Ebooks File Big Java: Early Objects 7th Edition Cay S. Horstmann All Chapters
Ebooks File Big Java: Early Objects 7th Edition Cay S. Horstmann All Chapters
com
DOWLOAD HERE
https://textbookfull.com/product/big-java-early-
objects-7th-edition-cay-s-horstmann/
DOWLOAD NOW
https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-with-java-from-
control-structures-through-objects-whats-new-in-computer-
science-7th-edition-gaddis/
https://textbookfull.com/product/transitional-objects-in-early-
childhood-the-value-of-transitional-objects-in-the-early-
years-1st-edition-amanda-norman/
https://textbookfull.com/product/fodor-s-big-island-of-
hawaii-7th-edition-fodors-travel-guides/
https://textbookfull.com/product/starting-out-with-java-from-
control-structures-through-objects-6th-edition-gaddis/
Java: A Beginner’s Guide 7th Edition Herbert Schildt
https://textbookfull.com/product/java-a-beginners-guide-7th-
edition-herbert-schildt/
https://textbookfull.com/product/java-for-dummies-7th-edition-
barry-a-burd/
https://textbookfull.com/product/beginning-java-9-fundamentals-
arrays-objects-modules-jshell-and-regular-expressions-sharan/
https://textbookfull.com/product/big-data-analytics-with-
java-1st-edition-rajat-mehta/
https://textbookfull.com/product/java-cookbook-problems-and-
solutions-for-java-developers-early-release-ian-f-darwin/
7/e
Cay Horstmann
Cay Horstmann
San Jose State University
This book was set in 10.5/12 Stempel Garamond LT Std by Publishing Services, and printed and bound by Quad
Graphics/Versailles. The cover was printed by Quad Graphics/Versailles.
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of knowledge and understanding for more
than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Our company is
built on a foundation of principles that include responsibility to the communities we serve and where we live
and work. In 2008, we launched a Corporate Citizenship Initiative, a global effort to address the environmental,
social, economic, and ethical challenges we face in our business. Among the issues we are addressing are carbon
impact, paper specifications and procurement, ethical conduct within our business and among our vendors,
and community and charitable support. For more information, please visit our website: www.wiley.com/go/
citizenship.
Copyright © 2019, 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United
States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through
payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Dan-
vers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the
Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111
River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008.
Evaluation copies are provided to qualified academics and professionals for review purposes only, for use in
their courses during the next academic year. These copies are licensed and may not be sold or transferred to a
third party. Upon completion of the review period, please return the evaluation copy to Wiley. Return instruc-
tions and a free of charge return shipping label are available at: www.wiley.com/go/returnlabel. If you have
chosen to adopt this textbook for use in your course, please accept this book as your complimentary desk copy.
Outside of the United States, please contact your local representative.
The inside back cover will contain printing identification and country of origin if omitted from this page. In
addition, if the ISBN on the back cover differs from the ISBN on this page, the one on the back cover is correct.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is an introduction to Java and computer programming that focuses on the
essentials—and on effective learning. The book is designed to serve a wide range of
student interests and abilities and is suitable for a first course in programming for
computer scientists, engineers, and students in other disciplines. No prior program-
ming experience is required, and only a modest amount of high school algebra is
needed.
Here are the key features of this book:
Start objects early, teach object orientation gradually.
In Chapter 2, students learn how to use objects and classes from the standard library.
Chapter 3 shows the mechanics of implementing classes from a given specification.
Students then use simple objects as they master branches, loops, and arrays. Object-
oriented design starts in Chapter 8. This gradual approach allows students to use
objects throughout their study of the core algorithmic topics, without teaching bad
habits that must be un-learned later.
Guidance and worked examples help students succeed.
Beginning programmers often ask “How do I start? Now what do I do?” Of course,
an activity as complex as programming cannot be reduced to cookbook-style instruc-
tions. However, step-by-step guidance is immensely helpful for building confidence
and providing an outline for the task at hand. “How To” guides help students with
common programming tasks. Numerous Worked Examples demonstrate how to
apply chapter concepts to interesting problems.
Problem solving strategies are made explicit.
Practical, step-by-step illustrations of techniques help students devise and evaluate
solutions to programming problems. Introduced where they are most relevant, these
strategies address barriers to success for many students. Strategies included are:
• Algorithm Design (with pseudocode) • Solve a Simpler Problem First
• Tracing Objects • Adapting Algorithms
• First Do It By Hand (doing sample • Discovering Algorithms by
calculations by hand) Manipulating Physical Objects
• Flowcharts • Patterns for Object Data
• Selecting Test Cases • Thinking Recursively
• Hand-Tracing • Estimating the Running Time of
• Storyboards an Algorithm
iii
© Terraxplorer/iStockphoto.
step figures illustrate complex program operations.
Syntax boxes and example tables present a variety
of typical and special cases in a compact format. It
is easy to get the “lay of the land” by browsing the
visuals, before focusing on the textual material.
Focus on the essentials while being
technically accurate. Visual features help the reader
An encyclopedic coverage is not helpful for a begin- with navigation.
ning programmer, but neither is the opposite—
reducing the material to a list of simplistic bullet points. In this book, the essentials are
presented in digestible chunks, with separate notes that go deeper into good practices
or language features when the reader is ready for the additional information. You will
© Terraxplorer/iStockphoto.
not find artificial over-simplifications that give an illusion of knowledge.
Reinforce sound engineering practices.
A multitude of useful tips on software quality and common errors encourage the
development of good programming habits. The optional testing track focuses on
test-driven development, encouraging students to test their programs systematically.
Provide an optional graphics track.
Graphical shapes are splendid examples of objects. Many students enjoy writing pro-
grams that create drawings or use graphical user interfaces. If desired, these topics can
be integrated into the course by using the materials at the end of Chapters 2, 3, and 10.
Engage with optional science and business exercises.
End-of-chapter exercises are enhanced with problems from scientific and business
domains. Designed to engage students, the exercises illustrate the value of program-
ming in applied fields.
Interactive Learning
With this edition, interactive content is front and center. Immersive activities integrate
with this text and engage students in activities designed to foster in-depth learning.
Students don’t just watch animations and code traces, they work on generating
them. Live code samples invite the reader to experiment and to learn programming
constructs first hand. The activities provide instant feedback to show students what
they did right and where they need to study more.
programming, rather than the more traditional in-depth material on data structures
and algorithms. This book can be used in a two-semester course to give students an
introduction to programming fundamentals and broad coverage of applications.
