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* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook * 24 страница



decidedly melancholy aspect to the world, as though it might be

coughing and saying: "Well, things are none too satisfactory with

me."

 

The interior of the house corresponded with the exterior. The

floor boards and stair boards were loose and creaked most eerily at

times. Some of the windows had shades--some did not. Furniture of

both an earlier and a later date, but all in a somewhat decayed

condition, intermingled and furnished it in some nondescript manner

which need hardly be described.

 

As for the parents of Roberta, they were excellent examples of that

native type of Americanism which resists facts and reveres

illusion. Titus Alden was one of that vast company of individuals

who are born, pass through and die out of the world without ever

quite getting any one thing straight. They appear, blunder, and

end in a fog. Like his two brothers, both older and almost as

nebulous, Titus was a farmer solely because his father had been a

farmer. And he was here on this farm because it had been willed to

him and because it was easier to stay here and try to work this

than it was to go elsewhere. He was a Republican because his

father before him was a Republican and because this county was

Republican. It never occurred to him to be otherwise. And, as in

the case of his politics and his religion, he had borrowed all his

notions of what was right and wrong from those about him. A

single, serious, intelligent or rightly informing book had never

been read by any member of this family--not one. But they were

nevertheless excellent, as conventions, morals and religions go--

honest, upright, God-fearing and respectable.

 

In so far as the daughter of these parents was concerned, and in

the face of natural gifts which fitted her for something better

than this world from which she derived, she was still, in part, at

least, a reflection of the religious and moral notions there and

then prevailing,--the views of the local ministers and the laity in

general. At the same time, because of a warm, imaginative,

sensuous temperament, she was filled--once she reached fifteen and

sixteen--with the world-old dream of all of Eve's daughters from

the homeliest to the fairest--that her beauty or charm might some

day and ere long smite bewitchingly and so irresistibly the soul of

a given man or men.

 

So it was that although throughout her infancy and girlhood she was

compelled to hear of and share a depriving and toilsome poverty,

still, because of her innate imagination, she was always thinking

of something better. Maybe, some day, who knew, a larger city like

Albany or Utica! A newer and greater life.

 

And then what dreams! And in the orchard of a spring day later,

between her fourteenth and eighteenth years when the early May sun

was making pink lamps of every aged tree and the ground was pinkly

carpeted with the falling and odorous petals, she would stand and

breathe and sometimes laugh, or even sigh, her arms upreached or

thrown wide to life. To be alive! To have youth and the world

before one. To think of the eyes and the smile of some youth of

the region who by the merest chance had passed her and looked, and

who might never look again, but who, nevertheless, in so doing, had

stirred her young soul to dreams.

 

None the less she was shy, and hence recessive--afraid of men,

especially the more ordinary types common to this region. And

these in turn, repulsed by her shyness and refinement, tended to

recede from her, for all of her physical charm, which was too

delicate for this region. Nevertheless, at the age of sixteen,

having repaired to Biltz, in order to work in Appleman's Dry Goods

Store for five dollars a week, she saw many young men who attracted

her. But here because of her mood in regard to her family's

position, as well as the fact that to her inexperienced eyes they

appeared so much better placed than herself, she was convinced that

they would not be interested in her. And here again it was her own

mood that succeeded in alienating them almost completely.

Nevertheless she remained working for Mr. Appleman until she was

between eighteen and nineteen, all the while sensing that she was



really doing nothing for herself because she was too closely

identified with her home and her family, who appeared to need her.

 

And then about this time, an almost revolutionary thing for this

part of the world occurred. For because of the cheapness of labor

in such an extremely rural section, a small hosiery plant was built

at Trippetts Mills. And though Roberta, because of the views and

standards that prevailed hereabout, had somehow conceived of this

type of work as beneath her, still she was fascinated by the

reports of the high wages to be paid. Accordingly she repaired to

Trippetts Mills, where, boarding at the house of a neighbor who had

previously lived in Biltz, and returning home every Saturday

afternoon, she planned to bring together the means for some further

form of practical education--a course at a business college at

Homer or Lycurgus or somewhere which might fit her for something

better--bookkeeping or stenography.

 

And in connection with this dream and this attempted saving two

years went by. And in the meanwhile, although she earned more

money (eventually twelve dollars a week), still, because various

members of her family required so many little things and she

desired to alleviate to a degree the privations of these others

from which she suffered, nearly all that she earned went to them.

