"Maybe," said Emma Buck gently. "But to me it seems just as reasonable to argue that an apple tree has no right to wear pink-and-white blossoms in the spring, so long as it is going to bear sober russets in the autumn."
Miss Susan H. Croft rustled indignantly.
"Then you refuse to work with us? You will not consent to Miss Orton-Wells" speaking to the girls in your shop this noon?"
Emma looked at Gladys Orton-Wells. Gladys was wearing black, and black did not become her. It made her creamy skin sallow. Her suit was severely tailored, and her hat was small and harshly outlined, and her hair was drawn back from her face. All this, in spite of the fact that Miss Orton-Wells was of the limp and fragile type, which demands ruffles, fluffiness, flowing lines and frou-frou. Emma"s glance at the suppressed Gladys was as fleeting as it was keen, but it sufficed to bring her to a decision. She pressed a buzzer at her desk.
"I shall be happy to have Miss Orton-Wells speak to the girls in our shop this noon, and as often as she cares to speak. If she can convince the girls that a--er--fixed idea in cut, color, and style is the thing to be adopted by shop-workers I am perfectly willing that they be convinced."
Then to Annie, who appeared in answer to the buzzer,
"Will you tell Sophy k.u.mpf to come here, please?"
Mrs. Orton-Wells beamed. The somber plumes in her correct hat bobbed and dipped to Emma. The austere Miss Susan H. Croft unbent in a nutcracker smile. Only Miss Gladys Orton-Wells remained silent, thoughtful, unenthusiastic. Her eyes were on Emma"s face.
A heavy, comfortable step sounded in the hall outside the office door.
Emma turned with a smile to the stout, motherly, red-cheeked woman who entered, smoothing her coa.r.s.e brown hair with work-roughened fingers.
Emma took one of those calloused hands in hers.
"Sophy, we need your advice. This is Mrs. Sophy k.u.mpf--Mrs.
Orton-Wells, Miss Susan H. Croft"--Sophy threw her a keen glance; she knew that name--"and Miss Orton-Wells." Of the four, Sophy was the most at ease.
"Pleased to meet you," said Sophy k.u.mpf.
The three bowed, but did not commit themselves. Emma, her hand still on Sophy"s, elaborated:
"Sophy k.u.mpf has been with the T. A. Buck Company for thirty years.
She could run this business single-handed, if she had to. She knows any machine in the shop, can cut a pattern, keep books, run the entire plant if necessary. If there"s anything about petticoats that Sophy doesn"t know, it"s because it hasn"t been invented yet. Sophy was sixteen when she came to Buck"s. I"ve heard she was the prettiest and best dressed girl in the shop."
"Oh, now, Mrs. Buck!" remonstrated Sophy.
Emma tried to frown as she surveyed Sophy"s bright eyes, her rosy cheeks, her broad bosom, her ample hips--all that made Sophy an object to comfort and rest the eye.
"Don"t dispute, Sophy. Sophy has educated her children, married them off, and welcomed their children. She thinks that excuses her for having been frivolous and extravagant at sixteen. But we know better, don"t we? I"m using you as a horrible example, Sophy."
Sophy turned affably to the listening three.
"Don"t let her string you," she said, and winked one knowing eye.
Mrs. Orton-Wells stiffened. Miss Susan H. Croft congealed. But Miss Gladys Orton-Wells smiled. And then Emma knew she was right.
"Sophy, who"s the prettiest girl in our shop? And the best dressed?"
"Lily Bernstein," Sophy made prompt answer.
"Send her in to us, will you? And give her credit for lost time when she comes back to the shop."
Sophy, with a last beamingly good-natured smile, withdrew. Five minutes later, when Lily Bernstein entered the office, Sophy qualified as a judge of beauty. Lily Bernstein was a tiger-lily--all browns and golds and creams, all graciousness and warmth and lovely curves. As she came into the room, Gladys Orton-Wells seemed as bloodless and pale and ineffectual as a white moth beside a gorgeous tawny b.u.t.terfly.
Emma presented the girl as formally as she had Sophy k.u.mpf. And Lily Bernstein smiled upon them, and her teeth were as white and even as one knew they would be before she smiled. Lily had taken off her shop-ap.r.o.n. Her gown was blue serge, cheap in quality, flawless as to cut and fit, and incredibly becoming. Above it, her vivid face glowed like a golden rose.
"Lily," said Emma, "Miss Orton-Wells is going to speak to the girls this noon. I thought you might help by telling her whatever she wants to know about the girls" work and all that, and by making her feel at home."
"Well, sure," said Lily, and smiled again her heart-warming smile.
"I"d love to."
"Miss Orton-Wells," went on Emma smoothly, "wants to speak to the girls about clothes."
Lily looked again at Miss Orton-Wells, and she did not mean to be cruel. Then she looked quickly at Emma, to detect a possible joke.
But Mrs. Buck"s face bore no trace of a smile.
"Clothes!" repeated Lily. And a slow red mounted to Gladys Orton-Wells" pale face. When Lily went out Sunday afternoons, she might have pa.s.sed for a millionaire"s daughter if she hadn"t been so well dressed.
"Suppose you take Miss Orton-Wells into the shop," suggested Emma, "so that she may have some idea of the size and character of our family before she speaks to it. How long shall you want to speak?"
Miss Orton-Wells started nervously, stammered a little, stopped.
"Oh, ten minutes," said Mrs. Orton-Wells graciously.
"Five," said Gladys, quickly, and followed Lily Bernstein into the workroom.
Mrs. Orton-Wells and Miss Susan H. Croft gazed after them.
"Rather attractive, that girl, in a coa.r.s.e way," mused Mrs.
Orton-Wells. "If only we can teach them to avoid the cheap and tawdry.
If only we can train them to appreciate the finer things in life. Of course, their life is peculiar. Their problems are not our problems; their----"
"Their problems are just exactly our problems," interrupted Emma crisply. "They use garlic instead of onion, and they don"t bathe as often as we do; but, then, perhaps we wouldn"t either, if we hadn"t tubs and showers so handy."
In the shop, queer things were happening to Gladys Orton-Wells. At her entrance into the big workroom, one hundred pairs of eyes had lifted, dropped, and, in that one look, condemned her hat, suit, blouse, veil and tout ensemble. When you are on piece-work you squander very little time gazing at uplift visitors in the wrong kind of clothes.
Gladys Orton-Wells looked about the big, bright workroom. The noonday sun streamed in from a dozen great windows. There seemed, somehow, to be a look of content and capableness about those heads bent so busily over the st.i.tching.
"It looks--pleasant," said Gladys Orton-Wells.
"It ain"t bad. Of course it"s hard sitting all day. But I"d rather do that than stand from eight to six behind a counter. And there"s good money in it."
Gladys Orton-Wells turned wistful eyes on friendly little Lily Bernstein.
"I"d like to earn money," she said. "I"d like to work."
"Well, why don"t you?" demanded Lily.
"Work"s all the style this year. They"re all doing it. Look at the Vanderbilts and that Morgan girl, and the whole crowd. These days you can"t tell whether the girl at the machine next to you lives in the Bronx or on Fifth Avenue."
"It must be wonderful to earn your own clothes."
"Believe me," laughed Lily Bernstein, "it ain"t so wonderful when you"ve had to do it all your life."