The Dwelling Place of Light, Volume 1

, include within it the impulses and needs of the entire organism. It left her with a renewed sense of energy and restlessness, brought her nearer to high di

o the crowd of workers. Her evident state of excitement had worried him, her caprice was beyond his comprehension. And how could she explain the motives that led to it? She was sure he had never felt like that;

oclaiming itself-she would look pretty in it, she would be transformed, she would be buying a new character to which she would have to live up. The old Janet would be cast off with the old raiment; the new suit would announce to herself and to the world a Janet in whom were released all those longings hitherto disguised and suppressed, and now become insupportable! This was what the purchase meant, a change of existence as complete as that between the moth and the butterfly; and the realization of this fact, of the audacity she was resolved to commit made her hot as she gazed at the suit. It was modest enough, yet it h

t sell anything like that in Hampton, there's no taste here, it's too good, it ain't showy enough. My, it fits you like it was made for you, and

gazed into the mirror and buttoned up the coat. Was the woman's admiration cleverly feigned? this image she beheld an illusion? or did she really look different, distinguished? and if not

it," she

d gone to Boston," declared the woman. "It's

Just put my old suit in a box,

he pressed through the Wednesday night crowds, young mill men and women in their best clothes, housewives and fathers of families with children and bundles. In front of the Banner office a group blocked the pavement staring up at the news bulletin, which she paused to read. "Five Millionaire Directors Indicted in New York," "State Treasurer Accused of Graft," "Murdock Fortune Contested by Heirs." The phrases seemed meaningless, and she hurried on again.... She was being noticed! A man looked at her, twice, the first glance accidental, the second arresting, appealing, subtly flattering, agitating-she was sure he had turned an

going. A prepared but hitherto undisclosed decree of fate had bade her put money in her bag that evening, directed her to the shop to buy the dress, and would presently impel her to go to West Street-nay, was even now so impelling her. Ahead of her were the lights of the Chippering Mill, in her ears was the rhythmic sound of the looms working of nights on the Bradlaugh order. She reached the canal. The white arc above the end of the bridge cast sharp, black shadows of the branches of the trees on the granite, the thousand windows of the mill shone yellow, r

pus!" he

tmar" s

e you coming

," she told him. "I tho

r, wandering hungrily from her face to her new suit, and back again to her face.

ing them up this af

id you

about it-I thought y

," and he threw a glance over his shoulder at the mill. "Everything going full spe

done anything,"

ated, reminding her of the voices of those who made sentimental recitations for the graphophone. It sounded a

," sh

do yo

ouch of defiance: "It's a little street, thr

derstood. "I'll come with you as far as the bridge

u say it

n the office-so many interruptions, I me

allurement of the adventure she craved, which indeed she had come out to seek and by a strange fatality found-since he had appeared on the bridge almost as soon as she reached it. The sense of fate was strong upo

want to say

ts of t

nto her flesh, and the experience of being impelled by a power stronger than herse

d you?" she heard him say. "Or

't like seeing you-this way. And why should you want to know m

ause you're different f

d what you are-you

I wouldn't stay in your office

afraid of that. Don't go-I don't know what I'd d

away from him. "Why should you

"No, no," he stamme

did yo

ason why we shouldn't be friends. I only meant-I wouldn't

n his confusion and penitence, she achieved a pl

had any advantages-and you have so much. I read an article

it?" he interr

places it was

ny?

istic lack of restraint hinted at by Caldwell. "I liked it, but I

candour refreshing. From the women to whom he had hit

to criticize

ng you'd started out to get, and how some day you might be treasurer and president of the Chippering Mill, wel

r a friend?" he i

t that's no better than a tenement. I suppose you would call it a tenement. It's dark and ugly, it only has four rooms, and it smells of cookin

ity took him aback.

'd do if you left me. I've come to depend on you. And you may not believe it, but when I got that Br

fered him, for some reason unknown

uld I h

g for me, and you can help me by just being there. I can't explain it, b

the lighter touch he had always possessed in dealing with the other sex, making him the envied

at it is about you, but you are." His voice was low, caressing, his head was bent down to her, his shoul

red about

-I've never met a

t why?" she

r, but I didn't know it at first. You're mor

standing in the light, that people were passing to and fro over the end

ck a little wa

o home-it

ly nine

do, and they'll exp

ore turn!"

er head, backin

the sound of music was in her ears, the lights sparkled. She had had an adventure, at last, an adventure that magically had transformed her life! She was beautiful! No one had ever told her th

hen she reached the

't kept you wai

answered the saleswoman. She was se

f I put on my old suit again,

et's face. She felt that her secret had been guessed. The change effected, Janet went homeward swiftly, to enco

t there, angel fa

uit," sa

e-where'd you get

t Dowl

that plain blue thing

what if

, had a peculiarly irritating wa

n I went by that window the other day when they first knocked it down I said to Sadie, `those

ours," Janet retorted. "I've got a rig

ded darkly: "I guess Ditmar

t a new suit and refused to exhibit it. And finally, when they had got to bed, Janet lay long awake in passionate revolt against this new expression of the

e went rapidly toward the mill, glorying in the sunshine and the autumn sharpness of the air; and her thoughts were not so much of Ditmar as of something beyond him, of which he was the medium. She was going, not to meet him, but to meet that. When she reached the office she felt weak, her fingers trembled as she took off her hat and jacket and began to sort out the mail. And she had to calm herself with the assurance that her relationship with Ditmar had undergone no change. She had merely met him by the canal, and

