The Early Bird: A Business Man's Love Story

by George Randolph Chester

  CHAPTER XVI

  AN INTERRUPTED BUT PROPERLY FINISHED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE

  Jack's first opportunity for a quiet talk with his brother did notoccur for an hour after the game.

  "I don't like to worry you while you're resting, Sam," he began, "butI'll have to tell you that the Flatbush deal seems likely to dropthrough. It reaches a head to-morrow, you know."

  "I don't like to worry you, Sam"]

  Sam Turner grabbed for his watch.

  "It can't drop through!" he vigorously declared. "I'll go right upthere to-night and look after it."

  "But you're on your vacation," protested Jack. "That's no way to rest."

  "On my vacation!" snorted Sam. "Of course I am. I'm not losing aminute of my vacation. The proper way to have a vacation is to do thething you enjoy most. Don't you suppose I'll enjoy closing thatFlatbush deal?"

  "Certainly," admitted his brother, "and I'll enjoy seeing you do it. Iknow you can."

  "Of course I can. But you're to stay here."

  "It's not my turn for an outing," protested Jack. "I haven't earnedone yet."

  "You're to work," explained Sam. "You see, Jack, in one week I can'tbecome a bowling or golf expert enough to beat Princeman, nor a tennisor dancing expert enough to outshine Billy Westlake, nor a horseback orcroquet expert enough to make a deuce out of Hollis. You can do allthese things, and I want you to give this crowd of distinguishedamateurs a showing up. Jack, if you ever worked for athletic honors inyour life now is the time to do it; and in between time stick to MissStevens like glue. Monopolize her. Don't give these three or anyother contenders any of her time. Keep her busy. Let me know everyday what progress you're making; don't stop to write; wire! Forremember, Jack, I'm going to marry her. I've got to."

  "Well, then you'll marry her," Jack sagely concluded. "Does she knowit yet?"

  "I don't think she's quite sure of it," returned Sam with carefulanalysis. "Of course she's thought about it. Sometimes she thinks shewon't, and sometimes she thinks she will, and sometimes she isn't quitesure whether she will or not. Don't you worry about that part, though,and don't bother to boost me. Just quietly you take the shine out ofthese summer champions and leave the rest to your brother Sam."

  "Fine," agreed Jack. "Run right along and sell your papers, Sammy, andI'll wire you every time I put over a point."

  Sam hunted and found Miss Josephine.

  "I'm sorry I have to take a run back to New York for two or threedays," he said.

  She bent upon him a glance of amusement; the old glance of mingledamusement and mischief.

  "I thought you were on your vacation," she observed.

  "And I am," he insisted. "I've been having a bully time, and I'll comeback here to finish up the couple of days I have left."

  "Then the drive which didn't count this morning, and which waspostponed again until to-morrow morning, will have to be put off oncemore," she reminded him with a gay laugh.

  "By George, that's so!" he exclaimed. "In all the excitement it hadquite slipped my mind."

  "I presume you're going up on business," she slyly observed.

  "Yes, I am," he admitted.

  She laughed and gave him her hand.

  "Well, I wish you good luck," she said. "I hope you make all the moneyin the world. But you won't forget us who are down here in the countrydawdling away our time in useless amusements."

  "Forget you!" he returned impetuously. "Never for a minute!" and hewas in such deadly earnest about it that she hastily checked furtherspeech, although she did not know why.

  "Good!" she hurriedly exclaimed. "I'm glad you will bear us in mindwhile you're gone. Are you going to take your brother along?"

  "No," he said with a smile. "I'm putting him in as my vacationsubstitute, and I'll give him special instructions to call you up everymorning for orders. You'll find him in perfect discipline. He'll dowhatever you tell him."

  "I shall give him a thorough trial," she laughed. "I never yet hadanybody to come and go abjectly at the word of command, and I think itwill be a delightful novelty."

  Jack approaching just then, she took his arm quite comfortably.

  "Your brother tells me that during his absence you are to be my chiefaide and attache," she advised that young man gaily; "that you'll fetchand carry and do what I tell you; and the first thing you must do is tocall for me when you take Mr. Turner to the train."

