"Do you----"
"Course. I know all about it. What d" you expect in a town that"s as filled with busybodies, that have plenty of time to stick their noses into other folks" business, as this is? Not that they"ve had the nerve to do much tattling to me, but they"ve hinted around a lot, and anyway, I could see for myself that you liked him. But of course I knew how cold you were, I knew you wouldn"t stand it even if Valborg did try to hold your hand or kiss you, so I didn"t worry. But same time, I hope you don"t suppose this husky young Swede farmer is as innocent and Platonic and all that stuff as you are! Wait now, don"t get sore! I"m not knocking him. He isn"t a bad sort. And he"s young and likes to gas about books. Course you like him. That isn"t the real rub. But haven"t you just seen what this town can do, once it goes and gets moral on you, like it did with Fern? You probably think that two young folks making love are alone if anybody ever is, but there"s nothing in this town that you don"t do in company with a whole lot of uninvited but awful interested guests. Don"t you realize that if Ma Westlake and a few others got started they"d drive you up a tree, and you"d find yourself so well advertised as being in love with this Valborg fellow that you"d HAVE to be, just to spite "em!"
"Let me sit down," was all Carol could say. She drooped on the couch, wearily, without elasticity.
He yawned, "Gimme your coat and rubbers," and while she stripped them off he twiddled his watch-chain, felt the radiator, peered at the thermometer. He shook out her wraps in the hall, hung them up with exactly his usual care. He pushed a chair near to her and sat bolt up.
He looked like a physician about to give sound and undesired advice.
Before he could launch into his heavy discourse she desperately got in, "Please! I want you to know that I was going to tell you everything, tonight."
"Well, I don"t suppose there"s really much to tell."
"But there is. I"m fond of Erik. He appeals to something in here." She touched her breast. "And I admire him. He isn"t just a "young Swede farmer." He"s an artist----"
"Wait now! He"s had a chance all evening to tell you what a whale of a fine fellow he is. Now it"s my turn. I can"t talk artistic, but----Carrie, do you understand my work?" He leaned forward, thick capable hands on thick st.u.r.dy thighs, mature and slow, yet beseeching.
"No matter even if you are cold, I like you better than anybody in the world. One time I said that you were my soul. And that still goes.
You"re all the things that I see in a sunset when I"m driving in from the country, the things that I like but can"t make poetry of. Do you realize what my job is? I go round twenty-four hours a day, in mud and blizzard, trying my d.a.m.nedest to heal everybody, rich or poor. You--that "re always spieling about how scientists ought to rule the world, instead of a bunch of spread-eagle politicians--can"t you see that I"m all the science there is here? And I can stand the cold and the b.u.mpy roads and the lonely rides at night. All I need is to have you here at home to welcome me. I don"t expect you to be pa.s.sionate--not any more I don"t--but I do expect you to appreciate my work. I bring babies into the world, and save lives, and make cranky husbands quit being mean to their wives. And then you go and moon over a Swede tailor because he can talk about how to put ruchings on a skirt! h.e.l.l of a thing for a man to fuss over!"
She flew out at him: "You make your side clear. Let me give mine. I admit all you say--except about Erik. But is it only you, and the baby, that want me to back you up, that demand things from me? They"re all on me, the whole town! I can feel their hot breaths on my neck! Aunt Bessie and that horrible slavering old Uncle Whittier and Juanita and Mrs.
Westlake and Mrs. Bogart and all of them. And you welcome them, you encourage them to drag me down into their cave! I won"t stand it! Do you hear? Now, right now, I"m done. And it"s Erik who gives me the courage.
You say he just thinks about ruches (which do not usually go on skirts, by the way!). I tell you he thinks about G.o.d, the G.o.d that Mrs. Bogart covers up with greasy gingham wrappers! Erik will be a great man some day, and if I could contribute one tiny bit to his success----"
"Wait, wait, wait now! Hold up! You"re a.s.suming that your Erik will make good. As a matter of fact, at my age he"ll be running a one-man tailor shop in some burg about the size of Schoenstrom."
"He will not!"
"That"s what he"s headed for now all right, and he"s twenty-five or -six and----What"s he done to make you think he"ll ever be anything but a pants-presser?"
"He has sensitiveness and talent----"
"Wait now! What has he actually done in the art line? Has he done one first-cla.s.s picture or--sketch, d" you call it? Or one poem, or played the piano, or anything except gas about what he"s going to do?"
She looked thoughtful.
