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Contents

Preface xi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Production Systems 2
1.2 Automation in Production Systems 6
1.3 Manual Labor in Production Systems 11
1.4 Automation Principles and Strategies 13
1.5 About This Book 18

PART I: OVERVIEW OF MANUFACTURING 21

Chapter 2 MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS 21
2.1 Manufacturing Industries and Products 25
2.2 Manufacturing Operations 28
2.3 Production Facilities 32
2.4 Product/Production Relationships 37

Chapter 3 MANUFACTURING METRICS AND ECONOMICS 46

3.1 Production Performance Metrics 47
3.2 Manufacturing Costs 62

PART II: AUTOMATION AND CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES 77

Chapter 4 INTRODUCTION TO AUTOMATION 77
4.1 Basic Elements of an Automated System 80
4.2 Advanced Automation Functions 88
4.3 Levels of Automation 93
4.4 Automation and Artificial Intelligence 95

Chapter 5 INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS 101

5.1 Process Industries versus Discrete Manufacturing Industries 102
5.2 Continuous versus Discrete Control 104
5.3 Computer Process Control 110

v
Preface xiii

Individual questions or comments may be directed to the author at Mikell.Groover@

Lehigh.edu or [email protected].

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A number of changes in the fourth and fifth editions of the book were motivated by
responses to a survey that was conducted by the publisher. Some very worthwhile sug-
gestions were offered by the reviewers, and I attempted to incorporate them into the
text where appropriate and feasible. In any case, I appreciate the thoughtful efforts that
they contributed to the project, and I am sure that the book is better as a result of their
efforts than it otherwise would have been. I would like to acknowledge their participa-
tion in the survey: T. S. Bukkapatnam, Oklahoma State University; Joseph Domblesky,
Marquette University; Brent Donham, Texas A&M University; John Jackman, Iowa
State University; Matthew Kuttolamadom, Texas A&M University; Frank Peters, Iowa
State University; and Tony Schmitz, University of North Carolina-Charlotte. I also want
to acknowledge the advice of Kurt Lesker IV, former student and currently president of
his family’s business, which was started by his great grandfather, Kurt Lesker I.
I also acknowledge the following individuals at Pearson Education Inc. for their
support during this project: Holly Stark, Executive Editor; and Carole Snyder, Content
Producer. In addition, I am grateful for the fine job done by Preethi Sundar at Pearson
CSC who served as Project Manager for the project. She and the copy editors working
with her were thorough and meticulous in their review of the manuscript (I take back
all of the bad things I ever said about copy editors throughout the nearly 40 years I
have been writing textbooks).
Also, I am in gratitude to all of the faculty who have adopted the previous edi-
tions of the book for their courses, thus making those projects commercially successful
for Pearson Education Inc., so that I would be allowed to prepare this new edition.
Finally, I wish to thank Marcia Hamm Groover, my wife, my PowerPoint slide ex-
pert, my computer specialist (I write books about computer-related technologies, but she
is the one who fixes my computer when it has problems), and my supporter on this and
other textbook projects.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mikell P. Groover is Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering at

Lehigh University, where he taught and did research for 44 years. He received his B.A.
in Arts and Science (1961), B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1962), M.S. in Industrial
Engineering (1966), and Ph.D. (1969), all from Lehigh. His industrial experience includes
several years as a manufacturing engineer before embarking on graduate studies.
His teaching and research areas include manufacturing processes, production sys-
tems, automation, material handling, facilities planning, and work systems. He has re-
ceived a number of teaching awards at Lehigh University, as well as the Albert G.
Holzman Outstanding Educator Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (1995)
and the SME Education Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (2001).
His publications include over 85 technical articles and books (listed below). His books
are used throughout the world and have been translated into French, German, Spanish,
Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. The first edition of Fundamentals
xiv Preface

of Modern Manufacturing received the IIE Joint Publishers Award (1996) and the
M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Textbook Award from the Society of Manufacturing
Engineers (1996).
Dr. Groover is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He is a Fellow of IIE and SME.

PREVIOUS BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Aided Manufacturing, Prentice Hall, 1980.

CAD/CAM: Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, Prentice Hall, 1984 (co-authored
with E. W. Zimmers, Jr.).
Industrial Robotics: Technology, Programming, and Applications, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1986 (co-authored with M. Weiss, R. Nagel, and N. Odrey).
Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Prentice Hall,
1987.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, originally pub-
lished by Prentice Hall in 1996, and subsequently published by John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 1999.
Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Second Edition,
Prentice Hall, 2001.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, Second Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, Third Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007.
Work Systems and the Methods, Measurement, and Management of Work, Pearson Prentice
Hall, 2007.
Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Third Edition,
Pearson Education, Inc, 2008.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, Fourth ­Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010.
Introduction to Manufacturing Processes, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, Fifth Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013.
Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Fourth Edi-
tion, Pearson Education, Inc, 2015.
Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, Sixth Edition,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2016.
 Chapter 1

Introduction

CHAPTER CONTENTS
1.1 Production Systems
1.1.1 Facilities
1.1.2 Manufacturing Support Systems
1.2 Automation in Production Systems
1.2.1 Automated Manufacturing Systems
1.2.2 Computerized Manufacturing Support Systems
1.2.3 Reasons for Automating
1.3 Manual Labor in Production Systems
1.3.1 Manual Labor in Factory Operations
1.3.2 Labor in Manufacturing Support Systems
1.4 Automation Principles and Strategies
1.4.1 The USA Principle
1.4.2 Ten Strategies for Automation and Process Improvement
1.4.3 Automation Migration Strategy
1.5 About This Book

The word manufacturing derives from two Latin words, manus (hand) and factus (make),
so that the combination means made by hand. This was the way manufacturing was accom-
plished when the word first appeared in the English language around 1567. Commercial
goods of those times were made by hand. The methods were handicraft, accomplished
in small shops, and the goods were relatively simple, at least by today’s standards. As
many years passed, factories came into being, with many workers at a single site, and the
work had to be organized using machines rather than handicraft techniques. The products

1
2 Chap. 1 / Introduction

became more complex, and so did the processes to make them. Workers had to special-
ize in their tasks. Rather than overseeing the fabrication of the entire product, they were
responsible for only a small part of the total work. More up-front planning was required,
and more coordination of the operations was needed to keep track of the work flow in the
factories. Slowly but surely, the systems of production were being developed.
The systems of production are essential in modern manufacturing. This book is all
about these production systems and how they are sometimes automated and computerized.

1.1 PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

A production system is a collection of people, equipment, and procedures organized to

perform the manufacturing operations of a company. It consists of two major components
as indicated in Figure 1.1:

1. Facilities. The physical facilities of the production system include the equipment, the
way the equipment is laid out, and the factory in which the equipment is located.
2. Manufacturing support systems. These are the procedures used by the company to
manage production and to solve the technical and logistics problems encountered in
ordering materials, moving the work through the factory, and ensuring that products
meet quality standards. Product design and certain business functions are included
in the manufacturing support systems.

In modern manufacturing operations, portions of the production system are

a­ utomated and/or computerized. In addition, production systems include people. Peo-
ple make these systems work. In general, direct labor people (blue-collar workers) are

Manufacturing
systems
Facilities
Factory and
plant layout

Production
system Product design

Manufacturing
planning
Manufacturing
support systems
Manufacturing
control

Business
functions

Figure 1.1 The production system consists of

facilities and manufacturing support systems.
Sec. 1.1 / Production Systems 3

responsible for operating the facilities, and professional staff people (white-collar ­workers)
are responsible for the manufacturing support systems.

1.1.1 Facilities

The facilities in the production system consist of the factory, production machines and
tooling, material handling equipment, inspection equipment, and computer systems that
control the manufacturing operations. Facilities also include the plant layout, which is the
way the equipment is physically arranged in the factory. The equipment is usually orga-
nized into manufacturing systems, which are the logical groupings of equipment and work-
ers that accomplish the processing and assembly operations on parts and products made
by the factory. Manufacturing systems can be individual work cells consisting of a single
production machine and a worker assigned to that machine. More complex manufacturing
systems consist of collections of machines and workers, for example, a production line. The
manufacturing systems come in direct physical contact with the parts and/or assemblies
being made. They “touch” the product.
In terms of human participation in the processes performed by the manufacturing
systems, three basic categories can be distinguished, as portrayed in Figure 1.2: (a) manual
work systems, (b) worker-machine systems, and (c) automated systems.

Manual Work Systems. A manual work system consists of one or more workers
performing one or more tasks without the aid of powered tools. Manual material handling
tasks are common activities in manual work systems. Production tasks commonly require the
use of hand tools, such as screwdrivers and hammers. When using hand tools, a workholder
is often employed to grasp the work part and position it securely for processing. Examples
of production-related manual tasks involving the use of hand tools include the following:

• A machinist using a file to round the edges of a rectangular part that has just been
milled
• A quality control inspector using a micrometer to measure the diameter of a shaft
• A material handling worker using a dolly to move cartons in a warehouse
• A team of assembly workers putting together a piece of machinery using hand tools.

Worker-Machine Systems. In a worker-machine system, a human worker oper-

ates powered equipment, such as a machine tool or other production machine. This is
one of the most widely used manufacturing systems. Worker-machine systems include

Periodic worker
Hand tools Machine attention

Worker Worker Automated machine

Process Process Process

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1.2 Three categories of manufacturing systems: (a) manual work

system, (b) worker-machine system, and (c) fully automated system.
4 Chap. 1 / Introduction

combinations of one or more workers and one or more pieces of equipment. The workers
and machines are combined to take advantage of their relative strengths and attributes,
which are listed in Table 1.1. Examples of worker-machine systems include the following:

• A machinist operating an engine lathe to fabricate a part for a product

• A fitter and an industrial robot working together in an arc–welding work cell
• A crew of workers operating a rolling mill that converts hot steel slabs into flat plates
• A production line in which the products are moved by mechanized conveyor and
the workers at some of the stations use power tools to accomplish their processing
or assembly tasks.

