LUCKY BANKS AND THE PINK CHIFFON
On his way down from Vivian Court, the mining man's attention was caught
by the great corner show window at Sedgewick-Wilson's, and instantly out
of the display of handsome evening gowns his eyes singled a dancing frock
of pink chiffon. "She always looked pretty," he told himself, "but when
she wore pink--my!" and he turned and found his way through the swinging
doors. A little later the elevator had left him at the second floor. For a
moment the mirrors bewildered him; they gave a sense of vastness,
repeating the elegant apartment in every direction, and whichever way he
glanced there was himself, seated on the edge of a chair, his square shoes
set primly on the thick green carpet, his hat held stiffly over the
crippled hand. Then an imposing young woman sauntered towards him. "Well,"
she said severely, "what can I show you?"
Banks drew himself a little stiffer. "A dress," he said abruptly in his
highest key, "ready-made and pink."
"What size?"
"Why"--the little man paused, and a blush that was nearer a shadow crossed
his weather-worn face--"let me see. She's five feet seven and a quarter,
in her shoes, and I judge a couple of inches wider through the shoulders
than you." His glance moved to another saleswoman, who came a step nearer
and stood listening, frankly amused. "You look more her figure," he added.
"Takes a thirty-eight." The first saleswoman brought out a simple gown of
pink veiling and laid it on the rack before Banks, and he leaned forward
and took a fold between his thumb and forefinger, gravely feeling the
texture.
"This is priced at twenty-five dollars," she said. "How does that suit?"
Banks drew himself erect. "There's one down-stairs in the front window I
like better," he said.
The woman looked him shrewdly over. He had put his hat down, and her
glance rested involuntarily on his maimed hand. "That pink chiffon is a
hundred and twenty-five," she explained.
"I can stand it; the price doesn't cut any figure, if it's what I want."
He paused, nodding a little aggressively and tapping the carpet with one
square foot. "The lady it's for is a mighty good judge of cloth, and I
want you to show me the best you've got."
She glanced at the other saleswoman, but she had turned her back--her
shoulders shook--and she hurried to bring out a duplicate of the pink
chiffon, which she arranged carefully on the rack. Bank's face softened;
he reached to touch it with a sort of caress. "This is more like it," he
said; then, turning to the second girl, "but I can tell better if you'll
put it on. You don't seem very busy," he added quickly, "and I'll pay you
your time."
"Why, that's all right," she answered and came to pick up the gown. "I'll
be glad to; that's what I'm here for."
She disappeared, laughing, into a dressing-room, and presently the first
saleswoman excused herself to wait on new customers. The girl came back
transformed. She had a handsome brunette face, with merry dark eyes and a
great deal of black hair arranged in an elaborate end striking coiffure.
"Isn't it swell?" she asked, walking leisurely before him. "But you'll
have to fasten it for her; it hooks in the back." Then she stopped; the
fun went out of her face; her glance had fallen to his crippled hand. "I'm
awfully sorry," she stammered. "Of course she can manage it herself; we
all have to sometimes."
But the little man was rapt in the gown. "I'll take it!" he said
tremulously. "It suits you great, but, my! She'll be a sight."
"I'll bet she's pretty," said the girl, still trying to make amends. "I'd
like to see her in this chiffon. And I guess your party will be swell."
Banks looked troubled. "It isn't a party; not exactly. You see she's been
away from town quite a spell, and I thought likely she'd be a little short
on clothes. I guess while I'm about it I may as well take along everything
that naturally goes with this dress; shoes and socks and a hat and--
flannels--"
He paused in uncertainty, for the girl had suddenly turned her back again.
"I'd like to leave the rest to you," he added. "Pick out the best; the
whole outfit straight through."
"I'll be glad to." The girl turned again, controlling a last dimple. "You
are the thoughtfullest man I ever saw on this floor. She's in luck; but I
guess you aren't married--yet."