Alternatively, the material in the final chapters can be useful for student projects. The
applied topics include graphical user-interface design, advanced file handling, multi-
threading, and those technologies that are of particular interest to server-side pro-
gramming: networking, databases, and XML. The Internet has made it possible to
1. Introduction
Fundamentals
2. Using Objects
Object-Oriented Design
Data Structures & Algorithms
Applied Topics
e eText Chapters
3. Implementing
Classes
4. Fundamental
Data Types
5. Decisions
6. Loops
21. Advanced 23. Internet 24. Relational 15. The Java 14. Sorting
9. Inheritance
e e e
Input/Output Networking Databases Collections and Searching
Framework
19. Stream
22. Processing
20. Graphical
25. XML 10. Interfaces
e e
User Interfaces Multithreading
16. Basic
12. Object- Data Structures
Oriented Design
Figure 1
Chapter 18. Generic 17. Tree
Classes Structures
Dependencies
deploy many useful applications on servers, often accessed by nothing more than a
browser. This server-centric approach to application development was in part made
possible by the Java language and libraries, and today, much of the industrial use of
Java is in server-side programming.
Appendices
Many instructors find it highly beneficial to require a consistent style for all assign-
ments. If the style guide in Appendix E conflicts with instructor sentiment or local
customs, however, it is available in electronic form so that it can be modified. Appen-
dices F–J are available in the eText.
A. The Basic Latin and Latin-1 F. Tool Summary
Subsets of Unicode G. Number Systems
B. Java Operator Summary H. UML Summary
C. Java Reserved Word Summary I. Java Syntax Summary
D. The Java Library J. HTML Summary
E. Java Language Coding Guidelines
Web Resources
This book is complemented by a complete suite of online resources. Go to www.wiley.
com/go/bjeo7 to visit the online companion sites, which include
• Source code for all example programs in the book and its Worked Examples, plus
additional example programs.
• Worked Examples that apply the problem-solving steps in the book to other
realistic examples.
• Lecture presentation slides (for instructors only).
• Solutions to all review and programming exercises (for instructors only).
• A test bank that focuses on skills, not just terminology (for instructors only). This
extensive set of multiple-choice questions can be used with a word processor or
imported into a course management system.
• CodeCheck®, an innovative online service that allows instructors to design their
own automatically graded programming exercises.
In the same way that there can be a street named “Main Street” in different cities,
a Java program can have multiple variables with the same name.
evaluating proposed solutions, often Now how does that help us with our problem, switching the first and the second
using pencil and paper or other half of the array?
Let’s put the first coin into place, by swapping it with the fifth coin. However, as
artifacts. These sections emphasize Java programmers, we will say that we swap the coins in positions 0 and 4:
Step 1 Decide what work must be done inside the loop. Worked Examples apply
Every loop needs to do some kind of repetitive work, such as
• Reading another item. the steps in the How To to a
• Updating a value (such as a bank balance or total).
WORKED EXAMPLE 6.1 different example, showing
• Incrementing a counter.
Credit Card Processing
If you can’t figure out what needs to go inside the loop, start by writing down the steps that how they can be used to
you would take if you
howsolved
to use the problem by hand. Forfrom
example, with the temperature reading
problem, you
Learn
might See
number. write
a loop to remove spaces a credit
your eText or visit wiley.com/go/bjeo7.
card
plan, implement, and test
© MorePixels/iStockphoto. a solution to another
programming problem.
Table 1 Variable Declarations in Java
Variable Name Comment
int width = 20; Declares an integer variable and initializes it with 20.
int perimeter = 4 * width; The initial value need not be a fixed value. (Of course, width
must have been previously declared.)
String greeting = "Hi!"; This variable has the type String and is initialized with the
Example tables support beginners
string “Hi”. with multiple, concrete examples.
height = 30; Error: The type is missing. This statement is not a declaration
but an assignment of a new value to an existing variable—see These tables point out common
Section 2.2.5.
errors and present another quick
int width = "20"; Error: You cannot initialize a number with the string “20”.
(Note the quotation marks.) reference to the section’s topic.
int width; Declares an integer variable without initializing it. This can be a
cause for errors—see Common Error 2.1.
int width, height; Declares two integer variables in a single statement. In this
book, we will declare each variable in a separate statement.
Figure 3
Progressive figures trace code Execution of a
1 Initialize counter
for (int counter = 5; counter <= 10; counter++)
{
for Loop
segments to help students visualize counter = 5 }
sum = sum + counter;
4 Update counter
for (int counter = 5; counter <= 10; counter++)
{
sum = sum + counter;
counter = 6 }
sec01/ElevatorSimulation.java
1 import java.util.Scanner; 5 Check condition again
for (int counter = 5; counter <= 10; counter++)
2 {
3 /** sum = sum + counter;
4 This program simulates an elevator panel that skips the 13th floor. counter = 6 }
5 */
6 public class ElevatorSimulation
7 {
8 public static void main(String[] args)
9 { The for loop neatly groups the initialization, condition, and update expressions
10 Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in); together. However, it is important to realize that these expressions are not executed
11 System.out.print("Floor: ");
together (see Figure 3).
12 int floor = in.nextInt();
13
• The initialization is executed once, before the loop is entered. 1
14 // Adjust floor if necessary
15 • The condition is checked before each iteration. 2 5
16 int actualFloor;
17 if (floor > 13) • The update is executed after each iteration. 4
Optional science and business • Science P6.15 Radioactive decay of radioactive materials can be
modeled by the equation A = A0e-t (log 2/h), where A is
exercises engage students with the amount of the material at time t, A0 is the amount
realistic applications of Java. at time 0, and h is the half-life.
Technetium-99 is a radioisotope that is used in imaging
of the brain. It has a half-life of 6 hours. Your program
should display the relative amount A / A0 in a patient
body every hour for 24 hours after receiving a dose.
Array a.length
String a.length()
more productive with tips and the program run above. When the TaxReturn object is constructed,
the income instance variable is set to 80,000 and status is set to
Hand-tracing helps you
understand whether a
techniques such as hand-tracing. MARRIED. Then the getTax method is called. In lines 31 and 32 of Tax-
Return.java, tax1 and tax2 are initialized to 0.
program works correctly.
Special Topics present optional In a program with a graphical user interface, you will want to use a file dialog box (such as the
one shown in the figure below) whenever the users of your program need to pick a file. The
topics and provide additional JFileChooser class implements a file dialog box for the Swing user-interface toolkit.
The JFileChooser class has many options to fine-tune the display of the dialog box, but in its
explanation of others. most basic form it is quite simple: Construct a file chooser object; then call the showOpenDialog
or showSaveDialog method. Both methods show the same dialog box, but the button for select-
ing a file is labeled “Open” or “Save”, depending on which method you call.
