They took him home, in the stateroom of the sleeper attached to the
night express from the south, although Mr. Flint, by telephone, had put
a special train at his disposal. The long service of Hilary Vane was
over; he had won his last fight for the man he had chosen to call his
master; and those who had fought behind him, whose places, whose very
luminary existences, had depended on his skill, knew that the end had
come; nay, were already speculating, manoeuvring, and taking sides. Who
would be the new Captain-general? Who would be strong enough to suppress
the straining ambitions of the many that the Empire might continue to
flourish in its integrity and gather tribute? It is the world-old cry
around the palace walls: Long live the new ruler--if you can find him
among the curdling factions.
They carried Hilary home that September night, when Sawanec was like a
gray ghost-mountain facing the waning moon, back to the home of
those strange, Renaissance Austens which he had reclaimed for a grim
puritanism, and laid him in the carved and canopied bedstead Channing
Austen had brought from Spain. Euphrasia had met them at the door, but
a trained nurse from the Ripton hospital was likewise in waiting; and a
New York specialist had been summoned to prolong, if possible, the life
of one from whom all desire for life had passed.
Before sunrise a wind came from the northern spruces; the dawn was
cloudless, fiery red, and the air had an autumn sharpness. At ten
o'clock Dr. Harmon arrived, was met at the station by Austen, and spent
half an hour with Dr. Tredway. At noon the examination was complete.
Thanks to generations of self-denial by the Vanes of Camden Street, Mr.
Hilary Vane might live indefinitely, might even recover, partially; but
at present he was condemned to remain, with his memories, in the great
canopied bed.
The Honourable Hilary had had another caller that morning besides Dr.
Harmon,--no less a personage than the president of the Northeastern
Railroads himself, who had driven down from Fairview immediately after
breakfast. Austen having gone to the station, Dr. Tredway had received
Mr. Flint in the darkened hall, and had promised to telephone to
Fairview the verdict of the specialist. At present Dr. Tredway did not
think it wise to inform Hilary of Mr. Flint's visit--not, at least,
until after the examination.
Mr. Vane exhibited the same silent stoicism on receiving the verdict
of Dr. Harmon as he had shown from the first. With the clew to Hilary's
life which Dr. Tredway had given him, the New York physician understood
the case; one common enough in his practice in a great city where the
fittest survive--sometimes only to succumb to unexpected and irreparable
blows in the evening of life.
On his return from seeing Dr. Harmon off Austen was met on the porch by
Dr. Tredway.
“Your father has something on his mind,” said the doctor, “and perhaps
it is just as well that he should be relieved. He is asking for you,
and I merely wished to advise you to make the conversation as short as
possible.”
Austen climbed the stairs in obedience to this summons, and stood before
his father at the bedside. Hilary lay, back among the pillows, and the
brightness of that autumn noonday only served to accentuate the pallor
of his face, the ravages of age which had come with such incredible
swiftness, and the outline of a once vigorous frame. The eyes alone
shone with a strange new light, and Austen found it unexpectedly
difficult to speak. He sat down on the bed and laid his hand on the
helpless one that rested on the coverlet.
“Austen,” said Mr. Vane, “I want you to go to Fairview.”
His son's hand tightened over his own.
“Yes, Judge.”
“I want you to go now.”
“Yes, Judge.”
“You know the combination of my safe at the office. It's never been
changed since--since you were there. Open it. You will find two tin
boxes, containing papers labelled Augustus P. Flint. I want you to take
them to Fairview and put them into the hands of Mr. Flint himself. I--I
cannot trust any one else. I promised to take them myself, but--Flint
will understand.”
“I'll go right away,” said Austen, rising, and trying to speak
cheerfully. “Mr. Flint was here early this morning--inquiring for you.”
Hilary Vane's lips trembled, and another expression came into his eyes.
“Rode down to look at the scrap-heap,--did he?”
Austen strove to conceal his surprise at his father's words and change
of manner.
“Tredway saw him,” he said. “I'm pretty sure Mr. Flint doesn't feel that
way, Judge. He has taken your illness very much to heart, I know, and he
left some fruit and flowers for you.”
“I guess his daughter sent those,” said Hilary.
