The Professor's House

by Willa Cather

Country Club--"

  "Yes, Lillian; the Country Club is a big affair, and needs money. The

  Arts and Letters is a little group of fellows, and, as I said, fussy."

  "Scott belongs," said Mrs. St. Peter rebelliously. "Did he tell you?"

  "No, he didn't, and I shall not tell you who did. But if you're

  tactful, you can save Louie's feelings."

  Mrs. St. Peter closed her book without glancing down at it. A new

  interest shone in her eyes and made them look quite through and beyond

  her husband. "I must see what I can do with Scott," she murmured.

  St. Peter turned away to hide a smile. An old student of his, a friend

  who belonged to "the Outland period," had told him laughingly that he

  was sure Scott would blackball Marsellus if his name ever came to the

  vote. "You know Scott is a kid in some things," the friend had said.

  "He's a little sore at Marsellus, and says a secret ballot is the only

  way he can ever get him where it wouldn't hurt Mrs. St. Peter."

  While the Professor was eating his soup, he studied his wife's face in

  the candlelight. It had changed so much since he found her laughing with

  Louie, and especially since he had dropped the hint about the Arts and

  Letters. It had become, he thought, too hard for the orchid velvet in

  her hair. Her upper lip had grown longer, and stiffened as it always did

  when she encountered opposition.

  "Well," he reflected, "it will be interesting to see what she can do

  with Scott. That will make rather a test case."

  Chapter 7

  Early in November there was a picturesque snow-storm, and that day

  Kathleen telephoned her father at the university, asking him to stop on

  his way home in the afternoon and help her to decide upon some new furs.

  As he approached McGregor's spick-and-span bungalow at four o'clock, he

  saw Louie's Pierce-Arrow standing in front, with Ned, the chauffeur and

  gardener, in the driver's seat. Just then Rosamond came out of the

  bungalow alone, and down the path to the sidewalk, without seeing her

  father. He noticed a singularly haughty expression on her face; her

  brows drawn together over her nose. The curl of her lips was handsome,

  but terrifying. He observed also something he had not seen before--a

  coat of soft, purple-grey fur, that quite disguised the wide, slightly

  stooping shoulders he regretted in his truly beautiful daughter. He

  called to her, very much interested. "Wait a minute, Rosie. I've not

  seen that before. It's extraordinarily becoming." He stroked his

  daughter's sleeve with evident pleasure. "You know, these things with a

  kind of lurking purple and lavender in them are splendid for you. They

  make your colour prettier than ever. It's only lately you've begun to

  wear them. Louie's taste, I suppose?"

  "Of course. He selects all my things for me," said Rosamond proudly.

  "Well, he does a good job. He knows what's right for you." St. Peter

  continued to look her up and down with satisfaction. "And Kathleen is

  getting new furs. You were advising her?"

  "She didn't mention it to me," Rosamond replied in a guarded voice.

  "No? And what do you call this, what beast?" he asked ingenuously, again

  stroking the fur with his bare hand.

  "It's taupe."

  "Oh, moleskin!" He drew back a little. "Couldn't be better for your

  complexion. And is it warm?"

  "Very warm--and so light."

  "I see, I see!" He took Rosamond's arm and escorted her to her car.

  "Give Louie my compliments on his choice." The motor glided away--he

  wished he could escape as quickly and noiselessly, for he was a coward.

  But he had a feeling that Kathleen was watching him from behind the sash

  curtains. He went up to the door and made a long and thorough use of the

  foot-scraper before he tapped on the glass. Kathleen let him in. She was

  very pale; even her lips, which were always pink, like the inside of a

  white shell, were without colour. Neither of them mentioned the

  just-departed guest.

  "Have you been out in the park, Kitty? This is a pretty little storm.

  Perhaps you'll walk over to the old house with me presently." He talked

  soothingly while he took off his coat and rubbers. "And now for the

  furs!"

