Part 31 (1/2)
”Still, your drive didn't end at Kloh's; it ended way up in the mountains.”
Mr. Boltwood b.u.mbled down on them: ”Another minute late! Like to know what the matter is!”
”Yes, father!”
When Mr. Boltwood's impatiently waiting back was turned, Claire gripped Milt's hand, and whispered to him, ”You see, I'm captured! I thought I was father's lord and chauffeur, but he sniffs the smoke of the ticker.
In his mind, he's already back in the office, running things. He'll probably turn me over to Jeff, for disciplining! You won't let them change me back into a pink-face, will you? Come to tea, at the Gilsons', just as soon as you reach Seattle.”
”Tea---- Now we're so near your Gilsons, I begin to get scared. Wouldn't know what to do. Gee, I've heard you have to balance a tea-cup and a sandwich and a hunk o' cake and a lot of conversation all at once! I'd spill the tea, and drop crumbs, and probably have the butler set on me.”
”You will not! And if you did--can't you see?--it wouldn't matter! It just wouldn't matter!”
”Honestly? Claire dear, do you know why I came on this trip? In Schoenstrom, I heard you say you were going to Seattle. That moment, I decided I would, too, and get acquainted with you, if murder would do it. But, oh, I'm clumsy.”
”You've seen me clumsy, in driving. You taught me to get over it. Perhaps I can teach you some things. And we'll study--together--evenings! I'm a thoroughly ignorant parasite woman. Make me become real! A real woman!”
”Dear--dear----”
Mr. Boltwood loomed on them. ”The train's coming, at last. We'll have a decent sleep for once, at the Gilsons'. I've wired them to meet us.” He departed.
”Terribly glad your father keeps coming down on us, because it scares me so I get desperate,” said Milt. ”Golly, I think I can hear the train.
I, uh, Claire, Claire dear----”
”Milt, are you proposing to me? Please hurry, because that is the train.
Isn't it absurd--some day you'll have to propose all over again formally, for the benefit of people like father, when you and I already know we're partners! We've done things together, not just danced together! When you're an engineer, you'll call me, and I'll come a-running up to Alaska. And sometimes you'll come with me to Brooklyn--we'll be a couple of bombs---- There's the train. Oh, playmate, hurry with your engineering course! Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Because when it's done, then---- Whither thou goest, there I go also!
And you did bully me, you did, you did, and I like it, and---- Yes, father, the bags are right here. Telephone me, minute you reach Seattle, dear, and we'll have a private lesson in balancing tea-cups---- Yes, father, I have the tickets. So glad, dear, the trip smashed up like this--shocked me into reality--made me realize I've been with you every hour since I dismissed you, back in Dakota, and you looked at me, big hurt eyes, like a child, and---- Yes, father, Pullman's at the back.
Yes, I'm coming!”
”W-wait! D-did you know I was going to propose?”
”Yes. Ever since the Yellowstone. Been trying to think of a nice way to refuse you. But there isn't any. You're like Pinky--can't get rid of you--have t' adopt you. Besides, I've found out----”
”You love me?”
”I don't know! How can I tell? But I do like to drive with my head on your shoulder and---- Yesssss, father, coming!”
CHAPTER XXIV
HER OWN PEOPLE
Mr. Henry B. Boltwood was decorously asleep in a chair in the observation car, and Claire, on the wide back platform, sat unmoving, apparently devoted to agriculture and mountain scenery. But it might have been noted that her hand clenched one of the wooden supports of her camp-stool, and that her hunched back did not move.
When she had turned to follow her father into the train, Milt had caught her shoulders and kissed her.
For half an hour that kiss had remained, a perceptible warm pressure on her lips. And for half an hour she had felt the relief of gliding through the mountains without the strain of piloting, the comfort of having the unseen, mysterious engineer up ahead automatically drive for her. She had caroled to her father about nearing the Pacific. Her nervousness had expressed itself in jerky gaiety.