In the same way Clyde, on encountering her, was greatly stirred. Since
the abortive contact with Dillard, Rita and Zella, and afterwards the
seemingly meaningless invitation to the Griffiths with its introduction
to and yet only passing glimpse of such personages as Bella, Sondra
Finchley and Bertine Cranston, he was lonely indeed. That high world!
But plainly he was not to be allowed to share in it. And yet because
of his vain hope in connection with it, he had chosen to cut himself
off in this way. And to what end? Was he not if anything more lonely
than ever? Mrs. Peyton! Going to and from his work but merely nodding
to people or talking casually--or however sociably with one or another
of the storekeepers along Central Avenue who chose to hail him--or
even some of the factory girls here in whom he was not interested or
with whom he did not dare to develop a friendship. What was that? Just
nothing really. And yet as an offset to all this, of course, was he not
a Griffiths and so entitled to their respect and reverence even on this
account? What a situation really! What to do!
And at the same time, this Roberta Alden, once she was placed here
in this fashion and becoming more familiar with local conditions,
as well as the standing of Clyde, his charm, his evasive and yet
sensible interest in her, was becoming troubled as to her state too.
For once part and parcel of this local home she had joined she was
becoming conscious of various local taboos and restrictions which
made it seem likely that never at any time here would it be possible
to express an interest in Clyde of any one above her officially. For
there was a local taboo in regard to factory girls aspiring toward or
allowing themselves to become interested in their official superiors.
Religious, moral and reserved girls didn't do it. And again, as she
soon discovered, the lines of demarcation and stratification between
the rich and the poor in Lycurgus was as sharp as though cut by a knife
or divided by a high wall. And another taboo in regard to all the
foreign family girls and men,--ignorant, low, immoral, un-American! One
should--above all--have nothing to do with them.
But among these people as she could see--the religious and moral,
lower middle-class group to which she and all of her intimates
belonged--dancing or local adventurous gayety, such as walking the
streets or going to a moving picture theater--was also taboo. And yet
she, herself, at this time, was becoming interested in dancing. Worse
than this, the various young men and girls of the particular church
which she and Grace Marr attended at first, were not inclined to see
Roberta or Grace as equals, since they, for the most part, were members
of older and more successful families of the town. And so it was that
after a very few weeks of attendance of church affairs and services,
they were about where they had been when they started--conventional and
acceptable, but without the amount of entertainment and diversion which
was normally reaching those who were of their same church but better
placed.
And so it was that Roberta, after encountering Clyde and sensing the
superior world in which she imagined he moved, and being so taken
with the charm of his personality, was seized with the very virus of
ambition and unrest that afflicted him. And every day that she went to
the factory now she could not help but feel that his eyes were upon her
in a quiet, seeking and yet doubtful way. Yet she also felt that he was
too uncertain as to what she would think of any overture that he might
make in her direction to risk a repulse or any offensive interpretation
on her part. And yet at times, after the first two weeks of her stay
here, she wishing that he would speak to her--that he would make some
beginning--at other times that he must not dare--that it would be
dreadful and impossible. The other girls there would see at once. And
since they all plainly felt that he was too good or too remote for
them, they would at once note that he was making an exception in her
case and would put their own interpretation on it. And she knew the
type of a girl who worked in the Griffiths stamping room would put but
one interpretation on it,--that of looseness.
At the same time in so far as Clyde and his leaning toward her was
concerned there was that rule laid down by Gilbert. And although,
because of it, he had hitherto appeared not to notice or to give any
more attention to one girl than another, still, once Roberta arrived,
he was almost unconsciously inclined to drift by her table and pause in
her vicinity to see how she was progressing. And, as he saw from the
first, she was a quick and intelligent worker, soon mastering without
much advice of any kind all the tricks of the work, and thereafter
earning about as much as any of the others--fifteen dollars a week.
And her manner was always that of one who enjoyed it and was happy to
have the privilege of working here. And pleased to have him pay any
little attention to her.
At the same time he noted to his surprise and especially since to him
she seemed so refined and different, a certain exuberance and gayety
that was not only emotional, but in a delicate poetic way, sensual.
Also that despite her difference and reserve she was able to make
friends with and seemed to be able to understand the viewpoint of most
of the foreign girls who were essentially so different from her. For,
listening to her discuss the work here, first with Lena Schlict, Hoda
Petkanas, Angelina Pitti and some others who soon chose to speak to
her, he reached the conclusion that she was not nearly so conventional
or standoffish as most of the other American girls. And yet she did not
appear to lose their respect either.
Thus, one noontime, coming back from the office lunch downstairs
a little earlier than usual, he found her and several of the
foreign-family girls, as well as four of the American girls,
surrounding Polish Mary, one of the gayest and roughest of the
foreign-family girls, who was explaining in rather a high key how a
certain "feller" whom she had met the night before had given her a
beaded bag, and for what purpose.
"I should go with heem to be his sweetheart," she announced with a
flourish, the while she waved the bag before the interested group.
"And I say, I tack heem an' think on heem. Pretty nice bag, eh?" she
added, holding it aloft and turning it about. "Tell me," she added with
provoking and yet probably only mock serious eyes and waving the bag
toward Roberta, "what shall I do with heem? Keep heem an' go with heem
to be his sweetheart or give heem back? I like heem pretty much, that
bag, you bet."
