Part 3 (2/2)

He was unable to go on under the straight and strange gaze she leveled at him. She was plainly one who was taking counsel with herself. She came to a sudden decision, and drew forth the envelope and tore it open, unfolded the paper, and began to read.

When her eyes were not on him Vaniman revealed much of what a discerning person would have known to be love; love that had been pursuing its way quietly, but was now alarmed and up in arms. He narrowed his eyes and studied her face while she read. But she did not reveal what she thought and he became more perturbed. She finished and looked across at him and then she narrowed her eyes to match his expression. Suddenly she leaned forward and gave him the paper. He read it, amazement lifting his eyebrows.

When he met her stare again they were moved by a common impulse--mirth; mirth that was born out of their mutual amazement and was baptized by the tears that their merriment squeezed from their eyes.

”I am not laughing at Tasper Britt,” he gasped, checking his hilarity.

”I would not laugh at any man who falls in love with you, Vona. I am laughing at the idea of Tasper Britt writing poetry. Let me look out of the window! Has Burkett Hill tipped over? Has the sun turned in the heavens at high noon and started back to the east?”

”What does it mean?” she asked. Her expression excused the ba.n.a.lity of her query; her eyes told him that she knew, but her ears awaited his indors.e.m.e.nt of her woman's conviction.

He pointed to the big calendar on the wall. ”It's a valentine,” he said, gravely. But the twinkle reappeared in his eyes when he added, ”And valentines have always been used for prefaces in the volume of Love.”

She did not reflect any of his amus.e.m.e.nt. She clasped her hands and gazed down on them, and her forehead was wrinkled with honest distress.

”Of course, you have sort of been guessing,” he ventured. ”All the renovating process--the way he has been tiptoeing around and squinting at you!”

She looked up suddenly and caught his gaze; his tone had been hard, but his eyes were tender.

Then it happened!

They had been hiding their deeper feelings under the thin coating of comrades.h.i.+p for a long time. As in the instance of other pent-up explosives, only the right kind of a jar was needed to ”trip” the ma.s.s.

The threat of a rival--even of such a preposterous rival as Tasper Britt--served as detonator in the case of Frank Vaniman, and the explosion of his emotions produced sympathetic results in the girl across the table from him. He leaped up, strode around to her and put out his arms, and she rushed into the embrace he offered.

But their mutual consolations were denied them--he was obliged to dam back his choking speech and she her blessed tears.

A depositor came stamping in.

They were calm, with their customary check on emotions, when they were free to talk after the man had gone away.

”Vona, I did not mean to speak out to you so soon,” he told her. ”Not but what it was in here”--he patted his breast--”and fairly boiling all the time!”

She a.s.sured him, with a timid look, that her own emotions had not been different from his.

”But I have respected your obligations,” he went on, with earnest candor. ”And this is the first real job I've ever had. It's best to be honest with each other.”

She agreed fervently.

”I wish we could be just as honest with Britt. But we both know what kind of a man he is. The sentiment of 'Love, and the world well lost' is better in a book than it is in this bank just now, as matters stand with us. I have had so many hard knocks in life that I know what they mean, and I want to save you from them. Isn't it best to go along as we are for a little while, till I can see my way to get my feet placed somewhere else?”

”We must do so, Frank--for the time being.” Her candor matched his. ”I do need this employment for the sake of my folks. Both of us must be fair to ourselves--not silly. Only--”

Her forehead wrinkled again.

”I know, Vona! Britt's attentions! I'll take it on myself--”

”No,” she broke in, with dignity. ”I must make that my own affair.

<script>