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No, the capacity for originative and enduring work was not in him; and
this incessant compilation of dreary footnotes, this incessant rummaging
among the bones of the dead--did it, after all, mean more to this
Rudolph Musgrave than one full, vivid hour of life in that militant
world yonder, where men fought for other ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
You felt, for the most part of your stay in this country, flushed and
hot and uncomfortable and unbelievably awkward, and you were mercilessly
bedeviled there; but not for all the accumulated wealth of Samarkand and
Ind and Ophir would you have had it otherwise. Ah, no, not otherwise in
the least trifle. For now uplif... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Very pleasant, too, it was in the days of Patricia's advent. There were
strikingly few young men about, to be sure; most of them on reaching
maturity had settled in more bustling regions. But many maidens remained
whom memory delights to catalogue,--tall, brilliant Lizzie Allardyce,
the lovely and cattish Marian Winwo... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Once he read to her that wonderful sad tale of Hans Christian Andersen's
which treats of the china chimney-sweep and the shepherdess, who eloped
from their bedizened tiny parlor-table, and were frightened by the
vastness of the world outside, and crept ignominiously back to their fit
home. "And so," the colonel ended,... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He spoke disjointedly, vaguely, but the girl nodded. "I think I
understand, Olaf. Only, it is a two-edged rivet--to mix metaphors--and
keeps us stiffnecked against all sorts of calls. No, I am not sure that
the thing one cannot do because one is what one is, proves to be always
a cause for international jubilations an... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Olaf"--and this was even more cajoling--"do you know you've never told
me what sort of a woman you most admire?"
"I don't admire any of them," said Colonel Musgrave, stoutly. "They are
too vain and frivolous--especially the pink-and-white ones," he added,
unkindlily.
"Cousin Agatha has told me all about your multifar... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She smiled at this. "You should have told her, Olaf," said Miss
Stapylton. "You should have told her that you cared."
He gave a gesture of dissent. "She had everything," he pointed out,
"everything the world could afford her. And, doubtless, she would have
been very glad to give it all up for me, wouldn't she?--for me... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You fancy you know what you are talking about," said Rudolph Musgrave,
"but you don't. You don't realize, you see, how beautiful she--was."
And this time, he nearly tripped upon the tense, for her hand was on his
arm, and, in consequence, a series of warm, delicious little shivers was
running about his body in a fash... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You should have told her, Olaf," Miss Stapylton persisted; and then she
asked, in a voice that came very near being inaudible: "Is it too late
to tell her now, Olaf?"
The stupid man opened his lips a little, and stood staring at her with
hungry eyes, wondering if it were really possible that she did not hear
the poun... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Then, as he came up the orderly graveled walk, he heard, issuing from
the little vine-covered summer-house, a loud voice. It was a man's
voice, and its tones were angry.
"No! no!" the man was saying; "I'll agree to no such nonsense, I tell
you! What do you think I am?"
"I think you are a jackass-fool," Miss Stapylton ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Now, see here," the man blustered, weakly, "we don't want any heroics,
you know. See here, you're her cousin, ain't you? By God, I'll leave it
to you, you know! She's treated me badly, don't you understand. She's a
jilt, you know. She's playin' fast and loose----"
He never got any further, for at this point Rudolph M... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Then he went back into the garden.
V
In the shadow of a white lilac-bush, Colonel Musgrave paused with an
awed face.
"Good Lord!" said he, aghast at the notion; "what would Agatha say if
she knew I had been fighting like a drunken truck-driver! Or, rather,
what would she refrain from saying! Only, she wouldn't belie... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You--you have broken your engagement," he echoed, dully; and continued,
with a certain deficiency of finesse, "But I thought you wanted to be a
countess?"
"Oh, you boor, you vulgarian!" the girl cried, "Oh, you do put things so
crudely, Olaf! You are hopeless."
She shook an admonitory forefinger in his direction, and... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
At the thought of this Rudolph Musgrave laughed as he fell to pacing up
and down before her.
"Life!" he cried, again, with a helpless gesture; and then smiled at
her, very sadly. "'Didn't I know there was something better in life than
grubbing after musty tribes and customs and folk-songs?'" he quoted.
"Why, what a qu... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I?" she breathed; and now the flush of her cheeks had widened,
wondrously.