Banks laughed his high, strained laugh and rose. "No," he answered
briskly, "no, not exactly. But I want you to hurry out this bill of goods
in time for the four-ten Great Northern. I can't go without it, and I'm
counting on making Wenatchee to-night."
"Wenatchee?" exclaimed the girl. "Is that where you expect her to wear
this chiffon? Why, it's the dustiest place under the sun. Take my word for
it; I came from there. And, see here, they don't give big parties there;
the people are just nice and friendly; it's a small town. If I were you
I'd choose a tan; a veiling gown, like this first one we showed you, only
tan. Then you could put the difference in price into a coat;--we have some
smart ones in tan,--with a light pongee duster to slip over it all, if
she's driving or using a machine."
Banks nodded. "Sure, tuck them all in; but this pink dress goes, too, and
see it's on top. Likely they'll go best in a trunk. Now, if you will give
me the bill--"
He paused to take out his poke, but the girl laughed. "I can't," she said.
"It will take me half an hour to foot it all up after I've picked out the
things. And unless you give me a limit, I won't know where to stop. Then
there's the hat. I never would dare to choose that for a woman I've never
seen, unless she's my style."
"She is," the little man answered gravely, "that's why I picked you out
when I first come in. I guess maybe the other one was nice all right, but
she was a little too dried-up and froze to do."
"Then I know what I'd like to send; it's a hat I tried on this morning. A
nice taupe--that's about the color of that sage-brush country over there
and won't show the dust--and it's trimmed with just one stunning plume the
same shade and a wreath of the tiniest pink French roses set under the
velvet brim. It looked like it was made for me, but twelve and a half is
my limit and it's twenty-five dollars. Maybe you don't want to go that
high."
Banks untied the poke and poured the remaining gold pieces on the
show-case; then he found a pocket-book from which he took several crisp
bills. "There's three hundred," he said briefly, "and another ten for the
trunk. I want you to pick out a nice little one I can stow in the back of
a one-seated automobile. The hat and this pink dress go on top; and be
sure you get the outfit down to that four-ten train. Good-by," he put out
his hand, and a gleam of warmth touched his bleak face. "I'm glad I met
you."
"And so am I. Good-by." She stopped gathering up the money long enough to
give him her hand. "And good luck," she added.
The first saleswoman, again at leisure, approached and stood looking after
him as he hurried with his quick, uneven steps towards the elevator. "Of
all things!" she exclaimed. "He did buy that pink chiffon. Who'd ever have
thought he had the money or the taste. But I suppose he's one of those
lucky fellows who've struck it rich in Alaska."
The other young woman nodded. "His gold came out of one of those pokes,
and it's fresh from the mint. But I guess he's earned all he's got, every
cent. I'll bet he's starved and froze; suffered ways we don't know. And
he's spending it on a girl. I'd like to see her. Maybe she's the
cold-blooded kind that'll snub him and make fun of this chiffon."
She turned into the dressing-room, and it was then Banks stopped and
brought out the loose change in his pockets. There was a ten dollar piece,
to which he added two and a half in silver. He started back up the room,
but the girl had disappeared, and, while he stood hesitating, a
floor-walker approached.
"Have you forgotten something?" he asked politely.
"Yes," answered Banks, "I forgot to give this money to the young lady who
was waiting on me. She's likely gone to take off a pink dress I bought.
But she's the one with lots of black hair and pink cheeks and a real nice
smile; you couldn't miss her. And you might as well give her this; tell
her it's the other twelve and a half to make up the price of that hat; a
duplicate of the one we were talking about. She'll understand."
He called these final words over his shoulder, for the elevator had
stopped, and he hurried to catch it. Going down, he looked at his watch;
he had spent an hour buying that dress. But on the lower floor he noticed
a telephone booth and saw a way to make up the time.
"Hello!" he called, pitching his voice to a treble. "This is Banks, the
miner you was trying to talk into buying that little red car last week;
roadster I think you said 'twas. Well, I want you to fire up and run down
to the Rainier-Grand quick as you can."
