Hertha and Kathleen were estranged. From enthusiastic, joyful praise at
her courage and pluck in leaving the shop, Kathleen had changed to
tiresome nagging because her friend would not picket. Seated opposite
her at table in the evening by the lamp in the front room, the
Irishwoman, once a successful, aggressive labor leader, would explain,
sometimes impetuously, sometimes with slow emphasis as if to a child,
the ethics of the strike. To go out, she declared, was but the
beginning; the end was the winning of better conditions in the trade.
What good was it that all these young strikers, many of them supporting
mother or sister or brother, should lose their jobs, unless they might
obtain them again under better conditions than before? Was it likely
that the manufacturer of "Imperial" waists would go about asking his
girls to return to him? Could not Hertha see that these workers were
engaged in a desperate battle for better working-class conditions that,
with good generalship, might result in victory; but that without
sacrifice and heroism, and forgetfulness of self, would end in
disastrous defeat? Then she pictured the defeat; the homes without food,
the drawn, girlish faces, the bitter disappointment as the shop took on
more and more scabs and continued to manufacture its goods. If the talk
were in the morning at the late breakfast in which Hertha was reveling,
it was, "There they are, dearie, out in the street in front of the
building you left, waiting for you to come and help them in their weary
work." Or if the hour were evening, "And to-morrow, mavourneen, I'll be
getting a fine breakfast for you with a cup of coffee and the bacon with
the egg the way you like it, and you'll go to your sisters who are doing
their duty as pickets, trying to keep the scabs from taking their jobs."
But Hertha would not picket. She said little in response to Kathleen's
explanations, her pleading or her upbraidings. It had never been her way
to talk. Probably what Kathleen said was true but she was not going to
picket. She loathed it from every point of view held up to her. She
could not go to a girl whom she had never seen before and ask her not to
take her job. It would be impertinent and rude and lastly ridiculous,
for she was very glad that she had left the "Imperial" shop. Nor could
she walk hour after hour up and down the street always keeping in motion
lest the policeman call out at her that she was blocking the way. She
shrank at the thought of the hundreds of eyes that she believed would be
cast upon her. No, she would not picket.
Moreover she was beginning to think for herself. As Sophie Switsky had
explained the ways of trade the whole thing was silly. She could not
accept the ethics, or lack of ethics, in the relation of the worker to
his task. That against which she rebelled the girls accepted as
inevitable. She was glad to be out of the "Imperial," not primarily
because of its hours or its wage but because she hated to be worked like
a machine. The months of tortured speeding had made her detest the sight
of a cotton shirtwaist. But the girls were picketing, not for a sane and
attractive task but only for more money. When they got more they would
work faster than ever with tired backs and straining eyes. She was sick
at the thought of it. In her room at home doing her neglected mending,
drawing the needle in a leisurely way through the cloth, she wondered
whether all the girls in the city worked as they had worked at the
'Imperial' and if so whether any of them lived to become old? Well, the
subject was beyond her fathoming. She had touched the labor world and
now was well out of it. Had she gone on longer her back would have
become tired, her eyes have smarted, her body have weakened under the
unnatural strain of production demanded by the changing fashions. Life
was before her again, and of one thing she was sure, she had closed the
factory door.
Despite all her reasoning, however, there was a faint possibility that
Kathleen might have put her on the picket-line, at least for a day, had
Hertha as in the beginning of their acquaintance been quite alone, but
Richard Brown was calling assiduously and his influence was not one that
encouraged martyrdom. Thus on the Saturday morning after nine days of
happy idleness when Kathleen was awakening in her an uneasy sense of her
obligation to her little sisters (that name always brought up a picture
of Ellen battling for her through heat and cold), a note from Dick,
inviting her to go to the opera with him that evening, blotted out the
little sisters and the cold. She told Kathleen of the invitation only to
receive a lecture on the inequalities of this world. Hertha felt
aggrieved. Certainly she had waited many years for this, her first
opera, and she believed she had a right to it when it came.
It was not far to the great department store where she had wandered for
many noon hours, and, with a sense of delightful importance, she entered
the shop and purchased a shirtwaist--not of cotton like those she had
helped manufacture, but of filmy silk. This, with a pair of white
gloves, cost a week's earnings, but life to-day was not measured by
wages. At home again, she got her own luncheon, for Kathleen was away
for the day, and spent the afternoon in bed, dozing and day-dreaming and
dozing again. She felt that she understood why rich people were lazy,
but wondered whether an afternoon in bed would bring happiness unless
many other afternoons and mornings had been spent in difficult toil.
