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diff --git a/old/aladm10.txt b/old/aladm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd0d6a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/aladm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11298 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington +#4 in our series by Booth Tarkington + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington Scanned by Charles Keller with +OmniPage Professional OCR software + + + + + +ALICE ADAMS by BOOTH TARKINGTON + + + +CHAPTER I + +The patient, an old-fashioned man, thought the nurse made a +mistake in keeping both of the windows open, and her sprightly +disregard of his protests added something to his hatred of her. +Every evening he told her that anybody with ordinary gumption +ought to realize that night air was bad for the human frame. +"The human frame won't stand everything, Miss Perry," he warned +her, resentfully. "Even a child, if it had just ordinary +gumption, ought to know enough not to let the night air blow on +sick people yes, nor well people, either! 'Keep out of the night +air, no matter how well you feel.' That's what my mother used to +tell me when I was a boy. 'Keep out of the night air, Virgil,' +she'd say. 'Keep out of the night air.'" + +"I expect probably her mother told her the same thing," the nurse +suggested. + +"Of course she did. My grandmother----" + +"Oh, I guess your GRANDmother thought so, Mr. Adams! That was +when all this flat central country was swampish and hadn't been +drained off yet. I guess the truth must been the swamp +mosquitoes bit people and gave 'em malaria, especially before +they began to put screens in their windows. Well, we got screens +in these windows, and no mosquitoes are goin' to bite us; so just +you be a good boy and rest your mind and go to sleep like you +need to." + +"Sleep?" he said. "Likely!" + +He thought the night air worst of all in April; he hadn't a doubt +it would kill him, he declared. "It's miraculous what the human +frame WILL survive," he admitted on the last evening of that +month. "But you and the doctor ought to both be taught it won't +stand too dang much! You poison a man and poison and poison him +with this April night air----" + +"Can't poison you with much more of it," Miss Perry interrupted +him, indulgently. "To-morrow it'll be May night air, and I +expect that'll be a lot better for you, don't you? Now let's +just sober down and be a good boy and get some nice sound sleep." + +She gave him his medicine, and, having set the glass upon the +center table, returned to her cot, where, after a still interval, +she snored faintly. Upon this, his expression became that of a +man goaded out of overpowering weariness into irony. + +"Sleep? Oh, CERTAINLY, thank you!" + +However, he did sleep intermittently, drowsed between times, and +even dreamed; but, forgetting his dreams before he opened his +eyes, and having some part of him all the while aware of his +discomfort, he believed, as usual, that he lay awake the whole +night long. He was conscious of the city as of some single great +creature resting fitfully in the dark outside his windows. It +lay all round about, in the damp cover of its night cloud of +smoke, and tried to keep quiet for a few hours after midnight, +but was too powerful a growing thing ever to lie altogether +still. Even while it strove to sleep it muttered with digestions +of the day before, and these already merged with rumblings of the +morrow. "Owl" cars, bringing in last passengers over distant +trolley-lines, now and then howled on a curve; faraway metallic +stirrings could be heard from factories in the sooty suburbs on +the plain outside the city; east, west, and south, switch-engines +chugged and snorted on sidings; and everywhere in the air there +seemed to be a faint, voluminous hum as of innumerable wires +trembling overhead to vibration of machinery underground. + +In his youth Adams might have been less resentful of sounds such +as these when they interfered with his night's sleep: even during +an illness he might have taken some pride in them as proof of his +citizenship in a "live town"; but at fifty-five he merely hated +them because they kept him awake. They "pressed on his nerves," +as he put it; and so did almost everything else, for that matter. + +He heard the milk-wagon drive into the cross-street beneath his +windows and stop at each house. The milkman carried his jars +round to the "back porch," while the horse moved slowly ahead to +the gate of the next customer and waited there. "He's gone into +Pollocks'," Adams thought, following this progress. "I hope +it'll sour on 'em before breakfast. Delivered the Andersons'. +Now he's getting out ours. Listen to the darn brute! What's HE +care who wants to sleep!" His complaint was of the horse, who +casually shifted weight with a clink of steel shoes on the worn +brick pavement of the street, and then heartily shook himself in +his harness, perhaps to dislodge a fly far ahead of its season. +Light had just filmed the windows; and with that the first +sparrow woke, chirped instantly, and roused neighbours in the +trees of the small yard, including a loud-voiced robin. +Vociferations began irregularly, but were soon unanimous. + +"Sleep? Dang likely now, ain't it!" + +Night sounds were becoming day sounds; the far-away hooting of +freight-engines seemed brisker than an hour ago in the dark. A +cheerful whistler passed the house, even more careless of +sleepers than the milkman's horse had been; then a group of +coloured workmen came by, and although it was impossible to be +sure whether they were homeward bound from night-work or on their +way to day- work, at least it was certain that they were jocose. +Loose, aboriginal laughter preceded them afar, and beat on the +air long after they had gone by. + +The sick-room night-light, shielded from his eyes by a newspaper +propped against a water-pitcher, still showed a thin glimmering +that had grown offensive to Adams. In his wandering and +enfeebled thoughts, which were much more often imaginings than +reasonings, the attempt of the night-light to resist the dawn +reminded him of something unpleasant, though he could not +discover just what the unpleasant thing was. Here was a puzzle +that irritated him the more because he could not solve it, yet +always seemed just on the point of a solution. However, he may +have lost nothing cheerful by remaining in the dark upon the +matter; for if he had been a little sharper in this introspection +he might have concluded that the squalor of the night-light, in +its seeming effort to show against the forerunning of the sun +itself, had stimulated some half-buried perception within him to +sketch the painful little synopsis of an autobiography. + +In spite of noises without, he drowsed again, not knowing that he +did; and when he opened his eyes the nurse was just rising from +her cot. He took no pleasure in the sight, it may be said. She +exhibited to him a face mismodelled by sleep, and set like a clay +face left on its cheek in a hot and dry studio. She was still +only in part awake, however, and by the time she had extinguished +the night-light and given her patient his tonic, she had +recovered enough plasticity. "Well, isn't that grand! We've had +another good night," she said as she departed to dress in the +bathroom. + +"Yes, you had another!" he retorted, though not until after she +had closed the door. + +Presently he heard his daughter moving about in her room across +the narrow hall, and so knew that she had risen. He hoped she +would come in to see him soon, for she was the one thing that +didn't press on his nerves, he felt; though the thought of her +hurt him, as, indeed, every thought hurt him. But it was his +wife who came first. + +She wore a lank cotton wrapper, and a crescent of gray hair +escaped to one temple from beneath the handkerchief she had worn +upon her head for the night and still retained; but she did +everything possible to make her expression cheering. + +"Oh, you're better again! I can see that, as soon as I look at +you," she said. "Miss Perry tells me you've had another splendid +night." + +He made a sound of irony, which seemed to dispose unfavourably of +Miss Perry, and then, in order to be more certainly intelligible, +he added, "She slept well, as usual!" + +But his wife's smile persisted. "It's a good sign to be cross; +it means you're practically convalescent right now." + +"Oh, I am, am I?" + +"No doubt in the world!" she exclaimed. "Why, you're practically +a well man, Virgil--all except getting your strength back, of +course, and that isn't going to take long. You'll be right on +your feet in a couple of weeks from now." + +"Oh, I will?" + +"Of course you will!" She laughed briskly, and, going to the +table in the center of the room, moved his glass of medicine an +inch or two, turned a book over so that it lay upon its other +side, and for a few moments occupied herself with similar +futilities, having taken on the air of a person who makes things +neat, though she produced no such actual effect upon them. "Of +course you will," she repeated, absently. "You'll be as strong +as you ever were; maybe stronger." She paused for a moment, not +looking at him, then added, cheerfully, "So that you can fly +around and find something really good to get into." + +Something important between them came near the surface here, for +though she spoke with what seemed but a casual cheerfulness, +there was a little betraying break in her voice, a trembling just +perceptible in the utterance of the final word. And she still +kept up the affectation of being helpfully preoccupied with the +table, and did not look at her husband--perhaps because they had +been married so many years that without looking she knew just +what his expression would be, and preferred to avoid the actual +sight of it as long as possible. Meanwhile, he stared hard at +her, his lips beginning to move with little distortions not +lacking in the pathos of a sick man's agitation. + +"So that's it," he said. "That's what you're hinting at." + +"'Hinting?'" Mrs. Adams looked surprised and indulgent. "Why, +I'm not doing any hinting, Virgil." + +"What did you say about my finding 'something good to get into?'" +he asked, sharply. "Don't you call that hinting?" + +Mrs. Adams turned toward him now; she came to the bedside and +would have taken his hand, but he quickly moved it away from her. + +"You mustn't let yourself get nervous," she said. "But of course +when you get well there's only one thing to do. You mustn't go +back to that old hole again." + +"'Old hole?' That's what you call it, is it?" In spite of his +weakness, anger made his voice strident, and upon this +stimulation she spoke more urgently. + +"You just mustn't go back to it, Virgil. It's not fair to any of +us, and you know it isn't." + +"Don't tell me what I know, please!" + +She clasped her hands, suddenly carrying her urgency to plaintive +entreaty. "Virgil, you WON'T go back to that hole?" + +"That's a nice word to use to me!" he said. "Call a man's +business a hole!" + +"Virgil, if you don't owe it to me to look for something +different, don't you owe it to your children? Don't tell me you +won't do what we all want you to, and what you know in your heart +you ought to! And if you HAVE got into one of your stubborn fits +and are bound to go back there for no other reason except to have +your own way, don't tell me so, for I can't bear it!" + +He looked up at her fiercely. "You've got a fine way to cure a +sick man!" he said; but she had concluded her appeal--for that +time--and instead of making any more words in the matter, let him +see that there were tears in her eyes, shook her head, and left +the room. + +Alone, he lay breathing rapidly, his emaciated chest proving +itself equal to the demands his emotion put upon it. "Fine!" he +repeated, with husky indignation. "Fine way to cure a sick man! +Fine!" Then, after a silence, he gave forth whispering sounds as +of laughter, his expression the while remaining sore and far from +humour. + +"And give us our daily bread!" he added, meaning that his wife's +little performance was no novelty. + + + +CHAPTER II + +In fact, the agitation of Mrs. Adams was genuine, but so well +under her control that its traces vanished during the three short +steps she took to cross the narrow hall between her husband's +door and the one opposite. Her expression was matter-of-course, +rather than pathetic, as she entered the pretty room where her +daughter, half dressed, sat before a dressing-table and played +with the reflections of a three-leafed mirror framed in blue +enamel. That is, just before the moment of her mother's +entrance, Alice had been playing with the mirror's +reflections--posturing her arms and her expressions, clasping her +hands behind her neck, and tilting back her head to foreshorten +the face in a tableau conceived to represent sauciness, then one +of smiling weariness, then one of scornful toleration, and all +very piquant; but as the door opened she hurriedly resumed the +practical, and occupied her hands in the arrangement of her +plentiful brownish hair. + +They were pretty hands, of a shapeliness delicate and fine. "The +best things she's got!" a cold-blooded girl friend said of them, +and meant to include Alice's mind and character in the implied +list of possessions surpassed by the notable hands. However that +may have been, the rest of her was well enough. She was often +called "a right pretty girl"--temperate praise meaning a girl +rather pretty than otherwise, and this she deserved, to say the +least. Even in repose she deserved it, though repose was +anything but her habit, being seldom seen upon her except at +home. On exhibition she led a life of gestures, the unkind said +to make her lovely hands more memorable; but all of her usually +accompanied the gestures of the hands, the shoulders ever giving +them their impulses first, and even her feet being called upon, +at the same time, for eloquence. + +So much liveliness took proper place as only accessory to that of +the face, where her vivacity reached its climax; and it was +unfortunate that an ungifted young man, new in the town, should +have attempted to define the effect upon him of all this +generosity of emphasis. He said that "the way she used her cute +hazel eyes and the wonderful glow of her facial expression gave +her a mighty spiritual quality." His actual rendition of the +word was "spirichul"; but it was not his pronunciation that +embalmed this outburst in the perennial laughter of Alice's girl +friends; they made the misfortune far less his than hers. + +Her mother comforted her too heartily, insisting that Alice had +"plenty enough spiritual qualities," certainly more than +possessed by the other girls who flung the phrase at her, wooden +things, jealous of everything they were incapable of themselves; +and then Alice, getting more championship than she sought, grew +uneasy lest Mrs. Adams should repeat such defenses "outside the +family"; and Mrs. Adams ended by weeping because the daughter so +distrusted her intelligence. Alice frequently thought it +necessary to instruct her mother. + +Her morning greeting was an instruction to-day; or, rather, it +was an admonition in the style of an entreaty, the more petulant +as Alice thought that Mrs. Adams might have had a glimpse of the +posturings to the mirror. This was a needless worry; the mother +had caught a thousand such glimpses, with Alice unaware, and she +thought nothing of the one just flitted. + +"For heaven's sake, mama, come clear inside the room and shut the +door! PLEASE don't leave it open for everybody to look at me!" + +"There isn't anybody to see you," Mrs. Adams explained, obeying. +"Miss Perry's gone downstairs, and----" + +"Mama, I heard you in papa's room," Alice said, not dropping the +note of complaint. "I could hear both of you, and I don't think +you ought to get poor old papa so upset--not in his present +condition, anyhow." + +Mrs. Adams seated herself on the edge of the bed. "He's better +all the time," she said, not disturbed. "He's almost well. The +doctor says so and Miss Perry says so; and if we don't get him +into the right frame of mind now we never will. The first day +he's outdoors he'll go back to that old hole--you'll see! And if +he once does that, he'll settle down there and it'll be too late +and we'll never get him out." + +"Well, anyhow, I think you could use a little more tact with +him." + +"I do try to," the mother sighed. "It never was much use with +him. I don't think you understand him as well as I do, Alice." + +"There's one thing I don't understand about either of you," Alice +returned, crisply. "Before people get married they can do +anything they want to with each other. Why can't they do the +same thing after they're married? When you and papa were young +people and engaged, he'd have done anything you wanted him to. +That must have been because you knew how to manage him then. Why +can't you go at him the same way now?" + +Mrs. Adams sighed again, and laughed a little, making no other +response; but Alice persisted. "Well, WHY can't you? Why can't +you ask him to do things the way you used to ask him when you +were just in love with each other? Why don't you anyhow try it, +mama, instead of ding-donging at him?" + +"'Ding-donging at him,' Alice?" Mrs. Adams said, with a pathos +somewhat emphasized. "Is that how my trying to do what I can for +you strikes you?" + +"Never mind that; it's nothing to hurt your feelings." Alice +disposed of the pathos briskly. "Why don't you answer my +question? What's the matter with using a little more tact on +papa? Why can't you treat him the way you probably did when you +were young people, before you were married? I never have +understood why people can't do that." + +"Perhaps you WILL understand some day," her mother said, gently. +"Maybe you will when you've been married twenty-five years." + +"You keep evading. Why don't you answer my question right +straight out?" + +"There are questions you can't answer to young people, Alice." + +"You mean because we're too young to understand the answer? I +don't see that at all. At twenty-two a girl's supposed to have +some intelligence, isn't she? And intelligence is the ability to +understand, isn't it? Why do I have to wait till I've lived with +a man twenty-five years to understand why you can't be tactful +with papa?" + +"You may understand some things before that," Mrs. Adams said, +tremulously. "You may understand how you hurt me sometimes. +Youth can't know everything by being intelligent, and by the time +you could understand the answer you're asking for you'd know it, +and wouldn't need to ask. You don't understand your father, +Alice; you don't know what it takes to change him when he's made +up his mind to be stubborn." + +Alice rose and began to get herself into a skirt. "Well, I don't +think making scenes ever changes anybody," she grumbled. "I +think a little jolly persuasion goes twice as far, myself." + +"'A little jolly persuasion!'" Her mother turned the echo of +this phrase into an ironic lament. "Yes, there was a time when I +thought that, too! It didn't work; that's all." + +"Perhaps you left the 'jolly' part of it out, mama." + +For the second time that morning--it was now a little after seven +o'clock--tears seemed about to offer their solace to Mrs. Adams. +"I might have expected you to say that, Alice; you never do miss +a chance," she said, gently. "It seems queer you don't some time +miss just ONE chance!" + +But Alice, progressing with her toilet, appeared to be little +concerned. "Oh, well, I think there are better ways of managing +a man than just hammering at him." + +Mrs. Adams uttered a little cry of pain. "'Hammering,' Alice?" + +"If you'd left it entirely to me," her daughter went on, briskly, +"I believe papa'd already be willing to do anything we want him +to." + +"That's it; tell me I spoil everything. Well, I won't interfere +from now on, you can be sure of it." + +"Please don't talk like that," Alice said, quickly. "I'm old +enough to realize that papa may need pressure of all sorts; I +only think it makes him more obstinate to get him cross. You +probably do understand him better, but that's one thing I've +found out and you haven't. There!" She gave her mother a +friendly tap on the shoulder and went to the door. "I'll hop in +and say hello to him now." + +As she went, she continued the fastening of her blouse, and +appeared in her father's room with one hand still thus engaged, +but she patted his forehead with the other. + +"Poor old papa-daddy!" she said, gaily. "Every time he's better +somebody talks him into getting so mad he has a relapse. It's a +shame!" + +Her father's eyes, beneath their melancholy brows, looked up at +her wistfully. "I suppose you heard your mother going for me," +he said. + +"I heard you going for her, too!" Alice laughed. "What was it +all about?" + +"Oh, the same danged old story!" + +"You mean she wants you to try something new when you get well?" +Alice asked, with cheerful innocence. "So we could all have a +lot more money?" + +At this his sorrowful forehead was more sorrowful than ever. The +deep horizontal lines moved upward to a pattern of suffering so +familiar to his daughter that it meant nothing to her; but he +spoke quietly. "Yes; so we wouldn't have any money at all, most +likely." + +"Oh, no!" she laughed, and, finishing with her blouse, patted his +cheeks with both hands. "Just think how many grand openings +there must be for a man that knows as much as you do! I always +did believe you could get rich if you only cared to, papa." + +But upon his forehead the painful pattern still deepened. "Don't +you think we've always had enough, the way things are, Alice?" + +"Not the way things ARE!" She patted his cheeks again; laughed +again. "It used to be enough, maybe anyway we did skimp along on +it--but the way things are now I expect mama's really pretty +practical in her ideas, though, I think it's a shame for her to +bother you about it while you're so weak. Don't you worry about +it, though; just think about other things till you get strong." + +"You know," he said; "you know it isn't exactly the easiest thing +in the world for a man of my age to find these grand openings you +speak of. And when you've passed half-way from fifty to sixty +you're apt to see some risk in giving up what you know how to do +and trying something new." + +"My, what a frown!" she cried, blithely. "Didn't I tell you to +stop thinking about it till you get ALL well?" She bent over him, +giving him a gay little kiss on the bridge of his nose. "There! +I must run to breakfast. Cheer up now! Au 'voir!" And with her +pretty hand she waved further encouragement from the closing door +as she departed. + +Lightsomely descending the narrow stairway, she whistled as she +went, her fingers drumming time on the rail; and, still +whistling, she came into the dining-room, where her mother and +her brother were already at the table. The brother, a thin and +sallow boy of twenty, greeted her without much approval as she +took her place. + +"Nothing seems to trouble you!" he said. + +"No; nothing much," she made airy response. "What's troubling +yourself, Walter?" + +"Don't let that worry you!" he returned, seeming to consider this +to be repartee of an effective sort; for he furnished a short +laugh to go with it, and turned to his coffee with the manner of +one who has satisfactorily closed an episode. + +"Walter always seems to have so many secrets!" Alice said, +studying him shrewdly, but with a friendly enough amusement in +her scrutiny. "Everything he does or says seems to be acted for +the benefit of some mysterious audience inside himself, and he +always gets its applause. Take what he said just now: he seems +to think it means something, but if it does, why, that's just +another secret between him and the secret audience inside of him! +We don't really know anything about Walter at all, do we, mama?" + +Walter laughed again, in a manner that sustained her theory well +enough; then after finishing his coffee, he took from his pocket +a flattened packet in glazed blue paper; extracted with stained +fingers a bent and wrinkled little cigarette, lighted it, hitched +up his belted trousers with the air of a person who turns from +trifles to things better worth his attention, and left the room. + +Alice laughed as the door closed. "He's ALL secrets," she said. +"Don't you think you really ought to know more about him, mama?" + +"I'm sure he's a good boy," Mrs. Adams returned, thoughtfully. +"He's been very brave about not being able to have the advantages +that are enjoyed by the boys he's grown up with. I've never +heard a word of complaint from him." + +"About his not being sent to college?" Alice cried. "I should +think you wouldn't! He didn't even have enough ambition to +finish high school!" + +Mrs. Adams sighed. "It seemed to me Walter lost his ambition +when nearly all the boys he'd grown up with went to Eastern +schools to prepare for college, and we couldn't afford to send +him. If only your father would have listened----" + +Alice interrupted: "What nonsense! Walter hated books and +studying, and athletics, too, for that matter. He doesn't care +for anything nice that I ever heard of. What do you suppose he +does like, mama? He must like something or other somewhere, but +what do you suppose it is? What does he do with his time?" + +"Why, the poor boy's at Lamb and Company's all day. He doesn't +get through until five in the afternoon; he doesn't HAVE much +time." + +"Well, we never have dinner until about seven, and he's always +late for dinner, and goes out, heaven knows where, right +afterward!" Alice shook her head. "He used to go with our +friends' boys, but I don't think he does now." + +"Why, how could he?" Mrs. Adams protested. "That isn't his +fault, poor child! The boys he knew when he was younger are +nearly all away at college." + +"Yes, but he doesn't see anything of 'em when they're here at +holiday-time or vacation. None of 'em come to the house any +more." + +"I suppose he's made other friends. It's natural for him to want +companions, at his age." + +"Yes," Alice said, with disapproving emphasis. "But who are +they? I've got an idea he plays pool at some rough place +down-town." + +"Oh, no; I'm sure he's a steady boy," Mrs. Adams protested, but +her tone was not that of thoroughgoing conviction, and she added, +"Life might be a very different thing for him if only your father +can be brought to see----" + +"Never mind, mama! It isn't me that has to be convinced, you +know; and we can do a lot more with papa if we just let him alone +about it for a day or two. Promise me you won't say any more to +him until--well, until he's able to come downstairs to table. +Will you?" + +Mrs. Adams bit her lip, which had begun to tremble. "I think +you can trust me to know a FEW things, Alice," she said. "I'm a +little older than you, you know." + +"That's a good girl!" Alice jumped up, laughing. "Don't forget +it's the same as a promise, and do just cheer him up a little. +I'll say good-bye to him before I go out." + +"Where are you going?" + +"Oh, I've got lots to do. I thought I'd run out to Mildred's to +see what she's going to wear to-night, and then I want to go down +and buy a yard of chiffon and some narrow ribbon to make new bows +for my slippers--you'll have to give me some money----" + +"If he'll give it to me!" her mother lamented, as they went +toward the front stairs together; but an hour later she came into +Alice's room with a bill in her hand. + +"He has some money in his bureau drawer," she said. "He finally +told me where it was." + +There were traces of emotion in her voice, and Alice, looking +shrewdly at her, saw moisture in her eyes. + +"Mama!" she cried. "You didn't do what you promised me you +wouldn't, did you--NOT before Miss Perry!" + +"Miss Perry's getting him some broth," Mrs. Adams returned, +calmly. "Besides, you're mistaken in saying I promised you +anything; I said I thought you could trust me to know what is +right." + +"So you did bring it up again!" And Alice swung away from her, +strode to her father's door, flung it open, went to him, and put +a light hand soothingly over his unrelaxed forehead. + +"Poor old papa!" she said. "It's a shame how everybody wants to +trouble him. He shan't be bothered any more at all! He doesn't +need to have everybody telling him how to get away from that old +hole he's worked in so long and begin to make us all nice and +rich. HE knows how!" + +Thereupon she kissed him a consoling good-bye, and made another +gay departure, the charming hand again fluttering like a white +butterfly in the shadow of the closing door. + + + +CHAPTER III + +Mrs. Adams had remained in Alice's room, but her mood seemed to +have changed, during her daughter's little more than momentary +absence. + +"What did he SAY?" she asked, quickly, and her tone was hopeful. + +"'Say?'" Alice repeated, impatiently. "Why, nothing. I didn't +let him. Really, mama, I think the best thing for you to do +would be to just keep out of his room, because I don't believe +you can go in there and not talk to him about it, and if you do +talk we'll never get him to do the right thing. Never!" + +The mother's response was a grieving silence; she turned from her +daughter and walked to the door. + +"Now, for goodness' sake!" Alice cried. "Don't go making tragedy +out of my offering you a little practical advice!" + +"I'm not," Mrs. Adams gulped, halting. "I'm just--just going to +dust the downstairs, Alice." And with her face still averted, +she went out into the little hallway, closing the door behind +her. A moment later she could be heard descending the stairs, +the sound of her footsteps carrying somehow an effect of +resignation. + +Alice listened, sighed, and, breathing the words, "Oh, murder!" +turned to cheerier matters. She put on a little apple-green +turban with a dim gold band round it, and then, having shrouded +the turban in a white veil, which she kept pushed up above her +forehead, she got herself into a tan coat of soft cloth fashioned +with rakish severity. After that, having studied herself gravely +in a long glass, she took from one of the drawers of her +dressing-table a black leather card-case cornered in silver +filigree, but found it empty. + +She opened another drawer wherein were two white pasteboard boxes +of cards, the one set showing simply "Miss Adams," the other +engraved in Gothic characters, "Miss Alys Tuttle Adams." The +latter belonged to Alice's "Alys" period--most girls go through +it; and Alice must have felt that she had graduated, for, after +frowning thoughtfully at the exhibit this morning, she took the +box with its contents, and let the white shower fall from her +fingers into the waste-basket beside her small desk. She +replenished the card-case from the "Miss Adams" box; then, having +found a pair of fresh white gloves, she tucked an ivory-topped +Malacca walking-stick under her arm and set forth. + +She went down the stairs, buttoning her gloves and still wearing +the frown with which she had put "Alys" finally out of her life. +She descended slowly, and paused on the lowest step, looking +about her with an expression that needed but a slight deepening +to betoken bitterness. Its connection with her dropping "Alys" +forever was slight, however. + +The small frame house, about fifteen years old, was already +inclining to become a new Colonial relic. The Adamses had built +it, moving into it from the "Queen Anne" house they had rented +until they took this step in fashion. But fifteen years is a +long time to stand still in the midland country, even for a +house, and this one was lightly made, though the Adamses had not +realized how flimsily until they had lived in it for some time. +"Solid, compact, and convenient" were the instructions to the +architect, and he had made it compact successfully. Alice, +pausing at the foot of the stairway, was at the same time fairly +in the "living-room," for the only separation between the "living +room" and the hall was a demarcation suggested to willing +imaginations by a pair of wooden columns painted white. These +columns, pine under the paint, were bruised and chipped at the +base; one of them showed a crack that threatened to become a +split; the "hard-wood" floor had become uneven; and in a corner +the walls apparently failed of solidity, where the wall-paper had +declined to accompany some staggerings of the plaster beneath it. + +The furniture was in great part an accumulation begun with the +wedding gifts; though some of it was older, two large patent +rocking-chairs and a footstool having belonged to Mrs. Adams's +mother in the days of hard brown plush and veneer. For +decoration there were pictures and vases. Mrs. Adams had always +been fond of vases, she said, and every year her husband's +Christmas present to her was a vase of one sort or +another--whatever the clerk showed him, marked at about twelve or +fourteen dollars. The pictures were some of them etchings framed +in gilt: Rheims, Canterbury, schooners grouped against a wharf; +and Alice could remember how, in her childhood, her father +sometimes pointed out the watery reflections in this last as very +fine. But it was a long time since he had shown interest in such +things--"or in anything much," as she thought. + +Other pictures were two water-colours in baroque frames; one +being the Amalfi monk on a pergola wall, while the second was a +yard-wide display of iris blossoms, painted by Alice herself at +fourteen, as a birthday gift to her mother. Alice's glance +paused upon it now with no great pride, but showed more approval +of an enormous photograph of the Colosseum. This she thought of +as "the only good thing in the room"; it possessed and bestowed +distinction, she felt; and she did not regret having won her +struggle to get it hung in its conspicuous place of honour over +the mantelpiece. Formerly that place had been held for years by +a steel-engraving, an accurate representation of the Suspension +Bridge at Niagara Falls. It was almost as large as its +successor, the "Colosseum," and it had been presented to Mr. +Adams by colleagues in his department at Lamb and Company's. +Adams had shown some feeling when Alice began to urge its removal +to obscurity in the "upstairs hall"; he even resisted for several +days after she had the "Colosseum" charged to him, framed in oak, +and sent to the house. She cheered him up, of course, when he +gave way; and her heart never misgave her that there might be a +doubt which of the two pictures was the more dismaying. + +Over the pictures, the vases, the old brown plush rocking-chairs +and the stool, over the three gilt chairs, over the new +chintz-covered easy chair and the gray velure sofa--over +everything everywhere, was the familiar coating of smoke grime. +It had worked into every fibre of the lace curtains, dingying +them to an unpleasant gray; it lay on the window-sills and it +dimmed the glass panes; it covered the walls, covered the +ceiling, and was smeared darker and thicker in all corners. Yet +here was no fault of housewifery; the curse could not be lifted, +as the ingrained smudges permanent on the once white woodwork +proved. The grime was perpetually renewed; scrubbing only ground +it in. + +This particular ugliness was small part of Alice's discontent, +for though the coating grew a little deeper each year she was +used to it. Moreover, she knew that she was not likely to find +anything better in a thousand miles, so long as she kept to +cities, and that none of her friends, however opulent, had any +advantage of her here. Indeed, throughout all the great +soft-coal country, people who consider themselves comparatively +poor may find this consolation: cleanliness has been added to the +virtues and beatitudes that money can not buy. + +Alice brightened a little as she went forward to the front door, +and she brightened more when the spring breeze met her there. +Then all depression left her as she walked down the short brick +path to the sidewalk, looked up and down the street, and saw how +bravely the maple shade-trees, in spite of the black powder they +breathed, were flinging out their thousands of young green +particles overhead. + +She turned north, treading the new little shadows on the pavement +briskly, and, having finished buttoning her gloves, swung down +her Malacca stick from under her arm to let it tap a more +leisurely accompaniment to her quick, short step. She had to +step quickly if she was to get anywhere; for the closeness of her +skirt, in spite of its little length, permitted no natural +stride; but she was pleased to be impeded, these brevities +forming part of her show of fashion. + +Other pedestrians found them not without charm, though approval +may have been lacking here and there, and at the first crossing +Alice suffered what she might have accounted an actual injury, +had she allowed herself to be so sensitive. An elderly woman in +fussy black silk stood there, waiting for a streetcar; she was +all of a globular modelling, with a face patterned like a +frost-bitten peach; and that the approaching gracefulness was +uncongenial she naively made too evident. Her round, wan eyes +seemed roused to bitter life as they rose from the curved high +heels of the buckled slippers to the tight little skirt, and +thence with startled ferocity to the Malacca cane, which plainly +appeared to her as a decoration not more astounding than it was +insulting. + +Perceiving that the girl was bowing to her, the globular lady +hurriedly made shift to alter her injurious expression. "Good +morning, Mrs. Dowling," Alice said, gravely. Mrs. Dowling +returned the salutation with a smile as convincingly benevolent +as the ghastly smile upon a Santa Claus face; and then, while +Alice passed on, exploded toward her a single compacted breath +through tightened lips. + +The sound was eloquently audible, though Mrs. Dowling remained +unaware that in this or any manner whatever she had shed a light +upon her thoughts; for it was her lifelong innocent conviction +that other people saw her only as she wished to be seen, and +heard from her only what she intended to be heard. At home it +was always her husband who pulled down the shades of their +bedroom window. + +Alice looked serious for a few moments after the little +encounter, then found some consolation in the behaviour of a +gentleman of forty or so who was coming toward her. Like Mrs. +Dowling, he had begun to show consciousness of Alice's approach +while she was yet afar off; but his tokens were of a kind +pleasanter to her. He was like Mrs. Dowling again, however, in +his conception that Alice would not realize the significance of +what he did. He passed his hand over his neck-scarf to see that +it lay neatly to his collar, smoothed a lapel of his coat, and +adjusted his hat, seeming to be preoccupied the while with +problems that kept his eyes to the pavement; then, as he came +within a few feet of her, he looked up, as in a surprised +recognition almost dramatic, smiled winningly, lifted his hat +decisively, and carried it to the full arm's length. + +Alice's response was all he could have asked. The cane in her +right hand stopped short in its swing, while her left hand moved +in a pretty gesture as if an impulse carried it toward the heart; +and she smiled, with her under lip caught suddenly between her +teeth. Months ago she had seen an actress use this smile in a +play, and it came perfectly to Alice now, without conscious +direction, it had been so well acquired; but the pretty hand's +little impulse toward the heart was an original bit all her own, +on the spur of the moment. + +The gentleman went on, passing from her forward vision as he +replaced his hat. Of himself he was nothing to Alice, except for +the gracious circumstance that he had shown strong consciousness +of a pretty girl. He was middle-aged, substantial, a family man, +securely married; and Alice had with him one of those long +acquaintances that never become emphasized by so much as five +minutes of talk; yet for this inconsequent meeting she had +enacted a little part like a fragment in a pantomime of Spanish +wooing. + +It was not for him--not even to impress him, except as a +messenger. Alice was herself almost unaware of her thought, +which was one of the running thousands of her thoughts that took +no deliberate form in words. Nevertheless, she had it, and it +was the impulse of all her pretty bits of pantomime when she met +other acquaintances who made their appreciation visible, as this +substantial gentleman did. In Alice's unworded thought, he was +to be thus encouraged as in some measure a champion to speak well +of her to the world; but more than this: he was to tell some +magnificent unknown bachelor how wonderful, how mysterious, she +was. + +She hastened on gravely, a little stirred reciprocally with the +supposed stirrings in the breast of that shadowy ducal mate, who +must be somewhere "waiting," or perhaps already seeking her; for +she more often thought of herself as "waiting" while he sought +her; and sometimes this view of things became so definite that it +shaped into a murmur on her lips. "Waiting. Just waiting." And +she might add, "For him!" Then, being twenty-two, she was apt to +conclude the mystic interview by laughing at herself, though not +without a continued wistfulness. + +She came to a group of small coloured children playing waywardly +in a puddle at the mouth of a muddy alley; and at sight of her +they gave over their pastime in order to stare. She smiled +brilliantly upon them, but they were too struck with wonder to +comprehend that the manifestation was friendly; and as Alice +picked her way in a little detour to keep from the mud, she heard +one of them say, "Lady got cane! Jeez'!" + +She knew that many coloured children use impieties familiarly, +and she was not startled. She was disturbed, however, by an +unfavourable hint in the speaker's tone. He was six, probably, +but the sting of a criticism is not necessarily allayed by +knowledge of its ignoble source, and Alice had already begun to +feel a slight uneasiness about her cane. Mrs. Dowling's stare +had been strikingly projected at it; other women more than merely +glanced, their brows and lips contracting impulsively; and Alice +was aware that one or two of them frankly halted as soon as she +had passed. + +She had seen in several magazines pictures of ladies with canes, +and on that account she had bought this one, never questioning +that fashion is recognized, even in the provinces, as soon as +beheld. On the contrary, these staring women obviously failed to +realize that what they were being shown was not an eccentric +outburst, but the bright harbinger of an illustrious mode. Alice +had applied a bit of artificial pigment to her lips and cheeks +before she set forth this morning; she did not need it, having a +ready colour of her own, which now mounted high with annoyance. + +Then a splendidly shining closed black automobile, with windows +of polished glass, came silently down the street toward her. +Within it, as in a luxurious little apartment, three comely +ladies in mourning sat and gossiped; but when they saw Alice they +clutched one another. They instantly recovered, bowing to her +solemnly as they were borne by, yet were not gone from her sight +so swiftly but the edge of her side glance caught a flash of +teeth in mouths suddenly opened, and the dark glisten of black +gloves again clutching to share mirth. + +The colour that outdid the rouge on Alice's cheek extended its +area and grew warmer as she realized how all too cordial had been +her nod and smile to these humorous ladies. But in their +identity lay a significance causing her a sharper smart, for they +were of the family of that Lamb, chief of Lamb and Company, who +had employed her father since before she was born. + +"And know his salary! They'd be SURE to find out about that!" +was her thought, coupled with another bitter one to the effect +that they had probably made instantaneous financial estimates of +what she wore though certainly her walking-stick had most fed +their hilarity. + +She tucked it under her arm, not swinging it again; and her +breath became quick and irregular as emotion beset her. She had +been enjoying her walk, but within the space of the few blocks +she had gone since she met the substantial gentleman, she found +that more than the walk was spoiled: suddenly her life seemed to +be spoiled, too; though she did not view the ruin with +complaisance. These Lamb women thought her and her cane +ridiculous, did they? she said to herself. That was their +parvenu blood: to think because a girl's father worked for their +grandfather she had no right to be rather striking in style, +especially when the striking WAS her style. Probably all the +other girls and women would agree with them and would laugh at +her when they got together, and, what might be fatal, would try +to make all the men think her a silly pretender. Men were just +like sheep, and nothing was easier than for women to set up as +shepherds and pen them in a fold. "To keep out outsiders," Alice +thought. "And make 'em believe I AM an outsider. What's the use +of living?" + +All seemed lost when a trim young man appeared, striding out of a +cross-street not far before her, and, turning at the corner, came +toward her. Visibly, he slackened his gait to lengthen the time +of his approach, and, as he was a stranger to her, no motive +could be ascribed to him other than a wish to have a longer time +to look at her. + +She lifted a pretty hand to a pin at her throat, bit her lip--not +with the smile, but mysteriously--and at the last instant before +her shadow touched the stranger, let her eyes gravely meet his. +A moment later, having arrived before the house which was her +destination, she halted at the entrance to a driveway leading +through fine lawns to the intentionally important mansion. It +was a pleasant and impressive place to be seen entering, but +Alice did not enter at once. She paused, examining a tiny bit of +mortar which the masons had forgotten to scrape from a brick in +one of the massive gate-posts. She frowned at this tiny +defacement, and with an air of annoyance scraped it away, using +the ferrule of her cane an act of fastidious proprietorship. If +any one had looked back over his shoulder he would not have +doubted that she lived there. + +Alice did not turn to see whether anything of the sort happened +or not, but she may have surmised that it did. At all events, it +was with an invigorated step that she left the gateway behind her +and went cheerfully up the drive to the house of her friend +Mildred. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Adams had a restless morning, and toward noon he asked Miss Perry +to call his daughter; he wished to say something to her. + +"I thought I heard her leaving the house a couple of hours +ago--maybe longer," the nurse told him. "I'll go see." And she +returned from the brief errand, her impression confirmed by +information from Mrs. Adams. "Yes. She went up to Miss Mildred +Palmer's to see what she's going to wear to-night." + +Adams looked at Miss Perry wearily, but remained passive, making +no inquiries; for he was long accustomed to what seemed to him a +kind of jargon among ladies, which became the more +incomprehensible when they tried to explain it. A man's best +course, he had found, was just to let it go as so much sound. +His sorrowful eyes followed the nurse as she went back to her +rocking-chair by the window, and her placidity showed him that +there was no mystery for her in the fact that Alice walked two +miles to ask so simple a question when there was a telephone in +the house. Obviously Miss Perry also comprehended why Alice +thought it important to know what Mildred meant to wear. Adams +understood why Alice should be concerned with what she herself +wore "to look neat and tidy and at her best, why, of course she'd +want to," he thought--but he realized that it was forever beyond +him to understand why the clothing of other people had long since +become an absorbing part of her life. + +Her excursion this morning was no novelty; she was continually +going to see what Mildred meant to wear, or what some other girl +meant to wear; and when Alice came home from wherever other girls +or women had been gathered, she always hurried to her mother with +earnest descriptions of the clothing she had seen. At such +times, if Adams was present, he might recognize "organdie," or +"taffeta," or "chiffon," as words defining certain textiles, but +the rest was too technical for him, and he was like a dismal boy +at a sermon, just waiting for it to get itself finished. Not the +least of the mystery was his wife's interest: she was almost +indifferent about her own clothes, and when she consulted Alice +about them spoke hurriedly and with an air of apology; but when +Alice described other people's clothes, Mrs. Adams listened as +eagerly as the daughter talked. + +"There they go!" he muttered to-day, a moment after he heard the +front door closing, a sound recognizable throughout most of the +thinly built house. Alice had just returned, and Mrs. Adams +called to her from the upper hallway, not far from Adams's door. + +"What did she SAY?" + +"She was sort of snippy about it," Alice returned, ascending the +stairs. "She gets that way sometimes, and pretended she hadn't +made up her mind, but I'm pretty sure it'll be the maize +Georgette with Malines flounces." + +"Didn't you say she wore that at the Pattersons'?" Mrs. Adams +inquired, as Alice arrived at the top of the stairs. "And didn't +you tell me she wore it again at the----" + +"Certainly not," Alice interrupted, rather petulantly. "She's +never worn it but once, and of course she wouldn't want to wear +anything to-night that people have seen her in a lot." + +Miss Perry opened the door of Adams's room and stepped out. +"Your father wants to know if you'll come and see him a minute, +Miss Adams." + +"Poor old thing! Of course!" Alice exclaimed, and went quickly +into the room, Miss Perry remaining outside. "What's the matter, +papa? Getting awful sick of lying on his tired old back, I +expect." + +"I've had kind of a poor morning," Adams said, as she patted his +hand comfortingly. "I been thinking----" + +"Didn't I tell you not to?" she cried, gaily. "Of course you'll +have poor times when you go and do just exactly what I say you +mustn't. You stop thinking this very minute!" + +He smiled ruefully, closing his eyes; was silent for a moment, +then asked her to sit beside the bed. "I been thinking of +something I wanted to say," he added. + +"What like, papa?" + +"Well, it's nothing--much," he said, with something deprecatory +in his tone, as if he felt vague impulses toward both humour and +apology. "I just thought maybe I ought to've said more to you +some time or other about--well, about the way things ARE, down at +Lamb and Company's, for instance." + +"Now, papa!" She leaned forward in the chair she had taken, and +pretended to slap his hand crossly. "Isn't that exactly what I +said you couldn't think one single think about till you get ALL +well?" + +"Well----" he said, and went on slowly, not looking at her, but +at the ceiling. "I just thought maybe it wouldn't been any harm +if some time or other I told you something about the way they +sort of depend on me down there." + +"Why don't they show it, then?" she asked, quickly. "That's just +what mama and I have been feeling so much; they don't appreciate +you." + +"Why, yes, they do," he said. "Yes, they do. They began +h'isting my salary the second year I went in there, and they've +h'isted it a little every two years all the time I've worked for +'em. I've been head of the sundries department for seven years +now, and I could hardly have more authority in that department +unless I was a member of the firm itself." + +"Well, why don't they make you a member of the firm? That's what +they ought to've done! Yes, and long ago!" + +Adams laughed, but sighed with more heartiness than he had +laughed. "They call me their 'oldest stand-by' down there." He +laughed again, apologetically, as if to excuse himself for taking +a little pride in this title. "Yes, sir; they say I'm their +'oldest stand-by'; and I guess they know they can count on my +department's turning in as good a report as they look for, at the +end of every month; but they don't have to take a man into the +firm to get him to do my work, dearie." + +"But you said they depended on you, papa." + +"So they do; but of course not so's they couldn't get along +without me." He paused, reflecting. "I don't just seem to know +how to put it--I mean how to put what I started out to say. I +kind of wanted to tell you--well, it seems funny to me, these +last few years, the way your mother's taken to feeling about it. +I'd like to see a better established wholesale drug business than +Lamb and Company this side the Alleghanies--I don't say bigger, I +say better established--and it's kind of funny for a man that's +been with a business like that as long as I have to hear it +called a 'hole.' It's kind of funny when you think, yourself, +you've done pretty fairly well in a business like that, and the +men at the head of it seem to think so, too, and put your salary +just about as high as anybody could consider customary--well, +what I mean, Alice, it's kind of funny to have your mother think +it's mostly just--mostly just a failure, so to speak." + +His voice had become tremulous in spite of him; and this sign of +weakness and emotion had sufficient effect upon Alice. She bent +over him suddenly, with her arm about him and her cheek against +his. "Poor papa!" she murmured. "Poor papa!" + +"No, no," he said. "I didn't mean anything to trouble you. I +just thought----" He hesitated. "I just wondered--I thought +maybe it wouldn't be any harm if I said something about how +things ARE down there. I got to thinking maybe you didn't +understand it's a pretty good place. They're fine people to work +for; and they've always seemed to think something of me;--the way +they took Walter on, for instance, soon as I asked 'em, last +year. Don't you think that looked a good deal as if they thought +something of me, Alice?" + +"Yes, papa," she said, not moving. + +"And the work's right pleasant," he went on. "Mighty nice boys +in our department, Alice. Well, they are in all the departments, +for that matter. We have a good deal of fun down there some +days." + +She lifted her head. "More than you do at home 'some days,' I +expect, papa!" she said. + +He protested feebly. "Now, I didn't mean that--I didn't want to +trouble you----" + +She looked at him through winking eyelashes. "I'm sorry I called +it a 'hole,' papa." + +"No, no," he protested, gently. "It was your mother said that." + +"No. I did, too." + +"Well, if you did, it was only because you'd heard her." + +She shook her head, then kissed him. "I'm going to talk to her," +she said, and rose decisively. + +But at this, her father's troubled voice became quickly louder: +"You better let her alone. I just wanted to have a little talk +with you. I didn't mean to start any--your mother won't----" + +"Now, papa!" Alice spoke cheerfully again, and smiled upon him. +"I want you to quit worrying! Everything's going to be all right +and nobody's going to bother you any more about anything. You'll +see!" + +She carried her smile out into the hall, but after she had closed +the door her face was all pity; and her mother, waiting for her +in the opposite room, spoke sympathetically. + +"What's the matter, Alice? What did he say that's upset you?" + +"Wait a minute, mama." Alice found a handkerchief, used it for +eyes and suffused nose, gulped, then suddenly and desolately sat +upon the bed. "Poor, poor, POOR papa!" she whispered. + +"Why?" Mrs. Adams inquired, mildly. "What's the matter with +him? Sometimes you act as if he weren't getting well. What's he +been talking about?" + +"Mama--well, I think I'm pretty selfish. Oh, I do!" + +"Did he say you were?" + +"Papa? No, indeed! What I mean is, maybe we're both a little +selfish to try to make him go out and hunt around for something +new." + +Mrs. Adams looked thoughtful. "Oh, that's what he was up to!" + +"Mama, I think we ought to give it up. I didn't dream it had +really hurt him." + +"Well, doesn't he hurt us?" + +"Never that I know of, mama." + +"I don't mean by SAYING things," Mrs. Adams explained, +impatiently. "There are more ways than that of hurting people. +When a man sticks to a salary that doesn't provide for his +family, isn't that hurting them?" + +"Oh, it 'provides' for us well enough, mama. We have what we +need--if I weren't so extravagant. Oh, _I_ know I am!" + +But at this admission her mother cried out sharply. +"'Extravagant!' You haven't one tenth of what the other girls you +go with have. And you CAN'T have what you ought to as long as he +doesn't get out of that horrible place. It provides bare food +and shelter for us, but what's that?" + +"I don't think we ought to try any more to change him." + +"You don't?" Mrs. Adams came and stood before her. "Listen, +Alice: your father's asleep; that's his trouble, and he's got to +be waked up. He doesn't know that things have changed. When you +and Walter were little children we did have enough--at least it +seemed to be about as much as most of the people we knew. But +the town isn't what it was in those days, and times aren't what +they were then, and these fearful PRICES aren't the old prices. +Everything else but your father has changed, and all the time +he's stood still. He doesn't know it; he thinks because they've +given him a hundred dollars more every two years he's quite a +prosperous man! And he thinks that because his children cost him +more than he and I cost our parents he gives them--enough!" + +"But Walter----" Alice faltered. "Walter doesn't cost him +anything at all any more." And she concluded, in a stricken +voice, "It's all--me!" + +"Why shouldn't it be?" her mother cried. "You're young--you're +just at the time when your life should be fullest of good things +and happiness. Yet what do you get?" + +Alice's lip quivered; she was not unsusceptible to such an +appeal, but she contrived the semblance of a protest. "I don't +have such a bad time not a good DEAL of the time, anyhow. I've +got a good MANY of the things other girls have----" + +"You have?" Mrs. Adams was piteously satirical. "I suppose +you've got a limousine to go to that dance to-night? I suppose +you've only got to call a florist and tell him to send you some +orchids? I suppose you've----" + +But Alice interrupted this list. Apparently in a single instant +all emotion left her, and she became businesslike, as one in the +midst of trifles reminded of really serious matters. She got up +from the bed and went to the door of the closet where she kept +her dresses. "Oh, see here," she said, briskly. "I've decided +to wear my white organdie if you could put in a new lining for +me. I'm afraid it'll take you nearly all afternoon." + +She brought forth the dress, displayed it upon the bed, and Mrs. +Adams examined it attentively. + +"Do you think you could get it done, mama?" + +"I don't see why not," Mrs. Adams answered, passing a thoughtful +hand over the fabric. "It oughtn't to take more than four or +five hours." + +"It's a shame to have you sit at the machine that long," Alice +said, absently, adding, "And I'm sure we ought to let papa alone. +Let's just give it up, mama." + +Mrs. Adams continued her thoughtful examination of the dress. +"Did you buy the chiffon and ribbon, Alice?" + +"Yes. I'm