Old Fulkerson's clerk

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Chapter 1. A Venturesome Step

“ Wanted — experienced sick nurse to wait on a gentleman, at fifteen dollars per week. Must be able to read and write some. A widow lady, who is strong and healthy, and has no family, preferred. To such a one this is a good place. Inquire of R. Crocker, No. — Park Avenue, New York City.”

“ I’ll do it, too ! Read that, Mopsy ! ”

The speaker rose excitedly from the window-seat where she had been curled up to get the full benefit of the fast fading daylight on the “want ” column of the New York Herald, and crossing the little room impetuously, laid the paper down upon the type-writer whose monotonous but rapid click-clack had finally ceased for want of light, while its operator leaned unrestfully back in her hard wooden chair.

“ Wait ! ”

The speaker struck a match and lighted the gas in the unshaded jet. Then they both winked and blinked in the sudden transition from darkness to light. Not that the illumination was especially dazzling. The burner on the jet was of a very small capacity, and but a feeble radiance was shed on the small splotchy looking-glass which swung stiffly in g

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its blue painted frame, and was given to unflattering reflections on its surroundings.

The tired type-writer leaned forward to read the advertisement that had been rather tempestuously presented for her consideration. The presenter of it stationed herself in front of the splotchy looking-glass, dropped her clasped hands in front of her, and took a long and deliberate survey of her own form and face. The critical survey terminated in a long fluttering sigh. Her voice was a trifle less defiant when she spoke again.

“ I wonder if I dare do it ?"

You are so abominably handsome, Alice ! " says Mopsy, one hand still on the advertisement in the Heraldy but both eyes scanning the tall, lithe form, with its sloping shoulders and its white neck, and its proud-looking head, with its covering of soft, wavy hair, and, just then, its classic two-thirds profile with its large eyes turned in eager questioning toward her.

“ This glass says differently. It always puts me into a humble and contrite mood.’

Alice walked reflectively over to her sister, and leaning over her shoulder read the advertisement a third time.

“You know, Mopsy, I am a splendid nurse, and oh ! how far that fifteen dollars would go toward making us comfortable ! Why, it would be positive affluence to us.”

“ Must be able to read and write some,” Mopsy answers with abstracted irrelevance. She is tracing the advertisement with a long, thin forefinger, a finger that has a pitiably bloodless look. “ If he knew of your literary aspirations he might think you could read and write too much.” She laughed a trifle bitterly.

“ I am certainly strong and healthy,” says Alice, eagerly skipping to the points she could consden^ tiously make.

A Venturesome Step.

How about this? "

The other girl slowly underscored with her bloodless finger the words: “A widow lady,” — then leaned back in her chair and looked steadily up into the handsome face so close to her own. There was an angry spot on each smooth cheek now.

“ Must he know all the ins and outs of a woman’s life in order to decide whether she can shake up his pillows properly, or drop his medicine accurately, or read him to sleep satisfactorily? Of course he is old and rich and cranky. Tm prepared for any amount of unreasonableness on his part.”

The finger never left the words, “A widow lady.”

“Don’t! You are cruel, Mopsy 1 ” The elder woman walked away flushed and angered.

“ Then you are so ridiculously young, Alice. I am afraid he would refuse you for fear you might get to flirting with his doctors, or playing havoc with his sons, if he has any. And then your form!” Still objecting — “You are altogether too slim and trim to pass for a professional nurse.”

“ Oh, Mopsy ! Don’t do every thing you can to discourage me ! I can fix myself up to look a veritable middle-aged scare-crow. You know I can. I always took the old woman parts in our charades and tableaux at home: Oh, dear, how things have changed since those merry days ! ”

“ Oh, oh ! Remember the contract.” Mopsy held up a rebuking finger.

“ I do remember it. We were to put our shoulders to the wheel, and never look back.”

“ Hand to the plow, dear ! You are a little mixed in your metaphors.”

