Crimson roses

by Grace Livingston Hill

  "You have no call to hurry home, have you?" he said. "Suppose we go somewhere and have dinner together. I always like to talk it out after hearing a concert like that, and I want to know your impressions."

  "That would be beautiful," she said wistfully; "but I oughtn't to. I must go right home, I think."

  Because he had very much set his heart upon

  this little dinner together, and would be greatly disappointed not to have it, he urged her.

  "Oh, why? Is someone expecting you? Have you promised?"

  "Oh, no!" she answered quickly. "No, there is no one, but "

  "But what? Can't you give me this little pleasure? I had quite counted on it, you see—but perhaps I should have told you beforehand. Of course, if it isn't convenient "

  "Oh, no!" she said desperately. "It's not anything like that, and it's very kind of you to ask me, and to say it would be a pleasure to you; but '*

  "Well, it would be a pleasure, a great, big pleasure," he said pointedly; and she felt that there was something more than ordinary feeling behind the words. Then she plunged blindly in.

  "It's just that I felt that I have been having too good a time lately, and I must stop it, or I shall be spoiled. You see I'm not used to many good times, and I might get very much discontented with my life." She stumbled along, hardly knowing what she was saying; and he smiled indulgently down into her face, and drew her arm gently within his own in a protecting way as they came to the street-crossing, guiding her skilfully between the crowding impatient motor-cars that were huddled in the street

  "I'd like a chance to spoil you a little," he said, and his voice was very tender. The glance of his eyes even in the electric glow of the street made her heart stand still, as if she looked into a mighty joy upon which she must herself shut the door.

  "Oh, but you don't understand!" she said desperately. "It's very kind and nice, and it's been so beautiful, but I ought to have told you before. I

  ought not to have let you think " She paused,

  unable to find words; and another congested street-crossing interrupted their conversation for a moment. She never noticed that he was guiding her steps toward the region of the better class of downtown tea-rooms and restaurants. She was not familiar with these places, and would never have thought of it if she had noticed.

  "Let me think what, please?" he asked gravely when they were safe on the other side of the street. His own heart was beating hard now. Was she going to tell him that she had a lover somewhere struggling to earn enough for her support, and that she could not accept his attentions any longer? His hand trembled as he laid it upon her little gloved one that rested on his arm so lightly.

  "I have let you think I'm just like those other g^rls you know."

  "Oh, you're mistaken about that," he answered

  quickly. "I never thought you were like them. Thank God you are not. If you had been, I should not have cared to have your company. You knew that the first night at the church reception."

  "Oh, that is not it, either," she said desperately. It seemed so very hard to make him understand. And she felt a great sob swelling up through her throat. What should she do when it arrived?

  *Xook here," he said, and his voice was very peremptory; "tell me this." He paused at the cor^ ner, and detained her a little out of the crowd of passers. "Just tell me this one thing. Do you belong to someone else? Is there any reason why it is not right for you to go with me to-night ?*•

  "Oh, no," she gasped, almost laughing, "there isn't anyone at all. I don't belong to anyone in the whole wide world any more, and there's nobody belongs to me except my brother Tom and his family; but they have each other, and they haven't time to think about me. I certainly am making a terrible mess of telling you, and you will think I am very stupid to make so much out of it all; only I've enjoyed it so much, and I knew I ought to explain it for your sake."

  "There!" said Lyman, laughing joyously, and drawing her onward again. "There; don't say another word about it till we've had something to eat.

  If there isn't anyone else, I'm sure what you have to say won't matter in the least. Anyway, it can wait until we're out of the crowd."

  He guided her carefully through the maze of people hurrying hither and yon away from business or pleasure to their homes and dinners. All the time his strong, firm hand was held close over her little, trembling one, steadying and seeming to want to comfort and reassure her; and in a moment more he )ed her into a great, brilliant room lined with palms and set with little tables where snowy linen, glittering glass and silver, and delicate china glowed under the warm light of rosy candle-shades. Low-voiced men and women were seated here and there conversing while a sweet-stringed orchestra, concealed, somewhere not too near by, sent forth delicious sounds like some sweet, subtle perfume filling the air.

