For days Mary could think of little else, but as week followed week, her thoughts merged into memories—memories that were stored away and stirred in their hiding places less and less often.
"Dad knew best," she finally told herself. "He bore it in silence all those years, so it wouldn't worry me, and I'm not going to start now. Perhaps—he's dead, too. Anyhow," she sternly repeated, "I'm not going to worry. I've seen enough of worry to start doing that."
Besides, she had too much else on her mind—"to start doing that."
As the war in Europe had progressed—America drawing nearer the crimson whirlpool with every passing month—a Red Cross chapter was organized at New Bethel. Mary took active part in the work, and whenever visitors came to speak at the meetings, they seldom went away without being entertained at the house on the hill.
"I love to think of it," she told Aunt Patty one day. "The greatest organization of mercy ever known—and practically all women's work! Doesn't that mean a lot to you, Aunt Patty? If women can do such wonderful things for the Red Cross, why can't they do wonderful things in other ways?"
Her own question set her thinking, and something seemed to tell her that now or never she must watch her chance to make old dreams come true. Surely never before in the history of the world had woman come to the front with such a splendid arrival.
"We'll get things yet, Aunt Delia," she whispered in confidence, "so that folks will be just as proud of a girl baby as a boy baby." Whereupon she wagged her finger as though to say, "You mark my words!" and went rolling away to hear a distinguished lecturer who had just returned from Europe with a message to the women in America of what their sisters were doing across the seas.
The address was given at the Red Cross rooms, and as Mary listened she sewed upon a flannel swaddling robe that was later to go to Siberia lest a new-born babe might perish. At first she listened conscientiously enough to the speaker—"What our European sisters have done in agriculture—"
"I do believe at times that it's the women more than the men who make a country great," she thought as she heard of the women ploughing, planting, reaping. To Mary's mind each stoical figure glowed with the light of heroism, and she nodded her head as she worked.
"Just as I've always said," she mused; "there's nothing a man can do that a woman can't do."
From her chair by the window she chanced to look out at an old circus poster across the street.
"Now that's funny, too," she thought, her needle suspended; "I never thought of that before—but even in such things as lion taming and trapeze performing—where you would think a woman would really be at a disadvantage—she isn't at all. She's just as good as a man!"
The voice of the speaker broke in upon her thoughts.
"I am now going to tell you," she said, "what the women of Europe are doing in the factories—"
And oh, how Mary listened, then!
It was a long talk—I cannot begin to give it here—but she drank in every word, and hungered and thirsted for more.
"There is not an operation in factory, foundry or laboratory," began the speaker, "where women are not employed—"
As in a dream Mary seemed to see the factory of Spencer & Son. The long lines of men had vanished, and in their places were women, clear-eyed, dexterous and happy at escaping from the unpaid drudgery of housework. "It may come to that, too," she thought, "if we go into war."
"In aeroplane construction," the speaker continued, "where an undetected flaw in her work might mean an aviator's life, woman is doing the carpentry work, building the frame work, making the propellers. They are welding metals, drilling, boring, grinding, milling, even working on the engines and magnetos—"
A quiver ran up and down Mary's back and her eyes felt wet. "Just whatI've always said," she thought. "Ah, the poor women—"
"They are making telescopes, periscopes, binoculars, cameras—cutting and grinding the lenses—work so fine that the deviation of a hair's breadth would cause rejection—some of the lenses as small as a split pea. They make the metal parts that hold those lenses, assemble them, adjust them, test them. These are the eyes of the army and navy—surely no small part for the woman to supply."
Mary's thoughts turned to some of the homes she had seen—the surroundings—the expression of the housewife. "All her life and no help for it," she thought. And again, "Ah, the poor women…."
"To tell you the things she is making would be to give you a list of everything used in modern warfare. They are making ships, tanks, cannon, rifles, cartridges. They are operating the most wonderful trip hammers that were ever conceived by the mind of man, and under the same roof they are doing hand work so delicate that the least extra pressure of a file would spoil a week's labour. More! There isn't a process in which she has been employed where woman has failed to show that she is man's equal in speed and skill. In many operations she has shown that she is man's superior—doing this by the simple method of turning out more work in a day than the man whose place she took—"
Mary invited the speaker to go home with her, and if you had gone past the house on the hill that night, you would have seen lights burning downstairs until after one o 'clock.
How did they train the women?
How did they find time to do their washing and ironing?
What about the children? And the babies? And the home?
As the visitor explained, stopping now and then to tell her young hostess where to write for government reports giving facts and figures on the subject which they were discussing, Mary's eyes grew dreamier and dreamier as one fancy after another passed through her mind. And when the clock struck one and she couldn't for shame keep her guest up any longer, she went to her room at last and undressed in a sort of a reverie, her glance inward turned, her head slightly on one side, and with such a look of thoughtful exaltation that I wish I could paint it for you, because I know I can never put it into words.
Still, if you can picture Betsey Ross, it was thus perhaps that Betsey looked when first she saw the flag.
Or Joan of Arc might once have gazed that way in Orleans' woods.
It was in December that Mary's great idea began to assume form. She wrote to the American Ambassadors in Great Britain and France for any documents which they could send her relating to the subject so close to her heart. In due time two formidable packages arrived at the house on the hill.
Mary carried them into the den and opened them with fingers that trembled with eagerness.
Yes, it was all true…. All true…. Here it was in black and white, with photographs and statistics set down by impartial observers and printed by government. Generally a state report is dry reading, but to Mary at least these were more exciting than any romances—more beautiful than any poem she had ever read.
At last woman had been given a chance to show what she could do. And how she had shown them!
Without one single straining effort, without the least thought of doing anything spectacular, she had gently and calmly taken up men's tools and had done men's work—not indifferently well—not in any makeshift manner—but "in all cases, even the most technical, her work has equalled that previously done exclusively by man. In a number of instances, owing to her natural dexterity and colour sense, her work, indeed, has been superior."
How Mary studied those papers!
Never even at college had she applied herself more closely. She memorized, compared, read, thought, held arguments with herself. And finally, when she was able to pass any examination that might be set before her, she went down to the office one day and sent for Mr. MacPherson, the master mechanic.
