 Chapter 21 of the Term Oil. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jonathan Burchard, June 2009. The Term Oil, Volume 1 of the Growth Trilogy, by Booth Tarkington, Chapter 21. Who Looks a Mustang in the Eye? Changity Chang Chang, Bash Crash Bang. So sang Bibbs, his musical gayities inaudible to his fellow workmen because of the noise of the machinery. He had discovered long ago that the uproar was rhythmical, and it had been intolerable. But now, on the afternoon of the fourth day of his return, he was accompanying the swing and clash of the metals with jubilant vicaro fragments, mingling improvisations of his own among them, and mocking the zinc-eaters' crash with vocal imitations. Fearless and bold, Chang Bash Behold, with a leap from the ground to the saddle in a bound, and a way and a way, hi-yay. Who looks a Chang Chang Bash Crash Bang? Who cares a dash how you bash and you crash? Nights on the way each time I say hi-yay, Crash Chang Bash Chang Chang Bang Bang. The long room was ceaselessly thundering with metallic sound. The air was thick with the smell of oil. The floor trembled perpetually. Everything was implacably in motion. Nowhere was there a rest for the dizzyed eye. The first time he had entered the place, Bibbs had become dizzy instantly, and six months of it had only added increasing nausea to faintness. But he felt neither now. All day long, I'll send my thoughts to you. You must keep remembering that your friend stands beside you. He saw her there beside him, and the greasy, roaring place became suffused with radiance. The poet was happy in his machine shop. He was still a poet there. And he fed his old zinc-eater and sang, away and away, hi-yay, Crash Bash Crash Bash Chang. Wild are his eyes, fiercely he dies, hi-ya, Crash Bash Bang Bash Chang. Ready to fling our gloves in the ring. He was unaware of a sensation that passed along the lines of workmen. Their great master had come among them, and they grinned to see him standing with Dr. Gurney behind the unconscious Bibbs. Sherrod had nodded to those nearest him. He had personal acquaintance with nearly all of them, but he kept his attention upon his son. Bibbs worked steadily, never turning from his machine. Now and then he varied his musical program with remarks addressed to the zinc-eater. Go on, you old Crash Bash-er! Chew it up! It's good for you. If you don't try to bolt your vitals, Fletcherize you pig! That's right, you'll never get a lump in your gizzard. Want some more? Here's a nice, shiny one. The words were indistinguishable, but Sherrod inclined his head to Gurney's ear and shouted fiercely. Talking to himself by George, Gurney laughed reassuringly and shook his head. Bibbs returned to song. Chang chang, Bash Chang, its eye. Who looks a Mustang in the eye? Fearless in both, his father grasped him by the arm. Here, he shouted, let me show you how to run a strip through there. The foreman says you're something better than you used to be, but that's no way to handle. Get out of the way and let me show you once. Better be careful, Bibbs warned him, stepping to one side. Careful, Bah! Sherrod then seized a strip of zinc from the box. What you talking to yourself about? Trying to make yourself think you're so abused you're going wrong on the head? Abused? No! shouted Bibbs. I was singing because I like it. I told you I'd come back and like it. Sherrod may not have understood. At all events, he made no reply, but began to run the strip of zinc through the machine. He did it awkwardly and with bad results. Here, he shouted, this is the way. Watch how I do it. There's nothing to it if you put your mind on it. By his own showing then, his mind was not upon it. He continued to talk. All you got to look out for is to keep it pressed over too. Don't run your hand up with it! Bibbs vociferated leaning toward him. Run nothing, you got to look out! shouted Bibbs and Gurney together, and they both sprang forward, but Sherrod and his right-handed followed the strip too far, and the zinc eater had bitten off the tips of the first and second fingers. He swore vehemently and rung his hand, sending a shower of red drops over himself and Bibbs. But Gurney grasped his wrist and said sharply, Come out of here! Come over to the lavatory in the office. Bibbs, fetch my bag. It's in my machine, outside. And when Bibbs brought the bag to the washroom, he found the doctor still grasping Sherrodon's wrist, holding the injured hand over a basin. Sherrodon had lost color and temper too. He glared over his shoulder at his son as the latter handed the bag to Gurney. You go on back to your work, he said. I've had worse snips than that from a pencil sharpener. Oh, no, you haven't, said Gurney. I have too, Sherrodon retorted angrily. Bibbs, you go on back to your work. There's no reason to stand around here watching old Doc Gurney trying to keep himself awake, working on a scratch that only needs a little court plaster. I slipped, or it wouldn't happen. You get back on your job. All right, said Bibbs. Here, Sherrodon bellowed as his son was passing out the door, you watch out when you're running that machine. You hear what I say? I slipped or I wouldn't get scratched, but you, you're liable to get your whole hand cut off. You keep your eyes open. Yes, sir. And Bibbs returned to the zinc heater, thoughtfully. Half an hour later, Gurney touched him on the shoulder and beckoned him outside where conversation was possible. I sent him home, Bibbs. He'll have to be careful of that hand. Go get your overalls off. I'll take you for a drive and leave you at home. Can't, said Bibbs. Got to stick to my job till the whistle blows. No you don't, the doctor returned, smothering a yawn. He wants me to take you down to my office and give you an overhauling to see how much harm these four days on the machine have done you. I guess you folks have got that old man pretty thoroughly upset between you, up at your house. But I don't need to go over you. I can see with my eyes half shut. Yes, Bibbs interrupted. That's what they are. I say I can see you're starting out, at least, in good shape. What's made the difference? I like the machine, said Bibbs. I've made a friend of it. I serenade it and talk to it, and then it talks back to me. Indeed, indeed, what does it say? What I want to hear? Well, well, the doctor stretched himself and stamped his foot repeatedly. Better come along and take a drive with me. You can take the time off that he allowed for the examination, and not at all, said Bibbs. I'm going to stand by my old zinc eater till five o'clock. I tell you, I like it. Then I suppose that's the end of your wanting to write. Oh, I don't know about that, Bibbs said thoughtfully. But the zinc eater doesn't interfere with my thinking, at least. It's better than being in business, I'm sure of that. I don't want anything to change. I'd be content to lead just the life I'm leading now to the end of my days. You do beat the devil, exclaimed Gurney. Your father's right when he tells me you're a mystery. Perhaps the Almighty knew what he was doing when he made you, but it takes a lot of faith to believe it. Well, I'm off, going back to your murdering old machine. He climbed into his car, which he operated himself, but he reframed from setting it immediately in motion. Well, I rubbed it in on the old man that you had warned him not to slide his hand along too far and that he got hurt because he didn't pay attention to your warning and because he was trying to show you how to do something, you were already doing a great deal better than he could. You tell him I'll be around to look at it and change the dressing tomorrow morning. Goodbye. But when he paid the promised visit the next morning, he did more than change the dressing upon the damaged hand. The injury was severe of its kind and Gurney spent a long time over it, though Sheridan was rebellious and scornful, being brought to a degree of tractability only by means of horrible threats and talk of amputation. However, he appeared at the dinner table with his hand supported in a sling, which he seemed to regard as an indignity while the natural inquiries upon the subject evidently struck him as deliberate insults. Mrs. Sheridan, having been unable to contain her solicitude several times during the day and having been checked each time in a manner that blanched her cheek, hastened to warn Roscoe and Sybil upon their arrival at 5 to omit any reference to the injury and to avoid even looking at the sling if they possibly could. The Sheridan's died on Sundays at 5. Sybil had taken pains not to arrive before or after the hand was precisely on the hour and the members of the family were all seated at the table within two minutes after she and Roscoe entered the house. It was a glum gathering overhung with portents. The air seemed charged, awaiting any tiny ignition to explode and Mrs. Sheridan's expression as she sat with her eyes fixed almost continually upon her husband, was that of a person engaged in prayer. Edith was pale and intent. Roscoe looked ill, Sybil looked ill and Sheridan looked both ill and explosive. Bibs had more color than any of these and there was a strange brightness like a light upon his face. It was curious to see anything so happy in the tense gloom of that household. Edith ate little, but gazed nearly all the time at her plate. She never once looked at Sybil, though Sybil now and then gave her a quick glance, heavily charged and then looked away. Roscoe ate nothing and, like Edith, kept his eyes upon his plate and made believe to occupy himself with the vines thereon, loading his fork frequently but not lifting it to his mouth. He did not once look at his father, though his father gazed heavily at him most of the time. And between Edith and Sybil and between Roscoe and his father, some bitter wireless communications seemed continually to be taking place throughout the long silences prevailing during this enlivening ceremony of Sabbath refaction. Didn't she go to church this morning, Bibs, his mother asked in an effort to break up one of these ghastly intervals? And what did you say, mother? Didn't you go to church this morning? I think so, he answered, as from a rosy at trance. You think so? Don't you know? Oh, yes. Yes, I went to church. Which one? Just down the street. It's Brick. What was the sermon about? What, mother? Can't you hear me? She cried. I asked you what the sermon was about. He roused himself. I think it was about he frowned, seeming to concentrate his will to recollect. I think it was about something in the Bible. Whitejacket George was glad of an opportunity to leave the room and lean upon Mr. Jackson's shoulder in the pantry. He don't know there was any sermon, he concluded, having narrated