One Days Courtship | Page 8

crisis may be postponed, but it can rarely be avoided altogether, and knowing he had to face the inevitable sooner or later, the unhappy man, with a sigh, betook himself to the house, where he found his wife impatiently waiting for him. She closed the door and confronted him.
"Now, Ed., what's the matter?"
"Where's Miss Sommerton?" was the somewhat irrelevant reply.
"She has gone to her room. Ed, don't keep me in suspense. What is wrong?"
"You remember John Trenton, who was here in the summer?"
"I remember hearing you speak of him. I didn't meet him, you know."
"Oh, that's so. Neither you did. You see, he's an awful good fellow, Trenton is--that is, for an Englishman."
"Well, what has Trenton to do with the trouble?"
"Everything, my dear--everything."
"I see how it is. Trenton visited the Shawenegan?"
"He did."
"And he wants to go there again?"
"He does."
"And you have gone and promised him the canoe for to morrow?"
"The intuition of woman, my dear, is the most wonderful thing on earth."
"It is not half so wonderful as the negligence-of man--I won't say the stupidity."
"Thank you, Jennie, for not saying it, but I really think I would feel better if you did."
"Now, what are you going to do about it?"
"Well, my dear, strange as it may appear, that very question has been racking my brain for the last ten minutes. Now, what would you do in my position?"
"Oh, I couldn't be in your position."
"No, that's so, Jennie. Excuse me for suggesting the possibility. I really think this trouble has affected my mind a little. But if you had a husband--if a sensible woman like you could have a husband who got himself into such a position--what would you advise him to do?"
"Now, Ed., don't joke. It's too serious."
"My dear, no one on earth can have such a realisation of its seriousness as I have at this moment. I feel as Mark Twain did with that novel he never finished. I have brought things to a point where I can't go any further. The game seems blocked. I wonder if Miss Sommerton would accept ten thousand feet of lumber f.o.b. and call it square."
"Really, Ed., if you can't talk sensibly, I have nothing further to say."
"Well, as I said, the strain is getting too much for me. Now, don't go away, Jennie. Here is what I am thinking of doing. I'll speak to Trenton. He won't mind Miss Sommerton's going in the canoe with him. In fact, I should think he would rather like it."
"Dear me, Ed., is that all the progress you've made? I am not troubling myself about Mr. Trenton. The difficulty will be with Eva. Do you think for a moment she will go if she imagined herself under obligations to a stranger for the canoe? Can't you get Mr. Trenton to put off his visit until the day after tomorrow? It isn't long to wait."
"No, that is impossible. You see, he has just time to catch his steamer as it is. No, he has the promise in writing, while Miss Sommerton has no legal evidence if this thing ever gets into the courts. Trenton has my written promise. You see, I did not remember the two dates were the same. When I wrote to Trenton----"
"Ed., don't try to excuse yourself. You had her letter in your pocket, you know you had. This is a matter for which there is no excuse, and it cannot be explained away."
"That's so, Jennie. I am down in the depths once more. I shall not try to crawl out again--at least, not while my wife is looking."
"No, your plan will not work. I don't know that any will. There is only one thing to try, and it is this--Miss Sommerton must think that the canoe is hers. You must appeal to her generosity to let Mr. Trenton go with her."
"Won't you make the appeal, Jen?"
"No, I will not. In the first place she'll be sorry for you, because you will make such a bungle of it. Trial is your only hope."
"Oh, if success lies in bungling, I will succeed."
"Don't be too sure. I suppose that man will be here by daybreak to-morrow?"
"Not so bad as that, Jennie. You always try to put the worst face on things. He won't be here till sunrise at the earliest."
"I will ask Eva to come down."
"You needn't hurry just because of me. Besides, I would like a few moments to prepare myself for my fate. Even a murderer is given a little time."
"Not a moment, Ed. We had better get this thing settled as soon as possible."
"Perhaps you are right," he murmured, with a deep sigh. "Well, if we Britishers, as Miss S. calls us, ever faced the Americans with as faint a heart as I do now, I don't wonder we got licked."
"Don't say 'licked,'