The Blond Beast by Edith Wharton
Hugh Millner leaves a real-estate office to become private secretary to the wealthy philanthropist Orlando G. Spence, landing the post after a single half-hour interview at the Spence mansion on Fifth Avenue. Elated at his easy triumph, he walks home reflecting cynically that philanthropists like Spence are the natural prey of clever, unscrupulous young men, and that pity for suffering is merely a primitive form of egotism. On the way he mocks a mangy, injured stray dog, tells himself he feels nothing for it, then finds himself unable to leave it to freeze and vaults a fence to rescue it despite his professed philosophy. On his walk from the Spence house he meets Spence's frail, earnest son Draper, who runs a Bible Class for young men in Tenth Avenue and speaks wistfully of "having a Purpose" and an "Ideal." Millner, amused, banters along, privately marking Draper's physical weakness against his own vigor, but is repeatedly disarmed by the young man's guileless warmth. Two years into his secretaryship, Millner has become useful to Spence, drafting interviews such as one for the Sunday Investigator about Spence's newly endowed Missionary College, under the banner that Spence's chief aim is "to leave the world better than I found it." At a luncheon, Draper announces he has given up his Bible Class on grounds of intellectual conscience, questioning whether goodness can be prescribed by his father's fixed convictions rather than genuinely examined. Spence is deeply wounded, insisting goodness is a solid fact, not a matter for "hair-splitting," and privately presses Millner—whom he knows Draper trusts—to talk Draper out of his stance, fearing the public embarrassment of any hint of dissent just as he is funding the College with five million dollars. Before Millner can act, Spence reveals the real crisis: the muckraking Flashlight newspaper is about to expose that Spence, after publicly claiming to have divested from the exploitative San Pablo rubber/peonage plantations, actually only transferred the stock to a dummy holder and has continued secretly drawing profits from it—and that a letter Millner wrote implicates him too. Over cigars, Spence maneuvers Millner into a tacit bargain: Millner will suppress or deny the truth (and keep his complicity hidden) in exchange for protection and reward, with the explicit condition that Millner also convince Draper to drop his public stand on the Bible Class, since Spence fears it will fuel suspicion. Millner agrees, savoring his sense of power over Spence. But when he goes to Draper, Draper has already obtained a copy of the same accusatory letter and, in anguish, asks Millner directly whether his father is guilty of the fraud—stating that if his father's goodness is real, he will suppress his own scruples and give up the class, but if his father's motives are corrupt he cannot pretend to bow to them. Faced with this, Millner unexpectedly tells Draper the truth is not what the letter alleges regarding an "ulterior motive," swearing "on your honor—on yours" that Spence acted from sincere, if narrow, conviction, not concealment. Reassured, Draper resolves not to challenge his father's beliefs and to let the matter drop, believing his father blindly but genuinely virtuous. Millner then goes to Spence, reports the matter "settled," and announces he is leaving Spence's service. When Spence, alarmed, offers him a sealed envelope (evidently money or reward) to secure his silence about the rubber affair, Millner refuses it, saying he has already given his word and needs no payment for it. Pressed by Spence on what guarantee he has of Millner's continued silence without payment, Millner answers that Spence's true security lies in his son: "You've got Draper!" The story ends here, with Millner's meaning underscored but not further explained.
By Edith Wharton · First published 1910 · Genre: Fiction, Drama, Romance · 5 chapters · 13,982 words
First lines
IT had been almost too easy -- that was young Millner's first feeling, / as he stood again on the Spence door-step, the great moment of his / interview behind him, and Fifth Avenue rolling its grimy Pactolus at his / feet.
Halting there in the winter light, with the clang of the ponderous / vestibule doors in his ears, and his eyes carried down the perspective / of the packed interminable thoroughfare, he even dared to remember / Rastignac's apostrophe to Paris, and to hazard recklessly under his / small fair moustache: "Who knows?"
What this Textopian page supports
The Blond Beast is listed on Textopian as a novella by Edith Wharton, dated 1910 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novella
- Author: Edith Wharton
- Date: 1910 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Fiction, Drama, Romance, Historical Fiction, Social Critique
- Length: 13,982 words
- Structure: 5 chapters, 191 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Blond Beast by Edith Wharton
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Similar titles
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Genres
- Fiction — The narrative is a created story, not based on true events.
- Drama — The narrative contains conflict and emotional tension.
- Romance — The narrative includes elements of love and relationships.
- Historical Fiction — The narrative is set in a historical period.
Tags
Psychological Fiction · Social Commentary · Marriage · Infidelity · Adultery · Upper Class · Society · Gilded Age · American Literature · Early 20th Century · Romance · Tragedy