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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Those Dale Girls
+
+Author: Frank Weston Carruth
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2011 [EBook #37304]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE DALE GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SHE SHOOK A WIRE CAGE ENERGETICALLY OVER THE COALS]
+
+
+
+
+                            Those Dale Girls
+
+                                   BY
+
+                         Frances Weston Carruth
+
+                 In the world’s broad field of battle,
+                 In the bivouac of Life,
+                 Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
+                 Be a hero in the strife!
+                                        —_Longfellow._
+
+                                Chicago
+                          A. C. McClurg & Co.
+                                  1899
+
+
+
+
+                               Copyright
+                         By A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+                               A. D. 1899
+
+
+
+
+                               TO EDITH,
+
+                   MY SISTER AND COMRADE, THE BRAVEST
+                            OF SOLDIER GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+                             ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+She Shook a Wire Cage Energetically over the Coals         Frontispiece
+
+The Girl Sat Down on the Arm of His Chair                            48
+
+“May I Have a Guess, Miss Dale?”                                    114
+
+There Were the Girls in Their Cotton Gowns                          188
+
+Julie Was in Bed When Hester Came In That Night                     232
+
+The Wedding Breakfast                                               304
+
+
+
+
+THOSE DALE GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+“Julie Dale, you’re the laziest thing in creation! Come down from that
+window-seat and help.”
+
+“Can’t, my dear,” a gay young voice responded. “I’m as ‘comfy as comfy
+can be.’”
+
+“Look at her, Peter Snooks,” said Hester to a fox-terrier at her side;
+“just look at her! She’s curled up in a heap, reveling in that
+fascinating Kipling, with her mouth all screwed up for this popcorn,
+which she thinks we will take in state to her ladyship. But we’ll fool
+her—eh, Snooks? We’ll fool her completely. We’ll just sit complacently
+on the floor and eat it all up ourselves.”
+
+The dog jumped about rapturously. The girl, who was kneeling before an
+open fire, shook a wire cage energetically over the coals, and watched
+the corn burst into great white flakes.
+
+“It does _smell_ delicious,” came in an insinuating tone from the
+window-seat across the room.
+
+Hester maintained a lofty silence, and tipping the corn into a bowl,
+sprinkled it with salt, adding dabs of butter. She then tossed a piece
+to the dog, and began to sample it herself with apparent satisfaction,
+for she smacked her lips and said, reflectively, as she put her hands to
+her burning cheeks: “I believe it is quite worth ruining my complexion
+over.”
+
+Suddenly she whisked up bowl and dog, and crossing the room, dropped
+both on the seat beside her sister. “There!” she exclaimed, “you knew I
+would never eat it alone, even if you are a duffer!”
+
+“‘Duffer’ is most inelegant” (this from Julie in an assumption of stern
+reproach); “I do not see wherever you picked up such a word.”
+
+“Read it in a book,” quoted Hester, laughing. This was a joke of
+longstanding between them—to hold literature responsible for any
+suspicious scraps of knowledge. It was a phrase they used also with much
+frequency in argument, particularly when the subject was beyond the
+range of their experience. “Don’t know a thing about it, read it in a
+book,” one of them would say facetiously, by way of backing up some
+remarkable statement, and feel herself at once relieved from personal
+responsibility.
+
+“You need not put on such frills,” Hester now said to her sister. “You
+know you adore slang yourself.”
+
+Julie was gazing out of the window. “Look, Hester, quick! There go the
+crew! How they are skimming down the river! I’d no idea they trained out
+here, had you?”
+
+Both girls watched intently as the narrow shell shot by, the men pulling
+the long, steady stroke which was the pride of their university.
+
+“Aren’t they splendid?” Hester exclaimed, enthusiastically. “I wish we
+knew some of the college men, Julie, don’t you?”
+
+“It would be fun. I’d like to see something of college life. Perhaps we
+may meet an occasional senior if Miss Ware takes us about any this
+winter.”
+
+“Do you suppose he’d be nice?” inquired Hester, quizzically. “I don’t
+think we know much about very young men, do you? All we’ve known have
+been so much older than we are.”
+
+Julie puckered up her forehead and gazed after the vanishing crew. She
+was trying to classify an unknown species.
+
+“It does seem odd,” continued Hester, “_our_ contemplating formal
+society, doesn’t it? I believe I shall hate it. We have roamed around
+with Daddy too much to be quite like pattern society girls.”
+
+“I tell you what we’ll do, Hester; we’ll go out with Miss Ware, meet
+loads of people and pick out a nice congenial few whom Dad will like,
+too, and just cultivate them informally. You know how Dad dislikes
+society in the conventional sense, but he wants us to take our proper
+place; and of course we ought to know people, now that we have really
+settled down in Radnor to live.”
+
+“Heavens! but you’re clever, Julie! We might set up a salon; only the
+wise, the witty and the beautiful need apply. Which class would we come
+under ourselves, do you think? We can begin with Dr. Ware and all the
+old dears—only he never seems old a bit—that Dad is always bringing
+home to dinner, and add any new dears we meet and think eligible.”
+
+Julie laughed. “It sounds like a herd or something.” Then, with sudden
+gravity, she said: “Hester, dear, I’m anxious about Dad. I can’t just
+explain it, but somehow he’s been different ever since we’ve been here.
+Haven’t you noticed how preoccupied he is and tired all the time, so
+unlike Dad? The other day I spoke to him about it, and he shook his head
+and said I mustn’t be so observant, that he happened to have an unusual
+stress of business, that was all. But I don’t know,” she continued,
+meditatively; “I can’t seem to throw off this queer feeling about him.”
+
+Hester regarded her with wide-open eyes. “You frighten me, Julie.” Then
+leaning toward her sister, she shook her finger admonishingly. “How dare
+you go on having worries by yourself and not letting me know a thing
+about them?” she said, lightly. “I think it is all your imagination. I
+dare say Daddy has heaps of extra things on his hands because of all the
+time he spent gadding with us in Europe. Of course, that’s it, you
+goosey,” the idea gaining strength in her mind, “_of course_. You and I
+and Peter Snooks must be more amusing, and make him laugh and forget the
+‘stress of business.’ Ugh! what a horrid expression that is! Now I think
+of it, he hasn’t laughed lately, Julie, has he?” She looked up with an
+evident desire to be contradicted.
+
+Julie shook her head.
+
+Hester sprang up from her seat, and seizing the dog by the forepaws,
+danced him violently about the room. “We need a shaking up, Peter
+Snooks, or we’ll not be allowed to jingle our bells any longer at the
+court of his majesty Dad the Great! Who ever heard of jesters neglecting
+their duties! His royal highness must laugh,” she said gayly, “or he’ll
+cry, ‘Off with their heads!’ like Alice’s fierce old queen.” She
+emphasized this possible calamity by swinging the dog up in the air and
+herself executing a daring _pas seul_ before she dropped breathless in a
+chair. “I had rather die than be stupid, hadn’t you, Julie?” she gasped,
+between breaths.
+
+“In that case I think you will be spared to us a while yet,” replied her
+sister, with quiet humor.
+
+“So glad you think we’re a success,” Hester said, cheerfully. “Peter
+Snooks, do you hear? we’re a success—she approves!” The dog lay panting
+on the floor, and wagged his tail in understanding of the compliment.
+“We’ll give a private exhibition to his majesty to-night after dinner.
+How he will laugh! We will elaborate this feeble effort and call it ‘The
+Dance of Joy.’ Things are always more interesting with names,” she said,
+decisively. “Julie, you be showman and introduce us.”
+
+Julie took her cue immediately, and rising, bowed low. “Ladies and
+gentlemen (that means Dad)—ladies and gentlemen, I shall now have the
+honor of presenting to your astonished vision the wonderful and original
+‘Dance of Joy’—”
+
+The library door opened suddenly, and a middle-aged woman entered and
+closed the door after her. She stopped just inside the threshold, and
+looking from one to the other with a scared face, stood wringing her
+hands helplessly.
+
+“Good gracious! what is the matter, Bridget?” Julie ejaculated. “Tell
+us—you look frightened to death.”
+
+The woman opened her lips and closed them with a moan. No word escaped
+her.
+
+Both girls were beside her in an instant, and Julie gave her a little
+shake.
+
+“Is it Daddy? What has happened? Bridget, Bridget, speak!” Her
+beseeching young voice cried out with instinctive fear.
+
+“They’re bringing him in,” Bridget gasped at last. “He took sick in the
+office with a stroke. Dr. Ware’s with them. He sez you’re not to see him
+yet. He sez I’m to keep you in here till he comes—the Doctor, I mean.”
+Her words came in a tumult of confusion.
+
+“Is—he—dead?” Julie asked. “Bridget, tell me the truth.”
+
+It seemed to the girls that they lived an eternity in the second before
+the woman said: “No, no, he’s not dead. Whatever made you say such a
+fearful thing?” She buried her face in her apron and wept bitterly.
+“He’s tired out and sick altogether, the dear man. I’ve seen it comin’
+this long time.”
+
+Hester looked at Julie with a sort of awe. The sound of footsteps in the
+hall outside penetrated with ominous distinctness into the library.
+
+Julie said tremulously, “Hester, dear, I am going to Dad; they shall not
+keep us away.”
+
+“No, they shall not. We are not babies; we must go and help.”
+
+“That’s what I wus after tellin’ the Doctor you’d say,” Bridget sobbed,
+“an’ it’s not for me to be lavin’ you here all alone, an’ me all over
+the house to onct. But if yez wouldn’t go now, darlin’s. Just wait till
+he’s took to his room, an’ ’twould be better—indeed, believe your old
+Bridget, it would!”
+
+The impetuosity of youth in the shock of joy or sorrow is not to be
+checked. The girls went into the hall, to see a stretcher, on which lay
+their father, being borne up the stairs, while Dr. Ware and two men, who
+proved to be trained nurses, brought up the rear of the little
+procession.
+
+“Dr. Ware,” whispered the girls, slipping up close to him with blanched
+faces, “we know—we must help, too.”
+
+He took them each by the hand, as if they were little children, and
+turned them back before they could reach their father’s side.
+
+“Dear little girls,” he said, gently, “you can help your father most by
+doing as I ask. It is hard to be shut out, I know, but you can do
+nothing now. Later, perhaps, you can do—everything. I will tell you
+frankly, he is a very sick man. I have no wish to hide anything from
+you, but we shall try and get him better—much. I have two experienced
+men, and Bridget here, and when we get him comfortably in bed you may
+come in for a moment. He may not regain consciousness for many hours.
+Will you trust me and be guided by my better judgment?” looking down at
+them earnestly.
+
+“Yes, yes,” they both sobbed through the tears, now falling fast; “go to
+Dad—don’t think of us. We will do everything you say.”
+
+“That pleases me—my brave little girls.” He went on into Mr. Dale’s
+chamber.
+
+Left to themselves, they huddled together outside their father’s door,
+each trying to comfort the other. Peter Snooks, fully conscious that his
+young mistresses were in trouble, climbed into Julie’s lap and stuck his
+wet nose into her hand in true canine sympathy. Though they did not put
+it into words, both girls were conscious of a curious sense of
+remoteness from their father in being thus kept from him. This
+immediate, poignant grief stung them bitterly and prevented for the
+moment any thought of what the future might hold.
+
+They never knew how long they had sat there on the stairs when Dr. Ware
+opened the bedroom door and beckoned them in. But they carried ever
+after a vivid impression of creeping stealthily to their father’s bed,
+stooping to kiss the dear face, from which there was no answering sign
+of recognition, and stealing softly out again. And in Julie’s mind there
+flashed always an accompanying picture—the remembrance of how, when
+they had reached the hall again, Hester had picked up a woe-begone,
+shivering little dog, and burying her face in his neck, whispered,
+brokenly: “Oh, Peter Snooks, how we were going—to—make—him—laugh!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was said of Mr. Dale by those of his friends’ wives who felt at
+liberty to discuss his affairs with their husbands, that his bringing up
+of his daughters was radically wrong. These whispers of feminine
+disapproval were occasionally wafted to the seemingly heedless father,
+who always smiled good-naturedly, yet was apparently blind to the
+advantages to be derived from the conventional course of training the
+young, for he continued to pursue his own methods with bland serenity.
+
+Mrs. Dale had died when the girls were six and seven years old
+respectively. Up to that time they had lived quite like other children,
+going regularly to school and finding recreation in the pleasures common
+to their age and condition. The house in which at that time they lived
+was a somewhat pretentious mansion on the water side of Crana Street.
+Now to live in this sacred precinct, as every one in Radnor knows, gives
+an immediate claim to distinction. In the eyes of their neighbors,
+however, the Dales were not distinguished beyond the matter of their
+locality, for the family was not Radnor-bred, and this is an offense
+tolerated but never condoned in Radnor society.
+
+The Dales had drifted there from some unheard-of (to Radnor) western
+town soon after the Civil War, while the country was still in a state of
+upheaval. Major Dale brought to the readjustment of his business the
+force and skill which won for him distinction on the battlefield,
+gradually transferred his interests from the western town eastward, and
+took root in Radnor, where he proceeded to build up a fortune. Not
+there, however, but back in Mrs. Dale’s old home, some years later, the
+girls were born. They came to Radnor as babies, and like their father
+took root; but Mrs. Dale, a semi-invalid, spent much of her time wearily
+traversing the country in search of health. She disliked Radnor, and
+made no attempt to cultivate the people. During her prolonged absences
+the children remained at home under the care of Bridget, a faithful
+servant who had come with them from the west.
+
+With Mrs. Dale’s death the quiet placidity of the children’s life
+ceased. The house was closed, and Mr. Dale started immediately for
+California, taking the girls and Bridget with him. While there he became
+interested in railroad enterprises, which eventually extended through
+remote and varied sections of the country and kept him a bird of passage
+for many years. He built a private car and took his daughters everywhere
+with him, to the consternation of Radnor, which was kept informed of the
+magnate’s movements through the medium of the press.
+
+The girls grew up in an atmosphere of devoted companionship, among
+scenes that were ever changing. They lived much in hotels, and for weeks
+at a time in their private car, “The Hustle,” which they never ceased to
+regard as a fascinating playhouse, and where their father, in the midst
+of his multitudinous cares, found time to watch their developing natures
+and teach them to grow in grace and spirit, as became the daughters of a
+soldier.
+
+They were not wholly without lessons, for when they remained for any
+length of time in one place Mr. Dale’s private secretary was dispatched
+to find a good school, in which they were immediately placed; while Mr.
+Dale, who had theories of his own, trained their eyes to keen
+observation of what they saw and their minds to reason out the obscure
+according to their own lights. He was full of wisdom and patience and
+counsel, but he had a way of turning on them when they came for advice
+and saying, “What do _you_ think?” in a manner that would have been
+startling to the average child, who is apt to think what he is told.
+This turning the tables began in their teens, whereby they came to have
+opinions without being opinionated, for, though requiring them to think
+out every subject carefully, he yet guided them with a firm hand, giving
+them in every sort of discussion the wisdom of his wide experience. He
+was a loving, indulgent father, and the girls adored him, but no sterner
+disciplinarian ever held sway. Implicit and immediate obedience he
+demanded—no questioning of his higher authority.
+
+He taught them, too, much of the old-world philosophy, which he had
+imbibed from extensive reading. They listened to him wonderingly, their
+eager young minds drinking in the beauty of what he said, but failing at
+that age to grasp the breadth and depth of all the truths he told them.
+Sometimes he almost forgot that they were children.
+
+When Julie was twenty and Hester nineteen he took them to Europe.
+Bridget and Peter Snooks completed the party. They roamed about for a
+year, and just before they were to sail for home late in the summer Mr.
+Dale informed the girls that he intended to sell out his large railroad
+interests; he was tired of their unsettled life, and thought they would
+all enjoy the novelty of opening their house and taking up their abode
+in Radnor. Radnor had long ceased to be anything more than a name to the
+girls, but the proposition opened up joyous possibilities of “making a
+home for Dad.”
+
+“I will take you down to Cousin Nancy’s in Virginia when we land,” he
+had said to them in London, “and leave you there a few weeks; she has
+been begging for a visit from us this long while. Bridget and I will
+open the house in Radnor and get everything in order; then you can come
+up and run the establishment and queen it over your old Dad in royal
+fashion.”
+
+This program had been successfully carried out, except that it could
+scarcely be said that the girls ran the establishment, for the
+responsibility lay with Bridget, who assumed the duties of
+housekeeper—duties she guarded jealously and performed with such skill
+that there was not a better managed house on the water side of Crana
+Street. This Radnor people knew through that mysterious agency by which
+a neighborhood keeps in touch with itself.
+
+After years spent in the narrow confines of a car, however luxurious,
+and the necessarily limited quarters of hotels, the girls reveled in the
+spacious house, over which they spread themselves in an amusing fashion,
+sleeping in turn in the various bedrooms by way of getting acquainted
+with them all over again, Julie said, and with reckless prodigality
+hanging some portion of their wardrobe in every closet in the house.
+
+At the end of their first week in Radnor, Hester amused her father by
+telling him she thought she should enjoy housekeeping exceedingly if
+they had an elevator, a menu and “The Hustle” side-tracked in the back
+yard. Reluctantly she admitted that the yard could scarcely be made to
+hold it, but at least, she suggested airily, he might build a float and
+anchor the car at their back door on the river. The new life really
+seemed to her incomplete without it.
+
+Hester at twenty was a laughing, dancing sprite, yet with a certain
+quaintness and matureness of mind that amused and delighted her father’s
+friends. She was slim and dark, with a piquant face and fascinating
+hazel eyes that shot out mischievous lights. They were unusual eyes, and
+very beautiful with their fringe of long dark lashes; but she did not
+think so, and compared them scornfully to a cat’s—the only animal she
+hated. If she could be said to have any vanity it was for her hands,
+which came in for a considerable share of her attention, and she went to
+bed in gloves every night of her life.
+
+Julie, whose hands were not a matter of comment, dispensed with this
+bed-time ceremony, and usually devoted most of her time before retiring
+to a vigorous brushing of her rebellious yellow hair, which, when it was
+let alone, rioted all over her head in such babyish curls that her
+father always called her “Curly Locks.” Her eyes were violet—her lashes
+and brows dark, like Hester’s, which gave her a most remarkable contrast
+of coloring. From her mother she had inherited a delicate constitution,
+and lacked the buoyancy of Hester’s gay spirits; nevertheless, she had a
+keen sense of humor and laughed immoderately on all occasions at her
+sister, whom she considered altogether the cleverest and most amusing
+person she knew. And they knew many delightful people from one end of
+the country to the other—everywhere except in Radnor, where society was
+waiting for Mr. Dale formally to present his daughters before setting
+the seal of its approval upon them.
+
+The second day following that on which Mr. Dale was brought home ill,
+Dr. Ware stayed longer than usual with his patient and came out of the
+sickroom with a grave face. In the hall the girls were waiting for him
+as usual.
+
+“My dears,” he said, abruptly, drawing them into the library, “you have
+to know the worst, and there is no one but me to tell you.” For a moment
+he hesitated. “Your father’s illness is caused by his financial
+ruin—his entire fortune has been swept away. He has lost everything,
+and the shock of his failure has paralyzed him.” For a moment neither
+spoke; each girl felt that she could hear her heart beat in the awful
+silence of the room. Then Julie said:
+
+“Won’t Daddy soon be better? Oh, you can’t mean he will always be sick
+like this?” Her eyes were black with pain and apprehension.
+
+“He will never move about again. Physically he may suffer very little;
+the anguish will come through the consciousness of his helplessness——”
+
+“We will not let him feel that,” interrupted Julie, throwing up her
+head. “Hester and I are strong.”
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat. “Thank God for that, for you’ve a hard
+fight ahead of you.”
+
+Hester crept close to his side. “Will you tell us more about it,
+please,” she whispered in a strange, tense voice; “it’s so—so difficult
+to understand.”
+
+“Of course it is, dear,” putting his arm around her. “Things began to go
+wrong a year ago. Your father felt it, and nearly abandoned the European
+trip, then went after all, feeling absolute need of rest and hoping he
+had left the snarl sufficiently straightened out to go on without him.
+But things went from bad to worse, and he came back to more
+complications than any one man could manage. Even then he might have
+pulled through somehow if that western road in which he had so largely
+invested had not smashed and carried him down with it. You don’t want
+the details, Hester.”
+
+“No,” she answered, “it is enough that the thing is.”
+
+He looked at her intently, as if astonished that so philosophic a
+statement should come from so young a person.
+
+“Shall we have to give up the house, and—and ‘The Hustle,’
+and—everything?” asked Julie.
+
+“I’m afraid so, Julie dear. That is especially what I want to talk to
+you about to-day—your future. I want you to leave it all to me.”
+
+“Oh, no, no!” she cried, “you’re good, so good, but we can’t do that. We
+must look the future squarely in the face, and bravely, must we not,
+Hester?” turning appealingly to her sister. “I’m sure that is what Daddy
+would say.”
+
+“Julie, don’t you be afraid; we’ll just do everything—somehow!” Hester
+flung out her young arms with a sweeping movement as if she meant to
+gather in all their perplexities and conquer them. “If Dr. Ware will
+help us and advise us, we’ll try to get our feet down on
+something—somewhere. Yours aren’t very big,” she said, with a piteous
+attempt at her old lightness, “but mine are. I feel just now as if I
+were standing on my head, it is all so sudden and so terrible!”
+
+Dr. Ware rose and put on his coat. “I think you have heard enough for
+one day,” he said. “You seem to be such surprisingly independent young
+women that I do not know just how I am going to deal with you. But you
+are to remember this, mind, that whatever I have is
+yours—everything—though I shall not thrust it upon you. If you have
+ideas of your own and wish to carry them out, I will help you in every
+way in my power. Now I am off,” he added, briskly, “and don’t you worry
+too much. We have many days yet to talk things over and decide what is
+best to do.”
+
+Julie tried to say something, but ended by burying her face in his coat
+sleeve and sobbing quietly.
+
+Hester fiercely bit her lip and gulped down the tears that threatened to
+choke her. “You are the kindest, best—” she began.
+
+“Tut, tut, nonsense!” said the Doctor. “Not a word like that, or I shall
+desert you entirely.” And with a frown on his face that was half a smile
+he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+“Julie, it is too absolutely appalling to realize!” Hester pressed her
+nose against the window and looked out over the river dejectedly. A
+fresh September gale was blowing, ruffling the surface of the water into
+miniature waves and rattling the window panes with a suggestion of
+autumn days to come. Julie shivered a little, and crossed to the
+fireplace, where a few pine logs sputtered on the hearth. She looked
+down without seeing them. Her thoughts were turned within.
+
+“Julie! do say something!” exclaimed her sister. “I can’t bear to have
+you so still.”
+
+“I am thinking, dear; trying to grasp what it all means.”
+
+“Julie, what can we do?”
+
+“Do? Well, we will do something.”
+
+“Of course we will, old girl.” Hester left the window, and crossing the
+room put her arms around her sister. “The two main things are to take
+care of Dad and earn our own living. We couldn’t be dependent on Dr.
+Ware, Julie. Do you suppose he meant he wanted to give us a home and
+everything?”
+
+“I don’t know, Hester. He is so generous and so fond of Dad I believe he
+would; but that would not be right. I wonder what we can do to be
+self-supporting? We have the usual accomplishments, and I suppose we
+have average intelligence, don’t you?” she asked, anxiously.
+
+“I would back the intelligence against the accomplishments any day,”
+said Hester, sagely. “We have not had the usual sort of bringing up, so
+we can’t do the usual thing.”
+
+“Like teaching, you mean, or—or things like that? No, we can’t. We are
+not trained or qualified for any sort of position, and only one of us
+could work away from home anyway, for we can’t both leave Daddy.”
+
+Hester’s forehead was creased into little wrinkles of perplexity. “If
+only I were a man!” she exclaimed, “I might stand some chance—I know
+how to do such a lot of mannish things. Why, I could be an engineer if I
+were put to it, Julie! You know I’ve run the engine attached to ‘The
+Hustle’ many a time; the men used to let me do it.” She drew in her
+breath with a little gasp of remembrance. “As it is,” she continued, “I
+suppose I’ll have to be a companion or something equally commonplace and
+ladylike,” she ended in a tone of disgust.
+
+“I suppose so,” agreed her sister reluctantly; “but, dear, the worst of
+that is it will separate us, and I don’t believe either one of us could
+stand that.” Julie’s lip quivered. “Isn’t it humiliating to have such a
+feeling of utter helplessness?”
+
+“Yes, it is.” Hester gave herself a shake. “I cannot seem to take it all
+in yet, Julie—what it all means. It seems to me we must be some other
+girls talking, not ourselves at all. Somehow it never entered my mind
+that dreadful things could happen to us—not while we had Dad to take
+care of us.”
+
+“But that is just it now, Hester dear; we haven’t Dad to take care of
+us—it is we who must take care of him.”
+
+“We’ll do it, too,” said Hester, with a ring in her voice. “I’m going
+down now to the kitchen to see about making him some wine jelly. Bridget
+said she did not believe Dr. Ware would let him eat it, but I feel as if
+I must be doing something. Come, Peter Snooks,” to the dog that was
+never far out of sight, “we’ll at least make a pretense of being useful.
+Now don’t you sit there and cry,” she said from the door to her sister.
+“You just hold tight on to yourself, and think out something clever—I’m
+sure you can,” convincingly.
+
+Julie acknowledged this flattery by a wan little smile, and following
+Hester out of the room, went in to see her father. The nurse was sitting
+near the bed, but moved aside as she entered.
+
+Mr. Dale partially opened his eyes as his daughter drew near, but closed
+them again instantly. His drawn, haggard face showed the strain he had
+undergone in the months before the final collapse of his business had
+stricken him down. A look of tender pity came into Julie’s face as she
+knelt by the bed and laid her hand over his. He was breathing heavily,
+as if asleep, and she dared not speak. It seemed to her inconceivable
+that her bright, energetic father could be lying there as helpless as a
+little child! She put her head down on the bed, while her mind reverted
+to their recent conversation with Dr. Ware and the subsequent talk which
+had half stunned their senses. They must think, Hester said, and she was
+right; but it almost seemed to her it would be a relief to stop thinking
+for a moment, so rapidly had the events of the past two days been
+crowded in upon them.
+
+All this passed through her mind in a tumult of confused ideas, through
+which ran the predominating thought of work, in obtaining which she knew
+Dr. Ware would help them. But how, and what and where? In the first
+shock of their trouble it was not possible to see the way clearly, nor,
+indeed, to half understand the problems confronting them. Julie felt
+this and knew she must be patient, though inwardly a wave of resentment
+that such things should be, surged in her heart rebelliously. The next
+instant she thrust down this feeling with a fierce determination to
+control herself, and spreading out her hands, for the first time in her
+life regarded them critically. They were not beautiful, like Hester’s,
+but they were slender and white, and she suddenly felt a contempt for
+their delicacy, while a consciousness that she had never exacted
+anything from them caused her to view them in a new light. Why not work
+with her hands! Why not put her fingers to some use and see what they
+were capable of, making each one a vital thing full of strength and
+character. The idea delighted her, and she closed her fingers in a tight
+grip as if testing their possibilities. “Oh, Daddy, dear!” she half
+whispered, with her head pressed close against him, “we will amount to
+_something_.” Then rising from the bed, she stooped to kiss him, and
+went in search of Hester.
+
+When Dr. Ware came again they convinced him of their determination to
+work, and he promised to look about and see what opening could be found
+for them. He had only a moment to give them that morning, but said he
+should return in the evening to have a long talk. When Hester kept him a
+second longer to display, with considerable pride, the wine jelly she
+had made for her father, he shook his head.
+
+“Not just yet, my dear,” he said, kindly. Her disappointment was so
+evident that the good Doctor felt inclined to eat it himself by way of
+proving his admiration of her culinary skill, and then—he had an
+inspiration.
+
+“Hester,” he said, “will you do me a favor?”
+
+“Indeed, I will.”
+
+“I should like to carry that jelly off with me; it fairly makes my mouth
+water. If you’ll give it to me, my dear, I will allow your father to eat
+an unlimited amount of it later on; and then think how busy you will be!
+Come, is it a bargain?”
+
+“Dr. Ware! As if you need ask! Why, you know I’d just love to give it to
+you.”
+
+She had arranged the jelly in a dainty dish, and now ran into the
+dining-room for a doily, which she wrapped about it.
+
+“Won’t you let us send it over to you, Dr. Ware?” Julie asked.
+
+“No, thank you, Julie; I’m going to drive right home,” and the Doctor
+went off with the dish in his hand.
+
+When he reappeared that evening he astonished the girls by approaching
+them silently, while he bowed with great ceremony before Hester, to whom
+he held out a package and said: “Allow me to congratulate you, my dear.”
+
+Greatly mystified, Hester took the package and unwrapped it, to find the
+glass jelly dish she had given him that morning, in the bottom of which
+lay a two-dollar bill. She looked up at him wonderingly.
+
+“It is yours, Hester,” he said. “I plead guilty. I took that jelly to a
+crotchety old patient of mine who is boarding, and reviles all the jelly
+his nurse buys for him. I told him I thought I had found some that would
+please him, and I was right. He devoured half of it while I was there.
+Then he insisted on paying for it. I did not tell him where it came
+from, but he wants some more, and he said that was what it was worth.”
+He was watching her closely.
+
+She had taken up the bill, and was handling it nervously, a deep flush
+on her bewildered young face. “Julie,” she exclaimed, breathlessly,
+turning instinctively to her sister, “Julie, I’ve _earned_ some money!”
+
+“How splendid!” Julie stared at the bill as if it were different from
+any she had seen before. Hester threw her arms impulsively around Dr.
+Ware’s neck. “This is the only way I know how to thank you,” she cried.
+
+“I shall instantly create a demand for your jelly, my dear, if I am
+always to get a commission like this,” the Doctor laughingly remarked,
+delighted at the success of his venture.
+
+“Are you serious, Dr. Ware? Do you suppose I could make jelly to sell?”
+she asked, anxiously.
+
+“Why not, Hester?”
+
+The girl was silent for a moment then suddenly she cried, “Julie Dale,
+we’ll _cook_ for a living!”
+
+“Cook!” repeated Julie, incredulously, “I don’t know a thing about
+cooking.”
+
+“No, but I do. Don’t you know how Cousin Nancy was always fussing
+because I would haunt the kitchen down there? I learned how to make
+jelly from her old colored mammie, and heaps of things beside. Of
+course, I never actually put my hand into anything—old Rachel wouldn’t
+let me, but I saw how she did lots of things, and her cakes were famous
+all through the County, you know they were. If we can sell wine jelly we
+ought to be able to sell other things, don’t you think so, Dr. Ware?”
+
+“I do indeed, my dear; I think your idea is excellent.”
+
+“Hester, I will learn, I am sure I can,” cried Julie hurriedly. “I’m
+aching to get my fingers into something.”
+
+“Of course you’ll learn—we’ll both have to learn as we go along, and
+even if we don’t succeed it’s worth trying.”
+
+“As for that,” said the Doctor, “anything you may attempt will be more
+or less in the nature of an experiment.”
+
+“Yes,” acquiesced Hester, “and if we do succeed it means working
+together, Julie dear, in a place of our own, and being with Dad. Just
+think what that would mean!”
+
+“Everything!” assented her sister. “I believe you’ve hit upon a
+way—there always is a way, if one keeps looking!”
+
+“One of the first things to ascertain,” said Dr. Ware, “is the cost of
+materials and the market price of such things as you suggest making.”
+
+“Yes,” confessed Hester. It had never occurred to her in the whole
+course of her young life to consider the cost of anything.
+
+From this the talk went on to other things relative to the change about
+to take place, and Dr. Ware remained several hours in earnest
+conversation with them. At the end of that time, when he rose to take
+his departure, there was, added to the affection already in his heart, a
+tremendous feeling of admiration and respect for these girls, whose
+spirits flashed undaunted; while they, on their part, were experiencing
+through him the depths of human kindness.
+
+“We mean to be worthy of all you are doing for us,” said Julie, stopping
+a moment to steady her voice, “and we mean to make our fight as bravely
+as you and Daddy did years ago, when you tramped through the Wilderness
+together.”
+
+The Doctor straightened his shoulders and made a military salute. “On to
+victory!” was all he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+“George Washington! G-e-o-r-g-e W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n!”
+
+“Ma’am?”
+
+“Why don’t you answer the first time I call you? Come here and go hunt
+the Colonel and tell him I want him directly. He is around the house
+somewhere.”
+
+George Washington, aged ten, his woolly head full of sticks, his
+blue-jeans sadly perforated and the lower portion of his ebony limbs
+guiltless of covering, came out from behind the kitchen quarters and
+shambled off in search of his master.
+
+“That boy shows old Rachel’s blood,” soliloquized the mistress of
+Wavertree Hall; “he would not run if there were a bomb under him!”
+
+It was one of those balmy days in Virginia, when the sly, deceptive
+October sun kisses one into the belief that summer will remain always.
+Mrs. Driscoe sat down on the back steps of the verandah and watched two
+cocks fighting in the yard, as she awaited the appearance of her
+husband. She looked, herself, not unlike a bird of ruffled plumage, for
+the bit of lace and pink ribbon with which she ornamented her scanty
+locks was awry, while her crocheted shawl—pink to match the
+ribbon—hung off one shoulder, and her whole aspect presented a
+disheveled appearance which in her indicated a perturbed state of mind.
+Now and then she glanced at an open letter in her hand, the contents of
+which seemed to displease her, for she shook the paper as if it were a
+live thing she were chastising and tapped her foot impatiently.
+
+Presently a voice behind her said mildly: “Did you want me, my dear?”
+
+“Want you? Certainly I wanted you! What do you suppose I sent for you
+for if I didn’t want you?” Mrs. Driscoe drew up her pink shawl with a
+gesture that spoke volumes.
+
+“Won’t you get a headache, Nancy, sitting out there in the sun?” asked
+the Colonel solicitously.
+
+Concern for her physical welfare touched his wife’s vanity and appealed
+to her heart. She softened perceptibly.
+
+“Maybe I had better come up and sit in a chair,” she said. “It’s those
+girls that have upset me. I believe they’re clean daft.”
+
+He helped her up and pulled a chair into a shady part of the verandah,
+waiting until she was comfortably ensconced before seating himself.
+
+He was a gallant, the Colonel, full of little courtesies which endeared
+him to the hearts of women. That was why the Widow Chisholme married
+him, the County said. She wanted—but does it matter after all these
+years what the County said?
+
+He sat down now beside her and waited for her to begin. She usually did
+begin and end everything.
+
+“The girls refuse to come—I’ve just had a letter from Julie; she is the
+most independent, ungrateful young minx I ever heard of!”
+
+“Oh—ah—not that, Nancy, not that, I am sure—ahem—you must be
+mistaken. She impressed me as a very gentle, sweet young creature.”
+
+“Gentle fiddlesticks! Do you call that gentle?” flaunting the letter in
+his face.
+
+“Possibly, my dear, if I were to know the contents of the letter I might
+be better able to form an opinion.”
+
+She handed it over and watched him read it.
+
+“Ah,” he commented at the end, “what remarkably original girls!”
+
+“Give that letter to me, Driscoe,” (she had always called him Driscoe
+from the beginning) “I don’t believe you half understand it—you are
+always way off in the clouds somewhere when you haven’t got your nose
+buried in a book. Those girls are going to work—to cook! They actually
+prefer to cook for a living when they might come down here and live like
+ladies the rest of their lives. They have moved into rooms their Doctor
+found for them—I expect it is one of those nasty little places they
+call flats, in some horrid neighborhood and I am sure no one will go
+near them and they’ll die of loneliness with their crazy notions.”
+“Cook!” she repeated scornfully, “who ever heard of a lady doing a
+servant’s work!” The little pink bow on the top of her head fairly
+quivered in outraged sympathy.
+
+“I am sure the girls appreciate your offer to give them a home,” Colonel
+Driscoe said when he was allowed to speak, “Julie’s letter speaks very
+feelingly about it. If they think it wise to try and be independent I
+must say I can’t help but admire their spirit.”
+
+“That is all you know about it! In my day girls did not do odd,
+independent things—they did as they were told!”
+
+It occurred to the Colonel that her day was past, but he wisely
+refrained from giving the thought utterance.
+
+“A lot of your foolish Northern notions still cling to you Driscoe,” she
+said resentfully. “It is my opinion that those Dale girls have disgraced
+the family—there is too much of their father in them—a true Fairleigh
+would never stoop to menial labor; and yet their mother and I had the
+same Fairleigh grandmother. Oh, it is too trying—their behavior—too
+trying for anything! It terrifies me to think what they may come to!”
+She stopped rocking in her chair and sniffed audibly.
+
+“There, there, Nancy, don’t take it so to heart,” comforted her husband,
+“it may be best as it is—we’ll see if we can’t raise a little money
+somewhere to send them—the poor young things must be in sore straits
+these days with poverty to face and an invalid father to take care of.”
+
+“Umph! they don’t act like it—and as for money, I don’t see it lying
+round loose on the plantation.”
+
+This was a sore point with the Colonel, who was known since his marriage
+to have swallowed up a considerable portion of his small income
+patenting farming implements that were impracticable. He had been a
+bachelor with an inventive turn of mind and only one lung when he met
+the Widow Chisholme at the Springs. Upon marrying her it seemed most
+desirable for her convenience (for she would never have tolerated life
+outside of Virginia) and his health, that they should live on the
+Chisholme property, which was somewhat extensive and kept them land
+poor. Mr. Driscoe, New Hampshire born and bred, settled down into a
+country gentleman and turned his attention to agriculture; but his mind,
+half inventive, half scholarly, wholly visionary, had made rather a
+sorry mess of it, and his wife, who had never relinquished the reins of
+government, now held them with a firmer hand. He was Colonel only by
+courtesy, the servants having dubbed him that immediately. It was
+impossible for them to recognize a real gentleman without a title.
+
+He said no more about money, but shaded his eyes and looked down the
+long avenue leading out to the road. In the distance he could see a
+small darky open a gate, while down the road came a horse with a swift
+gallop.
+
+“Here comes Nannie, my dear. She will not be pleased with your news,
+will she?” the Colonel said regretfully.
+
+The girl brought the horse up with a sharp turn at the steps, thereby
+causing consternation to a brood of chickens, which scattered in every
+direction. Then she threw the bridle to George Washington and slipped to
+the ground.
+
+“My,” she exclaimed, fanning herself with her hat, “it is pretty warm
+riding.”
+
+“Now don’t sit down there and take cold,” expostulated her mother;
+“here, put my shawl around you.”
+
+Nannie, who had dropped down on the steps, laughed and shook her head.
+“A shawl in October! who ever heard of such a thing. I am all right,
+mummie; don’t take it off—it looks so pretty on you.” She smiled at her
+mother, who was not proof against this bit of flattery, though her only
+manifestation was a closer drawing of the shawl around her shoulders.
+“Don’t you feel very well, mummie?” the girl asked, conscious that the
+atmosphere was not altogether salubrious.
+
+“Well enough,” replied the older woman, flipping a letter nervously
+between her fingers as she rocked to and fro.
+
+“Your mother has heard from your cousin Julie,” volunteered the Colonel.
+
+“Let me see the letter, quick, mummie. When are they coming?”
+
+“They are not coming at all,” replied Mrs. Driscoe, with a resentful
+toss of her head, meanwhile thrusting the obnoxious letter into her
+pocket.
+
+Nan’s face fell. “Oh, mummie, can’t I see the letter, please?”
+
+“Certainly not. It is full of crazy ideas that are most unbecoming in a
+young girl, and I don’t consider such things proper for you to read.”
+
+Colonel Driscoe gave an apologetic cough and opened his lips as if to
+speak, but apparently thought better of it and studied his finger nails
+with unwonted interest. Nan drew cabalistic signs on the steps with her
+riding crop, and for some moments the silence was unbroken save for the
+half chuckling singing of George Washington, who was turning somersaults
+near by. Then Nannie said wistfully:
+
+“May I know why the girls are not coming, please?”
+
+The Colonel started to explain, but was overruled by his wife, who
+preferred to give her own interpretation of the case. Accordingly she
+poured out a torrent of abuse, in which her own individual woes over
+what she called their “disobedience” were so involved with a mixed
+statement of facts that Nan might have been led to believe that her
+cousins were lost to all sense of propriety had she not thoroughly
+understood her mother. As it was she listened quietly, sympathized with
+and petted her, and told her not to bother her head any more about two
+naughty girls in the North. She was a girl of considerable tact, this
+Nannie, for all that the whole establishment “babied” her, and she knew
+just how to smooth down her mother’s ruffled plumage; so that Mrs.
+Driscoe, after a good, comfortable cry, which was a great relief to her
+overwrought feelings, was persuaded to go indoors and lie down to
+recover from the shock of the morning.
+
+Nannie remained on the verandah with her father. “Will _you_ tell me
+about it now?” she said, when her mother was well out of hearing.
+
+The Colonel’s version, as he understood it from Julie’s letter was
+expressed in five minutes.
+
+“Oh, dear!” Nannie exclaimed, when he had finished, “I wish they did not
+feel that way about things. I did so hope they were going to bring their
+father here and let us nurse him, and live with us, and be just like my
+own sisters—I’ve always wanted a sister so! I can’t seem to make it out
+exactly, pa, how girls like that who have always had every mortal thing
+on earth, can work just like poor girls.”
+
+“No, you can’t understand, kitten,” stroking her head affectionately;
+“it’s against all the traditions of your bringing up that you should,
+for your mother takes such extreme views. But for my part, I think they
+are very noble and deserve tremendous credit for taking the stand they
+have.”
+
+“Oh! so do I,” echoed the girl enthusiastically. “I just love them for
+it. I think it is grand to be so heroic and brave. Why, just think, pa,
+they are not very much older than I, and yet all of a sudden it seems as
+if they were women and I only a baby.”
+
+“We want to keep our little girl a while yet,” he said. “I have no fear
+but she will be womanly enough when the time comes.”
+
+“We did have the loveliest times when the girls were here, didn’t we?”
+she said reminiscently. “They could ride as well as any girl in the
+county, and Julie was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Do you remember
+the funny tricks Hester did—springing on a horse bareback, and riding
+backward, and things she’d learned from the cowboys? Oh! I did miss them
+terribly when they went away.”
+
+“They were unusually companionable to us all, I think, Nannie. I am sure
+I missed them unspeakably.”
+
+The girl sat down on the arm of his chair and as she leaned her head
+against his, two tears trickled down the end of her nose and into his
+neck. He put his arms about her and drew her into his lap, where she
+lay, a dejected little heap, sobbing bitterly.
+
+“There, there, kitten, don’t cry; Mr. Dale may get better, and the girls
+may be able to bring him down for a long visit some time—who knows?”
+said the kindly Colonel, who was already planning in his mind how he
+could defray the expenses, should such a journey be possible. “We will
+all have some happy times together again, Nannie; you’ll see, little
+girl.”
+
+[Illustration: THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR]
+
+Nan heaved a sigh and was comforted. It is easy to be sanguine at
+seventeen.
+
+Suddenly she exclaimed: “Do you know what?” sitting up and revealing a
+tear-stained face and two brimming brown eyes which she rubbed with the
+Colonel’s handkerchief, her own having long since been reduced to a damp
+little ball; “I’m going to write to the girls not to mind a thing mummie
+writes them, for she really loves them just the same, and you and I love
+them heaps more—if such a thing is possible—and think about them and
+just hope with all our might and main that Cousin Dale will be better,
+and they won’t have to work themselves to death. Oh, don’t I just wish I
+could help them!” “Pa!” she cried in a sudden inspiration, “you know the
+new saddle you were going to give me for my birthday?”
+
+“Yes, Nannie.”
+
+“Well, you have not bought it, have you? and I don’t want it—I want you
+to send the money to the girls instead.”
+
+“But, Nannie, child, you have talked of that saddle for months. Are you
+sure you want to do this?”
+
+“Oh! yes,” she cried, rapturously with a childish clap of her hands;
+“I’d love to do it more than anything. Can you see about it to-day?” Her
+soft brown eyes were not brimming now, but full of eagerness.
+
+“I am almost afraid,” said the Colonel, shaking his head, “that your
+mother will not consent and that the girls might refuse to let you do it
+if they knew.”
+
+“Oh, they must not know,” said Nannie with an air of importance borne of
+the project in hand. “No one must know, not even mummie; it is a secret
+between you and me. We will send an anonymous letter the way they do in
+books. Oh! won’t it be fun?”
+
+“Who ever would have suspected we had an arch-conspirator in our midst,”
+said the Colonel slyly, “and that she would victimize an old man like
+me?” In his heart he was rejoicing over her pretty exhibition of girlish
+love and unselfishness. Then more seriously, he added: “I am afraid we
+shall have to wait until your birthday really comes round, Puss. I have
+not the money just now.”
+
+“But you are going to let me do it, aren’t you? No matter if we do have
+to wait, come and begin the letter now. We must make it very mysterious,
+and manage to get it to them somehow so they will never suspect. How do
+you suppose we can?” She looked at him, confident that he would suggest
+something.
+
+And he did. But what he said was whispered so low that even we cannot
+hear. The effect on her was instantaneous, and caused her to dance about
+delightedly. Then suddenly remembering that her mother was sleeping in
+an adjacent room, she became subdued and catching her father by the arm
+drew him quietly into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+It is not until a great crisis is past that one comprehends with any
+clearness of vision the multitudinous events that whirl about the one
+supreme fact. Stunned by the first shock, one wakes to learn that close
+on the heels of disaster come the consequences—pell-mell,
+helter-skelter, pushing, crowding with a grim insistence from which
+there is no escape. It was small wonder, then, that to the Dale girls
+the world seemed topsy-turvy.
+
+A change being inevitable, their one desire was to get it over quickly,
+the first of October, therefore, saw them moved into new quarters. The
+arrangements had been made by Dr. Ware, who effected a compromise with
+the girls—he offering them a vacant apartment in a house he owned, they
+gladly accepting this home if he would allow them to pay rent when they
+became successful wage-earners. The good Doctor sighed and consented; he
+recognized there was no thwarting their earnest purpose. In the first
+discussion of plans, he had suggested a little house in the suburbs; but
+Hester, with her practical nature fast developing, had said that to do
+business they must be within reach of people—in the midst of things.
+She did not quite know how she knew this—perhaps it was more that she
+felt it instinctively; but it met with Dr. Ware’s approval and had great
+weight with Julie, who secretly longed for the country, but put aside
+all personal inclination and voted with her sister. The result was a
+flat in a quiet, unpretentious neighborhood, which yet took on a
+semblance of gentility from its proximity to Crana Street.
+
+By methods known only to himself, Dr. Ware saved furniture enough to
+make the place comfortable, while Bridget, who assumed mysterious airs
+for days before their departure, saw to it that there was no lack of
+household necessities. Bridget was no small factor in those days. She
+came to the front with tremendous energy, backed up her young mistresses
+in all their plans, and vowed she would never leave them. So the little
+family held together, which was the main thing, and the girls settled
+themselves in the new quarters with brave spirits—was not this, after
+all, the real meaning of “making a home for Dad”?
+
+All the choicest things were brought to the furnishing of his room; the
+gayest pictures to relieve the tedium of the weary hours, his best loved
+books near at hand, though he could no longer read or even reach out his
+hand to touch them. In the window-sill Julie had set up a miniature
+conservatory of potted plants that promised to bloom gayly, for down
+upon them poured the morning sun, filling the room with golden light.
+This was their resting-place in the new life—their father the center
+about whom they gathered in every spare moment—the room a little shrine
+from which in the midst of their attendance upon him many a silent
+prayer for strength and courage went up to God.
+
+The other sleeping-rooms were bedrooms by courtesy—mere closets, one of
+which was given to Bridget and in the other the girls managed to squeeze
+a double bed. Hester suggested that berths would be much more
+convenient, and only the lack of money prevented her having that sort of
+sleeping arrangement constructed.
+
+“Julie!” she exclaimed, in the first days of squeezing themselves in,
+“it is something like living in the car again, isn’t it? only it is
+so—so different. I believe I’ll call the flat ‘The Hustle’—only
+instead of _its_ hustling like the car, we’ll be the ones. Oh, Julie
+dear, to think of never racing around the country like that again!”
+
+“Don’t Hester; I can’t bear to think of it.” In spite of her good
+resolutions Julie’s courage sometimes failed her.
+
+A few days later Hester came into the kitchen one morning, her arms full
+of paper bags strongly suggestive of the corner grocery. “There!” she
+cried, “I’ve invested my last dollar in things for the cake.”
+
+“Is it to-day you are going to see Miss Ware?” Julie asked.
+
+“Yes, if the cake comes out all right. Roll up your sleeve, old girl,
+and we’ll begin.” Hester suited the action to the words by weighing the
+ingredients and turning the butter into a bowl. But ah! how hard it was
+to put her pretty hand into it—how greasy the butter felt and how sandy
+the sugar, and how unpleasant the general stickiness! But she worked it
+through her fingers energetically, while Julie beat the eggs.
+
+“It is going to be death on our hands, my dear,” remarked Hester,
+picking up a knife with which she scraped the dough from her fingers.
+
+“I wish you would always let me do that part, Hester. I know how you
+will feel it to hurt your hands.”
+
+“Well, as if I’d be likely to! No one part is worse than another. We’ll
+get used to it after a while, though I know our hands will spread out to
+twice their natural size.”
+
+“Perhaps even if they do get big and not quite so fine as they are now,
+_perhaps_ we won’t mind, Hester, if we just think of it as scars in the
+battle, you know. Don’t you know how Daddy has often talked of the
+honorable scars in the battle of life? We’re just finding out what that
+means, old girl.”
+
+“Well, if you haven’t a most blessed faculty for putting a comfortable
+construction on everything!” Hester emphasized her words by a last
+vigorous beat of the dough and held out the spoon to her sister. “Just
+taste this, will you, Julie? I think it’s fine.”
+
+“Umph, it is,” agreed Julie, who had disdained the spoon, and dabbed her
+finger in the mixture after the manner of cooks. “But, my dear, if we
+create a demand for cake like that which requires only the whites of
+eggs, what shall we do with the yolks? Eat them, I suppose,” making up a
+wry face.
+
+“They are better than nothing and I do not see chickens hopping in the
+window, do you?”
+
+“No,” reluctantly. “We have fifteen dollars in the house,” she announced
+solemnly. “How long do you suppose we can live on that?”
+
+“I am sure I don’t know, Julie. We must learn to eat less, and that is
+no joke. I’ll tell you what, one of the hardest things is learning to do
+without what has always seemed absolutely necessary.” There was a husky
+sound in Hester’s voice which Julie did not like to hear.
+
+“No matter, dear, we are young and strong, and we will accomplish
+something before we get through. Why, if you stop to think of it, nearly
+every one who has made a success of life has started in the smallest
+kind of way.”
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+“Did you say you were going to see Miss Ware to-day?”
+
+“Yes, I think I had better take her this loaf if it bakes properly. Will
+you come with me, Julie?”
+
+“No, dear, I think you will manage better alone, though I’ll go of
+course, if you want me.”
+
+“No, I had rather go alone,” said Hester.
+
+But no expedition to Miss Ware’s took place that day, for the cake was
+spoiled in the baking and four succeeding attempts shared the same
+tragic fate. Toward night, when the failures of the day had reduced them
+to the verge of despondency, Dr. Ware came in and carried them off for a
+long drive which wonderfully freshened up their spirits. On the way home
+he asked their assistance in sending out a thousand circulars in regard
+to some medical matters, telling them it would be a tremendous help to
+him if they would write them. They acquiesced delightedly and
+accordingly that evening a huge bundle of stationery was left at their
+door. Inside, stuck in a package of envelopes, was a slip on which was
+written: “Here’s the paper and the form to be copied. Don’t keep at this
+too persistently, little girls, or you’ll bring down the wrath of your
+faithful friend, Philip Ware.”
+
+More than glad to have an opportunity of being of use to the Doctor, the
+girls set to work early the next morning writing industriously. Julie,
+after a few smirched and blotted copies, got well under way; she had
+considerable precision in her character, which made a task like this
+simple. But Hester during the first day or two spoiled so many sheets
+that she viewed her rapidly filling waste-basket with dismay. Finally,
+in supreme disgust she threw down her pen.
+
+“I believe I could build a house easier!” was her impatient exclamation.
+“Who ever saw such daubs as I’m making!”
+
+Julie looked up and smiled. Her wrist ached, and she shook her hand to
+limber the muscles. “If you did not dig your pen in the ink with such a
+high-tragedy, Scott-Siddons air, maybe you’d get on better,” she
+suggested.
+
+“High-tragedy fiddlesticks! I _like_ a lot of ink. I am sure you’re a
+sight,” she commented, with sisterly frankness; “all doubled up and your
+forehead screwed into knots. How many have you done?”
+
+“I don’t know; there they are,” pointing to a box-cover piled high.
+
+Hester surveyed them with lofty scorn. “Mercy! That is nothing! I’ve
+done heaps!”
+
+“Where are they, you airy young person?”
+
+“In the waste-basket, mostly.”
+
+“Go to work, you ridiculous infant, or you will be stuck to that chair
+the rest of your natural days.”
+
+When Dr. Ware attempted to pay them for the work they remonstrated,
+telling him in the most convincing language at their command that it was
+a pleasure to feel they could do even so small a thing for him. To this
+he refused to agree, finally persuading them to take the money if on no
+other ground than to convince him of their business principles; while he
+refrained from mentioning that he had himself deviated somewhat from
+business methods when he ordered the circulars written instead of
+printed in the usual way.
+
+A week later the almond cake for Miss Ware was baked successfully and an
+admiring group stood about the kitchen table taking a last look at it
+before Hester did it up in a box preparatory to setting forth.
+
+“Faith, it’s a beauty,” cried Bridget, arms akimbo. “Any lady’d be proud
+to eat it. Shure it’s your mother’s own fingers ye’ve got, the both of
+yez. Ther’ warn’t nothin’ she couldn’t make when she put her hand to it,
+before she got so ailin’, an’ the Major, God bless him, got so well off
+she didn’t have ter.”
+
+“Poor, dear mamma!” said Julie, wistfully. “I only remember her ill and
+not able to bear us noisy children about.”
+
+“Sufferin’ made her a changed woman, the Saints preserve her! But I seen
+the day, Miss Julie, when she slaved for the Major before you was born
+an’ there warn’t nobody could beat her at anythin’. It looks like her
+knack was croppin’ out in yez, shure as my name’s Bridget Maloney.”
+
+“Perhaps it is, Bridget,” said Hester, who had heard this conversation
+from the next room, where she was putting on her coat and hat. “We have
+often heard Daddy tell people mamma was a practical genius, that would
+mean nimble fingers, wouldn’t it? Maybe she has left them to us as a
+legacy.”
+
+“I’m not after understandin’ your words exactly, dearie, but the
+meanin’s clear an’ it’s right yez are.”
+
+As Hester picked up the box, Peter Snooks sprang down from the
+window-sill jumping wildly about, the sight of her hat being conclusive
+evidence to him that she was going out.
+
+“Poor little Snooks, not this time,” the girl said, stooping to pat him.
+“I am going in the car to-day.”
+
+His stump of a tail drooped dejectedly as he looked at her with big
+reproachful eyes.
+
+“It does seem mean not to take him, doesn’t it, Julie?—but it is not
+worth while, for it is so stormy I thought I had better ride both ways.”
+It was only dire extremity that permitted the extravagance of car-fares
+these days.
+
+“Of course you must ride,” said Julie. “Peter Snooks,” to the still
+hopeful little fellow, “you must not tease. Go find your ball and we’ll
+have a play.”
+
+He trotted off and Hester picked up the box and started.
+
+“Tell Miss Ware that is only a hundredth part of the nice things you can
+make, you clever girl,” Julie called after her.
+
+“An’ good luck to you, dearie,” from Bridget.
+
+The wind and rain blew about Hester unpleasantly when she reached the
+street, but a car soon overtook her and afforded her a welcome shelter
+from the storm. She found all the seats occupied, but some of the
+passengers moved up to make room for her, and being a trifle tired from
+the nervousness of the cake-making, she thankfully squeezed into the bit
+of space allotted her, and laid the box in her lap.
+
+Her thoughts as the car sped along were not of the most cheerful, for
+she dreaded this visit to Miss Ware. That individual, who kept house for
+her brother, had expressed herself in terms of strong disapproval of the
+girls when he had told her their plans. She considered cooking greatly
+beneath them and would have thoroughly agreed with the views of their
+Cousin Nancy in Virginia, had she known that person. As it was, she
+thought her brother should interest himself in finding suitable
+positions for them, and she refused to recognize the fact that these
+were not to be had for the asking. “There were plenty of ladylike things
+girls could do,” she said, but did not give herself the trouble to
+specify.
+
+To the girls themselves she had talked at some length, endeavoring to
+explain to them that they were laying out for themselves a path of
+social ostracism by their extraordinary choice of work, never doubting
+that this argument alone would convince them. But when Julie gently put
+it aside with the assurance that she and Hester were sufficient to
+themselves if the world chose to look askance at them; and when Hester
+flushed angrily, and said the people whose friendship was worth anything
+would not fail them, Miss Ware shrugged her shoulders and gave them up
+as social heretics. She was not, however, allowed to wash her hands of
+them, for her brother sang their praises perpetually. She therefore
+forced herself to take a negative interest in them which carried her so
+far as to order from them a loaf of cake.
+
+Hester, gazing abstractedly out of the car window, felt it a momentous
+errand on which she was going that day; it involved so much. If the cake
+met with the critical approval of Miss Ware she intended to ask her to
+solicit orders for it. It would not be easy to approach her on this
+subject, but she should do it—oh! yes, she did not intend to be
+frightened out of her purpose. A curious little ache came into her heart
+as she braced herself for the coming ordeal. It was all so new and so
+strange, to be put in the position of asking favors—to be looked down
+upon from frigid heights—she and Julie, whose world hitherto had been
+all sunshine and approval. For a second something came between her and
+the window, blurring her vision. Then she brought herself up with a
+sharp mental rebuke for allowing her thoughts for one moment to revert
+to the past, and forced herself to look down with satisfaction on the
+neatly wrapped box she was carrying.
+
+By this time the car had become crowded, and directly in front of Hester
+stood a woman of amazing breadth, clinging in a limp, swaying fashion to
+the strap. Just as the girl observed her and was wondering if she could
+squeeze into her seat should she offer it to her, the car jerked round a
+corner, the stout woman screamed and landed with a thud on the box in
+Hester’s lap!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Comfortably ensconced in a victoria, two men were bowling out through
+the suburbs of Radnor in the rapidly approaching dusk of a winter
+afternoon. One, wrapped to the chin in furs, sat well back in the corner
+of the carriage as if desirous of all possible protection from the cold;
+the other leaned forward in a somewhat restive attitude and looked like
+a man occupying his position under protest. Each was immersed in his own
+thoughts, but from time to time the younger man took a surreptitious
+glance in the direction of the older as if he were endeavoring to make
+some important discovery. He was, in truth, trying to decide if the
+moment were propitious for laying before his father a project which he
+had been for some time considering, but the impassive face of Mr. Landor
+told him nothing, and they continued to ride on in silence. Finally, in
+a tone of annoyance the older man said: “I wish, Kenneth, you would
+oblige me by leaning back and appearing as if you were enjoying
+yourself. I must confess it is no particular pleasure to me to drive
+with a man who looks as if he might leap from the carriage at any
+moment.”
+
+“Then why do you insist on my going, father? You know I detest this sort
+of thing—it is only fit for women. If you would come out with me now in
+my trap, it would be very different.”
+
+“Your breakneck method of driving does not suit me at all. I suppose I
+may be allowed to take my pleasures in my own way, and it occurs to me
+that it is not altogether unreasonable to request you to accompany me
+occasionally.”
+
+To this Kenneth made no reply, while he decided that the moment was not
+propitious for introducing the subject uppermost in his mind.
+
+He conceded, however, to his father’s wishes in so far as to relax from
+his objectionable posture, though there was about him a suggestion of
+martyrdom that was irritating.
+
+“What have you been doing to-day?” asked the senior Landor, abruptly.
+
+“Nothing special, sir.”
+
+“Do you ever do anything special?” turning two penetrating eyes upon
+him.
+
+“Why, yes; I suppose so. I was thinking of something special just now.”
+After all, it might as well come out.
+
+“If it is of any importance, I should like to hear about it.”
+
+This was encouraging.
+
+“I was thinking of a trip around the world, sir. To start in a month,
+say, and be gone two or three years.”
+
+Mr. Landor received this proposition with a quick drawing down of his
+shaggy eyebrows and a closer upturning of his fur collar about his chin.
+His face now was almost hidden from view.
+
+“Do you propose to go alone?” he asked.
+
+“No; two fellows at the Aldine Club have talked me into joining them. Of
+course, sir, I realize you may object to so long an absence,” said
+Kenneth, who felt that a storm was brewing, “and I might be able to make
+it a year or so if you preferred.”
+
+“Inasmuch as you have scarcely been at home a month in the past year or
+so, I should prefer that you dismiss the project altogether.”
+
+“That seems rather surprising, sir,” said Kenneth, with a laugh his
+father did not like, “when I have been going and coming without comment
+ever since I left college.”
+
+“All the more reason why you should begin to think of settling down,”
+replied his father testily.
+
+“Settling down?” repeated the son; “what do you want me to do?”
+
+“We will come to that later. The main thing is, that you are to give up
+this notion and remain here with me. If you force me to it I shall
+refuse to give you the money for such an expedition.”
+
+“I have some property of my own,” Kenneth said, his whole nature rising
+in rebellion.
+
+“You wouldn’t be such a fool as to squander that pittance on a pleasure
+trip! Be careful, Kenneth! I am in no mood to be thwarted to-day!”
+
+“Then why do you thwart me? It is not a remarkable thing for a man to
+want to travel,” trying to speak calmly, “and I don’t see why you should
+take it in this unexpected way—it is unreasonable.”
+
+But Mr. Landor, being a quick-tempered man, was beyond reason and had
+too little comprehension of his son to realize that his opposition
+tended to fan into a fixed resolve what had up to this time been only a
+pleasing possibility. There was a stern look about his mouth as he said
+to Kenneth, “You will do as I say, and remain for the present in Radnor.
+I have other plans for you.”
+
+As he had never been dictated to in his life, this emphatic order fell
+with considerable astonishment upon Kenneth’s ears, even though he knew
+his father to be in an irascible frame of mind. He thought, however,
+that the thing might blow over, as many a quarrel between them had blown
+over, after which, in all these contests of will, the younger man had
+invariably gained the day.
+
+Kenneth was not of an ugly disposition; indeed, his nature was most
+lovable, while his peculiar exemption from responsibility had produced
+an inconsequential, happy-go-lucky attitude toward life that was one of
+his greatest charms. And the selfishness that sometimes cropped out in
+his character was not viciousness, but the natural outcome of
+over-indulgence. It had never occurred to him that his father would make
+any demands upon him, though in a vague, unformed sort of way he
+intended ultimately to make demands upon himself. Just how he should do
+this gave him occasional delightfully introspective moments in which he
+played with possibilities. In his father’s eyes that was Kenneth’s great
+weakness—that he played with all the abandon of a vagabond; but to
+blame the man for this was a great injustice, since his father had not
+suggested or encouraged his taking up any business or profession, and
+had supplied him with a liberal income dating back to the beginning of
+his college career.
+
+To this indolent, pleasure-loving son, nothing could be in greater
+contrast than the father. Caleb Landor took life hard, but life had been
+hard on him. Born of poor parents in a Maine village, he had been inured
+to poverty from his infancy. His schooling had been meager, and
+sandwiched in between long periods when he was required to lend a hand
+in the saw-mill where his father was employed. But the habit of industry
+thus acquired proved useful, and stimulated his desire to get into the
+world of business, so that he made his way eventually to Radnor, the
+goal of his ambition. Then followed years of hard work and small pay,
+during which the greater part of his earnings went down to the large
+family in the Maine village. At thirty he was looked upon as a man of
+ability; at forty he was a prosperous merchant, with Fortune beckoning
+him on. By all the laws of compensation this should have been his
+turning point to happiness, but he had the misfortune to be married for
+his money at this period of his career, by a frivolous Radnor girl of
+good position, whose beauty turned his head. As after the first months
+of marriage she took no pains to conceal her indifference to him, he
+received a bitter blow, from which he was many years recovering. He was
+spared, however, the anguish of protracted disappointment, for she had
+died in the second year of their marriage, leaving him a baby son. And
+so Caleb, giving all, lost what he had never won.
+
+This episode in his life did not tend to soften a nature somewhat morose
+and caused him to draw more and more within himself, devoting his
+energies to his business, and almost forgetting at times that he was a
+father.
+
+When he did think of Kenneth, it was to realize that he had his mother’s
+beauty; but even at an early age there was no indication that he had
+inherited her smallness of mind, for which his father felt devoutly
+grateful, though there were times when he could scarcely bear the boy
+about, so forcibly did his likeness to his mother bring back the past.
+So he left him to grow up among the servants in the dreary house, sent
+him at fourteen to a preparatory school and then to college. He intended
+that Kenneth should have everything he himself had missed. In the matter
+of money it pleased him to provide generously for the lad, who grew to
+manhood the envy and favorite of all his associates, but almost a
+stranger to his father, who was equally a stranger to him. It did not
+occur to Caleb Landor that this was because he had given to the boy
+lavishly of everything except himself.
+
+When the carriage drew up before their door on the evening with which
+this chapter opens, Kenneth sprang out with a feeling of relief and
+turned to help his father. It struck him suddenly that he looked old and
+feeble, which would not be strange, inasmuch as he was fast approaching
+his seventieth birthday, but Kenneth had never been impressed by this
+before.
+
+“You had better take my arm, sir,” he said, pleasantly, “the sidewalk is
+slippery to-night.”
+
+Mr. Landor refused the proffered aid and went on ahead into the house.
+He had yet to learn that Kenneth could be leaned upon.
+
+Through dinner there was little conversation between them, not from any
+constraint arising out of the recent disagreement, but because each was
+in the habit of carrying on his own inward train of thought without so
+much as a suspicion that the outward expression of it would have been of
+interest to the other. But it would have been of interest. Kenneth often
+wondered what his father’s opinions were on the topics of the day and
+many times would have broken the oppressive silence if the idea had not
+become fixed in his mind that his father built up this barrier of
+reserve from choice. It was a natural impression, but a wrong one, and
+led to many misunderstandings, for though he gave his son no
+encouragement to be communicative he secretly longed for his
+companionship and was beginning to feel a need of his presence in the
+house.
+
+Kenneth went to a couple of receptions that evening and looked in at a
+dance later on; but did not remain long, for things of this sort bored
+him, albeit he was very popular in Radnor society.
+
+As he entered the house after midnight he noticed a bright light in his
+father’s room. This was so unusual an occurrence that he feared
+something might be wrong and ventured to knock at the door. There was no
+response, which was not reassuring, so he opened the door and walked in.
+In a big chintz-covered chair sat Mr. Landor asleep before the fire. He
+had undressed and was enveloped in a heavy dressing-gown that fell away
+at the neck, disclosing the throat upon which Time lays such relentless
+fingers. He stirred a little and Kenneth was about to leave the room
+satisfied that his father was all right and would probably resent this
+intrusion, when the older man woke with a start, and accosting him in a
+tone more curious than resentful, said, “What are you doing in here?”
+
+“I noticed your light, and thought you might be ill. Is there anything I
+can do for you before I turn in?” replied Kenneth, looking down from the
+height of his six feet upon the shrunken figure of his father.
+
+“Nothing at all, nothing at all,” waving him off; “I am reading.” He
+picked up the newspaper that had fallen to the floor, and became
+suddenly absorbed in it, after the manner of persons who object to being
+caught napping.
+
+A smile flickered about Kenneth’s well-shaped mouth but was properly
+suppressed. There was something pathetic, almost appealing to him
+to-night about his father.
+
+“If you are not in any particular hurry to finish your paper may I stop
+a moment?” he said.
+
+“There is a chair—make yourself comfortable.”
+
+“I would like to talk about those plans you spoke of this afternoon,”
+began Kenneth as soon as he was seated. “I wish very much you would tell
+me more about them—what your idea is for my immediate future.”
+
+“Where are your own ideas? At twenty-eight a man must have a few.” Mr.
+Landor kicked a log impatiently, sending up a shower of sparks.
+
+“We were speaking of your ideas, were we not, sir? Mine can come later.”
+
+“So you have some, have you? Good! After all, with your education and
+advantages it is to be expected. But as your ideas are to be kept to
+yourself, so are mine. We will talk no further on this subject.”
+
+“We _will_ talk on this subject,” said Kenneth, rising and standing with
+head erect and flashing eyes. “I am not a boy, father, as you very well
+know, and I shall not consent to this sort of thing for a moment. If you
+have anything in your mind regarding me it is my right to know it, and
+your duty to tell me. You spoke to-day of my settling down. I have been
+thinking of it a good deal since, and I am inclined to think you are
+right about it; but I would like to know just what you mean—just what
+it is you want me to do.”
+
+“Kenneth, I want you around.” The words came in a muffled tone that was
+scarcely audible.
+
+“Want me around?” repeated Kenneth incredulously; “why, I thought I
+drove you to desperation with my lazy ways and erratic hours and general
+worthlessness.”
+
+“So you do, so you do,” gruffly, “but I like it. I like to know you are
+in the house. Stay around, Kenneth and you can have things pretty much
+your own way. We will say no more about settling down to business.”
+
+“Oh! that is all right, father; I’ll stay.” It was a new sensation to
+find that he was wanted. Moved by a sudden impulse he drew near meaning
+to grip his father’s hand—the desire was strong within him to get close
+to the old man. But when he neared the chair he turned sharply on his
+heel and crossed to the door, withheld by the habit of years.
+
+Mr. Landor was watching him through half-closed lids, and made no sign.
+
+“Good night, father; glad I found you up. I have something in mind I
+would like to discuss with you later if I am to stay on here.”
+
+“Any time, any time. I have leisure enough for anything of importance.
+Come in again some time—good night.” His head was turned away as he
+spoke.
+
+“Poor old governor,” thought Kenneth, as he went to his room; “I believe
+he is lonely.”
+
+When the door had closed, Caleb Landor sat some moments in deep
+meditation. Then he rose and slowly crossed the room to a table on which
+stood a box-shaped rosewood writing-desk curiously inlaid with
+pearl—the most treasured possession of his mother long since dead. This
+he unlocked, and lifting the lid pressed a small knob by means of which
+a secret drawer flew open. In this shallow receptacle lay an oval
+miniature which the man took out and held under the strong light of the
+gas jet. It was the face of a woman, young and very beautiful, and for a
+long while the image held the man transfixed. Once he lifted his head
+suddenly, as if he thought some one was approaching but it was only the
+noise of Kenneth’s boots flung upon the floor in an adjoining room. On
+the mantel a clock ticked solemnly, warning him of the flight of time,
+and at last he sighed wearily, and with unsteady hands dropped the
+miniature into its hiding place and locked the desk. For a moment he
+leaned heavily on the table and appeared to be listening, but all was
+still in Kenneth’s room. Over the stern impassive features of Caleb
+Landor came a look of yearning tenderness. Then he put out the gas and
+went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Hester never remembered leaving the car or how she got home after the
+fatal catastrophe, but indelibly printed on Julie’s mind would always be
+the picture of a wide-eyed breathless girl who rushed in upon her and
+threw a mangled package on the table.
+
+“Oh, my dear! what is the matter?” cried Julie.
+
+But Hester could not speak.
+
+Julie picked up the battered box, disclosing the cake within crushed to
+a pancake. She turned to find Hester’s head buried in her arms; the girl
+was sobbing convulsively.
+
+“Never mind, dear,” said Julie, stroking her head sympathetically, “it
+would be much worse if you were hurt too.”
+
+“I am not crying,” the younger girl asserted stoutly; “not crying at
+all.” She spoke in short gasps that were strangely like sobs, but Julie
+ignored them. “I am all out of breath from running, that is all, and I
+did not fall, you goose! A woman sat on me!” She broke into a peal of
+hysterical laughter.
+
+It was Julie’s turn to be speechless now.
+
+“If she had just sat on _me_ it wouldn’t have mattered but she tumbled
+in the car before I knew it and there is the result!” She waved her hand
+tragically toward the table and wiped her eyes.
+
+“We’ll make another one right away, dear.”
+
+“Of course we will,” responded Hester, pulling off her hat and coat and
+flinging them down impatiently; “but it breaks my heart to see such a
+ruin of all our work not to mention the waste of materials!”
+
+  Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall;
+  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
+  And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men—
+
+sang Julie, suggestively, but was not allowed to finish the ditty, for
+Hester said, with a thump on the table:
+
+“We will put this together again double quick and I will get it to Miss
+Ware before dark, you see if I don’t.”
+
+“You had better let me go next time, Hester,” said Julie, getting out
+the cooking utensils, “you will be tired to death.”
+
+“No, I won’t; I have undertaken to do this thing, and I’ll put it
+through if it takes forever,” with which characteristic remark she set
+to work again.
+
+The second effort in the culinary line was, if possible, more successful
+than the first and immediately after their simple lunch of bread and
+milk, Hester set forth again. The storm had ceased, and to the immense
+delight of Peter Snooks, Hester confided to him that she should walk and
+a certain good little dog that she knew should go too. Julie laughed at
+this determination to avoid the car and called her superstitious. She
+laughed, too, but refused to analyze her sensations.
+
+She found Miss Ware, when she was ushered into her presence, in rather
+an aggressive mood, which caused the girl to look on with some
+nervousness as she opened the box and surveyed the loaf critically.
+
+“Umph!” she said, examining it through her lorgnette, “did you do that,
+or Bridget?”
+
+“We did it, Miss Ware. Bridget knows nothing of fancy cooking.”
+
+“And you do, it seems. It was an odd trick for a girl to pick up in
+Virginia, and an undesirable one.”
+
+“We look at things differently, Miss Ware,” Hester said, with
+considerable asperity. “I don’t call it undesirable if it proves a way
+of supporting ourselves. I would not choose it—to cook for a
+living—but we’ve no choice in the matter whatever.”
+
+“Your father is very much to blame, Hester. He should have looked after
+your interests better when he saw the crash coming. There was no need
+that you should be left absolutely penniless.”
+
+Hester sprang to her feet and confronted Miss Ware like a young tigress.
+“You shall not say such things about Dad. I will not listen—I—”
+
+“Hoighty toighty!” broke in Miss Ware, “what a temper! You will have to
+curb that, my dear Hester, if you expect to get on in the world—as
+cooks!”
+
+The girl flushed crimson, and bit her lip in an effort to regain her
+self-control.
+
+“I—I beg your pardon,” she faltered. “I—I never knew I had a temper
+before. It’s—it’s one of the new things I am learning.” A sudden mist
+came before her, and drawing near she laid her hand on the older woman
+with an appealing touch. “Don’t say unkind things about Daddy, please,
+Miss Ware; they are not true, and I—I can’t bear it.”
+
+“Let’s get to business,” said Miss Ware, who dreaded a scene above
+everything. “What do you mean to charge for your cake?”
+
+“Fifty cents.” Hester was now quite herself again, and went on rapidly,
+“I want to ask you if you will speak about our work to your friends. I
+know it is asking a great deal under the circumstances, but we are such
+strangers here in Radnor we really do not know any one to ask such a
+favor of but you and Dr. Ware.”
+
+“At least you have a champion in him.”
+
+Hester’s eyes shone. “Next to Dad we love him better than any one in the
+world.”
+
+“Then why don’t you behave sensibly, and come here and live, and let me
+take you about in society, as I meant to do this winter? I really looked
+forward to chaperoning you and Julie—you’re very unusual girls. Now
+give up this nonsense of yours and behave properly.”
+
+“Oh, Miss Ware, must we go all over that again? Won’t you try to see it
+our way, as—as your brother does? He never even talked of our coming
+here to live, he understands so well that we want to be independent. I
+know we must be a great disappointment to you. Cousin Nancy in Virginia
+feels just as you do, too. Ever so many persons have offered us a home.
+You can’t think what beautiful letters we’ve had from Dad’s friends
+through the west. If it were possible to move him we’d go out there to
+try our fortune; there are so many splendid out-of-door kinds of work a
+girl can do in that big country. But Dad can’t be moved, and we’ve got
+to do the best we can right here in Radnor.” She spoke convincingly and
+with a certain submissiveness that sat oddly on her young shoulders.
+
+Miss Ware, twisting her rings round on her fingers with a contemplative
+air was wondering where the child got that dignity and poise.
+
+“I’ve no patience with you whatever,” she said finally, after a long
+pause, in which Hester imagined she had been waging an inward conflict.
+“I am wholly out of sympathy with your ideas, but you cannot be allowed
+to starve to death, and if cooking is the height of your ambition—”
+
+“It isn’t the height of our ambition,” interrupted Hester, for youth is
+impatient of being misunderstood; “it is only the thing that is nearest
+at hand.”
+
+“Your education must be sadly deficient,” regarding the girl critically.
+“I always told Philip the harum-scarum way you were being brought up was
+perfectly ruinous. If you had gone to school like other girls, you would
+be qualified for some lady-like position.”
+
+This was too much for Hester. “You need not trouble to do anything about
+the cake, Miss Ware,” she said, proudly, “and I shan’t come here again
+to hear my father insulted. And we are not going to starve either,” she
+cried, her girlish wrath rising. “We are going to succeed and be a
+credit to the best education in the world!”
+
+She threw back her head and gazed straight into the older woman’s eyes
+with a fearless look that was hard to meet. Only the fingers curled
+tight into the palms of her hands, betrayed the mighty effort she was
+making to hold herself in check, and this Miss Ware did not see, for
+Hester’s unflinching eyes held her with a strange fascination. In
+another moment the girl had turned and left the room.
