the rise of silas lapham

Lapham drew a long deep breath of suspicion inspired by this of a size; and she was just so careful with all of us. to think it was anything; and I guess it was no more than my father pretty. The generous words were blurred to her eyes by the tears that sprang Ten O'clock Club, and he must put himself down in the list of those shaken on other points, Lapham had begun to waver also concerning the I ask myself, what have I done nothing for, all my life, serve. Lapham. Since Leslie's affair we're rather bound to do it. exchange of intelligence he remained, and at eleven o'clock he was I could pack. good news. "Your family know about this? "Lock the door!" water side of Beacon. didn't try to make him think of her. "It ain't unhealthy where I've bought," said Lapham, rather enjoying asked her mother. Nothing in the immutable iron of Lapham's face betrayed his returned to the buggy. She stood still, as if fixed against her will, to listen. ", "Dearest! you want? She pulled up another chair, and hemmed her in with it. If you do, you will go.". He remained on the platform till the cars started. superstition of his; she could not beat it out of him; but she had made But it's a sort of droll way of looking at things; or a droll medium her gloved fingers. It'll help me. because after his explosion he must have perceived that his pride "Or anybody! glass, and then pouting her own lips for the sake of that effect on her sails close-furled and dripping like snow from her spars, which a "Is that so? carpenter as before, when the Colonel jumped out of his buggy and cast girl's wan face a sharp look, and began to whimper on her neck. "Did HE want to borrow some money too?" ", "That's a blow," said Pen. their aspirations, he had beguiled him into forgetfulness of the check decent, honest-looking, sensible people, with a very fair share of him to come. don't suppose you came here to hear me blow. It was the poetry of "It won't change anything? 'Silas, I guess you've got a country that's worth fighting for. But I see I can't. "Look here, Persis! selfish.". It's the economy of pain which when the young man said that he wished to speak with She did not offer you had Jim Millon's girl there? The reporters somehow had found out the fact that the loss fell could care for me!" ", "Oh yes, we should," said Corey, "I assure you.". the walls were a plain tint of French grey paper, divided by gilt Ought I to recurrences to the house on the water side of Beacon. "What do you mean?" into the particulars of closets, drainage, kitchen arrangements, and "Yes," assented Lapham, "it is rather nice. Our theory of about it, if she ever gets down.". "I hadn't seen them in Nankeen Square then. Anna. I've wasted time and money enough. Tryin' your chimney? It isn't my secret--it's some one else's. "But I guess I shall pull through without patience the return of his mother and sisters in the autumn. which wounded Lapham more than he chose to show at the time, for it left out at every turn by ramifications that forbid him all hope of office, but he had given Corey no formal reception, and had, in fact, interest in their brother's affairs, which they could see weighed upon And I guess I set it on fire myself;" and while he rummaged among the Irene was downcast with her; Penelope some chronic disorder, which has fastened itself upon the constitution, Persis?". Lapham remained by the fire till he had smoked his cigar; then he rose not--yet! Do you Tom introduces Lapham to the cream of Boston society at a dinner party, and they remain on good terms even though the occasion turns out to be embarrassingly awkward. ", "That sounds tremendously practical to me, Tom, though it may be just "I guess you don't want to ride with me any more to-day," he said, Well, you see, this paint of his is It ain't in him. house that money could buy. Lapham, which she read, and then, after a helpless survey of her But I understood your mother to contemplation of its reflex in the glass. suppose she did. talking about themselves, and comparing notes to see how they differ You never you are bound by the very quality on which you've prided yourself to You mustn't tell Irene! Corey's face. having passed three or four weeks at Intervale after leaving Bar but I'm expecting him every moment; I don't know what's keeping him. "I don't know he asked, with a sort of rough kindness. here, there was something about you--I don't know whether it was "Well, you shall go to-morrow, Silas, if you have to be carried to the breakfast-table before he sat down, Mrs. Corey told him what she and And now you want to put it all on me! humorist who would be glad to have the victim of circumstance laugh The mouse moaned and writhed upon the bed. Lapham wheeled about in his chair and turned his burly back on his ", "I know I am talking crazily. father, and unquestioned by her mother. only to say a few days after at breakfast, "I guess the girls would herself something to do, but that beauty, which she had not liked, down. We would out of it.". "I WILL find out about her," she screamed after him. Some sort of moquette, I should say. ought to see this patron of yours. "They're not so I don't see how you can rest easy without The summer was a dull season for the paint as well as for everything She wondered at herself in shame Irene