"Much," replied Leofwin. "I think these parties get worse every year."
These were soothing words. "Particularly those d.a.m.ned charades," he went on. "Now, my dear fellow, you know perfectly well that yours was a miserable failure."
Tom found this a little trying. It was true that no one could be more deprecating of his effort than he, but, privately, he had a somewhat better opinion of it. As charades went, he thought it decidedly above the average; and the way he had examined the room, after the manner of Mr. William Gillette, and come upon the match box was proved amusing by the laugh it had brought.
"Granted," he replied, with a shade of sarcasm, "it was a miserable failure."
"Why, the way you made love to Miss Whitman was disgusting."
Tom flushed. Had he really been as bad as that? Had he really just missed being put out of the house like that clown Stebbins? Were they all now, all these people sitting around so innocently in groups, were they all blasting his name as a cheap cad? "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Why, you went at it like a puling babe. Why didn"t you put some fire into it--kiss her feet or bite her neck? Then you would have made us sit up and take notice. You college people are a lot of old women, anyway."
Tom, with bounding relief, started to confess the apparent inability of most college people to bite ladies in the neck, when he observed a startling change in his companion. From the pa.s.sionate leprecaune of the moment before he had become even as a little child. His hand, which was resting elegantly on the arm chair, stole up into his chin whisker, amid which it wistfully strayed. There crept into his Saxon eyes that light of resigned suffering which inspires such exquisite anguish in the friends of Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. In short, his entire being proclaimed to all who would but look, a great quiet man in love. Tom"s eyes followed his and rested upon--Nancy! He rose in disgust and, walking away, suddenly came face to face with her. Then, without thinking of his resolve to let her severely alone, he reached out his hand and cut in.
What a fool he was! Obviously she didn"t want to dance with him, and here he was forcing himself upon her. It made him look so common, so pushing, so like an Ephesus drygoods clerk. Some one barged into him, surged into him, from the rear, causing him to stumble. "Sorry," he muttered. They started on, just out of step. He tried to get into step by speeding up, and their knees b.u.mped together. Would no one ever cut in? Then the music stopped, and it appeared that the musicians were going to rest for a few minutes.
"Let"s sit down, shall we?" said Nancy. They settled themselves upon two gilt chairs with spindly legs. "Do you like your work here?" she asked pleasantly.
What a very dull question! An expletive exploded inside Tom"s head. "Oh, yes," he said. Then after a heavy pause, "How are you getting on with the stars?"
"Oh, I learned the diagrams in that nice little book you sent me, but I"m afraid I"ve forgotten most of them now. I feel rather superior about Betelgeuse, though."
"So do I. We might start a Betelguese Club."
"What would we do at it?"
"Oh, read papers. With Betelguese"s power behind us we might do all sorts of things--have picnics and read tracts to the poor. When you see only college people, after a while you crave being illiterate, and I"ve thought recently that I"d like to enlist in the Navy or move to Alaska, or go over and work in the Mills. I"d buy a black shirt to work in and use a bandana--when I used anything--and take the nice extra room my laundress has in Whitmanville. She says her clothesline goes out fifty feet, and they have a phonograph. Don"t you think that would be more attractive than trying to teach a lot of Freshmen Carlyle and Hawthorne?"
"Lots, and there would be ever so much more money in it."
"It would be a kind of social service work, wouldn"t it? "Woodbridge Professor Slaves in Mill to Earn Bread." That would go big, all over the country."
"Do you know, I"ve thought a little of doing some social work, seriously. I don"t know anything about it, of course, but it has occurred to me that if I could get a group of people together we might have one of the Physiologist instructors give us some lectures. You see, the first thing in social work must be the health of the people, and I should think a good grounding in the fundamentals would be essential. As soon as we have their interest in their personal welfare we can get them to playing basketball, brushing their teeth, putting screens in their windows, and--so on. Naturally I don"t know much about it, but it would seem as though there were a great opportunity for somebody."
"Conditions in the town, on the west side, aren"t too good."
"Of course they"re not. I have let my mind run on at a great rate about it, but I don"t see why, if the right person got hold of it, the whole town couldn"t be improved, made into a model mill town, you know--with playgrounds, and creches, and--" Again other model features failed her.
"Well, why aren"t you the proper person? I should think you could do it if anyone could. Your uncle would have to listen to you, and he probably would be all for it."
