The fat man clasped his thin, nervous hands in front of him and leaned forward.
"About things that you"re trying to forget. It starts me that way, too. That"s why sometimes I don"t touch the keys for weeks. Say, what do you think of a man who can play like that, and who is out on the road for a living just because he knows it"s a sure thing? Music!
That"s my gift. And I"ve buried it. Why? Because the public won"t take a fat man seriously. When he sits down at the piano they begin to howl for Italian rag. Why, I"d rather play the piano in a five-cent moving picture house than do what I"m doing now. But the old man wanted his son to be a business man, not a crazy, piano-playing galoot. That"s the way he put it. And I was darn fool enough to think he was right.
Why can"t people stand up and do the things they"re out to do! Not one person in a thousand does. Why, take you--I don"t know you from Eve, but just from the way you shed the briny I know you"re busy regretting."
"Regretting?" repeated Emma McChesney, in a wail. "Do you know what I am? I"m a lady drummer. And do you know what I want to do this minute?
I want to clean house. I want to wind a towel around my head, and pin up my skirt, and slosh around with a pail of hot, soapy water. I want to pound a couple of mattresses in the back yard, and eat a cold dinner off the kitchen table. That"s what I want to do."
"Well, go on and do it," said the fat man.
"Do it? I haven"t any house to clean. I got my divorce ten years ago, and I"ve been on the road ever since. I don"t know why I stick. I"m pulling down a good, fat salary and commissions, but it"s no life for a woman, and I know it, but I"m not big enough to quit. It"s different with a man on the road. He can spend his evenings taking in two or three nickel shows, or he can stand on the drug-store corner and watch the pretty girls go by, or he can have a game of billiards, or maybe cards. Or he can have a nice, quiet time just going up to his room, and smoking a cigar and writing to his wife or his girl. D"you know what I do?"
"No," answered the fat man, interestedly. "What?"
"Evenings I go up to my room and sew or read. Sew! Every hook and eye and b.u.t.ton on my clothes is moored so tight that even the hand laundry can"t tear "em off. You couldn"t pry those fastenings away with dynamite. When I find a hole in my stockings I"m tickled to death, because it"s something to mend. And read? Everything from the Rules of the House tacked up on the door to spelling out the French short story in the back of the Swell Set Magazine. It"s getting on my nerves. Do you know what I do Sunday mornings? No, you don"t. Well, I go to church, that"s what I do. And I get green with envy watching the other women there getting nervous about 11:45 or so, when the minister is still in knee-deep, and I know they"re wondering if Lizzie has basted the chicken often enough, and if she has put the celery in cold water, and the ice-cream is packed in burlap in the cellar, and if she has forgotten to mix in a tablespoon of flour to make it smooth. You can tell by the look on their faces that there"s company for dinner. And you know that after dinner they"ll sit around, and the men will smoke, and the women folks will go upstairs, and she"ll show the other woman her new scalloped, monogrammed, hand-embroidered guest towels, and the waist that her cousin Ethel brought from Paris. And maybe they"ll slip off their skirts and lie down on the spare-room bed for a ten minutes"
nap. And you can hear the hired girl rattling the dishes in the kitchen, and talking to her lady friend who is helping her wipe up so they can get out early. You can hear the two of them laughing above the clatter of the dishes--"
The fat man banged one fist down on the piano keys with a crash.
"I"m through," he said. "I quit to-night. I"ve got my own life to live. Here, will you shake on it? I"ll quit if you will. You"re a born housekeeper. You don"t belong on the road any more than I do. It"s now or never. And it"s going to be now with me. When I strike the pearly gates I"m not going to have Saint Peter say to me, "Ed, old kid, what have you done with your talents?""
"You"re right," sobbed Emma McChesney, her face glowing.
"By the way," interrupted the fat man, "what"s your line?"
"Petticoats. I"m out for T. A. Buck"s Featherloom Skirts. What"s yours?"
"Suffering cats!" shouted the fat man. "D" you mean to tell me that you"re the fellow who sold that bill to Blum, of the Novelty Cloak and Suit concern, and spoiled a sale for me?"
"You! Are you--"
"You bet I am. I sell the best little skirt in the world. Strauss"s Sans-silk Petticoat, warranted not to crack, rip, or fall into holes.
Greatest little skirt in the country."
Emma McChesney straightened her collar and jabot with a jerk, and sat up.
"Oh, now, don"t give me that bunk. You"ve got a good little seller, all right, but that guaranty don"t hold water any more than the petticoat contains silk. I know that stuff. It looms up big in the window displays, but it"s got a filler of glucose, or starch or mucilage or something, and two days after you wear it it"s as limp as a cheesecloth rag. It"s showy, but you take a line like mine, for instance, why--"
"My customers swear by me. I make DeKalb to-morrow, and there"s Nussbaum, of the Paris Emporium, the biggest store there, who just--"
"I make DeKalb, too," remarked Emma McChesney, the light of battle in her eye.
