Where Two Ways Met (25 page)

“But isn’t the water awfully cold then? And lonesome?”

“I like it that way,” said Paige pleasantly. “Cold and lonesome.”

“Well, I certainly don’t,” affirmed the girl annoyedly. “You certainly cut yourself out of a lot of fun in life doing the way you do.”

“Well, I don’t seem to miss much,” said Paige. “But say, you spoke of going sailing. We might get a sailboat and go out. Your father might enjoy that.”

“Oh,” said Reva, with diminished fervor. “Well I don’t know whether the doctor would let him, or he would want to, but I’d love to go. Can you sail a boat? Because I could help. I’ve gone sailing a lot. But why can’t we go this morning?”

“Sorry,” said Paige, “but I have work to do this morning. Some typing that must be finished for the office. They need it.”

“Heck!” said Reva, with an ugly look. “Dad will see to that if I tell him to. But anyhow, I’d rather go swimming this morning and sailing this afternoon.”

“Very well, suppose you go swimming this morning while I am working, and then everything will fit in nicely.”

Reva pouted.

“Dad might make a fuss if I go alone. He always thinks I’m going to get drowned.”

Paige knew this wasn’t true, but he only smiled and said, “Oh, you wouldn’t be alone. There are plenty of lifeguards.”

“Oh, lifeguards! There’s no thrill to a lifeguard!”

They strolled out into the lobby of the hotel and went to see if there was any mail. Paige’s heart thrilled when he saw a package with his name on it. It wasn’t possible for June to have sent a picture so soon, was it? And then he caught the name of the photographer on the envelope and quickly hid the large flatness under some magazines, for Reva was just behind him, all eyes out for the mail. And Reva had no reserves; at least she was determined that nobody else should have any.

He gave a hasty glance at the rest of the mail, saw there were several letters for his chief bearing the home office mark. There would be letters for him to answer.

With his package carefully protected under his arm and his hands filled with letters, one of which he was sure was from June, he bowed courteously to Reva.

“Excuse me,” he said. “There are some things here that I must attend to at once and get the answers off in the morning mail.” He made a dash for an elevator just about to close its doors, and disappeared out of the girl’s eager sight.

Once in his room he locked his door and opened the picture. There she was! It was perfect! He feasted his eyes upon it and finally stood it up on his bureau and walked away, studying it from a distance. It was like having her in the room, and he wondered at the tumult in his heart, over just a picture.

But a picture of
June
! He hadn’t realized before how much this meant to him.

Then he opened her letter. It was brief, written just after his telephone message. It didn’t exactly say that her own heart was in a tumult over hearing his voice again, but it conveyed the impression that they had the same feeling about their brief conversation.

Then suddenly the handful of letters he had brought up with him slid out of his fingers and slithered to the floor. He stooped to pick them up and saw that three were forwarded from the office and bore the return address of firms that had been considering a contract with Harris Chalmers and Company for some time. These letters ought to go to Mr. Chalmers at once.

He went to his phone and called up Mr. Chalmers’s room. A sleepy voice answered.

“Mr. Chalmers, there are three forwarded letters in this morning’s mail, two from New York and one from that Mr. Harrigan. I thought perhaps you ought to see them at once.”

“What? You say Harrigan? And New York. Bring them right to my room. And yes, probably they will need immediate answers.”

“All right, sir. I’ll be with you at once,” said Paige, feeling greatly relieved. This would probably release him from further attendance on Reva, for that morning at least.

He paused only to put June’s picture safely away out of sight until he could get a suitable frame for it, and then hurried to his boss.

It was a busy morning, and thanks to an old pal of Reva’s recently on furlough from the service, they were not disturbed, for Reva was enjoyably busy elsewhere, swimming with someone who did not object to modern bathing suits.

At lunchtime, with the three letters answered, signed by Mr. Chalmers, and mailed down the chute in the hall, both Paige and his boss were tired and hungry and happy. And then Mr. Chalmers thought of his daughter, who had been the instigator of this sojourn by the sea, and felt uneasy. What had Reva been doing, and was she very angry? Perhaps she had even been so angry at his lack of attention to her this morning that she might have packed up and gone home. There had been times when she was capable of gestures like that.

