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The Shuttle Chapter 2 - A Lack of Perception · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER II. A LACK OF PERCEPTION Mercantile as Americans were
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  Speaker 1: proclaimed to be, the opinion of Sir Nigel Anstruthers was
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  Speaker 1: that they were, on some points, singularly unbusinesslike. In the
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  Speaker 1: perfectly obvious and simple matter of the settlement of his
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  Speaker 1: daughter's fortune, he had felt that Reuben Vanderpool was obtuse
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  Speaker 1: to the point of idiocy. He seemed to have none
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  Speaker 1: of the ordinary points of view. Naturally, there was, to
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  Speaker 1: Anstruther's mind, but one point of view to take. A
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  Speaker 1: man of birth and rank, he argued, does not career
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  Speaker 1: across the Atlantic to marry a New York millionaire's daughter
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  Speaker 1: unless he anticipates deriving some advantage from the alliance. Such
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  Speaker 1: a man, being of Anstruther's type, would not have married
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  Speaker 1: a rich woman even in his own country without making
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  Speaker 1: sure that advantages were to accrue to himself as a
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  Speaker 1: result of the union. In England, to use his own words,
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  Speaker 1: there was no nonsense about it. women's fortunes as well
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  Speaker 1: as themselves belonged to their husbands, and a man who
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  Speaker 1: was master in his own house could make his wife
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  Speaker 1: do as he chose. He had seen girls with money
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  Speaker 1: managed very satisfactorily by fellows who held a tight rein,
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  Speaker 1: and were not moved by tears, and did not allow
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  Speaker 1: talking to relations. If he had been desirous of marrying,
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  Speaker 1: and could have afforded to take a penniless wife, there
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  Speaker 1: were hundreds of portionless girls ready to thank God for
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  Speaker 1: a decent chance to settle themselves for life, and one
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  Speaker 1: need not stir out of one's native land to find them.
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  Speaker 1: But Sir Nigel had not in the least desired to
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  Speaker 1: saddle himself with a domestic encumbrance. In fact, nothing would
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  Speaker 1: have induced him to consider the step if he had
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  Speaker 1: not been driven hard by circumstances. His fortunes had reached
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  Speaker 1: a stage where money must be forthcoming somehow from somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: He and his mother had been living from hand to mouth,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, for years— and and they had also been
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  Speaker 1: obliged to keep up appearances which is sometimes embittering even
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  Speaker 1: to persons of amiable tempers. Lady Anne Struthers, it is true,
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  Speaker 1: had lived in the country in as niggardly a manner
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  Speaker 1: as possible. She had narrowed her existence to absolute privation,
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  Speaker 1: presenting at the same time a stern, bold front to
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  Speaker 1: the persons who saw her, to the insufficient staff of servants,
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  Speaker 1: to the village, to the vicar and his wife, and
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  Speaker 1: the few far-distant neighbours who perhaps once a year drove
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  Speaker 1: miles to call or leave a card. She was an
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  Speaker 1: old woman, sufficiently unattractive to find no difficulty in the
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  Speaker 1: way of limiting her acquaintances. The unprepossessing wardrobe she had
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  Speaker 1: gathered in the passing years was remade again and again
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  Speaker 1: by the village dressmaker. She wore dingy old silk gowns
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  Speaker 1: and appalling bonnets, and mantles dripping with rusty fringes and bugle-beads.
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  Speaker 1: but these mitigated not in the least the unflinching arrogance
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  Speaker 1: of her bearing, or the simple intolerant rudeness which she
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  Speaker 1: considered proper and becoming in persons like herself. She did not,
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  Speaker 1: of course, allow that there existed many persons like herself.
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  Speaker 1: That society rejoiced in this fact was but the stamp
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  Speaker 1: of its inferiority and folly. While she pinched herself and
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  Speaker 1: harried her few hirelings at Stornham, it was necessary for
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  Speaker 1: Sir Nigel to show himself in town, and present as
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  Speaker 1: decent an appearance as possible. His vanity was far too
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  Speaker 1: arrogant to allow of his permitting himself to drop out
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  Speaker 1: of the world to which he could not afford to belong.
