"Yes, sometimes I think."
Whereat the cla.s.s t.i.ttered and Adelle had a mild sensation of dislike for the irascible teacher, who reported in "teachers" meeting" that Adelle Clark was as nearly defective as a child of her years could be and be "all right," and that the grades ought not to permit such pupils to graduate into the high school. Indeed, algebra, Caesar, and Greek history were as nearly senseless to Adelle Clark as they could be. They were entirely remote from her life, and nothing of imagination rose from within to give them meaning. She learned by rote, and she had a poor memory. It was much the same, however, with English literature or social science or French, subjects that might be expected to awaken some response in the mind of a girl. The only subject that she really liked was dancing, which the gymnasium instructor taught. Adelle danced very well, as if she were aware of being alive when she danced. But even the athletic young woman who had the gymnasium cla.s.ses reported that Adelle Clark was too dull, too lifeless, to succeed as a dancer or athletic teacher. These public guardians of youth may or may not have been right in their judgments, but certainly as yet the girl had not "waked up"....
Adelle"s high-school career was interrupted in January, just as she had turned fifteen, by her aunt"s sickness. For the first time in forty years, as the widow told the doctor, she had taken to her bed. "Time to make up for all the good loafing you have missed," the young doctor joked cheaply in reply, not realizing the hardship of invalidism, with a houseful of roomers, in a small back bedroom near enough to the center of activities for the sick woman to know all that happened without having the strength to interfere. It was only the grippe, the doctor said, advising rest, care, and food. It would be a matter of a week or two, and Adelle was doing her best to take her aunt"s place in the house and also nurse her aunt. But Mrs. Clark never left her bed until she was carried to the cemetery to be laid beside the Veteran in the already crowded lot. The grippe proved to be a convenient name to conceal a general breaking-up, due to years of wearing, ceaseless woman"s toil without hope, in the disintegrating Clark atmosphere that ate like an acid into the consciousness even of plain Ellen Trigg, with her humble expectations from life.
Adelle was much moved by the death of her aunt, the last remaining relative that she knew of, though the few people who saw her at this time thought she "took it remarkably well." They interpreted her expressionless pa.s.sivity to a lack of feeling. As a matter of fact, she had been much more attached to her aunt than to any one she had ever known. The plain woman, who had no pretensions and did her work uncomplainingly because it was useless to complain, had inspired the girl with respect and given her what little character she had. Ellen Clark was a stoic, unconsciously, and she had taught Adelle the wisdom of the stoic"s creed. The girl realized fully now that she was alone in life, alone spiritually as well as physically, and though she did not drop tears as she came back to the empty Church Street house from the cemetery,--for that was not the thing to do now: it was to get back as soon as possible and set the house to rights as her aunt would have done so that the roomers should not be put out any further,--her heart was heavy, nevertheless, and she may even have wondered sadly what was to become of her.
That was the question that disturbed the few persons who had any interest in the Clark women,--the manager of the livery-stable among them. It was plainly not the "proper thing" for the girl to continue long in a house full of men, and irresponsible men at that. Adelle was not aware what was the "proper thing," but she felt herself inadequate to keeping up the establishment unaided by her aunt, although that is what she would have liked to do, go on sweeping and making beds and counting out the wash and making up the bills, with or without school.
But the liveryman hinted to her on her return from the funeral that she ought to go immediately to some friend"s house, or have some married woman stay with her until her future had been determined upon. Adelle knew of no house where she could make such a visit, nor of any one whom she could invite to stay with her. It may seem incredible, as it did to Mr. Lovejoy, that "folks could live all their lives in Alton like the Clarks" and have no relatives or friends to lean upon in an emergency.
But the truth is that when a family begins to go down in this world, after having some pretensions, it is likely to shed social relations very fast instead of acquiring new ones. A family in a settled social equilibrium (rarely the case in America), or one that is going up in the human scale, is apt to acquire connections, quite apart from the accidents of birth and social gifts, because the mental att.i.tude is an open and optimistic one, attracting to itself humanity instead of timidly withdrawing into itself. Strength attracts and weakness repels in the long run here as elsewhere. The Clarks, who had never been considerable or numerous, had in the course of three generations gradually lost their hold upon the complex threads of life, shiftlessly shedding relationships as the Veteran had done, or proudly refusing inferior connections as Addie had, until the family was left solitary in the person of this one fifteen-year-old girl, in whom the social habit seemed utterly atrophied. Of course, Adelle could have appealed to her aunt"s pastor, but it never occurred to her to do that or to make use of any other social machinery. She went back to the Church Street house, occupied her old room, and for the next few days continued the catlike routine of her life as nearly as she could under the changed conditions.
Mr. Lovejoy, who continued to be the one most concerned in her welfare, induced her to write a crude little note to the "Washington Trust Company, Dear Sirs," notifying them of the demise of her aunt. The livery-stable man, who was a widower and not beyond middle age, which does not necessarily mean in his cla.s.s that the wife is dead and buried, but merely permanently absent for one reason or another, might have thrown sentimental eyes upon the girl if she had been different, more of a woman.
