The effect of this adventure on Clyde was such as might have been expected in connection with one so new andstrange to such a world as this. In spite of all that deep and urgent curiosity and desire that had eventually ledhim to that place and caused him to yield, still, because of the moral precepts with which he had so long beenfamiliar, and also because of the nervous esthetic inhibitions which were characteristic of him, he could not butlook back upon all this as decidedly degrading and sinful. His parents were probably right when they preachedthat this was all low and shameful. And yet this whole adventure and the world in which it was laid, once it wasall over, was lit with a kind of gross, pagan beauty or vulgar charm for him. And until other and more interestingthings had partially effaced it, he could not help thinking back upon it with considerable interest and pleasure,even.
In addition he kept telling himself that now, having as much money as he was making, he could go and do aboutas he pleased. He need not go there any more if he did not want to, but he could go to other places that might notbe as low, maybe--more refined. He wouldn't want to go with a crowd like that again. He would rather have justone girl somewhere if he could find her--a girl such as those with whom he had seen Sieberling and Doyleassociate. And so, despite all of his troublesome thoughts of the night before, he was thus won quickly over tothis new source of pleasure if not its primary setting. He must find a free pagan girl of his own somewhere if hecould, like Doyle, and spend his money on her. And he could scarcely wait until opportunity should provide himwith the means of gratifying himself in this way.
But more interesting and more to his purpose at the time was the fact that both Hegglund and Ratterer, in spiteof, or possibly because of, a secret sense of superiority which they detected in Clyde, were inclined to look uponhim with no little interest and to court him and to include him among all their thoughts of affairs and pleasures.
Indeed, shortly after his first adventure, Ratterer invited him to come to his home, where, as Clyde most quicklycame to see, was a life very different from his own. At the Griffiths' all was so solemn and reserved, the stillmoods of those who feel the pressure of dogma and conviction. In Ratterer's home, the reverse of this was nearlytrue. The mother and sister with whom he lived, while not without some moral although no particular religiousconvictions, were inclined to view life with a great deal of generosity or, as a moralist would have seen it, laxity.
There had never been any keen moral or characterful direction there at all. And so it was that Ratterer and hissister Louise, who was two years younger than himself, now did about as they pleased, and without thinking verymuch about it. But his sister chanced to be shrewd or individual enough not to wish to cast herself away on justany one.
The interesting part of all this was that Clyde, in spite of a certain strain of refinement which caused him to lookaskance at most of this, was still fascinated by the crude picture of life and liberty which it offered. Among suchas these, at least, he could go, do, be as he had never gone or done or been before. And particularly was hepleased and enlightened--or rather dubiously liberated--in connection with his nervousness and uncertainty inregard to his charm or fascination for girls of his own years. For up to this very time, and in spite of his recentfirst visit to the erotic temple to which Hegglund and the others had led him, he was still convinced that he hadno skill with or charm where girls were concerned. Their mere proximity or approach was sufficient to cause himto recede mentally, to chill or palpitate nervously, and to lose what little natural skill he had for conversation orpoised banter such as other youths possessed. But now, in his visits to the home of Ratterer, as he soondiscovered, he was to have ample opportunity to test whether this shyness and uncertainty could be overcome.
For it was a center for the friends of Ratterer and his sister, who were more or less of one mood in regard to life.
Dancing, card-playing, love-making rather open and unashamed, went on there. Indeed, up to this time, Clydewould not have imagined that a parent like Mrs. Ratterer could have been as lackadaisical or indifferent as shewas, apparently, to conduct and morals generally. He would not have imagined that any mother would havecountenanced the easy camaraderie that existed between the sexes in Mrs. Ratterer's home.
And very soon, because of several cordial invitations which were extended to him by Ratterer, he found himselfpart and parcel of this group--a group which from one point of view--the ideas held by its members, the ratherwretched English they spoke--he looked down upon. From another point of view--the freedom they possessed,the zest with which they managed to contrive social activities and exchanges--he was drawn to them. Because,for the first time, these permitted him, if he chose, to have a girl of his own, if only he could summon thecourage. And this, owing to the well-meant ministrations of Ratterer and his sister and their friends, he soonsought to accomplish. Indeed the thing began on the occasion of his first visit to the Ratterers.
Louise Ratterer worked in a dry-goods store and often came home a little late for dinner. On this occasion shedid not appear until seven, and the eating of the family meal was postponed accordingly. In the meantime, twogirl friends of Louise arrived to consult her in connection with something, and finding her delayed, and Rattererand Clyde there, they made themselves at home, rather impressed and interested by Clyde and his new finery.
For he, at once girl-hungry and girl-shy, held himself nervously aloof, a manifestation which they mistook for aconviction of superiority on his part. And in consequence, arrested by this, they determined to show how reallyinteresting they were--vamp him--no less. And he found their crude briskness and effrontery very appealing--somuch so that he was soon taken by the charms of one, a certain Hortense Briggs, who, like Louise, was nothingmore than a crude shop girl in one of the large stores, but pretty and dark and self- appreciative. And yet from thefirst, he realized that she was not a little coarse and vulgar--a very long way removed from the type of girl he hadbeen imagining in his dreams that he would like to have.
