Garwood

“ When he refused, the lofty heroism of his act, as she called it, opened the way for a sympathy between them, and by the time Garwood acquitted his client, he and Emily were friends.
Garwood’s social traditions were far removed from those of Emily; and it was only in Railroad Avenue, and never in Sangamon, that they could [Pg 35] have met at all. Garwood had never gone into society in Grand Prairie; his mother was a Methodist, and to go into society it was necessary to be an Episcopalian, or at least a Presbyterian. ”

“ Pusey was willing to keep all to himself the enjoyment of [Pg 229] having Garwood humble himself by calling upon him,—him, whom Garwood had once despised. Indeed, the satisfaction he felt was so lively that he was somewhat mollified in spirit and, had he known it, Garwood could hardly have done a wiser or more politic thing than to pay this visit to this same Pusey.
“Yes, it’s hot,” said Garwood, “though not so hot as it was in Washington. That’s the hottest place in summer, you know, in the whole world.” ”

“ Garwood found his thoughts hardly tolerable so long as he allowed them to rest in the present. He could grasp at happiness and comfort only when they built on the surer, brighter future which soon would open to him. He found it hard, however, to keep them always building air castles; they persisted in returning to the present, to Emily, to Rankin, to the campaign, to the mortgage. ”

“ Garwood was understood to be resting at home, and it was rumored that he would go away for a while and recuperate in the East, where, as it appears to men in the West, there is rest for the weary. He had in reality the natural reluctance to beginning a long contemplated and difficult task that the lesser politicians felt, though he had so much more at stake than they. Yet he would not have liked the boys to be as apathetic as he, and in a dim recognition of this fact he bestirred himself one day and went down to see Pusey. ”

“ Garwood could have crushed him for his tone as Pusey would have crushed the cockroaches he could never hit, but he was better schooled to his part and he thought of the agonies of defeat. He needed every dollar of his salary now. ”

“ Garwood—a man of your experience can readily see, that a paper like the News can hardly afford to give up its valuable space to that which is not strictly news matter without some hope of compensation.”
“I see,” said Garwood, “but to be frank with you, Pusey,” he turned and looked straight into the little man’s watery eyes, “I can’t afford it. This campaign, into which I sometimes wish I hadn’t gone, has proved expensive, and my practice has suffered, so that I need all the money at my command for more immediate and pressing expenses.” ”

“ Garwood asked, with an honest laugh in his eyes.
She bent over impulsively and kissed him.
“Yes, I do,” she said, “but I’m speaking generally now.”
“No, you’re not,” Garwood insisted, “women can’t speak generally. It’s always a personal, concrete question with them.”
[Pg 330]
“Well, you know, Jerome, I’ve had my ideals—in politics, too, since you interested me in politics.”
“You weren’t interested in politics, you were interested in one politician, and that politician was—me.” ”

“ Garwood said, with a flare of the western [Pg 328] animosity to New England’s long domination of public affairs.
“Well,” she persisted, and he saw that her lips were growing rigid, “I think we need conscience in our politics, whether it’s New England or not.”
Garwood laughed, but it was a bitter laugh. “I’m afraid it wouldn’t win. A conscience, Emily, is about as great an impediment to a practical politician in these days as it is to a successful lawyer.”
“Don’t be cynical, Jerome,” she pleaded. And she thought again. ”

“ They were at the bar by this time.
“What will it be?” said Garwood, still devouring his papers.
“Oh, a little bourbon,” said Warfield.
“Nonsense!” said Garwood, crumpling the papers under his arm. “I want to drink Jim Rankin’s [Pg 181] health, bless his old heart! He gets the post-office, he does! Give us a bottle of champagne!”
“You haven’t had your dinner yet, have you?” Warfield asked.
“No, nor my breakfast, either,” laughed Garwood. But then Garwood was not as well informed as Warfield as to the relation in time of liquors to dinner. Warfield had been longer in politics. ”

