Albert Kinross

“ It was certainly an admirable philosophy, though to freer spirits, like Vignolles and myself, it made conversation or any general survey of the world at times rather difficult, and, in moments of impatience we were both of us inclined to regard the older Carey-Holts as a couple of bores.
"It's that generation—our generation," Vignolles had once exclaimed, "that made the war! I belong to it, and yet I hate it; no wonder I couldn't get on with it! By Jove, we were rotten and we're still rotten! If the young 'uns don't kick us out, or hold us down and muzzle us, we'll start some devilment again. ”

“ But you can't quite help it when you've known great skies of stars, and watched the sun come up or drop below the ranges, or when you've played your life against the wonder of the sea. Or, perhaps, you've kicked up a few coins in the drifting sands of the desert and found the carving on a broken column; and you know that a thousand cities have risen and disappeared and their Carey-Holts with them. But the stars haven't changed, and the sun hasn't changed, and the hearts of kids like Kit and Eden. Poor old Carey-Holt!—he can't help it."
And next there was Angela Tyrrell ”

“ This the Honorable John had understood and could still understand. Not that poor old Fred bore any remote resemblance to such fowl, but most certainly he had put the older Tyrrells under obligations. And somebody had to put them under obligations, one felt sure, and, whoever it was, they would have hated it. But that young Mrs. Tyrrell should question Fred—she who was under no very special obligation—I did feel that that was rather strong; but, perhaps, as Berta had argued, she might get over it. ”

“ But don't they feel that they've a right to all the money in the world—if they can get hold of it? That's their view of life, or their religion. It's the sort of thing you rather come to in London, in Paris, in New York—in all the big cities. You've got to get money there, or go under. And so you begin to make a god of money; and, gradually, it displaces the old gods whom one would like to see kept alive. ”

“ I said at last, "if people work, they can't very well pick and choose whom they'll work for."
"No, I suppose not," admitted the Honorable John. "But there must be a few of us left; and perhaps Angela needn't have been so hasty."
It was no use arguing with them. I realized that, and how they had been brought up to regard people of a certain class as one thing and people of all other classes as another. Nor had Vignolles ever done anything considerable in politics or in law, or in any of those recognizable channels by which the commoner sort may enter upon a higher meeting-ground. ”

“ And then she moved toward me, one step closer, and in her low, sweet voice, "I see—I see," she said. "It had never occurred to me. A woman looks in, perhaps, too much, instead of looking out. And I'm forgetting all about the Sunday dinner, am I not?" she ended. "You'll amuse yourself for a little while?"
She was gone, leaving me alone on the big lawn by the greenhouses; and I was feeling rather the better for having said my say; and if I took the path through the wood, I'd be sure to run into Fred Vignolles and the children, and if I didn't it wouldn't much matter. ”

“ It was not a very big place as places go; but, it had a completeness, a variety, which showed that the people who had lived here and were now dispersed had loved it and spent a few of their generations upon its making.
Mrs. Tyrrell loved it too, and she said so quite openly.
"It's often hard to believe in all our luck," she remarked to me one Sunday morning as we strolled out of doors. "It's more like a thing one dreams of than a thing that has happened."
"But Vignolles is like that—exactly like that," I answered, smiling. ”

“ This is what modern civilization comes to, I suppose; crowds of people living elbow to elbow, and the more they see of one another, the more they dislike each other and pick each other to pieces. The women are the worst offenders, having leisure and, therefore, plenty of time to brood. Well, I've no doubt they have their grievances. There was Mrs. Carey-Holt, for instance, Vignolles's only sister. She had a good deal to say for herself, and I admit that I listened very politely to all she had to say. ”

“ I put the money into tea and rubber; went in with a fellow called Sutherland. He knew all about it. He was a Scotchman, not very well off, but deuced honest. It's a jolly life. You ride about on a pony and watch other people work—nice bronze savages—they enjoy it if you treat 'em well. It's their life; they've never known any other. You watch the things grow; you haven't a care in the world; and you're very happy. At least I was; and so was Sutherland. He had diabetes, poor chap; but if he ate the right kind of food and drank the right kind of drink, he was not much the worse for it ”

