The New Help
Geraldine, begging to be excused from supper on the night of her
arrival, drank the glass of milk that Mrs. Carder gave her, and at an
early hour laid an aching head on her pillow and slept fitfully through
the night.
A heavy rain began to fall and continued in the morning. She still felt
singularly numb toward the world and life in general. Her own room was
bad enough, but outside it was the bare landscape, the desolate house,
and its vulgar host.
Mrs. Carder, under orders from her son, presented herself early with a
tray on which were coffee and toast, and the girl had more than a twinge
of compunction at being waited on by the worn, wrinkled old woman.
"This is Sunday," she said. "I feel very tired. If you will let me stay
here and be lazy until this afternoon, I should like it, but only on
condition that you promise not to bring me anything more or take any
trouble for me."
"Just as you say," responded the old woman; and she reported this
request below stairs. Her son received it with a nod.
All the afternoon he hovered near the parlour with its horsehair
furniture, and about four-thirty the young girl came downstairs. He
greeted her effusively and she endeavored to pass him and go to the
kitchen. The most lively sensation of which she was conscious now was
compassion for the old woman who had brought up her breakfast.
"No, don't go out there," said Rufus decidedly. "Ma is giving the hands
their supper. You'd only be in the way. Sit down and take it easy while
you can."
The speaker established the reluctant guest in a slippery rocking-chair
of ancient days. The atmosphere seemed to indicate that the room had
awakened from a long sleep for her reception.
Rufus sat down near her. "We're a democratic bunch here," he said, eying
his companion as if he could never drink in enough of her youth and
beauty. "We usually eat all together, but distinguished company, you
know," he smiled and winked at her while she listened to the clatter of
knives and forks at the long table in the kitchen. "We'll have our
supper when they get through."
"I should think the servants might relieve your mother of that work,"
said Geraldine.
"Servants! Hired girl, do you mean? Nice time we'd have tryin' to keep
'em here. Oh, Ma's pert as a cricket. She don't mind the work. That's
real kindness, you know, to old folks," he continued. "All a mistake to
put 'em on the shelf. They're lots happier doin' the work they're
accustomed to."
"To-morrow I shall be helping her," said Geraldine mechanically, her
whole soul shrinking from the gloating expression in her companion's
face.
"Depends on how you do it," he responded protectingly. "I don't want
those hands put in dishwater."
"I shall do whatever your mother will let me do," responded the girl
quickly. "That is what I came for. I've come here to earn my living."
Rufus Carder laughed leniently, and leaning forward would have patted
her hand, but she drew it away with a quick motion which warned him to
proceed slowly. In her eyes was an indignant light.
"You can do about as you like with me, little girl," he said fondly. "If
it's a dishwasher for Ma that you want, why, I'll have to get one,
that's all."
"I heard that you have found it very difficult to get help out here."
"I always get whatever I go after," was the reply. And the guest had a
fleeting consolation in the thought that she might make easier the lot
of that wrinkled slave in the kitchen.
"You don't know yet all I can do for you," pursued Carder, and Geraldine
writhed under the self-satisfied gaze which seemed to be taking stock of
her person from head to foot; "nor what I intend to do," he added. "My
wife was a plain sort of woman and I've been wrapped up in business. See
that little buildin' down there side o' the road? That's my office. I
can see everybody who comes in or goes out of the place and can keep my
hand on everything that's doin' on the farm. I've held my nose pretty
close to the grindstone and I've earned the right to let up a little. I
know you find things very plain here, but I'm goin' to give you leave to
do it all over. I intend you shall have just what you want, little
girl."
Every time Rufus Carder used that expression, "little girl," a strange
sensation of nausea crept again around Geraldine's heart. It was as if
he actually caressed her with those big-jointed and not over-clean
hands. She still remembered the pleading of his mother not to make him
angry.
"Your mother should be your first thought," she said.
"Well, that's all right," he returned. "Of course she's gettin' along
and I put water in the kitchen for her this year; but it's legitimate
for young folks to begin where old folks leave off. If it wa'n't so, how
would there be any improvement in the world? You and I'll make lots o'
trips to town until you get this old house to lookin' just the way you
want it. I'm sorry Dick Melody can't come out and see us here."
Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. Tears of grief and an infinite
resentment that this coarse creature could so familiarly name her
father.
Mrs. Carder here appeared to announce that their supper was ready, so no
more was said until in the next room they found a small table set for
two.
"Have you eaten your supper, Mrs. Carder?" Geraldine asked of the
harassed and heated little woman who was hurrying back and forth loaded
with dishes.
"Yes, much as I ever do," was the reply. "I get my meals on the fly."
Then, meeting her son's lowering expression, she hastened to add, "I get
all I want that way, you know. It's the way I like the best."
"It isn't the way you must do while I'm here," responded Geraldine
firmly. "You're tired out. Come and sit down with your son and let me
wait on you while you rest."
"Don't that sound daughterly?" remarked Rufus exultantly. "Perhaps I
didn't know how to pick out the right girl. What?" His mother, relieved
by his returned complacence, became voluble with reassurances; and
Geraldine, seeing that Rufus's hand was approaching her arm, hastily
slid into her chair and he took the opposite place.
"Didn't I tell you we'd make up for the lunch that great porpoise
cheated us out of yesterday?" he said in high good-humor.
Geraldine's desolate heart yearned after the kind friend so soon lost.
"That'll do, Ma. I guess the grub's all on the table. Go chase yourself.
Miss Melody'll pour my coffee."
"Don't wash any of the dishes, Mrs. Carder, please, until I get out
there," said Geraldine.
The old woman disappeared with one last glance at her son whom Geraldine
eyed with sudden steadiness.
He smiled at her with semi-toothless fondness.
"Give me my coffee, little girl. I'm famished. Isn't this jolly--just
you and me?"
Geraldine poured the coffee and handed him the cup; then she spoke
impressively.
"Mr. Carder, this is the last time this must happen. I refuse to sit
down and make a waitress of your old mother. If you insist on showing
her no consideration, I shall go away from here at once."
Her companion laughed, quietly, but with genuine amusement and
admiration.
"By ginger," he said, "when you're mad, you're the handsomest thing
above ground. Go away! That's a good one. Don't I tell you, you can do
anything with me?" The speaker paused to drink his coffee noisily,
keeping his eyes on the exquisite, stiff little mouth opposite him. "I
know I ain't any dandy to look at. I've been too busy rollin' up the
money that's goin' to make you go on velvet the rest o' your days:
you're welcome to change all that, too. Yes, indeed. Never fear. When we
do over the house we're goin' to do over yours truly, too. I'll do
exactly as you say and you can turn me out a fashion plate that'll be
hard to beat."
"I'm not interested in turning you out a fashion plate," returned
Geraldine coldly. "I'm interested in making the lot of your mother
easier, that is all."
Rufus regarded her thoughtfully and nodded. It penetrated his brain that
he had been going too fast with this disdainful beauty. He rather
admired her for her disdain; it added zest to the certainty of her
capitulation.
"Have it your own way, little girl," he said leniently. "I know you're
tired, still. You're not eatin'. Eat a good supper and to-night take
another long sleep and to-morrow everything will look different."
Geraldine still regarded him with an unfaltering gaze. "We are
strangers," she said. "I wish you not to call me 'little girl!'"
Rufus smiled at her admiringly. "It's hard for me to be formal with Dick
Melody's girl," he said. "What shall I call you? My lady? That's all
right, that's what you are. My lady. Another cup o' coffee please, my
lady. It tastes extra good from your fair hands. We'll do away with this
rocky tea-set, too. You're goin' to have eggshell China if you want it;
and of course you do want it, you little princess."
His extreme air of proprietorship had several times during this
interview convinced Geraldine that her host had been drinking. In spite
of his odious frank admiration and the glimpses that he gave of some
disquieting power, Geraldine scorned him too much to be afraid of him,
and while she doubted increasingly that it would be possible for her to
remain here, she determined to see what the morning would bring forth.
