"John," said Hiram, "can you think of a single instance in which inherited wealth has been a benefit, a single case where a man has become more of a man than he would if he hadn"t had it?"
Hiram waited long. Torrey finally said: "That may be, but--" But what?
Torrey did not know, and so came to a full stop.
"I"ve been trying for weeks to think of one," continued Hiram, "and whenever I thought I"d found one, I"d see, on looking at all the facts, that it only _seemed_ to be so. And I recalled nearly a hundred instances right here in Saint X where big inheritances or little had been ruinous."
"I have never thought on this aspect of the matter before," said Torrey.
"But to bring children up in the expectation of wealth, and then to leave them practically nothing, looks to me like--like cheating them."
"It does, John," Hiram answered. "I"ve pushed my boy and my girl far along the broad way that leads to destruction. I must take the consequences. But G.o.d won"t let me divide the punishment for my sins with them. I see my duty clear. I must do it. Bring the will at five o"clock."
Hiram"s eyes were closed; his voice sounded to Torrey as if it were the utterance of a mind far, far away--as far away as that other world which had seemed vividly real to Hiram all his life; it seemed real and near to Torrey, looking into his old friend"s face. "The power that"s guiding him," Torrey said to himself, "is one I daren"t dispute with." And he went away with noiseless step and with head reverently bent.
CHAPTER VI
MRS. WHITNEY NEGOTIATES
The Rangers" neighbors saw the visits of Hargrave and Torrey. Immediately a rumor of a bequest to Tec.u.mseh was racing through the town and up the Bluffs and through the fashionable suburb. It arrived at Point Helen, the seat of the Whitneys, within an hour after Torrey left Ranger. It had acc.u.mulated confirmatory detail by that time--the bequest was large; was very large; was half his fortune--and the rest of the estate was to go to the college should Arthur and Adelaide die childless.
Mrs. Whitney lost no time. At half-past four she was seated in the same chair in which Hargrave and Torrey had sat. It was not difficult to bring up the subject of the two marriages, which were doubly to unite the houses and fortunes of Ranger and Whitney--the marriages of Arthur and Janet, of Ross and Adelaide. "And, of course," said Mrs. Whitney, "we all want the young people started right. I don"t believe children ought to feel dependent on their parents. It seems to me that puts filial and parental love on a very low plane. Don"t you think so?"
"Yes," said Hiram.
"The young people ought to feel that their financial position is secure.
And, as you and Ellen and Charles and I have lived for our children, have toiled to raise them above the sordid cares and anxieties of life, we ought to complete our work now and make them--happy."
Hiram did not speak, though she gave him ample time.
"So," pursued Mrs. Whitney, "I thought I wouldn"t put off any longer talking about what Charles and I have had in mind some months. Ross and Janet will soon be here, and I know all four of the children are anxious to have the engagements formally completed."
"Completed?" said Hiram.
"Yes," reaffirmed Matilda. "Of course they can"t be completed until we parents have done our share. You and Ellen want to know that Arthur and Adelaide won"t be at the mercy of any reverse in business Charles might have--or of any caprice which might influence him in making his will. And Charles and I want to feel the same way as to our Ross and Janet."
"Yes," said Hiram. "I see." A smile of stern irony roused his features from their repose into an expressiveness that made Mrs. Whitney exceedingly uncomfortable--but the more resolute.
"Charles is willing to be liberal both in immediate settlement and in binding himself in the matter of his will," she went on. "He often says, "I don"t want my children to be impatient for me to die. I want to make "em feel they"re getting, if anything, more because I"m alive.""
A long pause, then Hiram said: "That"s one way of looking at it."
"That"s _your_ way," said Matilda, as if the matter were settled. And she smiled her softest and sweetest. But Hiram saw only the glitter in her cold brown eyes, a glitter as hard as the sheen of her henna-stained hair.
"No," said he emphatically, "that"s _not_ my way. That"s the broad and easy way that leads to destruction. Ellen and I," he went on, his excitement showing only in his lapses into dialect, "we hain"t worked all our lives so that our children"ll be shiftless idlers, settin"
"round, polishin" their fingernails, and thinkin" up foolishness and breedin" fools."
Matilda had always known that Hiram and Ellen were hopelessly vulgar; but she had thought they cherished a secret admiration for the "higher things" beyond their reach, and were resolved that their son should be a gentleman and their daughter a lady. She found in Hiram"s energetic bitterness nothing to cause her to change her view. "He simply wants to hold on to his property to the last, and play the tyrant," she said to herself. "All people of property naturally feel that way." And she held steadily to her programme. "Well, Hiram," she proceeded tranquilly, "if those marriages are to take place, Charles and I will expect you to meet us halfway."
"If Ross and my Delia and Arthur and your Jane are fond of each other, let "em marry as you and Charles, as Ellen and I married. I ain"t buyin"
your son, nor sellin" my daughter. That"s my last word, Tillie."
On impulse, he pressed the electric b.u.t.ton in the wall behind him.
When the new upstairs girl came, he said: "Tell the children I want to see "em."
Arthur and Adelaide presently came, flushed with the exercise of the tennis the girl had interrupted.
"Mrs. Whitney, here," said Hiram, "tells me her children won"t marry without settlements, as it"s called. And I"ve been tellin" her that my son and daughter ain"t buyin" and sellin"."
Mrs. Whitney hid her fury. "Your father has a quaint way of expressing himself," she said, laughing elegantly. "I"ve simply been trying to persuade him to do as much toward securing the future of you two as Mr.
Whitney is willing to do. Don"t be absurd, Hiram. You know better than to talk that way."
Hiram looked steadily at her. "You"ve been travelin" about, "Tilda,"
he said, "gettin" together a lot of newfangled notions. Ellen and I and our children stick to the old way." And he looked at Arthur, then at Adelaide.
Their faces gave him a twinge at the heart. "Speak up!" he said. "Do you or do you not stick to the old way?"
"I can"t talk about it, father," was Adelaide"s evasive answer, her face scarlet and her eyes down.
"And you, sir?" said Hiram to his son.
"You"ll have to excuse me, sir," replied Arthur coldly.
Hiram winced before Mrs. Whitney"s triumphant glance. He leaned forward and, looking at his daughter, said: "Del, would you marry a man who wouldn"t take you unless you brought him a fortune?"
"No, father," Adelaide answered. She was meeting his gaze now. "But, at the same time, I"d rather not be dependent on my husband."
"Do you think your mother is dependent on me?"
"That"s different," said Adelaide, after a pause.
"How?" asked Hiram.
Adelaide did not answer, could not answer. To answer honestly would be to confess that which had been troubling her greatly of late--the feeling that there was something profoundly unsatisfactory in the relations between Ross and herself; that what he was giving her was different not only in degree but even in kind from what she wanted, or ought to want, from what she was trying to give him, or thought she ought to try to give him.
"And you, Arthur?" asked Hiram in the same solemn, appealing tone.
"I should not ask Janet to marry me unless I was sure I could support her in the manner to which she is accustomed," said Arthur. "I certainly shouldn"t wish to be dependent upon her."
"Then, your notion of marrying is that people get married for a living, for luxury. I suppose you"d expect her to leave you if you lost your money?"
"That"s different," said Arthur, restraining the impulse to reason with his illogical father whose antiquated sentimentalism was as unfitted to the new conditions of American life as were his ideas about work.
"You see, Hiram," said Mrs. Whitney, good-humoredly, "your children outvote you."
The master workman brought his fist down on the arm of his chair--not a gesture of violence, but of dignity and power. "I don"t stand for the notion that marriage is living in luxury and lolling in carriages and showing off before strangers. I told you what my last word was, Matilda."