"What in the world can a cottage at Nantasket be like?""Oh, very much like a 'cottage' anywhere.It has the usual allowance of red roof and veranda.There are the regulation rocks by the sea; and the big hotels on the beach about a mile off, flaring away with electric lights and roman-candles at night.We didn't have them at Nahant.""No," said his mother."Is Mrs.Lapham well? And her daughter?""Yes, I think so," said the young man."The young ladies walked me down to the rocks in the usual way after dinner, and then I came back and talked paint with Mr.Lapham till midnight.We didn't settle anything till this morning coming up on the boat.""What sort of people do they seem to be at home?""What sort? Well, I don't know that I noticed." Mrs.Corey permitted herself the first part of a sigh of relief;and her son laughed, but apparently not at her.
"They're just reading Middlemarch.They say there's so much talk about it.Oh, I suppose they're very good people.
They seemed to be on very good terms with each other.""I suppose it's the plain sister who's reading Middlemarch.""Plain? Is she plain?" asked the young man, as if searching his consciousness."Yes, it's the older one who does the reading, apparently.But I don't believe that even she overdoes it.They like to talk better.
They reminded me of Southern people in that." The young man smiled, as if amused by some of his impressions of the Lapham family."The living, as the country people call it, is tremendously good.The Colonel--he's a colonel--talked of the coffee as his wife's coffee, as if she had personally made it in the kitchen, though I believe it was merely inspired by her.
And there was everything in the house that money could buy.
But money has its limitations."
This was a fact which Mrs.Corey was beginning to realise more and more unpleasantly in her own life; but it seemed to bring her a certain comfort in its application to the Laphams.
"Yes, there is a point where taste has to begin," she said.
"They seemed to want to apologise to me for not having more books," said Corey."I don't know why they should.
The Colonel said they bought a good many books, first and last;but apparently they don't take them to the sea-side.""I dare say they NEVER buy a NEW book.I've met some of these moneyed people lately, and they lavish on every conceivable luxury, and then borrow books, and get them in the cheap paper editions.""I fancy that's the way with the Lapham family," said the young man, smilingly."But they are very good people.
The other daughter is humorous."
"Humorous?" Mrs.Corey knitted her brows in some perplexity.
"Do you mean like Mrs.Sayre?" she asked, naming the lady whose name must come into every Boston mind when humour is mentioned.
"Oh no; nothing like that.She never says anything that you can remember; nothing in flashes or ripples;nothing the least literary.But it's a sort of droll way of looking at things; or a droll medium through which things present themselves.I don't know.
She tells what she's seen, and mimics a little.""Oh," said Mrs.Corey coldly.After a moment she asked:
"And is Miss Irene as pretty as ever?"
"She's a wonderful complexion," said the son unsatisfactorily.
"I shall want to be by when father and Colonel Lapham meet,"he added, with a smile.
"Ah, yes, your father!" said the mother, in that way in which a wife at once compassionates and censures her husband to their children.
"Do you think it's really going to be a trial to him?"asked the young man quickly.
"No, no, I can't say it is.But I confess I wish it was some other business, Tom.""Well, mother, I don't see why.The principal thing looked at now is the amount of money; and while Iwould rather starve than touch a dollar that was dirty with any sort of dishonesty----""Of course you would, my son!" interposed his mother proudly.
"I shouldn't at all mind its having a little mineral paint on it.I'll use my influence with Colonel Lapham--if Iever have any--to have his paint scraped off the landscape.""I suppose you won't begin till the autumn.""Oh yes, I shall," said the son, laughing at his mother's simple ignorance of business."I shall begin to-morrow morning.""To-morrow morning!"
"Yes.I've had my desk appointed already, and I shall be down there at nine in the morning to take possession.""Tom" cried his mother, "why do you think Mr.Lapham has taken you into business so readily? I've always heard that it was so hard for young men to get in.""And do you think I found it easy with him? We had about twelve hours' solid talk.""And you don't suppose it was any sort of--personal consideration?""Why, I don't know exactly what you mean, mother.
I suppose he likes me."
Mrs.Corey could not say just what she meant.She answered, ineffectually enough--"Yes.You wouldn't like it to be a favour, would you?""I think he's a man who may be trusted to look after his own interest.But I don't mind his beginning by liking me.
It'll be my own fault if I don't make myself essential to him.""Yes," said Mrs.Corey.
"Well, demanded her husband, at their first meeting after her interview with their son, "what did you say to Tom?""Very little, if anything.I found him with his mind made up, and it would only have distressed him if Ihad tried to change it."
"That is precisely what I said, my dear.""Besides, he had talked the matter over fully with James, and seems to have been advised by him.I can't understand James.""Oh! it's in regard to the paint, and not the princess, that he's made up his mind.Well, I think you were wise to let him alone, Anna.We represent a faded tradition.
We don't really care what business a man is in, so it is large enough, and he doesn't advertise offensively; but we think it fine to affect reluctance.""Do you really feel so, Bromfield?" asked his wife seriously.
