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Haskett's sincerity of purpose made him invulnerable, and his successor had to accept him as a lien on the property. Mr. Sellers was sent to Europe to recover from his gout, and Varick's affairs hung on Waythorn's hands.
Had Haskett ever given her any trinkets and what had become of them, Waythorn wondered? He realized suddenly that he knew very little of Haskett's past or present situation; but from the man's appearance and manner of speech he could reconstruct with curious precision the surroundings of Alice's first marriage.
In a flash he understood that she knew the extent of Haskett's claims. Perhaps it was not the first time she had resisted them. "My objecting has nothing to do with it," he said coldly; "if Haskett has a right to be consulted you must consult him." She burst into tears, and he saw that she expected him to regard her as a victim. Haskett did not abuse his rights.
He even tried to trace the source of his obligations, to discriminate between the influences which had combined to produce his domestic happiness: he perceived that Haskett's commonness had made Alice worship good breeding, while Varick's liberal construction of the marriage bond had taught her to value the conjugal virtues; so that he was directly indebted to his predecessors for the devotion which made his life easy if not inspiring.
"I wanted to see Mrs. Waythorn about Lily, and your man asked me to wait here till she came in." "Of course," said Waythorn, remembering that a sudden leak had that morning given over the drawing-room to the plumbers. He opened his cigar-case and held it out to his visitor, and Haskett's acceptance seemed to mark a fresh stage in their intercourse.
Waythorn could not but respect the father's tenacity. At first he had tried to cultivate the suspicion that Haskett might be "up to" something, that he had an object in securing a foothold in the house. But in his heart Waythorn was sure of Haskett's single-mindedness; he even guessed in the latter a mild contempt for such advantages as his relation with the Waythorns might offer.
She had spoken vaguely of her first marriage as unhappy, had hinted, with becoming reticence, that Haskett had wrought havoc among her young illusions....It was a pity for Waythorn's peace of mind that Haskett's very inoffensiveness shed a new light on the nature of those illusions.
Alice Haskett's remarriage with Gus Varick was a passport to the set whose recognition she coveted, and for a few years the Varicks were the most popular couple in town. Unfortunately the alliance was brief and stormy, and this time the husband had his champions. Still, even Varick's stanchest supporters admitted that he was not meant for matrimony, and Mrs.
From this phase he passed into that of complete acceptance. He ceased to satirize himself because time dulled the irony of the situation and the joke lost its humor with its sting. Even the sight of Haskett's hat on the hall table had ceased to touch the springs of epigram.
Waythorn sprang up and began to pace the room nervously. He had not suffered half so much from his two meetings with Varick. It was Haskett's presence in his own house that made the situation so intolerable. He stood still, hearing steps in the passage. "This way, please," he heard the nurse say. Haskett was being taken upstairs, then: not a corner of the house but was open to him.
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