JOYCE'S INTERESTS.
Joyce had not exaggerated when she spoke of the settlement about the
Works as a desolate, unpicturesque, uninviting spot, and Camille had
skirted the truth, at least, when she referred to the inherited acres as
"marsh lands." Had she named them a desert instead, though, she would
have been nearer correct, for is not a desert a "great sandy plain?" So
was the site of the great factories known as the Early Glass Works. They
seemed to have been set down with no thought but to construct--a shelter
for costly machinery; as to those who worked it, let them manage anyhow.
The buildings were massive and expensive where used to protect senseless
iron and steel; low, squalid, and flung together in the cheapest way
where used to house sentient human beings.
In a certain spasm of reformation they had been purchased by James J.
Early after a venture in his gambling schemes so surpassingly
"lucky"--to quote himself--that he was almost shamed into decency by its
magnitude. He even felt a thrill of compunction--a very brief
thrill--for the manner in which two-score people, who had trusted him,
were left in the trough of ruin while he rode high on the wave of
success. Almost trembling between triumph and contrition, he had been
seized with the virtuous resolve to quit speculation for honest
industry, and his investment in these glass-works was the result.
Through his wildest plunging he had been shrewd enough never to risk his
all in one venture--in fact, he never took any great risks for himself,
except so far as his immortal soul was concerned--consequently when
death overtook him and he, perforce, laid down the only thing he valued,
his fortune, it had reached proportions of which figures could give but
little idea. His daughter Joyce, sole heir-at-law, was almost
overwhelmed by the burden of these millions, especially as she realized
how dishonestly they had been acquired. She thoroughly appreciated the
methods taken to possess them (one cannot say earn in this connection)
and her sensitive soul shrank in terror from benefiting only through
others' misfortunes. If she could not gather up and restore, she might
at least bestow wherever help seemed most needed, thus perhaps in time
lifting the curse she felt must rest on these ill-gotten gains. With
James Early's usual policy he had spent money at the Works only where it
would increase the value of the plant, and the working power of the
machinery. The idea of wasting a dollar in making the homes of his
employees more attractive, or in putting within their reach mental and
moral helps, had never even occurred to him. Treeless, arid, and flat,
the country stretched away on every side, only broken by one or two
slight knolls separating the Works from a small river that intersected
the land at some distance. In the midst of this plain stood the great
buildings, belching forth smoke from their tall chimneys, while,
radiating from this busy nucleus, were several rows of mere barracks,
known as the cottages of the workmen.
It should be the daughter's policy to make this district blossom as the
rose, and to make its people happy and contented.
You have doubtless noticed the seeming discrepancy between the names
borne by Joyce and her father, and this is its explanation. The marriage
of the scheming Yankee, James Early, into the then wealthy and powerful
family of Lavillotte, old-timers of Louisiana soil, was considered the
opposite of an honor by them, with the exception of the young girl,
educated in the north, who had been fascinated by his fine looks and
glib tongue. Therefore, when Joyce was born, an edict was issued by its
leading members--two patriarchal uncles who held control of the
property--that she should be cut off from her maternal rights in the
family estate unless allowed to take the family name. Now, the loss of
money was to J. J. Early the only loss worth mentioning, so he
reluctantly consented, with but one stipulation--that she should bear
his middle name, which was Joyce. Having assured themselves that Joyce
was a proper Christian cognomen, suitable to a woman, they yielded the
point, and Joyce Early was made Joyce Lavillotte by due process of law
before old enough to know, much less to speak, her name. That this
property was largely lost during the civil war, leaving the Earlys
almost destitute at the time that broken-spirited lady died, had never
altered this fact; nor was it changed when, later, after the death of
both uncles, the property in partially restored shape came to the girl,
so bound beneath legal restrictions, that she could never have the
management of anything but the income. In fact, so engrossed had Early
become in his own money-making, by this, that he had little thought to
bestow upon a daughter who could never sympathize in what made life's
interest for him. He had controlled her existence to his own purposes,
knowing that an acknowledged home and daughter somehow give a man caste
in the community, but outside of certain restrictions, and very galling
ones, he had let her severely alone. Now that liberty and great means
had fallen to her, what use should she make of them?