sure we oughtn't to talk to him about it any more, +mama." + +"Well, we'll see." + +"Let's both agree that we'll NEVER say another single word to him +about it," said Alice. "It'll be a great deal better if we just +let him make up his mind for himself." + + + +CHAPTER V + +With this, having more immediately practical questions before +them, they dropped the subject, to bend their entire attention +upon the dress; and when the lunch-gong sounded downstairs Alice +was still sketching repairs and alterations. She continued to +sketch them, not heeding the summons. + +"I suppose we'd better go down to lunch," Mrs. Adams said, +absently. "She's at the gong again." "In a minute, mama. Now +about the sleeves----" And she went on with her planning. +Unfortunately the gong was inexpressive of the mood of the person +who beat upon it. It consisted of three little metal bowls upon +a string; they were unequal in size, and, upon being tapped with +a padded stick, gave forth vibrations almost musically pleasant. +It was Alice who had substituted this contrivance for the brass +"dinner-bell" in use throughout her childhood; and neither she +nor the others of her family realized that the substitution of +sweeter sounds had made the life of that household more +difficult. In spite of dismaying increases in wages, the Adamses +still strove to keep a cook; and, as they were unable to pay the +higher rates demanded by a good one, what they usually had was a +whimsical coloured woman of nomadic impulses. In the hands of +such a person the old-fashioned "dinner-bell" was satisfying; +life could instantly be made intolerable for any one dawdling on +his way to a meal; the bell was capable of every desirable +profanity and left nothing bottled up in the breast of the +ringer. But the chamois-covered stick might whack upon Alice's +little Chinese bowls for a considerable length of time and +produce no great effect of urgency upon a hearer, nor any other +effect, except fury in the cook. The ironical impossibility of +expressing indignation otherwise than by sounds of gentle harmony +proved exasperating; the cook was apt to become surcharged, so +that explosive resignations, never rare, were somewhat more +frequent after the introduction of the gong. + +Mrs. Adams took this increased frequency to be only another +manifestation of the inexplicable new difficulties that beset all +housekeeping. You paid a cook double what you had paid one a few +years before; and the cook knew half as much of cookery, and had +no gratitude. The more you gave these people, it seemed, the +worse they behaved--a condition not to be remedied by simply +giving them less, because you couldn't even get the worst unless +you paid her what she demanded. Nevertheless, Mrs. Adams +remained fitfully an optimist in the matter. Brought up by her +mother to speak of a female cook as "the girl," she had been +instructed by Alice to drop that definition in favour of one not +an improvement in accuracy: "the maid." Almost always, during +the first day or so after every cook came, Mrs. Adams would say, +at intervals, with an air of triumph: "I believe--of course it's +a little soon to be sure--but I do really believe this new maid +is the treasure we've been looking for so long!" Much in the same +way that Alice dreamed of a mysterious perfect mate for whom she +"waited," her mother had a fairy theory that hidden somewhere in +the universe there was the treasure, the perfect "maid," who +would come and cook in the Adamses' kitchen, not four days or +four weeks, but forever. + +The present incumbent was not she. Alice, profoundly interested +herself, kept her mother likewise so preoccupied with the dress +that they were but vaguely conscious of the gong's soft warnings, +though these were repeated and protracted unusually. Finally the +sound of a hearty voice, independent and enraged, reached the +pair. It came from the hall below. + +"I says goo'-BYE!" it called. "Da'ss all!" + +Then the front door slammed. + +"Why, what----" Mrs. Adams began. + +They went down hurriedly to find out. Miss Perry informed them. + +"I couldn't make her listen to reason," she said. "She rang the +gong four or five times and got to talking to herself; and then +she went up to her room and packed her bag. I told her she had +no business to go out the front door, anyhow." + +Mrs. Adams took the news philosophically. "I thought she had +something like that in her eye when I paid her this morning, and +I'm not surprised. Well, we won't let Mr. Adams know anything's +the matter till I get a new one." + +They lunched upon what the late incumbent had left chilling on +the table, and then Mrs. Adams prepared to wash the dishes; she +would "have them done in a jiffy," she said, cheerfully. But it +was Alice who washed the dishes. + +"I DON'T like to have you do that, Alice," her mother protested, +following her into the kitchen. "It roughens the hands, and when +a girl has hands like yours----" + +"I know, mama." Alice looked troubled, but shook her head. "It +can't be helped this time; you'll need every minute to get that +dress done." + +Mrs. Adams went away lamenting, while Alice, no expert, began to +splash the plates and cups and saucers in the warm water. After +a while, as she worked, her eyes grew dreamy: she was making +little gay-coloured pictures of herself, unfounded prophecies of +how she would look and what would happen to her that evening. +She saw herself, charming and demure, wearing a fluffy +idealization of the dress her mother now determinedly struggled +with upstairs; she saw herself framed in a garlanded archway, the +entrance to a ballroom, and saw the people on the shining floor +turning dramatically to look at her; then from all points a rush +of young men shouting for dances with her; and she constructed a +superb stranger, tall, dark, masterfully smiling, who swung her +out of the clamouring group as the music began. She saw herself +dancing with him, saw the half-troubled smile she would give him; +and she accurately smiled that smile as she rinsed the knives and +forks. + +These hopeful fragments of drama were not to be realized, she +knew; but she played that they were true, and went on creating +them. In all of them she wore or carried flowers--her mother's +sorrow for her in this detail but made it the more important-- +and she saw herself glamorous with orchids; discarded these for +an armful of long-stemmed, heavy roses; tossed them away for a +great bouquet of white camellias; and so wandered down a +lengthening hothouse gallery of floral beauty, all costly and +beyond her reach except in such a wistful day-dream. And upon +her present whole horizon, though she searched it earnestly, she +could discover no figure of a sender of flowers. + +Out of her fancies the desire for flowers to wear that night +emerged definitely and became poignant; she began to feel that it +might be particularly important to have them. "This might be the +night!" She was still at the age to dream that the night of any +dance may be the vital point in destiny. No matter how +commonplace or disappointing other dance nights have been this +one may bring the great meeting. The unknown magnifico may be +there. + +Alice was almost unaware of her own reveries in which this being +appeared--reveries often so transitory that they developed and +passed in a few seconds. And in some of them the being was not +wholly a stranger; there were moments when he seemed to be +composed of recognizable fragments of young men she knew--a smile +she had liked, from one; the figure of another, the hair of +another--and sometimes she thought he might be concealed, so to +say, within the person of an actual acquaintance, someone she had +never suspected of being the right seeker for her, someone who +had never suspected that it was she who "waited" for him. +Anything might reveal them to each other: a look, a turn of the +head, a singular word--perhaps some flowers upon her breast or in +her hand. + +She wiped the dishes slowly, concluding the operation by dropping +a saucer upon the floor and dreamily sweeping the fragments under +the stove. She sighed and replaced the broom near a window, +letting her glance wander over the small yard outside. The +grass, repulsively besooted to the colour of coal-smoke all +winter, had lately come to life again and now sparkled with +green, in the midst of which a tiny shot of blue suddenly fixed +her absent eyes. They remained upon it for several moments, +becoming less absent. + +It was a violet. + +Alice ran upstairs, put on her hat, went outdoors and began to +search out the violets. She found twenty-two, a bright +omen--since the number was that of her years--but not enough +violets. There were no more; she had ransacked every foot of the +yard. + +She looked dubiously at the little bunch in her hand, glanced at +the lawn next door, which offered no favourable prospect; then +went thoughtfully into the house, left her twenty-two violets in +a bowl of water, and came quickly out again, her brow marked with +a frown of decision. She went to a trolley-line and took a car +to the outskirts of the city where a new park had been opened. + +Here she resumed her search, but it was not an easily rewarded +one, and for an hour after her arrival she found no violets. She +walked conscientiously over the whole stretch of meadow, her eyes +roving discontentedly; there was never a blue dot in the groomed +expanse; but at last, as she came near the borders of an old +grove of trees, left untouched by the municipal landscapers, the +little flowers appeared, and she began to gather them. She +picked them carefully, loosening the earth round each tiny plant, +so as to bring the roots up with it, that it might live the +longer; and she had brought a napkin, which she drenched at a +hydrant, and kept loosely wrapped about the stems of her +collection. + +The turf was too damp for her to kneel; she worked patiently, +stooping from the waist; and when she got home in a drizzle of +rain at five o'clock her knees were tremulous with strain, her +back ached, and she was tired all over, but she had three hundred +violets. Her mother moaned when Alice showed them to her, +fragrant in a basin of water. + +"Oh, you POOR child! To think of your having to: work so hard to +get things that other girls only need; lift their little fingers +for!" + +"Never mind," said Alice, huskily. "I've got 'em and I AM going +to have a good time to-night!" + +"You've just got to!" Mrs. Adams agreed, intensely sympathetic. +"The Lord knows you deserve to, after picking all these violets, +poor thing, and He wouldn't be mean enough to keep you from it. +I may have to get dinner before I finish the dress, but I can get +it done in a few minutes afterward, and it's going to look right +pretty. Don't you worry about THAT! And with all these lovely +violets----" + +"I wonder----" Alice began, paused, then went on, fragmentarily: +"I suppose--well, I wonder--do you suppose it would have been +better policy to have told Walter before----" + +"No," said her mother. "It would only have given him longer to +grumble." + +"But he might----" + +"Don't worry," Mrs. Adams reassured her. "He'll be a little +cross, but he won't be stubborn; just let me talk to him and +don't you say anything at all, no matter what HE says." + +These references to Walter concerned some necessary manoeuvres +which took place at dinner, and were conducted by the mother, +Alice having accepted her advice to sit in silence. Mrs. Adams +began by laughing cheerfully. "I wonder how much longer it took +me to cook this dinner than it does Walter to eat it?" she said. +"Don't gobble, child! There's no hurry." + +In contact with his own family Walter was no squanderer of words. + +"Is for me," he said. "Got date." + +"I know you have, but there's plenty of time." + +He smiled in benevolent pity. "YOU know, do you? If you made +any coffee--don't bother if you didn't. Get some down-town." He +seemed about to rise and depart; whereupon Alice, biting her lip, +sent a panic-stricken glance at her mother. + +But Mrs. Adams seemed not at all disturbed; and laughed again. +"Why, what nonsense, Walter! I'll bring your coffee in a few +minutes, but we're going to have dessert first." + +"What sort?" + +"Some lovely peaches." + +"Doe' want 'ny canned peaches," said the frank Walter, moving +back his chair. "G'-night." + +"Walter! It doesn't begin till about nine o'clock at the +earliest." + +He paused, mystified. "What doesn't?" + +"The dance." + +"What dance?" + +"Why, Mildred Palmer's dance, of course." + +Walter laughed briefly. "What's that to me?" + +"Why, you haven't forgotten it's TO-NIGHT, have you?" Mrs. Adams +cried. "What a boy!" + +"I told you a week ago I wasn't going to that ole dance," he +returned, frowning. "You heard me." + +"Walter!" she exclaimed. "Of COURSE you're going. I got your +clothes all out this afternoon, and brushed them for you. +They'll look very nice, and----" + +"They won't look nice on ME," he interrupted. "Got date +down-town, I tell you." + +"But of course you'll----" + +"See here!" Walter said, decisively. "Don't get any wrong ideas +in your head. I'm just as liable to go up to that ole dance at +the Palmers' as I am to eat a couple of barrels of broken glass." + +"But, Walter----" + +Walter was beginning to be seriously annoyed. "Don't 'Walter' +me! I'm no s'ciety snake. I wouldn't jazz with that Palmer +crowd if they coaxed me with diamonds." + +"Walter----" + +"Didn't I tell you it's no use to 'Walter' me?" he demanded. + +"My dear child----" + +"Oh, Glory!" + +At this Mrs. Adams abandoned her air of amusement, looked hurt, +and glanced at the demure Miss Perry across the table. "I'm +afraid Miss Perry won't think you have very good manners, +Walter." + +"You're right she won't," he agreed, grimly. "Not if I haf to +hear any more about me goin' to----" + +But his mother interrupted him with some asperity: "It seems very +strange that you always object to going anywhere among OUR +friends, Walter." + +"YOUR friends!" he said, and, rising from his chair, gave +utterance to an ironical laugh strictly monosyllabic. "Your +friends!" he repeated, going to the door. "Oh, yes! Certainly! +Good-NIGHT!" + +And looking back over his shoulder to offer a final brief view of +his derisive face, he took himself out of the room. + +Alice gasped: "Mama----" + +"I'll stop him!" her mother responded, sharply; and hurried after +the truant, catching him at the front door with his hat and +raincoat on. + +"Walter----" + +"Told you had a date down-town," he said, gruffly, and would have +opened the door, but she caught his arm and detained him. + +"Walter, please come back and finish your dinner. When I take +all the trouble to cook it for you, I think you might at +least----" + +"Now, now!" he said. "That isn't what you're up to. You don't +want to make me eat; you want to make me listen." + +"Well, you MUST listen!" She retained her grasp upon his arm, and +made it tighter. "Walter, please!" she entreated, her voice +becoming tremulous. "PLEASE don't make me so much trouble!" + +He drew back from her as far as her hold upon him permitted, and +looked at her sharply. "Look here!" he said. "I get you, all +right! What's the matter of Alice GOIN' to that party by +herself?" + +"She just CAN'T!" + +"Why not?" + +"It makes things too MEAN for her, Walter. All the other girls +have somebody to depend on after they get there." + +"Well, why doesn't she have somebody?" he asked, testily. +"Somebody besides ME, I mean! Why hasn't somebody asked her to +go? She ought to be THAT popular, anyhow, I sh'd think--she +TRIES enough!" + +"I don't understand how you can be so hard," his mother wailed, +huskily. "You know why they don't run after her the way they do +the other girls she goes with, Walter. It's because we're poor, +and she hasn't got any background. + +"'Background?'" Walter repeated. "'Background?' What kind of +talk is that?" + +"You WILL go with her to-night, Walter?" his mother pleaded, not +stopping to enlighten him. "You don't understand how hard things +are for her and how brave she is about them, or you COULDN'T be +so selfish! It'd be more than I can bear to see her disappointed +to-night! She went clear out to Belleview Park this afternoon, +Walter, and spent hours and hours picking violets to wear. You +WILL----" + +Walter's heart was not iron, and the episode of the violets may +have reached it. "Oh, BLUB!" he said, and flung his soft hat +violently at the wall. + +His mother beamed with delight. "THAT'S a good boy, darling! +You'll never be sorry you----" + +"Cut it out," he requested. "If I take her, will you pay for a +taxi?" + +"Oh, Walter!" And again Mrs. Adams showed distress. "Couldn't +you?" + +"No, I couldn't; I'm not goin' to throw away my good money like +that, and you can't tell what time o' night it'll be before she's +willin' to come home. What's the matter you payin' for one?" + +"I haven't any money." + +"Well, father----" + +She shook her head dolefully. "I got some from him this morning, +and I can't bother him for any more; it upsets him. He's ALWAYS +been so terribly close with money----" + +"I guess he couldn't help that," Walter observed. "We're liable +to go to the poorhouse the way it is. Well, what's the matter +our walkin' to this rotten party?" + +"In the rain, Walter?" + +"Well, it's only a drizzle and we can take a streetcar to within +a block of the house." + +Again his mother shook her head. "It wouldn't do." + +"Well, darn the luck, all right!" he consented, explosively. +"I'll get her something to ride in. It means seventy-five +cents." + +"Why, Walter!" Mrs. Adams cried, much pleased. "Do you know how +to get a cab for that little? How splendid!" + +"Tain't a cab," Walter informed her crossly. "It's a tin Lizzie, +but you don't haf' to tell her what it is till I get her into it, +do you?" + +Mrs. Adams agreed that she didn't. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Alice was busy with herself for two hours after dinner; but a +little before nine o'clock she stood in front of her long mirror, +completed, bright-eyed and solemn. Her hair, exquisitely +arranged, gave all she asked of it; what artificialities in +colour she had used upon her face were only bits of emphasis that +made her prettiness the more distinct; and the dress, not rumpled +by her mother's careful hours of work, was a white cloud of +loveliness. Finally there were two triumphant bouquets of +violets, each with the stems wrapped in tin-foil shrouded by a +bow of purple chiffon; and one bouquet she wore at her waist and +the other she carried in her hand. + +Miss Perry, called in by a rapturous mother for the free treat of +a look at this radiance, insisted that Alice was a vision. +"Purely and simply a vision!" she said, meaning that no other +definition whatever would satisfy her. "I never saw anybody look +a vision if she don't look one to-night," the admiring nurse +declared. "Her papa'll think the same I do about it. You see if +he doesn't say she's purely and simply a vision." + +Adams did not fulfil the prediction quite literally when Alice +paid a brief visit to his room to "show" him and bid him +good-night; but he chuckled feebly. "Well, well, well!" he said. + +"You look mighty fine--MIGHTY fine!" And he waggled a bony finger +at her two bouquets. "Why, Alice, who's your beau?" + +"Never you mind!" she laughed, archly brushing his nose with the +violets in her hand. "He treats me pretty well, doesn't he?" + +"Must like to throw his money around! These violets smell mighty +sweet, and they ought to, if they're going to a party with YOU. +Have a good time, dearie." + +"I mean to!" she cried; and she repeated this gaily, but with an +emphasis expressing sharp determination as she left him. "I MEAN +to!" + +"What was he talking about?" her mother inquired, smoothing the +rather worn and old evening wrap she had placed on Alice's bed. +"What were you telling him you 'mean to?'" + +Alice went back to her triple mirror for the last time, then +stood before the long one. "That I mean to have a good time +to-night," she said; and as she turned from her reflection to the +wrap Mrs. Adams held up for her, "It looks as though I COULD, +don't you think so?" + +"You'll just be a queen to-night," her mother whispered in fond +emotion. "You mustn't doubt yourself." + +"Well, there's one thing," said Alice. "I think I do look nice +enough to get along without having to dance with that Frank +Dowling! All I ask is for it to happen just once; and if he +comes near me to-night I'm going to treat him the way the other +girls do. Do you suppose Walter's got the taxi out in front?" + +"He--he's waiting down in the hall," Mrs. Adams answered, +nervously; and she held up another garment to go over the wrap. + +Alice frowned at it. "What's that, mama?" + +"It's--it's your father's raincoat. I thought you'd put it on +over----" + +"But I won't need it in a taxicab." + +"You will to get in and out, and you needn't take it into the +Palmers'. You can leave it in the--in the-- It's drizzling, +and you'll need it." + +"Oh, well," Alice consented; and a few minutes later, as with +Walter's assistance she climbed into the vehicle he had provided, +she better understood her mother's solicitude. + +"What on earth IS this, Walter?" she asked. + +"Never mind; it'll keep you dry enough with the top up," he +returned, taking his seat beside her. Then for a time, as they +went rather jerkily up the street, she was silent; but finally +she repeated her question: "What IS it, Walter?" + +"What's what?" + +"This--this CAR?" + +"It's a ottomobile." + +"I mean--what kind is it?" + +"Haven't you got eyes?" + +"It's too dark." + +"It's a second-hand tin Lizzie," said Walter. "D'you know what +that means? It means a flivver." + +"Yes, Walter." + +"Got 'ny 'bjections?" + +"Why, no, dear," she said, placatively. "Is it yours, Walter? +Have you bought it?" + +"Me?" he laughed. "_I_ couldn't buy a used wheelbarrow. I rent +this sometimes when I'm goin' out among 'em. Costs me +seventy-five cents and the price o' the gas." + +"That seems very moderate." + +"I guess it is! The feller owes me some money, and this is the +only way I'd ever get it off him." + +"Is he a garage-keeper?" + +"Not exactly!" Walter uttered husky sounds of amusement. "You'll +be just as happy, I guess, if you don't know who he is," he said. + +His tone misgave her; and she said truthfully that she was +content not to know who owned the car. "I joke sometimes about +how you keep things to yourself," she added, "but I really never +do pry in your affairs, Walter." + +"Oh, no, you don't!" + +"Indeed, I don't." + +"Yes, you're mighty nice and cooing when you got me where you +want me," he jeered. "Well, _I_ just as soon tell you where I +get this car." + +"I'd just as soon you wouldn't, Walter," she said, hurriedly. +"Please don't." + +But Walter meant to tell her. "Why, there's nothin' exactly +CRIMINAL about it," he said. "It belongs to old J. A. Lamb +himself. He keeps it for their coon chauffeur. I rent it from +him." + +"From Mr. LAMB?" + +"No; from the coon chauffeur." + +"Walter!" she gasped. + +"Sure I do! I can get it any night when the coon isn't goin' to +use it himself. He's drivin' their limousine to-night--that +little Henrietta Lamb's goin' to the party, no matter if her +father HAS only been dead less'n a year!" He paused, then +inquired: "Well, how d'you like it?" + +She did not speak, and he began to be remorseful for having +imparted so much information, though his way of expressing regret +was his own. "Well, you WILL make the folks make me take you to +parties!" he said. "I got to do it the best way I CAN, don't I?" + +Then as she made no response, "Oh, the car's CLEAN enough," he +said. "This coon, he's as particular as any white man; you +needn't worry about that." And as she still said nothing, he +added gruffly, "I'd of had a better car if I could afforded it. +You needn't get so upset about it." + +"I don't understand--" she said in a low voice--"I don't +understand how you know such people." + +"Such people as who?" + +"As--coloured chauffeurs." + +"Oh, look here, now!" he protested, loudly. "Don't you know this +is a democratic country?" + +"Not quite that democratic, is it, Walter?" + +"The trouble with you," he retorted, "you don't know there's +anybody in town except just this silk-shirt crowd." He paused, +seeming to await a refutation; but as none came, he expressed +himself definitely: "They make me sick." + +They were coming near their destination, and the glow of the big, +brightly lighted house was seen before them in the wet night. +Other cars, not like theirs, were approaching this center of +brilliance; long triangles of light near the ground swept through +the fine drizzle; small red tail-lights gleamed again from the +moist pavement of the street; and, through the myriads of little +glistening leaves along the curving driveway, glimpses were +caught of lively colours moving in a white glare as the +limousines released their occupants under the shelter of the +porte-cochere. + +Alice clutched Walter's arm in a panic; they were just at the +driveway entrance. "Walter, we mustn't go in there." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Leave this awful car outside." + +"Why, I----" + +"Stop!" she insisted, vehemently. "You've got to! Go back!" + +"Oh, Glory!" + +The little car was between the entrance posts; but Walter backed +it out, avoiding a collision with an impressive machine which +swerved away from them and passed on toward the porte-cochere, +showing a man's face grinning at the window as it went by. +"Flivver runabout got the wrong number!" he said. + +"Did he SEE us?" Alice cried. + +"Did who see us?" + +"Harvey Malone--in that foreign coupe." + +"No; he couldn't tell who we were under this top," Walter assured +her as he brought the little car to a standstill beside the +curbstone, out in the street. "What's it matter if he did, the +big fish?" + +Alice responded with a loud sigh, and sat still. + +"Well, want to go on back?" Walter inquired. "You bet I'm +willing!" + +"No." + +"Well, then, what's the matter our drivin' on up to the +porte-cochere? There's room for me to park just the other side +of it." + +"No, NO!" + +"What you expect to do? Sit HERE all night?" + +"No, leave the car here." + +"_I_ don't care where we leave it," he said. "Sit still till I +lock her, so none o' these millionaires around here'll run off +with her." He got out with a padlock and chain; and, having put +these in place, offered Alice his hand. "Come on, if you're +ready." + +"Wait," she said, and, divesting herself of the raincoat, handed +it to Walter. "Please leave this with your things in the men's +dressing-room, as if it were an extra one of your own, Walter." + +He nodded; she jumped out; and they scurried through the drizzle. + +As they reached the porte-cochere she began to laugh airily, and +spoke to the impassive man in livery who stood there. "Joke on +us!" she said, hurrying by him toward the door of the house. +"Our car broke down outside the gate." + +The man remained impassive, though he responded with a faint +gleam as Walter, looking back at him, produced for his benefit a +cynical distortion of countenance which offered little +confirmation of Alice's account of things. Then the door was +swiftly opened to the brother and sister; and they came into a +marble-floored hall, where a dozen sleeked young men lounged, +smoked cigarettes and fastened their gloves, as they waited for +their ladies. Alice nodded to one or another of these, and went +quickly on, her face uplifted and smiling; but Walter detained +her at the door to which she hastened. + +"Listen here," he said. "I suppose you want me to dance the +first dance with you----" + +"If you please, Walter," she said, meekly. + +"How long you goin' to hang around fixin' up in that +dressin'-room?" + +"I'll be out before you're ready yourself," she promised him; and +kept her word, she was so eager for her good time to begin. When +he came for her, they went down the hall to a corridor opening +upon three great rooms which had been thrown open together, with +the furniture removed and the broad floors waxed. At one end of +the corridor musicians sat in a green grove, and Walter, with +some interest, turned toward these; but his sister, pressing his +arm, impelled him in the opposite direction. + +"What's the matter now?" he asked. "That's Jazz Louie and his +half-breed bunch--three white and four mulatto. Let's----?" + +"No, no," she whispered. "We must speak to Mildred and Mr. and +Mrs. Palmer." + +"'Speak' to 'em? I haven't got a thing to say to THOSE berries!" + +"Walter, won't you PLEASE behave?" + +He seemed to consent, for the moment, at least, and suffered her +to take him down the corridor toward a floral bower where the +hostess stood with her father and mother. Other couples and +groups were moving in the same direction, carrying with them a +hubbub of laughter and fragmentary chatterings; and Alice, +smiling all the time, greeted people on every side of her +eagerly--a little more eagerly than most of them responded--while +Walter nodded in a noncommittal manner to one or two, said +nothing, and yawned audibly, the last resource of a person who +finds himself nervous in a false situation. He repeated his yawn +and was beginning another when a convulsive pressure upon his arm +made him understand that he must abandon this method of +reassuring himself. They were close upon the floral bower. + +Mildred was giving her hand to one and another of her guests as +rapidly as she could, passing them on to her father and mother, +and at the same time resisting the efforts of three or four +detached bachelors who besought her to give over her duty in +favour of the dance-music just beginning to blare. + +She was a large, fair girl, with a kindness of eye somewhat +withheld by an expression of fastidiousness; at first sight of +her it was clear that she would never in her life do anything +"incorrect," or wear anything "incorrect." But her correctness +was of the finer sort, and had no air of being studied or +achieved; conduct would never offer her a problem to be settled +from a book of rules, for the rules were so deep within her that +she was unconscious of them. And behind this perfection there +was an even ampler perfection of what Mrs. Adams called +"background." The big, rich, simple house was part of it, and +Mildred's father and mother were part of it. They stood beside +her, large, serene people, murmuring graciously and gently +inclining their handsome heads as they gave their hands to the +guests; and even the youngest and most ebullient of these took on +a hushed mannerliness with a closer approach to the bower. + +When the opportunity came for Alice and Walter to pass within +this precinct, Alice, going first, leaned forward and whispered +in Mildred's ear. "You DIDN'T wear the maize georgette! That's +what I thought you were going to. But you look simply DARLING! +And those pearls----" + +Others were crowding decorously forward, anxious to be done with +ceremony and get to the dancing; and Mildred did not prolong the +intimacy of Alice's enthusiastic whispering. With a faint +accession of colour and a smile tending somewhat in the direction +of rigidity, she carried Alice's hand immediately onward to Mrs. +Palmer's. Alice's own colour showed a little heightening as she +accepted the suggestion thus implied; nor was that emotional tint +in any wise decreased, a moment later, by an impression that +Walter, in concluding the brief exchange of courtesies between +himself and the stately Mr. Palmer, had again reassured himself +with a yawn. + +But she did not speak of it to Walter; she preferred not to +confirm the impression and to leave in her mind a possible doubt +that he had done it. He followed her out upon the waxed floor, +said resignedly: "Well, come on," put his arm about her, and they +began to dance. + +Alice danced gracefully and well, but not so well as Walter. Of +all the steps and runs, of all the whimsical turns and twirlings, +of all the rhythmic swayings and dips commanded that season by +such blarings as were the barbaric product, loud and wild, of the +Jazz Louies and their half-breed bunches, the thin and sallow +youth was a master. Upon his face could be seen contempt of the +easy marvels he performed as he moved in swift precision from one +smooth agility to another; and if some too-dainty or jealous +cavalier complained that to be so much a stylist in dancing was +"not quite like a gentleman," at least Walter's style was what +the music called for. No other dancer in the room could be +thought comparable to him. Alice told him so. + +"It's wonderful!" she said. "And the mystery is, where you ever +learned to DO it! You never went to dancing-school, but there +isn't a man in the room who can dance half so well. I don't see +why, when you dance like this, you always make such a fuss about +coming to parties." + +He sounded his brief laugh, a jeering bark out of one side of the +mouth, and swung her miraculously through a closing space between +two other couples. "You know a lot about what goes on, don't +you? You prob'ly think there's no other place to dance in this +town except these frozen-face joints." + +"'Frozen face?'" she echoed, laughing. "Why, everybody's having +a splendid time. Look at them." + +"Oh, they holler loud enough," he said. "They do it to make each +other think they're havin' a good time. You don't call that +Palmer family frozen-face berries, I s'pose. No?" + +"Certainly not. They're just dignified and----" + +"Yeuh!" said Walter. "They're dignified, 'specially when you +tried to whisper to Mildred to show how IN with her you were, and +she moved you on that way. SHE'S a hot friend, isn't she!" + +"She didn't mean anything by it. She----" + +"Ole Palmer's a hearty, slap you-on-the-back ole berry," Walter +interrupted; adding in a casual tone, "All I'd like, I'd like to +hit him." + +"Walter! By the way, you mustn't forget to ask Mildred for a +dance before the evening is over." + +"Me?" He produced the lop-sided appearance of his laugh, but +without making it vocal. "You watch me do it!" + +"She probably won't have one left, but you must ask her, anyway." + +"Why must I?" + +"Because, in the first place, you're supposed to, and, in the +second place, she's my most intimate friend." + +"Yeuh? Is she? I've heard you pull that 'most-intimate-friend' +stuff often enough about her. What's SHE ever do to show she +is?" + +"Never mind. You really must ask her, Walter. I want you to; +and I want you to ask several other girls afterwhile; I'll tell +you who." + +"Keep on wanting; it'll do you good." + +"Oh, but you really----" + +"Listen!" he said. "I'm just as liable to dance with any of +these fairies as I am to buy a bucket o' rusty tacks and eat 'em. +Forget it! Soon as I get rid of you I'm goin' back to that room +where I left my hat and overcoat and smoke myself to death." + +"Well," she said, a little ruefully, as the frenzy of Jazz Louie +and his half-breeds was suddenly abated to silence, "you +mustn't--you mustn't get rid of me TOO soon, Walter." + +They stood near one of the wide doorways, remaining where they +had stopped. Other couples, everywhere, joined one another, +forming vivacious clusters, but none of these groups adopted the +brother and sister, nor did any one appear to be hurrying in +Alice's direction to ask her for the next dance. She looked +about her, still maintaining that jubilance of look and manner +she felt so necessary--for it is to the girls who are "having a +good time" that partners are attracted--and, in order to lend +greater colour to her impersonation of a lively belle, she began +to chatter loudly, bringing into play an accompaniment of +frolicsome gesture. She brushed Walter's nose saucily with the +bunch of violets in her hand, tapped him on the shoulder, shook +her pretty forefinger in his face, flourished her arms, kept her +shoulders moving, and laughed continuously as she spoke. + +"You NAUGHTY old Walter!" she cried. "AREN'T you ashamed to be +such a wonderful dancer and then only dance with your own little +sister! You could dance on the stage if you wanted to. Why, you +could made your FORTUNE that way! Why don't you? Wouldn't it be +just lovely to have all the rows and rows of people clapping +their hands and shouting, 'Hurrah! Hurrah, for Walter Adams! +Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" + +He stood looking at her in stolid pity. + +"Cut it out," he said. "You better be givin' some of these +berries the eye so they'll ask you to dance." + +She was not to be so easily checked, and laughed loudly, +flourishing her violets in his face again. "You WOULD like it; +you know you would; you needn't pretend! Just think! A whole +big audience shouting, 'Hurrah! HURRAH! HUR----'" + +"The place'll be pulled if you get any noisier," he interrupted, +not ungently. "Besides, I'm no muley cow." + +"A 'COW?'" she laughed. "What on earth----" + +"I can't eat dead violets," he explained. "So don't keep tryin' +to make me do it." + +This had the effect he desired, and subdued her; she abandoned +her unsisterly coquetries, and looked beamingly about her, but +her smile was more mechanical than it had been at first. + +At home she had seemed beautiful; but here, where the other girls +competed, things were not as they had been there, with only her +mother and Miss Perry to give contrast. These crowds of other +girls had all done their best, also, to look beautiful, though +not one of them had worked so hard for such a consummation as +Alice had. They did not need to; they did not need to get their +mothers to make old dresses over; they did not need to hunt +violets in the rain. + +At home her dress had seemed beautiful; but that was different, +too, where there were dozens of brilliant fabrics, fashioned in +new ways--some of these new ways startling, which only made the +wearers centers of interest and shocked no one. And Alice +remembered that she had heard a girl say, not long before, "Oh, +ORGANDIE! Nobody wears organdie for evening gowns except in +midsummer." Alice had thought little of this; but as she looked +about her and saw no organdie except her own, she found greater +difficulty in keeping her smile as arch and spontaneous as she +wished it. In fact, it was beginning to make her face ache a +little. + +Mildred came in from the corridor, heavily attended. She carried +a great bouquet of violets laced with lilies of-the-valley; and +the violets were lusty, big purple things, their stems wrapped in +cloth of gold, with silken cords dependent, ending in long +tassels. She and her convoy passed near the two young Adamses; +and it appeared that one of the convoy besought his hostess to +permit "cutting in"; they were "doing it other places" of late, +he urged; but he was denied and told to console himself by +holding the bouquet, at intervals, until his third of the +sixteenth dance should come. Alice looked dubiously at her own +bouquet. + +Suddenly she felt that the violets betrayed her; that any one who +looked at them could see how rustic, how innocent of any +florist's craft they were "I can't eat dead violets," Walter +said. The little wild flowers, dying indeed in the warm air, +were drooping in a forlorn mass; and it seemed to her that +whoever noticed them would guess that she had picked them +herself. She decided to get rid of them. + +Walter was becoming restive. "Look here!" he said. "Can't you +flag one o' these long-tailed birds to take you on for the next +dance? You came to have a good time; why don't you get busy and +have it? I want to get out and smoke." + +"You MUSTN'T leave me, Walter," she whispered, hastily. +"Somebody'll come for me before long, but until they do----" + +"Well, couldn't you sit somewhere?" + +"No, no! There isn't any one I could sit with." + +"Well, why not? Look at those ole dames in the corners. What's +the matter your tyin' up with some o' them for a while?" + +"PLEASE, Walter; no!" + +In fact, that indomitable smile of hers was the more difficult to +maintain because of these very elders to whom Walter referred. +They were mothers of girls among the dancers, and they were there +to fend and contrive for their offspring; to keep them in +countenance through any trial; to lend them diplomacy in the +carrying out of all enterprises; to be "background" for them; and +in these essentially biological functionings to imitate their own +matings and renew the excitement of their nuptial periods. Older +men, husbands of these ladies and fathers of eligible girls, were +also to be seen, most of them with Mr. Palmer in a billiard-room +across the corridor. Mr. and Mrs. Adams had not been invited. +"Of course papa and mama just barely know Mildred Palmer," Alice +thought, "and most of the other girls' fathers and mothers are +old friends of Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, but I do think she might +have ASKED papa and mama, anyway--she needn't have been afraid +just to ask them; she knew they couldn't come." And her smiling +lip twitched a little threateningly, as she concluded the silent +monologue. "I suppose she thinks I ought to be glad enough she +asked Walter!" + +Walter was, in fact, rather noticeable. He was not Mildred's +only guest to wear a short coat and to appear without gloves; but +he was singular (at least in his present surroundings) on account +of a kind of coiffuring he favoured, his hair having been shaped +after what seemed a Mongol inspiration. Only upon the top of the +head was actual hair perceived, the rest appearing to be nudity. +And even more than by any difference in mode he was set apart by +his look and manner, in which there seemed to be a brooding, +secretive and jeering superiority and this was most vividly +expressed when he felt called upon for his loud, short, lop-sided +laugh. Whenever he uttered it Alice laughed, too, as loudly as +she could, to cover it. + +"Well," he said. "How long we goin' to stand here? My feet are +sproutin' roots." + +Alice took his arm, and they began to walk aimlessly through the +rooms, though she tried to look as if they had a definite +destination, keeping her eyes eager and her lips parted;--people +had called jovially to them from the distance, she meant to +imply, and they were going to join these merry friends. She was +still upon this ghostly errand when a furious outbreak of drums +and saxophones sounded a prelude for the second dance. + +Walter danced with her again, but he gave her a warning. "I +don't want to leave you high and dry," he told her, "but I can't +stand it. I got to get somewhere I don't haf' to hurt my eyes +with these berries; I'll go blind if I got to look at any more of +'em. I'm goin' out to smoke as soon as the music begins the next +time, and you better get fixed for it." + +Alice tried to get fixed for it. As they danced she nodded +sunnily to every man whose eye she caught, smiled her smile with +the under lip caught between her teeth; but it was not until the +end of the intermission after the dance that she saw help coming. + +Across the room sat the globular lady she had encountered that +morning, and beside the globular lady sat a round-headed, +round-bodied girl; her daughter, at first glance. The family +contour was also as evident a characteristic of the short young +man who stood in front of Mrs. Dowling, engaged with her in a +discussion which was not without evidences of an earnestness +almost impassioned. Like Walter, he was declining to dance a +third time with sister; he wished to go elsewhere. + +Alice from a sidelong eye watched the controversy: she saw the +globular young man glance toward her, over his shoulder; +whereupon Mrs. Dowling, following this glance, gave Alice a look +of open fury, became much more vehement in the argument, and even +struck her knee with a round, fat fist for emphasis. + +"I'm on my way," said Walter. "There's the music startin' up +again, and I told you----" + +She nodded gratefully. "It's all right--but come back before +long, Walter." + +The globular young man, red with annoyance, had torn himself from +his family and was hastening across the room to her. "C'n I have +this dance?" + +"Why, you nice Frank Dowling!" Alice cried. "How lovely!" + + + +CHAPTER VII + +They danced. Mr. Dowling should have found other forms of +exercise and pastime. + +Nature has not designed everyone for dancing, though sometimes +those she has denied are the last to discover her niggardliness. +But the round young man was at least vigorous enough--too much +so, when his knees collided with Alice's--and he was too sturdy +to be thrown off his feet, himself, or to allow his partner to +fall when he tripped her. He held her up valiantly, and +continued to beat a path through the crowd of other dancers by +main force. + +He paid no attention to anything suggested by the efforts of the +musicians, and appeared to be unaware that there should have been +some connection between what they were doing and what he was +doing; but he may have listened to other music of his own, for +his expression was of high content; he seemed to feel no doubt +whatever that he was dancing. Alice kept as far away from him as +under the circumstances she could; and when they stopped she +glanced down, and found the execution of unseen manoeuvres, +within the protection of her skirt, helpful to one of her insteps +and to the toes of both of her slippers. + +Her cheery partner was paddling his rosy brows with a fine +handkerchief. "That was great!" he said. "Let's go out and sit +in the corridor; they've got some comfortable chairs out there." + +"Well--let's not," she returned. "I believe I'd rather stay in +here and look at the crowd." + +"No; that isn't it," he said, chiding her with a waggish +forefinger. "You think if you go out there you'll miss a chance +of someone else asking you for the next dance, and so you'll have +to give it to me." + +"How absurd!" Then, after a look about her that revealed nothing +encouraging, she added graciously, "You can have the next if you +want it." + +"Great!" he exclaimed, mechanically. "Now let's get out of +here--out of THIS room, anyhow." + +"Why? What's the matter with----" + +"My mother," Mr. Dowling explained. "But don't look at her. +She keeps motioning me to come and see after Ella, and I'm simply +NOT going to do it, you see!" + +Alice laughed. "I don't believe it's so much that," she said, +and consented to walk with him to a point in the next room from +which Mrs. Dowling's continuous signalling could not be seen. +"Your mother hates me." + +"Oh, no; I wouldn't say that. No, she don't," he protested, +innocently. "She don't know you more than just to speak to, you +see. So how could she?" + +"Well, she does. I can tell." + +A frown appeared upon his rounded brow. "No; I'll tell you the +way she feels. It's like this: Ella isn't TOO popular, you +know--it's hard to see why, because she's a right nice girl, in +her way--and mother thinks I ought to look after her, you see. +She thinks I ought to dance a whole lot with her myself, and stir +up other fellows to dance with her--it's simply impossible to +make mother understand you CAN'T do that, you see. And then +about me, you see, if she had her way I wouldn't get to dance +with anybody at all except girls like Mildred Palmer and +Henrietta Lamb. Mother wants to run my whole programme for me, +you understand, but the trouble of it is--about girls like that, +you see well, I couldn't do what she wants, even if I wanted to +myself, because you take those girls, and by the time I get Ella +off my hands for a minute, why, their dances are always every +last one taken, and where do I come in?" + +Alice nodded, her amiability undamaged. "I see. So that's why +you dance with me." + +"No, I like to," he protested. "I rather dance with you than I +do with those girls." And he added with a retrospective +determination which showed that he had been through quite an +experience with Mrs. Dowling in this matter. "I TOLD mother I +would, too!" + +"Did it take all your courage, Frank?" + +He looked at her shrewdly. "Now you're trying to tease me," he +said. "I don't care; I WOULD rather dance with you! In the +first place, you're a perfectly beautiful dancer, you see, and in +the second, a man feels a lot more comfortable with you than he +does with them. Of course I know almost all the other fellows +get along with those girls all right; but I don't waste any time +on 'em I don't have to. _I_ like people that are always cordial +to everybody, you see--the way you are." + +"Thank you," she said, thoughtfully. + +"Oh, I MEAN it," he insisted. "There goes the band again. Shall +we?" + +"Suppose we sit it out?" she suggested. "I believe I'd like to +go out in the corridor, after all--it's pretty warm in here." + +Assenting cheerfully, Dowling conducted her to a pair of +easy-chairs within a secluding grove of box-trees, and when they +came to this retreat they found Mildred Palmer just departing, +under escort of a well-favoured gentleman about thirty. As these +two walked slowly away, in the direction of the dancing-floor, +they left it not to be doubted that they were on excellent terms +with each other; Mildred was evidently willing to make their +progress even slower, for she halted momentarily, once or twice; +and her upward glances to her tall companion's face were of a +gentle, almost blushing deference. Never before had Alice seen +anything like this in her friend's manner. + +"How queer!" she murmured. + +"What's queer?" Dowling inquired as they sat down. + +"Who was that man?" + +"Haven't you met him?" + +"I never saw him before. Who is he?" + +"Why, it's this Arthur Russell." + +"What Arthur Russell? I never heard of him." Mr. Dowling was +puzzled. "Why, THAT'S funny! Only the last time I saw you, you +were telling me how awfully well you knew Mildred Palmer." + +"Why, certainly I do," Alice informed him. "She's my most +intimate friend." + +"That's what makes it seem so funny you haven't heard anything +about this Russell, because everybody says even if she isn't +engaged to him right now, she most likely will be before very +long. I must say it looks a good deal that way to me, myself." + +"What nonsense!" Alice exclaimed. "She's never even mentioned +him to me." + +The young man glanced at her dubiously and passed a finger over +the tiny prong that dashingly composed the whole substance of his +moustache. + +"Well, you see, Mildred IS pretty reserved," he remarked. "This +Russell is some kind of cousin of the Palmer family, I +understand." + +"He is?" + +"Yes--second or third or something, the girls say. You see, my +sister Ella hasn't got much to do at home, and don't read +anything, or sew, or play solitaire, you see; and she hears about +pretty much everything that goes on, you see. Well, Ella says a +lot of the girls have been talking about Mildred and this Arthur +Russell for quite a while back, you see. They were all wondering +what he was going to look like, you see; because he only got here +yesterday; and that proves she must have been talking to some of +'em, or else how----" + +Alice laughed airily, but the pretty sound ended abruptly with an +audible intake of breath. "Of course, while Mildred IS my most +intimate friend," she said, "I don't mean she tells me +everything--and naturally she has other friends besides. What +else did your sister say she told them about this Mr. Russell?" + +"Well, it seems he's VERY well off; at least Henrietta Lamb told +Ella he was. Ella says----" + +Alice interrupted again, with an increased irritability. "Oh, +never mind what Ella says! Let's find something better to talk +about than Mr. Russell!" + +"Well, I'M willing," Mr. Dowling assented, ruefully. "What you +want to talk about?" + +But this liberal offer found her unresponsive; she sat leaning +back, silent, her arms along the arms of her chair, and her eyes, +moist and bright, fixed upon a wide doorway where the dancers +fluctuated. She was disquieted by more than Mildred's reserve, +though reserve so marked had certainly the significance of a +warning that Alice's definition, "my most intimate friend," +lacked sanction. Indirect notice to this effect could not well +have been more emphatic, but the sting of it was left for a later +moment. Something else preoccupied Alice: she had just been +surprised by an odd experience. At first sight of this Mr. +Arthur Russell, she had said to herself instantly, in words as +definite as if she spoke them aloud, though they seemed more like +words spoken to her by some unknown person within her: "There! +That's exactly the kind of looking man I'd like to marry!" + +In the eyes of the restless and the longing, Providence often +appears to be worse than inscrutable: an unreliable Omnipotence +given to haphazard whimsies in dealing with its own creatures, +choosing at random some among them to be rent with tragic +deprivations and others to be petted with blessing upon blessing. + +In Alice's eyes, Mildred had been blessed enough; something ought +to be left over, by this time, for another girl. The final touch +to the heaping perfection of Christmas-in-everything for Mildred +was that this Mr. Arthur Russell, good-looking, kind-looking, +graceful, the perfect fiance, should be also "VERY well off." Of +course! These rich always married one another. And while the +Mildreds danced with their Arthur Russells the best an outsider +could do for herself was to sit with Frank Dowling--the one last +course left her that was better than dancing with him. + +"Well, what DO you want to talk about?" he inquired. + +"Nothing," she said. "Suppose we just sit, Frank." But a moment +later she remembered something, and, with a sudden animation, +began to prattle. She pointed to the musicians down the +corridor. "Oh, look at them! Look at the leader! Aren't they +FUNNY? Someone told me they're called 'Jazz Louie and his +half-breed bunch.' Isn't that just crazy? Don't you love it? Do +watch them, Frank." + +She continued to chatter, and, while thus keeping his glance away +from herself, she detached the forlorn bouquet of dead violets +from her dress and laid it gently beside the one she had carried. + +The latter already reposed in the obscurity selected for it at +the base of one of the box-trees. + +Then she was abruptly silent. + +"You certainly are a funny girl," Dowling remarked. "You say you +don't want to talk about anything at all, and all of a sudden you +break out and talk a blue streak; and just about the time I begin +to get interested in what you're saying you shut off! What's the +matter with girls, anyhow, when they do things like that?" + +"I don't know; we're just queer, I guess." + +"I say so! Well, what'll we do NOW? Talk, or just sit?" + +"Suppose we just sit some more." + +"Anything to oblige," he assented. "I'm willing to sit as long +as you like." + +But even as he made his amiability clear in this matter, the +peace was threatened--his mother came down the corridor like a +rolling, ominous cloud. She was looking about her on all sides, +in a fidget of annoyance, searching for him, and to his dismay +she saw him. She immediately made a horrible face at his +companion, beckoned to him imperiously with a dumpy arm, and +shook her head reprovingly. The unfortunate young man tried to +repulse her with an icy stare, but this effort having obtained +little to encourage his feeble hope of driving her away, he +shifted his chair so that his back was toward her discomfiting +pantomime. He should have known better, the instant result was +Mrs. Dowling in motion at an impetuous waddle. + +She entered the box-tree seclusion with the lower rotundities of +her face hastily modelled into the resemblance of an +over-benevolent smile a contortion which neglected to spread its +intended geniality upward to the exasperated eyes and anxious +forehead. + +"I think your mother wants to speak to you, Frank," Alice said, +upon this advent. + +Mrs. Dowling nodded to her. "Good evening, Miss Adams," she +said. "I just thought as you and Frank weren't dancing you +wouldn't mind my disturbing you----" + +"Not at all," Alice murmured. + +Mr. Dowling seemed of a different mind. "Well, what DO you +want?" he inquired, whereupon his mother struck him roguishly +with her fan. + +"Bad fellow!" She turned to Alice. "I'm sure you won't mind +excusing him to let him do something for his old mother, Miss +Adams." + +"What DO you want?" the son repeated. + +"Two very nice things," Mrs. Dowling informed him. "Everybody +is so anxious for Henrietta Lamb to have a pleasant evening, +because it's the very first time she's been anywhere since her +father's death, and of course her dear grandfather's an old +friend of ours, and----" + +"Well, well!" her son interrupted. "Miss Adams isn't interested +in all this, mother." + +"But Henrietta came to speak to Ella and me, and I told her you +were so anxious to dance with her----" + +"Here!" he cried. "Look here! I'd rather do my own----" + +"Yes; that's just it," Mrs. Dowling explained. "I just thought +it was such a good opportunity; and Henrietta said she had most +of her dances taken, but she'd give you one if you asked her +before they were all gone. So I thought you'd better see her as +soon as possible." + +Dowling's face had become rosy. "I refuse to do anything of the +kind." + +"Bad fellow!" said his mother, gaily. "I thought this would be +the best time for you to see Henrietta, because it won't be long +till all her dances are gone, and you've promised on your WORD to +dance the next with Ella, and you mightn't have a chance to do it +then. I'm sure Miss Adams won't mind if you----" + +"Not at all," Alice said. + +"Well, _I_ mind!" he said. "I wish you COULD understand that +when I want to dance with any girl I don't need my mother to ask +her for me. I really AM more than six years old!" + +He spoke with too much vehemence, and Mrs. Dowling at once saw +how to have her way. As with husbands and wives, so with many +fathers and daughters, and so with some sons and mothers: the man +will himself be cross in public and think nothing of it, nor will +he greatly mind a little crossness on the part of the woman; but +let her show agitation before any spectator, he is instantly +reduced to a coward's slavery. Women understand that ancient +weakness, of course; for it is one of their most important means +of defense, but can be used ignobly. + +Mrs. Dowling permitted a tremulousness to become audible in her +voice. "It isn't very--very pleasant --to be talked to like that +by your own son--before strangers!" + +"Oh, my! Look here!" the stricken Dowling protested. "_I_ +didn't say anything, mother. I was just joking about how you +never get over thinking I'm a little boy. I only----" + +Mrs. Dowling continued: "I just thought I was doing you a little +favour. I didn't think it would make you so angry." + +"Mother, for goodness' sake! Miss Adams'll think----" + +"I suppose," Mrs. Dowling interrupted, piteously, "I suppose it +doesn't matter what _I_ think!" + +"Oh, gracious!" + +Alice interfered; she perceived that the ruthless Mrs. Dowling +meant to have her way. "I think you'd better go, Frank. +Really." + +"There!" his mother cried. "Miss Adams says so, herself! What +more do you want?" + +"Oh, gracious!" he lamented again, and, with a sick look over his +shoulder at Alice, permitted his mother to take his arm and +propel him away. Mrs. Dowling's spirits had strikingly +recovered even before the pair passed from the corridor: she +moved almost bouncingly beside her embittered son, and her eyes +and all the convolutions of her abundant face were blithe. + +Alice went in search of Walter, but without much hope of finding +him. What he did with himself at frozen-face dances was one of +his most successful mysteries, and her present excursion gave her +no clue leading to its solution. When the musicians again +lowered their instruments for an interval she had returned, +alone, to her former seat within the partial shelter of the +box-trees. + +She had now to practice an art that affords but a limited variety +of methods, even to the expert: the art of seeming to have an +escort or partner when there is none. The practitioner must +imply, merely by expression and attitude, that the supposed +companion has left her for only a few moments, that she herself +has sent him upon an errand; and, if possible, the minds of +observers must be directed toward a conclusion that this errand +of her devising is an amusing one; at all events, she is alone +temporarily and of choice, not deserted. She awaits a devoted +man who may return at any instant. + +Other people desired to sit in Alice's nook, but discovered her +in occupancy. She had moved the vacant chair closer to her own, +and she sat with her arm extended so that her hand, holding her +lace kerchief, rested upon the back of this second chair, +claiming it. Such a preemption, like that of a traveller's bag +in the rack, was unquestionable; and, for additional evidence, +sitting with her knees crossed, she kept one foot continuously +moving a little, in cadence with the other, which tapped the +floor. Moreover, she added a fine detail: her half-smile, with +the under lip caught, seemed to struggle against repression, as +if she found the service engaging her absent companion even more +amusing than she would let him see when he returned: there was +jovial intrigue of some sort afoot, evidently. Her eyes, beaming +with secret fun, were averted from intruders, but sometimes, when +couples approached, seeking possession of the nook, her thoughts +about the absentee appeared to threaten her with outright +laughter; and though one or two girls looked at her skeptically, +as they turned away, their escorts felt no such doubts, and +merely wondered what importantly funny affair Alice Adams was +engaged in. She had learned to do it perfectly. + +She had learned it during the last two years; she was twenty when +for the first time she had the shock of finding herself without +an applicant for one of her dances. When she was sixteen "all +the nice boys in town," as her mother said, crowded the Adamses' +small veranda and steps, or sat near by, cross-legged on the +lawn, on summer evenings; and at eighteen she had replaced the +boys with "the older men." By this time most of "the other +girls," her contemporaries, were away at school or college, and +when they came home to stay, they "came out"--that feeble revival +of an ancient custom offering the maiden to the ceremonial +inspection of the tribe. Alice neither went away nor "came out," +and, in contrast with those who did, she may have seemed to lack +freshness of lustre--jewels are richest when revealed all new in +a white velvet box. And Alice may have been too eager to secure +new retainers, too kind in her efforts to keep the old ones. She +had been a belle too soon. