Anna’s younger sister found the body. It was late afternoon. Anna must
have taken the poison about one o’clock, it was proved later. Ruth, as
was her wont, came by to get Anna to go for a walk or a call. Ruth, who
was married to a clerk in a haberdashery—a well-appearing chap, too,
who could criticize your cravats and tell you if your trousers were of
a proper cut—lived in an apartment similar to Anna’s, though a trifle
less expensive. Anna’s husband, a city salesman for a spice concern,
was doing well and his commissions were far above what they had been
at the time of his marriage, almost far enough to make him talk,
ambitiously, of a permanent savings account in a year or two.
Ruth usually called for Anna about three o’clock. If it was a nice
day, the two women would meet other women of their acquaintance,
whom they called “the girls,” and, in groups of three or more, would
go down-town, spending a pleasant hour or two looking in the shop
windows on Fifth Avenue or on the less pretentious, but to them, more
accommodating side streets.
Then Anna would go home, stopping in at a neighbourhood combination
meat and vegetable market to purchase her supplies for the evening
meal, cooking it so that it would be ready just when Fred Clark got in,
which was usually about half-past six. Fred did not dress for dinner,
but contented himself by washing his hands, hurriedly, as adequate
preparation. Fred liked his meals on time.
Sometimes “the girls” spent the afternoons sewing at the home of one
of them or calling on more distant acquaintances. They all lived in
practically identical apartments, differing only as to a choice of wall
paper, of fumed oak or highly polished mahogany for living rooms and
of four-poster or brass beds in the sleeping chambers. Sometimes each
“girl” spent the afternoon alone, but this was restricted, usually, to
rainy days or days too threatening to venture out. On those days, “the
girls” spent their individual afternoons doing their less nice darning
and sewing, washing garments too fragile to be trusted to the laundry
or making batches of fudge, according to their individual needs and
desires.
Ruth had a key to her sister’s apartment, an extra key, made for Anna’s
mother-in-law, who lived in Canton, Ohio, and came up each Spring for
a visit. Anna had given it to Ruth a few weeks before so that Ruth
might get a package in her absence. So, when her ring failed to bring
response, Ruth did not need to summon the janitor in order to gain
admission. She thought that perhaps her sister had gone out earlier and
left a note for her on the table.
Ruth opened the door with the key, which had lain next to her own in
her purse, and went in. The living room was in its usual condition,
fairly neat, stiffly arranged, dusty in the corners. The mahogany
“set” of three pieces, green velour upholstered, a gift from Fred two
Christmases ago, the wicker chair with the broken arm, the oval centre
table with its rose-coloured silk shade, which Anna had made with the
help of “free instruction” given when you buy materials at one of
the department stores, all stood in their accustomed places. In the
bedroom, the bird’s-eye maple set looked as impudently clean as ever.
In the bathroom, Ruth found Anna. She screamed. Then she went closer
and examined the body curiously, as if Anna were a stranger. Anna was
fully dressed. She was wearing her new waist and her tan spats.
Ruth screamed again.
She got out into the hall.
A bill collector for an instalment furniture house was coming out of
one of the other apartments and heard her. He went to find the janitor.
In less than five minutes a crowd had gathered. Two policemen were
there, questioning every one, writing in small notebooks with thick
fingers and stubs of pencils and giving out sullen, inaccurate
information.
Ruth gave her name and Anna’s and Fred Clark’s name and business
address and told about finding the body. In half an hour Fred Clark
was there, questioning, being questioned, sorrowful, melancholy, yet
conscious of his importance.
The funeral was two days later. “The girls” all sent flowers and the
spice firm employés sent a large wreath bought from money collected by
the bookkeeper, who always did such things. Every one said Anna was
well remembered and that it was a nice funeral.
After the funeral, Fred let Anna’s two sisters, Ruth and Sophie, and
his brother Philip’s wife take what they wanted of the household
things, and sold the rest to a second-hand dealer, where they brought
little enough, and he went to live with Philip, who had a room for him,
since his oldest boy had gone West on business.
Ever since she discovered the body, Ruth had tried to find out why Anna
committed suicide. It was such a terrible thing to do—the worst thing
you could do—just to end things—like that. How Anna must have suffered
there, alone! Yet she never left a note or anything. Ruth couldn’t
quite understand it. She knew that she never could do away with
herself. She was prettier than Anna had been, rather plump and blonde,
with little, fine lines around her mouth and light eyes, which had been
very blue when she was sixteen.
