บทที่ บทที่ 24 · The problem of the Gerhardt family and its relationship to himself

comparatively settled, Kane betook himself to Cincinnati and to his

business duties. He was heartily interested in the immense plant,

which occupied two whole blocks in the outskirts of the city, and its

conduct and development was as much a problem and a pleasure to him as

to either his father or his brother. He liked to feel that he was a

vital part of this great and growing industry. When he saw freight

cars going by on the railroads labelled "The Kane Manufacturing

Company--Cincinnati" or chanced to notice displays of the

company's products in the windows of carriage sales companies in the

different cities he was conscious of a warm glow of satisfaction. It

was something to be a factor in an institution so stable, so

distinguished, so honestly worth while. This was all very well, but

now Kane was entering upon a new phase of his personal

existence--in a word, there was Jennie. He was conscious as he

rode toward his home city that he was entering on a relationship which

might involve disagreeable consequences. He was a little afraid of his

father's attitude; above all, there was his brother Robert.

Robert was cold and conventional in character; an excellent

business man; irreproachable in both his public and in his private

life. Never overstepping the strict boundaries of legal righteousness,

he was neither warm-hearted nor generous--in fact, he would turn

any trick which could be speciously, or at best necessitously,

recommended to his conscience. How he reasoned Lester did not

know--he could not follow the ramifications of a logic which

could combine hard business tactics with moral rigidity, but somehow

his brother managed to do it. "He's got a Scotch Presbyterian

conscience mixed with an Asiatic perception of the main chance."

Lester once told somebody, and he had the situation accurately

measured. Nevertheless he could not rout his brother from his

positions nor defy him, for he had the public conscience with him. He

was in line with convention practically, and perhaps

sophisticatedly.

The two brothers were outwardly friendly; inwardly they were far

apart. Robert liked Lester well enough personally, but he did not

trust his financial judgment, and, temperamentally, they did not agree

as to how life and its affairs should be conducted. Lester had a

secret contempt for his brother's chill, persistent chase of the

almighty dollar. Robert was sure that Lester's easy-going ways were

reprehensible, and bound to create trouble sooner or later. In the

business they did not quarrel much--there was not so much chance

with the old gentleman still in charge--but there were certain

minor differences constantly cropping up which showed which way the

wind blew. Lester was for building up trade through friendly

relationship, concessions, personal contact, and favors. Robert was

for pulling everything tight, cutting down the cost of production, and

offering such financial inducements as would throttle competition.

The old manufacturer always did his best to pour oil on these

troubled waters, but he foresaw an eventual clash. One or the other

would have to get out or perhaps both. "If only you two boys could

agree!" he used to say.

Another thing which disturbed Lester was his father's attitude on

the subject of marriage--Lester's marriage, to be specific.

Archibald Kane never ceased to insist on the fact that Lester ought to

get married, and that he was making a big mistake in putting it off.

All the other children, save Louise, were safely married. Why not his

favorite son? It was doing him injury morally, socially, commercially,

that he was sure of.

"The world expects it of a man in your position," his father had

argued from time to time. "It makes for social solidity and prestige.

You ought to pick out a good woman and raise a family. Where will you

be when you get to my time of life if you haven't any children, any

home?"

"Well, if the right woman came along," said Lester, "I suppose I'd

marry her. But she hasn't come along. What do you want me to do? Take

anybody?"

"No, not anybody, of course, but there are lots of good women. You

can surely find some one if you try. There's that Pace girl. What

about her? You used to like her. I wouldn't drift on this way, Lester;

it can't come to any good."

His son would only smile. "There, father, let it go now. I'll come

around some time, no doubt. I've got to be thirsty when I'm led to

water."

The old gentleman gave over, time and again, but it was a sore

point with him. He wanted his son to settle down and be a real man of

affairs.

The fact that such a situation as this might militate against any

permanent arrangement with Jennie was obvious even to Lester at this

time. He thought out his course of action carefully. Of course he

would not give Jennie up, whatever the possible consequences. But he

must be cautious; he must take no unnecessary risks. Could he bring

her to Cincinnati? What a scandal if it were ever found out! Could he

install her in a nice home somewhere near the city? The family would

probably eventually suspect something. Could he take her along on his

numerous business journeys? This first one to New York had been

successful. Would it always be so? He turned the question over in his

mind.

The very difficulty gave it zest. Perhaps St. Louis, or Pittsburg,

or Chicago would be best after all. He went to these places

frequently, and particularly to Chicago. He decided finally that it

should be Chicago if he could arrange it. He could always make excuses

to run up there, and it was only a night's ride. Yes, Chicago was

best. The very size and activity of the city made concealment easy.

After two weeks' stay at Cincinnati Lester wrote Jennie that he was

coming to Cleveland soon, and she answered that she thought it would

be all right for him to call and see her. Her father had been told

about him. She had felt it unwise to stay about the house, and so had

secured a position in a store at four dollars a week. He smiled as he

thought of her working, and yet the decency and energy of it appealed

to him. "She's all right," he said. "She's the best I've come across

yet."

He ran up to Cleveland the following Saturday, and, calling at her

place of business, he made an appointment to see her that evening. He

was anxious that his introduction, as her beau, should be gotten over

with as quickly as possible. When he did call the shabbiness of the

house and the manifest poverty of the family rather disgusted him, but

somehow Jennie seemed as sweet to him as ever. Gerhardt came in the

front-room, after he had been there a few minutes, and shook hands

with him, as did also Mrs. Gerhardt, but Lester paid little attention

to them. The old German appeared to him to be merely

commonplace--the sort of man who was hired by hundreds in common

capacities in his father's factory. After some desultory conversation

Lester suggested to Jennie that they should go for a drive. Jennie put

on her hat, and together they departed. As a matter of fact, they went

to an apartment which he had hired for the storage of her clothes.

When she returned at eight in the evening the family considered it

nothing amiss.