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The device of the absentee partner has the defect that it cannot +be employed for longer than ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and +it may not be repeated more than twice in one evening: a single +repetition, indeed, is weak, and may prove a betrayal. Alice +knew that her present performance could be effective during only +this interval between dances; and though her eyes were guarded, +she anxiously counted over the partnerless young men who lounged +together in the doorways within her view. Every one of them +ought to have asked her for dances, she thought, and although she +might have been put to it to give a reason why any of them +"ought," her heart was hot with resentment against them. + +For a girl who has been a belle, it is harder to live through +these bad times than it is for one who has never known anything +better. Like a figure of painted and brightly varnished wood, +Ella Dowling sat against the wall through dance after dance with +glassy imperturbability; it was easier to be wooden, Alice +thought, if you had your mother with you, as Ella had. You were +left with at least the shred of a pretense that you came to sit +with your mother as a spectator, and not to offer yourself to be +danced with by men who looked you over and rejected you--not for +the first time. "Not for the first time": there lay a sting! +Why had you thought this time might be different from the other +times? Why had you broken your back picking those hundreds of +violets? + +Hating the fatuous young men in the doorways more bitterly for +every instant that she had to maintain her tableau, the smiling +Alice knew fierce impulses to spring to her feet and shout at +them, "You IDIOTS!" Hands in pockets, they lounged against the +pilasters, or faced one another, laughing vaguely, each one of +them seeming to Alice no more than so much mean beef in clothes. +She wanted to tell them they were no better than that; and it +seemed a cruel thing of heaven to let them go on believing +themselves young lords. They were doing nothing, killing time. +Wasn't she at her lowest value at least a means of killing time? +Evidently the mean beeves thought not. And when one of them +finally lounged across the corridor and spoke to her, he was the +very one to whom she preferred her loneliness. + +"Waiting for somebody, Lady Alicia?" he asked, negligently; and +his easy burlesque of her name was like the familiarity of the +rest of him. He was one of those full-bodied, grossly handsome +men who are powerful and active, but never submit themselves to +the rigour of becoming athletes, though they shoot and fish from +expensive camps. Gloss is the most shining outward mark of the +type. Nowadays these men no longer use brilliantine on their +moustaches, but they have gloss bought from manicure-girls, from +masseurs, and from automobile-makers; and their eyes, usually +large, are glossy. None of this is allowed to interfere with +business; these are "good business men," and often make large +fortunes. They are men of imagination about two things--women +and money, and, combining their imaginings about both, usually +make a wise first marriage. Later, however, they are apt to +imagine too much about some little woman without whom life seems +duller than need be. They run away, leaving the first wife well +enough dowered. They are never intentionally unkind to women, +and in the end they usually make the mistake of thinking they +have had their money's worth of life. Here was Mr. Harvey +Malone, a young specimen in an earlier stage of development, +trying to marry Henrietta Lamb, and now sauntering over to speak +to Alice, as a time-killer before his next dance with Henrietta. + +Alice made no response to his question, and he dropped lazily +into the vacant chair, from which she sharply withdrew her hand. +"I might as well use his chair till he comes, don't you think? +You don't MIND, do you, old girl?" + +"Oh, no," Alice said. "It doesn't matter one way or the other. +Please don't call me that." + +"So that's how you feel?" Mr. Malone laughed indulgently, +without much interest. "I've been meaning to come to see you for +a long time honestly I have--because I wanted to have a good talk +with you about old times. I know you think it was funny, after +the way I used to come to your house two or three times a week, +and sometimes oftener--well, I don't blame you for being hurt, +the way I stopped without explaining or anything. The truth is +there wasn't any reason: I just happened to have a lot of +important things to do and couldn't find the time. But I AM +going to call on you some evening--honestly I am. I don't wonder +you think----" + +"You're mistaken," Alice said. "I've never thought anything +about it at all." + +"Well, well!" he said, and looked at her languidly. "What's the +use of being cross with this old man? He always means well." +And, extending his arm, he would have given her a friendly pat +upon the shoulder but she evaded it. "Well, well!" he said. +"Seems to me you're getting awful tetchy! Don't you like your +old friends any more?" + +"Not all of them." + +"Who's the new one?" he asked, teasingly. "Come on and tell us, +Alice. Who is it you were holding this chair for?" + +"Never mind." + +"Well, all I've got to do is to sit here till he comes back; then +I'll see who it is." + +"He may not come back before you have to go." + +"Guess you got me THAT time," Malone admitted, laughing as he +rose. "They're tuning up, and I've got this dance. I AM coming +around to see you some evening." He moved away, calling back +over his shoulder, "Honestly, I am!" + +Alice did not look at him, + +She had held her tableau as long as she could; it was time for +her to abandon the box-trees; and she stepped forth frowning, as +if a little annoyed with the absentee for being such a time upon +her errand; whereupon the two chairs were instantly seized by a +coquetting pair who intended to "sit out" the dance. She walked +quickly down the broad corridor, turned into the broader hall, +and hurriedly entered the dressing-room where she had left her +wraps. + +She stayed here as long as she could, pretending to arrange her +hair at a mirror, then fidgeting with one of her slipper-buckles; +but the intelligent elderly woman in charge of the room made an +indefinite sojourn impracticable. "Perhaps I could help you with +that buckle, Miss," she suggested, approaching. "Has it come +loose?" Alice wrenched desperately; then it was loose. The +competent woman, producing needle and thread, deftly made the +buckle fast; and there was nothing for Alice to do but to express +her gratitude and go. + +She went to the door of the cloak-room opposite, where a coloured +man stood watchfully in the doorway. "I wonder if you know which +of the gentlemen is my brother, Mr. Walter Adams," she said. + +"Yes'm; I know him." + +"Could you tell me where he is?" + +"No'm; I couldn't say." + +"Well, if you see him, would you please tell him that his sister, +Miss Adams, is looking for him and very anxious to speak to him?" + +"Yes'm. Sho'ly, sho'ly!" + +As she went away he stared after her and seemed to swell with +some bursting emotion. In fact, it was too much for him, and he +suddenly retired within the room, releasing strangulated +laughter. + +Walter remonstrated. Behind an excellent screen of coats and +hats, in a remote part of the room, he was kneeling on the floor, +engaged in a game of chance with a second coloured attendant; and +the laughter became so vehement that it not only interfered with +the pastime in hand, but threatened to attract frozen-face +attention. + +"I cain' he'p it, man," the laughter explained. "I cain' he'p +it! You sut'n'y the beatin'es' white boy 'n 'is city!" + +The dancers were swinging into an "encore" as Alice halted for an +irresolute moment in a doorway. Across the room, a cluster of +matrons sat chatting absently, their eyes on their dancing +daughters; and Alice, finding a refugee's courage, dodged through +the scurrying couples, seated herself in a chair on the outskirts +of this colony of elders, and began to talk eagerly to the matron +nearest her. The matron seemed unaccustomed to so much vivacity, +and responded but dryly, whereupon Alice was more vivacious than +ever; for she meant now to present the picture of a jolly girl +too much interested in these wise older women to bother about +every foolish young man who asked her for a dance. + +Her matron was constrained to go so far as to supply a tolerant +nod, now and then, in complement to the girl's animation, and +Alice was grateful for the nods. In this fashion she +supplemented the exhausted resources of the dressing-room and the +box-tree nook; and lived through two more dances, when again Mr. +Frank Dowling presented himself as a partner. + +She needed no pretense to seek the dressing-room for repairs +after that number; this time they were necessary and genuine. +Dowling waited for her, and when she came out he explained for +the fourth or fifth time how the accident had happened. "It was +entirely those other people's fault," he said. "They got me in a +kind of a corner, because neither of those fellows knows the +least thing about guiding; they just jam ahead and expect +everybody to get out of their way. It was Charlotte Thom's +diamond crescent pin that got caught on your dress in the back +and made such a----" + +"Never mind," Alice said in a tired voice. "The maid fixed it so +that she says it isn't very noticeable." + +"Well, it isn't," he returned. "You could hardly tell there'd +been anything the matter. Where do you want to go? Mother's +been interfering in my affairs some more and I've got the next +taken." + +"I was sitting with Mrs. George Dresser. You might take me back +there." + +He left her with the matron, and Alice returned to her +picture-making, so that once more, while two numbers passed, +whoever cared to look was offered the sketch of a jolly, clever +girl preoccupied with her elders. Then she found her friend +Mildred standing before her, presenting Mr. Arthur Russell, who +asked her to dance with him. + +Alice looked uncertain, as though not sure what her engagements +were; but her perplexity cleared; she nodded, and swung +rhythmically away with the tall applicant. She was not grateful +to her hostess for this alms. What a young hostess does with a +fiance, Alice thought, is to make him dance with the unpopular +girls. She supposed that Mr. Arthur Russell had already danced +with Ella Dowling. + +The loan of a lover, under these circumstances, may be painful to +the lessee, and Alice, smiling never more brightly, found nothing +to say to Mr. Russell, though she thought he might have found +something to say to her. "I wonder what Mildred told him," she +thought. "Probably she said, 'Dearest, there's one more girl +you've got to help me out with. You wouldn't like her much, but +she dances well enough and she's having a rotten time. Nobody +ever goes near her any more.'" + +When the music stopped, Russell added his applause to the +hand-clapping that encouraged the uproarious instruments to +continue, and as they renewed the tumult, he said heartily, +"That's splendid!" + +Alice gave him a glance, necessarily at short range, and found +his eyes kindly and pleased. Here was a friendly soul, it +appeared, who probably "liked everybody." No doubt he had +applauded for an "encore" when he danced with Ella Dowling, gave +Ella the same genial look, and said, "That's splendid!" + +When the "encore" was over, Alice spoke to him for the first +time. + +"Mildred will be looking for you," she said. "I think you'd +better take me back to where you found me." + +He looked surprised. "Oh, if you----" + +"I'm sure Mildred will be needing you," Alice said, and as she +took his arm and they walked toward Mrs. Dresser, she thought it +might be just possible to make a further use of the loan. "Oh, I +wonder if you----" she began. + +"Yes?" he said, quickly. + +"You don't know my brother, Walter Adams," she said. "But he's +somewhere I think possibly he's in a smoking-room or some place +where girls aren't expected, and if you wouldn't think it too +much trouble to inquire----" + +"I'll find him," Russell said, promptly. "Thank you so much for +that dance. I'll bring your brother in a moment." + +It was to be a long moment, Alice decided, presently. Mrs. +Dresser had grown restive; and her nods and vague responses to +her young dependent's gaieties were as meager as they could well +be. Evidently the matron had no intention of appearing to her +world in the light of a chaperone for Alice Adams; and she +finally made this clear. With a word or two of excuse, breaking +into something Alice was saying, she rose and went to sit next to +Mildred's mother, who had become the nucleus of the cluster. So +Alice was left very much against the wall, with short stretches +of vacant chairs on each side of her. She had come to the end of +her picture-making, and could only pretend that there was +something amusing the matter with the arm of her chair. + +She supposed that Mildred's Mr. Russell had forgotten Walter by +this time. "I'm not even an intimate enough friend of Mildred's +for him to have thought he ought to bother to tell me he couldn't +find him," she thought. And then she saw Russell coming across +the room toward her, with Walter beside him. She jumped up +gaily. + +"Oh, thank you!" she cried. "I know this naughty boy must have +been terribly hard to find. Mildred'll NEVER forgive me! I've +put you to so much----" + +"Not at all," he said, amiably, and went away, leaving the +brother and sister together. + +"Walter, let's dance just once more," Alice said, touching his +arm placatively. "I thought--well, perhaps we might go home +then." + +But Walter's expression was that of a person upon whom an outrage +has just been perpetrated. "No," he said. "We've stayed THIS +long, I'm goin' to wait and see what they got to eat. And you +look here!" He turned upon her angrily. "Don't you ever do that +again!" + +"Do what?" + +"Send somebody after me that pokes his nose into every corner of +the house till he finds me! 'Are you Mr. Walter Adams?' he +says. I guess he must asked everybody in the place if they were +Mr. Walter Adams! Well, I'll bet a few iron men you wouldn't +send anybody to hunt for me again if you knew where he found me!" + +"Where was it?" + +Walter decided that her fit punishment was to know. "I was +shootin' dice with those coons in the cloak-room." + +"And he saw you?" + +"Unless he was blind!" said Walter. "Come on, I'll dance this +one more dance with you. Supper comes after that, and THEN we'll +go home." + + +Mrs. Adams heard Alice's key turning in the front door and +hurried down the stairs to meet her. + +"Did you get wet coming in, darling?" she asked. "Did you have a +good time?" + +"Just lovely!" Alice said, cheerily, and after she had arranged +the latch for Walter, who had gone to return the little car, she +followed her mother upstairs and hummed a dance-tune on the way. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you had a nice time," Mrs. Adams said, as they +reached the door of her daughter's room together. "You DESERVED +to, and it's lovely to think----" + +But at this, without warning, Alice threw herself into her +mother's arms, sobbing so loudly that in his room, close by, her +father, half drowsing through the night, started to full +wakefulness. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +On a morning, a week after this collapse of festal hopes, Mrs. +Adams and her daughter were concluding a three-days' disturbance, +the "Spring house-cleaning"--postponed until now by Adams's long +illness--and Alice, on her knees before a chest of drawers, in +her mother's room, paused thoughtfully after dusting a packet of +letters wrapped in worn muslin. She called to her mother, who +was scrubbing the floor of the hallway just beyond the open door, + +"These old letters you had in the bottom drawer, weren't they +some papa wrote you before you were married?" + +Mrs. Adams laughed and said, "Yes. Just put 'em back where they +were--or else up in the attic--anywhere you want to." + +"Do you mind if I read one, mama?" + +Mrs. Adams laughed again. "Oh, I guess you can if you want to. +I expect they're pretty funny!" + +Alice laughed in response, and chose the topmost letter of the +packet. "My dear, beautiful girl," it began; and she stared at +these singular words. They gave her a shock like that caused by +overhearing some bewildering impropriety; and, having read them +over to herself several times, she went on to experience other +shocks. + + +MY DEAR, BEAUTIFUL GIRL: + + +This time yesterday I had a mighty bad case of blues because I +had not had a word from you in two whole long days and when I do +not hear from you every day things look mighty down in the mouth +to me. Now it is all so different because your letter has +arrived and besides I have got a piece of news I believe you will +think as fine as I do. Darling, you will be surprised, so get +ready to hear about a big effect on our future. It is this way. +I had sort of a suspicion the head of the firm kind of took a +fancy to me from the first when I went in there, and liked the +way I attended to my work and so when he took me on this business +trip with him I felt pretty sure of it and now it turns out I was +about right. In return I guess I have got about the best boss in +this world and I believe you will think so too. Yes, sweetheart, +after the talk I have just had with him if J. A. Lamb asked me +to cut my hand off for him I guess I would come pretty near doing +it because what he says means the end of our waiting to be +together. From New Years on he is going to put me in entire +charge of the sundries dept. and what do you think is going to +be my salary? Eleven hundred cool dollars a year ($1,100.00). +That's all! Just only a cool eleven hundred per annum! Well, I +guess that will show your mother whether I can take care of you +or not. And oh how I would like to see your dear, beautiful, +loving face when you get this news. + +I would like to go out on the public streets and just dance and +shout and it is all I can do to help doing it, especially when I +know we will be talking it all over together this time next week, +and oh my darling, now that your folks have no excuse for putting +it off any longer we might be in our own little home before Xmas. + +Would you be glad? + +Well, darling, this settles everything and makes our future just +about as smooth for us as anybody could ask. I can hardly +realize after all this waiting life's troubles are over for you +and me and we have nothing to do but to enjoy the happiness +granted us by this wonderful, beautiful thing we call life. I +know I am not any poet and the one I tried to write about you the +day of the picnic was fearful but the way I THINK about you is a +poem. + +Write me what you think of the news. I know but write me anyhow. + +I'll get it before we start home and I can be reading it over all +the time on the tram. + + +Your always loving + +VIRGIL. + + + +The sound of her mother's diligent scrubbing in the hall came +back slowly to Alice's hearing, as she restored the letter to the +packet, wrapped the packet in its muslin covering, and returned +it to the drawer. She had remained upon her knees while she read +the letter; now she sank backward, sitting upon the floor with +her hands behind her, an unconscious relaxing for better ease to +think. Upon her face there had fallen a look of wonder. + +For the first time she was vaguely perceiving that life is +everlasting movement. Youth really believes what is running +water to be a permanent crystallization and sees time fixed to a +point: some people have dark hair, some people have blond hair, +some people have gray hair. Until this moment, Alice had no +conviction that there was a universe before she came into it. +She had always thought of it as the background of herself: the +moon was something to make her prettier on a summer night. + +But this old letter, through which she saw still flickering an +ancient starlight of young love, astounded her. Faintly before +her it revealed the whole lives of her father and mother, who had +been young, after all--they REALLY had--and their youth was now +so utterly passed from them that the picture of it, in the +letter, was like a burlesque of them. And so she, herself, must +pass to such changes, too, and all that now seemed vital to her +would be nothing. + +When her work was finished, that afternoon, she went into her +father's room. His recovery had progressed well enough to permit +the departure of Miss Perry; and Adams, wearing one of Mrs. +Adams's wrappers over his night-gown, sat in a high-backed chair +by a closed window. The weather was warm, but the closed window +and the flannel wrapper had not sufficed him: round his shoulders +he had an old crocheted scarf of Alice's; his legs were wrapped +in a heavy comfort; and, with these swathings about him, and his +eyes closed, his thin and grizzled head making but a slight +indentation in the pillow supporting it, he looked old and little +and queer. + +Alice would have gone out softly, but without opening his eyes, +he spoke to her: "Don't go, dearie. Come sit with the old man a +little while." + +She brought a chair near his. "I thought you were napping." + +"No. I don't hardly ever do that. I just drift a little +sometimes." + +"How do you mean you drift, papa?" + +He looked at her vaguely. "Oh, I don't know. Kind of pictures. +They get a little mixed up--old times with times still ahead, +like planning what to do, you know. That's as near a nap as I +get--when the pictures mix up some. I suppose it's sort of +drowsing." + +She took one of his hands and stroked it. "What do you mean when +you say you have pictures like 'planning what to do'?" she asked. + +"I mean planning what to do when I get out and able to go to work +again." + +"But that doesn't need any planning," Alice said, quickly. +"You're going back to your old place at Lamb's, of course." + +Adams closed his eyes again, sighing heavily, but made no other +response. + +"Why, of COURSE you are!" she cried. "What are you talking +about?" + +His head turned slowly toward her, revealing the eyes, open in a +haggard stare. "I heard you the other night when you came from +the party," he said. "I know what was the matter." + +"Indeed, you don't," she assured him. "You don't know anything +about it, because there wasn't anything the matter at all." + +"Don't you suppose I heard you crying? What'd you cry for if +there wasn't anything the matter?" + +"Just nerves, papa. It wasn't anything else in the world." + +"Never mind," he said. "Your mother told me." + +"She promised me not to!" + +At that Adams laughed mournfully. "It wouldn't be very likely +I'd hear you so upset and not ask about it, even if she didn't +come and tell me on her own hook. You needn't try to fool me; I +tell you I know what was the matter." + +"The only matter was I had a silly fit," Alice protested. "It +did me good, too." + +"How's that?" + +"Because I've decided to do something about it, papa." + +"That isn't the way your mother looks at it," Adams said, +ruefully. "She thinks it's our place to do something about it. +Well, I don't know--I don't know; everything seems so changed +these days. You've always been a good daughter, Alice, and you +ought to have as much as any of these girls you go with; she's +convinced me she's right about THAT. The trouble is----" He +faltered, apologetically, then went on, "I mean the question +is--how to get it for you." + +"No!" she cried. "I had no business to make such a fuss just +because a lot of idiots didn't break their necks to get dances +with me and because I got mortified about Walter--Walter WAS +pretty terrible----" + +"Oh, me, my!" Adams lamented. "I guess that's something we just +have to leave work out itself. What you going to do with a boy +nineteen or twenty years old that makes his own living? Can't +whip him. Can't keep him locked up in the house. Just got to +hope he'll learn better, I suppose." + +"Of course he didn't want to go to the Palmers'," Alice +explained, tolerantly--"and as mama and I made him take me, and +he thought that was pretty selfish in me, why, he felt he had a +right to amuse himself any way he could. Of course it was awful +that this--that this Mr. Russell should----" In spite of her, +the recollection choked her. + +"Yes, it was awful," Adams agreed. "Just awful. Oh, me, my!" + +But Alice recovered herself at once, and showed him a cheerful +face. "Well, just a few years from now I probably won't even +remember it! I believe hardly anything amounts to as much as we +think it does at the time." + +"Well--sometimes it don't." + +"What I've been thinking, papa: it seems to me I ought to DO +something." + +"What like?" + +She looked dreamy, but was obviously serious as she told him: +"Well, I mean I ought to be something besides just a kind of +nobody. I ought to----" She paused. + +"What, dearie?" + +"Well--there's one thing I'd like to do. I'm sure I COULD do it, +too." + +"What?" + +"I want to go on the stage: I know I could act." At this, her +father abruptly gave utterance to a feeble cackling of laughter; +and when Alice, surprised and a little offended, pressed him for +his reason, he tried to evade, saying, "Nothing, dearie. I just +thought of something." But she persisted until he had to +explain. + +"It made me think of your mother's sister, your Aunt Flora, that +died when you were little," he said. "She was always telling how +she was going on the stage, and talking about how she was certain +she'd make a great actress, and all so on; and one day your +mother broke out and said she ought 'a' gone on the stage, +herself, because she always knew she had the talent for it--and, +well, they got into kind of a spat about which one'd make the +best actress. I had to go out in the hall to laugh!" + +"Maybe you were wrong," Alice said, gravely. "If they both felt +it, why wouldn't that look as if there was talent in the family? +I've ALWAYS thought----" + +"No, dearie," he said, with a final chuckle. "Your mother and +Flora weren't different from a good many others. I expect ninety +per cent. of all the women I ever knew were just sure they'd be +mighty fine actresses if they ever got the chance. Well, I guess +it's a good thing; they enjoy thinking about it and it don't do +anybody any harm." + +Alice was piqued. For several days she had thought almost +continuously of a career to be won by her own genius. Not that +she planned details, or concerned herself with first steps; her +picturings overleaped all that. Principally, she saw her name +great on all the bill-boards of that unkind city, and herself, +unchanged in age but glamorous with fame and Paris clothes, +returning in a private car. No doubt the pleasantest development +of her vision was a dialogue with Mildred; and this became so +real that, as she projected it, Alice assumed the proper +expressions for both parties to it, formed words with her lips, +and even spoke some of them aloud. "No, I haven't forgotten you, +Mrs. Russell. I remember you quite pleasantly, in fact. You +were a Miss Palmer, I recall, in those funny old days. Very kind +of you, I'm shaw. I appreciate your eagerness to do something +for me in your own little home. As you say, a reception WOULD +renew my acquaintanceship with many old friends--but I'm shaw +you won't mind my mentioning that I don't find much inspiration +in these provincials. I really must ask you not to press me. An +artist's time is not her own, though of course I could hardly +expect you to understand----" + +Thus Alice illuminated the dull time; but she retired from the +interview with her father still manfully displaying an outward +cheerfulness, while depression grew heavier within, as if she had +eaten soggy cake. Her father knew nothing whatever of the stage, +and she was aware of his ignorance, yet for some reason his +innocently skeptical amusement reduced her bright project almost +to nothing. Something like this always happened, it seemed; she +was continually making these illuminations, all gay with gildings +and colourings; and then as soon as anybody else so much as +glanced at them--even her father, who loved her--the pretty +designs were stricken with a desolating pallor. "Is this LIFE?" +Alice wondered, not doubting that the question was original and +all her own. "Is it life to spend your time imagining things +that aren't so, and never will be? Beautiful things happen to +other people; why should I be the only one they never CAN happen +to?" + +The mood lasted overnight; and was still upon her the next +afternoon when an errand for her father took her down-town. +Adams had decided to begin smoking again, and Alice felt rather +degraded, as well as embarrassed, when she went into the large +shop her father had named, and asked for the cheap tobacco he +used in his pipe. She fell back upon an air of amused +indulgence, hoping thus to suggest that her purchase was made for +some faithful old retainer, now infirm; and although the calmness +of the clerk who served her called for no such elaboration of her +sketch, she ornamented it with a little laugh and with the +remark, as she dropped the package into her coat-pocket, "I'm +sure it'll please him; they tell me it's the kind he likes." + +Still playing Lady Bountiful, smiling to herself in anticipation +of the joy she was bringing to the simple old negro or Irish +follower of the family, she left the shop; but as she came out +upon the crowded pavement her smile vanished quickly. + +Next to the door of the tobacco-shop, there was the open entrance +to a stairway, and, above this rather bleak and dark aperture, a +sign-board displayed in begrimed gilt letters the information +that Frincke's Business College occupied the upper floors of the +building. Furthermore, Frincke here publicly offered "personal +instruction and training in practical mathematics, bookkeeping, +and all branches of the business life, including stenography, +typewriting, etc." + +Alice halted for a moment, frowning at this signboard as though +it were something surprising and distasteful which she had never +seen before. Yet it was conspicuous in a busy quarter; she +almost always passed it when she came down-town, and never +without noticing it. Nor was this the first time she had paused +to lift toward it that same glance of vague misgiving. + +The building was not what the changeful city defined as a modern +one, and the dusty wooden stairway, as seen from the pavement, +disappeared upward into a smoky darkness. So would the footsteps +of a girl ascending there lead to a hideous obscurity, Alice +thought; an obscurity as dreary and as permanent as death. And +like dry leaves falling about her she saw her wintry imaginings +in the May air: pretty girls turning into withered creatures as +they worked at typing-machines; old maids "taking dictation" from +men with double chins; Alice saw old maids of a dozen different +kinds "taking dictation." Her mind's eye was crowded with them, +as it always was when she passed that stairway entrance; and +though they were all different from one another, all of them +looked a little like herself. + +She hated the place, and yet she seldom hurried by it or averted +her eyes. It had an unpleasant fascination for her, and a +mysterious reproach, which she did not seek to fathom. She +walked on thoughtfully to-day; and when, at the next corner, she +turned into the street that led toward home, she was given a +surprise. Arthur Russell came rapidly from behind her, lifting +his hat as she saw him. + +"Are you walking north, Miss Adams?" he asked. "Do you mind if I +walk with you?" + +She was not delighted, but seemed so. "How charming!" she cried, +giving him a little flourish of the shapely hands; and then, +because she wondered if he had seen her coming out of the +tobacco-shop, she laughed and added, "I've just been on the most +ridiculous errand!" + +"What was that?" + +"To order some cigars for my father. He's been quite ill, poor +man, and he's so particular--but what in the world do _I_ know +about cigars?" + +Russell laughed. "Well, what DO you know about 'em? Did you +select by the price?" + +"Mercy, no!" she exclaimed, and added, with an afterthought, "Of +course he wrote down the name of the kind he wanted and I gave it +to the shopman. I could never have pronounced it." + + + +CHAPTER X + +In her pocket as she spoke her hand rested upon the little sack +of tobacco, which responded accusingly to the touch of her +restless fingers; and she found time to wonder why she was +building up this fiction for Mr. Arthur Russell. His discovery +of Walter's device for whiling away the dull evening had shamed +and distressed her; but she would have suffered no less if almost +any other had been the discoverer. In this gentleman, after +hearing that he was Mildred's Mr. Arthur Russell, Alice felt not +the slightest "personal interest"; and there was yet to develop +in her life such a thing as an interest not personal. At +twenty-two this state of affairs is not unique. + +So far as Alice was concerned Russell might have worn a placard, +"Engaged." She looked upon him as diners entering a restaurant +look upon tables marked "Reserved": the glance, slightly +discontented, passes on at once. Or so the eye of a prospector +wanders querulously over staked and established claims on the +mountainside, and seeks the virgin land beyond; unless, indeed, +the prospector be dishonest. But Alice was no claim-jumper--so +long as the notice of ownership was plainly posted. + +Though she was indifferent now, habit ruled her: and, at the very +time she wondered why she created fictitious cigars for her +father, she was also regretting that she had not boldly carried +her Malacca stick down-town with her. Her vivacity increased +automatically. + +"Perhaps the clerk thought you wanted the cigars for yourself," +Russell suggested. "He may have taken you for a Spanish +countess." + +"I'm sure he did!" Alice agreed, gaily; and she hummed a bar or +two of "LaPaloma," snapping her fingers as castanets, and swaying +her body a little, to suggest the accepted stencil of a "Spanish +Dancer." "Would you have taken me for one, Mr. Russell?" she +asked, as she concluded the impersonation. + +"I? Why, yes," he said. "I'D take you for anything you wanted +me to." + +"Why, what a speech!" she cried, and, laughing, gave him a quick +glance in which there glimmered some real surprise. He was +looking at her quizzically, but with the liveliest appreciation. +Her surprise increased; and she was glad that he had joined her. + +To be seen walking with such a companion added to her pleasure. +She would have described him as "altogether quite +stunning-looking"; and she liked his tall, dark thinness, his +gray clothes, his soft hat, and his clean brown shoes; she liked +his easy swing of the stick he carried. + +"Shouldn't I have said it?" he asked. "Would you rather not be +taken for a Spanish countess?" + +"That isn't it," she explained. "You said----" + +"I said I'd take you for whatever you wanted me to. Isn't that +all right?" + +"It would all depend, wouldn't it?" + +"Of course it would depend on what you wanted." + +"Oh, no!" she laughed. "It might depend on a lot of things." + +"Such as?" + +"Well----" She hesitated, having the mischievous impulse to say, +"Such as Mildred!" But she decided to omit this reference, and +became serious, remembering Russell's service to her at Mildred's +house. "Speaking of what I want to be taken for," she +said;--"I've been wondering ever since the other night what you +did take me for! You must have taken me for the sister of a +professional gambler, I'm afraid!" + +Russell's look of kindness was the truth about him, she was to +discover; and he reassured her now by the promptness of his +friendly chuckle. "Then your young brother told you where I +found him, did he? I kept my face straight at the time, but I +laughed afterward--to myself. It struck me as original, to say +the least: his amusing himself with those darkies." + +"Walter IS original," Alice said; and, having adopted this new +view of her brother's eccentricities, she impulsively went on to +make it more plausible. "He's a very odd boy, and I was afraid +you'd misunderstand. He tells wonderful 'darky stories,' and +he'll do anything to draw coloured people out and make them talk; +and that's what he was doing at Mildred's when you found him for +me--he says he wins their confidence by playing dice with them. +In the family we think he'll probably write about them some day. +He's rather literary." + +"Are you?" Russell asked, smiling. + +"I? Oh----" She paused, lifting both hands in a charming gesture +of helplessness. "Oh, I'm just--me!" + +His glance followed the lightly waved hands with keen approval, +then rose to the lively and colourful face, with its hazel eyes, +its small and pretty nose, and the lip-caught smile which seemed +the climax of her decorative transition. Never had he seen a +creature so plastic or so wistful. + +Here was a contrast to his cousin Mildred, who was not wistful, +and controlled any impulses toward plasticity, if she had them. +"By George!" he said. "But you ARE different!" + +With that, there leaped in her such an impulse of roguish +gallantry as she could never resist. She turned her head, and, +laughing and bright-eyed, looked him full in the face. + +"From whom?" she cried. + +"From--everybody!" he said. "Are you a mind-reader?" + +"Why?" + +"How did you know I was thinking you were different from my +cousin, Mildred Palmer?" + +"What makes you think I DID know it?" + +"Nonsense!" he said. "You knew what I was thinking and I knew +you knew." + +"Yes," she said with cool humour. "How intimate that seems to +make us all at once!" + +Russell left no doubt that he was delighted with these gaieties +of hers. "By George!" he exclaimed again. "I thought you were +this sort of girl the first moment I saw you!" + +"What sort of girl? Didn't Mildred tell you what sort of girl I +am when she asked you to dance with me?" + +"She didn't ask me to dance with you--I'd been looking at you. +You were talking to some old ladies, and I asked Mildred who you +were." + +"Oh, so Mildred DIDN'T----" Alice checked herself. "Who did she +tell you I was?" + +"She just said you were a Miss Adams, so I----" + +"'A' Miss Adams?" Alice interrupted. + +"Yes. Then I said I'd like to meet you." + +"I see. You thought you'd save me from the old ladies." + +"No. I thought I'd save myself from some of the girls Mildred +was getting me to dance with. There was a Miss Dowling----" + +"Poor man!" Alice said, gently, and her impulsive thought was +that Mildred had taken few chances, and that as a matter of +self-defense her carefulness might have been well founded. This +Mr. Arthur Russell was a much more responsive person than one +had supposed. + +"So, Mr. Russell, you don't know anything about me except what +you thought when you first saw me?" + +"Yes, I know I was right when I thought it." + +"You haven't told me what you thought." + +"I thought you were like what you ARE like." + +"Not very definite, is it? I'm afraid you shed more light a +minute or so ago, when you said how different from Mildred you +thought I was. That WAS definite, unfortunately!" + +"I didn't say it," Russell explained. "I thought it, and you +read my mind. That's the sort of girl I thought you were--one +that could read a man's mind. Why do you say 'unfortunately' +you're not like Mildred?" + +Alice's smooth gesture seemed to sketch Mildred. "Because she's +perfect--why, she's PERFECTLY perfect! She never makes a +mistake, and everybody looks up to her--oh, yes, we all fairly +adore her! She's like some big, noble, cold statue--'way above +the rest of us--and she hardly ever does anything mean or +treacherous. Of all the girls I know I believe she's played the +fewest really petty tricks. She's----" + +Russell interrupted; he looked perplexed. "You say she's +perfectly perfect, but that she does play SOME----" + +Alice laughed, as if at his sweet innocence. "Men are so funny!" +she informed him. "Of course girls ALL do mean things sometimes. +My own career's just one long brazen smirch of 'em! What I mean +is, Mildred's perfectly perfect compared to the rest of us." + +"I see," he said, and seemed to need a moment or two of +thoughtfulness. Then he inquired, "What sort of treacherous +things do YOU do?" + +"I? Oh, the very worst kind! Most people bore me particularly +the men in this town--and I show it." + +"But I shouldn't call that treacherous, exactly." + +"Well, THEY do," Alice laughed. "It's made me a terribly +unpopular character! I do a lot of things they hate. For +instance, at a dance I'd a lot rather find some clever old woman +and talk to her than dance with nine-tenths of these nonentities. +I usually do it, too." + +"But you danced as if you liked it. You danced better than any +other girl I----" + +"This flattery of yours doesn't quite turn my head, Mr. +Russell," Alice interrupted. "Particularly since Mildred only +gave you Ella Dowling to compare with me!" + +"Oh, no," he insisted. "There were others--and of course +Mildred, herself." + +"Oh, of course, yes. I forgot that. Well----" She paused, then +added, "I certainly OUGHT to dance well." + +"Why is it so much a duty?" + +"When I think of the dancing-teachers and the expense to papa! +All sorts of fancy instructors--I suppose that's what daughters +have fathers for, though, isn't it? To throw money away on +them?" + +"You don't----" Russell began, and his look was one of alarm. +"You haven't taken up----" + +She understood his apprehension and responded merrily, "Oh, +murder, no! You mean you're afraid I break out sometimes in a +piece of cheesecloth and run around a fountain thirty times, and +then, for an encore, show how much like snakes I can make my arms +look." + +"I SAID you were a mind-reader!" he exclaimed. "That's exactly +what I was pretending to be afraid you might do." + +"'Pretending?' That's nicer of you. No; it's not my mania." + +"What is?" + +"Oh, nothing in particular that I know of just now. Of course +I've had the usual one: the one that every girl goes through." + +"What's that?" + +"Good heavens, Mr. Russell, you can't expect me to believe +you're really a man of the world if you don't know that every +girl has a time in her life when she's positive she's divinely +talented for the stage! It's the only universal rule about women +that hasn't got an exception. I don't mean we all want to go on +the stage, but we all think we'd be wonderful if we did. Even +Mildred. Oh, she wouldn't confess it to you: you'd have to know +her a great deal better than any man can ever know her to find +out." + +"I see," he said. "Girls are always telling us we can't know +them. I wonder if you----" + +She took up his thought before he expressed it, and again he was +fascinated by her quickness, which indeed seemed to him almost +telepathic. "Oh, but DON'T we know one another, though!" she +cried. + +"Such things we have to keep secret--things that go on right +before YOUR eyes!" + +"Why don't some of you tell us?" he asked. + +"We can't tell you." + +"Too much honour?" + +"No. Not even too much honour among thieves, Mr. Russell. We +don't tell you about our tricks against one another because we +know it wouldn't make any impression on you. The tricks aren't +played against you, and you have a soft side for cats with lovely +manners!" + +"What about your tricks against us?" + +"Oh, those!" Alice laughed. "We think they're rather cute!" + +"Bravo!" he cried, and hammered the ferrule of his stick upon the +pavement. + +"What's the applause for?" + +"For you. What you said was like running up the black flag to +the masthead." + +"Oh, no. It was just a modest little sign in a pretty +flower-bed: 'Gentlemen, beware!'" + +"I see I must," he said, gallantly. + +"Thanks! But I mean, beware of the whole bloomin' garden!" Then, +picking up a thread that had almost disappeared: "You needn't +think you'll ever find out whether I'm right about Mildred's not +being an exception by asking her," she said. "She won't tell +you: she's not the sort that ever makes a confession." + +But Russell had not followed her shift to the former topic. +"'Mildred's not being an exception?'" he said, vaguely. +"I don't----" + +"An exception about thinking she could be a wonderful thing on the +stage if she only cared to. If you asked her I'm pretty sure +she'd say, 'What nonsense!' Mildred's the dearest, finest thing +anywhere, but you won't find out many things about her by asking +her." + +Russell's expression became more serious, as it did whenever his +cousin was made their topic. "You think not?" he said. "You +think she's----" + +"No. But it's not because she isn't sincere exactly. It's only +because she has such a lot to live up to. She has to live up to +being a girl on the grand style to herself, I mean, of course." +And without pausing Alice rippled on, "You ought to have seen ME +when I had the stage-fever! I used to play 'Juliet' all alone in +my room.' She lifted her arms in graceful entreaty, pleading +musically, + + "O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, + That monthly changes in her circled orb, + Lest thy love prove----" + + +She broke off abruptly with a little flourish, snapping thumb and +finger of each outstretched hand, then laughed and said, "Papa +used to make such fun of me! Thank heaven, I was only fifteen; I +was all over it by the next year." + +"No wonder you had the fever," Russell observed. "You do it +beautifully. Why didn't you finish the line?" + +"Which one? 'Lest thy love prove likewise variable'? Juliet was +saying it to a MAN, you know. She seems to have been ready to +worry about his constancy pretty early in their affair!" + +Her companion was again thoughtful. "Yes," he said, seeming to +be rather irksomely impressed with Alice's suggestion. "Yes; it +does appear so." + +Alice glanced at his serious face, and yielded to an audacious +temptation. "You mustn't take it so hard," she said, flippantly. + +"It isn't about you: it's only about Romeo and Juliet." + +"See here!" he exclaimed. "You aren't at your mind-reading +again, are you? There are times when it won't do, you know!" + +She leaned toward him a little, as if companionably: they were +walking slowly, and this geniality of hers brought her shoulder +in light contact with his for a moment. "Do you dislike my +mind-reading?" she asked, and, across their two just touching +shoulders, gave him her sudden look of smiling wistfulness. "Do +you hate it?" + +He shook his head. "No, I don't," he said, gravely. "It's quite +pleasant. But I think it says, 'Gentlemen, beware!'" + +She instantly moved away from him, with the lawless and frank +laugh of one who is delighted to be caught in a piece of +hypocrisy. "How lovely!" she cried. Then she pointed ahead. +"Our walk is nearly over. We're coming to the foolish little +house where I live. It's a queer little place, but my father's +so attached to it the family have about given up hope of getting +him to build a real house farther out. He doesn't mind our being +extravagant about anything else, but he won't let us alter one +single thing about his precious little old house. Well!" She +halted, and gave him her hand. "Adieu!" + +"I couldn't," he began; hesitated, then asked: "I couldn't come +in with you for a little while?" + +"Not now," she said, quickly. "You can come----" She paused. + +"When?" + +"Almost any time." She turned and walked slowly up the path, but +he waited. "You can come in the evening if you like," she called +back to him over her shoulder. + +"Soon?" + +"As soon as you like!" She waved her hand; then ran indoors and +watched him from a window as he went up the street. He walked +rapidly, a fine, easy figure, swinging his stick in a way that +suggested exhilaration. Alice, staring after him through the +irregular apertures of a lace curtain, showed no similar +buoyancy. Upon the instant she closed the door all sparkle left +her: she had become at once the simple and sometimes troubled +girl her family knew. + +"What is going on out there?" her mother asked, approaching from +the dining-room. + +"Oh, nothing," Alice said, indifferently, as she turned away. +"That Mr. Russell met me downtown and walked up with me." + +"Mr. Russell? Oh, the one that's engaged to Mildred?" + +"Well--I don't know for certain. He didn't seem so much like an +engaged man to me." And she added, in the tone of thoughtful +preoccupation: "Anyhow--not so terribly!" + +Then she ran upstairs, gave her father his tobacco, filled his +pipe for him, and petted him as he lighted it. