With a sweet, serious face she went downstairs at last and went to her aunt first. That would be the hardest announcement to make, for she knew there would be an outcry.
“Aunt Letitia,” she began sweetly, “I’ve had a letter from my father. He says my mother is not at all well, and he thinks I should come home at once and look after her.”
The old face on the pillow hardened.
“What’s the matter with her?” she snapped. “Is it just a passing indigestion, or something like that? Because if it is, I don’t see any sense in your breaking up here, now that you are so well established in our home. Your mother would understand how much more, in my condition, I would need you than she does. If it is just some passing illness that she’ll be over in a few days, it’s such a long, expensive journey, it wouldn’t be worth your while to go all that way and come right back here.”
June gasped at the idea and took a deep breath before she would trust herself to answer.
“Of course, they must have all understood that when you came here, this position you are holding was to be considered more or less permanent,” went on the merciless aunt.
“Oh no,” said June quickly, “they did not understand any such thing, and neither did I. I could never consent to that, and I know they would not. But Aunt Letitia, when I came, if I had realized how very little you need me, I would not have thought of coming. You do not really need me here. Your servants are well trained. I scarcely ever have any admonition to give them. They know far more than I do about your ways, and they never need me to tell them. And your nurse is devoted. You really don’t need me at all.”
“I consider those very hard, unfeeling words for one who has been practically a daughter in our house. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and take it for granted that they are spoken as a bid for praise for what you consider you have done here, and it’s not my way to praise people. The reward for well doing is the fact of duty well done. I am sure you are bright enough to understand that, and therefore I am giving you no praise. If you come to your senses and realize that your duty is here, and your place is here, especially while I am bedridden, I shall be relieved of course, but I am not going to get down on my knees and beg you to stay. I do not believe in that way of doing.”
“Even if you did, Aunt Letitia, I could not possibly stay. My precious mother needs me, and my father needs me, and my place is in my home and not here. If you were suffering and had no one to bring you food and attend you, I might feel that I ought to help you in some way, but not under any consideration would I feel that I could stay here now. I am sure Uncle Barnard would understand that.”
“What is that, my dear?” questioned the old man gently, coming in just then.
“Oh, Uncle Barnard! I have just had a letter from my father. He says my mother has been overworking and is not at all well, and he feels that I should come home and be with her as soon as I can get there.”
“Why, of course, dear child. That is right and good that you should do that. We are deeply grateful that you have been with us so long, and though we shall miss you greatly, we know it is right that you should go.”
“Yes,” said Aunt Letitia sourly. “You might have known that he would say that. He never was known to think as I did about anything in his life. Barnard, this settles it. You’ve simply got to exercise your authority as a father and insist that the government shall cancel that second enlistment and let Ella come home. I demand that you send a cable this morning, now, and order Ella to come home at once! I feel that I am going to be very sick over all this excitement, and you had better let her know, so there’ll be no trifling.”
The old man lifted mild, worried eyes.
“But, Letitia, we couldn’t do that. Ella is of age, and I have no right as a parent over her comings and goings. I can ask her to come, but the decision would rest entirely with her, after the government. They have the first say, of course.”
“It’s ridiculous!” snorted Aunt Letitia. “The government! Why should they have rights beyond those of a parent? And we are both sick and feeble. You can tell them that, Barnard. They would be inhuman not to listen to that!”
Poor Uncle Barnard! What a time he was going to have, standing mildly protesting, trying to make his unreasonable wife see reason.
In the midst of it all, June slipped out. She was no longer the subject of discussion, and she was sure her uncle understood the situation and the rightness of her position. So she hurried upstairs to pack.
Chapter 16
Paige’s first few days at the shore were fairly interesting and restful, although he did not consider himself in any need of rest.
Chalmers professed to be under orders to take a great deal of sleep and rest and didn’t let himself be wakened until late. After a luxurious breakfast in bed, he spent a half hour with the morning papers and then sent for Paige. There followed an hour or two of dictation, interspersed by oratory intended to gradually set forth his business policies, which he still hoped to have break on his new assistant’s consciousness so gradually that he would not be shocked into realizing that it was contrary to all his own earlier conceived ideas of righteousness.
Chalmers’s idea of ethics was that if you went at matters of that sort deliberately enough, the sharp contrast between good and bad would soon be eliminated and there would no longer be left the sensitive conscience with which the normal average male of worthy parents was born. This was, to Chalmers’s way of thinking, the path of success for a right-minded man who had been hampered at the start by straitlaced puritanical ideas. This was the way to be a financial power in the world with a good handsome veneering of Christianity on the outside, to give confidence to clients.
Paige’s day began with a dip in the sea while the beach was still fairly empty of people and he could have the whole ocean to himself. Then came time with his Bible, and on his knees, and he felt fit for the day, both physically, mentally, and spiritually! It was good to him that Chalmers was not bothering him early in the day and he could get the right start.
