Chapter 13
When he had sent the note away by the messenger he walked back to the bay-window, hands in his pockets, a worried expression in his gray eyes. This sort of thing must not be repeated; the boy must halt in his tracks and face sharply the other way. Besides, his own income was limited--much too limited to admit of many more loans of that sort.
He ought to see Gerald at once, but somehow he could not in decency appear personally on the heels of his loan. A certain interval must elapse between the loan and the lecture; in fact he didn't see very well how he could admonish and instruct until the loan had been cancelled--that is, until the first of the New Year.
Pacing the floor, disturbed, uncertain as to the course he should pursue, he looked up presently to see Miss Erroll descending the stairs, fresh and sweet in her radiant plumage. As she caught his eye she waved a silvery chinchilla m.u.f.f at him--a marching salute--and pa.s.sed on, calling back to him: "Don't forget Gerald!"
"No," he said, "I won't forget Gerald." He stood a moment at the window watching the brougham below where Nina awaited Miss Erroll. Then, abruptly, he turned back into the room and picked up the telephone receiver, muttering: "This is no time to mince matters for the sake of appearances." And he called up Gerald at the offices of Neergard & Co.
"Is it you, Gerald?" he asked pleasantly. "It's all right about that matter; I've sent you a note by your messenger. But I want to talk to you about another matter--something concerning myself--I want to ask your advice, in a way. Can you be at the Lenox by six?... You have an engagement at eight? Oh, that's all right; I won't keep you.... It's understood, then; the Lenox at six.... Good-bye."
There was the usual early evening influx of men at the Lenox who dropped in for a glance at the ticker, or for a c.o.c.ktail or a game of billiards or a bit of gossip before going home to dress.
Selwyn sauntered over to the basket, inspected a yard or two of tape, then strolled toward the window, nodding to Bradley Harmon and Sandon Craig.
As he turned his face to the window and his back to the room, Harmon came up rather effusively, offering an unusually thin flat hand and further hospitality, pleasantly declined by Selwyn.
"Horrible thing, a c.o.c.ktail," observed Harmon, after giving his own order and seating himself opposite Selwyn. "I don't usually do it. Here comes the man who persuades me!--my own partner--"
Selwyn looked up to see Fane approaching; and instantly a dark flush overspread his face.
"You know George Fane, don't you?" continued Harmon easily; "well, that's odd; I thought, of course--Captain Selwyn, Mr. Fane. It's not usual--but it's done."
They exchanged formalities--dry and brief on Selwyn's part, gracefully urbane on Fane's.
"I've heard so pleasantly of you from Gerald Erroll," he said, "and of course our people have always been on cordial terms. Neither Mrs. Fane nor I was fortunate enough to meet you last Tuesday at the Gerards--such a crush, you know. Are you not joining us, Captain Selwyn?" as the servant appeared to take orders.
Selwyn declined again, glancing at Harmon--a large-framed, bony young man with blond, closely trimmed and pointed beard, and the fair colour of a Swede.
Sandon Craig and Billy Fleetwood came wandering up and joined them; one or two other men, drifting by, adhered to the group.
Selwyn, involved in small talk, glanced sideways at the great clock, and gathered himself together for departure.
Fleetwood was saying to Craig: "Certainly it was a stiff game--Bradley, myself, Gerald Erroll, Mrs. Delmour-Carnes, and the Ruthvens."
"Were you hit?" asked Craig, interested.
"No; about even. Gerald got it good and plenty, though. The Ruthvens were ahead as usual--"
Selwyn, apparently hearing nothing, quietly rose and stepped out of the circle, paused to set fire to a cigarette, and then strolled off toward the visitors' room, where Gerald was now due.
Fane stretched his neck, looking curiously after him. Then he said to Fleetwood: "Why begin to talk about Mrs. Ruthven when our friend yonder is about? Rotten judgment you show, Billy."
"Well, I clean forgot," said Fleetwood; "what did I say, anyway? A man can't always remember who's divorced from who in this town."
