good to see, but the deadly pessimism and despair of his own mood
made him straightway corrupt the spring with his own dark conclusions.
"What is it all for?" he asked himself, bitterly. "Look at the
handsome alien creature there, with four young around her, and the
other with that unresponsive little brat. Any one of those children,
from the looks of their faces, is capable, if left to its own
unguided proclivities, of murdering the very parent who is now
caressing him; any one of them is hardly capable of doing anything in
life for his own good or happiness, or the good and happiness of the
world, if left to himself, as he will be. What does either of those
women know about training a child with those features, a child
distorted from birth?"
Beyond Carroll, on the same seat, sat two quite pretty young girls
with smart hats, and protuberant pompadours over pink-and-white
faces. They had loosened their coats, revealing coquettish neckwear.
They sat with feet crossed, displaying embroidered petticoats, at
which now and then the Hungarian women glanced with the hopeless
admiration with which one might view crown jewels. The two girls
covertly now and then reached forward their pretty heads and regarded
Carroll with half-bold, half-innocent coquettishness, but he did not
notice it. One whispered to the other how handsome he was, and did
she know who he was.
A rumble and jar became audible, and the New Sanderson car came up at
right angles on the track on the other road. The two cars connected.
Then passengers alighted from the New Sanderson car and entered the
waiting one. There was a distinct stir of excitement as they entered,
for it was evidently a bridal party. They were all Hungarians, and on
their way to Port Willis for the ceremony. There were the prospective
bride and groom and several friends of both sexes. They settled
themselves in the car, the girls huddled close together, the young
men by themselves. The bride was quite evident from the bridal
whiteness of her hat, a pitiful cheap affair bedecked with thin white
ribbon and a forlorn white plume; but although the bridegroom was as
unmistakable, it was difficult to tell how. Carroll decided that it
was because of the intensified melancholy and abjectness and shame of
his expression. Not one of the young men, who numbered as many as the
girls, but had it. They were all ignoble, contemptible, their faces
above their paper collars and hideous ties stained with miserable
imaginations. There was not a self-respecting face among them; but
the girls were better. There was in their faces an innocent gayety
like children. Instead of the painful, restrained grins of the young
men, they giggled artlessly when their eyes met. They were innocently
conscious of their flimsy and gaudy dresses of the cheapest lawn or
muslin on that cold day, with a multitude of frills of cheap lace and
bows of cheap ribbon, with bare hands adorned with blue or red stoned
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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