Jeff jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Man over there with an eyegla.s.s cord--maybe you can get that. What makes you act so?" He looked cold disapproval; nevertheless, he looked.
Topsy hung her head, still clutching at the stocking-top. "Dunno. I spec"s it"s "cause Ise so wicked!" Finger in mouth, she looked after Jeff as he hobbled away.
A slender witch bounced from a chair and barred his way with a broom.
Her eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g sorcery; her lips looked saucy challenge; she leaned close for a whispered word in his ear: "How would you like to tackle me?"
Poor Jeff! "10, 2--10, 2!" he promised huskily. Yet he ducked beneath the broom.
"But," said the little witch plaintively, "you"re going away!" She dropped her broom and wept.
"8, 2--8, 2--8, 2!" said Jeff, almost in tears himself, and again fell back upon English. "Mere figures or mere words can"t tell you how much I hate to; but I"ve got to follow the ball. I"m looking for a fellow."
"If he--if he doesn"t love you," sobbed the stricken witch, "then you"ll come back to me--won"t you? I love a liar!"
"To the very stake!" vowed Jeff. Such heroic, if conditional, constancy was not to go unrewarded. A couple detached themselves from the dancers, threaded their way to a corner of the long hall and stood there in deep converse. Jeff quickened pulse and pace--for one was a Red Devil and the other wore the soft gray costume of a Friend. She was tall, this Quakeress, and the hobn.o.bbing devil was of Jeff"s own height. Jeff began to hope for a goal.
Briskly limping, he came to this engrossed couple and laid a friendly hand on the devil"s shoulder.
"Brother," he said cordially, "will you please go to--home?"
The devil recoiled an astonished step.
"What? What!! Show me your license!"
"Twenty-three!--Please!--there"s a good devil--23! I"m the right guard for this lady, I hope. Oh, please to go home!"
The devil took this request in very bad part.
"Go back fifteen yards for offside play and take a drop kick at yourself!" he suggested sourly.
A burly policeman, plainly conscious of fitting his uniform, paused for warning.
"No sc.r.a.ppin" now! Don"t start nothin" or I"ll run in the t"ree av yees!" he said, and sauntered on, twirling a graceful nightstick.
"Thee is a local man, judging from thy letters," said the Quaker lady, to relieve the somewhat strained situation. "What do they stand for? E.
P.? Oh, yes--El Paso, of course!"
"I saw you first!" said the Red Devil. "And with your disposition you would naturally find me more suitable. Make your choice of gridirons!
Send him back to the side lines! Disqualify him for interference!"
"Don"t be hurried into a decision," said Jeff. "Eternity is a good while. Before it"s over I"m going to be a--well, something more than a footballer. Golf, maybe--or tiddledywinks."
The Quakeress glanced attentively from one to the other.
"Doubtless he will do his best to forward Thy Majesty"s interests," she interposed. "Why not give him a chance?"
The devil shrugged his shoulders. "I always prefer to give this branch of work my personal attention," he said stiffly.
"A specialty of thine?" mocked the girl.
The devil bowed sulkily.
"My heart is in it. Of course, if you prefer the bungling of a novice, there is no more to be said."
"Thy Majesty"s manners have never been questioned," murmured the Quakeress, bowing dismissal. "So kind of you!"
The devil bowed deeply and turned, pausing to hurl a gloomy prophecy over his shoulder. "See you later!" he said, and stalked away with an ill grace.
Pigskin hero and girl Friend, left alone, eyed each other with mutual apprehension. The girl Friend was first to recover speech. Her red lips were prim below her vizor, her eyes downcast to hide their dancing lights. Timidly she spread out fanwise the dove color of her sober costume.
"How does thee like my gray gown?"
"Not at all," said Jeff brutally. "You"re no friend of mine, I hope."
A most un-Quakerlike dimple trembled to her chin, relieving the firm austerity of straight lips. Also, Jeff caught a glimpse of her eyes through the vizor. They were crinkling--and they were brown. She ventured another tentative remark, and there was in it an undertone lingering, softly confidential.
"Is thee lame?"
"Not--very," said Jeff, and saw a faint color start to the unmasked moiety of the Quaker cheek. "Still, if I may have the next dance, I shall be glad if you will sit it out with me." Painfully he raised the beslinged arm in explanation. _Sobre las Olas_ throbbed out its wistful call; they set their thought to its haunting measure.
"By all means!" She took his undamaged arm. "Let us find chairs."
Now there were chairs to the left of them, chairs to the right of them, chairs vacant everywhere; but the gallant Six Hundred themselves were not more heedless or undismayed than these two. Still, all the world did not wonder. On the contrary, not even the anxious devil saw them after they pa.s.sed behind a knot of would-be dancers who were striving to disentangle themselves. For, seeing traffic thus blocked, the policeman rushed to unsnarl the tangle. Magnificently he flourished his stick. He adjured them roughly: "Move on, yous! Move on!" Whereat, with one impulse, the tangle moved on the copper, swept over him, engulfed him, hustled him to the door and threw him out.
So screened, the chair-hunters vanished in far less than a psychological moment: for Jeff, in obedience to a faint or fancied pressure on his arm, dived through portieres into a small room set apart for such as had the heart to prefer cards or chess. The room was deserted now and there was a broad window open to the night. Thus, thrice favored of Providence, they found themselves in the garden, chairless but cheerful.
A garden with one Eve is the perfect combination in a world awry.
m.u.f.fled, the music and the sounds of the ballroom came faint and far to them; star-made shadows danced at their feet. The girl paused, expectant; but it was the unexpected that happened. The nimble tongue which had done such faithful service for Mr. Bransford now failed him quite: left him struggling, dumb, inarticulate, helpless--tongue and hand alike forgetful of their cunning.
Be sure the maid had adroitly heard much of Mr. Bransford, his deeds and misdeeds, during the tedious interval since their first meeting. Report had dwelt lovingly upon Mr. Bransford"s eloquence at need. This awkward silence was a tribute of sincerity above question.
With difficulty Ellinor mastered a wild desire to ask where the cat had gone. "Oh, come ye in peace here or come ye in war?" Such injudicious quotation trembled on the tip of her tongue, but she suppressed it--barely in time. She felt herself growing nervous with the fear lest she should be hurried into some all too luminous speech. And still Jeff stood there, lost, speechless, helpless, unready, a clumsy oaf, an object of pity. Pity at last, or a kindred feeling, drove her to the rescue. And, just as she had feared, she said, in her generous haste, far too much.
"I thought you were not coming?"
The inflection made a question of this statement. Also, by implication, it answered so many questions yet unworded that Jeff was able to use his tongue again; but it was not the trusty tongue of yore--witness this wooden speech:
"You mean you thought I said I wasn"t coming--don"t you? You knew I would come."
"Indeed? How should I know what you would do? I"ve only seen you once.
Aren"t you forgetting that?"
"Why else did you make up as a Friend then?"
"Oh! Oh, dear, these men! There"s conceit for you! I chose my costume solely to trap Mr. Bransford"s eye? Is that it? Doubtless all my thoughts have centered on Mr. Bransford since I first saw him!"
"You know I didn"t mean that, Miss Ellinor. I----"