And although, according to the laws of her upbringing, as Clyde
suspected, Roberta should have been shocked by all this, she was not,
as he noticed--far from it. If one might have judged from her face, she
was very much amused.
Instantly she replied with a gay smile: "Well, it all depends on how
handsome he is, Mary. If he's very attractive, I think I'd string him
along for a while, anyhow, and keep the bag as long as I could."
"Oh, but he no wait," declared Mary archly, and with plainly a keen
sense of the riskiness of the situation, the while she winked at Clyde
who had drawn near. "I got to give heem bag or be sweetheart to-night,
and so swell bag I never can buy myself." She eyed the bag archly and
roguishly, her own nose crinkling with the humor of the situation.
"What I do then?"
"Gee, this is pretty strong stuff for a little country girl like Miss
Alden. She won't like this, maybe," thought Clyde to himself.
However, Roberta, as he now saw, appeared to be equal to the situation,
for she pretended to be troubled. "Gee, you are in a fix," she
commented. "I don't know what you'll do now." She opened her eyes wide
and pretended to be greatly concerned. However, as Clyde could see, she
was merely acting, but carrying it off very well.
And frizzled-haired Dutch Lena now leaned over to say: "I take it and
him too, you bet, if you don't want him. Where is he? I got no feller
now." She reached over as if to take the bag from Mary, who as quickly
withdrew it. And there were squeals of delight from nearly all the
girls in the room, who were amused by this eccentric horseplay. Even
Roberta laughed loudly, a fact which Clyde noted with pleasure, for he
liked all this rough humor, considering it mere innocent play.
"Well, maybe you're right, Lena," he heard her add just as the whistle
blew and the hundreds of sewing machines in the next room began to hum.
"A good man isn't to be found every day." Her blue eyes were twinkling
and her lips, which were most temptingly modeled, were parted in a
broad smile. There was much banter and more bluff in what she said
than anything else, as Clyde could see, but he felt that she was not
nearly as narrow as he had feared. She was human and gay and tolerant
and good-natured. There was decidedly a very liberal measure of play
in her. And in spite of the fact that her clothes were poor, the same
little round brown hat and blue cloth dress that she had worn on first
coming to work here, she was prettier than anyone else. And she never
needed to paint her lips and cheeks like the foreign girls, whose faces
at times looked like pink-frosted cakes. And how pretty were her arms
and neck--plump and gracefully designed! And there was a certain grace
and abandon about her as she threw herself into her work as though
she really enjoyed it. As she worked fast during the hottest portions
of the day, there would gather on her upper lip and chin and forehead
little beads of perspiration which she was always pausing in her work
to touch with her handkerchief, while to him, like jewels, they seemed
only to enhance her charm.
Wonderful days, these, now for Clyde. For once more and here, where
he could be near her the long day through, he had a girl whom he
could study and admire and by degrees proceed to crave with all of the
desire of which he seemed to be capable--and with which he had craved
Hortense Briggs--only with more satisfaction, since as he saw it she
was simpler, more kindly and respectable. And though for quite a while
at first Roberta appeared or pretended to be quite indifferent to or
unconscious of him, still from the very first this was not true. She
was only troubled as to the appropriate attitude for her. The beauty
of his face and hands--the blackness and softness of his hair, the
darkness and melancholy and lure of his eyes. He was attractive--oh,
very. Beautiful, really, to her.
And then one day shortly thereafter, Gilbert Griffiths walking through
here and stopping to talk to Clyde, she was led to imagine by this that
Clyde was really much more of a figure socially and financially than
she had previously thought. For just as Gilbert was approaching, Lena
Schlict, who was working beside her, leaned over to say: "Here comes
Mr. Gilbert Griffiths. His father owns this whole factory and when he
dies, he'll get it, they say. And he's his cousin," she added, nodding
toward Clyde. "They look a lot alike, don't they?"
"Yes, they do," replied Roberta, slyly studying not only Clyde but
Gilbert, "only I think Mr. Clyde Griffiths is a little nicer looking,
don't you?"
Hoda Petkanas, sitting on the other side of Roberta and overhearing
this last remark, laughed. "That's what every one here thinks. He's not
stuck up like that Mr. Gilbert Griffiths, either."
"Is he rich, too?" inquired Roberta, thinking of Clyde.
"I don't know. They say not," she pursed her lips dubiously, herself
rather interested in Clyde along with the others. "He worked down in
the shrinking room before he came up here. He was just working by the
day, I guess. But he only came on here a little while ago to learn the
business. Maybe he won't work in here much longer."
Roberta was suddenly troubled by this last remark. She had not been
thinking, or so she had been trying to tell herself, of Clyde in any
romantic way, and yet the thought that he might suddenly go at any
moment, never to be seen by her any more, disturbed her now. He was so
youthful, so brisk, so attractive. And so interested in her, too. Yes,
that was plain. It was wrong to think that he would be interested in
her--or to try to attract him by any least gesture of hers, since he
was so important a person here--far above her.
For, true to her complex, the moment she heard that Clyde was so
highly connected and might even have money, she was not so sure that
he could have any legitimate interest in her. For was she not a poor
working girl? And was he not a very rich man's nephew? He would not
marry her, of course. And what other legitimate thing would he want
with her? She must be on her guard in regard to him.