Rose had no new gown to wear on this festive occasion, and gave one
little sigh of regret as she put on the pale blue silk refreshed with
clouds of gaze de Chambéry. But a smile followed, very bright and sweet,
as she added the clusters of forget-me-not which Charlie had conjured
up through the agency of an old German florist, for one part of her plan
had been carried out, and Prince was invited to be her escort, much
to his delight, though he wisely made no protestations of any sort and
showed his gratitude by being a model gentleman. This pleased Rose, for
the late humiliation and a very sincere desire to atone for it gave him
an air of pensive dignity which was very effective.
Aunt Clara could not go, for a certain new cosmetic, privately used to
improve the once fine complexion, which had been her pride till late
hours impaired it, had brought out an unsightly eruption, reducing her
to the depths of woe and leaving her no solace for her disappointment
but the sight of the elegant velvet dress spread forth upon her bed in
melancholy state.
So Aunt Jessie was chaperon, to Rose's great satisfaction, and looked as
“pretty as a pink,” Archie thought, in her matronly pearl-colored gown
with a dainty trifle of rich lace on her still abundant hair. He was
very proud of his little mama, and as devoted as a lover, “to keep his
hand in against Phebe's return,” she said laughingly when he brought her
a nosegay of blush roses to light up her quiet costume.
A happier mother did not live than Mrs. Jessie as she sat contentedly
beside Sister Jane (who graced the frivolous scene in a serious black
gown with a diadem of purple asters nodding above her severe brow), both
watching their boys with the maternal conviction that no other parent
could show such remarkable specimens as these. Each had done her best
according to her light, and years of faithful care were now beginning to
bear fruit in the promise of goodly men, so dear to the hearts of true
mothers.
Mrs. Jessie watched her three tall sons with something like wonder,
for Archie was a fine fellow, grave and rather stately, but full of the
cordial courtesy and respect we see so little of nowadays and which is
the sure sign of good home training. “The cadets,” as Will and Geordie
called themselves, were there as gorgeous as you please, and the agonies
they suffered that night with tight boots and stiff collars no pen can
fitly tell. But only to one another did they confide these sufferings
and the rare moments of repose when they could stand on one aching foot
with heads comfortably sunken inside the excruciating collars, which
rasped their ears and made the lobes thereof a pleasing scarlet. Brief
were these moments, however, and the Spartan boys danced on with smiling
faces, undaunted by the hidden anguish which preyed upon them “fore and
aft,” as Will expressed it.
Mrs. Jane's pair were an odd contrast, and even the stern disciplinarian
herself could not help smiling as she watched them. Steve was
superb, and might have been married on the spot, so superfine was his
broad-cloth, glossy his linen, and perfect the fit of his gloves. While
pride and happiness so fermented in his youthful bosom, there would have
been danger of spontaneous combustion if dancing had not proved a safety
valve, for his strong sense of the proprieties would not permit him to
vent his emotions in any other way.
Kitty felt no such restraint, and looked like a blissful little gypsy,
with her brunet prettiness set off by a dashing costume of cardinal and
cream color and every hair on her head curled in a Merry Pecksniffian
crop, for youth was her strong point, and she much enjoyed the fact that
she had been engaged three times before she was nineteen.
To see her and Steve spin around the room was a sight to bring a smile
to the lips of the crustiest bachelor or saddest spinster, for happy
lovers are always a pleasing spectacle, and two such merry little grigs
as these are seldom seen.
Mac, meantime, with glasses astride his nose, surveyed his brother's
performances “on the light fantastic” very much as a benevolent
Newfoundland would the gambols of a toy terrier, receiving with thanks
the hasty hints for his guidance which Steve breathed into his ear as
he passed and forgetting all about them the next minute. When not thus
engaged Mac stood about with his thumbs in his vest pockets, regarding
the lively crowd like a meditative philosopher of a cheerful aspect,
often smiling to himself at some whimsical fancy of his own, knitting
his brows as some bit of ill-natured gossip met his ear, or staring with
undisguised admiration as a beautiful face or figure caught his eye.
“I hope that girl knows what a treasure she has got. But I doubt if she
ever fully appreciates it,” said Mrs. Jane, bringing her spectacles to
bear upon Kitty as she whisked by, causing quite a gale with her flying
skirts.
“I think she will, for Steve has been so well brought up, she cannot but
see and feel the worth of what she has never had, and being so young she
will profit by it,” answered Mrs. Jessie softly, thinking of the days
when she and her Jem danced together, just betrothed.