"You mean," gently insinuated the fat man, "that you were going to, but that"s all over now."
"Huh?" said Emma.
"Our agreement, you know," the fat man reminded her, sweetly. "You aren"t going back on that. The cottage and the Sunday dinner for you, remember."
Of course," agreed Emma listlessly." I think I"ll go up and get some sleep now. Didn"t get much last night on the road."
"Won"t you--er--come down and have a little something moist? Or we could have it sent up here," suggested the fat man.
"You"re the third man that"s asked me that to-day," snapped Emma McChesney, somewhat crossly. "Say, what do I look like, anyway? I guess I"ll have to pin a white ribbon on my coat lapel."
"No offense," put in the fat man, with haste. "I just thought it would bind our bargain. I hope you"ll be happy, and contented, and all that, you know."
"Let it go double," replied Emma McChesney, and shook his hand.
"Guess I"ll run down and get a smoke," remarked he.
He ran down the stairs in a manner wonderfully airy for one so stout.
Emma watched him until he disappeared around a bend in the stairs.
Then she walked hastily in the direction of sixty-five.
Down in the lobby the fat man, cigar in mouth, was cautioning the clerk, and emphasizing his remarks with one forefinger.
"I want to leave a call for six thirty," he was saying. "Not a minute later. I"ve got to get out of here on that 7:35 for DeKalb. Got a Sunday customer there."
As he turned away a telephone bell tinkled at the desk. The clerk bent his stately head.
"Clerk. Yes, ma"am. No, ma"am, there"s no train out of here to-night for DeKalb. To-morrow morning. Seven thirty-five A.M. I sure will. At six-thirty? Surest thing you know."
III
CHICKENS
For the benefit of the bewildered reader it should be said that there are two distinct species of chickens. There is the chicken which you find in the barnyard, in the incubator, or on a hat. And there is the type indigenous to State Street, Chicago. Each is known by its feathers. The barnyard variety may puzzle the amateur fancier, but there is no mistaking the State Street chicken. It is known by its soiled, high, white canvas boots; by its tight, short black skirt; by its slug pearl earrings; by its bewildering coiffure. By every line of its slim young body, by every curve of its cheek and throat you know it is adorably, pitifully young. By its carmined lip, its near-smart hat, its babbling of "him," and by the knowledge which looks boldly out of its eyes you know it is tragically old.
Seated in the Pullman car, with a friendly newspaper protecting her bright hair from the doubtful gray-white of the chair cover, Emma McChesney, traveling saleswoman for T. A. Buck"s Featherloom Petticoats, was watching the telegraph poles chase each other back to Duluth, Minnesota, and thinking fondly of Mary Cutting, who is the mother-confessor and comforter of the State Street chicken.
Now, Duluth, Minnesota, is trying to be a city. In watching its struggles a hunger for a taste of the real city had come upon Emma McChesney. She had been out with her late Fall line from May until September. Every Middle-Western town of five thousand inhabitants or over had received its share of Emma McChesney"s attention and petticoats. It had been a mystifyingly good season in a bad business year. Even old T. A. himself was almost satisfied. Commissions piled up with gratifying regularity for Emma McChesney. Then, quite suddenly, the lonely evenings, the lack of woman companionship, and the longing for a sight of her seventeen-year-old son had got on Emma McChesney"s nerves.
She was two days ahead of her schedule, whereupon she wired her son, thus:
_"Dear Kid:_
"Meet me Chicago usual place Friday large time my treat. MOTHER."
Then she had packed her bag, wired Mary Cutting that she would see her Thursday, and had taken the first train out for Chicago.
You might have found the car close, stuffy, and uninteresting. Ten years on the road had taught Emma McChesney to extract a maximum of enjoyment out of a minimum of material. Emma McChesney"s favorite occupation was selling T. A. Buck"s Featherloom Petticoats, and her favorite pastime was studying men and women. The two things went well together.
When the train stopped for a minute or two you could hear a faint rattle and click from the direction of the smoking compartment where three jewelry salesmen from Providence, Rhode Island, were indulging in their beloved, but dangerous diversion of dice throwing. Just across the aisle was a woman, with her daughter, Chicago-bound to buy a trousseau. They were typical, wealthy small-town women smartly garbed in a fashion not more than twenty minutes late. In the quieter moments of the trip Emma McChesney could hear the mother"s high- pitched, East End Ladies" Reading Club voice saying: