"If Olivetta were only to marry some one--some decent fellow--she"d blossom out, grow as young as she actually is--and, who knows, perhaps even her hairpins might stay in."
"Marry, yes. But whom?"
"I"ve seen a few things--there"s a certain party--and--" He stumbled a bit, conscious that he was becoming indiscreet. "And, oh, well, just on general principles marriage is a good thing."
"That is just the opinion I have been urging upon you in regard to yourself," returned his mother in her even, confident tone.
"U"m--yes," Jack said hastily. "But that was not--not the first thing I wanted to speak about."
"I believe you did say there were several matters."
"So there are." He rubbed his face tentatively with his bandaged hand; then smiled blandly at his mother. "Yes, there are a few."
"Well?"
"Well, first of all, mother, I want to make a kick."
She frowned. "How often must I request you not to use such common expressions!"
"All right, all right," said he. "Suppose I say, then, that I"m dissatisfied."
"Dissatisfied!" She straightened up. "Dissatisfied! What about? Do I not allow you all the money you want?"
"Yes."
"And have I not practically arranged a match between you and Ethel Quintard? Ethel will have three millions some day. And there is no better family to marry into; that is, except our own."
"Yes, yes,--I know."
"And yet you say you are dissatisfied!" She stared. "What more can you want?"
"Well, for one thing, to go to school," was Jack"s amiable response.
"Go to school! Why--why, you"ve already had the best of educations!
Exeter--Yale--not to speak of private tutors!"
"And what did I learn? That is," he added, "over and above being a fairly decent half-back and learning how to spend money--u"m--pretty thoroughly."
"I trust," said Mrs. De Peyster with all her dignity, "that you learned to be a gentleman!"
"Oh, I suppose I learned that all right," Jack acquiesced. "And I"ve been working hard at the profession ever since--sixteen to twenty hours a day, no half-holidays and no Sundays off. I can"t stand it any longer. So I"ve decided to go on strike."
"Strike?" exclaimed his mother, bewildered.
"Yes. For better conditions. I"m tired loafing such long hours. I"d like a little leisure in which to work."
"Work!" repeated his mother--and human voice could hardly express amazement greater than did hers. "Work! Jack--you"re not in earnest?"
He held upon her a clear-eyed, humorous, but resolute face.
"Don"t I look in earnest?"
He did; and his mother could only dazedly repeat, "Work! You go to work!"
"Oh, not at once. No, thank you! I want to ask you to give me a little proper education first that will equip me to do something. You"ve spent--how much have you spent on my education, mother? Tens and tens of thousands, I know. Pretty big investment, on the whole. Now, how large returns do you suppose I can draw on that investment?"
"I was not thinking about dividends; I was thinking about fitting you for your station," returned his mother stiffly.
"Well, as for me, I"ve been thinking of late about how much I could get out of that investment. I"ve wanted to test myself and find what I was worth--as a worker." He leaned a little closer. "I say, mother,"
he said confidentially, "you remember that little explanation I just gave you of my absence."
"About your trip in that high-powered automobile?"
"That was just a high-powered fib. Just a bit of diplomatic romance--for Olivetta"s consumption."
"Then where have you been?" demanded Mrs. De Peyster.
"Prospecting. Prospecting to find out just how much that hundred thousand or two or three you"ve sunk in me is worth. And I"ve found out. It"s present value is not quite nine a week."
"You mean?"
"I mean," he said pleasantly, "I"ve been at work."
"At work!"
Mrs. De Peyster slowly rose and looked down at him with staring, loose-fallen face.
"At work!" she gasped again. "At work!"
"Yes, mother. At work."
"But--but that skidding automobile? Those hands?"
"Blisters, mother dear. Most horrible blisters."
"You"ve worked--you"ve worked--at what?"
"Well, you see, mother, if I could have knocked out a home run, say a job as a railroad president, when I stepped up to the plate in the first inning, I suppose I wouldn"t have backed away from the chance.
But I wanted to find my real value, so I wore cheap clothes and kept clear of my friends. "What could I do?" every one asked me. You know my answer. And _their_ answer! I thought only sub-way guards could say, "Step lively," like that. Lordy, how I tramped! But finally I met a kind gentleman who gave me a chance."
"A gentleman?"
"About the size of your piano--only he had a red mustache and a red shirt and I should say his complexion needed re-decorating.
Irish--foreman on a water-main trench."
"And you--you took it?"
"Took it? I grabbed it!"