Part 1 (1/2)
Marriage a la mode.
by Mrs. Humphry Ward.
PART I
CHAPTER I
”A stifling hot day!” General Hobson lifted his hat and mopped his forehead indignantly. ”What on earth this place can be like in June I can't conceive! The tenth of April, and I'll be bound the thermometer's somewhere near eighty in the shade. You never find the English climate playing you these tricks.”
Roger Barnes looked at his uncle with amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Don't you like heat, Uncle Archie? Ah, but I forgot, it's American heat.”
”I like a climate you can depend on,” said the General, quite conscious that he was talking absurdly, yet none the less determined to talk, by way of relief to some obscure annoyance. ”Here we are sweltering in this abominable heat, and in New York last week they had a blizzard, and here, even, it was cold enough to give me rheumatism. The climate's always in extremes--like the people.”
”I'm sorry to find you don't like the States, Uncle Archie.”
The young man sat down beside his uncle. They were in the deck saloon of a steamer which had left Was.h.i.+ngton about an hour before for Mount Vernon. Through the open doorway to their left they saw a wide expanse of river, flowing between banks of spring green, and above it thunderous clouds, in a hot blue. The saloon, and the decks outside, held a great crowd of pa.s.sengers, of whom the majority were women.
The tone in which Roger Barnes spoke was good-tempered, but quite perfunctory. Any shrewd observer would have seen that whether his uncle liked the States or not did not in truth matter to him a whit.
”And I consider all the arrangements for this trip most unsatisfactory,”
the General continued angrily. ”The steamer's too small, the landing-place is too small, the crowd getting on board was something disgraceful. They'll have a shocking accident one of these days. And what on earth are all these women here for--in the middle of the day?
It's not a holiday.”
”I believe it's a teachers' excursion,” said young Barnes absently, his eyes resting on the rows of young women in white blouses and spring hats who sat in close-packed chairs upon the deck--an eager, talkative host.
”H'm--Teachers!” The General's tone was still more pugnacious. ”Going to learn more lies about us, I suppose, that they may teach them to school-children? I was turning over some of their school-books in a shop yesterday. Perfectly abominable! It's monstrous what they teach the children here about what they're pleased to call their War of Independence. All that we did was to ask them to pay something for their own protection. What did it matter to us whether they were mopped up by the Indians, or the French, or not? 'But if you want us to go to all the expense and trouble of protecting you, and putting down those fellows, why, hang it,' we said, 'you must pay some of the bill!' That was all English Ministers asked; and perfectly right too. And as for the men they make such a fuss about, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, and Franklin, and all the rest of the crew, I tell you, the stuff they teach American school-children about them is a poisoning of the wells! Franklin was a man of profligate life, whom I would never have admitted inside my doors! And as for the Adamses--intriguers--canting fellows!--both of them.”
”Well, at least you'll give them George Was.h.i.+ngton.” As he spoke, Barnes concealed a yawn, followed immediately afterwards by a look of greater alertness, caused by the discovery that a girl sitting not far from the doorway in the crowd outside was certainly pretty.
The red-faced, white-haired General paused a moment before replying, then broke out: ”What George Was.h.i.+ngton might have been if he had held a straight course I am not prepared to say. As it is, I don't hesitate for a moment! George Was.h.i.+ngton was nothing more nor less than a rebel--a d.a.m.ned rebel! And what Englishmen mean by joining in the wors.h.i.+p of him I've never been able to understand.”
”I say, uncle, take care,” said the young man, looking round him, and observing with some relief that they seemed to have the saloon to themselves. ”These Yankees will stand most things, but----”
”You needn't trouble yourself, Roger,” was the testy reply; ”I am not in the habit of annoying my neighbours. Well now, look here, what I want to know is, what is the meaning of this absurd journey of yours?”
The young man's frown increased. He began to poke the floor with his stick. ”I don't know why you call it absurd?”
”To me it seems both absurd and extravagant,” said the other with emphasis. ”The last thing I heard of you was that Burdon and Co. had offered you a place in their office, and that you were prepared to take it. When a man has lost his money and becomes dependent upon others, the sooner he gets to work the better.”
Roger Barnes reddened under the onslaught, and the sulky expression of his handsome mouth became more p.r.o.nounced. ”I think my mother and I ought to be left to judge for ourselves,” he said rather hotly. ”We haven't asked anybody for money _yet_, Uncle Archie. Burdon and Co. can have me in September just as well as now; and my mother wished me to make some friends over here who might be useful to me.”
”Useful to you. How?”
”I think that's my affair. In this country there are always openings--things turning up--chances--you can't get at home.”
The General gave a disapproving laugh. ”The only chance that'll help you, Roger, at present--excuse me if I speak frankly--is the chance of regular work. Your poor mother has nothing but her small fixed income, and you haven't a farthing to chuck away on what you call chances. Why, your pa.s.sage by the _Lucania_ alone must have cost a pretty penny. I'll bet my hat you came first cla.s.s.”