"You! you!" he cried, and gave a wringing motion of his hands, for the
self-esteem of a complacent man is not torn away without agony. "Who
else but you? I had thought myself brave enough to be silent, but still
I must play the coward's part! ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
And, this time, Miss Stapylton did not go into the house.
VII
When they went in to supper, they had planned to tell Miss Agatha of
their earth-staggering secret at once. But the colonel comprehended, at
the first glimpse of his sister, that the opportunity would be
ill-chosen.
The meal was an awkward half-hour. Miss... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
And Patricia brazenly confessed that it did not. She also made a face at
him, and accused Rudolph Musgrave of trying to crawl out of marrying
her, which proceeding led to frivolities unnecessary to record, but
found delectable by the participants.
VIII
Colonel Musgrave was alone. He had lifted his emptied coffee-cup... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
For in that particular October Patricia's father, an accommodating
physician having declared old Roger Stapylton's health to necessitate a
Southern sojourn, leased the Bellingham mansion in Lichfield. It
happened that, by rare good luck, Tom Bellingham--of the Bellinghams of
Assequin, not the Bellinghams of Bellemeade... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"They were good days, sir," he chuckled. "Heh, we'll stick to the old
customs. We'll give a dinner and announce it at dessert, just as your
honored grandfather did your Aunt Constantia's betrothal--"
For about the Musgraves of Matocton there could be no question. It was
the old man's delight to induce Rudolph Musgrave... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Aloud he said, in firm belief that he spoke truthfully: "I cannot
conscientiously give up the Library, sir. I realize the work may not
seem important in your eyes. Indeed, in anybody's eyes it must seem an
inadequate outcome of a man's whole life. But it unfortunately happens
to be the only kind of work I am capable o... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Yet there were times when he thought of Anne Charteris as well. He had
not seen her for a whole year now, for the Charterises had left
Lichfield shortly after the Pendomer divorce case had been settled, and
were still in Europe.
This was the evening during which Roger Stapylton had favorably received
his declaration; ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
But Anne was different, and in the nature of things must always be a
little different, from all other people--even Patricia Stapylton.
Always in reverie the colonel would come back to this,--that Anne could
not be thought of, quite, in the same frame of mind wherein one
appraised other persons. Especially must he conc... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Gradually, there awoke an uneasy self-conscious interest as to all
matters that concerned her, a mental pricking up of the ears when her
name was mentioned.
One lay awake o' nights, wondering why her hair curled so curiously
about her temples, and held such queer glowing tints in its depths when
sunlight fell upon it.... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Upon reflection, Colonel Musgrave was quite sure that he was happy; and
that it was only his liver or something which was upset. But, at all
events, the colonel's besetting infirmity was always to shrink from
making changes; instinctively he balked against commission of any action
which would alter his relations with ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"For you remember the Parkinsons, I suppose?"
"The ones that had a cabin near Matocton? Very deserving people, I
believe."
"And _their_ son, sir, wants to marry my daughter," said Mr.
Stapylton,--"_my_ daughter, who is shortly to be connected by marriage
with the Musgraves of Matocton! I don't know what this world wil... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
IV
Colonel Musgrave remained five days at Matocton, that he might put his
house in order against his nearing marriage. It was a pleasant sight to
see the colonel stroll about the paneled corridors and pause to chat
with divers deferential workmen who were putting the last touches there,
or to observe him mid-course ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Let us leave him to his roseate meditations. Questionless, in the woman
he loved there was much of his own invention: but the circumstance is
not unhackneyed; and Colonel Musgrave was in a decorous fashion the
happiest of living persons.
Meanwhile Joe Parkinson, a young man much enamored, who fought the
world by ordin... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"A son of my old schoolmate, ma'am," the judge explained. "A Bellingham
of Assequin. Oh, indiscreet of course--but, God bless my soul! when were
the Bellinghams anything else? The boy regretted it as much as anybody."
And she listened with almost morbid curiosity concerning the finer
details of legal intricacy.