She stood a moment looking around her, after she had alighted from the
train at the little brown one-room station-house, trying to take it all
in at one glance of her brilliant eyes. She had never been here before,
but she had had countless photographs made, and supposed herself
thoroughly acquainted with the spot. But, to some minds, photographs are
confusing things, jumbling up the points of compass in an unreliable
manner. Joyce found that it was almost as strange as if never pictured
out before her, and a great deal uglier than she had supposed. She
shivered as she gazed around upon the bleakness everywhere, perhaps
largely accentuated by a gray, chilly morning of early spring, with the
small patches of snow, left by winter, blackened and foul. Ellen Dover,
at her elbow, remarked plaintively,
"There, Miss Joyce, I knowed you'd need your sealskin such a day," to
which the girl only answered, with an odd smile,
"Even a sealskin couldn't stop that shiver, Ellen; it might make it
worse, indeed. Come, I think this is the way to the office. Doesn't it
say something over that door at the right? Yes, there it is--come on!"
They traversed a considerable space of uneven ground crossed and
recrossed by the narrow-gauge tracks upon which the sand and grit trucks
ran, avoiding one or two localities where steam shot upward from the
ground in a witch-like and erratic manner, with short angry hisses and
chopping sounds that suggested danger, and finally stood before the door
designated "OFFICE" in plain lettering. Joyce looked around at her
companion with a perplexed little laugh.
"Do we knock, Ellen? How does one do at a place like this,--just walk in
as it 'twere a shop, or wait till you're let in, as at a house?"
"Goodness me!" bridled Ellen, gazing at the uninviting exterior. "Why
should you be knocking and waiting when you own the whole business, I'd
like to know? Just push in and tell who you be--that's what I'd do."
"Oh, I think not, Ellen--would you? I'd rather err on the safe side,
seems to me. Do let's be polite, at least! Yes, I'll knock," and a timid
rat-tat-tat, made by a small kid-covered knuckle, announced the first
visit of the present owner of the great Early Works.
After an instant's delay the door was partly opened, and a preoccupied
face, with perpendicular lines between the keen gray eyes, was thrust
out impatiently, with the words,
"Well, why don't you come in? What--Oh, excuse me, ladies. Good-morning!
What can I do for you?"
"Is Mr. Dalton in?" asked Joyce embarrassedly.
"Yes, I am he; please walk in. You'll have to excuse the litter here.
I've been too busy to let them clean it up. Here's a chair, Miss--and
here, ma'am"--calmly overturning two close beside the desk, that were
heaped with papers.
Having thus seated his guests, the man stood in an inquiring attitude,
surreptitiously glancing at Joyce who seemed to him almost superhumanly
beautiful in that dusty place, for her pink flush and shy eyes only
accentuated her charms. She found it necessary to explain the intrusion
at once, but was so nervous over just the right form of
self-introduction required that she rather lost her head, and stammered
out,
"I--I thought I'd like to see the works and--and you"--then stopped,
feeling how awkward was this beginning.
A smile flitted over his grave countenance.
"I am before you," he said, bowing somewhat elaborately. "If looking at
me can do anybody any good----"
She checked him with a somewhat imperious gesture.
"I am Joyce Lavillotte," she said, growing cool again, "and I would like
to look the place over."
The sentence died into silence before an ejaculation so amazed and
long-drawn it made Joyce's eyes open wide. The man looked ready to burst
into laughter, yet full of respect, too. At length he broke out,
"I beg your pardon! I am so surprised. I supposed you were a man. It's
your name, probably, that deceived me--and then I never thought of a
girl--a young lady--caring to examine into things, and asking for
statistics, and so on. Then your handwriting--it was so bold. And your
methods of expression--well, I have been completely fooled!"