“But, Mopsy! ” unheeding the interruption, “if we are never to take any risks, we shall remain forever just what we are now. Two homeless, penniless, aimlessly struggling women trying to earn our livelihood without the remotest idea how. to go about it.”

“ I am sure,” says Mopsy, “ weVe done it, after a fashion, fora whole year now.”

‘‘You may well say after a fashion ! You standing on your poor, dear feet all day directing wrappers and rolling up papers! I trimming bonnets for other people’s heads. If we had been brought up to that sort of thing, now” —

“ We might do it better,” Mopsy calmly interpolated, combating, as usual, Alice’s tendency to draw comparisons between now and then.

Alice’s face was full of intense disgust, as with hands folded tightly behind her, she paced the little room to and fro.

“ Moreover, you have purposely and ungratefully ignored our supplementary and artistic efforts at home. At least, I am supplementary, and you are artistic. I am quite sure the spray of golden-rod you painted on that mirror was simply perfect. I am sure the Woman’s Exchange has put nothing prettier on exhibition since it has been an exchange. Moreover, you are to be a great literary lady some of these days. And I am getting so expert with my type-writer, that I expect to command first-class wages this fall.”

Alice stopped suddenly in her aimless tramp, and imprinted an impetuous kiss on her sister’s blue-veined temple.

“You stand it so much betterthan I, and yet it is all through me that you have any thing to stand.”

“ Hush ! On forbidden ground again ! I wish you could get this place. That is, if there is nothing wrong in the deceit you would have to practice.”

“ There is no deceit about it. If I choose to dress like an old woman instead of a young one, whose business is that? ”

“ What name would you give?”

Quite a long silence intervened between question and answer.

“ Mistress Alice ! That would be name enough for a nurse/’

“ It sounds Englishy ! I suppose that would recommend it in New York. What apes these mortals be ! ”

“ Apparently there never was a place where people had less curiosity about one’s private life.”

“ I think that is as much from lack of interest as any thing else. If you were only a little plainer,” says Mopsy, discontentedly.

Alice laughed. What woman could ever be made to feel dissatisfied with herself for being too good-looking. Suddenly she turned toward the closet where her hat and shawl were hanging, seized them with the impetuous haste that characterized all her movements when under the influence of some excitement, and while she tied the crumpled brown strings under her chin, said :: —

“ I’ll be gone for about half an hour, Mopsy. Don’t use your eyes over that type-writer any more just now. The lids are red and swollen dear. Lie down and rest until I come back.”

She was gone, and Mopsy so far obeyed her as to push her chair back from the type-writer and place the black lid over it. Then she went and stood where she could look down upon the homeward hurrying crowd jostling elbows on the Tenth Street pavement.

“ Poor Allie ! What a tremendous stock of vitality she has left, and after all she has gone through, too ! ”

There was a caressing pity in the girl’s voice, as she said these words, sighed and lapsed into silence. The room was in almost total darkness. Gas was among the extras in Mrs. Grimm’s boarding-house, and consequently, was used with the most rigid economy in this particular apartment of that genteel establishment. Perhaps somewhere, out in the glad, open country^ daylight might still be lingering; but

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up there, where the high four and five stories of brick and mortar crowded thick about one another, the sun’s course was sooner run ; darkness came quickly and departed tardily.

It was a gloomy August evening. Rain had been falling all day. It was even now dropping from the eaves with a slow, sullen patter on the broad stone window-sill near which Mopsy had taken her stand. Still half an hour must elapse before the harsh bell down stairs would summon her to the basement dining-room, where with much clatter of knife and fork, and but slight conversational interruption, all of Mrs. Grimm’s boarders would apply themselves with more or less gusto to the task of consuming the rations of corned-beef, string-beans, pickled beets, and mashed potatoes, with which they were all so drearily familiar. The pastime of gazing out on wet and slippery pavements and processions of waterproofed people is soon exhausted.

