JACK AS CHAMPION
MISS HELEN had not met Mr. Kirk before, but she had heard all about
him, of how he had come upon Jean in the lobby of a theatre in New York
when she was looking for her friends--she had escaped from them in
order to visit the fairy queen of a little play to which Mr. Pinckney
had taken the Corner girls--of how Jean had been taken under the young
man's wing, and how she had dined with him and had finally been brought
back safely to Mr. Pinckney's house. Because of all this Mr. Pinckney
had invited the young man to Christmas dinner and so his acquaintance
with them all began. Miss Helen did not know, however, neither did the
Corners, that it was partly on account of this young Marylander that
Mr. Pinckney had brought his granddaughter abroad, and that it was
because of his presence that he had kept the first and third gondolas
apart. For, kind-hearted though he was, and devoted though he might be
to his granddaughter, when it became apparent that young Harold Kirk
had more than a passing interest in the lovely Dolores, Mr. Pinckney
straightway bore her off to Europe, hoping that it would be "out of
sight, out of mind" on both sides.
To be sure he was only carrying out a plan which he had determined
upon some time before, when he took his granddaughter abroad, and he
hoped she would not discover any other than the original intention.
He meant to stay long enough to "put a stop to any foolishness," so
he told himself. Some day in the indefinite future she might marry,
but not yet. He had no special objection to Harold Kirk, in fact he
rather liked him, but he wanted no man to step in to take his place in
the affections of the granddaughter he had lately discovered. When,
therefore, the young man made his appearance upon the scene, Mr.
Pinckney was annoyed, to say the least. He had promised himself a good
time here in Venice with the Corner children, of whom he was very fond,
but now all his plans were upset. He would leave at once.
So he sat silently meditating upon the turn of affairs while the
gondolas slipped through the water, and Jack and Jo chatted to Carter
Barnwell. Jack adored Carter, and she was a great favorite of his.
They had been fast comrades in California and were ready to resume the
comradeship on the old footing. After the first few questions which Mr.
Pinckney put to Carter about Mrs. Roberts, Mr. Pinckney's daughter,
with whom Carter had been making his home, the old gentleman let the
young people have it all their own way, seldom making a remark unless
in answer to some question put directly to him.
Meanwhile those in the gondola, which was in the lead, were talking of
many things. Harold Kirk put a few polite questions about the movements
of the party, but at first made no reference to the Pinckneys. Miss
Helen was a stranger to him, and his own affairs were to be set aside
while he entertained the two with him.
"What I want to know," said Nan after a while, "is how you happened to
come across Carter. You know his mother is an old school friend of Aunt
Helen's, and we met him in California. He and Jack are the greatest
cronies."
"He has talked to me a great deal about Jack. He is a cousin of mine,
you know."
"I didn't know. Oh, you must be his Cousin Hal we have heard him speak
of. I didn't recognize the abbreviation." Nan was just at the age when
she rather liked to use big words.
"His mother and mine are sisters." Mr. Kirk gave the information.
"Then you are Byrd Carter's son," exclaimed Miss Helen. "I have met
her, for you know your aunt, Mrs. Barnwell, is a great friend of mine."
This put them all on a closer footing. There were questions to ask and
to answer about families and friends, and at last Nan came back to the
original subject of how he and Carter happened to come over together.
"Carter looked me up in New York," Mr. Kirk told them. "His father has
given him this trip, and the doctor said he was so much better that it
would do him no harm, so long as he avoided harsh climates. He will get
back home before the November winds become too much for him. I think
in time the boy will outgrow that early tendency to lung trouble which
took him to California. Yet he likes it out there, and will probably
settle down for good. Well, he urged me to come with him, said he
hated to make the trip alone, said he would meet the Corner family
somewhere--and--well, the temptation was too great, so I came to spend
my summer holiday here instead of going to Maine or the Catskills."
"Had you met the Pinckneys here in Venice before you came across us?"
asked Nan innocently.
"No."
"Why, we are all together, you know. Mr. Pinckney is in that next
gondola, and Miss Dolores is with mother and Mary Lee in the one behind
that."
Mr. Kirk was silent for a moment. "Do you know how long they are going
to stay?" he asked after a moment.
"Oh, for some time." Nan was positive. "As long as we do and we shall
be here at least a week or ten days, shan't we, Aunt Helen?"
Miss Helen assured her that they would stay not less time than that.
"Then we shall all have jolly times together," said Nan delightedly.
"Now, don't you want to see mother and Miss Dolores and Jean? Suppose
we tell our gondolier to turn back and go alongside, shall we, Mr.
Kirk?"
