The Bachelors Part 15

"Who is the girl?" Edith demanded abruptly.

"Ah! I am counting on you to help me find out."

"It all must have happened before you came down here."

"On the contrary; Connie was quite himself until he reached Bermuda.

Since then--"

"Why, he hasn't met any one here except--"

"You and Miss Thatcher," Huntington completed. "You see how the search narrows itself. I shall continue my investigations until I discover the truth.

"How perfectly ridiculous!" Edith cried, not yet convinced as to his sincerity. "Why, Merry is a mere child, and--what makes you think there is anything of that kind in Mr. Cosden's mind?"

"His vindictiveness. Haven't you noticed the way he treated Billy? And he has actually been harsh with me on two occasions. It isn't like Connie; and if it affects him like this now, Heaven alone knows what the outcome will be if matters go further. You know the old song:

"_You may carve it on his tombstone, you may cut it on his card, That a young man married is a young man marred._"

"There you go again," laughed Edith; "the cynic once more leaps into the limelight."

"But won't you pledge yourself to a.s.sist me in my n.o.ble work? Why not form ourselves into a society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Single Persons, and be sworn to do all we can to intervene between matrimony and its victims?"

"Of course each would be at liberty to use his own judgment?" queried Edith, amused.

"Yes; so long as he did not confound judgment with sentiment."

"That is a capital suggestion," she agreed smiling. "I will gladly join you. Our first undertaking, I presume, will be to prevent affairs from going any further between Merry and Mr. Cosden--granting that they exist?"

"I don't say that. I recognize in you a superior person, and as such I have absolute confidence that you will act in accord with the unwritten const.i.tution of our Society."

"Thank you for that confidence," Edith said still smiling. Then she added enigmatically, "Whenever I accept a responsibility I always rise promptly to the emergency. In the present instance it requires careful consideration. Now, if you will excuse me I will take my morning const.i.tutional."

Huntington was not sorry to have a few moments of solitary contemplation. Throwing away a half-smoked cigar, he drew his pipe from his pocket and filled it with his favorite mixture--unchanged since he first became acquainted with it at college. A cigarette represented to Huntington the casual inconsequence of youth, a cigar the aristocracy of smoking, a pipe that comfortable companions.h.i.+p which encourages relaxation and introspective thought. With the first whiff he pulled his hat down over his face, settled deep in his chair, and began to run over the events of the past few days. Huntington's mind was methodical if not always orderly, and his account of stock, when finally cla.s.sified under the head of "responsibilities," summed up about as follows:

_Responsibility 1_: To keep peace with Connie, and yet persuade him against or frighten him out of his present a.s.sinine intentions.

_Responsibility 2_: To pull Hamlen out of the solitary life which he had affected, and to force him to a.s.sume that position in the world to which he rightly belonged.

_Responsibility 3_: To demonstrate to Mrs. Thatcher that her unmotherly idea of making rest.i.tution to Hamlen by throwing her daughter at his head was the product of an overwrought sentimentality rather than a rational suggestion.

_Responsibility 4_: To become sufficiently intimate with Merry, the direct or indirect occasion of the entire complication, to be able to judge as to the probable outcome of all the other responsibilities.

The sum total of his obligations appalled him, and he found himself proceeding in a mental circle, making no progress beyond the recapitulation. He was not displeased, therefore, when he found himself interrupted in his reveries by a bell-boy who stood before him, holding out a tray containing a telegram. He took it mechanically, wondering who had located him in this island retreat. Opening the yellow envelope he read the following message, sent by wireless from the "Arcadian":

"_That Cosden person has slipped it over on me this time, but I depend on you to watch out for my interests with Merry. She is the one best bet. Don't let that antique vintage of 1875 annoy her with his attentions. I know I can trust you. Please cable money to me in New York care of Hotel Biltmore to pay for this message and other expenses to Cambridge._

"BILLY."

Huntington groaned aloud as he twisted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Another responsibility to add to the others!" he cried, "and I believed bachelor's life one of freedom and ease! If ever I get out of this mess I'll bury myself in some monastery, and let its cold grey walls protect me against the matrimonial madness of the world!"