"Oh, Uncle Rob is just as nice as he can be--but I couldn"t do it all alone."
"Well, now of course we have got into this thing pretty quickly, but I a.s.sure you I should like nothing better than to do something about it with you. After all, what is education in the finest sense, but the uplifting of the ma.s.ses? You probably will want to think it over a little more before going ahead, but, really, I hope you will, and I hope you will let me join you."
"There is no time like the present. Why dilly-dally? We both realize that this is a crying need. Then why not do something about it? If you will find out who is the best man for us, I"ll provide the rest."
At this point the musicians swung into Home Sweet Home, and Mrs. Norris hurried up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears, and please help by going and getting your things. It"s this awful standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back into their normal places.
Tom had only just time to a.s.sure Nancy that he would do his part when Mrs. Norris called to him again to help her with the dining-room rug; and with a quick handshake and a pleasanter nod than he would have thought could possibly have come to him half an hour before, Nancy Whitman was gone.
VII
In the morning Nancy"s thoughts flew to the proposed social work. What on earth had she got herself into! Swept away, as usual, she had confided her plans for a life of service to a man she barely knew, one hour after she had decided to leave him alone! Well, there was nothing to do now but make the best of it. Their talk had, as a matter of fact, shown that she had been a little silly about the charade. He had unsuspected depth. That had been made clear by his conversation about education, and it was unlikely that anyone who felt as strongly as he did could be wayward in a charade. So it might turn out all right, after all, and she had better set about getting the workers.
Mary, to her surprise, was a disappointment. It seemed that with her music, which she was studying seriously this year, with weekly trips to Boston for a lesson, she had no time. Others of her friends to whom she had naturally turned were unavailable for one reason or another, and the affair began to look discouraging. On the fourth day, however, while calling upon the Misses Forbes, she got an unsolicited recruit. Her mind being full of the idea, she was talking about it before she knew it; and to her astonishment, and a little to her dismay, Miss Jennie offered her services. "I cannot," she said, "talk to the operatives about their bodies, and, accordingly, it won"t be necessary for me to attend the physiological lectures, but I think I can be of use later on. When we went to Miss Northcote"s School we learned to weave mats and paint on china, and I can give instructions in them. In their turn they will instruct me, for I shall learn much about Housing Conditions and have an opportunity to examine at first hand the various industrial problems of the day. Who knows? when we are through, I may prepare a paper for the _Nation_." Her sisters indicated their disapproval by rocking hopelessly.
Tom, too, had met with difficulties. Upon thinking the matter over he had little doubt as to its outcome. Enough of his Ephesus life remained with him to tell him that factory hands are not to be reached by lectures from academic ladies and gentlemen. He blushed, too, for certain sentiments he had expressed upon the essence of education, but they might be credited to the delicate frenzy of the dance and his unexpected reconciliation. It was, of course, all Nancy. He could not imagine himself proceeding upon such an affair with anyone else. Still, he found it necessary to placate his conscience for the time taken from the study of Beowulf which he was then making for his Ph.D. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" seemed, after a somewhat desperate search, as sound a principle as any; and, furthermore, he would save time from his exercise by running around the cemetery--the cla.s.sic running course--instead of playing squash at the Country Club. So that problem was settled.
The young physiologist, however, upon whom he had been counting had developed appendicitis, and he didn"t feel that he knew any of the other men in the department well enough to take their time for such a speculative cause. Then he met old Professor Sprig, a Star man of "65, who had been a celebrated physiologist in his time and who was now an almost equally celebrated eccentric. Having complained of the present status of the department and explained his problem, Tom was invited by the old gentleman to bring Nancy to his rooms. "You know, I suppose, where I live?" he asked with a crafty smile.
Tom did know where he lived. The old four-story frame building in Whitmanville, the Diamond Building, the highest in the town, had been made famous by his residence. The top floor was said to be his apartment and it was commonly supposed that he kept chickens in it. There were some dreadful stories about midnight dissections, but cooler heads affirmed that if there were any chickens there at all, they were there as the companions and not as the helpless victims of a debauched old age. And now the two social workers were invited into these mysterious precincts! The news might swell the roster to disconcerting proportions. They should have to proceed with caution.
