"Do you think of going abroad soon?"he asked.
"What?Yes--I don't know--I reckon.We got our passage engaged.It's on one of them French boats.We're goin'to Paris.""Oh!That will be interesting to the young ladies.""Yes.I reckon we're goin'for them.'Tain't likely my wife and me would want to pull up stakes at our age,"said the old man,sorrowfully.
"But you may find it do you good,Mr.Dryfoos,"said March,with a kindness that was real,mixed as it was with the selfish interest he now had in the intended voyage.
"Well,maybe,maybe,"sighed the old man;and he dropped his head forward."It don't make a great deal of difference what we do or we don't do,for the few years left.""I hope Mrs.Dryfoos is as well as usual,"said March,finding the ground delicate and difficult.
"Middlin',middlin',"said the old man."My daughter Christine,she ain't very well.""Oh,"said March.It was quite impossible for him to affect a more explicit interest in the fact.He and Dryfoos sat silent for a few moments,and he was vainly casting about in his thought for something else which would tide them over the interval till Fulkerson came,when he heard his step on the stairs.
"Hello,hello!"he said."Meeting of the clans!"It was always a meeting of the clans,with Fulkerson,or a field day,or an extra session,or a regular conclave,whenever he saw people of any common interest together."Hain't seen you here for a good while,Mr.Dryfoos.
Did think some of running away with 'Every Other Week'one while,but couldn't seem to work March up to the point."He gave Dryfoos his hand,and pushed aside the papers on the corner of March's desk,and sat down there,and went on briskly with the nonsense he could always talk while he was waiting for another to develop any matter of business;he told March afterward that he scented business in the air as soon as he came into the room where he and Dryfoos were sitting.
Dryfoos seemed determined to leave the word to March,who said,after an inquiring look at him,"Mr.Dryfoos has been proposing to let us have 'Every Other Week,'Fulkerson.""Well,that's good;that suits yours truly;March &Fulkerson,publishers and proprietors,won't pretend it don't,if the terms are all right.""The terms,"said the old man,"are whatever you want 'em.I haven't got any more use for the concern--"He gulped,and stopped;they knew what he was thinking of,and they looked down in pity.He went on:"I won't put any more money in it;but what I've put in a'ready can stay;and you can pay me four per cent."He got upon his feet;and March and Fulkerson stood,too.
"Well,I call that pretty white,"said Fulkerson."It's a bargain as far as I'm concerned.I suppose you'll want to talk it over with your wife,March?""Yes;I shall,"said March."I can see that it's a great chance;but Iwant to talk it over with my wife."
"Well,that's right,"said the old man."Let me hear from you tomorrow."He went out,and Fulkerson began to dance round the room.He caught March about his stalwart girth and tried to make him waltz;the office-boy came to the door and looked on with approval.
"Come,come,you idiot!"said March,rooting himself to the carpet.
"It's just throwing the thing into our mouths,"said Fulkerson."The wedding will be this day week.No cards!Teedle-lumpty-diddle!Teedle-lumpty-dee!What do you suppose he means by it,March ?"he asked,bringing himself soberly up,of a sudden."What is his little game?Or is he crazy?It don't seem like the Dryfoos of my previous acquaintance.""I suppose,"March suggested,"that he's got money enough,so that he don't care for this--""Pshaw!You're a poet!Don't you know that the more money that kind of man has got,the more he cares for money?It's some fancy of his--like having Lindau's funeral at his house--By Jings,March,I believe you're his fancy!""Oh,now!Don't you be a poet,Fulkerson!""I do!He seemed to take a kind of shine to you from the day you wouldn't turn off old Lindau;he did,indeed.It kind of shook him up.
It made him think you had something in you.He was deceived by appearances.Look here!I'm going round to see Mrs.March with you,and explain the thing to her.I know Mrs.March!She wouldn't believe you knew what you were going in for.She has a great respect for your mind,but she don't think you've got any sense.Heigh?""All right,"said March,glad of the notion;and it was really a comfort to have Fulkerson with him to develop all the points;and it was delightful to see how clearly and quickly she seized them;it made March proud of her.She was only angry that they had lost any time in coming to submit so plain a case to her.
Mr.Dryfoos might change his mind in the night,and then everything would be lost.They must go to him instantly,and tell him that they accepted;they must telegraph him.
"Might as well send a district messenger;he'd get there next week,"said Fulkerson."No,no!It 'll all keep till to-morrow,and be the better for it.If he's got this fancy for March,as I say,he ain't agoing to change it in a single night.People don't change their fancies for March in a lifetime.Heigh?"When Fulkerson turned up very early at the office next morning,as March did,he was less strenuous about Dryfoos's fancy for March.It was as if Miss Woodburn might have blown cold upon that theory,as something unjust to his own merit,for which she would naturally be more jealous than he.
March told him what he had forgotten to tell him the day before,though he had been trying,all through their excited talk,to get it in,that the Dryfooses were going abroad.
"Oh,ho!"cried Fulkerson."That's the milk in the cocoanut,is it?
