The Sound of Thunder by Taylor Caldwell

Author:Taylor Caldwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2016-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VIII

Maria was convinced that English was a vulgar language. Or, rather, those who spoke English were self-consciously vulgar. Only the poets and a few writers used English with all its sonorous potentialities, all its possible richness of phrasing, all its grand architecture of power, subtlety and allusions. It could be a pillared temple of many arches, but only a few understand that. All others preferred dull brick mortared with clichés common to the masses. There seemed a perverse fashion, lately, for all that was written to be short-phrased, without the clarity of French, without the grandeur of German. Symbolism, formality, sophistication, had vanished from American English.

Therefore, when writing in English, she felt constrained. She wondered if Miss Margaret Baumer would understand if she wrote to her in German. The Baumers had been Saxon-Germans; they had, no doubt, taught Margaret their native tongue. And it was possible that in school Margaret had acquired more facility with the language. But Maria pondered. The formality of Maria’s cultured German might frighten the girl, and she might consider it cold or repellent. Maria sighed, and her vast breast rose tightly against the black silk and restrained it. She decided to write to Margaret in English, but in the English she had learned so many years ago and not in the modern half-literate fashion.

Heinrich was dozing feverishly in the bedroom, and Maria had carefully closed the door after a long anxious glance at his miserable face. She sat down at her big mahogany desk in her sitting room and wrote to Margaret Baumer.

“My son Edward and I have had a quiet discussion of your coming marriage, my dear Margaret, though we have not as yet met you. It was his first intention, and so he told me, for you to be married in Albany, with only strange witnesses present and a brief appearance before public officials. I have now convinced him that this would be an injustice to you and would leave you with no memories. A young lady, on her wedding day, is entitled to her memories of that most important occasion in her life, and to pleasant and happy recollections of which she will tell her children.

“The young lady is also entitled to know and become intimate with the members of her husband’s family, and to acquire a familiarity with her new home where she will pass her life. I have also convinced Edward of this, and he has suggested that I write you. However, had he not made this suggestion, I should have written in any event. To do otherwise would be an injustice to you.

“It is fortunate that you will be married on June 28th, in your new home, and under the auspices of our minister, the Reverend Mr. Yaeger. For by that time my other children will be in residence, Gregory from Yale and Ralph from Paris, where he has been studying art. My daughter, Sylvia, who is much gifted in the theater arts, has not left home and her health is delicate.

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