Automated Systems. An automated system is one in which a process is performed

by a machine without the direct participation of a human worker. Automation is imple-
mented using a program of instructions combined with a control system that e­ xecutes the
instructions. Power is required to drive the process and to operate the program and control
system (these terms are defined more completely in Chapter 4).
There is not always a clear distinction between worker-machine systems and
­automated systems, because many worker-machine systems operate with some degree
of automation. Two levels of automation can be identified: semiautomated and fully
­automated. A semiautomated machine performs a portion of the work cycle under some
form of program control, and a human worker tends to the machine for the remainder
of the cycle, by loading and unloading it, or by performing some other task each cycle.
A fully automated machine is distinguished from its semiautomated counterpart by its
capacity to operate for an extended period of time with no human attention. Extended
period of time means longer than one work cycle; a worker is not required to be present
during each cycle. Instead, the worker may need to tend the machine every tenth cycle,
or every hundredth cycle. An example of this type of operation is found in many injection
molding plants, where the molding machines run on automatic cycles, but periodically the
molded parts at the machine must be collected by a worker. Figure 1.2(c) depicts a fully
automated system. The semiautomated system is best portrayed by Figure 1.2(b).
In certain fully automated processes, one or more workers are required to be present
to continuously monitor the operation, and make sure that it performs according to the
intended specifications. Examples of these kinds of automated processes include complex
chemical processes, oil refineries, and nuclear power plants. The workers do not actively

TABLE 1.1 Relative Strengths and Attributes of Humans and Machines

Humans Machines
Sense unexpected stimuli Perform repetitive tasks consistently
Develop new solutions to problems Store large amounts of data
Cope with abstract problems Retrieve data from memory reliably
Adapt to change Perform multiple tasks
Generalize from observations simultaneously
Learn from experience Apply high forces and power
Make decisions based on Perform simple computations
incomplete data quickly
Make routine decisions quickly
Sec. 1.1 / Production Systems 5

participate in the process except to make occasional adjustments in the equipment settings,
perform periodic maintenance, and spring into action if something goes wrong.

1.1.2 Manufacturing Support Systems

To operate the production facilities efficiently, a company must organize itself to design
the processes and equipment, plan and control the production orders, and satisfy prod-
uct quality requirements. These functions are accomplished by manufacturing support
­systems—people and procedures by which a company manages its production operations.
Most of these support systems do not directly contact the product, but they plan and
­control its progress through the factory.
Manufacturing support involves a sequence of activities, as depicted in Figure 1.3.
The activities consist of four functions that include much information flow and data pro-
cessing: (1) business functions, (2) product design, (3) manufacturing planning, and (4)
manufacturing control.

Business Functions. The business functions are the principal means by which the
company communicates with the customer. They are, therefore, the beginning and the end
of the information-processing sequence. Included in this category are sales and marketing,
sales forecasting, order entry, and customer billing.
The order to produce a product typically originates from the customer and proceeds
into the company through the sales department of the firm. The production order will
be in one of the following forms: (1) an order to manufacture an item to the customer’s
specifications, (2) a customer order to buy one or more of the manufacturer’s proprietary
products, or (3) an internal company order based on a forecast of future demand for a
proprietary product.

Product Design. If the product is manufactured to customer design, the design has
been provided by the customer, and the manufacturer’s product design department is not
involved. If the product is to be produced to customer specifications, the manufacturer’s
product design department may be contracted to do the design work for the product as
well as to manufacture it.
If the product is proprietary, the manufacturing firm is responsible for its develop-
ment and design. The sequence of events that initiates a new product design often origi-
nates in the sales department; the direction of information flow is indicated in Figure 1.3.
The departments of the firm that are organized to accomplish product design might
include research and development, design engineering, and perhaps a prototype shop.

Order to Business Manufacturing Manufacturing

Product design
produce functions planning control

Product to
Starting materials Factory operations
customer

Figure 1.3 Sequence of information-processing activities in a typical

­manufacturing firm.
6 Chap. 1 / Introduction

Manufacturing Planning. The information and documentation that constitute

the product design flows into the manufacturing planning function. The information-­
processing activities in manufacturing planning include process planning, master schedul-
ing, material requirements planning, and capacity planning.
Process planning consists of determining the sequence of individual processing
and assembly operations needed to produce the part. The manufacturing engineering
department is responsible for planning the processes and related technical details such as
­tooling. Manufacturing planning includes logistics issues, commonly known as production
­planning. The authorization to produce the product must be translated into the master
production schedule, which is a listing of the products to be made, the dates on which
they are to be delivered, and the quantities of each. Based on this master schedule, the
individual components and subassemblies that make up each product must be scheduled.
Raw materials must be purchased or requisitioned from storage, parts must be ordered
from suppliers, and all of these items must be planned so they are available when needed.
The computations for this planning are made by material requirements planning.
In a­ ddition, the master schedule must not list more quantities of products than the factory
is capable of producing each month with its given number of machines and manpower.
Capacity ­planning is concerned with determining the human and equipment resources
of the firm and checking to make sure that the production plan is feasible.

Manufacturing Control. Manufacturing control is concerned with managing and

controlling the physical operations in the factory to implement the manufacturing plans.
The flow of information is from planning to control as indicated in Figure 1.3. Informa-
tion also flows back and forth between manufacturing control and the factory operations.
Included in this function are shop floor control, inventory control, and quality control.
Shop floor control deals with the problem of monitoring the progress of the product
as it is being processed, assembled, moved, and inspected in the factory. Shop floor control
is concerned with inventory in the sense that the materials being processed in the factory
are work-in-process inventory. Thus, shop floor control and inventory control overlap to
some extent. Inventory control attempts to strike a proper balance between the risk of too
little inventory (with possible stock-outs of materials) and the carrying cost of too much
inventory. It deals with such issues as deciding the right quantities of materials to order
and when to reorder a given item when stock is low. The function of quality control is to
ensure that the quality of the product and its components meet the standards specified
by the product designer. To accomplish its mission, quality control depends on inspec-
tion activities performed in the factory at various times during the manufacture of the
product. Also, raw materials and component parts from outside sources are sometimes
inspected when they are received, and final inspection and testing of the finished product
is performed to ensure functional quality and appearance. Quality control also includes
data collection and problem-solving approaches to address process problems related to
quality, such as statistical process control (SPC) and Six Sigma.

1.2 AUTOMATION IN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Some components of the firm’s production system are likely to be automated, whereas
others will be operated manually or clerically. The automated elements of the produc-
tion system can be separated into two categories: (1) automation of the manufacturing
Sec. 1.2 / Automation in Production Systems 7

Manufacturing
Automation
systems
Facilities
Factory and
plant layout

Production
system Product design

Manufacturing
Computerization
planning
Manufacturing
support systems
Manufacturing
control

Business
functions

Figure 1.4 Opportunities for automation and computerization

in a production system.

systems in the factory, and (2) computerization of the manufacturing support systems.
In ­modern production systems, the two categories are closely related, because the auto-
mated manufacturing systems on the factory floor are themselves usually implemented
by computer systems that are integrated with the manufacturing support systems and
­management information system operating at the plant and enterprise levels. The two
categories of automation are shown in Figure 1.4 as an overlay on Figure 1.1.

1.2.1 Automated Manufacturing Systems

Automated manufacturing systems operate in the factory on the physical product.

They perform operations such as processing, assembly, inspection, and material han-
dling, in many cases accomplishing more than one of these operations in the same system.
They are called automated because they perform their operations with a reduced level
of human participation compared with the corresponding manual process. In some
highly automated systems, there is virtually no human participation. Examples of auto-
mated manufacturing systems include the following:

• Automated machine tools that process parts

• Transfer lines that perform a series of machining operations
• Automated assembly systems
• Manufacturing systems that use industrial robots to perform processing or assembly
operations
• Automatic material handling and storage systems to integrate manufacturing
operations
• Automatic inspection systems for quality control
8 Chap. 1 / Introduction

Product variety
Programmable
automation
Flexible
automation

Fixed
automation

1 100 10,000 1,000,000

Production quantity

Figure 1.5 Three types of automation relative

to production quantity and product variety.

Automated manufacturing systems can be classified into three basic types: (1) fixed
automation, (2) programmable automation, and (3) flexible automation. They generally
operate as fully automated systems although semiautomated systems are common in
programmable automation. The relative positions of the three types of automation for
different production volumes and product varieties are depicted in Figure 1.5.

Fixed Automation. Fixed automation is a system in which the sequence of process-

ing (or assembly) operations is fixed by the equipment configuration. Each operation in
the sequence is usually simple, involving perhaps a plain linear or rotational motion or an
uncomplicated combination of the two, such as feeding a rotating spindle. It is the inte-
gration and coordination of many such operations in one piece of equipment that makes
the system complex. Typical features of fixed automation are (1) high initial investment
for custom-engineered equipment, (2) high production rates, and (3) inflexibility of the
equipment to accommodate product variety.
The economic justification for fixed automation is found in products that are made
in very large quantities and at high production rates. The high initial cost of the e­ quipment
can be spread over a very large number of units, thus minimizing the unit cost relative
to alternative methods of production. Examples of fixed automation include machining
transfer lines and automated assembly machines.

Programmable Automation. In programmable automation, the production equip-

ment is designed with the capability to change the sequence of operations to accommo-
date different part or product configurations. The operation sequence is controlled by a
program, which is a set of instructions coded so that they can be read and interpreted by
the system. New programs can be prepared and entered into the equipment to produce
new parts or products. Some of the features that characterize programmable automation
include (1) high investment in general-purpose equipment, (2) lower production rates than
fixed automation, (3) flexibility to deal with variations and changes in product configura-
tion, and (4) high suitability for batch production.
Sec. 1.2 / Automation in Production Systems 9

Programmable automated systems are used in low- and medium-volume produc-

tion. The parts or products are typically made in batches. To produce each new batch of
a different item, the system must be reprogrammed with the set of machine instructions
that correspond to the new item. The physical setup of the machine must also be changed:
Tools must be loaded, fixtures must be attached to the machine table, and any required
machine settings must be entered. This changeover takes time. Consequently, the typical
cycle for a given batch includes a period during which the setup and reprogramming take
place, followed by a period in which the parts are produced. Examples of programmable
automation include numerically controlled (NC) machine tools, industrial robots, and pro-
grammable logic controllers.

