HIS FORTUNATE GRACE
His Fortunate Grace
By
Gertrude Atherton
Author of A Whirl Asunder, The Doomswoman,
Patience Sparhawk and Her Times,
Before The Gringo Came, Etc.
New York
D. Appleton and Company
1897
COPYRIGHT, 1897,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
TO
ALEECE VAN BERGEN.
HIS FORTUNATE GRACE.
CHAPTER I.
“ARE you quite sure?” Mr. Forbes laid down his newspaper, and
looked with slightly extended mouth at his daughter who leaned forward
in an attitude of suppressed energy, her hands clasped on the edge of
the breakfast-table. The heiress of many millions was not handsome:
her features were large and her complexion dull; but she had the
carriage and ‘air’ of the New York girl of fashion, and wore a French
morning-toilette which would have ameliorated a Gorgon.
“Quite sure, papa.”
“I suppose you have studied the question exhaustively.”
“Oh, yes, indeed. I have read Karl Marx and Henry George and a lot of
others. I suppose you have not forgotten that I belong to a club of
girls who aspire to be something more than fashionable butterflies, and
that we read together?”
“And you are also positive that you wish me to divide my fortune with
my fellow-men, and deprive you of the pleasant position of heiress?”
“Perfectly positive,” firmly. “It is terrible, terrible to think of the
starving thousands. I feel it my duty to tell you, papa, that if you do
not do this yourself, I shall--when--when--but I cannot even think of
that.”
“No; don’t worry about it. I’m good for twenty or thirty years yet----”
“You are the handsomest and most distinguished-looking man in New York.”
“Thanks. To proceed: I should say that you are likely to be several
things meanwhile. I don’t know that I shall even take the trouble to
alter my will. Still, I may--that is unless you convert me. And you are
also convinced that women should have the vote?”
“Yes! Yes! indeed I am. I know all the arguments for and against. I’ve
heard and read everything. You see, if we get the vote we can bring
Socialism about quite easily.”
“Without the slightest difficulty, I should say, considering the
homogeneity of the feminine mind.”
“You darling sarcastic thing. But can’t you see what weight such women
as we are interesting in the cause _must_ have? We have carefully
excluded the _nouveau riche_; only the very oldest and most
notable names will be on our petition when we get it up.”
“Oh, you are going to get up a petition? Well, let that pass for the
present. Suppose you fall in love and want to marry?”
“I shall tell him everything. What I intend to make of my life--do
with what wealth I have at my disposal. If he does not sympathize
with me and agree to my plans, he must go. A woman’s chief end is not
matrimony.”
“I need not ask if you have ever been in love?”
“Oh, of course, I want to be, dreadfully. All women do--even we
advanced women--now, papa! I don’t love you quite so well when you
smile like that. I am twenty-one, and that is quite old for a girl who
has been highly educated, has travelled, and been out two years. I
have a right to call myself advanced, because I have gone deliberately
into the race, and have read up a great deal, even if I have as yet
accomplished nothing. Exactly how much are you worth, papa?”
“Broadly speaking, about thirty millions. As a great deal of that is in
railroad and other stock, I am liable to be worth much less any day;
much is also in land, which is worth only what it will bring. Still, I
should say that I am reasonably sure of a fair amount.”
“It is terrible, papa! All that land! Do give some of it at least
to the poor dear people--I assure you we feel that we have taken
them under our wing, and have grown quite sentimental over them. Mr.
George would tell you what to do, at once. That man’s very baggy knees
fascinate me: he is so magnificently in earnest. When he scolded us all
for being rich, the other day at the meeting, I loved him.”
“It is a great relief to me that George is a married man. Well, my
dear, your allowance is ten thousand dollars a year. Do what you please
with it, and come to me if your fads and whims demand more. God forbid
that I should stand in the way of any woman’s happiness. By the by,
what does your mother think of this business?”
“She is _most_ unsympathetic.”
“So I should imagine,” said Mr. Forbes, drily. “Your mother is the
cleverest woman I know.”