The Major Part 36

Dr. Brown hailed Larry with acclaim. "This is very kind of you, my dear boy; you have saved us a tedious wait."

"We must hurry, Papa," said Jane, cutting him short. "Mrs. Waring-Gaunt, who has come for us in her car, has left her brother ill at home." She marshalled them promptly into the car and soon had them in line for the motor, bearing the hand baggage and wraps, the porter following with Jane's own bag. "Thank you, porter," said Jane, giving him a smile that reduced that functionary to the verge of grinning imbecility, and a tip which he received with an air of absent-minded indifference. "Good-bye, porter; you have made us very comfortable," said Jane, shaking hands with him.

"Thank you, Miss; it shuah is a pleasuah to wait on a young lady like you, Miss. It shuah is, Miss. Ah wish you a prospec jounay, Miss, Ah do."

"I wonder what is keeping Mr. Wakeham," said Jane. "I am very sorry to keep you waiting, Mrs. Waring-Gaunt. Larry, would you mind?"

"Certainly not," said Larry, hurrying off toward the baggage car. In a few minutes Mr. Wakeham appeared with the doleful news that the trunk was not in the car and must have been left behind.

"I am quite sure it is there," said Jane, setting off herself for the car, the crestfallen Mr. Wakeham and the porter following behind her.

At the door of the car the baggage man met her with regretful apologies.

"The trunk must have been left behind."

He was brusquely informed by Jane that she had seen it put on board.

"Then it must have been put off by mistake at Calgary?" This suggestion was brushed aside as unworthy of consideration. The trunk was here in this car, she was sure. This the baggage man and Mr. Wakeham united in declaring quite impossible. "We have turned the blasted car upside down," said the latter.

"Impossible?" exclaimed Jane, who had been exploring the dark recesses of the car. "Why, here it is, I knew it was here."

"Hurrah," cried Larry, "we have got it anyway."

Mr. Wakeham and the baggage man went to work to extricate the trunk from the lowest tier of boxes. They were wise enough to attempt no excuse or explanation, and in Jane's presence they felt cribbed, cabined and confined in the use of such vocabulary as they were wont to consider appropriate to the circ.u.mstances, and in which they prided themselves as being adequately expert. A small triumphal procession convoyed the trunk to the motor, Jane leading as was fitting, Larry and Mr. Wakeham forming the rear guard. The main body consisted of the porter, together with the baggage man, who, under a flagellating sense of his incompetence, was so moved from his wonted att.i.tude of haughty indifference as to the fate of a piece of baggage committed to his care when once he had contemptuously hurled it forth from the open door of his car as to personally aid in conducting by the unusual and humiliating process of actually handling this particular bit of baggage down a steep and gravelly bank and over a wire fence and into a motor car.

"Jane's a wonder," confided Larry to Mr. Wakeham.

"She sure is," said that young man. "You cannot slip anything past her, and she's got even that baggage man tamed and tied and ready to catch peanuts in his mouth. First time I have seen that done."

"You just wait till she smiles her farewell at him," said Larry, hugely enjoying the prospect.

Together they stood awaiting the occurrence of this phenomenon.

"Gosh-a-mighty, look at him," murmured Mr. Wakeham. "Takes it like pie.

He'd just love to carry that blasted trunk up the grade and back to the car, if she gave him the wink. Say, she ain't much to look at, but somehow she's got me handcuffed and chained to her chariot wheels.

Say," he continued with a shyness not usual with him, "would you mind introducing me to the party?"

"Come along," said Larry.

The introduction, however, was performed by Jane, who apparently considered Mr. Wakeham as being under her protection. "Mrs.

Waring-Gaunt, this is Mr. Wakeham. Mr. Wakeham is from Chicago, but,"

she hastened to add, "he knows some friends of ours in Winnipeg."

"So you see I am fairly respectable," said Mr. Wakeham, shaking hand with Mrs. Waring-Gaunt and Nora.

When the laughter had ceased, Mr. Wakeham said, "If your car were only a shade larger I should beg hospitality along with Dr. and Miss Brown."

