The Street of the City (11 page)

“That was pretty plucky of you,” said Valiant pleasantly. “But you must look out now that you don’t work too hard,” he warned. “You can’t afford to get sick, at least not till your mother gets well.”

“Oh no, I won’t work too hard. Why, you ought to see the way Nurse Branner watches over me. She made us all go to bed last night the minute supper was over and the few dishes washed, and she made oatmeal for us. She’s great! I wish we could afford to keep her on for a while. But of course I know we couldn’t, even if we had a lot of money. She’s an important nurse. Other people need her.”

“Yes, I suppose she is,” said Willoughby. “But she’ll be there for a little while, anyway, the doctor said, and that will help. You haven’t much more to do to get settled, have you?”

“Why, no, not so much. We’re going to put the curtains up tonight and a few pictures, and then we’ll feel like living. The rest can be done a little at a time, or not at all if we don’t want to.”

“Ah! I see! That’s where I come in. I was wondering where I could work into the picture.”

And so, in spite of her protests, Val walked into the little brick house, saluted the nurse who appeared in the kitchen door smiling, and said, “Now, bring on your curtains! I’m the man they sent up from the interior decorators to put up draperies and hang pictures.”

“Well, Mr. Willoughby, that’s nice,” said the nurse. “Frannie says the windows are all washed. It certainly will be fine to have your help. You’ve got such nice long arms. But how about sitting down with us and having a little bite of supper first? I made some soup this afternoon, and it’s grand and tasty if I do say so myself. Doesn’t it smell good? Carrots and onions and barley and potatoes, and tender meat from the soup bone. It’s cooked all the afternoon.”

“Well, that’s great!” said the young man. “I’m hungry as a bear. The menu sounds very alluring.”

“Better sit down now,” said Nurse Branner. “Everything is ready to put on the table. You sit here, Mr. Willoughby, and Frannie, you take the head of the table and pour the coffee.”

It was good soup, and Val Willoughby was hungry. So was Frannie. Such a pleasant, friendly, merry time they had eating it, just as if they had known one another for years. And then there was a luscious apple pie and delicious cheese they had brought from the country.

When the nurse went upstairs to take the sick woman her tray and settle her for the night, the two young people jumped up and began to clear the table.

“Oh, but you mustn’t do this,” said Frannie in horror as she saw the young man gathering up the dishes in an orderly manner as if he had been doing it all his life.

“And why not, I’d like to know,” said Val, fitting the four plates neatly together, gathering the silver by itself. “Haven’t I eaten here, and should I not help to put things back into place? You see, I want to get at those curtains right away, and we can’t do that until our consciences are free from these dishes. Is this the dishpan? I’ll wash and you dry and put them away, for I don’t know where they belong.”

“But truly, you don’t need to do this. There aren’t many, and I can do them in no time after the curtains are up.”

“Yes, but that’s exactly what I don’t want you to have to do. You see, I’m concerned about you, all you went through yesterday and then going to work so early again today. How did you get through the day? Weren’t you all shaken up? You’re such a little thing, and you took quite a beating from those two boys, you know. And I wasn’t at all sure you wouldn’t have more trouble with them today. They are not the kind who give up a fight. Don’t relax your vigilance. They’ll try to catch you unaware. They may lie low for a while, though, for it’s my opinion that one of them had a pretty good case of black eye and wouldn’t want to appear in public, not for a while, if you ask me.”

“I hate to be the cause of any workman losing time,” said Frannie with a troubled look.

“They deserved it,” said Val, setting his lips in a stern line.

And so they worked together and soon had all the dishes washed and put away. Then Frannie produced the curtains.

They went to work chattering pleasantly, getting well acquainted and feeling like old friends.

And there went another day when Marietta couldn’t find her old playmate to have dinner with her. Even though she had gone to the plant and then the Haversett house to find him.
Strange
, she thought. He hadn’t been home to dinner for two nights. She would certainly have to have it out with Auntie Haversett, for she was determined to get Val to help her with her plans.

