One of the worst stabs — it was the cruellest because, in a way, it was the most unintentional — he received from an old acquaintance, Will Whitney, at the Union Club. Lester was dining there one evening, and Whitney met him in the main reading-room as he was crossing from the cloak-room to the cigar-stand. The latter was a typical society figure, tall, lean, smooth-faced, immaculately garbed, a little cynical, and tonight a little the worse for liquor. “Hi, Lester!” he called out, “what’s this talk about a menage of yours out in Hyde Park? Say, you’re going some. How are you going to explain all this to your wife when you get married?”
“I don’t have to explain it,” replied Lester irritably. “Why should you be so interested in my affairs? You’re not living in a stone house, are you?”
“Say, ha! ha! that’s pretty good now, isn’t it? You didn’t marry that little beauty you used to travel around with on the North Side, did you? Eh, now! Ha, ha! Well, I swear. You married! You didn’t, now, did you?”
“Cut it out, Whitney,” said Lester roughly. “You’re talking wild.”
“Pardon, Lester,” said the other aimlessly, but sobering. “I beg your pardon. Remember, I’m just a little warm. Eight whisky-sours straight in the other room there. Pardon. I’ll talk to you some time when I’m all right. See, Lester? Eh! Ha! ha! I’m a little loose, that’s right. Well, so long! Ha! ha!”
Lester could not get over that cacophonous “ha! ha!” It cut him, even though it came from a drunken man’s mouth. “That little beauty you used to travel with on the North Side. You didn’t marry her, did you?” He quoted Whitney’s impertinences resentfully. George! But this was getting a little rough! He had never endured anything like this before — he, Lester Kane. It set him thinking. Certainly he was paying dearly for trying to do the kind thing by Jennie.
❦
Chapter XLI
But worse was to follow. The American public likes gossip about well-known people, and the Kanes were wealthy and socially prominent. The report was that Lester, one of its principal heirs, had married a servant girl. He, an heir to millions! Could it be possible? What a piquant morsel for the newspapers! Very soon the paragraphs began to appear. A small society paper, called the South Side Budget, referred to him anonymously as “the son of a famous and wealthy carriage manufacturer of Cincinnati,” and outlined briefly what it knew of the story. “Of Mrs. ——” it went on, sagely, “not so much is known, except that she once worked in a well-known Cleveland society family as a maid and was, before that, a working-girl in Columbus, Ohio. After such a picturesque love-affair in high society who shall say that romance is dead?”
Lester saw this item. He did not take the paper, but some kind soul took good care to see that a copy was marked and mailed to him. It irritated him greatly, for he suspected at once that it was a scheme to blackmail him. But he did not know exactly what to do about it. He preferred, of course, that such comments should cease, but he also thought that if he made any effort to have them stopped he might make matters worse. So he did nothing. Naturally, the paragraph in the Budget attracted the attention of other newspapers. It sounded like a good story, and one Sunday editor, more enterprising than the others, conceived the notion of having this romance written up. A full-page Sunday story with a scare-head such as “Sacrifices Millions for His Servant Girl Love,” pictures of Lester, Jennie, the house at Hyde Park, the Kane manufactory at Cincinnati, the warehouse on Michigan Avenue — certainly, such a display would make a sensation. The Kane Company was not an advertiser in any daily or Sunday paper. The newspaper owed him nothing. If Lester had been forewarned he might have put a stop to the whole business by putting an advertisement in the paper or appealing to the publisher. He did not know, however, and so was without power to prevent the publication. The editor made a thorough job of the business. Local newspaper men in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus were instructed to report by wire whether anything of Jennie’s history was known in their city. The Bracebridge family in Cleveland was asked whether Jennie had ever worked there. A garbled history of the Gerhardts was obtained from Columbus. Jennie’s residence on the North Side, for several years prior to her supposed marriage, was discovered and so the whole story was nicely pieced together. It was not the idea of the newspaper editor to be cruel or critical, but rather complimentary. All the bitter things, such as the probable illegitimacy of Vesta, the suspected immorality of Lester and Jennie in residing together as man and wife, the real grounds of the well-known objections of his family to the match, were ignored. The idea was to frame up a Romeo and Juliet story in which Lester should appear as an ardent, self-sacrificing lover, and Jennie as a poor and lovely working-girl, lifted to great financial and social heights by the devotion of her millionaire lover. An exceptional newspaper artist was engaged to make scenes depicting the various steps of the romance and the whole thing was handled in the most approved yellow-journal style. There was a picture of Lester obtained from his Cincinnati photographer for a consideration; Jennie had been surreptitiously “snapped” by a staff artist while she was out walking.
