SKILLED LABOR
Miss Wetheridge's visit bade fair to occasion important changes
for the better in Mildred's prospects. From Mrs. Wheaton the young
lady had learned of her protegee's long hours of ill-repaid toil.
She was eager to gain Mildred's confidence to an extent that would
warrant some good advice, and after another call early in the week
she induced the girl to come and see her and to open her heart
fully in the privacy thus secured. Of course there was one secret
jealously guarded, and the reader can well understand that Vinton
Arnold's name was not mentioned, and the disagreeable episode of
Roger Atwood was not deemed worth speaking of. He was now but a
fast-fading memory, for even Belle rarely recalled him.
That the Jocelyns did not belong to the ordinary ranks of the poor,
and that Mildred was not a commonplace girl, was apparent to Miss
Wetheridge from the first; and it was her design to persuade her
friend to abandon the overcrowded and ill-paid divisions of labor
for something more in accordance with her cultivation and ability.
Mildred soon proved that her education was too general and superficial
to admit of teaching except in the primary departments, and as
the schools were now in session it might be many months before any
opening would occur. With a mingled sigh and laugh she said, "The
one thing I know how to do I shall probably never do--I could make
a home, and I could be perfectly happy in taking care of it."
"Pardon me!" cried Miss Wetheridge roguishly, "that seems to me your
inevitable fate, sooner or later. We are only counselling together
how best to fill up the interval. My friend almost made me jealous
by the way he talked about you the other evening."
A faint color stole into Mildred's face. "All that's past, I fear,"
she said with low, sad emphasis, "and I would never marry merely
for the sake of a home. My future is that of a working-woman unless
papa can regain his former means. Even then I should not like to
live an idle life. So the question is, What kind of work shall I
do? How can I do the most for the family, for I am troubled about
papa's health, and mamma is not strong."
Her warm-hearted friend's eyes grew moist as she looked intently
and understandingly into the clouded and beautiful face. In one of
her pretty impulses that often broke through her polite restraint
she exclaimed, "Millie, you are a true woman. Please pardon my
familiarity, but I can't tell you how much you interest me, how I
respect you, and--and--how much I like you."
"Nor can I tell you," responded Mildred earnestly, "how much hope
and comfort you have already brought me."
"Come," said Miss Wetheridge cheerily, "we will go down to the
rooms of the Young Women's Christian Association at once. We may
get light there. The thing for you to do is to master thoroughly
one or more of the higher forms of labor that are as yet uncrowded.
That is what I would do."
While she was preparing for the street she observed Mildred's
eyes resting wistfully on an upright piano that formed part of the
beautiful furniture of her private sanctum. "You are recognizing
an old friend and would like to renew your acquaintance," she said
smilingly. "Won't you play while I am changing my dress?"
"Perhaps I can best thank you in that way," answered Mildred,
availing herself of the permission with a pleasure she could not
disguise. "I admit that the loss of my piano has been one of my
greatest deprivations."
Miss Wetheridge's sleeping-apartment opened into her sitting-room,
and, with the door open, it was the same as if they were still
together. The promise of thanks was well kept as the exquisite
notes of Mendelssohn's "Hope" and "Consolation" filled the rooms
with music that is as simple and enduring as the genuine feeling
of a good heart.
"I now understand how truly you lost a friend and companion in your
piano," said Miss Wetheridge, "and I want you to come over here
and play whenever you feel like it, whether I am at home or not."
Mildred smiled, but made no reply. She could accept kindness and
help from one who gave them as did Miss Wetheridge, but she was
too proud and sensitive to enter upon an intimacy that must of
necessity be so one-sided in its favors and advantages, and she
instinctively felt that such wide differences in condition would
lead to mutual embarrassments that her enthusiastic friend could
not foresee. It was becoming her fixed resolve to accept her lot,
with all that it involved, and no amount of encouragement could
induce her to renew associations that could be enjoyed now only
through a certain phase of charity, however the fact might be
disguised. But she would rather reveal her purpose by the retiring
and even tenor of her way than by any explanations of her feelings.