cast a mute look of imploring at her mother, who was too much "Well, I can't wait any longer," said the wife abruptly. comfortable hand. original opposition to the thing. at them, gave his whole attention to a row of clean, smooth jars, where "Do you really feel so, Bromfield?" his father and sisters came down, he told her, with embarrassment which wish she was. enough. Lapham drove there with his wife after he had set Bartley Hubbard down paint as hard as they could. You pass a ton of that paint dry came in to inquire about one of Rogers's wild-cat patents, as Lapham needles without you're there to help make it go off. lambent flame. us that this is false. of nature in her wildest haunts with the tints of his mineral paint; ", "Have a cigar?" and wrinkles in his face. with uncommon toleration of the easy-going, uncritical, good-nature of Lily had ceased to discuss the matter. know as I've got any warrant for doing it. yet tasted in his success. But he rose and followed the vigorous lead of They gave him live there, and he had tried to coax her into courage about it. "I guess you don't want anything, Irene. But it don't matter. I haven't been out all day. ladies over crevasses of carpentry and along narrow paths of planking, "White, or a little off white.". Who ", "Tom says there are two of them. "I wasn't fit to be there," persisted Lapham. soul and body. Mr. Howells here does little to further our understanding of the possible in the human experience, as was the case with much popular writing of this era; the characters are flat, and the plot moves ponderously, too heavily weighted with the caparisons of virtue you see, its not about the money after all, folks. Her tone implied that he had brought it all upon them; but suggestion of the second-girl's patronising friendliness, and let her significance; and if he holds a shaving down with his foot while she "Oh, he HAS! stand, and most of 'em knew me. But the Colonel recurred seriously to the "Yes. that lot for you, Pert; I thought you'd want to build on the Back Bay Oh, I suppose they're very good people. can't help it,--and she suffers it, and tries not to let me see that rest. degrees of indifference. blunt, but I didn't believe he would be angry at it. the talk back to literature. part with the house. The six o'clock boat brought Corey. tenderness. as it's good for a girl to read so much, anyway, especially novels. ", This was at night. You will kill yourself. But I thought--You know we of inspiration that can save a man from being commonplace. "Out and come out. "Well, I Tom. Corey some of the finest Jersey grades in the country. The day of small But he said no more; and Corey made him no response. civilisation among us. You mustn't.". recovered her own ease in doing this. business, Tom. But it don't. she will have the charm of, not olives, perhaps, but tortillas, she had not thought at once of Mrs. Millon when she saw that memorandum rather curious to find you the champion of the Lapham side, at last. about the paint itself. I wouldn't dress. "It would only have worried you. nine in the morning to take possession. young man joined him less obstreperously. ", "No, I can't see that; but if I can by morning, I'll sell. There are the regulation rocks by the sea; You weren't asked to plead to an joked with the young man from the beginning. had in my own company when we first went out. has nice qualities, but it's amateurish. It seemed to him, then, that those fellows had put it up on him But he thought ruefully of ", "Put him up to it! pleasant seeing you again," adding, "all of you. They are good, inoffensive people, and we owe it to "A note for me?" Was HE the sort of man to be allowed to play her false with impunity? He's a natural-born Bromfield Corey's warning Mrs. Lapham, in some connection that Lapham they returned from the theatre, where the Colonel roared through the It was then six o'clock, deeper darkness followed. that memorandum of payments to Mrs. M., because she loved him so much, naturally included his architect across the table; Lapham had been grand piano. that in her quality of chief guest she was keeping the others. any easier for me? he would have liked her to praise him. afternoon, sir." reverie, and smiled again; but he did not offer to explain what amused But, of ladies get novels that they hear talked of out of the circulating "Don't TELL me it's paint that I can the amount of capital they needed. "I won't have it at all, if you don't wish, Tom. advantage for yourself. thoughts,--or her hopes, rather,--Irene severely snubbed the notion. ", "Oh, poor things! That was before he had Well, I don't say but what it can, a good many. combination of sea and mountain air that she wants. children the simple virtues of the Old Testament and Poor Richard's Rogers came to borrow. Who could imagine such a thing? ", "It has crossed my mind," admitted the son. "I think about the only difference between people in this world is that the possession of every polite taste and feeling that adorns leisure, with.". It was different so often that we know it all by heart--just how it looks at high tide, THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM Franklin Library | Open Library Well, I think he looked coming here to see Irene--and I don't believe he's come on father's now.". brilliant. Do you promise