The man's passion for acquisition, evidenced by his showmanship of his
accumulations, might again absorb him after the first flush of her
novelty wore off. She would enter into the work of the house, she would
never again sit _tete-a-tete_ with him, and he should find it impossible
to see her alone. His mother had warned her that he was terrible when he
was angry, and Geraldine suspected that the mother always felt the brunt
of his wrath. She must be careful, therefore, not to make the lot of
that mother harder while endeavoring to ease it.
As soon as she could, Geraldine escaped to the kitchen where she found
Mrs. Carder at her wet sink.
"I asked you to wait for me, Mrs. Carder," she said.
The old woman looked up from her steaming pan, her countenance full of
trouble.
"Now, Rufus don't want you to do anything like this, Miss Melody, and
Pete's helpin' me, you see."
Geraldine turned and saw a boy who was carrying a heavy, steaming kettle
from the stove to the sink, and she met his eyes fixed upon her. She
recognized him at once as the driver of the motor in which she and her
host had come from the station. As the chauffeur he had appeared like a
boy of ordinary size, but now she saw that his arms were long and his
legs short and bowed, and in height he would barely reach her shoulder.
The dwarf had a long, solemn, tanned face and a furtive, sullen eye.
Geraldine remembered Rufus Carder's rough tone as he had summoned him at
the station. He was perhaps a wretched, lonely creature like herself.
She met his look with a smile that, directed toward his master, would
have sent Rufus into the seventh heaven of complacence.
"I have met Pete already," she said, kindly. "He drove us up from the
station. I'm glad you are helping Mrs. Carder, Pete. She seems to have
too much to do."
The boy did not reply, but he appeared unable to remove his eyes from
Geraldine's kind look, and careless of where he was going he stumbled
against the sink.
"Look out, Pete!" exclaimed his mistress. "What makes you so clumsy? You
nearly scalded me. I guess he's tired, too." The old woman sighed.
"Everybody picks on Pete. They all find something for him to do."
"Then run away now," said Geraldine, still warming the boy's dull eyes
with her entrancing smile, "and let me take your place. I can dry dishes
as fast as anybody can wash them."
The dwarf slowly backed away, and disappeared into the woodshed, keeping
his gaze to the last on the sunny-haired loveliness which had invaded
the ugliness of that low-ceiled kitchen.
Geraldine seized a dish-towel, and Mrs. Carder, her hands in the suds,
cast a troubled glance around at her.
"Rufus won't like it," she declared timorously.
"Why should you say anything so foolish? What did I come out here for?"
The old woman looked around at her with a brief, strange look.
"You couldn't get help," went on Geraldine, "and so as I needed a home I
came."
"Is that what they told you?"
"Yes. That is what my stepmother told me, and I see it is true. You seem
to have no one here but men."
"Yes," replied Mrs. Carder. "It--it hasn't been a healthy place for
girls." She cast a glance toward the door as she spoke in a lowered
voice.
"Dreadfully lonely, you mean?" inquired Geraldine, unpleasantly affected
by the other's timidity. "The woman has no spirit," she added mentally
with some impatience.
Mrs. Carder looked full in her eyes for a silent space; then: "Rufus can
do anything he wants to--anything," she whispered.
Geraldine, in the act of wiping a coarse, thick dinner-plate, met the
other's gaze with a little frown.
"Don't give in to him, my dear," went on the sharp whisper. "You are too
beautiful, too young. He's crazy about you, so you be firm. Don't give
in to him. Insist on his marrying you!"
The thick dinner-plate fell to the floor with a crash.
"Marrying him!" ejaculated Geraldine.
"Sh! Sh! Oh, Miss Melody, hush!"
Geraldine began to shiver from head to foot. The lover-like words and
actions of her host seemed rushing back to memory with all the other
repulsive experiences of past weeks.
The kitchen door opened and the master appeared.
"Who's smashing the crockery?" he inquired.
"It's your awkward help," rejoined Geraldine, her teeth chattering as
she stooped to pick up the plate.
"I knew you weren't fit for this kind of thing," he said tenderly,
approaching, to the girl's horror. "Where's that confounded Pete?"
"I sent him away," said Geraldine, indignant with herself for trembling.
"I wanted to do this; it is what I came for. The plate didn't break."
