ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT
The trio from Meadow Brook, on their way to Sunset Rock galloped up to
the Hollis Creek porch, and, finding Miss Stevens there, gaily demanded
that she accompany them.
"I'm sorry," said Miss Stevens, who was already in driving costume,
"but I have an engagement at ten o'clock," and she looked back through
the window into the office, where the clock then stood at two minutes
of the appointed time; then she looked rather impatiently down the
driveway, as she had been doing for the past five minutes.
"Well, at least you'll come back to the bar with us and have an
ice-cream cocktail," insisted Princeman, reining up close to the porch
and putting his hand upon the rail in front of her.
"I don't see how I can refuse that," said Miss Stevens with a smile and
another glance down at the driveway, "although it's really a little
early in the day to begin drinking," and she waited for them to
dismount, going back with them into the little ice-cream parlor and
"soft drink" and confectionery dispensary which had been facetiously
dubbed "the bar." Here she was careful to secure a seat where she
could look out of the window down toward the road, and also see the
clock.
After a weary while, during which Miss Josephine had undergone a
variety of emotions which she was very careful not to mention, the
party rose from the discussion of their ice-cream soda and the bowling
tournament and all the various other social interests of the two
resorts, and made ready to depart, Miss Westlake twining her arm about
the waist of her friend Miss Stevens as they emerged on the porch.
"Well, anyway, we've made you forget your engagement," Miss Westlake
gaily boasted, "for you said it was to be at ten, and now it's
ten-thirty."
"Yes, I noticed the time," admitted Miss Stevens, rather grudgingly.
"I'm sorry we dragged you away," commiserated Miss Westlake with a
swift change of tone. "Probably the party of the second part didn't
know where to find you."
"No, it couldn't be anything like that," decided Miss Josephine after a
thoughtful pause. "Did you see anything of Mr. Turner this morning?"
she asked with sudden resolve.
"Mr. Turner," repeated Miss Westlake in well-feigned surprise. "Why,
yes, I know papa said early this morning that he was going to have a
business talk with Mr. Turner, and as we left Meadow Brook papa was
just going after his hat to take a drive with him."
"I wonder if it would be an imposition to ask you to wait about five
minutes longer," inquired Miss Stevens with a languidness which did
_not_ deceive. "I think I can change to my riding-habit almost within
that time."
"We'll be delighted to wait," asserted Miss Westlake eagerly, herself
looking apprehensively down the driveway; "won't we, boys?"
"Sure; what is it?" returned Princeman.
"Josephine says that if we'll wait five minutes longer she'll go with
us."
"We'll wait an hour if need be," declared Princeman gallantly.
"It won't need be," said Miss Stevens lightly, and hurrying into the
office she ordered the clerk to send for her saddle-horse.
For ten interminable minutes Miss Westlake never took her eyes from the
road, at the end of which time Miss Stevens returned, hatted and
habited and booted and whipped.
The Hollis Creek young lady was rather grim as she rode down the
graveled approach beside Miss Westlake, and both the girls cast furtive
glances behind them as they turned away from the Meadow Brook road.
When they were safely out of sight around the next bend, Miss Westlake
laughed.
"Mr. Turner is such a funny person," said she. "He's liable at any
moment to forget all about everything and everybody if somebody
mentions business to him. If he ever takes time to get married he'll
make it a luncheon hour appointment."
Even Miss Josephine laughed.
"And even then," she added, by way of elaboration, "the bride is likely
to be left waiting at the church." There was a certain snap and
crackle to whatever Miss Stevens said just now, however, which
indicated a perturbed and even an angry state of mind.
Ten minutes later, Sam Turner, hatless, and carrying a buggy whip and
wearing a torn coat, trudged up the Hollis Creek Inn drive, afoot, and
walked rapidly into the office.
"Is Miss Stevens about?" he wanted to know.
"Not at present," the clerk informed him. "She ordered out her horse a
few minutes ago, and started over to Sunset Rock with a party of young
people from Meadow Brook."