The young man agreed very readily. There were many gondolas out upon
the canal, and in the process of turning others came between them and
the one in which Mr. Pinckney sat, so he did not observe but that Mr.
Kirk's was still in the lead, and was not in the least aware that Mr.
Kirk had greeted Miss Dolores and the rest of the way was sitting by
her side while Nan and her aunt drifted on solely in each other's
company.
"Where is Hal?" asked Carter as the gondola in which he was at last
stopped at the Riva della Schiavoni to discharge its passengers. "I
thought he was just ahead," he added looking around.
Mr. Pinckney frowned, for no gondola was near, but after a few minutes
up came two. From the first stepped Mr. Kirk who helped Mrs. Corner
ashore, then Jean, then Miss Dolores. Mr. Pinckney's frown grew deeper,
and it was quite light enough for Jack to catch the expression.
"Oh, how cross you look," she cried. "I never saw you look so cross.
Don't you like the gondolier, Mr. St. Nick? Did he cheat you?"
"No," growled Mr. Pinckney, "but some one else did."
Jack wondered who it could be. Maybe it was one of the old men they
called "Rampini," who drew the gondolas ashore with his iron hook.
It was clearly her duty to put Mr. St. Nick in a good humor. She had
deserted him for Carter and maybe he didn't like it. So she caught hold
of his hand and smiled up into his face.
"I think you are awfully nice, even when you frown, Mr. St. Nick," she
said, "and I should like Carter to look just like you when he grows
old."
"You should, should you?" Mr. Pinckney had to look a little more
pleasant for Miss Dolores was walking with Mary Lee and Carter, while
Mr. Kirk was escorting Miss Helen and Mrs. Corner. "Then I suppose you
expect to see him around then just as you do now."
"Of course," replied Jack. "I am going to marry him, you know."
"You are? Well, all I have to say is that you are looking pretty far
ahead."
"I like to look ahead," Jack informed him. "I like to think of next
Christmas and of my birthday and of our getting back home and all the
nice things. Don't you like to look ahead, Mr. St. Nick?"
"No, I can't say that I do. I prefer to enjoy the present moment."
"Are you enjoying the present moment?"
"You little outrageous coquette! here you've been talking to that
boy all the evening, and now you're trying to make up with me. I see
through your wiles."
Jack looked very serious. "But you see," she began by way of excuse,
"I hadn't seen Carter for such a long while; not since we were in
California, you know. He has written to me lots of times, but that
isn't like seeing a person. Let's talk about what we're going to do
to-morrow," she said after a moment, and setting aside what was a
uselessly unpleasant subject. "I think we shall have a lovely time
to-morrow. Will you go with us to feed the pigeons the first thing?"
Mr. Pinckney was silent for a little. "We shall probably not be here,"
he said presently.
"Not be here?" Jack dropped his hand in her surprise. "Why, Mr. St.
Nick, I think that is awfully mean when we have just come. Where are
you going?"
"I am not prepared to say exactly."
Jack looked up at him earnestly. She was a shrewd little body, strong
in her intuitions. Early in the evening there had been plenty of plans
discussed. What should suddenly decide Mr. St. Nick to go? At all
events she would do her best to persuade him to stay. "But you're not
going right after breakfast, are you?" she asked.
"Probably."
"And you won't do any of the things you said you would? You won't take
us to the bead shop nor the glass factory nor anywhere?" This was the
more astonishing that Mr. St. Nick was the one who always delighted in
doing anything and everything he could for the children's entertainment.
But there was no time for a reply just then as they had reached their
lodgings and the good-nights must be said. Jack noticed that neither
Carter nor Mr. Kirk accompanied Mr. Pinckney and Miss Dolores, but that
Mr. St. Nick hurried Miss Dolores away, leaving the young people still
making their farewells. She kept her counsel, however, until she and
her sisters were in their rooms; then she whispered to Nan, "I want to
tell you something. May I get in bed with you?"
Nan consented and for half an hour there was much whispering going on,
then Jack crept into the other bed where Jean was already sound asleep.
It was all very puzzling and provoking, but perhaps Mr. St. Nick would
change his mind before the next day.
Nan and the twins occupied one room, Mary Lee and Jo the other
adjoining, but Mary Lee and Nan were talking earnestly in the larger
room when Jack opened her eyes the following morning. They were talking
about Miss Dolores, she soon ascertained.
"I think it is a shame," said Mary Lee. "I know she likes him and I
know he came over because she was here, and did you see how cross he
looked?"
Jack wondered who these various hes could be. Who was it that had come
on Miss Dolores' account? She knew well enough who it was who had
looked cross, and Mary Lee had noticed the frown, too.
