Across the Counter (19 page)

“Oh—” Katherine looked diplomatically vague “—the general situation between Bremmisons and Kendales, I suppose.”

“I thought it might be something to do with this mysterious combine between a big English store and an American one.”

“Why—” Katherine looked interested “—what
was that?”

“It’s in the papers,” said Mrs. Culver, meaning it was in the newspaper she herself took—which is the way most of us tend to refer to the daily press. “Right on the front page. No one seems to know exactly who is involved. I wondered if Bremmisons could be the English store concerned.”

“
I
shouldn’t think so.” Katherine shook her head. “We’re not exactly American in our outlook.”

“No. But we’re one of the high spots for most American visitors,” retorted Mrs. Culver shrewdly. “I suppose it
could
be of mutual advantage to have some sort of link. I must say I like the idea. One might find oneself posted to New York for three months.” She laughed. “Though I suppose—” she looked reflectively at Katherine “—you’d be a more likely choice.”

“I?” Katherine looked startled. “Oh, I couldn’t go to New York.”

“Why on earth not? It would be great experience.”

“Yes, but—” She stopped, partly because it was a little too early to explain, and partly because she saw that Paul had come into the department and was looking around.

“There’s Paul,” she said to the startled buyer in Costume Jewelry, and she went quickly to meet him.

They met in the center of the department, without an atom of privacy or seclusion. But he put his arms around her and kissed her and said, “It’s all right. Don’t look so scared.”

“Paul—do you mean it’s really all right? You’re going to stay on the board of Kendales?”

“Not only that. I’m going to have a stake in Bremmisons, too,” he told her. And he laughed down at her, showing his strong white teeth with a sort of gay defiance that might have belonged to one of the merchant adventurers of old.

“But how?”

She looked ready to hang upon his every word, oblivious of customers and staff alike. Until Mrs. Culver came up and said—but quite kindly, “If you’re going to look at each other like that, you’d better go into the office. It’s bad for business to have such a nice distraction as a romance going on in the center of the department.”

“Oh—I’m sorry!” Katherine looked at her in a happy daze.

“On the contrary, we’re not sorry at all,” said Paul agreeably. “But we take your point, and accept your hospitality. In ten minutes you can come in and be the first to congratulate us on our engagement.”

And putting his arm around Katherine, he led her away into the small office once more, where she flung her arms around him and exclaimed, “Tell me what happened
. How did you do it?

“There was nothing magical about it, my love.” He smiled down at her. “It was just a question of some hardheaded businessmen realizing that they needed me as much as I needed them.”

“Ye-es?” she said doubtfully. “But how?”

“Reduced to its simplest terms—when my father demanded a place for me on the board, even though he had never allowed me in the business during his own time, they naturally thought they were going to have to carry a dud. Their terms for accepting the position were correspondingly stiff. In practice, however—”

“They found they had a treasure,” she interrupted, in a very partial sort of way.

“That wasn’t quite how they put it.” He grinned. “But at least they indicated that they now viewed me in a rather different light.”

“And that is the whole explanation?”

“Oh, no! The heads of Bremmisons are not so starry
-
eyed as that.” He laughed. “What entirely changed the picture was the fact that I was able to offer them something they had wanted for a very long while.”

“And that was?”

“An extremely advantageous link with their big American counterpart in New York.”

“Oh! Mrs. Culver said there was something about it in her newspaper,” cried Katherine.

“There was a garbled reference to it,” he replied more exactly. “But the general idea was there.”

“Andrew held the key to that?”

“I did.”

“Through the American heiress!” she exclaimed, and suddenly she looked frightened.

“No, my darling. Stop being such a timid goose. Through the American heiress’s very enterprising husband, with whom I’ve been friendly for a good many years. We did our early training together in
—
Well, I won’t mention the name of Bremmisons’s stiffest rival in these hallowed precincts.”

“Paul—” she laughed incredulously “—I’ve never seen you quite like this! You’re so gay—and boyish.”

“I
feel
gay and boyish,” he told her, picking her up off the floor and kissing her. “That’s exactly how any man feels when the gods have given him everything he could ask for.”

“Oh, how—wonderful!” She slowly savored the fact that she still had Paul and he still had Kendales.

“Will you marry me before the end of the month,” he wanted to know, “and come with me to New York?”

“To New York? Is that where we’re going to live?”

“No, no. We’re merely going there for a couple of months.”

“But how marvelous! I’d
love
to go to New York,” Katherine cried as Mrs. Culver knocked discreetly on her own office door and came into the room.

“You said ten minutes ago that you didn’t want to go,” she remarked, and she looked at them both indulgently, which was clever of her, for she must have had to fill in a good deal of the situation from deduction and imagination.

“Did
I
?” Katherine looked surprised.

“Yes. You said quite categorically, ‘Oh, I couldn’t go to New York.’
Don’t you remember?”

“Yes,
I
remember.” Katherine smiled slowly, as she realized how deliciously life had changed in that short while. “But this is different. Paul will be coming, too.”

“Yes, yes. It’s always different when one’s Paul comes, too,” agreed Mrs. Culver kindly. “Bless you both—and take her to lunch now, Mr. Kendale. She hasn’t had any, and quite frankly
I
need my office.” They both laughed and shook Mrs. Culver very heartily by the hand. Indeed, Katherine was tempted to kiss her, only Mrs. Culver was not quite the kissing kind.

Sedately now—and even managing not to hold hands—they went out of the office and through the department.

“
I
feel like a queen,” Katherine said as they slowly descended the great stairway at Bremmisons. “And this was always like a staircase in a palace. Someone once said it accounted for half the charm of Bremmisons.”

“It’s true.” He smiled at her. “Who said that?”

“Someone I’ve almost forgotten.” She smiled, and she did take his hand then. “Anyway, he doesn’t matter now.”