the dining room dialogue. All he know is he was with that lady, lives next door. George was right. Did you go to church all by yourself, Bibs? Sibyl asked. No, he answered. No, I didn't go alone. Oh? Sibyl gave the ejaculation an upward twist as of mocking inquiry and followed it by another, expressive of hilarious comprehension. Oh! Bibs looked at her studiously but she spoke no further. And that completed the conversation at the legubrious feast. Coffee came finally, was disposed of quickly and the party dispersed to other parts of the house. Bibs followed his father and Roscoe into the library but was not well received. You go and listen to the phonograph with the women folks, Sheridan commanded. Bibs retreated. Sometimes you do seem to be a hard sort of man, he said. However, he went obediently to the guilt and brocade room in which his mother and sister and his sister-in-law had helplessly withdrawn according to their sabbatical custom. Edith sat in a corner tapping her feet together and looking at them. Sibyl sat in the center of the room examining a brooch which she had detached from her throat. And Mrs. Sheridan was looking over a collection of records consisting exclusively of Caruso and Ragtime. She selected one of the latter remarking that she thought it right pretty and followed it with one of the former and the same remark. As the second reached its conclusion George appeared in the broad doorway seeming to have an errand there but he did not speak. Instead, he favored Edith with a benevolent smile and she immediately left the room George stepping aside for her to proceed him and then disappearing after her in the hall with an air of successful diplomacy. He made it perfectly clear that Edith had given him secret instructions and that it had been his pride and pleasure to fulfill them to the letter. Sibyl stiffened in her chair her lips parted and she watched Edith's eyes the vanishing back of the white jacket. What's that? She asked in a low voice but sharply. Here's another right pretty record said Mrs. Sheridan affecting with patent nervousness not to hear and she unloosed the music. Sibyl bit her lip and began to tap her chin with the brooch. After a little while she turned to Bibbs who reposed at half length in an old chair with his eyes closed. Where did Edith go? She asked curiously. Edith, he repeated opening his eyes blankly. Is she gone? Sibyl got up and stood in the doorway. She leaned against the casing still tapping her chin with the brooch. Her eyes were dilating she was suddenly at high tension and her expression had become one of sharp excitement. She listened intently. When the record was spun out she could hear Sheridan rumbling in the library during the ensuing silence and Roscoe's voice quarrelous and husky I won't say anything at all, I tell you you might just as well let me alone. But there were other sounds a rustling and murmur whispering low protesting cadences in a male voice and as Mrs. Sheridan started another record a sudden vital resolve leaped like fire in the eyes of Sibyl. She walked down the hall and straight into the smoking room. Lamhorn and Edith both sprang to their feet separating. Edith became instantly deathly white with a rage that set her shaking from head to foot and Lamhorn stuttered as he tried to speak. But Edith's shaking was not so violent as Sibyl's nor was her face so white. At sight of them and of their embrace all possible consequences became nothing to Sibyl. She curtsied holding up her skirts and contorting her lips to the semblance of a smile. Sit just as you were both of you she said Did you tell my husband I'd been telephoning to Lamhorn? You march out of here said Edith fiercely march straight out of here. Sibyl leveled a forefinger at Lamhorn Did you tell her I'd been telephoning you I wanted you to come? Oh good God Lamhorn said hush You knew she'd tell my husband didn't you she cried you knew that hush he begged panic stricken well that was a manly thing to do oh it was like a gentleman you wouldn't come you wouldn't even come for five minutes to hear what I had to say you were tired of what I had to say you'd heard it all a thousand times before and you wouldn't come no no no she stormed you wouldn't even come for five minutes but you could tell that little cat and she told my husband you're a man Edith saw in a flash that the consequences of battle would be ruinous to Sibyl and the furious girl needed no further temptation to give way to her feelings get out of this house she shrieked this is my father's house don't you dare speak to Robert like that no no I mustn't speak don't you dare Edith and Sibyl began to scream insults at each other simultaneously fronting each other their furious faces close their voices shrilled and rose and cracked they screeched they could be heard over the noise of the phonograph which was playing a brass band selection they could be heard all over the house they were heard in the kitchen they could have been heard in the cellar neither of them cared for that you told my husband scream Sibyl bringing her face still closer to Edith's you told my husband this man put that in your hands to strike me with he did I'll tell your husband again I'll tell him everything I know it's time your husband they were swept asunder by a bandaged hand do you want the neighbors in Sheridan thundered there fell a shocking silence frenzied Sibyl saw her husband and his mother in the doorway and she understood what she had done she moved slowly toward the door then suddenly she began to run she ran into the hall and threw it and out of the house Roscoe followed her heavily his eyes on the ground now then said Sheridan to Lambhorn the words were indefinite but the voice was not neither was the vicious gesture of the bandaged hand which concluded its orbit in the direction of the door in a manner sufficient for the swift dispersal of George and Jackson and several female servants who hovered behind Mrs. Sheridan they fled lightly Papa Papa wailed Mrs. Sheridan look at your hand you wanting to been so rough with Edith you hurt your hand on her shoulder look there was in fact a spreading red stain upon the bandages at the tips of the fingers and Sheridan put his hand back in the sling now then he repeated you going to leave my house he will not sob Edith don't you dare order him out don't you bother dear said Lambhorn quietly he doesn't understand you mustn't be troubled Pallar was becoming to him he looked very handsome and as he left the room he seemed in the girls distraught eyes a persecuted noble indifferent to the rabble yapping insult at his heels the rabble being enacted by her father don't come back either said Sheridan realistic in this impersonation keep off the premises he called savagely into the hall this family is through with you it is not Edith cried breaking from her mother you'll see about that you'll find out you'll find out what will happen what's he done I guess if I can stand it it's none of your business is it what's he done I'd like to know you don't know anything about it don't you suppose he told me she was crazy about him soon as he began going there and he flirted with her a little that's everything he did and it was before he met me after that he wouldn't and it wasn't anything anyway he never was serious a minute about it she wanted to be serious and she was bound she wouldn't give him up he told her long ago he cared about me but she kept persecuting him and yes said Sheridan sternly that's his side of it that'll do he doesn't come in his house again you look out Edith cried yes I'll look out I had told you today he wasn't to be allowed on the premises but I had other things on my mind I had Abercrombie look up this young man privately and he's no count he's no count on earth he's no good he's nothing but it wouldn't matter if he was George Washington after what's happened and what I've heard tonight but Papa Mrs. Sheridan began if Edie says it was all people's fault making up to him and he never encouraged her much nor enough he roared he keeps off these premises and if any of you so much as ever speak his name to me again but Edith screamed clapping her hands over her ears to shut out the sound of his voice and ran upstairs sobbing loudly followed by her mother however Mrs. Sheridan descended a few minutes later and joined her husband in the library Bibbs still sitting in his gold chair while her pass roused himself from reverie and strolled in after her she locked her door said Mrs. Sheridan shaking her head woefully she wouldn't even answer me there wasn't a sound from her room well said her husband she can settle her mind to it she never speaks to that fellow again and if he tries to telephone her tomorrow here you tell the help if he calls up to ring off and say it's my orders no you needn't tell them myself better not said Bibbs gently his father glared at him it's no good said Bibbs mother when you were in love with father my goodness she cried you ain't to go in to compare your father to that Edith feels about him just what you did about father said Bibbs and if your father had told you I won't listen to such silly talk she declared angrily so you're handing out your advice are you Bibbs said Sheridan what is it let her see him all she wants you're up Sheridan gave it up I don't know what to call you let her see him all she wants Bibb repeated thoughtfully you're up against something too strong for you if Edith were a weakling you'd have a chance this way but she isn't she's got a lot of your determination father and with what's going on inside of her she'll beat you you can't keep her from seeing him what she feels about him the way she does now you can't make her think less of him either nobody can your only chance is that she'll do it for herself and if you give her time and go easy she probably will marriage would do it for her quickest but that's just what you don't want and as you don't want it you'd better I can't stand anymore Sheridan burst out if it's come to Bibbs advising me how to run this house I'd better resign mama where's that nigger George maybe he's got some plan how I better manage my family Bibbs for God's sake go and lay down let her see him all she wants oh lord here's wisdom here Bibbs said Mr. Sheridan if you haven't got anything to do you might step over and take Sybil's wraps home she left him in the hall I don't think you seem to quiet your poor father very much just now alright and Bibbs bore Sybil's wraps across the street and delivered them to Roscoe who met him at the door Bibbs said only forgot these and good night Roscoe cordially and cheerfully and returned to the new house his mother and father were still talking in the library but with discretion he passed