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  Speaker 1: That he should have been forgotten or ignored would have
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  Speaker 1: been intolerable to him. For a few years he was
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  Speaker 1: invited to dine at good houses, and got shooting and
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  Speaker 1: hunting as part of the hospitality of his acquaintances. But
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  Speaker 1: a man who cannot afford to return hospitalities will find
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  Speaker 1: that he need not expect to avail himself of those
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  Speaker 1: of his acquaintance to the end of his career, unless
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  Speaker 1: he is an extremely engaging person. Sir Nigel Anstruthers was
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  Speaker 1: not an engaging person. He never gave a thought to
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  Speaker 1: the comfort or interest of any other human being than himself.
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  Speaker 1: He was also dominated by the kind of nasty temper
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  Speaker 1: which so reveals itself when let loose that its owner
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  Speaker 1: cannot control it, even when it would be distinctly to
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  Speaker 1: his advantage to do so. Finding that he had nothing
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  Speaker 1: to give in return for what he took as if
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  Speaker 1: it were his right, society gradually began to cease to
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  Speaker 1: retain any lively recollection of his existence. The tradespeople he
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  Speaker 1: had borne himself loftily towards awakened to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: he was the kind of man it was at once
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  Speaker 1: safe and wise to dun, and therefore proceeded to make
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  Speaker 1: his life a burden to him. At his clubs he
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  Speaker 1: had never been a member surrounded and rejoiced over when
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  Speaker 1: he made his appearance. The time came when he began
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  Speaker 1: to fancy that he was rather edged away from, and
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  Speaker 1: he endeavoured to sustain his dignity by being sulky and
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  Speaker 1: making caustic speeches when he was approached. Driven occasionally down
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  Speaker 1: to Stornham by actual pressure of circumstances, he found the
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  Speaker 1: outlook there more embittering still. Lady Anstruthers laid the bareness
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  Speaker 1: of the land before him without any effort to palliate unpleasantness.
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  Speaker 1: If he chose to stalk about and look glum, She
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  Speaker 1: could sit still and call his attention to revolting truths
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  Speaker 1: which he could not deny. She could point out to
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  Speaker 1: him that he had no money, and that tenants would
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  Speaker 1: not stay in houses which were tumbling to pieces, and
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  Speaker 1: work-land which had been starved. She could tell him just
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  Speaker 1: how long a time had elapsed since wages had been
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  Speaker 1: paid and accounts cleared off. And she had an engaging,
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  Speaker 1: unbiased way of seeming to drive these maddening details home
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  Speaker 1: by the mere manner of her statement. You make the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing as damn disagreeable as you can, Nigel would snarl.
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  Speaker 1: I merely state facts, she would reply with acrid serenity.
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  Speaker 1: A man who cannot keep up his estate, pay his tailor,
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  Speaker 1: or the rent of his lodgings in town, is in
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  Speaker 1: a strait which may drive him to desperation. Sir Nigel
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  Speaker 1: Anstruthers borrowed some money, went to New York, and made
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  Speaker 1: his suit a nice little silly Rosalie Vanderpool. but the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing was unexpectedly disappointing and surrounded by irritating circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: He found himself face to face with a state of
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  Speaker 1: affairs such as he had not contemplated. In England, when
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  Speaker 1: a man married, certain practical matters could be inquired into
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  Speaker 1: and arranged by solicitors— the amount of the prospective bride's fortune,
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  Speaker 1: the allowances and settlements to be made, the position of
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  Speaker 1: the bridegroom with regard to pecuniary matters— to put it simply,
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  Speaker 1: a man found out where he stood and what he
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  Speaker 1: was to gain. But at first to his sardonic entertainment,
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  Speaker 1: and later to his disgusted annoyance, Sir Nigel gradually discovered
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  Speaker 1: that in the matter of marriage Americans had an ingenious
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  Speaker 1: tendency to believe in the sentimental feelings of the parties concerned.
