Chapter XXIV
As luck would have it, beyond chance guests for lunch or dinner, the
Big House was empty. In vain, on the first and second days, did Dick
lay out his work, or defer it, so as to be ready for any suggestion
from Paula to go for an afternoon swim or drive.
He noted that she managed always to avoid the possibility of being
kissed. From her sleeping porch she called good night to him across
the wide patio. In the morning he prepared himself for her eleven
o'clock greeting. Mr. Agar and Mr. Pitts, with important matters
concerning the forthcoming ranch sale of stock still unsettled, Dick
promptly cleared out at the stroke of eleven. Up she was, he knew, for
he had heard her singing. As he waited, seated at his desk, for once
he was idle. A tray of letters before him continued to need his
signature. He remembered this morning pilgrimage of hers had been
originated by her, and by her, somewhat persistently, had been kept
up. And an adorable thing it was, he decided--that soft call of "Good
morning, merry gentleman," and the folding of her kimono-clad figure
in his arms.
He remembered, further, that he had often cut that little visit short, conveying the impression to her, even while he clasped her, of how busy he was. And he remembered, more than once, the certain little wistful shadow on her face as she slipped away.
Quarter past eleven, and she had not come. He took down the receiver
to telephone the dairy, and in the swift rush of women's conversation, ere he hung up, he caught Paula's voice:
"--Bother Mr. Wade. Bring all the little Wades and come, if only for a
couple of days--"
Which was very strange of Paula. She had invariably welcomed the
intervals of no guests, when she and he were left alone with each
other for a day or for several days. And now she was trying to
persuade Mrs. Wade to come down from Sacramento. It would seem that
Paula did not wish to be alone with him, and was seeking to protect
herself with company.
He smiled as he realized that that morning embrace, now that it was
not tendered him, had become suddenly desirable. The thought came to
him of taking her away with him on one of their travel-jaunts. That
would solve the problem, perhaps. And he would hold her very close to
him and draw her closer. Why not an Alaskan hunting trip? She had
always wanted to go. Or back to their old sailing grounds in the days
of the All Away--the South Seas. Steamers ran direct between
San Francisco and Tahiti. In twelve days they could be ashore in
Papeete. He wondered if Lavaina still ran her boarding house, and his
quick vision caught a picture of Paula and himself at breakfast on
Lavaina's porch in the shade of the mango trees.
He brought his fist down on the desk. No, by God, he was no coward to
run away with his wife for fear of any man. And would it be fair to
her to take her away possibly from where her desire lay? True, he did
not know where her desire lay, nor how far it had gone between her and
Graham. Might it not be a spring madness with her that would vanish
with the spring? Unfortunately, he decided, in the dozen years of
their marriage she had never evidenced any predisposition toward
spring madness. She had never given his heart a moment's doubt. Herself tremendously attractive to men, seeing much of them, receiving their admiration and even court, she had remained always her equable and serene self, Dick Forrest's wife--
"Good morning, merry gentleman."
She was peeping in on him, quite naturally from the hall, her eyes and
lips smiling to him, blowing him a kiss from her finger tips.
"And good morning, my little haughty moon," he called back, himself
equally his natural self.
And now she would come in, he thought; and he would fold her in his
arms, and put her to the test of the kiss.
He opened his arms in invitation. But she did not enter. Instead, she
startled, with one hand gathered her kimono at her breast, with the
other picked up the trailing skirt as if for flight, at the same time
looking apprehensively down the hall. Yet his keen ears had caught no
sound. She smiled back at him, blew him another kiss, and was gone.
Ten minutes later he had no ears for Bonbright, who, telegrams in
hand, startled him as he sat motionless at his desk, as he had sat, without movement, for ten minutes.