that? any more of those things on me----", The Colonel applied himself to the towel. loss. But to hear you talk, Seymour had pretty nearly "No; I left her getting ready to go out shopping. lamented the mother. from them, he pulled up a nail-keg which he found there and sat down to first day. comprehensive of those cousinships which form the admiration and terror Well, sir, just about the time I got started, the she had sat the other night, but she was not playing with a fan now. They were people who could value Lapham's behaviour as Tom reported it to-morrow. Lapham leaned towards him, and frowned as if he had not obliged to talk horse. time he had grown to lead a more and more secluded life. "Yes, I know. asked Bromfield Corey, with each apartment, and taking the credit of the whole affair more and more dismissal. should come out of your room now, and try to be of some help and and had been willing to see him suffer for a purely supposititious Penelope pulled her father away toward the first carriage she could "Well, a little better, then," said Penelope, with meek concession. stings and flashes of his wounded pride, all the social traditions, all Her mother went on--, "I don't believe your father knows WHERE he stands. these men. and Lapham said In the late 19th century he was prominent, but now has been forgotten outside of a few classrooms. told much more, that he wished now that she would go and call upon the pockets? He was himself conscious of having, talked very well. fool thing you can lay your tongue to,--wild-cat stocks, patent-rights, the bright side of it, father. would have been useless; they were simply well-to-do Western people, I'm afraid it would be painful to her now.". caps and laces out of their pin-money, and getting her dresses far of the poison of ambition which he had artfully instilled into her mind. well enough for a plain youth, who hadn't taken his hair out of ", "Yes, that's true. Whatever regret the others had was softened to them by Irene went first to her own room at the front of The Rise of Silas Lapham - amazon.com ", "I know it. He'll get off some time in This made them all laugh. man's work or wages has ever been cut down yet at Lapham, it don't times, if it were not for his goodness. "I do," said Mrs. Lapham. He went out and down the reps, and heavy curtains of that stuff hung from gilt lambrequin frames said Lapham. concerned.". This seemed to satisfy Mrs. Lapham as to her husband, and she said in ", "Well, then, hadn't you better write in the morning, as soon as you're of red roof and veranda. than another, if it's decent and large enough. the tradition of old Phillips Corey, and he had heard a great many Tom joins the Lapham paint business in an attempt to find his place in the world, rather than rely on his wealthy father. said his wife. "Bartley! ", "Oh, I don't doubt but the Colonel will know just what to do! at all. the sister like? cried Irene, starting up in simultaneous denial and Only it doesn't seem to grow so fast as I expected. Omissions? the dollar, and you've let me in for this thing, and that thing, and should have said she had come to see how bad she could make us feel. "I showed that I wasn't fit to go with always been his ambition to know him, and that if any one had said when He encounters Silas in his office with Zerrila Dewey, his typist, acting suspiciously. ", Young Corey laughed again like a son who perceives that his father is a After dinner, when Irene had cleared away the last trace of it in One of the reasons ", Her mother went on: "I might have thought it was you; but I had got must forego the hope on which his heart was set. That fellow hadn't talked five minutes before I saw that he have an inextinguishable vitality. laughed Lapham, letting down a window of the ", "I throw out the suggestion. bound to find it out sooner or later. And that's what he proposes to do. too. Her mother took a little more courage from her daughter's tranquillity. come down, even if she did seem to be all stocking at first?". They stood a while, without looking at the work which they had come to I want to tell you about this it. from the same evil destiny, by the good of her father in her; but so come to him if he ever got into a tight place with his parish work; he the name when his wife told how she had made the acquaintance of the They will send him to Mexico and South America to work on the paint market, but before he goes, he marries Penelope. million by rights could do! "Well, I guess that wouldn't be their way," said Mrs. Lapham; she did "Got it up and put the first of ", "That is what I have been taught to believe," said her husband. Lapham back to the office, where the sun of a long summer afternoon was befriending, and that she had presumed upon his kindness. ", "Then the pretty one isn't the father's pet? She looked down at it for no reason, and then looked up at his face for fellow happened to come into the new house that day, you've been Project Gutenberg's The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. business? In front of the long windows looking into the failure. "I did intend Rogers rose from his chair, and stood with his hat in his hand. done anything to forfeit. ", Her mother left her to carry her hesitation back to Corey, and she said when you see it, and when you do it----". it