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  Speaker 1: The general impression seemed to be that a man married
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  Speaker 1: purely for love, and that delicacy would make it impossible
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  Speaker 1: for him to ask questions as to what his bride's
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  Speaker 1: parents were in a position to hand over to him
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  Speaker 1: as a sort of indemnity for the loss of his
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  Speaker 1: bachelor freedom. Anstruthers began to discover this fact before he
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  Speaker 1: had been many weeks in New York. He reached the
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  Speaker 1: realisation of its existence by processes of exclusion and inclusion,
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  Speaker 1: by hearing casual remarks people let drop, by asking roundabout
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  Speaker 1: and careful questions, by leading both men and women to
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  Speaker 1: the innocent expounding of certain points of view. Millionaires, it appeared,
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  Speaker 1: did not expect to make allowances to men who married
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  Speaker 1: their daughters. young women, it transpired, did not in the
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  Speaker 1: least realise that a man should be liberally endowed in
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  Speaker 1: payment for assuming the duties of a husband. If rich
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  Speaker 1: fathers made allowances, they made them to their daughters themselves,
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  Speaker 1: who disposed of them as they pleased. In this case,
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  Speaker 1: of course, Sir Nigel privately argued with fine acumen, it
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  Speaker 1: became the husband's business to see that what his wife
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  Speaker 1: pleased should be what most agreeably coincided with his own
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  Speaker 1: views and conveniences. His most illuminating experience had been the
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  Speaker 1: hearing of some men, hard-headed, rich stockbrokers with a vulgar
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  Speaker 1: sense of humour, enjoying themselves quite uproariously one night at
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  Speaker 1: a club, over a story one of them was relating
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  Speaker 1: of an unsatisfactory German son-in-law who had demanded an income.
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  Speaker 1: He was a man of small title who had married
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  Speaker 1: the narrator's daughter, and after some months spent in his
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  Speaker 1: father-in-law's house, had felt it but proper that his financial
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  Speaker 1: position should be put on a practical footing. He brought
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  Speaker 1: her back after the bridal tour to make us a visit,
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  Speaker 1: said the storyteller, a sharp-featured man with a quaint, wry mouth,
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  Speaker 1: which seemed to express a perpetual, repressed appreciation of passing events.
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  Speaker 1: I had nothing to say against that, because we were
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  Speaker 1: all glad to see her home, and her mother had
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  Speaker 1: been missing her. But weeks passed, and months passed, and
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  Speaker 1: there was no mention made of them going over to
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  Speaker 1: settle in the slosh we'd heard so much of, and
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  Speaker 1: in time it came out that the slosh thing— Anne
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  Speaker 1: Struthers realized with gall in his soul that the brute,
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  Speaker 1: as he called him, meant Schloss, and that his mispronunciation
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  Speaker 1: was at once a matter of humor and derision. Wasn't
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  Speaker 1: his at all. It was his elder brother's. The whole
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  Speaker 1: lot of them were Counts, and not one of them
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  Speaker 1: seemed to own a dime. The Slosh Count hadn't more
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  Speaker 1: than twenty-five cents, and he wasn't the kind to deal
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  Speaker 1: any of it out to his family. So Lily's Count
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  Speaker 1: would have to go clerking in a dry goods store
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  Speaker 1: if he promised to support himself. but he didn't propose
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  Speaker 1: to do it. He thought he'd got on to a
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  Speaker 1: soft thing. Of course, we're an easy-going lot, and we
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  Speaker 1: should have stood him if he'd been a nice fellow,
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  Speaker 1: but he wasn't. Lily's mother used to find her crying
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  Speaker 1: in her bedroom, and it came out by degrees that
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  Speaker 1: it was because Adolf had been quarrelling with her and
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  Speaker 1: saying sneering things about her family. When her mother talked
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  Speaker 1: to him he was insulting. Then bills began to come in,
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  Speaker 1: and Lily was expected to get me to pay for them.
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  Speaker 1: and they were not the kind of bills a decent
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  Speaker 1: fella calls on another man to pay, but I did
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  Speaker 1: it five or six times to make it easy for her.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't tell her that they gave an older chap
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  Speaker 1: than himself sidelights on the situation, but that didn't work well.
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  Speaker 1: He thought I did it because I had to, and
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  Speaker 1: he began to feel free and easy about it, and
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  Speaker 1: didn't try to cover up his tracks so much when
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  Speaker 1: he sent in a new lot. He was always working Lily.
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  Speaker 1: He began to consider himself master of the house. He
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  Speaker 1: intimated that a private carriage ought to be kept for them.
