JOYCE AND HER MANAGER.
"In _every_ house, Miss Lavillotte? Beg pardon, but have you considered
the cost?" Mr. Dalton wore his business face, with its sternest
expression, and it did not relent even when he looked up into hers.
Joyce smiled in spite of it, and fished out a newspaper-clipping from
her plethoric pocket-book, which she handed her manager with a
ceremonious air. He read it, and his visage grew perplexed and
miserable.
"M-mm, 'grand entertainment. Five hundred for flowers. Gown of hostess
embroidered in seed pearls. Jewels a thousand, and at least ten'--are
you sure this is what you meant me to read? You know it's all Greek to
me!" looking down with deprecation into her laughing, upturned eyes.
"Perfectly sure. You see who gave that entertainment?"
"Yes, I see."
"Is she a richer woman than I? Has she a larger income?"
"About the same, I presume."
"And the expenses she incurred, as detailed there, were for one
evening?"
"Yes. Doubtless this is greatly exaggerated, though. These news items
about swelldom usually are, aren't they?"
"I cannot tell, not belonging to swelldom, myself. But granting all
that, and allowing even half off, if you say so, it will still exceed
what this plan is to cost me. And my little fun is not for one lone
evening, but for a whole year, in which nearly five hundred people will
share and be benefited--not simply amused or bored."
"You are good at arguing, Miss Lavillotte, and your money is your own.
If you wish to squander it that way"--He stopped abruptly, warned by the
flash of her eye.
"I had not used that word in this connection," she said coldly, "but you
may if you choose."
"Well," he returned, in some desperation, "we'll drop the word
'squander,' then, if it is offensive to you. But you must allow you are
spending a great deal, mustn't you? Some of it is well spent, I'll
admit, and--and it's none of my business at all--but when it comes to
telephones and for those people--please don't be angry, Miss
Lavillotte!--it does seem absurd."
Joyce laughed good-naturedly. His distress was genuine.
"I know it must from your point of view, but now pray listen to mine. I
believe that there are certain essentials of easy living that ought to
be practically free to all, and might be, if managed correctly. Of
these, four are air and water, light and heat, and the fifth is prompt
communication with your fellow-men. When my grandmother was a girl it
cost a neat little sum to send a letter anywhere, and hundreds of
families, unable to bear the expense of correspondence, lost sight of
each other, often for years, sometimes for life, in the unavoidable
separation which must come to all growing households. After a time this
matter appealed so strongly to thinking men that they decided to make a
great national matter of it, and they established a wonderful mail
service, and have kept lowering the rates and adding to the perfection
of the service, until now hardly any one is so poor he cannot write a
line to a friend, if only on a postal card. Now a quicker, better means
of communication is given us in the telephone and telegraph, and I claim
that these should also be regulated and run by government in the
interests of the people, and thus made available to all at nominal
rates. I can't control Congress, but I can control Littleton with its
few hundred souls, and that I mean to do in this. Every house shall have
its 'phone, that every person may have the opportunity to express his
wants at once, or to call in help, if needed."
Dalton gave a hopeless shrug.
"They'll use them for gossiping, mostly."
"No, that is to be regulated. The time allowed for each separate use
will be short, and if any abuse the privilege they will be cut off."
"Humph! Do you expect one central to manage it all?"
"Yes, one officer, but not one girl. I shall have four people, all told,
two girls for day hours and two men for night hours. I intend to have
them work in relays--four hours off and four on. It is too nervous a
strain for longer hours than that. The night operators will have a cot
for the one off duty, so that if anything unusual happens the waking one
can call the other. I think it must be doleful to stay alone in such a
place during those gruesome night hours. I couldn't have it at all."
Dalton laughed outright.
"Positively, Miss Lavillotte, you are too funny! Do you expect to do
away with everything disagreeable in your model village?"
"I wish I could, but I do not hope for that. Disagreeable people, who
oppose one in everything, will always exist, I fear." Her tone was
innocently sad. "But I do mean to try and eradicate what is
unnecessarily disagreeable, if scheming can do it. And now, if you are
through laughing, Mr. Dalton, I will tell you how I propose to pay for
this telephone service without feeling it so severely as you seem to
think I shall."
"I am listening, madam."
"Well, I have made a contract, only awaiting your approval and
signature, to furnish the glass insulators and the jars, so many
thousand a year--wait! I have the figures here somewhere. I never could
remember figures--ah! here it is--in exchange."
"You have? Well, I declare! You really do show aptitude for business,
I'll have to own."
"Don't I?" laughing with as much pleasure as a child that has turned
scolding into praise. "I'm delighted about it in more ways than one. It
will give employment to our unskilled hands, who are now idle half the
time. Even the children can turn a penny on their holidays, if they
like."
Dalton caught at the paper and looked it over with careful scrutiny, his
face lighting as he gazed.
"Really!" he said at length, glancing up to give her an approving nod,
"really, this isn't bad--that is, I mean you have made a good bargain,
for all I can see, and given us the opportunity to work up a new line
that may prove lucrative. I wouldn't have thought it of a girl--a young
lady like you."
She laughed amusedly.
"I'm glad I have been able to please you at last, Mr. Dalton! The
electricians will begin wiring the town in a few days. They will put in
a cheap style of 'phone, as it is not looks we are after but
convenience, and will hurry the work right through." She stopped with
some hesitation of manner, but looked as if more was to come, and her
manager gave her a respectful, questioning glance.
"There's another thing," she said presently in a rather faint voice,
"the central office is also to be an exchange."
"A--what?"
