The Wall Street Girl

CHAPTER XXVI

ONE STUYVESANT

That evening, before Frances left Don alone in the study, she bent over him and kissed him. Then she heard her father’s footsteps and ran. Don was remarkably cool. So was Stuyvesant; but there was nothing remarkable about that. When his daughter told him that Don was waiting to see him, his eyes narrowed the least bit and he glanced at his watch. He had a bridge engagement at the club in half an hour. Then he placed both hands on his daughter’s shoulders and studied her eyes.

“What’s the matter, girlie?” he asked.

“Nothing, Dad,” she answered. “Only–I’m very happy.”

“Good,” he nodded. “And that is what I want you to be every minute of your life.”

Entering his study, Stuyvesant sat down in a big chair to the right of the open fire and waved his hand to another opposite him.

“Frances said you wished to talk over something with me,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” answered Don. He did not sit down. He could think better on his feet. “It’s about our marriage.”

Stuyvesant did not answer. He never answered until the other man was through. Then he knew where he stood.

“I don’t know whether or not you know the sort of will father left,” began Don.

Stuyvesant did know, but he gave no indication of the fact. He had been waiting a year for something of this sort.

“Anyhow,” Don went on, “he took a notion to tie up most of the estate. Except for the house–well, he left me pretty nearly strapped. Before that, he’d been letting me draw on him for anything I wanted. When I asked you for Frances I expected things would go on as they were.

“When the change came, I had a talk with Frances, and we agreed that the thing to do was for me to go out and earn about the same sum Dad had been handing to me. Ten thousand a year seemed at the time what we needed. She said that was what her allowance had been.”

Again Don paused, in the hope that Stuyvesant might wish to contribute something to the conversation. But Stuyvesant waited for him to continue.

“So I went out to earn it. Barton found a position for me with Carter, Rand & Seagraves, and I started in. It’s a fact I expected to get that ten thousand inside of a year.”

Don lighted a cigarette. The further he went, the less interest he was taking in this explanation. Stuyvesant’s apparent indifference irritated him.

“That was a year ago,” Don resumed. “To-day I’m drawing the same salary I started with–twelve hundred. I expect a raise soon–perhaps to twenty-five hundred. But the point is this: I figure that it’s going to take me some five years to get that ten thousand. I don’t want to wait that long before marrying Frances. Another point is this: I don’t think any longer that it’s necessary. I figure that we can live on what I’m earning now. So I’ve put it up to her.”

Don had hurried his argument a little, but, as far as he was concerned, he was through. The whole situation was distasteful to him. The longer he stayed here, the less it seemed to be any of Stuyvesant’s business.

“You mean you’ve asked my daughter to marry you on that salary?” inquired Stuyvesant.

“I asked her this afternoon,” nodded Don. “I suggested that we get married to-morrow or next day. You see, I’m on my vacation, and I have only two weeks.”

Stuyvesant flicked the ashes from his cigar. “What was her reply?”

“She wanted me to put the proposition before you. That’s why I’m here.”

“I see. And just what do you expect of me?”

“I suppose she wants your consent,” answered Don. “Anyhow, it seemed only decent to let you know.”

Stuyvesant was beginning to chew the end of his cigar–a bit of nervousness he had not been guilty of for twenty years. “At least, it would have been rather indecent not to have informed me,” he answered. “But, of course, you don’t expect my consent to such an act of idiocy.”

It was Don’s turn to remain silent.

“I’ve no objection to you personally,” Stuyvesant began. “When you came to me and asked for my daughter’s hand, and I found that she wanted to marry you, I gave my consent. I knew your blood, Pendleton, and I’d seen enough of you to believe you clean and straight. At that time also I had every reason to believe that you were to have a sufficient income to support the girl properly. If she had wanted to marry you within the next month, I wouldn’t have said a word at that time. When I learned that conditions had been changed by the terms of your father’s will, I waited to see what you would do. And I’ll tell you frankly, I like the way you’ve handled the situation up to now.”

“I don’t get that last,” Don answered quietly.

“Then let me help you,” Stuyvesant resumed grimly. “In the first place, get that love-in-a-cottage idea out of your head. It’s a pretty enough conceit for those who are forced to make the best of their personal misfortunes, but that is as far as it goes. Don’t for a moment think it’s a desirable lot.”

