A Man's Hearth
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CHALLENGE
Each day found Anthony less willing to leave the place he had chosen. Hedid not want to abandon the work commenced in the factory; he hadattained an active personal interest in his progress there. He was wellaware that he would soon know more about some possibilities of the millthan did Mr. Goodwin himself. His father never had concerned himself atall with such matters. Mr. Adriance was the converging-point of the manylines forming a widespread net of affairs in which this factory was butone strand. He did not even find time to notice Mr. Goodwin's advancingyears and the desire for retirement the old man was too proud to voice.But the strand whose smallness was disdained by the greater Adriancemight well prove able to support the lesser.
An accident still further determined his wish to remain. One day Mr.Goodwin came down to the lower room; occupied the chair in Adriance'senclosure for a quarter-hour and watched the proceedings. Theseoccasional visits had done much to establish firmly "Andy's" authority,yielding as they did the manager's sanction to the new order of things.But this time Mr. Goodwin had something to say to the young man whom heand Cook had grown to regard as a fortunate discovery of their own.
"Andy," he began, using the nickname as Adriance himself had suggestedon observing the positive reluctance with which the old gentlemanhandled familiarly the revered name of the factory's owner; "Andy,to-morrow there will be a meeting at the office of Mr. Adriance in NewYork City; I shall be present." He cleared his throat a trifleimportantly. "I shall have pleasure in mentioning the excellent, thereally excellent, work you have done here. I shall mention youpersonally."
Anthony carefully put down the papers he held and stood still, troubledarkening across his face. He saw what was coming, and he saw no way tostop it. He did not want his father to learn of his presence here froman outsider, or at a public meeting. He wanted to tell Mr. Adriance hisown story, with their kinship to help him. He wanted to explain Elsie tothe man who was championing Mrs. Masterson; he wanted to tell him of thenew Adriance to come. He hardly thought it possible that his fatherwould deny him the simple opportunity he asked, or try to force themonstrous wrong of a separation between man and wife, if he understood.But if the bare fact that Tony was secretly in his employ were flungbefore him, Mr. Adriance was quite capable of regarding this as an addeddefiance and even mockery of himself. Mr. Goodwin's speech flowedplacidly on:
"Your abilities are really exceptional, exceptional; I am sure that theywill be suitably appreciated. You are doing much better work thanRansome. I shall advise that I be allowed to create a new position foryou at a new salary. I should like you to supervise the entire shippingdepartment on this floor, not merely the trucking."
"You are very good," Adriance murmured; "I am not quite ready perhapsfor that. By the time the next meeting is held----"
"I have said that you were competent," Mr. Goodwin reminded him withsome stiffness. "I am accustomed to judge such matters, pray recollect.I am quite sure Mr. Adriance will feel pleasure that a connection ofhis, even a distant connection, should thus distinguish himself from theordinary employee."
"No! That is--I should wish----" Adriance caught himself stumbling, andcolored before the astonished eyes of the other. "I mean to say, familyinfluence cannot help me in that way. Can you place the matter beforeMr. Adriance without using my name?"
The older man chilled in severe amazement. Very slowly he took off his_pince-nez_ with fingers a trifle uncertain.
"Certainly not," he said, rigidly. "Why should I do so remarkable athing?"
That challenge was not easily answered. The silence persistedunpleasantly. Through the breach it made trickled a thin stream ofdoubt, which rapidly grew to a full current of suspicion. Still Adriancecould find nothing to reply, and the situation became more thanembarrassing. Mr. Goodwin at last arose.
"I regret that I made this proposition," he said. "Of course it was notin my calculations that you had anything to conceal, especially from Mr.Adriance. We will of course drop the matter for the present."
"You mean that I may continue here as I am?"
"I hope so. You will comprehend that it becomes my duty to set thismatter before Mr. Adriance. It is not right that I should employ in hisname a man who fears to have his presence here known to his employer. Iwill bid you good-morning."
This condition was worse than the first. Recognizing himself ascornered, Adriance cast a hurried glance around him, found no one withinear-shot of his little enclosure, and took a step toward the man aboutto leave him.
"Wait! Mr. Goodwin, I am Tony Adriance."
The little old gentleman stared at him blankly.
"My father does not know that I am here, no one knows except my wife.Will you not sit down again and listen to me?"
Still Mr. Goodwin stared at him, dumb. Smiling in spite of his vexationand anxiety, the young man quietly fronted the scrutiny. He was quiteaware that in his working clothes, his hands evidencing his winter ofmanual labor, his face dark with the tan of months of wind and sun, hehardly looked the part he claimed; that is, if Mr. Goodwin knew anythingof the former Tony Adriance. But he kept the candid honesty of his eyesopen to the other's reading, and waited. Perhaps if those rather unusualblue-black eyes he and his father had in common had confronted Mr.Goodwin in the brightness of daylight, he might before this have beenidentified. At any rate, they convinced now, even in the deceptivelight.
"There is a resemblance," murmured Mr. Goodwin.
"To my father? Yes, I think so; I have been told so."
"But--why----?"
One of the usual interruptions called Adriance away before he couldreply. The old gentleman sat dazed, watching him. When the vehicle hadpassed on, Adriance turned back to the other man.