“His daughter?” Austen repeated.
“If I didn't think so,” Mr. Vane continued, “I'd send 'em back. I never
knew what she was until she picked me up and drove me down here. I've
always done Victoria an injustice.”
Austen walked to the door, and turned slowly.
“I'll go at once, Judge,” he said.
In the kitchen he was confronted by Euphrasia.
“When is that woman going away?” she demanded. “I've took care of Hilary
Vane nigh on to forty years, and I guess I know as much about nursing,
and more about Hilary, than that young thing with her cap and apron. I
told Dr. Tredway so. She even came down here to let me know what to cook
for him, and I sent her about her business.”
Austen smiled. It was the first sign, since his return the night before,
Euphrasia had given that an affection for Hilary Vane lurked beneath the
nature.
“She won't stay long, Phrasie,” he answered, and added mischievously,
“for a very good reason.”
“And what's that?” asked Euphrasia.
“Because you won't allow her to. I have a notion that she'll pack up and
leave in about three days, and that all the doctors in Ripton couldn't
keep her here.”
“Get along with you,” said Euphrasia, who could not for the life of her
help looking a little pleased.
“I'm going off for a few hours,” he said more seriously. “Dr. Tredway
tells me they do not look for any developments--for the worse.”
“Where are you going?” asked Euphrasia, sharply.
“To Fairview,” he said.
Euphrasia moved the kettle to another part of the stove.
“You'll see her?” she said.
“Who?” Austen asked. But his voice must have betrayed him a little, for
Euphrasia turned and seized him by the elbows and looked up into his
face.
“Victoria,” she said.
He felt himself tremble at the name,--at the strangeness of its sound on
Euphrasia's lips.
“I do not expect to see Miss Flint,” he answered, controlling himself
as well as he was able. “I have an errand for the Judge with Mr. Flint
himself.”
Euphrasia had guessed his secret! But how?
“Hadn't you better see her?” said Euphrasia, in a curious monotone.
“But I have no errand with her,” he objected, mystified yet excited by
Euphrasia's manner.
“She fetched Hilary home,” said Euphrasia.
“Yes.”
“She couldn't have be'n kinder if she was his own daughter.”
“I know--” he began, but Euphrasia interrupted.
“She sent that Englishman for the doctor, and waited to take the news to
her father, and she came out in this kitchen and talked to me.”
Austen started. Euphrasia was not looking at him now, and suddenly she
dropped his arms and went to the window overlooking the garden.
“She wouldn't go in the parlour, but come right out here in her fine
clothes. I told her I didn't think she belonged in a kitchen--but I
guess I did her an injustice,” said Euphrasia, slowly.
“I think you did,” he said, and wondered.
“She looked at that garden,” Euphrasia went on, “and cried out. I didn't
callate she was like that. And the first thing I knew I was talking
about your mother, and I'd forgot who I was talking to. She wahn't like
a stranger--it was just as if I'd known her always. I haven't understood
it yet. And after a while I told her about that verse, and she wanted to
see it--the verse about the skylark, you know--”
“Yes,” said Austen.
“Well, the way she read it made me cry, it brought back Sarah Austen so.
Somehow, I can't account for it, she puts me in mind of your mother.”
Austen did not speak.
“In more ways than one,” said Euphrasia. “I didn't look to find her so
natural--and so gentle. And their she has a way of scolding you, just as
Sarah Austen had, that you'd never suspect.”
“Did she scold you--Phrasie?” asked Austen. And the irresistible humour
that is so near to sorrow made him smile again.
“Indeed she did! And it surprised, me some--coming right out of a summer
sky. I told her what I thought about Hilary, and how he'd driven you out
of your own mother's house. She said you'd ought to be sent for, and I
said you oughtn't to set foot in this house until Hilary sent for you.
She said I'd no right to take such a revenge--that you'd come right
away if you knew Hilary'd had a stroke, and that Hilary'd never send
for you--because he couldn't. She said he was like a man on a desert
island.”
“She was right,” answered Austen.
“I don't know about that,” said Euphrasia; “she hadn't put up with
Hilary for forty years, as I had, and seen what he'd done to your mother
and you. But that's what she said. And she went for you herself, when
she found the doctor couldn't go. Austen, ain't you going to see her?”
