Richard"s face was a study.
"Believe it or not, it"s a fact. That store is the joint property of Benson & Company. I"m the Company. I can"t desert my partner just as we"re getting the ground under our feet."
"Well--I"ll--be--hanged," drawled Lorimer, more heavily than ever, as was his custom when opposed, "if I see it. You go and help a fellow out with capital and set him on his feet. You save his pride, I suppose, by making yourself a partner. Fine, sporty thing to do. But you"ve done it.
You"ve contributed the capital. Can"t reasonably suppose you contribute anything else. If you don"t mind my saying it, your--previous--training--"
"Doesn"t make me indispensable to the success of the business? Hardly, as yet. But for the very reason that I lack training, I"ve got to stay and get it."
"Take lessons in shopkeeping from Hugh Benson?"
"Exactly. And from Alf Carson. He"s our manager."
"Don"t know him. But from the way you allude to him I judge he has the details at his fingers-ends. That"s all right.
Leave--him--on--the--job."
"I will--and stay myself."
Richard"s eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could not meet. But Lorimer"s eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond.
"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your grandfather"s, for fair."
"Glad to hear it."
"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once, that you"d be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That"s where the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that."
"I"m mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let"s not talk about it."
And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not forgotten the circ.u.mstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two had given each other one evening less than two years ago.
They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months during which they had seldom met.
"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company"s ma.s.sive edifices of stone and marble--"
"Luckily, it"s not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good humour. "Will you come in?"
"Thanks, I will. That"s what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to view you behind the--No, no, of course it"s behind the office gla.s.s part.i.tion that I"ll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick talking business--with a big B."
"I"ll talk business to you, if you don"t let up," declared his friend.
"You"ve got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke, Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?"
"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he followed Richard into the store.
But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but a.s.sured manners, though of a quite different cla.s.s of comradeship from his own.
He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, and listened with evident interest to a business discussion between Richard and his a.s.sociates, in the course of which he discovered that however much or little Richard had learned, he could speak intelligently concerning the matters then in hand. He went to lunch with Richard and Hugh Benson at a hotel, and listened again, for a decision was to be made which called for haste, and no time could be lost in the consideration of it.
He spent the afternoon driving Richard"s car on up the state, returning in time to pick up his friend at the appointed hour, late in the afternoon, at which they were to start back to the city. Up to the last moment of their departure business still had the upper hand, and it was not until Benson and Kendrick parted at the curb that it ended for the day, as far as Richard"s part in it was concerned.
"Six hours you"ve been at it," remarked Lorimer, as the car swung away under Richard"s hand. "It makes me fatigued all over to contemplate such zeal."
"Tell that to the men who really work. I"m getting off easy, to cut and run at the end of six hours."
"Rich--" began his friend, then he paused. "By the Lord Harry, I"d like to know what"s got you. I can"t make you and the old Rich fit together at all. You and your books--you and your music--and your pictures--your polo--your "wine, women, and song"--"
"Take that last back," commanded Richard Kendrick, with sudden heat.
"You know I"ve never gone in for that sort of thing, except as all our old crowd went in together. Personally, I haven"t cared for it, and you know it. It"s travel and adventure I"ve cared for--"
"And that you"re throwing over now for a country shop."
"That I"m throwing over now to learn the ABC in the training school of responsibility for the big load that"s to come on my shoulders. I"ve been asleep all these years. Thank Heaven I"ve waked up in time. It"s no merit of mine--"
"Mind telling me whose it is, then?"
"I should mind, very much--if you"ll excuse me."
"Oh--beg pardon," drawled Lorimer.
Silence followed for a brief s.p.a.ce, broken by Richard"s voice, in its old, genial tone.
"Tell me more about the cruise. It"s great that you can have your father"s yacht. I thought he always used it through the summer."
"He"s gone daffy on monoplanes--absolutely daffy. Can"t see anything else."
"I don"t blame him. I might have gone in for aviation myself, if I hadn"t got this bigger game on my hands."
"Bigger--there you go again! Well, every man to his taste. The governor"s lost interest in the _Ariel_--let me have her without a reservation as to time limit. Don"t care for flying myself. Necessary to sit up. Like to lie on my back too well for that."
"You do yourself injustice."
"Now, now--don"t preach. I"ve been expecting it."
"You needn"t. I"m too busy with my own case to attend to yours."
"Lucky for me. I feel you"d be a zealous preacher if you ever got started."
"What route do you expect to take?" pursued Richard, steering away from dangerous ground.
Lorimer outlined it, in his most languid manner. One would have thought he had little real interest in his plan, after all.
"It"s great! You"ll have the time of your life!"
"I might have had."
"You will have--you can"t help it."
"Not without the man I want in the bunk next mine," said Belden Lorimer, gazing through half-shut eyes at nothing in particular.
Richard experienced the severest pang of regret he had yet known.