aid at last-this morning as dist

he herself was sometimes surprised by

un away from m

to go home," she said, s

believe you had to go home at all. You j

ved toward her, but she took a paper from the

re going to be f

mean being foolish,"

waiting t

him w

hopeful. On his way to the mill he had dwelt with Epicurean indulgence on this sight of her, and he had not been disappointed. He had also thought that he might venture upon more than the mere feasting of his eyes, yet found an inspiring alleviation in the fact that she by no means absolutely repulsed him. Her attitude toward him had und

e reached the door and opened it. Ditmar halted in his steps at the sigh

, looking from o

oment, "the rest of that lot didn't come in thi

omprehendingly. Orcutt r

fter him, get hi

replied the cons

with unlooked-for geniality. "You mustn't take t

t of the exasperation that lately had characterized

to see me. I was just going to r

things," Orcutt observed. "And she's always on the job. Only

d the paper-w

ent throug

ng a tune, from a popular musical play, keeping

ngely commingled. A voice within her said, "This can't go on, this can't go on! It's too terrible! Everyone in the office will notice it-there will be a scandal. I ought to go away while there is yet time-to-day." Though the instinct of flight was strong within her, she was filled with r

his letters; and went palpitating, leaving the door open behind her, seating herself on the far side of the desk, her head bent over her book. Her neck, where her hair grew in wisps behind her ear, seemed to burn: Ditmar

e said. "Who

had risen

`survey.' You wrote him you'd see h

ell what those confounded reformers will a

e had been curious about the `survey' at the time it was first mentioned, she wished to hear Ditmar's views concerning it. Mr. Siddons proved to be a small and sallow young man with a pointed nose and bright, bulbous brown eyes like a chipmunk's. Indeed, he reminded one of a chipmunk. As he whisked himself in and seized Ditmar's h

?" he said. "I've been hop

, Miss Bumpus

his chair, seemed suddenly, ironically amused, grinning at Janet

't smoke," sai

t one for

n I do for yo

as possible of the living conditions and housing of the operatives in the city of H

been through our m

he fac

ar put a slight emphasis on the pronoun. "We rather pride ours

e and talk to you of how most of them live when they're at home," replied Siddons, as Janet thought, rather neatly. "Perhaps, though living in Hampto

osity and interest. But I don't see how you can expect me to follow these people home and make them clea

er to life and the pity of making thousands of families homeless, a conflagration would be a blessing, although I believe the entire north or south side of the city would go under certain conditions. The best thing you could do would be to burn whole rows of these tenements, they are ideal breeding grounds for disease. In the older sections of the city you've got hundreds of rear houses here, hou

than in any other manu

tm

d see the way some of these people live, it would make you sick the Poles and Lithuanians and Italians especially. You wouldn't treat cattle that way. In some h

t a pig-sty-they had 'em in Europe. And what do you expect us to do? Buy land and build flats for them? Inside of a month they'd have

rstand and to a certain extent maliciously enjoy Ditmar's growing exasperation with him; he had a formal, precise manner of talking, as though he spent most of his time presenting cases in committees: and in warding off Ditmar's objections he was forever indulging in such maddening phrases as, "Before we come to that, let me say a word just here." Ditmar hated words. His outbursts, his efforts to stop the flow of them were not unlike the futile charges of a large and powerful animal harassed by a smaller and more agile one. With nimble politen

ave got millions tucked away. And they send a lot of it to the other side, they go back themselves, and though they live like cattle, they ma

me I could take you to families in desperate want, living in rooms too dark to read in at midday in clear weather, where the husband doesn't get more than seven dollars a week when the mills are running full time, where the woman has to look out for the children and work for the lodgers, and even with lodgers they get into debt, and the woman has to go into the mills to earn money for winter clothing. I've seen e

to do about it?

undings in the mill, I've spent money to put in the latest applia

n. You can bring pressure to bear on the city council to enforce and improve the building

The trouble is, you only see one side of this question. When you're in my position, you're up against hard facts. We can't pay a dubber or a drawing tender any more than he's worth, whether he has a wife or children in the mills or whether he hasn't. We're in competition with other mills, we're in competition with the South. We can't regulate the cost of living. We do our best to make things right in the mills, and that's all we can do. We can't afford to be sentimental about life. Competition's got to be the rule, the

low-class European labour trying to run a mill with them. They're here one day and there the next, they don't know what loyalty is. You've got to drive 'em-if you give 'em an inch they'll jump at your throat, dynamite your property. Why, there's

been increased by the suspicion in Janet of a certain lack of the sympat

ed. "You don't mean to say you

ndering-"

ha

understand those who are driven

them! Why no

er-and that makes it different. I'm not blaming you-in your place I'd be the same, I'm sure. Bu

e foreigners!"

of the many hidden springs in the feminine emotional mechanism. "How do you know what it is to live in a squalid, ugly street, in dark little rooms that smell of cooking, and not be able to have any o

exclaimed in a

e than you could feel sorry for me. You want them to run your mills for you, you don'

to fling at him, but he was not the type of man to be shocked by it. On the contrary, it swept away his irritat

e whispered. "You want

em to you. I'll t

you think I want anybody to take care of me? That shows how little you k

"What do I care about any others-I want you!" such was its message. And against this paradoxical wish to be conquered, intensified by the magnetic field of his passion, battled her self-assertion, her pride, her innate desire to be free, to escape now from a domination the thought of which filled her wit

he heard him say. "For God's

n the distant mills. Presently she turned. Ditmar was in his chair. She crossed the room to t

to answer your l

opmost letter, and began to dictate, savagely. She experienced a certain exu