Flexible Automation. Flexible automation is an extension of programmable

automation. A flexible automated system is capable of producing a variety of parts or
products with virtually no time lost for changeovers from one design to the next. There
is no lost production time while reprogramming the system and altering the physical
setup (tooling, fixtures, and machine settings). Accordingly, the system can produce
various mixes and schedules of parts or products instead of requiring that they be made
in batches. What makes flexible automation possible is that the differences between
parts processed by the system are not significant, so the amount of changeover between
designs is minimal. Features of flexible automation include (1) high investment for a
custom-engineered system, (2) continuous production of variable mixtures of parts or
products, (3) medium production rates, and (4) flexibility to deal with product design
variations. Examples of flexible automation are flexible manufacturing systems that
­perform machining processes.

1.2.2 Computerized Manufacturing Support Systems

Automation of the manufacturing support systems is aimed at reducing the amount of

manual and clerical effort in product design, manufacturing planning and control, and
the business functions of the firm. Nearly all modern manufacturing support systems are
implemented using computers. Indeed, computer technology is used to implement auto-
mation of the manufacturing systems in the factory as well. Computer-integrated manu-
facturing (CIM) denotes the pervasive use of computer systems to design the ­products,
plan the production, control the operations, and perform the various information-­
processing functions needed in a manufacturing firm. True CIM involves integrating all
of these functions in one system that operates throughout the enterprise. Other terms
are used to identify specific elements of the CIM system; for example, computer-aided
design (CAD) supports the product design function. Computer-aided manufacturing
(CAM) is used for functions related to manufacturing engineering, such as process plan-
ning and numerical control part programming. Some computer systems perform both
CAD and CAM, and so the term CAD/CAM is used to indicate the integration of the
two into one system.
Computer-integrated manufacturing involves the information-processing activities
that provide the data and knowledge required to successfully produce the product. These
activities are accomplished to implement the four basic manufacturing support functions
identified earlier: (1) business functions, (2) product design, (3) manufacturing planning,
and (4) manufacturing control.
10 Chap. 1 / Introduction

1.2.3 Reasons for Automating

Companies undertake projects in automation and computer-integrated manufacturing for

good reasons, some of which are the following:

1. Increase labor productivity. Automating a manufacturing operation invariably

increases production rate and labor productivity. This means greater output per hour
of labor input.
2. Reduce labor cost. Increasing labor cost has been, and continues to be, the trend
in the world’s industrialized societies. Consequently, higher investment in
automation has become economically justifiable to replace manual operations.
Machines are increasingly being substituted for human labor to reduce unit
­product cost.
3. Mitigate the effects of labor shortages. There is a general shortage of labor in many
advanced nations, and this has stimulated the development of automated operations
as a substitute for labor.
4. Reduce or eliminate routine manual and clerical tasks. An argument can be put forth
that there is social value in automating operations that are routine, boring, fatiguing,
and possibly irksome. Automating such tasks improves the general level of working
conditions.
5. Improve worker safety. Automating a given operation and transferring the worker
from active participation in the process to a monitoring role, or removing the
worker from the operation altogether, makes the work safer. The safety and physi-
cal ­well-being of the worker has become a national objective with the enactment
of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. This has provided an
impetus for automation.
6. Improve product quality. Automation not only results in higher production rates than
manual operation, it also performs the manufacturing process with greater consis-
tency and conformity to quality specifications.
7. Reduce manufacturing lead time. Automation helps reduce the elapsed time between
customer order and product delivery, providing a competitive advantage to the man-
ufacturer for future orders. By reducing manufacturing lead time, the manufacturer
also reduces work-in-process inventory.
8. Accomplish processes that cannot be done manually. Certain operations cannot
be accomplished without the aid of a machine. These processes require precision,
­miniaturization, or complexity of geometry that cannot be achieved manually.
­Examples include certain integrated circuit fabrication operations, rapid prototyp-
ing processes based on computer graphics (CAD) models, and the machining of
complex, mathematically defined surfaces using computer numerical control. These
processes can only be realized by computer-controlled systems.
9. Avoid the high cost of not automating. There is a significant competitive advan-
tage gained in automating a manufacturing plant. The advantage cannot always be
­demonstrated on a company’s project authorization form. The benefits of automa-
tion often show up in unexpected and intangible ways, such as in improved quality,
higher sales, better labor relations, and better company image. Companies that do
not automate are likely to find themselves at a competitive disadvantage with their
customers, their employees, and the general public.
Sec. 1.3 / Manual Labor in Production Systems 11

1.3 MANUAL LABOR IN PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Is there a place for manual labor in the modern production system? The answer is yes.
Even in a highly automated production system, humans are still a necessary component of
the manufacturing enterprise. For the foreseeable future, people will be required to man-
age and maintain the plant, even in those cases where they do not participate directly in
its manufacturing operations. The discussion of the labor issue is separated into two parts,
corresponding to the previous distinction between facilities and manufacturing support:
(1) manual labor in factory operations and (2) labor in manufacturing support systems.

1.3.1 Manual Labor in Factory Operations

There is no denying that the long-term trend in manufacturing is toward greater use of
automated machines to substitute for manual labor. This has been true throughout human
history, and there is every reason to believe the trend will continue. It has been made pos-
sible by applying advances in technology to factory operations. In parallel and sometimes
in conflict with this technologically driven trend are issues of economics that continue to
find reasons for employing manual labor in manufacturing.
Certainly one of the current economic realities in the world is that there are coun-
tries whose average hourly wage rates are so low that most automation projects are dif-
ficult to justify strictly on the basis of cost reduction. These countries include China, India,
Mexico, and many countries in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
With the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the North
American continent has become one large labor pool. Within this pool, Mexico’s labor
rate is an order of magnitude less than that in the United States. U.S. corporate execu-
tives who make decisions on factory locations and the outsourcing of work must reckon
with this reality.
In addition to the labor cost issue, there are other reasons, ultimately based on eco-
nomics, that make the use of manual labor a feasible alternative to automation. Humans
possess certain attributes that give them an advantage over machines in certain situations
and certain kinds of tasks (Table 1.1). A number of situations can be listed in which manual
labor is preferred over automation:

• Task is technologically too difficult to automate. Certain tasks are very difficult (either
technologically or economically) to automate. Reasons for the difficulty include (1)
problems with physical access to the work location, (2) adjustments required in the
task, (3) manual dexterity requirements, and (4) demands on hand–eye coordina-
tion. Manual labor is used to perform the tasks in these cases. Examples include
automobile final assembly lines where many final trim operations are accomplished
by human workers, inspection tasks that require judgment to assess quality, and
material handling tasks that involve flexible or fragile materials.
• Short product life cycle. If a product must be designed and introduced in a short
period of time to meet a near-term window of opportunity in the marketplace, or
if the product is anticipated to be on the market for a relatively short period, then
a manufacturing method designed around manual labor allows for a much sooner
product launch than does an automated method. Tooling for manual production can
be fabricated in much less time and at much lower cost than comparable automation
tooling.
12 Chap. 1 / Introduction

• Customized product. If the customer requires a one-of-a-kind item with unique

features, manual labor has the advantage as the appropriate production resource
because of its versatility and adaptability. Humans are more flexible than any auto-
mated machine.
• Ups and downs in demand. Changes in demand for a product necessitate changes in
production output levels. Such changes are more easily made when manual labor is
used as the means of production. An automated manufacturing system has a fixed
cost associated with its investment. If output is reduced, that fixed cost must be
spread over fewer units, driving up the unit cost of the product. On the other hand,
an automated system has an ultimate upper limit on its output capacity. It cannot
produce more than its rated capacity. By contrast, manual labor can be added or
reduced as needed to meet demand, and the associated cost of the resource is in
direct proportion to its employment. Manual labor can be used to augment the out-
put of an existing automated system during those periods when demand exceeds the
capacity of the automated system.
• Need to reduce risk of product failure. A company introducing a new product to the
market never knows for sure what the ultimate success of that product will be. Some
products will have long life cycles, while others will be on the market for relatively
short periods. The use of manual labor as the productive resource at the beginning
of the product’s life reduces the company’s risk of losing a significant investment in
automation if the product fails to achieve a long market life. Section 1.4.3 discusses
an automation migration strategy that is suitable for introducing a new product.
• Lack of capital. Companies are sometimes forced to use manual labor in their pro-
duction operations when they lack the capital to invest in automated equipment.

