She ain't seen 'em yet, but she'll like 'em when she does. And that over there, is her present from me. Stevie gave her a box of gloves, and I expect, from what Mrs. Dunn hinted, that she and that son of hers gave her somethin' fine. She'll show us when she gets here. What's this, Commodore? Oysters, hey? Well, they ought to taste like home. They're 'Cape Cods'; I wouldn't have anything else.""We won't touch the birthday cake, Jim," he added, a little later.
"She's got to cut that herself."
The soup was only lukewarm, but neither of them commented on the fact. The captain had scarcely tasted of his, when he paused, his spoon in air.
"Hey?" he exclaimed. "Listen! What's that? By the everlastin', it IS. Here they are, at LAST!"He sprang up with such enthusiasm that his chair tipped backwards against the butler's devoted shins. Pearson, almost as much pleased, also rose.
Captain Elisha paid scant attention to the chair incident.
"What are you waitin' for?" he demanded, whirling on Edwards, who was righting the chair with one hand and rubbing his knee with the other. "Don't you hear 'em at the door? Let 'em in!"He reached the library first, his friend following more leisurely.
Caroline and Stephen had just entered.
"Well!" he cried, in his quarter-deck voice, his face beaming with relief and delight, "you ARE here, ain't you! I begun to think . . .
Why, what's the matter?"
The question was addressed to Stephen, who stood nearest to him.
The boy did not deign to reply. With a contemptuous grunt, he turned scornfully away from his guardian.
"What is it, Caroline?" demanded Captain Elisha. "HAS anything happened?"The girl looked coldly at him. A new brooch--Mrs. Corcoran Dunn's birthday gift--sparkled at her throat.
"No accident has happened, if that is what you mean," she said.
"But--why, yes, that was what I meant. You was so awful late, and you know you said you'd be home for dinner, so--""I changed my mind. Come, Steve."
She turned to leave the room. Pearson, at that moment, entered it.
Stephen saw him first.
"WHAT?" he cried. "Well, of all the nerve! Look, Caro!""Jim--Mr. Pearson, I mean--ran in a few minutes ago," explained Captain Elisha, bewildered and stammering. "He thought of course we'd had dinner and--and--he just wanted to wish you many happy returns, Caroline."Pearson had extended his hand and a "Good evening" was on his lips.
Stephen's strange behavior and language caused him to halt. He flushed, awkward, surprised, and indignant.
Caroline turned and saw him. She started, and her cheeks also grew crimson. Then, recovering, she looked him full in the face, and deliberately and disdainfully turned her back.
"Come, Steve!" she said again, and walked from the room.
Her brother hesitated, glared at Pearson, and then stalked haughtily after her.
Captain Elisha's bewilderment was supreme. He stared, open-mouthed, after his nephew and niece, and then turned slowly to his friend.
"What on earth, Jim," he stammered. "What's it MEAN?"Pearson shrugged his shoulders. "I think I know what it means," he said. "I presume that Miss Warren and her brother have learned of my trouble with their father.""Hey? No! you don't think THAT'S it."
"I think there's no doubt of it."
"But how?"
"I don't know how. What I do know is that I should not have come here. I felt it and, if you will remember, I said so. I was a fool. Good night, Captain."Hot and furiously angry at his own indecision which had placed him in this humiliating situation, he was striding towards the hall.
Captain Elisha seized his arm.
"Stay where you are, Jim!" he commanded. "If the trouble's what you think it is, I'm more to blame than anybody else, and you sha'n't leave this house till I've done my best to square you.""Thank you; but I don't wish to be 'squared.' I've done nothing to be ashamed of, and I have borne as many insults as I can stand.
I'm going."
"No, you ain't. Not yet. I want you to stay."At that moment Stephen's voice reached them from the adjoining room.
"I tell you I shall, Caro!" it proclaimed, fiercely. "Do you suppose I'm going to permit that fellow to come here again--or to go until he is made to understand what we think of him and why?
No, by gad! I'm the man of this family, and I'll tell him a few things."Pearson's jaw set grimly.
"You may let go of my wrist, Captain Warren," he said; "I'll stay."Possibly Stephen's intense desire to prove his manliness made him self-conscious. At any rate, he never appeared more ridiculously boyish than when, an instant later, he marched into the library and confronted his uncle and Pearson.
"I--I want to say--" he began, majestically; "I want to say--"He paused, choking, and brandished his fist.
"I want to say--" he began again.
"All right, Stevie," interrupted the captain, dryly, "then I'd say it if I was you. I guess it's time you did.""I want to--to tell that fellow THERE," with a vicious stab of his forefinger in the direction of Pearson, "that I consider him an--an ingrate--and a scoundrel--and a miserable--""Steady!" Captain Elisha's interruption was sharp this time.
"Steady now! Leave out the pet names. What is it you've got to tell?""I--my sister and I have found out what a scoundrel he is, that's what! We've learned of the lies he wrote about father. We know that he was responsible for all that cowardly, lying stuff in the Planet--all that about the Trolley Combine. And we don't intend that he shall sneak into this house again. If he was the least part of a man, he would never have come.""Mr. Warren--" began Pearson, stepping forward. The captain interrupted.
"Hold on, Jim!" he said. "Just a minute now. You've learned somethin', you say, Stevie. The Dunns told you, I s'pose.""Never mind who told me!"
"I don't--much. But I guess we'd better have a clear understandin', all of us. Caroline, will you come in here, please?"He stepped toward the door. Stephen sprang in front of him.