Colone... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Ensued a felicitous speech. Rudolph Musgrave was familiar with his
audience. And therefore:
Colonel Musgrave alluded briefly to the pleasure he took in addressing
such a gathering. He believed no other State in the 'Union could have
afforded an assembly of more distinguished men and fairer women. But the
fact was not ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Nor was there any need for him, he was assured, to mention the
imperishable names of their dear homeland's poets and statesmen of
to-day, the orators and philanthropists and prominent business-men who
jostled one another in her splendid, new asphalted streets, since all
were quite familiar to his audience,--as familia... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
So the colonel continued in time-hallowed form, with happy allusions to
Mr. Parkinson's anterior success as an engineer before he came "like a
young Lochinvar to wrest away his beautiful and popular fiancée from us
fainthearted fellows of Lichfield"; touched of course upon the colonel's
personal comminglement of envy ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He had flung away a deal of money that evening, with something which to
him was dearer. Had you attempted to condole with him he would not have
understood you.
"But what would you have had a gentleman do, sir?" Colonel Musgrave
would have said, in real perplexity.
Besides, it was, in fact, not sorrow that he felt, rat... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Besides, we have produced ourselves. We have been gentlefolk in spite
of all, we have been true even in our iniquities to the traditions of
our race. No, I cannot assert that these traditions always square with
ethics or even with the Decalogue, for we have added a very complex
Eleventh Commandment concerning honor. ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
* * * * *
And yet--"It may be he will serve you better. But, oh, it isn't
possible that he should love you more than I," said Colonel Musgrave of
Matocton.
The man was destined to remember that utterance--and, with the
recollection, to laugh not altogether in either scorn or merriment.
... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Patricia was horribly frightened.
"And afterwards the jackass-fool made matters worse by calling me 'his
darling.' There is no more hateful word in the English language than
'darling.' It sounds like castor-oil tastes, or a snail looks after you
have put salt on him."
The colonel deliberated this information; and he a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Oh, but you are an idiot--."
"In wanting you, my dear?"
"Please put me down."
She thoroughly enjoyed her helplessness. He saw it, long before he
lowered her.
"Why, not so much in that," said Miss Stapylton, "because inasmuch as I
am a woman of superlative charm, of course you can't help yourself. But
how do you know ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
They were an ill-matched couple in so many ways that no long-headed
person could conceivably have anticipated--in the outcome--more than
decorous tolerance of each other. For apart from the disparity in age
and tastes and rearing, there was always the fact to be weighed that in
marrying the only child of a wealthy man... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Miss Agatha also told Patricia of how the son of Virginia and Senator
Musgrave had come to a disastrous end--"lynched in Texas, I believe,
only it may not have been Texas. And indeed when I come to think of it,
I don't believe it was, because I know we first heard of it on a Monday,
and Virginia couldn't do the washin... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
The colonel made a book of his Stapyltonian researches which he
vaingloriously proclaimed to be the stupidest reading within the ample
field of uninteresting printed English. Patricia was allowed to see no
word of it until the first ten copies had come from the printer's, very
splendid in green "art-vellum" and stampe... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"My dear----" he began.
"Ouch!" said Patricia; "you are tickling me. You don't shave half as
often as you used to, do you? No, nowadays you think you have me safe
and don't have to bother about being attractive. If I had a music-box I
could put your face into it and play all sorts of tunes, only I prefer
to look at it... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
One judges this posturing, so inevitable of detection, to have been as
significant of much in Rudolph Musgrave as was the fact of its belated
discovery characteristic of Patricia.
Yet she had read this book about her family from purely normal motives:
first, to make certain how old her various cousins were; secondly, ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Oh, even more than he does me, daddy. And so he mustn't know, you see,
until it is all over. Because Olaf is such an ill-informed person that
he really believes he prefers me."
"Pat," her father inconsequently said, "I'm proud of you! And--and, by
God, if I _want_ to cry, I guess I am old enough to know my own mind!
... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
The old man did not quarrel with her. And with Roger Stapylton's
loneliness in these days, and the long thoughts it bred, we have nothing
here to do. But when he died, stricken without warning, some five years
after Patricia's marriage, his will was discovered to bequeath
practically his entire fortune to little Roger... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He did not mean to touch a penny of such moneys as Roger Stapylton had
bequeathed to him; for the colonel considered--now--it was a man's duty
personally to support his wife and child and sister. And he vigorously
attempted to discharge this obligation, alike by virtue of his salary at
the Library, and by spasmodic ra... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Upon the porch was a rustic bench. He sat upon it for a quarter of an
hour--precisely where he had first talked with Agatha about Patricia's
first coming to Lichfield.... Once the door of a house across the street
was opened, with a widening gush of amber light wherein he saw three
women fitting wraps about them. One ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He went upstairs--to the front room, Patricia's bedroom. Patricia
followed him.