"And don't you think it is horrid for him to jerk her away just as he
has come?" said Nan. "He told Jack they were going to-day, and didn't
say where."
"He did?" More hes and hers and a puzzling mix up of pronouns. Jack
listened more eagerly. Of course she could easily make out that it was
Mr. St. Nick who had told of going away.
"I don't see what makes him act so," Mary Lee went on. "He never was
like this before in all the time we have known him. I'm sure Mr. Kirk
is just as nice as can be, and in the beginning he treated him so
cordially and now just because he and Miss Dolores are in love with
each other you would suppose the poor fellow had committed a crime."
So that was it; Miss Dolores and Mr. Kirk were in love with each other
and Mr. St. Nick was cross about it. Why couldn't he let them marry and
all of them live together? Jack was sure it was a beautiful plan, and
one that he had probably never thought of. He was supposing that Mr.
Kirk would want to take Miss Dolores away. There wasn't the slightest
need of that she could tell him and so she would. She decided not to
delay the matter. Jack always wanted to rush a thing through as soon as
an idea came into her head. She jumped up, not noticing the "Sh!" with
which Nan warned Mary Lee that she was not to continue the subject, and
was not long in making herself ready for the day.
The hotel where the Pinckneys were stopping was not far away, and to it
Jack hastened, not staying to notice the effect of the morning light
upon the water, the sun-touched buildings on the islands opposite, nor
the boatmen out early. She was bent upon her errand. It was a direct
way along the Riva della Schiavoni, as Jack well remembered, for her
bump of locality did not often lead her astray. As at all large hotels
over the Continent, English was spoken, the little girl was nothing
daunted when she walked in and asked for Mr. Pinckney. She knew the
señorita preferred to take her chocolate and rolls in her own room, but
that Mr. Pinckney had not taken kindly to this habit, and would follow
the custom of going to the breakfast-room. She would be asked to join
him, no doubt, and it was with some pleasure that she considered the
prospect. She would take an orange, jam for her bread, and some weak,
very much sweetened coffee, also a very hard-boiled egg.
She did not have to wait long before the old gentleman came trotting
into the room where she was waiting, fresh and rosy from his toilet.
He was always immaculate, and since the discovery of his granddaughter
he was more than ever particular about his personal appearance; his
beard was more closely trimmed, his neckties and waistcoats more
carefully chosen.
"Well, well, well!" he exclaimed, "this is a surprise. Come to have
breakfast with me? Let's go right in. This is an attention I didn't
expect."
"You see," began Jack diplomatically, "I thought if you were going away
to-day I shouldn't have any time at all to see you if I didn't come
early."
Mr. Pinckney seated himself and began drumming thoughtfully on the
table while the waiter stood expectant. Presently the old gentleman
smiled across at Jack. "Now, what will you have?" he asked. "This is
nice, to be sure. Instead of eating a solitary breakfast, I have one of
my best friends to join me."
Jack's mind was already made up so she did not hesitate long in giving
her order. Mr. Pinckney added his and the waiter went off.
"By the way," said Mr. Pinckney, "did you happen to leave word where
you had gone so early? I know your way of skipping off, and I am not
going to have the family set by the ears, or have them lose their
appetites on my account. I can send some one to telephone them where
you are if they don't know."
"Oh, they know," said Jack calmly. "I wrote a note to Nan."
"What did you say?" There was a little twinkle in Mr. Pinckney's eye.
He knew Jack well.
"I said: 'I am going to see Mr. St. Nick. You know why. Don't come for
me.'"
Mr. Pinckney looked puzzled and glanced at Jack's plate by the side
of which the waiter was just setting the dishes she had ordered. He
wondered if she had craftily desired some special dainty which her
own boarding place did not furnish, and if she had taken this way of
getting it, but Jack's order was a modest one, he perceived, so she
could not have come merely because of the breakfast. "She knew why?" he
said, "and what is the why?"
Jack added a fourth lump of sugar to her coffee and looked at him
gravely. "You know I said if you were going away this morning I
shouldn't have any time to see you if I didn't come early, and I had
something very particular to say to you."
"You had? Out with it." Mr. Pinckney was amused. Jack always
entertained him.
"Well," said Jack, covering a small piece of bread with a large amount
of jam, "I s'pose you're thinking that Mr. Kirk is in love with Miss
Dolores, and that he will want to take her off somewhere away from you,
and that is why you looked so cross last night."
Mr. Pinckney laid down his knife and fork and looked at the child,
amazed that she should put her finger with such directness upon
the point of his annoyance. "Cæsar's ghost!" he exclaimed, "what a
youngster."