After a hearty breakfast and a few minutes listening to his radio for the news of the day, if there was any time left before Chalmers called him for dictation, he wrote letters or began on his Sunday school lesson for the next Sunday.
Chalmers was most affable, and Paige almost began to like him when they talked together, except when that shady side of his character began to come to the front, and then his defense finally was silence. The two men soon began to understand each other and to plan each to offset the other, as if their present life were a sort of game, in which some questions were batted back and forth to see which would win, and though Paige didn’t say much, he never tried to argue with his boss on business matters, and seldom on any other subject. Chalmers soon began to see that he would have to be up and coming if he would keep ahead of the alert young mind he had taken over to train. It soon began to be interesting to the older man to plan answers to the simple, steady convictions of the younger man.
But Chalmers grew weary of this continual lying around. He was not by nature a lazy man. He was used to leading an active life, going from one interesting thing to another, and this role of invalid he was playing was not to his liking. He even took to playing chess, because he discovered that this young business assistant had in earlier days started somewhat in that game. The actual work they did with dictation was limited, especially until word came from the city regarding letters that had come in that needed the boss’s suggestions. Paige was quick at taking dictation, and expert in typing, having used it a great deal during his college years, both to expedite his own class work and also to help increase his income. More and more as Chalmers observed these things, he commended himself for having picked out this young man for future promotion in his own business. More and more he was satisfied that at least for the present his crazy young daughter had chosen to set her fancy on this bright young man, and mentally commended her idea of getting him to come down to the shore and promote th
eir acquaintance.
But even the limit of three days of invalidism was growing irksome to Chalmers, before Reva would arrive, and he took occasion to call up his so-called specialist a couple of times for permission to walk or ride and so vary the monotony.
So at last he professed to have gained such permission, and the program was slightly varied. The first day Paige took him on a short drive, and Chalmers felt so well after it that he insisted on going down to the dining room to dinner that night instead of having it served in his room.
Then came Thursday, and Chalmers had a sudden spurt of dictation, getting things out of the way so there would be time for Reva to carry out her plans, leaving Madison without any actual duties for Friday.
But he reckoned without his guest, for he found that his assistant had provided himself work by writing out some lists that he said he knew would be needed later, typing several copies for the different men in the office and generally organizing a number of things to send back to the filing clerk. Chalmers was surprised at the ability shown in these things and commended Paige for what he had done. Although he said it wasn’t necessary now while he was on vacation, and he wondered if he wasn’t going to have difficulty in tearing the boy away from his regular morning working hours.
Thursday evening Reva arrived, most “unexpectedly” of course, and her father seemed rejoiced to see her. He felt that now she was here, she would take Madison off his watch for a while and he himself could run down to the bar and find some of his old cronies, perhaps.
Paige looked his surprise at Reva when he came on her amid a small mountain of suitcases. He thought at first she must be on her way to some famous resort for the summer and had stopped off here to see her father, and doubtless to beg a big check for her summer use, but his heart sank as he realized that she would be underfoot all the next day, probably. Then in almost her first sentence she made it plain that she had come to stay over Sunday with Dad. Well, that meant he would have to be nice to her until it was time for him to leave. Her father would resent it if he wasn’t.
He considered asking if he might go a little earlier, but that would not be in keeping with the letter of his contract. He was supposed to stay here until Saturday noon, and he couldn’t just beat it because the daughter had arrived. Maybe it might mean a little more leisure for him to study his Sunday lesson, but he thought not. Somehow he began to think this was intentional. Reva was a clever girl. His mother had been right about her. Well, there was only another day before Saturday, and he would be gone, and maybe she would be gone before he returned on Monday.
Friday morning Paige carried out his usual program, a brief swim, and then his devotions. He came down to breakfast as arranged and met Reva already at the table reading the society column of the morning papers.
“Hi!” she called gaily. “Aren’t we going to have fun today?”
“Are we?” asked Paige in surprise. “Did your father make new plans last night after I went to my room?”
“Father, nothing. What does he have to do with it?”
“Oh, then you didn’t know that I’m down here working for him?”
“A lot you are. Not today! I’m boss here now!”
“Oh, are you? But I didn’t agree to work for you.” Paige grinned pleasantly.
“Well, you’re going to. Today! See! I fixed that all up with Dad last night after you went sleepy-bye. See? Would you like to go for a swim first, or shall we take a yacht and go sailing and then go swimming after lunch?”
“Why, you see I’ve had my swim,” said Paige good-naturedly. “I always take my swim around sunrise. There’s more ocean then and less naked people. You know I like people better when they are dressed.”
Reva stared at him unbelievably.
“Oh, why, the very idea!” she said. “You don’t mean that!”
“Yes, I do,” asserted Paige gravely.
“But isn’t the water awfully cold then? And lonesome?”
“I like it that way,” said Paige pleasantly. “Cold and lonesome.”