Austen shook his head gently, and smiled at her.
“I'm afraid it's no use, Phrasie,” he said. “Just because she has
been--kind we mustn't be deceived. It's h er nature to be kind.”
Euphrasia crossed the room swiftly, and seized his arm again.
“She loves you, Austen,” she cried; “she loves you. Do you think that
I'd love her, that I'd plead for her, if she didn't?”
Austen's breath came deeply. He disengaged himself, and went to the
window.
“No,” he said, “you don't know. You can't--know. I have only seen her--a
few times. She lives a different life--and with other people. She will
marry a man who can give her more.”
“Do you think I could be deceived?” exclaimed Euphrasia, almost
fiercely. “It's as true as the sun shining on that mountain. You believe
she loves the Englishman, but I tell you she loves you--you.”
He turned towards her.
“How do you know?” he asked, as though he were merely curious.
“Because I'm a woman, and she's a woman,” said Euphrasia. “Oh, she
didn't confess it. If she had, I shouldn't think so much of her. But she
told me as plain as though she had spoken it in words, before she left
this room.”
Austen shook his head again.
“Phrasie,” he said, “I'm afraid you've been building castles in Spain.”
And he went out, and across to the stable to harness Pepper.
Austen did not believe Euphrasia. On that eventful evening when Victoria
had called at Jabe Jenney's, the world's aspect had suddenly changed for
him; old values had faded,--values which, after all, had been but tints
and glows,--and sterner but truer colours took their places. He saw
Victoria's life in a new perspective,--one in which his was but a small
place in the background of her numerous beneficences; which was, after
all, the perspective in which he had first viewed it. But, by degrees,
the hope that she loved him had grown and grown until it had become
unconsciously the supreme element of his existence,--the hope that stole
sweetly into his mind with the morning light, and stayed him through the
day, and blended into the dreams of darkness.
By inheritance, by tradition, by habits of thought, Austen Vane was an
American,--an American as differentiated from the citizen of any other
nation upon the earth. The French have an expressive phrase in speaking
of a person as belonging to this or that world, meaning the circle by
which the life of an individual is bounded; the true American recognizes
these circles--but with complacency, and with a sure knowledge of his
destiny eventually to find himself within the one for which he is best
fitted by his talents and his tastes. The mere fact that Victoria had
been brought up amongst people with whom he had nothing in common would
not have deterred Austen Vane from pressing his suit; considerations of
honour had stood in the way, and hope had begun to whisper that these
might, in the end, be surmounted. Once they had disappeared, and she
loved him, that were excuse and reason enough.
And suddenly the sight of Victoria with a probable suitor--who at
once had become magnified into an accepted suitor--had dispelled hope.
Euphrasia! Euphrasia had been deceived as he had, by a loving kindness
and a charity that were natural. But what so natural (to one who had
lived the life of Austen Vane) as that she should marry amongst those
whose ways of life were her ways? In the brief time in which he had
seen her and this other man, Austen's quickened perceptions had detected
tacit understanding, community of interest, a habit of thought and
manner,--in short, a common language, unknown to him, between the two.
And, more than these, the Victoria of the blissful excursions he had
known was changed as she had spoken to him--constrained, distant, apart;
although still dispensing kindness, going out of her way to bring Hilary
home, and to tell him of Hilary's accident. Rumour, which cannot be
confined in casks or bottles, had since informed Austen Vane that Mr.
Rangely had spent the day with Victoria, and had remained at Fairview
far into the evening; rumour went farther (thanks to Mrs. Pomfret) and
declared the engagement already an accomplished fact. And to Austen,
in the twilight in front of Jabe Jenney's, the affair might well have
assumed the proportions of an intimacy of long standing rather than that
of the chance acquaintance of an hour. Friends in common, modes of life
in common, and incidents in common are apt to sweep away preliminaries.
Such were Austen's thoughts as he drove to Fairview that September
afternoon when the leaves were turning their white backs to the
northwest breeze. The sun was still high, and the distant hills and
mountains were as yet scarce stained with blue, and stood out in
startling clearness against the sky. Would he see her? That were a pain
he scarce dared contemplate.