 

And again here, as at Biltz, most of the youths of the town who

were better suited to her intellectually and temperamentally--still

looked upon the mere factory type as beneath them in many ways.

And although Roberta was far from being that type, still having

associated herself with them she was inclined to absorb some of

their psychology in regard to themselves. Indeed by then she was

fairly well satisfied that no one of these here in whom she was

interested would be interested in her--at least not with any

legitimate intentions.

 

And then two things occurred which caused her to think, not only

seriously of marriage, but of her own future, whether she married

or not. For her sister, Agnes, now twenty, and three years her

junior, having recently reencountered a young schoolmaster who some

time before had conducted the district school near the Alden farm,

and finding him more to her taste now than when she had been in

school, had decided to marry him. And this meant, as Roberta saw

it, that she was about to take on the appearance of a spinster

unless she married soon. Yet she did not quite see what was to be

done until the hosiery factory at Trippetts Mills suddenly closed,

never to reopen. And then, in order to assist her mother, as well

as help with her sister's wedding, she returned to Biltz.

 

But then there came a third thing which decidedly affected her

dreams and plans. Grace Marr, a girl whom she had met at Trippetts

Mills, had gone to Lycurgus and after a few weeks there had managed

to connect herself with the Finchley Vacuum Cleaner Company at a

salary of fifteen dollars a week and at once wrote to Roberta

telling her of the opportunities that were then present in

Lycurgus. For in passing the Griffiths Company, which she did

daily, she had seen a large sign posted over the east employment

door reading "Girls Wanted." And inquiry revealed the fact that

girls at this company were always started at nine or ten dollars,

quickly taught some one of the various phases of piece work and

then, once they were proficient, were frequently able to earn as

much as from fourteen to sixteen dollars, according to their skill.

And since board and room were only consuming seven of what she

earned, she was delighted to communicate to Roberta, whom she liked

very much, that she might come and room with her if she wished.

 

Roberta, having reached the place where she felt that she could no

longer endure farm life but must act for herself once more, finally

arranged with her mother to leave in order that she might help her

more directly with her wages.

 

But once in Lycurgus and employed by Clyde, her life, after the

first flush of self-interest which a change so great implied for

her, was not so much more enlarged socially or materially either,

for that matter, over what it had been in Biltz and Trippetts

Mills. For, despite the genial intimacy of Grace Marr--a girl not

nearly as attractive as Roberta, and who, because of Roberta's

charm and for the most part affected gayety, counted on her to

provide a cheer and companionship which otherwise she would have

lacked--still the world into which she was inducted here was

scarcely any more liberal or diversified than that from which she

sprang.

 

For, to begin with, the Newtons, sister and brother-in-law of Grace

Marr, with whom she lived, and who, despite the fact that they were

not unkindly, proved to be, almost more so than were the types with

whom, either in Biltz or Trippets Mills, she had been in constant

contact, the most ordinary small town mill workers--religious and

narrow to a degree. George Newton, as every one could see and

feel, was a pleasant if not very emotional or romantic person who

took his various small plans in regard to himself and his future as

of the utmost importance. Primarily he was saving what little cash

he could out of the wages he earned as threadman in the Cranston

Wickwire factory to enable him to embark upon some business for

which he thought himself fitted. And to this end, and to further

enhance his meager savings, he had joined with his wife in the

scheme of taking over an old house in Taylor Street which permitted

the renting of enough rooms to carry the rent and in addition to

supply the food for the family and five boarders, counting their

labor and worries in the process as nothing. And on the other

hand, Grace Marr, as well as Newton's wife, Mary, were of that type

that here as elsewhere find the bulk of their social satisfaction

in such small matters as relate to the organization of a small

home, the establishing of its import and integrity in a petty and

highly conventional neighborhood and the contemplation of life and

conduct through the lens furnished by a purely sectarian creed.