“I've done my duty by both the boys, and done it thoroughly, or their
father would have spoilt them, for he's no more idea of discipline than
a child.” And Aunt Jane gave her own palm a smart rap with her closed
fan, emphasizing the word “thoroughly” in a most suggestive manner.
“I've often wished I had your firmness, Jane but after all, I'm not sure
that I don't like my own way best, at least with my boys, for plenty of
love, and plenty of patience, seem to have succeeded pretty well.”
And Aunt Jessie lifted the nosegay from her lap, feeling as if that
unfailing love and patience were already blooming into her life as
beautifully as the sweet-breathed roses given by her boy refreshed and
brightened these long hours of patient waiting in a corner.
“I don't deny that you've done well, Jessie, but you've been let alone
and had no one to hold your hand or interfere. If my Mac had gone to sea
as your Jem did, I never should have been as severe as I am. Men are so
perverse and shortsighted, they don't trouble about the future as long
as things are quiet and comfortable in the present,” continued Mrs.
Jane, quite forgetting that the shortsighted partner of the firm,
physically speaking at least, was herself.
“Ah, yes! We mothers love to foresee and foretell our children's lives
even before they are born, and are very apt to be disappointed if they
do not turn out as we planned. I know I am yet I really have no cause to
complain and am learning to see that all we can do is to give the dear
boys good principles and the best training we may, then leave them
to finish what we have begun.” And Mrs. Jessie's eye wandered away to
Archie, dancing with Rose, quite unconscious what a pretty little castle
in the air tumbled down when he fell in love with Phebe.
“Right, quite right on that point we agree exactly. I have spared
nothing to give my boys good principles and good habits, and I am
willing to trust them anywhere. Nine times did I whip my Steve to cure
him of fibbing, and over and over again did Mac go without his dinner
rather than wash his hands. But I whipped and starved them both into
obedience, and now I have my reward,” concluded the “stern parent” with
a proud wave of the fan, which looked very like a ferule, being as big,
hard, and uncompromising as such an article could be.
Mrs. Jessie gave a mild murmur of assent, but could not help thinking,
with a smile, that in spite of their early tribulations the sins for
which the boys suffered had gotten a little mixed in their result, for
fibbing Steve was now the tidy one, and careless Mac the truth teller.
But such small contradictions will happen in the best-regulated
families, and all perplexed parents can do is to keep up a steadfast
preaching and practicing in the hope that it will bear fruit sometime,
for according to an old proverb, Children pick up words as pigeons
pease, To utter them again as God shall please.
“I hope they won't dance the child to death among them, for each one
seems bound to have his turn, even your sober Mac,” said Mrs. Jessie a
few minutes later as she saw Archie hand Rose over to his cousin, who
carried her off with an air of triumph from several other claimants.
“She's very good to him, and her influence is excellent, for he is of an
age now when a young woman's opinion has more weight than an old one's.
Though he is always good to his mother, and I feel as if I should take
great comfort in him. He's one of the sort who will not marry till late,
if ever, being fond of books and a quiet life,” responded Mrs. Jane,
remembering how often her son had expressed his belief that philosophers
should not marry and brought up Plato as an example of the serene
wisdom to be attained only by a single man while her husband sided with
Socrates, for whom he felt a profound sympathy, though he didn't dare to
own it.
“Well, I don't know about that. Since my Archie surprised me by losing
his heart as he did, I'm prepared for anything, and advise you to do
likewise. I really shouldn't wonder if Mac did something remarkable in
that line, though he shows no sign of it yet, I confess,” answered Mrs.
Jessie, laughing.
“It won't be in that direction, you may be sure, for her fate is sealed.
Dear me, how sad it is to see a superior girl like that about to throw
herself away on a handsome scapegrace. I won't mention names, but you
understand me.” And Mrs. Jane shook her head, as if she could mention
the name of one superior girl who had thrown herself away and now saw
the folly of it.
“I'm very anxious, of course, and so is Alec, but it may be the saving
of one party and the happiness of the other, for some women love to give
more than they receive,” said Mrs. Jessie, privately wondering, for
the thousandth time, why brother Mac ever married the learned Miss
Humphries.
“You'll see that it won't prosper, and I shall always maintain that a
wife cannot entirely undo a mother's work. Rose will have her hands
full if she tries to set all Clara's mistakes right,” answered Aunt Jane
grimly, then began to fan violently as their hostess approached to have
a dish of chat about “our dear young people.”
Rose was in a merry mood that night, and found Mac quite ready for fun,
which was fortunate, since her first remark set them off on a droll
subject.