"Yes," Jack went on, "I think that is just it. Now, I don't suppose
it ever came into your head to think how awfully nice it would be for
them to get married and live with you. Lots and lots of times I've
heard you say that if you only had a son or a grandson he would be
such a comfort and help, and here when there is one standing around
just dying to be your grandson you get cross about it. I don't want to
hurt your feelings, Mr. St. Nick, when you are having your breakfast,
because there isn't anything that makes you not enjoy your breakfast
and dinner like hurt feelings, I know because I've had them often, but
you know--your son--Miss Dolores' father--you know about his getting
married when you didn't want him too, and how awfully----"
She stopped short, for Mr. Pinckney was looking at her so sternly now
that she hastily gulped a large mouthful of coffee before she went on.
"Don't you love Miss Dolores?" she asked.
"Mercy, child," her friend murmured, "of course I do. Life has been a
different matter since I found her."
"Then don't you want her to be happy? Mother and Aunt Helen and Nan
and Mary Lee always tell us that if we love a person very much we will
do the things to make them happy, and not the things to make them
unhappy." Jack had a little severe air quite like Mary Lee when she was
lecturing her younger sisters.
Mr. Pinckney looked actually confused, picked up his napkin, wiped his
mouth, took a sip of coffee, looked at his chop but did not touch it.
Then he frowned. "It seems to me," he said, "that you're talking about
something you don't know anything about."
"If I don't know anything about it," said Jack, "won't you please tell
me? Isn't Mr. Kirk an awfully nice young man, or what is the matter? If
he is poor that won't make any difference when you have so much money,
though I don't think he can be so very poor, for he is Carter's cousin,
and Carter has plenty, enough to buy a house with; he told me so."
Mr. Pinckney stirred his coffee silently. "Oh, I suppose he is nice
enough," he said presently, "but little girls like you don't know
anything about such things."
"I don't suppose we do very much," returned Jack nothing daunted,
"but you always tell me about things I don't know about, when no one
else will." This was quite true, and Mr. Pinckney was aware that he
had encouraged Jack to talk as freely to him as she would to one of
her own age, but he had not expected such results to come from the
encouragement.
Jack still persisted, though she received no answer to her last remark.
"Won't you tell me, please, just why you want to take Miss Dolores
away, and why you don't want her to see Mr. Kirk, if it isn't because
you're afraid he will marry her?"
"Heavens!" ejaculated Mr. Pinckney, "am I on the witness stand or not?"
Yet he felt uncomfortable under Jack's cross-questioning. This came of
allowing her to ply him with questions on any subject. He had always
scorned the old saw that children should be seen and not heard, but at
this present moment, he heartily wished he had been less indulgent.
Jack had fixed innocent questioning eyes upon him and presently he
blurted out, "No, I don't want her to marry him."
"Why not?" persisted Jack.
"Because I don't want to lose her just as I've found her."
"But didn't I tell you it would be awfully nice to have them both live
with you?"
"Perhaps I don't think it would."
"But you like Mr. Kirk. You did at first. You kept saying he was fine,
and you invited him to your house, and used to have him take lunch with
you at your club and all that. What made you get mad with him? Was it
because he liked Miss Dolores so much?"
"That may be one reason."
"But don't you want her to be happy?"
"Of course, of course, but I don't want another man to be taking up all
her time and attention, and absorbing all the interest and affection I
have just won."
"But he wouldn't be taking up all her time; he couldn't when he has
to be at his office all day. Do you mean that you think she couldn't
love you both? Why, I love Nan and Jean bushels and bushels, but I love
mother most. There was Nan, too, she has always loved mother and has
loved me more than anything, yet when Aunt Helen came all of a sudden,
she loved her awfully hard, and it didn't make a bit of difference
about her loving us first. Are you afraid Miss Dolores hasn't enough
love to go around?"
"Dear me, child, I never knew such heart-searching questions. You
ought to have been a lawyer or a Methodist exhorter. Now, I will
ask you something. How do you know this Mr. Kirk wants to marry my
granddaughter? Has he ever told you so?"
"No," returned Jack doubtfully. "Of course he wouldn't tell a little
girl like me, but if he doesn't, then what in the world is the use of
your going off in such a hurry as soon as he comes when you meant to
stay here just as long as we do?"
Then Mr. Pinckney laughed. "Child," he said, "you're too much for me.
There haven't been generations of lawyers in your family for nothing.
I think, after all, we won't go to-day." And he fell to eating his
breakfast without noticing that it was nearly cold.
[Illustration: CHAPTER XIX
A YOUTHFUL GUIDE]