"Gee," cried Richard Brown as, seated by him in the balcony of the opera
house, she took off her hat and coat, "I ought to take a back seat
to-night and get one of those swallow-tailed fellows downstairs to come
up here by you."
Hertha smiled a negative to his suggestion, wishing nevertheless that
his taste in neckties was a little less flamboyant and that he did not
talk so loud. She determined however not to notice these things, and
they discussed,--she, gently, he, with jovial outbursts,--the building,
the audience and the opera that they were about to witness. Dick had
bought the libretto, "Il Trovatore," but neither of them knew what was
before them. He had seen a musical comedy or two but she was ignorant of
every form of operatic music. Reading the plot to her companion she
found him chagrined that he had come to a tragedy. "Shucks!" he
exclaimed when she had finished, "I thought I was bringing you to
something funny." Her assurance that this would be interesting and that
she liked a sad story brought back his spirits. He chaffed her about her
dress and her new gloves, until she was glad when the overture began and
they were silent. And her heart gave a great bound of excitement when
the curtain rose and she saw the courtyard of the palace with Ferrando
calling to his men.
A first opera or a first play is a memorable event and those are
fortunate whose introduction to the stage is neither trivial nor coarse.
"Trovatore" might have grown a little threadbare to some in the
audience, but to one it was a revelation of splendid scene, of exquisite
melody, of the actor's art. That all this panorama of beautiful color
and costume, of count and troubadour and lovely lady, should be gathered
together under this roof was wonderful; but that it should be set to
such harmony, that human beings clad in kingly robes should sing such
heavenly music, was a miracle. Hertha's eyes grew big and her whole
being responded to the story that was taking place before her on the
spacious stage.
"Deserto sulla terra."
Her love was calling to her, across the continent, across the whole
world, telling of his longing to see her face, his passionate desire to
hold her in his arms again. She heard him in every note of the wonderful
song, and when the voice ceased and the audience began to applaud, she
woke from her dream of his presence with a start of shame that turned to
anger as she heard the frantic clapping and saw the actor drop his part
and bow to the audience. To her it had been reality, but to these people
it was only beautiful singing. But the applause stopped, the play went
on; and Hertha, watching through Leonora's eyes, saw the fate of lovers
whose station in life is not the same; saw the count, glowering,
hateful; heard Leonora plead for the gipsy's son; and in a passion of
excitement, watched the curtain drop upon the two men with swords drawn,
upon the woman lying senseless on the ground.
"Some girl," said Dick when the lights came up and the people, ceasing
their close attention, settled themselves more comfortably in their
seats. "But the guy playing the banjo, I could give him points. If he
doesn't want to die of apoplexy he'd better drop whisky and take to
riding horseback."
"I say, won't you talk to a fellow?" he asked at the intermission
between the third and last acts. "You just sit with your head buried in
that book and all you'll say is how it's going to end. It sounds pretty
crazy to me, burning the wrong baby! But of course, they must do
something to make a story. Don't you want to go out into the hall and
walk?"
It was the second time he had asked her, and she could not well refuse
him, so, together they joined the throng of richly garbed men and women
who promenaded up and down the corridor. She felt poorly clad as she
noted the wonderful evening dresses of the women. Here were gowns such
as she had seen on the figures in the department store, rainbow colors
and with them thin lacy black and soft cream and ivory white. The people
indeed seemed very like a show, a line of models moving up and down that
they might be viewed each by the other; it was only when Dick, to hide
his shyness at the strange scene, talked loudly and familiarly, that
their amused glances made her appreciate they were fully alive.
"I'd like a gown like that," she said to Dick in a confidential tone as
a pretty girl went by in a soft filmy blue silk.
"Shall I ask her for it?" He turned as though to stop the gown's owner.
"Don't be silly," was Hertha's sufficient answer.
"That's a grand fellow walking with her," Dick announced. "He might be a
colonel out of uniform, but the girl isn't in it with you."
"Well, you needn't tell every one your opinion, please."
She blushed as she spoke for they had attracted the attention of the
people about them. A middle-aged gentleman, whose seat she knew was
behind Dick's, was smiling and she quite erroneously believed was
enjoying her discomfiture. "Let's go back," she suggested, touching Dick
lightly on the arm; and the youth, happy at even so slight a sign of
favor, and anxious to do her least bidding, returned with her to their
seats.