“Oh, Mac! Annabel has just confided to me that she is engaged to Fun
See! Think of her going to housekeeping in Canton someday and having to
order rats, puppies, and bird's-nest soup for dinner,” whispered Rose,
too much amused to keep the news to herself.
“By Confucius! Isn't that a sweet prospect?” And Mac burst out laughing,
to the great surprise of his neighbors, who wondered what there was
amusing about the Chinese sage. “It is rather alarming, though, to have
these infants going on at this rate. Seems to be catching, a new sort of
scarlet fever, to judge by Annabel's cheeks and Kitty's gown,” he added,
regarding the aforesaid ladies with eyes still twinkling with merriment.
“Don't be ungallant, but go and do likewise, for it is all the fashion.
I heard Mrs. Van tell old Mrs. Joy that it was going to be a marrying
year, so you'll be sure to catch it,” answered Rose, reefing her skirts,
for, with all his training, Mac still found it difficult to keep his
long legs out of the man-traps.
“It doesn't look like a painful disease, but I must be careful, for
I've no time to be ill now. What are the symptoms?” asked Mac, trying
to combine business with pleasure and improve his mind while doing his
duty.
“If you ever come back I'll tell you,” laughed Rose as he danced away
into the wrong corner, bumped smartly against another gentleman, and
returned as soberly as if that was the proper figure.
“Well, tell me 'how not to do it,'” he said, subsiding for a moment's
talk when Rose had floated to and fro in her turn.
“Oh! You see some young girl who strikes you as particularly charming
whether she really is or not doesn't matter a bit and you begin to
think about her a great deal, to want to see her, and to get generally
sentimental and absurd,” began Rose, finding it difficult to give a
diagnosis of the most mysterious disease under the sun.
“Don't think it sounds enticing. Can't I find an antidote somewhere, for
if it is in the air this year I'm sure to get it, and it may be fatal,”
said Mac, who felt pretty lively and liked to make Rose merry, for he
suspected that she had a little trouble from a hint Dr. Alec had given
him.
“I hope you will catch it, because you'll be so funny.”
“Will you take care of me as you did before, or have you got your hands
full?”
“I'll help, but really with Archie and Steve and Charlie, I shall have
enough to do. You'd better take it lightly the first time, and so won't
need much care.”
“Very well, how shall I begin? Enlighten my ignorance and start me
right, I beg.”
“Go about and see people, make yourself agreeable, and not sit in
corners observing other people as if they were puppets dancing for your
amusement. I heard Mrs. Van once say that propinquity works wonders, and
she ought to know, having married off two daughters, and just engaged a
third to 'a most charming young man.'?
“Good lack! The cure sounds worse than the disease. Propinquity, hey?
Why, I may be in danger this identical moment and can't flee for my
life,” said Mac, gently catching her round the waist for a general
waltz.
“Don't be alarmed, but mind your steps, for Charlie is looking at us,
and I want you to do your best. That's perfect take me quite round, for
I love to waltz and seldom get a good turn except with you boys,” said
Rose, smiling up at him approvingly as his strong arm guided her among
the revolving couples and his feet kept time without a fault.
“This certainly is a great improvement on the chair business, to which
I have devoted myself with such energy that I've broken the backs of two
partners and dislocated the arm of the old rocker. I took an occasional
turn with that heavy party, thinking it good practice in case I ever
happen to dance with stout ladies.” And Mac nodded toward Annabel,
pounding gaily with Mr. Tokio, whose yellow countenance beamed as his
beady eyes rested on his plump fiancée.
Pausing in the midst of her merriment at the image of Mac and the old
rocking chair, Rose said reprovingly, “Though a heathen Chinee, Fun puts
you to shame, for he did not ask foolish questions but went a-wooing
like a sensible little man, and I've no doubt Annabel will be very
happy.”
“Choose me a suitable divinity and I will try to adore. Can I do more
than that to retrieve my character?” answered Mac, safely landing his
partner and plying the fan according to instructions.
“How would Emma do?” inquired Rose, whose sense of the ludicrous was
strong and who could not resist the temptation of horrifying Mac by the
suggestion.
“Never! It sets my teeth on edge to look at her tonight. I suppose that
dress is 'a sweet thing just out,' but upon my word she reminds me of
nothing but a Harlequin ice,” and Mac turned his back on her with a
shudder, for he was sensitive to discords of all kinds.
