“If you are in earnest, if you intend to do a son’s part by us, go back into the bank and learn a good business. This ‘art’ you talk about, what is it? But the shifty resource of a lot of idle fellows. Get down to business. Dollars are what count, in this world. Put yourself in a place where you can make them, and while I am alive to aid you.”
Adrian’s whole nature rebelled against this command, yet he had obeyed it. And he had inwardly resolved that, outside the duties of his clerkship, his time was his own and should be devoted to his beloved painting.
“After all, some of the world’s finest pictures have been done by those whose leisure was scant. If it’s in me it will have to come out. Some time, in some way, I’ll live my own life in spite of all.”
It had hurt him, too, a little that his people so discouraged all history of his wanderings.
All of his sisters were married and well-connected, and one of them voiced the opinion of all, when she said:
“Your running away, or your behaving so that you had to be sent away, is quite disgrace enough. That you are back safe, and sensible, is all any of us care to know.”
But because he was forbidden to talk of his forest experiences he dwelt upon them all the more in his own mind; and this afternoon’s glimpse of Margot’s sunny head had awakened all his former interest. Why was she in New York? Was the “master” with her? He, of whom his own mother spoke in such ignorant contempt, as a “farmer,” a “lumberman,” yet who was the most finished scholar and gentleman that Adrian had ever met.
“Well, I can’t get home till after that wretched dinner, and I should have to wait for the next train, anyway, even if the ‘mater’ would let me off. I’ve promised myself to make her happy, dear little woman, if I can, and sulking over my own disappointments isn’t the way to do that,” he reflected. So he roused himself to talk of other matters, and naturally of the sister at whose home they were to dine.
“I don’t see what made Kate ever marry a warden of state’s prison. I should think life in such a place would be hateful.”
“That shows how little you know about it, and what a revelation this visit will be to you. Why, my dear, she has a beautiful home, with horses and carriages at her disposal; her apartments are finely furnished and she has one comfort that I have not, or few housekeepers in fact.”