Nedra.
by George Barr McCutcheon.
CHAPTER I
THE INSPIRATION
A tall young man sped swiftly up the wide stone steps leading to the doorway of a mansion in one of Chicago"s most fashionable avenues. After pushing the b.u.t.ton sharply he jerked out his watch and guessed at the time by the dull red light from the panel in the door. Then he hastily brushed from the sleeve of his coat the telltale billiard chalk, whose presence reminded him that a general survey might be a wise precaution.
He was rubbing a white streak from his trousers" leg when the door flew open and the butler admitted him to the hallway. This personage relieved him of his hat, coat and stick and announced:
"Miss Vernon is w"itin" for you, sir."
"How the devil did I happen to let eight o"clock strike nine before I knew it?" muttered the visitor. He was at the drawing-room door as he concluded this self-addressed reproach, extending both hands toward the young woman who came from the fireplace to meet him.
"How late you are, Hugh," she cried, half resentfully. He bent forward and kissed her.
"Late? It isn"t late, dear. I said I couldn"t come before eight, didn"t I? Well, it"s eight, isn"t it?"
"It"s nearly seventy minutes past eight, sir. I"ve been waiting and watching the hands on the clock for just sixty minutes."
"I never saw such a perfect crank about keeping time as that grandfatherly clock of yours. It hasn"t skipped a second in two centuries, I"ll swear. You see, I was playing off the odd game with Tom Ditton."
He dropped lazily into a big arm-chair, drove his hands into his pockets and stretched out his long legs toward the grate.
"You might have come at eight, Hugh, on this night if no other. You knew what important things we have to consider." Miss Vernon, tall and graceful, stood before him with her back to the fire. She was exceedingly pretty, this girl whom Hugh had kissed.
"I"m awfully sorry, Grace; but you know how it is when a fellow"s in a close, hard game--especially with a blow-hard like Tom Ditton."
"If I forgive you again, I"m afraid you"ll prove a begging husband."
"Never! Deliver me from a begging husband. I shall a.s.sert all kinds of authority in my house, Miss Vernon, and you"ll be in a constant state of beggary yourself. You"ll have to beg me to get up in the morning, beg me to come home early every night, beg me to swear off divers things, beg me to go to church, beg me to buy new hats for you, beg me to eat things you cook, beg me to--"
"I suppose I shall even have to beg you to kiss me," she cried.
"Not at all. That is one thing I"ll beg of you. Lean over here, do, and kiss me, please," he said invitingly.
She placed a hand on each arm of the chair and leaned forward obediently. Their lips met in a smile.
"You lazy thing!" she exclaimed, her face slightly flushed. Then she seated herself on one of the big arms, resting her elbow on the back of the chair beside his head. For a few minutes both were silent, gazing at the bright coals before them, the smile remaining upon their lips. Hugh had been squinting between the toes of his shoes at a lonely black chunk in the grate for some time before he finally spoke reflectively.
"I can"t afford to be lazy much longer, can I? Married men never have a minute"s rest, you know."
"We"re not married."
"No; but we"re going to be, let me remind you. We are to--to announce it to-morrow night, are we not? It has come to that, you see." He did not look very cheerful, nor did she.
"Yes, I suppose it"s imperative. That is why aunt is giving her reception,--just to tell everybody we"re engaged."
"And then everybody will shake hands with us and say, "Congratulations," "How lovely," "So surprised," "Howdy do," and so forth, and we say "Thanks," "How good of you," and more so forth. It will be great!" Another silence and inspection of the fire, he taking an altered aim at the black chunk. "Say!" he exclaimed, "wouldn"t it do just as well if I didn"t put in an appearance to-morrow night? Your aunt can announce the thing, as agreed, and you can tell "em that I have a sick uncle in Indianapolis, or have had my leg broken, or something like that. Now, there"s a good girl."
"No," she said. "We fell in love because we couldn"t help it, and this is the penalty--an announcement party."
"I"ll never quite understand why _you_ fell," said he dubiously.
"I think we were both too young to know," she responded. "It seems to me that we"ve been in love ever since we were babies."
"And it never hurts a baby to fall, you know," said he, with fine logic.
"Of course it may cripple "em permanently, but they don"t know how it happened."
For some moments she caressed his brown hair in silence, the smile lingering on her lips after it had left her eyes. His eyes closed dreamily under the gentle touch of her fingers. "But, dear," she said, "this is no joking matter. We have been engaged for nearly three months and not a soul knows of it. We"ll have to tell them how we managed to keep it a secret for so long, and why,--and all that. And then everybody will want to know who the bridesmaids are to be."
"I believe I"d like to know that myself, as long as I"m to walk out of the church ahead of them--provided I don"t get lost."
"Helen Grossman is to be the maid of honor. I believe I"ll ask Jean Robertson, Eloise Grant, Harriet n.o.ble, Mayme McMurtrie, Ellen Boyland--"
"Are we to have no guests?"
"--and Effa Samuels. Won"t it be a pretty set of girls?"
"Couldn"t be prettier."
"And now, who is to be your best man?"
"Well, I thought I"d have Tom Ditton," a trifle confusedly.
"Tom Ditton! I thought you did not approve of him," she cried. "You certainly did not when he came to see me so frequently."
"Oh, he isn"t such a bad sort, after all. I"d just as soon have him as any one. Besides, he"s an expert at it. If it was left to me, I"d much rather sit behind the pulpit until it is all over. People won"t miss me while they"ve got you to look at."
"We could be married so quietly and prettily if it were not for Aunt Elizabeth," pouted Miss Vernon. "She insists on the church wedding, the teas and receptions and--"
"All that sort of rot," he interjected, as if fearing she might not express herself adequately. "I like your Aunt Elizabeth, Grace, but she"s--she"s an awful--"
"Don"t say it, Hugh. I know what you mean, but she can"t help it. She lives for society. She"s perfectly crazy on the subject. Aunt Elizabeth made up her mind we should be married in church. I have talked myself black in the face--for your sake, dear--but it was like trying to convert a stone wall. She is determined. You know what that means."
"No wonder she"s a widow," growled Hugh Ridgeway sourly. "Your father served you a mighty mean trick, dear, when he gave you over to her training. She might have spoiled you beyond redemption."
"Poor father! He loathed display, too. I"ve no doubt that is why he left me in her care until I reached the age of discretion. She was not always like this. Father"s money has wrought the change. Aunty was as poor as a church mouse until father"s death put her at the head of my household--it was mine, Hugh, even if I was only six years old. You know we could live pretty well on forty thousand a year."
"You"ll have a million or so when you"re twenty-three, dear, and I"ll venture to say your aunt has saved something in all these years."
"Oh, she had at least two hundred thousand dollars by the will. It has cost her nothing to live all these years as my guardian and trustee. We just had to do something with my income, you know."
"I don"t see why you should let this fortune stand in the way, Grace,"
growled he. "Haven"t I enough of my own to take its place?" Hugh Ridgeway had a million in his own right and he could well afford to be unreasonable. "The will says you are not to have your father"s money until you are twenty-three years old. He evidently thought that was a discreet age. You are not to marry before you have reached that age.
I"ve been waiting for two years, Grace, and there still remains two months--"
"One month and twenty-eight days, Hugh," she corrected.