Pete turned on Max, with a clumsy laugh that did not cover his disappointment.
"How about this, Max? You ain"t been tending to business. Ain"t that so, James? Wasn"t he going to see that she come and sat up with us where the boys could see her?" He turned to Hilda. "You see, most of the boys know you"ve had a good deal to do with things on the job, and they"ve kind of took a shine to you----" Pete suddenly awoke to the fact that he had never talked so boldly to a girl before. He hesitated, looked around at Max and James for support and at Bannon, and then, finding no help, he grinned, and the warm color surged over his face. The only one who saw it all was Hilda, and in spite of her embarra.s.sment the sight of big, strong, bashful Pete was too much for her. A twinkle came into her eyes, and a faint smile hovered about her mouth. Pete saw it, misunderstood it, and, feeling relieved, went on, not knowing that by bringing that twinkle to Hilda"s eyes, he had saved the situation.
"It"s only that they"ve talked about it some, and yesterday a couple of "em spoke to me, and I said I"d ask Max, and----"
"Thank you, Mr. Peterson," Hilda replied. "Max should have told me." She turned toward Max, her face sober now except for the eyes, which would not come under control. Max had been dividing his glances between her and Bannon, feeling the situation heavily, and wondering if he ought not to come to her relief, but unable to dig up the right word. Pete spoke up again:--
"Say, honest now, ain"t you coming?"
"I can"t really. I"m sorry. I know you"ll have a good time."
Bannon had been standing aside, unwilling to speak for fear of making it harder for her. But now she turned to him and said, with a lightness that puzzled him:--
"Aren"t we going to do some decorating, Mr. Bannon? I"m afraid it will be dinner time before Mr. Peterson knows it."
Pete flushed again at this, but she gave him a quick smile.
"Yes," said Bannon, "there"s only a little over half an hour." He paused, and looked about the group, holding his watch in his hand and fingering the stem. The lines about his mouth were settling. Hilda glanced again at him, and from the determined look in his eyes, she knew that his week of waiting was over; that he meant to speak to her before she left the hall. It was all in the moment"s silence that followed his remark; then he went on, as easily as if he were talking to a gang on the marine tower--but the time was long enough for Hilda to feel her brief courage slipping away. She could not look at him now.
"Take a look at that door, James," he was saying. "I guess you"ll have to tend to business if you want any dinner."
They all turned and saw the grinning heads of some of the carpenters peering into the room. There was the shuffling of many feet behind them on the stairs, and the sound of cat calls and whistling. A shove was pa.s.sed on from somewhere back in the hallway, and one of the carpenters came sprawling through the door. The others yelled good-naturedly.
"I"ll fix "em," said James, with a laugh, starting toward them.
"Give him a lift, Pete," said Bannon. "He"ll need it. You two"d better keep the stairs clear for a while, or they"ll stampede us."
So Pete followed, and for a few moments the uproar from the stairs drowned all attempts at conversation. Only Max was left with them now.
He stood back by the wall, still looking helplessly from one to the other. The restaurant men were bustling about the floor; and Hilda was glad they were there, for she knew that Bannon meant to send Max away, too. She was too nervous to stand still; and she walked around the table, resetting the knives and forks and spoons. The paper napkins on this table were the only ones in the room. She wondered at this, and when the noise of the men had died away into a few jeering cries from the street, and Max had gone to get the flags (for she had said that they should be hung at this end of the room), and the waiters were bustling about, it gave her a chance to break the silence.
"Aren"t the other"--she had to stop to clear her throat--"aren"t the other men going to have napkins?"
"They wouldn"t know what they were for."
His easy tone gave her a momentary sense of relief.
"They"d tie them on their hats, or make b.a.l.l.s to throw around." He paused, but added: "It wouldn"t look bad, though, would it?--to stand them up this way on all the tables."
She made no reply.
"What do you say?" He was looking at her. "Shall we do it?"
She nodded, and then dropped her eyes, angry with herself that she could not overcome her nervousness. There was another silence, and she broke it.
"It would look a good deal better," she said, "if you have time to do it. Max and I will put up the flags."
She had meant to say something that would give her a better control of the situation, but it sounded very flat and disagreeable--and she had not meant it to sound disagreeable. Indeed, as soon as the words were out, and she felt his eyes on her, and she knew that she was blushing, she was not sure that she had meant it at all. Perhaps that was why, when Bannon asked, in a low voice, "Would you rather Max would help you?" she turned away and answered in a cool tone that did not come from any one of her rushing, struggling thoughts, "If you don"t mind."
