An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

I’m sure. And I am sorry about the other, really I am. I didn’t

mean, you know, that just because you weren’t Gilbert

Griffiths—”

He paused and in a bewildered manner stepped forward

and entering the car, slipped into the seat beside her. And

she, interested by his personality, at once began to look at

him, feeling glad that it was he now instead of Gilbert. In

order the better to see and again reveal her devastating

charms, as she saw them, to Clyde, she now switched on

the roof light. And the chauffeur returning, she asked Clyde

where he wished to go—an address which he gave

reluctantly enough, since it was so different from the street

in which she resided. As the car sped on, he was animated

by a feverish desire to make some use of this brief

occasion which might cause her to think favorably of him—

perhaps, who knows—lead to some faint desire on her part

to contact him again at some time or other. He was so truly

eager to be of her world.

“It’s certainly nice of you to take me up this way,” he now

turned to her and observed, smiling. “I didn’t think it was my

cousin you meant or I wouldn’t have come up as I did.”

“Oh, that’s all right. Don’t mention it,” replied Sondra archly

with a kind of sticky sweetness in her voice. Her original

impression of him as she now felt, had been by no means

so vivid. “It’s my mistake, not yours. But I’m glad I made it

now, anyhow,” she added most definitely and with an

engaging smile. “I think I’d rather pick you up than I would

Gil, anyhow. We don’t get along any too well, he and I. We

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quarrel a lot whenever we do meet anywhere.” She smiled,

having completely recovered from her momentary

embarrassment, and now leaned back after the best

princess fashion, her glance examining Clyde’s very regular

features with interest. He had such soft smiling eyes she

thought. And after all, as she now reasoned, he was Bella’s

and Gilbert’s cousin, and looked prosperous.

“Well, that’s too bad,” he said stiffly, and with a very

awkward and weak attempt at being self-confident and

even high-spirited in her presence.

“Oh, it doesn’t amount to anything, really. We just quarrel,

that’s all, once in a while.”

She saw that he was nervous and bashful and decidedly

unresourceful in her presence and it pleased her to think

that she could thus befuddle and embarrass him so much.

“Are you still working for your uncle?”

“Oh, yes,” replied Clyde quickly, as though it would make

an enormous difference to her if he were not. “I have

charge of a department over there now.”

“Oh, really, I didn’t know. I haven’t seen you at all, since

that one time, you know. You don’t get time to go about

much, I suppose.” She looked at him wisely, as much as to

say, “Your relatives aren’t so very much interested in you,”

but really liking him now, she said instead, “You have been

in the city all summer, I suppose?”

“Oh, yes,” replied Clyde quite simply and winningly. “I have

to be, you know. It’s the work that keeps me here. But I’ve

seen your name in the papers often, and read about your

riding and tennis contests and I saw you in that flower

parade last June, too. I certainly thought you looked

beautiful, like an angel almost.”

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There was an admiring, pleading light in his eyes which

now quite charmed her. What a pleasing young man—so

different to Gilbert. And to think he should be so plainly and

hopelessly smitten, and when she could take no more than

a passing interest in him. It made her feel sorry, a little, and

hence kindly toward him. Besides what would Gilbert think

if only he knew that his cousin was so completely reduced

by her—how angry he would be—he, who so plainly

thought her a snip? It would serve him just right if Clyde

were taken up by some one and made more of than he

(Gilbert) ever could hope to be. The thought had a most

pleasing tang for her.

However, at this point, unfortunately, the car turned in

before Mrs. Peyton’s door and stopped. The adventure for

Clyde and for her was seemingly over.

“That’s awfully nice of you to say that. I won’t forget that.”

She smiled archly as, the chauffeur opening the door, Clyde

stepped down, his own nerves taut because of the

grandeur and import of this encounter. “So this is where you

live. Do you expect to be in Lycurgus all winter?”

“Oh, yes. I’m quite sure of it. I hope to be anyhow,” he

added, quite yearningly, his eyes expressing his meaning

completely.

“Well, perhaps, then I’ll see you again somewhere, some

time. I hope so, anyhow.”

She nodded and gave him her fingers and the most

fetching and wreathy of smiles, and he, eager to the point

of folly, added: “Oh, so do I.”

“Good night! Good night!” she called as the car sprang

away, and Clyde, looking after it, wondered if he would ever

see her again so closely and intimately as here. To think

that he should have met her again in this way! And she had

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proved so very different from that first time when, as he

distinctly recalled, she took no interest in him at all.

He turned hopefully and a little wistfully toward his own door.

And Sondra, … why was it, she pondered, as the motor car

sped on its way, that the Griffiths were apparently not much

interested in him?

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Chapter 24

THE effect of this so casual contact was really disrupting in

more senses than one. For now in spite of his comfort in

and satisfaction with Roberta, once more and in this

positive and to him entrancing way, was posed the whole

question of his social possibilities here. And that strangely

enough by the one girl of this upper level who had most

materialized and magnified for him the meaning of that

upper level itself. The beautiful Sondra Finchley! Her lovely

face, smart clothes, gay and superior demeanor! If only at

the time he had first encountered her he had managed to

interest her. Or could now.

The fact that his relations with Roberta were what they were

now was not of sufficient import or weight to offset the

temperamental or imaginative pull of such a girl as Sondra

and all that she represented. Just to think the Wimblinger

Finchley Electric Sweeper Company was one of the largest

manufacturing concerns here. Its tall walls and stacks made

a part of the striking sky line across the Mohawk. And the

Finchley residence in Wykeagy Avenue, near that of the

Griffiths, was one of the most impressive among that

distinguished row of houses which had come with the latest

and most discriminating architectural taste here—Italian

Renaissance—cream hued marble and Dutchess County

sandstone combined. And the Finchleys were among the

most discussed of families here.

Ah, to know this perfect girl more intimately! To be looked

upon by her with favor,—made, by reason of that favor, a

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part of that fine world to which she belonged. Was he not a

Griffiths—as good looking as Gilbert Griffiths any day? And

as attractive if he only had as much money—or a part of it

even. To be able to dress in the Gilbert Griffiths’ fashion; to

ride around in one of the handsome cars he sported! Then,

you bet, a girl like this would be delighted to notice him,—

mayhap, who knows, even fall in love with him. Analschar

and the tray of glasses. But now, as he gloomily thought, he

could only hope, hope, hope.

The devil! He would not go around to Roberta’s this

evening. He would trump up some excuse—tell her in the

morning that he had been called upon by his uncle or

cousin to do some work. He could not and would not go,

feeling as he did just now.

So much for the effect of wealth, beauty, the peculiar social

state to which he most aspired, on a temperament that was

as fluid and unstable as water.

On the other hand, later, thinking over her contact with

Clyde, Sondra was definitely taken with what may only be

described as his charm for her, all the more definite in this

case since it represented a direct opposite to all that his

cousin offered by way of offense. His clothes and his

manner, as well as a remark he had dropped, to the effect

that he was connected with the company in some official

capacity, seemed to indicate that he might be better placed

than she had imagined. Yet she also recalled that although

she had been about with Bella all summer and had