Part 15 (1/2)
The threat was wholly unnecessary. With shaking hands the cheat made rest.i.tution, his sallow face gray-green and distorted with silent rage.
”Now, vamoose!” Willa commanded. ”If I don't hear the front door slam in just thirty seconds, you'll be the deadest hombre this side of Kingdom Come!”
There were a few seconds to spare from her ultimatum when the scurry of feet ceased in a thud which echoed through the silent house.
Willa slipped the revolver back under her belt and turned with a little rueful smile to her cousin.
”I--I suppose it wasn't just what a lady ought to have done----” she began, apologetically.
”It was wonderful!” Winthrop North's eyes shone. ”You saw him stack up the cards on Pete Follinsbee, and then dug up that revolver and came in here to expose him! It's the gamest thing I ever heard of a girl doing! Congratulations, Miss Murdaugh!”
Vernon pulled himself together, and held out his hand. ”I'm proud of my cousin! Only--what in thunder will the mater say if this gets out?”
”I know what Dad would have said.” Willa flushed. ”But I suppose I've made a regular hash of--of my debut!”
CHAPTER IX
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
”What in the world are you doing, Vernie?” Angie paused in the library door, stifling a yawn daintily as she slipped her evening cloak from her shoulders.
Vernon looked up from his book with raised eyebrows.
”I should think that was self-evident,” he observed. ”What brings you home so early?”
”The dance was insufferably stupid.” She dropped into a chair and began stripping off her gloves. ”The music was awful and you know what the Erskine's ball-room floor is like; domestic champagne, too, with frilly serviettes around the labels and half the boys drank quite too much of it. Ghastly bore, the whole affair.”
”It seems to me everything is a bore nowadays, according to you.”
Vernon grinned. ”When is Starr Wiley coming back?”
”I haven't the least idea.” Angie flushed. ”What has he to do with it?”
”A good bit, I imagine,” responded her brother. ”You were playing him pretty strong before he left.”
”Heavens! I wish you wouldn't use such horrid coa.r.s.e expressions!
That's Willa's influence, but I knew just how it would be. I warned mother it was a hopeless job to try to make anything of her the very night she came, and I'm simply dreading next Tuesday!”
”I wouldn't worry on her account if I were you,” Vernon returned. ”She may be a little green yet, but she's learning fast, and I wouldn't be surprised if she were the hit of the season. That black hair and dead-white skin and those deep blue eyes of hers are going to make a sensation right off the bat. You'd better look to your laurels, my dear sister.”
”Tommyrot!” retorted Angie, inelegantly. ”She's as awkward as a calf, and hasn't a word to say for herself, though if she'll only continue to keep still, I'm sure we shall all be thankful. Mother is in despair over her studies; she simply refused to go on with the tutor, you know--said she could read all the history and literature she wanted, and it was a waste of time to study geography until the war was over and the map settled. Moreover, she told Mr. Timmins to his face that she knew more about practical mathematics and executive finance than he did, and the dead languages could stay dead as far as she was concerned.”
Vernon chortled.
”Bully for her! I think she's a corker. She dances like a dream already, and old Gaudet is ready to weep with joy over her fencing.”
Angie compressed her lips, in the fas.h.i.+on she had inherited from her mother.
”She ought to come naturally by the dancing, I'm sure,” she sneered.