Flood Tide Part 10

"I beg your pardon," she gasped. "I thought Willie was here."

"Mr. Spence has stepped over to the Eldredges'. I'm expecting him back every instant," Bob returned.

The girl's lashes fell. They were long and very beautiful as they lay in a fringe against her cheek, yet exquisite as they were he longed to see her eyes again.

"I'm Miss Morton's nephew from Indiana," the young man managed to stammer, feeling some explanation might bridge the gulf of embarra.s.sment. "I am visiting here."

"Oh!"

Persistently she studied the toe of her shoe. If Bob had thought her appealing before, now, demure against the background of budding apple trees, with a shaft of sunlight on her hair, and the kitten cuddled against her breast, she put to rout the few intelligent ideas remaining to the young man.

Wonderingly, helplessly, he watched while she continued to caress the minute creature in her arms.

"Are you staying here long?" she asked at length, gaining courage to look up.

"I--eh--yes; that is--I hope so," Bob answered with sudden fervor.

"You like Wilton then."

"Tremendously!"

"Most strangers think the place has great beauty," observed his guest innocently.

"There's more beauty here in Wilton than I ever saw before in all my life," burst out Bob, then stopped suddenly and blushed.

His listener dimpled.

"Really?" she remarked, raising her delicately arched brows. "You are enthusiastic about the Cape, aren't you!"

"Some parts of it."

"Where else have you been?"

The question came with disturbing directness.

"Oh--why--Middleboro, Tremont, Buzzard's Bay and Harwich," answered the man hurriedly. As he named the list he was conscious that it smacked rather too suggestively of a brakeman's, and he saw she thought so too, for she turned aside to hide a smile.

"You might sit down; won't you?" he suggested, eager that she should not depart.

Flecking the dust from the soap box with his handkerchief, he dragged it forward and placed it near the workbench.

As she bent her head to accept the crude throne with a queen's graciousness, Jezebel, roused into playful humor, thrust forth her claws and, encountering Bob as he rose from his stooping posture, fixed them with random firmness in his necktie.

Now it chanced that the tie was a four-in-hand of raw silk, very choice in color but of a fatally loose oriental weave; and once entangled in its meshes the task of extricating its delicate threads from the clutch that gripped them seemed hopeless. It apparently failed to dawn on either of the young persons brought into such embarra.s.singly close contact by the dilemma that the kitten could be handed over to Bob; or that the tie might be removed. Instead they drew together, trying vainly to liberate the struggling Jezebel from her imprisonment. It was not a simple undertaking and to add to its difficulties the ungrateful beast, irritated by their endeavors, began to protest violently.

"She'll tear your tie all to pieces," cried the stranger.

"No matter. I don't mind, if she doesn't scratch you."

"Oh, I am not afraid of her. If you can hold her a second longer, I think I can free the last claw."

As the girl toiled at her precarious mission, Bob could feel her warm breath fan his cheek and could catch the fragrant perfume of her hair.

So far as he was concerned, Jezebel might retain her hold on his necktie forever. But, alas, the slim, white fingers were too deft and he heard at last a triumphant:

"There!"

At the same instant the offending kitten was placed on the floor.

"You little monkey!" cried the man, smiling down at the furry object at his feet.

"Isn't she!" echoed the visitor sympathetically. "There she goes, the imp! What is left of your tie? Let me look at it."

"It's all right, thank you."

"There is just one thread ruffed up. I could fix it if I had a pin."

From her gown she produced one, but as she did so a spray of wild roses slipped to the ground.

"You've dropped your flowers," said Bob, picking them up.

"Have I? Thank you. They are withered, anyway, I'm afraid."

Tossing the rosebuds on the bench, she began to draw into smoothness the silken loop that defaced the tie.

"There!" she exclaimed, glancing up into his eyes and tilting her head critically to one side. "That is ever so much better. You would hardly notice it. Now I really must go. I have bothered you quite enough."

"You have not bothered me at all," contradicted Bob emphatically.

"But I know I must have," she protested. "I've certainly delayed you.

Besides, it doesn't look as if Willie was coming back."

"Isn't there something I can do for you?"

"No, thank you. It was nothing important. In fact, it doesn't matter at all. I just came to see if he could fix the clasp of my belt buckle. It is broken, and he is so clever at mending things that I thought perhaps he could mend this."

"Let me see it."

"Oh, I couldn't think of troubling you."

"But I should be glad to fix it if I could. If not, I could at least hand it over to Willie's superior skill."

She laughed.

"I'm not certain whether Willie's skill is superior," was her arch retort.

"Why not make a test case and find out?"

Still she hesitated.