The Little Foxes

A week later, Oscar visits the Giddens’ house the morning after Alexandra was supposed to arrive with Horace. Addie has been up all night waiting for them, and everyone is starting to worry. Regina remains calm, naming several things that might have caused the delay. She chides Oscar for fretting so much. He is worried to the point that he misses his daily shooting for the first time in eight years. Regina and Addie exit, and Oscar is left to himself in the living room.

Leo arrives at the house after stopping at the bank to see if they’ve received word from Horace. Oscar scolds his son for showing up with no news when he should have stayed at the bank and worked. He tells Leo, “You got to stop that kind of thing. You got to start settling down. You going to be a married man one of these days” (31). He also tells him to stop seeing the woman in Mobile and to work harder at the bank so he can convince Horace he is a fit husband for Alexandra.

When Oscar theorizes that Horace doesn’t want to go in on the cotton mill, Leo is quick to interrogate the idea. He tells his father that it wouldn’t be hard for Horace to invest, since he has $88,000 worth of bonds locked away in a box at the bank. He was puzzled to discover the bonds were in there with several sentimental trinkets, including a baby shoe of Alexandra’s, and poems signed by his mother.

Leo pretends that he happened to see it when someone else opened it, only to admit that he broke into it himself. Oscar asks if anyone saw him do it, and Leo assures him he wasn’t caught. Leo tells Oscar that Horace would never know because he only checks on the box every six months or so. Oscar begins to hatch a plan, one that involves pretending Horace loaned the bonds to Leo. He says, “A loan for three months, maybe four, easy enough for us to pay it back then. Anyway, this is only April […] and if he doesn’t look at them until fall, he wouldn’t even miss them” (34). At first Leo thinks the idea is absurd, but quickly comes around to it.

Ben arrives asking for updates on Horace and Alexandra. He and Oscar have just left the room to eat breakfast when the travelers arrive at last. Horace “walks stiffly, as if it [is] an enormous effort, and carefully, as if he [is] unsure of his balance” (36). Alexandra is on his heels, her face smudged with dirt from the train station. She explains that the trip was hard on her father, and they had to stop and rest. Addie helps him to a chair as Alexandra goes back outside to fetch Horace’s wheelchair and their luggage. When she re-enters, she tells Addie that Horace doesn’t feel well and must go straight to bed.

They hear the voices in the dining room, where the rest of the family is eating. Alexandra prepares to tell Regina they’ve arrived, but Horace asks her to wait a moment so he can rest longer. Addie shoos Alexandra upstairs to clean up, insisting she can take care of Horace. Alexandra tells Addie that Horace must take his pills every four hours, “and the bottle only when—only if he feels very bad” (38), then leaves to freshen up upstairs.

With Alexandra out of earshot, Horace asks Addie why his daughter was sent to fetch him, and he wants the truth. She tells him that she doesn’t know much, except that everyone is excited over the cotton mill, and over Alexandra marrying Leo. Horace stops Addie, asking her to explain further. Addie says that’s all she knows, that there will be a wedding. Horace, furious, replies, “Over my dead body there is” (39), then asks Addie to tell the family he’s home.

Ben, Oscar, Regina, and Leo all enter from the dining room with ecstatic looks on their faces. Birdie comes rushing in through the front door in a dressing gown; she ran from next door as soon as one of her workers saw the buggy. She calls up the staircase after Alexandra, but is told she is washing off the dirt from the train. She leaves, saying she’ll come back later to see her, and Regina ushers the men out of the room so Horace can rest for a bit.

Once they are alone, Regina breaks the awkward silence by acknowledging how long they’ve been apart. She apologizes for staying home those five months while he was in the hospital, all by himself. Horace tells her it is alright, that he actually enjoyed the solitude, for it gave him time to think. Then, carefully, he asks Regina about the arranged marriage between Alexandra and Leo. Regina insists that she has “no intention of allowing any such arrangement. It was simply a way of keeping Oscar quiet” (42) as they finish the cotton mill deal. Horace urges Regina to clear it up with Oscar right away: There will be no marriage between their children.

Horace tells Regina that he doesn’t have much longer to live. Regina, suddenly colder, asks what the doctors feel caused his heart problems, and if perhaps it could be the other women with whom he was sleeping. Horace retaliates, saying it wasn’t the cause, and that she hasn’t wanted him in bed with her anyway for 10 years. He is certain that the only reason she called him home is because she wants something.

The voices of their relatives drifting in from the dining room cools them down, and the two of them apologize to each other for fighting. They promise that they will try their best to make things work between them.

Regina, quick to act before the moment is gone, calls in her brothers and nephew even though Horace doesn’t want to see them yet. They can finally discuss the business deal, and Ben assures Horace he will make it quick. He says, “For thirty years, I’ve cried, bring the cotton mill to the cotton!” (44) and finally, he went up to the Marshall Company in Chicago. Horace is unimpressed, saying he knows about this already. Ben tells him what he doesn’t know is Regina bargained for Horace to get an even larger cut of the shares than was first promised.

Horace asks what the Marshall Company was promised, and Ben answers, “Cheap wages” (46). Marshall wanted less than what Massachusetts pays, which is eight silver dollars a week. Ben told him that Black and poor white workers around here would “give [their] right arm for three silver dollars every week” (46). Horace agrees, acknowledging that they’ll take less to compete against each other for the jobs, causing even more tension between them.

Horace congratulates Ben and Oscar on their deal and assures them they will be very rich from it. Regina says it’ll make them rich, too, but Horace disagrees. After seeing Leo, who he knows is sleeping with multiple women in Mobile, Horace snaps. He turns on Regina, asking why she ever thought it was okay to promise their daughter’s hand in marriage to someone like Leo. Regina is aghast that Horace is turning down the deal. Ben tries to smooth things over by saying Horace should rest on it and have an answer tomorrow, but Regina is firm: She wants to know his answer now.

As Regina and Horace fight upstairs, Ben, Oscar, and Leo plot downstairs. Ben is confident that Regina can change Horace’s mind, but Oscar isn’t so sure. Leo reminds both of them that, as a worker at the bank, he could easily break into Horace’s lockbox and “borrow” the bonds from him for the final share. Ben agrees that the plan will work, and the men decide to move forward with it. They promise Leo he will benefit from it as well.

Leo and Oscar exit, while Ben turns his attention to the stairs, where the argument between Regina and Horace has only gotten louder. Alexandra appears, begging her uncle to break up the fight for her father’s sake. She is worried it won’t be good for his heart. Just then, a door slams upstairs. Regina comes down and tells Ben she is sure Horace will change his mind. Ben replies that he won’t wait, and that they’ve got the money from somewhere else. She chases after Ben, demanding to know where they got the money, but he leaves before she can get an answer from him.

Horace emerges on the landing of the stairs, saying, “It’s a great day when you and Ben cross swords. I’ve been waiting for it for years” (53). Alexandra begs Horace to go back to his room and stop fighting, but he remains still. Regina accuses him of not wanting her to have a wealthy life, and that he’s only turning down the deal to hurt her. Horace assures her that isn’t the case. He despises her brothers and their dirty business deals. He asks her, “Why should I give you the money? (Very angrily.) To pound the bones of this town to make dividends for you to spend?” (53). He tells her that she and her brothers can destroy the town for their own benefit, but he will not have anything to do with it. Regina smiles up at him, telling him she hopes he dies soon, and she is waiting for that day. Addie comforts the now-tearful Alexandra, as Horace quietly exits up the stairs.