by Pamela Pope
‘It was kind of you to invite me,’ Max answered. He bowed over Clarissa’s hand with continental good manners, and lingered a fraction longer over Ellie’s. ‘My experience of the theatre has only been melodramas and variety shows at the Arcade in Pullman.’
‘Do you like classical music, Mr Berman?’ asked Clarissa.
‘Greatly, though I hear little of it.’ They began to move towards the auditorium, Drew with Clarissa, Max falling in beside Ellie. ‘I didn’t know you were coming, Miss Harvey.’
‘I didn’t know you were either, Mr Berman. I’m very glad to see you.’
It was the greatest understatement. She was ecstatic. All through the first half of the concert she was conscious of him and kept glancing surreptitiously at his strong hands resting on his knees. Her own were clasped to stop them trembling. And once she caught him looking in her direction rather than at the stage. Their eyes met briefly and they smiled at each other in the dimness, and though they didn’t have a chance to speak alone she knew that Max was pleased to have her company.
Arriving home later, Ellie was hardly inside the door before she flung her arms around Drew.
‘You’re the dearest, kindest brother in all the world,’ she told him, close to his ear so that no one else should hear. ‘It was wonderful what you did for me … inviting Max, I mean.’
‘I didn’t invite him for you,’ said Drew, disentangling himself. ‘I needed to pass on a message. I guess it’s I who should be thanking you for bringing Max and me together. We can do business.’
‘I don’t understand — what business?’
‘The less said the better. And I’d rather you didn’t say anything to Father.’
‘Oh, Drew.’
Ellie was uneasy, but not for long. Max Berman had asked to see her again and that was much more important.
*
Several times over the next few weeks Ellie met Max in town, but always through an arrangement made by Drew and without Mama or Papa knowing that she was seeing him. She would carry a letter to deliver, but once it had changed hands Max seemed pleased enough to spend an hour or two with her walking through one of the parks or along the waterfront.
Once he took her to the wharf where the Goodrich boats left daily for Milwaukee and Grand Rapids and they watched passengers leave the SS Columbus glowing from the bracing lake air.
‘It’s a pity we can’t go cruising on it one Sunday,’ Max said. ‘I’m afraid your family wouldn’t approve.’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d rather do,’ cried Ellie, knowing as well as he that such a trip was out of the question, but the fact that he had suggested it set her heart racing.
She lived for the times they were together. Not that Max ever let their meetings develop into a personal relationship. He was very correct. They talked of formal things, and it seemed as if he had forgotten the time they had kissed on the Ferris wheel. But he began to call her Ellie. When she used his given name for the first time it felt as sweet as honey on her tongue.
‘I like being with you, Max,’ she said, as they were parting one evening. ‘Would you still want to see me if Drew didn’t have any more messages to pass on?’
He leaned into the carriage, his keen eyes holding hers, his lips curving fractionally upwards. ‘We get on well, Ellie. I enjoy your company.’ He wouldn’t say more and she tried to be content, but when her body felt as if it was on fire if his hand so much as brushed against hers, it was difficult to find much hope in the comment.
Ellie was forced to trust Melksham, the family coachman, who drove her to some unlikely destinations to meet Max without any show of surprise. She was supposedly visiting various aunts scattered about the city. Then one dreadful day the deceit was discovered. One of the aunts made unexpected contact with Papa and he said how pleased he was that Ellie had become so caring. The fact that she had not been visiting at all was soon discovered, and poor Melksham almost lost his job. Part of the truth came out under Papa’s angry questioning. Ellie had never been at the receiving end of his cold, hard anger before and it was frightening, reducing her to tears which this time failed to move him.
‘Max Berman!’ Papa spat the name out. ‘Not only have you lied, Elena, you have betrayed my trust and behaved like a cheap factory girl. You have kept company with a man not fit to clean your shoes — an immigrant, a Pullman employee, an adventurer!’
‘Don’t speak about Max like that,’ Ellie cried.
