"You must go home with your bundles," she said, grasping at the most obvious fact she could think of at the moment.
"If that"s the only difficulty, I can call a messenger," he replied instantly.
"And lose all you"ve saved by coming "way up here? I won"t listen to it."
"Then I"ll go home with them and come back."
"It will be too late for lunch then."
"I can take a taxi and--"
"No wonder your salary isn"t enough if you do such things!" she interrupted. "If you had ten thousand a year, you would probably manage to spend it all."
"I haven"t a doubt of it," he answered cheerfully. "On the other hand, it would get me out of such predicaments as these."
Apparently he was content to stand here in front of the little shop the rest of the afternoon, debating this and similar points. It was necessary for her to take matters into her own hands.
"The sensible thing for you to do is to go home and have lunch," she decided.
"And then?"
"Oh, I can"t plan your whole day for you. But you ought to get out in the sunshine."
"Then I"ll meet you in the park at three?"
"I didn"t say that."
"Will you come?"
She was upon the point of saying no, when she made the mistake of meeting his eyes. They were honest, direct, eager. It was so easy to promise whatever they asked and so hard to be always opposing them.
She answered impulsively:--
"Yes."
But she paid for her impulse, as she generally did, by being sorry as soon as she was out of sight of him. The first thing she knew, she would be back where she was a month ago, and that would never do--never do at all.
CHAPTER XVIII
A DISCOURSE ON SALARIES
Until Miss Winthrop allowed Pendleton to spend with her that afternoon in the park, the period between the close of business on Sat.u.r.day and the opening on Monday had furnished her with a natural protective barrier. On one side of this stood the business world of Carter, Rand & Seagraves, to which Pendleton himself belonged; on the other side was her own private, personal world. Now that barrier was down.
Without realizing at the time the significance of his request,--a request so honestly and smilingly made that it took her off her guard,--she had allowed him, for a period of a couple of hours, to enter that personal world. By her side he had explored with her the familiar paths in the park which until then had been all her own. He had made himself a part of them. Never again could she follow them without, in a sense, having him with her.
She realized this because when, at five o"clock, she had told him to leave her at the foot of the Elevated, she had watched him out of sight, and then, instead of going home as she intended, she had turned and gone back to the park. She had a vague notion that she must put her life back upon its normal basis before returning to her room. If only for a few moments, she must go over the old paths alone.
It was impossible. Everywhere she turned, it was to recall some careless phrase or gesture or expression of his--to react to them again exactly as when he had been with her. And this man had nothing whatever to do with the office of Carter, Rand & Seagraves. She could not force him back there; he insisted upon remaining on the personal side of the barrier.
It was curious how quickly she accepted the situation after her first startled surprise. After all, if she was going to retain her interest in him in any way, it was as necessary to help him outside the office as within. One opportunity had been offered her that very afternoon in making him understand that it was perfectly possible to enjoy a half-holiday without spending all the money in his pocket.
His att.i.tude toward money puzzled her. In one way he seemed to place too much value upon it, and in another way not enough. He overemphasized the importance of a ten-thousand-dollar salary, making that the one goal of his business efforts, and then calmly proposed squandering dollar bills on confectionery and what not as an incident to as simple an amus.e.m.e.nt as a walk in the park. He neither knew how little a dollar was worth, nor how much. She herself had learned out of hard experience, and if she could only make him understand--well, that at least furnished her with some sort of excuse for allowing this new relationship to continue.
For all any one knows, there may be some divine reason that prompts women to find excuses in such matters--which, in a way, forces them w.i.l.l.y-nilly to the making of such excuses.
And yet, she had to admit that it was stretching the excuse pretty far when, a week later, she meekly allowed him to come with her on her usual Sunday outing into the country. By steady cross-examination he had made her divulge the fact that it was her interesting habit to prepare a luncheon of bread and b.u.t.ter and cake, and, taking a train, to spend the day by the side of a brook she had discovered.
"Fine," he nodded. "Next Sunday I"ll go with you."
That afternoon he started making his preparations.
Obviously, the first thing necessary was a luncheon basket, and on his way uptown he saw one of English wicker that took his fancy. It had compartments with bottles and a whole outfit of knives and forks and plates and little drinking-cups and what not. What it cost is n.o.body"s business. Then he stopped at a very nice grocery store on Fifth Avenue and asked the advice of the clerk about the more substantial contents, and the clerk gave his advice very willingly. He bought some French sardines and English marmalade, and some fruit and confectionery and some strictly fresh eggs and dainty crackers and some jelly and olives and cheese and several other little things.
"Now," suggested the clerk, "a small chicken roasted and served cold would be very nice."
"Right," nodded Don.
"I could order it for you from here."
"Right again," agreed Don.
It was to be sent to the house, so that Nora could have it roasted that afternoon.
He accomplished these things on his way uptown, and felt quite satisfied with himself. This preparing of a picnic basket was, after all, a very simple matter.
When Miss Winthrop came into the station for the nine-thirty, he was waiting for her with the big wicker basket in his hand.
They rode to a little village hardly large enough to have a name, and getting out there took to the open road.
Don enjoyed the tramp of three miles that followed, but, on the whole, he was glad when they reached the border of the brook. The walking and the flowers and the scenery occupied too much of the girl"s attention.
Not only that, but this English wicker basket became heavy in the course of time. At the end of a mile or so it seemed as if the clerk must have lined the bottom of his basket with stones. Don meant to investigate at the first opportunity.
The stream that she had discovered only after several seasons of ardent exploration was not, geographically considered, of any especial importance to the world at large. But behind the clump of alders out of which it crept was a bit of pasture greensward about as big as a room. Here one might lunch in as complete seclusion as if in the Canadian woods or in the heart of Africa.
She was as eager to have him pleased as if this were some house of her planning. "It"s a better dining-place than any in town, isn"t it?" she asked.
"I should say so," he nodded.
With her permission, he lighted a cigarette and, stretching himself out on the gra.s.s, enjoyed it as only a man can who has limited his smokes to so many a day. She sat near the brook, and she too was quite content and very comfortable.
"I don"t see why you didn"t tell me about this place before," he observed.
"I wasn"t quite sure you"d like it here, for one thing," she answered.
"Why not?"