Hilda knew her father. He could not keep his hands off any matter that
interested him, and most matters did interest him. He had grown to have
an idea that he could take hold of almost any sort of tangle or
enterprise or concern and straighten it out. Probably it was because he
was so exceedingly human.... Therefore he was drawn irresistibly to his
purchasing department and to Bonbright Foote.
"Young man," he said, gruffly, "what's this I hear?"
Bonbright looked up inquiringly.
"Come over here." Lightener jerked his head toward a private spot for
conversation. "About you and that little girl," he said.
"I would rather not talk about it," said Bonbright, slowly.
"But I'm going to talk about it. It's nonsense...."
Bonbright looked very much like his father; tall, patrician, coldly
dignified. "Mr. Lightener," he said, "it is a thing we will not
mention--now or later." Seven generations contributed to that answer
and to the manner of it. It was final. It erected a barrier past which
even Malcolm Lightener could not force his way, and Lightener
recognized it.
"Huh!..." he grunted, nonplused, made suddenly ill at ease by this boy.
For a moment he looked at Bonbright, curiously, appraisingly, then
turned on his heel and walked away.
"Young spriggins put me in my place," he said to Mrs. Lightener that
evening. "I wish I knew how to do it--valuable. Made me feel like he
was a total stranger and I'd been caught in his hen house.... That
Bonbright Foote business isn't all bad by a darn sight."
From that day Bonbright tried to work himself into forgetfulness. Work
was the only object and refuge of his life, and he gave himself to it
wholly. It was interesting work, and it kept him from too much thinking
about himself.... If a man has ability and applies himself as Bonbright
did, he will attract notice. In spite of his identity Bonbright did
attract notice from his immediate superiors. It was more difficult for
him, being who he was, to win commendation than it would have been for
an unmarked young man in the organization. That was because even the
fairest-minded man is afraid he will be tempted into showing
favoritism--and so withholds justice.... But he forced it from his
laborers--not caring in the least if he had it or not. And word of his
progress mounted to Malcolm Lightener.
His craving for occupation was not satisfied with eight hours a day
spent in the purchasing department. It was his evenings that he feared,
so he filled them with study--study of the manufacture of the
automobile. Also he studied men. Every noon saw him in the little hash
house; every evening, when he could arrange it so, saw him with some
interested employee, boss, department boss, or somebody connected with
Malcolm Lightener's huge plant, pumping them for information and
cataloguing and storing it away in his mind. He tried to crowd Ruth out
of his mind by filling it so full of automobile there would be no room
for her.... But she hid in unexpected crannies, and stepped forth to
confront him disconcertingly.
Gradually the laboring men changed their attitude toward him and
tolerated him. Some of them even liked him. He listened to their talk,
and tried to digest it. Much he saw to call for his sympathy, much that
they considered vital he could not agree with; he could not, even in a
majority of things, adapt his point of view to theirs. For he was
developing a point of view.
On that evening when he had gone down to see what a mob was like he had
no point of view, only curiosity. He had leaned neither toward his
father's striking employees nor against them.... His attitude was much
the same now--with a better understanding of the problems involved. He
was not an ultracapitalist, like his father, nor a radical like
Dulac.... One thing he believed, and that was in the possibility of
capital and labor being brought to see through the same eyes. He
believed the strife between them, which had waged from time immemorial,
was not necessary, and could be eliminated.... But as yet he had no
cure for the trouble.
He did not lean to socialism. He was farther away from that theory than
he was from his father's beliefs. He belonged by training and by
inheritance to the group of employers of labor and utilizers of
capital.... Against radicalism he had a bitter grievance. Radicalism
had given him his wife--for reasons which he heard expressed by
laboring men every day. He had no patience with fanaticism; on the
other hand, he had little patience with bigotry and intolerance. His
contact with the other side was bringing no danger of his conversion.
... But he was doing what he never could have done as heir apparent to
the Foote dynasty--he was asserting in thought his individuality and
forming individual opinions.... His education was being effectively
rounded out.
