Miss Allison declined to come down to dinner that night, and Mrs.
Lawrence had no power to compel her attendance. What she hoped was that
when Mr. Allison came in he would send his mandate; but Mr. Allison did
not come. Instead there was a messenger from the club. Mr. Allison was
unexpectedly detained by an important meeting of a board of directors,
and might not be home until late. The butler made the announcement with
his usual impassive face, and Mrs. Lawrence directed dinner served
without further delay. When told to summon Master Cary, a servant
presently returned with the information that that young gentleman had
stepped out. "Slipped out," muttered Elmendorf between his teeth, for no
sooner did Cary discover that "dad" was not to be home than he
tobogganed down the baluster rail and shot forth into the surrounding
darkness, and was blocks away among cronies of his own before his
absence was discovered. "My brother is far too lax in his discipline
with Cary," said Mrs. Lawrence, in that profound disapprobation which
most people have of other people's methods, especially when their own
system, or lack of it, has proved conspicuous failure.
"Mr. Allison," said Elmendorf, diplomatically, "is somewhat wedded to
his theory, but that may not stand the test of practice. I had flattered
myself that the few months of my tuition were beginning to bear good
fruit, and that Cary was steadying, so to speak; but ever since the boy
began to get this West Point idea into his head I have found him
becoming more and more difficult to guide and control. Indeed, while I
do not wish to be considered as complaining, I feel bound to say, since
you have done me the honor to open the subject, that the influence of
Mr. Forrest upon both your nephew and your brother has been detrimental
to my usefulness in this household, so much so, in fact, as to prove at
times a serious embarrassment."
Now, Mrs. Lawrence had by no means "opened the subject," as intimated by
Mr. Elmendorf, but he was adroit in the manipulation of language. He
noted unerringly the cloud of dissent in her face, and knew it would
find verbal expression provided opportunity were afforded. To head off
disclaimer, therefore, he resorted to the time-honored feminine
expedient of talking down the other side and giving it no chance to be
heard,--an easy matter with him, for when Elmendorf got to talking
there was no telling when he would stop or what he might say. He was a
man who loved talk for talk's sake, who had an almost maternal fondness
for the sound of his own voice, and who petted and cajoled and patted
and moulded his phrases and sentences as an indulgent mother might humor
a child or a school-girl dress and adorn a doll. Before he had been two
months an inmate of the household, old Allison had come to wish he had
not begun by prescribing that Cary and his tutor should regularly appear
at the family table. Once established there, Elmendorf speedily became
dominant. If friends of Miss Allison dropped in to luncheon and the chat
was of social matters or other girls, if Allison brought home
fellow-magnates to take pot-luck at his hospitable board, if Mrs.
Lawrence and her especial cronies discoursed on that never-ending
problem, the servants, if Forrest and his army friends came informally,
no matter what the subject or who the speakers, Elmendorf speedily
"chipped in," as Cary expressed it, and once in could not be driven out.
His pet theme was the wrongs of the wage-workers, his pet theory the
doctrine of incessant change. His watchword seemed to be "Whatever is is
wrong," for against the existing order of things in state, society, or
home he was ever ready to wage determined war. Armed with propensities
such as these, a profound conviction of his own sense and sagacity and
consummate distrust in those of everybody else, it is easy to see that
once encouraged to break the ice and join in the current of conversation
he could not readily be eliminated. A man of good education was
Elmendorf, and during the European trip he had not been so much in the
way, but once home again, more and more as the winter wore on did the
head of the household find himself wishing he had never set eyes on the
man. He heard of him presently as addressing socialistic meetings and
appearing prominently at the sessions of the labor unions. Then in the
columns of papers of marked anarchistic tendencies, that had been under
the ban ever since the riots of '86, long articles began to appear over
his initials, and both in his speeches and in his contributions
Elmendorf was emphatic in his condemnation of capital, and in his
demands that labor should unite, unite everywhere, and by concerted and
persistent effort wring from the congested coffers of capital--Elmendorf
loved alliteration--a large share of its hoarded wealth. The hands that
wrought the fabric, said he, should share and share alike in every
profit. The man who riveted the bolt or swung the hammer deserved equal
wage with him whose brain evolved the plan, or whose fortune built the
mammoth plant and purchased the costly machinery.