He came—grey haired, grim faced, a man who seemed to keep his mouth buttoned-and Mary asked him to shut the door behind him. Whereat Mac buttoned his mouth more tightly than before, and looked grimmer, too, if that were possible.
"You don't look a day older," Mary told him with a smile. "I remember you from the days when my father used to carry me around—"
"He was a grand man, Miss Mary; it's a pity he's gone," said Mac and promptly buttoned his mouth again.
"I want to talk to you about something," she said, "but first I want you to promise to keep it a secret."
He blinked his eyes at that, and as much as a grim faced man can look troubled, he looked troubled.
"There are vera few secrets that can be kept around this place," was his strange reply. "Might I ask, Miss Mary, of what nature is the subject?" And seeing that she hesitated he added, first looking cautiously over his shoulder, "Is it anything, for instance, to do wi' Mr. Woodward? Or, say, the conduct of the business?"
"No, no," said Mary, "it—it's about women—" Mac stared at her, but when she added "—about women working in the factory," he drew a breath of relief.
"Aye," he said, "I think I can promise to keep quiet about that."
"Isn't it true," she began, "that most of the machinery we use doesn't require a great deal of skill to run it?"
"We've a lot of automatics," acknowledged Mac. "Your grandfather's idea, Miss Mary. A grand man. He was one of the first to make the machine think instead of the operator."
"How long does it take to break in an ordinary man?"
"A few weeks is generally enough. It depends on the man and the tool."
Mary told him then what she had in her mind, and Mac didn't think much of it until she showed him the photographs. Even then he was "michty cautious" until he happened to turn to the picture of a munition factory in Glasgow where row after row of overalled women were doing the lathe work.
"Think of that now," said he; "in Glasga'!" As he looked, the frost left his eye. "A grand lot of lasses," he said and cleared his throat.
"If they can do it, we can do it, too—don't you think so?"
"Why not?" he asked. "For let me tell you this, Miss Mary. Those old countries are all grand countries—to somebody's way of thinking. But America is the grandest of them all, or they wouldn't keep coming here as fast as ships can bring them! What they can do, yes, we can do—and add something for good measure, if need be!"
"Well, that's it," said Mary, eagerly. "If we go into the war, we shall have to do the same as they are doing in Europe—let women do the factory work. And if it comes to that, I want Spencer & Son to be ready—to be the first to do it—to show the others the way!"
Mac nodded. "A bit of your grandfather, that," he thought with approval.
"So what I want you to do," she concluded, "is to make me up a list of machines that women can be taught to handle the easiest, and let me have it as soon as you can."
"I'll do that," he grimly nodded. "There's far too many vacant now."
"And remember, please, you are not to say anything. Because, you know, people would only laugh at the idea of a woman being able to do a man's work."
"I'm mute," he nodded again, and started for the door, his mouth buttoned very tightly indeed. But even while his hand was stretched out to reach the knob, he paused and then returned to the desk.
"Miss Mary," he said, "I'm an old man, and you're a young girl. I know nothing, mind you, but sometimes there are funny things going on in the world. And a man's not a fool. What I'm going to tell you now, I want you to remember it, but forget who told it to you. Trust nobody. Be careful. I can say no more."
"He means Uncle Stanley," thought Mary, uneasily, and a shadow fell upon the day. She was still troubled when another disturbing incident arose.
"I'll leave these papers in the desk here," she thought, taking her keys from her handbag. She unlocked the top drawer and was about to place the papers on top of those which already lay there, when suddenly she paused and her eyes opened wide.
On the top letter in her drawer—a grey tinted sheet—was a scattered mound of cigarette ash.
"Somebody's been here—snooping," she thought. "Somebody with a key to the desk. He must have had a cigarette in his hand when he shut the drawer, and the ashes jarred off without being noticed—"
Irresistibly her thoughts turned to Burdon Woodward, with his gold cigarette case and match box.
"It was he who gave me the keys," she thought.
She sighed. A sense of walking among pitfalls took possession of her. As you have probably often noticed, suspicion feeds upon suspicion, and as Mary walked through the outer office she felt that more than one pair of eyes were avoiding her. The old cashier kept his head buried in his ledger and nearly all the men were busy with their papers and books.
"Perhaps it's because I'm a woman," she thought. Ma'm Maynard's words arose with a new significance, "I tell you, Miss Mary, it has halways been so, and it halways will. Everything that lives has its own natural enemy—and a woman's natural enemy: eet is man!"
But Mary could still smile at that.
"Take Mr. MacPherson," she thought; "how is he my natural enemy? Or Judge Cutler? Or Archey Forbes? Or Wally Cabot?" She felt more normal then, but when these reflections had died away, she still occasionally felt her thoughts reverting to Mac's warning, the cigarette ash, the averted glances in the office.
The nest morning, though, she thought she had found the answer to the latter puzzle. She had hardly finished breakfast when Judge Cutler was announced, his hawk's eyes frowning and never a trace of his smile.
"Did you get your copy of the annual report?" he asked.
"Not yet," said Mary, somehow guessing what he meant. "Why?"
"I got mine in the mail this morning." He drew it from his pocket and his frown grew deeper. "Let's go in the den," he said; "we've got to talk this out."
It was the annual report of Spencer & Son's business and briefly stated, it showed an alarming loss for the preceding twelve months.
"Ah-ha!" thought Mary, "that's the reason they didn't look up yesterday.They had seen this, and they felt ashamed."
"As nearly as I can make it out," said the judge, "there's too many improvements going on, and not enough business. We must do something to stop these big expenses, and find a way to get more bearings sold—"
He checked himself then and looked at Mary, much as Mac had looked the previous day, just before issuing his warning.
"Perhaps he's thinking of Uncle Stanley, too," thought Mary.
"Another bad feature is this," continued the judge, "the bank is getting too strong a hold on the company. We must stop that before it gets any worse."
"Why?" asked Mary, looking very innocent.
"Because it isn't good business."
"But Uncle Stanley is president of the bank. You don't think he'd do anything to hurt Spencer & Son; do you?"
The judge tapped his foot on the floor for a time, and then made a noise like a groan—as though he had teeth in his mind and one of them was being pulled.
