""Why," says he, "I want you to head her off. I want you to cut me out.
I want you to come to the rescue. Suppose you seen a wildcat about for to eat me, what would you do?"
""Go for it," says I.
""Correct," says George. "Then go for this Mrs. De Clinton the same."
""How am I to do it?" I asks. "By force and awfulness or in some gentler and less lurid manner?"
""Court her," George says, "get her off my trail. Feed her. Take her out in boats. Hang around her and stick to her. Get her mashed on you if you can. Some women are pretty big fools. Who knows but what she might take a fancy to you."
""Had you ever thought," I asks, "of repressing your fatal fascinations in her presence; of squeezing a harsh note in the melody of your siren voice, of veiling your beauty--in other words, of giving her the bounce yourself?"
"George sees no essence of sarcasm in my remark. He twists his moustache and looks at the points of his shoes.
""Well, Simms," he said, "you know how I am about the ladies. I can"t hurt none of their feelings. I"m, by nature, polite and esteemful of their intents and purposes. This Mrs. De Clinton don"t appear to be the suitable sort for me. Besides, I ain"t a marrying man by all means."
""All right," said I, "I"ll do the best I can in the case."
"So I bought a new outfit of clothes and a book on etiquette and made a dead set for Mrs. De Clinton. She was a fine-looking woman, cheerful and gay. At first, I almost had to hobble her to keep her from loping around at George"s heels; but finally I got her so she seemed glad to go riding with me and sailing on the lake; and she seemed real hurt on the mornings when I forgot to send her a bunch of flowers. Still, I didn"t like the way she looked at George, sometimes, out of the corner of her eye. George was having a fine time now, going with the whole bunch just as he pleased. Yes"m," continued Bell, "she certainly was a fine-looking woman at that time. She"s changed some since, as you might have noticed at the supper table."
"What!" I exclaimed.
"I married Mrs. De Clinton," went on Bell. "One evening while we were up at the lake. When I told George about it, he opened his mouth and I thought he was going to break our traditions and say something grateful, but he swallowed it back.
""All right," says he, playing with his dog. "I hope you won"t have too much trouble. Myself, I"m not never going to marry."
"That was three years ago," said Bell. "We came here to live. For a year we got along medium fine. And then everything changed. For two years I"ve been having something that rhymes first-cla.s.s with my name. You heard the row upstairs this evening? That was a merry welcome compared to the usual average. She"s tired of me and of this little town life and she rages all day, like a panther in a cage. I stood it until two weeks ago and then I had to send out The Call. I located George in Sacramento.
He started the day he got my wire."
Mrs. Bell came out of the house swiftly toward us. Some strong excitement or anxiety seemed to possess her, but she smiled a faint hostess smile, and tried to keep her voice calm.
"The dew is falling," she said, "and it"s growing rather late. Wouldn"t you gentlemen rather come into the house?"
Bell took some cigars from his pocket and answered: "It"s most too fine a night to turn in yet. I think Mr. Ames and I will walk out along the road a mile or so and have another smoke. I want to talk with him about some goods that I want to buy."
"Up the road or down the road?" asked Mrs. Bell.
"Down," said Bell.
I thought she breathed a sigh of relief.
When we had gone a hundred yards and the house became concealed by trees, Bell guided me into the thick grove that lined the road and back through them toward the house again. We stopped within twenty yards of the house, concealed by the dark shadows. I wondered at this maneuver.
And then I heard in the distance coming down the road beyond the house, the regular hoofbeats of a team of horses. Bell held his watch in a ray of moonlight.
"On time, within a minute," he said. "That"s George"s way."
The team slowed up as it drew near the house and stopped in a patch of black shadows. We saw the figure of a woman carrying a heavy valise move swiftly from the other side of the house, and hurry to the waiting vehicle. Then it rolled away briskly in the direction from which it had come.
I looked at Bell inquiringly, I suppose. I certainly asked him no question.
"She"s running away with George," said Bell, simply. "He"s kept me posted about the progress of the scheme all along. She"ll get a divorce in six months and then George will marry her. He never helps anybody halfway. It"s all arranged between them."
I began to wonder what friendship was, after all.
When we went into the house, Bell began to talk easily on other subjects; and I took his cue. By and by the big chance to buy out the business in Mountain City came back to my mind and I began to urge it upon him. Now that he was free, it would be easier for him to make the move; and he was sure of a splendid bargain.
Bell was silent for some minutes, but when I looked at him I fancied that he was thinking of something else--that he was not considering the project.
"Why, no, Mr. Ames," he said, after a while, "I can"t make that deal.
I"m awful thankful to you, though, for telling me about it. But I"ve got to stay here. I can"t go to Mountain City."
"Why?" I asked.
"Missis Bell," he replied, "won"t live in Mountain City, She hates the place and wouldn"t go there. I"ve got to keep right on here in Saltillo."
"Mrs. Bell!" I exclaimed, too puzzled to conjecture what he meant.
"I ought to explain," said Bell. "I know George and I know Mrs. Bell.
He"s impatient in his ways. He can"t stand things that fret him, long, like I can. Six months, I give them--six months of married life, and there"ll be another disunion. Mrs. Bell will come back to me. There"s no other place for her to go. I"ve got to stay here and wait. At the end of six months, I"ll have to grab a satchel and catch the first train. For George will be sending out The Call."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "See Tom and the dog." (cartoon from _The Rolling Stone_)]
A DINNER AT ---- [3]
[Footnote 3: See advertising column, "Where to Dine Well,"
in the daily newspapers.]
[The story referred to in this skit appears in "The Trimmed Lamp" under the same t.i.tle--"The Badge of Policeman O"Roon."]
The Adventures of an Author With His Own Hero
All that day--in fact from the moment of his creation--Van Sweller had conducted himself fairly well in my eyes. Of course I had had to make many concessions; but in return he had been no less considerate. Once or twice we had had sharp, brief contentions over certain points of behavior; but, prevailingly, give and take had been our rule.
His morning toilet provoked our first tilt. Van Sweller went about it confidently.
"The usual thing, I suppose, old chap," he said, with a smile and a yawn. "I ring for a b. and s., and then I have my tub. I splash a good deal in the water, of course. You are aware that there are two ways in which I can receive Tommy Carmichael when he looks in to have a chat about polo. I can talk to him through the bathroom door, or I can be picking at a grilled bone which my man has brought in. Which would you prefer?"
I smiled with diabolic satisfaction at his coming discomfiture.
"Neither," I said. "You will make your appearance on the scene when a gentleman should--after you are fully dressed, which indubitably private function shall take place behind closed doors. And I will feel indebted to you if, after you do appear, your deportment and manners are such that it will not be necessary to inform the public, in order to appease its apprehension, that you have taken a bath."