Where Two Ways Met (22 page)

“Yes, I kept at him all right,” said her father. “Oh, I kept at him till I fairly hung my head with shame. I never did coax anyone to work for me before, and I declare I never will again, not even if
you
ask me again. I kept at him till he put me up and compared me with God, and then I was licked. What a guy he is! I’ve never met his like before.”

“Well, you see, Dad, that’s why I want you to get him. There aren’t any like him, and I’d like to conquer him and make him do what we want him to do, and
like
it. And then when we get tired of him we can always drop him like a hotcake if he acts up anytime. See, Dad?”

“Yes, I see. But I don’t think you do. That fellow has what you call strength of character, and whether you think he’s right or not in his conclusions, you’ll have to have at least as much strength of character as he has to win him, and I don’t believe
you
have, kitten. You’re plenty stubborn and set in your ways, but that’s not strength, that’s usually founded in weakness, and selfishness, and this man hasn’t a selfish hair in his whole makeup. I can’t help but admire him a lot, even when he makes me mad as a hatter.”

“Well, but Dad, I may not have strength of character, as you call it, but I’ve got something else. They call it glamour nowadays, and you wait till I try my glamour on him. He’s not had a chance to come in contact with that much. Wait till we go out to a few dances and I sport all my lovely evening frocks. Wait till we go swimming together and he maybe has to rescue me a coupla times.”

“Look out, baby! Don’t you go taking any chances. He isn’t worth risking your life for, you know.”

“Oh, nonsense, Dad, I can probably swim better than he can. He’s been too much taken up with studying the Bible to waste much time swimming. And there are lots of other things we can do. Go out yachting, and deep-sea fishing. I hate old fish, but it’s a chance to lie around and look glamorous.”

“I see,” laughed her father, and he pinched her pink cheek.

“Well, is he going to go with you?”

“Yes, on his own conditions, but it’s up to you to change those conditions, if you can. I wasn’t able to find out what on earth is tying him to home so closely. He said it wasn’t a girl, and I don’t really believe that he lies, not unless he’s an entire fake and putting on a religious act to make me trust him.”

“Oh, no, he’s not a fake. But I can tell you what it is he has promised God he’ll do,” said Reva.

“You
can
? What is it?”

“Teach a Sunday school class, and he’s as much in earnest about it as if his life depended on it. He goes home Saturday night to study his Sunday school lesson so he can interest a lot of common boys and make them keep on coming to Sunday school. I bullied him until he told me. But I’ll soon beat that out of him when I get a chance to see him every day.”

“And you still want him to come, even if he isn’t willing to stay over Sundays?”

“Oh, sure I do. I think this is going to be fun. I’ll come down to see you about Wednesday or Thursday. You’re going down Monday morning, you said? Well, I’ll come down Thursday morning then, and we’ll have the time of our lives all day Thursday and Friday, all day and evening, and by Saturday noon he’ll be wishing he didn’t have to go back to that old Sunday school class. I don’t suppose I’ll actually accomplish much that first week, but the next week I’ll still be there, and I’ll turn on the glamour, for all it’s worth. Oh, boy! It’s going to be my special mission to make him forget his old Bible and really have a good time. By the second Saturday, he’ll be ready to telephone his mother or somebody to take over that class for him. You don’t know how well I can work when I get the chance, Dad!”

“Okay, kitten, hop to it and do all you can. I’ll be betting on you, but I tell you truly, I’m not so sure you can do anything with that stubborn lad, and I hate to see you disappointed.”

“Oh, I never get disappointed,” laughed the girl, with her head high. “You’re a gold old daddy to fix this all up for me.”

“Well, I did the best I could, but at that, I’m not sure but the lad will stand me up. He didn’t seem keen on going.”

“You didn’t tell him I was going to be there, did you? You know this is a good excuse for me to arrive to stay with you while he is away Sundays. Only Sunday was the time I was counting on to get in my best work.”

“Yes, I thought so,” said her father. “Well, perhaps you’ll be able to make him stay. We’ll see how it works out.”

