“And who would tell the new mayor how he should run the city, if I deserted him? No, Esther, I’m afraid I’m chained to this desk. Ask me sometime when you’re cruising as far as Coney Island.”
Io sat silent, and with a set smile, listening to Herbert Cressey’s account of an election row in the district where he was volunteer watcher. When the party broke up, she went home with Densmore without giving Banneker the chance of a word with her. It seemed to him that there was a mute plea for pardon in her face as she bade him good-night.
At noon next day she called him on the ‘phone.
“Just to tell you that I’m coming as usual Saturday evening,” she said.
“When do you leave on your cruise?” he asked.
“Not until next week. I’ll tell you when I see you. Good-bye.”
Never had Banneker seen Io in such difficult mood as she exhibited on the Saturday. She had come early to The House With Three Eyes, accompanied by Densmore who looked in just for one drink before going to a much-touted boxing-match in Jersey. Through the evening she deliberately avoided seeing Banneker alone for so much as the space of a query put and answered, dividing her attention between an enraptured master of the violin who had come after his concert, and an aged and bewildered inventor who, in a long career of secluded toil, had never beheld anything like this brilliant creature with her intelligent and quickening interest in what he had to tell her. Rivalry between the two geniuses inspired the musician to make an offer which he would hardly have granted to royalty itself.
“After a time, when zese chatterers are gon-away, I shall play for you. Is zere some one here who can accompany properly?”
Necessarily Io sent for Banneker to find out. Yes; young Mackey was coming a little later; he was a brilliant amateur and would be flattered at the opportunity. With a direct insistence difficult to deny, Banneker drew Io aside for a moment. Her eyes glinted dangerously as she faced him, alone for the moment, with the question that was the salute before the crossing of blades.
“Well?”