THROWN FOR A LOSS.
Morrison was strolling aimlessly around town next morning when he saw
Miss Goring come out of a shop. Opportunity knocks but once. He bore
down rapidly, braked abruptly in front of her, lifted his panama with a
graceful gesture and addressed her.
"Miss Goring," he said rapidly, "I cannot tell you how badly I feel
about last night. It must have been the heat."
The girl bit her ripe underlip and eyed him icily. "So you explained
last night."
"It's doubly unfortunate, because I fell in love with you the instant I
saw you. I am anxious to make friends with your father. Won't you help
me?"
Her eyes widened and her cheeks flamed, but she retained her composure.
"Are you still intoxicated?" she demanded.
"Sober as a judge. It's this way. I want to make the next boat for New
York. I'd like to be married and--"
"You are quite mad," she exclaimed. "Step aside, please--or must I call
a policeman?"
He stepped aside and she brushed by. He called after her:
"No man ever loved a girl as I love you."
She affected not to hear him, and hurried on.
"Well," observed Morrison to the ambient atmosphere, "she knows it now.
She knows I love her, and my intentions are honorable. I will proceed
to buy out some florist and send the contents of his shop to the
consulate."
Ellen Goring, smiling in spite of herself at the encounter, walked
briskly back to the consulate. She had observed this young man in the
flyspecked dining room of the Hotel Trinidad last evening, noted that
he was big and blond and clean-cut and wholesome. It is probable that
he would have attracted her attention even if she had seen him in a big
American city, but down here, in this exotic spot, whose inhabitants
were mostly black and tan and whose resident Americans were few and
mostly unappetizing, she had inspected him with interest. Even if a
girl is perfectly satisfied to be unmarried, there is no reason why she
should not look over the members of the male sex.
And then her father had come in and explained that the fellow was a
quarrelsome, boisterous and insulting young brute. It was hard to
believe that, but Mr. Goring was still hot from a quarrel with him.
While Ellen loved her father she was not blind to his faults, and she
thought he probably exaggerated a trifle, but she glanced at the
culprit and saw that he was staring at her, and he had bold eyes.
Then he had the effrontery to come to their table and admit to her
father, in her hearing, that he had insulted him, had called him a
superannuated ape.
His apology was an even greater insult. She knew why he made it. He
wanted to get acquainted with her. This young man was much too brash
and his impudence was egregious. She thought about him a lot that
night, wondering how she could put him in his place, provided she had
an opportunity to take him in hand.
And now the man was insane enough to accost her on the street, tell her
he loved her and propose marriage on the spot. He had not even been
introduced to her. She had charged him with intoxication, but she knew
he was sober; she had declared he was mad, but she didn't believe it.
She was thrilled, and it made her angry to be thrilled. What kind of
girl did the fellow think she was? She would show him!
She would tell her father on him. Perhaps the consul could have him
deported.
The American consulate was a small house on a side street half a block
from the Plaza, a Spanish dwelling with a patio. It was rather a shabby
patio and a shabbier house, but the consul's salary was small, and it
was the best he could afford. There was a room on the ground floor
which Mr. Goring had fitted up as an office, and the family lived in
four rooms on the second floor. None of the other ground floor rooms
were habitable. Over the entrance was a small flagstaff upon which hung
the American flag, when their one servant remembered to hang it out.
* * * * *
Mr. Goring was sitting in the patio when she entered, clad in a soiled
white suit, and minus collar and necktie. He had also omitted to shave,
but he had his morning drink upon the little table beside the big
wicker armchair in which he was stretched. Her father was degenerating
rapidly in the tropics, she thought. Too much to drink, nothing much to
do, and this withering, melting heat. If only he would give it up and
go home!
The Honorable Elias Goring had no intention of going home. He liked his
title, he liked the easy life, and he liked cheap drinks and plenty of
them. He had been a State Senator in Illinois and had been defeated for
reëlection after sixteen years in office. He had felt he was too old to
set up in business again in Springton, their home, so he had grasped
eagerly at the offer of the consulate in Rosa Blanca. While he had been
somewhat disappointed when he first saw the place, three months ago, he
had decided it would do.
Ellen, who had old-fashioned ideas about the love and respect due a
parent, was finding it daily more difficult to respect her father, and
his present appearance repelled her. Nevertheless, she was so angry she
had to erupt, and she duly erupted.
"Father," she began, "that man who insulted you last night had the
impudence to speak to me upon the street just now. He was abominable.
He tried to make love to me."
"What's that? Why, the miserable young pup! I'll, I'll--" He stopped
short.
"Well, what will you do about it?" she demanded. "Can you have him
deported?"
Mr. Goring rubbed his unshaved jaw with his big right hand.
"It's like this, Ellen," he deprecated. "I was talking with our
minister last night at the hotel. It seems the fellow's the son of
Thomas Morrison, who is the Morrison Fruit Company. Well, Morrison owns
this spiggoty republic. He put the present administration in power, and
keeps it there. I reckon Morrison is powerful enough to yank me out of
here if I assert myself in this matter the way I ought to."
