The young man seemed to divine her thoughts.
‘Say, I’m on the level,’ he observed. ‘You want to get that. Right on the square. See?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Katie, relieved but yet embarrassed. It was awkward to have one’s thoughts read like this.
‘You ain’t like your friend. Don’t think I don’t see that.’
‘Genevieve’s a sweet girl,’ said Katie, loyally.
‘A darned sight too sweet. Somebody ought to tell her mother.’
‘Why did you speak to her if you did not like her?’
‘Wanted to get to know you,’ said the young man simply.
They walked on in silence. Katie’s heart was beating with a rapidity that forbade speech. Nothing like this very direct young man had ever happened to her before. She had grown so accustomed to regarding herself as something too insignificant and unattractive for the notice of the lordly male that she was overwhelmed. She had a vague feeling that there was a mistake somewhere. It surely could not be she who was proving so alluring to this fairy prince. The novelty of the situation frightened her.
‘Come here often?’ asked her companion.
‘I’ve never been here before.’
‘Often go to Coney?’
‘I’ve never been.’
He regarded her with astonishment.
‘You’ve never been to Coney Island! Why, you don’t know what this sort of thing is till you’ve taken in Coney. This place isn’t on the map with Coney. Do you mean to say you’ve never seen Luna Park, or Dreamland, or Steeplechase, or the diving ducks? Haven’t you had a look at the Mardi Gras stunts? Why, Coney during Mardi Gras is the greatest thing on earth. It’s a knockout. Just about a million boys and girls having the best time that ever was. Say, I guess you don’t go out much, do you?’
‘Not much.’
‘If it’s not a rude question, what do you do? I been trying to place you all along. Now I reckon your friend works in a store, don’t she?’
‘Yes. She’s a cloak-model. She has a lovely figure, hasn’t she?’
‘Didn’t notice it. I guess so, if she’s what you say. It’s what they pay her for, ain’t it? Do you work in a store, too?’
‘Not exactly. I keep a little shop.’
‘All by yourself?’
‘I do all the work now. It was my father’s shop, but he’s dead. It began by being my grandfather’s. He started it. But he’s so old now that, of course, he can’t work any longer, so I look after things.’
‘Say, you’re a wonder! What sort of a shop?’
‘It’s only a little second-hand bookshop. There really isn’t much to do.’
‘Where is it?’
‘Sixth Avenue. Near Washington Square.’
‘What name?’
‘Bennett.’
‘That’s your name, then?’
‘Yes.’
‘Anything besides Bennett?’
‘My name’s Kate.’
The young man nodded.
‘I’d make a pretty good district attorney,’ he said, disarming possible resentment at this cross-examination. ‘I guess you’re wondering if I’m ever going to stop asking you questions. Well, what would you like to do?’
‘Don’t you think we ought to go back and find your friend and Genevieve? They will be wondering where we are.’
‘Let ‘em,’ said the young man briefly. ‘I’ve had all I want of Jenny.’
‘I can’t understand why you don’t like her.’
‘I like you. Shall we have some ice-cream, or would you rather go on the Scenic Railway?’
Katie decided on the more peaceful pleasure. They resumed their walk, socially licking two cones. Out of the corner of her eyes Katie cast swift glances at her friend’s face. He was a very grave young man. There was something important as well as handsome about him. Once, as they made their way through the crowds, she saw a couple of boys look almost reverently at him. She wondered who he could be, but was too shy to inquire. She had got over her nervousness to a great extent, but there were still limits to what she felt herself equal to saying. It did not strike her that it was only fair that she should ask a few questions in return for those which he had put. She had always repressed herself, and she did so now. She was content to be with him without finding out his name and history.
He supplied the former just before he finally consented to let her go.
They were standing looking over the river. The sun had spent its force, and it was cool and pleasant in the breeze which was coming up the Hudson. Katie was conscious of a vague feeling that was almost melancholy. It had been a lovely afternoon, and she was sorry that it was over.
The young man shuffled his feet on the loose stones.
‘I’m mighty glad I met you,’ he said. ‘Say, I’m coming to see you. On Sixth Avenue. Don’t mind, do you?’
He did not wait for a reply.
‘Brady’s my name. Ted Brady, Glencoe Athletic Club,’ he paused. ‘I’m on the level,’ he added, and paused again. ‘I like you a whole lot. There’s your friend, Genevieve. Better go after her, hadn’t you? Good-bye.’ And he was gone, walking swiftly through the crowd about the bandstand.
Katie went back to Genevieve, and Genevieve was simply horrid. Cold and haughty, a beautiful iceberg of dudgeon, she refused to speak a single word during the whole long journey back to Sixth Avenue. And Katie, whose tender heart would at other times have been tortured by this hostility, leant back in her seat, and was happy. Her mind was far away from Genevieve’s frozen gloom, living over again the wonderful happenings of the afternoon.
Yes, it had been a wonderful afternoon, but trouble was waiting for her in Sixth Avenue. Trouble was never absent for very long from Katie’s unselfish life. Arriving at the little bookshop, she found Mr Murdoch, the glazier, preparing for departure. Mr Murdoch came in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to play draughts with her grandfather, who was paralysed from the waist, and unable to leave the house except when Katie took him for his outing in Washington Square each morning in his bath-chair.
Mr Murdoch welcomed Katie with joy.
‘I was wondering whenever you would come back, Katie. I’m afraid the old man’s a little upset.’
‘Not ill?’
‘Not ill. Upset. And it was my fault, too. Thinking he’d be interested, I read him a piece from the paper where I seen about these English Suffragettes, and he just went up in the air. I guess he’ll be all right now you’ve come back. I was a fool to read it, I reckon. I kind of forgot for the moment.’
‘Please don’t worry yourself about it, Mr Murdoch. He’ll be all right soon. I’ll go to him.’
In the inner room the old man was sitting. His face was flushed, and he gesticulated from time to time.
‘I won’t have it,’ he cried as Katie entered. ‘I tell you I won’t have it. If Parliament can’t do anything, I’ll send Parliament about its business.’
‘Here I am, grandpapa,’ said Katie quickly. ‘I’ve had the greatest time. It was lovely up there. I—’
‘I tell you it’s got to stop. I’ve spoken about it before. I won’t have it.’
‘I expect they’re doing their best. It’s your being so far away that makes it hard for them. But I do think you might write them a very sharp letter.’
‘I will. I will. Get out the paper. Are you ready?’ He stopped, and looked piteously at Katie. ‘I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to begin.’
Katie scribbled a few lines.
‘How would this do? “His Majesty informs his Government that he is greatly surprised and indignant that no notice has been taken of his previous communications. If this goes on, he will be reluctantly compelled to put the matter in other hands.”’
She read it glibly as she had written it. The formula had been a favourite one of her late father, when roused to fall upon offending patrons of the bookshop.