1.3.2 Labor in Manufacturing Support Systems

In manufacturing support functions, many of the routine manual and clerical tasks can
be automated using computer systems. Certain production planning activities are b ­ etter
accomplished by computers than by clerks. Material requirements planning (MRP,
­Section 25.2) is an example. In material requirements planning, order releases are gener-
ated for component parts and raw materials based on the master production schedule
for final products. This requires a massive amount of data processing that is best suited
to computer automation. Many commercial software packages are available to perform
MRP. With few exceptions, companies that use MRP rely on computers to perform the
computations. Humans are still required to interpret and implement the MRP output and
to manage the production planning function.
In modern production systems, the computer is used as an aid in performing virtually
all manufacturing support activities. Computer-aided design systems are used in product
design. The human designer is still required to do the creative work. The CAD system
is a tool that augments the designer’s creative talents. Computer-aided process planning
systems are used by manufacturing engineers to plan the production methods. In these
examples, humans are integral components in the operation of the manufacturing support
functions, and the computer-aided systems are tools to increase productivity and improve
quality. CAD and CAM systems rarely operate completely in automatic mode.
Humans will continue to be needed in manufacturing support systems, even as the
level of automation in these systems increases. People will be needed to do the deci-
sion making, learning, engineering, evaluating, managing, and other functions for which
Another random document with
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relatives and friends and the subtle hostilities to her lover—— He did no
more work, but early in the evening went up the steps of the Williams house
looking young and jubilant.
There were guests and it was half an hour before he could get Horatia by
herself. They went out through Maud’s tiny formal garden to a deep
hammock and sat there. A million stars swung above them.
“I have a plan,” said Jim. “Will you let me kidnap you for a couple of
weeks? Bob can run the office for a little while and we could vacation
together.”
“You have only to throw me on your horse,” said Horatia. “I’ll be the
most willing lady you ever kidnapped. But where shall we go?”
“Just to a very large, conventional resort—do you see? But one that all
the money and nonsense and stupidity in the world hasn’t spoiled—where
there are lovely places to tell you how much I love you. To Christmas
Lake.”
“I’ve never been there. Everyone says that it’s heavenly. But, Jim, isn’t
that where Rose Hubbell is?”
“That’s one of the advantages,” said Jim, eagerly, and yet there was a
little damper on his eagerness even as he spoke. “She would be a sort of
chaperon—only we wouldn’t have to bother about her too much.”
“I see—did she suggest it?”
Jim began to fumble a little.
“She sort of—gave me the idea.”
Horatia was silent for a minute. She felt on dangerous ground and full of
a kind of protective pity for this lover of hers who seemed so oddly unable
to see the ridiculousness of what he proposed.
“Jim, do you remember telling me once that Rose Hubbell was
dangerous?”
“I remember that I did, but I don’t feel quite that way about it now. Rose
likes you very much, you see—and she knows how I feel.”
This time there was real hurt in Horatia’s tone.
“You told her—that?”
He tried to recoup. “Only as much as your sister knows and your aunt.”
 Horatia remained cruelly silent. When she spoke again her words
reverted to the subject in hand, but her tone was far more distant than they
justified.
“I don’t think Christmas Lake is quite practicable.”
Jim showed his hurt as his plans crashed to the ground.
“Just as you say, dear. I only suggested it because I was silly enough to
think we might play around together there a lot and have a real rest.”
“But surely you don’t expect me to go under Rose Hubbell’s
chaperonage, Jim. Why, think, Jim—dozens of people know her whole
history and—— Think how impossible it would be for me.”
“I didn’t count on seeing much of her, you see,” said poor Jim, trying to
defend not Rose Hubbell, but his own care and protection of Horatia. “And
she would have been just a nominal chaperon. But I see that I was a fool.
Just consider the suggestion cancelled, will you, darling? Put it out of your
head absolutely.”
He drew her close to him and may have been simple enough to fancy his
request had been granted. But thoughts were spinning madly around in
Horatia’s head. This outrageously silly plan of Jim’s seemed to clinch the
whole matter of Rose Hubbell. If Rose could make him believe that such an
arrangement was all right—that it was all right to take the girl he was going
to marry away under the chaperonage of a woman about whom he had been
the co-respondent in a divorce suit, she could make him believe black was
white. She felt older than Jim for once—responsible for him. With an
instinctive feminine reaction she refused to blame the man. It was a matter
between her and Mrs. Hubbell.
“Jim,” she said softly, “don’t you think the time has come for you to give
up Rose Hubbell?”
Jim started. “How on earth could I give her up? She’s nothing to me,
Horatia. Child, you surely don’t dream——”
The word “child” offended Horatia.
“No—of course I don’t think you are in love with her—or anything like
that. But I think she thinks she has a hold on you and that she intends to
play it for what it’s worth. She has a little proprietary air—and I think she
has an influence over you which you don’t realize and that for your good
you shouldn’t see her any more at all.”
 The youth of Horatia, hurling such statements at any man and worst of
all at the man who wished to be especially fine and strong in her eyes! She
went on, a little flurried and feeling her way.
“Truly, I’m not jealous. I know you love me and I know that you’re not
flirting. But I don’t like to see that woman hang around you because she has
absolutely nothing to give you. From your own admission you see her
because you feel you have a duty towards her and that is no reason at all.
She is well able to look out for herself.”
“So am I, sweetheart.” That was the man in him.
Horatia did not agree.
“Let’s not quarrel about Rose Hubbell, please, darling,” he went on. “I
don’t give a copper what becomes of her. But she is an old acquaintance
and a perfectly harmless one. If you don’t like her you’ll never have to see
her again.”
“And would you go on seeing her?”
“Why, no, darling—not unless I couldn’t help it. I can’t go around the
block to avoid her—or cut her on the street.”
The slight impatience in his tone found immediate reflection in Horatia’s
answer.
“Don’t be silly, Jim. I’m not unreasonable or going to be unreasonable.
But I want to know where you stand with her and then we will drop it.” She
was pressing the point now partly because her pride wouldn’t let her admit
that she was being unreasonable or foolish and partly from sheer womanly
desire to break down the resistance in her lover. And because she felt very
near to tears her voice was hard and her figure tightened. Jim took it as a
repulse, but he became more serious.
“What is it you want, Horatia?”
“I want you to drop Rose Hubbell. Not go to see her. Tell her if
necessary that you are dropping her. It wouldn’t hurt her very much. Of
course I don’t mean that you’re not to speak to her, but don’t ask her to
dance when you are out places—don’t let her write to you. I want you to
promise me.”
The tears showed in her voice now and who knows what Jim would not
have been ready to promise if the word had not called out the memory of a
promise given just a few weeks before to Rose. She had pleaded just not to
be dropped. He had a clear memory of the whole conversation with her.
“Will you?” asked Horatia. “Truly it’s awfully hard to ask you. Won’t
you promise just that?”
She felt like a child begging for a favor and like a woman to whom
refusal would be outrage.
“Will it satisfy you, dear, if I promise to bear all this in mind and never
to offend you again?”
The reservation puzzled Horatia and piqued her.
“Why won’t you promise outright?”
“Frankly, dear, I can’t. I can’t give a promise like that. It might be
impossible to keep it without wounding Rose terribly.”
Horatia felt that she was wounded terribly. She turned her head away.
“Please,” begged Langley, “this is dreadful, Horatia. Can’t you trust my
love for you and forget it?”
Horatia was weeping frankly now. He tried to take her in his arms but
she drew away.
“Go away, Jim. Go home now. I want to think.”
“Let me sit here quietly while you think.”
“Please go—please.”
He took her hands and buried his face in them for a moment, his lips
against the soft palms. Then he went down the path and through the garden
gate.
 CHAPTER XVI

T O Horatia the affair was immensely serious, but, Langley’s attitude in

The Journal office the next morning, though anxious, was not yet
gravely troubled. According to reason he should have been right, what
had jarred between him and Horatia was nothing after all, but in fact it was
Horatia who gauged the dangers of the situation correctly. What she herself
did not realize was that the episode about Mrs. Hubbell was one which only
added another fear and another doubt to the fears and doubts which already
had invaded her mind, unacknowledged. And these fears and doubts were in
the air of her generation. Her discovery about Grace had perhaps begun the
uncertainty. Tricked once into belief in a person and deceived, she herself
had learned to feel suspicion and fear. She had learned that the men about
her were not necessarily faithful to their wives and try as she would to put
the thought out of her mind it crept back sometimes while she was talking
to this man or that. Langley had reassured her—had made her smile again—
events had driven the memory of Grace out of her mind—but the stain
remained, corroding the faith and beauty of her feeling for Jim more than
she guessed. There had been the doubts created by her fears about money
matters and as to whether she and Jim would be able to keep themselves
orderly and happy on their income. There had been the fear of the pain of
marriage as she hovered at the door of the little sick child in her sister’s
house. These things once accepted as the lot of woman became a problem
now that they were a choice and not a lot. Subtly too, the temptations of the
luxury of the life of the married women whom she met around Mrs. Clapp
had dulled the edge of her own desire to work after she married. And
Horatia had found no anchor philosophical or sociological. She was one of
those who drifted with people rather than with causes and it was a hard age
into which she had come to maturity. She could not like so many
contemporary women fling herself into a cause and put the cause (or
pretend to put it) before all personal life, and yet she could not, like her
grandmother, fling herself into the institution of matrimony and expect the
institution to solve her problems. Her faith in marriage with Jim was a
structure subtly undermined by the conditions surrounding her and upheld
only by one great and mighty prop—the prop of faith in Jim. Jim would
adjust the problem of how they should live—Jim would keep them from
stupidity and shabbiness—against the furtiveness of the married scoundrel
who sought illicit relations, Jim stood, magnificent in his love for her.
Everywhere he supported her, held her up, made her strong. And then this
had come, this little thing which had curiously grown into a big thing. It
was not that she feared Rose Hubbell as a rival. In that she was quite
honest. But she feared Jim. She feared herself if Jim should seem weak, if
he should appear to be the tool of a woman, if he could be the prey of a
conscienceless woman. What sort of weakness was it to which she was
looking for strength? The more she thought about it the more reasonable her
position seemed to her. There that dangerous touch of feminine dogmatism
absorbed at Maud’s came into play. She was asking him to give up a
meaningless relationship, to trust in her judgment, to fulfill her desire. If he
would not sacrifice a thing which was worthless, if he would not trust her
judgment, if he would not fulfill her desire, either he had not been honest in
telling of the whole relationship between him and Rose Hubbell or he was a
lover whose love was only skin deep. To such a preposterous pitch of
unconscious arrogance had her feelings brought her. Those were sad days
for Horatia. She struggled for a week, while it grew steadily more hot in the
city. Frantically her mind circled on itself, seeking rest and peace. There
were times when it seemed that to turn to Jim and bury her head on his
shoulder would solve everything. But when she did that, as she sometimes
did, she found that it solved nothing—that she always began again on her
endless round of argument.
There came a day when she and Jim, sitting opposite each other in his
office after the rest had gone home, faced decision.
“You’ll wear out, Horatia. I can’t bear this. Won’t you please let the
matter drop?”
“It doesn’t drop me,” said poor Horatia. “It goes on to mount up to the
big question of whether you love me at all when you can let me suffer so.”
“It’s bigger than this affair,” said Jim, “you’re right. If it were a question
of that promise only, perhaps I could find a way to make it even if it
involved abandoning a trust. But the thing is bigger. You ask me to promise
you something for which you’d despise me if I agreed.” She began to
protest, but he shook his head. “Not now, but ultimately. You ask me to
promise because you don’t trust me. If I gave that promise I’d be less a man
and you less a woman for forcing it. You see, dear, I don’t quite satisfy you
or make you confident. This promise would help things for a bit. Then
you’d find another difficulty in my nature—another flaw to make you doubt
and perhaps you’d want to bind that too with promises. Rose Hubbell is no
more to me than that blotter. But I am something to myself in my relation to
Rose Hubbell as well as to the newsboy on the corner. And I must decide
those relationships myself because I am a man. If you want this promise it’s
because you fear the strength of my manhood—and that’s basic.”
He was so much older, so much wiser than the Horatia who, tired and
pale, hardly heeded his talk.
“Oh, I’m frightened,” she cried, “all this arguing! If this happened
afterwards——”
“I’d become a brute or you a shrew,” said Langley.
But what she had wanted was his denial that it would ever happen again.
“I’m afraid of you. You are hard and unyielding. You don’t bring me
——”
“I don’t bring you rest or comfort,” he said bitterly. “But, my God, how I
long to, Horatia. Only I love you too much to bring you false rest or
comfort or to drug you with words. I too have come to fear myself. What
have I to give you——”
They sat drearily fatigued, the paper-strewn table between them.
Horatia made no protest; she was or thought she was full of questioning
herself. Yet what came next brought about in three breaths a vast surprise;
one moment what Langley was saying sounded like a natural sequence, and
the next all the values of life shifted, and they faced each other in a new,
strange, graceless world.
“I want you to go away for a rest,” said Jim. “Go away and forget all
this. Then if you never want to come back to me, it’s all right. But if you
should, Horatia, I’ll be here—I’ll always be here—always waiting, always
thankful for what you’ve done for me—what you’ve given me, and always
knowing that it was far, far more than I deserved.”
It was youth, inexperienced girlhood that disregarded the magnificence
of that appeal. Horatia was primitive, green enough to want to be overcome
—to want to be forced into surrender. That he did not force her but left her
path open seemed weakness—and something like coldness. An older
woman would have known that it was strength and rare devotion.
 She was silent and in a turmoil within.
“Then you’ll give me up?” she asked at last, evenly enough.
“I’ll never give you up, but I’ll never imprison you.”
“It all is the same.” Horatia spoke out of a weary effort to keep dignity,
not to break down before the indifference of her lover.
The languor that was all he could have heard in her voice was hard on
him. Langley put his head on his hands and hid the agony in his face.
“I told you once that you loved the romance you found in me,” he said
without resentment. “Well, I’ve destroyed the romance. I’m just ordinary,
cheap, uninspiring. But I’m not going to make you ordinary or cheap.
There’s so much romance left for you to find.”
She stood up and struck her hands together angrily.
“Don’t mock at me.”
“For God’s sake, Horatia, I wasn’t mocking.”
“Let me go—I will go now. I’ll go—on my vacation.”
“Your vacation?”
“We’ll call it that. I’ll go for a month—two months. And if I can come
back, I’ll come. But I’m afraid.”
“My darling—my darling—if you can’t, you are to find happiness more
worthily.”
He took her in his arms hungrily, sacrificially. That should have told her.
But she was hungering for prohibitions, for demands upon her. There was
no warmth in her, and he let her go.
At the door she lingered.
“Can you get someone to fill my place?”
“Yes—don’t worry about that. Just rest.”
“I’ve been happy here.”
“You’ve brought life with you.”
The door closed after her. She went down the staircase slowly, miserably.
Langley’s face was grey and old.
 CHAPTER XVII