"Room on the top," said Mrs. Waring-Gaunt with a smile, "but it seems the only place left. You are just pa.s.sing through, Mr. Wakeham?"

"Yes, I am going on to Manor Mine."

"Oh, that's only twenty miles down the line."

"Then may I run up to see you?" eagerly asked Mr. Wakeham.

"Certainly, we shall be delighted to see you," said the lady.

"Count on me, then," said the delighted Mr. Wakeham, lifting his hat in farewell.

Dr. Brown took his place in the front seat beside Mrs. Waring-Gaunt, the three young people occupying the seat in the rear.

"Who is he?" asked Larry when they had finally got under way.

"A friend of the James Murrays in Winnipeg. You remember them, don't you? Ethel Murray was in your year. He is very nice indeed, don't you think so, Papa?" said Jane, appealing to her father.

"Fine young chap," said Dr. Brown with emphasis. "His father is in mines in rather a big way, I believe. Lives in Chicago, has large holdings in Alberta coal mines about here somewhere, I fancy. The young man is a recent graduate from Cornell and is going into his father's business. He strikes me as an exceptionally able young fellow." And for at least five miles of the way Dr. Brown discussed the antecedents, the character, the training, the prospects of the young American till Larry felt qualified to pa.s.s a reasonably stiff examination on that young man's history, character and career.

"Now tell me," said Larry to Jane at the first real opening that offered, "what does this talk about a three days' visit to us mean. The idea of coming a thousand miles on your first visit to your friends, some of whom you have not seen for eight years and staying three days!"

"You see Papa is on his way to Banff," explained Jane, "and then he goes to the coast and he only has a short time. So we could plan only for three days here."

"We can plan better than that," said Larry confidently, "but never mind just now. We shall settle that to-morrow."

The journey home was given to the careful recital of news of Winnipeg, of the 'Varsity, and of mutual friends. It was like listening to the reading of a diary to hear Jane bring up to date the doings and goings and happenings in the lives of their mutual friends for the past year.

Gossip it was, but of such kindly nature as left no unpleasant taste in the mouth and gave no unpleasant picture of any living soul it touched.

"Oh, who do you think came to see me two weeks ago? An old friend of yours, Hazel Sleighter. Mrs. Phillips she is now. She has two lovely children. Mr. Phillips is in charge of a department in Eaton's store."

"You don't tell me," cried Larry. "How is dear Hazel? How I loved her once! I wonder where her father is and Tom and the little girl. What was her name?"

"Ethel May. Oh, she is married too, in your old home, to Ben--somebody."

"Ben, big Ben Hopper? Why, think of that kid married."

"She is just my age," said Jane soberly, glad of the dusk of the falling night. She would have hated to have Larry see the quick flush that came to her cheek. Why the reference to Ethel May's marriage should have made her blush she hardly knew, and that itself was enough to annoy her, for Jane always knew exactly why she did things.

"And Mr. and Mrs. Sleighter," said Jane, continuing her narrative, "have gone to Toronto. They have become quite wealthy, Hazel says, and Tom is with his father in some sort of financial business. What is it, Papa?"

Dr. Brown suddenly waked up. "What is what, my dear? You will have to forgive me. This wonderful scenery, these hills here and those mountains are absorbing my whole attention. So wonderful it all is that I hardly feel like apologising to Mrs. Waring-Gaunt for ignoring her."

"Don't think of it," said Mrs. Waring-Gaunt.

"Do you know, Jane," continued Dr. Brown, "that at this present moment you are pa.s.sing through scenery of its kind unsurpa.s.sed possibly in the world?"

"I was talking to Larry, Papa," said Jane, and they all laughed at her.

"I was talking to Jane," said Larry.

"But look at this world about you," continued her father, "and look, do look at the moon coming up behind you away at the prairie rim." They all turned about except Mrs. Waring-Gaunt, whose eyes were glued to the two black ruts before her cutting through the gra.s.s. "Oh, wonderful, wonderful," breathed Dr. Brown. "Would it be possible to pause, Mrs.

Waring-Gaunt, at the top of this rise?"