New York - The Novel

we are sound. You could leave a clerk to work with us, if you please. I’ve nothing to hide.”
    On the whole, John was inclined to consider the proposition. His instincts told him Rivers would perform. And he had just told him, “Before I commit, I’d like to do as you suggest, and see the place for myself,” when he heard his wife and daughter come into the house, and smiled. “We’ll dine at once,” he said. “I hope you will join us.”

    The dinner was a pleasant family affair. Nothing was said of Captain Rivers’s business. Mercy, who’d liked him when they’d met before, was pleased to see him. He also knew how to talk easily and draw Abigail out. At thirteen, she was just starting to turn into a young woman; and Master, watching her in animated conversation with the Englishman, thought with some satisfaction that she was really becoming very pretty.
    He was also glad to use the opportunity to probe Rivers on another subject.
    James had written regularly since his marriage. He had a son called Weston, aged two. Albion had taken him into partnership. His last letter told them that a little girl had been born, but died at once. The letters spoke of his wife Vanessa, and from time to time he gave them dutiful messages from her. “But we know very little of your cousin,” John told Captain Rivers. “What can you tell us?”
    If Rivers hesitated, it was only for a moment.
    “Vanessa? I’ve known her since she was a child, of course, and she was beautiful even then. After her parents died, she was brought up, so to speak, by an uncle. She has neither brother nor sister, so she inherited a considerable fortune.” He paused. “Though she’d never miss the season in London, she loves the country too.” He laughed. “I dare say she’ll make James into a country squire, one of these days. He’ll have to learn to hunt.”
    “Is she a godly woman?” asked Mercy.
    “Godly?” Captain Rivers almost looked puzzled, then collected himself. “Absolutely. A staunch supporter of the Church, to be sure.”
    “Well,” said Mercy quietly, “I hope that James will not wait too long before he brings her home.”
    “Indeed,” said Rivers, noncommittally.

    It wasn’t until he was sitting alone with the captain, after the ladies had retired, that Master returned to the subject of Vanessa and his son.
    “I’m thinking of what you said about your cousin, and remembering my time in London,” John began quietly. “I should think she’d want her husband to be a fashionable man.”
    “Probably,” Rivers answered.
    “So she can’t like the fact that he’s in trade.”
    “I couldn’t say.”
    “From what I saw in London,” Master continued, “the English don’t consider a man a gentleman if he’s in trade. A man may belong to a gentry family and engage in trade because he has to—like our friend Albion. But once an Englishman makes his fortune in trade, he’ll probably sell up his business, buy an estate in the country, and set himself up as a gentleman there. Trade and being a gentleman don’t mix. But why is that, would you say?”
    “It is true,” said Rivers, “that in England, a gentleman goes into Parliament, or the army, but avoids the counting house if he can.” He laughed. “They’re supposed to be the old warrior nobility. Knights in armor, you know. In theory at least.”
    “It’s different in America.”
    “A man like Washington in Virginia, say—an officer in the army, with a country house and huge estates—he’d be called a gentleman in England, without a doubt. Even Ben Franklin,” Rivers added with a smile, “is entirely retired from trade nowadays. He’s quite the gentleman in London.”
    “And what does that make me?” asked Master wryly.
    For just a moment, he saw a look of worry cross the aristocrat’s face. My God, Master realized, Rivers is wondering if he’s insulted me and I’ll refuse him a loan.
    “In Carolina,” Rivers answered simply, “I work in my own storehouse, and I’ll sell you goods across the counter at my trading post. And youshouldn’t lend me a penny if I were too proud to do it. Here in New York, sir, you live in a far higher style than I. You have ships and businesses which others manage for you. Your landholdings are large. Should you ever consider returning to England, you would live as a very considerable gentleman indeed.” He gave Master a curious glance. “With your son there, I wonder if you think of it. You’d have