Re-Creations (23 page)

So far Carey had not even spoken to his own special guest, Clytie. Since he had spotted her afar, he had religiously kept his eyes turned away from her vicinity.

It was Grace Kendall who took her by the arm and led her to her seat at the right of the host, for Cornelia had known she could depend upon her father’s kindliness to make all go smoothly during the supper, and much as he might dislike the looks of the girl, she felt sure he would be polite and see that she was well taken care of. Brand Barlock was on Clytie’s right with Louise next, and she had placed Carey opposite Clytie, not liking to seem to separate them too much and yet not wishing to throw them together too conspicuously. Grace Kendall was on Carey’s left, with Harry’s place next to her. This would have to be for the stranger and would place him on Cornelia’s right, the fitting place for the guest of honor, yet—her cheeks burned. What would he think? Still, he had come unannounced. He had stayed. Let him take the consequences! What did she care what he thought? She would likely never see him again.

Perhaps he was not going to stay, after all. He was lingering still in the doorway but seemed just about to go.

Suddenly from behind her came a low whistle.

“Psst! Psst!”

Harry from behind the kitchen door was signaling violently, forgetting that his white shirtsleeve in his excited gestures was as visible to the rest of the company as to the astonished young man in the opposite doorway about to take a hasty leave.

“Oh, I say! Come ‘ere!” Harry whispered, as he beckoned wildly with a hand that unconsciously still grasped a muggy dish towel.

“Are you—calling me?” young Maxwell signaled with his lifted eyebrows.

Harry’s response was unmistakable, and the young man slipped past the group who were studying place cards and sliding into chairs and bent his head to the retreating head of the boy.

“I say, don’t you
see
I don’t want to come in there with all those folks? Be a good sport and stay, ‘r I’ll have to. I’d rather stay out here and dish ice cream. You go take my chair. That’s a good guy.”

Maxwell smiled with sudden illumination and lifted his eyes to find that Cornelia had heard the whole affair.

“All right, old man, I’ll stay,” said the young man. “You win. Perhaps you’ll let me come into the kitchen afterward and help clean up.”

“Sure!” said Harry joyfully, with the tone of having found a pal. “We’ll be glad to have you, won’t we Cornie?”

To himself Maxwell said, “It will be just as well to go later to see Evadne. Better, in fact. I don’t want her to think I’m too eager. I can have more time to decide what to say to her. This is a good atmosphere in which to decide. Besides, I’m hungry and the dinner smells good. It would be ages before we got settled to eating at the Roof Garden or some cabaret. I’d have to go home and dress.”

Then he became aware that Cornelia was speaking to him.

Cornelia’s cheeks were red as roses, and there was a look in her laughing eyes as if tears were not far off, but she carried the thing off bravely and declared that those things could be settled later; they really must sit down now or the dinner would be spoiled. So they all sat down, and there was a moment’s awkward silence till Mr. Copley bowed his head and asked a blessing, Clytie and Brand openly staring the while. When it was over, Maxwell discovered the place card with “Harry” on it and gravely deposited it in his vest pocket, saying in a low tone to Cornelia, “I shall make this up to him later.”

“You mustn’t think you’re depriving him,” said Cornelia, smiling and lifting her spoon to the luscious cup of iced fruit. “He really has tried in every way he knew short of running away to get out of coming to the table. He knows he has me in a corner now, and he’s tremendously pleased, so don’t think another thing about it. Suppose you play you’re one of our old friends, and then it won’t worry you anymore. It’s really awfully nice of you to come in this way.”

But all the time in her heart she was wondering why, oh, why, did this have to happen just this night when she wanted to devote all her energies to making the other people feel at home, and now she was so distracted she didn’t know what she was saying?

However, the other people seemed to be getting along famously. When she glanced up, she saw that her father was talking pleasantly to Clytie, keeping her at least employed with questions to answer about where she lived and how her father was employed and whether she had brothers and sisters. He had just asked, “And what school do you attend? High school, I suppose?” And Cornelia caught a fleeting glance of annoyance on Carey’s face as she replied with a giggle, “Oh, my goodness, no! I quit school when I was thirteen. I couldn’t stand the place. Too dull for me!”

