An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

coat, the thought of Clyde kept running through her mind.

And all the while Mr. Rubenstein stood looking at her,

vaguely sensing, after his fashion, the nature of the

problem that was confronting her.

“Well, little girl,” he finally observed, “I see you’d like to have

this coat, all right, and I’d like to have you have it, too. And

now I’ll tell you what I’ll do, and better than that I can’t do,

and wouldn’t for nobody else—not a person in this city.

Bring me a hundred and fifteen dollars any time within the

next few days—Monday or Wednesday or Friday, if the coat

is still here, and you can have it. I’ll do even better. I’ll save

it for you. How’s that? Until next Wednesday or Friday.

More’n that no one would do for you, now, would they?”

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders and acted as

though he were indeed doing her a great favor. And

Hortense, going away, felt that if only—only she could take

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that coat at one hundred and fifteen dollars, she would be

capturing a marvelous bargain. Also that she would be the

smartest-dressed girl in Kansas City beyond the shadow of

a doubt. If only she could in some way get a hundred and

fifteen dollars before next Wednesday, or Friday.

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Chapter 15

AS HORTENSE well knew Clyde was pressing more and

more hungrily toward that ultimate condescension on her

part, which, though she would never have admitted it to

him, was the privilege of two others. They were never

together any more without his insisting upon the real depth

of her regard for him. Why was it, if she cared for him the

least bit, that she refused to do this, that or the other—

would not let him kiss her as much as he wished, would not

let him hold her in his arms as much as he would like. She

was always keeping dates with other fellows and breaking

them or refusing to make them with him. What was her

exact relationship toward these others? Did she really care

more for them than she did for him? In fact, they were

never together anywhere but what this problem of union

was uppermost—and but thinly veiled.

And she liked to think that he was suffering from repressed

desire for her all of the time that she tortured him, and that

the power to allay his suffering lay wholly in her—a sadistic

trait which had for its soil Clyde’s own masochistic yearning

for her.

However, in the face of her desire for the coat, his stature

and interest for her were beginning to increase. In spite of

the fact that only the morning before she had informed

Clyde, with quite a flourish, that she could not possibly see

him until the following Monday—that all her intervening

nights were taken—nevertheless, the problem of the coat

looming up before her, she now most eagerly planned to

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contrive an immediate engagement with him without

appearing too eager. For by then she had definitely decided

to endeavor to persuade him, if possible, to buy the coat for

her. Only of course, she would have to alter her conduct

toward him radically. She would have to be much sweeter—

more enticing. Although she did not actually say to herself

that now she might even be willing to yield herself to him,

still basically that was what was in her mind.

For quite a little while she was unable to think how to

proceed. How was she to see him this day, or the next at

the very latest? How should she go about putting before

him the need of this gift, or loan, as she finally worded it to

herself? She might hint that he could loan her enough to

buy the coat and that later she would pay him back by

degrees (yet once in possession of the coat she well knew

that that necessity would never confront her). Or, if he did

not have so much money on hand at one time, she could

suggest that she might arrange with Mr. Rubenstein for a

series of time payments which could be met by Clyde. In

this connection her mind suddenly turned and began to

consider how she could flatter and cajole Mr. Rubenstein

into letting her have the coat on easy terms. She recalled

that he had said he would be glad to buy the coat for her if

he thought she would be nice to him.

Her first scheme in connection with all this was to suggest

to Louise Ratterer to invite her brother, Clyde and a third

youth by the name of Scull, who was dancing attendance

upon Louise, to come to a certain dance hall that very

evening to which she was already planning to go with the

more favored cigar clerk. Only now she intended to break

that engagement and appear alone with Louise and Greta

and announce that her proposed partner was ill. That would

give her an opportunity to leave early with Clyde and with

him walk past the Rubenstein store.

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But having the temperament of a spider that spins a web

for flies, she foresaw that this might involve the possiblity of

Louise’s explaining to Clyde or Ratterer that it was Hortense

who had instigated the party. It might even bring up some

accidental mention of the coat on the part of Clyde to

Louise later, which, as she felt, would never do. She did not

care to let her friends know how she provided for herself. In

consequence, she decided that it would not do for her to

appeal to Louise nor to Greta in this fashion.

And she was actually beginning to worry as to how to bring

about this encounter, when Clyde, who chanced to be in

the vicinity on his way home from work, walked into the

store where she was working. He was seeking for a date on

the following Sunday. And to his intense delight, Hortense

greeted him most cordially with a most engaging smile and

a wave of the hand. She was busy at the moment with a

customer. She soon finished, however, and drawing near,

and keeping one eye on her floor-walker who resented

callers, exclaimed: “I was just thinking about you. You

wasn’t thinking about me, was you? Trade last.” Then she

added, sotto voce, “Don’t act like you are talking to me. I

see our floorwalker over there.”

Arrested by the unusual sweetness in her voice, to say

nothing of the warm smile with which she greeted him,

Clyde was enlivened and heartened at once. “Was I

thinking of you?” he returned gayly. “Do I ever think of any

one else? Say! Ratterer says I’ve got you on the brain.”

“Oh, him,” replied Hortense, pouting spitefully and

scornfully, for Ratterer, strangely enough, was one whom

she did not interest very much, and this she knew. “He

thinks he’s so smart,” she added. “I know a lotta girls don’t

like him.”

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“Oh, Tom’s all right,” pleaded Clyde, loyally. “That’s just his

way of talking. He likes you.”

“Oh, no, he don’t, either,” replied Hortense. “But I don’t want

to talk about him. Whatcha doin’ around six o’clock to-

night?”

“Oh, gee!” exclaimed Clyde disappointedly. “You don’t

mean to say you got to-night free, have you? Well, ain’t that

tough? I thought you were all dated up. I got to work!” He

actually sighed, so depressed was he by the thought that

she might be willing to spend the evening with him and he

not able to avail himself of the opportunity, while Hortense,

noting his intense disappointment, was pleased.

“Well, I gotta date, but I don’t want to keep it,” she went on

with a contemptuous gathering of the lips. “I don’t have to

break it. I would though if you was free.” Clyde’s heart

began to beat rapidly with delight.

“Gee, I wish I didn’t have to work now,” he went on, looking

at her. “You’re sure you couldn’t make it to-morrow night?

I’m off then. And I was just coming up here to ask you if you

didn’t want to go for an automobile ride next Sunday

afternoon, maybe. A friend of Hegglund’s got a car—a

Packard—and Sunday we’re all off. And he wanted me to

get a bunch to run out to Excelsior Springs. He’s a nice

fellow” (this because Hortense showed signs of not being

so very much interested). “You don’t know him very well,

but he is. But say, I can talk to you about that later. How

about to-morrow night? I’m off then.”

Hortense, who, because of the hovering floor-walker, was

pretending to show Clyde some handkerchiefs, was now

thinking how unfortunate that a whole twenty-four hours

must intervene before she could bring him to view the coat

with her—and so have an opportunity to begin her