He listened a moment, then: "Yes, likely I'll change my mind, if I get
so's I can drive her all right by three p.m. I'm going east of the
mountains, and if I buy I've got to ship her on the four-ten train--Yes, I
mean the little one with a seat to accommodate two, with a place to carry
a trunk behind. Now get busy and rush her down. I've got some errands to
do, and I want you to hurry me around; then we'll get away from the crowd
out on the boulevard where I can have a clear track to break her on."
The sale was made, and the mining man must have applied himself
successfully to his lesson, for the following morning, when the red car
spun out of Wenatchee and up the lifting valley road, a snug steamer-trunk
was stowed in the box behind, and Banks at the steering gear was traveling
alone. To be sure the rising curves were made in sudden spurts and jerks,
but his lack of skill was reinforced by a tireless vigilance gathered
through breaking days of driving and mushing over hazardous trails. And he
had made an early start; few wayfarers were yet astir. But at last, high
up where the track doubled the summit of a slope that lifted in a bluff
overhead, and on the other hand dropped precipitously to the river, the
little man barely averted catastrophe. The driver and the vehicle were
hidden by the curve, but at his warning honk, two percherons that blocked
the way halted and, lunging at his repeated note, crowded back on the team
they led. Then a woman's voice shrilled: "I've got the heaviest load; you
give me right of way."
Banks sprang out and ran forward past the horses. The driver, dressed in a
skirt and blouse of khaki, was seated on a load of lumber. She held the
reins high in yellow-gauntleted hands, and a rope of loosened red hair
hung below a smart campaign hat. "I can't back," she exclaimed
aggressively. "You got to give me right of way."
"Ain't there a man with the outfit?" he asked uncertainly.
"No," she snapped. "Do I look like I need one?" But she hurried on
tremulously: "My husband's running the mill night and day, and Bryant,
down the valley, had to have his boxes for the apple crop. He said send
the boards down, and he'd let a couple of his Japs knock 'em together. So
I thought with an early start and a clear track, I could drive. But you've
got to turn out. I've got the heavy load."
Banks shook his head.
"It's my first trip," he said dubiously, "and I ain't learned to back her
only enough to turn 'round; and it's too narrow. But I used to drive
pretty good seven or eight years ago; and I've been managing a dog team
off and on ever since. Let me climb up there and back your load."
"You can't do it," she cried. "It's up-grade and a mean curve, and that
nigh leader, for a first-class draught horse, has the cussedest
disposition you ever saw. You can't back him short of a gunshot under his
nose, and you got to get that buzz-wagon of yours out of sight before I
can get him past."
"Then," said Banks, and smiled grimly, "I guess it's up to me to back." He
started to return to the machine but paused to add over his shoulder:
"It's all right; don't you be scared. No matter what happens, you forget
it and drive straight ahead."
But destiny, who had scourged and thwarted the little man so many years,
was in a humorous mood that day. The little red car backed down from the
bend in zigzag spurts, grazing the bluff, sheering off to coast the
river-ward brink; then, in the final instant, when the machine failed to
respond to the lever speedily enough, a spur of rock jutting beyond the
roadway eased the outer wheel. It rolled up, all but over, while the next
tire met the obstruction and caught. Banks laughed. "Hooray!" he piped.
"Now swing the corner, lady! All circle to the left."
"Get up!" the driver shrilled. "Get up, now, Duke, you imp!" And the
leader, balking suspiciously at the explosive machine, felt a smart touch
of the whip. He plunged, sidled against the bluff and broke by. There was
barely room to make that turn; the tailboard of the wagon, grating, left a
long blemish on the bright body of the car, but as the load rolled on down
the incline, Banks churned gayly up around the bend.
