Owen, says that you always say something different."
"Oh, Aunt Sally! She"s the grandest of women. I wish she were my aunt. I have aunts I could trade for her."
At the door Allen paused. Marian, running on blithely, gave him no opportunity to make his adieux.
"Oh, aren"t you going our way?" she demanded, in a tone of invitation.
"Yes; come along; it"s only a step to the hotel where Miss Ba.s.sett is staying," said Harwood, finding that they blocked the entrance and not seeing his way to abandoning Allen on the spot. He never escaped the appeal that lay in Allen; he was not the sort of fellow one would wound; and there could be no great harm in allowing him to walk a few blocks with Marian Ba.s.sett, who had so managed the situation as to make his elimination difficult. It was a cold, clear night and they walked briskly to the Whitcomb. When they reached the hotel, Dan, who had left the conversation to Marian and Allen, breathed a sigh that his responsibility was at an end. He and Allen would have a walk and talk together, or they might go up to the Boordman Building for the long lounging parleys in which Allen delighted and which Dan himself enjoyed.
But Dan had not fully gauged the measure of Marian"s daring.
"Won"t you please wait a minute, Mr. Harwood, until I see if poor mama needs anything. You know we all rely on you so. I"ll be back in just a moment."
"So that"s Morton Ba.s.sett"s daughter," observed Allen when Marian had fluttered into the elevator. "You must have a lot of fun taking her about; she"s much more grown-up than I had imagined from what you"ve said. She"s almost a dangerous young person."
The young men found seats and Allen nursed his hat musingly. He had nothing whatever to do, and the chance meeting with Harwood was a bright incident in a bleak, eventless day.
"Oh, she"s a nice child," replied Harwood indifferently. "But she finds childhood irksome. It gives her ladyship a feeling of importance to hold me here while she asks after the comfort of her mother. I suppose a girl is a woman when she has learned that she can tell a man to wait."
"You should write a book of aphorisms and call it "The Young Lady"s Own Handbook." Perhaps I ought to be skipping."
"For Heaven"s sake, don"t! I want you as an excuse for getting away."
"I think I"d better go," suggested Allen. "I can wait for you in the office."
"Then I should pay the penalty for allowing you to escape; she can be very severe; she is a much harder taskmaster than her father. Don"t desert me."
Allen took this at face value; and it seemed only ordinary courtesy to wait to say good-night to a young woman who was coming back in a moment to report upon the condition of a sick mother. In ten minutes Marian reappeared, having left her wraps behind.
"Mama is sleeping beautifully. And that"s a sign that she"s better."
Here clearly was an end of the matter, and Dan had begun to say good-night; but with the prettiest grace possible Marian was addressing Allen:--
"I"m terribly hungry and I sent down an order for just the smallest supper. You see, I took it for granted that you would both be just as hungry as I am, so you must come and keep me company." And to antic.i.p.ate the refusal that already glittered coldly in Dan"s eye, she continued, "Mama doesn"t like me to be going into the restaurant alone, but she approves of Mr. Harwood."
The head waiter was already leading them to a table set for three in accordance with the order Manan had telephoned from her room. She had eliminated the possibility of discussion, and Harwood raged in his helplessness. There was no time for a scene even if he had thought it wise to precipitate one.
"It"s only a lobster, you know," she said, with the careless ease of a young woman quite habituated to midnight suppers.
Harwood"s frown of annoyance had not escaped her; but it only served to add to her complete joy in the situation. There were other people about, and music proceeded from a screen of palms at the end of the dining-room. Having had her way, Marian nibbled celery and addressed herself rather pointedly to Allen, unmindful of the lingering traces of Harwood"s discomfiture. By the time the lobster was served she was on capital terms with Allen.
In his own delight in Marian, Allen failed utterly to comprehend Harwood"s gloomy silence. Dan scarcely touched his plate, and he knew that Marian was covertly laughing at him.
"Do you know," said Allen, speaking directly to Dan, "we"re having great arguments at Luders"s; we turn the universe over every day."
"You see, Miss Ba.s.sett," Allen explained to Marian; "I"m a fair carpenter and work almost every day at Louis Luders"s shop. I earn a dollar a day and eat dinner--dinner, mind you!--at twelve o"clock, out of a tin pail. You can see that I"m a laboring man--one of the toiling millions."
"You don"t mean that seriously, Mr. Thatcher; not really!"
"Oh, why will you say that? Every one says just that! No one ever believes that I mean what I say!"
This was part of some joke, Marian surmised, though she did not quite grasp it. It was inconceivable that the son of the house of Thatcher should seriously seek a chance to do manual labor. Allen in his dinner jacket did not look like a laborer: he was far more her idea of a poet or a musician.