Chapter 19

C
arey turned to Grace eagerly and began to ask about Christian Endeavor. Cornelia wondered at his sudden interest in religious matters and perceived that Brand had been carrying on a lively conversation with Grace across the table, and Carey had cut in. She felt like a person who has jumped into an airplane, somehow started it, and knows nothing of running or stopping it. She had started this thing, and this was what had developed, and now she would have to watch the consequences.

Yet it appeared there was no opportunity to watch the consequences, and much as she so desired. The young man on her right was determined to talk to her. He had drawn Louise into the little circle also, and Louise was smiling shyly and evidently pleased. Cornelia could not help noticing how sweet the little girl looked with the wild-rose color in her cheeks and the little soft tendrils of curls about her face. The organdie dress certainly was attractive, and she must get at it right away and make some more pretty clothes for the dear child.

Then her eyes traveled down the table once more. Brand was laughing uproariously, Clytie was endeavoring to get in on his conversation and divert it to herself, and Carey was looking like a thundercloud and talking very rapidly and eagerly to Grace Kendall. How handsome he looked in his new necktie! How the blue brought out the blue of his eyes! And how dear and good and kindly polite her father looked! Then she noticed with a panic that the fruit cups were nearly empty, and it was time for the soup. Would Harry and Louise be able to make the transfer of dishes without any mishaps? She had not felt nervous about it before till this elegant stranger had appeared on the scene. She knew by his looks that he was used to having everything just so. She remembered his mother’s immaculate attire, the wonderful glimpse she had caught of the fittings of her traveling bag, everything silver-mounted and monogrammed. This man would know if the soup was not seasoned just right and the dishes were served at the wrong side.

Perhaps she was a little distraught as Louise slipped silently from her seat and took the empty dishes on her little tray that had stood unseen by the side of her chair.

“What a charming little sister!” said Maxwell.

Cornelia’s heart glowed, and she looked up with an appreciative smile.

“She is a darling!” she said earnestly. “I’m just getting to know her again since I came home from college. She was only a baby when I went away.”

He looked interestedly at the sweet older sister. “I should imagine that might be a very delightful occupation. I think I would like an opportunity myself to get acquainted with her. And say, suppose you tell me about these other people. Now I’m here, I’d like to know them a little better. I haven’t quite got them all placed. Your father I know. We came up together, and it doesn’t take long to see he’s a real man. I shall enjoy pursuing the acquaintance further if he is willing. But about these others. Are they—relatives? This girl at my right, is she another sister or only a friend?”

“Oh, she is our minister’s daughter,” answered Cornelia brightly. “She’s rather a new friend, because we’ve only been living in this part of the city a short time, but we like her a lot.”

“She looks it,” he said heartily. “And the next one is your brother. I like his face. He is—a college boy, perhaps?”

“No, he’s only finished high school,” Cornelia said with a bit of a sigh. “Mother wanted him to go to college, but he didn’t seem to want to, and—well—I suppose the real truth about it was I was in college, and the family couldn’t afford to send another. I was blind enough not to know I ought to come home and give the next one a chance. However, Carey—”

She looked at him wistfully, and the young man, intensely alert to her expression, perhaps read a bit of her thoughts.

“College isn’t always the only thing,” he said quickly. “You, being a college woman, have naturally thought so, I suppose, but upon my word, I think sometimes it’s more harm than good to a boy to go to college.”

Cornelia gave him a grateful smile, and he saw that this had been one of her pains and mortifications. He liked her more, the more he talked with her. She seemed to have her family so much at heart. He lifted sharp eyes to the young man across the table.

“That’s one of his friends, I suppose?”

Cornelia nodded half dubiously.

“He owns the car at the door?”

“Yes.” There was a whole volume expressed in her tone.

The sharp eyes looked Brand over a second. “Interesting face,” he commented. “Does he belong to the automobile Barlocks?”

