Ruth Frazer had passed her twentieth birthday, and now, for the first
time, she was asking herself that question which brings tearful
uncertainty, vague fears, disquieting speculations to the great
majority of women--should she give herself, body and soul, into the
hands of a definite man? It was the definiteness, the identification of
the man, that caused all her difficulty. All women expect to be chosen
by, and to choose, some man; but when he arrives in actual flesh and
blood--that is quite another matter. Some, perhaps many, have no
doubts. Love has come to them unmistakably. But not so with most. It is
a thing to be wept over, and prayed over, and considered with many
changes of mind, until final decision is made one way or the other.
Dulac had been interrupted in what Ruth knew would have been a proposal
of marriage; the scene would be resumed, and when it was what answer
should she give?
It is no easy task for a girl of twenty to lay her heart under the
microscope and to see if the emotion which agitates it is love, or
admiration, or the excitation of glamour. She has heard of love, has
read of love, has dreamed of love, possibly, but has never experienced
love. How, then, is she to recognize it? With Ruth there had been no
long acquaintanceship with this man who came asking her future of her.
There had been no months or years of service and companionship.
Instead, he had burst on her vision, had dazzled her with his presence
and his mission. Hers was a steady little head, and one capable of
facing the logic of a situation. Was her feeling toward Dulac merely
hero worship?
The cause he represented was dear to her heart, and he was an eminent
servant in that cause. It thrilled her to know that such a man as he
could want HER for his wife. It quite took her breath away. Present
also was the feeling that if Dulac wanted her, if she could bring
happiness, ease, help to him, it would be her duty to give herself. By
so doing she would contribute her all to the cause.... Behind that
thought were generations of men and women who had sacrificed and
suffered for labor. If her father had given his life, would he not
expect his daughter to give HER life? If she could make Dulac stronger
to carry on his work for social revolution, had she a right to withhold
herself?...
But, being a girl, with youth singing in her heart, it was impossible
that anything should take precedence of love. That was the great
question. Did she love?... At noon she was sure she did; at one o'clock
she was sure she did not; at two o'clock she was wavering between the
two decisions; at six o'clock she had passed through all these stages
half a dozen times, and was no nearer certainty.
Being who she was and what she was, her contacts with the world had not
been those of the ordinary girl of her age and her station in life. In
her earlier years she had been accustomed to radical words, radical
thought, radical individuals. The world she was taught to see was not
the world girl children are usually taught to see. And yet she retained
her humor, her brightness of spirit, the joy of life that gave her her
smile.... She had known boys and men. However, none of these had made
marked impression upon her. They had been mere incidents, pleasant,
uninteresting, wearying, amusing. None had thrilled her.... So she had
less experience to call to her aid than the average girl.
Dulac occupied her mind as no man had ever occupied it before; the
thought of him thrilled her.... He wanted her, this magnetic,
theatrically handsome man wanted her....
When we make a choice we do so by a process of comparison. We buy this
house because we like it better than that house; we buy this hat
because we prefer it to that other;... it is so we get our notions of
value, of desirability. It is more than possible that some effort at
comparison is made by a woman in selecting a husband. She compares her
suitor with other men. Her decision may hinge upon the result. ...
Dulac was clearly superior to most of the men Ruth had known.... Then,
unaccountably, she found herself thinking of Bonbright Foote, who had
that morning discharged her from her employment. She found herself
setting young Foote and Dulac side by side and, becoming objectively
conscious of this, she felt herself guilty of some sort of disloyalty.
What right had a man in Foote's position to stand in her thoughts
beside Dulac? He was everything Dulac was not; Dulac was nothing that
Foote was.
She realized she was getting nowhere, was only confusing herself.
Perhaps, she told herself, when Dulac was present, when he asked her to
be his wife, she would know what to answer. So, resolutely, she put the
matter from her mind. It would not stay out.
She dreaded meeting Dulac at supper--for the evening meal was supper in
the Frazer cottage--and yet she was burningly curious to meet him, to
be near him, to verify her image of him.... Extra pains with the detail
of her simple toilet held her in her room until her mother called to
know if she were not going to help with the meal. As she went to the
kitchen she heard Dulac moving about in his room.
When they were seated at the table it was Mrs. Frazer who jerked the
conversation away from casual matters.
"Ruth was discharged this morning, Mr. Dulac," she said, bitterly, "and
her as good a typewriter and as neat and faithful as any. No fault
found, either, nor could be, not if anybody was looking for it with a
fine-tooth comb. Meanness, that's what I say. Nothing but meanness....
And us needing that fifteen dollars a week to keep the breath of life
in us."
"Don't worry about that, mother," Ruth said, quickly. "There are plenty
of places--"
"Who fired you?" interrupted Dulac, his black eyes glowing angrily.
"That young cub?"
"Young Mr. Foote," said Ruth.
"It was because I live here," said Dulac, intensely. "That was why,
wasn't it? That's the way they fight, striking at us through our
womenfolks.... And when we answer with bricks..."
"I don't think he wanted to do it," Ruth said. "I think he was made to."
