The Green Dolphin
“I hope so,” responded Althea with uncertainty. “Sometimes I get
worried an’ most regretful I ever meddled with Peggy an’ Eric. It’s a
solemn thing to take a hand in marriage makin’ an’ try to guide other
folks’ futures. ’Tain’t no subject for humans.”
“I do believe you’re losin’ your nerve, Althea,” accused Miss Crosby,
regarding her companion with amazed countenance.
“I am. I’m perfectly willin’ to admit it. When I saw Eric an’ Eleanor
startin’ off in his car yesterday, an’ glimpsed Peggy’s face as she
spied ’em disappearin’ down the road, a panic swept over me. I said to
myself: ‘Althea Holmes, what have you set a-goin’?’”
“Why shoulder all the blame? You didn’t do the whole of it.”
“I helped.”
“I did the biggest part. ’Twas my idea,” consoled Rebecca.
“Ain’t you some scared?”
“Not a mite,” averred Rebecca serenely.
“You certainly are an uncommon person, ’Becca,” said Althea gazing
with puzzled intensity into the other woman’s face. “How you can start
a ball a-rollin’, an’ then set back an’ watch unmoved when it gets to
whizzin’ faster’n you planned, beats me.”
“I don’t see as it’s whizzin’ much,” was the unruffled retort. “’Course
Eric an’ Eleanor are havin’ a pleasant holiday together. But why
shouldn’t they? Ain’t Peggy an’ her lieutenant doin’ the same?”
“But Eleanor’s walkin’ in the dark. She don’t know nothin’ of the
purpose of her comin’ here.”
“N----o. Still--”
“You’ve talked with him, though, so he understands it’s only actin’,”
Althea said, a sudden ray of comfort lighting her horizon.
Something in the concentrated attention Miss Crosby focused on the
walnut she was cracking caused Althea to put down her bowl of raisins
and exclaim:
“Didn’t you say nothin’ to Eric neither?”
“No, I didn’t,” blurted out Rebecca. “I meant to, honest I did. But the
time never came right. Before I could get him alone an’ talk the matter
over with him, Eleanor’d come an’ things had got to movin’. After that
it didn’t seem of any use.”
“You mean to say both those young critters are just rushin’ along
haphazard without an idea where they’re goin’?” cried Althea in dismay.
“If you choose to put it that way,” her ally confessed with a cool
shrug. “Don’t look so paralyzed with fright, Althea. After all, it’s
nothin’ more’n what’s done every day. Folks’ paths cross an’ recross.
In books they call it destiny.”
“But this ain’t destiny,” objected Mrs. Holmes with horror. “This is
what you an’ me have done by outright schemin’.”
“Likely that was destiny, too. Warn’t we kinder led into it?”
“I was!” It was the first sharp answer she had ever made to Rebecca,
and no sooner were the words out of her mouth than she regretted them.
But Rebecca charitably ignored their tartness and, passing over the
silence that followed them, said in her customary tone:
“We both were.”
Nevertheless, for all this comforting assurance Althea’s conscience was
not to be soothed.
“It’s terrible,” she wailed. “We’ve interfered, mebbe, with the
workin’s of Divine Providence.”
“Law sakes, Althea, don’t go gettin’ so tragic!” interposed her friend,
now evincing impatience. “’Tain’t anythin’. You’re makin’ a mountain
out of a molehill. If Peggy an’ Eric Hollingsworth were mismated ain’t
it better they should find it out before it’s too late?”
“Mismated?” repeated the bewildered Althea.
“Yes, mismated--matched up wrong.”
“But they warn’t,” protested Althea dramatically.
“Then they’ll find that out too,” was the confident reply.
CHAPTER XVIII
While these amorous events thus shaped themselves, a surge of tensity
and disquiet began almost imperceptibly to undermine the tranquillity
of the Green Dolphin. The transformation, however, was too subtle a one
to be evident upon the surface. The tea, cakes, and sandwiches were as
delicious as of yore and presented the same appetizing appearance. Nor
did the patronage of the place decrease; on the contrary, if anything
a greater number of guests crowded house and veranda than before.
