EVERYBODY'S DUTY
Due to the old-fashioned, rambling style of the house, the rustic
stairway did not really detract from its beauty. And as there were
already clambering vines and roses in profusion, an extra arbor more or
less, could, as Eveley claimed, pass without serious comment. Although
the house was old, it was still exquisitely beautiful, with its cream
white pillars and columns showing behind the mass of green. And the lawn,
which was no lawn but only a natural park running riot with foliage
coaxed into endless lovers' nooks and corners, was a fitting and
marvelously beautiful setting for it.
The gardens were in the shape of a triangle, with conventional paved
streets on the north and west, but on the east and south they drifted
away into the shadowy canyon which stretched down almost to the bay, and
came out on the lower streets of the water-front.
Eveley stood on her rustic stairway and gloated over it lovingly,--the
rambling house, the rambling gardens, the beautiful rambling canyon, and
then on below to the lights on the bay, clustered together in
companionable groups.
"Loma Portal, Fort Rosecranz, North Island, Coronado, and the boats in
the bay," she whispered softly, pointing slowly to the separate groups.
And her eyes were very warm, for she loved each separate light in every
cluster, and she was happy that she was at home again, in the place that
had been home to her since the days of her early memory.
Eveley's mother had been born in the house on Thorn Street, as had her
sister, Eloise, the aunt with whom the girls had lived for many years.
And after the death of her husband, when Eveley was a tiny baby, Emily
Ainsworth had taken her two girls and gone back to live with her sister
in the family home. There a few years later she too had passed away,
leaving her children in the tender, loving hands of Aunt Eloise. And the
years had passed until there came a time when Winifred was married, and
Eveley and her aunt lived on alone, though always happily.
But investments had gone badly, and returns went down as expenses went
up. So Eveley studied stenography, and took genuine pleasure in her
career as a business girl. With her salary, and their modest income, the
two had managed nicely. Then when Aunt Eloise went out to join her
sister, the Thorn Street house was left to Eveley, and other property
given to Winifred to compensate. So that to Eveley it was only coming
home to return to the big house and the rambling gardens. But to meet the
expenses of maintenance it was necessary that part of the large house
should be rented.
Eveley, always adaptable, moved serenely into her cote at the head of the
stairs, and felt that life was still kind and God was good, for this was
home, and it was hers, and she had come to stay.
She almost regretted the impulsive promise to her sister that drew her
out of her dwelling on the first night of her tenancy. Not only did she
begrudge the precious first-night hours away from her pretty cote in the
clouds, but she was not charmed with the arrangement for the evening. She
was an ardent devotee of clubs of action, rowing, tennis, country,
dancing and golf, but for that other type of club, which she described as
"where a lot of women sit around with their hats on, and drink tea, and
have somebody make speeches about things," she felt no innate tenderness.
It was really a trick on the part of Winifred that procured the promise
of attendance. For Eveley had been allowed to believe they were going to
play cards and that there would be regular refreshments of substance, and
perhaps a little dancing later on. All this had been submitted to by
inference, without a word of direct confirmation from Winifred, who had a
conscience.
So it was that Eveley Ainsworth, irreproachably attired in a new
georgette blouse and satin skirt, betook herself to her sister's home for
an evening meeting of the Current Club. And it was a decided shock to
find that neither a social game nor a soul-restoring midnight supper were
in store for her, but the proverbial tea and speeches. She resigned
herself, however, to the inevitable, and shrank back as obscurely as
possible into a dark corner where she might muse on the charms of Nolan,
the beauties of the new Buddy Gillian, the martial dignity of Captain
Hardin, and the appeals of all the rest, to her frivolous heart's
content.
In this manner, she passed through the first part of the evening very
comfortably, only dimly aware that she was floundering in the outskirts
of a perfect maze of big words dealing with Americanization, which Eveley
vaguely understood to be something on the order of standing up to _The
Star Spangled Banner_, and marching in parades with a flag and shouting
"Hurrah for the President," in the presence of foreigners.
