OCR Text |
Show Sylvia- of the Minute - . $ CHAPTER V Continued 13 "Oh, I say I Stop and have sandwiches sand-wiches and coffee with me !" she suggested sug-gested chummily not at all as a subordinate sub-ordinate addresses a superior officer. "I can't bear eating alone it's almost gross, isn't it? Will you? I've heaps we'll have a jolly lunch! I've a thermos bottle of hot coffee, good etrong coffee that I made myself," she chattered as she began to set things cut on the flat desk-top, feeling exhilarated ex-hilarated at a bit of normal human association and talk after her weeks of strained, artificial relations.. With this man, if they kept off of pedagogy, she could be herself up to a certain point at least (though of course she would have to watch her accent). She almost snatched his hat and coat away from him as she directed him to draw np his chair before the array of dainty sandwiches, coffee and fruit which she had spread out. "But," he said as he placed their chairs and they sat down, "why is my company all of a sudden so welcome? An hour ago it was, 'You here again !' " "Well, since you know the very worst about me, I can enjoy a chat with you. I've been dying for a man to talk to! I've been almost driven to flirting with the wooden Indian In front of the village cigar store!" "'Flirting'? I'm afraid I can't play op. Don't know how. Afraid I've always al-ways been rather a stick with girls," he said dolefully, his eyes on her glowing face and creamy neck encircled encir-cled by a fluffy, fluted white ruffle. What a brute he had been to make her cry anything so dainty and sweet ! "I wouldn't presume to flirt with the county superintendent," she reassured re-assured him, "who knows the very worst about me !" "The very worst you're sure?" "What further do you suspect me of? Not knowing the Presidents in order? Well, I don't. Not the Twelve Apostles either. And I can't name offhand off-hand the Chinese dynasties for the past five thousand years. Have some coffee?" She poured him a second cup and his heart thrilled to her as he saw how gay she now looked after her tears. He himself was lonely enough, in all conscience, and this bit of companionship com-panionship -with such an engagingly impudent child was, to say the least, very diverting. "You made this coffee?" he asked. "Teach that to the girls of your school and I'll advise your trustees to raise your salary and if they taste your coffee they'll do it !"' "You put good coffee before learning learn-ing and call yourself an educator! Men do like their comforts, don't they? I wonder why I'm teaching school anyway, when American cooks are paid such huge wages. What do American cooks do with the millions they earn? Buy country estates and retire?" "American cooks?" he repealed reflectively. re-flectively. "How about foreign cooks? English cooks, for instance?" She felt a betraying warmth in her cheeks. He suspected her! No wonder, won-der, the way she so often spoke of American things, as though she were not an American ! "I should think." she answered calmly, "that with the terrible unemployment unem-ployment we read of over there, cooks ought to be cheap. I'm told, Mr. Creighton," she changed the subject, as she leaned back in her chair with a sandwich in her hand, "that you're a terrible idealist. How do you manage man-age It?" "I don't. Though the alternative is so self-destructive! Do yon (am I to conclude), like most young people of this day, imagine yourself a cynic?" "How can one escape it?" I have a cousin who was a radical Socialist until he married a rich wife. I have an uncle who was a liberal in all his Ideas until a fellow-proressor at his college was expelled for his liberalism liberal-ism when my uncle changed his iews. Believe in liberals with ideals? No, it's asking too much!" She shook her head over It hopelessly. "Did you never know anyone," Creighton asked, "to sacrifice something some-thing fur the sake ot his ideals?" "You?" she Inquired, looking at him over an expanse of sandwich nt her lips. "Heavens, no! I was thinking of Mr. K. D. Morell, for Instance " "Editor of Foreign Affairs," she nodded then Instantly regretted her too-ready knowledge of this English editor. Wasn't the mention of him a bait? Would an American he apt to know of Mm? "Of course," she hastend to add, "liberals all over the world must take heart from Mr. Mo-rell's Mo-rell's st-adfast courage and heroism!" 'y(.s i,ut he Isn't very much known in America how did you come to know of him?" "Read ahioit him In The Nation." He looked surprised. "I'm sure," he said, "you are the only teacher under my jurisdiction that has ever even heard of that paper!" Conversation with dim was. after nil, too full of rI' Tji Uk. she decided. Sho was glad when Ihe children's returning re-turning to the schoolroom obliged Mm to lake his leave. Her curiosity as to how much he suspected was fairly consuming her. CHAPTER VI Aunt llo.-.v was again at tin-Schv.-eiM-l:lon- and it was manifest I thai In -r In oi Iiit-Iu law was not "overly "over-ly t, lined" at her unexpected vl.slt. I By HELEN R. MARTIN Copyrisht by Dodd, Mead & Co. WNU Bervic Conversation at supper, In spite of her efforts to sustain It, seemed to languish. No one but Aunt Rosy seemed to be In the mood for this friendly chatting. "Susie tol' me about your holdin' up young Creighton and takin' his watch off of him, Sam." she said, "and if I was you I wouldn't like it so well that that fast young fellah got a foothold foot-hold in here with Nettie so lovesick she don't know half the time what she's about " "I don't know what you mean by a 'foothold,' Aunt Rosy," replied Mr. Schwenckton irritably. "He ain't been round here since." "How do you know he ain't? This after, when I got here, I seen Nettie makin' sich chocolate futch and " "Yes," broke In Susie in a tone of grievance, "and mind what she done