? Look at his eyebrows7. They're just like the banker man's."
"Oh, I've looked at them often enough," Miss Padley returned, wearily. "Got his mustaches stuck on in the wrong place. I'm off."
Yawning, she shut her ledger8, closed an open drawer, and rose. But Ella, a dark little thing, kept her snappy black eyes on Tom.
"You do look like him, Siegfried. I'd put in a claim if I were you. I'm single, you know, and I've always admired you. Think of the romance it would make if the Whitelaw baby took home as his bride a poor but honest working girl!"
Dodging9 Ella's chaff10, Tom escaped to the garage. It was queer how the Whitelaw baby haunted him. Honey!—Ella!—and the Whitelaw baby's own father!
But the haunting stopped. Neither Ella nor Miss Padley took it as more than a passing pleasantry, forgotten with the morning. The tall man who had asked him questions never came back again. The rest of the summer went by with but one little incident to remain in his memory.
[Pg 264]
It was a very little incident. Walking one day in the road that ran round the lake he came face to face with Hildred Ansley. She had grown since the previous winter, a little in height, and more in an indefinable development. She was fifteen now; but, always older than her age, she was more like seventeen or eighteen. Her formal manner, her decided11 mind, her "grown-up" choice of words, made her already something of that finished entity12 for which we have only the word lady. Ella had said of her that at twenty she would look like forty, and at forty continue to look like twenty. Tom thought that this might be true—an early fullness of womanhood, but a long one.
She had been playing tennis, and swung her racket as she came along. He was sorry for this direct encounter, since she might find it awkward; but when she waved her racket to him, it was clear that she did not. She felt perhaps the more independent, released from her mother's supervision13 and the inn. Her smile, something in her way of pausing in the road, an ease of manner beyond analysis, put them both on the plane on which their acquaintance had begun. The slanting14 yellowish-brown eyes together with the faint glimmer15 of a smile heightened that air of mystery which had always made her different from other girls.
"How have you been getting along?"
He said he had been doing very well.
"How have you liked the job?"
"Fine! Everybody's been nice to me—"
"Everybody likes you. All the same, I hope, if they ask you to come back next year, that—you won't."
[Pg 265]
"Why not?"
"Oh, just—because!"
Slipping away, she left him with the summer's second memory. She hoped he wouldn't take the place again—because! Because—what? Could she have meant what he thought she must have meant? Was it possible that she didn't like to see him in a situation something like a servant's? Though he never again, during all the rest of the summer, had so much speech with her alone, it gave him a hint to turn over in his mind.
Driving the car back to Boston, after the inn-club had closed, he saw Maisie for the last time that year. Uncertain of his hours, he had been unable to arrange to have her meet him, and so looked her up in her home. A small wooden house, once stained a dark red, weather-worn now to a reddish-dun, it stood on the outskirts16 of the town. In a weedy back-yard, redeemed17 from ugliness by the flaming of a maple18 tree, Maisie was pinning newly washed clothes to a clothes-line stretched between the back door and a post. Two children, a boy of six and a girl of eight, were tumbling about with a pup. At sound of the stopping of the car in the roadway in front of the house Maisie turned, a clothes-pin held lengthwise in her mouth. Even with her sleeves rolled up and her hair in wisps, she couldn't be anything but pretty.
She came and sat beside him in the car, the children and the pup staring up at them in wonder.
"Gee, I wish he'd get married; but I daresay he won't for ever so long. Married to the bottle, that's what he is. It was six years after my mother died
[Pg 266]
before he took on the last one. That's what makes me so much older than the four kids. All the same I'd beat it if you'd take a shofer's job and settle down. I'm not bound to stay here and make myself a slave."
It was the burden of all Maisie's reasoning, and he had to admit its justice. He was asking her to wait a long four years before he could give her a home. It would have been more preposterous19 than it was if among poor people, among poor young people especially, a long courtship, with marriage as a vague fulfillment, was not general. Any such man as she was likely to get would have to toil20 and save, and save and toil, before he could pay for the few sticks of furniture they would need to set up housekeeping. Never having thought of anything else, she was the more patient now; but patient with a strain of rebellion against Tom's whim21 for education.