  He seated her at one of the little tables in a far corner, where a screen of palm half hid them from the room and yet revealed its beauties to them. She felt as if she were suddenly plunged into a wonderful fairy-land where she had no right to be, yet could not get away. Delight and distress were struggling for the mastery in her face, and the pretty color came and went, making her more vividly beautiful than he had ever seen her yet. He looked at her vrits?

  deep satisfaction and admiration as he hung up his coat and seated himself opposite to her.

  "I wonder what you like," he said, smiling, **May I try and see if I can please you?"

  "Oh, anything!" she said, embarrassed. What would he think of her way of ordering, always looking at the figures in the right-hand column of the menu first to pick out the cheapest viands, and then choosing from those?

  With the ease of one accustomed, Lyman took up the menu, and, running down the list, in a low voice rapidly mentioned what he wanted to the deferential waiter, who seemed to understand at once, and vanished, leaving them alone.

  ''Now," said Lyman, "If you will feel better to tell me at once, I will listen. What is it that you thought I ought to know?" His kindly eyes were upon her, and the color flamed into her cheeks until they rivalled the roses at her breast.

  "I think you ought to knov/ that I am a very poor girl, who have to earn my own living— and——" She paused for more words.

  "I surmised as much," said he; "did you think I was mercenary, that I had to choose my friends from among wealthy people only?"

  "Oh, no," she said in great distress. "You do not understand yet! I am not only poor, but I am

  uneducated. I have had very few opportunities. I have never been to college All those other girls have."

  He laughed.

  ''Why, I have been to college myself; and I'm not so sure that I'm much better off for it, either. The fact is, I fooled much of my time away in college, and learned more outside afterwards. I hadn't learned what college was for before I went, perhaps. As for those other girls, I doubt if Isabel Cresson is the wiser for her college course. I myself heard her tell a woman, a friend of mine, that all she went for was to get into the sororities. She could not possibly have enjoyed that music as you did this afternoon."

  But Marion was struggling with her task. How could she overcome his great kindness and make plain to him what she meant?

  " Thank you," she said gently; *' but there is

  something she has which I have not, and which must

  always be a great lack in the eyes of everybody.

  She comes of a fine old family, and she has culture

  and refinement behind her. She is used to going

  among people. She knows how to move and speak

  and act. My father was a plain mechanic. He

  worked in the Houghton Locomotive Works. We

  were not so very poor while he lived, because he 16

  earned good wages. He meant to give me a good education. That was what he wanted above everything else, but he died before he was able to accomplish it. He was only a mechanic, but he was a good

  man and a dear father "

  *' I know," said Ly
man gently. " He had the accident from which he died through doing a kindness for another man who was in trouble. I have stood beside his own machine at Houghton's and heard the foreman tell the whole story. He described the scene when your father was found hurt, and they were about to take him home. He said there wasn't a dry eye in the room. He said that for days afterward the men kept coming to him and telling him of little things that Mr. Warren had done for them. Some told how he'd followed them into a saloon and persuaded them to come out, how he'd stayed with them and walked out of his way night after night to go home with them and get them safely by temptation till they were strong enough to go alone. Some told how he'd stayed after hours and done their work when their wives or children were sick, and they needed to be away from the shop; and one man told how your father divided his pay with him for weeks when he was getting over an operation and could work only half-time. You are mistaken. Miss Warren; your father was a gentle-

  man, and yours was a royal family if there ever was one. Do you know how Miss Cresson's father died ? It was in a drunken row in some fine banquet-hall, and, before he died he had killed another man. Perhaps she is not so much to blame for being what she is with such a father, but tell me, which is the fine old family, yours or hers? I should prefer yours."