  It is glorious to part so pleasantly as that from people you havepersistently in mind, and Sam, with such cheerful recollections,enjoyed his vacation to the full as he did new and brilliant andunexpected things in closing up the Flatbush deal, keeping, in themeantime, in constant touch with his office and with such telegrams asthese:

  "Established new tennis record this morning Westlake nowhere and hasbeen snubbed do not know why."

  "Bowled two eighty five last night against Princeman two twenty amteaching her."

  "Danced six dances out of twelve with her says I'm better dancer thanBilly Westlake."

  "Jumped Hollis Creek after her hat on horseback this afternoon Hollisdared not follow am to give her riding lessons."

  Then came this one:

  "Her father just told me she refused Princeman last night she will nottalk to Hollis and scarcely to me is dull and does not eat I beat allentries in ten mile Marathon today and she hardly applauded wireinstructions."

  Sam Turner took the next train. One look at Miss Stevens, after he hadtraveled two years to reach Restview, made him suddenly intoxicated,for in her eyes there was ravenous hunger for him and he read it, andfeeling rather sure of his ground he determined that now was the timeto strike. With that decisive end in view he dropped Jack at MeadowBrook and went right on over to Hollis Creek with Miss Josephine. Ofcourse there was no chance to talk quite intimately, with Henry upthere ahead listening with all his ears, but there was every chance inthe world to look into her eyes and grow delirious; to touch elbows; tolook again and gaze deep into her eyes and see her turn away startledand half frightened; to say perfunctory things which meant nothing andeverything, and receive perfunctory answers which meant as little andas much; but before they had arrived at Hollis Creek Sam was franklyand boldly holding her hand and she was letting him do it, and theywere both of them profoundly happy and profoundly silly, and would justas leave have ridden on that way for ever.

  Words seemed superfluous, but yet they were more or less necessary, soSam got out at Hollis Creek Inn with her, and led the way determinedlyand directly into the stuffy little parlor just off the main assemblyroom. He saw Mr. Stevens in the door of the post-office, but onlynodded to him, and then he drew Miss Josephine into the corner freestfrom observation.

  "You know why I came back," he informed her, fixing her with a masterlyeye; "I had to see you again. My whole life is changed since I metyou. I need you. I can not do without you. I--"

  "Beg your pardon, Sam," said Mr. Stevens, appearing suddenly in thedoorway, and then he paused, much more confused even than the youngpeople, for Sam was holding both Miss Josephine's hands and gazing downat her with an earnestness which, if harnessed, would have driven afour-ton dynamo; and she was gazing up at him just as earnestly, withan entirely breathless, but by no means displeased expression.

  "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.

  "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens.]

  It was Miss Josephine who first found her aplomb. She smiled her raresmile of mingled amusement and mischief at Sam, and then at her father.

  "You're quite excusable, I guess, father," she said sweetly. "What isit?"

  "Why, your brother Jack just called you up from Meadow Brook, Sam, andwants to tell you something immediately," stammered Mr. Stevens,plucking at a beard which in that moment seemed to have lost all itsaggressiveness. "He called twice before you arrived, and is on the'phone now."

  Sam, as he walked to the telephone, had time to find that his heart wasbeating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was sho
rt andfluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimedhim for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding thathe heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princemanhad had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and howPrinceman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not thetreasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," saidSam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of hisbluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother andapologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probablytrying to plan another attempt to pool the stock.

  In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter incontrition.

  "I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way ofapology.

  "Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, Idon't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly shereached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his facedown and kissed him rapturously.

  "I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevensdelightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand andwith the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was thedearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it,even to himself, and just now they were very, very close togetherindeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine youngman and he is bound to be a howling success in everything heundertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there wassomething between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder,"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal ofSam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to giveSam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock asWestlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to investas much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself,between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He'sa smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see,until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buyenough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?"

