Curtiss

“ Then suddenly, as if in lieu of the fat family banker and guardian, the old head waiter came bustling up with a steaming chafing-dish and—dear, old soul—the beaming feeling that he was doing a kindly thing.
As if coming out from a dream world, a state in which he had been held for hours, Bellsmith suddenly heard the clatter and noise of the dining-room starting up around him and made out shapes of men and women leaning over tables, talking nonchalently. Looking across the table he saw the girl watching him with amused, understanding eyes. ”

“ Hecta began to sob openly, and her breakdown had its effect on the other women. Even Margaret began to look dazed. Annie's hand was trembling visibly as it grasped the top of the slender umbrella, and William was wetting his lips. It was so upsetting to Bellsmith that he became actually brusque from sheer confusion. ”

“ The doctor looked up expectantly, but poor Bellsmith was rather alarmed.
"Why, certainly, doctor," he began vaguely. "I should be glad to do anything that I can. Possibly she would like to have me send my car so that she could get out a bit. Would she care to meet some of the people in Leicester? What is she fond of? What sort of things does she like to do?"
The doctor laughed outright. "I don't think that she would like anything in the world except a plain human being to talk to."
Bellsmith blushed crimson. "I know, doctor, but I'm such a dumbhead where people of that kind are concerned. ”

“ A visit to the Curtiss factory is of interest to any one interested in machinery and there you will see the latest machines of all types, from powerful milling machines to a delicate modern "Printograph" that is almost human in its manner of getting out letters and printing, for it is a cross between a printing press and a typewriter. Another unique machine is one that carves out propellers from a laminated block of wood. ”

“ In the "Eleanor" company this girl was evidently regarded as whatever may be the feminine equivalent of a "card," for a group of men was constantly around her and every word she said was invariably greeted with uproarious laughter. Usually one of the men had his arm over her shoulder, not, certainly, from any affection, but merely to draw out the vicious retort which she would inevitably make. As the evening progressed this girl became more and more the center of attraction, and, to the men of the company, seemed more and more convulsing, although Bellsmith could see nothing amusing about her. ”

“ Again Bellsmith, thoroughly unhappy, trying hard to look as if he enjoyed it but knowing that he was making a very bad job of it, looked furtively up the table and suddenly encountered a twinkle in the eye of the curly-haired stage-manager. For an instant a laugh telegraphed itself from one man to the other; then both caught themselves, the face of the stage-manager relaxing into bored woodenness, the face of Bellsmith contorting back into polite appreciation of the singer opposite him. But that twinkle had been unmistakable. Sudden flashings like that across a table make lifelong allies. ”

“ Having delivered himself of this slightly venomed dart, the doctor laid down his pen and looked squarely at Bellsmith.
"Mr. Bellsmith," he began, "your trouble is simply that of any wealthy young man who is neither exceptionally vigorous nor exceptionally vicious. You have simply followed the line of the least resistance until you have reached the end of it. You have reached the irreducible minimum. You have got down to things so elemental that even you can't avoid them. ”

“ Bellsmith was instantly as rueful as a school-boy.
"Doctor," he said, "I didn't mean to speak flippantly but, for more than three years, I have been trying to laugh myself out of this state of wretchedness, I have been calling my trouble just what I have called it now—damn foolishness. I have tried exercise. I have tried"—he smiled "—I have tried calomel. Most of all I have tried will power. None of them have done me the slightest atom of good. In a day or two I always am back where I was before—in a sort of dull, hopeless melancholia." ”

“ He begged his father to let "Gene" make him a sled that would go faster than Linn's. "Gene" made the sled and Glenn painted it red, with a picture of a horse on it. Furthermore, he beat every sled in Hammondsport or thereabouts.
The bicycle became all the rage when Curtiss was growing into his early teens and nothing was more certain than that he should have one as soon as he could earn enough money to buy it. And when he got it he made it serve his purposes in delivering telegrams, newspapers, and such like. ”

