Astra (12 page)

“Now Charlie, what a way to talk. That isn’t very nice of you, when I’m offering to teach you. And besides, when you’ve learned, you’ll change your mind. You honestly will; I’m
positive
! You don’t have any idea what joy you’re missing until you’ve tried and once got the rhythm of dancing into your soul. Now come on, Charlie, be a good sport, and come over and get me. We’ll talk about it while we’re eating dinner, and I just know you’ll change your mind.”

Cameron was making up his mind very firmly while she asked. He was not going to take this girl out to dinner, and he was not going to let her teach him to dance!

“Sorry to disappoint you, Camilla, but you’ll have to excuse me from anything tonight. I have some important unfinished business which cannot be put off. I can send you over some tickets for a good symphony concert tonight, if that will help out, and you may find some friends of yours still in the city who can enjoy it with you.”

“Symphony concert! Oh mercy! I’m not in the least musical, and I get fed up with those over in New York. I told you I wanted to go somewhere and dance tonight.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Camilla, but you’ll have to find somebody else to accompany you, for my evening is full.”

“Oh, but
Charlie
! Couldn’t you possibly put off your business?” pleaded Camilla.

“Sorry, not possible.”

“Well, what time will you be back at your hotel?”

“That will be hard to tell, Camilla. My engagement this evening depends on other people and the outcome of my arrangements.”

“Well then, Charles, suppose I call you up late. Quite late, you know, after most places are closed and only a few nightclubs are still open. Would you take me out for a late supper? You see, I’m quite anxious to see you. We’ve some plans, your sister Rosamond and I, and I was going to talk them over with you before we go on to work them out. We need your help, and I told Rosamond I would make it a point to get a good talk with you while I was here and see what times would be convenient for you.”

“Sorry,” said Cameron firmly. “You would do better to leave me out of any plans. I’m going to be exceedingly busy the rest of the winter, and I wouldn’t have any time this week even to do any talking. Just go ahead without me. That would be best.”

“Now Charlie, I think you’re horrid! Just turning me down at every suggestion. How do you expect to get on in this world if you don’t cultivate your friends and have a few minutes now and then for relaxation?”

“Well, I’m not sure I’m trying to get on in this world,” laughed Cameron. “I have my work to do, and I’m doing it to the best of my ability. Sorry you don’t approve of my way of life, but I guess it will have to stand.”

“And you won’t even take me out to dinner? Not even briefly?”

“Not possible, Camilla. I’m leaving the office right away for a long evening, and perhaps a hard one. I do hope you’ll find a way to have a pleasant time without me. And if I don’t see you before, I wish you a Merry Christmas.”

As soon as he could get rid of Camilla, Cameron signed the finished letters his secretary had just brought in, handed them to her to mail, said good night to her, and went. It was fairly possible that Camilla might even pursue him to his office and further try to inveigle him into doing something to amuse her. She was a girl of many resources and was not one who was shy about proposing them. Moreover, now that he knew Rosamond was in on this thing, he was most suspicious. Away from his office now, and free, he allowed that sense of unfinished business to become acute. He
had
some important unfinished business. He couldn’t leave Astra high and dry that way with such a casual farewell and perhaps no chance of ever seeing her again. Every step he took to the elevator and down on the street made it seem more and more important that he find her and satisfy his feeling about this, else he would go on being troubled by it.

Cameron had made it a rule of his life to finish up a thing at once, after it had become important, else he found it would go on obtruding itself into items of business and confusing his mind. So now Astra had taken that position, and he must make himself satisfied about her. Oh, he didn’t expect to see her much, but he didn’t want to have that feeling of self-accusation toward her. She had been so exceedingly kind in the strange circumstances of the brief time he had known her.

So Cameron went around the corner to a little obscure drugstore where he knew there was a telephone booth that was fairly secluded and called up Astra.

He called and called, and grew almost annoyed at the operator, but still the answer came back from the office boy that Miss Everson’s phone did not answer.