And so, apparently out of a clear sky, the story appeared — highly complimentary, running over with sugary phrases, but with all the dark, sad facts looming up in the background. Jennie did not see it at first. Lester came across the page accidentally, and tore it out. He was stunned and chagrined beyond words. “To think the damned newspaper would do that to a private citizen who was quietly minding his own business!” he thought. He went out of the house, the better to conceal his deep inward mortification. He avoided the more populous parts of the town, particularly the downtown section, and rode far out on Cottage Grove Avenue to the open prairie. He wondered, as the trolley-car rumbled along, what his friends were thinking — Dodge, and Burnham Moore, and Henry Aldrich, and the others. This was a smash, indeed. The best he could do was to put a brave face on it and say nothing, or else wave it off with an indifferent motion of the hand. One thing was sure — he would prevent further comment. He returned to the house calmer, his self-poise restored, but he was eager for Monday to come in order that he might get in touch with his lawyer, Mr. Watson. But when he did see Mr. Watson it was soon agreed between the two men that it would be foolish to take any legal action. It was the part of wisdom to let the matter drop. “But I won’t stand for anything more,” concluded Lester.
“I’ll attend to that,” said the lawyer, consolingly.
Lester got up. “It’s amazing — this damned country of ours!” he exclaimed. “A man with a little money hasn’t any more privacy than a public monument.”
“A man with a little money,” said Mr. Watson, “is just like a cat with a bell around its neck. Every rat knows exactly where it is and what it is doing.”
“That’s an apt simile,” assented Lester, bitterly.
Jennie knew nothing of this newspaper story for several days. Lester felt that he could not talk it over, and Gerhardt never read the wicked Sunday newspapers. Finally, one of Jennie’s neighbourhood friends, less tactful than the others, called her attention to the fact of its appearance by announcing that she had seen it. Jennie did not understand at first. “A story about me?” she exclaimed.
“You and Mr. Kane, yes,” replied her guest. “Your love romance.”
Jennie coloured swiftly. “Why, I hadn’t seen it,” she said. “Are you sure it was about us?”
“Why, of course,” laughed Mrs. Stendahl. “How could I be mistaken? I have the paper over at the house. I’ll send Marie over with it when I get back. You look very sweet in your picture.”
Jennie winced.
“I wish you would,” she said, weakly.
She was wondering where they had secured her picture, what the article said. Above all, she was dismayed to think of its effect upon Lester. Had he seen the article? Why had he not spoken to her about it?
The neighbour’s daughter brought over the paper, and Jennie’s heart stood still as she glanced at the title-page. There it all was — uncompromising and direct. How dreadfully conspicuous the headline —“This Millionaire Fell in Love With This Lady’s Maid,” which ran between a picture of Lester on the left and Jennie on the right. There was an additional caption which explained how Lester, son of the famous carriage family of Cincinnati, had sacrificed great social opportunity and distinction to marry his heart’s desire. Below were scattered a number of other pictures — Lester addressing Jennie in the mansion of Mrs. Bracebridge, Lester standing with her before an imposing and conventional-looking parson, Lester driving with her in a handsome victoria, Jennie standing beside the window of an imposing mansion (the fact that it was a mansion being indicated by most sumptuous-looking hangings) and gazing out on a very modest working-man’s cottage pictured in the distance. Jennie felt as though she must die for very shame. She did not so much mind what it meant to her, but Lester, Lester, how must he feel? And his family? Now they would have another club with which to strike him and her. She tried to keep calm about it, to exert emotional control, but again the tears would rise, only this time they were tears of opposition to defeat. She did not want to be hounded this way. She wanted to be let alone. She was trying to do right now. Why couldn’t the world help her, instead of seeking to push her down?