"He told you who he was last night. You were bold enough then."
"Well, the fact is, I was excited, and I didn't connect the name at the
moment."
"Upon my word!" exclaimed the furious girl. "I can be insulted by a man
on the street and my father is afraid to protect me."
The consul got up from his chair and struck a statesmanlike attitude.
His watery blue eyes tried to glower at her. "Don't you say that; don't
you dare say I can't protect my daughter! I'll see this young man and
give him a piece of my mind; but I can't deport him. The administration
here wouldn't do it if I asked them to."
"Very well. Oh, very well! I'm sorry I told you about it. I can look
after myself." She tapped the flagstone with an angry toe.
"I'll attend to this," said the father, striding up and down and
fanning his own wrath to make it warm. "In just what way did he insult
you?"
"He asked me to marry him and go North on the next boat."
"Well!" exclaimed Mr. Goring. "Upon my word! But, after all, Ellen, is
a proposal of marriage from a rich young man an insult?"
She half smiled and suppressed the smile. "Considering that he had
never met me and was practically picking me up, I think it is. Maybe
not an insult, but very impudent. Don't bother, father--though, if you
were removed from this dreadful place, it might be a good thing for all
of us."
"I have a right to protect my daughter, and I shall. I'll speak to this
young man!"
"Then here is your opportunity," she exclaimed. "I'm going to run for
it."
She had observed, coming through the entrance, none other than Jim
Morrison, staggering under so many tropic blooms that he really should
have conveyed them in a cart. Ellen whisked up the stairs to the
second floor and then went into a room directly over her father's
chair, so she should not miss the conversation which was going to ensue.
* * * * *
"Good morning, Mr. Goring," said Jim cheerfully. "I came to pay my
respects to our country's representative, and to leave a few simple
flowers for the wife and daughter of the consul."
Mr. Goring resumed his chair and curled his lip at the visitor.
"You've got a gall coming here after last night," he said.
"I hoped you would remember that I apologized most humbly for what
happened in the bar. It was the heat. I was not myself."
"We'll let that pass," said the consul angrily. "You have committed a
new offense. You insulted my daughter upon a public thoroughfare, and I
ought to horsewhip you for it."
"I insulted your daughter? Mr. Goring, I paid her the greatest
compliment a man can pay a woman. I asked her to marry me."
"She took it as an insult. Now, young man, I don't care if you are your
father's son and if you've got influence enough to have me pulled off
this job, I don't like you. My daughter doesn't like you. We can't run
you out of Rosa Blanca, but we can prevent you from coming into this
house. Have you got any official business with the consul?"
"No-o," said Jim, then, brightly, "but no doubt I can think up some."
He thought he heard a titter somewhere above him, and looked up, but he
could see nobody.
"The trouble with you young bloods from New York is you suppose you can
commit all the crimes on the calendar and get away with it," proclaimed
Mr. Goring. "Now, I'm a plain citizen from a country town in Illinois,
but I don't kowtow to any New York millionaire or his brash son. My
daughter is just as good as you are--"
"Say, she's a million times better," declared the object of the
reproof. "She's the most beautiful girl I ever saw and I think she's
the finest. When she gets to know me, maybe she'll find out I'm not so
bad either."
He spoke loudly, for he suspected that Ellen was listening from above.
He was sure about that titter.
"Well, I forbid you to make her acquaintance. I forbid you this
house. If you accost her on the street again, I'll cable your father,
appealing to him as one father to another."
"You're going to make it tough for a couple of nice young people,"
protested Morrison.
"Confound your impudence! My daughter don't want anything to do with
you. She came in here, almost crying, and do you know what she asked me
to do? Have you deported! Now, young man, you better go."
Jim Morrison's brisk cheerfulness faded and his face lengthened.
"Say, did she actually feel like that? I'm darn sorry. Will you ask her
to accept these flowers as a token of my remorse?"
"Pick up your flowers and carry them off or I'll have the servants
throw them out," said the consul roughly. "Are you going to leave or
must I have you put out?"
"Oh, I'll go," he said dismally. Ellen leaned out the window and read
his distress in the manner in which his big shoulders drooped. She ran
downstairs again.
"Were you listening?" demanded Mr. Goring. She nodded.
"You can't complain of your old father now. I told him plainly where
I stood and let him know that his wealth didn't impress me. Are you
satisfied?"
"You needn't have told him I wanted him deported," she said crossly.
"And you were much too harsh with the poor boy."
The consul's mouth dropped open in astonishment. "If you don't beat
all!" he exclaimed. "You demand that I protect you and I risk my post
to do it and this is the thanks I get."
Ellen rushed to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his
cheek. "You are a dear," she said, "and I am very ungrateful. And I
don't think you discouraged that young man much."