At last the boy in the office recalled that he had seen Miss Everson go out a little while ago, and he was sure she had not yet returned.

Well, that was that. What should he do now? He had told Camilla that he had important business, and now there was no way in which he could complete it. But Cameron had a sense of honesty that held him to his purpose. Having made that business an excuse, he must stick to it until he could find Astra, and somehow get rid of this feeling that he hadn’t been quite fair to her. So he left a message for her, and would she kindly leave a telephone number where he could call her.

He went to a small, cheap restaurant where he could not possibly come into contact with Camilla, took a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and read the evening paper, with all the while an undertone of uneasiness about Astra. Yet there was no real reason for that feeling, of course. He was under no obligation to her. Yet try as he would, he could not get away from a desire to make a pleasant time for her, at least until she could get in touch with her old friends. She was too friendly a soul to have to spend her holidays absolutely alone, as she had suggested she would be likely to do.

Well, since he was booked to spend Christmas Day with his stepmother, what could he do beforehand to make her have a pleasant time? Music? Yes, he had the new symphony concert tickets, of course. She could likely find an acquaintance to share with her. He wasn’t sure she liked music, but it seemed fairly probable. She was cultured in other ways and must have had a well-rounded education. Music would have been a part of it, of course. Well, he would try her on that. Should he offer her both tickets, suggesting that she might have a friend who would like to accompany her? Or should he just ask her to go with him? Would that lead her to think that he was trying to get in with her? Was there the possibility she might misunderstand? No, of course not. She was not a girl who was expecting every young man to fall for her. And after all, he was an utter stranger to her.

Well, whatever he did he meant to see her tonight, if she was seeable. He would go back to the place where she was stopping and sit in that reception room till she arrived. For surely she would be returning before very late. That is, if she were the kind of girl he judged her to be. Then he would judge her by her welcome just how much further he should go, whether he should offer the tickets or ask her to go with him. Or perhaps he wouldn’t do anything except to say that he just wanted to ask if there was anything he could do to help make the next few days less dreary till her friends were back at home. Well, he would see. And then afterward he wouldn’t be haunted with that nagging worry that he had turned her off abruptly.

Cameron waited until nine o’clock, too late, really, to go to the concert, and then went back to Astra’s stopping place, but they said she had not as yet come in. So he settled down to wait, growing more and more uneasy about her as the minutes lengthened into an hour and then went on. Of course, he kept wondering where she was, what might have befallen her perhaps, and he found that he was almost as worried that she had gone into a world that did not seem to belong to her as he was that some harm had come to her. He did not want to be disappointed in her.

It was almost half past eleven when he saw her come wearily in at the street door. There was a gray look on her face as if she was about worn out, tired beyond expression. In his own brief experience with her, working on Mr. Faber’s business, he had never seen her face look like that. It seemed as if there was utter discouragement in her whole bearing. Had something happened to her? It couldn’t be just loneliness that made her look like that. It was almost as if there was fear in her big, troubled eyes. Yet she wasn’t a girl one would expect to be afraid of any ordinary thing. That was his first impression as she came toward him. He felt his duty toward her was all the more binding. She was a girl alone, at least temporarily, and he was a gentleman who knew her just enough to feel interested in her welfare. Perhaps there was something more practical even than escorting her to a symphony concert that he could do for her. He simply had to find out what it was before he left. Was that going to be a task?

And then she saw him, and instantly her face changed. A kind of glad light came into her eyes, and a relief brightened the gray look over her countenance. She was really glad to see him! He knew that instantly, and the anxiety in his own eyes answered the welcome in hers. Well, at least he had his answer about a concert sometime. She would not resent his asking her to go with him.