Agatha's body lay upon the bed, with a sheet over all. The undertaker's
skill had arranged everything with smug and horrible tranquillity.
Rudolph Musgrave remembered he was forty-six years old; and when in all
these years had there been a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He touched the dead hand now. "Please go!" he said, and he did not look
toward Patricia. "For Agatha loved me better than she did God, you know.
The curse was born in her. She had to pay for what those dead,
soft-handed Musgraves did. That is why her hands are so cold now. She
had to pay for the privilege of being a M... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I think you had better go," said Colonel Musgrave. "Please go,
Patricia, before I murder you."
She saw that he was speaking in perfect earnest.
IX
Rudolph Musgrave sat all night beside the body. He had declined to speak
with innumerable sympathetic cousins--Vartreys and Fentons and
Allardyces and Musgraves, to the ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He found it wildly droll to puzzle out those "crossed" four sheets of
trivialities written in an Italian hand so minute and orderly that the
finished page suggested a fly-screen. He had so often remonstrated with
Agatha about her penuriousness as concerned stationery.
"Selina Brice & the Rev'd Henry Anstruther, who no... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
The colonel negligently said that he supposed it did sound odd.
"Only I don't think Clarice Pendomer would care about coming," he
resumed,--for the two were discussing an uncompleted list of the people
Patricia was to invite to their first house-party.
"And for heaven's sake, why not? We always have her to everything.... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Rudolph, you are the lodestar of my existence. I will ask her to come
on the fourteenth and spend a week. I never could abide the hag, but she
has such a--There! I've made a big blot right in the middle of
'darling,' and spoiled a perfectly good sheet of paper!... You'd better
mail it at once, though, because the eve... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Of course. She is an invaluable nurse."
"And nobody else was here when Agatha went out into the rain. Now, what
if she had just let Agatha go, without trying to stop her? It would have
been perfectly simple. So is this. All I have to do is to take them off
now."
Colonel Musgrave negligently returned to his perusal of... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I wish you wouldn't jest about such matters--"
"Because it isn't lady-like? But, Rudolph, you know perfectly well that
I am not a lady."
"My dear!" he cried, in horror that was real, "and what on earth have I
said even to suggest--"
"Oh, not a syllable; it isn't at all the sort of thing that your sort
_says_ ... And ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He could not help but laugh, much as he disapproved. Patricia fluttered
and, as a wren might have done, perched presently upon his knee.
"Rudolph, can't you laugh more often, and not devote so much time to
tracing out the genealogies of those silly people, and being so
tediously beautiful and good?" she asked, and wit... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Please don't be quite so brutal, Rudolph. It is not becoming in a
Musgrave of Matocton to speak of women in any tone other than the most
honeyed accents of chivalry."
"Oh, I was only quoting Patricia," the colonel largely said,
"and--er--Jack," he continued. "By the way, Jack, Clarice Pendomer will
be at Matocton--"
... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He meditated now.
"It wouldn't be quite equitable, Jack," the colonel summed it up, "if
the Aline I loved--no, I don't mean the real woman, the one you and all
the other people knew, the one that married the enterprising brewer and
died five years ago--were not waiting for me somewhere. I can't express
just what I mea... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Jack, Jack!" the colonel cried, "it is an ill bird that fouls its own
nest."
"But, believe me, I don't at heart," said Charteris, in a queer earnest
voice. "There is a sardonic imp inside me that makes me jeer at the
commoner tricks of the trade--and yet when I am practising that trade,
when I am writing of those ten... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Oh, come, now, Jack! come, recollect that your reasoning powers are
almost as worthy of employment as your rhetorical abilities! We are not
quite so bad as that, you know. We may be a little behind the times in
Lichfield; we certainly let well enough alone, and we take things pretty
much as they come; but we meddle w... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
And at this period Colonel Musgrave noted and admired the apparent
unconcern with which John Charteris and Clarice Pendomer encountered at
Matocton. And at this period Colonel Musgrave noted with approval the
intimacy which was, obviously, flourishing between the little novelist
and Patricia.