So Harris Chalmers began hasty preparations for his migration to the shore, having carefully selected a resort not too far from home, so that his uncertain companion could go home Sundays and teach a class of little hoodlums. Ridiculous! Though, perhaps if somebody had taken that much trouble for him, he would have turned out to be a good man like Madison. Although that wouldn’t have fitted in very well with his ideas of success in business, and if he hadn’t been successful, Adella would never have married him. Well, he had had a fairly good life, and if he could put this over for Reva, he certainly would be glad. He didn’t feel at all sure that Reva meant anything serious with Madison. Still, if she did, it would be good to know that she had a
good
man. And of course
he
could make him a successful man in business lines. He was counting on being able to do a lot with the boy during this summer vacation.

So Chalmers’s preparations went forward, and Madision was told to be ready to start the following Monday. They would go down in the car. Mr. Chalmers was counting on Paige to do the driving. Then if they ever got in a jam and Paige had to miss a train, he could in a pinch drive home and get back Sunday night.

So Paige watched him solemnly, accepted in silence the decision, and went home to pack up the few belongings that he meant to take with him. Mainly some books that he wanted to study that would help him in his Sunday preparation. If he couldn’t be at home until the late train Saturday night sometime, at least he would have ample helps for his study. Of course, he was counting on giving Mr. Chalmers the main part of the day, taking dictation and typing letters. He certainly would have been surprised and more than a trifle indignant if he could have known how very little Mr. Chalmers was counting on using him that way. To his mind, this was wholly for Reva’s sake, and she might do the planning after the first day or two. He was taking with him some unimportant letters that needed rather full answers, to have on hand when he got hard up to occupy Madison’s time. Chalmers was adept at any kind of deception, and he could easily use it for amusement.

One of the first things Paige did when he got home that night, after he had his boss’s definite announcement, was to call up June on the telephone. At least he would not run any risks of missing or having to wait for a letter.

It thrilled him tremendously when he heard her voice over the phone. He didn’t altogether understand it. He had been wishing with all his heart that she were back home and that he might have a good long talk with her, but now, with his heart pounding like mad over just the sound of her voice hundreds of miles away over a telephone wire, he felt that this was something else.
This
was a reason for meditation, and of course he had no time to meditate just now.

Here was June on the wire, and his own voice began almost to tremble as he answered.

“June! Is that you?
Grand!
This is luck that I could get you right away, because I haven’t very much time. But first, how are you? All right? That’s good. And having a good time? What’s that? Not so you’d notice it. Is that so! That’s a pity. I wish I could send you a lot of good time by mail or radio or telegraph.”

“Thanks very much. I’ll take the will for the deed. But how are you?” said June.

“Oh, I’m all right, but not very happy over the way things have taken a turn. My boss says he isn’t so well, and the doctor tells him he must go to the shore for a while. He has picked me to go along with him and keep up with his mail that must be attended to. The man he usually uses that way has to stay at the office and hold the fort. He says I must go. He won’t take no for an answer. I balked, of course, on Sundays being included, and finally he has given in and will allow me to come back for my Sunday school class. I told him I wouldn’t go at all unless I could be home on Sunday. I’m telling you all this because I don’t want to miss your letters, so act accordingly when you address anything to me; remember I’m at the shore from Monday morning to Saturday noons, and you can get me by calling for the Larchmont, Crystal Lake. You remember Crystal Lake, don’t you? I think you said you were there once. What? Yes, I guess it’s an ideal place, but I would much prefer being at home this summer. Say, is there any chance of you getting home soon? I’m hungry for a real talk with you again. There are a lot of things that are not quite clear to me that I think you could help me about.

“Is that a bell I hear? Is it calling you? Am I keeping you too long?”

“No, Paige! No!” said June eagerly. “Yes, that’s my aunt’s bell, but it won’t matter. I’ll explain it to her afterward.”

“Yes, I know, but I don’t want to make trouble for you. Have you got that address? Read it to me. Yes, that’s right. And you’ll write to me tonight will you, June? Thank you. I shall be desperately lonely, because I don’t want to go, and I’m not altogether sure it was the right way, yet no other way opened.”

