第97章

Miss Alicia had lived among small economies and could be of great assistance to him.They made lists and added up lines of figures until the fine, huge room and its thousands of volumes melted away.In the great hall, guarded by warriors in armor, the powdered heads of the waiting footmen drooped and nodded while the prices of pounds of butter and sugar and the value of potatoes and flour and nutmegs were balanced with a hectic joy, and the relative significance of dollars and cents and shillings and half-crowns and five-cent pieces caused Miss Alicia a mild delirium.

By the time that she had established the facts that a shilling was something like twenty-five cents, a dollar was four and twopence, and twenty-five dollars was something over five pounds, it was past midnight.

They heard the clock strike the half-hour, and stopped to stare at each other.

Tembarom got up with yet another laugh.

"Say, I mustn't keep you up all night," he said."But haven't we had a fine time - haven't we? I feel as if I'd been there."They had been there so entirely that Miss Alicia brought herself back with difficulty.

"I can scarcely believe that we have not," she said."I feel as if Ididn't like to leave it.It was so delightful." She glanced about her.

"The room looks huge," she said--"almost too huge to live in.""Doesn't it?" he answered."Now you know how I feel." He gathered his scraps of paper together with a feeling touch."I didn't want to come back myself.When I get a bit of a grouch I shall jerk these out and go back there again.""Oh, do let me go with you!" she said."I have so enjoyed it.""You shall go whenever you like," he said."We'll keep it up for a sort of game on rainy days.How much is a dollar, Miss Alicia?""Four and twopence.And sugar is six cents a pound.""Go to the head," he answered."Right again."The opened roll of newspapers was lying on the table near her.They were copies of The Earth, and the date of one of them by merest chance caught her eye.

"How odd!" she said."Those are old papers.Did you notice? Is it a mistake? This one is dated" She leaned forward, and her eye caught a word in a head-line.

"The Klondike," she read."There's something in it about the Klondike." He put his hand out and drew the papers away.

"Don't you read that," he said."I don't want you to go to bed and dream about the Klondike.You've got to dream about the flat in Harlem.""Yes," she answered."I mustn't think about sad things.The flat in Harlem is quite happy.But it startled me to see that word.""I only sent for them--because I happened to want to look something up," he explained."How much is a pound, Miss Alicia?""Four dollars and eighty-six cents," she replied, recovering herself.

"Go up head again.You're going to stay there."When she gave him her hand on their parting for the night he held it a moment.A subtle combination of things made him do it.The calculations, the measurements, the nest from which one could look out over the Bronx, were prevailing elements in its make-up.Ann had been in each room of the Harlem flat, and she always vaguely reminded him of Ann.

"We are relations, ain't we?" he asked.

"I am sure we often seem quite near relations--Temple." She added the name with very pretty kindness.

"We're not distant ones any more, anyhow," he said."Are we near enough--would you let me kiss you good night, Miss Alicia?"An emotional flush ran up to her cap ribbons.

"Indeed, my dear boy--indeed, yes."

Holding her hand with a chivalric, if slightly awkward, courtesy, he bent, and kissed her cheek.It was a hearty, affectionately grateful young kiss, which, while it was for herself, remotely included Ann.

"It's the first time I've ever said good night to any one like that,"he said."Thank you for letting me."

He patted her hand again before releasing it.She went up-stairs blushing and feeling rather as though she had been proposed to, and yet, spinster though she was, somehow quite understanding about the nest and Ann.