“Have you seen my daughter this morning?” he asked Paige.

The young man looked up pleasantly.

“Oh yes,” he said with reassurance in his voice. “She wanted me to go somewhere, but I told her that I had work to do until noon. She spoke of swimming, and I think she probably found plenty of company. I saw her stop and speak to a group of young people as we came out of the dining room.”

“Well, that’s probably where she is then,” said the father, with relief in his voice. “She’s a great swimmer and loves it.”

Paige noted that there was not a particle of the nervousness about her swimming that Reva had implied. He was coming to see that this girl said whatever was to her advantage to say, regardless of the truth, and sometimes even regardless of being found out. A great many people lied habitually, but few of them cared to be found out in a lie. This did not seem to be the case with Reva.

“Well, Paige, you might do a little scouting around and see if she has come out yet. She will think it strange that I didn’t look her up. You might call her room and see if she’s there. If not, the desk might know if she has come in yet.”

So Paige spent a few minutes in locating the young woman, and found her at last under a becoming umbrella down on the sand, discoursing with a much-tanned youth of former acquaintance whom she introduced with an air of triumph, showing him that she had not gone lonely when he wouldn’t go swimming with her.

Paige gave her her father’s message. He wanted to see her, and they would go down to lunch together. So Reva had an elaborate farewell scene with the youth who was leaving on the afternoon train, and went back to the hotel with Paige.

Paige went silently through the lunch hour thinking of the letter he had read so briefly and the lovely picture he had hidden away out of sight. He would so much rather have gone without lunch and read the letter again and looked some more at the picture.

It developed that Mr. Chalmers delighted in sailing and was sure he was equal to a couple of hours spent that way that afternoon, quite sure his doctor would approve. In fact, he had asked him about that very thing and had been told it would be splendid for him, but not to get too tired.

So they went sailing. And Paige showed that he knew a lot about sailboats and was at home on the ocean. At first Reva tried to show off by insisting on handling the tiller, but her father was nervous at her erratic moves and quickly put a stop to that.

However, they had a pleasant sail and came in tired and ready to rest awhile. So Paige had opportunity for his letter and picture, and Reva spent her time calling up some nearby seashore resorts to see if some of her intimates were there yet, and then made a rather stunning hasty toilet for the evening. She meant to do great things tonight. She had found that a dashing friend was located about ten miles away, and she meant to get Paige to take her to see her. There would be a dance going on there of course, and she would begin to get Paige to take an interest in gaiety. That was the first step. But of course she said not a word about a party. She just wanted to see her dear friend so much. There was nothing for Paige to do but acquiesce. Of course he would drive her. But when they arrived at the great hotel where Reva’s friend was staying, he found himself involved in a dance. His indignation rose when he saw that Reva had planned this to put him in an embarrassing position, to see if she could not force him into things that she knew he did not care for.

He gave a quick glance about the beautiful room with its throng of merrymakers, and his pleasant lips stiffened a trifle. Then Reva’s friends approached, and there were introductions and a merry welcome for this good-looking young man, from all the girls. Almost he was swept against his will right into the center of things. He stood there quietly, listening to their chatter, trying to reply with courtesy to questions that were being asked him, and yet with a kind of withdrawing of himself, as if he were not a part of their gathering and had only come for a moment.

He had cast another quick look around to find a way out that would make the next few hours possible, when suddenly an officer in full dress uniform dawned on his vision with hand outstretched eagerly.

“Paige Madison! My boy! To think of finding you here! I have hoped to hear from you. How long have you been out of uniform?”

