From the remarks of his friends even as they thronged him, offering congratulations, Mr. Allen could easily gather that however impressive his speech had been, few of his audience had taken his warning seriously.
"You queered my speech, Larry," he said, "but I forgive you.""Not at all, Sir," replied Larry. "You certainly got me.""I fear," replied Mr. Allen, "that I am 'the voice crying in the wilderness.'"At the Allens' party Larry was overwhelmed with congratulations on his speech, the report of which had been carried before him by his friends.
"They tell me your speech was quite thrilling," said Mrs. Allen as she greeted Larry.
"Your husband is responsible for everything," replied Larry.
"No," said Mr. Allen, "Miss Jane here is finally responsible. Hers were the big shells I fired.""Not mine," replied Jane. "I got them from Mr. Romayne, your brother-in-law, Larry.""Well, I'm blowed!" said Larry. "That's where the stuff came from!
But it was mighty effective, and certainly you put it to us, Mr. Allen. You made us all feel like fighting. Even Scuddy, there, ran amuck for a while.""What?" said Mr. Allen, "you don't really mean to say that Scudamore, our genial Y. M. C. A. Secretary, was in that scrap?
That cheers me greatly."
"Was he!" said Ramsay Dunn, whose flushed face and preternaturally grave demeanour sufficiently explained his failure to appear at Dr.
Brown's dinner. "While Mr. Smart's life was saved by the timely upper-cut of our distinguished pacifist, Mr. Gwynne, without a doubt Mr. Scudamore--hold him there, Scallons, while I adequately depict his achievement--" Immediately Scallons and Ted Tuttle, Scudamore's right and left supports on the scrimmage line, seized him and held him fast. "As I was saying," continued Dunn, "great as were the services rendered to the cause by our distinguished pacifist, Mr. Gwynne, the supreme glory must linger round the head of our centre scrim and Y. M. C. A. Secretary, Mr. Scudamore, to whose effective intervention both Mr. Smart and Mr. Gwynne owe the soundness of their physical condition which we see them enjoying at the present moment."In the midst of his flowing periods Dunn paused abruptly and turned away. He had caught sight of Jane's face, grieved and shocked, in the group about him. Later he approached her with every appearance of profound humiliation. "Miss Brown," he said, "I must apologise for not appearing at dinner this evening.""Oh, Mr. Dunn," said Jane, "why will you do it? Why break the hearts of all your friends?""Why? Because I am a fool," he said bitterly. "If I had more friends like you, Miss Brown," he paused abruptly, then burst forth, "Jane, you always make me feel like a beast." But Larry's approach cut short any further conversation.
"Jane, I want to talk to you," said Larry impetuously. "Let us get away somewhere."In the library they found a quiet spot, where they sat down.
"I want to tell you," said Larry, "that I feel that I treated you shabbily to-day. I have only a poor excuse to offer, but I should like to explain.""Don't, Larry," said Jane, her words coming with hurried impetuosity.
"I was very silly. I had quite forgotten it. You know we have always told each other things, and I expected that you would come in this morning just to talk over your medal, and I did want a chance to say how glad I was for you, and how glad and how proud I knew your mother would be; and to tell the truth really," she added with a shy little laugh, "I wanted to have you congratulate me on my prize too. But, Larry, I understand how you forgot.""Forgot!" said Larry. "No, Jane, I did not forget, but this telegram from Chicago came last night, and I was busy with my packing all morning and then in the afternoon I thought I would hurry through a few calls--they always take longer than one thinks--and before I knew it I was late for dinner. I had not forgotten;I was thinking of you all day, Jane."
"Were you, Larry?" said Jane, a gentle tenderness in her smile. "Iam glad."
Then a silence fell between them for some moments. They were both thinking of the change that was coming to their lives. Larry was wondering how he would ever do without this true-hearted friend whose place in his life he was only discovering now to be so large.
He glanced at her. Her eyes were glowing with a soft radiance that seemed to overflow from some inner spring.
"Jane," he cried with a sudden impulse, "you are lovely, you are perfectly lovely."A shy, startled, eager look leaped into her eyes. Then her face grew pale. She waited, expectant, tremulous. But at that instant a noisy group passed into the library.
"Larry," whispered Jane, turning swiftly to him and laying her hand upon his arm, "you will take me home to-night.""All right, Jane, of course," said Larry.
As they passed out from the library Helen Brookes met them.
"Larry, come here," she said in a voice of suppressed excitement.
"Larry, don't you want to do something for me? Scuddy wants to take me home tonight, and I don't want him to.""But why not, Helen? You ought to be good to Scuddy, poor chap.
He's a splendid fellow, and I won't have him abused.""Not to-night, Larry; I can't have him to-night. You will take me home, won't you? I am going very soon.""You are, eh? Well, if you can go within ten minutes, I shall be ready.""Say fifteen," said Helen, turning to meet Lloyd Rushbrook, the Beau Brummel of the college, who came claiming a dance.
Larry at once went in search of Jane to tell her of his engagement with Helen Brookes, but could find her nowhere, and after some time spent in a vain search, he left a message for her with his hostess.
At the head of the stairs he found Helen waiting.
"Oh, hurry, Larry," she cried in a fever of excitement. "Let's get away quickly.""Two minutes will do me," said Larry, rushing into the dressing room.
There he found Scudamore pacing up and down in fierce, gloomy silence.
"You are taking her home, Larry?" he said.