With a sudden lightness of heart he got up and came to meet her, putting out his hand and taking hers into a warm clasp. And with her small, young hand in his, he was instantly touched at its helplessness. She hadn’t struck him as being helpless before. She had been a quiet, self-contained young woman who was fully able to direct her own life in a self-respecting manner. Yet now, as he held that small hand for that one briefly prolonged clasp, something appealing was there. The light in her eyes had called forth an answering light in his own he knew, and there was a surprising thrill in that handclasp which he knew he had not been expecting. Yes, definitely, something electric and soul-stirring had passed from one to another.

It wasn’t anything they could recognize, except by the flash of a smile that seemed to go on like treasured words into their startled senses and make them understand that it was good for them to be there together. Good for both of them. They were not stopping to think about it; it was just a gladness pouring from one hand to the other, with a lingering dread to break, that kept them standing there that extra prolonged second, and looking deep into each others’ eyes, not aware that there was anything but just plain gladness in their gaze.

Then suddenly there were other people coming in the door, staring wonderingly at the stranger who was there holding that quiet girl by the hand. Who was he? Her brother? Husband? Or just a friend?

Cameron roused first.

Very quietly he let go of her hand and, turning, led her to the couch in the far corner, away from the main hallway.

“I’ve been waiting here a long time for you,” he said in a low tone, his eyes upon her face. “I wanted to see you a minute or two and make sure you are all right before I go away. And then afterward, when you didn’t come, I got worried about you. I know you are acquainted with the city, but a city is such a desolate place at night for a woman alone, and there are so many things that can happen. I thought I’d just stick around and see if you were all right.”

“Oh,” she said, with a little faint color tinting her pale cheeks, “that’s very kind of you. And I’m sorry I kept you so late. It was really careless on my part. You see, I got a rather disturbing telegram, and it seemed necessary for me to hunt the lawyer who had looked after my father’s affairs. But he had moved to a new suburb that I didn’t know very well, and when I reached him, he was just going out to a banquet and could give me but a very few minutes. That would have been all right. He told me what I needed to know and how to get in touch with the people I need to reach, but I hadn’t realized that the suburban station would be closed and there seemed no one at hand to ask where I would find a bus line. So I missed my way and had to do a good deal of walking. That is what makes me so late.”

“And you were walking through strange country lanes alone!”

Cameron’s face was deeply disturbed. “How I wish I had known and might have gone with you! How gladly I would have driven you wherever you needed to go!”

“Well, I certainly thank you!” said Astra, the color coming sweetly into her cheeks now. For the look in Cameron’s eyes stirred her more than she dared to believe. It was out of all proportion to the danger she might have been in. It gave her a sense of belonging to him, at least as a friend who was highly valued.

She struggled to get above the embarrassment that the situation brought upon her. She must not act as if it were anything unusual for a young man to express concern about her. Probably her own weariness and anxiety were making more of it than was really there. Yet she could not rise above her embarrassment. She was so tired she wanted to sit down and cry, but she must get over this. Cameron was only being kind, and she mustn’t be silly.

He sat there watching her for an instant, and then, seeming to sense what was the trouble, said in a matter-of-fact-tone, “When did you have your dinner?”

Confusion came into her eyes as she glanced at the clock across the room.

“Why—I—don’t just remember the hour,” she evaded.

“Did you have any dinner at all?” he asked again, his eyes keenly upon her. The color came guiltily into her cheeks.

“Why—I—don’t—
know
!” she said, and broke down laughing. “I guess I didn’t. I was so worried and so busy that I didn’t think of it till you mentioned it.”

“Exactly!” said Cameron, reaching for his briefcase and hat. “That settles it. We’re going out for a good supper. I need a meal, too. I had nothing but a sandwich and some coffee about five o’clock, and I’ve been waiting for you ever since. You’ll have to take pity on me and eat some dinner! Come!”

He arose and took her hand, lifting her to her feet.

“Oh—no—I
couldn’t
,” she said with distress in her voice. “Do you know how many times you have had to feed me? I’m just ashamed. Please let me go. I have some milk and crackers up in my room. I really shall be all right. You go and get something to eat. Find some of your friends and don’t bother any more about me.”