It was more a thing of his head than his
heart, revealing itself mainly in short, acrid speeches, meant to
be clever, and indubitably disagreeable. Nor did Hesper prove an
unworthy antagonist in their encounters of polite Billingsgate:
what she lacked in experience she made up in breeding. The common
remark, generally false, about no love being lost, was in their
case true enough, for there never had been any between them to
lose. The withered rose-leaves have their sweetness yet, but what
of the rotted peony? It was generally when Redmain had been
longer than usual without seeing his wife that he said the worst
things to her, as if spite had grown in absence; but that he
should then be capable of saying such things as he did say, could
be understood only by those who knew the man and his history.
Ferdinand Goldberg Redmain--parents with mean surroundings often
give grand names to their children--was the son of an
intellectually gifted laborer, who, rising first to be boss of a
gang, began to take portions of contracts, and arrived at last,
through one lucky venture after another, at having his estimate
accepted and the contract given him for a rather large affair.
The result was that, through his minute knowledge of details, his
faculty for getting work out of his laborers, a toughness of
heart and will that enabled him to screw wages to the lowest
mark, and the judicious employment of inferior material, the
contract paid him much too well for any good to come out of it.
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