The Strange Proposal (17 page)

O
ne morning a couple of days after Mary Elizabeth sent off her letter to Florida, she and Sam were sitting on the piazza deep in their Bible study. It was nearly eleven o’clock, and they had been down to the beach since breakfast having a good long swim and a run up the beach to the lighthouse and back, with another dip for a finish. They were feeling tired and quiet and ready to sit down in the coolness of the piazza and rest.

They had been doing this intensive study for three days now, and it was a question which of the two enjoyed it most, for it had developed that Mary Elizabeth asked just the questions that the boy needed to bring back to him knowledge acquired the last winter in the Florida camping class, and he brought it forth in his most original boy manner, yet clearly, so that it was like a revelation to the girl to whom heretofore the Bible had been a sealed book full of dead sayings that meant nothing.

Mary Elizabeth had ransacked the house for a Bible and had found one most unexpectedly in possession of Susan, the caretaker’s wife. Susan had two, one that she had earned in Sunday school as a child, reciting certain Psalms, and another with big print. She loaned the one with big print to her young mistress, with great delight that she had something worthy to lend. So Mary Elizabeth was equipped with a Bible, if not with the knowledge, to enable her to find its different books. Sam had to put her through a course in the books of the Bible before she was able to hunt out references. It was amusing to see how patient and eager he was as a teacher. He felt it was great of Mary Beth to companion with him this way. She was as good as a boy, any day, and a “lot better than some fellas!” he told her gallantly.

This exclusive feminine fellowship might not satisfy indefinitely. Doubtless there would come a time when he would hunger and thirst for a good, rousing game of baseball. But for the present, to the lad who was accustomed to frustration of his many plans by a too-anxious parent and ensuing loneliness, it seemed for the time being bliss.

They were deep in the mysteries of a perplexing question on John Saxon’s lesson list, the answer to which was to be found among half a dozen Bible references and required careful thought and consideration of various phases of the subject, when suddenly the honk of a loud and arrogant automobile horn close at hand broke the stillness startlingly, and around the curve of the graveled drive that circled the house there swept two costly sport cars, gleaming smugly in chrome wherever chrome could find an excuse to be, and filled with a noisy company of young people in dashing attire. The foremost car was driven by Boothby Farwell!

“Oh, heck! What’s this?” exclaimed Sam, half rising from the step and dropping his Bible on the piazza. One could almost see his hair bristling like a cat’s at the sight of a dog in the offing.

Mary Elizabeth looked up in dismay with a blankness in her gaze as she stared unbelievingly at her unwelcome guests. Who had invaded her quiet when she had taken so many pains to hide her going? Boothby Farwell, of all people!

And he had dared to bring the whole bunch of her old associates from home! Cissy Ward, Tally Randall, Jane Reefer, Rita Bowers, Anne and Maude and Whitty Gensemer! She recognized them one by one, the dismay growing in her heart and face as she rose hastily from the steamer chair, leaving her open Bible where she had been sitting, and came forward to greet her uninvited guests.

How in the world did they find out where she was? Surely her father had not given her secret away!

But here they were, and there was nothing to do but receive them, though she felt like a child whose doll had been broken and her tea party shattered.

“Well, isn’t this unexpected!” she said as she tried to summon her inbred courtesy and some degree of welcome into her face. “How in the world did you find out where I was?”

This last question was directed to Boothby, who took her hand severely, possessively, and gave her a look of reproof.

“Bribed old Tilly to tell where they forwarded your letters,” answered Boothby promptly and a little curtly. “Just what was the idea in running away like that? A game of hide-and-seek or some similar child’s play?”

“I came down to look the old house over and see what repairs it needed,” answered Mary Elizabeth coolly, with a steady, impersonal look at her former beau and no heightening of her color.

“Well, it’s about time you came back again then,” he said, with a contemptuous glance at the house of other days. “What’s the idea of repairing this old barracks, anyway? It’s a waste of money, I should say.”

“It happens that we don’t feel that way,” laughed Mary Elizabeth. “Won’t you come up on the piazza? I think we can make you fairly comfortable, even if we are a bit antiquated. Sam, can you bring out a few chairs?”

Sam greatly resembled a cat up a tree with its back arched, but he slowly unbristled and went into the house after chairs, giving a baleful glance backward at Boothby Farwell, the perpetrator of this intrusion into his Eden.

