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One Woman's Life, a novel by Robert Herrick |
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Part One. The West Side - Chapter 6. Milly Learns |
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_ PART ONE. THE WEST SIDE CHAPTER VI. MILLY LEARNS The friend who at the opportune moment had offered Horatio his point of stability at Hoppers' was Henry Snowden,--a handsome, talkative man of forty-five. He was manager of a department in the mail-order house, with the ambition of becoming one of the numerous firm. It was he who had put Horatio in the hands of the real estate firm that had resulted in the West Laurence Avenue House. Snowden, with his wife and two grown children, lived up the Boulevard, some distance from the Kemps. Mrs. Snowden was a rather fat lady a few years older than her husband, with a mid-western nasal voice. Milly thought her "common,"--a word she had learned from Eleanor Kemp,--and the daughter, who was in one of the lower classes of the Institute, was like her mother. During the first months in Chicago the Snowdens were the people Milly saw most of. Horatio liked to have the Snowdens in for what he called a "quiet rubber of whist" with a pitcher of cider, a box of cheap cigars, and a plate of apples on the table. Grandma Ridge sat in the dining-room, reading her _Christian Vindicator_, while Milly entertained her friends on the steps or visited at the Kemps. Occasionally she was induced to take a hand in the game. She liked Mr. Snowden. He was more the gentleman than most of her father's business friends. With his trim, grizzled mustache and his eye-glass he looked almost professional, she thought. He treated Milly gallantly, brought her flowers occasionally, and took her with his daughter to the theatre. He seemed much younger than his wife, and Milly rather pitied him for being married to her. She felt that it must have been a mistake of his youth. Her father was proud of the friendship and would repeat often,--"Snow's a smart man, I can tell you. There's a great future for Snow at Hoppers'." The Snowdens had an old-fashioned house with a stable, and kept a horse. Mr. Snowden was fond of driving, and had always a fast horse. He would come on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday and take Ridge for a drive. One Saturday afternoon he drove up to the house, and seeing Milly in the front window--it was a warm April day of their second year--motioned her to come outside. "Papa is not home yet," she said, patting the horse. "I know he isn't," Snowden remarked jerkily. "Didn't come for him--came for _you_--jump in!" Milly looked at him joyously with her glowing, child's eyes. "Really? You want me! But I'm not dressed." "You're all right--jump in--it's warm enough." And Milly without further urging got into the buggy. They went out through the boulevard to the new parkway, and when they reached the broad open road in the park, Snowden let his horse out, and they spun for a mile or more breathlessly. Milly's cheeks glowed, and her eyes danced. She was afraid that he might turn back at the end of the drive. But he kept on into a region that was almost country. Snowden talked in nervous sentences about the horse, then about Horatio, who, he said, was doing finely in the business. "He'll get on," he said, and Milly felt that Mr. Snowden was the family's good genius. "He's a good fellow--I suppose he'll marry again, one of these days." "No, he won't!" Milly replied promptly. "Not so long as he has me." "What'll he do when he loses you?" "He won't lose me." "Oh, you'll be married, Milly, 'fore you know it." She shook her head. "Not until I meet the right man," she said, and she explained volubly her lofty ideals of matrimony. Snowden agreed with her. He became personal, confiding, insinuated even that his marriage had been a mistake--of ignorance and youth. Milly, who was otherwise sympathetic, thought this was not nice of him, even if Mrs. Snowden was pudgy and common and old. A woman gave so much, she felt, in marriage that she should be insured against her defects.... Snowden said that he was living for his children. Milly thought that quite right and tried to turn the conversation. The horse looked around as if to ask how much farther his master meant to go over this rough country road. It was getting late and the sun was sinking towards the flat prairie. Milly began to feel unaccountably worried and suggested turning back. Instead the man cut the horse with his whip so that he shot forward down the narrow road. The buggy rocked and swayed, while Milly clung to the side. Snowden looked at her and smiled triumphantly. His face came nearer hers. Milly thought it handsome, but it was unpleasantly flushed, and Milly drew away. Suddenly she found herself in the grasp of her companion's free arm. He was whispering things into her ear. "You make me mad--I--" "Don't, Mr. Snowden,--please, please don't!" Milly cried, struggling. The horse stopped altogether and looked around at