In less than an hour Hesperides Vale stretched behind him, and the bold
front of Cerberus lifted holding the gap. Tisdale had warned him of the
barbed-wire fence, and while he cautiously rounded the mountain, his old
misgiving rose. What though he had made good; what though the Iditarod had
filled his poke many times over, the north had taken heavy toll. He had
left his youth up there, and what would this smart little automobile count
against a whole right hand? And this trunkful of clothes--what would it
weigh against a good-sized man? Still, still, though she might have taken
her pick of 'em all, Annabel had never married, and she had kept his
goats. Then he remembered Tisdale had said that she too had had a hard
fight, and the years must have changed her. And hadn't she herself told
him, in that letter he carried in his breast pocket, that if he cared to
come and see the goats, he would find his investment was turning out fine,
but he needn't expect she had kept her own good looks?
The little man smiled with returning confidence and, lifting his glance,
saw the cabin and the browsing flock cut off by the barbed-wire fence from
the road. Then as he brought the car to a stop, the collie flew barking
against the wicket, and a gaunt woman rose from a rock and stood shading
her eyes from the morning sun.
He sprang down and spoke to the dog, and instantly his tone quieted the
collie, but the woman came nearer to point at the sign. "You better read
that," she threatened.
His hand dropped from the wicket, and he stood staring at her across the
barbed wire. "I was looking for a lady," he said slowly, "but I guess
likely I've made a mistake."
She came another step and, again shading her eyes, stared back. A look
half eager, half wistful, trembled for a moment through the forbidding
tenseness of her face. "All the men I've seen in automobiles up here were
looking for land," she replied defiantly.
He nodded; his eyes did not move from her face, but they shone like two
chippings of blue glacier ice, and his voice when he spoke piped its
sharpest key. "So am I. I've got an option on a pocket somewheres in this
range, and the lady I'm inquiring for happened to homestead the quarter
below. It sort of overlaps, so's she put her improvements on the wrong
edge. Yes, ma'am, I've likely made a mistake, but, you see, I heard she
had a bunch o' goats."
There was a brief silence then. "Anyhow, you must o' come from that
surveyor," she said. "Maybe he was just a smooth talker, but he had a nice
face; laughing crinkles around his eyes and a way of looking at you, if
you'd done a mean thing, to make you feel like the scum of the earth. But
he happened to be acquainted with the man that made me a present of my
first billy and ewes, and you--favor him a little." She paused, then went
on unsteadily, while her eyes continued to search him. "He was about your
size, but he's been up in Alaska, way in the interior somewheres for
years, and the letter I wrote him couldn't have reached him inside a
month. I figured if he came out, he would just about catch the last
steamer in October."
"So he would, if he hadn't come down to Seattle already." He stopped,
fumbling with the pin, and threw open the wicket. "I guess I ain't changed
much more'n you, Annabel."
The woman was silent. Her chin dropped; her glance sought the earth. Then
Banks turned to fasten the gate behind him, and she started to stalk
mechanically up the field towards the cabin. "I feel all broke up," he
said, overtaking her; "like I'd been struck by a blizzard. Why, there was
a girl down in Seattle, she sold me a bill of goods that looked more like
you than you do yourself. I know I got myself to blame, but I never
counted for a minute on your keeping the goats."
The woman stalked on a little faster, but she could not outstrip the
prospector; she turned her face, in refuge, to the flock. "Goats," she
said unsteadily, "goats--are all right when you get used to 'em. They're
something like children, I guess; a sight of trouble but good company and
mighty comforting to have 'round. And they're just as different. There's
old Dad, the cautious looking one standing off there watching us and
chewing the end of a thistle. It might as well be a toothpick, and I'll
bet he's thinking: 'You can't get the best of me, no, sir.' And that piece
of wisdom next to him is the Professor. Don't he remind you of the old
schoolmaster down at the Corners? And there goes Johnny Banks. See him?
The pert little fellow chasing up the field. You never can tell where
he'll turn up or what he'll do next."
She laughed a dry, forced laugh, and Banks echoed it in his strained key.