"Many a time," he said, "I have tried to talk you out of your suspicions. But—if it was any other man than Stanley Woodward, I would say today that he was doing his best to—to—"
"To 'do' me?" suggested Mary, more innocent than ever.
"Yes, my dear—to do you! And another year's work like this wouldn't be far from having that result."
Curiously enough it was Mary's great idea that comforted her. Instead of feeling worried or apprehensive, she felt eager for action, her eyes shining at the thoughts which came to her.
"All right," she said, "we'll have a meeting in a day or two. I'll wait till I get my copy of the report."
Wally came that afternoon, and Mary danced with him—that is to say she danced with him until a freckle-faced apprentice came up from the factory with an envelope addressed in MacPherson's crabbed hand. Mary took one peep inside and danced no more.
"If the women can pick it up as quick as the men," she read, "I have counted 1653 places in this factory where they could be working in a few weeks time—that is, if the places were vacant. List enclosed. Respectfully. James O. MacPherson."
It was a long list beginning "346 automatics, 407 grinders—"
Mary studied it carefully, and then after telephoning to the factory, she called up Judge Cutler.
"I wish you would come down to the office in about half an hour," she said, "…. Directors' meeting. All right. Thank you."
"What was it dad used to call me sometimes—his 'Little Hustler'?" she thought. "If he could see, I'll bet that's what he would call me now."
As she passed through the hall she looked in the drawing room to tell Helen where she was going. Helen was sitting on a chaise lounge and Wally was bending over her, as though trying to get something out of her eye with the corner of a handkerchief.
"I don't see anything," Mary heard him saying.
"There must be something. It hurts dreadfully," said Helen.
Looking again, he lightly dabbed at the eye. "Oh!" breathed Helen."Don't, Wally!"
She took hold of his hand as though to stop him. Mary passed on without saying anything, her nose rather high in the air.
Half way down the hill she laughed at nothing in particular.
"Yes," she told herself. "Helen—in her own way—I guess that she's a little Hustler … too …!"
The meeting was held in Mary's office—the first conference of directors she had ever attended. By common consent, Uncle Stanley was chosen chairman of the board. Judge Cutler was appointed secretary.
Mary sat in her chair at the desk, her face nearly hidden by the flowers in the vase.
It didn't take the meeting long to get down to business.
"From last year's report," began the judge, "it is evident that we must have a change of policy."
"In what way?" demanded Uncle Stanley.
Whereupon they joined issue—the man of business and the man of law. If Mary had been paying attention she would have seen that the judge was slowly but surely getting the worst of it.
To stop improvements now would be inviting ruin—They had their hands on the top rung of the ladder now; why let go and fall to the bottom—? What would everybody think if those new buildings stayed empty—?
Uncle Stanley piled fact on fact, argument on argument.
Faint heart never won great fortune—As soon as the war was over, and it wouldn't be long now—Before long he began to dominate the conference, the judge growing more and more silent, looking more and more indecisive.
Through it all Mary sat back in her chair at the desk and said nothing, her face nearly hidden by the roses, but woman-like, she never forgot for a moment the things she had come there to do.
"What do you think, Mary?" asked the judge at last. "Do you think we had better try it a little longer and see how it works out?"
"No," said Mary quietly, "I move that we stop everything else but making bearings."
In vain Uncle Stanley arose to his feet, and argued, and reasoned, and sat down again, and brought his fist down on his knee, and turned a rich, brown colour. After a particularly eloquent period he caught a sight of Mary's face among the roses—calm, cool and altogether unmoved—and he stopped almost on the word.
"That's having a woman, in business," he bitterly told himself. "Might as well talk to the wind. Never mind … It may take a little longer—but in the end…."
Judge Cutler made a minute in the director's book that all work on improvements was to stop at once.
"And now," he said, "the next thing is to speed up the manufacture of bearings."
"Easily said," Uncle Stanley shortly laughed.
"There must be some way of doing it," persisted the judge, taking the argument on himself again. "Why did our earnings fall down so low last year?"
"Because I can manufacture bearings, but I can't manufacture men," reported Uncle Stanley. "We are over three hundred men short, and it's getting worse every day. Let me tell you what munition factories are paying for good mechanics—"
Mary still sat in her wicker chair, back of the flowers, and looked around at the paintings on the walls—of the Josiah Spencers who had lived and laboured in the past. "They all look quiet, as though they never talked much," she thought. "It seems so silly to talk, anyhow, when you know what you are going to do."
But still the argument across the desk continued, and again Uncle Stanley began to gain his point.
"So you see," he finally concluded, "it's just as I said a few minutes ago. I can manufacture bearings, but I can't manufacture men!"
From behind the roses then a patient voice spoke.
"You don't have to manufacture men. We don't need them."
Uncle Stanley gave the judge a look that seemed to say, "Listen to the woman of it! Lord help us men when we have to deal with women!" And aloud in quite a humouring tone he said, "We don't need men? Then who's to do the work?"
Mary moved the vase so she could have a good look at him.
"Women," she replied. "They can do the work. Yes, women," said she.
Again they looked at each other, those two, with the careful glance with which you might expect two duellists to regard each other—two duellists who had a premonition that one day they would surely cross their swords. And again Uncle Stanley was the first to look away.
"Women!" he thought. "A fine muddle there'll he!"
In fancy he saw the company's organization breaking down, its output decreasing, its product rejected for imperfections. Of course he knew that women were employed in textile mills and match-box factories and gum-and-glue places like that where they couldn't afford to employ men, and had no need for accuracy. But women at Spencer & Sons! Whose boast had always been its accuracy! Where every inch was divided into a thousand parts!
"She's hanging herself with her own rope," he concluded. "I'll say no more."
Mary turned to the judge.
"You might make a minute of that," she said.
Half turning, she chanced to catch a glimpse of Uncle Stanley's satisfaction.
"And you might say this," she quietly added, "that Miss Spencer was placed in charge of the women's department, with full authority to settle all questions that might arise."
"That's all?" asked Uncle Stanley.
"I think that's all this afternoon," she said.
