Round the Corner in Gay StreetRichmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
General
Round the Corner in Gay Street
Richmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
Families -- Juvenile fiction
"Look here!" Murray’s disgusted voice was at her ear. He was gently
attempting to take the receiver away from her. "Let me tackle that
person, please."
The next moment Jane was standing beside the desk, her cheeks rosy with
a quite reasonable indignation at the treatment she had been receiving
from the surly unknown. At the telephone sat her new acquaintance,
sending rapid requests over the wire in a tone which plainly was making
somebody attend.
"Not fix up your own mistake to-night--with to-morrow a holiday? Why
not? There’s plenty of time. Send by a special messenger, of course,
and tell him to be quick. Who’s talking to you? That does n’t make any
special difference, does it? It may be a small order--I don’t see what
that has to do with it. Mrs. Bell needs that paper up within half an
hour. Yes--well, this is Harrison Townsend’s house--Worthington Square,
and I ’m telephoning for our friends. What? Oh, you will! Well, thank
you! I ’m glad you see your way clear. Yes--half an hour--I say, make
it twenty minutes, can’t you, please? Very well." And Murray broke
off, and hung up the receiver with an impatient click which expressed
his contempt for a clerk who would hurry up an order for Worthington
Square when he would n’t do it for Gay Street.
"Idiot!" he remarked.
The girl beside him moved toward the door, smiling. "It was ever so
kind of you," she said. "The paper is for the dining-room, and you can
guess how it upsets things to have the dining-room in confusion."
"I hope you didn’t mind my telling that fellow you were our friends,"
said Murray, as he accompanied his guest to the door. "Such near
neighbours----"
"Oh, I understood! That was what made it so easy for him to get a
messenger! Only--please don’t think we----"
"Yes?" Murray was smiling encouragingly at her.
"It sounds absurd, but--it’s so dreadfully soon to be borrowing
telephones----"
"Or molasses?"
They both laughed. Murray’s hand lingered upon the door knob, which at
this moment it became timely for him to turn for her. "I could n’t help
hearing your sister assuring you that she would tell people you never
borrowed molasses. I don’t see why not. We might need to borrow it of
you some time, but of course if you feel there’s something especially
prohibitive about molasses----"
He knew he was not saying anything brilliant, but it made her laugh
again, and laughing is an excellent way of getting over a trying
situation.
But he was obliged to open the door for her without delay, for she
plainly was not going to be tempted into lingering. She ran down the
steps, and he saw her bronze-red hair catch the sunshine as she went.
As she reached the bottom he called after her: "I hope you’ll like that
paper mighty well when it’s on!"
"Thank you!" he heard her answer, over her shoulder, and he was sure
that she was still smiling. It seemed to him reasonably certain that
the Bells were pleasant people to know.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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