For better placement of the dialog box on the screen, you can specify the user-interface
component over which to pop up the dialog box. If you don’t care where the dialog box pops
up, you can simply pass null. The showOpenDialog and showSaveDialog methods return either
JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION, if the user has chosen a file, or JFileChooser.CANCEL_OPTION, if the
user canceled the selection. If a file was chosen, then you call the getSelectedFile method to
obtain a File object that describes the file.
Here is a complete example:
JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
Scanner in = null;
if (chooser.showOpenDialog(null) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
{
complete programs for students EXAMPLE CODE See special_topic_2 of your eText or companion code for a program that demonstrates how to use a file
chooser.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Joanna Dingle, Crystal Franks, Graig Donini, and Michael Mac-
Dougald at John Wiley & Sons, and Vickie Piercey at Publishing Services for their
help with this project. An especially deep acknowledgment and thanks goes to Cindy
Johnson for her hard work, sound judgment, and amazing attention to detail.
Special thanks to Stephen Gilbert, Orange Coast College, for his excellent help
with the interactive exercises.
Many thanks to the individuals who worked through the many new activities in
this edition, reviewed the manuscript, made valuable suggestions, and brought errors
and omissions to my attention. They include:
Radhouane Chouchane, Columbus State University
Sussan Einakian, California Polytechnic State University
Jon Hanrath, Illinois Institute of Technology
Brian King, Bucknell University
Kathleen O’Brien, San Jose State University
Eman Saleh, University of Georgia
William Wei, New York Institute of Technology
Each new edition builds on the suggestions and experiences of prior reviewers, con-
tributors, and users. I am grateful for the invaluable contributions these individuals
have made:
Eric Aaron, Wesleyan University Jerry Cain, Stanford University Geoffrey Decker, Northern Illinois
James Agnew, Anne Arundel Adam Cannon, Columbia University
Community College University Suzanne Dietrich, Arizona State
Tim Andersen, Boise State Michael Carney, Finger Lakes University,West Campus
University Community College Mike Domaratzki, University of
Ivan Bajic, San Diego State Robin Carr, Drexel University Manitoba
University Christopher Cassa, Massachusetts H. E. Dunsmore, Purdue University
Greg Ballinger, Miami Dade College Institute of Technology Robert Duvall, Duke University
Ted Bangay, Sheridan Institute Nancy Chase, Gonzaga University Sherif Elfayoumy, University of
of Technology Dr. Suchindran S. Chatterjee, North Florida
Ian Barland, Radford University Arizona State University Eman El-Sheikh, University of
George Basham, Franklin University Archana Chidanandan, Rose- West Florida
Jon Beck, Truman State University Hulman Institute of Technology Henry A. Etlinger, Rochester
Sambit Bhattacharya, Fayetteville Vincent Cicirello, The Richard Institute of Technology
State University Stockton College of New Jersey John Fendrich, Bradley University
Rick Birney, Arizona State Gerald Cohen, The Richard Stockton David Freer, Miami Dade College
University College of New Jersey John Fulton, Franklin University
Paul Bladek, Edmonds Community Teresa Cole, Boise State University David Geary, Sabreware, Inc.
College Deborah Coleman, Rochester Margaret Geroch, Wheeling Jesuit
Matt Boutell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology University
Institute of Technology Tina Comston, Franklin University Ahmad Ghafarian, North Georgia
Joseph Bowbeer, Vizrea Corporation Lennie Cooper, Miami Dade College College & State University
Timothy A. Budd, Oregon State Jose Cordova, University of Rick Giles, Acadia University
University Louisiana, Monroe Stacey Grasso, College of San Mateo
John Bundy, DeVry University Valentino Crespi, California State Jianchao Han, California State
Chicago University, Los Angeles University, Dominguez Hills
Robert P. Burton, Brigham Young Jim Cross, Auburn University Lisa Hansen, Western New England
University Russell Deaton, University College
Frank Butt, IBM of Arkansas Elliotte Harold
Eileen Head, Binghamton Teng Moh, San Jose State University Jeffrey Six, University of Delaware
University Bill Mongan, Drexel University Don Slater, Carnegie Mellon
Cecily Heiner, University of Utah John Moore, The Citadel University
Guy Helmer, Iowa State University Jose-Arturo Mora-Soto, Jesica Ken Slonneger, University of Iowa
Ed Holden, Rochester Institute Rivero-Espinosa, and Julio-Angel Aurelia Smith, Columbus State
of Technology Cano-Romero, University University
Brian Howard, Depauw University of Madrid Donald Smith, Columbia College
Lubomir Ivanov, Iona College Faye Navabi, Arizona State Joslyn A. Smith, Florida
Norman Jacobson, University of University International University
California, Irvine Parviz Partow-Navid, California Stephanie Smullen, University of
Steven Janke, Colorado College State University, Los Angeles Tennessee, Chattanooga
Curt Jones, Bloomsburg University George Novacky, University Robert Strader, Stephen F. Austin
Mark Jones, Lock Haven University of Pittsburgh State University
of Pennsylvania Kevin O’Gorman, California Monica Sweat, Georgia Institute
Dr. Mustafa Kamal, University of Polytechnic State University, San of Technology
Central Missouri Luis Obispo Peter Stanchev, Kettering University
Aaron Keen, California Polytechnic Michael Olan, Richard Stockton Aakash Taneja, The Richard
State University, San Luis Obispo College Stockton College of New Jersey
Mugdha Khaladkar, New Jersey Mimi Opkins, California State Craig Tanis, University of Tennessee
Institute of Technology University Long Beach at Chattanooga
Gary J. Koehler, University of Derek Pao, City University of Shannon Tauro, University of
Florida Hong Kong California, Irvine
Elliot Koffman, Temple University Kevin Parker, Idaho State University Ron Taylor, Wright State University
Ronald Krawitz, DeVry University Jim Perry, Ulster County Russell Tessier, University of
Norm Krumpe, Miami University Community College Massachusetts, Amherst
Ohio Cornel Pokorny, California Jonathan L. Tolstedt, North Dakota
Jim Leone, Rochester Institute Polytechnic State University, State University
of Technology San Luis Obispo David Vineyard, Kettering
Kevin Lillis, St. Ambrose University Roger Priebe, University of Texas, University
Austin Joseph Vybihal, McGill University
Darren Lim, Siena College
C. Robert Putnam, California State Xiaoming Wei, Iona College
Hong Lin, DeVry University
University, Northridge Jonathan S. Weissman, Finger Lakes
Kathy Liszka, University of Akron
Kai Qian, Southern Polytechnic Community College
Hunter Lloyd, Montana State State University
University Todd Whittaker, Franklin University