 

And so, once part and parcel of this particular household, Roberta

found after a time, that it, if not Lycurgus, was narrow and

restricted--not wholly unlike the various narrow and restricted

homes at Biltz. And these lines, according to the Newtons and

their like, to be strictly observed. No good could come of

breaking them. If you were a factory employee you should

accommodate yourself to the world and customs of the better sort of

Christian factory employees. Every day therefore--and that not so

very long after she had arrived--she found herself up and making

the best of a not very satisfactory breakfast in the Newton dining

room, which was usually shared by Grace and two other girls of

nearly their own age--Opal Feliss and Olive Pope--who were

connected with the Cranston Wickwire Company. Also by a young

electrician by the name of Fred Shurlock, who worked for the City

Lighting Plant. And immediately after breakfast joining a long

procession that day after day at this hour made for the mills

across the river. For just outside her own door she invariably met

with a company of factory girls and women, boys and men, of the

same relative ages, to say nothing of many old and weary-looking

women who looked more like wraiths than human beings, who had

issued from the various streets and houses of this vicinity. And

as the crowd, because of the general inpour into it from various

streets, thickened at Central Avenue, there was much ogling of the

prettier girls by a certain type of factory man, who, not knowing

any of them, still sought, as Roberta saw it, unlicensed contacts

and even worse. Yet there was much giggling and simpering on the

part of girls of a certain type who were by no means as severe as

most of those she had known elsewhere. Shocking!

 

And at night the same throng, re-forming at the mills, crossing the

bridge at the depot and returning as it had come. And Roberta,

because of her social and moral training and mood, and in spite of

her decided looks and charm and strong desires, feeling alone and

neglected. Oh, how sad to see the world so gay and she so lonely.

And it was always after six when she reached home. And after

dinner there was really nothing much of anything to do unless she

and Grace attended one or another of the moving picture theaters or

she could bring herself to consent to join the Newtons and Grace at

a meeting of the Methodist Church.

 

None the less once part and parcel of this household and working

for Clyde she was delighted with the change. This big city. This

fine Central Avenue with its stores and moving picture theaters.

These great mills. And again this Mr. Griffiths, so young,

attractive, smiling and interested in her.

 

Chapter 14

 

 

In the same way Clyde, on encountering her, was greatly stirred.

Since the abortive contact with Dillard, Rita and Zella, and

afterwards the seemingly meaningless invitation to the Griffiths

with its introduction to and yet only passing glimpse of such

personages as Bella, Sondra Finchley and Bertine Cranston, he was

lonely indeed. That high world! But plainly he was not to be

allowed to share in it. And yet because of his vain hope in

connection with it, he had chosen to cut himself off in this way.

And to what end? Was he not if anything more lonely than ever?

Mrs. Peyton! Going to and from his work but merely nodding to

people or talking casually--or however sociably with one or another

of the storekeepers along Central Avenue who chose to hail him--or

even some of the factory girls here in whom he was not interested

or with whom he did not dare to develop a friendship. What was

that? Just nothing really. And yet as an offset to all this, of

course, was he not a Griffiths and so entitled to their respect and

reverence even on this account? What a situation really! What to

do!

 

And at the same time, this Roberta Alden, once she was placed here

in this fashion and becoming more familiar with local conditions,

as well as the standing of Clyde, his charm, his evasive and yet

sensible interest in her, was becoming troubled as to her state

too. For once part and parcel of this local home she had joined

she was becoming conscious of various local taboos and restrictions

which made it seem likely that never at any time here would it be

possible to express an interest in Clyde or any one above her

officially. For there was a local taboo in regard to factory girls

aspiring toward or allowing themselves to become interested in

their official superiors. Religious, moral and reserved girls

didn't do it. And again, as she soon discovered, the line of

demarcation and stratification between the rich and the poor in

Lycurgus was as sharp as though cut by a knife or divided by a high

wall. And another taboo in regard to all the foreign family girls

and men,--ignorant, low, immoral, un-American! One should--above

all--have nothing to do with them.

 

But among these people as she could see--the religious and moral,

lower middle-class group to which she and all of her intimates

belonged--dancing or local adventurous gayety, such as walking the

streets or going to a moving picture theater--was also taboo. And

yet she, herself, at this time, was becoming interested in dancing.

Worse than this, the various young men and girls of the particular

church which she and Grace Marr attended at first, were not

inclined to see Roberta or Grace as equals, since they, for the

most part, were members of older and more successful families of

the town. And so it was that after a very few weeks of attendance

of church affairs and services, they were about where they had been

when they started--conventional and acceptable, but without the

amount of entertainment and diversion which was normally reaching

those who were of their same church but better placed.

