The girl went to the window and pulled down the shade. Turning to the mirror she looked at herself in the gla.s.s. The face that looked back at her was thin and white, with sad lines about the dark eyes, but it was familiar, the same face that Mrs. Pickens had seen since she had come into this home. What was there that should make this woman gaze at her with repugnance and then go away? She pressed her hands upon her waving hair. Had she guessed something worse than the truth, something that Hertha herself had believed the truth until a short time ago? Did she think she was a Negro? If she thought that! Leaving the mirror the girl seated herself in a chair and wearily reached out to the table for the book that she was studying. But before touching it she drew back and with a gesture of pain turned and looked across the room to the closed door. A chair stood near the doorway and leaning against it again she saw her landlady, her hand gripping the back, her every feature breathing disgust. She could not rid herself of the figure, it would not leave the room. And worse, shadows were gathering about it, black shadows from which the figure shrank. They moved restlessly about, these shadows, by the door and by the bed. They stood dark in the gas-light--black faces with big, clumsy lips! black hands with red palms; heads with black, woolly hair. Shutting her eyes, she summoned all her strength to efface with life"s reality the phantoms of a white world"s hate. She saw her old friendly home, her mammy, Ellen, Tom. She looked into their kindly faces and touched their hands. Then with a start her eyes opened and the shadows gathered about the figure at the door.
There were noises in the room--big, deep voices, calling from between thick lips. From heavy throats came coa.r.s.e words and now and then a grating laugh. The figure shrank again and gripped harder at the chair.
Why was the room so close? She had not closed the window when she had lighted the gas. But the air was full of odors, thick odors, that stifled. The figure drew back, its face drawn with disgust, trembling at contact with the fetid smell.
In her chair at the table Hertha shrank within herself. She drew up her feet, crouching against the cushions. Were they coming to her, too, these figures? She called on them to leave her, but they came on. With staring eyes she implored them to stop, to pa.s.s her by, but they only leered and drew the closer. And as they came she shrank back further in her chair.
Then for the first time in her life she felt shame at her uprearing. The home that had been sacred to her, her refuge, was defiled. The black faces danced before her eyes and she cowered, the coa.r.s.e voices called and she pressed her hands over her ears. The thick odors enveloped her, and her face changed, her nostrils quivered, and with a movement of disgust she dropped her head upon the table on her outstretched arms.
In the meantime, within her room, Mrs. Pickens restlessly examined her piles of papers, seizing and discarding, searching feverishly for a date until at length, on a yellowed sheet, she found what she sought. The incredible was true. There was the forgotten name, "Ogilvie!" Viewed in print, after an hour"s reflection, the story was less horrible than when it had flashed upon her in Hertha"s bedroom. A judge for a grandfather was an alleviating circ.u.mstance. But the reality was bad enough. That the girl still clung to the Negroes was the worst feature. Common sense must soon show her, however, both the wickedness and the folly of such an att.i.tude. She put the paper carefully away, resolved that d.i.c.k should see it when he came back home.
CHAPTER x.x.xII
"d.i.c.k!"
It was Friday afternoon. Hertha had returned from school, her books on her arm, happy in the realization that in one week vacation would be at hand. She had no idea that she should find Richard Brown standing in his doorway, smiling at her.
Never had he seemed so bright and attractive. He had taken off his business clothes and wore a white flannel shirt and white trousers. He looked a young happy boy, and was indeed supremely happy to be back and with her again. "d.i.c.k," she had cried and started to shift her books that she might hold out her hand. But before she could accomplish her purpose he had her in his arms. Only for a moment; so swift a moment that she could not draw away or resent it, her surprise was too great.
"I didn"t do anything," he cried quickly, "I reckon we were both startled. My, but it"s good to be back home! Here! let me take your books. Ain"t it hot though! The first hot weather I"ve struck yet. Makes you think of the South only they can"t get it as warm down there as up here where the sidewalks are baking all day. Guess what I saw this noon?
A boy frying pancakes on the pavement. Just dropped the mixture on the hot stone and in a jiffy the cake was done, nice and brown and crisp around the edges. That beats it our way, don"t it?"
He spoke with reckless extravagance, anxious to retrieve any mistake he may have made, looking at her in the meantime with devouring eyes. There was nothing that he missed, and though he did not speak of it he cursed inwardly the work that made her pale and thin and that he believed had caused the hara.s.sed expression in her face.
"You look mighty well in your new clothes," Hertha said, relieving her embarra.s.sment by surveying with exaggerated approval his white apparel.
"Do I? Glad you like "em. I found some of the fellows were going in for them and I thought I would. I mean to dress better anyway. A man on the road ought to have the latest thing in style and know how to carry it, too. I"ve improved in neckties, haven"t I?"
"Indeed you have. I wish you"d give me that splotchy one. I hate it."
Going to his bureau d.i.c.k secured the offending tie and handed it out to her.
"What are you going to do with it?" he asked curiously.
"I"d like to burn it in the kitchen stove, only up here there aren"t any stoves where you can burn things up. I"ll have to use it for patchwork."
She smoothed the glaring red and orange silk in her hand and then, with d.i.c.k carrying her books, went to her room.