“ Butley was right. With Furniss of Fitchly that was indeed an audacious suggestion to give, but, brooding on the circumstances of the last two months, in the minds of the Quoits Club it instantly assumed Homeric proportions. The turn of a card, the fall of a die, a woman's honor—there was a romance about it that struck clear home to their devilishness; a veritable thrill went among them. Only Furniss was mystified; but, then, he was a devil, and naturally did not know how it felt to be devilish. ”

“ He laid down the menu-card and moved a glass.
"Do you shoot people," he asked slowly, "who say, at moments like this, 'I think two people can understand each other better when they 're silent than when they are talking'?"
The girl looked at him in incredulous delight. "I do," she answered. "I shoot them at sight."
"That's nice," replied Bellsmith, "because, you know, I should have had to shoot you a minute ago if you had said, 'A penny for your thoughts'!"
The girl made no reply. She now was looking down, and for a moment Bellsmith almost thought she was angry. ”

“ Even Bellsmith could establish no particular connection of reality between those pictures and his present errand.
His reverie was broken by the sharp voice of the ticket-seller behind him.
"There you are! There's your man!"
Bellsmith pulled himself up with a start and saw that a round, swarthy young man had come in silently through a door at the end of the lobby and was standing waiting. He was dressed in black as complete as deep mourning, even to the black derby hat which accentuated his heavy eyebrows and full, olive skin. ”

“ The doctor nodded gravely, and at last Bellsmith had found the gates of confession.
"That's typical of how I spend half my time," he hurried on angrily, "but that's not the worst of it by any means. For one thing, I seem to have, these days, a curious horror of being called on to make the simplest decision. I want to put everything off even the most trivial things. I hate to face a day knowing that I have the slightest obligation. I dread hearing my butler coming to ask me what I will have for dinner. ”

“ Even to think of Miss Marshall still excited him as the thought of no other human being on earth had ever excited him, but still, there it was! The dirt of the alley even clung to her innocent skirts. This was Bellsmith at his best and his worst, instinctively fine or instinctively contemptible. One can take one's choice. But something within him gripped his arm as in a vise of steel every time he sat down to write that letter or sat down to call on the telephone. ”

“ For several minutes in the twilight Bellsmith sat staring at that senseless line, and as he stared the letters seemed to assume a personal, individual appearance. He felt himself back in the hot, close air of the Massapauk dining-room, and there came to him a strong scent of violets. Curious, for Miss Marshall had not worn violets. But some one must have. ”

“ Furniss was a devil because he came of that stock. It bred true to type, merely with refinements in each succeeding generation. His father was a stout, red-faced man of the kind that, thirty years ago, drove trotting-horses to a red-wheeled run-about, with wooden, knobs on the reins, and loops to hold to—a true example of the days when it took absolute defiance to be a sporting-man. ”

“ Was out with a show of my own before I was twenty-one."
Bellsmith smiled. "I see that I am going into the business late in life."
"You 'll learn fast enough," replied Israels, "but you 've got to grow up in this business to understand it. Before—"
A sudden shrill ring of the telephone bell interrupted him, but it was only Bone-head calling to say "On your call to New York, Mr. Gay is not in and is not expected."
Israels slashed up the receiver and looked at his watch. ”

“ Reluctantly the host allowed them to pass on to where Bellony, the big, red-faced tenor, was standing, absolutely alone, looking off into space. On him Miss Marshall wasted no time, making only the briefest and most perfunctory of introductions, to which the tenor replied with only a nod, giving Bellsmith a huge, damp, lifeless hand—the hand of a laborer turned soft. Beyond, they again encountered Elsie Winner, talking now with Mrs. Trip the "heavy" woman, and the assistant stage-manager, the latter a pleasant and curiously rustic-looking young man with curly hair and spectacles. ”