Also Colonel Musgrave had... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"It is neither," said Colonel Musgrave, and almost snappishly.
Followed an interval of silence. "Really," said Mrs. Pendomer, and as
with sympathy, "one would think you had at last been confronted with one
of your thirty-seven pasts--or is it thirty-eight, Rudolph?"
Colonel Musgrave frowned disapprovingly at her frivo... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Well, say for some time. You are a sensible woman----"
"A man," Mrs. Pendomer lamented, parenthetically, "never suspects a
woman of discretion, until she begins to lose her waist."
"--and I am sure that I can rely upon your womanly tact, and finer
instincts,--and that sort of thing, you know--to help me out of a deuc... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Why--!" Colonel Musgrave pulled up short, hardly seeing his way clear
through the indignant periods on which he had entered. "I declined,"
said he, somewhat lamely, "to discuss the matter with her, in her
present excited and perfectly unreasonable condition."
Mrs. Pendomer's penciled eyebrows rose, and her lips--whic... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Taking leave?" Mrs. Pendomer suggested.
"Er--that was mentioned, I believe," said Colonel Musgrave. "But of
course she was only talking."
Mrs. Pendomer looked about her; and, without, the clean-shaven lawns
and trim box-hedges were very beautiful in the morning sunlight; within,
the same sunlight sparkled over the he... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I need not pretend at this late day to be as clever as Jack," the
colonel said, in some bewilderment. "But why not more succinctly state
that the Escurial is not a dromedary, although there are many flies in
France? For what on earth has Jack to do with crucial points and July
mornings?"
"Why, I suppose, I only made ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Ah!--you men!" Mrs. Pendomer retorted. "And there we have the tragedy
of life in a nutshell!"
Silence lasted for a while. The colonel was finding this matutinal talk
discomfortably opulent in pauses.
"Rudolph, and has it never occurred to you that in marrying Patricia you
swindled her?"
And naturally his eyebrows lif... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Yes," she conceded, rather sadly; "it was so long--oh, very long ago!
For we were young then, and we believed in things, and--and Jack
Charteris had not taken a fancy to me--" She sighed and drummed her
fingers on the table. "But women have always helped and shielded you,
haven't they, Rudolph? And now I am going to ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Her face sobered, and she added, pensively: "We might contrive a better
universe, we sister women, but this is not permitted us. So we must take
it as it is."
Patricia stirred, as talking died away. "I don't believe it," said she;
and she added, with emphasis: "And, anyhow, I hate that nasty trollop!"
"Ah, but you do ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"The remainder," said Mrs. Pendomer, clearing her throat once more,
"appears to consist of insanity and heretical sentiments, in about equal
proportions, all written at the top of a boy's breaking voice. It isn't
Colonel Musgrave's voice--quite--is it?"
During the reading, Patricia, leaning on one elbow, had regarded ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Such a woman," said Patricia, with distinctness, "deserves no pity."
"Well," Mrs. Pendomer conceded, drily, "she doesn't get it. Probably,
because she always grows fat, from sheer lack of will-power to resist
sloth and gluttony--the only agreeable vices left her; and by no stretch
of the imagination can a fat woman b... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"No," answered Mrs. Pendomer, to her unspoken thought; "no woman could
be seriously jealous of me. Yes, I dare say, I am _passée_ and vain and
frivolous and--harmless. But," she added, meditatively, "you hate me,
just the same."
"My dear Mrs. Pendomer----" Patricia began, with cool courtesy; then
hesitated. "Yes," she... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"My word!" said Rudolph Musgrave, "your methods of restoring domestic
peace to a distracted household are, to say the least, original!" He
seated himself, and lighted another cigarette.
"Oh, well, Patricia is not deaf, you know, and she has lived in
Lichfield quite a while." Mrs. Pendomer said abruptly, "I have half a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Colonel Musgrave rose to his feet. "It isn't fair," said he; "the
letters were distinctly compromising. It isn't fair you should shoulder
the blame for a woman who was nothing to you. It isn't fair you should
be placed in such a false position."