His old captain was now a colonel! And more than that, Paige knew him to be his dear friend. Many times during his overseas experiences Paige had gone to him and received kindnesses and great help. He would not have presumed to walk up to him and claim that old friendship in the presence of such a throng. But the fact that the colonel had come to him merely turned the heads of all beholders and left him free to stand a moment and talk. And it was quite natural when this great man put a hand on Paige’s shoulder and said:

“I’m so glad to see you, Paige. How about stepping out here on the porch and sitting for a little talk? I’m rather tired, and I’d like to check up on what you’ve been doing since I saw you and what you know of any of the other fellows in your company.”

The giddy girls that were a part of Reva’s crowd made ugly little faces at this, for they would have liked to be included in this close, intimate group around a great man, but other younger men were surrounding them, so they all melted away with the hovering partners, and Reva herself seemed quite satisfied. Paige would come back in a few minutes, covered with glory from his friendship with an officer like that one, and she would shine with reflected glory. Oh, she was glad she had brought him, and she kept an eye out toward the door for his return.

But Paige did not come back. Not for a long, long time. The two had found comfortable chairs as far from the noisy clamor of the ballroom as possible and were having a happy time reminiscing.

It was an hour later when the colonel bade them good night and went up to his room. Then Paige looked at his watch and wondered if it wasn’t almost time for him to do something about the young woman he was supposed to be escorting. Thank the Lord for sending that old friend of his to help him get away for a time into a restful atmosphere! How cool and quiet it was out here, with scarcely anybody around and nothing that demanded his attention for the time being. God had done that for him. He had asked Him to take over before he left his room that night, and this was the way He had done it! Well, and now what procedure should he use to find that crazy girl and get her to come home? For her father presumably would be worried about her if they came home too late. Which only goes to show that Paige didn’t yet really know his boss, or he never would have thought that.

He began to walk slowly the length of the piazza, stopping now and again to look in a window and try to identify Reva. Finally he saw her in the arms of a young sailor, looking raptly up into his face as if she had no idea of stopping her play, all night long.

He went back and sought his chair, but two other young people had taken possession of the place where he and his colonel had sat, so he walked on.

At last he grew restless. He must do something about this, mustn’t he? Did he have to go back to that obnoxious, crowded place and extract her?

And then, wonder of wonders, she came walking out on the arm of the same sailor with whom she had been dancing, still looking up adoringly into his face, as if he were the only sailor on earth for her. He spied her at some distance and started up to meet them.

“I was just coming to find you,” he said. “Don’t you think it is time we should be starting back? Your father will be troubled, I am afraid, and you know a sick man should have his rest.”

“Oh, Dad won’t be troubled,” she said and laughed merrily. “I’ll risk that. But I do suppose we should start now. May I introduce you to Larry Keene? He used to play with me in my backyard when we were kids, and we’d climbed over the back fence together. Larry, this is Paige Madison. He believes he works for my dad in the office, but I steal him away sometimes to take care of me.”

Reva turned it off very neatly, and they said good night and were soon away, but the girl was silent for a long time, and it was evident that she was very angry. At last she broke forth with, “I think that was the meanest thing I ever saw anybody do. Take a girl to a dance and then go off and leave her. I thought you had been brought up with good manners.”

“Yes? And what about taking a man to a dance that he didn’t know existed, when you knew I didn’t dance and wouldn’t have gone if I had known that was included in your program? I think you will find my bad manners couldn’t compare with yours, for you knew what you were going to, and I didn’t. Now, suppose we forget it and get some pleasanter topic to talk about, unless you want me to feel that I have to say no to everything you ask me to do lest you will play some trick like this?”

“Oh, well, that’s ridiculous! You ought to get over this notion that you can’t dance, or
won’t
; I don’t know which it is. You know you ought to do it for Dad’s sake, if for no other reason. By and by, he’ll have some swell people he’ll want you to take out somewhere and put something big across with them, and you won’t be able to fill the bill because you can’t dance with their daughter and win the whole family over. Don’t you see how silly you are?”

“No,” said Paige. “I do not. It’s a question I have thought over carefully and decided against, and no amount of argument will change my mind. And if my job with your father depends on anything like that, I had better begin to look for another one right away.”