Mopsy threw herself upon the dingy carpet-covered recliner, that was planted rigidly against the wall to conceal its deficiency in the matter of legs. She was very tired, but her eyes did not close restfully. Instead, they fixed themselves unwinkingly upon a shimmering spot of light reflected from an opposite window on the panels of the door through which her sister had disappeared.

“ Who would ever have thought that we could come to this! And through no fault of our own ! Oh ! But it is hard ! ”

Now that she was alone, Mopsy indulged herself in that retrospection which she and Alice had sternly prohibited to themselves, as only tending to weaken resolution and make the inevitable still harder to bear.

“ And after all is said and done, what helpless creatures women are in men’s hands. It is not likely now that I shall ever be tempted into the folly of giving any man sway over my destiny, for penniless girls are not at a premium ; but if I should

A gentle rap on the outside of the door where the gaslight was shimmering !

“ Come in !

Mopsy’s answer came with surprised alacrity. Visitors were such an unheard of thing to the sisters Gregory. It was neither pay-day nor laundress-day. Those two exhausted their social possibilities. She hastened toward the gas jet with a match in her hand. The knock was repeated ! So was Mopsy’s “ Come in,” and when the door opened and revealed the gray-clad figure of an elderly woman, the room was brightened by the full extent of all the gas procurable.

“ Excuse — me — my — dear — your — steps are steep — and — they — have — quite taken my breath away,” the gray visitor slowly panted out.

“Well, then, madam, you must rest before trying to tell your errand. I take it for granted,” she added, placing their one easy-chair at the old lady’s disposal, “ that you have an errand ; for we have nothing but business acquaintances in New York — now at least.”

“Yes, I have business,” — the slow, sweet voice was more at her command now, — “ I believe I would thank you for a glass of water, my dear, my tongue seems thick and dry. Then I must tell you what brought me here, and be getting off, for I’ve no particular fancy for being out alone late, if lam old and ugly.”

Old and ugly she was undeniably, with her gray hair arranged in a frizz that peeped out from a black net cap, made hideous with dark purple ribbons ; with smoked glass spectacles, through which her eyes gleamed feverish and greenish ; with long, black mittens that left only the last joint of each finger visible ; with a coarse gray serge, guiltless of any ornamentation, save four wooden tucks above the hem, the body made and cut in the graceless dress-reform style, which left the presence of the corsets altogether conjectural.

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‘‘Your name is Gregory, I believe?” she said, handing the empty glass back with thanks.

“Yes.”

“ And you have a sister named Alice ? ”

“ That is true, also.”

“ Is she younger or older than yourself? ”

“She is older by some five years.”

“ Folks speak well of you both, my dear. I came to see if I could get one of you to help me with a job I have in hand. You look rather young. I should like to see your sister.”

“ I am very sorry,” says Mopsy, inwardly noting this exemplification of her pet aphorism, that “ Providence helps those who help themselves,” “ but my sister is out, just now. If you could wait ” —

“ I can wait a little while, dear, just a little while. I don’t like to be out too late alone, if I am old and ugly.”

“ I am sure she will not be long now.” Mopsy was inwardly chafing at Alice’s delay. Who knew what golden chance might slip away from them if she let this little old gray lady go without explaining her errand!

“ Is it you or she that owns the little brown-stone house out on Seventy-sixth Street ? ”

Mopsy was surprised at this intimate knowledge of her private affairs — not only surprised, but annoyed.

“ I own it, madam, but it is leased out for four years ; so if that is your business ” —

“ Is it you or she that married a man ” —

“ Madam ! ” says Mopsy in a quick, imperious voice, “ I decline answering irrelevant, and permit me to add, impertinent questions.”

“ Hoity-toity I Is it you or she that’s got the temper of the family ? ”

Mopsy was motioning to the door with regal indignation.

The old lady rose slowly and stiffly from the low chair.

As she walked feebly toward the door, Mopsy relented : “ Who shall I tell my sister Alice came

to see her?” Her eyes suddenly dilated in amazement.

“ Say that Mistress Alice called ! ” said a quick, familiar voice, as with both hands Alice disposed of cap, gray front and smoked spectacles.