+
+For a while after her departure Miss Ware sat motionless like a person
+who has received a shock. Presently she began to toy with her lorgnette,
+dangling it back and forth on its chain with a swinging movement as if
+keeping time to a rhythmic train of thought. This was not, indeed, the
+case, and the action arose from nervousness, for the usual calm
+placidity of her mind was sadly ruffled. She was not in the habit of
+being contradicted, particularly by what she was pleased to call “a
+young person”; but she was one of those women who having said their
+worst, proceed to contradict themselves by an interest in that which
+they have most condemned, and she was now speculating as to whether it
+would not be expedient to take Hester’s cake to the meeting of her
+sewing class the following day, and possibly get an order or two there
+for it.
+
+Only a true Radnorite could realize the possibilities that opened up to
+one who was introduced as a subject of discussion at _the_ Sewing Class
+of Radnor. For in the fashionable and exclusive set in which Miss Ware
+had her being it was a function of tremendous importance, with sacred
+rites known only to the initiated. In one another’s drawing-rooms, on
+two mornings of the month, forty chosen spirits met to sew for the
+poor—that great, clamorous, all-devouring body from which there is no
+escape. This was ostensibly the purpose; in reality sewing was a minor
+consideration, albeit much work was accomplished. The chief end of its
+existence was to discuss, direct and control the movements of that
+exclusive portion of Radnor society of which it was a part and upon
+which it sat in fortnightly judgment. Following this arduous but
+important morning duty came the luncheon, and it was of that Miss Ware
+was thinking in connection with the cake.
+
+When Hester left Miss Ware she ran down the stairs to the lower hall,
+where she had left Peter Snooks with strict orders to remain until her
+return. There she found him waiting to greet her with joyous caperings
+of delight.
+
+Dr. Ware and a tall, clean-shaven, athletic-looking man came out from
+the office and encountered her.
+
+“Ah, you, Hester?” said the Doctor. “Wait a moment, my dear. I have a
+book here that I want you to take round to read to your father.”
+
+He vanished, and the stranger glanced at the girl, hesitated, and then
+stooping patted the dog. “You’ve a fine fox-terrier,” he said in a deep,
+rich voice, looking up.
+
+“We think so,” replied Hester, who couldn’t for the life of her conceal
+her pleasure at hearing Peter Snooks praised.
+
+At that moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+“Why, Landor,” he said, “I beg your pardon; I forgot all about you when
+I saw Hester. That is a way the minx has—of driving everything else out
+of my head. Hester, my dear, this is Kenneth Landor, just up from Texas
+to have a look at effete civilization—you have heard me speak of him
+often—Mr. Landor, Miss Dale.”
+
+The young people bowed.
+
+“Don’t let him pose as a cowboy or anything interesting like that,”
+continued the Doctor, “for he isn’t really—he only plays at things.
+Takes a peep here and there over the continent, and pretends he is this
+and that and the other, as the mood seizes him. A rolling stone, eh,
+Landor?” turning with an affectionate, quizzical look at the man beside
+him.
+
+“Oh! go on, Doctor; pile it on—don’t leave me a shred of character. His
+veracity is absolutely unquestioned, of course, Miss Dale?”
+
+“Of course! He has made you interesting already.”
+
+The Doctor laughed. “How one’s motives are mistaken. That was the last
+thing I meant to do!”
+
+Hester looked up at the Doctor, gleams of mischief in her eyes. “You
+being you,” she said, “it couldn’t be otherwise.” With which ambiguous
+remark she went out the door.
+
+Landor followed her down the steps. “Miss Dale,” he asked, “may I walk
+along with you? I fancy I am going your way.” Landor’s way was usually
+where he chose to make it.
+
+Hester acquiesced simply. She had been accustomed to the society of men
+since she could toddle, and felt no embarrassment in the presence of a
+stranger. Landor noted the free, swinging motion with which she kept
+step with him as they went down the street.
+
+“You are not a true Radnorite,” he said abruptly.
+
+“No, I am not. Why?”
+
+“Radnor girls do not walk as you do.”
+
+“I am half inclined to believe you are a cowboy, after all, Mr. Landor.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Are we playing twenty questions? You have bad manners, a habit of
+dealing in personalities—we call it impertinence.”
+
+“Twenty questions,” he repeated, ignoring her rebuke. “Why, I have not
+heard that mentioned for years. It is a favorite game in Radnor, isn’t
+it?”
+
+“I am sure I don’t know,” she said wearily; “I know very little about
+Radnor.”
+
+“And I less,” he said. “I’ve been away so much of the time. But there
+were certain things taken into my innermost being in my youth, along
+with the air I breathed, I suppose, that no amount of absence will
+eradicate.”
+
+“For instance?” she said, with feigned interest, for her mind kept
+wandering off to her recent interview with Miss Ware, and she wished she
+had not allowed him to accompany her.
+
+“Well, the question of residence, you know. The few acres of sacred soil
+in Radnor on which it is permissible to live. I remember as a little boy
+how my nurse only allowed me to play with children whose parents lived
+on the water side of Crana Street or the sunny side of Belton Avenue.
+Any other than those and the streets immediately intersecting was beyond
+the pale of civilization, even to her. It is odd, isn’t it?” smiling
+down at her.
+
+“What is odd, the fact or your acceptance of it?” There was a little
+ring in her voice which struck the man’s alert ear.
+
+A look of surprise came into his handsome dark face. “Am I walking too
+fast for you, Miss Dale?” he asked, pleasantly.
+
+That was the second time he had put aside a thrust of hers with some
+trifling, irrelevant remark, and it tended to heighten rather than
+soothe her growing irritation.
+
+“I think,” she said, stopping abruptly on the corner, “that I shall say
+good morning to you here. I do not happen to live in that sacred
+locality you mention, and I would not for worlds take you beyond the
+pale.”
+
+“Miss Dale,” he gasped, “you don’t think I abide by any such
+nonsense—you are doing me a great injustice. Surely you are not going
+to dismiss me!”
+
+“Yes,” she said, smiling, and showing her dimples in a sudden access of
+pleasure at the thought of getting rid of him, “I really believe I am.”
+
+He lifted his hat, and stood for some moments on the corner watching her
+vanish from sight. How slender she was, and graceful, and what a sweet
+little smile had accompanied her nod of farewell! Now he thought of it,
+her eyes had queer lights in them, baffling, as if she were laughing at
+him all the time. And her tone was half mocking, too, though he had
+taken it seriously enough in all conscience. Was she serious, or had he
+made an idiot of himself? This latter contingency was not one which
+presented itself with marked frequency to the mind of Kenneth Landor,
+and therefore gave him much food for reflection as the day wore on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+“Whom in the world do we know in New Hampshire?” asked Julie one
+morning, glancing askance at an envelope in her hand.
+
+“Suppose you open it and find out,” meekly suggested Hester, peeping
+over her shoulder.
+
+“Why, see, it is addressed to us both—it’s probably an invitation or
+something.”
+
+“It is not,” asserted Julie; “I can tell by the look of it. It’s—why,
+Hester Dale, it’s a fifty dollar bill.”
+
+“What?” ejaculated Hester.
+
+“It is, and a note. Think of daring to trust such a thing by mail! Look
+at it yourself.”
+
+Hester seized both the bill and the letter, and unfolding the latter
+found the following mysterious communication in typewriting:
+
+  “From one some love to those one loves, Greetings:
+
+  “A conspiracy having been formed for the purpose of circumventing
+  fate, the initial step is herewith taken in the form of the enclosed
+  paltry bill, intending it to be the forerunner of many a happy hour
+  in which, though absent, will be ever present
+
+                                               “The Arch-Conspirator.”
+
+“Whoever could have done such a thing?” queried Hester in astonishment,
+“Dr. Ware?”
+
+“No, I don’t think so, though he might—is capable of doing anything.
+But, Hester, just think of it—fifty dollars! Why, it is almost a
+fortune!”
+
+“I should think it was, and it is the kindest, most generous thing I
+ever heard of. It couldn’t be from Virginia, could it?”
+
+“I don’t believe so, Hester. Cousin Nancy disapproves of us too much to
+do such a thing. I think it is from some one who loves Daddy and feels
+sorry for us all, and takes this way of showing it. Oh, how good people
+are!”
+
+“Some people,” corrected Hester.
+
+“If it had come from almost any other place than New Hampshire it
+wouldn’t be quite so puzzling,” said Julie. “I am sure we don’t know a
+soul in the whole state.”
+
+“Well, I say let’s stop guessing and be thankful we have it,” advised
+Hester. “It is some one who does not want to be known, and I don’t
+suppose we really ought to try to guess, but I just hope we will get a
+chance sometime to do something for that somebody, whoever he is. You
+can see the person has had great fun doing it, by the way it is written,
+Julie.”
+
+“Yes.” softly, still puzzling over the unexpected windfall.
+
+“You’ve got another letter in your lap, Julie. Have you forgotten its
+existence? It looks like Nannie’s writing—do read it aloud.”
+
+Julie took up the forgotten letter, and opening it began:
+
+  “My Sweetest, Preciousest Girls” (Isn’t that just like Nan?) “You
+  owe me a letter, both of you; but it’s such ages since we’ve heard
+  that I just can’t wait any longer. I’m _so_ afraid mummie’s last
+  letter hurt you, though I wrote you at the time just not to mind
+  anything she said. She was awfully cross and put out for several
+  days, but father and I played backgammon with her until we actually
+  played her into a good humor—you know how she’d play backgammon
+  until she couldn’t sit up another minute; and I know she loves you
+  girls nearly as much as she does me, though she sputters away about
+  you now and then; but that is just mummie’s way.
+
+  “How I do wish you were here! I say that a dozen times a day, and
+  whenever father hears me he says you will be, sometime. He’s got
+  just the loveliest scheme for bringing you all down here on a visit,
+  since you’re so proud and haughty and won’t come and live with us! I
+  shan’t tell you a thing about it but you just wait until dear Cousin
+  Dale gets better, and then you’ll see!”
+
+Julie’s voice got suspiciously husky here, and it was a moment before
+she went on:
+
+  “We’ll have the grandest old times that ever happened, just like we
+  did when you were here before.
+
+  “Do you know I’d almost forgotten to tell you the thing I began this
+  letter for—my birthday party. I know you want to hear about it! It
+  was a surprise party, and such fun! To begin with, it was such a
+  pretty day that I wanted to be out every minute, so I took a long
+  ride with father in the morning, and spent most of the afternoon in
+  the pasture with George Washington, he and I trying to do tricks on
+  Gypsie the way you did, Hester. I said we were _on_ Gypsie, but it
+  was mostly _off_, for she didn’t take to our circus performance at
+  all and threw me twice, way over her head, and George Washington no
+  end of times. He just loved it, and capered around and grinned and
+  made absurd remarks until my sides ached with laughing. Just as I
+  was actually succeeding in standing upon Gyp bareback, mummie spied
+  me from her window, and of course that put an end to everything. She
+  said she saw no reason why I should celebrate my eighteenth birthday
+  by breaking my neck, and I expect she was right—but oh, it was fun!
+
+  “When I came in to dress for supper, father called me one side and
+  told me to put on my pink organdie (the one you liked so much, you
+  know), because it would please mummie; so I did and mummie wore her
+  claret-colored velvet and I picked two of my pet pink roses—one for
+  Mummie’s hair and the other for father’s buttonhole, and we all
+  looked very gay and festive and I thought it was lovely to be
+  eighteen, especially as mummie had given me that beautiful pearl
+  ring of hers which she always said I should have when I was a young
+  lady.
+
+  “Well, about nine o’clock, when mummie and I were in the midst of a
+  game of backgammon, there was a crunching noise out in the driveway
+  and I thought some one was coming to call. Then I heard laughter and
+  a lot of people talking, and father went to the door, and let in a
+  whole crowd calling for me. I was too surprised to understand, even
+  when father explained that the neighborhood was giving me a surprise
+  party. (I found out afterward, girls, that he got up the whole
+  thing—he vowed them all to secrecy, because he didn’t want me to
+  know he had a hand in it, but Lillie Blake told me—Lil never has
+  secrets from me.)
+
+  “Well, we danced in the big hall most of the evening, while the
+  older people played cards, and we did have a jolly time, and there
+  was a stranger here—he was staying with the Blakes and you’d never
+  guess where he’s from—Radnor! He’s very fascinating, but he’s
+  old—he must be at least thirty! I know that wouldn’t seem old to
+  you, but it does to me, and I felt very shy with him at first until
+  I found out he came from Radnor, and then I just pelted him with
+  questions about you, and he didn’t know you at all! I could have
+  wept! But I talked on about you just the same, and I was dying to
+  tell him about your work, for I think it’s so noble of you, but
+  mummie has forbidden my mentioning it to any one, and, of course, I
+  wouldn’t disobey her. He got the ring in my birthday cake, girls;
+  wasn’t that the funniest thing? Lillie Blake teased him to give it
+  to her, but he wouldn’t, and slipped it in his pocket out of sight.
+  I know he enjoyed hearing me talk about you, because he stayed with
+  me a good part of the evening, and Teddie Carroll got cross and
+  sulked in the corner. Isn’t he the silliest thing?
+
+  “Good-by, you old darlings, and don’t forget your little cousin,
+
+                                                             “Nannie.”
+
+Julie smiled as she put down the letter. “Isn’t she a darling, Hester? I
+don’t wonder they call her ‘Kitten,’ she purrs so. And she’s so
+ingenuous! Imagine her thinking that a man stayed about with her because
+she talked about us. He evidently took a fancy to her—the dear little
+thing! I wonder who he was.”
+
+“She has forgotten to mention his name,” said Hester, “but it does not
+much matter. Come, Julie, we must switch our thoughts up from Virginia,
+or we’ll never get to work to-day.”
+
+Julie went over to a shelf and stuck the two letters behind a clock. “It
+is an inspiration to work,” she said, “when we know people are thinking
+of us and loving us. That money, dear, is a godsend. We had scarcely
+enough left to market another day.”
+
+Julie, who was self-appointed buyer, had been racking her brains to know
+how they should get through another day without running into debt—a
+contingency of which they had a horror. They had stopped all their
+father’s accounts and were unanimous in agreeing that they would go
+without that for which they could not pay cash. Accordingly they went
+without a great deal.
+
+In her first experience of marketing Julie was aghast to find that meats
+which she regarded as a common necessity cost so much that she was
+forced to act upon the butcher’s suggestion that it was “stew meat” she
+wanted. It was _not_ what she wanted, but she took it meekly and ate it
+with pretended relish, for Bridget took pride in serving a genuine Irish
+stew.
+
+It was characteristic of the Dales that they never did things by halves,
+and they threw themselves with tremendous energy into their work, which
+was developing, though still slowly. Orders for wine jelly and cake came
+in from people unknown to them, and they knew that Dr. Ware’s influence
+was working for their good. Miss Ware, too, though outwardly
+antagonistic, had carried out her intention of taking Hester’s cake to
+the Sewing Class, with the result that the hostess of the next meeting
+had ordered all her cake from them for that occasion.
+
+This order they were getting to work on now, and Julie remarked that she
+wished white cake were not so much in demand, for the continued increase
+of left-over yolks was appalling.
+
+“Bridget has made them into omelette at least twice a day lately, until
+it seems to me I can’t stand the sight of them, Hester. And the more we
+have to make frosting the worse it gets. Either we’ve got to throw them
+away in rank extravagance or keep on eating them and die. I wish we
+could think of something to do with them!”
+
+“If we only could afford to buy oil, Bridget would make us some
+salad-dressing.”
+
+“But we can’t afford it. Poor Bridget, that is her one accomplishment.
+She says she learned it from mamma, who was famous for it.”
+
+“Good gracious, Julie!” the practical Hester ejaculated, “don’t take to
+‘reminiscing’ with that far-away look in your eyes. You’ll be weighing
+salt instead of sugar.”
+
+“I am not ‘reminiscing’—I am thinking. Why can’t we make mayonnaise and
+sell it?”
+
+“What!”
+
+“Don’t drop dead with astonishment, you chief cook and bottle-washer,
+because _I_ have an idea. What do you think of it?”
+
+“Ye gods, but wouldn’t that be a scheme! Bridget could teach us—you
+know how Daddy’s friends always said they never got such salads at any
+other table!”
+
+“Don’t ‘reminisce,’ my dear.”
+
+“We’ll get the grocers to sell it,” disdaining to notice the pretended
+rebuke, “just as they do pickles and things. We’ll put it up in nice
+bottles, and——”
+
+“Wouldn’t it be rather clever to learn how to make it first?”
+interrupting this flight into future possibilities.
+
+“Bridget, Bridget, come here!” called Hester.
+
+Bridget, who was brushing up the sick-room, came down the little hall
+and entered the kitchen.
+
+“Do you see all those?” cried Hester, pointing to a bowl full of yolks
+standing on the table. “Now if you had your own way, what would you do
+with them?’
+
+“Make ’em into mayonnaise, miss.”
+
+“Of course you would, you extravagant creature! Well, that is just what
+we want you to do. Tell her, Julie—it is your scheme.”
+
+An amazed and delighted Bridget heard the girl unfold her plan.
+
+“Shure it’s a wonder yez are, Miss Julie, the two of yez, an’ my
+dressin’ can’t be beat. Could I be after showin’ yez how this mornin’?”
+
+“I’ll go straight into the grocery now and get a bottle of oil,”
+exclaimed Julie, and calling Peter Snooks, she was off in five minutes.
+
+She noticed as she went down the stairs that the door of the apartment
+underneath them was ajar, and to her astonishment Peter Snooks, that
+most well-behaved of dogs, thrust his nose into the crack and vanished.
+
+She stood a moment irresolute; then called peremptorily: “Snooks, Peter
+Snooks! come here this minute!”
+
+No dog appeared, and she was about to raise her voice for the second
+time when from the darkness of the inner hall she heard some one
+say—“Do you mind coming in just a minute? Your little dog is making
+friends with me, and I can’t come to you.”
+
+She followed the voice to the front room, where a boy lay in a wheeled
+chair, while beside him sat Peter Snooks on his hind legs, putting out
+his paw to shake hands in his most approved manner. At sight of his
+mistress he curled his tail under and crawled to her guiltily. “Don’t
+scold him, please,” said the boy; “it’s my fault. I’ve been wanting to
+know him this ever so long.”
+
+There was something so appealing in the boy’s voice and so penitent in
+the way Peter Snooks looked up at her that she patted the little rascal,
+and said brightly:
+
+“I never knew him to play truant before; but if you and he have made
+friends I shan’t apologize for his intrusion or mine.”
+
+“Oh no! don’t,” said the boy. “I’ve watched you from the window ever
+since you came here to live, and I feel somehow as if I sort of knew
+you.”
+
+“Are you ill?” she asked, gently.
+
+“Broke my hip two months ago,” he said. “It’s a long time mending.”
+
+“Oh! I am so sorry—I know how hard it must be—my father is—is ill,
+too.” She never could bring herself to put into words her father’s
+actual condition.
+
+“I wish you would sit down,” the boy said. “Mother may be in any moment.
+You can’t think how it cheers a fellow up to see somebody.” He spoke
+hesitatingly, as if he feared to show too great pleasure lest he give
+her offense.
+
+“I can’t stop, thank you,” said Julie, suddenly remembering her errand,
+“but if you are lonely and would like to have me, I will leave Peter
+Snooks awhile with you—he’s no end of company.”
+
+“Oh! would you, really?” The boy’s eyes glistened. “I wish mother were
+here; she’d know how to—to thank you.”
+
+At that moment a small, frail woman, gowned in black, entered the room.
+
+“Why, mother,” exclaimed the boy, turning to her a flushed, eager face,
+“I was just wishing for you. This is the young lady that lives upstairs,
+you know.”
+
+“How do you do?” the woman said, holding out her hand with quaint
+simplicity, neither face nor manner betraying any surprise at finding
+Julie there. “You are Miss Dale, are you not? I am Mrs. Grahame. It was
+kind of you to come in and see Jack.”
+
+“My little dog ran in here, and I followed in search of him and found
+your son,” Julie explained. “I really did not intend to be intrusive.”
+
+“It is a great pleasure to see you.” The older woman smiled at her. “You
+must pardon the seeming liberty, but Jack and I have long been
+acquainted with you. You see I am at work down-town most of the day, and
+the boy spends long hours by the window watching his neighbors go in and
+out, and he amuses himself by weaving little stories about them until he
+comes to regard them as personal friends.”
+
+Jack dropped his eyes. “You’ll think I’m the one who’s intrusive,” he
+said.
+
+“I do not think anything of the kind,” replied Julie; “I think it is a
+very clever, happy idea.” She went over to the chair and called the dog
+up in his lap. “Mrs. Grahame,” she said, “if you are not too busy, will
+you come up some evening and see us? We are working girls, and we have
+an invalid father, and we don’t expect to pay visits, but I would like
+to come down here again, if I may, and bring my sister. Your son would
+weave the most beautiful stories in the world if he really knew Hester.”
+
+“Thank you for suggesting so much happiness for my boy,” said Mrs.
+Grahame, earnestly. “You make me want to go to see you immediately.”
+
+Just as Hester’s lively imagination was picturing all sorts of
+calamities which might have overtaken her sister, that individual came
+hurriedly in with a bottle of salad oil in her hand.
+
+“Well, where on earth have you been?” cried Hester; “I thought you must
+have dropped dead or been kidnaped or something fearful.”
+
+“Was I so long? I am sorry, dear, but you see I made a call en route.”
+
+“A call! who ever heard of such a thing! Where is Peter Snooks?”
+suddenly missing him.
+
+“He is finishing the visit for me.” Julie laughed with a provokingly
+mysterious air.
+
+Hester, who had been working on alone and diving her head into a hot
+oven every five minutes to anxiously watch the evolution of bothersome
+little dabs of thin dough into small puffy cakes, was feeling decidedly
+cross and resented her sister’s apparent indifference to the business at
+hand.
+
+“Well, I’m glad if _you_ have time to gad about,” she said, witheringly.
+“I _thought_ we were going to take a lesson in making mayonnaise.”
+
+“You goose!” exclaimed Julie, pushing her away from the hot oven and
+herself kneeling down to peer in. “I’ll watch these cakes—you sit down
+and draw a breath and the cork of the oil at the same time, while I tell
+you what happened.”
+
+Somewhat mollified, Hester obeyed, and even deigned to show interest
+when Julie graphically described their neighbors.
+
+“Wasn’t it odd, Hester, just walking right into the midst of things like
+that? And the boy was so pathetic, and his mother was so quaint, with
+such a sweet face and pretty, wavy hair, and I only stayed a moment,
+dear, really, for all the time I knew you’d be wondering what had become
+of me.”
+
+“Well, all I’ve got to say is,” remarked Hester, with decided emphasis,
+“that if you were willing to leave Peter Snooks with them, they must be
+very remarkable people indeed.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The weeks passed rapidly to the young workers, who found each day full
+of experiments, sometimes developing into satisfactory results and again
+filled with bitter discouragement. There were days when the battle for
+existence threatened to overweigh and submerge them; days when from
+morning till night their work seemed possessed by evil demons, and
+everything went wrong; days when despair tugged at their hearts, and the
+old happy life forced itself in upon their thoughts with clamorous
+persistence. And ah! how they felt the sorrow of their father’s
+helplessness, the loss of his companionship causing an ache that nothing
+could assuage! But through it all they fought their way, upheld by the
+longing to show a spirit worthy of their father’s daughters, sustained
+by the consciousness that by their own endeavor they were “making a home
+for Dad.” This was the dominant note of the new life—like a bugle-call
+stirring them to action!
+
+Julie, who had been reading aloud to her father one day, suddenly went
+into the next room to find Hester, and exclaimed, “Thackeray says, ‘I
+would not curse my fortune—I’d make it!’ I think that’s great, Hester!
+We’ll take it for a motto.” And by that motto ever after they abided.
+
+Mr. Dale had not awakened to any definite consciousness of his
+condition, as Dr. Ware had anticipated, but remained in a passive,
+tranquil state, taking little heed and no part in any conversation,
+though his face brightened perceptibly whenever any one entered the
+room. Much of the day he slept, but during his waking hours one of the
+girls was constantly with him, hovering about with a tender protective
+air.
+
+Dr. Ware, who devoted all his spare time to his old friend, was a
+frequent and most welcome visitor. He was a man of distinguished
+presence, tall and well-knit, with the military bearing of a soldier and
+some ten years younger than Mr. Dale, although they had served in the
+War of the Rebellion together. Streaks of gray showed plentifully in his
+hair and pointed beard, throwing into greater contrast his black brows
+and blue-black eyes, while his face was marked with strong lines
+indicative of character. It was an interesting face and one that
+inspired immediate confidence, and in addition there was about him an
+indefinable charm which made itself felt both professionally and
+socially, so that there was not a more popular man in Radnor. This was
+perhaps an unusual position for a man of strong convictions, expressed
+fearlessly and freely on all subjects. To be thoroughly popular commonly
+requires an adaptable temperament not compatible with strong
+individuality.
+
+He watched over “his girls” as he called them, with affectionate
+solicitude mingled with an admiration and respect which knew no bounds.
+“They are going to succeed,” he would frequently say to himself after
+leaving them, “every failure only makes them more determined—it’s fine
+to watch the growth of such spirit.” And then he would drive off on his
+round of visits with a preoccupied air and vague longings would steal in
+upon him, softening the lines about his mouth and eyes and lingering
+deliciously in his mind even after he had roused himself impatiently
+from such day-dreams.
+
+The girls’ experiments in making mayonnaise resulted in Julie’s screwing
+up her courage one day and going to the leading grocery of Radnor. She
+asked for the proprietor and laid before him her scheme, at the same
+time showing him a sample of the mayonnaise. Poor Julie, who did not
+know what it meant to cry her wares in open market, felt very
+uncomfortable and flushed quite red as she talked; but she struggled to
+overcome her timidity and succeeded in interesting the man, who told her
+to leave her sample for him to try at home and gave her some valuable
+information about putting up such an article in the regulation form,
+suggesting that she follow his directions and bring in the mayonnaise
+again, bottled and labeled for his inspection.
+
+Busy days those were indeed in “The Hustle,” for in addition to trying
+varieties of cake, the mayonnaise suggested making salads and one thing
+led to another with surprising rapidity.
+
+It gradually began to be recognized in Radnor that if one wanted any
+delicacy in the way of fancy cooking, one should order it from “those
+Dale girls,” and this recognition was in no small part due to Mrs.
+Lennox, the President of _the_ Sewing Class. It was she who had sent
+them their first order and shown a marked interest in their work which
+was not without its immediate effect, for people occupied in their
+relation to Mrs. Lennox a position similar to that of “Mary’s little
+lamb.” Mrs. Lennox was a beautiful woman and in the fashionable world
+her word was law; but society amused rather than interested her, and her
+keen intellect and strong individuality led her into devious paths.
+Above all she was a philanthropist in that broad and humanitarian sense
+which sees promise in all gradations of men and women.
+
+She followed her first order to the girls with a second by mail; then a
+little correspondence ensued, in which she suggested their sending her
+any new thing they might be trying. A few weeks later she “blew over,”
+as she expressed it, and said in her charming way to Julie, as if she
+had known her intimately for years:
+
+“My dear, are you busy enough?”
+
+“No indeed, Mrs. Lennox, we never could be busy enough—we want to do so
+much.”
+
+“So I thought.” She threw back her furs and unclasping a big bunch of
+violets tossed them into the girl’s lap. “You like them, don’t you? So
+do I. I adore violets. I am raising white ones now and I will send you
+over some if I may.”
+
+“Oh, how good of you! Daddy loves them too. We always used to have
+flowers wherever we were and we do miss them so. I don’t see how you
+suspected it, Mrs. Lennox.”
+
+“I am rather keen about human nature, my dear, and it occurs to me that
+even though you do cook, you may have a love and longing for the
+beautiful.”
+
+Julie smiled. It was so comfortable to talk with some one who understood
+them. “Miss Ware would not agree with you,” she said. “She considers us
+lost to the finer things, beyond redemption. She dislikes us, you know,
+and we never go there; but she comes here sometimes and asks us all
+sorts of questions and wants to know about our recipes and things as if
+we could not comprehend any other subject. Hester calls it ‘talking
+shop’ and we hate it—not the work but the being excluded from other
+things.”
+
+“I understand perfectly. Miss Ware is a bit, well, narrow, like most
+Radnor people. So you are not busy enough?” eyeing her curiously; “well
+then, I have a suggestion. If you want to cater for the town, send out
+cards.”
+
+Julie gasped. “Business cards, you mean, soliciting orders?”
+
+“Exactly. You do a variety of things already—think up and experiment
+with more until you get an imposing little list, have cards printed and
+send them about—at least five hundred, I should say. Radnor is a large
+place and cliquey—there must be numbers of persons unknown to me who
+have never heard of you girls, yet would be likely to give you their
+custom. If my name on the cards by way of indorsement would be of any
+advantage, you are more than welcome to use it.”
+
+“Oh! thank you, of course it would be a great advantage, Mrs. Lennox,
+for no one knows us at all, you see. I’m—I’m dazed by your idea—it
+seems so pretentious—so bold to advertise ourselves. I don’t believe we
+should ever have thought of it, but it _is_ the thing to do.”
+
+“Decidedly. I know something about business and you have one of the most
+necessary qualifications for success—indefatigable zeal—and I want to
+push you along. But you must not overtax your strength. I suppose you
+have heard that before, eh, Miss Dale?” She laughed musically. “No doubt
+kindly disposed persons come here to leave orders and tell you not to
+work too hard.”
+
+“Yes, they do,” Julie earnestly replied. “I wish they would not. Just as
+if we did not have to work with all our might and main, and it is not
+easy—always.”
+
+“Easy! I should think not!” Mrs. Lennox rose and smiled into Julie’s
+grave eyes as she held out her hand to say good-by. “I am going now, but
+I want to come again and meet your sister too. May I? I should so like
+to know you and be your friend.”
+
+Julie impulsively kissed her. “It is so good to find some one who wants
+to know us—in spite of everything,” she faltered.
+
+“It is because of everything, my dear,” giving the girl an impetuous
+little hug. Which demonstration would greatly have astonished the smart
+set of Radnor to whom this side of their leader was unknown and
+unsuspected.
+
+It was about this time that the girls got the mayonnaise put up to their
+satisfaction, for innumerable perplexities had arisen in the matter of
+suitable bottles, corks and labels. When finally Julie had submitted the
+result to the grocer and that all-powerful man had ordered a dozen
+bottles to sell on commission, the girls felt that they were working to
+some purpose, and a glow akin to honest pride surged in their hearts.
+But the sensation swelled to overwhelming proportions when late one
+afternoon Julie, passing the store, spied in the great show-window a
+group of their bottles standing boldly alongside the firm’s best fancy
+articles. She gasped, scarcely daring to look at them, and rushed home
+to tell Hester.
+
+But when she got home she did not tell Hester. Instead she said: “Put on
+your things and come out before it grows dark—the air will do you
+good.”
+
+“Can’t,” said Hester, deep in a book, “I’m too tired to move.”
+
+“I want to show you something.”
+
+“Where?” reading on.
+
+“In a shop window.”
+
+“Julie Dale, what’s the matter?” she exclaimed, dropping her book. “I’m
+sure you’ve got a crazy look about you—your hat’s on crooked!”
+
+“I don’t care, I think you would want to throw _your_ hat in the air if
+you had seen it!”
+
+“Seen what? A shop window? I hate them—they’re just full of tantalizing
+things one wants and can’t have!”
+
+“Well, this isn’t—or perhaps it is—I am sure I don’t know, but I came
+way back after you and oh! do come.”
+
+“You are responsible for great expectations,” said Hester, reluctantly
+getting up from the bed. “I call it a most unchristian act to rout me
+out like this.”
+
+But she took another view of it when she found herself out in the brisk
+wintry air, and she caught some of the exhilaration of her sister’s gay
+spirits as they went along, Peter Snooks racing wildly about them.
+
+When they approached the window of the grocery Julie’s heart beat
+rapidly in anticipation of Hester’s surprise. As they reached it she
+suddenly pulled her arm and led her close to the window. “Look!” she
+said excitedly but in a low voice, for many persons were passing and
+some few stood near them.
+
+There it was, the mayonnaise into which they had put their best
+endeavor, standing in so conspicuous a place that it could not fail to
+attract the attention of the passers-by.
+
+“New thing, that mayonnaise, isn’t it?” they heard a man say to his
+companion, “well put up—let’s go in and look at it.”
+
+Hester gazed speechless into the window, her eyes nearly bulging out of
+her head.
+
+“Would you ever have believed it!” whispered Julie, poking her. “Let’s
+wait,” as she saw a clerk lean into the window and take down a bottle,
+“let’s wait and see if those people buy it.”
+
+“No we won’t,” said Hester, finding her voice at last. She clutched her
+sister’s arm convulsively. “We’ll go straight home before I scream with
+joy right here on the corner.”
+
+“You don’t like shop windows, do you?” said Julie with a happy laugh.
+
+In the exuberance of their spirits and with a desire to impart the good
+news to their neighbors, whom they now counted as friends, the girls
+stopped at the Grahame’s on their way upstairs.
+
+“Jack,” exclaimed Hester the impetuous, “Jack, what do you suppose has
+happened?”
+
+“By the look of you I should say you’d inherited a fortune.”
+
+“Pouf!” disdainfully, “that is commonplace.” She clapped her hands
+together while her eyes danced merrily. “Try again, Jack.”
+
+“May I have a guess, Miss Dale?” said a voice that made the girl start,
+while a long, lazy form emerged from the corner.
+
+Hester’s manner changed instantly, and her eyes sought Jack’s
+questioningly, as if she were asking some explanation. Then she turned
+to the man who stood quietly watching her.
+
+“How do you do, Mr. Landor?” she said with a stiff little formality that
+was unlike Hester, “I did not know you and Jack were friends.”
+
+“May I be presented?” asked Julie, coming forward; “I seem to be quite
+out of it.”
+
+Jack from his chair in his capacity of host performed the introduction.
+
+“Will _you_ let me guess?” said the man, addressing Julie as if there
+had been no interruption. “Your sister refuses to answer me.”
+
+“You certainly will not let him guess,” promptly replied Hester.
+“Curiosity is a shockingly reprehensible trait and besides,” with a
+little toss of her head, “our affairs cannot possibly be of interest to
+Mr. Landor.”
+
+The man flushed and picked up his hat. “I am off, old fellow,” he said
+to Jack. “I’ll be in again before a great while.”
+
+“Oh, don’t let us drive you away, please, Mr. Landor,” protested Julie,
+who was secretly marveling over that cool little sarcastic voice which
+she had scarcely recognized as Hester’s. “We had only a moment to stop
+and we can come down again any time; we know what a great pleasure it is
+to Jack to have visitors, don’t we, Hester?”
+
+Julie had her hand on the door.
+
+[Illustration: “MAY I HAVE A GUESS, MISS DALE?”]
+
+“You will do what she asks, I am sure, Mr. Landor,” said Hester. It did
+not escape him that she shifted the responsibility to her sister. “Julie
+always arranges things perfectly. We really should be at home this very
+minute.” And waving her hand at the astonished Jack, she followed in the
+wake of her sister.
+
+“Hester,” exclaimed Julie, in the seclusion of their own apartment,
+“what made you so rude to Mr. Landor? I never heard you speak like that
+to any one before.”
+
+“Oh! Julie,” cried the younger girl, flinging herself down in a chair,
+“I’ve the most disgusting, beastly temper!”
+
+“You’ve nothing of the sort!” denied her sister indignantly.
+
+“I have. You don’t know anything about it, it’s—it’s just developing. I
+get all hot inside; sometimes it breaks out the way it did at Miss
+Ware’s and to-day it made me nasty and sarcastic. I’ve always hated
+sarcastic people!”
+
+“What has Mr. Landor done, dear, to make you dislike him so? I thought
+he seemed most charming and agreeable.”
+
+“Did you?” indifferently, leaning back in her chair. Suddenly she sat
+bolt upright and exclaimed vehemently, “Julie Dale, if you dare to take
+to singing his praises as Dr. Ware does I’ll—I’ll—well, I don’t know
+what I’ll do! I hate him, with his smiling, masterful air and his prying
+into affairs which are none of his business.” (This seemed rather strong
+language, but Julie did not interrupt her.) “He is an idle society man
+and we are hard-working girls. He has nothing in common with us
+whatever. We’ve no use for men, anyway—they don’t belong to the sort of
+life we live, they—they don’t fit into our scheme of things. Rather
+neat, that last phrase, eh, Julie? Read it in a book.” As usual,
+Hester’s outburst ended in a laugh.
+
+“Are you twenty years old,” said Julie stooping down to kiss the flushed
+face, “or two hundred, Hester?”
+
+“I’m an end-of-the-century idiot, that’s what I am!” she replied,
+pulling Julie over to give her a suffocating hug. Then in that
+irrelevant fashion so characteristic of her she threw back her head and
+sniffed the air suspiciously.
+
+“Julie!”
+
+But Julie had slipped away.
+
+Hester chased her into the little dining-room. “Julie Dale! do I smell
+steak?” Hester’s nostrils fairly quivered.
+
+“You do. I plunged into that wild extravagance on the strength of the
+mayonnaise, and I don’t care what you say!”
+
+“Say!” gasped Hester as Bridget brought in this unheard of luxury, “I
+only want to eat!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+“I’m sorry, old fellow.”
+
+“Sorry for what, Mr. Landor?”
+
+“To have driven your little friends away. They evidently had some good
+news to tell you.”
+
+“Oh! that’s all right,” said Jack cheerily, “it will keep, you know, and
+they were in a hurry—they said they could only stop a moment.” Jack was
+puzzling his young brain over their abrupt departure, but his loyalty to
+all three friends made him wish to hide from Landor the fact that he was
+apparently the cause. “I’m so sorry they _were_ in a hurry,” he
+continued, “for I’m always wishing you knew one another—you’d get on
+like a house afire.”
+
+“Should we, Jack? I don’t know. Recent events don’t seem to prove it, do
+they?” laughing good-naturedly.
+
+“Oh! that doesn’t count. You just wait until some day when they have
+more time—I don’t know when that’ll be, though, for they’re regular
+hustlers. What do you suppose?” confidentially. “They call their flat
+‘The Hustle’—isn’t that great?”
+
+“I should say so—it sounds enterprising.”
+
+“They named it after the private car they used to live in—they’ve told
+me all about it. Gee! wouldn’t I like to get aboard of her once! She
+must have been a beauty!”
+
+“What became of the car? Did you ever happen to hear, Jack?”
+
+“It’s out west somewhere—some railroad’s got it, I think, but I’m not
+sure. They never spoke of it but once—I could see it went kind of hard
+talking about it, though Miss Hester laughed and joked about its being
+they who did the hustling now, instead of the car. It must be fine to be
+rich and travel all around,” exclaimed the boy, “but I’d hate to have
+had it and then have to give it all up the way they have. Say, Mr.
+Landor, shall I tell you something?” He clasped the arms of the
+reclining chair with his thin hands and drew himself up to a sitting
+posture.
+
+Landor nodded and drew his seat closer. He encouraged the boy in his
+confidences.
+
+“I slumped the other night—clean went all to pieces. I’m fourteen, you
+know, but if I’d been four I couldn’t have acted more kiddish. Mother
+was out and I’d been thinking how I wanted to go to college and
+couldn’t, because mother can’t afford it, and how I wanted to travel
+around and couldn’t, and how I even wanted to walk and couldn’t—not for
+a long time yet—and I just lay here and thought there wasn’t much sense
+in getting any better anyway—I’d just have to go back and be nothing
+better than an office boy where I was before I got hurt and—”
+
+“And you succeeded in working yourself up into a fine frenzy of
+discontent, didn’t you, Jack? I understand, my boy. We all have our
+rebellious moments.”
+
+“I was crying like a baby when Miss Julie came in.”
+
+“Poor old Jack,” patting his hand sympathetically.
+
+“Poor nothing!” exclaimed the boy in a tone of infinite disgust, “it
+makes me hot all over to think about it and that wasn’t the worst! I
+_kept on_ crying.” Jack’s honest nature was abasing itself before his
+friend. “I kept on crying till she shamed me out of it.”
+
+Landor did not speak, feeling silence at that moment would better
+harmonize with the boy’s mood. Jack and he understood each other, and
+the boy feeling his sympathetic interest drew a long breath and went on
+again.
+
+“She made me tell her all about it and I felt so cut up and blue that I
+said a lot of things I didn’t mean and I told her it was easy enough for
+her to be brave—she didn’t know what it was to lie still and perhaps be
+crippled all your life—the doctor can’t tell. _Think of my telling her
+that!_” The boy shuddered. “I believe if I’d struck her, Mr. Landor, I
+couldn’t have hurt her more, for there’s her father, you see, a million
+times worse off than I am, and I’d forgotten all about him.”
+
+Landor pushed back his chair and as if he found action of some kind
+necessary paced the room quietly while the boy talked on.
+
+“Her face got so white and her eyes got so dark that it frightened me,
+but do you know what she did? I was lying on the couch and she came over
+and knelt down beside me and talked to me a long time about her father.”
+Jack’s voice was awed and Landor’s hands went deeper down into his
+pockets—a way he had when he was moved.
+
+“She called him ‘Daddy’ and you could see just the way she said it that
+she worshiped him, and she told me that when you loved a person very
+much it was harder to see him stricken down than if you were ill and
+helpless yourself. I hadn’t thought of that, but it must be so, mustn’t
+it, Mr. Landor?”
+
+“Yes, Jack, it must be so.” No cloud had ever darkened Kenneth Landor’s
+pleasure-loving, pleasure-giving life.
+
+“Then she told me that she wasn’t brave really. That many a night she
+cried herself to sleep because she was heart-broken about her father and
+discouraged about their work and tired. I think she just told me that so
+I wouldn’t feel as if I were a coward because I cried too. I’d stopped
+by that time, I can tell you! And then she said she wanted me to help
+her and her sister be bright and jolly by being bright and jolly, too.
+That made me laugh—to think I could help them! We both laughed and I
+felt better. After that she talked a long time about trouble and how it
+came to some people very young and how it was a sort of test—did you
+ever think of that, Mr. Landor?” gazing earnestly into the man’s face.
+
+“No, Jack, there are many things I have never thought of!”
+
+“You would if you knew them, you couldn’t help it. She wasn’t a bit
+preachy—I hate that—but she said the way we took things showed the
+kind of characters we had and when we got discouraged we must just
+remember we were soldiers—Christ’s soldiers—that’s what she said.” The
+boy’s voice sank to a whisper. “And that no soldier amounted to shucks
+till he was knocked about and disciplined and taught to obey his
+superiors.”
+
+“That is the truth, my boy.” In his heart Landor was marveling at what
+he heard.
+
+“And do you know what, Mr. Landor? I’m going to march in the ranks
+too—a double-quick step to try to catch up with them and if ever I do
+catch up and can march alongside of them, won’t I be proud, just!”
+Julie’s little sermon had sunk deep into his receptive mind and kindled
+his imagination to deeds of valor like some knight of old. He leaned
+back on his cushions exhausted by this unusual talk, his frail body in
+pitiful contrast to the strength of the spirit that had awakened within
+him and glowed in his face with a transfiguring light.
+
+Landor came over to his chair and took his hand in a grip that hurt. “I
+am going to enter the ranks too, old fellow,” said he, carrying out the
+illusion partly to please the boy’s fancy and partly because he had
+never before been so in earnest in his life.
+
+“You!” said the boy, to whom Landor was a hero, “you don’t have to
+fight—why you can kill buffaloes and Indians and everything!”
+
+Landor smiled. “Perhaps I have more dangerous foes nearer at hand, Jack.
+Who knows? Well, I must be going. Shall I lift you onto the couch
+first?”
+
+Jack always enjoyed the feeling of Landor’s strong arms about him and
+gave the man a grateful look as he was laid gently down. The couch was
+in reality Jack’s bed and the change to the reclining chair had been
+brought about by Landor, who sent the chair to him in the early days of
+their acquaintance, but laughingly denied any previous knowledge of it
+when Jack endeavored to thank him.
+
+“You seem to have a lot of paper about,” commented Landor, picking up
+some sheets from the floor. “What are you up to these days?”
+
+Jack blushed.
+
+“Out with it, old fellow; you look guilty.”
+
+“I’m—I’m trying to write out the stories I make about the people I see
+out of my window. You know I like to imagine things about them. _She_
+said if I’d write them down the way I tell them they’d entertain her
+father very much, but I’ve gotten sort of disgusted—it seems such awful
+rot when it’s down on paper.”
+
+Landor ran his eye over the sheets Jack indicated.
+
+“They are not rot, Jack, they are pretty good. I am not much of a
+literary chap, but I know when a thing is interesting. When you have
+taken this way of introducing the neighborhood to Mr. Dale why don’t you
+send him a weekly bulletin—a regularly gotten up paper with all the
+neighborhood news? When there isn’t news you can invent it, you know,”
+smiling; “that is allowable in the newspaper trade.”
+
+“Say, that’s great!” cried Jack. “I’ll call it the—‘In the Ranks’ and
+make a great big heading for my first column ‘News from the Front’ (that
+means front window) and I know, that’ll please Mr. Dale, for mother told
+me he was a distinguished officer in the Civil War and Miss Julie says
+they were brought up on military principles.” Jack snatched paper and
+pencil eager to begin.
+
+“Keep on with your stories first, Jack. Why, we shall be setting up a
+printing-press here next,” and with this delightfully suggestive remark
+Landor departed.
+
+He did not go on to the club, as was his wont at that hour, but lighted
+a cigar and walked out of the little court and down through Crana Street
+to the river, where on the bridge he paused and gazed across to the city
+with a rapt, preoccupied air. Then, as if the noise of the ever-whirring
+electric cars disturbed him, he retraced his steps and took a road in
+the opposite direction which brought him into the quiet and seclusion of
+the park. The air was keen and crisp and blew in his face in gusty
+whiffs as he strode on, while all about him in their winter nakedness
+the trees cast spectral shadows. Usually, from long training and
+association with western plains and mountain trails, he took note of
+everything as he passed, but to-night he gazed far on ahead, engrossed
+in thought. To his annoyance, twice his cigar went out—which was in
+itself significant. Finally he threw it away and lighted a little
+bull-dog pipe, his solace and companion in many a solitary stroll.
+
+So those were the Dale girls, he was thinking, of whom Dr. Ware had said
+so much but of whom, all unconsciously, Jack had revealed more than
+years of intercourse with them might tell. He thought of Julie as he had
+seen her, quiet and fair-haired, with that gracious little plea that he
+should not let them drive him away, to prevent which they had themselves
+made a hasty exit from the room. And then there was another Julie as
+Jack had pictured her, turning her heart out for a boy that he might be
+comforted! He thought of her with reverence. A profound solemnity
+possessed him, giving him a strangely subdued sensation as of a man
+emerging from a sanctuary. What was he to whom life was an idle pastime,
+that he should draw the same breath with her!
+
+Then from out this solemn train of thought danced another picture—two
+baffling eyes mocking him. Who was she, this will-o’-the-wisp, that she
+should hold him at arm’s length in that imperious fashion! He stopped
+and half closed his lids as if the better to conjure up a vision of her,
+then shook himself and went on—were not those eyes enough and that
+light ironical voice in his ears? Why had she snubbed him so—him, who
+was surely unoffending? And she was a soldier too, marching in the
+ranks. That pretty, piquant, fascinating sprite had shouldered her
+knapsack and was fighting a battle royal. Dr. Ware had told him so long
+ago, but somehow he only now began to realize it since Jack had
+expressed it in Julie’s simple way. Jove! the very simplicity of it was
+impressive! Thoughts like these carried Landor out into the country and
+brought him back to the club two hours later in an unusually quiet frame
+of mind. The men with whom he habitually fraternized found him dull and
+unresponsive and to his inexpressible relief they left him to finish the
+evening alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Mrs. Lennox was giving one of those little dinners for which she was
+justly famous. To-night it was in honor of Monsieur Jules Grémond, the
+young African explorer who was paying a flying visit to the States. To
+meet him were Miss Davis, a débutante whose prettiness could always be
+counted on to make a picture; Miss Marston, whose cleverness it was
+thought would interest him; and Kenneth Landor, whose attentions to Miss
+Davis had been rather pronounced during the season. Opposite his wife
+across the round table sat Mr. Lennox, than whom there was no more
+delightful host.
+
+They had not been long gathered about the table before Mrs. Lennox was
+conscious that her guests were lacking in that subtle attraction toward
+one another which is absolutely indispensable to the success of a small
+dinner. Monsieur Grémond, between her and Miss Marston, appeared to be
+listening in a most politely conventional manner to the girl who was
+making commonplace conversation with frequent pauses during which he
+turned to Mrs. Lennox, with whom he immediately fell into interesting
+talk. Kenneth Landor was singularly distrait. At first he had
+appropriated Miss Davis with his usual devoted air, but after a bit this
+languished and he, too, turned so often to Mrs. Lennox, next whom he
+sat, that Miss Davis first pouted and then in a fit of pique plunged
+into a violent flirtation with Mr. Lennox, much to that person’s
+amusement. Mrs. Lennox found it necessary to throw herself into the
+breach here, there and everywhere, but under her skillful manipulation
+the talk at last became general and animated.
+
+The interest of the table naturally centered on Grémond, who managed
+adroitly to keep the conversation off himself, thereby winning the
+admiration of his hostess—she rather enjoyed a lion who did not roar.
+Finally, with the arrival of the savory which followed the dessert—for
+Mrs. Lennox had adopted this English custom, she had the satisfaction of
+seeing Miss Marston and her husband deep in talk, Miss Davis and Kenneth
+“frivoling” as was their wont and was herself free to enjoy a
+tête-à-tête with her guest of honor.
+
+“Your country is a source of endless interest to me, Madame,” the
+Frenchman was saying, “but it is as nothing to your women. They rival
+ours—even surpass them.”
+
+“I am afraid we are in danger of being told that too often,” laughed his
+hostess, gaily.
+
+“Some things bear repetition, Madame.”
+
+“Have you known many of us, Monsieur?” she asked, interested. “I think
+you said you had been over here before.”
+
+“Yes, nearly two years ago, before I started off to Africa. It was
+indeed the cause of my immediate start for Africa,” he said with a
+retrospective air. “Then, too, Madame, America became very dear to me
+through my friendship with Sidney Renshawe—we were like brothers
+together in Paris.”
+
+“Ah, yes, I know, he speaks of you with great affection. He will be up
+from Virginia in a day or two, will he not?”
+
+“Not before I am off. I go to New Orleans on important business and from
+there to California, but I shall stay with him here on my return. Ah!
+you cannot dream what he has been to me,” he cried with Gallic
+enthusiasm, “he—and one other.”
+
+“Will you come and tell me about it later, Monsieur, when you have
+finished your cigars?” she said softly, picking up her gloves and giving
+the signal to rise.
+
+“Madame is very good,” he murmured, bowing low as he stood aside for her
+to pass.
+
+Left together, the three men drew near and by a common interest caused
+Grémond to talk of his explorations for fully half an hour, which time
+was all too short to his listeners, who were greatly interested in the
+man as well as in what he had done. Though they had just met him within
+the week he was well known to them through Renshawe, a warm friend of
+Kenneth and the Lennoxes and the half hour over their cigars would
+unquestionably have lengthened out indefinitely had the women not been
+waiting for them in the drawing-room.
+
+The party had expected to go to the opera together, but when the men
+rejoined the women they found a change of plan, Miss Marston having
+secretly confided to Mrs. Lennox that she had been “on the go” so
+steadily for weeks that it would be bliss to keep still, and “Couldn’t
+we all spend the evening here instead?” Pretty, disdainful Miss Davis,
+seeing in this suggestion possibilities of a prolonged tête-à-tête with
+Kenneth Landor, was enthusiastic in seconding it; while Mrs. Lennox
+acquiesced gladly—she had put in an exhausting day at various
+charitable organizations and was more tired than she cared to admit. As
+for the men, they were loud in their acclamations of delight over what
+Mr. Lennox called “the joy of a home evening.” Accordingly they left the
+formal drawing-room and repaired to Mrs. Lennox’s sanctum, a unique room
+finished in ebony, the dark wood relieved from somberness by a deep
+frieze of Pompeiian figures done in red, while bits of this vivid color
+were everywhere conspicuous in the furnishing. In all its appointments
+it showed the touch of a strong individuality and expressed in its way
+the æsthetic side of Mrs. Lennox’s nature. It had also what in a woman’s
+room made it distinctive—space. Mrs. Lennox was a person who liked free
+scope for her body as well as her mind.
+
+The guests, therefore, distributed themselves about comfortably and Miss
+Davis found herself exercising her fascinations upon the distinguished
+foreigner, who encouraged her by undisguised admiration, which indeed he
+had given her throughout dinner by glances meant to convey what the
+distance of the table between them made it impossible to say. But the
+paying of excessive compliments to a girl like Miss Davis, who cares
+only for that sort of thing from the masculine sex, sometimes palls and
+Grémond was just thinking a bit longingly of his charming hostess when
+that individual approached them.
+
+“Miss Davis,” she said, “Mr. Landor has been proposing a game of
+billiards. He wants you to help him beat Miss Marston and my
+husband—they have already begun to play, I believe. Will you join
+them?”
+
+“Do Miss Davis, will you?” urged Kenneth, who always enjoyed the game.
+
+Miss Davis looked at him and rose by way of answer. She had long ago
+discovered that her eyes did considerable execution. Then with a glance
+at Grémond which said that he too might follow her, she went with
+Kenneth across the hall into the billiard room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox sank into a curiously carved old ebony chair, against which
+her bare arms and shoulders gleamed white. She was gowned in black,
+unrelieved except for the rope of pearls wound twice around her throat
+and hanging in a loose chain to her waist; but the severity of outline
+was exceedingly becoming to her slender figure and the absence of color
+emphasized the beauty of her skin, which was as fair and soft as if she
+were twenty instead of forty. She sighed a little as she leaned back in
+her chair, and Grémond reaching for some cushions from a divan near by
+tucked them in behind her comfortably.
+
+“Madame is tired to-night,” he said.
+
+“Monsieur Grémond,” turning her head the better to see him, “I feel as
+if I should offer you a thousand apologies. I had planned a gay evening
+for you and instead you are becoming initiated into intimate home life.
+We are already treating you like one of the family. Fancy!”
+
+“A privilege not accorded to many; is it not so, Madame? I feel
+flattered beyond all telling.”
+
+It pleased her that he was quick to recognize this as unusual treatment
+of the stranger within her gates and she said cordially, “I felt when I
+saw you that we should not make the usual beginning. It is a little
+peculiarity of mine that I steal into people’s lives in the middle—when
+I like them. I have never analyzed it, but I trust to my instincts and I
+am not often mistaken. Now you,” she said, leaning languidly back on her
+cushions, “you interest me and I’ve sent them all off to play billiards
+that we may have a quiet little talk together. I want to hear more of
+what you were telling me at dinner, if I may.”
+
+“Madame is very good,” he said again. “We were speaking of Sidney
+Renshawe, were we not?”
+
+“Of him—‘and one other,’” she quoted, watching his eloquent face.
+
+His black eyes softened and he leaned forward a little, using his hands
+in frequent gesticulation as he began to talk. “I am reminded, Madame,
+of a certain witty English author who said that Columbus discovered
+America but America discovered him. To paraphrase him, I should say that
+two Americans discovered me—dear old Renshawe and the most charming
+little girl I ever knew.”
+
+“Yes?” she said.
+
+“But for those two, Madame, I might have been—anything!” He shrugged
+his shoulders expressively. “The one had faith in me, the other taught
+me to have faith in myself. She was my inspiration.” It seemed as
+natural to him to confide in this charming woman as if he had known her
+all his life, and in this he was not unlike the majority of people in
+whom Mrs. Lennox showed an interest, for she had that divine gift which
+for lack of an English word we call “simpatica”—an open sesame to all
+hearts.
+
+She was listening very quietly, but the look on her face was one of
+absorbed attention as Grémond went on.
+
+“For several years, Madame, I had been formulating my African plans, but
+I lacked distinct purpose until I knew her. She had the American idea
+that a man must accomplish something in the world. She thought I should
+prove myself capable of the great things I talked about.”
+
+“She can scarcely have reason to find fault with you now,” the woman
+said.
+
+“I hope not, Madame, when she knows what I have tried to do and how much
+more I shall do when I return.”
+
+“Are you going to tell her—soon?”
+
+“Soon?” with a quick indrawing of his breath, “as soon as I can get to
+California, but alas! that will not be for many weeks. I am not sure
+that she will want to listen to me, Madame, but I shall make her; I
+must.”
+
+“You met her in Europe, I fancy?”
+
+“On the contrary, I met her in Southern California in one of the big
+hotels where I was stopping. She was living there and we were thrown
+together constantly, laughing, dancing, riding—a gay life. Now and then
+when we touched on serious subjects I was amazed and moved by her great
+comprehension and high ideals.”
+
+“Does she not know what a powerful factor she has been in your life?”
+she asked.
+
+“Not yet, Madame. I went away with my heart full of her, but said no
+word. I felt I had not the right on so short an acquaintance and before
+I had really accomplished anything.”
+
+“Perhaps not, my friend, but I am not sure that I altogether agree with
+you. I feel that she liked you, with possibly more than the ordinary
+liking, and a girl wants some sign.”
+
+“I wrote her once, asking her to hold me in remembrance; was that a
+sign, Madame? It was all I dared to make. It seemed to me it was deeds
+and not words that were wanted.”
+
+“It was both, Monsieur, if you will allow me to say so, for without
+words how could a girl know that deeds were done for her sake alone?”
+
+“I thought she would know it all because I loved her so,” he faltered.
+
+“Oh, you men, you men!” Mrs. Lennox cried impatiently, “how you do
+expect a woman to take things for granted! Forgive me, Monsieur
+Grémond”—leaning forward and touching his arm—“but sometimes I get
+very cross over it.”
+
+“Oh Madame, Madame!” he exclaimed impetuously, “you cannot think, you
+cannot mean I have made a mistake?”
+
+“Indeed, no,” she replied reassuringly, seeing how his confident manner
+had changed to despair, “but I do mean that the ways of women are not
+more enigmatical than those of men—_some_ men,” she qualified.
+
+He laughed, glad to have the tension of the past moment broken by her
+light tone. For a moment neither spoke. Across the hall came the faint
+clicking of the billiard-balls.
+
+“We must join the others, Monsieur,” the woman said at last.
+
+“May I thank you for the pleasantest hour I have spent since my
+arrival?” he said earnestly as he rose.
+
+“The pleasantest—as yet. Eh, Monsieur?” with a charming smile.
+
+“As yet, Madame,” bowing gravely over her hand which he had taken in
+his.
+
+“Then will you come to me again, when you return and tell me _all_ about
+it?” with a faint pressure of her fingers in his.
+
+“May I, Madame? Ah, that will be a privilege indeed!” and stooping he
+kissed her hand.
+
+A moment later they had joined the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+“Those Dale girls are certainly remarkable!”
+
+“I have always maintained that, Mary.”
+
+“Remarkably surprising, I mean,” corrected Miss Ware, fingering the
+coffee-cups noisily in rather an irritating manner as it seemed to her
+brother, who was running over his voluminous morning mail.
+
+“What have they done now?” he asked looking up at her over his glasses.
+
+“To my mind a most unlady-like, vulgar thing. Here it is if you want to
+see.” A second look at a card in her hand before passing it over caused
+her to exclaim, “No! Is it possible! Mrs. Lennox has taken them up! Her
+name is actually printed on the card—it is the most astonishing thing I
+ever heard of!”
+
+“If you mean their business cards, Mary, I was consulted and saw the
+original draft and recommended the printer. Um,” examining the card
+critically, “he has turned out an excellent piece of work, artistic and
+quiet in tone. I thought he could be relied upon.”
+
+“Philip, you are too exasperating! I believe if those girls sold papers
+on the street corner you would think it the finest thing ever done!”
+
+“I probably should,” he rejoined imperturbably. “As for these cards,
+they are something to be proud of! ‘Salads, croquettes, fancy
+sandwiches, jellies, salted nuts, etc., etc.,’” he went on, running his
+eye down the list. “Gad! how they have pushed ahead! They mailed five
+hundred of these yesterday,” looking over at his sister, “and I fancy
+Radnor people will not be slow in responding.”
+
+“Oh! Mrs. Lennox’s name will be an alluring bait,” she said. “People
+will patronize them because she does, for a time, but they make a great
+mistake in relying upon her; this is just one of her fads.”
+
+“I can’t understand, Mary, how you take such delight in imputing
+disagreeable motives to people. Mrs. Lennox is not patronizing the
+girls—she has great respect for them. Neither are they relying on her
+in the least. They rely only on their own skill and ability to do their
+work to the satisfaction of their customers. Mrs. Lennox has kindly
+allowed them to add her name by way of reference or indorsement for
+those people who know nothing about them. It places them before the
+public in an unassailable position.”
+
+“Are they going to open a shop?” asked Miss Ware, a little
+superciliously, interested in spite of herself.
+
+“No, they mean to keep right on as they are, making things only to
+order. They will have no stock on hand. It is the best they can do under
+the circumstances, for it is impossible to branch out to any
+considerable extent while their father needs them close at hand.”
+
+“Good gracious, Philip! you wouldn’t advise a shop?” She made a wry face
+over her coffee, in which, in the excitement of the discussion, she had
+neglected to put any sugar.
+
+“I don’t know,” the Doctor replied, stroking his beard thoughtfully, “I
+am not sure. Being conducted in their home, a business such as theirs
+must of necessity be limited, and the profits small. One must do things
+in large quantities to make money. I have thought a good deal about a
+little shop—it may come to that eventually, but I am not sure that I
+want it to. They are not going to hold out forever; as it is they are
+living on their nerves,—they have been too delicately reared to stand
+such work.” He pushed his plate away and folding his arms on the table
+leaned forward confidentially. “Mary,” he said, “I wish I could get you
+to care for those girls—to love all that is so sweet and lovable in
+them.”
+
+“Perhaps I’d care more for them, Philip, if you did not care so much.”
+
+“What!” in astonishment, “why you aren’t—you can’t be jealous of them,
+Mary?”
+
+“I don’t know,” she replied, looking away from him, “women are queer,
+even we old ones—perhaps we’re queerest of all!”
+
+“Why, Mary, what nonsense to be jealous of two little girls who regard
+me in the light of a venerable uncle.”
+
+“I should not call a fine-looking man in the prime of life ‘venerable,’”
+said his sister resentfully, for she was immensely proud of her
+distinguished brother. “I am sure it would be very odd if they did not
+admire you for more reasons than one!”
+
+“It is not a question of their admiring me, Mary, but of my admiring
+them. And I am not the only one. People are beginning to talk about them
+aside from Mrs. Lennox. Mary, I want them to marry!”
+
+“Marry!” she exclaimed. “No eligible man would marry girls who cook and
+deliver boxes at people’s doors and do goodness knows what besides.”
+
+“You are very much mistaken, and while you cling to your absurd opinions
+I don’t think it is desirable to continue the conversation.” He rose
+with dignity and passed into his office.
+
+Miss Ware followed him. “Philip,” she queried with feminine curiosity,
+“had you any one special in mind?”
+
+The Doctor was lost in the depths of the morning paper.
+
+“Philip, I—I dare say I expressed myself rather strongly;” (this from
+Miss Ware was a great concession). “_Was_ there any one special in your
+mind?”
+
+“And what if there was, Mary?” answered the Doctor, slightly appeased
+but not wholly mollified, “would you really care to know?”
+
+“Yes, I should. It is so unusual for you to be developing match-making
+proclivities.”
+
+“That is true. I seldom think of such matters and, mind you, I do not by
+any means think that girls should marry just for the sake of
+marrying—that it is the end and aim of their existence—but in the case
+of the Dales my heart is set upon it.”
+
+“I thought you approved of women who were self-supporting,” remarked his
+sister, considerably surprised at the view he presented.
+
+“So I do, when circumstances require it or their temperaments demand
+independence and they are properly trained to stand shoulder to shoulder
+with men in business or professional life. But these little girls are
+wrestling with the bare problems of existence, working with the nervous
+tension of a high-bred race-horse, using up their vitality over pots and
+kettles and pans and smiling, smiling all the time as if they liked it!”
+
+“Why, I thought they did like it!” Verily this was a morning of
+surprises.
+
+“Like it!” cried the Doctor, trying to keep down the anger in his voice,
+“would you like it to be taken out of a life of keen enjoyment—a life
+crowded with incidents and continuous change of scene such as the Dales
+lived and be put down in a comparatively strange place, unrecognized
+socially, without young companionship and, worse still, to see a father
+whom they adore perfectly helpless and dependent on them for every
+mouthful of bread! It is a wonder to me the spirit is not crushed out of
+them!”
+
+“I never quite thought of it like that, Philip.”
+
+“Of course you didn’t, Mary. You thought they were rebellious,
+head-strong young things who liked being cramped up in a kitchen all
+day, beating their arms off over batches of dough and stirring
+mayonnaise until they are ready to fall into the bowl from sheer
+exhaustion! But I want you to look at it differently, I do indeed, and I
+want you to help me put a new interest in their lives.”
+
+“I will, Philip, there is my hand on it.”
+
+The Doctor clasped it warmly. “What do you think of Landor?” he said.
+
+“Kenneth Landor? Does he know them?”
+
+“He met Hester here one day and was immensely taken with her. Afterward
+he ran across them in my house in the apartment below them. There is an
+invalid boy there whom Kenneth heard of—you know he is always finding
+out-of-the-way people and going to see them. He told me he only saw the
+girls there a moment, but he’s taken a violent fancy to the boy, who
+talks about Julie and Hester by the hour together. Landor wants to meet
+the girls again—he has asked me to ask him here to meet them, but I
+have always put him off on one pretext or another, knowing it was
+useless to try to do anything while you felt as you did, but now you
+will arrange something, won’t you, Mary? You have such a talent for
+little parties.”
+
+“The girls won’t come. Have you heard them speak of Kenneth?”
+
+“Only casually, most casually. Hester always gets the talk off on
+something else when I mention him.”
+
+“That’s a good sign.”
+
+“A good sign!” said the Doctor, much puzzled, “I thought it was a bad
+one.”
+
+“Oh! you men,” laughed Miss Ware, “you don’t know anything. When a girl
+does not discuss a man it is usually because he interests her. Do you
+think,” she said seriously, “the girls, if they knew, would like your
+disposing of one of them in this calm fashion?”
+
+“Mary, I beg of you, do not misunderstand me. I have no wish to dispose
+of them. Kenneth may not fall in love with either of them, though I
+don’t see how he can help it” (this under his breath), “and neither of
+them may care in the least for him, but it would gladden my heart if the
+thing could be. He is an admirable fellow in every way, and during the
+past month he has gone into business with his father. Did you know that?
+There is no doubt that he could make a comfortable home for them all.
+Even if nothing comes of it I want him to know them—he’ll be a better
+man all his life for knowing them—and I want them to have a little
+diversion, a little outside interest to take them out of the rut. I’ll
+leave it all to you, Mary,” he ended, with a comfortable feeling of
+security.
+
+“I suppose, you know,” she said as she was leaving, “that both the girls
+have had several offers of marriage.”
+
+“No, I didn’t know.”
+
+“Mr. Dale mentioned it when he was discussing the question of my
+chaperoning them this winter. He said he wanted me to understand that
+the girls were in some ways much older than their years and that having
+been, through their constant companionship with him, thrown much into
+the society of men, it was natural they should have had that experience.
+He also said that neither girl had the slightest desire to marry for the
+present or had ever shown any preference for one man above another. I
+fancied from what he said that their manner toward men was frank, rather
+a sort of ‘camaraderie’ than the silly sentimental attitude some girls
+affect.”
+
+“You are perfectly right, Mary, they have a most engaging frankness of
+manner.”
+
+“May I ask you one thing, Philip?”
+
+“Certainly,” suddenly apprehensive of the question coming.
+
+“How do you know they are beating their arms off over batches of
+dough”—the phrase seemed to have stuck in her mind—“I mean how did you
+realize it? Did they tell you?”
+
+“Not they;” secretly relieved, “I hear it from Bridget. She worries her
+faithful old heart out about them and vows me to secrecy when she
+confides in me, for she says they would never forgive her if they knew
+she took it so hard.”
+
+“Good old Bridget,” he said to himself, for his sister had vanished
+without another word, “how my little girls would scold her!”
+
+Good old Bridget indeed, who told much, but was far too loyal to tell
+all she knew!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+“Hester, ‘we have arrived,’ as they say in France. This has been a
+momentous month. We’ve sent out our cards and bought our first groceries
+at wholesale.” Julie leaned her elbows on the kitchen table and gazed
+with a rapt meditative air at their first barrel of sugar.
+
+Bridget stood in the doorway openly admiring. “It’s like old times, Miss
+Julie dear, to be seein’ things come in quantities agen.” She had
+secretly harbored a grudge against the miserable little paper bags.
+
+Peter Snooks sniffed at the unfamiliar barrel and then sat down beside
+it with a comical air of importance, but Hester did not leave him long
+undisturbed, for in wild exuberance of spirits she executed a war-dance
+in which he joined, at the end of which she mounted the barrel and with
+arms extended made a speech.
+
+“Ladies and gentlemen (the gentlemen’s _you_, Snooks);
+
+“This is the proudest moment of my life!”
+
+Having delivered herself of this burst of eloquence she paused a moment
+dramatically, then plunged into such a torrent of nonsense that Bridget
+buried her head in her apron to stifle her laughter, Peter Snooks barked
+frantically in a fit of delight and Julie pulled the young orator down
+ignominiously.
+
+“Come into the other room,” she said. “Daddy is asleep and I don’t want
+you to wake him.”
+
+Instantly subdued, Hester tip-toed down the hall, following her sister.
+
+“Are we going to discuss affairs of state?” she whispered.
+
+“No, but we must come to some decision about Mrs. Lennox’s invitation
+for Thursday night. I think we ought to go.”
+
+“Well, I don’t. I object to being patronized.”
+
+“Oh! my dear, don’t look at it like that; it is not kind of you. You
+regard Mrs. Lennox as a friend, do you not?”
+
+“A business friend, yes; the kindest and best we have, but that is not
+knowing her socially.”
+
+“No, dear, but she wants to know us socially or she would not have
+invited us to her house. Don’t you see that is what it means, Hester? It
+is not patronizing us, but placing us on an equal footing—”
+
+“Where we belong,” interrupted Hester, “though I don’t think we need
+feel overwhelmed by Radnor’s recognition of the fact.” She spoke
+bitterly in a tone that cut her sister.
+
+“Hester dear, it does hurt to be utterly ignored by the people who used
+to know us when we were children, but there are enough outside of Radnor
+who have stood by us loyally and we will make headway here eventually
+when people get a little more used to us.”
+
+“Do you suppose I care a snap of my finger about these Radnor girls,”
+said Hester savagely. “They’re a narrow snobbish lot and I’m glad I’ve
+escaped knowing them! Just yesterday, as I was delivering that great box
+of sandwiches at Mrs. Crane’s I met Jessie Davis on the steps—she’d
+been calling there. Don’t you remember how we always played together
+when we were little tots at school? Well, of course I knew her
+immediately—she hasn’t changed a bit, and she knew me, but it was
+surprising how absorbed she suddenly became in looking for her carriage
+which was standing right under her nose! Think how disgraced she would
+have been before her footman if I—nothing better than a parcel-delivery
+girl—had spoken to her! She needn’t have been afraid,” scornfully,
+giving full vent to her smothered wrath, “I wouldn’t have spoken to her
+to have saved her life!”
+
+“She is not worth getting angry about, dear. You ought to pity her for
+not knowing any better.”
+
+“She knows better, well enough,” said the irate Hester, who rather liked
+to nurse her wrath. “She’s a nasty little snob!”
+
+“Well, she is,” agreed Julie, “but I can’t help pitying her for all she
+has missed in not knowing you.”
+
+Hester smiled. “It is wicked of me to spit out at you, Julie dear. You
+did not make snobs and you have to encounter them just as much as I do.
+I dare say if we go to Mrs. Lennox’s we shall run up against some, but a
+party does sound pleasant, doesn’t it?”
+
+“I think, dear,” said Julie with that quiet little matronly air she
+unconsciously assumed when she was trying to win over her sister, “I
+think that even though parties are not at all in our line these days, we
+should go. It is not a party, really, only an informal little musicale.
+It will freshen us up tremendously to get into a different atmosphere
+and it will please Mrs. Lennox, who has gone out of her way to be kind.”
+She looked at her sister entreatingly.
+
+“Julie, you are a saint! Sometimes you talk just like Daddy!”
+
+Julie’s eyes moistened. “I am not a saint,” she protested. “Think what
+Miss Ware will say when she hears of it?”
+
+Hester’s eyes gleamed. “That settles it—I am going, and if you want to
+know my honest opinion, I love Mrs. Lennox for asking us.”
+
+There were many orders that week and their working capacity was taxed to
+its utmost to meet the demand. Had it not been for their systematic
+arrangement of everything it would have been impossible to accomplish so
+much. They had learned that the early hours of the morning are the best
+and got to work by six, continuing on through the day as long as there
+was anything to do. They had laid down stringent rules for work hours
+and strenuously endeavored to live by them.
+
+By Thursday they were absorbed in the largest order they had yet
+received, embracing as it did croquettes, patties and other elaborate
+things which in an unguarded moment they had agreed to send hot to some
+club-rooms in the neighborhood. Hester thought they could do this by
+packing the things in a big steamer they had recently purchased. The
+steamer was a large tin affair built in sections of trays and would pack
+to great advantage, besides holding a considerable amount of boiling
+water at the bottom whereby the things could be kept hot. They had
+engaged an expressman to deliver this promptly at quarter past eight and
+it was with anxious hearts and nervous fingers they made the final
+preparations for packing. The cooking of all these elaborate things had
+been in itself no light achievement, but even that was as nothing to
+their fear lest the steamer should not reach its destination safely.
+They had been at work since five that morning and wrapped and boxed and
+packed securely was the last thing when the clock struck eight that
+evening. Five minutes past eight and no expressman! Quarter after, and
+two excited girls stared at each other across the steamer! Then Hester
+fled to the basement. The janitor was out but she pounced upon the
+engineer and got him upstairs before he realized what it was all about.
+“You’re to go on an errand,” was all she had vouchsafed him, leaving
+Julie to explain the rest.
+
+The man when he reached their kitchen eyed the big steamer curiously and
+said he could carry it. Whereupon Julie wanted to fall upon his neck
+with joy, but showed him the address tied to the cover instead.
+
+“Be’gorra miss,” he said in evident embarrassment, “I ain’t been in the
+city a week. Not the name of a street am I after knowin’ entirely.”
+
+Here was a dilemma.
+
+“I’ll go with him,” said Bridget.
+
+“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Julie, “you have been half dead
+with rheumatism for two days and it is pouring in torrents. We’ll go,
+Hester and I—we can get there in fifteen minutes. Hustle, Hester!”
+
+It was an incongruous little procession that went out into the storm,
+the girls leading, the man keeping close to his guides, who encouraged
+him by a word now and then. He walked firmly and with head erect, not
+because this was his habitual gait, but because he had been warned that
+any undue motion of his body would bring showers of scalding water down
+his back. An admonition like this was not to be disregarded and he
+picked his way gingerly to the basement door of the club where the girls
+rang the bell and the supper was safely left in the hands of the
+housekeeper. Then having lavishly rewarded their cavalier two
+light-hearted girls rushed home through the night to Bridget.
+
+She welcomed them as if they had returned from some great peril, petted
+and scolded them because of their wet things and fussed about like a hen
+whose goslings have swam safely back to shore.
+
+“I’ve made you a pot of coffee to warm your blessed selves,” she said.
+“It’s a wonder you don’t kill yourselves entirely.”
+
+“You Bridget!” said Julie affectionately as she kicked off her wet
+shoes, “won’t you put me to bed just as if I were a little bit of a
+girl?” With those tired eyes and that pathetic droop to her mouth she
+did not look much of anything else as she said it.
+
+“Julie Dale! are you crazy! Mrs. Lennox’s carriage is coming at nine
+o’clock to take us to the musicale! You’ve ten minutes to dress!” Hester
+made this announcement with a high tragedy air.
+
+Julie jumped as if she had been shot. “I had completely forgotten it,
+Hester. Oh! my dear, I am so dead tired I don’t feel as if I could
+move.”
+
+“Well, you’ve got to,” remarked Hester, who, having made up her mind to
+do a thing, was not easily turned from her purpose; “you got me into
+this thing and we’ll go if it kills us! I know I just about struck it
+when I called this place ‘The Hustle’” she ruminated. “I am sure I don’t
+feel as if I’d drawn a long breath since we came here!”
+
+“What shall we wear?” asked Julie who scrambled after her sister,
+shedding her wet things as she went.
+
+“I got out your light silks, dearie,” came from Bridget.
+
+“Do you suppose we ought to wear hats?” This from Hester, who was
+wishing they had planned their costumes the night before.
+
+“Perhaps we ought,” ruefully. “Good gracious! I haven’t any—not a small
+one, Hester.”
+
+“A trifle inconvenient, isn’t it? I might lend you the rose toque I
+bought in Paris.”
+
+“Indeed you won’t, it exactly matches your gown and you look dear in it.
+I’ll wear a bow in my hair or something.” A bow, to Julie, always filled
+any discrepancy.
+
+Hester arrested her in the act of trying this effect before the mirror
+and sat her down brusquely in a chair.
+
+“Give me that bow,” she commanded, “and keep still. _I’ll make a hat on
+your head!_ Bridget, you get down her picture hat quick, and rip off the
+tips and the band of jet and some lace and we’ll fix her up in a jiffy!”
+
+It was a wonderful creation—just a bit of lace and jet and ribbon with
+never a stitch in it, all fastened with hairpins to Julie’s curly head.
