Free Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow

know you already, Mr. Fenway, because I’ve met so many of your friends—I’ve been with a gambling parlor in Honolulu. I came in two days ago, on the Cynthia. ”
    “Ah,” said Mr. Fenway, “the Cynthia. ” He nodded, enjoying this reminder of misfortune. “You had a bad voyage, I’m told.”
    Marny smiled and shrugged. “Why yes, but we got here, and that’s what matters.”
    Kendra did not hear what Mr. Fenway said next. She was thinking— a gambling parlor in Honolulu.
    She was remembering what Loren had told her at Cape Horn. She could almost see and hear it all again—the wind and the roaring water, the gray glow from the skylight, and Loren telling her Pollock was happy to have her on the Cynthia because she was a pure young maiden. And then—
    “There’s a gambling parlor in Honolulu where he goes often. Folks say he admires the hostess… But he wouldn’t have her on the Cynthia. He believes a girl like that would offend the ship.”
    Kendra had never been inside a gambling parlor and nobody had ever told her what sort of person a gambling hostess was supposed to be. But Loren had certainly implied that this hostess would not be welcome on the Cynthia because she was not a pure young maiden.
    Kendra remembered the ship’s figurehead, the goddess crowned with the crescent moon. Cynthia the moon goddess, ever young, ever virgin. She remembered how she herself had laughed at Pollock’s fancy.
    And yet, on the long hard voyage from New York, with herself on board, the Cynthia had met with no mishaps and had made notable time. But on the short easy voyage from Honolulu, with Marny there, the Cynthia had been stormed off her course.
    —And so, thought Kendra, Captain Pollock believes the ship was insulted by having Marny on board. And now he’s frightened. Maybe his fine record is over.
    —Oh, what nonsense! But he believes it.
    —And there was a storm.
    But how, she wondered, had Marny ever been allowed to board the Cynthia ? Was this what had caused the captain’s break with Loren? Loren would take the applications for passage, but he knew how Pollock felt. And even if he had not known, in this as in everything else the captain had the final word.
    Every answer seemed to be the start of a new question. Kendra felt more baffled than before.

7
    I N THE FRONT ROOM of the store, Marny was making a debut. The beam of light had moved, and still shone upon her as if it had been put there to follow her about. Against her freckled cheeks the light caught her hair in penny-red sparkles. Foxy had brought a pack of cards from the shelf and was holding it out to her. Smiling her mischievous smile, Marny was taking off her gloves and handing them to Pocket to be cared for along with her bonnet. Mr. Fenway was inviting her to come in closer to the stove and get warm.
    “You are so thoughtful, Mr. Fenway,” said Marny. She had a beautiful speaking voice. She added, “We’ll both come in.” As she spoke, to Kendra’s surprise and apparently to the surprise of everybody else, she turned toward the dark corner beyond the beam of sun, and said gently, “Delbert?”
    Now they observed that she had not come in alone. A man was standing in the shadow on the far side of the sunbeam.
    The gleam on Marny had been so bright, and she herself was such a striking figure, that the man might have stood there a long time before anybody noticed him. As she spoke he took a step out of the shadow, calmly, as though it had been her business and not his to take the light.
    He looked as if he had always been calm and always would be, because the world did not contain anything important enough to get him excited. Calmly he took off his hat, calmly he gave a nod to the other men. He had glossy dark hair, chin-whiskers neatly trimmed, a calm narrow mouth and a nose like a parrot’s beak. He wore a black suit and white shirt, and shoes spotless except for the street dust. Hat in hand, he seemed to be waiting for whatever was going