Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/40

Rh She ﬂushed like a girl and murmured: “It’s not the kind of place I ever wanted to see you in!”

“I know it,” he returned in a gentler tone, clasping one of the hands on his chair-back. “I ought to have followed a profession, like my grandfather; but my father’s blood was too strong in me. I should never have been content as anything but a working-man.”

“How can you call your father a working-man? He had a genius for mechanics, and if he had lived he would have been as great in his way as any statesman or lawyer.”

Amherst smiled. “Greater, to my thinking; but he gave me his hard-working hands without the genius to create with them. I wish I had inherited more from him, or less; but I must make the best of what I am, rather than try to be somebody else.” He laid her hand caressingly against his cheek. “It’s hard on you, mother—but you must bear with me.”

“I have never complained, John; but now you’ve chosen your work, it’s natural that I should want you to stick to it.”

He rose with an impatient gesture. “Never fear; I could easily get another job"

“What? If Truscomb black—listed you? Do you forget that Scotch overseer who was here when we came?”

“And whom Truscomb hounded out of the trade? I remember him,” said Amherst grimly; “but I have an idea I am going to do the hounding this time.” [ 28 ]