 

And so it was that Roberta, after encountering Clyde and sensing

the superior world in which she imagined he moved, and being so

taken with the charm of his personality, was seized with the very

virus of ambition and unrest that afflicted him. And every day

that she went to the factory now she could not help but feel that

his eyes were upon her in a quiet, seeking and yet doubtful way.

Yet she also felt that he was too uncertain as to what she would

think of any overture that he might make in her direction to risk a

repulse or any offensive interpretation on her part. And yet at

times, after the first two weeks of her stay here, she wishing that

he would speak to her--that he would make some beginning--at other

times that he must not dare--that it would be dreadful and

impossible. The other girls there would see at once. And since

they all plainly felt that he was too good or too remote for them,

they would at once note that he was making an exception in her case

and would put their own interpretation on it. And she knew the

type of a girl who worked in the Griffiths stamping room would put

but one interpretation on it,--that of looseness.

 

At the same time in so far as Clyde and his leaning toward her was

concerned there was that rule laid down by Gilbert. And although,

because of it, he had hitherto appeared not to notice or to give

any more attention to one girl than another, still, once Roberta

arrived, he was almost unconsciously inclined to drift by her table

and pause in her vicinity to see how she was progressing. And, as

he saw from the first, she was a quick and intelligent worker, soon

mastering without much advice of any kind all the tricks of the

work, and thereafter earning about as much as any of the others--

fifteen dollars a week. And her manner was always that of one who

enjoyed it and was happy to have the privilege of working here.

And pleased to have him pay any little attention to her.

 

At the same time he noted to his surprise and especially since to

him she seemed so refined and different, a certain exuberance and

gayety that was not only emotional, but in a delicate poetic way,

sensual. Also that despite her difference and reserve she was able

to make friends with and seemed to be able to understand the

viewpoint of most of the foreign girls who were essentially so

different from her. For, listening to her discuss the work here,

first with Lena Schlict, Hoda Petkanas, Angelina Pitti and some

others who soon chose to speak to her, he reached the conclusion

that she was not nearly so conventional or standoffish as most of

the other American girls. And yet she did not appear to lose their

respect either.

 

Thus, one noontime, coming back from the office lunch downstairs a

little earlier than usual, he found her and several of the foreign-

family girls, as well as four of the American girls, surrounding

Polish Mary, one of the gayest and roughest of the foreign-family

girls, who was explaining in rather a high key how a certain

"feller" whom she had met the night before had given her a beaded

bag, and for what purpose.

 

"I should go with heem to be his sweetheart," she announced with a

flourish, the while she waved the bag before the interested group.

"And I say, I tack heem an' think on heem. Pretty nice bag, eh?"

she added, holding it aloft and turning it about. "Tell me," she

added with provoking and yet probably only mock serious eyes and

waving the bag toward Roberta, "what shall I do with heem? Keep

heem an' go with heem to be his sweetheart or give heem back? I

like heem pretty much, that bag, you bet."

 

And although, according to the laws of her upbringing, as Clyde

suspected, Roberta should have been shocked by all this, she was

not, as he noticed--far from it. If one might have judged from her

face, she was very much amused.

 

Instantly she replied with a gay smile: "Well, it all depends on

how handsome he is, Mary. If he's very attractive, I think I'd

string him along for a while, anyhow, and keep the bag as long as I

could."

 

"Oh, but he no wait," declared Mary archly, and with plainly a keen

sense of the riskiness of the situation, the while she winked at

Clyde who had drawn near. "I got to give heem bag or be sweetheart

to-night, and so swell bag I never can buy myself." She eyed the

bag archly and roguishly, her own nose crinkling with the humor of

the situation. "What I do then?"

 

"Gee, this is pretty strong stuff for a little country girl like

Miss Alden. She won't like this, maybe," thought Clyde to himself.

 

However, Roberta, as he now saw, appeared to be equal to the

situation, for she pretended to be troubled. "Gee, you are in a

fix," she commented. "I don't know what you'll do now." She

opened her eyes wide and pretended to be greatly concerned.

However, as Clyde could see, she was merely acting, but carrying it

off very well.

