Humorous stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Private secretaries -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Fiction
There's nothing left to do but hoist myself conspicuous onto a
convenient wayside rock and hope that this Barry Crane person was
runnin' somewhere near on time. About then I begun to wish I knew more
about him, his general habits and so on. Was his memory good? Could he
be depended on to keep dates with strangers? Would he know Dorr's
Crossing when he saw it?
Vee hadn't touched on any of these points when she was convincin' me how
simple it would be for him and me to get together. Course, she'd given
me a chatty little sketch of Mr. Crane, but mostly it had been about
what a swell organist he was. Played in a big church. Not only that, but
made up pieces, all out of his own head. Also she'd mentioned about his
hopeless romance with a certain Ann McLeod.
Seems Barry had been strong for Miss McLeod for five or six years. She'd
kind of strung him along at first, too. Couldn't help likin' Barry some.
Everybody did. He was that kind--good natured, always sayin' clever
things. You know. But when it came to hitchin' up with him permanent,
Miss McLeod had balked. Nobody knew just why. Bright girl, Ann. Brainy,
too, and with lots of pep. She was secretary for some big efficiency
expert. Maybe that was why she couldn't stand for Barry's musical
temperament. She thought 9 a.m. was absolutely the last call for pushin'
back the roll-top and openin' the mornin' mail, while Barry's idea of
beginnin' a perfect day was for someone to bring in a breakfast tray
about eleven o'clock and hand him a cigarette before he tumbled out of
the straw. So while he'd qualified as a Dear Old Thing and she'd got to
the point where she'd let him call her Playmate Mine, that's where the
romance hung on the rocks. Also he'd been described as a chunky party
with a round face decorated with a cute little mustache and baby blue
eyes.
All of which don't help me dope out how long I'm due to lend a human
note to an otherwise empty landscape. And there's more excitin' outdoor
sports than sittin' on a rock waitin' to be rescued by someone who
hasn't even seen a snapshot of you. I'll tell the world that. During the
first twenty minutes I answered two false alarms. One was a gasoline
truck going the wrong way and the other turns out to be an R. F. D.
flivver with a baby's go-cart tied on the side. It was good and hot on
the perch I'd picked out and I could feel the sun doing things to the
back of my neck and ears, but I didn't dare climb down for fear I'd be
missed.
Where was this musical gent and his tourin' car? Or would it be a
limousine? Somehow from the way Vee had talked, sayin' he was bugs on
motorin', I sort of favored the limousine proposition. Uh-huh. Most
likely one lined with cretonne, and a French chauffeur at the wheel. But
nothing like that was rollin' past Dorr's Crossing. Not while I was
watchin'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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