Gray youth: The story of a very modern courtship and a very modern marriageOnions, Oliver
General
Gray youth: The story of a very modern courtship and a very modern marriage
Onions, Oliver
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
hearer know the "Tuberculosis" canvas? _That_ was the true Towers. So
it was in this pluperfect esteem that Amory by and by came to bask,
with Cosimo as her showman.
Benighted Dorothy Lennard, on the other hand, fluked into _her_
wretched success by sheer luck. She had never an ideal to her name,
never realized that the best possession to which she could lay claim
was a certain knack, a certain low business cunning. And it was only
to be expected that this should pay her, in mere despicable cash,
twenty times as well as Amory's purer _awen_ had paid. Amory was not in
the least envious. Poor Dorothy would need it all, and more. However
rich she became, she could never become a prophet; she might become a
millionaire, but she could never qualify for the martyr's crown. Amory
hoped her money might make her happy. But she did not see how it could.
But to this fluke of Dorothy's:--
When, long, long before, Dorothy Lennard had told Amory Towers that
she had an idea that alone had made her wealthy as she stood, she had
spoken with a superb confidence. Amory had looked for something of
national, nay, more, of feminist value; but later she had begun to
think that Dorothy had been merely giving utterance to an idle boast;
some people, seeing others achieving something, must needs boast,
merely to keep up appearances. Since that day Dorothy had kept her own
counsel. She had kept her project even from Mr. Miller, without whom
she had known she could do nothing; she had kept it from Miss Benson,
and Miss Umpleby, and for long enough, from her cousin Stanhope. But
presently she had had to tell Stan. He shared her sandwiches, and must
share her ignoble scheming also.
It appeared that Mr. Miller and Hallowells' were to provide the money
for them to marry on. They _must_ marry, they told one another twenty
times a week--simply must. It was stupid, Stan said, not marrying;
what on earth was there _not_ to get married about? He didn't believe
in that off-and-on sort of business, as if they didn't know their
own minds.... But _ought_ second cousins to marry? Dorothy had urged
(scuffling disgustingly for the biggest bite of the sandwich); wasn't
it said to be a bad thing? Weren't all these Eugenist people always
saying what a bad thing it was? Miss Towers said so--
"Was that Miss Towers, that red-haired little thing you were in such a
paddy with that day?"
"What day?"
"The day she caught us--doing this."
"(There, I'm glad you pricked yourself!)... Yes, that was Miss Towers."
"Seemed to creep up rather quietly, didn't she?"
"Stan! Of course she didn't!"
"Oh, all right. I wondered where you picked her up, that's all.... And
does she say second cousins oughtn't to marry?"
"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps she doesn't. She says so many things."
"Well, you can tell her from me that I don't know anything about
'ought,' but I want to, and I'm jolly well going to. And look here,
Dot, I won't have you wearing pins--just look what you've done to my
hand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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