“In a way, that’s just what I am thinking,” answered Don.

“Then it’s because you don’t know any better. It’s nonsense. A woman wants money and wants the things she can buy with money. She’s entitled to those things. If she can’t have them, then it’s her misfortune. If the man she looks to to supply them can’t give them to her, then it’s his misfortune. But it’s nothing for him to boast about. If he places her in such a situation deliberately, it’s something for him to be ashamed of.”

“I can see that, sir,” answered Don, “when it’s carried too far. But you understand that I’m provided with a good home and a salary large enough for the ordinary decent things of life.”

“That isn’t the point,” broke in Stuyvesant. “We’ll admit the girl won’t have to go hungry, but she’ll go without a lot of other things that she’s been brought up to have, and, as long as I can supply them, things she’s entitled to have. On that salary you won’t supply her with many cars, you won’t supply her with the kind of clothes she is accustomed to, you won’t supply her with all the money she wants to spend. What if she does throw it away? That’s her privilege now. I’ve worked twenty-five years to get enough so that she can do just that. There’s not a whim in the world she can’t satisfy. And the man who marries her must give her every single thing I’m able to give her–and then something more.”

“In money?” asked Don.

“The something more–not in money.”

He rose and stood before Don.

“I’ve been frank with you, Pendleton, and I’ll say I think the girl cares for you. But I know Frances better than you, and I know that, even if she made up her mind to do without all these things, it would mean a sacrifice. As far as I know, she’s never had to make a sacrifice since she was born. It isn’t necessary. Get that point, Pendleton. It isn’t necessary, and I’ll not allow any man to make it necessary if I can help it.”

He paused as if expecting an outburst from Don. The latter remained silent.

“I’ve trusted you with the girl,” Stuyvesant concluded. “Up to now I’ve no fault to find with you. You’ve lost your head for a minute, but you’ll get a grip on yourself. Go ahead and make your fortune, and come to me again. In the mean while, I’m willing to trust you further.”

“If that means not asking Frances to marry me to-morrow, you can’t, sir.”

“You–you wouldn’t ask her to go against my wishes in the matter?”

“I would, sir.”

“And you expect her to do so?”

“I hope she will.”

“Well, she won’t,” Stuyvesant answered. He was chewing his cigar again.

“You spoke of the something more, sir,” said Don. “I think I know what that means, and it’s a whole lot more than anything your ten thousand can give. When I found myself stony broke, I was dazed for a while, and thought a good deal as you think. Then this summer I found the something more. I wouldn’t swap back.”

“Then stay where you are,” snapped Stuyvesant. “Don’t try to drag in Frances.”

Don prepared to leave.

“It’s a pity you aren’t stony broke too,” he observed.

“Thanks,” answered Stuyvesant. “But I’m not, and I don’t intend to have my daughter put in that position.”

“You haven’t forgotten that I have a house and twelve hundred?”

“I haven’t forgotten that is all you have.”

“You haven’t forgotten the something more?”

Stuyvesant looked at his watch.

“I must be excused now, Pendleton,” he concluded. “I think, on the whole, it will be better if you don’t call here after this.”

“As you wish,” answered Pendleton. “But I hope you’ll come and see us?”

“Damn you, Pendleton!” he exploded.

Then he turned quickly and left the room. So, after all, it was he in the end who lost his temper.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE STARS AGAIN

Don went to the nearest telephone and rang up Frances.

“Your father lost his temper,” he explained. “He ordered me not to call again; so will you please to meet me on the corner right away?”

“I’ve just seen him,” she answered. “Oh, Don, it was awful!”

“It is the best thing that could have happened,” he said. “We have to meet in the park now. It’s the only place left.”

“Don, dear, he told me not to meet you anywhere again. He–he was quite savage about it.”

“He had no right to tell you that,” Don answered. “Anyhow, I must see you. We’ll talk it over under the stars.”

“But, Don–”

“Please to hurry,” he said.

