McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

rfect days, the sky without a cloud, the air motionless, but touched with a certain nimbleness, a faint effervescence that was exhilarating. Then, without warning, during a night when a so

thumping heavily over the joints of the rails; market carts by the score came and went, driven at a great rate by preoccupied young men in their shirt sleeves, with pencils behind their ears, or by reckless boys in blood-stained butcher's aprons. Upon the sidewalks the little world of Polk Street swarmed and jostled through its daily round of life. On fine days the great ladies from the avenue, one b

ss in the roof of the public baths, looked glazed and varnished. The asphalt of the sidewalks shone like the surface of a patent

animals. She took her work to the bay window, spreading out a great square of canvas underneath her chair, to catch the chips and shavings, which she used afterwards for lighting fires. One after another she caught up the little block

r work, her hands falling idly into her lap, her eyes-her narrow, pale blue eyes-g

of which she had never dreamed in the old B Street days. But Trina loved her husband, not because she fancied she saw in him any of those noble and generous qualities that inspire affection. The dentist might or might not possess them, it was all one with Trina. She loved him because she had given herself to him freely, un

hours, at that time when the excitement and novelty of the honeymoon were dying down, when the new household wa

over their teacups the better part of the afternoon, then Trina had returned to her rooms. For nearly three hours McTeague had been out of her thoughts, and as she came through their little suite, singing softly to herself, she suddenly came upon him quite unexpectedly. Her husband was in the "Dental Parlors," lying back in his operating chair, fast asleep. The little stove was crammed with coke, the room was overheated, the air thick and foul with the odors of ether, of coke gas, of stale beer and che

r life. If it was as bad as this now, only three weeks after her marriage, how would it be in the years to come? Year after year, month after month, hour after hour, she was to see this same face, with its salient jaw, was to feel the touch of those enormous red hands, was to hear the heavy, elephantine tread of those huge feet-in thick gray socks. Year after year, day after day, there would be no change, and it would last all her life. Either it would be one long continued revulsion, or el

d awakened slowly. After a while he had taken down his concert

t little suite could be heard but two sounds, the lugubrious

rievance. With perverse inconsistency she began to wish him to come to her, to comf

hen Trina wished she were dead, and on the instant jumped up and ran into the "Dental Parlors," and

t exclaimed, starting up bew

nly LOVE me, love me

rew in spite of herself. She began to love him more and more, not for what he was, but for what she had given up to him. Only once again did Trina undergo a reaction against he

r modes of life to suit each other. Instead of sinking to McTeague's level as she had feared, Trina found that

Sunday afternoon's nap and beer in favor of three or four hours spent in the park with her-the weather permitting. So that gradually Trina's misgivings ceased, or when they did

que outbursts of affection when her only fear was that her husband's love did not equal her own. With

ogether, Mac, just us two and no one else? You love me as much as

od order and regulating the schedule of expenditure with an economy that often bordered on positive niggardliness. It was a passion with her to save money. In the bottom of her trunk, in the bedroom, she hid a brass match-safe that answered the purposes of a savings bank. Each time she added a quarter or a half dollar to the

w I'm a little m

to habits of extravagance, she had recoiled too far in the other direction. Never, never, never should a penny of that miraculous fortune be spent; rather should it be added to. It was a nest egg, a monstrous, roc-like nest egg

piness that was beyond words; even the smell of her wonderful odorous hair had sent a sensation of faintness all through him. That time was long past now. Those sudden outbursts of affection on the part of his little woman, outbursts that only

to the "Dental Parlors" when a patient was in the chair and, while he held the plugger, to have her rap in the gold fillings with the little box-wood mallet as he had taught her. But that tempest of passion, that overpowering desire that had suddenly taken possession of him th

his life would be for years to come. Trina was there; he was married and settled. He accepted the situation. The little animal comforts which for him constituted the enjoyment of life were ministered to at every turn, or when they were interfered with-as in the case of his Sunday afternoon's nap and beer-some agreeable substitute was found. In he

rts twice a week, and his collars and cuffs every second day. She broke him of the habit of eating with his knife, she caused him to substitute bottled beer in the place of steam beer, and she induced him to take off his hat to Miss Baker, to Heise's wife, and to the other women of his acquaintance. McTeague no longer spent an evening at Frenna's. Instead of this he brought a cou

