[Frontispiece: The first quarter of the Honeymoon!]
SOME
HONEYMOON!
BY
CHARLES EVERETT HALL
ILLUSTRATED BY
ROBERT GASTON HERBERT
New York
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
Copyright, 1918, by
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
_All Rights Reserved_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I The Man of Business
II "Needles and Pins"
III "When a Man Marries--"
IV "His Trouble Begins!"
V The Arrow of Suspicion
VI Business Methods
VII Shock Upon Shock
VIII The Bridal Night
IX With the World Shut Out
X The Beginning of a Nightmare
XI The Nightmare Continues
XII Some Experiences of a Bridegroom
XIII The Eagle Eye of the House Detective
XIV Some Sleuth
XV The Cat Shows Her Claws
XVI The Duty Again Devolves
XVII The Private Buccanneer
XVIII It Is No Longer Farce
XIX An Outlaw in Fact
XX The Name On the Billboard
XXI In the Part of the Injured Husband
XXII "Who Is My Wife?"
XXIII In the Maze
XXIV Nemesis
XXV John Ryder Forgives Fate
ILLUSTRATIONS
The first quarter of the Honeymoon! _Frontispiece_
"No manager can dispossess me. I refuse to get out."
Flung herself with abandon into John Ryder's arms. (_See page 129._)
"I am another woman. I am not the person you married." (_See page
243._)
SOME HONEYMOON!
CHAPTER I
THE MAN OF BUSINESS
When John Ryder put his foot upon the plank of the _Minnequago_ on
his return journey from Europe he was a bachelor of thirty-five
summers--and had never counted his winters at all. He believed, with
many another upholder of single blessedness, that a man did not begin
to count his wintry years until he was married.
Just the same, as he walked up the incline of the runway he was
walking to his fate. Indeed, he came face to face with it as he trod
upon the deck of the ship and, almost bumping into it, politely
lifted his hat and said:
"Pardon me!"
The lady bowed silently and turned upon him a careless shoulder.
John Ryder allowed himself a second glance--and then let the steward
take his hand luggage below while he did something he had not done
since his early crossings. He hung about on deck to see the hawsers
cast off--a mark of curiosity that usually stamps the traveler as
quite new to the game.
Even then he did not know why he did this.
Business. Business with a big B. Business first, last, and all the
time. That was John Ryder, and so plain was it to most people who
met him that a tag on his back stating that he was a hustling
American business man would have been quite unnecessary.
Ryder had been in the chase after the nimble dollar since he was
breeched. He was a self-made man, and although he was proud of that
fact he did not go around blowing about the quality of the product.
People could take him for what he was--or what they thought he was.
He was not personally assertive, although he fully knew his own
opinion upon any subject to which he had given thought. He did not
consider it necessary to tell every person who interviewed him, or
show them by his manner, that he was really too busy with weighty
affairs to give their own little matter its proper attention. He
seldom cared what people thought of him as long as he impressed them
with his honesty of purpose, and that he was in earnest.
That is, he had seldom cared until now. But he confessed to himself,
in the secrecy of his inner thoughts and the privacy of his
stateroom, that he was desirous of having at least one person aboard
the _Minnequago_ think of him as being every whit as good as he
really was, if not a little better.
When a man's hard hit, that is about his first thought. He wants the
woman to think of him as the finest and best who has ever crossed her
path. And before bumping into Miss Mont as he boarded the ship, he
had actually never looked twice at a woman.
She was a good sailor, and he had crossed back and forth so many
times that he was only seasick when the Old Salt in the story was
ill--on the occasion "that the ship went down and all hands were
lost."
Ryder accepted his fate manfully on that very first time that they
paced the deck together. It was not easy for Ryder to admit that he
had met and fallen in love with a woman at first sight. It was
opposed to all his well-established theories. At his age he
considered himself case-proof.
Yet never had a woman impressed him as did Miss Mont. When they
became so quickly such very good friends and she showed plainly that
she enjoyed his society, and even took him into her confidence with
little urging on his part, Ryder began to see that he would be
tempting Providence if he went ashore at New York without letting her
know just how he felt toward her.
He had nobody to consider in this matter but himself; he had no
family. Miss Mont, she said, was in a similar situation.
She had been adopted by people in Manchester when she was a small
child and had lived with them as their daughter until these foster
parents died.
Other children had come into the family after her adoption, and they
did not look kindly upon the alien. So Miss Mont had come away.