She slipped a scarf over her hair and a cape over her shoulders, and walked to the corner, looking about fearfully. He gripped her arm and led her confidently away from the house and toward the park. The sky was clear, and just beyond the Big Dipper he saw shining steadily the star he had given Sally Winthrop. He smiled. It was as if she reassured him.

“What did you say to him, Don?” she panted.

“I told him I wished to marry you to-morrow,” he answered.

“And he–”

“He said I shouldn’t. He said he could give you more with his ten thousand than I could give you with my twelve hundred. I told him I could give you more with my twelve hundred than he could with his ten thousand.”

“I’ve never seen him so angry,” she trembled.

“I’d never before seen him angry at all,” he admitted. “But, after all, that isn’t important, is it? The important thing is whether or not he’s right. That’s what you and I must decide for ourselves.”

She did not quite understand. She thought her father had already decided this question. However, she said nothing. In something of a daze, she allowed herself to be led on toward the park–at night a big, shadowy region with a star-pricked sky overhead. Like one led in a dream she went, her thoughts quite confused, but with the firm grip of his hand upon her arm steadying her. He did not speak again until the paved street and the stone buildings were behind them–until they were among the trees and low bushes and gravel paths. He led her to a bench.

“See those stars?” he asked, pointing.

“Yes, Don.”

“I want you to keep looking at them while I’m talking to you,” he said.

Just beyond the Big Dipper he saw the star he had given Sally Winthrop. It smiled reassuringly at him.

“What I’ve learned this summer,” he said, “is that, after all, the clear sky and those stars are as much a part of New York as the streets and high buildings below them. And when you live up there a little while you forget about the twelve hundred or the ten thousand. Those details don’t count up there. Do you see that?”

“Yes, Don.”

“The trouble with your father, and the trouble with you, and the trouble with me, until a little while ago, is that we didn’t get out here in the park enough where the stars can be seen. I’m pretty sure, if I’d been sitting here with your father, he’d have felt different.”

She was doing as he bade her and keeping her eyes raised. She saw the steady stars and the twinkling stars and the vast purple depths. So, when she felt his arm about her, that did not seem strange.

“It’s up there we’ll be living most of the time,” he was saying.

“Yes, Don.”

“And that’s all free. The poorer you are, the freer it is. That’s true of a lot of things. You’ve no idea the things you can get here in New York if you haven’t too much money. Your father said that if you don’t have cash you go without, when as a matter of fact it’s when you have cash you go without.”

She lowered her eyes to his. What he was saying sounded topsy-turvy.

“It’s a fact,” he ran on. “Why, you can get hungry if you don’t have too much money; and, honest, I’ve had better things to eat this summer, because of that, than I ever had in my life. Then, if you don’t have too much money, you can work. It sounds strange to say there’s any fun in that, but there is. I want to get you into the game, Frances. You’re going to like it. Farnsworth is going to let me sell next month. It’s like making the ’Varsity. I’m going to have a salary and commission, so you see it will be partly a personal fight. You can help me. Why, the very things we were planning to get done with before we married are the very things that are worth while. We can stand shoulder to shoulder now and play the game together. You can have part of the fun.”

She thrilled with the magic of his voice, but his words were quite meaningless.

“You aren’t looking at the stars,” he reminded her. She looked up again.

“So,” he said, “there’s no sense in waiting any longer, is there? The sooner we’re married, the sooner we can begin. If we’re married to-morrow, we’ll have almost two weeks in the mountains. And then–”

She appeared frightened.

“Oh, Don, we–we couldn’t get married like that, anyway.”

“Why not?” he demanded.

“It–it isn’t possible.”

“Certainly it’s possible.”

She shook her head.

“No, no. I–I couldn’t. Oh, Don, you’ll have to give me time to think.”

“There isn’t time,” he frowned.

“We must take time. I’m–I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid of myself,” she answered quickly. “Afraid of Dad. Oh, I’m afraid of every one.”

“Of me?” He took her hand.

“When you speak of to-morrow I am,” she admitted. “While you were talking, there were moments when–when I could do as you wish. But they didn’t last.”

“That’s because you didn’t keep your eyes on the stars,” he assured her gently.

“That’s what I’m afraid of–that I shouldn’t be able to keep them there. Don, dear, you don’t know how selfish I am and–and how many things I want.”

