Harrigan looked up. "No. What"s it about?"
"Best story of the London prize-ring ever written. You"re Mr. Harrigan, aren"t you?"
"Yes," diffidently.
"My name is Edward Courtlandt. If I am not mistaken, you were a great friend of my father"s."
"Are you d.i.c.k Courtlandt"s boy?"
"I am."
"Well, say!" Harrigan held out his hand and was gratified to encounter a man"s grasp. "So you"re Edward Courtlandt? Now, what do you think of that!
Why, your father was the best sportsman I ever met. Square as they make "em. Not a kink anywhere in his make-up. He used to come to the bouts in his plug hat and dress suit; always had a seat by the ring. I could hear him tap with his cane when there happened to be a bit of pretty sparring.
He was no slouch himself when it came to putting on the mitts. Many"s the time I"ve had a round or two with him in my old gymnasium. Well, well!
It"s good to see a man again. I"ve seen your name in the papers, but I never knew you was d.i.c.k"s boy. You"ve got an old grizzly"s head in your dining-room at home. Some day I"ll tell you how it got there, when you"re not in a hurry. I went out to Montana for a sc.r.a.p, and your dad went along. After the mill was over, we went hunting. Come up to the villa and meet the folks.... Hang it, I forgot. They"re up to Caxley-Webster"s to tea; piffle water and sticky sponge-cake. I want you to meet my wife and daughter."
"I should be very pleased to meet them." So this was Nora"s father? "Won"t you come along with me to the colonel"s?" with sudden inspiration. Here was an opportunity not to be thrust aside lightly.
"Why, I just begged off. They won"t be expecting me now."
"All the better. I"d rather have you introduce me to your family than to have the colonel. As a matter of fact, I told him I couldn"t get up. But I changed my mind. Come along." The first rift in the storm-packed clouds; and to meet her through the kindly offices of this amiable man who was her father!
"But the pup and the cigar box?"
"Send them up."
Harrigan eyed his own spotless flannels and compared them with the other"s. What was good enough for the son of a millionaire was certainly good enough for him. Besides, it would be a bully good joke on Nora and Molly.
"You"re on!" he cried. Here was a lark. He turned the dog and the purchases over to the proprietor, who promised that they should arrive instantly at the villa.
Then the two men sought the quay to engage a boat. They walked shoulder to shoulder, flat-backed, with supple swinging limbs, tanned faces and clear animated eyes. Perhaps Harrigan was ten or fifteen pounds heavier, but the difference would have been noticeable only upon the scales.
"Padre, my shoe pinches," said Nora with a pucker between her eyes.
"My child," replied the padre, "never carry your vanity into a shoemaker"s shop. The happiest man is he who walks in loose shoes."
"If they are his own, and not inherited," quickly.
The padre laughed quietly. He was very fond of this new-found daughter of his. Her spontaneity, her blooming beauty, her careless observation of convention, her independence, had captivated him. Sometimes he believed that he thoroughly understood her, when all at once he would find himself mentally peering into some dark corner into which the penetrating light of his usually swift deduction could throw no glimmer. She possessed the sins of the b.u.t.terfly and the latent possibilities of a Judith. She was the most interesting feminine problem he had in his long years encountered.
The mother mildly amused him, for he could discern the character that she was sedulously striving to batten down beneath inane social usages and formalities. Some day she would revert to the original type, and then he would be glad to renew the acquaintance. In rather a shamefaced way (a sensation he could not quite a.n.a.lyze) he loved the father. The pugilist will always embarra.s.s the scholar and excite a negligible envy; for physical perfection is the most envied of all nature"s gifts. The padre was short, thickset, and inclined toward stoutness in the region of the middle b.u.t.ton of his ca.s.sock. But he was active enough for all purposes.
"I have had many wicked thoughts lately," resumed Nora, turning her gaze away from the tennis players. She and the padre were sitting on the lower steps of the veranda. The others were loitering by the nets.
"The old plaint disturbs you?"
"Yes."
"Can you not cast it out wholly?"
"Hate has many tentacles."
"What produces that condition of mind?" meditatively. "Is it because we have wronged somebody?"
"Or because somebody has wronged us?"
"Or misjudged us, by us have been misjudged?" softly.
"Good gracious!" exclaimed Nora, springing up.
"What is it?"
"Father is coming up the path!"
"I am glad to see him. But I do not recollect having seen the face of the man with him."
The lithe eagerness went out of Nora"s body instantly. Everything seemed to grow cold, as if she had become enveloped in one of those fogs that suddenly blow down menacingly from hidden icebergs. Fortunately the inquiring eyes of the padre were not directed at her. He was here, not a dozen yards away, coming toward her, her father"s arm in his! After what had pa.s.sed he had dared! It was not often that Nora Harrigan was subjected to a touch of vertigo, but at this moment she felt that if she stirred ever so little she must fall. The stock whence she had sprung, however, was aggressive and fearless; and by the time Courtlandt had reached the outer markings of the courts, Nora was physically herself again. The advantage of the meeting would be his. That was indubitable. Any mistake on her part would be playing into his hands. If only she had known!
"Let us go and meet them, Padre," she said quietly. With her father, her mother and the others, the inevitable introduction would be shorn of its danger. What Celeste might think was of no great importance; Celeste had been tried and her loyalty proven. Where had her father met him, and what diabolical stroke of fate had made him bring this man up here?
"Nora!" It was her mother calling.
She put her arm through the padre"s, and they went forward leisurely.
"Why, father, I thought you weren"t coming," said Nora. Her voice was without a tremor.
The padre hadn"t the least idea that a volcano might at any moment open up at his side. He smiled benignly.
"Changed my mind," said Harrigan. "Nora, Molly, I want you to meet Mr.
Courtlandt. I don"t know that I ever said anything about it, but his father was one of the best friends I ever had. He was on his way up here, so I came along with him." Then Harrigan paused and looked about him embarra.s.sedly. There were half a dozen unfamiliar faces.
The colonel quickly stepped into the breach, and the introduction of Courtlandt became general. Nora bowed, and became at once engaged in an animated conversation with the Barone, who had just finished his set victoriously.
The padre"s benign smile slowly faded.
CHAPTER XII
d.i.c.k COURTLANDT"S BOY
Presently the servants brought out the tea-service. The silent dark-skinned Sikh, with his fierce curling whiskers, his flashing eyes, the semi-military, semi-oriental garb, topped by an enormous brown turban, claimed Courtlandt"s attention; and it may be added that he was glad to have something to look at unembarra.s.sedly. He wanted to catch the Indian"s eye, but Rao had no glances to waste; he was concerned with the immediate business of superintending the service.
Courtlandt had never been a man to surrender to impulse. It had been his habit to form a purpose and then to go about the fulfilling of it. During the last four or five months, however, he had swung about like a weather-c.o.c.k in April, the victim of a thousand and one impulses. That morning he would have laughed had any one prophesied his presence here. He had fought against the inclination strongly enough at first, but as hour after hour went by his resolution weakened. His meeting Harrigan had been a stroke of luck. Still, he would have come anyhow.