The reasons why a girl of Roberta's type should be seeking employment with Griffiths and Company at this timeand in this capacity are of some point. For, somewhat after the fashion of Clyde in relation to his family and hislife, she too considered her life a great disappointment. She was the daughter of Titus Alden, a farmer--of nearBiltz, a small town in Mimico County, some fifty miles north. And from her youth up she had seen little butpoverty. Her father--the youngest of three sons of Ephraim Alden, a farmer in this region before him--was sounsuccessful that at forty-eight he was still living in a house which, though old and much in need of repair at thetime his father willed it to him, was now bordering upon a state of dilapidation. The house itself, while primarilya charming example of that excellent taste which produced those delightful gabled homes which embellish theaverage New England town and street, had been by now so reduced for want of paint, shingles, and certain flagswhich had once made a winding walk from a road gate to the front door, that it presented a decidedly melancholyaspect to the world, as though it might be coughing and saying: "Well, things are none too satisfactory with me."The interior of the house corresponded with the exterior. The floor boards and stair boards were loose andcreaked most eerily at times. Some of the windows had shades--some did not. Furniture of both an earlier and alater date, but all in a somewhat decayed condition, intermingled and furnished it in some nondescript mannerwhich need hardly be described.
As for the parents of Roberta, they were excellent examples of that native type of Americanism which resistsfacts and reveres illusion. Titus Alden was one of that vast company of individuals who are born, pass through and die out of the world without ever quite getting any one thing straight. They appear, blunder, and end in a fog.
Like his two brothers, both older and almost as nebulous, Titus was a farmer solely because his father had been afarmer. And he was here on this farm because it had been willed to him and because it was easier to stay here andtry to work this than it was to go elsewhere. He was a Republican because his father before him was aRepublican and because this county was Republican. It never occurred to him to be otherwise. And, as in thecase of his politics and his religion, he had borrowed all his notions of what was right and wrong from thoseabout him. A single, serious, intelligent or rightly informing book had never been read by any member of thisfamily--not one. But they were nevertheless excellent, as conventions, morals and religions go--honest, upright,God-fearing and respectable.
In so far as the daughter of these parents was concerned, and in the face of natural gifts which fitted her forsomething better than this world from which she derived, she was still, in part, at least, a reflection of thereligious and moral notions there and then prevailing,--the views of the local ministers and the laity in general.
At the same time, because of a warm, imaginative, sensuous temperament, she was filled--once she reachedfifteen and sixteen--with the world-old dream of all of Eve's daughters from the homeliest to the fairest--that herbeauty or charm might some day and ere long smite bewitchingly and so irresistibly the soul of a given man ormen.
So it was that although throughout her infancy and girlhood she was compelled to hear of and share a deprivingand toilsome poverty, still, because of her innate imagination, she was always thinking of something better.
Maybe, some day, who knew, a larger city like Albany or Utica! A newer and greater life.
And then what dreams! And in the orchard of a spring day later, between her fourteenth and eighteenth yearswhen the early May sun was making pink lamps of every aged tree and the ground was pinkly carpeted with thefalling and odorous petals, she would stand and breathe and sometimes laugh, or even sigh, her arms upreachedor thrown wide to life. To be alive! To have youth and the world before one. To think of the eyes and the smileof some youth of the region who by the merest chance had passed her and looked, and who might never lookagain, but who, nevertheless, in so doing, had stirred her young soul to dreams.
None the less she was shy, and hence recessive--afraid of men, especially the more ordinary types common tothis region. And these in turn, repulsed by her shyness and refinement, tended to recede from her, for all of herphysical charm, which was too delicate for this region. Nevertheless, at the age of sixteen, having repaired toBiltz, in order to work in Appleman's Dry Goods Store for five dollars a week, she saw many young men whoattracted her. But here because of her mood in regard to her family's position, as well as the fact that to herinexperienced eyes they appeared so much better placed than herself, she was convinced that they would not beinterested in her. And here again it was her own mood that succeeded in alienating them almost completely.
Nevertheless she remained working for Mr. Appleman until she was between eighteen and nineteen, all the whilesensing that she was really doing nothing for herself because she was too closely identified with her home andher family, who appeared to need her.
And then about this time, an almost revolutionary thing for this part of the world occurred. For because of thecheapness of labor in such an extremely rural section, a small hosiery plant was built at Trippetts Mills. Andthough Roberta, because of the views and standards that prevailed hereabout, had somehow conceived of thistype of work as beneath her, still she was fascinated by the reports of the high wages to be paid. Accordingly she repaired to Trippetts Mills, where, boarding at the house of a neighbor who had previously lived in Biltz, andreturning home every Saturday afternoon, she planned to bring together the means for some further form ofpractical education--a course at a business college at Homer or Lycurgus or somewhere which might fit her forsomething better--bookkeeping or stenography.
And in connection with this dream and this attempted saving two years went by. And in the meanwhile, althoughshe earned more money (eventually twelve dollars a week), still, because various members of her family requiredso many little things and she desired to alleviate to a degree the privations of these others from which shesuffered, nearly all that she earned went to them.
And again here, as at Biltz, most of the youths of the town who were better suited to her intellectually andtemperamentally--still looked upon the mere factory type as beneath them in many ways. And although Robertawas far from being that type, still having associated herself with them she was inclined to absorb some of theirpsychology in regard to themselves. Indeed by then she was fairly well satisfied that no one of these here inwhom she was interested would be interested in her--at least not with any legitimate intentions.