"She"ll likely enough be an heiress some of these days," he said to his employer, old John Pike.
Pike was an old resident of Alton and had known all the Clarks. He grunted as if he had heard that song before. "That"s what they used to say of her mother, Addie Clark," he remarked, remembering Addie"s superior air towards his son.
"Well," his manager continued, "I see that trust company"s got its signs up all over the Field."
""T ain"t the first time there"s been signs there," Pike retorted, eyeing a succulent cigar he had succeeded in extracting from an inner pocket, "nor the last either, I expect!"
"It looks as if they meant business this time."
"They can"t get no t.i.tle," Pike averred, for he banked with the River National, which was now quite bearish on Clark"s Field. After a pause the old liveryman asked with a broad smile,--"Why don"t you go in for the heiress, Jim?"
(Mr. Lovejoy was accounted "gay," a man to please the ladies.)
"Me! I never thought of it--she"s nothing but a girl. The old one pleased me better--she was a smart woman!"
"The girl"s got all the property, ain"t she?"
"I suppose so."
"Well, then, you get two bites from the same cherry."
The manager made no advances to the girl, however, and for that we must consider Adelle herself as chiefly responsible. For, as a woman, or rather the hope of a woman, she was uninteresting,--still a pale, pa.s.sive, commonplace girl. What womanhood she might expect was slow in coming to her. Even with the halo of the Clark inheritance she could arouse slight amorous interest in any man. And thus Adelle"s insignificance again saved her--shall we say?--from the mean fate of becoming the prey of this "roomer."
"No man will ever take the trouble to marry that girl," Mr. Love joy remarked to his employer, "unless she gets her fortune in hard cash." In which prophecy the widower was wrong.
IX
In a few days Mr. Gardiner called at the Church Street house on behalf of the trust company, to express to its ward its sympathy with her in her bereavement and to find out what her situation was, and her needs for the future. Adelle, sitting opposite the portly, bald-headed bank officer in the little front room, did not feel especially excited. She could not imagine what this visit might mean to her. She answered all his questions in a low, colorless voice, promptly enough and intelligently enough. Yes, her aunt was her only relative so far as she knew. No, she had made no plans--she would like to stay where she was if she could. It would be pretty hard to do everything alone, etc. As the trust officer, puzzled by the situation, continued to ply her with questions so that he might gain a clearer understanding of the circ.u.mstances, he became more and more perplexed. This was something quite out of his experience as a trust officer. He had supposed in making this call that he would have merely a perfunctory duty to perform, to ratify some obviously "sensible" plan for the future of the inst.i.tution"s ward. As he happened to have other business in Alton, he called personally instead of writing a note.
But now he discovered that this fifteen-year-old girl had absolutely no relatives, nor "proper friends," nor visible means of support except the income from "a third-cla.s.s boarding-house," as he told the president of the trust company the next day. Clearly the company must do something for its ward, whose fortune they were now beginning to discuss in seven figures.
"She must have a suitable allowance."
That the good Mr. Gardiner saw at once. For to his thrifty, suburban soul the situation of a girl of fifteen with large prospects in a third-cla.s.s rooming-house was truly deplorable. The dignities and proprieties of life were being outraged: it might affect the character of the trust company should it become known....
Rising at last from the dusty sofa where he had placed his large person for this talk, the trust officer said kindly,--
"We must consider what is best to be done, my girl. Can you come to the bank to see me next Monday?"
Adelle saw no reason why she should not go to see him Monday, as high school still seemed impossible with the house on her hands.
"Come in, then, Monday morning!" And the trust officer went homewards to confide his perplexity to his wife as trust officers sometimes do. It was a queer business, his. As trust officer he had once gone out to some awful place in Dakota to take charge of the remains of a client who had got himself shot in a brawl, and brought the body back and buried it decently in a New England graveyard with his ancestors. He had advised young widows how to conduct themselves so that they should not be exposed to the wiles of rapacious men. Once even he had counseled matrimony to a client who was difficult to control and had approved, unofficially, of her selection of a mate. A good many of the social burdens of humanity came upon his desk in the course of the day"s business, and he was no more inhuman than the next man. He was a father of a respectable family in the neighboring suburb of Chester. His habit was naturally to hunt for the proper formula for each situation as it arose and to apply this formula conscientiously. According to Mr.
Gardiner, the duty of trust companies to society consisted in applying suitable formulas to the human tangles submitted to them by their clients. And in the present case Mrs. Gardiner suggested the necessary formula.
"Why don"t you send the girl to a good boarding-school? You say she"s fifteen and will have money."
"Yes,--some money, perhaps a good deal," her husband replied. Even in the bosom of his family, the trust officer was guarded in statement.
"How much?" Mrs. Gardiner demanded.