  Kathleen went slowly into her bedroom. She was gone a great

  while--perhaps ten actual minutes. When she came back, the rims of her

  eyes were red. She carried four large pasteboard boxes, tied together

  with twine. St. Peter sprang up, took the parcel, and began untying the

  string. He opened the first and pulled out a brown stole. "What is it,

  mink?"

  "No, it's Hudson Bay sable."

  "Very pretty." He put the collar round her neck and drew back to look at

  it. But after a sharp struggle Kathleen broke down. She threw off the

  fur and buried her face in a fresh handkerchief.

  "I'm so sorry, Daddy, but it's no use to-day. I don't want any furs,

  really. She spoils everything for me."

  "Oh, my dear, my dear, you hurt me terribly!" St. Peter put his hands

  tenderly on her soft hazel-coloured hair. "Face it squarely, Kitty; you

  must not, you cannot, be envious. It's self-destruction."

  "I can't help it, Father. I am envious. I don't think I would be if she

  let me alone, but she comes here with her magnificence and takes the

  life out of all our poor little things. Everybody knows she's rich, why

  does she have to keep rubbing it in?"

  "But, Kitty dear, you wouldn't have her go home and change her coat

  before coming to see you?"

  "Oh, it's not that, Father, it's everything! You know we were never

  jealous of each other at home. I was always proud of her good looks and

  good taste. It's not her clothes, it's a feeling she has inside her.

  When she comes toward me, I feel hate coming toward me, like a snake's

  hate!"

  St. Peter wiped his moist forehead. He was suffering with her, as if she

  had been in physical anguish. "We can't, dear, we can't, in this world,

  let ourselves think of things--of comparisons--like that. We are all too

  susceptible to ugly suggestions. If Rosamond has a grievance, it's

  because you've been untactful about Louie."

  "Even if I have, why should she be so revengeful? Does she think nobody

  else calls him a Jew? Does she think it's a secret? I don't mind being

  called a Gentile."

  "It's all in the way it's done, you know, Kitty. And you've shown that

  you were a little bored with all their new things, now haven't you?"

  "I've shown that I don't like the way she overdresses, I suppose. I

  would never have believed that Rosie could do anything in such bad

  taste. While she is here among her old friends, she ought to dress like

  the rest of us."

  "But doesn't she? It seems to me her things look about like yours."

  "Oh, Father, you're so simple! And Mother is very careful not to

  enlighten you. We go to the Guild to sew for the Mission fund, and Rosie

  comes in in a handmade French frock that cost more than all our dresses

  put together."

  "But if hers are no prettier, what does it matter how much they cost?"

  He was watching Kathleen fearfully. Her pale skin had taken on a

&nb
sp; greenish tinge--there was no doubt about it. He had never happened to

  see that change occur in a face before, and he had never realized to

  what an ugly, painful transformation the common phrase "green with envy"

  referred.

  "Oh, foolish, they are prettier, though you may not see it. It's not

  just the clothes"--she looked at him intently, and her eyes, in their

  reddened rims, expanded and cleared. "It's everything. When we were at

  home, Rosamond was a kind of ideal to me. What she thought about

  anything decided it for me. But she's entirely changed. She's become

  Louie. Indeed, she's worse than Louie. He and all this money have ruined

  her. Oh, Daddy, why didn't you and Professor Crane get to work and stop

  all this before it began? You were to blame. You knew that Tom had left

  something that was worth a lot, both of you. Why didn't you do

  something? You let it lie there in Crane's laboratory for this--this

  Marsellus to come along and exploit, until he almost thinks it's his own

  idea."

  "Things might have turned out the same, anyway," her father protested.

  "Whatever the process earned was Rosamond's. I wasn't in the mood to

  struggle with manufacturers, I know nothing of such things. And Crane

  needs every ounce of his strength for his own experiments. He doesn't

  care anything but the extent of space."

  "He'd better have taken a few days off and saved his friend's

  reputation. Tom trusted him with everything. It's too foolish; that poor

  man being cut to pieces by surgeons all the time, and picking up the

  little that's left of himself and bothering about the limitations of

  space--much good they'll do him!"

