CHAPTER XV
THE CURE
THEY were out for a walk one Saturday evening, Peggy and Amy, withGraham and Bob in attendance, when in front of a little movie theater,Peggy stopped short. A young couple stood at the ticket booth, the girlgiggling vacuously as the very slender youth fumbled in his pockets forthe price of admission. Peggy's abrupt halt was not due to the charm ofthe flaring poster, representing a fat woman with a broom in pursuit ofa thin man attired in a bath-robe. Her attention was absorbed by theyoung couple, who were planning to enjoy the show. For while she hadnever seen the girl before, the slender youth was her younger brother,Dick.
As the two disappeared behind the swinging doors, Peggy turned to hercompanions. "Think you could stand it?" She indicated the poster bya gesture, and Bob Carey, who did not have the pleasure of Dick'sacquaintance, looked surprised, while Graham's face wore an expressionof doubt.
"I've seen just as bad, Peggy, and still survive," Graham said. "But Ihardly think--"
"Of course we can stand it, if you'd like to go in, Peggy," interruptedAmy. And Bob, though evidently puzzled by Peggy's taste moved quicklyforward to purchase the tickets, thus getting ahead of Graham who wasstill inclined to remonstrate. Graham understood that Peggy was notespecially pleased to discover Dick in company with a girl she knewnothing about, especially since her manner had made anything but afavorable impression in the few seconds she had been under observation.But Dick, while considerably short of his majority, was old enough toresent interference in his affairs, and Graham could not see that Peggywould gain anything by trying to play detective.
The film which constituted the evening's entertainment wasexceptionally poor. The comedy was of the atrocious, slap-stick sortthat moves the judicious almost to tears while the feature play, amelodrama only saved from being a tragedy by an inconsistently happyending, was frequently so overdone as to be extremely funny. Peggy paidcomparatively little attention to the drama as it unrolled before hereyes. First of all she set herself to locate Dick and his companion,and then to evolve a plan of action suited to the requirements of thecase.
Graham spoke confidentially in her ear. "Don't worry, Peggy. Every boyhas his silly times. I did myself." Graham's manner suggested that hewas speaking from the vantage-point of discreet middle age.
"Yes, I know." Peggy did not mean her answer just as it sounded. Shewas simply thinking of something else. Graham stared at the inanechase, unfolding on the screen, where a procession of people ran intoeverything imaginable from a peanut vendor's cart to an express train,and presently tried again. "You want to be careful, Peggy. He's just atthe age to resent your trying to manage him."
"Yes, I know," whispered Peggy again. She was fully as alive as Grahamto the necessity of tact. But she was aware, too, that all boys do notpass through the silly stage as unscathed as Graham had done. All theloyal sister in her was alert.
They sat through the depressing comedy and the amusing tragedy, andthen suddenly Peggy rose. She had seen Dick on ahead getting to hisfeet. In the darkness of the picture house there was no danger he wouldrecognize her. Indeed it was unlikely that he would have seen her evenif the lights had been turned on, so engrossed was he by the plumplittle person whose head barely reached his shoulder.
Peggy and her party were outside first. All unaware of the ambush,Dick came blundering on. He was talking fast and the girl was gigglingapproval. Peggy saw that she was all she had feared. Her round cheekswere rouged so as to give an excellent imitation of a pair of Baldwinapples. Between the crimson circles her nose gleamed ludicrouslywhite, suggesting a very recent use of her powder puff. Her bobbedhair, together with her diminutive frame, gave her a childish air,contradicted by the shrewdness of her eyes. Peggy guessed that Dick'sfriend was considerably his senior, probably not far from her own age.
Dick was laughing rather boisterously at one of his own witticisms,when Peggy touched his arm. "Hello, Dick!" Her tone was nonchalant,but Dick started, straightened himself and flushed angrily. All hismasculine pride was up in arms at the thought of coercion. But Peggy'smatter-of-fact air partly allayed his suspicions.
"We sat about six rows back of you," she explained. "Dick, you haven'tmet Mr. Carey, have you? My brother, Richard, Bob."
The two shook hands and Dick realized that reciprocity was in order.Under the most favorable circumstances, performing the ceremony ofintroduction was to Dick an agonizing ordeal, and the present situationincreased his inevitable embarrassment a hundred fold. He was the colorof a ripe tomato as he blurted out, "Miss Coffin, let me introduce youto my sister--Miss Raymond--and Miss--Miss----" He had forgotten Amy'sname after having known it all his life, and Peggy came to the rescue,and introduced the others.
