turned their backs upon the company within doors, and represented allegories to Faith
and Prayer to people without" (215).
This particular decoration seems to be Mrs. Laphams’ doing. She runs her household with a fervent belief in faith, prayer, and Providence, and would like everyone to know it as well as remember to do likewise. She is convinced that to go anywhere in life, a dependence on faith and prayer must be cultivated. It is actually partially her insistence that Lapham do the right thing by Rogers, the former partner she feels was given a bad rap. Mrs. Lapham acts as Silas’ and her own conscience, standing guard just like her statues in the windows. She exhibits the purest country morals and with her “Puritan soul” (277) is highly contrasted with Mr. Corey.
While Persis is completely incapable of indifference toward any matter, especially moral ones regarding her family, here is what Mr. Corey has to say about his son’s affairs: “the right way is for us to school ourselves to indifference…. It is absurd for us to have any feelings about what we don’t interfere with… the only motto for us is, hands off altogether” (97). Now, Mrs. Lapham’s conscience and her moral values are the backbone behind Silas’ portion of the same. When his business world crashes around his ears, both of them can escape to Vermont with bruised egos but spotlessly clean consciences. At least the monetary downfall corresponds with a rise in morality.
If the Laphams are so good, honest, and honorable, why doesn’t that automatically put them with the best of Boston society? Well, as always, the Coreys have another answer for that. Mr. Bromfield Corey would insist that goodness doesn’t guarantee good class. While he appreciates the good character traits as well as the next gentleman, as he instructs his son, “Society is a very different thing from good sense and right ideas. It is based upon them, of course, but the airy, graceful, winning superstructure which we all know demands different qualities. Have [the Laphams] got these qualities – which may be felt but not defined?” (138). Goodness and piety alone can do nothing to raise the Lapham’s social status if they lack good taste, good manners, and good breeding. Displaying kneeling statues in the window of ones’ drawing room might show a lack of at least the first item.