A Hazard of New Fortunes, Part Second

with young Dryfoos. "I confess I was a little ashamed before him afterward for having looked at the matter so entirely from the aesthetic p

had always heard him say somethi

ther, and really seems to know what he did it for, I should say he was the oddest stick among us. But when I think of myself and my own crankiness for the literary department; and young Dryfoos, who ought really to be in the

, of renunciation, of monition. "Well, I'm

s he says or does something that shows he is on the most intimate and inalienable terms with them all the time. You know how I've been worrying over those foreign periodicals, and trying to get some translations from them

ld do it?" asked Mrs

e very man for the work, and I was ashamed I hadn't t

natural misgiving concerning the friends of her husband's youth that all wives have. "Yo

w, the most high-minded, the most generous. He lost a hand in the war that helped

every woman who lived in the time of the war must feel for those who suffered in it. "All that I meant was t

shamed to think," said March. "I meant all sorts of fine things by him after I

d age. He got him buried with military honors, and had a shaft raised over him, with a medallion likeness by Beaton and an epitaph by hi

y flat in which he had disciplined the surly janitor, but he did not tell his wife; he made her notice the transition character of the street, which had been mostly built up in apartment-houses, with here and there a single dwelling dropped far down beneath and beside them, to that jag-toot

d taste; there was nothing to object to in the satin furniture, the pale, soft, rich carpet, the pictures, and the bronze and china bric-a-brac, except that their costliness was too evident; everything in the room meant money too plainly, and too much of it. The Marches recognized this in the hoarse whispers which people canno

't take the gimcrack

oking, pretty-looking, mature, youngish lady, in black silk of a neutral implication, who put out her hand to her, and said, with a very cheery, very ladylike accent, "Mrs. March?" and then added to both of them, while she shook hands with March, and before

of provisionality, as if, pending some uncertainty as to Mrs. Mandel's qu

she said, with a sort of recognition of the propriety of her caution. "I hope you are feeling a l

doesn't give up quite so

rk doesn't seem so far

t. Every one does." Mrs

sharp out

oston winters I don't know but

She began with him, but skillfully transferred the close of her re

"or April, either: Tal

worse than our winds," Mrs.

, "it will only be to fall a prey to New York ma

d a little. It's more a matter of drainage-of plumbing. I don't believe it would be

ine Mrs. Mandel's position from this st

drainage of our whole ward put in order," said her husband, "b

on to laugh at this, but at the same moment both ladies

, "Miss Dryfoos, Mrs. March; and Miss Mela Dryfoos, Mr. March," she ad

ich she waved in talking, with a slow, watchful nervousness. Her sister was blonde, and had a profile like her brother's; but her chin was not so salient, and the weak look of the mouth was not corrected by the spirituality or the fervor of his eyes, though hers were of the same mottled blue. She dropped i

own in a minute," sh

t is so good of you to let us come

id the girl. "We rec

he chance to." She began a laugh, which she checked at a smile

ntly at Mrs. March. "I suppose you have hardly got settl

. We are quite settled in our new quarters. O

saw such an unsociable place as New York. We've been in this house three months,

't count for much in New

s Mela. But she is a very social nature,

l pouted. "I think it

wish I was

places. There's not so much going on in the way of public amusements, and so pe

opera-house in Moffitt. It's

here, this winter?" Mrs. M

er with an effort. "What did you say?" she demanded, with an absent blun

dose of Wagner, I s

asked

Wagner's music," Mrs. Mandel said. "I beli

an, Mrs. Mandel. I susp

March

her fan again, and said, "

a smile of compassion for his simplicity. He detected it, and added: "But I dare say I shal

aid the ladies were awful mad because they couldn't show their diamonds. I don't wonder, if they all had to pay as much

l take my box by the month, then.

xes, and that had to give fifteen or twenty thousand dollars apiece for them, have

go every nigh

e ladies we

, "Well, I shoul

anyway. We might just as well 'a' gone low neck. She stayed back the whole time, and when they had that dance-the ballet, you know-she just shut her eyes. Well, Conrad didn't like that part much, either; but us girls and Mrs. Mandel, we brazened it out

ile, which she meant to be ingratiating and perhaps sympathetic, with a flash that made her start, and then ran her fierce eyes over March's face. "Here comes

ing, called up: "Coonrod! Coonrod!

r, "Now, mother, Christine 'll giv

ered back. "He ain't never around when he's wanted, and when h

g for him!" cried Miss

rom a touch of palsy. In either case the fact had a pathos which Mrs. March confessed in the affection with which she took her

and wavered on foot a moment before she sank into a chair. She was a tall woman, who had been a beautiful girl, and her gray hair had a memory of blondeness in it like Lindau's, March noticed. She wore a simple silk gown, of

ss Mela; "what you got

you'd 'a' come

as all right, Mely

sed among the Dunkards, and she thinks it's wicked

March. "Some folks calls 'em the Beardy Men, because they don't never shave; a

erybody's a Beardy Man

kar

saying to his wife: "It's a Pennsylvania German sect, I believe-

ng like the Mennists

woman, "and the world 'd be a heap b

ulders before he shook hands with the visitors. "I

over her fan, now lifted herself up wi

," said the young man to Mrs. M

We hear a great deal about your fat

ng on when he gets going I ever saw. It makes Christine just as mad when him and mother gets to talking about religion; she

sor," her mother interposed; "but he's

e to New York," r

e come to New York," said the o

diversion. "Have you h

hers yet,

ried to imply by her candid tone that she inten

houghts off the preaching that you hear in most of the churches. I

at I understand

s go. I'd about as lief go to a Catholic church myself; I don't see a bit o' difference. He's the greatest crony with one of their preache

lk was always assuming. "Have you been to the fall exhibition?" she asked Chr

n?" She looked

rs. Mandel explained. "Where I wanted you

. Is it good?" She had t

e never so good as the spring ones

about pictures," said Christi

or not caring about the

hemselves don't

ion of anything incongruous in themselves and their surroundings. He said to himself that she was deathly proud-too proud to try to palliate anything, but capable of anything that would put others under her feet. Her eyes seemed hopelessly to question his wife's social quality, and he fancied, with not unkindly interest, the inexperienced girl's doubt whether to treat them with muc

I been here, that there's women that goes to have pictur's took from them that way by men painters." The point seemed aimed at March, as if he were personally responsible for the scandal, and it fell with a silencing effec

ould! And they wouldn't anybody go low neck to the opera-hou

," her mother resumed, "that come o

houted, "I thought you sai

shed at the indecorum of suggesting in words

hat they're doin' in all their churches, to let such things go on," sa

short whatever answer h

" said his mother, making an effort to

tentedly back in her chair, and a relaxation of their painful tension seemed to pass through the whole company. Conrad went to the do

within heard him say; and then, after a sound of putting off overcoats, t