  CHAPTER XIV

  The tears had come now in spite of all Marion's struggles, though they were happy tears, and she tried to hurry them away with smiles.

  " Oh," she said, " how beautiful of you, how beautiful to say that about my dear father! I knew he was all that and a great deal more, too, but I thought—I thought you would not count "

  '* You thought that I was a snob," he said, smiling.

  '' Oh, no!'" she said aghast. " Oh, no I I never thought that."

  " Yes, yes, you did. There's no use in denying it. You thought, because I had enjoyed advantages that had not been yours that I would count those advantages greater than all other noble things in earth, and that I would despise you when I knew that you had been without them. Isn't that so? "

  " No, not that exactly," she said with troubled look. " It was just that I thought you did not know, and that, when you found out, you would think I had not been honest with you to let you put yourself in that light before people. Isabel Cresson and all those girls know who I am. They probably thought it verv strangle of vou to sit and talk with me when

  they were near by, and when they knew that I was such an insignificant Httle thing. It was not that I did not think you nobfe enough to be kind to me, even if you did know about me; but I was not one you would be hkely to pick out for a friend, I knew, and I felt that I must make you understand it at once. It has troubled me all the week that I did not tell you last Saturday evening, but I did so want to

  go to-day—just this once more before—before "

  she stopped in dismay, and knew not what to say.

  "Before what?" he asked, watching her with gentle indulgence in his eyes.

  " Why, before it ended," she finished bravely with scarlet cheeks.

  " Then you thought I would drop you as soon as I knew? "

  ** Why, I supposed—that would be the end," she answered lamely.

  " Answer me truly, and look right in my eyes," he insisted teasingly. *' Did you really think I would drop you as soon as I knew ? Please look up while you answer. You can't possibly deceive yourself into saying the wrong thing while you're looking at me, you know."

  She raised her eyes in beautiful embarrassment to his, and wavered under his steady gaze.

  " I thought—you— ought to."

  " You thought I ought?" he laughed merrily. " Ah! Now, then, the question just once more; and please, if you don't mind, look up again for a minute. Did you really think I would drop you? "

  " I " there was a long pause, and then the

  eyes dropped in deep embarrassment—** I do not— know," she finished.

  " Ah! Then you will admit just a little doubt of my criminality?" The troubled eyes gave him one beautiful look of reproach, and then the long lashes drooped on the crimson cheeks.

  " Forgive me! " he said quickly. " I did not mean to tease you. I am sorry. I only wanted to be sure whether you thought me that kind of a fellow or not. Now let me assure you that I do not intend to drop you in the least. If there's any dropping, it will have to be done by you and not me. By the way, have you any idea where I first saw you?"

  His ordinary tone reassured her, and she lifted her gaze once more shyly, the light coming into her eyes at the remembrance.

  •^Oh, yes, I shall never forget that, it was at the church. Mr. Radnor introduced you. I thought it so kind of him, because nobody else ever noticed me much. Mr. Radnor appreciated father a little, I think."

  ** He did, yes. Fm sure he did from some things he said to me," said Lyman thoughtfully; then, frowning slightly at the memory of some other things Mr. Radnor had said; ** but I don't think he appreciates his daughter as much as I do. He has never got well enough acquainted. Some day I hope he will."

  Marion smiled.

  *' I don't suppose he'll ever see enough of me to know more than he does now about me. He is a very busy man, and I'm quite inconspicuous."

  She spoke with a sweet humility, and the young man thought how very lovely she looked as she said it.

  " Time changes all things," said Lyman, smJling. " You might find the order reversed, and Mr. Radnor may one day find you conspicuous enough on his horizon to warrant the time for appreciation. However, just at present I don't care much, do you? I prefer to appreciate you myself. And, by the way, you're all off about where I first saw you. I did not see you that night for the first time, by any means."

