The Turmoil Booth Tarkington (best reads .txt) đ
- Author: Booth Tarkington
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âI said Miss Vertrees seems to be starting pretty strong with Jim,â repeated Mr. Lamhorn.
âI heard you.â There was a latent discontent always somewhere in her eyes, no matter what she threw upon the surface of cover it, and just now she did not care to cover it; she looked sullen. âStarting any stronger than you did with Edith?â she inquired.
âOh, keep the peace!â he said, crossly. âThatâs off, of course.â
âYou havenât been making her see it this eveningâ âprecisely,â said Sibyl, looking at him steadily. âYouâve talked to her forâ ââ
âFor Heavenâs sake,â he begged, âkeep the peace!â
âWell, what have you just been doing?â
âSh!â he said. âListen to your father-in-law.â
Sheridan was booming and braying louder than ever, the orchestra having begun to play âThe Rosary,â to his vast content.
âI count them over, la-la-tum-tee-dum,â he roared, beating the measures with his fork. âEach hour a pearl, each pearl tee-dum-tum-dumâ âWhatâs the matter with all you folks? Whyânât you sing? Miss Vertrees, I bet a thousand dollars you sing! Whyânâtâ ââ
âMr. Sheridan,â she said, turning cheerfully from the ardent Jim, âyou donât know what you interrupted! Your son isnât used to my rough ways, and my soldierâs wooing frightens him, but I think he was about to say something important.â
âIâll say something important to him if he doesnât!â the father threatened, more delighted with her than ever. âBy gosh! if I was his ageâ âor a widower right nowâ ââ
âOh, wait!â cried Mary. âIf theyâd only make less noise! I want Mrs. Sheridan to hear.â
âSheâd say the same,â he shouted. âSheâd tell me I was mighty slow if I couldnât get ahead oâ Jim. Why, when I was his ageâ ââ
âYou must listen to your father,â Mary interrupted, turning to Jim, who had grown red again. âHeâs going to tell us how, when he was your age, he made those two blades of grass grow out of a teacupâ âand you could see for yourself he didnât get them out of his sleeve!â
At that Sheridan pounded the table till it jumped. âLook here, young lady!â he roared. âSome oâ these days Iâm either goinâ to slap youâ âor Iâm goinâ to kiss you!â
Edith looked aghast; she was afraid this was indeed âtoo awful,â but Mary Vertrees burst into ringing laughter.
âBoth!â she cried. âBoth! The one to make me forget the other!â
âBut whichâ ââ he began, and then suddenly gave forth such stentorian trumpetings of mirth that for once the whole table stopped to listen. âJim,â he roared, âif you donât propose to that girl tonight Iâll send you back to the machine-shop with Bibbs!â
And Bibbsâ âdown among the retainers by the sugar Pump Works, and watching Mary Vertrees as a ragged boy in the street might watch a rich little girl in a gardenâ âBibbs heard. He heardâ âand he knew what his fatherâs plans were now.
VIIMrs. Vertrees âsat upâ for her daughter, Mr. Vertrees having retired after a restless evening, not much soothed by the society of his Landseers. Mary had taken a key, insisting that he should not come for her and seeming confident that she would not lack for escort; nor did the sequel prove her confidence unwarranted. But Mrs. Vertrees had a long vigil of it.
She was not the woman to make herself easyâ âno servant had ever seen her in a wrapperâ âand with her hair and dress and her shoes just what they had been when she returned from the afternoonâs call, she sat through the slow night hours in a stiff little chair under the gaslight in her own room, which was directly over the front hall. There, book in hand, she employed the time in her own reminiscences, though it was her belief that she was reading Madame de Remusatâs.
Her thoughts went backward into her life and into her husbandâs; and the deeper into the past they went, the brighter the pictures they brought herâ âand there is tragedy. Like her husband, she thought backward because she did not dare think forward definitely. What thinking forward this troubled couple ventured took the form of a slender hope which neither of them could have borne to hear put in words, and yet they had talked it over, day after day, from the very hour when they heard Sheridan was to build his New House next door. Forâ âso quickly does any ideal of human behavior become an antiqueâ âtheir youth was of the innocent old days, so dead! of âbreedingâ and âgentility,â and no craft had been more straitly trained upon them than that of talking about things without mentioning them. Herein was marked the most vital difference between Mr. and Mrs. Vertrees and their big new neighbor. Sheridan, though his youth was of the same epoch, knew nothing of such matters. He had been chopping wood for the morning fire in the country grocery while they were still dancing.
It was after one oâclock when Mrs. Vertrees heard steps and the delicate clinking of the key in the lock, and then, with the opening of the door, Maryâs laugh, and âYesâ âif you arenât afraidâ âtomorrow!â
The door closed, and she rushed upstairs, bringing with her a breath of cold and bracing air into her motherâs room. âYes,â she said, before Mrs. Vertrees could speak, âhe brought me home!â
She let her cloak fall upon the bed, and, drawing an old red-velvet rocking-chair forward, sat beside her mother after giving her a light pat upon the shoulder and a hearty kiss upon the cheek.
âMamma!â Mary exclaimed, when Mrs. Vertrees had expressed a hope that she had enjoyed the evening and had not caught cold. âWhy donât you ask me?â
This inquiry obviously made her mother uncomfortable. âI donâtâ ââ she faltered. âAsk you what, Mary?â
âHow I got along and what heâs like.â
âMary!â
âOh, it isnât distressing!â said
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