“ You may make an amusing pun on a man’s name or gently insinuate that the majority of the members of the profession to which he belongs are unblushing rascals, and the man may smile: but in his heart he feels like killing you. And so Garwood, who desired to come to terms with Locke if possible, apologized. The lawyer accepted the apology coldly and waited.
“Your demands for your clients are out of the question,” Garwood resumed positively. “We need not discuss them at all. I came here to make an arrangement with you. I have made you an offer which most men would snap at. ”

“ Garwood loved to bask in their smiles, to revel in the sensation of personal popularity, and it became more and more easy to convince himself that he was a genuine man of the people. There was another new feature in this campaign that he enjoyed. He was enabled in his speeches to speak familiarly of Washington, of things that were done and said in the House, and to relate personal anecdotes of noted men, to whom it was apparent he could talk in a free colloquial way, that were almost as delightful to his auditors as to himself. ”

“ Emily, sitting in the sunlight that streamed through the tall bay windows of her room, stitched away on her white wedding garments, dreaming in her smiles of the new life that was just opening to her, picturing Garwood, a great, strong man, fighting the battles of his country, just as his old mother, sitting with her knitting by her low window, wrinkling her brow as she lifted her eyes now and then over her spectacles to gaze on her withering flower-beds in the little yard, pictured him as a little boy, playing on the floor, charming her with his precocious speeches. ”

“ Had Garwood been a man with a genius for details and organization, or even possessed of an untiring patience, he would have known just what men in each county were at any given time doing the governing for the people of that county. That would have required tact and perseverance; it would have entailed an endless amount of letter-writing and consulting, and this, amid all the fascinations of his new life at Washington, was irksome to him. He knew now too late, the right [Pg 239] man in his own county. As to the other counties, he must still lean on Rankin and trust him. ”

“ It pleased Garwood to be addressed as colonel, as it pleases any man, and he was conscious of a momentary regret that he had not induced Colonel Warfield to ask the governor of Illinois to appoint him as an aide-de-camp on his staff, so that the title might be his. He resolved to have that done if—but his mind darkened at the prospect of all he must suffer and endure before his political fortunes could again be considered secure. Another campaign with all its uncertainty lay before him, and there was no Rankin any more to lean on. ”

“ Garwood returned with his overcoat and hat and gloves, and they went out. He spent the day with them, tramping about through the rain, and at night took them to the theater, one of the sacrifices a congressman must make when his constituents come to Washington.
When he returned to the hotel at midnight, and went up to his rooms, he found his wife sitting before a fire she had had laid in the grate. She was dressed and her little traveling-bag stood on the marble-top center table, with her hat and veil and rolled-up gloves beside it.
“Why!” he said, in surprise, “what’s the matter?” ”

“ But he came into Emily’s life at the very time when it was ready to receive impressions from a more masterful mind. In his young dream of a career, in that enthusiasm for humanity which springs in most men of the liberal professions with the shock of their first impact with a hard, material age, and develops until the age taints them with its sordidness, Garwood had enlisted in the world-old fight for equality and democracy. His first victory was for himself, and he was elected to the Legislature. ”

“ I guess if the honest truth were known there aren't very many fellows who would want to be in John Garwood's shoes, for all his money."
"Why?" asked Kenneth.
"Because he's no good. Look at the way he treated his employees in that last strike! Some of 'em nearly starved to death!"
"That's a—that isn't so!" answered Kenneth hotly. "It was all newspaper lies."
"Newspapers don't lie," said Grafton sententiously. ”

“ He had risked all on this campaign; he had abandoned his practice, staked his reputation, spent all his money, gone in debt, all he was or had was involved—Emily with the rest. He felt that if he were defeated she would be lost to him. He looked at Colonel Warfield, the chairman of the state executive committee, sitting at the table in the center of the room, a pad of paper before him, idly turning a pencil over and over in his fingers as he considered the import of the latest returns. Garwood wondered if he were really as calm as he appeared. ”

