She looked at him in perplexity for a moment.
"Oh, yes; the lease," she remembered. "I"ll introduce you and you can ask him about it."
"Don"t mention it!" hastily objected Johnny. "You may introduce me, but you do the talking."
"All right, boss," she laughingly agreed, and turned straight over to the head of the Schnitts" table, where she introduced her companion in due form.
"I want my walking suit," she demanded.
Heinrich"s face had lighted with pleasure at the sight of Constance, but there was a trace of sadness in his voice.
"You must tell Louis Ersten," he politely advised her.
"I did," protested Constance. "He"s holding it back on account of the coat, and that"s your affair."
"It is Louis Ersten"s," insisted Heinrich with dignity. "I have retired from business."
"You don"t mean to say you"ve left Ersten?" returned Constance in surprise.
"I have retired from business," reiterated Heinrich.
"Ersten wouldn"t give papa enough room," broke in Mama Schnitt indignantly, "so he quits, and he don"t go back till he does."
"So I don"t ever go back," concluded Heinrich.
"Well, we got enough that papa don"t have to work any more," a.s.serted Mama Schnitt with proper pride and a glance at Flora Kraus; "but he gets lonesome. That"s why we make him come down to Coney to-day and enjoy himself. He was with Louis Ersten thirty-seven years."
A wave of homesickness swept over Heinrich.
"I take it easy in my old days," he stoutly maintained, but with such inward distress that, without a protest, he allowed the waiter to remove his half-emptied gla.s.s of beer.
"I"m glad you can take it easy," declared Constance, "but Ersten"s customers will miss you very much--and I am sure Ersten will, too."
"We worked together thirty-seven years," said Schnitt wistfully.
"I"m sure it"s only obstinacy," commented Constance when she and Johnny had rejoined their party. "Why, Mr. Schnitt and Mr. Ersten have grown up together in the business, and they seemed more like brothers than anything else. I"d give anything to bring them together again!"
"I"ll ask you for it some time," a.s.serted Johnny confidently.
He caught a flash of challenge in her eyes and realized that he was moving faster than his schedule would permit.
"I"m going to bring them together, you know," he a.s.sured her in confusion.
"I do hope so," she demurely replied.
"We"re wasting an awful lot of time!" called Winnie. "The Ca.n.a.ls of Venice! We haven"t been in this." And she promptly bought six tickets.
In the bustle of taking boats an officious guard succeeded, for the thousandth time that day, in the joyful duty of separating a party; and Constance and Johnny were left behind to enjoy the next boat all to themselves.
It was dim and cool in there--all narrow gravity ca.n.a.ls, and quaint canvas buildings, and queer arches, and mellow lights, with little dark curves and long winding reaches, and a restfulness almost like solemnity.
It was the first time Johnny had been in such close companionship with Constance as this strange isolation gave them, and he did not know what to say. After all, what was the use of saying? They were there, side by side, upon the gently flowing water, far, far away from all the world; and it would seem almost rude to break that bliss with language, which so often fails to interpret thought.
Constance"s hand was drooping idly across her knee and, by an uncontrollable impulse, Johnny"s hand, all by itself, slid over and gently clasped the whiter and slenderer one. It did not draw away; and, huddled up on their low narrow seat, b.u.mping against the wooden banks and floating on and on, they cared not whither, they stared into oblivion in that semi-trancelike condition that sometimes accompanies the peculiar state in which they found themselves.
"Oh-ho-o-o-o!" rang the clear voice of Winnie from a parallel ca.n.a.l just behind them.
Constance, flushing violently, attempted to jerk her hand away; but Johnny, animated by a sudden aggressiveness, clasped it tightly and held it--captive--up to view.
At that interesting moment another sharp turn in the ca.n.a.l brought them face to face with an approaching boat in which were Paul Gresham and Jim Collaton!
"I said it was a girl," charged Collaton, studying the green pallor of Gresham"s face with wondering interest as they stepped out into the glare of the million electric bulbs.
"That is not a topic for you to discuss," returned Gresham, looking up the brilliantly lighted board walk around the bend of which Johnny Gamble, with Constance on one arm and Winnie on the other, was gaily following Polly, that young lady being escorted by the attentive Loring and the submissive Sammy.
"That"s what you said before," retorted Collaton, his eyebrows and lashes even more invisible in this illumination than in broad day-light. "It"s time, though, for a showdown. You drag me into dark corners and talk over schemes to throw the hooks into Johnny Gamble--and I tell you I"m afraid of him!"
"You"re mistaken," a.s.serted Gresham dryly. "It was I who told you that you were afraid of him."
"I admitted it all right," sulkily answered Collaton. "He"s awake now, I tell you; and he"s not a safe man to fool with. He turned our last trick against us, and that"s enough hint for me."
"Your trick, you mean," corrected Gresham.
"Our trick, I said!" insisted Collaton, suddenly angry. "Look here, Gresham, I won"t stand any monkey business from you! If there"s ever any trouble comes out of this you"ll get your share of it, and don"t you forget it! You"ve had me lay attachments against the Gamble-Collaton Irrigation Company on forged notes. Since I had nothing, Johnny paid them, because he was square. The last attachment, though--for fifty thousand--he held off until I got that Slosher Apartment scheme in my own name, and turned it against me; and you had to pay it, because you had stood good for me."
"What difference does that make to you?" demanded Gresham. "It was my own money and I got it back."
"It makes just this much difference," explained Collaton: "Gamble and Loring are busy tracing all these transactions; and when they find out anything it will be fastened on me, for you never figure in the deals.
You even try to avoid acknowledging to me that you have anything to do with them."
"You get all the money," Gresham reminded him.
"That"s why I know you"re framing it up to let me wear the iron bracelets if anything comes off. Now you play square with me or I"ll hand you a jolt that you won"t forget! There"s a girl responsible for your crazy desire to put my old partner on the toboggan--and that was the girl. You see I happen to know all about it."
Gresham considered the matter in silence for some time, and Collaton let him think without interruption. They sat down now at one of the little tables and Collaton curtly ordered some drinks.
"It"s a very simple matter," Gresham finally stated. "My father was to have married Miss Joy"s aunt but did not. When the aunt came to die she left Miss Joy a million dollars, but coupled with it the provision that she must marry me. That"s all."
"It"s enough," laughed Collaton. "I understand now why Johnny Gamble wants to make a million dollars. As soon as he gets it he"ll propose to Miss Joy, she"ll accept him and let the million slide. Who gets it?"
"Charity."
"Why, Gresham, I"m ashamed of you!" Collaton mocked. "The descendant of a n.o.ble English house is making as sordid an affair of this as if he were a cheese dealer! I have the gift of second sight and I can tell you just what"s going to happen. Johnny Gamble will make his million dollars--and I"m for him. He"ll marry Miss Joy--and I"m for her. That other million will go to charity--and I"m for it. I hope they all win!"
"You"re foolish," returned Gresham, holding his temper through the superiority which had always nettled Collaton. "You like money and I"m showing you a way to get it from Johnny Gamble."
The waiter brought the drinks. Collaton paid for them, tossed off his own and rose.