The Second Generation

illow with a skill that delighted both him and his sister. "But why go that wa

ut had rejected, the temptation to parade the crowded part of town. "E

f those who lacked it. But it ruffled her to hear him call the home folks jays-just as it would have ruffled him had she been the one to mak

f you are," he retorted, with a

"You know you wouldn't take all

I don't care for the opinion of any

ppreciating are only th

rive tandem amon

ied he; and his adroit esc

from vanity as you are,

ow how." This with an admiring glance at her most becoming hat with its great, gracefully draped

ait till you see my

ck for your

k of

, rather glumly; "he'l

when

feel better. "He thinks I'm 'only a woman,' fit for nothing but to look pretty as long as I'm a gi

for the younger generation ended at his own sex. The new woman-idle and frivolous, ignorant of all useful things, fit only for the show side of life and caring only for it,

med impatiently. "Mother was brought up very differe

ou bring yo

r; I am d

you do? What c

mitted. "But I do know

f the Ranger will in

, I shan't s

said. "You and Ross Whitney will marry, and you'll have a big hou

turn out to be the s

y man-trying to manage you! You'v

on't give me anything. How furious he'd be at the very suggestion of dowry. Parents out here don't appreciate

t that he couldn't let her remarks pass unchallenged. "I don't know about that, Del," he said. "It

of control-to make a woman mercenary and hypocritical? You'd better change you

ake our case, for instance. Is it altogether love and af

f," said Adelaide.

ou are a woman. You're as cautio

ometimes. But often you're reckless. I'm frightened every once in a while by it, and I'm haunted by the dread that there'l

enables me to understand him. Then, there's this other that's been made since-in the East, and going round among people that either never knew the sort of life we had as children or have grown away from it. The problem is how to

when he is so indulgent and when even in his anger he's kind? But you-Oh, Artie, even though you are less, much less, uncandid with him than I am, still isn't it more-more-less manly in you? After all, I'm a woman and helpless; and,

eve, Del, that my caution with father is from fear of his shutting down on me, any more than yours is," he replied. "I know he cares for m

ou right?-

his horses; they were jogging along, heads down an

quite make

you think I ought to spend my life in making money, in

t's how he deals. And I don't believe there's any

ld. But when I came to know their parents better-and them, too-I saw how really ignorant and vulgar-yes, vulgar-they were, under their veneer of talk and manner w

iant. "You'll come out all right, Artie," said she. "I don

so much nicer to dream than to do." He looked at her with good-humored satire. "And you-what's the matter w

meet his eyes and to smile easily. "Becau

t yourself if you co

. "Besides, why talk about me? I'm 'only a woman.

t help some m

e me to marry D

g is," was his not altogether frank reply. "Y

n't care for Ross I shouldn't thin

e father!" m

al for years. It was your praising him that-that first made me glad

lly is," said he. "Oh, he's clever about what he lets father see. However

y to make out. Only, I prefer a combination of the two. And I thin

ther. "He isn't good enough for Del," he said to himself. "But, then, who is? And he'll help her to the sort of setting

ue. It was such uplifting vistas that inspired the human imagination, in the days of its youth, to breathe a soul into the universe and make it a living thing, palpitant with love and hope; it was an outlook that would have moved the narrowest, the smallest, to think in the wide

a place to sleep, when there's so much of everything in the world-and when a few like us don't have to work at all and have much more than they

r. "They have the dinner; we have only the dessert; and I guess

orld in lots of

For instance, do you suppose you and I, or anybody, would care for idling about and doing all sorts of things our better judgment tells us are inane, if it weren't th

Sandys's English but

s every one in the Sandy

ery one of us was in terror of his opinion. No doubt kings feel the same way about the people around them. Always what'

th talking about is raising the standards of the masses because their standards are ours. We'll

ception. Thus, the Ranger children, like all other normal children of luxury, rarely made what would have been, for their fallow minds, the arduous exertion of real thinking. When their minds were not on pastimes or personalities they were either rattling round in their heads or exchanging the ideas, real and reputed, that happened to be drifting about, at the moment, in their "set." Those ideas they and their friends received, and stored up or passed on with never a thought as to whether they were true or false, much

ed from work, though it was only half-past five, and stretched on the sofa in the sitting room, with his eyes shut. At this unprec