“She certainly does, and that mixture of chocolate, pea green, and pink
is simply detestable, though many people would consider it decidedly
'chic,' to use her favorite word. I suppose you will dress your wife
like a Spartan matron of the time of Lycurgus,” added Rose, much tickled
by his new conceit.
“I'll wait till I get her before I decide. But one thing I'm sure of she
shall not dress like a Greek dancer of the time of Pericles,” answered
Mac, regarding with great disfavor a young lady who, having a statuesque
figure, affected drapery of the scanty and clinging description.
“Then it is of no use to suggest that classic creature, so as you reject
my first attempts, I won't go on but look about me quietly, and you had
better do the same. Seriously, Mac, more gaiety and less study would do
you good, for you will grow old before your time if you shut yourself up
and pore over books so much.”
“I don't believe there is a younger or a jollier-feeling fellow in the
room than I am, though I may not conduct myself like a dancing dervish.
But I own you may be right about the books, for there are many sorts of
intemperance, and a library is as irresistible to me as a barroom to a
toper. I shall have to sign a pledge and cork up the only bottle that
tempts me my ink-stand.”
“I'll tell you how to make it easier to abstain. Stop studying and write
a novel into which you can put all your wise things, and so clear your
brains for a new start by and by. Do I should so like to read it,” cried
Rose, delighted with the project, for she was sure Mac could do anything
he liked in that line.
“First live, then write. How can I go to romancing till I know what
romance means?” he asked soberly, feeling that so far he had had very
little in his life.
“Then you must find out, and nothing will help you more than to love
someone very much. Do as I've advised and be a modern Diogenes going
about with spectacles instead of a lantern in search, not of an honest
man, but a perfect woman. I do hope you will be successful.” And Rose
made her curtsey as the dance ended.
“I don't expect perfection, but I should like one as good as they ever
make them nowadays. If you are looking for the honest man, I wish you
success in return,” said Mac, relinquishing her fan with a glance of
such sympathetic significance that a quick flush of feeling rose to the
girl's face as she answered very low, “If honesty was all I wanted, I
certainly have found it in you.”
Then she went away with Charlie, who was waiting for his turn, and Mac
roamed about, wondering if anywhere in all that crowd his future wife
was hidden, saying to himself, as he glanced from face to face, quite
unresponsive to the various allurements displayed,
“What care I how fair she be,
If she be not fair for me?”
Just before supper several young ladies met in the dressing room to
repair damages and, being friends, they fell into discourse as they
smoothed their locks and had their tattered furbelows sewed or pinned up
by the neat-handed Phillis-in-waiting.
When each had asked the other, “How do I look tonight, dear?” and been
answered with reciprocal enthusiasm, “Perfectly lovely, darling!” Kitty
said to Rose, who was helping her to restore order out of the chaos to
which much exercise had reduced her curls: “By the way, young Randal is
dying to be presented to you. May I after supper?”
“No, thank you,” answered Rose very decidedly.
“Well, I'm sure I don't see why not,” began Kitty, looking displeased
but not surprised.
“I think you do, else why didn't you present him when he asked? You
seldom stop to think of etiquette why did you now?”
“I didn't like to do it till I had you are so particular I thought you'd
say 'no,' but I couldn't tell him so,” stammered Kitty, feeling that she
had better have settled the matter herself, for Rose was very particular
and had especial reason to dislike this person because he was not only a
dissipated young reprobate himself but seemed possessed of Satan to lead
others astray likewise.
“I don't wish to be rude, dear, but I really must decline, for I cannot
know such people, even though I meet them here,” said Rose, remembering
Charlie's revelations on New Year's night and hardening her heart
against the man who had been his undoing on that as well as on other
occasions, she had reason to believe.
“I couldn't help it! Old Mr. Randal and Papa are friends, and though I
spoke of it, brother Alf wouldn't hear of passing that bad boy over,”
explained Kitty eagerly.
“Yet Alf forbade you driving or skating with him, for he knows better
than we how unfit he is to come among us.”
“I'd drop him tomorrow if I could, but I must be civil in my own house.
His mother brought him, and he won't dare to behave here as he does at
their bachelor parties.”
“She ought not to have brought him till he had shown some desire to
mend his ways. It is none of my business, I know, but I do wish people
wouldn't be so inconsistent, letting boys go to destruction and then
expecting us girls to receive them like decent people.” Rose spoke in
an energetic whisper, but Annabel heard her and exclaimed, as she turned
round with a powder puff in her hand: “My goodness, Rose! What is all
that about going to destruction?”