  St. Peter rose, took both of his daughter's hands and stood laughing at

  her. "Come now! You have more brains than that, Kitty. It happens you do

  understand that whatever poor Crane can find out about space is more

  good to him than all the money the Marselluses will ever have. But are

  you implying that if Crane and I had developed Tom's discovery, we might

  have kept Rosie and her money in the family, for ourselves?"

  Kathleen threw up her head. "Oh, I don't want her money!"

  "Exactly; nor do I. And we mustn't behave as if we did want it. If you

  permit yourself to be envious of Rosie, you'll be very foolish, and very

  unhappy."

  The Professor walked away across the snowy park with a tired step. He

  was heavy-hearted. For Kathleen he had a special kind of affection.

  Perhaps it was because he had had to take care of her for one whole

  summer when she was little. Just as Mrs. St. Peter was ready to start

  for Colorado with the children, the younger one developed whooping-cough

  and had to be left at home with her father. He had opportunity to

  observe all her ways. She was only six, but he found her a square-dealing,

  dependable little creature. They worked out a satisfactory plan

  of life together. She was to play in the garden all morning, and was not

  on any account to disturb him in his study. After lunch he would take

  her to the lake or the woods, or he would read to her at home. She took

  pride in keeping her part of the contract. One day when he came out of

  his study at noon, he found her sitting on the third floor stairs, just

  outside his door, with the arnica bottle in one hand and the fingers of

  the other puffed up like wee pink sausages. A bee had stung her in the

  garden, and she had waited half the morning for sympathy. She was very

  independent, and would tug at her leggings or overshoes a great while

  before she asked for help.

  When they were little girls, Kathleen adored her older sister and liked

  to wait on her, was always more excited about Rosie's new dresses and

  winter coat than about her own. This attachment had lasted even after

  they were grown. St. Peter had never seen any change in it until

  Rosamond announced her engagement to Louie Marsellus. Then, all at once,

  Kathleen seemed to be done with her sister. Her father believed she

  couldn't forgive Rosie's forgetting Tom so quickly.

  It was dark when the Professor got back to the old house and sat down at

  his writing-table. He would have an hour on his notes, he told himself,

  in spite of families and fortunes. And he had it. But when he looked up

  from his writing as the Angelus was ringing, two faces at once rose in

  the shadows outside the yellow circle of his lamp: the handsome face of

  his older daughter, surrounded by violet-dappled fur, with a cruel upper

  lip and scornful half-closed eyes, as she had approached her car that

  afternoon before she saw him; and Kathleen, her square little chin set

  so fiercely, her white cheeks actually becoming green under her swollen

  eyes. He couldn't believe it. He rose quickly and went to his one

  window, opened it wider, and stood looking at the dark clump of

  pine-trees that told where the Physics building stood. A sharp pain

  clutched his heart. Was it for this the light in Outland's laboratory

  used to burn so far into the night!

  Chapter 8

  The following week St. Peter went to Chicago to give his lectures. He

  had engaged rooms for himself and Lillian at a quiet hotel near the

  university. The Marselluses went down by the same train, and they all

  alighted at the station together, in a raging snow-storm. The St. Peters

  were to have tea with Louie at the Blackstone, before going to their own

  quarters.

  Tea was served in Louie's suite on the lake front, with a fine view of

  the falling snow from the windows. The Professor was in a genial mood;

  he was glad to be in a big city again, in a luxurious hotel, and

  especially pleased to be able to sit in comfort and watch the storm over

  the water.

  "How snug you are here, Louie! This is really very nice," he said,

  turning back from the window when Rosamond called him.

  Louie came and put both hands on St. Peter's shoulders, exclaiming

  delightedly: "And do you like these rooms, sir? Well, I'm glad, for

  they're yours! Rosie and I are farther down the corridor. Not a word!

  It's all arranged. You are our guests for this engagement. We won't have

  our great scholar staying off in some grimy place on the South side. We

  want him where we can keep an eye on him."

