I suppose youll be spending a good deal of your time with your relatives and friends here, he volunteered on the occasion of their first walk together, and after he had extracted as much information as Clyde cared to impart, which was almost nothing, while he volunteered a few, most decidedly furbished bits from his own history. His father owned a dry goods store NOW. He had come over here to study other methods, et cetera. He had an uncle here connected with Stark and Company. He had met a few not so many as yet nice people here, since he hadnt been here so very long himself four months all told.
But Clydes relatives!
Say your uncle must be worth over a million, isnt he? They say he is. Those houses in Wykeagy Avenue are certainly the cats. You wont see anything finer in Albany or Utica or Rochester either. Are you Samuel Griffiths own nephew? You dont say! Well, thatll certainly mean a lot to you here. I wish I had a connection like that. You bet Id make it count.
He beamed on Clyde eagerly and hopefully, and through him Clyde sensed even more how really important this blood relation was. Only think how much it meant to this strange youth.
Oh, I dont know, replied Clyde dubiously, and yet very much flattered by this assumption of intimacy. I came on to learn the collar business, you know. Not to play about very much. My uncle wants me to stick to that, pretty much.
Sure, sure. I know how that is, replied Dillard, thats the way my uncle feels about me, too. He wants me to stick close to the work here and not play about very much. Hes the buyer for Stark and Company, you know. But still a man cant work all the time, either. Hes got to have a little fun.
Yes, thats right, said Clyde for the first time in his life a little condescendingly.
They walked along in silence for a few moments. Then:
Do you dance?
Yes, answered Clyde.
Well, so do I. There are a lot of cheap dance halls around here, but I never go to any of those. You cant do it and keep in with the nice people. This is an awfully close town that way, they say. The best people wont have anything to do with you unless you go with the right crowd. Its the same way up at Fonda. You have to belong or you cant go out anywhere at all. And thats right, I guess. But still there are a lot of nice girls here that a fellow can go with girls of right nice families not in society, of course but still, theyre not talked about, see. And theyre not so slow, either. Pretty hot stuff, some of them. And you dont have to marry any of em, either. Clyde began to think of him as perhaps a little too lusty for his new life here, maybe. At the same time he liked him some. By the way, went on Dillard, what are you doing next Sunday afternoon?
Well, nothing in particular, that I know of just now, replied Clyde, sensing a new problem here. I dont know just what I may have to do by then, but I dont know of anything now.
Well, howd you like to come with me, if youre not too busy. Ive come to know quite a few girls since Ive been here. Nice ones. I can take you out and introduce you to my uncles family, if you like. Theyre nice people. And afterwards I know two girls we can go and see peaches. One of em did work in the store, but she dont now shes not doing anything now. The other is her pal. They have a Victrola and they can dance. I know it isnt the thing to dance here on Sundays but no one need know anything about that. The girls parents dont mind. Afterwards we might take em to a movie or something if you want to not any of those things down near the mill district but one of the better ones see?
There formulated itself in Clydes mind the question as to what, in regard to just such proposals as this, his course here was to be. In Chicago, and recently because of what happened in Kansas City he had sought to be as retiring and cautious as possible. For after that and while connected with the club, he had been taken with the fancy of trying to live up to the ideals with which the seemingly stern face of that institution had inspired him conservatism hard work saving ones money looking neat and gentlemanly. It was such an Eveless paradise, that.
In spite of his quiet surroundings here, however, the very air of the city seemed to suggest some such relaxation as this youth was now suggesting a form of diversion that was probably innocent enough but still connected with girls and their entertainment there were so many of them here, as he could see. These streets, after dinner, here, were so alive with good-looking girls, and young men, too. But what might his new found relatives think of him in case he was seen stepping about in the manner and spirit which this youths suggestions seemed to imply? Hadnt he just said that this was an awfully close town and that everybody knew nearly everything about everybody else? He paused in doubt. He must decide now. And then, being lonely and hungry for companionship, he replied:
Yes well I think thats all right. But he added a little dubiously: Of course my relatives here
Oh, sure, thats all right, replied Dillard smartly. You have to be careful, of course. Well, so do I. If he could only go around with a Griffiths, even if he was new around here and didnt know many people wouldnt it reflect a lot of credit on him? It most certainly would did already, as he saw it.