He turned to the judge as one man to another, and made a sweeping gesture toward the portraits on the walls, now half buried in the shadows of approaching evening.
"I wonder what they would think of women working here?" he said in a significant tone.
Mary thought that over.
"I wonder what they would think of this?" she suddenly asked.
She switched on the electric light and as though by magic a soft white radiance flooded the room.
"Would they want to go back to candles?" she asked.
Later, the thing which Mary always thought of first was the ease with which the change was accomplished.
First of all she called in Archey Forbes and told him her plan.
"I'm going to make you chief of staff," she said; "that is—if you'd care for the place."
He coloured with pleasure—not quite as gorgeously as he once did—but quite enough to be noticeable.
"Anything I can do for you, Miss Mary?" he said.
"Then first we must find a place to train the women workers. One of those empty buildings would be best, I think. I'll give you a list of machines to be set in place."
The "school" was ready the following Monday morning. For "teachers" Mary had selected a number of elderly men whom she had picked for their quiet voices and obvious good nature. They were all expert machinists and had families.
On Saturday the following advertisement had appeared in the local paper:
Women wanted in machine-shop to do men's work at men's wages for the duration of the war.
No experience necessary. Easier than washing, ironing, scrubbing or sewing. $21 a week and up.
Apply Monday morning, 8 o'clock.
JOSIAH SPENCER & SON, INC.
As you have guessed, Mary composed that advertisement. It hadn't passed without criticism.
"I don't think it's necessary to pay them as much as the men," Mac had suggested. "To say the least it's vera generous and vera unusual."
"Why shouldn't they get as much as the men if they are going to do men's work?" asked Mary. "Besides, I'm doing it for the men's sake, even more than for the women's."
Mac stared at that and buttoned his mouth very tightly.
"They have been all through that in Europe," she explained. "Don't you see? If a woman can do a man's work, and do it for less money, it brings down men's wages. Because who would hire a man at $21 a week after the war if they could get a woman to do the same work for $15?"
"You're richt," said Mac after a thoughtful pause. "I must pass that along. I know from myself that the men will grumble when they think the women are going to make as much money as themselves. But when they richtly understand it's for their own sake, too, they'll hush their noise."
Mary was one of the first at the factory on Monday.
"Won't I look silly, if nobody comes!" she had thought every time she woke in the night. But she needn't have worried. There was an argument in that advertisement, "Easier than washing, ironing, scrubbing or sewing," that appealed to many a feminine imagination, and when the fancy, thus awakened, played around the promising phrase "$21 a week—and up," hope presently turned to desire—and desire to resolution.
"We'll have to set up more machines," said Mary to Archey when she saw the size of her first class. And looking them over with a proudly beating heart she called out, "Good morning, everybody! Will you please follow me?"
From this point on, particularly, I like to imagine the eight Josiah Spencers who had gone before following the proceedings with ghostly steps and eyes that missed not a move—invisible themselves, but hearing all and saying nothing. And how they must have stared at each other as they followed that procession over the factory grounds, the last of the Spencers followed by a silent, winding train of women, like a new type of Moses leading her sisters into the promised land!
As Mary had never doubted for a moment, the women of New Bethel proved themselves capable of doing anything that the women of Europe had done; and it wasn't long before lines of feminine figures in Turkish overalls were bending over the repetition tools in the Spencer shops—starting, stopping, reversing gears, oiling bearings—and doing it all with that deftness and assurance which is the mark of the finished workman.
Indeed, if you had been near-sighted, and watching from a distance, you might have been pardoned for thinking that they were men—but if you looked closer you would have seen that each woman had a stool to sit on, when her work permitted, and if you had been there at half past ten and again at half past three, you would have seen a hand-cart going up and down the aisles, serving tea, coffee, cake and sandwiches.
Again at noon you would have seen that the women had a rest room of their own where they could eat their lunch in comfort—a rest room with couches, and easy chairs, and palms and flowers, and a piano, and a talking machine, and a floor that you could dance on, if you felt like dancing immediately before or after lunch. And how the eight Josiahs would have stared at that happy, swaying throng in its Turkish overalls—especially on Friday noon just after the pay envelopes had been handed around!
Meanwhile the school was adding new courses of study. The cleverest operators were brought back to learn how to run more complicated machines. Turret lathe hands, oscillating grinders, inspectors were graduated. In short, by the end of March, Mary was able to report to another special meeting of the board of directors that where Spencer & Son had been 371 men short on the first of the year, every empty place was now taken and a waiting list was not only willing but eager to start upon work which was easier than washing, ironing, scrubbing or sewing, and was guaranteed to pay $21 a week—and up!
This declaration might be said to mark an epoch in the Spencer factory.Its exact date was March 31st, 1917.
On April 2nd of the same year, another declaration was made, never to be forgotten by mankind.
Upon that date, as you will recall, the Sixty-fifth Congress of theUnited States of America declared war upon the Imperial GermanGovernment.
Wally was the first to go.
On a wonderful moonlight night in May he called to bid Mary good-bye. He had received a commission in the aviation department and was already in uniform—as charming and romantic a figure as the eyes of love could ever wish to see.
But Mary couldn't see him that way—not even when she tried—making a bold little experiment with herself and feeling rather sorry, if anything, that her heart beat no quicker and not a thrill ran over her, when her hand rested for a moment on Wally's shoulder.
"I wonder if I'm different from other girls," she thought. "Or is it because I have other things to think about? Perhaps if I had nothing else on my mind, I'd dream of love as much as anybody, until it amounted to—what do they call it?—a fixed idea?—that thing which comes to people when they keep turning the same thing over and over in their minds, till they can't get it out of their thoughts?"
But you mustn't think that Mary didn't care that Wally was going—perhaps never to return. She knew that she liked him—she knew she would miss him. And when, just before he left, he sang The Spanish Cavalier in that stirring tenor which always made her scalp tingle and her breast feel full, she turned her face to the moonlit scene outside and lived one of those minutes which are so filled with beauty and the stirring of the spirit that pleasure becomes poignant and brings a feeling which isn't far from pain.