He reached the arched entrance, was on the drive. Here was the path
again by which she had come down the hillside; here was the very stone
on which she had stood--awaiting him. Why? Why had she done that?
Well-remembered figure amidst the yellow leaves dancing in the sunlight!
Here he had stopped, perforce, and here he had looked up into his face
and smiled and spoken!
At length he gained the plateau across which the driveway ran, between
round young maples, straight to Fairview House, and he remembered the
stares from the tea-tables, and how she had come out to his rescue. Now
the lawn was deserted, save for a gardener among the shrubs. He rang the
stable-bell, and as he waited for an answer to his summons, the sense
of his remoteness from these surroundings of hers deepened, and with
a touch of inevitable humour he recalled the low-ceiled bedroom at Mr.
Jenney's and the kitchen in Hanover Street; the annual cost of the
care of that lawn and driveway might well have maintained one of these
households.
He told the stable-boy to wait. It is to be remarked as curious that
the name of the owner of the house on Austen's lips brought the first
thought of him to Austen's mind. He was going to see and speak with Mr.
Flint, a man who had been his enemy ever since the day he had come
here and laid down his pass on the president's desk; the man who--so
he believed until three days ago--had stood between him and happiness.
Well, it did not matter now.
Austen followed the silent-moving servant through the hall. Those
were the stairs which knew her feet, these the rooms--so subtly
flower-scented--she lived in; then came the narrow passage to the
sterner apartment of the master himself. Mr. Flint was alone, and seated
upright behind the massive oak desk, from which bulwark the president of
the Northeastern was wont to meet his opponents and his enemies; and few
visitors came into his presence, here or elsewhere, who were not to be
got the better of, if possible. A life-long habit had accustomed Mr.
Flint to treat all men as adversaries until they were proved otherwise.
His square, close-cropped head, his large features, his alert eyes, were
those of a fighter.
He did not rise, but nodded. Suddenly Austen was enveloped in a flame
of wrath that rose without warning and blinded him, and it was with a
supreme effort to control himself that he stopped in the doorway. He was
frightened, for he had felt this before, and he knew it for the anger
that demands physical violence.
“Come in, Mr. Vane,” said the president.
Austen advanced to the desk, and laid the boxes before Mr. Flint.
“Mr. Vane told me to say that he would have brought these himself, had
it been possible. Here is the list, and I shall be much obliged if you
will verify it before I go back.”
“Sit down.” said Mr. Flint.
Austen sat down, with the corner of the desk between them, while Mr.
Flint opened the boxes and began checking off the papers on the list.
“How is your father this afternoon?” he asked, without looking up.
“As well as can be expected,” said Austen.
“Of course nobody knew his condition but himself,” Mr. Flint continued;
“but it was a great shock to me--when he resigned as my counsel three
days ago.”
Austen laid his forearm on the desk, and his hand closed.
“He resigned three days ago?” he exclaimed.
Mr. Flint was surprised, but concealed it.
“I can understand, under the circumstances, how he has overlooked
telling you. His resignation takes effect to-day.”
Austen was silent a moment, while he strove to apply this fact to his
father's actions.
“He waited until after the convention.”
“Exactly,” said Mr. Flint, catching the implied accusation in Austen's
tone; “and needless to say, if I had been able to prevent his going,
in view of what happened on Monday night, I should have done so. As you
know, after his--accident, he went to the capital without informing any
one.”
“As a matter of honour,” said Austen.
Mr. Flint looked up from the papers, and regarded him narrowly, for
the tone in which this was spoken did not escape the president of the
Northeastern. He saw, in fact, that at the outset he had put a weapon
into Austen's hands. Hilary's resignation was a vindication of Austen's
attitude, an acknowledgment that the business and political practices of
his life had been wrong.
What Austen really felt, when he had grasped the significance of that
fact, was relief--gratitude. A wave of renewed affection for his father
swept over him, of affection and pity and admiration, and for the
instant he forgot Mr. Flint.
“As a matter of honour,” Mr. Flint repeated. “Knowing he was ill, Mr.
