National Avenue Booth Tarkington (best e reader for academics .txt) đ
- Author: Booth Tarkington
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âHarlan, dear,â she said, âyour father and I both know youâve always acted conscientiously in everything youâve ever done; and of course what motherâs given you ought to be regarded as a sacred trust. Youâre right to say youâll take care if it, but we feelâ âI mean your father and I feelâ ââ She faltered, and appealed to her husband: âYou do feel that perhapsâ âperhaps under the circumstancesâ âperhapsâ ââ
âYes,â Mr. Oliphant said as she came to a helpless stop;â ââI think under the circumstances Harlan mightâ âmight properly see fit toâ ââ But here he, too, hesitated and seemed unable to continue.
Their son, however, understood them perfectly, and turned sharply to face them. âOf course I knew youâd ask it,â he said, and an old bitterness, long held down within him, came to the surface. âI knew you wanted me to let Dan have even that twenty-five thousand dollars grandfather left me. You really wanted me to let him throw it away along with his own, though you never spoke out and asked me to do it. Martha Shelby did, though. She spoke out plainly enough! The fact that grandfather gave it to me never entered her head. She only thought I was miserly for not putting it into Danâs hands to be squandered. Thatâs what she thought, and Iâve understood all along that my mother and my father had a great deal the same feeling.â
âNo, no,â his mother protested, for the bitterness in his voice had increased as he spoke. âWe never reproached you, dear.â
âNo, not in words maybe.â
âNo, not in any way,â she said. âIt was right of you to take care of it, and youâd be right now to take care of what youâll have. Your father and I only mean that now you have so muchâ ââ
âNow that I have so much,â Harlan echoed, âI ought to throw away part of it, even though grandmaâs trusted me to save it from just this very wastage and to take care of every bit of it?â
âNo, no; it isnât that,â Mrs. Oliphant said; and with pathetically naive artfulness she changed the basis of her appeal. âBut you know, dear, you were just telling us how much Martha had wanted you to help Danâ âsheâs always been such a devoted friend of hisâ âand you said that after she hears about motherâs bequest to you, she may take it as a kind of supplanting your brother, and it would be harder than ever for you to make her fond of you; so donât you seeâ âdonât you see what a splendid effect it would have on her now, when youâve got so much, dear, and could spare itâ âdonât you see, if youâdâ âif youâdâ ââ
âYes, I see,â Harlan said grimly. âYou think Martha might even admire me enough to marry me, if Iâd say to Dan: âHere! I wonât accept all this that should have been yours. Hereâs half of it.âââ
âOh, no,â she cried, âI didnât mean half of it; I only meant you mightâ ââ
âNo,â Harlan said; ânot any, motherâ ânot a dime! I wonât impress Martha with a pose. I donât want her or anybody else to like me because of a pose.â
âWould it be a pose,â Mr. Oliphant asked gravely, âto help your brother?â
âWouldnât it?â Harlan returned as gravely. âIsnât it a pose to do something that isnât natural to you, simply to make a woman admire you? Iâd call that a pose, myself, though you may have another definition of the word. Iâm not caring to get admiration that way, sir.â
âAll right,â his father said, nodding, as the fragile edifice of Mrs. Oliphantâs gentle cunning was thus dispersed upon the air. âI should say you had the right spirit there. But why need it be an attitude? Wouldnât you really like to help Dan out a little, Harlan?â
Harlan sighed. âNot in a failure, sir. First and last heâs had a pretty long chance to prove what he could do with his Addition, and heâs no nearer succeeding today than he was when he began. Instead, heâs lost all his money and all his time. All heâs done was to spoil a farm.â
âBut if he had some really substantial assistance, itâs not absolutely impossible he mightâ ââ
âNo, sir,â Harlan said definitely; âI donât believe in it, and Iâll never do it. I didnât want to supplant him. I didnât ask for what grandmaâs done for me; I never did one thing to get it, or for the purpose of making her like me; and, as a matter of fact, she didnât do it because she liked me. But she did know Iâd take care of it, and Iâm going to prove she was right about that, anyhow. I wonât throw any of it away on an attitude to make Martha Shelby think well of me. Of course sheâll be all the surer sheâs right about me, now that I donât do anything for him, though I have so much!â He picked up the copy of Mrs. Savageâs will from the table where his father had left it, and, sitting down again, prepared to look over it; but, as he placed in position the eyeglasses already necessary to him when he read, he sent a sidelong glance toward his parents, a glance in which there was the bitterness of an ancient pain. âI wouldnât even throw any of it away to make my father and mother like me a little better, either,â he said.
Mrs. Oliphant cried out reproachfully: âOh, Harlan!â and she would have said more; but her husband shook his head at her, and she was silent. Harlan finished his reading, set the manuscript down upon the table, and went away without speaking again, so that his parents were left to themselves and a thoughtful, somewhat melancholy silence.
Mrs. Oliphant broke it diffidently. âYou donât think mother ever dreamed thatâ ââ
âThat he might help Dan? No; not with the Addition. Harlanâs right
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