“Why, I don’t know,” said Cornelia. “I’ve only just come home, you know. He’s Carey’s friend, that’s all I know. I didn’t even remember he had the same name as the automobile people.”

“And who is the other young woman? She is not—a minister’s daughter, too?” he asked with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

Cornelia gave him a quick deprecatory glance. “No,” she said, half ashamed. “She is just—an experiment.”

“I see,” he said gravely, giving Clytie Dodd another intense look.

“You must be like your mother,” she said, smiling. “She seemed to me so interested in just people. And she read me like a book. Or perhaps you are a psychologist?”

“You couldn’t give me a greater compliment than to tell me I’m like Mother. She’s always like that, interested in everybody about her and wondering what circumstances helped to form them as they are.”

“It was your mother that gave me the idea of fixing up this old house on nothing.” She gave a laughing deprecatory glance about. “I was just awfully unhappy and discouraged at having to leave college and go to a poor little house in a new neighborhood, and she managed to leave with me the suggestion of making it all over in such a way that I could not get away from it.”

“You certainly have done wonders,” he said with an admiring look about. “That was one reason I was so anxious to stay and look around me, the rooms opened up so charmingly and were such a surprise. You really have made a wonderful place out of it. This room, now, looks as if it might have come out of the hands of some big city decorator, and yet there is a charm and simplicity about it that is wholly in keeping with a quiet home life. I like it awfully. I wish Mother could see it. Were those panels on the walls when you began?”

“Oh, no. There was some horrible old faded red wallpaper, and in some places the plaster was coming off. Carey and I had a lot to do to this wall before we could even paint it. And there were so many layers of paper we thought we never would get it all scraped off.”

“You had to do all that?” said the young man appreciatively. “It was good you had a brother to help in such rough, heavy work.”

“Yes, Carey has been very much interested. Of course, he hasn’t had so much time lately, as he could give only his evenings. He has been working all day. He built the fireplace in the living room, too. I want you to look at that after dinner. I think it is very pretty for an amateur workman.”

“He built that fireplace!”exclaimed Maxwell. “Well, he certainly did a great thing! I noticed it at once. It is the charm of the whole room and so artistic in its lines. I love a beautiful fireplace, and I thought that was most unusual. I must look at it again. Your brother must be a genius.”

“No, not a genius,” said Cornelia. “But he always could make anything he wanted to. He is very clever with tools and machinery and seems to know by instinct how everything is made. When he was a little boy, I remember, he used to take everything in the house apart and put it together again. I shall never forget the day Mother got her new vacuum cleaner and was about to sweep the parlor and was called away to answer a knock at the back door. When she came back Carey had the whole thing apart, strewn all around the room, and Mother sat down in dismay and began to scold him. Then she told him sadly that he must go upstairs to bed for punishment; and he looked up and said, ‘Why, muvver, don’t you want me to put it together again first?’ And he did. He put it all together so it worked all right and managed to get out of his punishment that time.”

Maxwell glanced down the table at the bright, clever face of the young man who was eagerly describing to Grace Kendall an automobile race he had witnessed not long ago.

“That’s a great gift!” he commented. “Your brother ought to make a business success in life. What did you say he is doing?”

Cornelia flushed painfully. “That’s the sore point,” she said. “Carey hasn’t anything very good just now, though he has one or two hopeful possibilities in the near future. He is just working in a garage now, getting together all the money he can save to be ready for the right job when it comes along. Father is rather distressed to have him doing such work; he says he is wasting his time. But it is good pay, and I think it is better than doing nothing and just hanging around waiting. Besides, he is crazy about machinery, seems to have a natural instinct for finding out what’s the matter with a thing; and of course automobiles—he would rather fuss with one than eat.”

“It’s not a bad training for some big thing in the future, you know,” said Maxwell. “There are lots of jobs today where a practical knowledge of machinery and especially of cars is worth a lot of money. I wouldn’t be discouraged about it. He looks like an awfully clever fellow. He’ll land the right thing pretty soon. I like his personality. That’s another thing that will count in his favor. I want to get acquainted with him after dinner. Say, do you know you have let me in for an awfully interesting evening?”