She was seeing herself clearly now and speaking from the depths of her soul.

“Maybe it isn’t all my fault. And you’re wonderful, Don. It’s that which makes me see myself.”

He kissed her hand. “Dear you,” he whispered, “I know the woman ’way down deep in you, and it’s she I want.”

She shook her head.

“No,” she answered. “It’s some woman you’ve placed there–some woman who might have been there–that you see. But she isn’t there, because–because I can’t go with you.”

Some woman he had put there. He looked at the stars, and the little star by the Big Dipper was shining steadily at him. He passed his hand over his forehead.

“If she were really in me, she’d go with you to-morrow,” Frances ran on excitedly. “She’d want to get into the game. She’d want to be hungry with you, and she wouldn’t care about anything else in the world but you. She–she’d want to suffer, Don. She’d be almost glad that you had no money. Her father wouldn’t count, because she’d care so much.”

She drew her cape about her shoulders.

“Yes,” he answered in a hoarse whisper; “she’s like that.”

“So, don’t you see–”

“Good Lord, I do see!” he exclaimed.

Now he saw.

With his head swimming, with his breath coming short, he saw. But he was as dazed as a man suddenly given sight in the glare of the blazing sun.

Frances was frightened by his silence.

“I–I think we’d better go back now,” she said gently.

He escorted her to the house without quite knowing how he found the way. At the door she said:–

“Don’t you understand, Don?”

“Yes,” he answered; “for the first time.”

“And you’ll not think too badly of me?”

“It isn’t anything you can help,” he answered. “It isn’t anything I can help, either.”

“Don’t think too badly of Dad,” she pleaded. “He’ll cool down soon, and then–you must come and see me again.”

She held out her hand, and he took it. Then swiftly she turned and went into the house. He hurried back to the path–to the path where on Saturday afternoons he had walked with Sally Winthrop.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SEEING

He saw now. Blind fool that he had been, month after month! He sank on a bench and went back in his thoughts to the first time he had ever seen Sally Winthrop. She had reminded him that it was luncheon time, and when he had gone out she had been waiting for him. She must have been waiting for him, or he never would have found her. And she had known he was hungry.

“She’d want to be hungry with you,” Frances had said.

How had Sally Winthrop known that he was hungry? She had known, and had shared with him what she had.

Then incident after incident in the office came back to him. It was she who had taught him how to work. It was for her that he had worked.

Frances had used another phrase: “She’d be almost glad you had no money.”

There was only one woman in the world he knew who would care for a man like that–if she cared at all. That brought him to his feet again. He glared about as if searching for her in the dark. Why wasn’t she here now, so that he might ask her if she did care? She had no business to go off and leave him like this! He did not know where she was.

Don struck a match and looked at his watch. It was eight-thirty. Somehow, he must find her. He had her old address, and it was possible that she had left word where she had gone. At any rate, this was the only clue he had.

He made his way back to the Avenue, and, at a pace that at times almost broke into a run, went toward the club and the first taxi he saw. In twenty minutes he was standing on the steps where he had last seen her. She had wished him to say “good-bye”; but he remembered that he had refused to say “good-bye.”

The landlady knew Miss Winthrop’s address, but she was not inclined to give it to him. At first she did not like the expression in his eyes. He was too eager.

“Seems to me,” she argued, “she’d have told parties where she was going if she wanted them to know.”

“This is very important,” he insisted.

“Maybe it’s a lot more important to you than it is to her,” she replied.

“But–”

“You can leave your name and address, and I’ll write to her,” she offered.

“Look here,” Don said desperately. “Do you want to know what my business is with her?”

“It’s none of my business, but–”

“I want to ask her to marry me,” he broke in. “That’s a respectable business, isn’t it?”

He reached in his pocket and drew out a bill. He slipped it into her hand.

“Want to marry her?” exclaimed the woman. “Well, now, I wouldn’t stand in the way of that. Will you step in while I get the address?”

“I’ll wait here. Only hurry. There may be a late train.”

She was back in a few seconds, holding a slip of paper in her hand.

“It’s to Brenton, Maine, she’s gone.”

Don grabbed the paper.

“Thanks.”

