THE WHOLE FAMILY,
A NOVEL BY TWELVE AUTHORS
By William Dean Howells, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman,
Mary HeatonVorse, Mary Stewart Cutting, Elizabeth Jordan,
John KendrickBangs, Henry James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps,
Edith Wyatt, MaryRaymond Shipman Andrews, Alice Brown, Henry Van Dyke
CONTENTS
I. THE FATHER, by William Dean Howells
II. THE OLD-MAID AUNT, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
III. THE GRANDMOTHER, by Mary Heaton Vorse
IV. THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, by Mary Stewart Cutting
V. THE SCHOOL-GIRL, by Elizabeth Jordan
VI. THE SON-IN-LAW, by John Kendrick Bangs
VII. THE MARRIED SON, by Henry James
VIII. THE MARRIED DAUGHTER, By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
IX. THE MOTHER, by Edith Wyatt
X. THE SCHOOL-BOY, By Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
XI. PEGGY, by Alice Brown
XII. THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, by Henry Van Dyke
THE WHOLE FAMILY
I. THE FATHER, by William Dean Howells
As soon as we heard the pleasant news—I suppose the news of an engagement ought always to be called pleasant—it was decided that I ought to speak first about it, and speak to the father. We had not been a great while in the neighborhood, and it would look less like a bid for the familiar acquaintance of people living on a larger scale than ourselves, and less of an opening for our own intimacy if they turned out to be not quite so desirable in other ways as they were in the worldly way. For the ladies of the respective families first to offer and receive congratulations would be very much more committing on both sides; at the same time, to avoid the appearance of stiffness, some one ought to speak, and speak promptly. The news had not come to us directly from our neighbors, but authoritatively from a friend of theirs, who was also a friend of ours,