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- Теодор Драйзер
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- Финансист
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- Стр. 131/297
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DEAR
SIR
--
This
is
to
warn
you
that
your
daughter
Aileen
is
running
around
with
a
man
that
she
should
n't
,
Frank
A.
Cowperwood
,
the
banker
.
If
you
do
n't
believe
it
,
watch
the
house
at
931
North
Tenth
Street
.
Then
you
can
see
for
yourself
.
There
was
neither
signature
nor
mark
of
any
kind
to
indicate
from
whence
it
might
have
come
.
Butler
got
the
impression
strongly
that
it
might
have
been
written
by
some
one
living
in
the
vicinity
of
the
number
indicated
.
His
intuitions
were
keen
at
times
.
As
a
matter
of
fact
,
it
was
written
by
a
girl
,
a
member
of
St.
Timothy
's
Church
,
who
did
live
in
the
vicinity
of
the
house
indicated
,
and
who
knew
Aileen
by
sight
and
was
jealous
of
her
airs
and
her
position
.
She
was
a
thin
,
anemic
,
dissatisfied
creature
who
had
the
type
of
brain
which
can
reconcile
the
gratification
of
personal
spite
with
a
comforting
sense
of
having
fulfilled
a
moral
duty
.
Her
home
was
some
five
doors
north
of
the
unregistered
Cowperwood
domicile
on
the
opposite
side
of
the
street
,
and
by
degrees
,
in
the
course
of
time
,
she
made
out
,
or
imagined
that
she
had
,
the
significance
of
this
institution
,
piecing
fact
to
fancy
and
fusing
all
with
that
keen
intuition
which
is
so
closely
related
to
fact
.
The
result
was
eventually
this
letter
which
now
spread
clear
and
grim
before
Butler
's
eyes
.
The
Irish
are
a
philosophic
as
well
as
a
practical
race
.
Their
first
and
strongest
impulse
is
to
make
the
best
of
a
bad
situation
--
to
put
a
better
face
on
evil
than
it
normally
wears
.
On
first
reading
these
lines
the
intelligence
they
conveyed
sent
a
peculiar
chill
over
Butler
's
sturdy
frame
.
His
jaw
instinctively
closed
,
and
his
gray
eyes
narrowed
.
Could
this
be
true
?
If
it
were
not
,
would
the
author
of
the
letter
say
so
practically
,
"
If
you
do
n't
believe
it
,
watch
the
house
at
931
North
Tenth
Street
"
?
Was
n't
that
in
itself
proof
positive
--
the
hard
,
matter-of-fact
realism
of
it
?
And
this
was
the
man
who
had
come
to
him
the
night
before
seeking
aid
--
whom
he
had
done
so
much
to
assist
.
There
forced
itself
into
his
naturally
slow-moving
but
rather
accurate
mind
a
sense
of
the
distinction
and
charm
of
his
daughter
--
a
considerably
sharper
picture
than
he
had
ever
had
before
,
and
at
the
same
time
a
keener
understanding
of
the
personality
of
Frank
Algernon
Cowperwood
.
How
was
it
he
had
failed
to
detect
the
real
subtlety
of
this
man
?
How
was
it
he
had
never
seen
any
sign
of
it
,
if
there
had
been
anything
between
Cowperwood
and
Aileen
?
Parents
are
frequently
inclined
,
because
of
a
time-flattered
sense
of
security
,
to
take
their
children
for
granted
.
Nothing
ever
has
happened
,
so
nothing
ever
will
happen
.
They
see
their
children
every
day
,
and
through
the
eyes
of
affection
;
and
despite
their
natural
charm
and
their
own
strong
parental
love
,
the
children
are
apt
to
become
not
only
commonplaces
,
but
ineffably
secure
against
evil
.
Mary
is
naturally
a
good
girl
--
a
little
wild
,
but
what
harm
can
befall
her
?
John
is
a
straight-forward
,
steady-going
boy
--
how
could
he
get
into
trouble
?
