A Knight of the Nineteenth Century | Page 8

some mischief still For idle hands,'
"etc., is a sound maxim, if not first-class poetry. If Mr. Arnot, the
husband of your old friend, is willing to take him, you cannot do better
than place your son in his charge, for he is one of the most methodical
and successful business men of my acquaintance."
Mrs. Arnot, in response to her friend's letter, induced her husband to
make a position in his counting-house for young Haldane, who, from a

natural desire to see more of the world, entered into the arrangement
very willingly.

CHAPTER III
CHAINED TO AN ICEBERG
Hillaton, the suburban city in which the Arnots resided, was not very
distant from New York, and drew much of its prosperity from its
relations with the metropolis. It prided itself much on being a university
town, but more because many old families of extremely blue blood and
large wealth gave tone and color to its society. It is true that this highest
social circle was very exclusive, and formed but a small fraction of the
population; but the people in general had come to speak of "our
society," as being "unusually good," just as they commended to
strangers the architecture of "our college buildings," though they had
little to do with either.
Mrs. Arnot's blood, however, was as blue as that of the most ancient
and aristocratic of her neighbors, while in character and culture she had
few equals. But with the majority of those most cerulean in their vital
fluid the fact that she possessed large wealth in her own name, and was
the wife of a man engaged in a colossal business, weighed more than
all her graces and ancestral honors.
Young Haldane's employer, Mr. Arnot, was, indeed, a man of business
and method, for the one absorbed his very soul, and the other divided
his life into cubes and right angles of manner and habit. It could
scarcely be said that he had settled down into ruts, for this would
presuppose the passiveness of a nature controlled largely by
circumstances. People who travel in ruts drop more often into those
made by others than such as are worn by themselves. Mr. Arnot moved
rather in his own well-defined grooves, which he had deliberately
furrowed out with his own steely will. In these he went through the day
with the same strong, relentless precision which characterized the
machinery in his several manufacturing establishments.

He was a man, too, who had always had his own way, and, as is usually
true in such instances, the forces of his life had become wholly
centripetal.
The cosmos of the selfish man or woman is practically this--Myself the
centre of the universe, and all things else are near or remote, of value or
otherwise, in accordance with their value and interest to me.
Measuring by this scale of distances (which was the only correct one in
the case of Mr. Arnot) the wife of his bosom was quite a remote object.
She formed no part of his business, and he, in his hard, narrow
worldliness, could not even understand the principles and motives of
her action. She was a true and dutiful wife, and presided over his
household with elegance and refinement; but he regarded all this as a
matter of course. He could not conceive of anything else in his wife.
All his "subordinates" in their several spheres, "must" perform their
duties with becoming propriety. Everything "must be regular and
systematic" in his house, as truly as in his factories and counting-room.
Mrs. Arnot endeavored to conform to his peculiarities in this respect,
and kept open the domestic grooves in which it was necessary to his
peace that he should move regularly and methodically. He had his
meals at the hour he chose, to the moment, and when he retired to his
library--or, rather, the business office at his house--not the throne-room
of King Ahasuerus was more sacred from intrusion; and seldom to his
wife, even, was the sceptre of favor and welcome held out, should she
venture to enter.
For a long time she had tried to be an affectionate as well as a faithful
wife, for she had married this man from love. She had mistaken his
cool self-poise for the calmness and steadiness of strength; and women
are captivated by strength, and sometimes by its semblance. He was
strong; but so also are the driving-wheels of an engine.
There is an undefined, half-recognized force in nature which leads
many to seek to balance themselves by marrying their opposites in
temperament. While the general working of this tendency is, no doubt,
beneficent, it not unfrequently brings together those who are so

radically different, that they cannot supplement each other, but must
ever remain two distinct, unblended lives, that are in duty