“She is being strong-minded, and I don't very much blame her in this
case. But it leaves me in a dreadful scrape,” said Kitty, supporting her
spirits with a sniff of aromatic vinegar.
“I appeal to you, since you heard me, and there's no one here but
ourselves do you consider young Randal a nice person to know?” And Rose
turned to Annabel and Emma with an anxious eye, for she did not find it
easy to abide by her principles when so doing annoyed friends.
“No, indeed, he's perfectly horrid! Papa says he and Gorham are the
wildest young men he knows, and enough to spoil the whole set. I'm so
glad I've got no brothers,” responded Annabel, placidly powdering her
pink arms, quite undeterred by the memory of sundry white streaks left
on sundry coat sleeves.
“I think that sort of scrupulousness is very ill-bred, if you'll excuse
my saying so, Rose. We are not supposed to know anything about fastness,
and wildness, and so on, but to treat every man alike and not be fussy
and prudish,” said Emma, settling her many-colored streamers with the
superior air of a woman of the world, aged twenty.
“Ah! But we do know, and if our silence and civility have no effect, we
ought to try something else and not encourage wickedness of any kind. We
needn't scold and preach, but we can refuse to know such people and that
will do some good, for they don't like to be shunned and shut out from
respectable society. Uncle Alec told me not to know that man, and I
won't.” Rose spoke with unusual warmth, forgetting that she could not
tell the real reason for her strong prejudice against “that man.”
“Well, I know him. I think him very jolly, and I'm engaged to dance
the German with him after supper. He leads quite as well as your cousin
Charlie and is quite as fascinating, some people think,” returned Emma,
tossing her head disdainfully, for Prince Charming did not worship at
her shrine and it piqued her vanity.
In spite of her quandary, Rose could not help smiling as she recalled
Mac's comparison, for Emma turned so red with spiteful chagrin, she
seemed to have added strawberry ice to the other varieties composing the
Harlequin.
“Each must judge for herself. I shall follow Aunt Jessie's advice and
try to keep my atmosphere as pure as I can, for she says every woman has
her own little circle and in it can use her influence for good, if she
will. I do will heartily, and I'll prove that I'm neither proud nor
fussy by receiving, here or at home, any respectable man you like to
present to me, no matter how poor or plain or insignificant he may be.”
With which declaration Rose ended her protest, and the four damsels
streamed downstairs together like a wandering rainbow. But Kitty laid
to heart what she had said; Annabel took credit herself for siding with
her; and Emma owned that she was not trying to keep her atmosphere pure
when she came to dance with the objectionable Randal. So Rose's “little
circle” was the better for the influence she tried to exert, although
she never knew it.
At suppertime Charlie kept near her, and she was quite content with him,
for he drank only coffee, and she saw him shake his head with a frown
when young Van beckoned him toward an anteroom, from whence the sound of
popping corks had issued with increasing frequency as the evening wore
on.
“Dear fellow, he does try,” thought Rose, longing to show how she
admired his self-denial, but she could only say, as they left the supper
room with the aunts, who were going early: “If I had not promised Uncle
to get home as soon after midnight as possible, I'd stay and dance the
German with you, for you deserve a reward tonight.”
“A thousand thanks, but I am going when you do,” answered Charlie,
understanding both her look and words and very grateful for them.
“Really?” cried Rose, delighted.
“Really. I'll be in the hall when you come down.” And Charlie thought
the Fra Angelico angel was not half so bright and beautiful as the one
who looked back at him out of a pale blue cloud as Rose went upstairs as
if on wings.
When she came down again Charlie was not in the hall, however, and,
after waiting a few minutes, Mac offered to go and find him, for Aunt
Jane was still hunting a lost rubber above.
“Please say I'm ready, but he needn't come if he doesn't want to,” said
Rose, not wishing to demand too much of her promising penitent.
“If he has gone into that barroom, I'll have him out, no matter who is
there!” growled Mac to himself as he made his way to the small apartment
whither the gentlemen retired for a little private refreshment when the
spirit moved, as it often did.
The door was ajar, and Charlie seemed to have just entered, for Mac
heard a familiar voice call out in a jovial tone: “Come, Prince! You're
just in time to help us drink Steve's health with all the honors.”
“Can't stop, only ran in to say good night, Van. Had a capital time, but
I'm on duty and must go.”
“That's a new dodge. Take a stirrup cup anyway, and come back in time
for a merry-go-rounder when you've disposed of the ladies,” answered the
young host, diving into the wine cooler for another bottle.
