Tom was to have the next day off for his patriotic activities, but he went to the Temple Camp office early in the morning to get the mail opened and attend to one or two routine duties.
He found Miss Ellison already at her desk, and she greeted him with a mysterious smile.
"I hear you"re going to be one of the celebrities," she said, busying herself with her typewriter machine.
"One of the what?" said Tom.
"One of the leading figures of the day. I don"t suppose you"ll even _look_ at poor me to-morrow.--I was down in the bank and Mr. Temple said to send you down as soon as you came in."
"Me?" stammered Tom.
"Yes, you."
For a few seconds Tom waited, not knowing what to say or do--especially with his feet.
"You didn"t notice if Roscoe was down there, did you?" he finally ventured.
"I most certainly did not," answered Miss Ellison, smiling with that same mysterious smile, as she tidied up her desk. "I have something else to think of besides Mr. Roscoe Bent."
Tom shifted from one foot to the other. "I thought you--maybe--kind of--I thought you liked him," said he.
"Oh, did you?"
He had never been quite so close to Miss Ellison before, nor engaged in such familiar discourse with her. He hesitated, moving uneasily, then made a bold plunge.
"I think you can--I think a person--I think a feller can tell if a girl kind of likes a certain feller--sort of----"
"Indeed!" she laughed. "Well, then, perhaps you can tell if I like _you_--sort of."
This was too much for Tom. He wrestled for a moment with his embarra.s.sment, but he was in for it now, and he was not going to back out.
"I"m too clumsy for girls," said he; "they always notice that."
"You seem to know all about them," said the girl; "suppose I should tell you that _I_ never noticed any such thing.--A girl usually notices if a fellow is strong, though," she added.
"It was being a scout that made me strong."
"There are different ways of being strong," observed Miss Ellison, busying herself the while.
"I know what you mean," said Tom. "I got a good muscle."
She leaned back in her chair and looked at him frankly. "I didn"t mean exactly that," she said. "I meant if you make up your mind to do a thing, you"ll do it."
Again Tom waited, not knowing what to say. He felt strangely happy, yet very uncomfortable. At length, for lack of anything better to say, he observed:
"I guess you kinder like Roscoe, all right."
For answer she bent over her typewriter and began to make an erasure.
"Don"t you?" he persisted, gaining courage.
"Do I have to tell _you_?" she asked, laughing merrily.
Tom lingered for a few moments. He wanted to stay longer. This little familiar chat was a bigger innovation in his life than the long trousers had been. His heart was pounding just as it had pounded when he first took the scout oath. Evidently the girl meant to leave early herself, and see something of the day"s festivities, for she was very prettily attired. Perhaps this, perhaps the balmy fragrance of that wonderful spring day which Providence had ordered for the registration of Uncle Sam"s young manhood, perhaps the feeling that some good news awaited him down in Mr. Temple"s office, or perhaps all three things contributed to give Tom a feeling of buoyancy.
"Are you going to see the parade?" he asked. "I got a badge here maybe you"d like to wear. I can get another for myself."
"I would like very much to wear it," she said, taking the little patriotic emblem which he removed from his khaki coat. "Thank you."
Tom almost hoped she would suggest that he pin it on for her. He stood for a few moments longer and then, as he could think of nothing more to say, moved rather awkwardly toward the door.
"You look splendid to-day, Tom," Miss Ellison said. "You look like a real soldier in your khaki."
"The woman where I board pressed it for me yesterday," he said, blushing.
"It looks very nice."
Tom went down in the elevator, and when it stopped rather suddenly at the ground floor it gave him exactly the same feeling that he had experienced while he talked to Miss Ellison....
Roscoe Bent was not at his desk as he pa.s.sed the teller"s window and glanced through it, but he did not think much of that, for it was early in the day and the sprightly Roscoe might be in any one of a dozen places thereabout. He might be up in the Temple Camp office, even.
John Temple, founder of Temple Camp and president of the bank, sat at his sumptuous desk in his sumptuous office and motioned Tom to one of the big leather chairs, the luxuriousness of which disconcerted him almost as much as had Miss Ellison"s friendliness.
"I told Margaret to send you down as soon as you came in, Tom," said Mr.
Temple, as he opened his mail. "I want to get this matter off my mind before I forget it. You know that General Merrill is going to be here to-night, I suppose?"
"I heard the committee was trying to get him."
"Well, they"ve got him, and the governor"s going to be here, too; did you hear that?"
"No, sir, I didn"t," said Tom, surprised.
"I"ve just got word from his secretary that he can spend an hour in our little berg and say a few words at the meeting to-night. Now listen carefully, my boy, for I"ve only a few minutes to talk to you. This thing necessitates some eleventh-hour preparation. The plan is to have a member from every local organization in town to form a committee to receive the governor and the general. That"s about all there is to it.
"There"s the Board of Trade, and the Community Council, and--let"s see--the churches and the Home Defense and the Red Cross and the Daughters of Liberty and the Citizens" Club, and the Boy Scouts."
Already Tom felt flattered.
"Each of these organizations has designated one of its members to act on the committee. I had Mr. Ellsworth on the phone this morning and told him he"d have to represent the scouts. He said he"d do no such thing--that he wasn"t a boy scout."
"He"s the best scout of all of us," said Tom.
"_He_ says you"re the best," retorted Mr. Temple; "so there you are."
"Roy"s got twice as many merit badges as I have," said Tom.
"Well, you"ve got long trousers, anyway," said Mr. Temple, "and Mr.
Ellsworth says you"re the representative scout, so I guess you"re in for it."