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +After that, she went to her room and sat down before her +three-leaved mirror. There was where she nearly always sat when +she came into her room, if she had nothing in mind to do. She +went to that chair as naturally as a dog goes to his corner. + +She leaned forward, observing her profile; gravity seemed to be +her mood. But after a long, almost motionless scrutiny, she +began to produce dramatic sketches upon that ever-ready stage, +her countenance: she showed gaiety, satire, doubt, gentleness, +appreciation of a companion and love-in-hiding--all studied in +profile first, then repeated for a "three-quarter view." +Subsequently she ran through them, facing herself in full. + +In this manner she outlined a playful scenario for her next +interview with Arthur Russell; but grew solemn again, thinking of +the impression she had already sought to give him. She had no +twinges for any underminings of her "most intimate friend"--in +fact, she felt that her work on a new portrait of Mildred for Mr. + +Russell had been honest and accurate. But why had it been her +instinct to show him an Alice Adams who didn't exist? + +Almost everything she had said to him was upon spontaneous +impulse, springing to her lips on the instant; yet it all seemed +to have been founded upon a careful design, as if some hidden +self kept such designs in stock and handed them up to her, +ready-made, to be used for its own purpose. What appeared to be +the desired result was a false-coloured image in Russell's mind; +but if he liked that image he wouldn't be liking Alice Adams; nor +would anything he thought about the image be a thought about her. + +Nevertheless, she knew she would go on with her false, fancy +colourings of this nothing as soon as she saw him again; she had +just been practicing them. "What's the idea?" she wondered. +"What makes me tell such lies? Why shouldn't I be just myself?" +And then she thought, "But which one is myself?" + +Her eyes dwelt on the solemn eyes in the mirror; and her lips, +disquieted by a deepening wonder, parted to whisper: + +"Who in the world are you?" + +The apparition before her had obeyed her like an alert slave, but +now, as she subsided to a complete stillness, that aspect changed +to the old mockery with which mirrors avenge their wrongs. The +nucleus of some queer thing seemed to gather and shape itself +behind the nothingness of the reflected eyes until it became +almost an actual strange presence. If it could be identified, +perhaps the presence was that of the hidden designer who handed +up the false, ready-made pictures, and, for unknown purposes, +made Alice exhibit them; but whatever it was, she suddenly found +it monkey-like and terrifying. In a flutter she jumped up and +went to another part of the room. + +A moment or two later she was whistling softly as she hung her +light coat over a wooden triangle in her closet, and her musing +now was quainter than the experience that led to it; for what she +thought was this, "I certainly am a queer girl!" She took a +little pride in so much originality, believing herself probably +the only person in the world to have such thoughts as had been +hers since she entered the room, and the first to be disturbed by +a strange presence in the mirror. In fact, the effect of the +tiny episode became apparent in that look of preoccupied +complacency to be seen for a time upon any girl who has found +reason to suspect that she is a being without counterpart. + +This slight glow, still faintly radiant, was observed across the +dinner-table by Walter, but he misinterpreted it. "What YOU +lookin' so self-satisfied about?" he inquired, and added in his +knowing way, "I saw you, all right, cutie!" + +"Where'd you see me?" + +"Down-town." + +"This afternoon, you mean, Walter?" + +"Yes, 'this afternoon, I mean, Walter,'" he returned, +burlesquing her voice at least happily enough to please himself; +for he laughed applausively. "Oh, you never saw me! I passed +you close enough to pull a tooth, but you were awful busy. I +never did see anybody as busy as you get, Alice, when you're +towin' a barge. My, but you keep your hands goin'! Looked like +the air was full of 'em! That's why I'm onto why you look so +tickled this evening; I saw you with that big fish." + +Mrs. Adams laughed benevolently; she was not displeased with +this rallying. "Well, what of it, Walter?" she asked. "If you +happen to see your sister on the street when some nice young man +is being attentive to her----" + +Walter barked and then cackled. "Whoa, Sal!" he said. "You got +the parts mixed. It's little Alice that was 'being attentive.' I +know the big fish she was attentive to, all right, too." + +"Yes," his sister retorted, quietly. "I should think you might +have recognized him, Walter." + +Walter looked annoyed. "Still harpin' on THAT!" he complained. +"The kind of women I like, if they get sore they just hit you +somewhere on the face and then they're through. By the way, I +heard this Russell was supposed to be your dear, old, sweet +friend Mildred's steady. What you doin' walkin' as close to him +as all that?" + +Mrs. Adams addressed her son in gentle reproof, "Why Walter!" + +"Oh, never mind, mama," Alice said. "To the horrid all things +are horrid." + +"Get out!" Walter protested, carelessly. "I heard all about this +Russell down at the shop. Young Joe Lamb's such a talker I +wonder he don't ruin his grandfather's business; he keeps all us +cheap help standin' round listening to him nine-tenths of our +time. Well, Joe told me this Russell's some kin or other to the +Palmer family, and he's got some little money of his own, and +he's puttin' it into ole Palmer's trust company and Palmer's +goin' to make him a vice-president of the company. Sort of a +keep-the-money-in-the-family arrangement, Joe Lamb says." + +Mrs. Adams looked thoughtful. "I don't see----" she began. + +"Why, this Russell's supposed to be tied up to Mildred," her son +explained. "When ole Palmer dies this Russell will be his +son-in-law, and all he'll haf' to do'll be to barely lift his +feet and step into the ole man's shoes. It's certainly a mighty +fat hand-me-out for this Russell! You better lay off o' there, +Alice. Pick somebody that's got less to lose and you'll make +better showing." + +Mrs. Adams's air of thoughtfulness had not departed. "But you +say this Mr. Russell is well off on his own account, Walter." + +"Oh, Joe Lamb says he's got some little of his own. Didn't know +how much." + +"Well, then----" + +Walter laughed his laugh. "Cut it out," he bade her. "Alice +wouldn't run in fourth place." + +Alice had been looking at him in a detached way, as though +estimating the value of a specimen in a collection not her own. +"Yes," she said, indifferently. "You REALLY are vulgar, Walter." + +He had finished his meal; and, rising, he came round the table to +her and patted her good-naturedly on the shoulder. "Good ole +Allie!" he said. "HONEST, you wouldn't run in fourth place. If +I was you I'd never even start in the class. That frozen-face +gang will rule you off the track soon as they see your colours." + +"Walter!" his mother said again. + +"Well, ain't I her brother?" he returned, seeming to be entirely +serious and direct, for the moment, at least. "_I_ like the ole +girl all right. Fact is, sometimes I'm kind of sorry for her." + +"But what's it all ABOUT?" Alice cried. "Simply because you met +me down-town with a man I never saw but once before and just +barely know! Why all this palaver?" + +"'Why?'" he repeated, grinning. "Well, I've seen you start +before, you know!" He went to the door, and paused. "I got no +date to-night. Take you to the movies, you care to go." + +She declined crisply. "No, thanks!" + +"Come on," he said, as pleasantly as he knew how. + +"Give me a chance to show you a better time than we had up at +that frozen-face joint. I'll get you some chop suey afterward." + +"No, thanks!" + +"All right," he responded and waved a flippant adieu. "As the +barber says, 'The better the advice, the worse it's wasted!' +Good-night!" + +Alice shrugged her shoulders; but a moment or two later, as the +jar of the carelessly slammed front door went through the house, +she shook her head, reconsidering. "Perhaps I ought to have gone +with him. It might have kept him away from whatever dreadful +people are his friends--at least for one night." + +"Oh, I'm sure Walter's a GOOD boy," Mrs. Adams said, soothingly; +and this was what she almost always said when either her husband +or Alice expressed such misgivings. "He's odd, and he's picked +up right queer manners; but that's only because we haven't given +him advantages like the other young men. But I'm sure he's a +GOOD boy." + +She reverted to the subject a little later, while she washed the +dishes and Alice wiped them. "Of course Walter could take his +place with the other nice boys of the town even yet," she said. +"I mean, if we could afford to help him financially. They all +belong to the country clubs and have cars and----" + +"Let's don't go into that any more, mama," the daughter begged +her. "What's the use?" + +"It COULD be of use," Mrs. Adams insisted. "It could if your +father----" + +"But papa CAN'T." + +"Yes, he can." + +"But how can he? He told me a man of his age CAN'T give up a +business he's been in practically all his life, and just go +groping about for something that might never turn up at all. I +think he's right about it, too, of course!" + +Mrs. Adams splashed among the plates with a new vigour +heightened by an old bitterness. "Oh, yes," she said. "He talks +that way; but he knows better." + +"How could he 'know better,' mama?" + +"HE knows how!" + +"But what does he know?" + +Mrs. Adams tossed her head. "You don't suppose I'm such a fool +I'd be urging him to give up something for nothing, do you, +Alice? Do you suppose I'd want him to just go 'groping around' +like he was telling you? That would be crazy, of course. Little +as his work at Lamb's brings in, I wouldn't be so silly as to ask +him to give it up just on a CHANCE he could find something else. +Good gracious, Alice, you must give me credit for a little +intelligence once in a while!" + +Alice was puzzled. "But what else could there be except a +chance? I don't see----" + +"Well, I do," her mother interrupted, decisively. "That man +could make us all well off right now if he wanted to. We could +have been rich long ago if he'd ever really felt as he ought to +about his family." + +"What! Why, how could----" + +"You know how as well as I do," Mrs. Adams said, crossly. "I +guess you haven't forgotten how he treated me about it the Sunday +before he got sick." + +She went on with her work, putting into it a sudden violence +inspired by the recollection; but Alice, enlightened, gave +utterance to a laugh of lugubrious derision. "Oh, the GLUE +factory again!" she cried. "How silly!" And she renewed her +laughter. + +So often do the great projects of parents appear ignominious to +their children. Mrs. Adams's conception of a glue factory as a +fairy godmother of this family was an absurd old story which +Alice had never taken seriously. She remembered that when she +was about fifteen her mother began now and then to say something +to Adams about a "glue factory," rather timidly, and as a vague +suggestion, but never without irritating him. Then, for years, +the preposterous subject had not been mentioned; possibly because +of some explosion on the part of Adams, when his daughter had not +been present. But during the last year Mrs. Adams had quietly +gone back to these old hints, reviving them at intervals and also +reviving her husband's irritation. Alice's bored impression was +that her mother wanted him to found, or buy, or do something, or +other, about a glue factory; and that he considered the proposal +so impracticable as to be insulting. The parental conversations +took place when neither Alice nor Walter was at hand, but +sometimes Alice had come in upon the conclusion of one, to find +her father in a shouting mood, and shocking the air behind him +with profane monosyllables as he departed. Mrs. Adams would be +left quiet and troubled; and when Alice, sympathizing with the +goaded man, inquired of her mother why these tiresome bickerings +had been renewed, she always got the brooding and cryptic answer, +"He COULD do it--if he wanted to." Alice failed to comprehend +the desirability of a glue factory--to her mind a father engaged +in a glue factory lacked impressiveness; had no advantage over a +father employed by Lamb and Company; and she supposed that Adams +knew better than her mother whether such an enterprise would be +profitable or not. Emphatically, he thought it would not, for +she had heard him shouting at the end of one of these painful +interviews, "You can keep up your dang talk till YOU die and _I_ +die, but I'll never make one God's cent that way!" + +There had been a culmination. Returning from church on the +Sunday preceding the collapse with which Adams's illness had +begun, Alice found her mother downstairs, weeping and +intimidated, while her father's stamping footsteps were loudly +audible as he strode up and down his room overhead. So were his +endless repetitions of invective loudly audible: "That woman! +Oh, that woman; Oh, that danged woman!" + +Mrs. Adams admitted to her daughter that it was "the old glue +factory" and that her husband's wildness had frightened her into +a "solemn promise" never to mention the subject again so long as +she had breath. Alice laughed. The "glue factory" idea was not +only a bore, but ridiculous, and her mother's evident seriousness +about it one of those inexplicable vagaries we sometimes discover +in the people we know best. But this Sunday rampage appeared to +be the end of it, and when Adams came down to dinner, an hour +later, he was unusually cheerful. Alice was glad he had gone +wild enough to settle the glue factory once and for all; and she +had ceased to think of the episode long before Friday of that +week, when Adams was brought home in the middle of the afternoon +by his old employer, the "great J. A. Lamb," in the latter's +car. + +During the long illness the "glue factory" was completely +forgotten, by Alice at least; and her laugh was rueful as well as +derisive now, in the kitchen, when she realized that her mother's +mind again dwelt upon this abandoned nuisance. "I thought you'd +got over all that nonsense, mama," she said. + +Mrs. Adams smiled, pathetically. "Of course you think it's +nonsense, dearie. Young people think everything's nonsense that +they don't know anything about." + +"Good gracious!" Alice cried. "I should think I used to hear +enough about that horrible old glue factory to know something +about it!" + +"No," her mother returned patiently. "You've never heard +anything about it at all." + +"I haven't?" + +"No. Your father and I didn't discuss it before you children. +All you ever heard was when he'd get in such a rage, after we'd +been speaking of it, that he couldn't control himself when you +came in. Wasn't _I_ always quiet? Did _I_ ever go on talking +about it?" + +"No; perhaps not. But you're talking about it now, mama, after +you promised never to mention it again." + +"I promised not to mention it to your father," said Mrs. Adams, +gently. "I haven't mentioned it to him, have I?" + +"Ah, but if you mention it to me I'm afraid you WILL mention it +to him. You always do speak of things that you have on your +mind, and you might get papa all stirred up again about--" Alice +paused, a light of divination flickering in her eyes. "Oh!" she +cried. "I SEE!" + +"What do you see?" + +"You HAVE been at him about it!" + +"Not one single word!" + +"No!" Alice cried. "Not a WORD, but that's what you've meant all +along! You haven't spoken the words to him, but all this urging +him to change, to 'find something better to go into'--it's all +been about nothing on earth but your foolish old glue factory +that you know upsets him, and you gave your solemn word never to +speak to him about again! You didn't say it, but you meant +it--and he KNOWS that's what you meant! Oh, mama!" + +Mrs. Adams, with her hands still automatically at work in the +flooded dishpan, turned to face her daughter. "Alice," she said, +tremulously, "what do I ask for myself?" + +"What?" + +"I say, What do I ask for myself? Do you suppose _I_ want +anything? Don't you know I'd be perfectly content on your +father's present income if I were the only person to be +considered? What do I care about any pleasure for myself? I'd +be willing never to have a maid again; _I_ don't mind doing the +work. If we didn't have any children I'd be glad to do your +father's cooking and the housework and the washing and ironing, +too, for the rest of my life. I wouldn't care. I'm a poor cook +and a poor housekeeper; I don't do anything well; but it would be +good enough for just him and me. I wouldn't ever utter one word +of com----" + +"Oh, goodness!" Alice lamented. "What IS it all about?" + +"It's about this," said Mrs. Adams, swallowing. "You and Walter +are a new generation and you ought to have the same as the rest +of the new generation get. Poor Walter--asking you to go to the +movies and a Chinese restaurant: the best he had to offer! Don't +you suppose _I_ see how the poor boy is deteriorating? Don't you +suppose I know what YOU have to go through, Alice? And when I +think of that man upstairs----" The agitated voice grew louder. +"When I think of him and know that nothing in the world but his +STUBBORNNESS keeps my children from having all they want and what +they OUGHT to have, do you suppose I'm going to hold myself bound +to keep to the absolute letter of a silly promise he got from me +by behaving like a crazy man? I can't! I can't do it! No +mother could sit by and see him lock up a horn of plenty like +that in his closet when the children were starving!" + +"Oh, goodness, goodness me!" Alice protested. "We aren't +precisely 'starving,' are we?" + +Mrs. Adams began to weep. "It's just the same. Didn't I see +how flushed and pretty you looked, this afternoon, after you'd +been walking with this young man that's come here? Do you +suppose he'd LOOK at a girl like Mildred Palmer if you had what +you ought to have? Do you suppose he'd be going into business +with her father if YOUR father----" + +"Good heavens, mama; you're worse than Walter: I just barely know +the man! DON'T be so absurd!" + +"Yes, I'm always 'absurd,'" Mrs. Adams moaned. "All I can do +is cry, while your father sits upstairs, and his horn of +plenty----" + +But Alice interrupted with a peal of desperate laughter. "Oh, +that 'horn of plenty!' Do come down to earth, mama. How can you +call a GLUE factory, that doesn't exist except in your mind, a +'horn of plenty'? Do let's be a little rational!" + +"It COULD be a horn of plenty," the tearful Mrs, Adams insisted. +"It could! You don't understand a thing about it." + +"Well, I'm willing," Alice said, with tired skepticism. "Make me +understand, then. Where'd you ever get the idea?" + +Mrs. Adams withdrew her hands from the water, dried them on a +towel, and then wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "Your father +could make a fortune if he wanted to," she said, quietly. "At +least, I don't say a fortune, but anyhow a great deal more than +he does make." + +"Yes, I've heard that before, mama, and you think he could make +it out of a glue factory. What I'm asking is: How?" + +"How? Why, by making glue and selling it. Don't you know how +bad most glue is when you try to mend anything? A good glue is +one of the rarest things there is; and it would just sell itself, +once it got started. Well, your father knows how to make as good +a glue as there is in the world." + +Alice was not interested. "What of it? I suppose probably +anybody could make it if they wanted to." + +"I SAID you didn't know anything about it. Nobody else could +make it. Your father knows a formula for making it." + +"What of that?" + +"It's a secret formula. It isn't even down on paper. It's worth +any amount of money." + +"'Any amount?'" Alice said, remaining incredulous. "Why hasn't +papa sold it then?" + +"Just because he's too stubborn to do anything with it at all!" + +"How did papa get it?" + +"He got it before you were born, just after we were married. I +didn't think much about it then: it wasn't till you were growing +up and I saw how much we needed money that I----" + +"Yes, but how did papa get it?" Alice began to feel a little more +curious about this possible buried treasure. "Did he invent it?" + +"Partly," Mrs. Adams said, looking somewhat preoccupied. "He +and another man invented it." + +"Then maybe the other man----" + +"He's dead." + +"Then his family----" + +"I don't think he left any family," Mrs. Adams said. "Anyhow, +it belongs to your father. At least it belongs to him as much as +it does to any one else. He's got an absolutely perfect right to +do anything he wants to with it, and it would make us all +comfortable if he'd do what I want him to--and he KNOWS it would, +too!" + +Alice shook her head pityingly. "Poor mama!" she said. "Of +course he knows it wouldn't do anything of the kind, or else he'd +have done it long ago." + +"He would, you say?" her mother cried. "That only shows how +little you know him!" + +"Poor mama!" Alice said again, soothingly. "If papa were like +what you say he is, he'd be--why, he'd be crazy!" + +Mrs. Adams agreed with a vehemence near passion. "You're right +about him for once: that's just what he is! He sits up there in +his stubbornness and lets us slave here in the kitchen when if he +wanted to--if he'd so much as lift his little finger----" + +"Oh, come, now!" Alice laughed. "You can't build even a glue +factory with just one little finger." + +Mrs. Adams seemed about to reply that finding fault with a +figure of speech was beside the point; but a ringing of the front +door bell forestalled the retort. "Now, who do you suppose that +is?" she wondered aloud, then her face brightened. "Ah--did Mr. +Russell ask if he could----" + +"No, he wouldn't be coming this evening," Alice said. "Probably +it's the great J. A. Lamb: he usually stops for a minute on +Thursdays to ask how papa's getting along. I'll go." + +She tossed her apron off, and as she went through the house her +expression was thoughtful. She was thinking vaguely about the +glue factory and wondering if there might be "something in it" +after all. If her mother was right about the rich possibilities +of Adams's secret--but that was as far as Alice's speculations +upon the matter went at this time: they were checked, partly by +the thought that her father probably hadn't enough money for such +an enterprise, and partly by the fact that she had arrived at the +front door. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The fine old gentleman revealed when she opened the door was +probably the last great merchant in America to wear the chin +beard. White as white frost, it was trimmed short with exquisite +precision, while his upper lip and the lower expanses of his +cheeks were clean and rosy from fresh shaving. With this trim +white chin beard, the white waistcoat, the white tie, the suit of +fine gray cloth, the broad and brilliantly polished black shoes, +and the wide-brimmed gray felt hat, here was a man who had found +his style in the seventies of the last century, and thenceforth +kept it. Files of old magazines of that period might show him, +in woodcut, as, "Type of Boston Merchant"; Nast might have drawn +him as an honest statesman. He was eighty, hale and sturdy, not +aged; and his quick blue eyes, still unflecked, and as brisk as a +boy's, saw everything. + +"Well, well, well!" he said, heartily. "You haven't lost any of +your good looks since last week, I see, Miss Alice, so I guess +I'm to take it you haven't been worrying over your daddy. The +young feller's getting along all right, is he?" + +"He's much better; he's sitting up, Mr. Lamb. Won't you come +in?" + +"Well, I don't know but I might." He turned to call toward twin +disks of light at the curb, "Be out in a minute, Billy"; and the +silhouette of a chauffeur standing beside a car could be seen to +salute in response, as the old gentleman stepped into the hall. +"You don't suppose your daddy's receiving callers yet, is he?" + +"He's a good deal stronger than he was when you were here last +week, but I'm afraid he's not very presentable, though." + +"'Presentable?'" The old man echoed her jovially. "Pshaw! I've +seen lots of sick folks. _I_ know what they look like and how +they love to kind of nest in among a pile of old blankets and +wrappers. Don't you worry about THAT, Miss Alice, if you think +he'd like to see me." + +"Of course he would--if----" Alice hesitated; then said quickly," +Of course he'd love to see you and he's quite able to, if you +care to come up." + +She ran up the stairs ahead of him, and had time to snatch the +crocheted wrap from her father's shoulders. Swathed as usual, he +was sitting beside a table, reading the evening paper; but when +his employer appeared in the doorway he half rose as if to come +forward in greeting. + +"Sit still!" the old gentleman shouted. "What do you mean? +Don't you know you're weak as a cat? D'you think a man can be +sick as long as you have and NOT be weak as a cat? What you +trying to do the polite with ME for?" + +Adams gratefully protracted the handshake that accompanied these +inquiries. "This is certainly mighty fine of you, Mr. Lamb," he +said. "I guess Alice has told you how much our whole family +appreciate your coming here so regularly to see how this old bag +o' bones was getting along. Haven't you, Alice?" + +"Yes, papa," she said; and turned to go out, but Lamb checked +her. + +"Stay right here, Miss Alice; I'm not even going to sit down. I +know how it upsets sick folks when people outside the family come +in for the first time." + +"You don't upset me," Adams said. "I'll feel a lot better for +getting a glimpse of you, Mr. Lamb." + +The visitor's laugh was husky, but hearty and re-assuring, like +his voice in speaking. "That's the way all my boys blarney me, +Miss Alice," he said. "They think I'll make the work lighter on +'em if they can get me kind of flattered up. You just tell your +daddy it's no use; he doesn't get on MY soft side, pretending he +likes to see me even when he's sick." + +"Oh, I'm not so sick any more," Adams said. "I expect to be back +in my place ten days from now at the longest." + +"Well, now, don't hurry it, Virgil; don't hurry it. You take +your time; take your time." + +This brought to Adams's lips a feeble smile not lacking in a kind +of vanity, as feeble. "Why?" he asked. "I suppose you think my +department runs itself down there, do you?" + +His employer's response was another husky laugh. "Well, well, +well!" he cried, and patted Adams's shoulder with a strong pink +hand. "Listen to this young feller, Miss Alice, will you! He +thinks we can't get along without him a minute! Yes, sir, this +daddy of yours believes the whole works 'll just take and run +down if he isn't there to keep 'em wound up. I always suspected +he thought a good deal of himself, and now I know he does!" + +Adams looked troubled. "Well, I don't like to feel that my +salary's going on with me not earning it." + +"Listen to him, Miss Alice! Wouldn't you think, now, he'd let me +be the one to worry about that? Why, on my word, if your daddy +had his way, _I_ wouldn't be anywhere. He'd take all my worrying +and everything else off my shoulders and shove me right out of +Lamb and Company! He would!" + +"It seems to me I've been soldiering on you a pretty long while, +Mr. Lamb," the convalescent said, querulously. "I don't feel +right about it; but I'll be back in ten days. You'll see." + +The old man took his hand in parting. "All right; we'll see, +Virgil. Of course we do need you, seriously speaking; but we +don't need you so bad we'll let you come down there before you're +fully fit and able." He went to the door. "You hear, Miss +Alice? That's what I wanted to make the old feller understand, +and what I want you to kind of enforce on him. The old place is +there waiting for him, and it'd wait ten years if it took him +that long to get good and well. You see that he remembers it, +Miss Alice!" + +She went down the stairs with him, and he continued to impress +this upon her until he had gone out of the front door. And even +after that, the husky voice called back from the darkness, as he +went to his car, "Don't forget, Miss Alice; let him take his own +time. We always want him, but we want him to get good and well +first. Good-night, good-night, young lady!" + +When she closed the door her mother came from the farther end of +the "living-room," where there was no light; and Alice turned to +her. + +"I can't help liking that old man, mama," she said. "He always +sounds so--well, so solid and honest and friendly! I do like +him." + +But Mrs. Adams failed in sympathy upon this point. "He didn't +say anything about raising your father's salary, did he?" she +asked, dryly. + +"No." + +"No. I thought not." + +She would have said more, but Alice, indisposed to listen, began +to whistle, ran up the stairs, and went to sit with her father. +She found him bright-eyed with the excitement a first caller +brings into a slow convalescence: his cheeks showed actual hints +of colour; and he was smiling tremulously as he filled and lit +his pipe. She brought the crocheted scarf and put it about his +shoulders again, then took a chair near him. + +"I believe seeing Mr. Lamb did do you good, papa," she said. +"I sort of thought it might, and that's why I let him come up. +You really look a little like your old self again." + +Adams exhaled a breathy "Ha!" with the smoke from his pipe as he +waved the match to extinguish it. "That's fine," he said. "The +smoke I had before dinner didn't taste the way it used to, and I +kind of wondered if I'd lost my liking for tobacco, but this one +seems to be all right. You bet it did me good to see J. A. +Lamb! He's the biggest man that's ever lived in this town or +ever will live here; and you can take all the Governors and +Senators or anything they've raised here, and put 'em in a pot +with him, and they won't come out one-two-three alongside o' him! +And to think as big a man as that, with all his interests and +everything he's got on his mind--to think he'd never let anything +prevent him from coming here once every week to ask how I was +getting along, and then walk right upstairs and kind of CALL on +me, as it were well, it makes me sort of feel as if I wasn't so +much of a nobody, so to speak, as your mother seems to like to +make out sometimes." + +"How foolish, papa! Of COURSE you're not 'a nobody.'" + +Adams chuckled faintly upon his pipe-stem, what vanity he had +seeming to be further stimulated by his daughter's applause. "I +guess there aren't a whole lot of people in this town that could +claim J. A. showed that much interest in 'em," he said. "Of +course I don't set up to believe it's all because of merit, or +anything like that. He'd do the same for anybody else that'd +been with the company as long as I have, but still it IS +something to be with the company that long and have him show he +appreciates it." + +"Yes, indeed, it is, papa." + +"Yes, sir," Adams said, reflectively. "Yes, sir, I guess that's +so. And besides, it all goes to show the kind of a man he is. +Simon pure, that's what that man is, Alice. Simon pure! There's +never been anybody work for him that didn't respect him more than +they did any other man in the world, I guess. And when you work +for him you know he respects you, too. Right from the start you +get the feeling that J. A. puts absolute confidence in you; and +that's mighty stimulating: it makes you want to show him he +hasn't misplaced it. There's great big moral values to the way a +man like him gets you to feeling about your relations with the +business: it ain't all just dollars and cents--not by any means!" + +He was silent for a time, then returned with increasing +enthusiasm to this theme, and Alice was glad to see so much +renewal of life in him; he had not spoken with a like cheerful +vigour since before his illness. The visit of his idolized great +man had indeed been good for him, putting new spirit into him; +and liveliness of the body followed that of the spirit. His +improvement carried over the night: he slept well and awoke late, +declaring that he was "pretty near a well man and ready for +business right now." Moreover, having slept again in the +afternoon, he dressed and went down to dinner, leaning but +lightly on Alice, who conducted him. + +"My! but you and your mother have been at it with your scrubbing +and dusting!" he said, as they came through the "living-room." +"I don't know I ever did see the house so spick and span before!" +His glance fell upon a few carnations in a vase, and he chuckled +admiringly. "Flowers, too! So THAT'S what you coaxed that +dollar and a half out o 'me for, this morning!" + +Other embellishments brought forth his comment when he had taken +his old seat at the head of the small dinner-table. "Why, I +declare, Alice!" he exclaimed. "I been so busy looking at all +the spick-and-spanishness after the house-cleaning, and the +flowers out in the parlour--'living-room' I suppose you want me +to call it, if I just GOT to be fashionable--I been so busy +studying over all this so-and-so, I declare I never noticed YOU +till this minute! My, but you ARE all dressed up! What's goin' +on? What's it about: you so all dressed up, and flowers in the +parlour and everything?" + +"Don't you see, papa? It's in honour of your coming downstairs +again, of course." + +"Oh, so that's it," he said. "I never would 'a' thought of that, +I guess." + +But Walter looked sidelong at his father, and gave forth his sly +and knowing laugh. "Neither would I!" he said. + +Adams lifted his eyebrows jocosely. "You're jealous, are you, +sonny? You don't want the old man to think our young lady'd make +so much fuss over him, do you?" + +"Go on thinkin' it's over you," Walter retorted, amused. "Go on +and think it. It'll do you good." + +"Of course I'll think it," Adams said. "It isn't anybody's +birthday. Certainly the decorations are on account of me coming +downstairs. Didn't you hear Alice say so?" + +"Sure, I heard her say so." + +"Well, then----" + +Walter interrupted him with a little music. Looking shrewdly at +Alice, he sang: + + "I was walkin' out on Monday with my sweet thing. + She's my neat thing, + My sweet thing: + I'll go round on Tuesday night to see her. + Oh, how we'll spoon----" + + +"Walter!" his mother cried. "WHERE do you learn such vulgar +songs?" However, she seemed not greatly displeased with him, and +laughed as she spoke. + +"So that's it, Alice!" said Adams. "Playing the hypocrite with +your old man, are you? It's some new beau, is it?" + +"I only wish it were," she said, calmly. "No. It's just what I +said: it's all for you, dear." + +"Don't let her con you," Walter advised his father. "She's got +expectations. You hang around downstairs a while after dinner +and you'll see." + +But the prophecy failed, though Adams went to his own room +without waiting to test it. No one came. + +Alice stayed in the "living-room" until half-past nine, when she +went slowly upstairs. Her mother, almost tearful, met her at the +top, and whispered, "You mustn't mind, dearie." + +"Mustn't mind what?" Alice asked, and then, as she went on her +way, laughed scornfully. "What utter nonsense!" she said. + +Next day she cut the stems of the rather scant show of carnations +and refreshed them with new water. At dinner, her father, still +in high spirits, observed that she had again "dressed up" in +honour of his second descent of the stairs; and Walter repeated +his fragment of objectionable song; but these jocularities were +rendered pointless by the eventless evening that followed; and in +the morning the carnations began to appear tarnished and flaccid. + +Alice gave them a long look, then threw them away; and neither +Walter nor her father was inspired to any rallying by her plain +costume for that evening. Mrs. Adams was visibly depressed. + +When Alice finished helping her mother with the dishes, she went +outdoors and sat upon the steps of the little front veranda. The +night, gentle with warm air from the south, surrounded her +pleasantly, and the perpetual smoke was thinner. Now that the +furnaces of dwelling-houses were no longer fired, life in that +city had begun to be less like life in a railway tunnel; people +were aware of summer in the air, and in the thickened foliage of +the shade-trees, and in the sky. Stars were unveiled by the +passing of the denser smoke fogs, and to-night they could be seen +clearly; they looked warm and near. Other girls sat upon +verandas and stoops in Alice's street, cheerful as young +fishermen along the banks of a stream. + +Alice could hear them from time to time; thin sopranos persistent +in laughter that fell dismally upon her ears. She had set no +lines or nets herself, and what she had of "expectations," as +Walter called them, were vanished. For Alice was experienced; +and one of the conclusions she drew from her experience was that +when a man says, "I'd take you for anything you wanted me to," he +may mean it or, he may not; but, if he does, he will not postpone +the first opportunity to say something more. Little affairs, +once begun, must be warmed quickly; for if they cool they are +dead. + +But Alice was not thinking of Arthur Russell. When she tossed +away the carnations she likewise tossed away her thoughts of that +young man. She had been like a boy who sees upon the street, +some distance before him, a bit of something round and +glittering, a possible dime. He hopes it is a dime, and, until +he comes near enough to make sure, he plays that it is a dime. +In his mind he has an adventure with it: he buys something +delightful. If he picks it up, discovering only some tin-foil +which has happened upon a round shape, he feels a sinking. A +dulness falls upon him. + +So Alice was dull with the loss of an adventure; and when the +laughter of other girls reached her, intermittently, she had not +sprightliness enough left in her to be envious of their gaiety. +Besides, these neighbours were ineligible even for her envy, +being of another caste; they could never know a dance at the +Palmers', except remotely, through a newspaper. Their laughter +was for the encouragement of snappy young men of the stores and +offices down-town, clerks, bookkeepers, what not--some of them +probably graduates of Frincke's Business College. + +Then, as she recalled that dark portal, with its dusty stairway +mounting between close walls to disappear in the upper shadows, +her mind drew back as from a doorway to Purgatory. Nevertheless, +it was a picture often in her reverie; and sometimes it came +suddenly, without sequence, into the midst of her other thoughts, +as if it leaped up among them from a lower darkness; and when it +arrived it wanted to stay. So a traveller, still roaming the +world afar, sometimes broods without apparent reason upon his +family burial lot: "I wonder if I shall end there." + +The foreboding passed abruptly, with a jerk of her breath, as the +street-lamp revealed a tall and easy figure approaching from the +north, swinging a stick in time to its stride. She had given +Russell up--and he came. + +"What luck for me!" he exclaimed. "To find you alone!" + +Alice gave him her hand for an instant, not otherwise moving. +"I'm glad it happened so," she said. "Let's stay out here, shall +we? Do you think it's too provincial to sit on a girl's front +steps with her?" + +"'Provincial?' Why, it's the very best of our institutions," he +returned, taking his place beside her. "At least, I think so +to-night." + +"Thanks! Is that practice for other nights somewhere else?" + +"No," he laughed. "The practicing all led up to this. Did I +come too soon?" + +"No," she replied, gravely. "Just in time!" + +"I'm glad to be so accurate; I've spent two evenings wanting to +come, Miss Adams, instead of doing what I was doing." + +"What was that?" + +"Dinners. Large and long dinners. Your fellow-citizens are +immensely hospitable to a newcomer." + +"Oh, no," Alice said. "We don't do it for everybody. Didn't you +find yourself charmed?" + +"One was a men's dinner," he explained. "Mr. Palmer seemed to +think I ought to be shown to the principal business men." + +"What was the other dinner?" + +"My cousin Mildred gave it." + +"Oh, DID she!" Alice said, sharply, but she recovered herself in +the same instant, and laughed. "She wanted to show you to the +principal business women, I suppose." + +"I don't know. At all events, I shouldn't give myself out to be +so much feted by your 'fellow-citizens,' after all, seeing these +were both done by my relatives, the Palmers. However, there are +others to follow, I'm afraid. I was wondering--I hoped maybe +you'd be coming to some of them. Aren't you?" + +"I rather doubt it," Alice said, slowly. "Mildred's dance was +almost the only evening I've gone out since my father's illness +began. He seemed better that day; so I went. He was better the +other day when he wanted those cigars. He's very much up and +down." She paused. "I'd almost forgotten that Mildred is your +cousin." + +"Not a very near one," he explained. "Mr. Palmer's father was +my great-uncle." + +"Still, of course you are related." + +"Yes; that distantly." + +Alice said placidly, "It's quite an advantage." + +He agreed. "Yes. It is." + +"No," she said, in the same placid tone. "I mean for Mildred." + +"I don't see----" + +She laughed. "No. You wouldn't. I mean it's an advantage over +the rest of us who might like to compete for some of your time; +and the worst of it is we can't accuse her of being unfair about +it. We can't prove she showed any trickiness in having you for a +cousin. Whatever else she might plan to do with you, she didn't +plan that. So the rest of us must just bear it!" + +"The 'rest of you!'" he laughed. "It's going to mean a great +deal of suffering!" + +Alice resumed her placid tone. "You're staying at the Palmers', +aren't you?" + +"No, not now. I've taken an apartment. I'm going to live here; +I'm permanent. Didn't I tell you?" + +"I think I'd heard somewhere that you were," she said. "Do you +think you'll like living here?" + +"How can one tell?" + +"If I were in your place I think I should be able to tell, Mr. +Russell." + +"How?" + +"Why, good gracious!" she cried. "Haven't you got the most +perfect creature in town for your--your cousin? SHE expects to +make you like living here, doesn't she? How could you keep from +liking it, even if you tried not to, under the circumstances?" + +"Well, you see, there's such a lot of circumstances," he +explained; "I'm not sure I'll like getting back into a business +again. I suppose most of the men of my age in the country have +been going through the same experience: the War left us with a +considerable restlessness of spirit." + +"You were in the War?" she asked, quickly, and as quickly +answered herself, "Of course you were!" + +"I was a left-over; they only let me out about four months ago," +he said. "It's quite a shake-up trying to settle down again." + +"You were in France, then?" + +"Oh, yes; but I didn't get up to the front much--only two or +three times, and then just for a day or so. I was in the +transportation service." + +"You were an officer, of course." + +"Yes," he said. "They let me play I was a major." + +"I guessed a major," she said. "You'd always be pretty grand, of +course." + +Russell was amused. "Well, you see," he informed her, "as it +happened, we had at least several other majors in our army. Why +would I always be something 'pretty grand?'" + +"You're related to the Palmers. Don't you notice they always +affect the pretty grand?" + +"Then you think I'm only one of their affectations, I take it." + +"Yes, you seem to be the most successful one they've got!" Alice +said, lightly. "You certainly do belong to them." And she +laughed as if at something hidden from him. "Don't you?" + +"But you've just excused me for that," he protested. "You said +nobody could be blamed for my being their third cousin. What a +contradictory girl you are!" + +Alice shook her head. "Let's keep away from the kind of girl I +am." + +"No," he said. "That's just what I came here to talk about." + +She shook her head again. "Let's keep first to the kind of man +you are. I'm glad you were in the War." + +"Why?" + +"Oh, I don't know." She was quiet a moment, for she was thinking +that here she spoke the truth: his service put about him a little +glamour that helped to please her with him. She had been pleased +with him during their walk; pleased with him on his own account; +and now that pleasure was growing keener. She looked at him, and +though the light in which she saw him was little more than +starlight, she saw that he was looking steadily at her with a +kindly and smiling seriousness. All at once it seemed to her +that the night air was sweeter to breathe, as if a distant +fragrance of new blossoms had been blown to her. She smiled back +to him, and said, "Well, what kind of man are you?" + +"I don't know; I've often wondered," he replied. "What kind of +girl are you?" + +"Don't you remember? I told you the other day. I'm just me!" + +"But who is that?" + +"You forget everything;" said Alice. "You told me what kind of a +girl I am. You seemed to think you'd taken quite a fancy to me +from the very first." + +"So I did," he agreed, heartily. + +"But how quickly you forgot it!" + +"Oh, no. I only want YOU to say what kind of a girl you are." + +She mocked him. "'I don't know; I've often wondered!' What kind +of a girl does Mildred tell you I am? What has she said about me +since she told you I was 'a Miss Adams?'" + +"I don't know; I haven't asked her." + +"Then DON'T ask her," Alice said, quickly. + +"Why?" + +"Because she's such a perfect creature and I'm such an imperfect +one. Perfect creatures have the most perfect way of ruining the +imperfect ones." + +"But then they wouldn't be perfect. Not if they----" + +"Oh, yes, they remain perfectly perfect," she assured him. +"That's because they never go into details. They're not so +vulgar as to come right out and TELL that you've been in jail for +stealing chickens. They just look absent-minded and say in a low +voice, 'Oh, very; but I scarcely think you'd like her +particularly'; and then begin to talk of something else right +away." + +His smile had disappeared. "Yes," he said, somewhat ruefully. +"That does sound like Mildred. You certainly do seem to know +her! Do you know everybody as well as that?" + +"Not myself," Alice said. "I don't know myself at all. I got to +wondering about that--about who I was--the other day after you +walked home with me." + +He uttered an exclamation, and added, explaining it, "You do give +a man a chance to be fatuous, though! As if it were walking home +with me that made you wonder about yourself!" + +"It was," Alice informed him, coolly. "I was wondering what I +wanted to make you think of me, in case I should ever happen to +see you again." + +This audacity appeared to take his breath. "By George!" he +cried. + +"You mustn't be astonished," she said. "What I decided then was +that I would probably never dare to be just myself with you--not +if I cared to have you want to see me again--and yet here I am, +just being myself after all!" + +"You ARE the cheeriest series of shocks," Russell exclaimed, +whereupon Alice added to the series. + +"Tell me: Is it a good policy for me to follow with you?" she +asked, and he found the mockery in her voice delightful. "Would +you advise me to offer you shocks as a sort of vacation from +suavity?" + +"Suavity" was yet another sketch of Mildred; a recognizable one, +or it would not have been humorous. In Alice's hands, so +dexterous in this work, her statuesque friend was becoming as +ridiculous as a fine figure of wax left to the mercies of a +satirist. + +But the lively young sculptress knew better than to overdo: what +she did must appear to spring all from mirth; so she laughed as +if unwillingly, and said, "I MUSTN'T laugh at Mildred! In the +first place, she's your--your cousin. And in the second place, +she's not meant to be funny; it isn't right to laugh at really +splendid people who take themselves seriously. In the third +place, you won't come again if I do." + +"Don't be sure of that," Russell said, "whatever you do." + +"'Whatever I do?'" she echoed. "That sounds as if you thought I +COULD be terrific! Be careful; there's one thing I could do that +would keep you away." + +"What's that?" + +"I could tell you not to come," she said. "I wonder if I ought +to." + +"Why do you wonder if you 'ought to?'" + +"Don't you guess?" + +"No." + +"Then let's both be mysteries to each other," she suggested. "I +mystify you because I wonder, and you mystify me because you +don't guess why I wonder. We'll let it go at that, shall we?" + +"Very well; so long as it's certain that you DON'T tell me not to +come again." + +"I'll not tell you that--yet," she said. "In fact----" She +paused, reflecting, with her head to one side. "In fact, I won't +tell you not to come, probably, until I see that's what you want +me to tell you. I'll let you out easily--and I'll be sure to see +it. Even before you do, perhaps." + +"That arrangement suits me," Russell returned, and his voice held +no trace of jocularity: he had become serious. "It suits me +better if you're enough in earnest to mean that I can come--oh, +not whenever I want to; I don't expect so much!--but if you mean +that I can see you pretty often." + +"Of course I'm in earnest," she said. "But before I say you can +come 'pretty often,' I'd like to know how much of my time you'd +need if you did come 'whenever you want to'; and of course you +wouldn't dare make any answer to that question except one. +Wouldn't you let me have Thursdays out?" + +"No, no," he protested. "I want to know. Will you let me come +pretty often?" + +"Lean toward me a little," Alice said. "I want you to +understand." And as he obediently bent his head near hers, she +inclined toward him as if to whisper; then, in a half-shout, she +cried, + +"YES!" + +He clapped his hands. "By George!" he said. "What a girl you +are!" + +"Why?" + +"Well, for the first reason, because you have such gaieties as +that one. I should think your father would actually like being +ill, just to be in the house with you all the time." + +"You mean by that," Alice inquired, "I keep my family cheerful +with my amusing little ways?" + +"Yes. Don't you?" + +"There were only boys in your family, weren't there, Mr. +Russell?" + +"I was an only child, unfortunately." + +"Yes," she said. "I see you hadn't any sisters." + +For a moment he puzzled over her meaning, then saw it, and was +more delighted with her than ever. "I can answer a question of +yours, now, that I couldn't a while ago." + +"Yes, I know," she returned, quietly. + +"But how could you know?" + +"It's the question I asked you about whether you were going to +like living here," she said. "You're about to tell me that now +you know you WILL like it." + +"More telepathy!" he exclaimed. "Yes, that was it, precisely. I +suppose the same thing's been said to you so many times that +you----" + +"No, it hasn't," Alice said, a little confused for the moment. +"Not at all. I meant----" She paused, then asked in a gentle +voice, "Would you really like to know?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, I was only afraid you didn't mean it." + +"See here," he said. "I did mean it. I told you it was being +pretty difficult for me to settle down to things again. Well, +it's more difficult than you know, but I think I can pull through +in fair spirits if I can see a girl like you 'pretty often.'" + +"All right," she said, in a business-like tone. "I've told you +that you can if you want to." + +"I do want to," he assured her. "I do, indeed!" + +"How often is 'pretty often,' Mr. Russell?" + +"Would you walk with me sometimes? To-morrow?" + +"Sometimes. Not to-morrow. The day after." + +"That's splendid!" he said. "You'll walk with me day after +to-morrow, and the night after that I'll see you at Miss Lamb's +dance, won't I?" + +But this fell rather chillingly upon Alice. "Miss Lamb's dance? +Which Miss Lamb?" she asked. + +"I don't know--it's the one that's just coming out of mourning." + +"Oh, Henrietta--yes. Is her dance so soon? I'd forgotten." + +"You'll be there, won't you?" he asked. "Please say you're +going." + +Alice did not respond at once, and he urged her again: "Please do +promise you'll be there." + +"No, I can't promise anything," she said, slowly. "You see, for +one thing, papa might not be well enough." + +"But if he is?" said Russell. "If he is you'll surely come, +won't you? Or, perhaps----" He hesitated, then went on quickly, +"I don't know the rules in this place yet, and different places +have different rules; but do you have to have a chaperone, or +don't girls just go to dances with the men sometimes? If they +do, would you--would you let me take you?" + +Alice was startled. "Good gracious!" + +"What's the matter?" + +"Don't you think your relatives---- Aren't you expected to go +with Mildred--and Mrs. Palmer?" + +"Not necessarily. It doesn't matter what I might be expected to +do," he said. "Will you go with me?" + +"I---- No; I couldn't." + +"Why not?" + +"I can't. I'm not going." + +"But why?" + +"Papa's not really any better," Alice said, huskily. "I'm too +worried about him to go to a dance." Her voice sounded +emotional, genuinely enough; there was something almost like a +sob in it. "Let's talk of other things, please." + +He acquiesced gently; but Mrs. Adams, who had been listening to +the conversation at the open window, just overhead, did not hear +him. She had correctly interpreted the sob in Alice's voice, +and, trembling with sudden anger, she rose from her knees, and +went fiercely to her husband's room. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +He had not undressed, and he sat beside the table, smoking his +pipe and reading his newspaper. Upon his forehead the lines in +that old pattern, the historical map of his troubles, had grown a +little vaguer lately; relaxed by the complacency of a man who not +only finds his health restored, but sees the days before him +promising once more a familiar routine that he has always liked +to follow. + +As his wife came in, closing the door behind her, he looked up +cheerfully, "Well, mother," he said, "what's the news +downstairs?" + +"That's what I came to tell you," she informed him, grimly. + +Adams lowered his newspaper to his knee and peered over his +spectacles at her. She had remained by the door, standing, and +the great greenish shadow of the small lamp-shade upon his table +revealed her but dubiously. "Isn't everything all right?" he +asked. "What's the matter?" + +"Don't worry: I'm going to tell you," she said, her grimness not +relaxed. "There's matter enough, Virgil Adams. Matter enough to +make me sick of being alive!" + +With that, the markings on his brows began to emerge again in all +their sharpness; the old pattern reappeared. "Oh, my, my!" he +lamented. "I thought maybe we were all going to settle down to a +little peace for a while. What's it about now?" + +"It's about Alice. Did you think it was about ME or anything for +MYSELF?" + +Like some ready old machine, always in order, his irritability +responded immediately and automatically to her emotion. "How in +thunder could I think what it's about, or who it's for? SAY it, +and get it over!" + +"Oh, I'll 'say' it," she promised, ominously. "What I've come to +ask you is, How much longer do you expect me to put up with that +old man and his doings?" + +"Whose doings? What old man?" + +She came at him, fiercely accusing. "You know well enough what +old man, Virgil Adams! That old man who was here the other +night." + +"Mr. Lamb?" + +"Yes; 'Mister Lamb!'" She mocked his voice. "What other old man +would I be likely to mean except J. A. Lamb?" + +"What's he been doing now?" her husband inquired, satirically. +"Where'd you get something new against him since the last time +you----" + +"Just this!" she cried. "The other night when that man was here, +if I'd known how he was going to make my child suffer, I'd never +have let him set his foot in my house." + +Adams leaned back in his chair as though her absurdity had eased +his mind. "Oh, I see," he said. "You've just gone plain crazy. +That's the only explanation of such talk, and it suits the case." + +"Hasn't that man made us all suffer every day of our lives?" she +demanded. "I'd like to know why it is that my life and my +children's lives have to be sacrificed to him?" + +"How are they 'sacrificed' to him?" + +"Because you keep on working for him! Because you keep on +letting him hand out whatever miserable little pittance he +chooses to give you; that's why! It's as if he were some +horrible old Juggernaut and I had to see my children's own father +throwing them under the wheels to keep him satisfied." + +"I won't hear any more such stuff!" Lifting his paper, Adams +affected to read. + +"You'd better listen to me," she admonished him. "You might be +sorry you didn't, in case he ever tried to set foot in my house +again! I might tell him to his face what I think of him." + +At this, Adams slapped the newspaper down upon his knee. "Oh, +the devil! What's it matter what you think of him?" + +"It had better matter to you!" she cried. "Do you suppose I'm +going to submit forever to him and his family and what they're +doing to my child?" + +"What are he and his family doing to 'your child?'" + +Mrs. Adams came out with it. "That snippy little Henrietta Lamb +has always snubbed Alice every time she's ever had the chance. +She's followed the lead of the other girls; they've always all of +'em been jealous of Alice because she dared to try and be happy, +and because she's showier and better-looking than they are, even +though you do give her only about thirty-five cents a year to do +it on! They've all done everything on earth they could to drive +the young men away from her and belittle her to 'em; and this +mean little Henrietta Lamb's been the worst of the whole crowd to +Alice, every time she could see a chance." + +"What for?" Adams asked, incredulously. "Why should she or +anybody else pick on Alice?" + +"'Why?' 'What for?'" his wife repeated with a greater vehemence. +"Do YOU ask me such a thing as that? Do you really want to +know?" + +"Yes; I'd want to know--I would if I believed it." + +"Then I'll tell you," she said in a cold fury. "It's on account +of you, Virgil, and nothing else in the world." + +He hooted at her. "Oh, yes! These girls don't like ME, so they +pick on Alice." + +"Quit your palavering and evading," she said. "A crowd of girls +like that, when they get a pretty girl like Alice among them, +they act just like wild beasts. They'll tear her to pieces, or +else they'll chase her and run her out, because they know if she +had half a chance she'd outshine 'em. They can't do that to a +girl like Mildred Palmer because she's got money and family to +back her. Now you listen to me, Virgil Adams: the way the world +is now, money IS family. Alice would have just as much 'family' +as any of 'em every single bit--if you hadn't fallen behind in +the race." + +"How did I----" + +"Yes, you did!" she cried. "Twenty-five years ago when we were +starting and this town was smaller, you and I could have gone +with any of 'em if we'd tried hard enough. Look at the people we +knew then that do hold their heads up alongside of anybody in +this town! WHY can they? Because the men of those families made +money and gave their children everything that makes life worth +living! Why can't we hold our heads up? Because those men +passed you in the race. They went up the ladder, and you--you're +still a clerk down at that old hole!" + +"You leave that out, please," he said. "I thought you were going +to tell me something Henrietta Lamb had done to our Alice." + +"You BET I'm going to tell you," she assured him, vehemently. +"But first I'm telling WHY she does it. It's because you've +never given Alice any backing nor any background, and they all +know they can do anything they like to her with perfect impunity. +If she had the hundredth part of what THEY have to fall back on +she'd have made 'em sing a mighty different song long ago!" + +"How would she?" + +"Oh, my heavens, but you're slow!" Mrs. Adams moaned. "Look +here! You remember how practically all the nicest boys in this +town used to come here a few years ago. Why, they were all crazy +over her; and the girls HAD to be nice to her then. Look at the +difference now! There'll be a whole month go by and not a young +man come to call on her, let alone send her candy or flowers, or +ever think of TAKING her any place and yet she's prettier and +brighter than she was when they used to come. It isn't the +child's fault she couldn't hold 'em, is it? Poor thing, SHE +tried hard enough! I suppose you'd say it was her fault, +though." + +"No; I wouldn't." + +"Then whose fault is it?" + +"Oh, mine, mine," he said, wearily. "I drove the young men away, +of course." + +"You might as well have driven 'em, Virgil. It amounts to just +the same thing." + +"How does it?" + +"Because as they got older a good many of 'em began to think more +about money; that's one thing. Money's at the bottom of it all, +for that matter. Look at these country clubs and all such +things: the other girls' families belong and we don't, and Alice +don't; and she can't go unless somebody takes her, and nobody +does any more. Look at the other girls' houses, and then look at +our house, so shabby and old-fashioned she'd be pretty near +ashamed to ask anybody to come in and sit down nowadays! Look at +her clothes--oh, yes; you think you shelled out a lot for that +little coat of hers and the hat and skirt she got last March; but +it's nothing. Some of these girls nowadays spend more than your +whole salary on their clothes. And what jewellery has she got? +A plated watch and two or three little pins and rings of the kind +people's maids wouldn't wear now. Good Lord, Virgil Adams, wake +up! Don't sit there and tell me you don't know things like this +mean SUFFERING for the child!" + +He had begun to rub his hands wretchedly back and forth over his +bony knees, as if in that way he somewhat alleviated the tedium +caused by her racking voice. "Oh, my, my!" he muttered. "OH, +my, my!" + +"Yes, I should think you WOULD say 'Oh, my, my!'" she took him +up, loudly. "That doesn't help things much! If you ever wanted +to DO anything about it, the poor child might see some gleam of +hope in her life. You don't CARE for her, that's the trouble; +you don't care a single thing about her." + +"I don't?" + +"No; you don't. Why, even with your miserable little salary you +could have given her more than you have. You're the closest man +I ever knew: it's like pulling teeth to get a dollar out of you +for her, now and then, and yet you hide some away, every month or +so, in some wretched little investment or other. You----" + +"Look here, now," he interrupted, angrily. "You look here! If I +didn't put a little by whenever I could, in a bond or something, +where would you be if anything happened to me? The insurance +doctors never passed me; YOU know that. Haven't we got to have +SOMETHING to fall back on?" + +"Yes, we have!" she cried. "We ought to have something to go on +with right now, too, when we need it. Do you suppose these +snippets would treat Alice the way they do if she could afford to +ENTERTAIN? They leave her out of their dinners and dances simply +because they know she can't give any dinners and dances to leave +them out of! They know she can't get EVEN, and that's the whole +story! That's why Henrietta Lamb's done this thing to her now." + +Adams had gone back to his rubbing of his knees. "Oh, my, my!" +he said. "WHAT thing?" + +She told him. "Your dear, grand, old Mister Lamb's Henrietta has +sent out invitations for a large party--a LARGE one. Everybody +that is anybody in this town is asked, you can be sure. There's +a very fine young man, a Mr. Russell, has just come to town, and +he's interested in Alice, and he's asked her to go to this dance +with him. Well, Alice can't accept. She can't go with him, +though she'd give anything in the world to do it. Do you +understand? The reason she can't is because Henrietta Lamb +hasn't invited her. Do you want to know why Henrietta hasn't +invited her? It's because she knows Alice can't get even, and +because she thinks Alice ought to be snubbed like this on account +of only being the daughter of one of her grandfather's clerks. I +HOPE you understand!" + +"Oh, my, my!" he said. "OH, my, my!" + +"That's your sweet old employer," his wife cried, tauntingly. +"That's your dear, kind, grand old Mister Lamb! Alice has been +left out of a good many smaller things, like big dinners and +little dances, but this is just the same as serving her notice +that she's out of everything! And it's all done by your dear, +grand old----" + +"Look here!" Adams exclaimed. "I don't want to hear any more of +that! You can't hold him responsible for everything his +grandchildren do, I guess! He probably doesn't know a thing +about it. You don't suppose he's troubling HIS head over----" + +But she burst out at him passionately. "Suppose you trouble YOUR +head about it! You'd better, Virgil Adams! You'd better, unless +you want to see your child just dry up into a miserable old maid! +She's still young and she has a chance for happiness, if she had +a father that didn't bring a millstone to hang around her neck, +instead of what he ought to give her! You just wait till you die +and God asks you what you had in your breast instead of a heart!" + +"Oh, my, my!" he groaned. "What's my heart got to do with it?" + +"Nothing! You haven't got one or you'd give her what she needed. +Am I asking anything you CAN'T do? You know better; you know I'm +not!" + +At this he sat suddenly rigid, his troubled hands ceasing to rub +his knees; and he looked at her fixedly. "Now, tell me," he +said, slowly. "Just what ARE you asking?" + +"You know!" she sobbed. + +"You mean you've broken your word never to speak of THAT to me +again?" + +"What do _I_ care for my word?" she cried, and, sinking to the +floor at his feet, rocked herself back and forth there. "Do you +suppose I'll let my 'word' keep me from struggling for a little +happiness for my children? It won't, I tell you; it won't! I'll +struggle for that till I die! I will, till I die till I die!" + +He rubbed his head now instead of his knees, and, shaking all +over, he got up and began with uncertain steps to pace the floor. + +"Hell, hell, hell!" he said. "I've got to go through THAT +again!" + +"Yes, you have!" she sobbed. "Till I die." + +"Yes; that's what you been after all the time I was getting +well." + +"Yes, I have, and I'll keep on till I die!" + +"A fine wife for a man," he said. "Beggin' a man to be a dirty +dog!" + +"No! To be a MAN--and I'll keep on till I die!" + +Adams again fell back upon his last solace: he walked, half +staggering, up and down the room, swearing in a rhythmic +repetition. + +His wife had repetitions of her own, and she kept at them in a +voice that rose to a higher and higher pitch, like the sound of +an old well-pump. "Till I die! Till I die! Till I DIE!" + +She ended in a scream; and Alice, coming up the stairs, thanked +heaven that Russell had gone. She ran to her father's door and +went in. + +Adams looked at her, and gesticulated shakily at the convulsive +figure on the floor. "Can you get her out of here?" + +Alice helped Mrs. Adams to her feet; and the stricken woman +threw her arms passionately about her daughter. + +"Get her out!" Adams said, harshly; then cried, "Wait!" + +Alice, moving toward the door, halted, and looked at him blankly, +over her mother's shoulder. "What is it, papa?" + +He stretched out his arm and pointed at her. "She says--she says +you have a mean life, Alice." + +"No, papa." + +Mrs. Adams turned in her daughter's arms. "Do you hear her lie? +Couldn't you be as brave as she is, Virgil?" + +"Are you lying, Alice?" he asked. "Do you have a mean time?" + +"No, papa." + +He came toward her. "Look at me!" he said. "Things like this +dance now--is that so hard to bear?" + +Alice tried to say, "No, papa," again, but she couldn't. +Suddenly and in spite of herself she began to cry. + +"Do you hear her?" his wife sobbed. "Now do you----" + +He waved at them fiercely. "Get out of here!" he said. "Both of +you! Get out of here!" + +As they went, he dropped in his chair and bent far forward, so +that his haggard face was concealed from them. Then, as Alice +closed the door, he began to rub his knees again, muttering, "Oh, +my, my! OH, my, my!