His wife made him tell her what they were,and then she said,"Yes,that was loathsome;I couldn't have believed it of Mr.Fulkerson.""Perhaps he only did it to keep the talk going,and to give the old man a chance to say something,"March leniently suggested."It was a worse effect because he didn't or couldn't follow up Fulkerson's lead.""It was loathsome,all the same,"his wife insisted."It's the end of Mr.Fulkerson,as far as I'm concerned.""I didn't tell you before,"March resumed,after a moment,"of my little interview with Conrad Dryfoos after his father left,"and now he went on to repeat what had passed between him and the young man.
"I suspect that he and his father had been having some words before the old man came up to talk with me,and that it was that made him so furious.""Yes,but what a strange position for the son of such a man to take!
Do you suppose he says such things to his father?""I don't know;but I suspect that in his meek way Conrad would say what he believed to anybody.I suppose we must regard him as a kind of crank.""Poor young fellow!He always makes me feel sad,somehow.He has such a pathetic face.I don't believe I ever saw him look quite happy,except that night at Mrs.Horn's,when he was talking with Miss Vance;and then he made me feel sadder than ever.""I don't envy him the life he leads at home,with those convictions of his.I don't see why it wouldn't be as tolerable there for old Lindau himself.""Well,now,"said Mrs.March,"let us put them all out of our minds and see what we are going to do ourselves."They began to consider their ways and means,and how and where they should live,in view of March's severance of his relations with 'Every Other Week.'They had not saved anything from the first year's salary;they had only prepared to save;and they had nothing solid but their two thousand to count upon.But they built a future in which they easily lived on that and on what March earned with his pen.He became a free lance,and fought in whatever cause he thought just;he had no ties,no chains.They went back to Boston with the heroic will to do what was most distasteful;they would have returned to their own house if they had not rented it again;but,any rate,Mrs.March helped out by taking boarders,or perhaps only letting rooms to lodgers.They had some hard struggles,but they succeeded.
"The great thing,"she said,"is to be right.I'm ten times as happy as if you had come home and told me that you had consented to do what Dryfoos asked and he had doubled your salary.""I don't think that would have happened in any event,"said March,dryly.
"Well,no matter.I just used it for an example."They both experienced a buoyant relief,such as seems to come to people who begin life anew on whatever terms."I hope we are young enough yet,Basil,"she said,and she would not have it when he said they had once been younger.
They heard the children's knock on the door;they knocked when they came home from school so that their mother might let them in."Shall we tell them at once?"she asked,and ran to open for them before March could answer.
They were not alone.Fulkerson,smiling from ear to ear,was with them.
"Is March in?"he asked.
"Mr.March is at home,yes,"she said very haughtily."He's in his study,"and she led the way there,while the children went to their rooms.
"Well,March,"Fulkerson called out at sight of him,"it's all right!
The old man has come down."
"I suppose if you gentlemen are going to talk business--"Mrs.March began.
"Oh,we don't want you to go away,"said Fulkerson."I reckon March has told you,anyway.""Yes,I've told her,"said March."Don't go,Isabel.What do you mean,Fulkerson ?""He's just gone on up home,and he sent me round with his apologies.
He sees now that he had no business to speak to you as he did,and he withdraws everything.He'd 'a'come round himself if I'd said so,but Itold him I could make it all right."
Fulkerson looked so happy in having the whole affair put right,and the Marches knew him to be so kindly affected toward them,that they could not refuse for the moment to share his mood.They felt themselves slipping down from the moral height which they had gained,and March made a clutch to stay himself with the question,"And Lindau?""Well,"said Fulkerson,"he's going to leave Lindau to me.You won't have anything to do with it.I'll let the old fellow down easy.""Do you mean,"asked March,"that Mr.Dryfoos insists on his being dismissed?""Why,there isn't any dismissing about it,"Fulkerson argued."If you don't send him any more work,he won't do any more,that's all.Or if he comes round,you can--He's to be referred to me."March shook his head,and his wife,with a sigh,felt herself plucked up from the soft circumstance of their lives,which she had sunk back into so quickly,and set beside him on that cold peak of principle again.
"It won't do,Fulkerson.It's very good of you,and all that,but it comes to the same thing in the end.I could have gone on without any apology from Mr.Dryfoos;he transcended his authority,but that's a minor matter.I could have excused it to his ignorance of life among gentlemen;but I can't consent to Lindau's dismissal--it comes to that,whether you do it or I do it,and whether it's a positive or a negative thing--because he holds this opinion or that.""But don't you see,"said Fulkerson,"that it's just Lindau's opinions the old man can't stand?He hasn't got anything against him personally.
I don't suppose there's anybody that appreciates Lindau in some ways more than the old man does.""I understand.He wants to punish him for his opinions.Well,I can't consent to that,directly or indirectly.We don't print his opinions,and he has a perfect right to hold them,whether Mr.Dryfoos agrees with them or not."Mrs.March had judged it decorous for her to say nothing,but she now went and sat down in the chair next her husband.
"Ah,dog on it!"cried Fulkerson,rumpling his hair with both his hands.
