登陆注册
15529100000037

第37章

"Why,Hugh!"he exclaimed,taking my hand."I had no idea I should meet you here--I saw your father only last week,the day I left home."And he added,turning to Mrs.Kyme,"Hugh is the son of Mr.Matthew Paret,who has been the leader of our bar for many years."The recognition and the tribute to my father were so graciously given that I warmed with gratitude and pride,while Mr.Kyme smiled a little,remarking that I was a friend of Jerry's.Theodore Watling,for being here,had suddenly assumed in my eyes a considerable consequence,though the note he struck in that house was a strange one.It was,however,his own note,and had a certain distinction,a ring of independence,of the knowledge of self-worth.Dinner at Weathersfield we youngsters had usually found rather an oppressive ceremony,with its shaded lights and precise ritual over which Mr.Kyme presided like a high priest;conversation had been restrained.That night,as Johnnie Laurens afterwards expressed it,"things loosened up,"and Mr.Watling was responsible for the loosening.Taking command of the Kyme dinner table appeared to me to be no mean achievement,but this is just what he did,without being vulgar or noisy or assertive.Suavitar in modo,forbiter in re.If,as I watched him there with a newborn pride and loyalty,Ihad paused to reconstruct the idea that the mention of his name would formerly have evoked,I suppose I should have found him falling short of my notion of a gentleman;it had been my father's opinion;but Mr.

Watling's marriage to Gene Hollister's aunt had given him a standing with us at home.He possessed virility,vitality in a remarkable degree,yet some elusive quality that was neither tact nor delicacy--though related to these differentiated him from the commonplace,self-made man of ability.He was just off the type.To liken him to a clothing store model of a well-built,broad-shouldered man with a firm neck,a handsome,rather square face not lacking in colour and a conventional,drooping moustache would be slanderous;yet he did suggest it.Suggesting it,he redeemed it:and the middle western burr in his voice was rather attractive than otherwise.He had not so much the air of belonging there,as of belonging anywhere--one of those anomalistic American citizens of the world who go abroad and make intimates of princes.

Before the meal was over he had inspired me with loyalty and pride,enlisted the admiration of Jerry and Conybear and Johnnie Laurens;we followed him into the smoking-room,sitting down in a row on a leather lounge behind our elders.

Here,now that the gentlemen were alone,there was an inspiring largeness in their talk that fired the imagination.The subject was investments,at first those of coal and iron in my own state,for Mr.Watling,it appeared,was counsel for the Boyne Iron Works.

"It will pay you to keep an eye on that company,Mr.Kyme,"he said,knocking the ashes from his cigar."Now that old Mr.Durrett's gone--""You don't mean to say Nathaniel Durrett's dead!"said Mr.Kyme.

The lawyer nodded.

"The old regime passed with him.Adolf Scherer succeeds him,and you may take my word for it,he's a coming man.Mr.Durrett,who was a judge of men,recognized that.Scherer was an emigrant,he had ideas,and rose to be a foreman.For the last few years Mr.Durrett threw everything on his shoulders...."Little by little the scope of the discussion was enlarged until it ranged over a continent,touching lightly upon lines of railroad,built or projected,across the great west our pioneers had so lately succeeded in wresting from the savages,upon mines of copper and gold hidden away among the mountains,and millions of acres of forest and grazing lands which a complacent government would relinquish provided certain technicalities were met:touching lightly,too,very lightly,--upon senators and congressmen at Washington.And for the first time I learned that not the least of the functions of these representatives of the people was to act as the medium between capital and investment,to facilitate the handing over of the Republic's resources to those in a position to develop them.The emphasis was laid on development,or rather on the resulting prosperity for the country:that was the justification,and it was taken for granted as supreme.Nor was it new to me;this cult of prosperity.I recalled the torch-light processions of the tariff enthusiasts of my childhood days,my father's championship of the Republican Party.He had not idealized politicians,either.For the American,politics and ethics were strangers.

Thus I listened with increasing fascination to these gentlemen in evening clothes calmly treating the United States as a melon patch that existed largely for the purpose of being divided up amongst a limited and favored number of persons.I had a feeling of being among the initiated.Where,it may be asked,were my ideals?Let it not be supposed that I believed myself to have lost them.If so,the impression I have given of myself has been wholly inadequate.No,they had been transmuted,that is all,transmuted by the alchemy of Weathersfield,by the personality of Theodore Watling into brighter visions.My eyes rarely left his face;Ihung on his talk,which was interspersed with native humour,though he did not always join in the laughter,sometimes gazing at the fire,as though his keen mind were grappling with a problem suggested.I noted the respect in which his opinions were held,and my imagination was fired by an impression of the power to be achieved by successful men of his profession,by the evidence of their indispensability to capital itself....At last when the gentlemen rose and were leaving the room,Mr.Watling lingered,with his hand on my arm.

