Part 39 (1/2)

”Remember there are ladies present,” urged Polly.

”I won't hurt Paul,” promised Johnny, responding to her smile with a suddenly relieved grin, and, taking Gresham daintily by the coat sleeve with his thumb and forefinger, he led the unresisting cousin of Lord Yawpingham to the front door. Polly opened it for him, and, grabbing Gresham's silk hat, put it hastily askew and hindside before upon his bewildered head.

Johnny did not strike him or shove him, but the graceful and self-possessed Gresham, attempting desperately to recover those qualities and to leave with dignity, stumbled over the door-mat and scrambled wildly down the stone steps, struggling to retain his balance.

Colonel Bouncer, just starting up the steps with Loring, Sammy Chirp, Winnie, Val Russel and Mrs. Follison, hastily and automatically gave him a helping shove on the shoulder which sent him sprawling to the walk, where he completed his interesting exhibition by turning a back somersault.

”Glimmering gosh, Colonel!” protested Val, as he hurried to pick up Gresham, laughing, however, as did the others, on account of the neighbors. ”Why did you do that?”

”I thought Johnny Gamble pushed him,” humbly apologized the colonel.

Bruce Townley and the Courtney girls arrived, and in the gay scramble for wraps Johnny had a moment with Constance.

”Well, I lose,” he said regretfully. ”There isn't much chance to make that million between now and four o'clock to-morrow afternoon.”

”What's the difference?” inquired Constance, smiling contentedly into his eyes.

Only the presence of so many people prevented her fichu from being mussed.

”There's a lot of difference,” he a.s.serted with a suddenly renewed impulse, the world being greatly changed since she had refused Gresham.

”I set out to get it, and I won't give it up until four o'clock to-morrow afternoon.”

”If you want it so very badly I hope that you get it then,” she gently a.s.sured him.

Her shoulder happened to touch his arm and he pressed against it as hard as he could. She resisted him.

”Ready, Constance?” called Polly.

”In just a minute,” Johnny took it on himself to reply. ”How does the score board look by this time?”

Constance hesitated, then she blushed and drew from a drawer of the library table the score board. The neatly ruled pasteboard had been roughly torn into seven pieces--but it had been carefully pasted together again!

CHAPTER XXIII

IN WHICH THE BRIGHT EYES OF CONSTANCE ”RAIN INFLUENCE”

There being no cozy corners aboard Mr. Courtney's snow-white Albatross in which a couple with many important things to say could be free from prying observation, Johnny and Constance behaved like normal human beings who were profoundly happy. They mingled with the gaiety all the way out through the harbor to the open sea, and then they drifted unconsciously farther and farther to the edge of the hilarity, until they found themselves sitting in the very prow of the foredeck with Mr.

Courtney and his friend from the West. If they could not exchange important confidences they could at least sit very quietly, touching elbows.

Mr. Courtney's friend from the West was a strong old man with keen blue eyes, who sat all through the afternoon in the same place, talking in low tones with Courtney on such dry and interminable subjects as railroads, mines, freight rates, stocks, bonds and board meetings.

Constance wondered how an otherwise nice old man could reach that age without having acc.u.mulated any lighter and more comprehensible objects of interest, and she really doubted the possibility of any man's understanding all the dry-as-dust business statistics with which he was so handy. Suddenly, however, Johnny Gamble awoke from his blissful lethargy and bent eagerly forward.

”Beg pardon, Mr. Boise,” he interjected into the peaceful conversational flow of the older men. ”Did I understand you to say that the S. W. & P. had secured a controlling interest in the B. F. & N. W.?”

Constance looked at Johnny in dismay. If he, too, intended to talk in nothing but the oral sign language, she had a wild idea of joining the frivolous crowd on the afterdeck, where at least there was laughter.

Mr. Boise looked at Johnny from under s.h.a.ggy eyebrows.