rapidly on and upward to his own room and there he proceeded to write in his notebook end of chapter 21 chapter 22 of the turmoil this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org recording by Jonathan Birchard June 2009 the turmoil volume 1 of the growth trilogy by Boothcharkington chapter 22 there seems to be another curious thing about love Bibbs wrote love is blind while it lives and only opens its eyes and becomes very wide awake when it dies let it alone until then you cannot reason with love or with any other passion the wise will not wish for love nor for ambition these are passions and bring others in their train hatreds and jealousies all blind friendship and a quiet heart for the wise what a turbulence is love it is dangerous for a blind thing to be turbulent there are precipices in life and one would not pass with a thick cloth over his eyes lovers do friendship walks gently and with open eyes to walk to church with a friend to sit beside her there to rise when she rises and to touch with one thumb and fingers the other half of the hymn book that she holds what lover with his fierce ways could know this transcendent happiness friendship brings everything that heaven could bring there is no labor that cannot become better if you know that a friend is thinking of you as labor so you sing at your work for the work is part of the thoughts of your friend so you love it love is demanding and claiming and insistent friendship is all kindness it makes the world glorious with kindness what color you see when you walk with a friend you see that the grey sky is brilliant and shimmering you see that the smoke has warm browns and is marvelously sculptured and becomes iridescent you see that gold and brown hair light floods everything when you walk to church with a friend you know that life can give you nothing richer you pray that there will be no change in anything forever what an adorable thing it is to discover a little foible in your friend a bit of vanity that gives you one thing more about her to adore on a cold morning she will perhaps walk to church with you without her furs you blush and return an evasive answer when you ask her why she does not wear them you will say no more because you understand she looks beautiful in her furs you love their darkness against her cheek but you comprehend that they conceal the loveliness of her throat and the fine line of her chin and that she also has comprehended this and wishing to look still more bewitching discards her furs at the risk of taking cold so you hold your peace and try to look as if you had not thought it out this theory is satisfactory except that it does not account for the absence of the muff oh well there must always be a mystery somewhere mystery is a part of enchantment manual labor is best your heart can sing and your mind can dream while your hands are working you could not have a singing heart and a dreaming mind all day if you had to scheme out dollars or if you had to add columns of figures those things take your attention you cannot be thinking of your friend while your right letter is beginning yours of the 17th inst received in contents duly noted but to work with your hands all day thinking and singing and then after nightfall to hear the ineffable kindness of your friends greeting always there for you who would wake from such a dream as this dawn and the sea music in moonlit gardens nightingale serenading through almond groves in bloom what could bring such things into the city's turmoil yet they are here and roses blossom in the soot that is what it means not to be alone that is what a friend gives you having thus demonstrated that he was about 25 and had formed a somewhat indefinite definition of friendship but one entirely his own and perhaps Mary's bibs went to bed and was the only Sheridan to sleep soundly through the night and to wake at dawn with a light heart his cheerfulness was vaguely diminished by the troublesome state of affairs of his family he had recognized his condition when he wrote who would wake from such a dream as this bibs was a sympathetic person easily touched but he was indeed living in a dream and all things outside of it were veiled and remote for that is the way of youth in a dream and bibs who had never before been of any age either old or young had come to his youth at last he went whistling from the house before even his father had come downstairs there was a fog outdoors saturated with a fine powder of soot and though bibs noticed absently the dim shape of an automobile at the curb before Roscoe's house he did not recognize it as Dr. Gurney's but went cheerily on his way through the dingy mist and when he was once more installed beside his faithful zinc eater he whistled and sang to it as other workmen did to their own machines sometimes when things went well his comrades in the shop glanced at him amusedly now and then he liked him and he ate his lunch at noon with a group of socialists who approved of his ideas and talked of electing him to their association the short days of the year had come and it was dark before the whistles blew when the signal came bibs went to the office where he divested himself of his overalls his single divergence from the routine of his fellow workmen and after that he used soap and water copiously this was his transformation scene he passed into the office a rather frail young working man noticeably begrimed and passed out of it to the pavement a cheerfully preoccupied sample of gentry fastidious to the point of elegance the sidewalk was crowded with the bearers of dinner pales men and boys and women and girls from the work rooms that closed at five many hurried and some loitered they went both east and west jostling one another and bibs turning his face homeward was forced to go slowly through the crowd a tall girl caught sight of his long thin figure and stood still until he had almost passed her for in the thick crowd in the thicker gloom he did not recognize her though his shoulder actually touched hers he would have gone by but she laughed delightedly and he stopped short startled two boys one chasing the other swept between them and bibs stood still peering about him in deep perplexity she leaned toward him I knew you she said good heavens cried bibs I thought it was your voice coming out of a star well there's only smoke overhead said mary and laughed again there aren't any stars oh yes there were when you laughed she took his arm and they went on I've come to walk home with you bibs I wanted to but were you here in the in the dark? yes waiting? yes bibs was radiant was suffocated with happiness he began to scold her but it's not safe and I'm not worth it you shouldn't have you want to know better what did I only wait at about 12 seconds she laughed I just got here but to come all this way and to this part of town in the dark you I was in this part of town already she said at least I was only seven or eight blocks away and it was dark when I came out and I'd have had to go home alone and I heard going home with you it's pretty beautiful for me said bibs with a deep breath you'll never know what it was to hear your laugh in the darkness and then to see you standing there oh it was like it was like how could I tell you what it was like they had passed beyond the crowd now and a crossing lamp shown upon them which revealed the fact that again she was without her furs here was a puzzle vanity of hers bring her out without them in the dark but of course she had gone out long before dark for undefinable reasons this explanation was not quite satisfactory however allowing it to stand his solicitude for her took another turn I think you ought to have a car he said especially when you want to be out after dark you need one in winter anyhow have you ever asked your father for one no said Mary I don't think I'd care for one particularly I wish you would bibs tone was earnest and troubled I think in winter you no no she interrupted lightly I don't need but my mother tried to insist on sending one over here every afternoon for me I wouldn't let her because I like the walk but a girl a girl likes to walk too said Mary let me tell you where I've been this afternoon and how I happen to be near enough to make you take me home I've been to see a little old man in pictures of the smoke he has a sort of warehouse for a studio and he lives there with his mother and his wife and their seven children and he's gloriously happy I'd seen one of his pictures at an exhibition and I wanted to see more of them so he showed them to me he has almost everything he ever painted I don't suppose he sold more than four or five pictures in his life he gives drawing lessons to keep alive how do you mean he paints the smoke bibs asked from his studio window and from the street anywhere he just paints what's around him and it's beautiful the smoke? wonderful he sees the sky through it somehow he does the ugly roofs of cheap houses through a haze of smoke and he does smoky sunsets and smoky sunrises and he has other things with the heavy solid slow columns of smoke going far out and growing more ethereal and mixing with the hazy light in the distance and he has others with the broken skyline all misted with the smoke and puffs and jets of vapor that have colors like an orchard in mid-April I'm going to take you there some Sunday afternoon bibs you're showing me the town he said I didn't know what was in it at all there are workers in beauty here there are other painters more prosperous than my friend there are all sorts of things I didn't know since the town began growing so great that it called itself greater one could live here all one's life and know only the side of it that shows the beauty workers seem buried very deep said bibs and I imagine that your friend who makes the smoke beautiful must be buried deepest of all my father loves the smoke but I can't imagine his buying one of your friend's pictures he'd buy the Bay of Naples but he wouldn't get one of those he'd think smoke in a picture was horrible unless he could use it for an advertisement yes, she said thoughtfully and really, he's the town they are buried pretty deep it seems sometimes bibs and yet it's all wonderful he said it's wonderful to me you mean the town is wonderful to you yes, because everything is since you called me your friend the city is only a rumble on the horizon for me it can't come any closer than the horizon so long as you let me see you standing by my old zinc eater all day long helping me Mary, he stopped with a gasp that's the first time I've called you Mary yes, she laughed a little tremulously though I wanted you to I said it without thinking it must be because you came here to walk home with me that must