Papa’s nostrils flared. ‘He sees you as an easy means of getting his hands on money.’
‘He doesn’t. He isn’t like that, Papa.’
‘He knows you see him as some sort of hero and he’s playing on it. It’s all part of his scheme, girl, but you’re too young and innocent to see it. Oh, I understand the attraction but I thought you would have had more sense than to be taken in by a fortune-hunter.’
Drew was not mentioned and Ellie held her tongue.
Her punishment included confinement to the house unless Mama was free to accompany her, no letters which were not first seen by one of her parents, and she was utterly forbidden any contact with Max Berman.
Max was acquainted with the situation via another letter smuggled out. He didn’t try to communicate with her except for once sending fresh flowers which Mama consigned to the rubbish bin. And once he telephoned but was refused a hearing.
Ellie suffered frustration and misery and heartbreak. She realised it was an unsuitable friendship and she tried to be an obedient daughter, but being cut off from Max was like being starved of oxygen and life seemed meaningless. She sat forlornly in the garden beneath the cherry trees pining for him.
‘I’m sorry, Sis,’ Drew had said. ‘Sorry for you, and sorry my line of communication’s broken.’
‘I love him,’ Ellie quavered. ‘I’ll never love anyone else in my whole life.’
‘You’ll get over it.’
‘No, I won’t. I’d give up everything to be with him, just like you did to be an engineer.’
‘Ellie, you wouldn’t last a week without new gowns and a maid to help dress you.’ He pinched her cheek affectionately. ‘You’re very young. Write it off as experience.’
She was furious. ‘You’re a hick, Drew — you’ve got no feelings. And I hate being a woman so I can’t just go out and get what I want. Why do I have to stay here? Why can’t I go right over and tell Max how I feel?’
‘Because you’re too well-bred. And because Max has too much pride to appreciate being chased.’
She took a deep breath. ‘All the same, I might write him another note.’
‘You’ll be taking a risk.’
‘I know. But anything’s better than sitting here letting life pass me by. It’s not my way.’
‘No, it isn’t.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘So I suppose if you’re silly enough to write him a note I’ll have to be the fool who sees he gets it.’
‘Will you? Oh Drew, please.’
‘Just for you,’ he promised.
*
Max was surprised how much he missed Ellie. Meeting up with her had been an amusing pastime and he had quite looked forward to their time together, but in a way it had been a relief when the association had come to an end. He’d become increasingly aware that Ellie was taking everything too seriously, and while he was flattered by the adoration she couldn’t hide, it also embarrassed him.
Part of the problem was that he found her so sexually attractive. If she had been of his class he would have taken her to bed and enjoyed finding out if the signals she gave were genuine, but it was too risky to play around with the daughter of the President of the Union Atlantic Railroad Company. If any harm came to her there would be hell to pay. His new career would be in ruins and all hope of ever setting up in business on his own would be gone. So he pushed her to the back of his mind.
Then he received yet another letter in her neat copperplate writing.
‘Dear Max,’ Ellie had written
. ‘You were so kind to send me flowers. I’m so sorry I wasn’t allowed to speak to you on the telephone. Please can you try again on Thursday next between eight and ten o’clock in the evening. I miss our outings. Yours sincerely, Ellie.’
The text was no more than friendly but Max knew enough about her now to deduce that much thought had gone into the wording. Ellie was a very determined young lady and she was not used to being thwarted. Something out of reach was bound to be exciting, and the fact that their backgrounds were so different probably led her to glamorise the situation. If he wanted to discourage her before he himself was drawn into deep water then something positive had to be done.
For two weeks he hadn’t heard her voice. When she answered the telephone on Thursday the sound of it caressed his ear and he felt as if he were being seduced.
‘I’m so very pleased to hear you,’ Ellie cooed. ‘I felt I had to give you the chance to get in touch. I was afraid you might think I felt the same way as my parents about our friendship.’
‘Your father disapproves.’
‘I’ve been threatened with being sent to live in New York with Frederick and Henrietta if I disobey him.’
