The Entire March Family TrilogyHowells, William Dean
General
The Entire March Family Trilogy
Howells, William Dean
Fiction; Literature -- Collections
“It's true. I am in love with the whole race. I never saw one of them
that didn't have perfectly angelic manners. I think we shall all be
black in heaven--that is, black-souled.”
“That isn't the usual theory,” said March.
“Well, perhaps not,” she assented. “Where are we going now? Oh yes, to
the Xenophon!”
She pulled him gayly along again, and after they had walked a block
down and half a block over they stood before the apartment-house of
that name, which was cut on the gas-lamps on either side of the heavily
spiked, aesthetic-hinged black door. The titter of an electric-bell
brought a large, fat Buttons, with a stage effect of being dressed to
look small, who said he would call the janitor, and they waited in the
dimly splendid, copper-colored interior, admiring the whorls and waves
into which the wallpaint was combed, till the janitor came in his
gold-banded cap, like a Continental porker. When they said they would
like to see Mrs. Grosvenor Green's apartment, he owned his inability to
cope with the affair, and said he must send for the superintendent; he
was either in the Herodotus or the Thucydides, and would be there in
a minute. The Buttons brought him--a Yankee of browbeating presence
in plain clothes--almost before they had time to exchange a frightened
whisper in recognition of the fact that there could be no doubt of the
steam heat and elevator in this case. Half stifled in the one, they
mounted in the other eight stories, while they tried to keep their
self-respect under the gaze of the superintendent, which they felt was
classing and assessing them with unfriendly accuracy. They could not,
and they faltered abashed at the threshold of Mrs. Grosvenor Green's
apartment, while the superintendent lit the gas in the gangway that he
called a private hall, and in the drawing-room and the succession of
chambers stretching rearward to the kitchen. Everything had, been done
by the architect to save space, and everything, to waste it by Mrs.
Grosvenor Green. She had conformed to a law for the necessity of turning
round in each room, and had folding-beds in the chambers, but there her
subordination had ended, and wherever you might have turned round she
had put a gimcrack so that you would knock it over if you did turn. The
place was rather pretty and even imposing at first glance, and it took
several joint ballots for March and his wife to make sure that with the
kitchen there were only six rooms. At every door hung a portiere from
large rings on a brass rod; every shelf and dressing-case and mantel
was littered with gimcracks, and the corners of the tiny rooms were
curtained off, and behind these portieres swarmed more gimcracks.
The front of the upright piano had what March called a short-skirted
portiere on it, and the top was covered with vases, with dragon
candlesticks and with Jap fans, which also expanded themselves bat wise
on the walls between the etchings and the water colors. The floors were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account