第51章

Albert had known Jane Kelsey for some time.They had met at one of the hotel tea-dances during his second summer in South Harniss.He and she were not intimate friends exactly, her mother saw to that, but they were well acquainted.She was short and piquant, had a nose which freckled in the Cape Cod sunshine, and she talked and laughed easily.

"Good evening, Mr.Speranza," she said, again."You looked so very forlorn I couldn't resist speaking.Do tell us why you are so sad;we're dying to know."

Albert, taken by surprise, stammered that he didn't know that he was sad.Miss Kelsey laughed merrily and declared that everyone who saw him knew it at once."Oh, excuse me, Madeline," she added.

"I forgot that you and Mr.Speranza had not met.Of course as you're going to live in South Harniss you must know him without waiting another minute.Everybody knows everybody down here.He is Albert Speranza--and we sometimes call him Albert because here everybody calls everyone else by their first names.There, now you know each other and it's all very proper and formal.

The young lady who was her companion smiled.The smile was distinctly worth looking at, as was the young lady herself, for that matter.

"I doubt if Mr.Speranza knows me very well, Jane," she observed.

"Doesn't know you! Why, you silly thing, haven't I just introduced you?""Well, I don't know much about South Harniss introductions, but isn't it customary to mention names? You haven't told him mine."Miss Kelsey laughed in high delight."Oh, how perfectly ridiculous!"she exclaimed."Albert--Mr.Speranza, I mean--this is my friend Miss Madeline Fosdick.She is from New York and she has decided to spend her summers in South Harniss--which _I_ consider very good judgment.Her father is going to build a cottage for her to spend them in down on the Bay Road on the hill at the corner above the Inlet.But of course you've heard of THAT!"Of course he had.The purchase of the Inlet Hill land by Fletcher Fosdick, the New York banker, and the price paid Solomon Dadgett for that land, had been the principal topics of conversation around South Harniss supper tables for the past ten days.Captain Lote Snow had summed up local opinion of the transaction when he said:

"We-ll, Sol Dadgett's been talkin' in prayer-meetin' ever since Ican remember about the comin' of Paradise on earth.Judgin' by the price he got for the Inlet Hill sand heap he must have cal'lated Paradise had got here and he was sellin' the golden streets by the runnin' foot." Or, as Laban Keeler put it: "They say King Soloman was a wise man, but I guess likely 'twas a good thing for him that Sol Dadgett wasn't alive in his time.King Sol would have needed all his wisdom to keep Dadgett from talkin' him into buying the Jerusalem salt-ma'sh to build the temple on....Um....

Yes--yes--yes."

So Albert, as he shook hands with Miss Fosdick, regarded her with unusual interest.And, judging by the way in which she looked at him, she too was interested.After some minutes of the usual conventional summer-time chat the young gentleman suggested that they adjourn to the drug store for refreshments.The invitation was accepted, the vivacious Miss Kelsey acting as spokesman--or spokeswoman--in the matter.

"I think you must be a mind-reader, Mr.Speranza," she declared.

"I am dying for a sundae and I have just discovered that I haven't my purse or a penny with me.I should have been reduced to the humiliation of borrowing from Madeline here, or asking that deaf old Burgess man to trust me until to-morrow.And he is so frightfully deaf," she added in explanation, "that when I asked him the last time he made me repeat it until I thought I should die of shame, or exhaustion, one or the other.Every time I shouted he would say 'Hey?' and I was obliged to shout again.Of course, the place was crowded, and-- Oh, well, I don't like to even think about it.Bless you, bless you, Albert Speranza! And do please let's hurry!"When they entered the drug store--it also sold, according to its sign, "Cigars, soda, ice-cream, patent medicines, candy, knick-knacks, chewing gum, souvenirs and notions"--the sextette of which Helen Kendall made one was just leaving.She nodded pleasantly to Albert and he nodded in return, but Ed Raymond's careless bow he did not choose to see.He had hitherto rather liked that young gentleman; now he felt a sudden but violent detestation for him.

Sundaes pleasant to the palate and disastrous to all but youthful digestions were ordered.Albert's had a slight flavor of gall and wormwood, but he endeavored to counterbalance this by the sweetness derived from the society of Jane Kelsey and her friend.His conversation was particularly brilliant and sparkling that evening.

Jane laughed much and chatted more.Miss Fosdick was quieter, but she, too, appeared to be enjoying herself.Jane demanded to know how the poems were developing.She begged him to have an inspiration now-- "Do, PLEASE, so that Madeline and I can see you." It seemed to be her idea that having an inspiration was similar to having a fit.Miss Fosdick laughed at this, but she declared that she adored poetry and specified certain poems which were objects of her especial adoration.The conversation thereafter became what Miss Kelsey described as "high brow," and took the form of a dialogue between Miss Fosdick and Albert.It was interrupted by the arrival of the Kelsey limousine, which rolled majestically up to the drug store steps.Jane spied it first.

"Oh, mercy me, here's mother!" she exclaimed."And your mother, too, Madeline.We are tracked to our lair....No, no, Mr.

Speranza, you mustn't go out.No, really, we had rather you wouldn't.Thanks, ever so much, for the sundaes.Come, Madeline."Miss Fosdick held out her hand.