“ That settles the ‘ too youthful ’ objection,” she said, when she could say any thing for laughing at Mopsy’s blank amazement.

“ But your form ? You look so outrageously old in the back ! ”

“ I know I do,” says Alice, craning her long neck to get a rear view of herself in the splotchy little glass. “ Thanks to dress reform, I haven’t the least particle of shape left. You see,” giving her pretty shoulders a vigorous shake, “ every thing hangs loose and straight and gracelessly from the shoulders. So,” she added, settling herself comfortably in the chair the old lady had vacated, “ it is settled, and I will apply at Park Avenue to-morrow before shop hours.”

“Alice,” said the younger girl, laying both hands on her sister’s shoulders, “ forgive me, dear, for raising one more objection. Suppose — what if Dennis should come back ? ”

“ Dennis come back ! Why should he ? How dare he? How could he? Oh, Mopsy! Have I not suffered enough in the past, without walking through life chained to a specter of what might happen ? ”

She shook her sister’s hands off, and walking toward the window, stood staring out on the wet walls and steamy windows and flitting shadows on the house opposite her. Mopsy followed her and said with grave insistance : —

“ But what if he should, Alice ? It is best always i6

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to face the worst possibility, and be prepared beforehand. What if he should ? ”

“ There is not a shadow of a possibility of his coming here ! He dare not do it.*'

‘‘ But if he should dare, Alice ? ”

“ Then,” said Alice, facing toward her with cheeks aflame, “ I should leave him to his fate. He might go his way, and I mine! He made wreck of my past ! — He shall not crush out every possibility of my future ! ”

She clasped her hands behind her, in the attitude so pathetically familiar to the sister who followed her movements with loving anxiety and infinite pity in her face. The uproar in the street lulled for a brief second. The sullen pattering of the rain on the stone sill was plainly audible! Presently Mopsy’s voice broke the long silence : —

“ Until death do — ”

Alice answered with a sob.

CHAPTER 11.

ALICE INQUIRES OF R. CROCKER.

Alice was in advance of the early post next morning in reaching No. — Park Avenue. In fact she had arrived in that aristocratic region so very early that she nervously made the circuit of the entire block twice before venturing to ring. The third time she found herself facing the big, polished double-doors, bearing on one plate the number, and on the other a name, which, from the street certainly did not look like “ Crocker.” She boldly mounted the stone steps to the high stoop, and put all the courage she had left into one vigorous pull of the bell. She was just plucking off the veil that kept her eyes and nose in durance vile, so she might read the indistinct lettering on the time-worn door-plate, when the door was suddenly opened by a man-servant belonging to that grade of respectability before which humble merit stands abashed and genteel poverty bows its head.

“ Whom did you wish to see, mum ? ” he asked, taking in every detail of the gray-clad figure on the stoop with swift inspection.

“ I came in answer to this,” Mistress Alice answered, taking from the small leather satchel on her arm the advertisement clipped from yesterday’s Herald and exteriding it with somewhat tremulous fingers to the magnificent butler in the doorway.

“ Oh ! h’m ! Well, I guess you’ll stand about as good a chance as the forty that’s beat you here. This way, if you please, mum.”

Alice’s heart sank within her. What chance had she with forty applicants ahead of her ! She followed meekly in the wake of the magnificent butler, catching occasional glimpses in huge mirrors of a tall unfamiliar form robed in coarse gray serge, with a slight hump on its shoulders, and a gray fringe of hair framing its forehead, and a pair of smoked glasses glittering in the subdued light, through a hall where the foot-fall was smothered in soft, thick carpeting, where fluffy rugs of gorgeous hues doubly protected the thresholds of the tall, dark doors, with bright silver knobs — back to the rear of the house, where, suddenly flinging back a heavy maroon- velvet portiere, the butler introduced her laconically to the back of a gentleman’s head, sitting in there at an open desk with only his head visible above the stamped leather back of his chair.

