Susan sparkled at the idea of a young man, and _such_ a young man, taking trouble for her. Ruth, pale, kept her eyes down and her lips compressed. She was picturing the gallant appearance the young Soph.o.m.ore from Yale, away off in the gorgeous fashionable East, would make as he came in at that gate yonder and up the walk and seated himself on the veranda--with Susan!
Evidently her mother had failed; Susan was not to be taken away.
When Warham departed down the walk Ruth rose; she could not bear being alone with her triumphant rival--triumphant because unconscious. She knew that to get Sam to herself all she would have to do would be to hint to Susan, the generous, what she wanted. But pride forbade that. As her hand was on the k.n.o.b of the screen door, Susan said: "Why don"t you like Sam?"
"Oh, I think he"s stuck-up. He"s been spoiled in the East."
"Why, I don"t see any sign of it."
"You were too flattered by his talking to you," said Ruth, with a sweet-sour little laugh--an asp of a sneer hid in a basket of flowers.
Susan felt the sting; but, seeing only the flowers, did not dream whence it had come. "It _was_ nice, wasn"t it?" said she, gayly. "Maybe you"re right about him, but I can"t help liking him. You must admit he"s handsome."
"He has a bad look in his eyes," replied Ruth. Such rage against Susan was swelling within her that it seemed to her she would faint if she did not release at least part of it. "You want to look out for him, Susie," said she, calmly and evenly. "You don"t want to take what he says seriously."
"Of course not," said Susan, quite honestly, though she, no more than the next human being, could avoid taking seriously whatever was pleasantly flattering.
"He"d never think of marrying you." Ruth trembled before and after delivering this venomous shaft.
"Marrying!" cried Susan, again quite honestly. "Why, I"m only seventeen."
Ruth drew a breath of relief. The shaft had glanced off the armor of innocence without making the faintest dent. She rushed into the house. She did not dare trust herself with her cousin.
What might the demon within her tempt her to say next?
"Come up, Ruth!" called her mother. "The dress is ready for the last try-on. I think it"s going to hang beautifully."
Ruth dragged herself up the stairs, lagged into the sitting-room, gazed at the dress with a scowl. "What did father say?" she asked.
"It"s no use trying to do anything with your father."
Ruth flung herself in a corner of the sofa.
"The only thing I can think of," said her mother, humbly and timidly, "is phone the Sinclairs as I originally set out to do."
"And have the whole town laughing at me. . . . Oh, what do I care, anyhow!"
"Arthur Sinclair"s taller and a sight handsomer. Right in the face, Sam"s as plain as d.i.c.k"s hatband. His looks is all clothes and polish--and mighty poor polish, I think. Arthur"s got rise in him, too, while Sam--well, I don"t know what"d become of him if old Wright lost his money."
But Arthur, a mere promise, seemed poor indeed beside Sam, the actually arrived. To marry Sam would be to step at once into grandeur; to marry Arthur would mean years of struggle.
Besides, Arthur was heavy, at least seemed heavy to light Ruth, while Sam was her ideal of gay elegance. "I _detest_ Arthur Sinclair," she now announced.
"You can get Sam if you want him," said her mother confidently. "One evening with a mere child like Susie isn"t going to amount to much."
Ruth winced. "Do you suppose I don"t know that?" cried she.
"What makes me so mad is his impudence--coming here to see her when he wouldn"t marry her or take her any place. It"s insulting to us all."
"Oh, I don"t think it"s as bad as all that, Ruthie," soothed her mother, too simple-minded to accept immediately this clever subtlety of self-deception.
"You know this town--how people talk. Why, his sister----" and she related their conversation at the gate that morning.
"You ought to have sat on her hard, Ruth," said Mrs. Warham, with dangerously sparkling eyes. "No matter what we may think privately, it gives people a low opinion of us to----"
"Don"t I know that!" shrilled Ruth. She began to weep. "I"m ashamed of myself."
"But we must try the dress on." Mrs. Warham spread the skirt, using herself as form. "Isn"t it too lovely!"
Ruth dried her eyes as she gazed. The dress was indeed lovely.
But her pleasure in it was shadowed by the remembrance that most of the loveliness was due to Susan"s suggestions. Still, she tried it on, and felt better. She would linger until Sam came, would exhibit herself to him; and surely he would not tarry long with Susan. This project improved the situation greatly. She began her toilet for the evening at once, though it was only three o"clock. Susan finished her pressing and started to dress at five--because she knew Ruth would be appealing to her to come in and help put the finishing touches to the toilet for the party. And, sure enough, at half-past five, before she had nearly finished, Ruth, with a sneaking humility, begged her to come "for half a minute--if you don"t mind--and have got time."
