He spun out the vast webs; with bowed back and quick movements of both hands he trundled the enormous rollers across the polished floor; he ran up the ladders and jerked the folded ma.s.ses from the shelves; he flopped down the cut squares so fast that the piled heaps seemed to grow by magic before the customer"s chair.
Doubtless he knew that he was being observed, but he showed no knowledge of the fact. As he hurried past Mrs. Thompson, she noticed that he was perspiring. He dabbed his white forehead with his handkerchief as he pa.s.sed again, trundling a roll with one hand.
Mrs. Thompson felt astounded by his personal strength. Mr. Mears was strong, a man of comparatively huge girth and ma.s.sive limbs; he could lift big weights; but Mears in his prime could not have shifted the carpet rolls as they were shifted by this slim-waisted stripling.
Two minutes gone, and the querulous, nagging tones were modulated to the note of vulgar affability. Two minutes--thirty seconds, and the customer had decided that her carpet should be one of the three which she was prodding at with her umbrella. She asked Mr. Marsden to help her in making the final selection.
Mr. Marsden was standing up now, Numbers One and Two clumsily hovering about him, while he talked easily and confidentially to the "mollified customer. And while he talked, Mrs. Thompson scrutinized him carefully.
He could not be more than twenty-seven--possibly less. He was gracefully although so strongly built, of medium height, with an excellent poise of the head. His hair was brownish, stiff, cut very short; his small stiff moustache was brushed up in the military fashion; his features were of the firmest masculine type--nose perhaps a shade too thick and not sufficiently well modelled. She could not see the colour of his eyes.
But his manner! It was the salesman"s art in its highest and rarest form. He had charmed, fascinated, hypnotised the troublesome customer.
She bought her carpets, and two door mats; she smiled and nodded and prattled; she seemed quite sorry to say good-bye to Mr. Marsden.
"I shall tell my friends to come here," and then she giggled stupidly.
"And I shall tell them to ask for you."
Without entering Carpets, Mrs. Thompson walked away. She did not utter a word then; but she had determined to promote Number Three, to give him more scope, and to see what she could make of him.
She moved him through the Woollens, the Cretonnes; and then again, upstairs into Crockery.
Crockery, which had of late betrayed sluggishness, was one side of a large department. Beginning with common pots and pans, it shaded off into gla.s.s and china; and on this side ran up to the big money which was properly demanded for the most delicate porcelain and ornamental ware--such as best English dinner services and modern _Sevres_ candelabra. Young Marsden was given charge of the cheaper and quicker-selling stuff, while Miss Woolfrey, a freckled, sandy lady of forty, remained for the present in control of the expensive side. But she was not a t.i.tular head; Mears and Mrs. Thompson herself superintended her, allowing her little discretion, and instructing her from day to day.
After a week Marsden, the newcomer, got a distinct move on the sluggish earthenware; and, after three weeks, Mears rather grudgingly confessed that the whole department appeared to be brisker, livelier, more what one would wish it to be.
On the whole, then, Mrs. Thompson was well pleased with her protege. She spoke to him freely, encouraged him by carefully chosen words of approval.
One day, while talking to a desk-clerk, she saw him in an adjacent mirror that gave one a round-the-corner view of Gla.s.s and China. He was standing with a trade catalogue in his hands, surrounded by Miss Woolfrey and three girls. He seemed to be expounding the catalogue, and the women seemed to exhibit a docile attention.
Mrs. Thompson went in and talked to them.
There had been an accident, and Mr. Marsden was looking up the trade price of the destroyed article. Poor Miss Woolfrey had broken a cut-gla.s.s decanter--she got upon the steps to fetch it down, and it was heavier than she expected.
"Why," inquired Mrs. Thompson, "didn"t you ask someone to help you?"
"I never thought till it was too late, and I"d found out my mistake."
There was no need to offer apologies to the proprietress, because all breakages of this character were made good out of an insurance fund to which all the employees subscribed. The whole shop was therefore interested in each smash, since everybody would pay a share of the damage.
"Mr. Marsden," said Miss Woolfrey, "has so very kindly priced it for me.
He will send on the order at once. So it shall be replaced, ma"am, without delay."
The three interested girls lingered at Mr. Marsden"s elbows; they watched his face; they hung upon his words. Miss Woolfrey continued to thank him for all the trouble he was taking.