"Then it"s a hundred to one shot that he never will. Way I understand it, even these fellows that do something pretty good at home and get to go to art school, there ain"t more than one out of ten of "em, maybe one out of a hundred, that ever get above grinding out a b.u.m living--about as artistic as plumbing. And when it comes down to this tailor, why, can"t you see--you that take on so about psychology--can"t you see that it"s just by contrast with folks like Doc McGanum or Lym Ca.s.s that this fellow seems artistic? Suppose you"d met up with him first in one of these reg"lar New York studios! You wouldn"t notice him any more "n a rabbit!"
She huddled over folded hands like a temple virgin shivering on her knees before the thin warmth of a brazier. She could not answer.
Kennicott rose quickly, sat on the couch, took both her hands. "Suppose he fails--as he will! Suppose he goes back to tailoring, and you"re his wife. Is that going to be this artistic life you"ve been thinking about?
He"s in some b.u.m shack, pressing pants all day, or stooped over sewing, and having to be polite to any grouch that blows in and jams a dirty stinking old suit in his face and says, "Here you, fix this, and be blame quick about it." He won"t even have enough savvy to get him a big shop. He"ll pike along doing his own work--unless you, his wife, go help him, go help him in the shop, and stand over a table all day, pushing a big heavy iron. Your complexion will look fine after about fifteen years of baking that way, won"t it! And you"ll be humped over like an old hag. And probably you"ll live in one room back of the shop. And then at night--oh, you"ll have your artist--sure! He"ll come in stinking of gasoline, and cranky from hard work, and hinting around that if it hadn"t been for you, he"d of gone East and been a great artist. Sure!
And you"ll be entertaining his relatives----Talk about Uncle Whit!
You"ll be having some old Axel Axelberg coming in with manure on his boots and sitting down to supper in his socks and yelling at you, "Hurry up now, you vimmin make me sick!" Yes, and you"ll have a squalling brat every year, tugging at you while you press clothes, and you won"t love "em like you do Hugh up-stairs, all downy and asleep----"
"Please! Not any more!"
Her face was on his knee.
He bent to kiss her neck. "I don"t want to be unfair. I guess love is a great thing, all right. But think it would stand much of that kind of stuff? Oh, honey, am I so bad? Can"t you like me at all? I"ve--I"ve been so fond of you!"
She s.n.a.t.c.hed up his hand, she kissed it. Presently she sobbed, "I won"t ever see him again. I can"t, now. The hot living-room behind the tailor shop----I don"t love him enough for that. And you are----Even if I were sure of him, sure he was the real thing, I don"t think I could actually leave you. This marriage, it weaves people together. It"s not easy to break, even when it ought to be broken."
"And do you want to break it?"
"No!"
He lifted her, carried her up-stairs, laid her on her bed, turned to the door.
"Come kiss me," she whimpered.
He kissed her lightly and slipped away. For an hour she heard him moving about his room, lighting a cigar, drumming with his knuckles on a chair.
She felt that he was a bulwark between her and the darkness that grew thicker as the delayed storm came down in sleet.
II
He was cheery and more casual than ever at breakfast. All day she tried to devise a way of giving Erik up. Telephone? The village central would unquestionably "listen in." A letter? It might be found. Go to see him? Impossible. That evening Kennicott gave her, without comment, an envelope. The letter was signed "E. V."
I know I can"t do anything but make trouble for you, I think. I am going to Minneapolis tonight and from there as soon as I can either to New York or Chicago. I will do as big things as I can. I--I can"t write I love you too much--G.o.d keep you.
Until she heard the whistle which told her that the Minneapolis train was leaving town, she kept herself from thinking, from moving. Then it was all over. She had no plan nor desire for anything.
When she caught Kennicott looking at her over his newspaper she fled to his arms, thrusting the paper aside, and for the first time in years they were lovers. But she knew that she still had no plan in life, save always to go along the same streets, past the same people, to the same shops.
III
A week after Erik"s going the maid startled her by announcing, "There"s a Mr. Valborg down-stairs say he vant to see you."
She was conscious of the maid"s interested stare, angry at this shattering of the calm in which she had hidden. She crept down, peeped into the living-room. It was not Erik Valborg who stood there; it was a small, gray-bearded, yellow-faced man in mucky boots, canvas jacket, and red mittens. He glowered at her with shrewd red eyes.
"You de doc"s wife?"
"Yes."
"I"m Adolph Valborg, from up by Jefferson. I"m Erik"s father."
"Oh!" He was a monkey-faced little man, and not gentle.
"What you done wit" my son?"
"I don"t think I understand you."
"I t"ink you"re going to understand before I get t"rough! Where is he?"
"Why, really----I presume that he"s in Minneapolis."