She cried when he left her; he almost cried himself, from a sense of his impotence to take her at once from a life of drudgery22. The degree to which he loved her seemed to be secondary now to her helpless need of him. True, he could get a job as chauffeur24 and make a hundred dollars a month to begin with. To Maisie that would be riches; but a hundred and fifty a month would then become his lifelong limit and ambition. Even to save Maisie now he couldn't bring himself to sacrifice not merely his future but her own. Once he was "through college," it seemed to him that the treasures of the world would lie open.
Arrived in Grove25 Street, he found one new condition which made his return easier. Honey, who, for the sake of economy, had occupied a hall-bedroom
[Pg 267]
through the summer, had reserved another, on the floor above, for Tom. The relief from the sharing of one big room amounted to a sense of luxury.
On the other hand, Honey, for the first time since Tom had known him, was moody26 and tired. He was not ill; he was only less cast-iron than he used to be. He found it harder to go to work in the morning; he was more spent when he came back at night, as if some inner impulse of virility27 was wearing itself out. The war worried him. The fact that old England had met a foe28 whom she couldn't walk over at once disturbed his ideas as to the way in which the foundations of the world had been laid.
"Anything can happen now, kid," he declared, in discussing the English retreat from Mons. "Haven't felt so bad since the bloody29 cop give me the whack30 with his club what put out me eye. If Englishmen has to turn tail before Germans, well, what next?"
But to Tom's suggestions that he should go to Canada and enlist31 in the British army Honey was as stone. "You're too young. Y'ain't got yer growth. I don't care what no one says. War is for men. Yer first business, and yer last business, and yer only business, is yer eddication."
It must be admitted that Tom agreed with him. He had no longing32 to go to war. Europe was far away while life was near. Education, Maisie, the future, had the first claim on him. It began to occur to him that even Honey had a claim on him, now that he was not so vigorous as he used to be.
There were other interests to make war remote. On returning to town, after a summer amid the spa
[Pg 268]
ciousness, beauty, and comfort which the few could give themselves, he was oppressed by the privations of the many. Never before had he thought of them. He had taken Grove Street for granted. He had taken it for granted that life was hard and crowded and bitter and cold and ugly, and couldn't be anything else. Now he had seen for himself that it could be easy and beautiful and healthy. True, he had always known that there were rich people as well as poor people; but never before had he been close enough to the rich to see their luxuries in detail. The contrasts in the human scheme of things having thus come home to him he was moved to a distressed33 wondering.
What brought these differences about? If all the rich were industrious34 and good, while all the poor were idle and extravagant35, he could have understood it better. But it wasn't so. The rich were often idle and extravagant, and didn't suffer. The poor were nearly always industrious—they couldn't be anything else—and were as good as they had leisure to be, but suffered from something all the time. How could this injustice36 be endured? What was to be done about it? Wasn't it everybody's duty to try to right such a wrong?
Because he had only now become aware of it he supposed that nobody but the Slav and Jewish agitators37 had been aware of it before. Louisburg Square, and all that element in the world which Louisburg Square represented, could never have thought of it. If it had, it couldn't have slept at night in its bed. That it should lie snug38 and soft and warm while all the rest of the world—at least a good three-fourths—
[Pg 269]
lay cold and hard and hungry, must be out of the question. If the rich people only knew! It was strange that someone hadn't told them. What were the newspapers and the governments and the churches doing that they weren't ringing with protests against this fundamental evil?
More than ever Honey's rebellion against the lor of proputty seemed to him based on some principle he couldn't trace. Honey was doubtless all wrong; and yet the other thing was just as wrong as Honey. He started him talking on the subject as they strolled to their dinner that evening.
