第89章

"None better.Maybe it's good straight through.I've only heard the servants' talk--and servants are such liars.Still--I'd not want to trust myself to a hospital unless I could pay.I guess the common people have good reason for their horror of free wards.Nothing free is ever good."The girl's face suddenly and startlingly grew almost hard, so fierce was the resolve that formed within her.The money must be got--_must!_--and would.She would try every way she could think of between now and to-morrow; then--if she failed she would go to Blynn.

The young man was saying: "You're a stranger in town?""I was with a theatrical company on a show boat.It sank."His embarrassment vanished.She saw, but she did not understand that it was because he thought he had "placed" her--and that her place was where he had hoped.

"You _are_ up against it!" said he."Come have some lunch.You'll feel better."The good sense of this was unanswerable.Susan hesitated no longer, wondered why she had hesitated at first."Well--I guess I will." And she rose with a frank, childlike alacrity that amused him immensely.

"You don't look it, but you've been about some--haven't you?""Rather," replied she.

"I somehow thought you knew a thing or two."

They walked west to Race Street.They were about the same height.Her costume might have been fresher, might have suggested to an expert eye the passed-on clothes of a richer relative; but her carriage and the fine look of skin and hair and features made the defects of dress unimportant.She seemed of his class--of the class comfortable, well educated, and well-bred.If she had been more experienced, she would have seen that he was satisfied with her appearance despite the curious looking little package, and would have been flattered.As it was, her interest was absorbed in things apart from herself.He talked about the town--the amusements, the good times to be had at the over-the-Rhine beer halls, at the hilltop gardens, at the dances in the pavilion out at the Zoo.He drew a lively and charming picture, one that appealed to her healthy youth, to her unsatisfied curiosity, to her passionate desire to live the gay, free city life of which the small town reads and dreams.

"You and I can go round together, can't we? I haven't got much, but I'll not try to take your time for nothing, of course.That wouldn't be square.I'm sure you'll have no cause to complain.

What do you say?"

"Maybe," replied the girl, all at once absentminded.Her brain was wildly busy with some ideas started there by his significant words, by his flirtatious glances at her, by his way of touching her whenever he could make opportunity.Evidently there was an alternative to Blynn.

"You like a good time, don't you?" said he.

"Rather!" exclaimed she, the violet eyes suddenly very violet indeed and sparkling.Her spirits had suddenly soared.She was acting like one of her age.With that blessed happy hopefulness of healthy youth, she had put aside her sorrows--not because she was frivolous but for the best of all reasons, because she was young and superbly vital.Said she: "I'm crazy about dancing--and music.""I only needed to look at your feet--and ankles--to know that,"ventured he the "ankles" being especially audacious.

She was pleased, and in youth's foolish way tried to hide her pleasure by saying, "My feet aren't exactly small.""I should say not!" protested he with energy."Little feet would look like the mischief on a girl as tall as you are.Yes, we can have a lot of fun."They went into a large restaurant with fly fans speeding.Susan thought it very grand--and it was the grandest restaurant she had ever been in.They sat down--in a delightfully cool place by a window looking out on a little plot of green with a colladium, a fountain, some oleanders in full and fragrant bloom; the young man ordered, with an ease that fascinated her, an elaborate lunch--soup, a chicken, with salad, ice cream, and fresh peaches.Susan had a menu in her hand and as he ordered she noted the prices.She was dazzled by his extravagance--dazzled and frightened--and, in a curious, vague, unnerving way, fascinated.Money--the thing she must have for Burlingham in whose case "everything depended on the nursing." In the brief time this boy and she had been together, he, without making an effort to impress, had given her the feeling that he was of the best city class, that he knew the world--the high world.Thus, she felt that she must be careful not to show her "greenness."She would have liked to protest against his extravagance, but she ventured only the timid remonstrance, "Oh, I'm not a bit hungry."She thought she was speaking the truth, for the ideas whirling so fast that they were dim quite took away the sense of hunger.

But when the food came she discovered that she was, on the contrary, ravenous--and she ate with rising spirits, with a feeling of content and hope.He had urged her to drink wine or beer, but she refused to take anything but a glass of milk; and he ended by taking milk himself.He was looking more and more boldly and ardently into her eyes, and she received his glances smilingly.She felt thoroughly at ease and at home, as if she were back once more among her own sort of people--with some element of disagreeable constraint left out.