+Two white ostrich tips stood up saucily at the side, a few violets were
+coquettishly stuck in the back and the effect was immensely modish and
+becoming.
+
+“Hold your head high all the evening and don’t toss it about for your
+life!” warned Hester. “If you do, the whole thing will fall to pieces.”
+
+“That’s a cheerful prospect,” commented Julie, surveying herself in the
+glass. “Can’t you put in more hairpins?”
+
+“You’ve got about a million now.” Hester’s imagination never failed her.
+
+“Shure you look beautiful, Miss Julie, dear,” said Bridget, “and it
+ain’t goin’ to come to pieces—Miss Hester’s only teasin’ yer.”
+
+Five minutes later they were rolling through the storm in Mrs. Lennox’s
+brougham.
+
+“Hester,” whispered Julie from the depths of her luxurious corner, “_I_
+never tramped out in the wet to-night to deliver a club supper, did
+you?”
+
+“Certainly not,” squeezing her hand hard, “who ever heard of such a
+thing!”
+
+Something very like a tremor of nervous excitement pervaded the girls as
+their names were announced on the threshold of Mrs. Lennox’s
+drawing-room. Their entrance attracted immediate attention. Mrs. Lennox
+received them as Mrs. Lennox would, with most charming cordiality, yet
+not too pronounced lest they be made to feel that their coming was not a
+matter of common occurrence. She made a mental note of the fact that her
+protégés had never looked prettier and was immensely pleased with their
+poise and perfect self-possession under what she knew must be for them
+something of an ordeal. If she could have looked into Julie’s heart she
+would have discovered a shyness in coming among these people that
+amounted to positive pain; but who would ever have suspected it from
+that smiling exterior and that proud tilt of the head?
+
+As for Hester, from the moment a woman who was one of their customers
+bowed to her in a puzzled sort of way and then whispered so loud that
+every one about her could hear, “Why it’s those Dale girls!”—from that
+moment Hester’s spirit of deviltry awoke and she determined to outshine
+every girl in the room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox immediately presented half a dozen men who formed a little
+group about them and presently she steered them all toward some chairs
+preparatory to settling down to hear the music. As they crossed the room
+several women with whom they had had business dealings, bowed to them
+cordially. In a corner on a tête-à-tête seat sat Jessie Davis with
+Kenneth Landor. Both looked up as the party approached and Landor gave a
+half-stifled exclamation. Hester’s luminous eyes swept by the girl and
+into the man’s face with such a distracting smile that he was on his
+feet in a second.
+
+“How do you do?” she said sweetly, just the suspicion of a smile still
+lurking about the corners of her mouth while she extended her hand
+cordially.
+
+The man took it in an eager clasp and blessed the Fates for this
+propitious moment. “This is charming,” he said. “It is a great pleasure
+to see you.”
+
+“Yes, is it not?” naïvely. “Julie, here is Mr. Landor,” bringing him
+into the circle quite as if he were an old friend.
+
+Genuinely glad to see him, Julie showed it unreservedly. All the men
+knew him and envied him his luck as the little party found seats
+together.
+
+“You must not let us break up your tête-à-tête,” remonstrated the wicked
+Hester with a glance in the direction of the divan where Miss Davis sat
+deserted.
+
+Miss Davis, gazing into space, heard and bit her lip with vexation. She
+thought the airs the little upstart gave herself were intolerable. What
+could Mrs. Lennox be thinking of to bring those Dale girls into society?
+
+But Landor did not go back to her. Man fashion, he pleased himself by
+becoming Hester’s shadow during the remainder of the evening, though he
+was not allowed to monopolize her—far from it. He had to content
+himself with scraps of conversation, for every man in the room wanted to
+be presented and each found her so diverting and original that there was
+constantly a little crowd about her, while in the intervals of the music
+peals of merry laughter came from her corner of the room.
+
+Julie, who was holding a little court of her own, could hear her and
+rejoice, and she was especially glad that this should be so when later
+in the evening Miss Ware, escorted by her brother, entered the room. She
+recognized the girls and was conscious of their success five minutes
+after her arrival and there was within her something like envy of Mrs.
+Lennox who had been the first to take into the elect these social
+renegades.
+
+As for Dr. Ware, he threw himself with enthusiasm into the gayety of
+Hester’s corner, vying with the younger men in jests and laughter. Later
+he sauntered down the room, stopping on the way to chat with this person
+and that, and sought out Julie, who, though she greeted him so smilingly
+seemed to him suddenly remote. It was as if she had slipped away into a
+younger world than his and an indefinable sensation awoke within him,
+filling him with unrest. Partly because of this and partly because the
+pleasure in her evident pleasure was so great, he lingered near her,
+giving her that quiet, unobtrusive attention which his old friendship
+warranted. And Julie liked to have him near. She was glad that he smiled
+so approvingly upon her, happy that this little frivolity was given the
+additional delight of his presence. For it was all delightfully
+frivolous and gay, though Julie’s excitement and animation were
+naturally somewhat tempered by her headgear, especially as every now and
+then when she forgot herself and nodded her head emphatically over
+something, Hester would give her a warning glance. Poor Julie! the
+“proud and haughty” tilt became very trying, but it _was_ distinguished
+and caused Mr. Lennox, who was most critical, likewise somewhat horsey,
+to confide to his wife afterward that she was a thoroughbred.
+
+“I hope you’ll have them often,” he said, when the last guest had
+departed and they had settled down before the library fire to talk it
+over. “After the cut-and-dried young people one usually meets they are
+perfectly refreshing. I had a long talk with the blonde one—is she
+Julie?—during supper about Arizona. Found myself telling her all about
+my irrigation schemes out there. Fancy finding a young girl who
+understands such things! She knows that country well and gave me an idea
+or two worth considering.”
+
+“I should like to have them often, John, but they won’t come. Their work
+engrosses them to the exclusion of everything; it has to be so—they
+need all their strength to get through the days. I understand it
+perfectly. Did you notice how people were all in a flutter about them? I
+fancy I have given Radnor something to talk about!”
+
+“Oh! well, that is not unusual. Do you mean to say people have cut them?
+It seems incredible in these enlightened days.”
+
+“It is true, nevertheless, though Julie told me the other day that their
+customers were showing the kindest possible interest in their work and
+encouraging them by renewed orders; that every one showed them courtesy
+and consideration in a business way, but I happen to know, though she
+did not say so, that there it stops. The line is distinctly drawn. None
+of the daughters of those women show any inclination to renew their
+acquaintance with the girls, though many of them were their playfellows
+years ago.”
+
+“Well, they’re a disgrace to their sex, that is all I’ve got to
+say—I’ve no patience with that sort of thing!” Mr. Lennox put down a
+half-smoked cigar and pushed back his chair. “They were the success of
+the evening, Mabel, and I am proud to know them. It strikes me,” slyly,
+“there were others who succumbed to their fascinations. Landor, for
+instance, and Dr. Ware—”
+
+“Oh, he is their father’s oldest friend.”
+
+“And Renshawe, who displayed surprising interest in Arizona when he
+found us talking about it. Have you ever known him to care a hang about
+Arizona before?”
+
+“No,” laughed his wife, “but Sidney Renshawe always rises to the
+occasion when he is interested. Principally it is Virginia he talks
+about now. By the way, he is expecting Monsieur Grémond back from
+California any day. Did you know?”
+
+“I was glad to have a chance to speak to her of her father, too,” said
+Mr. Lennox, who apparently had not heeded his wife’s last remarks. “I
+knew Mr. Dale somewhat at the club and regretted his collapse as we all
+did. She had such a pretty proud look when I spoke of him, as if I
+couldn’t say too much. I felt as if I would like to take her off to some
+quiet corner and talk to her by the hour together.”
+
+“So you shall, my dear. Together we will lay siege and capture them
+again. I should like to give a dinner for them soon.
+
+“Oh! ask them informally when we are not entertaining,” remonstrated her
+husband who evidently desired to monopolize them.
+
+“Very well, dear, and if it pleases you to watch Julie’s eloquent
+face—and I assure you Hester’s is equally so—Mr. Dale shall be the
+chief topic of conversation. I never knew him, but it is a great deal to
+know his daughters, John.”
+
+Which sentiment being shared by the master of the house the mistress
+called the midnight session off and they went upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+It was a dismal rainy afternoon, and the work of the day having been
+finished early the girls were ensconced in their little sitting-room
+reveling in a well-earned rest. By the way of unusual dissipation a
+teakettle was hissing on the table, while the freshly filled sugar bowl
+and bits of lemon told of preparations for the cup that cheers.
+Stretched out at full length on the floor lay Hester in her favorite
+attitude. At her feet sprawled Peter Snooks, chewing frantically at a
+piece of rubber tire which was at once his solace and despair, defying
+as it did his most strenuous efforts to tear it to bits. Julie, who had
+donned a negligé and shaken the pins out of her curly hair, was buried
+in a book, yet with one ear alert lest her father in the adjoining room
+should stir and want something. Bridget, remarkable to relate, had taken
+an afternoon out.
+
+Presently Julie dropped her book and curling herself into the depths of
+the chair was dozing off when Hester said abruptly, “There’s a stranger
+coming!”
+
+Julie started up and gazed about as if expecting some one to loom up
+before her.
+
+“There is,” reiterated Hester.
+
+“Is what?” sleepily.
+
+“A stranger coming.”
+
+“How do you know?”
+
+“My nose itches,” announced the younger Dale, rubbing the tip of that
+saucy feature.
+
+“Nonsense! That’s an old granny’s reason.”
+
+“Can’t help it if it is. There is only one alternative and that is to
+kiss a fool. You would not exactly class yourself in that category,
+would you?” turning on her elbow to look at her sister. “Of course if
+you insist—” and Hester leaned toward her.
+
+Julie gave her a push. “You idiot! go kiss yourself in a mirror.” But
+the doorbell rang.
+
+Julie bounced from her chair and fled down the hall. Hester stifled her
+desire to laugh and opened the door on a tall, well-built man who stared
+as he beheld her.
+
+“Why—this is Mr. Renshawe, is it not?” the girl said with perfect
+composure though inwardly amazed at seeing him. “Won’t you come in?”
+
+“How do you do—thanks—I—that is—” he stammered helplessly.
+
+“You wish to see my sister, of course,” ushering him in. “We did not
+meet the other night at Mrs. Lennox’s, did we? but you see I heard about
+you afterward. I’ll go and call my sister.”
+
+“Oh! no, don’t, please, I beg of you. I must apologize for this
+impertinent intrusion—I’ve made some abominable mistake!” In the hand
+in which he was nervously twisting his hat, Hester caught a glimpse of
+one of their business cards and in a flash the whole purport of his
+visit was made clear to her.
+
+“I do not think it is a mistake,” she said naturally. “I imagine you
+have come to see us on business, have you not? Won’t you sit down, Mr.
+Renshawe?”
+
+“Oh, may I? Thanks. Do you do business?” he gasped incredulously,
+glancing from the piquant girl about the pretty room where no suggestion
+of anything like work was visible.
+
+“Yes,” replied Hester, “all kinds of fancy cooking. Possibly you’ve seen
+our cards,” she suggested in a desire to help him out.
+
+He produced the one in his hand with the air of a guilty culprit. “Yes,
+I have,” he confessed. “It was given me this afternoon by the manager of
+Heath & Co. He knows I give a good many bachelor parties in my chambers
+and recommended these things. But Miss Dale,” he protested, “I had no
+idea it was you and your sister—it never occurred to me.”
+
+“Why should it?” asked Hester, “but it is, just the same, and we shall
+be very glad to fill your order.” She went to a desk and brought forth a
+pad and pencil in a business-like manner.
+
+He sat watching her with a puzzled, utterly perplexed expression drawing
+his eye-brows together. Suddenly as she returned to her chair opposite
+him he cried,
+
+“By Jove! I know now, exactly—that’s just who you are!” looking into
+her face with evident relief.
+
+Hester wanted to laugh and say “Is it?” to this ambiguous remark but
+having assumed her formal business manner she maintained a discreet
+silence and waited for him to explain.
+
+“You are little Miss Driscoe’s cousin!” he announced.
+
+“Are you the Radnor man who has been visiting at the Blake’s
+plantation?” cried Hester impulsively, forgetting in her excitement that
+he was to be kept on a strictly business footing.
+
+“I shouldn’t wonder,” was his smiling reply. “I’ve been there several
+times this past winter; in fact I came up from there only last week.”
+
+“Oh! did you? Long ago Nannie wrote us that there had been a Radnor man
+at her birthday party but she quite forgot to mention his name. Oh! I
+wish Julie had known this the other night! She would have loved a chance
+to ask you all about the Driscoes. Isn’t Nannie the dearest little
+thing?”
+
+“If I hadn’t been a duffer, Miss Dale, I might have placed your sister
+immediately when I met her, for I have had the minutest descriptions of
+you both, I assure you. There was something very baffling about her that
+night, as if I must have known her or at least seen her before
+somewhere, but—”
+
+“But you did not expect to see us in society, perhaps?”
+
+He glanced at her as if the better to understand if her tone were
+cynical, but her bland little smile told him nothing and before he could
+make any reply she said:
+
+“I am afraid we have strayed too far from important things, Mr.
+Renshawe. It is shocking of me to encroach upon your time. Is there
+anything we can do for you in a business way?” She told Julie afterward
+she was quite proud of this little speech, for she had been consumed
+with a desire to ask him a thousand questions about the Driscoes.
+
+Renshawe interpreted it to mean that the chat was at an end and he
+feared that in some clumsy way he had offended her, but she steered him
+into a discussion of the order he had come to leave with such a calm
+matter-of-fact air that he found himself consulting her about salads and
+cakes with an ease he would not have believed possible when he entered
+the room. He had never been brought into business relations with a young
+girl of her position and he admired exceedingly her manner. The order
+having been arranged quite to his satisfaction he dismissed the subject
+and made up his mind to have his say in spite of the cue Hester had
+given him. So as he rose to leave he said:
+
+“I hope you will forgive me, Miss Dale, if I tell you I feel quite as if
+I knew you and your sister and I am immensely glad to meet you. You see
+the Blakes took me frequently to Wavertree Hall and Miss Nannie spoke of
+you so often; she—”
+
+“Dear little Nan,” the girl said musingly, “how I should love to see
+her!”
+
+The man looked as if he would like to echo that sentiment, but he only
+said as he moved toward the door:
+
+“Will you be very kind, Miss Dale, and let Mrs. Lennox bring me some
+time to see you and your sister? I have so many messages from Virginia,
+for Miss Nannie was confident I should meet you and you see she was
+right.”
+
+“Indeed you may come,” said Hester frankly, “we—we do not receive many
+visitors, but I know Julie will be glad to see you—I shall too,”
+genuinely, and not as if politeness prompted this after-thought.
+
+“Thank you. For the next few weeks I am owned body and soul,” smiling,
+“by Jules Grémond who is stopping with me. Perhaps you know of him, Miss
+Dale? He’s made considerable of a stir since he came out of Africa. An
+old chum of mine whom I think you might enjoy meeting—perhaps after
+awhile you will allow me to arrange it.”
+
+Hester always says she acted like a fool at this juncture and stammered
+out some unintelligible reply, and that he immediately departed, she
+thinks without any special consciousness of her idiocy—or at least she
+hopes so, for she frankly confesses she was in no state of mind to know.
+However that may be, the door had no sooner closed after him than the
+dignified junior Dale, caterer, became metamorphosed into an excited
+young girl who flew down the hall to the room where her sister had taken
+refuge.
+
+“Come back to the sitting-room where we can talk without waking Daddy,
+quick!” she cried, pulling Julie down the hall. “Now what do you
+suppose?” when they had reached the little room.
+
+“Some one has left an extra fine order,” seeing several pieces of paper
+clutched nervously in Hester’s hand.
+
+“Don’t be so everlastingly material!” pinning the papers with a vicious
+stab to the back of the chair. “It has nothing to do with work,
+whatever—that is not exactly. Oh! do guess who has been here—and who
+_is_ here?”
+
+“Hester, are you hiding some one to surprise me?” looking eagerly about.
+“I know it is a man—I heard him. It can’t be Dr. Ware; it wasn’t his
+step. It’s—it’s—oh! Hester Dale, is it cousin Driscoe?”
+
+“You’re getting hot,” cried Hester encouragingly, reveling in her
+sister’s excited curiosity.
+
+“Tell me this minute,” demanded Julie, shaking her. “What other man
+would be coming here?”
+
+“Well, there _are_ others,” laughed Hester, teasingly. “Mr. Renshawe,
+for instance.”
+
+“No!”
+
+“Honor bright! And who do you suppose he is?” mysteriously.
+
+“Don’t be so tantalizing! What on earth do I know about him?”
+wrathfully.
+
+“Well, you ought to. He hung around you the whole evening at Mrs.
+Lennox’s, you know he did. I simply wasn’t in it. I don’t believe he
+even knew I was there!”
+
+“You idiot! I had no personal talk with him whatever. As for you, you
+flirted shockingly with Mr. Landor. I was astonished at you!” severely.
+
+“I _was_ nice to him, wasn’t I?” admitted Hester, “but that was all for
+Jessie Davis’ benefit.”
+
+“So I thought, you depraved wretch! Will you kindly tell me what all
+this has to do with your present excitement?”
+
+Hester sat on the edge of her chair and delivered her next speech in
+italics.
+
+“Mr. Renshawe is the man who went to Nannie’s party and got the ring in
+her birthday cake!”
+
+“Not really!”
+
+“And he came here not knowing who we really were, because the manager at
+Heath’s gave him one of our cards and recommended us as caterers. You
+ought to have seen him, Julie! He was embarrassed almost to death and I
+felt flustered myself, to say the least, but we managed to get through
+the business part nicely and then at the end he just floored me!”
+
+“Hester!” Words other than ejaculations seemed to have failed Julie.
+
+The younger girl came over and stood in front of her to get the full
+effect of her next speech, the most important piece of news, which she
+had had hard work to keep until the last.
+
+“Jules Grémond is in this country, staying with Mr. Renshawe now,” she
+said.
+
+Julie was rendered wholly inarticulate, but the color spread in a
+crimson wave over her face and she made a grab at her sister, pulling
+her down beside her.
+
+“You are guying me!” she cried when she could speak.
+
+“It is the solemn truth; ‘cross my heart, hope to die,’” maintained
+Hester dramatically. “Moreover the things Mr. Renshawe has ordered are
+for a tea he is giving for Monsieur Grémond to-morrow and the Fates
+decree that we shall tickle the palate of the distinguished African
+explorer with sandwiches and things! Oh! Julie, what a funny world!”
+
+“How do you know he is distinguished?” asked Julie, clasping her hands
+behind her head that her nervous fingers might not betray her.
+
+“Because I do. Mr. Renshawe as much as said so. I wouldn’t have believed
+he had it in him, would you?”
+
+“I don’t know; we really hardly knew him well enough to judge.”
+
+“Umph! I don’t know about that. What do you suppose he is doing here,
+Julie? Do you think he’ll look us up?” hesitatingly.
+
+“Of course not,” with more asperity than the innocent questions seemed
+to justify. “He will never dream of our being in Radnor. You know we had
+been some weeks at the hotel in Los Angeles when he came, and for all he
+knew we might have been going to spend the rest of our days there.
+Probably he has ceased to remember that we exist—a man would find his
+_affaires du cœur_ rather clumsy baggage in the wilds of Africa!”
+
+“If he carried them all, yes. One or two might be consoling,” suggested
+Hester airily.
+
+“Oh! bother Jules Grémond! I don’t want to think of him! He belongs to a
+life that is past!”
+
+“Well, it is queer, anyway,” insisted Hester, “and I want to scream with
+laughter when I think of a divinity like you—didn’t he call you a
+divinity, Julie?—coming down from your pedestal to cater for his serene
+highness, the one and only Jules Grémond!”
+
+There was something so inimitable about Hester’s manner coupled with the
+graphic picture she drew that Julie went off into a paroxysm of laughter
+that ended in hysterical sobbing which Hester put an end to by shaking
+her vigorously.
+
+“You are so funny,” said Julie faintly, wiping her eyes. “You are almost
+as funny as the situation!” and then she buried her face in Hester’s arm
+and laughed again.
+
+“Shut up!” said Hester with more force than elegance for she was getting
+frightened at Julie’s unusual behavior. “Stop this minute or you’ll go
+all to pieces and besides, I’ve an awful confession to make!”
+
+“Oh! not anything more,” protested Julie, leaning back exhausted. “My
+dear, don’t! Another shock will certainly be the death of me!”
+piteously.
+
+“Well I’ll die if I don’t get it off my conscience, so there you are!”
+cried Hester, thumping down in Julie’s lap and beginning to finger the
+hair that strayed in little curls about her temples.
+
+“Go on,” resignedly from Julie.
+
+“Playing with your hair? I know you love to have me do it so you need
+not put on such a martyred air.”
+
+“Go on with your confession, you goose!”
+
+“Well, I told Mr. Renshawe he might come to call on us. You see he asked
+if we would let Mrs. Lennox bring him and he was so nice I couldn’t
+refuse.”
+
+An amused smile crept into Julie’s eyes. “I thought we had nothing in
+common with men whatever—that they did not fit into the present scheme
+of things—that we had no use for them in the life we live! _Wasn’t_ it
+some such explosive theory you expounded to me ages ago?” she asked
+teasingly.
+
+“It is true, you know it is,” pulling Julie’s curls to emphasize her
+words, “but I did it for Nannie’s sake. I know he is just dying to come
+here and talk about her.”
+
+“You mean you are just dying to have him! So am I, for the matter of
+that. Won’t it be nice to hear all about them?”
+
+“Do you know something?” said Hester who had a trick of beginning a
+speech with a question, “I believe he is in love with her!”
+
+“What gave you that idea, you precocious infant?”
+
+“Oh! nothing special, only the way he looked when her name was mentioned
+and his wanting to come here to talk about her—there is no other
+possible reason why he should want to come—and he got the ring in her
+cake you know. Wouldn’t it be romantic if she married him?”
+
+“Hester Dale! The way you allow your imagination to run riot is
+something perfectly fearful! You put one and one together and make a
+thousand things! I never saw such a girl!”
+
+“You are not cross, are you, Julie? You don’t think I did wrong to say
+he might come?”
+
+“Of course not, you baby, I think you did perfectly right. Now go and
+make me a cup of tea if the kettle has not boiled dry. We need a brace
+after all this excitement.”
+
+Hester busied herself with the tea things and Julie sat staring at her,
+wrapt in thought. If Hester was conscious of this preoccupation she gave
+no sign, but hummed a gay tune and talked to Peter Snooks, who came and
+sat pressed close to her knees in true dog fashion.
+
+“Do you know, Peter Snooks,” she said speculatively, “we have one very
+important feature in common—our noses.” At this he thrust his up in her
+lap. “Yes,” she continued, patting him, “we have. Yours denotes your
+state of health—mine the arrival of a stranger within our gates. A
+certain proud and haughty person jeers at mine but you know how it is,
+don’t you, old man?”
+
+The dog pawed her lap by way of showing that he understood perfectly and
+with his big eloquent eyes fixed on the sugar bowl, thrust out his
+tongue suggestively.
+
+“What! is that sensitive too! Oh! you scalawag!” and she tossed him a
+lump of sugar.
+
+This conversation had stolen in through Julie’s reverie and she pulled
+up her chair and leaned over to her sister as she took her cup of tea.
+
+“I dare say I did jeer at that saucy nose of yours,” she began, “but in
+token of my future awe and respect I am going to kiss it now,” suiting
+the action to the words. “It may be a precaution against its owner’s
+kissing me as an alternative in the next emergency! Peter Snooks, I call
+upon you to witness that I hereto set my seal,” with another kiss,
+“having at this moment solemnly declared that I consider the aforesaid
+feature infallible.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Radnor society was all agog over the second appearance of Monsieur
+Grémond, and no sooner was his coming made known than Renshawe was
+fairly deluged with invitations for his guest.
+
+Miss Ware took that occasion to give a big reception to which
+magnanimously, “those Dale girls” were invited. This was the only
+outcome of the after breakfast talk many weeks before with her brother.
+To tell the truth, the interest in them kindled at the moment by his
+enthusiasm, waned, and she never arranged the little party for which he
+had told her she had such a talent. Not that she altogether meant to
+waive her promise; she compromised with her conscience by telling
+herself that she had not yet gotten around to it. Here then was her
+opportunity and the girls were invited to the reception not only by card
+but personally. She only succeeded, however, in extracting a half
+promise from them to come, for they were having an anxious time over a
+new departure in their work and were little inclined for social
+dissipation.
+
+Kenneth Landor gave a stag dinner at his club in honor of the Frenchman
+on the night of his arrival and Dr. Ware entertained Renshawe, Grémond
+and Landor at the same place later in the week, dining them informally
+before his sister’s reception. Dr. Ware greatly enjoyed the society of
+younger men, who sought him in many capacities and as a counselor found
+in his quick comprehension of their difficulties many a solution of
+problems which to the young so often seem insurmountable. Then it was
+that the wisdom grown out of his vast experience of life gave itself
+freely to those who came to him, and many a man and woman left his
+presence cheered by the grip of his hand, strengthened by the kindliness
+that looked out from his eyes and pervaded his whole personality. On his
+lighter side, as a delightfully congenial companion, he had no equal in
+Radnor and this rubbing up continually against a younger point of view
+tended to freshen his mind and keep him in touch with much that
+otherwise, through the exigencies of his profession, would have escaped
+him.
+
+“I do not want to seem inhospitable,” he was saying that evening as the
+four men sat together at dinner, “but we must not linger too long over
+our cigars, or my sister will hold me responsible for keeping you away
+from her.” He had his own reasons for wanting to arrive fairly early.
+
+“In that case we’d better move along, Landor,” said Renshawe rising.
+“Dr. Ware,” turning to his host, “will you take Grémond with you or wait
+a few moments while we look in at a committee meeting upstairs. We will
+not be long if you both care to wait.”
+
+“I am in the hands of my friends,” said Grémond.
+
+“We will wait, by all means,” replied the Doctor, consulting his watch.
+“It is not much after nine now.”
+
+Thought transference was a psychological phenomenon over which Dr. Ware
+had pondered much, and a startling instance of it was borne in upon him
+when after the other men had departed, Monsieur Grémond turned to him
+and said abruptly, without any preamble:
+
+“May I ask, Dr. Ware, if you know in this city a family of Dales? In
+particular a Mademoiselle Julie Dale?”
+
+“Why yes, I believe so,” said the Doctor who was nothing if not
+non-committal, “do you?”
+
+He was totally unprepared for the effusive manner in which the Frenchman
+literally fell upon his neck, exclaiming, “Oh! my friend, I thank you, I
+thank you!”
+
+Masculine demonstration is not particularly pleasing to a man of
+Anglo-Saxon blood and Dr. Ware, in order to prevent a further exhibition
+of it, drew away slightly and offered his guest a fresh cigar.
+
+Monsieur Grémond shook his head. “I will not smoke—I will do nothing
+but ask you questions—if I may. Oh! you cannot think what it means to
+know I have found her!”
+
+“Have you been searching for Miss Julie Dale?” asked the Doctor, puffing
+clouds of smoke into the air.
+
+“Searching? Ah, if you but knew! I have been across your continent to
+California only to learn that she had long ago left there and come to
+your eastern coast, presumably here, though no one at the hotel knew
+definitely about her.”
+
+“You are especially interested in Miss Dale, I take it,” said the Doctor
+quietly. “In that case perhaps I should tell you that I stand somewhat
+in the relation of a guardian to her and her sister. You may talk quite
+frankly with me if you care to do so.”
+
+It was impossible to restrain or even resent the hand-shake with which
+the younger man expressed his appreciation.
+
+“The Fates have been kind!” was his exclamation. “I am rewarded for my
+bitter disappointment. Is Monsieur Dale dead?” he asked suddenly.
+
+“Not dead, but so ill that he is no longer able to look out for their
+interests—the privilege, therefore, devolves upon me.”
+
+“I wish to marry Mademoiselle Julie,” said the Frenchman with a
+directness Dr. Ware liked. “I came to this country chiefly for the
+purpose of taking her back with me. I knew them at Los Angeles two years
+ago and Monsieur Dale liked me—at least I do not think he disliked me,
+for he allowed me to be much in his daughters’ society. I realize that
+to you I am quite unknown, but Renshawe will vouch for me and any
+questions you may care to ask about my family or my future I shall be
+most happy to answer.”
+
+“Thank you.” There was silence for a moment and then the Doctor said
+slowly, “Have you reason to suppose that Miss Dale will marry you?”
+
+“Ah! that I do not know,—but she will—she must! Our intercourse was so
+perfect that life without her is incomplete. And she seemed always very
+happy with me. Has she never spoken of me or those days?”
+
+“I think not,” replied the Doctor, remembering that according to his
+sister that was in a man’s favor. “But it is not at all unnatural,” he
+hastened to say kindly, “we have gone little into the past since they
+have been living here—for many reasons.”
+
+“Will you tell me where they live and have I your permission to call on
+them to-morrow?” asked the Frenchman eagerly.
+
+“Better than that, Monsieur, Miss Dale and her sister will be at my
+sister’s reception this evening. It will give me great pleasure to see
+that you meet her at once. Many changes have taken place since you last
+saw her, but of all that she will prefer herself to tell you. You will
+find her developed from a winsome, lovable girl into a noble young woman
+whose attractions in every way are greater—”
+
+“Not greater than when I knew her—that cannot be possible,” interrupted
+the Frenchman. “To think that within the hour I shall see her! How can I
+express to you my intense gratitude for all this?”
+
+“By making her future all she has a right to expect from the man to whom
+she entrusts it,” said the Doctor earnestly. “For the rest, we will talk
+things over more thoroughly in a day or two. I think,” he said rising,
+“that Renshawe and Landor have forgotten us. Suppose after all we go on
+and let them follow at their leisure.”
+
+And Monsieur Grémond readily assenting, Dr. Ware called a cab, which
+soon left them at his door.
+
+The house was already crowded and Miss Ware gave her brother a look of
+displeasure which she considered his tardy appearance merited. It was
+not more than a fleeting frown, however, for Monsieur Grémond followed
+close at his heels and what hostess could fail to wreathe her
+countenance in other than most charming smiles to greet so distinguished
+a guest! Dr. Ware presented a number of persons to him and saw him well
+launched before he left him to go in search of the Dale girls. He rubbed
+up against Kenneth Landor presently and secured his aid as a scout to
+reconnoiter, for in his semi-capacity of host he found it difficult to
+ignore the people about him in pursuit of two elusive young women.
+
+Kenneth appeared at the Doctor’s elbow in the course of half an hour and
+confided to him that they were nowhere visible—“upstairs or downstairs
+or in my lady’s chamber.” He wore such a dejected look that the Doctor
+laughed and asked him why he wasn’t up to his old tricks—weren’t there
+dozens of pretty girls in the room? Kenneth merely raised his eyebrows
+expressively and the Doctor laughed again and reminded him that suspense
+was stimulating. Then he bethought him of Monsieur Grémond and
+discovering that individual, answered the questioning look in his eyes
+with an encouraging nod and managed to go over and say, in spite of the
+people by whom the Frenchman was surrounded, “She has not come yet but
+you shall know the instant she does.”
+
+When an hour passed and they did not appear he accosted his sister who
+was still standing at her post receiving.
+
+“Where are the girls?” with difficulty getting her attention.
+
+“Girls? what girls? It seems to me there is no lack of them.”
+
+“I mean the Dale girls. Didn’t you send the carriage for them as I
+directed?”
+
+“Of course I did. They—how _do_ you do, Mrs. Smartset—and Mr.
+Smartset, charmed I’m sure.”
+
+The Doctor stood back and patiently waited while an influx of guests
+passed before her. When an opportunity offered he spoke again.
+
+“They are not here, Mary. If you can give me a moment I would like to
+know why.”
+
+“You wouldn’t have me neglect my guests to discuss those Dale girls
+would you? _Must_ you be going, Mrs. Marston, and your daughter too—so
+good of you to come—goodnight. They are not coming,” she said in an
+aside to her brother, “the carriage came back with a note. I had no time
+to read it and I do not remember where I put it. Now for pity’s sake go
+and look after people and don’t worry me any more about them! Ah, Mrs.
+Lennox, this is really charming to see you,” as that individual entered.
+
+It was no easy matter to escape to his office but Dr. Ware did it and
+sent for Kenneth.
+
+“I have just learned that my little girls are not coming,” he said when
+Kenneth had joined him there. “I fear, my boy, that something is wrong
+and I am off. If people miss me say I was called away to a patient.
+Every one knows I am not to be counted on socially. Then there is
+Grémond. He knew the girls long ago and has been looking forward to
+meeting them to-night. Tell him they were prevented at the last moment
+from coming and give him their address so he can call if he likes.” It
+was characteristic of Dr. Ware that he left nothing undone.
+
+“You are not apprehensive of anything very serious, are you?” asked
+Kenneth who himself felt more concern than he cared to show.
+
+“No, no; why should I be? They may merely be tired out and have gone to
+bed or they may need me—I can’t take any chances where they are
+concerned, my boy.”
+
+“Of course not,” said Kenneth with unusual emphasis. “If you are going
+to walk over, Doctor, I’d like to go along with you.”
+
+“Take you away from the festivities? Nonsense! The girls in there would
+never forgive me!”
+
+“Oh! hang the whole business! I beg your pardon, Doctor, I forgot it was
+your sister’s function.”
+
+The Doctor laughed. “Come along with me. You need ozone to restore your
+placidity, but go back again later, like an obliging chap, if only to
+give my message to poor Grémond.”
+
+They had been swinging along for several blocks in the cool night air
+when Landor broke the silence by exclaiming savagely, “What in thunder
+has Jules Grémond to do with them!”
+
+“With the Dales?” asked the Doctor innocently, inwardly amused at
+Landor’s resentful tone. “He met them in California, I believe.”
+
+“Umph!” grunted Kenneth.
+
+“Here we are,” said the Doctor presently as they reached the house, “and
+there are lights in their rooms, so they are up about something and it
+is well I came. Goodnight, and thank you for walking over with me,
+Kenneth.”
+
+“Dr. Ware,” said the younger man wistfully, detaining him a moment on
+the steps, “if there is anything wrong up there,” with a motion of his
+head toward the top story, “you’ll let me know, won’t you? And if I
+could be of the slightest service you’ll call on me without hesitation,
+won’t you? Of course I know they’ve no possible use for a chap like me
+but I’d move heaven and earth to do anything—to feel that I was really
+of service to them in any way.”
+
+“You could not be better employed, Kenneth,” said the Doctor, looking
+down on him affectionately. “I shall remember what you say and I like
+you the better for saying it. Good-night.”
+
+Dr. Ware hastened into the house and up the long flights of stairs
+leading to the Dales’ apartment and knocked at the door, hesitating at
+so late an hour to startle them by ringing the bell. Evidently they were
+expecting him, for steps came down the little hall and the door was
+opened almost immediately by Bridget.
+
+“The saints be praised!” she exclaimed, “but it’s the Doctor!”
+
+“You were expecting me, of course, Bridget,” as she helped him off with
+his coat.
+
+“Bless your heart but I can’t say as we wus, sir, glad though they’ll be
+to see your blessed face.”
+
+“Of course I would come. Don’t they know that by this time? Who is ill?
+Is the Major worse? I should have been here long ago had I not been
+expecting them at the house every moment.”
+
+“They ain’t ill, sir, they’re workin’”, was her reply. “Maybe you’d
+better come right out to the kitchen an’ see for yourself their
+carryin’s on. We’re all at it to-night an’ it’s the fearful time they’ve
+had but it’s all plain sailin’ to the end now,” she wound up hopefully.
+
+Somewhat mystified, Dr. Ware followed and stood speechless on the
+threshold of the kitchen. For there were the girls in their cotton gowns
+with sleeves rolled up to the shoulders working away at what were to him
+inexplicable things, while over in a corner sat Jack half buried in a
+pile of small white boxes. The whole room presented the bustle of eleven
+in the morning rather than eleven in the evening.
+
+“You bad Dr. Ware,” said Julie playfully when she saw him, “what made
+you come?” She stopped her work a moment and whisking her apron over the
+chair Bridget had drawn out for him, motioned him to sit down. “We’re
+just daubed with frosting from one end of the place to the other, but we
+can’t stop working a moment, so if you dare, risk a chair?”
+
+The Doctor sat down. He would have taken the chair with the same
+equanimity if it had been caked with frosting.
+
+“Now what does this mean, at this hour?” he said.
+
+“Didn’t Miss Ware get our note? Oh! I am so sorry. We are terribly sorry
+to miss the reception, aren’t we, Hester?”
+
+“Um-um,” said Hester absorbed in making elaborate frosting designs on
+small pieces of cake.
+
+[Illustration: THERE WERE THE GIRLS IN THEIR COTTON GOWNS]
+
+“We wrote her,” continued Julie, “that we were detained by our work and
+I suppose if she did not get it that you thought when we did not appear
+something was the matter with Daddy. What a shame you had that anxiety
+for nothing!”
+
+“You must go straight back,” said Hester. “We are getting on famously
+and you must not miss another minute of the reception.”
+
+“You want to get me out of the way, I suppose, so you can keep up this
+orgy until all hours. I know you, you minx! I shan’t budge until I know
+all about it so you may as well begin.” He surveyed the group with a
+smiling imperturbable manner that was impossible to withstand. Jack,
+gazing at him out of the corner of his eye, thought he had never seen so
+splendid a gentleman and indeed his evening clothes became the Doctor
+tremendously so that he had never looked more handsome nor distinguished
+than at that moment as he sat among them leaning back in the kitchen
+chair.
+
+“It is all this wedding-cake,” said Hester disgustedly. “It has acted
+like Sam Patch!”
+
+“It is the first we have ever done,” explained Julie. “We took an order
+for two hundred boxes of cake and a big loaf, all for a wedding, and we
+made the cake a month ago. Oh! such a time as we had! You see, we are
+such ignoramuses that we have to wade through endless wrong ways before
+we discover the right one and we thought we had all the loaves properly
+frosted to cut for the boxes; but when we tried to cut the slices all
+the frosting fell off and so we had to begin all over again. Then we
+decided it would be better to cut the cake up into pieces for the boxes
+first and frost each one separately and—”
+
+“_We_ didn’t any such thing!” interrupted Hester. “That was Julie’s
+brilliant inspiration and she worked out all the frosting designs too.
+The big loaf and the bride’s cake are perfect beauties. Did you know the
+bride’s cake always had a ring and a thimble and a coin hidden in it for
+luck? Just look at the cakes over there,” waving her hand toward a side
+table, “aren’t they distinctly professional? Julie’s been hanging around
+caterers’ windows with her nose pressed against the glass studying their
+fancy frosted show pieces until I wonder she hasn’t been arrested for a
+suspicious character. Of course that childlike and bland countenance of
+hers was greatly in her favor but,” resignedly, “I was prepared for the
+worst.”
+
+“Miss Hester will have her laugh,” said Bridget, “but ’tain’t no
+laughin’ matter this job they’re putting through!”
+
+“Now Bridget, you keep still,” expostulated Julie. “She has been
+scolding us all the evening,” to Dr. Ware, “and frightening poor Jack to
+death, hasn’t she, Jack? Jack came to bring Daddy’s paper, you know,
+which he prints in great style since Mr. Landor has given him a printing
+press, and when he found we were busy he begged so hard to come out to
+the kitchen and help that we just had to let him. He’s been helping
+Bridget cut paraffine paper into squares—for each piece of cake has to
+be wrapped separately before it goes into its box—and they have cut all
+the white ribbon into pieces the right length to tie around the boxes
+and now they’re uncovering the boxes and getting them ready for the cake
+as soon as the frosting dries. Jack has been invaluable, hasn’t he,
+Bridget?”
+
+“Humph!” grunted Bridget, with whom, nevertheless, the boy was a prime
+favorite.
+
+“Good heavens! Julie,” cried the Doctor, “does one little box of
+wedding-cake mean all that?”
+
+“Two hundred do,” smiling, “but another time we’ll know better how to go
+at it.”
+
+All during this conversation she and Hester had been bending over the
+big work-table making curious evolutions with frosting bags over the
+pieces of cake spread everywhere about the room. Presently Hester
+dropped her bag and sat down.
+
+“Well,” she exclaimed, “I believe they are done—that part. Dr. Ware,”
+turning to him suddenly, “doesn’t it strike you as funny that instead of
+disporting ourselves gayly in the festivities of the town we should be
+wasting our youth and beauty—doesn’t that sound just like a book!—our
+youth and beauty over aggravating old things like these?” with a
+disgusted look at the wedding-cake. “You do not seem to laugh but I
+think it’s tremendously funny. Dear me!” to the air, reflectively, “how
+trying it must be to get on without a sense of humor!” Then with an
+entire change of tone, “We did want to go awfully, especially as we had
+a suspicion that some one might be there. I wonder,” dreamily, “if he
+was.”
+
+“I fancy so,” said the Doctor, hardly knowing whether or not to take her
+seriously. “Come back with me now and find out.”
+
+“Can’t,” said Hester, “but you might be an angel and tell us if we knew
+any one there.”
+
+“Let me see, there was Landor—”
+
+“Oh! bother Mr. Landor!” with a toss of her head. “He’s omnipresent!”
+
+“Um,” thought the Doctor, “I’ve struck the nail on the head.” Outwardly
+he said, “Then there was Renshawe,—you know him, do you not, and a
+guest of his who was tucked under my wing—apparently for protection
+against the wiles of the women who are trying systematically to spoil
+him with adulation.”
+
+“I know him,” said Hester, “that is Monsieur Jules Grémond.”
+
+“Yes,” replied the Doctor, “I thought you would guess. He told me he
+knew you girls and I believe he is hunting my house over for you at this
+moment.” He was talking to Hester but watching Julie narrowly.
+
+“There! Julie Dale,” exclaimed her sister triumphantly, “what did I tell
+you! I knew he would not forget us. She swore, Dr. Ware, that he would
+have forgotten our very existence and I vowed that he carried her image
+around on his heart and all sorts of high-sounding things. Shouldn’t
+wonder if they were true, too,” to Dr. Ware confidingly, “and you
+needn’t blush so furiously about it, either, Julie Dale?”
+
+“I am not blushing,” protested poor Julie who was crimson, “and I’ll
+have Bridget carry you off bodily if you don’t stop talking such
+nonsense. Don’t you mind what she says, will you Dr. Ware?” pleadingly.
+“She would rather tease than eat any day.”
+
+Julie’s embarrassment did not escape the Doctor and there was a twinge
+of pain in his heart as he said to her gently, “She is a naughty little
+girl, Julie, but she is right when she says your old friend Monsieur
+Grémond has not forgotten you. He inquired with great interest about you
+all and asked my permission to call upon you.”
+
+To this Julie made no reply and for some moments there was silence, when
+at last Hester sidled up to her and in her most wheedling voice said,
+“Forgive me, please, I did not mean to be naughty.”
+
+Julie gave her a hearty kiss and in the laugh that followed they all
+joined, even including Jack, who had found the situation almost painful
+a moment before when he thought his adored Miss Julie’s feelings had
+been hurt. Perhaps the good Doctor did not laugh with his accustomed
+zest but if so no one detected it, least of all Hester who gave him a
+big hug by way of magnanimously forgiving him for being cross to her and
+said emphatically:
+
+“You _must_ go home. Miss Ware will be having a thousand fits, not to
+mention all the guests who are probably looking everywhere for you.”
+
+“I have been called out to see a patient,” replied the Doctor. “Every
+one knows it by this time, only they do not know that instead of one I
+find four,” with a sweeping glance that embraced them all, “and not an
+inch do I stir until I see this case through. So you might as well make
+up your mind to put up with me and I want something to do. Come, Jack,
+show me how to take hold with you. I needn’t be condemned as utterly
+worthless just because I am a man.”
+
+In spite of their protestations Dr. Ware was as good as his word,
+busying himself in Jack’s corner, and with so many hands the work went
+forward swiftly. It was all smooth sailing now, as Bridget said, for the
+critical and difficult part was done and the next two hours in which the
+little group sat about the kitchen table wrapping, boxing and tying the
+cake was immeasurably shortened by Dr. Ware, who told them interesting
+anecdotes, experiences of his life that made Jack long to have the night
+lengthen out indefinitely. But that which the Doctor most dwelt upon,
+knowing well it was what the girls most liked to hear, were stories of
+the days when he and Major Dale fought side by side for the Union of the
+country in that war which was as much of a reality to these girls as if
+they had taken part in every military engagement.
+
+And Dr. Ware went home in the wee small hours with his mind in a tumult
+of thought. Distress that the girls had had such a night of it formed
+only a part of his disturbance, for above this fact, which in more
+tranquil moments would have been pre-eminent, was the consciousness that
+a new and central figure had arisen on the scene—yesterday a stranger
+to him, to-day the hero of a drama which was to the Doctor as his very
+life.
+
+He sat a long while in his study when he reached home, pondering over
+the future and the change that seemed imminent to the girls and he
+wondered what the outcome would be should Grémond take Julie’s life into
+his keeping. Was he worthy of her—_was_ he? How on so short an
+acquaintance could he tell? And did she love him—_did_ she? Beset by
+all these unanswerable questions he paced up and down the room, his slow
+measured tread like an accompaniment strengthening the minor harmonies
+in which his thoughts that night were set.
+
+His Julie! His little girl! Ah! she was no child to choose her lover
+lightly and if she loved him, trusted him to make her future, all would
+be well. He thought of her as he had left her, sweet and dainty in spite
+of the little dabs of sugar and frosting that stuck to the quaint blue
+apron which nearly covered her from head to foot. He remembered her
+embarrassment when Grémond’s name came up and kept that picture of her
+long before his eyes as if to accustom himself to this new aspect. He
+remembered too how flushed her cheeks were over the work and the tired
+shadows under her eyes told him plainly enough the relentless demand she
+was making upon her strength. Gad! those girls had been working eighteen
+hours at a stretch! Eighteen hours! It wasn’t the first time, either!
+And he, who would give his life to make things easier, was powerless—to
+another man would be given the right! Good heavens! Did Grémond realize
+his privilege? As if suddenly weary the Doctor flung himself down in his
+chair and heaved a sigh. Presently his lids drooped heavily. When he
+opened his eyes the room was flooded with sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+The order for the wedding-cake which had been a cause of such
+tribulation to the girls had come through Mrs. Lennox for a young cousin
+of her husband’s in whose marriage she was much interested. The order
+consisted of a bride’s cake, a round wedding-cake, two hundred boxes and
+in addition some thirty dozen small assorted cakes to be served with the
+supper. The bride’s mother had given the girls a fruit-cake recipe which
+had been many years in her family and had asked them to make the cake at
+least a month before the wedding that it might “age,” as the saying is.
+Hours easily counting into days had gone into the preparation of the
+fruit alone for this large order before the work of putting the cake
+together began; and then to make the twenty loaves, each of which when
+done resembled in size a two-quart brick of ice-cream, it was necessary
+to mix and cook the dough in installments. But as Julie told Dr. Ware,
+that was as child’s play to the intricacies of the frosting and the
+catastrophe that ensued; and the nervous as well as the physical strain
+of that, coming on top of all the rest of the work which the order
+entailed, told severely on the girls, especially Julie, though she was
+up with Hester at six the next morning packing the boxes into the wooden
+case which was to take the cake to its destination.
+
+The round loaf over which Julie had expended so much anxious thought was
+wrapped in sheet after sheet of cotton wadding to protect the elaborate
+frosting from breaking, and resembled when laid in its box a small-sized
+snow drift. Hester printed “handle with care” in so many places on the
+wooden box cover that the expressman when he came could with difficulty
+distinguish the address; while Bridget cautioned him with such emphasis
+to carry it “like it wuz a baby, shure,” that the man finally turned on
+her and asked if she thought he played football with his packages. It
+was an intense relief to them all when he had carried down the boxes and
+driven away, though their suspense would not really end until they
+learned of its safe arrival in the country town twenty miles away. And
+that they would know that same afternoon, for the mother of the bride
+had asked them to the wedding and Mrs. Lennox had been most urgent in
+insisting upon their going out with her, just, as she put it, for a
+“little country spree.”
+
+Mrs. Lennox had arranged a charming program whereby the girls should be
+of the party she and Mr. Lennox were to take out on their coach, but as
+the morning wore on and Julie found each hour’s work more difficult she
+finally told Hester she felt too tired to consider such an expedition
+and should remain at home. It was so unusual for Julie to admit fatigue
+that Hester felt alarmed and attempted to order her immediately to bed,
+saying she and Bridget could easily get through the rest and she should
+not go to the wedding without her. But Julie insisted, not only in
+working on into the afternoon when the orders for the day were at last
+completed, but in persuading Hester to consent to go to the wedding—a
+consent reluctantly given, for she was loath to go off without her
+sister. Having gained it, however, Julie dispatched a note to Mrs.
+Lennox begging to be excused from the party and turned her attention to
+helping Hester get ready when their work was done.
+
+Whereas, owing to her delicate constitution, Julie’s fatigue usually
+showed itself in complete physical exhaustion, Hester’s frequently took
+the form of intense mental excitement, when the chords of her buoyant
+nature were strung to their highest pitch. At such times she talked
+incessantly, laughed immoderately and was so restless that Julie always
+threatened to tie a string to her. She was in such a mood this
+afternoon, laughing and capering about, performing such ridiculous
+antics that Peter Snooks, who aided and abetted these moods, was barking
+with joy while Julie despaired of ever getting her clothed, not to
+mention restoring her to her right mind.
+
+“You are a darling to help me but I don’t love you at all for making me
+go when you are too ill to budge. I’ve a good notion not to mind you,
+anyway! Why should I? I’m bigger ’an you!” dancing about on her toes to
+increase her height, which possibly measured some two inches more than
+her sister’s.
+
+Julie caught her on the fly and thrust a dress skirt over her head,
+hooking it together without loss of time. “I’m going to have a nice
+quiet rest with Daddy,” she said, “and will be all right when you come
+home. I want to hear all about the wedding and whether the cake got
+there and everything, so do go, there’s a dear girl, and you’ll have a
+beautiful drive and a good time into the bargain.”
+
+“And feel like a pig because you are not there. That will be pleasant,
+won’t it! Is that the doorbell? Do peek out the window like a dear and
+see if the coach is there.”
+
+Julie did as she was requested and reported the arrival of the coach
+just as Bridget appeared and announced that Mrs. Lennox had sent Mr.
+Landor up to ask if she were ready.
+
+“Do you suppose he is going?” whispered Hester. “Oh! Julie dear, can’t
+you go in and see him?”
+
+“Not much! Here are your gloves and have you got a handkerchief? Can’t
+find one? Never mind, here is one of mine. Now run along and kiss Daddy
+and hurry—it is dreadful to keep people waiting. You look as fresh as a
+lark but don’t talk yourself black in the face,” admonishingly.
+“Remember ‘silence is golden,’” she called out when she had recovered
+her breath from Hester’s parting hug.
+
+She heard Mr. Landor expressing regret that the elder Miss Dale was not
+to be of the party and then she heard nothing more; but in most plebeian
+fashion she and Bridget and Peter Snooks peeped out of the window
+watching their departure, as did also Jack from the floor beneath. They
+saw Mr. Landor help her up to the box seat of the coach beside Mr.
+Lennox and sent down answering smiles to the parting wave of her hand.
+
+“Belikes I bet the young gentleman’s disappointed he ain’t got her
+hisself,” commented Bridget. “She’s the prettiest of the whole lot!”
+
+“Didn’t she look lovely, Bridget! She always does when she is so
+excited.”
+
+“It’s a lot more excited she’ll be when she gets back an’ finds you no
+better, Miss Julie, so I’m just goin’ to put you to bed. You do look in
+a way as I don’t like, an’ small wonder, the way you whip your poor
+frail little body along to do the work of ten!”
+
+“Nonsense, Bridget! I am not frail, you must not talk that way. I am
+just tired out to-day and I couldn’t brace up and be agreeable to
+people—I don’t want to be agreeable—I want to be cross, so I advise
+you to keep out of the way.”
+
+Bridget acted upon this suggestion by picking her up in her great
+muscular arms and marching into her bedroom. There laying her down she
+left to brew her a cup of tea—faithful Bridget’s panacea for every woe.
+Having returned and administered this she proceeded to undress her.
+
+“I was going to lie down with Daddy,” expostulated Julie feebly.
+
+“You’ll do nothin’ of the sort,” commanded Bridget. “You ain’t fit to be
+seen with that look in your face. I’m goin’ to tuck you into bed an’
+darken the room an’ we’ll see what sleep’ll do for yez.”
+
+As if this petting were more than she could bear, Julie buried her head
+in the pillow with a movement that made the woman suspicious.
+
+“What is it, darlint?” she cried, smoothing her hair. “Can’t you tell
+your old Bridget about it?”
+
+“Nothing,” said a muffled voice.
+
+“Shure it’s rest yez want, darlint. I seen how yez kep’ up all day so
+Miss Hester’d not be after knowin’ how dead beat yez wuz an’ now ye’ve
+clean gone all to pieces. Jus’ cry it all out dearie, an’ it’s like a
+new person you’ll be. ’Taint no small wonder yer wore out, with the
+worryin’ an’ frettin’ that goes on inside yer an’ always a cheery smile
+outside. Yer old Bridget knows! And may the blessed saints take yez out
+of this business before yez drop dead in yer tracks, sez I, every night
+on my knees—an’ I don’t care who’s after knowin’ it!” She gave the girl
+a loving motherly kiss and thus encouraged Julie cried her heart out on
+her shoulder.
+
+This was an unusual proceeding, for Julie seldom cried in these days.
+She had learned when her emotions threatened to overcome her to stiffen
+her chin and swallow hard, hard, hard,—until the tears were forced back
+and only a drawn look about the mouth told of the battle royal. She
+valued each victory, however trifling, for tears are weakening and
+self-control is a mighty weapon in the equipment of a soldier. To-day
+she was weak bodily and the petting utterly unnerved her, so that she
+cried until she could cry no longer and finally fell asleep from sheer
+exhaustion.
+
+When she awoke it was with a confused sense that it must be the middle
+of the night and that something was wrong, for Bridget stood over her.
+
+“Are yez wakin’? That’s right, dearie. You’ve bin sleepin’ these two
+hours an’ there’s a gentleman to see yez.”
+
+“What?” dazedly, rubbing her eyes.
+
+“A gentleman to see yez—he didn’t give no name.”
+
+“Probably he has come to give an order. Couldn’t you look after him,
+Bridget?”
+
+“No, miss,” with an air of suppressed excitement, “his business is
+particular with you. Go bathe your face, Miss Julie, an’ I’ll have you
+dressed in a jiffy.”
+
+“Well, I am a pretty looking object,” commented the girl with a glance
+in the mirror as Bridget let some light into the room.
+
+“Never you mind, you’re feelin’ much better an’ you souse your eyes good
+with hot water—they’ll look natural enough—an’ it’s gettin’ kinder
+twilight in the parlor now anyhow,” consolingly.
+
+“What is the matter with you, Bridget, are you daft?” seeing her bring
+forth from the closet a French gown she had never worn in Radnor. “You
+know I never would put on such a thing to go in to see a customer. Get
+me a fresh shirt waist like the old dear you are.”
+
+“Oh! Miss Julie, just this once, please,” in such a coaxing tone that
+Julie found it hard to refuse her but she simply said:
+
+“I couldn’t, Bridget, not even to please you,” and checked her
+inclination to smile at the vicious manner in which Bridget got out a
+shirt-waist and jabbed in the studs and cuff-buttons.
+
+Immensely refreshed by her nap she went down the hall with a light heart
+and entered the little sitting-room to be greeted by a stranger who
+eagerly seized both her hands and cried:
+
+“Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle, this is indeed a joy to find you!”
+
+At the sound of his voice she trembled from head to foot and endeavored
+to withdraw her hands but he held them in a firm clasp and led her over
+to the window.
+
+“I want the light to shine on your face, Mademoiselle, as it did in
+sunny California. Am I too bold—have I startled you?”
+
+Still she did not speak and he dropped her hands as moving back a little
+he said penitently, “Forgive me, I am rough and have frightened you. May
+I sit down, Mademoiselle?”
+
+She dropped into the nearest chair and waved him to another as she said:
+“I did not expect you here, Monsieur Grémond.”
+
+“Not expect me! Did you not know I was in Radnor?”
+
+“Oh! yes,” laughing a little for she was beginning to recover herself,
+“but the two are not synonymous.”
+
+“You are jesting, Mademoiselle. Surely you know—you must know that only
+one thing would bring me to this country as soon as I came out of the
+wilderness.” There was a world of meaning in his eyes, but Julie chose
+to ignore it.
+
+“Your friendship with Mr. Renshawe has been of long standing, has it
+not?” she asked evasively.
+
+“Oh! Mademoiselle Julie, it was not Renshawe—do not hold me aloof—have
+you forgotten the dear old California days?”
+
+“One might have been led to suppose you had,” she said quietly, “you
+disappeared so suddenly and—”
+
+“But I wrote,” he interrupted, “and though you never replied I meant
+always to return when I had accomplished something. Did you not feel
+that instinctively, Mademoiselle? Many things have happened to me since
+then and to you, also, your guardian said.”
+
+“My guardian?” she repeated. “Do you mean Dr. Ware?”
+
+“He gave me permission to call and said you might have many things to
+say to me,” looking at her rather perplexedly. “Will you tell me all
+about it, Mademoiselle?”
+
+“Tell you,” she cried springing up and confronting him, “tell you as if
+it were a book I were reading all the sorrow and wretchedness and misery
+of these past eight months! No, a thousand times no! It would not
+interest you!” She threw back her head defiantly. “Why,” she demanded
+fiercely, “did you find us out? We have no part in the world to which
+you belong! Could you not know that to see you would bring back the
+past, intensify the contrast between then and now—hurt us like the
+thrust of a sword? Oh! how could you come?”
+
+“I came because I—” and then breaking off suddenly he said gravely, “If
+you think your affairs are of no interest to me you would perhaps prefer
+that I ask no questions, even though I do not understand.”
+
+“Oh! I did not mean to be rude,” she exclaimed, her burst of resentment
+over, “how could you understand and how can I explain? Dear Daddy is
+enduring a living death—everything is changed—we are professional
+caterers—working women—you will not begin to comprehend that and no
+doubt it shocks you. The dignity of labor is not a popular theme on the
+other side!”
+
+“Mademoiselle, have you only unkind things to say to me—me, who would
+have given my life to have averted them or helped you through all this?
+You do not seem to comprehend that I love you—love you—have journeyed
+out to Los Angeles and back to find you and now,”—he drew in his
+breath, “ah! now I never mean to let you go.” He took a step toward her
+but she eluded him, standing well back in the room where he could not
+see how her lips trembled as she said:
+
+“You must not talk to me like this; I—I cannot bear it. I am all
+unstrung to-day and you startle me with your calm air of taking things
+for granted.”
+
+“Do I, chérie?” tenderly. “But you see I love you and you are going to
+love me, too.”
+
+“No,” she replied, drawing still further back, “no, Monsieur Grémond, I
+am not.”
+
+Something unflinching about the girl’s quiet tone made the man say
+beseechingly, “Ah! Mademoiselle Julie, do not kill me!”
+
+“Kill you? You never thought whether you would kill me or not, did you,
+when you almost taught me to love you in those old days and then rode
+away? Many a man does that, expecting a girl to take everything for
+granted and receive him with open arms when he returns. And many a girl
+waits and waits, eating her heart out meanwhile. But I am not that kind,
+Monsieur!”
+
+“Oh, Mademoiselle!”
+
+“I was very fond of you—so fond that when I knew you were in town I
+wondered whether I cared to see you—wondered whether I would have loved
+you had you loved me and last night I thought perhaps I should see you
+at the Wares’; but we did not go, and now you come to me and at the
+first sight of you I know it is not love—could never have been love
+under any circumstances!”
+
+“Are you sure you know what love is, Mademoiselle?” and seeing the color
+spread in a crimson wave over her face he cried, “Some one has stolen
+you away from me! Tell me, is it not true?”
+
+“What right have you to ask questions?” she demanded, angered by his
+assumption of authority. And then more quietly, “We must not quarrel,
+Monsieur, we have been altogether too good friends for that. I want to
+tell you that we are interested in your explorations and how proud we
+are to know that so many of your plans have been accomplished.”
+
+“It is nothing to me now.”
+
+“Fie, Monsieur! Are you going to cry baby because you can’t have the
+world all your way?”
+
+“You are all my world.”
+
+Julie had heard this from other men under similar conditions, and though
+she believed his disappointment to be genuinely bitter she knew that
+life could still hold out some hope even in the face of unrequited love.
+But how make him see it her way? In a moment she said:
+
+“I am only a girl, Monsieur Grémond, but I think you want me to respect
+you, don’t you, and I certainly shall not be apt to if you are going to
+be vanquished right before my very eyes.”
+
+“What a strange girl you are, Mademoiselle,” he said, roused to a
+critical survey of her. “Most girls like their lovers to be
+inconsolable, but you threaten me with everlasting disgrace for refusing
+to be consoled. I don’t understand it.”
+
+“No, you would not understand me, ever,” said Julie cheerfully, glad to
+have roused him at last. “You must go back to France and marry some nice
+sweet little thing who will perfectly adore you and you’ll be ‘happy
+ever after,’ as the story books say.”
+
+“I wish you would not dispose of me in such an off-hand fashion,”
+aggrievedly. “I am tempted to kidnap you and carry you off this moment
+to the steamer. She sails in the morning. Oh! couldn’t you do it, _ma
+petite_?”
+
+The vehemence of his tone really startled Julie who laughed to herself
+afterward as she remembered how she had shrank back in her corner as if
+she expected him to snatch her up bodily.
+
+“Leave Hester,” she cried aghast, “and Daddy and Bridget—and Peter
+Snooks and—and every-body to go away with you? Monsieur Grémond, you
+must be mad.”
+
+“Then you do not know what love is.” He rose and came over to her. “Will
+you put your hands in mine, Mademoiselle? I am going—good-by. I suppose
+I have been a selfish brute to dwell altogether on my own troubles and
+not sympathize with yours, but the truth is I am knocked out. I
+undoubtedly, as you say, took too much for granted.”
+
+“Do not put us out of your life altogether,” said Julie gently. “Some
+day perhaps you will really care for my interest and respect and all the
+things I would gladly give you if you would have them.”
+
+“If you put it that way, perhaps—but it seems to me there is only one
+thing,” he said disconsolately.
+
+“Then you are not half the man I take you to be!”
+
+“I will be,” asserted Grémond, his better nature responding to this
+rebuke. “It is good at least to have been with you. Good-by,
+Mademoiselle, good-by.”
+
+For some time after he had gone Julie sat with closed lids trying to
+forget the last look of his eyes into hers, so persistently did it haunt
+her; but within her heart surged a feeling of gratitude that there is an
+all-wise Providence who shapes our ends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Madame Grundy was saying that winter that at last Kenneth Landor had
+settled down, though why he should take the trouble to burden himself
+with business cares when he had a rich, indulgent father was, from her
+point of view, wholly incomprehensible. Other people who knew Kenneth
+better saw that his life had become full of purpose and regarded it as
+the natural outcome of a nature like his—rich in possibilities. To the
+father who was just learning to know the son, there was much that was
+surprising in the intelligent way in which he grasped the great
+commission business and little by little made himself familiar with
+every detail, showing that in his composition was much practical
+ability—talents unquestionably inherited. Of any ulterior motive which
+had led him on to these things Mr. Landor had no suspicion nor indeed
+had any one save Dr. Ware, who kept his own counsel, and possibly Jack,
+whose fanciful imagination wove endless romances, the thread of which
+became wretchedly entangled, for what could a poor boy do with two
+heroines to one hero?
+
+That was the stumbling block of our young author, for he never could
+make up his mind to choose between the Dale girls. First he would write
+out a beautiful story in which his hero (and there was only one hero to
+him) married Julie and was as happy as the day is long. This would have
+been eminently satisfactory if it had not been for a sort of feeling of
+slighting Hester, who seemed to be lurking in the background of his tale
+gazing at him with reproachful eyes. Jack the tender-hearted could not
+stand that, so zip!—would go all the paper, torn to shreds, and he
+would patiently start all over again to give Hester a chance. But
+however he arranged it, one was left out. He couldn’t have it on his
+conscience to make his hero a Mormon and so to one and one alone could
+he belong. This was all wrong, from Jack’s point of view, but he did not
+know how to make it any different and as it seemed to be a subject he
+could not discuss with any of the three persons most concerned the poor
+boy gave it up in despair.
+
+But if Jack was racked with indecision it was not so with Kenneth
+Landor, who had fallen in love with Hester at first sight. One hears
+that to fall in love at first sight is an experience belonging to bygone
+days, and is quite unknown to the practical common-sense young people of
+whom in this generation one hears so much. Be that as it may, Kenneth,
+in spite of his worldly experience, was old-fashioned enough to be full
+of sentiment and treasured in his mind every meeting with Hester down to
+their first walk when she had dismissed him so summarily under the
+lamp-post. He could count them on the fingers of one hand, the actual
+hours he had spent with her, but between Dr. Ware and Jack he managed to
+keep as well informed concerning her life as if he were in daily
+intercourse with her; and it was his sole aim and ambition to put her
+struggles to an end. The generous fellow had not Grémond’s idea of
+taking one of them away—he could not conceive of the little family
+being separated and his admiration of Julie was rapidly growing into an
+affection that made him long to cast her life, too, in sunny places and
+make a snug little home for them all. These were Kenneth’s hopes and
+dreams—air-castles which sometimes took grim, fantastic shapes and
+often tottered to the ground when he remembered that Hester might not
+deign to look at him.
+
+Suddenly into all this work and dreaming entered a new element,
+threatening to disturb the future with a terrible upheaval, for the
+necessity that our country should go to war with Spain was talked of
+openly throughout the land. Rumors that war would be, had been, never
+would be declared were rife, suggested and contradicted in a breath,
+while the uncertainty of national affairs produced an excitement that
+pervaded all classes and conditions of men.
+
+Kenneth was one of those who believed in the war and whose whole spirit
+was fired with a desire to do his part toward jealously guarding his
+country’s honor. At the same time, if he hoped to win Hester and make a
+home for her it scarcely seemed as if it would accrue to his advantage
+to go away. These things were so in his mind that he longed for a chance
+to see and talk with her, and then, as always, in his thoughts of her he
+was confronted by the fearful consciousness that she might take no
+interest in so unimportant a thing as himself. Nevertheless, he meant to
+make himself important to her and it was therefore to him as to Grémond,
+a great disappointment that the girls had not put in an appearance at
+Miss Ware’s reception and he had spent an anxious night speculating as
+to the cause of their non-appearance.
+
+He managed by rising earlier than usual to get around to Dr. Ware’s
+office on his way to business the morning after the reception; but,
+contrary to habit, that individual was already off. Much perturbed he
+worked harder than ever at the office and regretted that he had promised
+to drive out of town to a wedding. He was in no mood for society, even
+so charming as that of the Lennoxes. He was not a man who broke his
+engagements, however, and therefore went home about three o’clock to
+dress. When the Lennoxes called for him he sauntered out in his usual
+charming manner and made the greater effort to be agreeable to each
+member of the party from the mere fact that it _was_ an effort. This is
+a form of unselfishness, trivial perhaps, but necessitating a
+willingness to put aside one’s personal inclination, to thrust aside
+one’s mood for the general good. Some people call it adaptability, some
+tact, some a desire to please, but in Kenneth Landor, as in many others,
+it was an unselfish wish to contribute his share to the general
+entertainment. He was a man who recognized the duty of a guest to his
+hostess and did not look upon it as being all the other way. Having
+adjusted himself to a purely impersonal philosophical attitude toward
+the expedition, imagine his revulsion of feeling when Mrs. Lennox told
+him that the party would not be complete until they had picked up Miss
+Hester Dale whose sister, unfortunately, was unable to go with them. As
+we know, she delegated him to escort Hester down and we may know too,
+though no one on the coach suspected it, that he went up the four
+flights of stairs two steps at a time and nearly ran down Jack who was
+hobbling up on his crutches.
+
+What if, when he and Hester went into the street together she was
+immediately appropriated by their host and given the seat of honor
+beside him. Couldn’t Kenneth _see_ her—every turn of her pretty
+head—and wasn’t he inwardly proud that she was chosen for this
+distinction and didn’t he know that it would be his own fault if he did
+not monopolize her later on?
+
+As for Hester, she had never been in a merrier mood and chattered on
+like a little magpie, forgetful of her sister’s warning “not to talk
+herself black in the face.” Every now and then she would heave a little
+sigh and audibly wish Julie were there—a wish promptly seconded by her
+host, who nevertheless was amply satisfied with his companion.
+
+The mere sensation of bowling along over smooth roads and through the
+beautiful environs of Radnor was in itself a novelty and delight to
+Hester but she was raised to the seventh heaven of bliss when Mr.
+Lennox, after a talk they had had about horses, said:
+
+“Wouldn’t you like to take the ribbons, Miss Dale?”
+
+“Oh!” she gasped, “but my gloves—I can’t drive in these,” holding up
+two white kid hands. She did not think it necessary to add that they
+were her only pair.
+
+“Take them off and I’ll give you mine. You can manage even if they are
+big. Try.”
+
+She tried and in another moment the gloves were on, the ribbons slipped
+into her fingers and the control of four superb horses lay within her
+hands. Ah! how delicious it was to feel their strength and hers!
+
+“What would Mrs. Lennox say if she knew I were driving?”
+
+“She would not mind, but the others might. We’ll never tell.”
+
+“Never.”
+
+They swung along at an even pace, but presently, as if conscious that
+the ribbons had changed hands, the horses became restive and finally
+taking fright at an imaginary object, the leaders shied and plunged
+forward madly.
+
+“Give them their heads!” commanded Mr. Lennox peremptorily.
+
+“Don’t drive at quite such a mad pace, please Mr. Lennox,” cried a girl
+from the rear, “you frighten us nearly to death.”
+
+“Oh! it’s all right,” reassuringly, “they’ll quiet down in a moment.”
+
+Hester with set lips and feet firmly planted was struggling to get them
+under control. She did not speak nor did Mr. Lennox again, but he
+watched her narrowly, alert and ready in a second to relieve her. He
+thought her equal to the emergency and she was, for after half a mile of
+tearing madly over the ground, she succeeded in regaining control of
+them and the horses, recognizing the strength of an experienced hand,
+quieted down into the old habit of obedience.
+
+“Good!” cried Mr. Lennox, “you’re a crack whip, as I thought.”
+
+A little color came back into Hester’s white face. “I’m so grateful to
+you for not taking them away from me,” she said. “I should have died of
+humiliation if you had.”
+
+“I thought I could trust you to pull through, but now that you have
+proved your prowess—and I believe you just got the animals to playing
+tricks to show what you _could_ do, you sly young person—aren’t you a
+bit tired? Shan’t I drive?”
+
+“Oh! thank you, yes, but I—I enjoyed it.”
+
+She was very quiet after that, and presently when they reached the house
+and Landor sprang off and turned to lift her down, the two bright red
+spots in her cheeks did not escape him nor the subdued manner so unusual
+to her.
+
+As they passed into the house Hester saw in the hall a large table piled
+high with small white boxes and she shuddered as she thought how they
+had spent half the night over the completion of those innocent looking
+things. The satin bows actually had a “perky” look as if the ribbon had
+just tied itself without any trouble whatever! Turning her back on them
+abruptly she followed Mrs. Lennox into the drawing-room, where the
+ceremony took place a few moments after their arrival.
+
+It was a simple wedding with no bridesmaids nor ushers nor adjuncts of
+any kind, and the bridegroom had so large a family connection that only
+intimate friends had been added to the list so that the reception took
+on the informal character of a large family gathering. When the bride
+had been kissed all around, including every male cousin, in spite of the
+laughing protests of the bridegroom, she led the way into the
+dining-room for supper.
+
+“May I take you out, Miss Dale?” asked a dapper young fellow who had
+just been presented to Hester.
+
+“Thank you, I—”
+
+“You can’t walk off with Miss Dale in that calm fashion, Charley,” said
+a voice back of them, “she’s promised to come to supper with me.”
+
+Hester had no recollection of any such compact so she looked up and said
+mischievously, “What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Landor,” turning
+the while as if to move off with the younger man.
+
+“You come with me, won’t you?” urged Charley Bemis, “Landor always
+claims the earth and never gives us younger fellows a chance. We’ll have
+to hurry a bit, Miss Dale,” looking at her entreatingly, “if we want to
+see the bride cut the cake.”
+
+“The cake!” she repeated, suddenly shrinking back. “Oh! Mr. Bemis, you
+go on without me, will you? I—”
+
+“Run along, Charley,” said Landor. “Miss Dale and I will follow. The
+dining-room will never begin to hold us all anyway, so if we do not get
+in you look us up and tell us who got the ring. You may get it yourself
+if you hurry, who knows!”
+
+“Oh!” said Hester when the man had departed, “I couldn’t go in there—I
+just couldn’t.”
+
+“Of course not,” emphatically, “it is much too crowded. They’ve covered
+in the piazza by the dining-room. Won’t you let me bring you something
+to eat out there?”
+
+“How could you fib to that boy so!” exclaimed the girl at the same time
+signifying her willingness to be led to some less crowded spot.
+
+Kenneth laughed. “You drove me to it. Do you suppose I intended to let
+him walk off with you under my very eyes?”
+
+“Why not? I’m sure he seemed a very _nice_ boy,” with marked emphasis.
+
+“Oh! yes, he’s nice enough,” cheerfully, “quite nice, now you mention
+it, but I’m not just yearning for his society at the present moment.”
+
+“Perhaps I am,” getting a wistful far-away expression in her eyes that
+was tantalizing.
+
+“Here we are,” said the man abruptly as they reached a semi-circular
+piazza where tables and chairs had been placed. “If you will sit down,
+Miss Dale, I’ll look up Mr. Bemis immediately.”
+
+“Thank you,” demurely, “but if it _should_ happen that you found the
+supper first, would you mind bringing that instead? I am _so_ hungry,”
+with a pathetic droop at the corners of her mouth.
+
+He went off on air, returning followed by a waiter almost before she had
+a chance to miss him.
+
+And what a gay little supper that was! They had a small table quite to
+themselves, where Landor played host and was solicitous in providing for
+all her wants. Mr. Lennox, wandering about with an eye to his party,
+smiled across the piazza at her and reported to his wife that Hester was
+being well taken care of. Half unconsciously the girl herself was aware
+that her slightest wish was anticipated and she caught herself wondering
+as she played with her ice, whether it was chance or design that led Mr.
+Landor to avoid having any cake served at their table. It was everywhere
+else in abundance; hundreds of colored frosted cakes that seemed to
+Hester like so many little imps grinning at her and crying, “You made
+me—you made me!” This fantastic notion wrought itself into her tired
+brain until she wanted to scream out from very nervousness and caused
+Kenneth to say, as if divining her thoughts:
+
+“You are tired, Miss Dale. I am afraid you had an anxious night of it. I
+hope your father is better this morning.”
+
+“How did you know?”
+
+“We—we missed you at the reception,” evasively, “and when Dr. Ware went
+off I had my suspicions.”
+
+“It was not Daddy,” she said quietly, “it was—other things.” Then in a
+lighter tone, “Don’t look so solemn, please, I want to be gay and forget
+last night.”
+
+“What would happen, Miss Dale, if I were to lecture you?” smiling at
+her.
+
+“Try and see,” teasingly. “Probably I shall laugh. I usually do when
+Julie scolds me and then she laughs too and that spoils the effect.
+Well, begin. What is the greatest of my enormities? Have you made out a
+list?”
+
+“Will you promise me something?” earnestly, leaning forward with a
+pleading expression on his handsome face.
+
+“Perhaps. I am in a most docile mood at this moment.”
+
+“Then promise me you will do no more driving. You are not equal to it
+to-night, indeed you are not, and it takes all the strength out of you.”
+
+“How do you know I drove? Did Mr. Lennox tell you?” regarding him with
+raised eyebrows.
+
+“No—but I knew.”
+
+“If you are one of those mysterious persons who always know everything,
+I am going to avoid you,” she laughed, feeling herself flush under his
+earnest scrutiny.
+
+“You have not promised,” he persisted.
+
+“Did I promise to promise?” with a swift provoking glance from under her
+long lashes.
+
+“Miss Dale,” pleading, “I never asked a favor of you before.”
+
+“Why should you?” wrinkling up her forehead and wishing he had not so
+persuasive a voice.
+
+“I know—probably you think it is impertinent, but” coaxingly, “if you
+would just this once,—”
+
+“Well, is this where you sneaked off to?” cried a voice beside them; “a
+pretty chase you’ve led me!” and Charley Bemis dropped into the nearest
+chair and held out a plate to Hester. “See here, Miss Dale, you wouldn’t
+go to the mountain, so I’ve brought the mountain to you. The bride cut
+the cake long ago but I saved my piece to eat with you. Landor doesn’t
+get a crumb.”
+
+Landor looked as if he would like to stuff the whole slice down the
+man’s throat. The girl smiled and resigned herself to at least make a
+pretense of eating the thing she had tried so desperately to avoid.
+
+“There is something in your half,” suggested young Bemis significantly.
+
+“Is there?” replied Hester, wishing his enthusiasm were less. “You find
+it for me.”
+
+He cut her piece and pulled out something wrapped in paraffine paper
+which proved to be a shining gold dollar.
+
+“Oh! you’ve got it!” he cried. “Miss Dale’s got the money,” turning to
+announce it to the whole piazza, “she’s going to be rich!”
+
+“How nice of you to prophesy such good fortune,” she replied picking up
+the coin and rising. “Won’t you come and help me find Mrs. Lennox and
+tell her about it? I am sure Mr. Landor will excuse us?”
