It had required more than eloquence or tact, it had required actual
compulsion to bring Corrie Rose back to race at Long Island. All his
successful work, all the cordiality that met him wherever he went, and
the temptation to essay new conquest, failed to overcome his repugnance.
But he could not defy Gerard.
"I don't see how _you_ can bear to look at the place," he had flung, in
his final defeat.
"My dear Corrie, I am not any further from that here than there," Gerard
had quietly replied.
Corrie understood, and submitted dumbly thereafter. And, in spite of
himself, his first day's practice on the course swept everything aside
except eager exhilaration. He was too superbly healthy for morbidity,
too masculine for continuous dwelling in memories; if Gerard had not
been very certain of that fact, he would never have brought his ward
there. When Corrie was driving, Corrie was happy. He drove with a sober
intensity of devotion, his passion was serious, whereas Gerard had raced
fire-ardent and won or lost laughing.
There was a small hotel near the course which the motor-men had made a
rendezvous. Here Gerard established his party, during the two weeks of
practice work. He did not choose to have Corrie in New York, although
Rupert chafed and he himself was obliged to go in to the city
frequently, at considerable inconvenience.
On the last afternoon before the race, he returned from such a trip, and
arrived before the hotel just as Corrie rolled up with the Mercury Titan
and halted it opposite him.
"It's five o'clock," the driver explained, stilling his roaring motor
and leaning out. "Everyone is coming in, to get ready for to-morrow."
There was little trace left of the petulant, gaudily dressed boy who a
year before had driven the pink car, in this serious young professional
clad in the Mercury's racing gray and bearing the Mercury's silver
insignia on his shoulder. The bend of his mouth was firmer, his
dark-blue eyes had acquired the steady, all-embracing keenness of
Gerard's--the gaze of all those men with whom the inopportune flicker of
an eyelid may mean destruction. He was clothed with his virile youth as
with a radiant garment, as he smiled across at Gerard.
"Yes, get some rest; you will be out at dawn," approved Gerard, coming
closer. "Where is Rupert? What is the matter, Corrie? You look
disturbed."
"Rupert got off at the corner, back there. I suppose if I look rattled,
that _he_ is what is the matter. He----" Corrie suddenly dropped his
face in his folded arms as they rested upon the steering-wheel, his
shoulders shaking.
"He? How? He has been talking to you?"
"He sure has been talking to me," Corrie affirmed, lifting his
laughter-flushed face. "When I think that he once gave me the silence
treatment! His tongue would take the starch out of a Chinese laundry and
make a taxicab chauffeur feel he couldn't drive."
"You do not let him talk to you when you are driving!"
"Oh, when I am driving he is the perfect mechanician. He wouldn't open
his lips if I hit a right-angle turn at ninety miles an hour or disobey
if I told him to climb out and cut the tires off the rear wheels. No, it
is when I am not officially driving that he gives me some remarks to
study about. Good pointers, too! I like it, really. I only wish," his
expression shadowed abruptly, "I only wish I didn't have to remember
that nothing could bring him to shake hands with me."
"Corrie----"
"I know--I beg your pardon for speaking of that to you. But, Gerard," he
bent to grasp a lever, "I'd take what you got last year, I'd consent to
be picked up dead from under my car to-morrow, if I could that way buy
one hour to stand clean before you and Jack Rupert. That's all--don't
think I want to flinch, please. If you will go on in, I'll put this
machine away and be back to dinner in fifteen minutes. I see Rupert
coming to help me, now. We're starved to death and some tired. By the
way, George shouted over to me that he would be in as soon as he got the
Duplex canned for the night, and to order a few dozen eggs and a couple
of hams fried for him. Would you attend to it on your way in?"
"I surely would," Gerard answered, the great gentleness of his tone
mating oddly with the light words. "What do you want ordered for
yourself?"
"Anything, and plenty of it."
Gerard did not smile as he went into the building. He too would have
given much to spare Corrie Rose the memory of that October morning's
fault. From all punishment except that memory he had sheltered him,
further aid no one could give. But because he loved Corrie, he climbed
the hotel stairs in slow abstraction and failed to perceive the
limousine that came up before the Mercury Titan, and stopped.
