Part 10 (1/2)

Her first impulse was to face him down and demand to be told the rest.

But realizing that a father at the end of a long-distance line was possessed of a certain strategic advantage presenting more difficulties than a mother at hand, she said lightly:

”All right, papa. I'll call her. Be sure you take good care of yourself.

Bydie.” She relinquished the telephone instrument to her mother and stood waiting.

She could hear the buzzing of her father's voice but no distinct word.

Her mother said ”Yes?” and ”Yes,” and ”Yes, Ben.” And then: ”Oh, _Ben_!

I don't understand.” And then her mother's voice sharpened, and she cut into something Gaynor was saying: ”I can't say anything like _that_! It is as though we suspected him of being underhanded. And----”

Such sc.r.a.ps of talk were baffling, and Gloria, with scant patience for the baffling, moved up and down restlessly. When her mother had clicked up the receiver, Gloria followed her and demanded to be told. Mrs.

Gaynor looked worried; said it was nothing, and refused to talk. But in five minutes her daughter knew everything Gaynor had said. King was to be told that Gratton, instead of going straight to San Francisco, had gone down to Placerville, and next had turned up at Coloma; that he had spent three days there; that he had gone several times to Honeycutt's shanty, and had been seen, more than once, with Swen Brodie.

”It's an outrage,” cried Mrs. Gaynor, ”to retail all that to Mark King.

What business of his is it if Mr. Gratton does go to Coloma, or anywhere else?”

”That's for you and papa to argue out,” said Gloria serenely.

”We are going back to San Francisco to-morrow!”

”I'm not. You know I'm not ready to go yet.”

”That is very undutiful, Gloria,” said her mother anxiously. ”When your own mother----”

”Oh, let's not get tragic! And, anyway, papa wanted us to stay until Mr.

King came, so that we could tell him.”

”Jim Spalding will be here; he can tell----”

”Why, mamma! After papa has trusted to _us_ to see that his message is delivered!” Gloria looked shocked, incredulous. ”Surely----”

So they waited for Mark King to come again out of the forest. All the next day Gloria, dressed very daintily and looking so lovely in her expectancy that even old Jim Spalding's eyes followed her everywhere, watched from the porch or a window or her place by the creek. She was sure that he would step out of the shadows into the sun with that familiar appearance of having just materialized from among the tree trunks; over and over she was prepared, with prettily simulated surprise, to greet his coming. But the day pa.s.sed, night drove them indoors to a cosy fireplace and lights and fragments of music which Gloria played wistfully or cras.h.i.+ngly in bursts of impatience, and still he did not come. Mrs. Gaynor went off to bed at nine o'clock; Gloria, suddenly absorbed in a book, elected to sit up and finish her chapter.

She out.w.a.tched the log fire; at eleven o'clock the air was chill, and Gloria as she went upstairs s.h.i.+vered a little and felt tired and vaguely sad.

The next day she put on another pretty dress, did her hair in her favourite way, and went about the house as gay as a lark. The day dragged by; King did not come. By nightfall the look in Gloria's eyes had altered, and a stubborn expression played havoc with the tenderer curves of her mouth. She resented at this late date King's way of going; not only had he not told her good-bye, he had left no word with her father for her. She sat smiling over a letter received some days ago from Gratton--after she had retrieved the letter from a heap of crumpled papers in her bedroom waste-paper basket. She read to her mother fragments, bright, gossipy remarks in Gratton's clever way of saying them; she wrote a long, das.h.i.+ngly composed answer.

Two days later she said to her mother, out of a long silence over the coffee cups:

”Let's go back to San Francisco. This stupid place gets on my nerves.”

”Why, of course, dear,” agreed Mrs. Gaynor. ”I can have everything packed this afternoon, and to-morrow----”

”Nonsense,” said Gloria. ”You know we can get packed in half an hour.”

That day they left Jim Spalding in charge and departed for Truckee to catch a train for San Francisco. Mrs. Gaynor dutifully entrusted to Spalding her husband's message for Mark King. That is to say, that portion of the message which she considered important. Gloria herself left no message with old Jim; not in so many words. But she did impress him with her abundant gaiety, with her eagerness for San Francisco, where all of her best and dearest friends were. If any one should ask old Jim concerning Miss Gloria, Jim would be sure to make it clear that she had no minutest regret in going but a very lively antic.i.p.ation of the fullest happiness elsewhere.

_Chapter IX_