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  Speaker 1: He said it was beggarly that he should have to
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  Speaker 1: consider the rest of the family when he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: go out. WHEN I GOT ONTO THE SITUATION I BEGAN
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  Speaker 1: TO ENJOY IT. I LET HIM SPREAD HIMSELF FOR A WHILE,
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  Speaker 1: JUST TO SEE WHAT HE WOULD DO. GOOD LORD, I
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  Speaker 1: COULDN'T HAVE BELIEVED THAT ANY FELLOW COULD HAVE THOUGHT ANY
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  Speaker 1: OTHER FELLOW COULD BE SUCH A FOOL AS HE THOUGHT
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  Speaker 1: I WAS. HE WENT PERFECTLY CRAZY AFTER A MONTH OR TWO,
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  Speaker 1: AND ORDERED ME ABOUT AND PATRONIZED ME AS IF I
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  Speaker 1: WERE A BOOT-BLACK HE MEANT TO TEACH SOMETHING TO. SO
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  Speaker 1: AT LAST I HAD A TALK WITH LILLY AND I
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  Speaker 1: TOLD HER I WAS GOING TO PUT AN END TO IT.
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  Speaker 1: OF COURSE SHE CRIED AND WAS HALF FRIGHTENED TO DEATH,
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  Speaker 1: but by that time he'd ill-used her so that she
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  Speaker 1: only wanted to get rid of him. So I sent
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  Speaker 1: for him, and had a talk with him in my office.
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  Speaker 1: I led him on to saying all he had on
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  Speaker 1: his mind. He explained to me what a condescension it
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  Speaker 1: was for a man like himself to marry a girl
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  Speaker 1: like Lily. He made a dignified, touching picture of all
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  Speaker 1: the disadvantages of such an alliance, and all the advantages
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  Speaker 1: they ought to bring in exchange to the man who
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  Speaker 1: bore up under them. I rubbed my head and looked
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  Speaker 1: worried every now and then, and cleared my throat apologetically
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  Speaker 1: just to warm him up. I can tell you that
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  Speaker 1: fellow felt happy, downright happy, when he saw how humbly
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  Speaker 1: I listened to him. He positively swelled up with hope
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  Speaker 1: and comfort. He thought I was going to turn out well,
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  Speaker 1: real well. I was going to pay up just as
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  Speaker 1: a vulgar New York father-in-law ought to do, and thank
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  Speaker 1: God for the blessed privilege. Why, he was real eloquent
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  Speaker 1: about his blood and his ancestors and the hoary-headed slosh.'
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  Speaker 1: so when it finished I cleared my throat in a nervous,
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  Speaker 1: ingratiating kind of way again, and I asked him, kind
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  Speaker 1: of anxiously, what he thought would be the proper thing
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  Speaker 1: for a base-born New York millionaire to do under the circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: what he would approve of himself. Sir Nigel was disgusted
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  Speaker 1: to see the narrator twist his mouth into a sweet, shrewd,
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  Speaker 1: repressed grin, even as he expectorated into the nearest receptacle.
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  Speaker 1: The grin was greeted by a shout of laughter from
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  Speaker 1: the companions.' What did he say, Stebbins?' someone cried.' He said,'
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  Speaker 1: explained Mr. Stebbins deliberately,' he said that an allowance was
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  Speaker 1: the proper thing.' He said that a man of his
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  Speaker 1: rank must have resources,' and that it wasn't dignified for
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  Speaker 1: him to have to ask his wife' or his wife's
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  Speaker 1: father for money when he wanted it.' He said an
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  Speaker 1: allowance was what he felt he had a right to expect,'
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  Speaker 1: and then he twisted his moustache and said,' What proposition
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  Speaker 1: did I make?' What would I allow him?' The storyteller's
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  Speaker 1: hearers evidently knew him well. Their laughter was louder than before.'
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  Speaker 1: Let' s hear the rest, Joe, let's hear it.'' Well,' explained Mr. Stebbins,
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  Speaker 1: almost thoughtfully,' I just got up and said,' Well, it
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  Speaker 1: won't take long for me to answer that.' I' ve always
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  Speaker 1: been fond of my children, and Lily is rather my pet.'
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  Speaker 1: She' s always had everything she wanted, and she always shall.'
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  Speaker 1: She' s a good girl, and she deserves it.' I' ll allow
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  Speaker 1: you—' The significant deliberation of his drawl could scarcely be described.'
