Partners (7 page)

Noel arose respectfully and looked at Mr. Rand, solemnly searching his face.

"Yes, sir!" he said.

"H'm! Looks like his sister, doesn't he? Acts like her, too! Well, I'm very glad to have seen him. It's good of you to take him to the hospital. He seems to know he's in good hands. Well, Reuben, if you'll be kind enough to stop at my office when you come down, I'll give you that check!"

Reuben promised, and the manager hurried away.

"He's nice!" said Noel with a sigh of satisfaction as Reuben went about gathering up some papers and putting them in his briefcase to take with him.

"Yes," said Reuben. "He's very nice."

It was silent in the room while Reuben searched in his desk drawer for some more papers he would need, and then suddenly Noel brought out another thought:

"My Gillian likes to work for him. He is never cross."

"That's right!" Reuben said, smiling. "He is always pleasant. I like to work for him, too."

"Do you work for him?" asked Noel with a look of surprise in his big eyes.

"Oh, yes," said Reuben with a smile. "I work for him, too."

"Oh!" said Noel thoughtfully. And when Reuben looked up again, he saw the child studying him.

They went down presently to the next floor and stopped at Rand's office.

Rand looked down at Noel as they were leaving.

"You take good care of that sister of yours, young man!" said Rand with a smile, and Noel looked up with his sweetest smile and answered clearly:

"Yes, thank you, I will."

Mr. Rand gave an astonished look at the child again and then winked at Reuben.

"He's all right!" he said with a grin and then watched Noel as he walked sedately along by Reuben's side.

"
Some boy!
" he murmured to himself as he turned back to his office, and he was glad in his heart that he had made Gillian's check a little larger than he had at first intended.

Meantime, in her father's office, Anise Glinden was storming about and sneering at Reuben Remington, wondering why her father had him working for him and declaring that she wished he would dismiss him.

At last her father, quite accustomed to ignoring such familiar pranks from his spoiled daughter, caught a phrase or two of what she was saying and swung around on his office chair to face her.

"What's this? What's all this about, Anise? You want one of the best men we have in this whole company dismissed because he has displeased you? Just what have you got to do with this business, Anise, except to spend the money it makes? Did you suppose we carried on this business for the purpose of providing puppets and playboys for your shows? Think again, young lady! Why should you presume to pick out a man like Reuben Remington and want to turn him into a good-for-nothing actor? Lay off him, girl, and get some sense into your head! Though goodness knows it's the first time you ever picked out a real man to work on. But I'm not going to have him spoiled even to please you, baby! What's he done that you should get so furious at him?"

"Why, he's practically ruined all my plans for the next week or two by refusing to get into our play, in a part where he just exactly fits, and he has the effrontery to lie about it. His excuse is that he has work to do that he can't leave. Though he's on vacation, and admits it. He says something has come up that has made it impossible for him to come down right away, and he doesn't tell me what it is, nor excuse himself in the least. He's just awfully,
awfully
rude about it. When I asked him what was hindering him, he said it was personal, private matters, shut his lips like a steel trap and not another word out of him. I knew he was lying all the time."

"That'll be about all out of you, girl!" said her father. "That young man doesn't lie, and if he said he had important business, then he had important business, I'll wager. He has the biggest sense of duty and honor of any young man I know, and I won't hear a word against him. So pick up your powder puffs and your silly gloves and folderols and go on your childish way. Find another playboy to tag you around. You won't get Reuben Remington, I'm sure of that, unless his conscience says it's all right. I only wish there was any hope of your getting a man like that for a friend. Though I'd be sorry for him if you did! You're not good enough for him, and that's a fact, my child! Now, run along. I'm busy, and I have to work to keep the money flowing in to finance all your foolish notions!"

So Anise went pouting out of her father's office, and after scouting around to see if Reuben was still in the building, presently discovered that he had left without looking her up again to make his peace with her. That was something she could hardly forgive, because she wasn't used to being treated that way.

 

Reuben and Noel arrived in the hospital a little before the doctor.

Reuben could see that the child was in a tremor of anxiety again, solemnly watching every person that came through the hall, listening fearsomely to every sound, snuffing terror in the pungent scent of the air.

The doctor found them in the little reception room where they had waited the night before. There was no one else in the room, so they could talk freely.

"She is better! Yes, she is decidedly better," he said breezily with a smile toward the anxious child who was watching him with incredulous, doubting eyes. "But----I wanted to talk to you. How well do you know this little lady?"

He fixed his eyes on Reuben, studying him keenly. "Suppose we step out into the hall a moment."

Noel dropped into a chair with a white look coming around his lips, as if he sensed there was more than they were telling him.

Reuben smiled at him as they went out.

"Now," said the doctor again, "how well do you know her?"

"Not very well," said Reuben with a grave expression. "I've seen her in the office occasionally. I know she has the reputation of being a steady, conscientious worker."

"So I should judge," said the doctor, nodding. "But is there anyone else of the office staff who knows her better? Anyone with whom she has been friends? One in whom she would confide?"

"I'm afraid not," said Reuben. "She has a reticent nature, and her habit was to hurry home from work to this child whom she had to leave in a most unsatisfactory day nursery during the day. It just happened that I was around when she fainted, and the boss had an important conference with a man from Chicago, so he asked me to get her to the hospital and see that she was all right. It developed on the way that she was frantic about the boy, for there was no one to look after him and nothing in their apartment to eat till she got there. We picked him up and brought him along. I promised to look after the boy until she was better."

"I see," said the doctor, looking deep into the other man's eyes, studying him with a keen understanding of human nature. "Well, that being the case, are you going to be good enough to go a little further and be a friend to the girl, too? For she desperately needs someone."

Reuben lifted startled eyes.

"Is--she-- Isn't she----going to get well?"