"But we are going to get rid of 'em. They're a fine bunch--you've brought
'em up splendid, made a sight better showing than I could--but we are
going to get rid of 'em, yes, ma'am, and forget 'em as quick's we can. We
are going to start right now to make up those seven years."
They had reached the cabin, and he stopped on the threshold. "My, my," he
said softly, "don't it look homey? There's your Dad's old chair, and the
dresser and the melodion. I was 'fraid you'd sold that, Annabel."
"I could have, there's been plenty of chances, but Dad gave it to me,
don't you remember? the Christmas I was sixteen."
"My, yes, and you opened it right there, under the cherry tree, and
started _Home, Sweet Home_. I can hear it now, and the crowd joining in.
I'm glad you kept it, Annabel; a new one wouldn't seem just the same."
"It's traveled though. You ought to have seen me moving from Oregon. The
old delivery wagon was heaping full." Her laugh this time was spontaneous.
"And old Kate couldn't make more than ten miles a day. But I had a good
tent, and when she had done her day's stunt, I just tied her out to feed
and made camp. The hardest was keeping track of the goats, but the flock
was small then, and I had two dogs."
"I see," said Banks. "You kept 'em ahead of the wagon when you was on the
road and let 'em forage for themselves. But I'd like to have a look at old
Kate. She came of good stock."
Annabel went over and, seating herself in her father's chair, untied her
sunbonnet. "Kate died," she said. "I hired her out to a man down the
valley, and he worked her too hard in the heat."
There was a silent moment. She took off the bonnet and laid it in her lap.
The light, streaming through a small window, touched her hair, which was
bound in smooth, thick braids around her head.
"My, my," the little man said, "ain't it a sight? I'd have known you in a
minute without that bonnet down at the gate. My, but don't it make a
difference what a woman wears? I'll bet I can't tell you from the girl I
left in Oregon when you've changed your clothes."
She shook her head. "This denim is all I've got," she said, with a touch
of defiance. "I wore out all I had; goats are hard on clothes."
"I thought likely." His bleak face began to glow. "And I knew you was out
of town away from the stores, so's I brought along a little outfit. You
wait a minute, and I'll fetch it right in."
He was gone before he finished speaking and returned in an incredibly
short time with the trunk, which he deposited on the floor before her.
Then he felt in his pocket and, finding the key, fitted it and lifted the
lid. It was then, for the first time, she noticed the maimed hand.
"Johnny!" she cried, and the pent emotion surged in her voice. "Johnny,
you've been--hurt."
"Oh, that don't amount to anything now, only the looks. I can turn out
just as much work."
He hurried to open the tray, but before he could remove the packing of
tissue paper that enveloped the hat, she reached and took the crippled
hand between her own. Her fingers fluttered, caressing, while with
maternal protectiveness they covered it, and she drew him back to the
broad arm of her chair. The defiance had gone out of her face; her eyes
were misty and tender. "You tell me what happened," she said.
So came Lucky Banks' hour. He saw this woman who had been fond of pretty
clothes, who had once worn them but was now reduced to a single frock of
coarse denim, turn from the fine outfit before it was even displayed;
waiting, with a wondrously comforting solicitude he never had suspected in
the girl whom he had left in Oregon, to hear first that miserable story of
the trail. He told it briefly, but with the vividness of one whose words
are coined straight from the crucible of bitter experience, and while she
listened, her heart shone in her passionate eyes. "What if it had
happened," she broke out at last. "If it had, Johnny, it would have been
my fault. I drove you into going up there. I'm responsible for this hand.
I--I couldn't have stood worse than that."
The little man beamed. "Is that so, Annabel? Then I'm mighty glad
Weatherbee followed that stampede. Nobody else would have seen my hand
sticking up through the snow and stopped to dig me out. Unless--" he added
thoughtfully, "it was Hollis Tisdale. Yes, likely Hollis would. He was the
only man in Alaska fit to be Dave's running mate."
"Do you mean that surveyor?" she asked.
Banks nodded.
