The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family's Progress (54 page)

BOOK: The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family's Progress
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     Neither the one nor the other of them had in them really efficient being. This came out more and more in them in their later living. This came out in them in their resisting to the trying of the Wyman family when these wanted Madeleine to marry John Summer.

 

     As I was saying attacking in Mrs. Hersland was stupid being. It was in her when she had inside her her feeling of herself to herself in her, when she was resisting the Wyman family about Madeleine. In Madeleine, attacking was stupid being but she was then not showing such being, she had no attacking with which to resist her family's trying. Stupid being then was in her as attacking but it showed then only in her handling of children. Later she showed it with her husband, later when she had really no power over John Summer. She could sometimes stop him in business or in adopting a daughter, she could never really have any effect inside him. Now, then, stupid being as I was saying was in Mrs. Hersland's attacking to stop the Wyman trying, the giving Madeleine double wages and a dress made by Mabel Linker and Mary Maxworthing. Then Madeleine was not attacking, was not having stupid being excepting with the children in trying to carry out Mr. Hersland's ideas for them. Mostly then she had strongly in her instrument being. She was living in Mrs. Hersland's and in Mr. Hersland's being.

 

     The Wyman family then the mother and the father with their children as a background to make a more solid seeming, won out then with trying, Madeleine went back to them and later married John Summer. She really had no objection to marrying John Summer, she did not want to leave the Hersland family, she was willing to marry John Summer later.

 

     In all of them who have dependent independent nature in them, there is resisting and yielding and stupid being as attacking. Sometime there will have been written a history of many of them as by repeating it comes out of them. Sometime some one will know the amount of resisting, yielding and stupid acting there is in every one who ever has or has had or will have dependent independent being in them. Some have less, some have more of one or the other of these things in them, in some it changes in them in the different parts of their living, in the way they have in them excitement or nervous or quiet or melancholy or happy or contented or diseased or healthful or hungry or thirsty or tired or satisfied being in them. Mrs. Hersland then had stupid attacking being mostly in her when she was having important feeling of herself inside her with a servant or a governess or a seamstress or, for her, poor people to arouse it in her and to give to her indignant and injured feeling inside her. This then was strongest in her when Madeleine Wyman was with her, when she was making to herself a being by always telling of her early living, when she was resisting for Madeleine the Wyman family's trying, when she was making Mr. Hersland pay money for her attacking fighting. This then now is always getting clearer.

 

     To begin again then with the dependent independent being in Mrs. Hersland.

 

     It is interesting in each one, the success and failure, that one has in living. Every one has their own nature in them. This comes out of them as repeating. This comes out of them as making success or failure in their living. Mrs. Hersland and Madeleine Wyman had not in them either of them very efficient being, they had not success or failure in living, they went on well enough both of them from their beginning to their ending. This is now to be a history of each one of them.

 

     Mrs. Hersland then had in her dependent independent being. She did not have in her much stupid being. That was in her only as attacking and that was in her sometimes when a servant or a seamstress or a governess or some one, living in a small house near them, did something that was to her not right for them to be doing, when such a one was ungrateful or unpleasant to her. Then she could have a sharp angry feeling in her, then she could have a hurt or injured, or hurt and injured feeling in her, then she would do something for such a one to show such a one that if they demanded something from her that it was not right that they should demand from her she would give them more than they had asked of her. This was angry and injured feeling in her. As I was saying this could be in her from a servant or governess or seamstress or people living in small houses near her. In her earlier living this could be in her from people she knew as friends to her or of her family, she could then in her early living sometimes have it in her from a sister or a brother, but in her later living in that part of Gossols where no other rich people were living this feeling in her came to her only from servants or governesses or seamstresses or store-keepers or dependents in the small houses near her.

