Chapter VII:
After Eva's First Ball
On the evening of the ball Eva certainly fulfilled Oliver's predictions, when in a simple evening gown of white crepe de chine, she stood before the mirror, clasping a pearl necklace around her throat. She wore no other jewels except a large solitary upon her finger. Her simple costume made a perfect setting for her rich cream and pink complexion, and very girlish figure.
In the large reception of the Governor's mansion, Eva made her first debut amid the bejeweled dames of European and Sierra Leone official elite.
One morning Oliver walked to the store during a heavy shower, and upon reaching the yard he saw the bales of piassava and loose fibre crated for shipment, standing outside in the rain, while the yard boys sat and reclined under the porch.
Walking quickly up the store steps in a thoughtful mood, he decided to inaugurate his contemplated reforms that same morning. He called up the chief shipping clerk over the office telephone, immediately upon his entry. Mr. Anderson answered the summons. That this was an unusual procedure could be readily seen by his surprised expression as he entered the office.
"Good morning, Mr. Anderson, please be seated," Oliver began, as he pointed to a chair, "I want a little information upon the export commodities under your supervision. Will you please enlighten me as to the best method of preserving the fibres for shipment so as to obtain the highest European market prices?"
"By thoroughly drying the piassava and grading it before shipment," Mr. Anderson replied.
"I notice that you take the opposite method in this firm. May I inquire if the bales stacked in the yards for shipment were registered as first or second grades?"
"Both," the clerk replied.
"You will kindly oblige me by personally supervising the loosing and drying of the same and whatever loss occurs from next week will be borne pro rata in proportion to your salaries."
Oliver spent a very strenuous day, and before closing time, every department showed signs of the new era. He had set the store boys to work under a European clerk, separating the broken grains from the good grains of coffee. He repeated the same with the palm kernels, and then turned his attention to the rubber which lay strewn under the counters, stuck to the floor and full of trash. He then assembled the employees, and told them that beginning Monday the company would only bear the loss of perishable commodities when it was through no fault of the employee, and that he would take stock at the end of the week.
On the next day he visited the cooper shop and watched the colored American youth of about 20 as he dexterously handled the iron gauge while measuring palm oil in the large wooden puncheons. Oliver borrowed the gauge and surprised the gauger when he pushed it through the bung of the barrel as if he had gauged oil all his life.
After examining the registered number of gallons recorded upon the iron rod, he compared the same with the numbers recently recorded upon the books. Detecting a discrepancy, he tested others with the same result, and not until by an accident the rod slipped and registered a higher figure, did he solve the puzzle and discover the tricks of the gaugers and shipping clerks' neatly planned grafting schemes.
True to his impetuous and firm disposition Oliver was determined to make a success of his undertaking, and in an incredibly short while he was drawing a commission upon the surplus profits of an increased dividend.
But it was not all business life with Oliver; he spent much time with Eva also, sometime helping her in the kitchen as she made the butter-scotch and fudge that he said could not be equaled. On these occasions they afforded much amusement for Varnee and Yanga—their devoted worshipers—and aroused the anxiety and impatience of Tobee, who sat in the window of the outhouse viewing through the kitchen window, the scene of Eva trying an apron string around Oliver's neck amid kisses, and shrugging his shoulders with an air of disgust he said to a visiting crony, "Dem two English people be too much crazy and all same pickanninie. Lookum at de master, he say he lif helpum Missus cook. Oh, oh! I smell dem candy. Dey go leavum dat pan wid plenty burned candy and me go washee bad mess. White woman be plenty spoiled; he set down house all day, when man bring the money, umph!"