+
+Kenneth, who had risen, bowed low and wondered how so adorably pretty a
+girl could be so stony-hearted. He was utterly confounded when, as she
+brushed by him she slipped something in his hand with a whispered
+“That’s for luck,” and vanished with Bemis in attendance. A quick
+indrawing of his fingers into the palm of his hand told Landor a little
+coin lay within his grasp. A half-smothered ejaculation escaped him! Her
+luck she had passed on to him! Did he dare attribute to it any
+significance? No outward sign betrayed his inward perturbation as he
+sauntered into the house to join the other guests.
+
+Whether it was Kenneth’s skillful management or a preconceived
+arrangement on Mrs. Lennox’s part or just Fate, deponent saith not, but
+the fact remains that when the coach started off again that evening,
+Hester found herself ensconced on the back seat with Landor, the rest of
+the party chatting gayly in front of them, the guards well in the rear.
+
+“Miss Dale,” Landor said when they had ridden some moments in silence,
+“are you too tired to-night to let me talk to you a little, seriously?”
+He had no desire to lose any time.
+
+“Then you think I can be serious?”
+
+“I know you can, only you never choose to be with me.”
+
+“I _am_ an awful tease,” she admitted, touched by his wistful tone, “but
+I can be the most serious person in the world and I should like to have
+you to talk to me, only—you are not going to scold me any more, are
+you, Mr. Landor? I think I am really too tired for that.” Her low
+musical voice seemed to drift to him plaintively through the darkness.
+
+“I was going to be selfishly egotistical and talk about—about a friend
+of mine,” hoping she had not detected how near he had come to
+blundering. “I wanted to ask your advice about him if you are quite sure
+you are not too tired to listen, Miss Dale.”
+
+“Of course I am not. I should like to hear about your friend, Mr.
+Landor.”
+
+Was there ever a voice so sweet, he thought, or a girl so full of
+contradictions? One moment bewitchingly, aggravatingly whimsical, the
+next revealing unfathomable depths of a nature which to him seemed the
+purest and noblest in the world. Aloud he said:
+
+“My friend is torn by a divided duty. He wants to go to the war but—”
+
+“You think there will be war? Can’t he go?” she interrupted. “It seems
+to me every man must go who can.”
+
+“Yes, he can, but there are people whom he loves whom he hates to
+leave—more than that whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if his
+whole future were at stake—not only his but theirs, and he can’t seem
+to see his way clear.”
+
+“Are they old and dependent on him for support, these people?”
+
+“No, but he wants them to become dependent on him and how can that be if
+he goes away?”
+
+“If they love him,” the girl said emphatically, “they will not stand in
+his way.”
+
+“But he does not know that they love him or that they will ever love
+him. He only knows that he loves them and—oh! Miss Dale,” sweeping
+aside this strangely complicated case, “if you had a brother in times
+like these, what would you do?”
+
+“Do?” she cried; “why, I’d help him off to the front without a moment’s
+hesitation! Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the world if we
+had a brother to go to the war! If Daddy were well he would go—there
+never was a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor, you know us so
+little that you’ve no idea how strongly we feel about these things.
+We’ve tried in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers ourselves
+and we think no sacrifice too great to make for one another and for our
+country.” In her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside her, the
+friend and everything save the inspiration of those principles which
+were as the very air she breathed.
+
+He made no reply, fearing to break the spell and startle her back into
+her old elusiveness. This revelation of her inner self was very precious
+to him.
+
+Presently she said: “Perhaps I know a little how your friend feels,
+because I have always thought if ever I lived in war times I should go
+as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a thing.”
+
+“You? You are too young,” he gasped, never dreaming of this possibility.
+
+“No, I am not too young, but Julie could not carry on our business and
+take care of Daddy, too, all alone, and my duty is here.”
+
+“You are doing active service in a field much harder than anything they
+may see in Cuba,” he said intently.
+
+“Oh! no, don’t say that; I do not deserve it; but you have talked to me
+so frankly about your friend that I wanted you to know I understand a
+little, though I do not believe I have been of any help. But this much I
+know, if I were one of those people whom he loves, however much I might
+need him and perhaps want him,”—was her voice faltering?—“I should
+urge him to go and love him the better for going and believe that his
+future and all connected with him would be the richer and the brighter
+for the personal sacrifice.”
+
+There was an exultant ring in her low voice that set the man’s heart to
+throbbing with a pain strangely new and exquisite and so great was his
+emotion that for some time he did not trust himself to speak. When he
+did he said very gently:
+
+“You _have_ helped my friend, Miss Dale, more than you have any idea and
+I thank you for him. Some day, perhaps, you will let him thank you
+himself. I—I shall always remember your kindness to-night” (poor
+fellow, it was not easy to pick his words calmly when he longed to pour
+his heart out to her). “I may not see you again for awhile; I—I am
+going away.”
+
+The coach drew up at her door and she was brought to a sudden
+realization of her surroundings by the laughing salutations of the party
+as they said goodnight. Kenneth had sprung to the ground and was waiting
+to assist her to alight. She was not conscious of the gentle, almost
+tender manner in which he lifted her down, but as he stood with bared
+head holding the door open, for her, she stopped a moment and put out
+her hands impulsively.
+
+“Is this good-by?” she said, her beautiful eyes looking full into his.
+
+“Yes,” with her hands close in his, “I shall go out with the first
+regiment from Radnor.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Julie was in bed, but not asleep, when Hester came in that night, and
+propped herself up on her elbow to listen with absorbed interest while
+she gave an account of herself.
+
+“Julie dear,” the younger girl began, “never urge me again to go
+anywhere where I am to be confronted by the fruit of our labor. I can’t
+stand it. I thought I should die when I first saw the boxes of cake
+piled up in the hall—of course in a way it was a relief to know they
+were safely there, but it gave me an actual pain to remember how we
+nearly killed ourselves over them. Then a man I met nearly dragged me
+out to see the bride cut the cake. That was too much and Mr. Landor came
+to the rescue.”
+
+“How nice of him!”
+
+“Yes,” admitted Hester, “he _was_ nice and we were having a jolly time
+when that awful man pounced down upon us, bride cake in hand, and I was
+actually forced to eat some of it!”
+
+“Poor child! Couldn’t you have intimated that you had tasted it just a
+few times before?”
+
+[Illustration: JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT]
+
+“I was tempted to, but out of consideration for Mrs. Lennox I spared him
+the shock. And then what do you suppose? I got the gold dollar! I would
+not have bothered to put such a polish on it yesterday if I had known it
+was coming back to me!”
+
+“Did you throw it out of the window in your best high-tragedy style?”
+
+“No, I gave it to Mr. Landor. He looked so cross when Mr. Bemis joined
+us that he was absolutely funny, so I thought I’d just give him a little
+present—‘for a good boy on his birthday’ or something of that sort, you
+know, only he wasn’t so alarmingly good and it wasn’t his birthday,—at
+least I don’t suppose it was, do you?”
+
+“Hester, you do talk the most idiotic nonsense!”
+
+“Do I? Well, I’ve been pretty serious the past hour,” she said soberly
+as she slipped off her gown and seated herself on the edge of the bed
+preparatory to taking down her hair. “Julie, we are going to have war!”
+
+To Julie, who could not be expected to know her sister’s train of
+thought, this announcement seemed so irrelevant that she looked at her
+wonderingly.
+
+“It was not in to-night’s paper,” she said.
+
+“No, but it is in the air. Mr. Landor thinks it is inevitable. He talked
+with me to-night about a friend of his who’s crazy to go. I did not
+suspect a thing at first but afterward I did—it’s himself, Julie—he
+means to volunteer with the first call for troops.”
+
+“That is just what I should expect of him, Hester.”
+
+“Y-e-s,” reluctantly, “but do you know from things he said it is
+evidently going to be a tussle for him to make up his mind to leave. He
+is all upset about it and oh! Julie dear, how I did wish you were there
+to talk to him—you always say such beautiful, helpful things. It is
+some one he cares about—perhaps it is his father. Do you suppose it
+_could_ be any one else, Julie?”
+
+“I don’t know, dear”—certain suspicions in regard to Landor gaining
+ground every minute—“perhaps it is Jessie Davis,” wickedly, for Julie
+could do her share of teasing too.
+
+“That fashion plate!” scornfully. “I don’t believe a word of it! She’s
+not fit to button his shoes!”
+
+“Probably she would not care to,” remarked Julie, intensely amused at
+this taking up of the cudgels in Landor’s behalf; and then, thinking it
+best—this wise Julie!—not to prolong the jest, she said, “It is
+probably his father. He is old, you know, and Mr. Landor may hesitate to
+go off and leave him. I am glad he talked with you, dear, about anything
+he had so much at heart, for it shows how much he appreciates and values
+your opinion and you probably talked to him twice as well as I could,
+you funny little baby owl!”
+
+Hester’s reply to this was to fling herself down on the foot of the bed
+and cry in a muffled tone, “I’m so tired—so dead tired! I didn’t
+realize it until I kept so still coming home and then I ached so I
+wanted to scream while Mr. Landor was talking to me!”
+
+Julie’s arms were around her in a moment. “The strain has been too much,
+dear. You cannot stand the work and play too,—it is no use trying.”
+
+“But I like to play,” cried Hester rebelliously, “and sometimes I feel
+so wicked—as if I couldn’t keep up my end another minute, and then I
+want to run away—all of us run away—to have ‘The Hustle’ again and go
+racing out of all this, and then,”—her voice broke,—“Oh! then Julie
+darling, I am so ashamed of such thoughts—so humiliated to think I
+can’t be as patient as you are!”
+
+“I know, dear,” stroking her sister’s hair softly, “and I am not
+patient—not half as patient as I try to be—only I hold myself with a
+fearfully tight rein for fear I’ll go all to pieces. We are both pretty
+much knocked out now, dear, with the strain of the winter, the newness
+of things and—”
+
+“Not to mention being half fed,” inserted Hester.
+
+“But we have paid all our expenses as we’ve gone along and kept out of
+debt even if we have half starved to do it. You see, dear, up to now,”
+said Julie, the accountant, “we have had to put such a large amount of
+our earnings back into the business for all sorts of things.”
+
+“Imagine what cousin Nancy would say if she knew how we wriggled along
+on almost nothing, you and I!”
+
+“She’d say we were fools not to have accounts with the butcher, the
+baker and candlestick-maker but we do not agree with her, and Daddy,
+bless his heart! does not want for anything. Thank heaven, we’ve
+accomplished that much! Isn’t it a mercy, dear, that he does not realize
+things? It would break his heart!”
+
+“Oh! yes, but how I do long to have our darling old Daddy back!”
+
+Julie said nothing. Her chin was very rigid but in a few moments she
+said cheerfully, “I think the spring promises a good deal. Our work
+increases every day and we can soon begin to live better. Bridget says
+marketing is much cheaper in the summer, and if we only make enough now
+to carry Daddy comfortably through the dull season when people are away
+and we are not earning much, we’ll get on famously. Just think what
+magnificent times we’ll have this summer just loafing around Daddy’s
+room!”
+
+Hester, who seldom allowed herself such luxury of woe as she had just
+been indulging in, sat up, wiped her eyes on the corner of the sheet and
+said emphatically, “I’m a fiend and I ought to be cow-hided!”
+
+“I’ll paddle you instead,” said Julie, picking up the hair-brush Hester
+had dropped and making as if to apply the back of it vigorously.
+
+Hester dodged but Julie caught her and, springing out of bed, planted
+her firmly in a chair and said, “I’ll brush that crazy head of yours and
+help you to bed or you’ll never get there! It must be all hours of the
+night.”
+
+“You’ll catch your death of cold,” remonstrated Hester.
+
+“I won’t, and if you’ll keep as still as a mouse and not scream when I
+comb your hair—”
+
+“You pull like the dickens; you know you do!”
+
+“I do not and I wish you’d stop talking and give me a chance. I declare
+you get worse every day—I tremble to think what you’re coming to!—and
+I’ve, oh! such a piece of news to tell you!”
+
+She was wholly unprepared for the clutch of Hester’s arms about her neck
+as she cried, “Don’t tell me to-night, Julie dear, I—I
+know—all—about—it!”
+
+“Do you?” holding her fast. “Then aren’t you glad it has all come out
+this way?”
+
+“Yes, Julie darling,” stifling a sob.
+
+“Why, Hester, what is it? You must not cry, dear. I can’t think what is
+the matter!”
+
+“I’m a selfish brute, but oh, I’m not really, Julie—not really. I think
+it is the most beautiful thing!”
+
+“What is ‘the most beautiful thing’?” wondering if the child were losing
+her mind.
+
+“That he’s been here. I knew it the moment you spoke. As if he’d fail to
+come!”
+
+“Hester! do you mean you think that I—I—”
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+“But I don’t dear, not the least little bit in the world!”
+
+“Oh, Julie!”
+
+For a moment they clung together. Then Julie gave a hysterical laugh.
+
+“What a silly old goose you were to go having absurd thoughts about me,
+and how dared you, how _dared_ you think I was in love with any one?”
+
+“I did not know,” penitently, “you kept so still about Monsieur Grémond
+and he _was_ in love with you, wasn’t he?”
+
+“Yes dear. He came this afternoon and I sent him away. We do not want to
+have secrets from each other, do we, old girl, but I never talked to you
+much about him because there was a time when I did not quite know
+whether I cared for him or not. Perhaps back in the old days, if he had
+asked me, I might have said yes, but I doubt it—it was more a sort of
+fascination he exercised over me for awhile and now I am truly thankful
+he has come and gone. He has removed every particle of doubt as to my
+attitude toward him.”
+
+“Oh, I am so glad. I couldn’t bear the thought of his carrying you off
+to France.”
+
+Julie’s eyes opened wide. “Did you suppose I’d go away and leave you and
+Daddy and the rest?” in a tone of astonishment.
+
+“Some Prince Charming is coming along to carry you off some day, Julie
+dear,” said Hester, who could bring herself to regard such an event with
+some degree of complacency now that it was not an immediate fact. “I’m
+not quite such a selfish pig” (she never spared herself in the matter of
+epithets), “as to expect to have you always.”
+
+“I think we are sufficient unto each other now, dear,” said Julie
+seriously, “and we may always be, for all the years to come; but if some
+day our lives should change—a new interest enter in—we’ll share it and
+make it beautify the lives of both of us just as we’ve always shared
+every joy and sorrow ever since we were babies.” She kissed her sister
+solemnly.
+
+“You blessed Julie!” was the response.
+
+When the gas was out and Hester, the irrepressible, finally in bed, the
+light of the full moon came streaming into the little room. And
+lingering with a caressing touch it fell upon a white pillow on which a
+curly golden head and a sleek dark one lay pressed close together. In
+the solemn stillness the breathing of two slender forms told that the
+excitement of the past forty-eight hours had at last ended in much
+needed sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Mrs. Driscoe was not a reasonable woman, never had been reasonable, had
+no desire to be reasonable; it was therefore not to be expected that she
+would take a reasonable attitude toward Sidney Renshawe when he went
+down to Virginia early that spring and asked her for her Nannie. In vain
+did he argue and cajole, in vain did the dear Colonel remonstrate, in
+vain did little Nannie cry and plead; to one and all she turned a deaf
+ear. It was no—no—no then and forever.
+
+The County discussed the situation freely and wondered that so worldly a
+mother should frown upon so eligible a _parti_. Sidney Renshawe was well
+born, fairly rich, rising steadily in his profession; all the County
+knew that much, though it is doubtful if any one of them had ever been
+in Radnor. What if Renshawe’s hair was red and his mustache a trifle
+bristly? Didn’t that add a touch of strength to his face and suggest a
+resemblance to a certain Prisoner of Zenda, who, though only a man in a
+book, as every one said, was, nevertheless, the most idolized of heroes.
+As for poor little Nannie, it was plainly to be seen she was losing
+flesh over the situation.
+
+As she wrote the girls, she was “torn by conflicting emotions,” using
+the well-worn phrase because the poor little thing had no words of her
+own in which to express her feelings. She had never had complex feelings
+before. Hitherto her life had consisted in loving and being loved, which
+led her naturally enough into a similar state of things with Sidney
+Renshawe, who came, saw and conquered her girlish heart. The Colonel was
+her stanch friend and ally. He liked Renshawe and felt he was just the
+man to whom he could trust his little girl when the time came to give
+her up. And that was not necessarily imminent, for if Mrs. Driscoe was
+unreasonable Renshawe certainly was not and was willing to wait one,
+two, three years if need be. But Mrs. Driscoe remained obdurate and the
+household was plunged into a state of strained atmospheric conditions
+such as had never been known before.
+
+“I can’t help loving him and it isn’t wrong to love him, is it?” little
+Nannie would say appealingly to the Colonel.
+
+“No, no, Puss, be patient. We’ll win her over soon.” It is doubtful if
+the Colonel believed this cheerful prophecy, but the child had to be
+comforted.
+
+Renshawe had remained two weeks with his friends at the plantation
+adjacent to the Driscoes, seeing Nannie every day. Mrs. Driscoe did not
+refuse him this boon but, declined to receive him herself and intimated
+so plainly that the man’s room was preferable to his company that the
+girl took little pleasure in his visits and agreed with him that it was
+far better he should go away. Without her mother’s permission she
+refused to become engaged but the night previous to his departure she
+allowed him to slip on her finger a certain simple little ring which he
+reminded her he had been carrying in his pocket since the night they
+met. The next day he went north leaving his heart in Virginia, with a
+delicious sense of its security in Nannie’s keeping. The consciousness
+was strong within him that the winning of such as she was worth the
+waiting.
+
+And Mrs. Driscoe all this while went about with the aggrieved air of one
+whose troubles were scarcely to be understood by an unsympathetic world.
+If she had been put to it she could have given no reason for her
+opposition to Renshawe, for she had none and had shown him marked favor
+at the beginning. But that was before, as she told the Colonel, “her
+suspicions were aroused.” From the moment they were, Renshawe was made
+unpleasantly conscious of it.
+
+While Nannie, sustained by the Colonel and the County’s backing, got
+what solace she could out of the days that were so long and oh! so
+lonely after Sidney left her, he, back in Radnor, turned for comfort to
+the Dale girls, who took him into their hearts for Nannie’s sake and
+soon learned to like him for his own. He became a frequent visitor,
+calling usually Sunday afternoons when he felt he would be less likely
+to disturb them, and he wrote Nannie that except a certain little girl
+in Virginia whose name he would never divulge, they were the sweetest
+girls he had ever known and the bravest. But he did not tell Nannie how
+as he came to observe them more closely he discovered in their faces
+little careworn lines which told a tale their lips never would have
+disclosed and how about Julie, especially, there was a subdued, almost
+intense manner, as if she were holding herself in a vise. They never
+spoke of their work or their cares to him or any one else and made light
+of any passing reference to their business. Indeed, as far as Sidney
+might have known from them, they lived quite like other girls.
+
+In regard to his friend Grémond’s previous connection with them or of
+his call on Julie, Renshawe knew nothing. The Frenchman left town the
+day following that on which he had seen Julie and had not referred to
+the Dales in any way either to him or Dr. Ware, who was left to draw his
+own conclusions. This was not so simple as might be supposed, for while
+in one light the man’s sudden disappearance looked as if Julie might
+have given him his congé, viewed from another point, especially taken in
+connection with a certain happy light in Julie’s eyes these days when he
+caught her glance, it led him to believe that perhaps the girl had given
+him her promise but required that he should wait yet a longer time to
+claim her. The Doctor longed to know and wearied himself with imagining
+why she did not confide in him. But since she did not, delicacy forbade
+his mentioning Grémond’s name.
+
+Another person who did some speculating over Grémond was Mrs. Lennox,
+but being a woman she arrived at her conclusions quickly and decided
+that his precipitous flight to France when he had been booked for some
+weeks in Radnor, argued ill for the result of his trip across the
+country. She was not at home the one time he had called on her and the
+fact that he was not at more pains to seek her out and continue the
+confidential relations established in her sanctum on his previous visit,
+satisfied her that he could not have found what he was so eagerly
+seeking. Being a sympathetic woman she was sorry, but she would have
+thought more of him had he chosen to tell her the outcome of his
+affairs. As he did not, she dismissed him from her mind altogether,
+having agreed with Miss Marston one day when they were discussing him,
+that he was a clever man but after all a trifle too self-centered. To
+tell the truth Mrs. Lennox had been mistaken in her analysis of his
+character and it annoyed her.
+
+A fortnight after the wedding the Dale girls were devouring with eager
+eyes one morning a very small note and a very large check which they
+could scarcely read, so great was their excitement.
+
+“Oh, what a relief!” cried Julie, “to know that everything pleased Mrs.
+Truxton, and how good she was to write such a kind appreciative note to
+people like us whom she scarcely knows! Let’s go and read it to
+Bridget.”
+
+Bridget, when she heard it, was reduced to tears and presently they were
+all laughing and crying together, for the work of this first big order
+had been more of an anxiety than any one of them cared to acknowledge,
+while its success expressed so kindly by their thoughtful customer meant
+as much in its way as the accompanying check, which fairly dazzled them.
+
+“One hundred and twenty-five dollars!” cried Hester ecstatically. “We’re
+millionaires! Oh— oh—oh! to think of our _earning_ so much money!” She
+waved the check wildly over her head and even insisted that Peter Snooks
+should have a sniff at it before she said, “Wouldn’t you just like to
+frame it and keep it forever?”
+
+“I know what I should like best of all to do with it,” said Julie.
+
+“I bet Miss Hester can guess by the knowin’ look in her eyes,” said
+Bridget. “It’s meself that knows too, what your blessed selves is
+thinkin’.”
+
+“Of course you both know,” Julie said quietly, “we want to begin to pay
+Dr. Ware rent.”
+
+They went the next afternoon to his office. On the doorsteps they
+encountered Miss Ware, who turned about as she saw them approach.
+
+“Don’t let us detain you,” said Julie politely, “we have just come for a
+little business talk with your brother.”
+
+“Ah!” she replied, “I fancied you got about all of that sort of thing
+you wanted at home. You’d better come upstairs and let me make you some
+tea—you look peaked, both of you. Philip ought to give you a tonic.
+Tell him I said so, and come up afterward. I insist upon it and shall
+have the tea ready. It will not do you any harm to sit down in a
+different atmosphere for a while. I suppose you do get sick to death of
+a kitchen.”
+
+There was no doubt that Miss Ware possessed to perfection the faculty of
+rubbing one the wrong way, but Julie deemed it wise not to decline these
+overtures and made no further protest against her going in with them.
+
+“Horrid old thing! How I hate her!” whispered Hester, as Miss Ware went
+on upstairs and they waited a moment in the Doctor’s ante-room.
+
+“So do I, but she’s _his_ sister and she means well.”
+
+“You’d find excuses for the old boy himself.”
+
+“No, I wouldn’t,” laughed Julie, “but—here’s Dr. Ware.”
+
+He bowed to them as he entered from the private office and passed by
+with an elderly man, with whom he was in deep conversation. In a moment
+he returned and greeted the girls warmly.
+
+“Well,” he said, giving each a hand, “this is delightful. Come into the
+other room. That was old Mr. Landor—Kenneth’s father, by the way—did
+you notice him? He is about half Kenneth’s size, but he has force enough
+for a dozen men. I wish you girls knew him.”
+
+He pulled out chairs as he talked and ensconced the girls comfortably,
+then stood against the table facing them with arms folded and the smile
+on his face which Bridget vowed was “like the blessed sun for warmin’
+the cockles of your heart.”
+
+“It is good to have you here,” he said heartily, “I wish you came more
+often. Perhaps,” with a laugh that showed the gleam of his white teeth,
+“I do not give you a chance—I go so often to see you.”
+
+“If you came every hour of the day it wouldn’t be too often,” exclaimed
+Hester, who never loved people by halves. “But Julie is going to do the
+talking to-day. I intend to keep still.”
+
+“As if you could! Well, Julie?” smiling at her.
+
+“We have come to have a little business talk with you,” she said,
+twisting her fingers together nervously and finding it a little
+difficult to begin.
+
+“Delighted to be so honored,” he replied lightly, bowing low.
+
+“It is about the—the rent,” said Julie, who wished her words would not
+stick in her throat. “We are getting on so well with our work that we
+want to begin to pay you. We thought if you would let us begin this
+month and—”
+
+“And not object or scold us or anything,” broke in Hester who never
+could remain out of a conversation, “but just take the money, we’d feel
+a thousand times happier, though no money or anything else could ever
+express our gratitude for all you are doing.”
+
+He still leaned against the table with folded arms but the smile had
+given place to an expression of sadness.
+
+“Have you both quite finished?” he asked when Hester had stopped for
+lack of breath.
+
+“We never could finish talking about your kindness,” put in Julie.
+
+The Doctor raised his hand as if to waive that aside. “I have listened
+to your proposition,” he said, “because I am a practical business man
+and I understand your spirit. It is the height of your ambition to be
+independent.”
+
+“Yes,” they assented.
+
+“When your father broke down,” he continued, “I longed to take you all
+home and look after you. I was amply able to do it and he is my oldest
+and best friend. I would have done it, too, if you girls had not
+astonished me by displaying so much courage and such a determination to
+fight your own battles that I could only stand aside and watch you work
+out your own salvation.”
+
+“You have made the way easier all the time,” said Julie tremulously.
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat.
+
+“I have been so glad to share a bit of the responsibility, but now my
+faithful little comrades want to shoulder it all.”
+
+“Oh, Dr. Ware, you don’t think—” began Hester impulsively.
+
+“Yes, I do think,” he interrupted, “that you have the right idea and
+whatever my personal inclination may be, I like your spirit of
+independence and it shall be as you say.”
+
+Hester flung her arms about his neck and kissed him. “Do you know,” she
+said brokenly, “Julie and I are getting so puffed up with conceit over
+our business prosperity that presently you will disown us altogether.”
+
+“Shall I?” holding her fast. “What do you think, Julie?” with a
+searching gaze into the face of the older girl who stood a little apart
+from them.
+
+Julie flushed and turned her eyes away—tell-tale eyes like hers were
+not to be trusted. “I think,” she said with a supreme effort to speak
+calmly, “I think we had better go upstairs for tea. Miss Ware will be
+wondering what has become of us.”
+
+When the Doctor learned that tea was brewing in the library he followed
+them upstairs and electrified his sister by handing about tea and taking
+a cup himself with as much complacency as if he were in the habit of
+dawdling around a tea-table every afternoon of his life. Miss Ware
+wished he hadn’t come, for she had intended to ply the girls with
+questions about their work; questions which in the presence of her
+brother she hesitated to ask, standing, as she did, in considerable awe
+of him. She did manage, while he was talking to Hester, to catechise
+Julie a little, but that young woman’s answers were so evasive, yet
+withal so sweetly polite that Miss Ware felt very much as if she were
+hitting a rubber ball, which, while showing the imprint of her attack,
+bounded back every time to the starting point. It happened also that Dr.
+Ware having some notion of what his sister might be up to, rescued Julie
+from too prolonged a tête-à-tête and with infinite tact kept the
+conversation in such general channels that personalities were forgotten
+and Miss Ware quite shone in her desire to be agreeable. There are many
+persons who, given their own conversational way, manage in the course of
+an hour to reduce to a state of irritation every person in the room, yet
+who, guided and steered by a stronger force, rise to the best that is in
+them and produce such a favorable impression that one wonders how one
+ever thought them other than agreeable. It was thus with Miss Ware, who
+under the guidance of her brother, appeared to the girls in a new light,
+and she herself had the unusual sensation of regretting that they had
+taken so early a departure.
+
+“I wish I had asked them to stay on to dinner,” she said when they had
+gone.
+
+“I wish you had,” said the Doctor, accustomed to her after thoughts.
+
+“Why didn’t you suggest it?”
+
+“I was not sure that it would be agreeable to you, Mary.”
+
+“Humph!” she said. Then critically, “Hester _is_ extraordinarily
+pretty—and what an air! She’s almost conspicuous. How is your scheme
+about Kenneth getting on?”
+
+“It is not a ‘scheme,’ Mary. I wish you would not express it just that
+way. And I have concluded I am not the right person to go in for
+match-making. Think no more about it.”
+
+“Humph!” she said again.
+
+“I doubt if either of the girls will care to marry,” he volunteered.
+
+“Girls are queer,” she said sententiously.
+
+“Are they?” he rejoined wearily. “I do not think I know.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+That spring would always be a memorable one both to the girls and the
+country at large, for momentous events followed one upon another in
+rapid succession. War was declared with Spain, as Kenneth had
+prophesied, and all the bustle and activity attendant upon the
+preparations of hostilities with a foreign power were felt throughout
+the nation.
+
+Kenneth, believing such a crisis inevitable, had prepared to respond
+promptly to the first call for troops.
+
+There had been a fierce tussle with his father when first he broached
+the subject, but by that time Mr. Landor had learned that Kenneth’s was
+not a nature to be forced into subjection and heard him out with far
+more respect than would have been accorded him a year ago. Mr. Landor
+suggested, in the course of the talk, that it was a pity to leave the
+business just as he was mastering it; and Kenneth agreed with him. But
+all the patriotism in his nature was aroused and this, combined with
+Hester’s inspiration and his naturally adventurous spirit, held him
+proof against his father’s arguments. This strength and decision were
+not lost upon the older man, who, having put forth every argument to
+keep his son at home, ended the discussion by saying, somewhat abruptly:
+
+“When the call came in ’61 I could not go. I had a father and mother
+dependent on me. I’m—I’m not dependent on you, Kenneth, and your
+country needs you. I should have been disappointed in you if you had not
+wanted to go.”
+
+“Thank you, father,” with a hearty grip of the hand for he thought he
+understood the personal sacrifice his father was making, though,
+man-fashion, he said no word.
+
+And so Kenneth used his influence toward the end he had in view, with
+the good result that when on that twenty-third day of April the
+President issued his first call for troops, he was given a commission as
+lieutenant in the crack cavalry troop of Radnor and ordered into the
+State camp to await developments.
+
+The girls saw the troopers go. They happened to be in the business part
+of the city that afternoon and were attracted by groups of people
+standing about and talking excitedly. Further investigation, coupled
+with the sound of a bugle in the distance, caused them to take refuge on
+the nearest steps and wait with bated breath for the militia to appear.
+Electric cars had stopped running, wagons rattled off into the side
+streets, leaving the main thoroughfare clear, and presently they came—a
+troop of cavalry followed by a regiment of infantry, the splendid column
+swinging along to the gay music of the band, whose medley of martial
+airs wound up suggestively with “The Girl I Left Behind Me.”
+
+The crowd broke into a great spontaneous cheer and cheered and cheered
+again, shouting until they were hoarse. On the sidewalks, steps, from
+windows all about, people craned their necks for a last look at the
+departing soldiers. Women waved their handkerchiefs and wept. Men raised
+their hats—aye, flung them high in the air—while every man, woman and
+child who could lay hand on a flag waved it in frantic demonstration.
+For staid decorous Radnor it was an ovation.
+
+The Dale girls thrilled with excitement. Just as the cavalry passed
+their steps Julie grabbed Hester and said:
+
+“Look at that officer just back of the men—isn’t he stunning! And see
+how beautifully he manages that prancing horse! No, not over there,
+Hester,—this way, nearer us,” excitedly, “the horse is dancing to the
+music and oh!—why, Hester Dale, it’s Mr. Landor! Wave to him, quick! I
+want him to see us!”
+
+They both waved, standing on tip-toe, and, as if impelled by the
+instinct that warns us when those we love are near, he turned and saw
+them. There was a quick interchange of glances, a slight wave of the
+hand and he was gone.
+
+“He _did_ see us,” exclaimed Julie. “I am so glad even if it is against
+the regulations for an officer to recognize people. Oh, aren’t you glad
+we were down town! It is really living in war times and seeing for
+ourselves the things Daddy has described a thousand times!”
+
+“I can’t realize it,” said Hester, looking rather flushed, “but I would
+not have missed it for anything in the world!”
+
+When they got back to the house they found Jack in a fever of impatience
+waiting to waylay them.
+
+“Did you see him? Did you see him?” he cried, stopping them at his door.
+
+“Mr. Landor? yes,” laughed Julie. “Did you?”
+
+“Where were you? I was down at the Armory. Oh, please stop in here a
+moment till I tell you about it.”
+
+Thus urged, they went in.
+
+“He was here,” cried Jack, to whom there was only one he, “early this
+afternoon in his uniform and he asked for you; he wanted to say good-by,
+but I said you’d just gone out. I saw you both going up the street
+before he came—and he could only stay a second ’cause the troops were
+ordered out and he thought I’d like to get around to the Armory and see
+them start off. And didn’t I, just! I went lickety-split on my crutches
+nearly as fast as a boy could run,” he cried, immensely proud of this
+achievement, “and I was there in time and got a front seat. A fellow on
+a grocery wagon asked me to sit up with him and I saw—everything,” with
+a comprehensive sweep of his arms. “The horses and the officers and the
+men and all their friends crowding around the Armory and hanging on to
+some of them tight, and some of the ladies crying and gee! but it was
+great!”
+
+“Well, you certainly were right in it, Jack,” commented Hester.
+
+“Should say I was! And pretty soon out came Mr. Landor—Lieutenant
+Landor,” corrected Jack with great emphasis, “and an orderly was
+standing alongside the curb with his horse and before he mounted he saw
+me sitting in the wagon on the corner of the street and he came down and
+saluted as though I was his superior officer,” Jack’s eyes were fairly
+dancing out of his head, “and said good-by all over again. I wish you
+could have seen the crowd! They just gaped! and the boys nearly had a
+fit seeing me talking to an officer. And when he went off one of them
+said, ‘Gee! he’s a corker—he’ll knock the spots out of the Spaniards,’
+and I said, ‘You bet!’ That’s awful slang, Miss Julie,” apologetically,
+“but it’s the truth.”
+
+Julie smiled. “We are getting our first glimpse of war, Jack, and it is
+pretty exciting for all of us.”
+
+“I’m crazy to go—I bet they’d take me for a drummer-boy if I could get
+rid of these,” with a disgusted glance at his crutches. “I told Mr.
+Landor so and he said of course I wanted to go—every boy wanted to
+serve his country—but sometimes there was just as much to do for those
+who stayed at home as those who went. That the women and children must
+be looked after” (the air of protection which the superiority of his sex
+gave him would have been funny had he not been in such deadly earnest),
+“and,” he continued, “he appointed me a guard of honor. I’m to take care
+of you!” He made this announcement with positive triumph.
+
+“How splendid!” said Julie, realizing how much this feeling of
+importance meant to the restless boy who was longing to be off for the
+front.
+
+“I’m to go and see his father too, and print a weekly bulletin full of
+what we’re all doing and anything I can make up—just like the one I do
+for your father and he’s going to write me from camp. Think of that! And
+I’m to get well as fast as I can and study very hard and try to be a man
+when he gets back. And what do you suppose? No more office for me!”
+
+“Jack, you are inventing!”
+
+“Nope,” delighted at her incredulity, “he had a talk with mother last
+week and I’m to go to school and then to college.”
+
+“That is the best news I’ve heard for many a day,” said Julie,
+affectionately regarding the happy boy. “If you work hard and go to
+college I prophesy great things for you.”
+
+“If the war’s still on, though, when I’m old enough and well enough,
+maybe I’d get to be a drummer-boy.” In his present state of military
+ardor life held the promise of nothing greater than that.
+
+When they had left him and were nearly at their own door they were
+stopped by the sound of his crutches on the stairs below. Hester ran
+back to see what he wanted.
+
+“Don’t come up, Jack,” she called, running down to meet him. “Did we
+leave something behind?”
+
+“It’s this, Miss Hester,” reaching out a note. “He gave it to me—I
+nearly forgot. Please forgive me,” penitently.
+
+“Of course, Jack,” taking it from him and turning again she went
+upstairs.
+
+It was only a thin sheet of paper, folded three-cornered, on which in
+pencil was scrawled her name. But she opened it on the stairs with a
+mixture of curiosity and tenderness which she would have been at a loss
+to define had any analysis of her feelings been required of her.
+
+  “I had hoped to see you,” it said, without any other beginning, “but
+  that failing, I have stolen a moment here at the Armory to say
+  good-bye. It was not a friend but I, myself, to whom you were such a
+  help and inspiration that evening. When I come back will you let me
+  thank you for that and—more? The bit of gold you gave me I am
+  carrying with me as a mascot. Do you mind? And if I prove as
+  fearless and brave a soldier as you I shall thank God for making me
+  of the right stuff. Will you pray that it may be so? Good-bye.”
+
+She stood quite still for a moment when she had finished reading, then
+brushed her hand quickly over her eyes and went on into their apartment.
+Finding Julie she handed her the bit of paper and said gayly, though
+Julie thought there was a suspicious huskiness in her voice, “See, Julie
+dear, a note from a really, truly soldier.” And before Julie could speak
+she whisked out of the room and until Bridget called her to dinner, was
+seen no more.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month passed, during which, in spite of the excitement over war and
+the subsequent depression along certain lines of business, their work
+increased from day to day. And in the midst of all this bustle and rush
+when each hour exacted of them the very limit of their endurance, Mr.
+Dale died. He went to sleep with God as peacefully as a little child. At
+first the girls could not believe it. They had grown so used to the long
+hours in which he slept, so accustomed to the paralysis which kept his
+mind and body apathetic, that they could not conceive that he would not
+wake again and turn his eyes fondly on them as before. When finally he
+was carried out of the little home and laid in his last resting place
+they began to realize that God had released him from his earthly
+thraldom and given them another saint in heaven. With characteristic
+courage they lived through those first days when the awful loneliness
+pressed so heavily upon them, and with characteristic determination took
+up their work struggling to go on as if nothing had happened. But it was
+hard—harder than any other sorrow which had come to them—for the whole
+incentive of their work was gone. It was as if the very mainspring of
+their lives had snapped and broken.
+
+In the long solemn talks the girls had together at this time Julie urged
+that they must be as faithful to their father’s precepts as they had
+tried to be while he was with them. And she dwelt very much on the fact
+that he was still with them, guiding and loving them as much as during
+all those years before he was stricken down. And Hester believed this
+too for they had been taught the beauty of the inner, spiritual life
+that counts for immortality and makes all separation merely a transitory
+thing bridged over by love. So they felt their beloved father still with
+them, though Hester often brokenly whispered that working was robbed of
+its incentive now that they were no longer “making a home for Dad.”
+
+It must not be supposed that they were left alone in their affliction.
+On the contrary, friends sprang up in every direction. Women whom
+hitherto they had only regarded as customers and known most formally,
+now came forward with kindest words and thoughtful suggestions, while
+expressions of sympathy in the form of cards and flowers threatened to
+well-nigh deluge them. It was evident to the most casual observer that
+“those Dale girls” were persons of considerable importance. Unique as it
+was, they had made their place in Radnor, and the fact was given wide
+recognition. They themselves were fairly bewildered and overcome by so
+much demonstration from people from whom they expected nothing. That
+they were not insensible to its meaning was shown in their grateful
+appreciation of every word and act. Even the haughty Miss Davis,
+desiring to make reparation, chose this time to come and see them, and
+Hester out of the fullness of her sorrowful heart accepted her repentant
+kiss and fell to talking of childish days.
+
+Next to Dr. Ware there was no one so keenly conscious of or who so
+rejoiced over this capitulation of exclusive Radnor as the Lennoxes. As
+Mrs. Lennox wrote Kenneth Landor, most girls were what their position
+made them, but they had made their own position, winning the respect and
+admiration and at last the friendship of every one who knew them. He,
+hard at work drilling raw recruits in Virginia (for his troop had been
+ordered into a Southern camp) found time to write how glad of this he
+was and to the girls he sent a joint note of deepest sympathy.
+
+The Driscoes wrote, of course, each in their own way. The girls half
+smiled over Cousin Nancy’s letter—it was such a mixture of a belief in
+the retribution that overtakes the willful and an evident grief that the
+Major was no more. Colonel Driscoe wrote little but did much which
+developed later through Dr. Ware who unwarily let the cat out of the
+bag. And Dr. Ware, as might have been expected, did everything. This
+time the girls allowed him to plan and arrange and perform with them and
+for them the last loving offices for their father, feeling that it was
+his right.
+
+Miss Ware was at this time in England and as the Doctor was living at
+his club, his time was more than ever at their disposal. Miss Ware had
+taken flight at this first note of war, indeed before the bugle sounded,
+for she had a very indifferent regard for her country and at all times
+preferred England. So the Doctor came and went without comment, and a
+month after Mr. Dale’s death he was summoned hastily one morning by
+Bridget.
+
+Julie lay ill. He could not find that she was in any great pain and he
+had not expected that she would be. He knew immediately that the thing
+he had been so long dreading had taken place. Her tired nerves refused
+to do their work at last—the delicate mechanism of her body had
+stopped.
+
+Hester hovered about, wide-eyed and solicitous and then it was that more
+than ever Dr. Ware took things into his own hands and said a few things
+to Hester which caused that young woman to gasp with astonishment and
+fling her arms about his neck in her usual impetuous fashion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Under the most favorable auspices a military camp entails labor, but to
+the volunteers who assembled in Virginia that spring and broke ground
+for what afterward became known as Camp Alger, it was a tremendous
+undertaking. The hewing of wood and clearing of underbrush which it
+entailed was scarcely bargained for by the enlisted man fresh from
+civilian life, who, nevertheless, went at it with the energy
+characteristic of Uncle Sam’s boys the country over, as a result of
+which, by the end of May, many of the regiments were as well quartered
+as if they were enjoying the customary summer outing at their State
+camp-grounds at home. These, of course, were the militia now mustered
+into the United States service and awaiting orders to follow the
+regulars into Spanish territory.
+
+Troop D of Kenneth Landor’s squadron had unquestionably the finest site
+on the reservation; a wooded knoll stretching down into a field of
+grass—green when the troopers came but worn down to bare earth in the
+first month of their encampment. Beneath the shade trees on the hillside
+the officers pitched their conical tents, the men stretching out through
+the field below in two troop streets, back of which on either side were
+picketed their horses.
+
+It was a warm June afternoon, but a little breeze stirred the branches
+of the trees and blew with delicious freshness over the knoll, on which,
+stretched out at full length, lay Kenneth Landor. It was an off hour in
+camp and, barring the sentries who were tramping up and down their
+posts, every man was taking advantage of it, some comfortably lounging
+like Kenneth on the grass, others laboriously writing home letters
+filled with their latest exploit. For they were just back from a three
+days’ practice march along the Potomac, during which they had spent
+their time in fighting the infantry they met on the road and swimming
+their horses in the river; and this first bit of mimic warfare could not
+fail to be of interest to the home people.
+
+Kenneth had enjoyed the march hugely. He liked action and chafed, as did
+all the men, under the monotony of their enforced encampment, although
+realizing full well that the troop would be sent to the front as soon as
+was deemed expedient. He was thinking, as he lay on his back gazing
+skyward, of what he had once heard a veteran say,—that war was largely
+made up of soldier housekeeping. That might be true, but he hoped he
+should come in for some stiff fighting before he got through. These
+interesting speculations so engrossed him that he scarcely noticed the
+mail orderly going the rounds until turning suddenly on his elbow he saw
+the man coming toward him. This trooper, detailed as mail orderly, was
+no other than Charley Bemis, whom we last saw at the Earle-Truxton
+wedding, but so strictly was the etiquette of military life maintained
+in camp that the man on approaching, saluted his superior officer,
+received an acknowledging salute, delivered a letter and turned away
+without a word.
+
+The envelope was addressed in Jack’s round sprawling hand and Kenneth
+prepared himself for a comfortable perusal of the weekly bulletin which
+the boy wrote, edited and printed with faithful regularity and which
+never failed to be of absorbing interest to the man who received it.
+This time, however, there was no printed sheet, but a letter written
+apparently at fever heat.
+
+“Dear Lieutenant,” (it began, with military terseness), “I’m too upset
+to do the paper, though I’ll try to soon, but you won’t wonder when I
+tell you. _They’re gone!_ I can’t realize it myself and I wish I didn’t
+have to—it’s all so sudden and so lonesome I just want to go off and
+die!
+
+“Dr. Ware did it. He and Bridget packed them off before they could say
+Jack Robinson. She’s gone, too, so has he—down to Wavertree Hall, their
+cousin’s plantation in Virginia. You see, Miss Julie broke down, though
+she wouldn’t let any of us say she was ill, and Mrs. Driscoe urged them
+to come there and Colonel Driscoe wrote Dr. Ware and sent him the money
+to buy their tickets and said he mustn’t tell and he should rely upon
+him to get them off. Miss Hester told me all that. She laughed, the way
+she always does, you know, and said their cousin Driscoe and Dr. Ware
+together were too much for them. She said they meant to have a good rest
+and get Miss Julie strong and then come back to their work again but
+Gee! I wish they didn’t have to—it’s such a fearful grind.
+
+“It’s awful without them, and Peter Snooks gone too! Lieutenant Landor,
+what’s a guard of honor to do with nothing to guard? There’s mother, of
+course, and Mr. Landor, but they don’t like me bothering around the way
+those girls did. They never minded. I’ve left off my crutches and I’m
+digging at my books, but I’m going to be a drummer boy yet, you bet!
+
+“Please send me the latest news from the front. I think it’s _great_ to
+be a soldier!
+
+                                                                 “Jack.”
+
+“P.S.—Mother says it’s a girl’s trick to add a postscript, but they’re
+down there near you somewhere. Wouldn’t you love to see them, just! They
+went to Dunn Loring the way you did and had to drive a ways into the
+country. Thought you’d like to know.”
+
+The varied sensations which surged through Kenneth as he finished
+reading are difficult to describe. Paramount was the joyful surprise
+that Hester was somewhere in the vicinity, followed by the overwhelming
+desire to see her without loss of time. This he knew as he came to think
+it over quietly, was impossible. He could not take the initiative or
+seem to thrust himself upon her uninvited. She, of course, must know
+that his troop was still at Camp Alger and if she cared to see him—but
+did she care?
+
+That baffling question haunted him a week. Then came one day a note
+brought by a small darky who was inclined to ride rough-shod over the
+sentries because, as he condescended to explain to them, he had a note
+from the young missis to deliver right into the Lieutenant’s own hand. A
+formal, brief little note Hester had written, but it was enough, for it
+told him where they were and that their cousin Mrs. Driscoe would be
+most happy to have him ride over and call.
+
+He went that evening, inquiring the way in Dunn Loring and soon found
+himself riding up a long avenue between rows of locust trees, at the end
+of which he could just distinguish a large brick mansion with a square
+portico and broad verandahs at either end. When he drew up at the house
+he discovered a small cavalcade ahead of him. At least half a dozen
+horses were standing hitched in various parts of the driveway, and
+following the custom of the place he tied his own with the rest. Then he
+rapped vigorously at the knocker to announce his arrival. By that
+general factotum George Washington he was ushered immediately across a
+huge square hall and out onto a verandah where a gay group of people
+were laughing and chatting together. His first impression was a vivid
+effect of blue uniforms and white muslin gowns while from out of this
+medley a dignified, matronly figure came forward with his card in her
+hand and said in hearty Southern fashion:
+
+“How do you do, Mr. Landor? It is a pleasure to welcome you to Wavertree
+Hall. Hester, my dear, here is one of your Radnor friends.”
+
+Hester slipped down from the railing where she had been sitting and
+shyly gave him her hand. Somehow, for a moment he scarcely knew her with
+that strange light in her eyes. Then there was a general interchange of
+greetings, for Julie called him over to the hammock where she was half
+reclining and Dr. Ware rose up from his seat beside her and nearly shook
+the arm off him; and there was dear little Nannie waiting to have him
+presented and the Colonel, who laughingly consented to wait his turn,
+and all the guests who enviously regarded this brother officer upon
+whom, for the moment, all interest centered.
+
+He saw very little of Hester that night. She was the gayest of the gay
+and seemed to evade him with the old elusiveness which had been so
+marked in the first days of their acquaintance. So he turned for comfort
+to Julie, whose convalescence kept her a little apart from the lively
+group and whose genuine interest in him seemed to the distracted fellow
+almost the sweetest thing in the world.
+
+He rode off rather early, in company with the other officers, whom he
+found belonged to a Virginia regiment encamped at Alger, and when the
+gay little cavalcade had waved their hands in parting and were lost to
+sight Dr. Ware said to Julie:
+
+“There was not a man of them who could compare with Kenneth—he is
+superb!”
+
+“Yes,” she assented, “he is. I never saw him look so handsome as he does
+in his uniform.”
+
+The others had strayed into the great hall, and they were alone on the
+verandah.
+
+“Julie,” he said gently, “you begin to feel more like your old self now,
+do you not, dear?”
+
+“Oh! yes,” she said, “I feel stronger and stronger every day. But,” with
+a little laugh, “I am in danger of being spoiled—you all wait on me
+so.”
+
+“It is a good thing to get that independent young spirit of yours into
+subjection,” he laughed. “We are all making the most of the
+opportunity.”
+
+“Do you notice how cousin Nancy has changed?” she asked. “She does not
+eye Hester and me so curiously as she did at first. When we came she
+scarcely took her eyes off us for days. I think she was prepared to see
+freaks and could not readjust her mind to the fact that we looked and
+behaved just as usual. To cook for a living and still be a lady was an
+anomaly beyond her comprehension, but she is beginning to realize such
+things can be, though she wouldn’t acknowledge it for the world. Dear
+cousin Nancy! She’s so good and so contradictory!”
+
+“I shall never forget her kindness in keeping me here,” he said
+heartily. “Think of my merely meaning to see you safe at Wavertree Hall,
+and being taken possession of by her and made one of the family! Her
+hospitality is unbounded.”
+
+Presently he said: “I have been waiting for you to feel strong enough to
+have a little serious talk, Julie. What would you say if you were not to
+go back to your work for another year?”
+
+“Oh, we must go back,” she said. “Please don’t think we’ll allow
+ourselves to get demoralized or unfitted for work because of all this!”
+
+“I’m not likely to think that, dear, but your cousin Driscoe has had a
+long talk with me and he urges me to persuade you all to remain with
+them a year, at least. He says now they’ve got you here they want to
+keep you and you’ll be all the better fitted to work, he thinks, for a
+long rest. He says he has not mentioned this to your cousin Nancy
+because he will not have her bothering you to do what you don’t want
+to—”
+
+“The dear, blessed man,” she exclaimed.
+
+“And he didn’t want to bother you himself but he thought if I threw the
+weight of my influence on his side you might be persuaded. He doesn’t
+know, does he?” wistfully, “what little influence I really have with you
+two independent girls!”
+
+“Oh, don’t say that!” she protested; “it isn’t fair! And I do not
+believe way down deep in your heart you would urge our staying on here
+so long. You know too well how hard we have struggled to get started to
+advise our letting the work all slip away. Besides, what would you do
+without us all that time, I’d like to know,” she said playfully. “You’d
+be terribly lonesome, you know you would and—oh no,” suddenly growing
+serious again, “we must go back and take up the work and push on with
+it, but it isn’t the same—it just can’t be without Daddy!” She turned
+her face away but not before he had detected the brimming eyes.
+
+“Dear,” he said, putting out his arms, “if only you would let me”—he
+stopped, pulling himself together with a mighty effort. “I—I—”
+
+“You are so good to me,” she faltered, “so good!”
+
+“I’m far from good to let you get excited to-night,” he said, struggling
+to speak calmly. “You are not strong yet, dear, but I wanted to speak to
+you about your cousin Driscoe’s proposition before I went away!”
+
+“Away?” she repeated as if scarcely understanding, “must you go away?”
+
+“I think so, dear, in a day or two. Tell me what I can do for you in
+Radnor.”
+
+“Radnor?” musingly, “how far away that seems! Yes, you can do something
+for me there—two things. See Jack and tell him all about us and hunt up
+Mr. Renshawe and tell him we’ve nearly won the day. Hester and I have
+been maneuvering in his behalf on all occasions. Tell him Nannie treads
+on air and that any day he may expect a little flag of truce, for cousin
+Nancy shows signs of surrendering. Will you tell him all that?”
+
+“Julie dear,” bending toward her with a world of tenderness in his
+voice, “Julie dear, do you never want anything for yourself?”
+
+“Yes,” very faintly.
+
+“Can you tell me, little girl?”
+
+“Yes,” reaching out her hands with a little childish gesture,—“you.”
+
+“Julie!”
+
+He took her in his arms and for a moment there was silence while out in
+the moonlit trees a mocking-bird called to its mate.
+
+“My little girl,” he said at last tremulously, “is it really true?”
+
+“Oh, how could I do it,” she whispered, “how could I!”
+
+“Love me? I am sure I don’t know and I scarcely dare believe it. Look at
+me, sweetheart and tell me it is true.”
+
+She raised her beautiful honest eyes and let him look into the depths of
+her pure soul. “It is so natural to love you and so beautiful,” she said
+simply.
+
+“But I am no longer a young man, dear. What right have I to ask you to
+give your young life to me?”
+
+“You didn’t ask me,” with a little fluttering laugh, “I asked you. It is
+very humiliating for you to remind me of it.”
+
+“Julie!” He was holding her fast as if he never meant to let her go.
+
+“You are not old,” she protested. “It is not years but the spirit that
+counts, and you are young—just as I am old for my years, and there is
+no one like you but Hester in the world. I have been loving you so long
+unconsciously, that I don’t know when it began.”
+
+“Neither do I, dear.”
+
+“But I knew you so well,” she continued, “I was afraid you would have
+some mistaken sense of honor that would prevent your ever telling me you
+loved me and I just couldn’t bear that.” Julie’s head was hidden on his
+shoulder.
+
+“You little saint,” stroking her hair tenderly, “you always seemed to
+belong to me, as if you were a part of my very life, but I have never
+felt I was worthy of such a blessing and I have reminded myself a
+thousand times this past winter that I could only have one place in your
+affections—the old family friend. When Monsieur Grémond came along I
+realized more than ever that I had no right to daydreams—that some
+other man would claim you and carry you away.”
+
+“Did you want me to marry him?” she asked.
+
+“I wanted your happiness above everything.”
+
+“Do _you_ never want anything for yourself?” she asked saucily.
+
+“You,” was his answer, at which they both laughed with the delicious
+sense of their own humor which only lovers know.
+
+Then they had a long quiet talk together about the future, and he told
+her how he thanked God she was willing to give herself into his keeping;
+how he wanted to flood her life with sunshine and how blessed he should
+be if she and Hester would make for him such a home as they had made for
+Dad. And they spoke long and tenderly of the man who had been as noble a
+friend as a father and who would always be a loved memory to them both.
+Then she slipped away from him and leaving him to dream of a reality
+that was beyond all imagining, went up to her room in search of Hester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The change to Virginia was perhaps appreciated by no one more than Peter
+Snooks, that by no means unimportant member of the Dale family, whose
+activity knew no bounds. He raced madly about the plantation, to the
+consternation of the chickens and the terror of Mrs. Driscoe, who, never
+having owned dogs, fancied he was going to take up everything by the
+roots. But Peter Snooks behaved admirably. To be sure, he chased
+chickens, but what canine could resist that temptation? And it was
+recorded to his credit that he never hurt one of them. With Julie not
+well and Bridget and the two younger girls scarcely leaving her, Peter
+Snooks was forced to seek companionship out of the family—quite a new
+order of things—and chose George Washington, greatly to the delight of
+that ebony mite. What games they had out in the carriage-house and what
+antics the two cut upon the lawn playing circus for the edification of
+the people on the verandah! Hester herself was sometimes inspired to go
+into the ring and put Snooks through his tricks, which were many,
+herself performing some ridiculous caper which was received with wild
+applause. But Snooks had the best time when Hester and Nannie went
+riding, and he raced alongside and often way ahead, to his own evident
+delight though not always to the comfort of the horses.
+
+Nannie, these days, was the happiest girl in the County, for she had her
+two cousins whom she adored and every prospect of a speedy adjustment of
+her love affair. She nearly hugged Julie to death whenever she thought
+of it and confided to Hester when they went off together that being
+engaged was just the loveliest thing in the world.
+
+It would have been impossible to find two girls in greater contrast than
+Hester and Nannie, for all they were such chums. Nannie, in her white
+frocks and big sun hats, was a sweet little maiden whose soft brown eyes
+did not belie her disposition. She had a soft, drawling voice and dear
+little clinging ways that made the Colonel’s sobriquet of “Puss” seem
+most fitting. She was fast growing to womanhood, but was in all things
+childishly appealing, though that she was not without character was
+shown in various ways, culminating in her loyalty to Sidney Renshawe in
+spite of the painful opposition.
+
+Hester wore white muslin frocks and big hats, too—relics of their last
+year’s Paris shopping. It had always been the avowed wish of their
+father that in the event of his dying before them they should not wear
+black. He had the strongest aversion to the garb of mourning and the
+girls remembered and respected his wishes. So they had made no change in
+their wardrobe, though since they had come down to Virginia they
+confined themselves almost wholly to white.
+
+Simple enough these frocks were, but Hester wore hers with an air that
+gave them something of her personality and made her distinctive wherever
+she appeared. There was never anything nondescript about Hester. And her
+moods were so many and so varied that her cousin Nancy, who did not in
+the least understand her, told the Colonel despairingly that she must be
+a witch—there certainly was not a drop of Fairleigh blood in her.
+Julie, forced to be quiet through indisposition, was regarded by her
+cousin as really quite patrician and not in the least—and this was a
+wonderful admission—not in the least vulgarized by work. Colonel
+Driscoe agreed to her last statement and let the rest go. He found that
+the simplest way to avoid argument.
+
+Kenneth Landor became a frequent caller and grew to be an immense
+favorite with the household, but he seldom had the satisfaction of more
+than a few words with Hester. One morning he rode over and deemed the
+Fates more than kind when, finding Julie on the porch, she sent him down
+into the garden, where she said he would find Hester helping George
+Washington pick blackberries.
+
+His first glimpse of her was a sun-bonnet; then two sadly stained hands
+reaching up among the bushes, then a white figure in sharp relief
+against the green; then Peter Snooks barked and she turned and saw him.
+
+“Good morning,” she said sweetly, from out of her sun-bonnet, giving him
+a look that seemed propitious. “Have a blackberry?”
+
+“Thanks, don’t mind if I do. May I help pick?”
+
+“If you like. I can’t stop, you know, for old Aunt Rachael is expecting
+them for dinner. We’re great cronies, she and I. I steal out to the
+kitchen quarters often to see her when Cousin Nancy is not looking.”
+
+“Do you mind pushing back that sun-bonnet?” he asked beseechingly. “I
+know you’re inside of it somewhere and I should like to see you.”
+
+She laughed and pushed it half way back. “If that does not suit you I’ll
+take it off altogether.”
+
+“Oh, don’t do that, it’s so—so nice,” not daring to say how adorable he
+thought she was in it. “I like it the way you have it now. I never knew
+sun-bonnets could be so frilled and furbelowed.”
+
+“It is Nannie’s—she is making Julie and me each one. She says they are
+a fad this year. They are pretty, aren’t they? But somehow they feel hot
+and then I just tie the strings loose and let it hang down my back like
+that. Cousin Nancy says a girl who will do that has absolutely no regard
+for her complexion. It would be funny, wouldn’t it, if I took to
+worrying about things like that? Why, where is George Washington? Gone?
+And you’re shockingly lazy! You haven’t picked a berry since you came!”
+
+“I—I beg your pardon,” scarcely able to take his eyes off her, “I
+really mean to help.”
+
+“How is Captain Loomis?” she asked, seeing that he seemed unable to do
+much of anything but stare at her. “Have you seen him to-day?”
+
+“That little Virginian? He haunts our camp and talks to me by the hour
+about you! He is madly in love with you.”
+
+“He is too silly to be anything else,” munching a berry.
+
+“I do not like your way of putting it.”
+
+“I mean,” she explained, swinging her sun-bonnet by one string, “that he
+does not know how to be sensible and I do not like him well enough to
+bother to teach him, so, as he is around a good deal I have to politely
+put up with him. I should think you knew me well enough by this time to
+know how I hate silly people.”
+
+“Do you ever politely put up with me?”
+
+“Sometimes,” teasingly.
+
+“Hester, Hester,” called a fresh young voice, “are you down there? Come
+up out of the garden quick! It’s so cool this morning father says he’ll
+take us over to camp to see that fascinating Mr. Landor.”
+
+Hester ducked her head in her sunbonnet and fled.
+
+When she reappeared half an hour later she was in her riding habit,
+looking so trig and tailor-made and altogether conventional that Kenneth
+wondered if she could be the same mischievous sprite who had run away
+from him in the garden.
+
+It was arranged that Landor should escort them over, and the adroit
+Hester managed that he should start off in advance with Nannie, she and
+the Colonel bringing up the rear. Julie and Mrs. Driscoe waved them off,
+then returned to their work of sewing for the soldiers. For Mrs. Driscoe
+was the president of a ladies’ patriotic aid society and found plenty
+for herself and the girls to do.
+
+Hester looked forward with eagerness to reaching Camp Alger, which,
+though only six miles distant from Wavertree Hall, they had not yet
+visited. She rode along at first chatting gayly to the Colonel but at
+last was forced to keep her mouth closed on account of the dust. And who
+that experienced it, will ever forget the dust of that June in Virginia!
+Inches deep on the roads it lay in a thick brown powder which, at the
+slightest disturbance from man or beast, rose in choking waves, covering
+and submerging everything; while in the immediate vicinity of Alger,
+where the sentries warned every one that a gait other than a walk was
+not permitted in and about the camp, it smothered them to the verge of
+suffocation.
+
+They approached their destination by way of the little village of Falls
+Church, where over the rough and winding road traveled a constant
+procession. It was said by the darkies in Virginia that spring, that all
+the “poor white trash” in Fairfax County had abandoned their farms and
+taken to “toting” people to Camp Alger. Vehicles of every description
+were going back and forth carrying people from the station to the camp,
+sometimes officers, sometimes soldiers, often visitors; in every case
+the seating capacity of buggy, carryall or wagon was stretched to its
+utmost capacity. Intermingled with this motley array were the army
+wagons loaded with camp provisions and paraphernalia, on the top of
+which usually perched two or more soldiers. These, drawn by four mules
+and driven by an antiquated darky, seemed to Hester the most interesting
+thing on the road, though possibly she made an exception in favor of the
+mounted orderlies flashing in and out through the crowd or an occasional
+mounted officer who saluted Kenneth and stared at the girls in open
+admiration.
+
+As they crossed the picket lines, the camp lay before them—row after
+row of tents (reminding Hester of the card houses she used to build when
+she was little) not “gleaming white” like the tents of story but brown
+with the dust. Desiring to show them about before dismounting Kenneth
+took them on by his troop and through the roads leading by the various
+regiments. Of the thirty thousand men, more than half were encamped in
+the fields, now resembling arid plains, so destitute were they of
+vegetation; while the rest, more fortunate, were scattered through the
+surrounding woods, lost to sight except for the flutter of a flag above
+the trees.
+
+The party did not attempt to cover the full length of the camp, for the
+sun was getting very hot and Kenneth was anxious to get them back to his
+troop in time for dinner. This, her first meal at an officer’s mess and
+in a tent, was one of the most novel and delightful Hester had ever
+known. Kenneth counted it the second time they had broken bread together
+and was blissfully happy. When it was over, in a fit of excessive
+magnanimity he hunted up Charley Bemis who he knew would like to see
+Hester again and brought him up to his tent, where the Colonel and the
+girls were resting. A little later they all strolled together over to
+the troopers’ quarters, young Bemis being anxious to show them the troop
+mascot, a stunning bull-terrier. Down here, too, were the horses,
+picketed back of the tents, while working among them were several
+troopers, one of whom Hester especially noticed tall and very blonde,
+his skin tanned to a deep brown. He wore the regulation campaign outfit,
+but his shirt was sleeveless. About his neck was knotted a yellow
+handkerchief, his soft hat was pushed well back with an upward turn to
+the front and he was busily engaged grooming his horse.
+
+“That man,” said Kenneth, seeing that Hester observed him, “is the
+president of our coaching club at home and drives the best horses in
+Radnor. It’s great the way he, and in fact all the fellows have buckled
+down to work. He’s a chum of mine and I’d like immensely to have him
+meet you; I think you would enjoy him, too, but I won’t call him over.
+It would embarrass him to death to be caught like that.”
+
+Hester looked at the trooper in admiration.
+
+“Let’s get out of the way before he discovers us,” she said tactfully,
+“though I’d like to march straight over there and tell him how proud I
+am of him.”
+
+Nannie, who had ideas of her own, rode off with her father when they
+started home. A mile or two on, the Colonel stopped and waited for them
+to overtake them, when he said, if Hester and Landor would excuse them
+he and Nannie would stop at the house in front of which they had halted
+and make a call. So the girl and man rode on alone through the beautiful
+woods which led to—was it happiness or only Wavertree Hall?
+
+“Have you enjoyed it?” he asked when they had gone a little way.
+
+“Oh! so much.”
+
+“Even if you had to politely put up with me?”
+
+“Well, there were others, you see. Mr. Bemis, and all those charming
+officers at dinner. Now I think of it, you never took us to the Virginia
+camp. Is Captain Loomis away?” looking up at him as if the whereabouts
+of that individual was the thing which most concerned her.
+
+He laid his hand for a moment over hers. “It’s no use,” he said, “you
+can’t put me off with Loomis or any other man.”
+
+The intense subdued manner in which he said it deepened the color in her
+cheeks, but her dimples played mischievously.
+
+“What are you going to do about it?” she asked.
+
+“Hester,” he replied, “do you remember a night in April when you and I
+talked together and you were kind and said things that would inspire a
+man to do anything? It was the first time you had ever been serious with
+me and you thought it was the first time I knew of the serious side of
+you, but that was not true. You turned my life into a new, better
+channel from the moment I first set eyes on you, dear. And I loved you
+so that night on the coach that I didn’t know how I was ever going to
+get through without telling you, but I didn’t want to take advantage of
+your goodness and I knew you cared nothing for me, though I was
+determined you should some day.” His voice rang out in the masterful way
+she had so often berated to Julie. “I am telling you this now because my
+opportunities of seeing you are so few and soon they may end altogether.
+Oh! Hester,” he cried, finding it impossible to restrain himself any
+longer, “couldn’t you learn to love me a little before I go away?”
+
+She had listened with eyes gazing straight ahead of her. As he finished
+she turned and looked at him fearlessly.
+
+“Are you quite sure I have not learned already?” she said. And then as
+he was about to speak, “No, no, do not answer me. I cannot answer the
+question myself. Sometimes I like you and sometimes I want to run away
+from you and sometimes—sometimes—”
+
+He held his breath and waited.
+
+But she did not finish it.
+
+“We should never get on,” she said argumentatively, “we quarrel all the
+time. At least you do—I’ve an angelic disposition,” complacently.
+
+“I quarrel with you? How could I!” endeavoring to fall in with her mood.
+“It is you who say shocking things to me, you bad thing; and sometimes,
+ah! sometimes, dear, you do hurt.”
+
+She touched him impulsively. “It is only teasing. I never mean to
+hurt—I wouldn’t do it intentionally for the world.” How penitent and
+sweet her voice was!
+
+“Then won’t you be kind to me, please, and love me a little bit?”
+
+“A little bit? Would that satisfy you?”
+
+“No,” honestly, “it would not. Oh! my dear, I will be very patient if
+only you will try.”
+
+“I don’t have to,” she said.
+
+“No,” despairingly, “you don’t have to.’
+
+“Because—because—I do.”
+
+The ambiguity of this might have been mystifying to any but a drowning
+man ready to clutch at a straw. Kenneth was raised to a seventh heaven
+of bliss and promptly kissed her; at which she blushed furiously and
+pushed him away.
+
+“You must not believe everything I say,” she protested.
+
+“But I do and I want to and I shall,” exultantly. “Oh, my dear, my dear,
+will you say it all over again?”
+
+“Certainly not,” with pretended severity. And then with a light happy
+laugh, “Do you remember how I snubbed you on the street corner the day
+you met me at Dr. Ware’s?”
+
+“Do I? Well, I should say I did! But you were even worse at Jack’s. You
+plunged me into the depths of despair, from which I never should have
+arisen if you hadn’t been so charming at Mrs. Lennox’s musicale. That
+night I began to take notice again, as it were.”
+
+“Notice of Jessie Davis? I heard you were in love with her.”
+
+“As if I had eyes for any one but you! I used to fairly haunt dear old
+Jack’s place in the hope of running across you, but you always managed
+to elude me.”
+
+“I used to think at first,” she said seriously, “that you were just
+curious about us, because we were poor and earned our own living and
+were not like the girls in your set, and I resented it. That made me
+nasty to you, though I liked you all the time. Then, well,—do you know
+what I believe made me care for you? If you laugh,” earnestly, “I’ll
+never forgive you. It was because you took such care of me at the
+wedding and never offered me a bit of cake! You suspected we had made
+it, didn’t you? And I thought any man who had tact enough for that would
+be my undoing and I should not wonder,” with a swift look from under her
+long lashes, “if it were true, but you will never tell a soul I told
+you, will you?” beseechingly. “It’s a secret—the undoing, you know.”
+
+“Darling,” he said, “I knew more about you and your work than you
+thought and that is why it was like wrenching my heart out to come away.
+I wanted to stay there where I could work for you and wait and hope that
+I might make your life easier. Then when you talked to me that night I
+knew that whether you ever loved me or not you would want me to go.”
+
+“Yes,” she said.
+
+“And now if you only loved me enough to marry me I might at least leave
+you my name and the protection of my father, whose home would gladly
+open to you and Julie if he knew. _Couldn’t_ you do it, dear heart?”
+
+“I—I don’t know,” she said so low that he could scarcely hear her. “I
+do love you, but it is all so new and strange that I cannot realize what
+it means or even if it means as much as it should to the man I marry. I
+want to be honest—and you offer me so much that I don’t know what to
+say. I don’t love you as I love Julie, and perhaps after that you will
+not want me to love you at all.”
+
+“Yes, dear, I shall. If you care for me in any sort of way I am thankful
+and love is a thing that grows and grows. Some day I believe you will
+love me as much as you do Julie, but in a different way. There is room
+in your heart, dear, for both of us if you will only let me in.”
+
+“That is just the way Julie puts it,” she answered. “She is going to
+marry Dr. Ware.”
+
+“She is? Jove! what an ideal match!”
+
+“That’s what I think. I would not have believed that I could contemplate
+sharing Julie and be as happy about it as I am. The night she told me I
+danced for joy! She needs a man to take care of her, and I love him with
+all my heart; it changes nothing inwardly and everything outwardly. I am
+going to live with them but I shall not mind being dependent on them for
+awhile. At first I thought I couldn’t, but they have made me promise.
+Dr. Ware is so dear. He says what is his, is Julie’s, and what’s Julie’s
+is mine, and,” laughing, “there is no getting around that, is there?
+Julie and I have always gone shares. Besides, I’m going to study to be a
+trained nurse when Julie is married. I couldn’t just sit down and be
+idle the rest of my days.”
+
+“Thank God your work is over!”
+
+“Not my work but that work. No one will ever know how hard it was; there
+was so little profit in most of the things we made that we could not
+afford to hire the necessary assistance and had to take the brunt of
+everything ourselves. We should have kept on until we ‘died in our
+tracks,’ to quote Bridget, if it had been necessary, but I thank God,
+too, that we are not obliged to. It taught us a great many things, the
+poverty and hardship and all,” she continued, feeling his interest, “and
+we shall be able to understand life and help people a great deal better
+because of it. Julie and I have had so many talks together both with Dr.
+Ware here and since he went North about all the things we mean to do. We
+look forward to a very busy life.”
+
+“I am supremely glad that things have come out this way, dear,” he said,
+“only,” wistfully, “all these plans make me feel as if you had little
+need of me. Won’t you please,” gazing pleadingly in her eyes which shone
+steadfastly into his, “won’t you please see if you can’t make a place
+somewhere for me?”
+
+Far off through the woods came the note of a bugle. Hester drew in her
+breath.
+
+“Perhaps,” she said softly as they turned in the avenue, “I do need you
+and want you, too. Will you wait and see?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+There was no announcement of Julie’s engagement except to the household
+of Wavertree Hall. Her marriage was likely to take place early in the
+summer, for Dr. Ware was to attend a medical convention in California
+and wanted to take her with him. In the event of his doing this, Hester
+and Bridget would join them later, for Mrs. Driscoe wanted to be off, as
+was her custom, to the Springs and Hester shrank from going into a scene
+of gayety. There seemed to be no reason why this plan should not be
+carried out, for Julie had entirely recovered and except for the shadow
+of sadness left by her father’s death, was quite herself again. She knew
+it would be their beloved Daddy’s wish that she should shape herself to
+the events of her life in just the way she would have done had he been
+actually among them, and many and many a time her new happiness was
+glorified by the thought that he knew and was rejoicing too.
+
+When Hester came and told her of that ride through the woods with
+Kenneth, her cup was filled to overflowing. For Julie understood her
+sister better than the girl understood herself and she knew the love she
+now bore Kenneth would “grow and grow,” as he had said, until it became
+a powerful factor in her life.
+
+So finally Julie’s wedding day was fixed and the day before, Dr. Ware
+with the Lennoxes and, as a joyful surprise above all things, Jack,
+arrived on the scene. The Doctor told her that this was the Driscoes’
+idea—to bring them down and surprise her, as Cousin Nancy’s guests. As
+Mrs. Driscoe said to Mrs. Lennox, who laughingly protested against such
+an invasion:
+
+“Virginia is the heart of the country, my dear Mrs. Lennox, and we are
+the heart of Virginia—welcome to Wavertree Hall.” She was heard to
+remark afterward to the Colonel that that charming individual looked
+like a thorough-bred Virginian.
+
+As for Jack, a more ecstatic boy never trod on earth. The girls laughed
+and cried over him. So did Bridget, who gave him such a hearty smack
+that he nearly hugged the head off her.
+
+There were other arrivals also, that day at Dunn Loring, for Mr. Landor
+had come down to have a look at Kenneth, and Sidney Renshawe was once
+more at the Blakes’ plantation.
+
+The latter called at Wavertree Hall that afternoon and Mrs. Driscoe was
+in such a good humor over the charming, aristocratic Mrs. Lennox and the
+little excitement of guests which delighted her hospitable soul that she
+actually shook hands with him and asked him to join their party that
+afternoon—they were going over to camp to see Mr. Landor. That bit of
+cordiality was enough for Renshawe. Enough, too, for dear little Nannie,
+who had witnessed this meeting with mingled fear and delight.
+
+They arrived at camp just before parade and at Kenneth’s tent was an
+elderly man who proved to be his father. In the general introductions
+which followed, Kenneth’s pleasure was very great in this meeting of
+Hester and his father. She began talking to him at once in her bright,
+vivacious way, and what was really remarkable,—for he never had the
+faintest idea what to say to girls and seldom encountered them, he
+talked to her quite at his ease. But then, this wily young woman touched
+now and then on Kenneth—just enough to start him on the subject nearest
+his heart. It was very near her heart, too. But when had the stern,
+impassive Caleb Landor talked so freely of his son before?
+
+As they sat under the “fly” which made a shelter in front of the tent,
+the girls observed down the line the colors standing in front of the
+Captain’s quarters and it thrilled them with the pride of patriotism to
+see all the men and officers in going to and fro lift their hats and
+pass bare-headed before the flag.
+
+The routine of camp was very interesting to Dr. Ware who had lived
+through it, to the girls who had all their lives heard of it, and to
+Jack, who still hoped to be a part of it in spite of his years. So it
+was a very talkative if somewhat weary party that returned to Wavertree
+Hall.
+
+Late that evening there came tearing up the avenue a mounted orderly. He
+brought a note for Miss Hester Dale which required an immediate answer.
+She opened it quickly. At the end she leaned against the pillar as if
+for support. Then she called Julie out from the garden where she and Dr.
+Ware were strolling and said unsteadily:
+
+“Read that, Julie dear. I want you to know before I send my answer.”
+
+Julie read:
+
+  “Sweetheart, my orders have come. Since you left I have heard
+  officially. I am to be transferred and leave for Tampa to-morrow
+  afternoon to join the Rough Riders, who embark in a few days for
+  Santiago. Do you think, dear—could you, would you marry me before I
+  go? Would that dear little Julie let you and me go with her and the
+  Doctor to-morrow and make our lives one in the sight of God? Oh, say
+  yes, say yes! But not unless you are sure, dear. I had rather wait a
+  dozen years than have you give yourself to me under protest.
+  Whatever you say, dear, I shall believe is for the best. But, oh! if
+  you could—KENNETH.”
+
+Julie took her sister in her arms.
+
+“Hester, darling, have you decided?”
+
+“Yes, Julie.”
+
+“You and Kenneth will come to-morrow with Philip and me?”
+
+“Yes, Julie.”
+
+“Oh! Hester, my blessed, blessed girlie, it is the most beautiful thing
+in the world!”
+
+There was very little sleep for the girls that night. They sat for a
+long while in the window-seat up in their room where the scent of the
+honeysuckle came drifting in, talking softly of the past and laying
+plans whereby their happiness should go out into the world like a strong
+search-light to illumine dark places.
+
+“It is not always those commonly called the poor who are most in need,
+Hester. It is the refined, sensitive people who have seen better days,
+who suffer most. And we have learned, too, dear, how super-sensitive
+adversity makes one. I am glad we know these things, aren’t you, even
+though the learning of them nearly tore our hearts out? It has broadened
+and developed us and is going to make us helpful women in the world.”
+
+“And oh! Julie dear,” replied Hester, “isn’t it beautiful to think how
+we shall be able, both of us, through our—our husbands,” stumbling over
+the word, “to do things for people. Little things and big things to
+lighten people’s burdens and give them courage, just as so many times
+courage was given to us.”
+
+“Yes, darling. God is putting the power in our hands—it is for us to
+use it wisely.”
+
+Presently Hester said, “I am glad we won our own place in Radnor before
+going back there again under different circumstances. It makes me feel
+that we amounted to something and that if it ever happened that
+misfortune of that sort came again we should be able to keep our heads
+above water, to turn our fingers to account. Look at them, Julie,”
+holding up her hands for inspection, “they are not the same things at
+all.”