"What difference does it make how much, so long as we can pay her school bills?"
"It makes all the difference in the world!" the wife replied, with the superior tone of wisdom. "It makes the difference whether you send her to St. Catherine"s or Herndon Hall."
It will be seen that the trust officer"s wife believed in that clause of the catechism that recommends contentment with that state of life to which Providence hath called one, and also that education should fit one for the state of life to which he or she was to be called by Providence.
St. Catherine"s, as the trust officer very well knew, was a modest inst.i.tution for girls under the direction of the Episcopal Church, for which he served as trustee, where needy girls were cheaply provided with a "sensible" education, and "the household arts" were not neglected. In other words, the girls swept their rooms, made their own beds, and washed the dishes after the austere repasts, and the fee was correspondingly small. Whereas Herndon Hall--well, every one who has young daughters to launch upon the troubled sea of social life, and the ambition to give them the most exclusive companionship and no very high regard for learning,--at least for women,--knows all about Herndon Hall, by that name or some other equally euphonious. The fees at Herndon Hall were fabulous, and it was supposed to be so "careful" in its scrutiny of applicants that only those parents with the best introductions could possibly secure admission for their daughters. There were, of course, no examinations or mental tests of any kind.
Mrs. Gardiner, who had the ambition to send her Alicia to Herndon Hall in due course, if the trust officer felt that he could afford the expense, opened her eyes when her husband replied to her question promptly,--
"I guess we"ll figure on Herndon Hall."
Mrs. Gardiner inferred that the prospects of the trust company"s ward must be quite brilliant, and she was prepared to do her part.
"Why don"t you ask the girl out here over Sunday?" she suggested.
"Oh, she"s a queer little piece," the trust officer replied evasively.
"I don"t believe you would find her interesting--it isn"t necessary."
X
On her next visit to the splendid home of her guardian, Adelle was received by no less a person than the president of the trust company himself. In conference between the officers of the trust company it had been decided that the president, his a.s.sistant, and the trust officer should meet the girl, explain to her cautiously the nature of her prospects, and announce to her the arrangement for her education that they had made. But before recording this interview a word should be said about the present situation of Clark"s Field.
The search that the bank had started for trace of the missing Edward S.
and his heirs had resulted as futilely as the more feeble measures taken earlier by Samuel Clark. It is astonishing how completely people can obliterate themselves, give them a few years! There was absolutely no clue in all the United States for discovering this lost branch of the Alton Clarks, nor any reason to believe in their existence except the established fact that in 1848 Edward S., with a wife and at least three babies, had left Chicago for St. Louis. Although the Alton branch of the Clarks had shown no powers of multiplying,--their sole representative now being one little girl,--nevertheless there might be a whole colony of Clarks somewhere interested in one half of the valuable Field. But more than fifty years had now pa.s.sed since the final disappearance of Edward S. Clark, and the law was willing to consider means of ignoring all claims derived from him. It was the young a.s.sistant to the president, Mr. Ashly Crane, who worked out the details of the plan by which the restless t.i.tle was to be finally "quieted" and the trust company enabled to dispose of its ward"s valuable estate. Some of the officers and larger stockholders of the trust company were interested in an affiliated inst.i.tution known as the Washington Guaranty and t.i.tle Company, which was prepared to do business in the guaranteeing of real-estate t.i.tles that were from one reason or another defective, which it is needless to say the majority are. For a reasonable sum this new company undertook to perfect the t.i.tle to Clark"s Field and then to insure purchasers and sellers against any inconvenient claims that might arise in the future, defending the t.i.tle against all comers or in case of defeat a.s.suming the losses. A very convenient inst.i.tution in a society where the laws of property are so intricate and sacred! As a first step there was an extensive public advertis.e.m.e.nt for the missing heir or heirs, and then in due form a "judicial sale" of the property by order of court, after which the court p.r.o.nounced the t.i.tle to Clark"s Field, so long clouded, to be "quieted." And woe to any one who might now dare to raise that restless spirit, be he Edward S. or any descendant of his!
This legal process of purification for Clark"s Field being under way, the ingenious mind of Mr. Ashly Crane turned to the next problem, which was to dispose of the property advantageously. Manifestly the Washington Trust Company could not go into the real estate business on behalf of its ward and peddle out slices of her Field. That would not be proper, nor would it be especially profitable to the trust company. Mr. Crane, therefore, conceived the brilliant idea of forming a "Clark"s Field a.s.sociates" corporation to buy the undeveloped tract of land from the trust company, who as guardian could sell it in whole or in part, and the new corporation might then proceed at its leisure to "develop" the old Field advantageously. For the benefit of the ignorant it maybe bluntly stated here that this was merely a device for buying Adelle"s property cheaply and selling it at a big profit,--not as crude a method as the other that the Veteran had almost fallen a victim to, because the Washington Trust Company was a "high-toned" inst.i.tution and did not do things crudely; but in effect the device was the same.