 

     She could have then a feeling of herself inside her. This was in her as a gentle dignity in her, as having as a part of her her early living, her country house being, her husband and her children. She could have then a feeling of herself inside her from angry or injured feeling in her, she could have a feeling of herself inside her from Madeleine Wyman's having her Mrs. Hersland's being as part of her. So then Mrs. Hersland had in her in living a sense of herself inside her. This was most active in her when Madeleine Wyman was living in the house with her.

 

     Slowly there is building up a solid structure of the two different kinds of nature. Later any one who looks at any one will see the nature in them. Sometime then there will be a history of every one.

 

     As I was saying Mrs. Hersland and Madeleine Wyman had neither of them a very efficient nature. They went on well enough both of them from their beginning to their ending. It must be clear soon the nature in the two of them and the difference between them. They had both of them dependent independent nature in them. Madeleine had an instrument nature and stupid being as attacking in her. This is now a history of her.

 

     Mrs. Wyman the mother of Madeleine was a foreign American and always remained very foreign, not to herself but to every one who came to know them the Wyman family in their American living, Mrs. Wyman had independent dependent nature in her. She had in her not very efficient being, about as efficient being as Madeleine, enough to bring Madeleine away from Mrs. Hersland by her trying, enough to have Madeleine later married to John Summer, enough to keep her family going, but none of these were very hard things to be doing, she had not in her a very efficient nature. She had in her about the same efficiency as Madeleine had in her and that will later come to be clearer. She had in her about the same efficiency that her second daughter Louise had in her, Mrs. Wyman had more variety to her nature than her daughter Louise, she had about as much variety in her nature, Mrs. Wyman, as her daughter Madeleine had in her.

 

     Mrs. Wyman then had in her independent dependent nature. The second daughter Louise and the youngest daughter Helen were of her as to nature, they had in them both, independent dependent nature. The daughter Louise had about as much efficiency in her as her mother, she had less variety to her nature, she had no liveliness of cringing in her as had her mother, independence and dependence in the daughter were solid substances inside her, in the mother were more lively and more cringing and more attacking and more lively in their changing. In the youngest daughter Helen there was independent dependent nature but this nature was in her as his nature was in her father, vague and uncertain and wide, and without ever any accentuation. Mrs. Wyman then had independent dependent nature in her. The second daughter Louise and the youngest daughter Helen were of her in their nature.

 

     Mr. Wyman was a foreign American like Mrs. Wyman but nobody felt it very much about him whether he was always foreign, he was foreign, it was not very important to any one excepting his wife and children. He had a dryness of being in him like that in the second Wyman daughter Louise, he had a vagueness in him like that in the youngest daughter Helen, Mr. Wyman then had in him dependent independent nature, the son Frank and the eldest daughter Madeleine were of this nature. The son Frank was like his father only he was always all his life fresher and younger. He had it in him always to have fresher and younger being in him than his father had had in living. He had it in him, the son Frank, with his fresher, younger being to have people like to take care of him, his sister Louise and his sister Madeleine and later his wife and later all three of them with the youngest sister Helen hanging on the outside of them, did this for him. There was in him all through his living fresher and younger being than his father had ever had in him. The eldest daughter Madeleine had in her nature like her father. It was not so earthy in her as it was in her father and her brother. It was not as vague in her as it was in her father, it was never in her so young and so fresh as it was in her brother, it was about as various and as efficient in her as her mother's nature was in her, it was not as solid in her as the nature in her was in her sister Louise, it had in her a little of the dryness that his nature had in her father, the variety and the efficiency that her nature had in her mother. This makes her clearer and now for a history of her.

 

     All four of the Wyman children were born and brought up American. Madeleine had had a governess training. It was really a little more foreign than the training of the other three children. Louise in her training was between Madeleine, and Frank and Helen, these last two being entirely American, being entirely of their American generation in education and feeling. Madeleine was still a little foreign, Louise was between them but education was not really important in her being. She was to be all through her living important in running the family living, in helping and protecting Frank, and then Helen, then Madeleine in her marrying, then Frank in his business of being a nurseryman, then Helen after she came back out of her strange marriage experience back to them, and then Madeleine when she too came back to them with John Summer after their travelling when John Summer was dying of queer ways in eating. Always then she was of the living her brother and sisters had in them. She was not an instrument nature for she was an under-pinning always to them but all her living was her brother's and sisters' living and being.