+
+“No dear, they have lost their porcelain transparency which used to be
+such a pride and delight but I like them better as they are. They are
+strong, capable hands, now, for all their daintiness which you never can
+lose. I have been thinking lately, that one’s hand can be as indicative
+of character as one’s face. I hope yours and mine will not belie us.”
+
+“We did not much think when we came out of the flat that day that we
+should never go back there, did we, old girl? I can’t realize it yet. It
+seems as if all those pots and kettles and pans and bottles would swoop
+down and whisk us off to ‘The Hustle’ when we get back to Radnor. Oh! my
+dear, we _did_ ‘hustle’! The name did not belie that place! Down here in
+this drowsy Virginia I sometimes wonder if it was really we who worked
+like that.”
+
+“I know,” Julie said, “I know, too, that we should have worked right on
+there to the best of our ability all our lives if it had been so
+ordered, but I am thankful, thankful that our energies can act in
+another way. We shall have a great deal to do, dear, and the wisdom of
+an older experience than ours to help us do it and all the time Daddy
+watching over his little girls.”
+
+And so at last they lay down to rest, these two little comrades whose
+heads and hearts were full of joyous anticipation of a broader field of
+action, a glorious life campaign.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the wedding that lovely June
+morning. Flanked on either side by Dr. Ware and Kenneth, the girls
+walked down the avenue to the gate and across the road with those
+nearest and dearest in attendance, to the little chapel where for
+generations the Fairleighs had worshiped and where the previous autumn
+their father had put in a memorial window to their mother. The gardens
+and the woods for miles around had been stripped of flowers to decorate
+the chancel, which took on a thousand lights as the mellow sunshine
+poured in through the stained glass windows.
+
+Little Nannie stood up with them—she and Sidney Renshawe, and the dear
+old Colonel during the ceremony was forced more than once to take off
+his glasses and wipe them carefully. The girls were without ornament
+save that each carried a great bunch of white roses gathered in the
+garden at Wavertree Hall. Julie wore a certain white mulle gown that the
+Doctor loved while Hester, to please Kenneth, the simple muslin frock in
+which she had picked blackberries.
+
+“A bride in a frock just out of the wash-tub!” cried Cousin Nancy
+aghast. She had never dreamed of such a total disregard of the
+conventionalities. But when she found Mrs. Lennox was on Hester’s side
+she demurred no longer.
+
+Mr. Landor sat with the Lennoxes and many a strange sensation took hold
+of him as he gazed first at Kenneth and then at Hester and back again at
+his stalwart son.
+
+Bridget occupied a front seat in a state of perfect beatitude. She was
+the first to receive a kiss from the brides when the ceremony was over.
+Jack was there, of course, immensely relieved at this satisfactory
+arrangement whereby all three of his friends were happily married. And
+Peter Snooks was there, solemn and dignified, decorated with a gorgeous
+red, white and blue bow but indignant at this touch of femininity and
+resentful that he was not allowed to go up and stand with the bridal
+party. George Washington and the other servants were in the rear of the
+chapel.
+
+After the ceremony they all trooped back again to Wavertree Hall where,
+on the lawn under a cluster of superb oak trees, where the stars and
+stripes were waving, a lunch was spread for their refreshment.
+
+Cousin Nancy, aided by Mrs. Lennox, was the presiding genius of the
+feast, while Mr. Lennox, also, came to the front with jests and stories
+to relieve the solemnity of the past half hour.
+
+Kenneth, radiantly happy and looking handsomer than ever in his uniform,
+was here, there and everywhere, but with always his first thought for
+Hester. She was unusually quiet—subdued by happiness and the thought of
+the parting so near at hand. It was Julie that day whose laugh was the
+merriest, but then Julie knew something which Hester did not.
+
+In accordance with a tradition of Wavertree Hall Mrs. Driscoe had brewed
+a punch, a mild but delicious concoction famous at all the Fairleigh
+weddings.
+
+Mr. Lennox proposed the health of the brides and then the bridegrooms.
+Dr. Ware toasted the mistress of Wavertree Hall. And so it went around
+from one to the other, until, having cheered the President, the army,
+the navy and the flag, Dr. Ware excited the wildest enthusiasm by bowing
+low to Mrs. Driscoe and saying:
+
+“We lived through other days in Virginia, you and I, Mrs. Driscoe. Three
+cheers now for a reunited country!”
+
+How they did shout! There was not a dry eye among them. Then Jack’s thin
+voice called out:
+
+“Won’t somebody please cheer for the boys that want to be soldiers and
+can’t?” At which they all laughed and cheered again.
+
+There were other people who had a secret that day besides Julie. Indeed
+they were all in it except Hester—in fact they knew much more about it
+than Julie herself, who only knew half. It had been arranged that Hester
+and Kenneth should drive with Julie and the Doctor to the station; then,
+as Hester supposed, she and Kenneth were to have an hour together before
+he took his departure. He had told her that he had left everything at
+camp ready to send on, so that it would not be necessary for him to
+return there.
+
+She was a little surprised when they took such an affectionate farewell
+of her as well as Julie and before she got into the carriage Mr. Landor
+had asked her to step aside a moment with him.
+
+[Illustration: THE WEDDING BREAKFAST]
+
+“I shall be gone when you return,” he said, speaking with some
+difficulty, “and it is proper you should know that I approve of
+Kenneth’s marriage. He talked at some length about you last night and
+it’s a good thing—a good thing. I never had a daughter—”
+
+Hester kissed him. Caleb Landor had not been kissed for thirty years.
+
+“Kenneth belongs to us both,” the girl said simply, “and we are both
+giving him up but it must be the hardest for you, because you have had
+him the longest.”
+
+“I don’t know, I don’t know,” gruffly, to hide his emotion, “we can’t go
+into that. I want you to take this,” slipping something in her hand. “I
+hear your sister requested there should be no wedding gifts for her.
+Mrs. Lennox tells me that she asked those who wished to remember her to
+turn the money instead into the Red Cross Fund. No doubt you feel as she
+does. I understand you are much alike. If you will keep that paper and
+use it for the sick and wounded later—for we are bound to have them—as
+a gift from yourself, I shall be much obliged to you. No, don’t thank
+me, say nothing about it. And remember that my house is open to you
+whenever you care to come.” It is doubtful if Caleb Landor had ever made
+so long a speech in his life.
+
+She did thank him, choking back her tears. Then she thrust the paper in
+her pocket and later when she had a chance to examine it she found a
+check of a thousand dollars, made payable to her, Hester Dale Landor!
+
+All the way to the station she roused herself and chatted gayly to make
+Julie’s last moments with her a bright remembrance. Julie was so excited
+she could scarcely contain herself and in order to sit still was fairly
+rigid in her seat.
+
+When they reached the station the train was not yet in sight but on a
+side track stood a car.
+
+“What is that?” asked Julie curiously, as they left the carriage.
+
+“That is yours,” quietly answered Dr. Ware, watching the effect of his
+words.
+
+“Mine? What _are_ you talking about?”
+
+“Come and see,” cried the Doctor who felt like a boy of twenty.
+
+She ran down the platform, stood still and trembled from head to foot.
+
+“Hester,” she gasped, turning with the old habit to her sister, “Hester,
+it is ‘The Hustle!’”
+
+“What!”
+
+“It is, it is!”
+
+Bridget with Peter Snooks in her arms was waving out the car window.
+
+“Oh, Philip!” Julie cried. And without another word he took her in his
+arms and carried her in the car.
+
+“If the days to come here,” he whispered as he put her down, “are as
+happy as the old ones, little wife, I shall be satisfied.”
+
+Hester and Kenneth, who had not known whether or not to follow were
+called peremptorily in and all exclaimed over by Bridget, who having
+been appointed by the Doctor a reception committee of one, felt this the
+proudest and happiest moment of her life.
+
+“Now tell us all about it,” said Julie, “but first I am going to make
+Hester as ‘comfy as comfy can be.’ You poor little thing, you are not
+going to lose Kenneth to-day. You are both coming South with us. We are
+going to do escort duty to the distinguished young officer, Lieutenant
+Landor.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed the bewildered Hester.
+
+“We are all going down in ‘The Hustle’ together, Hester,” explained Dr.
+Ware, while she was made to sit down, Kenneth tucking a cushion under
+her feet and Julie perching on the arm of her chair. “Julie did not know
+about ‘The Hustle’—that was my surprise for her—but she did know that
+we meant to go West by the way of Tampa—we settled that last night
+after you heard from Kenneth—and have you and him go along with us so
+that we could all see the last of him. Kenneth and the people at
+Wavertree Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into my secret so he
+could send his things aboard. Bridget packed your trunks while you were
+at luncheon and got them off without your knowing it and here we all
+are, as snug as possible, with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in
+order.”
+
+“Kenneth,” said Hester with brimming eyes but in the old bantering tone
+which always made them laugh, “how dare you have secrets from your wife?
+How dare you! It’s a perfectly scandalous beginning!”
+
+“Please, you were not my wife then, and I won’t any more,” he said
+penitently. “Will you forgive me, please?”
+
+“I don’t understand how you did it,” said Julie to her husband, who
+leaned over the back of the chair on the arm of which she was perching,
+his head on a level with hers.
+
+“It was not difficult, dear. I had been on the track of ‘The Hustle’ for
+some time. I always intended to capture you all sometime and take you
+off for a vacation in her. That was one of my dreams, but I never
+mentioned it to certain little girls I knew for fear it would never come
+true. Early this spring I learned that the car had been relegated to a
+car shed on a Western road—it was not considered modern enough for use.
+So I ordered it on to Radnor, had it overhauled and thought it would be
+an ideal place for a honeymoon, eh, little wife?”
+
+“Oh! yes,” she said shyly.
+
+“And Hester,” slipping his hand down over the chair and resting it on
+her shoulder, “it is your honeymoon, too, dear. I am so glad. And ‘The
+Hustle’ is yours as much as it is Julie’s. Will you always remember
+that? Kenneth, old man,” with a change of tone, “will you come with me
+and see that everything is aboard? I hear the train, which means that we
+shall be picked up and taken on in a few minutes.”
+
+Left to themselves, the girls, half-dazed by these astonishing events,
+wandered slowly about the dear old familiar car, which had suffered
+scarcely an alteration. Julie felt it was Dr. Ware’s exquisite
+forethought which had kept the interior so nearly as they had left it.
+There was the piano at which she had so often played and sang for Daddy
+and the great leather chair drawn up close in which he had spent many a
+restful hour listening to her. Over the piano in its old place hung a
+portrait of her mother and at one end of the car, looking down benignly,
+hung their favorite picture of their father—the Major in full uniform
+with that spirited look of action which so distinguished him. Over the
+picture were crossed two swords, his and the Doctor’s; over these higher
+up was draped Old Glory hanging in splendid folds.
+
+“Miss Nannie and Mr. Renshawe and Jack, they come over this mornin’ an’
+fixed the flag an’ all the flowers you see around everywheres. Jack said
+to tell you he done the swords. Didn’t he get ’em up fine? They had a
+great time over here all unbeknownst to yez,” explained Bridget.
+
+The girls stood hand in hand before the picture. “Oh! Daddy,” they
+whispered, “dear Daddy, help us to be worthy of all this!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+They made the run to Tampa in two days. The transports were being loaded
+with ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia of war as they
+arrived and Kenneth went on board with the last detachment of Rough
+Riders.
+
+Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she was. There was never a
+tear, though she clung at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let
+him go. That was for but a moment. The next she stood erect and smiling
+on the rear platform of “The Hustle” waving him off. The picture Kenneth
+carried away with him cheered all the hours of all the days to come. He
+had only to close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with head
+thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes smiling and smiling into his
+very heart. And all through the desperate fight before San Juan when the
+bullets hissed and all was deafening, blinding chaos, rang her last
+words, “Fight for your country and me—be as brave an officer as Daddy.”
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party reached there, was found
+an accumulation of mail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A letter
+from his sister was read and handed to Julie with a smile.
+
+  “My Dear Philip,” it began:—“Your letter telling me of your
+  engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie Dale was no
+  surprise to me. I had always known you were in love with her or you
+  would never have been so idiotically approving of all the crazy
+  things she did. I will say, though, that if you intended to marry
+  you might have done worse. I understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie,
+  whom I saw last week in London (they have just been presented at
+  Court) that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set
+  before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some campaigning!
+  However, people quickly forget things, and all that vulgar cooking
+  may be regarded merely as the freakishness of two headstrong girls.
+  I hope you will remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight
+  rein over her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will
+  be unimpeachable.
+
+  “Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself of
+  invitations from English friends and remain here into the winter
+  when I shall probably join Lord and Lady Wynne in a trip into Egypt.
+  I may decide to make England my home. I prefer it to the States and
+  should not under any circumstances think of returning while that
+  tiresome war is going on.
+
+  “The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer, left hand end.
+  Tell Julie I am most particular that the linen, especially that not
+  in constant use, should be frequently aired, and the blankets must
+  go down on the line in the yard once a week. There are other things
+  which a flighty young person should know and which I shall write her
+  at length later. I hope that dog is not to be allowed the freedom of
+  the house. I shudder to think of it!
+
+                                                      “Affectionately,
+                                                                Mary.”
+
+Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
+
+“Poor Miss Ware!” she said, “she still regards us as monsters of
+iniquity. Am I a headstrong young thing?”
+
+“Of course,” quizzically. “Don’t you feel the tight rein I hold over
+you?” taking her face in his hands.
+
+For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment of Bridget who had
+knocked unheard and entered the room at that moment.
+
+Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and succeeded in keeping her
+busy and diverted. Hester’s great wish had been to follow Kenneth to
+Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced both by him and the others
+that it would be an unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and nothing
+of nursing beyond the limited experience she had gained in caring for
+her father, and it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her
+vitality having been greatly exhausted by the strain of the previous
+winter, she would be dangerously susceptible. But the old wish to become
+a Red Cross nurse was more than ever strong within her and this desire
+they all encouraged and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were to be
+long in the field Hester’s happiness would lie in being near him and
+administering to the sick and wounded men. So she plunged into Spanish
+with an excellent teacher in San Francisco while Dr. Ware brought her
+books on nursing, gave her practical talks on surgery and promised to
+get her into a training school for nurses as soon as they returned to
+Radnor at the end of July.
+
+The newspapers were her solace and despair—they said so little and so
+much! With heads together she and Julie devoured them, reading every
+word. The newsboys’ cry, “Extra, Extra!” filled her with apprehension.
+She had had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they were about to
+land with General Shafter at Baiquiri. Before there was time to hear
+again, the papers blazed with the news of the desperate attack on San
+Juan, and the Rough Riders became the heroes of the nation.
+
+Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes, searched for the list of dead
+and wounded. With beating heart her finger went down the line and
+stopped.
+
+“Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant, Troop—, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders,
+wounded in the thigh.”
+
+She lived through the next ten days of suspense like a person in a
+dream. Her impulse had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr.
+Landor wrote that he was going down and would take her with them. But
+Dr. Ware, the far-seeing, advised them both to wait. News would soon
+come direct from Kenneth and it was probable that he would be sent home
+on sick leave before they could get down to him. Seeing the wisdom of
+this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that he should wait. And Hester waited.
+Julie never left her. She buoyed her up night and day with the belief
+that Kenneth would not die.
+
+The papers in their later and more detailed accounts of the attack and
+capture of San Juan, spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of
+Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to the highest pitch of
+enthusiasm by his unflinching spirit, which carried everything before
+him. Later in the official report from General Shafter, Kenneth Landor,
+wounded before San Juan, was given honorable mention.
+
+Then one day came to Hester a letter in an unknown hand. It was written
+from the field hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband was
+recovering; that the operation upon his thigh had been successful; that
+Mr. Landor’s cable to send the Lieutenant home had been received and
+that already at headquarters arrangements were being made to get the
+wounded who could be moved aboard a transport off by the end of the
+week. That Landor himself knew nothing of all this, for he was too weak
+to be consulted, but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no cause for
+alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor was safely home again she would get
+him well and return him speedily—the troop could not afford to spare
+for long so gallant an officer.
+
+Hester read this precious document until it was worn to shreds. And
+Julie and her husband took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper
+informed them that the transport had started.
+
+Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the dock to meet him. Mr. Landor
+was too unnerved to leave the house and Julie remained with him, helping
+him through the tedious hours that intervened between the time when a
+clerk had telephoned from the office to the house that the transport was
+sighted down the harbor and the moment when the carriage stopped at the
+door.
+
+They brought him into his father’s house on a stretcher, Hester walking
+by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning
+from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father
+choke and leave the room.
+
+What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited,
+but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed
+it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a
+suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
+
+It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one’s family. So at least
+thought the Dale girls, even though it was a very refractory hero, who
+sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction
+whatever.
+
+Under Dr. Ware’s guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was
+home on a two-months’ sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to
+rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he
+said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be
+sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time
+the war might be over. Who could tell?
+
+Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly
+while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband,
+who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at
+that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of
+Hester’s sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to
+find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
+
+Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero.
+Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie
+on Kenneth’s bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege
+and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth’s hand, as much as to say
+he knew how to behave in a sick room—had he not spent hours at a time
+with Major Dale?
+
+Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things
+for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near
+neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware’s
+on the water side of Crana Street.
+
+And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory,
+“those Dale girls” began a new life.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Those Dale Girls
+
+Author: Frank Weston Carruth
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2011 [EBook #37304]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE DALE GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SHE SHOOK A WIRE CAGE ENERGETICALLY OVER THE COALS]
+
+
+
+
+                            Those Dale Girls
+
+                                   BY
+
+                         Frances Weston Carruth
+
+                 In the world's broad field of battle,
+                 In the bivouac of Life,
+                 Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
+                 Be a hero in the strife!
+                                        --_Longfellow._
+
+                                Chicago
+                          A. C. McClurg & Co.
+                                  1899
+
+
+
+
+                               Copyright
+                         By A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+                               A. D. 1899
+
+
+
+
+                               TO EDITH,
+
+                   MY SISTER AND COMRADE, THE BRAVEST
+                            OF SOLDIER GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+                             ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+She Shook a Wire Cage Energetically over the Coals         Frontispiece
+
+The Girl Sat Down on the Arm of His Chair                            48
+
+"May I Have a Guess, Miss Dale?"                                    114
+
+There Were the Girls in Their Cotton Gowns                          188
+
+Julie Was in Bed When Hester Came In That Night                     232
+
+The Wedding Breakfast                                               304
+
+
+
+
+THOSE DALE GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"Julie Dale, you're the laziest thing in creation! Come down from that
+window-seat and help."
+
+"Can't, my dear," a gay young voice responded. "I'm as 'comfy as comfy
+can be.'"
+
+"Look at her, Peter Snooks," said Hester to a fox-terrier at her side;
+"just look at her! She's curled up in a heap, reveling in that
+fascinating Kipling, with her mouth all screwed up for this popcorn,
+which she thinks we will take in state to her ladyship. But we'll fool
+her--eh, Snooks? We'll fool her completely. We'll just sit complacently
+on the floor and eat it all up ourselves."
+
+The dog jumped about rapturously. The girl, who was kneeling before an
+open fire, shook a wire cage energetically over the coals, and watched
+the corn burst into great white flakes.
+
+"It does _smell_ delicious," came in an insinuating tone from the
+window-seat across the room.
+
+Hester maintained a lofty silence, and tipping the corn into a bowl,
+sprinkled it with salt, adding dabs of butter. She then tossed a piece
+to the dog, and began to sample it herself with apparent satisfaction,
+for she smacked her lips and said, reflectively, as she put her hands to
+her burning cheeks: "I believe it is quite worth ruining my complexion
+over."
+
+Suddenly she whisked up bowl and dog, and crossing the room, dropped
+both on the seat beside her sister. "There!" she exclaimed, "you knew I
+would never eat it alone, even if you are a duffer!"
+
+"'Duffer' is most inelegant" (this from Julie in an assumption of stern
+reproach); "I do not see wherever you picked up such a word."
+
+"Read it in a book," quoted Hester, laughing. This was a joke of
+longstanding between them--to hold literature responsible for any
+suspicious scraps of knowledge. It was a phrase they used also with much
+frequency in argument, particularly when the subject was beyond the
+range of their experience. "Don't know a thing about it, read it in a
+book," one of them would say facetiously, by way of backing up some
+remarkable statement, and feel herself at once relieved from personal
+responsibility.
+
+"You need not put on such frills," Hester now said to her sister. "You
+know you adore slang yourself."
+
+Julie was gazing out of the window. "Look, Hester, quick! There go the
+crew! How they are skimming down the river! I'd no idea they trained out
+here, had you?"
+
+Both girls watched intently as the narrow shell shot by, the men pulling
+the long, steady stroke which was the pride of their university.
+
+"Aren't they splendid?" Hester exclaimed, enthusiastically. "I wish we
+knew some of the college men, Julie, don't you?"
+
+"It would be fun. I'd like to see something of college life. Perhaps we
+may meet an occasional senior if Miss Ware takes us about any this
+winter."
+
+"Do you suppose he'd be nice?" inquired Hester, quizzically. "I don't
+think we know much about very young men, do you? All we've known have
+been so much older than we are."
+
+Julie puckered up her forehead and gazed after the vanishing crew. She
+was trying to classify an unknown species.
+
+"It does seem odd," continued Hester, "_our_ contemplating formal
+society, doesn't it? I believe I shall hate it. We have roamed around
+with Daddy too much to be quite like pattern society girls."
+
+"I tell you what we'll do, Hester; we'll go out with Miss Ware, meet
+loads of people and pick out a nice congenial few whom Dad will like,
+too, and just cultivate them informally. You know how Dad dislikes
+society in the conventional sense, but he wants us to take our proper
+place; and of course we ought to know people, now that we have really
+settled down in Radnor to live."
+
+"Heavens! but you're clever, Julie! We might set up a salon; only the
+wise, the witty and the beautiful need apply. Which class would we come
+under ourselves, do you think? We can begin with Dr. Ware and all the
+old dears--only he never seems old a bit--that Dad is always bringing
+home to dinner, and add any new dears we meet and think eligible."
+
+Julie laughed. "It sounds like a herd or something." Then, with sudden
+gravity, she said: "Hester, dear, I'm anxious about Dad. I can't just
+explain it, but somehow he's been different ever since we've been here.
+Haven't you noticed how preoccupied he is and tired all the time, so
+unlike Dad? The other day I spoke to him about it, and he shook his head
+and said I mustn't be so observant, that he happened to have an unusual
+stress of business, that was all. But I don't know," she continued,
+meditatively; "I can't seem to throw off this queer feeling about him."
+
+Hester regarded her with wide-open eyes. "You frighten me, Julie." Then
+leaning toward her sister, she shook her finger admonishingly. "How dare
+you go on having worries by yourself and not letting me know a thing
+about them?" she said, lightly. "I think it is all your imagination. I
+dare say Daddy has heaps of extra things on his hands because of all the
+time he spent gadding with us in Europe. Of course, that's it, you
+goosey," the idea gaining strength in her mind, "_of course_. You and I
+and Peter Snooks must be more amusing, and make him laugh and forget the
+'stress of business.' Ugh! what a horrid expression that is! Now I think
+of it, he hasn't laughed lately, Julie, has he?" She looked up with an
+evident desire to be contradicted.
+
+Julie shook her head.
+
+Hester sprang up from her seat, and seizing the dog by the forepaws,
+danced him violently about the room. "We need a shaking up, Peter
+Snooks, or we'll not be allowed to jingle our bells any longer at the
+court of his majesty Dad the Great! Who ever heard of jesters neglecting
+their duties! His royal highness must laugh," she said gayly, "or he'll
+cry, 'Off with their heads!' like Alice's fierce old queen." She
+emphasized this possible calamity by swinging the dog up in the air and
+herself executing a daring _pas seul_ before she dropped breathless in a
+chair. "I had rather die than be stupid, hadn't you, Julie?" she gasped,
+between breaths.
+
+"In that case I think you will be spared to us a while yet," replied her
+sister, with quiet humor.
+
+"So glad you think we're a success," Hester said, cheerfully. "Peter
+Snooks, do you hear? we're a success--she approves!" The dog lay panting
+on the floor, and wagged his tail in understanding of the compliment.
+"We'll give a private exhibition to his majesty to-night after dinner.
+How he will laugh! We will elaborate this feeble effort and call it 'The
+Dance of Joy.' Things are always more interesting with names," she said,
+decisively. "Julie, you be showman and introduce us."
+
+Julie took her cue immediately, and rising, bowed low. "Ladies and
+gentlemen (that means Dad)--ladies and gentlemen, I shall now have the
+honor of presenting to your astonished vision the wonderful and original
+'Dance of Joy'--"
+
+The library door opened suddenly, and a middle-aged woman entered and
+closed the door after her. She stopped just inside the threshold, and
+looking from one to the other with a scared face, stood wringing her
+hands helplessly.
+
+"Good gracious! what is the matter, Bridget?" Julie ejaculated. "Tell
+us--you look frightened to death."
+
+The woman opened her lips and closed them with a moan. No word escaped
+her.
+
+Both girls were beside her in an instant, and Julie gave her a little
+shake.
+
+"Is it Daddy? What has happened? Bridget, Bridget, speak!" Her
+beseeching young voice cried out with instinctive fear.
+
+"They're bringing him in," Bridget gasped at last. "He took sick in the
+office with a stroke. Dr. Ware's with them. He sez you're not to see him
+yet. He sez I'm to keep you in here till he comes--the Doctor, I mean."
+Her words came in a tumult of confusion.
+
+"Is--he--dead?" Julie asked. "Bridget, tell me the truth."
+
+It seemed to the girls that they lived an eternity in the second before
+the woman said: "No, no, he's not dead. Whatever made you say such a
+fearful thing?" She buried her face in her apron and wept bitterly.
+"He's tired out and sick altogether, the dear man. I've seen it comin'
+this long time."
+
+Hester looked at Julie with a sort of awe. The sound of footsteps in the
+hall outside penetrated with ominous distinctness into the library.
+
+Julie said tremulously, "Hester, dear, I am going to Dad; they shall not
+keep us away."
+
+"No, they shall not. We are not babies; we must go and help."
+
+"That's what I wus after tellin' the Doctor you'd say," Bridget sobbed,
+"an' it's not for me to be lavin' you here all alone, an' me all over
+the house to onct. But if yez wouldn't go now, darlin's. Just wait till
+he's took to his room, an' 'twould be better--indeed, believe your old
+Bridget, it would!"
+
+The impetuosity of youth in the shock of joy or sorrow is not to be
+checked. The girls went into the hall, to see a stretcher, on which lay
+their father, being borne up the stairs, while Dr. Ware and two men, who
+proved to be trained nurses, brought up the rear of the little
+procession.
+
+"Dr. Ware," whispered the girls, slipping up close to him with blanched
+faces, "we know--we must help, too."
+
+He took them each by the hand, as if they were little children, and
+turned them back before they could reach their father's side.
+
+"Dear little girls," he said, gently, "you can help your father most by
+doing as I ask. It is hard to be shut out, I know, but you can do
+nothing now. Later, perhaps, you can do--everything. I will tell you
+frankly, he is a very sick man. I have no wish to hide anything from
+you, but we shall try and get him better--much. I have two experienced
+men, and Bridget here, and when we get him comfortably in bed you may
+come in for a moment. He may not regain consciousness for many hours.
+Will you trust me and be guided by my better judgment?" looking down at
+them earnestly.
+
+"Yes, yes," they both sobbed through the tears, now falling fast; "go to
+Dad--don't think of us. We will do everything you say."
+
+"That pleases me--my brave little girls." He went on into Mr. Dale's
+chamber.
+
+Left to themselves, they huddled together outside their father's door,
+each trying to comfort the other. Peter Snooks, fully conscious that his
+young mistresses were in trouble, climbed into Julie's lap and stuck his
+wet nose into her hand in true canine sympathy. Though they did not put
+it into words, both girls were conscious of a curious sense of
+remoteness from their father in being thus kept from him. This
+immediate, poignant grief stung them bitterly and prevented for the
+moment any thought of what the future might hold.
+
+They never knew how long they had sat there on the stairs when Dr. Ware
+opened the bedroom door and beckoned them in. But they carried ever
+after a vivid impression of creeping stealthily to their father's bed,
+stooping to kiss the dear face, from which there was no answering sign
+of recognition, and stealing softly out again. And in Julie's mind there
+flashed always an accompanying picture--the remembrance of how, when
+they had reached the hall again, Hester had picked up a woe-begone,
+shivering little dog, and burying her face in his neck, whispered,
+brokenly: "Oh, Peter Snooks, how we were going--to--make--him--laugh!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was said of Mr. Dale by those of his friends' wives who felt at
+liberty to discuss his affairs with their husbands, that his bringing up
+of his daughters was radically wrong. These whispers of feminine
+disapproval were occasionally wafted to the seemingly heedless father,
+who always smiled good-naturedly, yet was apparently blind to the
+advantages to be derived from the conventional course of training the
+young, for he continued to pursue his own methods with bland serenity.
+
+Mrs. Dale had died when the girls were six and seven years old
+respectively. Up to that time they had lived quite like other children,
+going regularly to school and finding recreation in the pleasures common
+to their age and condition. The house in which at that time they lived
+was a somewhat pretentious mansion on the water side of Crana Street.
+Now to live in this sacred precinct, as every one in Radnor knows, gives
+an immediate claim to distinction. In the eyes of their neighbors,
+however, the Dales were not distinguished beyond the matter of their
+locality, for the family was not Radnor-bred, and this is an offense
+tolerated but never condoned in Radnor society.
+
+The Dales had drifted there from some unheard-of (to Radnor) western
+town soon after the Civil War, while the country was still in a state of
+upheaval. Major Dale brought to the readjustment of his business the
+force and skill which won for him distinction on the battlefield,
+gradually transferred his interests from the western town eastward, and
+took root in Radnor, where he proceeded to build up a fortune. Not
+there, however, but back in Mrs. Dale's old home, some years later, the
+girls were born. They came to Radnor as babies, and like their father
+took root; but Mrs. Dale, a semi-invalid, spent much of her time wearily
+traversing the country in search of health. She disliked Radnor, and
+made no attempt to cultivate the people. During her prolonged absences
+the children remained at home under the care of Bridget, a faithful
+servant who had come with them from the west.
+
+With Mrs. Dale's death the quiet placidity of the children's life
+ceased. The house was closed, and Mr. Dale started immediately for
+California, taking the girls and Bridget with him. While there he became
+interested in railroad enterprises, which eventually extended through
+remote and varied sections of the country and kept him a bird of passage
+for many years. He built a private car and took his daughters everywhere
+with him, to the consternation of Radnor, which was kept informed of the
+magnate's movements through the medium of the press.
+
+The girls grew up in an atmosphere of devoted companionship, among
+scenes that were ever changing. They lived much in hotels, and for weeks
+at a time in their private car, "The Hustle," which they never ceased to
+regard as a fascinating playhouse, and where their father, in the midst
+of his multitudinous cares, found time to watch their developing natures
+and teach them to grow in grace and spirit, as became the daughters of a
+soldier.
+
+They were not wholly without lessons, for when they remained for any
+length of time in one place Mr. Dale's private secretary was dispatched
+to find a good school, in which they were immediately placed; while Mr.
+Dale, who had theories of his own, trained their eyes to keen
+observation of what they saw and their minds to reason out the obscure
+according to their own lights. He was full of wisdom and patience and
+counsel, but he had a way of turning on them when they came for advice
+and saying, "What do _you_ think?" in a manner that would have been
+startling to the average child, who is apt to think what he is told.
+This turning the tables began in their teens, whereby they came to have
+opinions without being opinionated, for, though requiring them to think
+out every subject carefully, he yet guided them with a firm hand, giving
+them in every sort of discussion the wisdom of his wide experience. He
+was a loving, indulgent father, and the girls adored him, but no sterner
+disciplinarian ever held sway. Implicit and immediate obedience he
+demanded--no questioning of his higher authority.
+
+He taught them, too, much of the old-world philosophy, which he had
+imbibed from extensive reading. They listened to him wonderingly, their
+eager young minds drinking in the beauty of what he said, but failing at
+that age to grasp the breadth and depth of all the truths he told them.
+Sometimes he almost forgot that they were children.
+
+When Julie was twenty and Hester nineteen he took them to Europe.
+Bridget and Peter Snooks completed the party. They roamed about for a
+year, and just before they were to sail for home late in the summer Mr.
+Dale informed the girls that he intended to sell out his large railroad
+interests; he was tired of their unsettled life, and thought they would
+all enjoy the novelty of opening their house and taking up their abode
+in Radnor. Radnor had long ceased to be anything more than a name to the
+girls, but the proposition opened up joyous possibilities of "making a
+home for Dad."
+
+"I will take you down to Cousin Nancy's in Virginia when we land," he
+had said to them in London, "and leave you there a few weeks; she has
+been begging for a visit from us this long while. Bridget and I will
+open the house in Radnor and get everything in order; then you can come
+up and run the establishment and queen it over your old Dad in royal
+fashion."
+
+This program had been successfully carried out, except that it could
+scarcely be said that the girls ran the establishment, for the
+responsibility lay with Bridget, who assumed the duties of
+housekeeper--duties she guarded jealously and performed with such skill
+that there was not a better managed house on the water side of Crana
+Street. This Radnor people knew through that mysterious agency by which
+a neighborhood keeps in touch with itself.
+
+After years spent in the narrow confines of a car, however luxurious,
+and the necessarily limited quarters of hotels, the girls reveled in the
+spacious house, over which they spread themselves in an amusing fashion,
+sleeping in turn in the various bedrooms by way of getting acquainted
+with them all over again, Julie said, and with reckless prodigality
+hanging some portion of their wardrobe in every closet in the house.
+
+At the end of their first week in Radnor, Hester amused her father by
+telling him she thought she should enjoy housekeeping exceedingly if
+they had an elevator, a menu and "The Hustle" side-tracked in the back
+yard. Reluctantly she admitted that the yard could scarcely be made to
+hold it, but at least, she suggested airily, he might build a float and
+anchor the car at their back door on the river. The new life really
+seemed to her incomplete without it.
+
+Hester at twenty was a laughing, dancing sprite, yet with a certain
+quaintness and matureness of mind that amused and delighted her father's
+friends. She was slim and dark, with a piquant face and fascinating
+hazel eyes that shot out mischievous lights. They were unusual eyes, and
+very beautiful with their fringe of long dark lashes; but she did not
+think so, and compared them scornfully to a cat's--the only animal she
+hated. If she could be said to have any vanity it was for her hands,
+which came in for a considerable share of her attention, and she went to
+bed in gloves every night of her life.
+
+Julie, whose hands were not a matter of comment, dispensed with this
+bed-time ceremony, and usually devoted most of her time before retiring
+to a vigorous brushing of her rebellious yellow hair, which, when it was
+let alone, rioted all over her head in such babyish curls that her
+father always called her "Curly Locks." Her eyes were violet--her lashes
+and brows dark, like Hester's, which gave her a most remarkable contrast
+of coloring. From her mother she had inherited a delicate constitution,
+and lacked the buoyancy of Hester's gay spirits; nevertheless, she had a
+keen sense of humor and laughed immoderately on all occasions at her
+sister, whom she considered altogether the cleverest and most amusing
+person she knew. And they knew many delightful people from one end of
+the country to the other--everywhere except in Radnor, where society was
+waiting for Mr. Dale formally to present his daughters before setting
+the seal of its approval upon them.
+
+The second day following that on which Mr. Dale was brought home ill,
+Dr. Ware stayed longer than usual with his patient and came out of the
+sickroom with a grave face. In the hall the girls were waiting for him
+as usual.
+
+"My dears," he said, abruptly, drawing them into the library, "you have
+to know the worst, and there is no one but me to tell you." For a moment
+he hesitated. "Your father's illness is caused by his financial
+ruin--his entire fortune has been swept away. He has lost everything,
+and the shock of his failure has paralyzed him." For a moment neither
+spoke; each girl felt that she could hear her heart beat in the awful
+silence of the room. Then Julie said:
+
+"Won't Daddy soon be better? Oh, you can't mean he will always be sick
+like this?" Her eyes were black with pain and apprehension.
+
+"He will never move about again. Physically he may suffer very little;
+the anguish will come through the consciousness of his helplessness----"
+
+"We will not let him feel that," interrupted Julie, throwing up her
+head. "Hester and I are strong."
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat. "Thank God for that, for you've a hard
+fight ahead of you."
+
+Hester crept close to his side. "Will you tell us more about it,
+please," she whispered in a strange, tense voice; "it's so--so difficult
+to understand."
+
+"Of course it is, dear," putting his arm around her. "Things began to go
+wrong a year ago. Your father felt it, and nearly abandoned the European
+trip, then went after all, feeling absolute need of rest and hoping he
+had left the snarl sufficiently straightened out to go on without him.
+But things went from bad to worse, and he came back to more
+complications than any one man could manage. Even then he might have
+pulled through somehow if that western road in which he had so largely
+invested had not smashed and carried him down with it. You don't want
+the details, Hester."
+
+"No," she answered, "it is enough that the thing is."
+
+He looked at her intently, as if astonished that so philosophic a
+statement should come from so young a person.
+
+"Shall we have to give up the house, and--and 'The Hustle,'
+and--everything?" asked Julie.
+
+"I'm afraid so, Julie dear. That is especially what I want to talk to
+you about to-day--your future. I want you to leave it all to me."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" she cried, "you're good, so good, but we can't do that. We
+must look the future squarely in the face, and bravely, must we not,
+Hester?" turning appealingly to her sister. "I'm sure that is what Daddy
+would say."
+
+"Julie, don't you be afraid; we'll just do everything--somehow!" Hester
+flung out her young arms with a sweeping movement as if she meant to
+gather in all their perplexities and conquer them. "If Dr. Ware will
+help us and advise us, we'll try to get our feet down on
+something--somewhere. Yours aren't very big," she said, with a piteous
+attempt at her old lightness, "but mine are. I feel just now as if I
+were standing on my head, it is all so sudden and so terrible!"
+
+Dr. Ware rose and put on his coat. "I think you have heard enough for
+one day," he said. "You seem to be such surprisingly independent young
+women that I do not know just how I am going to deal with you. But you
+are to remember this, mind, that whatever I have is
+yours--everything--though I shall not thrust it upon you. If you have
+ideas of your own and wish to carry them out, I will help you in every
+way in my power. Now I am off," he added, briskly, "and don't you worry
+too much. We have many days yet to talk things over and decide what is
+best to do."
+
+Julie tried to say something, but ended by burying her face in his coat
+sleeve and sobbing quietly.
+
+Hester fiercely bit her lip and gulped down the tears that threatened to
+choke her. "You are the kindest, best--" she began.
+
+"Tut, tut, nonsense!" said the Doctor. "Not a word like that, or I shall
+desert you entirely." And with a frown on his face that was half a smile
+he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"Julie, it is too absolutely appalling to realize!" Hester pressed her
+nose against the window and looked out over the river dejectedly. A
+fresh September gale was blowing, ruffling the surface of the water into
+miniature waves and rattling the window panes with a suggestion of
+autumn days to come. Julie shivered a little, and crossed to the
+fireplace, where a few pine logs sputtered on the hearth. She looked
+down without seeing them. Her thoughts were turned within.
+
+"Julie! do say something!" exclaimed her sister. "I can't bear to have
+you so still."
+
+"I am thinking, dear; trying to grasp what it all means."
+
+"Julie, what can we do?"
+
+"Do? Well, we will do something."
+
+"Of course we will, old girl." Hester left the window, and crossing the
+room put her arms around her sister. "The two main things are to take
+care of Dad and earn our own living. We couldn't be dependent on Dr.
+Ware, Julie. Do you suppose he meant he wanted to give us a home and
+everything?"
+
+"I don't know, Hester. He is so generous and so fond of Dad I believe he
+would; but that would not be right. I wonder what we can do to be
+self-supporting? We have the usual accomplishments, and I suppose we
+have average intelligence, don't you?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+"I would back the intelligence against the accomplishments any day,"
+said Hester, sagely. "We have not had the usual sort of bringing up, so
+we can't do the usual thing."
+
+"Like teaching, you mean, or--or things like that? No, we can't. We are
+not trained or qualified for any sort of position, and only one of us
+could work away from home anyway, for we can't both leave Daddy."
+
+Hester's forehead was creased into little wrinkles of perplexity. "If
+only I were a man!" she exclaimed, "I might stand some chance--I know
+how to do such a lot of mannish things. Why, I could be an engineer if I
+were put to it, Julie! You know I've run the engine attached to 'The
+Hustle' many a time; the men used to let me do it." She drew in her
+breath with a little gasp of remembrance. "As it is," she continued, "I
+suppose I'll have to be a companion or something equally commonplace and
+ladylike," she ended in a tone of disgust.
+
+"I suppose so," agreed her sister reluctantly; "but, dear, the worst of
+that is it will separate us, and I don't believe either one of us could
+stand that." Julie's lip quivered. "Isn't it humiliating to have such a
+feeling of utter helplessness?"
+
+"Yes, it is." Hester gave herself a shake. "I cannot seem to take it all
+in yet, Julie--what it all means. It seems to me we must be some other
+girls talking, not ourselves at all. Somehow it never entered my mind
+that dreadful things could happen to us--not while we had Dad to take
+care of us."
+
+"But that is just it now, Hester dear; we haven't Dad to take care of
+us--it is we who must take care of him."
+
+"We'll do it, too," said Hester, with a ring in her voice. "I'm going
+down now to the kitchen to see about making him some wine jelly. Bridget
+said she did not believe Dr. Ware would let him eat it, but I feel as if
+I must be doing something. Come, Peter Snooks," to the dog that was
+never far out of sight, "we'll at least make a pretense of being useful.
+Now don't you sit there and cry," she said from the door to her sister.
+"You just hold tight on to yourself, and think out something clever--I'm
+sure you can," convincingly.
+
+Julie acknowledged this flattery by a wan little smile, and following
+Hester out of the room, went in to see her father. The nurse was sitting
+near the bed, but moved aside as she entered.
+
+Mr. Dale partially opened his eyes as his daughter drew near, but closed
+them again instantly. His drawn, haggard face showed the strain he had
+undergone in the months before the final collapse of his business had
+stricken him down. A look of tender pity came into Julie's face as she
+knelt by the bed and laid her hand over his. He was breathing heavily,
+as if asleep, and she dared not speak. It seemed to her inconceivable
+that her bright, energetic father could be lying there as helpless as a
+little child! She put her head down on the bed, while her mind reverted
+to their recent conversation with Dr. Ware and the subsequent talk which
+had half stunned their senses. They must think, Hester said, and she was
+right; but it almost seemed to her it would be a relief to stop thinking
+for a moment, so rapidly had the events of the past two days been
+crowded in upon them.
+
+All this passed through her mind in a tumult of confused ideas, through
+which ran the predominating thought of work, in obtaining which she knew
+Dr. Ware would help them. But how, and what and where? In the first
+shock of their trouble it was not possible to see the way clearly, nor,
+indeed, to half understand the problems confronting them. Julie felt
+this and knew she must be patient, though inwardly a wave of resentment
+that such things should be, surged in her heart rebelliously. The next
+instant she thrust down this feeling with a fierce determination to
+control herself, and spreading out her hands, for the first time in her
+life regarded them critically. They were not beautiful, like Hester's,
+but they were slender and white, and she suddenly felt a contempt for
+their delicacy, while a consciousness that she had never exacted
+anything from them caused her to view them in a new light. Why not work
+with her hands! Why not put her fingers to some use and see what they
+were capable of, making each one a vital thing full of strength and
+character. The idea delighted her, and she closed her fingers in a tight
+grip as if testing their possibilities. "Oh, Daddy, dear!" she half
+whispered, with her head pressed close against him, "we will amount to
+_something_." Then rising from the bed, she stooped to kiss him, and
+went in search of Hester.
+
+When Dr. Ware came again they convinced him of their determination to
+work, and he promised to look about and see what opening could be found
+for them. He had only a moment to give them that morning, but said he
+should return in the evening to have a long talk. When Hester kept him a
+second longer to display, with considerable pride, the wine jelly she
+had made for her father, he shook his head.
+
+"Not just yet, my dear," he said, kindly. Her disappointment was so
+evident that the good Doctor felt inclined to eat it himself by way of
+proving his admiration of her culinary skill, and then--he had an
+inspiration.
+
+"Hester," he said, "will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Indeed, I will."
+
+"I should like to carry that jelly off with me; it fairly makes my mouth
+water. If you'll give it to me, my dear, I will allow your father to eat
+an unlimited amount of it later on; and then think how busy you will be!
+Come, is it a bargain?"
+
+"Dr. Ware! As if you need ask! Why, you know I'd just love to give it to
+you."
+
+She had arranged the jelly in a dainty dish, and now ran into the
+dining-room for a doily, which she wrapped about it.
+
+"Won't you let us send it over to you, Dr. Ware?" Julie asked.
+
+"No, thank you, Julie; I'm going to drive right home," and the Doctor
+went off with the dish in his hand.
+
+When he reappeared that evening he astonished the girls by approaching
+them silently, while he bowed with great ceremony before Hester, to whom
+he held out a package and said: "Allow me to congratulate you, my dear."
+
+Greatly mystified, Hester took the package and unwrapped it, to find the
+glass jelly dish she had given him that morning, in the bottom of which
+lay a two-dollar bill. She looked up at him wonderingly.
+
+"It is yours, Hester," he said. "I plead guilty. I took that jelly to a
+crotchety old patient of mine who is boarding, and reviles all the jelly
+his nurse buys for him. I told him I thought I had found some that would
+please him, and I was right. He devoured half of it while I was there.
+Then he insisted on paying for it. I did not tell him where it came
+from, but he wants some more, and he said that was what it was worth."
+He was watching her closely.
+
+She had taken up the bill, and was handling it nervously, a deep flush
+on her bewildered young face. "Julie," she exclaimed, breathlessly,
+turning instinctively to her sister, "Julie, I've _earned_ some money!"
+
+"How splendid!" Julie stared at the bill as if it were different from
+any she had seen before. Hester threw her arms impulsively around Dr.
+Ware's neck. "This is the only way I know how to thank you," she cried.
+
+"I shall instantly create a demand for your jelly, my dear, if I am
+always to get a commission like this," the Doctor laughingly remarked,
+delighted at the success of his venture.
+
+"Are you serious, Dr. Ware? Do you suppose I could make jelly to sell?"
+she asked, anxiously.
+
+"Why not, Hester?"
+
+The girl was silent for a moment then suddenly she cried, "Julie Dale,
+we'll _cook_ for a living!"
+
+"Cook!" repeated Julie, incredulously, "I don't know a thing about
+cooking."
+
+"No, but I do. Don't you know how Cousin Nancy was always fussing
+because I would haunt the kitchen down there? I learned how to make
+jelly from her old colored mammie, and heaps of things beside. Of
+course, I never actually put my hand into anything--old Rachel wouldn't
+let me, but I saw how she did lots of things, and her cakes were famous
+all through the County, you know they were. If we can sell wine jelly we
+ought to be able to sell other things, don't you think so, Dr. Ware?"
+
+"I do indeed, my dear; I think your idea is excellent."
+
+"Hester, I will learn, I am sure I can," cried Julie hurriedly. "I'm
+aching to get my fingers into something."
+
+"Of course you'll learn--we'll both have to learn as we go along, and
+even if we don't succeed it's worth trying."
+
+"As for that," said the Doctor, "anything you may attempt will be more
+or less in the nature of an experiment."
+
+"Yes," acquiesced Hester, "and if we do succeed it means working
+together, Julie dear, in a place of our own, and being with Dad. Just
+think what that would mean!"
+
+"Everything!" assented her sister. "I believe you've hit upon a
+way--there always is a way, if one keeps looking!"
+
+"One of the first things to ascertain," said Dr. Ware, "is the cost of
+materials and the market price of such things as you suggest making."
+
+"Yes," confessed Hester. It had never occurred to her in the whole
+course of her young life to consider the cost of anything.
+
+From this the talk went on to other things relative to the change about
+to take place, and Dr. Ware remained several hours in earnest
+conversation with them. At the end of that time, when he rose to take
+his departure, there was, added to the affection already in his heart, a
+tremendous feeling of admiration and respect for these girls, whose
+spirits flashed undaunted; while they, on their part, were experiencing
+through him the depths of human kindness.
+
+"We mean to be worthy of all you are doing for us," said Julie, stopping
+a moment to steady her voice, "and we mean to make our fight as bravely
+as you and Daddy did years ago, when you tramped through the Wilderness
+together."
+
+The Doctor straightened his shoulders and made a military salute. "On to
+victory!" was all he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"George Washington! G-e-o-r-g-e W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n!"
+
+"Ma'am?"
+
+"Why don't you answer the first time I call you? Come here and go hunt
+the Colonel and tell him I want him directly. He is around the house
+somewhere."
+
+George Washington, aged ten, his woolly head full of sticks, his
+blue-jeans sadly perforated and the lower portion of his ebony limbs
+guiltless of covering, came out from behind the kitchen quarters and
+shambled off in search of his master.
+
+"That boy shows old Rachel's blood," soliloquized the mistress of
+Wavertree Hall; "he would not run if there were a bomb under him!"
+
+It was one of those balmy days in Virginia, when the sly, deceptive
+October sun kisses one into the belief that summer will remain always.
+Mrs. Driscoe sat down on the back steps of the verandah and watched two
+cocks fighting in the yard, as she awaited the appearance of her
+husband. She looked, herself, not unlike a bird of ruffled plumage, for
+the bit of lace and pink ribbon with which she ornamented her scanty
+locks was awry, while her crocheted shawl--pink to match the
+ribbon--hung off one shoulder, and her whole aspect presented a
+disheveled appearance which in her indicated a perturbed state of mind.
+Now and then she glanced at an open letter in her hand, the contents of
+which seemed to displease her, for she shook the paper as if it were a
+live thing she were chastising and tapped her foot impatiently.
+
+Presently a voice behind her said mildly: "Did you want me, my dear?"
+
+"Want you? Certainly I wanted you! What do you suppose I sent for you
+for if I didn't want you?" Mrs. Driscoe drew up her pink shawl with a
+gesture that spoke volumes.
+
+"Won't you get a headache, Nancy, sitting out there in the sun?" asked
+the Colonel solicitously.
+
+Concern for her physical welfare touched his wife's vanity and appealed
+to her heart. She softened perceptibly.
+
+"Maybe I had better come up and sit in a chair," she said. "It's those
+girls that have upset me. I believe they're clean daft."
+
+He helped her up and pulled a chair into a shady part of the verandah,
+waiting until she was comfortably ensconced before seating himself.
+
+He was a gallant, the Colonel, full of little courtesies which endeared
+him to the hearts of women. That was why the Widow Chisholme married
+him, the County said. She wanted--but does it matter after all these
+years what the County said?
+
+He sat down now beside her and waited for her to begin. She usually did
+begin and end everything.
+
+"The girls refuse to come--I've just had a letter from Julie; she is the
+most independent, ungrateful young minx I ever heard of!"
+
+"Oh--ah--not that, Nancy, not that, I am sure--ahem--you must be
+mistaken. She impressed me as a very gentle, sweet young creature."
+
+"Gentle fiddlesticks! Do you call that gentle?" flaunting the letter in
+his face.
+
+"Possibly, my dear, if I were to know the contents of the letter I might
+be better able to form an opinion."
+
+She handed it over and watched him read it.
+
+"Ah," he commented at the end, "what remarkably original girls!"
+
+"Give that letter to me, Driscoe," (she had always called him Driscoe
+from the beginning) "I don't believe you half understand it--you are
+always way off in the clouds somewhere when you haven't got your nose
+buried in a book. Those girls are going to work--to cook! They actually
+prefer to cook for a living when they might come down here and live like
+ladies the rest of their lives. They have moved into rooms their Doctor
+found for them--I expect it is one of those nasty little places they
+call flats, in some horrid neighborhood and I am sure no one will go
+near them and they'll die of loneliness with their crazy notions."
+"Cook!" she repeated scornfully, "who ever heard of a lady doing a
+servant's work!" The little pink bow on the top of her head fairly
+quivered in outraged sympathy.
+
+"I am sure the girls appreciate your offer to give them a home," Colonel
+Driscoe said when he was allowed to speak, "Julie's letter speaks very
+feelingly about it. If they think it wise to try and be independent I
+must say I can't help but admire their spirit."
+
+"That is all you know about it! In my day girls did not do odd,
+independent things--they did as they were told!"
+
+It occurred to the Colonel that her day was past, but he wisely
+refrained from giving the thought utterance.
+
+"A lot of your foolish Northern notions still cling to you Driscoe," she
+said resentfully. "It is my opinion that those Dale girls have disgraced
+the family--there is too much of their father in them--a true Fairleigh
+would never stoop to menial labor; and yet their mother and I had the
+same Fairleigh grandmother. Oh, it is too trying--their behavior--too
+trying for anything! It terrifies me to think what they may come to!"
+She stopped rocking in her chair and sniffed audibly.
+
+"There, there, Nancy, don't take it so to heart," comforted her husband,
+"it may be best as it is--we'll see if we can't raise a little money
+somewhere to send them--the poor young things must be in sore straits
+these days with poverty to face and an invalid father to take care of."
+
+"Umph! they don't act like it--and as for money, I don't see it lying
+round loose on the plantation."
+
+This was a sore point with the Colonel, who was known since his marriage
+to have swallowed up a considerable portion of his small income
+patenting farming implements that were impracticable. He had been a
+bachelor with an inventive turn of mind and only one lung when he met
+the Widow Chisholme at the Springs. Upon marrying her it seemed most
+desirable for her convenience (for she would never have tolerated life
+outside of Virginia) and his health, that they should live on the
+Chisholme property, which was somewhat extensive and kept them land
+poor. Mr. Driscoe, New Hampshire born and bred, settled down into a
+country gentleman and turned his attention to agriculture; but his mind,
+half inventive, half scholarly, wholly visionary, had made rather a
+sorry mess of it, and his wife, who had never relinquished the reins of
+government, now held them with a firmer hand. He was Colonel only by
+courtesy, the servants having dubbed him that immediately. It was
+impossible for them to recognize a real gentleman without a title.
+
+He said no more about money, but shaded his eyes and looked down the
+long avenue leading out to the road. In the distance he could see a
+small darky open a gate, while down the road came a horse with a swift
+gallop.
+
+"Here comes Nannie, my dear. She will not be pleased with your news,
+will she?" the Colonel said regretfully.
+
+The girl brought the horse up with a sharp turn at the steps, thereby
+causing consternation to a brood of chickens, which scattered in every
+direction. Then she threw the bridle to George Washington and slipped to
+the ground.
+
+"My," she exclaimed, fanning herself with her hat, "it is pretty warm
+riding."
+
+"Now don't sit down there and take cold," expostulated her mother;
+"here, put my shawl around you."
+
+Nannie, who had dropped down on the steps, laughed and shook her head.
+"A shawl in October! who ever heard of such a thing. I am all right,
+mummie; don't take it off--it looks so pretty on you." She smiled at her
+mother, who was not proof against this bit of flattery, though her only
+manifestation was a closer drawing of the shawl around her shoulders.
+"Don't you feel very well, mummie?" the girl asked, conscious that the
+atmosphere was not altogether salubrious.
+
+"Well enough," replied the older woman, flipping a letter nervously
+between her fingers as she rocked to and fro.
+
+"Your mother has heard from your cousin Julie," volunteered the Colonel.
+
+"Let me see the letter, quick, mummie. When are they coming?"
+
+"They are not coming at all," replied Mrs. Driscoe, with a resentful
+toss of her head, meanwhile thrusting the obnoxious letter into her
+pocket.
+
+Nan's face fell. "Oh, mummie, can't I see the letter, please?"
+
+"Certainly not. It is full of crazy ideas that are most unbecoming in a
+young girl, and I don't consider such things proper for you to read."
+
+Colonel Driscoe gave an apologetic cough and opened his lips as if to
+speak, but apparently thought better of it and studied his finger nails
+with unwonted interest. Nan drew cabalistic signs on the steps with her
+riding crop, and for some moments the silence was unbroken save for the
+half chuckling singing of George Washington, who was turning somersaults
+near by. Then Nannie said wistfully:
+
+"May I know why the girls are not coming, please?"
+
+The Colonel started to explain, but was overruled by his wife, who
+preferred to give her own interpretation of the case. Accordingly she
+poured out a torrent of abuse, in which her own individual woes over
+what she called their "disobedience" were so involved with a mixed
+statement of facts that Nan might have been led to believe that her
+cousins were lost to all sense of propriety had she not thoroughly
+understood her mother. As it was she listened quietly, sympathized with
+and petted her, and told her not to bother her head any more about two
+naughty girls in the North. She was a girl of considerable tact, this
+Nannie, for all that the whole establishment "babied" her, and she knew
+just how to smooth down her mother's ruffled plumage; so that Mrs.
+Driscoe, after a good, comfortable cry, which was a great relief to her
+overwrought feelings, was persuaded to go indoors and lie down to
+recover from the shock of the morning.
+
+Nannie remained on the verandah with her father. "Will _you_ tell me
+about it now?" she said, when her mother was well out of hearing.
+
+The Colonel's version, as he understood it from Julie's letter was
+expressed in five minutes.
+
+"Oh, dear!" Nannie exclaimed, when he had finished, "I wish they did not
+feel that way about things. I did so hope they were going to bring their
+father here and let us nurse him, and live with us, and be just like my
+own sisters--I've always wanted a sister so! I can't seem to make it out
+exactly, pa, how girls like that who have always had every mortal thing
+on earth, can work just like poor girls."
+
+"No, you can't understand, kitten," stroking her head affectionately;
+"it's against all the traditions of your bringing up that you should,
+for your mother takes such extreme views. But for my part, I think they
+are very noble and deserve tremendous credit for taking the stand they
+have."
+
+"Oh! so do I," echoed the girl enthusiastically. "I just love them for
+it. I think it is grand to be so heroic and brave. Why, just think, pa,
+they are not very much older than I, and yet all of a sudden it seems as
+if they were women and I only a baby."
+
+"We want to keep our little girl a while yet," he said. "I have no fear
+but she will be womanly enough when the time comes."
+
+"We did have the loveliest times when the girls were here, didn't we?"
+she said reminiscently. "They could ride as well as any girl in the
+county, and Julie was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Do you remember
+the funny tricks Hester did--springing on a horse bareback, and riding
+backward, and things she'd learned from the cowboys? Oh! I did miss them
+terribly when they went away."
+
+"They were unusually companionable to us all, I think, Nannie. I am sure
+I missed them unspeakably."
+
+The girl sat down on the arm of his chair and as she leaned her head
+against his, two tears trickled down the end of her nose and into his
+neck. He put his arms about her and drew her into his lap, where she
+lay, a dejected little heap, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"There, there, kitten, don't cry; Mr. Dale may get better, and the girls
+may be able to bring him down for a long visit some time--who knows?"
+said the kindly Colonel, who was already planning in his mind how he
+could defray the expenses, should such a journey be possible. "We will
+all have some happy times together again, Nannie; you'll see, little
+girl."
+
+[Illustration: THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR]
+
+Nan heaved a sigh and was comforted. It is easy to be sanguine at
+seventeen.
+
+Suddenly she exclaimed: "Do you know what?" sitting up and revealing a
+tear-stained face and two brimming brown eyes which she rubbed with the
+Colonel's handkerchief, her own having long since been reduced to a damp
+little ball; "I'm going to write to the girls not to mind a thing mummie
+writes them, for she really loves them just the same, and you and I love
+them heaps more--if such a thing is possible--and think about them and
+just hope with all our might and main that Cousin Dale will be better,
+and they won't have to work themselves to death. Oh, don't I just wish I
+could help them!" "Pa!" she cried in a sudden inspiration, "you know the
+new saddle you were going to give me for my birthday?"
+
+"Yes, Nannie."
+
+"Well, you have not bought it, have you? and I don't want it--I want you
+to send the money to the girls instead."
+
+"But, Nannie, child, you have talked of that saddle for months. Are you
+sure you want to do this?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she cried, rapturously with a childish clap of her hands;
+"I'd love to do it more than anything. Can you see about it to-day?" Her
+soft brown eyes were not brimming now, but full of eagerness.
+
+"I am almost afraid," said the Colonel, shaking his head, "that your
+mother will not consent and that the girls might refuse to let you do it
+if they knew."
+
+"Oh, they must not know," said Nannie with an air of importance borne of
+the project in hand. "No one must know, not even mummie; it is a secret
+between you and me. We will send an anonymous letter the way they do in
+books. Oh! won't it be fun?"
+
+"Who ever would have suspected we had an arch-conspirator in our midst,"
+said the Colonel slyly, "and that she would victimize an old man like
+me?" In his heart he was rejoicing over her pretty exhibition of girlish
+love and unselfishness. Then more seriously, he added: "I am afraid we
+shall have to wait until your birthday really comes round, Puss. I have
+not the money just now."
+
+"But you are going to let me do it, aren't you? No matter if we do have
+to wait, come and begin the letter now. We must make it very mysterious,
+and manage to get it to them somehow so they will never suspect. How do
+you suppose we can?" She looked at him, confident that he would suggest
+something.
+
+And he did. But what he said was whispered so low that even we cannot
+hear. The effect on her was instantaneous, and caused her to dance about
+delightedly. Then suddenly remembering that her mother was sleeping in
+an adjacent room, she became subdued and catching her father by the arm
+drew him quietly into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+It is not until a great crisis is past that one comprehends with any
+clearness of vision the multitudinous events that whirl about the one
+supreme fact. Stunned by the first shock, one wakes to learn that close
+on the heels of disaster come the consequences--pell-mell,
+helter-skelter, pushing, crowding with a grim insistence from which
+there is no escape. It was small wonder, then, that to the Dale girls
+the world seemed topsy-turvy.
+
+A change being inevitable, their one desire was to get it over quickly,
+the first of October, therefore, saw them moved into new quarters. The
+arrangements had been made by Dr. Ware, who effected a compromise with
+the girls--he offering them a vacant apartment in a house he owned, they
+gladly accepting this home if he would allow them to pay rent when they
+became successful wage-earners. The good Doctor sighed and consented; he
+recognized there was no thwarting their earnest purpose. In the first
+discussion of plans, he had suggested a little house in the suburbs; but
+Hester, with her practical nature fast developing, had said that to do
+business they must be within reach of people--in the midst of things.
+She did not quite know how she knew this--perhaps it was more that she
+felt it instinctively; but it met with Dr. Ware's approval and had great
+weight with Julie, who secretly longed for the country, but put aside
+all personal inclination and voted with her sister. The result was a
+flat in a quiet, unpretentious neighborhood, which yet took on a
+semblance of gentility from its proximity to Crana Street.
+
+By methods known only to himself, Dr. Ware saved furniture enough to
+make the place comfortable, while Bridget, who assumed mysterious airs
+for days before their departure, saw to it that there was no lack of
+household necessities. Bridget was no small factor in those days. She
+came to the front with tremendous energy, backed up her young mistresses
+in all their plans, and vowed she would never leave them. So the little
+family held together, which was the main thing, and the girls settled
+themselves in the new quarters with brave spirits--was not this, after
+all, the real meaning of "making a home for Dad"?
+
+All the choicest things were brought to the furnishing of his room; the
+gayest pictures to relieve the tedium of the weary hours, his best loved
+books near at hand, though he could no longer read or even reach out his
+hand to touch them. In the window-sill Julie had set up a miniature
+conservatory of potted plants that promised to bloom gayly, for down
+upon them poured the morning sun, filling the room with golden light.
+This was their resting-place in the new life--their father the center
+about whom they gathered in every spare moment--the room a little shrine
+from which in the midst of their attendance upon him many a silent
+prayer for strength and courage went up to God.
+
+The other sleeping-rooms were bedrooms by courtesy--mere closets, one of
+which was given to Bridget and in the other the girls managed to squeeze
+a double bed. Hester suggested that berths would be much more
+convenient, and only the lack of money prevented her having that sort of
+sleeping arrangement constructed.
+
+"Julie!" she exclaimed, in the first days of squeezing themselves in,
+"it is something like living in the car again, isn't it? only it is
+so--so different. I believe I'll call the flat 'The Hustle'--only
+instead of _its_ hustling like the car, we'll be the ones. Oh, Julie
+dear, to think of never racing around the country like that again!"
+
+"Don't Hester; I can't bear to think of it." In spite of her good
+resolutions Julie's courage sometimes failed her.
+
+A few days later Hester came into the kitchen one morning, her arms full
+of paper bags strongly suggestive of the corner grocery. "There!" she
+cried, "I've invested my last dollar in things for the cake."
+
+"Is it to-day you are going to see Miss Ware?" Julie asked.
+
+"Yes, if the cake comes out all right. Roll up your sleeve, old girl,
+and we'll begin." Hester suited the action to the words by weighing the
+ingredients and turning the butter into a bowl. But ah! how hard it was
+to put her pretty hand into it--how greasy the butter felt and how sandy
+the sugar, and how unpleasant the general stickiness! But she worked it
+through her fingers energetically, while Julie beat the eggs.
+
+"It is going to be death on our hands, my dear," remarked Hester,
+picking up a knife with which she scraped the dough from her fingers.
+
+"I wish you would always let me do that part, Hester. I know how you
+will feel it to hurt your hands."
+
+"Well, as if I'd be likely to! No one part is worse than another. We'll
+get used to it after a while, though I know our hands will spread out to
+twice their natural size."
+
+"Perhaps even if they do get big and not quite so fine as they are now,
+_perhaps_ we won't mind, Hester, if we just think of it as scars in the
+battle, you know. Don't you know how Daddy has often talked of the
+honorable scars in the battle of life? We're just finding out what that
+means, old girl."
+
+"Well, if you haven't a most blessed faculty for putting a comfortable
+construction on everything!" Hester emphasized her words by a last
+vigorous beat of the dough and held out the spoon to her sister. "Just
+taste this, will you, Julie? I think it's fine."
+
+"Umph, it is," agreed Julie, who had disdained the spoon, and dabbed her
+finger in the mixture after the manner of cooks. "But, my dear, if we
+create a demand for cake like that which requires only the whites of
+eggs, what shall we do with the yolks? Eat them, I suppose," making up a
+wry face.
+
+"They are better than nothing and I do not see chickens hopping in the
+window, do you?"
+
+"No," reluctantly. "We have fifteen dollars in the house," she announced
+solemnly. "How long do you suppose we can live on that?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know, Julie. We must learn to eat less, and that is
+no joke. I'll tell you what, one of the hardest things is learning to do
+without what has always seemed absolutely necessary." There was a husky
+sound in Hester's voice which Julie did not like to hear.
+
+"No matter, dear, we are young and strong, and we will accomplish
+something before we get through. Why, if you stop to think of it, nearly
+every one who has made a success of life has started in the smallest
+kind of way."
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+"Did you say you were going to see Miss Ware to-day?"
+
+"Yes, I think I had better take her this loaf if it bakes properly. Will
+you come with me, Julie?"
+
+"No, dear, I think you will manage better alone, though I'll go of
+course, if you want me."
+
+"No, I had rather go alone," said Hester.
+
+But no expedition to Miss Ware's took place that day, for the cake was
+spoiled in the baking and four succeeding attempts shared the same
+tragic fate. Toward night, when the failures of the day had reduced them
+to the verge of despondency, Dr. Ware came in and carried them off for a
+long drive which wonderfully freshened up their spirits. On the way home
+he asked their assistance in sending out a thousand circulars in regard
+to some medical matters, telling them it would be a tremendous help to
+him if they would write them. They acquiesced delightedly and
+accordingly that evening a huge bundle of stationery was left at their
+door. Inside, stuck in a package of envelopes, was a slip on which was
+written: "Here's the paper and the form to be copied. Don't keep at this
+too persistently, little girls, or you'll bring down the wrath of your
+faithful friend, Philip Ware."
+
+More than glad to have an opportunity of being of use to the Doctor, the
+girls set to work early the next morning writing industriously. Julie,
+after a few smirched and blotted copies, got well under way; she had
+considerable precision in her character, which made a task like this
+simple. But Hester during the first day or two spoiled so many sheets
+that she viewed her rapidly filling waste-basket with dismay. Finally,
+in supreme disgust she threw down her pen.
+
+"I believe I could build a house easier!" was her impatient exclamation.
+"Who ever saw such daubs as I'm making!"
+
+Julie looked up and smiled. Her wrist ached, and she shook her hand to
+limber the muscles. "If you did not dig your pen in the ink with such a
+high-tragedy, Scott-Siddons air, maybe you'd get on better," she
+suggested.
+
+"High-tragedy fiddlesticks! I _like_ a lot of ink. I am sure you're a
+sight," she commented, with sisterly frankness; "all doubled up and your
+forehead screwed into knots. How many have you done?"
+
+"I don't know; there they are," pointing to a box-cover piled high.
+
+Hester surveyed them with lofty scorn. "Mercy! That is nothing! I've
+done heaps!"
+
+"Where are they, you airy young person?"
+
+"In the waste-basket, mostly."
+
+"Go to work, you ridiculous infant, or you will be stuck to that chair
+the rest of your natural days."
+
+When Dr. Ware attempted to pay them for the work they remonstrated,
+telling him in the most convincing language at their command that it was
+a pleasure to feel they could do even so small a thing for him. To this
+he refused to agree, finally persuading them to take the money if on no
+other ground than to convince him of their business principles; while he
+refrained from mentioning that he had himself deviated somewhat from
+business methods when he ordered the circulars written instead of
+printed in the usual way.
+
+A week later the almond cake for Miss Ware was baked successfully and an
+admiring group stood about the kitchen table taking a last look at it
+before Hester did it up in a box preparatory to setting forth.
+
+"Faith, it's a beauty," cried Bridget, arms akimbo. "Any lady'd be proud
+to eat it. Shure it's your mother's own fingers ye've got, the both of
+yez. Ther' warn't nothin' she couldn't make when she put her hand to it,
+before she got so ailin', an' the Major, God bless him, got so well off
+she didn't have ter."
+
+"Poor, dear mamma!" said Julie, wistfully. "I only remember her ill and
+not able to bear us noisy children about."
+
+"Sufferin' made her a changed woman, the Saints preserve her! But I seen
+the day, Miss Julie, when she slaved for the Major before you was born
+an' there warn't nobody could beat her at anythin'. It looks like her
+knack was croppin' out in yez, shure as my name's Bridget Maloney."
+
+"Perhaps it is, Bridget," said Hester, who had heard this conversation
+from the next room, where she was putting on her coat and hat. "We have
+often heard Daddy tell people mamma was a practical genius, that would
+mean nimble fingers, wouldn't it? Maybe she has left them to us as a
+legacy."
+
+"I'm not after understandin' your words exactly, dearie, but the
+meanin's clear an' it's right yez are."
+
+As Hester picked up the box, Peter Snooks sprang down from the
+window-sill jumping wildly about, the sight of her hat being conclusive
+evidence to him that she was going out.
+
+"Poor little Snooks, not this time," the girl said, stooping to pat him.
+"I am going in the car to-day."
+
+His stump of a tail drooped dejectedly as he looked at her with big
+reproachful eyes.
+
+"It does seem mean not to take him, doesn't it, Julie?--but it is not
+worth while, for it is so stormy I thought I had better ride both ways."
+It was only dire extremity that permitted the extravagance of car-fares
+these days.
+
+"Of course you must ride," said Julie. "Peter Snooks," to the still
+hopeful little fellow, "you must not tease. Go find your ball and we'll
+have a play."
+
+He trotted off and Hester picked up the box and started.
+
+"Tell Miss Ware that is only a hundredth part of the nice things you can
+make, you clever girl," Julie called after her.
+
+"An' good luck to you, dearie," from Bridget.
+
+The wind and rain blew about Hester unpleasantly when she reached the
+street, but a car soon overtook her and afforded her a welcome shelter
+from the storm. She found all the seats occupied, but some of the
+passengers moved up to make room for her, and being a trifle tired from
+the nervousness of the cake-making, she thankfully squeezed into the bit
+of space allotted her, and laid the box in her lap.
+
+Her thoughts as the car sped along were not of the most cheerful, for
+she dreaded this visit to Miss Ware. That individual, who kept house for
+her brother, had expressed herself in terms of strong disapproval of the
+girls when he had told her their plans. She considered cooking greatly
+beneath them and would have thoroughly agreed with the views of their
+Cousin Nancy in Virginia, had she known that person. As it was, she
+thought her brother should interest himself in finding suitable
+positions for them, and she refused to recognize the fact that these
+were not to be had for the asking. "There were plenty of ladylike things
+girls could do," she said, but did not give herself the trouble to
+specify.
+
+To the girls themselves she had talked at some length, endeavoring to
+explain to them that they were laying out for themselves a path of
+social ostracism by their extraordinary choice of work, never doubting
+that this argument alone would convince them. But when Julie gently put
+it aside with the assurance that she and Hester were sufficient to
+themselves if the world chose to look askance at them; and when Hester
+flushed angrily, and said the people whose friendship was worth anything
+would not fail them, Miss Ware shrugged her shoulders and gave them up
+as social heretics. She was not, however, allowed to wash her hands of
+them, for her brother sang their praises perpetually. She therefore
+forced herself to take a negative interest in them which carried her so
+far as to order from them a loaf of cake.
+
+Hester, gazing abstractedly out of the car window, felt it a momentous
+errand on which she was going that day; it involved so much. If the cake
+met with the critical approval of Miss Ware she intended to ask her to
+solicit orders for it. It would not be easy to approach her on this
+subject, but she should do it--oh! yes, she did not intend to be
+frightened out of her purpose. A curious little ache came into her heart
+as she braced herself for the coming ordeal. It was all so new and so
+strange, to be put in the position of asking favors--to be looked down
+upon from frigid heights--she and Julie, whose world hitherto had been
+all sunshine and approval. For a second something came between her and
+the window, blurring her vision. Then she brought herself up with a
+sharp mental rebuke for allowing her thoughts for one moment to revert
+to the past, and forced herself to look down with satisfaction on the
+neatly wrapped box she was carrying.
+
+By this time the car had become crowded, and directly in front of Hester
+stood a woman of amazing breadth, clinging in a limp, swaying fashion to
+the strap. Just as the girl observed her and was wondering if she could
+squeeze into her seat should she offer it to her, the car jerked round a
+corner, the stout woman screamed and landed with a thud on the box in
+Hester's lap!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Comfortably ensconced in a victoria, two men were bowling out through
+the suburbs of Radnor in the rapidly approaching dusk of a winter
+afternoon. One, wrapped to the chin in furs, sat well back in the corner
+of the carriage as if desirous of all possible protection from the cold;
+the other leaned forward in a somewhat restive attitude and looked like
+a man occupying his position under protest. Each was immersed in his own
+thoughts, but from time to time the younger man took a surreptitious
+glance in the direction of the older as if he were endeavoring to make
+some important discovery. He was, in truth, trying to decide if the
+moment were propitious for laying before his father a project which he
+had been for some time considering, but the impassive face of Mr. Landor
+told him nothing, and they continued to ride on in silence. Finally, in
+a tone of annoyance the older man said: "I wish, Kenneth, you would
+oblige me by leaning back and appearing as if you were enjoying
+yourself. I must confess it is no particular pleasure to me to drive
+with a man who looks as if he might leap from the carriage at any
+moment."
+
+"Then why do you insist on my going, father? You know I detest this sort
+of thing--it is only fit for women. If you would come out with me now in
+my trap, it would be very different."
+
+"Your breakneck method of driving does not suit me at all. I suppose I
+may be allowed to take my pleasures in my own way, and it occurs to me
+that it is not altogether unreasonable to request you to accompany me
+occasionally."
+
+To this Kenneth made no reply, while he decided that the moment was not
+propitious for introducing the subject uppermost in his mind.
+
+He conceded, however, to his father's wishes in so far as to relax from
+his objectionable posture, though there was about him a suggestion of
+martyrdom that was irritating.
+
+"What have you been doing to-day?" asked the senior Landor, abruptly.
+
+"Nothing special, sir."
+
+"Do you ever do anything special?" turning two penetrating eyes upon
+him.
+
+"Why, yes; I suppose so. I was thinking of something special just now."
+After all, it might as well come out.
+
+"If it is of any importance, I should like to hear about it."
+
+This was encouraging.
+
+"I was thinking of a trip around the world, sir. To start in a month,
+say, and be gone two or three years."
+
+Mr. Landor received this proposition with a quick drawing down of his
+shaggy eyebrows and a closer upturning of his fur collar about his chin.
+His face now was almost hidden from view.
+
+"Do you propose to go alone?" he asked.
+
+"No; two fellows at the Aldine Club have talked me into joining them. Of
+course, sir, I realize you may object to so long an absence," said
+Kenneth, who felt that a storm was brewing, "and I might be able to make
+it a year or so if you preferred."
+
+"Inasmuch as you have scarcely been at home a month in the past year or
+so, I should prefer that you dismiss the project altogether."
+
+"That seems rather surprising, sir," said Kenneth, with a laugh his
+father did not like, "when I have been going and coming without comment
+ever since I left college."
+
+"All the more reason why you should begin to think of settling down,"
+replied his father testily.
+
+"Settling down?" repeated the son; "what do you want me to do?"
+
+"We will come to that later. The main thing is, that you are to give up
+this notion and remain here with me. If you force me to it I shall
+refuse to give you the money for such an expedition."
+
+"I have some property of my own," Kenneth said, his whole nature rising
+in rebellion.
+
+"You wouldn't be such a fool as to squander that pittance on a pleasure
+trip! Be careful, Kenneth! I am in no mood to be thwarted to-day!"
+
+"Then why do you thwart me? It is not a remarkable thing for a man to
+want to travel," trying to speak calmly, "and I don't see why you should
+take it in this unexpected way--it is unreasonable."
