I saw right off that he had told Mabel Moore the same thing, and that was why those two girls had been so blamed polite to me the night before. So I rounded on him sudden.
"You"re engaged to that Miss Moore, too, aren"t you?"
"I"m afraid so."
"Why didn"t you come out like a man and say so at first?"
"I couldn"t, Mr. Graham. Someways it seemed like piling it up so, and you take such a cold-blooded, unsympathetic view of these things."
"Perhaps I do; yes, I"m afraid I do. How far are you committed to Miss Churchill?"
Jack cheered right up. "I"m all right there, at least. She hasn"t answered."
"Then you"ve asked?"
"Why, so I have; at least she may take it for something like asking. But I don"t care; I want to be committed there; I can"t live without her; she"s the only----"
I saw that he was beginning to foam up again, so I shut him off straight at the spigot. Told him to save it till after the ceremony. Set him down to my desk, and dictated two letters, one to Edith Curzon and the other to Mabel Moore, and made him sign and seal them, then and there. He twisted and squirmed and tried to wiggle off the hook, but I wouldn"t give him any slack. Made him come right out and say that he was a yellow pup; that he had made a mistake; and that the stuff was all off, though I worded it a little different from that. Slung in some fancy words and high-toned phrases.
You see, I had made up my mind that the best of a bad matter was the Churchill girl, and I didn"t propose to have her commit herself, too, until I"d sort of cleared away the wreckage. Then I reckoned on copper-riveting their engagement by announcing it myself and standing over Jack with a shotgun to see that there wasn"t any more nonsense.
They were both so light-headed and light-waisted and light-footed that it seemed to me that they were just naturally mates.
Jack reached for those letters when they were addressed and started to put them in his pocket, but I had reached first. I reckon he"d decided that something might happen to them on their way to the post-office; but nothing did, for I called in the butler and made him go right out and mail them then and there.
I"d had the letters dated from my house, and I made Jack spend the night there. I reckoned it might be as well to keep him within reaching distance for the next day or two. He showed up at breakfast in the morning looking like a calf on the way to the killing pens, and I could see that his thoughts were mighty busy following the postman who was delivering those letters. I tried to cheer him up by reading some little odds and ends from the morning paper about other people"s troubles, but they didn"t seem to interest him.
"They must just about have received them," he finally groaned into his coffee cup. "Why did I send them! What will those girls think of me!
They"ll cut me dead--never speak to me again."
The butler came in before I could tell him that this was about what we"d calculated on their doing, and said: "Beg pardon, sir, but there"s a lady asking for you at the telephone."
"A lady!" says Jack. "Tell her I"m not here." Talk to one of those girls, even from a safe distance! He guessed not. He turned as pale as a hog on ice at the thought of it.
"I"m sorry, sir," said the man, "but I"ve already said that you were breakfasting here. She said it was very important."
I could see that Jack"s curiosity was already getting the best of his scare. After all, he threw out, feeling me, it might be best to hear what she had to say. I thought so, too, and he went to the instrument and shouted "h.e.l.lo!" in what he tried to make a big, brave voice, but it wobbled a little all the same.
I got the other end of the conversation from him when he was through.
"h.e.l.lo! Is that you, Jack?" chirped the Curzon girl.
"Yes. Who is that?"
"Edith," came back. "I have your letter, but I can"t make out what it"s all about. Come this afternoon and tell me, for we"re still good friends, aren"t we, Jack?"
"Yes--certainly," stammered Jack.
"And you"ll come?"
"Yes," he answered, and cut her off.
He had hardly recovered from this shock when a messenger boy came with a note, addressed in a woman"s writing.
"Now for it," he said, and breaking the seal read:
""_Jack dear:_ Your horrid note doesn"t say anything, nor explain anything. Come this afternoon and tell what it means to MABEL.""
"Here"s a go," exclaimed Jack, but he looked pleased in a sort of sneaking way. "What do you think of it, Mr. Graham?"
"I don"t like it."
"Think they intend to cut up?" he asked.
"Like a sausage machine; and yet I don"t see how they can stand for you after that letter."
"Well, shall I go?"
"Yes, in fact I suppose you must go; but Jack, be a man. Tell "em plain and straight that you don"t love "em as you should to marry "em; say you saw your old girl a few days ago and found you loved her still, or something from the same trough, and stick to it. Take what you deserve.
If they hold you up to the bull-ring, the only thing you can do is to propose to take the whole bunch to Utah, and let "em share and share alike. That"ll settle it. Be firm."
"As a rock, sir."
I made Jack come downtown and lunch with me, but when I started him off, about two o"clock, he looked so like a cat padding up the back-stairs to where she knows there"s a little canary meat--scared, but happy--that I said once more: "Now be firm, Jack."
"Firm"s the word, sir," was the resolute answer.
"And unyielding."
"As the old guard." And Jack puffed himself out till he was as chesty as a pigeon on a barn roof, and swung off down the street looking mighty fine and manly from the rear.
I never really got the straight of it, but I pieced together these particulars later. At the corner there was a flower store. Jack stepped inside and sent a box of roses by special messenger to Miss Curzon, so there might be something to start conversation when he got there. Two blocks farther on he pa.s.sed a second florist"s, turned back and sent some lilies to Miss Moore, for fear she might think he"d forgotten her during the hour or more before he could work around to her house. Then he chased about and found a third florist, from whom he ordered some violets for Miss Churchill, to remind her that she had promised him the first dance at the Blairs" that night. Your Ma told me that Jack had nice instincts about these little things which women like, and always put a good deal of heavy thought into selecting his flowers for them.
It"s been my experience that a critter who has instincts instead of sense belongs in the bushes with the d.i.c.ky-birds.
No one ever knew just what happened to Jack during the next three hours.
He showed up at his club about five o"clock with a mighty conceited set to his jaw, but it dropped as if the spring had broken when he caught sight of me waiting for him in the reading-room.
"You here?" he asked as he threw himself into a chair.
"You bet," I said. "I wanted to hear how you made out. You settled the whole business, I take it?" but I knew mighty well from his looks that he hadn"t settled anything.
"Not--not exactly--that is to say, entirely; but I"ve made a very satisfactory beginning."
"Began it all over again, I suppose."
This. .h.i.t so near the truth that Jack jumped, in spite of himself, and then he burst out with a really swear. I couldn"t have been more surprised if your Ma had cussed.
"d.a.m.n it, sir, I won"t stand any more of your confounded meddling. Those letters were a piece of outrageous brutality. I"m breaking off with the girls, but I"ve gone about it in a gentler and, I hope, more dignified, way."