Whatever Dick's feeling in regard to the meeting, it was clear thatMiss Coffin was not displeased. She fixed a hypnotic gaze on Bob Careyas she exclaimed, "Fierce name, isn't it! But take it from me, I'm nodead one, Coffin or no coffin."
Peggy's smile gave no hint of her inward anguish. "We're just goinghome to have some oysters. Won't you and Dick come along, Miss Coffin?"
Graham had difficulty in choking down an impatient exclamation. Whatwas Peggy thinking of? It was bad enough for Dick to be associatingwith a girl of this sort, but for Peggy to encourage him in his follyby welcoming the girl to her home, the first time she had ever seenher, impressively illustrated the feminine incapacity to act reasonablyin a crisis. While it was impossible to put his disapproval into words,Graham's manner left little unexpressed.
Dick looked as if he agreed with Graham, but Peggy had not addressedherself to him. And as for Miss Coffin, Peggy's invitation wasresponsible for a marked increase in her sprightliness. "Eats!" shecried dramatically, "Oh, boy! Lead me to it!"
They went down the street in the direction of Friendly Terrace, MissCoffin chattering animatedly at Dick's elbow, and speaking loudlyenough to be heard easily by the others. Indeed, there was ground forsupposing that she was willing to allow her vivacious conversation tomake an impression on more important listeners than Dick. Her youthfulescort, stalking awkwardly at her side, was almost as silent as Grahamwho walked on ahead with Peggy. But the silence of her brother and herlover, even though it implied criticism and displeasure, seeminglyfailed to shadow Peggy's spirits. She turned her head every now andthen to address a remark to Dick's companion, and Miss Coffin showedher appreciation of the friendly attitude by the request that she "cutout the formal stuff." "You kids are the kind that can call me Mazie,"she chirruped, apparently under the impression that she was addressingsome one at a considerable distance.
It was perhaps as well for the success of Peggy's plan that neitherher father nor her mother were at home. She ushered her guests intothe living room and insisted on their laying aside their wraps. MazieCoffin having removed her hat, went straight as a homing pigeon to themirror over the mantel, and made an unabashed and quite unnecessary useof her powder puff.
"You're coming out to help me, aren't you, Amy?" Peggy inquiredcasually. "I thought I'd fix little pigs-in-blankets, you know. They'reawfully good, but rather fussy."
"Why, of course I'll help," responded Amy, wondering if Mazie,also, would be called on to render assistance. But apparentlyPeggy's acquaintance with Mazie had not progressed to that point ofinformality. "We'll try not to be any longer than we can help," shesmiled, "and we'll leave you to amuse one another till we're ready."
Out in the kitchen as they wrapped fat oysters in blankets of bacon,pinning the latter in place with wooden tooth-picks, the two girlsexchanged significant glances. "What's the idea?" Amy asked, with thefrankness of long friendship.
"Well, I'm not sure that it will do any good. But I've got anidea--Don't you know that the impression a thing makes on you depends alot on the background?"
"Hm! I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Well, if you see a girl on the stage with a skirt nine inches long, itdoesn't make the same impression on you that it would if you saw her inyour own home."
&
nbsp; "No, it doesn't."
"Dick's been used to nice people all his life," Peggy went on, plainlytrying to encourage herself as well as to explain matters to Amy. "Agirl like this might attract his attention if he saw her behind thecounter of a cigar store--"
"Does she work in a cigar store?"
"I haven't the least idea. I only meant she wouldn't seem particularlyout of place in a tobacco shop. But here in our home--Oh, it seems asthough Dick must see how cheap and tawdry she is."
Amy skewered a particularly juicy oyster with a vicious thrust of thetooth pick. "Hope so, anyway," she said, and felt an exasperateddesire to box Dick's ears.
But when Peggy had left the field to Mazie Coffin, she had buildedbetter than she knew, Mazie had accepted the responsibility ofentertaining the masculine portion of the company with extremecomplacency. Never for a moment had she doubted her ability to make afavorable impression. As she gave her smiling attention to the trio,her late escort occupied a very small fraction of her thoughts. Dickwas only a boy, a boy to whom shaving was still a novel art, and whosevoice cracked ludicrously in moments of excitement. But Graham and Bobwere young men, and good looking young men at that. Mazie hoped thatthe girls would not hurry with the oysters.