"I'm off to the war—to the war I must go,To fight for my country and you, dear;But if I should fall, in vain I would callThe blessing of my country and you, dear—"
All their eyes were wet then, even Wally's—moved by the sadness of his own song. Aunt Patty, Aunt Cordelia and Helen wiped their tears away unashamed, but Mary tried to hide hers.
And when the time came for his departure, Aunt Cordelia kissed him and breathed in his ear a prayer, and Aunt Patty kissed him and prayed for him, and Helen kissed him, too, her arms tight around his neck. But when it came to Mary's turn, she looked troubled and gazed down at her hand which he was holding in both of his.
"Come on out for a minute," he whispered, gently leading her.
They went out under the moon.
"Aren't you going to kiss me, too?" he asked.
Mary thought it over.
"If I kissed you, I would love you," she said, and tried to hide her tears no more.
He soothed her then in the immemorial manner, and soon she was tranquil again.
"Good-bye, Wally," she said.
"Good-bye, dear. You'll promise to be here when I come back?"
"I shall be here."
"And you won't let anybody run away with you until I've had another chance?"
"Don't worry."
She watched the light of his car diminish until it vanished over the crest of the hill. A gathering sense of loneliness began to assail her, but with it was a feeling of freedom and purpose—the feeling that she was being left alone, clear of distraction, to fight her own fight and achieve her own destiny.
Archey Forbes was the next to go. His going marked a curious incident.
He had applied for a commission in the engineers, and his record and training being good, it wasn't long before he received the beckoning summons of Mars.
Upon the morning of the day when he was to leave New Bethel, he went to the factory to say good-bye. The one he wished to see the most, however, was the first one he missed.
"Miss Mary's around the factory somewhere," said a stenographer.
Another spoke up, a dark girl with a touch of passion in her smile. "I think Mr. Burdon is looking for her, too."
Archey missed neither the smile nor the tone—and liked neither of them.
"He'll get in trouble yet," he thought, "going out with those girls," and his frown grew as he thought of Burdon's daily contact with Mary.
"I'll see if I can find her," he told himself after he had waited a few minutes; and stepping out into the full beauty of the June morning, he crossed the lawn toward the factory buildings.
On one of the trees a robin sang and watched him with its head atilt. A bee hummed past him and settled on a trellis of roses. In the distance murmured the falls, with their soothing, drowsy note.
"These are the days, when I was a boy, that I used to dream of running away and seeing the world and having great adventures," thought Archey, his frown forgotten. He didn't consciously put it into words, but deep from his mind arose a feeling of the coming true of great dreams—of running away from the humdrum of life, of seeing the world, of taking a part in the greatest adventure ever staged by man.
"What a day!" he breathed, lifting his face to the sun. "Oh, Lord, what a day!"
It was indeed a day—one of those days which seem to have wine in the air—one of those days when old ambitions revive and new ones flower into splendour. Mary, for instance, on her way to the machine shop, was busy with thoughts of a nursery where mothers could bring their children who were too young to go to school.
"Plenty of sun," she thought, "and rompers for them all, and sand piles, and toys, and certified milk, and trained nurses—" And while she dreamed she hummed to herself in approval, and wasn't aware that the air she hummed was the Spanish Cavalier—and wasn't aware that Burdon Woodward was near until she suddenly awoke from her dream and found they were face to face.
He turned and walked with her.
The wine of the day might have been working in Burdon, too, for he hadn't walked far with Mary before he was reminding her more strongly than ever, of Steerforth in David Copperfield—Baffles in the Amateur Cracksman. Indeed, that morning, listening to his drawl and looking up at the dark handsome face with its touch of recklessness, the association of Mary's ideas widened.
M'sieur Beaucaire, just from the gaming table—Don Juan on the Nevski Prospekt—Buckingham on his way to the Tuileries—they all might have been talking to her, warming her thoughts not so much by what they said as by what they might say, appealing to her like a romance which must, however, be read to the end if you wish to know the full story.
They were going through an empty corridor when it happened. Burdon, drawling away as agreeably as ever, gently closed his fingers around Mary's hand.
"I might have known," she thought in a little panic. "It's my own fault."But when she tried to pull her hand away, her panic grew.
"No, no," said Burdon, laughing low, his eyes more reckless than ever, "you might tell—if I stopped now. But you'll never tell a soul on earth—if I kiss you."
Even while Mary was struggling, her head held down, she couldn't help thinking, "So that's the way he does it," and felt, I think, as feels the fly who has walked into the parlour. The next moment she heard a sharp voice, "Here—stop that!" and running steps approaching.
"I think it was Archey," she thought, as she made her escape, her knees shaking, her breath coming fast. She knew it was, ten minutes later, when Archey found her in the office—knew it from the way he looked at her and the hesitation of his speech—but it wasn't until they were shaking hands in parting that she saw the cut on his knuckles.
"You've hurt yourself," she said. "Wait; I have some adhesive plaster."
Even then she didn't guess.
"How did you do it?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know—"
Mary's glance suddenly deepened into tenderness, and when Archey left a few minutes later, he walked as one who trod the clouds, his head among the stars.
An hour passed, and Mary looked in Uncle Stanley's office. Burdon's desk was closed as though for the day.
"Where's Burdon?" she asked.
"He wasn't feeling very well," said Uncle Stanley after a long look at his son's desk, "—a sort of headache. I told him he had better go home."
And every morning for the rest of the week, when she saw Uncle Stanley, she gave him such an innocent look and said, "How's Burdon's head this morning? Any better?"
Uncle Stanley began to have the irritable feelings of an old mouse in the hands of a young kitten.
"That's the worst of having women around,"—he scowled to himself—"they are worse than—worse than—worse than—"
Searching for a simile, he thought of a flash of lightning, a steel hoop lying on its side, a hornet's nest—but none of these quite suited him. He made a helpless gesture.
"Hang 'em, you never know what they're up to next!" said he.
For that matter, there were times in the next two years when Mary herself hardly knew what she was up to next, for if ever a girl suddenly found herself in deep waters, it was the last of the Spencers. Strangely enough—although I think it is true of many of life's undertakings—it wasn't the big things which bothered her the most.
