XVII
"Are we all here?" asked Mary.
She had summoned her sisters and Arthur to the office for a conference.
"All except Sam Langham," said Gay.
"I didn't know that he was one of the family," said Mary.
"Of course, you _know_," said Gay; "you would. _I_ was just guessing."
"Well, he isn't," said Mary, trying not to change color or to enjoybeing teased about Mr. Langham.
The triplets sat in a row upon a bench made of little birch logs withthe bark on. It was not soft sitting, as Lee whispered, but one hadone's back to the light, and in case one had done something wrongwithout knowing it and was in for a scolding, that would prove animmense advantage.
"What I wanted to say," said Mary, "is just this----"
She stood up and looked rather more at the triplets than any one else,so that Lee exclaimed, "Votes for women," and Gay echoed her with,"Yes, but none for poor little girls in their teens."
"Hitherto," continued the orator, "The Inn has been only informallyopen. It's been more like having a few friends stopping with us. We hadto see more or less of them. But after to-day there will be a crowd, andI think it would be more dignified and pleasanter for them if _some_ ofus kept ourselves a little more to ourselves. What do _you_ think,Arthur?"
Arthur looked up sweetly. It was evident that he had not been listening.
"Why, Mary," he said, "I think it might be managed with infinitepatience."
The triplets giggled; Maud and Eve exchanged amused looks.
"Arthur," said Mary, "you can make one contribution to this discussionif you want to. You can tell us what you are really thinking about, sothat we needn't waste time trying to guess."
"Why," said he gently, "you know I have quite a knack with animals,taming them and training them, and I was wondering if it would bepossible to train a snail. _That's_ what I was thinking about. I have acouple in my pocket at the moment, and----"
"Never mind _now_," said Mary hurriedly, and she turned to thetriplets. "What do _you_ think of what I said?"
"I think it was tortuous and involved," said Lee, "and that it wouldhardly bear repetition."
"It smacked of paternalism," said Gay. And even Phyllis, her mind uponthe convalescing Herring, was moved to speak.
"You said it would be more dignified for some of us to keep toourselves. Perhaps it would. You said it would be pleasanter for thepeople who are coming here to stay. I doubt it!"
"Bully for you, old girl," shouted Lee and Gay; "sick her!"
Mary moaned. She was proof against their hostilities, but the languagein which they were couched pierced her to the marrow.
"I am sure," she said, "that Maud and Eve will agree with me."
"Of course," said Eve.
"Naturally," said Maud.
"There!" exclaimed Mary, with evident triumph.
"We agree," said Eve, "that _some_ of us should keep ourselves more toourselves."
And she looked sternly at the triplets. But then she turned and lookedsternly at Mary and rose to her feet.
"We think," she said with a _j'accuse_ intonation, "that those whohaven't kept themselves to themselves should, and that those whohave--shouldn't. Maud and I, for instance, haven't the slightestobjection to being fetched for and carried for by attractive young men.Have we, Maud? But hitherto, as must have been obvious to the veriestnincompoop, we have done our own fetching and carrying."
There was a short silence. Mary blushed. Arthur fidgeted. He waswondering if snails preferred the human voice or whistling.
"I'm quite sure," said Maud, "that I haven't been wandering over thehills with future earls, or lost in swamps with interesting invalids, orbasked morning after morning in the sunny smile of a gourmet----"
Mary paled under this attack.
"Mr. Langham is altogether different," she said.
"Oh, quite!" cried Lee.
"Utterly, absolutely different!" cried Gay. "To begin with, he's richer;and to end with, he's fatter."
"I shouldn't have said 'fat,'" said Lee. "I should have said'well-larded,' but then I am something of a stylist."
"Sam Langham," said Mary, "is everybody's friend. And he's an immensehelp in lots of ways; and then he has a certain definite interest in TheInn. Because, if we need it, he's going to lend us money to carry ouraccounts."
Gay whispered to Lee behind her hand. Lee giggled.
"What was that?" asked Mary sharply.
"Only a quotation."
"What quotation?"
"Oh, Gay just said something about 'Bought and Paid For.'"
Here Arthur interrupted.
"They're like snails," said he to Mary. "You can only train 'em withinfinite patience."
Phyllis rose suddenly and became the cynosure of all eyes except herown, whose particular cynosure at the moment was the floor. She movedtoward the door.
"Where are you off to?" asked Mary.
"I'm just going to speak to Chef."
"What about?"
"About some chicken broth."
"For yourself?"
The gentle Phyllis was being goaded beyond endurance. At the door sheturned and lifted her great eyes to Mary's.
"No," she said bitterly; "it's for Arthur's snails."
There was a silence.
"If there's any voting," said Phyllis, "I give my proxy to Gay." And shevanished through the door.
