Her eyes glistened. "That"s chivalry," she cried. "That"s the spirit of the knights of old when women were concerned. I adore you for what you did!"
"It was the way my father and I looked at it," he said, mildly. "My father was not a very practical man, but I always agreed with him. And I am happy now, earning my own living. Why should I think my grandfather ought to have worked all his life so that I would not need to work?"
"I suppose it"s different with a big, strong man and a woman. She needs so much that a man must give her."
Captain Mayo became promptly silent, crestfallen, and embarra.s.sed. He stared aft, he looked at the splendid yacht whose finances he managed and whose extravagance he knew. He saw the girl at his side, and blinked at the gems which flashed in the sunlight as her fingers tucked up the locks of hair where the breeze had wantoned.
"I think my father works because he loves it," she said. "I wish he would rest and enjoy other things more. If mother had lived to influence him perhaps he would see something else in life instead of merely piling up money. But he doesn"t listen to me. He gives me money and tells me to go and play. I miss my mother, boy! I haven"t anybody to talk with--who understands!"
There were tears in her eyes, and he was grateful for them. He felt that she had depths in her nature. But keen realization of his position, compared with hers, distressed him. She stood there, luxury incarnate, mistress of all that money could give her.
"Anybody can make money," she declared. "My father and those men are sitting there and building plans to bring them thousands and thousands of dollars. All they need to do is put their heads together and plan.
Every now and then I hear a few words. They"re going to own all the steamboats--or something of that kind. Anybody can make money, I say, but there are so few who know how to enjoy it."
"I have been doing a lot of thinking since last night--Alma." He hesitated when he came to her name, and then blurted it out.
"Do you think it is real lover-like to treat my name as if it were a hurdle that you must leap over?" she asked, with her aggravating little chuckle. "Oh, you have so much to learn!"
"I"m afraid so. I have a great many things ahead of me to learn and do.
I have been thinking. I have been afraid of the men who sit and scheme and put all their minds on making money. They did bitter things to us, and we didn"t understand until it was all over. But I must go among them and watch them and learn how to make money."
"Don"t be like the others, now, and talk money--money," she said, pettishly. "Money and their love-affairs--that"s the talk I have heard from men ever since I was allowed to come into the drawing-room out of the nursery!"
"But I must talk money a little, dear. I have my way to make in the world."
"Thrifty, practical, and Yankee!" she jested. "I suppose you can"t help it!"
"It isn"t for myself--it"s for you!" he returned, wistfully, and with a voice and demeanor he offered himself as Love"s sacrifice before her--the old story of utter devotion--the ancient sacrifice.
"I have all I want," she insisted.
"But _I_ must be able to give you what you want!"
"I warn you that I hate money-grubbers! They haven"t a spark of romance in them. Boyd, you"d be like all the rest in a little while. You mustn"t do it."
"But I must have position--means before I dare to go to your father--if I ever shall be able to go to him!"
"Go to him for what?"
"To ask him--to say--to--well, when we feel that I"m in a position where we can be married--"
"Of course we shall be married some day, boy, but all that will take care of itself when the time comes. But now you are-- How old are you, Boyd?"
"Twenty-six."
"And I am nineteen. And what has marriage to do with the love we are enjoying right now?"
"When folks are in love they want to get married."
"Granted! But when lovers are wise they will treat romance at first as the epicure treats his gla.s.s of good wine. They will pour it slowly and hold the gla.s.s up against the light and admire its color!" In her gay mood she pinched together thumb and forefinger and lifted an imaginary gla.s.s to the sun. "Then they will sniff the bouquet. Ah-h-h, how fragrant! And after a time they will take a little sip--just a weeny little sip and hold it on the tongue for ever so long. For, when it is swallowed, what good? Oh, boy, here are you--talking first of all about marriage! Talking of the good wine of life and love as if it were a fluid simply to satisfy thirst. We are going to love, first of all!
Come, I will teach you."
He did not know what to say to her. There was a species of abandon in her gaiety. Her exotic language embarra.s.sed one who had been used to mariners" laconic directness of speech. She looked at him, teasing him with her eyes. He was a bit relieved when the pale-faced secretary came dragging himself up the ladder and broke in on the tete-a-tete.
"Mr. Marston"s orders are, Captain Mayo, that you turn here and go west.
Do you know the usual course of the Bee line steamers?"
"Yes, sir."
"He requests you to turn in toward sh.o.r.e and follow that course."
"Very well, sir." Captain Mayo walked to the wheel. "Nor" nor"west, Billy, until I can give you the exact course."
"Nor" nor"west!" repeated the wheelsman, throwing her hard over, and the _Olenia_ came about with a rail-dipping swerve and retraced her way along her own wake of white suds.
Miss Marston preceded the captain down the ladder and went into the chart-room. "A kiss--quick!" she whispered.
He held her close to him for a long moment.
"You are a most obedient captain," she said.
When he released her and went at his task, she leaned upon his shoulder and watched him as he straddled his parallels across the chart.
"We"ll run to Razee Reef," he told her, eager to make her a partner in all his little concerns. "The Bee boats fetch the whistler there so as to lay off their next leg. I didn"t know that Mr. Marston was interested in the Bee line."
"I heard him talking about that line," she said, indifferently.
"Sometimes I listen when I have nothing else to do. He used a naughty word about somebody connected with that company--and it"s so seldom that he allows himself to swear I listened to see what it was all about. I don"t know even now. I don"t understand such things. But he said if he couldn"t buy "em he"d bu"st "em. Those were his words. Not very elegant language. But it"s all I remember."
Before he left the chart-room Mayo took a squint at the barometer. "I"m sorry he has ordered me in toward the coast," he said. "The gla.s.s is too far below thirty to suit me. I think it means fog."
"But it"s so clear and beautiful," she protested.
"It"s always especially beautiful at sea before something bad happens,"
he explained, smiling. "And there has been a big fog-bank off to s"uth"ard for two days. It"s a good deal like life, dear. All lovely, and then the fog shuts in!"
"But I would be happy with you in the fog," she a.s.sured him.
He glowed at her words and answered with his eyes.
She would have followed him back upon the bridge, but the steward intercepted her. He had waited outside the chart-room.
"Mr. Marston"s compliments, Miss Marston! He requests you to join him at cards."
She pouted as she gave back Mayo"s look of annoyance, and then obeyed the mandate.
Mr. Marston was stroking his narrow strip of chin beard with thumb and forefinger when she arrived on the quarter-deck. The men of business were below, and he motioned to a hammock chair beside him.
"Alma, for the rest of this cruise I want you to stay back here with our guests where you belong," he commanded with the directness of attack employed by Julius Marston in his dealings with those of his menage.