"What I employed him for," said Allison, "was to prepare Cary for
college, and to keep him out of mischief; but the boy's running wilder
than before. Elmendorf's welcome to his theories, but not to the time
they take from the education of my son." It presently transpired that
many an evening when they were supposed to be in the study or at the
library or the theatre, Elmendorf was off at some meeting of the
laboring men, largely attended by loafers who labored not at all, and no
one knew just where Cary had gone unless he chose to tell. Elmendorf had
long since offended Miss Allison and her friends by intrusion in their
talk; he had offended Mrs. Lawrence by comment and criticism on
household affairs that were none of his business; he had annoyed Allison
by persistence in taking part in the discussion when his business or
professional friends happened in. He had time and again thrown down the
gauntlet, so to speak, when Forrest or his comrades were present, and
challenged the army men to debate as to whether there was the faintest
excuse for the existence of even so small a force as ours in a land so
great and free; but Forrest coolly--even courteously--refused to be
drawn into controversy, and, though treating the tutor with scrupulous
politeness, insisted on holding him at a distance. Naturally, therefore,
Elmendorf hated the lieutenant and all who trained with him. None the
less did he continue making frequent visits to the officers at
head-quarters, and there the officers who met him on equal footing at
Mr. Allison's table could not snub him. They grew suspicious of him,
however, especially after reading his speeches, etc., which as the
spring came on grew more and more significant, and so they shut up like
so many clams on all professional topics whenever Elmendorf appeared.
For it was well known in the great community that "the regulars" were
keeping close watch on the changing phases of what the papers termed
"the situation." Twice or thrice before in the history of the city had
its mobs overpowered the municipal authority and defied that of the
State. Right or wrong, the majority among the prominent citizens
believed that in greater force and fury than ever before the turbulent
element among the people, taking advantage of some convenient strike,
would break bounds once more, and nothing short of disciplined military
force would down them. The State troops, vastly improved by the
experiences of the past, had won their way to increased confidence and
respect, but all the same people took comfort in the thought that only
an hour's railway ride away there was posted a compact little body of
regulars, and, despite the jealousy aroused in the heart of a free
people through the existence of a standing army, it is marvellous to see
how much comfort its proximity brings to law-abiding men.
Now, one of Elmendorf's theories, and one upon which he descanted by the
hour, was that in the very nature of things it was impossible for
people well to do in the world to sympathize with or understand the
needs of those who were not so favored. Divine writ, said he, was with
him. Just as impossible as for a camel to pass through the needle's eye
or for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven was it that the wealthy
could feel for the poor. Opulence and indigence were no more sympathetic
than oil and vinegar. The poor must ever have a champion, a savior, a
mediator, or they are ground beneath a relentless heel. It was
Elmendorf's belief that no manufacturer, employer, landlord, capitalist,
or manager could by any possible chance deal justly with the employed.
It was a conviction equally profound that manifest destiny had chosen
him to be the modern Moses who was to lead his millions out of the house
of bondage. It was astonishing that with purpose so high and aim so
lofty he could find time and inclination to meddle with matters so far
beneath him; but the trouble with Elmendorf was that he was a born
meddler, and, no matter what the occasion, from a national convention to
a servants' squabble, he was ever eager to serve as adviser or
arbitrator. It was his proclivities in this line that brought on the
first clash with Mrs. Lawrence, for in a difference between the lady of
the house and the belle of the kitchen, which was, as usual, none of his
affair, Elmendorf took sides with the cook. In the light of his conduct
on this occasion, Mrs. Lawrence declared him a pest, and she only
recanted when thus unexpectedly he arrayed himself under her own banner
against her recreant niece.
And so this evening they sat alone in the stately dining-room, and
Elmendorf found in Mrs. Lawrence an eager and even sympathetic listener,
for just so soon as the services of the butler could be dispensed with
the tutor opened fire on Forrest and his alleged iniquities, and from
this as entering wedge he found it easy to favor the aunt with his views
as to what should be done towards reclaiming the niece, so lamentably
and notoriously infatuated.
Mrs. Lawrence winced. It is all very well for a woman to say such things
herself in the heat of argument and to the object of her wrath, but
quite another matter to hear them applied by somebody else, and that
somebody a dependent, so to speak, in the household. Mrs. Lawrence, it
may be remembered, was indignant at Forrest first because she thought he
meant to offer himself to Florence, and then because she thought he
didn't. She did not want Florence to marry him, but still less did she
want that he should not want her. That was unbearable. She upbraided
Florence for seeing so much of Forrest, because it made people think her
in love with him, and she raged at the people who dared to think as she
said they did. Mrs. Lawrence, therefore, may with safety be set down as
somewhat inconsistent.