“Here’s another one of ’em, doctor! ”

Then the brass rings of the portiere gave out a musical twinkle as the butler dropped it and left Alice alone with the man at the desk.

“ Ah ! be seated, please, I will attend to you in a moment.”

He gave one glance at her over his shoulder without altering his position, and resumed his occupation of rolling out pill-paste. Alice was thankful for the short respite his preoccupation gave her. Her cheeks tingled ! This was the first time in a long while that she had come in contact with a man in her own sphere of life and received but the recognition due a dependent. After all, then, she thought bitterly, one is just what one’s circumstances and surroundings make one.

It was a bright alcove room she found herself in. Through the end window she caught glimpses of bright beds of colors outlined with “Dusty Miller” and flashing parterres of fresh geranium. All the appointments of this room were in keeping with the pile of the carpets, the silky mats and the magnificent butler. The man at the desk there, who seemed to have forgotten her very existence, must be majestically tall for his whole head to show over the high back of the gilt leather chair. The chair was one of a set that helped furnish the room. She was in one herself, and hat and all just came to the top ! His hair was very black, and he had abundance of it ! One thing to be taken note of in these baldheaded times ! The style of his collar and the glimpse of his snowy cuffs suggested neatness. Alice adored neatness in a man. She was just carrying her speculations into the neighborhood of his eyes and nose, when he rose with slow deliberation and faced toward her. “ I beg pardon for keeping you waiting so long, madam, but it was unavoidable. I suppose you came in answer to my advertisement ? ”

“ Is your name Crocker ? ”

It was a stupidly irrelevant answer, and Alice clasped her black-mittened hands nervously about the handle of her satchel. She had supposed “ R. Crocker ” to be the cranky old invalid she wanted to nurse for a consideration, and here was R. Crocker,

Alice Inquires of R, Crocker.

the embodiment of physical strength ! A stalwart, handsome man, with ruddy cheeks and clear large eyes, and strong white hands, and not a sign of any lack visible.

“ I hope you are not nervous,” he said, noting the violent twitching of the hands on the satchel.

“Not in the least, sir,” said Alice, frightened at her own folly in jeopardizing her chances. “ Only a little taken by surprise. I had supposed R. Crocker was the invalid ; so you see ” — a slight smile wavered about her closed lips.

One of Mopsy’slast injunctions had been, “Don’t you show your teeth ! They will betray you. Such perfect milk-white rows are not found in an old woman’s mouth.”

“Yes, I see how the mistake could occur. The invalid is an uncle of mine. He is partially paralyzed, has no use of his lower limbs and his right arm, only the partial use of his left hand. He has led a very active life, and this confinement is very trying to his temper. He has his man-servant, who is always in attendance upon him for the more menial services. But what I am trying to find is some one with sufficient tact to grasp the idea of what this misfortune must entail on him, and treat him accordingly. I should like to know your qualifications for this position before going any further.”

“ I am strong and healthy. Have no family to interfere with my duties. Can read and write some ” — the subtle sarcasm in the emphasis she placed on the last word smote upon a very acute ear — “ and am a very good nurse.”

“ I have had many answers to that advertisement ; but after a full understanding of what is expected of them, only five have persisted in wanting the place. I have promised to decide between them by twelve o’clock to-day.”

“ I should like to hear the particulars, please.”

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Undeniably my uncle is extremely captious, suspicious, and unreasonable. What he most needs is a cheerful attendant, one,’' he added smiling, “ not entirely devoid of a will of her own. Your duties would be to read or write or talk, as his whim may demand. To be in constant attendance on him during the day, and to endure any amount of ill-natured exaction.”

“ So much for the disadvantages ; the advantages, please.”

Dr. Crocker smiled at the cool command in her tones.

“ The advantages,” he said, “lie in your having a comfortable room and a private table, served as the family table is served. In your being paid fifteen dollars a week, and at no expense. And I will add for your comfort, that while my uncle’s friendship and confidence are extremely hard to gain, they are worth a great deal when once secured.”