mm pil Y!v' "'Flirting!' I'm Afraid I Can't Play Up. Don't Know How. Afraid I've Always Been Rather a Stick With Girls." yet! She cooked my fire out. so's I had to build it fresh to cook my supper sup-per !" "And when her futch was done a'ready, did she offer some to me and Susie? She did not! And what's more, I don't see none of it hein' passed 'round to yous neither! What did she done with that there futch? Why, I seen her packin' it all up nice in a white box and liidin' it good away! Who for? That's what you'd better find out, Sam Schwenckton! Who for?" Nettie, her face crimson, muttered something about "a big nosey" and "buttin' into other folks' business" but her father interfered. "Be peaceful, both of you. I won't have no wranglin' at our meals. Till supper's through a'read.v, Nettie can tell me who the futch Is for." Nettie, flashing a look of hate at Aunt Rosy, subsided into a sullen silence. Aunt Rosy was certainly a very disturbing dis-turbing element in this household. It was because of her presence here this evening that Mr. Sehweneklon found himself, greatly to his astonishment, not to say bewilderment and distress, "up against" the younger generation in a way that was a shocking revelation revela-tion to him of how times had changed. Incredible it seemed to his patriarchal ideas of family life that his own young daughter should dare to defy him hut here was the fact before his very eyes Nettie stubbornly refusing to .nswer his questions as to what she had done with Ihe fudge she had made. She admitted that it was already disposed dis-posed of. But neither commands, threats nor coaxings would elicit anything any-thing further from her. Meely was pledged for a rendezvous, about school-closing time, with St. Croix In the woods on the hilltop. This would be her first meeting with him since their wordless encounter in the Schwenckton kitchen the night of the "holdup" and Meely, as she hastened hast-ened after school to the hill, was tingling tin-gling with curiosity as to what he would have to say of that dangerous moment which they und managed to come through so unbetrayingly. She was pretty sure that poor little Nettie's fudge had been made for St. Croix. "For all I know, he has been seeing her and has discovered that I am the teacher!" she speculated. Not that she believed he had been seeking Nettie. He was, for the time, too engrossed in herself. But Nettie, in her adolescent - Infatuation, may have been thrusting herself upon him and St. Croix would not be overscrupulous overscru-pulous in accepting gifts the gods offered. of-fered. "I'll find out about that fudge," Meely resolved, "and If he is taking advantage of that ignorant child, I'll protect her !" She wondered, as she went on her way, whether St. Croix would notice the coat she wore. The season having advanced too far for her gaudy voile frock, without a wrap, she was in a bit of a predicament, for her jacket suit was far too stylish for the Meely of St. Croix' mental gallery and the only other wrap she had was this half worn-out coat she had used on the steamer en route for America, an English' Eng-lish' tweed that had once been such a first-class garment she feared St. Croix would instantly detect Its quality qual-ity and styles he was so observant and informed In such matters well, rather ! If he did notice that her coat was a good English tweed and ask questions, how on earth should she explain? She would have to trust to the Inspiration of the moment. "It's almost unbelievable that I've come through so far without his discovering dis-covering me ! I'm some actress, I am! They'll certainly have to notice me when I get to Hollywood !" He was there ahead of her at their meeting place and the nipping air of the hilltop had acted as an Irritant to both his passion and his temper. It was getting much too cold for these out-of-doors meetings and he knew of no place under a roof where they could get together without risk of detection de-tection especially as Meely's father had grown suspicions for some rea son; he had brought old Sehwenck-ton's Sehwenck-ton's funny letter with him to show her; as a warning that she must be more careful ; he would demand an explanation ex-planation from her as to what she had done to rouse her father's suspicion. suspi-cion. Was there no way that he could have the girl except by taking her away from her home altogether? But of course he wasn't going to get himself him-self into that kind of a mess! Absurd to think of it ! St. Croix still felt confident that when he nodded his readiness. Meely would be only too glad and eager to come to him. Why he had put It off so long was a mystery to himself. Something about her all along had seemed to check his being precipitate precipi-tate though probably she was just as impatient at his dallying as he himself was. But the time was surely ripe now and he must delay no longer. "I'm very displeased with you," he began as they sat huddled together to keep warm, on the big flat log. "What on earth made you do such a reckless thing, my dear, as to send that box of fudge to my home? My mother got hold of it! Don't ever do such a fool thing again, Meely! What on earth made you break out like lhat?" "Ach, well you see, you gimme Ihem swell handkerchiefs and so I winded to pay you back." "(If course It was nice of you to make the candy for me but to send It to my home! My mother asked all sorts of questions she's awfully worried" wor-ried" 'She must he awful stuck-up If you're so scared of her knowin' you travel witlnie! But I knowed folks a'ready that's got twlcet as much as she's got and they ain't so proud that they're ashamed to know me!" ".My mother isn't proud,' Meely she's the gentlest, sweetest, dearest" dear-est" He spoke with such fooling that Meely, who so seldom saw him show feeling for anyone but himself, was Impressed. (TO HE CONTINUED.) |