Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Joan and Co.The Project Gutenberg eBook of Joan and Co. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Joan and Co. Author: Frederick Orin Bartlett Release date: February 26, 2026 [eBook #78046] Language: English Original publication: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919 Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78046 Credits: Matthew Sleadd, Emmanuel Ackerman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOAN AND CO. *** Italic represented by underscores surrounding the _italic text_. Bold represented by equals signs surrounding the =bold text=. Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS. JOAN & CO. =Books by Frederick Orin Bartlett= PUBLISHED BY A HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY JOAN & CO. ONE YEAR OF PIERROT. Illustrated. THE TRIFLERS. Illustrated. THE WALL STREET GIRL. Illustrated. JOAN OF THE ALLEY. Illustrated. JOAN & CO. _By_ FREDERICK ORIN BARTLETT [Illustration: Company logo] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY _The Riverside Press Cambridge_ COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY FREDERICK ORIN BARTLETT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO R. S. B. CONTENTS I. DICKY IS SERIOUS 1 II. JOAN IS BORED 12 III. CHANCE 22 IV. THE DRIVER AND FATE 35 V. BANDAGED 42 VI. WHOSE FAULT? 51 VII. A LETTER 64 VIII. DICKY CALLS 71 IX. THE FIGHTING THINGS 82 X. AT HOME 93 XI. THE SILENT PARTNER 104 XII. JOAN & CO. 118 XIII. A CHALLENGE 134 XIV. PUMPKIN PIE 142 XV. LIKE NAPOLEON 146 XVI. THE DEVONS MANUFACTURING COMPANY 152 XVII. UPTOWN AND DOWNTOWN 161 XVIII. BEEF TEA 173 XIX. PRINCESSES 183 XX. THE FASTER GAME 198 XXI. A CONFESSION 206 XXII. A SALE 212 XXIII. NO TIME TO WASTE 222 XXIV. A VACATION 228 XXV. DANGER 235 XXVI. A NEW STENOGRAPHER 245 XXVII. REAL NEWS 257 XXVIII. THE BIG HOUR 270 XXIX. A STRAIGHT TIP 281 XXX. BANKRUPT 295 XXXI. DISCHARGED 305 XXXII. GOLF 311 XXXIII. THE BIG CHANCE 317 XXXIV. A BUSY MAN 333 XXXV. LOVE 344 XXXVI. THE DAY COMES 351 XXXVII. BACK HOME 364 XXXVIII. THE LAST ACT 373 JOAN & CO. Joan & Co. CHAPTER I DICKY IS SERIOUS The New York social season in which Miss Joan Fairburne made her début was not more than half finished before the quizzical smile in the dark eyes, half closed above a slightly upturned, dainty nose, which gave her an air of amused boredom at first so fascinating to Dicky Burnett, became, instead of an occasional expression, rather more frequent than befitted a young woman of twenty. Also it was rather too inclusive to be complimentary. As long as it was directed merely in a general way at the assembled company at _thé dansant_ or box party or cards or dance, Dicky fell in with it, and, his long legs crossed before him and his arms folded over his chest, he assumed an air of weary submission which he was sure established between him and Miss Fairburne a bond of common lack of interest. But when those same dark eyes with their long lashes began to turn also in his direction, as he made his gay comments intended to cause her to nod sympathetically, but which did nothing of the sort, he grew uncomfortable. It was as if she brushed him into the pile with the others. It was the more humiliating because he realized that the girl was sincere. She was startlingly and delightfully sincere. He had known her now for two years; first as one of twenty girls at Wellesley when he was a junior at Harvard; then, when he was a senior, as one of a half-dozen; then, in these last few months after graduation, when he was not anything in particular, as one of two or three girls; and finally, within a week, as _the_ girl. She did not know this yet, and every time he made up his mind to tell her he hesitated. This was not because he lacked courage or experience. He had never actually asked any one to marry him, but he had come so near it once or twice on especial occasions-such as certain moonlight nights on that yachting trip he had taken two summers before with Haywood, and again on a week-end with Benton when he met the fascinating widow-that he realized that only abstention from the easily spoken words had saved him. And always by the next morning he was congratulating himself. This time, however, it was different; the next morning he was blaming himself. Reviewing the evening before in the luxurious quiet of the suite of rooms which ever since he was seventeen had been set apart for him in his father's home, he thought of all the things he might have said to her and had not said, and damned himself for one who had not made the most of a rare opportunity. Last night the Devereaux ballroom had been close with the crush that filled it-it was like a room overcrowded with flowers-and she had begged for a breath of fresh air. It was January, but Burnett remembered the way to the little courtyard, and, finding her wrap and overshoes, had led her to the tiny snow-dusted inclosure beneath the white stars. He had taken her arm, and they walked back and forth in the frosty night with the music coming to them muffled. It was a pretty scene-a niche from another world, bounded by a high wall, with the subdued light from the big windows cutting yellow across the snow, and above them the illimitable purple. He had seen her lift her face-her earnest, eager face, her beautiful half girl, half woman face; her tender yet haughty face with its keen black eyes and its fine mouth. She had stood so for a moment very erect like a princess challenging the stars themselves, and breathing deep of some clearer air above. He should have seized her then in his arms. He should have made her listen to his words of love. He should have told her how, with everything else in the world a man could crave, not having her he had nothing. He should have told her how now she stood out among all the women in the world as _the_ woman. And yet he had said nothing. He had watched her in awe and said nothing. His heart beating in his throat, he had been as tongue-tied as any freshman. Ass that he was! Dicky Burnett continued, with variations, to libel himself in this fashion all the while he dressed. To tell the truth, however, he by no means looked the part he assigned to himself. He was rather good-looking from either a man's or a woman's point of view. Tall, lean, clean-cut, with an intelligent and good-humored face suggesting in the nose and mouth elements of real strength, he was distinguished in appearance above the average of his fello |