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +There shone a jovial sun overhead on the appointed "day after +to-morrow"; a day not cool yet of a temperature friendly to +walkers; and the air, powdered with sunshine, had so much life in +it that it seemed to sparkle. To Arthur Russell this was a day +like a gay companion who pleased him well; but the gay companion +at his side pleased him even better. She looked her prettiest, +chattered her wittiest, smiled her wistfulest, and delighted him +with all together. + +"You look so happy it's easy to see your father's taken a good +turn," he told her. + +"Yes; he has this afternoon, at least," she said. "I might have +other reasons for looking cheerful, though." + +"For instance?" + +"Exactly!" she said, giving him a sweet look just enough mocked +by her laughter. "For instance!" + +"Well, go on," he begged. + +"Isn't it expected?" she asked. + +"Of you, you mean?" + +"No," she returned. "For you, I mean!" + +In this style, which uses a word for any meaning that quick look +and colourful gesture care to endow it with, she was an expert; +and she carried it merrily on, leaving him at liberty (one of the +great values of the style) to choose as he would how much or how +little she meant. He was content to supply mere cues, for +although he had little coquetry of his own, he had lately begun +to find that the only interesting moments in his life were those +during which Alice Adams coquetted with him. Happily, these +obliging moments extended themselves to cover all the time he +spent with her. However serious she might seem, whatever +appeared to be her topic, all was thou-and-I. + +He planned for more of it, seeing otherwise a dull evening ahead; +and reverted, afterwhile, to a forbidden subject. "About that +dance at Miss Lamb's--since your father's so much better----" + +She flushed a little. "Now, now!" she chided him. "We agreed +not to say any more about that." + +"Yes, but since he IS better----" + +Alice shook her head. "He won't be better to-morrow. He always +has a bad day after a good one especially after such a good one +as this is." + +"But if this time it should be different," Russell persisted; +"wouldn't you be willing to come if he's better by to-morrow +evening? Why not wait and decide at the last minute?" + +She waved her hands airily. "What a pother!" she cried. "What +does it matter whether poor little Alice Adams goes to a dance or +not?" + +"Well, I thought I'd made it clear that it looks fairly bleak to +me if you don't go." + +"Oh, yes!" she jeered. + +"It's the simple truth," he insisted. "I don't care a great deal +about dances these days; and if you aren't going to be there----" + +"You could stay away," she suggested. "You wouldn't!" + +"Unfortunately, I can't. I'm afraid I'm supposed to be the +excuse. Miss Lamb, in her capacity as a friend of my +relatives----" + +"Oh, she's giving it for YOU! I see! On Mildred's account you +mean?" + +At that his face showed an increase of colour. "I suppose just +on account of my being a cousin of Mildred's and of----" + +"Of course! You'll have a beautiful time, too. Henrietta'll see +that you have somebody to dance with besides Miss Dowling, poor +man!" + +"But what I want somebody to see is that I dance with you! And +perhaps your father----" + +"Wait!" she said, frowning as if she debated whether or not to +tell him something of import; then, seeming to decide +affirmatively, she asked: "Would you really like to know the +truth about it?" + +"If it isn't too unflattering." + +"It hasn't anything to do with you at all," she said. "Of course +I'd like to go with you and to dance with you--though you don't +seem to realize that you wouldn't be permitted much time with +me." + +"Oh, yes, I----" + +"Never mind!" she laughed. "Of course you wouldn't. But even if +papa should be better to-morrow, I doubt if I'd go. In fact, I +know I wouldn't. There's another reason besides papa." + +"Is there?" + +"Yes. The truth is, I don't get on with Henrietta Lamb. As a +matter of fact, I dislike her, and of course that means she +dislikes me. I should never think of asking her to anything I +gave, and I really wonder she asks me to things SHE gives." This +was a new inspiration; and Alice, beginning to see her way out of +a perplexity, wished that she had thought of it earlier: she +should have told him from the first that she and Henrietta had a +feud, and consequently exchanged no invitations. Moreover, there +was another thing to beset her with little anxieties: she might +better not have told him from the first, as she had indeed told +him by intimation, that she was the pampered daughter of an +indulgent father, presumably able to indulge her; for now she +must elaborately keep to the part. Veracity is usually simple; +and its opposite, to be successful, should be as simple; but +practitioners of the opposite are most often impulsive, like +Alice; and, like her, they become enmeshed in elaborations. + +"It wouldn't be very nice for me to go to her house," Alice went +on, "when I wouldn't want her in mine. I've never admired her. +I've always thought she was lacking in some things most people +are supposed to be equipped with--for instance, a certain feeling +about the death of a father who was always pretty decent to his +daughter. Henrietta's father died just, eleven months and +twenty-seven days before your cousin's dance, but she couldn't +stick out those few last days and make it a year; she was there." + +Alice stopped, then laughed ruefully, exclaiming, "But this is +dreadful of me!" + +"Is it?" + +"Blackguarding her to you when she's giving a big party for you! +Just the way Henrietta would blackguard me to you--heaven knows +what she WOULDN'T say if she talked about me to you! It would be +fair, of course, but--well, I'd rather she didn't!" And with +that, Alice let her pretty hand, in its white glove, rest upon +his arm for a moment; and he looked down at it, not unmoved to +see it there. "I want to be unfair about just this," she said, +letting a troubled laughter tremble through her appealing voice +as she spoke. "I won't take advantage of her with anybody, +except just--you! I'd a little rather you didn't hear anybody +blackguard me, and, if you don't mind--could you promise not to +give Henrietta the chance?" + +It was charmingly done, with a humorous, faint pathos altogether +genuine; and Russell found himself suddenly wanting to shout at +her, "Oh, you DEAR!" Nothing else seemed adequate; but he +controlled the impulse in favour of something more conservative. + +"Imagine any one speaking unkindly of you--not praising you!" + +"Who HAS praised me to you?" she asked, quickly. + +"I haven't talked about you with any one; but if I did, I know +they'd----" + +"No, no!" she cried, and went on, again accompanying her words +with little tremulous runs of laughter. "You don't understand +this town yet. You'll be surprised when you do; we're different. +We talk about one another fearfully! Haven't I just proved it, +the way I've been going for Henrietta? Of course I didn't say +anything really very terrible about her, but that's only because +I don't follow that practice the way most of the others do. They +don't stop with the worst of the truth they can find: they make +UP things--yes, they really do! And, oh, I'd RATHER they didn't +make up things about me--to you!" + +"What difference would it make if they did?" he inquired, +cheerfully. "I'd know they weren't true." + +"Even if you did know that, they'd make a difference," she said. +"Oh, yes, they would! It's too bad, but we don't like anything +quite so well that's had specks on it, even if we've wiped the +specks off;--it's just that much spoiled, and some things are all +spoiled the instant they're the least bit spoiled. What a man +thinks about a girl, for instance. Do you want to have what you +think about me spoiled, Mr. Russell?" + +"Oh, but that's already far beyond reach," he said, lightly. + +"But it can't be!" she protested. + +"Why not?" + +"Because it never can be. Men don't change their minds about one +another often: they make it quite an event when they do, and talk +about it as if something important had happened. But a girl only +has to go down-town with a shoe-string unfastened, and every man +who sees her will change his mind about her. Don't you know +that's true?" + +"Not of myself, I think." + +"There!" she cried. "That's precisely what every man in the +world would say!" + +"So you wouldn't trust me?" + +"Well--I'll be awfully worried if you give 'em a chance to tell +you that I'm too lazy to tie my shoe-strings!" + +He laughed delightedly. "Is that what they do say?" he asked. + +"Just about! Whatever they hope will get results." She shook +her head wisely. "Oh, yes; we do that here!" + +"But I don't mind loose shoe-strings," he said. "Not if they're +yours." + +"They'll find out what you do mind." + +"But suppose," he said, looking at her whimsically; "suppose I +wouldn't mind anything--so long as it's yours?" + +She courtesied. "Oh, pretty enough! But a girl who's talked +about has a weakness that's often a fatal one." + +"What is it?" + +"It's this: when she's talked about she isn't THERE. That's how +they kill her." + +"I'm afraid I don't follow you." + +"Don't you see? If Henrietta--or Mildred--or any of 'em--or some +of their mothers--oh, we ALL do it! Well, if any of 'em told you +I didn't tie my shoe-strings, and if I were there, so that you +could see me, you'd know it wasn't true. Even if I were sitting +so that you couldn't see my feet, and couldn't tell whether the +strings were tied or not just then, still you could look at me, +and see that I wasn't the sort of girl to neglect my +shoe-strings. But that isn't the way it happens: they'll get at +you when I'm nowhere around and can't remind you of the sort of +girl I really am." + +"But you don't do that," he complained. "You don't remind me you +don't even tell me--the sort of girl you really are! I'd like to +know." + +"Let's be serious then," she said, and looked serious enough +herself. "Would you honestly like to know?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then, you must be careful." + +"'Careful?'" The word amused him. + +"I mean careful not to get me mixed up," she said. "Careful not +to mix up the girl you might hear somebody talking about with the +me I honestly try to make you see. If you do get those two mixed +up--well, the whole show'll be spoiled!" + +"What makes you think so?" + +"Because it's----" She checked herself, having begun to speak too +impulsively; and she was disturbed, realizing in what tricky +stuff she dealt. What had been on her lips to say was, "Because +it's happened before!" She changed to, "Because it's so easy to +spoil anything--easiest of all to spoil anything that's +pleasant." + +"That might depend." + +"No; it's so. And if you care at all about--about knowing a girl +who'd like someone to know her----" + +"Just 'someone?' That's disappointing." + +"Well--you," she said. + +"Tell me how 'careful' you want me to be, then!" + +"Well, don't you think it would be nice if you didn't give +anybody the chance to talk about me the way--the way I've just +been talking about Henrietta Lamb?" + +With that they laughed together, and he said, "You may be cutting +me off from a great deal of information, you know." + +"Yes," Alice admitted. "Somebody might begin to praise me to +you, too; so it's dangerous to ask you to change the subject if I +ever happen to be mentioned. But after all----" She paused. + +"'After all' isn't the end of a thought, is it?" + +"Sometimes it is of a girl's thought; I suppose men are neater +about their thoughts, and always finish 'em. It isn't the end of +the thought I had then, though." + +"What is the end of it?" + +She looked at him impulsively. "Oh, it's foolish," she said, and +she laughed as laughs one who proposes something probably +impossible. "But, WOULDN'T it be pleasant if two people could +ever just keep themselves TO themselves, so far as they two were +concerned? I mean, if they could just manage to be friends +without people talking about it, or talking to THEM about it?" + +"I suppose that might be rather difficult," he said, more amused +than impressed by her idea. + +"I don't know: it might be done," she returned, hopefully. +"Especially in a town of this size; it's grown so it's quite a +huge place these days. People can keep themselves to themselves +in a big place better, you know. For instance, nobody knows that +you and I are taking a walk together today." + +"How absurd, when here we are on exhibition!" + +"No; we aren't." + +"We aren't?" + +"Not a bit of it!" she laughed. "We were the other day, when you +walked home with me, but anybody could tell that had just +happened by chance, on account of your overtaking me; people can +always see things like that. But we're not on exhibition now. +Look where I've led you!" + +Amused and a little bewildered, he looked up and down the street, +which was one of gaunt-faced apartment-houses, old, sooty, frame +boarding-houses, small groceries and drug-stores, laundries and +one-room plumbers' shops, with the sign of a clairvoyant here +and there. + +"You see?" she said. "I've been leading you without your knowing +it. Of course that's because you're new to the town, and you +give yourself up to the guidance of an old citizen." + +"I'm not so sure, Miss Adams. It might mean that I don't care +where I follow so long as I follow you." + +"Very well," she said. "I'd like you to keep on following me at +least long enough for me to show you that there's something nicer +ahead of us than this dingy street." + +"Is that figurative?" he asked. + +"Might be!" she returned, gaily. "There's a pretty little park +at the end, but it's very proletarian, and nobody you and I know +will be more likely to see us there than on this street." + +"What an imagination you have!" he exclaimed. "You turn our +proper little walk into a Parisian adventure." + +She looked at him in what seemed to be a momentary grave +puzzlement. "Perhaps you feel that a Parisian adventure mightn't +please your--your relatives?" + +"Why, no," he returned. "You seem to think of them oftener than +I do." + +This appeared to amuse Alice, or at least to please her, for she +laughed. "Then I can afford to quit thinking of them, I suppose. +It's only that I used to be quite a friend of Mildred's--but +there! we needn't to go into that. I've never been a friend of +Henrietta Lamb's, though, and I almost wish she weren't taking +such pains to be a friend of yours." + +"Oh, but she's not. It's all on account of----" + +"On Mildred's account," Alice finished this for him, coolly. +"Yes, of course." + +"It's on account of the two families," he was at pains to +explain, a little awkwardly. "It's because I'm a relative of the +Palmers, and the Palmers and the Lambs seem to be old family +friends." + +"Something the Adamses certainly are not," Alice said. "Not with +either of 'em; particularly not with the Lambs!" And here, scarce +aware of what impelled her, she returned to her former +elaborations and colourings. "You see, the differences between +Henrietta and me aren't entirely personal: I couldn't go to her +house even if I liked her. The Lambs and Adamses don't get on +with each other, and we've just about come to the breaking-point +as it happens." + +"I hope it's nothing to bother you." + +"Why? A lot of things bother me." + +"I'm sorry they do," he said, and seemed simply to mean it. + +She nodded gratefully. "That's nice of you, Mr. Russell. It +helps. The break between the Adamses and the Lambs is a pretty +bothersome thing. It's been coming on a long time." She sighed +deeply, and the sigh was half genuine; this half being for her +father, but the other half probably belonged to her instinctive +rendering of Juliet Capulet, daughter to a warring house. "I +hate it all so!" she added. + +"Of course you must." + +"I suppose most quarrels between families are on account of +business," she said. "That's why they're so sordid. Certainly +the Lambs seem a sordid lot to me, though of course I'm biased." +And with that she began to sketch a history of the commercial +antagonism that had risen between the Adamses and the Lambs. + +The sketching was spontaneous and dramatic. Mathematics had no +part in it; nor was there accurate definition of Mr. Adams's +relation to the institution of Lamb and Company. The point was +clouded, in fact; though that might easily be set down to the +general haziness of young ladies confronted with the mysteries of +trade or commerce. Mr. Adams either had been a vague sort of +junior member of the firm, it appeared, or else he should have +been made some such thing; at all events, he was an old mainstay +of the business; and he, as much as any Lamb, had helped to build +up the prosperity of the company. But at last, tired of +providing so much intelligence and energy for which other people +took profit greater than his own, he had decided to leave the +company and found a business entirely for himself. The Lambs +were going to be enraged when they learned what was afoot. + +Such was the impression, a little misted, wrought by Alice's +quick narrative. But there was dolorous fact behind it: Adams +had succumbed. + +His wife, grave and nervous, rather than triumphant, in success, +had told their daughter that the great J. A. would be furious +and possibly vindictive. Adams was afraid of him, she said. + +"But what for, mama?" Alice asked, since this seemed a turn of +affairs out of reason. "What in the world has Mr. Lamb to do +with papa's leaving the company to set up for himself? What +right has he to be angry about it? If he's such a friend as he +claims to be, I should think he'd be glad--that is, if the glue +factory turns out well. What will he be angry for?" + +Mrs. Adams gave Alice an uneasy glance, hesitated, and then +explained that a resignation from Lamb's had always been looked +upon, especially by "that old man," as treachery. You were +supposed to die in the service, she said bitterly, and her +daughter, a little mystified, accepted this explanation. Adams +had not spoken to her of his surrender; he seemed not inclined to +speak to her at all, or to any one. + +Alice was not serious too long, and she began to laugh as she +came to the end of her decorative sketch. "After all, the whole +thing is perfectly ridiculous," she said. "In fact, it's FUNNY! +That's on account of what papa's going to throw over the Lamb +business FOR! To save your life you couldn't imagine what he's +going to do!" + +"I won't try, then," Russell assented. + +"It takes all the romance out of ME," she laughed. "You'll never +go for a Parisian walk with me again, after I tell you what I'll +be heiress to." They had come to the entrance of the little +park; and, as Alice had said, it was a pretty place, especially +on a day so radiant. Trees of the oldest forest stood there, +hale and serene over the trim, bright grass; and the proletarians +had not come from their factories at this hour; only a few +mothers and their babies were to be seen, here and there, in the +shade. "I think I'll postpone telling you about it till we get +nearly home again," Alice said, as they began to saunter down one +of the gravelled paths. "There's a bench beside a spring farther +on; we can sit there and talk about a lot of things--things not +so sticky as my dowry's going to be." + +"'Sticky?'" he echoed. "What in the world----" She laughed +despairingly. + +"A glue factory!" + +Then he laughed, too, as much from friendliness as from +amusement; and she remembered to tell him that the project of a +glue factory was still "an Adams secret." It would be known +soon, however, she added; and the whole Lamb connection would +probably begin saying all sorts of things, heaven knew what! + +Thus Alice built her walls of flimsy, working always gaily, or +with at least the air of gaiety; and even as she rattled on, +there was somewhere in her mind a constant little wonder. +Everything she said seemed to be necessary to support something +else she had said. How had it happened? She found herself +telling him that since her father had decided on making so great +a change in his ways, she and her mother hoped at last to +persuade him to give up that "foolish little house" he had been +so obstinate about; and she checked herself abruptly on this +declivity just as she was about to slide into a remark concerning +her own preference for a "country place." Discretion caught her +in time; and something else, in company with discretion, caught +her, for she stopped short in her talk and blushed. + +They had taken possession of the bench beside the spring, by this +time; and Russell, his elbow on the back of the bench and his +chin on his hand, the better to look at her, had no guess at the +cause of the blush, but was content to find it lovely. At his +first sight of Alice she had seemed pretty in the particular way +of being pretty that he happened to like best; and, with every +moment he spent with her, this prettiness appeared to increase. +He felt that he could not look at her enough: his gaze followed +the fluttering of the graceful hands in almost continual gesture +as she talked; then lifted happily to the vivacious face again. +She charmed him. + +After her abrupt pause, she sighed, then looked at him with her +eyebrows lifted in a comedy appeal. "You haven't said you +wouldn't give Henrietta the chance," she said, in the softest +voice that can still have a little laugh running in it. + +He was puzzled. "Give Henrietta the chance?" + +"YOU know! You'll let me keep on being unfair, won't you? Not +give the other girls a chance to get even?" + +He promised, heartily. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Alice had said that no one who knew either Russell or herself +would be likely to see them in the park or upon the dingy street; +but although they returned by that same ungenteel thoroughfare +they were seen by a person who knew them both. Also, with some +surprise on the part of Russell, and something more poignant than +surprise for Alice, they saw this person. + +All of the dingy street was ugly, but the greater part of it +appeared to be honest. The two pedestrians came upon a block or +two, however, where it offered suggestions of a less upright +character, like a steady enough workingman with a naughty book +sticking out of his pocket. Three or four dim shops, a single +story in height, exhibited foul signboards, yet fair enough so +far as the wording went; one proclaiming a tobacconist, one a +junk-dealer, one a dispenser of "soft drinks and cigars." The +most credulous would have doubted these signboards; for the craft +of the modern tradesman is exerted to lure indoors the passing +glance, since if the glance is pleased the feet may follow; but +this alleged tobacconist and his neighbours had long been fond of +dust on their windows, evidently, and shades were pulled far down +on the glass of their doors. Thus the public eye, small of pupil +in the light of the open street, was intentionally not invited to +the dusky interiors. Something different from mere lack of +enterprise was apparent; and the signboards might have been +omitted; they were pains thrown away, since it was plain to the +world that the business parts of these shops were the brighter +back rooms implied by the dark front rooms; and that the commerce +there was in perilous new liquors and in dice and rough girls. + +Nothing could have been more innocent than the serenity with +which these wicked little places revealed themselves for what +they were; and, bound by this final tie of guilelessness, they +stood together in a row which ended with a companionable +barbershop, much like them. Beyond was a series of soot-harried +frame two-story houses, once part of a cheerful neighbourhood +when the town was middle-aged and settled, and not old and +growing. These houses, all carrying the label. "Rooms," had the +worried look of vacancy that houses have when they are too full +of everybody without being anybody's home; and there was, too, a +surreptitious air about them, as if, like the false little shops, +they advertised something by concealing it. + +One of them--the one next to the barber-shop--had across its +front an ample, jig-sawed veranda, where aforetime, no doubt, the +father of a family had fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan on +Sunday afternoons, watching the surreys go by, and where his +daughter listened to mandolins and badinage on starlit evenings; +but, although youth still held the veranda, both the youth and +the veranda were in decay. The four or five young men who +lounged there this afternoon were of a type known to shady +pool-parlours. Hats found no favour with them; all of them wore +caps; and their tight clothes, apparently from a common source, +showed a vivacious fancy for oblique pockets, false belts, and +Easter-egg colourings. Another thing common to the group was +the expression of eye and mouth; and Alice, in the midst of her +other thoughts, had a distasteful thought about this. + +The veranda was within a dozen feet of the sidewalk, and as she +and her escort came nearer, she took note of the young men, her +face hardening a little, even before she suspected there might be +a resemblance between them and any one she knew. Then she +observed that each of these loungers wore not for the occasion, +but as of habit, a look of furtively amused contempt; the mouth +smiled to one side as if not to dislodge a cigarette, while the +eyes kept languidly superior. All at once Alice was reminded of +Walter; and the slight frown caused by this idea had just begun +to darken her forehead when Walter himself stepped out of the +open door of the house and appeared upon the veranda. Upon his +head was a new straw hat, and in his hand was a Malacca stick +with an ivory top, for Alice had finally decided against it for +herself and had given it to him. His mood was lively: he twirled +the stick through his fingers like a drum-major's baton, and +whistled loudly. + +Moreover, he was indeed accompanied. With him was a thin girl +who had made a violent black-and-white poster of herself: black +dress, black flimsy boa, black stockings, white slippers, great +black hat down upon the black eyes; and beneath the hat a curve +of cheek and chin made white as whitewash, and in strong +bilateral motion with gum. + +The loungers on the veranda were familiars of the pair; hailed +them with cacklings; and one began to sing, in a voice all tin: + + "Then my skirt, Sal, and me did go + Right straight to the moving-pitcher show. + OH, you bashful vamp!" + + +The girl laughed airily. "God, but you guys are wise!" she said. + +"Come on, Wallie." + +Walter stared at his sister; then grinned faintly, and nodded at +Russell as the latter lifted his hat in salutation. Alice +uttered an incoherent syllable of exclamation, and, as she began +to walk faster, she bit her lip hard, not in order to look +wistful, this time, but to help her keep tears of anger from her +eyes. + +Russell laughed cheerfully. "Your brother certainly seems to +have found the place for 'colour' today," he said. "That girl's +talk must be full of it." + +But Alice had forgotten the colour she herself had used in +accounting for Walter's peculiarities, and she did not +understand. "What?" she said, huskily. + +"Don't you remember telling me about him? How he was going to +write, probably, and would go anywhere to pick up types and get +them to talk?" + +She kept her eyes ahead, and said sharply, "I think his literary +tastes scarcely cover this case!" + +"Don't be too sure. He didn't look at all disconcerted. He +didn't seem to mind your seeing him." + +"That's all the worse, isn't it?" + +"Why, no," her friend said, genially. "It means he didn't +consider that he was engaged in anything out of the way. You +can't expect to understand everything boys do at his age; they do +all sorts of queer things, and outgrow them. Your brother +evidently has a taste for queer people, and very likely he's been +at least half sincere when he's made you believe he had a +literary motive behind it. We all go through----" + +"Thanks, Mr. Russell," she interrupted. "Let's don't say any +more." + +He looked at her flushed face and enlarged eyes; and he liked her +all the better for her indignation: this was how good sisters +ought to feel, he thought, failing to understand that most of +what she felt was not about Walter. He ventured only a word +more. "Try not to mind it so much; it really doesn't amount to +anything." + +She shook her head, and they went on in silence; she did not look +at him again until they stopped before her own house. Then she +gave him only one glimpse of her eyes before she looked down. +"It's spoiled, isn't it?" she said, in a low voice. + +"What's 'spoiled?'" + +"Our walk--well, everything. Somehow it always--is." + +"'Always is' what?" he asked. + +"Spoiled," she said. + +He laughed at that; but without looking at him she suddenly +offered him her hand, and, as he took it, he felt a hurried, +violent pressure upon his fingers, as if she meant to thank him +almost passionately for being kind. She was gone before he could +speak to her again. + + +In her room, with the door locked, she did not go to her mirror, +but to her bed, flinging herself face down, not caring how far +the pillows put her hat awry. Sheer grief had followed her +anger; grief for the calamitous end of her bright afternoon, +grief for the "end of everything," as she thought then. +Nevertheless, she gradually grew more composed, and, when her +mother tapped on the door presently, let her in. Mrs. Adams +looked at her with quick apprehension. + +"Oh, poor child! Wasn't he----" + +Alice told her. "You see how it--how it made me look, mama," she +quavered, having concluded her narrative. "I'd tried to cover up +Walter's awfulness at the dance with that story about his being +'literary,' but no story was big enough to cover this up--and oh! +it must make him think I tell stories about other things!" + +"No, no, no!" Mrs. Adams protested. "Don't you see? At the +worst, all HE could think is that Walter told stories to you +about why he likes to be with such dreadful people, and you +believed them. That's all HE'D think; don't you see?" + +Alice's wet eyes began to show a little hopefulness. "You +honestly think it might be that way, mama?" + +"Why, from what you've told me he said, I KNOW it's that way. +Didn't he say he wanted to come again?" + +"N-no," Alice said, uncertainly. "But I think he will. At least +I begin to think so now. He----" She stopped. + +"From all you tell me, he seems to be a very desirable young +man," Mrs. Adams said, primly. + +Her daughter was silent for several moments; then new tears +gathered upon her downcast lashes. "He's just--dear!" she +faltered. + +Mrs. Adams nodded. "He's told you he isn't engaged, hasn't he?" + +"No. But I know he isn't. Maybe when he first came here he was +near it, but I know he's not." + +"I guess Mildred Palmer would LIKE him to be, all right!" Mrs. +Adams was frank enough to say, rather triumphantly; and Alice, +with a lowered head, murmured: + +"Anybody--would." + +The words were all but inaudible. + +"Don't you worry," her mother said, and patted her on the +shoulder. "Everything will come out all right; don't you fear, +Alice. Can't you see that beside any other girl in town you're +just a perfect QUEEN? Do you think any young man that wasn't +prejudiced, or something, would need more than just one look +to----" + +But Alice moved away from the caressing hand. "Never mind, mama. +I wonder he looks at me at all. And if he does again, after +seeing my brother with those horrible people----" + +"Now, now!" Mrs. Adams interrupted, expostulating mournfully. +"I'm sure Walter's a GOOD boy----" + +"You are?" Alice cried, with a sudden vigour. "You ARE?" + +"I'm sure he's GOOD, yes--and if he isn't, it's not his fault. +It's mine." + +"What nonsense!" + +"No, it's true," Mrs. Adams lamented. "I tried to bring him up +to be good, God knows; and when he was little he was the best boy +I ever saw. When he came from Sunday-school he'd always run to +me and we'd go over the lesson together; and he let me come in +his room at night to hear his prayers almost until he was +sixteen. Most boys won't do that with their mothers--not nearly +that long. I tried so hard to bring him up right--but if +anything's gone wrong it's my fault." + +"How could it be? You've just said----" + +"It's because I didn't make your father this--this new step +earlier. Then Walter might have had all the advantages that +other----" + +"Oh, mama, PLEASE!" Alice begged her. "Let's don't go over all +that again. Isn't it more important to think what's to be done +about him? Is he going to be allowed to go on disgracing us as +he does?" + +Mrs. Adams sighed profoundly. "I don't know what to do," she +confessed, unhappily. "Your father's so upset about--about this +new step he's taking--I don't feel as if we ought to----" + +"No, no!" Alice cried. "Papa mustn't be distressed with this, on +top of everything else. But SOMETHING'S got to be done about +Walter." + +"What can be?" her mother asked, helplessly. "What can be?" + +Alice admitted that she didn't know. + + +At dinner, an hour later, Walter's habitually veiled glance +lifted, now and then, to touch her furtively;--he was waiting, as +he would have said, for her to "spring it"; and he had prepared a +brief and sincere defense to the effect that he made his own +living, and would like to inquire whose business it was to offer +intrusive comment upon his private conduct. But she said +nothing, while his father and mother were as silent as she. +Walter concluded that there was to be no attack, but changed his +mind when his father, who ate only a little, and broodingly at +that, rose to leave the table and spoke to him. + +"Walter," he said, "when you've finished I wish you'd come up to +my room. I got something I want to say to you." + +Walter shot a hard look at his apathetic sister, then turned to +his father. "Make it to-morrow," he said. "This is Satad'y +night and I got a date." + +"No," Adams said, frowning. "You come up before you go out. +It's important." + +"All right; I've had all I want to eat," Walter returned. "I got +a few minutes. Make it quick." + +He followed his father upstairs, and when they were in the room +together Adams shut the door, sat down, and began to rub his +knees. + +"Rheumatism?" the boy inquired, slyly. "That what you want to +talk to me about?" + +"No." But Adams did not go on; he seemed to be in difficulties +for words, and Walter decided to help him. + +"Hop ahead and spring it," he said. "Get it off your mind: I'll +tell the world _I_ should worry! You aren't goin' to bother ME +any, so why bother yourself? Alice hopped home and told you she +saw me playin' around with some pretty gay-lookin' berries and +you----" + +"Alice?" his father said, obviously surprised. "It's nothing +about Alice." + +"Didn't she tell you----" + +"I haven't talked with her all day." + +"Oh, I see," Walter said. "She told mother and mother told you." + +"No, neither of 'em have told me anything. What was there to +tell?" + +Walter laughed. "Oh, it's nothin'," he said. "I was just +startin' out to buy a girl friend o' mine a rhinestone buckle I +lost to her on a bet, this afternoon, and Alice came along with +that big Russell fish; and I thought she looked sore. She +expects me to like the kind she likes, and I don't like 'em. I +thought she'd prob'ly got you all stirred up about it." + +"No, no," his father said, peevishly. "I don't know anything +about it, and I don't care to know anything about it. I want to +talk to you about something important." + +Then, as he was again silent, Walter said, "Well, TALK about it; +I'm listening." + +"It's this," Adams began, heavily. "It's about me going into +this glue business. Your mother's told you, hasn't she?" + +"She said you were goin' to leave the old place down-town and +start a glue factory. That's all I know about it; I got my own +affairs to 'tend to." + +"Well, this is your affair," his father said, frowning. "You +can't stay with Lamb and Company." + +Walter looked a little startled. "What you mean, I can't? Why +not?" + +"You've got to help me," Adams explained slowly; and he frowned +more deeply, as if the interview were growing increasingly +laborious for him. "It's going to be a big pull to get this +business on its feet." + +"Yes!" Walter exclaimed with a sharp skepticism. "I should say +it was!" He stared at his father incredulously. "Look here; +aren't you just a little bit sudden, the way you're goin' about +things? You've let mother shove you a little too fast, haven't +you? Do you know anything about what it means to set up a new +business these days?" + +"Yes, I know all about it," Adams said. "About this business, I +do." + +"How do you?" + +"Because I made a long study of it. I'm not afraid of going +about it the wrong way; but it's a hard job and you'll have to +put in all whatever sense and strength you've got." + +Walter began to breathe quickly, and his lips were agitated; then +he set them obstinately. "Oh; I will," he said. + +"Yes, you will," Adams returned, not noticing that his son's +inflection was satiric. "It's going to take every bit of energy +in your body, and all the energy I got left in mine, and every +cent of the little I've saved, besides something I'll have to +raise on this house. I'm going right at it, now I've got to; and +you'll have to quit Lamb's by the end of next week." + +"Oh, I will?" Walter's voice grew louder, and there was a +shrillness in it. "I got to quit Lamb's the end of next week, +have I?" He stepped forward, angrily. "Listen!" he said. "I'm +not walkin' out o' Lamb's, see? I'm not quittin' down there: I +stay with 'em, see?" + +Adams looked up at him, astonished. "You'll leave there next +Saturday," he said. "I've got to have you." + +"You don't anything o' the kind," Walter told him, sharply. "Do +you expect to pay me anything?" + +"I'd pay you about what you been getting down there." + +"Then pay somebody else; _I_ don't know anything about glue. You +get somebody else." + +"No. You've got to---" + +Walter cut him off with the utmost vehemence. "Don't tell me +what I got to do! I know what I got to do better'n you, I guess! +I stay at Lamb's, see?" + +Adams rose angrily. "You'll do what I tell you. You can't stay +down there." + +"Why can't I?" + +"Because I won't let you." + +"Listen! Keep on not lettin' me: I'll be there just the same." + +At that his father broke into a sour laughter. "THEY won't let +you, Walter! They won't have you down there after they find out +I'm going." + +"Why won't they? You don't think they're goin' to be all shot to +pieces over losin' YOU, do you?" + +"I tell you they won't let you stay," his father insisted, +loudly. + +"Why, what do they care whether you go or not?" + +"They'll care enough to fire YOU, my boy!" + +"Look here, then; show me why." + +"They'll do it!" + +"Yes," Walter jeered; "you keep sayin' they will, but when I ask +you to show me why, you keep sayin' they will! That makes little +headway with ME, I can tell you!" + +Adams groaned, and, rubbing his head, began to pace the floor. +Walter's refusal was something he had not anticipated; and he +felt the weakness of his own attempt to meet it: he seemed +powerless to do anything but utter angry words, which, as Walter +said, made little headway. "Oh, my, my!" he muttered, "OH, my, +my!" + +Walter, usually sallow, had grown pale: he watched his father +narrowly, and now took a sudden resolution. "Look here," he +said. "When you say Lamb's is likely to fire me because you're +goin' to quit, you talk like the people that have to be locked +up. I don't know where you get such things in your head; Lamb +and Company won't know you're gone. Listen: I can stay there +long as I want to. But I'll tell you what I'll do: make it worth +my while and I'll hook up with your old glue factory, after all." + +Adams stopped his pacing abruptly, and stared at him. "'Make it +worth your while?' What you mean?" + +"I got a good use for three hundred dollars right now," Walter +said. "Let me have it and I'll quit Lamb's to work for you. +Don't let me have it and I SWEAR I won't!" + +"Are you crazy?" + +"Is everybody crazy that needs three hundred dollars?" + +"Yes," Adams said. "They are if they ask ME for it, when I got +to stretch every cent I can lay my hands on to make it look like +a dollar!" + +"You won't do it?" + +Adams burst out at him. "You little fool! If I had three +hundred dollars to throw away, besides the pay I expected to give +you, haven't you got sense enough to see I could hire a man worth +three hundred dollars more to me than you'd be? It's a FINE time +to ask me for three hundred dollars, isn't it! What FOR? +Rhinestone buckles to throw around on your 'girl friends?' Shame +on you! Ask me to BRIBE you to help yourself and your own +family!" + +"I'll give you a last chance," Walter said. "Either you do what +I want, or I won't do what you want. Don't ask me again after +this, because----" + +Adams interrupted him fiercely. "'Ask you again!' Don't worry +about that, my boy! All I ask you is to get out o' my room." + +"Look here," Walter said, quietly; and his lopsided smile +distorted his livid cheek. "Look here: I expect YOU wouldn't +give me three hundred dollars to save my life, would you?" + +"You make me sick," Adams said, in his bitterness. "Get out of +here." + +Walter went out, whistling; and Adams drooped into his old chair +again as the door closed. "OH, my, my!" he groaned. "Oh, Lordy, +Lordy! The way of the transgressor----" + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +He meant his own transgression and his own way; for Walter's +stubborn refusal appeared to Adams just then as one of the +inexplicable but righteous besettings he must encounter in +following that way. "Oh, Lordy, Lord!" he groaned, and then, as +resentment moved him--"That dang boy! Dang idiot" Yet he knew +himself for a greater idiot because he had not been able to tell +Walter the truth. He could not bring himself to do it, nor even +to state his case in its best terms; and that was because he felt +that even in its best terms the case was a bad one. + +Of all his regrets the greatest was that in a moment of vanity +and tenderness, twenty-five years ago, he had told his young wife +a business secret. He had wanted to show how important her +husband was becoming, and how much the head of the universe, J. +A. Lamb, trusted to his integrity and ability. The great man +had an idea: he thought of "branching out a little," he told +Adams confidentially, and there were possibilities of profit in +glue. + +What he wanted was a liquid glue to be put into little bottles +and sold cheaply. "The kind of thing that sells itself," he +said; "the kind of thing that pays its own small way as it goes +along, until it has profits enough to begin advertising it right. +Everybody has to use glue, and if I make mine convenient and +cheap, everybody'll buy mine. But it's got to be glue that'll +STICK; it's got to be the best; and if we find how to make it +we've got to keep it a big secret, of course, or anybody can +steal it from us. There was a man here last month; he knew a +formula he wanted to sell me, 'sight unseen'; but he was in such +a hurry I got suspicious, and I found he'd managed to steal it, +working for the big packers in their glue-works. We've got to +find a better glue than that, anyhow. I'm going to set you and +Campbell at it. You're a practical, wide-awake young feller, and +Campbell's a mighty good chemist; I guess you two boys ought to +make something happen." + +His guess was shrewd enough. Working in a shed a little way +outside the town, where their cheery employer visited them +sometimes to study their malodorous stews, the two young men +found what Lamb had set them to find. But Campbell was +thoughtful over the discovery. "Look here," he said. "Why ain't +this just about yours and mine? After all, it may be Lamb's +money that's paid for the stuff we've used, but it hasn't cost +much." + +"But he pays US," Adams remonstrated, horrified by his +companion's idea. "He paid us to do it. It belongs absolutely +to him." + +"Oh, I know he THINKS it does," Campbell admitted, plaintively. +"I suppose we've got to let him take it. It's not patentable, +and he'll have to do pretty well by us when he starts his +factory, because he's got to depend on us to run the making of +the stuff so that the workmen can't get onto the process. You +better ask him the same salary I do, and mine's going to be high." + +But the high salary, thus pleasantly imagined, was never paid. +Campbell died of typhoid fever, that summer, leaving Adams and +his employer the only possessors of the formula, an unwritten +one; and Adams, pleased to think himself more important to the +great man than ever, told his wife that there could be little +doubt of his being put in sole charge of the prospective +glue-works. Unfortunately, the enterprise remained prospective. + +Its projector had already become "inveigled into another +side-line," as he told Adams. One of his sons had persuaded him +to take up a "cough-lozenge," to be called the "Jalamb Balm +Trochee"; and the lozenge did well enough to amuse Mr. Lamb and +occupy his spare time, which was really about all he had asked of +the glue project. He had "all the MONEY anybody ought to want," +he said, when Adams urged him; and he could "start up this little +glue side-line" at any time; the formula was safe in their two +heads. + +At intervals Adams would seek opportunity to speak of "the little +glue side-line" to his patron, and to suggest that the years were +passing; but Lamb, petting other hobbies, had lost interest. +"Oh, I'll start it up some day, maybe. If I don't, I may turn it +over to my heirs: it's always an asset, worth something or other, +of course. We'll probably take it up some day, though, you and +I." + +The sun persistently declined to rise on that day, and, as time +went on, Adams saw that his rather timid urgings bored his +employer, and he ceased to bring up the subject. Lamb apparently +forgot all about glue, but Adams discovered that unfortunately +there was someone else who remembered it. + +"It's really YOURS," she argued, that painful day when for the +first time she suggested his using his knowledge for the benefit +of himself and his family. "Mr. Campbell might have had a right +to part of it, but he died and didn't leave any kin, so it +belongs to you." + +"Suppose J. A. Lamb hired me to saw some wood," Adams said. +"Would the sticks belong to me?" + +"He hasn't got any right to take your invention and bury it," she +protested. "What good is it doing him if he doesn't DO anything +with it? What good is it doing ANYBODY? None in the world! And +what harm would it do him if you went ahead and did this for +yourself and for your children? None in the world! And what +could he do to you if he WAS old pig enough to get angry with you +for doing it? He couldn't do a single thing, and you've admitted +he couldn't, yourself. So what's your reason for depriving your +children and your wife of the benefits you know you could give +'em?" + +"Nothing but decency," he answered; and she had her reply ready +for that. It seemed to him that, strive as he would, he could +not reach her mind with even the plainest language; while +everything that she said to him, with such vehemence, sounded +like so much obstinate gibberish. Over and over he pressed her +with the same illustration, on the point of ownership, though he +thought he was varying it. + +"Suppose he hired me to build him a house: would that be MY +house?" + +"He didn't hire you to build him a house. You and Campbell +invented----" + +"Look here: suppose you give a cook a soup-bone and some +vegetables, and pay her to make you a soup: has she got a right +to take and sell it? You know better!" + +"I know ONE thing: if that old man tried to keep your own +invention from you he's no better than a robber!" + +They never found any point of contact in all their passionate +discussions of this ethical question; and the question was no +more settled between them, now that Adams had succumbed, than it +had ever been. But at least the wrangling about it was over: +they were grave together, almost silent, and an uneasiness +prevailed with her as much as with him. + +He had already been out of the house, to walk about the small +green yard; and on Monday afternoon he sent for a taxicab and +went down-town, but kept a long way from the "wholesale section," +where stood the formidable old oblong pile of Lamb and Company. +He arranged for the sale of the bonds he had laid away, and for +placing a mortgage upon his house; and on his way home, after +five o'clock, he went to see an old friend, a man whose term of +service with Lamb and Company was even a little longer than his +own. + +This veteran, returned from the day's work, was sitting in front +of the apartment house where he lived, but when the cab stopped +at the curb he rose and came forward, offering a jocular +greeting. "Well, well, Virgil Adams! I always thought you had a +sporty streak in you. Travel in your own hired private +automobile nowadays, do you? Pamperin' yourself because you're +still layin' off sick, I expect." + +"Oh, I'm well enough again, Charley Lohr," Adams said, as he got +out and shook hands. Then, telling the driver to wait, he took +his friend's arm, walked to the bench with him, and sat down. "I +been practically well for some time," he said. "I'm fixin' to +get into harness again." + +"Bein' sick has certainly produced a change of heart in you," his +friend laughed. "You're the last man I ever expected to see +blowin' yourself--or anybody else to a taxicab! For that matter, +I never heard of you bein' in ANY kind of a cab, 'less'n it might +be when you been pall-bearer for somebody. What's come over +you?" + +"Well, I got to turn over a new leaf, and that's a fact," Adams +said. "I got a lot to do, and the only way to accomplish it, +it's got to be done soon, or I won't have anything to live on +while I'm doing it." + +"What you talkin' about? What you got to do except to get strong +enough to come back to the old place?" + +"Well----" Adams paused, then coughed, and said slowly, "Fact is, +Charley Lohr, I been thinking likely I wouldn't come back." + +"What! What you talkin' about?" + +"No," said Adams. "I been thinking I might likely kind of branch +out on my own account." + +"Well, I'll be doggoned!" Old Charley Lohr was amazed; he ruffled +up his gray moustache with thumb and forefinger, leaving his +mouth open beneath, like a dark cave under a tangled wintry +thicket. "Why, that's the doggonedest thing I ever heard!" he +said. "I already am the oldest inhabitant down there, but if you +go, there won't be anybody else of the old generation at all. +What on earth you thinkin' of goin' into?" + +"Well," said Adams, "I rather you didn't mention it till I get +started of course anybody'll know what it is by then--but I HAVE +been kind of planning to put a liquid glue on the market." + +His friend, still ruffling the gray moustache upward, stared at +him in frowning perplexity. "Glue?" he said. "GLUE!" + +"Yes. I been sort of milling over the idea of taking up +something like that." + +"Handlin' it for some firm, you mean?" + +"No. Making it. Sort of a glue-works likely." + +Lohr continued to frown. "Let me think," he said. "Didn't the +ole man have some such idea once, himself?" + +Adams leaned forward, rubbing his knees; and he coughed again +before he spoke. "Well, yes. Fact is, he did. That is to say, +a mighty long while ago he did." + +"I remember," said Lohr. "He never said anything about it that I +know of; but seems to me I recollect we had sort of a rumour +around the place how you and that man--le's see, wasn't his name +Campbell, that died of typhoid fever? Yes, that was it, +Campbell. Didn't the ole man have you and Campbell workin' sort +of private on some glue proposition or other?" + +"Yes, he did." Adams nodded. "I found out a good deal about +glue then, too." + +"Been workin' on it since, I suppose?" + +"Yes. Kept it in my mind and studied out new things about it." + +Lohr looked serious. "Well, but see here," he said. "I hope it +ain't anything the ole man'll think might infringe on whatever he +had you doin' for HIM. You know how he is: broad-minded, +liberal, free-handed man as walks this earth, and if he thought +he owed you a cent he'd sell his right hand for a pork-chop to +pay it, if that was the only way; but if he got the idea anybody +was tryin' to get the better of him, he'd sell BOTH his hands, if +he had to, to keep 'em from doin' it. Yes, at eighty, he would! +Not that I mean I think you might be tryin' to get the better of +him, Virg. You're a mighty close ole codger, but such a thing +ain't in you. What I mean: I hope there ain't any chance for the +ole man to THINK you might be----" + +"Oh, no," Adams interrupted. "As a matter of fact, I don't +believe he'll ever think about it at all, and if he did he +wouldn't have any real right to feel offended at me: the process +I'm going to use is one I expect to change and improve a lot +different from the one Campbell and I worked on for him." + +"Well, that's good," said Lohr. "Of course you know what you're +up to: you're old enough, God knows!" He laughed ruefully. "My, +but it will seem funny to me--down there with you gone! I expect +you and I both been gettin' to be pretty much dead-wood in the +place, the way the young fellows look at it, and the only one +that'd miss either of us would be the other one! Have you told +the ole man yet?" + +"Well----" Adams spoke laboriously. "No. No, I haven't. I +thought--well, that's what I wanted to see you about." + +"What can I do?" + +"I thought I'd write him a letter and get you to hand it to him +for me." + +"My soul!" his friend exclaimed. "Why on earth don't you just go +down there and tell him?" + +Adams became pitiably embarrassed. He stammered, coughed, +stammered again, wrinkling his face so deeply he seemed about to +weep; but finally he contrived to utter an apologetic laugh. "I +ought to do that, of course; but in some way or other I just +don't seem to be able to--to manage it." + +"Why in the world not?" the mystified Lohr inquired. + +"I could hardly tell you--'less'n it is to say that when you been +with one boss all your life it's so--so kind of embarrassing--to +quit him, I just can't make up my mind to go and speak to him +about it. No; I got it in my head a letter's the only +satisfactory way to do it, and I thought I'd ask you to hand it +to him," + +"Well, of course I don't mind doin' that for you," Lohr said, +mildly. "But why in the world don't you just mail it to him?" + +"Well, I'll tell you," Adams returned. "You know, like that, +it'd have to go through a clerk and that secretary of his, and I +don't know who all. There's a couple of kind of delicate points +I want to put in it: for instance, I want to explain to him how +much improvement and so on I'm going to introduce on the old +process I helped to work out with Campbell when we were working +for him, so't he'll understand it's a different article and no +infringement at all. Then there's another thing: you see all +during while I was sick he had my salary paid to me it amounts to +considerable, I was on my back so long. Under the circumstances, +because I'm quitting, I don't feel as if I ought to accept it, +and so I'll have a check for him in the letter to cover it, and I +want to be sure he knows it, and gets it personally. If it had +to go through a lot of other people, the way it would if I put it +in the mail, why, you can't tell. So what I thought: if you'd +hand it to him for me, and maybe if he happened to read it right +then, or anything, it might be you'd notice whatever he'd happen +to say about it--and you could tell me afterward." + +"All right," Lohr said. "Certainly if you'd rather do it that +way, I'll hand it to him and tell you what he says; that is, if +he says anything and I hear him. Got it written?" + +"No; I'll send it around to you last of the week." Adams moved +toward his taxicab. "Don't say anything to anybody about it, +Charley, especially till after that." + +"All right." + +"And, Charley, I'll be mighty obliged to you," Adams said, and +came back to shake hands in farewell. "There's one thing more +you might do--if you'd ever happen to feel like it." He kept his +eyes rather vaguely fixed on a point above his friend's head as +he spoke, and his voice was not well controlled. "I been--I been +down there a good many years and I may not 'a' been so much use +lately as I was at first, but I always tried to do my best for +the old firm. If anything turned out so's they DID kind of take +offense with me, down there, why, just say a good word for me--if +you'd happen to feel like it, maybe." + +Old Charley Lohr assured him that he would speak a good word if +opportunity became available; then, after the cab had driven +away, he went up to his small apartment on the third floor and +muttered ruminatively until his wife inquired what he was talking +to himself about. + +"Ole Virg Adams," he told her. "He's out again after his long +spell of sickness, and the way it looks to me he'd better stayed +in bed." + +"You mean he still looks too bad to be out?" + +"Oh, I expect he's gettin' his HEALTH back," Lohr said, frowning. + +"Then what's the matter with him? You mean he's lost his mind?" + +"My goodness, but women do jump at conclusions!" he exclaimed. + +"Well," said Mrs. Lohr, "what other conclusion did you leave me +to jump at?" + +Her husband explained with a little heat: "People can have a +sickness that AFFECTS their mind, can't they? Their mind can get +some affected without bein' LOST, can't it?" + +"Then you mean the poor man's mind does seem affected?" + +"Why, no; I'd scarcely go as far as that," Lohr said, +inconsistently, and declined to be more definite. + + +Adams devoted the latter part of that evening to the composition +of his letter--a disquieting task not completed when, at eleven +o'clock, he heard his daughter coming up the stairs. She was +singing to herself in a low, sweet voice, and Adams paused to +listen incredulously, with his pen lifted and his mouth open, as +if he heard the strangest sound in the world. Then he set down +the pen upon a blotter, went to his door, and opened it, looking +out at her as she came. + +"Well, dearie, you seem to be feeling pretty good," he said. +"What you been doing?" + +"Just sitting out on the front steps, papa." + +"All alone, I suppose." + +"No. Mr. Russell called." + +"Oh, he did?" Adams pretended to be surprised. "What all could +you and he find to talk about till this hour o' the night?" + +She laughed gaily. "You don't know me, papa!" + +"How's that?" + +"You've never found out that I always do all the talking." + +"Didn't you let him get a word in all evening?" + +"Oh, yes; every now and then." + +Adams took her hand and petted it. "Well, what did he say?" + +Alice gave him a radiant look and kissed him. "Not what you +think!" she laughed; then slapped his cheek with saucy affection, +pirouetted across the narrow hall and into her own room, and +curtsied to him as she closed her door. + +Adams went back to his writing with a lighter heart; for since +Alice was born she had been to him the apple of his eye, his own +phrase in thinking of her; and what he was doing now was for her. + +He smiled as he picked up his pen to begin a new draft of the +painful letter; but presently he looked puzzled. After all, she +could be happy just as things were, it seemed. Then why had he +taken what his wife called "this new step," which he had so long +resisted? + +He could only sigh and wonder. "Life works out pretty +peculiarly," he thought; for he couldn't go back now, though the +reason he couldn't was not clearly apparent. He had to go ahead. