A Canadian Bankclerk Part 19

"Oh, brother," she said, "come here and see."

He walked to the window. Strolling down the opposite side of the street, apparently on their way to church, were two young people--a boy and a girl. A glance told Evan who the girl was, but he did more than glance at the fellow. The two were coming nearer.

"For Heaven's sake!" said Evan, "I know that guy. Let's call them in."

Opening the front door he shouted:

"Hey, come on up and see us!"

Frankie hesitated, but her brave escort insisted and she walked shamefacedly toward Nelson's home. Evan allowed himself a few moments of rash merriment which greatly surprised his mother and sister. His strange actions were justified--if the women had only known! The chap who stepped in with Frankie was Porter Perry.

Acting on manners he had learned somewhere, the Bonehead grabbed Evan's hand before the latter had a chance to greet Frankie.

"Where on earth did you come from?" asked Evan.

"Oh, I left your bank," said Porter, importantly, "because they paid such bad salaries. Then the U---- moved me here."

Frankie distracted Evan's attention.

"How are you, Frank?" he said, feeling mean as he took her little hand and saw her blushing face.

"Just the same old way," she replied bravely; "you have changed an awful lot though----"

She did not mean anything sentimental, but that kind of an interpretation presented itself to her a moment after she had spoken and she hurriedly added: "You are thin and paler than you used to be."

Her eyes alighted on the cigar smoking between his fingers. "Maybe that's the reason," she said, laughingly.

Lou drew her chum off to exhibit those trinkets again. Mr. and Mrs.

Nelson were chatting in the kitchen, where the turkey sizzled.

"What post are you on, Evan?" asked Perry.

"Teller and accountant," was the casual reply.

"Gee," exclaimed the Bonehead disconsolately. He went in search of consolation.

"What do they give you?"

"Three fifty," was the still more humble reply.

Porter's face lighted up.

"I draw four fifty," he said, grandly.

"What post?" asked Evan, anxiously.

"Ledger."

This was the first time Evan had had one of the bank's chief shortcomings brought home to him--it makes little difference what a clerk's intelligence or what his position and responsibility, he will be paid according to the time he has served. He is not rewarded according to his works, but paid for length of service. The business offers no incentive to excel. Why work hard and honestly if you are going to get the dead-level wage each year anyway? Good clerks suffer because of the negligence of indifferent ones; but the former bring up the average of work--and that is all the bank cares. The staff of a bank is something to be worked en ma.s.se; the individual is an insignificant part of the works.

Perry seemed fated to be a humiliation to Evan. Bank luck had thrown the Bonehead into the spot where Evan longed to be, and had given him enough salary to live on, humbly. But more ironical still was the apparent attachment between Evan's old girl and Perry.

"If she could only have seen him balancing that savings in Mt. Alban,"

thought Evan, smiling. Then puffing out a mouthful of smoke, he murmured: "Bah! what do I care!"

From that moment he was jolly, to the point of humor. It was the mood of mixed feelings, prominent among which is jealousy, where one waxes jocose in spite of himself. Evan even rallied Frankie on certain personal matters. She did not take it amiss; it rather relieved the situation for her.

"Where's Bill, do you know, Evan?" asked Porter.

"No; his signature at Mt. Alban has been cancelled, but I don't know what they did with him."

"Either resigned or gone to a city," Perry supposed.

"I think we had better go, Mr. Perry," said Frankie, turning away from Lou's Christmas gifts.

"Why, what's your hurry--won't you stay for dinner?" asked Mrs. Nelson.

"Oh, no," said Frankie, "thank you. Mother has invited Mr. Perry up to our place. He wasn't able to go home."

"How was that?" asked Nelson, poking his nose in the room.

"Work," said Perry, professionally.

"Ledger!" murmured Evan, smiling inwardly. Notwithstanding, he felt more disgusted than amused--he scarcely knew at what.

"We'll see you again before we go, I hope," he said, addressing Frankie and her escort as one.

"When do you go?" she whispered to him aside, while the Bonehead was laughing at a joke he perpetrated on Lou. Frankie was beginning to weaken. Evan felt it, and it made him harden his heart. Such is man's disposition.

"Soon," he said, knowing it hurt.

She gazed into his unsmiling eyes a moment, then turned to Lou and Perry without speaking.

When she was gone, and Perry, Mrs. Nelson looked disconcertingly at her son. He mentally searched for something to hide his uneasiness and divert their minds from Frankie----

"Did you hear me say I must go soon, mother?"

"Yes, how soon, Evan?"

"To-night!"

Mrs. Nelson's dinner was luxurious, but to the whole family it tasted flat. Our Banker must leave early Christmas night. His Banfield friends had wished him "A Merry Christmas."

And he left without saying good-bye to Someone.

CHAPTER VIII.