“ I didn't see that she had much to complain of, with that big house of hers and plenty of servants and her own money and Carey-Holt's to pay the bills.
"But if Fred had wanted to do something with his money," she persisted "there're his own niece and nephew aren't there? I don't believe in going outside one's own family," she added, "and no more do you."
So that was her point? She was jealous of the Tyrrells, and she wanted Vignolles's money to go to her own brood and not to be frittered away outside. ”

“ I explained one day, as we were strolling arm in arm down St. James's Street after one of these very committee meetings; for I was in it too a little, though hardly very much in the limelight, where circumstance, leisure, and a very clear sense of duty had placed my friend.
"You've been out of England too long; and just now, I'm afraid, England's all politics and newspapers," I had pursued. "Especially newspapers. Modern civilization's mostly getting things into them or keeping things out—keeping 'em out, I fancy—and we've got to swallow it." ”

“ He had his own den, his own quarters, his own everything. When at home he would most often invite himself to luncheon with the children and their mother; but at breakfast and at dinner he was alone, unless they had people down from London—the older Tyrrells, Berta Tyrrell, the Carey-Holts, or myself, for instance. Outside this small circle he usually entertained at one or another of his clubs. All this suited Mrs. Tyrrell, and to Vignolles it gave something that, not without reason, he might regard as hard-won anchorage. ”

“ It was a plantation, or maybe two plantations, where he grew tea and rubber. I don't know much about that kind of enterprise, though I've bought shares and seen them go up and down like mercury in a glass, and made money and lost it and drawn dividends. But Vignolles had gone straight out to the fountain-head and had come back with a fortune. He was a war profiteer, he declared, of the very worst kind. ”

“ After all, there must be a few people who don't cringe and lie, and who say straight out what they think, and who aren't afraid of loving and who aren't afraid of hating; and who don't care whether they're rich or poor, and don't expect to be kept in the one case and aren't fat parasites in the other. After all, Fred's giving the world some value for its money. ”

“ He was most deplorably defenseless; and even the Carey-Holts, I next imagined, must in their heart of hearts regard him as some one who only by accident had escaped the category of the disreputable.
"He's very modest, certainly," the old lady had conceded, "and most people of that sort are rather loud."
"As long as he treats Angela with respect," the Honorable John had answered, "we must allow her to accept the situation."
"And the children?" I ventured, I dare say a trifle maliciously. "They seem to find him perfect."
"Oh, children are children," remarked the Honorable Amelia ”

“ I have often wondered what would have become of this old couple had not Vignolles appeared at exactly the right moment; for the war, playing upon their inelastic revenues, had left them very badly in the lurch. And, moreover, the Honorable John, grasping at a chance remark dropped by Mr. Carey-Holt, had tried his luck upon the Stock Exchange and discovered that neither Mr. Carey-Holt nor his chance remarks were to be taken as infallible. ”

“ When there's a woman behind 'em I keep them; when they're just a lot of words, I chuck 'em away. There were only twenty good ones out of close on two hundred. The ladies were written to, and when I'd seen them I asked to see the kids. I judged them by the way they took that side of the question. Twelve fell out on that—seemed to fancy it might be them that I was after and that the kids didn't so much matter. It's a pathetic world"; and Vignolles, half smiling, half serious, lit a fresh cigarette.
I recall some of his "kids" and a few of his widows ”

“ And next, "I believe old Vignolles could live on bread and cheese and a cheap cigarette; he hasn't much use for money, himself," I added; and it seemed to me that I had grown a trifle lyrical and rather enthusiastic about our friend.
"He's been most good to the children," she answered, smiling, and I think a little amused at me. "And even to Berta," she continued; "takes her out and buys her hats and frocks till she gets quite annoyed with him. I often wonder what Arthur would say if he could come back and see us." ”

