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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