She soon demonstrated—if it needed any demonstration—that what the women of France and Britain had done, the women of New Bethel could do. At each call of the draft, more and more men from Spencer & Son obeyed the beckoning finger of Mars, and more and more women presently took their places in the workshops. That was simply a matter of enlarging the training school, of expanding the courses of instruction.
No; it wasn't the big things which ultimately took the bloom from Mary's cheeks and the smile from her eyes.
It was the small things that worried her—things so trifling in themselves that it would sound foolish to mention them—the daily nagging details, the gathering load of responsibility upon her shoulders, the indifference which she had to dispel, the inertia that had to be overcome, the ruffled feelings to be soothed, the squabbles to be settled, the hidden hostilities which she had to contend against in her own office—and yet pretend she never noticed them.
Indeed, if it hadn't been for the recompensing features, Mary's enthusiasm would probably have become chilled by experience, and dreams have come to nothing. But now and then she seemed to sense in the factory a gathering impetus of efficient organization, the human gears working smoothly for a time, the whole machine functioning with that beauty of precision which is the dream of every executive.
That always helped Mary whenever it happened.
And the second thing which kept her going was to see the evidences of prosperity and contentment which the women on the payroll began to show—their new clothes and shoes—the hopeful confidence of their smiles—the frequency with which the furniture dealers' wagons were seen in the streets around the factory, the sounds of pianos and phonographs in the evening and, better than all, the fact that on pay day at Spencer & Sons, the New Bethel Savings Bank stayed open till half past nine at night—and didn't stay open for nothing!
"If things could only keep going like this when the war ends, too," breathed Mary one day. "…I'm sure there must be some way … some way…."
For the second time in her life (as you will presently see) she was like a blind-folded player with arms outstretched, groping for her destiny and missing it by a hair.
"Still," she thought, "when the men come back, I suppose most of the women will have to go. Of course, the men must have their places back, but you'd think there was some way … some way…."
In fancy she saw the women going back to the kitchens, back to the old toil from which they had escaped.
"It's silly, of course," she thoughtfully added, "and wicked, too, to say that men and women are natural enemies. But—the way some of the men act—you'd almost think they believed it…."
She thought of Uncle Stanley and has son. At his own request, Burdon had been transferred to the New York office and Mary seldom saw him, but something told her that he would never forgive her for the morning when he had to go home—"with a sort of a headache."
"And Uncle Stanley, too," she thought, her lip quivering as a wave of loneliness swept over her and left her with a feeling of emptiness. "If I were a man, he wouldn't dare to act as he does. But because I'm a girl, I can almost see him hoping that something will happen to me—"
If that, indeed, was Uncle Stanley's hope, he didn't have to wait much longer.
The armistice was signed, you will remember, in the first week of November, 1918. Two months later Mary showed Judge Cutler the financial statement for the preceding year.
"Another year like this," said the judge, "and, barring strikes and accidents, Spencer & Son will be on its feet again, stronger than ever! My dear girl," he said, rising and holding out his hand, "I must congratulate you!"
Mary arose, too, her hand outstretched, but something in her manner caught the judge's attention.
"What's the matter, Mary?" he asked. "Don't you feel well?"
"Men—women," she said, unsteadily smiling and giving him her hand, "they ought to be—now—natural partners—not—not—"
With a sigh she lurched forward and fell—a tired little creature—into his arms.
Mary had a bad time of it the next few weeks. More than once her face seemed turned toward the Valley of the Shadow. But gradually health and strength returned, although it wasn't until April that she was anything like herself again.
She liked to sit—sometimes for hours at a time—reading, thinking, dreaming—and when she was strong enough to go outside she would walk among the flowers, and look at the birds and the budding trees, and draw deep breaths as she watched the glory of the sunset appearing and disappearing in the western sky.
Helen occasionally walked and sat with her—but not often. Helen's time was being more and more taken up by the younger set at the Country Club. She came home late, humming snatches of the latest dances and talking of the conquests she had made, telling Mary of the men who would dance with no one else, of the compliments they had paid her, of the things they had told her, of the competition to bring her home. One night, it appears, they had an old-fashioned country party at the club, and Helen was in high glee at the number of letters she had received in the game of post office.
"You mean to say they all kissed you?" asked Mary.
"You bet they did! Good and hard! That's what they were there for!"
Mary thought that over.
"It doesn't sound nice to me, somehow," she said at last. "It sounds—oh,I don't know—common."
"That's what the girls thought who didn't get called," laughed Helen.
She arranged her hair in front of the mirror, pulling it down over her forehead till it looked like a golden turban. "Oh, who do you think was there tonight?" she suddenly interrupted herself.
Mary shook her head.
"Burdon Woodward—as handsome as ever. Yes, handsomer, I think, if he could be. He asked after you. I told him you were nearly better."
"Then he must be down at the factory every day," thought Mary. But the thought moved her only a little. Whether or not it was due to her illness, she seemed to have undergone a reaction in regard to the factory. Everything was going on well, Judge Cutler sometimes told her. As the men returned from service, the women were giving up their places.
"Whatever you do," he always concluded, "don't begin worrying about things down there. If you do, you'll never get well."
"I'm not worrying," she told him, and once she added, "It seems ever so long ago, somehow—that time we had down there."
As the spring advanced, her thoughts took her further than ever from their old paths. Instead of thinking of something else (as she used to do), when Helen was telling of her love affairs, Mary began to listen to them—and even to sit up till Helen returned from the club. One night, as Helen was chatting of a young an from Boston who had teased her by following her around until every one was calling him "Helen's little lamb," Mary gradually became aware of an elusive scent in the room.
"Cigarettes," she thought, "and—and raspberry jam—!" She waited until her cousin paused for breath and then, "Did Burdon Woodward ride home with you tonight?" she asked.
"With Doris and me," nodded Helen, smiling at herself in the mirror. "He told us he went over with some of the boys, but he wanted to go home civilized."
Nothing more was said, but a few mornings later, as Helen sat at breakfast reading her mail, Mary was sure she recognized Burdon's dashing handwriting. A vague sense of uneasiness passed over her, but this was soon forgotten when she went to the den to look at her own mail.
On the top of the pile was a letter addressed to her father.