After a few days, when things began to settle down a little, and Ruth
had become accustomed to thinking of Anna as being dead and no longer
fell asleep meditating on getting black clothes or the awfulness of
finding Anna in the bathroom, she began to reason out for herself why
Anna had committed suicide. And, after a while, it came to her and she
didn’t blame Anna at all. In fact, she wondered why she herself didn’t
do it.
Anna had committed suicide, of course, because she had been in love.
Ruth knew now whom Anna had been in love with. Why hadn’t she suspected
it sooner? Of course, Anna was in love with Martin, the clerk at the
Good Measure Grocery and Meat Market.
It was very plain to Ruth, as she thought about it. She remembered how,
when the other girls suggested buying things at grocery departments
of down-town department stores, Anna always said; “Oh, let’s not do
that, and carry all the bundles home on the subway.” And, if any one
suggested having things sent, Anna always reminded them how long it
took for deliveries—days sometimes—and down-town stores never would
deliver fresh vegetables and fruits at all. “I like the little stores
in my own neighbourhood,” Anna would add.
Ruth remembered that Anna had remarked, many times, on the beauty of
the clerk Martin’s eyelashes. They were beautiful—long and dark and
heavy, and his eyes were an odd shape. Ruth remembered how Anna often
lingered with Martin, after the others had given their orders and
teased him about things or pretended to scold because she had not been
given full measure. And Ruth remembered, too, how Anna always got the
pick of everything.
Of course Martin—Ruth never even knew if that was his first or his last
name—was the social inferior of their family. No one she knew had ever
worked in a grocery store. But, even so, that couldn’t keep Anna from
being in love with him. Of course, there hadn’t been anything between
them. Ruth knew that. She had been with her sister every day and knew
Anna was absolutely moral and all that, but, no doubt, it was the
hopelessness of it—loving Martin and seeing only a glimpse of him every
day and maybe even knowing that he didn’t love her in return. It was
quite too awful. And yet Ruth knew how Anna had felt.
For Ruth was in love too. If Anna had only confided in her, she could
have confided in Anna. It just shows how little sisters really know one
another.
Of course, Ruth knew that her love was far different from Anna’s, far
deeper and truer and more lasting. Though, at that, hadn’t Anna’s love
lasted as long as she had? But, of course, there was a difference. For
Ruth was in love with no mere grocer’s clerk. She was in love with
Towers Wellman, her husband’s best friend.
Towers Wellman worked at the same haberdasher’s shop as her husband
even, but there the resemblance ended. For, while Dick was a nice
little fellow, quite loving and attentive, he never quite understood
things. His mind was wrapped up in collars and underwear sales. But
Towers Wellman was a man of the world. He belonged to a bowling club
and a political club and went to stag dinners. He was not married and
he made jokes about matrimony.
Ruth knew three women who were hopelessly in love with him. Towers had
told Ruth about the women himself. Dick would bring Towers home to
dinner and Ruth would spend the whole afternoon preparing things he
liked, and, in the evening, the three of them would attend a moving
picture show, and, sometimes, before she knew it, when there was a dark
scene, Towers would be holding her hand.
Ruth thought of Towers the last thing before she went to sleep at
night, visualizing his dark, lean profile, his deep-set eyes, his
black, waved hair. No wonder women, rich women, were in love with him.
And yet, Ruth felt that he loved her alone. Frequently, half in fun, he
had told how he had broken an important social engagement to come to
dinner, but Ruth knew that the look he gave her had a double meaning,
for he _had_ come to dinner, and there wasn’t a reason in the world why
some rich woman hadn’t invited him first.
So—Anna had been in love too! And she had felt so badly over it that
she had taken poison! Maybe the affair had gone further than Ruth
suspected! Yet, how could it? Wasn’t Fred home every evening and hadn’t
she seen Anna every day?
Ruth almost wished that she had the courage to kill herself, or
something. It was mighty hard, living with one man and loving another
one. And spending the days chatting about other things, never talking
about what you want to talk about or getting near the one you care for.
Never daring to tell any one about things! Maybe, if she and Anna had
confided in each other.... But, it was too late for that now. Anna had
loved and found it hopeless, and gone out.
Ruth knew her love was hopeless, too. For, though she loved Towers and
felt that he loved her, she knew that he was too little to take her
away with him. She loved him none the less for his prudence, for she
was rather a coward and hated scandals and things like that herself.
Anna’s suicide was bad enough. The family would never quite recover
from it. Oh, well, life was pretty messy after all. Here she had to
keep on, day after day, and Towers was the only one she cared for.
Nothing else, no one else mattered. If only Towers and she could go
away some place, away from every one and be happy together! And she
never could do that, she knew. After all, hadn’t Anna done the wiser
thing?