“Oh, don’t bothah!” said Boothby Farwell, looking about contemptuously. “We’re not going to stay here, of course. We came to get you and take you up the coast to lunch. Get your hat and come on. Or perhaps you don’t need a hat?”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” said Mary Elizabeth sweetly. “I couldn’t possibly leave. I have a man coming to do some electrical work, and I have to be here all the afternoon. He may come any minute now.”

“Send word to him not to come then. You simply must go with us! We’ve come all this way to get you, and you can’t disappoint us that way.”

Then the girls began to clamor, and the other men.

“Oh, come on, Elizabeth! Don’t be a flat tire!”

But Mary Elizabeth stood her ground firmly.

“I can’t possibly go,” she said. “You’ll have to get out and take lunch with me. I have a maid here who will be delighted to have someone to serve. Come up and sit down and cool off. There’s really a wonderful view of the sea here, and we’ll have a pitcher of lemonade at once. Sam, dear”—she gave her young cousin a ravishing smile that reduced him to her abject slave again—“could you ask Susan to make us some lemonade?”

“We’ve something better than lemonade in the car,” said Boothby coolly, “and none of us are thirsty! We’ve just been drinking. We came to get you.”

“Oh, I didn’t know!” said Mary Elizabeth with a twinkle at Sam. “No lemonade, then, Sam. We don’t need it!”

Sam grinned and took his seat on the step again, gathering up his Bible as calmly as if it were a spelling book.

“What on earth are you doing?” asked one of the girls, coming up the steps and looking at the Bible curiously.

Mary Elizabeth looked at her guest as if she had not noticed her before. She caught a glimpse of Sam’s lowering countenance, and then she said brightly, “Why, my cousin and I were doing a little studying together.”

Cissy Ward flung a curious glance at her in turn and then picked up the Bible from Sam’s knees and gave it a comprehensive scrutiny.

“Oh,” she said lightly, “is this your spelling book? Tally, can you spell ‘Methuselah’?”

“Not me!” Tally said shrugging lightly with a wicked little gleam in his handsome reckless eyes. “I couldn’t even pronounce it.”

“You’re mistaken,” said Mary Elizabeth in a clear voice that they all could hear. “That isn’t my speller, it’s my ABC book. I’ve only just begun on my alphabet, but if I live long enough, I mean to get so I can read it and understand it. I never took a course in the Bible, and I thought it was about time.”

They all focused their eyes on her. Cissy was flecking the leaves of Sam’s Bible through carelessly. Tally had picked up the Bible that Mary Elizabeth had left lying in her chair, examining it comically as if he meant to analyze it and dissect it. The other young folks were climbing out of the car and coming up the steps. They sensed that there was a distinct situation and that Mary Elizabeth was dominating it. They had wondered a little why Boothby, who was usually so exclusive in his invitations, had invited them all to come along after Mary Elizabeth. Now they were sure that something had gone awry between them, and she, most unusually, was holding out against him. They were not quite sure what part they were to play in this one-act drama, but they entered gaily into it, determined to get as much fun out of it as possible and, incidentally, stir up the chief actors in the plot to reveal the point of the whole matter. So Cissy, who stopped at nothing when she was on to some hot gossip, suddenly held Sam’s precious Bible aloft in her thumb and finger and shouted to them in a high, shrieking voice: “Listen, boys and girls, I’ve found out what’s the matter with Liz’beth! She’s turning religious, and we’ll have to snap her out of it. This book’s evidently at the bottom of it, and we’ll have to burn the book! Who’ll build the bonfire, boys and girls? Here goes the book! Catch it!”

But just as Cissy Ward was about to fling the offending Bible out over the steps, Sam sprang into the air, catching his precious Bible in one hand and Cissy Ward’s extended arm in the other, setting her down hard on one of the porch rockers.

Sam looked almost grown up as he turned angrily upon the astonished girl.

“That’s my Bible!” he declared in a clear, ringing voice that had lost its boyish treble and seemed almost manly in its accent. “If you wantta play horse with Bibles go getcherself one of yer own ta use, and don’t take mine. I guess they have some back in the city stores!”

Mary Elizabeth looked at her young cousin, startled. She opened her mouth to say something to him about his behavior and then closed it again. Instead she quietly stepped to Tally’s side and took her own borrowed Bible firmly away from Tally’s careless hand. Then, turning to Sam, she smiled and handed him the other Bible.