"I married without consulting my father, last autumn," he said quietly."Will you dine with me to-night, Mr. Goodwin, at my own house up thehill, and let me explain to you what I am doing and why I am doing it?If you have any doubt of my identity, you may easily fix it by asking myfather when you see him to-day whether his son is at home or not."
Mr. Goodwin found his voice with some difficulty.
"No, I would prefer to understand before I see Mr. Adriance. Come up tomy private office now; Cook can manage here for an hour without you. Iam astounded, even bewildered, Andy--Mr. Adriance----"
"Try 'Tony'," suggested the other with his sudden smile.
So while the indignant Cook struggled with double duties, Adriance andMr. Goodwin sat opposite one another in the latter's private office, andheld long converse.
With the exception of the Masterson side of the affair, Adriance toldthe story without reserve. He hoped to win Mr. Goodwin's temporarysilence, but he actually won more than he had imagined possible. Mr.Goodwin was excited and interested as he had not been for years. WhenAdriance concluded, the other was quite the most agitated of the two.
"You will not tell my father to-day of my presence here, you will giveme time to do so myself?"
"I will do better," said Mr. Goodwin, much moved, "I will help you--Iadopt you, as it were. Mr. Adriance----"
"Tony."
"Tony, I will train you to succeed me here. I wish much to retire, as Ihave told you. My wife and I--we have no children--have long planned totravel; we have even selected the places we would visit and the routeswe would prefer to take. It has been, I might say, our dream for years;but Mr. Adriance would not listen to my desire to leave. He declaresthere is no one he could trust in my place." Pride colored the thin oldface. "His esteem flatters me; but now I will give him a successor whomhe can trust. It is very suitable that you should have this position. Iwill say nothing to him, as you wish; but do you enter my office hereand study the management of this concern with me. I will myself takecharge of that."
Astonished in his turn, and deeply touched, Adriance took the offeredhand.
"Of course you know I can find no words of sufficient gratitude, Mr.Goodwin. If you will indeed be so good you shall not find me lacking sofar
as my abilities reach."
"They have reached quite far already," said his senior, drily.
What had appeared a calamity had become strange good fortune. Mr.Goodwin readily satisfied any doubt he might have felt of Tony'sidentity. Next morning when he would have gone to his usual place, aclerk stopped him and took him to Mr. Goodwin's private office, where adesk awaited him.
"Of course it is all my name, or rather my father's," Adriance said toElsie that night. "There are a score of cleverer men than I alreadythere who will continue, I suppose, plodding on as they are. Cook is oneof them. But I am not altruistic enough to throw away the luck I havebeen born into, I am afraid. I shall take all Goodwin will give me, andif my father refuses to keep me there, at least the training will makeme more fitted to earn our living in some other place."
"Man, you have not enough vanity to nourish you properly," Elsie gravelytold him.
Mr. Goodwin proved a harder taskmaster than Cook or Ransome. He enteredupon the education of Tony Adriance with an enthusiastic zest temperedwith a conscientious severity that made him exacting and meticulous indetail. Adriance was fond enough of the outdoors to miss the motor-truckat times--there were even hours when he thought wistfully of RussianMike; but he learned rapidly under the forced cultivation. Now he sawhow superficial had been the knowledge of the factory on which he hadprided himself in the shipping room, and how absurdly inadequate to themanagement of the great place he would have been had his father put itin his hands. But under Mr. Goodwin he was becoming in actuality what heonce had fancied himself to be. Incidentally the teacher and the studentgrew cordially attached to one another; and as this attachment wasobvious, as the new man was known in every department where he was sentto gather experience as "Mr. Adriance," and as Mr. Goodwin called him"Tony," his identity was soon no secret in the factory. But the seniorAdriance never came in personal contact with any member of the forceexcept Mr. Goodwin, so this was a matter of indifference. Adriancecontinued to be entered on the books as a chauffeur, and received thecorresponding salary.
The genuine chauffeurs whose comrade Andy had been looked curiouslyafter him and whispered among themselves when, he chanced to pass,although his greetings to them were the same as always. Cook dropped theuse of "Andy," and said "sir" if the young man spoke to him suddenly.Mr. Goodwin advised his pupil to let such things pass without comment.Either Anthony's position would be assured and demand such deference, orhe would leave the factory altogether; in either case protest would onlybe hypocritical or useless.
The time when Anthony should go to his father with an account of theaffair, was indefinitely postponed. The more accomplished first, thebetter. Secretly, both he and Goodwin had come to dread the possibilitythat Mr. Adriance would refuse to continue Anthony in his position,either through resentment or lack of faith in Tony's ability.
Sometimes Anthony felt a sharp misgiving that perhaps the verypreparation that fitted him for the place he so much desired, woulddeprive him of it. It was more than possible that Mr. Adriance wouldkeenly resent what was being done without his knowledge. In a senseAnthony was fortifying himself in his father's own territory in order toresist the older man's will in regard to Mrs. Masterson. Anthony neverlearned to think without vicarious shame and pain of the treachery hisfather had planned against Elsie. He could not reconcile that idea withanything their years together had shown him of his father. But he workedon and thrust from his mind what he could not remedy.