  Louie was so warm with his plan that the Professor could only express

  satisfaction. "And our luggage?"

  "It's on the way. I cancelled your reservations and did everything in

  order. Now have your tea, but not too much. You dine early; you have an

  engagement for to-night. You and Dearest are going to the opera--Oh,

  not with us! We have other fish to fry. You are going off alone."

  "Very well, Louie! And what are they giving to-night?"

  "Mignon. It will remind you of your student days in Paris."

  "It will. I always had abonnement at the Op�ra Comique, and Mignon came

  round frequently. It's one of my favourites."

  "I thought so!" Louie kissed both the ladies, to express his

  satisfaction. The Professor had forgotten his scruples about accepting

  lavish hospitalities. He was really very glad to have windows on the

  lake, and not to have to go away to another hotel. Aft
er the Marselluses

  went to their own apartment, he remarked to his wife, while he unpacked

  his bag, that it was much more convenient to be on the same floor with

  Louie and Rosamond.

  "Much better than cabbing across Chicago to meet them all the time,

  isn't it?"

  At eight o'clock he and his wife were in their places in the Auditorium.

  The overture brought a smile to his lips and a gracious mood to his

  heart. The music seemed extraordinarily fresh and genuine still. It

  might grow old-fashioned, he told himself, but never old, surely, while

  there was any youth left in men. It was an expression of youth,--that,

  and no more; with the sweetness and foolishness, the lingering accent,

  the heavy stresses--the delicacy, too--belonging to that time. After the

  entrance of the hero, Lillian leaned toward him and whispered: "Am I

  over-credulous? He looks to me exactly like the pictures of Goethe in

  his youth."

  "So he does to me. He is certainly as tall as Goethe. I didn't know

  tenors were ever so tall. The Mignon seems young, too."

  She was slender, at any rate, and very fragile beside the courtly

  Wilhelm. When she began her immortal song, one felt that she was right

  for the part, the pure lyric soprano that suits it best, and in her

  voice there was something fresh and delicate, like deep wood flowers.

  "Connais-tu--le pays"--it stirred one like the odours of early spring,

  recalled the time of sweet, impersonal emotions.

  When the curtain fell on the first act, St. Peter turned to his wife. "A

  fine cast, don't you think? And the harps are very good. Except for the

  wood-winds, I should say it was as good as any performance I ever heard

  at the Comique."

  "How it does make one think of Paris, and of so many half-forgotten

  things!" his wife murmured. It had been long since he had seen her face

  so relaxed and reflective and undetermined.

  Through the next act he often glanced at her. Curious, how a young mood

  could return and soften a face. More than once he saw a starry moisture

  shine in her eyes. If she only knew how much more lovely she was when

  she wasn't doing her duty!

  "My dear," he sighed when the lights were turned on and they both looked

  older, "it's been a mistake, our having a family and writing histories

  and getting middle-aged. We should have been picturesquely shipwrecked

  together when we were young."

  "How often I've thought that!" she replied with a faint, melancholy

  smile.

  "You? But you're so occupied with the future, you adapt yourself so

  readily," he murmured in astonishment.

  "One must go on living, Godfrey. But it wasn't the children who came

  between us." There was something lonely and forgiving in her voice,

  something that spoke of an old wound, healed and hardened and hopeless.

  "You, you too?" he breathed in amazement.

  He took up one of her gloves and began drawing it out through his

  fingers. She said nothing, but he saw her lip quiver, and she turned

  away and began looking at the house through the glasses. He likewise

  began to examine the audience. He wished he knew just how it seemed to

  her. He had been mistaken, he felt. The heart of another is a dark

  forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own. Presently

  the melting music of the tenor's last aria brought their eyes together

  in a smile not altogether sad.

  That night, after he was in bed, among unaccustomed surroundings and a

  little wakeful, St. Peter still played with his idea of a picturesque

  shipwreck, and he cast about for the particular occasion he would have

  chosen for such a finale. Before he went to sleep he found the very day,

  but his wife was not in it. Indeed, nobody was in it but himself, and a