  " Oh, you mean at the store when you bought the ribbon roses," she said. "Of course! How stupid of me! But I felt you did not recognize me then."

  "Oh, but I did," he said; "but that wasn't the

  first time, either. I had seen you on several differeni occasions before that, besides once when I couldn't see you very well."

  " Oh, what can you possibly mean ? " she said, looking at him with such an air of utter bewilderment, as if her world had suddenly turned upside down, that he laughed joyfully again; and the deferential waiter, appearing just then to serve the first course, was relieved to see that his delay had not been noticed.

  Marion sat wondering and watching while the waiter served them, laying so carefully before her the delicate china, heavy silver, and crystal as if she were a queen. How did it come that all this beauty and honor were for her even for a night? She could not understand it; and, looking up at the man across the table, she found her answer in his eyes, and her own drooped once more, while her heart beat rapid, joyous time in tune with the orchestra.

  She dared not put into thoughts the thing she had seen in his eyes; yet it had entered her consciousness with a thrill that lifted the heavy weight she had been carrying all the week, and made her feel it was right to be happy in this good time, at least for to-night.

  "Isn't it strange that there should be roses on the table just like mine to-night?" she said, sud-

  denly laying her hand lovingly on the flowers at her breast.

  The waiter was fussing with the silver covers of the soup-tureen which he had just brought; but he gave her a quick, knowing glance.

  "Well, yes, that is a coincidence," said Lyman with a twinkle in his eye toward the solemn black man, who never stirred a muscle of his ebony countenance, though Lyman could see by the roll of his eyes that he was enjoying the little secret immensely. Then the soup was served, and the waiter betook himself to a suitable distance.

  Now, Marion had eaten no lunch, and she had starved herself during the week as much as she dared for the sake of buying the new dress and hat, so that the delicious rich soup and the courses that followed were fully appreciated by her. But still the delightful new dishes kept appearing, and still the pleasant converse kept up its charm, until the girl dreaded the thought that the evening must soon be over, this great wonderful, bea
utiful evening in which there had been given to her a glimpse of the world of beauty she had never thought to enter.

  "But what did you mean?" she dared shyly when they had finished a most delectable salad and were waiting for dessert. She had hoped her companion woidd answer this without her having to ask

  again; but, when the waiter left them, he had introduced another subject as if he deHghted to leave it unanswered. " Where did you first see me? "

  " At Harley's music-store, when you bought your Erst symphony tickets," he answered, watching her changing face delightedly.

  Her eyes kindled with the happy memory.

  "Oh! Were you there?"

  " I was standing just behind you in the line, and heard you say you had never been before. I did a very bold thing, I'm afraid. I bought my ticket, and selected a seat as near the one you had chosen as possible, so that I might have the added delight of hearing a symphony in the vicinity of one who had never heard one before. Will you think I was very much to blame if I confess that I wanted to watch your face as you listened?"

  "Oh!" said Marion with wonder in her eyes; and then she suddenly became terribly confused, and dropped her gaze from his. Why did this most unusual man say such strange things to her? Did he say them to other girls ? Was it quite right to let him? Of course he meant nothing wrong by it; his face was too fine and pure to admit of a doubt about his having other than the noblest motives in all that he did; but did he quite understand how a girl felt when a man looked at her like that, and said

  such things? Perhaps girls who were used to society, and heard these nice things said to them everyday, would not think anything about it; but she felt embarrassed, and did not know what to do. She lifted troubled eyes to his; and, seeing her embarrassment, he said in an easy tone:

  " When are you going to tell me about your roses? I've been hoping for a long time that you would speak of them."

  She was at her ease at once.

  "Oh, would you care to know about them? Aren't they beautiful? Aren't they dear? Almost like human faces! and such a deep, wonderful velvet! I've wanted to tell you about them two or three times; but I haven't had the courage, because, you see, it's kind of a strange story, and you might not understand; for you see I don't know where they come from."