Book V: Chapter II

by Sherwood Anderson

　　In Chicago the Ormsbys lived in a large stone house in DrexelBoulevard. The house had a history. It was owned by a banker who was alarge stockholder and one of the directors of the plough trust. Likeall men who knew him well the banker admired and respected the abilityand integrity of David Ormsby. When the ploughmaker came to the cityfrom a town in Wisconsin to be the master of the plough trust heoffered him the house to use.

　　The house had come to the banker from his father, a grim determinedold money-making merchant of a past generation who had died hated byhalf Chicago after toiling sixteen hours daily for sixty years. In hisold age the merchant had built the house to express the power wealthhad given him. It had floors and woodwork cunningly wrought ofexpensive woods by workmen sent to Chicago by a firm in Brussels. Inthe long drawing room at the front of the house hung a chandelier thathad cost the merchant ten thousand dollars. The stairway leading tothe floor above was from the palace of a prince in Venice and had beenbought for the merchant and brought over seas to the house in Chicago.

　　The banker who inherited the house did not want to live in it. Evenbefore the death of his father and after his own unsuccessful marriagehe lived at a down town club. In his old age the merchant, retiredfrom business, lived in the house with another old man, an inventor.He could not rest although he had given up business with that end inview. Digging a trench in the lawn at the back of the house he withhis friend spent his days trying to reduce the refuse of one of hisfactories to something having commercial value. Fires burned in thetrench and at night the grim old man, hands covered with tar, sat inthe house under the chandelier. After the death of the merchant thehouse stood empty, staring at passers-by in the street, its walks andpaths overgrown with weeds and rank grass.

　　David Ormsby fitted into his house. Walking through the long halls orsitting smoking his cigar in an easy chair on the wide lawn he lookedarrayed and environed. The house became a part of him like a well-madeand intelligently worn suit of clothes. Into the drawing room underthe ten thousand dollar chandelier he moved a billiard table and theclick of ivory balls banished the churchliness of the place.

　　Up and down the stairway moved American girls, friends of Margaret,their skirts rustling and their voices running through the huge rooms.In the evening after dinner David played billiards. The carefulcalculation of the angles and the English interested him. Playing inthe evening with Margaret or with a man friend the fatigue of the daypassed and his honest voice and reverberating laugh brought a smile tothe lips of people passing in the street. In the evening David broughthis friends to sit in talk with him on the wide verandas. At times hewent alone to his room at the top of the house and buried himself inbooks. On Saturday evenings he had a debauch and with a group offriends from town sat at a card table in the long parlour playingpoker and drinking highballs.

　　Laura Ormsby, Margaret's mother, had never seemed a real part of thelife about her. Even as a child the daughter had thought herhopelessly romantic. Life had treated her too well and from every oneabout her she expected qualities and reactions which in her own personshe would not have tried to achieve.

　　David had already begun to rise when he married her, the slenderbrown-haired daughter of a village shoemaker, and even in those daysthe little plough company with its ownership scattered among themerchants and farmers of the vicinity had started under his hand tomake progress in the state. People already spoke of its master as acoming man and of Laura as the wife of a coming man.

　　To Laura this was in some way unsatisfactory. Sitting at home anddoing nothing she had still a passionate wish to be known as acharacter, an individual, a woman of action. On the street as shewalked beside her husband, she beamed upon people but when the samepeople spoke, calling them a handsome couple, a flush rose to hercheeks and a flash of indignation ran through her brain.

　　Laura Ormsby lay awake in her bed at night thinking of her life. Shehad a world of fancies in which she at such times lived. In her dreamworld a thousand stirring adventures came to her. She imagined aletter received through the mail, telling of an intrigue in whichDavid's name was coupled with that of another woman and lay abedquietly hugging the thought. She looked at the face of the sleepingDavid tenderly. "Poor hard-pressed boy," she muttered. "I shall beresigned and cheerful and lead him gently back to his old place in myheart."

　　In the morning after a night spent in this dream world Laura looked atDavid, so cool and efficient, and was irritated by his efficiency.When he playfully dropped his hand upon her shoulder she drew away andsitting opposite him at breakfast watched him reading the morningpaper all unconscious of the rebel thoughts in her mind.

　　Once after she had moved to Chicago and after Margaret's return fromcollege Laura had the faint suggestion of an adventure. Although itturned out tamely it lingered in her mind and in some way sweetenedher thoughts.

　　She was alone on a sleeping car coming from New York. A young man satin a seat opposite her and the two fell into talk. As she talked Lauraimagined herself eloping with the young man and under her lasheslooked sharply at his weak and pleasant face. She kept the talk aliveas others in the car crawled away for the night behind the greenswaying curtains.

　　With the young man Laura discussed ideas she had got from readingIbsen and Shaw. She grew bold and daring in the advancing of opinionsand tried to stir the young man to some overt speech or action thatmight arouse her indignation.

　　The young man did not understand the middle-aged woman who sat besidehim and talked so boldly. He knew of but one prominent man named Shawand that man had been governor of Iowa and later a member of thecabinet of President McKinley. It startled him to think that aprominent member of the Republican party should have such thoughts orexpress such opinions. He talked of fishing in Canada and of a comicopera he had seen in New York and at eleven o'clock yawned anddisappeared behind the green curtains. As the young man lay in hisberth he muttered to himself, "Now what did that woman want?" Athought came into his mind and he reached up to where his trousersswung in a little hammock above the window and looked to see that hiswatch and pocket-book were still there.

　　At home Laura Ormsby nursed the thought of the talk with the strangeman on the train. In her mind he became something romantic and daring,a streak of light across what she was pleased to think of as hersombre life.

　　Sitting at dinner she talked of him describing his charms. "He had awonderful mind and we sat late into the night talking," she said,watching the face of David.

　　When she had spoken Margaret looked up and said laughingly, "Have aheart Dad. Here is romance. Do not be blind to it. Mother is trying toscare you about an alleged love affair."