Golden Fleece: The American Adventures of a Fortune Hunting EarlPhillips, David Graham
General
Golden Fleece: The American Adventures of a Fortune Hunting Earl
Phillips, David Graham
British -- United States -- Fiction
Well, the newspapers published everything--his height and weight, the
tooth he has out on the left side, every rag in his boxes, pictures of
them, everything in Miss Dowie’s trousseau--columns and columns. And
how he _did_ hop round when he found that the Dowies had actually hired
a fellow and a woman to give out facts to the press! What do you think
of that for a Yankee notion?
You can’t imagine the presents. You’d have thought the crown princess
was marrying. The newspapers say they alone were worth a million and
a half, American money. I and Cleggett went over them, and we decided
they’d fetch more. You know, Cleggett--he’s Georgie’s solicitor--is
over here looking after the settlements. He simply had to put the
screws onto old Dowie. I got a good many hints from him on how to deal
with these beggars in money matters. Dowie’s a shrewd chap. He and
Cleggett did all the money talk. Georgie was supposed to know nothing
about it. But maybe he wasn’t in a funk when it began to look as if the
whole business were off at the last minute. I had to work hard to keep
him up to the mark. Cleggett won out, though--got a hundred thousand
pounds more than Georgie expected.
To go back to the presents, her uncle--one of the ha’penny rags here
said he’s been in the penitentiary, but I hear it’s not true--he gave
her a yacht, a regular ocean steamer. You’ll admire the necklace her
aunt sent her--it can’t have cost less than fifty thousand, our money.
It makes me ill to see these beggars wading and wallowing in money. By
the way, I notice that while they talk of spending money, they talk of
making it as much as they talk of spending it, if not more.
Wallingford, a fellow I’ve met here, said to me at dinner the other
night, a few minutes after the women had gone: “Shall we stay here with
the men and discuss making money, or shall we go up to the women and
discuss spending it?”
But to go back to Georgie and his coming down to meet me. I saw him on
the pier, his face like a sunset and his arms going like mad. He was
haranguing a crowd in which there were several cameras. I shouted to
him--I and Miss Longview and her father were at the rail together. As
I shouted the crowd looked, and the cameras were pointed at us. Miss
Longview darted away, and her father pulled at me.
“Come, come!” he said, all in a flurry and a sweat. “They’ll take your
picture if you stay.”
“Who?” said I. “And why should they take my picture?”
“The reporters,” he answered, dragging at me. “You don’t understand
about American newspapers.” I let him drag me away, and then he
explained. “They know you are coming to the wedding,” he said, “and
they’ll photograph you and interview you and print everything about
you--insulting, impudent things. There’s no such thing as privacy in
this horrible country. Didn’t I tell you they haven’t the faintest
notion what a gentleman is, or what is due a gentleman?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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