Chapter XXIV
The problem of the Gerhardt family and its relationship to himself comparatively settled, Kane betook himself to Cincinnati and to his business duties. He was heartily interested in the immense plant, which occupied two whole blocks in the outskirts of the city, and its conduct and development was as much a problem and a pleasure to him as to either his father or his brother. He liked to feel that he was a vital part of this great and growing industry. When he saw freight cars going by on the railroads labelled “The Kane Manufacturing Company — Cincinnati” or chanced to notice displays of the company’s products in the windows of carriage sales companies in the different cities he was conscious of a warm glow of satisfaction. It was something to be a factor in an institution so stable, so distinguished, so honestly worth while. This was all very well, but now Kane was entering upon a new phase of his personal existence — in a word, there was Jennie. He was conscious as he rode toward his home city that he was entering on a relationship which might involve disagreeable consequences. He was a little afraid of his father’s attitude; above all, there was his brother Robert.
Robert was cold and conventional in character; an excellent business man; irreproachable in both his public and in his private life. Never overstepping the strict boundaries of legal righteousness, he was neither warm-hearted nor generous — in fact, he would turn any trick which could be speciously, or at best necessitously, recommended to his conscience. How he reasoned Lester did not know — he could not follow the ramifications of a logic which could combine hard business tactics with moral rigidity, but somehow his brother managed to do it. “He’s got a Scotch Presbyterian conscience mixed with an Asiatic perception of the main chance,” Lester once told somebody, and he had the situation accurately measured. Nevertheless he could not rout his brother from his positions nor defy him, for he had the public conscience with him. He was in line with convention practically, and perhaps sophisticatedly.
The two brothers were outwardly friendly; inwardly they were far apart. Robert liked Lester well enough personally, but he did not trust his financial judgment, and, temperamentally, they did not agree as to how life and its affairs should be conducted. Lester had a secret contempt for his brother’s chill, persistent chase of the almighty dollar. Robert was sure that Lester’s easy-going ways were reprehensible, and bound to create trouble sooner or later. In the business they did not quarrel much — there was not so much chance with the old gentleman still in charge — but there were certain minor differences constantly cropping up which showed which way the wind blew. Lester was for building up trade through friendly relationship, concessions, personal contact, and favours. Robert was for pulling everything tight, cutting down the cost of production, and offering such financial inducements as would throttle competition.
The old manufacturer always did his best to pour oil on these troubled waters, but he foresaw an eventual clash. One or the other would have to get out or perhaps both. “If only you two boys could agree!” he used to say.
Another thing which disturbed Lester was his father’s attitude on the subject of marriage — Lester’s marriage, to be specific. Archibald Kane never ceased to insist on the fact that Lester ought to get married, and that he was making a big mistake in putting it off. All the other children, save Louise, were safely married. Why not his favourite son? It was doing him injury morally, socially, commercially, that he was sure of.
“The world expects it of a man in your position,” his father had argued from time to time. “It makes for social solidity and prestige. You ought to pick out a good woman and raise a family. Where will you be when you get to my time of life if you haven’t any children, any home?”
“Well, if the right woman came along,” said Lester, “I suppose I’d marry her. But she hasn’t come along. What do you want me to do? Take anybody?”
“No, not anybody, of course, but there are lots of good women. You can surely find some one if you try. There’s that Pace girl. What about her? You used to like her. I wouldn’t drift on this way, Lester; it can’t come to any good.”
His son would only smile. “There, father, let it go now. I’ll come around some time, no doubt. I’ve got to be thirsty when I’m led to water.”
The old gentleman gave over, time and again, but it was a sore point with him. He wanted his son to settle down and be a real man of affairs.
The fact that such a situation as this might militate against any permanent arrangement with Jennie was obvious even to Lester at this time. He thought out his course of action carefully. Of course he would not give Jennie up, whatever the possible consequences. But he must be cautious; he must take no unnecessary risks. Could he bring her to Cincinnati? What a scandal if it were ever found out! Could he install her in a nice home somewhere near the city? The family would probably eventually suspect something. Could he take her along on his numerous business journeys? This first one to New York had been successful. Would it always be so? He turned the question over in his mind. The very difficulty gave it zest. Perhaps St. Louis, or Pittsburg, or Chicago would be best after all. He went to these places frequently, and particularly to Chicago. He decided finally that it should be Chicago if he could arrange it. He could always make excuses to run up there, and it was only a night’s ride. Yes, Chicago was best. The very size and activity of the city made concealment easy. After two weeks’ stay at Cincinnati, Lester wrote Jennie that he was coming to Cleveland soon, and she answered that she thought it would be all right for him to call and see her. Her father had been told about him. She had felt it unwise to stay about the house, and so had secured a position in a store at four dollars a week. He smiled as he thought of her working, and yet the decency and energy of it appealed to him. “She’s all right,” he said. “She’s the best I’ve come across yet.”
He ran up to Cleveland the following Saturday, and, calling at her place of business, he made an appointment to see her that evening. He was anxious that his introduction, as her beau, should be gotten over with as quickly as possible. When he did call the shabbiness of the house and the manifest poverty of the family rather disgusted him, but somehow Jennie seemed as sweet to him as ever. Gerhardt came in the front-room, after he had been there a few minutes, and shook hands with him, as did also Mrs. Gerhardt, but Lester paid little attention to them. The old German appeared to him to be merely commonplace — the sort of man who was hired by hundreds in common capacities in his father’s factory. After some desultory conversation Lester suggested to Jennie that they should go for a drive. Jennie put on her hat, and together they departed. As a matter of fact, they went to an apartment which he had hired for the storage of her clothes. When she returned at eight in the evening the family considered it nothing amiss.