  He stopped in perplexity, for his daughter, looking aghast at him, hadpushed back from his embrace and was regarding him with perfectly roundeyes, while over her face, at first pale, there gradually crept acrimson flush.

  "Well, of all things!" she gasped. "Of all the cold-blooded, cruel,barter-and-sale proceedings! Why, father, how--how could you! Howcould he! I never in all my life--"

  "Why, Jo, what do you mean? What's the trouble?"

  "If you don't understand I can't make you," she said helplessly.

  "Well, I'll be--busted!" observed Mr. Stevens under his breath.

  To his infinite relief Sam came in just then, and Mr. Stevens,wondering what he had done now, slipped hastily out of the room. Mr.Turner, coming from the bright office into the dim room and innocent ofany change in the atmosphere, approached confidently and eagerly toMiss Josephine with both hands extended, but she stepped back mostindignantly.

  "You need not finish what you were going to say!" she warned him. "Myfather has just given me some information which changes the entireaspect of affairs. I am not a part of a business bargain! I refuse tobe regarded as a commercial proposition! I heard something from Mr.Princeman of what desperate efforts you were making to secure thecommand, whatever that may be, of the--of the stock--board--of sharesin your new company, but I did not think you would go to such lengthsas this!"

  "Why, my dear girl," began Sam, shocked.

  "I am not your dear girl and I never shall be," she told him, andangrily dabbed at some sudden tears. "I never was. I was only abusiness possibility."

  "That's unjust," he charged her. "I don't see how you could accuse meof regarding you in any other way than as the dearest and the sweetestand the most beautiful girl in all the world, the wisest and the mostsensible, the most faithful, the most charming, the most delightful,the most everything that is desirable."

  "Wait just a moment," she told him, very coldly indeed; with almostextravagant coldness, in fact, as she beat out of her consciousness theenticing epithets he had bestowed upon her. "Do you mean to say thatnever in your calculations did you consider that if you married me myfather would vote his stock with yours--I believe that's the way heputs it--and give you command or whatever it is of your company?"

  "Well," considered Sam, brought to a standstill and put straight uponhis honor, "I can't deny that it did seem to me a very satisfactorything that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--"

  "That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what Ihave charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; asone never to be referred to again."

  "We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've beencomposing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliverit. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously beenrehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a manthe superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myselfrepeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thoughtof in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's beenwith me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinkingand just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it.

  "I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now!After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you toknow it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! Inever loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn'tknow what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I metyou, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takesmy whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things.I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'msorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not goingto accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differentlyto understand it.

  "I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day wemet, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about itjust now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think itover, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and withthat Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping,dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything,still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that shehad been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it waslike those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives arebought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable!

  While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in uponher, this time seriously perplexed.

  "What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of thehouse, passed me on the porch with only a grunt, and jumped into hisautomobile. You must have done something to anger him."

  "I hope that I did!" she retorted with spirit. "I refused to marryhim."

  "You did!" he returned in surprise. "Why, I thought it was all cut anddried between you."

  "It was until you blundered into us and spoiled everything," shecharged. "But I'm glad you did. You let me know that Sam Turnerwanted to marry me because you had bought shares enough in his companyto give him the advantage. I'm ashamed of you and ashamed of Sam--ofMr. Turner--and ashamed of myself. Why, you make a bargain-counterremnant of me! I never, _never_ was so humiliated!"

  "Poor child!" her father blandly sympathized. "Also, poor Sam. By theway, though, he doesn't need you to secure control of his company. DanWestlake, as I told you, has bought enough stock to do the work, andMiss Westlake would marry him in a minute. If Sam wants control of hiscompany, he only has to go to her and say the word."

  "Father!" exclaimed his daughter with stern indignation. "I don't seehow you can even suggest that!"

  "Suggest what? Now, what have I said?"

  "That Sam--that Mr. Turner would even dream of marrying that Westlakegirl, just in order to get the better of a business transaction," andvery much to Theophilus
Stevens' surprise and consternation and dismay,she suddenly crumpled up in a heap in her chair and burst out crying.

  "Well, I'll be busted!" her father muttered into his beard.