And forthwith he offered to buy Clyde some cigarettes a soda anything he liked. But Clyde, still feeling very strange and uncertain, excused himself, after a time, because this youth with his complacent worship of society and position, annoyed him a little, and made his way back to his room. He had promised his mother a letter and he thought he had better go back and write it, and incidentally to think a little on the wisdom of this new contact.
Chapter 8
Nevertheless, the next day being a Saturday and half holiday the year round in this concern, Mr. Whiggam came through with the pay envelopes.
Here you are, Mr. Griffiths, he said, as though he were especially impressed with Clydes position.
Clyde, taking it, was rather pleased with this mistering, and going back toward his locker, promptly tore it open and pocketed the money. After that, taking his hat and coat, he wandered off in the direction of his room, where he had his lunch. But, being very lonely, and Dillard not being present because he had to work, he decided upon a trolley ride to Gloversville, which was a city of some twenty thousand inhabitants and reported to be as active, if not as beautiful, as Lycurgus. And that trip amused and interested him because it took him into a city very different form Lycurgus in its social texture.
But the next day Sunday he spent idly in Lycurgus, wandering about by himself. For, as it turned out, Dillard was compelled to return to Fonda for some reason and could not fulfill the Sunday understanding. Encountering Clyde, however, on Monday evening, he announced that on the following Wednesday evening, in the basement of the Diggby Avenue Congregational Church, there was to be held a social with refreshments. And according to young Dillard, at least this promised to prove worth while.
We can just go out there, was the way he put it to Clyde, and buzz the girls a little. I want you to meet my uncle and aunt. Theyre nice people all right. And so are the girls. Theyre no slouches. Then we can edge out afterwards, about ten, see, and go around to either Zella or Ritas place. Rita has more good records over at her place, but Zella has the nicest place to dance. By the way, you didnt chance to bring along your dress suit with you, did you? he inquired. For having already inspected Clydes room, which was above his own on the third floor, in Clydes absence and having discovered that he had only a dress suit case and no trunk, and apparently no dress suit anywhere, he had decided that in spite of Clydes father conducting a hotel and Clyde having worked in the Union League Club in Chicago, he must be very indifferent to social equipment. Or, if not, must be endeavoring to make his own way on some character-building plan without help from any one. This was not to his liking, exactly. A man should never neglect these social essentials. Nevertheless, Clyde was a Griffiths and that was enough to cause him to overlook nearly anything, for the present anyhow.
No, I didnt, replied Clyde, who was not exactly sure as to the value of this adventure even yet in spite of his own loneliness but I intend to get one. He had already thought since coming here of his lack in this respect, and was thinking of taking at least thirty-five of his more recently hard-earned savings and indulging in a suit of this kind.
Dillard buzzed on about the fact that while Zella Shumans family wasnt rich they owned the house they lived in still she went with a lot of nice girls here, too. So did Rita Dickerman. Zellas father owned a little cottage upon Eckert Lake, near Fonda. When next summer came and with it the holidays and pleasant week-ends, he and Clyde, supposing that Clyde liked Rita, might go up there some time for a visit, for Rita and Zella were inseparable almost. And they were pretty, too. Zellas dark and Ritas light, he added enthusiastically.
Clyde was interested by the fact that the girls were pretty and that out of a clear sky and in the face of his present loneliness, he was being made so much of by this Dillard. But, was it wise for him to become very much involved with him? That was the question for, after all, he really knew nothing of him. And he gathered from Dillards manner, his flighty enthusiasm for the occasion, that he was far more interested in the girls as girls a certain freedom or concealed looseness that characterized them than he was in the social phase of the world which they represented. And wasnt that what brought about his downfall in Kansas City? Here in Lycurgus, of all places, he was least likely to forget it aspiring to something better as he now did.
None-the-less, at eight-thirty on the following Wednesday evening they were off, Clyde full of eager anticipation. And by nine oclock they were in the midst of one of those semi-religious, semi-social and semi-emotional church affairs, the object of which was to raise money for the church the general service of which was to furnish an occasion for gossip among the elders, criticism and a certain amount of enthusiastic, if disguised courtship and flirtation among the younger members. There were booths for the sale of quite everything from pies, cakes and ice cream to laces, dolls and knickknacks of every description, supplied by the members and parted with for the benefit of the church. The Reverend Peter Isreals, the minister, and his wife were present. Also Dillards uncle and aunt, a pair of brisk and yet uninteresting people whom Clyde could sense were of no importance socially here. They were too genial and altogether social in the specific neighborhood sense, although Grover Wilson, being a buyer for Stark and Company, endeavored to assume a serious and important air at times.