"I do not know much about my own people," she told Ryder. "Only that
my mother and father are both dead. There were several of us
children. We were parceled out like a brood of puppies. I know
nothing now about my brothers and sisters."
So she had nobody to consider; there was no living soul to say her
nay, no matter what course she took in life. To John Ryder's
disappointment he found that she was on the verge of choosing a
profession for which he had a strongly rooted, if narrow, dislike.
Miss Mont had met some theatrical people in London. There was,
indeed, a certain agent, or manager, aboard the _Minnequago_ to whom
she had been introduced.
This man had told her that he could put her on the stage. She had
the presence for it, and if her ability proved anywhere equal--well,
his talk had inspired her with the fever for a stage career. She had
done a little in a semi-professional way in London as an entertainer,
and this man, Sam Marks, had chanced to see her work.
"And you know I need to work," she told John Ryder. "My bit of money
won't last forever. I should dislike teaching, and I couldn't work
in a shop, I know. I have a retentive memory, and I believe I should
'make good' as you Americans say, as an imitator. I really have some
talent."
"You do not know what you contemplate," cried Ryder, and he was a
little angry. "The theater is no place for a domestic, home-loving
woman like you."
"But it will bring me more money than other work."
"It brings you a lot besides the money. It spoils a woman. It
spoils a man, too, for that matter. And it is the hardest work a
woman can tackle."
"Some actresses draw large salaries."
"And what do they pay for the pedestals they gain? You don't know
the mire they have to drag their skirts through. And some of it
always sticks."
"I think you are prejudiced," she said softly.
"Oh, I know there are exceptions. But there are no exceptions when
it comes to the hard work. When an actress achieves a lasting place
in her profession, it means that she has worked harder for years than
any governess, or seamstress--yes, or washwoman!"
"I know it is kind of you to advise me," she said.
"No, it isn't. It's selfish on my part. I'll tell you why. I love
you!" blurted out this man of business, who was noted for his silky
and diplomatic tongue when it came to a business proposition. This
situation was, however, almost too much for John Ryder.
She gazed at him in utter astonishment.
"Mr. Ryder!" she gasped.
"Don't be surprised," said he, mopping his brow and glad the words
were out at last. "I'm no kid. I've been bucking the world for a
good many years, if my head isn't bald! I'm not likely to say a
thing I don't mean, or to try to fool a woman like you. I love you,
and I'll marry you the first minute we can after getting ashore, if
you'll agree.
"And I'm not doing it through any foolish desire to keep you out of a
business that you'll be sorry you ever got into. I want you for a
strictly selfish reason. I want you because I love you--have loved
you ever since I first laid eyes on you on this boat."
"But--but we know so little of each other!" she faltered.
"What more have you got to tell me? It won't take you long," said
Ryder with a chuckle. He knew his drawing powers as an interviewer,
and could figure on Miss Mont's having told him about everything of
importance in her life.
"As for me, I'm plain John Ryder. I'm just what I appear to be,
nothing more and nothing less." The sly villain, however, was hoping
she would think him a deal better than he was. "I've got some money.
I can make more. I'll keep you in comfort, and when I die leave you
enough to live on.
"That may not sound very sentimental, but don't let it cloud your
eyes to the fact that I love you just as hard as any Romeo of the
lot. I'm not much on playing the lute under a lady's window; but
I'll be great on hustling out and, as we Americans say, 'bringing
home the bacon.'"
"Oh, dear, Mr. Ryder! You make me laugh in spite of myself." But
she was actually wiping tears from her eyes.
"That's right. I'd rather you'd take it laughing than crying. And
as far as in me lies," he added, solemnly, "I'll never bring tears to
your eyes, but always laughter to your heart," which was a
wonderfully pretty observation for John Ryder to make.
Nor was he at first disturbed in the least when Miss Mont told him
she dared not answer on such short notice. She must think it over.
"I like you," she admitted. "I am fond of you, I might say. But to
be bound to a man _for life_ upon so short an acquaintance seems
an--an awful thing."
"Well, it is rather sudden, I suppose," admitted the American.
"Though I have often noticed that the most successful deals I have
ever put through are settled in short order--on the spur of the
moment, as you might say. Ahem! This, of course, is different," he
added, seeing her smile. "But take your time. Take until we land.
That's day after tomorrow. One can do a lot of thinking in that
time."
And, from that moment, he religiously refrained from recurring to the
theme in conversation with her, which showed plainly that John Ryder
was a novice at the game of winning a woman's love.
