CHAPTER XVII
IN WHICH THE STRAW SAILOR HAT OF JOHNNY PLAYS AN EMBARRASSING ROLE
"My dear," observed Mr. Courtney as he and his wife approached thejessamine summer-house, "do you pick your week-end guests from a citydirectory or do you draw the names from a hat?" Constance Joy, sittingin the summer-house with Johnny Gamble, rose and laughed lightly as awarning.
"My dear," retorted Mrs. Courtney very sweetly indeed and all unheedingof the laugh, "I pick them by a better system than you employ when youinvite stag parties. You usually need to be introduced to your guests.Just whom would you like to have me send home?"
"Paul Gresham for one," replied Courtney bluntly, "and the entireWobbles tribe, with their friend Birchard, for some more."
"I could be perfectly happy without them myself, Ben," sighed his wife,"but the Wobbles bachelors invite themselves whenever they please, andPaul Gresham was asked on account of Constance."
Constance, in the summer-house, laughed again, although less happilythan before, and dropped her portfolio as loudly as possible, whileJohnny Gamble merely grinned.
"That's what I wondered about," persisted the grizzled financier, asoblivious to the noises from within the jessamine bower as his wife hadbeen. "I should have thought that on Constance's account you would havedropped Gresham."
"How absurd!" laughed Mrs. Courtney. "Why, she is to marry him!"
"I don't believe it!" indignantly denied Courtney. "She got him in awill with a million dollars, and it isn't enough!"
Constance's foot, twitching nervously, rustled a dry leaf, and herheart popped into her throat lest the noise should be heard. The timehad passed for wishing to be discovered.
Johnny Gamble had ceased to grin and was looking scared.
"Mr. Gresham is of a very old family," Mr. Courtney's wife reminded him.
"Age is no recommendation for an egg," her husband kindly informed her."Gresham is second cousin to Lord Yawpingham, and if they had any senseof shame they'd murder each other for the relationship."
"Oh, Ben, I'm sure you're harsh," protested the optimistic Mrs.Courtney.
"I'm so charitable as to be almost weak," he insisted with a grin."Seriously; though, Lucy, Gresham's not square. He tried to destroyJohnny Gamble's credit with me two or three weeks ago in a mostunderhanded manner."
There was a moment of silence, during which the pair in the bower gazedstraight up at nothing.
"You seem to like Mr. Gamble," mused Mrs. Courtney. "Everybody does,however. Where is he from?"
"Some little town up the state," returned Courtney indifferently. "He'sa fine young fellow, square as a die and a hustler! He's going to marryConstance Joy."
Johnny Gamble, turning the color of a tomato, dropped his sailor strawhat, and its edge hit the tiled floor with a noise like the blow of anax. Constance could have murdered him for it. They missed a lot ofconversation just about then.
Courtney and his wife rounded the corner of the bower and paused amoment before turning into it.
"Really, Ben," defended Mrs. Courtney, returning to the criticism thather husband by now wished he had not made, "except for the epidemic ofWobbleses this would have been a delightful week-end party: Constance,Polly, fluffy little Winnie, Mrs. Follison and our own two girls; Mr.Loring, Val Russel, Bruce Townley, Sammy Chirp, Mr. Gamble and Mr.Gresham. For your entertainment you'll have Mr. Washer, Mr. Close andColonel Bouncer, with whom you will play poker from the time they reachhere this afternoon until they go away Monday morning."
"It was a good party!" agreed Courtney, "By the way, I owe my pokerguests to Johnny Gamble. He asked if they would be here, and seemed towant them. He's a live member! Did I ever tell you how he helped meskin old Mort Washer?" And, changing his mind about entering thejessamine bower, Mr. Courtney, explaining with great glee the skinningof his friend Mort Washer, took the other path and the two strolledaway without having seen or heard the luckless eavesdroppers.
The miserable pair in the bower, exhibiting various shades of red,looked steadfastly out into the blue, blue sky for some minutes instupefied silence. Johnny presently picked up his sailor straw hat andsurveyed the nick in its brim with ingenuous interest.
"I bought that hat in Baltimore," he inanely observed.
Constance suddenly rose and walked straight out of there--alone!