"Dear little mother," faltered the warm-hearted girl, her eyes filling with tears, "don"t you see I"ve grown to be too big a chicken to be kept under your wing? I must go out and pick for myself, and bring home a nice morsel now and then for the little mother, too.
Yes, I admit that I want to go out into the world. I want to be where everything is bright and moving. It"s my nature, and what"s the use of fighting nature? You and Millie can sit here like two doves billing and cooing all day. I must use my wings. I"d die in a cage, even though the cage was home. But never fear, I"ll come back to it every night, and love it in my way just as much as you do in yours. You must put me in a store, mamma, where there are crowds of people going and coming. They won"t do me any more harm than when I used to meet them in the streets, but they"ll amuse me.
My eyes and hands will be busy, and I won"t die from moping. I"ve no more education than a kitten, but shop-girls are not expected to know the dead languages, and I can talk my own fast enough."
"Indeed you can!" cried Mildred.
"But, Belle," said her mother, who was strongly inclined toward Mildred"s idea of seclusion until fortune"s wheel HAD turned, "how will you like to have it known in after years that you were a shopgirl?"
"Yes," added Mildred, "you may have to wait on some whom you invited to your little company last spring. I wish you could find something to do that would be quiet and secluded."
"Oh, nonsense!" cried Belle impatiently. "We can"t hide like bears that go into hollow trees and suck their paws for half a dozen years, more or less"--Belle"s zoological ideas were startling rather than accurate--"I don"t want to hide and cower. Why should we? We"ve done nothing we need be ashamed of. Father"s been unfortunate; so have hundreds and thousands of other men in these hard times. Roger showed me an estimate, cut from a newspaper, of how many had failed during the last two or three years--why, it was an army of men.
We ain"t alone in our troubles, and Roger said that those who cut old acquaintances because they had been unfortunate were contemptible sn.o.bs, and the sooner they were found out the better; and I want to find out my score or two of very dear friends who have eaten ice-cream at our house. I hope I may have a chance to wait on "em.
I"ll do it with the air of a princess," she concluded, a.s.suming a preternatural dignity, "and if they put on airs I"ll raise the price of the goods, and tell them that since they are so much above other people they ought to pay double price for everything.
I don"t believe they"ll all turn up their noses at me," she added, after a moment, her face becoming wistful and gentle in its expression as she recalled some favorites whose whispered confidences and vows of eternal friendship seemed too recent to be meaningless and empty.
The poor child would soon learn that, although school-girls" vows are rarely false, they are usually as fragile and transient as harebells. She had dropped into a different world, and the old one would fade like a receding star. She would soon find her that her only choice must be to make new a.s.sociations and friendships and find new pleasures; and this her mercurial, frank, and fearless nature would incline her to do very promptly.
With Mildred it was different. The old life was almost essential to her, and it contained everything that her heart most craved.
Her courage was not Belle"s natural and uncalculating intrepidity.
She would go wherever duty required her presence, she would sacrifice herself for those she loved, and she was capable of martyrdom for a faith about as free from doctrinal abstractions as the simple allegiance of the sisters of Bethany to the Christ who "loved"
them. Notwithstanding the truth of all this, it has already been shown that she was a very human girl. Brave and resolute she could be, but she would tremble and escape if possible. Especially would she shrink from anything tending to wound her womanly delicacy and a certain trace of sensitive Southern pride. Above all things she shrank from that which threatened her love. This was now her life, and its absorbing power colored all her thoughts and plans. Both conscience and reason, however, convinced her that Belle was right, and that the only chance for the vigorous, growing girl was some phase of active life. With her very limited attainments, standing behind a counter seemed the only opening that the family would consider, and it was eventually agreed upon, after a very reluctant consent from her father.
CHAPTER XVII
BELLE LAUNCHES HERSELF
Only the least of Belle"s difficulties were past when she obtained consent to stand behind a counter. With her mother she made many a weary expedition through the hot streets, and was laughed at in some instances for even imagining that employment could be obtained at the dullest season of the year. As soon as their errand was made known they were met by a brief and often a curt negative. Mrs.
Jocelyn would soon have been discouraged, but Belle"s black eyes only snapped with irritation at their poor success. "Give up?"
she cried. "No, not if I have to work for nothing to get a chance.
Giving up isn"t my style, at least not till I"m tired of a thing; besides it"s a luxury poor people can"t indulge in."
Mrs. Jocelyn felt that the necessity which compelled this quest was a bitter one, and her heart daily grew sorer that she had not resolutely saved part of every dollar earned by her husband in the old prosperous times. As she saw the poor young creatures standing wearily, and often idly and listlessly, through the long summer days, as her woman"s eyes detected in the faces of many the impress of the pain they tried to conceal but could never forget, she half guessed that few laborers in the great city won their bread more hardly than these slender girls, doomed in most instances never to know a vigorous and perfected womanhood. "Belle, my child, how can you stand during these long, hot days? It"s providential that we can"t find any place."
"Well, mamma, I"m not very well up in the ways of Providence. I fear the dull season has more to do with it. Nevertheless I"m going to make a situation if I can"t find one."
She had in her mind a shop on Sixth Avenue, which had the appearance of a certain "go and life," as she phrased it.
