"Yes, indeed. I had my suspicions all along, but didn"t say nothin", but just to-day I got a description of him, and the description just fits, Mr. Mortimer Henry."
"Just fits Mr. Mortimer Henry? But what has that----?"
"Ah, don"t you try to seem too darn" innocent," Roland snarled. "You can"t fool me!"
A light dawned upon Nat, and laughter flooded his being, although outwardly he remained imperturbable--merely mildly curious. But his fingers were itching.
"So you think I"m the absconding cashier, eh, Roly?"
"You keep away from Josie "r you"ll find out what I think." Nat"s placidity deceived Roland, who drew the wholly erroneous conclusion that he had succeeded in frightening his rival, and consequently dared a few lengths further in his tirade. "Why, if I was to go to Mr.
Lockwood and tell him you"re Mortimer Henry, alias Nat Duncan----"
Duncan"s temper suddenly snapped like a taut violin string.
"That will do," he said icily. "That will be all for this evening, thanks."
"Ah... Are you going to quit chasin" after Josie?"
"I"ll begin chasing after you if you don"t clear out of here."
"You better agree----"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Betty!"]
Just there the storm burst. Ten seconds later Roland, with a confused impression of having been kicked by a mule, picked himself up out of the dust in the middle of the street and stared stupidly back at the store. Nat was waiting in the doorway for a renewal of hostilities, if any such there were to be. Seeing, however, that Roland had apparently sated his appet.i.te for personal conflict, he picked up a dark object at his feet and held it out.
"Here"s your hat, Roly," he called.
Roland spat out a mouthful of dust and swore beneath his breath. "Throw it out here," he replied prudently.
Tossing him the hat, Nat turned contemptuously. "Come in again, any time you want to apologise," he shouted over his shoulder, as an afterthought.
He paused in the middle of the store and felt of his necktie. It proved to be a little out of place, but otherwise he was as immaculate as was his wont. He reviewed the encounter and laughed quietly.
"There"s no cure for a fool," he mused....
The telephone bell roused him from his reverie. He went over to the instrument, sat down, and put the receiver to his ear.
"h.e.l.lo?" he said.... "Oh, h.e.l.lo, Josie! ... What"s that?... That"s right, but I"m not used to it yet, you know.... Well, I"ll try again.
Now--ready?"
He schooled his voice to a key of heartrending sentiment: "h.e.l.lo, darling.... How"s that? ... Told your father? Told him what?... Oh, about the engagement! Was he angry? ... Oh, he wasn"t, eh? What did he say? ... Wasn"t that nice of him!..."
Conscious of a slight noise in the store he looked up. A young woman had just entered. She paused just inside the door, smiling at him a little timidly.
Without another word to his fiancee Nat put down the telephone and hooked up the receiver.
"Betty!" he cried wonderingly.
XXI
AS OTHERS SAW HIM
If Nat"s cry of recognition had been wondering, it was no less one of delight. The surprise he felt was perfectly natural; Betty wasn"t to have returned until the morrow, and was therefore the last person he had expected to see when he looked up from the telephone desk. But it was the change in the girl that most stirred him: the change he had prophesied, planned for, antic.i.p.ated eagerly throughout the long seven months of her absence; to have his expectations so wonderfully fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, pleased him beyond expression. And it"s curious to speculate upon the fact that he fancied his greatest pleasure came from the knowledge that old Sam would be so overjoyed....
It was really only a paraphrase of the old story of the grub and the b.u.t.terfly. The little, starveling drudge who had found him in the store, that first day, had completely vanished; it was as if she had never been. In her place he discovered a girl all grace and loveliness, her slender figure ripening into gracious womanhood; a girl of mind and heart and understanding, all fire and tenderness; demure, intelligent, with a pretty pose of independence and sureness of herself moderated by modesty and reserve. Her travelling dress of sober colouring and severe lines became her bewitchingly. Beneath the brim of her dainty hat, with veil thrown back, her dark hair waved back, glossy with the sheen of perfect well-being, from a face serenely charming--the more so for her slightly deepened flush; and the eyes that shone into Nat"s danced with the light of enjoyment, bred of his supreme astonishment....
"Nat, I"m so glad to see you again!"
He was speechless.
She laughed, put down her suit-case, and moved toward him, offering him both her hands. He took them, stammering.
"It"s such a surprise, Betty----!"
"I knew it would be. I just couldn"t wait, Nat, when I found I could get here by the night train instead of tomorrow morning. I haven"t been home, you know, but I couldn"t resist the temptation to stop in here and see--what the store looked like after all these months. Besides, I thought that you or father----" Her eyes fell and she faltered, withdrawing her hands.
By now he had himself in hand. "Why," he laughed, "you nearly took my breath away. Even now I can hardly believe it..."
"Believe what, Nat?" she asked quickly.
"That you"re the same little Betty Graham. I never saw such a change."
"It"s a change for the better, isn"t it, Nat?" she asked with a smile half wistful.
"I should think it was. It"s just marvellous!"
"Did I seem so very awful, then?"
"Nonsense. You know you didn"t, only, now..."
"Then you think father will be pleased?"
"If he isn"t, I"m blind!"
She looked away, embarra.s.sed, and touched by his interest and his feeling. "And does it make you a little proud, Nat?"
"Proud!" he exclaimed blankly.
"Because you know you"ve done it all. If there"s any improvement in Betty Graham to-day, it"s because of you. If it hadn"t been for you----"
"Never in the world; you don"t know what you"re talking about, Betty.
n.o.body but yourself could have brought about this change. It had to be in you before it could come out. You know that."
She shook her head very decidedly, seating herself on one of the chairs by the soda-fountain. "Oh, no," she contradicted calmly and sincerely.