JEALOUSY COMES ABOARD
There was an air of domestic peace in the observation room, where
Mallory and Marjorie had been left to themselves for some time. But
the peace was like the ominous hush that precedes a tempest.
Mallory was so happy with everything coming his way, that he was even
making up with Snoozleums, stroking the tatted coat with one hand and
holding up his newspaper with the other. He did not know all that was
coming his way. The blissful silence was broken first by Marjorie:
"How do you spell Utah?--with a y?"
"Utah begins with You," he said--and rather liked his wit, listened
for some recognition, and rose to get it, but she waved him away.
"Don't bother me, honey. Can't you see I'm busy?"
He kissed her hair and sauntered back, dividing his attention between
Snoozleums and the ten-inning game.
And now there was a small commotion in the smoking room. Through the
glass along the corridor the men caught sight of the girl who had got
on at Green River. Ashton saw her first and she saw him.
"There she goes," Ashton hissed to the others, "look quick! There's
the nectarine."
"My word! She's a little bit of all right, isn't she?"
Even Dr. Temple stared at her with approval: "Dear little thing, isn't
she?"
The girl, very consciously unconscious of the admiration, moved
demurely along, with eyes downcast, but at such an angle that she
could take in the sensation she was creating; she went along picking
up stares as if they were bouquets.
Her demeanor was a remarkable compromise between outrageous flirtation
and perfect respectability. But she was looking back so intently that
when she moved into the observation room she walked right into the
newspaper Mallory was holding out before him.
Both said: "I beg your pardon."
When Mallory lowered the paper, both stared till their eyes almost
popped. Her amazement was one of immediate rapture. He looked as if he
would have been much obliged for a volcanic crater to sink into.
"Harry!" she gasped, and let fall her handbag.
"Kitty!" he gasped, and let fall his newspaper. Both bent, he handed
her the newspaper and tossed the handbag into a chair; saw his
mistake, withdrew the newspaper and proffered her Snoozleums. Marjorie
stopped writing, pen poised in air, as if she had suddenly been
petrified.
The newcomer was the first to speak. She fairly gushed: "Harry
Mallory--of all people."
"Kitty! Kathleen! Miss Llewellyn!"
"Just to think of meeting you again."
"Just to think of it."
"And on this train of all places."
"On this train of all places!"
"Oh, Harry, Harry!"
"Oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"
"You dear fellow, it's so long since I saw you last."
"So long."
"It was at that last hop at West Point, remember?--why, it seems only
yesterday, and how well you are looking. You are well, aren't you?"
"Not very." He was mopping his brow in anguish, and yet the room
seemed strangely cold.
"Of course you look much better in your uniform. You aren't wearing
your uniform, are you?"
"No, this is not my uniform."
"You haven't left the army, have you?"
"I don't know yet."
"Don't ever do that. You are just beautiful in brass buttons."
"Thanks."
"Harry!"
"What's the matter now?"
"This tie, this green tie, isn't this the one I knitted you?"
"I am sure I don't know, I borrowed it from the conductor."
"Don't you remember? I did knit you one."
"Did you? I believe you did! I think I wore it out."
"Oh, you fickle boy. But see what I have. What's this?"
He stared through the glassy eyes of complete helplessness. "It looks
like a bracelet."
"Don't tell me you don't remember this!--the little bangle bracelet
you gave me."
"D-did I give you a baygled branglet?"
"Of course you did. And the inscription. Don't you remember it?"
She held her wrist in front of his aching eyes and he perused as if it
were his own epitaph, what she read aloud for him. "_From Harry to
Kitty, the Only Girl I Ever Loved._"
"Good night!" he sighed to himself, and began to mop his brow with
Snoozleums.
"You put it on my arm," said Kathleen, with a moonlight sigh, "and
I've always worn it."
"Always?"
"Always! no matter whom I was engaged to."
The desperate wretch, who had not dared even to glance in Marjorie's
direction, somehow thought he saw a straw of self-defense. "You were
engaged to three or four others when I was at West Point."
"I may have been engaged to the others," said Kathleen, moon-eyeing
him, "but I always liked you best, Clifford--er, Tommy--I mean Harry."
"You got me at last."
Kathleen fenced back at this: "Well, I've no doubt you have had a
dozen affairs since."