T HE blue of the lake had faded into grey—a grey that looked thick and
heavy and that lay impassive under the blasting sunlight. Its coolness
was gone and its vigor. Above, in The Journal office, where the shades
were drawn down to keep out the heat, the vigor seemed gone too. The
machinery went on smoothly enough. At Horatia’s desk a young woman,
fresh from a New York school of journalism, was typing an excellent article
on what suffrage had done in the recent campaign. At the surrounding desks
the reporters struck off brief histories of automobile accidents, police raids,
city happenings. In Langley’s room, the pale little stenographer took
dictation as he walked up and down and worked out his editorials. There
were editorials on the street car franchise, that hardy perennial in city
problems, on the new appointment of the city planning commission, on the
latest foreign tangle, on the eternal disentangling of the knot of political
complications at Washington. Clearcut and well-phrased, his words came on
each subject, so that the stenographer hurried to keep up with the flow of
his thought, and yet something intangible had gone out of his thinking as
out of the office atmosphere. The office was no longer a place of romance
—an adventure—a laboratory in which to solve world problems—a crusade
against corruption as it had been for the past six months. It was a work-
shop, a clean, orderly work-shop—and that was all. They all missed
Horatia. During the first week of her absence Bob Brotherton had a
maddening way of calling constant attention to it and bewailing it. He
needed her for this and for that and he said facetiously that there was no use
in sprucing himself up any more. No one cared for him and he would wear
old clothes until she came back.
Jim had not realized how much Horatia meant to the staff. His own
devotion to her had been so absorbing that he had not noticed the relations
of the others. Now a stream of comments about her seemed to be floating
about the office all day long. To excuse her outrageously long and indefinite
vacation he had been compelled to say that she was not well and the staff
felt a shadow over them. They were forever finding things in the day’s work
which would have amused Horatia, forever recalling this or that incident
which had amused her, forever wishing she were back. Langley alone did
not comment on her, but Bob would say wisely when a particularly caustic
comment came out of the inner office, “He’s not himself. He misses the
young lady. He’s a different man when she’s around.”
With a great deal of wisdom he did not make that remark openly to
Langley.
The Journal was prospering more and more. It was no longer a paper to
apologize for or worry about. It was getting a very substantial circulation
and more and more advertisers. Jim realized that this success was due not
only to the paper itself, but also to the fact that there was coming to be a
place for a clean paper in the city—that more and more people liked their
news straight and unadulterated and wanted to read comment on the news
with which they did not necessarily a priori agree. He was stopped more
and more often by old friends and urged to come to the “house”; more and
more often he found himself deferred to in political discussions at the club
as the judgment of last appeal. He liked it all and he improved under it. He
kept up scrupulously after Horatia had gone as if to show her that he would
not let her work be wasted. Yet there was a change in him and in the quality
of his vigor. He was a man working for a principle and not an object,
whereas before he had been working for a principle and Horatia. The
eagerness had gone out of his eyes. Sometimes after the office was empty
he would go into the outer office and sitting at Horatia’s desk write her
letters—letters which left him sometimes pale and exhausted and
sometimes set and stern. But he had one invariable habit. He tore the
completed ink-written papers into tiny pieces and stuffed them into the
wastebasket before he left the office and went home. There was also often a
curious look on his face as he looked over his mail, and sometimes he
would lay an envelope carefully aside until everything else had been
attended to and then fall upon it as if he were famished. The envelopes were
rather more frequently present at first than later after Horatia had left town.
In the hurt anger of her vacation’s first twelve hours she had quite
decided not to write to him at all. During the second twenty-four hours she
wrote ten letters and mailed one brief little note saying that she was sorry if
she had hurt him and that she wanted above all things not to hurt his work
or affect The Journal, stated where several of her copy sheets had been left
and urged him to take a vacation himself and get a genuine rest. She ended
by saying that Maud wanted her to go with them to a country place near
Lake Habitat and that she thought she probably would go. Jim looked a
little grim at that because Lake Habitat was where the Wentworth cottage
was and he knew Maud. But he read on to her conclusion, a conclusion so
honest, so sweet and so suffering that the tears came into his eyes.
“It’s so hard, Jim. I feel empty and faint and I try to move about but I
seem like waxwork. Everything seems awfully mixed up in me. Nothing in
the world matters except you and yet we mustn’t fling ourselves blindly into
sentimental fervors if we really don’t belong together in every way. I can’t
write. Good-night—and God bless you.”
That was the last letter of such a kind that Jim received. The next one
was merely a note telling him that she was surely going with her sister and
giving her address in case her successor on The Journal or Jim, himself,
should need her. It was a much more controlled note and of course Jim did
not know that it, like its predecessor, had been written after much vain
effort and tearing up of letter paper. There had been a day when Horatia,
who had been shopping in town alone, had almost gone to The Journal
office. She hesitated and trying to gather resolution went into a tea room
and ordered some iced drink. The room was crowded and another woman
coming in sat down opposite her before they looked at each other. It was
Grace Walsh. With no change of color Grace rose, but Horatia put out a
detaining hand.
“Don’t move—please.”
“I’d like to stay if you don’t mind,” said Grace sincerely. “There are one
or two things I didn’t write you. My new companion in the flat is quite
anxious to stay on there. I suggested that you’d be undoubtedly willing to
sublet.”
“Gladly.”
“Are you still with your sister?”
“Yes—I’m going to the country with her tomorrow.”
“It’s your vacation, I suppose?”
It was very hard to dissemble before those calm, disillusioning, serious
eyes of Grace.
“A kind of vacation,” said Horatia, a little heavily.
A strange look came over Grace’s face—a look of anger, the look which
a mother has when her child is ill-treated.
 “You’ve been suffering.” Without any ado of conscious readjustments
they passed from an attitude of armed neutrality to a disarmed, a benevolent
neutrality.
“Yes.”
“Some man—some damned man—no, don’t tell me—poor little Horatia
—won’t you believe me when I tell you none of them is worth it? I wish to
heaven that women would stop letting themselves suffer. They’ve borne the
emotional burdens long enough. Why shouldn’t we take men as they take us
—as part of the day’s work? Look here, Horatia, you’re worth any ten men
I ever saw. Don’t let them wear you down.”
“I’m not.”
“You look frazzled.”
“I thought you liked men,” said Horatia, irrelevantly, “and disliked
women.”
“I like men and I like women when they are individuals—but women in
relation to men are usually unspeakable—and men in relation to women are
vile. We need to stand alone, Horatia—to shake things off. To feel—and to
know when to stop feeling.”
“To stop feeling,” repeated Horatia.
Grace leaned over and put her hand on the other girl’s.
“It’s hard—but it can be done,” she said and there was almost a
mesmeric quality in her sure, slow voice.
“I think we do need to learn that,” agreed Horatia.
She rose to go.
“Some time when I’m a lot bigger and better and more controlled and
not so cheap, I want to talk with you, Grace,” she said; “I know you’re right
in lots of things but the addition of your ideas is wrong. The grand total of
your philosophy is wrong. It’s got to be wrong. I won’t have it right. But we
do need to learn to stop feeling.”
Grace’s look followed her with a queer yearning in it—her eyes seemed
to say that she had not finished all she wanted to say.
Horatia went out to the street. The incoherent conversation had checked
her desire to see Langley. It had given her a cue. She would stop feeling.
Instead of to The Journal office she went to a large shop and tried on hats
before a many-sided mirror and was surprised to find herself succeeding in
her deliberate mental effort to get her mind away from its pain. The hats
interested her. Each one appeared to change her character and she began to
speculate on how she would like to change her type during the summer with
Maud and the Clapps and Wentworths. The saleswoman brought her the
kind of hats she usually ordered—large sailors—plain wing-trimmed
shapes, but Horatia laid them aside.
“That is the girl I am escaping from,” she said to herself, removing a
straight-brimmed gray sailor, and she pointed to one on a model. It was of
plain soft yellow chiffon and drooped a little about her face. Under it she
looked provocative, as if deliberately intending to charm.
She had never tried on such a hat before and she lingered before her
image in the mirror while the saleswoman poured out tributes.
“I’ll take it,” she said, and proceeded with unparalleled extravagance to
choose two more, one of black with soft waving feathers and one of rose
felt that crushed itself into different shapes on her head. Then, urged by the
saleswoman, who was gathering momentum, she bought a rose sweater to
wear with the rose hat, drew a check that half appalled and half amused her
and went home to Maud. Maud, receiving three hat boxes next morning,
was amazed and delighted. Evidently Horatia intended to play the game.
She pressed a yellow frock on Horatia which she insisted was necessary to
the well being of the yellow hat and mourned because she herself could not
wear yellow. Horatia was very gay. She pirouetted in her hats before Harvey
and to her amazement found that she was shaking off her worries and her
unhappiness. She wanted to go to the country place and be still more happy.
She insisted that unless they made it decently gay there she wasn’t going to
stay. And while Harvey chuckled and Maud opened her eyes she danced
upstairs to her room, closed the door, flung the yellow hat in the corner and
wept into Maud’s Madeira counterpane, suddenly intolerably homesick for
nothing in the world so much as her typewriter in The Journal office, the
twinkle of the lake under her window and the sound of Jim’s voice in the
next room, giving orders, telephoning, dictating.
 CHAPTER XVIII