Cyndi Rader, Colorado School Robert Willhoft, Roberts Wesleyan
Youmin Lu, Bloomsburg University of Mines
Peter Lutz, Rochester Institute of College
Neil Rankin, Worcester Polytechnic Brent Wilson, George Fox University
Technology Institute
Kuber Maharjan, Purdue University Katherine Winters, University of
Brad Rippe, Fullerton College Tennessee at Chattanooga
College of Technology at
Pedro I. Rivera Vega, University Lea Wittie, Bucknell University
Columbus
of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
John S. Mallozzi, Iona College David Womack, University of Texas
Daniel Rogers, SUNY Brockport at San Antonio
John Martin, North Dakota State
Chaman Lal Sabharwal, Missouri David Woolbright, Columbus State
University
University of Science and University
Jeanna Matthews, Clarkson Technology
University Tom Wulf, University of Cincinnati
Katherine Salch, Illinois Central
Patricia McDermott-Wells, Florida Catherine Wyman, DeVry
College
International University University
John Santore, Bridgewater State
Scott McElfresh, Carnegie Mellon Arthur Yanushka, Christian Brothers
College
University University
Javad Shakib, DeVry University
Joan McGrory, Christian Brothers Qi Yu, Rochester Institute of
Carolyn Schauble, Colorado State Technology
University
University
Carolyn Miller, North Carolina Salih Yurttas, Texas A&M University
Brent Seales, University of Kentucky
State University
Christian Shin, SUNY Geneseo
Sandeep R. Mitra, State University
of New York, Brockport Charlie Shu, Franklin University
xv
9.2 Implementing Subclasses 310 10.8 Building Applications with Buttons 368
Overriding the toString Method 330 11.2 Text Input and Output 389
The equals Method 332 Reading Words 389
The instanceof Operator 333 Reading Characters 390
ST6 Inheritance and the toString Method 335 Classifying Characters 390
ST7 Inheritance and the equals Method 336 Reading Lines 390
Scanning a String 392
Converting Strings to Numbers 392
10 INTERFACES 339
Avoiding Errors When Reading Numbers 392
10.1 Using Interfaces for Algorithm Mixing Number, Word, and Line Input 393
Formatting Output 394
Reuse 340
ST4 Regular Expressions 395
Discovering an Interface Type 340
ST5 Reading an Entire File 396
Declaring an Interface Type 341
Implementing an Interface Type 343 11.3 Command Line Arguments 396
Comparing Interfaces and Inheritance 345 HT1 Processing Text Files 399
ST1 Constants in Interfaces 346 WE1 Analyzing Baby Names 403
ST2 Nonabstract Interface Methods 347 11.4 Exception Handling 403
10.2 Working with Interface Variables 348 Throwing Exceptions 403
Converting from Classes to Interfaces 348 Catching Exceptions 405
Invoking Methods on Interface Variables 349 Checked Exceptions 407
Casting from Interfaces to Classes 349 Closing Resources 409
WE1 Investigating Number Sequences 350 Designing Your Own Exception Types 410
D AVID did not understand or question the spirit in which, the following
night, he went with Tom to dine at the apartment of Constance Bardale.
She had watched him with large eyes at the table, where he sat
mostly silent and very busy with the food that he found delicious. She had
manoeuvered him later aside from the chattering group. They talked quietly
together. David had no sense of her as yet, beyond the silk cold sheath of an
earth-colored dress fending a woman’s body.
But he did not suffer. He said to himself: “I don’t know really what to
say to her. But it goes all right.” He was pleased at this, grateful to her. He
showed it.
The opposing group broke into laughter. It broke its confines. A tall
massive man stood over the two.
“Constance,” he said, “you must hear this.” A thick, foreign accent
marred his otherwise perfect English. He was an Austrian: head of the
Stegending Galleries on Fifth Avenue where second-rate examples of
second-rate old masters fetched first-rate prices. He stood very close to
Constance Bardale, who looked askance at him with sly knowledge lighting
the flecks in her gray eyes. She seemed to be saying: “So this is the best
excuse you could find for breaking into my tête-à-tête? Don’t you see it is
hopeless? No, of course, you wouldn’t.”
The Austrian’s sally had its success. It was a breach toward the hostess
through which now the others began to flow upon her. The guests shifted
near. David remarked how directly Mr. Stegending spoke to Miss Bardale.
Unlike himself. But he took comfort in his partial isolation. He rested back
in it as he would have in his chair had his self-consciousness not made him
crane stiffly forward.
“It was Fennido’s idea,” said Stegending.
“I assure you, Karl, it was Con’s.” Fennido balanced himself with grace.
In a half courtesy he thrust out an indicating palm toward his hostess.
“Mine?”
“Now wait.” Richard Fennido rose to his full plump height. David saw
how large his buttocks were, like a woman’s: his small blue eyes peered
from beside the curved nose like a bird’s. He was poising evidently for his
sort of flight—in words.
“I said it was your idea, Constance, and I can prove it.”
A little woman at his side laughed prematurely. Her eyes seemed fixed in
a sort of perpetual fright. This was Mrs. May Delano, and her great fear was
not to appreciate and not to appear at home. Fennido began.
David found, as he talked, no need of the effort of attention. This Mr.
Fennido did not notice him at all. He seemed to hold Constance Bardale
with his eyes, the group about him with his shoulders that were curiously
sharp above so plump a body. He was done. There was a breaking up. A
new shredding of words, a new scramble from which another voice
emerged, momently mastered attention, sank away.
David watched Tom. Not consciously so much as because he nearly
always saw him, when Tom was there to see. He felt a strange thing. Tom,
the casual, easy Tom, was uneasy. He was fretted by some sharp discomfort.
His eyes wandered, his feet tapped, he lighted a cigarette and threw it away.
Fennido talked again. A great talker. Tom gathered the sharp points of his
nerves together: he was once more composed but with a tension that had in
it the power of some prefatory move: almost a charge. In the ensuing scatter
of minds, Tom was busy gathering them together, gathering them to him.
Ill-at-ease no longer. He was speaking....
He spoke for a while, wreathed in the comfortable silence of the others.
David’s eyes, moved by an impulse he was not conscious of, wandered.
They met the eyes of Marcia Duffield. He looked away, shocked by a
current which had flowed momently between them. David knew Tom’s
words held him unpleasantly; at times held him not at all. What was the
interest in them, what their motive, beyond Tom’s wish to speak and to hold
interest? David sensed this: sensed the rebuke he felt in this for Tom. As his
eyes went back to the eyes of Marcia Duffield it came to him that she was
feeling similar things with him. In the brief meeting of their eyes, it was as
if they had discovered one another in themselves.
