Oh, Money! Money! Part 34

"Shucks! I've seen young Gray only once, but I'd give more for his little finger than I would for a cartload of g.a.y.l.o.r.ds!" flung out Mr.

Smith.

"So would I," approved Miss Maggie. "But Jane--well, Jane feels otherwise. To begin with, she's very much flattered at g.a.y.l.o.r.d's attentions to Mellicent--the more so because he's left Bessie--I beg her pardon, 'Elizabeth'--for her."

"Then Miss Elizabeth is in it, too?"

"Very much in it. That's one of the reasons why Hattie is so anxious for more money. She wants clothes and jewels for Bessie so she can keep pace with the g.a.y.l.o.r.ds. You see there's a wheel within a wheel here."

"I should say there was!"

"As near as I can judge, young g.a.y.l.o.r.d is Bessie's devoted slave--until Mellicent arrives; then he has eyes only for HER, which piques Bessie and her mother not a little. They were together more or less all summer and I think Hattie thought the match was as good as made. Now, once in Hillerton, back he flies to Mellicent."

"And--Mellicent?"

Miss Maggie's eyes became gravely troubled.

"I don't understand Mellicent. I think--no, I KNOW she cares for young Gray; but--well, I might as well admit it, she is ready any time to flirt outrageously with Hibbard g.a.y.l.o.r.d, or--or with anybody else, for that matter. I saw her flirting with you at the party last Christmas!"

Miss Maggie's face showed a sudden pink blush.

Mr. Smith gave a hearty laugh.

"Don't you worry, Miss Maggie. If she'll flirt with young g.a.y.l.o.r.d AND OTHERS, it's all right. There's safety in numbers, you know."

"But I don't like to have her flirt at all, Mr. Smith."

"It isn't flirting. It's just her bottled-up childhood and youth bubbling over. She can't help bubbling, she's been repressed so long.

She'll come out all right, and she won't come out hand in hand with Hibbard g.a.y.l.o.r.d. You see if she does."

Miss Maggie shook her head and sighed.

"You don't know Jane. Jane will never give up. She'll be quiet, but she'll be firm. With one hand she'll keep Gray away, and with the other she'll push g.a.y.l.o.r.d forward. Even Mellicent herself won't know how it's done. But it'll be done, and I tremble for the consequences."

"Hm-m!" Mr. Smith's eyes had lost their twinkle now. To himself he muttered: "I wonder if maybe--I hadn't better take a hand in this thing myself."

"You said--I didn't understand what you said," murmured Miss Maggie doubtfully.

"Nothing--nothing, Miss Maggie," replied the man. Then, with business-like alertness, he lifted his chin. "How long do you say this has been going on?"

"Why, especially since they all came home two weeks ago. Jane knew nothing of Donald Gray till then."

"Where does Carl Pennock come in?"

Miss Maggie gave a gesture of despair.

"Oh, he comes in anywhere that he can find a chance; though, to do her justice, Mellicent doesn't give him--many chances."

"What does her father say to all this? How does he like young Gray?"

Miss Maggie gave another gesture of despair.

"He says nothing--or, rather, he laughs, and says: 'Oh, well, it will come out all right in time. Young folks will be young folks!'"

"But does he like Gray? He knows him, of course."

"Oh, yes, he likes him. He's taken him to ride in his car once, to my knowledge."

"His car! Then Mr. Frank Blaisdell has--a car?"

"Oh, yes, he's just been learning to run it. Jane says he's crazy over it, and that he's teasing her to go all the time. She says he wants to be on the move somewhere every minute. He's taken up golf, too. Did you know that?"

"Well, no, I--didn't."

"Oh yes, he's joined the Hillerton Country Club, and he goes up to the links every morning for practice."

"I can't imagine it--Frank Blaisdell spending his mornings playing golf!"

"You forget," smiled Miss Maggie. "Frank Blaisdell is a retired business man. He has begun to take some pleasure in life now."

"Humph!" muttered Mr. Smith, as he turned to go into his own room.

Mr. Smith called on the Frank Blaisdells that evening. Mr. Blaisdell took him out to the garage (very lately a barn), and showed him the s.h.i.+ning new car. He also showed him his lavish supply of golf clubs, and told him what a "bully time" he was having these days. He told him, too, all about his Western trip, and said there was nothing like travel to broaden a man's outlook. He said a great deal about how glad he was to get out of the old grind behind the counter--but in the next breath he asked Mr. Smith if he had ever seen a store run down as his had done since he left it. Donovan didn't know any more than a cat how such a store should be run, he said.

