As Hortense well knew Clyde was pressing more and more hungrily toward that ultimate condescension on herpart, which, though she would never have admitted it to him, was the privilege of two others. They were nevertogether any more without his insisting upon the real depth of her regard for him. Why was it, if she cared for him the least bit, that she refused to do this, that or the other--would not let him kiss her as much as he wished,would not let him hold her in his arms as much as he would like. She was always keeping dates with otherfellows and breaking them or refusing to make them with him. What was her exact relationship toward theseothers? Did she really care more for them than she did for him? In fact, they were never together anywhere butwhat this problem of union was uppermost--and but thinly veiled.
And she liked to think that he was suffering from repressed desire for her all of the time that she tortured him,and that the power to allay his suffering lay wholly in her--a sadistic trait which had for its soil Clyde's ownmasochistic yearning for her.
However, in the face of her desire for the coat, his stature and interest for her were beginning to increase. In spiteof the fact that only the morning before she had informed Clyde, with quite a flourish, that she could not possiblysee him until the following Monday--that all her intervening nights were taken--nevertheless, the problem of thecoat looming up before her, she now most eagerly planned to contrive an immediate engagement with himwithout appearing too eager. For by then she had definitely decided to endeavor to persuade him, if possible, tobuy the coat for her. Only of course, she would have to alter her conduct toward him radically. She would haveto be much sweeter--more enticing. Although she did not actually say to herself that now she might even bewilling to yield herself to him, still basically that was what was in her mind.
For quite a little while she was unable to think how to proceed. How was she to see him this day, or the next atthe very latest? How should she go about putting before him the need of this gift, or loan, as she finally worded itto herself? She might hint that he could loan her enough to buy the coat and that later she would pay him back bydegrees (yet once in possession of the coat she well knew that that necessity would never confront her). Or, if hedid not have so much money on hand at one time, she could suggest that she might arrange with Mr. Rubensteinfor a series of time payments which could be met by Clyde. In this connection her mind suddenly turned andbegan to consider how she could flatter and cajole Mr. Rubenstein into letting her have the coat on easy terms.
She recalled that he had said he would be glad to buy the coat for her if he thought she would be nice to him.
Her first scheme in connection with all this was to suggest to Louise Ratterer to invite her brother, Clyde and athird youth by the name of Scull, who was dancing attendance upon Louise, to come to a certain dance hall thatvery evening to which she was already planning to go with the more favored cigar clerk. Only now she intendedto break that engagement and appear alone with Louise and Greta and announce that her proposed partner wasill. That would give her an opportunity to leave early with Clyde and with him walk past the Rubenstein store.
But having the temperament of a spider that spins a web for flies, she foresaw that this might involve thepossibility of Louise's explaining to Clyde or Ratterer that it was Hortense who had instigated the party. It mighteven bring up some accidental mention of the coat on the part of Clyde to Louise later, which, as she felt, wouldnever do. She did not care to let her friends know how she provided for herself. In consequence, she decided thatit would not do for her to appeal to Louise nor to Greta in this fashion.
And she was actually beginning to worry as to how to bring about this encounter, when Clyde, who chanced tobe in the vicinity on his way home from work, walked into the store where she was working. He was seeking fora date on the following Sunday. And to his intense delight, Hortense greeted him most cordially with a mostengaging smile and a wave of the hand. She was busy at the moment with a customer. She soon finished, however, and drawing near, and keeping one eye on her floor-walker who resented callers, exclaimed: "I was justthinking about you. You wasn't thinking about me, was you? Trade last." Then she added, sotto voce, "Don't actlike you are talking to me. I see our floorwalker over there."Arrested by the unusual sweetness in her voice, to say nothing of the warm smile with which she greeted him,Clyde was enlivened and heartened at once. "Was I thinking of you?" he returned gayly. "Do I ever think of anyone else? Say! Ratterer says I've got you on the brain.""Oh, him," replied Hortense, pouting spitefully and scornfully, for Ratterer, strangely enough, was one whom shedid not interest very much, and this she knew. "He thinks he's so smart," she added. "I know a lotta girls don'tlike him.""Oh, Tom's all right," pleaded Clyde, loyally. "That's just his way of talking. He likes you.""Oh, no, he don't, either," replied Hortense. "But I don't want to talk about him. Whatcha doin' around six o'clockto-night?""Oh, gee!" exclaimed Clyde disappointedly. "You don't mean to say you got to-night free, have you? Well, ain'tthat tough? I thought you were all dated up. I got to work!" He actually sighed, so depressed was he by thethought that she might be willing to spend the evening with him and he not able to avail himself of theopportunity, while Hortense, noting his intense disappointment, was pleased.