Vane insisted upon going to that convention, even at the risk of his
life. It is a fitting close to a splendid career, and one that will not
soon be forgotten.”
Austen merely looked at Mr. Flint, who may have found the glance a
trifle disconcerting, for he turned to the papers again.
“I repeat,” he went on presently, “that this illness of Mr. Vane's is
not only a great loss to the Northeastern system, but a great blow to
me personally. I have been associated with him closely for more than
a quarter of a century, and I have never seen a lawyer of greater
integrity, clear-headedness, and sanity of view. He saw things as they
were, and he did as much to build up the business interests and the
prosperity of this State as any man I know of. He was true to his word,
and true to his friends.”
Still Austen did not reply. He continued to look at Mr. Flint, and Mr.
Flint continued to check the papers only more slowly. He had nearly
finished the first box.
“A wave of political insanity, to put it mildly, seems to be sweeping
over this country,” said the president of the Northeastern. “Men who
would paralyze and destroy the initiative of private enterprise, men
who themselves are ambitious, and either incapable or unsuccessful, have
sprung up; writers who have no conscience, whose one idea is to make
money out of a passing craze against honest capital, have aided them.
Disappointed and dangerous politicians who merely desire office and
power have lifted their voices in the hue and cry to fool the honest
voter. I am glad to say I believe that the worst of this madness and
rascality is over; that the common sense of the people of this country
is too great to be swept away by the methods of these self-seekers; that
the ordinary man is beginning to see that his bread and butter depends
on the brain of the officers who are trying honestly to conduct great
enterprises for the benefit of the average citizen.
“We did not expect to escape in this State,” Mr. Flint went on, raising
his head and meeting Austen's look; “the disease was too prevalent and
too catching for the weak-minded. We had our self-seekers who attempted
to bring ruin upon an institution which has done more for our population
than any other. I do not hesitate to speak of the Northeastern
Railroads as an institution, and as an institution which has been as
conscientiously and conservatively conducted as any in the country, and
with as scrupulous a regard for the welfare of all. Hilary Vane, as
you doubtless know, was largely responsible for this. My attention, as
president of all the roads, has been divided. Hilary Vane guarded the
interests in this State, and no man could have guarded them better. He
well deserves the thanks of future generations for the uncompromising
fight he made against such men and such methods. It has broken him down
at a time of life when he has earned repose, but he has the satisfaction
of knowing that he has won the battle for conservative American
principles, and that he has nominated a governor worthy of the
traditions of the State.”
And Mr. Flint started checking off the papers again. Had the occasion
been less serious, Austen could have smiled at Mr. Flint's ruse--so
characteristic of the tactics of the president of the Northeastern--of
putting him into a position where criticism of the Northeastern and its
practices would be criticism of his own father. As it was, he only
set his jaw more firmly, an expression indicative of contempt for
such tactics. He had not come there to be lectured out of the “Book of
Arguments” on the divine right of railroads to govern, but to see that
certain papers were delivered in safety.
Had his purpose been deliberately to enter into a contest with Mr.
Flint, Austen could not have planned the early part of it any better
than by pursuing this policy of silence. To a man of Mr. Flint's
temperament and training, it was impossible to have such an opponent
within reach without attempting to hector him into an acknowledgment of
the weakness of his position. Further than this, Austen had touched him
too often on the quick merely to be considered in the light of a young
man who held opposite and unfortunate views--although it was Mr. Flint's
endeavour to put him in this light. The list of injuries was too fresh
in Mr. Flint's mind--even that last conversation with Victoria, in which
she had made it plain that her sympathies were with Austen.
But with an opponent who would not be led into ambush, who had the
strength to hold his fire under provocation, it was no easy matter to
maintain a height of conscious, matter-of-fact rectitude and implied
reproof. Austen's silence, Austen's attitude, declared louder than
words the contempt for such manoeuvres of a man who knows he is in the
right--and knows that his adversary knows it. It was this silence and
this attitude which proclaimed itself that angered Mr. Flint, yet made
him warily conceal his anger and change his attack.
“It is some years since we met, Mr. Vane,” he remarked presently.
Austen's face relaxed into something of a smile.
“Four, I think,” he answered.
