Latest / The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and other Stories / The Best Man: Part II

Transcript

The Best Man: Part II · The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and other Stories

• 0:00
  Section thirty of The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories by Edith Wharton.
• 0:06
  This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Best Man, Part
• 0:11
  two. It was the custodian of his own hidden treasure who, at this
• 0:17
  moment broke in upon his musings. Missus Mornway, fresh from her afternoon walk,
• 0:23
  entered the room with that air of ease and lightness which seemed to diffuse
• 0:27
  a social warmth about her. Fine, slender, pliant, so polished and
• 0:33
  modeled by an intelligent experience of life, that youth seemed clumsy in her presence.
• 0:40
  She looked down at her husband and shook her head. You promised to
• 0:44
  keep the afternoon to yourself, and I hear Grace has been here. Poor
• 0:49
  Grace. She didn't stay long, and I should have been a brute not
• 0:52
  to see her. He leaned back, filling his gaze to the brim with
• 0:57
  her charming image, which obliterated at a stroke the fretful ghost of Missus Nimmick.
• 1:03
  She came to congratulate you, I suppose, yes, and to ask
• 1:07
  me to do something for Ashford, Ah, on account of Jack. What
• 1:12
  does she want for him? The governor laughed. She said you were in
• 1:18
  her confidence that you were backing her up. She seemed to think your support
• 1:22
  would insure her success. Missus Mornway smiled. Her smile, always full of
• 1:27
  delicate implications, seemed to caress her husband while it gently mocked his sister,
• 1:34
  Poor Grace. I suppose you undeceived her as to your influence. I told
• 1:40
  her it was paramount where it ought to be. And where is that in
• 1:45
  the choice of carpets and curtains. It seems ours are almost too good,
• 1:51
  thanks for the compliment, too good for what our station in life. I
• 1:56
  suppose at least they seemed to bother Grace, Poor Grace, I've always bothered
• 2:00
  her, she paused, removing her gloves reflectively and laying her long, fine
• 2:07
  hands on his shoulders as she stood behind him. Then you don't believe in
• 2:10
  Ashford. Feeling his slight start, she drew away her hands and raised them
• 2:16
  to detach her veil. What makes you think I don't believe in Ashford,
• 2:22
  he asked, I asked out of curiosity. I wondered whether you had decided
• 2:27
  anything. No, and I don't mean to for a week. I'm dead
• 2:30
  beat and I want to bring a fresh mind to the question. There is
• 2:34
  hardly one appointment I'm sure of, except, of course Fleetwood's. She turned
• 2:38
  away from him, smoothing her hair in the mirror above the mantelpiece. You
• 2:44
  are sure of that, she asked, after a moment of George Fleetwood,
• 2:50
  and poor Grace thinks you are deep in my counsel's I am as sure of
• 2:53
  reappointing Fleetwood as I am that I have just been re elected myself. I
• 2:58
  never made any secret of the act that if they wanted me back, they
• 3:00
  must have him too. You are tremendously generous, she murmured. Generous,
• 3:07
  What a strange word to use. Fleetwood is my trump card, the one
• 3:12
  man I can count on to carry out my ideas through thick and thin,
• 3:16
  She mused on this, smiling a little. That's why I call you generous
• 3:23
  when I remember how you disliked him two years ago? What of that?
• 3:27
  I was prejudiced against him my own, or rather I had a just distrust
• 3:30
  of a man with such a past. But how splendidly he's wiped it out.
• 3:36
  What a record he has written on the new leaf he promised to turn
• 3:38
  over if I gave him the chance. Do you know the governor interrupted himself
• 3:45
  with a pleasantly reminiscent laugh. I was rather annoyed with Grace when she hinted
• 3:50
  that you had promised to back up Ashford. I told her you didn't aspire
• 3:53
  to distribute patronage. But she might have reminded me if she'd known it was
• 4:00
  you who persuaded me to give Fleetwood that chance. Missus Mornway turned with a
• 4:05
  slight heightening of color. Grace, how could she possibly have known? She
• 4:12
  couldn't, of course, unless she'd read my weakness in my face. But
• 4:15
  why do you look so startled at my little joke. It's only that I
• 4:20
  so dislike Grace's ineradicable idea that I am a wire puller. Why should she
• 4:27
  imagine I would help her about Ashford? Oh, Grace has always been a
• 4:31
  mild and ineffectual conspirator, and she thinks every other woman is built on the
• 4:36
  same plan. But you did get Fleetwood's job for him, you know,
• 4:42
  he repeated, with laughing insistence. I had more faith than you in human
• 4:46
  nature. That's all. She paused a moment, and then added personally,
• 4:51
  you know I have always rather disliked him. Oh, I never doubted your
• 4:56
  disinterestedness. But you are not going to turn against your case, are you?
• 5:01
  She hesitated. I am not sure. Circumstances alter cases. When you
• 5:08
  made Fleetwood Attorney General two years ago, he was the inevitable man for the
• 5:12
  place. Well, is there a better one? Now? I don't say
• 5:16
  there is. It's not my business to look for him at any rate.
• 5:20
  What I mean is that at that time Fleetwood was worth risking anything for Now
• 5:27
  I don't know that he is. But even if he were not, what
• 5:30