+
+But Mr. Landor, being a quick-tempered man, was beyond reason and had
+too little comprehension of his son to realize that his opposition
+tended to fan into a fixed resolve what had up to this time been only a
+pleasing possibility. There was a stern look about his mouth as he said
+to Kenneth, "You will do as I say, and remain for the present in Radnor.
+I have other plans for you."
+
+As he had never been dictated to in his life, this emphatic order fell
+with considerable astonishment upon Kenneth's ears, even though he knew
+his father to be in an irascible frame of mind. He thought, however,
+that the thing might blow over, as many a quarrel between them had blown
+over, after which, in all these contests of will, the younger man had
+invariably gained the day.
+
+Kenneth was not of an ugly disposition; indeed, his nature was most
+lovable, while his peculiar exemption from responsibility had produced
+an inconsequential, happy-go-lucky attitude toward life that was one of
+his greatest charms. And the selfishness that sometimes cropped out in
+his character was not viciousness, but the natural outcome of
+over-indulgence. It had never occurred to him that his father would make
+any demands upon him, though in a vague, unformed sort of way he
+intended ultimately to make demands upon himself. Just how he should do
+this gave him occasional delightfully introspective moments in which he
+played with possibilities. In his father's eyes that was Kenneth's great
+weakness--that he played with all the abandon of a vagabond; but to
+blame the man for this was a great injustice, since his father had not
+suggested or encouraged his taking up any business or profession, and
+had supplied him with a liberal income dating back to the beginning of
+his college career.
+
+To this indolent, pleasure-loving son, nothing could be in greater
+contrast than the father. Caleb Landor took life hard, but life had been
+hard on him. Born of poor parents in a Maine village, he had been inured
+to poverty from his infancy. His schooling had been meager, and
+sandwiched in between long periods when he was required to lend a hand
+in the saw-mill where his father was employed. But the habit of industry
+thus acquired proved useful, and stimulated his desire to get into the
+world of business, so that he made his way eventually to Radnor, the
+goal of his ambition. Then followed years of hard work and small pay,
+during which the greater part of his earnings went down to the large
+family in the Maine village. At thirty he was looked upon as a man of
+ability; at forty he was a prosperous merchant, with Fortune beckoning
+him on. By all the laws of compensation this should have been his
+turning point to happiness, but he had the misfortune to be married for
+his money at this period of his career, by a frivolous Radnor girl of
+good position, whose beauty turned his head. As after the first months
+of marriage she took no pains to conceal her indifference to him, he
+received a bitter blow, from which he was many years recovering. He was
+spared, however, the anguish of protracted disappointment, for she had
+died in the second year of their marriage, leaving him a baby son. And
+so Caleb, giving all, lost what he had never won.
+
+This episode in his life did not tend to soften a nature somewhat morose
+and caused him to draw more and more within himself, devoting his
+energies to his business, and almost forgetting at times that he was a
+father.
+
+When he did think of Kenneth, it was to realize that he had his mother's
+beauty; but even at an early age there was no indication that he had
+inherited her smallness of mind, for which his father felt devoutly
+grateful, though there were times when he could scarcely bear the boy
+about, so forcibly did his likeness to his mother bring back the past.
+So he left him to grow up among the servants in the dreary house, sent
+him at fourteen to a preparatory school and then to college. He intended
+that Kenneth should have everything he himself had missed. In the matter
+of money it pleased him to provide generously for the lad, who grew to
+manhood the envy and favorite of all his associates, but almost a
+stranger to his father, who was equally a stranger to him. It did not
+occur to Caleb Landor that this was because he had given to the boy
+lavishly of everything except himself.
+
+When the carriage drew up before their door on the evening with which
+this chapter opens, Kenneth sprang out with a feeling of relief and
+turned to help his father. It struck him suddenly that he looked old and
+feeble, which would not be strange, inasmuch as he was fast approaching
+his seventieth birthday, but Kenneth had never been impressed by this
+before.
+
+"You had better take my arm, sir," he said, pleasantly, "the sidewalk is
+slippery to-night."
+
+Mr. Landor refused the proffered aid and went on ahead into the house.
+He had yet to learn that Kenneth could be leaned upon.
+
+Through dinner there was little conversation between them, not from any
+constraint arising out of the recent disagreement, but because each was
+in the habit of carrying on his own inward train of thought without so
+much as a suspicion that the outward expression of it would have been of
+interest to the other. But it would have been of interest. Kenneth often
+wondered what his father's opinions were on the topics of the day and
+many times would have broken the oppressive silence if the idea had not
+become fixed in his mind that his father built up this barrier of
+reserve from choice. It was a natural impression, but a wrong one, and
+led to many misunderstandings, for though he gave his son no
+encouragement to be communicative he secretly longed for his
+companionship and was beginning to feel a need of his presence in the
+house.
+
+Kenneth went to a couple of receptions that evening and looked in at a
+dance later on; but did not remain long, for things of this sort bored
+him, albeit he was very popular in Radnor society.
+
+As he entered the house after midnight he noticed a bright light in his
+father's room. This was so unusual an occurrence that he feared
+something might be wrong and ventured to knock at the door. There was no
+response, which was not reassuring, so he opened the door and walked in.
+In a big chintz-covered chair sat Mr. Landor asleep before the fire. He
+had undressed and was enveloped in a heavy dressing-gown that fell away
+at the neck, disclosing the throat upon which Time lays such relentless
+fingers. He stirred a little and Kenneth was about to leave the room
+satisfied that his father was all right and would probably resent this
+intrusion, when the older man woke with a start, and accosting him in a
+tone more curious than resentful, said, "What are you doing in here?"
+
+"I noticed your light, and thought you might be ill. Is there anything I
+can do for you before I turn in?" replied Kenneth, looking down from the
+height of his six feet upon the shrunken figure of his father.
+
+"Nothing at all, nothing at all," waving him off; "I am reading." He
+picked up the newspaper that had fallen to the floor, and became
+suddenly absorbed in it, after the manner of persons who object to being
+caught napping.
+
+A smile flickered about Kenneth's well-shaped mouth but was properly
+suppressed. There was something pathetic, almost appealing to him
+to-night about his father.
+
+"If you are not in any particular hurry to finish your paper may I stop
+a moment?" he said.
+
+"There is a chair--make yourself comfortable."
+
+"I would like to talk about those plans you spoke of this afternoon,"
+began Kenneth as soon as he was seated. "I wish very much you would tell
+me more about them--what your idea is for my immediate future."
+
+"Where are your own ideas? At twenty-eight a man must have a few." Mr.
+Landor kicked a log impatiently, sending up a shower of sparks.
+
+"We were speaking of your ideas, were we not, sir? Mine can come later."
+
+"So you have some, have you? Good! After all, with your education and
+advantages it is to be expected. But as your ideas are to be kept to
+yourself, so are mine. We will talk no further on this subject."
+
+"We _will_ talk on this subject," said Kenneth, rising and standing with
+head erect and flashing eyes. "I am not a boy, father, as you very well
+know, and I shall not consent to this sort of thing for a moment. If you
+have anything in your mind regarding me it is my right to know it, and
+your duty to tell me. You spoke to-day of my settling down. I have been
+thinking of it a good deal since, and I am inclined to think you are
+right about it; but I would like to know just what you mean--just what
+it is you want me to do."
+
+"Kenneth, I want you around." The words came in a muffled tone that was
+scarcely audible.
+
+"Want me around?" repeated Kenneth incredulously; "why, I thought I
+drove you to desperation with my lazy ways and erratic hours and general
+worthlessness."
+
+"So you do, so you do," gruffly, "but I like it. I like to know you are
+in the house. Stay around, Kenneth and you can have things pretty much
+your own way. We will say no more about settling down to business."
+
+"Oh! that is all right, father; I'll stay." It was a new sensation to
+find that he was wanted. Moved by a sudden impulse he drew near meaning
+to grip his father's hand--the desire was strong within him to get close
+to the old man. But when he neared the chair he turned sharply on his
+heel and crossed to the door, withheld by the habit of years.
+
+Mr. Landor was watching him through half-closed lids, and made no sign.
+
+"Good night, father; glad I found you up. I have something in mind I
+would like to discuss with you later if I am to stay on here."
+
+"Any time, any time. I have leisure enough for anything of importance.
+Come in again some time--good night." His head was turned away as he
+spoke.
+
+"Poor old governor," thought Kenneth, as he went to his room; "I believe
+he is lonely."
+
+When the door had closed, Caleb Landor sat some moments in deep
+meditation. Then he rose and slowly crossed the room to a table on which
+stood a box-shaped rosewood writing-desk curiously inlaid with
+pearl--the most treasured possession of his mother long since dead. This
+he unlocked, and lifting the lid pressed a small knob by means of which
+a secret drawer flew open. In this shallow receptacle lay an oval
+miniature which the man took out and held under the strong light of the
+gas jet. It was the face of a woman, young and very beautiful, and for a
+long while the image held the man transfixed. Once he lifted his head
+suddenly, as if he thought some one was approaching but it was only the
+noise of Kenneth's boots flung upon the floor in an adjoining room. On
+the mantel a clock ticked solemnly, warning him of the flight of time,
+and at last he sighed wearily, and with unsteady hands dropped the
+miniature into its hiding place and locked the desk. For a moment he
+leaned heavily on the table and appeared to be listening, but all was
+still in Kenneth's room. Over the stern impassive features of Caleb
+Landor came a look of yearning tenderness. Then he put out the gas and
+went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Hester never remembered leaving the car or how she got home after the
+fatal catastrophe, but indelibly printed on Julie's mind would always be
+the picture of a wide-eyed breathless girl who rushed in upon her and
+threw a mangled package on the table.
+
+"Oh, my dear! what is the matter?" cried Julie.
+
+But Hester could not speak.
+
+Julie picked up the battered box, disclosing the cake within crushed to
+a pancake. She turned to find Hester's head buried in her arms; the girl
+was sobbing convulsively.
+
+"Never mind, dear," said Julie, stroking her head sympathetically, "it
+would be much worse if you were hurt too."
+
+"I am not crying," the younger girl asserted stoutly; "not crying at
+all." She spoke in short gasps that were strangely like sobs, but Julie
+ignored them. "I am all out of breath from running, that is all, and I
+did not fall, you goose! A woman sat on me!" She broke into a peal of
+hysterical laughter.
+
+It was Julie's turn to be speechless now.
+
+"If she had just sat on _me_ it wouldn't have mattered but she tumbled
+in the car before I knew it and there is the result!" She waved her hand
+tragically toward the table and wiped her eyes.
+
+"We'll make another one right away, dear."
+
+"Of course we will," responded Hester, pulling off her hat and coat and
+flinging them down impatiently; "but it breaks my heart to see such a
+ruin of all our work not to mention the waste of materials!"
+
+  Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall;
+  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
+  And all the king's horses and all the king's men--
+
+sang Julie, suggestively, but was not allowed to finish the ditty, for
+Hester said, with a thump on the table:
+
+"We will put this together again double quick and I will get it to Miss
+Ware before dark, you see if I don't."
+
+"You had better let me go next time, Hester," said Julie, getting out
+the cooking utensils, "you will be tired to death."
+
+"No, I won't; I have undertaken to do this thing, and I'll put it
+through if it takes forever," with which characteristic remark she set
+to work again.
+
+The second effort in the culinary line was, if possible, more successful
+than the first and immediately after their simple lunch of bread and
+milk, Hester set forth again. The storm had ceased, and to the immense
+delight of Peter Snooks, Hester confided to him that she should walk and
+a certain good little dog that she knew should go too. Julie laughed at
+this determination to avoid the car and called her superstitious. She
+laughed, too, but refused to analyze her sensations.
+
+She found Miss Ware, when she was ushered into her presence, in rather
+an aggressive mood, which caused the girl to look on with some
+nervousness as she opened the box and surveyed the loaf critically.
+
+"Umph!" she said, examining it through her lorgnette, "did you do that,
+or Bridget?"
+
+"We did it, Miss Ware. Bridget knows nothing of fancy cooking."
+
+"And you do, it seems. It was an odd trick for a girl to pick up in
+Virginia, and an undesirable one."
+
+"We look at things differently, Miss Ware," Hester said, with
+considerable asperity. "I don't call it undesirable if it proves a way
+of supporting ourselves. I would not choose it--to cook for a
+living--but we've no choice in the matter whatever."
+
+"Your father is very much to blame, Hester. He should have looked after
+your interests better when he saw the crash coming. There was no need
+that you should be left absolutely penniless."
+
+Hester sprang to her feet and confronted Miss Ware like a young tigress.
+"You shall not say such things about Dad. I will not listen--I--"
+
+"Hoighty toighty!" broke in Miss Ware, "what a temper! You will have to
+curb that, my dear Hester, if you expect to get on in the world--as
+cooks!"
+
+The girl flushed crimson, and bit her lip in an effort to regain her
+self-control.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," she faltered. "I--I never knew I had a temper
+before. It's--it's one of the new things I am learning." A sudden mist
+came before her, and drawing near she laid her hand on the older woman
+with an appealing touch. "Don't say unkind things about Daddy, please,
+Miss Ware; they are not true, and I--I can't bear it."
+
+"Let's get to business," said Miss Ware, who dreaded a scene above
+everything. "What do you mean to charge for your cake?"
+
+"Fifty cents." Hester was now quite herself again, and went on rapidly,
+"I want to ask you if you will speak about our work to your friends. I
+know it is asking a great deal under the circumstances, but we are such
+strangers here in Radnor we really do not know any one to ask such a
+favor of but you and Dr. Ware."
+
+"At least you have a champion in him."
+
+Hester's eyes shone. "Next to Dad we love him better than any one in the
+world."
+
+"Then why don't you behave sensibly, and come here and live, and let me
+take you about in society, as I meant to do this winter? I really looked
+forward to chaperoning you and Julie--you're very unusual girls. Now
+give up this nonsense of yours and behave properly."
+
+"Oh, Miss Ware, must we go all over that again? Won't you try to see it
+our way, as--as your brother does? He never even talked of our coming
+here to live, he understands so well that we want to be independent. I
+know we must be a great disappointment to you. Cousin Nancy in Virginia
+feels just as you do, too. Ever so many persons have offered us a home.
+You can't think what beautiful letters we've had from Dad's friends
+through the west. If it were possible to move him we'd go out there to
+try our fortune; there are so many splendid out-of-door kinds of work a
+girl can do in that big country. But Dad can't be moved, and we've got
+to do the best we can right here in Radnor." She spoke convincingly and
+with a certain submissiveness that sat oddly on her young shoulders.
+
+Miss Ware, twisting her rings round on her fingers with a contemplative
+air was wondering where the child got that dignity and poise.
+
+"I've no patience with you whatever," she said finally, after a long
+pause, in which Hester imagined she had been waging an inward conflict.
+"I am wholly out of sympathy with your ideas, but you cannot be allowed
+to starve to death, and if cooking is the height of your ambition--"
+
+"It isn't the height of our ambition," interrupted Hester, for youth is
+impatient of being misunderstood; "it is only the thing that is nearest
+at hand."
+
+"Your education must be sadly deficient," regarding the girl critically.
+"I always told Philip the harum-scarum way you were being brought up was
+perfectly ruinous. If you had gone to school like other girls, you would
+be qualified for some lady-like position."
+
+This was too much for Hester. "You need not trouble to do anything about
+the cake, Miss Ware," she said, proudly, "and I shan't come here again
+to hear my father insulted. And we are not going to starve either," she
+cried, her girlish wrath rising. "We are going to succeed and be a
+credit to the best education in the world!"
+
+She threw back her head and gazed straight into the older woman's eyes
+with a fearless look that was hard to meet. Only the fingers curled
+tight into the palms of her hands, betrayed the mighty effort she was
+making to hold herself in check, and this Miss Ware did not see, for
+Hester's unflinching eyes held her with a strange fascination. In
+another moment the girl had turned and left the room.
+
+For a while after her departure Miss Ware sat motionless like a person
+who has received a shock. Presently she began to toy with her lorgnette,
+dangling it back and forth on its chain with a swinging movement as if
+keeping time to a rhythmic train of thought. This was not, indeed, the
+case, and the action arose from nervousness, for the usual calm
+placidity of her mind was sadly ruffled. She was not in the habit of
+being contradicted, particularly by what she was pleased to call "a
+young person"; but she was one of those women who having said their
+worst, proceed to contradict themselves by an interest in that which
+they have most condemned, and she was now speculating as to whether it
+would not be expedient to take Hester's cake to the meeting of her
+sewing class the following day, and possibly get an order or two there
+for it.
+
+Only a true Radnorite could realize the possibilities that opened up to
+one who was introduced as a subject of discussion at _the_ Sewing Class
+of Radnor. For in the fashionable and exclusive set in which Miss Ware
+had her being it was a function of tremendous importance, with sacred
+rites known only to the initiated. In one another's drawing-rooms, on
+two mornings of the month, forty chosen spirits met to sew for the
+poor--that great, clamorous, all-devouring body from which there is no
+escape. This was ostensibly the purpose; in reality sewing was a minor
+consideration, albeit much work was accomplished. The chief end of its
+existence was to discuss, direct and control the movements of that
+exclusive portion of Radnor society of which it was a part and upon
+which it sat in fortnightly judgment. Following this arduous but
+important morning duty came the luncheon, and it was of that Miss Ware
+was thinking in connection with the cake.
+
+When Hester left Miss Ware she ran down the stairs to the lower hall,
+where she had left Peter Snooks with strict orders to remain until her
+return. There she found him waiting to greet her with joyous caperings
+of delight.
+
+Dr. Ware and a tall, clean-shaven, athletic-looking man came out from
+the office and encountered her.
+
+"Ah, you, Hester?" said the Doctor. "Wait a moment, my dear. I have a
+book here that I want you to take round to read to your father."
+
+He vanished, and the stranger glanced at the girl, hesitated, and then
+stooping patted the dog. "You've a fine fox-terrier," he said in a deep,
+rich voice, looking up.
+
+"We think so," replied Hester, who couldn't for the life of her conceal
+her pleasure at hearing Peter Snooks praised.
+
+At that moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+"Why, Landor," he said, "I beg your pardon; I forgot all about you when
+I saw Hester. That is a way the minx has--of driving everything else out
+of my head. Hester, my dear, this is Kenneth Landor, just up from Texas
+to have a look at effete civilization--you have heard me speak of him
+often--Mr. Landor, Miss Dale."
+
+The young people bowed.
+
+"Don't let him pose as a cowboy or anything interesting like that,"
+continued the Doctor, "for he isn't really--he only plays at things.
+Takes a peep here and there over the continent, and pretends he is this
+and that and the other, as the mood seizes him. A rolling stone, eh,
+Landor?" turning with an affectionate, quizzical look at the man beside
+him.
+
+"Oh! go on, Doctor; pile it on--don't leave me a shred of character. His
+veracity is absolutely unquestioned, of course, Miss Dale?"
+
+"Of course! He has made you interesting already."
+
+The Doctor laughed. "How one's motives are mistaken. That was the last
+thing I meant to do!"
+
+Hester looked up at the Doctor, gleams of mischief in her eyes. "You
+being you," she said, "it couldn't be otherwise." With which ambiguous
+remark she went out the door.
+
+Landor followed her down the steps. "Miss Dale," he asked, "may I walk
+along with you? I fancy I am going your way." Landor's way was usually
+where he chose to make it.
+
+Hester acquiesced simply. She had been accustomed to the society of men
+since she could toddle, and felt no embarrassment in the presence of a
+stranger. Landor noted the free, swinging motion with which she kept
+step with him as they went down the street.
+
+"You are not a true Radnorite," he said abruptly.
+
+"No, I am not. Why?"
+
+"Radnor girls do not walk as you do."
+
+"I am half inclined to believe you are a cowboy, after all, Mr. Landor."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Are we playing twenty questions? You have bad manners, a habit of
+dealing in personalities--we call it impertinence."
+
+"Twenty questions," he repeated, ignoring her rebuke. "Why, I have not
+heard that mentioned for years. It is a favorite game in Radnor, isn't
+it?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," she said wearily; "I know very little about
+Radnor."
+
+"And I less," he said. "I've been away so much of the time. But there
+were certain things taken into my innermost being in my youth, along
+with the air I breathed, I suppose, that no amount of absence will
+eradicate."
+
+"For instance?" she said, with feigned interest, for her mind kept
+wandering off to her recent interview with Miss Ware, and she wished she
+had not allowed him to accompany her.
+
+"Well, the question of residence, you know. The few acres of sacred soil
+in Radnor on which it is permissible to live. I remember as a little boy
+how my nurse only allowed me to play with children whose parents lived
+on the water side of Crana Street or the sunny side of Belton Avenue.
+Any other than those and the streets immediately intersecting was beyond
+the pale of civilization, even to her. It is odd, isn't it?" smiling
+down at her.
+
+"What is odd, the fact or your acceptance of it?" There was a little
+ring in her voice which struck the man's alert ear.
+
+A look of surprise came into his handsome dark face. "Am I walking too
+fast for you, Miss Dale?" he asked, pleasantly.
+
+That was the second time he had put aside a thrust of hers with some
+trifling, irrelevant remark, and it tended to heighten rather than
+soothe her growing irritation.
+
+"I think," she said, stopping abruptly on the corner, "that I shall say
+good morning to you here. I do not happen to live in that sacred
+locality you mention, and I would not for worlds take you beyond the
+pale."
+
+"Miss Dale," he gasped, "you don't think I abide by any such
+nonsense--you are doing me a great injustice. Surely you are not going
+to dismiss me!"
+
+"Yes," she said, smiling, and showing her dimples in a sudden access of
+pleasure at the thought of getting rid of him, "I really believe I am."
+
+He lifted his hat, and stood for some moments on the corner watching her
+vanish from sight. How slender she was, and graceful, and what a sweet
+little smile had accompanied her nod of farewell! Now he thought of it,
+her eyes had queer lights in them, baffling, as if she were laughing at
+him all the time. And her tone was half mocking, too, though he had
+taken it seriously enough in all conscience. Was she serious, or had he
+made an idiot of himself? This latter contingency was not one which
+presented itself with marked frequency to the mind of Kenneth Landor,
+and therefore gave him much food for reflection as the day wore on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"Whom in the world do we know in New Hampshire?" asked Julie one
+morning, glancing askance at an envelope in her hand.
+
+"Suppose you open it and find out," meekly suggested Hester, peeping
+over her shoulder.
+
+"Why, see, it is addressed to us both--it's probably an invitation or
+something."
+
+"It is not," asserted Julie; "I can tell by the look of it. It's--why,
+Hester Dale, it's a fifty dollar bill."
+
+"What?" ejaculated Hester.
+
+"It is, and a note. Think of daring to trust such a thing by mail! Look
+at it yourself."
+
+Hester seized both the bill and the letter, and unfolding the latter
+found the following mysterious communication in typewriting:
+
+  "From one some love to those one loves, Greetings:
+
+  "A conspiracy having been formed for the purpose of circumventing
+  fate, the initial step is herewith taken in the form of the enclosed
+  paltry bill, intending it to be the forerunner of many a happy hour
+  in which, though absent, will be ever present
+
+                                               "The Arch-Conspirator."
+
+"Whoever could have done such a thing?" queried Hester in astonishment,
+"Dr. Ware?"
+
+"No, I don't think so, though he might--is capable of doing anything.
+But, Hester, just think of it--fifty dollars! Why, it is almost a
+fortune!"
+
+"I should think it was, and it is the kindest, most generous thing I
+ever heard of. It couldn't be from Virginia, could it?"
+
+"I don't believe so, Hester. Cousin Nancy disapproves of us too much to
+do such a thing. I think it is from some one who loves Daddy and feels
+sorry for us all, and takes this way of showing it. Oh, how good people
+are!"
+
+"Some people," corrected Hester.
+
+"If it had come from almost any other place than New Hampshire it
+wouldn't be quite so puzzling," said Julie. "I am sure we don't know a
+soul in the whole state."
+
+"Well, I say let's stop guessing and be thankful we have it," advised
+Hester. "It is some one who does not want to be known, and I don't
+suppose we really ought to try to guess, but I just hope we will get a
+chance sometime to do something for that somebody, whoever he is. You
+can see the person has had great fun doing it, by the way it is written,
+Julie."
+
+"Yes." softly, still puzzling over the unexpected windfall.
+
+"You've got another letter in your lap, Julie. Have you forgotten its
+existence? It looks like Nannie's writing--do read it aloud."
+
+Julie took up the forgotten letter, and opening it began:
+
+  "My Sweetest, Preciousest Girls" (Isn't that just like Nan?) "You
+  owe me a letter, both of you; but it's such ages since we've heard
+  that I just can't wait any longer. I'm _so_ afraid mummie's last
+  letter hurt you, though I wrote you at the time just not to mind
+  anything she said. She was awfully cross and put out for several
+  days, but father and I played backgammon with her until we actually
+  played her into a good humor--you know how she'd play backgammon
+  until she couldn't sit up another minute; and I know she loves you
+  girls nearly as much as she does me, though she sputters away about
+  you now and then; but that is just mummie's way.
+
+  "How I do wish you were here! I say that a dozen times a day, and
+  whenever father hears me he says you will be, sometime. He's got
+  just the loveliest scheme for bringing you all down here on a visit,
+  since you're so proud and haughty and won't come and live with us! I
+  shan't tell you a thing about it but you just wait until dear Cousin
+  Dale gets better, and then you'll see!"
+
+Julie's voice got suspiciously husky here, and it was a moment before
+she went on:
+
+  "We'll have the grandest old times that ever happened, just like we
+  did when you were here before.
+
+  "Do you know I'd almost forgotten to tell you the thing I began this
+  letter for--my birthday party. I know you want to hear about it! It
+  was a surprise party, and such fun! To begin with, it was such a
+  pretty day that I wanted to be out every minute, so I took a long
+  ride with father in the morning, and spent most of the afternoon in
+  the pasture with George Washington, he and I trying to do tricks on
+  Gypsie the way you did, Hester. I said we were _on_ Gypsie, but it
+  was mostly _off_, for she didn't take to our circus performance at
+  all and threw me twice, way over her head, and George Washington no
+  end of times. He just loved it, and capered around and grinned and
+  made absurd remarks until my sides ached with laughing. Just as I
+  was actually succeeding in standing upon Gyp bareback, mummie spied
+  me from her window, and of course that put an end to everything. She
+  said she saw no reason why I should celebrate my eighteenth birthday
+  by breaking my neck, and I expect she was right--but oh, it was fun!
+
+  "When I came in to dress for supper, father called me one side and
+  told me to put on my pink organdie (the one you liked so much, you
+  know), because it would please mummie; so I did and mummie wore her
+  claret-colored velvet and I picked two of my pet pink roses--one for
+  Mummie's hair and the other for father's buttonhole, and we all
+  looked very gay and festive and I thought it was lovely to be
+  eighteen, especially as mummie had given me that beautiful pearl
+  ring of hers which she always said I should have when I was a young
+  lady.
+
+  "Well, about nine o'clock, when mummie and I were in the midst of a
+  game of backgammon, there was a crunching noise out in the driveway
+  and I thought some one was coming to call. Then I heard laughter and
+  a lot of people talking, and father went to the door, and let in a
+  whole crowd calling for me. I was too surprised to understand, even
+  when father explained that the neighborhood was giving me a surprise
+  party. (I found out afterward, girls, that he got up the whole
+  thing--he vowed them all to secrecy, because he didn't want me to
+  know he had a hand in it, but Lillie Blake told me--Lil never has
+  secrets from me.)
+
+  "Well, we danced in the big hall most of the evening, while the
+  older people played cards, and we did have a jolly time, and there
+  was a stranger here--he was staying with the Blakes and you'd never
+  guess where he's from--Radnor! He's very fascinating, but he's
+  old--he must be at least thirty! I know that wouldn't seem old to
+  you, but it does to me, and I felt very shy with him at first until
+  I found out he came from Radnor, and then I just pelted him with
+  questions about you, and he didn't know you at all! I could have
+  wept! But I talked on about you just the same, and I was dying to
+  tell him about your work, for I think it's so noble of you, but
+  mummie has forbidden my mentioning it to any one, and, of course, I
+  wouldn't disobey her. He got the ring in my birthday cake, girls;
+  wasn't that the funniest thing? Lillie Blake teased him to give it
+  to her, but he wouldn't, and slipped it in his pocket out of sight.
+  I know he enjoyed hearing me talk about you, because he stayed with
+  me a good part of the evening, and Teddie Carroll got cross and
+  sulked in the corner. Isn't he the silliest thing?
+
+  "Good-by, you old darlings, and don't forget your little cousin,
+
+                                                             "Nannie."
+
+Julie smiled as she put down the letter. "Isn't she a darling, Hester? I
+don't wonder they call her 'Kitten,' she purrs so. And she's so
+ingenuous! Imagine her thinking that a man stayed about with her because
+she talked about us. He evidently took a fancy to her--the dear little
+thing! I wonder who he was."
+
+"She has forgotten to mention his name," said Hester, "but it does not
+much matter. Come, Julie, we must switch our thoughts up from Virginia,
+or we'll never get to work to-day."
+
+Julie went over to a shelf and stuck the two letters behind a clock. "It
+is an inspiration to work," she said, "when we know people are thinking
+of us and loving us. That money, dear, is a godsend. We had scarcely
+enough left to market another day."
+
+Julie, who was self-appointed buyer, had been racking her brains to know
+how they should get through another day without running into debt--a
+contingency of which they had a horror. They had stopped all their
+father's accounts and were unanimous in agreeing that they would go
+without that for which they could not pay cash. Accordingly they went
+without a great deal.
+
+In her first experience of marketing Julie was aghast to find that meats
+which she regarded as a common necessity cost so much that she was
+forced to act upon the butcher's suggestion that it was "stew meat" she
+wanted. It was _not_ what she wanted, but she took it meekly and ate it
+with pretended relish, for Bridget took pride in serving a genuine Irish
+stew.
+
+It was characteristic of the Dales that they never did things by halves,
+and they threw themselves with tremendous energy into their work, which
+was developing, though still slowly. Orders for wine jelly and cake came
+in from people unknown to them, and they knew that Dr. Ware's influence
+was working for their good. Miss Ware, too, though outwardly
+antagonistic, had carried out her intention of taking Hester's cake to
+the Sewing Class, with the result that the hostess of the next meeting
+had ordered all her cake from them for that occasion.
+
+This order they were getting to work on now, and Julie remarked that she
+wished white cake were not so much in demand, for the continued increase
+of left-over yolks was appalling.
+
+"Bridget has made them into omelette at least twice a day lately, until
+it seems to me I can't stand the sight of them, Hester. And the more we
+have to make frosting the worse it gets. Either we've got to throw them
+away in rank extravagance or keep on eating them and die. I wish we
+could think of something to do with them!"
+
+"If we only could afford to buy oil, Bridget would make us some
+salad-dressing."
+
+"But we can't afford it. Poor Bridget, that is her one accomplishment.
+She says she learned it from mamma, who was famous for it."
+
+"Good gracious, Julie!" the practical Hester ejaculated, "don't take to
+'reminiscing' with that far-away look in your eyes. You'll be weighing
+salt instead of sugar."
+
+"I am not 'reminiscing'--I am thinking. Why can't we make mayonnaise and
+sell it?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"Don't drop dead with astonishment, you chief cook and bottle-washer,
+because _I_ have an idea. What do you think of it?"
+
+"Ye gods, but wouldn't that be a scheme! Bridget could teach us--you
+know how Daddy's friends always said they never got such salads at any
+other table!"
+
+"Don't 'reminisce,' my dear."
+
+"We'll get the grocers to sell it," disdaining to notice the pretended
+rebuke, "just as they do pickles and things. We'll put it up in nice
+bottles, and----"
+
+"Wouldn't it be rather clever to learn how to make it first?"
+interrupting this flight into future possibilities.
+
+"Bridget, Bridget, come here!" called Hester.
+
+Bridget, who was brushing up the sick-room, came down the little hall
+and entered the kitchen.
+
+"Do you see all those?" cried Hester, pointing to a bowl full of yolks
+standing on the table. "Now if you had your own way, what would you do
+with them?'
+
+"Make 'em into mayonnaise, miss."
+
+"Of course you would, you extravagant creature! Well, that is just what
+we want you to do. Tell her, Julie--it is your scheme."
+
+An amazed and delighted Bridget heard the girl unfold her plan.
+
+"Shure it's a wonder yez are, Miss Julie, the two of yez, an' my
+dressin' can't be beat. Could I be after showin' yez how this mornin'?"
+
+"I'll go straight into the grocery now and get a bottle of oil,"
+exclaimed Julie, and calling Peter Snooks, she was off in five minutes.
+
+She noticed as she went down the stairs that the door of the apartment
+underneath them was ajar, and to her astonishment Peter Snooks, that
+most well-behaved of dogs, thrust his nose into the crack and vanished.
+
+She stood a moment irresolute; then called peremptorily: "Snooks, Peter
+Snooks! come here this minute!"
+
+No dog appeared, and she was about to raise her voice for the second
+time when from the darkness of the inner hall she heard some one
+say--"Do you mind coming in just a minute? Your little dog is making
+friends with me, and I can't come to you."
+
+She followed the voice to the front room, where a boy lay in a wheeled
+chair, while beside him sat Peter Snooks on his hind legs, putting out
+his paw to shake hands in his most approved manner. At sight of his
+mistress he curled his tail under and crawled to her guiltily. "Don't
+scold him, please," said the boy; "it's my fault. I've been wanting to
+know him this ever so long."
+
+There was something so appealing in the boy's voice and so penitent in
+the way Peter Snooks looked up at her that she patted the little rascal,
+and said brightly:
+
+"I never knew him to play truant before; but if you and he have made
+friends I shan't apologize for his intrusion or mine."
+
+"Oh no! don't," said the boy. "I've watched you from the window ever
+since you came here to live, and I feel somehow as if I sort of knew
+you."
+
+"Are you ill?" she asked, gently.
+
+"Broke my hip two months ago," he said. "It's a long time mending."
+
+"Oh! I am so sorry--I know how hard it must be--my father is--is ill,
+too." She never could bring herself to put into words her father's
+actual condition.
+
+"I wish you would sit down," the boy said. "Mother may be in any moment.
+You can't think how it cheers a fellow up to see somebody." He spoke
+hesitatingly, as if he feared to show too great pleasure lest he give
+her offense.
+
+"I can't stop, thank you," said Julie, suddenly remembering her errand,
+"but if you are lonely and would like to have me, I will leave Peter
+Snooks awhile with you--he's no end of company."
+
+"Oh! would you, really?" The boy's eyes glistened. "I wish mother were
+here; she'd know how to--to thank you."
+
+At that moment a small, frail woman, gowned in black, entered the room.
+
+"Why, mother," exclaimed the boy, turning to her a flushed, eager face,
+"I was just wishing for you. This is the young lady that lives upstairs,
+you know."
+
+"How do you do?" the woman said, holding out her hand with quaint
+simplicity, neither face nor manner betraying any surprise at finding
+Julie there. "You are Miss Dale, are you not? I am Mrs. Grahame. It was
+kind of you to come in and see Jack."
+
+"My little dog ran in here, and I followed in search of him and found
+your son," Julie explained. "I really did not intend to be intrusive."
+
+"It is a great pleasure to see you." The older woman smiled at her. "You
+must pardon the seeming liberty, but Jack and I have long been
+acquainted with you. You see I am at work down-town most of the day, and
+the boy spends long hours by the window watching his neighbors go in and
+out, and he amuses himself by weaving little stories about them until he
+comes to regard them as personal friends."
+
+Jack dropped his eyes. "You'll think I'm the one who's intrusive," he
+said.
+
+"I do not think anything of the kind," replied Julie; "I think it is a
+very clever, happy idea." She went over to the chair and called the dog
+up in his lap. "Mrs. Grahame," she said, "if you are not too busy, will
+you come up some evening and see us? We are working girls, and we have
+an invalid father, and we don't expect to pay visits, but I would like
+to come down here again, if I may, and bring my sister. Your son would
+weave the most beautiful stories in the world if he really knew Hester."
+
+"Thank you for suggesting so much happiness for my boy," said Mrs.
+Grahame, earnestly. "You make me want to go to see you immediately."
+
+Just as Hester's lively imagination was picturing all sorts of
+calamities which might have overtaken her sister, that individual came
+hurriedly in with a bottle of salad oil in her hand.
+
+"Well, where on earth have you been?" cried Hester; "I thought you must
+have dropped dead or been kidnaped or something fearful."
+
+"Was I so long? I am sorry, dear, but you see I made a call en route."
+
+"A call! who ever heard of such a thing! Where is Peter Snooks?"
+suddenly missing him.
+
+"He is finishing the visit for me." Julie laughed with a provokingly
+mysterious air.
+
+Hester, who had been working on alone and diving her head into a hot
+oven every five minutes to anxiously watch the evolution of bothersome
+little dabs of thin dough into small puffy cakes, was feeling decidedly
+cross and resented her sister's apparent indifference to the business at
+hand.
+
+"Well, I'm glad if _you_ have time to gad about," she said, witheringly.
+"I _thought_ we were going to take a lesson in making mayonnaise."
+
+"You goose!" exclaimed Julie, pushing her away from the hot oven and
+herself kneeling down to peer in. "I'll watch these cakes--you sit down
+and draw a breath and the cork of the oil at the same time, while I tell
+you what happened."
+
+Somewhat mollified, Hester obeyed, and even deigned to show interest
+when Julie graphically described their neighbors.
+
+"Wasn't it odd, Hester, just walking right into the midst of things like
+that? And the boy was so pathetic, and his mother was so quaint, with
+such a sweet face and pretty, wavy hair, and I only stayed a moment,
+dear, really, for all the time I knew you'd be wondering what had become
+of me."
+
+"Well, all I've got to say is," remarked Hester, with decided emphasis,
+"that if you were willing to leave Peter Snooks with them, they must be
+very remarkable people indeed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The weeks passed rapidly to the young workers, who found each day full
+of experiments, sometimes developing into satisfactory results and again
+filled with bitter discouragement. There were days when the battle for
+existence threatened to overweigh and submerge them; days when from
+morning till night their work seemed possessed by evil demons, and
+everything went wrong; days when despair tugged at their hearts, and the
+old happy life forced itself in upon their thoughts with clamorous
+persistence. And ah! how they felt the sorrow of their father's
+helplessness, the loss of his companionship causing an ache that nothing
+could assuage! But through it all they fought their way, upheld by the
+longing to show a spirit worthy of their father's daughters, sustained
+by the consciousness that by their own endeavor they were "making a home
+for Dad." This was the dominant note of the new life--like a bugle-call
+stirring them to action!
+
+Julie, who had been reading aloud to her father one day, suddenly went
+into the next room to find Hester, and exclaimed, "Thackeray says, 'I
+would not curse my fortune--I'd make it!' I think that's great, Hester!
+We'll take it for a motto." And by that motto ever after they abided.
+
+Mr. Dale had not awakened to any definite consciousness of his
+condition, as Dr. Ware had anticipated, but remained in a passive,
+tranquil state, taking little heed and no part in any conversation,
+though his face brightened perceptibly whenever any one entered the
+room. Much of the day he slept, but during his waking hours one of the
+girls was constantly with him, hovering about with a tender protective
+air.
+
+Dr. Ware, who devoted all his spare time to his old friend, was a
+frequent and most welcome visitor. He was a man of distinguished
+presence, tall and well-knit, with the military bearing of a soldier and
+some ten years younger than Mr. Dale, although they had served in the
+War of the Rebellion together. Streaks of gray showed plentifully in his
+hair and pointed beard, throwing into greater contrast his black brows
+and blue-black eyes, while his face was marked with strong lines
+indicative of character. It was an interesting face and one that
+inspired immediate confidence, and in addition there was about him an
+indefinable charm which made itself felt both professionally and
+socially, so that there was not a more popular man in Radnor. This was
+perhaps an unusual position for a man of strong convictions, expressed
+fearlessly and freely on all subjects. To be thoroughly popular commonly
+requires an adaptable temperament not compatible with strong
+individuality.
+
+He watched over "his girls" as he called them, with affectionate
+solicitude mingled with an admiration and respect which knew no bounds.
+"They are going to succeed," he would frequently say to himself after
+leaving them, "every failure only makes them more determined--it's fine
+to watch the growth of such spirit." And then he would drive off on his
+round of visits with a preoccupied air and vague longings would steal in
+upon him, softening the lines about his mouth and eyes and lingering
+deliciously in his mind even after he had roused himself impatiently
+from such day-dreams.
+
+The girls' experiments in making mayonnaise resulted in Julie's screwing
+up her courage one day and going to the leading grocery of Radnor. She
+asked for the proprietor and laid before him her scheme, at the same
+time showing him a sample of the mayonnaise. Poor Julie, who did not
+know what it meant to cry her wares in open market, felt very
+uncomfortable and flushed quite red as she talked; but she struggled to
+overcome her timidity and succeeded in interesting the man, who told her
+to leave her sample for him to try at home and gave her some valuable
+information about putting up such an article in the regulation form,
+suggesting that she follow his directions and bring in the mayonnaise
+again, bottled and labeled for his inspection.
+
+Busy days those were indeed in "The Hustle," for in addition to trying
+varieties of cake, the mayonnaise suggested making salads and one thing
+led to another with surprising rapidity.
+
+It gradually began to be recognized in Radnor that if one wanted any
+delicacy in the way of fancy cooking, one should order it from "those
+Dale girls," and this recognition was in no small part due to Mrs.
+Lennox, the President of _the_ Sewing Class. It was she who had sent
+them their first order and shown a marked interest in their work which
+was not without its immediate effect, for people occupied in their
+relation to Mrs. Lennox a position similar to that of "Mary's little
+lamb." Mrs. Lennox was a beautiful woman and in the fashionable world
+her word was law; but society amused rather than interested her, and her
+keen intellect and strong individuality led her into devious paths.
+Above all she was a philanthropist in that broad and humanitarian sense
+which sees promise in all gradations of men and women.
+
+She followed her first order to the girls with a second by mail; then a
+little correspondence ensued, in which she suggested their sending her
+any new thing they might be trying. A few weeks later she "blew over,"
+as she expressed it, and said in her charming way to Julie, as if she
+had known her intimately for years:
+
+"My dear, are you busy enough?"
+
+"No indeed, Mrs. Lennox, we never could be busy enough--we want to do so
+much."
+
+"So I thought." She threw back her furs and unclasping a big bunch of
+violets tossed them into the girl's lap. "You like them, don't you? So
+do I. I adore violets. I am raising white ones now and I will send you
+over some if I may."
+
+"Oh, how good of you! Daddy loves them too. We always used to have
+flowers wherever we were and we do miss them so. I don't see how you
+suspected it, Mrs. Lennox."
+
+"I am rather keen about human nature, my dear, and it occurs to me that
+even though you do cook, you may have a love and longing for the
+beautiful."
+
+Julie smiled. It was so comfortable to talk with some one who understood
+them. "Miss Ware would not agree with you," she said. "She considers us
+lost to the finer things, beyond redemption. She dislikes us, you know,
+and we never go there; but she comes here sometimes and asks us all
+sorts of questions and wants to know about our recipes and things as if
+we could not comprehend any other subject. Hester calls it 'talking
+shop' and we hate it--not the work but the being excluded from other
+things."
+
+"I understand perfectly. Miss Ware is a bit, well, narrow, like most
+Radnor people. So you are not busy enough?" eyeing her curiously; "well
+then, I have a suggestion. If you want to cater for the town, send out
+cards."
+
+Julie gasped. "Business cards, you mean, soliciting orders?"
+
+"Exactly. You do a variety of things already--think up and experiment
+with more until you get an imposing little list, have cards printed and
+send them about--at least five hundred, I should say. Radnor is a large
+place and cliquey--there must be numbers of persons unknown to me who
+have never heard of you girls, yet would be likely to give you their
+custom. If my name on the cards by way of indorsement would be of any
+advantage, you are more than welcome to use it."
+
+"Oh! thank you, of course it would be a great advantage, Mrs. Lennox,
+for no one knows us at all, you see. I'm--I'm dazed by your idea--it
+seems so pretentious--so bold to advertise ourselves. I don't believe we
+should ever have thought of it, but it _is_ the thing to do."
+
+"Decidedly. I know something about business and you have one of the most
+necessary qualifications for success--indefatigable zeal--and I want to
+push you along. But you must not overtax your strength. I suppose you
+have heard that before, eh, Miss Dale?" She laughed musically. "No doubt
+kindly disposed persons come here to leave orders and tell you not to
+work too hard."
+
+"Yes, they do," Julie earnestly replied. "I wish they would not. Just as
+if we did not have to work with all our might and main, and it is not
+easy--always."
+
+"Easy! I should think not!" Mrs. Lennox rose and smiled into Julie's
+grave eyes as she held out her hand to say good-by. "I am going now, but
+I want to come again and meet your sister too. May I? I should so like
+to know you and be your friend."
+
+Julie impulsively kissed her. "It is so good to find some one who wants
+to know us--in spite of everything," she faltered.
+
+"It is because of everything, my dear," giving the girl an impetuous
+little hug. Which demonstration would greatly have astonished the smart
+set of Radnor to whom this side of their leader was unknown and
+unsuspected.
+
+It was about this time that the girls got the mayonnaise put up to their
+satisfaction, for innumerable perplexities had arisen in the matter of
+suitable bottles, corks and labels. When finally Julie had submitted the
+result to the grocer and that all-powerful man had ordered a dozen
+bottles to sell on commission, the girls felt that they were working to
+some purpose, and a glow akin to honest pride surged in their hearts.
+But the sensation swelled to overwhelming proportions when late one
+afternoon Julie, passing the store, spied in the great show-window a
+group of their bottles standing boldly alongside the firm's best fancy
+articles. She gasped, scarcely daring to look at them, and rushed home
+to tell Hester.
+
+But when she got home she did not tell Hester. Instead she said: "Put on
+your things and come out before it grows dark--the air will do you
+good."
+
+"Can't," said Hester, deep in a book, "I'm too tired to move."
+
+"I want to show you something."
+
+"Where?" reading on.
+
+"In a shop window."
+
+"Julie Dale, what's the matter?" she exclaimed, dropping her book. "I'm
+sure you've got a crazy look about you--your hat's on crooked!"
+
+"I don't care, I think you would want to throw _your_ hat in the air if
+you had seen it!"
+
+"Seen what? A shop window? I hate them--they're just full of tantalizing
+things one wants and can't have!"
+
+"Well, this isn't--or perhaps it is--I am sure I don't know, but I came
+way back after you and oh! do come."
+
+"You are responsible for great expectations," said Hester, reluctantly
+getting up from the bed. "I call it a most unchristian act to rout me
+out like this."
+
+But she took another view of it when she found herself out in the brisk
+wintry air, and she caught some of the exhilaration of her sister's gay
+spirits as they went along, Peter Snooks racing wildly about them.
+
+When they approached the window of the grocery Julie's heart beat
+rapidly in anticipation of Hester's surprise. As they reached it she
+suddenly pulled her arm and led her close to the window. "Look!" she
+said excitedly but in a low voice, for many persons were passing and
+some few stood near them.
+
+There it was, the mayonnaise into which they had put their best
+endeavor, standing in so conspicuous a place that it could not fail to
+attract the attention of the passers-by.
+
+"New thing, that mayonnaise, isn't it?" they heard a man say to his
+companion, "well put up--let's go in and look at it."
+
+Hester gazed speechless into the window, her eyes nearly bulging out of
+her head.
+
+"Would you ever have believed it!" whispered Julie, poking her. "Let's
+wait," as she saw a clerk lean into the window and take down a bottle,
+"let's wait and see if those people buy it."
+
+"No we won't," said Hester, finding her voice at last. She clutched her
+sister's arm convulsively. "We'll go straight home before I scream with
+joy right here on the corner."
+
+"You don't like shop windows, do you?" said Julie with a happy laugh.
+
+In the exuberance of their spirits and with a desire to impart the good
+news to their neighbors, whom they now counted as friends, the girls
+stopped at the Grahame's on their way upstairs.
+
+"Jack," exclaimed Hester the impetuous, "Jack, what do you suppose has
+happened?"
+
+"By the look of you I should say you'd inherited a fortune."
+
+"Pouf!" disdainfully, "that is commonplace." She clapped her hands
+together while her eyes danced merrily. "Try again, Jack."
+
+"May I have a guess, Miss Dale?" said a voice that made the girl start,
+while a long, lazy form emerged from the corner.
+
+Hester's manner changed instantly, and her eyes sought Jack's
+questioningly, as if she were asking some explanation. Then she turned
+to the man who stood quietly watching her.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Landor?" she said with a stiff little formality that
+was unlike Hester, "I did not know you and Jack were friends."
+
+"May I be presented?" asked Julie, coming forward; "I seem to be quite
+out of it."
+
+Jack from his chair in his capacity of host performed the introduction.
+
+"Will _you_ let me guess?" said the man, addressing Julie as if there
+had been no interruption. "Your sister refuses to answer me."
+
+"You certainly will not let him guess," promptly replied Hester.
+"Curiosity is a shockingly reprehensible trait and besides," with a
+little toss of her head, "our affairs cannot possibly be of interest to
+Mr. Landor."
+
+The man flushed and picked up his hat. "I am off, old fellow," he said
+to Jack. "I'll be in again before a great while."
+
+"Oh, don't let us drive you away, please, Mr. Landor," protested Julie,
+who was secretly marveling over that cool little sarcastic voice which
+she had scarcely recognized as Hester's. "We had only a moment to stop
+and we can come down again any time; we know what a great pleasure it is
+to Jack to have visitors, don't we, Hester?"
+
+Julie had her hand on the door.
+
+[Illustration: "MAY I HAVE A GUESS, MISS DALE?"]
+
+"You will do what she asks, I am sure, Mr. Landor," said Hester. It did
+not escape him that she shifted the responsibility to her sister. "Julie
+always arranges things perfectly. We really should be at home this very
+minute." And waving her hand at the astonished Jack, she followed in the
+wake of her sister.
+
+"Hester," exclaimed Julie, in the seclusion of their own apartment,
+"what made you so rude to Mr. Landor? I never heard you speak like that
+to any one before."
+
+"Oh! Julie," cried the younger girl, flinging herself down in a chair,
+"I've the most disgusting, beastly temper!"
+
+"You've nothing of the sort!" denied her sister indignantly.
+
+"I have. You don't know anything about it, it's--it's just developing. I
+get all hot inside; sometimes it breaks out the way it did at Miss
+Ware's and to-day it made me nasty and sarcastic. I've always hated
+sarcastic people!"
+
+"What has Mr. Landor done, dear, to make you dislike him so? I thought
+he seemed most charming and agreeable."
+
+"Did you?" indifferently, leaning back in her chair. Suddenly she sat
+bolt upright and exclaimed vehemently, "Julie Dale, if you dare to take
+to singing his praises as Dr. Ware does I'll--I'll--well, I don't know
+what I'll do! I hate him, with his smiling, masterful air and his prying
+into affairs which are none of his business." (This seemed rather strong
+language, but Julie did not interrupt her.) "He is an idle society man
+and we are hard-working girls. He has nothing in common with us
+whatever. We've no use for men, anyway--they don't belong to the sort of
+life we live, they--they don't fit into our scheme of things. Rather
+neat, that last phrase, eh, Julie? Read it in a book." As usual,
+Hester's outburst ended in a laugh.
+
+"Are you twenty years old," said Julie stooping down to kiss the flushed
+face, "or two hundred, Hester?"
+
+"I'm an end-of-the-century idiot, that's what I am!" she replied,
+pulling Julie over to give her a suffocating hug. Then in that
+irrelevant fashion so characteristic of her she threw back her head and
+sniffed the air suspiciously.
+
+"Julie!"
+
+But Julie had slipped away.
+
+Hester chased her into the little dining-room. "Julie Dale! do I smell
+steak?" Hester's nostrils fairly quivered.
+
+"You do. I plunged into that wild extravagance on the strength of the
+mayonnaise, and I don't care what you say!"
+
+"Say!" gasped Hester as Bridget brought in this unheard of luxury, "I
+only want to eat!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+"I'm sorry, old fellow."
+
+"Sorry for what, Mr. Landor?"
+
+"To have driven your little friends away. They evidently had some good
+news to tell you."
+
+"Oh! that's all right," said Jack cheerily, "it will keep, you know, and
+they were in a hurry--they said they could only stop a moment." Jack was
+puzzling his young brain over their abrupt departure, but his loyalty to
+all three friends made him wish to hide from Landor the fact that he was
+apparently the cause. "I'm so sorry they _were_ in a hurry," he
+continued, "for I'm always wishing you knew one another--you'd get on
+like a house afire."
+
+"Should we, Jack? I don't know. Recent events don't seem to prove it, do
+they?" laughing good-naturedly.
+
+"Oh! that doesn't count. You just wait until some day when they have
+more time--I don't know when that'll be, though, for they're regular
+hustlers. What do you suppose?" confidentially. "They call their flat
+'The Hustle'--isn't that great?"
+
+"I should say so--it sounds enterprising."
+
+"They named it after the private car they used to live in--they've told
+me all about it. Gee! wouldn't I like to get aboard of her once! She
+must have been a beauty!"
+
+"What became of the car? Did you ever happen to hear, Jack?"
+
+"It's out west somewhere--some railroad's got it, I think, but I'm not
+sure. They never spoke of it but once--I could see it went kind of hard
+talking about it, though Miss Hester laughed and joked about its being
+they who did the hustling now, instead of the car. It must be fine to be
+rich and travel all around," exclaimed the boy, "but I'd hate to have
+had it and then have to give it all up the way they have. Say, Mr.
+Landor, shall I tell you something?" He clasped the arms of the
+reclining chair with his thin hands and drew himself up to a sitting
+posture.
+
+Landor nodded and drew his seat closer. He encouraged the boy in his
+confidences.
+
+"I slumped the other night--clean went all to pieces. I'm fourteen, you
+know, but if I'd been four I couldn't have acted more kiddish. Mother
+was out and I'd been thinking how I wanted to go to college and
+couldn't, because mother can't afford it, and how I wanted to travel
+around and couldn't, and how I even wanted to walk and couldn't--not for
+a long time yet--and I just lay here and thought there wasn't much sense
+in getting any better anyway--I'd just have to go back and be nothing
+better than an office boy where I was before I got hurt and--"
+
+"And you succeeded in working yourself up into a fine frenzy of
+discontent, didn't you, Jack? I understand, my boy. We all have our
+rebellious moments."
+
+"I was crying like a baby when Miss Julie came in."
+
+"Poor old Jack," patting his hand sympathetically.
+
+"Poor nothing!" exclaimed the boy in a tone of infinite disgust, "it
+makes me hot all over to think about it and that wasn't the worst! I
+_kept on_ crying." Jack's honest nature was abasing itself before his
+friend. "I kept on crying till she shamed me out of it."
+
+Landor did not speak, feeling silence at that moment would better
+harmonize with the boy's mood. Jack and he understood each other, and
+the boy feeling his sympathetic interest drew a long breath and went on
+again.
+
+"She made me tell her all about it and I felt so cut up and blue that I
+said a lot of things I didn't mean and I told her it was easy enough for
+her to be brave--she didn't know what it was to lie still and perhaps be
+crippled all your life--the doctor can't tell. _Think of my telling her
+that!_" The boy shuddered. "I believe if I'd struck her, Mr. Landor, I
+couldn't have hurt her more, for there's her father, you see, a million
+times worse off than I am, and I'd forgotten all about him."
+
+Landor pushed back his chair and as if he found action of some kind
+necessary paced the room quietly while the boy talked on.
+
+"Her face got so white and her eyes got so dark that it frightened me,
+but do you know what she did? I was lying on the couch and she came over
+and knelt down beside me and talked to me a long time about her father."
+Jack's voice was awed and Landor's hands went deeper down into his
+pockets--a way he had when he was moved.
+
+"She called him 'Daddy' and you could see just the way she said it that
+she worshiped him, and she told me that when you loved a person very
+much it was harder to see him stricken down than if you were ill and
+helpless yourself. I hadn't thought of that, but it must be so, mustn't
+it, Mr. Landor?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, it must be so." No cloud had ever darkened Kenneth Landor's
+pleasure-loving, pleasure-giving life.
+
+"Then she told me that she wasn't brave really. That many a night she
+cried herself to sleep because she was heart-broken about her father and
+discouraged about their work and tired. I think she just told me that so
+I wouldn't feel as if I were a coward because I cried too. I'd stopped
+by that time, I can tell you! And then she said she wanted me to help
+her and her sister be bright and jolly by being bright and jolly, too.
+That made me laugh--to think I could help them! We both laughed and I
+felt better. After that she talked a long time about trouble and how it
+came to some people very young and how it was a sort of test--did you
+ever think of that, Mr. Landor?" gazing earnestly into the man's face.
+
+"No, Jack, there are many things I have never thought of!"
+
+"You would if you knew them, you couldn't help it. She wasn't a bit
+preachy--I hate that--but she said the way we took things showed the
+kind of characters we had and when we got discouraged we must just
+remember we were soldiers--Christ's soldiers--that's what she said." The
+boy's voice sank to a whisper. "And that no soldier amounted to shucks
+till he was knocked about and disciplined and taught to obey his
+superiors."
+
+"That is the truth, my boy." In his heart Landor was marveling at what
+he heard.
+
+"And do you know what, Mr. Landor? I'm going to march in the ranks
+too--a double-quick step to try to catch up with them and if ever I do
+catch up and can march alongside of them, won't I be proud, just!"
+Julie's little sermon had sunk deep into his receptive mind and kindled
+his imagination to deeds of valor like some knight of old. He leaned
+back on his cushions exhausted by this unusual talk, his frail body in
+pitiful contrast to the strength of the spirit that had awakened within
+him and glowed in his face with a transfiguring light.
+
+Landor came over to his chair and took his hand in a grip that hurt. "I
+am going to enter the ranks too, old fellow," said he, carrying out the
+illusion partly to please the boy's fancy and partly because he had
+never before been so in earnest in his life.
+
+"You!" said the boy, to whom Landor was a hero, "you don't have to
+fight--why you can kill buffaloes and Indians and everything!"
+
+Landor smiled. "Perhaps I have more dangerous foes nearer at hand, Jack.
+Who knows? Well, I must be going. Shall I lift you onto the couch
+first?"
+
+Jack always enjoyed the feeling of Landor's strong arms about him and
+gave the man a grateful look as he was laid gently down. The couch was
+in reality Jack's bed and the change to the reclining chair had been
+brought about by Landor, who sent the chair to him in the early days of
+their acquaintance, but laughingly denied any previous knowledge of it
+when Jack endeavored to thank him.
+
+"You seem to have a lot of paper about," commented Landor, picking up
+some sheets from the floor. "What are you up to these days?"
+
+Jack blushed.
+
+"Out with it, old fellow; you look guilty."
+
+"I'm--I'm trying to write out the stories I make about the people I see
+out of my window. You know I like to imagine things about them. _She_
+said if I'd write them down the way I tell them they'd entertain her
+father very much, but I've gotten sort of disgusted--it seems such awful
+rot when it's down on paper."
+
+Landor ran his eye over the sheets Jack indicated.
+
+"They are not rot, Jack, they are pretty good. I am not much of a
+literary chap, but I know when a thing is interesting. When you have
+taken this way of introducing the neighborhood to Mr. Dale why don't you
+send him a weekly bulletin--a regularly gotten up paper with all the
+neighborhood news? When there isn't news you can invent it, you know,"
+smiling; "that is allowable in the newspaper trade."
+
+"Say, that's great!" cried Jack. "I'll call it the--'In the Ranks' and
+make a great big heading for my first column 'News from the Front' (that
+means front window) and I know, that'll please Mr. Dale, for mother told
+me he was a distinguished officer in the Civil War and Miss Julie says
+they were brought up on military principles." Jack snatched paper and
+pencil eager to begin.
+
+"Keep on with your stories first, Jack. Why, we shall be setting up a
+printing-press here next," and with this delightfully suggestive remark
+Landor departed.
+
+He did not go on to the club, as was his wont at that hour, but lighted
+a cigar and walked out of the little court and down through Crana Street
+to the river, where on the bridge he paused and gazed across to the city
+with a rapt, preoccupied air. Then, as if the noise of the ever-whirring
+electric cars disturbed him, he retraced his steps and took a road in
+the opposite direction which brought him into the quiet and seclusion of
+the park. The air was keen and crisp and blew in his face in gusty
+whiffs as he strode on, while all about him in their winter nakedness
+the trees cast spectral shadows. Usually, from long training and
+association with western plains and mountain trails, he took note of
+everything as he passed, but to-night he gazed far on ahead, engrossed
+in thought. To his annoyance, twice his cigar went out--which was in
+itself significant. Finally he threw it away and lighted a little
+bull-dog pipe, his solace and companion in many a solitary stroll.
+
+So those were the Dale girls, he was thinking, of whom Dr. Ware had said
+so much but of whom, all unconsciously, Jack had revealed more than
+years of intercourse with them might tell. He thought of Julie as he had
+seen her, quiet and fair-haired, with that gracious little plea that he
+should not let them drive him away, to prevent which they had themselves
+made a hasty exit from the room. And then there was another Julie as
+Jack had pictured her, turning her heart out for a boy that he might be
+comforted! He thought of her with reverence. A profound solemnity
+possessed him, giving him a strangely subdued sensation as of a man
+emerging from a sanctuary. What was he to whom life was an idle pastime,
+that he should draw the same breath with her!
+
+Then from out this solemn train of thought danced another picture--two
+baffling eyes mocking him. Who was she, this will-o'-the-wisp, that she
+should hold him at arm's length in that imperious fashion! He stopped
+and half closed his lids as if the better to conjure up a vision of her,
+then shook himself and went on--were not those eyes enough and that
+light ironical voice in his ears? Why had she snubbed him so--him, who
+was surely unoffending? And she was a soldier too, marching in the
+ranks. That pretty, piquant, fascinating sprite had shouldered her
+knapsack and was fighting a battle royal. Dr. Ware had told him so long
+ago, but somehow he only now began to realize it since Jack had
+expressed it in Julie's simple way. Jove! the very simplicity of it was
+impressive! Thoughts like these carried Landor out into the country and
+brought him back to the club two hours later in an unusually quiet frame
+of mind. The men with whom he habitually fraternized found him dull and
+unresponsive and to his inexpressible relief they left him to finish the
+evening alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Mrs. Lennox was giving one of those little dinners for which she was
+justly famous. To-night it was in honor of Monsieur Jules Gr�mond, the
+young African explorer who was paying a flying visit to the States. To
+meet him were Miss Davis, a d�butante whose prettiness could always be
+counted on to make a picture; Miss Marston, whose cleverness it was
+thought would interest him; and Kenneth Landor, whose attentions to Miss
+Davis had been rather pronounced during the season. Opposite his wife
+across the round table sat Mr. Lennox, than whom there was no more
+delightful host.
+
+They had not been long gathered about the table before Mrs. Lennox was
+conscious that her guests were lacking in that subtle attraction toward
+one another which is absolutely indispensable to the success of a small
+dinner. Monsieur Gr�mond, between her and Miss Marston, appeared to be
+listening in a most politely conventional manner to the girl who was
+making commonplace conversation with frequent pauses during which he
+turned to Mrs. Lennox, with whom he immediately fell into interesting
+talk. Kenneth Landor was singularly distrait. At first he had
+appropriated Miss Davis with his usual devoted air, but after a bit this
+languished and he, too, turned so often to Mrs. Lennox, next whom he
+sat, that Miss Davis first pouted and then in a fit of pique plunged
+into a violent flirtation with Mr. Lennox, much to that person's
+amusement. Mrs. Lennox found it necessary to throw herself into the
+breach here, there and everywhere, but under her skillful manipulation
+the talk at last became general and animated.
+
+The interest of the table naturally centered on Gr�mond, who managed
+adroitly to keep the conversation off himself, thereby winning the
+admiration of his hostess--she rather enjoyed a lion who did not roar.
+Finally, with the arrival of the savory which followed the dessert--for
+Mrs. Lennox had adopted this English custom, she had the satisfaction of
+seeing Miss Marston and her husband deep in talk, Miss Davis and Kenneth
+"frivoling" as was their wont and was herself free to enjoy a
+t�te-�-t�te with her guest of honor.
+
+"Your country is a source of endless interest to me, Madame," the
+Frenchman was saying, "but it is as nothing to your women. They rival
+ours--even surpass them."
+
+"I am afraid we are in danger of being told that too often," laughed his
+hostess, gaily.
+
+"Some things bear repetition, Madame."
+
+"Have you known many of us, Monsieur?" she asked, interested. "I think
+you said you had been over here before."
+
+"Yes, nearly two years ago, before I started off to Africa. It was
+indeed the cause of my immediate start for Africa," he said with a
+retrospective air. "Then, too, Madame, America became very dear to me
+through my friendship with Sidney Renshawe--we were like brothers
+together in Paris."
+
+"Ah, yes, I know, he speaks of you with great affection. He will be up
+from Virginia in a day or two, will he not?"
+
+"Not before I am off. I go to New Orleans on important business and from
+there to California, but I shall stay with him here on my return. Ah!
+you cannot dream what he has been to me," he cried with Gallic
+enthusiasm, "he--and one other."
+
+"Will you come and tell me about it later, Monsieur, when you have
+finished your cigars?" she said softly, picking up her gloves and giving
+the signal to rise.
+
+"Madame is very good," he murmured, bowing low as he stood aside for her
+to pass.
+
+Left together, the three men drew near and by a common interest caused
+Gr�mond to talk of his explorations for fully half an hour, which time
+was all too short to his listeners, who were greatly interested in the
+man as well as in what he had done. Though they had just met him within
+the week he was well known to them through Renshawe, a warm friend of
+Kenneth and the Lennoxes and the half hour over their cigars would
+unquestionably have lengthened out indefinitely had the women not been
+waiting for them in the drawing-room.
+
+The party had expected to go to the opera together, but when the men
+rejoined the women they found a change of plan, Miss Marston having
+secretly confided to Mrs. Lennox that she had been "on the go" so
+steadily for weeks that it would be bliss to keep still, and "Couldn't
+we all spend the evening here instead?" Pretty, disdainful Miss Davis,
+seeing in this suggestion possibilities of a prolonged t�te-�-t�te with
+Kenneth Landor, was enthusiastic in seconding it; while Mrs. Lennox
+acquiesced gladly--she had put in an exhausting day at various
+charitable organizations and was more tired than she cared to admit. As
+for the men, they were loud in their acclamations of delight over what
+Mr. Lennox called "the joy of a home evening." Accordingly they left the
+formal drawing-room and repaired to Mrs. Lennox's sanctum, a unique room
+finished in ebony, the dark wood relieved from somberness by a deep
+frieze of Pompeiian figures done in red, while bits of this vivid color
+were everywhere conspicuous in the furnishing. In all its appointments
+it showed the touch of a strong individuality and expressed in its way
+the �sthetic side of Mrs. Lennox's nature. It had also what in a woman's
+room made it distinctive--space. Mrs. Lennox was a person who liked free
+scope for her body as well as her mind.
+
+The guests, therefore, distributed themselves about comfortably and Miss
+Davis found herself exercising her fascinations upon the distinguished
+foreigner, who encouraged her by undisguised admiration, which indeed he
+had given her throughout dinner by glances meant to convey what the
+distance of the table between them made it impossible to say. But the
+paying of excessive compliments to a girl like Miss Davis, who cares
+only for that sort of thing from the masculine sex, sometimes palls and
+Gr�mond was just thinking a bit longingly of his charming hostess when
+that individual approached them.
+
+"Miss Davis," she said, "Mr. Landor has been proposing a game of
+billiards. He wants you to help him beat Miss Marston and my
+husband--they have already begun to play, I believe. Will you join
+them?"
+
+"Do Miss Davis, will you?" urged Kenneth, who always enjoyed the game.
+
+Miss Davis looked at him and rose by way of answer. She had long ago
+discovered that her eyes did considerable execution. Then with a glance
+at Gr�mond which said that he too might follow her, she went with
+Kenneth across the hall into the billiard room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox sank into a curiously carved old ebony chair, against which
+her bare arms and shoulders gleamed white. She was gowned in black,
+unrelieved except for the rope of pearls wound twice around her throat
+and hanging in a loose chain to her waist; but the severity of outline
+was exceedingly becoming to her slender figure and the absence of color
+emphasized the beauty of her skin, which was as fair and soft as if she
+were twenty instead of forty. She sighed a little as she leaned back in
+her chair, and Gr�mond reaching for some cushions from a divan near by
+tucked them in behind her comfortably.
+
+"Madame is tired to-night," he said.
+
+"Monsieur Gr�mond," turning her head the better to see him, "I feel as
+if I should offer you a thousand apologies. I had planned a gay evening
+for you and instead you are becoming initiated into intimate home life.
+We are already treating you like one of the family. Fancy!"
+
+"A privilege not accorded to many; is it not so, Madame? I feel
+flattered beyond all telling."
+
+It pleased her that he was quick to recognize this as unusual treatment
+of the stranger within her gates and she said cordially, "I felt when I
+saw you that we should not make the usual beginning. It is a little
+peculiarity of mine that I steal into people's lives in the middle--when
+I like them. I have never analyzed it, but I trust to my instincts and I
+am not often mistaken. Now you," she said, leaning languidly back on her
+cushions, "you interest me and I've sent them all off to play billiards
+that we may have a quiet little talk together. I want to hear more of
+what you were telling me at dinner, if I may."
+
+"Madame is very good," he said again. "We were speaking of Sidney
+Renshawe, were we not?"
+
+"Of him--'and one other,'" she quoted, watching his eloquent face.
+
+His black eyes softened and he leaned forward a little, using his hands
+in frequent gesticulation as he began to talk. "I am reminded, Madame,
+of a certain witty English author who said that Columbus discovered
+America but America discovered him. To paraphrase him, I should say that
+two Americans discovered me--dear old Renshawe and the most charming
+little girl I ever knew."
+
+"Yes?" she said.
+
+"But for those two, Madame, I might have been--anything!" He shrugged
+his shoulders expressively. "The one had faith in me, the other taught
+me to have faith in myself. She was my inspiration." It seemed as
+natural to him to confide in this charming woman as if he had known her
+all his life, and in this he was not unlike the majority of people in
+whom Mrs. Lennox showed an interest, for she had that divine gift which
+for lack of an English word we call "simpatica"--an open sesame to all
+hearts.
+
+She was listening very quietly, but the look on her face was one of
+absorbed attention as Gr�mond went on.
+
+"For several years, Madame, I had been formulating my African plans, but
+I lacked distinct purpose until I knew her. She had the American idea
+that a man must accomplish something in the world. She thought I should
+prove myself capable of the great things I talked about."
+
+"She can scarcely have reason to find fault with you now," the woman
+said.
+
+"I hope not, Madame, when she knows what I have tried to do and how much
+more I shall do when I return."
+
+"Are you going to tell her--soon?"
+
+"Soon?" with a quick indrawing of his breath, "as soon as I can get to
+California, but alas! that will not be for many weeks. I am not sure
+that she will want to listen to me, Madame, but I shall make her; I
+must."
+
+"You met her in Europe, I fancy?"
+
+"On the contrary, I met her in Southern California in one of the big
+hotels where I was stopping. She was living there and we were thrown
+together constantly, laughing, dancing, riding--a gay life. Now and then
+when we touched on serious subjects I was amazed and moved by her great
+comprehension and high ideals."
+
+"Does she not know what a powerful factor she has been in your life?"
+she asked.
+
+"Not yet, Madame. I went away with my heart full of her, but said no
+word. I felt I had not the right on so short an acquaintance and before
+I had really accomplished anything."
+
+"Perhaps not, my friend, but I am not sure that I altogether agree with
+you. I feel that she liked you, with possibly more than the ordinary
+liking, and a girl wants some sign."
+
+"I wrote her once, asking her to hold me in remembrance; was that a
+sign, Madame? It was all I dared to make. It seemed to me it was deeds
+and not words that were wanted."
+
+"It was both, Monsieur, if you will allow me to say so, for without
+words how could a girl know that deeds were done for her sake alone?"
+
+"I thought she would know it all because I loved her so," he faltered.
+
+"Oh, you men, you men!" Mrs. Lennox cried impatiently, "how you do
+expect a woman to take things for granted! Forgive me, Monsieur
+Gr�mond"--leaning forward and touching his arm--"but sometimes I get
+very cross over it."
+
+"Oh Madame, Madame!" he exclaimed impetuously, "you cannot think, you
+cannot mean I have made a mistake?"
+
+"Indeed, no," she replied reassuringly, seeing how his confident manner
+had changed to despair, "but I do mean that the ways of women are not
+more enigmatical than those of men--_some_ men," she qualified.
+
+He laughed, glad to have the tension of the past moment broken by her
+light tone. For a moment neither spoke. Across the hall came the faint
+clicking of the billiard-balls.
+
+"We must join the others, Monsieur," the woman said at last.
+
+"May I thank you for the pleasantest hour I have spent since my
+arrival?" he said earnestly as he rose.
+
+"The pleasantest--as yet. Eh, Monsieur?" with a charming smile.
+
+"As yet, Madame," bowing gravely over her hand which he had taken in
+his.
+
+"Then will you come to me again, when you return and tell me _all_ about
+it?" with a faint pressure of her fingers in his.
+
+"May I, Madame? Ah, that will be a privilege indeed!" and stooping he
+kissed her hand.
+
+A moment later they had joined the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"Those Dale girls are certainly remarkable!"
+
+"I have always maintained that, Mary."
+
+"Remarkably surprising, I mean," corrected Miss Ware, fingering the
+coffee-cups noisily in rather an irritating manner as it seemed to her
+brother, who was running over his voluminous morning mail.
+
+"What have they done now?" he asked looking up at her over his glasses.
+
+"To my mind a most unlady-like, vulgar thing. Here it is if you want to
+see." A second look at a card in her hand before passing it over caused
+her to exclaim, "No! Is it possible! Mrs. Lennox has taken them up! Her
+name is actually printed on the card--it is the most astonishing thing I
+ever heard of!"
+
+"If you mean their business cards, Mary, I was consulted and saw the
+original draft and recommended the printer. Um," examining the card
+critically, "he has turned out an excellent piece of work, artistic and
+quiet in tone. I thought he could be relied upon."
+
+"Philip, you are too exasperating! I believe if those girls sold papers
+on the street corner you would think it the finest thing ever done!"
+
+"I probably should," he rejoined imperturbably. "As for these cards,
+they are something to be proud of! 'Salads, croquettes, fancy
+sandwiches, jellies, salted nuts, etc., etc.,'" he went on, running his
+eye down the list. "Gad! how they have pushed ahead! They mailed five
+hundred of these yesterday," looking over at his sister, "and I fancy
+Radnor people will not be slow in responding."
+
+"Oh! Mrs. Lennox's name will be an alluring bait," she said. "People
+will patronize them because she does, for a time, but they make a great
+mistake in relying upon her; this is just one of her fads."
+
+"I can't understand, Mary, how you take such delight in imputing
+disagreeable motives to people. Mrs. Lennox is not patronizing the
+girls--she has great respect for them. Neither are they relying on her
+in the least. They rely only on their own skill and ability to do their
+work to the satisfaction of their customers. Mrs. Lennox has kindly
+allowed them to add her name by way of reference or indorsement for
+those people who know nothing about them. It places them before the
+public in an unassailable position."
+
+"Are they going to open a shop?" asked Miss Ware, a little
+superciliously, interested in spite of herself.
+
+"No, they mean to keep right on as they are, making things only to
+order. They will have no stock on hand. It is the best they can do under
+the circumstances, for it is impossible to branch out to any
+considerable extent while their father needs them close at hand."
+
+"Good gracious, Philip! you wouldn't advise a shop?" She made a wry face
+over her coffee, in which, in the excitement of the discussion, she had
+neglected to put any sugar.
+
+"I don't know," the Doctor replied, stroking his beard thoughtfully, "I
+am not sure. Being conducted in their home, a business such as theirs
+must of necessity be limited, and the profits small. One must do things
+in large quantities to make money. I have thought a good deal about a
+little shop--it may come to that eventually, but I am not sure that I
+want it to. They are not going to hold out forever; as it is they are
+living on their nerves,--they have been too delicately reared to stand
+such work." He pushed his plate away and folding his arms on the table
+leaned forward confidentially. "Mary," he said, "I wish I could get you
+to care for those girls--to love all that is so sweet and lovable in
+them."
+
+"Perhaps I'd care more for them, Philip, if you did not care so much."
+
+"What!" in astonishment, "why you aren't--you can't be jealous of them,
+Mary?"
+
+"I don't know," she replied, looking away from him, "women are queer,
+even we old ones--perhaps we're queerest of all!"
+
+"Why, Mary, what nonsense to be jealous of two little girls who regard
+me in the light of a venerable uncle."
+
+"I should not call a fine-looking man in the prime of life 'venerable,'"
+said his sister resentfully, for she was immensely proud of her
+distinguished brother. "I am sure it would be very odd if they did not
+admire you for more reasons than one!"
+
+"It is not a question of their admiring me, Mary, but of my admiring
+them. And I am not the only one. People are beginning to talk about them
+aside from Mrs. Lennox. Mary, I want them to marry!"
+
+"Marry!" she exclaimed. "No eligible man would marry girls who cook and
+deliver boxes at people's doors and do goodness knows what besides."
+
+"You are very much mistaken, and while you cling to your absurd opinions
+I don't think it is desirable to continue the conversation." He rose
+with dignity and passed into his office.
+
+Miss Ware followed him. "Philip," she queried with feminine curiosity,
+"had you any one special in mind?"
+
+The Doctor was lost in the depths of the morning paper.
+
+"Philip, I--I dare say I expressed myself rather strongly;" (this from
+Miss Ware was a great concession). "_Was_ there any one special in your
+mind?"
+
+"And what if there was, Mary?" answered the Doctor, slightly appeased
+but not wholly mollified, "would you really care to know?"