"You aren't going back to your old work again, now are you?" he asked.
"No."
"I was thinking, if you want to take up stenography, I know the best
school in town. It's across the river, a mighty nice place, where you'll
meet a good class of girls. It don't cost such a lot, and you can enter
any time you want."
"Yes?"
"And there's something I want to talk with you about. It's really
important. Won't you take a walk with me to-morrow?"
"I don't know, I haven't much time. You see, I want to go to church in
the morning and I'm going out to dinner at night."
"Who are you going with?"
The question was asked with some imperiousness.
"With a friend."
"A gentleman friend?"
Defiantly. "I don't think that is anything you need to know."
"Oh, of course it's none of my business, you needn't tell me that. But
say, won't you go out first with me? I'll be around at two o'clock and
bring you back by five or six. That'll be in time for your little
dinner, won't it now?"
"Perhaps so."
She buried herself again in her libretto. "Mr. Brown," she said after a
minute. "Listen to what the last scene will be. It's a horrid dungeon,
for Manrico and his mother are in prison. As she lies there on her bed
she thinks of the mountains where she was born, and that she and her son
will go back there together and live in peace. When she sings it, just
think about the hills in your own home."
He looked at her in some surprise. "I will," he said, "just the way you
say, and about my mother, too. It all seems real to you, don't it?"
"Very real!"
"Somehow it hasn't to me. I can't seem to think of people standing up
and singing this way if they've anything to tell. It takes so
everlastingly long. Just suppose that when I went to business to-morrow
I should throw my hand out like this," with a broad, forward gesture
that barely missed the head of the lady in front of him, "and sing:
Oh, Mr. Weinstein, it's nine o'clock, sir,
Oh, don't you want me to walk down the block, sir?
And then he'd answer with his arms folded like this:
Oh, Mr. Brown, get on to your job----
And there'd be some swearing in the last line. If you want to get
anything over you've got to drop the poetry business. It isn't real like
a play. Will you go with me to a play next week?"
"Thank you ever so much, but----"
"Oh, drop the 'but.' I'll get the tickets Monday. We'll go to something
jolly."
"I shouldn't enjoy it as much as this. This is the most beautiful, the
most wonderful thing, I've ever seen."
Dick flushed with pleasure and settled in his seat as the curtain rose
upon the last act.
Even he was moved by the _Miserere_, and when the dungeon scene was
reached he whispered, "Golly, I like that, I've heard it on the
hand-organs. I never guessed though that it was about the mountains." He
started to hum it but Hertha gently silenced him, and he was quiet and
attentive until the curtain went down.
"Your first opera, young man?" said the middle-aged gentleman from
behind, whom Hertha had noticed smiling at them.
Dick was helping her with her coat, and he answered as he pulled up her
collar, "Right you are! I'm just that much of a jay."
"Come again," the man said cordially as though the place belonged to
him.
Hertha started to express her gratitude as they stood outside her door
but Dick waved it away. "You're the one who's been good," he said, "and
I bet no one ever thought it was your coming-out party. I'll be here
to-morrow at two; so long," and he was gone.
The next day found them together again walking across the Brooklyn
Bridge.
"Ever done this before?" asked Dick.
"No," answered Hertha, "but isn't it wonderful?"
"You bet! Say, you're a good walker, though. I reckon you've walked a
lot."
"Yes, I've often walked of a Sunday afternoon."
"Who with?"
"My brother."
There was a defiant tremor in her voice. Ever since her slip with
Kathleen she had made up her mind that her past life should include a
brother.
"Oh, if you've got a brother," turning on her abruptly, "why don't he
take care of you?"
"He's too young; but anyway I wouldn't let him. I mean to support
myself."
"Oh, I say, Miss Hertha, don't feel like that! Don't get like these
modern girls up here who won't even let a man pick up a handkerchief for
'em. That isn't the kind of girl a man likes."
"Isn't it?"
"No. A man likes a girl he can help over places, whether they're out
walking together just for the day or for life."
"I suppose you think a man never wants to be helped."
"Yes, he does, lots of ways. They're no end of ways a woman helps a man,
to keep him straight and all that." He reddened a little. "But he ought
to do the hard work, all the dirty jobs, and it's a dirty job going out
to earn your living. And if it isn't dirty, it's too hard. Women ought
not to have long hours like men. I bet your brother's reckoning on
caring for you when he gets old enough."