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +He was out in his taxicab again the next morning, and by noon he +had secured what he wanted. + +It was curiously significant that he worked so quickly. All the +years during which his wife had pressed him toward his present +shift he had sworn to himself, as well as to her, that he would +never yield; and yet when he did yield he had no plans to make, +because he found them already prepared and worked out in detail +in his mind; as if he had long contemplated the "step" he +believed himself incapable of taking. + +Sometimes he had thought of improving his income by exchanging +his little collection of bonds for a "small rental property," if +he could find "a good buy"; and he had spent many of his spare +hours rambling over the enormously spreading city and its +purlieus, looking for the ideal "buy." It remained unattainable, +so far as he was concerned; but he found other things. + +Not twice a crow's mile from his own house there was a dismal and +slummish quarter, a decayed "industrial district" of earlier +days. Most of the industries were small; some of them died, +perishing of bankruptcy or fire; and a few had moved, leaving +their shells. Of the relics, the best was a brick building which +had been the largest and most important factory in the quarter: +it had been injured by a long vacancy almost as serious as a +fire, in effect, and Adams had often guessed at the sum needed to +put it in repair. + +When he passed it, he would look at it with an interest which he +supposed detached and idly speculative. "That'd be just the +thing," he thought. "If a fellow had money enough, and took a +notion to set up some new business on a big scale, this would be +a pretty good place--to make glue, for instance, if that wasn't +out of the question, of course. It would take a lot of money, +though; a great deal too much for me to expect to handle--even if +I'd ever dream of doing such a thing." + +Opposite the dismantled factory was a muddy, open lot of two +acres or so, and near the middle of the lot, a long brick shed +stood in a desolate abandonment, not happily decorated by old +coatings of theatrical and medicinal advertisements. But the +brick shed had two wooden ells, and, though both shed and ells +were of a single story, here was empty space enough for a modest +enterprise--"space enough for almost anything, to start with," +Adams thought, as he walked through the low buildings, one day, +when he was prospecting in that section. "Yes, I suppose I COULD +swing this," he thought. "If the process belonged to me, say, +instead of being out of the question because it isn't my +property--or if I was the kind of man to do such a thing anyhow, +here would be something I could probably get hold of pretty +cheap. They'd want a lot of money for a lease on that big +building over the way--but this, why, I should think it'd be +practically nothing at all." + +Then, by chance, meeting an agent he knew, he made +inquiries--merely to satisfy a casual curiosity, he thought--and +he found matters much as he had supposed, except that the owners +of the big building did not wish to let, but to sell it, and this +at a price so exorbitant that Adams laughed. But the long brick +shed in the great muddy lot was for sale or to let, or "pretty +near to be given away," he learned, if anybody would take it. + +Adams took it now, though without seeing that he had been +destined to take it, and that some dreary wizard in the back of +his head had foreseen all along that he would take it, and +planned to be ready. He drove in his taxicab to look the place +over again, then down-town to arrange for a lease; and came home +to lunch with his wife and daughter. Things were "moving," he +told them. + +He boasted a little of having acted so decisively, and said that +since the dang thing had to be done, it was "going to be done +RIGHT!" He was almost cheerful, in a feverish way, and when the +cab came for him again, soon after lunch, he explained that he +intended not only to get things done right, but also to "get 'em +done quick!" Alice, following him to the front door, looked at +him anxiously and asked if she couldn't help. He laughed at her +grimly. + +"Then let me go along with you in the cab," she begged. "You +don't look able to start in so hard, papa, just when you're +barely beginning to get your strength back. Do let me go with +you and see if I can't help--or at least take care of you if you +should get to feeling badly." + +He declined, but upon pressure let her put a tiny bottle of +spirits of ammonia in his pocket, and promised to make use of it +if he "felt faint or anything." Then he was off again; and the +next morning had men at work in his sheds, though the wages he +had to pay frightened him. + +He directed the workmen in every detail, hurrying them by example +and exhortations, and receiving, in consequence, several +declarations of independence, as well as one resignation, which +took effect immediately. "Yous capitalusts seem to think a man's +got nothin' to do but break his back p'doosin' wealth fer yous to +squander," the resigning person loudly complained. "You look +out: the toiler's day is a-comin', and it ain't so fur off, +neither!" But the capitalist was already out of hearing, gone to +find a man to take this orator's place. + +By the end of the week, Adams felt that he had moved +satisfactorily forward in his preparations for the simple +equipment he needed; but he hated the pause of Sunday. He didn't +WANT any rest, he told Alice impatiently, when she suggested that +the idle day might be good for him. + +Late that afternoon he walked over to the apartment house where +old Charley Lohr lived, and gave his friend the letter he wanted +the head of Lamb and Company to receive "personally." "I'll take +it as a mighty great favour in you to hand it to him personally, +Charley," he said, in parting. "And you won't forget, in case he +says anything about it--and remember if you ever do get a chance +to put in a good word for me later, you know----" + +Old Charley promised to remember, and, when Mrs. Lohr came out +of the "kitchenette," after the door closed, he said +thoughtfully, "Just skin and bones." + +"You mean Mr. Adams is?" Mrs. Lohr inquired. + +"Who'd you think I meant?" he returned. "One o' these partridges +in the wall-paper?" + +"Did he look so badly?" + +"Looked kind of distracted to me," her husband replied. "These +little thin fellers can stand a heap sometimes, though. He'll be +over here again Monday." + +"Did he say he would?" + +"No," said Lohr. "But he will. You'll see. He'll be over to +find out what the big boss says when I give him this letter. +Expect I'd be kind of anxious, myself, if I was him." + +"Why would you? What's Mr. Adams doing to be so anxious about?" + +Lohr's expression became one of reserve, the look of a man who +has found that when he speaks his inner thoughts his wife jumps +too far to conclusions. "Oh, nothing," he said. "Of course any +man starting up a new business is bound to be pretty nervous a +while. He'll be over here to-morrow evening, all right; you'll +see." + +The prediction was fulfilled: Adams arrived just after Mrs. Lohr +had removed the dinner dishes to her "kitchenette"; but Lohr had +little information to give his caller. + +"He didn't say a word, Virgil; nary a word. I took it into his +office and handed it to him, and he just sat and read it; that's +all. I kind of stood around as long as I could, but he was +sittin' at his desk with his side to me, and he never turned +around full toward me, as it were, so I couldn't hardly even tell +anything. All I know: he just read it." + +"Well, but see here," Adams began, nervously. "Well----" + +"Well what, Virg?" + +"Well, but what did he say when he DID speak?" + +"He didn't speak. Not so long I was in there, anyhow. He just +sat there and read it. Read kind of slow. Then, when he came to +the end, he turned back and started to read it all over again. +By that time there was three or four other men standin' around in +the office waitin' to speak to him, and I had to go." + +Adams sighed, and stared at the floor, irresolute. "Well, I'll +be getting along back home then, I guess, Charley. So you're +sure you couldn't tell anything what he might have thought about +it, then?" + +"Not a thing in the world. I've told you all I know, Virg." + +"I guess so, I guess so," Adams said, mournfully. "I feel mighty +obliged to you, Charley Lohr; mighty obliged. Good-night to +you." And he departed, sighing in perplexity. + +On his way home, preoccupied with many thoughts, he walked so +slowly that once or twice he stopped and stood motionless for a +few moments, without being aware of it; and when he reached the +juncture of the sidewalk with the short brick path that led to +his own front door, he stopped again, and stood for more than a +minute. "Ah, I wish I knew," he whispered, plaintively. "I do +wish I knew what he thought about it." + +He was roused by a laugh that came lightly from the little +veranda near by. "Papa!" Alice called gaily. "What are you +standing there muttering to yourself about?" + +"Oh, are you there, dearie?" he said, and came up the path. A +tall figure rose from a chair on the veranda. + +"Papa, this is Mr. Russell." + +The two men shook hands, Adams saying, "Pleased to make your +acquaintance," as they looked at each other in the faint light +diffused through the opaque glass in the upper part of the door. +Adams's impression was of a strong and tall young man, +fashionable but gentle; and Russell's was of a dried, little old +business man with a grizzled moustache, worried bright eyes, +shapeless dark clothes, and a homely manner. + +"Nice evening," Adams said further, as their hands parted. "Nice +time o' year it is, but we don't always have as good weather as +this; that's the trouble of it. Well----" He went to the door. +"Well--I bid you good evening," he said, and retired within the +house. + +Alice laughed. "He's the old-fashionedest man in town, I suppose +and frightfully impressed with you, I could see!" + +"What nonsense!" said Russell. "How could anybody be impressed +with me?" + +"Why not? Because you're quiet? Good gracious! Don't you know +that you're the most impressive sort? We chatterers spend all +our time playing to you quiet people." + +"Yes; we're only the audience." + +"'Only!'" she echoed. "Why, we live for you, and we can't live +without you." + +"I wish you couldn't," said Russell. "That would be a new +experience for both of us, wouldn't it?" + +"It might be a rather bleak one for me," she answered, lightly. +"I'm afraid I'll miss these summer evenings with you when they're +over. I'll miss them enough, thanks!" + +"Do they have to be over some time?" he asked. + +"Oh, everything's over some time, isn't it?" + +Russell laughed at her. "Don't let's look so far ahead as that," +he said. "We don't need to be already thinking of the cemetery, +do we?" + +"I didn't," she said, shaking her head. "Our summer evenings +will be over before then, Mr. Russell." + +"Why?" he asked. + +"Good heavens!" she said. "THERE'S laconic eloquence: almost a +proposal in a single word! Never mind, I shan't hold you to it. +But to answer you: well, I'm always looking ahead, and somehow I +usually see about how things are coming out." + +"Yes," he said. "I suppose most of us do; at least it seems as +if we did, because we so seldom feel surprised by the way they do +come out. But maybe that's only because life isn't like a play +in a theatre, and most things come about so gradually we get used +to them." + +"No, I'm sure I can see quite a long way ahead," she insisted, +gravely. "And it doesn't seem to me as if our summer evenings +could last very long. Something'll interfere--somebody will, I +mean--they'll SAY something----" + +"What if they do?" + +She moved her shoulders in a little apprehensive shiver. "It'll +change you," she said. "I'm just sure something spiteful's going +to happen to me. You'll feel differently about--things." + +"Now, isn't that an idea!" he exclaimed. + +"It will," she insisted. "I know something spiteful's going to +happen!" + +"You seem possessed by a notion not a bit flattering to me," he +remarked. + +"Oh, but isn't it? That's just what it is! Why isn't it?" + +"Because it implies that I'm made of such soft material the +slightest breeze will mess me all up. I'm not so like that as I +evidently appear; and if it's true that we're afraid other people +will do the things we'd be most likely to do ourselves, it seems +to me that I ought to be the one to be afraid. I ought to be +afraid that somebody may say something about me to you that will +make you believe I'm a professional forger." + +"No. We both know they won't," she said. "We both know you're +the sort of person everybody in the world says nice things +about." She lifted her hand to silence him as he laughed at +this. "Oh, of course you are! I think perhaps you're a little +flirtatious--most quiet men have that one sly way with 'em--oh, +yes, they do! But you happen to be the kind of man everybody +loves to praise. And if you weren't, _I_ shouldn't hear anything +terrible about you. I told you I was unpopular: I don't see +anybody at all any more. The only man except you who's been to +see me in a month is that fearful little fat Frank Dowling, and I +sent word to HIM I wasn't home. Nobody'd tell me of your +wickedness, you see." + +"Then let me break some news to you," Russell said. "Nobody +would tell me of yours, either. Nobody's even mentioned you to +me." + +She burlesqued a cry of anguish. "That IS obscurity! I suppose +I'm too apt to forget that they say the population's about half a +million nowadays. There ARE other people to talk about, you +feel, then?" + +"None that I want to," he said. "But I should think the size of +the place might relieve your mind of what seems to insist on +burdening it. Besides, I'd rather you thought me a better man +than you do." + +"What kind of a man do I think you are?" + +"The kind affected by what's said about people instead of by what +they do themselves." + +"Aren't you?" + +"No, I'm not," he said. "If you want our summer evenings to be +over you'll have to drive me away yourself." + +"Nobody else could?" + +"No." + +She was silent, leaning forward, with her elbows on her knees and +her clasped hands against her lips. Then, not moving, she said +softly: + +"Well--I won't!" + +She was silent again, and he said nothing, but looked at her, +seeming to be content with looking. Her attitude was one only a +graceful person should assume, but she was graceful; and, in the +wan light, which made a prettily shaped mist of her, she had +beauty. Perhaps it was beauty of the hour, and of the love scene +almost made into form by what they had both just said, but she +had it; and though beauty of the hour passes, he who sees it will +long remember it and the hour when it came. + +"What are you thinking of?" he asked. + +She leaned back in her chair and did not answer at once. Then +she said: + +"I don't know; I doubt if I was thinking of anything. It seems +to me I wasn't. I think I was just being sort of sadly happy +just then." + +"Were you? Was it 'sadly,' too?" + +"Don't you know?" she said. "It seems to me that only little +children can be just happily happy. I think when we get older +our happiest moments are like the one I had just then: it's as if +we heard strains of minor music running through them--oh, so +sweet, but oh, so sad!" + +"But what makes it sad for YOU?" + +"I don't know," she said, in a lighter tone. "Perhaps it's a +kind of useless foreboding I seem to have pretty often. It may +be that--or it may be poor papa." + +"You ARE a funny, delightful girl, though!" Russell laughed. +"When your father's so well again that he goes out walking in the +evenings!" + +"He does too much walking," Alice said. "Too much altogether, +over at his new plant. But there isn't any stopping him." She +laughed and shook her head. "When a man gets an ambition to be a +multi-millionaire his family don't appear to have much weight +with him. He'll walk all he wants to, in spite of them." + +"I suppose so," Russell said, absently; then he leaned forward. +"I wish I could understand better why you were 'sadly' happy." + +Meanwhile, as Alice shed what further light she could on this +point, the man ambitious to be a "multi-millionaire" was indeed +walking too much for his own good. He had gone to bed, hoping to +sleep well and rise early for a long day's work, but he could not +rest, and now, in his nightgown and slippers, he was pacing the +floor of his room. + +"I wish I DID know," he thought, over and over. "I DO wish I +knew how he feels about it." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +That was a thought almost continuously in his mind, even when he +was hardest at work; and, as the days went on and he could not +free himself, he became querulous about it. "I guess I'm the +biggest dang fool alive," he told his wife as they sat together +one evening. "I got plenty else to bother me, without worrying +my head off about what HE thinks. I can't help what he thinks; +it's too late for that. So why should I keep pestering myself +about it?" + +"It'll wear off, Virgil," Mrs. Adams said, reassuringly. She +was gentle and sympathetic with him, and for the first time in +many years he would come to sit with her and talk, when he had +finished his day's work. He had told her, evading her eye, "Oh, +I don't blame you. You didn't get after me to do this on your +own account; you couldn't help it." + +"Yes; but it don't wear off," he complained. "This afternoon I +was showing the men how I wanted my vats to go, and I caught my +fool self standing there saying to my fool self, 'It's funny I +don't hear how he feels about it from SOMEbody.' I was saying it +aloud, almost--and it IS funny I don't hear anything!" + +"Well, you see what it means, don't you, Virgil? It only means +he hasn't said anything to anybody about it. Don't you think +you're getting kind of morbid over it?" + +"Maybe, maybe," he muttered. + +"Why, yes," she said, briskly. "You don't realize what a little +bit of a thing all this is to him. It's been a long, long while +since the last time you even mentioned glue to him, and he's +probably forgotten everything about it." + +"You're off your base; it isn't like him to forget things," Adams +returned, peevishly. "He may seem to forget 'em, but he don't." + +"But he's not thinking about this, or you'd have heard from him +before now." + +Her husband shook his head. "Ah, that's just it!" he said. "Why +HAVEN'T I heard from him?" + +"It's all your morbidness, Virgil. Look at Walter: if Mr. Lamb +held this up against you, would he still let Walter stay there? +Wouldn't he have discharged Walter if he felt angry with you?" + +"That dang boy!" Adams said. "If he WANTED to come with me now, +I wouldn't hardly let him, What do you suppose makes him so +bull-headed?" + +"But hasn't he a right to choose for himself?" she asked. "I +suppose he feels he ought to stick to what he thinks is sure pay. +As soon as he sees that you're going to succeed with the +glue-works he'll want to be with you quick enough." + +"Well, he better get a little sense in his head," Adams returned, +crossly. "He wanted me to pay him a three-hundred-dollar bonus +in advance, when anybody with a grain of common sense knows I +need every penny I can lay my hands on!" + +"Never mind," she said. "He'll come around later and be glad of +the chance." + +"He'll have to beg for it then! _I_ won't ask him again." + +"Oh, Walter will come out all right; you needn't worry. And +don't you see that Mr. Lamb's not discharging him means there's +no hard feeling against you, Virgil?" + +"I can't make it out at all," he said, frowning. "The only thing +I can THINK it means is that J. A. Lamb is so fair-minded--and +of course he IS one of the fair-mindedest men alive I suppose +that's the reason he hasn't fired Walter. He may know," Adams +concluded, morosely--"he may know that's just another thing to +make me feel all the meaner: keeping my boy there on a salary +after I've done him an injury." + +"Now, now!" she said, trying to comfort him. "You couldn't do +anybody an injury to save your life, and everybody knows it." + +"Well, anybody ought to know I wouldn't WANT to do an injury, but +this world isn't built so't we can do just what we want." He +paused, reflecting. "Of course there may be one explanation of +why Walter's still there: J. A. maybe hasn't noticed that he IS +there. There's so many I expect he hardly knows him by sight." + +"Well, just do quit thinking about it," she urged him. "It only +bothers you without doing any good. Don't you know that?" + +"Don't I, though!" he laughed, feebly. "I know it better'n +anybody! How funny that is: when you know thinking about a thing +only pesters you without helping anything at all, and yet you +keep right on pestering yourself with it!" + +"But WHY?" she said. "What's the use when you know you haven't +done anything wrong, Virgil? You said yourself you were going to +improve the process so much it would be different from the old +one, and you'd REALLY have a right to it." + +Adams had persuaded himself of this when he yielded; he had found +it necessary to persuade himself of it--though there was a part +of him, of course, that remained unpersuaded; and this +discomfiting part of him was what made his present trouble. +"Yes, I know," he said. "That's true, but I can't quite seem to +get away from the fact that the principle of the process is a +good deal the same--well, it's more'n that; it's just about the +same as the one he hired Campbell and me to work out for him. +Truth is, nobody could tell the difference, and I don't know as +there IS any difference except in these improvements I'm making. +Of course, the improvements do give me pretty near a perfect +right to it, as a person might say; and that's one of the things +I thought of putting in my letter to him; but I was afraid he'd +just think I was trying to make up excuses, so I left it out. I +kind of worried all the time I was writing that letter, because +if he thought I WAS just making up excuses, why, it might set him +just so much more against me." + +Ever since Mrs. Adams had found that she was to have her way, +the depths of her eyes had been troubled by a continuous +uneasiness; and, although she knew it was there, and sometimes +veiled it by keeping the revealing eyes averted from her husband +and children, she could not always cover it under that assumption +of absent-mindedness. The uneasy look became vivid, and her +voice was slightly tremulous now, as she said, "But what if he +SHOULD be against you--although I don't believe he is, of +course--you told me he couldn't DO anything to you, Virgil." + +"No," he said, slowly. "I can't see how he could do anything. +It was just a secret, not a patent; the thing ain't patentable. +I've tried to think what he could do--supposing he was to want +to--but I can't figure out anything at all that would be any harm +to me. There isn't any way in the world it could be made a +question of law. Only thing he could do'd be to TELL people his +side of it, and set 'em against me. I been kind of waiting for +that to happen, all along." + +She looked somewhat relieved. "So did I expect it," she said. +"I was dreading it most on Alice's account: it might have--well, +young men are so easily influenced and all. But so far as the +business is concerned, what if Mr. Lamb did talk? That wouldn't +amount to much. It wouldn't affect the business; not to hurt. +And, besides, he isn't even doing that." + +"No; anyhow not yet, it seems." And Adams sighed again, +wistfully. "But I WOULD give a good deal to know what he +thinks!" + +Before his surrender he had always supposed that if he did such +an unthinkable thing as to seize upon the glue process for +himself, what he would feel must be an overpowering shame. But +shame is the rarest thing in the world: what he felt was this +unremittent curiosity about his old employer's thoughts. It was +an obsession, yet he did not want to hear what Lamb "thought" +from Lamb himself, for Adams had a second obsession, and this was +his dread of meeting the old man face to face. Such an encounter +could happen only by chance and unexpectedly; since Adams would +have avoided any deliberate meeting, so long as his legs had +strength to carry him, even if Lamb came to the house to see him. + +But people do meet unexpectedly; and when Adams had to be +down-town he kept away from the "wholesale district." One day he +did see Lamb, as the latter went by in his car, impassive, going +home to lunch; and Adams, in the crowd at a corner, knew that the +old man had not seen him. Nevertheless, in a street car, on the +way back to his sheds, an hour later, he was still subject to +little shivering seizures of horror. + +He worked unceasingly, seeming to keep at it even in his sleep, +for he always woke in the midst of a planning and estimating that +must have been going on in his mind before consciousness of +himself returned. Moreover, the work, thus urged, went rapidly, +in spite of the high wages he had to pay his labourers for their +short hours. "It eats money," he complained, and, in fact, by +the time his vats and boilers were in place it had eaten almost +all he could supply; but in addition to his equipment he now +owned a stock of "raw material," raw indeed; and when operations +should be a little further along he was confident his banker +would be willing to "carry" him. + +Six weeks from the day he had obtained his lease he began his +glue-making. The terrible smells came out of the sheds and went +writhing like snakes all through that quarter of the town. A +smiling man, strolling and breathing the air with satisfaction, +would turn a corner and smile no more, but hurry. However, +coloured people had almost all the dwellings of this old section +to themselves; and although even they were troubled, there was +recompense for them. Being philosophic about what appeared to +them as in the order of nature, they sought neither escape nor +redress, and soon learned to bear what the wind brought them. +They even made use of it to enrich those figures of speech with +which the native impulses of coloured people decorate their +communications: they flavoured metaphor, simile, and invective +with it; and thus may be said to have enjoyed it. But the man +who produced it took a hot bath as soon as he reached his home +the evening of that first day when his manufacturing began. Then +he put on fresh clothes; but after dinner he seemed to be +haunted, and asked his wife if she "noticed anything." + +She laughed and inquired what he meant. + +"Seems to me as if that glue-works smell hadn't quit hanging to +me," he explained. "Don't you notice it?" + +"No! What an idea!" + +He laughed, too, but uneasily; and told her he was sure "the dang +glue smell" was somehow sticking to him. Later, he went outdoors +and walked up and down the small yard in the dusk; but now and +then he stood still, with his head lifted, and sniffed the air +suspiciously. "Can YOU smell it?" he called to Alice, who sat +upon the veranda, prettily dressed and waiting in a reverie. + +"Smell what, papa?" + +"That dang glue-works." + +She did the same thing her mother had done: laughed, and said, +"No! How foolish! Why, papa, it's over two miles from here!" + +"You don't get it at all?" he insisted. + +"The idea! The air is lovely to-night, papa." + +The air did not seem lovely to him, for he was positive that he +detected the taint. He wondered how far it carried, and if J. +A. Lamb would smell it, too, out on his own lawn a mile to the +north; and if he did, would he guess what it was? Then Adams +laughed at himself for such nonsense; but could not rid his +nostrils of their disgust. To him the whole town seemed to smell +of his glue-works. + +Nevertheless, the glue was making, and his sheds were busy. +"Guess we're stirrin' up this ole neighbourhood with more than +the smell," his foreman remarked one morning. + +"How's that?" Adams inquired. + +"That great big, enormous ole dead butterine factory across the +street from our lot," the man said. "Nothin' like settin' an +example to bring real estate to life. That place is full o' +carpenters startin' in to make a regular buildin' of it again. +Guess you ought to have the credit of it, because you was the +first man in ten years to see any possibilities in this +neighbourhood." + +Adams was pleased, and, going out to see for himself, heard a +great hammering and sawing from within the building; while +carpenters were just emerging gingerly upon the dangerous roof. +He walked out over the dried mud of his deep lot, crossed the +street, and spoke genially to a workman who was removing the +broken glass of a window on the ground floor. + +"Here! What's all this howdy-do over here?" + +"Goin' to fix her all up, I guess," the workman said. "Big job +it is, too." + +"Sh' think it would be." + +"Yes, sir; a pretty big job--a pretty big job. Got men at it on +all four floors and on the roof. They're doin' it RIGHT." + +"Who's doing it?" + +"Lord! I d' know. Some o' these here big manufacturing +corporations, I guess." + +"What's it going to be?" + +"They tell ME," the workman answered--"they tell ME she's goin' +to be a butterine factory again. Anyways, I hope she won't be +anything to smell like that glue-works you got over there not +while I'm workin' around her, anyways!" + +"That smell's all right," Adams said. "You soon get used to it." + +"You do?" The man appeared incredulous. "Listen! I was over in +France: it's a good thing them Dutchmen never thought of it; we'd +of had to quit!" + +Adams laughed, and went back to his sheds. "I guess my foreman +was right," he told his wife, that evening, with a little +satisfaction. "As soon as one man shows enterprise enough to +found an industry in a broken-down neighbourhood, somebody else +is sure to follow. I kind of like the look of it: it'll help +make our place seem sort of more busy and prosperous when it +comes to getting a loan from the bank--and I got to get one +mighty soon, too. I did think some that if things go as well as +there's every reason to think they OUGHT to, I might want to +spread out and maybe get hold of that old factory myself; but I +hardly expected to be able to handle a proposition of that size +before two or three years from now, and anyhow there's room +enough on the lot I got, if we need more buildings some day. +Things are going about as fine as I could ask: I hired some girls +to-day to do the bottling--coloured girls along about sixteen to +twenty years old. Afterwhile, I expect to get a machine to put +the stuff in the little bottles, when we begin to get good +returns; but half a dozen of these coloured girls can do it all +right now, by hand. We're getting to have really quite a little +plant over there: yes, sir, quite a regular little plant!" + +He chuckled, and at this cheerful sound, of a kind his wife had +almost forgotten he was capable of producing, she ventured to put +her hand upon his arm. They had gone outdoors, after dinner, +taking two chairs with them, and were sitting through the late +twilight together, keeping well away from the "front porch," +which was not yet occupied, however Alice was in her room +changing her dress. + +"Well, honey," Mrs. Adams said, taking confidence not only to +put her hand upon his arm, but to revive this disused +endearment;--"it's grand to have you so optimistic. Maybe some +time you'll admit I was right, after all. Everything's going so +well, it seems a pity you didn't take this--this step--long ago. +Don't you think maybe so, Virgil?" + +"Well--if I was ever going to, I don't know but I might as well +of. I got to admit the proposition begins to look pretty good: I +know the stuff'll sell, and I can't see a thing in the world to +stop it. It does look good, and if--if----" He paused. + +"If what?" she said, suddenly anxious. + +He laughed plaintively, as if confessing a superstition. "It's +funny--well, it's mighty funny about that smell. I've got so +used to it at the plant I never seem to notice it at all over +there. It's only when I get away. Honestly, can't you +notice----?" + +"Virgil!" She lifted her hand to strike his arm chidingly. "Do +quit harping on that nonsense!" + +"Oh, of course it don't amount to anything," he said. "A person +can stand a good deal of just smell. It don't WORRY me any." + +"I should think not especially as there isn't any." + +"Well," he said, "I feel pretty fair over the whole thing--a lot +better'n I ever expected to, anyhow. I don't know as there's any +reason I shouldn't tell you so." + +She was deeply pleased with this acknowledgment, and her voice +had tenderness in it as she responded: "There, honey! Didn't I +always say you'd be glad if you did it?" + +Embarrassed, he coughed loudly, then filled his pipe and lit it. +"Well," he said, slowly, "it's a puzzle. Yes, sir, it's a +puzzle." + +"What is?" + +"Pretty much everything, I guess." + +As he spoke, a song came to them from a lighted window over their +heads. Then the window darkened abruptly, but the song continued +as Alice went down through the house to wait on the little +veranda. "Mi chiamo Mimi," she sang, and in her voice throbbed +something almost startling in its sweetness. Her father and +mother listened, not speaking until the song stopped with the +click of the wire screen at the front door as Alice came out. + +"My!" said her father. "How sweet she does sing! I don't know +as I ever heard her voice sound nicer than it did just then." + +"There's something that makes it sound that way," his wife told +him. + +"I suppose so," he said, sighing. "I suppose so. You think----" + +"She's just terribly in love with him!" + +"I expect that's the way it ought to be," he said, then drew upon +his pipe for reflection, and became murmurous with the symptoms +of melancholy laughter. "It don't make things less of a puzzle, +though, does it?" + +"In what way, Virgil?" + +"Why, here," he said--"here we go through all this muck and moil +to help fix things nicer for her at home, and what's it all +amount to? Seems like she's just gone ahead the way she'd 'a' +gone anyhow; and now, I suppose, getting ready to up and leave +us! Ain't that a puzzle to you? It is to me." + +"Oh, but things haven't gone that far yet." + +"Why, you just said----" + +She gave a little cry of protest. "Oh, they aren't ENGAGED yet. +Of course they WILL be; he's just as much interested in her as +she is in him, but----" + +"Well, what's the trouble then?" + +"You ARE a simple old fellow!" his wife exclaimed, and then rose +from her chair. "That reminds me," she said. + +"What of?" he asked. "What's my being simple remind you of?" + +"Nothing!" she laughed. "It wasn't you that reminded me. It was +just something that's been on my mind. I don't believe he's +actually ever been inside our house!" + +"Hasn't he?" + +"I actually don't believe he ever has," she said. "Of course we +must----" She paused, debating. + +"We must what?" + +"I guess I better talk to Alice about it right now," she said. +"He don't usually come for about half an hour yet; I guess I've +got time." And with that she walked away, leaving him to his +puzzles. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Alice was softly crooning to herself as her mother turned the +corner of the house and approached through the dusk. + +"Isn't it the most BEAUTIFUL evening!" the daughter said. "WHY +can't summer last all year? Did you ever know a lovelier +twilight than this, mama?" + +Mrs. Adams laughed, and answered, "Not since I was your age, I +expect." + +Alice was wistful at once. "Don't they stay beautiful after my +age?" + +"Well, it's not the same thing." + +"Isn't it? Not ever?" + +"You may have a different kind from mine," the mother said, a +little sadly. "I think you will, Alice. You deserve----" + +"No, I don't. I don't deserve anything, and I know it. But I'm +getting a great deal these days--more than I ever dreamed COULD +come to me. I'm-- I'm pretty happy, mama!" + +"Dearie!" Her mother would have kissed her, but Alice drew away. + +"Oh, I don't mean----" She laughed nervously. "I wasn't meaning +to tell you I'm ENGAGED, mama. We're not. I mean--oh! things +seem pretty beautiful in spite of all I've done to spoil 'em." + +"You?" Mrs. Adams cried, incredulously. "What have you done to +spoil anything?" + +"Little things," Alice said. "A thousand little silly--oh, +what's the use? He's so honestly what he is--just simple and +good and intelligent--I feel a tricky mess beside him! I don't +see why he likes me; and sometimes I'm afraid he wouldn't if he +knew me." + +"He'd just worship you," said the fond mother. "And the more he +knew you, the more he'd worship you." + +Alice shook her head. "He's not the worshiping kind. Not like +that at all. He's more----" + +But Mrs. Adams was not interested in this analysis, and she +interrupted briskly, "Of course it's time your father and I +showed some interest in him. I was just saying I actually don't +believe he's ever been inside the house." + +"No," Alice said, musingly; "that's true: I don't believe he has. +Except when we've walked in the evening we've always sat out +here, even those two times when it was drizzly. It's so much +nicer." + +"We'll have to do SOMETHING or other, of course," her mother +said. + +"What like?" + +"I was thinking----" Mrs. Adams paused. "Well, of course we +could hardly put off asking him to dinner, or something, much +longer." + +Alice was not enthusiastic; so far from it, indeed, that there +was a melancholy alarm in her voice. "Oh, mama, must we? Do you +think so?" + +"Yes, I do. I really do." + +"Couldn't we--well, couldn't we wait?" + +"It looks queer," Mrs. Adams said. "It isn't the thing at all +for a young man to come as much as he does, and never more than +just barely meet your father and mother. No. We ought to do +something." + +"But a dinner!" Alice objected. "In the first place, there isn't +anybody I want to ask. There isn't anybody I WOULD ask." + +"I didn't mean trying to give a big dinner," her mother +explained. "I just mean having him to dinner. That mulatto +woman, Malena Burns, goes out by the day, and she could bring a +waitress. We can get some flowers for the table and some to put +in the living-room. We might just as well go ahead and do it +to-morrow as any other time; because your father's in a fine +mood, and I saw Malena this afternoon and told her I might want +her soon. She said she didn't have any engagements this week, +and I can let her know to-night. Suppose when he comes you ask +him for to-morrow, Alice. Everything'll be very nice, I'm sure. +Don't worry about it." + +"Well--but----" Alice was uncertain. + +"But don't you see, it looks so queer, not to do SOMETHING?" her +mother urged. "It looks so kind of poverty-stricken. We really +oughtn't to wait any longer." + +Alice assented, though not with a good heart. "Very well, I'll +ask him, if you think we've got to." + +"That matter's settled then," Mrs. Adams said. "I'll go +telephone Malena, and then I'll tell your father about it." + +But when she went back to her husband, she found him in an +excited state of mind, and Walter standing before him in the +darkness. Adams was almost shouting, so great was his vehemence. + +"Hush, hush!" his wife implored, as she came near them. "They'll +hear you out on the front porch!" + +"I don't care who hears me," Adams said, harshly, though he +tempered his loudness. "Do you want to know what this boy's +asking me for? I thought he'd maybe come to tell me he'd got a +little sense in his head at last, and a little decency about +what's due his family! I thought he was going to ask me to take +him into my plant. No, ma'am; THAT'S not what he wants!" + +"No, it isn't," Walter said. In the darkness his face could not +be seen; he stood motionless, in what seemed an apathetic +attitude; and he spoke quietly, "No," he repeated. "That isn't +what I want." + +"You stay down at that place," Adams went on, hotly, "instead of +trying to be a little use to your family; and the only reason +you're ALLOWED to stay there is because Mr. Lamb's never +happened to notice you ARE still there! You just wait----" + +"You're off," Walter said, in the same quiet way. "He knows I'm +there. He spoke to me yesterday: he asked me how I was getting +along with my work." + +"He did?" Adams said, seeming not to believe him. + +"Yes. He did." + +"What else did he say, Walter?" Mrs. Adams asked quickly. + +"Nothin'. Just walked on." + +"I don't believe he knew who you were," Adams declared. + +"Think not? He called me 'Walter Adams.'" + +At this Adams was silent; and Walter, after waiting a moment, +said: + +"Well, are you going to do anything about me? About what I told +you I got to have?" + +"What is it, Walter?" his mother asked, since Adams did not +speak. + +Walter cleared his throat, and replied in a tone as quiet as that +he had used before, though with a slight huskiness, "I got to +have three hundred and fifty dollars. You better get him to give +it to me if you can." + +Adams found his voice. "Yes," he said, bitterly. "That's all he +asks! He won't do anything I ask HIM to, and in return he asks +me for three hundred and fifty dollars! That's all!" + +"What in the world!" Mrs. Adams exclaimed. "What FOR, Walter?" + +"I got to have it," Walter said. + +"But what FOR?" + +His quiet huskiness did not alter. "I got to have it." + +"But can't you tell us----" + +"I got to have it." + +"That's all you can get out of him," Adams said. "He seems to +think it'll bring him in three hundred and fifty dollars!" + +A faint tremulousness became evident in the husky voice. +"Haven't you got it?" + +"NO, I haven't got it!" his father answered. "And I've got to go +to a bank for more than my pay-roll next week. Do you think I'm +a mint?" + +"I don't understand what you mean, Walter," Mrs. Adams +interposed, perplexed and distressed. "If your father had the +money, of course he'd need every cent of it, especially just now, +and, anyhow, you could scarcely expect him to give it to you, +unless you told us what you want with it. But he hasn't got it." + +"All right," Walter said; and after standing a moment more, in +silence, he added, impersonally, "I don't see as you ever did +anything much for me, anyhow either of you." + +Then, as if this were his valedictory, he turned his back upon +them, walked away quickly, and was at once lost to their sight in +the darkness. + +"There's a fine boy to've had the trouble of raising!" Adams +grumbled. "Just crazy, that's all." + +"What in the world do you suppose he wants all that money for?" +his wife said, wonderingly. "I can't imagine what he could DO +with it. I wonder----" She paused. "I wonder if he----" + +"If he what?" Adams prompted her irritably. + +"If he COULD have bad--associates." + +"God knows!" said Adams. "_I_ don't! It just looks to me like +he had something in him I don't understand. You can't keep your +eye on a boy all the time in a city this size, not a boy Walter's +age. You got a girl pretty much in the house, but a boy'll +follow his nature. _I_ don't know what to do with him!" + +Mrs. Adams brightened a little. "He'll come out all right," she +said. "I'm sure he will. I'm sure he'd never be anything really +bad: and he'll come around all right about the glue-works, too; +you'll see. Of course every young man wants money--it doesn't +prove he's doing anything wrong just because he asks you for it." + +"No. All it proves to me is that he hasn't got good sense asking +me for three hundred and fifty dollars, when he knows as well as +you do the position I'm in! If I wanted to, I couldn't hardly +let him have three hundred and fifty cents, let alone dollars!" + +"I'm afraid you'll have to let ME have that much--and maybe a +little more," she ventured, timidly; and she told him of her +plans for the morrow. He objected vehemently. + +"Oh, but Alice has probably asked him by this time," Mrs. Adams +said. "It really must be done, Virgil: you don't want him to +think she's ashamed of us, do you?" + +"Well, go ahead, but just let me stay away," he begged. "Of +course I expect to undergo a kind of talk with him, when he gets +ready to say something to us about Alice, but I do hate to have +to sit through a fashionable dinner." + +"Why, it isn't going to bother you," she said; "just one young +man as a guest." + +"Yes, I know; but you want to have all this fancy cookin'; and I +see well enough you're going to get that old dress suit out of +the cedar chest in the attic, and try to make me put it on me." + +"I do think you better, Virgil." + +"I hope the moths have got in it," he said. "Last time I wore it +was to the banquet, and it was pretty old then. Of course I +didn't mind wearing it to the banquet so much, because that was +what you might call quite an occasion." He spoke with some +reminiscent complacency; "the banquet," an affair now five years +past, having provided the one time in his life when he had been +so distinguished among his fellow-citizens as to receive an +invitation to be present, with some seven hundred others, at the +annual eating and speech-making of the city's Chamber of +Commerce. "Anyhow, as you say, I think it would look foolish of +me to wear a dress suit for just one young man," he went on +protesting, feebly. "What's the use of all so much howdy-do, +anyway? You don't expect him to believe we put on all that style +every night, do you? Is that what you're after?" + +"Well, we want him to think we live nicely," she admitted. + +"So that's it!" he said, querulously. "You want him to think +that's our regular gait, do you? Well, he'll know better about +me, no matter how you fix me up, because he saw me in my regular +suit the evening she introduced me to him, and he could tell +anyway I'm not one of these moving-picture sporting-men that's +always got a dress suit on. Besides, you and Alice certainly +have some idea he'll come AGAIN, haven't you? If they get things +settled between 'em he'll be around the house and to meals most +any time, won't he? You don't hardly expect to put on style all +the time, I guess. Well, he'll see then that this kind of thing +was all show-off, and bluff, won't he? What about it?" + +"Oh, well, by THAT time----" She left the sentence unfinished, as +if absently. "You could let us have a little money for +to-morrow, couldn't you, honey?" + +"Oh, I reckon, I reckon," he mumbled. "A girl like Alice is some +comfort: she don't come around acting as if she'd commit suicide +if she didn't get three hundred and fifty dollars in the next +five minutes. I expect I can spare five or six dollars for your +show-off if I got to." + +However, she finally obtained fifteen before his bedtime; and the +next morning "went to market" after breakfast, leaving Alice to +make the beds. Walter had not yet come downstairs. "You had +better call him," Mrs. Adams said, as she departed with a big +basket on her arm. "I expect he's pretty sleepy; he was out so +late last night I didn't hear him come in, though I kept awake +till after midnight, listening for him. Tell him he'll be late +to work if he doesn't hurry; and see that he drinks his coffee, +even if he hasn't time for anything else. And when Malena comes, +get her started in the kitchen: show her where everything is." +She waved her hand, as she set out for a corner where the cars +stopped. "Everything'll be lovely. Don't forget about Walter." + +Nevertheless, Alice forgot about Walter for a few minutes. She +closed the door, went into the "living-room" absently, and +stared vaguely at one of the old brown-plush rocking-chairs +there. Upon her forehead were the little shadows of an +apprehensive reverie, and her thoughts overlapped one another in +a fretful jumble. "What will he think? These old +chairs--they're hideous. I'll scrub those soot-streaks on the +columns: it won't do any good, though. That long crack in the +column--nothing can help it. What will he think of papa? I hope +mama won't talk too much. When he thinks of Mildred's house, or +of Henrietta's, or any of 'em, beside this-- She said she'd buy +plenty of roses; that ought to help some. Nothing could be done +about these horrible chairs: can't take 'em up in the attic--a +room's got to have chairs! Might have rented some. No; if he +ever comes again he'd see they weren't here. 'If he ever comes +again'--oh, it won't be THAT bad! But it won't be what he +expects. I'm responsible for what he expects: he expects just +what the airs I've put on have made him expect. What did I want +to pose so to him for--as if papa were a wealthy man and all +that? What WILL he think? The photograph of the Colosseum's a +rather good thing, though. It helps some--as if we'd bought it +in Rome perhaps. I hope he'll think so; he believes I've been +abroad, of course. The other night he said, 'You remember the +feeling you get in the Sainte-Chapelle'.--There's another lie of +mine, not saying I didn't remember because I'd never been there. +What makes me do it? Papa MUST wear his evening clothes. But +Walter----" + +With that she recalled her mother's admonition, and went upstairs +to Walter's door. She tapped upon it with her fingers. + +"Time to get up, Walter. The rest of us had breakfast over half +an hour ago, and it's nearly eight o'clock. You'll be late. +Hurry down and I'll have some coffee and toast ready for you." +There came no sound from within the room, so she rapped louder. + +"Wake up, Walter!" + +She called and rapped again, without getting any response, and +then, finding that the door yielded to her, opened it and went +in. Walter was not there. + +He had been there, however; had slept upon the bed, though not +inside the covers; and Alice supposed he must have come home so +late that he had been too sleepy to take off his clothes. Near +the foot of the bed was a shallow closet where he kept his "other +suit" and his evening clothes; and the door stood open, showing a +bare wall. Nothing whatever was in the closet, and Alice was +rather surprised at this for a moment. "That's queer," she +murmured; and then she decided that when he woke he found the +clothes he had slept in "so mussy" he had put on his "other +suit," and had gone out before breakfast with the mussed clothes +to have them pressed, taking his evening things with them. +Satisfied with this explanation, and failing to observe that it +did not account for the absence of shoes from the closet floor, +she nodded absently, "Yes, that must be it"; and, when her mother +returned, told her that Walter had probably breakfasted +down-town. They did not delay over this; the coloured woman had +arrived, and the basket's disclosures were important. + +"I stopped at Worlig's on the way back," said Mrs. Adams, +flushed with hurry and excitement. "I bought a can of caviar +there. I thought we'd have little sandwiches brought into the +'living-room' before dinner, the way you said they did when you +went to that dinner at the----" + +"But I think that was to go with cocktails, mama, and of course +we haven't----" + +"No," Mrs. Adams said. "Still, I think it would be nice. We +can make them look very dainty, on a tray, and the waitress can +bring them in. I thought we'd have the soup already on the +table; and we can walk right out as soon as we have the +sandwiches, so it won't get cold. Then, after the soup, Malena +says she can make sweetbread pates with mushrooms: and for the +meat course we'll have larded fillet. Malena's really a fancy +cook, you know, and she says she can do anything like that to +perfection. We'll have peas with the fillet, and potato balls +and Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are fashionable now, they +told me at market. Then will come the chicken salad, and after +that the ice-cream--she's going to make an angel-food cake to go +with it--and then coffee and crackers and a new kind of cheese I +got at Worlig's, he says is very fine." + +Alice was alarmed. "Don't you think perhaps it's too much, +mama?" + +"It's better to have too much than too little," her mother said, +cheerfully. "We don't want him to think we're the kind that +skimp. Lord knows we have to enough, though, most of the time! +Get the flowers in water, child. I bought 'em at market because +they're so much cheaper there, but they'll keep fresh and nice. +You fix 'em any way you want. Hurry! It's got to be a busy +day." + +She had bought three dozen little roses. Alice took them and +began to arrange them in vases, keeping the stems separated as +far as possible so that the clumps would look larger. She put +half a dozen in each of three vases in the "living-room," placing +one vase on the table in the center of the room, and one at each +end of the mantelpiece. Then she took the rest of the roses to +the dining-room; but she postponed the arrangement of them until +the table should be set, just before dinner. She was thoughtful; +planning to dry the stems and lay them on the tablecloth like a +vine of roses running in a delicate design, if she found that the +dozen and a half she had left were enough for that. If they +weren't she would arrange them in a vase. + +She looked a long time at the little roses in the basin of water, +where she had put them; then she sighed, and went away to heavier +tasks, while her mother worked in the kitchen with Malena. Alice +dusted the "living-room" and the dining-room vigorously, though +all the time with a look that grew more and more pensive; and +having dusted everything, she wiped the furniture; rubbed it +hard. After that, she washed the floors and the woodwork. + +Emerging from the kitchen at noon, Mrs. Adams found her daughter +on hands and knees, scrubbing the bases of the columns between +the hall and the "living-room." + +"Now, dearie," she said, "you mustn't tire yourself out, and +you'd better come and eat something. Your father said he'd get a +bite down-town to-day--he was going down to the bank--and Walter +eats down-town all the time lately, so I thought we wouldn't +bother to set the table for lunch. Come on and we'll have +something in the kitchen." + +"No," Alice said, dully, as she went on with the work. "I don't +want anything." + +Her mother came closer to her. "Why, what's the matter?" she +asked, briskly. "You seem kind of pale, to me; and you don't +look--you don't look HAPPY." + +"Well----" Alice began, uncertainly, but said no more. + +"See here!" Mrs. Adams exclaimed. "This is all just for you! +You ought to be ENJOYING it. Why, it's the first time +we've--we've entertained in I don't know how long! I guess it's +almost since we had that little party when you were eighteen. +What's the matter with you?" + +"Nothing. I don't know." + +"But, dearie, aren't you looking FORWARD to this evening?" + +The girl looked up, showing a pallid and solemn face. "Oh, yes, +of course," she said, and tried to smile. "Of course we had to +do it--I do think it'll be nice. Of course I'm looking forward +to it." + + + +CHAPTER XX + +She was indeed "looking forward" to that evening, but in a cloud +of apprehension; and, although she could never have guessed it, +this was the simultaneous condition of another person--none other +than the guest for whose pleasure so much cooking and scrubbing +seemed to be necessary. Moreover, Mr. Arthur Russell's +premonitions were no product of mere coincidence; neither had any +magical sympathy produced them. His state of mind was rather the +result of rougher undercurrents which had all the time been +running beneath the surface of a romantic friendship. + +Never shrewder than when she analyzed the gentlemen, Alice did +not libel him when she said he was one of those quiet men who are +a bit flirtatious, by which she meant that he was a bit +"susceptible," the same thing--and he had proved himself +susceptible to Alice upon his first sight of her. "There!" he +said to himself. "Who's that?" And in the crowd of girls at his +cousin's dance, all strangers to him, she was the one he wanted +to know. + +Since then, his summer evenings with her had been as secluded as +if, for three hours after the falling of dusk, they two had drawn +apart from the world to some dear bower of their own. The little +veranda was that glamorous nook, with a faint golden light +falling through the glass of the closed door upon Alice, and +darkness elsewhere, except for the one round globe of the street +lamp at the corner. The people who passed along the sidewalk, +now and then, were only shadows with voices, moving vaguely under +the maple trees that loomed in obscure contours against the +stars. So, as the two sat together, the back of the world was +the wall and closed door behind them; and Russell, when he was +away from Alice, always thought of her as sitting there before +the closed door. A glamour was about her thus, and a spell upon +him; but he had a formless anxiety never put into words: all the +pictures of her in his mind stopped at the closed door. + +He had another anxiety; and, for the greater part, this was of +her own creating. She had too often asked him (no matter how +gaily) what he heard about her, too often begged him not to hear +anything. Then, hoping to forestall whatever he might hear, she +had been at too great pains to account for it, to discredit and +mock it; and, though he laughed at her for this, telling her +truthfully he did not even hear her mentioned, the everlasting +irony that deals with all such human forefendings prevailed. + +Lately, he had half confessed to her what a nervousness she had +produced. "You make me dread the day when I'll hear somebody +speaking of you. You're getting me so upset about it that if I +ever hear anybody so much as say the name 'Alice Adams,' I'll +run!" The confession was but half of one because he laughed; and +she took it for an assurance of loyalty in the form of burlesque. + +She misunderstood: he laughed, but his nervousness was genuine. + +After any stroke of events, whether a happy one or a catastrophe, +we see that the materials for it were a long time