 

And frizzled-haired Dutch Lena now leaned over to say: "I take it

and him too, you bet, if you don't want him. Where is he? I got

no feller now." She reached over as if to take the bag from Mary,

who as quickly withdrew it. And there were squeals of delight from

nearly all the girls in the room, who were amused by this eccentric

horseplay. Even Roberta laughed loudly, a fact which Clyde noted

with pleasure, for he liked all this rough humor, considering it

mere innocent play.

 

"Well, maybe you're right, Lena," he heard her add just as the

whistle blew and the hundreds of sewing machines in the next room

began to hum. "A good man isn't to be found every day." Her blue

eyes were twinkling and her lips, which were most temptingly

modeled, were parted in a broad smile. There was much banter and

more bluff in what she said than anything else, as Clyde could see,

but he felt that she was not nearly as narrow as he had feared.

She was human and gay and tolerant and good-natured. There was

decidedly a very liberal measure of play in her. And in spite of

the fact that her clothes were poor, the same little round brown

hat and blue cloth dress that she had worn on first coming to work

here, she was prettier than anyone else. And she never needed to

paint her lips and cheeks like the foreign girls, whose faces at

times looked like pink-frosted cakes. And how pretty were her arms

and neck--plump and gracefully designed! And there was a certain

grace and abandon about her as she threw herself into her work as

though she really enjoyed it. As she worked fast during the

hottest portions of the day, there would gather on her upper lip

and chin and forehead little beads of perspiration which she was

always pausing in her work to touch with her handkerchief, while to

him, like jewels, they seemed only to enhance her charm.

 

Wonderful days, these, now for Clyde. For once more and here,

where he could be near her the long day through, he had a girl whom

he could study and admire and by degrees proceed to crave with all

of the desire of which he seemed to be capable--and with which he

had craved Hortense Briggs--only with more satisfaction, since as

he saw it she was simpler, more kindly and respectable. And though

for quite a while at first Roberta appeared or pretended to be

quite indifferent to or unconscious of him, still from the very

first this was not true. She was only troubled as to the

appropriate attitude for her. The beauty of his face and hands--

the blackness and softness of his hair, the darkness and melancholy

and lure of his eyes. He was attractive--oh, very. Beautiful,

really, to her.

 

And then one day shortly thereafter, Gilbert Griffiths walking

through here and stopping to talk to Clyde, she was led to imagine

by this that Clyde was really much more of a figure socially and

financially than she had previously thought. For just as Gilbert

was approaching, Lena Schlict, who was working beside her, leaned

over to say: "Here comes Mr. Gilbert Griffiths. His father owns

this whole factory and when he dies, he'll get it, they say. And

he's his cousin," she added, nodding toward Clyde. "They look a

lot alike, don't they?"

 

"Yes, they do," replied Roberta, slyly studying not only Clyde but

Gilbert, "only I think Mr. Clyde Griffiths is a little nicer

looking, don't you?"

 

Hoda Petkanas, sitting on the other side of Roberta and overhearing

this last remark, laughed. "That's what every one here thinks.

He's not stuck up like that Mr. Gilbert Griffiths, either."

 

"Is he rich, too?" inquired Roberta, thinking of Clyde.

 

"I don't know. They say not," she pursed her lips dubiously,

herself rather interested in Clyde along with the others. "He

worked down in the shrinking room before he came up here. He was

just working by the day, I guess. But he only came on here a

little while ago to learn the business. Maybe he won't work in

here much longer."

 

Roberta was suddenly troubled by this last remark. She had not

been thinking, or so she had been trying to tell herself, of Clyde

in any romantic way, and yet the thought that he might suddenly go

at any moment, never to be seen by her any more, disturbed her now.

He was so youthful, so brisk, so attractive. And so interested in

her, too. Yes, that was plain. It was wrong to think that he

would be interested in her--or to try to attract him by any least

gesture of hers, since he was so important a person here--far above

her.

 

For, true to her complex, the moment she heard that Clyde was so

highly connected and might even have money, she was not so sure

that he could have any legitimate interest in her. For was she not

a poor working girl? And was he not a very rich man's nephew? He

would not marry her, of course. And what other legitimate thing

would he want with her? She must be on her guard in regard to him.

 

Chapter 15

 

 

The thoughts of Clyde at this time in regard to Roberta and his

general situation in Lycurgus were for the most part confused and


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