"An exchange. You see, that's really my main reason for having the
'phones. I want my people to learn what the one right principle of
exchange is. We talk about money being the medium of exchange, and as
such it is thought to be the best thing on earth. Yet the greed of it is
the root of all evil. I want to come back to first principles a little,
and exchange from man to man, without this pernicious medium that has
filled us with covetousness and a lack of consideration for others. I
want to see if people are really so callous and cold to each other as
they seem, or if this unreadiness to help is only because we are too
greatly separated by the many mediums interposed--which prove barriers
instead of channels. I want to find if every need cannot somehow,
somewhere, meet its fulfilment, unless death itself has shut out the
way. It is too limited a field, here, to learn absolutely, but it may
give us some idea, and then----"
Mr. Dalton had settled back into his chair with a non-committal
expression, and was drumming on the desk before him.
"I'm afraid," he murmured in a concise tone, "that you are talking above
my head."
Joyce, rudely aroused from her introspective vision, looked at him
rather blankly a moment, then sprang to her feet. At first she seemed
offended, then cried briskly, with a mischievous air,
"And through my hat? I know that is what you wanted to say! Well, never
mind. Some people hunt for north poles, some for new continents in the
tropics, some are content with finding an unclassified species of bug. I
want to experiment with human needs and longings a bit. It is my fad
just now. You know fads are fashionable."
"Miss Lavillotte, did any one ever tell you that you are a despot?"
"I?" Joyce's eyes opened their widest, "I a despot!"
"Yes. You want to rule as absolutely as any Czar; but not only that; you
want to play the part of Providence, and watch the workings of your
will----"
"Stop! Mr. Barrington said that, and I told him I wanted my people to
play that part to each other. And I am right. It was the teaching of
Christ. 'Do it in My name'--surely it _is_ right! Mr. Dalton, it is
unfair, even ridiculous, if I may so speak, to lay all our mistakes and
misdemeanors at the door of our Creator. He gives us sense, reason,
patience, ingenuity. What are they for? To be hidden in a napkin till
some crushing calamity comes and shakes us out of our indifference
enough to make us exercise them? No! They are given us to prevent
calamity, to wrest from earth, air, and sea what is needed for our
comfort. He gave man _dominion_. That does not mean just sitting back
and bearing with resignation. It means using every faculty to reduce
contending forces to our requirements. Patience is not half a virtue
when it simply implies an uncomplaining endurance because one thinks he
must endure. The patience that will _not_ endure, but tries and tries
again to rectify the ill is the best patience. It never turns aside,
never lays down its tools, always has a new plan when the old is crushed
out--that is the real patience! You call me a despot--you are unjust! It
is only that you don't understand, I do not want to rule for the sake of
power, but because people are so supine they will not learn to rule
without being pushed into it. I do want to learn to shape circumstances,
but not to control Littleton. I do wish to teach them what
self-government really means, though. And see how I am placed. Here is
this great fortune which I will not use for myself partly because my
needs are simple, partly because--well, because I won't. Thus I am given
an opportunity few can have. Many have my ideas without the money; a few
have the money without the ideas. It happens I have both, and I mean to
try for myself whether it is not possible for a community to live on
little money and yet have the comforts--yes, even what some consider the
luxuries--of life, simply through perfect co-operation, swift
communication, and a governing power that is centered in their wishes
for their best good."
She stopped abruptly and put her palms to her face with a child-like
movement. Her cheeks were hot and flushed.
"How silly to get so excited! You will question my plans with reason if
I cannot keep my head in argument."
"One has to question till one can thoroughly understand. These are
thoughts I have never gone into, Miss Lavillotte, I have been in danger
of forgetting that there was anything more in life than just
money-making. Will you tell me more, some day?"
His humble tone melted Joyce.
"Any time you like. And you know, Mr. Dalton, you are the real manager
of it all. I shall have to look to you for the practical application of
my possibly unpractical ideas. When I soar too high you must jerk me
down to level ground."
"I begin to think I might like a cloud-ride myself occasionally, just
for variety's sake," he laughed. "And I'll do whatever you tell me to,
Miss Lavillotte," he added stoutly. "If the Works go to the dogs, all
right, but you shall be obeyed! Only--may I ask a question?"
"Certainly."
"Have you put something safely away for your future where it can't be
affected by things here?"
"Have I? Certainly not! Do you think I would make myself safe and sure
when I might be wrecking so many? No, but unfortunately, on my mother's
side, they are cautious. My great-uncle takes care of the right I have
there, and I have never been allowed to meddle with it. He sends me two
hundred dollars a month, and this is all I need for my living."
"Do you mean?"--His expressive glance swept her well-dressed person and
she raised her hand protestingly.
"Don't ask too many questions!" she laughed. "Ellen used to be in a
great modiste's establishment and knows the tricks of the trade. My
dress and table cost me less a year than most women of means spend in a
month. But good-by--oh! I forgot to say, Marie Sauzay is to be one of
the telephone girls."
"Marie? The cripple?"
"Yes, she will go to and fro on a tricycle chair, and can thus eke out
her sister's earnings. The knowledge that she can do this will almost
make her well, I know. She is so ambitious! A messenger has been
negotiating with her and told me of her delight in the prospects. The
other girl will be a trained one sent by the company. Will you select my
night men? They must be sober fellows--possibly somebody can be found
who is not good in the Works."
"I'll see to it, and, Miss Lavillotte----"
"Well?"
"Who put all these ideas into your head, please? You are so young!"
She smiled, while blushing deeply.
"Won't you give me any credit for originality, Mr. Dalton? How can one
tell where one picks up ideas? They are like pebbles in our pathway;
sometimes we never even see them, but carelessly scuff them aside as we
walk. Then the sun of somebody's genius shines out and shows them to be
gems, and we hasten to pick them up and claim them for our own. I have
been taught when to watch for the sun's shining--that's all!"
She waved her hand, nodded, and hurried out of the office, leaving
Dalton gazing after her with an eager, baffled face.