The man regarded her flushed face with a gaze that scorched her.
"Break everything in the old shack if you want to--that is, all but one
thing!"
He stood for half a minute more while his mother scalded a new pan full
of dishes.
"What is that poem," he went on--"What's that about, 'Thou shalt not
wash dishes nor yet feed the swine'? Well, well, we'll see later."
Geraldine's heart was pounding too hard to allow her to speak. She
seized another plate in her towel, his mother, her wrinkled lips pursed,
kept her eyes on her dishpan, so with a pleased smile at his own apt
quotation the master reluctantly removed his presence from the room.
"I'm very sorry for you, Mrs. Carder," said Geraldine breathlessly,
meanwhile holding her plate firmly lest another crash bring back the
owner, "but I can't stay here. I must go away to-morrow."
Her companion gave a fleeting glance around at the girl, and her
withered lips relaxed in a smile as she shook her head.
"Oh, no, you won't, my dear."
At the unexpected reply Geraldine's heart thumped harder.
"I certainly shall, Mrs. Carder. I'm sorry not to stay and help you, but
it's impossible."
"It will be impossible for you to go," was the colorless reply. "Nobody
goes away from here till Rufus is ready they should; then they leave
whether they have any place to go to or not. It's goin' to be different
with you. I can see that. You needn't be scared by what I said, a minute
ago. You are safe. You've got a home for life. I only hope you won't let
him send me away." The old woman again turned around to Geraldine and
her tired old eyes filled with tears.
"Nothing should be too good for you with all your son's money," rejoined
Geraldine hotly.
Her panic-stricken thought was centered now on one idea. Escape. The
night was closing in. The clouds had cleared away. The stretches of
fields in all directions, the lack of neighbors, the horrors of the old
woman's implications, all weighed on the girl like a crushing nightmare.
The dishes at last put away, she bade the weary old woman good-night,
and apprehensively looking from side to side stole to the stairway
without encountering anyone and mounting to her dreary chamber she
locked the door.
She hurried to the window and looked out.
A half-moon in the sky showed her that the distance down was too far to
jump. She might sprain or break one of those ankles which must go fast
and far to-night.
Packing her belongings back in her bag she sat down to wait. Gradually
all sounds about the house ceased. Still she waited. The minutes seemed
hours, but not until her watch pointed to midnight did she put on her
hat and jacket and slip off her shoes.
Then going to the door she gradually turned the key. The process was
remarkably noiseless. If only the hinges were as friendly. Very, very
slowly she turned the knob and very, very slowly opened the door. Not a
sound.
When the opening was wide enough to admit her body she was gliding
through, when her stockinged foot struck something soft. She thought it
was a dog lying across the threshold, and only by heroic effort she
controlled the cry that sprang to her lips. The dark mass half rose, and
by the faint moonlight she could see two long, suddenly out-flung arms.
"Pete," she whispered, "Pete, you _will_ let me pass!"
"I'm sorry, lady. He'd kill me. He'd tear me to pieces," came back the
whisper.
"Please, Pete," desperately, "I'll do anything for you. Please,
_please_!"
For answer the long arms pushed her back through the open door. Another
door opened and Rufus Carder's nasal voice sounded. "You there, Pete?"
A sonorous snore was the only answer. For a minute that other door
remained open, but the rhythmical snoring continued, and at last the
latch was heard to close.
Geraldine again cautiously opened her door a crack.
"Pete," she whispered.
The dwarf snored.
"Please talk to me, Pete. I'm sure you are a kind boy." The pleading
whisper received no answer beyond the heavy breathing.
"I want to ask your advice. I want you to tell me what I can do. I'm
sure you don't love your master."
A sort of snort interrupted the snoring which then went on rhythmically
as before.
Geraldine closed her door noiselessly. She sat down white and unnerved.
She was a prisoner, then. For a time her mind was in such a whirl that
she was unable to form a plan.
She put her hand to her head.
"I must try to sleep if I can in this hideous place. Then to-morrow I
may be able to think."
Locking the door, she drew the bureau against it; then she undressed and
fell into bed. Her youth and exhaustion did the rest. She slept until
morning.