Free Manhattan Monologues by Louis Auchincloss Page B

depend on the small trust fund he had inherited from his grandfather to guard him from industry. Although he lived with me, he did not live on me, insisting that I take a good half of his small income for his maintenance. That was like him.
    The great thing about Damon was his character. He was the essence of amiability and kindness to everyone, and especially to me. He and I discussed everything that I could not discuss with his dear but easily distracted father; we thought alike and felt alike and laughed alike. I guess it's sufficiently obvious that Damon was the love of my life.
    There had been times, of course, when I tried to persuade him to work, but there was a stubbornness in his quiet insistence on a life of temperate hedonism that I at last came to realize I was not going to overcome. It was I who would have to arrange for his future; nobody else would do it, least of all himself. He had, as I say, his own small means, but if I should die, and my heart is not strong, he would give it to his father and sister whenever they needed it, which would be often. And even if they didn't, it was not enough for him to marry on, and I couldn't bear the idea of his never having a family of his own. Needless to say there were plenty of girls in Bar Harbor who had fallen in love with him, but so far he seemed to have avoided any serious entanglement. There was one woman with whom he enjoyed a deep and lasting friendship, but she was his slightly older first cousin, my niece Leila Bryce, a bright and attractive woman, a Catholic convert who had found herself locked into a miserable marriage with a dissolute and faithless husband from whom she was now separated. I am sure that there were people who raised their eyebrows at Damon and Leila's long intimacy, but he always implied that she was simply another sister to him.
    No, if Damon was to marry, it would have to be to an heiress, and as there was not a mercenary bone in his body, it would be up to me to find one for him. Marjorie Gleason was an almost too obvious choice; she was the oldest, prettiest and most lively of my friend Florence's brood and a devoted friend of Damon's. They had even won the swimming club's bridge tournament as partners.
    As I have said, I did not consider Damon's friendship with my niece Leila an impediment to my project, but to be sure there were no ambushes lurking in those woods, I put it before her one morning at the swimming club. Leila had come out of the pool and joined me on a stone bench by the water, pulling off her rubber cap and shaking her head to fluff out her lovely blond hair. I admired her glistening wet body, her handsome tanned features and her sympathetic brown eyes, regretting as always that this fine woman, so svelte and youthful-looking at thirty-five, should have tied herself up to the wrong man.
    "You know, Aunt Kate, I've had the same idea!" she responded with what certainly sounded like sincerity. "It's high time that Damon got married, and Marjorie Gleason is just the girl he needs. And I've a hunch it won't be too hard to pull off. I'm pretty sure she has a crush on him. But remember, Auntie, don't push too hard! We all have a tendency to shy away from any match Mama favors. Maybe a few nice remarks about Marjorie, well placed, will be enough."
    "Oh, I think Damon's natural inertia will need more than that. But don't worry; I'll be tactful."
    Leila looked not so sure of this, but she turned to another aspect of the match. "If it should really happen, it might be the making of him. For to be known as the idle mate of an heiress, who has contributed only his good looks and charm to the union, will be galling to Damon. It may convince him to get off his ass and make something of himself!"
    Leila had always been a frank talker, but I now thought that she was too frank. "I agree that it may give him a new sense of direction," I retorted, somewhat dryly.
    "At any rate, there's nothing to lose, for he couldn't do less than he's doing