第97章

Scherer can do what he wants,and the President cannot.""Adolf always does as he wants,"she declared,gazing at him as he sat beside the brilliant wife of the grandson of the man whose red-shirted foreman he had been."He does what he wants,and gets what he wants.He is getting what he wants now,"she added,with such obvious meaning that I found no words to reply."She is pretty,that Mrs.Durrett,and clever,--is it not so?"I agreed.A new and indescribable note had come into Mrs.Scherer's voice,and I realized that she,too,was aware of that flaw in the redoubtable Mr.Scherer which none of his associates had guessed.It would have been strange if she had not discovered it."She is beautiful,yes,"the lady continued critically,"but she is not to compare with your wife.She has not the heart,--it is so with all your people of society.

For them it is not what you are,but what you have done,and what you have."The banality of this observation was mitigated by the feeling she threw into it.

"I think you misjudge Mrs.Durrett,"I said,incautiously."She has never before had the opportunity of meeting Mr.Scherer of appreciating him.""Mrs.Durrett is an old friend of yours?"she asked.

"I was brought up with her."

"Ah!"she exclaimed,and turned her penetrating glance upon me.I was startled.Could it be that she had discerned and interpreted those renascent feelings even then stirring within me,and of which I myself was as yet scarcely conscious?At this moment,fortunately for me,the women rose;the men remained to smoke;and Scherer,as they discussed matters of finance,became himself again.I joined in the conversation,but I was thinking of those instants when in flashes of understanding my eyes had met Nancy's;instants in which I was lifted out of my humdrum,deadly serious self and was able to look down objectively upon the life Iled,the life we all led--and Nancy herself;to see with her the comic irony of it all.Nancy had the power to give me this exquisite sense of detachment that must sustain her.And was it not just this sustenance she could give that I needed?For want of it I was hardening,crystallizing,growing blind to the joy and variety of existence.Nancy could have saved me;she brought it home to me that Ineeded salvation....I was struck by another thought;in spite of our separation,in spite of her marriage and mine,she was still nearer to me--far nearer--than any other being.

Later,I sought her out.She looked up at me amusedly from the window-seat in our living-room,where she had been talking to the Scherer girls.

"Well,how did you get along with Hilda?"she asked."I thought I saw you struggling.""She's somewhat disconcerting,"I said."I felt as if she were turning me inside out."Nancy laughed.

"Hilda's a discovery--a genius.I'm going to have them to dinner myself.""And Adolf?"I inquired."I believe she thought you were preparing to run away with him.You seemed to have him hypnotized.""I'm afraid your great man won't be able to stand--elevation,"she declared."He'll have vertigo.He's even got it now,at this little height,and when he builds his palace on Grant Avenue,and later moves to New York,I'm afraid he'll wobble even more.""Is he thinking of doing all that?"I asked.

"I merely predict New York--it's inevitable,"she replied."Grant Avenue,yes;he wants me to help him choose a lot.He gave me ten thousand dollars for our Orphans'Home,but on the whole I think I prefer Hilda even if she doesn't approve of me."Nancy rose.The Scherers were going.While Mr.Scherer pressed my hand in a manner that convinced me of his gratitude,Hilda was bidding an affectionate good night to Maude.A few moments later she bore her husband and daughters away,and we heard the tap-tap of her cane on the walk outside....

XVII.

The remembrance of that dinner when with my connivance the Scherers made their social debut is associated in my mind with the coming of the fulness of that era,mad and brief,when gold rained down like manna from our sooty skies.Even the church was prosperous;the Rev.Carey Heddon,our new minister,was well abreast of the times,typical of the new and efficient Christianity that has finally buried the hatchet with enlightened self-interest.He looked like a young and prosperous man of business,and indeed he was one.

The fame of our city spread even across the Atlantic,reaching obscure hamlets in Europe,where villagers gathered up their lares and penates,mortgaged their homes,and bought steamship tickets from philanthropists,--philanthropists in diamonds.Our Huns began to arrive,their Attilas unrecognized among them:to drive our honest Americans and Irish and Germans out of the mills by "lowering the standard of living."Still--according to the learned economists in our universities,enlightened self-interest triumphed.Had not the honest Americans and Germans become foremen and even presidents of corporations?What greater vindication for their philosophy could be desired?

The very aspect of the city changed like magic.New buildings sprang high in the air;the Reliance Trust (Mr.Grierson's),the Scherer Building,the Hambleton Building;a stew hotel,the Ashuela,took proper care of our visitors from the East,--a massive,grey stone,thousand-awninged affair on Boyne Street,with a grill where it became the fashion to go for supper after the play,and a head waiter who knew in a few weeks everyone worth knowing.

To return for a moment to the Huns.Maude had expressed a desire to see a mill,and we went,one afternoon,in Mr.Scherer's carriage to Steelville,with Mr.Scherer himself,--a bewildering,educative,almost terrifying experience amidst fumes and flames,gigantic forces and titanic weights.It seemed a marvel that we escaped being crushed or burned alive in those huge steel buildings reverberating with sound.