She did not see the change that came over his face, the weary look that meant that the strain of a week had suddenly broken, but she did not need to see it, for she knew it was there. She heard him step down from the platform, and then she watched him as he walked down the aisle to meet Max, who was bringing up the flags. She wondered impatiently why Bannon did not call to him. Then he raised his head, but before a word had left his lips she was speaking, in a clear tone that Max could plainly hear. She was surprised at herself. She had not meant to say a word, but out it came; and she was conscious of a tightening of her nerves and a defiant gladness that at last her real thoughts had found an outlet.
"Max," she said, "won"t you go out and get enough napkins to put at all the places? You"ll have to hurry."
Bannon was slow in turning; when he did there was a peculiar expression on his face.
"Hold on, there," called a waiter. "There ain"t time to fold them."
"Yes, there is," said Bannon, shortly. "The boys can wait."
"But dinner"s most ready now."
"Then I guess dinner"s got to wait, too."
The waiter looked disgusted, and Max hurried out. Bannon gathered up the flags and came to the platform. Hilda could not face him. For an instant she had a wild impulse to follow Max. She finally turned her back on Bannon and leaned her elbows on a chair, looking over the wall for a good place to hang the flags. She was going to begin talking about it as soon as he should reach the platform. The words were all ready, but now he was opposite her, looking across the table with the red and white bundle in his arms, and she had not said it. Her eyes were fixed on a napkin, studying out the curious j.a.panese design. She could hear his breathing and her own. She let her eyes rise as high as the flags, then slowly, higher and higher, until they met his, fluttered, and dropped.
But the glance was enough. She could not have resisted the look in his eyes.
"Did you mean it?" he asked, almost breathlessly. "Did you mean the whole thing?"
She could not reply. She glanced around to see if the waiters could hear.
"Can"t you tell me?" he was saying. "It"s been a week."
She gazed at the napkin until it grew misty and indistinct. Then she slowly nodded.
A waiter was almost within hearing. Bannon stood looking at her, heedless of everything but that she was there before him, that her eyes were trying to peep up at him through the locks of red gold hair that had strayed over her forehead.
"Please"--she whispered--"please put them up."
And so they set to work. He got the ladder and she told him what to do.
Her directions were not always clear, but that mattered little, for he could not have followed them. Somehow the flags went up, and if the effect was little better than Max"s attempt had been, no one spoke of it.
Pete and Max came in together soon with the napkins, and a little time slipped by before Bannon could draw Max aside and grip his hand. Then they went at the napkins, and as they sat around the table, Hilda and Bannon, Pete and the waiters, folding them with rapid fingers, Bannon found opportunity to talk to her in a low voice, during the times when Pete was whistling, or was chaffing with the waiters. He told her, a few words at a time, of the new work Mr. MacBride had a.s.signed to him, and in his enthusiasm he gave her a little idea of what it would mean to him, this opportunity to build an elevator the like of which had never been seen in the country before, and which would be watched by engineers from New York to San Francisco. He told her, too, something about the work, how it had been discovered that piles could be made of concrete and driven into the ground with a pile driver, and that neither beams nor girders--none of the timbers, in fact--were needed in this new construction. He was nearly through with it, and still he did not notice the uncertain expression in her eyes. It was not until she asked in a faltering undertone, "When are you going to begin?" that it came to him.
And then he looked at her so long that Pete began to notice, and she had to touch his foot with hers under the table to get him to turn away. He had forgotten all about the vacation and the St. Lawrence trip.
Hilda saw, in her side glances, the gloomy expression that had settled upon his face; and she recovered her spirits first.
"It"s all right," she whispered; "I don"t care."
Max came up then, from a talk with James out on the stairway, and for a few moments there was no chance to reply. But after Bannon had caught Max"s signals to step out of hearing of the others, and before he had risen, there was a moment when Pete"s attention was drawn by one of the waiters, and he said:--
"Can you go with me--Monday?"
She looked frightened, and the blood rose in her cheeks so that she had to bend low over her pile of napkins.
"Will you?" He was pushing back his chair.
She did not look up, but her head nodded once with a little jerk.
"And you"ll stay for the dinner, won"t you--now?"