"My dear Sharlee! I"m so glad to see you."
They kissed tenderly.
"Oh, Aunt Jennie, tell me! Is he--this man you telephoned me about--is he a little, small, dried young man, with spectacles and a brown derby, and needing a hair-cut, and the gravest, drollest manner in the world?
Tell me--is he?"
"My dear, you have described him to the life. Where did you see him?"
Sharlee collapsed upon the bed. Presently she revived and outlined the situation to Aunt Jennie.
Mrs. Paynter listened with some interest. If humor is a defect, as they tell us nowadays, she was almost a faultless woman. And in her day she had been a beauty and a toast. You hear it said generously of a thousand, but it happened to be true in her case. The high-bred regularity of feature still survived, but she had let herself go in latter years, as most women will who have other things than themselves to think about, and hard things at that. Her old black dress was carelessly put on; she could look at herself in the mirror by merely leaning forward an inch or two, and it never occurred to her to do it--an uncanny thing in a woman.
"I"m sure it sounds quite like him," said Mrs. Paynter, when her niece had finished. "And so Gardiner West walked around with you. I hope, my dear, you asked him in to supper? We have an exceptionally nice Porterhouse steak to-night. But I suppose he would scorn--"
The girl interrupted her, abolishing and demolishing such a thought. Mr.
West would have been only too pleased, she said, but she positively would not ask him, because of the serious work that was afoot that night.
"The pleasure I"ve so far given your little man," laughed she, patting her aunt"s cheeks with her two hands, "has been negligible--I have his word for that--and to-night it is going to be the same, only more so."
Sharlee arose, took off her coat and furs, laid them on the bed, and going to the bureau began fixing her hair in the back before the long mirror. No matter how well a woman looks to the untrained, or man"s, eye, she can always put in some time pleasurably fixing her hair in the back.
"Now," said Sharlee, "to business. Tell me all about the little dead-beat."
"It is four weeks next Monday," said Mrs. Paynter, putting a shoe-horn in her novel to mark the place, "since the young man came to me. He was from New York, and just off the train. He said that he had been recommended to my house, but would not say by whom, nor could he give references. I did not insist on them, for I can"t be too strict, Sharlee, with all the other boarding-places there are and that room standing empty for two months hand-running, and then for three months before that, before Miss Catlett, I mean. The fact is, that I ought to be over on the Avenue, where I could have only the best people. It would be infinitely more lucrative--why, my dear, you should hear Amy Marsden talk of her enormous profits! And Amy, while a dear, sweet little woman, is not clever! I remember as girls--but to go back even of that to the very heart of the matter, who ever heard of a clever _Wilkerson_? For she, you know, was born ..."
"Never you mind Mrs. Marsden, Aunt Jennie," said the girl, gently drawing her back to the muttons,--"we"ll make lots more money than she some day. So you gave him the room, then?"
"Yes, the room known as the third hall back. A small, neat, economical room, entirely suitable for a single gentleman. I gave him my lowest price, though I must say I did not dream then that he would spend all his time in his room, apparently having no downtown occupation, which is certainly not what one expects from gentlemen, who get low terms on the silent understanding that they will take themselves out of the house directly after breakfast. Nevertheless--will you believe it?--ten days pa.s.sed and not a word was said about payment. So one morning I stopped him in the hall, as though for a pleasant talk. However, I was careful to introduce the point, by means of an anecdote I told him, that guests here were expected to pay by the week. Of course I supposed that the hint would be sufficient."
"But it wasn"t, alas?"
"On the contrary, ten days again pa.s.sed, and you might suppose there was no such thing as money in all this world. Then I resolved to approach him directly. I knocked on his door, and when he opened it, I told him plainly and in so many words that I would be very much gratified if he would let me have a check whenever convenient, as unfortunately I had heavy bills due that must be met. I was very much mortified, Sharlee! As I stood there facing that young man, dunning him like a grocer"s clerk, it flashed into my mind to wonder what your great-grandfather, the Governor, would think if he could have looked down and seen me. For as you know, my dear, though I doubt if you altogether realize it at all times, since our young people of to-day, I regret to have to say it--though of course I do except you from this criticism--"
By gentle interruption and deft transition, Sharlee once more wafted the conversation back to the subject in hand.
"And when you went so far as to tell him this, how did he take it?"