“Charlie's going in for sanctity, and it doesn't seem to agree with
him,” laughed one of the two other young men who occupied several chairs
apiece, resting their soles in every sense of the word.
“Apron strings are coming into fashion the bluer the better hey,
Prince?” added the other, trying to be witty, with the usual success.
“You'd better go home early yourself, Barrow, or that tongue of yours
will get you into trouble,” retorted Charlie, conscious that he ought
to take his own advice, yet lingering, nervously putting on his gloves
while the glasses were being filled.
“Now, brother-in-law, fire away! Here you are, Prince.” And Steve handed
a glass across the table to his cousin, feeling too much elated with
various pleasurable emotions to think what he was doing, for the boys
all knew Charlie's weakness and usually tried to defend him from it.
Before the glass could be taken, however, Mac entered in a great hurry,
delivering his message in an abbreviated and rather peremptory form:
“Rose is waiting for you. Hurry up!”
“All right. Good night, old fellows!” And Charlie was off, as if the
name had power to stop him in the very act of breaking the promise made
to himself.
“Come, Solon, take a social drop, and give us an epithalamium in your
best Greek. Here's to you!” And Steve was lifting the wine to his own
lips when Mac knocked the glass out of his hand with a flash of the
eye that caused his brother to stare at him with his mouth open in
an imbecile sort of way, which seemed to excite Mac still more, for,
turning to his young host, he said, in a low voice, and with a look that
made the gentlemen on the chairs sit up suddenly: “I beg pardon, Van,
for making a mess, but I can't stand by and see my own brother tempt
another man beyond his strength or make a brute of himself. That's plain
English, but I can't help speaking out, for I know not one of you would
willingly hurt Charlie, and you will if you don't let him alone.”
“What do you pitch into me for? I've done nothing. A fellow must be
civil in his own house, mustn't he?” asked Van good-humoredly as he
faced about, corkscrew in hand.
“Yes, but it is not civil to urge or joke a guest into doing what you
know and he knows is bad for him. That's only a glass of wine to you,
but it is perdition to Charlie, and if Steve knew what he was about,
he'd cut his right hand off before he'd offer it.”
“Do you mean to say I'm tipsy?” demanded Steve, ruffling up like a
little gamecock, for though he saw now what he had done and was ashamed
of it, he hated to have Mac air his peculiar notions before other
people.
“With excitement, not champagne, I hope, for I wouldn't own you if you
were,” answered Mac, in whom indignation was effervescing like the wine
in the forgotten bottle, for the men were all young, friends of Steve's
and admirers of Charlie's. “Look here, boys,” he went on more quietly,
“I know I ought not to explode in this violent sort of way, but upon my
life I couldn't help it when I heard what you were saying and saw what
Steve was doing. Since I have begun, I may as well finish and tell you
straight out that Prince can't stand this sort of thing. He is trying
to flee temptation, and whoever leads him into it does a cowardly
and sinful act, for the loss of one's own self-respect is bad enough,
without losing the more precious things that make life worth having.
Don't tell him I've said this, but lend a hand if you can, and never
have to reproach yourselves with the knowledge that you helped to ruin a
fellow creature, soul and body.”
It was well for the success of Mac's first crusade that his hearers
were gentlemen and sober, so his outburst was not received with jeers or
laughter but listened to in silence, while the expression of the faces
changed from one of surprise to regret and respect, for earnestness is
always effective and championship of this sort seldom fails to touch
hearts as yet unspoiled. As he paused with an eloquent little quiver
in his eager voice, Van corked the bottle at a blow, threw down the
corkscrew, and offered Mac his hand, saying heartily, in spite of his
slang: “You are a first-class old brick! I'll lend a hand for one, and
do my best to back up Charlie, for he's the finest fellow I know, and
shan't go to the devil like poor Randal if I can help it.”
Murmurs of applause from the others seemed to express a general assent
to this vigorous statement, and, giving the hand a grateful shake, Mac
retreated to the door, anxious to be off now that he had freed his mind
with such unusual impetuosity.
“Count on me for anything I can do in return for this, Van. I'm sorry
to be such a marplot, but you can take it out in quizzing me after I'm
gone. I'm fair game, and Steve can set you going.”
With that, Mac departed as abruptly as he had come, feeling that he
had “made a mess” of it, but comforting himself with the thought that
perhaps he had secured help for Charlie at his own expense and thinking
with a droll smile as he went back to his mother: “My romance begins by
looking after other girls' lovers instead of finding a sweetheart for
myself, but I can't tell Rose, so she won't laugh at me.”