The
astonishment
of
most
parents
at
the
sudden
accidental
revelation
of
evil
in
connection
with
any
of
their
children
is
almost
invariably
pathetic
.
"
My
John
!
My
Mary
!
Impossible
!
"
But
it
is
possible
.
Very
possible
.
Decidedly
likely
.
Some
,
through
lack
of
experience
or
understanding
,
or
both
,
grow
hard
and
bitter
on
the
instant
.
They
feel
themselves
astonishingly
abased
in
the
face
of
notable
tenderness
and
sacrifice
.
Others
collapse
before
the
grave
manifestation
of
the
insecurity
and
uncertainty
of
life
--
the
mystic
chemistry
of
our
being
.
Still
others
,
taught
roughly
by
life
,
or
endowed
with
understanding
or
intuition
,
or
both
,
see
in
this
the
latest
manifestation
of
that
incomprehensible
chemistry
which
we
call
life
and
personality
,
and
,
knowing
that
it
is
quite
vain
to
hope
to
gainsay
it
,
save
by
greater
subtlety
,
put
the
best
face
they
can
upon
the
matter
and
call
a
truce
until
they
can
think
.
We
all
know
that
life
is
unsolvable
--
we
who
think
.
The
remainder
imagine
a
vain
thing
,
and
are
full
of
sound
and
fury
signifying
nothing
.
So
Edward
Butler
,
being
a
man
of
much
wit
and
hard
,
grim
experience
,
stood
there
on
his
doorstep
holding
in
his
big
,
rough
hand
his
thin
slip
of
cheap
paper
which
contained
such
a
terrific
indictment
of
his
daughter
.
There
came
to
him
now
a
picture
of
her
as
she
was
when
she
was
a
very
little
girl
--
she
was
his
first
baby
girl
--
and
how
keenly
he
had
felt
about
her
all
these
years
.
She
had
been
a
beautiful
child
--
her
red-gold
hair
had
been
pillowed
on
his
breast
many
a
time
,
and
his
hard
,
rough
fingers
had
stroked
her
soft
cheeks
,
lo
,
these
thousands
of
times
.
Aileen
,
his
lovely
,
dashing
daughter
of
twenty-three
!
He
was
lost
in
dark
,
strange
,
unhappy
speculations
,
without
any
present
ability
to
think
or
say
or
do
the
right
thing
.
He
did
not
know
what
the
right
thing
was
,
he
finally
confessed
to
himself
.
Aileen
!
Aileen
!
His
Aileen
!
If
her
mother
knew
this
it
would
break
her
heart
.
She
must
n't
!
She
must
n't
!
And
yet
must
n't
she
?
The
heart
of
a
father
!
The
world
wanders
into
many
strange
by-paths
of
affection
.
The
love
of
a
mother
for
her
children
is
dominant
,
leonine
,
selfish
,
and
unselfish
.
It
is
concentric
.
The
love
of
a
husband
for
his
wife
,
or
of
a
lover
for
his
sweetheart
,
is
a
sweet
bond
of
agreement
and
exchange
trade
in
a
lovely
contest
.
The
love
of
a
father
for
his
son
or
daughter
,
where
it
is
love
at
all
,
is
a
broad
,
generous
,
sad
,
contemplative
giving
without
thought
of
return
,
a
hail
and
farewell
to
a
troubled
traveler
whom
he
would
do
much
to
guard
,
a
balanced
judgment
of
weakness
and
strength
,
with
pity
for
failure
and
pride
in
achievement
.
It
is
a
lovely
,
generous
,
philosophic
blossom
which
rarely
asks
too
much
,
and
seeks
only
to
give
wisely
and
plentifully
.
"
That
my
boy
may
succeed
!
That
my
daughter
may
be
happy
!
"
Who
has
not
heard
and
dwelt
upon
these
twin
fervors
of
fatherly
wisdom
and
tenderness
?