Mr. Haverford, in the custody of the cautious Sophie and watchful
Clara, had become an habitué, and regardless of his digestion indulged
in every tempting viand the menu afforded. Long ago his daughters,
realizing the futility of attempting to thwart his gastronomic orgies,
had abandoned him to his fate, daily expecting to see him barter away
his life in exchange for a broiled live lobster or a Welsh rarebit.
Up to date, however, no such tragedy had befallen him. The irascible
invalid actually appeared to thrive on cheese dreams and fudge cake,
not only gaining weight on this ambrosial fare but juvenility as
well. And there were other regular visitors who, ferreting out the
system Althea pursued, motored miles on the days fried chicken and
waffles were served, declaring no other spot on the Cape furnished such
faultless cooking.
No, there certainly was no cause for the Holmes to worry lest their
enterprise fail for want of financial support.
Neither did Althea or the faithful Rebecca Crosby slacken in their
devotion to the undertaking. They offered up as painstaking service as
ever, and if their ardor betrayed any signs of abating it was rather
because experience had solved for them their most balking problems,
and routine rendered the excessive effort they had formerly displayed
unnecessary.
Oh, no one could accuse the Dolphin of change. The mutation so
gradually taking place was in the temper of its staff. Althea was
slowly developing an edge of sharpness quite new to her, and even the
constantly serene Rebecca showed symptoms of possessing nerves. As
for Lemmy Gill, he had lapsed into periodic spells of melancholy and
absent-mindedness that totally unfitted him for any work.
Hence of the charter members of the Dolphin’s retinue, Asaph Holmes
alone remained normal, and even his tranquillity was little by little
being sapped away by the odd behavior of his associates.
“What in the name of goodness has got everybody?” he one day demanded
of Lemuel, dragging his comrade into the seclusion of the vine-covered
arbor that flanked the garden. “It’s gettin’ to be like a funeral round
here--or a volcano.”
“You couldn’t ’xactly say the two were off the same piece,” grinned the
Captain.
Asaph, however, was too deeply in earnest to be deterred by jest.
“Ain’t you noticed nothin’?” persisted he.
Lemmy pursed his lips as if to consider the matter.
“U----m. If you mean Althea I’ll own she’s waxin’ a mite tart,” he
admitted. “Only the other day I asked her was she sick or only spleeny
from spreadin’ so many sandwiches, an’ she well-nigh took the head off
my shoulders. She’s tired and putchicky, I reckon.”
“But Rebecca?”
“Miss Crosby?” The little man glared down at his boots. “Damn those
shoe lacin’s!” he abruptly exclaimed. “If I’ve tied ’em once today I’ve
tied ’em a hundred times. They must be greased or somethin’. They undo
quick’s I fasten ’em. Did you ever have shoe strings that slipped?
That’s what these do--they slip--slip like the devil!”
Waiting until Lemuel had snapped the offending laces into a tight knot
Asaph innocently repeated his question:
“But what’s come over Rebecca?”
Seeming not to hear the query Lemmy wandered off to the adjacent grass,
from which he selected a long spray and began chewing it.
“Ears goin’ back on you, Lemuel?”
“Eh? Oh, you were askin’ me somethin’, warn’t you? What was it?”
“I was talkin’ of ’Becca.”
“So you was. Rebecca. Miss Rebecca Crosby. To be sure. You were
speakin’ about her, warn’t you?” The Captain’s gaze was centered upon
the sweep of distant sea.
“I maintain she ain’t the same, either,” continued Asaph. “Somethin’
strange has got her, though what it is I can’t for the life of me make
out.”
“Likely she’s just wore out, same’s Althea. They say women haven’t much
endurance.”
“But I don’t recall Althea ever mindin’ work before.”
“It’s all this cussed Dolphin!” Lemuel burst out with sudden vehemence.