“You hadn't long been back from that Western experience. Well, your
father has one decided consolation; you have fulfilled his hope that you
would settle down here and practise in the State. And I hear that you
are fast forging to the front. You are counsel for the Gaylord Company,
I believe.”
“The result of an unfortunate accident,” said Austen; “Mr. Hammer died.”
“And on the occasion when you did me the honour to call on me,” said
Mr. Flint, “if I remember rightly, you expressed some rather radical
views--for the son of Hilary Vane.”
“For the son of Hilary Vane,” Austen agreed, with a smile.
Mr. Flint ignored the implication in the repetition.
“Thinking as mach as I do of Mr. Vane, I confess that your views at that
time rather disturbed me. It is a matter of relief to learn that you
have refused to lend yourself to the schemes of men like our neighbour,
Mr. Humphrey Crewe, of Leith.”
“Honesty compels me to admit,” answered Austen, “that I did not refrain
on Mr. Crewe's account.”
“Although,” said Mr. Flint, drumming on the table, “there was some talk
that you were to be brought forward as a dark horse in the convention,
and as a candidate unfriendly to the interests of the Northeastern
Railroads, I am glad you did not consent to be put in any such position.
I perceive that a young man of your ability and--popularity, a Vane of
Camden Street, must inevitably become a force in this State. And as a
force, you must retain the conservatism of the Vanes--the traditional
conservatism of the State. The Northeastern Railroads will continue to
be a very large factor in the life of the people after you and I
are gone, Mr. Vane. You will have to live, as it were, with that
corporation, and help to preserve it. We shall have to work together,
perhaps, to that end--who can say? I repeat, I am glad that your
good sense led you to refrain from coming as a candidate before that
Convention. There is time enough in the future, and you could not have
been nominated.”
“On the contrary,” answered Austen, quietly, “I could have been
nominated.”
Mr. Flint smiled knowingly--but with an effort. What a relief it would
have been to him to charge horse and foot, to forget that he was a
railroad president dealing with a potential power.
“Do you honestly believe that?” he asked.
“I am not accustomed to dissemble my beliefs,” said Austen, gravely.
“The fact that my father had faith enough in me to count with certainty
on my refusal to go before the convention enabled him to win the
nomination for the candidate of your railroads.”
Mr. Flint continued to smile, but into his eyes had crept a gleam of
anger.
“It is easy to say such things--after the convention,” he remarked.
“And it would have been impossible to say their before,” Austen
responded instantly, with a light in his own eyes. “My nomination was
the only disturbing factor in the situation for you and the politicians
who had your interests in hand, and it was as inevitable as night and
day that the forces of the candidates who represented the two wings of
the machine of the Northeastern Railroads should have united against Mr.
Crewe. I want to say to you frankly that if my father had not been the
counsel for your corporation, and responsible for its political success,
or if he could have resigned with honour before the convention, I should
not have refused to let my name go in. After all,” he added, in a lower
tone, and with a slight gesture characteristic of him when a subject was
distasteful, “it doesn't matter who is elected governor this autumn.”
“What?” cried Mr. Flint, surprised out of his attitude as much by
Austen's manner as by Austen's words.
“It doesn't matter,” said Austen, “whether the Northeastern Railroads
have succeeded this time in nominating and electing a governor to whom
they can dictate, and who will reappoint railroad commissioners and
other State officials in their interests. The practices by which
you have controlled this State, Mr. Flint, and elected governors
and councillors and State and national senators are doomed. However
necessary these practices may have been from your point of view, they
violated every principle of free government, and were they to continue,
the nation to which we belong would inevitably decay and become the
scorn of the world. Those practices depended for their success on
one condition,--which in itself is the most serious of ills in a
republic,--the ignorance and disregard of the voter. You have but
to read the signs of the times to see clearly that the day of such
conditions is past, to see that the citizens of this State and this
country are thinking for themselves, as they should; are alive to the
dangers and determined to avert it. You may succeed in electing one
more governor and one more senate, or two, before the people are able
to destroy the machinery you have built up and repeal the laws you have
made to sustain it. I repeat, it doesn't matter in the long run. The era
of political domination by a corporation, and mainly for the benefit of
a corporation, is over.”