be it women like to have things said Mary informed him her tremulous laughter continuing were you glad I came for you no, not glad I felt as if I were being carried straight up and up and up over the clouds I feel like that still I think I'm that way most of the time I wonder what I was like before I knew you the person I was then seems to have been somebody else not bibs Sheridan at all it seems long, long ago I was gloomy and sickly somebody else somebody I don't understand now a coward afraid of shadows afraid of things that didn't exist afraid of my old zinc eater and now I'm only afraid of what might change anything she was silent a moment and then you're happy bibs she asked ah, don't you see he cried I want it to elast for a thousand thousand years just as it is you've made me so rich I'm a miser I wouldn't have one thing different nothing, nothing dear bibs she said and laughed happily end of chapter 22 chapter 23 of the turmoil this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Neil Donnelly the turmoil volume one of the growth trilogy by Booth Tarkington chapter 23 bibs continued to live in the shelter of his dream he had told Edith after his ineffective efforts useful in her affairs that he had decided that he was a member of the family but he appeared to have relapsed to the retired list after that one attempt at participancy he was far enough detached from membership now these were turbulent days in the new house but bibs had no part whatever in the turbulence he seemed an absent-minded stranger present by accident and not wholly aware that he was present he would sit faintly smiling over pleasant imaginings and dear reminiscences of his own while battle raged between Edith and her father or while shared an unloosed Jeremiah upon the sullen Roscoe who drank heavily to endure them the happy dreamer wandered into storm areas like a somnambulist and wandered out again unawakened he was sorry for his father and for Roscoe and for Edith and for Sibyl the sufferings in outcries seemed far away Sibyl was under Gurney's care Roscoe had sent for him on Sunday night not long after bibs returned the abandoned wraps and during the first days of Sibyl's illness the doctor found it necessary to be with her frequently and to install a muscular nurse and whether he would or no Gurney received from his hysterical patient a variety of pungent information which would have staggered anybody but a family physician among other things he was given to comprehend the change in bibs and why the zinc eater was not putting a lump in the operator's gizzard as of Yor Sibyl was not delirious she was a thin little ego writhing and shrieking in pain life had hurt her and had driven her into hurting herself her condition was only the adult's terrible exaggeration of that of a child after a bad bruise there must be screaming and telling mother all about the hurt and how it happened Sibyl babbled herself horse when Gurney withheld morphine she went from the beginning to the end in her breath no protest stopped her nothing stopped her you ought to let me die she wailed it's cruel not to let me die what harm have I ever done to anybody that you would want to keep me alive just look at my life go away from home and look what that got me into look where I am now he brought me to this town and what did I have in my life but his family and they didn't even know the right crowd if they had it might have been something I had nothing nothing nothing in the world I wanted to have a good time and how could I where's any good time among these Sheridan's they never even had wine on the table I thought I was marrying into a rich family where I'd meet attractive people I'd read about and travel and go to dances and oh my lord all I got was these Sheridan's I did the best I could I did indeed oh I did I just tried to live every woman's got a right to live sometime in her life I guess things were just beginning to look brighter we'd moved up here and that frozen crowd across the street were after Jim for their daughter and they'd have started us with the right people then I saw how Edith was getting him away from me she did it too she got him a girl with money can do that to a married woman yes she can every time and what could I do what can any woman do in my fix I couldn't do anything but try to stand it and I couldn't stand it I went to that icicle that virtuaries girl and she could have helped me a little and it wouldn't have hurt her it wouldn't have done her any harm to help me that little she treated me as if I'd been dirt that she wouldn't even take the trouble to sweep out of her house let her wait Sybil's voice hoarse from babbling became no more than a husky whisper though she strove to make it louder she struggled half upright and the nurse restrained her I'd get up out of this bed to show her she can't do such things to me I was absolutely ladylike and she walked out and left me there alone she'll see she started after bibs before Jim's casket was fairly underground and she thinks she's landed that poor loon but she'll see if I'm ever able to walk across the street again I'll show her how to treat a woman in trouble that comes to her for help it wouldn't have hurt her any it wouldn't it wouldn't and Edith needn't have told what she told Roscoe it wouldn't have hurt her to let me alone and he told her I bored him I wanted to see him he needn't have done it needn't her voice grew fainter for that while with exhaustion though she would go over it all again as soon as her strength returned she lay panting then seeing her husband standing disheveled in the doorway don't come in Roscoe she remembered I don't want to see you and as he turned away she added I'm kind of sorry for you Roscoe the agonist Edith was not more coherent in her own wailings and she had the advantage of a mother for a listener she had also the disadvantage of a mother for Duena and Mrs. Sheridan under her husband's sharp tutelage proved an effective one Edith was reduced to telephoning Lambhorn from shops whenever she could juggle her mother into a momentary distraction over a counter Edith was incomparably more in love than before Lambhorn's expulsion her whole being was nothing but the determination to hurtle everything that separated her from him she was in a state that could be altered by only the lightest and most delicate diplomacy of suggestion but Sheridan like legions of other parents intensified her passion and fed it hourly fuel by opposing to it an intolerable force he swore she should cool and thus set her on fire Edith planned neatly she fought hard every other evening with her father and kept her bed between times to let him see what his violence had done to her then when the mere sight of her set him to breathing fast she said pitiably that she might bear her trouble better if she went away it was impossible to be in the same town with Lambhorn and not think always of him perhaps in New York she might forget a little she had written to a school friend established quietly with an aunt in apartments and a month or so of theaters and restaurants might bring peace Sheridan shouted with relief he gave her a copious check and she left upon a Monday morning wearing violets with her morning and having kissed everybody goodbye except Sibyl and Bibs she might have kissed Bibs but he failed to realize that the day of her departure had arrived and was surprised on returning from his zinc eater that evening to find her gone I suppose they'll be married there he said casually Sheridan seated warming his stocking feet at the fire jumped up fuming either you go out of here or I will Bibs he snorted I don't want to be in the same room with the particular kind of idiot you are she's through with that riff-raff all she needed was to be kept away from him and it did the business for heaven's sake go on out of here Bibs obeyed the gesture of a hand still bandaged and the black silk sling was still around Sheridan's neck but no word of gurneys and no excruciating twinge of pain could keep Sheridan's hand in the sling the wounds is slight enough originally and become infected the first time he had dislodged the bandages and healing was long delayed Sheridan had the habit of gesture he could not take time to remember he said that he must be careful and he had also a curious indignation with his hurt he refused to pay it the compliment of admitting its existence the Saturday following Edith's departure Gurney came to the Sheridan building to dress the wounds and to have a talk with Sheridan which the doctor felt had become necessary but he was a little before the appointed time and was obliged to wait a few minutes in an anti-room there was a director's meeting of some sort in Sheridan's office the door was slightly ajar leaking cigar smoke and oratory the latter all Sheridan's and Gurney listened no sir, no sir, no sir he heard the big voice rumbling and then breaking into thunder I tell you no some of you men make me sick you'd lose your confidence an almighty god of a doodle bug flipped his hind legs at you you say money's tight all over the country well what if it is there's no reason for it to be tight and it's not going to keep our money tight you're always running to the woodshed to hide your nickels in a crack because some fool newspaper says the market's a little scary you listen to every street corner croaker and then come and sit here and try to scare me out of a big thing we're in on this understand I tell you there never was better times these are good times and big times and I won't stand for any other kind of talk this country's on its feet as it never was before and this city's on its feet and going to stay there and Gurney heard a series of whacks and thumps upon the desk bad times Sheridan vociferated with accompanying thumps rabbit talk these times are glorious I tell you we're in the promised land and we're going to stay there that's all gentlemen the loan goes the directors came forth flushed and murmurous and Gurney hastened in his guess was correct Sheridan had been thumping the desk with his right hand the physician scolded wearily making good the fresh damage as best he might and then he said what he had to say on the subject of Roscoe and Sybil his opinion meeting as he expected a warmly hostile reception but the result of this conversation was that by telephonic command Roscoe awaited his father an hour later in the library at the new house Gurney says your wife's able to travel Sheridan said brusquely as he came in yes, Roscoe occupied a deep chair and sat in the dejected attitude which had become his habit yes she is Edith had to leave town and so Sybil thinks she'll have to too oh I wouldn't put it that way Roscoe protested drearily no I hear