"I'm sure," said Mary, "I don't know what the modern young girl iscoming to!"
"I know where _that_ one is going to," said Gay; "spilling the chickenbroth in her unseemly haste."
Then Arthur spoke.
"The modern young girl," he said, "is coming to just where hergrandmother came, and by the same road. Girls will be girls. So let's bethankful that the men who have come here so far have been--men. Andhopeful that those who are to come will be also. I've lived too muchwith nature not to know what's natural--when I see it."
"Do you think," said Gay sweetly, "that it's natural for a man to eat asmuch as Sam Langham does?"
"As natural under the peculiar circumstances," said Arthur, "as it isfor you to tease."
Lee rose.
"And you?" said Mary, smiling at last.
"Oh," said Lee witheringly, "I have an engagement to carve initialssurrounded by a heart on a birch-tree."
And when Lee had gone Gay spoke up.
"I shouldn't wonder," said she, "if, by way of a blind, the baggage hadtold the truth."
"We should never have called it The Inn," said Mary; "we should havecalled it The Matrimonial Agency."
"Every pretty girl," said Arthur, "is a matrimonial agency."
At this moment Uncas, the chipmunk, rushed screaming into the room andflung himself into Arthur's lap. Arthur comforted the little beast, andnoticed that his nose and face bore fresh evidences of a fight. Uncascomplained very bitterly; he was evidently trying to talk.
"Is Stripes hurt?" asked Mary.
"It's his feelings," said Arthur. "He's been made a victim of misplacedconfidence. Some young woman has been encouraging him."
"Poor little man!" said Gay with sudden emotion. "Did ums want some nicevasy on ums poor sick nose?"
"He would only lick it off," regretted Arthur.
Mr. Langham's jolly face appeared in the open door.
"I've seen two depart," he said, "and thought maybe the meeting wasover."
"It is," said Mary, and, after a moment's hesitation, she boldly joinedMr. Langham and walked off by his side. Even Arthur chuckled.
"And what was the meeting about?" asked Mr. Langham.
"Oh," said Mary, "they won't be serious--not any of them--not evenArthur. So we forgot what the meeting was for, and got into violentdiscussion about--about natural history."
"And what side did you take?"
"Oh," said Mary, "we were all on the same side--_really_, and that waswhat made the discussion so violent."
"The day," said Langham, "is young. I feel ripe for an adventure. Andyou
?"
"What sort of an adventure?"
"I thought that if one--or rather if _two_ climbed to the top of a verylittle hill and sat down in the sunshine and admired the view----"
* * * * *
Far out on the lake they could see Lee, lolling in the stern of a guideboat. Young Renier was at the oars. But the boat was not beingpropelled. It was merely drifting.
"I wonder," said Langham, and he watched her face stealthily, "if by anychance those two are really engaged?"
Was there the least hardening of that lovely, gentle face, the leastfleeting expression of that sort of panic which one experiences whenarriving at the station in time to see the train pull out but not toolate to get aboard by the exercise of swift and energetic manoeuvres?
"Don't say such things!" she said presently. "It's like jumping out frombehind a tree and shouting, 'Boo!'"
Mr. Langham smiled complacently and changed the subject. But he said tohimself: "That Maud is a clever girl!"
"I suppose," said Mary after a while, "that this is the last reallypeaceful day we'll have for a long time. To-morrow the place will befull of strange, critical faces. And it will be one long wrestle to makeeverything go smoothly all the time."
She sighed.
"There are only two ways to success," said Langham. "One is across thewrestling-mat, and one is through the pasture of old Bull Luck. But I'mconvinced that The Inn is going to pay very handsomely. There is afortune in it."
"There mightn't be," said Mary, "if--" and she broke into a peal ofembarrassed laughter.
"If what?"
"I was thinking of that _dreadful_ picture."
"I often think of it," said Mr. Langham, "and of the first time I sawit."
Mary gave him a somewhat shy look.
"Of course it didn't influence you," she said.
"But it did. And that day I forgot to eat any lunch. I am lookingforward," he said, "to warm weather--I enjoy a swim as much as anybody."
"Why is it," said Mary, "that a girl is ashamed when it is her moneythat attracts a man, and proud when it is her face? Both are equallyfortuitous; both are assets in a way--but of the two, it is the moneyalone which is really useful."
"It sounds convincing to a girl," mused Mr. Langham, "when a man says toher: 'I love you because of your beautiful blue eyes!' But it wouldn'tsound in the least convincing if he said: 'I love you because of yourbeautiful green money!' I don't attempt to explain this. I am merelystating what appears to me to be a fact. But, as you say, money is, orshould be, an asset of attraction."
"I suppose beauty is held in greater esteem," said Mary, "because it ismore democratically bestowed. Money seems to beget hatred because itisn't."
