putting his arms around her, genuinely moved by his own
dereliction. “You mustn’t cry like that, dearest. You mustn’t.
I didn’t mean to hurt you, honest I didn’t. Truly, I didn’t,
dear. I know you’ve had a hard time, honey. I know how
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you feel, and how you’ve been up against things in one way
and another. Sure I do, Bert, and you mustn’t cry, dearest. I
love you just the same. Truly I do, and I always will. I’m
sorry if I’ve hurt you, honest I am. I couldn’t help it to-night if
I didn’t come, honest, or last Friday either. Why, it just
wasn’t possible. But I won’t be so mean like that any more,
if I can help it. Honest I won’t. You’re the sweetest, dearest
girl. And you’ve got such lovely hair and eyes, and such a
pretty little figure. Honest you have, Bert. And you can
dance too, as pretty as anybody. And you look just as nice,
honest you do, dear. Won’t you stop now, honey? Please
do. I’m so sorry, honey, if I’ve hurt you in any way.”
There was about Clyde at times a certain strain of
tenderness, evoked by experiences, disappointments, and
hardships in his own life, which came out to one and
another, almost any other, under such circumstances as
these. At such times he had a soft and melting voice. His
manner was as tender and gentle almost as that of a
mother with a baby. It drew a girl like Roberta intensely to
him. At the same time, such emotion in him, though vivid,
was of brief duration. It was like the rush and flutter of a
summer storm—soon come and soon gone. Yet in this
instance it was sufficient to cause Roberta to feel that he
fully understood and sympathized with her and perhaps
liked her all the better for it. Things were not so bad for the
moment, anyhow. She had him and his love and sympathy
to a very marked degree at any rate, and because of this
and her very great comfort in it, and his soothing words, she
began to dry her eyes, to say that she was sorry to think
that she was such a cry-baby and that she hoped he would
forgive her, because in crying she had wet the bosom of his
spotless white shirt with her tears. And she would not do it
any more if Clyde would just forgive her this once—the
while, touched by a passion he scarcely believed was
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buried in her in any such volume, he now continued to kiss
her hands, cheeks, and finally her lips.
And between these pettings and coaxings and kissings it
was that he reaffirmed to her, most foolishly and falsely in
this instance (since he was really caring for Sondra in a way
which, while different, was just as vital—perhaps even more
so), that he regarded her as first, last and most in his heart,
always—a statement which caused her to feel that perhaps
after all she might have misjudged him. Also that her
position, if anything, was more secure, if not more
wonderful than ever it had been before—far superior to that
of these other girls who might see him socially perhaps, but
who did not have him to love them in this wonderful way.
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Chapter 32
CLYDE now was actually part and parcel of this local winter
social scene. The Griffiths having introduced him to their
friends and connections, it followed as a matter of course
that he would be received in most homes here. But in this
very limited world, where quite every one who was anything
at all knew every one else, the state of one’s purse was as
much, and in some instances even more, considered than
one’s social connections. For these local families of
distinction were convinced that not only one’s family but
one’s wealth was the be-all and end-all of every happy
union meant to include social security. And in consequence,
while considering Clyde as one who was unquestionably
eligible socially, still, because it had been whispered about
that his means were very slender, they were not inclined to
look upon him as one who might aspire to marriage with
any of their daughters. Hence, while they were to the fore
with invitations, still in so far as their own children and
connections were concerned they were also to the fore with
precautionary hints as to the inadvisability of too numerous
contacts with him.
However, the mood of Sondra and her group being friendly
toward him, and the observations and comments of their
friends and parents not as yet too definite, Clyde continued
to receive invitations to the one type of gathering that most
interested him—that which began and ended with dancing.
And although his purse was short, he got on well enough.
For once Sondra had interested herself in him, it was not
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long before she began to realize what his financial state
was and was concerned to make his friendship for her at
least as inexpensive as possible. And because of this
attitude on her part, which in turn was conveyed to Bertine,
Grant Cranston and others, it became possible on most
occasions for Clyde, especially when the affair was local, to
go here and there without the expenditure of any money.
Even when the affair was at any point beyond Lycurgus and
he consented to go, the car of another was delegated to
pick him up.
Frequently after the New Year’s Eve trip to Schenectady,
which proved to be an outing of real import to both Clyde
and Sondra—seeing that on that occasion she drew nearer
to him affectionately than ever before—it was Sondra
herself who chose to pick him up in her car. He had actually
succeeded in impressing her, and in a way that most
flattered her vanity at the same time that it appealed to the
finest trait in her—a warm desire to have some one, some
youth like Clyde, who was at once attractive and of good
social station, dependent upon her. She knew that her
parents would not countenance an affair between her and
Clyde because of his poverty. She had originally not
contemplated any, though now she found herself wishing
that something of the kind might be.
However, no opportunity for further intimacies occurred until
one night about two weeks after the New Year’s party. They
were returning from a similar affair at Amsterdam, and after
Bella Griffiths and Grant and Bertine Cranston had been
driven to their respective homes, Stuart Finchley had called
back: “Now we’ll take you home, Griffiths.” At once Sondra,
swayed by the delight of contact with Clyde and not willing
to end it so soon, said: “If you want to come over to our
place, I’ll make some hot chocolate before you go home.
Would you like that?”
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“Oh, sure I would,” Clyde had answered gayly.
“Here goes then,” called Stuart, turning the car toward the
Finchley home. “But as for me, I’m going to turn in. It’s way
after three now.”
“That’s a good brother. Your beauty sleep, you know,”
replied Sondra.
And having turned the car into the garage, the three made
their way through the rear entrance into the kitchen. Her
brother having left them, Sondra asked Clyde to be seated
at a servants’ table while she brought the ingredients. But
he, impressed by this culinary equipment, the like of which
he had never seen before, gazed about wondering at the
wealth and security which could sustain it.
“My, this is a big kitchen, isn’t it?” he remarked. “What a lot
of things you have here to cook with, haven’t you?”
And she, realizing from this that he had not been
accustomed to equipment of this order before coming to
Lycurgus and hence was all the more easily to be
impressed, replied: “Oh, I don’t know. Aren’t all kitchens as
big as this?”
Clyde, thinking of the poverty he knew, and assuming from
this that she was scarcely aware of anything less than this,
was all the more overawed by the plethora of the world to
which she belonged. What means! Only to think of being
married to such a girl, when all such as this would become
an everyday state. One would have a cook and servants, a
great house and car, no one to work for, and only orders to
give, a thought which impressed him greatly. It made her
various self-conscious gestures and posings all the more
entrancing. And she, sensing the import of all this to Clyde,
was inclined to exaggerate her own inseparable connection
with it. To him, more than any one else, as she now saw,
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she shone as a star, a paragon of luxury and social
supremacy.
Having prepared the chocolate in a commonplace
aluminum pan, to further impress him she sought out a