you wouldn't there was a bitter jibe in the father's voice and he added it's a good thing she's going abroad if she'll stay there I shouldn't think any of us want her here anymore you least of all it's no use you're talking that way said Roscoe you won't do any good well why don't you come back to your office Sheridan used a brisker kinder tone three weeks since you showed up there at all when you're going to be ready to cut out whiskey and all the rest of the foolishness and start in again you ought to be able to make up for a lot of lost time and a lot of spilled milk when that woman takes yourself out of the way and lets you and all the rest of us alone it's no use father I tell you I know what Gurney was going to say to you I'm not going back to the office I'm done wait a minute before you talk that way Sheridan began his century go up and down the room I suppose you know it's taking two pretty good men about 16 hours a day to set things straight and get him running right again down in your office they must be good men Roscoe nodded indifferently I thought I was doing about eight men's work I'm glad you found two that could handle it look here if I worked you it was for your own good there are plenty men drive harder than I do and yes there are some that break down all the other men that work with them they either die or go crazy or have to quit and are no use the rest of their lives the last is my case I guess complicated by domestic difficulties you sit there and tell me you give up Sheridan's voice shook and so did the gesticulating hand which extended appealingly toward the despondent figure don't do it Roscoe don't say it say you'll come down there again and be a man this woman ain't gonna trouble you anymore the work ain't gonna hurt you if you haven't got hurt or worry you and you can get shot at this nasty whiskey guzzlin it ain't fastened on you yet it ain't fastened on you yet don't say it's no use on earth Roscoe mumbled no use on earth look here if you want another month's vacation I know Gurney told you so what's the use talking about vacations Gurney Sheridan's vociferated the name savagely it's Gurney always Gurney I don't know what the world's coming to with everybody running around squealing the doctor says this and the doctor says that makes me sick how's this country expect to get its work done of Gurney and all the other old nanny goats keep up this blatant oh no don't lift that stick of wood you'll ruin your nerves so he says you got nervous exhaustion induced by overwork and emotional strain they always got to stick the work in if they see a chance I reckon you did have the emotional strain and that's all's the matter with you you'll be over it soon as this woman's gone and works the very thing to make you quit fretting about her did Gurney tell you I was fit to work shut up Sheridan Bellot I'm so sick of that man's name I feel like shooting anybody that says it to me he fumed and chafed swearing indistinctly then came and said before his son look here do you think you're doing the square thing by me do you how much you worth I've got between seven and eight thousand a year clear of my own outside the salary that much is mine whether I work or not it is you could have pulled it out without me I suppose you think at your age no but it's mine and it's enough my lord it's about what a congressman gets and you want to quit there I suppose you think you'll get the arrest when I kick the bucket all you have to do is lay back and wait you let me tell you right here you'll never see one cent of it you go out of business now and what would you know about handling it five or ten or twenty years from now because I intend to stay here a little while yet my boy they either get it away from you or you'd sell for a nickel and let it be split up and he whirled about marched to the other end of the room and stood silent a moment he said solemnly listen if you go out now you leave me in the lurch with nothing on God's green earth to depend on but your brother and you know what he is I've depended on you for all since Jim died now you've listened to that damn doctor and he says maybe you won't ever be as good a man as you were and that certainly you won't be for a year or so probably more now that's all a lie men don't break down that way at your age look at me and I tell you you can shake this thing off all you need is a little get up and a little gumption men don't go away for years and then come back into moving businesses like ours they lose the strings and if you could I won't let you if you lay down on me now I won't and that's because if you lay down you prove you ain't the man I thought you were he cleared his throat and finished quietly Roscoe will you take a month's vacation and come back and go to it no said Roscoe listlessly I'm through alright said Sheridan he picked up the evening paper from a table went to a chair by the fire and sat down his back to his son goodbye Roscoe rose his head hanging but there was a dull relief in his eyes best I can do he muttered seeming about to depart yet lingering I figured out a good deal like this he said I didn't know my job was any strain and I managed alright but from what I hear I was just up to the limit of my nerves from overwork and the trouble at home was the extra strain that was the way I am I tried to brace so I could stand the work and the trouble too unwiskey and that put the finish to me I'm not hitting it as hard as I was for a while and I reckon pretty soon if I can get the feeling a little more energy I better try to quit entirely I don't know I'm all in and the doctor says so I thought I was running along fine but all the time I was ready to bust and didn't know it now then I don't want you to blame Cibla and if I were you I wouldn't speak of her as that woman because she is your daughter-in-law going to stay that way she didn't do anything wicked it was a shock to me and I don't tonight to find what she had done encouraging that fellow to hang around after he began trying to flirt with her and losing her head over him the way she did I don't deny it was a shock and that it'll always be a hurt inside of me I'll never get over but it was my fault I didn't understand a woman's nature For Roscoe spoke in the most profound and desolate earnest a woman craves society and gaiety and meeting attractive people and traveling well I can't give her the other things but I can give her the traveling real traveling not just going to Atlantic City or New Orleans the way she has two three times a woman has to have something in her life besides a business man and that's all I was I never understood till I heard her talking when she was so sick and I believe if you'd heard her then you wouldn't speak so hard heartedly about her I believe you might have forgiven her like I have I never cared anything for any girl but her in my life but I was so busy with business I put it ahead of her I never thought about her I was so busy thinking business well this is where it's brought us to and now when you talk about business to me I feel the way you do when anybody talks about gurney to you the word business makes me dizzy it makes me honestly sick at the stomach I believe if I had to go downtown and step inside that office door I'd fall down on the floor deathly sick you talk about a month's vacation and I get just as sick I'm rattled I can't plan I haven't got any plans can't make any except to take my girl and get just as far away from that office as I can and stay we're going to Japan first and if we his father rustled the paper and I said goodbye Roscoe goodbye said Roscoe listlessly end of chapter 23 volume one of the growth trilogy by Booth Tarkington chapter 24 Sheridan waited until he heard the sound of the outer door closing then he rose and pushed a tiny disk set in the wall Jackson appeared as bibs got home from work miss bibs no sir tell him I want to see him soon as he comes yes sir Sheridan returned to his chair and fixed his attention fiercely upon the newspaper he found it difficult to pursue the items beyond their explanatory rubrics there was nothing unusual or startling to concentrate his attention motorman puts blame on brakes three killed when car slides burglars make big haul board works approve big car line extension hold up men injured two man found in alley skull fractured sickening story told in divorce court plan new 18 story structure schoolgirl meets death under automobile Negro cuts three one dead life crushed out third elevator accident in same building causes action by coroner declare militia will be menace polish society's protest to governor in church rioting case short 3500 and accounts trusted man kills self with drug found frozen family without food or fuel baby dead when parents return home from seeking work minister return from trip abroad lectures on big future of our city sees big improvement during short absence says no European city holds candle Sheridan nodded approvingly here bibs came through the hall whistling and entered the room briskly well father did you want me yes sit down Sheridan got up and bibs took a seat by the fire holding out his hands to the crackling blaze for it was cold outdoors I came within seven of the shop record today he said I handled more strips than any other workmen has any day this month the nearest to me is sixteen behind there exclaimed his father greatly pleased what did I tell you I'd like to hear gurney hit again that I wasn't right in sending you there I would just like to hear him and you ain't you ashamed of fuss about it ain't you I didn't go at it in the right spirit the other time bibs said smiling brightly his face ruddy in the cheerful firelight I didn't know the difference it meant to like a thing well I guess I've pretty thoroughly vindicated my judgment I guess I have I said the shop would be good for you and it was I said it wouldn't hurt you and it hasn't it's been just exactly what I said it would be ain't that so looks like it bibs agreed gaily well I'd like to know any place I've been wrong first and last instead of hurting you it's been the making of you physically you're a good inch taller than what I am and you'd be a bigger man than what I am if you'd get some flesh on your bones and you are getting a little physically it started you out to be a huskiest one of the whole family now then mentally that's different I don't say it unkindly bibs but you've got to do something for yourself mentally just like what's begun physically and I'm going to help you Sheridan decided to sit down again he brought his chair close to his sons and leaning over tapped bibs knee confidentially I got plans for you bibs he said bibs instantly looked thoroughly alarmed he drew back I'm all