“ The society of Fitchly shook its head occasionally, but on the whole kept him along. It would be extremely difficult to drop a man who had nowhere to drop to; and as he asked nothing of Fitchly, there was nothing to refuse. This occasion at the Country Club, then, was the first real instance in which the elements had come in conflict.
Of the many mixed emotions which accompanied the premature withdrawal from the Country Club that night, only two will suffice for illustration, as they marked the extremes—those of Furniss himself and of Butley Smith, the Menelaus of the ravished Helen. ”

“ The doctor smiled ruefully. "My theory! My dear chap, it won't do you any harm now to tell you that my theory in your case was very much like that of a class in chemistry. The professor stands up before his pupils and performs a certain standard experiment. He does it to demonstrate the inevitability of immutable laws, but every time in his secret heart he is praying fervently that it will work."
Bellsmith laughed, but even he had felt a certain perfunctory quality in the heartiness of the doctor's talk. ”

“ He continued to smoke thoughtfully with his eyes fixed absently on Bellsmith's feet. Bellsmith, becoming aware of the scrutiny, moved his feet nervously, and the doctor diverted his eyes to a point on the carpet.
"Mr. Bellsmith," he began, at last, slowly, "you are quite right about one thing. It is too much to face a man coldly with a certain thing—charity, business, or anything else—and order him deliberately to become interested in it. The human mind does not work that way. You might as well face a man with a certain heavy food and order him to like it—not merely to eat it but to like it." ”

“ The attitude of the Country Club had made osculation rather nauseous. It would seem better breeding not to notice it; and yet, and yet, it was rather funny that it should have been Helen. It was the first personal illustration which Furniss had ever had of the dramatic, and he began to ponder. If you ever wish to reclaim a devil, just try him on the dramatic. It is the only uplifting influence which sleeps in the souls of most of them.
The emotions of Butley Smith were less happily chosen. ”

“ As they sat in silence, the girl added thoughtfully:
"Now that I know, by the papers, what a young, er, Lycurgus you are—Lycurgus is n't the word I mean. What is it? I mean oodles."
"Mæcenas?" suggested Bellsmith, absently.
"Mæcenas is right," said the girl. "Now that I know what a young Mæcenas you are, I suppose you will think that I am setting my cap at you.
"And," she added, musingly, "I suppose that I am." She paused again. "However, you need n't worry. It will never be."
"Why not?" asked Bellsmith.
Miss Marshall laughed. ”

“ Everything is all honey.
"Then we can string that song along in the dances—octet and then the whole gang. Pound it in and pound it in and pound it in until the biggest blockhead in the whole house won't ever forget it. See what I mean?"
Surdam nodded, and even Bellsmith was becoming slowly fascinated by the crude structure which was beginning to form itself before his mind.
"Then they quarrel!" announced Barnes. "Tommy gets in disgrace. Regular quarrel. Never going to see each other again. Tilly pouts up her nose in the air. Tommy turns—all sorrowful. Going off to Australia or somewhere. ”

“ Both girls smiled, and all three of his guests lifted their glasses.
"Well, Tommy," proposed Miss Marshall, "'ere's to young marster just a-coomin' of age!"
With the best of intentions she began to drink the toast, but the first sip ended in a choke and a violent cough. Tears came to her eyes. The punch was practically crude gin.
The host looked at her in concern. "What is it? Raw?" he asked. "Here! Let me get you another. It may be better now."
He seized her glass earnestly, but Miss Marshall clung to it. "No, Tommy, please," she begged. "This is all right. ”

“ The doctor sat for a moment in thought.
"Do you mean by that," he began tentatively, "that you have a distaste for people in general?"
"No," replied Bellsmith, slowly, "it is very funny about that. I am horribly lonely. I still seem eager to be with people, but I never seem to find just the right people."
"There are no such people in the world," laughed Dr. ”

“ It would be nice to think that something in the sweet, old-fashioned manner of this dainty, refined girl, whose ancestors had been immigrants two hundred years before Furniss's, appealed to the brute and barbaric in the foot-ball hero, and perhaps it did, but a more plausible reason for his falling in love with her was that every one else was doing it. ”