"Oh, hasn't she come in yet?" announced Hortense, on first being admitted by Ratterer and seeing Clyde near oneof the front windows, looking out. "Isn't that too bad? Well, we'll just have to wait a little bit if you don't mind"-thislast with a switch and a swagger that plainly said, who would mind having us around? And forthwith shebegan to primp and admire herself before a mirror which surmounted an ocher-colored mantelpiece that graced afireless grate in the dining-room. And her friend, Greta Miller, added: "Oh, dear, yes. I hope you won't make usgo before she comes. We didn't come to eat. We thought your dinner would be all over by now.""Where do you get that stuff--'put you out'?" replied Ratterer cynically. "As though anybody could drive you twoouta here if you didn't want to go. Sit down and play the victrola or do anything you like. Dinner'll soon be readyand Louise'll be here any minute." He returned to the dining-room to look at a paper which he had been reading,after pausing to introduce Clyde. And the latter, because of the looks and the airs of these two, felt suddenly asthough he had been cast adrift upon a chartless sea in an open boat.
"Oh, don't say eat to me!" exclaimed Greta Miller, who was surveying Clyde calmly as though she were debatingwith herself whether he was worth-while game or not, and deciding that he was: "With all the ice-cream and cakeand pie and sandwiches we'll have to eat yet to-night. We was just going to warn Louise not to fill up too much.
Kittie Keane's givin' a birthday party, you know, Tom, and she'll have a big cake an' everythin'. You're comin'
down, ain't you, afterwards?" she concluded, with a thought of Clyde and his possible companionship in mind.
"I wasn't thinkin' of it," calmly observed Ratterer. "Me and Clyde was thinkin' of goin' to a show after dinner.""Oh, how foolish," put in Hortense Briggs, more to attract attention to herself and take it away from Greta thananything else. She was still in front of the mirror, but turned now to cast a fetching smile on all, particularlyClyde, for whom she fancied her friend might be angling, "When you could come along and dance. I call thatsilly.""Sure, dancing is all you three ever think of--you and Louise," retorted Ratterer. "It's a wonder you don't giveyourselves a rest once in a while. I'm on my feet all day an' I like to sit down once in a while." He could be mostmatter-of-fact at times.
"Oh, don't say sit down to me," commented Greta Miller with a lofty smile and a gliding, dancing motion of herleft foot, "with all the dates we got ahead of us this week. Oh, gee!" Her eyes and eyebrows went up and sheclasped her hands dramatically before her. "It's just terrible, all the dancin' we gotta do yet, this winter, don't we,Hortense? Thursday night and Friday night and Saturday and Sunday nights." She counted on her fingers mostarchly. "Oh, gee! It is terrible, really." She gave Clyde an appealing, sympathy-seeking smile. "Guess where wewere the other night, Tom. Louise and Ralph Thorpe and Hortense and Bert Gettler, me and Willie Bassick--outat Pegrain's on Webster Avenue. Oh, an' you oughta seen the crowd out there. Sam Shaffer and Tillie Burns wasthere. And we danced until four in the morning. I thought my knees would break. I ain't been so tired in I don'tknow when.""Oh, gee!" broke in Hortense, seizing her turn and lifting her arms dramatically. "I thought I never would get towork the next morning. I could just barely see the customers moving around. And, wasn't my mother fussy! Gee!
She hasn't gotten over it yet. She don't mind so much about Saturdays and Sundays, but all these week nights andwhen I have to get up the next morning at seven-- gee--how she can pick!""An' I don't blame her, either," commented Mrs. Ratterer, who was just then entering with a plate of potatoes andsome bread. "You two'll get sick and Louise, too, if you don't get more rest. I keep tellin' her she won't be able tokeep her place or stand it if she don't get more sleep. But she don't pay no more attention to me than Tom does,and that's just none at all.""Oh, well, you can't expect a fellow in my line to get in early always, Ma," was all Ratterer said. And Hortense Briggs added: "Gee, I'd die if I had to stay in one night. You gotta have a little fun when you work all day."What an easy household, thought Clyde. How liberal and indifferent. And the sexy, gay way in which these twogirls posed about. And their parents thought nothing of it, evidently. If only he could have a girl as pretty as thisHortense Briggs, with her small, sensuous mouth and her bright hard eyes.
"To bed twice a week early is all I need," announced Greta Miller archly. "My father thinks I'm crazy, but more'nthat would do me harm." She laughed jestingly, and Clyde, in spite of the "we was'es" and "I seen's," was mostvividly impressed. Here was youth and geniality and freedom and love of life.
And just then the front door opened and in hurried Louise Ratterer, a medium-sized, trim, vigorous little girl in ared-lined cape and a soft blue felt hat pulled over her eyes. Unlike her brother, she was brisk and vigorous andmore lithe and as pretty as either of these others.
"Oh, look who's here!" she exclaimed. "You two birds beat me home, didnja? Well, I got stuck to-night onaccount of some mix-up in my sales-book. And I had to go up to the cashier's office. You bet it wasn't my fault,though. They got my writin' wrong," then noting Clyde for the first time, she announced: "I bet I know who thisis--Mr. Griffiths. Tom's talked about you a lot. I wondered why he didn't bring you around here before." AndClyde, very much flattered, mumbled that he wished he had.
But the two visitors, after conferring with Louise in a small front bedroom to which they all retired, reappearedpresently and because of strenuous invitations, which were really not needed, decided to remain. And Clyde,because of their presence, was now intensely wrought up and alert--eager to make a pleasing impression and tobe received upon terms of friendship here. And these three girls, finding him attractive, were anxious to beagreeable to him, so much so that for the first time in his life they put him at his ease with the opposite sex andcaused him to find his tongue.
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