An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

reaching those who were of their same church but better

placed.

And so it was that Roberta, after encountering Clyde and

sensing the superior world in which she imagined he

moved, and being so taken with the charm of his

personality, was seized with the very virus of ambition and

unrest that afflicted him. And every day that she went to the

factory now she could not help but feel that his eyes were

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upon her in a quiet, seeking and yet doubtful way. Yet she

also felt that he was too uncertain as to what she would

think of any overture that he might make in her direction to

risk a repulse or any offensive interpretation on her part.

And yet at times, after the first two weeks of her stay here,

she wishing that he would speak to her—that he would

make some beginning—at other times that he must not dare

—that it would be dreadful and impossible. The other girls

there would see at once. And since they all plainly felt that

he was too good or too remote for them, they would at once

note that he was making an exception in her case and

would put their own interpretation on it. And she knew the

type of a girl who worked in the Griffiths stamping room

would put but one interpretation on it,—that of looseness.

At the same time in so far as Clyde and his leaning toward

her was concerned there was that rule laid down by Gilbert.

And although, because of it, he had hitherto appeared not

to notice or to give any more attention to one girl than

another, still, once Roberta arrived, he was almost

unconsciously inclined to drift by her table and pause in her

vicinity to see how she was progressing. And, as he saw

from the first, she was a quick and intelligent worker, soon

mastering without much advice of any kind all the tricks of

the work, and thereafter earning about as much as any of

the others—fifteen dollars a week. And her manner was

always that of one who enjoyed it and was happy to have

the privilege of working here. And pleased to have him pay

any little attention to her.

At the same time he noted to his surprise and especially

since to him she seemed so refined and different, a certain

exuberance and gayety that was not only emotional, but in

a delicate poetic way, sensual. Also that despite her

difference and reserve she was able to make friends with

and seemed to be able to understand the viewpoint of most

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of the foreign girls who were essentially so different from

her. For, listening to her discuss the work here, first with

Lena Schlict, Hoda Petkanas, Angelina Pitti and some

others who soon chose to speak to her, he reached the

conclusion that she was not nearly so conventional or

standoffish as most of the other American girls. And yet she

did not appear to lose their respect either.

Thus, one noontime, coming back from the office lunch

downstairs a little earlier than usual, he found her and

several of the foreign-family girls, as well as four of the

American girls, surrounding Polish Mary, one of the gayest

and roughest of the foreign-family girls, who was explaining

in rather a high key how a certain “feller” whom she had

met the night before had given her a beaded bag, and for

what purpose.

“I should go with heem to be his sweetheart,” she

announced with a flourish, the while she waved the bag

before the interested group. “And I say, I tack heem an’

think on heem. Pretty nice bag, eh?” she added, holding it

aloft and turning it about. “Tell me,” she added with

provoking and yet probably only mock serious eyes and

waving the bag toward Roberta, “what shall I do with

heem? Keep heem an’ go with heem to be his sweetheart

or give heem back? I like heem pretty much, that bag, you

bet.”

And although, according to the laws of her upbringing, as

Clyde suspected, Roberta should have been shocked by all

this, she was not, as he noticed—far from it. If one might

have judged from her face, she was very much amused.

Instantly she replied with a gay smile: “Well, it all depends

on how handsome he is, Mary. If he’s very attractive, I think

I’d string him along for a while, anyhow, and keep the bag

as long as I could.”

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“Oh, but he no wait,” declared Mary archly, and with plainly

a keen sense of the riskiness of the situation, the while she

winked at Clyde who had drawn near. “I got to give heem

bag or be sweetheart to-night, and so swell bag I never can

buy myself.” She eyed the bag archly and roguishly, her

own nose crinkling with the humor of the situation. “What I

do then?”

“Gee, this is pretty strong stuff for a little country girl like

Miss Alden. She won’t like this, maybe,” thought Clyde to

himself.

However, Roberta, as he now saw, appeared to be equal to

the situation, for she pretended to be troubled. “Gee, you

are in a fix,” she commented. “I don’t know what you’ll do

now.” She opened her eyes wide and pretended to be

greatly concerned. However, as Clyde could see, she was

merely acting, but carrying it off very well.

And frizzled-haired Dutch Lena now leaned over to say: “I

take it and him too, you bet, if you don’t want him. Where is

he? I got no feller now.” She reached over as if to take the

bag from Mary, who as quickly withdrew it. And there were

squeals of delight from nearly all the girls in the room, who

were amused by this eccentric horseplay. Even Roberta

laughed loudly, a fact which Clyde noted with pleasure, for

he liked all this rough humor, considering it mere innocent

play.

“Well, maybe you’re right, Lena,” he heard her add just as

the whistle blew and the hundreds of sewing machines in

the next room began to hum. “A good man isn’t to be found

every day.” Her blue eyes were twinkling and her lips, which

were most temptingly modeled, were parted in a broad

smile. There was much banter and more bluff in what she

said than anything else, as Clyde could see, but he felt that

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she was not nearly as narrow as he had feared. She was

human and gay and tolerant and good-natured. There was

decidedly a very liberal measure of play in her. And in spite

of the fact that her clothes were poor, the same little round

brown hat and blue cloth dress that she had worn on first

coming to work here, she was prettier than anyone else.

And she never needed to paint her lips and cheeks like the

foreign girls, whose faces at times looked like pink-frosted

cakes. And how pretty were her arms and neck—plump

and gracefully designed! And there was a certain grace and

abandon about her as she threw herself into her work as

though she really enjoyed it. As she worked fast during the

hottest portions of the day, there would gather on her upper

lip and chin and forehead little beads of perspiration which

she was always pausing in her work to touch with her

handkerchief, while to him, like jewels, they seemed only to

enhance her charm.

Wonderful days, these, now for Clyde. For once more and

here, where he could be near her the long day through, he

had a girl whom he could study and admire and by degrees

proceed to crave with all of the desire of which he seemed

to be capable—and with which he had craved Hortense

Briggs—only with more satisfaction, since as he saw it she

was simpler, more kindly and respectable. And though for

quite a while at first Roberta appeared or pretended to be

quite indifferent to or unconscious of him, still from the very

first this was not true. She was only troubled as to the

appropriate attitude for her. The beauty of his face and

hands—the blackness and softness of his hair, the

darkness and melancholy and lure of his eyes. He was

attractive—oh, very. Beautiful, really, to her.

And then one day shortly thereafter, Gilbert Griffiths walking

through here and stopping to talk to Clyde, she was led to

imagine by this that Clyde was really much more of a figure

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socially and financially than she had previously thought. For

just as Gilbert was approaching, Lena Schlict, who was

working beside her, leaned over to say: “Here comes Mr.

Gilbert Griffiths. His father owns this whole factory and

when he dies, he’ll get it, they say. And he’s his cousin,”

she added, nodding toward Clyde. “They look a lot alike,