"Well, Frank, it"s the truth, anyway," she said, "and in the old days we were always such sticklers for the truth--for sincerity, you know--weren"t we?"
"I have no business to correct you," he said humbly. "I resigned all my pretensions that morning in the old house."
"Well, so long as you love me still!" she exclaimed, with a little mocking laugh. "That"s the great thing, isn"t it? I mean for me, of course. I am greedy for love. It makes me feel so safe and comfortable to think there are whole rows of men that love me.
When you have a great fortune you begin to appreciate the things that money cannot buy."
"Oh, your money!" he said. That word in her mouth always stung him.
"Well, you ought to hate my money," she remarked cheerfully. "It queered you, didn"t it? And then all rich people are detestable, anyway--selfish to the core, and horrid. Do you know that sometimes when I have flirted awfully with a man at a dinner or somewhere, and the next day he telephones--and the telephone is in the next room--I"ve just said: "Oh, bother! tell him I"m out,"
rather than take the trouble to get up from my chair. And a nice man, too!"
"I thought I might be treated the same way," he said.
"Then you thought wrong, Frank," she returned, with a sudden change from her tone of flippancy and lightness. "I haven"t sunk quite as low as that, you know. I meant other people--I didn"t mean you, Frank, dear."
This was said with such a little ring of kindness that Frank was moved.
"Then the old days still count for something?" he said.
"Oh, yes!" she said.
"But not enough to hurt?" he ventured.
"Sometimes they do and sometimes they don"t," she returned. "It depends on how good a time I"m having. But I hate to think I"m weak and selfish and vain, and that the only person I really care for is myself. I value my self-esteem, and it often gets an awful jar. Sometimes I feel like a girl that has run away from home-- diamonds and dyed hair, you know--and then wakes up at night and cries to think of what a price she has paid for all her fine things!" Florence waved her hand towards the alabaster statue of Pocahontas, with a little ripple of self-disdain. She was in a strange humour, and beneath the surface of her apparent gaiety there ran an undercurrent of bitterness and contempt for herself.
Her eyes were unusually brilliant, and her cheeks were pink enough to have been rouged. The sight of her old lover had stirred many memories in her bosom.
"And what about my job, Florence?" he said, changing the conversation. "I"ve caught the yachting idea, too. Can it be managed?"
"Oh, I want to talk to you about that," she said.
"Well, go on," he said, as she hesitated.
"I am so afraid of hurting your feelings, Frank," she said with a singular timidity.
"My feelings are probably tougher than you think," he returned.
"You will think so badly of me," she said. "You will be affronted."
"It sounds as though you wanted to engage me for your butler," he said. Then, as she still withheld the words on her lips, he went on: "Don"t be uneasy about saying it, Florence. If it"s impossible--why, that"s the end of it, of course, and no harm done."
"I want you to come," she said simply.
"Then, what"s the trouble?" he demanded, getting more and more mystified. "I don"t mind being an artificer the least bit. I like to work with my hands. I"m a good mechanic, and I like it."
"I want you for my chief engineer," she said.
This was news, indeed. Frank"s face betrayed his keen pleasure. He had never soared to the heights of asking or expecting THAT.
"I had to dismiss the last one," she went on. "That"s the reason why I"m still here, and not two days out, as I had expected. He locked himself in his cabin and shot at people through the door, and told awful lies to the newspapers."
"If it"s anything about my qualifications," he said, thinking he had found the reason of her backwardness, "I don"t fancy I"ll have any trouble to satisfy you. I don"t want to toot my own horn, Florence, but really, you know, I am rated a first-cla.s.s man. I"ll prove that by my certificates and all that, or give me two weeks"
trial, and see for yourself."
"Oh, it isn"t that," she said.
"Then, what is it?" he broke out. "Only the other day they offered me a Western Ocean liner, and, if you like, I"ll send you the letter. If I am good enough for a big pa.s.senger ship, I guess I can run the Minnehaha to please you!"
"Frank," she returned, "it is not a question of your competency at all. You know very well I"d trust my life to you, blindfold. It"s --it"s the social side, the old affair between us, the first names and all that kind of thing."
"Oh, I see!" he said blankly.
"As an officer on my ship," she said, "you could easily put yourself and me in a difficult position. In a way, we"ll really be further apart than if you were in South America and I in Monte Carlo, for, though we"d always be good friends, and all that, the formalities would have to be observed. Now, I have offended you?"
she added, putting out her hand appealingly.
"I think you might have known me better, Florence," he returned.
"I am not offended--what right have I to be offended--only a little hurt, perhaps, to think that you could doubt me for a single moment in such a matter. I understand very well, and appreciate the need for it. Did you expect me to call you Florence on the quarterdeck of your own vessel, and presume on our old friendship to embarra.s.s you and set people talking? Good Heavens, what do you take me for?"
"Don"t be angry with me, Frank," she pleaded. "It had to be said, you know. I wanted you so much to come; I wanted to share my beautiful vessel with you; and yet I dreaded any kind of a false position."
"I shall treat you precisely as I would any owner of any ship I sailed on," he said. "That is, with respect and always preserving my distance. I will never address you first except to say good- morning and good-evening, and will show no concern if you do not speak to me for days on end."
"Oh, Frank, you are an angel!" she cried.
"No," he returned, "only--as far as I can--a gentleman, Miss Fenacre."
"We needn"t begin now, Frank," she exclaimed, almost with annoyance.
"Am I in your service?" he asked.
"From to-day," she answered, "and I will give you a note to Captain Landry."
"Then you will be Miss Fenacre to me from now on," he said.
"You must say good-bye to Florence first," she said, smiling. "You may kiss my hand," she said, as she gave it to him. "You used to do it so gallantly in the old days--such a Spaniard that you are, Frank--and I liked it so much!"
He did so, and for the first time in his life with a kind of shame.
"I hope we are not both of us making a terrible mistake, Florence," he said.
"Oh, I couldn"t want a better chief!" she said, "and, as for you, it"s the wisest thing you ever did. It"s me, after all, who is making the sacrifice, for, in a month or two, all the gilt will wear off, and you will see me as I really am. You will find it very disillusioning to go to sea with your divinity," she added.
"You will discover she is a very flesh-and-blood affair, after all, Frank, and not worth the tip of your little finger."
"I had a good many opportunities of judging before," he replied, "and the more I knew her the more I loved her."
"Well, I am changed now," she said. "I suppose all the bad has come to the surface since--like the slag when they melt iron and skim it off with dippers--only with me there"s n.o.body to dip. If _I_ am astounded at the difference, what do you suppose you"ll be?"
"There never could be any difference to me," he said.
"That"s the only kind of love worth talking about," she said, going to the window and looking out.