Courtship -- Fiction; Florida -- Fiction; Humorous stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Treasure troves -- Fiction
"Say," says I, "help me put a smilin' party on the track of K. W.
Mason, will you? Here she is."
I expect Mr. Robert would have ducked if he could, after one view of
the polka-dot dress and the rusty straw lid; but there was Valentina
comin' straight at us.
"For the love of Mike!" says I. "You ain't been waitin' all this time,
have you?"
"Right hea-uh," says she. "Ah reckon Ah done missed him."
"Why," says I, "Mr. Mason left hours ago. Must be something important
you want to see him about, eh?"
"Ah don't know as it is," says she; "only Ah promised, ef ever Ah got
to Noo Yawk, Ah'd look him up. He made me. And Ah sure would like to
see Warrie mahself."
"Warrie!" says I. "Oh, gosh! Why, you mean young Mr. Mason--Warren,
don't you?"
She nods.
"Well, say, that's too bad," says I. "My fault, though. But I never
thought of Warrie as the one. Why, he hasn't been with the Corrugated
for over a year now."
I might have added that we'd had hard work missin' him at any time.
Not that he wasn't all right in his way, but--well, it was just a case
of bein' more ornamental than useful. A bit thick in the head, Warrie.
But it was a stunnin' head--reg'lar Apollonaris Belvidere. He had wavy
brown hair, and big, peaceful brown eyes. Stood a little over six feet
too, and they say that when it came to ridin' a spotted pony and
swingin' a polo mallet he was all there. But in the bond department he
was just under foot.
So, when he develops rheumatism in one shoulder and a specialist orders
him South, it wasn't any serious jolt to the business world. And when
he finally shows up again it didn't take much urgin' from Mr. Robert to
induce him to pass up his financial career for good. He was engaged to
be married anyway, and that should have been enough to occupy his mind.
Where he'd run across Valentina was the big puzzle, and the easiest way
to solve it was to ask her. Which I does.
"Why, at Sand Spur Point," says she.
"Sounds cute," says I. "Is it on the map?"'
"It's on mine," says Valentina.
"Sand Spur, did you say?" puts in Mr. Robert. "Isn't that the place he
discovered when he was sent South to bake out his shoulder? Florida,
isn't it?"
"West coast," says Valentina.
"Of course," says Mr. Robert. "He talked a lot about it. Seemed to
have grown rather fond of the people there."
"We all thought a heap of Warrie," says Miss Tozier, lettin' loose that
mesmerizin' smile of hers.
Mr. Robert gets the full force of it, for he'd been lookin' her over
sort of curious; and blamed if he don't fall for it 'most as hard as me
and Vincent.
"By George!" says he. "I'm sure Warrie would feel badly if he missed
seeing anyone from Sand Spur. You must let me know where you're
stopping. I'll send him word."
"Wouldn't do a bit of good in the world," says Valentina, "for Ah'm not
stopping anywhere. You see, Ah come up with pop on a lumber-schooner,
and we'll be headed out past Sandy Hook by sunrise."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account