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diff --git a/old/1387-0.txt b/old/1387-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..099fe76 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1387-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1380 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother, by Owen Wister + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mother + +Author: Owen Wister + +Posting Date: August 26, 2008 [EBook #1387] +Release Date: July, 1998 +Last Updated: October 8, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER *** + + + + +Produced by Bill Brewer + + + + + +MOTHER + +By Owen Wister + + + + + To My Favourite Broker With The Earnest Assurance + That Mr. Beverly Is Not Meant For Him + + + + +NOTE + +IN 1901, this story appeared anonymously as the ninth of a sequence of +short stories by various authors, in a volume entitled A House Party. It +has been slightly remodelled for separate publication. + +June 7, 1907, OWEN WISTER + + + + +MOTHER + +When handsome young Richard Field--he was very handsome and very +young--announced to our assembled company that if his turn should really +come to tell us a story, the story should be no invention of his fancy, +but a page of truth, a chapter from his own life, in which himself was +the hero and a lovely, innocent girl was the heroine, his wife at once +looked extremely uncomfortable. She changed the reclining position in +which she had been leaning back in her chair, and she sat erect, with a +hand closed upon each arm of the chair. + +“Richard,” she said, “do you think that it is right of you to tell any +one, even friends, anything that you have never yet confessed to me?” + +“Ethel,” replied Richard, “although I cannot promise that you will be +entirely proud of my conduct when you have heard this episode of my +past, I do say that there is nothing in it to hurt the trust you have +placed in me since I have been your husband. Only,” he added, “I hope +that I shall not have to tell any story at all.” + +“Oh, yes you will!” we all exclaimed together; and the men looked eager +while the women sighed. + +The rest of us were much older than Richard, we were middle-aged, in +fact; and human nature is so constructed, that when it is at the age +when making love keeps it busy, it does not care so much to listen to +tales of others’ love-making; but the more it recedes from that period +of exuberance, and ceases to have love adventures of its own, the +greater become its hunger and thirst to hear about this delicious +business which it can no longer personally practice with the fluency of +yore. It was for this reason that we all yearned in our middle-aged way +for the tale of love which we expected from young Richard. He, on his +part, repeated the hope that by the time his turn to tell a story was +reached we should be tired of stories and prefer to spend the evening at +the card tables or in the music room. + +We were a house party, no brief “week-end” affair, but a gathering whose +period for most of the guests covered a generous and leisurely ten +days, with enough departures and arrivals to give that variety which +is necessary among even the most entertaining and agreeable people. Our +skilful hostess had assembled us in the country, beneath a roof of New +York luxury, a luxury which has come in these later days to be so +much more than princely. By day, the grounds afforded us both golf and +tennis, the stables provided motor cars and horses to ride or drive over +admirable roads, through beautiful scenery that was embellished by a +magnificent autumn season. At nightfall, the great house itself received +us in the arms of supreme comfort, fed us sumptuously, and after dinner +ministered to our middle-aged bodies with chairs and sofas of the +highest development. + +The plan devised by our hostess, Mrs. Davenport, that a story should be +told by one of us each evening, had met with courtesy, but not I with +immediate enthusiasm. But Mrs. Davenport had chosen her guests with her +usual wisdom, and after the first experiment, story telling proved so +successful that none of us would have readily abandoned it. When the +time had come for Richard Field to entertain the company with the +promised tale from his life experience, his hope of escaping this ordeal +had altogether vanished. + +Mrs. Field, it had been noticed as early as breakfast time, was inclined +to be nervous on her husband’s account. Five years of married life had +not cured her of this amiable symptom, and she made but a light meal. +He, on the other hand, ate heartily and without signs of disturbance. +Apparently he was not even conscious of the glances that his wife so +frequently stole at him. + +“Do at least have some omelet, my dear,” whispered Mrs. Davenport +urgently. “It’s quite light.” + +But Mrs. Field could summon no appetite. + +“I see you are anxious about him,” Mrs. Davenport continued after +breakfast. “You are surely not afraid his story will fail to interest +us?” + +“No, it is not that.” + +“It can’t be that he has given up the one he expected to tell us and can +think of no other?” + +“Oh, no; he is going to tell that one.” + +“And you don’t like his choice?” + +“He won’t tell me what it is!” Mrs. Davenport put down her embroidery. +“Then, Ethel,” she laid with severity, “the fault is yours. When I had +been five years married, Mr. Davenport confided everything to me.” + +“So does Richard. Except when I particularly ask him.” + +“There it is, Ethel. You let him see that you want to know.” + +“But I do want to know. Richard has had such interesting experiences, +so many of them. And I do so want him to tell a thoroughly nice one. +There’s the one when he saved a man from drowning just below our house, +the second summer, and the man turned out to be a burglar and broke into +the pantry that very night, and Richard caught him in the dark with +just as much courage as he had caught him in the water and just as few +clothes, only it was so different. Richard makes it quite thrilling. And +I mentioned another to him. But he just went on shaving. And now he +has gone out walking, and I believe it’s going to be something I would +rather not hear. But I mean to hear it.” + +At lunch Mrs. Field made a better meal, although it was clear to Mrs. +Davenport that Richard on returning from his walk had still kept his +intentions from Ethel. “She does not manage him in the