The Essential Booth Tarkington Collection. Booth Tarkington
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then they wouldn't be perfect. Not if they----"
"Oh, yes, they remain perfectly perfect," she assured him. "That's because they never go into details. They're not so vulgar as to come right out and TELL that you've been in jail for stealing chickens. They just look absent-minded and say in a low voice, 'Oh, very; but I scarcely think you'd like her particularly'; and then begin to talk of something else right away."
His smile had disappeared. "Yes," he said, somewhat ruefully. "That does sound like Mildred. You certainly do seem to know her! Do you know everybody as well as that?"
"Not myself," Alice said. "I don't know myself at all. I got to wondering about that--about who I was--the other day after you walked home with me."
He uttered an exclamation, and added, explaining it, "You do give a man a chance to be fatuous, though! As if it were walking home with me that made you wonder about yourself!"
"It was," Alice informed him, coolly. "I was wondering what I wanted to make you think of me, in case I should ever happen to see you again."
This audacity appeared to take his breath. "By George!" he cried.
"You mustn't be astonished," she said. "What I decided then was that I would probably never dare to be just myself with you--not if I cared to have you want to see me again--and yet here I am, just being myself after all!"
"You ARE the cheeriest series of shocks," Russell exclaimed, whereupon Alice added to the series.
"Tell me: Is it a good policy for me to follow with you?" she asked, and he found the mockery in her voice delightful. "Would you advise me to offer you shocks as a sort of vacation from suavity?"
"Suavity" was yet another sketch of Mildred; a recognizable one, or it would not have been humorous. In Alice's hands, so dexterous in this work, her statuesque friend was becoming as ridiculous as a fine figure of wax left to the mercies of a satirist.
But the lively young sculptress knew better than to overdo: what she did must appear to spring all from mirth; so she laughed as if unwillingly, and said, "I MUSTN'T laugh at Mildred! In the first place, she's your--your cousin. And in the second place, she's not meant to be funny; it isn't right to laugh at really splendid people who take themselves seriously. In the third place, you won't come again if I do."
"Don't be sure of that," Russell said, "whatever you do."
"'Whatever I do?'" she echoed. "That sounds as if you thought I COULD be terrific! Be careful; there's one thing I could do that would keep you away."
"What's that?"
"I could tell you not to come," she said. "I wonder if I ought to."
"Why do you wonder if you 'ought to?'"
"Don't you guess?"
"No."
"Then let's both be mysteries to each other," she suggested. "I mystify you because I wonder, and you mystify me because you don't guess why I wonder. We'll let it go at that, shall we?"
"Very well; so long as it's certain that you DON'T tell me not to come again."
"I'll not tell you that--yet," she said. "In fact----" She paused, reflecting, with her head to one side. "In fact, I won't tell you not to come, probably, until I see that's what you want me to tell you. I'll let you out easily--and I'll be sure to see it. Even before you do, perhaps."
"That arrangement suits me," Russell returned, and his voice held no trace of jocularity: he had become serious. "It suits me better if you're enough in earnest to mean that I can come--oh, not whenever I want to; I don't expect so much!--but if you mean that I can see you pretty often."
"Of course I'm in earnest," she said. "But before I say you can come 'pretty often,' I'd like to know how much of my time you'd need if you did come 'whenever you want to'; and of course you wouldn't dare make any answer to that question except one. Wouldn't you let me have Thursdays out?"
"No, no," he protested. "I want to know. Will you let me come pretty often?"
"Lean toward me a little," Alice said. "I want you to understand." And as he obediently bent his head near hers, she inclined toward him as if to whisper; then, in a half-shout, she cried,
"YES!"
He clapped his hands. "By George!" he said. "What a girl you are!"
"Why?"
"Well, for the first reason, because you have such gaieties as that one. I should think your father would actually like being ill, just to be in the house with you all the time."
"You mean by that," Alice inquired, "I keep my family cheerful with my amusing little ways?"
"Yes. Don't you?"
"There were only boys in your family, weren't there, Mr. Russell?"
"I was an only child, unfortunately."
"Yes," she said. "I see you hadn't any sisters."
For a moment he puzzled over her meaning, then saw it, and was more delighted with her than ever. "I can answer a question of yours, now, that I couldn't a while ago."
"Yes, I know," she returned, quietly.
"But how could you know?"
"It's the question I asked you about whether you were going to like living here," she said. "You're about to tell me that now you know you WILL like it."
"More telepathy!" he exclaimed. "Yes, that was it, precisely. I suppose the same thing's been said to you so many times that you----"
"No, it hasn't," Alice said, a little confused for the moment. "Not at all. I meant----" She paused, then asked in a gentle voice, "Would you really like to know?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, I was only afraid you didn't mean it."
"See here," he said. "I did mean it. I told you it was being pretty difficult for me to settle down to things again. Well, it's more difficult than you know, but I think I can pull through in fair spirits if I can see a girl like you 'pretty often.'"
"All right," she said, in a business-like tone. "I've told you that you can if you want to."
"I do want to," he assured her. "I do, indeed!"
"How often is 'pretty often,' Mr. Russell?"
"Would you walk with me sometimes? To-morrow?"
"Sometimes. Not to-morrow. The day after."
"That's splendid!" he said. "You'll walk with me day after to-morrow, and the night after that I'll see you at Miss Lamb's dance, won't I?"
But this fell rather chillingly upon Alice. "Miss Lamb's dance? Which Miss Lamb?" she asked.
"I don't know--it's the one that's just coming out of mourning."
"Oh, Henrietta--yes. Is her dance so soon? I'd forgotten."
"You'll be there, won't you?" he asked. "Please say you're going."
Alice did not respond at once, and he urged her again: "Please do promise you'll be there."
"No, I can't promise anything," she said, slowly. "You see, for one thing, papa might not be well enough."
"But if he is?" said Russell. "If he is you'll surely come, won't you? Or, perhaps----" He hesitated, then went on quickly, "I don't know the rules in this place yet, and different places have different rules; but do you have to have a chaperone, or don't girls just go to dances with the men sometimes? If they do, would you--would you let me take