"Which way is Sunset Rock?"
The clerk handed him a folder which contained a map of the roadways
thereabouts, and pointed out the way.
"Could you get me a saddle-horse right away?"
The clerk pounded a bell and ordered up a saddle-horse for Mr. Turner,
who immediately thereupon turned to the telephone, and, calling up
Meadow Brook, instructed the clerk at that resort to send a carriage
for Mr. Westlake, who was sitting in the trap, entirely unharmed but
disinclined to walk, at the foot of Laurel Hill; then he explained that
the grays had run away down this steep declivity, that the yoke bar had
slipped, the tongue had fallen to the ground, had broken, and had run
back up through the body of the carriage. The horses had jerked the
doubletree loose, and the last he had seen of their marks they had
turned up the Bald Hill road and were probably going yet. By the time
he had repeated and amplified this explanation enough to beat it all
through the head of the man at the other end of the wire, his horse was
ready for him, and very much to the wonderment of the clerk he started
off at a rattling gait, without taking the trouble either to have
himself dusted or to pin up his badly torn pocket.
He only lost his way once among the devious turns which led to Sunset
Rock, and arrived there just as the party, quite satisfied with the
inspection of a view they had seen a score of times before, were ready
to depart, his appearance upon the scene with the telltale pocket being
greatly to the discomfiture of everybody concerned except Miss Stevens,
who found herself unaccountably pleased that Sam's delay had been due
to an accident, and able to believe his briefly told explanation at
once. Miss Westlake was in despair. She had really hoped, and
believed, that Sam had forgotten his engagement in business talk, and
she had felt quite triumphant about it. Tilloughby, satisfied to be
with Miss Westlake, and Princeman, more than content to ride by the
side of Miss Stevens, were neither of them overjoyed at the appearance
of the fifth rider, who made fully as much a crowd as any "third party"
has ever done; and he disarranged matters considerably, for, though at
first lagging behind alone, a narrow place in the road shifted the
party so that when they emerged upon the other side of it Miss Westlake
was riding by the side of Sam, and Tilloughby was left to ride alone in
the center. Thereupon Miss Westlake's horse developed a sudden
inclination to go very slowly.
"Papa says I'm becoming a very keen business woman," she remarked, by
and by.
"Well, you've the proper blood in you for it," said Sam.
"That doesn't seem to count," she laughed; "look at Billy. But I think
I did a remarkably clever stroke this morning. I induced papa to say
he'd double his stock in your company and give it to me. He tells me
I've enough to 'swing' control. Isn't that jolly?"
"It's hilariously jolly," admitted Sam, but with an inward wince.
Control and Westlake were two words which did not make, for him, a
cheerful juxtaposition.
"So now you'll have to be very nice indeed to me," went on Miss
Westlake banteringly, "or I'm likely to vote with the other crowd."
"I'll be just as nice to you as I know how," offered Sam. "Just state
what you want me to do and I'll do it."
Miss Westlake did not state what she wanted him to do. In place of
that she whipped up her horse rather smartly, after a thoughtful
silence, and joined Tilloughby, the three of them riding abreast. The
next shifting, around a deep mud hole which only left room for an
Indian file procession, brought Sam alongside Miss Josephine, and here
he stuck for the balance of the ride, leaving Princeman to ride part of
the time alone between the two couples, and part of the time to be the
third rider with each couple in alternation. Miss Josephine was very
much concerned about Mr. Turner's accident, very happy to know how
lucky he had been to come off without a scratch, except for the tear in
his coat, and very solicitous indeed about any further handling of the
obstreperous gray team; and, forgiving him readily under the
circumstances, she renewed her engagement to drive with him the next
morning!
Sam rode on home at the side of Miss Westlake, after leaving Miss
Stevens at Hollis Creek, in a strange and nebulous state of elation,
which continued until bedtime. As he was about to retire he was handed
a wire from his brother:
"Just received patent papers meet me at Restview morning train."