Part 16 (2/2)
”Oh, confound it, Sally, drop it!” he exclaimed, smiling, but annoyed nevertheless.
”No,” she said, ”we can't drop it, Jack. You're responsible for the whole affair. I have seen the necessity of finding a way out of it, for all of us--although my heart bleeds for poor Beatrice.”
Jack shrugged his shoulders, and lighted a cigar. Then, he thrust his feet far out in front of him, and studied the toes of his tan shoes intently.
”What's the matter with Beatrice?” he asked, presently.
”She is in love with Roderick Duncan,” replied his wife, with an emphatic nod of her blond head.
”Eh? What's that? In love with Rod? Nonsense!”
”She is, Jack; I know she is.”
”Gee, little girl, but it surely is a mix up! What are you going to do about it? Why in blazes didn't she marry him, then, when she had the chance?”
”I've thought of a way Jack, if you will agree to it, and help me out--a way by which things can be smoothed over. Will you help me?”
”Yes, I will. What is it?”
”Could you tear yourself away from the city for two or three days, beginning to-morrow morning?” she asked him.
”I guess so, Sally.”
”Are you willing to go out to Cedarcrest for a few days, and entertain a select party, there?”
”Suit me to death, girl. Glad you thought of it. Whom will you ask?
And what is the game?”
”I have made out a list,” replied Sally, meditatively. ”I shall read it off to you, if you will listen.”
”Go ahead.”
”It includes Beatrice and Patricia, of course; d.i.c.k Morton and--”
”Wait a moment, Sally. I've got a sort of a notion in my head that neither Beatrice nor Patricia, will care to go to Cedarcrest on such an expedition as that, under the present circ.u.mstances.”
”My dear John”--she sometimes called him John when she was particularly in earnest, and when she attempted to be especially dignified--”you may leave all the details of this arrangement to me. I merely wished your consent to the plan.”
”Oh, well, if you can manage it, Sally, you've got my consent, all right. What do you want me to do about it? You didn't have to consult me, you know.”
”I want you, first, to listen to the list I have made out, and, after that, to carry out my directions in regard to it.”
”Good girl; I can do that, too.”
”Patricia and Beatrice, Roderick Duncan and the Houston girls, Richard Morton, Nesbit Farnham; and, to supply the other two men who will be necessary to make up the party, you yourself may make the selection. I only wish them to be the right sort.”
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