"They are too sweet," she explained. "I like them--but in the next room."
Her fastidiousness surprised me, and, as always, I began to wonder about her. Suddenly she leaned forward and spoke swiftly, intently:--
"I hope you and Sarah will be happy together--really happy!"
It was an ordinary kind of thing to say, but beneath the plain words there seemed to lie something personal.
"We shall be happy, of course!" I answered lightly. "There"s nothing against it in sight."
"Ah, my friend, you can"t count that way! Happiness is hard to get in this world, and you pa.s.s it by at odd corners and never know it." She smiled a little sadly, and then added in a more ordinary tone: "Sarah tells me that you are to be away only a few days. Does business tempt you so much that you can"t resist it even now?"
"Well, I expect to love Sarah just as much when I get back to work.
Business is a man"s place, as the house is a woman"s. Take either out of their places for long, and something is likely to go wrong with them."
She laughed at my satisfied wisdom.
"Are you so needed over there in the office?"
"You must ask your husband that."
"He says that you are the cleverest man they have had for years. Does that make you proud?"
"Thank you!"
"Will you let the big dog Strauss eat us?" she laughed on.
"I"ll tell you a few years later, madam."
"Yes," she mused, "you are right. A man, a strong man--and that"s the only kind that is a man--must be at work. The sweetest love can"t keep him long."
Here Sarah"s voice reached us:--
"You mustn"t distract him to-day of all days, Jane!"
"He can"t be distracted long, my child--by anybody!"
We had taken a pleasant house on one of the broad avenues to the south beyond the smoke bank, with a bit of a garden and a few trees. When we got back from New York we found supper waiting for us, roses on the table, a bottle of wine ready to open, and on the sideboard a box of cigars.
"The hand of Jane!" remarked my wife, as she rearranged the flowers and put the roses on the mantelpiece.
"The hand of Jane?" I repeated dully. "You mean Mrs. Dround did it all?"
"Yes, of course; it reaches everywhere."
And Sarah did not look as much pleased as I expected.
CHAPTER XII
AN HONORABLE MERCHANT
_Mr. Dround"s little weakness--An unpleasant occurrence--To the best of one"s knowledge--"Kissing goes by favor," and other things--Switch-tracks and rebates--Carmichael talks--An item of charity--Our manager goes over to the enemy--I am offered his place--A little talk on the moral side--The dilemma of the righteous--What is, is good enough for me_
"Mr. Dround seems to be doing a good deal of talking for the benefit of his neighbors," Sloc.u.m observed one day when I was in his office.
"Oh, he likes the job of making the country over! It suits him to talk more than to sell pork."
"Did you see what he said last night?" Sloc.u.m continued.
"No, what was it? Free trade or college education?" For Mr. Henry I.
Dround was long on both subjects. He had always fooled more or less with politics, having come out as a mugwump and free-trader under Cleveland.
That kind of doctrine wasn"t much in favor among the business men of Chicago, but Dround liked being in the minority. He was an easy, scholarly speaker, and was always ready to talk at dinners and public meetings. "It seems to me I saw something in the papers of his speaking at the Jefferson Club banquet," I went on; "but I didn"t pay any attention to it. The old man is rather long on wind."
"The papers missed most of the ginger. But I was there, and it was lively. Jimmy Birdsell, Hart"s man, was there, too. It was this new Civil Service Bill that the silk stockings are trying to push through the legislature. Of course, Hart and the machine are fighting it like fire. Well, your boss made the chief speech, a good little talk, about purity and business methods in government and the rest of it. Birdsell sat just across the table from me, and I could see from the way he knocked his gla.s.ses about that he was getting hot. Maybe he came there for a fight. At last he boiled over.
""Say, Mr. Dround," he sang out in a pause between two periods, "how about your new switch-track over in Ada Street?"
"Dround looked toward him over his gla.s.ses for a moment, as though he hadn"t heard what was said, and then he went ahead with his talk. But Birdsell was some drunk and too mad to care what he did. The men beside him couldn"t keep him quiet. "I say, Dround," he broke out again pretty soon, "we should like to hear what your firm does when it wants any little favors from the city? That might be to the point just now!"
"This time Dround couldn"t pa.s.s it over. He took a drink of water and his hand shook. Then he said: "I do not see that this is the proper time to introduce a personal matter, but since the gentleman seems concerned about my business honor, I am glad to set his mind at rest. To the best of my knowledge, Henry I. Dround & Co. have never asked and never accepted any favors from the city. Is that satisfactory?"
""Come, now, Mr. Dround," Birdsell sneered, "that isn"t generally believed, you know."
""I said," your boss ripped back, "_to the best of my knowledge_, your insinuation is a lie!" He leaned forward and glared at Birdsell. Well, there was a kind of awkward pause, everybody waiting to see what would come next; and then Birdsell, who must have been pretty drunk, called back: "Ask your man John Carmichael what he does when he wants anything from the city. Ask him about your rebates, too. Then the next time you come here telling us how to be good, you"ll know more." There was a cat-and-dog time after that, some yelling to put Birdsell out, and others laughing and clapping."
Sloc.u.m paused, and then added:--
"It put Mr. Dround in a tight place."
"What of it, anyhow?" said I. "Birdsell is nothing but a yellow dog.
Hart keeps him to lick his platters. Every one knows that."
"Yes, that"s so. But he said what most every one believes is true."
"That kissing goes by favor, and most other things in this world, too.
Well, what of it?"
Sloc.u.m leaned back in his chair and laughed. Then he said to me seriously:--
"You aren"t much troubled with scruples, Van!"
"Come, what"s the use of talking good? You and I know well enough that there isn"t any other way of doing business, not in any city in the country. You have got to pay for what you get, the same as elsewhere.
Dround ought to know it, too, by this time, and not go "round preaching loose--or else get out of business, which might be better!"