He was standing by a table in the empty parlor of the hotel, when the
door opened, and closed. Thinking some other guest had entered, he did
not turn from the letters he was reading, nor was there any further
movement or demand upon his attention. That which slowly invaded his
consciousness was a summons more delicate than sound, a faint,
distinctive flower-fragrance that proclaimed one individual presence.
Flavia Rose was in the room; he knew it before he swung around and saw
her standing there.
The shock that leaped along his pulses was less of hope than of renewed
pain.
"Miss Rose!" he exclaimed.
She moved a little forward. Against her dark velvet gown, under her wide
velvet hat, her soft, earnest face showed whitely lustrous and
irradiated, her beautiful eyes dwelt on his.
"I never knew," she said, her clear voice like rippled water. "Your
letter, the night before you went away, never came to me. I never knew
you had sent for me, until last month."
The movement that brought Gerard across the room was as nakedly
passionate as the incoherent simplicity of her speech.
"You never knew? Flavia, you would have come?"
"I would have come; I wanted to come long before, while you were so
ill----"
They had waited a year on the verge of that moment; it was enough to
touch one another in this security of understanding. There was no
question between them, no doubt, now that they saw each other face to
face; all their world flowered into light and fragrance, present and
future one dazzling marvel.
But at last they drew slightly apart, gazing at each other with an
incredulity of such happiness, both Flavia's little hands held in the
firm clasp of Gerard's left. And then gradually awoke amazement that
they could ever have been separated, who were so closely bound together.
"My dear, my dear, you knew I loved you," he wondered. "How did this
happen to us?"
"How could I know? You had never said it."
"Did I need to? I thought the very stones in the fountain arcade must
have seen it. And I trusted Rupert with the letter; he said he had given
it to you, he even brought an answer."
"Do not blame him," she quickly defended. "He told you that he had given
it to Miss Rose; he meant to Isabel, who claimed it."
"Your cousin? What had I to do with her? Why should I have written to
her? Have written _that_, Flavia!"
The tears rushed to her eyes.
"Your letter--Allan, if I had known that message was for me, I would
have gone back with Rupert to you that evening. But Isabel took it, for
some reason she expected a message from you, that night. I have not been
able to understand that, although I have tried ever since papa told me,
last month, that it was I whom you chose. She spoke of something Corrie
had said. I--I think she believed you did care for her more seriously
than she had meant you should. She was so very sure the letter was for
her--and you did not call me Flavia once."
"I had no right, I dared not. Dear, I had had a bad month; I did not
remember that any Miss Rose but you existed. I used to close my eyes,
when things were worst, and see your eyes against the dark. There were
days when I did not see much else. But they were not so bad, no day ever
was so bad as the morning Corrie came to the station without you.
Forgive me, I hurt you!"
She shook her fair head, wordless. Quiet from the very vehemence of
feeling that possessed them both, Gerard stooped and kissed her.
"Will you marry me soon, Flavia? After this race, when Corrie can be
with us? Let us waste no more time apart; I have wanted you so long, so
very long."
The lovely color flushed her transparent face, but her fingers clung to
his.
"All the way home from Spain, I have been remembering that I really was
betrothed to you this whole year," she answered, not turning from him
the innocent candor of her clear gaze. "Before that, before I knew the
truth, I used to think how strange a thing it would have been if you had
died in the accident and I had lived all the rest of my life believing
myself promised to you, when in fact you had loved Isabel, not me. I
used to think, often, of that first day when I fell on the stairs at the
Beach race track--when you caught me and held me close to you--and how
you would never again hold me like that or miss not doing so. I am quite
sure that no one ever was wanted so much as I have wanted you. It may
not be right to tell this even to you, but it is true. And I will marry
you whenever you ask, Allan."
Allan Gerard, man of the practical world and the twentieth century, went
to his knee on the floor of the hotel parlor and hid his face against
her hand.
The room was rosy with the glow of sunset, when someone discreetly
knocked. In response to Gerard's invitation to enter, the door opened
and revealed the wiry, jersey-clad form of Rupert on the threshold.
Grimy yet from his recent employment, he was engaged in deftly winding a
strip of antiseptic gauze around his wrist while he spoke.