But Val was showing his skill at putting up curtain rods and advising about which curtains would fit best in certain places. He was really having a good time at it. This girl he was helping was so much in need of help and so utterly free from superficial airs and graces that he felt the atmosphere was just easy, pleasant, unrestricted. He hadn’t thought of Marietta since he talked with her on the telephone the night before. He assumed that she had gone elsewhere for help. Marietta was seldom at a loss to find somebody to give in to her beauty and her father’s wealth.

About that time out on the ice two figures walked again with their eyes toward the little brick house.

“Well, how did you make out, Mike?” asked the tall man whose name was Granniss. “Get in touch with the owner?”

“No, not yet. He’s gone west on business. May be back tomorrow or next day, they weren’t sure.”

“M-m-m! Well, we haven’t any time to spare, Mike.”

“I know, sir. I tried to find out the man’s address. I meant to wire him or find out what train he might be on, but got nowhere. Nobody knew where he’d gone or what for. But they said his brother-in-law was coming home tomorrow and he might know, so I’ll try again tomorrow.”

“Better make it snappy, Mike, for I got wind of another place I might get if this one fails.”

“I’ll do me best, Granniss; devils can’t do no more, you know.” Mike snickered apologetically.

“Yes, I know, but you’ve got to do better than any devil if you want to work for me, Mike. Understand?”

“Okay,” said Mike sullenly, and tried to think what he should offer next as an alibi.

“Say!” said Granniss. “Isn’t that the house over there where that light just went on in the front room? Why, there’s a man standing up at the window doing something to a curtain. I thought you said there weren’t any men in the family, just two women. I thought you said that was the reason we wouldn’t have any trouble working this racket.”

“I didn’t hear of no man there,” said Mike. “Mebbe it’s just some workman they hired.”

“If they are poor people as you thought, they wouldn’t hire a man to put up their curtains, would they? They’d put them up themselves.”

“That’s right,” said Mike, perplexed. “Well, mebbe it’s some neighbor or the grocery boy or something. Mebbe it’s some man works at the plant where the girl works.”

“That’s bad,” said Granniss, “her making friends so soon. We don’t want any man in on this, not if we’re going to carry it through quickly. A man might block things and hold us up.”

“Well, I couldn’t say who he is. I never heard about any man. Mebbe some more of them movers come back to bring something.”

“Well, there’s no time to waste,” said Granniss determinedly. “It seems to me you could have found that owner somehow, or his agent. I don’t believe you half tried.”

“Say, look-a-here! I guess it’s as much to me as it is to you to get this thing started quick.”

“Okay. See you get a hustle on and get some action. I ought to have things underway by the end of this week.”

The two men drifted by on the far side of the river, and when they finally turned to go back again, the front room of the little brick house was dark and a skater shot by them and disappeared into the shadows up-river, but the memory of a man putting up window curtains in the distance stayed in the minds of those two men as they went on to find their parked car, and caused the man Granniss to call to the other as he left him that night.

“You make sure you find out something about that lease, even if you have to go to the owner’s office and pump his office boy or his secretary for information. There’s always a way to find out things if you just know enough to pave your way with a little dough. I’ve surely given you enough to use that way, and I want it used! Understand, Mike?”

“Okay!” said Mike heartily.

Val Willoughby got back to his aunt’s home a little after ten o’clock and was soon called to the telephone by the butler who was still on duty. Again it was Marietta’s indignant voice that challenged him.

“What’s the idea?” she demanded haughtily. “Are you trying to avoid me? Here I’ve spent another whole evening racing after you. I even went so far as to drive down after you at the plant at what I judged to be closing hours and waited endlessly without success. Nobody knew where you were nor when you would return, if you did. Now I should like to know where one finds you. Are you always completely disappearing?”

“Why, I’m sorry, Marietta. Nobody told me you were looking for me. Where were you? What time?”

