Jennie Gerhardt - Драйзер Теодор (книги бесплатно без онлайн .txt) 📗

send her to dancing-school, and Gerhardt was beside himself with rage

and grief. "Such irreligion!" he complained to Jennie. "Such devil's folde-rol. Now she goes to dance. What for? To make a no-good out of her

—a creature to be ashamed of?"

"Oh, no, papa," replied Jennie. "It isn't as bad as that. This is an awful nice school. Lester says she has to go."

"Lester, Lester; that man! A fine lot he knows about what is good for a child. A card-player, a whisky-drinker!"

"Now, hush, papa; I won't have you talk like that," Jennie would reply warmly. "He's a good man, and you know it."

"Yes, yes, a good man. In some things, maybe. Not in this. No."

He went away groaning. When Lester was near he said nothing, and Vesta

could wind him around her finger.

"Oh you," she would say, pulling at his arm or rubbing his grizzled cheek.

There was no more fight in Gerhardt when Vesta did this. He lost control

of himself—something welled up and choked his throat. "Yes, I know

how you do," he would exclaim.

Vesta would tweak his ear.

"Stop now!" he would say. "That is enough."

It was noticeable, however, that she did not have to stop unless she

herself willed it. Gerhardt adored the child, and she could do anything

with him; he was always her devoted servitor.

CHAPTER XXXIX

During this period the dissatisfaction of the Kane family with Lester's

irregular habit of life grew steadily stronger. That it could not help but become an open scandal, in the course of time, was sufficiently obvious

to them. Rumours were already going about. People seemed to

understand in a wise way, though nothing was ever said directly. Kane

senior could scarcely imagine what possessed his son to fly in the face of conventions in this manner. If the woman had been some one of

distinction—some sorceress of the stage, or of the world of art, or letters, his action would have been explicable if not commendable, but with this

creature of very ordinary capabilities, as Louise had described her, this putty-faced nobody—he could not possibly understand it.

Lester was his son, his favourite son; it was too bad that he had not settled down in the ordinary way. Look at the women in Cincinnati who knew

him and liked him. Take Letty Pace, for instance. Why in the name of

common sense had he not married her? She was good looking,

sympathetic, talented. The old man grieved bitterly, and then, by degrees, he began to harden. It seemed a shame that Lester should treat him so. It wasn't natural, or justifiable, or decent. Archibald Kane brooded over it until he felt that some change ought to be enforced, but just what it

should be he could not say. Lester was his own boss, and he would resent

any criticism of his actions. Apparently, nothing could be done.

Certain changes helped along an approaching denouement. Louise

married not many months after her very disturbing visit to Chicago, and

then the home property was fairly empty except for visiting

grandchildren. Lester did not attend the wedding, though he was invited.

For another thing, Mrs. Kane died, making a readjustment of the family

will necessary. Lester came home on this occasion, grieved to think he

had lately seen so little of his mother—that he had caused her so much

pain—but he had no explanation to make. His father thought at the time

of talking to him, but put it off because of his obvious gloom. He went

back to Chicago, and there were more months of silence.

After Mrs. Kane's death and Louise's marriage, the father went to live

with Robert, for his three grandchildren afforded him his greatest pleasure in his old age. The business, except for the final adjustment which would come after his death, was in Robert's hands. The latter was consistently

agreeable to his sisters and their husbands and to his father, in view of the eventual control he hoped to obtain. He was not a sycophant in any sense

of the word, but a shrewd, cold business man, far shrewder than his

brother gave him credit for. He was already richer than any two of the

other children put together, but he chose to keep his counsel and to

pretend modesty of fortune. He realised the danger of envy, and preferred a Spartan form of existence, putting all the emphasis on inconspicuous

but very ready and very hard cash. While Lester was drifting Robert was

working—working all the time.

Robert's scheme for eliminating his brother from participation in the

control of the business was really not very essential, for his father, after long brooding over the details of the Chicago situation, had come to the

definite conclusion that any large share of his property ought not to go to Lester. Obviously, Lester was not so strong a man as he had thought him

to be. Of the two brothers, Lester might be the bigger intellectually or

sympathetically—artistically and socially there was no comparison— but

Robert got commercial results in a silent, effective way. If Lester was not going to pull himself together at this stage of the game, when would he?

Better leave his property to those who would take care of it. Archibald

Kane thought seriously of having his lawyer revise his will in such a way that, unless Lester should reform, he would be cut off with only a nominal income. But he decided to give Lester one more chance—to make a plea,

in fact, that he should abandon his false way of living, and put himself on a sound basis before the world. It wasn't too late. He really had a great future. Would he deliberately choose to throw it away? Old Archibald

wrote Lester that he would like to have a talk with him at his

convenience, and within the lapse of thirty-six hours Lester was in

Cincinnati.

"I thought I'd have one more talk with you, Lester, on a subject that's rather difficult for me to bring up," began the elder Kane. "You know what I'm referring to?"

"Yes, I know," replied Lester, calmly.

"I used to think, when I was much younger, that my son's matrimonial ventures would never concern me, but I changed my views on that score

when I got a little farther along. I began to see through my business

connections how much the right sort of a marriage helps a man, and then

I got rather anxious that my boys should marry well. I used to worry

about you, Lester, and I'm worrying yet. This recent connection you've

made has caused me no end of trouble. It worried your mother up to the

very last. It was her one great sorrow. Don't you think you have gone far enough with it? The scandal has reached down here. What it is in Chicago

I don't know, but it can't be a secret. That can't help the house in business there. It certainly can't help you. The whole thing has gone on so long that you have injured your prospects all around, and yet you continue. Why do

you?"

"I suppose because I love her," Lester replied.

"You can't be serious in that," said his father. "If you had loved her, you'd have married her in the first place. Surely you wouldn't take a woman and live with her as you have with this woman for years, disgracing her and

yourself, and still claim that you love her. You may have a passion for her, but it isn't love."

"How do you know I haven't married her?" inquired Lester coolly. He wanted to see how his father would take to that idea.

"You're not serious!" The old gentleman propped himself up on his arms and looked at him.