"Nonsense! Too bad the boys didn't get their hands on him last
night--the infernal college-bred whipper-snapper!... Well, don't you
worry about that job. Nor you, either, Mrs. Frazer."
"Seems like I never did anything but worry; if it wasn't about one
thing it was another, and no peace since I was in the cradle," said
Mrs. Frazer, dolefully. "If it ain't the rent it's strikes and riots
and losin' positions and not knowin' if your husband's comin' home to
sleep in bed, or his name in the paper in the morning and him in jail.
And since he was killed--"
"Now, mother," said Ruth, "I'll have a job before tomorrow night. We
won't starve or be put out into the street."
Mrs. Frazer dabbed at her eyes with her apron and signified her firm
belief that capital was banded together for the sole purpose of causing
her mental agony; indeed, that capital had been invented with that end
in view, and if she had her way--which seldom enough, and her never
doing a wrong to a living body--capital should have visited on it
certain plagues and punishments hinted at as adequate, but not named.
Whereupon she got up from the table and went out into the kitchen after
the pie.
"Mrs. Frazer," said Dulac, when she returned, "I've got to hurry
downtown to headquarters, but I want to have a little talk with Ruth
before I go. Can't the dishes wait?"
"I did up dishes alone before Ruth was born, and a few thousand times
since. Guess I can get through with it without her help at least once
more."
Dulac smiled, so that his white, even teeth showed in a foreign sort of
way. In that moment Ruth thought there was something Oriental or Latin
about his appearance--surely something exotic. He had a power of
fascination, and its spell was upon her.
He stood up and walked to the door of the little parlor, where he stood
waiting. Ruth, not blushing, but pale, afraid, yet eager to hear what
she knew he was going to say, passed him into the room. He closed the
door.
"You know what I want to say," he began, approaching close to her, but
not touching her. "You know what life will be like with a man whose
work is what mine is.... But I'd try to make up for the hardships and
the worries and the disagreeable things. I'd try, Ruth, and I think I
could do it.... Your heart is with the Cause. I wouldn't marry you if
it wasn't because you couldn't stand the life. But you want to see what
I want to see.... If I'm willing to run the risks and live the life I
have to live because I see how I can help along the work and make the
world a better place for those to live in who need to have it a better
place... if I can do what I do, I've thought you might be willing to
share it all.... You're brave. You come of a blood that has suffered
and been willing to suffer. Your father was a martyr--just as I would
be willing to be a martyr...."
Somehow the thing did not seem so much like a proposal of marriage as
like a bit of flamboyant oratory. The theatrical air of the man, his
self-consciousness--with the saving leaven of unquestionable
sincerity--made it more an exhortation from the platform. Even in his
intimate moments Dulac did not step out of character.... But this was
not apparent to Ruth. Glamour was upon her, blinding her. The
personality of the man dominated her personality. She saw him as he saw
himself.... And his Cause was her Cause. If he would have suffered
martyrdom for it, so would she. She raised her eyes to his and, looking
into them, saw a soul greater than his soul, loftier than his soul. She
was an apostle, and her heart throbbed with pride and joy that this man
of high, self-sacrificing purpose should desire her.... She was ready
to surrender; her decision was made. Standing under his blazing eyes,
in the circle of his magnetism, she was sure she loved him.
But the surrender was not to be made then. Her mother rapped on the
door.
"Young gentleman to see you, Ruth," she called.
She heard Dulac's teeth click savagely. "Quick," he said. "What is it
to be?"
The spell was broken, the old uncertainty, the wavering, was present
again. "I--oh, let me think. To-morrow--I'll tell you to-morrow."
She stepped--it was almost a flight--to the door, and opened it. In the
dining room, hat in hand, stood Bonbright Foote. Dulac saw, too.
"What does he want here?" he demanded, savagely.
"I don't know."
"I'll find out. It's no good to you he intends."
"Mr. Dulac!" she said, and faced him a moment. He stopped, furious
though he was. She stopped him. She held him.... There was a strength
in her that he had not realized. Her utterance of his name was a
command and a rebuke.
"I know his kind," Dulac said, sullenly. "Let me throw him out."
"Please sit down," she said. "I want to bring him in here. I know him
better than you--and I think your side misunderstands him. It may do
some good."
She stepped into the dining room. "Mr. Foote," she said.
He was embarrassed, ill at ease. "Miss Frazer," he said, with boyish
hesitation, "you don't want to see me--you have no reason to do
anything but--despise me, I guess. But I had to come. I found your
address and came as quickly as I could."
"Step in here," she said. Then, "You and Mr. Dulac have met."
Dulac stood scowling. "Yes," he said, sullenly. Bonbright flushed and
nodded.... Dulac seemed suddenly possessed by a gust of passion. He
strode threateningly to Bonbright, lips snarling, eyes blazing.
