His glance rested on his son Draper, seated opposite him behind a barrier of Georgian silver and orchids2; but his words were addressed to his secretary who, stylograph in hand, had turned from the seductions of a mushroom souffle in order to jot3 down, for the Sunday Investigator4, an outline of his employer’s views and intentions respecting the newly endowed Orlando G. Spence College for Missionaries5. It was Mr. Spence’s practice to receive in person the journalists privileged to impart his opinions to a waiting world; but during the last few months — and especially since the vast project of the Missionary6 College had been in process of development — the pressure of business and beneficence had necessitated7 Millner’s frequent intervention8, and compelled the secretary to snatch the sense of his patron’s elucubrations between the courses of their hasty meals.
Young Millner had a healthy appetite, and it was not one of his least sacrifices to be so often obliged to curb9 it in the interest of his advancement10; but whenever he waved aside one of the triumphs of Mr. Spence’s chef he was conscious of rising a step in his employer’s favour. Mr. Spence did not despise the pleasures of the table, though he appeared to regard them as the reward of success rather than as the alleviation11 of effort; and it increased his sense of his secretary’s merit to note how keenly the young man enjoyed the fare which he was so frequently obliged to deny himself. Draper, having subsisted12 since infancy13 on a diet of truffles and terrapin14, consumed such delicacies15 with the insensibility of a traveller swallowing a railway sandwich; but Millner never made the mistake of concealing16 from Mr. Spence his sense of what he was losing when duty constrained17 him to exchange the fork for the pen.
“My chief aim in life!” Mr. Spence repeated, removing his eye-glass and swinging it thoughtfully on his finger. (“I’m sorry you should miss this souffle, Millner: it’s worth while.) Why, I suppose I might say that my chief aim in life is to leave the world better than I found it. Yes: I don’t know that I could put it better than that. To leave the world better than I found it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to use that as a head-line. ’Wants to leave the world better than he found it.‘ It’s exactly the point I should like to make in this talk about the College.”
Mr. Spence paused, and his glance once more reverted18 to his son, who, having pushed aside his plate, sat watching Millner with a dreamy intensity19.
“And it’s the point I want to make with you, too, Draper,” his father continued genially20, while he turned over with a critical fork the plump and perfectly21 matched asparagus which a footman was presenting to his notice. “I want to make you feel that nothing else counts in comparison with that — no amount of literary success or intellectual celebrity22.”
“Oh, I do feel that,” Draper murmured, with one of his quick blushes, and a glance that wavered between his father and Millner. The secretary kept his eyes on his notes, and young Spence continued, after a pause: “Only the thing is — isn’t it? — to try and find out just what does make the world better?”
“To try to find out?” his father echoed compassionately24. “It’s not necessary to try very hard. Goodness is what makes the world better.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” his son nervously25 interposed; “but the question is, what is good — ”
Mr. Spence, with a darkening brow, brought his fist down emphatically on the damask. “I’ll thank you not to blaspheme, my son!”
Draper’s head reared itself a trifle higher on his thin neck. “I was not going to blaspheme; only there may be different ways — ”
“There’s where you’re mistaken, Draper. There’s only one way: there’s my way,” said Mr. Spence in a tone of unshaken conviction.
“I know, father; I see what you mean. But don’t you see that even your way wouldn’t be the right way for you if you ceased to believe that it was?”
His father looked at him with mingled26 bewilderment and reprobation27. “Do you mean to say that the fact of goodness depends on my conception of it, and not on God Almighty’s?”
“I do . . . yes . . . in a specific sense . . . ” young Draper falteringly28 maintained; and Mr. Spence turned with a discouraged gesture toward his secretary’s suspended pen.
“I don’t understand your scientific jargon29, Draper; and I don’t want to. — What’s the next point, Millner? (No; no savarin. Bring the fruit — and the coffee with it.)”
Millner, keenly aware that an aromatic30 savarin au rhum was describing an arc behind his head previous to being rushed back to the pantry under young Draper’s indifferent eye, stiffened31 himself against this last assault of the enemy, and read out firmly: “ What relation do you consider that a man’s business conduct should bear to his religious and domestic life?”
Mr. Spence mused32 a moment. “Why, that’s a stupid question. It goes over the same ground as the other one. A man ought to do good with his money — that’s all. Go on.”
At this point the butler’s murmur23 in his ear caused him to push back his chair, and to arrest Millner’s interrogatory by a rapid gesture. “Yes; I’m coming. Hold the wire.” Mr. Spence rose and plunged33 into the adjoining “office,” where a telephone and a Remington divided the attention of a young lady in spectacles who was preparing for Zenana work in the East.
As the door closed, the butler, having placed the coffee and liqueurs on the table, withdrew in the rear of his battalion34, and the two young men were left alone beneath the Rembrandts and Hobbemas on the dining-room walls.
There was a moment’s silence between them; then young Spence, leaning across the table, said in the lowered tone of intimacy35: “Why do you suppose he dodged37 that last question?”