 

     Madeleine then had lingering in her a little, being foreign. She was American, her brother and sisters were American and her father and mother, in their feeling. They were all of them American, the mother and father were very foreign to every one that came to know them, Madeleine had lingering in her, a little, being foreign, Louise was very American in her feeling, Frank and Helen were simply American. Madeleine and Helen had most of the education, Helen was almost literary in her feeling, Madeleine had had a pretty good education for American governessing. She knew french and German, not as the first governess the Herslands had had knew them but well enough to teach them and talk french and German with the children when parents insisted that there should be talking of french or German. She knew then enough french to teach it to children, enough German to teach it and talk it and to listen with intelligence to Mr. Hersland's explanation of the fine qualities in foreign education. She was not a musician, she knew enough music to oversee the Hersland children's practising, for they had then, that was their father's theory for them, real musicians to teach them, she knew enough music to teach music when there were music lessons to be given, when parents had notions not so completed about education as the Herslands had then. She had a good enough English education, she was not like her sister Helen literary in her feeling, she had in short a good enough American governess training.

 

     Madeleine Wyman came to be a governess to the Herslands, for the Herslands had not come yet to the understanding that for their then family living a governess was not any particular use to them. The children were having then their regular public school living, they had then all the feeling of country children, they had freedom in coming and going, they were then as I was saying more of them the people around them than they were of the family living then though they were then the large part of the family being. They had then their regular public school living, they had then too every kind of fancy education that their father could think would be good for them, they had out of door living and swimming and shooting and horse back riding and perfect freedom, they had not any need then in living for a governess in the house with them. More and more then this last governess became important in their mother's living, more and more then in the children's living she had no meaning, sometimes she would be interfering but mostly she had not even so much importance for them, this will be clearer in the long histories of each one of them.

 

     More and more then this last governess was really then only in Mrs. Hersland's living. She was pleasant enough at moments in Mr. Hersland's living, but she was prominent only in Mrs. Hersland's living. Mrs. Hersland and Mr. Hersland never thought about her not being important in their children's living, she kept on being in the house with them and then came her people's nagging and then the arousing in Mrs. Hersland of attacking resisting and Mr. Hersland had not then about it any very strong feeling. He went, in her action, along with Mrs. Hersland but it was not then important to him. The children then had completely drifted away from governess training, they had then perfect freedom in living, the governess then was not existing for them. This was the last governess the Hersland children had living with them.

 

     John Summer's father had come from the same part of the country as Mr. Wyman. They had known each other in Europe. The old Mr. Summer was dead then and his wife John Summer's mother did not like Mr. and Mrs. Wyman and never came to see them. She did not want to know that they were still living in Gossols in the same town with her. John Summer was not a young man now when he wanted to marry Madeleine Wyman, he was much older than she was, about fifteen years older. This match was not the work of Mrs. Wyman, it was only that Summer was used to Madeleine Wyman and he came to want to marry her. Madeleine was willing enough to marry John Summer, he was pretty rich and could go out of business after marrying and go travelling or any thing that would please her. Mr. Hersland thought it a good match for her, Mr. Hersland always wanted girls to use their sense in marrying and Madeleine Wyman certainly ought to marry John Summer. Mr. Hersland always believed girls should have common sense in them, he always gave them advice about saving money and marrying and cooking. He always gave advice to the second governess who was married to the baker, how she should act so that her husband would be contented with her. In his later living he was strong in sensible advice to women in their living. Now he said it would be the best thing Madeleine could be doing, marrying John Summer. Mr. Hersland always gave advice to the second governess who had married the baker, he would stop there and eat a cake and look at her and give her a lecture. He liked the feeling of women and he wanted them to have sense in them.
BOOK: The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family's Progress
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