"The French people," said Langham, "hated the nobility because of theirwealth and luxury. To-day a common mechanic has more real luxuries athis disposal than poor Louis XVI had, but he hates the rich people whohave more than he has--and so it will go on to the end of time."
"Will there always be rich people and poor people?"
"There will always be rich people, but some time they will learn tospend their money more beneficently, and then there won't be any reallypoor people. If the attic of your house were infected with dirt andvermin you couldn't sleep until it had been cleaned and disinfected. So,some day, rich men will feel about their neighbors; cities about theirslums; and nations about other nations. I can imagine a future Uncle Samsaying to a future John Bull"--and he sunk his voice to a comicallyconfidential whisper: "'Say, old man, I hear you're pressed for readycash; now't just so happens I'm well fixed at the moment, and--oh, justamong friends! Bother the interest!' What a spectacle this worldis--it's like the old English schools that Dickens wrote out ofexistence--just bullying and hazing all around! Why, if a country wasrun on the most elementary principles of honesty and efficiency, thecitizens of that country would never have occasion to say: 'Our taxesare almost unbearable.' They would be nudging each other in the streetsand saying: 'My, that was a big dividend we got!'"
Mr. Langham only stopped because he was out of breath. His face was redand shining. He mopped his brow with his handkerchief.
Mary was almost perfectly happy. She loved to hear Langham run on andon. His voice was so pleasant, and his face beamed so with kindness. Andfrom many things which he had from time to time let slip she wasconvinced that she needn't be an old maid unless she wanted to be. Andso to climb a little hill with him, to sit in the sun, and to admire theview was really an exciting venture. For she never knew what he wasgoing to let slip next. And equally exciting was the fact that if thatslip should be in the nature of a leading question, she could only guesswhat her answer would be.
When a man is offered something that he very much wants--a triflingloan, for instance--his first instinct is to deny the need. And a girl,when the man she wants offers himself, usually refuses at the firsttime of asking. And some, especially rich in girl nature, which isexperience of human nature and somewhat short of divine, will persist inrefusing even unto the twentieth and thirtieth time.
Mary Darling was in a deep reverie. From this, his eyes twinkling behindtheir thick glasses, Mr. Langham roused her with the brisk utterance ofone of his favorite quotations:
"'General Blank's compliments,'" said he, "'and he reports that thecolored troops are turning black in the face.'"
Mary smiled her friendliest smile.
"I was wondering," she said, "what had become of Lee and Renier."
"I have noted," said Mr. Langham, "that she always calls him by his lastname, sometimes with the prefix you--'You Renier' put like that. And Iwas wondering if he ever turns the trick on her."
"Why should he?" asked Mary innocently.
"You have forgotten," said he, "that her last name is Darling." His eyestwinkled with amazing and playful boldness. "You're _all_ Darlings," heexclaimed, "and"--a note of self-pity in his voice--"I'm just a fat oldstuff!"
"That," said Mary primly, "is perfectly correct, but for three triflingerrors--you're not fat, you're not old, and you're not a stuff!"
If she had told him that he was handsome as Apollo he could not havebeen more pleased.
And so their adventure progressed in the pleasant sunlight that warmedthe top of the little hill. No very exciting adventure, you say? And ofa shilly-shallying and even snail-like motion?
Oh, you can't be always riding to rescues, and falling over cliffs, andescaping from burning houses.
At that moment, by the purest accident, the tip of Mr. Langham's rightforefinger just brushed against Mary's sleeve. And there went throughhim from head to foot a great thrill, as if trumpets had suddenlysounded.
"I suppose," said Mary, after a little while, "that we ought to begoing."
"But I'd rather sit here than eat," said Mr. Langham.
"Honestly? So would I."
"Then," said Mr. Langham, "without exposing ourselves to any otherdanger than that of starvation, I propose that we lose ourselves--as_other people do_--in short, that we remain here until one or other ofus would rather--eat."
"Good gracious," said Mary, "we might be here a week!"
Mr. Langham rose slowly to his feet. Far off he could see pale smokeflitting upward through the tree-tops. He turned and looked into MissDarling's smiling, upturned face.
"I'll just run down and tell Arthur we're not _really_ lost," he said."But I'll make him promise not to look for us. I'll be rightback--almost before you can say 'Jack Robinson.'"
She held out her hands. He took them and helped her to her feet. Andthen they both laughed aloud.
"Thank Heaven," said Mary, "that whatever else you and I may sufferfrom, it isn't from insanity--or slim appetites! As a matter of fact,I'm famished."
"Thank God!" said Mr. Langham; "so am I."
And they began to descend the hill. For to keep men and women andadventurers going, the essential thing is food. And there's many apromising romance that has come to nothing for want of a loaf of breadand a jug of wine.
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