Mr. Flint had been drumming on the desk, his face growing a darker
red as Austen proceeded: Never, since he had become president of the
Northeastern Railroads, had any man said such things to his face. And
the fact that Austen Vane had seemingly not spoken in wrath, although
forcefully enough to compel him to listen, had increased Mr. Flint's
anger. Austen apparently cared very little for him or his opinions in
comparison with his own estimate of right and wrong.
“It seems,” said Mr. Flint, “that you have grown more radical since your
last visit.”
“If it be radical to refuse to accept a pass from a railroad to bind
my liberty of action as an attorney and a citizen, then I am radical,”
replied Austen. “If it be radical to maintain that the elected
representatives of the people should not receive passes, or be beholden
to any man or any corporation, I acknowledge the term. If it be
radical to declare that these representatives should be elected without
interference, and while in office should do exact justice to the body
of citizens on the one hand and the corporations on the other, I declare
myself a radical. But my radicalism goes back behind the establishment
of railroads, Mr. Flint, back to the foundation of this government, to
the idea from which it sprang.”
Mr. Flint smiled again.
“We have changed materially since then,” he said. “I am afraid such
a utopian state of affairs, beautiful as it is, will not work in the
twentieth century. It is a commercial age, and the interests which are
the bulwark of the country's strength must be protected.”
“Yes,” said Austen, “we have changed materially. The mistake you make,
and men like you, is the stress which you lay on that word material.
Are there no such things as moral interests, Mr. Flint? And are they not
quite as important in government, if not more important, than material
interests? Surely, we cannot have commercial and political stability
without cominertial and political honour! if, as a nation, we lose
sight of the ideals which have carried us so far, which have so greatly
modified the conditions of other peoples than ourselves, we shall perish
as a force in the world. And if this government proves a failure, how
long do you think the material interests of which you are so solicitous
will endure? Or do you care whether they endure beyond your lifetime?
Perhaps not. But it is a matter of importance, not only to the nation,
but to the world, whether or not the moral idea of the United States of
America is perpetuated, I assure you.”
“I begin to fear, Mr. Vane,” said the president of the Northeastern,
“that you have missed your vocation. Suppose I were to grant you, for
the sake of argument, that the Northeastern Railroads, being the
largest taxpayers in this State, have taken an interest in seeing that
conservative men fill responsible offices. Suppose such to be the case,
and we abruptly cease--to take such an interest. What then? Are we not
at the mercy of any and all unscrupulous men who build up a power of
their own, and start again the blackmail of the old days?”
“You have put the case mildly,” said Austen, and ingeniously. “As a
matter of fact, Mr. Flint, you know as well as I do that for years you
have governed this State absolutely, for the purpose of keeping down
your taxes, avoiding unnecessary improvements for safety and comfort,
and paying high dividends--”
“Perhaps you realize that in depicting these criminal operations so
graphically,” cried Mr. Flint, interrupting, “you are involving the
reputation of one of the best citizens the State ever had--your own
father.”
Austen Vane leaned forward across the desk, and even Mr. Flint (if the
truth were known) recoiled a little before the anger he had aroused. It
shot forth from Austen's eyes, proclaimed itself in the squareness of
the face, and vibrated in every word he spoke.
“Mr. Flint,” he said, “I refrain from comment upon your methods
of argument. There were many years in which my father believed
the practices which he followed in behalf of your railroad to be
necessary--and hence justified. And I have given you the credit of
holding the same belief. Public opinion would not, perhaps, at that time
have protected your property from political blackmail. I merely wished
you to know, Mr. Flint, that there is no use in attempting to deceive me
in regard to the true colour of those practices. It is perhaps useless
for me to add that in my opinion you understand as well as I do the real
reason for Mr. Vane's resignation and illness. Once he became convinced
that the practices were wrong, he could no longer continue them without
violating his conscience. He kept his word to you--at the risk of his
life, and, as his son, I take a greater pride in him to-day than I ever
have before.”
