The Wall Street Girl

CHAPTER XI

STEAK, WITH MUSHROOMS AND ADVICE

All of Miss Winthrop that occupied a desk in the office of Carter, Rand & Seagraves on the next day was that for which Farnsworth was paying a weekly wage of twelve dollars. From the moment she entered that morning until she left that afternoon she made this perfectly clear to every one, including Don. But he also was busy. He had determined to make himself letter perfect on several bond issues. To this end he worked as hard as ever he had the day before a final examination. Besides this, Farnsworth found three or four errands for him to do, which he accomplished with dispatch. All that week Farnsworth had used him more and more–a distinctly encouraging sign. Don knew offhand now the location of some ten or fifteen offices, and was received in them as the recognized representative of Carter, Rand & Seagraves. In some places he was even known by name and addressed as Mr. Pendleton–which filled him with considerable pride.

Don went direct to his house from the office, dressed, and went to the club.

“If any one rings me up, get the name,” he ordered the doorman.

He avoided the crowd before the bar, and went upstairs to the library. He had brought his circulars with him, and now went over them once again in order to refresh his memory on some of the details. He was as anxious about getting this right as if Miss Winthrop were a prospective customer. Perhaps she might be. Women invested money, and if he was persuasive enough he might sell her a thousand-dollar bond. If he did not sell one to her, he might sell a few to Barton. Barton was always investing money–investing the Pendleton money, in fact. He might suggest Barton to Farnsworth, and drop around and see him to-morrow. Then Barton might suggest some one else. Before night he might in this way sell a couple of dozen of these bonds. He grew excited at the idea. He felt a new instinct stirring within him.

Don had never sold anything in his life except a few old clothes to second-hand clothes men in Cambridge. Strictly speaking, that was more in the nature of a gift than a sale: for a hundred dollars’ worth of clothes, he received perhaps ten dollars, which he felt obliged to spend on his friends at the first opportunity.

Don had always been a buyer–a talent that required neither preparation nor development. Money had always passed from him to some one else. This was pleasant enough, but undramatic. There was no clash; it called for no effort on his part. To reverse all this and watch the money pass in the other direction–from some one else to him–impressed him as a pleasant variation.

At seven o’clock Don replaced his circulars in his pocket and went downstairs. Wadsworth passed him, and for a moment Don was tempted to stop him and try out his knowledge of bonds on him. The club, however, was hardly the place for that. But if ever he met Wadsworth on the street he would see what he could do. Wadsworth had never been more than an acquaintance of his, but now he saw in him a prospective customer.

Don stepped into a taxi at the door and gave the driver the address supplied by Miss Winthrop. The cab after a little came to a stop before one of several entrances in a long brick block. Before Don had time to reach the door Miss Winthrop stepped out. He had rather hoped for an opportunity to meet some of her family.

“Am I late?” he inquired anxiously.

He could not account in any other way for the fact that she had hurried out before he had a chance to send in his card.

“No,” she answered. “Did you come in that?”

She was looking at the taxi.

He nodded, and stood at the door, ready to assist her in.

“Well, you may send it away now,” she informed him.

“But–”

“I won’t go in it,” she insisted firmly.

“Afraid it will break down?”

“Are you going to send it away?”

Without further argument he paid the driver and sent him off.

“It isn’t right to waste money like that,” she told him.

“Oh, that was the trouble? But it wouldn’t have cost more than a couple of dollars to have gone back with him.”

“Two dollars! That’s carfare for three weeks.”

“Of course, if you look at it that way. But here we are away uptown, and–hanged if I know how to get out.”

He looked around, as bewildered as a lost child. She could not help laughing.

“If you’re as helpless as that I don’t see how you ever get home at night,” she said.

He looked in every direction, but he did not see a car line. He turned to her.

“I won’t help you,” she said, shaking her head.

“Then we’ll have to walk until we come to the Elevated,” he determined.

“All right,” she nodded. “Only, if you don’t go in the right direction you will walk all night before you come to the Elevated.”

“I can ask some one, can’t I?”

“I certainly would before I walked very far.”

“Then I’m going to ask you.”

He raised his hat.

“I beg pardon, madame, but would you be so good–”

“Oh, turn to the right,” she laughed. “And do put on your hat.”

