The Turmoil - Booth Tarkington (good books to read for 12 year olds .txt) š
- Author: Booth Tarkington
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She was silent a moment, and then, āYouāre happy, Bibbs?ā she asked.
āAh, donāt you see?ā he cried. āI want it to last for a thousand, thousand years, just as it is! Youāve made me so rich, Iām a miser. I wouldnāt have one thing differentā ānothing, nothing!ā
āDear Bibbs!ā she said, and laughed happily.
XXIIIBibbs continued to live in the shelter of his dream. He had told Edith, after his ineffective effort to be useful in her affairs, that he had decided that he was āa member of the familyā; but he appeared to have relapsed to the retired list after that one attempt at participancyā āhe was far enough detached from membership now. These were turbulent days in the New House, but Bibbs had no part whatever in the turbulenceā āhe seemed an absentminded stranger, present by accident and not wholly aware that he was present. He would sit, faintly smiling over pleasant imaginings and dear reminiscences of his own, while battle raged between Edith and her father, or while Sheridan unloosed jeremiads upon the sullen Roscoe, who drank heavily to endure them. The happy dreamer wandered into storm-areas like a somnambulist, and wandered out again unawakened. He was sorry for his father and for Roscoe, and for Edith and for Sibyl, but their sufferings and outcries seemed far away.
Sibyl was under Gurneyās care. Roscoe had sent for him on Sunday night, not long after Bibbs returned the abandoned wraps; and during the first days of Sibylās illness the doctor found it necessary to be with her frequently, and to install a muscular nurse. And whether he would or no, Gurney received from his hysterical patient a variety of pungent information which would have staggered anybody but a family physician. Among other things he was given to comprehend the change in Bibbs, and why the zinc-eater was not putting a lump in the operatorās gizzard as of yore.
Sibyl was not deliriousā āshe was a thin little ego writhing and shrieking in pain. Life had hurt her, and had driven her into hurting herself; her condition was only the adultās terrible exaggeration of that of a child after a bad bruiseā āthere must be screaming and telling mother all about the hurt and how it happened. Sibyl babbled herself hoarse when Gurney withheld morphine. She went from the beginning to the end in a breath. No protest stopped her; nothing stopped her.
āYou ought to let me die!ā she wailed. āItās cruel not to let me die! What harm have I ever done to anybody that you want to keep me alive? Just look at my life! I only married Roscoe to get away from home, and look what that got me into!ā ālook where I am now! He brought me to this town, and what did I have in my life but his family? And they didnāt even know the right crowd! If they had, it might have been something! I had nothingā ānothingā ānothing in the world! I wanted to have a good timeā āand how could I? Whereās any good time among these Sheridans? They never even had wine on the table! I thought I was marrying into a rich family where Iād meet attractive people Iād read about, and travel, and go to dancesā āand, oh, my Lord! all I got was these Sheridans! I did the best I could; I did, indeed! Oh, I did! I just tried to live. Every womanās got a right to live, some time in her life, I guess! Things were just beginning to look brighterā āweād moved up here, and that frozen crowd across the street were after Jim for their daughter, and theyād have started us with the right peopleā āand then I saw how Edith was getting him away from me. She did it, too! She got him! A girl with money can do that to a married womanā āyes, she can, every time! And what could I do? What can any woman do in my fix? I couldnāt do anything but try to stand itā āand I couldnāt stand it! I went to that icicleā āthat Vertrees girlā āand she could have helped me a little, and it wouldnāt have hurt her. It wouldnāt have done her any harm to help me that little! She treated me as if Iād been dirt that she wouldnāt even take the trouble to sweep out of her house! Let her wait!ā
Sibylās voice, hoarse from babbling, became no more than a husky whisper, though she strove to make it louder. She struggled half upright, and the nurse restrained her. āIād get up out of this bed to show her she canāt do such things to me! I was absolutely ladylike, and she walked out and left me there alone! Sheāll see! She started after Bibbs before Jimās casket was fairly underground, and she thinks sheās landed that poor loonā ābut sheāll see! Sheāll see! If Iām ever able to walk across the street again Iāll show her how to treat a woman in trouble that comes to her for help! It wouldnāt have hurt her anyā āit wouldnātā āit wouldnāt. And Edith neednāt have told what she told Roscoeā āit wouldnāt have hurt her to let me alone. And he told her I bored himā ātelephoning him I wanted to see him. He neednāt have done it! He neednātā āneednātā āā Her voice grew fainter, for that while, with exhaustion, though she would go over it all again as soon as her strength returned. She lay panting. Then, seeing her husband standing disheveled in the doorway, āDonāt come in, Roscoe,ā she murmured. āI donāt want to see you.ā And as he turned away she added, āIām kind of sorry for you, Roscoe.ā
Her antagonist, Edith, was not more coherent in her own wailings, and she had the advantage of a mother for listener. She had also the disadvantage of a mother for duenna, and Mrs. Sheridan, under her husbandās sharp tutelage, proved an effective one. Edith was reduced to telephoning Lamhorn from shops whenever she could juggle her
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