The trio, running for their boat, left the little family rather excited, for the first time, over the window-cleaner.
"But, Peter, is there really something in it?" asked Susan, on the boat.
"Well,--there might be. Anyway, it seemed a good chance to give them a lift, don"t you know?" he said, with his ingenuous blush. Susan loved him for the generous impulse. She had sometimes fancied him a little indifferent to the sufferings of the less fortunate, proof of the contrary warmed her to the very heart! She had been distressed one day to hear him gaily telling George Banks, the salesman who was coughing himself to death despite the frantic care of his wife, a story of a consumptive, and, on another occasion, when a shawled, shabby woman had come up to them in the street, with the whined story of five little hungry children, Susan had been shocked to hear Peter say, with his irrepressible gaiety, "Well, here! Here"s five cents; that"s a cent apiece! Now mind you don"t waste it!"
She told herself to-night that these things proved no more than want of thought. There was nothing wrong with the heart that could plan so tactfully for Mrs. Carroll.
On the following Sat.u.r.day Susan had the unexpected experience of shopping with Mrs. Lancaster and Georgie for the latter"s trousseau. It was unlike any shopping that they had ever done before, inasmuch as the doctor"s unclaimed bride had received from her lord the sum of three hundred dollars for the purpose. Georgie denied firmly that she was going to start with her husband for the convention at Del Monte that evening, but she went shopping nevertheless. Perhaps she could not really resist the lure of the shining heap of gold pieces. She became deeply excited and charmed over the buying of the pretty tailor-made, the silk house dresses, the hat and shoes and linen. Georgie began to play the bride, was prettily indignant with clerks, pouted at silks and velvets. Susan did not miss her cousin"s bright blush when certain things, a linen suit, underlinen, a waist or two, were taken from the ma.s.s of things to be sent, and put into Georgie"s suitcase.
"And you"re to have a silk waist, Ma, I INSIST."
"Now, Baby love, this is YOUR shopping. And, more than that, I really need a pair of good corsets before I try on waists!"
"Then you"ll have both!" Mrs. Lancaster laughed helplessly as the bride carried her point.
At six o"clock the three met the doctor at the Vienna Bakery, for tea, and Georgie, quite lofty in her att.i.tude when only her mother and cousin were to be impressed, seemed suddenly to lose her powers of speech. She answered the doctor"s outline of his plans only by monosyllables. "Yes," "All right," "That"s nice, Joe." Her face was burning red.
"But Ma--Ma and I--and Sue, too, don"t you, Sue?" she stammered presently. "We think--and don"t you think it would be as well, yourself, Joe, if I went back with Ma to-night---"
Susan, anxiously looking toward the doctor, at this, felt a little thrill run over her whole body at the sudden glimpse of the confident male she had in his reply,--or rather, lack of reply. For, after a vague, absent glance at Georgie, he took a time-table out of his pocket, and addressed his mother-in-law.
"We"ll be back next Sunday, Mrs. Lancaster. But don"t worry if you don"t hear from Georgie that day, for we may be late, and Mother won"t naturally want us to run off the moment we get home. But on Monday Georgie can go over, if she wants to. Perhaps I"ll drive her over, if I can."
"He was the coolest---!" Susan said, half-annoyed, half-admiring, to Mary Lou, late that night. The boarding-house had been pleasantly fluttered by the departure of the bride, Mrs. Lancaster, in spite of herself, had enjoyed the little distinction of being that personage"s mother.
"Well, she"ll be back again in a week!" Virginia, missing her sister, sighed.
"Back, yes," Mrs. Lancaster admitted, "but not quite the same, dear!"
Georgie, whatever her husband, whatever the circ.u.mstances of her marriage, was nearer her mother than any of the others now. As a wife, she was admitted to the company of wives.
Susan spent the evening in innocently amorous dreams, over her game of patience. What a wonderful thing, if one loved a man, to fare forth into the world with him as his wife!----
"I have about as much chance with Joe Carroll as a dead rat," said Billy suddenly. He was busied with his draughting board and the little box of draughts-man"s instruments that Susan always found fascinating, and had been scowling and puffing over his work.