A NTHONY’S sister stood in her cool country living room, arranging her
flowers. There were a mass of them that she had brought in from the
rough-and-tumble garden by the cottage wall—hollyhocks, tall and
pink and already in their place in a green vase against the wall—cerise
cinnamon phlox, filling the air with their vivid fragrance, a riot of
nasturtiums of all colors, sweet peas whose pastel lavenders and pinks were
spoiled until Marjorie put them in a glass basket before a little mirror,
poppies, and deep orange African marigolds. Marjorie separated them from
each other and then reassembled them, mixing in now bachelors’ buttons
with marigolds, and baby’s breath with poppies. She was quite absorbed
and her brother, lying on a cushion-piled settle, watched her admiringly and
for a few moments silently. When he spoke he seemed to be taking up an
interrupted conversation.
“You’re sure she is coming then?”
“Mrs. Williams told me so in town yesterday.”
“And you think that the skillful Maud was trying to hint that it was off
between Horatia and Jim Langley?”
“She had a saddened and romantic air about Horatia. I don’t know
exactly what she was trying to imply. But from a rather steady stream of
inquiries as to your whereabouts I was inclined to have vulgar suspicions
that she was really interested in you and your movements. And then she
said, ‘I suppose you know how it is, Mrs. Clapp, when these young things
turn to you with their romantic difficulties.’ And then she giggled. How that
remarkable young woman can giggle!” finished Marjorie.
Anthony sat puzzling.
“Of course Horatia doesn’t tell her a thing,” he said, “but that sort of
woman is astute as the devil in some ways. Well, if she comes down here,
Langley or no Langley, I’m going to go after her. If she wanted to marry
Langley badly enough she has had time enough to make sure by this time.
But it’s ridiculous to think of her wasting her time on one of these awfully
complicated intellectual emotional affairs if it’s not going to come to
anything. If she doesn’t want me she can tell me again—stronger—to get to
hell out—and I’ll get. But I’m going to get the thing settled. I thought
maybe I’d get over it when I got West. I didn’t see a girl while I was out
there who seemed real at all. And I’d catch myself mooning. It’s unhealthy.
It’s got to be stopped.”
“You want to remember,” said Marjorie, “that Horatia has had a hard
summer and that she will be tired. Don’t rush her too hard or she’ll go to
pieces or send you packing from sheer weariness.”
“I don’t mean to tire her. I want to rest her.” There was a strange mixture
of protectiveness and sullenness in Anthony’s tone.
“It’s all nonsense anyway,” he went on, “to think of her wearing herself
out in that miserable office. Girls oughtn’t to be allowed to knock
themselves to pieces that way. Where it’s necessary it’s bad enough but
when a girl——”
“Has only to sit back and let you support her,” laughed Marjorie.
“When a girl is like Horatia she’s altogether too valuable to throw
herself away for some fetish like earning a living. You know exactly what I
mean and you agree with me too, Marge.”
“It all depends on how much you can make her care for you.”
“I could make her care from sheer force of imitation if I could get this
Langley stuff out of her head.”
“Granted. But if she does happen to be in love with Langley?”
“He’s no person for her to marry.”
“You can’t do it by dogma, my dear.”
Anthony shook himself like an impatient puppy.
“Well, I’ll be damned if I don’t find some way to do it.”
“Love is queer,” reflected Marjorie, “in its effect on people. Now you
show it principally by a marked increase in profanity.”
Anthony grinned and left her.
The cottage stood well back from a road which wound itself around a
series of lakes and up steep hills into a district which was almost
mountainous. Anthony knew every foot of the country and loved it as well
as his cottage which had been the scene of so many pleasant parties, both
his own and Marjorie’s. It was the place above all which he would have
chosen for this biggest adventure of his life. The place which Maud had
taken was a few miles farther up the road but within easy distance. There
was every reason for Anthony’s contemplative smile as he swung down the
wooded road.
The Williams party arrived a few days later with some bustle. It was
Maud’s first venture into country residences and though it was on a small
scale it appealed to her immensely. Only her sudden acquaintance with
Marjorie Clapp had given her courage for the move, for the district in the
hills was a refuge for a society somewhat older and better acquainted than
Maud’s town crowd. She and Harvey had taken the children away for the
summer once before, but going to a summer hotel was a different and
incomparably insignificant thing beside the pride of belonging to a genuine
summer colony. She had asked Mrs. Clapp a little diffidently about places
in the hills and Mrs. Clapp had been unexpectedly helpful—even giving her
the name of a special cottage which could probably be rented. An
unpretentious little cottage enough but pleasant to Maud because the
Hilltons, the Straights, the Clapps and the Morrises wore their ginghams
and sun hats within a radius of ten miles, pleasant to Jackie because he had
been promised a rabbit, pleasant to Harvey on account of a neighboring
trout stream, and pleasant to Horatia because the woods around it offered
refuges and solace.
Harvey took them up in the new stream line touring car which was the
outward sign of his increasing prosperity, and while Maud watched a road
map to be sure that Harvey would not miss the road which went by the
Country Club which the summer-people had built, Horatia sat with her arm
around a weary little Jack, breathing in the freshness of the woods with
their summer scents and thinking. She felt very old and disappointed and
disillusioned, and she thought with envy of the first time she had driven
over this road with Anthony in the winter, feeling so happy and full of love
for Jim. Maud poured out a steady stream of comment and conjecture—and
Horatia hardly listened, knowing that expression and not attention was what
Maud sought. She had never liked her sister so well as she had during these
past days. Maud had let her alone and asked no questions. She seemed to be
waking into a kind of appreciation of Horatia’s feelings and Horatia was
very grateful, entirely ignorant as she was of Maud’s unrelinquished plans
about Anthony. Horatia had just thought of Anthony for the first time in
weeks. She had thought of him as the man who had driven the car when she
had gone through these places thinking of Jim, and first rejoicing in the
happiness of love.
 They reached their cottage and Maud was soon unpacking and opening
the house while the cook, imported lest life in the country become too
strenuous, began to prepare dinner. Horatia, bravely attired in her rose
sweater and hat, started out for a walk. She wanted to adjust her thoughts
and get perfectly calm, for she meant to be a gay companion and not a
doleful one.
Little leaf-covered paths wandered into the woods here and there. She
turned at random into them and went along, anxious to lose her loneliness
in the greater loneliness and friendliness of the forest. And here, for the first
time, she succeeded. The trees were motionless in the still afternoon. Their
branches curved and interlocked and made great, cool, dark green shadows.
The ferns stirred as she passed and she heard the lazy chirping of some
birds. It was deep and still and calm and sure, so that in the midst of it
Horatia became calm and sure for a moment. She felt her ache for Jim’s
presence pass, and for the first time since she had gone from him there
came a feeling that she was back where she belonged. For the first time she
felt awakened pleasure and she stood very still, almost afraid to stir lest the
peace that was filling her should change to misery again. After a little she
went on. She did not want to go back to the cottage yet. Later she would be
ready for them but as yet she was ready only for herself.
And so Anthony came upon her—a bright bit of color in the midst of the
woods with her eyes shining with peace. At the sight of her he felt the flush
of his own face. It was all very well to be full of bravado before Marjorie
but in the presence of Horatia his confidence waned. Yet she was clearly
glad to see him.
“I heard you were West.”
“I came back last week and heard that your sister had taken the Warner
cottage. I was hoping you’d come out with her. Every month seems the best
out here but this one is especially nice. And there are wonderful places to
walk and ride. We have a swimming place and a very poor tennis court
——”
“I don’t think I shall like the tennis court half as well as just this. I like
your woods.”
“So do I,” answered Anthony with happy sympathy. “Let me show you a
finer place than this though. Deeper in.”
 They went on until they came to a little clearing like a great room with
the trees interlocked above it. Along one side ran a tiny clear stream.
“But this is too perfect. This isn’t natural.”
“This is my room. I made it myself and furnished it by opening up the
stream. The bed was there for it but the water had been choked by a dam of
leaves. I cleared it out and now you see I have running water in my room.
That’s all I need.”
“It’s the most beautiful interior decoration I ever saw.”
“You shall have a key for that.”
He did not keep her. But he walked towards his sister’s cottage and they
came out in her garden. Horatia went into the house to see Marjorie and the
children. She felt curiously at home there, and Marjorie was so very glad to
see her that Horatia felt even more happy. She thought suddenly that she
could tell Marjorie a little about Jim, and that Marjorie was the only person
in the world to whom she could tell even a little. But there was little time to
think. Everyone wanted to plan things to do and to arrange for many things.
Then Anthony insisted that he had walked her unconscionably far and to
save her stiffness he must take her home. She got into the car with
delightful familiarity. Anthony said never a personal word and if he thought
them, Horatia did not guess. She found him very handsome in his country
khaki and even more wholesome than ever. She was in a mood to yearn for
wholesomeness.
Maud would have Anthony stay for dinner. Horatia found herself urging
him too and to her greater surprise found herself thoroughly anticipating
dinner. She had not been hungry for some time but tonight——
“I’ve never seen Horatia eat so much,” said Anthony, “except on a
memorable evening at the Redtop Hotel.”
Banter and nonsense—healthy nonsense. How restful they were after
introspection and worry. How friendly and cheerful everyone was, and how
quiet and peaceful it was about them. Maud watched Anthony as she
crocheted a sweater for herself—Anthony watched Horatia—Harvey with a
secret amusement watched his wife and his sister-in-law, but Horatia
watched no one. She was revelling in peace. Jim was in her mind but no
longer torturing her. She thought of him as loving her and of herself as
loving him. No solutions of her difficulty came to her and she did not look
for any. She was content to be in the midst of life. It no longer frightened
her.
“Good-night,” said Anthony. “I’ll be over often. Look for me on the
doorstep every morning.”
 CHAPTER XIX

