Part 40 (1/2)
XX
Two years had pa.s.sed, and the grand old shop was plainly going down.
It could not satisfy chance customers; it had begun to lose its staunchest supporters. Gradually and fatally, cruel words were going round the town and far out into the country villages. ”It isn't what it used to be.... It has had its day.... Nothing lasts forever.”
Fewer and fewer carriages of the local gentry were to be seen standing outside its doors. Farmers' wives, who for more than a decade had driven into Mallingbridge and spent Sat.u.r.day afternoons picking and choosing at Thompson's, now did all their shopping somewhere else. The whole world seemed to be discovering that you could get whatever you wanted quite as well and more cheaply somewhere else. And from somewhere else, your goods--no matter where you lived, whether far or near--were delivered free of charge, with marvellous celerity, and ”returnable if damaged.”
Inside the sinking shop every a.s.sistant too well knew that horrid expression, ”Somewhere else.”
It paralysed the tongues of the shop girls; it struck them stupid. Each time they heard it, their courage waned, their hopes drooped; they gave up struggling.
”Thank you, I won't trouble you any more.”
”Not the least trouble, I a.s.sure you.”
”No, you're very good--but I'm in a hurry. I'll try somewhere else.”
”Very well, madam.”
A lost customer--no more to be done.
Yet the a.s.sistants had before their eyes a fine example of unflagging courage. Of one of the partners at least, it could not be said that there was supineness, neglect, or bungling practices to account for the long-continued and increasing depression that all the employees were feeling so severely.
Of the other partner, the less said the better. They could not indeed find words adequate for the expression of their opinions in regard to _him_.
When Mrs. Marsden, bravely facing the situation and calmly acknowledging the logic of facts, had declared that it was imperatively necessary to reduce what in railway management are called running expenses, and at all hazards bring expenditure and receipts again to a proper working ratio, the dominant partner selfishly jumped at the idea, converted it into a fresh weapon of destruction, and used it with wicked force.
Cut down the staff? Yes, this is a luminous notion. Where there have been five a.s.sistants at a counter, let us have three--or only two. ”We must weed 'em out, Mears. No more cats than can catch mice! I'll soon weed 'em out.”
It seemed to the people behind the counters that he took a diabolical pleasure in the weeding-out process. Instead of getting through his dismissals as quickly as possible, he kept the poor souls in suspense--giving the sack to two or three every day; so that these black weeks were a reign of terror, during which one rose each morning with the dreadful doubt whether one would survive till night.
When at last the executions ceased, almost every one of the important heads had fallen. Why pay high wages for subordinate chieftains when the over-lords can supervise for nothing? Mrs. Marsden received instructions to keep an eye on all departments; shop-walkers were made by giving counter-hands additional duties without additional pay; and Mr. Mears and Miss Woolfrey could respectively be considered as remaining in managerial charge of the whole ground floor and the whole first floor.
The gigantic bas.e.m.e.nt was in charge of darkness, damp, and the cold spirit of failure. Marsden never spoke of it himself, and might not be reminded about it by others. He wished to forget the deep hole into which he had poured so much irretrievable gold.
Miss Woolfrey could not boast of having been promoted: she had merely survived: she obtained neither recompense nor praise for doing the extra work that a stern master had pushed into her way. If Mr. Mears had not been driven out into the street, it was because Marsden, whose selfish folly was sometimes tempered by a certain shrewd cunning, had definitely come to the conclusion that, bad as things were, they would be worse if he deprived himself of the help of this faithful servant. Mears had stood up to him; Mears had convinced him; Mears would never be dismissed, because Mears could never be replaced.
It was perhaps some slight comfort to Mrs. Marsden to know now that her oldest shop friend would be allowed to keep his promise, and to stick to her as long as he cared to do so.
Soon after the reduction of the staff, Marsden introduced another economy. Without warning he started an entirely new system of payment.
Hitherto all wages had been at fixed rates, with progressive rises; and the staff, feeling security in their situations and able to look to an a.s.sured future, had worked loyally without the stimulus of commission.
But Marsden said these methods were antiquated, exploded; they did very well before Noah's flood, but they wouldn't do nowadays. Henceforth everybody's screw must depend upon the commissions earned: in other words, the basis for the calculation of wages must be the amount of the shop's receipts.
Mears, protesting but submitting, carried the new order into effect.
”I've no objection on principle,” said Mears heavily; ”but you have chosen a queer time to do it, sir--just when takings have dropped to their lowest, and there's no movement in any line.”
Resentment, murmuring, discontent followed; half a dozen sufferers went into voluntary exile; then there was silence.
And then Marsden thought of a third economy. Thompson's had ever been famed for keeping a generous table. You were sure of good sound grub, and as much of it as you could stow away, to sustain you in your toil.