right now father listen Sheridan settled himself in his chair and spoke in the tone of a reasonable man reasoning listen here bibs I had another blow today and it was a hard one and right in the face though I have been expecting it some little time back well it's got to be met now I'll be frank with you as I said a minute ago mentally I couldn't ever call you exactly strong you've been a little weak both ways most of your life not but what I think you got a mentality if you learn to use it you got willpower I'll say that for you I never knew boy or man that could be stubborner never one in my life now then you've showed you could learn to run that machine best of any man in the shop in no time at all that looks to me like you could learn to do other things I don't deny but what's an encouraging sign I don't deny that at all well that helps me to think the case ain't so hopeless as it looks you're all I got to meet this blow with but maybe you ain't as poor material as I thought coming within seven strips of the shop's record today looks to me like encouraging information brought in at just about the right time now then I'm going to give you a raise I wanted to send you straight on up through the shops a year or two maybe but I can't do it I lost Jim and now I've lost Roscoe he's quit he's laid down on me if he ever comes back at all he'll be a long time picking up the strings and anyway he ain't the man I thought he was I can't count on him I got to have somebody I know I can count on and I'm down to this you're my last chance bibs I got to learn you to use what brains you got and see if we can't develop them a little who knows and I'm going to put my time in on it I'm going to take you right downtown with me and swing you if you're a little slow at first and I'm going to do the big thing for you I'm going to make you feel you got to do the big thing for me in return I've vindicated my policy with you about the shop and now I'm going to turn right around and swing you way over ahead of where the other boys started and I'm going to make an appeal to your ambition that'll make you dizzy he tapped his son on the knee bibs I'm going to start you off this way I'm going to make you the director in the pump works company I'm going to make you vice president of the realty company and vice president of the trust company bibs jumped to his feet blanched oh no he cried Sheridan took his dismay to be the excitement of sudden joy yes sir some pretty fat little salaries goes with those vice presidencies and a pinch of stock in the pump company with the directorship you thought I was pretty mean about the shop oh I know you did but you see the old man can play it both ways and so right now the minute you begun to make good the way I wanted you to I'd deal from the new deck and I'll keep on handing it out bigger and bigger every time you show me you're big enough to play the hand I'd deal you I'm starting you with a pretty big one my boy but I don't I don't want it bibs stammered what did you say I don't want it father I thank you I did thank you Sheridan looked perplexed what's the matter with you didn't you understand what I was telling you when you yes you sure I reckon you didn't offered I know I know but I can't take it what's the matter with you Sheridan was half amazed half suspicious your head feel funny I've never been quite so sane in my life said bibs as I have lately and I've got just what I want exactly the right life I'm earning my daily bread and I'm happy in doing it my wages are enough I don't want anymore money and I don't deserve any damn nation Sheridan sprang up you've turned socialist you've been listened to those fellas down there and you know sir I think there's a great deal in what they say but that's that isn't it Sheridan tried to restrain his growing fury and succeeded partially then what is it what's the matter nothing his son returned nervously nothing except that I'm content I don't want to change anything why not bib had the incredible folly to try to explain I'll tell you father if I can I know it may be hard to understand yes I think it may be said Sheridan grimly today usually is a little that way go on perturbed and distressed bibs rose instinctively he felt himself at every possible disadvantage he was a sleeper clinging to a dream a rough hand stretched to shake him and waken him he went to a table and made vague drawings upon it with a finger and as he spoke he kept his eyes lowered about the shop that is in one way you weren't father he glanced up apprehensively Sheridan stood facing him expressionless and made no attempt to interrupt that's difficult to explain bibs continued lowering his eyes again to follow the tracings of his finger I believe the shop might have done for me this time if I hadn't if something hadn't helped me to bear it but to be happy in it well I am happy in it I want to go on just as I am and of all things on earth that I don't want I don't want to live a business life I don't want to be drawn into it I don't think it is living and now I am living I have the healthful toil and I can think in business as important as yours I couldn't think anything but business I don't I don't think making money is worthwhile go on said Sheridan currently as bibs paused timidly it hasn't seemed to get anywhere that I can see said bibs you think the city is rich and powerful but what's the use of it being rich and powerful they don't teach the children anymore in the schools because the city is rich and powerful they teach them more than they used to because some people not rich and powerful people have thought the thoughts to teach the children and yet when you've been reading the paper I've heard you objecting to the children being taught anything except what would help them to make money you said it was wasting the taxes you want them taught to make a living but not to live when I was a little boy this wasn't an ugly town now it's hideous what's the use of being big just to be hideous I mean I don't think all this has meant really going ahead it's just been getting bigger and dirtier and noisier wasn't the whole country happier and in many ways wiser when it was smaller and cleaner and quieter and kinder I know you think I'm an utter fool father but after all though aren't business and politics just the housekeeping part of life don't you despise a woman that not only made her housekeeping her ambition but did it so noisily and dirty that the whole neighborhood was in continual turmoil over it and suppose she talked and thought about her housekeeping all the time and was always having additions built in her house when she couldn't keep clean what she already had and suppose with it all she made the house altogether unpeaceful and unlivable just one minute Sheridan interrupted adding with terrible courtesy if you will permit me have you ever been right about anything I don't quite I ask the simple question have you ever been right about anything whatever in the course of your life have you ever been right upon any subject or question you've thought about and talked about can you mention one single time when you were proved to be right he was flourishing the bandage hand as he spoke but Bibb said only if I've always been wrong before surely there's more chance that I'm right about this it seems reasonable to suppose something would be due to to bring up my average yes I thought you wouldn't see the point and there's another you probably couldn't see take the liberty to mention it you've been balking all your life pretty much everything I ever wanted you to do you'd let out some kind of holler like you are now and yet I can't seem to remember once when you didn't have to lay down and do what I said but go on with your remarks about our city and the business of this country go on I don't want to be a part of it said Bibb's with unwanted decision I want to keep to myself and I'm doing it now I couldn't if I went down there with you I'd be swallowed into it I don't care for money enough to know his father had erupted still dangerously quiet you've never had to earn a living anybody could tell that by what you say now let me remind you you're sleeping in a pretty good bed you're eating pretty fair food you're wearing pretty fine clothes just suppose one of these noisy house papers me for instance decided to let you do your own housekeeping may I ask what your proposition would be I'm earning nine dollars a week said Bibb's sturdily it's enough I shouldn't mind at all who's paying you that nine dollars a week my work Bibb's answered and I've done so well on that clipping machine I believe I could work up to fifteen twenty a week at another job I could be a fair plumber in a few months I'm sure I'd rather have a trade than be in business I should infinitely you better set about learning one pretty damn quick but Sheridan struggled with his temper and again was partially successful in controlling it you better learn a trade over Sunday because you're either going down with me to my office one day morning or you can go to plumbing all right said Bibb's gently I can get along Sheridan raised his hand serotonically as in prayer oh god this boy was crazy enough before he began to earn his nine dollars a week and now his money's gone to his head can't you do nothing for him then he flung his hands apart outward in a furious gesture of dismissal get out of this room you got a skull that's thicker than a whale's thigh bone but it's cracked spang all the way across you hated the machine shop so bad when I sent you there you went and stayed sick for over two years and now when I offered to take you out of it and give you the mint you holler for the shop like a calf for its mammy you're cracked oh but I got a fine way out here one son died one quit and one's a loon the loon's all I got left H.P. Ellersley's wife had a crazy brother and they undertook to keep him at the house first morning he was there he walked straight through a ten dollar plate glass window out into the yard he says oh look at the pretty dandelion that's what you're doing you want to spend your life saying oh look at the pretty dandelion and you don't care a tanker's damn what you bust well mr. loon or no loon cracked or crazy or whatever you are I'll take you with me Monday morning and I'll work you and learn you yes and I'll lamb you if I got to until I've made something out of you that's fit to be called a businessman I'll keep it to you while I'm able to stand and if I have to lay down to die I'll be whispering at you till they embalm and flew it into me now go on and don't let me hear from you again till you can come and tell me you've waked up poor pitiful dandelion pickin sleepwalker bibs gave him a queer look there was