Excuse Me!

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  A DUEL FOR A BRACELET

  All this while Marjorie and Mallory had sat watching, as kingfishersshadow a pool, the door wherethrough the girl with the bracelet mustpass on her way to breakfast.

  "She's taking forever with her toilet," sniffed Marjorie. "Probablytrying to make a special impression on you."

  "She's wasting her time," said Mallory. "But what if she brings hermother along? No, I guess her mother is too fat to get there andback."

  "If her mother comes," Marjorie decided, "I'll hold her while you takethe bracelet away from the--the--from that creature. Quick, here shecomes now! Be brave!"

  Mallory wore an aspect of arrant cowardice: "Er--ah--I--I----"

  "You just grab her!" Marjorie explained. Then they relapsed intoattitudes of impatient attention. Kathleen floated in and, seeingMallory, she greeted him with radiant warmth: "Good morning!" andthen, catching sight of Marjorie, gave her a "Good morning!" coatedwith ice. She flounced past and Mallory sat inert, till Marjorie gavehim a ferocious pinch, whereupon he leaped to his feet:

  "Oh, Miss--er--Miss Kathleen." Kathleen whirled round with a mosthospitable smile. "May I have a word with you?"

  "Of course you can, you dear boy." Marjorie winced at this and writhedat what followed: "Shan't we take breakfast together?"

  Mallory stuttered: "I--I--no, thank you--I've had breakfast."

  Kathleen froze up again as she snapped: "Withthat--train-acquaintance, I suppose."

  "Oh, no," Mallory amended, "I mean I haven't had breakfast."

  But Kathleen scowled with a jealousy of her own: "You seem to begetting along famously for mere train-acquaintances."

  "Oh, that's all we are, and hardly that," Mallory hastened to say withtoo much truth. "Sit down here a moment, won't you?"

  "No, no, I haven't time," she said, and sat down. "Mamma will bewaiting for me. You haven't been in to see her yet?"

  "No. You see----"

  "She cried all night."

  "For me?"

  "No, for papa. He's such a good traveler--and he had such a goodstart. She really kept the whole car awake."

  "Too bad," Mallory condoled, perfunctorily, then with suddeneagerness, and a trial at indifference: "I see you have that braceletstill."

  "Of course, you dear fellow. I wouldn't be parted from it for worlds."

  Marjorie gnashed her teeth, but Kathleen could not hear that. Shegushed on: "And now we have met again! It looks like Fate, doesn'tit?"

  "It certainly does," Mallory assented, bitterly; then again, withzest: "Let me see that old bracelet, will you?"

  He tried to lay hold of it, but Kathleen giggled coyly: "It's just anexcuse to hold my hand." She swung her arm over the back of the seatcoquettishly, and Marjorie made a desperate lunge at it, but missed,since Kathleen, finding that Mallory did not pursue the fugitive hand,brought it back at once and yielded it up:

  "There--be careful, someone might look."

  Mallory took her by the wrist in a gingerly manner, and said, "Sothat's the bracelet? Take it off, won't you?"

  "Never!--it's wished on," Kathleen protested, sentimentally. "Don'tyou remember that evening in the moonlight?"

  Mallory caught Marjorie's accusing eye and lost his head. He made aferocious effort to snatch the bracelet off. When this onset failed,he had recourse to entreaty: "Just slip it off." Kathleen shook herhead tantalizingly. Mallory urged more strenuously: "Please let me seeit."

  Kathleen shook her head with sophistication: "You'd never give itback. You'd pass it along to that--train-acquaintance."

  "How can you think such a thing?" Mallory demurred, and once more madehis appeal: "Please please, slip it off."

  "What on earth makes you so anxious?" Kathleen demanded, with suddensuspicion. Mallory was stumped, till an inspiration came to him: "I'dlike to--to get you a nicer one. That one isn't good enough for you."

  Here was an argument that Kathleen could appreciate. "Oh, how sweet ofyou, Harry," she gurgled, and had the bracelet down to her knuckles,when a sudden instinct checked her: "When you bring the other, you canhave this."

  She pushed the circlet back, and Mallory's hopes sank at the gesture.He grew frantic at being eternally frustrated in his plans. He caughtKathleen's arm and, while his words pleaded, his hands tugged:"Please--please let me take it--for the measure--you know!"

  Kathleen read the determination in his fierce eyes, and she struggledfuriously: "Why, Richard--Chauncey!--er--Billy! I'm amazed at you! Letgo or I'll scream!"

  "WHY, RICHARD--CHAUNCEY!--ER--BILLY! I'M AMAZED AT YOU! LET GO, OR I'LL SCREAM!"]

  She rose and, twisting her arm from his grasp, confronted him withbewildered anger. Mallory cast toward Marjorie a look of surrender anddespair. Marjorie laid her hand on her throat and in pantomimesuggested that Mallory should throttle Kathleen, as he had promised.

  But Mallory was incapable of further violence; and when Kathleen, withall her coquetry, bent down and murmured: "You are a very naughty boy,but come to breakfast and we'll talk it over," he was so addled thathe answered: "Thanks, but I never eat breakfast."