News of the wrecking of Bonbright's domestic craft came to his father
quickly, carried, as might have been anticipated, by Hangar.
"Your son is not living with his wife, Mr. Foote," Rangar announced.
"Indeed!" said Mr. Foote, concealing both surprise and gratification
under his habitual mask of suave dignity. "That, I fear, was to have
been anticipated.... Have you the particulars?"
"Only that she is living in their apartment, and he is boarding with
one of the men in his department at Lightener's."
"Keep your eye on him, Rangar--keep your eye on him. And report."
"Yes, sir," said Rangar, not himself pleased by the turn affairs had
taken, but resolved to have what benefit might lie thereabouts. His
resentment was still keen to keep him snapping at Bonbright's heels.
The breach between himself and his son had been no light blow to Mr.
Foote. It threatened his line. What was to become of Bonbright Foote,
Incorporated, with no heir to hand the business over to when his hands
could drop it? He wanted his son, not as a father wants his son, but
because a Bonbright Foote VII was requisite. He had hoped for this
thing that had happened; indeed, had felt confident it would happen,
and that he would have Bonbright back unencumbered, purged of nonsense.
He spoke of it with satisfaction to his wife when he returned to his
home that afternoon to take up the important matter of adding to the
manuscript of his philosophical biography of the Marquis Lafayette.
"Perhaps I should see Bonbright," he suggested.
"No," said Mrs. Foote. "He must come to you. He's got to have all his
wildness crushed out of him. He'll come. He must have had enough of it
before this."
But Bonbright did not come, showed no signs of coming, and Mr. Foote
grew impatient, so impatient that he disregarded his wife's advice. He
could not bring his pride to allow him to seek out Bonbright in person,
but sent Rangar as his ambassador.
Rangar found Bonbright in his room, reading a book devoted to the
ailments of the internal-combustion engine, and acquitted himself of
his mission with that degree of diplomacy which his desire for success
dictated.
"Well?" said Bonbright, as the door opened to admit the ambassador.
"Your father sent me, Mr. Foote."
"Yes."
"He has heard that--er--the marriage which caused
your--er--estrangement has ended as he feared."
Bonbright arose slowly and walked toward Rangar, who appeared in two
minds whether to remain or to depart to other places.
"Tell my father," Bonbright said, "that I can appreciate his
satisfaction. Tell him also that if he has anything to say to me to say
it in person.... That is all."
"Your father--"
"That is all," repeated Bonbright, and Rangar made up his mind. He
slammed the door after him.
In the morning he reported to Mr. Foote, who compressed his lips at the
recitation of his son's words. Let his son come to him, then, when he
had eaten his fill of husks.
But Bonbright did not come. After several days had elapsed Mr. Foote
considered his duty, and interpreted it to impel him to call in person
upon his son--clothed in dignity and with the demeanor of outraged
parenthood. Mrs. Foote was not privy to the project.
He met his son descending the steps of the house where he boarded.
Bonbright could not have evaded his father if he would. He stopped and
waited for his father to speak.
"I have come to talk to you, Bonbright," he said, severely.
"Very well, sir," Bonbright said.
"I have come, not from inclination or delight in an interview which
must be distasteful to both of us, but because I believe it my duty to
point out the thanklessness of your conduct and to see if you cannot be
brought to a proper sense of your obligations."
"Our ideas of my obligations are rather far apart, sir."
"They shouldn't be. You're a mere boy--my son. You should derive your
ideas from me until you are capable of formulating correct ideas
yourself."
"I'm afraid we can never agree on that," said Bonbright, patiently.
"Your marriage has ended the way such marriages are fated to end," said
Mr. Foote.
"We will not discuss that, please," said Bonbright.
"You made your own bed--"
"And am not complaining about the discomfort of it."
"It is essential that you return to your duty. Your unpleasant
experience is over. You are old enough to understand your position as
my son, and the responsibilities and duties of it. You are Bonbright
Foote VII and the future head of our family. I am being very patient
and lenient with you.... You have defied me openly, but I am willing to
overlook that, and I am sure your mother will overlook your conduct
toward her, providing you return to your place in a frame of mind
proper for my son. I think you understand what that is."