aze anxiously into his face. He smiled, roused himself to a sit

a hypocrisy of cheerfulness that would have passed muster even had he not been above suspicion. "I'm not up to

on his weazened, whiskered face. He looked so like her memory-picture of her grandfather that she burst out laughing. "Don't be

her so intensely that he had become unconscious of her physical presence. The apparition of Simeon had set him to gathering in gloomy assembly a vast number of circumstances about his two children; each circumstance was so trivial in itself that by itself it seemed foolishly inconsequential; yet, in the mass, they bore upon his heart, up

him that was awe-inspiring-just as a mountain or an ocean, a mere aggregation of simple matter, is in the total majestic and incompreh

your brother aw

se from her knees, laid her hand lingeringly, appealingly upon her father's broad shoulder, then slowly left the room. Simeon, forgo

that seemed stern only because his eyes were hid, gazing steadily at the flo

September. I'll have no trouble in rejoining my class.

her sons to college. Each son in turn had, with her assistance, tried to get together the sum-so small, yet so hugely large-necessary to make the start. But fate, now as sickness, now as crop failure, now as flood, and again as war, had b

are five grades-A, B, C, D, and E. I aimed for C, but

the hi

's what's called the gentleman's grade. All the f

at did

means I have

aze fixed upon a wreath of red roses in the pattern of the moquette carpet-that carpet upon which Adelaide, backed by Arthur, had waged vain war as the worst of the many, to cultured n

books. They're a narrow set-have no ideas-think th

o college to learn w

real thing is association-the friendships one ma

oes tha

se that he was himself not doing quite the manly, the courageous thing. Now, however, something in the tone of the last question, or, perhaps, some element that was lacking, roused in him a suspicion of depth in his simple unworldly father; and swift upon this awakenin

y," replied Arthur. "It

asked you t

put it in

y n

ld misun

hy

made no

ell me what you g

as no anger in that tone-no emotion of any kind. But what was

ur. "But it isn't so-really, it isn't. No one, not even the faculty,

r 's

ng the richest, the most distinguished men in the country. There are only about twenty or thirty of us, and we make the pace for the whole show-the whole university,

s 'the

in that sort of thing. It's a sort of-of manner. I

e right sor

ds. It's what makes you

nd look at another an

'gentleman'

t it is a

s it an

thur was

lemen at Harvard? And the catalogue says t

egan Arthur. But

rd ideal? So subtle and evanescent, so much a matter of the most delicate shadings was this ideal that he hi

iends of yours-your 'set,' as you

l of life that was elegant leisure, the patronage of literature and art, music, the drama, the turf, and the pur

of business method had forced him to make some records, and these he had expected to destroy without anyone but himself knowing of their existence. But in the new circumstances he felt he must not let his own false shame push the young man still farther from the right course. Arthur watched him open each paper in the bundle slowly, spread it out and, to put off the hateful moment for speech, pretend to peruse it de

a few-" mur

w m

ushed

ion his father lifted his eyes wi

d-in all-including the tail

e did not like that word "tradespeople," though it seemed harmless enough. "This last year, the total was," said

everal times that mu

?" inquir

, father," replied t

considered bad f

u mean by d

thur replied. "It's considered ungentlema

u spend the

the sports, and club dues, and entertainments, an

ree hundred dollars for tuto

to do tutorin

do with the mo

oney, f

said everybody had to do tutorin

he world"; he grew red, and stammered: "Oh,

ng? Who're the nobodies t

books day in and day out, and filled my head with musty stuff; because I've tried to get what I believe to be the broadest knowledge and experience; because I've associated with the best men, the fellows that come from the good families. You accept the bluff the faculty pu

father, who had not changed eithe

thur. "There are other ideals of

ng?" sugge

angry through and through. "You sent me East to co

ion?" inquired Hira

ked so hard to get for me. I'm not you, father. You'd despise me if I didn't have a character,

see," he said; "we'll see. You're wrong in thinking I'm angry, boy." He was looking at his son now, and his eyes made his son's passion vanish. He got up and went to the young man and laid his hand on his shoulder i

ssured her. They stood at the window watching their father as he walked up and down

ry angry?"

added: "I thought the trouble between us was that, while I understood him, he didn't understand me.