The Second Generation

in the old-fashioned way-her thoughts, and usually her eyes, upon them all day, and one ear open all night. When she no longer had them to g

pirited boy and girl had taught her craft; without seeming to be

olor of sadness from his mood. She guessed that the actions of Adelaide and Arthur, so utterly different from the actions of the children of her and Hiram's young days-except those regarded by all worth-while people as "trifling and trashy"-had something to do with Hiram's gloom. She decided that Arthur's failure and his lightness of manner in face of it were the chief trouble-this

e gave the matter no importance until she heard him sigh heavily one night,

turn to an imitation of the r

insisted, "

nswered; "I must have ate somet

e no supper at

he confessed, "but it'll soon be over." He did not see the double meaning of his words until he h

now why I should ask what such a f

replied he, evading t

s!" she exclaimed. Drugs were her especial abhorrence. She le

to make a fuss,

nded, on the edge of th

the morning, mother. L

awake lo

nd he heard her moving across

a box of pills. You can

se. A not at all romantic figure she made, standing beside the sputtering gas jet, her spectacles balanced on her nose, her thin neck and forearms exposed, and her old face studying the lid of the pill box held in her toil- and age-worn hands. The box dropped from her fingers and r

dless breathing of the name that always

A pall-like silence; then upon his cheek, in long discontinued caress, a hand whose touch was as light and soft as the fall of a rose leaf-the hand of love that toi

ach other "father" and "mother." All these years the children had been between them, and each had held the other important

ging in her ears that knell which was clanging to him i

he said," sh

t exactly. The medic

him breathing as only a sleeper can breathe; but she watched on until morning. When they were dressing, each looked at the o

for the summer, she descended in state

As the "girl" still had not been replaced she answered the door herself. In a gingham w

, mistaking her for a servant and eying her disheve

oria in which sat Mrs. Whitney. "How d'ye do, Matilda?" she called. "Come right in. As usual when the canneries are run

touching the brim of his top hat

replied Mrs. Ranger; "

feeling and still more ashamed of being unable to conceal. "Go and put on something els

mind and a little contemptuous and a little resentful of it. "I guess Tilly

know would have accepted her statement as too cautious by hardly more than a year or so. The indisputably artificial detail in her elegant appearance was her hair; its tinting, which had to be made stronger year by y

on." She glanced behind her to make sure the carriage had driven away. "I don't know what we're coming to. I can't keep a man longer than six months. Servants don't appreciate a good ho

ng their own work,

e which said, "I'm too polite to a

nger, when they were in the "front parlor," the two

They both like it better in the East. All their friends are there and there's so much more to do." Mrs. Whitney s

in New York," said Mrs. Ranger.

not hear of my doing it. But I think he'll let us take an apartment at

xcuse me, Mattie, I must see what that cook's about. I'm afraid to l

mother has!" said Mrs

de wer

she was thinking, as she looked at Mrs. Whitney's artificiality and listened to those affected accents, that she was glad her mother was Ellen Ranger and not Matilda Whitney. "But mother doesn't believe sh

an artificial life. I often wish fate had been more kind to me. I was reading, the other day, that the Queen of England said she had t

ble existence, or, rather, it led her, from the moment her masseuse awakened her in the morning until her maid undressed her at night. But, although Adelaide was far too young, too inexperienced to know that jud

"I've been looking at it. You can't have been home long, yet the exposure to the sun is beginning to show. You have one of those difficult, thin skins, and one's skin is more than

y; and she hated wrapping herself in under broad brims and thick veils when the feeling of bareheadednes

indow which gave on the garden by way of a small balcony

llen; very painful were the reminders of the ravages of time from these people of about her own age, these whom she as a child had known as children. Crow's-feet and breaking contour and thin hair in those we have known only as gro

ntence before irritating him. To-day the very sight of her filled him with seemingly causeless anger. There was a time when he, watching Matilda improve away from her beginnings as the ignorant and awkward daughter of the keeper of a small hotel, had approved of her and had wished that Ellen would give more time to the matter of looks.

ssion of his eyes as he turned them upon her gave her a shock, but she forced the smile back into her face and went on,

rest. It's ridiculous, the way American men act. Now, Charles has never taken a real vacation. When he does go away he has

ied Hiram, "except the day I got married, and I never exp

asked Mrs. Whitney. "Don't you think we ought al

mean by hig

is to slur its projector; she wished her hearers to be dazzled, not moved to the

fashion plate, the evidence of pains, of correctness not instinctive but studied-the marks our new-sprung obstreperous aristocracy has made familiar to us all. It would have struck upon a sense of humor like a trivial twitter from the oboe trickling through a lull in the swell of brasses and strings; but Hiram Ranger had no sense of humor in that direction, had only his instinct for the right and the wrong. The falseness, the absence of the quality called "the real thing," made him bitter and sad. And, when his son joi

ride had scattered his depression of many weeks into a mere haze over the natural sunshine of youth and hea

an amused tone; "but you'll g

od a university can do a man. It seems to me a year or so abroad-traveling about, seeing the world-would be the

e uneasily at him as he unfolded this new scheme f

a tone intended to make Hiram ashamed of taking so nar

oice sounded curt. He added, i

atching the words not intended for her, and misun

tion with the most generous and indulgent of fathers. "You don't get his meaning, Mrs. Whitney," said he. "I, too, wish he were angry. I'm af

, with a look at him as sudden and

replied Arthur earnes

Whi

thur, who makes a splendid impression everywhere. He's the only western man that's got into exclusive soc

hout drying up utterly the discussion that had provoked it. Many people had noted the curious effect of that tone and had resolved to defy it

uldn't, want it," said Arthur, after the pause. "I

e question." There was tremendousness in his restrained energy and intensity as he went on: "What I'm thinking about is whether I

stared after him. "I don

ingly. "Don't worry. He'

o be a little m

uman intercourse. But he believed that his father would "come round all right," as Mrs. Whitney had so comfortingly said. How could it be otherwise when he had done nothing discreditable, but, on the

y some suspicion of the truth. She had known Hiram Ranger long, had had many a trying experience of his character, gentle as a trade wind-and as steady and unchangeable. Also, beneath her surface of desperate striving after the things

r visit to get to Saint X. "Wait until Ross is ready. T

the center-table in the back parlor after they rose from their knees. With his hands resting on the cover of the huge volume he looked at his son. There was a sacrificial expression in his eyes. "I have decided to withdraw Arthur's allowance," he said, a

d Hiram lef

iently to speak. "O mother," cried s

"It ain't no use to talk to him. I ain't lived all these years

ust!" exclai

er seen there before. It made her say: "O mothe

made the thought treason by uttering it. She followed her husband up

ophe, was thrilled with admiration of his silent, co

he surface. "He has me down and I've got to take his medicine

herself finally. "After all, Arthur will merely be doing as father does. There's something wrong with him, and with me, too, or we shouldn't think th