"Why?" Susan asked, laughing outright. "Oh, she"s so darn busy!" Billy said, and returned to his work.
Susan pondered it. She wished she were so "darned" busy that Peter Coleman might have to scheme and plan to see her.
"That"s why men"s love affairs are considered so comparatively unimportant, I suppose," she submitted presently. "Men are so busy!"
Billy paid no attention to the generality, and Susan pursued it no further.
But after awhile she interrupted him again, this time in rather an odd tone.
"Billy, I want to ask you something---"
"Ask away," said Billy, giving her one somewhat startled glance.
Susan did not speak immediately, and he did not hurry her. A few silent minutes pa.s.sed before she laid a card carefully in place, studied it with her head on one side, and said casually, in rather a husky voice:
"Billy, if a man takes a girl everywhere, and gives her things, and seems to want to be with her all the time, he"s in love with her, isn"t he?"
Billy, apparently absorbed in what he was doing, cleared his throat before he answered carelessly:
"Well, it might depend, Sue. When a man in my position does it, a girl knows gosh darn well that if I spend my good hard money on her I mean business!"
"But--it mightn"t be so--with a rich man?" hazarded Susan bravely.
"Why, I don"t know, Sue." An embarra.s.sed red had crept into William"s cheeks. "Of course, if a fellow kissed her---"
"Oh, heavens!" cried Susan, scarlet in turn, "he never did anything like THAT!"
"Didn"t, hey?" William looked blank.
"Oh, never!" Susan said, meeting his look bravely. "He"s--he"s too much of a gentleman, Bill!"
"Perhaps that"s being a gentleman, and perhaps it"s not," said Billy, scowling. "He--but he--he makes love to you, doesn"t he?" The crude phrase was the best he could master in this delicate matter.
"I don"t--I don"t know!" said Susan, laughing, but with flaming cheeks.
"That"s it! He--he isn"t sentimental. I don"t believe he ever would be, it"s not his nature. He doesn"t take anything very seriously, you know.
We talk all the time, but not about really serious things." It sounded a little lame. Susan halted.
"Of course, Coleman"s a perfectly decent fellow---" Billy began, with brotherly uneasiness.
"Oh, absolutely!" Susan could laugh, in her perfect confidence. "He acts exactly as if I were his sister, or another boy. He never even--put his arm about me," she explained, "and I--I don"t know just what he DOES mean---"
"Sure," said Billy, thoughtfully.
"Of course, there"s no reason why a man and a girl can"t be good friends just as two men would," Susan said, more lightly, after a pause.
"Oh, yes there is! Don"t you fool yourself!" Billy said, gloomily.
"That"s all rot!"
"Well, a girl can"t stay moping in the house until a man comes along and says, "If I take you to the theater it means I want to marry you!""
Susan declared with spirit. "I--I can"t very well turn to Peter now and say, "This ends everything, unless you are in earnest!""
Her distress, her earnestness, her eagerness for his opinion, had carried her quite out of herself. She rested her face in her hands, and fixed her anxious eyes upon him.
"Well, here"s the way I figure it out," Billy said, deliberately, drawing his pencil slowly along the edge of his T-square, and squinting at it absorbedly, "Coleman has a crush on you, all right, and he"d rather be with you than anyone else---"
"Yes," nodded Susan. "I know that, because---"
"Well. But you see you"re so fixed that you can"t entertain him here, Sue, and you don"t run in his crowd, so when he wants to see you he has to go out of his way to do it. So his rushing you doesn"t mean as much as it otherwise would."
"I suppose that"s true," Susan said, with a sinking heart.
"The chances are that he doesn"t want to get married at all yet,"
pursued Billy, mercilessly, "and he thinks that if he gives you a good time, and doesn"t--doesn"t go any further, that he"s playing fair."