He was an undersized and stocky man who did not seem to know how to dress very well or could not afford it. In contrast to his nephews almost immaculate garb, his own suit was far from perfect-fitting. It was unpressed and slightly soiled. And his tie the same. He had a habit of rubbing his hands in a clerkly fashion, of wrinkling his brows and scratching the back of his head at times, as though something he was about to say had cost him great thought and was of the utmost importance. Whereas, nothing that he uttered, as even Clyde could see, was of the slightest importance.
And so, too, with the stout and large Mrs. Wilson, who stood beside him while he was attempting to rise to the importance of Clyde. She merely beamed a fatty beam. She was almost ponderous, and pink, with a tendency to a double chin. She smiled and smiled, largely because she was naturally genial and on her good behavior here, but incidentally because Clyde was who he was. For as Clyde himself could see, Walter Dillard had lost no time in impressing his relatives with the fact that he was a Griffiths. Also that he had encountered and made a friend of him and that he was now chaperoning him locally.
Walter has been telling us that you have just come on here to work for your uncle. Youre at Mrs. Cuppys now, I understand. I dont know her but Ive always heard she keeps such a nice, refined place. Mr. Parsley, who lives here with her, used to go to school with me. But I dont see much of him any more. Did you meet him yet?
No, I didnt, said Clyde in return.
Well, you know, we expected you last Sunday to dinner, only Walter had to go home. But you must come soon. Any time at all. I would love to have you. She beamed and her small grayish brown eyes twinkled.
Clyde could see that because of the fame of his uncle he was looked upon as a social find, really. And so it was with the remainder of this company, old and young the Rev. Peter Isreals and his wife; Mr. Micah Bumpus, a local vendor of printing inks, and his wife and son; Mr. and Mrs. Maximilian Pick, Mr. Pick being a wholesale and retail dealer in hay, grain and feed; Mr. Witness, a florist, and Mrs. Throop, a local real estate dealer. All knew Samuel Griffiths and his family by reputation and it seemed not a little interesting and strange to all of them that Clyde, a real nephew of so rich a man, should be here in their midst. The only trouble with this was that Clydes manner was very soft and not as impressive as it should be not so aggressive and contemptuous. And most of them were of that type of mind that respects insolence even where it pretends to condemn it.
In so far as the young girls were concerned, it was even more noticeable. For Dillard was making this important relationship of Clydes perfectly plain to every one. This is Clyde Griffiths, the nephew of Samuel Griffiths, Mr. Gilbert Griffiths cousin, you know. Hes just come on here to study the collar business in his uncles factory. And Clyde, who realized how shallow was this pretense, was still not a little pleased and impressed by the effect of it all. This Dillards effrontery. The brassy way in which, because of Clyde, he presumed to patronize these people. On this occasion, he kept guiding Clyde here and there, refusing for the most part to leave him alone for an instant. In fact he was determined that all whom he knew and liked among the girls and young men should know who and what Clyde was and that he was presenting him. Also that those whom he did not like should see as little of him as possible not be introduced at all. She dont amount to anything. Her father only keeps a small garage here. I wouldnt bother with her if I were you. Or, He isnt much around here. Just a clerk in our store. At the same time, in regard to some others, he was all smiles and compliments, or at worst apologetic for their social lacks.
And then he was introduced to Zella Shuman and Rita Dickerman, who, for reasons of their own, not the least among which was a desire to appear a little wise and more sophisticated than the others here, came a little late. And it was true, as Clyde was to find out afterwards, that they were different, too less simple and restricted than quite all of the girls whom Dillard had thus far introduced him to. They were not as sound religiously and morally as were these others. And as even Clyde noted on meeting them, they were as keen for as close an approach to pagan pleasure without admitting it to themselves, as it was possible to be and not be marked for what they were. And in consequence, there was something in their manner, the very spirit of the introduction, which struck him as different from the tone of the rest of this church group not exactly morally or religiously unhealthy but rather much freer, less repressed, less reserved than were these others.
Oh, so youre Mr. Clyde Griffiths, observed Zella Shuman. My, you look a lot like your cousin, dont you? I see him driving down Central Avenue ever so often. Walter has been telling us all about you. Do you like Lycurgus?