“ I persist in desiring the place. I do not underrate its drawbacks ; but I can not afford to be fastidious.”

The docter sat absently twirling the end of his long mustache.

There was something a trifle puzzling in this new applicant. Not in her looks, for she was none too fine nor too good-looking to have walked the wards of a hospital all her life. He believed it was in the voice. There was an undercurrent of imperiousness in its soft, sweet tones that certainly did not smack of one used to obeying. He would like to analyze that voice.

“ Would you mind reading for me ? ” he asked suddenly.

“ Certainly not ! What shall it be ? ” she asked, with growing confidence in herself and in her chances.

“ The morning paper, of course. There is nothing more irritating to unstrung nerves than an unpleasant reader;” he handed her the paper with the words.

“ May I ask what line of business your uncle pursued before his affliction?”

“ The man, in fact, still is a large ship owner.”

“ Then, of course, port-news would interest him most.”

So she turned to the shipping news, and gave its dry details in a clear, precise, understandable fashion. As Dr. Crocker had already read the entire column that morning to his uncle, he was scarcely blameable for giving his attention to the reader instead.

The cheeks are full and young, but the mouth looks thin and elderly! The gray hair and smoked glasses, and the humped back stamp the unattractive, staid woman. The ears —

A sudden lull brought back his wandering attention. Alice laid the paper down and said, “ Well ?”

“ Good I I see you can read — some ! And now,” waving her toward the desk, “ if you will be so good as to put your application in writing. Your position will be that of an amanuensis, also.”

Alice was fearless on this score. She was quite conscious that her handwriting would bear the closest scrutiny. She wrote the application in a few words, boldly signed it Alice Gregory, and submitted it for inspection.

‘‘Alice Gregory! Widow, of course?”

“Yes.”

Alice gave the information in a low and shaken voice. Dr. Crocker feared that he had ruthlessly torn open a wound.

“ Pardon me,” he said very gently. “ I am afraid I seem brutally inquisitive, but it is necessary that we should understand each other perfectly at the outset. What I have seen of you inclines me ” —

“Ralph! Ralph, do come! He is in one of his towering tempers, and Tm afraid of him. He is

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flinging things around as if he had a dozen hands instead of only half a one. Oh ! it is just too horrid.”

This startling interruption came from the direction of the portiere. A snowy hand and arm were outlined against the dark folds of the velvet. Rich diamonds flashed on the fingers that clutched the cloth. From the elevated arm a loose, lace-trimmed sleeve fell back. A pair of dark pleading eyes were fastened on Dr. Crocker’s quiet face. They were only one attraction in a very handsome face, whose beauty was marred just now by frowning anxiety. The red lips had the petulant pout of a spoiled child.

“ Do come quickly, Ralph.”

The gleam of a silver buckle on a dainty slipper flashed into notice as its wearer executed a little stamp of impatience.

“ I am coming,” said the doctor. “ I warned you, Edith, that this would be one of his worst days. It is the dampness of the atmosphere.”

“ I’m sure atmospheric husbands are extremely uncomfortable belongings. I’m not going to stir until you go with me. What has become of all those stupid women you spent yesterday talking to ? Wouldn’t a single one of them do?”

Dr. Crocker was selecting some vials from a cabinet over his desk. He did not seem to think this last outburst worthy of an answer. Alice’s voice broke the silence :

“ Let me see the gentleman, will you not, sir? I have had some experience with — eccentric people.”

For the first time she became an object of observation to the lady at the portiere.

“ Who are you ? ” she asked, not rudely, but coldly.

“ I am one of those stupid women Dr. Crocker has under consideration.”

“ Heavens! it is hard to imagine the straits that would drive a woman to want such a position.”

“ Fifteen dollars a week does mean a great deal to me — more than you can imagine. May I go with you ? " — this to Dr. Crocker, who was moving toward the door with his hands full of vials.

“ I believe I should like you to try the experiment. One half hour with him will make things clearer for you than any thing I can say. So, Mrs.” — he paused.