The Conscience of the Rich Read Online Free Page B

relations of all three were very close.
    I kept looking from one to another of the clever, energetic, mobile faces. I knew that Charles had regretted inviting me; that, as we waited for his father to come in, he wished the evening were already over; yet now he was more alive than I had ever seen him.
    ‘Yes, what was going to theatres to do with Robert being impatient?’ asked Charles.
    ‘If he hadn’t been impatient, he wouldn’t have gone to theatres,’ said Mr March. ‘You know he doesn’t go now. And if his uncle Philip hadn’t been so impatient, he wouldn’t have made such a frightful ass of himself last Tuesday. That’s my eldest brother, Philip’ – he suddenly turned to me – ‘I’ve never known him make such a frightful ass of himself since that night in 1899. The key was lost–’
    ‘When, Mr L? In 1899?’ asked Katherine.
    ‘What key?’
    ‘Last Tuesday, of course. The key of my confounded case. I didn’t possess a case in 1899. I used the bag that Hannah gave me. She never liked me passing it on to my then butler. So I told Philip the key was lost when I saw him in my club. They’d just made us trustees of this so-called charity, though why they want to add to my labours and give me enormous worry and shorten my life, I’ve never been able to understand.’ (At that time Mr March was nearly sixty-three. He had retired thirty years before, when the family bank was sold.) ‘Philip ought to expect it. They used to call him the longest-headed man on the Stock Exchange. Though since he levelled up on those Brazilian Railways, I have always doubted it.’
    ‘Didn’t you level up yourself, Mr L?’ said Katherine. ‘Wasn’t that the excuse you gave for not buying a car when they first came out?’
    ‘While really he’s always been terrified of them. You’ve never bought a car yet, have you?’ said Charles.
    ‘It depends what you mean by buying,’ Mr March said hurriedly.
    ‘That’s trying to hedge,’ said Charles. ‘He can’t escape, though. He’s always hired them from year to year–’ he explained to me. ‘It must have cost ten times as much, but he felt that if he never really committed himself, he might find some excuse to stop. Incidentally, Mr L, it’s exactly your idea of economy.’
    ‘No! No!’ Mr March was roaring with laughter, shouting, pointing his finger. ‘I refuse to accept responsibility for moving vehicles, that’s all. I also told Philip that I refused to accept responsibility if he took action before we considered the documents–’
    ‘The documents in the case?’
    ‘He stood me some tea – extremely bad teas they’ve taken to giving you in the club: they didn’t even provide my special buns that afternoon – and I said we ought to consider the documents and then call at the banks. “When are you going to meet me at these various banks?” I said. He said I was worrying unnecessarily. My married daughter said exactly the same thing before her children went down with chicken-pox. So I told Philip that if he took action without sleeping on it, I refused to be a party to any foolishness that might ensue. I splashed off negotiations.’
    ‘What did you do?’ said Katherine.
    ‘I splashed off negotiations,’ said Mr March, as though it was the obvious, indeed the only word.
    ‘Did Uncle Philip mind?’
    ‘He was enormously relieved. Wasn’t he enormously relieved?’ Charles asked.
    Mr March went on: ‘Apart from his initial madheadedness, he took it very well. So I departed from the club. Owing to all these controversies, I was five minutes later than usual passing the clock at the corner; or it may have been fast, you can’t trust the authorities to keep them properly. Then I got engaged in another controversy with the newsboy under the clock. I took a paper and he insisted I’d paid, but I told him I hadn’t. I thought he was a stupid fellow. He must have mixed me up with a parson who was buying a paper at the same time. I tossed him