least,” Mrs. +Davenport declared to the other ladies, as Ethel and Richard started for +an afternoon drive together. “She will not know anything more when she +brings him back.” + +But in this Mrs. Davenport did wrong to Ethel’s resources. The young +wife did know something more when she brought her husband back from +their drive through the pleasant country. They returned looking like an +engaged couple, rather than parents whose nursery was already a song of +three little voices. + +“He has told her,” thought Mrs. Davenport at the first sight of them, as +they entered the drawing-room for an afternoon tea. “She does understand +some things.” + +And when after dinner the ladies had withdrawn to the library, and +waited for the men to finish their cigars, Mrs. Davenport spoke to +Ethel. “My dear, I congratulate you. I saw it at once.” + +“But he hasn’t. Richard hasn’t told me anything.” + +“Ethel! Then what is the matter?” + +“I told him something. I told him that if it was going to be any story +about--about something I shouldn’t like, I should simply follow it with +a story about him that he wouldn’t like.” + +“Ethel! You darling!” + +“Oh, yes, and I said I was sure you would all listen, even though I was +not an author myself. And I have it ready, you know, and it’s awfully +like Richard, only a different side of him from the burglar one.” + +“But, my dear, what did he do when you--” + +This enquiry was, however, cut short by the entrance of the men. And +from the glance that came from Richard’s eyes as they immediately sought +out his wife, Mrs. Davenport knew that he could not have done anything +very severe to Ethel when she made that threat to him during their +drive. + +Richard at once made his way to the easy-chair arranged each night in +a good position for the narrator of the evening, and baptised “The +Singstool” by Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves was an ardent Wagnerian, and +especially devoted to The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. + +“Shall we have,” he whispered to Mr. Hillard, “a Beckmesser fiasco +to-night, or will it be a Walter success?” + +But Mr. Hillard, besides being an author and a critic, cared little for +the too literary cleverness of Mr. Graves. He therefore heavily crushed +that gentleman’s allusion to Wagner’s opera. “I remember,” he said, “the +singing contest between Beckmesser and Walter, and I doubt if we are to +be afflicted with anything so dull in this house.” + +Richard had settled himself in the easy-chair, and was looking +thoughtfully at various objects in the room, while the small-talk was +subsiding around him. + +“Why, Mr. Field,” said Mrs. Davenport, “you look as if you could find +nothing to suggest your story to you.” + +“On the contrary,” said Richard, “it is the number of things that +suggest it. This newspaper here, that has arrived since I was last in +the room, has a column which reminds me very forcibly of the experience +that I have selected to tell you. But I think the most appropriate of +all is that picture.” He pointed to the largest picture on the wall. +“‘Breaking Home Ties’ is its title, I remember very well. It is a +replica of the original that drew such crowds in the Art Building at the +World’s Fair.” + +While Richard was saying this, his wife had possessed herself of the +newspaper, and he now observed how eagerly she was scanning its pages. +“It is the financial column, Ethel, that recalls my story.” + +Ethel, after a hopeless glance at this, resumed her seat near the sofa +by Mrs. Davenport. + +“There were many paintings,” continued Richard, “in that Art Building, +of merit incomparably greater than ‘Breaking Home Ties’; and yet the +crowd never looked at those, because it did not understand them. But at +any hour of the day, if you happened to pass this picture, it took you +some time to do so. You could pass any of John Sargeant’s pictures, for +instance, at a speed limited only by your own powers of running; but +you could never run past ‘Breaking Home Ties.’ You had to work your way +through the crowd in front of that just as you have to do at a fire, or +a news office during a football game. The American people could never +get enough of that mother kissing her boy goodbye, while the wagon waits +at the open door to take him away from her upon his first journey into +the world. The idea held a daily pathos for them. Many had themselves +been through such leave takings; and no word so stirs the general heart +as the word ‘mother’. Song writers know this; and the artist knew it +when he decided to paint ‘Breaking Home Ties.’ And ‘Mother’ is the title +of my story to-night.” + +“Mother!” This was Ethel’s bewildered echo, “Whose Mother?” she softly +murmured to herself. + +Richard continued. “It concerns the circumstances under which I became +engaged to my wife.” + +There was a movement from Ethel as she sat by the sofa. + +“Not all the circumstances, of course,” the narrator continued, with a +certain guarded candour in his tone. “There are certain circumstances +which naturally attend every engagement between happy and--and +devoted--young people that they keep to themselves quite carefully, in +spite of the fact that any one who has been through the experience of +being engaged two or three times--” + +There was another movement from Ethel by the sofa. + +“--or even only once, as is my case,” the narrator went on, “any body, I +say, who has been through the experience of being engaged only once, +can form a very correct idea of the circumstances that attend the +happy engagements of all young people. I imagine they prevail in all +countries, just as the feeling about ‘mother’ prevails. Yes, ‘Mother’ is +the right title for my story, as you shall see. Is it not strange that +if you add ‘in-law’ to the word ‘mother,’ how immediately the sentiment +of the term is altered?