❦
Chapter XLII
The fact that Lester had seen this page was made perfectly clear to Jennie that evening, for he brought it home himself, having concluded, after mature deliberation, that he ought to. He had told her once that there was to be no concealment between them, and this thing, coming so brutally to disturb their peace, was nevertheless a case in point. He had decided to tell her not to think anything of it — that it did not make much difference, though to him it made all the difference in the world. The effect of this chill history could never be undone. The wise — and they included all his social world and many who were not of it — could see just how he had been living. The article which accompanied the pictures told how he had followed Jennie from Cleveland to Chicago, how she had been coy and distant and that he had to court her a long time to win her consent. This was to explain their living together on the North Side. Lester realised that this was an asinine attempt to sugar-coat the true story and it made him angry. Still he preferred to have it that way rather than in some more brutal vein. He took the paper out of his pocket when he arrived at the house, spreading it on the library table. Jennie, who was close by, watched him, for she knew what was coming.
“Here’s something that will interest you, Jennie,” he said dryly, pointing to the array of text and pictures.
“I’ve already seen it, Lester,” she said wearily. “Mrs. Stendahl showed it to me this afternoon. I was wondering whether you had.”
“Rather high-flown description of my attitude, isn’t it? I didn’t know I was such an ardent Romeo.”
“I’m awfully sorry, Lester,” said Jennie, reading behind the dry face of humour the serious import of this affair to him. She had long since learned that Lester did not express his real feeling, his big ills in words. He was inclined to jest and make light of the inevitable, the inexorable. This light comment merely meant “this matter cannot be helped, so we will make the best of it.”
“Oh, don’t feel badly about it,” he went on. “It isn’t anything which can be adjusted now. They probably meant well enough. We just happen to be in the limelight.”
“I understand,” said Jennie, coming over to him. “I’m sorry, though, anyway.” Dinner was announced a moment later and the incident was closed.
But Lester could not dismiss the thought that matters were getting in a bad way. His father had pointed it out to him rather plainly at the last interview, and now this newspaper notoriety had capped the climax. He might as well abandon his pretension to intimacy with his old world. It would have none of him, or at least the more conservative part of it would not. There were a few bachelors, a few gay married men, some sophisticated women, single and married, who saw through it all and liked him just the same, but they did not make society. He was virtually an outcast, and nothing could save him but to reform his ways; in other words, he must give up Jennie once and for all.
But he did not want to do this. The thought was painful to him — objectionable in every way. Jennie was growing in mental acumen. She was beginning to see things quite as clearly as he did. She was not a cheap, ambitious, climbing creature. She was a big woman and a good one. It would be a shame to throw her down, and besides she was good-looking. He was forty-six and she was twenty-nine; and she looked twenty-four or five. It is an exceptional thing to find beauty, youth, compatibility, intelligence, your own point of view — softened and charmingly emotionalised — in another. He had made his bed, as his father had said. He had better lie on it.