‘And yet you wish to see me.’
‘Oh yes,’ she breathed.
‘I should like you to see where I live,’ Max said. ‘My sister Katrina has a new baby and it would be nice for you to meet.’
‘That would be wonderful — but I can’t go anywhere without Mama. How can I possibly manage it?’
‘I shall be at the corner of State and Madison streets at two o’clock on Sunday and I’ll wait one hour. If you are as keen as you say you’ll find a way to be there.’
Max replaced the receiver without giving her the chance to answer. He didn’t doubt that she would be there on time, and he would take her to Pullman. The apartment in Fulton Street was at present cluttered with all the paraphernalia necessary for a newborn baby, and the comparison with her own luxurious home would be so apparent it was to be hoped she would see how pointless it was for them to become involved with each other.
All the same, he stood for a few minutes in the telephone booth at the upholstery shop after replacing the receiver, his mind troubled. He couldn’t be absolutely sure that dissuasion was the real reason why he had invited her to his home.
*
The corner of Madison and State was said to be the busiest in the world, but Ellie had no qualms about planning to go there alone on Sunday. It would be easy to mingle with the crowds and no one would recognise her, but first she had to find a way of getting there.
Thursday night was hot and Ellie couldn’t sleep after speaking to Max. Her body ached. When she closed her eyes pictures of him were so clear she stretched out her arms and almost expected to feel him bending over her. Her fingers combed through her black hair as she imagined it was his, her lips parted in futile anticipation. She gasped at the fantasies he inspired and grew hotter in her pink and white frilled bed.
When she could lie there no longer she went to the window and pulled back the heavy rose brocade drapes. Her bedroom overlooked the terrace and shadows were like figures in the moonlight. For one silly moment she thought Max was leaning against the stone balustrade and she opened the casement, his name on her lips, a Juliet convinced that her lover had risked everything to wait beneath her balcony. There was no one there.
How had it happened, this business of falling in love? She ought to have been carefree and looking forward to a season of balls and parties in the company of Chicago’s most elegant young men. Instead she was obsessed with a Jewish immigrant far removed from her own social circle who made other men pale by comparison. Max had only to look at her and the world went spinning out of orbit.
Love wasn’t just in his touch, though the mere brushing of his arm against hers produced enough electricity to light a department store. It wasn’t only in the magnetism of his eyes, or the timbre of his voice. It wasn’t in the words he spoke, the way he looked, or the life he led, but a combination of all these things. Ellie had no idea what drew her to him with such force, both mentally and physically. She felt as if she was drowning in emotions she didn’t understand and a practical streak in her wanted to rebel against this subjective state, but just hearing Max at the other end of the telephone had made her resistance collapse like a house of cards. Love, whatever it was, controlled her every waking thought.
There was no question of not meeting him on Sunday. If it meant further punishment she would have to bear it.
On the Saturday, Ellie went shopping with her-mother to Marshall Field’s store to choose new drapes for the morning room. They spent two hours comparing designs and fabrics, and returned to their carriage after finally placing an order, only to find that the street was blocked by men demonstrating against working conditions. It was an ugly scene.
‘Ban the monopolies!’ was the chant. ‘Halt the lay-offs. A fair wage for a fair day’s work!’
There were banners waving and traffic was stopped while a procession of several hundred workers jammed the thoroughfare. Sibylla and Ellie Harvey got into their open carriage to wait for the marchers to pass, sitting high in the seat and shading their heads from the sun with parasols. Unfortunately their exalted position made them a target.
‘How’d you like to go hungry, duchess?’ came a derisory cry, and raised faces leered at the two fashionable ladies in their vehicle. Melksham tried to turn them away but he was a lone voice against angry men.
Eggs were thrown and one landed on one of the enormous bell-sleeves of Mama’s blue walking dress, unbalancing her momentarily, but she recovered her poise straight away and brushed the slime clear with a gloved hand.