Hertha was silent.
"Isn't he?"
"I reckon he'd like to."
"You let him then. Only likely you'll be married long before that."
They reached the end of the bridge and were rushed along in an elevated
train until they got out at Prospect Park.
The March day was clear and almost warm, and as they walked down a
pleasant path by the lake, Hertha was sure that she saw signs of the
spring. Buds were swelling, the willow trees showed faint touches of
yellow, while on a bare elm tree branch perched a bluebird.
"How lovely it will be here later," she said.
"There, that's exactly what I want to talk with you about," Dick Brown
exclaimed. "Isn't this a lot nicer now than off the Bowery?"
The girl glanced at him questioningly.
"It's going to be mighty hot where you are as soon as summer comes. I'm
right sure of it. And noise! Think of the noise when you have to sit
with your windows open. Now, over in this part of the town it's always
quiet, and there are trees and pleasant places to go for a walk. Won't
it be bully here when spring comes! There's a robin, see him? And the
folks say the flowers in the park are great; some of the bushes will be
bright yellow, and then will come honeysuckle and no end of things."
"What are you driving at?"
"Just turn down this path, won't you? There's a little summerhouse at
the end where we can sit down and look out over the lake."
They reached the summerhouse and by a bit of good fortune found it
empty. The artificial pond was very muddy, and to two young people from
the country the set, pretty outlook was a poor substitute for the coming
spring by the woods and streams at home. But a substitute may be better
than nothing, and as with hungry eyes they viewed the brown water and
saw the sun glowing on the trunks of the bare trees, they felt refreshed
and nourished. For the first time since Hertha had met him, Richard
Brown was ready to sit quite still, looking into the treetops and beyond
to the blue sky with its floating clouds.
At length he turned and told her what he had done. It seemed an old
friend had turned up for a week in New York, and introduced him to a
southern woman who had a house at the park's edge and who took a few
boarders. She had not been especially successful with her rooms, and
partly to help her, partly because he'd hated his stupid hall bedroom
ever since he'd been sick in it, he had moved over here. It was a good
way from work, but that didn't matter. There was rapid transit, and it
didn't hurt him to stand up a few minutes night and morning. It was a
lot better than living in the noisy, ugly city that they had just left.
Mrs. Pickens, his landlady, was the nicest person to cheer a fellow up,
and care for him if he needed it. It was a pleasant house with good
board, the sort of cooking you got at home, plenty of gravy on your
meat, beaten biscuit for breakfast, and the best coffee in the city. She
had a room left to rent, looking over the park where you could see the
trees. She would enjoy to meet Miss Ogilvie, and if Hertha would go
there this afternoon, just look in and see what the house was like,
she'd be doing a favor to everybody. Of course she needn't decide now,
but wasn't it worth considering? And he was sure he had found the best
school at which she could study stenography and shorthand, only a few
minutes in the cars from here.
So he talked, and Hertha, looking out over the lake to the tall trees,
watched the purple grackles flying back and forth and wished that she
did not have to decide so many things.
Was Dick Brown growing to be fond of her? She hoped that he was not, for
he was the last man in the world for whom she could ever care. But if he
really was learning to love her, what a nuisance to live in the same
house with him; how demanding he would be, and how she would have to
plan to get rid of him! No, it would be far better to stay on in the
noisy little tenement with Kathleen.
"And I've one more thing to tell you, Miss Hertha," Dick said as though
he believed it would be wise to change the subject. "My boss says that
he's going to send me on the road this spring."
"On the road?"
"Yes, to sell goods. It means an advancement. Aren't you glad for me?"
"Why, of course, if you're glad."
"I'm glad of anything that means more money. Up here in New York that's
the one thing to have. If you haven't money you'd better get up and go
home. Look at those men at the opera last night! Why, they can give
their women anything, all the music they want, silk clothes and pretty
slippers, and automobiles to ride home in. It's slick here if you've
plenty of cash, but it's bum if you haven't. So I feel fine to think
there's going to be more cash for me."
They left the summerhouse, and retracing their steps walked out upon a
pleasant street where Dick led the way up a stoop, and pulled out a
latchkey.
"I didn't say I'd go in," Hertha exclaimed.
"You aren't coming to look for a room if you don't want it," Dick
pleaded; "but please come in and see Mrs. Pickens. She's admiring to
meet you."