This was absurd and impossible! Marcia Duffield? David’s mind could
not grasp this flashing intuition; it slipped leaving no conscious mark. He
looked harder at the others in the unwitting need not to look again at her.
Already, what he could carry with him of that strange momentary kinship
across the room was reduced to the sense of bright, black, hard eyes, filled
with a wistful question.
He was aware of King Van Ness: perhaps because that solid gentleman
was always looking at Marcia. David knew who he was: Junior partner in
Van Ness, Stone and Company—son of a great banker, doubtless a
millionaire. Van Ness sat as if between two fascinations: the voluble one
that was principally Tom, who at times caught him and sent him stiffer
forward in his chair; the silent one, Marcia, who never looked at him, but
the stirring of whose hands and mouth was at once reflected in his ways—
like the image in a dull steel mirror. Van Ness was heavy and tall, not stout.
His big bones and the heft of his arms and legs gave the impression of
extraordinary weight. Their heaviness proceeded rather from his mood than
their own heaviness. Van Ness was heavy, not because he was great in bulk,
but because he was small in spirit. The unlit stretch of him was a sag and a
pull downward because he lacked the lift of mental resilience. His head
stated this. The forehead was large and bulging. The brown eyes opened
wide and were far apart. The nose was long, straight, clumsily rather than
strongly molded with unmoving nostrils. Van Ness wore a black mustache,
a straight-cropt bristly brush: his mouth was small and unperturbed; his chin
jutted forward with a counterfeit of power that was mere lack of curiosity,
unresistance to the proprieties and manners birth had brought him. This was
King Van Ness: supremely gentlemanly, supremely rich, supremely dull—
impregnable. He stirred in the talk of Fennido and Tom as a heavy vessel
creaks at anchor in a choppy sea....
David heard Tom again.
“We had it out, until seven o’clock that night. I came home exhausted.”
Tom glanced at David. Not long or sure enough to see him turn pale.
“But it can’t be! It’s a lie!” David said to himself. He remembered the
evening Tom referred to. He had come home at six. Tom lay on the couch.
In excellent spirits. They had gone to Brown’s Chop-House for dinner. And
yet—David, as usual, had no positive proof. Perhaps a mere exaggeration, a
mistake in the day. Why was he always so eager—so afraid—to catch Tom
in a trivial falsehood?
Marcia was speaking to him. Van Ness had roused himself to a rare gust
of words. Serious words, half-angry. The question of labor-unions. Marcia
drew Tom aside.
David saw how her eyes were close on him and how her breast stirred
faintly. He saw that Tom was watching only with his ears: his eyes
wandered to the talking banker. In a pause, “You must have had your wits
about you!” he threw in. He had heard every word.
Van Ness was flattered. Tom threw his head back, looking at the big man
in a way that drew a line between them. Van Ness came up, he seated
himself beside the pair. Marcia’s lips curled as if they had been stung. Van
Ness beamed on Tom, as he might have if Tom from great natural kindness
had done him a good turn. Marcia was stiff in her chair, looking away. She
seemed to be suffering and not to care for the instant if others saw it. Then,
her face covered. Why did David sense bravery in that? Marcia thought she
could wound either man by being affable to the other but she wanted to
wound both. Then it occurred to her that smiling on Van Ness might delight
Tom merely. She knew his game. He was done with her. He was putting her
away, neatly, satisfactorily—as he did, doubtless, all things. The bitterness
was, she could not but fall in with his plans. They were her plans also. None
fitted them better than King Van Ness. If only Tom were not thrusting her
into his arms! If only she had the madness, the courage to flout Van Ness in
order to spite Tom! She believed she might. But if she failed, thereafter, to
marry as well? her humiliation would still be before Tom: he would laugh at
her, or pity. It was all one. He was capable of saying: “Why didn’t you take
Van Ness? Don’t say I stood in your way!” Marcia knew she must take him,
some time. If only she could in the passing send an arrow to the man who,
having been her lover, had now the impudence to tell her: “I am your friend,
Marcia. I am deeply concerned.” Her friend! She had never been able to
discover her successor. She sat now, finding in her negative aloofness the
one sure way of not satisfying Tom in an attempt to hurt him. He took
pleasure so strangely!
David was next to Mrs. May Delano. She straining to take some humble
part in the near tête-à-tête of Fennido and Stegending with Constance
Bardale. She discerned David’s separation from the group: deduced
therefrom his inferiority. She was afraid to give much heed to him. She was
a proper, nervous little woman. She had revolted from her world because
she was so like her stodgy mother, so much attached to her thrifty and
careful father. She had married a mentally inferior Irishman because he
owned two theaters on Broadway and was hence in touch with “art.” All her
life was a pursuit of “interesting” people: in reality a retreat—equally vain
—from the middle class whose manners and beliefs rooted in her soul. Her
simple Jewish family took up her husband with delight. “I think, dear,” he
told her in order to give her pleasure, “I think I have more good Jewish
friends than any other sort.” She was, indeed, miserably married....
David was not averse to her leaving him alone. He felt what this woman
was, since he was untutored in the symbols of her pose. He wondered why
Mr. Stegending bit his lips.
Fennido was lyric against the baited Stegending’s silence. Stegending
brooded and tried not to listen to the intimate badinage of Constance and
her foil. His eyes rested glowering, stiff on this supple woman; wandered
off to some dimmer focus. A strange sorrow pervaded his hard face, the
sorrow of an animal rather than of a man. In this state, David almost liked
him. He looked less wise, less strong, more full of life when he was full of
this strange sorrow. Constance Bardale snatched him back from his
withdrawal; with a word fixed his eyes once more on her. It was as if she
needed him there in order to go on with Fennido. Stegending’s face
sharpened, it fell again into its mold of human cunning: it was nearer this
woman, farther from what David had cared for in him.
Constance got up; she took May Delano by the hand and placed her
glowing in her chair. She turned her back on the two men who watched her
slipping from them as one stares at an impossible offense.
“Well, Mr. Markand, are you coming to see me ever of your own accord,
or will I always have to wait till there’s a dinner?”
She sat beside him, bringing her chair still closer. She smiled with her
full face and her sinuously deflected body.
At once David knew that this which was happening to him was like the
other things which he had watched. He was part of this buzzing world. But
outside of it, so that he still could understand.
“I think I shall come, Miss Bardale. It is awfully good of you....”
“It is not good of me. I have no one in my place out of kindness. With
me, I assure you, charity stops at home.”
David flushed at the abrupt nakedness of her compliment. He gathered
from the candor of her example the courage to look at her as she had looked
at him.