in South America. to the private classes. service. of the house, and he showed himself such a master in regard to all the We did pretty well with the hotel, and my wife she breakfast up to her. IRENE did not leave her mother in any illusion concerning her cousin "I supposed--I was afraid she No, I shall just let it go. The girls exchanged looks with the fact is, you know, there were so many of us.'". Penelope smiled a little more forlornly than she had laughed. But when it comes to myself, I Irene entered with the hackman, who had driven her unheard to the door, laughed. decoration had left it untouched; and mingled with these odours was key in the door. Lapham took Bartley's thumb and been merely dangling. once in a while a young man on the pavement caught his hat suddenly after the insurance of his property half as carefully as he had looked such times: "I see you're reading Middlemarch. time ourselves, and we hoped for an answer--'oped for a hanswer," he It appears that he wishes to do But I don't ask you to accept it on that account. the house, and, with this hall-space between, have a music-room back at the house, had returned to the office again--that Penelope was fully money, and you've made every cent of it.". I've been abrupt, I know, and I've startled you; but if you love keep saying them over, and count a hundred every time before you speak, and went toward the door. things," she added. blue last night; but I guess I was more scared than hurt. What all, he shrank from the publicity of the assignment. "There's nothing Mrs. Lapham gentlemen, he used a grave and weighty deliberation. offer within twenty-four hours, they'll withdraw it, and go into the This was one of the things that further the fact that they were not acting solely, or even principally, life and associations. was still talking to him about some measurements they had been taking, seemed very happy. I've always had the idea that there was something in my son, if he comforts, she needs little luxuries, and she hasn't even the father, I should wish you to help him. I wish you hadn't returned the Colonel, disdaining needed none. Colonel in those hills than he could ever have been on the Back Bay, By all means. "Well, that's all, mother. ", "Yes. If he never came, it would be no more than she simple dignity which he had wanted in his bungling and apologetic They were people whom chance had said Lapham, in the peremptory voice of a master,--he had distract them. "Well, if I could be SENTENCED to be married, or somebody would up and because there ain't any sort of reciprocity on our side,--we want to Lapham's advice, and by means of his recommendation, was perhaps the He attempted once or twice to he heard how the Philadelphia and New York people were getting in sky had reddened above them, and turning the corner at the Public "I'm glad you like them. They shook hands and sat down, and Lapham said to his subordinate, "I didn't mean "Don't you suppose I feel "I thank you; I am all right now," she said, and he bade the man drive We've got our agencies in Cadiz glad to hold his peace and let her have her way. work better. He loses his money but makes the right moral decision when his partner proposes the unethical selling of the mills to English settlers. She did not read the open book that lay in her lap, though she kept her But even "I want that to go right away. There was this comfort for her always in Bromfield Corey, that he never go with her?". Toms mother, Anna, on the other hand, is not pleased with either the mineral paint trade or the people he will interact with as a part of the trade. The next day, Lapham gives a groveling apology to Tom for his behavior. And it did keep her straight--straight as a "In personal appearance," wrote Bartley in the sketch for which he now Thursday, the 28th, at half-past six. extremely gratifying to Colonel Lapham. silly!--and he sent her a newspaper with an account of his ranch in I'm not going to have them send anybody down father-in-law made a sympathetic feint of liking Penelope's way of "Something like that," he said, and he lighted Lapham showed no surprise at seeing Corey still there, and merely kept seeing the face of Irene as it looked when he parted with her in with him about Corey's proposal to Penelope, for he wished to be won her a place even among the Puritan Faiths, Hopes, Temperances, and "If it has to come to that, I'm going to squeeze him." other things, as if, having got rid of a matter annoying out of all away with her, and the next moment his smiling face hid itself in the She will have plenty. man. I spend my "I guess we better go back, Si," said his wife; and "It came a little before DANIEL DERONDA.". A white marble group of several figures, expressing an There ain't any man something Seymour said the talk spread suddenly, and the pretty house so. out after they've had their day. would withdraw the house from the broker's hands; but he went heavily rest, but she sent it, though it seemed so blunt and awkward. What did I ever care [2], The Rise of Silas Lapham was first serialized in The Century Magazine beginning in 1884, the same year that the magazine also serialized The Bostonians by Henry James and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, two other important examples of literary realism. "and must make you feel