+
+"Yes, I should. It is so unusual for you to be developing match-making
+proclivities."
+
+"That is true. I seldom think of such matters and, mind you, I do not by
+any means think that girls should marry just for the sake of
+marrying--that it is the end and aim of their existence--but in the case
+of the Dales my heart is set upon it."
+
+"I thought you approved of women who were self-supporting," remarked his
+sister, considerably surprised at the view he presented.
+
+"So I do, when circumstances require it or their temperaments demand
+independence and they are properly trained to stand shoulder to shoulder
+with men in business or professional life. But these little girls are
+wrestling with the bare problems of existence, working with the nervous
+tension of a high-bred race-horse, using up their vitality over pots and
+kettles and pans and smiling, smiling all the time as if they liked it!"
+
+"Why, I thought they did like it!" Verily this was a morning of
+surprises.
+
+"Like it!" cried the Doctor, trying to keep down the anger in his voice,
+"would you like it to be taken out of a life of keen enjoyment--a life
+crowded with incidents and continuous change of scene such as the Dales
+lived and be put down in a comparatively strange place, unrecognized
+socially, without young companionship and, worse still, to see a father
+whom they adore perfectly helpless and dependent on them for every
+mouthful of bread! It is a wonder to me the spirit is not crushed out of
+them!"
+
+"I never quite thought of it like that, Philip."
+
+"Of course you didn't, Mary. You thought they were rebellious,
+head-strong young things who liked being cramped up in a kitchen all
+day, beating their arms off over batches of dough and stirring
+mayonnaise until they are ready to fall into the bowl from sheer
+exhaustion! But I want you to look at it differently, I do indeed, and I
+want you to help me put a new interest in their lives."
+
+"I will, Philip, there is my hand on it."
+
+The Doctor clasped it warmly. "What do you think of Landor?" he said.
+
+"Kenneth Landor? Does he know them?"
+
+"He met Hester here one day and was immensely taken with her. Afterward
+he ran across them in my house in the apartment below them. There is an
+invalid boy there whom Kenneth heard of--you know he is always finding
+out-of-the-way people and going to see them. He told me he only saw the
+girls there a moment, but he's taken a violent fancy to the boy, who
+talks about Julie and Hester by the hour together. Landor wants to meet
+the girls again--he has asked me to ask him here to meet them, but I
+have always put him off on one pretext or another, knowing it was
+useless to try to do anything while you felt as you did, but now you
+will arrange something, won't you, Mary? You have such a talent for
+little parties."
+
+"The girls won't come. Have you heard them speak of Kenneth?"
+
+"Only casually, most casually. Hester always gets the talk off on
+something else when I mention him."
+
+"That's a good sign."
+
+"A good sign!" said the Doctor, much puzzled, "I thought it was a bad
+one."
+
+"Oh! you men," laughed Miss Ware, "you don't know anything. When a girl
+does not discuss a man it is usually because he interests her. Do you
+think," she said seriously, "the girls, if they knew, would like your
+disposing of one of them in this calm fashion?"
+
+"Mary, I beg of you, do not misunderstand me. I have no wish to dispose
+of them. Kenneth may not fall in love with either of them, though I
+don't see how he can help it" (this under his breath), "and neither of
+them may care in the least for him, but it would gladden my heart if the
+thing could be. He is an admirable fellow in every way, and during the
+past month he has gone into business with his father. Did you know that?
+There is no doubt that he could make a comfortable home for them all.
+Even if nothing comes of it I want him to know them--he'll be a better
+man all his life for knowing them--and I want them to have a little
+diversion, a little outside interest to take them out of the rut. I'll
+leave it all to you, Mary," he ended, with a comfortable feeling of
+security.
+
+"I suppose, you know," she said as she was leaving, "that both the girls
+have had several offers of marriage."
+
+"No, I didn't know."
+
+"Mr. Dale mentioned it when he was discussing the question of my
+chaperoning them this winter. He said he wanted me to understand that
+the girls were in some ways much older than their years and that having
+been, through their constant companionship with him, thrown much into
+the society of men, it was natural they should have had that experience.
+He also said that neither girl had the slightest desire to marry for the
+present or had ever shown any preference for one man above another. I
+fancied from what he said that their manner toward men was frank, rather
+a sort of 'camaraderie' than the silly sentimental attitude some girls
+affect."
+
+"You are perfectly right, Mary, they have a most engaging frankness of
+manner."
+
+"May I ask you one thing, Philip?"
+
+"Certainly," suddenly apprehensive of the question coming.
+
+"How do you know they are beating their arms off over batches of
+dough"--the phrase seemed to have stuck in her mind--"I mean how did you
+realize it? Did they tell you?"
+
+"Not they;" secretly relieved, "I hear it from Bridget. She worries her
+faithful old heart out about them and vows me to secrecy when she
+confides in me, for she says they would never forgive her if they knew
+she took it so hard."
+
+"Good old Bridget," he said to himself, for his sister had vanished
+without another word, "how my little girls would scold her!"
+
+Good old Bridget indeed, who told much, but was far too loyal to tell
+all she knew!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+"Hester, 'we have arrived,' as they say in France. This has been a
+momentous month. We've sent out our cards and bought our first groceries
+at wholesale." Julie leaned her elbows on the kitchen table and gazed
+with a rapt meditative air at their first barrel of sugar.
+
+Bridget stood in the doorway openly admiring. "It's like old times, Miss
+Julie dear, to be seein' things come in quantities agen." She had
+secretly harbored a grudge against the miserable little paper bags.
+
+Peter Snooks sniffed at the unfamiliar barrel and then sat down beside
+it with a comical air of importance, but Hester did not leave him long
+undisturbed, for in wild exuberance of spirits she executed a war-dance
+in which he joined, at the end of which she mounted the barrel and with
+arms extended made a speech.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen (the gentlemen's _you_, Snooks);
+
+"This is the proudest moment of my life!"
+
+Having delivered herself of this burst of eloquence she paused a moment
+dramatically, then plunged into such a torrent of nonsense that Bridget
+buried her head in her apron to stifle her laughter, Peter Snooks barked
+frantically in a fit of delight and Julie pulled the young orator down
+ignominiously.
+
+"Come into the other room," she said. "Daddy is asleep and I don't want
+you to wake him."
+
+Instantly subdued, Hester tip-toed down the hall, following her sister.
+
+"Are we going to discuss affairs of state?" she whispered.
+
+"No, but we must come to some decision about Mrs. Lennox's invitation
+for Thursday night. I think we ought to go."
+
+"Well, I don't. I object to being patronized."
+
+"Oh! my dear, don't look at it like that; it is not kind of you. You
+regard Mrs. Lennox as a friend, do you not?"
+
+"A business friend, yes; the kindest and best we have, but that is not
+knowing her socially."
+
+"No, dear, but she wants to know us socially or she would not have
+invited us to her house. Don't you see that is what it means, Hester? It
+is not patronizing us, but placing us on an equal footing--"
+
+"Where we belong," interrupted Hester, "though I don't think we need
+feel overwhelmed by Radnor's recognition of the fact." She spoke
+bitterly in a tone that cut her sister.
+
+"Hester dear, it does hurt to be utterly ignored by the people who used
+to know us when we were children, but there are enough outside of Radnor
+who have stood by us loyally and we will make headway here eventually
+when people get a little more used to us."
+
+"Do you suppose I care a snap of my finger about these Radnor girls,"
+said Hester savagely. "They're a narrow snobbish lot and I'm glad I've
+escaped knowing them! Just yesterday, as I was delivering that great box
+of sandwiches at Mrs. Crane's I met Jessie Davis on the steps--she'd
+been calling there. Don't you remember how we always played together
+when we were little tots at school? Well, of course I knew her
+immediately--she hasn't changed a bit, and she knew me, but it was
+surprising how absorbed she suddenly became in looking for her carriage
+which was standing right under her nose! Think how disgraced she would
+have been before her footman if I--nothing better than a parcel-delivery
+girl--had spoken to her! She needn't have been afraid," scornfully,
+giving full vent to her smothered wrath, "I wouldn't have spoken to her
+to have saved her life!"
+
+"She is not worth getting angry about, dear. You ought to pity her for
+not knowing any better."
+
+"She knows better, well enough," said the irate Hester, who rather liked
+to nurse her wrath. "She's a nasty little snob!"
+
+"Well, she is," agreed Julie, "but I can't help pitying her for all she
+has missed in not knowing you."
+
+Hester smiled. "It is wicked of me to spit out at you, Julie dear. You
+did not make snobs and you have to encounter them just as much as I do.
+I dare say if we go to Mrs. Lennox's we shall run up against some, but a
+party does sound pleasant, doesn't it?"
+
+"I think, dear," said Julie with that quiet little matronly air she
+unconsciously assumed when she was trying to win over her sister, "I
+think that even though parties are not at all in our line these days, we
+should go. It is not a party, really, only an informal little musicale.
+It will freshen us up tremendously to get into a different atmosphere
+and it will please Mrs. Lennox, who has gone out of her way to be kind."
+She looked at her sister entreatingly.
+
+"Julie, you are a saint! Sometimes you talk just like Daddy!"
+
+Julie's eyes moistened. "I am not a saint," she protested. "Think what
+Miss Ware will say when she hears of it?"
+
+Hester's eyes gleamed. "That settles it--I am going, and if you want to
+know my honest opinion, I love Mrs. Lennox for asking us."
+
+There were many orders that week and their working capacity was taxed to
+its utmost to meet the demand. Had it not been for their systematic
+arrangement of everything it would have been impossible to accomplish so
+much. They had learned that the early hours of the morning are the best
+and got to work by six, continuing on through the day as long as there
+was anything to do. They had laid down stringent rules for work hours
+and strenuously endeavored to live by them.
+
+By Thursday they were absorbed in the largest order they had yet
+received, embracing as it did croquettes, patties and other elaborate
+things which in an unguarded moment they had agreed to send hot to some
+club-rooms in the neighborhood. Hester thought they could do this by
+packing the things in a big steamer they had recently purchased. The
+steamer was a large tin affair built in sections of trays and would pack
+to great advantage, besides holding a considerable amount of boiling
+water at the bottom whereby the things could be kept hot. They had
+engaged an expressman to deliver this promptly at quarter past eight and
+it was with anxious hearts and nervous fingers they made the final
+preparations for packing. The cooking of all these elaborate things had
+been in itself no light achievement, but even that was as nothing to
+their fear lest the steamer should not reach its destination safely.
+They had been at work since five that morning and wrapped and boxed and
+packed securely was the last thing when the clock struck eight that
+evening. Five minutes past eight and no expressman! Quarter after, and
+two excited girls stared at each other across the steamer! Then Hester
+fled to the basement. The janitor was out but she pounced upon the
+engineer and got him upstairs before he realized what it was all about.
+"You're to go on an errand," was all she had vouchsafed him, leaving
+Julie to explain the rest.
+
+The man when he reached their kitchen eyed the big steamer curiously and
+said he could carry it. Whereupon Julie wanted to fall upon his neck
+with joy, but showed him the address tied to the cover instead.
+
+"Be'gorra miss," he said in evident embarrassment, "I ain't been in the
+city a week. Not the name of a street am I after knowin' entirely."
+
+Here was a dilemma.
+
+"I'll go with him," said Bridget.
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort," said Julie, "you have been half dead
+with rheumatism for two days and it is pouring in torrents. We'll go,
+Hester and I--we can get there in fifteen minutes. Hustle, Hester!"
+
+It was an incongruous little procession that went out into the storm,
+the girls leading, the man keeping close to his guides, who encouraged
+him by a word now and then. He walked firmly and with head erect, not
+because this was his habitual gait, but because he had been warned that
+any undue motion of his body would bring showers of scalding water down
+his back. An admonition like this was not to be disregarded and he
+picked his way gingerly to the basement door of the club where the girls
+rang the bell and the supper was safely left in the hands of the
+housekeeper. Then having lavishly rewarded their cavalier two
+light-hearted girls rushed home through the night to Bridget.
+
+She welcomed them as if they had returned from some great peril, petted
+and scolded them because of their wet things and fussed about like a hen
+whose goslings have swam safely back to shore.
+
+"I've made you a pot of coffee to warm your blessed selves," she said.
+"It's a wonder you don't kill yourselves entirely."
+
+"You Bridget!" said Julie affectionately as she kicked off her wet
+shoes, "won't you put me to bed just as if I were a little bit of a
+girl?" With those tired eyes and that pathetic droop to her mouth she
+did not look much of anything else as she said it.
+
+"Julie Dale! are you crazy! Mrs. Lennox's carriage is coming at nine
+o'clock to take us to the musicale! You've ten minutes to dress!" Hester
+made this announcement with a high tragedy air.
+
+Julie jumped as if she had been shot. "I had completely forgotten it,
+Hester. Oh! my dear, I am so dead tired I don't feel as if I could
+move."
+
+"Well, you've got to," remarked Hester, who, having made up her mind to
+do a thing, was not easily turned from her purpose; "you got me into
+this thing and we'll go if it kills us! I know I just about struck it
+when I called this place 'The Hustle'" she ruminated. "I am sure I don't
+feel as if I'd drawn a long breath since we came here!"
+
+"What shall we wear?" asked Julie who scrambled after her sister,
+shedding her wet things as she went.
+
+"I got out your light silks, dearie," came from Bridget.
+
+"Do you suppose we ought to wear hats?" This from Hester, who was
+wishing they had planned their costumes the night before.
+
+"Perhaps we ought," ruefully. "Good gracious! I haven't any--not a small
+one, Hester."
+
+"A trifle inconvenient, isn't it? I might lend you the rose toque I
+bought in Paris."
+
+"Indeed you won't, it exactly matches your gown and you look dear in it.
+I'll wear a bow in my hair or something." A bow, to Julie, always filled
+any discrepancy.
+
+Hester arrested her in the act of trying this effect before the mirror
+and sat her down brusquely in a chair.
+
+"Give me that bow," she commanded, "and keep still. _I'll make a hat on
+your head!_ Bridget, you get down her picture hat quick, and rip off the
+tips and the band of jet and some lace and we'll fix her up in a jiffy!"
+
+It was a wonderful creation--just a bit of lace and jet and ribbon with
+never a stitch in it, all fastened with hairpins to Julie's curly head.
+Two white ostrich tips stood up saucily at the side, a few violets were
+coquettishly stuck in the back and the effect was immensely modish and
+becoming.
+
+"Hold your head high all the evening and don't toss it about for your
+life!" warned Hester. "If you do, the whole thing will fall to pieces."
+
+"That's a cheerful prospect," commented Julie, surveying herself in the
+glass. "Can't you put in more hairpins?"
+
+"You've got about a million now." Hester's imagination never failed her.
+
+"Shure you look beautiful, Miss Julie, dear," said Bridget, "and it
+ain't goin' to come to pieces--Miss Hester's only teasin' yer."
+
+Five minutes later they were rolling through the storm in Mrs. Lennox's
+brougham.
+
+"Hester," whispered Julie from the depths of her luxurious corner, "_I_
+never tramped out in the wet to-night to deliver a club supper, did
+you?"
+
+"Certainly not," squeezing her hand hard, "who ever heard of such a
+thing!"
+
+Something very like a tremor of nervous excitement pervaded the girls as
+their names were announced on the threshold of Mrs. Lennox's
+drawing-room. Their entrance attracted immediate attention. Mrs. Lennox
+received them as Mrs. Lennox would, with most charming cordiality, yet
+not too pronounced lest they be made to feel that their coming was not a
+matter of common occurrence. She made a mental note of the fact that her
+prot�g�s had never looked prettier and was immensely pleased with their
+poise and perfect self-possession under what she knew must be for them
+something of an ordeal. If she could have looked into Julie's heart she
+would have discovered a shyness in coming among these people that
+amounted to positive pain; but who would ever have suspected it from
+that smiling exterior and that proud tilt of the head?
+
+As for Hester, from the moment a woman who was one of their customers
+bowed to her in a puzzled sort of way and then whispered so loud that
+every one about her could hear, "Why it's those Dale girls!"--from that
+moment Hester's spirit of deviltry awoke and she determined to outshine
+every girl in the room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox immediately presented half a dozen men who formed a little
+group about them and presently she steered them all toward some chairs
+preparatory to settling down to hear the music. As they crossed the room
+several women with whom they had had business dealings, bowed to them
+cordially. In a corner on a t�te-�-t�te seat sat Jessie Davis with
+Kenneth Landor. Both looked up as the party approached and Landor gave a
+half-stifled exclamation. Hester's luminous eyes swept by the girl and
+into the man's face with such a distracting smile that he was on his
+feet in a second.
+
+"How do you do?" she said sweetly, just the suspicion of a smile still
+lurking about the corners of her mouth while she extended her hand
+cordially.
+
+The man took it in an eager clasp and blessed the Fates for this
+propitious moment. "This is charming," he said. "It is a great pleasure
+to see you."
+
+"Yes, is it not?" na�vely. "Julie, here is Mr. Landor," bringing him
+into the circle quite as if he were an old friend.
+
+Genuinely glad to see him, Julie showed it unreservedly. All the men
+knew him and envied him his luck as the little party found seats
+together.
+
+"You must not let us break up your t�te-�-t�te," remonstrated the wicked
+Hester with a glance in the direction of the divan where Miss Davis sat
+deserted.
+
+Miss Davis, gazing into space, heard and bit her lip with vexation. She
+thought the airs the little upstart gave herself were intolerable. What
+could Mrs. Lennox be thinking of to bring those Dale girls into society?
+
+But Landor did not go back to her. Man fashion, he pleased himself by
+becoming Hester's shadow during the remainder of the evening, though he
+was not allowed to monopolize her--far from it. He had to content
+himself with scraps of conversation, for every man in the room wanted to
+be presented and each found her so diverting and original that there was
+constantly a little crowd about her, while in the intervals of the music
+peals of merry laughter came from her corner of the room.
+
+Julie, who was holding a little court of her own, could hear her and
+rejoice, and she was especially glad that this should be so when later
+in the evening Miss Ware, escorted by her brother, entered the room. She
+recognized the girls and was conscious of their success five minutes
+after her arrival and there was within her something like envy of Mrs.
+Lennox who had been the first to take into the elect these social
+renegades.
+
+As for Dr. Ware, he threw himself with enthusiasm into the gayety of
+Hester's corner, vying with the younger men in jests and laughter. Later
+he sauntered down the room, stopping on the way to chat with this person
+and that, and sought out Julie, who, though she greeted him so smilingly
+seemed to him suddenly remote. It was as if she had slipped away into a
+younger world than his and an indefinable sensation awoke within him,
+filling him with unrest. Partly because of this and partly because the
+pleasure in her evident pleasure was so great, he lingered near her,
+giving her that quiet, unobtrusive attention which his old friendship
+warranted. And Julie liked to have him near. She was glad that he smiled
+so approvingly upon her, happy that this little frivolity was given the
+additional delight of his presence. For it was all delightfully
+frivolous and gay, though Julie's excitement and animation were
+naturally somewhat tempered by her headgear, especially as every now and
+then when she forgot herself and nodded her head emphatically over
+something, Hester would give her a warning glance. Poor Julie! the
+"proud and haughty" tilt became very trying, but it _was_ distinguished
+and caused Mr. Lennox, who was most critical, likewise somewhat horsey,
+to confide to his wife afterward that she was a thoroughbred.
+
+"I hope you'll have them often," he said, when the last guest had
+departed and they had settled down before the library fire to talk it
+over. "After the cut-and-dried young people one usually meets they are
+perfectly refreshing. I had a long talk with the blonde one--is she
+Julie?--during supper about Arizona. Found myself telling her all about
+my irrigation schemes out there. Fancy finding a young girl who
+understands such things! She knows that country well and gave me an idea
+or two worth considering."
+
+"I should like to have them often, John, but they won't come. Their work
+engrosses them to the exclusion of everything; it has to be so--they
+need all their strength to get through the days. I understand it
+perfectly. Did you notice how people were all in a flutter about them? I
+fancy I have given Radnor something to talk about!"
+
+"Oh! well, that is not unusual. Do you mean to say people have cut them?
+It seems incredible in these enlightened days."
+
+"It is true, nevertheless, though Julie told me the other day that their
+customers were showing the kindest possible interest in their work and
+encouraging them by renewed orders; that every one showed them courtesy
+and consideration in a business way, but I happen to know, though she
+did not say so, that there it stops. The line is distinctly drawn. None
+of the daughters of those women show any inclination to renew their
+acquaintance with the girls, though many of them were their playfellows
+years ago."
+
+"Well, they're a disgrace to their sex, that is all I've got to
+say--I've no patience with that sort of thing!" Mr. Lennox put down a
+half-smoked cigar and pushed back his chair. "They were the success of
+the evening, Mabel, and I am proud to know them. It strikes me," slyly,
+"there were others who succumbed to their fascinations. Landor, for
+instance, and Dr. Ware--"
+
+"Oh, he is their father's oldest friend."
+
+"And Renshawe, who displayed surprising interest in Arizona when he
+found us talking about it. Have you ever known him to care a hang about
+Arizona before?"
+
+"No," laughed his wife, "but Sidney Renshawe always rises to the
+occasion when he is interested. Principally it is Virginia he talks
+about now. By the way, he is expecting Monsieur Gr�mond back from
+California any day. Did you know?"
+
+"I was glad to have a chance to speak to her of her father, too," said
+Mr. Lennox, who apparently had not heeded his wife's last remarks. "I
+knew Mr. Dale somewhat at the club and regretted his collapse as we all
+did. She had such a pretty proud look when I spoke of him, as if I
+couldn't say too much. I felt as if I would like to take her off to some
+quiet corner and talk to her by the hour together."
+
+"So you shall, my dear. Together we will lay siege and capture them
+again. I should like to give a dinner for them soon.
+
+"Oh! ask them informally when we are not entertaining," remonstrated her
+husband who evidently desired to monopolize them.
+
+"Very well, dear, and if it pleases you to watch Julie's eloquent
+face--and I assure you Hester's is equally so--Mr. Dale shall be the
+chief topic of conversation. I never knew him, but it is a great deal to
+know his daughters, John."
+
+Which sentiment being shared by the master of the house the mistress
+called the midnight session off and they went upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+It was a dismal rainy afternoon, and the work of the day having been
+finished early the girls were ensconced in their little sitting-room
+reveling in a well-earned rest. By the way of unusual dissipation a
+teakettle was hissing on the table, while the freshly filled sugar bowl
+and bits of lemon told of preparations for the cup that cheers.
+Stretched out at full length on the floor lay Hester in her favorite
+attitude. At her feet sprawled Peter Snooks, chewing frantically at a
+piece of rubber tire which was at once his solace and despair, defying
+as it did his most strenuous efforts to tear it to bits. Julie, who had
+donned a neglig� and shaken the pins out of her curly hair, was buried
+in a book, yet with one ear alert lest her father in the adjoining room
+should stir and want something. Bridget, remarkable to relate, had taken
+an afternoon out.
+
+Presently Julie dropped her book and curling herself into the depths of
+the chair was dozing off when Hester said abruptly, "There's a stranger
+coming!"
+
+Julie started up and gazed about as if expecting some one to loom up
+before her.
+
+"There is," reiterated Hester.
+
+"Is what?" sleepily.
+
+"A stranger coming."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"My nose itches," announced the younger Dale, rubbing the tip of that
+saucy feature.
+
+"Nonsense! That's an old granny's reason."
+
+"Can't help it if it is. There is only one alternative and that is to
+kiss a fool. You would not exactly class yourself in that category,
+would you?" turning on her elbow to look at her sister. "Of course if
+you insist--" and Hester leaned toward her.
+
+Julie gave her a push. "You idiot! go kiss yourself in a mirror." But
+the doorbell rang.
+
+Julie bounced from her chair and fled down the hall. Hester stifled her
+desire to laugh and opened the door on a tall, well-built man who stared
+as he beheld her.
+
+"Why--this is Mr. Renshawe, is it not?" the girl said with perfect
+composure though inwardly amazed at seeing him. "Won't you come in?"
+
+"How do you do--thanks--I--that is--" he stammered helplessly.
+
+"You wish to see my sister, of course," ushering him in. "We did not
+meet the other night at Mrs. Lennox's, did we? but you see I heard about
+you afterward. I'll go and call my sister."
+
+"Oh! no, don't, please, I beg of you. I must apologize for this
+impertinent intrusion--I've made some abominable mistake!" In the hand
+in which he was nervously twisting his hat, Hester caught a glimpse of
+one of their business cards and in a flash the whole purport of his
+visit was made clear to her.
+
+"I do not think it is a mistake," she said naturally. "I imagine you
+have come to see us on business, have you not? Won't you sit down, Mr.
+Renshawe?"
+
+"Oh, may I? Thanks. Do you do business?" he gasped incredulously,
+glancing from the piquant girl about the pretty room where no suggestion
+of anything like work was visible.
+
+"Yes," replied Hester, "all kinds of fancy cooking. Possibly you've seen
+our cards," she suggested in a desire to help him out.
+
+He produced the one in his hand with the air of a guilty culprit. "Yes,
+I have," he confessed. "It was given me this afternoon by the manager of
+Heath & Co. He knows I give a good many bachelor parties in my chambers
+and recommended these things. But Miss Dale," he protested, "I had no
+idea it was you and your sister--it never occurred to me."
+
+"Why should it?" asked Hester, "but it is, just the same, and we shall
+be very glad to fill your order." She went to a desk and brought forth a
+pad and pencil in a business-like manner.
+
+He sat watching her with a puzzled, utterly perplexed expression drawing
+his eye-brows together. Suddenly as she returned to her chair opposite
+him he cried,
+
+"By Jove! I know now, exactly--that's just who you are!" looking into
+her face with evident relief.
+
+Hester wanted to laugh and say "Is it?" to this ambiguous remark but
+having assumed her formal business manner she maintained a discreet
+silence and waited for him to explain.
+
+"You are little Miss Driscoe's cousin!" he announced.
+
+"Are you the Radnor man who has been visiting at the Blake's
+plantation?" cried Hester impulsively, forgetting in her excitement that
+he was to be kept on a strictly business footing.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," was his smiling reply. "I've been there several
+times this past winter; in fact I came up from there only last week."
+
+"Oh! did you? Long ago Nannie wrote us that there had been a Radnor man
+at her birthday party but she quite forgot to mention his name. Oh! I
+wish Julie had known this the other night! She would have loved a chance
+to ask you all about the Driscoes. Isn't Nannie the dearest little
+thing?"
+
+"If I hadn't been a duffer, Miss Dale, I might have placed your sister
+immediately when I met her, for I have had the minutest descriptions of
+you both, I assure you. There was something very baffling about her that
+night, as if I must have known her or at least seen her before
+somewhere, but--"
+
+"But you did not expect to see us in society, perhaps?"
+
+He glanced at her as if the better to understand if her tone were
+cynical, but her bland little smile told him nothing and before he could
+make any reply she said:
+
+"I am afraid we have strayed too far from important things, Mr.
+Renshawe. It is shocking of me to encroach upon your time. Is there
+anything we can do for you in a business way?" She told Julie afterward
+she was quite proud of this little speech, for she had been consumed
+with a desire to ask him a thousand questions about the Driscoes.
+
+Renshawe interpreted it to mean that the chat was at an end and he
+feared that in some clumsy way he had offended her, but she steered him
+into a discussion of the order he had come to leave with such a calm
+matter-of-fact air that he found himself consulting her about salads and
+cakes with an ease he would not have believed possible when he entered
+the room. He had never been brought into business relations with a young
+girl of her position and he admired exceedingly her manner. The order
+having been arranged quite to his satisfaction he dismissed the subject
+and made up his mind to have his say in spite of the cue Hester had
+given him. So as he rose to leave he said:
+
+"I hope you will forgive me, Miss Dale, if I tell you I feel quite as if
+I knew you and your sister and I am immensely glad to meet you. You see
+the Blakes took me frequently to Wavertree Hall and Miss Nannie spoke of
+you so often; she--"
+
+"Dear little Nan," the girl said musingly, "how I should love to see
+her!"
+
+The man looked as if he would like to echo that sentiment, but he only
+said as he moved toward the door:
+
+"Will you be very kind, Miss Dale, and let Mrs. Lennox bring me some
+time to see you and your sister? I have so many messages from Virginia,
+for Miss Nannie was confident I should meet you and you see she was
+right."
+
+"Indeed you may come," said Hester frankly, "we--we do not receive many
+visitors, but I know Julie will be glad to see you--I shall too,"
+genuinely, and not as if politeness prompted this after-thought.
+
+"Thank you. For the next few weeks I am owned body and soul," smiling,
+"by Jules Gr�mond who is stopping with me. Perhaps you know of him, Miss
+Dale? He's made considerable of a stir since he came out of Africa. An
+old chum of mine whom I think you might enjoy meeting--perhaps after
+awhile you will allow me to arrange it."
+
+Hester always says she acted like a fool at this juncture and stammered
+out some unintelligible reply, and that he immediately departed, she
+thinks without any special consciousness of her idiocy--or at least she
+hopes so, for she frankly confesses she was in no state of mind to know.
+However that may be, the door had no sooner closed after him than the
+dignified junior Dale, caterer, became metamorphosed into an excited
+young girl who flew down the hall to the room where her sister had taken
+refuge.
+
+"Come back to the sitting-room where we can talk without waking Daddy,
+quick!" she cried, pulling Julie down the hall. "Now what do you
+suppose?" when they had reached the little room.
+
+"Some one has left an extra fine order," seeing several pieces of paper
+clutched nervously in Hester's hand.
+
+"Don't be so everlastingly material!" pinning the papers with a vicious
+stab to the back of the chair. "It has nothing to do with work,
+whatever--that is not exactly. Oh! do guess who has been here--and who
+_is_ here?"
+
+"Hester, are you hiding some one to surprise me?" looking eagerly about.
+"I know it is a man--I heard him. It can't be Dr. Ware; it wasn't his
+step. It's--it's--oh! Hester Dale, is it cousin Driscoe?"
+
+"You're getting hot," cried Hester encouragingly, reveling in her
+sister's excited curiosity.
+
+"Tell me this minute," demanded Julie, shaking her. "What other man
+would be coming here?"
+
+"Well, there _are_ others," laughed Hester, teasingly. "Mr. Renshawe,
+for instance."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Honor bright! And who do you suppose he is?" mysteriously.
+
+"Don't be so tantalizing! What on earth do I know about him?"
+wrathfully.
+
+"Well, you ought to. He hung around you the whole evening at Mrs.
+Lennox's, you know he did. I simply wasn't in it. I don't believe he
+even knew I was there!"
+
+"You idiot! I had no personal talk with him whatever. As for you, you
+flirted shockingly with Mr. Landor. I was astonished at you!" severely.
+
+"I _was_ nice to him, wasn't I?" admitted Hester, "but that was all for
+Jessie Davis' benefit."
+
+"So I thought, you depraved wretch! Will you kindly tell me what all
+this has to do with your present excitement?"
+
+Hester sat on the edge of her chair and delivered her next speech in
+italics.
+
+"Mr. Renshawe is the man who went to Nannie's party and got the ring in
+her birthday cake!"
+
+"Not really!"
+
+"And he came here not knowing who we really were, because the manager at
+Heath's gave him one of our cards and recommended us as caterers. You
+ought to have seen him, Julie! He was embarrassed almost to death and I
+felt flustered myself, to say the least, but we managed to get through
+the business part nicely and then at the end he just floored me!"
+
+"Hester!" Words other than ejaculations seemed to have failed Julie.
+
+The younger girl came over and stood in front of her to get the full
+effect of her next speech, the most important piece of news, which she
+had had hard work to keep until the last.
+
+"Jules Gr�mond is in this country, staying with Mr. Renshawe now," she
+said.
+
+Julie was rendered wholly inarticulate, but the color spread in a
+crimson wave over her face and she made a grab at her sister, pulling
+her down beside her.
+
+"You are guying me!" she cried when she could speak.
+
+"It is the solemn truth; 'cross my heart, hope to die,'" maintained
+Hester dramatically. "Moreover the things Mr. Renshawe has ordered are
+for a tea he is giving for Monsieur Gr�mond to-morrow and the Fates
+decree that we shall tickle the palate of the distinguished African
+explorer with sandwiches and things! Oh! Julie, what a funny world!"
+
+"How do you know he is distinguished?" asked Julie, clasping her hands
+behind her head that her nervous fingers might not betray her.
+
+"Because I do. Mr. Renshawe as much as said so. I wouldn't have believed
+he had it in him, would you?"
+
+"I don't know; we really hardly knew him well enough to judge."
+
+"Umph! I don't know about that. What do you suppose he is doing here,
+Julie? Do you think he'll look us up?" hesitatingly.
+
+"Of course not," with more asperity than the innocent questions seemed
+to justify. "He will never dream of our being in Radnor. You know we had
+been some weeks at the hotel in Los Angeles when he came, and for all he
+knew we might have been going to spend the rest of our days there.
+Probably he has ceased to remember that we exist--a man would find his
+_affaires du coeur_ rather clumsy baggage in the wilds of Africa!"
+
+"If he carried them all, yes. One or two might be consoling," suggested
+Hester airily.
+
+"Oh! bother Jules Gr�mond! I don't want to think of him! He belongs to a
+life that is past!"
+
+"Well, it is queer, anyway," insisted Hester, "and I want to scream with
+laughter when I think of a divinity like you--didn't he call you a
+divinity, Julie?--coming down from your pedestal to cater for his serene
+highness, the one and only Jules Gr�mond!"
+
+There was something so inimitable about Hester's manner coupled with the
+graphic picture she drew that Julie went off into a paroxysm of laughter
+that ended in hysterical sobbing which Hester put an end to by shaking
+her vigorously.
+
+"You are so funny," said Julie faintly, wiping her eyes. "You are almost
+as funny as the situation!" and then she buried her face in Hester's arm
+and laughed again.
+
+"Shut up!" said Hester with more force than elegance for she was getting
+frightened at Julie's unusual behavior. "Stop this minute or you'll go
+all to pieces and besides, I've an awful confession to make!"
+
+"Oh! not anything more," protested Julie, leaning back exhausted. "My
+dear, don't! Another shock will certainly be the death of me!"
+piteously.
+
+"Well I'll die if I don't get it off my conscience, so there you are!"
+cried Hester, thumping down in Julie's lap and beginning to finger the
+hair that strayed in little curls about her temples.
+
+"Go on," resignedly from Julie.
+
+"Playing with your hair? I know you love to have me do it so you need
+not put on such a martyred air."
+
+"Go on with your confession, you goose!"
+
+"Well, I told Mr. Renshawe he might come to call on us. You see he asked
+if we would let Mrs. Lennox bring him and he was so nice I couldn't
+refuse."
+
+An amused smile crept into Julie's eyes. "I thought we had nothing in
+common with men whatever--that they did not fit into the present scheme
+of things--that we had no use for them in the life we live! _Wasn't_ it
+some such explosive theory you expounded to me ages ago?" she asked
+teasingly.
+
+"It is true, you know it is," pulling Julie's curls to emphasize her
+words, "but I did it for Nannie's sake. I know he is just dying to come
+here and talk about her."
+
+"You mean you are just dying to have him! So am I, for the matter of
+that. Won't it be nice to hear all about them?"
+
+"Do you know something?" said Hester who had a trick of beginning a
+speech with a question, "I believe he is in love with her!"
+
+"What gave you that idea, you precocious infant?"
+
+"Oh! nothing special, only the way he looked when her name was mentioned
+and his wanting to come here to talk about her--there is no other
+possible reason why he should want to come--and he got the ring in her
+cake you know. Wouldn't it be romantic if she married him?"
+
+"Hester Dale! The way you allow your imagination to run riot is
+something perfectly fearful! You put one and one together and make a
+thousand things! I never saw such a girl!"
+
+"You are not cross, are you, Julie? You don't think I did wrong to say
+he might come?"
+
+"Of course not, you baby, I think you did perfectly right. Now go and
+make me a cup of tea if the kettle has not boiled dry. We need a brace
+after all this excitement."
+
+Hester busied herself with the tea things and Julie sat staring at her,
+wrapt in thought. If Hester was conscious of this preoccupation she gave
+no sign, but hummed a gay tune and talked to Peter Snooks, who came and
+sat pressed close to her knees in true dog fashion.
+
+"Do you know, Peter Snooks," she said speculatively, "we have one very
+important feature in common--our noses." At this he thrust his up in her
+lap. "Yes," she continued, patting him, "we have. Yours denotes your
+state of health--mine the arrival of a stranger within our gates. A
+certain proud and haughty person jeers at mine but you know how it is,
+don't you, old man?"
+
+The dog pawed her lap by way of showing that he understood perfectly and
+with his big eloquent eyes fixed on the sugar bowl, thrust out his
+tongue suggestively.
+
+"What! is that sensitive too! Oh! you scalawag!" and she tossed him a
+lump of sugar.
+
+This conversation had stolen in through Julie's reverie and she pulled
+up her chair and leaned over to her sister as she took her cup of tea.
+
+"I dare say I did jeer at that saucy nose of yours," she began, "but in
+token of my future awe and respect I am going to kiss it now," suiting
+the action to the words. "It may be a precaution against its owner's
+kissing me as an alternative in the next emergency! Peter Snooks, I call
+upon you to witness that I hereto set my seal," with another kiss,
+"having at this moment solemnly declared that I consider the aforesaid
+feature infallible."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Radnor society was all agog over the second appearance of Monsieur
+Gr�mond, and no sooner was his coming made known than Renshawe was
+fairly deluged with invitations for his guest.
+
+Miss Ware took that occasion to give a big reception to which
+magnanimously, "those Dale girls" were invited. This was the only
+outcome of the after breakfast talk many weeks before with her brother.
+To tell the truth, the interest in them kindled at the moment by his
+enthusiasm, waned, and she never arranged the little party for which he
+had told her she had such a talent. Not that she altogether meant to
+waive her promise; she compromised with her conscience by telling
+herself that she had not yet gotten around to it. Here then was her
+opportunity and the girls were invited to the reception not only by card
+but personally. She only succeeded, however, in extracting a half
+promise from them to come, for they were having an anxious time over a
+new departure in their work and were little inclined for social
+dissipation.
+
+Kenneth Landor gave a stag dinner at his club in honor of the Frenchman
+on the night of his arrival and Dr. Ware entertained Renshawe, Gr�mond
+and Landor at the same place later in the week, dining them informally
+before his sister's reception. Dr. Ware greatly enjoyed the society of
+younger men, who sought him in many capacities and as a counselor found
+in his quick comprehension of their difficulties many a solution of
+problems which to the young so often seem insurmountable. Then it was
+that the wisdom grown out of his vast experience of life gave itself
+freely to those who came to him, and many a man and woman left his
+presence cheered by the grip of his hand, strengthened by the kindliness
+that looked out from his eyes and pervaded his whole personality. On his
+lighter side, as a delightfully congenial companion, he had no equal in
+Radnor and this rubbing up continually against a younger point of view
+tended to freshen his mind and keep him in touch with much that
+otherwise, through the exigencies of his profession, would have escaped
+him.
+
+"I do not want to seem inhospitable," he was saying that evening as the
+four men sat together at dinner, "but we must not linger too long over
+our cigars, or my sister will hold me responsible for keeping you away
+from her." He had his own reasons for wanting to arrive fairly early.
+
+"In that case we'd better move along, Landor," said Renshawe rising.
+"Dr. Ware," turning to his host, "will you take Gr�mond with you or wait
+a few moments while we look in at a committee meeting upstairs. We will
+not be long if you both care to wait."
+
+"I am in the hands of my friends," said Gr�mond.
+
+"We will wait, by all means," replied the Doctor, consulting his watch.
+"It is not much after nine now."
+
+Thought transference was a psychological phenomenon over which Dr. Ware
+had pondered much, and a startling instance of it was borne in upon him
+when after the other men had departed, Monsieur Gr�mond turned to him
+and said abruptly, without any preamble:
+
+"May I ask, Dr. Ware, if you know in this city a family of Dales? In
+particular a Mademoiselle Julie Dale?"
+
+"Why yes, I believe so," said the Doctor who was nothing if not
+non-committal, "do you?"
+
+He was totally unprepared for the effusive manner in which the Frenchman
+literally fell upon his neck, exclaiming, "Oh! my friend, I thank you, I
+thank you!"
+
+Masculine demonstration is not particularly pleasing to a man of
+Anglo-Saxon blood and Dr. Ware, in order to prevent a further exhibition
+of it, drew away slightly and offered his guest a fresh cigar.
+
+Monsieur Gr�mond shook his head. "I will not smoke--I will do nothing
+but ask you questions--if I may. Oh! you cannot think what it means to
+know I have found her!"
+
+"Have you been searching for Miss Julie Dale?" asked the Doctor, puffing
+clouds of smoke into the air.
+
+"Searching? Ah, if you but knew! I have been across your continent to
+California only to learn that she had long ago left there and come to
+your eastern coast, presumably here, though no one at the hotel knew
+definitely about her."
+
+"You are especially interested in Miss Dale, I take it," said the Doctor
+quietly. "In that case perhaps I should tell you that I stand somewhat
+in the relation of a guardian to her and her sister. You may talk quite
+frankly with me if you care to do so."
+
+It was impossible to restrain or even resent the hand-shake with which
+the younger man expressed his appreciation.
+
+"The Fates have been kind!" was his exclamation. "I am rewarded for my
+bitter disappointment. Is Monsieur Dale dead?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"Not dead, but so ill that he is no longer able to look out for their
+interests--the privilege, therefore, devolves upon me."
+
+"I wish to marry Mademoiselle Julie," said the Frenchman with a
+directness Dr. Ware liked. "I came to this country chiefly for the
+purpose of taking her back with me. I knew them at Los Angeles two years
+ago and Monsieur Dale liked me--at least I do not think he disliked me,
+for he allowed me to be much in his daughters' society. I realize that
+to you I am quite unknown, but Renshawe will vouch for me and any
+questions you may care to ask about my family or my future I shall be
+most happy to answer."
+
+"Thank you." There was silence for a moment and then the Doctor said
+slowly, "Have you reason to suppose that Miss Dale will marry you?"
+
+"Ah! that I do not know,--but she will--she must! Our intercourse was so
+perfect that life without her is incomplete. And she seemed always very
+happy with me. Has she never spoken of me or those days?"
+
+"I think not," replied the Doctor, remembering that according to his
+sister that was in a man's favor. "But it is not at all unnatural," he
+hastened to say kindly, "we have gone little into the past since they
+have been living here--for many reasons."
+
+"Will you tell me where they live and have I your permission to call on
+them to-morrow?" asked the Frenchman eagerly.
+
+"Better than that, Monsieur, Miss Dale and her sister will be at my
+sister's reception this evening. It will give me great pleasure to see
+that you meet her at once. Many changes have taken place since you last
+saw her, but of all that she will prefer herself to tell you. You will
+find her developed from a winsome, lovable girl into a noble young woman
+whose attractions in every way are greater--"
+
+"Not greater than when I knew her--that cannot be possible," interrupted
+the Frenchman. "To think that within the hour I shall see her! How can I
+express to you my intense gratitude for all this?"
+
+"By making her future all she has a right to expect from the man to whom
+she entrusts it," said the Doctor earnestly. "For the rest, we will talk
+things over more thoroughly in a day or two. I think," he said rising,
+"that Renshawe and Landor have forgotten us. Suppose after all we go on
+and let them follow at their leisure."
+
+And Monsieur Gr�mond readily assenting, Dr. Ware called a cab, which
+soon left them at his door.
+
+The house was already crowded and Miss Ware gave her brother a look of
+displeasure which she considered his tardy appearance merited. It was
+not more than a fleeting frown, however, for Monsieur Gr�mond followed
+close at his heels and what hostess could fail to wreathe her
+countenance in other than most charming smiles to greet so distinguished
+a guest! Dr. Ware presented a number of persons to him and saw him well
+launched before he left him to go in search of the Dale girls. He rubbed
+up against Kenneth Landor presently and secured his aid as a scout to
+reconnoiter, for in his semi-capacity of host he found it difficult to
+ignore the people about him in pursuit of two elusive young women.
+
+Kenneth appeared at the Doctor's elbow in the course of half an hour and
+confided to him that they were nowhere visible--"upstairs or downstairs
+or in my lady's chamber." He wore such a dejected look that the Doctor
+laughed and asked him why he wasn't up to his old tricks--weren't there
+dozens of pretty girls in the room? Kenneth merely raised his eyebrows
+expressively and the Doctor laughed again and reminded him that suspense
+was stimulating. Then he bethought him of Monsieur Gr�mond and
+discovering that individual, answered the questioning look in his eyes
+with an encouraging nod and managed to go over and say, in spite of the
+people by whom the Frenchman was surrounded, "She has not come yet but
+you shall know the instant she does."
+
+When an hour passed and they did not appear he accosted his sister who
+was still standing at her post receiving.
+
+"Where are the girls?" with difficulty getting her attention.
+
+"Girls? what girls? It seems to me there is no lack of them."
+
+"I mean the Dale girls. Didn't you send the carriage for them as I
+directed?"
+
+"Of course I did. They--how _do_ you do, Mrs. Smartset--and Mr.
+Smartset, charmed I'm sure."
+
+The Doctor stood back and patiently waited while an influx of guests
+passed before her. When an opportunity offered he spoke again.
+
+"They are not here, Mary. If you can give me a moment I would like to
+know why."
+
+"You wouldn't have me neglect my guests to discuss those Dale girls
+would you? _Must_ you be going, Mrs. Marston, and your daughter too--so
+good of you to come--goodnight. They are not coming," she said in an
+aside to her brother, "the carriage came back with a note. I had no time
+to read it and I do not remember where I put it. Now for pity's sake go
+and look after people and don't worry me any more about them! Ah, Mrs.
+Lennox, this is really charming to see you," as that individual entered.
+
+It was no easy matter to escape to his office but Dr. Ware did it and
+sent for Kenneth.
+
+"I have just learned that my little girls are not coming," he said when
+Kenneth had joined him there. "I fear, my boy, that something is wrong
+and I am off. If people miss me say I was called away to a patient.
+Every one knows I am not to be counted on socially. Then there is
+Gr�mond. He knew the girls long ago and has been looking forward to
+meeting them to-night. Tell him they were prevented at the last moment
+from coming and give him their address so he can call if he likes." It
+was characteristic of Dr. Ware that he left nothing undone.
+
+"You are not apprehensive of anything very serious, are you?" asked
+Kenneth who himself felt more concern than he cared to show.
+
+"No, no; why should I be? They may merely be tired out and have gone to
+bed or they may need me--I can't take any chances where they are
+concerned, my boy."
+
+"Of course not," said Kenneth with unusual emphasis. "If you are going
+to walk over, Doctor, I'd like to go along with you."
+
+"Take you away from the festivities? Nonsense! The girls in there would
+never forgive me!"
+
+"Oh! hang the whole business! I beg your pardon, Doctor, I forgot it was
+your sister's function."
+
+The Doctor laughed. "Come along with me. You need ozone to restore your
+placidity, but go back again later, like an obliging chap, if only to
+give my message to poor Gr�mond."
+
+They had been swinging along for several blocks in the cool night air
+when Landor broke the silence by exclaiming savagely, "What in thunder
+has Jules Gr�mond to do with them!"
+
+"With the Dales?" asked the Doctor innocently, inwardly amused at
+Landor's resentful tone. "He met them in California, I believe."
+
+"Umph!" grunted Kenneth.
+
+"Here we are," said the Doctor presently as they reached the house, "and
+there are lights in their rooms, so they are up about something and it
+is well I came. Goodnight, and thank you for walking over with me,
+Kenneth."
+
+"Dr. Ware," said the younger man wistfully, detaining him a moment on
+the steps, "if there is anything wrong up there," with a motion of his
+head toward the top story, "you'll let me know, won't you? And if I
+could be of the slightest service you'll call on me without hesitation,
+won't you? Of course I know they've no possible use for a chap like me
+but I'd move heaven and earth to do anything--to feel that I was really
+of service to them in any way."
+
+"You could not be better employed, Kenneth," said the Doctor, looking
+down on him affectionately. "I shall remember what you say and I like
+you the better for saying it. Good-night."
+
+Dr. Ware hastened into the house and up the long flights of stairs
+leading to the Dales' apartment and knocked at the door, hesitating at
+so late an hour to startle them by ringing the bell. Evidently they were
+expecting him, for steps came down the little hall and the door was
+opened almost immediately by Bridget.
+
+"The saints be praised!" she exclaimed, "but it's the Doctor!"
+
+"You were expecting me, of course, Bridget," as she helped him off with
+his coat.
+
+"Bless your heart but I can't say as we wus, sir, glad though they'll be
+to see your blessed face."
+
+"Of course I would come. Don't they know that by this time? Who is ill?
+Is the Major worse? I should have been here long ago had I not been
+expecting them at the house every moment."
+
+"They ain't ill, sir, they're workin'", was her reply. "Maybe you'd
+better come right out to the kitchen an' see for yourself their
+carryin's on. We're all at it to-night an' it's the fearful time they've
+had but it's all plain sailin' to the end now," she wound up hopefully.
+
+Somewhat mystified, Dr. Ware followed and stood speechless on the
+threshold of the kitchen. For there were the girls in their cotton gowns
+with sleeves rolled up to the shoulders working away at what were to him
+inexplicable things, while over in a corner sat Jack half buried in a
+pile of small white boxes. The whole room presented the bustle of eleven
+in the morning rather than eleven in the evening.
+
+"You bad Dr. Ware," said Julie playfully when she saw him, "what made
+you come?" She stopped her work a moment and whisking her apron over the
+chair Bridget had drawn out for him, motioned him to sit down. "We're
+just daubed with frosting from one end of the place to the other, but we
+can't stop working a moment, so if you dare, risk a chair?"
+
+The Doctor sat down. He would have taken the chair with the same
+equanimity if it had been caked with frosting.
+
+"Now what does this mean, at this hour?" he said.
+
+"Didn't Miss Ware get our note? Oh! I am so sorry. We are terribly sorry
+to miss the reception, aren't we, Hester?"
+
+"Um-um," said Hester absorbed in making elaborate frosting designs on
+small pieces of cake.
+
+[Illustration: THERE WERE THE GIRLS IN THEIR COTTON GOWNS]
+
+"We wrote her," continued Julie, "that we were detained by our work and
+I suppose if she did not get it that you thought when we did not appear
+something was the matter with Daddy. What a shame you had that anxiety
+for nothing!"
+
+"You must go straight back," said Hester. "We are getting on famously
+and you must not miss another minute of the reception."
+
+"You want to get me out of the way, I suppose, so you can keep up this
+orgy until all hours. I know you, you minx! I shan't budge until I know
+all about it so you may as well begin." He surveyed the group with a
+smiling imperturbable manner that was impossible to withstand. Jack,
+gazing at him out of the corner of his eye, thought he had never seen so
+splendid a gentleman and indeed his evening clothes became the Doctor
+tremendously so that he had never looked more handsome nor distinguished
+than at that moment as he sat among them leaning back in the kitchen
+chair.
+
+"It is all this wedding-cake," said Hester disgustedly. "It has acted
+like Sam Patch!"
+
+"It is the first we have ever done," explained Julie. "We took an order
+for two hundred boxes of cake and a big loaf, all for a wedding, and we
+made the cake a month ago. Oh! such a time as we had! You see, we are
+such ignoramuses that we have to wade through endless wrong ways before
+we discover the right one and we thought we had all the loaves properly
+frosted to cut for the boxes; but when we tried to cut the slices all
+the frosting fell off and so we had to begin all over again. Then we
+decided it would be better to cut the cake up into pieces for the boxes
+first and frost each one separately and--"
+
+"_We_ didn't any such thing!" interrupted Hester. "That was Julie's
+brilliant inspiration and she worked out all the frosting designs too.
+The big loaf and the bride's cake are perfect beauties. Did you know the
+bride's cake always had a ring and a thimble and a coin hidden in it for
+luck? Just look at the cakes over there," waving her hand toward a side
+table, "aren't they distinctly professional? Julie's been hanging around
+caterers' windows with her nose pressed against the glass studying their
+fancy frosted show pieces until I wonder she hasn't been arrested for a
+suspicious character. Of course that childlike and bland countenance of
+hers was greatly in her favor but," resignedly, "I was prepared for the
+worst."
+
+"Miss Hester will have her laugh," said Bridget, "but 'tain't no
+laughin' matter this job they're putting through!"
+
+"Now Bridget, you keep still," expostulated Julie. "She has been
+scolding us all the evening," to Dr. Ware, "and frightening poor Jack to
+death, hasn't she, Jack? Jack came to bring Daddy's paper, you know,
+which he prints in great style since Mr. Landor has given him a printing
+press, and when he found we were busy he begged so hard to come out to
+the kitchen and help that we just had to let him. He's been helping
+Bridget cut paraffine paper into squares--for each piece of cake has to
+be wrapped separately before it goes into its box--and they have cut all
+the white ribbon into pieces the right length to tie around the boxes
+and now they're uncovering the boxes and getting them ready for the cake
+as soon as the frosting dries. Jack has been invaluable, hasn't he,
+Bridget?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Bridget, with whom, nevertheless, the boy was a prime
+favorite.
+
+"Good heavens! Julie," cried the Doctor, "does one little box of
+wedding-cake mean all that?"
+
+"Two hundred do," smiling, "but another time we'll know better how to go
+at it."
+
+All during this conversation she and Hester had been bending over the
+big work-table making curious evolutions with frosting bags over the
+pieces of cake spread everywhere about the room. Presently Hester
+dropped her bag and sat down.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "I believe they are done--that part. Dr. Ware,"
+turning to him suddenly, "doesn't it strike you as funny that instead of
+disporting ourselves gayly in the festivities of the town we should be
+wasting our youth and beauty--doesn't that sound just like a book!--our
+youth and beauty over aggravating old things like these?" with a
+disgusted look at the wedding-cake. "You do not seem to laugh but I
+think it's tremendously funny. Dear me!" to the air, reflectively, "how
+trying it must be to get on without a sense of humor!" Then with an
+entire change of tone, "We did want to go awfully, especially as we had
+a suspicion that some one might be there. I wonder," dreamily, "if he
+was."
+
+"I fancy so," said the Doctor, hardly knowing whether or not to take her
+seriously. "Come back with me now and find out."
+
+"Can't," said Hester, "but you might be an angel and tell us if we knew
+any one there."
+
+"Let me see, there was Landor--"
+
+"Oh! bother Mr. Landor!" with a toss of her head. "He's omnipresent!"
+
+"Um," thought the Doctor, "I've struck the nail on the head." Outwardly
+he said, "Then there was Renshawe,--you know him, do you not, and a
+guest of his who was tucked under my wing--apparently for protection
+against the wiles of the women who are trying systematically to spoil
+him with adulation."
+
+"I know him," said Hester, "that is Monsieur Jules Gr�mond."
+
+"Yes," replied the Doctor, "I thought you would guess. He told me he
+knew you girls and I believe he is hunting my house over for you at this
+moment." He was talking to Hester but watching Julie narrowly.
+
+"There! Julie Dale," exclaimed her sister triumphantly, "what did I tell
+you! I knew he would not forget us. She swore, Dr. Ware, that he would
+have forgotten our very existence and I vowed that he carried her image
+around on his heart and all sorts of high-sounding things. Shouldn't
+wonder if they were true, too," to Dr. Ware confidingly, "and you
+needn't blush so furiously about it, either, Julie Dale?"
+
+"I am not blushing," protested poor Julie who was crimson, "and I'll
+have Bridget carry you off bodily if you don't stop talking such
+nonsense. Don't you mind what she says, will you Dr. Ware?" pleadingly.
+"She would rather tease than eat any day."
+
+Julie's embarrassment did not escape the Doctor and there was a twinge
+of pain in his heart as he said to her gently, "She is a naughty little
+girl, Julie, but she is right when she says your old friend Monsieur
+Gr�mond has not forgotten you. He inquired with great interest about you
+all and asked my permission to call upon you."
+
+To this Julie made no reply and for some moments there was silence, when
+at last Hester sidled up to her and in her most wheedling voice said,
+"Forgive me, please, I did not mean to be naughty."
+
+Julie gave her a hearty kiss and in the laugh that followed they all
+joined, even including Jack, who had found the situation almost painful
+a moment before when he thought his adored Miss Julie's feelings had
+been hurt. Perhaps the good Doctor did not laugh with his accustomed
+zest but if so no one detected it, least of all Hester who gave him a
+big hug by way of magnanimously forgiving him for being cross to her and
+said emphatically:
+
+"You _must_ go home. Miss Ware will be having a thousand fits, not to
+mention all the guests who are probably looking everywhere for you."
+
+"I have been called out to see a patient," replied the Doctor. "Every
+one knows it by this time, only they do not know that instead of one I
+find four," with a sweeping glance that embraced them all, "and not an
+inch do I stir until I see this case through. So you might as well make
+up your mind to put up with me and I want something to do. Come, Jack,
+show me how to take hold with you. I needn't be condemned as utterly
+worthless just because I am a man."
+
+In spite of their protestations Dr. Ware was as good as his word,
+busying himself in Jack's corner, and with so many hands the work went
+forward swiftly. It was all smooth sailing now, as Bridget said, for the
+critical and difficult part was done and the next two hours in which the
+little group sat about the kitchen table wrapping, boxing and tying the
+cake was immeasurably shortened by Dr. Ware, who told them interesting
+anecdotes, experiences of his life that made Jack long to have the night
+lengthen out indefinitely. But that which the Doctor most dwelt upon,
+knowing well it was what the girls most liked to hear, were stories of
+the days when he and Major Dale fought side by side for the Union of the
+country in that war which was as much of a reality to these girls as if
+they had taken part in every military engagement.
+
+And Dr. Ware went home in the wee small hours with his mind in a tumult
+of thought. Distress that the girls had had such a night of it formed
+only a part of his disturbance, for above this fact, which in more
+tranquil moments would have been pre-eminent, was the consciousness that
+a new and central figure had arisen on the scene--yesterday a stranger
+to him, to-day the hero of a drama which was to the Doctor as his very
+life.
+
+He sat a long while in his study when he reached home, pondering over
+the future and the change that seemed imminent to the girls and he
+wondered what the outcome would be should Gr�mond take Julie's life into
+his keeping. Was he worthy of her--_was_ he? How on so short an
+acquaintance could he tell? And did she love him--_did_ she? Beset by
+all these unanswerable questions he paced up and down the room, his slow
+measured tread like an accompaniment strengthening the minor harmonies
+in which his thoughts that night were set.
+
+His Julie! His little girl! Ah! she was no child to choose her lover
+lightly and if she loved him, trusted him to make her future, all would
+be well. He thought of her as he had left her, sweet and dainty in spite
+of the little dabs of sugar and frosting that stuck to the quaint blue
+apron which nearly covered her from head to foot. He remembered her
+embarrassment when Gr�mond's name came up and kept that picture of her
+long before his eyes as if to accustom himself to this new aspect. He
+remembered too how flushed her cheeks were over the work and the tired
+shadows under her eyes told him plainly enough the relentless demand she
+was making upon her strength. Gad! those girls had been working eighteen
+hours at a stretch! Eighteen hours! It wasn't the first time, either!
+And he, who would give his life to make things easier, was powerless--to
+another man would be given the right! Good heavens! Did Gr�mond realize
+his privilege? As if suddenly weary the Doctor flung himself down in his
+chair and heaved a sigh. Presently his lids drooped heavily. When he
+opened his eyes the room was flooded with sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+The order for the wedding-cake which had been a cause of such
+tribulation to the girls had come through Mrs. Lennox for a young cousin
+of her husband's in whose marriage she was much interested. The order
+consisted of a bride's cake, a round wedding-cake, two hundred boxes and
+in addition some thirty dozen small assorted cakes to be served with the
+supper. The bride's mother had given the girls a fruit-cake recipe which
+had been many years in her family and had asked them to make the cake at
+least a month before the wedding that it might "age," as the saying is.
+Hours easily counting into days had gone into the preparation of the
+fruit alone for this large order before the work of putting the cake
+together began; and then to make the twenty loaves, each of which when
+done resembled in size a two-quart brick of ice-cream, it was necessary
+to mix and cook the dough in installments. But as Julie told Dr. Ware,
+that was as child's play to the intricacies of the frosting and the
+catastrophe that ensued; and the nervous as well as the physical strain
+of that, coming on top of all the rest of the work which the order
+entailed, told severely on the girls, especially Julie, though she was
+up with Hester at six the next morning packing the boxes into the wooden
+case which was to take the cake to its destination.
+
+The round loaf over which Julie had expended so much anxious thought was
+wrapped in sheet after sheet of cotton wadding to protect the elaborate
+frosting from breaking, and resembled when laid in its box a small-sized
+snow drift. Hester printed "handle with care" in so many places on the
+wooden box cover that the expressman when he came could with difficulty
+distinguish the address; while Bridget cautioned him with such emphasis
+to carry it "like it wuz a baby, shure," that the man finally turned on
+her and asked if she thought he played football with his packages. It
+was an intense relief to them all when he had carried down the boxes and
+driven away, though their suspense would not really end until they
+learned of its safe arrival in the country town twenty miles away. And
+that they would know that same afternoon, for the mother of the bride
+had asked them to the wedding and Mrs. Lennox had been most urgent in
+insisting upon their going out with her, just, as she put it, for a
+"little country spree."
+
+Mrs. Lennox had arranged a charming program whereby the girls should be
+of the party she and Mr. Lennox were to take out on their coach, but as
+the morning wore on and Julie found each hour's work more difficult she
+finally told Hester she felt too tired to consider such an expedition
+and should remain at home. It was so unusual for Julie to admit fatigue
+that Hester felt alarmed and attempted to order her immediately to bed,
+saying she and Bridget could easily get through the rest and she should
+not go to the wedding without her. But Julie insisted, not only in
+working on into the afternoon when the orders for the day were at last
+completed, but in persuading Hester to consent to go to the wedding--a
+consent reluctantly given, for she was loath to go off without her
+sister. Having gained it, however, Julie dispatched a note to Mrs.
+Lennox begging to be excused from the party and turned her attention to
+helping Hester get ready when their work was done.
+
+Whereas, owing to her delicate constitution, Julie's fatigue usually
+showed itself in complete physical exhaustion, Hester's frequently took
+the form of intense mental excitement, when the chords of her buoyant
+nature were strung to their highest pitch. At such times she talked
+incessantly, laughed immoderately and was so restless that Julie always
+threatened to tie a string to her. She was in such a mood this
+afternoon, laughing and capering about, performing such ridiculous
+antics that Peter Snooks, who aided and abetted these moods, was barking
+with joy while Julie despaired of ever getting her clothed, not to
+mention restoring her to her right mind.
+
+"You are a darling to help me but I don't love you at all for making me
+go when you are too ill to budge. I've a good notion not to mind you,
+anyway! Why should I? I'm bigger 'an you!" dancing about on her toes to
+increase her height, which possibly measured some two inches more than
+her sister's.
+
+Julie caught her on the fly and thrust a dress skirt over her head,
+hooking it together without loss of time. "I'm going to have a nice
+quiet rest with Daddy," she said, "and will be all right when you come
+home. I want to hear all about the wedding and whether the cake got
+there and everything, so do go, there's a dear girl, and you'll have a
+beautiful drive and a good time into the bargain."
+
+"And feel like a pig because you are not there. That will be pleasant,
+won't it! Is that the doorbell? Do peek out the window like a dear and
+see if the coach is there."
+
+Julie did as she was requested and reported the arrival of the coach
+just as Bridget appeared and announced that Mrs. Lennox had sent Mr.
+Landor up to ask if she were ready.
+
+"Do you suppose he is going?" whispered Hester. "Oh! Julie dear, can't
+you go in and see him?"
+
+"Not much! Here are your gloves and have you got a handkerchief? Can't
+find one? Never mind, here is one of mine. Now run along and kiss Daddy
+and hurry--it is dreadful to keep people waiting. You look as fresh as a
+lark but don't talk yourself black in the face," admonishingly.
+"Remember 'silence is golden,'" she called out when she had recovered
+her breath from Hester's parting hug.
+
+She heard Mr. Landor expressing regret that the elder Miss Dale was not
+to be of the party and then she heard nothing more; but in most plebeian
+fashion she and Bridget and Peter Snooks peeped out of the window
+watching their departure, as did also Jack from the floor beneath. They
+saw Mr. Landor help her up to the box seat of the coach beside Mr.
+Lennox and sent down answering smiles to the parting wave of her hand.
+
+"Belikes I bet the young gentleman's disappointed he ain't got her
+hisself," commented Bridget. "She's the prettiest of the whole lot!"
+
+"Didn't she look lovely, Bridget! She always does when she is so
+excited."
+
+"It's a lot more excited she'll be when she gets back an' finds you no
+better, Miss Julie, so I'm just goin' to put you to bed. You do look in
+a way as I don't like, an' small wonder, the way you whip your poor
+frail little body along to do the work of ten!"
+
+"Nonsense, Bridget! I am not frail, you must not talk that way. I am
+just tired out to-day and I couldn't brace up and be agreeable to
+people--I don't want to be agreeable--I want to be cross, so I advise
+you to keep out of the way."
+
+Bridget acted upon this suggestion by picking her up in her great
+muscular arms and marching into her bedroom. There laying her down she
+left to brew her a cup of tea--faithful Bridget's panacea for every woe.
+Having returned and administered this she proceeded to undress her.
+
+"I was going to lie down with Daddy," expostulated Julie feebly.
+
+"You'll do nothin' of the sort," commanded Bridget. "You ain't fit to be
+seen with that look in your face. I'm goin' to tuck you into bed an'
+darken the room an' we'll see what sleep'll do for yez."
+
+As if this petting were more than she could bear, Julie buried her head
+in the pillow with a movement that made the woman suspicious.
+
+"What is it, darlint?" she cried, smoothing her hair. "Can't you tell
+your old Bridget about it?"
+
+"Nothing," said a muffled voice.
+
+"Shure it's rest yez want, darlint. I seen how yez kep' up all day so
+Miss Hester'd not be after knowin' how dead beat yez wuz an' now ye've
+clean gone all to pieces. Jus' cry it all out dearie, an' it's like a
+new person you'll be. 'Taint no small wonder yer wore out, with the
+worryin' an' frettin' that goes on inside yer an' always a cheery smile
+outside. Yer old Bridget knows! And may the blessed saints take yez out
+of this business before yez drop dead in yer tracks, sez I, every night
+on my knees--an' I don't care who's after knowin' it!" She gave the girl
+a loving motherly kiss and thus encouraged Julie cried her heart out on
+her shoulder.
+
+This was an unusual proceeding, for Julie seldom cried in these days.
+She had learned when her emotions threatened to overcome her to stiffen
+her chin and swallow hard, hard, hard,--until the tears were forced back
+and only a drawn look about the mouth told of the battle royal. She
+valued each victory, however trifling, for tears are weakening and
+self-control is a mighty weapon in the equipment of a soldier. To-day
+she was weak bodily and the petting utterly unnerved her, so that she
+cried until she could cry no longer and finally fell asleep from sheer
+exhaustion.
+
+When she awoke it was with a confused sense that it must be the middle
+of the night and that something was wrong, for Bridget stood over her.
+
+"Are yez wakin'? That's right, dearie. You've bin sleepin' these two
+hours an' there's a gentleman to see yez."
+
+"What?" dazedly, rubbing her eyes.
+
+"A gentleman to see yez--he didn't give no name."
+
+"Probably he has come to give an order. Couldn't you look after him,
+Bridget?"
+
+"No, miss," with an air of suppressed excitement, "his business is
+particular with you. Go bathe your face, Miss Julie, an' I'll have you
+dressed in a jiffy."
+
+"Well, I am a pretty looking object," commented the girl with a glance
+in the mirror as Bridget let some light into the room.
+
+"Never you mind, you're feelin' much better an' you souse your eyes good
+with hot water--they'll look natural enough--an' it's gettin' kinder
+twilight in the parlor now anyhow," consolingly.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Bridget, are you daft?" seeing her bring
+forth from the closet a French gown she had never worn in Radnor. "You
+know I never would put on such a thing to go in to see a customer. Get
+me a fresh shirt waist like the old dear you are."
+
+"Oh! Miss Julie, just this once, please," in such a coaxing tone that
+Julie found it hard to refuse her but she simply said:
+
+"I couldn't, Bridget, not even to please you," and checked her
+inclination to smile at the vicious manner in which Bridget got out a
+shirt-waist and jabbed in the studs and cuff-buttons.
+
+Immensely refreshed by her nap she went down the hall with a light heart
+and entered the little sitting-room to be greeted by a stranger who
+eagerly seized both her hands and cried:
+
+"Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle, this is indeed a joy to find you!"
+
+At the sound of his voice she trembled from head to foot and endeavored
+to withdraw her hands but he held them in a firm clasp and led her over
+to the window.
+
+"I want the light to shine on your face, Mademoiselle, as it did in
+sunny California. Am I too bold--have I startled you?"
+
+Still she did not speak and he dropped her hands as moving back a little
+he said penitently, "Forgive me, I am rough and have frightened you. May
+I sit down, Mademoiselle?"
+
+She dropped into the nearest chair and waved him to another as she said:
+"I did not expect you here, Monsieur Gr�mond."
+
+"Not expect me! Did you not know I was in Radnor?"
+
+"Oh! yes," laughing a little for she was beginning to recover herself,
+"but the two are not synonymous."
+
+"You are jesting, Mademoiselle. Surely you know--you must know that only
+one thing would bring me to this country as soon as I came out of the
+wilderness." There was a world of meaning in his eyes, but Julie chose
+to ignore it.
+
+"Your friendship with Mr. Renshawe has been of long standing, has it
+not?" she asked evasively.
+
+"Oh! Mademoiselle Julie, it was not Renshawe--do not hold me aloof--have
+you forgotten the dear old California days?"
+
+"One might have been led to suppose you had," she said quietly, "you
+disappeared so suddenly and--"
+
+"But I wrote," he interrupted, "and though you never replied I meant
+always to return when I had accomplished something. Did you not feel
+that instinctively, Mademoiselle? Many things have happened to me since
+then and to you, also, your guardian said."
+
+"My guardian?" she repeated. "Do you mean Dr. Ware?"
+
+"He gave me permission to call and said you might have many things to
+say to me," looking at her rather perplexedly. "Will you tell me all
+about it, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"Tell you," she cried springing up and confronting him, "tell you as if
+it were a book I were reading all the sorrow and wretchedness and misery
+of these past eight months! No, a thousand times no! It would not
+interest you!" She threw back her head defiantly. "Why," she demanded
+fiercely, "did you find us out? We have no part in the world to which
+you belong! Could you not know that to see you would bring back the
+past, intensify the contrast between then and now--hurt us like the
+thrust of a sword? Oh! how could you come?"
+
+"I came because I--" and then breaking off suddenly he said gravely, "If
+you think your affairs are of no interest to me you would perhaps prefer
+that I ask no questions, even though I do not understand."
+
+"Oh! I did not mean to be rude," she exclaimed, her burst of resentment
+over, "how could you understand and how can I explain? Dear Daddy is
+enduring a living death--everything is changed--we are professional
+caterers--working women--you will not begin to comprehend that and no
+doubt it shocks you. The dignity of labor is not a popular theme on the
+other side!"
+
+"Mademoiselle, have you only unkind things to say to me--me, who would
+have given my life to have averted them or helped you through all this?
+You do not seem to comprehend that I love you--love you--have journeyed
+out to Los Angeles and back to find you and now,"--he drew in his
+breath, "ah! now I never mean to let you go." He took a step toward her
+but she eluded him, standing well back in the room where he could not
+see how her lips trembled as she said:
+
+"You must not talk to me like this; I--I cannot bear it. I am all
+unstrung to-day and you startle me with your calm air of taking things
+for granted."
+
+"Do I, ch�rie?" tenderly. "But you see I love you and you are going to
+love me, too."
+
+"No," she replied, drawing still further back, "no, Monsieur Gr�mond, I
+am not."
+
+Something unflinching about the girl's quiet tone made the man say
+beseechingly, "Ah! Mademoiselle Julie, do not kill me!"
+
+"Kill you? You never thought whether you would kill me or not, did you,
+when you almost taught me to love you in those old days and then rode
+away? Many a man does that, expecting a girl to take everything for
+granted and receive him with open arms when he returns. And many a girl
+waits and waits, eating her heart out meanwhile. But I am not that kind,
+Monsieur!"
+
+"Oh, Mademoiselle!"
+
+"I was very fond of you--so fond that when I knew you were in town I
+wondered whether I cared to see you--wondered whether I would have loved
+you had you loved me and last night I thought perhaps I should see you
+at the Wares'; but we did not go, and now you come to me and at the
+first sight of you I know it is not love--could never have been love
+under any circumstances!"
+
+"Are you sure you know what love is, Mademoiselle?" and seeing the color
+spread in a crimson wave over her face he cried, "Some one has stolen
+you away from me! Tell me, is it not true?"
+
+"What right have you to ask questions?" she demanded, angered by his
+assumption of authority. And then more quietly, "We must not quarrel,
+Monsieur, we have been altogether too good friends for that. I want to
+tell you that we are interested in your explorations and how proud we
+are to know that so many of your plans have been accomplished."
+
+"It is nothing to me now."
+
+"Fie, Monsieur! Are you going to cry baby because you can't have the
+world all your way?"
+
+"You are all my world."
+
+Julie had heard this from other men under similar conditions, and though
+she believed his disappointment to be genuinely bitter she knew that
+life could still hold out some hope even in the face of unrequited love.
+But how make him see it her way? In a moment she said:
+
+"I am only a girl, Monsieur Gr�mond, but I think you want me to respect
+you, don't you, and I certainly shall not be apt to if you are going to
+be vanquished right before my very eyes."
+
+"What a strange girl you are, Mademoiselle," he said, roused to a
+critical survey of her. "Most girls like their lovers to be
+inconsolable, but you threaten me with everlasting disgrace for refusing
+to be consoled. I don't understand it."
+
+"No, you would not understand me, ever," said Julie cheerfully, glad to
+have roused him at last. "You must go back to France and marry some nice
+sweet little thing who will perfectly adore you and you'll be 'happy
+ever after,' as the story books say."
+
+"I wish you would not dispose of me in such an off-hand fashion,"
+aggrievedly. "I am tempted to kidnap you and carry you off this moment
+to the steamer. She sails in the morning. Oh! couldn't you do it, _ma
+petite_?"
+
+The vehemence of his tone really startled Julie who laughed to herself
+afterward as she remembered how she had shrank back in her corner as if
+she expected him to snatch her up bodily.
+
+"Leave Hester," she cried aghast, "and Daddy and Bridget--and Peter
+Snooks and--and every-body to go away with you? Monsieur Gr�mond, you
+must be mad."
+
+"Then you do not know what love is." He rose and came over to her. "Will
+you put your hands in mine, Mademoiselle? I am going--good-by. I suppose
+I have been a selfish brute to dwell altogether on my own troubles and
+not sympathize with yours, but the truth is I am knocked out. I
+undoubtedly, as you say, took too much for granted."
+
+"Do not put us out of your life altogether," said Julie gently. "Some
+day perhaps you will really care for my interest and respect and all the
+things I would gladly give you if you would have them."
+
+"If you put it that way, perhaps--but it seems to me there is only one
+thing," he said disconsolately.
+
+"Then you are not half the man I take you to be!"
+
+"I will be," asserted Gr�mond, his better nature responding to this
+rebuke. "It is good at least to have been with you. Good-by,
+Mademoiselle, good-by."
+
+For some time after he had gone Julie sat with closed lids trying to
+forget the last look of his eyes into hers, so persistently did it haunt
+her; but within her heart surged a feeling of gratitude that there is an
+all-wise Providence who shapes our ends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Madame Grundy was saying that winter that at last Kenneth Landor had
+settled down, though why he should take the trouble to burden himself
+with business cares when he had a rich, indulgent father was, from her
+point of view, wholly incomprehensible. Other people who knew Kenneth
+better saw that his life had become full of purpose and regarded it as
+the natural outcome of a nature like his--rich in possibilities. To the
+father who was just learning to know the son, there was much that was
+surprising in the intelligent way in which he grasped the great
+commission business and little by little made himself familiar with
+every detail, showing that in his composition was much practical
+ability--talents unquestionably inherited. Of any ulterior motive which
+had led him on to these things Mr. Landor had no suspicion nor indeed
+had any one save Dr. Ware, who kept his own counsel, and possibly Jack,
+whose fanciful imagination wove endless romances, the thread of which
+became wretchedly entangled, for what could a poor boy do with two
+heroines to one hero?
+
+That was the stumbling block of our young author, for he never could
+make up his mind to choose between the Dale girls. First he would write
+out a beautiful story in which his hero (and there was only one hero to
+him) married Julie and was as happy as the day is long. This would have
+been eminently satisfactory if it had not been for a sort of feeling of
+slighting Hester, who seemed to be lurking in the background of his tale
+gazing at him with reproachful eyes. Jack the tender-hearted could not
+stand that, so zip!--would go all the paper, torn to shreds, and he
+would patiently start all over again to give Hester a chance. But
+however he arranged it, one was left out. He couldn't have it on his
+conscience to make his hero a Mormon and so to one and one alone could
+he belong. This was all wrong, from Jack's point of view, but he did not
+know how to make it any different and as it seemed to be a subject he
+could not discuss with any of the three persons most concerned the poor
+boy gave it up in despair.