“What we’re runnin’ it for beats me. Althea’s boasted from the outset
she didn’t want the money. ’Twas her idea merely to get fun out of
it--see folks an’ listen to their gossip. But fur’s I can make out she
ain’t enjoyed it much.”
“I’m afraid she ain’t lately,” admitted Asaph, with a perplexed frown.
“’Twas a fool scheme anyhow,” blustered Captain Gill. “I’ve no opinion
of all this tea drinkin’. Stuffin’ folks up between meals so’st they’ve
no hankerin’ for their supper--folks that have plenty to eat at home,
too! It warn’t worth workin’ Althea an’ ’Becca to the bone for.”
Not wishing to cast fuel on the flames Asaph prudently held his tongue.
“I never did like dolphins either,” Lemmy grumbled on. “Didn’t I tell
you long ago they always brought bad luck?”
“But we ain’t had any bad luck,” was the mild demurrer.
“Mebbe not yet; but we ain’t through,” retorted the Captain with
sinister emphasis. “What are you goin’ to say of Peggy Davidson an’ the
Doctor? You certainly can’t call the breakin’ up of that match ’xactly
a pleasant happenin’.”
“But you surely can’t lay that at the Dolphin’s door!”
“How do you know I can’t?” blustered Lemmy. “How do you know that ain’t
precisely where the blame belongs? Are you able to prove the varmint
had no hand in it?”
“Dolphins don’t have hands.”
For the space of a second Lemuel Gill appeared nonplussed.
“No matter if they don’t,” he growled. “This particular Dolphin had his
part in stirrin’ up trouble--you can bank on that.”
“Mebbe he did, Lemuel--mebbe he did,” his companion hastened to affirm.
“P’raps he did sorter cast an evil eye round an’ start the fuss. An’
yet if Peggy an’ her lieutenant, an’ Eric an’ the Parker girl are
satisfied, I don’t see’s there’s call for us to worry.”
“But they ain’t satisfied--I’m moral certain they ain’t,” announced the
little man with a sage shake of his head.
“Heavens, Lemmy! How’d you come to be such an authority on love
affairs?” questioned Asaph, making a jocose attempt to divert the
discussion into less irritating channels.
“I ain’t an authority,” flushed Lemmy. “I wish to mercy I was.”
“What!”
“I mean,” amended the Captain with flurried haste, “that if I knew more
of women I might be wiser at straightenin’ out the mess we’re in. But
how’s a human bein’ goin’ to fathom ’em?” Moodily he dug his heel into
the turf. “Take Rebecca Crosby for example-- One minute she’s kindness
itself, admirin’ my flowers; savin’ cakes for me; advisin’ about next
season’s plantin’. Then when I go to bein’ friendly an’ bring her a
bunch of roses--ones that kinder needed clippin’ off--she turns her
shoulder plumb upon me an’ goes shootin’ off into the house as if
I’d offered her a rattlesnake. How’s that for Christian conduct? I’m
blessed if I can solve her--blowin’ first hot an’ then cold, an’ all in
the same breath.”
“I never saw ’Becca behave like that.”
“Mebbe you think she don’t. Mebbe you fancy I’m imaginin’ it,” Lemuel
said in an aggrieved tone. “But just you watch her some day. Keep an
eye on her when I’m by. Then you’ll see how she smiles one minute an’
the next tosses her head like a pert schoolgirl an’ whiffles out of
sight.”
“You ’pear to have made quite a study of Rebecca, Lemuel,” jested Asaph.
“Study? Lord, no! Why should I spend time thinkin’ of her? It’s only
that bein’ right here under my nose an’ I can’t help noticin’ her
goin’s on.”
“You don’t have to bring her roses,” objected Asaph mildly.
“If there don’t go that blasted shoe string again!” cried Lemuel,
bending once more to adjust the dangling lacing and continuing his
conversation with averted head. “N--o. No, I grant I don’t have to do
that. Still, the bushes need prunin’ an’ it seems sorter a pity to toss