Where Two Ways Met (26 page)

“Oh, you silly! I didn’t mean that, of course. Dad would be horrified if he knew I said that to you. But didn’t you think that hotel was perfectly spiffy? And where in the world did you happen to come across that stunning-looking officer? He acted as if he knew you very well.”

“Yes,” said Paige. “He was my first captain when I went into the service.”

“He
was
! You don’t
mean
it. No
kidding
?”

“No kidding,” said Paige. “He was a very swell person. Everybody in the company loved him and went to him with all their troubles. He made himself a personal friend of all his boys.”

“Why, yes,” said Reva, with amazement in her voice, “that’s the way he acted to you tonight. You know I thought he was perfectly spiffy. I do wish you had taken me out there with you and I could have talked to him. I should have adored that.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but you see, I had no idea he was going to stay out there so long, and I didn’t suppose you would care to leave a lively scene and go and sit quietly in the dark.”

“Well, but it would have been so wonderful to hear him tell about great battles and things. It would have thrilled me so!”

“But he didn’t talk about battles. He was talking about the different fellows and what had come to them since we were together. And he told me how some I knew had died so bravely, doing great things.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t have liked to hear about dying. I just hate the thought of death. It doesn’t seem fair that anybody has to die.”

“And yet it
is
fair,” said Paige thoughtfully.

“What do you mean, fair?”

“Why, God made people to be His companions, and put them in a beautiful garden with only one rule they had to keep, and He told them beforehand that if they broke that law they would bring death into the world, and everybody that came after them would have to die. And yet they broke it! He made another way for them to be saved, because He had to keep His word and punish them with death.”

“Well, I say that wasn’t fair. We didn’t
all
eat that apple in the garden, and
we
don’t deserve punishment.”

“Oh, but you would have eaten it, wouldn’t you, if you’d had the chance? Are you sure you wouldn’t have done it?”

“Well, I don’t like apples so very well, but I think likely if I was told I couldn’t do anything, I would go and do it. I always do.”

“Exactly. Then why do you say it wasn’t fair?”

“Oh, heavens! Let’s talk about something pleasant. Don’t you ever think about anything but preaching?”

“Oh, yes,” said Paige. “I think about beautiful things. Look at that ocean out there with the moon just rising on it, putting a path of silver across it.”

“Yes, it’s sort of pretty, but why rave about something you can see almost any pleasant evening? I saw the most gorgeous dress tonight. It was on a bride, and it was sort of cloth of silver with little flashes of diamonds over it. I mean to have one like that when I’m married.”

“Now the moon is all the way up and walking like a boat on the water. See! Would you like to run down that silver path on the sea?” Paige asked.

“Oh
don’t
! That would be
horrible
! I think the sea is terribly desolate at night, and to think of
me
all
alone
out there would be the most poisonous thing I ever heard of.”

“Oh, but the path is
silver
, you know, and it would match your silver gown with the diamond sparkles on it,” laughed Paige.

“Goodness, I believe you are a poet,” said Reva, and she looked at him almost as if he were something to be avoided. “Well, anyhow, you’ll go swimming with me tomorrow morning, won’t you? Just because you played a trick on me tonight.”

“I couldn’t possibly go swimming tomorrow. There were some very important letters in today’s mail, and more are likely to be in, in the morning. I must get those answered and off before I leave.”

“Before you
leave
?” she exclaimed unbelievably. “You don’t honestly mean that you are going away and leaving Dad, a poor sick man, all alone?”

“Sorry,” said Paige, “that was the agreement. I couldn’t have come at all if it hadn’t been for that. And he’s not alone. You are here.”

“Oh, piffle! I never heard such a silly man. You don’t have good judgment, that’s what’s the matter with you.”

But though she talked and pleaded the rest of the way back to their hotel, she was not able to do anything about changing his mind. And yet, strange to say, he began to seem to her still more intriguing. Of course, there were plenty of other men down here for her to keep in practice on while he was gone, but she felt that even for a short few days, it was worthwhile waiting for him.