"Rio de Janeiro," breathed Mary, reading the post-mark. "Why, that's where the cable came from!"
She opened the letter…. It was signed "Paul."
"Dear Sir (it began)
"This isn't begging. I am through with that. When you paid no attention to my cable, I said, 'Never again!' You might like to know that I buried my wife and two youngest that time. It hurt then, but I can see now that they were lucky.
"I have one daughter left—twelve years old. She's just at the age when she ought to be looked after. This is her picture. She's a pretty girl, and a good girl, but fond of fun and good times.
"I've done my best, but I'm down and out—tired—through. I guess it's up to you what sort of a granddaughter you want. There's a school near here where she could go and be brought up right. It won't cost much. You can send the money direct—if you want the right sort of a granddaughter.
"If you want the other kind, all you have to do is to forget it. The crowd I go with aren't good for her.
"Anyway I enclose the card and rates and references of the school. You see they give the consuls' names.
"If you decide yes, you want your granddaughter to have a chance, write a letter to the name and address below. That's me. Then write the school, sending check for one year and say it is for the daughter of the name and address below. That is the name I am known by here.
"I'm sorry for everything, but of course it's too late now. The truest thing in the world is this: As you make your bed, so you've got to lie in it. I made mine wrong, but you couldn't help it. I wouldn't bother you now except for Rosa's sake.
"Your prodigal son who is eating husks now,
Mary looked at the photograph—a pretty child with her hair over her shoulders and a smile in her eyes.
"You poor little thing," she breathed, "and to think you're my niece—and I'm your aunt … Aunt Mary," she thoughtfully repeated, and for the first time she realized that youth is not eternal and that years go swiftly by.
"Life's the strangest thing," she thought. "It's only a sort of an accident that I'm not in her place, and she's not in mine…. Perhaps I sha'n't have any children of my own—ever—" she dreamed, "and if I don't—it will be nice to think that I did something—for this one—"
For a moment the chill of caution went over her.
"Suppose it isn't really Paul," she thought. "Suppose—it's some sharper.Perhaps that's why dad never wrote him—"
But an instinct, deeper than anything which the mind can express, told her that the letter rang true and had no false metal in it.
"Or suppose," she thought, "if he knows dad is dead—suppose he turns up and makes trouble for everybody—"
Wally's story returned to her memory. "There was an accident out West—somebody killed. Anyhow he was blamed for it—so he could never come back or they'd get him—"
"That agrees with his living under this Russian name," nodded Mary. "Anyhow, I'm sure there's nothing to fear in doing a good action—for a child like this—"
She propped the picture on her desk and after a great deal of dipping her pen in the ink, she finally began—
"Dear Sir:
"I have opened your letter to my father, Josiah Spencer. He has been dead three years. I am his daughter.
"It doesn't seem right that such a nice girl as Rosa shouldn't have every chance to grow up good and happy. So I am writing the school you mentioned, and sending them the money as you suggest.
"She will probably need some clothes, as they always look at a girl's clothes so when she goes to school. I therefore enclose something for that.
"Trusting that everything will turn out well, I am
"Yours sincerely,
"P.S. I would like Rosa to write and tell me how she gets on at school."
She wrote the school next and when that was done she sat back in her chair and looked out of the window at the birds and the flowers and the bees that flew among the flowers.
"What a queer thing it is—love, or whatever they call it," she thought. "The things it has done to people—right in this house! I guess it's like fire—a good servant but a bad master—"
She thought of what it had done to Josiah—and to Josiah's son. She thought of what it had done to Ma'm Maynard, what it was doing to Helen, how it had left Aunt Cordelia and Aunt Patty untouched.
"It's like some sort of a fever," she told herself. "You never know whether you're going to catch it or not—or when you're going to catch, it—or what it's going to do to you—"
She walked to the window and rather unsteadily her hand arose to her breast.
"I wonder if I shall ever catch it…." she thought. "I wonder what it will do to me…!"
Archey Forbes came back in the beginning of May and the first call he made was to the house on the hill. He had brought with him a collection of souvenirs—a trench-made ring, shrapnel fragments of curious shapes, the inevitable helmet and a sword handle with a piece of wire attached.
"It was part of our work once," he said, "to find booby traps and make them harmless. This was in a barn, looking as though some one had tried to hide his sword in the hay. It looked funny to me, so I went at it easy and found the wire connected to a fuse. There was enough explosive to blow up the barn and everybody around there, but it wouldn't blow up a hill of bears when we got through with it."
He coloured a little through his bronze. "I thought you might like these things," he awkwardly continued.
"Like them? I'd love them!" said Mary, her eyes sparkling.
"I brought them for you."
They were both silent for a time, looking at the souvenirs, but presently their glances met and they smiled at each other.
"Of course you're going back to the factory," she said; and when he hesitated she continued, "I shall rely on you to let me know how things are going on."
Again he coloured a little beneath his bronze and Mary found herself watching it with an indefinable feeling of satisfaction. And after he was gone and she was carrying the souvenirs to the den, she also found herself singing a few broken bars from the Blue Danube.
"Is that you singing!" shouted Helen from the library.
"Trying to."
Helen came hurrying as though to see a miracle, for Mary couldn't sing."Oh—oh!" she said, her eyes falling on the helmet. "Who sent it? WallyCabot?"
"No; Archey Forbes brought it."
"Oh-ho!" said Helen again. "Now I see-ee-ee!"
But if she did, she saw more than Mary.
"Perhaps she thinks I'm in love with him," she thought, and though the reflection brought a pleasant sense of disturbance with it, it wasn't long before she was shaking her head.
"I don't know what it is," she decided at last, "but I'm sure I'm not in love with him."
As nearly as I can express it, Mary was in love with love, and could no more help it than she could help the crease in her chin or the dreaminess of her eyes. If Archey had had the field to himself, her heart might soon have turned to him as unconsciously and innocently as a flower turns its petals to the sun. But the day after Archey returned, Wally Cabot came back and he, too, laid his souvenirs at Mary's feet.
It was the same Wally as ever.
