"Good G.o.d Almighty!" exclaimed the little bookkeeper. Captain Zelotes snorted. "He didn"t have anything to do with it," he declared. "The bunch that pulled that off was handled from the other end of the line.
And I wish to thunder I was young enough to help send "em back there,"
he added, savagely.
That evening Albert wrote his poem. The next day he sent it to a Boston paper. It was published the following morning, spread across two columns on the front page, and before the month was over had been copied widely over the country. Within the fortnight its author received his first request, a bona fida request for verse from a magazine. Even Captain Lote"s praise of the Lusitania poem was whole-hearted and ungrudging.
That summer was a busy one in South Harniss. There was the usual amount of summer gaiety, but in addition there were the gatherings of the various committees for war relief work. Helen belonged to many of these committees. There were dances and theatrical performances for the financial benefit of the various causes and here Albert shone. But he did not shine alone. Helen Kendall was very popular at the social gatherings, popular not only with the permanent residents but with the summer youth as well. Albert noticed this, but he did not notice it so particularly until Issy Price called his attention to it.
"Say, Al," observed Issy, one afternoon in late August of that year, "how do YOU like that Raymond young feller?"
Albert looked up absently from the page of the daybook.
"Eh? What?" he asked.
"I say how do YOU like that Eddie Raymond, the Down-at-the-Neck one?"
"Down at the neck? There"s nothing the matter with his neck that I know of."
"Who said there was? He LIVES down to the Neck, don"t he? I mean that young Raymond, son of the New York bank man, the ones that"s had the Cahoon house all summer. How do you like him?"
Albert"s attention was still divided between the day-book and Mr. Price.
"Oh, I guess he"s all right," he answered, carelessly. "I don"t know him very well. Don"t bother me, Issy, I"m busy."
Issachar chuckled. "He"s busy, too," he observed. "He, he, he! He"s busy trottin" after Helen Kendall. Don"t seem to have time for much else these days. Noticed that, ain"t you, Al? He, he!"
Albert had not noticed it. His attention left the day-book altogether.
Issachar chuckled again.
"Noticed it, ain"t you, Al?" he repeated. "If you ain"t you"re the only one. Everybody"s cal"latin" you"ll be cut out if you ain"t careful.
Folks used to figger you was Helen"s steady comp"ny, but it don"t look as much so as it did. He, he! That"s why I asked you how you liked the Raymond one. Eh? How do you, Al? Helen, SHE seems to like him fust-rate.
He, he, he!"
Albert was conscious of a peculiar feeling, partly of irritation at Issachar, partly something else. Mr. Price crowed delightedly.
"Hi!" he chortled. "Why, Al, your face is gettin" all redded up. Haw, haw! Blushin", ain"t you, Al? Haw, haw, haw! Blushin", by crimustee!"
Albert laid down his pen. He had learned by experience that, in Issy"s case, the maxim of the best defensive being a strong offensive was absolutely true. He looked with concern about the office.
"There"s a window open somewhere, isn"t there, Is?" he inquired.
"There"s a dreadful draught anyhow."
"Eh? Draught? I don"t feel no draught. Course the window"s open; it"s generally open in summer time, ain"t it. Haw, haw!"
"There it is again! Where--Oh, _I_ see! It"s your mouth that"s open, Issy. That explains the draught, of course. Yes, yes, of course."
"Eh? My mouth! Never you mind my mouth. What you"ve got to think about is that Eddie Raymond. Yes sir-ee! Haw, haw!"
"Issy, what makes you make that noise?"
"What noise?"
"That awful cawing. If you"re trying to make me believe you"re a crow you"re wasting your time."
"Say, look here, Al Speranzy, be you crazy?"
"No-o, I"M not. But in your case--well, I"ll leave it to any fair-minded person--"
And so on until Mr. Price stamped disgustedly out of the office. It was easy enough, and required nothing brilliant in the way of strategy or repartee, to turn Issachar"s attack into retreat. But all the rest of that afternoon Albert was conscious of that peculiar feeling of uneasiness. After supper that night he did not go down town at once but sat in his room thinking deeply. The subjects of his thoughts were Edwin Raymond, the young chap from New York, Yale, and "The Neck"--and Helen Kendall. He succeeded only in thinking himself into an even more uneasy and unpleasant state of mind. Then he walked moodily down to the post-office. He was a little late for the mail and the laughing and chatting groups were already coming back after its distribution. One such group he met was made up of half a dozen young people on their way to the drug store for ices and sodas. Helen was among them and with her was young Raymond. They called to him to join them, but he pretended not to hear.
Now, in all the years of their acquaintance it had not once occurred to Albert Speranza that his interest in Helen Kendall was anything more than that of a friend and comrade. He liked her, had enjoyed her society--when he happened to be in the mood to wish society--and it pleased him to feel that she was interested in his literary efforts and his career. She was the only girl in South Harniss who would have "talked turkey" to him as she had on the day of their adventure at High Point Light and he rather admired her for it. But in all his dreams of romantic attachments and sentimental adventure, and he had such dreams of course, she had never played a part. The heroines of these dreams were beautiful and mysterious strangers, not daughters of Cape Cod clergymen.
