VIII
MILLY"S CAMPAIGN
Almost at once Milly began the first important campaign of her life--to move the household to a more advantageous neighborhood. One morning she said casually at breakfast,--
"The Kemps are going to their new house when they come in from the Lake.... Why can"t we live some place where there are nice people?"
"What"s the matter with this?" Horatio asked, crowding flannel cakes into his mouth.
"Oh!" Milly exclaimed witheringly. "My friends are all moving away."
"You forget that your father has two years more of his lease of this house," her grandmother remarked severely.
And the campaign was on, not to be relaxed until the family abandoned the West Side a year later. It was a campaign fought in many subtle feminine ways, chiefly between Milly and her grandmother. Needless to say, the family atmosphere was not always comfortable for the mild Horatio.
"It all comes of your ambition to go with rich people," Mrs. Ridge declared. "Since your visit at the Lake, you have been discontented."
"I was never contented with _this_!" Milly retorted quite truthfully.
What the old lady regarded as a fault, Milly considered a virtue.
"And you are neglecting your church work to go to parties."
"Oh, grandma!" the girl exclaimed wearily. "Chicago isn"t Euston, Pa., grandma!"
As if the young people"s clubs of the Second Presbyterian Church could satisfy the social aspirations of a Milly Ridge! She was fast becoming conscious of the prize that had been given her--her charm and her beauty--and an indefinable force was driving her on to obtain the necessary means of self-exploitation.
It was true, as her grandmother said, that more and more this autumn Milly was away from her home. Mrs. Gilbert had not forgotten her, nor the other people she had met at the Lake. More and more she was being asked to dinners and dances, and spent many nights with good-natured friends.
"She might as well board over there," Horatio remarked forlornly, "for all I see of the girl."
"Milly is a selfish girl," her grandmother commented severely.
"She"s young, and she wants her fling. Guess we"d better see if we can"t give it to her, mother."
Horatio was no fighter, especially of his own womenkind. Even the old lady"s judgment was disturbed by the dazzle of Milly"s social conquests.
"She"ll be married before long," they said.
Meanwhile Milly was learning the fine social distinctions between the south and the north sides of the city. The Kemps" new house on Granger Avenue was very rich and handsome like its many substantial neighbors, but Milly already knew enough to prefer the Gilberts" on the North Drive, which, if smaller, had more style. And in spite of all the miles of solid prosperity and comfort in the great south side of the city, Milly quickly perceived that the really nicest people had tucked themselves in along the north sh.o.r.e.
Somewhere about this time Milly acquired two lively young friends, Sally and Vivie Norton, daughters of a railroad man who had recently been moved to Chicago from the East. Sally Norton was small and blonde and gay. She laughed overmuch. Vivie was tall and sentimental,--a brunette.
They came once to the West Laurence Avenue house for Sunday supper.
Horatio did not like the sisters; he called them in his simple way "Giggle" and "Simper." The Nortons lived not far from the Lake on East Acacia Street, and that became for Milly the symbol of the all-desirable. She spoke firmly of the advantages of East Acacia Street as a residence--she had even picked out the house, the last but one in the same row of stone-front boxes where the Nortons lived.
It made Horatio restless. Like a good father he wished to indulge his only child in every way--to do his best for her. But with his salary of three thousand dollars he could barely give Milly the generous allowance she needed and always spent in advance. Rise at Hoppers" was slow, although sure, and the only way for him to enlarge Milly"s horizon was by going into business for himself. He began to talk of schemes, said he was tired of "working for others all his life." Milly"s ambitions were contagious.
After one of the family conflicts, Grandma invaded Milly"s bedroom, which was quite irritating to the young woman.
"Mildred," she began ominously. "Do you realize what you are doing to your father?"
"The rent is only thirty dollars a month more, grandma," Milly replied, reverting to the last topic under discussion. "Papa can take it out of my allowance." (Milly was magnificently optimistic about the expansiveness of her allowance.) "Anyhow, I don"t see why I can"t live near my friends and have a decent--"
The old lady"s lips tightened.
"In my days young girls did not pretend to decide where their parents should live."
"These aren"t your days, grandma, thank heaven!... If a girl is going to get anything out of life--"
"You"ve had a great deal--"
"Thanks to the friends I"ve made for myself."
"It might be better if you cared less to go with folks above you--"
"Above me!" the exasperated girl flashed. "Who"s above me? Nelly Kemp?
Sally Norton?--Above me!"
That was the flaming note of Milly"s intense Americanism. As a social, human being she recognized no superiors. There were richer, cleverer, better educated women, no doubt, but in this year of salvation and hope, 1890, there were none "above her." Never!...
Mrs. Ridge discreetly shifted the point of attack.
"It might be disastrous for your father if you were to break up his home."
"You talk so tragically, grandma! Who"s thinking of breaking up homes?
Just moving a couple of miles across the city to another house in another street. What difference does it make to a man what old house he comes home to after his work is done?"
"You forget his church relations, Milly."
"You seem to think there are no churches on the North Side."
"But he"s made his place here--and Dr. Barlow has a good influence upon him."
Milly knew quite well the significance of these words. There had been a time when Horatio did not come home every night sober, and did not go to church on Sundays. When the little old lady wished to check the soaring ambition of her granddaughter, she had but to refer to this dark period in the Ridge history. Milly did not like to think of those dreary days, and was inclined to put the responsibility for them upon her dead mother. "If she"d only known how to manage him--" For with all men Milly thought it was simply a question of management.
"Well," she announced at last. "I"m tired and want to go to bed. Come, Cheriki, darling!" Cheriki was a fuzzy toy spaniel, the gift of an admirer. Milly poked the animal from her bed, and the old lady, who loathed dogs, scuttled out of the room. She had been routed again.
Knowing Milly"s obstinate nature, she felt that she must battle daily for the right.
But Milly did not return to the attack for some time. She stayed at home for several evenings and was very sweet with her father. She ostentatiously refused some alluring invitations and was quite cheerful about it. "She must give up these parties--she could not always be accepting the Nortons" hospitality, etc." But Milly was not a nagger, at least not with men. Hers was a pleasant, cheerful nature, and she bathed the West Laurence Avenue house in several beams of sunshine.
"She"s a good girl, mother," Horatio said proudly. "And she"s all we"ve got. It would be a pity not to give her what she wants."
A complete expression of the submissive att.i.tude of the new parent!
"It may not be good for her," Grandma Ridge objected, after her generation.
"Well, if she only marries right."
More and more it was in their minds that Milly was destined to make "a great match." Purely as a business matter that must be taken into account. So Horatio thought harder about getting into business for himself, and his little corner of the world revolved more and more about the desires of a woman.