Part 7 (2/2)
”He sent you off?”
Deering nodded. ”I wasn't keen to go, but he saw help was wanted, and he thought about wiring for a doctor. When I got back with the boys, our plan was to rush you down to the hotel, but it wasn't Stannard's. I allow we were rattled; he was cool. We must go slow and not jolt you; at awkward spots somebody must look for the smoothest line. Crossing the glacier, he went ahead with the lantern and located a soft snow-bridge the guide was going to cross.”
”Stannard is like that,” said Jimmy. ”His coolness is very fine.”
Deering agreed, but Jimmy thought he hesitated before he resumed: ”In some ways, the fellow's the standard type of highbrow Englishman. He's urbane and won't dispute; he smiles and lets you down. He wears the proper clothes and uses the proper talk. If you're his friend, he's charming; but that's not all the man. Stannard doesn't plunge; he calculates. He knows just where he wants to go and gets there. I guess if I was an obstacle, I'd pull out of his way. The man's fine, like tempered steel, and about as hard-- Well, the doctor stated you wanted quiet and I'll quit talking.”
He went away and Jimmy mused. Deering talked much, but Jimmy imagined he sometimes had an object. Although he frankly approved Stannard, Jimmy felt he struck a warning note. Since Jimmy owed much to Stannard's coolness, he was rather annoyed; but the talk had tired him and he went to sleep.
VII
AN INSURABLE INTEREST
The sun was hot and Jimmy loafed in an easy chair at the shady end of the terrace. Laura occupied a chair opposite; the small table between them carried some new books, and flowers and fruit from the Pacific coast. In the background, a s.h.i.+ning white peak cut the serene sky.
Three or four young men and women were on the veranda steps not far off.
A few minutes since they had bantered Jimmy, but when Laura arrived they went. Jimmy rather thought she had meant them to go and he gave her a smile.
”I expect you have inherited some of Mr. Stannard's talents,” he remarked.
”For example?”
Jimmy indicated the rather noisy group. ”It looks as if you knew my head ached and I couldn't stand for Stevens' jokes. When you joined me he and his friends went off. Your father arranges things like that, without much obvious effort.”
”I knew the doctor stated you must not be bothered,” Laura admitted.
”Besides, I engaged to go fis.h.i.+ng with Stevens and some others, and before I get back expect I'll have enough.”
”Is Dillon going?”
”Frank planned the excursion,” said Laura and Jimmy was satisfied.
Dillon was a young American whom Jimmy rather liked, but to think Laura liked Frank annoyed him. Now, however, she had admitted that his society had not much charm.
”Anyhow, you're very kind,” he remarked, and indicated the fruit and flowers. ”These things don't grow in the mountains.”
”The station is not far off and to send a telegram is not much bother.”
”To send up things from Vancouver is expensive.”
”Sometimes you talk like a cotton manufacturer,” Laura rejoined.
Jimmy colored but gave her a steady glance. ”It's possible. My people are manufacturers; my grandfather was a workman. Not long since, I meant to cultivate out all that marked me as belonging to the cotton mill. Now I don't know-- Perhaps I inherited something useful from my grandfather; but in the meantime it's not important. You _are_ kind.”
”Oh, well,” said Laura. ”You were moody and the doctor declared you had got a very nasty jolt.”
”I was thoughtful. To some extent you're accountable. When one is forced to loaf one has time to ponder, and when you inquired if I knew where I went--”
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