He had also brought a piece of old lace for Aunt Cordelia, a jet necklace for Aunt Patty, a prison-camp brooch for Helen. All afternoon he held them with tales of his adventures in the air, rolling up his sleeve to show them a scar on his arm, and bending his head down so they could see where a German ace had nicked a bit of his hair out.
More than once Mary felt her breath come faster, and when Aunt Cordelia invited him to stay to dinner and he chanced to look at her, she gave a barely perceptible signal "Yes," and smiled to herself at the warmth of his acceptance.
"I'll telephone mother," he said, briskly rising. "Where's the phone,Mary? I forget the way."
She arose to show him.
"Let's waltz out," he laughed. "Play something, Helen. Something lively and happy…."
It was a long time before Mary went to sleep that night. The moon was nearly full and shone in her windows, a stream of its rays falling on her bed and bringing to her those immortal waves of fancy which begin where the scent of flowers stop, and end where immortal and melancholy music begins. Unbidden tears came to her eyes, though she couldn't have told you why, and again a sense of the fleeting of time disturbed her.
"Aunt Mary …" In a few years she would be old, and her hair would be white like Aunt Patty's…. And in a few years more….
But even as Wally Cabot kept her from thinking too much of Archey Forbes, so now Archey unconsciously revenged himself and kept her thoughts from centring too closely around Wally Cabot.
Archey called the next afternoon and Mary sat on the veranda steps with him, while Helen made hay with Wally on a tête-à-tête above.
The few women who were left in the factory were having things made unpleasant for them: that was what Archey had come to tell her. Their canteen had been stopped; the day nursery discontinued; the nurses discharged.
"Of course they are not needed there any longer, so far as that is concerned," concluded Archey, "but they certainly helped us out of a hole when we did need them, and it doesn't seem right now to treat them rough."
At hearing this, a guilty feeling passed over Mary and left her cheeks warm. "They'll think I've deserted them," she thought.
"Well, haven't you?" something inside her asked.
Some of her old dreams returned to her mind, as though to mock her. She was going to be a new Moses once, leading her sisters out of the house of bondage. Woman was to have things different. Old drudgeries were to be lifted from her shoulders. The night was over. The dawn was at hand.
"Well, what can I do?" she thought uneasily.
"You can stop them from being treated roughly," something inside her answered.
"I can certainly do that," she nodded to herself. "I'll telephone UncleStanley right away."
But Uncle Stanley was out, and Mary was going riding with Wally that afternoon. So she wrote a hurried note and left it at the factory as they passed by.
"Dear Uncle Stanley," it read,
"Please see that every courtesy and attention is shown, the women who are still working. We may need them again some day.
"Sincerely,
"Now!" she said to Wally, and they started on their ride. And, oh, but that was a ride!
The afternoon was perfect, the sun warm but not hot, the air crystal clear. It had showered the night before and the world, in its spring dress, looked as though it had been washed and spruced for their approval.
"All roses and lilies!" laughed Wally. "That's how I like life!"
They went along hillsides and looked down into the beautiful valleys; they wound around by the sides of rivers and through deep woods; they went like the wind; they loafed; they explored country lanes and lost their way, stopped at a farm-house and found it again, shouted with delight when a squirrel tried to race them along the top of a fence, gasped together when they nearly ran over a turkey, chatted, laughed, sang (though this was a solo, for Mary couldn't sing, though she tried now and then under her breath), and with every mile they rode they seemed to pass invisible milestones along the road which leads from friendship to love.
It came to a crisis two weeks later, on an afternoon in June.
Mary was in the garden picking a bouquet for the table, and Wally went to help her. She gave him a smile that made his heart do a trick, and when he bent over to help her break a piece of mignonette, his hand touched hers….
"Mary…." he whispered.
"Yes?"
"Do you love me a little bit now?"
"I wonder…." said she, and they both bent over to pick another piece of mignonette. Away down deep in Mary, a voice whispered, "Somebody's watching." She looked toward the house and caught sight of Helen who was sitting sideways on the veranda rail and missing never a move.
Wally followed Mary's glance.
"She'll be down here in a minute," he frowned to himself. At the bottom of the lawn, overlooking the valley, was a summer house of rustic cedar, nearly covered with honeysuckle.
"Let's take a stroll down there, shall we?" he asked.
The tremor of his voice told Mary more than his words.
"He wants to love me," she thought, and burying her face in her bouquet she said in a muffled little voice, "…I don't care."
They went down to the summer house, talking, trying to appear indifferent, but both of them knowing that a truly tremendous moment in their drama of life was close at hand.
They seated themselves opposite each other on the bench and Mary's dreamy eyes went out over the valley.
"Mary…." he began. She looked at him for a moment and then her glance went out over the valley again.
"Don't you think we've waited long enough?" he gently asked.
But Mary's eyes were still upon the valley below.
"In a way, I'm glad you've waited," he said. "Judge Cutler told me some of the wonderful things you did here during the war. But you don't want to be bothering with a factory as long as you live. It's grubby, narrow work, and there's so much else in life, so much that's beautiful and—and wonderful—"
For a fleeting moment a picture arose before Mary's eyes: a tired woman bending over a wash-tub with a crying child tugging at her skirt. "So much that's beautiful—and wonderful"—the words were still echoing around her, and almost without thinking she said a peculiar thing. "Suppose we were poor," said she.
"But we aren't poor," smiled Wally. "That's one reason why I want to take you away from this. What's the use of having things if you can't enjoy them?"
She thought that over.
"There is so much that I have always wanted to see," he continued, "but I've had sense enough to wait until I found the right girl—so we could go and see it together. Switzerland—and the Nile—and Japan—and the Riviera, with 'its skies for ever blue.' Any place we liked, we could stay till we were tired of it. And a house in New York—and an island in the St. Lawrence—or down near Palm Beach. There's nothing we couldn't do—nothing we couldn't have—"
"But don't you think—" hesitated Mary and then stopped, timid of breaking the spell which was stealing over her.
"Don't I think what, dear?"
"Oh, I don't know—but you see so many married people, who seem to have lost interest in each other—nice people, too. You see them at North East Harbor—Boston—everywhere—and somehow they are bored at each other's company. Wouldn't it be awful if—if we were to be married—and then got like that, too?"