"He took it admirably. He told me that I need feel no concern about the matter; that while out of funds for the moment, doubtless he would be in funds again shortly. His manner was dignified, calm, unabashed--"
"But it didn"t blossom, as we might say, in money?"
"As to that--no. What are you to do, Sharlee? I feel sure the man is not dishonest,--in fact he has a singularly honest face, transparently so,--but he is only somehow queer. He appears an engrossed, absent-minded young man--what is the word I want?--an eccentric. That is what he is, an engrossed young eccentric."
Sharlee leaned against the bureau and looked at her aunt thoughtfully.
"Do you gather, Aunt Jennie, that he"s a gentleman?"
Mrs. Paynter threw out her hands helplessly. "What does the term mean nowadays? The race of gentlemen, as the cla.s.s existed in my day, seems to be disappearing from the face of the earth. We see occasional survivals of the old order, like Gardiner West or the young Byrd men, but as a whole--well, my dear, I will only say that the modern standards would have excited horror fifty years ago and--"
"Well, but according to the modern standards, do you think he is?"
"I _don"t_ know. He is and he isn"t. But no--no--no! He is _not_ one. No man can be a gentleman who is utterly indifferent to the comfort and feelings of others, do you think so?"
"Indeed, no! And is that what he is?"
"I will ill.u.s.trate by an incident," said Mrs. Paynter. "As I say, this young man spends his entire time in his room, where he is, I believe, engaged in writing a book."
"Oh, me! Then he"s penniless, depend upon it."
"Well, when we had the frost and freeze early last week, he came to me one night and complained of the cold in his room. You know, Sharlee, I do not rent that room as a sitting-room, nor do I expect to heat it, at the low price, other than the heat from the halls. So I invited him to make use of the dining-room in the evenings, which, as you know, with the folding-doors drawn, and the yellow lamp lit, is converted to all intents and purposes into a quiet and comfortable reading-room. Somewhat grumblingly he went down. Fifi was there as usual, doing her algebra by the lamp. The young man took not the smallest notice of her, and presently when she coughed several times--the child"s cold happened to be bad that night--he looked up sharply and asked her please to stop.
Fifi said that she was afraid she couldn"t help it. He replied that it was impossible for him to work in the room with a noise of that sort, and either the noise or he would have to vacate. So Fifi gathered up her things and left. I found her, half an hour later, in her little bedroom, which was ice-cold, coughing and crying over her sums, which she was trying to work at the bureau. That was how I found out about it.
The child would never have said a word to me."
"How simply outrageous!" said the girl, and became silent and thoughtful.
"Well, what do you think I"d better do, Sharlee?"
"I think you"d better let me waylay him in the hall after supper and tell him that the time has come when he must either pay up or pack up."
"My dear! Can you well be as blunt as that?"
"Dear Aunt Jennie, as I view it, you are not running an eleemosynary inst.i.tution here?"
"Of course not," replied Aunt Jennie, who really did not know whether she was or not.
Sharlee dropped into a chair and began manicuring her pretty little nails. "The purpose of this establishment is to collect money from the transient and resident public. Now you"re not a bit good at collecting money because you"re so well-bred, but I"m not so awfully well-bred--"
"You _are_--"
"I"m bold--blunt--brazen! I"m forward. I"m resolute and grim. In short, I belong to the younger generation which you despise so--"
"I don"t despise _you_, you dear--"
"Come," said Sharlee, springing up; "let"s go down. I"m wild to meet Mr.
Bylash again. Is he wearing the moleskin vest to-night, do you know? I was fascinated by it the last time I was here. Aunt Jennie, what is the name of this young man--the one I may be compelled to bounce?"
"His name is Queed. Did you ever--?"
"Queed? _Queed_? Q-u-e-e-d?"
"An odd name, isn"t it? There were no such people in my day."
"Probably after to-morrow there will be none such once more."
"Mr. Klinker has christened him the little Doctor--a hit at his appearance and studious habits, you see--and even the servants have taken it up."
"Aunt Jennie," said Sharlee at the door, "when you introduce the little Doctor to me, refer to me as your business woman, won"t you? Say "This is my niece, Miss Weyland, who looks after my business affairs for me,"
or something like that, will you? It will explain to him why I, a comparative stranger, show such an interest in his financial affairs."