XI

By a curious coincidence Edith Stevens' "morning const.i.tutional" took her in the direction of the "Hamilton," and by another coincidence, equally curious, she met Thatcher, Cosden, and her brother as they emerged from the hotel after their conference with Duncan. Cosden was still in an elated mental condition as a result of the fact that he had again placed himself within the control of his master pa.s.sion. Even though Thatcher spoke of the enterprise as "small," it was an opening wedge, and Cosden knew how to make the most of an opening.

The visit to Bermuda had already taught him that he was engaging in a game of which he did not know even the first rudiments. It had seemed easy enough to him when he first undertook it, but the experience of these few days had undeceived him. When in the past he had wanted anything, he simply played the game until he won out; now he saw that in spite of his claim that marriage firmly rested upon basic business principles, there was a certain hiatus which could not be filled in by the education derived from every-day business routine in a counting-room. He had met no discouragements as yet, but he was making no beginning, and that of course was retrogression.

As he saw Miss Stevens approaching Cosden was seized with one of those inspirations which had made his business career so signal a success. It was stupid of him not to have thought of it before! Whenever he wanted advice upon factory management he employed the best expert he could secure; now that he required specialized service in the matter of approaching Miss Thatcher upon the delicate subject he had in mind, why should he not employ the same method? Every woman was by nature a specialist in affairs of this kind, and from what he had already seen of Miss Stevens he believed he could scarcely have selected one better fitted to act in the capacity suggested.

It was easy enough to manoeuver matters so that he should walk back with her to the "Princess," especially as she seemed unconsciously to fall in with his plans by addressing her greeting particularly to him.

Cosden's response was so cordial and his pleasure in seeing her so sincere that Edith was thoroughly mystified. Previously he had seemed preoccupied, and appeared to endure her companions.h.i.+p rather than seek it; now he threw aside his indifference and met her as a comrade. An instant understanding flashed across her mind: Huntington had hinted that his friend had suddenly developed interesting tendencies, and had said plainly that the objective was either Merry Thatcher or herself.

Could it be that--well, perhaps it would not be necessary to use force after all! Then, as a result of that curious feminine paradox, her next thought was contradictory: "If he is really interested in me then I shall lose interest in him." Still, the game was worth playing out.

They turned in at the little shaded lane which offers a short cut to the hotel, but instead of entering the hallway Cosden stopped and indicated the steps leading down to the tennis-courts.

"Would you mind having a very personal conversation with me down there?"

he asked with so much significance in his voice that Edith became almost agitated.

"I'd love to sit down for a moment," she a.s.sented. "I've been walking so long that I could take that bench in my arms and hug it."

"I'm in a quandary," Cosden began without preliminaries as soon as Edith had adjusted herself where she would appear to best advantage. "I have an idea that you can help me out."

"First aid to the wounded is right in my line," Edith a.s.sured him helpfully.

Even with the inspiration which expectancy on the part of an audience is always supposed to give a speaker, Cosden's fluency became somewhat modified when he actually touched upon his main topic.

"I'm a peculiar sort of man, I've no doubt--"

"I wouldn't give a snap of my finger for a man who didn't possess individuality," she interrupted emphatically.

"Well, perhaps it is more than individuality. Men seem to understand me all right, but I've never had a sister, and I've been too tied down by my business to cultivate women. I'm a man's man--I suppose that about expresses it."

"That's a good recommendation; look at my brother,--he's a lady's man.

Would you change individualities with Ricky?"

"Perhaps not," Cosden said guardedly; "still in this matter your brother could probably give me a pointer or two.--Hang it all! when I talk to a man I don't have any difficulty in making myself understood, but here I am, floundering round with you like a school-boy!"

"Just imagine for the moment that I am a man and that you are talking to me about some one else--"

"That's it exactly; I knew you would understand. I thought Monty would help me out, but he absolutely refuses to take me seriously. The truth of the matter is that I've decided to get married."