“Then it will be the right way, at least for the present, you know,” June’s voice came ringing the answer over the wire. “Don’t forget! I’ll—be praying!”

“And I, too! And say, June, do you happen to have an extra picture of yourself? I’d love to have one if you could spare it. I’ll be lonely, you know.”

“All right, if you’ll give me one of yourself. I get lonely myself sometimes.”

There was softness in the tones that said more than the words could say. More than either dared to say because of possible listeners. But Paige turned from that telephone with relief in his heart to know that now there would be no reason for his missing any letter that June might have time to write him. And in his heart he gave thanks for a mother who had sense enough to stay out of sight and not make him self-conscious when he was telephoning.

He kissed his mother tenderly.

“I know you don’t like this, Mother, neither do I, but I couldn’t see my way out of it, not yet, anyway. I hope you won’t worry too much, Moms dear. This is partly in the nature of an experiment.”

“I won’t worry, dear. I can trust you in God’s hands. There’s just one thing I’ve been wondering about a lot. It’s that girl. Is she going along?”

Paige gave her a startled look.

“Oh no, Moms, I don’t think so. He distinctly said he was ordered to go off from everything and rest. I am being taken along for strictly business purposes. I have to take over anything in the way of business that has to be brought to his attention. That was where we had our first difference of opinion. I definitely refused to go unless I could come back for Sundays, and he pled in vain, saying how forlorn he would be alone. I suggested that perhaps his wife would come down occasionally for over Sunday, but he seemed to think the seashore didn’t agree with her, and she wouldn’t be down often. He didn’t suggest that anybody else would come. I don’t think your fears are well founded, Mother dear.”

She smiled. “Well, my dear, you know I don’t trust that girl. When she gets an idea that she wants you to fill in for some man who has stood her up, she won’t hesitate to run after you. Remember, she has done it several times already.”

“Yes, I know, but somehow I think this would be too tame a matter for her, attendant on a sick father. I don’t believe I’ll be bothered with her. If I am mistaken, I’m sure to find a way out.”

Then Paige went up to get another hour of study in preparation for his Bible class on the morrow before going to his rest.

T
hey were to start away early Monday morning, while the freshness of the day was still in the air, and they were going in the Chalmers car, of course. That fact alone seemed a pleasant thought, for Paige was not above enjoying a chance to drive such a car!

The mother kissed him good-bye as if he were on his way to a second world war again, and his father stood behind in the morning shadows out of sight, proud of a son who had attained a place with such a well-known firm of businessmen, yet fearful of what the outcome of such a connection with the alien world might be going to mean to him.

Old Phoebe the cook watched from the sheltering kitchen curtain, swelling with pride that the boy she used to care for as a mere baby was going out in such style.

Mrs. Harmon, next door, struggling to get her husband’s breakfast in time for his train in the absence of her maid, watched him drive away, Yes, there was no doubt about it. That was Paige Madison driving Mr. Chalmers in his handsome new car she had heard so much about. She neglected the bacon she was cooking until it burned and sent a message all through the house. She hurried back to the bacon but resolved that she would renew her efforts with Mrs. Madison and
make
her join the Woman’s Club.

And Priscilla Brisco, from her modest little back room on a side street, saw them turn to the shortcut that went to the highway, and bustled away to the side window to make sure who it was. This would be something worth telling! She even ran to the back hall window to verify just which way they were going, and just how many were in the car. No girl? No, no girl. Definitely no girl!

And there were others who would have been glad to look and wonder if only they had been on the route of travel, even so early in the morning. But the mighty car, with its expensive setup, rolled quickly out of sight, and even the suburban newspaper missed getting a glimpse.

As they drove along in the pleasant morning, and Paige realized that his parents had been where they could watch the departure, he reflected happily that Mother had been wrong in her fears about that girl, and he was glad she was where she could see that she had been wrong and that the obnoxious girl was
not
along.