"Well, I gotta date, but I don't want to keep it," she went on with a contemptuous gathering of the lips. "I don'thave to break it. I would though if you was free." Clyde's heart began to beat rapidly with delight.
"Gee, I wish I didn't have to work now," he went on, looking at her. "You're sure you couldn't make it to-morrownight? I'm off then. And I was just coming up here to ask you if you didn't want to go for an automobile ride nextSunday afternoon, maybe. A friend of Hegglund's got a car--a Packard--and Sunday we're all off. And he wantedme to get a bunch to run out to Excelsior Springs. He's a nice fellow" (this because Hortense showed signs of notbeing so very much interested). "You don't know him very well, but he is. But say, I can talk to you about thatlater. How about to-morrow night? I'm off then."Hortense, who, because of the hovering floor-walker, was pretending to show Clyde some handkerchiefs, wasnow thinking how unfortunate that a whole twenty-four hours must intervene before she could bring him to viewthe coat with her--and so have an opportunity to begin her machinations. At the same time she pretended that theproposed meeting for the next night was a very difficult thing to bring about--more difficult than he couldpossibly appreciate. She even pretended to be somewhat uncertain as to whether she wanted to do it.
"Just pretend you're examining these handkerchiefs here," she continued, fearing the floor-walker mightinterrupt. "I gotta nother date for then," she continued thoughtfully, "and I don't know whether I can break it ornot. Let me see." She feigned deep thought. "Well, I guess I can," she said finally. "I'll try, anyhow. Just for thisonce. You be here at Fifteenth and Main at 6.15--no, 6.30's the best you can do, ain't it?--and I'll see if I can't getthere. I won't promise, but I'll see and I think I can make it. Is that all right?" She gave him one of her sweetestsmiles and Clyde was quite beside himself with satisfaction. To think that she would break a date for him, at last.
Her eyes were warm with favor and her mouth wreathed with a smile.
"Surest thing you know," he exclaimed, voicing the slang of the hotel boys. "You bet I'll be there. Will you dome a favor?""What is it?" she asked cautiously.
"Wear that little black hat with the red ribbon under your chin, will you? You look so cute in that.""Oh, you," she laughed. It was so easy to kid Clyde. "Yes, I'll wear it," she added. "But you gotta go now. Herecomes that old fish. I know he's going to kick. But I don't care. Six-thirty, eh? So long." She turned to give herattention to a new customer, an old lady who had been patiently waiting to inquire if she could tell her where themuslins were sold. And Clyde, tingling with pleasure because of this unexpected delight vouchsafed him, madehis way most elatedly to the nearest exit.
He was not made unduly curious because of this sudden favor, and the next evening, promptly at six-thirty, andin the glow of the overhanging arc-lights showering their glistening radiance like rain, she appeared. As henoted, at once, she had worn the hat he liked. Also she was enticingly ebullient and friendly, more so than at anytime he had known her. Before he had time to say that she looked pretty, or how pleased he was because shewore that hat, she began:
"Some favorite you're gettin' to be, I'LL SAY, when I'LL break an engagement and then wear an old hat I don'tlike just to please you. How do I get that way is what I'd like to know."He beamed as though he had won a great victory. Could it be that at last he might be becoming a favorite withher?
"If you only knew how cute you look in that hat, Hortense, you wouldn't knock it," he urged admiringly. "Youdon't know how sweet you do look.""Oh, ho. In this old thing?" she scoffed. "You certainly are easily pleased, I'll say.""An' your eyes are just like soft, black velvet," he persisted eagerly. "They're wonderful." He was thinking of analcove in the Green-Davidson hung with black velvet.
"Gee, you certainly have got 'em to-night," she laughed, teasingly. "I'll have to do something about you." Then,before he could make any reply to this, she went off into an entirely fictional account of how, having had aprevious engagement with a certain alleged young society man--Tom Keary by name--who was dogging hersteps these days in order to get her to dine and dance, she had only this evening decided to "ditch" him,preferring Clyde, of course, for this occasion, anyhow. And she had called Keary up and told him that she couldnot see him to-night--called it all off, as it were. But just the same, on coming out of the employee's entrance,who ............