“Well, I certainly don’t,” affirmed the girl annoyedly. “You certainly cut yourself out of a lot of fun in life doing the way you do.”
“Well, I don’t seem to miss much,” said Paige. “But say, you spoke of going sailing. We might get a sailboat and go out. Your father might enjoy that.”
“Oh,” said Reva, with diminished fervor. “Well I don’t know whether the doctor would let him, or he would want to, but I’d love to go. Can you sail a boat? Because I could help. I’ve gone sailing a lot. But why can’t we go this morning?”
“Sorry,” said Paige, “but I have work to do this morning. Some typing that must be finished for the office. They need it.”
“Heck!” said Reva, with an ugly look. “Dad will see to that if I tell him to. But anyhow, I’d rather go swimming this morning and sailing this afternoon.”
“Very well, suppose you go swimming this morning while I am working, and then everything will fit in nicely.”
Reva pouted.
“Dad might make a fuss if I go alone. He always thinks I’m going to get drowned.”
Paige knew this wasn’t true, but he only smiled and said, “Oh, you wouldn’t be alone. There are plenty of lifeguards.”
“Oh, lifeguards! There’s no thrill to a lifeguard!”
They strolled out into the lobby of the hotel and went to see if there was any mail. Paige’s heart thrilled when he saw a package with his name on it. It wasn’t possible for June to have sent a picture so soon, was it? And then he caught the name of the photographer on the envelope and quickly hid the large flatness under some magazines, for Reva was just behind him, all eyes out for the mail. And Reva had no reserves; at least she was determined that nobody else should have any.
He gave a hasty glance at the rest of the mail, saw there were several letters for his chief bearing the home office mark. There would be letters for him to answer.
With his package carefully protected under his arm and his hands filled with letters, one of which he was sure was from June, he bowed courteously to Reva.
“Excuse me,” he said. “There are some things here that I must attend to at once and get the answers off in the morning mail.” He made a dash for an elevator just about to close its doors, and disappeared out of the girl’s eager sight.
Once in his room he locked his door and opened the picture. There she was! It was perfect! He feasted his eyes upon it and finally stood it up on his bureau and walked away, studying it from a distance. It was like having her in the room, and he wondered at the tumult in his heart, over just a picture.
But a picture of June! He hadn’t realized before how much this meant to him.
Then he opened her letter. It was brief, written just after his telephone message. It didn’t exactly say that her own heart was in a tumult over hearing his voice again, but it conveyed the impression that they had the same feeling about their brief conversation.
Then suddenly the handful of letters he had brought up with him slid out of his fingers and slithered to the floor. He stooped to pick them up and saw that three were forwarded from the office and bore the return address of firms that had been considering a contract with Harris Chalmers and Company for some time. These letters ought to go to Mr. Chalmers at once.
He went to his phone and called up Mr. Chalmers’s room. A sleepy voice answered.
“Mr. Chalmers, there are three forwarded letters in this morning’s mail, two from New York and one from that Mr. Harrigan. I thought perhaps you ought to see them at once.”
“What? You say Harrigan? And New York. Bring them right to my room. And yes, probably they will need immediate answers.”
“All right, sir. I’ll be with you at once,” said Paige, feeling greatly relieved. This would probably release him from further attendance on Reva, for that morning at least.
He paused only to put June’s picture safely away out of sight until he could get a suitable frame for it, and then hurried
to his boss.
It was a busy morning, and thanks to an old pal of Reva’s recently on furlough from the service, they were not disturbed, for Reva was enjoyably busy elsewhere, swimming with someone who did not object to modern bathing suits.
At lunchtime, with the three letters answered, signed by Mr. Chalmers, and mailed down the chute in the hall, both Paige and his boss were tired and hungry and happy. And then Mr. Chalmers thought of his daughter, who had been the instigator of this sojourn by the sea, and felt uneasy. What had Reva been doing, and was she very angry? Perhaps she had even been so angry at his lack of attention to her this morning that she might have packed up and gone home. There had been times when she was capable of gestures like that.
“Have you seen my daughter this morning?” he asked Paige.
The young man looked up pleasantly.
“Oh yes,” he said with reassurance in his voice. “She wanted me to go somewhere, but I told her that I had work to do until noon. She spoke of swimming, and I think she probably found plenty of company. I saw her stop and speak to a group of young people as we came out of the dining room.”
“Well, that’s probably where she is then,” said the father, with relief in his voice. “She’s a great swimmer and loves it.”
Paige noted that there was not a particle of the nervousness about her swimming that Reva had implied. He was coming to see that this girl said whatever was to her advantage to say, regardless of the truth, and sometimes even regardless of being found out. A great many people lied habitually, but few of them cared to be found out in a lie. This did not seem to be the case with Reva.
“Well, Paige, you might do a little scouting around and see if she has come out yet. She will think it strange that I didn’t look her up. You might call her room and see if she’s there. If not, the desk might know if she has come in yet.”