Thus it came about in the future that Miss Wetheridge made three
calls, at least, to one that she received, and that in spite of
all she could do Mildred shrank from often meeting other members of
her family. But this sturdy self-respect on the part of the young
girl--this resolute purpose not to enter a social circle where she
would at least fear patronage and surprise at her presence--increased
her friend's respect in the secrecy of her heart.
Mildred at once became a member of the Young Women's Association,
and its library and reading-room promised to become a continued
means of pleasure and help. From among the several phases of skilled
labor taught under the auspices of the Association, she decided to
choose the highest--that of stenography--if her father thought he
could support the family without much help for a few months. She
was already very rapid and correct in her penmanship, and if she
could become expert in taking shorthand notes she was assured that
she could find abundant and highly remunerative scope for her skill,
and under circumstances, too, that would not involve unpleasant
publicity. She thought very favorably, also, of the suggestion
that she should join the bookkeeping class. With her fine mental
capacity and previous education Miss Wetheridge believed that
Mildred could so far master these two arts as to be sure of an
independence, and her kind friend proposed to use no little influence
in finding opportunities for their exercise.
Mildred, naturally, lost no time in explaining her projects to her
father, and it so happened that she spoke at a moment of peculiar
exhilaration on his part. "If it would give you pleasure," he said,
"to learn these two accomplishments, you may do so, of course, but
I foresee no probability of your ever putting them to use. I now
have prospects," etc., etc. Soon after, he was in a deep sleep.
She looked at him with troubled eyes, and promptly entered on her
studies the following day, working with the assiduity of one who
feels that the knowledge may be needed before it can be acquired.
Belle was in quite a flutter of excitement on the evening named for
Mr. Wentworth's visit, and the genial clergyman would have laughed
again could he have heard one of her reasons for welcoming him.
"He is so deliciously homely," she said, "I like to look at him."
He came at the hour appointed, and his visit was truly a "spiritual"
one, if enlivened spirits, more hopeful hearts, and a richer
belief in their Divine Father's goodwill toward them all were the
legitimate result of a spiritual visit. Mr. Jocelyn, in expectancy
of the guest, had carefully prepared himself in guilty secrecy, and
appeared unusually well, but he was the only one who sighed deeply
after the good man's departure. Rising from the depths of his
soul through his false exhilaration was a low, threatening voice,
saying, "That man is true; you are a sham, and your hollowness will
become known."
Indeed, Mr. Wentworth went away with a vague impression that there
was something unreal or unsound about Mr. Jocelyn, and he began
to share Mrs. Wheaton's painful forebodings for the family. Belle
enjoyed the visit greatly, for the minister was an apostle of a
very sunny gospel, and she was then ready for no other. Moreover,
the healthful, unwarped man delighted in the girl's frolicsome
youth, and no more tried to repress her vivacity than he would the
bubble and sparkle of a spring. Indeed he was sensible enough to
know that, as the spring keeps pure by flowing and sparkling into
the light, so her nature would stand a far better chance of remaining
untainted if given abundant yet innocent scope. His genial words
had weight with her, but her quick intuition of his sympathy,
his sense of humor, which was as genuine as her own, had far more
weight, and their eyes rarely met without responsive smiles. There
was nothing trivial, however, in their interplay of mirthfulness--nothing
that would prevent the child from coming to him should her heart
become burdened with sin or sorrow. She was assigned to Miss
Wetheridge's class, and soon became warmly attached to her teacher.
Mildred, to her great surprise, was asked to take a class of
rude-looking, half-grown boys. In answer to her look of dismay,
Mr. Wentworth only said smilingly, "Try it; trust my judgment; you
can do more with those boys than I can."
"Were it not for my promise to Miss Wetheridge, I shouldn't even
dare think of such a thing," she replied; "but I now feel bound to
attempt it, although I hope you will soon give me some very, very
little girls."
"In complying you show a high sense of honor, Miss Jocelyn. I
will relieve you after a time, if you wish me to," and the student
of human nature walked away with a peculiar smile. "When I was
a harum-scarum boy," he muttered, "a girl with such a face could
almost make me worship her. I don't believe boys have changed."