"What matter?" pleaded Mrs. Pendomer. "The letters are mine to burn, if
I... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I don't mean any proper names at all. I simply mean you are not to undo
my work. It would only signify trouble and dissatisfaction and giving up
all this"--she waved her hand lightly toward the lawns of
Matocton,--"and it would mean our giving you up, for, you know, you
haven't any money of your own, Rudolph. Ah, Rud... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Cry _Kismet!_ and take heart. Eros is gone,
Nor may we follow to that loftier air
Olympians breathe. Take heart, and enter where
A lighter Love, vine-crowned, laughs i' the sun,
Oblivious of tangled webs ill-spun
By ancient wearied weavers, for it may be
His guidance leads to lovers of such as we
And ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
As Patricia admitted, she had given up bridge and taken to literature
only during the past year. She might more honestly have said within the
last two weeks. In any event, she now conversed of authors with a fitful
persistence like that of an ill-regulated machine. Her comments were
delightfully frank and original, as... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I too have desiderated this sensible precaution," said Charteris, and
laughed his utter comprehension. "But, after all," he said, and snapped
his fingers gaily, "we still have twenty-four hours, Patricia! Let us
forget the crudities of life, and say foolish things to each other. For
I am pastorally inclined this morn... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Charteris gave vent to a chuckle, and raised the door-key to his lips.
"When you are quite through your histrionic efforts," he suggested,
apologetically, "I will proceed with my amorous pipings. Really,
Patricia, one might fancy you the heroine of a society drama, working up
the sympathies of the audience before taki... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
She raised her lashes, a trifle uncertainly, and withdrew her hand from
his, a trifle slowly. "It is wrong--all horribly wrong. I wonder at
myself, I can't understand how in the world I can be such a fool about
you. I must not be alone with you again. I must tell my
husband--everything," she concluded, and manifestly ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Patricia paused, and laughed.
"But we were talking of Rudolph," she said, with a touch of weariness.
"Rudolph has all the virtues that a woman most admires until she
attempts to live in the same house with them."
"I thank you," said Mr. Charteris, "for the high opinion you entertain
of my moral character." He bestowed... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Once the farthingaled and red-heeled gentry came in sluggish barges to
Matocton, and the broad river on which the estate faces was thick with
bellying sails; since the days of railroads, one approaches the mansion
through the maple-grove in the rear, and enters ignominiously by the
back-door.
The house stands on a con... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
The beach here is narrow; at high tide, it is rarely more than fifteen
feet in breadth, and is in many places completely submerged. Past this,
the river lapses into the horizon line without a break, save on an
extraordinarily clear day when Bigelow's Island may be seen as a dim
smudge upon the west.
All these things, ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"You brute!" she cried--not looking irreparably angry, yet not without a
real touch of vexation; "don't you know that every woman cherishes the
picture of her former lovers sitting alone in the twilight, and growing
lackadaisical over undying memories and faded letters? And you--you
approach me, after I don't dare to ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Mrs. Charteris, therefore, added, with emphasis: "I am really
disgracefully happy."
"Glad to hear it," said Musgrave, placidly. "So am I."
"Oh, Rudolph, Rudolph, you are hopeless!" she sighed. "And you used to
make such a nice lover!"
Mrs. Charteris looked out over the river, which was like melting gold,
and for a mom... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Now, really, Rudolph, aren't his books wonderful? I don't appreciate
them, of course, for I'm not clever, but I know you do. I don't see why
men think him selfish. I know better. You have to live with Jack to
really appreciate him. And every day I discover some new side of his
character that makes him dearer to me. H... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Anne was different; the knowledge came again to him quite simply that
Anne was different, and in the nature of things must always be a little
different from all other people--even Patricia Musgrave. He had no
desire to tell Anne Charteris of this, no idea that it would affect in
any way the tenor of his life. He merel... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Utterly so," Musgrave assented, gravely.
He was feeling a thought uncomfortable. To him the place had grown
portentous. The sun was low, and the long shadows of the trees were
black on the dim lawn. People were assembling for supper, and passing to
and fro under low-hanging branches; and the gaily-colored gowns of th... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Impulsively, she laid her hand upon his arm, and spoke with earnestness.
