Part 21 (1/2)

”O cricky! Isn't that just like him? You'd think he wanted the whole town to know he'd gone off picnicking with a girl. But I'd have thought Esther Coombe would have better sense!”

”It wasn't Esther's fault. She couldn't act as if she was ashamed of him, could she? When a gentleman asks a lady to go out in his automobile she can't ask him to drive down the back streets.”

”If he had only taken her at night!” groaned the hara.s.sed junior partner. ”But no, he must take a whole day off and him with two patients on his hands. Look at me! Have I ever asked off to go on any picnics?

Not on your tintype. Business is business. Doctors can't fool round like other folks.”

Ann nodded agreement. Things were coming her way very nicely. She glanced at the wrathy Bubble out of the corners of her eyes. ”I didn't think he'd be mean like that,” she remarked craftily.

”Like what? He isn't mean!”

”To make you stay in all day.”

”He didn't. Not him! He gave me fifty cents and told me to take a day off. 'Just run around with the medicine, Bubble,' says he, 'and then you can hike it. I have a feeling in my bones,' he says, 'that n.o.body's going to die to-day.'”

”Well, then--”

”A man has a sense of duty for all that.”

”Well,” rising with a dejected air, ”if you're not coming, good-bye. It will be lovely paddling! Aunt's given me some lettuce sandwiches and two apple turnovers. One was for you, but I suppose I can eat them both. The sugar's leaked all round the edge--lovely!”

The stern disciple of business watched her tie on her sun-bonnet with mingled feelings. It began to look as if she was really going!

”Good-bye,” said Ann.

Bubble's red face grew a shade redder.

”Just like a girl!” he said bitterly. ”Because a man's got to deliver two medicine bottles, off she goes and won't wait for him. And the farthest I've got to go is over to Mrs. Nixon's. The whole thing won't take five minutes.”

Sun-bonnets are splendid things for hiding the face! Had Bubble seen that slow smile of victory there is no telling what might have happened.

But he did not see it. And Ann was too good a general to exult openly.

Her answer was carefully careless. ”I'll wait--if you'll hurry up!”

But the look which she threw after his hastily retreating figure was as old as Eve.

Meanwhile the doctor and Esther, who had been so criminally careless of professional appearances as to drive down Main Street with a picnic basket protruding, were enjoying themselves with an enjoyment peculiar to careless people. Esther had forgotten about the pile of uncorrected school exercises which were supposed to form her Sat.u.r.day's work; the doctor had forgotten about the measles and the twins. Rain had fallen in the night and the dust was laid, the trees were intensely green.

Neither of them knew exactly how this pleasant thing had come about, although, as a matter of crude fact, Mrs. Sykes had played the part of the G.o.d from the machine. This energetic lady had made the doctor's professional career her peculiar care and it had occurred to her that, as a resident physician, he was disgracefully ignorant of the surrounding country. At the same moment she had remembered that to-morrow was Sat.u.r.day, and that for trapesing the country and meandering around in outlandish places there was no one in town equal to Esther Coombe.

”But,” objected the doctor, ”I hardly know Miss Coombe well enough to ask a favour of her.”

Mrs. Sykes opined that that didn't matter. ”Land sakes,” she declared, ”it would be a nice state of affairs if one huming-being couldn't do a kindness to another without being acquainted a year or two.” Besides, Esther, as the old doctor's daughter, might almost be said to have a duty toward the newcomer. Mrs. Sykes felt sure that Dr. Coombe would have insisted upon proper attentions being shown, since he was always ”the politest man you ever saw, and terrible nice to strangers.”

Mrs. Sykes also, with the a.s.sistance of Aunt Amy, had provided the large basket. They might not need it all, but then again they might. It was best to be prepared. And, anyway, no one should ever say that she, Mrs.

Sykes, ”skimped” her boarders' meals. As for the big shawl, once belonging to a venerated ancestress, it is always safe to take a big shawl on a country trip even in June heat with the thermometer going up.

The doctor agreed to everything, even the shawl. Whether one is taking a rest cure or not, it is distinctly pleasant to look forward to a day in the country with a lovely girl. Esther had taken his request quite simply. It seemed only natural to her that he should wish to explore, while the invitation to act as guide was frankly welcomed. Indeed her girlish gaiety in the prospect had shown very plainly that such holidays had been rare of late. School did not ”keep” on Sat.u.r.day, Jane was away, and Aunt Amy was so much better that she could leave her without misgiving. Bubble alone prophesied disaster, and at him they all laughed.

There is a little folder published by the Town Council which gives a very good idea of the country around Coombe. We might quote this, but it will be much better for you to go some time and see things for yourself.

Dr. Callandar saw a great deal that day, but was never very clear afterwards in his descriptions. It was rocky in spots, he knew, and wild and sweet and piney. And there were little lakes. He remembered the lakes particularly because--well, because of what came later.