So with great relief, he was free at last to go back and take out June’s picture and gaze at it a long time, just to make sure she was all that he remembered she was.

P
aige had bought a blue-and-gold tooled-leather frame for June’s picture, and it stood on his bureau now, looking quite at home. He turned his eyes toward it for good morning when he awoke that Saturday morning at his usual time.

After his early morning dip in the ocean, Paige came back to his room and dressed for the day, remembering happily that he was to leave for home at noon and would have little time for preparations later. There were bound to be more letters to answer that he should carry back to the office.

It did not take him long to pack, and he sat down with his Bible for his early morning reading. He glanced at his watch. There were still fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet Reva at the breakfast table, time for his chapter at least. He was sitting there happily reading, his Bible open in his hand, conscious now and again of the picture that looked down upon him. He liked to feel that June was there reading with him.

He didn’t know that the door had opened. In fact, he did not realize that he had not locked it when he came in from swimming in such a hurry, fearing to be late for the day. But he suddenly became conscious of someone standing there in the doorway, and he looked up, startled. There stood Reva, her eyes upon the picture, with actual hatred in them! He had a sudden feeling that the picture was desecrated by that look. But before he could move, her eyes, still dark with hate, came to look him over and then to concentrate with a still darker look of hate mingled with a queer kind of fear when she saw the Bible. This was what had spoiled all her plans! This Bible, and that picture! That
girl
, whoever she was, was probably at the bottom of it all, and she longed to tear that picture into shreds, to grasp that Bible and twist it out of shape and stamp on it. Only she was just a little bit afraid of the Bible.

Her angry look lasted only a second as she lifted frustrated eyes toward the young man whose room she had invaded.

But Paige was alert now and sprang to his feet.

“Oh, is it time to go down?” he said. “Were you waiting for me?” Quietly. Just as though he had not seen the look of hate in her eyes, that scorn of the Bible.

Suddenly she turned her baleful eyes on him and with a quick motion, reached out and snatched the Bible from his hand, flinging it angrily across the room.

But she found her own hand seized firmly in a grip that frightened her.

“That will be about all,” he said in a cold voice. “Now, will you please
get out
of my room?” He firmly propelled her into the hall, closed the door, and locked it behind her with a determined snap.

Reva, thus ejected, stood amazed, alone on the outside of the door where she had so arrogantly intruded. She had never dreamed he would dare do that! Just for a
Bible
! If it had been the picture she had torn (and she had carried that intention, too, in the back of her mind), why, that might have made him angry, perhaps, depending on who the girl was and how much he liked her, but a
Bible
! He could get dozens of them in the stores. A mere Bible! He must be superstitious! What harm could it do to throw a Bible?

She waited for a full two minutes. Surely he would come out and apologize. He pretended to be so courteous.

She could hear him moving around in his room, quick, masterful steps. He had gone over by his bureau. He was putting something in his suitcase. He was putting that picture away where she couldn’t lay hands on it. It was as if he must have read the hatred of it in her eyes. He was pulling out drawers in his dresser, folding garments rapidly, angry, and getting out, it sounded like. What had she done? She hadn’t meant to make him do that. Her intention had been merely to rouse him out of his silly ideas and make him see that wasn’t the right way to live. She had never had anyone treat her this way. That masterful grip on her arm, that being forcibly ejected from his room! She had thought it might be intriguing to dare to enter. The world she lived in did not think evilly of such a thing. It was merely being a little daring, and she had always practiced such little dares on her men friends. It was just something they did not expect, to have a girl barge into their room. Of course, if her father should find out about it, he would create a terrible rumpus, but surely this goop wouldn’t dare tell Dad. If he did, she would simply say that
he
had
pulled
her in and tried to kiss her. That would fix him, and Dad, too.

It was very quiet now in that room beyond the door, and she couldn’t quite figure out what the occupant could be doing. What she would have thought could she have known he was kneeling beside his bed praying, inquiring what should come next, is a question.

