THE TRIP TO GALENA
781
right, I was willing to be made presentable. Not that she really needed
me, though. She was capable of proving all by her lonesome that she
came of a good family. That's a game you can't beat her at.
If
you're
descended from Pocahontas, then her ancestors were the dukes de
Berri and she's suing to recover the
Book of Hours
from the French
government. You can't outdo her. But the Neffs had nothing to boast
except that Ulysses S. Grant had known their grandparents, and it
was easy for her to do better than that.
As
a matter of fact, she was
taking me to Galena for my own good. These were marriageable
girls, and Fanny thought I'd be interested in one of them. Reform
by marriage. And Fanny isn't foolish. By no means. But this time she
made a mistake. She must even have known that it was risky to bring
me to Galena. But maybe she even wanted the Neffs to see what we
were really like, after going to so much trouble to bag their son. But
mainly it was for my good. However, instead of treating it as a joke
when I saw I was being looked over as a husband, I was angry.
Naturally the Neffs were disappointed in me, too, when I didn't turn
out to be the winsome boy they had been led to expect. And if the
girls had been Aphrodite and Helen instead of what they were, a
couple of nice small-town girls home for the week end from the state
university, I expect I would have been bored all the same. I was
bored sick anyhow, generally, as anyone gets, crawling around on the
surface of life by himself. But this was Fanny's remedy. She was
aim–
ing to settle me down. Old man Neff is rich; he has a candy factory,
and my future brother-in-law was willing to take me into his firm.
He's a lawyer, too. Now there's a piece of practical plotting, to team
me up with these people, that goes as deep as murder. Yet
it
was
common sense to her. Maybe not to Herbert, her fiance. I think he
was just humoring her. But there may be something of the visionary
about him, too, since he wants to marry her.
"But these people weren't to blame for my sister's scheme, and
I tried my best for a while to be considerate and conduct
myseU
politely. Saturday we had a motor boat on the river. Very nice.
Saturday there was a dance. I danced. But Sunday morning when I
woke up in the guest room, I knew that something was wrong. I had
a pain in my lung, and I thought at first it was because I had been
smoking too much. I had been up in the night, also, and there was
no light in the hall; I couldn't find the toilet and so opened the