"I do not think my niece is at all infatuated with Mr. Forrest, Mr.
Elmendorf," said she, somewhat severely. "She admires him greatly, and
there happens to be no one else to occupy her thoughts just now. I beg
you, therefore, to dismiss that idea at once and for all time."
"I should be glad to do so, Mrs. Lawrence," replied the tutor, with much
gravity, "and could do so, perhaps, were it not that you yourself gave
me, in the conversation I was so unfortunate as accidentally to
overhear, the confirmation. Would it not be better now, instead of
working at cross-purposes in this matter, if you were to trust me more
fully and enable me to act in harmony with your plans and wishes? I
shrink from intruding unasked, but, believe me, I too have heard such
talk as convinces me that it is high time Miss Allison's friends took
counsel together to protect her good name."
Indignant, as most women would be, at being reminded of her own
responsibility for a false impression, Mrs. Lawrence could have found it
easy to put an end to the conference then and there, but for Elmendorf's
adroit reference to "other talk." That piqued her curiosity and held
her.
"What talk? Where?" she asked.
"I do not like to mention names, Mrs. Lawrence. My acquaintance among
the officials at head-quarters has become extensive, and much is said in
confidence to me that perhaps wouldn't be heard in their chat with
others. Indeed, I may say that some among the more thoughtful and
broad-minded of their number--there are a few such--have sought my views
upon important questions of the day and have favored me with their
opinions."
"And do you mean that Florence has been discussed there, among all those
men,--those officers?" interrupted Mrs. Lawrence, with justifiable
wrath.
Elmendorf shrugged his shoulders. "Of course I ought not to betray my
hosts or give away their secrets, but do you suppose that there, any
more than among the loungers of the clubs, a woman's name is never
discussed?"
"I thought they prided themselves on being gentlemen," said Mrs.
Lawrence, wrathfully; "and gentlemen would never permit it."
"Ah, my dear madam, there's the trouble. A man is not necessarily a
gentleman because wealth and social position impel him to membership in
one of these forcing-houses of luxurious iniquity we call clubs, or
because four years in a West-Point monkey-jacket win him a commission as
a genteel loafer. A woman's name is held far less in reverence among
them than it is among the humblest of our masses. Oh, yes, I anticipate
your question," said he, at this juncture, with deprecatory gesture and
faint, significant smile. "True, I am not personally a member of any of
those clubs, nor do I wish to be, but I know men and mingle with them
elsewhere,--everywhere else, in fact. The roof of the club-house cloaks
their misdeeds, and worse things are said and done beneath it than
outside. As for officers, the only reason why there is apt to be a
stronger percentage of common decency among them is that they are chosen
from the masses of the people and sent to the Point simply to be
moulded, not reformed. Mr. Forrest is an example of the so-called
blue-blooded stock. His people are 'swells,' so to speak,--people whose
heads are held very high and their morals correspondingly low,--people
who think it condescension on their part to notice wage-workers except
as menials. Hence I am in no wise surprised to hear of him as I do, even
among those who are--well, of his own cloth."
"Surely, Mr. Elmendorf, the officers who have so often dined here do not
entertain ill opinions of Mr. Forrest. Such men as Colonel Kenyon,
Captain Waring, Major Cranston,--they have known him long and well, and
they speak of him, to us at least, most highly."
Again the significant shrug of Elmendorf's shoulders and the sneer in
his tone. "Oh, certainly," said he. "_Noblesse oblige_, or honor among
thieves, whichever maxim you choose. I doubt not that in his younger
days each of the eminently respectable trio you mention was no more a
model of morality than is Mr. Forrest. I have, indeed, heard as much of
Captain Waring; but one has only once to penetrate beyond the veil of
that professional reserve which they assume, and the details of one
another's lives are not such guarded secrets, after all."
"And you really mean that from them--among them you have learned
these--these----"
"These particulars of Mr. Forrest's sudden orders to leave the city?"
said Elmendorf, dryly, with another shrug. "From where else? Even to the
name and station of the lady in the case."
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