At the end of three days, Mr. Martin, professing much gratitude and
pleasure for the hospitality shown him, departed for the South. At the
end of four days, Mr. Gollop, making the excuse of urgent business,
entrained for New York. Not that Mr. Gollop, having regard for the
_expressio falsi_ as compared with the _suppressio veri_, was strictly a
prevaricator or that he told the exact truth, because he had slipped
four whole days up his sleeve for his own entertainment; four whole days
in which he had not the slightest intention of visiting his firm; four
whole days that he intended to devote to art research, and
exploration--exploration of a wilderness known as MacDougall Alley. So
accurately did he time his movements that he invaded MacDougall Alley at
just eleven a.m., which he considered a proper hour to find an aspiring
artist at work while the light was most perfect and amenable. He was not
disappointed, which he regarded as proof of acumen; but he was
surprised by his surroundings. No bare-walled studio, this, but a rather
luxurious place. With a real rug on the floor, and real chairs to sit
upon, and a cosy seat, and electric lights instead of bare boards,
benches, charcoal brazier and tallow dips stuck in the necks of bottles
blown for better contents.
"See here! What troubles you, Bill Jones? Have I done anything you
didn't like?" demanded Mary Allen, as she extricated her thumb from the
hole of a palette on which oil paints proved that she had forsaken for
the moment her love of water colors.
"Why--why--I don't understand!" exclaimed Jimmy, helplessly.
"Don't understand? I thought you promised to write?"
"I did," admitted Jimmy; "but, you see, I was so busy and there were so
many people to talk to in my most seductive manner, and there were so
many things to be done, including people, that I clean overlooked it! I
did! I confess. But--I'm going to be here now at least a week," he added
hopefully, and not without insinuation.
"Hope you enjoy your visit," she said, and added rather maliciously, "I
am entirely engrossed in my work--this week."
He stared at her with a face as frankly dejected as that of a hurt boy;
then, his ever-present bouyancy reasserting itself, queried, "That's
good. By the way, do you ever use models?"
"Of course," she replied.
"Well, I've got nothing to do this week," he replied enthusiastically.
"I'll sit for you as a study in Disappointment, Flat-busted, or Return
from the Races. The title doesn't matter, because I'll be such an
excellent study for any sort of man whose hopes have all been knocked
flatter than a pancake."
"I know you can be gloomy enough when you wish to be," she said,
relenting a trifle; "but you're the first man I ever had promise to
write me a letter that I admitted I should welcome, and then had the
impudence to forget me. The one thing a woman can't forget is to be
forgotten."
Jimmy felt decidedly perturbed by this statement. He wondered what she
would say if he boldly admitted that he had in reality forgotten her
very name and where she came from, and then followed it with a
confession that since the first day he had met her in New York some
months ago, he had made amends by thinking of her continuously
throughout his spare time. But he did not dare. He feared banishment,
and that, he concluded, desperately, would be worse than death.
Something of his mental distress must have been observable, for the girl
suddenly relented, smiled a trifle and then said, "Well, perhaps I can
indulge myself--not you, understand?--by going somewhere."
She regained her palette, and turned toward her easel with a
businesslike air, quite as if she were a painter for a livelihood, and
said, "Now suppose you run along and let me work. You can come back here
for me at--say--one o'clock, and take me to luncheon; that is--if you're
not too busy!"
And Jimmy, transported with delight, made a vast pretense of business
and hastened away, lest she change her mind. He had the wisdom to let
well enough alone, and knew that time is the best medicine for
annoyance. But he was there in MacDougall Alley,--just the same--with
marvelous punctuality.
And there can be no question that he was a master host when it came to
luncheons, dinners, suppers, or midnight lunch counters. With him it was
an art, cultivated to the highest point of efficiency. Moreover,
timorous and fearful lest he blunderingly lose his advantages, he did
not press his suit too far and, as a result, Mary Allen forgot his
seeming neglect. There was but one embarrassing moment when, after a
moment's silence she said, "Do tell me, is there anything at all new
down home? Dad is so uncommunicative that he never has much to say about
the town itself, and everyone else is too busy to write me."
"Nothing new that I noticed when I was there last," said Jimmy. "Of
course, being on the road all the time I'm--well--I'm so busy
that--ummmh! Isn't that our waiter? Some of those pears over there on
that other table look good enough to eat and--wish we could get some
strawberries! Do you like hot-house grapes?"
He might have gone through an entire horticultural catalogue, had not
his roving eyes at that moment suddenly been arrested by something that
caused them to open widely and fix themselves. The something was a
keen-looking man seated at another table who was glaring at time with a
steady and highly interrogative look. For once Mr. James Gollop's cheery
self-confidence deserted him and he was highly distressed; for the
keen-faced man happened to be his employer and his employer up to that
moment believed one James Gollop was out on the road some hundred or so
miles from New York looking after the interests of the Columbus
Chocolate Company. Jimmy recovered sufficiently to bow and the bow was
somewhat frigidly acknowledged. Jimmy's wits worked fast--very fast.