It was a quiet little French restaurant of the better kind to which he took her–a place he had stumbled on one evening, and to which he occasionally went when the club menu did not appeal to him. Jacques had reserved a table in a corner, and had arranged there the violets that Monsieur Pendleton had sent for this purpose. On the whole, it was just as well Miss Winthrop did not know this, or of the tip that was to lead to a certain kind of salad and to an extravagant dish with mushrooms to come later. It is certain that Monsieur Pendleton knew how to arrange a dinner from every other but the economical end.

Don was very much himself to-night, and in an exceedingly good humor. In no time he made her also feel very much herself and put her into an equally good humor. Her cares, her responsibilities, her fears, vanished as quickly as if the last three or four years had taught her nothing. She had started with set lips, and here she was with smiling ones. In the half-hour that she waited in her room for him, she had rehearsed a half-dozen set speeches; now she did not recall one of them.

Don suggested wine, but she shook her head. She had no need of wine. It was wine enough just to be out of her room at night; wine enough just to get away from the routine of her own meals; wine enough just not to be alone; wine enough just to get away from her own sex for a little.

Don chatted on aimlessly through the anchovies, the soup, and fish, and she enjoyed listening to him. He was the embodiment of youth, and he made even her feel like a care-free girl of sixteen again. This showed in her face, in the relaxed muscles about her mouth, and in her brightened eyes.

Then, during the long wait for the steak and mushrooms, his face became serious, and he leaned across the table.

“By the way,” he began, “the house has received a new allotment of bonds; I want to tell you about them.”

He had his facts well in hand, and he spoke with conviction and an unconventionality of expression that made her listen. She knew a good salesman when she heard one, whether she was familiar with the particular subject-matter or not. The quality of salesmanship really had nothing to do with the subject-matter. A good salesman can sell anything. It has rather to do with that unknown gift which distinguishes an actor able to pack a house from an actor with every other quality able only to half fill a house. It has nothing to do with general intelligence; it has nothing to do with conscientious preparation; it has nothing to do with anything but itself. It corresponds to what in a woman is called charm, and which may go with a pug nose or freckles or a large mouth. But it cannot be cultivated. It either is or is not.

It was the mushrooms and steak that interrupted him. Jacques was trying to draw his attention to the sizzling hot platter which he was holding for his inspection–a work of art in brown and green. Ordinarily Monsieur Pendleton took some time to appreciate his efforts. Now he merely nodded:–

“Good.”

Jacques was somewhat disappointed.

“Madame sees it?” he ventured.

Madame, who was sitting with her chin in her hands, staring across the table at Monsieur, started.

“Yes,” she smiled. “It is beautiful.”

But, when Jacques turned away to carve, she continued to stare again at Mr. Pendleton.

“It’s in you,” she exclaimed. “Oh, what a chance you have!”

“You think I’ll do?”

“I think that in two years you’ll be outselling any one in the office,” she answered.

His face flushed at the praise.

“That’s straight?”

“That’s straight,” she nodded. “And within another year Farnsworth will pay you anything you demand.”

“Ten thousand?”

“A gift like yours is worth that to the house–if you don’t spoil it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, I mean you must keep it fresh and clean and free, and not mix it up with money,” she ran on eagerly. “You must keep right on selling for the fun of the game and not for the gain. The gain will come fast enough. Don’t worry about that. But if you make it the end, it may make an end of your gift. And you mustn’t get foolish with success. And you mustn’t–oh, there are a hundred ways of spoiling it all.”

It was her apparent sure knowledge of these things that constantly surprised him.

“How do you know?” he demanded.

“Because I’ve seen and heard. All I can do is to stop, look, and listen, isn’t it?”

“And warn the speeders?” he laughed.

“If I could do that much it would be something,” she answered wistfully.

“Will you warn me?”

“I’m warning you now.”

She met his eyes with a puzzled frown.

“I’ve seen a lot of men start right, but they don’t stay right. Why don’t they?”

“But a lot of them do,” he answered.

“And they are the kind that just stay. I hate that kind. I hate people who just stay. That’s why I hate myself sometimes.”

He looked up at her quickly. It was the first indication he had that she was not continually in an unbroken state of calm content. He caught her brown eyes grown suddenly full, as if they themselves had been startled by the unexpected exclamation.

“What’s that you said?” he demanded.