"What do you mean by coming here? What do you want?" he demanded,
hoarsely. "You come here with your hands red with blood. Two men are
dead.... Four others smashed under the hoofs of your police!... You're
trying to starve into submission thousands of men. You're striking at
them through their wives and babies.... What do you care for them or
their suffering? You and your father are piling up millions--and every
penny a loaf stolen from the table of a workingman!... There'll be
starving out there soon.... Babies will be dying for want of food--and
you'll have killed them.... You and your kind are bloodsuckers,
parasites!... and you're a sneaking, spying hound.... Every man that
dies, every baby that starves, every ounce of woman's suffering and
misery that this strike causes are on your head.... You forced the
strike, backed up by the millions of the automobile crowd, so you could
crush and smash your men so they wouldn't dare to mutter or complain.
You did it deliberately--you prowling, pampered puppy...." Dulac was
working himself into blind rage.
Bonbright looked at the man with something of amazement, but with
nothing of fear. He was not afraid. He did not give back a step, but,
as he stood there, white to the lips, his eyes steadily on Dulac's
eyes, he seemed older, weary. He seemed to have been stripped of youth
and of the lightheartedness and buoyancy of youth. He was thinking,
wondering. Why should this man hate him? Why should others hate him?
Why should the class he belonged to be hated with this blighting
virulence by the class they employed?...
He did not speak nor try to stem Dulac's invective. He was not angered
by it, nor was he hurt by it.... He waited for it to subside, and with
a certain dignity that sat well on his young shoulders. Generations of
ancestors trained in the restraints were with him this night, and stood
him in good stead.
Ruth stood by, the situation snatched beyond her control. She was
terrified, yet even in her terror she could not avoid a sort of
subconscious comparison of the men.
"Mr. Dulac!... Please!... Please!..." she said, tearfully.
"I'm going to tell this--this murderer what he is. and then I'm going
to throw him out," Dulac raged.
"Mr. Foote came to see ME," Ruth said, with awakened spirit. "He is in
my house.... You have no right to act so. You have no right to talk
so.... You sha'n't go on."
Dulac turned on her. "What is this cub to you? What do you care?...
Were you expecting him?"
"She wasn't expecting me," said Bonbright, breaking silence for the
first time. "I came because she didn't get a square deal.... I had to
come."
"What do you want with her?... You've kicked her out of your
office--now leave her alone.... There's just one thing men of your
class want of girls of her class...."
At first Bonbright did not comprehend Dulac's meaning; then his face
reddened; even his ears were enveloped in a surge of color. "Dulac," he
said, evenly, "I came to say something to Miss Frazer. When I have done
I'm going to thrash you for that."
Ruth seized Dulac's arm. "Go away," she cried. "You have no right. ...
If you ever want an answer--to that question--you'll go NOW... If this
goes on--if you don't go and leave Mr. Foote alone, I'll never see you
again.... I'll never speak to you again.... I mean it!"
Dulac, looking down into her face, saw that she did mean it. He shot
one venomous glance at Bonbright, snatched his hat from the table, and
rushed from the room.
Presently Ruth spoke.
"I'm so sorry," she said.
Bonbright smiled. "It was too bad.... He believes what he says about
me...."
"Yes, he believes it, and thousands of other men believe it.... They
hate you."
"Because I have lots of money and they have little. Because I own a
factory and they work in it.... There must be a great deal to it
besides that.... But that isn't what I came to say. I--it was about
discharging you."
"Yes," she said. "I knew it wasn't you.... Your father made you."
He flushed. "You see... I'm not a real person. I'm just something with
push buttons. When somebody wants a thing done he pushes one, and I do
it.... I didn't want you to go. I--Well, things aren't exactly joyous
for me in the plant. I don't fit--and I'm being made to fit." His voice
took on a tinge of bitterness. "I've got to be something that the label
'Bonbright Foote VII' will fit.... It was on account of that smile of
yours that I made them give you to me for my secretary. The first time
I saw you you smiled--and it was mighty cheering. It sort of lightened
things up--so I got you to do my work--because I thought likely you
would smile sometimes...."
Her eyes were downcast to hide the moisture that was in them.
"Father made me discharge you.... I couldn't help it--and you don't
know how ashamed it made me.... To know I was so helpless. That's what
I came to say. I wanted you to know--on account of your smile. I didn't
want you to think--I did it willingly.... And--sometimes it isn't easy
to get another position--so--so I went to see a man, Malcolm Lightener,
and told him about you. He manufactures automobiles--and he's--he's a
better kind of man to work for than--we were. If you are willing you
can--go there in the morning."
She showed him her smile now--but it was not the broad, beaming grin;
it was a dewy, tremulous smile.
"That was good of you," she said, softly.
"I was just trying to be square," he said. "Will you take the place? I
should like to know. I should like to know I'd helped to make things
right."
"Of course I shall take it," she said.
"Thank you.... I--shall miss you. Really.... Good night, Miss
Frazer--and thank you."
She pitied him from her heart. His position was not a joyful one....
And, as people sometimes do, she spoke on impulse, not calculating
possible complications.
"If--you may come to see me again if you want to."
He took her extended hand. "I may?" he said, almost incredulously. "And
will you smile for me?"
"Once, each time you come," she said.