"Pardon me, won't you please," he addressed Mary Allen; "but there is a
man sitting over there to whom I wish to speak for just an instant. Got
to make an appointment with him, and this is opportune."
"Certainly," replied the lady, and Jimmy got up, crossed to his
employer, and without giving the latter a chance to say anything, thrust
out his hand and said, "Howdydo, Mr. Falkner. Howdydo! Got in off the
run early this trip and was coming down to see you as soon as I had
lunch."
"Oh, you were, were you?" dryly remarked his "boss," and the unhappy
Jimmy distinguished a tone of sarcasm. "Very kind of you, I'm sure.
We've been wanting to hear from you for several days. I'll expect you at
just three o'clock this afternoon."
Stunned by this unusual lack of cordiality, Jim said, "Very well, sir,
I'll be there," and with as much dignity as he could command, turned and
walked back to his table, but wondered heavily, what on earth he had
done; what was wrong; whether some prominent customer had gone bankrupt
or if Falkner merely had a grouch.
"I thought you went to see a friend, but you look as if you had been
talking with an undertaker," commented his guest.
"And that's just the way I feel about it," admitted Jimmy. "Because I've
got to meet him at three o'clock this afternoon, and I had anticipated
the pleasure of going somewhere with you."
"The mean old thing!" she exclaimed, impulsively, and Jimmy's heart
bumped at the knowledge that she, too, was disappointed.
"But," he suggested, hopefully, "if I called for you at the studio at
about six o'clock couldn't we dine together?"
And when she accepted his invitation with unconcealed enthusiasm, his
spirits again soared and he forgot even the baleful presence of Falkner
for a time, and when he did remember him, discovered that his "kill joy"
had gone.
Promptly at three o'clock he breezed into his firm's offices with all
habitual cheeriness, exchanged a swift run of badinage with those he
met, and was ushered into the manager's office. Falkner did not meet him
with the customary smile of welcome.
"Well," he said, "you seem to have raised a devil of a row out West, and
if you can offer any explanation at all for such conduct I'm prepared to
listen to it before we go any further. If you think that's the kind of
advertising a reputable firm wants you're about as poor a guesser as
ever traveled on a mileage book."
"Why--why--what's up?" blurted Jimmy.
"What's up? You've got a nerve to ask that!" roared the manager, banging
his fist on the top of his desk. "Here, look at these!"
He handed Jim a small sheaf of sheets consisting of letters and
telegrams. The first was from a jobbing firm:
"Cancel order given your man Gollop. Sorry, but entire board of
directors are Republican and resent Yimville affair."
A second was from another firm which had been one of Jim's best
customers and read:
"Advise Gollop not to make this territory again until Yimville
affair blows over. Granger's supporters buzzing like live hornets."
A more portentous looking document bearing the heading of the "State
Republican Committee Headquarters" bore the concise statement that
unless an immediate, full, and public apology was forthcoming from one
James Gollop for impersonating the Hon. J. Woodworth-Granger at an
important political meeting in the city of Yimville were not immediately
forthcoming, legal action would be taken for damages, on the ground of
misrepresentation, false pretense and willful intent to damage the
reputation and political career of one of the most distinguished men in
the state. Another letter was a round robin, signed by several firms,
demanding the immediate discharge of "that contemptible practical joker,
James Gollop," and still another was from no less person that the Judge
of the Fourth District Court, in which what was said of the same James
Gollop was enough to wither that unfortunate individual. Someone had
sent a stack of newspaper clippings three inches in thickness, from
which Jimmy gathered that it had taken but a day or two to pick up his
trail and expose him beyond all possible dispute.
"Good Lord!" exclaimed Jimmy, aghast, and wiping beads of perspiration
from his forehead. "I didn't have any idea of kicking up such a fuss as
that. I just blundered into a chance to have some fun with that pompous
old rooster that hated me because we looked so much alike and----" In
the midst of all his woes he could not suppress a laugh of amusement.
"So you still think it's a joke, do you?" snorted the irate manager,
exasperated by this further evidence of irresponsibility. "Well, you'll
not think so any longer. I'll attend to that. You turn your samples in
and go to the cashier with your expense account. You're fired! Maybe you
can understand that! Fired! F-I-R-E-D!"
"You needn't have troubled to spell it out," remonstrated Jimmy. "I get
you. But--hang it all, man!--you might at least put me into some new
territory. I didn't mean anything by it. I'll admit I was a chump; but I
can sell stuff, and you know it."
He stopped and stared at the floor with a face so frankly troubled and
perplexed that the manager for the moment forgot his wrath. The boy in
Jimmy Gollop was never more manifest than at that moment. There was
something very appealing about him that Falkner could not fail to
discern.
"Jimmy," he said, gravely, "I'm sorry, but it has to be done. What on
earth made you such a fool? You must have been crazy!"
"I sort of reckon I must have been," admitted Jimmy, dolefully.
"But--honestly!--I didn't mean to do any real damage to that old stiff
Granger, and certainly not to the firm. The firm? Why Mr. Falkner, I've
stuck up for it for nearly ten years because it has treated me white,
and because it's an honest firm that makes honest goods. But--well--all
I can do is to square matters up as best I can. You people have been
very good to me. Very good and very kind. I've drawn your money
and,--prospered, and so I'll write the public apology or confession, or
whatever you call it, that those chaps out there demand, and take all
the blame. And I'll write to every customer that has communicated with
you and tell 'em that, although I'm out and gone, the orders were
solicited in good faith and that it's not fair to make you suffer for
that fool joke of mine. I'm done with jokes of all sorts from now on.
I'll do anything except this--I'll not write one word of apology to that
man Granger!"
Falkner looked out of the window as if troubled, and then said, with a
sigh of regret, "Well, Jim, I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. You're
the best man we ever had out, and--by Jove!--I'll put that into writing
so you can have something to show, and you can use me personally as a
reference when you strike someone else for territory. But, mind you, I
shall have to tell them confidentially the reasons why we had to let you
go."
"Of course! That's only fair," said Jimmy, his sober common sense
impelling him to this admission.
"And--when this tempest blows by, you can have any other territory that
comes open, Jim," volunteered Falkner; "that is--provided that you cut
the jokes out. Surely you've had fun enough by now to last you a
lifetime!"
"I have! I have!" assented Jimmy lugubriously. "I've played the biggest
joke of all on myself. By heck! I've joked myself out of my own job, and
that's the limit. Joe Miller never did that and Mark Twain, Josh
Billings, Bill Nye and George Ade, none of 'em ever reached that height
of humor. The only difference between us is that they got cash for their
jokes, whereas all the pay I get is the boot and the chance to go
yelping down the street with a washboiler tied to my tail. Well, if a
fellow puts grease on the front door steps he shouldn't squeal if he
forgets and falls down himself."
It was not until he stood outside the main entrance to the building that
he had a full sense of homelessness. It was not until then that he knew
what it meant to be without anchorage. It seemed to him that all of
those who hurried past in the winter's twilight had something to do and
that he alone was adrift. He alone had dipped into the depths of folly
and he alone had proved irresponsible. And his employment just then
meant much to him. Subconsciously, he had builded with such confidence.
He was now aware that he had based all upon a permanency of income that
he had conceived to be fixed. His home, his mother's contentment, his
dreams of winning life companionship with the only girl he had ever
loved, seemed to have depended upon the employment he had lost. And now
all was gone! Swept away. He was a most forlorn and melancholy optimist
as he stood there in the early twilight of winter, confusedly
considering his position.
"Well," he thought at last, "they can't keep a good man down," and then
after a moment's further reflection added, "But they can give him an
awful wallop!"
The staring eye of an illuminated clock reminded him that MacDougall
Alley was some distance away and he suffered a peculiar mixture of
sadness and gladness as he began his journey. It seemed to him that he
was a different person from the James Gollop who had happily invaded
MacDougall's artistic precincts that morning from the James Gollop who
was now disconsolately making his way thither. That Gollop of the
morning had been happy and bright because he had a job; but this Gollop
of the evening, jobless, and with a black mark against him that was too
notorious to escape the amused attention of all possible employers in
his line, was but a sad dog. It required conscious mental effort on his
part to assume a cheerful demeanor when he climbed the studio stairs. He
wished that he dared tell the "Candy Girl" all about it, but decided
that it would be ungenerous to bother anyone else with his woes, and any
indecision in this regard was ended before the evening was over because
she was so frankly and unaffectedly happy that he hadn't the heart to
say anything that might possibly mar it. Yet, even whilst they sat in a
theater listening to a most cheerful musical comedy the sober and
responsible side of his mind was weighing necessities. The first of
these, he knew, must be economies; for he anticipated that it might be a
considerable time before he could again be earning an income, and there
was always the little home down in Baltimore and its occupant to be
considered first, and his own pleasures must be relegated to a secondary
place. He was therefore rather heart-broken, but firm in his final
explanation that night as he parted from her in front of the Martha
Putnam Hotel.
"That business session I had this afternoon," he said, trying to keep
his voice from betraying his trouble, "has unfortunately upset all my
plans. I can't have that little four days vacation I had been planning."
"What? How horrid!" exclaimed the girl. "I--I thought we were to----"
Her disappointment and distress were so manifest that Mr. James Gollop
had a first-class fight with himself to keep from blurting out the truth
there in the hotel rotunda and telling her that on the next morning he
was starting on what promised to be a long hunt for employment. But he
escaped such confession by saying that he had great hopes of returning
to New York within a few days. In fact he actually predicted that it
would be so. And after all, the only lie he told was embodied in that
word "Return."