An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

the hard and contemptuous opposition he felt. “We’ll be

having him up here next!”

“Who?” inquired Mrs. Griffiths, as she took the paper and

examined the item calmly and judicially, yet not without a

little of outwardly suppressed surprise when she saw the

name. For although the fact of Clyde’s having been picked

up by Sondra in her car sometime before and later been

invited to dinner at the Trumbulls’, had been conveyed to

the family sometime before, still a society notice in The Star

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520

was different. “Now I wonder how it was that he came to be

invited to that?” meditated Mrs. Griffiths who was always

conscious of her son’s mood in regard to all this.

“Now, who would do it but that little Finchley snip, the little

smart aleck?” snapped Gilbert. “She’s got the idea from

somewhere—from Bella for all I know—that we don’t care

to have anything to do with him, and she thinks this is a

clever way to hit back at me for some of the things I’ve

done to her, or that she thinks I’ve done. At any rate, she

thinks I don’t like her, and that’s right, I don’t. And Bella

knows it, too. And that goes for that little Cranston show-off,

too. They’re both always running around with her. They’re a

set of show-offs and wasters, the whole bunch, and that

goes for their brothers, too—Grant Cranston and Stew

Finchley—and if something don’t go wrong with one or

another of that bunch one of these days, I miss my guess.

You mark my word! They don’t do a thing, the whole lot of

them, from one year’s end to the other but play around and

dance and run here and there, as though there wasn’t

anything else in the world for them to do. And why you and

Dad let Bella run with ’em as much as she does is more

than I can see.”

To this his mother protested. It was not possible for her to

entirely estrange Bella from one portion of this local social

group and direct her definitely toward the homes of certain

others. They all mingled too freely. And she was getting

along in years and had a mind of her own.

Just the same his mother’s apology and especially in the

face of the publication of this item by no means lessened

Gilbert’s opposition to Clyde’s social ambitions and

opportunities. What! That poor little moneyless cousin of his

who had committed first the unpardonable offense of

looking like him and, second, of coming here to Lycurgus

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521

and fixing himself on this very superior family. And after he

had shown him all too plainly, and from the first, that he

personally did not like him, did not want him, and if left to

himself would never for so much as a moment endure him.

“He hasn’t any money,” he declared finally and very bitterly

to his mother, “and he’s hanging on here by the skin of his

teeth as it is. And what for? If he is taken up by these

people, what can he do? He certainly hasn’t the money to

do as they do, and he can’t get it. And if he could, his job

here wouldn’t let him go anywhere much, unless some one

troubled to pay his way. And how he is going to do his work

and run with that crowd is more than I know. That bunch is

on the go all the time.”

Actually he was wondering whether Clyde would be

included from now on, and if so, what was to be done about

it. If he were to be taken up in this way, how was he, or the

family, either, to escape from being civil to him? For

obviously, as earlier and subsequent developments proved,

his father did not choose to send him away.

Indeed, subsequent to this conversation, Mrs. Griffiths had

laid the paper, together with a version of Gilbert’s views

before her husband at this same breakfast table. But he,

true to his previous mood in regard to Clyde, was not

inclined to share his son’s opinion. On the contrary, he

seemed, as Mrs. Griffiths saw it, to look upon the

development recorded by the item as a justification in part

of his own original estimate of Clyde.

“I must say,” he began, after listening to his wife to the end,

“I can’t see what’s wrong with his going to a party now and

then, or being invited here and there even if he hasn’t any

money. It looks more like a compliment to him and to us

than anything else. I know how Gil feels about him. But it

rather looks to me as though Clyde’s just a little better than

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522

Gil thinks he is. At any rate, I can’t and I wouldn’t want to do

anything about it. I’ve asked him to come down here, and

the least I can do is to give him an opportunity to better

himself. He seems to be doing his work all right. Besides,

how would it look if I didn’t?”

And later, because of some additional remarks on the part

of Gilbert to his mother, he added: “I’d certainly rather have

him going with some of the better people than some of the

worse ones—that’s one thing sure. He’s neat and polite and

from all I hear at the factory does his work well enough. As

a matter of fact, I think it would have been better if we had

invited him up to the lake last summer for a few days

anyhow, as I suggested. As it is now, if we don’t do

something pretty soon, it will look as though we think he

isn’t good enough for us when the other people here seem

to think he is. If you’ll take my advice, you’ll have him up

here for Christmas or New Year’s, anyhow, just to show

that we don’t think any less of him than our friends do.”

This suggestion, once transferred to Gilbert by his mother,

caused him to exclaim: “Well, I’ll be hanged! All right, only

don’t think I’m going to lay myself out to be civil to him. It’s

a wonder, if Father thinks he’s so able, that he don’t make a

real position for him somewhere.”

Just the same, nothing might have come of this had it not

been that Bella, returning from Albany this same day,

learned via contacts and telephone talks with Sondra and

Bertine of the developments in connection with Clyde. Also

that he had been invited to accompany them to the New

Year’s Eve dance at the Ellerslies’ in Schenectady, Bella

having been previously scheduled to make a part of this

group before Clyde was thought of.

This sudden development, reported by Bella to her mother,

was of sufficient import to cause Mrs. Griffiths as well as

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523

Samuel, if not Gilbert, later to decide to make the best of a

situation which obviously was being forced upon them and

themselves invite Clyde for dinner—Christmas Day—a

sedate affair to which many others were bid. For this as

they now decided would serve to make plain to all and at

once that Clyde was not being as wholly ignored as some

might imagine. It was the only reasonable thing to do at this

late date. And Gilbert, on hearing this, and realizing that in

this instance he was checkmated, exclaimed sourly: “Oh, all

right. Invite him if you want to—if that’s the way you and

Dad feel about it. I don’t see any real necessity for it even

now. But you fix it to suit yourself. Constance and I are

going over to Utica for the afternoon, anyhow, so I couldn’t

be there even if I wanted to.”

He was thinking of what an outrageous thing it was that a

girl whom he disliked as much as he did Sondra could thus

via her determination and plottings thrust his own cousin on

him and he be unable to prevent it. And what a beggar

Clyde must be to attempt to attach himself in this way when

he knew that he was not wanted! What sort of a youth was

he, anyhow?

And so it was that on Monday morning Clyde had received

another letter from the Griffiths, this time signed by Myra,

asking him to have dinner with them at two o’clock

Christmas Day. But, since this at that time did not seem to

interfere with his meeting Roberta Christmas night at eight,

he merely gave himself over to extreme rejoicing in regard

to it all now, and at last he was nearly as well placed here,

socially, as any one. For although he had no money, see

how he was being received—and by the Griffiths, too—

among all the others. And Sondra taking so great an

interest in him, actually talking and acting as though she