--as strongly indeed as when you prefix the word +‘step’ to it. But it is with neither of these composite forms of mother +that any story deals. + +“Ethel has always maintained that if I had really understood her, it +never would have happened. She says--” + +“Richard, I”-- + +“My dear, you shall tell your story afterwards, and I promise to listen +without a word until you are finished. Mrs. Field says that if I had +understood her nature as a man ought to understand the girl he has been +thinking about for several years, I should have known she cared nothing +about my income.” + +“I didn’t care! I’d have”--but Mr. Field checked her outburst. + +“She was going to say,” said Mr. Field, “that had I asked her to marry +me when I became sure that I wished to marry her, she would have been +willing to leave New York and go to the waste land in Michigan that was +her inheritance from a grandfather, and there build a cabin and live in +it with me; and that while I shot prairie chickens for dinner she would +have milked the cow which some member of the family would have been +willing to give us as a wedding present instead of a statue of the +Winged Victory, or silver spoons and forks, had we so desired.” + +Richard made a pause here, and looked at his wife as if he expected her +to correct him. But Ethel was plainly satisfied with his statement, and +he therefore continued. + +“I think it is ideal when a girl is ready to do so much as that for a +man. But I should not think it ideal in a man to allow the girl he +loved to do it for him. Nor did I then know anything about the lands +in Michigan--though this would have made no difference. Ethel had been +accustomed to a house several stories high, with hot and cold water in +most of them, and somebody to answer the door-bell.” + +“The door-bell!” exclaimed Ethel. “I could have gone without hearing +that.” + +“Yes, Ethel, only to hear the welkin ring would have been enough for +you. I know that you are sincere in thinking so. And the ringing welkin +is all we should have heard in Michigan. But the more truly a man loves +a girl, the less can he bear taking her from an easy to a hard life. I +am sure that all the men here agree with me.” + +There was a murmur and a nod from the men, and also from Mrs. Davenport. +But the other ladies gave no sign of assenting to Richard’s proposition. + +“In those days,” said he, “I was what in the curt parlance of the street +is termed a six-hundred-dollar clerk. And though my ears had grown +accustomed to this appellation, I never came to feel that it completely +described me. In passing Tiffany’s window twice each day (for my +habit was to walk to and from Nassau Street) I remember that seeing a +thousand-dollar clock exposed for sale caused me annoyance. Of course +my salary as a clerk brought me into no unfavourable comparison with the +clock; and I doubt if I could make you understand my sometimes feeling +when I passed Tiffany’s window that I should like to smash the clock.” + +“I met Ethel frequently in society, dancing with her, and sitting next +her at dinners. And by the time I had dined at her own house, and walked +several afternoons with her, my lot as a six-hundred-dollar clerk +began to seem very sad to me. I wrote verses about it, and about other +subjects also. From an evening passed with Ethel, I would go next +morning to the office and look at the other clerks. One of them was +fifty-five, and he still received six hundred dollars--his wages for the +last thirty years. I was then twenty-one; and though I never despaired +to the extent of believing that years would fail to increase my value +to the firm by a single cent, still, for what could I hope? If my salary +were there and then to be doubled, what kind of support was twelve +hundred dollars to offer Ethel, with her dresses, and her dinners, and +her father’s carriage? For two years I was wretchedly unhappy beneath +the many hours of gaiety that came to me, as to every young man.” + +“Those two years we could have been in Michigan,” said Ethel, “had you +understood.” + +“I know. But understanding, I believe that I should do the same again. +At the office, when not busy, I wrote more poetry, and began also +to write prose, which I found at the outset less easy. When my first +writings were accepted (they were four sets of verses upon the Summer +Resort) I felt that I could soon address Ethel; for I had made ten +dollars outside my salary. Had she not been in Europe that July, I +believe that I should have spoken to her at once. But I sent her the +paper; and I have the letter that she wrote in reply.” + +“I”--began Ethel. But she stopped. + +“Yes, I know now that you kept the verses,” said Richard. “My next +manuscript, however, was rejected. Indeed, I went on offering my +literary productions nearly every week until the following January +before a second acceptance came. It was twenty five dollars this time, +and almost made me feel again that I could handsomely support Ethel. +But not quite. After the first charming elation at earning money with +my pen, those weeks of refusal had caused me to think more soberly. And +though I was now bent upon becoming an author and leaving Nassau Street, +I burned no bridges behind me, but merely filled my spare hours with +writing and with showing it to Ethel.” + +“It was now that the second area of perturbation of my life came to me. +I say the second, because the first had been the recent dawning belief +that Ethel thought about me when I was not there to remind her of +myself. This idea had stirred--but you will understand. And now, what +was my proper, my honourable course? It was a positive relief that at +this crisis she went to Florida. I could think more quietly. My writing +had come to be quite often accepted, sometimes even solicited. Should I +speak to her, and ask her to wait until I could put a decent roof over +her head, or should I keep away from her until I could offer such a +roof? Her father, I supposed, could do something for us. But I was not +willing to be a pensioner. His business--were he generous--would be +to provide cake and butter; but the bread was to be mine and bread was +still a long way off, according to New York standards. These things I +thought over while she was in Florida; yet when once I should I find +myself with her again, I began to fear that I could not hold myself +from--but these are circumstances which universal knowledge renders it +needless to mention, and I will pass to the second perturbation.” + +“A sum of money was suddenly left me. Then for the first time I +understood why I had during my boyhood been so periodically sent to see +a cross old brother of my mother’s, who lived near Cold Spring on the +Hudson, and whom we called Uncle Snaggletooth when no one could hear us. +Uncle Godfrey (for I have called him by his right name ever since) +died and left me what in those old days six years ago was still a large +amount. To-day we understand what true riches mean. But in those bygone +times six