  do I risk for him now? I don't see your point. Since he
• 5:34
  didn't cost me my re election, what can he possibly cost me? Now
• 5:39
  I'm in He's immensely unpopular. He will cost you a great deal of popularity.
• 5:45
  And you have never pretended to despise that no nor ever sacrificed anything essential
• 5:50
  to it. Are you really asking me to offer up Fleetwood to it now?
• 5:57
  I don't ask you to do anything except to consider if if he is
• 6:00
  essential. You said you were over tired and wanted to bring a fresh mind
• 6:04
  to bear on the other appointments. Why not delay this one too. Mornway
• 6:11
  turned in his chair and looked at her searchingly. This means something, Ella,
• 6:16
  What have you heard just what you have, probably but with more attentive
• 6:20
  ears. The very record you are so proud of has made George Fleetwood innumerable
• 6:27
  enemies in the last two years. The lead trust people are determined to ruin
• 6:31
  him, and if his reappointment is attacked, you will not be spared attacked
• 6:38
  in the papers you mean, she paused. You know the spy has always
• 6:43
  threatened a campaign, and he has a past, as you say, which
• 6:47
  was public property long before I first appointed him. Nothing could be gained by
• 6:51
  raking up his old political history. Everybody knows he didn't come to me with
• 6:57
  clean hands. But to hurt him now they would have to fasten a new
• 7:00
  scandal on him, and that would not be easy. It would be easy
• 7:04
  to invent one. Unproved accusations don't count much against a man of such proved
• 7:11
  capacity. The best answer is his record of the last two years. That
• 7:15
  is what the public looks at. The public looks wherever the press points.
• 7:20
  And besides, you have your own future to consider. It would be a
• 7:25
  pity to sacrifice such a career as yours for the sake of backing up even
• 7:29
  as useful a man as George Fleetwood. She paused, as if checked by
• 7:34
  his gathering frown, but went on with fresh decision. Oh, I'm not
• 7:40
  speaking of personal ambition. I'm thinking of the good you can do. Will
• 7:44
  Fleetwood's reappointment secure the greatest good of the greatest number if his unpopularity reacts on
• 7:49
  you to the extent of hindering your career. The Governor's brow cleared, and
• 7:55
  he rose with a smile. My dear, your reasoning is admirable, but
• 8:00
  we must leave my career to take care of itself, whatever I may be
• 8:03
  to morrow. I am governor of Mittsylvania to day, and my business as
• 8:09
  governor is to appoint as Attorney General the best man I can find for the
• 8:13
  place, and that man is George Fleetwood, unless you have a better one
• 8:16
  to propose. She met this with perfect good humor. No, I have
• 8:22
  told you already that that is not my business. But I have a candidate
• 8:26
  of my own for another office. So Grace was not quite wrong after all,
• 8:31
  Well, who is your candidate and for what office? I only hope
• 8:37
  you don't want to change cooks. Oh, I do that without your authority,
• 8:41
  and you never even know it has been done. She hesitated, and
• 8:46
  then said with a bright directness. I want you to do something for poor
• 8:50
  Greg Gregg. Rufus Gregg, he stared, What an extraordinary request? What
• 8:58
  can I do for a man I've had to kick out for dishonesty? Not
• 9:03
  much? Perhaps, I know it's difficult, but after all, it was
• 9:05
  your kicking him out that ruined him. It was his dishonesty that ruined him.
• 9:11
  He was getting a good salary as my stenographer, and if he hadn't
• 9:15
  sold those letters to the spy, he would have been getting it. Still,
• 9:18
  she wavered, After all, nothing was proved, he always denied it.
• 9:24
  Good heavens, Ella, have you ever doubted his guilt? No,
• 9:30
  no, I don't mean that. But of course his wife and children believe
• 9:33
  in him and think you were cruel, and he has been out of work
• 9:37
  so long that they are starving. Send them some money, then, I
• 9:41
  wonder you thought it necessary to ask. I shouldn't have thought it so.
• 9:46
  But money is not what I want. Missus Gregg is proud, and it
• 9:50
  is hard to help her in that way. Couldn't you give him work of
• 9:54
  some kind? Just a little post in a corner, my dear child,
• 10:00
  The little posts in the corner are just the ones where honesty is essential.
• 10:05
  A footpad doesn't wait under a street lamp. Besides, how can I recommend
• 10:09
  a man whom I have dismissed for theft. I won't say a word to
• 10:13
  hinder his getting a place, but on my conscience I can't give him one.
• 10:18
  She paused and turned toward the door silently, though without any show of
• 10:22
  resentment. But on the threshold she lingered long enough to say, yet you
• 10:28
  gave Fleetwood his chance. Fleetwood, you class Fleetwood with Gregg, the best
• 10:35
  man in the state with a little beggarly thieving nonentity. It's evident enough you're
• 10:39
  knew at wire pulling, or you would show more skill at it. She
• 10:45
  met this with a laugh. I'm not likely to have much practice if my
• 10:48
  first attempt is such a failure. Well, I will see if missus Gregg
• 10:52
  will let me help her a little. I suppose there is nothing else to
• 10:56
  be done, nothing that we can do. Gregg wants a place, he
• 11:01
  had better get one on the staff of the spy. He served them better
• 11:05
  than he did me. End of section thirty