Millner, who had rapidly taken an opulent purple fig38 from the fruit-dish nearest him, paused in surprise in the act of hurrying it to his lips.
“I mean,” Draper hastened on, “the question as to the relation between business and private morality. It’s such an interesting one, and he’s just the person who ought to tackle it.”
Millner, despatching the fig, glanced down at his notes. “I don’t think your father meant to dodge36 the question.”
Young Draper continued to look at him intently. “You think he imagined that his answer really covers the ground?”
“As much as it needs to be covered.”
The son of the house glanced away with a sigh. “You know things about him that I don’t,” he said wistfully, but without a tinge39 of resentment40 in his tone.
“Oh, as to that — (may I give myself some coffee?)” Millner, in his walk around the table to fill his cup, paused a moment to lay an affectionate hand on Draper’s shoulder. “Perhaps I know him better, in a sense: outsiders often get a more accurate focus.”
Draper considered this. “And your idea is that he acts on principles he has never thought of testing or defining?”
Millner looked up quickly, and for an instant their glances crossed. “How do you mean?”
“I mean: that he’s an inconscient instrument of goodness, as it were? A— a sort of blindly beneficent force?”
The other smiled. “That’s not a bad definition. I know one thing about him, at any rate: he’s awfully41 upset at your having chucked your Bible Class.”
A shadow fell on young Spence’s candid42 brow. “I know. But what can I do about it? That’s what I was thinking of when I tried to show him that goodness, in a certain sense, is purely43 subjective44: that one can’t do good against one’s principles.” Again his glance appealed to Millner. “ You understand me, don’t you?”
Millner stirred his coffee in a silence not unclouded by perplexity. “Theoretically, perhaps. It’s a pretty question, certainly. But I also understand your father’s feeling that it hasn’t much to do with real life: especially now that he’s got to make a speech in connection with the founding of this Missionary College. He may think that any hint of internecine45 strife46 will weaken his prestige. Mightn’t you have waited a little longer?”
“How could I, when I might have been expected to take a part in this performance? To talk, and say things I didn’t mean? That was exactly what made me decide not to wait.”
The door opened and Mr. Spence re-entered the room. As he did so his son rose abruptly47 as if to leave it.
“Where are you off to, Draper?” the banker asked.
“I’m in rather a hurry, sir — ”
Mr. Spence looked at his watch. “You can’t be in more of a hurry than I am; and I’ve got seven minutes and a half.” He seated himself behind the coffee — tray, lit a cigar, laid his watch on the table, and signed to Draper to resume his place. “No, Millner, don’t you go; I want you both.” He turned to the secretary. “You know that Draper’s given up his Bible Class? I understand it’s not from the pressure of engagements — ” Mr. Spence’s narrow lips took an ironic48 curve under the straight-clipped stubble of his moustache — “it’s on principle, he tells me. He’s principled against doing good!”
Draper lifted a protesting hand. “It’s not exactly that, father — ”
“I know: you’ll tell me it’s some scientific quibble that I don’t understand. I’ve never had time to go in for intellectual hair-splitting. I’ve found too many people down in the mire49 who needed a hand to pull them out. A busy man has to take his choice between helping50 his fellow-men and theorizing about them. I’ve preferred to help. (You might take that down for the Investigator, Millner.) And I thank God I’ve never stopped to ask what made me want to do good. I’ve just yielded to the impulse — that’s all.” Mr. Spence turned back to his son. “Better men than either of us have been satisfied with that creed51, my son.”
Draper was silent, and Mr. Spence once more addressed himself to his secretary. “Millner, you’re a reader: I’ve caught you at it. And I know this boy talks to you. What have you got to say? Do you suppose a Bible Class ever hurt anybody?”
Millner paused a moment, feeling all through his nervous system the fateful tremor52 of the balance. “That’s what I was just trying to tell him, sir — ”
“Ah; you were? That’s good. Then I’ll only say one thing more. Your doing what you’ve done at this particular moment hurts me more, Draper, than your teaching the gospel of Jesus could possibly have hurt those young men over in Tenth Avenue.” Mr. Spence arose and restored his watch to his pocket. “I shall want you in twenty minutes, Millner.”
The door closed on him, and for a while the two young men sat silent behind their cigar fumes53. Then Draper Spence broke out, with a catch in his throat: “That’s what I can’t bear, Millner, what I simply can’t bear: to hurt him, to hurt his faith in me! It’s an awful responsibility, isn’t it, to tamper54 with anybody’s faith in anything?”
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1
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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jot
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| n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下 | |
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investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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alleviation
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| n. 减轻，缓和，解痛物 | |
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subsisted
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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terrapin
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| n.泥龟；鳖 | |
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delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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compassionately
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| adv.表示怜悯地，有同情心地 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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reprobation
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| n.斥责 | |
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falteringly
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| 口吃地，支吾地 | |
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jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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fig
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| n.无花果(树) | |
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tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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internecine
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| adj.两败俱伤的 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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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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51
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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52
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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54
tamper
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| v.干预，玩弄，贿赂，窜改，削弱，损害 | |
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