The Barrier: A Novel. French Allen

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ used a strong word," she said.

      "Then you did not mean it?"

      "Why," she endeavoured to explain, "I spoke hastily. I have few friends."

      "Few friends? You?"

      "Yes, I," she answered. "Among the men, I mean. Those of my age are so" – and she smiled – "so young! I am not posing, Mr. Ellis."

      Nor was she. Her interest in the great world was genuine, even if ill-balanced. Ruled by it, she looked into men and discovered, not how much there was in them, but how little they had for her. The good, the amiable, the well-intentioned, had none of them enough backbone to suit her; it was power that she wished to find. Always among respectable people, she was often impatient at their mediocrity; always among young people, she was tired by their immaturity. This day she had for the first time questioned if older people of another class had not more for her; she had been repeating the question at the moment when Ellis was presented. And now, without pose, she scrutinised him with frank question: Was he one who could bring an interest into her life and let her see the workings of the world?

      And he knew she was not posing. "It is sometimes troublesome to be friends with people," he said. "To be bound to them, to have considerations of them prevent free action – that is what friends mean in business."

      "And you have few, as well?"

      "I have dependents."

      He spoke wisely, for the term struck her. Dependents! She had felt isolation, but it was that of the looker-on. There was something regal in this man's loneliness, for that he was lonely she divined.

      "People need you," she said with approval. "They cannot get along without you. Oh!" she exclaimed, "I have sometimes thought what power is in the hands of such men as you. You can mould a whole community; you can set your mark on a city so that it will tell of you forever." Behind a steady face he concealed astonishment and question. "You can do so much good!" she finished.

      "Much good – yes," he returned uncertainly. Such enthusiasm was new to him, especially when applied to what the opposition newspapers bluntly called "jobs." He perceived that where he saw only money in his enterprises, Judith saw great opportunities. "Yes, much good – if we can only do it. Where there is power there is also responsibility. How can a man know whether he is doing the right thing, especially" – and he smiled – "when all the newspapers say he is doing wrong?"

      "A man must follow his conscience," she replied, so gravely that he was uncomfortable, for, thus innocently spoken, her words carried a sting. He tried to finish the subject, and by his usual method – by meeting it directly.

      "A man works as he can," he said, "doing what seems best. He has to think of the present, but as you seem to know, he works for the future too. It is an interesting life and a busy one."

      "Interesting?" she echoed. "Oh, it must be! Why should it not be all-sufficient? Why should you come here?" He stared at her again, and she asked: "What have we that can interest you?"

      He answered with a simplicity that was almost great, an acknowledgment of his desires which was unparalleled in his career, but which meant that without hesitation he put himself in her hands, to betray if she wished, but perhaps to save. He waved his hand toward the groups behind him.

      "I want to get in," he said.

      "To get in?" She smiled, and he doubted. "To get in, when I sometimes wish to get out? In here it's so dull!"

      "I don't care for that," he replied.

      "Sit down, then," she directed. "Let us talk it over."

      Seated on a bench, half-facing, each had a moment to consider. She did not take it; he did, for he was beginning to recover himself and to study her. Beauty and grace, with that direct glance and genuine voice, were her chief outward characteristics. Of her inward motives, most prominent appeared her desire for something new; more strong, perhaps, was her interest in matters beyond her sphere. This interest of hers was to him a gift of fortune; it might bring him anywhere. But to Judith this situation was new; therefore she enjoyed it. She paused no longer than to consider what she should ask him next, and then pursued the subject.

      "How have you meant to go about it?" she inquired.

      "Why," he hesitated, "my friends – "

      "What friends?"

      He acknowledged frankly: "I have but one – Mrs. Harmon."

      "Oh, only Mrs. Harmon?"

      Only! The tone and the word struck him. Was Mrs. Harmon, then, not fully in? His mind reached forward blankly: who else could help him?

      "But you must know some of our men," she suggested.

      "Business acquaintances, yes," he said. "Yet they take care that I shall remain a business acquaintance merely. No, I must reach the men through the women."

      "And the women?" she asked. "How will you reach them? Mrs. Fenno, for instance, knows only one kind; she is iron against innovation. How will you get on her list, or Mrs. Watson's, or Mrs. Branderson's?"

      He did not answer. She saw that he was biting on the problem, and that it did not please him. She made a positive statement.

      "No. It is the men you must rely on."

      And he, weighing the facts, believed her, though it went against his former notions. The women – this day he had first seen them at close quarters, and had felt them to be formidable creatures. The severe majesty of Mrs. Fenno – how could he impress it? And Mrs. Branderson had, beneath the good humour of her reception of him, the skill to chat easily, and then to turn her back without excuse. He bit his mustache – the women!

      She was watching him with a half-smile. "Do you not agree?"

      "But which men, then?" he inquired.

      "Have you no influence over a single one?"

      "There is young Mather," he said thoughtfully.

      Her manner changed; she drew a little more within herself, and he noted the difference in her tone as she asked: "You have some connection with him?"

      "None," he said. "But I can help him."

      "How?"

      "He is out of work," Ellis explained. "He will be fretting his heart out for something to do. I could offer him some position."

      "Do!" she said. "He is right here. – George!" she called.

      CHAPTER III

Sets the Ball to Rolling

      No young man can bear to sit down idly under misfortune; but though the chief results of Mather's work were lost to him, and his great plans – his subway – swept away, and though his defeat rankled, he had not suspected personal feeling in Ellis's action. The promoter had merely stretched out his hand and taken, repudiating the pledges of those who spoke in his name.

      Therefore, in spite of the little shock which Mather felt when he saw Ellis with Judith, he came forward and greeted politely. It was a chance, of course, to "get back"; it would have been easy to express surprise at the promoter's presence, and to ask how he liked the club now that he really was there. Mather felt the temptation, but there was too much behind his relations with Ellis for the younger man to be rude, and he presently СКАЧАТЬ