gathering, and +the only marvel is that the stroke was not prophesied. What bore +the air of fatal coincidence may remain fatal indeed, to this +later view; but, with the haphazard aspect dispelled, there is +left for scrutiny the same ancient hint from the Infinite to the +effect that since events have never yet failed to be law-abiding, +perhaps it were well for us to deduce that they will continue to +be so until further notice. + +. . . On the day that was to open the closed door in the +background of his pictures of Alice, Russell lunched with his +relatives. There were but the four people, Russell and Mildred +and her mother and father, in the great, cool dining-room. +Arched French windows, shaded by awnings, admitted a mellow light +and looked out upon a green lawn ending in a long conservatory, +which revealed through its glass panes a carnival of plants in +luxuriant blossom. From his seat at the table, Russell glanced +out at this pretty display, and informed his cousins that he was +surprised. "You have such a glorious spread of flowers all over +the house," he said, "I didn't suppose you'd have any left out +yonder. In fact, I didn't know there were so many splendid +flowers in the world." + +Mrs. Palmer, large, calm, fair, like her daughter, responded +with a mild reproach: "That's because you haven't been cousinly +enough to get used to them, Arthur. You've almost taught us to +forget what you look like." + +In defense Russell waved a hand toward her husband. "You see, +he's begun to keep me so hard at work----" + +But Mr. Palmer declined the responsibility. "Up to four or five +in the afternoon, perhaps," he said. "After that, the young +gentleman is as much a stranger to me as he is to my family. +I've been wondering who she could be." + +"When a man's preoccupied there must be a lady then?" Russell +inquired. + +"That seems to be the view of your sex," Mrs; Palmer suggested. +"It was my husband who said it, not Mildred or I." + +Mildred smiled faintly. "Papa may be singular in his ideas; they +may come entirely from his own experience, and have nothing to do +with Arthur." + +"Thank you, Mildred," her cousin said, bowing to her gratefully. +"You seem to understand my character--and your father's quite as +well!" + +However, Mildred remained grave in the face of this customary +pleasantry, not because the old jest, worn round, like what +preceded it, rolled in an old groove, but because of some +preoccupation of her own. Her faint smile had disappeared, and, +as her cousin's glance met hers, she looked down; yet not before +he had seen in her eyes the flicker of something like a +question--a question both poignant and dismayed. He may have +understood it; for his own smile vanished at once in favour of a +reciprocal solemnity. + +"You see, Arthur," Mrs. Palmer said, "Mildred is always a good +cousin. She and I stand by you, even if you do stay away from us +for weeks and weeks." Then, observing that he appeared to be so +occupied with a bunch of iced grapes upon his plate that he had +not heard her, she began to talk to her husband, asking him what +was "going on down-town." + +Arthur continued to eat his grapes, but he ventured to look again +at Mildred after a few moments. She, also, appeared to be +occupied with a bunch of grapes though she ate none, and only +pulled them from their stems. She sat straight, her features as +composed and pure as those of a new marble saint in a cathedral +niche; yet her downcast eyes seemed to conceal many thoughts; and +her cousin, against his will, was more aware of what these +thoughts might be than of the leisurely conversation between her +father and mother. All at once, however, he heard something that +startled him, and he listened--and here was the effect of all +Alice's forefendings; he listened from the first with a sinking +heart. + +Mr. Palmer, mildly amused by what he was telling his wife, had +just spoken the words, "this Virgil Adams." What he had said +was, "this Virgil Adams--that's the man's name. Queer case." + +"Who told you?" Mrs. Palmer inquired, not much interested. + +"Alfred Lamb," her husband answered. "He was laughing about his +father, at the club. You see the old gentleman takes a great +pride in his judgment of men, and always boasted to his sons that +he'd never in his life made a mistake in trusting the wrong man. +Now Alfred and James Albert, Junior, think they have a great joke +on him; and they've twitted him so much about it he'll scarcely +speak to them. From the first, Alfred says, the old chap's only +repartee was, 'You wait and you'll see!' And they've asked him so +often to show them what they're going to see that he won't say +anything at all!" + +"He's a funny old fellow," Mrs. Palmer observed. "But he's so +shrewd I can't imagine his being deceived for such a long time. +Twenty years, you said?" + +"Yes, longer than that, I understand. It appears when this +man--this Adams--was a young clerk, the old gentleman trusted him +with one of his business secrets, a glue process that Mr. Lamb +had spent some money to get hold of. The old chap thought this +Adams was going to have quite a future with the Lamb concern, and +of course never dreamed he was dishonest. Alfred says this Adams +hasn't been of any real use for years, and they should have let +him go as dead wood, but the old gentleman wouldn't hear of it, +and insisted on his being kept on the payroll; so they just +decided to look on it as a sort of pension. Well, one morning +last March the man had an attack of some sort down there, and Mr. +Lamb got his own car out and went home with him, himself, and +worried about him and went to see him no end, all the time he was +ill." + +"He would," Mrs. Palmer said, approvingly. "He's a kind-hearted +creature, that old man." + +Her husband laughed. "Alfred says he thinks his kind-heartedness +is about cured! It seems that as soon as the man got well again +he deliberately walked off with the old gentleman's glue secret. +Just calmly stole it! Alfred says he believes that if he had a +stroke in the office now, himself, his father wouldn't lift a +finger to help him!" + +Mrs. Palmer repeated the name to herself thoughtfully. +"'Adams'--'Virgil Adams.' You said his name was Virgil Adams?" + +"Yes." + +She looked at her daughter. "Why, you know who that is, +Mildred," she said, casually. "It's that Alice Adams's father, +isn't it? Wasn't his name Virgil Adams?" + +"I think it is," Mildred said. + +Mrs. Palmer turned toward her husband. "You've seen this Alice +Adams here. Mr. Lamb's pet swindler must be her father." + +Mr. Palmer passed a smooth hand over his neat gray hair, which +was not disturbed by this effort to stimulate recollection. "Oh, +yes," he said. "Of course--certainly. Quite a good-looking +girl--one of Mildred's friends. How queer!" + +Mildred looked up, as if in a little alarm, but did not speak. +Her mother set matters straight. "Fathers ARE amusing," she said +smilingly to Russell, who was looking at her, though how fixedly +she did not notice; for she turned from him at once to enlighten +her husband. "Every girl who meets Mildred, and tries to push +the acquaintance by coming here until the poor child has to hide, +isn't a FRIEND of hers, my dear!" + +Mildred's eyes were downcast again, and a faint colour rose in +her cheeks. "Oh, I shouldn't put it quite that way about Alice +Adams," she said, in a low voice. "I saw something of her for a +time. She's not unattractive in a way." + +Mrs. Palmer settled the whole case of Alice carelessly. "A +pushing sort of girl," she said. "A very pushing little person." + +"I----" Mildred began; and, after hesitating, concluded, "I +rather dropped her." + +"Fortunate you've done so," her father remarked, cheerfully. +"Especially since various members of the Lamb connection are here +frequently. They mightn't think you'd show great tact in having +her about the place." He laughed, and turned to his cousin. +"All this isn't very interesting to poor Arthur. How terrible +people are with a newcomer in a town; they talk as if he knew all +about everybody!" + +"But we don't know anything about these queer people, ourselves," +said Mrs. Palmer. "We know something about the girl, of +course--she used to be a bit too conspicuous, in fact! However, +as you say, we might find a subject more interesting for Arthur." + +She smiled whimsically upon the young man. "Tell the truth," she +said. "Don't you fairly detest going into business with that +tyrant yonder?" + +"What? Yes--I beg your pardon!" he stammered. + +"You were right," Mrs. Palmer said to her husband. "You've +bored him so, talking about thievish clerks, he can't even answer +an honest question." + +But Russell was beginning to recover his outward composure. "Try +me again," he said. "I'm afraid I was thinking of something +else." + +This was the best he found to say. There was a part of him that +wanted to protest and deny, but he had not heat enough, in the +chill that had come upon him. Here was the first "mention" of +Alice, and with it the reason why it was the first: Mr. Palmer +had difficulty in recalling her, and she happened to be spoken +of, only because her father's betrayal of a benefactor's trust +had been so peculiarly atrocious that, in the view of the +benefactor's family, it contained enough of the element of humour +to warrant a mild laugh at a club. There was the deadliness of +the story: its lack of malice, even of resentment. Deadlier +still were Mrs. Palmer's phrases: "a pushing sort of girl," "a +very pushing little person," and "used to be a bit TOO +conspicuous, in fact." But she spoke placidly and by chance; +being as obviously without unkindly motive as Mr. Palmer was +when he related the cause of Alfred Lamb's amusement. Her +opinion of the obscure young lady momentarily her topic had been +expressed, moreover, to her husband, and at her own table. She +sat there, large, kind, serene--a protest might astonish but +could not change her; and Russell, crumpling in his strained +fingers the lace-edged little web of a napkin on his knee, found +heart enough to grow red, but not enough to challenge her. + +She noticed his colour, and attributed it to the embarrassment of +a scrupulously gallant gentleman caught in a lapse of attention +to a lady. "Don't be disturbed," she said, benevolently. +"People aren't expected to listen all the time to their +relatives. A high colour's very becoming to you, Arthur; but it +really isn't necessary between cousins. You can always be +informal enough with us to listen only when you care to." + +His complexion continued to be ruddier than usual, however, +throughout the meal, and was still somewhat tinted when Mrs. +Palmer rose. "The man's bringing you cigarettes here," she said, +nodding to the two gentlemen. "We'll give you a chance to do the +sordid kind of talking we know you really like. Afterwhile, +Mildred will show you what's in bloom in the hothouse, if you +wish, Arthur." + +Mildred followed her, and, when they were alone in another of the +spacious rooms, went to a window and looked out, while her mother +seated herself near the center of the room in a gilt armchair, +mellowed with old Aubusson tapestry. Mrs. Palmer looked +thoughtfully at her daughter's back, but did not speak to her +until coffee had been brought for them. + +"Thanks," Mildred said, not turning, "I don't care for any +coffee, I believe." + +"No?" Mrs. Palmer said, gently. "I'm afraid our good-looking +cousin won't think you're very talkative, Mildred. You spoke +only about twice at lunch. I shouldn't care for him to get the +idea you're piqued because he's come here so little lately, +should you?" + +"No, I shouldn't," Mildred answered in a low voice, and with that +she turned quickly, and came to sit near her mother. "But it's +what I am afraid of! Mama, did you notice how red he got?" + +"You mean when he was caught not listening to a question of mine? +Yes; it's very becoming to him." + +"Mama, I don't think that was the reason. I don't think it was +because he wasn't listening, I mean." + +"No?" + +"I think his colour and his not listening came from the same +reason," Mildred said, and although she had come to sit near her +mother, she did not look at her. "I think it happened because +you and papa----" She stopped. + +"Yes?" Mrs. Palmer said, good-naturedly, to prompt her. "Your +father and I did something embarrassing?" + +"Mama, it was because of those things that came out about Alice +Adams." + +"How could that bother Arthur? Does he know her?" + +"Don't you remember?" the daughter asked. "The day after my +dance I mentioned how odd I thought it was in him--I was a little +disappointed in him. I'd been seeing that he met everybody, of +course, but she was the only girl HE asked to meet; and he did it +as soon as he noticed her. I hadn't meant to have him meet +her--in fact, I was rather sorry I'd felt I had to ask her, +because she oh, well, she's the sort that 'tries for the new +man,' if she has half a chance; and sometimes they seem quite +fascinated--for a time, that is. I thought Arthur was above all +that; or at the very least I gave him credit for being too +sophisticated." + +"I see," Mrs. Palmer said, thoughtfully. "I remember now that +you spoke of it. You said it seemed a little peculiar, but of +course it really wasn't: a 'new man' has nothing to go by, except +his own first impressions. You can't blame poor Arthur--she's +quite a piquant looking little person. You think he's seen +something of her since then?" + +Mildred nodded slowly. "I never dreamed such a thing till +yesterday, and even then I rather doubted it--till he got so red, +just now! I was surprised when he asked to meet her, but he just +danced with her once and didn't mention her afterward; I forgot +all about it--in fact, I virtually forgot all about HER. I'd +seen quite a little of her----" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Palmer. "She did keep coming here!" + +"But I'd just about decided that it really wouldn't do," Mildred +went on. "She isn't--well, I didn't admire her." + +"No," her mother assented, and evidently followed a direct +connection of thought in a speech apparently irrelevant. "I +understand the young Malone wants to marry Henrietta. I hope she +won't; he seems rather a gross type of person." + +"Oh, he's just one," Mildred said. "I don't know that he and +Alice Adams were ever engaged--she never told me so. She may not +have been engaged to any of them; she was just enough among the +other girls to get talked about--and one of the reasons I felt a +little inclined to be nice to her was that they seemed to be +rather edging her out of the circle. It wasn't long before I saw +they were right, though. I happened to mention I was going to +give a dance and she pretended to take it as a matter of course +that I meant to invite her brother--at least, I thought she +pretended; she may have really believed it. At any rate, I had +to send him a card; but I didn't intend to be let in for that +sort of thing again, of course. She's what you said, 'pushing'; +though I'm awfully sorry you said it." + +"Why shouldn't I have said it, my dear?" + +"Of course I didn't say 'shouldn't.'" Mildred explained, +gravely. "I meant only that I'm sorry it happened." + +"Yes; but why?" + +"Mama"--Mildred turned to her, leaning forward and speaking in a +lowered voice--"Mama, at first the change was so little it seemed +as if Arthur hardly knew it himself. He'd been lovely to me +always, and he was still lovely to me but--oh, well, you've +understood--after my dance it was more as if it was just his +nature and his training to be lovely to me, as he would be to +everyone a kind of politeness. He'd never said he CARED for me, +but after that I could see he didn't. It was clear--after that. +I didn't know what had happened; I couldn't think of anything I'd +done. Mama--it was Alice Adams." + +Mrs. Palmer set her little coffee-cup upon the table beside her, +calmly following her own motion with her eyes, and not seeming to +realize with what serious entreaty her daughter's gaze was fixed +upon her. Mildred repeated the last sentence of her revelation, +and introduced a stress of insistence. + +"Mama, it WAS Alice Adams!" + +But Mrs. Palmer declined to be greatly impressed, so far as her +appearance went, at least; and to emphasize her refusal, she +smiled indulgently. "What makes you think so?" + +"Henrietta told me yesterday." + +At this Mrs. Palmer permitted herself to laugh softly aloud. +"Good heavens! Is Henrietta a soothsayer? Or is she Arthur's +particular confidante?" + +"No. Ella Dowling told her." + +Mrs. Palmer's laughter continued. "Now we have it!" she +exclaimed. "It's a game of gossip: Arthur tells Ella, Ella tells +Henrietta, and Henrietta tells----" + +"Don't laugh, please, mama," Mildred begged. "Of course Arthur +didn't tell anybody. It's roundabout enough, but it's true. I +know it! I hadn't quite believed it, but I knew it was true when +he got so red. He looked--oh, for a second or so he looked +--stricken! He thought I didn't notice it. Mama, he's been to +see her almost every evening lately. They take long walks +together. That's why he hasn't been here." + +Of Mrs. Palmer's laughter there was left only her indulgent +smile, which she had not allowed to vanish. "Well, what of it?" +she said. + +"Mama!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Palmer. "What of it?" + +"But don't you see?" Mildred's well-tutored voice, though +modulated and repressed even in her present emotion, nevertheless +had a tendency to quaver. "It's true. Frank Dowling was going +to see her one evening and he saw Arthur sitting on the stoop +with her, and didn't go in. And Ella used to go to school with a +girl who lives across the street from here. She told Ella----" + +"Oh, I understand," Mrs. Palmer interrupted. "Suppose he does +go there. My dear, I said, 'What of it?'" + +"I don't see what you mean, mama. I'm so afraid he might think +we knew about it, and that you and papa said those things about +her and her father on that account--as if we abused them because +he goes there instead of coming here." + +"Nonsense!" Mrs. Palmer rose, went to a window, and, turning +there, stood with her back to it, facing her daughter and looking +at her cheerfully. "Nonsense, my dear! It was perfectly clear +that she was mentioned by accident, and so was her father. What +an extraordinary man! If Arthur makes friends with people like +that, he certainly knows better than to expect to hear favourable +opinions of them. Besides, it's only a little passing thing with +him." + +"Mama! When he goes there almost every----" + +"Yes," Mrs. Palmer said, dryly. "It seems to me I've heard +somewhere that other young men have gone there 'almost every!' +She doesn't last, apparently. Arthur's gallant, and he's +impressionable--but he's fastidious, and fastidiousness is +always the check on impressionableness. A girl belongs to her +family, too--and this one does especially, it strikes me! +Arthur's very sensible; he sees more than you'd think." + +Mildred looked at her hopefully. "Then you don't believe he's +likely to imagine we said those things of her in any meaning +way?" + +At this, Mrs. Palmer laughed again. "There's one thing you seem +not to have noticed, Mildred." + +"What's that?" + +"It seems to have escaped your attention that he never said a +word." + +"Mightn't that mean----?" Mildred began, but she stopped. + +"No, it mightn't," her mother replied, comprehending easily. "On +the contrary, it might mean that instead of his feeling it too +deeply to speak, he was getting a little illumination." + +Mildred rose and came to her. "WHY do you suppose he never told +us he went there? Do you think he's--do you think he's pleased +with her, and yet ashamed of it? WHY do you suppose he's never +spoken of it?" + +"Ah, that," Mrs. Palmer said,--"that might possibly be her own +doing. If it is, she's well paid by what your father and I said, +because we wouldn't have said it if we'd known that Arthur----" +She checked herself quickly. Looking over her daughter's +shoulder, she saw the two gentlemen coming from the corridor +toward the wide doorway of the room; and she greeted them +cheerfully. "If you've finished with each other for a while," +she added, "Arthur may find it a relief to put his thoughts on +something prettier than a trust company--and more fragrant." + +Arthur came to Mildred. + +"Your mother said at lunch that perhaps you'd----" + +"I didn't say 'perhaps,' Arthur," Mrs. Palmer interrupted, to +correct him. "I said she would. If you care to see and smell +those lovely things out yonder, she'll show them to you. Run +along, children!" + + +Half an hour later, glancing from a window, she saw them come +from the hothouses and slowly cross the lawn. Arthur had a fine +rose in his buttonhole and looked profoundly thoughtful. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +That morning and noon had been warm, though the stirrings of a +feeble breeze made weather not flagrantly intemperate; but at +about three o'clock in the afternoon there came out of the +southwest a heat like an affliction sent upon an accursed people, +and the air was soon dead of it. Dripping negro ditch-diggers +whooped with satires praising hell and hot weather, as the +tossing shovels flickered up to the street level, where sluggish +male pedestrians carried coats upon hot arms, and fanned +themselves with straw hats, or, remaining covered, wore soaked +handkerchiefs between scalp and straw. Clerks drooped in silent, +big department stores, stenographers in offices kept as close to +electric fans as the intervening bulk of their employers would +let them; guests in hotels left the lobbies and went to lie +unclad upon their beds; while in hospitals the patients murmured +querulously against the heat, and perhaps against some noisy +motorist who strove to feel the air by splitting it, not troubled +by any foreboding that he, too, that hour next week, might need +quiet near a hospital. The "hot spell" was a true spell, one +upon men's spirits; for it was so hot that, in suburban +outskirts, golfers crept slowly back over the low undulations of +their club lands, abandoning their matches and returning to +shelter. + +Even on such a day, sizzling work had to be done, as in winter. +There were glowing furnaces to be stoked, liquid metals to be +poured; but such tasks found seasoned men standing to them; and +in all the city probably no brave soul challenged the heat more +gamely than Mrs. Adams did, when, in a corner of her small and +fiery kitchen, where all day long her hired African immune cooked +fiercely, she pressed her husband's evening clothes with a hot +iron. No doubt she risked her life, but she risked it cheerfully +in so good and necessary a service for him. She would have given +her life for him at any time, and both his and her own for her +children. + +Unconscious of her own heroism, she was surprised to find herself +rather faint when she finished her ironing. However, she took +heart to believe that the clothes looked better, in spite of one +or two scorched places; and she carried them upstairs to her +husband's room before increasing blindness forced her to grope +for the nearest chair. Then, trying to rise and walk, without +having sufficiently recovered, she had to sit down again; but +after a little while she was able to get upon her feet; and, +keeping her hand against the wall, moved successfully to the door +of her own room. Here she wavered; might have gone down, had she +not been stimulated by the thought of how much depended upon +her;--she made a final great effort, and floundered across the +room to her bureau, where she kept some simple restoratives. +They served her need, or her faith in them did; and she returned +to her work. + +She went down the stairs, keeping a still tremulous hand upon the +rail; but she smiled brightly when Alice looked up from below, +where the woodwork was again being tormented with superfluous +attentions. + +"Alice, DON'T!" her mother said, commiseratingly. "You did all +that this morning and it looks lovely. What's the use of wearing +yourself out on it? You ought to be lying down, so's to look +fresh for to-night." + +"Hadn't you better lie down yourself?" the daughter returned. +"Are you ill, mama?" + +"Certainly not. What in the world makes you think so?" + +"You look pretty pale," Alice said, and sighed heavily. "It +makes me ashamed, having you work so hard--for me." + +"How foolish! I think it's fun, getting ready to entertain a +little again, like this. I only wish it hadn't turned so hot: +I'm afraid your poor father'll suffer--his things are pretty +heavy, I noticed. Well, it'll do him good to bear something for +style's sake this once, anyhow!" She laughed, and coming to +Alice, bent down and kissed her. "Dearie," she said, tenderly, +"wouldn't you please slip upstairs now and take just a little +teeny nap to please your mother?" + +But Alice responded only by moving her head slowly, in token of +refusal. + +"Do!" Mrs. Adams urged. "You don't want to look worn out, do +you?" + +"I'll LOOK all right," Alice said, huskily. "Do you like the way +I've arranged the furniture now? I've tried all the different +ways it'll go." + +"It's lovely," her mother said, admiringly. "I thought the last +way you had it was pretty, too. But you know best; I never knew +anybody with so much taste. If you'd only just quit now, and +take a little rest----" + +"There'd hardly be time, even if I wanted to; it's after five but +I couldn't; really, I couldn't. How do you think we can manage +about Walter--to see that he wears his evening things, I mean?" + +Mrs. Adams pondered. "I'm afraid he'll make a lot of +objections, on account of the weather and everything. I wish +we'd had a chance to tell him last night or this morning. I'd +have telephoned to him this afternoon except--well, I scarcely +like to call him up at that place, since your father----" + +"No, of course not, mama." + +"If Walter gets home late," Mrs. Adams went on, "I'll just slip +out and speak to him, in case Mr. Russell's here before he +comes. I'll just tell him he's got to hurry and get his things +on." + +"Maybe he won't come home to dinner," Alice suggested, rather +hopefully. "Sometimes he doesn't." + +"No; I think he'll be here. When he doesn't come he usually +telephones by this time to say not to wait for him; he's very +thoughtful about that. Well, it really is getting late: I must +go and tell her she ought to be preparing her fillet. Dearie, DO +rest a little." + +"You'd much better do that yourself," Alice called after her, but +Mrs. Adams shook her head cheerily, not pausing on her way to +the fiery kitchen. + +Alice continued her useless labours for a time; then carried her +bucket to the head of the cellar stairway, where she left it upon +the top step; and, closing the door, returned to the +"living-room;" Again she changed the positions of the old plush +rocking-chairs, moving them into the corners where she thought +they might be least noticeable; and while thus engaged she was +startled by a loud ringing of the door-bell. For a moment her +face was panic-stricken, and she stood staring, then she realized +that Russell would not arrive for another hour, at the earliest, +and recovering her equipoise, went to the door. + +Waiting there, in a languid attitude, was a young coloured woman, +with a small bundle under her arm and something malleable in her +mouth. "Listen," she said. "You folks expectin' a coloured +lady?" + +"No," said Alice. "Especially not at the front door." + +"Listen," the coloured woman said again. "Listen. Say, listen. +Ain't they another coloured lady awready here by the day? +Listen. Ain't Miz Malena Burns here by the day this evenin'? +Say, listen. This the number house she give ME." + +"Are you the waitress?" Alice asked, dismally. + +"Yes'm, if Malena here." + +"Malena is here," Alice said, and hesitated; but she decided not +to send the waitress to the back door; it might be a risk. She +let her in. "What's your name?" + +"Me? I'm name' Gertrude. Miss Gertrude Collamus." + +"Did you bring a cap and apron?" + +Gertrude took the little bundle from under her arm. "Yes'm. I'm +all fix'." + +"I've already set the table," Alice said. "I'll show you what we +want done." + +She led the way to the dining-room, and, after offering some +instruction there, received by Gertrude with languor and a slowly +moving jaw, she took her into the kitchen, where the cap and +apron were put on. The effect was not fortunate; Gertrude's eyes +were noticeably bloodshot, an affliction made more apparent by +the white cap; and Alice drew her mother apart, whispering +anxiously, + +"Do you suppose it's too late to get someone else?" + +"I'm afraid it is," Mrs. Adams said. "Malena says it was hard +enough to get HER! You have to pay them so much that they only +work when they feel like it." + +"Mama, could you ask her to wear her cap straighter? Every time +she moves her head she gets it on one side, and her skirt's too +long behind and too short in front--and oh, I've NEVER seen such +FEET!" Alice laughed desolately. "And she MUST quit that +terrible chewing!" + +"Never mind; I'll get to work with her. I'll straighten her out +all I can, dearie; don't worry." Mrs. Adams patted her +daughter's shoulder encouragingly. "Now YOU can't do another +thing, and if you don't run and begin dressing you won't be +ready. It'll only take me a minute to dress, myself, and I'll be +down long before you will. Run, darling! I'll look after +everything." + +Alice nodded vaguely, went up to her room, and, after only a +moment with her mirror, brought from her closet the dress of +white organdie she had worn the night when she met Russell for +the first time. She laid it carefully upon her bed, and began to +make ready to put it on. Her mother came in, half an hour later, +to "fasten" her. + +"I'M all dressed," Mrs. Adams said, briskly. "Of course it +doesn't matter. He won't know what the rest of us even look +like: How could he? I know I'm an old SIGHT, but all I want is +to look respectable. Do I?" + +"You look like the best woman in the world; that's all!" Alice +said, with a little gulp. + +Her mother laughed and gave her a final scrutiny. "You might use +just a tiny bit more colour, dearie-- I'm afraid the excitement's +made you a little pale. And you MUST brighten up! There's sort +of a look in your eyes as if you'd got in a trance and couldn't +get out. You've had it all day. I must run: your father wants +me to help him with his studs. Walter hasn't come yet, but I'll +look after him; don't worry, And you better HURRY, dearie, if +you're going to take any time fixing the flowers on the table." + +She departed, while Alice sat at the mirror again, to follow her +advice concerning a "tiny bit more colour." Before she had +finished, her father knocked at the door, and, when she +responded, came in. He was dressed in the clothes his wife had +pressed; but he had lost substantially in weight since they were +made for him; no one would have thought that they had been +pressed. They hung from him voluminously, seeming to be the +clothes of a larger man. + +"Your mother's gone downstairs," he said, in a voice of distress. + +"One of the buttonholes in my shirt is too large and I can't keep +the dang thing fastened. _I_ don't know what to do about it! I +only got one other white shirt, and it's kind of ruined: I tried +it before I did this one. Do you s'pose you could do anything?" + +"I'll see," she said. + +"My collar's got a frayed edge," he complained, as she examined +his troublesome shirt. "It's a good deal like wearing a saw; but +I expect it'll wilt down flat pretty soon, and not bother me +long. I'm liable to wilt down flat, myself, I expect; I don't +know as I remember any such hot night in the last ten or twelve +years." He lifted his head and sniffed the flaccid air, which +was laden with a heavy odour. "My, but that smell is pretty +strong!" he said. + +"Stand still, please, papa," Alice begged him. "I can't see +what's the matter if you move around. How absurd you are about +your old glue smell, papa! There isn't a vestige of it, of +course." + +"I didn't mean glue," he informed her. "I mean cabbage. Is that +fashionable now, to have cabbage when there's company for +dinner?" + +"That isn't cabbage, papa. It's Brussels sprouts." + +"Oh, is it? I don't mind it much, because it keeps that glue +smell off me, but it's fairly strong. I expect you don't notice +it so much because you been in the house with it all along, and +got used to it while it was growing." + +"It is pretty dreadful," Alice said. "Are all the windows open +downstairs?" + +"I'll go down and see, if you'll just fix that hole up for me." + +"I'm afraid I can't," she said. "Not unless you take your shirt +off and bring it to me. I'll have to sew the hole smaller." + +"Oh, well, I'll go ask your mother to----" + +"No," said Alice. "She's got everything on her hands. Run and +take it off. Hurry, papa; I've got to arrange the flowers on the +table before he comes." + +He went away, and came back presently, half undressed, bringing +the shirt. "There's ONE comfort," he remarked, pensively, as she +worked. "I've got that collar off--for a while, anyway. I wish +I could go to table like this; I could stand it a good deal +better. Do you seem to be making any headway with the dang +thing?" + +"I think probably I can----" + +Downstairs the door-bell rang, and Alice's arms jerked with the +shock. + +"Golly!" her father said. "Did you stick your finger with that +fool needle?" + +She gave him a blank stare. "He's come!" + +She was not mistaken, for, upon the little veranda, Russell stood +facing the closed door at last. However, it remained closed for +a considerable time after he rang. Inside the house the warning +summons of the bell was immediately followed by another sound, +audible to Alice and her father as a crash preceding a series of +muffled falls. Then came a distant voice, bitter in complaint. + +"Oh, Lord!" said Adams. "What's that?" + +Alice went to the top of the front stairs, and her mother +appeared in the hall below. + +"Mama!" + +Mrs. Adams looked up. "It's all right," she said, in a loud +whisper. "Gertrude fell down the cellar stairs. Somebody left a +bucket there, and----" She was interrupted by a gasp from Alice, +and hastened to reassure her. "Don't worry, dearie. She may +limp a little, but----" + +Adams leaned over the banisters. "Did she break anything?" he +asked. + +"Hush!" his wife whispered. "No. She seems upset and angry +about it, more than anything else; but she's rubbing herself, and +she'll be all right in time to bring in the little sandwiches. +Alice! Those flowers!" + +"I know, mama. But----" + +"Hurry!" Mrs. Adams warned her. "Both of you hurry! I MUST let +him in!" + +She turned to the door, smiling cordially, even before she opened +it. "Do come right in, Mr. Russell," she said, loudly, lifting +her voice for additional warning to those above. "I'm SO glad to +receive you informally, this way, in our own little home. +There's a hat-rack here under the stairway," she continued, as +Russell, murmuring some response, came into the hall. "I'm +afraid you'll think it's almost TOO informal, my coming to the +door, but unfortunately our housemaid's just had a little +accident--oh, nothing to mention! I just thought we better not +keep you waiting any longer. Will you step into our living-room, +please?" + +She led the way between the two small columns, and seated herself +in one of the plush rocking-chairs, selecting it because Alice +had once pointed out that the chairs, themselves, were less +noticeable when they had people sitting in them. "Do sit down, +Mr. Russell; it's so very warm it's really quite a trial just to +stand up!" + +"Thank you," he said, as he took a seat. "Yes. It is quite +warm." And this seemed to be the extent of his responsiveness +for the moment. He was grave, rather pale; and Mrs. Adams's +impression of him, as she formed it then, was of "a +distinguished-looking young man, really elegant in the best sense +of the word, but timid and formal when he first meets you." She +beamed upon him, and used with everything she said a continuous +accompaniment of laughter, meaningless except that it was meant +to convey cordiality. "Of course we DO have a great deal of warm +weather," she informed him. "I'm glad it's so much cooler in the +house than it is outdoors." + +"Yes," he said. "It is pleasanter indoors." And, stopping with +this single untruth, he permitted himself the briefest glance +about the room; then his eyes returned to his smiling hostess. + +"Most people make a great fuss about hot weather," she said. +"The only person I know who doesn't mind the heat the way other +people do is Alice. She always seems as cool as if we had a +breeze blowing, no matter how hot it is. But then she's so +amiable she never minds anything. It's just her character. +She's always been that way since she was a little child; always +the same to everybody, high and low. I think character's the +most important thing in the world, after all, don't you, Mr. +Russell?" + +"Yes," he said, solemnly; and touched his bedewed white forehead +with a handkerchief. + +"Indeed it is," she agreed with herself, never failing to +continue her murmur of laughter. "That's what I've always told +Alice; but she never sees anything good in herself, and she just +laughs at me when I praise her. She sees good in everybody ELSE +in the world, no matter how unworthy they are, or how they behave +toward HER; but she always underestimates herself. From the time +she was a little child she was always that way. When some other +little girl would behave selfishly or meanly toward her, do you +think she'd come and tell me? Never a word to anybody! The +little thing was too proud! She was the same way about school. +The teachers had to tell me when she took a prize; she'd bring it +home and keep it in her room without a word about it to her +father and mother. Now, Walter was just the other way. Walter +would----" But here Mrs. Adams checked herself, though she +increased the volume of her laughter. "How silly of me!" she +exclaimed. "I expect you know how mothers ARE, though, Mr. +Russell. Give us a chance and we'll talk about our children +forever! Alice would feel terribly if she knew how I've been +going on about her to you." + +In this Mrs. Adams was right, though she did not herself suspect +it, and upon an almost inaudible word or two from him she went on +with her topic. "Of course my excuse is that few mothers have a +daughter like Alice. I suppose we all think the same way about +our children, but SOME of us must be right when we feel we've got +the best. Don't you think so?" + +"Yes. Yes, indeed." + +"I'm sure _I_ am!" she laughed. "I'll let the others speak for +themselves." She paused reflectively. "No; I think a mother +knows when she's got a treasure in her family. If she HASN'T got +one, she'll pretend she has, maybe; but if she has, she knows it. +I certainly know _I_ have. She's always been what people call +'the joy of the household'--always cheerful, no matter what went +wrong, and always ready to smooth things over with some bright, +witty saying. You must be sure not to TELL we've had this little +chat about her--she'd just be furious with me--but she IS such a +dear child! You won't tell her, will you?" + +"No," he said, and again applied the handkerchief to his forehead +for an instant. "No, I'll----" He paused, and finished lamely: +"I'll--not tell her." + +Thus reassured, Mrs. Adams set before him some details of her +daughter's popularity at sixteen, dwelling upon Alice's +impartiality among her young suitors: "She never could BEAR to +hurt their feelings, and always treated all of them just alike. +About half a dozen of them were just BOUND to marry her! +Naturally, her father and I considered any such idea ridiculous; +she was too young, of course." + +Thus the mother went on with her biographical sketches, while the +pale young man sat facing her under the hard overhead light of a +white globe, set to the ceiling; and listened without +interrupting. She was glad to have the chance to tell him a few +things about Alice he might not have guessed for himself, and, +indeed, she had planned to find such an opportunity, if she +could; but this was getting to be altogether too much of one, she +felt. As time passed, she was like an actor who must improvise +to keep the audience from perceiving that his fellow-players have +missed their cues; but her anxiety was not betrayed to the still +listener; she had a valiant soul. + +Alice, meanwhile, had arranged her little roses on the table in +as many ways, probably, as there were blossoms; and she was still +at it when her father arrived in the dining-room by way of the +back stairs and the kitchen. + +"It's pulled out again," he said. "But I guess there's no help +for it now; it's too late, and anyway it lets some air into me +when it bulges. I can sit so's it won't be noticed much, I +expect. Isn't it time you quit bothering about the looks of the +table? Your mother's been talking to him about half an hour now, +and I had the idea he came on your account, not hers. Hadn't you +better go and----" + +"Just a minute." Alice said, piteously. "Do YOU think it looks +all right?" + +"The flowers? Fine! Hadn't you better leave 'em the way they +are, though?" + +"Just a minute," she begged again. "Just ONE minute, papa!" And +she exchanged a rose in front of Russell's plate for one that +seemed to her a little larger. + +"You better come on," Adams said, moving to the door. + +"Just ONE more second, papa." She shook her head, lamenting. +"Oh, I wish we'd rented some silver!" + +"Why?" + +"Because so much of the plating has rubbed off a lot of it. JUST +a second, papa." And as she spoke she hastily went round the +table, gathering the knives and forks and spoons that she thought +had their plating best preserved, and exchanging them for more +damaged pieces at Russell's place. "There!" she sighed, finally. + +"Now I'll come." But at the door she paused to look back +dubiously, over her shoulder. + +"What's the matter now?" + +"The roses. I believe after all I shouldn't have tried that vine +effect; I ought to have kept them in water, in the vase. It's so +hot, they already begin to look a little wilted, out on the dry +tablecloth like that. I believe I'll----" + +"Why, look here, Alice!" he remonstrated, as she seemed disposed +to turn back. "Everything'll burn up on the stove if you keep +on----" + +"Oh, well," she said, "the vase was terribly ugly; I can't do any +better. We'll go in." But with her hand on the door-knob she +paused. "No, papa. We mustn't go in by this door. It might +look as if----" + +"As if what?" + +"Never mind," she said. "Let's go the other way." + +"I don't see what difference it makes," he grumbled, but +nevertheless followed her through the kitchen, and up the back +stairs then through the upper hallway. At the top of the front +stairs she paused for a moment, drawing a deep breath; and then, +before her father's puzzled eyes, a transformation came upon her. + +Her shoulders, like her eyelids, had been drooping, but now she +threw her head back: the shoulders straightened, and the lashes +lifted over sparkling eyes; vivacity came to her whole body in a +flash; and she tripped down the steps, with her pretty hands +rising in time to the lilting little tune she had begun to hum. + +At the foot of the stairs, one of those pretty hands extended +itself at full arm's length toward Russell, and continued to be +extended until it reached his own hand as he came to meet her. +"How terrible of me!" she exclaimed. "To be so late coming down! +And papa, too--I think you know each other." + +Her father was advancing toward the young man, expecting to shake +hands with him, but Alice stood between them, and Russell, a +little flushed, bowed to him gravely over her shoulder, without +looking at him; whereupon Adams, slightly disconcerted, put his +hands in his pockets and turned to his wife. + +"I guess dinner's more'n ready," he said. "We better go sit +down." + +But she shook her head at him fiercely, "Wait!" she whispered. + +"What for? For Walter?" + +"No; he can't be coming," she returned, hurriedly, and again +warned him by a shake of her head. "Be quiet!" + +"Oh, well----" he muttered. + +"Sit down!" + +He was thoroughly mystified, but obeyed her gesture and went to +the rocking-chair in the opposite corner, where he sat down, and, +with an expression of meek inquiry, awaited events. + +Meanwhile, Alice prattled on: "It's really not a fault of mine, +being tardy. The shameful truth is I was trying to hurry papa. +He's incorrigible: he stays so late at his terrible old +factory--terrible new factory, I should say. I hope you don't +HATE us for making you dine with us in such fearful weather! I'm +nearly dying of the heat, myself, so you have a fellow-sufferer, +if that pleases you. Why is it we always bear things better if +we think other people have to stand them, too?" And she added, +with an excited laugh: "SILLY of us, don't you think?" + +Gertrude had just made her entrance from the dining-room, bearing +a tray. She came slowly, with an air of resentment; and her +skirt still needed adjusting, while her lower jaw moved at +intervals, though not now upon any substance, but reminiscently, +of habit. She halted before Adams, facing him. + +He looked plaintive. "What you want o' me?" he asked. + +For response, she extended the tray toward him with a gesture of +indifference; but he still appeared to be puzzled. "What in the +world----?" he began, then caught his wife's eye, and had +presence of mind enough to take a damp and plastic sandwich from +the tray. "Well, I'll TRY one," he said, but a moment later, as +he fulfilled this promise, an expression of intense dislike came +upon his features, and he would have returned the sandwich to +Gertrude. However, as she had crossed the room to Mrs. Adams he +checked the gesture, and sat helplessly, with the sandwich in his +hand. He made another effort to get rid of it as the waitress +passed him, on her way back to the dining-room, but she appeared +not to observe him, and he continued to be troubled by it. + +Alice was a loyal daughter. "These are delicious, mama," she +said; and turning to Russell, "You missed it; you should have +taken one. Too bad we couldn't have offered you what ought to go +with it, of course, but----" + +She was interrupted by the second entrance of Gertrude, who +announced, "Dinner serve'," and retired from view. + +"Well, well!" Adams said, rising from his chair, with relief. +"That's good! Let's go see if we can eat it." And as the little +group moved toward the open door of the dining-room he disposed +of his sandwich by dropping it in the empty fireplace. + +Alice, glancing back over her shoulder, was the only one who saw +him, and she shuddered in spite of herself. Then, seeing that he +looked at her entreatingly, as if he wanted to explain that he +was doing the best he could, she smiled upon him sunnily, and +began to chatter to Russell again. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Alice kept her sprightly chatter going when they sat down, though +the temperature of the room and the sight of hot soup might have +discouraged a less determined gayety. Moreover, there were +details as unpropitious as the heat: the expiring roses expressed +not beauty but pathos, and what faint odour they exhaled was no +rival to the lusty emanations of the Brussels sprouts; at the +head of the table, Adams, sitting low in his chair, appeared to +be unable to flatten the uprising wave of his starched bosom; and +Gertrude's manner and expression were of a recognizable hostility +during the long period of vain waiting for the cups of soup to be +emptied. Only Mrs. Adams made any progress in this direction; +the others merely feinting, now and then lifting their spoons as +if they intended to do something with them. + +Alice's talk was little more than cheerful sound, but, to fill a +desolate interval, served its purpose; and her mother supported +her with ever-faithful cooings of applausive laughter. "What a +funny thing weather is!" the girl ran on. "Yesterday it was +cool--angels had charge of it--and to-day they had an engagement +somewhere else, so the devil saw his chance and started to move +the equator to the North Pole; but by the time he got half-way, +he thought of something else he wanted to do, and went off; and +left the equator here, right on top of US! I wish he'd come back +and get it!" + +"Why, Alice dear!" her mother cried, fondly. "What an +imagination! Not a very pious one, I'm afraid Mr. Russell might +think, though!" Here she gave Gertrude a hidden signal to remove +the soup; but, as there was no response, she had to make the +signal more conspicuous. Gertrude was leaning against the wall, +her chin moving like a slow pendulum, her streaked eyes fixed +mutinously upon Russell. Mrs. Adams nodded several times, +increasing the emphasis of her gesture, while Alice talked +briskly; but the brooding waitress continued to brood. A faint +snap of the fingers failed to disturb her; nor was a covert +hissing whisper of avail, and Mrs. Adams was beginning to show +signs of strain when her daughter relieved her. + +"Imagine our trying to eat anything so hot as soup on a night +like this!" Alice laughed. "What COULD have been in the cook's +mind not to give us something iced and jellied instead? Of +course it's because she's equatorial, herself, originally, and +only feels at home when Mr. Satan moves it north." She looked +round at Gertrude, who stood behind her. "Do take this dreadful +soup away!" + +Thus directly addressed, Gertrude yielded her attention, though +unwillingly, and as if she decided only by a hair's weight not to +revolt, instead. However, she finally set herself in slow +motion; but overlooked the supposed head of the table, seeming to +be unaware of the sweltering little man who sat there. As she +disappeared toward the kitchen with but three of the cups upon +her tray he turned to look plaintively after her, and ventured an +attempt to recall her. + +"Here!" he said, in a low voice. "Here, you!" + +"What is it, Virgil?" his wife asked. + +"What's her name?" + +Mrs. Adams gave him a glance of sudden panic, and, seeing that +the guest of the evening was not looking at her, but down at the +white cloth before him, she frowned hard, and shook her head. + +Unfortunately Alice was not observing her mother, and asked, +innocently: "What's whose name, papa?" + +"Why, this young darky woman," he explained. "She left mine." + +"Never mind," Alice laughed. "There's hope for you, papa. She +hasn't gone forever!" + +"I don't know about that," he said, not content with this +impulsive assurance. "She LOOKED like she is." And his remark, +considered as a prediction, had begun to seem warranted before +Gertrude's return with china preliminary to the next stage of the +banquet. + +Alice proved herself equal to the long gap, and rattled on +through it with a spirit richly justifying her mother's praise of +her as "always ready to smooth things over"; for here was more +than long delay to be smoothed over. She smoothed over her +father and mother for Russell; and she smoothed over him for +them, though he did not know it, and remained unaware of what he +owed her. With all this, throughout her prattlings, the girl's +bright eyes kept seeking his with an eager gayety, which but +little veiled both interrogation and entreaty--as if she asked: +"Is it too much for you? Can't you bear it? Won't you PLEASE +bear it? I would for you. Won't you give me a sign that it's +all right?" + +He looked at her but fleetingly, and seemed to suffer from the +heat, in spite of every manly effort not to wipe his brow too +often. His colour, after rising when he greeted Alice and her +father, had departed, leaving him again moistly pallid; a +condition arising from discomfort, no doubt, but, considered as a +decoration, almost poetically becoming to him. Not less becoming +was the faint, kindly smile, which showed his wish to express +amusement and approval; and yet it was a smile rather strained +and plaintive, as if he, like Adams, could only do the best he +could. + +He pleased Adams, who thought him a fine young man, and decidedly +the quietest that Alice had ever shown to her family. In her +father's opinion this was no small merit; and it was to Russell's +credit, too, that he showed embarrassment upon this first +intimate presentation; here was an applicant with both reserve +and modesty. "So far, he seems to be first rate a mighty fine +young man," Adams thought; and, prompted by no wish to part from +Alice but by reminiscences of apparent candidates less pleasing, +he added, "At last!" + +Alice's liveliness never flagged. Her smoothing over of things +was an almost continuous performance, and had to be. Yet, while +she chattered through the hot and heavy courses, the questions +she asked herself were as continuous as the performance, and as +poignant as what her eyes seemed to be asking Russell. Why had +she not prevailed over her mother's fear of being "skimpy?" Had +she been, indeed, as her mother said she looked, "in a trance?" +But above all: What was the matter with HIM? What had happened? +For she told herself with painful humour that something even +worse than this dinner must be "the matter with him." + +The small room, suffocated with the odour of boiled sprouts, grew +hotter and hotter as more and more food appeared, slowly borne +in, between deathly long waits, by the resentful, loud-breathing +Gertrude. And while Alice still sought Russell's glance, and +read the look upon his face a dozen different ways, fearing all +of them; and while the straggling little flowers died upon the +stained cloth, she felt her heart grow as heavy as the food, and +wondered that it did not die like the roses. + +With the arrival of coffee, the host bestirred himself to make +known a hospitable regret, "By George!" he said. "I meant to buy +some cigars." He addressed himself apologetically to the guest. +"I don't know what I was thinking about, to forget to bring some +home with me. I don't use 'em myself--unless somebody hands me +one, you might say. I've always been a pipe-smoker, pure and +simple, but I ought to remembered for kind of an occasion like +this." + +"Not at all," Russell said. "I'm not smoking at all lately; but +when I do, I'm like you, and smoke a pipe." + +Alice started, remembering what she had told him when he overtook +her on her way from the tobacconist's; but, after a moment, +looking at him, she decided that he must have forgotten it. If +he had remembered, she thought, he could not have helped glancing +at her. On the contrary, he seemed more at ease, just then, than +he had since they sat down, for he was favouring her father with +a thoughtful attention as Adams responded to the introduction of +a man's topic into the conversation at last. "Well, Mr. +Russell, I guess you're right, at that. I don't say but what +cigars may be all right for a man that can afford 'em, if he +likes 'em better than a pipe, but you take a good old pipe +now----" + +He continued, and was getting well into the eulogium customarily +provoked by this theme, when there came an interruption: the +door-bell rang, and he paused inquiringly, rather surprised. + +Mrs. Adams spoke to Gertrude in an undertone: + +"Just say, 'Not at home.'" + +"What?" + +"If it's callers, just say we're not at home." + +Gertrude spoke out freely: "You mean you astin' me to 'tend you' +front do' fer you?" + +She seemed both incredulous and affronted, but Mrs. Adams +persisted, though somewhat apprehensively. "Yes. +Hurry--uh--please. Just say we're not at home if you please." + +Again Gertrude obviously hesitated between compliance and revolt, +and again the meeker course fortunately prevailed with her. She +gave Mrs. Adams a stare, grimly derisive, then departed. When +she came back she said: + +"He say he wait." + +"But I told you to tell anybody we were not at home," Mrs Adams +returned. "Who is it?" + +"Say he name Mr. Law." + +"We don't know any Mr. Law." + +"Yes'm; he know you. Say he anxious to speak Mr. Adams. Say he +wait." + +"Tell him Mr. Adams is engaged." + +"Hold on a minute," Adams intervened. "Law? No. I don't know +any Mr. Law. You sure you got the name right?" + +"Say he name Law," Gertrude replied, looking at the ceiling to +express her fatigue. "Law. 