apers, he subscribed to a dental magazine; on Easter, Christmas, and New Year's he went to church with Trina. He commenced to have opinions, convictions-it was not fair to deprive tax-paying women of the

mselves, with six rooms and a bath, with a grass plat in front and calla-lilies. Then there would be children. He would have a son, whose name would be Daniel, who would go to High School, and perhaps turn out to be a prosperous plumber or house painter. Then thi

happiness for the McTeagues; the new life jos

con and eggs, and a roll of Vienna bread from the bakery. The breakfast was eaten in the kitchen, on the round deal table covered with the shiny oilcloth table-spread tacked on. After breakfast t

ay, now in the grocer's store with its fragrant aroma of coffee and spices, and now before the counters of the haberdasher's, intent on a bit of shopping, turning over ends of veiling, strips of elastic, or slivers of whalebone. On the street she rubbed elbows with the great ladies of the avenue in their beautiful dresses, or at intervals she met an acquaintance or two-Miss Baker, or Heise's lame wife, or Mrs. Ryer. At times she passed the flat and looked up at the windows of her home, marked by the huge golden

ng with him the smell of creosote and of ether. They sat down to lunch in the sitting-room. They told each other of their doings throughout the forenoon; Trina showed her purchases, McTeague recounted the progress of an operation. At one o'clock they separated, the dentist returning to the "Parlors," Trina settling to her work on the Noah's ark animals. At about three o'clock she put this work away, and for th

uld scarcely address her a simple direction without Augustine quailing and shrinking; a reproof, however gentle, threw her into an agony of confusion; while Trina's anger promptly reduced her to a state of nervous collapse, wherein she lost all power of speech, while her head began to bob and nod with an incontrollable twitching of the muscles, much like the oscillations of the head of a toy donkey. Her timidity was exasperating, her very presence i

ances in the larger rooms of the flat, playing vigorously upon a mouth-organ and i

stores were brilliantly lighted and many of them still open. They walked about aimlessly, looking into the shop windows. Trina would take McTeague's arm, and he, very much embarrassed at that, would thrust both hands into his pockets and pretend not to notice. They stopped before the jewellers' and milliners' windows, finding a great delight in picking out things for each other, saying how they would choose this and that if they were rich. Trina did m

a tamale and a glass of beer, Mrs. Heise (who was a decayed writing teacher) ate salads, with glasses of grenadine and currant syrups. Heise drank cocktails and whiskey straight, and urged the dentist to join him. But McTeague

ly (since in Trina's estimation education meant knowing things and being able to talk about them). Wearying of this they w

ling of a brass band, while in the piano exhibit a hired performer was playing upon a concert grand with a great flourish. Nearer at hand they could catch ends of conversation and notes of laughter, the noise of moving dresses, and the rustle of st

es painted on black velvet and framed in gilt. They stood before it some little time, hazarding their opinions, and then moved on slowly from one picture to another. Trina had McTeague buy a catalogue and made a duty of finding the title

t she liked the "Ideal Heads," lovely girls with flowing straw-colored hair and immense,

e lovely, don't y

to understand. "Yes, yes, lovely, that's the word. Are you dead su

s taken by a German saloon, called a "Wein Stube," in the face of the protests of every female lodger. A few months later quite a little flurry of excitement ran through the street on the occasion of "The Polk Street Open Air Festival," organized to celebrate the introduction there of electric lights. The festival lasted three days and was quite an affair. The street was garlanded with yellow and white bunting; there were processions and "floats" and brass bands. Marcus Schouler was in his element during the whole time of the celeb

k you're smar

capacity through Heise the harness-maker. Marcus had evidently come to have political aspirations. It appeared that he was gaining a reputation as a maker of speeches, delivered with f