Harmon, whose civility to Selwyn had possibly been based on his desire for pleasant relations with Austin Gerard and the Arickaree Loan and Trust Company, looked at Fleetwood thoroughly vexed. But n.o.body could have suspected vexation in that high-boned smile which showed such very red lips through the blond beard.
Fane, too, smiled; his prominent soft brown eyes expressed gentlest good-humour, and he pa.s.sed his hand reflectively over his unusually small and retreating chin. Perhaps he was thinking of the meeting in the Park that morning. It was amusing; but men do not speak of such things at their clubs, no matter how amusing. Besides, if the story were aired and were traced to him, Ruthven might turn ugly. There was no counting on Ruthven.
Meanwhile Selwyn, perplexed and worried, found young Erroll just entering the visitors' room, and greeted him with nervous cordiality.
"If you can't stay and dine with me," he said, "I won't put you down.
You know, of course, I can only ask you once in a year, so we'll stay here and chat a bit."
"Right you are," said young Erroll, flinging off his very new and very fas.h.i.+onable overcoat--a wonderfully handsome boy, with all the attraction that a quick, warm, impulsive manner carries. "And I say, Selwyn, it was awfully decent of you to--"
"Bos.h.!.+ Friends are for that sort of thing, Gerald. Sit here--" He looked at the young man hesitatingly; but Gerald calmly took the matter out of his jurisdiction by nodding his order to the club attendant.
"Lord, but I'm tired," he said, sinking back into a big arm-chair; "I was up till daylight, and then I had to be in the office by nine, and to-night Billy Fleetwood is giving--oh, something or other. By the way, the market isn't doing a thing to the shorts! You're not in, are you, Selwyn?"
"No, not that way. I hope you are not, either; are you, Gerald?"
"Oh, it's all right," replied the young fellow confidently; and raising his gla.s.s, he nodded at Selwyn with a smile.
"You were mighty nice to me, anyhow," he said, setting his gla.s.s aside and lighting a cigar. "You see, I went to a dance, and after a while some of us cleared out, and Jack Ruthven offered us trouble; so half a dozen of us went there. I had the worst cards a man ever drew to a kicker. That was all about it."
The boy was utterly unconscious that he was treading on delicate ground as he rattled on in his warmhearted, frank, and generous way. Totally oblivious that the very name of Ruthven must be unwelcome if not offensive to his listener, he laughed through a description of the affair, its thrilling episodes, and Mrs. Jack Ruthven's blind luck in the draw.
"One moment," interrupted Selwyn, very gently; "do you mind saying whether you banked my check and drew against it?"
"Why, no; I just endorsed it over."
"To--to whom?--if I may venture--"
"Certainly," he said, with a laugh; "to Mrs. Jack--" Then, in a flash, for the first time the boy realised what he was saying, and stopped aghast, scarlet to his hair.
Selwyn's face had little colour remaining in it, but he said very kindly: "It's all right, Gerald; don't worry--"
"I'm a beast!" broke out the boy; "I beg your pardon a thousand times."
"Granted, old chap. But, Gerald, may I say one thing--or perhaps two?"
"Go ahead! Give it to me good and plenty!"
"It's only this: couldn't you and I see one another a little oftener?
Don't be afraid of me; I'm no wet blanket. I'm not so very aged, either; I know something of the world--I understand something of men.
I'm pretty good company, Gerald. What do you say?"
"I say, _sure_!" cried the boy warmly.
"It's a go, then. And one thing more: couldn't you manage to come up to the house a little oftener? Everybody misses you, of course; I think your sister is a trifle sensitive--"
"I will!" said Gerald, blus.h.i.+ng. "Somehow I've had such a lot on hand--all day at the office, and something on every evening. I know perfectly well I've neglected Eily--and everybody. But the first moment I can find free--"
Selwyn nodded. "And last of all," he said, "there's something about my own affairs that I thought you might advise me on."
Gerald, proud, enchanted, stood very straight; the older man continued gravely:
"I've a little capital to invest--not very much. Suppose--and this, I need not add, is in confidence between us--suppose I suggested to Mr.
Neergard--"