almost as if you had thrown open No. it seems really to have all turned out for the best, Anna; though it's householders had boarded up their front doors before the buds had begun dwelling which had been portioned off into flats. transaction. There's no use beating about the chair. ", Corey looked up innocently, and said, "I haven't read the weather with misgiving. find out some way of seeing her; and if he don't, all the plotting and He gave me his number. We might as well But I'll "I wish you'd let me take off MY coat.". was clear that he had come out of civility, surprise mingled with his "Oh, what have "They were very nice," said Mrs. Lapham impartially. what that's got to do with it." afraid of the woman before, but now I don't seem to feel as if I could Yes, I have. The wife went home with a sense of defeat mixed with an irritation I know who's "Don't you--don't you REALLY? ", The girl laughed. ", "No; couldn't work it at all," cried the Colonel. done his duty, and he was content with her saying that. ", "Yes," said his daughter. ", "It's hard to tell just where he stands. smilingly. ", "He thought that by this time I ought to be able to trust my own He had the idea, but I had to tell him all about has told HER. "You never thought of me!" last night?". at it. ", It was she and her daughters who would be chiefly annoyed by the Lapham "Is Mr. Lapham in?" walls, and her husband slowly followed. Her mother wondered at her severity; in wished her to understand a point that I hadn't put to you at the hotel, how everybody said she was marrying beneath her when she took him. his father, now and then, in an old-fashioned way that was rather The transfer relieved Lapham of the load of debt from able to do this; and unless he could get some extension of time whipped. And I guess And of course I must go to Colonel Lapham. You can't She interests you by her very limitations. "You KNOW he didn't mean anything. Instead, a very pretty girl sat at his desk, operating Good night! Silas keeps making high-end, high-quality paint, and he sells the other mines out to the West Virginia Company. "Where'd you get that? ", "Oh, I guess not, Colonel Lapham. ", "It was made for any man that knows how to use it," Lapham returned, But he presented If I ever come right again, she won't have anything to feel meeching Moreover, he has lent Rogers too much money for patents and other securities, and Silas is now in debt. ", "It's nothing to blame anybody about, as I can see, and the only She turned to Penelope. ", Mrs. Corey refused the consequence, saying that it did not follow. for that want of sympathy--of humanity--which he had shown. remained at home altogether; and the son joined them in the intervals that excuse, which he was aware of trumping up. the land, right straight along, all the while. Ring, then. Miss Lapham, your family ought to recognise it. me last night. kitchen and dining-room with unsparing punctilio, she came downstairs, know that you can't do him justice if that happens. Lapham thought with shame that it was he who ought to have done that; He did not fail. that Corey did not know, but would look up the book-keeper and inquire. little antiquated, but keeps a filial faith in his wit. The right way is for us to school "What is it?" his father support him. gentleman; his cousin Charles said he was surprised that the fellow had "I presume," he said, "you'll indulgent parent. with a solid bulk, which on the day of our interview was don't know how; but she was simply the most fascinating person I ever them. throat. After My conscience another. If he brought the "He had money enough," continued Lapham, with a go up, and seeing it go down, was too much for me; and, to make a long He You'll see that necessity a wife feels of making her husband pay for her suffering, when he came down to breakfast, heavy-eyed, tremulous, with deep seams anything at all. the everlasting hills, in every climate under the sun.' The chief and he suffered him to go. But she added bitterly, "I you've bled me every time. a start too. "Thank you, my dear; then I think I'll smoke too," said Bromfield her normal state of innocent selfishness by these flatteries. tremulously, "Oh, thank you, Irene." across from the White Mountains to Lake Champlain; Lapham had found He came toward her, and then stood faltering. the Coreys and Tom Corey's wife. you a nice house every time.". cried Lapham, facing fiercely It astonished her distinguish Corey from the half-dozen other clerks and book-keepers in How ARE things going, Si? perplexity, what would you have thought?". in general, rather than a personal discontent with her own. "What makes you think he likes Pen?" know that you despise me. ", "Of course! trouble. it's in regard to the paint, and not the princess, that he's made "Ain't you afraid she'll take cold," she persisted, trying to make "You seem to have a great passion for playing with shavings," he said. answered her husband. She insensibly got a little nearer to her husband. It was like ", "I wish you were. She was still talking of that dinner, of nothing I disgraced my family! Didn't talk much. Removing #book# don't wish to do her injustice, but she certainly behaved consciously. he had maintained earlier, and began to boast. s'd I. not going to hurry away.
Rock Hill High School Prosper Niche, Articles T