Susan did Ruth"s hair over, made her change to another color of stockings and slippers, put the dress on her, did nearly an hour"s refitting and redraping. Both were late for supper; and after supper Susan had to make certain final amendments to the wonderful toilet, and then get herself ready. So it was Ruth alone who went down when Sam Wright came. "My, but you do look all to the good, Ruth!" cried Sam. And his eyes no less than his tone showed that he meant it. He hadn"t realized what a soft white neck the blond cousin had, or how perfectly her shoulders rounded into her slim arms. As Ruth moved to depart, he said: "Don"t be in such a rush. Wait till Susie finishes her primping and comes down."
"She had to help me," said Ruth, with a righteousness she could justly plume herself upon. "That"s why she"s late. No, I must get along." She was wise enough to resist the temptation to improve upon an already splendid impression. "Come as soon as you can."
"I"ll be there in a few minutes," Sam a.s.sured her convincingly.
"Save some dances for me."
Ruth went away happy. At the gate she glanced furtively back.
Sam was looking after her. She marched down the street with light step. "I must wear low-necked dresses more in the evenings," she said to herself. "It"s foolish for a girl to hide a good neck."
Sam, at the edge of the veranda, regretting his promise to call on Susan, was roused by her voice: "Did you ever see anything as lovely as Ruth?"
Sam"s regret vanished the instant he looked at her, and the greedy expression came into his sensual, confident young face.
"She"s a corker," said he. "But I"m content to be where I am."
Susan"s dress was not cut out in the neck, was simply of the collarless kind girls of her age wear. It revealed the smooth, voluptuous yet slender column of her throat. And her arms, bare to just above the elbows, were exquisite. But Susan"s fascination did not lie in any or in all of her charms, but in that subtlety of magnetism which account for all the sensational phenomena of the relations of men and women. She was a clever girl--clever beyond her years, perhaps--though in this day seventeen is not far from fully developed womanhood. But even had she been silly, men would have been glad to linger on and on under the spell of the s.e.x call which nature had subtly woven into the texture of her voice, into the glance of her eyes, into the delicate emanations of her skin.
They talked of all manner of things--games and college East and West--the wonders of New York--the weather, finally. Sam was every moment of the time puzzling how to bring up the one subject that interested both above all others, that interested him to the exclusion of all others. He was an ardent student of the game of man and woman, had made considerable progress at it--remarkable progress, in view of his bare twenty years. He had devised as many "openings" as an expert chess player. None seemed to fit this difficult case how to make love to a girl of his own cla.s.s whom his conventional, socially ambitious nature forbade him to consider marrying. As he observed her in the moonlight, he said to himself: "I"ve got to look out or I"ll make a d.a.m.n fool of myself with her." For his heady pa.s.sion was fast getting the better of those prudent instincts he had inherited from a father who almost breathed by calculation.
While he was still struggling for an "opening," Susan eager to help him but not knowing how, there came from the far interior of the house three distant raps. "Gracious!" exclaimed Susan.
"That"s Uncle George. It must be ten o"clock." With frank regret, "I"m so sorry. I thought it was early."
"Yes, it did seem as if I"d just come," said Sam. Her shy innocence was contagious. He felt an awkward country lout.
"Well, I suppose I must go."
"But you"ll come again--sometime?" she asked wistfully. It was her first real beau--the first that had interested her--and what a dream lover of a beau he looked, standing before her in that wonderful light!
"Come? Rather!" exclaimed he in a tone of enthusiasm that could not but flatter her into a sort of intoxication. "I"d have hard work staying away. But Ruth--she"ll always be here."
"Oh, she goes out a lot--and I don"t."
"Will you telephone me--next time she"s to be out?"
"Yes," agreed she with a hesitation that was explained when she added: "But don"t think you"ve got to come. . . . Oh, I must go in!"
"Good night--Susie." Sam held out his hand. She took it with a queer reluctance. She felt nervous, afraid, as if there were something uncanny lurking somewhere in those moonlight shadows.
She gently tried to draw her hand away, but he would not let her. She made a faint struggle, then yielded. It was so wonderful, the sense of the touch of his hand. "Susie!" he said hoa.r.s.ely. And she knew he felt as she did. Before she realized it his arms were round her, and his lips had met hers. "You drive me crazy," he whispered.
Both were trembling; she had become quite cold--her cheeks, her hand, her body even. "You mustn"t," she murmured, drawing gently away.
"You set me crazy," he repeated. "Do you--love me--a little?"