An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

of pretty good family too, and the fellow who took her to him

was pretty well-known about there. So I don’t know whether

this doctor would do anything for a stranger, although he

might at that. But I know that sort of thing is going on all the

time, so you might try. If you wanta send this fellow to him,

tell him not to mention me or let on who sent him, ‘cause

I’m pretty well-known around there and I wouldn’t want to

be mixed up in it in case anything went wrong, you see.

You know how it is.”

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And Clyde, in turn, replied gratefully: “Oh, sure, he’ll

understand all right. I’ll tell him not to mention any names.”

And getting the doctor’s name, he extracted a pencil and

notebook from his pocket in order to be sure that the

important information should not escape him.

Short, sensing his relief, was inclined to wonder whether

there was a working-man, or whether it was not Clyde

himself who was in this scrape. Why should he be speaking

for a young working-man at the factory? Just the same, he

was glad to be of service, though at the same time he was

thinking what a bit of local news this would be, assuming

that any time in the future he should choose to retail it. Also

that Clyde, unless he was truly playing about with some girl

here who was in trouble, was foolish to be helping anybody

else in this way—particularly a working-man. You bet he

wouldn’t.

Nevertheless he repeated the name, with the initials, and

the exact neighborhood, as near as he could remember,

giving the car stop and a description of the house. Clyde,

having obtained what he desired, now thanked him, and

then went out while the haberdasher looked after him

genially and a little suspiciously. These rich young bloods,

he thought. That’s a funny request for a fellow like that to

make of me. You’d think with all the people he knows and

runs with here he’d know some one. who would tip him off

quicker than I could. Still, maybe, it’s just because of them

that he is afraid to ask around here. You don’t know who he

might have got in trouble—that young Finchley girl herself,

even. You never can tell. I see him around with her

occasionally, and she’s gay enough. But, gee, wouldn’t that

be the …

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Chapter 37

THE information thus gained was a relief, but only partially

so. For both Clyde and Roberta there was no real relief now

until this problem should be definitely solved. And although

within a few moments after he had obtained it, he appeared

and explained that at last he had secured the name of

some one who might help her, still there was yet the

serious business of heartening her for the task of seeing the

doctor alone, also for the story that was to exculpate him

and at the same time win for her sufficient sympathy to

cause the doctor to make the charge for his service merely

nominal.

But now, instead of protesting as at first he feared that she

might, Roberta was moved to acquiesce. So many things in

Clyde’s attitude since Christmas had so shocked her that

she was bewildered and without a plan other than to

extricate herself as best she might without any scandal

attaching to her or him and then going her own way—

pathetic and abrasive though it might be. For since he did

not appear to care for her any more and plainly desired to

be rid of her, she was in no mood to compel him to do other

than he wished. Let him go. She could make her” own way.

She had, and she could too, without him, if only she could

get out of this. Yet, as she said this to herself, however, and

a sense of the full significance of it all came to her, the

happy days that would never be again, she put her hands

to her eyes and brushed away uncontrollable tears. To think

that all that was should come to this.

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585

Yet when he called the same evening after visiting Short,

his manner redolent of a fairly worth-while achievement,

she merely said, after listening to his explanation in as

receptive a manner as she could: “Do you know just where

this is, Clyde? Can we get there on the car without much

trouble, or will we have to walk a long way?” And after he

had explained that it was but a little way out of Gloversville,

in the suburbs really, an interurban stop being but a quarter

of a mile from the house, she had added: “Is he home at

night, or will we have to go in the daytime? It would be so

much better if we could go at night. There’d be so much

less danger of any one seeing us.” And being assured that

he was, as Clyde had learned from Short, she went on: “But

do you know is he old or young? I’d feel so much easier

and safer if he were old. I don’t like young doctors. We’ve

always had an old doctor up home and I feel so much

easier talking to some one like him.”

Clyde did not know. He had not thought to inquire, but to

reassure her he ventured that he was middle-aged—which

chanced to be the fact.

The following evening the two of them departed, but

separately as usual, for Fonda, where it was necessary to

change cars. And once within the approximate precincts of

the physician’s residence, they stepped down and made

their way along a road, which in this mid-state winter

weather was still covered with old and dry-packed snow. It

offered a comparatively smooth floor for their quick steps.

For in these days, there was no longer that lingering

intimacy which formerly would have characterized both. In

those other and so recent days, as Roberta was constantly

thinking, he would have been only too glad in such a place

as this, if not on such an occasion, to drag his steps, put an

arm about her waist, and talk about nothing at all—the

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586

night, the work at the factory, Mr. Liggett, his uncle, the

current movies, some place they were planning to go,

something they would love to do together if they could. But

now … And on this particular occasion, when most of all,

and if ever, she needed the full strength of his devotion and

support! Yet now, as she could see, he was most nervously

concerned as to whether, going alone in this way, she was

going to get scared and “back out”; whether she was going

to think to say the right thing at the right time and convince

the doctor that he must do something for her, and for a

nominal fee.

Well, Bert, how about you? All right? You’re not going to get

cold feet now, are you? Gee, I hope not because this is

going to be a good chance to get this thing done and over

with. And it isn’t like you were going to some one who

hadn’t done anything like this before, you know, because

this fellow has. I got that straight. All you have to do now, is

to say, well, you know, that you’re in trouble, see, and that

you don’t know how you’re going to get out of it unless he’ll

help you in some way, because you haven’t any friends

here you can go to. And besides, as things are, you couldn’t

go to ’em if you wanted to. They’d tell on you, see. Then if

he asks where I am or who I am, you just say that I was a

fellow here—but that I’ve gone—give any name you want

to, but that I’ve gone, and you don’t know where I’ve gone to

—run away, see. Then you’d better say, too, that you

wouldn’t have come to him only that you heard of another

case in which he helped some one else—that a girl told

you, see. Only you don’t want to let on that you’re paid

much, I mean,—because if you do he may want to make

the bill more than I can pay, see, unless he’ll give us a few

months in which to do it, or something like that, you see.”

Clyde was so nervous and so full of the necessity of

charging Roberta with sufficient energy and courage to go

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587

through with this and succeed, now that he had brought her

this far along with it, that he scarcely realized how

inadequate and trivial, even, in so far as her predicament

and the doctor’s mood and temperament were concerned,

his various instructions and bits of inexperienced advice

were. And she on her part was not only thinking how easy it