Meredith Nicholson

“ Thurston is right, Nan,” said Eaton. “There is not only Mr. Farley’s memory as a kind and just man to protect, but you must guard yourself against even the appearance of resentment. The only thing you have to consider is Mr. Farley’s conscientious desire to provide for you, which was manifest at all times. As Mr. Thurston says, that last will gave you absolutely everything, cutting out all the bequests he had made at other times to benevolence and charity. My dear Nan, your scruples are absurd! You haven’t any case at all! ”

“ Nan wanted to be good—“good” in the sense of the word that had expressed the simple piety of her foster-mother. She had the conscience of her temperament and from childhood had often been miserable over the smallest infractions of discipline. Her last words with Copeland on the club veranda had not left her happy. It had been in her mind for some time that she must break with Billy. She had never been able to convince herself that she loved him. She had liked his admiration, and had over-valued it as coming from a man much older than herself ”

“ Nan crossed a pasture, whistling. The Holsteins, nibbling the young grass, lifted their heads and bent their slow, meditative gaze upon her. She paused to pat one of them on the nose. Nan was growing wise in dairy lore and knew at sight the heaviest producers of the herd. She resumed her whistling and went on toward the house, with a pair of robins hopping before her. June had come and summer sounds and scents filled the air.
As she neared the bungalow a motor swept into the driveway and discharged Eaton and Thurston. ”

“ In spite of his absurdities, she was conscious of definite manly qualities in him. Several times she caught him scrutinizing her sharply, as though something about her puzzled him and gave him concern. His manners were very good—thanks, perhaps, to his adored Eaton; and she liked his clean, fresh look and good humor. After her talk with Eaton on the golf links, she had wondered whether the lawyer wasn’t making a butt of him; but she dismissed this now as unjust to Eaton, and as appraising Amidon’s intelligence at too low a figure. ”

“ Facts were Eaton’s passion; with facts, one might, he believed, conquer the world; indeed, he was capable of demonstrating that all the battles in history were lost or won by the facts carried into the contest by the respective commanders. He had so often disturbed the office of the Commissioner of Patents with his facts that the public servants in charge of that department were little disposed to risk a brush with him on points that involved facts, facts that seemed, in his use of them, to glitter like the lenses of his eyeglasses. ”

“ What we do, Amidon, when we see such a chap turning up Monday morning with a hang-over from Saturday night, is to remark, ‘Too bad about Tom’—or ‘Dick’ or ‘Harry’—and then go to the club and order a cocktail. That’s how we meet our reciprocal obligations!”
There seemed nothing that Amidon could add to this; but plainly it was “Billy” Copeland, who was in Eaton’s mind, and no imaginary Tom, Dick, or Harry; so he ventured to remark:—
“Well, I guess the boss hasn’t let go yet; he’ll pull up. He’s the best man on the street to work for—when you can feel you are working for him.” ”

“ She sobbingly admitted her fear of newspaper notoriety, her wish to shield him from the shame of her connection with a man awaiting trial for murder. There was no mercy in his eyes; he was outraged that she had again deceived him.
“Afraid o’ havin’ your name in the papers, were you? Just as though blackmailers didn’t always use that club on the fools they rob! And how many times do you think a man like that will come back, now he knows you’re easy—now you’ve gone into business with him?”
The maid knocked at the door and announced Eaton, but Farley gave no heed. ”

“ But I’ve had escapes I don’t understand; something gets in the way and I don’t—I can’t—do things I fully mean to do! And I look back and shudder. Why is that—can you tell me?”
He lifted his arm with one of his familiar gestures and inspected his cuff-links absently.
“You’re seeing things a little black now, that’s all, Nan. When you gave up that money you thought it was the right thing to do. You saw the mistake yourself the moment after it was done. That’s just our human frailty. It’s our frailties that make life the grand fight it is!” ”

“ Copeland repeated with a shrug of her shoulders. “I suppose Mr. Farley knows what’s up. He’s too shrewd not to know. Clever as Nan is, she could hardly pull the wool over his eyes.”
[26] “She’s much too clever not to know she can’t fool him; but he’s immensely fond of her, just as his wife was. And we’ve got to admit that Nan is a very charming person—a little devilish, but keen and amusing. She’s too good for that crowd she’s running with—no doubt of that! If Uncle Tim thought she meant to marry Billy, he would take pains to see that she didn’t.” ”

“ The warehouses are redolent of countless scents that pique a healthy curiosity; poppy and mandragora and all the drowsy sirups of the world are enlisted in its catalogue. How superior to the handling of the grosser commodities of the wholesale grocery line! How infinitely more delightful than distributing clanging hardware or scattering broadcast the unresponsive units of the dry-goods trade!
Such, at least, were Jerry Amidon’s opinions. ”

“ There was something of appeal in the look she gave him as their hands touched—the vaguest hint of an appeal. Her eyes narrowed for an instant with the intentness of her gaze as she searched his face for—sympathy, [19] understanding, confidence. Then she withdrew her hand quickly, aware that his admiration was expressing itself with disconcerting frankness in his friendly gray eyes.
“It’s been nice to see you again,” she said softly. “Good luck!”
“Good luck to you, Miss Farley; I hope to meet you again sometime.” ”