"I went to Luders"s house the other evening for supper," Allen was saying. "I rather put it up to him to ask me, and he has a house with a garden, and his wife was most amusing. We all talked German, including the kids,--three of them, fascinating little fellows. He"s a cabinetmaker, Miss Ba.s.sett,--a producer of antiques, and a good one; and about the gentlest human being you ever saw. He talks about existing law as though it were some kind of devil,--a monster, devouring the world"s poor. But he won"t let his wife spank the children,--wouldn"t, even when one of them kicked a hole in my hat! I supposed that of course there would be dynamite lying round in tomato cans; and when I shook the pepper box I expected an explosion; but I didn"t see a gun on the place.
He"s beautifully good-natured, and laughed in the greatest way when I asked him how soon he thought of blowing up some of our prominent citizens. I really believe he likes me--strange but true."
"Better not get in too deep with those fellows," warned Dan. "The police watch Luders carefully; he"s considered dangerous. It"s the quiet ones, who are kind to their families and raise cabbages, that are the most violent."
"Oh, Luders says we"ve got to smash everything! He rather favors socialism himself, but he wants to tear down the court-houses first and begin again."
"You"d better be careful or you"ll land in jail, Mr. Thatcher," remarked Marian, taking an olive.
"Oh, if anything as interesting as that should happen to me, I should certainly die of joy!"
"But your family wouldn"t like it if you went to jail," persisted Marian, delighting in the confidences of a young gentleman for whom jails had no terrors.
"The thought of my family is disturbing, it"s positively disturbing,"
Allen replied. "Luders has given me a chance in his shop, and really expects me to work. Surprising in an anarchist; you"d rather expect him to press a stick of dynamite in your hand and tell you to go out and blow up a bank. Luders has a sense of humor, you know: hence the antiques, made to coax money from the purses of the fat rich. There are more ways than one of being a cut-purse."
The lobster had been consumed, and they were almost alone in the restaurant. Marian, with her elbows on the table, was in no haste to leave, but Dan caught the eye of the hovering waiter and paid the check.
"You shouldn"t have done that," Marian protested; "it was my party. I sign my own checks here."
But having now a.s.serted himself, Dan rose, and in a moment he and Allen had bidden her good-night at the elevator door.
"You didn"t seem crazy about your lobster, and you were hardly more than polite to our hostess. Sorry to have b.u.t.ted in. But why have you kept these tender recreations from me!"
"Oh, that child vexes my spirit sometimes. She"s bent on making people do things they don"t want to do. Of course the lobster was a mere excuse for getting acquainted with you; but you needn"t be too set up about it: I think her curiosity about your family is responsible,--these fake newspaper stories about your sister--which is it, Hermione or Gwendolen--who is always about to marry a count. Countesses haven"t been common in Indiana. We need a few to add tone to the local gossip."
"Oh," murmured Allen dejectedly: "I"m sorry if you didn"t want me in the party. It"s always the way with me. n.o.body ever really loves me for myself alone. What does the adorable do besides midnight lobsters? I thought Aunt Sally said she was at Miss Waring"s school."
"She is, more or less," growled Dan. "Her mother wants to put her through college, to please the wealthy great-aunt. Mrs. Owen has shown interest in another girl who is now at Wellesley; hence Marian must go to college, and the bare thought of it bores her to death. She"s as little adapted to a course in college as one of those bright G.o.ddesses who used to adorn Olympus."
"She doesn"t strike me as needing education; she"s a finished product. I felt very young in the divine presence."
"She gives one that feeling," laughed Dan, his mood of impatience dissolving.
"Who"s this rival who has made the higher education seem necessary for Morton Ba.s.sett"s daughter?"
"She"s an amazing girl; quite astonishing. If Mrs. Ba.s.sett were a wise woman she wouldn"t enter Marian in compet.i.tion. And besides, I think her fears are utterly groundless. Marian is delightful, with her waywardness and high-handedness; and Mrs. Owen likes originals, not feeble imitations. I should hate to try to deceive Mrs. Sally Owen--she"s about the wisest person I ever saw."
"Oh, Sylvia! Mrs. Owen has mentioned her. The girl that knows all the stars and that sort of thing. But where"s Morton Ba.s.sett in all this?
He"s rather more than a shadow on the screen?"
"Same old story of the absorbed American father and the mother with nerves"
Two afternoons later, as Harwood was crossing University Park on his way to his boarding-house, he stopped short and stared. A little ahead of him in the walk strolled a girl and a young man, laughing and talking with the greatest animation. There was no questioning their ident.i.ty. It was five o"clock and quite dark, and the air was sharp. Harwood paused and waited for the two loiterers to cross the lighted s.p.a.ce about the little park"s central fountain. It seemed incredible that Marian and Allen should be abroad together in this dallying fashion. His anger rose against Allen, but he curbed an impulse to send him promptly about his business and take Marian back to the Whitcomb. Mr. Ba.s.sett was expected in town that evening and Dan saw his duty clearly in regard to Marian; she must be returned to school w.i.l.l.y-nilly.