She was not beautiful. Her skin had a strange olive tinge: it was fleckless
smooth: it was not transparent. Her hair was heavy, not fine. He noticed her
wide short hands. Capable hands. The sense of her flesh, under the quiet
silken sheath of her gown had a disquietude and a heat that won him. For
the first time he realized how a woman whom he was able to know not
beautiful could be desirable. She made a direct call upon his senses. His
senses answered.
“You can’t possibly like me, yet, Miss Bardale? You do not know me.
Why, then, except to be polite——”
She laughed. Her laughter went into words.
His head was left out of it. She was a body. His own body told him.
Suddenly her talk and his seemed remote from the main purpose of their
nearness as if they stood in opposite corners of the room, tilting at each
other with long sticks.
He had to go on tilting. He could not come nearer. However inclined he
was—and to his own amazement—to drop his guards.
Her talk, he vaguely knew, made easy his sitting there. In the same
distant sense he felt that his defensive parries were not unworthy. But all of
this was not very conscious. The part of David given to their talk was
swimming along with a free stroke that the heavy touch of his deliberation
could only have disturbed. Indeed, a part of him was absent, and was busy
elsewhere. Their words rose up like a pelting fire. By its light, David could
look beyond, could peer into the spiritual corners of the room, could see
their darkness.
There seemed no affection at all: no fellowship. Even for themselves,
these persons had no affection. Their egoism was a hard and desperate
passion: fruit of some perennial resistance. David could not have reasoned
out why this should be: how affection must die in a hot contest: how either
it must die or it must share the intensity of the combating forces and turn to
passion. The way of these men and women toward themselves had much
the way of animals fiercely competing for food and for love. In a less bitter
contest they could have played together: like children or like animals that
are fed and tamed. Now they were playing at playing. David felt, in this,
their wide distinction from animals. A whole array of impulses and thoughts
muddied and distressed what might have been the clear flow of natural
conflict. They were whipped up into a delirium of broken starts that in the
end lacked all direction. Endlessly at work, in the upholstered room, under
the gowns of silk and the starched bosoms, a scrimmage of cold desire.
Some things each desired of the others: a body, ruin, disappearance, help....
David thought his impressions strange. Surely, he was mistaken, seeing
nonsense?
No doubt, however, of what Constance Bardale was now about. He had
no idea of her goal: it was plain she was testing him. As surely as if her
capable hands had moved over his body, she took his measure.
He knew now what he was doing, with his parries. To defend himself
was to accept her gage of battle. He was meeting Constance Bardale in the
field she had chosen. This was precisely what he now no longer wanted to
do. He became silent. And she who knew a way for his defensive was
helpless against his retreat. Against his resistance, she could display her
forces, but she was scattered and spent in the emptiness before her. David
sat back in his chair, looking beyond, thinking, and gave her nothing.
Constance Bardale got up and left him. “Let him stay alone if that is
really what he wants.” She thought in the falseness of a moment’s pique she
had been moved to rescue him from a painful solitude among the chatter of
others.
As she sat again, talking elsewhere, she had David in mind.
“What is it?” She recovered herself. “Is he a ninny or was he just bored?
I don’t think he’s a ninny.” She had intelligence to know, at least, that he
had not been frightened. There had been a calm in his sudden withdrawal
which was the contrary of fear.
She took his hand at the door, and now when the invitation she had so
unconventionally stressed would have been a mere matter of form, she kept
silent.
“Good-night, Mr. Markand.”
“Good-night, Miss Bardale.”
He was very serious and far away. She had the wit to smile and turn to
the others....
It was a crystal night of autumn. David and Tom could not think of
taking a car.
David was sorely troubled. He was glad Tom made no effort to talk. A
question from him would have thrown David into panic. It was about Tom
he was troubled. And about himself.
“I am afraid. I am afraid to meet a woman flirting with me. I am a
coward,” he muttered to himself. Constance Bardale had understood him
better. She had glimpsed under his sudden tenacity of refusal to meet her, to
meet even her eyes or her laughter, some deeper preoccupation which her
profane self must not be allowed to enter. But David walked with a sense of
discomfort—wide and profound—as if all life were a garment that fitted
him ill. Tom was a mere most sensitive spot where the ungainly garment
caught.
He had the sad conviction of Tom’s dishonesty from the fact that he went
so well in that dishonest group: of Tom’s equal striving to overcome, to
grasp, to possess, he could have no doubt. It was all very ugly to David.
That did not matter. It mattered painfully that Tom should be ugly! Tom was
his friend whom he loved: whose life he was entering more and more. Who
was at fault that these constant doubts flared up against the passage?
Now he wanted to talk to Tom. Tom always took these doubts and talked
them away. He wanted Tom to dispose of the night’s new accumulation.
Tom walked on. He seemed troubled also. This was a new thought
lancing into David. His own misgivings were a shade less clear. Tom was
troubled. Perhaps Tom had a grievance against him? If he did——
“What makes you so silent?” he asked, before he knew: reflexedly as
one jumps from a danger and then looks to know what it is.
“Do you want to know?” Tom’s voice was hard. “I am going to tell you,
David. Sometimes you make it anything but easy for me.... These were my
friends. For my sake, you might have tried to be a little pleasant....”
“Wasn’t I pleasant, Tom?”
“Did you stir yourself to be? Oh, of course, I know what’s in your mind.
‘This is easy for Tom. He takes to all that frivol naturally.’ Well, I assure
you, my dear friend, you are mistaken. I do nothing of the sort. But I have a
sense of the world and of the need of living in it. That sense at times,
fortunately for me, is greater than my sense of my own importance. Your
sulks are nothing but conceit. Believe me! If I am distressed, it is because I
am anxious. I want you to grow up. I take you to places where you meet
mature and interesting people: people with minds. You might do me the
honor of trusting my intentions: enough not to sit there as if I had taken you
to a dime museum.”
“Tom—— I am sorry! I did the best I knew how.... Something made me
melancholy—yes.”
This was all wrong, all wrong, David was thinking. Yet how could he
right it? Tom had no real grievance against him. It was he who had the
grievance! Why did things always take this perverse turn? Why was he
always in the wrong? This time he was not.... Tom spoke on. He too hated
the superficial form that social intercourse seemed fatefully to take. But
under it the play of minds, the approach of men and women to each other
was good: justified the forms and the conversations. He was no creative
genius to revolutionize society. When David had succeeded in finding a
more satisfactory way for friends to share their thoughts, he would be
happy. Until then....
“But Tom—why did you, why did you have to make up stories that
aren’t so?”
It was difficult for David to ask this. All his being and courage were
summoned to the effort. Why should he need his courage?
Tom walked quietly on. David felt his vibrance. Either he was in wrath
or in pain. “So that is it?” Again he was silent.