When they came back from the garage they found callers in the living-room. Carl Pennock and Hibbard g.a.y.l.o.r.d were chatting with Mellicent. Almost at once the doorbell rang, too, and Donald Gray came in with his violin and a roll of music. Mellicent's mother came in also. She greeted all the young men pleasantly, and asked Carl Pennock to tell Mr. Smith all about his fis.h.i.+ng trip. Then she sat down by young Gray and asked him many questions about his music. She was SO interested in violins, she said.

Gray waxed eloquent, and seemed wonderfully pleased--for about five minutes; then Mr. Smith saw that his glance was s.h.i.+fting more and more frequently and more and more unhappily to Mellicent and Hibbard g.a.y.l.o.r.d, talking tennis across the room.

Mr. Smith apparently lost interest in young Pennock's fish story then.

At all events, another minute found him eagerly echoing Mrs.

Blaisdell's interest in violins--but with this difference: violins in the abstract with her became A violin in the concrete with him; and he must hear it at once.

Mrs. Jane herself could not have told exactly how it was done, but she knew that two minutes later young Gray and Mellicent were at the piano, he, s.h.i.+ning-eyed and happy, drawing a tentative bow across the strings: she, no less s.h.i.+ning-eyed and happy, giving him "A" on the piano.

Mr. Smith enjoyed the music very much--so much that he begged for another selection and yet another. Mr. Smith did not appear to realize that Messrs. Pennock and g.a.y.l.o.r.d were pa.s.sing through sham interest and frank boredom to disgusted silence. Equally oblivious was he of Mrs.

Jane's efforts to subst.i.tute some other form of entertainment for the violin-playing. He shook hands very heartily, however, with Pennock and g.a.y.l.o.r.d when they took their somewhat haughty departure, a little later, and, strange to say, his interest in the music seemed to go with their going; for at once then he turned to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Blaisdell with a very animated account of some Blaisdell data he had found only the week before.

He did not appear to notice that the music of the piano had become nothing but soft fitful s.n.a.t.c.hes with a great deal of low talk and laughter between. He seemed interested only that Mr. Blaisdell, and especially Mrs. Blaisdell, should know the intimate history of one Ephraim Blaisdell, born in 1720, and his ten children and forty-nine grandchildren. He talked of various investments then, and of the weather. He talked of the Blaisdells' trip, and of the cost of railroad fares and hotel life. He talked--indeed, Mrs. Jane told her husband after he left that Mr. Smith had talked of everything under the sun, and that she nearly had a fit because she could not get one minute to herself to break in upon Mellicent and that horrid Gray fellow at the piano. She had not supposed Mr. Smith could talk like that. She had never remembered he was such a talker!

The young people had a tennis match on the school tennis court the next day. Mr. Smith told Miss Maggie that he thought he would drop around there. He said he liked very much to watch tennis games.

Miss Maggie said yes, that she liked to watch tennis games, too. If this was just a wee bit of a hint, it quite failed of its purpose, for Mr. Smith did not offer to take her with him. He changed the subject, indeed, so abruptly, that Miss Maggie bit her lip and flushed a little, throwing a swift glance into his apparently serene countenance.

Miss Maggie herself, in the afternoon, with an errand for an excuse, walked slowly by the tennis court. She saw Mr. Smith at once--but he did not seem at all interested in the playing. He had his back to the court, in fact. He was talking very animatedly with Mellicent Blaisdell. He was still talking with her--though on the opposite side of the court--when Miss Maggie went by again on her way home.

Miss Maggie frowned and said something just under her breath about "that child--flirting as usual!" Then she went on, walking very fast, and without another glance toward the tennis ground. But a little farther on Miss Maggie's step lagged perceptibly, and her head lost its proud poise. Miss Maggie, for a reason she could not have explained herself, was feeling suddenly old, and weary, and very much alone.

To the image in the mirror as she took off her hat a few minutes later in her own hall, she said scornfully:

"Well, why shouldn't you feel old? You are old. YOU ARE OLD!" Miss Maggie had a habit of talking to herself in the mirror--but never before had she said anything like this to herself.