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  Speaker 1: I' ll allow you just five minutes to get out of
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  Speaker 1: this room before I kick you out, and if I
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  Speaker 1: kick you out of this room I'll kick you down
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  Speaker 1: the stairs, and if I kick you down the stairs
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  Speaker 1: I shall have got my blood comfortably warmed up and
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  Speaker 1: I'll kick you down the street and round the block
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  Speaker 1: and down to Hoboken, because you're going to take the
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  Speaker 1: steamer there and go back to the place you came from,
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  Speaker 1: to the slosh thing or whatever you call it. We
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  Speaker 1: haven't a damn bit of use for you here.' and
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  Speaker 1: believe it or not gentlemen looking around with the wry
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  Speaker 1: mouthed smile he took that passage and back he went
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  Speaker 1: and lily's living with her mother and i mean to
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  Speaker 1: hold on to her sir nigel got up and left
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  Speaker 1: the club when the story was finished he took a
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  Speaker 1: long walk down broadway gnawing his lip and holding his
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  Speaker 1: head in the air he used blasphemous language at intervals
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  Speaker 1: in a low voice some of it was addressed to
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  Speaker 1: his fate and some of it to the vulgar mercantile
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  Speaker 1: coarseness and obtuseness of other people' They don't know what
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  Speaker 1: they're talking of,' he said.' It' s unheard of. What do
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  Speaker 1: they expect? I never thought of this. Damn it, I'm
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  Speaker 1: like a rat in a trap!' It was plain enough
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  Speaker 1: that he could not arrange his fortune as he had
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  Speaker 1: anticipated when he decided to make love to little pink-and-white,
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  Speaker 1: doll-faced Rosie Vanderpool. If he began to demand monetary advantages
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  Speaker 1: in his dealing with his future wife's people in their
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  Speaker 1: settlement of her fortune, he might arouse suspicion and inquiry.'
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  Speaker 1: He did not want inquiry, either in connection with his
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  Speaker 1: own means or his past manner of living. People who
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  Speaker 1: hated him would be sure to crop up with stories
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  Speaker 1: of things better left alone. There were always meddling fools
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  Speaker 1: ready to interfere. His walk was long and full of
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  Speaker 1: savage thinking. Once or twice, as he realised what the
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  Speaker 1: disinterestedness of his sentiments was supposed to be, a short
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  Speaker 1: laugh broke from him which was rather like the snort
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  Speaker 1: of the Bishopess.'' I am supposed to be moonstruck over
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  Speaker 1: a simpering American chit— moonstruck! Damn!' But when he returned to
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  Speaker 1: his hotel he had made up his mind, and was
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  Speaker 1: beginning to look over the situation in evil cold blood.
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  Speaker 1: Matters must be settled without delay, and he was shrewd
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  Speaker 1: enough to realise that with his temper and its varied
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  Speaker 1: resources a timid girl would not be difficult to manage.
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  Speaker 1: He had seen at an early stage of their acquaintance
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  Speaker 1: that Rosie was greatly impressed by the superiority of his
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  Speaker 1: bearing— that he could make her blush with embarrassment when
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  Speaker 1: he conveyed to her that she had made a mistake,
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  Speaker 1: that he could chill her miserably when he chose to
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  Speaker 1: assume a lofty stiffness. A man's domestic armoury was filled
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  Speaker 1: with weapons if he could make a woman feel gauche, inexperienced,
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  Speaker 1: in the wrong. When he was safely married he could
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  Speaker 1: pave the way to what he felt was the only
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  Speaker 1: practical and feasible end. If he had been marrying a
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  Speaker 1: woman with more brains she would be more difficult to subdue,
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  Speaker 1: but with Rosalie Vanderpool processes were not necessary. If you shocked, bewildered,
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  Speaker 1: or frightened her with accusations, sulks, or sneers, her light,
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  Speaker 1: innocent head was set in such a whirl that the
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  Speaker 1: rest was easy. It was possible, upon the whole, that
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  Speaker 1: the thing might not turn out so infernally ill after all,
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  Speaker 1: supposing that it had been Bettina who had been the
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  Speaker 1: marriageable one. Appreciating to the full the many reasons for
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  Speaker 1: rejoicing that she had not been, he walked in gloomy
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  Speaker 1: reflection home. End of chapter 2