But presently she heard a stir, a step, and the click of the telephone. She heard him call the front desk and ask for a porter to take his bags down. Bags, he said, not bag. He must be planning to take
all
his things home. If he was angry, he was liable to make a lot of trouble for her with her father. Dad would be angry then, if he found out what she had done. Then she heard the sound of the elevator coming up. That would be the porter after those bags, and she did not want to be caught standing here in front of his door all alone. Stealthily, she made her way with swift sneaky steps to the end of the corridor and vanished around an angle into the side hall, just as the elevator door slammed open and she heard the reverberation of the porter’s knock on Paige’s door. Well, she would just go down to the table and order her breakfast, and when he came down, he would see that she had not waited for him. He would see that she was very angry at what he had done to her, putting her out of his room that way. Just because she was teasing him a little, throwing his old Bible across the room.

But Paige did not come down to breakfast. He went instead to get the mail and then at once to Mr. Chalmers’s room.

“Good morning! Am I too early for you?” he asked respectfully, in a tone a little more grave than usual. “I found there were some more of those office letters, and I thought perhaps it would be as well for me to get them answered and take them up to the city with me at noon.”

“Well, you are an early bird,” said the boss, yawning and giving him a sleepy look. “Let’s see what letters you have. Not another from Harrigan yet? Yes, there is. Well, we better get that answered while he’s in the mood. Are you ready?”

Paige assented.

“Okay! Let’s begin! Start on Harrigan.”

Paige sat down and went to work. He turned the letters off rapidly, went to the typewriter and typed them, took them to be signed, and had the whole lot addressed, sealed, and ready to go. Then he looked at his watch.

“I’ve just barely time to catch my train,” he said. “Is there anything more you need before I leave?”

“Oh, no! You might just tell Reva to come up pretty soon, in case you happen to see her around. Otherwise, if she doesn’t come, I can simply call the desk and have her paged. They’ll find her. Don’t worry. And oh, come back as soon as you can get free on Monday, or catch a ride. I’d tell you to take the car only Reva will probably want it, and there would be mischief to pay.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Paige gravely. “I’ll do my best about getting back.”

“Well, you’d better, boy!” laughed the boss as Paige closed the door quickly and rushed down the hall after the elevator that was just about to stop.

Reva was hovering down on the first floor where she could get a good glimpse of all elevators coming down. She meant to get hold of Paige and give him a large, sharp piece of her mind before he left, and
perhaps
make him miss his train.

But Paige had been around this hotel long enough to know many pleasant abbreviated ways of getting away. Before he left his room he had told the desk to send his baggage to the station for his train, and he was assured it would be there on time, so he had nothing to do but race after it. Getting off a floor above the first, he hurried down a back way, taking the servants’ stairs and dashing out the kitchen hallway. So he arrived on an alley that presently came out at the station. Retrieving his luggage, he kept in hiding behind a pile of freight until his train came in sight, and then swung on the last car. Reva was even capable of chasing him to the station. But a swift survey of the station as the train swept away cityward gave no glimpse of her. He was rid of her, at least for the weekend. And he hadn’t had to have any altercation with Mr. Chalmers about it either. Of this he was glad, for there had been no time to decide what was the wisest and fairest way to approach the subject with Chalmers, if at all.

After he was well out of the town, he went through the train to make sure Reva hadn’t come along, for she was clever enough to have done so if she could find a way to play a trick on him. She had known what train he was to take, and wouldn’t hesitate to be annoying if it suited her purpose. But there was no sign of her. He also went to the baggage car and identified his baggage. Then his mind was free to think, but somehow there was nothing he could think about that didn’t rouse his indignation beyond control. The indignity that had been put upon his Bible. The hate that had been directed toward June’s picture. They were matters not easily dismissed. Yet he must forget them. A Christian must not harbor such thoughts against anyone. And the girl was not so much to blame as her parents, who had let her come up having her own way, carrying out any whim that came into her head.