"There"s a strong-willed, wide-awake man back of that establishment,"
she had said to herself more than once, "and if I could get at him I believe he"d give me work, but the hateful old foreman stands in the way like a dragon".
She and her mother had been curtly informed by this well-dressed "dragon," which parted its hair like a woman, that "there was no use in bothering the proprietor; he never added to his help in August--the idea was absurd."
One morning after Mrs. Jocelyn had about given up the hope of obtaining a place until the autumn trade revived--as far as it would revive in those languid years--Belle started out alone, heavily veiled, and with her purpose also veiled from her mother and Mildred. She went straight to the shop on Sixth Avenue that had taken her fancy, and walked up to the obnoxious foreman without a trace of hesitation.
"I wish to see Mr. Schriven," she said, in a quiet, decisive manner.
"He is very busy, madam, and does not like to be disturbed. I will attend to anything you wish."
"Thank you; then please direct me to the proprietor"s office without delay."
After a moment"s hesitation the man complied. This veiled presence had the appearance of a gentlewoman and was decided in manner.
Therefore he led the way to a small private office, and said, "A lady, sir, who insists on seeing you," and then discreetly closed the door and departed.
The man of business allowed his pen to glide to the end of his sentence before turning to greet his visitor. Belle in the meantime had advanced to a point from which she could look directly into his face, for, child though she was, she understood that it was her difficult task first to obtain a hearing, and then to disarm his anger at her intrusion. Aware, however, that she had nothing to lose and everything to gain by the adventure, her natural fearlessness and quickness of tongue carried her through. She had already guessed that an appeal for employment, even the most pitiful, would meet with a flat, prompt refusal, therefore she had resolved on different tactics.
At last the man lifted his head in his quick, imperious way, asking, as he turned toward her, "What is your business with me, madam?"
"I like your store very much," Belle remarked quietly.
Mr. Schriven now really glanced at her, and he found her brilliant black eyes and fair flushed face such pleasing objects of contemplation that he was content to look for a moment while he puzzled a little over the unexpected apparition. He then smiled satirically and said, "What follows from so momentous a fact?"
"It follows that I would rather be employed here than in other stores that I do not like so well. My mother and I have visited nearly every one, and I like yours best."
"Well, this IS cool. You and your mother were refused employment at this season at all the others, were you not?"
"Yes, sir."
"And my foreman declined your services here, also, did he not?"
"Yes, sir, but I was sure that if I saw you I should obtain my wish. There"s a life and snap about this place that I didn"t see elsewhere, and therefore I knew a live man, and not a machine, was back of it, and that if I could see and talk with him he"d give me a chance."
"You are exceedingly flattering," said the man, with another satirical smile. "Has it not occurred to you that your course is just tinged with a.s.surance?"
"Have I said or done anything unbecoming a lady?" asked Belle indignantly.
Mr. Schriven laughed good-naturedly, for Belle"s snapping eyes and brusque ways were beginning to interest him. "Oh, I forgot that you American working-women are all ladies. I am told that you speak of certain of your number as "scrub-ladies" and "washer-ladies.""
"You may call me a shop-girl, sir, as soon as I am in your employ."
"And why not now?"
"Because I"m not yet a shop-girl, and never have been one. I"ve often bought goods with my mother in this very store, and I come from as good blood as there is in the South. A few months ago my social position was as good as yours, and now that we have been unfortunate and I must work, I see no presumption in asking you to your face for honest work."
"Not at all, my dear young lady," resumed Mr. Schriven, still maintaining his half-amused, half-ironical manner, "but I must inform you that I cannot afford to employ my social equals as shop-girls."
"When I enter your employ of my own free will," responded Belle promptly, "I the same as promise to obey all the rules and regulations of your establishment, and I"ll do it, too. What"s more, I"ll sell so many goods in dull times and all times that you can well afford to make a place for me if you have none. One thing is certain--I"m going to get work, and my work will repay those who employ me a hundred times."
"Well, you are an odd fish," Mr. Schriven e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed; "I beg your pardon, you are not yet in my employ--you are an eccentric young lady, and a very young one, too, to be making your way in the world in this irresistible style. You mean what you say, that if employed you will put on no airs and conform to rules?"
"I mean just what I say."
Mr. Schriven fell into a foxy fit of musing, and there rose before his mind the pale face and dragged, weary, listless look of a girl now standing at the ribbon counter. "She"ll break down when hard work begins again," he thought; "she"s giving way now with nothing much to do. To be sure she has been here a long time, and has done her best and all that, but her day is past, and here"s plenty of young flesh and blood to fill her place. This one is rather young, but she"s smart as a whip--she"s full of mettle and is fresh and healthy-looking. It won"t do to have pale girls around, for it gives cursed busybodies a chance to rant about women standing all day. (Out of the corner of his eye he measured Belle from head to foot.) She can stand, and stand it, too, for a long while. She"s compact and stout. She"s built right for the business." At last he said, aloud, "In case I should so far depart from my usual custom and make a place for you, as you suggest, what do you propose to charge for the services you rate so highly?"
"What you choose to give."
"Well," was the laughing answer, "there"s method in your madness.