"I always want you to have all that money can get."
"To make up for what I can"t have!" She burst into sobs. "I am so wretched, Van! Everything seems strange. I have tried to do what is right. But G.o.d must be displeased with me: He has taken from me the one thing I wanted."
That was a bitter thought to lie between husband and wife. I took her in my arms and comforted her, and together we saw that a way lay clear before us, doing our duty by one another and by our children, and in the end all would come out well. As we sat there together, it seemed to me as though there could be two loves in a man"s life,--the love for the woman and her children, who are his to protect; and the hunger love at the bottom of the heart, which with most is never satisfied, and maybe never can be satisfied in this life.
So she was comforted and after a little time went to her room, more calm in spirit. Then I called my secretary, and we worked together until a late hour. When my mind came back to the personal question of living, the fire on the hearth had died into cold ashes and the house was still with the stillness of early morning. For the moment it came over me that the fight I was waging with fortune was as cold as these ashes and doomed to failure. And the end, what was it?
Upstairs, Sarah lay half dressed on the lounge in my room, asleep. The tears had dried where they had fallen on her cheeks and neck. Her hair hung down loosely as though she had not the will to put it up for the night. As she lay there asleep, in the disorder of her grief, I knew that the real sorrow of life was hers, not mine. The memory of that day of our engagement came back to me--when I had wished to protect and cover her from the hard things of life. And again, as that time, I longed to take her, the gentle heart so easily hurt, and save her from this sorrow, the worst that can come to a loving woman. As I kissed the stained face, she awoke and looked at me wonderingly, murmuring half asleep:--
"What is it, Van? What has happened? It is time for you to go to bed. I remember--something bad has happened. What is it, Van? Oh, I know now!"
She shuddered as I lifted her from the lounge.
"I remember now what it is. You love that woman, but I can"t let you go.
I can"t bear it. I can"t live without you!"
"That will never come so long as there is life for us both," I promised.
She drew her arm tight about my neck.
"Yes! You must love me a little always."
CHAPTER XXIV
WAR
_Wall street and the people of the country--Collateral--I decide to go home--Sloc.u.m finds that I am a patriot--I plan to enlist--Hardman once more--Claims--A midnight problem--The telegram_
War! That was what was in the air those days. It had muttered on for months, giving our politicians at Washington something to mouth about in their less serious hours. Then came the sinking of the _Maine_ in Havana Harbor, and even Wall Street could see that the country was drifting fast into war. And in their jackal fashion, the men of Wall Street were trying to make money out of this crisis of their country, starting rumors from those high in authority to run the prices of their goods up and down. To those men who had honest interests at stake it was a terrible time for panic, for uncertainty. One could never guess what might happen over night.
But throughout the land, among the common people, the question at issue had been heard and judged. The farmer on his ranch, the laborer in his factory, the hand on the railroad--the men of the land up and down the States--had judged this question. When the time came their judgment got itself recorded; for any big question is settled just that way by those men, not at Washington or in Wall Street.
The sick spirit of our nation needed just this tonic of a generous war, fought not for our own profit. It would do us good to give ourselves for those poor Cuban dogs. The Jew spirit of Wall Street doesn"t rule this country, after all, and Wall Street doesn"t understand that the millions in the land long to hustle sometimes for something besides their own bellies. So, although Wall Street groaned, I had a kind of faith that war would be a good thing, cost what it might.
And it might cost me the work of my life. Latterly, with the revival of trade, my enterprises had been prospering, and were emerging from that doubtful state where they were blown upon by every wind of the market.
For the American Meat Products Company had kept its promise and was earning dividends. It had paid, in the past year, six per cent on the preferred stock, and, what with the big contracts we were getting from the Government just now, it would earn something on the common. So far very little of our stock had come upon the market, although the period covered by the agreement among the stockholders not to sell their holdings had pa.s.sed. In spite of Mr. Dround"s threats, there was no evidence that he had disposed of his stock up to this time. It was probable that when he saw what a good earner the company had proved to be, he had reconsidered his scruples, as he had done years before in the matter of private agreements and rebates.
And that rag of a railroad out of Kansas City, which Farson and his friends found left on their hands in the panic times of "93, now reached all the way to the Gulf and was spreading fast into a respectable system. After Farson had withdrawn his help at the time of our disagreement, we had interested a firm of bankers in New York, and, one way and another, had built and equipped the road. A few years of good times, and all this network of enterprises would be beyond attack.
Meanwhile, I was loaded down to the water"s edge with the securities of these new companies, and had borrowed heavily at home and in the East in the effort to push through my plans.
This was my situation on that eventful day when the news of the sinking of the _Maine_ was telegraphed over the country, and even gilt-edged securities began to tumble, to slide downhill in a mad whirl. In such times collateral shrank like snow before a south wind.
All the morning I had sat in my office with a telephone at my ear, and it seemed to me that but one word came from it--Collateral! collateral!
Where was it to be had? Finally, I hung up the receiver of my telephone and leaned back in my chair, dazed by the mad whirl along which I was being carried. My secretary opened the door and asked if I would see So-and-so and the next man. A broker was clamoring to get at me. They all wanted one thing--money. Their demands came home to me faintly, like the noise of rain on a window.
"Jim," I said to the man, "I am tired. I am going home."
"Going home?" he gasped, not believing his ears.
"Tell "em all I am going home! Tell "em anything you want to."
While the young man was still staring at me, Sloc.u.m burst past him into the room. Even his impa.s.sive face was twisted into a scowl of fear.
"Harris is out there," he said hurriedly. "He says some one is selling Meat Products common and preferred. Big chunks of it are coming on the market, and the price has dropped fifteen points during the morning."
I said nothing. Anything was to be expected in this whirlwind.
"Do you suppose it"s Dround"s stock?" he asked.
"Perhaps," I nodded. "It don"t make much difference to us whose it is."
"We can"t let this go on."
"I guess it will have to go on," I replied listlessly.
Sloc.u.m looked at me wonderingly. He had seen me crawl out of a good many small holes, and he was waiting for the word of action now.
"Well?" he asked at last.
"I am going home." I got up and took his arm. "Come along with me, old man. I want to get out of this noise."
The elevator dropped us into the hurly-burly of the street. Men were hurrying in and out of the brokers" offices, where the last reports for the day were coming in.
"D--n this war!" Sloc.u.m swore, as I paused to buy a paper.
"Don"t say that, Slo!" I protested. "This war is a great thing, and every decent American ought to be proud of his country, by thunder! I am."
The lawyer looked at me as if my head had suddenly gone back on me.
"I mean it. I tell you, Slo, nations are like men. They have their work to do in this life. When it comes to an issue like this, they can"t shirk any more than a man can. If they do, it will be worse for them.
This war will do us good, will clean us and cure us for a good long time of this cussed, little peevish distemper we have been through since "93.
That was just selfish introspection. This fight for Cuba will bring us all together. We"ll work for something better than our bellies. There"s nothing so good as a dose of real patriotism once in a while."
"Van, you ought to be in the Senate!" he jeered.
"Perhaps I shall be there one of these days, when I have finished this other job."
The idea seemed to strike him humorously.
"You think it might be hard work for me to prove my patriotism to the people? Don"t you believe it. The people don"t remember slander long.
And those things you and I have done which have set the newspapers talking don"t worry anybody. They are just the tricks of the game."
So we sauntered on through the streets that March afternoon, discussing, like two schoolboys, patriotism and government; while back in the office we had left white-faced men were clamoring for a word with me, seeking to find out whether I was to go under at last.