It was only a little while after this disagreeable newspaper incident that Lester had word that his father was quite ill and failing; it might be necessary for him to go to Cincinnati at any moment. Pressure of work was holding him pretty close when the news came that his father was dead. Lester, of course, was greatly shocked and grieved, and he returned to Cincinnati in a retrospective and sorrowful mood. His father had been a great character to him — a fine and interesting old gentleman entirely aside from his relationship to him as his son. He remembered him now dandling him upon his knee as a child, telling him stories of his early life in Ireland, and of his subsequent commercial struggle when he was a little older, impressing the maxims of his business career and his commercial wisdom on him as he grew to manhood. Old Archibald had been radically honest. It was to him that Lester owed his instincts for plain speech and direct statement of fact. “Never lie,” was Archibald’s constant, reiterated statement. “Never try to make a thing look different from what it is to you. It’s the breath of life — truth — it’s the basis of real worth, while commercial success — it will make a notable character of any one who will stick to it.” Lester believed this. He admired his father intensely for his rigid insistence on truth, and now that he was really gone he felt sorry. He wished he might have been spared to be reconciled to him. He half fancied that old Archibald would have liked Jennie if he had known her. He did not imagine that he would ever have had the opportunity to straighten things out, although he still felt that Archibald would have liked her.
When he reached Cincinnati it was snowing, a windy, blustery snow. The flakes were coming down thick and fast. The traffic of the city had a muffled sound. When he stepped down from the train he was met by Amy, who was glad to see him in spite of all their past differences. Of all the girls she was the most tolerant. Lester put his arms about her, and kissed her.
“It seems like old times to see you, Amy,” he said, “your coming to meet me this way. How’s the family? I suppose they’re all here. Well, poor father, his time had to come. Still, he lived to see everything that he wanted to see. I guess he was pretty well satisfied with the outcome of his efforts.”
“Yes,” replied Amy, “and since mother died he was very lonely.”
They rode up to the house in kindly good feeling, chatting of old times and places. All the members of the immediate family, and the various relatives, were gathered in the old family mansion. Lester exchanged the customary condolences with the others, realising all the while that his father had lived long enough. He had had a successful life, and had fallen like a ripe apple from the tree. Lester looked at him where he lay in the great parlour, in his black coffin, and a feeling of the old-time affection swept over him. He smiled at the clean-cut, determined, conscientious face.
“The old gentleman was a big man all the way through,” he said to Robert, who was present. “We won’t find a better figure of a man soon.”
“We will not,” said his brother, solemnly.
After the funeral it was decided to read the will at once. Louise’s husband was anxious to return to Buffalo; Lester was compelled to be in Chicago. A conference of the various members of the family was called for the second day after the funeral, to be held at the offices of Messrs. Knight, Keatley and O’Brien, counsellors of the late manufacturer.
As Lester rode to the meeting he had the feeling that his father had not acted in any way prejudicial to his interests. It had not been so very long since they had had their last conversation; he had been taking his time to think about things, and his father had given him time. He always felt that he had stood well with the old gentleman, except for his alliance with Jennie. His business judgment had been valuable to the company. Why should there be any discrimination against him? He really did not think it possible.
When they reached the offices of the law firm, Mr. O’Brien, a short, fussy, albeit comfortable-looking little person, greeted all the members of the family and the various heirs and assigns with a hearty handshake. He had been personal counsel to Archibald Kane for twenty years. He knew his whims and idiosyncrasies, and considered himself very much in the light of a father confessor. He liked all the children, Lester especially.
“Now I believe we are all here,” he said, finally, extracting a pair of large horn reading-glasses from his coat pocket and looking sagely about. “Very well. We might as well proceed to business. I will just read the will without any preliminary remarks.”
He turned to his desk, picked up a paper lying upon it, cleared his throat, and began.
It was a peculiar document, in some respects, for it began with all the minor bequests; first, small sums to old employees, servants, and friends. It then took up a few institutional bequests, and finally came to the immediate family, beginning with the girls. Imogene, as a faithful and loving daughter was left a sixth of the stock of the carriage company and a fourth of the remaining properties of the deceased, which roughly aggregated (the estate — not her share) about eight hundred thousand dollars. Amy and Louise were provided for in exactly the same proportion. The grandchildren were given certain little bonuses for good conduct, when they should come of age. Then it took up the cases of Robert and Lester.