As he turned to go, nodding to her from her threshold, she again spoke of his suit. "You"re ready for tennis. The men dress like that when they play here in the park."
"Do they? I"ll have to play then. Don"t know a thing about it, do you?"
"No, I never had a chance to play games."
"Neither did I. They didn"t go in for that sort of thing where I came from. But it"s never too late to learn. Can"t we get a net and play this summer?"
"Perhaps."
Though she only said "perhaps," her face brightened and she looked with pleased expectance at this young man who had brought so much happiness and jollity into her life. Since she had sat on the sled and let him draw her over the snow in the city square, he had given her many gay, entertaining times.
"I"ll get some rubber-soled shoes," she called out, "and you must get some too."
Brushing her hair and changing her gown need not have made her hot, but when she had finished dressing, her face was flushed and she sat down trembling. She had slept but little the past night, but more serious than lack of sleep was her new sense of shame. Of a sudden to-day in the cla.s.sroom she found herself asking what the girls would think if they knew that she had a black mother, that she had eaten with her, performed for her myriad services? What would they think if she told of her black sister who for years had paid her way to school? The white world"s phantoms were clouding her spirit, turning her affectionate grat.i.tude into shrinking fear. They were standing between her and a past that she loved. And as the black shadows followed her to her work so she found them back in her room. She dreaded to look toward the door.
The trees without beckoned, and walking to the open window she looked across the street. The familiar scene brought calmness and resolution.
She would tell d.i.c.k everything. No matter how difficult or humiliating it might be, it would be better to tell him herself than to try, as she had tried last night, to relate her story to some one else. And she must share her secret. She could not stay another night in this house without the comfort of self-revelation. Otherwise the shadows would drive her to sickness and despair. d.i.c.k loved her, and love carried with it sympathy and compa.s.sion. For the first time her heart warmed at the thought of his protecting affection; and with her resolution firmly taken she walked steadily, head erect, through the doorway out of her room.
It was a gay dinner-table. Mrs. Pickens, who had been constrained in her manner toward Hertha at breakfast, dropped her reserve for the time being and entered into d.i.c.k"s raillery. Miss Wood was in good humor, and d.i.c.k was bubbling over with entertaining stories. He was interesting, too, in describing the country through which he had pa.s.sed, and made vivid to them the small town up-state with its shaded streets, its growing shops, its dingy hotel and execrable service. The young commercial traveler had become very discriminating in regard to rooms and meals.
"Most of the waiters," he explained, "know only about ten words of English nowadays. You"re lucky if you strike one who knows twenty. Once in a while I"d get a darky and you bet I was glad! Sambo"s the boy for me! Serves your meals all right and sense enough to laugh at your jokes.
We always got along fine."
He did not look at Hertha as he said this, but he hoped that she received it in the spirit of good-will in which it was given. He was friends to-night with all the world.
They lingered long over the meal, and when at length they rose, d.i.c.k declaring that he could eat no more, the long twilight was almost over.
"Shall we sit on the stoop?" he asked, and Hertha nodded a.s.sent. Mrs.
Pickens went out with them, and for a few minutes the three remained together, watching the people who came and went on the broad sidewalk, saying little, feeling much. Then Hertha rose and d.i.c.k with her.
"I"m going to say good-night to Bob," she explained to the young man, "and then don"t you want to come down and we can take a walk?"
It was the first time, in all their acquaintance, that she had taken the initiative in anything they did together, and d.i.c.k"s happiness was so great he could only awkwardly nod in a.s.sent as she moved away.
"I"ve been seeing "em," he said as he watched the bright spot her white dress made down the street, "girls and girls; and there isn"t one that could sit in the same room with her without looking like two cents! Why, they aren"t in the same cla.s.s. They aren"t on the earth with her, they"re just things fluttering round!"
He stopped and waved his hands at the utter futility of language as a means of expressing his admiration. "And she"s as good----"
"d.i.c.k," Mrs. Pickens interrupted, "don"t count on her too much."
She was becoming excited now that they were alone together, and wanted to tell the story that, for the past twenty-four hours, she had been turning over in her mind, aghast at its sordidness, yet fascinated by its extraordinary novelty. The words were on her lips that should reveal Hertha"s birth, but her instinct as a story-teller held her back. It was too wonderful a tale to be spoiled by a hasty recital. Later, this evening perhaps, she would retail it with proper deliberation. But her few words had roused d.i.c.k"s jealousy.
"Why can"t I count on her?" he asked sharply. "Has any one been around?"
"No, it isn"t that. I"ve something important to tell----"
"Then I"m going to count on her," interrupting savagely. "I won"t stop counting on her till she"s my wife or some other man"s--and if that happens he"d better not come near me! But, shucks, what"s the good of talking! What"s she looking so tired about? She mustn"t work so hard.
Why don"t you stop her?"
"She"s been speaking, d.i.c.k, of taking a place this summer as nursery governess. It would give her a chance to go into the country."
"What!" The young man"s voice was excited and angry. His good manners forsook him and he spoke to his landlady as though she were a servant.
"Don"t you let her do that, do you hear? She needs a vacation and I won"t have her going away."
"Really," Mrs. Pickens answered with asperity, "you speak as though I had authority over her. I"m not her mother--far from it!"