P ERHAPS the modern substitute for the coquetry of the old-fashioned

woman before marriage is the introduction of “problems” into her love-
making. The man still courts—a little more discreetly than he used to
but much after the same plan—but whereas the woman of a generation ago
was supposed to lead him a whimsical chase, now giving, now withdrawing
her favor, refusing to admit her feelings, the typical woman of today is apt
to admit her feelings readily enough, but she preludes her submission to
them by the introduction of a host of “problems.”
Sometimes it is the problem of whether she wants to have children or not
—sometimes the question of giving up a separate, wage-earning existence,
sometimes a theory against the inequality of marital concessions,
sometimes this, sometimes that. But questions of this sort have become
such common experience that one wonders sometimes if the whole thing is
not a development of the old feminine practice of playing with a man from
behind a feather-fringed fan. Not that these women of today consciously
concoct their problems to trouble their lovers or excite further ardor in them
—far be it from the thoughts of most of them to so illegitimately fan a
man’s flame, and perhaps the whole suggestion is unworthy and unfair.
Still, so many girls have these preliminary problems before they marry—so
many courtships are painful, harassed affairs these days—so many moonlit
nights are spent in putting questions which do not read, “Will you love me
always?” but “Will I be able to maintain my individuality?” or in the
bewildering phrase of poor Lady Harmon, “my autonomy,” that this
dwelling upon mating problems among women surely looks like a modern
group movement. And no reflection either on the honesty or fervor of
contemporary women. The same doubts stirring in their minds have always
stirred in the minds of courted women—doubts as to whether such
happiness, such devoted love as comes in the first fragrant period of love-
making can endure and what will happen if it does not endure? Formerly
women teased their lovers for assurances of perpetual love. The woman
now, more wise, more honest, more skeptical too, about perpetual love, puts
a different face on her questions. She asks—“And if this love does not turn
out well, what then? Shall I be wrecked? Can I maintain enough of my
independence, of my beauty and strength, to play the game through? Will
this man be grasping and demanding? Is love an exhilaration worthy of the
submission of my body and spirit?”
The woman of today is not miserly. She has no idea—not nearly so
much as her old-fashioned sister of doling out her love. She is a marvelous
spender. But she is not a spendthrift and she has had enough teaching in the
economics of life to demand value received. If love is worth while she is
capable of giving everything magnificently. If it is not, she grudges giving,
having put permanently behind her the theory that woman’s lot is pitiful and
one of resignation. And yet sometimes she does give everything, knowing it
is a gamble, just as the girl of the old game gave everything often enough,
even when her lover’s “love you always” rang false in her ears.
Horatia’s problem, of course, might have been one of a dozen. The
incident of Mrs. Hubbell was analyzed rightly enough by Jim as being
merely illustrative of a lack of faith in him. She had neither complete faith
in him nor complete faith in marriage and her lack of faith was entirely in
consonance with her time. Mrs. Hubbell loomed large in her mind while she
was in the midst of her argument with Jim. But she was not in the country
for a week before she thought of her problem in terms which almost
eliminated Rose.
In the first flush of her love for Jim she had yielded to her
temperamental love for romance and to emotional wonder at finding herself
beloved and suddenly more important than ever before. But with the
approach of the great question of marriage she had found that her mind
began to question many things. She soon saw that what she was facing was
not a minor point of whether Jim was to see Rose Hubbell or not, but
whether her need of Jim and his of her was great enough to supersede all
doubts, all fears, all worries about marriage. Little by little she postponed a
final consideration of these questions. Life in the country was easy enough
but none the less full of events. There was a great deal of lazy intercourse
with people, a great deal of exercise, motoring—and Horatia found that she
was able to give herself up quite happily to the enjoyment of natural beauty
—fresh morning air, sunsets on the little lake and green afternoons in the
woods. She was not ashamed of that. The sensations of beauty and the
elevation of spirit that came with it were so far from trivial that they
justified her for feeling happy so soon after her break with Jim. She
withdrew a little from the memories of his love into contemplation of the
fact of it.
At this distance it was peaceful to think of his love and in this calmer
mood she did not question the depth of feeling of either of them. The
questions of outcomes she laid aside for the present and she moved through
this setting of natural beauty with heart and head held high. Some time she
would move to a solution—not yet. Of course she did not realize how
dangerous to her love for Jim all these distractions were nor how dangerous
her friends meant them to be. She never thought of Anthony as a lover. A
false step from him or Maud would have driven her away in those first
days, but Anthony’s attitude was perfect. He was the admirable friend and
companion just as Horatia had wished and just as she had asked him to be.
He established her confidence in him again. They walked and rode and
swam together. No excursion was complete without Anthony.
And they grew very close to one another. There was one silver night
when they rode for endless hours under the moonlight—a white road
stretching forward over the hill-tops and luring them always farther. The
lights went out in the little villages and they became black and mysteriously
still.
“Dead little houses,” said Anthony, “why are people so silly as to sleep
inside them?”
He was full of life that night. Horatia was close to him—still—happy—
his machine quivered and sped under his touch and he had all that he loved
most in the world around him. Horatia’s own youth woke in answer to this
appetite for life which showed in the man’s firm, vigorous handling of his
wheel and the joyous lift of his head.
“Are you happy, Horatia?”
“Quite happy.” She was sincere. There were no problems or worries in
her head, the moment was enough.
“We get along pretty well,” said Anthony happily.
“Don’t we.”
Horatia never thought that Anthony might be making love to her. Love to
her was already couched in different terms. She liked his phrasing and she
liked him. He was such a human companion and they were alone before
such vastnesses that she found herself responding to the touch of his
shoulder. They were leaning back in the roadster, shoulders touching lightly.
 “Life’s queer, Anthony. When we expect to be happy we aren’t and when
you don’t expect it, it comes.”
“We don’t know when to expect it,” answered Anthony sagely.
He talked well that night and from that night on as she thought of her
future Horatia began to compare and contrast Anthony’s plan of life. On this
ride he left out most of his vehement, laughable sociology, and talked of
business. He had been fascinated, startled by the vast machinery of moving
grain across the world. The great scale on which it was done thrilled him.
“Feeding the world,” he said, with no great humanitarian feeling but as if
the magnificence of the act had gripped his imagination. He was going to
take charge of part of the business after he had seen the eastern end of it.
“I thought you wanted to travel before you began work.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I want to be a man—a mature man soon—and a
mature man must have a job.”
Self-absorbed Horatia, who did not guess from those words of what else
he was thinking! But she did not trouble about Anthony much. She
generalized Anthony.
“Yes—we—all men and women must work.”
“Not women always and not as hard as men.”
Horatia waived the point. It was a nice gallantry, she thought. She was
not ready to work anyway, just yet.
They passed a strange light half hidden in the bushes just then, and
whatever else Anthony had meant to say was quite forgotten for the
moment. He was suddenly alert. Without a word he went into reverse and
backed up to the roadside.
“Stay where you are, Horatia,” he said briefly and decisively.
She leaned forward. He was beside the light and suddenly she saw what
Anthony had seen at once. It was an overturned roadster—its tail light
gleaming in the marshy grass. She saw Anthony peering around, then
bending. With a leap she was beside him and he gave her a quick,
appraising glance.
“When I lift,—pull.”
Amazingly she was pulling, pulling and brushing aside obstacles that felt
like the overturned paraphernalia of the car. She was pulling a woman—a
girl awkwardly thrown prostrate and still. And then they found the man.
Anthony seemed to know exactly what to do. He was almost professional.
“We’ll leave him—it’s no use,” he said. “And carry her. Hold her in your
lap and I’ll drive. We can’t waste a minute.”
The inert body of the girl hung heavily over the side of the car and
Horatia’s lap.
“How far must we go?”
“Five or six miles. I saw the man’s letters—he seems to come from there
—Winchester.”
At the Winchester hospital they found after an anxious hour that the girl
was only stunned and bruised. She would be all right. She was easily
identified—a girl about town.
The young man seemed to be a person of prominence. An odd stiffness
of local scandal hung over the necessary inquiries. Evidently the association
of the man and girl was not discussible. The police notified the man’s father
and a party set out for the wreck with Anthony as guide.
Horatia had a glimpse of a white, stricken, elderly man bending over the
body and heard him groan in horrified pain. There was nothing left for them
to do. They turned towards home.
“Poor devil,” said Anthony, “he’s gone and there’s an awful gap
somewhere. Because he wanted to be a bounder. Nice-looking fellow he
was, too.”
“Let’s get home quickly,” begged Horatia.
Anthony turned to look at her.
“Sorry it happened,” he said briefly, “but you were game, Horatia. Lord,
but you were game.”
She tried to smile and only succeeded in turning very faint.
“I never saw a dead person before except my mother, and I can’t
remember that.”
“You never——” Anthony stopped the car and put a quick arm about her
shoulders. “What a damned shame! Just rest—just forget it.”
From that night they were closer comrades than ever before. And it was
during the weeks that followed that Horatia found herself writing less and
less to Jim. It was very hard to write. She couldn’t put all she wanted to say
in one letter and she didn’t know whether he would understand all the
things she was thinking unless she wrote him very fully. That could all
come later, she told herself—now she wanted strength and calmness.
Nothing, according to Marjorie Clapp, was so worth while as strength and
health. And more and more she found Marjorie and Anthony establishing
standards by which she measured life.
They were so sure, and yet not sure as Maud was sure—with
aggressiveness and assertiveness. They did not try to decide everything for
everyone and they were slow of condemnation in most respects and rather
open to new beliefs.
“Have you no imperfections?” wailed Horatia to Marjorie.
Marjorie stared at her. “What have I been assuming?” she asked in
horror. “What sort of prig——”
“It’s because you don’t assume. Because you are modern without
bragging of it and conservative when it is for the safety of things. Because
you are actually getting somewhere.”
“Well,” said Marjorie, “one of my imperfections is that I fairly soak in
such talk about myself. I’ve been through the mill, Horatia. I’ve wondered
and puzzled and hated being called a reactionary. There was a time when
bobbing my hair and taking a lover instead of a husband seemed the brave
thing to do. And then I decided that it wasn’t, after all. That it was my fear
of being called stupid and not my conviction of what was progress that was
holding me back from the commonplaces of being a wife and mother.
Inwardly I approved of lots of things and outwardly I was afraid to give in
to them for fear of being ordinary. But I’m sure now. I’ve burned my
bridges. I want to give my children the best of the old régime. The new
régime will unavoidably make advances to them and they may accept a lot
of them. That’s all right too—the old and the new make a fine blend. And I
try to keep in touch with things so nothing will shock or frighten me. Why
are you so worried?”
“I’m not really, just now. I’m as content as a cat. But I suppose I ought to
know where I stand and as a matter of fact I don’t. I ought to know what
people I want to run with. I’ve seen a lot of kinds. And I don’t really fit in
anywhere. Someone told me that I was only fit to do lip service to
modernism, the other day. That bothered me. I had taken it for granted that I
was a modern. It seemed indecent not to be.”
 “But you are. Anyone who sees you knows that you are carrying on into
the future.”
“This person didn’t think so.” And for the second time, omitting her
personal connection, Horatia told Grace’s story.
“Poor Grace,” said Marjorie.
“That’s just it. I didn’t feel ‘poor Grace.’ I felt ‘plague-stricken—unclean
Grace.’ And it began in me a lot of uncertainties. If she was like that—if
marriage was as wretched and unreliable as she claimed—where can I turn
for faith? You help restore faith but what if you are a shining exception?”
Anthony came in and stood against the door looking tall and immensely
confident. Perhaps Marjorie felt he was the answer to Horatia’s appeal.
Anyway she went away and sent them iced tea and sandwiches.
 CHAPTER XX

