This structure would have filled an architect with awe, too, though not
the same kind. Looking at the house upon which Sir Thomas Harrison had
set the imprimatur of his taste and his predilections, the architect
would, if he were a psychologist, have said that Sir Thomas had once
been plain--very plain--Tom. He would have said that Sir Thomas loved
the chief seats in synagogues. He would have said that Sir Thomas loved
to push and shove and crowd, and believed in the survival of the
fittest--the fittest, that is to say, according to Sir Tom's standard.
He would have said that Sir Thomas gave liberally to charities, for
three reasons--for display, for business reasons, and to parade his
dollars before the needy. He would have said that Sir Thomas loved
advertisement, and paid high rates to have his "write-up" in "special
supplements". He would have said that Sir Thomas, in regard to the
policies or sentiments of the day, might always be found on the
band-wagon--not because he always understood these policies and
sentiments, but because the crowd clapped for 'em.
The architect would have said, further, that if he had had a sister and
if she had been a pretty and irresolute girl and had chosen--we will say
for the sake of present illustration--to go, as the sylph of the
Imperial Hotel phrased it, "into service", he would have preferred to
have her work almost anywhere else in town than at the house of Sir
Thomas Harrison. This in spite of the deference and ostentatious
politeness Sir Thomas--at state receptions and so forth, where he was
well-watched--used toward the awkward and reticent woman he had married
before he made his money--or rather, before the natural growth of the
country made his money for him.
The architect might also have premised, from the heavily-built and
solid cement bridge that was Sir Thomas Harrison's plan for bringing a
rather pretty ravine up to the level of his driveway, as well as from a
huge concrete garage and other indications of a superfluity of stone and
mortar, that Sir Tom was a contractor and that the "Sir" end of his
name--if it had not come by the political route, that is to say--had
come through connection with the building of some railroad or government
building or other public work by which, it had happened, the country had
benefited while itself benefiting Sir Thomas Harrison.
Upon house and grounds, in short, was set the seal of dollars. Every
dollar that would show. "Have more dollars than the next man, and let
him know you have 'em," was Sir Thomas' social creed.
The chauffeur half-turned his head, and opened the door of the tonneau.
Eye-corner and mouth-corner twinkled. Daisy jumped actively out,
"telescope" grip in hand.
"Thank you", she said, and turned to go. In the country, one does not
pay for a "lift" on one's way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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