"Seems as if this 'ere old human race didn't have no spunk39. Yer can put anything over on them, and they'll 'ardly lift a kick. It's like as if they was hypnertized. Them as has got everything is hypnertized into thinkin' they've a right to it; and them as have got nothink'll let theirselves believe as nothink is all that belongs to 'em. Comes o' most o' the world bein' orthodocks. Lord love yer, I'd rather think for meself if it landed me ten months out'n every twelve in jail, than have two thousand a year and yet be an old tabby-orthodock what never had a mind."
They were seated at the table in Mrs. Turtle's basement dining-room, when, looking up and down the double row of guests, Honey whispered, "Tabby-orthodocks—all of 'em."
At his sixteen or eighteen fellow-mealers Tom looked with a new vision. With the aid of Honey's epithet40 he could class them. Mostly men, they sat bowed, silent, futile41, gulping42 down their coarse food with no pretense43 at softening44 the animal processes of
[Pg 270]
eating. These, too, he had hitherto taken for granted. In all the months they had "mealed" at Mrs. Turtle's—in the years they had "mealed" at similar establishments in Grove Street—he had looked on them, and on others of their kind, as the norm of humanity. Now he saw something wrong in them, without knowing what it was.
"What's the matter with them?" he asked of Honey, as they went back across Grove Street to Mrs. Danker's.
Honey's reply was standardized45. "Bein' orthodocks. Not thinkin' for theirselves. Not usin' the mind as Gord give 'em. Believin' what other blokes told 'em, and stoppin' at that. I say, Kiddy! Don't yer never go for to forget that yer'll get farther in the world by bein' wrong the way yer thinks yerself than by bein' right the way some other feller tells yer."
Having reached their own house they stood, each with a foot on the doorstep, while Tom smoked a cigarette and Honey enlarged on his philosophy.
"I don't believe as Gord put us into this world to be right not 'arf so much as what He done it so as we'd find out for ourselves what's right and what's wrong. One right thing as yer've found out for yerself'll make yer more of a man than fifty as yer've took on trust. Look at 'em in there!" He nodded backward toward Mrs. Turtle's. "They've all took everythink on trust, and see what it's made of 'em. Whoever says, 'I'm an orthodock, and I'm goin' to live and die an orthodock,' is like the guy in the Bible as was bound 'and and foot with grave-clothes. My
[Pg 271]
genius was always for thinkin' things out for meself; and look at me to-day!"
It was another discovery to Tom that Honey felt proud and happy in his accomplishment46. Honey to Tom was a machine for doing heavy work. He was a drudge23, and a dray-horse. He was shut out from the higher, the more spiritual activities. But here was Honey himself content, and in a measure exultant47.
"Been wrong in a lot o' things I have; but I've found it out for meself. I ain't sorry for what I've did. It's learned me. There ain't a old jug48 I've been in, in England or the State o' New York, that didn't learn me somethink. I see now that I was wrong. But I see, too, that them as tried and sentenced me wasn't right. When they repents50 of the sins what their lors and gover'ments and churches has committed against this old world, I'll repent49 o' the sins I've committed against them."
This ability to stand alone, mentally at least, against all religion and society, was, as Tom saw it, the secret of Honey's independence. He might have been a rogue51, a burglar, a convict; and yet he was a man, as the orthodocks at Mrs. Turtle's were not, and never had been, men. Having allowed themselves to be hammered into subjection by what Honey called lors, gover'ments, and churches, in subjection they had been trapped, and never could get out again. There was something about Honey that was strong and free.
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1
freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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3
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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4
gee
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| n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转 | |
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5
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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6
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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7
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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8
ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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9
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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10
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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11
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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13
supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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14
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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15
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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16
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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17
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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18
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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19
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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20
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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21
whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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22
drudgery
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| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
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23
drudge
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| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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24
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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25
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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26
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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27
virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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28
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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29
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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30
whack
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| v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份 | |
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31
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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32
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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33
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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34
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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35
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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36
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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37
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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38
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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39
spunk
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| n.勇气，胆量 | |
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40
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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41
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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42
gulping
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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43
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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44
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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45
standardized
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| adj.标准化的 | |
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46
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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47
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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48
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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49
repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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50
repents
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的第三人称单数 ) | |
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51
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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