“ She was happy in the thought that she faced the world with a clean conscience; never in her life had she been on so good terms with herself.
She was standing at the parlor window when at eleven a familiar figure entered the gate. Harlowe, tall, slightly stooped, advanced to the door. She called to the maid not to trouble to answer the ring and let the man in herself.
He began with formal condolences on what he called “her irreparable loss.”
“Much as we may be prepared for the death of a loved one, it always comes with a shock. I sympathize with you very deeply, Miss Farley.” ”

“ Jerry was moved to despair. He would never be able to surround himself with the mystery or practice the secrecy that he found so fascinating in Eaton. He had not imagined that the lawyer would bother himself further about Corrigan. He had read of the conviction without emotion, but it would never have occurred to him that a man so busy as Eaton or so devoted to the comforts of life would spend three days in Belleville merely to watch the trial of a man in whom he had only the remotest interest. ”

“ You know it isn’t, Nan! I’ve missed you; it cut me deep when you dropped me. You let Farley tell you I was all bad and going to the dogs and you didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself. I tell you I’ve suffered hell’s torments since I saw you last. But now I want you to tell me you do care. Please, dear—”
His voice broke plaintively. She shook her head.
“Of course we were good friends, Billy; but you knew we had to quit. It was wrong all the time—you knew that as well as I do.”
“I don’t see what was wrong about it! It can’t be wrong for a man to love a woman as I love you! ”

“ The butler announced dinner, and he found himself moving toward the dining-room beside Mrs. Torrington. In her ignorance of the darkness in which he had immersed himself, she treated him quite as though they were in the habit of meeting at dinners. It was to his credit that he saw at once that she was a superior person, though he did not know until later that, as the wife of a distinguished engineer, she was known in many capitals as a brilliant conversationalist, with a reputation for meeting difficult situations. ”

“ What’s Eaton got to do with it?”
She explained that Eaton was substituting for the president of the Settlement House Association, who had been called from town, and that he had asked her to recite something.
“Well, ‘The Ole Swimmin’ Hole’ will come in handy. I always like the way you do that. Run along now!”
She darted into her room and found the letter just as she had left it on the mantel. She tore it into strips and threw them into her beribboned waste-paper basket. Her revulsion of feeling was complete. It was like waking from a nightmare to find herself secure amid familiar surroundings. ”

“ IN TRUST
“Copeland Farm Products” in blue letters against a white background swung over Nan’s head on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings in the city market-house. On those days she left Mrs. Copeland’s farm at five o’clock with the day’s offerings and by six the stand was in order.
An endless, jostling throng surged by, and every sale she effected, every negotiation for the future delivery of an order, had all the joy of an adventure. Her immediate neighbors were a big-fisted German gardener and a black-eyed Italian girl who sold fruits and vegetables. ”

“ If he were a gossip he’d be horrible, for he knows everything about everybody—and knows it first!”
“He’s the kindest of mortals,” Nan observed. “He’s always doing nice things for people, but he has to do them in his own peculiar way.”
“Oh, John has the spirit of the true philanthropist; his right hand never knows, you know—”
“He’s a puzzle to the people he’s kindest to, sometimes, I imagine,” said Nan.
She laughed as she thought of Amidon, and Fanny appealed for illumination as to what amused her.
“Oh, I was thinking of his protégé—a young man named Amidon. ”

“ We should be annoyed, displeased, hot clean through, if anybody—even an old and valued friend—should beg us to slow down. It’s queer, Amidon, how reluctant we are to extend the saving hand. Timidity, fear of offending and that sort of thing holds us back. It becomes necessary to perform our Christian duty in the dark, by the most indirect and hidden methods.”
Amidon frowned, not sure that he understood; and he hated himself when he did not understand Eaton. ”

“ By the way, what is your impartial judgment of the merits of Corbin & Eichberg—rather wide-awake fellows, aren’t they?”
As Jerry began to express scorn by a contemptuous curl of the lip and an outward gesture of his stiffened palm, Eaton reprimanded him sharply.
“Speak judicially; no bluster; none of this whang about their handling inferior goods. The fact is they are almost offensively prosperous and carry more traveling men after ten years’ business than Copeland-Farley with thirty years behind them.” ”

“ Amidon began, defensively, “Copeland is the boss, all right,—that is, when he’s on the job at all. He’s some sport, but when he calls me into his pen and goes over my orders, he knows whether I’m on the right side of the average. Only he doesn’t do that with any of the boys more than once in two months. He doesn’t quite get the habit; just seems to think of it occasionally.”
“Capacity without application! Unfortunate, but not incurable. To be sure, an old business like Copeland-Farley is hard to kill. Billy Copeland’s father had the constructive genius, and Farley had the driving power. ”

“ The vulgarity of the exhibition was mitigated somewhat by her amazing success in sinking herself in another personality. They all knew that the man she was imitating was her foster-father and benefactor; that he had rescued her from obscure, hopeless poverty, educated her and given her his name; and that but for his benevolence they never would have known or heard of her; but this clearly was not a company that was fastidious in such matters. The exhibition of her cleverness had been highly diverting. ”