The third speaker was a minister, and ministers are accustomed to
penetrating the blue mazes of mental abstraction. This minister did. He
began by telling three funny stories, and Eveley, who loved to exercise
her sense of humor, came back to the Current Club and joined their
laughter.
In the very same breath with which he ended the last funny story, he
began breezily discoursing on everybody's duty as a loyal American.
Eveley, to whom the word "duty" was the original red rag, sniffed
inaudibly but indignantly to herself. And while she was still sniffing
the speaker left "duty as American citizens" far behind, and was deep in
the intricacies of Americanization. Eveley found to her surprise that
this was something more than saluting the flag and shouting. She grew
quite interested. It seemed that ordinary, regular people were
definitely, determinedly working with little scraps of the foreign
elements, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, Italian, yes, even German,--though
Eveley considered it asking entirely too much, even of Heaven, to elevate
shreds of German infamy to American standards. At any rate, people were
doing this thing, taking the pliant, trusting mind of the foreigner,
petting it, training it, coaxing it,--until presently the flotsam and
jetsam of the Orient, of war-torn Europe, of the islands of the sea, of
all the world, should be Americanized into union, and strength, and
loyalty, and love.
It fascinated Eveley. She forgot that it was her duty as a patriotic
American. She forgot that nobody had any business doing anything but
minding one's own business. She fairly burned to have a part in the work
of assimilation. Her eyes glowed with eagerness, her cheeks flushed a
vivid scarlet, her lips trembled with the ecstatic passion of loyalty.
In the open discussion that followed after the last address, Eveley
suddenly, quite to her own surprise, found that she had something to say.
"But--isn't it mostly talk?" she asked, half shyly, anxious not to
offend, but unable to repress the doubt in her mind. "It does not seem
practical. You say we must assimilate the foreign element. But can one
assimilate a foreign element? Doesn't the fact that it is foreign--make
it impossible of assimilation? Oh, I know we have to do something, but as
long as we are foreigners, we to them, and they to us,--what can we do?"
The deadly silence that greeted her words frightened her, yet somehow
gave her courage to go on. She must be saying something rather sensible,
or they would not pay attention.
"We can not assimilate food elements that are foreign to the digestive
organs," she said. "Labor and capital have warred for years, and neither
can assimilate the other. Look at domestic conditions here,--in the home,
you know. People get married,--men and women, of opposing types and
interests and standards. And they can not assimilate each other, and the
divorce courts are running rampant. It does no good to say assimilation
is a duty, if it is impossible. And it seems to be."
"Your criticism is destructive, Miss Ainsworth," said a learned professor
who had spoken first, and Eveley was sorry now that she had not listened
to him. "Destructive criticism is never helpful. Have you anything
constructive to offer?"
"Well, maybe it is theoretic, also," said Eveley smiling faintly, and
although the smile was faint, it was Eveley's own, which could not be
resisted. "But duty isn't big enough, nor adaptable enough, nor winning
enough. There must be some stronger force to set in action. Nobody could
ever win me by doing his duty by me. It takes something very intimate,
very direct, and very personal really to get me. But if one says a word,
or gives me a look,--just because he understands me, and likes me,--well,
I am his friend for life. It takes a personal touch, a touch that is
guided not by duty but by love. So I think maybe the foreign element is
the same way. We've got to sort of chum up with it, and find out the nice
things in it first. They will find the nice things in us afterward."
"But as you say, Miss Ainsworth, isn't this only talk? How would you go
about chumming up with the foreign element?"
"I do not know, Professor," she said brightly. "But I think it can be
done. And I think it has to be done, or there can not be any
Americanization."
"Well, are you willing to try your own plan? We are conducting classes,
games, studies, among the foreigners, working with them, teaching them,
studying them. We call this our duty as loyal Americans. You say duty is
not enough, and you want to get chummy with them. Will you try getting
chummy and see where you come out?"
Eveley looked fearfully about the room, at the friendly earnest faces.
"I--I feel awfully quivery in my backbone," she faltered. "But I will try
it. You get me the foreigners, and I will practise on them. And if I
can't get chummy with them, and like them, why, I shall admit you are
right and I will help to teach them spelling, and things."