A T just what point Horatia realized that Anthony still loved her and that
his love could be called by no other name was quite cloudy in her own
mind. Perhaps her first intimation of it came that very afternoon when
he stood looking at her silently after Marjorie slipped away. It was a very
revealing look and Horatia would have been stupid indeed not to have felt
its quality. She pulled herself alert from the relaxed position she had been
indulging in on the cushioned settee and put her hands laughingly to her
disheveled hair.
“Please don’t embarrass me, Anthony. I know I’m tousled.”
“I love to look at you tousled. I love to look at you anyway and at any
time. It’s all——” he stopped and pulled her to her feet, retrieving himself
gaily. “Don’t bewitch me, young woman. Didn’t I get my orders not to be in
love with you?”
But there was a tense look in his eyes that set Horatia wondering.
Five months ago she had been filled with humiliation and actual distaste
by his declaration of love for her. Two months before, when she had first
come to the country, she would have been revolted and frightened away.
But the situation was changed. Anthony had grown to be a part of her life.
And he was more skilful than he had been in the spring. He was very slow
in his love-making, careful not to outrage her feelings, careful not to ask for
anything. By words sometimes, but more often by the devotion of actions,
by the constant protective care with which he surrounded her, Horatia was
brought into consciousness of his love. It was easy for her because he asked
for nothing. She could like him as much as she pleased and take comfort in
the hundred intangible expressions of his love without feeling that she was
involved in a love affair. And Jim was not there and his letters were few and
repressed in tone. He was her lover—and she was his, thought Horatia,
whether she was disappointed or not. That was her promise, but it seemed
one which her mind insisted on rather than a conviction springing from the
depth of her heart.
Accepting the love-making of two men is often possible, even to a fine,
high-minded virtuous woman, if only fastidious ways save her from any
sense of promiscuity. Anthony’s first attack coming in the spring, when
Horatia was surrounded by the very present sense of Jim’s love, when she
was fresh from his arms, had made her feel indecent. But now, removed
from Jim, cooled and drawn little by little into a new atmosphere,
Anthony’s love filled her at first with a gentle regret and then little by little,
accepting his attentions and never finding the moment when she was both
able and willing to tell him that she did not want him to care for her, there
came to be a question about Anthony in her mind. It was, for instance,
difficult to say to him when he was folding a wrap about her shoulders,
“You must not be so considerate of me if your consideration means that you
love me.” Yet, accepting publicly a hundred special attentions and
thoughtfulnesses, seeing in Maud’s glances and in Marjorie’s what they
hoped and expected, the thing lost its repugnant aspect. She could hardly
feel that this devotion of Anthony’s which everyone approved of and which
was so gentle a thing, could be shameful, especially when she was not
reinforced by the expression of Jim’s love. Sometimes an unpleasant
thought rose in her mind, contrasting this steady devotion, unreturned and
unwelcomed, with the love of Jim which circumstances seemed to have so
easily defeated. Yet it was significant that Anthony did not find a chance to
make love to her openly and fervently and that she kept him from any
declaration. One thing she knew very clearly—that she would hate to put
Anthony definitely out of her life and that the moment of doing so could be
postponed. Her sister did not plan to return until October. There was still a
month before she need face issues. If she dabbled sometimes in the thought
of Anthony’s life, that was only natural for he spread his plans before her. It
would be an orderly, progressive life, fine, easeful and not selfish so much
as concentrated on self-development.
“But Anthony, where does your duty to society come in?”
“In being a decent, useful citizen myself. Not in trying to pauperize other
people—or humiliate them. In voting right and standing right on things—
sounds awfully priggish, but really I suppose it’s summed up in being an
example as far as a very imperfect person can be, and in doing my own
job.”
“But somebody has to pioneer for the weak ones.” She was thinking of
Langley to whom it could never have occurred to be an example to society
but who worked unremittingly on the chance that he might reduce the
hypocrisy and selfishness and viciousness around him. It came to her that
Anthony’s method was infallible as far as it went and Jim’s dangerously
fallible and uncomfortable. Anthony would never have anything to reproach
himself with—Jim might have much. He was answering.
“There wouldn’t be so many weak ones if everyone did his job and did it
right. The weak ones are the result of bad living and the ones who go out to
reform all this weakness—who are they?—old maids—unhealthy and
unhappy—freak men, abnormal in their living. I tell you the country needs
steadying, Horatia, and steadying by example, not by speech-making.”
“And that method is self-preservation for you, of course—and comfort,”
said Horatia, a little caustically.
“Yes—of course. I think it should be. I think—I think it’s much more
sensible to preserve yourself, for you and all women to establish homes and
families and keep healthy instead of running around city streets and city
slums.”
Horatia chuckled. “You’re a divine advocate of woman’s place in the
home. You make it seem so tempting.”
The feeling in his face leapt into flame.
“Can I make it tempting enough?”
She drew away a little nervously.
“Oh, personally, I’ll always prefer the streets. I’m a natural born gutter-
pup.”
“You’re naturally the most wonderful woman in the world and you’re
meant for the truest and best things.”
“Don’t praise me, please, Anthony. I hate it.”
“Then don’t say such silly things.”
He walked up and down and then returned to her, still trying to plead
impersonally.
“I’m not a bully or a reactionary—I don’t want to run anybody’s life. I
don’t believe in this male superiority stuff either. And I’ve been with you
and Marjorie enough to have an enormous respect for women. She’s not
tied down. She’s the freest woman I know.”
“Yes, because she is doing what she wants to do.”
Gradually in this way a choice was placed before Horatia, a choice of
lives. She evaded the main issue, the issue which would ultimately make
choice for her—that must be which man drew her most. She compared lives
as if it were a problem in sociology she had before her. Anthony had
respected her desire to have him keep from definite questions but she knew
that he was laying his life before her. And she reviewed it. She saw that she
and Anthony together and others like them, mental aristocrats, secure in
material things, could take their places in a society of flux and uncertainty,
and be beacon lights of strength and security, she as a woman, raising
woman’s functions to fine dignity, strong in love and content and purpose.
She saw herself taking up the burdens which other cheaper women laid
down, dignifying a home and wifehood and maternity.
And on the other side stretched life with Jim, a life of puzzles, inquiries,
unsolved problems, a life among the problems of the world, solving them
not by keeping unsullied but by enduring with them, by growing weary and
impatient and often arriving at no solution. And the domestic side of life
with Jim would be a life without great regularity or great certainty of ease—
how could she fit Jim into domestic routine and how could she fit in these
strange friends of Jim’s whom he refused to give up, into a life of dignity
and order? Even against his protests, the work would call her back to it and
she would have to adjust her wifehood and child-bearing to all this—and
there would never be enough money so that they could live in the careless
ease which took money for granted. Jim’s side seemed to suffer in
comparison with the other life and yet why was it that she did not make a
decision against it and put it out of her mind?
Maud came out into the open a little more. She talked Anthony. And
once she became rather fundamental in her talk—for Maud.
“I haven’t said much about Jim Langley,” she said. “And since I saw
him, I’ll admit that he is fascinating. But there are things no girl
understands, Horatia. And you don’t realize what a tremendous thing it is to
try to change a man’s habits. Langley isn’t a domestic sort and if you marry
a man you’re bound to live his life. In the end most women want a regular
kind of home. I don’t want to force you, Horatia, but it does seem as if
Anthony were so exactly the right man.”
Unexpectedly Horatia kissed her.
“Poor Maud,” she said, “you do want me to be comfortable, don’t you?
But if Jim had Anthony’s money I wonder what you’d feel about the right
man?”