Middle West -- Fiction; Real estate developers -- Fiction; Suburbs -- Fiction
But as a prophet she appeared before long to have failed, at least in
regard to the predicted feeling between her two grandsons. Dan may have
slept on his wrath, but he did not cherish it; and the next day his
relations with Harlan were as usual. The unarmed neutrality, which was
not precisely a mutual ignoring, was resumed and continued. It
continued, indeed, throughout the youth of the brothers; and prevailed
with them during their attendance at the university at New Haven,
whither they went in imitation of their father before them. The studious
Harlan matriculated in company with his older brother; they were
classmates, though not roommates; and peace was still prevalent between
them when they graduated. Nevertheless, in considering and comprehending
the career of a man like Daniel Oliphant, certain boyhood episodes
appear to shed a light, and the conflict over little Sammy Kohn bears
some significance.
CHAPTER II
IT WAS not altogether without difficulty that the older of the brothers
graduated. Harlan obtained a diploma inscribed with a special bit of
classic praise, for he was an “Honour Man”; but Daniel trod the primrose
way a little too gayly as a junior and as a senior. Anxiety had
sometimes been felt at home, though knowledge of this was kept from old
Mrs. Savage; and Mr. and Mrs. Oliphant were relieved of a strain when
Dan was granted his degree at a most reluctant eleventh hour, and
telegraphed them:
Last prof to hold out gave up after I talked to him all
afternoon and said I could have diploma, if I would quit
arguing.
Thus the two young bachelors of arts came forth together into a pleasant
world, of which they already knew somewhat less than they supposed they
did.
The world for them, in that day, which the newspapers were beginning to
call _fin de siècle_, included rather sketchily London, Paris, Florence,
and a part of the Alps, for they had spent two vacations abroad with
their parents; but in the main the field of action to which they emerged
from the campus consisted of their own city and New York. No sooner were
they out of the university than they began the series of returns
eastward that was part of the life of every affluent young midland
graduate. They went back for the football games, for class dinners, for
baseball and boat races, and commencement. New York was their playground
as they went and came; and they remained there to play for months at a
time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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