“ I attempted my little diversions and tried to interest them in some other subject, half a dozen other subjects, more or less; but Vignolles, and his social obscurity, and his not belonging to a recognizable class or circle—these were the points that mattered on this particular afternoon, and they returned to them again and yet again. They rankled, evidently.
"Now, if he were an American. One doesn't mind it so much with them, does one? And I suppose they are somebody in their own country." It was the Honorable Amelia who had crossed the Atlantic and arrived at this decision on the other side. ”

“ No, those two don't care a button about money and the house, but they do love grabbing hold of me and making me confess. I rather let myself go with them," he added, with a curious shy tenderness; and one could read the love he'd missed and the gratitude he felt at picking up these crumbs—or, it might be, a banquet—late in middle age.
The two children and he invaded my rooms one afternoon with paper bags of cakes and baker's stuff, and announced that they had come for tea, Vignolles acting as spokesman. That was my own introduction to this new alliance. ”

“ War's curious. Even my gifted brother-in-law isn't quite the same success that he used to be.... But I've sold out to Sutherland," my friend concluded. "You see, money's not much use to a man out there. Here—here in England, I've a fancy one might do some good with it."
And this, more or less, is the way in which my friend Vignolles became a profiteer, and put away a roving life and returned to the country of his fathers; where he lived very plainly in a second-rate hotel, and no doubt pondered ways and means of doing "some good with it."
II ”

“ We've neither heart, nor imagination, nor pluck, nor common honesty. I see it on half the committees I'm working with and whose motto is compromise and delay, till somebody gets up and reminds them that hunger and cold are real and that men and women aren't just figures in a blue-book or a bundle of statistics. That's why I love those kids I've got hold of. They haven't learnt to funk things—not yet, at least—and, by George, they never shall if I can help it!"
He had his own ideas about their education. It was difficult, he admitted. "I don't want them to belong to one class. ”

“ They've been cheated; and so they've had to dig themselves in behind their prejudices, just like the anarchists and communists and socialists and all those other fellows one hears so much about and who are at the other end of it. If old John had come of a less exalted stock, perhaps he'd have been one of that lot, and out to skin people openly; on paper, or with his mouth, or somehow safe. Though I believe the old chap would have had the pluck and breeding to come out fair and square instead of skulking. ”

“ There had been something contradictory in Vignolles's account of his relations with those two children. In one breath they thought him "wonderful," and yet were quite unstirred by the material comforts and other benefits his friendship offered or seemed to promise. I asked him about this, for I couldn't well follow it.
"My dear old chump," he responded, "don't you see that it's me, Vignolles, they think wonderful, and that the house and home and all the rest of it are only a house and home. The things money, sordid cash, can buy don't interest them ”

“ Are you one?"
"Blest if I know!" said Vignolles. "It was handy, and there was a fellow who offered to put me up. They give you a very good lunch, and it's fairly reasonable—cheaper than those damned restaurants, where they stick you and look quite hurt if you don't go strong on the wine list." And next he wandered back to the older Tyrrells; for it appeared that the Honorable John had been having another little flutter and had been caught short—it was some kind of oils—and hadn't the ready cash to meet the difference. ”

“ Tyrrell, with those two children, is far more dangerous," she resumed; "and there's a girl of eighteen, and the grandparents as well—Fred seems to have adopted the whole family."
"Well, why not?" I asked, lightly. "They're in a way comrades of his, and they've been hit pretty hard; and what's a pension nowadays, with everything costing double? And the old Tyrrells have only a fixed income that won't stretch. It's rather lucky they fell in with Fred Vignolles." ”

“ Carey-Holt, the sister of whom Vignolles had occasionally spoken; and there was her husband, the stock-broker; and young Francis Carey-Holt, and Miss Jane Carey-Holt, their offspring. Vignolles did not seem exactly enamored of his niece and nephew.
"The boy's too much like a young lady for my taste," he said, discussing them; "had everything done for him—never seems to have put his nose outside of London—been to all the cinemas and dances all the latest dances, but after that you come to a blank wall. It's a pity he didn't get roped in for the war. ”