"I thought so," she said with satisfaction. "Dad taught me to size people
up on sight. He could tell the first minute he saw a man's face whether he
was good for a bill of groceries or not; and I knew that surveyor was
straight. I bet he knew you was in Seattle when he got me to write. But I
wish I could have a look at the other one. He must be--great."
Banks nodded again. "He was," he answered huskily. "He was. But he's made
his last trip. I wasn't three hundred miles off, but I never thought of
Dave Weatherbee's needing help; it took Tisdale, clear off in Nome, over a
thousand miles, to sense something was wrong. But he started to mush it,
alone with his huskies, to the Iditarod and on to the Aurora, Dave's mine.
You don't know anything about that winter trail, Annabel. It means from
twenty to fifty below, with the wind swooping out of every canyon,
cross-cutting like knives, and not the sign of a road-house in days, in
weeks sometimes. But he made it,"--Banks' voice reached high pitch--"He
beat the records, my, yes."
"And something was wrong?" asked Annabel, breaking the pause.
Banks nodded again. "You remember that sheepman down in Oregon they
brought in from the range. The one that ripped up his comforter that night
at the hotel and set the wool in little rolls around the floor; thought he
was tending sheep? Well, that's what was happening. And Hollis was two
days late. Dave had started for the coast; not the regular way to
Fairbanks and out by stage to Valdez, but a new route through the Alaska
Range to strike the Susitna and on to Seward. And he had fresh dogs. He
was through Rainy Pass when Tisdale began to catch up."
"He did catch up?" Annabel questioned again hurriedly.
Banks nodded once more. He drew his hand away and rose from his seat on
the chair arm. His eyes were shining like blue glacier ice. "It was in a
blizzard; the same as the day I lost my fingers--only--Hollis--he was too
late." He turned and walked unsteadily to the door and stood looking out.
"I wasn't three hundred miles from the Aurora," he added. "I could have
been in time. I can't ever forget that."
Annabel rose and stood watching him, with the emotion playing in her face.
"Johnny!" she exclaimed at last. "Oh, Johnny!" She went over and put her
arm protectively around his shoulders. "I know just how you feel; but you
didn't drive him to it. You were just busy and interested in your work.
You'd have gone in a minute, left everything, if you had known."
"That's it; I ought to have known. I ought to have kept track of Dave; run
over once in a while to say hullo. I'd have likely seen it was coming on,
then, in time. When Tisdale found him, he'd been setting out little pieces
of spruce, like an orchard in the snow. You see," he added after a moment,
"Dave always expected to come back here when he struck it rich and start a
fruit ranch. He was the man who owned this pocket."
A sudden understanding shone in Annabel's face. "And that's why you got an
option on it; you want to carry out his scheme. I'll help you, Johnny,
I'll do my level best."
Banks turned and looked at her. "That's all I want, Annabel. I was a
little afraid you'd be sick of the place. But, my, we can go right ahead
and set a crew of men to grubbing out the sage on both sections to once.
Folks might have said, seeing you take up with a undersized, froze-up
fellow like me, you was marrying me for my money; but they can't, no,
ma'am, not when they see the valuable claim you are developing in your own
right."
Annabel laughed. "I guess you're entitled to your turn making fun of me.
But have you got money, Johnny? I never thought of that."
"Likely not. But the Annabel sure brought me luck; that name worked better
than a rabbit's foot. Here's a little bunch of nuggets I saved out of the
first clean-up." He paused to take a small new poke from an inner pocket
and, untying the string, poured the contents in her hand. "I thought
likely you'd want 'em made up in a necklace with a few diamonds or mebbe
emeralds mixed in."
She stood looking at the shining rough pieces of gold in her palm, while a
certain pride rose through the wonder in her face. "My gracious!" she
exclaimed, and a spark of her lost youth revived. "My gracious. And you
named your mine after me. I bet it was on account of that billy and the
ewes."