"I didn't say that," said the doctor with an impatient movement of his sensitive hand. "The point is this: She needs someone who can be a friend and help. She's got something on her mind, and we can't seem to find out what it is. Do you think you might try? By virtue of being the boy's protector? If it's lack of money, perhaps something can be done. If it's something else, it must be either eliminated or overcome, one of the two, and I'd like to know which. It would help immensely in solving the problem. Hasn't the poor girl any family living?"

"I judge not, from what the child says," said Reuben.

"Well, we've
got
to be sure, and find them if there is.
Somebody
has
got
to help!"

"I'll do my best," said Reuben earnestly, "but what shall I do? Is she conscious? Is she able to talk?"

"Well, yes, a little, if it could be done in a quiet and reasonable tone and spirit."

"All right," said Reuben. "I'll try. But suppose you tell me a little more about the possibilities of this thing. Is there any likelihood of her getting well? And how long will it be before she can go back to work, if at all?"

"Oh, yes, she can go back to work as soon as she is strong enough. How long that will be depends largely upon herself. She's got to stop worrying, and she's got to eat and build herself up. She's just about on the point of starvation. She's got to the place where she doesn't care to eat. How much of that is due to anxiety I can't be sure. That's what I want you to find out. If you can break through that shy reserve, you may save a life."

Reuben lifted eyes that showed he had a deep sense of what a responsibility that would be.

"Do you want me to go now?" he asked.

"Yes, if you will. Don't keep her talking too long. Not more than ten or fifteen minutes at first. Then she ought to have some nourishment. But I'll be back here in twenty minutes and get your report. By the way, what about the child? Will he stay here while you are gone?"

"I think so." Reuben looked toward Noel and met his questioning gaze. Noel couldn't hear what was being said, but his eyes had followed the two into the hall, and he knew something momentous was being discussed.

Reuben stepped over to him and spoke so that the doctor could hear.

"Fella, would you mind sitting right here while I go into the room and speak to Gillian a few minutes? Mr. Rand sent her some messages and a check that I think will make her feel happier, and I'd better tell her first before you go in. Then afterward the doctor thinks when he comes back you can go in and speak to her."

The child's face lighted with a great gladness.

"Awright!" he said resignedly and settled back in a deep chair, with his picture book in his lap, though he did not make an attempt to open it.

The doctor smiled his approval.

"Fine, son. You're a real man. Now, don't you worry. We'll both be back in less than half an hour."

Noel put his head back against the chair cushion and closed his eyes. But to look at him not even the doctor would likely suspect that he was praying, putting his dear Gillian into the care of his heavenly Father.

"Some kid that is!" said the doctor as he walked to the door of the patient's room with Reuben. Then he opened the door and Reuben went in.

 

Gillian turned bright, tortured eyes toward Reuben as he came into the room. She seemed such a frail child as she lay there in the hospital bed, so tired and harassed. Reuben's heart went out in pity for her.

Then he saw that her eyes were looking beyond him toward the door, and he knew at once that she was thinking of the little brother.

"Good morning!" he said cheerily. "I hope you're feeling a little better. Noel and I have been thinking a lot about you. Noel is sitting out in the little reception room with a picture book, waiting till the doctor says he may come in. He's quite all right, and happy as a lark except for being anxious for you to get well. We're having a grand time together, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I would have brought him in with me, but I wanted to have a little talk with you first. Mr. Rand sent some messages and a check he said he owed you. I thought perhaps that would come in comfortably now somewhere."

Reuben put Mr. Rand's envelope into the thin white hand.

"Oh, thank you!" said the girl. "Mr. Rand is always very kind. And it is so good of you to take care of Noel. I'm very sorry to have made you so much trouble. I'm much better now and quite able to take my brother off your hands. If you'll just help me to persuade the doctor to let me get up today. The nurse won't let me stir. She's taken my clothing away. She says I'm not strong enough yet to go back to work. But she doesn't know me. I'm used to working whether I feel well or not, and I simply
must
get back to my job. I couldn't afford to lose it!"

There came a frantic look in her eyes at the thought.

"Well, now, put that idea out of your head at once!" said Reuben. "There isn't the slightest danger of your losing your job. Mr. Rand told me to assure you that you were to stay here just as long as the doctor felt it would be good for you, and even after that you are to take as much time as you need to get really well and strong again. The firm appreciates your work, and your job will be waiting for you when you return."

"Oh, that's very kind of him," said the girl. But she said it almost wearily. "I do appreciate that. But, you see, that isn't the only thing. I can't afford to lose my salary just now. I have my little brother to care for, and I've just succeeded in paying off the last of our mother's funeral expenses, so our resources are very low. I simply must go back to work today."

"Now, my friend," said Reuben, with his pleasant voice tuned low to soothing quality and his boyish smile turned on, "you don't need to worry about your brother. He's my guest, and we are having the time of our lives. I'm quite alone in the city, you know, for I haven't been here long enough to have made a host of friends, and I'm just enjoying that boy. I'll be delighted to have him with me as long as you can trust him with me, so that's not a matter to be considered at present."

Reuben was watching her face intently, to see if the shadow was lifted by what he was saying, but it was still there in the back of those anguished eyes. She was polite and grateful for his care of Noel; it relieved the present situation immensely, he could see. But there was, as the doctor had said, something beyond even that, something that he was sent in here to find out.

"But now, I know I mustn't stay too long," he said, "so I'd better be getting at what I came to say before the nurse sends me away with my errand unfulfilled. Would you be willing to consider me a friend and be very frank with me?"

The big questioning eyes, so like the little brother's eyes, gave him a startled look.

"Why, yes, certainly. You have been a wonderful friend in our need."

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way. Now, may I feel that I can ask a few personal questions without being considered as intruding into your private affairs?"