“Owing to certain complications which have arisen in the affairs of my son Lester,” it began, “I deem it my duty to make certain conditions which shall govern the distribution of the remainder of my property, to wit: One-fourth of the stock of the Kane Manufacturing Company and one-fourth of the remainder of my various properties, real, personal, moneys, stocks and bonds, to go to my beloved son Robert, in recognition of the faithful performance of his duty, and one-fourth of the stock of the Kane Manufacturing Company and the remaining fourth of my various properties, real, personal, moneys, stocks and bonds, to be held in trust by him for the benefit of his brother Lester, until such time as such conditions as may hereinafter be set forth shall have been complied with. And it is my wish and desire that my children shall concur in his direction of the Kane Manufacturing Company, and of such other interests as are entrusted to him, until such time as he shall voluntarily relinquish such control, or shall indicate another arrangement which shall be better.”
Lester swore under his breath. His cheeks changed colour, but he did not move. He was not inclined to make a show. It appeared that he was not even mentioned separately.
The conditions “hereinafter set forth” dealt very fully with his case, however, though they were not read aloud to the family at the time, Mr. O’Brien stating that this was in accordance with their father’s wish. Lester learned immediately afterward that he was to have ten thousand a year for three years, during which time he had the choice of doing either one of two things: First, he was to leave Jennie, if he had not already married her, and so bring his life into moral conformity with the wishes of his father. In this event Lester’s share of the estate was to be immediately turned over to him. Secondly, he might elect to marry Jennie, if he had not already done so, in which case the ten thousand a year, specifically set aside to him for three years, was to be continued for life — but for his life only. Jennie was not to have anything of it after his death. The ten thousand in question represented the annual interest on two hundred shares of L.S. and M.S. stock which were also to be held in trust until his decision had been reached and their final disposition effected. If Lester refused to marry Jennie, or to leave her, he was to have nothing at all after the three years were up. At Lester’s death the stock on which his interest was drawn was to be divided pro rata among the surviving members of the family. If any heir or assign contested the will, his or her share was thereby forfeited entirely.
It was astonishing to Lester to see how thoroughly his father had taken his case into consideration. He half suspected, on reading these conditions, that his brother Robert had had something to do with the framing of them, but of course he could not be sure. Robert had not given any direct evidence of enmity.
“Who drew this will?” he demanded of O’Brien, a little later.
“Well, we all had a hand in it,” replied O’Brien, a little shamefacedly. “It was a very difficult document to draw up. You know, Mr. Kane, there was no budging your father. He was adamant. He has come very near defeating his own wishes in some of these clauses. Of course, you know, we had nothing to do with its spirit. That was between you and him. I hated very much to have to do it.”
“Oh, I understand all that!” said Lester. “Don’t let that worry you.”
Mr. O’Brien was very grateful.
During the reading of the will Lester had sat as stolid as an ox.
He got up after a time, as did the others, assuming an air of nonchalance. Robert, Amy, Louise and Imogene all felt shocked, but not exactly, not unqualifiedly regretful. Certainly Lester had acted very badly. He had given his father great provocation.
“I think the old gentleman has been a little rough in this,” said Robert, who had been sitting next him. “I certainly did not expect him to go as far as that. So far as I am concerned some other arrangement would have been satisfactory.”
Lester smiled grimly. “It doesn’t matter,” he said.
Imogene, Amy, and Louise were anxious to be consolatory, but they did not know what to say. Lester had brought it all on himself. “I don’t think papa acted quite right, Lester,” ventured Amy, but Lester waved her away almost gruffly.
“I can stand it,” he said.
He figured out, as he stood there, what his income would be in case he refused to comply with his father’s wishes. Two hundred shares of L.S. and M.S., in open market, were worth a little over one thousand each. They yielded from five to six per cent., sometimes more, sometimes less. At this rate he would have ten thousand a year, not more.