He swung open the door and before Hertha had made any decision she found
herself in the hallway, with Mrs. Pickens, who had been watching for
them from the window, holding out her hand.
Dick's landlady was a small woman of about fifty, with blonde hair that
was fading in color, and a complexion from which the color, if there had
ever been any, had fled. Her eyes no longer looked bright, but her smile
was cordial and kindly, and her voice almost caressing as she gave her
greeting.
"Dick tells me that you came to the city this autumn to make your way.
It's a big place, isn't it? Sometimes I feel like I never want to go out
in it again. I took this house here so as to be near something green and
quiet; but after I got settled, do you know I missed the noise!"
She led Hertha into her parlor, a singularly ugly room, the floor
covered with a series of brightly colored, cheap rugs, the walls
decorated with colored lithographs that might have been bought by the
dozen at some store, so little did they show any individual taste. And
not only did every variety of color leap up from the floor and shine
down from the walls, but the furniture also was bright, the wood a high
varnish in imitation of mahogany, the upholstering in gay green with
lines of yellow.
"I like this room," Dick said emphatically as he seated himself; "it's
so jolly. Now there's a picture for every season of the year. The
Spring's right over your head, Miss Hertha; apple blossoms and a pretty
girl sitting under the tree. And there's Winter in the farther corner
with the snow on the ground like we found it that Sunday morning. It's
fine to have a lot of stories like this hanging on the wall. And Mrs.
Pickens is better than any story, the way she looks after us. There
aren't many here. Only old Mrs. Wood and her daughter and me, and I hope
you."
He had chosen the largest chair, crossed his legs, and looked quite at
home. Mrs. Pickens, beaming at him from the other side of the room,
evidently made much of her one masculine guest. Hertha could see him as
he would come back from work at night, loud-voiced, a little
domineering, wanting attention, demanding that every one laugh at his
least joke. Decidedly, she would not leave Kathleen.
"Won't you show Miss Hertha your vacant room, Mrs. Pickens?" Dick said
as, leaning back in his chair, he stroked the gleaming knob at the end
of the arm. "If you'd just look at it, please?" he added, changing his
tone to one of entreaty as he addressed Hertha.
"I should be glad to," Mrs. Pickens answered. And Hertha, not wishing to
be rude, followed the woman upstairs.
When she turned into the vacant room on the second story at the back,
she gave a start of surprise. Nothing could have been more unlike the
many-hued parlor that she had left. Here was simple furnishing, a white
bed and plain white chairs, a soft gray rug, white curtains, no color
save in the pretty flowered paper that covered the pictureless wall. A
vacant lot in the rear gave an outlook across the next street to the
park, where a long line of trees would soon begin to show their first
blossoms.
"I don't wonder you're surprised," Mrs. Pickens said, "after the parlor.
Don't imagine that this house is my taste. I rent it from an agent, and
am not responsible for anything in it, good or bad. My theory is that
the couple who bought the furnishings settled upon a simple method of
suiting their diametrically different tastes. One took one half of the
house and the other the other, and made a dwelling that's part an
installment plan furniture shop and part a hospital. I was sure you
would like the hospital, just as I knew our friend Dick wouldn't. Sit
down in this chair, won't you, while I run off a minute to see whether I
can do anything for Mrs. Wood. Her daughter is away and I promised I'd
look in during the afternoon."
Left to herself Hertha did sit down, and looking out of the window upon
the pleasant landscape, tried to make some decision. A moment before she
had definitely put aside any thought of staying here; but the lovely
room, the cordial greeting, the sense of companionship, made her
hesitate. After all, it was nice to have a man to go out with once in a
while, and it had been very lonely often at Kathleen's. This was a
second turning point in her life. Her legacy was almost untouched since
she had drawn upon it to come North, but it would be used lavishly if
she decided to devote some months to learning a profession. To enter
upon a new career was a great venture, and it might be that it would
more easily be carried out if she were in new surroundings, under
unfamiliar conditions. Looking out into the street and on to the
treetops beyond, or glancing around the pretty room, thinking of
Kathleen and her kindness, of Dick and his devotion, of the perversity
of both of them in not understanding that there are many times when one
wants not to talk but to sit silent; feeling suddenly a great
homesickness for a Sunday afternoon out with Tom, strolling quietly,
dreamily, among the pines; uncertain yet expectant, Hertha sat and
meditated, letting her thoughts wander, while Dick crossed and uncrossed
his knees in his big chair downstairs.