"Look here, Joe," said William, desperately, "don"t you realize that this is the very last night Miss Pratt"s going to be in this town?"
"You bet I do!" These words, though vehement, were inaudible; being formed in the mind of Mr. Bullitt, but, for diplomatic reasons, not projected upon the air by his vocal organs.
William continued: "Joe, you and I have been friends ever since you and I were boys." He spoke with emotion, but Joe had no appearance of being favorably impressed. "And when I look back," said William, "I expect I"ve done more favors for you than I ever have for any oth--"
But Mr. Bullitt briskly interrupted this appealing reminiscence.
"Listen here, Silly Bill," he said, becoming all at once friendly and encouraging--"Bill, there"s other girls here you can get dances with.
There"s one or two of "em sittin" around in the yard. You can have a bully time, even if you did come late." And, with the air of discharging happily all the obligations of which William had reminded him, he added, "I"ll tell you THAT much, Bill!"
"Joe, you got to give me anyway ONE da--"
"Look!" said Mr. Bullitt, eagerly. "Look sittin" yonder, over under that tree all by herself! That"s a visiting girl named Miss Boke; she"s visiting some old uncle or something she"s got livin" here, and I bet you could--"
"Joe, you GOT to--"
"I bet that Miss Boke"s a good dancer, Bill," Joe continued, warmly.
"May Parcher says so. She was tryin" to get me to dance with her myself, but I couldn"t, or I would of. Honest, Bill, I would of! Bill, if I was you I"d sail right in there before anybody else got a start, and I"d--"
"Ole man," said William, gently, "you remember the time Miss Pratt and I had an engagement to go walkin", and you wouldn"t of seen her for a week on account of your aunt dyin" in Kansas City, if I hadn"t let you go along with us? Ole man, if you--"
But the music sounded for the next dance, and Joe felt that it was indeed time to end this uncomfortable conversation. "I got to go, Bill,"
he said. "I GOT to!"
"Wait just one minute," William implored. "I want to say just this: if--"
"Here!" exclaimed Mr. Bullitt. "I got to GO!"
"I know it. That"s why--"
Heedless of remonstrance, Joe wrenched himself free, for it would have taken a powerful and ruthless man to detain him longer. "What you take me for?" he demanded, indignantly. "I got this with Miss PRATT!"
And evading a hand which still sought to clutch him, he departed hotly.
... Mr. Parcher"s voice expressed wonder, a little later, as he recommended his wife to turn her gaze in the direction of "that Baxter boy" again. "Just look at him!" said Mr. Parcher. "His face has got more genuine idiocy in it than I"ve seen around here yet, and G.o.d knows I"ve been seeing some miracles in that line this summer!"
"He"s looking at Lola Pratt," said Mrs. Parcher.
"Don"t you suppose I can see that?" Mr. Parcher returned, with some irritation. "That"s what"s the trouble with him. Why don"t he QUIT looking at her?"
"I think probably he feels badly because she"s dancing with one of the other boys," said his wife, mildly.
"Then why can"t he dance with somebody else himself?" Mr. Parcher inquired, testily. "Instead of standing around like a calf looking out of the butcher"s wagon! By George! he looks as if he was just going to MOO!"
"Of course he ought to be dancing with somebody," Mrs. Parcher remarked, thoughtfully. "There are one or two more girls than boys here, and he"s the only boy not dancing. I believe I"ll--" And, not stopping to complete the sentence, she rose and walked across the interval of gra.s.s to William. "Good evening, William," she said, pleasantly. "Don"t you want to dance?"
"Ma"am?" said William, blankly, and the eyes he turned upon here were gla.s.sy with anxiety. He was still determined to dance on and on and on with Miss Pratt, but he realized that there were great obstacles to be overcome before he could begin the process. He was feverishly awaiting the next interregnum between dances--then he would show Joe Bullitt and Johnnie Watson and Wallace Banks, and some others who had set themselves in his way, that he was "abs"lutely not goin" to stand it!"