“I was parked right outside your office door for at least an hour, from quarter of five on, and then I chased you everywhere I could think of. What on earth do you do with yourself, and when do you usually leave the office?”

“Why, I don’t have any special time. But usually around five unless there is a lot of work. Sometimes, I told you, I’m needed there nearly all night. But I’m not always in the office. I’m here and there and everywhere.”

“So I understand,” said the girl coldly. “Just where were you tonight?”

“Tonight I was out on an errand,” said Val firmly. “It took more time than I had expected. But now, Marietta, what was it you wanted? I’m sorry I should have been so unavailable when you wanted to get me. Is there anything important that you were so anxious to find me?”

“There certainly is,” said the girl haughtily. “I was delegated by our district committee to contact you and find out if you would undertake to organize and be warden of the air raid group in this neighborhood. You were unanimously chosen to do that, and when they found I knew you, they asked me to give you the papers and tell you what was wanted of you. It certainly hasn’t been an easy job locating you. As this is a request from the citizens in our neighborhood, and not a private plan of my own, I suppose you’ll be a little more affable about it than you were about my request last night.”

“Well, Marietta, I’m sorry I wasn’t affable last night, but what you asked was utterly out of the question. And as for this, it is equally impossible. I am a worker, you know, under government orders, and my time is not my own. I would seldom be available at the times when a warden was wanted. Remember my work is defense work!”

“Well, I certainly think that is perfectly ridiculous. You can’t be busy all the time!”

“Not all the time, of course, but enough of the time so that I could not be depended upon for any other job that was important. But really, Marietta, don’t you do anything but go around contacting people for jobs? Isn’t there some small favor I could do for you for old time’s sake that would make you understand I am not merely trying to be rude?”

“Why, yes, there is. I’d like you to take me to the orchestra concert tomorrow night. Then perhaps we’d have a little time between numbers to talk seriously.”

Val made a wry face at the telephone, but answered in a pleasant voice.

“Well, now that’s a simple request. Yes, I could try to do that. Of course you have to understand that if something should come up at the plant I might have to get a substitute at the last minute. But I’ll really try, Marietta, and you know I enjoy symphony concerts extremely. It ought to be a very pleasant occasion, and I’ll do my very best to appear at the right time. I’ll ask my aunt if I can borrow her car.”

“Don’t bother,” said Marietta. “I have a new one of my own that I want to show you. I go everywhere in it, semi-officially you know. And as I want to talk over some of my defense plans I shall count that a trip for the country’s good. All right, Val, and get here at quarter to eight. That’ll be plenty of time. Now I’ll say good night and let you get some much needed rest, or you’ll fall asleep at the Academy of Music. Good night!”

Val turned from the telephone with a sigh. So, that was that! He’d be as nice to Marietta as possible, but he would make her understand that he had no time this winter to attend her on her various activities. He could still hear her insistent voice ringing in his ears as he went about preparing for bed. And it flashed across his mind that there was a vast difference between her and that little Frannie who was so merry and sweet. Was that the reason why he enjoyed helping her so much, and why the picture of the simple little home lingered so pleasantly in his memory?

B
ut Marietta did not dismiss the subject of the conversation she had just held with the young man as easily and quickly as he had done. She flung herself down on her luxurious chaise lounge with a petulant look on her face. She had won, it is true, a whole evening to herself with Val Willoughby—with reservations—for she didn’t at all feel sure of him even now, since he said he might have to call up and cancel any engagement he made. But what was one evening? The excuse he gave of work seemed to her altogether too trivial for a young man from his class in society. He might have an important job, yes, but he wasn’t a day laborer, was he? He surely could get someone else to take his place when there was need. And wasn’t courtesy and precedent of real need? It was just unthinkable that a nephew of Mrs. Robert Haversett should be so tied down to any kind of a job, even for defense, that he couldn’t take time off for social duties, and she didn’t mean to accept that excuse any longer.