Nathan thought it discreet to preserve a dignified silence, as befitted one competent to advise perplexed young women on such momentous subjects as love and marriage.
“I’m hungry!” declared the girl suddenly. “You wait here. I’ll see what I can rustle in the pantry.”
Nathan arranged the music in order and laid it away on the lower shelf of the what-not. He paced the room only to sink down into a rocker, hands thrust deep in his pockets.
So he had found the girl at last!
Vaguely he remembered a Biblical verse—“All things work together for good to those who love God.” He wondered just how much he loved God. His conscience pricked him a bit as he recollected his caustic comment upon the Almighty in the past. Somehow the Lord was magnanimously returning good for evil. Yes, he had treated God rather scurvily. And in return, the Almighty had sent him this great happiness! Henceforth Nathan would take his Sunday-morning presence at church more seriously.
Nat decided to apply himself at the factory with redoubled energy, beginning the ensuing Monday morning. What was a mere quarrel with his father over one cheap girl’s wages beside losing the financial chance to keep his wife-to-be in the style and luxury she deserved? What if the Richards girl did get a raw deal? Who was the Richards girl, anyhow? Nathan felt like offering her up on the industrial altar without a qualm,—in the same class with the A-higher Unknown.
Carol returned. She had a big fancy plate holding half a layer cake and a pitcher of milk.
“It’s all I could find,” she apologized. “But I’m hungry enough to eat a boiled owl.”
Nathan affirmed he likewise was sufficiently emaciated to assimilate boiled owl, but the cake would be a perfectly satisfactory substitute, seeing there was no boiled owl to be had at that hour. And so he was served to a generous helping of the cake and dropped jam on his pants and crumbs on the floor. Whereupon he was advised not to mind—What were a few crumbs on the floor?—and as for the jam on his pants, she would get him a damp rag and she did.
But when Miss Gardner affirmed that she had made the cake, Nathan ate with a new relish and the fastidiousness of an epicure.