He couldn"t stand it, he told himself, even if he wanted to--not to-night! He had "been through enough" in order to get to the party, he thought, thus defining sufferings connected with his costume, and now that he was here he WOULD dance and dance, on and on, with Miss Pratt.
Anything else was unthinkable.
He HAD to!
"Don"t you want to dance?" Mrs. Parcher repeated. "Have you looked around for a girl without a partner?"
He continued to stare at her, plainly having no comprehension of her meaning.
"Girl?" he echoed, in a tone of feeble inquiry.
She smiled and nodded, taking his arm. "You come with me," she said.
"I"LL fix you up!"
William suffered her to conduct him across the yard. Intensely preoccupied with what he meant to do as soon as the music paused, he was somewhat hazy, but when he perceived that he was being led in the direction of a girl, sitting solitary under one of the maple-trees, the sudden shock of fear aroused his faculties.
"What--where--" he stammered, halting and seeking to detach himself from his hostess.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I got--I got to--" William began, uneasily. "I got to--"
His purpose was to excuse himself on the ground that he had to find a man and tell him something important before the next dance, for in the confusion of the moment his powers refused him greater originality.
But the vital part of his intended excuse remained unspoken, being disregarded and cut short, as millions of other masculine diplomacies have been, throughout the centuries, by the decisive action of ladies.
Miss Boke had been sitting under the mapletree for a long time--so long, indeed, that she was acquiring a profound distaste for forestry and even for maple syrup. In fact, her state of mind was as desperate, in its way, as William"s; and when a hostess leads a youth (in almost perfectly fitting conventional black) toward a girl who has been sitting alone through dance after dance, that girl knows what that youth is going to have to do.
It must be confessed for Miss Boke that her eyes had been upon William from the moment Mrs. Parcher addressed him. Nevertheless, as the pair came toward her she looked casually away in an indifferent manner. And yet this may have been but a seeming unconsciousness, for upon the very instant of William"s halting, and before he had managed to stammer "I got to--" for the fourth time, Miss Boke sprang to her feet and met Mrs.
Parcher more than halfway.
"Oh, Mrs. Parcher!" she called, coming forward.
"I got--" the panic-stricken William again hastily began. "I got to--"
"Oh, Mrs. Parcher," cried Miss Boke, "I"ve been SO worried! There"s a candle in that j.a.panese lantern just over your head, and I think it"s going out."
"I"ll run and get a fresh one in a minute," said Mrs. Parcher, smiling benevolently and retaining William"s arm with a little difficulty. "We were just coming to find you. I"ve brought--"
"I got to--I got to find a m--" William made a last, stricken effort.
"Miss Boke, this is Mr. Baxter," said Mrs. Parcher, and she added, with what seemed to William hideous garrulity, "He and you both came late, dear, and he hasn"t any dances engaged, either. So run and dance, and have a nice time together."
Thereupon this disastrous woman returned to her husband. Her look was conscientious; she thought she had done something pleasant!
The full horror of his position was revealed to William in the relieved, confident, proprietor"s smile of Miss Boke. For William lived by a code from which no previous experience had taught him any means of escape.
Mrs. Parcher had made the statement--so needless and so ruinous--that he had no engagements; and in his dismay he had been unable to deny this fatal truth; he had been obliged to let it stand. Henceforth, he was committed absolutely to Miss Boke until either some one else asked her to dance, or (while yet in her close company) William could obtain an engagement with another girl. The latter alternative presented certain grave difficulties, also contracting William to dance with the other girl before once more obtaining his freedom, but undeniably he regarded it from the first as the more hopeful.
He had to give form to the fatal invitation. "M"av this dance "thyou?"
he muttered, doggedly.
"Vurry pleased to!" Miss Boke responded, whereupon they walked in silence to the platform, stepped upon its surface, and embraced.