She tried to laugh, but she was still too disconcerted to make it a successful effort. She was not often goaded into as intimate a confession as this.

“It isn’t worth repeating,” she answered uneasily.

“You said you hated yourself sometimes.”

“The steak is very, very good,” she answered, smiling.

“Then you aren’t hating yourself now?”

“No, no,” she replied quickly. “It’s only when I get serious and–please don’t let’s be serious.”

The rest of the dinner was very satisfactory, for he left her nothing to do but sit back and enjoy herself. And he made her laugh, sharing with him his laughter. It was half-past ten when they arose and went out upon the street. There she kept right on forgetting. It was not until she stood in her room, half-undressed, that she remembered she had not told Pendleton that to-night was positively to bring to an end this impossible friendship.

CHAPTER XII

A SOCIAL WIDOW

With the approach of the holiday season, when pretty nearly every one comes back to town, Frances found her engagements multiplying so rapidly that it required a good deal of tact and not a little arithmetic to keep them from conflicting. In this emergency, when she really needed Don, not only was he of no practical help, but he further embarrassed her by announcing a blanket refusal of all afternoon engagements. This placed her in the embarrassing position of being obliged to go alone and then apologize for him.

“Poor Don is in business now,” was her stock explanation.

She was irritated with Don for having placed her in this position. In return for having surrendered to him certain privileges, she had expected him to fulfill certain obligations. If she had promised to allow him to serve exclusively as her social partner, then he should have been at all times available. He had no right to leave her a social widow–even when he could not help it. As far as the afternoons were concerned, the poor boy could not help it–she knew that; but, even so, why should her winter be broken up by what some one else could not help?

She had given her consent to Don, not to a business man. As Don he had been delightful. No girl could ask to have a more attentive and thoughtful fiancé than he had been. He allowed her to make all his engagements for him, and he never failed her. He was the only man she knew who could sit through a tea without appearing either silly or bored. And he was nice–but not too nice–to all her girl friends, so that most of them were jealous of her. Decidedly, she had had nothing to complain of.

And she had not complained, even when he announced that he was penniless. This did not affect her feeling toward Don himself. It was something of a nuisance, but, after all, a matter of no great consequence. She had no doubt he could make all the money he wanted, just as her father had done.

But of late it had been increasingly difficult to persuade him, on account of business, to fulfill even his evening engagements. He was constantly reminding her of bonds and things that he must study. Well, if it was necessary for him to study bonds and things, he should find some way of doing it that would not interfere with her plans.

The climax came when he asked to be excused from the Moore cotillion because he had three other dances for that week.

“You see,” he explained, “Farnsworth is going to let me go out and sell as soon as I’m fit, and so I’m putting in a lot of extra time.”

“Who is Farnsworth?” she inquired.

“Why, he’s the general manager. I’ve told you about him.”

“I remember now. But, Don dear, you aren’t going to sell things?”

“You bet I am,” he answered enthusiastically. “All I’m waiting for is a chance.”

“But what do you sell?” she inquired.

“Investment securities.”

He seemed rather pleased that she was showing so much interest.

“You see, the house buys a batch of securities wholesale and then sells them at retail–just as a grocer does.”

“Don!”

“It’s the same thing,” he nodded.

“Then I should call it anything but an attractive occupation.”

“That’s because you don’t understand. You see, here’s a man with some extra money to invest. Now, when you go to him, maybe he has something else in mind to do with that money. What you have to do–”

“Please don’t go into details, Don,” she interrupted. “You know I wouldn’t understand.”

“If you’d just let me explain once,” he urged.

“It would only irritate me,” she warned. “I’m sure it would only furnish you with another reason why you shouldn’t go about as much as you do.”

“It would,” he agreed. “That’s why I want to make it clear. Don’t you see that if I keep at this for a few years–”

“Years?” she gasped.

“Well, until I get my ten thousand.”

“But I thought you were planning to have that by next fall at the latest.”

“I’m going to try,” he answered. “I’m going to try hard. But, somehow, it doesn’t look as easy as it did before I started. I didn’t understand what a man has to know before he’s worth all that money.”

“I’m sure I don’t find ten thousand to be very much,” she observed.

“Perhaps it isn’t much to spend,” he admitted, “but it’s a whole lot to earn. I know a bunch of men who don’t earn it.”

