Part 11 (1/2)
”Seriously, now,” said Mr. Fenelby, very seriously indeed, ”this has got to stop! You and Kitty may think it is all a joke, but Laura and I went into this thing before you came, and we meant it seriously.
We went into it in parliamentary form, and in good faith. Now we see it was all a mistake and we want to do away with it. If you will just take it seriously for five minutes--if you can be sensible that long--we will not trouble you with it any more. Laura, awaken Bobberts!”
Mrs. Fenelby awakened the Territory by gently kissing him on his eyes, and he opened them and blinked sleepily at the ceiling.
”Congress is in session,” said Mr. Fenelby. ”And Laura moves that the Fenelby Domestic Tariff be repealed and annulled. I second it.
All in favor of the motion say--”
”Stop!” exclaimed Billy, rising from his chair. ”I object to this!
Kitty and I did not come in here to have such an important motion rushed through without consideration. It is not parliamentary. I want to make a speech.”
”Oh, don't!” pleaded Mrs. Fenelby. ”Think how late it is, Billy.”
”Mr. President and Ladies of Congress,” said Billy unrelentingly; ”we are asked to repeal our tariff laws, our beneficent laws, enacted to send Bobberts to college. We stand in the presence of two cruel parents who would take away from their only Territory its sole chance--as we were informed--of securing an education. We are asked to do this merely because there has been some slight difficulty in collecting the tariff tax. I am ashamed to be a State in a commonwealth that can put forward such an excuse. I care not what others may do, but as for me I shall never cast my vote to rob that poor innocent,” he pointed feelingly toward Bobberts, ”to rob him of his future happiness! Never. You won't either, will you, Kitty?”
”I should think not!” exclaimed Kitty. ”Poor little Bobberts!”
Mr. Fenelby moved the papers on his desk nervously. He was tempted to say something about smuggling, but he controlled himself, for it would not do to antagonize one-half of congress. He felt that Kitty and Billy had been planning some great feats of smuggling, and that they had no desire to have their fun spoiled by the repeal of the tariff. Probably no smugglers are free traders at heart--free trade would ruin their business.
He put the motion, and the vote was what he had expected--two for and two against the motion. It was not carried. For a few minutes all sat in silence, the air tingling with suppressed irritability. A word would have condensed it into cruel speech. It was Billy who broke the spell.
”I'm going out to smoke another duty-paid cigar before I turn in,”
he said. ”Do you want to have a turn on the porch, Kitty?”
”I think not. I'm tired. I'll go up, I think,” said Kitty, and they left the room together.
Mr. Fenelby gathered his papers and his book together and pushed them wearily into the desk. Then he dropped into a chair and looked sadly at the floor.
”Tom,” said Laura, ”can't we stop the tariff anyway?”
”Oh, no!” said her husband disconsolately. ”We can't do anything.
We've got to go ahead with the foolishness until Kitty and Billy go.
They would laugh at us and crow over us all their lives if we didn't. Especially after the fool I have made of myself with this voting nonsense,” he added bitterly.
Mrs. Fenelby sighed.
XI
THE COUP D'eTAT
The next morning dawned gloomily. The sky was a dull gray, and a sickening drizzle was falling, mixed with a thick fog that made everything and everybody soggy and damp. It was a most dismal and disheartening Sunday, without a ray of cheerfulness in it, and Mr.
and Mrs. Fenelby felt the burden of the day keenly. The house had the usual Sunday morning air of untidiness. It was a bad day on which to take up the load of the tariff and carry it through twelve hours of servantless housekeeping.
Breakfast was a sad affair. Kitty and Billy, who seemed in high spirits, tried to give the meal an air of gaiety, but Mr. Fenelby was glum and his wife naturally reflected some of his feeling, and after a few attempts to liven things Kitty and Billy turned their attention to each other and left the Fenelbys alone with their gloom. As soon as breakfast was over, Kitty, after a weak suggestion that she should help Laura with the dishes, carried Billy away, saying that no matter what happened she was going to church. The Fenelbys were glad to have them go, and Mr. Fenelby helped Laura carry out the breakfast things.
”Laura,” said Mr. Fenelby, ”I lay awake a long time last night thinking about the tariff, and something has got to be done about it! I cannot, as the father of Bobberts, let it go on as it is going.”