But now, thanks to Issy"s mischievous hints, his feelings were in a puzzled and uncomfortable state. He was astonished to find that he did not relish the idea of Helen"s being particularly interested in Ed Raymond. He, himself, had not seen her as frequently of late, she having been busy with her war work and he with his own interests. But that, according to his view, was no reason why she should permit Raymond to become friendly to the point of causing people to talk. He was not ready to admit that he himself cared, in a sentimental way, for Helen, but he resented any other fellow"s daring to do so. And she should not have permitted it, either. As a matter of fact, Alberto Miguel Carlos Speranza, hitherto reigning undisputed king of hearts in South Harniss, was for the first time in his imperial life feeling the pangs of jealousy.
He stalked gloomily on to the post-office. Gertie Kendrick, on the arm of Sam Thatcher, pa.s.sed him and he did not even notice her. Gertie whispered to Sam that he, Albert, was a big stuck-up nothing, but she looked back over Sam"s shoulder, nevertheless. Albert climbed the post-office steps and walked over to the rack of letter boxes. The Snow box contained little of interest to him, and he was turning away when he heard his name spoken.
"Good evening, Mr. Speranza," said a feminine voice.
Albert turned again, to find Jane Kelsey and another young lady, a stranger, standing beside him. Miss Kelsey was one of South Harniss"s summer residents. The Kelsey "cottage," which was larger by considerable than the Snow house, was situated on the Bay Road, the most exclusive section of the village. Once, and not so many years before, the Bay Road was contemptuously referred to as "Poverty Lane" and dwellers along its winding, weed-grown track vied with one another in shiftless shabbiness.
But now all shabbiness had disappeared and many-gabled "cottages"
proudly stood where the shanties of the Poverty Laners once humbly leaned.
Albert had known Jane Kelsey for some time. They had met at one of the hotel tea-dances during his second summer in South Harniss. He and she were not intimate friends exactly, her mother saw to that, but they were well acquainted. She was short and piquant, had a nose which freckled in the Cape Cod sunshine, and she talked and laughed easily.
"Good evening, Mr. Speranza," she said, again. "You looked so very forlorn I couldn"t resist speaking. Do tell us why you are so sad; we"re dying to know."
Albert, taken by surprise, stammered that he didn"t know that he was sad. Miss Kelsey laughed merrily and declared that everyone who saw him knew it at once. "Oh, excuse me, Madeline," she added. "I forgot that you and Mr. Speranza had not met. Of course as you"re going to live in South Harniss you must know him without waiting another minute.
Everybody knows everybody down here. He is Albert Speranza--and we sometimes call him Albert because here everybody calls everyone else by their first names. There, now you know each other and it"s all very proper and formal."
The young lady who was her companion smiled. The smile was distinctly worth looking at, as was the young lady herself, for that matter.
"I doubt if Mr. Speranza knows me very well, Jane," she observed.
"Doesn"t know you! Why, you silly thing, haven"t I just introduced you?"
"Well, I don"t know much about South Harniss introductions, but isn"t it customary to mention names? You haven"t told him mine."
Miss Kelsey laughed in high delight. "Oh, how perfectly ridiculous!"
she exclaimed. "Albert--Mr. Speranza, I mean--this is my friend Miss Madeline Fosd.i.c.k. She is from New York and she has decided to spend her summers in South Harniss--which _I_ consider very good judgment. Her father is going to build a cottage for her to spend them in down on the Bay Road on the hill at the corner above the Inlet. But of course you"ve heard of THAT!"
Of course he had. The purchase of the Inlet Hill land by Fletcher Fosd.i.c.k, the New York banker, and the price paid Solomon Dadgett for that land, had been the princ.i.p.al topics of conversation around South Harniss supper tables for the past ten days. Captain Lote Snow had summed up local opinion of the transaction when he said: "We-ll, Sol Dadgett"s been talkin" in prayer-meetin" ever since I can remember about the comin" of Paradise on earth. Judgin" by the price he got for the Inlet Hill sand heap he must have cal"lated Paradise had got here and he was sellin" the golden streets by the runnin" foot." Or, as Laban Keeler put it: "They say King Soloman was a wise man, but I guess likely "twas a good thing for him that Sol Dadgett wasn"t alive in his time. King Sol would have needed all his wisdom to keep Dadgett from talkin" him into buying the Jerusalem salt-ma"sh to build the temple on... . Um... .
Yes--yes--yes."
So Albert, as he shook hands with Miss Fosd.i.c.k, regarded her with unusual interest. And, judging by the way in which she looked at him, she too was interested. After some minutes of the usual conventional summer-time chat the young gentleman suggested that they adjourn to the drug store for refreshments. The invitation was accepted, the vivacious Miss Kelsey acting as spokesman--or spokeswoman--in the matter.
"I think you must be a mind-reader, Mr. Speranza," she declared. "I am dying for a sundae and I have just discovered that I haven"t my purse or a penny with me. I should have been reduced to the humiliation of borrowing from Madeline here, or asking that deaf old Burgess man to trust me until to-morrow. And he is so frightfully deaf," she added in explanation, "that when I asked him the last time he made me repeat it until I thought I should die of shame, or exhaustion, one or the other.
Every time I shouted he would say "Hey?" and I was obliged to shout again. Of course, the place was crowded, and--Oh, well, I don"t like to even think about it. Bless you, bless you, Albert Speranza! And do please let"s hurry!"
When they entered the drug store--it also sold, according to its sign, "Cigars, soda, ice-cream, patent medicines, candy, knick-knacks, chewing gum, souvenirs and notions"--the s.e.xtette of which Helen Kendall made one was just leaving. She nodded pleasantly to Albert and he nodded in return, but Ed Raymond"s careless bow he did not choose to see. He had hitherto rather liked that young gentleman; now he felt a sudden but violent detestation for him.