"Likely," the little man beamed. "But more than likely it was because that
strike was a sure thing, and you was behind it, Annabel. My, yes, you was
responsible I ever got to Alaska; let alone stuck it out. Sure as a
grubstake, you gave me my start. Now come take a look at this outfit I
brought."
He held the poke open while she poured the nuggets back. "I like them
plain," she said, "but I never saw any made up. I leave it to you."
"Then I make it emeralds to match the Green, and mebbe a few sparklers
thrown in." He laughed gayly and, taking her arm, drew her back across the
room to the open trunk; when she was seated again in the armchair, he
knelt to remove the first layer of tissue packing. She took the precaution
to spread one smooth sheet of it on her lap and, leaning forward, saw him
uncover the plume, the entire hat. "Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed
tremulously, as he lifted it awkwardly to her eager hands, "ain't it
splendid? I didn't know they were making them like this. I never saw such
roses; why, they look alive and ready to smell; and ain't they pretty
fixed this way under the brim?" She paused, turning the masterpiece
slowly, like a connoisseur. "I bet I could have worn it when I was in
Oregon. It would have been my style. Do you suppose"--she glanced at Banks
timidly--"I'd dare to try it if my hair was done real nice, and I had on a
better dress?"
"My, yes." Banks laughed again excitedly, and with growing confidence
opened the next compartment to display the chiffon gown. "Wait till you
get this on. You'll be a sight. You always was in pink." He paused to take
the hat and, wheeling, placed it on the old dresser, and so made room for
the frock on her lap. "Now, ain't that soft and peachy and--and rich?"
But Annabel was silent. She lifted her eyes from the gown to Johnny, and
they were full of mist. Then her lip quivered, and a drop splashed down on
the delicate fabric. "My gracious!" she cried in consternation and,
rising, held the gown off at arm's-length. "Do you suppose it's going to
spot?"
And Banks' laugh piped once more. "I guess it can stand a little salt
water," he replied. "But if it can't, we can get a duplicate. And now you
just take your time and pick out what you want to wear. I am going up the
bench to look around and find Dave's springs. It'll likely take me an hour
or so, and you can be ready to start soon's I get back."
"Start?" she repeated. "Was you counting on going somewhere?"
"My, yes. I was counting on taking you a little spin down to Wenatchee the
first thing, and having a chicken dinner to the hotel. Then, soon's we get
a license and hunt up a sky man, we are going to run down to Oregon and
have a look at the old Corners."
"I never rode in an automobile," she said, glowing, "but I think I'd like
it fine."
"I bet you will. I bet, coming home, you'll be running the machine
yourself half the time."
He hurried away then, laughing his shrillest key, and Annabel laid the
pink chiffon back in the tray to follow him to the door. She stood
smiling, though the mist alternately gathered and cleared in her eyes,
watching him up the vale and waiting to see him reappear on the front of
the bench. But he found her ready when he returned; and the hat was
becoming beyond her hopes. It brought back in a measure the old brightness
that was half a challenge in her air, so that, to the mining man, she
seemed to have gone back, almost, those lost years. Still, his
satisfaction was tempered, and instantly she understood the cause. "The
roses seemed enough pink today," she said tactfully, "till I wear off some
of this tan. But I like this tan cloth awful well, don't you? It's a nice
color for out-of-doors and won't show the dust. And doesn't it fit
perfectly splendid? And look at these shoes. I don't see how you
remembered my size. You've thought of everything. There's even an
automobile veil. A lady that came out here with Mr. Tisdale had one about
the same shade. But you'll have to help me put it on so I won't spoil this
plume."
She pushed the pongee coat, which was carefully folded across the back of
a chair, a little aside and, seating herself before the mirror, reached to
take the scarf and exposed a folded paper on the dresser. "I found that
envelope pinned inside the hat," she said still diplomatically, though a
touch of humor shaded her lips. "There's a ten dollar piece in it and two
and a half in silver. Probably it's your change."
But Banks turned the envelope and read pencilled across the front: "There
isn't any duplicate, but thanks just the same."