“Then they must be very stupid.”

“No; but somehow dollars look bigger downtown than they do uptown. Why, I know a little restaurant down there where a dollar looks as big as ten.”

“Don, dear, you’re living too much downtown,” she exclaimed somewhat petulantly. “You don’t realize it, but you are. It’s making you different–and I don’t want you different. I want you just as you used to be.”

She fell back upon a straight appeal–an appeal of eyes and arms and lips.

“I miss you awfully in the afternoons,” she went on, “but I’ll admit that can’t be helped. I’ll give up that much of you. But after dinner I claim you. You’re mine after dinner, Don.”

She was very tender and beautiful in this mood. When he saw her like this, nothing else seemed to matter. There was no downtown or uptown; there was only she. There was nothing to do but stoop and kiss her eager lips. Which is exactly what he did.

For a moment she allowed it, and then with an excited laugh freed herself.

“Please to give me one of your cards, Don,” she said.

He handed her a card, and she wrote upon it this:–

“December sixteenth, Moore cotillion.”

CHAPTER XIII

DEAR SIR–

Don never had an opportunity to test his knowledge of the bonds about which he had laboriously acquired so much information, because within the next week all these offerings had been sold and their places taken by new securities. These contained an entirely different set of figures. It seemed to him that all his previous work was wasted. He must begin over again; and, as far as he could see, he must keep on beginning over again indefinitely. He felt that Farnsworth had deprived him of an opportunity, and this had the effect of considerably dampening his enthusiasm.

Then, too, during December and most of January Frances kept him very busy. He had never seen her so gay or so beautiful. She was like a fairy sprite ever dancing to dizzy music. He followed her in a sort of daze from dinner to dance, until the strains of music whirled through his head all day long.

The more he saw of her, the more he desired of her. In Christmas week, when every evening was filled and he was with her from eight in the evening until two and three and four the next morning, he would glance at his watch every ten minutes during the following day. The hours from nine to five were interminable. He wandered restlessly about the office, picking up paper and circular, only to drop them after an uneasy minute or two. The entire office staff faded into the background. Even Miss Winthrop receded until she became scarcely more than a figure behind a typewriter. When he was sent out by Farnsworth, he made as long an errand of it as he could. He was gone an hour, or an hour and a half, on commissions that should not have taken half the time.

It was the week of the Moore cotillion that Miss Winthrop observed the change in him. She took it to be a natural enough reaction and had half-expected it. There were very few men, her observation had told her, who could sustain themselves at their best for any length of time. This was an irritating fact, but being a fact had to be accepted. As a man he was entitled to an off day or two–possibly to an off week.

But when the second and third and fourth week passed without any notable improvement in him, Miss Winthrop became worried.

“You ought to put him wise,” she ventured to suggest to Powers.

“I?” Powers had inquired.

“Well, he seems like a pretty decent sort,” she answered indifferently.

“So he is,” admitted Powers, with an indifference that was decidedly more genuine than her own. It was quite clear that Powers’s interest went no further. He had a wife and two children and his own ambitions.

For a long time she saw no more of him than she saw of Blake. He nodded a good-morning when he came in, and then seemed to lose himself until noon. Where he lunched she did not know. For a while she had rather looked for him, and then, to cure herself of that, had changed her own luncheon place. At night he generally hurried out early–a bad practice in itself: at least once, Farnsworth had wanted him for something after he was gone; he had made no comment, but it was the sort of thing Farnsworth remembered. When, on the very next day, Mr. Pendleton started home still earlier, it had required a good deal of self-control on her part not to stop him. But she did not stop him. For one thing, Blake was at his desk at the time.

It was a week later that Miss Winthrop was called into the private office of Mr. Seagraves one afternoon. His own stenographer had been taken ill, and he wished her to finish the day. She took half a dozen letters, and then waited while Farnsworth came in for a confidential consultation upon some business matters. It was as the latter was leaving that Mr. Seagraves called him back.

“How is Pendleton getting along?” he inquired.

Miss Winthrop felt her heart stop for a beat or two. She bent over her notebook to conceal the color that was burning her cheeks. For an impersonal observer she realized they showed too much.

“I think he has ability,” Farnsworth answered slowly. “He began well, but he has let down a little lately.”