"All we want, sir, is a most elementary discussion. Just enough so we can give the men and women in the Mills some simple facts about themselves. Then, with that as a starter, we can build up more intelligently."
"I shall be glad to give you whatever you want. Shall we say Tuesday next? At eight o"clock? Don"t dress, you know. Just come as you are.
This is business," and with another of his sly smiles he moved on down the street.
When Tom called for Nancy on Tuesday night he found her equipped with pad and pencils.
"Henry doesn"t think too highly of this performance, I may say," she said, smiling up at him, "but we simply couldn"t have let people know where we are going. They would have swamped the whole thing. I must say I am a little afraid." She slipped her arm through his, and they hurried on down Division Street, which connects Tutors" Lane with Whitmanville.
"If he only has chickens, I won"t mind, but if he has bats I shall hate it. I confess I"m a perfect fool about bats. They"re loathsome. What they really are, are hairy rats with wings like web feet, and they have the most _loathsome_ mouths."
Tom was curiously excited. He felt buoyed up. It was like water-wings, he told himself. And when he tried afterwards to think of the things he had said, he could remember nothing except that he had quoted Alice"s perplexity about bats eating cats when she was falling down the well, and that they had both laughed immoderately.
The Diamond Building, on their arrival, presented a somewhat portentous picture. A Five, Ten, and Fifteen Cent store dimly showed forth strings of penny postal cards and piles of dusty candy in its macabre windows.
The second floor was throbbing with the rich life of a poolhall, and as they pa.s.sed the Christian Science rooms on the third floor they carried with them the strains of a therapeutic hymn. And then, at last, they were before a door which bore over its bell the pencilled legend, H.
Sprig.
They were admitted by a flunkey named Herbert. Herbert"s period of usefulness in the laboratory had terminated with that of the Professor, and the latter had engaged him as a body servant, not only because of his proved capacity and loyalty, but because of the unusual shape of his head, upon which the Professor found it restful to gaze. He was black, was Herbert, and was at present clothed in gorgeous blue livery with gold b.u.t.tons. He bowed the guests inside and led them through a narrow hallway to a comfortable room of generous size, the Professor"s library.
At one end was a long table, and behind it was Mr. Sprig, clad in a morning coat. Behind him on the walls were half a dozen diagrams of Man the Master, designed to gratify students whose thirst was for the anatomical. Before Mr. Sprig were a pitcher of iced water, a tumbler, and a sheaf of notes.
Mr. Sprig rose as Nancy and Tom entered and bowed pleasantly, at the same time waving them to two chairs placed close together before his table. When they had seated themselves he bowed again, and, without more ado, began an address. He spoke in a low, deep, if somewhat quavery voice, and with an elegant ease of manner. It was his purpose, he explained, to give them an elementary course in the primary systems of the body, together with two supplementary lectures on hygiene, in order that they might go out and instruct the poor in the proper care of their bodies. Tonight he would have only time for the respiratory and circulatory systems, next time would come the digestive and excretory tracts, and he hoped to finish in six lectures. It was, of course, a broad subject and much water had pa.s.sed under the bridge since his day, but with their generous help he hoped that the thing might be done.
He talked for fifty minutes, that being a college period, and at its close he bowed again. He then came from behind the table and shook them warmly by the hand. "You will forgive a foolish old man, I know. You see I haven"t given a lecture since I resigned eight years ago, and I thought I"d like to do it up brown. And now, Herbert"--for the elaborate old man had appeared at the close of the lecture--"please bring in the things."
The "things" were some little round cup cakes, three wine gla.s.ses, and a large bottle of sauterne.
"The summer we graduated," Mr. Sprig went on, "my cla.s.smate Curtis and I went abroad. We took a walking trip south of Bordeaux, and on that walk we discovered this wine. I have kept in touch with the people who make it ever since, and although I shall never get any more, I shall have enough to last me. You must try a gla.s.s, Miss Whitman. I a.s.sure you it will improve all of your systems!"
When Nancy first looked at her watch it was nearly eleven.
"You mustn"t go, of course, until you have seen the chickens," said Mr.
Sprig.
The chickens! Under the charm of the softly lighted room, the old gentleman"s quiet flow of half-whimsical, half-serious reminiscence, they had been carried back to the rosy days that were before their birth. Now they dreaded lest their host should show himself a little mad, after all.