Part 5 (1/2)
”Yes; I guess I'll have to admit that. I didn't ask her, though, Steve Armstrong. She suggested gratis--that Harry couldn't afford it. They went into debt to buy furnis.h.i.+ngs for the house as it was.”
”I don't doubt it. History pays even less than chemistry, and the Lord knows--No; I don't doubt it.”
”Knows what, Steve?”
”Who knows what?”
”The one you suggested.”
”Oh! I guess you caught the inference all right. No need to have put it in the abstract. We professors of the younger set are all in the same boat. We'd all have to go into debt under like circ.u.mstances.”
Elice Gleason meditated.
”But Harry's been a full professor now a long time,” she commented; ”two years longer than you.”
”And what difference does that make? He just lives on his salary.”
”Is that so? I never thought of it that way. I don't think I ever considered the financial side before at all.”
Armstrong looked his approval.
”I dare say not, Elice; and I for one am mighty glad you didn't. Life is cheap enough at best without adding to its cheapness unnecessarily.”
The girl seemed scarcely to hear him, missing the argument entirely.
”I suppose, though,” she commented reflectively, ”when one does think of it, that it'll be rather hard on Margery to scrimp. She's always had everything she wants and isn't used to economizing.”
Armstrong sat a moment in thought. He gave his habitual shrug.
”She should have thought of that before the minister came,” he dismissed with finality. ”It's a trifle late now.”
”They've been putting it off for a long time, though,” justified the girl, ”and probably she thought--one has to cease delaying some time.”
”Elice! Elice!” Armstrong laughed banteringly. ”I believe you've got the June bug fluttering in your bonnet too. It's contagious this time of year, isn't it?”
”Shame on you, Steve!” The voice was dripping with reproach. ”You always will be personal. You know I didn't mean it that way.”
”Not a bit, honest now?”
”I say you ought to be ashamed to make fun of me that way.”
”But honest--”
”Well,” reluctantly, ”maybe I did just a bit. We too have been engaged quite a while.”
”Almost as long as the Randalls.”
”Yes.”
The quizzical look left Armstrong's eyes, but he said nothing.