. Mr. Sieppe was losing money every month. Owgooste, who was to have gone to school, had been forced to go to work in "the store," picking waste. Mrs. Sieppe was obliged to take a lodger or two. Affai

ternoon passed that Trina and McTeague did not go and look at it. They stood for fully half an hour upon the other side of the street, examining every detail of its exterior, hazarding guesses as to the arrangement of the rooms, commenting upon its immediate neighborhood-which was rather sordid. The house was a wooden two-story arrangement, built by a misguided contractor in a sort of hideous Queen Anne style, all scrolls and meaningless mill work, with a cheap imitation of stained

zaar" next to Heise's harness-shop on Polk Street, while the oldest son played a third violin in the orchest

ed, they became promptly aware of an unwonted bustle going on upon the sidewalk in front of it. A dray was back against the curb, an express w

look!" gas

," muttered

hour the two stood upon the sidewalk opposite, watch

om, here a charming little parlor. As they came out upon the front steps once more they met the owner, an enormous, red-faced fellow, so fat that his walking seemed merely a certain movement of his feet by wh

do you thi

air, tilting back her he

e dollars and the water extra. I

wled the dentist

Trina, "but it'll cost so

were paupers. Ain't we g

en to the lobes of her tiny pale

you should talk like that. That m

nomies. "How much money have you got in that little brass match-safe in the bottom of your trunk? Pretty

, but her instinct of hoarding had led her to keep it a secr

ou talking of, Mac? I've not g

"We got the chance now, and it may never come again.

e awful saving

, I say let

dn't it be lovely to have a house all to ours

ime, received him in the "Parlors." Before he was well aware of it, McTeague had concluded the bargain. The owner bewildered him with a wo

ght," said McTeagu

ediately prod

's rent, and we'll call it a bargain. That's busi

ore with my wife about it

ner, easily. "I guess if the head of th

oon as he heard her come in, he laid down the plaster-of-paris mould he

aid, "we got that h

he answered, quickly.

paper for the fi

That's busine

arians moved out because it was absolutely unhealthy; there's water been standing in the basement for months. And she told me, too," Trina went on indignantly, "that she knew the owner, and she was sure we c

ague, helplessly, "we needn

forfeit it. Oh, you are so stupid! There's thirty-five dollars just thrown away. I SHAN'T go into that house;

hirty-five dollars," mumbled

r knew. Do you think we're millionaires? Oh, to think of losing thirty-five dollars like that." Tears were in her eyes, tears of grief as well as of anger. Never had McTe

ered the dentist, taken

d that money, that thirt

y-w

nto this fix, and you'll be t

are and share alike. Why, you said-you told m

d. How can you stand the

iferated McTeague, beginnin

a nickel. Mr. Heise pays his bill next week, it's forty-thre

safe," shouted the dentist, throwing out an arm with an awkwa

t a hundred dollars. You won't touch it

appen to be yours,

d Trina, her face scarlet, her teeth cl

more yours tha

nny of it

the owner; that's business, you know, that's business, you know; and now you go back on me

great affectation of indifference

ney." She pretended to assume a certain calmness as though the matter was some

I'll pay my half and he can come to you for the other hal

ried McTeague. "Come, now, yes

rd what

you pa

N

ow. All right, all right, keep your money. I'll pay the whole

o," returned Trina, "instead o

help me out?" Trina cut the heads of a

will

d in a mincing way, irritating to a last degree. The den

reserve, sulked in his "Dental Parlors," muttering terrible things beneath his mustache, or finding solace in his concertina, playing his six lugubrious airs

f the week they were as amicable as ever, but it was long before they spoke of the little house again. Nor did they ever revisit it of a Su

animals, she surprised herself crying over the affair. She loved her "old bear" too much to do him an injustice, and perhaps, after all, she had been in the wrong. Then it occurred to her how pretty it would

between her fingers. If not thirty-five dollars, then at least fifteen or sixteen, her share of

e him ten dollars. I'll tell him it's al

ail with a drop of glue, and tossing it into the basket at her side. Then she rose and went into the

wed. Trina kept the surplus in a chamois-skin sack she had made from an old chest protector. Just now, yielding to an impulse which often seized her, she drew out the match-box and the chamois sack, and emptying the contents on

ars-it will be four or five months before I can save that again. But, dear old Mac, I know it would make

from the heap and put the

in the appearance and weight of the little chamois bag! The bag was shrunken and withered, long wrinkles appeared running downward from the draw-string. It was a lamentable sight. Trina lo

's stronger than I." She returned the money to the bag and locked it and the br

er, as she went back into the si

the lottery I've become a regular little miser. It's growing on me