【正文】 A Hazard of New Fortunes V5By William Dean HowellsPART FIFTHI.Superficially, the affairs of 39。Every Other Week39。 settled into theirwonted form again, and for Fulkerson they seemed thoroughly reinstated.But March had a feeling of impermanency from what had happened, mixedwith a fantastic sense of shame toward Lindau. He did not sympathizewith Lindau39。s opinions。 he thought his remedy for existing evils aswildly impracticable as Colonel Woodburn39。s. But while he thought this,and while he could justly blame Fulkerson for Lindau39。s presence atDryfoos39。s dinner, which his zeal had brought about in spite of March39。sprotests, still he could not rid himself of the reproach of uncandor withLindau. He ought to have told him frankly about the ownership of themagazine, and what manner of man the man was whose money he was taking.But he said that he never could have imagined that he was serious in hispreposterous attitude in regard to a class of men who embody half theprosperity of the country。 and he had moments of revolt against his ownhumiliation before Lindau, in which he found it monstrous that he shouldreturn Dryfoos39。s money as if it had been the spoil of a robber. His wifeagreed with him in these moments, and said it was a great relief not tohave that tiresome old German ing about. They had to account for hisabsence evasively to the children, whom they could not very well tellthat their father was living on money that Lindau disdained to take, eventhough Lindau was wrong and their father was right. This heightened Mrs.March39。s resentment toward both Lindau and Dryfoos, who between them hadplaced her husband in a false position. If anything, she resentedDryfoos39。s conduct more than Lindau39。s. He had never spoken to March aboutthe affair since Lindau had renounced his work, or added to theapologetic messages he had sent by Fulkerson. So far as March knew,Dryfoos had been left to suppose that Lindau had simply stopped for somereason that did not personally affect him. They never spoke of him, andMarch was too proud to ask either Fulkerson or Conrad whether the old manknew that Lindau had returned his money. He avoided talking to Conrad,from a feeling that if be did he should involuntarily lead him on tospeak of his differences with his father. Between himself and Fulkerson,even, he was uneasily aware of a want of their old perfect friendliness.Fulkerson had finally behaved with honor and courage。 but his provisionalreluctance had given March the measure of Fulkerson39。s character in onedirection, and he could not ignore the fact that it was smaller than hecould have wished.He could not make out whether Fulkerson shared his disfort or not.It certainly wore away, even with March, as time passed, and withFulkerson, in the bliss of his fortunate love, it was probably far moretransient, if it existed at all. He advanced into the winter asradiantly as if to meet the spring, and he said that if there were anypleasanter month of the year than November, it was December, especiallywhen the weather was good and wet and muddy most of the time, so that youhad to keep indoors a long while after you called anywhere.Colonel Woodburn had the anxiety, in view of his daughter39。s engagement,when she asked his consent to it, that such a dreamer must have in regardto any reality that threatens to affect the course of his reveries. Hehad not perhaps taken her marriage into account, except as a remotecontingency。 and certainly Fulkerson was not the kind of soninlaw thathe had imagined in dealing with that abstraction. But because he hadnothing of the sort definitely in mind, he could not oppose the selectionof Fulkerson with success。 he really knew nothing against him, and heknew, many things in his favor。 Fulkerson inspired him with the likingthat every one felt for him in a measure。 he amused him, he cheered him。and the colonel had been so much used to leaving action of all kinds tohis daughter that when he came to close quarters with the question of asoninlaw he felt helpless to decide it, and he let her decide it, as ifit were still to be decided when it was submitted to him. She waspetent to treat it in all its phases: not merely those of personalinterest, but those of duty to the broken Southern past, sentimentallydear to him, and practically absurd to her. No such South as heremembered had ever existed to her knowledge, and no such civilization ashe imagined would ever exist, to her belief, anywhere. She took theworld as she found it, and made the best of it. She trusted inFulkerson。 she had proved his magnanimity in a serious emergency。 and insmall things she was willing fearlessly to chance it with him. She wasnot a sentimentalist, and there was nothing fantastic in herexpectations。 she was a girl of good sense and right mind, and she likedthe immediate practicality as well as the final honor of Fulkerson. Shedid not idealize him, but in the highest effect she realized him。 she didhim justice, and she would not have believed that she did him more thanjustice if she had sometimes known him to do himself less.Their engagement was a fact to which the Leighton household adjusteditself almost as simply as the lovers themselves。 Miss Woodburn told theladies at once, and it was not a thing that Fulkerson could keep fromMarch very long. He sent word of it to Mrs. March by her husband。 andhis engagement perhaps did more than anything else to confirm theconfidence in him which had been shaken by his early behavior in theLindau episode, and not wholly restored by his tardy fidelity to March.But now she felt that a man who wished to get married so obviously andentirely for love was full of all kinds of the best instincts, and onlyneeded the guidance of a wife, to bee very noble. She intere