Bronze 4 - Children of Liberty by Paullina Simons

Author:Paullina Simons [Simons, Paullina]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780007484034
Published: 2012-10-01T05:17:57+00:00

Chapter Twelve

TULIPS

1

IN late June Harry graduated from Harvard. Herman threw him a lavish party at which impeccably dressed and well-behaved people drank and congratulated each other on the fine results of an expensive education, while Harry—as usual slightly unshaven, but elegant in his light gray frockcoat, its broad lapels faced with black silk, a starched white shirt, a white waistcoat and lacquer-shined black patent shoes—ambled from circle to circle on the lawn, shaking hands and nimbly deflecting questions about his future. It was an unseasonably balmy Saturday, and the tables were set out on the Barrington lawn under the white entertainment tent.

Herman complained to Louis that they should have rented a bigger tent. At first Louis pretended he hadn’t heard. “We didn’t realize so many people would be coming, sir,” he eventually said.

“Oh, so you did hear, Jones,” said Herman. “Then why are so many here? Did we not invite them?”

“Not all of them. Harry has many friends, and they all brought their families.”

“Harry was required to give you a guest list three weeks ago.”

“Yes, sir.”

“He didn’t give you a guest list?”

“No, sir.”

Herman sighed and scanned around the unfamiliar laughing faces. “Well, what am I going to do? Yell at our boy on his graduation day?”

“That would not be fitting or proper,” said Louis.

Herman took a drink from his hands. “Indeed, Jones, indeed. No trouble today. Just festivities.”

“I think that’s wise.”

Under the violin strains of Baroque fugues and partitas from a live string quartet, the hundred and fifty invited guests and the hundred uninvited crowded around the white linen tables, crammed together under the refreshment canopy, eating chilled lobster salad and grilled cod straight from the sea that morning. Herman watched Ben and Harry happily natter a short distance away. Harry was spread out in a chair looking up at Ben, who was standing in front of him gesticulating. Harry was drinking and grinning. Herman overheard the separate notes of a singular topic of their conversation. Ellen came over to him with a drink in hand and together they watched their sons for a few minutes.

“We did well, Ellen, don’t you think?” Herman said. “All things considered.”

She shrugged but the pride was clear on her face. “Your Harry is a wonderful boy. He believes in all the right things.”

“Your Ben is a wonderful boy,” said Herman. “He does all the right things.”

“Do you sometimes think, Herman,” Ellen said, “that God, with his perverse sense of irony, switched our children on us?”

Herman put his arm around the much shorter Ellen. “I think he gave us exactly the children we deserve.”

Alice, sitting by Harry’s side, was trying to tease Ben out of speaking. It wasn’t working. Ben, having graduated himself, though without the attendant extravagant fanfare, continued to regale the bored and the uninitiated with stories of Costa Rican bananas and mosquitoes that would be kept away with nets and sprays.

“Alice is a lovely girl, isn’t she?” Ellen said to Herman. “You must be quite pleased she chose your son.”

Herman shrugged. “It’s

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.