Mrs. Thompson walked away, thinking about Mr. Marsden. These women were too obviously subject to the young man"s personal fascination; their silly glances were easy to interpret; and middle-aged Miss Woolfrey and the three immature underlings had all betrayed the same weakness. This implied a situation that must be thought out. Lady-killers, though useful with the customers, may cause a lot of trouble with the staff.
There was no indication of the professional heart-disturber in the young fellow"s general air. Mrs. Thompson had found his manner scrupulously correct--except that, as she remembered now, there was perhaps something too hardy in the way he kept his eyes fixed on her face. She attributed this to sheer intentness, mingled with juvenile simplicity. Most of the older men instinctively dropped their eyes in her presence.
After a little thought she called Mears behind the gla.s.s, and interrogated him. "Behind the gla.s.s" was a shop term for all the sacred region masked by the gla.s.s part.i.tions, and containing counting-house, clerks" and secretary"s offices, managerial and the proprietorial departments.
"If you want the plain fact," said Mr. Mears, "there"s little difference in the pack of "em."
"Do you mean they are _silly_ about him?"
"Yes," said Mears scornfully. "Spoony sentimental--talking ridiculous over him."
"But is _he_ all right with the girls? What is _his_ att.i.tude?... Find out for me."
Mrs. Thompson was always wisely strict on this most important point of shop discipline. No playing the fool between the young ladies and young gentlemen under the care of Mrs. Thompson.
"I will not permit it," she said sternly; and she laid her open hand upon the desk, to give weightier emphasis to the words. "We must have no condoning of that sort of thing. If I catch him at it--if I catch anyone, out he goes neck and crop."
In the course of a few days Mr. Mears reported, still grudgingly, that young Marsden"s demeanour towards the young ladies was absolutely perfect. Stoical indifference, calm disregard, not even a trace of that flirting or innocently philandering tone which is so common, and to which one can scarcely object.
"Good," said Mrs. Thompson. "I"m glad to hear it--because now I shan"t be afraid of advancing him."
"But," said Mears, "you _have_ advanced him. You aren"t thinking of putting him up again?"
"I am not sure. Something must be done about Miss Woolfrey. I will think about it."
It was not long before Mears, young Marsden and Miss Woolfrey were all summoned together behind the gla.s.s. The typewriting girl had been sent out of the room; Mrs. Thompson sat in front of her bureau, looking like a great general; Mr. Mears, at her side, looked like a glum aide-de-camp; the young man looked like a soldier who had been beckoned to step forward from the ranks. He stood at a respectful distance, and his bearing was quite soldierlike--heels together, head well up, the broad shoulders very square, and the muscular back straight and flat.
His eyes were on the general"s face.
Sandy, freckled Miss Woolfrey merely looked foolish and frightened. She caught her breath and coughed when Mrs. Thompson informed her that Mr.
Marsden was to be put in charge of the whole department.
"Over my head, ma"am?"
"It will make no difference to you. Your salary will be no less. And yours, Mr. Marsden, will be no more. But you will have fuller scope."
Miss Woolfrey feebly protested. She had hoped,--she had naturally hoped;--in a customary shop-succession the post should be hers.
"Miss Woolfrey, do you feel yourself competent to fill it? Hitherto you have been under the constant supervision of Mr. Mears. But do you honestly feel you could stand alone?"
"I"d do my best, ma"am."
"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson cordially, "I"m sure you would. But with the best will in the world, there are limits to one"s capacity. I have come to the conclusion that this is a man"s task;" and she turned to the fortunate salesman. "Mr. Marsden, you will not in any way interfere with Miss Woolfrey--but you will remember that the department is now in your sole charge. If I have to complain, it will be to you. If things go wrong, it is you that I shall call to account."
Nothing went wrong in China and Gla.s.s. But sometimes Mrs. Thompson secretly asked herself if she or Mears had been right. Had she acted wisely when pushing an untried man so promptly to the front?
During these pleasant if enervating months of May and June she watched him closely.
Somehow he took liberties. It was difficult to define. He talked humbly.
His voice was always humble, and his words too--but his eyes were bold.
Something of aggressive virility seemed to meet and attempt to beat down that long-a.s.sumed mastership to which everyone else readily submitted.
In the shop she was a man by courtesy--the boss, the c.o.c.k of the walk; and she was never made to remember, when issuing orders to the men who served her, that she was not really and truly male.