"I ain't one to invite li'l' Artha' Brownskin to meet the A.M.A. on
Sunday," he began discontentedly, and broke off at sight of Flavia.
"I don't need to introduce you to Miss Rose," smiled Gerard. "What have
you done to your wrist? Much?"
"Scratched it threading my sewing-machine; I'll be able to sit up in bed
to-morrow," reassured the mechanician, his acute black eyes travelling
from the young girl to his chief. "I didn't mean to run into this camp
without being signalled. As I was saying, I ain't one to promote
trouble, but there's a gentleman downstairs who's calling off our race."
"_What?_"
"Mr. Rose is explaining to our driver that he ain't fit to be allowed on
a race course. And no one's opposing his remarks any."
Gerard divined the situation.
"Go down," Flavia begged, as he turned to her. "I have been selfish to
keep you here; I might have known! But I saw Corrie just for a moment,
then father sent me to you. Go to Corrie; Mr. Rupert will bring me."
"I can guess that I'm a fierce bad postman," Rupert dryly acknowledged.
"But I ain't likely to confuse ladies on the way downstairs. You're sure
needed below."
In the empty paved space before the hotel, the Mercury Titan still
reposed its massive bulk, with its driver in his seat, his fair head
uncovered in the pink-and-gold light and his face turned to the man who
stood beside the car. There was neither heat nor resentment in either
Mr. Rose's expression or his son's as the older man came over to shake
hands with Gerard. Corrie did not move; his left arm was thrown about
the neck of the huge dog reared up beside him against the machine.
"I'm glad to see you looking so well," Mr. Rose briefly greeted. "I have
been talking to Corrie, here, while we waited for you, Gerard, but this
thing won't do."
"What won't do, Mr. Rose?" Gerard questioned, equally matter-of-fact.
"You know, and Corrie knows. I appreciate the way you have stood by him
and the way he has kept to his work--I'm proud of it--but this isn't a
question of how any of us three feel. I am sorry to hurt him, but we
have got to face facts. A man who loses his temper is not fit for
certain places; a race track is one."
"The Corrie Rose whom I know and who trained under me is fit for any
place," Gerard gravely maintained. The work of months was on the verge
of loss; he gauged very exactly what this sentence would result in for
Flavia's brother.
Mr. Rose glanced towards his son; if his powerful, square-cut face was
inflexible, it was without hardness.
"Gerard, I am sorry," he repeated. "It's like you to overlook what
happened to yourself and try him again; he and I have got more to
consider and to be responsible for. He might race straight for years,
yes, forever; but his temper might slip him to-morrow. I know he means
right, but it can't be chanced. I'll risk seeing no more men picked up
as you were. Corrie, whenever I've said must--that hasn't been
often--you've answered. I think you will now. Get off that machine and
come home with me, my boy; we will try a fresh start, you and I."
Corrie stirred slightly; even his lips were gray and dark circles
appeared suddenly stamped beneath his eyes. He offered no defence or
demur, but before his movement could spell obedience Gerard had sprung
across the intervening space and dropped his left hand on the driver's
arm, forcing him to retain his seat.
"Stay there," he commanded curtly. "You are my employee, under contract
to drive my cars this season; if you break your signed agreement I will
bring you up before the A.M.A. board and have you suspended for
unprofessional conduct."
Corrie gasped as from a dash of cold water in the face, the rough tonic
effectually bringing him out of his daze of habitual submission.
"Mr. Rose, this is not sentiment, but business," Gerard continued in his
usual tone. "Corrie is not racing to-morrow for the first time, or for
the fifth or sixth, this season. He is the cordially liked and respected
comrade of his fellow-drivers--there is not one who would not laugh in
your face at the idea of fearing to have him among them. I tell you, for
the rest, that any other man on the course might let his nerves trick
his self-control; Corrie Rose never will. I know him, now, better than
you yet can. But," he snatched a rapid survey of Corrie, then lifted
his hand from the other's arm and drew back, "he is not a child; let
him decide."
"Corrie----" his father recommenced, his voice choked.
But Corrie had found himself. He laid one firm, gauntleted hand on the
beloved steering-wheel and turned to Mr. Rose the serious countenance
and steadfast eyes of the new Corrie of the Mercury's making. With the
other hand he pressed the dog's great head closer to him; perhaps only
Allan Gerard saw and translated the pathos of that unconscious gesture.
