CHAPTER XII
ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT
The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up tothe Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demandedthat she accompany them.
"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume,"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back throughthe window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutesof the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down thedriveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes.
"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have anice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porchand putting his hand upon the rail in front of her.
"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile andanother glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a littleearly in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them todismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiouslydubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where shecould look out of the window down toward the road, and also see theclock.
After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone avariety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, theparty rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowlingtournament and all the various other social interests of the tworesorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm aboutthe waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch.
"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlakegaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it'sten-thirty."
"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly.
"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with aswift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn'tknow where to find you."
"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after athoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?"she asked with sudden resolve.
"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why,yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have abusiness talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa wasjust going after his hat to take a drive with him."
"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about fiveminutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost withinthat time."
"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herselflooking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?"
"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman.
"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go withus."
"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly.
"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into theoffice she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse.
For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from theroad, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted andhabited and booted and whipped.
The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down thegraveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtiveglances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road.When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlakelaughed.
"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at anymoment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebodymentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'llmake it a luncheon hour appointment."
Even Miss Josephine laughed.
"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likelyto be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap andcrackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, whichindicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind.
Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip andwearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, andwalked rapidly into the office.
"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know.
"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse afew minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of youngpeople from Meadow Brook."
"Which way is Sunset Rock?"
The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadwaysthereabouts, and pointed out the way.
"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?"
The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner,who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling upMeadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriagefor Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed butdisinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained thatthe grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar hadslipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had runback up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked thedoubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they hadturned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the timehe had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it allthrough the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse wasready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he startedoff at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to havehimself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket.
He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to SunsetRock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with theinspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were readyto depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket beinggreatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens,who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been dueto an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation atonce. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, andbelieved, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, andshe had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to bewith Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by theside of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearanceof the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party"has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though atfirst lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted theparty so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlakewas riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone inthe center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a suddeninclination to go very slowly.
"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, byand by.
"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam.
"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I thinkI did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to sayhe'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells meI've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?"
"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince.Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, acheerful juxtaposition.
"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on MissWestlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd."
"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just statewhat you want me to do and I'll do it."
Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place ofthat she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtfulsilence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. Thenext shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for anIndian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and herehe stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part ofthe time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be thethird rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was verymuch concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know howlucky he had been to com
e off without a scratch, except for the tear inhis coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of theobstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under thecircumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the nextmorning!
Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving MissStevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation,which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handeda wire from his brother:
"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train."
The Early Bird: A Business Man's Love Story Page 12