Quin pleaded guilty, and their usual five minutes together lengthened into fifteen while she gave him all the news of the Martel family. Ca.s.s had taken his old position at the railroad office, and, dear knows, it was a good thing! And Rose was giving dancing lessons. And what did he think little old Myrna had done? Adopted a baby! Yes, a baby; wasn"t it too ridiculous! An Italian one that the washwoman had forsaken. And Papa Claude had given up his lectures at the university in order to write the great American play. Weren"t they the funniest and the dearest people he had ever known?
It was amazing how intimate Quin and Miss Bartlett got on the subject of the Martels. He had to tell her in detail just what a brick her cousin Ca.s.s was, and she had to tell him what a really wonderful actor Papa Claude used to be.
"Captain Phipps says he knows more about the stage than any man in the country."
"What does the Captain know about it?" asked Quin.
"Captain Phipps? Why, he"s a playwright. He means to devote all his time to the stage as soon as he gets out of the army. You may not believe it, but he is an even better dramatist than he is a doctor."
"Oh, yes, I do," said Quin; "that"s easy to believe."
The sarcasm was lost upon Miss Bartlett, who was intent upon delivering her message from the Martels. They had sent word that they expected Quin to come straight to them when he got his discharge, and that his room was waiting for him.
"And you?" asked Quin eagerly. "You"ll be there every Sunday?"
Her face, which had been all smiles, underwent a sudden change. She said with something perilously like a pout:
"No, I shan"t; I"m to be shipped off to school next week."
"School?" repeated Quin incredulously. "What do you want to be going back to school for?"
"I _don"t_ want to. I hate it. It"s the price I am paying for that dance I had with you at the Hawaiian Garden--that and other things."
"What do you mean?"
"Some old tabby of a chaperon saw me there and came and told my grandmother."
"But what could she have told? You didn"t do anything you oughtn"t to."
Miss Bartlett shook her head. It was evidently something she could not explain, for she sat staring gloomily at the wall above the bed, then she said abruptly: "Well, I must be going. Good-by if I don"t see you again!"
"But you will," announced Quin fiercely. "You are going to see me next Sunday at the Martels". I"ll be there if I land in the guard-house for it."
"Why, your time"s up Sat.u.r.day, isn"t it? Oh! I forgot those three extra days. Captain Phipps has got to let you off. He will if I tell him to."
At this something quite unexpected and elemental surged up in Quin. He forgot the amenities that he had taken such pains to observe in Miss Bartlett"s presence, he entirely lost sight of the social gap that lay between them, and blurted out with deadly earnestness:
"Say, are you his girl?"
This had the effect of bringing Miss Bartlett promptly to her feet, and the next instant poor Quin was saying in an agony of regret:
"I"m sorry, Miss Bartlett. I didn"t mean to be nervy. Honest, I didn"t.
Wait a minute--_please_----"
But she was gone, leaving him to spend the rest of the afternoon searching for a phrase sufficiently odious to express his own opinion of himself.
CHAPTER 4
Eleanor Bartlett, speeding home from the hospital with Captain Phipps beside her, repeated Quin"s question to herself more than once. Up to the present her loves, like her friendships, had been entirely episodic. She had gone easily from one affair to another not so much from fickleness as from growth. What she wanted on Monday did not seem in the least desirable on Sat.u.r.day, and it was a new and disturbing sensation to have the same person dominating her thoughts for so many consecutive days. If her relations with the young officer from Chicago were as platonic as she would have herself and her family believe, why had she allowed the affair to arrive at a stage that precipitated her banishment? Why was she even now flying in the face of authority and risking a serious reprimand by letting him ride in her car?
In fierce justification she told herself it was simply because the family had meddled. If they had not interfered, things would never have reached the danger mark. She had met Captain Phipps three weeks ago at her Uncle Randolph Bartlett"s, and had at first not been sure that she liked him.
He had seemed then a little superior and condescending, and had evidently considered her too young to be interesting. But the next time they met there Aunt Flo had made her do the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet,"
and since then all had been different.
Captain Phipps had not only monopolized her at the dances--he had also found time from his not over-arduous military duties to drop in on her frequently in the afternoons. For hours at a time they had sat in the long, dim Bartlett parlor, with only the ghostly bust of old Madam Bartlett for a chaperon, ostensibly absorbed in the study of modern drama, but finding ample time to dwell at length upon Eleanor"s qualifications for the stage and the Captain"s budding genius as a playwright. And just when Ibsen and Pinero were giving place to Sudermann, and vague personal ambitions were crystallizing into definite plans, the family interfered.
The causes of their condemnation were as varied as they were numerous. He was ten years older than Eleanor; he was too sophisticated a companion for a young girl; he had taken her to a public dance-hall on New Year"s eve, where she had been seen dancing with an unknown private; he had been quite insolent to Madam when she had taken him to task for it; and, most heinous of all, he was encouraging her in her ambition to go on the stage. And beneath it all, Eleanor knew quite well, was the nervous flutter of apprehension that seized the entire family whenever a threatening masculine presence loomed on the horizon.
She stole a glance at her handsome companion, and, seeing that he was observing her, quickly lowered her eyes. The Captain had a flattering way of studying her poses, remarking on the lines of her gowns and her hats.
He was constantly discovering interesting things about her that she had not known before. But sometimes, as now, she was restive under his too close scrutiny.
"So you are actually going to leave me next week?" he asked, with a note of personal aggrievement.
"To leave you? I like that! If it weren"t for you I shouldn"t be going."
"Are they really sending you away on my account?"
"Indeed they are. Grandmother says you are encouraging me about the stage, and that poor Papa Claude is demoralizing us both."
"Isn"t that absurd?" said the Captain. "Dear old C. M. is about as innocuous as a peac.o.c.k. Madam Bartlett should have been born in the seventeenth century. What will she say when she sees your name blazing over a Broadway theater?"
"In one of your plays! Oh, Captain, wouldn"t that be glorious?"
"Haven"t I asked you to drop the "Captain"? My name is Harold. Say it!"
"No; I can"t."
"Yes, you can. Come!"
But she defied him with tightly closed lips and dancing eyes. With feminine instinct she had discovered that the irresistible Captain was piqued and stimulated by the unusual taste of opposition.
"You little minx!" he said, lifting an accusing finger. "Those eyes of yours are going to do a lot of damage before they get through with it."
Eleanor took kindly to the thought that she was dangerous. If she could cause disturbance to an individual by the guarded flutter of her eyelids, what effect might she not produce by giving them full play before a larger audience?
"Do you really think I could act if I got the chance?" she asked dreamily.
"I am absolutely sure. Your grandfather"s quite right when he says you were born to the footlights. With your voice and your unusual coloring and your plastic little body----"
"But you can"t imagine the opposition," Eleanor broke in. "It isn"t as if my mother and father were living. I believe they would understand. But grandfather and the aunties, and even Uncle Ranny, throw a fit at the mere mention of the stage."
"You do not belong to them," said the Captain impatiently. "You do not even belong to yourself. A great talent belongs to the world. All these questions will settle themselves, once you take the definite step."
"And you actually believe that I will get to New York to study?"