第74章 PART THIRD(5)

"That's it,then;and it's all right.Conrad 'll come round in time;and all we've got to do is to have patience with the old man till he does.

I know he likes you."Fulkerson affirmed this only interrogatively,and looked so anxiously to March for corroboration that March laughed.

"He dissembled his love,"he said;but afterward,in describing to his wife his interview with Mr.Dryfoos,he was less amused with this fact.

When she saw that he was a little cast down by it,she began to encourage him."He's just a common,ignorant man,and probably didn't know how to express himself.You may be perfectly sure that he's delighted with the success of the magazine,and that he understands as well as you do that he owes it all to you.""Ah,I'm not so sure.I don't believe a man's any better for having made money so easily and rapidly as Dryfoos has done,and I doubt if he's any wiser.I don't know just the point he's reached in his evolution from grub to beetle,but I do know that so far as it's gone the process must have involved a bewildering change of ideals and criterions.I guess he's come to despise a great many things that he once respected,and that intellectual ability is among them--what we call intellectual ability.

He must have undergone a moral deterioration,an atrophy of the generous instincts,and I don't see why it shouldn't have reached his mental make-up.He has sharpened,but he has narrowed;his sagacity has turned into suspicion,his caution to meanness,his courage to ferocity.That's the way I philosophize a man of Dryfoos's experience,and I am not very proud when I realize that such a man and his experience are the ideal and ambition of most Americans.I rather think they came pretty near being mine,once.""No,dear,they never did,"his wife protested.

"Well,they're not likely to be in the future.The Dryfoos feature of 'Every Other Week'is thoroughly distasteful to me.""Why,but he hasn't really got anything to do with it,has he,beyond furnishing the money?""That's the impression that Fulkerson has allowed us to get.But the man that holds the purse holds the reins.He may let us guide the horse,but when he likes he can drive.If we don't like his driving,then we can get down."Mrs.March was less interested in this figure of speech than in the personal aspects involved."Then you think Mr.Fulkerson has deceived you?""Oh no!"said her husband,laughing."But I think he has deceived himself,perhaps.""How?"she pursued.

"He may have thought he was using Dryfoos,when Dryfoos was using him,and he may have supposed he was not afraid of him when he was very much so.His courage hadn't been put to the test,and courage is a matter of proof,like proficiency on the fiddle,you know:you can't tell whether you've got it till you try.""Nonsense!Do you mean that he would ever sacrifice you to Mr.Dryfoos?""I hope he may not be tempted.But I'd rather be taking the chances with Fulkerson alone than with Fulkerson and Dryfoos to back him.Dryfoos seems,somehow,to take the poetry and the pleasure out of the thing."Mrs.March was a long time silent.Then she began,"Well,my dear,Inever wanted to come to New York--"

"Neither did I,"March promptly put in.

"But now that we're here,"she went on,"I'm not going to have you letting every little thing discourage you.I don't see what there was in Mr.Dryfoos's manner to give you any anxiety.He's just a common,stupid,inarticulate country person,and he didn't know how to express himself,as I said in the beginning,and that's the reason he didn't say anything.""Well,I don't deny you're right about it.""It's dreadful,"his wife continued,"to be mixed up with such a man and his family,but I don't believe he'll ever meddle with your management,and,till he does,all you need do is to have as little to do with him as possible,and go quietly on your own way.""Oh,I shall go on quietly enough,"said March."I hope I sha'n't begin going stealthily.""Well,my dear,"said Mrs.March,"just let me know when you're tempted to do that.If ever you sacrifice the smallest grain of your honesty or your self-respect to Mr.Dryfoos,or anybody else,I will simply renounce you.""In view of that I'm rather glad the management of 'Every Other Week'involves tastes and not convictions,"said March.

III.

That night Dryfoos was wakened from his after-dinner nap by the sound of gay talk and nervous giggling in the drawing-room.The talk,which was Christine's,and the giggling,which was Mela's,were intershot with the heavier tones of a man's voice;and Dryfoos lay awhile on the leathern lounge in his library,trying to make out whether he knew the voice.His wife sat in a deep chair before the fire,with her eyes on his face,waiting for him to wake.

"Who is that out there?"he asked,without opening his eyes.

"Indeed,indeed,I don't know,Jacob,"his wife answered."I reckon it's just some visitor of the girls'.""Was I snoring?"

"Not a bit.You was sleeping as quiet!I did hate to have 'em wake you,and I was just goin'out to shoo them.They've been playin'something,and that made them laugh.""I didn't know but I had snored,"said the old man,sitting up.

"No,"said his wife.Then she asked,wistfully,"Was you out at the old place,Jacob?""Yes."

"Did it look natural?"

"Yes;mostly.They're sinking the wells down in the woods pasture.""And--the children's graves?"