‘Trash, the lot of them,’ she said, with icy aplomb. ‘Mark them well, Elena, and perhaps you will understand why your Papa has been so strict. Such men are ill-bred and loud. I’m not saying they’re not decent-living in their own communities, but that’s where they belong and there’s a great divide between our society and theirs. That’s how it should be.’
‘Have you no feelings, Mama?’ Ellie had been viewing the incident through eyes which saw into the poverty and hardship provoking it, thanks to earnest discussions with Drew and Max. ‘You’ve no idea of the desperation that drives men like these to demonstrate.’
‘Perhaps I have more idea than you,’ said Sibylla, removing her egg-stained gloves. ‘My father wasn’t always rich.’
Rarely did Mama speak of her early life. Ellie knew only that she was from the British aristocracy and that Papa had wooed and won her in the summer of 1864 when he had been on an extended visit to England supervising the shipment of railway locomotives to Chicago. Sir Robert Cromer, Mama’s father, had given them his blessing and a vast dowry which had enabled Papa to fulfil ambitions which his own well-connected but financially impoverished family had been unable to do. No mention was ever made of Mama’s British side of the family. So the statement came as a surprise.
‘Tell me about my English grandfather,’ Ellie urged, while they waited for the road to be clear.
‘He was a railway contractor. He started with nothing and as a child I wore clogs, or went barefoot. It was dreadful.’ The last of the demonstrators turned into another street and were lost from view. ‘My father took risks,’ Sybilla went on, ‘and he was lucky. Once he put out a tender to build a magnificent station when he was penniless and he won the contract. Don’t ask me how he managed, but he did. We didn’t see him for months and my mother had to accept charity from the parish.’
‘Oh Mama, is that why you never talk of him?’
‘I’ve better things to do.’ Sibylla dropped a coin to a smelly urchin selling flypapers while Melksham gathered up the horses’ reins and edged the carriage away from the sidewalk. ‘I wouldn’t have mentioned him now if you hadn’t assumed that I’m ignorant of the effects of poverty.’
‘Then why do you have no sympathy?’
‘I have a position to keep and I
prefer to forget. You will not mention my disclosure to anyone.’
‘No, Mama.’
Ellie was very quiet on the journey home. Life held so many surprises, and none greater than the revelation that her mother, that essence of grace and refinement, had once worn clogs.
Five
On Sunday, Ellie went to morning Mass with the family but declined to have lunch, saying that she felt sick and couldn’t possibly eat a thing. It was quite true. Nervousness made her pale and queasy, and she had hardly known how to sit still in church. She was about to defy her father. If he found out she trembled to think of the consequences, but nothing was going to prevent her from meeting Max.
Prudence came and drew the drapes in Ellie’s room, clucking with sympathy when she saw the wan girl reclining on her bed. She had brought a tray of light food which she left on a side-table.
‘I hope you soon feel better, Miss Elena,’ she said.
‘Prudence, will you tell my mother and everybody that I don’t want to be disturbed, please?’
‘Yes, Miss Elena.’ There was concern in the soft brown eyes. Prudence was more than a servant. Often she had given comfort when mother-love had been absent and neither nursemaid nor governess had been a suitable substitute. ‘You’re not thinking of doing anything silly, are you?’
A little colour stole into Ellie’s pale cheeks. ‘Now, would I?’
‘Sometimes I know things, miss, and I know it’s a young man causing all these vapours.’
‘You want me to be happy, don’t you, Prudence?’
‘You know I do.’
‘Then if I should want some air presently you won’t tell anyone I’ve gone out, will you?’
‘Trust me, Miss Elena.’
As soon as she was alone Ellie changed into her least conspicuous dress and hat, made sure there was money in her purse, and left the house unobserved by the west gate. The impression of calmness she gave was due to years of deportment lessons in which she had been taught that hurrying was undignified. The urge to run had never been greater but she managed to control it. For the first time in her life she took a trolley into the city, and arrived at State and Madison ten minutes before the appointed time. Max was not yet in sight, but already her heart was galloping like a stampede of horses.
