Artists -- Relations with women -- Fiction; Artists -- United States -- Fiction
"Oh, yes, I can always outrun Angel-face," she exclaimed. "We fight
sometimes but I can get things away from her. She has to give in.
Sometimes I feel older--I always take the lead."
Eugene rejoiced in the sobriquet of Angel-face. It suited Angela, he
thought. She looked like pictures of Angels in the old prints and in the
stained glass windows he had seen. He wondered in a vague way, however,
whether Marietta did not have the sweeter temperament--were not really
more lovable and cosy. But he put the thought forcefully out of his
mind. He felt he must be loyal to Angela here.
While they were talking the youngest boy, David, came up and sat down on
the grass. He was short and stocky for his years--sixteen--with an
intelligent face and an inquiring eye. Eugene noted stability and quiet
force in his character at once. He began to see that these children had
inherited character as well as strength from their parents. This was a
home in which successful children were being reared. Benjamin came up
after awhile, a tall, overgrown, puritanical youth, with western
modifications and then Samuel, the oldest of the living boys and the
most impressive. He was big and serene like his father, of brown
complexion and hickory strength. Eugene learned in the conversation that
he was a railroad man in St. Paul--home for a brief vacation, after
three years of absence. He was with a road called the Great Northern,
already a Second Assistant Passenger Agent and with great prospects, so
the family thought. Eugene could see that all the boys and girls, like
Angela, were ruggedly and honestly truthful. They were written all over
with Christian precept--not church dogma--but Christian precept, lightly
and good naturedly applied. They obeyed the ten commandments in so far
as possible and lived within the limits of what people considered sane
and decent. Eugene wondered at this. His own moral laxity was a puzzle
to him. He wondered whether he were not really all wrong and they all
right. Yet the subtlety of the universe was always with him--the mystery
of its chemistry. For a given order of society no doubt he was out of
place--for life in general, well, he could not say.
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