She could never
imagine herself loving any other man; and not knowing exactly what
marriage meant, it had been easier for her to think of her family,
and to follow their guidance. They had told her that love would
come; Douglas had implored her to give him a chance to teach her to
love him. She had considered what she could do with his money--both
for her home-people and for those she spoke of vaguely as "the
poor." But now she was making the discovery that she could not do
very much for these "poor."
"It isn't that my husband is mean," she said. "On the contrary, the
slightest hint will bring me any worldly thing I want. I have homes
in half a dozen parts of America--I have _carte blanche_ to open
accounts in two hemispheres. If any of my people need money I can
get it; but if I want it for myself, he asks me what I'm doing with
it--and so I run into the stone-wall of his ideas."
At first the colliding with this wall had merely pained and
bewildered her. But now the combination of Veblen and myself had
helped her to realize what it meant. Douglas van Tuiver spent his
money upon a definite system: whatever went to the maintaining of
his social position, whatever added to the glory, prestige and power
of the van Tuiver name--that money was well-spent; while money spent
to any other end was money wasted--and this included all ideas and
"causes.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96