Alice Adams Booth Tarkington (ebook reader txt) đ
- Author: Booth Tarkington
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âWell, why donât they make you a member of the firm? Thatâs what they ought toâve done! Yes, and long ago!â
Adams laughed, but sighed with more heartiness than he had laughed. âThey call me their âoldest standbyâ down there.â He laughed again, apologetically, as if to excuse himself for taking a little pride in this title. âYes, sir; they say Iâm their âoldest standbyâ; and I guess they know they can count on my departmentâs turning in as good a report as they look for, at the end of every month; but they donât have to take a man into the firm to get him to do my work, dearie.â
âBut you said they depended on you, papa.â
âSo they do; but of course not soâs they couldnât get along without me.â He paused, reflecting. âI donât just seem to know how to put itâ âI mean how to put what I started out to say. I kind of wanted to tell youâ âwell, it seems funny to me, these last few years, the way your motherâs taken to feeling about it. Iâd like to see a better established wholesale drug business than Lamb and Company this side the Alleghaniesâ âI donât say bigger, I say better establishedâ âand itâs kind of funny for a man thatâs been with a business like that as long as I have to hear it called a âhole.â Itâs kind of funny when you think, yourself, youâve done pretty fairly well in a business like that, and the men at the head of it seem to think so, too, and put your salary just about as high as anybody could consider customaryâ âwell, what I mean, Alice, itâs kind of funny to have your mother think itâs mostly justâ âmostly just a failure, so to speak.â
His voice had become tremulous in spite of him; and this sign of weakness and emotion had sufficient effect upon Alice. She bent over him suddenly, with her arm about him and her cheek against his. âPoor papa!â she murmured. âPoor papa!â
âNo, no,â he said. âI didnât mean anything to trouble you. I just thoughtâ ââ He hesitated. âI just wonderedâ âI thought maybe it wouldnât be any harm if I said something about how things are down there. I got to thinking maybe you didnât understand itâs a pretty good place. Theyâre fine people to work for; and theyâve always seemed to think something of me;â âthe way they took Walter on, for instance, soon as I asked âem, last year. Donât you think that looked a good deal as if they thought something of me, Alice?â
âYes, papa,â she said, not moving.
âAnd the workâs right pleasant,â he went on. âMighty nice boys in our department, Alice. Well, they are in all the departments, for that matter. We have a good deal of fun down there somedays.â
She lifted her head. âMore than you do at home âsomedays,â I expect, papa!â she said.
He protested feebly. âNow, I didnât mean thatâ âI didnât want to trouble youâ ââ
She looked at him through winking eyelashes. âIâm sorry I called it a âhole,â papa.â
âNo, no,â he protested, gently. âIt was your mother said that.â
âNo. I did, too.â
âWell, if you did, it was only because youâd heard her.â
She shook her head, then kissed him. âIâm going to talk to her,â she said, and rose decisively.
But at this, her fatherâs troubled voice became quickly louder: âYou better let her alone. I just wanted to have a little talk with you. I didnât mean to start anyâ âyour mother wonâtâ ââ
âNow, papa!â Alice spoke cheerfully again, and smiled upon him. âI want you to quit worrying! Everythingâs going to be all right and nobodyâs going to bother you any more about anything. Youâll see!â
She carried her smile out into the hall, but after she had closed the door her face was all pity; and her mother, waiting for her in the opposite room, spoke sympathetically.
âWhatâs the matter, Alice? What did he say thatâs upset you?â
âWait a minute, mama.â Alice found a handkerchief, used it for eyes and suffused nose, gulped, then suddenly and desolately sat upon the bed. âPoor, poor, poor papa!â she whispered.
âWhy?â Mrs. Adams inquired, mildly. âWhatâs the matter with him? Sometimes you act as if he werenât getting well. Whatâs he been talking about?â
âMamaâ âwell, I think Iâm pretty selfish. Oh, I do!â
âDid he say you were?â
âPapa? No, indeed! What I mean is, maybe weâre both a little selfish to try to make him go out and hunt around for something new.â
Mrs. Adams looked thoughtful. âOh, thatâs what he was up to!â
âMama, I think we ought to give it up. I didnât dream it had really hurt him.â
âWell, doesnât he hurt us?â
âNever that I know of, mama.â
âI donât mean by saying things,â Mrs. Adams explained, impatiently. âThere are more ways than that of hurting people. When a man sticks to a salary that doesnât provide for his family, isnât that hurting them?â
âOh, it âprovidesâ for us well enough, mama. We have what we needâ âif I werenât so extravagant. Oh, I know I am!â
But at this admission her mother cried out sharply. âââExtravagantâ! You havenât one tenth of what the other girls you go with have. And you canât have what you ought to as long as he doesnât get out of that horrible place. It provides bare food and shelter for us, but whatâs that?â
âI donât think we ought to try any more to change him.â
âYou donât?â Mrs. Adams came and stood before her. âListen, Alice: your fatherâs asleep; thatâs his trouble, and heâs got to be waked up. He doesnât know that things have changed. When you and Walter were little children we did have enoughâ âat least it seemed to be about as much as most of the people we knew. But the town isnât what it was
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