At last: “David, my friend,” in a low still tone, utterly changed from
before. “Davie, you make me worry for you. This is not a mere lack of a
sense of humor. This is something deeper.”
He went on quietly. His words cut into David like curved knives.
Silently, David resisted. But the points of attack were too many. Attack
whirled about him....
David was always looking for faults in him, doubting his honor and his
word. Why? Had he so little faith in his friend? Let David tell him, had he
given him cause to believe the first ill thing about him vagrant in his mind?
David shifted to answer. Tom was attacking elsewhere.... David had no
sense of proportion. He seemed to take from his remarks nothing but
sources for quarrel. Or was it unwilling rather than unable? David was sure
he could here give satisfactory answer. He was perhaps too serious and dull:
he took everything Tom said so deep to heart! No cause for anger, really.
Tom had veered far.... Oh, this was no exception. There were many things.
The truth was David thought only of himself: David was selfish.
“Why should you always sit in judgment on me? Supposing I began this
trick with you of weighing your deeds and your words to see what direct
pleasure they brought to me, as a miser might sift dirt to find the grains of
gold? Do you really think I couldn’t?”
A list.... The other evening, when Tom had had a headache, David had
gone around smoking and whistling. Did David recall the time Tom had
brought him his dinner? And the pique of David because Tom could not join
him and Cornelia on some insignificant walk. As if Tom had broken a tryst.
How David had his silences for a week, because of things like that. Did
David perhaps remember how he had honored Tom’s desire to see him on
his return from his vacation? honored it by dragging a dull outsider along
for dinner. Let David think of himself wiring so to Tom. Perhaps he thought
Tom’s silence meant he was not hurt that time when he broke their theater
date because he had forgotten it was Lois’ birthday....
“But you said you could easily find some one else.”
“Yes, David. I am not like you. I was afraid, if I made it hard for you, I
might spoil your evening. I put you at ease. The truth is, the tickets went to
waste. Yes, both of them. I had set my mind on that evening belonging to
us. Do you think I cared most about seeing Annie Russell? I did not choose
to go with some one else, on the occasion when I had chosen to go with
you. That night, if you want to know, I sat in the Library of the Bar
Association and read law. It was not my sense of justice to spoil your
evening which you had chosen to spend with your cousin Lois, because you
had chosen to spoil mine.”
“You know that isn’t fair! You know I went to the Deanes, because I had
to. Out of a sense of duty.”
“You have a sense of duty toward your frivolous cousins; none toward
your friend. I admire your distinctions.”
“But, Tom, they would all have been insulted!”
“Whether I was insulted had no importance....”
So it went. David was inexorably and forever in the wrong.
“Your cousins, your uncle, your aunt. I am to judge you care more for
them than for me. They mean more to you. Doubtless their ideas, also.”
He flayed David’s smugness: his cowardice: his failure to grow up.
David’s sentiment was perfunctory: his sensibilities were dull: he had no
recognition of what was going on in the minds and hearts of those who
should have been dear to him. Loving meant taking. Tom flung him
dolorously down to a level with that cousin whose company he had
preferred and loyalty to whom, as against Tom, he had elected. David
followed by the side of his tormentor, as by the side of fate....
Near where they lived was a little Square. It lay blue beneath the green
haze of the lamplights. It was timid there under the sweep of the City. The
buildings and the high flare of movement over the night made it deep like a
well. Tom and David paced round it. Their steps were harsh to David as if
in dissonance to the Square’s sweet reticence. They knew they must have
this out ere they passed through the door.
A dull weight was on David. The crystal night was black and through the
blackness pain flashed like lightning. All this was within him. About all this
was he, numb and unable to feel himself. He knew the dark by the
lightning.
It was not the sense of wrong that made him suffer. It was the
impediment to that sense. Had he been able to are noble and I am unworthy,
it would have been easeful and sweet. He had great longing to do just this.
It was the something hindering him that hurt.
Why was it? He had no answer to Tom. One by one, his objections had
disappeared as he voiced them—his objections to Tom. Was it perhaps that
he was proud and vain—not big enough to avow his faults? Oh, if it was but
that! And then, the hateful alternative that blocked his emotions. For was it,
perhaps, that he had not really voiced his objections?... that all of these
words were far from the true misgivings?
David did not know. He knew that at that moment he yearned to be fully
convinced, to be convinced that he was fully wrong. He needed to force
himself. His mind told him Tom was right. His heart willed Tom be right.
Let Tom be sincere and the perfect friend: let him be the lacker! His mind
argued, his heart sang for this sweeter way. They forced him through the
forms of acquiescence.... Something neither mind nor heart could not,
would not submit: waved frantic and helpless against all the world. This, the
bleak hurt in David.
The battle was manifestly over.
They stood in the hall of their flat.
Tom was smiling. Tom suffered also. In his smile, as he put forth his
hand, was a plea for forgiveness.
In that gesture, Tom spoke his deepest truth. He had been indeed on the
defensive. Attacking David, he had fought for himself: fought for his place
in the heart of his friend: fought to cover from David and from himself the
flinching part of him which shrilled and manoeuvered for attention, plotted
for power. With his soul sick in revolt. David’s rebuke was the rebuke and
call of his own nature. Since David embodied this, Tom needed him, needed
him to love him: also, since David embodied this, Tom needed to destroy
him.
In the silence of the hall, the true Tom spoke. As if he had said: “I have
said nothing. You are my better self, my deeper self. Stay near to me.
Forgive me.”
David saw his gesture. He understood that it was sincere. He could not
read its context. He needed no more than that it was sincere.
A sweet flood suddenly was over him: the certainty for which he had
thirsted.
With both hands he took the hand of Tom. He held it close. His eyes
were full of tears. It was David who spoke: “Forgive me!”
S O the days and the nights: the weeks and the months. Tom direct toward
his several goals; David involute and hesitant, sinking, it seemed to him,
forever deeper from mastery of self and from some vague light he
yearned for. Each of his revolts from Tom had the same ending: found him
contrite and dedicated to his own unworthiness. David did what his friend
wanted. Even to the extent that when he was with Cornelia he came away
disillusioned. He patronized Cornelia. He evolved a superficial concord
with his relatives and their friends that left him free and fitted Tom’s
measure of the way to handle such useful, lower factors in one’s life. He
went with Tom’s friends when Tom took him along. His work downtown
was satisfactory. He was industrious, tactful, busy. He was not happy.
“Perhaps,” he said to himself, “perhaps I do not give myself enough to
all these things.”
He looked at his life and was amazed to find how little he did, even how
little he went out, of his own accord.