She was shrewd enough not to let the class see that she was afraid;
and being only boys, they saw merely what was apparent--that they
had the prettiest teacher in the room. Her beauty and refinement
impressed them vaguely, yet powerfully; the incipient man within
them yielded its involuntary homage, and she appealed to their
masculine traits as only a woman of tact can, making them feel that
it would be not only wrong but ungallant and unmannerly to take
advantage of her. They all speedily succumbed except one, whose
rude home associations and incorrigible disposition rendered futile
her appeals. After two or three Sabbaths the other boys became so
incensed that he should disgrace the class that after school they
lured him into an alleyway and were administering a well-deserved
castigation, when Mildred, who was passing, rescued him. His fear
induced him to yield to her invitation to accompany her home; and
her kindness, to which he knew he was not entitled, combined with
the wholesome effect of the pummelling received from the boys, led
him to unite in making the class--once known as "the Incorrigibles"--the
best behaved in the school.
Everything apparently now promised well for the Jocelyns. Their
mistaken policy of seclusion and shrinking from contact with the
world during their impoverishment had given way to kindly Christian
influences, and they were forming the best associations their lot
permitted. All might have gone to their ultimate advantage had it
not been for the hidden element of weakness so well known to the
reader, but as yet unsuspected by the family.
If Mr. Jocelyn had been able to put forth the efforts of a sound
and rational man, he could, with the aid of his daughters, even in
those times of depression, have passed safely through the trials
of sudden poverty, and eventually--having learned wisdom from the
past experience--he could have regained a better and more stable
financial position than the one lost. Thus far he had been able to
maintain considerable self-control, and by daily experience knew
just about how much morphia he could take without betraying himself.
His family had become accustomed to its effects, and ascribed them
to the peculiar state of his health. Loving eyes are often the most
blind, and that which is seen daily ceases to seem strange. Beyond
their natural solicitude over his failing appetite, his unwholesome
complexion, and his loss of flesh, they had no misgivings. His
decline was so very gradual that there was nothing to startle them.
Every day they hoped to see a change for the better, and sought
to bring it about by preparing such dainty dishes as were within
their means to catch his capricious appetite, and by keeping all
their little perplexities and worriments to themselves, so that
he might have unbroken rest when free from business. He recognized
their unselfish and considerate devotion, and it added to the
horrible depression into which he sank more and more deeply the
moment he passed from under the influence of the fatal drug. He
was living over an abyss, and that which kept him from its depths
was deepening and widening it daily. He still had the vague hope
that at some time and in some way he could escape; but days and
weeks were passing, bringing no change for the better, no honest,
patient effort to regain the solid ground of safety. He was drifting
down, and when at times he became conscious of the truth, a larger
dose of morphia was his one method of benumbing the terror that
seemed groping for his heart with a death-cold hand.
Mildred soon began to make rapid progress in her studies, and grew
hopeful over the fact. If her father would give her the chance
she could make a place for herself among skilled workers within a
year, and be able, if there were need, to provide for the entire
family. Great and prolonged destitution rarely occurs, even in
a crowded city, unless there is much sickness or some destructive
vice. Wise economy, patient and well-directed effort, as a rule,
secure comfort and independence, if not affluence; but continued
illness, disaster, and especially sin, often bring with them a
train of evils difficult to describe.
Mildred found time between her lessons to aid her mother and also
to do a little fancy work, for which, through the aid of Miss
Wetheridge, she found private customers who were willing to pay
its worth.
Thus the month of October was passing rapidly and rather hopefully
away. They received letters from Clara Bute occasionally, wherein
she expressed herself well content with the country and the situation
Mrs. Atwood had obtained for her. "I'm getting as plump and rosy
as Susan," she wrote, "and I'm not coming back to town. Going
up and down those tenement stairs tired me more than all the work
I do here. Still, I work hard, I can tell you; but it's all sorts
of work, with plenty of good air and good food to do it on. I'm
treated better than I ever was before--just like one of the family,
and there's a young farmer who takes me out to ride sometimes, and
he acts and talks like a man."
Whether this attentive friend were Roger or a new acquaintance she
did not say. For some reason a reticence in regard to the former
characterized her letters.