Mr. Bridge_ A Novel - Evan S. Connell [81]
“We will have no such language in this house,” he said. He thought he saw a flicker of amusement on her face before she turned away.
86 Silver
There was more silver that Christmas, and silver pleased Mrs. Bridge more than anything else. Through the years she had bought a good many items of silver, and for her birthday and on her wedding anniversary and every year at Christmas she received other silver articles, so that the house was getting fairly full of silver. To Mr. Bridge it looked like a shop. There was silver just about everywhere. In the dining room a pair of elaborate silver candelabra with spiraling arms stood on the cherrywood cabinet, where the best silverware was kept. Between the candelabra rested a large rectangular silver platter on which there was an antique-silver coffee urn, a chased-silver cream and sugar set, an ornamental-silver ladle, and a triangular silver cake knife. On the opposite side of the dining room stood a long Chippendale serving table, which was almost never used for that purpose, but which functioned as a display table for an eighteenth-century silver wine mug with a gold stem, a silver bonbonnière, a blue-enamel cigar box with silver filigree, a nutcracker, an inkstand, a condiment set, a snuffbox, a pitcher, a Revere tray, two vases and several pieces of cutlery. In the kitchen Harriet maintained a supply of the necessary serving trays and bowls, covers and compotes, utilitarian knives, spoons, forks, ice tongs, the ice bucket, and a few other articles. Of course there was silver elsewhere in the house. Silver could be found upstairs and downstairs. In the basement recreation room was a silver whisky decanter she had discovered at an auction, and another platter, and a tea tray which she did not like very much, and another cream-and-sugar set, a pair of nut or mint dishes shaped like swans, and a drawer full of knives and forks and spoons. In the master bedroom on the chiffonier stood another set of candelabra, which he did not like very much, though he said nothing about it. In the breakfast room there was silver, in the hall hung an oval mirror with a fantastic silver frame, and in the living room was quite a lot of silver. And while opening the back hall closet in search of a sweater he had not worn for a long time he came upon a silver vase hidden like a lost Easter egg behind a hatbox. Mrs. Bridge had forgotten about it, too, but she was pleased that he had found it. She polished it herself, and then she arranged a place for it on the mahogany sideboard next to a tiny silver bell with a delicate tone.
As usual, many of the Christmas presents that year were silver. A carving set from the Montgomerys, who evidently did not remember that they already owned three such sets. A soup tureen from the Barrons. A client of Mr. Bridge, hearing that his wife liked silver, stopped by on Christmas Day with two dozen sterling cocktail picks. From another client came a heavy silver picture frame. From the Van Metres, an engagement calendar with a silver lid. A brooch from the Beckerle sisters. Avrum Rheingold, keeping his finger on the pulse of Mr. Bridge like the shrewd doctor of stocks that he was, took the liberty of sending her a silver-plated fish knife together with his best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. Mrs. Bridge was delighted.
After the holiday debris had been cleaned up and papers and boxes and ribbons were burning cheerily in the fireplace and Harriet was going over the carpet with the vacuum cleaner, Douglas took time off from his own presents to survey his mother’s latest acquisitions. She had, he said, made out like a burglar, and Mr. Bridge privately agreed.