years ago, a million dollars was a sum considerable enough to +be still seen, as it were, with the naked eye. That was my bequest from +Uncle Godfrey, and I felt myself to be the possessor of a fortune.” + +At this point in Richard’s narrative, a sigh escaped from Ethel. + +“I know,” he immediately said, “that money is always welcome. But it +is certainly some consolation to reflect how slight a loss a million +dollars is counted to-day in New York. And I did not lose all of it.” + +“I met Ethel at the train on her return from Florida, and crossed with +her on the ferry from Jersey City to Desbrosses Street. There I was +obliged to see her drive away in the carriage with her father.” + +“Mr. Field,” said Mrs. Davenport, “what hour did that train arrive at +Jersey City?” + +Richard looked surprised. “Why, seven-fifteen P. M.,” he replied. “The +tenth of March.” + +“Dark!” Mrs. Davenport exclaimed. “Mr. Field, you and Ethel were engaged +before the ferry boat landed at Desbrosses Street.” + +Richard and Ethel both sat straight up, but remained speechless. + +“Pardon my interruption,” said Mrs. Davenport, smiling. “I didn’t want +to miss a single point in this story--do go on!” + +Richard was obliged to burst out laughing, in which Ethel, after a +moment, followed him, though perhaps less heartily. And as he continued, +his blush subsided. + +“With my Uncle Godfrey’s legacy I was no longer dependent upon my +salary, or my pen, or my father’s purse; and I decided that with the +money properly invested, I could maintain a modest establishment of my +own. Ethel agreed with me entirely; and, after a little, we disclosed +our plans to our families, and they met with approval. This was in +April, and we thought of October or November for the wedding. It seemed +long to wait; but it came near being so much longer, that I grow chilly +now to think of it.” + +“Of course, I went steadily on with my work at the office in Nassau +Street, nor did I neglect my writing entirely. My attention, however, +was now turned to the question of investing my fortune. Just round the +corner from our office was the firm of Blake and Beverly, Stocks and +Bonds. Thither my steps began frequently to turn. Mr. Beverly had +business which brought him every week to the room of our president; and +so having a sort of acquaintance with him, I felt it easier to consult +him than to seek any other among the brokers, to which class I was a +well nigh total stranger. He very kindly consented to be my adviser. I +was well pleased to find how much I had underrated the interest-bearing +capacity of my windfall. ‘Four per cent!’ he cried, when I told him this +was the extent of my expectations. ‘Why, you’re talking like a trustee.’ +And then seeing that his meaning was beyond me, he explained in his +bluff, humorous manner. ‘All a trustee cares for you know, is his +reputation for safety. It’s not his own income he’s nursing, and so he +doesn’t care how small he makes it, provided only that his investments +would be always called safe. Now there are ways of being safe without +spending any trouble or time upon it; and those are the ways a trustee +will take. For example,’ and here he arose and unhooking a file of +current quotations from the wall, placed it in my lap as I sat beside +him. ‘Now here are Government three’s selling at 108 3-8. They are as +safe as the United States; and if I advised you to buy them, it would +cost me no thought, and my character for safety would run no risk of +a blemish. That is the sort of bond that a trustee recommends. But see +what income it gives you. Roughly speaking, about twenty-eight thousand +dollars.’” + +“‘That would not do at all,’ said I, thinking of Ethel and October.” + +“‘Certainly not for you,’ returned Mr. Beverly, gaily. If you were +a timorous old maid, now, who would really like all her money in her +stocking in gold pieces, only she’s ashamed to say so! But a young +fellow like you with no responsibility, no wife, and butcher’s +bill--it’s quite another thing!’” + +“‘Quite,’ said I, ‘oh, quite!’” + +“Richard,” interrupted Ethel, “do you have to make yourself out so +simple?” + +“My dear, you forget that I said I should invent nothing, but should +keep myself to actual experiences. The part of my story that is coming +now is one where I should be very glad to draw upon my imagination.” + +“Mr. Beverly now ran his finger up and down various columns. ‘Here +again,’ said he, ‘is a typical trustee bond, and nets you a few thousand +dollars more at present prices. New York Central and Hudson River 3 +1-2’s. Or here are West Shore 4’s at 113 5-8. But you see it scales down +to pretty much the same thing. The sort of bond that a trustee will call +safe does not bring the owner more than about three and one-half per +cent.’” + +“‘Why, there are some six per cent bonds!’ I said; and I pointed them +out to him.” + +“‘Selling at 137 7-8, you see,’ said Mr. Beverly. ‘Deducting the tax, +there you are scaled down again.’ He pencilled some swift calculations. +‘There,’ said he. And I nearly understood them. ‘Now I’m not here +to stop your buying that sort of petticoat and canary-bird wafer,’ +continued Mr. Beverly. ‘It’s the regular trustee move, and nobody could +criticise you if you made it. It’s what I call thoughtless safety, and +it brings you about 3 1-2 per cent, as I have already shown you. Anybody +can do it.’ These words of Mr. Beverly made me feel that I did not want +to do what anybody could do. ‘There is another kind of safety which I +call thoughtful safety,’ said he. ‘Thoughtful, because it requires you +to investigate properties and their earnings, and generally to use your +independent judgment after a good deal of work. And all this a trustee +greatly dislikes. It rewards you with five and even six per cent, but +that is no stimulus to a trustee.’” + +“Something in me had leaped when Mr. Beverly mentioned six per cent. +Again I thought of Ethel and October, and what a difference it would +be to begin our modest housekeeping on sixty instead of forty thousand +dollars a year, outside of what I was earning. Mr. Beverly now rang +a bell. ‘You happen to have come,’ said he, ‘on a morning when I can +really do something for you out of the common. Bring me (it was a clerk +he addressed) one of those Petunia circulars. Now here you can see at a +glance for yourself.’ He began reading the prospectus rapidly aloud +to me while I followed its paragraphs with my own eye. His strong, +well-polished thumb-nail ran heavily but speedily down the columns +of figures and such words as gross receipts, increase of population, +sinking fund, redeemable at 105 after 1920, churned vigorously and +meaninglessly through my brain. But I was not going to let him know that +to understand the circular I should have to take it away quietly to my +desk in Nassau Street, and spend an hour with it alone.” + +“‘What is your opinion of Petunia Water sixes?’ he inquired.” + +“‘They are a lead-pipe cinch,’ I immediately answered; and he slapped me +on the knee.” + +“‘That’s what I think!’ he cried. ‘Anyhow, I have taken 20,000 for +mother. Do what you like.’” + +“‘Oh well,’ said I, delighted at this confidence, I think I can afford +to risk what you are willing to risk for your mother, Mrs. Beverly. +Where is Petunia, did you say?’” + +“He pulled down a roller map on the wall as you draw down a +window-blind, and again I listened to statements that churned in my +brain. Petunia was a new resort on the sea coast of New Hampshire. One +railway system did already connect it with both Portsmouth and Portland, +but it was not a very direct connection at present. Yet in spite of +this, the population had increased 23 and seven-tenths per cent in five +years, and now an electric railway was in construction that would double +the population in the next five years. This was less than what had +happened to other neighbouring resorts under identical conditions; yet +with things as they now were, the company was earning two per cent on +its stock, which was being put into improvements. The stock was selling +at 30, and if a dividend was paid next year, it would go to par. But +Mr. Beverly did not counsel buying the stock. ‘I did not let mother have +any,’ he said, ‘though I took some myself. But the bonds are different. +You’re getting the last that will be sold at par. In three days they +will be placed before the public at 102 1/2 and interest.’” + +“I was well pleased when I left Mr. Beverly’s office. In a few days I +was still more pleased to learn that I could sell my Petunia sixes for +104 if so wished. But I did not wish it; and Mr. Beverly told me that +he should not sell his mother’s unless they went to 110. ‘In that case,’ +said he, ‘it might be worth while to capitalise her premium.’” + +“I liked the idea of capitalising one’s premium. If you had fifty bonds +that cost you par, and sold them at 110, you would then buy at par +fifty-five bonds of some other rising kind, and go on doing this +until--I named no limit for this process; but my delighted mind saw +visions of eighty and a hundred thousand a year--comfort at least, if +not affluence in New York--and I explained to Ethel what the phrase +capitalising one’s premium meant. I showed her the Petunias, too, and we +read what it said on the coupons aloud together. Ethel was at first not +quite satisfied with the arrangement of the coupons. ‘Thirty dollars on +January first, and thirty on July first,’ she said. That seems a long +while to wait for those payments, Richard. And there are only two in +every year, though you pay them a thousand dollars all at once. It does +not seem very prompt on their part.’ I told her that this was the rule. +‘But,’ she urged, ‘don’t you think that a man like Mr. Beverly might be +able to get them to make an exception if he explained the circumstances? +Other people may be satisfied with waiting for little crumbs in this +way, but why should we?’ I soon made her understand how it was, however, +and I explained many other facts about investments and the stock market +to her, as I learned them. It was a great pleasure to do this. We came +to talk about finance even more than we talked of my writings; for +during that Spring I invested a good deal more rapidly than I wrote. The +Petunias had taken only one-twentieth of a million dollars; and though +Mr. Beverly warned me to rush hastily into nothing, and pointed out the +good sense of distributing my eggs in a number of baskets, still we +both agreed that the sooner all my money was bringing me five or six per +cent, the better.” + +“I have come to think that it might be well were women taught the +elements of investing as they are now taught French and Music. I would +not have the French and Music dropped, but I would add the other. It +might be more of a protection to women than being able to read a French +novel, and perhaps some day we shall have it so. But of course it had +been left totally out of Ethel’s education; and at first she merely +received my instruction and took my opinions. It was not long, +however, before she began to entertain some of her own, obliging me not +infrequently to reason with her. I very well remember the first occasion +that this happened.” + +“We had been as usual talking about stocks, as we walked on the +Riverside Drive on a Sunday afternoon in May. Ethel had been for some +moments silent. ‘Richard,’ she finally began, ‘if I had had the +naming of these things, I should never have called them securities. +Insecurities comes a great deal nearer what they are. What right has a +thing that says on its face it is worth a thousand dollars to go bobbing +up and down in the way most of them do? I think that securities is +almost sarcastic. And have you noticed the price of those Petunias?’” + +“I had, of course, noticed it; but I had not mentioned it to Ethel. ‘I +read the papers now,’ she explained, ‘morning and evening. Of course the +market is off a little on account of the bank statement. But that is not +enough to account for the Petunias.’” + +“‘Ethel, you are nervous,’ I said. ‘And it is the papers which make you +so. The Petunias are a first lien on the whole property, of which the +assessed valuation--’” + +“‘What is the good,’ she interrupted, ‘of a first lien on something +which depends on politics for its existence, if the politicians change +their minds? Did you not see that bill they’re thinking of passing?’ +I was startled by what Ethel told me, for the article in the paper had +escaped my notice. But Mr. Beverly explained it to me in a couple of +minutes. ‘Ha!’ he jovially exclaimed, on my entering his office on +Monday morning; ‘you want to know about Petunias. They opened at 85 +I see.’ He then ran the tape from the ticker through his clean strong +hands. ‘Here they are again. Five thousand sold at 83. Now, if they +go to 70, I’ll very likely take ten thousand more for mother. It’s all +Frank Smith’s bluff, you know. He wants a jag of the water-works stock, +more than they say they agreed he should have. So he’s shaking this bill +over them, which would allow the city to build its own water-plant, and +of course run the present company out of business. Not a thing in it! +All bluff. He’ll get the stock, I suppose. What’s that?’ he broke off to +a clerk who came with a message. ‘Wants 500 preferred does he? Buyer +30? Very well, he can’t have it. Say so from me. Now,’ he resumed to me, +‘take a cigar by the way. And don’t buy any more Petunias until I tell +you the right moment. Do you see where your Amalgamated Electric has +gone to?’” + +“I had seen this. It had scored a 20-point rise since my purchase of +it; and I felt very sorry that I had not taken Mr. Beverly’s advice +and bought a thousand shares. It had been on a day when I had felt +unaccountably cautious, and I had taken only two hundred and fifty +shares of Amalgamated Electric. There are days when one is cautious and +days when one is venturesome; and they seem to have nothing to do with +results.” + +“‘They’re going to increase the dividend,’ said Mr. Beverly, as I smoked +his excellent cigar. ‘It’s good for twenty points higher by the end of +the week. I had just got mother a few more shares.’” + +“I left Mr. Beverly’s office the possessor of two thousand shares of +Amalgamated Electric, and also entirely reassured about my Petunias. He +always made me feel happy.” + +“His keen laughing brown eyes, and crisp well-brushed hair, and big +somewhat English way of chaffing (he had gone to Oxford, where he had +rowed on a winning crew) carried a sense of buoyant prosperity that went +with his wiry figure and good smart London clothes. His face was almost +as tawny as an Indian’s with the outdoor life that he took care to lead. +I was always flattered when he could spare any time to clap me on the +shoulder and crack a joke.” + +“Amalgamated Electric had risen five more points before the board closed +that afternoon. This was the first news that I told Ethel.” + +“‘Richard,’ said she, ‘I wish you would sell that stock to-morrow.’” + +“But this I saw no reason for; and on Tuesday it had gained seven points +further. Ethel still more strongly urged me to sell it. I must freely +admit that.” And the narrator paused reflectively. + +“Thank you, Richard,” said Ethel from the sofa. “And I admit that I +could give you no reason for my request, except that it all seemed so +sudden. And--yes--there was one other thing. But that was even more +silly.” + +“I believe I know what you mean,” replied Richard, “and I shall come to +it presently. If any one was silly, it was not you.” + +“I did not sell Amalgamated Electric on Wednesday, and on Thursday a +doubt about the increased dividend began to be circulated. The stock, +nevertheless, after a forenoon of weakness, rallied. Moreover a check +for my first dividend came from the Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, +Paving, Pressing, and Packing Company.” + +“‘What a number of things it does!’ exclaimed Ethel, when I showed her +the company’s check.” + +“‘Yes,’ I replied, and quoted Browning to her: ‘’Twenty-nine Distinct +damnations. One sure if the other fails.’ Beverly’s mother has a lot of +it.’” + +“But Ethel did not smile. ‘Richard,’ she said, ‘I do wish you had more +investments with ordinary simple names, like New York and New Haven, or +Chicago and Northwestern.’ And when I told her that I thought this was +really unreasonable, she was firm. ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘I don’t like the +names--not most of them, at least. Dutchess and Columbia Traction sounds +pretty well; and besides that, of course one knows how successful these +electric railways are. But take the Standard Egg Trust, and the Patent +Pasteurised Infant Rubber Feeder Company.’” + +“‘Why, Ethel!’ I exclaimed, ‘those are both based upon great inventions, +Mr. Beverly--’” + +“But she interrupted me earnestly ‘I know about those inventions, +Richard, for I have procured the prospectuses. And I wish that I could +have told you my own feeling about them before you bought any of the +stock.’” + +“‘I do not think you can fully have taken it in, Ethel.’” + +“‘I trust that it may not have fully taken you in,’ she replied. ‘Have +you noticed what those stocks are selling for at present?’” + +“Of course I had noticed this. I had paid 63 for Standard Egg, and it +was now 48, while 11 was the price of Patent Pasteurized Feeder, for +which I had paid 20. But this, Mr. Beverly assured me, was a normal and +even healthy course for a new stock. ‘Had they gone up too soon and too +high,’ he explained, ‘I should have suspected some crooked manipulation +and advised selling at once. But this indicates a healthy absorption +preliminary to a natural rise. I should not dream of letting mother part +with hers.’” + +“The basis of Standard Egg was not only a monopoly of all the hens in +the United States, but a machine called a Separator, for telling the age +and state of an egg by means of immersion in water. Perfectly good eggs +sank fast and passed out through one distributor; fairly nice eggs did +not reach the bottom, and were drawn off through another sluice, and so +on. This saved the wages of the egg twirlers, whose method of candling +eggs, as it was called, was far less rapid than the Separator. And when +I learned that one house in St. Louis alone twirled 50,000 eggs in a +day, the possible profits of the Egg Trust became clear to me. But they +were not so clear to Ethel. She said that you could not monopolise hens. +That they would always be laying eggs and putting it in the power of +competitors to hatch them by incubators. Nor did she have confidence in +the Pasteurised Feeder. ‘Even if you get the parents to adopt it,’ she +said, ‘you cannot get the children. If they do not like the taste of the +milk as it comes out of the bottle through the Feeder, they will simply +not take it.’” + +“‘Well,’ I answered, ‘old Mrs. Beverly is holding on to hers.’” + +“When I said this, Ethel sat with her mouth tight. Then she opened it +and said: ‘I hate that woman.’” + +“‘Hate her? Why, you have never so much as laid eyes on her.’” + +“‘That is not at all necessary. I consider it indecent for a grey haired +woman with grandchildren to be speculating in the stock market every +week like a regular bull or bear.’” + +“Every point in this outburst of Ethel’s seemed to me so unwarrantable +that I was quite dazed. I sat looking at her, and her eyes filled with +tears. ‘Oh Richard!’ she exclaimed, ‘she will ruin you, and I hate +her!’” + +“‘My dear Ethel,’ I replied, ‘she will not. And only see how you are +making it all up out of your head. You have never seen her, but you +speak of her as a grey-haired grandmother.’” + +“‘She must be, Richard. You have told me that Mr. Beverly is a married +man and about forty-five. No doubt he has older sisters and brothers. +But if he has not, his mother can hardly be less than sixty-five, and +he has probably been married for several years. He might easily have a +daughter coming out, next winter, and a son at Harvard or Yale; and if +their grandmother’s hair is not grey, that is quite as unnatural as her +speculating in monopolised eggs in this way at her age. She must be a +very unladylike person.’” + +“Ethel, I saw, was excited. Therefore I made no more point of her +theories concerning the appearance and family circle of old Mrs. +Beverly. But in justice to myself I felt obliged to remind her, first, +that I was investing, not speculating, and second, that it was Mr. +Beverly’s advice I was following, and not that of his mother. ‘Had +he not spoken of her,’ I said, ‘I should have remained unaware of her +existence.’” + +“‘She is at the bottom of it all the same,’ said Ethel. ‘Everything you +have bought has been because she bought it.’” + +“‘That is not quite the right way to put it,’ I replied. ‘I was willing +to buy these securities because Mr. Beverly thought so highly of them +that he felt justified in--’” + +“‘There is no use,’ interrupted Ethel, ‘in our going round this circle +as if we were a pair of squirrels. I do not ask you to hate that woman +for my sake, but I cannot change my own feeling. Do you remember, +Richard, about the City of Philippi Sewer Bonds? You did not want to buy +them at first. You told me yourself that you thought new towns in Texas +were apt to buzz suddenly and then die because all the people hurried +away to some newer town and left the houses and stores standing empty. +But Mr. Beverly’s mother got some, and all your hesitation fled. And +now I see that the Gulf, Galveston, and Little Rock is going to build a +branch that may make Philippi a perfectly evaporated town. If you sold +these bonds to-day, how much would you lose?’” + +“I did not enjoy telling Ethel how much, but I had to. ‘Only fifteen +thousand dollars,’ I said.” + +“‘Only!’ said Ethel. ‘Well, I hope his mother will lose a great deal +more than that.’” + +“It is seldom that Ethel taps her foot, but she had begun to tap it now; +and this inclined me to avoid any attempt at a soothing reply, in the +hope that silence might prove still more soothing, and that thus we +might get away from old Mrs. Beverly.” + +“‘She cannot possibly be less than sixty-five,’ Ethel presently +announced. ‘And she is far more likely to be seventy.’” + +“I thought it best to agree to any age that Ethel chose to give the old +lady.” + +“‘Do you suppose,’ Ethel continued, ‘that she does it by telephone?’” + +“‘My dearest,’ I responded, ‘he must do it all for her, of course, you +know.’” + +“‘I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort +of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement. +The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them +any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and +watches the ticker.’” + +“‘Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it, +Ethel?’ I suggested.” + +“But Ethel could not smile. ‘I think that is perfectly probable,’ she +answered. And then, ‘Oh, Richard, isn’t it mean!’ At this I took +her hand, and she--but again I abstain from dwelling upon those +circumstances of the engaged which are familiar to you all.” + +“The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did +not mellow Ethel’s bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias +defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, ‘I hope I shall never +meet her!’ We always called Mr. Beverly’s mother ‘she’ now. ‘For if I +were to meet her,’ continued Ethel, ‘I feel I should say something that +I should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that +house on Park Avenue!’” + +“I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not +bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few +of my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was +into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk +of my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer +faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a +good deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon +train to spend my two weeks’ holiday at Lenox; and during much of the +journey I gazed at the Wall Street edition of the afternoon paper that +I had purchased as I came through the Grand Central Station. Ethel and I +read it in the evening.” + +“‘I wonder what she’s buying now?’ said Ethel, vindictively.” + +“‘Well, I can’t help feeling sorry for her,’ I answered, with as much of +a smile as I could produce.” + +“‘That is so unnecessary, Richard! She can easily afford to gratify her +gambling instinct.’” + +“‘There you go, Ethel, inventing millions for her just as you invented +grandchildren.’” + +“‘Not at all. Unless she constantly had money lying idle, she could not +take these continual plunges. She is an old woman with few expenses, and +she lives well within her income. You would hear of her entertaining if +it was otherwise. So instead of conservatively investing her surplus, +she makes ducks and drakes of it in her son’s office. Is he at Hyde Park +now?’ Hyde Park was where the old Beverly country seat had always been.” + +“‘No,’ I answered. ‘He went to Europe early last month.’” + +“‘Very likely he took her with him. She is probably at Monte Carlo.’” + +“‘Scarcely in August, I fancy. And I’ll tell you what, Ethel. I have +been counting it up. She has lost twenty-four thousand dollars in the +Standard Egg alone. It takes a good deal of surplus to stand that.’” + +“‘Serve her right,’ said Ethel ‘And I would say so to her face.’” + +“September brought freshness to the stock market but not to me. Mr. +Beverly, like the well-to-do man that he was, remained away in Europe +until October should require his presence as a guiding hand in the +office. Thus was I left without his buoyant consolation in the face of +my investments.” + +“Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess +and Columbia Traction was holding its own; I could not complain of +Amalgamated Electric, though it was now lower than when I had bought +it, while had I sold it on that Wednesday in May when Ethel begged me, +before the increased dividend turned out a mistake, I should have made +money. But Philippi Sewers were threatened; Pasteurised Feeders had been +numb since June; Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, Paving, Pressing, and +Packing was going to pass its quarterly dividend; and Standard Egg had +gone down from 63 to 7 1/8. My million dollars on paper now was worth +in reality less than a quarter of that sum, and although we could still +make both ends meet fairly well in some place where you wouldn’t want to +live, like Philadelphia, in New York we should drop into a pinched and +dwarfed obscurity.” + +“I must say now, and I shall never forget, that Ethel during these +gloomy weeks behaved much better than I did. The grayer the outlook +became, the more words of hope and sense she seemed to find She reminded +me that, after all my Uncle Godfrey’s legacy had been a thing unlooked +for, something out of my scheme of life that I had my youth, my salary +and my writing; and that she would wait till she was as old at Mr. +Beverly’s mother.” + +“It was the thought of that lady which brought from Ethel the only note +of complaint she uttered in my presence during that whole dreary month.” + +“We were spending Sunday with a house party at Hyde Park; and driving +to church, we passed an avenue gate with a lodge. ‘Rockhurst, sir,’ said +the coachman. ‘Whose place?’ I inquired. ‘The old Beverly place, sir.’ +Ethel heard him tell me this; and as we went on, we saw a carriage and +pair coming down the avenue toward the gate with that look which horses +always seem to have when they are taking the family to church on Sunday +morning.” + +“‘If I see her,’ said Ethel to me as we entered the door, ‘I shall be +unable to say my prayers.’” + +“But only young people came into the Beverly pew, and Ethel said her +prayers and also sang the hymn and chants very sweetly.” + +“After the service, we strolled together in the old and lovely grave +yard before starting homeward. We had told them that we should prefer to +walk back. The day was beautiful, and one could see a little blue piece +of the river, sparkling.” + +“‘Here is where they are all buried,’ said Ethel, and we paused before +brown old headstones with Beverly upon them. ‘Died 1750; died 1767,’ +continued Ethel, reading the names and inscriptions. ‘I think one +doesn’t mind the idea of lying in such a place as this.’” + +“Some of the young people in the pew now came along the path. ‘The +grandchildren,’ said Ethel. ‘She is probably too old to come to church. +Or she is in Europe.’” + +“The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place, +and now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. ‘Give me some +of yours,’ said one to the other, presently; ‘I’ve not enough for +grandmother’s.’” + +“Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. ‘Did you hear that?’ she +asked.” + +“‘It can’t be she, you know,’ said I. ‘He would have come back from +Europe.’” + +“But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for +fifteen years.” + +“Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday +morning. We had by that time grown calmer. ‘If it is not false +pretences,’ said she, ‘and you cannot sue him for damages, and if it is +not stealing or something, and you cannot put him in prison, what are +you going to do to him, Richard?’” + +“As this was a question which I had frequently asked myself during the +night, having found no satisfactory answer to it, I said: ‘What would +you do in my place, Ethel?’ But Ethel knew.” + +“‘I should find out when he sails, and meet his steamer with a +cowhide.’” + +“‘Then he would sue me for damages.’” + +“‘That would be nothing, if you got a few good cuts in on him.’” + +“‘Ethel,’ I said, ‘please follow me carefully. I should like dearly to +cowhide him. and for the sake of argument we will consider it done Then +comes the lawsuit. Then I get up and say that I beat him because he made +me buy Standard Egg at 63 by telling me that his mother had some, when +really the old lady had been dead for fifteen years. When I think of it +in this way, I do not feel--’” + +“I know,’ interrupted Ethel, ‘you are afraid of ridicule. All men are.’” + +“Had Ethel insisted, I believe that I should have cowhided Mr. Beverly +for her sake. But before his return our destinies were brightened. +Copper had been found near Ethel’s waste lands in Michigan, and the +family business man was able to sell the property for seven hundred +thousand dollars. He did this so promptly that I ventured to ask him if +delay might not have brought a greater price. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I don’t +know. You must seize these things. Blake and Beverly might have got +tired waiting.” + +“‘Blake and Beverly!’ I exclaimed ‘So they made the purchase. It Mr. +Beverly back?’” + +“‘Just back. To tell the truth I don’t believe they’re finding so much +copper as they hoped.’” + +“This turned out to be true. And I am not sure that the business man +had not known it all the while. ‘We looked over the property pretty +thoroughly at the time of the Tamarack excitement,’ he said. And in +a few days more, in fact, it was generally known that this land had +returned to its old state of not quite paying the taxes.” + +“Then I paid my visit to Mr. Beverly, but with no cowhide. ‘Mr. +Beverly,’ said I, ‘I want to announce to you my engagement to Miss Ethel +Lansing, whose Michigan copper land you have lately acquired. I hope +that you bought some for your mother.’” + +“Those,” concluded Mr. Richard Field, “are the circumstances attending +my engagement which I felt might interest you. And now, Ethel, tell your +story, if they’ll listen.” + +“Richard,” said Ethel, “that is the story I was going to tell.” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother, by Owen Wister + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER *** + +***** This file should be named 1387-0.txt or 1387-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/8/1387/ + +Produced by Bill Brewer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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