Austen got to his feet. He was formidable even to Mr. Flint, who had met
many formidable, and angry men in his time--although not of this
type. Perhaps--who can say?--he was the in the mind of the president
unconscious embodiment of the Northeastern of the new forces which had
arisen against him,--forces which he knew in his secret soul he could
not combat, because they were the irresistible forces of things not
material. All his life he had met and successfully conquered forces
of another kind, and put down with a strong hand merely physical
encroachments.
Mr. Flint's nature was not an introspective one, and if he had tried,
he could not have accounted for his feelings. He was angry--that was
certain. But he measured the six feet and more of Austen Vane with his
eye, and in spite of himself experienced the compelled admiration of one
fighting man for another. A thought, which had made itself vaguely felt
at intervals in the past half hour, shot suddenly and poignantly through
Mr. Flint's mind what if this young man, who dared in spite of every
interest to oppose him, should in the apparently inevitable trend of
things, become...?
Mr. Flint rose and went to the window, where he stood silent for a
space, looking out, played upon by unwonted conflicting thoughts and
emotions. At length, with a characteristic snap of the fingers, he
turned abruptly. Austen Vane was still standing beside the desk. His
face was still square, determined, but Mr. Flint noted curiously that
the anger was gone from his eyes, and that another--although equally
human--expression had taken its place,--a more disturbing expression, to
Mr. Flint.
“It appears, Mr. Vane,” he said, gathering up the papers and placing
them in the boxes, “it appears that we are able to agree upon one point,
at least--Hilary Vane.”
“Mr. Flint,” said Austen, “I did not come up here with any thought
of arguing with you, of intruding any ideas--I may hold, but you have
yourself asked me one question which I feel bound to answer to the best
of my ability before I go. You have asked me what, in my opinion, would
happen if you ceased--as you express it--to take an interest in the
political, affairs of this State.
“I believe, as firmly as I stand here, that the public opinion which
exists to-day would protect your property, and I base that belief on the
good sense of the average American voter. The public would protect you
not only in its own interests, but from an inherent sense of fair play.
On the other hand, if you persist in a course of political manipulation
which is not only obsolete but wrong, you will magnify the just charges
against you, and the just wrath; you will put ammunition into the
hands of the agitators you rightly condemn. The stockholders of your
corporation, perhaps, are bound to suffer some from the fact that you
have taken its life-blood to pay dividends, and the public will demand
that it be built up into a normal and healthy condition. On the other
hand, it could not have gone on as it was. But the corporation will
suffer much more if a delayed justice is turned into vengeance.
“You ask me what I could do. I should recognize, frankly, the new
conditions, and declare as frankly what the old ones were, and why such
methods of defence as you adopted were necessary and justified. I should
announce, openly, that from this day onward the Northeastern Railroads
depended for fair play on an enlightened public--and I think your trust
would be well founded, and your course vindicated. I should declare,
from this day onward, that the issue of political passes, newspaper
passes, and all other subterfuges would be stopped, and that all
political hirelings would be dismissed. I should appeal to the people
of this State to raise up political leaders who would say to the
corporations, 'We will protect you from injustice if you will come
before the elected representatives of the people, openly, and say what
you want and why you want it.' By such a course you would have, in a
day, the affection of the people instead of their distrust. They would
rally to your defence. And, more than that, you would have done a
service for American government the value of which cannot well be
estimated.”
Mr. Flint rang the bell on his desk, and his secretary appeared.
“Put these in my private safe, Mr. Freeman,” he said.
Mr. Freeman took the boxes, glanced curiously at Austen, and went out.
It was the same secretary, Austen recalled, who had congratulated him
four years before. Then Mr. Flint laid his hand deliberately on the
desk, and smiled slightly as he turned to Austen.
“If you had run a railroad as long as I have, Mr. Vane,” he said, “I do
you the credit of thinking that you would have intelligence enough to
grasp other factors which your present opportunities for observation
have not permitted you to perceive. Nevertheless, I am much obliged to
you for your opinion, and I value the--frankness in which it was given.
And I shall hope to hear good news of your father. Remember me to him,
and tell him how deeply I feel his affliction. I shall call again in a
day or two.”
Austen took up his hat.
“Good day, Mr. Flint,” he said; “I will tell him.”
By the time he had reached the door, Mr. Flint had gone back to the
window once more, and appeared to have forgotten his presence.