Yet, his uncle said to him: “My boy, I am delighted with you. Do you
know what you have? You have imagination. I am beginning to realize
already on my investment of you. Come up, can you, this evening? Aunt
Lauretta has asked the whole lot of Tibbetts.”
He saw Cornelia with fair frequence. She never asked him to come: and
yet how happy she was when he was there! She disturbed him not at all.
She let him go his way. She came seldom to their flat. But she was getting
somber, it seemed to David. Older as well. The glow of her great eyes had
been a virtue in her homeliness. If they faded, she would be ugly.
Sometimes David thought that they were fading.
“Don’t forget,” Tom said, “Cornelia is past thirty.”
But aside from these rather bleak activities, David found himself empty.
He had no way of making joy and sharpness from his world’s encounters.
When he reflected, he was inclined to blame his dullness. “I am stupid!”
he thumped himself with. And he reflected more. He decided to change. He
did not know in this very decision the kernel of what he sought. Having
resolved to change, he was changed already.
Perhaps it was the new year blossoming. It had been an unusually severe
winter. All winters in New York are unusually severe, and most summers.
New Yorkers have no memory for their chief source of conversation: a fact
that serves to keep it green. But now came occasional mild days colored
blue like the sky, keyed low like the clouds that dawdled over the City. The
great town was no longer an imprisoned foe underneath the air. It went forth
and the air and the town joined forces. David walked the streets with his
coat flung wide so the breeze could seek him out and thaw those crannies of
himself that had been frigid and asleep.
He made several excursions to the country—alone. They proved
abortive. He found it painful to reach the drowsy earth with his drowsy
mind. And yet the earth’s call was dear, now that the buds stood hard on the
hard wood. He could not respond. He could not keep from trying to
respond. A strain.
There were dinners and theater-parties with Caroline Lord. But one day
David found in himself the courage to decide that he detested her. That this
strapping, full-blown woman should take the airs of a secluded virgin was
ill enough: but that, with all her experience of life, she should display a
virgin’s judgments was unbearable. Was Miss Lord perhaps trying to
impress him with her endless thrumming on respectability, her hymned
pæans to the moral outlook? Why should she care so much for the standards
of wealth, who was forever insisting that her family had been penniless but
of high social value? Either this woman was ashamed of her own
intelligence and enterprise or else she thought David would like to deem her
so. David was not sure. Soon he did not care. Her vigorous solicitude for
the manners and customs which she assumed were theirs had an offensive
note. It made David silent and reserved. It left the field to Miss Lord. So
that the efficient lady preened herself and spread herself and paying no true
attention to her friend had no idea of her effect upon him.
Tom laughed when he told him about her. David found that there was no
difficulty in speaking to Tom about Miss Lord.
“But why should you expect something better of her?” Tom asked him.
“Well, she is capable——”
“Bosh, my dear man. Look at her straight. The only strength she has, I
am convinced, is the strength of Deane and Company—a strength she
sucks.” Tom had met her once. Since then, he had skillfully avoided all
David’s efforts to make him join them some night at dinner. “Now tell me
frankly can you imagine that lady, with her advertised virginity, her mincing
mind and her stiff sense of right and wrong, careering in open battle? Don’t
you see that she is something only in her position? Her substance comes
from the fields whose produce she helps distribute at a profit.”
“She seems to be forever bowing to judgments like those of Aunt
Lauretta.”
“Of course, since she gets her keep from the same place.”
David had many evenings alone. He found he liked them. He had never
been included in more than a tithe of the whirling activities of Tom who,
now, had added politics to his program. Tom was a member of Tammany
Hall.
“The young men are profiting by the folly of the reformers,” was the
way Tom put it. “They have learnt, Davie dear, as I hope you shall learn
also, generally speaking, that you can’t win a fight without joining with
your enemy. We have done with kid-glove pats at corruption. We are going
to clean up the undesirable elements of the Democratic Party by first
entering their stronghold. That is why we are going into Tammany.”
David had never managed to believe in the monopolized purity of the
Republican Party, although his uncle had spent some breath upon him to
that purpose. Largely, he was indifferent and neutral. He had a sense of guilt
in his organic ignorance about such vital matters. He asked:
“Is your partner, Mr. Lomney, also in Tammany?”
“Lord no!” Tom exclaimed.
And there it was—the incomprehensible that was forever cropping out!
Why, in view of what Tom had just assured him about Tammany Hall, this
protest of denial regarding Mr. Lomney?
“Lomney is a Democrat,” Tom went on. “A Gold-democrat, of course.
But he has no party affiliations of a direct sort.”
“What other sort are there, Tom?”
“There are the really important sort,” Tom smiled. “We are vitally
concerned in certain franchise concessions: traction and gas and the like.
See?”
“Is that the reason Mr. Lomney must not belong to Tammany Hall?”
“That is the reason, rather, why I should,” Tom paused. “We are in where
we should be, and out where we should be. Understand?”
Emphatically, David did not. All he could make of this party business
was that it was a kind of game. The nation’s money-boxes had highly
veneered and colored surfaces. The Republican was more polished, the
Democratic had more color. If one said, “I believe in the blue and gold
design” did one mean, “I get into the coffers by the side that is painted blue
and gold?” David had these little speculations and was properly ashamed of
them. He knew they were the sure consequence of his being unable to
understand.
When he dined alone he was least troubled. There was a Hungarian
restaurant he particularly liked because of the delicious thick soups and the
beer and the caressing music. He went there often and ate perhaps more
than he should, and sat about drinking his beer very soberly and slowly,
puffing at the superb English pipe Cornelia had given him for his birthday.
It had an amber stem and the one flaw in the delight of smoking was that he
needed to be careful not to bite it through.
On this evening, as usual, he was not alone at his table. At this sort of
place, where a sumptuous meal cost forty cents, one could expect no more
than one’s own seat at the board. Mostly, men came and bowed stiffly for
permission to sit down and were no sooner seated than they forgot him
altogether in their torrents of strange words. Now came a man with his lady.
David listened to them through the meal with an interest that might
conceivably have flagged had he been able to understand the Magyar
tongue. But the complete veil over their words made watching their faces
and their gestures, noting the gait of their voices, a sort of game. It
sharpened their personalities as these revealed them, and as the community
of language must have dulled them. David took delight trying to break up
the endless turgid flow into words and sentences. Mostly, he had delight in
watching the woman.
She was a bursting healthy creature, not yet thirty but ripe and matronly
and at her ease. She wore a pink gauze waist over a covering of creamy silk
that lashed about the rondures of her breast as if its task were desperate
against the fullness of all that flesh. She was not fat oppressively. Her form
was impetuous against the insipid continence of silk and satin. Her cheeks
and her lips were almost equally red. They were in perpetual motion with