“Buddie, will you just take these in and put them away? They wouldn’t be understood here,” she said calmly and then turned back to her surprised guests.

“Won’t you all be seated?” she said with grave courtesy. “We have plenty of room, and lunch will be at half past one. What can we do to pass the time? Would you like to take a swim? I think I can rustle up enough bathing suits. They may be a little out of date, but I’m sure that won’t matter for once.”

Sam disappeared with the Bibles and then reappeared quietly and kept in the background, ready to do his cousin’s bidding. She noticed him several times, sitting easily on the railing of the piazza with one foot swinging lightly back and forth, his eyes gravely off on the distant sea where a little boat went curtsying across the horizon. Once his eyes met hers and a look flashed between them of perfect understanding, and she was sure that unless something outrageous happened, Sam would keep further words to himself. He was angry, but he was under control. She pondered this while she tried to play the part of courteous hostess, greeting her guests as if nothing unpleasant had happened, getting the right seat for each, giving a cheerful little word here and there in answer to their own protests that she would not go with them up the shore. Sam and she understood each other, and he would stay by and help her out in everything, even though he fairly hated every one of the guests.

Presently she excused herself to speak with Susan, and Sam suddenly appeared at her side as she arrived in the butler’s pantry.

“They’re only a bunch of unbelievers!” said Sam in a low tone. “You don’t need ta mind!”

“That’s right, Sam,” she said, “let’s try to remember that. I don’t really know just what you mean by unbelievers, but we’ll take that up when we have more time. And meantime, if Susan needs anything could you take Frank’s bicycle and go for it?”

“Sure thing!” said Sam eagerly. “Whatcha want?”

“Well, I thought maybe some of those lovely big strawberries with the white insides. And some fresh fish. I’ll see what Susan says.”

“I’m right here, Miss Wainwright,” said Susan, appearing excitedly from the kitchen, a long streak of flour on her rosy cheek. “It’s all right, whatever you want. I mixed up some soda biscuits as soon as I saw the cars drive in. I thought maybe you would want to ask ’em to stay.”

“Oh, that’s nice, Susan. I’m sorry it will make you so much extra work. Couldn’t Sam get that little Ivy girl you had over here the other night to help you?”

“I already sent Frank to tell her, and he’s bringing the fish. If Mister Sam would get me the strawberries and cream? There’s sponge cake. That’ll do for dessert. Will fried fish and hot biscuits and a tomato and cucumber salad do for the main course, and iced coffee for the drink?”

“Wonderful, Susan! That will be great. Isn’t that going to be too much for you to accomplish?”

“No indeed, Miss Wainwright! I love to have company. And how about the table?”

“We won’t set the table,” said Mary Elizabeth. “We’ll serve lunch on the porch. When Sam gets back with the berries he can bring out the two nests of little tables, and you can show him where to find the linen doilies to put on them. Then you can get out the knives and forks and spoons and glasses and napkins and put them on a tray, and he’ll look after fixing them on the tables, won’t you, Buddie?” She gave her cousin a loving look, and Sam’s eyes were full of devotion.

“Sure!” he growled hoarsely.

“Then, Susan, you can bring the fish in right on the plates. Pass the rolls and butter. Fix your salad on little plates that won’t take too much room, and will Ivy help serve? Then I think that’ll be all right. Fine! Call me if you want me. Sorry I can’t come out and help.”

“Oh, Miss Wainwright, my dear!” protested Susan, smiling. “We don’t need more help. That Mister Sam is a perfect angel.”

So Mary Elizabeth went back to her guests and Sam departed on the borrowed bicycle, thinking scornful thoughts of the interlopers and in particular despising the man Boothby Farwell. Now what did Mary Beth want with a chump like that when there were men in the world like John Saxon?

“Now,” said Mary Elizabeth, arriving back on the piazza with all the sparkle and most of the zest of former days, “we’re going down and take a swim before lunch. Girls, come upstairs with me. Boys, go down those steps at the end of the piazza, turn to your left, and open the door under the back piazza. You’ll find a row of bathhouses and plenty of men’s suits in the chest near the shower. Make your own choice. We girls will meet you at the beach in ten minutes. See who’ll be there first!”