He stopped the voluble flow of words, which Joyce felt instinctively to
be unlike himself, and gazed at her again in a forgetfulness somewhat
embarrassing. Joyce was trying to think of something to say when he
broke out once more, "Yes, I supposed of course you were a man, and not
so very young, either. I had pictured you the moral image of your
father"--he stopped an instant, then asked with a sort of regretful note
in his voice--"he _was_ your father?"
"Yes," said Joyce coldly. "Only I bear my mother's name for certain
private reasons."
"Yes. I had thought Lavillotte was merely a middle name. We have always
spoken of--of you--as young Early, here. But excuse me! I am very glad
to see you, Miss Lavillotte. You wish to go over the works, you say?"
"Yes, if perfectly convenient. And I want, if possible, to go inside one
or two of the houses, if I may. Could it be managed, Mr. Dalton?"
"Assuredly. Just let me announce you, and they'll be honored----"
"But wait a minute!" Joyce was gathering her wits again.
"Is the idea general here that I am a man?" smiling up into his face so
blithely that his eyes reflected the light in hers.
"Why, yes, I'm afraid it is. You see we know so little of Mr.--of your
father--in a personal way, and all I have said has been under that
impression. I humbly beg your pardon for it, Miss Lavillotte."
"No, you needn't. I'm not sure but I shall thank you for the mistake,
indeed. Let me think a minute. Yes, I believe I shall leave myself
undiscovered for a time, at least. I may see things more exactly as they
are in that way. But don't they know my name at all, Mr. Dalton?"
"I think not. You have only been mentioned as Early's son, I am certain.
There has been no occasion to speak of the heir except to one or two,
and I know the name Early was given him."
Joyce could scarcely keep from laughing outright at his tone and manner,
for he could not yet conceal his sense of the unexpected, even the
ludicrous, in this dénouement. And if it so impressed him, might it not
also make her something of a laughing-stock among her people, as she
liked to call them? Would they give her credit for knowing enough to try
and promote their interests in all she did? The idea of remaining
incognito appealed still more strongly to her, and she said slowly,
"I don't exactly relish the role of impostor, but it might be
justifiable in this case. Mr. Dalton, I want to make improvements here
that shall benefit the people directly, and I don't want to begin by
having them laugh at me--as you are doing."
He glanced up quickly at the reproachful tone, but catching the gleam of
fun in her eye relaxed happily.
"I didn't mean to," he said contritely, "but you took me so by surprise!
I am ready, now, to do whatever you wish done, and there shall be no
more laughing."
"Well, then, could we not--this is Miss Dover, Mr. Dalton--couldn't we
pass as acquaintances of yours, say? Don't people ever come to look the
Works over?"
"Not often, but they might. And shall I invent new names for you both?"
His manner was as alert as Joyce's own, now, and the perpendicular lines
were nearly smoothed out between his eyes.
"No. If, as you say, my name is unknown we will not dye ourselves too
deeply in deception. I think I'll remain Joyce Lavillotte, thank you!
Can we start at once?"
He seemed pleased at her eagerness, but gave her handsome mourning
costume a perplexed glance.
"Assuredly, only--I don't know much about such things, but aren't you
pretty well dressed to go around in the worst parts? There are some
dirty places, though it's clean work in the main. I know you wish to be
thorough," with an approving glance, "so I mention it. You haven't any
old frock that you could get at near by?"
At this instant Ellen was heard to give a little sniff and both turned
their gaze upon her, Dalton's questioning, and Joyce's laughing and
deprecatory.
"Did you speak, Ellen?" she asked mischievously.
"No 'm, I didn't, but I was just a-thinkin' that if you'd 'a' listened
to me and wore your old Henrietta-cloth----"
"But as usual I did not listen, Ellen, and we won't scold now about
unimportant matters. Lead on, Mr. Dalton; we're ready."
The man reached for his hat, closed his ledger carefully upon the pen he
had been using, then opened an inner door, and stood aside to let them
pass on through a short, narrow entry, from which another door led them
directly into the noise and vapors of the Works.