"Perfectly, sir. It means to be jammed back in a mold that will turn me
out to the family pattern. It means a willingness to give up thinking
for myself and accept YOUR thoughts and shape my life by them. It means
being a figurehead as long as you live and a replica of yourself when
you are gone. That's it, isn't it?"
"That is it," said Mr. Foote, shortly. "You are rid of that woman. ...
I am willing to give you another chance."
Bonbright's hold upon himself was firm. "If you wish to continue this
conversation you will not speak in that way of my wife. Let me make
that very clear.... As to coming back to the office--there is nothing
under heaven that would bring me back to what I escaped from.
Nothing.... If I were ever to come it would have to be on terms of my
own making, and you would never agree to them. And whatever terms you
agreed to I should not come until you and mother--both of you--went to
my wife and made the most complete apology for the thing you did to her
in the theater that night.... I am not thinking of myself. I am
thinking of her. My mother and father passed my wife and myself on our
wedding night, in a public place, and refused to recognize us.... It
was barbarous." Bonbright's voice quivered a trifle, but he held
himself well in hand. "That apology must come before anything else.
After you have made it, we will discuss terms."
"You--you--" Mr. Foote was perilously close to losing his dignity.
"No," said Bonbright; "on second thought, we will not discuss terms.
You can have my final reply now.... You have nothing to give me that
will take the place of what I have now. I will not come back to you.
Please understand that this is final."
Mr. Foote was speechless. It was moments before he could speak; then it
was to say, in a voice that trembled with rage: "In the morning I shall
make my will--and your name will not appear in it except as a renegade
son whom I have disowned..., Probably you regarded the property as
under entail and that it would come to you after me.... For six
generations it has gone from father to son. You shall never touch a
penny of it."
"I prefer it that way, sir."
Mr. Foote glared at his son in quite unrestrained, uncultured rage,
and, whirling on his heel, strode furiously away. Bonbright looked
after him curiously.
"I wonder how the thing missed out with me," he thought. "It worked
perfectly six generations--and then went all to smash with me....
Probably I'd have been a lot happier...."
It had been a month since he saw Ruth. He had not wanted to see her;
the thought of seeing her had been unbearable. But suddenly he felt as
if he must see her--have a glimpse of her. He must see how she looked,
if she had changed, if she were well.... He knew it would bring
refreshed suffering. It would let back all he had rigidly schooled
himself to shut out--but he must see her.
He set his will against it and resolutely walked away from the
direction in which her apartment lay, but the thing was too strong for
him. As a man surrenders to a craving which he knows will destroy him,
yet feels a relief at the surrender, he turned abruptly and walked the
other way.
The apartment in which they had lived was on the second floor of a
small apartment house. He passed it on the opposite side of the street,
looking covertly upward at the windows. There was a light within. She
was there, but invisible. Only if she should step near the window could
he see her.... Again and again he passed, but she did not appear.
Finally he settled himself guiltily in the shadows, where he could
watch those windows, and waited--just for that distant sight of her.
There was a lamp on the table before the window. Before she retired she
would have to come to shut it off.... He waited for that. He would then
see her for a second, perhaps.
At last she came, and stood an instant in the window--just a blur, with
the light behind her, no feature distinguishable, yet it was her--her.
"Ruth..." he whispered, "Ruth...." Then she drew down the shade and
extinguished the light.
For a moment he stood there, hands opened as if he would have stretched
them out toward her. Then he turned and walked heavily away. He had
seen her, but It had not added to his happiness. He had seen her
because he must see her.... And by that he knew he must see her again
and again and again. He knew it. He knew he would stand there in the
shadows on innumerable nights, watching for that one brief second of
her presence.... And she loved another man. In a year she would be free
to marry Dulac!
He returned to his room and to his book on the ailments of
internal-combustion engines; but it was not their diagrams his eyes
saw, but only a featureless blur that represented a girl standing in an
upper window---forever beyond his reach....