them. "Let me go!" she cried. But now abandoning the lines he held her in both his arms, his hot breath was close to her face, his lips seeking hers. Then she bit him,--bit him so hard with her firm teeth that he drew away with a cry, loosening his grip. She wriggled out of his embrace and scrambled to the ground before he knew what she was doing and began to run down the road. Snowden gathered up the lines and followed after her, calling,--"Milly, Milly--Miss Ridge," in a penitent, frightened voice. For some time she paid no attention until he shouted,--"You'll never get anywhere that way!" The buggy was abreast of her now. "Do get in! I won't--touch you." She turned upon him with all the fire of her youth. "You--a respectable man--with a wife--and my father's friend--you!" "Yes, I know," he said, like a whipped dog. "But don't run off--I'll get out and let you drive back alone." There was a cart coming on slowly behind them. Milly marched past the buggy haughtily and walked towards it. Snowden followed close behind, pleading, apologizing. She knew that he was afraid she would speak to the driver of the cart, and despised him. "Milly, don't," he groaned. She walked stiffly by the cart, whose driver eyed the scene with a slow grin. She paid no attention, however, to Snowden's entreaties. She was secretly proud of herself for her magnanimity in not appealing to the stranger, for the manner in which she was conducting herself. But after a mile or so, it became quite dark and she felt weary. She stumbled, sat down beside the road. The buggy stopped automatically. "If you'll only get in and drive home, Miss Ridge," Snowden said humbly, and prepared to dismount. "It's a good eight miles to the boulevard and your folks will be worried." With a gesture that waved him back to his place Milly got into the buggy and the horse started. "I didn't mean--I am sorry--" "Don't speak to me ever again, Mr. Snowden," Milly flamed. She sat bolt upright in her corner of the seat, drawing her skirt under her as if afraid it might touch him. Snowden drove rapidly, and thus without a word exchanged they returned. As they came near the corner of West Laurence Avenue, Snowden spoke again,-- "I know you can't forgive me--but I hope you won't let your father know. It would hurt him and--" It was a very mean thing to say, and she knew it. Afterwards she thought of many spirited and apposite words she might have spoken, but at the moment all she could do was to fling herself haughtily out of the buggy as it drew up before the curb and without a word or glance march stiffly up the steps, where her father sat smoking his after-dinner cigar. "Why, Milly," he exclaimed, "where've you been?" She stalked past him into the house. She could hear her father ask Snowden to stop and have some supper, and Snowden's refusal. "You'll be over for a game later, Snow?" "Guess not, Horace," and the buggy drove off. Then for the first time it came over her what it would mean if she should follow her first impulse and tell her father what had happened. Mr. Snowden was not merely his most intimate friend, but in a way his superior. If she should make things unpleasant between them, it might be serious. So when her grandmother came tiptoeing into Milly's room to see why she did not come down for her supper, Milly merely said she was too tired to eat. "What's happened?" "That nasty Snowden man," Milly spluttered, "tried to kiss me and I had to--to fight him.... Don't tell father!" The little old lady was very much disturbed, but she did not tell her son. Her policy was one of discreet silence about "unpleasant things" if they could be covered up. And this was the kind of event that women were capable of managing themselves, as Milly had managed.... Milly lay awake long hours that night, her heart beating loudly, her busy mind reviewing the experience, and though her resentment did not lessen as the hours wore on and she murmured to herself,--"Horrid, nasty beast!" yet she became aware of another sensation. If--if things had been different--she--well--it--might, and then she buried her head in the pillow more ashamed than ever. At last she had learned something of the real nature of men, and never again in her long experience with the other sex was she unaware of "what things meant." Whenever a man was concerned, one must always expect this possibility. And she began to despise the weaker sex. For some days the Snowdens did not come for cards. Horatio seemed depressed. He would sit reading his paper through to the small advertisements, or wander out by himself to a beer garden near by. When the social circle is as small as the Ridges', such a state of affairs means real deprivation, and Milly, who did not approve of the beer garden any more than did her grandmother, wondered how she could restore the old harmony between the two families. But before anything came of her good-natured intention fate arranged pleasantly to relieve her of the responsibility. _ |
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