The family gathering broke up, each going his way, and Lester returned to his sister’s house. He wanted to get out of the city quickly, gave business as an excuse to avoid lunching with any one, and caught the earliest train back to Chicago. As he rode he meditated.
So this was how much his father really cared for him! Could it really be so? He, Lester Kane, ten thousand a year, for only three years, and then longer only on condition that he married Jennie! “Ten thousand a year,” he thought, “and that for three years! Good Lord! Any smart clerk can earn that. To think he should have done that to me!”
❦
Chapter XLIII
This attempt at coercion was the one thing which would definitely set Lester in opposition to his family, at least for the time being. He had realised clearly enough of late that he had made a big mistake; first in not having married Jennie, thus avoiding scandal; and in the second place in not having accepted her proposition at the time when she wanted to leave him. There were no two ways about it, he had made a mess of this business. He could not afford to lose his fortune entirely. He did not have enough money of his own. Jennie was unhappy, he could see that. Why shouldn’t she be? He was unhappy. Did he want to accept the shabby ten thousand a year, even if he were willing to marry her? Finally, did he want to lose Jennie, to have her go out of his life once and for all? He could not make up his mind; the problem was too complicated.
When Lester returned to his home, after the funeral, Jennie saw at once that something was amiss with him, something beyond a son’s natural grief for his father’s death was weighing upon his spirits. What was it, she wondered. She tried to draw near to him sympathetically, but his wounded spirit could not be healed so easily. When hurt in his pride he was savage and sullen — he could have struck any man who irritated him. She watched him interestedly, wishing to do something for him, but he would not give her his confidence. He grieved, and she could only grieve with him.
Days passed, and now the financial situation which had been created by his father’s death came up for careful consideration. The factory management had to be reorganised. Robert would have to be made president, as his father wished. Lester’s own relationship to the business would have to come up for adjudication. Unless he changed his mind about Jennie, he was not a stockholder. As a matter of fact, he was not anything. To continue to be secretary and treasurer, it was necessary that he should own at least one share of the company’s stock. Would Robert give him any? Would Amy, Louise, or Imogene? Would they sell him any? Would the other members of the family care to do anything which would infringe on Robert’s prerogatives under the will? They were all rather unfriendly to Lester at present, and he realised that he was facing a ticklish situation. The solution was — to get rid of Jennie. If he did that he would not need to be begging for stock. If he didn’t, he was flying in the face of his father’s last will and testament. He turned the matter over in his mind slowly and deliberately. He could quite see how things were coming out. He must abandon either Jennie or his prospects in life. What a dilemma!
Despite Robert’s assertion, that so far as he was concerned another arrangement would have been satisfactory, he was really very well pleased with the situation; his dreams were slowly nearing completion. Robert had long had his plans perfected, not only for a thorough reorganisation of the company proper, but for an extension of the business in the direction of a combination of carriage companies. If he could get two or three of the larger organisations in the East and West to join with him, selling costs could be reduced, over-production would be avoided, and the general expenses could be materially scaled down. Through a New York representative, he had been picking up stock in outside carriage companies for some time and he was almost ready to act. In the first place he would have himself elected president of the Kane Company, and since Lester was no longer a factor, he could select Amy’s husband as vice-president, and possibly some one other than Lester as secretary and treasurer. Under the conditions of the will, the stock and other properties set aside temporarily for Lester, in the hope that he would come to his senses, were to be managed and voted by Robert. His father had meant, obviously, that he, Robert, should help him coerce his brother. He did not want to appear mean, but this was such an easy way. It gave him a righteous duty to perform. Lester must come to his senses or he must let Robert run the business to suit himself.
Lester, attending to his branch duties in Chicago, foresaw the drift of things. He realised now that he was permanently out of the company, a branch manager at his brother’s sufferance, and the thought irritated him greatly. Nothing had been said by Robert to indicate that such a change had taken place — things went on very much as before — but Robert’s suggestions were now obviously law. Lester was really his brother’s employee at so much a year. It sickened his soul.
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