He was halfway down the steps when she called after him:–

“Good luck to ye, sir.”

“Thanks again,” he called back.

Then he gave his order to the driver:–

“To the Grand Central.”

Don found that he could take the midnight train to Boston and connect there with a ten-o’clock train next morning. This would get him into Portland in time for a connection that would land him at Brenton at four that afternoon. He went back to the house to pack his bag. As he opened the door and went in, it seemed as if she might already be there–as if she might be waiting for him. Had she stepped forward to greet him and announce that dinner was ready, he would not have been greatly surprised. It was as if she had been here all this last year. But it was only Nora who came to greet him.

“I’m going away to-night for a few days–perhaps for two weeks,” he told Nora.

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll wire you what my plans are–either to-morrow or next day.”

“And it is to be soon, sir?”

“I can’t tell you for sure, Nora, until I’ve cleared up one or two little matters; but–you can wish me luck, anyway.”

“I’ll do that, sir.”

“And the house is ready, isn’t it?”

“Everything is ready, sir.”

“That’s fine. Now I’m going to pack.”

His packing finished, Don went downstairs with still an hour or more on his hands before train-time. But he did not care to go anywhere. He was absolutely contented here. He was content merely to wander from room to room. He sat down at the piano in the dark, and for a long while played to her–played to her just the things he knew she would like.

It was half-past eleven before he left the house, and then he went almost reluctantly. She was more here than anywhere in the world except where he was going. He found himself quite calm about her here. The moment he came out on the street again he noticed a difference. His own phrase came back to frighten him:–

“She’d care like that–if she cared at all.”

Supposing that after he found her, she did not care?

At the station he wondered if it were best to wire her, but decided against it. She might run away. It was never possible to tell what a woman might do, and Sally Winthrop was an adept at concealing herself. He remembered that period when, although he had been in the same office with her, she had kept herself as distant as if across the ocean. She had only to say, “Not at home,” and it was as if she said, “I am not anywhere.”

He went to his berth at once, and had, on the whole, a bad night of it. He asked himself a hundred questions that he could not answer–that Sally Winthrop alone could answer. Though it was only lately that he had prided himself on knowing her desires in everything, he was forced to leave all these questions unanswered.

At ten the next morning he took the train for Portland. At two he was on the train for Brenton and hurrying through a strange country to her side.

When he reached Brenton he was disappointed not to find her when he stepped from the train. The station had been so closely identified with her through the long journey that he had lost sight of the fact that it existed for any other purpose. But only a few station loafers were there to greet him, and they revealed but an indifferent interest. He approached one of them.

“Can you tell me where Miss Winthrop is stopping?”

The man looked blank.

“No one of that name in this town,” he finally answered.

“Isn’t this Brenton?”

“It’s Brenton, right enough.”

“Then she’s here,” declared Don.

“Is she visitin’?” inquired the man.

Don nodded.

“A cousin, or something.”

A second man spoke up:–

“Ain’t she the one who’s stopping with Mrs. Halliday?”

“Rather slight, with brown eyes,” volunteered Don.

“Dunno the color of her eyes,” answered the first man, with a wink at the second. “But thar’s some one stoppin’ thar. Been here couple days or so.”

“That’s she,” Don decided.

He drew a dollar bill from his pocket.

“I want one of you to take a note to her from me.”

He wrote on the back of a card:–

I’m at the station. I must see you at once.

DON.

“Take that to her right away and bring me an answer,” he ordered.

The man took both bill and card and disappeared.

CHAPTER XXIX

MOSTLY SALLY

It was an extremely frightened girl who within five minutes appeared upon the station platform. She was quite out of breath, for she had been running. As he came toward her with outstretched hands, she stared at him from head to foot, as if to make sure he was not minus an arm or a leg.

“Won’t you even shake hands with me?” he asked anxiously.

“You–you gave me such a fright,” she panted.

“How?”

“I thought–I thought you must have been run over.”

He seemed rather pleased.

“And you cared?” he asked eagerly.

She was fast recovering herself now.

“Well, it wouldn’t be unnatural to care, would it, if you expected to find a friend all run over?”

“And, now that you find I’m not a mangled corpse, you don’t care at all.”