But before the _Minnequago_ steamed safely through the Narrows into
New York Bay, Ryder saw Marks, the theatrical agent, walking with
Miss Mont on the upper deck. They were in close talk for more than
an hour.
He had never particularly noticed Marks before. Now he found him a
most objectionable looking person--squatty, with bulbous arms and
legs, and his eyes half hidden behind heavily creased lids. Ryder
was stabbed by jealousy, and did not know what the strange emotion
meant. He went to his stateroom and wrote a note to Miss Mont.
It was a kind note, a just note. It pointed out the fact that he was
still waiting for his answer, that he could prove to her an hour
after they landed just who and what he was, and that he could do all
for her that he had said. He added that he desired her answer by the
time the _Minnequago_ docked.
Strictly business, you see. If he had been pulling off a deal with
another man and somebody like this Sam Marks had put in an oar, this
was about how John Ryder would have handled the situation. She must
choose at once between Marks and him--between the position she would
gain by wedding him, and possible success upon the vaudeville stage.
Had the ideas expressed in the note not been clothed in the kindest
terms and had not a strong current of downright love permeated it,
any woman might have taken umbrage.
Ryder knew he had said nothing that could offend. Therefore, he was
the more surprised that no response to his letter was brought to him.
He remained away from the general table at dinner that last night
purposely. He did not wish to meet Miss Mont again until he knew
exactly what her answer was to be.
The evening passed without his receiving any reply. In the morning
as they swung into the dock at an early hour he asked the steward if
there was any message for him and received a negative answer.
He had made his declaration and waited with his repacked bag until
most of the passengers, he was certain, had gone ashore. Until the
last moment, when he came to the gangway, he hoped to get some reply
from her. Or was she waiting for him to tell him verbally her answer?
She was! There she stood upon the dock as he went down the
gangplank. She was looking eagerly toward the ship. Ryder felt a
sudden tingling warmth at his heart. His love for this girl, so
strangely born, made his pulse go at a gallop and brought a flush
into his sea-tanned face.
She saw him, and the faint flicker of a dawning smile overspread her
sweet countenance. He approached with outstretched hand, his heart
in his eyes--an expression that no woman could mistake. It told
her--that look--as plainly as though he cried it aloud: "I love you!"
The girl put out her hand--both her hands indeed--impulsively and met
his grasp with one quite as warm. Her eyes searched his face,
perhaps with a puzzled expression at first when he approached; but
afterward with decided approval.
"What have you to say to me, my dear?" asked John Ryder, strong in
his belief that she could have only waited for him with good news.
A blush suffused her face. Her lips parted--parted in such a shy and
lovely smile--as she said in a low voice: "I--I will marry you."
"Good!" he almost shouted, and immediately added: "When?"
"Whenever you like," she whispered, and no woman since the world
began ever gave herself so completely into her lover's keeping, John
Ryder was sure, as did this woman whom he loved.
"Then as soon as we can get the license and I can arrange certain
matters," he said quite composedly, despite the accelerated beat of
his pulse. "We will drive first to the City Clerk's office. There
is some red tape about the matter, I believe. Then I will take you
to a hotel where you may lunch. I shall need several hours for
business before the banks close. Then we can go at once to a
minister of whom I know."
"Oh! can it be done so quickly?" and she caught her breath, though
with a little laugh.
"Don't be frightened," he said tenderly. "It will be all right.
Where are your trunks?"
"On their way to the Pennsylvania Railway station, I believe."
"So soon? Were you getting ready to run away from me?" he asked in
some little surprise.
"No-o." Then she laughed and tossed her head with that gesture that
had become familiar to him--which he had noticed so many times aboard
ship. "I was getting ready to run away with you," she whispered.
He laughed, tucked her hand under his arm, and they walked up the
dock. Near the gate he saw Marks standing. Miss Mont did not chance
to look his way, but Ryder saw that the theatrical man observed him
and smiled sardonically as they passed.
"Confound his impudence!" muttered Ryder.
Then he glanced at the woman at his side. She was certainly
beautiful, with plenty of warm, rich color in her cheeks, the
blackest of level brows, the very whitest of skin.
"By heaven! she's a treasure," thought Ryder, as he hailed a taxicab.
"And I'm a lucky fellow to get her. To think that, in a few short
hours, she will be Mrs. John Ryder!"
A foolish little mist obscured his vision, and he stumbled on the
step as he followed her into the cab. She laughed.
"You won't get married this year if you stumble upstairs," she said.