"Dear Rudolph, I am so glad you've found the woman you can really love.
Jack says there is only one possible woman in the world for each man,
and that only in a month of Sundays does he find her."
"Yes." said Musgrave. He had risen, and was looki... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Good heavens, no!" said Anne. "How dare you leave us in such harrowing
suspense?"
"Well, a whole lot more happened, because all the while Rachel was
asleep. When she woke up, she did not know where under the sun she was.
So she walked along for about an hour and came to a little village, and
after a few minutes she c... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I?" said Anne. "Now, honestly, Rudolph, I was thinking you ought not to
let him sit upon the grass, because he really has a cold. And if I were
you, I would give him a good dose of castor-oil to-night. Some people
give it in lemon-juice, I know, but I found with my boy that peppermint
is rather less disagreeable. And... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
He was seated on the front porch, working out a somewhat difficult point
in his new book, when it had first occurred to him that this particular
terrace would be an inspiring and appropriate place in which to think
the matter over, undisturbed, he said. And it was impossible he should
have known that anyone was there,... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Elevators?" Mr. Charteris suggested.
"Oh, you jay-bird! I mean those N.P.'s and N.Y.C.'s and those other
letters that are always having flurries and panics and passed dividends.
They keep him incredibly busy."
And she sighed, tolerantly. Patricia had come within the last two weeks
to believe that she was neglected, i... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"If--if I thought you meant that----!" he cried; and then he shrugged
his shoulders. "My wife's virtues merit a better husband than Fate has
accorded her. Anne is the best woman I have ever known."
Patricia was not unnaturally irritated. After all, one does not take the
trouble to meet a man accidentally in a plantati... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I--oh, Jack, Jack, don't you dare to talk to me like that! We must be
brave. We must be sensible." Patricia, regardless of her skirts, sat
down upon the ground, and produced a pocket-handkerchief. "I--oh, what
do you mean by making me so unhappy?" she demanded, indignantly.
"Ah, Patricia," he murmured, as he knelt be... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"She frightens me, _mon ami_. Yes, that old woman always gives me
gooseflesh, and I don't know why--because she is as deaf as a post--and
I simply can't get rid of her. She is a sort of symbol--she, and how
many others, I wonder!... Oh, well, let's hurry."
So Mr. Charteris was never permitted to finish his complaint a... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Yet for the last four years she had never fainted, until this. It
disquieted her. Then, too, awoke faint pricking memories of certain
symptoms ... which she had not talked about ...
Now they alarmed her; and in consequence she took the next morning's
train to Lichfield.
VI
Mrs. Ashmeade, who has been previously quot... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
And the Musgraves' house-party was no exception.
Mrs. Ashmeade, for reasons of her own, took daily note of this. The
others were largely engrossed by their own affairs; they did not
seriously concern themselves about the doings of their fellow-guests.
And, besides, if John Charteris manifestly sought the company of
Pa... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"I don't think you need tell me what you mean," said Mrs. Ashmeade. She
sat down in a large rocking-chair, and fanned herself, for the day was
warm. "Of course, it is officious and presumptuous and disagreeable of
me to meddle. I don't mind your thinking that. But Rudolph, don't make
the mistake of thinking that Fate ... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
Her voice died away, and Mrs. Ashmeade fanned herself in the fashion
addicted by perturbed women who, nevertheless, mean to have their say
out--slowly and impersonally, and quite as if she was fanning some one
else through motives of charity.
"I don't question," Musgrave said, at length, "that Jack is the highly
estim... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Rudolph, do you remember that evening--the first summer that I knew
you--at Fortress Monroe, when we sat upon the pier so frightfully late,
and the moon rose out of the bay, and made a great, solid-looking,
silver path that led straight over the rim of the world, and you talked
to me about--about what, now?"
"Oh, yes... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 | |
"Yes," she said, "the boy was a very, very dear boy, and I want the man
to be equally brave and--sensible."
Musgrave stared after her. "I wonder--I wonder--? Oh, no, that
couldn't be," he said, and wearily.
"There must be some preposterous situations that don't come about."
* * * * *
And... | The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations | Cabell, James Branch | 1879 | 1958 | ['en'] | 25 | {'Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction'} | PG10041 |
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