II
Trenton’s week in town lengthened to ten days. Minnie Lawton’s apartment proved to be a convenient meeting place, and on two evenings Grace and Trenton dined there alone, with Jerry to serve them. Trenton had persuaded Kemp to go to a hospital for rest and observation. The reports of the local physician merely confirmed what the New York specialist had told Trenton as to his friend’s condition. Trenton took Irene and Grace to the hospital to see Kemp one evening. They found him looking a little thin and white but he greeted them joyfully. He wasn’t wholly cut off from civilization in spite of their efforts to get rid of him, he said, pointing gleefully to a telephone at his bedside which he had obtained as a special concession. He boasted that he could lie in bed and direct his business affairs almost as well as at his office.
“But the nurses won’t flirt with me,” he complained, “and you girls showed up just in time to keep me from passing up your whole unaccountable sex. I’ve got to be amused even if I am locked up here with fourteen disagreeable things being done to me every day. The purpose of woman is to amuse.”
“There you go, Tommy! Women are divided into two classes,” said Irene in her spacious manner, “those who amuse their husbands and those who amuse other women’s husbands. It’s not for me to say to which variety, subdivision or group I prefer to belong.”
Trenton had visited Stephen Durland twice at his shop in the Power Building and at the hospital he mentioned the matter of Durland’s improvements on the Cummings-Durland motor. The issuance of the patents to Durland had brought inquiries from several Eastern manufacturers and the representative of one concern had opened negotiations for an option.
“Look here, Grace,” said Kemp when Trenton had explained concisely the nature of the improvements, “I’m going to be mighty sore if you let this escape before I have a look at it. Go on, Ward, and tell me more about it.”
“You father must have something good,” said Irene, who had listened attentively to the talk, “for I don’t understand a word of it. I hope there’s millions in it.”
“That new composition Mr. Durland’s working on for non-cracking spark-plug porcelains will be worth something handsome if it’s as good as it promises to be,” Trenton remarked. Kemp’s alert curiosity had to be satisfied as to the nature of the substance Durland was working on and Trenton went into the chemistry of the composition and said it would have to be subjected to more exacting tests.
“We’ll test that at my plant too,” said Kemp, “but the sooner we get to work on the motor the better. We’ll give Mr. Durland a corner in my shop, and all the help he needs; I’ll call up the superintendent in the morning and explain what’s wanted.”
“It’s all too good to be true!” said Grace. “Father’s such a dear, patient, gentle soul and to land something now will mean more than you can understand. Thank you so much, Tommy.”
She walked to the bed and took Kemp’s hand.
“I suppose your father would rather Cummings had the new features for the engine,” he said drily.
“Gracious heavens, no!” Grace exclaimed. “Father would cheerfully die in the poor house before he’d let Cummings have anything of his.”
“That’s the spirit! Ward, don’t be stingy with Mr. Durland. Double whatever anybody else offers for an option on the motor improvements and we’ll hope it’s only the beginning.”