"I would do anything else, sir," he stated simply. "But Gerard has
stayed by me through the worst time I will ever have. I know--you gave
me money; but he helped me _live_. Afterward I will do whatever you bid
me, now I cannot leave him without a driver on the eve of a race. All
the more," his speaking glance went to Gerard, "all the more I must
stay, because he would rather hold me strictly to a business contract
than remind me that I owe him anything or that it is through me that he
is not driving this car himself."
There was a moment of absolute silence. Then the rustle of soft garments
came with Flavia's swift crossing from the doorway where she and Rupert
had witnessed the contest. Straight to the side of the gray machine she
went, and clasping her little hands over her brother's arm, raised to
him the high trust and unchanging love of her regard.
"Dearest, I hope you win, to-morrow," she said bravely and sweetly. "But
kiss me, Corrie, and come home afterward. We need you, papa and I--and
Allan."
"Other Fellow," he thanked her, under his breath, and leaned down to
give the caress.
Gerard and Mr. Rose were looking at each other.
"You win," conceded the older man, without rancor. "I hope we are not
sorry. Bring him to the house after you get through, to-morrow, I guess
we'll be a family party."
The snorting uproar of an arriving racing car crashed across reply.
"Hey, Rosie, did you rope those hams and eggs?" blithely shouted the
masked driver, checking his machine. "If you didn't, I'll hook a wheel
off your cart to-morrow when I pass you. Why haven't you canned your car
yet? Oh, excuse _me_!" perceiving Flavia.
"I roped them, George," assured Corrie. "I'm coming in, now."
Rupert advanced to the front of the Mercury.
"You're giving orders," he signified to his driver. "Do I crank?"
The slight episode was the fitting period to Gerard's argument; he gave
Mr. Rose his fine, cool smile to point it.
* * * * *
Frederick the Great did not go home to the pink villa. Not even Flavia
could win him from the master he had refound. So it happened that when
Gerard went to Corrie, after midnight, he discovered his driver seated
beside an open window in the drab, cheerless hotel bedroom, his arms
folded on the sill and the dog's head resting on his knee.
"Corrie, do you know it is past twelve o'clock?" he exclaimed, purposely
authoritative in spite of his aching pity. "I saw the light over your
door and came in to give you what Rupert describes as a calling down.
How do you expect to be up fresh and fit for a race at dawn? You go to
bed, young man, where I sent you two good hours ago."
"I am going," Corrie replied, without turning. "I'm--all right.
Gerard----"
The pause was so long that Gerard came quietly over and put his hand on
the other's shoulder, waiting.
"Gerard, do you remember what Rupert once said, in the yacht club where
we fed the tramp, about my getting just what I earned and that no luck
would soften my brick walls? And I said I was content because I meant to
earn what I wanted. I didn't know what I was talking about, but he was
right. I'm not complaining, you know; it's fair enough. No, don't answer
yet; that isn't what I meant to say."
The dog moved restlessly and whined, nestling closer to the master he
loved. Corrie dropped a hand to the animal's neck.
"This good old chap and I will go to bed, presently. We've got to win,
to-morrow; it's the last time. Gerard, did you ever read a poem Flavia
and I used to like, I wonder? About a man having the strength of ten,
because his heart was clean? Do you believe it--I mean, that a man can
stand more if he knows he is right inside than if, if he could not think
that?"
"Corrie, yes, I do believe it. But there are few stainless Galahads.
Strength and rightness do not depend on the past, but the present. The
finest strength I have seen, has been in men who, who----"
The intended conclusion died on his lips, before he found words to
soften its intrinsically harsh implication. Corrie had turned to him a
glance so clear, a face so startling in its white resolution and dignity
of fearless candor, that Gerard drew back with a sensation of rebuked
presumptuousness. What he had offered as a consolation suddenly loomed
as an insult.
"Thank you," said Corrie, quite simply. "You're awfully good to me,
Gerard. I don't know why I said all that--I, I guess something slipped.
Good night; Fred and I will get some sleep. It's a short night,
anyhow."