'S all he tell me; 's all I know." + +Adams frowned. "Law," he said. "Wasn't it maybe 'Lohr?'" + +"Law," Gertrude repeated. "'S all he tell me; 's all I know." + +"What's he look like?" + +"He ain't much," she said. "'Bout you' age; got brustly white +moustache, nice eye-glasses." + +"It's Charley Lohr!" Adams exclaimed. "I'll go see what he +wants." + +"But, Virgil," his wife remonstrated, "do finish your coffee; he +might stay all evening. Maybe he's come to call." + +Adams laughed. "He isn't much of a caller, I expect. Don't +worry: I'll take him up to my room." And turning toward Russell, +"Ah--if you'll just excuse me," he said; and went out to his +visitor. + +When he had gone, Mrs. Adams finished her coffee, and, having +glanced intelligently from her guest to her daughter, she rose. +"I think perhaps I ought to go and shake hands with Mr. Lohr, +myself," she said, adding in explanation to Russell, as she +reached the door, "He's an old friend of my husband's and it's a +very long time since he's been here." + +Alice nodded and smiled to her brightly, but upon the closing of +the door, the smile vanished; all her liveliness disappeared; and +with this change of expression her complexion itself appeared to +change, so that her rouge became obvious, for she was pale +beneath it. However, Russell did not see the alteration, for he +did not look at her; and it was but a momentary lapse the +vacation of a tired girl, who for ten seconds lets herself look +as she feels. Then she shot her vivacity back into place as by +some powerful spring. + +"Penny for your thoughts!" she cried, and tossed one of the +wilted roses at him, across the table. "I'll bid more than a +penny; I'll bid tuppence--no, a poor little dead rose a rose for +your thoughts, Mr. Arthur Russell! What are they?" + +He shook his head. "I'm afraid I haven't any." + +"No, of course not," she said. "Who could have thoughts in +weather like this? Will you EVER forgive us?" + +"What for?" + +"Making you eat such a heavy dinner--I mean LOOK at such a heavy +dinner, because you certainly didn't do more than look at it--on +such a night! But the crime draws to a close, and you can begin +to cheer up!" She laughed gaily, and, rising, moved to the door. +"Let's go in the other room; your fearful duty is almost done, +and you can run home as soon as you want to. That's what you're +dying to do." + +"Not at all," he said in a voice so feeble that she laughed +aloud. + +"Good gracious!" she cried. "I hadn't realized it was THAT bad!" + +For this, though he contrived to laugh, he seemed to have no +verbal retort whatever; but followed her into the "living-room," +where she stopped and turned, facing him. + +"Has it really been so frightful?" she asked. + +"Why, of course not. Not at all." + +"Of course yes, though, you mean!" + +"Not at all. It's been most kind of your mother and father and +you." + +"Do you know," she said, "you've never once looked at me for more +than a second at a time the whole evening? And it seemed to me I +looked rather nice to-night, too!" + +"You always do," he murmured. + +"I don't see how you know," she returned; and then stepping +closer to him, spoke with gentle solicitude: "Tell me: you're +really feeling wretchedly, aren't you? I know you've got a +fearful headache, or something. Tell me!" + +"Not at all." + +"You are ill--I'm sure of it." + +"Not at all." + +"On your word?" + +"I'm really quite all right." + +"But if you are----" she began; and then, looking at him with a +desperate sweetness, as if this were her last resource to rouse +him, "What's the matter, little boy?" she said with lisping +tenderness. "Tell auntie!" + +It was a mistake, for he seemed to flinch, and to lean backward, +however, slightly. She turned away instantly, with a flippant +lift and drop of both hands. "Oh, my dear!" she laughed. "I +won't eat you!" + +And as the discomfited young man watched her, seeming able to +lift his eyes, now that her back was turned, she went to the +front door and pushed open the screen. "Let's go out on the +porch," she said. "Where we belong!" + +Then, when he had followed her out, and they were seated, "Isn't +this better?" she asked. "Don't you feel more like yourself out +here?" + +He began a murmur: "Not at----" + +But she cut him off sharply: "Please don't say 'Not at all' +again!" + +"I'm sorry." + +"You do seem sorry about something," she said. "What is it? +Isn't it time you were telling me what's the matter?" + +"Nothing. Indeed nothing's the matter. Of course one IS rather +affected by such weather as this. It may make one a little +quieter than usual, of course." + +She sighed, and let the tired muscles of her face rest. Under +the hard lights, indoors, they had served her until they ached, +and it was a luxury to feel that in the darkness no grimacings +need call upon them. + +"Of course, if you won't tell me----" she said. + +"I can only assure you there's nothing to tell." + +"I know what an ugly little house it is," she said. "Maybe it +was the furniture--or mama's vases that upset you. Or was it +mama herself--or papa?" + +"Nothing 'upset' me." + +At that she uttered a monosyllable of doubting laughter. "I +wonder why you say that." + +"Because it's so." + +"No. It's because you're too kind, or too conscientious, or too +embarrassed--anyhow too something--to tell me." She leaned +forward, elbows on knees and chin in hands, in the reflective +attitude she knew how to make graceful. "I have a feeling that +you're not going to tell me," she said, slowly. "Yes--even that +you're never going to tell me. I wonder--I wonder----" + +"Yes? What do you wonder?" + +"I was just thinking--I wonder if they haven't done it, after +all." + +"I don't understand." + +"I wonder," she went on, still slowly, and in a voice of +reflection, "I wonder who HAS been talking about me to you, after +all? Isn't that it?" + +"Not at----" he began, but checked himself and substituted +another form of denial. "Nothing is 'it.'" + +"Are you sure?" + +"Why, yes." + +"How curious!" she said. + +"Why?" + +"Because all evening you've been so utterly different." + +"But in this weather----" + +"No. That wouldn't make you afraid to look at me all evening!" + +"But I did look at you. Often." + +"No. Not really a LOOK." + +"But I'm looking at you now." + +"Yes--in the dark!" she said. "No--the weather might make you +even quieter than usual, but it wouldn't strike you so nearly +dumb. No--and it wouldn't make you seem to be under such a +strain--as if you thought only of escape!" + +"But I haven't----" + +"You shouldn't," she interrupted, gently. "There's nothing you +have to escape from, you know. You aren't committed to--to this +friendship." + +"I'm sorry you think----" he began, but did not complete the +fragment. + +She took it up. "You're sorry I think you're so different, you +mean to say, don't you? Never mind: that's what you did mean to +say, but you couldn't finish it because you're not good at +deceiving." + +"Oh, no," he protested, feebly. "I'm not deceiving. I'm----" + +"Never mind," she said again. "You're sorry I think you're so +different--and all in one day--since last night. Yes, your voice +SOUNDS sorry, too. It sounds sorrier than it would just because +of my thinking something you could change my mind about in a +minute so it means you're sorry you ARE different." + +"No--I----" + +But disregarding the faint denial, "Never mind," she said. "Do +you remember one night when you told me that nothing anybody else +could do would ever keep you from coming here? That if you--if +you left me it would be because I drove you away myself?" + +"Yes," he said, huskily. "It was true." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Indeed I am," he answered in a low voice, but with conviction. + +"Then----" She paused. "Well--but I haven't driven you away." + +"No." + +"And yet you've gone," she said, quietly. + +"Do I seem so stupid as all that?" + +"You know what I mean." She leaned back in her chair again, and +her hands, inactive for once, lay motionless in her lap. When +she spoke it was in a rueful whisper: + +"I wonder if I HAVE driven you away?" + +"You've done nothing--nothing at all," he said. + +"I wonder----" she said once more, but she stopped. In her mind +she was going back over their time together since the first +meeting--fragments of talk, moments of silence, little things of +no importance, little things that might be important; moonshine, +sunshine, starlight; and her thoughts zigzagged among the +jumbling memories; but, as if she made for herself a picture of +all these fragments, throwing them upon the canvas haphazard, she +saw them all just touched with the one tainting quality that gave +them coherence, the faint, false haze she had put over this +friendship by her own pretendings. And, if this terrible dinner, +or anything, or everything, had shown that saffron tint in its +true colour to the man at her side, last night almost a lover, +then she had indeed of herself driven him away, and might well +feel that she was lost. + +"Do you know?" she said, suddenly, in a clear, loud voice. "I +have the strangest feeling. I feel as if I were going to be with +you only about five minutes more in all the rest of my life!" + +"Why, no," he said. "Of course I'm coming to see you--often. +I----" + +"No," she interrupted. "I've never had a feeling like this +before. It's--it's just SO; that's all! You're GOING--why, +you're never coming here again!" She stood up, abruptly, +beginning to tremble all over. "Why, it's FINISHED, isn't it?" +she said, and her trembling was manifest now in her voice. "Why, +it's all OVER, isn't it? Why, yes!" + +He had risen as she did. "I'm afraid you're awfully tired and +nervous," he said. "I really ought to be going." + +"Yes, of COURSE you ought," she cried, despairingly. "There's +nothing else for you to do. When anything's spoiled, people +CAN'T do anything but run away from it. So good-bye!" + +"At least," he returned, huskily, "we'll only--only say +good-night." + +Then, as moving to go, he stumbled upon the veranda steps, "Your +HAT!" she cried. "I'd like to keep it for a souvenir, but I'm +afraid you need it!" + +She ran into the hall and brought his straw hat from the chair +where he had left it. "You poor thing!" she said, with quavering +laughter. "Don't you know you can't go without your hat?" + +Then, as they faced each other for the short moment which both of +them knew would be the last of all their veranda moments, Alice's +broken laughter grew louder. "What a thing to say!" she cried. +"What a romantic parting--talking about HATS!" + +Her laughter continued as he turned away, but other sounds came +from within the house, clearly audible with the opening of a door +upstairs--a long and wailing cry of lamentation in the voice of +Mrs. Adams. Russell paused at the steps, uncertain, but Alice +waved to him to go on. + +"Oh, don't bother," she said. "We have lots of that in this +funny little old house! Good-bye!" + +And as he went down the steps, she ran back into the house and +closed the door heavily behind her. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Her mother's wailing could still be heard from overhead, though +more faintly; and old Charley Lohr was coming down the stairs +alone. + +He looked at Alice compassionately. "I was just comin' to +suggest maybe you'd excuse yourself from your company," he said. +"Your mother was bound not to disturb you, and tried her best to +keep you from hearin' how she's takin' on, but I thought probably +you better see to her." + +"Yes, I'll come. What's the matter?" + +"Well," he said, "_I_ only stepped over to offer my sympathy and +services, as it were. _I_ thought of course you folks knew all +about it. Fact is, it was in the evening paper--just a little +bit of an item on the back page, of course." + +"What is it?" + +He coughed. "Well, it ain't anything so terrible," he said. +"Fact is, your brother Walter's got in a little trouble--well, I +suppose you might call it quite a good deal of trouble. Fact is, +he's quite considerable short in his accounts down at Lamb and +Company." + +Alice ran up the stairs and into her father's room, where Mrs. +Adams threw herself into her daughter's arms. "Is he gone?" she +sobbed. "He didn't hear me, did he? I tried so hard----" + +Alice patted the heaving shoulders her arms enclosed. "No, no," +she said. "He didn't hear you--it wouldn't have mattered--he +doesn't matter anyway." + +"Oh, POOR Walter!" The mother cried. "Oh, the POOR boy! Poor, +poor Walter! Poor, poor, poor, POOR----" + +"Hush, dear, hush!" Alice tried to soothe her, but the lament +could not be abated, and from the other side of the room a +repetition in a different spirit was as continuous. Adams paced +furiously there, pounding his fist into his left palm as he +strode. "The dang boy!" he said. "Dang little fool! Dang +idiot! Dang fool! Whyn't he TELL me, the dang little fool?" + +"He DID!" Mrs. Adams sobbed. "He DID tell you, and you wouldn't +GIVE it to him." + +"He DID, did he?" Adams shouted at her. "What he begged me for +was money to run away with! He never dreamed of putting back +what he took. What the dangnation you talking about--accusing +me!" + +"He NEEDED it," she said. "He needed it to run away with! How +could he expect to LIVE, after he got away, if he didn't have a +little money? Oh, poor, poor, POOR Walter! Poor, poor, +poor----" + +She went back to this repetition; and Adams went back to his own, +then paused, seeing his old friend standing in the hallway +outside the open door. + +"Ah--I'll just be goin', I guess, Virgil," Lohr said. "I don't +see as there's any use my tryin' to say any more. I'll do +anything you want me to, you understand." + +"Wait a minute," Adams said, and, groaning, came and went down +the stairs with him. "You say you didn't see the old man at +all?" + +"No, I don't know a thing about what he's going to do," Lohr +said, as they reached the lower floor. "Not a thing. But look +here, Virgil, I don't see as this calls for you and your wife to +take on so hard about--anyhow not as hard as the way you've +started." + +"No," Adams gulped. "It always seems that way to the other party +that's only looking on!" + +"Oh, well, I know that, of course," old Charley returned, +soothingly. "But look here, Virgil: they may not catch the boy; +they didn't even seem to be sure what train he made, and if they +do get him, why, the ole man might decide not to prosecute +if----" + +"HIM?" Adams cried, interrupting. "Him not prosecute? Why, +that's what he's been waiting for, all along! He thinks my boy +and me both cheated him! Why, he was just letting Walter walk +into a trap! Didn't you say they'd been suspecting him for some +time back? Didn't you say they'd been watching him and were just +about fixing to arrest him?" + +"Yes, I know," said Lohr; "but you can't tell, especially if you +raise the money and pay it back." + +"Every cent!" Adams vociferated. "Every last penny! I can raise +it--I GOT to raise it! I'm going to put a loan on my factory +to-morrow. Oh, I'll get it for him, you tell him! Every last +penny!" + +"Well, ole feller, you just try and get quieted down some now." +Charley held out his hand in parting. "You and your wife just +quiet down some. You AIN'T the healthiest man in the world, you +know, and you already been under quite some strain before this +happened. You want to take care of yourself for the sake of your +wife and that sweet little girl upstairs, you know. Now, +good-night," he finished, stepping out upon the veranda. "You +send for me if there's anything I can do." + +"Do?" Adams echoed. "There ain't anything ANYBODY can do!" And +then, as his old friend went down the path to the sidewalk, he +called after him, "You tell him I'll pay him every last cent! +Every last, dang, dirty PENNY!" + +He slammed the door and went rapidly up the stairs, talking +loudly to himself. "Every dang, last, dirty penny! Thinks +EVERYBODY in this family wants to steal from him, does he? +Thinks we're ALL yellow, does he? I'll show him!" And he came +into his own room vociferating, "Every last, dang, dirty penny!" + +Mrs. Adams had collapsed, and Alice had put her upon his bed, +where she lay tossing convulsively and sobbing, "Oh, POOR +Walter!" over and over, but after a time she varied the sorry +tune. "Oh, poor Alice!" she moaned, clinging to her daughter's +hand. "Oh, poor, POOR Alice to have THIS come on the night of +your dinner--just when everything seemed to be going so well--at +last--oh, poor, poor, POOR----" + +"Hush!" Alice said, sharply. "Don't say 'poor Alice!' I'm all +right." + +"You MUST be!" her mother cried, clutching her. "You've just GOT +to be! ONE of us has got to be all right--surely God wouldn't +mind just ONE of us being all right--that wouldn't hurt Him----" + +"Hush, hush, mother! Hush!" + +But Mrs. Adams only clutched her the more tightly. "He seemed +SUCH a nice young man, dearie! He may not see this in the +paper--Mr. Lohr said it was just a little bit of an item--he MAY +not see it, dearie----" + +Then her anguish went back to Walter again; and to his needs as a +fugitive--she had meant to repair his underwear, but had +postponed doing so, and her neglect now appeared to be a detail +as lamentable as the calamity itself. She could neither be +stilled upon it, nor herself exhaust its urgings to self- +reproach, though she finally took up another theme temporarily. +Upon an unusually violent outbreak of her husband's, in +denunciation of the runaway, she cried out faintly that he was +cruel; and further wearied her broken voice with details of +Walter's beauty as a baby, and of his bedtime pieties throughout +his infancy. + +So the hot night wore on. Three had struck before Mrs. Adams +was got to bed; and Alice, returning to her own room, could hear +her father's bare feet thudding back and forth after that. "Poor +papa!" she whispered in helpless imitation of her mother. "Poor +papa! Poor mama! Poor Walter! Poor all of us!" + +She fell asleep, after a time, while from across the hall the +bare feet still thudded over their changeless route; and she woke +at seven, hearing Adams pass her door, shod. In her wrapper she +ran out into the hallway and found him descending the stairs. + +"Papa!" + +"Hush," he said, and looked up at her with reddened eyes. "Don't +wake your mother." + +"I won't," she whispered. "How about you? You haven't slept any +at all!" + +"Yes, I did. I got some sleep. I'm going over to the works now. +I got to throw some figures together to show the bank. Don't +worry: I'll get things fixed up. You go back to bed. Good-bye." + +"Wait!" she bade him sharply. + +"What for?" + +"You've got to have some breakfast." + +"Don't want 'ny." + +"You wait!" she said, imperiously, and disappeared to return +almost at once. "I can cook in my bedroom slippers," she +explained, "but I don't believe I could in my bare feet!" + +Descending softly, she made him wait in the dining-room until she +brought him toast and eggs and coffee. "Eat!" she said. "And +I'm going to telephone for a taxicab to take you, if you think +you've really got to go." + +"No, I'm going to walk--I WANT to walk." + +She shook her head anxiously. "You don't look able. You've +walked all night." + +"No, I didn't," he returned. "I tell you I got some sleep. I +got all I wanted anyhow." + +"But, papa----" + +"Here!" he interrupted, looking up at her suddenly and setting +down his cup of coffee. "Look here! What about this Mr. +Russell? I forgot all about him. What about him?" + +Her lip trembled a little, but she controlled it before she +spoke. "Well, what about him, papa?" she asked, calmly enough. + +"Well, we could hardly----" Adams paused, frowning heavily. "We +could hardly expect he wouldn't hear something about all this." + +"Yes; of course he'll hear it, papa." + +"Well?" + +"Well, what?" she asked, gently. + +"You don't think he'd be the--the cheap kind it'd make a +difference with, of course." + +"Oh, no; he isn't cheap. It won't make any difference with him." + +Adams suffered a profound sigh to escape him. "Well--I'm glad of +that, anyway." + +"The difference," she explained--"the difference was made without +his hearing anything about Walter. He doesn't know about THAT +yet." + +"Well, what does he know about?" + +"Only," she said, "about me." + +"What you mean by that, Alice?" he asked, helplessly. + +"Never mind," she said. "It's nothing beside the real trouble +we're in--I'll tell you some time. You eat your eggs and toast; +you can't keep going on just coffee." + +"I can't eat any eggs and toast," he objected, rising. "I +can't." + +"Then wait till I can bring you something else." + +"No," he said, irritably. "I won't do it! I don't want any dang +food! And look here"--he spoke sharply to stop her, as she went +toward the telephone--"I don't want any dang taxi, either! You +look after your mother when she wakes up. I got to be at WORK!" + +And though she followed him to the front door, entreating, he +could not be stayed or hindered. He went through the quiet +morning streets at a rickety, rapid gait, swinging his old straw +hat in his hands, and whispering angrily to himself as he went. +His grizzled hair, not trimmed for a month, blew back from his +damp forehead in the warm breeze; his reddened eyes stared hard +at nothing from under blinking lids; and one side of his face +twitched startlingly from time to time;--children might have run +from him, or mocked him. + +When he had come into that fallen quarter his industry had partly +revived and wholly made odorous, a negro woman, leaning upon her +whitewashed gate, gazed after him and chuckled for the benefit of +a gossiping friend in the next tiny yard. "Oh, good Satan! +Wha'ssa matter that ole glue man?" + +"Who? Him?" the neighbour inquired. "What he do now?" + +"Talkin' to his ole se'f!" the first explained, joyously. "Look +like gone distracted--ole glue man!" + +Adams's legs had grown more uncertain with his hard walk, and he +stumbled heavily as he crossed the baked mud of his broad lot, +but cared little for that, was almost unaware of it, in fact. +Thus his eyes saw as little as his body felt, and so he failed to +observe something that would have given him additional light upon +an old phrase that already meant quite enough for him. + +There are in the wide world people who have never learned its +meaning; but most are either young or beautifully unobservant who +remain wholly unaware of the inner poignancies the words convey: +"a rain of misfortunes." It is a boiling rain, seemingly +whimsical in its choice of spots whereon to fall; and, so far as +mortal eye can tell, neither the just nor the unjust may hope to +avoid it, or need worry themselves by expecting it. It had +selected the Adams family for its scaldings; no question. + +The glue-works foreman, standing in the doorway of the brick +shed, observed his employer's eccentric approach, and doubtfully +stroked a whiskered chin. + +"Well, they ain't no putticular use gettin' so upset over it," he +said, as Adams came up. "When a thing happens, why, it happens, +and that's all there is to it. When a thing's so, why, it's so. +All you can do about it is think if there's anything you CAN do; +and that's what you better be doin' with this case." + +Adams halted, and seemed to gape at him. "What--case?" he said, +with difficulty. "Was it in the morning papers, too?" + +"No, it ain't in no morning papers. My land! It don't need to +be in no papers; look at the SIZE of it!" + +"The size of what?" + +"Why, great God!" the foreman exclaimed. "He ain't even seen it. +Look! Look yonder!" + +Adams stared vaguely at the man's outstretched hand and pointing +forefinger, then turned and saw a great sign upon the facade of +the big factory building across the street. The letters were +large enough to be read two blocks away. + + "AFTER THE FIFTEENTH OF NEXT MONTH + THIS BUILDING WILL BE OCCUPIED BY + THE J. A. LAMB LIQUID GLUE CO. INC." + + +A gray touring-car had just come to rest before the principal +entrance of the building, and J. A. Lamb himself descended from +it. He glanced over toward the humble rival of his projected +great industry, saw his old clerk, and immediately walked across +the street and the lot to speak to him. + +"Well, Adams," he said, in his husky, cheerful voice, "how's your +glue-works?" + +Adams uttered an inarticulate sound, and lifted the hand that +held his hat as if to make a protective gesture, but failed to +carry it out; and his arm sank limp at his side. The foreman, +however, seemed to feel that something ought to be said. + +"Our glue-works, hell!" he remarked. "I guess we won't HAVE no +glue-works over here not very long, if we got to compete with the +sized thing you got over there!" + +Lamb chuckled. "I kind of had some such notion," he said. "You +see, Virgil, I couldn't exactly let you walk off with it like +swallering a pat o' butter, now, could I? It didn't look exactly +reasonable to expect me to let go like that, now, did it?" + +Adams found a half-choked voice somewhere in his throat. "Do +you--would you step into my office a minute, Mr. Lamb?" + +"Why, certainly I'm willing to have a little talk with you," the +old gentleman said, as he followed his former employee indoors, +and he added, "I feel a lot more like it than I did before I got +THAT up, over yonder, Virgil!" + +Adams threw open the door of the rough room he called his office, +having as justification for this title little more than the fact +that he had a telephone there and a deal table that served as a +desk. "Just step into the office, please," he said. + +Lamb glanced at the desk, at the kitchen chair before it, at the +telephone, and at the partition walls built of old boards, some +covered with ancient paint and some merely weatherbeaten, the +salvage of a house-wrecker; and he smiled broadly. "So these are +your offices, are they?" he asked. "You expect to do quite a +business here, I guess, don't you, Virgil?" + +Adams turned upon him a stricken and tortured face. "Have you +seen Charley Lohr since last night, Mr. Lamb?" + +"No; I haven't seen Charley." + +"Well, I told him to tell you," Adams began;-- "I told him I'd +pay you----" + +"Pay me what you expect to make out o' glue, you mean, Virgil?" + +"No," Adams said, swallowing. "I mean what my boy owes you. +That's what I told Charley to tell you. I told him to tell you +I'd pay you every last----" + +"Well, well!" the old gentleman interrupted, testily. "I don't +know anything about that." + +"I'm expecting to pay you," Adams went on, swallowing again, +painfully. "I was expecting to do it out of a loan I thought I +could get on my glue-works." + +The old gentleman lifted his frosted eyebrows. "Oh, out o' the +GLUE-works? You expected to raise money on the glue-works, did +you?" + +At that, Adams's agitation increased prodigiously. "How'd you +THINK I expected to pay you?" he said. "Did you think I expected +to get money on my own old bones?" He slapped himself harshly +upon the chest and legs. "Do you think a bank'll lend money on a +man's ribs and his broken-down old knee-bones? They won't do it! +You got to have some BUSINESS prospects to show 'em, if you +haven't got any property nor securities; and what business +prospects have I got now, with that sign of yours up over yonder? +Why, you don't need to make an OUNCE o' glue; your sign's fixed +ME without your doing another lick! THAT'S all you had to do; +just put your sign up! You needn't to----" + +"Just let me tell you something, Virgil Adams," the old man +interrupted, harshly. "I got just one right important thing to +tell you before we talk any further business; and that's this: +there's some few men in this town made their money in off-colour +ways, but there aren't many; and those there are have had to be a +darn sight slicker than you know how to be, or ever WILL know how +to be! Yes, sir, and they none of them had the little gumption +to try to make it out of a man that had the spirit not to let +'em, and the STRENGTH not to let 'em! I know what you thought. +'Here,' you said to yourself, 'here's this ole fool J. A. Lamb; +he's kind of worn out and in his second childhood like; I can put +it over on him, without his ever----'" + +"I did not!" Adams shouted. "A great deal YOU know about my +feelings and all what I said to myself! There's one thing I want +to tell YOU, and that's what I'm saying to myself NOW, and what +my feelings are this MINUTE!" + +He struck the table a great blow with his thin fist, and shook +the damaged knuckles in the air. "I just want to tell you, +whatever I did feel, I don't feel MEAN any more; not to-day, I +don't. There's a meaner man in this world than _I_ am, Mr. +Lamb!" + +"Oh, so you feel better about yourself to-day, do you, Virgil?" + +"You bet I do! You worked till you got me where you want me; and +I wouldn't do that to another man, no matter what he did to me! +I wouldn't----" + +"What you talkin' about! How've I 'got you where I want you?'" + +"Ain't it plain enough?" Adams cried. "You even got me where I +can't raise the money to pay back what my boy owes you! Do you +suppose anybody's fool enough to let me have a cent on this +business after one look at what you got over there across the +road?" + +"No, I don't." + +"No, you don't," Adams echoed, hoarsely. "What's more, you knew +my house was mortgaged, and my----" + +"I did not," Lamb interrupted, angrily. "What do _I_ care about +your house?" + +"What's the use your talking like that?" Adams cried. "You got +me where I can't even raise the money to pay what my boy owes the +company, so't I can't show any reason to stop the prosecution and +keep him out the penitentiary. That's where you worked till you +got ME!" + +"What!" Lamb shouted. "You accuse me of----" + +"'Accuse you?' What am I telling you? Do you think I got no +EYES?" And Adams hammered the table again. "Why, you knew the +boy was weak----" + +"I did not!" + +"Listen: you kept him there after you got mad at my leaving the +way I did. You kept him there after you suspected him; and you +had him watched; you let him go on; just waited to catch him and +ruin him!" + +"You're crazy!" the old man bellowed. "I didn't know there was +anything against the boy till last night. You're CRAZY, I say!" + +Adams looked it. With his hair disordered over his haggard +forehead and bloodshot eyes; with his bruised hands pounding the +table and flying in a hundred wild and absurd gestures, while his +feet shuffled constantly to preserve his balance upon staggering +legs, he was the picture of a man with a mind gone to rags. + +"Maybe I AM crazy!" he cried, his voice breaking and quavering. +"Maybe I am, but I wouldn't stand there and taunt a man with it +if I'd done to him what you've done to me! Just look at me: I +worked all my life for you, and what I did when I quit never +harmed you--it didn't make two cents' worth o' difference in your +life and it looked like it'd mean all the difference in the world +to my family--and now look what you've DONE to me for it! I tell +you, Mr. Lamb, there never was a man looked up to another man +the way I looked up to you the whole o' my life, but I don't look +up to you any more! You think you got a fine day of it now, +riding up in your automobile to look at that sign--and then over +here at my poor little works that you've ruined. But listen to +me just this one last time!" The cracking voice broke into +falsetto, and the gesticulating hands fluttered uncontrollably. +"Just you listen!" he panted. "You think I did you a bad turn, +and now you got me ruined for it, and you got my works ruined, +and my family ruined; and if anybody'd 'a' told me this time last +year I'd ever say such a thing to you I'd called him a dang liar, +but I DO say it: I say you've acted toward me like--like a--a +doggone mean--man!" + +His voice, exhausted, like his body, was just able to do him this +final service; then he sank, crumpled, into the chair by the +table, his chin down hard upon his chest. + +"I tell you, you're crazy!" Lamb said again. "I never in the +world----" But he checked himself, staring in sudden perplexity +at his accuser. "Look here!" he said. "What's the matter of +you? Have you got another of those----?" He put his hand upon +Adams's shoulder, which jerked feebly under the touch. + +The old man went to the door and called to the foreman. + +"Here!" he said. "Run and tell my chauffeur to bring my car over +here. Tell him to drive right up over the sidewalk and across +the lot. Tell him to hurry!" + +So, it happened, the great J. A. Lamb a second time brought his +former clerk home, stricken and almost inanimate. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +About five o'clock that afternoon, the old gentleman came back to +Adams's house; and when Alice opened the door, he nodded, walked +into the "living-room" without speaking; then stood frowning as +if he hesitated to decide some perplexing question. + +"Well, how is he now?" he asked, finally. + +"The doctor was here again a little while ago; he thinks papa's +coming through it. He's pretty sure he will." + +"Something like the way it was last spring?" + +"Yes." + +"Not a bit of sense to it!" Lamb said, gruffly. "When he was +getting well the other time the doctor told me it wasn't a +regular stroke, so to speak--this 'cerebral effusion' thing. +Said there wasn't any particular reason for your father to expect +he'd ever have another attack, if he'd take a little care of +himself. Said he could consider himself well as anybody else +long as he did that." + +"Yes. But he didn't do it!" + +Lamb nodded, sighed aloud, and crossed the room to a chair. "I +guess not," he said, as he sat down. "Bustin' his health up over +his glue-works, I expect." + +"Yes." + +"I guess so; I guess so." Then he looked up at her with a +glimmer of anxiety in his eyes. "Has he came to yet?" + +"Yes. He's talked a little. His mind's clear; he spoke to mama +and me and to Miss Perry." Alice laughed sadly. "We were lucky +enough to get her back, but papa didn't seem to think it was +lucky. When he recognized her he said, 'Oh, my goodness, 'tisn't +YOU, is it!'" + +"Well, that's a good sign, if he's getting a little cross. Did +he--did he happen to say anything--for instance, about me?" + +This question, awkwardly delivered, had the effect of removing +the girl's pallor; rosy tints came quickly upon her cheeks. +"He--yes, he did," she said. "Naturally, he's troubled +about--about----" She stopped. + +"About your brother, maybe?" + +"Yes, about making up the----" + +"Here, now," Lamb said, uncomfortably, as she stopped again. +"Listen, young lady; let's don't talk about that just yet. I +want to ask you: you understand all about this glue business, I +expect, don't you?" + +"I'm not sure. I only know----" + +"Let me tell you," he interrupted, impatiently. "I'll tell you +all about it in two words. The process belonged to me, and your +father up and walked off with it; there's no getting around THAT +much, anyhow." + +"Isn't there?" Alice stared at him. "I think you're mistaken, +Mr. Lamb. Didn't papa improve it so that it virtually belonged +to him?" + +There was a spark in the old blue eyes at this. "What?" he +cried. "Is that the way he got around it? Why, in all my life I +never heard of such a----" But he left the sentence unfinished; +the testiness went out of his husky voice and the anger out of +his eyes. "Well, I expect maybe that was the way of it," he +said. "Anyhow, it's right for you to stand up for your father; +and if you think he had a right to it----" + +"But he did!" she cried. + +"I expect so," the old man returned, pacifically. "I expect so, +probably. Anyhow, it's a question that's neither here nor there, +right now. What I was thinking of saying--well, did your father +happen to let out that he and I had words this morning?" + +"No." + +"Well, we did." He sighed and shook his head. "Your +father--well, he used some pretty hard expressions toward me, +young lady. They weren't SO, I'm glad to say, but he used 'em to +me, and the worst of it was he believed 'em. Well, I been +thinking it over, and I thought I'd just have a kind of little +talk with you to set matters straight, so to speak." + +"Yes, Mr. Lamb." + +"For instance," he said, "it's like this. Now, I hope you won't +think I mean any indelicacy, but you take your brother's case, +since we got to mention it, why, your father had the whole thing +worked out in his mind about as wrong as anybody ever got +anything. If I'd acted the way your father thought I did about +that, why, somebody just ought to take me out and shoot me! Do +YOU know what that man thought?" + +"I'm not sure." + +He frowned at her, and asked, "Well, what do you think about it?" + +"I don't know," she said. "I don't believe I think anything at +all about anything to-day." + +"Well, well," he returned; "I expect not; I expect not. You kind +of look to me as if you ought to be in bed yourself, young lady." + +"Oh, no." + +"I guess you mean 'Oh, yes'; and I won't keep you long, but +there's something we got to get fixed up, and I'd rather talk to +you than I would to your mother, because you're a smart girl and +always friendly; and I want to be sure I'm understood. Now, +listen." + +"I will," Alice promised, smiling faintly. + +"I never even hardly noticed your brother was still working for +me," he explained, earnestly. "I never thought anything about +it. My sons sort of tried to tease me about the way your +father--about his taking up this glue business, so to speak--and +one day Albert, Junior, asked me if I felt all right about your +brother's staying there after that, and I told him--well, I just +asked him to shut up. If the boy wanted to stay there, I didn't +consider it my business to send him away on account of any +feeling I had toward his father; not as long as he did his work +right--and the report showed he did. Well, as it happens, it +looks now as if he stayed because he HAD to; he couldn't quit +because he'd 'a' been found out if he did. Well, he'd been +covering up his shortage for a considerable time--and do you know +what your father practically charged me with about that?" + +"No, Mr. Lamb." + +In his resentment, the old gentleman's ruddy face became ruddier +and his husky voice huskier. "Thinks I kept the boy there +because I suspected him! Thinks I did it to get even with HIM! +Do I look to YOU like a man that'd do such a thing?" + +"No," she said, gently. "I don't think you would." + +"No!" he exclaimed. "Nor HE wouldn't think so if he was himself; +he's known me too long. But he must been sort of brooding over +this whole business-- I mean before Walter's trouble he must been +taking it to heart pretty hard for some time back. He thought I +didn't think much of him any more--and I expect he maybe wondered +some what I was going to DO--and there's nothing worse'n that +state of mind to make a man suspicious of all kinds of meanness. +Well, he practically stood up there and accused me to my face of +fixing things so't he couldn't ever raise the money to settle for +Walter and ask us not to prosecute. That's the state of mind +your father's brooding got him into, young lady--charging me with +a trick like that!" + +"I'm sorry," she said. "I know you'd never----" + +The old man slapped his sturdy knee, angrily. "Why, that dang +fool of a Virgil Adams!" he exclaimed. "He wouldn't even give me +a chance to talk; and he got me so mad I couldn't hardly talk, +anyway! He might 'a' known from the first I wasn't going to let +him walk in and beat me out of my own--that is, he might 'a' +known I wouldn't let him get ahead of me in a business +matter--not with my boys twitting me about it every few minutes! +But to talk to me the way he did this morning--well, he was out +of his head; that's all! Now, wait just a minute," he +interposed, as she seemed about to speak. "In the first place, +we aren't going to push this case against your brother. I +believe in the law, all right, and business men got to protect +themselves; but in a case like this, where restitution's made by +the family, why, I expect it's just as well sometimes to use a +little influence and let matters drop. Of course your brother'll +have to keep out o' this state; that's all." + +"But--you said----" she faltered. + +"Yes. What'd I say?" + +"You said, 'where restitution's made by the family.' That's what +seemed to trouble papa so terribly, because--because restitution +couldn't----" + +"Why, yes, it could. That's what I'm here to talk to you about." + +"I don't see----" + +"I'm going to TELL you, ain't I?" he said, gruffly. "Just hold +your horses a minute, please." He coughed, rose from his chair, +walked up and down the room, then halted before her. "It's like +this," he said. "After I brought your father home, this morning, +there was one of the things he told me, when he was going for me, +over yonder--it kind of stuck in my craw. It was something about +all this glue controversy not meaning anything to me in +particular, and meaning a whole heap to him and his family. +Well, he was wrong about that two ways. The first one was, it +did mean a good deal to me to have him go back on me after so +many years. I don't need to say any more about it, except just +to tell you it meant quite a little more to me than you'd think, +maybe. The other way he was wrong is, that how much a thing +means to one man and how little it means to another ain't the +right way to look at a business matter." + +"I suppose it isn't, Mr. Lamb." + +"No," he said. "It isn't. It's not the right way to look at +anything. Yes, and your father knows it as well as I do, when +he's in his right mind; and I expect that's one of the reasons he +got so mad at me--but anyhow, I couldn't help thinking about how +much all this thing HAD maybe meant to him;--as I say, it kind of +stuck in my craw. I want you to tell him something from me, and +I want you to go and tell him right off, if he's able and willing +to listen. You tell him I got kind of a notion he was pushed +into this thing by circumstances, and tell him I've lived long +enough to know that circumstances can beat the best of us--you +tell him I said 'the BEST of us.' Tell him I haven't got a bit of +feeling against him--not any more--and tell him I came here to +ask him not to have any against me." + +"Yes, Mr. Lamb." + +"Tell him I said----" The old man paused abruptly and Alice was +surprised, in a dull and tired way, when she saw that his lips +had begun to twitch and his eyelids to blink; but he recovered +himself almost at once, and continued: "I want him to remember, +'Forgive us our transgressions, as we forgive those that +transgress against us'; and if he and I been transgressing +against each other, why, tell him I think it's time we QUIT such +foolishness!" + +He coughed again, smiled heartily upon her, and walked toward the +door; then turned back to her with an exclamation: "Well, if I +ain't an old fool!" + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"Why, I forgot what we were just talking about! Your father +wants to settle for Walter's deficit. Tell him we'll be glad to +accept it; but of course we don't expect him to clean the matter +up until he's able to talk business again." + +Alice stared at him blankly enough for him to perceive that +further explanations were necessary. "It's like this," he said. +"You see, if your father decided to keep his works going over +yonder, I don't say but he might give us some little competition +for a time, 'specially as he's got the start on us and about +ready for the market. Then I was figuring we could use his +plant--it's small, but it'd be to our benefit to have the use of +it--and he's got a lease on that big lot; it may come in handy +for us if we want to expand some. Well, I'd prefer to make a +deal with him as quietly as possible---no good in every Tom, Dick +and Harry hearing about things like this--but I figured he could +sell out to me for a little something more'n enough to cover the +mortgage he put on this house, and Walter's deficit, too--THAT +don't amount to much in dollars and cents. The way I figure it, +I could offer him about ninety-three hundred dollars as a +total--or say ninety-three hundred and fifty--and if he feels +like accepting, why, I'll send a confidential man up here with +the papers soon's your father's able to look 'em over. You tell +him, will you, and ask him if he sees his way to accepting that +figure?" + +"Yes," Alice said; and now her own lips twitched, while her eyes +filled so that she saw but a blurred image of the old man, who +held out his hand in parting. "I'll tell him. Thank you." + +He shook her hand hastily. "Well, let's just keep it kind of +quiet," he said, at the door. "No good in every Tom, Dick and +Harry knowing all what goes on in town! You telephone me when +your papa's ready to go over the papers--and call me up at my +house to-night, will you? Let me hear how he's feeling?" + +"I will," she said, and through her grateful tears gave him a +smile almost radiant. "He'll be better, Mr. Lamb. We all +will." + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +One morning, that autumn, Mrs. Adams came into Alice's room, and +found her completing a sober toilet for the street; moreover, the +expression revealed in her mirror was harmonious with the +business-like severity of her attire. "What makes you look so +cross, dearie?" the mother asked. "Couldn't you find anything +nicer to wear than that plain old dark dress?" + +"I don't believe I'm cross," the girl said, absently. "I believe +I'm just thinking. Isn't it about time?" + +"Time for what?" + +"Time for thinking--for me, I mean?" + +Disregarding this, Mrs. Adams looked her over thoughtfully. "I +can't see why you don't wear more colour," she said. "At your +age it's becoming and proper, too. Anyhow, when you're going on +the street, I think you ought to look just as gay and lively as +you can manage. You want to show 'em you've got some spunk!" + +"How do you mean, mama?" + +"I mean about Walter's running away and the mess your father made +of his business. It would help to show 'em you're holding up +your head just the same." + +"Show whom!" + +"All these other girls that----" + +"Not I!" Alice laughed shortly, shaking her head. "I've quit +dressing at them, and if they saw me they wouldn't think what you +want 'em to. It's funny; but we don't often make people think +what we want 'em to, mama. You do thus and so; and you tell +yourself, 'Now, seeing me do thus and so, people will naturally +think this and that'; but they don't. They think something +else--usually just what you DON'T want 'em to. I suppose about +the only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling +ourselves that we fool somebody." + +"Well, but it wouldn't be pretending. You ought to let people +see you're still holding your head up because you ARE. You +wouldn't want that Mildred Palmer to think you're cast down +about--well, you know you wouldn't want HER not to think you're +holding your head up, would you?" + +"She wouldn't know whether I am or not, mama." Alice bit her +lip, then smiled faintly as she said: + +"Anyhow, I'm not thinking about my head in that way--not this +morning, I'm not." + +Mrs. Adams dropped the subject casually. "Are you going +down-town?" she inquired. + +"Yes." + +"What for?" + +"Just something I want to see about. I'll tell you when I come +back. Anything you want me to do?" + +"No; I guess not to-day. I thought you might look for a rug, but +I'd rather go with you to select it. We'll have to get a new rug +for your father's room, I expect." + +"I'm glad you think so, mama. I don't suppose he's ever even +noticed it, but that old rug of his--well, really!" + +"I didn't mean for him," her mother explained, thoughtfully. +"No; he don't mind it, and he'd likely make a fuss if we changed +it on his account. No; what I meant--we'll have to put your +father in Walter's room. He won't mind, I don't expect--not +much." + +"No, I suppose not," Alice agreed, rather sadly. "I heard the +bell awhile ago. Was it somebody about that?" + +"Yes; just before I came upstairs. Mrs. Lohr gave him a note to +me, and he was really a very pleasant-looking young man. A VERY +pleasant-looking young man," Mrs. Adams repeated with increased +animation and a thoughtful glance at her daughter. "He's a Mr. +Will Dickson; he has a first-rate position with the gas works, +Mrs. Lohr says, and he's fully able to afford a nice room. So +if you and I double up in here, then with that young married +couple in my room, and this Mr. Dickson in your father's, we'll +just about have things settled. I thought maybe I could make one +more place at table, too, so that with the other people from +outside we'd be serving eleven altogether. You see if I have to +pay this cook twelve dollars a week--it can't be helped, I +guess--well, one more would certainly help toward a profit. Of +course it's a terribly worrying thing to see how we WILL come +out. Don't you suppose we could squeeze in one more?" + +"I suppose it COULD be managed; yes." + +Mrs. Adams brightened. "I'm sure it'll be pleasant having that +young married couple in the house and especially this Mr. Will +Dickson. He seemed very much of a gentleman, and anxious to get +settled in good surroundings. I was very favourably impressed +with him in every way; and he explained to me about his name; it +seems it isn't William, it's just 'Will'; his parents had him +christened that way. It's curious." She paused, and then, with +an effort to seem casual, which veiled nothing from her daughter: +"It's QUITE curious," she said again. "But it's rather +attractive and different, don't you think?" + +"Poor mama!" Alice laughed compassionately. "Poor mama!" + +"He is, though," Mrs. Adams maintained. "He's very much of a +gentleman, unless I'm no judge of appearances; and it'll really +be nice to have him in the house." + +"No doubt," Alice said, as she opened her door to depart. "I +don't suppose we'll mind having any of 'em as much as we thought +we would. Good-bye." + +But her mother detained her, catching her by the arm. "Alice, +you do hate it, don't you!" + +"No," the girl said, quickly. "There wasn't anything else to +do." + +Mrs. Adams became emotional at once: her face cried tragedy, and +her voice misfortune. "There MIGHT have been something else to +do! Oh, Alice, you gave your father bad advice when you upheld +him in taking a miserable little ninety-three hundred and fifty +from that old wretch! If your father'd just had the gumption to +hold out, they'd have had to pay him anything he asked. If he'd +just had the gumption and a little manly COURAGE----" + +"Hush!" Alice whispered, for her mother's voice grew louder. +"Hush! He'll hear you, mama." + +"Could he hear me too often?" the embittered lady asked. "If +he'd listened to me at the right time, would we have to be taking +in boarders and sinking DOWN in the scale at the end of our +lives, instead of going UP? You were both wrong; we didn't need +to be so panicky--that was just what that old man wanted: to +scare us and buy us out for nothing! If your father'd just +listened to me then, or if for once in his life he'd just been +half a MAN----" + +Alice put her hand over her mother's mouth. "You mustn't! He +WILL hear you!" + +But from the other side of Adams's closed door his voice came +querulously. "Oh, I HEAR her, all right!" + +"You see, mama?" Alice said, and, as Mrs. Adams turned away, +weeping, the daughter sighed; then went in to speak to her +father. + +He was in his old chair by the table, with a pillow behind his +head, but the crocheted scarf and Mrs. Adams's wrapper swathed +him no more; he wore a dressing-gown his wife had bought for him, +and was smoking his pipe. "The old story, is it?" he said, as +Alice came in. "The same, same old story! Well, well! Has she +gone?" + +"Yes, papa." + +"Got your hat on," he said. "Where you going?" + +"I'm going down-town on an errand of my own. Is there anything +you want, papa?" + +"Yes, there is." He smiled at her. "I wish you'd sit down a +while and talk to me unless your errand----" + +"No," she said, taking a chair near him. "I was just going down +to see about some arrangements I was making for myself. There's +no hurry." + +"What arrangements for yourself, dearie?" + +"I'll tell you afterwards--after I find out something about 'em +myself." + +"All right," he said, indulgently. "Keep your secrets; keep your +secrets." He paused, drew musingly upon his pipe, and shook his +head. "Funny--the way your mother looks at things! For the +matter o' that, everything's pretty funny, I expect, if you stop +to think about it. For instance, let her say all she likes, but +we were pushed right spang to the wall, if J. A. Lamb hadn't +taken it into his head to make that offer for the works; and +there's one of the things I been thinking about lately, Alice: +thinking about how funny they work out." + +"What did you think about it, papa!" + +"Well, I've seen it happen in other people's lives, time and time +again; and now it's happened in ours. You think you're going to +be pushed right up against the wall; you can't see any way out, +or any hope at all; you think you're GONE--and then something you +never counted on turns up; and, while maybe you never do get back +to where you used to be, yet somehow you kind of squirm out of +being right SPANG against the wall. You keep on going--maybe you +can't go much, but you do go a little. See what I mean?" + +"Yes. I understand, dear." + +"Yes, I'm afraid you do," he said. "Too bad! You oughtn't to +understand it at your age. It seems to me a good deal as if the +Lord really meant for the young people to have the good times, +and for the old to have the troubles; and when anybody as young +as you has trouble there's a big mistake somewhere." + +"Oh, no!" she protested. + +But he persisted whimsically in this view of divine error: "Yes, +it does look a good deal that way. But of course we can't tell; +we're never certain about anything--not about anything at all. +Sometimes I look at it another way, though. Sometimes it looks +to me as if a body's troubles came on him mainly because he +hadn't had sense enough to know how not to have any--as if his +troubles were kind of like a boy's getting kept in after school +by the teacher, to give him discipline, or something or other. +But, my, my! We don't learn easy!" He chuckled mournfully. "Not +to learn how to live till we're about ready to die, it certainly +seems to me dang tough!" + +"Then I wouldn't brood on such a notion, papa," she said. + +"'Brood?' No!" he returned. "I just kind o' mull it over." He +chuckled again, sighed, and then, not looking at her, he said, +"That Mr. Russell--your mother tells me he hasn't been here +again--not since----" + +"No," she said, quietly, as Adams paused. "He never came again." + +"Well, but maybe----" + +"No," she said. "There isn't any 'maybe.' I told him good-bye +that night, papa. It was before he knew about Walter--I told +you." + +"Well, well," Adams said. "Young people are entitled to their +own privacy; I don't want to pry." He emptied his pipe into a +chipped saucer on the table beside him, laid the pipe aside, and +reverted to a former topic. "Speaking of dying----" + +"Well, but we weren't!" Alice protested. + +"Yes, about not knowing how to live till you're through +living--and THEN maybe not!" he said, chuckling at his own +determined pessimism. "I see I'm pretty old because I talk this +way--I remember my grandmother saying things a good deal like all +what I'm saying now; I used to hear her at it when I was a young +fellow--she was a right gloomy old lady, I remember. Well, +anyhow, it reminds me: I want to get on my feet again as soon as +I can; I got to look around and find something to go into." + +Alice shook her head gently. "But, papa, he told you----" + +"Never mind throwing that dang doctor up at me!" Adams +interrupted, peevishly. "He said I'd be good for SOME kind of +light job--if I could find just the right thing. 'Where there +wouldn't be either any physical or mental strain,' he said. +Well, I got to find something like that. Anyway, I'll feel +better if I can just get out LOOKING for it." + +"But, papa, I'm afraid you won't find it, and you'll be +disappointed." + +"Well, I want to hunt around and SEE, anyhow." + +Alice patted his hand. "You must just be contented, papa. +Everything's going to be all right, and you mustn't get to +worrying about doing anything. We own this house it's all +clear--and you've taken care of mama and me all our lives; now +it's our turn." + +"No, sir!" he said, querulously. "I don't like the idea of being +the landlady's husband around a boarding-house; it goes against +my gizzard. _I_ know: makes out the bills for his wife Sunday +mornings--works with a screw-driver on somebody's bureau drawer +sometimes--'tends the furnace maybe--one the boarders gives him a +cigar now and then. That's a FINE life to look forward to! No, +sir; I don't want to finish as a landlady's husband!" + +Alice looked grave; for she knew the sketch was but too +accurately prophetic in every probability. "But, papa," she +said, to console him, "don't you think maybe there isn't such a +thing as a 'finish,' after all! You say perhaps we don't learn +to live till we die but maybe that's how it is AFTER we die, +too--just learning some more, the way we do here, and maybe +through trouble again, even after that." + +"Oh, it might be," he sighed. "I expect so." + +"Well, then," she said, "what's the use of talking about a +'finish?' We do keep looking ahead to things as if they'd finish +something, but when we get TO them, they don't finish anything. +They're just part of going on. I'll tell you--I looked ahead all +summer to something I was afraid of, and I said to myself, 'Well, +if that happens, I'm finished!' But it wasn't so, papa. It did +happen, and nothing's finished; I'm going on, just the same +only----" She stopped and blushed. + +"Only what?" he asked. + +"Well----" She blushed more deeply, then jumped up, and, standing +before him, caught both his hands in hers. "Well, don't you +think, since we do have to go on, we ought at least to have +learned some sense about how to do it?" + +He looked up at her adoringly. + +"What _I_ think," he said, and his voice trembled;--"I think +you're the smartest girl in the world! I wouldn't trade you for +the whole kit-and-boodle of 'em!" + +But as this folly of his threatened to make her tearful, she +kissed him hastily, and went forth upon her errand. + +Since the night of the tragic-comic dinner she had not seen +Russell, nor caught even the remotest chance glimpse of him; and +it was curious that she should encounter him as she went upon +such an errand as now engaged her. At a corner, not far from +that tobacconist's shop she had just left when he overtook her +and walked with her for the first time, she met him to-day. He +turned the corner, coming toward her, and they were face to face; +whereupon that engaging face of Russell's was instantly reddened, +but Alice's remained serene. + +She stopped short, though; and so did he; then she smiled +brightly as she put out her hand. + +"Why, Mr. Russell!" + +"I'm so--I'm so glad to have this--this chance," he stammered. +"I've wanted to tell you--it's just that going into a new +undertaking--this business life--one doesn't get to do a great +many things he'd like to. I hope you'll let me call again some +time, if I can." + +"Yes, do!" she said, cordially, and then, with a quick nod, went +briskly on. + +She breathed more rapidly, but knew that he could not have +detected it, and she took some pride in herself for the way she +had met this little crisis. But to have met it with such easy +courage meant to her something more reassuring than a momentary +pride in the serenity she had shown. For she found that what she +had resolved in her inmost heart was now really true: she was +"through with all that!" + +She walked on, but more slowly, for the tobacconist's shop was +not far from her now--and, beyond it, that portal of doom, +Frincke's Business College. Already Alice could read the +begrimed gilt letters of the sign; and although they had spelled +destiny never with a more painful imminence than just then, an +old habit of dramatizing herself still prevailed with her. + +There came into her mind a whimsical comparison of her fate with +that of the heroine in a French romance she had read long ago and +remembered well, for she had cried over it. The story ended with +the heroine's taking the veil after a death blow to love; and the +final scene again became vivid to Alice, for a moment. Again, as +when she had read and wept, she seemed herself to stand among the +great shadows in the cathedral nave; smelled the smoky incense on +the enclosed air, and heard the solemn pulses of the organ. She +remembered how the novice's father knelt, trembling, beside a +pillar of gray stone; how the faithless lover watched and +shivered behind the statue of a saint; how stifled sobs and +outcries were heard when the novice came to the altar; and how a +shaft of light struck through the rose-window, enveloping her in +an amber glow. + +It was the vision of a moment only, and for no longer than a +moment did Alice tell herself that the romance provided a +prettier way of taking the veil than she had chosen, and that a +faithless lover, shaking with remorse behind a saint's statue, +was a greater solace than one left on a street corner protesting +that he'd like to call some time--if he could! Her pity for +herself vanished more reluctantly; but she shook it off and tried +to smile at it, and at her romantic recollections--at all of +them. She had something important to think of. + +She passed the tobacconist's, and before her was that dark +entrance to the wooden stairway leading up to Frincke's Business +College--the very doorway she had always looked upon as the end +of youth and the end of hope. + +How often she had gone by here, hating the dreary obscurity of +that stairway; how often she had thought of this obscurity as +something lying in wait to obliterate the footsteps of any girl +who should ascend into the smoky darkness above! Never had she +passed without those ominous imaginings of hers: pretty girls +turning into old maids "taking dictation"--old maids of a dozen +different types, yet all looking a little like herself. + +Well, she was here at last! She looked up and down the street +quickly, and then, with a little heave of the shoulders, she went +bravely in, under the sign, and began to climb the wooden steps. +Half-way up the shadows were heaviest, but after that the place +began to seem brighter. There was an open window overhead +somewhere, she found; and the steps at the top were gay with +sunshine. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington + diff --git a/old/aladm10.zip b/old/aladm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90a4dd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/aladm10.zip |