As this young woman's methods were not characterized by subtlety, itwas not long before Dick realized that he was being disregarded. Maziehad eyes only for his seniors. She had begun by saying, as the doorclosed behind Peggy and Amy, "Gee, but they're trusting! How do theyknow that I won't vamp you two guys!" And when Dick, resenting hisnew role of unnoticed on-looker, had attempted to bear his part inthe conversation, Mazie had silenced him with a jocose, "What are youbutting in for, kid? Children must be seen and not heard, you know."
Dick Raymond was by no means a bad boy, and he was just as far frombeing a stupid boy. Mazie's conversational advances, as she had weighedout peanut brittle and caramels in quarter pound lots, had flatteredhis vanity. Dick was not accustomed to being regarded as a young man,and Mazie's manner of considering him worth-while game had naturallyconvinced him that she was a girl of exceptional insight. But now asshe made eyes at Graham and smiled at Bob, the conviction seized Dickthat her previous attentions had been due to the fact that he was theonly one of his kind within reach. As was natural, the discovery madehim critical. He noticed the harshness of Mazie's voice, the vacuityof her giggle. Her repetition of cheap slang began to jar on him, eventhough he was himself a similar offender. He looked distrustfully atthe crimson cheeks, with the powdered nose gleaming whitely between."I'll be 'jiggered if it doesn't look exactly like a marshmallow," hetold himself.
The possibility that Dick's mood was critical did not trouble Mazie.She had looked Peggy and Amy over with the complacent certainty ofher superior charms. Dick's sister wasn't a bad looker, Mazie ownedcondescendingly, but she was slow, dead slow, and nowadays the fellowsliked plenty of pep. Mazie prided herself, not without reason, onhaving an abundance of that essential quality. She was sorry when thefragrance of frying bacon and coffee greeted her nostrils. ThoughGraham was stiffly polite and Bob Carey plainly amused, she would havebeen glad of a little more time.
The impromptu supper in the dining-room completed Dick'sdisillusionment. Determined not to yield any advantage she had gainedMazie continued to take the lead in the conversation. She gesturedfreely and frequently with the hand which held her fork, even with anoyster impaled on the tines. She drank her coffee noisily. Once, Dickwas sure, he saw Bob choke down a laugh, though he made a pretence ofcoughing behind his napkin. And it was not, Dick was certain, becausehe found her amusing, but because he thought her ridiculous. Dickglared furiously at the averted shoulder of his erst-while charmer.Mazie had elected to treat him like a little boy, but if she hadlistened to him, thought Dick, he could have kept her from making afool of herself.
Mazie seemed willing to linger, even after Amy and Bob had taken theirdeparture. "Guess we might as well be starting," suggested Dick, histhoughts upon the probable return of his father and mother, rather thanon his responsibility as host.
"Getting sleepy aren't you, little boy?" mocked Mazie. "Don't let mekeep you from your downy. I can get home somehow," and she glancedsignificantly at Graham, whose good looks, for all his air of reserve,had made a strong impression on her susceptible temperament.
When at length she left under the escort of a frankly sulky Dick,she turned back to remind Graham that he could always find her inStreeter's Sweet Shop between the hours of nine and five. And then shetook Dick's arm, and went out the door, smiling back coquettishly overher shoulder.
Graham hardly waited for them to be out of hearing before he exploded.The evening had been a great disappointment, and while Graham wouldhave resented any outside suggestion that Peggy came short of absoluteperfection, there were times when he felt himself quite capable ofpointing out her errors in judgment. Peggy's painstaking explanationfailed to enlighten him, and while Peggy thought Graham the mostwonderful of men, in this instance she found him disappointingly slowof comprehension. They did not quarrel, but they kept on arguing thequestion long after it was clear that neither would be able to take theother's point of view. They were still arguing when Dick returned.
Dick was in that state of irritation when scolding somebody seems anindispensable luxury. "See here, Peggy, just because you see me with agirl, you don't have to start right in and invite her to the house."
"Why, Dick, I thought--"
"Sometimes a fellow asks a girl out just so he can size her up. And ifhe finds that she's a blamed idiot, he don't want her mixed up with hisfamily. You mean all right, Peggy, but you don't understand life theway Graham and I do. I don't want you to have anything more to do withMazie Coffin, Peggy. She's not the sort of girl for you to associatewith. You can ask Graham about it if you don't believe me."
And as Dick stalked off to bed, ill tempered and aggrieved andabnormally dignified, even Graham was obliged to admit that it lookedlike a cure.
Peggy Raymond's Way; Or, Blossom Time at Friendly Terrace Page 15