第34章

"Why, this Russell's supposed to be tied up to Mildred," her son explained. "When ole Palmer dies this Russell will be his son-in-law, and all he'll haf' to do'll be to barely lift his feet and step into the ole man's shoes. It's certainly a mighty fat hand-me- out for this Russell! You better lay off o' there, Alice. Pick somebody that's got less to lose and you'll make better showing."Mrs. Adams's air of thoughtfulness had not departed. "But you say this Mr. Russell is well off on his own account, Walter.""Oh, Joe Lamb says he's got some little of his own. Didn't know how much.""Well, then----"

Walter laughed his laugh. "Cut it out," he bade her. "Alice wouldn't run in fourth place."Alice had been looking at him in a detached way, as though estimating the value of a specimen in a collection not her own.

"Yes," she said, indifferently. "You REALLY are vulgar, Walter."He had finished his meal; and, rising, he came round the table to her and patted her good-naturedly on the shoulder. "Good ole Allie!" he said. "HONEST, you wouldn't run in fourth place. If I was you I'd never even start in the class. That frozen-face;gang will rule you off the track soon as they see your colours.""Walter!" his mother said again.

"Well, ain't I her brother?" he returned, seeming to be entirely serious and direct, for the moment, at least. "_I_ like the ole girl all right. Fact is, sometimes I'm kind of sorry for her.""But what's it all ABOUT?" Alice cried. "Simply because you met me down-town with a man I never saw but once before and just barely know! Why all this palaver?""'Why?'" he repeated, grinning. "Well, I've seen you start before, you know!" He went to the door, and paused. "I got no date to-night. Take you to the movies, you care to go."She declined crisply. "No, thanks!"

"Come on," he said, as pleasantly as he knew how.

"Give me a chance to show you a better time than we had up at that frozen-face joint. I'll get you some chop suey afterward.""No, thanks!"

"All right," he responded and waved a flippant adieu. "As the barber says, 'The better the advice, the worse it's wasted!'

Good-night!"

Alice shrugged her shoulders; but a moment or two later, as the jar of the carelessly slammed front door went through the house, she shook her head, reconsidering. "Perhaps I ought to have gone with him. It might have kept him away from whatever dreadful people are his friends--at least for one night.""Oh, I'm sure Walter's a GOOD boy," Mrs. Adams said, soothingly;and this was what she almost always said when either her husband or Alice expressed such misgivings. "He's odd, and he's picked up right queer manners; but that's only because we haven't given him advantages like the other young men. But I'm sure he's a GOOD boy."She reverted to the subject a little later, while she washed the dishes and Alice wiped them. "Of course Walter could take his place with the other nice boys of the town even yet," she said.

"I mean, if we could afford to help him financially. They all belong to the country clubs and have cars and----""Let's don't go into that any more, mama," the daughter begged her. "What's the use?""It COULD be of use," Mrs. Adams insisted. "It could if your father----""But papa CAN'T."

"Yes, he can."

"But how can he? He told me a man of his age CAN'T give up a business he's been in practically all his life, and just go groping about for something that might never turn up at all. Ithink he's right about it, too, of course!"Mrs. Adams splashed among the plates with a new vigour heightened by an old bitterness. "Oh, yes," she said. "He talks that way; but he knows better.""How could he 'know better,' mama?"

"HE knows how!"

"But what does he know?"

Mrs. Adams tossed her head. "You don't suppose I'm such a fool I'd be urging him to give up something for nothing, do you, Alice? Do you suppose I'd want him to just go 'groping around'

like he was telling you? That would be crazy, of course. Little as his work at Lamb's brings in, I wouldn't be so silly as to ask him to give it up just on a CHANCE he could find something else.

Good gracious, Alice, you must give me credit for a little intelligence once in a while!"Alice was puzzled. "But what else could there be except a chance? I don't see----""Well, I do," her mother interrupted, decisively. "That man could make us all well off right now if he wanted to. We could have been rich long ago if he'd ever really felt as he ought to about his family.""What! Why, how could----"

"You know how as well as I do," Mrs. Adams said, crossly. "Iguess you haven't forgotten how he treated me about it the Sunday before he got sick."She went on with her work, putting into it a sudden violence inspired by the recollection; but Alice, enlightened, gave utterance to a laugh of lugubrious derision. "Oh, the GLUEfactory again!" she cried. "How silly!" And she renewed her laughter.