Ernest, travelling West, had plenty of time to wonder if, after all, the
present satisfied him. His answer on the whole was "yes." He had little
to regret in the past; he was hopeful, he was positive about the future.
A classmate travelled with him as far as Chicago, and this part of the
journey, broken by a few hours' stay at Niagara, seemed short enough.
Chicago itself, with its general air of business bustle and activity,
opened a new world to him. At the head office of the Wampum and Etna,
where letters awaited him from Mr. Easton, he found himself at once a
man of consequence--no longer the student, little more than schoolboy,
that he had been so lately in the eyes of most persons. Here the clerks
in the office bowed deferentially; the agent consulted him; evidently
Mr. Easton intended to give him much responsibility.
In his day or two in the great city he drove or walked in the parks,
through the boulevards, and along the lake front. He grasped, as well as
he could in so short a time, the city's vastness, measured not alone by
extent of territory, by height of buildings, but by resources, the
amount of which he gathered from the fragments of talk that came to him
in his hurried interviews with various business men. Boston, looked at
with their eyes, through the large end of the telescope, was almost
lost in a dwindling perspective. The West End,--how trivial all its
interests! Miss Theodora, Kate, Miss Chatterwits, Diantha,--well, these
loomed up a little larger than the city itself; and Eugenie--ah! she
filled the field of the telescope, until Ernest could see little else.
After he had crossed the fertile fields of Illinois, and had watched the
green farms of Nebraska fade away into the dull brown, uncultivated
plains, he grew lonely, realizing how far he was from all that was
dearest to him. Would not Miss Theodora's heart have ached with a pain
deeper than that caused by this separation, could she have known that
all her years of devotion were obscured by the glamor of that one bright
year in which Ernest had felt sure of Eugenie's love.
As he looked from the car window across the wide stretch of open
country, where the only objects between his eye and the distant horizon
were a canvas-covered wagon or a solitary horseman, Ernest had more than
enough time for reflection. Would Eugenie be true to him? Of course;
surely that was not a doubt tugging at his heart-strings. Would her
father be more reasonable? His brow darkened a little as he thought of
his last interview with Mr. Kurtz.
"No," the latter had said decidedly; "it is not worth while to talk of
an engagement. Time enough for that when you have shown what you can do.
As I understand it, you have no special prospects at present. At least,
it's to be proved whether you'll succeed in the West. I've known a good
many people to fail out there. I can't have Eugenie bound by an
indefinite engagement. I've worked hard for her, and she's used to
everything. What could you give her? If Eugenie married tomorrow, she'd
want just as much as she has to-day. She isn't the kind of a girl to
live on nothing but love. I've talked with her, and know how she
feels."
This last sentence had made Ernest shiver, and now, as it recurred to
him, he again wondered if, after all, Eugenie was less in earnest than
he.
He recalled the dignity with which Mr. Kurtz had drawn himself up as he
said:
"Besides, I'm not going to have Eugenie go into a family likely to look
down on her." Then, paying no attention to Ernest's protests, "Oh, yes,
I know what I'm talking about. I haven't done business in Boston for
nothing these forty years without knowing what they call the difference
between people. It isn't much more than skin deep, but they feel it, all
your people. I'm a self-made man, and I'm not ashamed of it. I don't ask
any favors of any one, and I don't want any--and I'm not anxious to have
my daughter go among people who will look down on her."
"But my people are so few," poor Ernest had said. "My aunt--"
"Oh, your aunt--yes--people respect her, and she's very good to the
poor; but she was born in Boston, and she don't believe in marrying out
of her set any more than if she was a Hindoo--unless she's made
different from most Boston men and women. I know that I'm made of the
same flesh and blood as the rest of them. But then I wasn't born in
Boston, and perhaps my eyesight is clearer on that account. At any rate,
I'm going to do my duty by Eugenie."
Then Ernest, reflecting on this conversation, from which he had gleaned
so little comfort, fell asleep, and when he awoke in the morning they
were not so very far from Denver. Far, far ahead, across the great
plateau, an irregular dark line showed clear against the morning sky.
"The Rockies," some one cried, and then he felt half like crying, half
like turning back. His new life had almost begun, and he was hardly
ready for it.
Could Ernest have known Mr. Kurtz's true state of mind, he would have
had less reason for downheartedness. Eugenie's father saw in the young
man more promise than he cared to express. He liked Ernest's frankness
in speaking of his prospects; and he knew that he was no fortune hunter.
By her friends Eugenie was called the most "stylish" girl of her set.
Always sure to be the leader's partner at the numerous Germans which
were then so in vogue, she was certainly popular. With no wish
ungratified by her father, she might have been more selfish than she
was. It is true that she always had her own way, but then, as she said,
when her father complained of this, "My own way is just as apt to
benefit other people as myself." Without planning any beneficences, she
did many little kindnesses to her friends. She had to have a companion
when she went to Europe, and so, although a chaperone had been already
provided, Mr. Kurtz cheerfully paid the expenses of a girl friend of
hers, who otherwise would have been unable to go; and many other similar
things added to her popularity.
After a year at a finishing school in New York, she had returned home,
to find out that popularity in a small set is not everything. Some
persons said that a desire to climb had led her to single out Ernest for
especial favor. His name would be an open sesame to a great many Boston
doors.
The little circles of rich, self-made men, self-satisfied women in which
she moved did not touch that one in which she knew Ernest rightfully
belonged. When, innocently enough, Ernest would speak of some invitation
he had received, or would mention familiarly some one whose name for her
had a kind of sacredness, all this was like a drop from Tantalus' cup
for poor Eugenie.
But Ernest, measuring himself by his lack rather than by his
possessions, never associated worldliness with Eugenie. He was
captivated by her beauty, by her vivacity, by her brilliancy in
repartee--Miss Theodora would have called the last "pertness." She spoke
to him of his aunt, whom she knew by sight, wished that she might know
her, and asked more about Kate Digby, who, Ernest said, was just like a
sister to him.
"I should like to meet her," said Eugenie; and Ernest, before he left
the city, had asked Kate to call on her.
A curious expression, which he could not quite read, came over Kate's
face as she replied, "Really, I don't believe I can, Ernest; I haven't
time enough now to call on half the girls I know. There are a dozen
sewing circle calls that I've owed for a year, and it wouldn't be worth
while to begin with any new people."
Nor, with all his attempts at persuasion, could Ernest get Miss
Theodora to take the least interest in Eugenie.
"You know what I think about the whole matter," she said. "I won't dwell
on my disappointment, but it will be time enough for me to know her when
you are really engaged."
What wonder that Ernest, nearing Denver, felt disheartened, oppressed by
his aunt's opposition, and the indefiniteness of his relations with
Eugenie.
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