And then two things occurred which caused her to think, not only seriously of marriage, but of her own future,whether she married or not. For her sister, Agnes, now twenty, and three years her junior, having recentlyreencountered a young schoolmaster who some time before had conducted the district school near the Aldenfarm, and finding him more to her taste now than when she had been in school, had decided to marry him. Andthis meant, as Roberta saw it, that she was about to take on the appearance of a spinster unless she married soon.
Yet she did not quite see what was to be done until the hosiery factory at Trippetts Mills suddenly closed, neverto reopen. And then, in order to assist her mother, as well as help with her sister's wedding, she returned to Biltz.
But then there came a third thing which decidedly affected her dreams and plans. Grace Marr, a girl whom shehad met at Trippetts Mills, had gone to Lycurgus and after a few weeks there had managed to connect herselfwith the Finchley Vacuum Cleaner Company at a salary of fifteen dollars a week and at once wrote to Robertatelling her of the opportunities that were then present in Lycurgus. For in passing the Griffiths Company, whichshe did daily, she had seen a large sign posted over the east employment door reading "Girls Wanted." Andinquiry revealed the fact that girls at this company were always started at nine or ten dollars, quickly taught someone of the various phases of piece work and then, once they were proficient, were frequently able to earn asmuch as from fourteen to sixteen dollars, according to their skill. And since board and room were onlyconsuming seven of what she earned, she was delighted to communicate to Roberta, whom she liked very much,that she might come and room with her if she wished.
Roberta, having reached the place where she felt that she could no longer endure farm life but must act forherself once more, finally arranged with her mother to leave in order that she might help her more directly withher wages.
But once in Lycurgus and employed by Clyde, her life, after the first flush of self-interest which a change sogreat implied for her, was not so much more enlarged socially or materially either, for that matter, over what ithad been in Biltz and Trippetts Mills. For, despite the genial intimacy of Grace Marr--a girl not nearly asattractive as Roberta, and who, because of Roberta's charm and for the most part affected gayety, counted on herto provide a cheer and companionship which otherwise she would have lacked--still the world into which she was inducted here was scarcely any more liberal or diversified than that from which she sprang.
For, to begin with, the Newtons, sister and brother-in-law of Grace Marr, with whom she lived, and who, despitethe fact that they were not unkindly, proved to be, almost more so than were the types with whom, either in Biltzor Trippets Mills, she had been in constant contact, the most ordinary small town mill workers--religious andnarrow to a degree. George Newton, as every one could see and feel, was a pleasant if not very emotional orromantic person who took his various small plans in regard to himself and his future as of the utmost importance.
Primarily he was saving what little cash he could out of the wages he earned as threadman in the CranstonWickwire factory to enable him to embark upon some business for which he thought himself fitted. And to thisend, and to further enhance his meager savings, he had joined with his wife in the scheme of taking over an oldhouse in Taylor Street which permitted the renting of enough rooms to carry the rent and in addition to supplythe food for the family and five boarders, counting their labor and worries in the process as nothing. And on theother hand, Grace Marr, as well as Newton's wife, Mary, were of that type that here as elsewhere find the bulk oftheir social satisfaction in such small matters as relate to the organization of a small home, the establishing of itsimport and integrity in a petty and highly conventional neighborhood and the contemplation of life and conductthrough the lens furnished by a purely sectarian creed.
And so, once part and parcel of this particular household, Roberta found after a time, that it, if not Lycurgus, wasnarrow and restricted--not wholly unlike the various narrow and restricted homes at Biltz. And these lines,according to the Newtons and their like, to be strictly observed. No good could come of breaking them. If youwere a factory employee you should accommodate yourself to the world and customs of the better sort ofChristian factory employees. Every day therefore--and that not so very long after she had arrived--she foundherself up and making the best of a not very satisfactory breakfast in the Newton dining room, which was usuallyshared by Grace and two other girls of nearly their own age--Opal Feliss and Olive Pope--who were connectedwith the Cranston Wickwire Company. Also by a young electrician by the name of Fred Shurlock, who workedfor the City Lighting Plant. And immediately after breakfast joining a long procession that day after day at thishour made for the mills across the river. For just outside her own door she invariably met with a company offactory girls and women, boys and men, of the same relative ages, to say nothing of many old and weary-lookingwomen who looked more like wraiths than human beings, who had issued from the various streets and houses ofthis vicinity. And as the crowd, because of the general inpour into it from various streets, thickened at CentralAvenue, there was much ogling of the prettier girls by a certain type of factory man, who, not knowing any ofthem, still sought, as Roberta saw it, unlicensed contacts and even worse. Yet there was much giggling andsimpering on the part of girls of a certain type who were by no means as severe as most of those she had knownelsewhere. Shocking
And at night the same throng, re-forming at the mills, crossing the bridge at the depot and returning as it hadcome. And Roberta, because of her social and moral training and mood, and in spite of her decided looks andcharm and strong desires, feeling alone and neglected. Oh, how sad to see the world so gay and she so lonely.
And it was always after six when she reached home. And after dinner there was really nothing much of anythingto do unless she and Grace attended one or another of the moving picture theaters or she could bring herself toconsent to join the Newtons and Grace at a meeting of the Methodist Church.
None the less once part and parcel of this household and working for Clyde she was delighted with the change.
This big city. This fine Central Avenue with its stores and moving picture theaters. These great mills. And again this Mr. Griffiths, so young, attractive, smiling and interested in her.