Part 29 (2/2)
”I only hope for an opportunity, Mr. Jarney, to claim the honor of the first,” responded John.
”That is not what I mean, Mr. Winthrope; it is--well, it is--that you can do it.”
”I am certainly at a greater loss to understand you, Mr. Jarney,” said John smiling, but still believing that he understood. ”Nevertheless, I appreciate what you say, and will always regard your views with much favor.”
”Let me tell you, Mr. Winthrope,” he pursued; ”that business life is a terror to the average man. It has so many ups and downs that I have often wondered how so many succeed through all its uncertainties. I started out as poor as you, and maybe poorer, and have arrived where I am, with many a pain to accompany me. And still they call me successful.
Had I to start again, I would pursue a different calling--science, literature, art, or music. These are the things that are a compensation to one's peace of mind. But most people believe it is money. I do not. I did once; but I have pa.s.sed that period of putting money above everything else. Some will say, no doubt, that it is my view now, since I have got the money. Truly, had I not a cent, I would be of the same opinion. It was my opinion before I acc.u.mulated it, and I still cling to that hobby. Still I must continue on acquiring it. Making money is an endless chain proposition. Once you get into its entanglements, you cannot let go--you cannot resist its wonderful influence. Why, I should like to be free from its thralldom; I should like to be as you are, without the worry and the bother that money entails; I would like to exchange places with you, were it possible. But that can never happen, I suppose, so long as I have my present connections. I have often thought that I would like to tear myself away from its engrossments, to be free to go at will; to enjoy life with my wife and daughter in some way that would be to our liking--some way that is different from our present existence. I do not say that I will take up such a life; I may. I did not mean to make this lecture to you, Mr. Winthrope; but as I have made it. I will stand by it.”
”Still I am in as deep a mystery as ever, Mr. Jarney,” said John frankly, and more familiarly than he had ever spoken to him before.
”If I were a young man like you, and had my money, I would go to my home--a.s.suming that your home is mine--and there live peacefully the rest of my days,” he replied.
”Would you suggest that I do it, in my present poverty?” asked John.
”No; I am just supposing,” he returned.
”I cannot suppose anything, Mr. Jarney; I am not in a supposing position.”
”That is right, Mr. Winthrope, don't suppose anything; always believe it, and then go ahead,” he said.
”That is what I have attempted to do; but believing a thing and obtaining it are two entirely different matters.”
”Yes; you are right.”
He then strode across the room, and returned.
”I am shocked at your manner of conduct,” he said, looking down upon John. ”You have not yet asked about my daughter's health?”
”I fully intended to, Mr. Jarney, at the first opportunity of breaking in on our line of conversation,” said John.
”I am very happy to report she is growing better every hour,” said Mr.
Jarney, turning on his heel and walking across the room again, and returning, with a freshly lighted cigar in his mouth.
”I wish her well,” replied John, and then he halted in what he intended to say further--halted for a moment only, when he asked: ”Mr. Jarney, with your permission, I should like to see Miss Jarney, once in awhile during her illness. May I have the wish granted?”
”I have no objection--while she is ill,” he answered, with that singular proviso attached.
Then he sat down, and took up his work. At noon he asked John to lunch with him. John accepted, and lunched. At four p. m. he asked John to accompany him home for dinner. John accepted, and went.
The combination of circ.u.mstances surrounding John's intimacies with the Jarney family was very indefinable to him, at first. But, as the days pa.s.sed, he was slowly and a.s.suredly convinced that his services as employe of that man of wealth were not of the sordid kind alone. Mr.
Jarney's condescending manner, his straight-forwardness, his implicit faith in him, his good will toward him, his extinguishment of form, all showed to him that he was not so unapproachable as might be believed by any young man of the qualities of John Winthrope.
Possessed with an unquenchable desire to do that which is right, honest, honorable, or justifiable, John pursued a course that ever kept him in good favor. He did not do this with any preconceived plan, or scheme, to accomplish a purpose, but it was through an inherent prepossession of his makeup. Through the days he labored with great a.s.siduity to get results; through the evenings he studied with great concentration on his subjects--always busy, always ready to answer a call, or a summons. All these traits in him, Mr. Jarney was not slow in perceiving, and he gave encouragement, as he would, like any other man of his mould, to any one who showed the same relative adaptation and faithfulness. Mr. Jarney looked upon John as having many parts worth cultivating. As he had, for a long time, been gleaning in the field of young manhood for such a reaping, he now considered, since he acquired John, that he had harvested a good sheaf of wheat when he garnered him; and he purposed, if all continued straight in him, to flail out his true worth, if the throwing out of opportunity would be effectually grasped.
But while he had these views concerning such material for his purpose, he, at no time, thought that his daughter would, in any manner, enter into the proposition. He would not have thought of compromising his views on business with his paternal ideas; nor would he ever have condoned himself, or his wife, should either have entertained an iota of a notion that it were necessary to bring her name into such mercenary transactions.
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