"Oh, no! My heart has only known one real love." He threw this over
her head at Marjorie, but Kathleen seized it, to his greater
confusion: "Oh, Harry, how sweet of you to say it. It makes me feel
positively faint," and she swooned his way, but he shoved a chair
forward and let her collapse into that. Thinking and hoping that she
was unconscious, he made ready to escape, but she caught him by the
coat, and moaned: "Where am I?" and he growled back:
"In the Observation Car!"
Kathleen's life and enthusiasm returned without delay: "Fancy meeting
you again! I could just scream."
"So could I."
"You must come up in our car and see mamma."
"Is Ma-mamma with you?" Mallory stammered, on the verge of imbecility.
"Oh, yes, indeed, we're going around the world."
"Don't let me detain you."
"Papa is going round the world also."
"Is papa on this train, too?"
At last something seemed to embarrass her a trifle: "No, papa went on
ahead. Mamma hopes to overtake him. But papa is a very good traveler."
Then she changed the subject. "Do come and meet mamma. It would cheer
her up so. She is so fond of you. Only this morning she was saying,
'Of all the boys you were ever engaged to, Kathleen, the one I like
most of all was Edgar--I mean Clarence--er--Harry Mallory."
"Awfully kind of her."
"You must come and see her--she's some stouter now!"
"Oh, is she? Well, that's good."
Mallory was too angry to be sane, and too helpless to take advantage
of his anger. He wondered how he could ever have cared for this
molasses and mucilage girl. He remembered now that she had always had
these same cloying ways. She had always pawed him and, like everybody
but the pawers, he hated pawing.
It would have been bad enough at any time to have Kathleen hanging on
his coat, straightening his tie, leaning close, smiling up in his
eyes, losing him his balance, recapturing him every time he edged
away. But with Marjorie as the grim witness it was maddening.
He loathed and abominated Kathleen Llewellyn, and if she had only been
a man, he could cheerfully have beaten her to a pulp and chucked her
out of the window. But because she was a helpless little baggage, he
had to be as polite as he could while she sat and tore his plans to
pieces, embittered Marjorie's heart against him, and either ended all
hopes of their marriage, or furnished an everlasting rancor to be
recalled in every quarrel to their dying day. Oh, etiquette, what
injustices are endured in thy name!
So there he sat, sweating his soul's blood, and able only to spar for
time and wonder when the gong would ring. And now she was off on a new
tack:
"And where are you bound for, Harry, dear?"
"The Philippines," he said, and for the first time there was something
beautiful in their remoteness.
"Perhaps we shall cross the Pacific on the same boat."
The first sincere smile he had experienced came to him: "I go on an
army transport, fortu--unfortunately."
"Oh, I just love soldiers. Couldn't mamma and I go on the transport?
Mamma is very fond of soldiers, too."
"I'm afraid it couldn't be arranged."
"Too bad, but perhaps we can stop off and pay you a visit. I just
love army posts. So does mamma."
"Oh, do!"
"What will be your address?"
"Just the Philippines--just the Philippines."
"But aren't there quite a few of them?"
"Only about two thousand."
"Which one will you be on?"
"I'll be on the third from the left," said Mallory, who neither knew
nor cared what he was saying. Marjorie had endured all that she could
stand. She rose in a tightly leashed fury.
"I'm afraid I'm in the way."
Kathleen turned in surprise. She had not noticed that anyone was near.
Mallory went out of his head completely. "Oh, don't go--for heaven's
sake don't go," he appealed to Marjorie.
"A friend of yours?" said Kathleen, bristling.
"No, not a friend," in a chaotic tangle,
"Mrs.--Miss--Miss--Er--er--er----"
Kathleen smiled: "Delighted to meet you, Miss Ererer."
"The pleasure is all mine," Marjorie said, with an acid smile.
"Have you known Harry long?" said Kathleen, jealously, "or are you
just acquaintances on the train?"
"We're just acquaintances on the train!"
"I used to know Harry very well--very well indeed."
"So I should judge. You won't mind if I leave you to talk over old
times together?"
"How very sweet of you."
"Oh, don't mention it."
"But, Marjorie," Mallory cried, as she turned away. Kathleen started
at the ardor of his tone, and gasped: "Marjorie! Then he--you----"
"Not at all--not in the least," said Marjorie.
At this crisis the room was suddenly inundated with people. Mrs.
Whitcomb, Mrs. Wellington, Mrs. Temple and Mrs. Fosdick, all trying to
look like bridesmaids, danced in, shouting:
"Here they come! Make way for the bride and groom!"