“ Well, I'm not stingy; I'll call it thirty. Now, what do you say?"
"When you get your place back it'll be by some other means than buying it," said Kenneth contemptuously. He turned toward the door. "You haven't got enough money to buy everything, you see; and—"
There was a sharp knock on the door.
"If you say anything about this," whispered Grafton hoarsely, "I'll—I'll—
Come in!"
"Who is here?" asked Mr. Whipple's voice as the door swung open.
"I, sir, and Garwood," answered Grafton.
"Ah! Garwood! And which one of you, may I ask, has been smoking cigarettes?" ”

“ About eighty years ago, a widow and her family—a son and a daughter—packed up all their worldly possessions in an emigrant waggon, and started for the West. Widow Ballou made her home in the State of Ohio, which at that time was only peopled by a few scattered settlers. Five years afterwards, a young man named Abram Garfield started on the same journey. It is said that he was more anxious to renew his acquaintance with the Ballou family than to make his fortune. The widow's daughter Eliza was the attraction that drew him into the Western wilds. ”

“ Brave, noble-hearted, hard-working Thomas Garfield! though only known to the world through his more gifted brother, he belongs to that grand army of self-sacrificing spirits who leave a bright and shining track behind them, and who everywhere make the wilderness and the desert place to blossom like the rose.
While Thomas was cutting down trees in Michigan, James was playing the part of "boy farmer" to the satisfaction of all who knew him. He was but twelve years of age, and yet he went about his work like a man. He said that he could take his brother's place, and he did it. ”

“ The secretary felt, somehow, that at the least sign of fear the beast on his arm would leap upon him and tear him with his teeth.
"Nothing of the sort," he answered vigorously. "It wouldn't hold enough to feed a cat."
"True," said Garvey with a vile sigh, while the other felt the hand upon his arm twitch up and down as if feeling the flesh. "True, it's too small to be of any real use. As you say, it wouldn't hold enough to feed a cat."
Shorthouse was unable to suppress a cry. The muscles of his fingers, too, relaxed in spite of himself and he let the black bag drop with a bang to the floor. ”

“ Believing himself in the power of a lunatic, he had adapted himself to the situation, feigning unconcern as a beetle feigns death. Besides gloomy forebodings as to the ultimate issue of his illegal proceedings, Mr. Dashwood had to face the immediate prospect of Giveen's close companionship for ten days or so. But, as a set-off to these undesirabilities, he had the pleasant vision of French liberated from his difficulties, Garryowen passing the winning-post with a beaten favourite behind him, and last, but not least, Violet Grimshaw's face when he told her all. ”

“ My father knew me to be his son; told all the Crows that the dead was alive again, and the lost one was found. He knew it was fact; Greenwood had said so, and the words of Greenwood were true; his tongue was not crooked—he would not lie. He also had told him that his son was a great brave among the white men; that his arm was strong; that the Black Feet quailed before his rifle and battle-axe; that his lodge was full of their scalps which his knife had taken; that they must rally around me to support and protect me ”

“ Shorthouse could have laughed outright but for the expression of the other's face.
"I should not think there was much air of any sort in a vacuum," he said quietly.
"That's exactly what I feel," continued Garvey with ever growing excitement. "That's the horrid part of it. How the devil does he live there? You see—"
"Have you ever followed him there?" interrupted the secretary. The other leaned back in his chair and drew a deep sigh.
"Never! It's impossible. You see I can't follow him. There's not room for two. A vacuum only holds one comfortably. Marx knows that. ”

“ Garvey resumed. "I've not spent all these years in my laboratory to no purpose, I can assure you. Nature, I know for a fact," he added with unnatural warmth, "does not abhor a vacuum. On the contrary, she's uncommonly fond of 'em, much too fond, it seems, for the comfort of my little household. If there were fewer vacuums and more abhorrence we should get on better—a damned sight better in my opinion." ”