something like reproach in it for once he seemed to be startle by his father's last word end of chapter 24 chapter 25 of the term oil this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Bologna Times the term oil volume 1 of the growth trilogy by Booth Tarkington chapter 25 there was sleet that evening with a whopping wind but neither this storm nor that other which so imminently threatened him held place in the consciousness of Bib Sheridan when he came once more to the presence of Mary all was right in his world as he sat with her reading Maurice Metrolinks Aladdin and Palamides the sorrowful light of the gas jet might have been may morning sunshine flashing amber and rose through the glowing windows of the Sa Chappelle it was so bright for Bibs and while the zinc eater held out to bring him such golden knights as these all the king's horses and all the king's men might not serve to break the spell Bibs read slowly but in a reasonable manner as if he were talking and Mary looking at him steadily from beneath her curved fingers appeared to discover no fault it had grown to be her habit to look at him whenever there was an opportunity it may be said in truth that while they were together and it was light she looked at him all the time when he came to the end of Aladdin and Palamides they were silent a little while considering together then he turned back the pages and said there's something I want to read over this you would think I threw a window open on the dawn she has a soul that can be seen around her that takes you on its arms like an ailing child and without saying anything to you consoles you for everything I shall never understand at all I do not know how it can all be but my knees bend in spite of me when I speak of it he stopped and looked at her you boy said Mary not very clearly oh yes he returned but it's true especially my knees you boy she murmured again blushing charmingly you might read another line over the first time I ever saw you bebs you were looking into a mirror do it again but you needn't read it I can give it to you in the heart of Arkady if I'm one of the hands at the pump works and going to stay one unless I have to decide to study plumbing no she shook her head you love and want what's beautiful and delicate and serene it's really art that you want in your life and have always wanted you seem to me from the first the most wistful person I had ever known and that's what you were wistful for bebs looked doubtful and more wistful than ever but after a moment or two the matter seemed to clarify itself to him why no I wanted something else more than that I wanted you and here I am she laughed completely understanding I think we're like those two in the cloister and the hearth I'm just the rough Burgundian crossbow man Dennis he told people Gerard and told everybody that the devil was dead he isn't though said bebs as a horse little bell in the next room began a series of snapings which proved to be ten upon count he gets into the clock whenever I'm with you and sighing deeply he rose to go you're always very prompt about leaving me I try to be he said it isn't easy to be careful not to risk everything by giving myself a little more at a time if I ever saw you look tired have you ever not yet you always look you always look how carefree except when you feel sorry for me about something you always have that splendid look it puts courage into people to see it if I had a struggle to face I'd keep remembering that look and I'd never give it up it's a brave look too as though Gaeti might be a kind of gallantry on your part and yet I don't quite understand why it should be either he smiled physically looking down upon her Mary you haven't a secret sorrow have you for answer she only laughed no he said I can't imagine you with the care in the world I think that's why you were so kind to me you have nothing but happiness in your own life and so you could spare time to make my troubles turn to happiness too but there's one little time in the 24 hours when I'm not happy it's now when I have to say good night I feel dismal every time it comes and then when I've left the house a black void as though I were temporarily dead and it lasts until I get it established in my mind that I'm really beginning another day that's to end with you again then I cheer up but now's the bad time and I must go through it and so good night and he added with a pungent vehemence of which he was little aware I hate it do you she said rising to go to the door with him but he stood motionless gazing at her wonderingly Mary your eyes are so he stopped yes but she looked quickly away I don't know I thought just then what did you think I don't know it seemed to me that there was something to stand and didn't she laughed and met his wondering gaze again frankly my eyes are pleased she said I'm glad that you miss me a little after you go but tomorrow's coming faster than other days if you'll let it he said she implied her head yes I'll let it going to church what is going to church when I go with you she went to the front door with him she always went that far they had formed a little code of leave-taking by habit neither of them ever speaking of it but it was always the same she always stood in the doorway until he reached the sidewalk and there he always turned and looked back and she waved her hand to him then he went on again and Mary was not in the doorway but the door was open and the light shone it was as if she meant to tell him that she would never shut him out he could always see that friendly light of the open doorway as if it were open for him to come back if he would he could see it until a wing of the new house came in between when he went up the path the open doorway seemed to him a beautiful symbol of her friendship of her thought of him a symbol of herself and of her ineffable kindness and she kept the door open even tonight though the sleet and fine snow swept in upon her bare throat and arms and her brown hair was strewn with tiny white stars his heart lopped up as he turned and saw the storm touched her when he had gone on Mary did as she always did she went into an unlit room across the hall from that in which they had spent the evening and, looking from the window watched him until he was out of sight the storm made that difficult but she cut a glimpse of him under the street lamp that stood between that two houses and saw that he turned to look back again then, and not before she looked at the upper windows of Roscoe's house across the street they were dark Mary waited but after a little while she closed the front door and returned to her window a moment later two of the upper windows of Roscoe's house flashed into light and a hand lowered the shade of one of them Mary felt the cold then it was the third night she had seen those windows lighted and the shade lowered just after Bibbs had gone but Bibbs had no glance to spare for Roscoe's windows he stopped for his last look back at the open door and with a thin mantle of white already upon his shoulders made his way gasping in the wind to the lee of the sheltering wing of the new house a stricken George muttering hoarsely admitted him and Bibbs became aware of a paroxysm within the house terrible sounds came from the library Sheridan cursing as never before his wife sobbing her voice rising to an agonized squail a protest upon each of a series of muffled detonations the outrageous thumping of a bandaged hand upon wood then gurney sharply imperious keep your hand in that sling keep your hand in that sling, I say look George gasped delighted to play Harold for so important a tragedy he renewed upon his face the ghastly expression with which he had first beheld the ruins his calamitous gesture led before the eyes of Bibbs look at that Lamedel statue gazing down the hall Bibbs saw heroic wreckage seemingly Byzantine painted colossal fragments of the shattered torso appallingly humid and gilded and silvered heaps of magnificence and ruinous palms like the spoil of a barbarian's battle there had been a massacre in the Oasis the Moor had been hurled headlong from his pedestal he hid it at a Lamedel statue said George Pau my father yes sir, Pau he hid it and you ma run tell me get Dr. Quicks as I can telephone she show you Pau going bust a blood vessel he ain't nothing tell to what he was a while ago you don't miss it Miss Bibbs Dr. got him all quiet down to what he was Pau he hid it, yes sir he took Bibbs's coat and proffered a crumpled telegraph form I pick it up when he done stomping on her you read it Miss Bibbs you ma tell me where over to you soon as you come in Bibbs read the telegram quickly it was from New York and addressed to Mrs. Sheridan sure you will approve step have taken as was so wretched my health would probably suffered severely Robert and I were married this afternoon thought best have quiet wedding absolutely sure you will understand wisdom of step better am happiest woman in world are leaving for Florida will wire address when settled will remain till spring love to all father will like him too when he knows him like I do he is just ideal Edith Lamhorn End of Chapter 25 Chapter 26 of the term while this is LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the term while Volume 1 of the growth trilogy by Booth Tarkington Chapter 26 George departed and Bibbs was left gazing upon chaos and listening to thunder he could not reach the stairway without passing the open doors of the library and he was convinced that the mere glimpse of him would prove nothing less than insufferable for his father for that reason he was about to make his escape into the golden brocade room intending to keep out of sight when he heard Sheridan vociferously demanding his presence tell him to come in here he's out there I heard George just let him in now you'll see and tears stain Mrs. Sheridan looking out into the hall back into her son Bibbs went as far as the doorway a strip of white cotton his black bag open upon a chair nearby and Sheridan was striding up and down his hands so heavily wrapped in fresh bandages that he seemed to be wearing a small boxing glove his eyes were bloodshot his forehead was heavily bedued one side of his collar had broken loose and there were blood stains upon his right cuff there's our little sunshine he cried as Bibbs appeared there's the hope of the family my lifelong pride and joy I want keep your hand in that sling, said Gurney sharply Sheridan turned upon him uttering a sound like a howl for God's sake sing another tune he cried you said you came as a doctor but stay as a friend and in that capacity you undertake to sit up and criticize me oh talk since said the doctor and yawned intentionally what do you want Bibbs to say you