"I suppose I must. But I can"t help it. I can"t make you see how the thing looks to me. You know--I"ve written you all about everything-- what this place has meant to me. Until I came here I never realised it was in me to make good at anything. But here I have; I"m doing so well that I"d actually have some self-respect if I wasn"t bound to play this low-down trick on Josie Lockwood. I"ve worked and succeeded and been of some service to people who were worth it----"
"Who? Sam Graham?"
"He and his daughter----"
"Oh, his daughter!"
"Now get that foolish idea out of your head; there"s nothing in it.
Betty"s just a simple, sweet little girl, who"s had a pretty hard time and never a real chance in life--until I managed to give it to her. And I"d feel pretty good about that if ... Oh, there"s no use talking to you!"
"No; go on; you"re very entertaining." Kellogg laughed mockingly.
"Well, I have tried to keep to the terms of our understanding; I singled out this Lockwood girl and worked all the degrees--didn"t say much, you know--no love-making--just let her catch me looking sadly at her once in a while..."
"That"s the way to work it."
"Yes, that"s the way," Nat a.s.sented gloomily. "But the longer I keep it up the meaner I feel and... I wish you"d agree to call it off. ...
These Rubes at first struck me as being nothing but a lot of jay freaks, but when I got to know them I realised they were just as human as we are. I like them now and... on the level, I"m getting kind of stuck on church.... As for work, why, I eat it up!"
Kellogg laughed with delight "Nat," he cried, "my poor crazy friend, listen to me: This working and church-going and helping old Graham is all very n.o.ble and fine, and I"m glad you"ve done it. This drug-store is a monument to the business ability that I always knew was latent in you. And clean living hasn"t done you any harm.... But now you"re due to come down to earth. This place pays you a neat profit. Well and good! That"s all it"ll ever do. It"s new to you now and you like the novelty and you"re having the time of your life finding out you"re good for something. But pretty soon it"ll begin to stale on you, and before long you"ll find yourself hating it and the town--and then you"ll be back where you started. Now, I"m going to hold you to our bargain for your own sake. If you"re stuck on the town and the work you can keep right on just as well after you"re married; but when you do begin to tire of it, you"ll want that fortune to fall back on and do what you like with. Don"t let this chance slip--not on your life!"
"But," Nat argued feebly, "think of the injustice to the girl. From the way I"ve behaved since I struck this burg she thinks I"m closely related to the saints."
"Very well, then; I"ll concede a point. If you really think you"re taking a mean advantage of her, when she proposes to you tell her all about yourself--just the sort of a chap you"ve been. You needn"t mention our agreement, however. Then if she wants to drop you, I"ll have nothing to say."
"Thank you for nothing," said Duncan bitterly. "A bargain"s a bargain.
I gave you my word of honour I"d go through with this thing, and I"ll stick to it. But I tell you now, I don"t like it."
"Oh, I know how you feel, Nat. But I _know_ that some day you"ll come to me and say: "Harry, if you had let me back out, I"d never have forgiven you.""
"All right," said Nat impatiently. "I presume you know best."
"You can bet I do. And now I"d like to meet old Graham."
"I"ll take you right up--no, I can"t. Here comes a customer. But you just go through that door and upstairs; he"ll be in the laboratory--the front room--and he knows all about you. I"ll join you just as soon as Tracey gets back."
XIX
PROVING THE PERSPICUITY OF MR. KELLOGG
A customer came and went, and then Nat noticed that twilight was beginning to darken the store. Though the hour wasn"t late and the evenings were long at that season, the windows faced the east, and there were huge, overshadowing elms outside--just then heavy with luxuriant foliage; so dusk was always early in the room.
It was one of Nat"s axioms that a store, to be successful, should be always brilliantly lighted. It was a bit expensive, perhaps, but in the long run it paid. For that reason he installed electric light as soon as he felt the business could afford it.
Now he moved to the windows and switched on the bulbs behind the huge gla.s.s jars filled with tinted water. Returning, he was about to connect up the remainder of the illuminating system, when Josie, entering, stayed him. Later he was glad of this.
"Nat..."
He knew that voice. "Why, Josie!" he exclaimed in surprise, swinging about to discover her standing on the threshold--very dainty and fetching, indeed, in one of the summery frocks she had brought back from New York.
She moved over to him, holding out her hand. He took it with disguised reluctance. "Where"s Tracey?" she asked with a look that first held his eyes, then reviewed the store.
"This is his afternoon off," Nat reminded her.
"Then you"re all alone?" she deduced archly.
"Oh, quite...."
"I"m so glad." She sighed and dropped into a chair by the soda-water counter. "I wanted to see you--to talk to you alone."
He bit his lip in his annoyance, shivering with a presentiment. "What about, Josie?"
"About Wednesday night--after prayer meeting. Why didn"t you wait for me?"
"Why--ah--I had to get back to the store, you know--there were some cheques to be made out and sent off, and I"d forgotten them. Besides,"
he added on inspiration, "you were talking with Roland and I didn"t want to interrupt you."
"So you left me to go home with him?"
"Why, what else--"
"You"re making me awful" unhappy." Her voice trembled.
"_I_, Josie?"
"Yes. You knew I didn"t want to walk home with Roland."
"How could I know that?"
"I should think you ought to know it, Nat, unless you"re blind.
Besides, I told you once."
"True," he fenced desperately, "but that was a long time ago; and how could I be sure you hadn"t changed your mind? Besides, you know, I mustn"t monopolise you. If I do...."
"Well?" she inquired sweetly as he paused on the lip of a break.
"Why, if I do--ah--"
"If you"re afraid people will talk about us, seeing us so much together, you needn"t worry. They"re doing that now."
"Why, Josie!"
"Yes, they are. We"ve been going together so long, and then suddenly you don"t seem to care about--care to be alone with me at all. This is the first chance I"ve had to talk to you, when there wasn"t somebody else round, for I don"t know how long. And even now you don"t seem glad to see me."