"Of course you're going through the Law School,Hugh,"he said.

"Yes,sir,"I replied.

同类推荐
  • 金箓晚朝仪

    金箓晚朝仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 江汉丛谈

    江汉丛谈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Social Organization

    Social Organization

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • The Secret of the Night

    The Secret of the Night

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 猫苑

    猫苑

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 浮生若梦之纪念

    浮生若梦之纪念

    这个故事是我从两年前开始写的,为了纪念我的还未出生就离开的哥哥和姐姐。我的母亲怀过四个孩子,却只生下俩个,另外俩个都是在娘胎里打掉的,一个只有三个月,一个已经有六个月了。打掉的原因都一样——是女孩,但遗憾的是,其中一个误诊了,是个男孩,排行老二。每当我和妈妈聊起的时候,她都会开玩笑说,如果生下了他们,就不会有我了。可我依然很希望有个哥哥,再有个姐姐,哥哥一定会很帅,姐姐也一定会很漂亮。愿天下父母能摒弃重男轻女的思想,因为每个孩子都是世界上独一无二的珍宝,每个出生的孩子都是纯洁的天使和精灵。别让天使陨落,精灵生怨。我的文笔不好,但我希望,有人愿意看下去,而且,它并不长,一个故事不过几千个字。
  • 一生只四年

    一生只四年

    夜已深,躺在床上看月色与手机光亮下的她们,谨以此献给即将来临的毕业和即将各奔东西的我们。若一生只四年,我愿与你们共度。
  • 藏医养生密码:藏医养生大智慧

    藏医养生密码:藏医养生大智慧

    药师佛,藏语音“桑给眉拉”,曾经发了十二誓愿,希望解除众生的一切病痛。绵延至今,藏医学已经有两千多年的历史,它融合了古印度、古希腊、古波斯、古中国和古阿拉伯医学的精华而自成体系,见解独到。本书既辑录了藏医从饮食、起居上调理身体的方法,又介绍了密宗修习之道,还有稀有珍贵的藏药奇方,为您破解藏医养生的密码。
  • 平石如砥禅师语录

    平石如砥禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 重生之空间幻灵师

    重生之空间幻灵师

    女主穿越重生到修仙大陆,变成了婴儿,从小就开始修炼,认识了空间里的神兽,结果竟然被神兽拐成了老婆。本文慢热型,感情线路在后面才会体现。
  • 十维app

    十维app

    一维是个点,二维是条线,三维成空间,四维组时间。当你能达到四维时空后的维度,你会怎么样?封神?不,这只是达到第六维度而已。夏天以最高维度引擎“十维”穿梭无限宇宙,经历无限位面。
  • 嗜血王爷:错孕逃妃

    嗜血王爷:错孕逃妃

    【VIP读者免费抢鲜,08月22日截止】“贱人,竟然不是处子之身。”那一刻,他原本冰冷的眸子瞬间漫过阴桀,暴戾。一个抽身,他快速地跃起,手却狠狠的掴在了她的脸上五根手印,一根不缺的,鲜明地印在了她的脸上,显示着他的狠绝与残忍钻心的疼痛,骇人的气息,让她惊悸地向后退去!
  • 阿毗达磨藏显宗论

    阿毗达磨藏显宗论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 我的漫画师女友

    我的漫画师女友

    一边是不辞而别抛弃自己的负心汉宫铭炫,一边是尽情压榨自己的大金主沈云挚,屌丝画手夏木木表示,如果可以,她选择狗带!沈云挚却不容她考虑,直接抛给她一份私人助理的工作,薪水天价。夏木木连忙抱大腿,顺便发挥所长设计各种老板同款赚钱,忙得不亦乐乎。当有一天老板在办公室发现大家都用自己的肖像马克杯时,夏木木知道自己药丸……被迫当苦力,夏木木免费为百云集团设计一套卡通形象,谁料一炮走红,自己竟然从此成为知名画手,拿奖拿到手软?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 浮云劫

    浮云劫

    简洁版:这个故事讲述了一群逗逼的穿越人在古代修仙加复仇的故事...啰嗦版:作为一个穿越人,陈可馨可以说是具备了配角的所有特征:与世无争的浮云派里逗逼的三师姐,上有极其不靠谱的师傅,下有只会卖萌的师弟,陈可馨表示鸭梨山大啊!当然,最可怕的是——当她伤感的看见自己像个弱鸡一样被经典坏人“黑衣人”小朋友杀掉后,睁开眼睛——卧槽她竟然还活着!于是怀着悲愤的陈可馨开始了她的修仙世界复仇之旅。