were sitting up there telling me I got hysterical hysterical oh lord you sat up there and told me I got hysterical over nothing you sat there telling me I didn't have as heavy burdens as many other men you know I just want you to hear this now listen he swung toward the quiet figure waiting in the doorway Bibbs will you come downtown with me Monday morning and let me start you with two vice presidencies a director ship stock I asked no father said Bibbs gently Sheridan looked at Gurney and then faced his son once more Bibbs you want to stay in the shop do you at nine dollars a week instead of taking up my offer yes sir and I'd like the doctor to hear what will you do if I decide you're too high priced a work in man either to live in my house or to work in my shop find other work said Bibbs you hear him for yourself Sheridan cried you hear what keep your hand in that sling yes I hear him Sheridan leaned over Gurney and shouted in a voice that cracked and broke piping into falsetto he thinks of being a plumber he wants to be a plumber he told me he couldn't think if he went into business he wants to be a plumber so he can think he fell back to step wiping his forehead with the back of his left hand there that's my son that's the only son I got now that's my chance to live he cried with a bitterness that seemed to leave ashes in his throat that's my one chance to live that thing you see in the doorway yonder Dr. Gurney thoughtfully regarded the bandage strip he had been winding and tossed it into the open bag what's the matter with giving Bibbs a chance to live he said Cooley I would why were you you've had two that went into business Sheridan's mouth moved grotesquely before he could speak Joe Gurney said when he could command himself so far are you accusing me of the responsibility for the death of my son James I accuse you of nothing said the doctor but just once I'd like to have it out with you on the question of Bibbs and while he's here too he got up out of the fire and stood warming his hands behind his back and smiling look here old fellow let's be reasonable he said you were bound Bibbs should go to the shop again and I gave you and him both to understand pretty plainly that if you went it was at the risk of his life well what did he do he said he wanted to go and he did go and he's made good there now C isn't that enough can't you let him off now he wants to write how do you know that he couldn't do it if you gave him a chance how do you know he hasn't some message something to say that might make the world just a little bit happier or wiser he might in time it's a possibility not to be denied now he can't deliver any message if he goes down there with you and he won't have any to deliver I don't say going down with you is likely to injure his health as I thought the shop would I'm not speaking as doctor now anyhow but I tell you one thing I know if you take him down there you'll kill something I feel is in him and it's finer I think than his physical body and you'll kill it deader than a doornail so why not let it live you've about come to the end of your string old fellow why not stop this perpetual devilish fighting and give Bibbs his chance Sheridan's doing looking at him fixedly what fighting yours with nature Gurney sustained the daunting gaze of his fierce antagonist equibly you don't seem to understand that you've been struggling against actual law what law natural law said Gurney what do you think beat you with Edith did Edith herself beat you didn't she obey without question something powerful that was against you Edith wasn't against you there was a power that had her in its grip and it shot out a spurt of flame and won in a walk what's taken Roscoe from you timbers bear just so much strain old man but you wanted to send the load across the broken bridge and you thought you could bully or coax that cracked thing into standing well you couldn't now here's Bibbs there are thousands of men fit for the life you want him to lead and so is he it wouldn't take half of Bibbs brains to be twice as good a businessman as Roscoe put together what Sheridan goggled at him like a zany your son Bibbs said the doctor composedly Bibbs Sheridan has the kind and quality of a grey matter that would make him a success in anything if he ever wakes up personally I should prefer him to remain asleep I like him that way but the thousands of men fit for the life you want him to lead aren't fit to do much with the life he ought to lead blindly he's been fighting for the chance to lead it he's obeying something that begs to stay alive within him and blindly he knows you'll crush it out you've set your will to do it let me tell you something more you don't know what you've become since Jim's going thwarted you and that's what was uppermost a bafflement stronger than your normal grief you're half mad with a consuming fury against the very self of the law for it was the very self of the law that took Jim from you that was a law concerning the cohesion of molecules the very self of the law took Roscoe from you and gave Edith the certainty of beating you and the very self of the law makes Bibbs denying you tonight the law beat you haven't you been whipped enough but you want to whip the law you've set yourself against it to bend it to your own ends to wield it and twist it the voice broke from Sheridan's heaving chest in a shout and by God I will so Ajax defied the lightning said Gurney I've heard that damn full story too Sheridan retorted fiercely that's for children and niggers it ain't 20th century let me tell you defied the lightning Diddy the jackass if he'd been half a man he'd have got away with it we don't go showing off defying the lightning we hitch it up and make it work for us like a black steer a man nowadays would just assume he would shed well what about Bibbs said Gurney will you be a really big man now and Gurney you know a lot about bigness Sheridan began to walk to and throw again and the doctor returned gloomily to his chair he had shot his bolt the moment he judged his chance to strike center it was best but the target seemed unaware of the marksman I'm trying to make a big man out of that poor truck yonder Sheridan went on and you step in me to let him be Lord knows what I don't I suppose you figured out that now I got a son-in-law I might have needed a son I got a son-in-law now a spender oh put your hand back said Gurney weirdly there was a bronze ink stand upon the table Sheridan put his right hand in the sling but with his left he swept the ink stand from the table and halfway across the room a comet with a destroying black tail Mrs. Sheridan shrieked and sprang toward it let it lay he shouted fiercely let it lay and weeping she obeyed yes sir he went on in a voice the more ominous for the sudden hush he put upon it I got a spender for a son-in-law it's wonderful where property goes sometimes there was old man Tracy you remember him doc JR Tracy solid banker he went into the bank as messenger seventeen years old he was president at forty three and he built that bank with his life for forty years more he was down there from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon the day before he died over eighty gill edged that bank it was diamond edge he used to eat a bag of peanuts and an apple for lunch but he wasn't stingy he was just living in his business he didn't care for pie or automobiles he had his bank it was an institution and it come pretty near being the beating heart of this town in its time well that old man used to pass one of these here turned up nose and turned up pants cigarette boys on the streets never spoke to him Tracy didn't speak to him God he wouldn't have coughed on him he wouldn't have let him clean the cuspidors at the bank why if he'd had just seen him standing in front of the bank he'd have had him run off on the street and yet all Tracy was doing every day of his life was working for that cigarette boy Tracy thought it was for the bank he thought he was given his life and his life blood and the blood of his brain for the bank but he wasn't it was every bit from the time he went in at seventeen till he died in harness at eighty three it was every last look of it just slaven for that turned up nose turned up pants cigarette boy and Tracy didn't even know his name he died not ever having heard it though he chased him off the front steps of his house once the day after Tracy died his old maid daughter married the cigarette and there ain't any Tracy bank anymore and now his voice rose again and now I got a cigarette son-in-law Gurney pointed to the flourishing right hand without speaking and Sheridan once more returned it to the sling my son-in-law likes Florida this winter Sheridan went on that's good and my son-in-law better enjoy it because I don't think he'll be there next winter they got twelve thousand dollars to spend and I hear it can be done in Florida by rich sons-in-law when Roscoe's woman got me to spend that much on a porch for their new house Edith wouldn't give me a minutes rest till I turned over the same to her and she's got it besides what I gave her to go east on it'll be gone long before this time next year and when she comes home and leaves a cigarette behind for good she'll get some more my name ain't Tracy and there ain't gonna be any Tracy business in the Sheridan family and there ain't gonna be any college found in an endowment and trustee in nor God knows what to keep my property alive when I'm gone Edith will be back and she'll get a girl's share when she's through with that cigarette but by the way in her post Gurney didn't miss a Sheridan tell me that bibs warned you Edith would marry Lamorn in New York Sheridan went completely to pieces he swore while his wife screamed and stopped her ears and as he swore he pounded the table with his wounded hand and when the doctor after storming at him ineffectively sprang to catch and protect that hand Sheridan wrenched it away tearing the bandage he hammered the table till it leaped full he panned it choking if he's shown gumption enough to guess right the first time in his life it's enough for me to begin learning him on and struggling with the doctor he leaned towards bibs thrusting forward his convulsed face which was deathly pale my name ain't Tracy I tell you he screamed Horsley you give in you stubborn fool I've had my way with you before and I'll have my way with you now bibs' face was as white as his father's but he kept remembering that splendid look of Mary's which he had told her would give him courage in a struggle so that he would never give up no you can't have your way he said and then obeying a significant motion of Gurney's head he went out quickly leaving them struggling End of Chapter 26