+
+But if Jack was racked with indecision it was not so with Kenneth
+Landor, who had fallen in love with Hester at first sight. One hears
+that to fall in love at first sight is an experience belonging to bygone
+days, and is quite unknown to the practical common-sense young people of
+whom in this generation one hears so much. Be that as it may, Kenneth,
+in spite of his worldly experience, was old-fashioned enough to be full
+of sentiment and treasured in his mind every meeting with Hester down to
+their first walk when she had dismissed him so summarily under the
+lamp-post. He could count them on the fingers of one hand, the actual
+hours he had spent with her, but between Dr. Ware and Jack he managed to
+keep as well informed concerning her life as if he were in daily
+intercourse with her; and it was his sole aim and ambition to put her
+struggles to an end. The generous fellow had not Gr�mond's idea of
+taking one of them away--he could not conceive of the little family
+being separated and his admiration of Julie was rapidly growing into an
+affection that made him long to cast her life, too, in sunny places and
+make a snug little home for them all. These were Kenneth's hopes and
+dreams--air-castles which sometimes took grim, fantastic shapes and
+often tottered to the ground when he remembered that Hester might not
+deign to look at him.
+
+Suddenly into all this work and dreaming entered a new element,
+threatening to disturb the future with a terrible upheaval, for the
+necessity that our country should go to war with Spain was talked of
+openly throughout the land. Rumors that war would be, had been, never
+would be declared were rife, suggested and contradicted in a breath,
+while the uncertainty of national affairs produced an excitement that
+pervaded all classes and conditions of men.
+
+Kenneth was one of those who believed in the war and whose whole spirit
+was fired with a desire to do his part toward jealously guarding his
+country's honor. At the same time, if he hoped to win Hester and make a
+home for her it scarcely seemed as if it would accrue to his advantage
+to go away. These things were so in his mind that he longed for a chance
+to see and talk with her, and then, as always, in his thoughts of her he
+was confronted by the fearful consciousness that she might take no
+interest in so unimportant a thing as himself. Nevertheless, he meant to
+make himself important to her and it was therefore to him as to Gr�mond,
+a great disappointment that the girls had not put in an appearance at
+Miss Ware's reception and he had spent an anxious night speculating as
+to the cause of their non-appearance.
+
+He managed by rising earlier than usual to get around to Dr. Ware's
+office on his way to business the morning after the reception; but,
+contrary to habit, that individual was already off. Much perturbed he
+worked harder than ever at the office and regretted that he had promised
+to drive out of town to a wedding. He was in no mood for society, even
+so charming as that of the Lennoxes. He was not a man who broke his
+engagements, however, and therefore went home about three o'clock to
+dress. When the Lennoxes called for him he sauntered out in his usual
+charming manner and made the greater effort to be agreeable to each
+member of the party from the mere fact that it _was_ an effort. This is
+a form of unselfishness, trivial perhaps, but necessitating a
+willingness to put aside one's personal inclination, to thrust aside
+one's mood for the general good. Some people call it adaptability, some
+tact, some a desire to please, but in Kenneth Landor, as in many others,
+it was an unselfish wish to contribute his share to the general
+entertainment. He was a man who recognized the duty of a guest to his
+hostess and did not look upon it as being all the other way. Having
+adjusted himself to a purely impersonal philosophical attitude toward
+the expedition, imagine his revulsion of feeling when Mrs. Lennox told
+him that the party would not be complete until they had picked up Miss
+Hester Dale whose sister, unfortunately, was unable to go with them. As
+we know, she delegated him to escort Hester down and we may know too,
+though no one on the coach suspected it, that he went up the four
+flights of stairs two steps at a time and nearly ran down Jack who was
+hobbling up on his crutches.
+
+What if, when he and Hester went into the street together she was
+immediately appropriated by their host and given the seat of honor
+beside him. Couldn't Kenneth _see_ her--every turn of her pretty
+head--and wasn't he inwardly proud that she was chosen for this
+distinction and didn't he know that it would be his own fault if he did
+not monopolize her later on?
+
+As for Hester, she had never been in a merrier mood and chattered on
+like a little magpie, forgetful of her sister's warning "not to talk
+herself black in the face." Every now and then she would heave a little
+sigh and audibly wish Julie were there--a wish promptly seconded by her
+host, who nevertheless was amply satisfied with his companion.
+
+The mere sensation of bowling along over smooth roads and through the
+beautiful environs of Radnor was in itself a novelty and delight to
+Hester but she was raised to the seventh heaven of bliss when Mr.
+Lennox, after a talk they had had about horses, said:
+
+"Wouldn't you like to take the ribbons, Miss Dale?"
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, "but my gloves--I can't drive in these," holding up
+two white kid hands. She did not think it necessary to add that they
+were her only pair.
+
+"Take them off and I'll give you mine. You can manage even if they are
+big. Try."
+
+She tried and in another moment the gloves were on, the ribbons slipped
+into her fingers and the control of four superb horses lay within her
+hands. Ah! how delicious it was to feel their strength and hers!
+
+"What would Mrs. Lennox say if she knew I were driving?"
+
+"She would not mind, but the others might. We'll never tell."
+
+"Never."
+
+They swung along at an even pace, but presently, as if conscious that
+the ribbons had changed hands, the horses became restive and finally
+taking fright at an imaginary object, the leaders shied and plunged
+forward madly.
+
+"Give them their heads!" commanded Mr. Lennox peremptorily.
+
+"Don't drive at quite such a mad pace, please Mr. Lennox," cried a girl
+from the rear, "you frighten us nearly to death."
+
+"Oh! it's all right," reassuringly, "they'll quiet down in a moment."
+
+Hester with set lips and feet firmly planted was struggling to get them
+under control. She did not speak nor did Mr. Lennox again, but he
+watched her narrowly, alert and ready in a second to relieve her. He
+thought her equal to the emergency and she was, for after half a mile of
+tearing madly over the ground, she succeeded in regaining control of
+them and the horses, recognizing the strength of an experienced hand,
+quieted down into the old habit of obedience.
+
+"Good!" cried Mr. Lennox, "you're a crack whip, as I thought."
+
+A little color came back into Hester's white face. "I'm so grateful to
+you for not taking them away from me," she said. "I should have died of
+humiliation if you had."
+
+"I thought I could trust you to pull through, but now that you have
+proved your prowess--and I believe you just got the animals to playing
+tricks to show what you _could_ do, you sly young person--aren't you a
+bit tired? Shan't I drive?"
+
+"Oh! thank you, yes, but I--I enjoyed it."
+
+She was very quiet after that, and presently when they reached the house
+and Landor sprang off and turned to lift her down, the two bright red
+spots in her cheeks did not escape him nor the subdued manner so unusual
+to her.
+
+As they passed into the house Hester saw in the hall a large table piled
+high with small white boxes and she shuddered as she thought how they
+had spent half the night over the completion of those innocent looking
+things. The satin bows actually had a "perky" look as if the ribbon had
+just tied itself without any trouble whatever! Turning her back on them
+abruptly she followed Mrs. Lennox into the drawing-room, where the
+ceremony took place a few moments after their arrival.
+
+It was a simple wedding with no bridesmaids nor ushers nor adjuncts of
+any kind, and the bridegroom had so large a family connection that only
+intimate friends had been added to the list so that the reception took
+on the informal character of a large family gathering. When the bride
+had been kissed all around, including every male cousin, in spite of the
+laughing protests of the bridegroom, she led the way into the
+dining-room for supper.
+
+"May I take you out, Miss Dale?" asked a dapper young fellow who had
+just been presented to Hester.
+
+"Thank you, I--"
+
+"You can't walk off with Miss Dale in that calm fashion, Charley," said
+a voice back of them, "she's promised to come to supper with me."
+
+Hester had no recollection of any such compact so she looked up and said
+mischievously, "What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Landor," turning
+the while as if to move off with the younger man.
+
+"You come with me, won't you?" urged Charley Bemis, "Landor always
+claims the earth and never gives us younger fellows a chance. We'll have
+to hurry a bit, Miss Dale," looking at her entreatingly, "if we want to
+see the bride cut the cake."
+
+"The cake!" she repeated, suddenly shrinking back. "Oh! Mr. Bemis, you
+go on without me, will you? I--"
+
+"Run along, Charley," said Landor. "Miss Dale and I will follow. The
+dining-room will never begin to hold us all anyway, so if we do not get
+in you look us up and tell us who got the ring. You may get it yourself
+if you hurry, who knows!"
+
+"Oh!" said Hester when the man had departed, "I couldn't go in there--I
+just couldn't."
+
+"Of course not," emphatically, "it is much too crowded. They've covered
+in the piazza by the dining-room. Won't you let me bring you something
+to eat out there?"
+
+"How could you fib to that boy so!" exclaimed the girl at the same time
+signifying her willingness to be led to some less crowded spot.
+
+Kenneth laughed. "You drove me to it. Do you suppose I intended to let
+him walk off with you under my very eyes?"
+
+"Why not? I'm sure he seemed a very _nice_ boy," with marked emphasis.
+
+"Oh! yes, he's nice enough," cheerfully, "quite nice, now you mention
+it, but I'm not just yearning for his society at the present moment."
+
+"Perhaps I am," getting a wistful far-away expression in her eyes that
+was tantalizing.
+
+"Here we are," said the man abruptly as they reached a semi-circular
+piazza where tables and chairs had been placed. "If you will sit down,
+Miss Dale, I'll look up Mr. Bemis immediately."
+
+"Thank you," demurely, "but if it _should_ happen that you found the
+supper first, would you mind bringing that instead? I am _so_ hungry,"
+with a pathetic droop at the corners of her mouth.
+
+He went off on air, returning followed by a waiter almost before she had
+a chance to miss him.
+
+And what a gay little supper that was! They had a small table quite to
+themselves, where Landor played host and was solicitous in providing for
+all her wants. Mr. Lennox, wandering about with an eye to his party,
+smiled across the piazza at her and reported to his wife that Hester was
+being well taken care of. Half unconsciously the girl herself was aware
+that her slightest wish was anticipated and she caught herself wondering
+as she played with her ice, whether it was chance or design that led Mr.
+Landor to avoid having any cake served at their table. It was everywhere
+else in abundance; hundreds of colored frosted cakes that seemed to
+Hester like so many little imps grinning at her and crying, "You made
+me--you made me!" This fantastic notion wrought itself into her tired
+brain until she wanted to scream out from very nervousness and caused
+Kenneth to say, as if divining her thoughts:
+
+"You are tired, Miss Dale. I am afraid you had an anxious night of it. I
+hope your father is better this morning."
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"We--we missed you at the reception," evasively, "and when Dr. Ware went
+off I had my suspicions."
+
+"It was not Daddy," she said quietly, "it was--other things." Then in a
+lighter tone, "Don't look so solemn, please, I want to be gay and forget
+last night."
+
+"What would happen, Miss Dale, if I were to lecture you?" smiling at
+her.
+
+"Try and see," teasingly. "Probably I shall laugh. I usually do when
+Julie scolds me and then she laughs too and that spoils the effect.
+Well, begin. What is the greatest of my enormities? Have you made out a
+list?"
+
+"Will you promise me something?" earnestly, leaning forward with a
+pleading expression on his handsome face.
+
+"Perhaps. I am in a most docile mood at this moment."
+
+"Then promise me you will do no more driving. You are not equal to it
+to-night, indeed you are not, and it takes all the strength out of you."
+
+"How do you know I drove? Did Mr. Lennox tell you?" regarding him with
+raised eyebrows.
+
+"No--but I knew."
+
+"If you are one of those mysterious persons who always know everything,
+I am going to avoid you," she laughed, feeling herself flush under his
+earnest scrutiny.
+
+"You have not promised," he persisted.
+
+"Did I promise to promise?" with a swift provoking glance from under her
+long lashes.
+
+"Miss Dale," pleading, "I never asked a favor of you before."
+
+"Why should you?" wrinkling up her forehead and wishing he had not so
+persuasive a voice.
+
+"I know--probably you think it is impertinent, but" coaxingly, "if you
+would just this once,--"
+
+"Well, is this where you sneaked off to?" cried a voice beside them; "a
+pretty chase you've led me!" and Charley Bemis dropped into the nearest
+chair and held out a plate to Hester. "See here, Miss Dale, you wouldn't
+go to the mountain, so I've brought the mountain to you. The bride cut
+the cake long ago but I saved my piece to eat with you. Landor doesn't
+get a crumb."
+
+Landor looked as if he would like to stuff the whole slice down the
+man's throat. The girl smiled and resigned herself to at least make a
+pretense of eating the thing she had tried so desperately to avoid.
+
+"There is something in your half," suggested young Bemis significantly.
+
+"Is there?" replied Hester, wishing his enthusiasm were less. "You find
+it for me."
+
+He cut her piece and pulled out something wrapped in paraffine paper
+which proved to be a shining gold dollar.
+
+"Oh! you've got it!" he cried. "Miss Dale's got the money," turning to
+announce it to the whole piazza, "she's going to be rich!"
+
+"How nice of you to prophesy such good fortune," she replied picking up
+the coin and rising. "Won't you come and help me find Mrs. Lennox and
+tell her about it? I am sure Mr. Landor will excuse us?"
+
+Kenneth, who had risen, bowed low and wondered how so adorably pretty a
+girl could be so stony-hearted. He was utterly confounded when, as she
+brushed by him she slipped something in his hand with a whispered
+"That's for luck," and vanished with Bemis in attendance. A quick
+indrawing of his fingers into the palm of his hand told Landor a little
+coin lay within his grasp. A half-smothered ejaculation escaped him! Her
+luck she had passed on to him! Did he dare attribute to it any
+significance? No outward sign betrayed his inward perturbation as he
+sauntered into the house to join the other guests.
+
+Whether it was Kenneth's skillful management or a preconceived
+arrangement on Mrs. Lennox's part or just Fate, deponent saith not, but
+the fact remains that when the coach started off again that evening,
+Hester found herself ensconced on the back seat with Landor, the rest of
+the party chatting gayly in front of them, the guards well in the rear.
+
+"Miss Dale," Landor said when they had ridden some moments in silence,
+"are you too tired to-night to let me talk to you a little, seriously?"
+He had no desire to lose any time.
+
+"Then you think I can be serious?"
+
+"I know you can, only you never choose to be with me."
+
+"I _am_ an awful tease," she admitted, touched by his wistful tone, "but
+I can be the most serious person in the world and I should like to have
+you to talk to me, only--you are not going to scold me any more, are
+you, Mr. Landor? I think I am really too tired for that." Her low
+musical voice seemed to drift to him plaintively through the darkness.
+
+"I was going to be selfishly egotistical and talk about--about a friend
+of mine," hoping she had not detected how near he had come to
+blundering. "I wanted to ask your advice about him if you are quite sure
+you are not too tired to listen, Miss Dale."
+
+"Of course I am not. I should like to hear about your friend, Mr.
+Landor."
+
+Was there ever a voice so sweet, he thought, or a girl so full of
+contradictions? One moment bewitchingly, aggravatingly whimsical, the
+next revealing unfathomable depths of a nature which to him seemed the
+purest and noblest in the world. Aloud he said:
+
+"My friend is torn by a divided duty. He wants to go to the war but--"
+
+"You think there will be war? Can't he go?" she interrupted. "It seems
+to me every man must go who can."
+
+"Yes, he can, but there are people whom he loves whom he hates to
+leave--more than that whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if his
+whole future were at stake--not only his but theirs, and he can't seem
+to see his way clear."
+
+"Are they old and dependent on him for support, these people?"
+
+"No, but he wants them to become dependent on him and how can that be if
+he goes away?"
+
+"If they love him," the girl said emphatically, "they will not stand in
+his way."
+
+"But he does not know that they love him or that they will ever love
+him. He only knows that he loves them and--oh! Miss Dale," sweeping
+aside this strangely complicated case, "if you had a brother in times
+like these, what would you do?"
+
+"Do?" she cried; "why, I'd help him off to the front without a moment's
+hesitation! Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the world if we
+had a brother to go to the war! If Daddy were well he would go--there
+never was a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor, you know us so
+little that you've no idea how strongly we feel about these things.
+We've tried in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers ourselves
+and we think no sacrifice too great to make for one another and for our
+country." In her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside her, the
+friend and everything save the inspiration of those principles which
+were as the very air she breathed.
+
+He made no reply, fearing to break the spell and startle her back into
+her old elusiveness. This revelation of her inner self was very precious
+to him.
+
+Presently she said: "Perhaps I know a little how your friend feels,
+because I have always thought if ever I lived in war times I should go
+as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a thing."
+
+"You? You are too young," he gasped, never dreaming of this possibility.
+
+"No, I am not too young, but Julie could not carry on our business and
+take care of Daddy, too, all alone, and my duty is here."
+
+"You are doing active service in a field much harder than anything they
+may see in Cuba," he said intently.
+
+"Oh! no, don't say that; I do not deserve it; but you have talked to me
+so frankly about your friend that I wanted you to know I understand a
+little, though I do not believe I have been of any help. But this much I
+know, if I were one of those people whom he loves, however much I might
+need him and perhaps want him,"--was her voice faltering?--"I should
+urge him to go and love him the better for going and believe that his
+future and all connected with him would be the richer and the brighter
+for the personal sacrifice."
+
+There was an exultant ring in her low voice that set the man's heart to
+throbbing with a pain strangely new and exquisite and so great was his
+emotion that for some time he did not trust himself to speak. When he
+did he said very gently:
+
+"You _have_ helped my friend, Miss Dale, more than you have any idea and
+I thank you for him. Some day, perhaps, you will let him thank you
+himself. I--I shall always remember your kindness to-night" (poor
+fellow, it was not easy to pick his words calmly when he longed to pour
+his heart out to her). "I may not see you again for awhile; I--I am
+going away."
+
+The coach drew up at her door and she was brought to a sudden
+realization of her surroundings by the laughing salutations of the party
+as they said goodnight. Kenneth had sprung to the ground and was waiting
+to assist her to alight. She was not conscious of the gentle, almost
+tender manner in which he lifted her down, but as he stood with bared
+head holding the door open, for her, she stopped a moment and put out
+her hands impulsively.
+
+"Is this good-by?" she said, her beautiful eyes looking full into his.
+
+"Yes," with her hands close in his, "I shall go out with the first
+regiment from Radnor."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Julie was in bed, but not asleep, when Hester came in that night, and
+propped herself up on her elbow to listen with absorbed interest while
+she gave an account of herself.
+
+"Julie dear," the younger girl began, "never urge me again to go
+anywhere where I am to be confronted by the fruit of our labor. I can't
+stand it. I thought I should die when I first saw the boxes of cake
+piled up in the hall--of course in a way it was a relief to know they
+were safely there, but it gave me an actual pain to remember how we
+nearly killed ourselves over them. Then a man I met nearly dragged me
+out to see the bride cut the cake. That was too much and Mr. Landor came
+to the rescue."
+
+"How nice of him!"
+
+"Yes," admitted Hester, "he _was_ nice and we were having a jolly time
+when that awful man pounced down upon us, bride cake in hand, and I was
+actually forced to eat some of it!"
+
+"Poor child! Couldn't you have intimated that you had tasted it just a
+few times before?"
+
+[Illustration: JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT]
+
+"I was tempted to, but out of consideration for Mrs. Lennox I spared him
+the shock. And then what do you suppose? I got the gold dollar! I would
+not have bothered to put such a polish on it yesterday if I had known it
+was coming back to me!"
+
+"Did you throw it out of the window in your best high-tragedy style?"
+
+"No, I gave it to Mr. Landor. He looked so cross when Mr. Bemis joined
+us that he was absolutely funny, so I thought I'd just give him a little
+present--'for a good boy on his birthday' or something of that sort, you
+know, only he wasn't so alarmingly good and it wasn't his birthday,--at
+least I don't suppose it was, do you?"
+
+"Hester, you do talk the most idiotic nonsense!"
+
+"Do I? Well, I've been pretty serious the past hour," she said soberly
+as she slipped off her gown and seated herself on the edge of the bed
+preparatory to taking down her hair. "Julie, we are going to have war!"
+
+To Julie, who could not be expected to know her sister's train of
+thought, this announcement seemed so irrelevant that she looked at her
+wonderingly.
+
+"It was not in to-night's paper," she said.
+
+"No, but it is in the air. Mr. Landor thinks it is inevitable. He talked
+with me to-night about a friend of his who's crazy to go. I did not
+suspect a thing at first but afterward I did--it's himself, Julie--he
+means to volunteer with the first call for troops."
+
+"That is just what I should expect of him, Hester."
+
+"Y-e-s," reluctantly, "but do you know from things he said it is
+evidently going to be a tussle for him to make up his mind to leave. He
+is all upset about it and oh! Julie dear, how I did wish you were there
+to talk to him--you always say such beautiful, helpful things. It is
+some one he cares about--perhaps it is his father. Do you suppose it
+_could_ be any one else, Julie?"
+
+"I don't know, dear"--certain suspicions in regard to Landor gaining
+ground every minute--"perhaps it is Jessie Davis," wickedly, for Julie
+could do her share of teasing too.
+
+"That fashion plate!" scornfully. "I don't believe a word of it! She's
+not fit to button his shoes!"
+
+"Probably she would not care to," remarked Julie, intensely amused at
+this taking up of the cudgels in Landor's behalf; and then, thinking it
+best--this wise Julie!--not to prolong the jest, she said, "It is
+probably his father. He is old, you know, and Mr. Landor may hesitate to
+go off and leave him. I am glad he talked with you, dear, about anything
+he had so much at heart, for it shows how much he appreciates and values
+your opinion and you probably talked to him twice as well as I could,
+you funny little baby owl!"
+
+Hester's reply to this was to fling herself down on the foot of the bed
+and cry in a muffled tone, "I'm so tired--so dead tired! I didn't
+realize it until I kept so still coming home and then I ached so I
+wanted to scream while Mr. Landor was talking to me!"
+
+Julie's arms were around her in a moment. "The strain has been too much,
+dear. You cannot stand the work and play too,--it is no use trying."
+
+"But I like to play," cried Hester rebelliously, "and sometimes I feel
+so wicked--as if I couldn't keep up my end another minute, and then I
+want to run away--all of us run away--to have 'The Hustle' again and go
+racing out of all this, and then,"--her voice broke,--"Oh! then Julie
+darling, I am so ashamed of such thoughts--so humiliated to think I
+can't be as patient as you are!"
+
+"I know, dear," stroking her sister's hair softly, "and I am not
+patient--not half as patient as I try to be--only I hold myself with a
+fearfully tight rein for fear I'll go all to pieces. We are both pretty
+much knocked out now, dear, with the strain of the winter, the newness
+of things and--"
+
+"Not to mention being half fed," inserted Hester.
+
+"But we have paid all our expenses as we've gone along and kept out of
+debt even if we have half starved to do it. You see, dear, up to now,"
+said Julie, the accountant, "we have had to put such a large amount of
+our earnings back into the business for all sorts of things."
+
+"Imagine what cousin Nancy would say if she knew how we wriggled along
+on almost nothing, you and I!"
+
+"She'd say we were fools not to have accounts with the butcher, the
+baker and candlestick-maker but we do not agree with her, and Daddy,
+bless his heart! does not want for anything. Thank heaven, we've
+accomplished that much! Isn't it a mercy, dear, that he does not realize
+things? It would break his heart!"
+
+"Oh! yes, but how I do long to have our darling old Daddy back!"
+
+Julie said nothing. Her chin was very rigid but in a few moments she
+said cheerfully, "I think the spring promises a good deal. Our work
+increases every day and we can soon begin to live better. Bridget says
+marketing is much cheaper in the summer, and if we only make enough now
+to carry Daddy comfortably through the dull season when people are away
+and we are not earning much, we'll get on famously. Just think what
+magnificent times we'll have this summer just loafing around Daddy's
+room!"
+
+Hester, who seldom allowed herself such luxury of woe as she had just
+been indulging in, sat up, wiped her eyes on the corner of the sheet and
+said emphatically, "I'm a fiend and I ought to be cow-hided!"
+
+"I'll paddle you instead," said Julie, picking up the hair-brush Hester
+had dropped and making as if to apply the back of it vigorously.
+
+Hester dodged but Julie caught her and, springing out of bed, planted
+her firmly in a chair and said, "I'll brush that crazy head of yours and
+help you to bed or you'll never get there! It must be all hours of the
+night."
+
+"You'll catch your death of cold," remonstrated Hester.
+
+"I won't, and if you'll keep as still as a mouse and not scream when I
+comb your hair--"
+
+"You pull like the dickens; you know you do!"
+
+"I do not and I wish you'd stop talking and give me a chance. I declare
+you get worse every day--I tremble to think what you're coming to!--and
+I've, oh! such a piece of news to tell you!"
+
+She was wholly unprepared for the clutch of Hester's arms about her neck
+as she cried, "Don't tell me to-night, Julie dear, I--I
+know--all--about--it!"
+
+"Do you?" holding her fast. "Then aren't you glad it has all come out
+this way?"
+
+"Yes, Julie darling," stifling a sob.
+
+"Why, Hester, what is it? You must not cry, dear. I can't think what is
+the matter!"
+
+"I'm a selfish brute, but oh, I'm not really, Julie--not really. I think
+it is the most beautiful thing!"
+
+"What is 'the most beautiful thing'?" wondering if the child were losing
+her mind.
+
+"That he's been here. I knew it the moment you spoke. As if he'd fail to
+come!"
+
+"Hester! do you mean you think that I--I--"
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+"But I don't dear, not the least little bit in the world!"
+
+"Oh, Julie!"
+
+For a moment they clung together. Then Julie gave a hysterical laugh.
+
+"What a silly old goose you were to go having absurd thoughts about me,
+and how dared you, how _dared_ you think I was in love with any one?"
+
+"I did not know," penitently, "you kept so still about Monsieur Gr�mond
+and he _was_ in love with you, wasn't he?"
+
+"Yes dear. He came this afternoon and I sent him away. We do not want to
+have secrets from each other, do we, old girl, but I never talked to you
+much about him because there was a time when I did not quite know
+whether I cared for him or not. Perhaps back in the old days, if he had
+asked me, I might have said yes, but I doubt it--it was more a sort of
+fascination he exercised over me for awhile and now I am truly thankful
+he has come and gone. He has removed every particle of doubt as to my
+attitude toward him."
+
+"Oh, I am so glad. I couldn't bear the thought of his carrying you off
+to France."
+
+Julie's eyes opened wide. "Did you suppose I'd go away and leave you and
+Daddy and the rest?" in a tone of astonishment.
+
+"Some Prince Charming is coming along to carry you off some day, Julie
+dear," said Hester, who could bring herself to regard such an event with
+some degree of complacency now that it was not an immediate fact. "I'm
+not quite such a selfish pig" (she never spared herself in the matter of
+epithets), "as to expect to have you always."
+
+"I think we are sufficient unto each other now, dear," said Julie
+seriously, "and we may always be, for all the years to come; but if some
+day our lives should change--a new interest enter in--we'll share it and
+make it beautify the lives of both of us just as we've always shared
+every joy and sorrow ever since we were babies." She kissed her sister
+solemnly.
+
+"You blessed Julie!" was the response.
+
+When the gas was out and Hester, the irrepressible, finally in bed, the
+light of the full moon came streaming into the little room. And
+lingering with a caressing touch it fell upon a white pillow on which a
+curly golden head and a sleek dark one lay pressed close together. In
+the solemn stillness the breathing of two slender forms told that the
+excitement of the past forty-eight hours had at last ended in much
+needed sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Mrs. Driscoe was not a reasonable woman, never had been reasonable, had
+no desire to be reasonable; it was therefore not to be expected that she
+would take a reasonable attitude toward Sidney Renshawe when he went
+down to Virginia early that spring and asked her for her Nannie. In vain
+did he argue and cajole, in vain did the dear Colonel remonstrate, in
+vain did little Nannie cry and plead; to one and all she turned a deaf
+ear. It was no--no--no then and forever.
+
+The County discussed the situation freely and wondered that so worldly a
+mother should frown upon so eligible a _parti_. Sidney Renshawe was well
+born, fairly rich, rising steadily in his profession; all the County
+knew that much, though it is doubtful if any one of them had ever been
+in Radnor. What if Renshawe's hair was red and his mustache a trifle
+bristly? Didn't that add a touch of strength to his face and suggest a
+resemblance to a certain Prisoner of Zenda, who, though only a man in a
+book, as every one said, was, nevertheless, the most idolized of heroes.
+As for poor little Nannie, it was plainly to be seen she was losing
+flesh over the situation.
+
+As she wrote the girls, she was "torn by conflicting emotions," using
+the well-worn phrase because the poor little thing had no words of her
+own in which to express her feelings. She had never had complex feelings
+before. Hitherto her life had consisted in loving and being loved, which
+led her naturally enough into a similar state of things with Sidney
+Renshawe, who came, saw and conquered her girlish heart. The Colonel was
+her stanch friend and ally. He liked Renshawe and felt he was just the
+man to whom he could trust his little girl when the time came to give
+her up. And that was not necessarily imminent, for if Mrs. Driscoe was
+unreasonable Renshawe certainly was not and was willing to wait one,
+two, three years if need be. But Mrs. Driscoe remained obdurate and the
+household was plunged into a state of strained atmospheric conditions
+such as had never been known before.
+
+"I can't help loving him and it isn't wrong to love him, is it?" little
+Nannie would say appealingly to the Colonel.
+
+"No, no, Puss, be patient. We'll win her over soon." It is doubtful if
+the Colonel believed this cheerful prophecy, but the child had to be
+comforted.
+
+Renshawe had remained two weeks with his friends at the plantation
+adjacent to the Driscoes, seeing Nannie every day. Mrs. Driscoe did not
+refuse him this boon but, declined to receive him herself and intimated
+so plainly that the man's room was preferable to his company that the
+girl took little pleasure in his visits and agreed with him that it was
+far better he should go away. Without her mother's permission she
+refused to become engaged but the night previous to his departure she
+allowed him to slip on her finger a certain simple little ring which he
+reminded her he had been carrying in his pocket since the night they
+met. The next day he went north leaving his heart in Virginia, with a
+delicious sense of its security in Nannie's keeping. The consciousness
+was strong within him that the winning of such as she was worth the
+waiting.
+
+And Mrs. Driscoe all this while went about with the aggrieved air of one
+whose troubles were scarcely to be understood by an unsympathetic world.
+If she had been put to it she could have given no reason for her
+opposition to Renshawe, for she had none and had shown him marked favor
+at the beginning. But that was before, as she told the Colonel, "her
+suspicions were aroused." From the moment they were, Renshawe was made
+unpleasantly conscious of it.
+
+While Nannie, sustained by the Colonel and the County's backing, got
+what solace she could out of the days that were so long and oh! so
+lonely after Sidney left her, he, back in Radnor, turned for comfort to
+the Dale girls, who took him into their hearts for Nannie's sake and
+soon learned to like him for his own. He became a frequent visitor,
+calling usually Sunday afternoons when he felt he would be less likely
+to disturb them, and he wrote Nannie that except a certain little girl
+in Virginia whose name he would never divulge, they were the sweetest
+girls he had ever known and the bravest. But he did not tell Nannie how
+as he came to observe them more closely he discovered in their faces
+little careworn lines which told a tale their lips never would have
+disclosed and how about Julie, especially, there was a subdued, almost
+intense manner, as if she were holding herself in a vise. They never
+spoke of their work or their cares to him or any one else and made light
+of any passing reference to their business. Indeed, as far as Sidney
+might have known from them, they lived quite like other girls.
+
+In regard to his friend Gr�mond's previous connection with them or of
+his call on Julie, Renshawe knew nothing. The Frenchman left town the
+day following that on which he had seen Julie and had not referred to
+the Dales in any way either to him or Dr. Ware, who was left to draw his
+own conclusions. This was not so simple as might be supposed, for while
+in one light the man's sudden disappearance looked as if Julie might
+have given him his cong�, viewed from another point, especially taken in
+connection with a certain happy light in Julie's eyes these days when he
+caught her glance, it led him to believe that perhaps the girl had given
+him her promise but required that he should wait yet a longer time to
+claim her. The Doctor longed to know and wearied himself with imagining
+why she did not confide in him. But since she did not, delicacy forbade
+his mentioning Gr�mond's name.
+
+Another person who did some speculating over Gr�mond was Mrs. Lennox,
+but being a woman she arrived at her conclusions quickly and decided
+that his precipitous flight to France when he had been booked for some
+weeks in Radnor, argued ill for the result of his trip across the
+country. She was not at home the one time he had called on her and the
+fact that he was not at more pains to seek her out and continue the
+confidential relations established in her sanctum on his previous visit,
+satisfied her that he could not have found what he was so eagerly
+seeking. Being a sympathetic woman she was sorry, but she would have
+thought more of him had he chosen to tell her the outcome of his
+affairs. As he did not, she dismissed him from her mind altogether,
+having agreed with Miss Marston one day when they were discussing him,
+that he was a clever man but after all a trifle too self-centered. To
+tell the truth Mrs. Lennox had been mistaken in her analysis of his
+character and it annoyed her.
+
+A fortnight after the wedding the Dale girls were devouring with eager
+eyes one morning a very small note and a very large check which they
+could scarcely read, so great was their excitement.
+
+"Oh, what a relief!" cried Julie, "to know that everything pleased Mrs.
+Truxton, and how good she was to write such a kind appreciative note to
+people like us whom she scarcely knows! Let's go and read it to
+Bridget."
+
+Bridget, when she heard it, was reduced to tears and presently they were
+all laughing and crying together, for the work of this first big order
+had been more of an anxiety than any one of them cared to acknowledge,
+while its success expressed so kindly by their thoughtful customer meant
+as much in its way as the accompanying check, which fairly dazzled them.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars!" cried Hester ecstatically. "We're
+millionaires! Oh-- oh--oh! to think of our _earning_ so much money!" She
+waved the check wildly over her head and even insisted that Peter Snooks
+should have a sniff at it before she said, "Wouldn't you just like to
+frame it and keep it forever?"
+
+"I know what I should like best of all to do with it," said Julie.
+
+"I bet Miss Hester can guess by the knowin' look in her eyes," said
+Bridget. "It's meself that knows too, what your blessed selves is
+thinkin'."
+
+"Of course you both know," Julie said quietly, "we want to begin to pay
+Dr. Ware rent."
+
+They went the next afternoon to his office. On the doorsteps they
+encountered Miss Ware, who turned about as she saw them approach.
+
+"Don't let us detain you," said Julie politely, "we have just come for a
+little business talk with your brother."
+
+"Ah!" she replied, "I fancied you got about all of that sort of thing
+you wanted at home. You'd better come upstairs and let me make you some
+tea--you look peaked, both of you. Philip ought to give you a tonic.
+Tell him I said so, and come up afterward. I insist upon it and shall
+have the tea ready. It will not do you any harm to sit down in a
+different atmosphere for a while. I suppose you do get sick to death of
+a kitchen."
+
+There was no doubt that Miss Ware possessed to perfection the faculty of
+rubbing one the wrong way, but Julie deemed it wise not to decline these
+overtures and made no further protest against her going in with them.
+
+"Horrid old thing! How I hate her!" whispered Hester, as Miss Ware went
+on upstairs and they waited a moment in the Doctor's ante-room.
+
+"So do I, but she's _his_ sister and she means well."
+
+"You'd find excuses for the old boy himself."
+
+"No, I wouldn't," laughed Julie, "but--here's Dr. Ware."
+
+He bowed to them as he entered from the private office and passed by
+with an elderly man, with whom he was in deep conversation. In a moment
+he returned and greeted the girls warmly.
+
+"Well," he said, giving each a hand, "this is delightful. Come into the
+other room. That was old Mr. Landor--Kenneth's father, by the way--did
+you notice him? He is about half Kenneth's size, but he has force enough
+for a dozen men. I wish you girls knew him."
+
+He pulled out chairs as he talked and ensconced the girls comfortably,
+then stood against the table facing them with arms folded and the smile
+on his face which Bridget vowed was "like the blessed sun for warmin'
+the cockles of your heart."
+
+"It is good to have you here," he said heartily, "I wish you came more
+often. Perhaps," with a laugh that showed the gleam of his white teeth,
+"I do not give you a chance--I go so often to see you."
+
+"If you came every hour of the day it wouldn't be too often," exclaimed
+Hester, who never loved people by halves. "But Julie is going to do the
+talking to-day. I intend to keep still."
+
+"As if you could! Well, Julie?" smiling at her.
+
+"We have come to have a little business talk with you," she said,
+twisting her fingers together nervously and finding it a little
+difficult to begin.
+
+"Delighted to be so honored," he replied lightly, bowing low.
+
+"It is about the--the rent," said Julie, who wished her words would not
+stick in her throat. "We are getting on so well with our work that we
+want to begin to pay you. We thought if you would let us begin this
+month and--"
+
+"And not object or scold us or anything," broke in Hester who never
+could remain out of a conversation, "but just take the money, we'd feel
+a thousand times happier, though no money or anything else could ever
+express our gratitude for all you are doing."
+
+He still leaned against the table with folded arms but the smile had
+given place to an expression of sadness.
+
+"Have you both quite finished?" he asked when Hester had stopped for
+lack of breath.
+
+"We never could finish talking about your kindness," put in Julie.
+
+The Doctor raised his hand as if to waive that aside. "I have listened
+to your proposition," he said, "because I am a practical business man
+and I understand your spirit. It is the height of your ambition to be
+independent."
+
+"Yes," they assented.
+
+"When your father broke down," he continued, "I longed to take you all
+home and look after you. I was amply able to do it and he is my oldest
+and best friend. I would have done it, too, if you girls had not
+astonished me by displaying so much courage and such a determination to
+fight your own battles that I could only stand aside and watch you work
+out your own salvation."
+
+"You have made the way easier all the time," said Julie tremulously.
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat.
+
+"I have been so glad to share a bit of the responsibility, but now my
+faithful little comrades want to shoulder it all."
+
+"Oh, Dr. Ware, you don't think--" began Hester impulsively.
+
+"Yes, I do think," he interrupted, "that you have the right idea and
+whatever my personal inclination may be, I like your spirit of
+independence and it shall be as you say."
+
+Hester flung her arms about his neck and kissed him. "Do you know," she
+said brokenly, "Julie and I are getting so puffed up with conceit over
+our business prosperity that presently you will disown us altogether."
+
+"Shall I?" holding her fast. "What do you think, Julie?" with a
+searching gaze into the face of the older girl who stood a little apart
+from them.
+
+Julie flushed and turned her eyes away--tell-tale eyes like hers were
+not to be trusted. "I think," she said with a supreme effort to speak
+calmly, "I think we had better go upstairs for tea. Miss Ware will be
+wondering what has become of us."
+
+When the Doctor learned that tea was brewing in the library he followed
+them upstairs and electrified his sister by handing about tea and taking
+a cup himself with as much complacency as if he were in the habit of
+dawdling around a tea-table every afternoon of his life. Miss Ware
+wished he hadn't come, for she had intended to ply the girls with
+questions about their work; questions which in the presence of her
+brother she hesitated to ask, standing, as she did, in considerable awe
+of him. She did manage, while he was talking to Hester, to catechise
+Julie a little, but that young woman's answers were so evasive, yet
+withal so sweetly polite that Miss Ware felt very much as if she were
+hitting a rubber ball, which, while showing the imprint of her attack,
+bounded back every time to the starting point. It happened also that Dr.
+Ware having some notion of what his sister might be up to, rescued Julie
+from too prolonged a t�te-�-t�te and with infinite tact kept the
+conversation in such general channels that personalities were forgotten
+and Miss Ware quite shone in her desire to be agreeable. There are many
+persons who, given their own conversational way, manage in the course of
+an hour to reduce to a state of irritation every person in the room, yet
+who, guided and steered by a stronger force, rise to the best that is in
+them and produce such a favorable impression that one wonders how one
+ever thought them other than agreeable. It was thus with Miss Ware, who
+under the guidance of her brother, appeared to the girls in a new light,
+and she herself had the unusual sensation of regretting that they had
+taken so early a departure.
+
+"I wish I had asked them to stay on to dinner," she said when they had
+gone.
+
+"I wish you had," said the Doctor, accustomed to her after thoughts.
+
+"Why didn't you suggest it?"
+
+"I was not sure that it would be agreeable to you, Mary."
+
+"Humph!" she said. Then critically, "Hester _is_ extraordinarily
+pretty--and what an air! She's almost conspicuous. How is your scheme
+about Kenneth getting on?"
+
+"It is not a 'scheme,' Mary. I wish you would not express it just that
+way. And I have concluded I am not the right person to go in for
+match-making. Think no more about it."
+
+"Humph!" she said again.
+
+"I doubt if either of the girls will care to marry," he volunteered.
+
+"Girls are queer," she said sententiously.
+
+"Are they?" he rejoined wearily. "I do not think I know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+That spring would always be a memorable one both to the girls and the
+country at large, for momentous events followed one upon another in
+rapid succession. War was declared with Spain, as Kenneth had
+prophesied, and all the bustle and activity attendant upon the
+preparations of hostilities with a foreign power were felt throughout
+the nation.
+
+Kenneth, believing such a crisis inevitable, had prepared to respond
+promptly to the first call for troops.
+
+There had been a fierce tussle with his father when first he broached
+the subject, but by that time Mr. Landor had learned that Kenneth's was
+not a nature to be forced into subjection and heard him out with far
+more respect than would have been accorded him a year ago. Mr. Landor
+suggested, in the course of the talk, that it was a pity to leave the
+business just as he was mastering it; and Kenneth agreed with him. But
+all the patriotism in his nature was aroused and this, combined with
+Hester's inspiration and his naturally adventurous spirit, held him
+proof against his father's arguments. This strength and decision were
+not lost upon the older man, who, having put forth every argument to
+keep his son at home, ended the discussion by saying, somewhat abruptly:
+
+"When the call came in '61 I could not go. I had a father and mother
+dependent on me. I'm--I'm not dependent on you, Kenneth, and your
+country needs you. I should have been disappointed in you if you had not
+wanted to go."
+
+"Thank you, father," with a hearty grip of the hand for he thought he
+understood the personal sacrifice his father was making, though,
+man-fashion, he said no word.
+
+And so Kenneth used his influence toward the end he had in view, with
+the good result that when on that twenty-third day of April the
+President issued his first call for troops, he was given a commission as
+lieutenant in the crack cavalry troop of Radnor and ordered into the
+State camp to await developments.
+
+The girls saw the troopers go. They happened to be in the business part
+of the city that afternoon and were attracted by groups of people
+standing about and talking excitedly. Further investigation, coupled
+with the sound of a bugle in the distance, caused them to take refuge on
+the nearest steps and wait with bated breath for the militia to appear.
+Electric cars had stopped running, wagons rattled off into the side
+streets, leaving the main thoroughfare clear, and presently they came--a
+troop of cavalry followed by a regiment of infantry, the splendid column
+swinging along to the gay music of the band, whose medley of martial
+airs wound up suggestively with "The Girl I Left Behind Me."
+
+The crowd broke into a great spontaneous cheer and cheered and cheered
+again, shouting until they were hoarse. On the sidewalks, steps, from
+windows all about, people craned their necks for a last look at the
+departing soldiers. Women waved their handkerchiefs and wept. Men raised
+their hats--aye, flung them high in the air--while every man, woman and
+child who could lay hand on a flag waved it in frantic demonstration.
+For staid decorous Radnor it was an ovation.
+
+The Dale girls thrilled with excitement. Just as the cavalry passed
+their steps Julie grabbed Hester and said:
+
+"Look at that officer just back of the men--isn't he stunning! And see
+how beautifully he manages that prancing horse! No, not over there,
+Hester,--this way, nearer us," excitedly, "the horse is dancing to the
+music and oh!--why, Hester Dale, it's Mr. Landor! Wave to him, quick! I
+want him to see us!"
+
+They both waved, standing on tip-toe, and, as if impelled by the
+instinct that warns us when those we love are near, he turned and saw
+them. There was a quick interchange of glances, a slight wave of the
+hand and he was gone.
+
+"He _did_ see us," exclaimed Julie. "I am so glad even if it is against
+the regulations for an officer to recognize people. Oh, aren't you glad
+we were down town! It is really living in war times and seeing for
+ourselves the things Daddy has described a thousand times!"
+
+"I can't realize it," said Hester, looking rather flushed, "but I would
+not have missed it for anything in the world!"
+
+When they got back to the house they found Jack in a fever of impatience
+waiting to waylay them.
+
+"Did you see him? Did you see him?" he cried, stopping them at his door.
+
+"Mr. Landor? yes," laughed Julie. "Did you?"
+
+"Where were you? I was down at the Armory. Oh, please stop in here a
+moment till I tell you about it."
+
+Thus urged, they went in.
+
+"He was here," cried Jack, to whom there was only one he, "early this
+afternoon in his uniform and he asked for you; he wanted to say good-by,
+but I said you'd just gone out. I saw you both going up the street
+before he came--and he could only stay a second 'cause the troops were
+ordered out and he thought I'd like to get around to the Armory and see
+them start off. And didn't I, just! I went lickety-split on my crutches
+nearly as fast as a boy could run," he cried, immensely proud of this
+achievement, "and I was there in time and got a front seat. A fellow on
+a grocery wagon asked me to sit up with him and I saw--everything," with
+a comprehensive sweep of his arms. "The horses and the officers and the
+men and all their friends crowding around the Armory and hanging on to
+some of them tight, and some of the ladies crying and gee! but it was
+great!"
+
+"Well, you certainly were right in it, Jack," commented Hester.
+
+"Should say I was! And pretty soon out came Mr. Landor--Lieutenant
+Landor," corrected Jack with great emphasis, "and an orderly was
+standing alongside the curb with his horse and before he mounted he saw
+me sitting in the wagon on the corner of the street and he came down and
+saluted as though I was his superior officer," Jack's eyes were fairly
+dancing out of his head, "and said good-by all over again. I wish you
+could have seen the crowd! They just gaped! and the boys nearly had a
+fit seeing me talking to an officer. And when he went off one of them
+said, 'Gee! he's a corker--he'll knock the spots out of the Spaniards,'
+and I said, 'You bet!' That's awful slang, Miss Julie," apologetically,
+"but it's the truth."
+
+Julie smiled. "We are getting our first glimpse of war, Jack, and it is
+pretty exciting for all of us."
+
+"I'm crazy to go--I bet they'd take me for a drummer-boy if I could get
+rid of these," with a disgusted glance at his crutches. "I told Mr.
+Landor so and he said of course I wanted to go--every boy wanted to
+serve his country--but sometimes there was just as much to do for those
+who stayed at home as those who went. That the women and children must
+be looked after" (the air of protection which the superiority of his sex
+gave him would have been funny had he not been in such deadly earnest),
+"and," he continued, "he appointed me a guard of honor. I'm to take care
+of you!" He made this announcement with positive triumph.
+
+"How splendid!" said Julie, realizing how much this feeling of
+importance meant to the restless boy who was longing to be off for the
+front.
+
+"I'm to go and see his father too, and print a weekly bulletin full of
+what we're all doing and anything I can make up--just like the one I do
+for your father and he's going to write me from camp. Think of that! And
+I'm to get well as fast as I can and study very hard and try to be a man
+when he gets back. And what do you suppose? No more office for me!"
+
+"Jack, you are inventing!"
+
+"Nope," delighted at her incredulity, "he had a talk with mother last
+week and I'm to go to school and then to college."
+
+"That is the best news I've heard for many a day," said Julie,
+affectionately regarding the happy boy. "If you work hard and go to
+college I prophesy great things for you."
+
+"If the war's still on, though, when I'm old enough and well enough,
+maybe I'd get to be a drummer-boy." In his present state of military
+ardor life held the promise of nothing greater than that.
+
+When they had left him and were nearly at their own door they were
+stopped by the sound of his crutches on the stairs below. Hester ran
+back to see what he wanted.
+
+"Don't come up, Jack," she called, running down to meet him. "Did we
+leave something behind?"
+
+"It's this, Miss Hester," reaching out a note. "He gave it to me--I
+nearly forgot. Please forgive me," penitently.
+
+"Of course, Jack," taking it from him and turning again she went
+upstairs.
+
+It was only a thin sheet of paper, folded three-cornered, on which in
+pencil was scrawled her name. But she opened it on the stairs with a
+mixture of curiosity and tenderness which she would have been at a loss
+to define had any analysis of her feelings been required of her.
+
+  "I had hoped to see you," it said, without any other beginning, "but
+  that failing, I have stolen a moment here at the Armory to say
+  good-bye. It was not a friend but I, myself, to whom you were such a
+  help and inspiration that evening. When I come back will you let me
+  thank you for that and--more? The bit of gold you gave me I am
+  carrying with me as a mascot. Do you mind? And if I prove as
+  fearless and brave a soldier as you I shall thank God for making me
+  of the right stuff. Will you pray that it may be so? Good-bye."
+
+She stood quite still for a moment when she had finished reading, then
+brushed her hand quickly over her eyes and went on into their apartment.
+Finding Julie she handed her the bit of paper and said gayly, though
+Julie thought there was a suspicious huskiness in her voice, "See, Julie
+dear, a note from a really, truly soldier." And before Julie could speak
+she whisked out of the room and until Bridget called her to dinner, was
+seen no more.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month passed, during which, in spite of the excitement over war and
+the subsequent depression along certain lines of business, their work
+increased from day to day. And in the midst of all this bustle and rush
+when each hour exacted of them the very limit of their endurance, Mr.
+Dale died. He went to sleep with God as peacefully as a little child. At
+first the girls could not believe it. They had grown so used to the long
+hours in which he slept, so accustomed to the paralysis which kept his
+mind and body apathetic, that they could not conceive that he would not
+wake again and turn his eyes fondly on them as before. When finally he
+was carried out of the little home and laid in his last resting place
+they began to realize that God had released him from his earthly
+thraldom and given them another saint in heaven. With characteristic
+courage they lived through those first days when the awful loneliness
+pressed so heavily upon them, and with characteristic determination took
+up their work struggling to go on as if nothing had happened. But it was
+hard--harder than any other sorrow which had come to them--for the whole
+incentive of their work was gone. It was as if the very mainspring of
+their lives had snapped and broken.
+
+In the long solemn talks the girls had together at this time Julie urged
+that they must be as faithful to their father's precepts as they had
+tried to be while he was with them. And she dwelt very much on the fact
+that he was still with them, guiding and loving them as much as during
+all those years before he was stricken down. And Hester believed this
+too for they had been taught the beauty of the inner, spiritual life
+that counts for immortality and makes all separation merely a transitory
+thing bridged over by love. So they felt their beloved father still with
+them, though Hester often brokenly whispered that working was robbed of
+its incentive now that they were no longer "making a home for Dad."
+
+It must not be supposed that they were left alone in their affliction.
+On the contrary, friends sprang up in every direction. Women whom
+hitherto they had only regarded as customers and known most formally,
+now came forward with kindest words and thoughtful suggestions, while
+expressions of sympathy in the form of cards and flowers threatened to
+well-nigh deluge them. It was evident to the most casual observer that
+"those Dale girls" were persons of considerable importance. Unique as it
+was, they had made their place in Radnor, and the fact was given wide
+recognition. They themselves were fairly bewildered and overcome by so
+much demonstration from people from whom they expected nothing. That
+they were not insensible to its meaning was shown in their grateful
+appreciation of every word and act. Even the haughty Miss Davis,
+desiring to make reparation, chose this time to come and see them, and
+Hester out of the fullness of her sorrowful heart accepted her repentant
+kiss and fell to talking of childish days.
+
+Next to Dr. Ware there was no one so keenly conscious of or who so
+rejoiced over this capitulation of exclusive Radnor as the Lennoxes. As
+Mrs. Lennox wrote Kenneth Landor, most girls were what their position
+made them, but they had made their own position, winning the respect and
+admiration and at last the friendship of every one who knew them. He,
+hard at work drilling raw recruits in Virginia (for his troop had been
+ordered into a Southern camp) found time to write how glad of this he
+was and to the girls he sent a joint note of deepest sympathy.
+
+The Driscoes wrote, of course, each in their own way. The girls half
+smiled over Cousin Nancy's letter--it was such a mixture of a belief in
+the retribution that overtakes the willful and an evident grief that the
+Major was no more. Colonel Driscoe wrote little but did much which
+developed later through Dr. Ware who unwarily let the cat out of the
+bag. And Dr. Ware, as might have been expected, did everything. This
+time the girls allowed him to plan and arrange and perform with them and
+for them the last loving offices for their father, feeling that it was
+his right.
+
+Miss Ware was at this time in England and as the Doctor was living at
+his club, his time was more than ever at their disposal. Miss Ware had
+taken flight at this first note of war, indeed before the bugle sounded,
+for she had a very indifferent regard for her country and at all times
+preferred England. So the Doctor came and went without comment, and a
+month after Mr. Dale's death he was summoned hastily one morning by
+Bridget.
+
+Julie lay ill. He could not find that she was in any great pain and he
+had not expected that she would be. He knew immediately that the thing
+he had been so long dreading had taken place. Her tired nerves refused
+to do their work at last--the delicate mechanism of her body had
+stopped.
+
+Hester hovered about, wide-eyed and solicitous and then it was that more
+than ever Dr. Ware took things into his own hands and said a few things
+to Hester which caused that young woman to gasp with astonishment and
+fling her arms about his neck in her usual impetuous fashion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Under the most favorable auspices a military camp entails labor, but to
+the volunteers who assembled in Virginia that spring and broke ground
+for what afterward became known as Camp Alger, it was a tremendous
+undertaking. The hewing of wood and clearing of underbrush which it
+entailed was scarcely bargained for by the enlisted man fresh from
+civilian life, who, nevertheless, went at it with the energy
+characteristic of Uncle Sam's boys the country over, as a result of
+which, by the end of May, many of the regiments were as well quartered
+as if they were enjoying the customary summer outing at their State
+camp-grounds at home. These, of course, were the militia now mustered
+into the United States service and awaiting orders to follow the
+regulars into Spanish territory.
+
+Troop D of Kenneth Landor's squadron had unquestionably the finest site
+on the reservation; a wooded knoll stretching down into a field of
+grass--green when the troopers came but worn down to bare earth in the
+first month of their encampment. Beneath the shade trees on the hillside
+the officers pitched their conical tents, the men stretching out through
+the field below in two troop streets, back of which on either side were
+picketed their horses.
+
+It was a warm June afternoon, but a little breeze stirred the branches
+of the trees and blew with delicious freshness over the knoll, on which,
+stretched out at full length, lay Kenneth Landor. It was an off hour in
+camp and, barring the sentries who were tramping up and down their
+posts, every man was taking advantage of it, some comfortably lounging
+like Kenneth on the grass, others laboriously writing home letters
+filled with their latest exploit. For they were just back from a three
+days' practice march along the Potomac, during which they had spent
+their time in fighting the infantry they met on the road and swimming
+their horses in the river; and this first bit of mimic warfare could not
+fail to be of interest to the home people.
+
+Kenneth had enjoyed the march hugely. He liked action and chafed, as did
+all the men, under the monotony of their enforced encampment, although
+realizing full well that the troop would be sent to the front as soon as
+was deemed expedient. He was thinking, as he lay on his back gazing
+skyward, of what he had once heard a veteran say,--that war was largely
+made up of soldier housekeeping. That might be true, but he hoped he
+should come in for some stiff fighting before he got through. These
+interesting speculations so engrossed him that he scarcely noticed the
+mail orderly going the rounds until turning suddenly on his elbow he saw
+the man coming toward him. This trooper, detailed as mail orderly, was
+no other than Charley Bemis, whom we last saw at the Earle-Truxton
+wedding, but so strictly was the etiquette of military life maintained
+in camp that the man on approaching, saluted his superior officer,
+received an acknowledging salute, delivered a letter and turned away
+without a word.
+
+The envelope was addressed in Jack's round sprawling hand and Kenneth
+prepared himself for a comfortable perusal of the weekly bulletin which
+the boy wrote, edited and printed with faithful regularity and which
+never failed to be of absorbing interest to the man who received it.
+This time, however, there was no printed sheet, but a letter written
+apparently at fever heat.
+
+"Dear Lieutenant," (it began, with military terseness), "I'm too upset
+to do the paper, though I'll try to soon, but you won't wonder when I
+tell you. _They're gone!_ I can't realize it myself and I wish I didn't
+have to--it's all so sudden and so lonesome I just want to go off and
+die!
+
+"Dr. Ware did it. He and Bridget packed them off before they could say
+Jack Robinson. She's gone, too, so has he--down to Wavertree Hall, their
+cousin's plantation in Virginia. You see, Miss Julie broke down, though
+she wouldn't let any of us say she was ill, and Mrs. Driscoe urged them
+to come there and Colonel Driscoe wrote Dr. Ware and sent him the money
+to buy their tickets and said he mustn't tell and he should rely upon
+him to get them off. Miss Hester told me all that. She laughed, the way
+she always does, you know, and said their cousin Driscoe and Dr. Ware
+together were too much for them. She said they meant to have a good rest
+and get Miss Julie strong and then come back to their work again but
+Gee! I wish they didn't have to--it's such a fearful grind.
+
+"It's awful without them, and Peter Snooks gone too! Lieutenant Landor,
+what's a guard of honor to do with nothing to guard? There's mother, of
+course, and Mr. Landor, but they don't like me bothering around the way
+those girls did. They never minded. I've left off my crutches and I'm
+digging at my books, but I'm going to be a drummer boy yet, you bet!
+
+"Please send me the latest news from the front. I think it's _great_ to
+be a soldier!
+
+                                                                 "Jack."
+
+"P.S.--Mother says it's a girl's trick to add a postscript, but they're
+down there near you somewhere. Wouldn't you love to see them, just! They
+went to Dunn Loring the way you did and had to drive a ways into the
+country. Thought you'd like to know."
+
+The varied sensations which surged through Kenneth as he finished
+reading are difficult to describe. Paramount was the joyful surprise
+that Hester was somewhere in the vicinity, followed by the overwhelming
+desire to see her without loss of time. This he knew as he came to think
+it over quietly, was impossible. He could not take the initiative or
+seem to thrust himself upon her uninvited. She, of course, must know
+that his troop was still at Camp Alger and if she cared to see him--but
+did she care?
+
+That baffling question haunted him a week. Then came one day a note
+brought by a small darky who was inclined to ride rough-shod over the
+sentries because, as he condescended to explain to them, he had a note
+from the young missis to deliver right into the Lieutenant's own hand. A
+formal, brief little note Hester had written, but it was enough, for it
+told him where they were and that their cousin Mrs. Driscoe would be
+most happy to have him ride over and call.
+
+He went that evening, inquiring the way in Dunn Loring and soon found
+himself riding up a long avenue between rows of locust trees, at the end
+of which he could just distinguish a large brick mansion with a square
+portico and broad verandahs at either end. When he drew up at the house
+he discovered a small cavalcade ahead of him. At least half a dozen
+horses were standing hitched in various parts of the driveway, and
+following the custom of the place he tied his own with the rest. Then he
+rapped vigorously at the knocker to announce his arrival. By that
+general factotum George Washington he was ushered immediately across a
+huge square hall and out onto a verandah where a gay group of people
+were laughing and chatting together. His first impression was a vivid
+effect of blue uniforms and white muslin gowns while from out of this
+medley a dignified, matronly figure came forward with his card in her
+hand and said in hearty Southern fashion:
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Landor? It is a pleasure to welcome you to Wavertree
+Hall. Hester, my dear, here is one of your Radnor friends."
+
+Hester slipped down from the railing where she had been sitting and
+shyly gave him her hand. Somehow, for a moment he scarcely knew her with
+that strange light in her eyes. Then there was a general interchange of
+greetings, for Julie called him over to the hammock where she was half
+reclining and Dr. Ware rose up from his seat beside her and nearly shook
+the arm off him; and there was dear little Nannie waiting to have him
+presented and the Colonel, who laughingly consented to wait his turn,
+and all the guests who enviously regarded this brother officer upon
+whom, for the moment, all interest centered.
+
+He saw very little of Hester that night. She was the gayest of the gay
+and seemed to evade him with the old elusiveness which had been so
+marked in the first days of their acquaintance. So he turned for comfort
+to Julie, whose convalescence kept her a little apart from the lively
+group and whose genuine interest in him seemed to the distracted fellow
+almost the sweetest thing in the world.
+
+He rode off rather early, in company with the other officers, whom he
+found belonged to a Virginia regiment encamped at Alger, and when the
+gay little cavalcade had waved their hands in parting and were lost to
+sight Dr. Ware said to Julie:
+
+"There was not a man of them who could compare with Kenneth--he is
+superb!"
+
+"Yes," she assented, "he is. I never saw him look so handsome as he does
+in his uniform."
+
+The others had strayed into the great hall, and they were alone on the
+verandah.
+
+"Julie," he said gently, "you begin to feel more like your old self now,
+do you not, dear?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she said, "I feel stronger and stronger every day. But," with
+a little laugh, "I am in danger of being spoiled--you all wait on me
+so."
+
+"It is a good thing to get that independent young spirit of yours into
+subjection," he laughed. "We are all making the most of the
+opportunity."
+
+"Do you notice how cousin Nancy has changed?" she asked. "She does not
+eye Hester and me so curiously as she did at first. When we came she
+scarcely took her eyes off us for days. I think she was prepared to see
+freaks and could not readjust her mind to the fact that we looked and
+behaved just as usual. To cook for a living and still be a lady was an
+anomaly beyond her comprehension, but she is beginning to realize such
+things can be, though she wouldn't acknowledge it for the world. Dear
+cousin Nancy! She's so good and so contradictory!"
+
+"I shall never forget her kindness in keeping me here," he said
+heartily. "Think of my merely meaning to see you safe at Wavertree Hall,
+and being taken possession of by her and made one of the family! Her
+hospitality is unbounded."
+
+Presently he said: "I have been waiting for you to feel strong enough to
+have a little serious talk, Julie. What would you say if you were not to
+go back to your work for another year?"
+
+"Oh, we must go back," she said. "Please don't think we'll allow
+ourselves to get demoralized or unfitted for work because of all this!"
+
+"I'm not likely to think that, dear, but your cousin Driscoe has had a
+long talk with me and he urges me to persuade you all to remain with
+them a year, at least. He says now they've got you here they want to
+keep you and you'll be all the better fitted to work, he thinks, for a
+long rest. He says he has not mentioned this to your cousin Nancy
+because he will not have her bothering you to do what you don't want
+to--"
+
+"The dear, blessed man," she exclaimed.
+
+"And he didn't want to bother you himself but he thought if I threw the
+weight of my influence on his side you might be persuaded. He doesn't
+know, does he?" wistfully, "what little influence I really have with you
+two independent girls!"
+
+"Oh, don't say that!" she protested; "it isn't fair! And I do not
+believe way down deep in your heart you would urge our staying on here
+so long. You know too well how hard we have struggled to get started to
+advise our letting the work all slip away. Besides, what would you do
+without us all that time, I'd like to know," she said playfully. "You'd
+be terribly lonesome, you know you would and--oh no," suddenly growing
+serious again, "we must go back and take up the work and push on with
+it, but it isn't the same--it just can't be without Daddy!" She turned
+her face away but not before he had detected the brimming eyes.
+
+"Dear," he said, putting out his arms, "if only you would let me"--he
+stopped, pulling himself together with a mighty effort. "I--I--"
+
+"You are so good to me," she faltered, "so good!"
+
+"I'm far from good to let you get excited to-night," he said, struggling
+to speak calmly. "You are not strong yet, dear, but I wanted to speak to
+you about your cousin Driscoe's proposition before I went away!"
+
+"Away?" she repeated as if scarcely understanding, "must you go away?"
+
+"I think so, dear, in a day or two. Tell me what I can do for you in
+Radnor."
+
+"Radnor?" musingly, "how far away that seems! Yes, you can do something
+for me there--two things. See Jack and tell him all about us and hunt up
+Mr. Renshawe and tell him we've nearly won the day. Hester and I have
+been maneuvering in his behalf on all occasions. Tell him Nannie treads
+on air and that any day he may expect a little flag of truce, for cousin
+Nancy shows signs of surrendering. Will you tell him all that?"
+
+"Julie dear," bending toward her with a world of tenderness in his
+voice, "Julie dear, do you never want anything for yourself?"
+
+"Yes," very faintly.
+
+"Can you tell me, little girl?"
+
+"Yes," reaching out her hands with a little childish gesture,--"you."
+
+"Julie!"
+
+He took her in his arms and for a moment there was silence while out in
+the moonlit trees a mocking-bird called to its mate.
+
+"My little girl," he said at last tremulously, "is it really true?"
+
+"Oh, how could I do it," she whispered, "how could I!"
+
+"Love me? I am sure I don't know and I scarcely dare believe it. Look at
+me, sweetheart and tell me it is true."
+
+She raised her beautiful honest eyes and let him look into the depths of
+her pure soul. "It is so natural to love you and so beautiful," she said
+simply.
+
+"But I am no longer a young man, dear. What right have I to ask you to
+give your young life to me?"
+
+"You didn't ask me," with a little fluttering laugh, "I asked you. It is
+very humiliating for you to remind me of it."
+
+"Julie!" He was holding her fast as if he never meant to let her go.
+
+"You are not old," she protested. "It is not years but the spirit that
+counts, and you are young--just as I am old for my years, and there is
+no one like you but Hester in the world. I have been loving you so long
+unconsciously, that I don't know when it began."
+
+"Neither do I, dear."
+
+"But I knew you so well," she continued, "I was afraid you would have
+some mistaken sense of honor that would prevent your ever telling me you
+loved me and I just couldn't bear that." Julie's head was hidden on his
+shoulder.
+
+"You little saint," stroking her hair tenderly, "you always seemed to
+belong to me, as if you were a part of my very life, but I have never
+felt I was worthy of such a blessing and I have reminded myself a
+thousand times this past winter that I could only have one place in your
+affections--the old family friend. When Monsieur Gr�mond came along I
+realized more than ever that I had no right to daydreams--that some
+other man would claim you and carry you away."
+
+"Did you want me to marry him?" she asked.
+
+"I wanted your happiness above everything."
+
+"Do _you_ never want anything for yourself?" she asked saucily.
+
+"You," was his answer, at which they both laughed with the delicious
+sense of their own humor which only lovers know.
+
+Then they had a long quiet talk together about the future, and he told
+her how he thanked God she was willing to give herself into his keeping;
+how he wanted to flood her life with sunshine and how blessed he should
+be if she and Hester would make for him such a home as they had made for
+Dad. And they spoke long and tenderly of the man who had been as noble a
+friend as a father and who would always be a loved memory to them both.
+Then she slipped away from him and leaving him to dream of a reality
+that was beyond all imagining, went up to her room in search of Hester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The change to Virginia was perhaps appreciated by no one more than Peter
+Snooks, that by no means unimportant member of the Dale family, whose
+activity knew no bounds. He raced madly about the plantation, to the
+consternation of the chickens and the terror of Mrs. Driscoe, who, never
+having owned dogs, fancied he was going to take up everything by the
+roots. But Peter Snooks behaved admirably. To be sure, he chased
+chickens, but what canine could resist that temptation? And it was
+recorded to his credit that he never hurt one of them. With Julie not
+well and Bridget and the two younger girls scarcely leaving her, Peter
+Snooks was forced to seek companionship out of the family--quite a new
+order of things--and chose George Washington, greatly to the delight of
+that ebony mite. What games they had out in the carriage-house and what
+antics the two cut upon the lawn playing circus for the edification of
+the people on the verandah! Hester herself was sometimes inspired to go
+into the ring and put Snooks through his tricks, which were many,
+herself performing some ridiculous caper which was received with wild
+applause. But Snooks had the best time when Hester and Nannie went
+riding, and he raced alongside and often way ahead, to his own evident
+delight though not always to the comfort of the horses.
+
+Nannie, these days, was the happiest girl in the County, for she had her
+two cousins whom she adored and every prospect of a speedy adjustment of
+her love affair. She nearly hugged Julie to death whenever she thought
+of it and confided to Hester when they went off together that being
+engaged was just the loveliest thing in the world.
+
+It would have been impossible to find two girls in greater contrast than
+Hester and Nannie, for all they were such chums. Nannie, in her white
+frocks and big sun hats, was a sweet little maiden whose soft brown eyes
+did not belie her disposition. She had a soft, drawling voice and dear
+little clinging ways that made the Colonel's sobriquet of "Puss" seem
+most fitting. She was fast growing to womanhood, but was in all things
+childishly appealing, though that she was not without character was
+shown in various ways, culminating in her loyalty to Sidney Renshawe in
+spite of the painful opposition.
+
+Hester wore white muslin frocks and big hats, too--relics of their last
+year's Paris shopping. It had always been the avowed wish of their
+father that in the event of his dying before them they should not wear
+black. He had the strongest aversion to the garb of mourning and the
+girls remembered and respected his wishes. So they had made no change in
+their wardrobe, though since they had come down to Virginia they
+confined themselves almost wholly to white.
+
+Simple enough these frocks were, but Hester wore hers with an air that
+gave them something of her personality and made her distinctive wherever
+she appeared. There was never anything nondescript about Hester. And her
+moods were so many and so varied that her cousin Nancy, who did not in
+the least understand her, told the Colonel despairingly that she must be
+a witch--there certainly was not a drop of Fairleigh blood in her.
+Julie, forced to be quiet through indisposition, was regarded by her
+cousin as really quite patrician and not in the least--and this was a
+wonderful admission--not in the least vulgarized by work. Colonel
+Driscoe agreed to her last statement and let the rest go. He found that
+the simplest way to avoid argument.
+
+Kenneth Landor became a frequent caller and grew to be an immense
+favorite with the household, but he seldom had the satisfaction of more
+than a few words with Hester. One morning he rode over and deemed the
+Fates more than kind when, finding Julie on the porch, she sent him down
+into the garden, where she said he would find Hester helping George
+Washington pick blackberries.
+
+His first glimpse of her was a sun-bonnet; then two sadly stained hands
+reaching up among the bushes, then a white figure in sharp relief
+against the green; then Peter Snooks barked and she turned and saw him.
+
+"Good morning," she said sweetly, from out of her sun-bonnet, giving him
+a look that seemed propitious. "Have a blackberry?"
+
+"Thanks, don't mind if I do. May I help pick?"
+
+"If you like. I can't stop, you know, for old Aunt Rachael is expecting
+them for dinner. We're great cronies, she and I. I steal out to the
+kitchen quarters often to see her when Cousin Nancy is not looking."
+
+"Do you mind pushing back that sun-bonnet?" he asked beseechingly. "I
+know you're inside of it somewhere and I should like to see you."
+
+She laughed and pushed it half way back. "If that does not suit you I'll
+take it off altogether."
+
+"Oh, don't do that, it's so--so nice," not daring to say how adorable he
+thought she was in it. "I like it the way you have it now. I never knew
+sun-bonnets could be so frilled and furbelowed."
+
+"It is Nannie's--she is making Julie and me each one. She says they are
+a fad this year. They are pretty, aren't they? But somehow they feel hot
+and then I just tie the strings loose and let it hang down my back like
+that. Cousin Nancy says a girl who will do that has absolutely no regard
+for her complexion. It would be funny, wouldn't it, if I took to
+worrying about things like that? Why, where is George Washington? Gone?
+And you're shockingly lazy! You haven't picked a berry since you came!"
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," scarcely able to take his eyes off her, "I
+really mean to help."
+
+"How is Captain Loomis?" she asked, seeing that he seemed unable to do
+much of anything but stare at her. "Have you seen him to-day?"
+
+"That little Virginian? He haunts our camp and talks to me by the hour
+about you! He is madly in love with you."
+
+"He is too silly to be anything else," munching a berry.
+
+"I do not like your way of putting it."
+
+"I mean," she explained, swinging her sun-bonnet by one string, "that he
+does not know how to be sensible and I do not like him well enough to
+bother to teach him, so, as he is around a good deal I have to politely
+put up with him. I should think you knew me well enough by this time to
+know how I hate silly people."
+
+"Do you ever politely put up with me?"
+
+"Sometimes," teasingly.
+
+"Hester, Hester," called a fresh young voice, "are you down there? Come
+up out of the garden quick! It's so cool this morning father says he'll
+take us over to camp to see that fascinating Mr. Landor."
+
+Hester ducked her head in her sunbonnet and fled.
+
+When she reappeared half an hour later she was in her riding habit,
+looking so trig and tailor-made and altogether conventional that Kenneth
+wondered if she could be the same mischievous sprite who had run away
+from him in the garden.
+
+It was arranged that Landor should escort them over, and the adroit
+Hester managed that he should start off in advance with Nannie, she and
+the Colonel bringing up the rear. Julie and Mrs. Driscoe waved them off,
+then returned to their work of sewing for the soldiers. For Mrs. Driscoe
+was the president of a ladies' patriotic aid society and found plenty
+for herself and the girls to do.
+
+Hester looked forward with eagerness to reaching Camp Alger, which,
+though only six miles distant from Wavertree Hall, they had not yet
+visited. She rode along at first chatting gayly to the Colonel but at
+last was forced to keep her mouth closed on account of the dust. And who
+that experienced it, will ever forget the dust of that June in Virginia!
+Inches deep on the roads it lay in a thick brown powder which, at the
+slightest disturbance from man or beast, rose in choking waves, covering
+and submerging everything; while in the immediate vicinity of Alger,
+where the sentries warned every one that a gait other than a walk was
+not permitted in and about the camp, it smothered them to the verge of
+suffocation.
+
+They approached their destination by way of the little village of Falls
+Church, where over the rough and winding road traveled a constant
+procession. It was said by the darkies in Virginia that spring, that all
+the "poor white trash" in Fairfax County had abandoned their farms and
+taken to "toting" people to Camp Alger. Vehicles of every description
+were going back and forth carrying people from the station to the camp,
+sometimes officers, sometimes soldiers, often visitors; in every case
+the seating capacity of buggy, carryall or wagon was stretched to its
+utmost capacity. Intermingled with this motley array were the army
+wagons loaded with camp provisions and paraphernalia, on the top of
+which usually perched two or more soldiers. These, drawn by four mules
+and driven by an antiquated darky, seemed to Hester the most interesting
+thing on the road, though possibly she made an exception in favor of the
+mounted orderlies flashing in and out through the crowd or an occasional
+mounted officer who saluted Kenneth and stared at the girls in open
+admiration.
+
+As they crossed the picket lines, the camp lay before them--row after
+row of tents (reminding Hester of the card houses she used to build when
+she was little) not "gleaming white" like the tents of story but brown
+with the dust. Desiring to show them about before dismounting Kenneth
+took them on by his troop and through the roads leading by the various
+regiments. Of the thirty thousand men, more than half were encamped in
+the fields, now resembling arid plains, so destitute were they of
+vegetation; while the rest, more fortunate, were scattered through the
+surrounding woods, lost to sight except for the flutter of a flag above
+the trees.
+
+The party did not attempt to cover the full length of the camp, for the
+sun was getting very hot and Kenneth was anxious to get them back to his
+troop in time for dinner. This, her first meal at an officer's mess and
+in a tent, was one of the most novel and delightful Hester had ever
+known. Kenneth counted it the second time they had broken bread together
+and was blissfully happy. When it was over, in a fit of excessive
+magnanimity he hunted up Charley Bemis who he knew would like to see
+Hester again and brought him up to his tent, where the Colonel and the
+girls were resting. A little later they all strolled together over to
+the troopers' quarters, young Bemis being anxious to show them the troop
+mascot, a stunning bull-terrier. Down here, too, were the horses,
+picketed back of the tents, while working among them were several
+troopers, one of whom Hester especially noticed tall and very blonde,
+his skin tanned to a deep brown. He wore the regulation campaign outfit,
+but his shirt was sleeveless. About his neck was knotted a yellow
+handkerchief, his soft hat was pushed well back with an upward turn to
+the front and he was busily engaged grooming his horse.
+
+"That man," said Kenneth, seeing that Hester observed him, "is the
+president of our coaching club at home and drives the best horses in
+Radnor. It's great the way he, and in fact all the fellows have buckled
+down to work. He's a chum of mine and I'd like immensely to have him
+meet you; I think you would enjoy him, too, but I won't call him over.
+It would embarrass him to death to be caught like that."
+
+Hester looked at the trooper in admiration.
+
+"Let's get out of the way before he discovers us," she said tactfully,
+"though I'd like to march straight over there and tell him how proud I
+am of him."
+
+Nannie, who had ideas of her own, rode off with her father when they
+started home. A mile or two on, the Colonel stopped and waited for them
+to overtake them, when he said, if Hester and Landor would excuse them
+he and Nannie would stop at the house in front of which they had halted
+and make a call. So the girl and man rode on alone through the beautiful
+woods which led to--was it happiness or only Wavertree Hall?
+
+"Have you enjoyed it?" he asked when they had gone a little way.
+
+"Oh! so much."
+
+"Even if you had to politely put up with me?"
+
+"Well, there were others, you see. Mr. Bemis, and all those charming
+officers at dinner. Now I think of it, you never took us to the Virginia
+camp. Is Captain Loomis away?" looking up at him as if the whereabouts
+of that individual was the thing which most concerned her.
+
+He laid his hand for a moment over hers. "It's no use," he said, "you
+can't put me off with Loomis or any other man."
+
+The intense subdued manner in which he said it deepened the color in her
+cheeks, but her dimples played mischievously.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" she asked.
+
+"Hester," he replied, "do you remember a night in April when you and I
+talked together and you were kind and said things that would inspire a
+man to do anything? It was the first time you had ever been serious with
+me and you thought it was the first time I knew of the serious side of
+you, but that was not true. You turned my life into a new, better
+channel from the moment I first set eyes on you, dear. And I loved you
+so that night on the coach that I didn't know how I was ever going to
+get through without telling you, but I didn't want to take advantage of
+your goodness and I knew you cared nothing for me, though I was
+determined you should some day." His voice rang out in the masterful way
+she had so often berated to Julie. "I am telling you this now because my
+opportunities of seeing you are so few and soon they may end altogether.
+Oh! Hester," he cried, finding it impossible to restrain himself any
+longer, "couldn't you learn to love me a little before I go away?"
+
+She had listened with eyes gazing straight ahead of her. As he finished
+she turned and looked at him fearlessly.
+
+"Are you quite sure I have not learned already?" she said. And then as
+he was about to speak, "No, no, do not answer me. I cannot answer the
+question myself. Sometimes I like you and sometimes I want to run away
+from you and sometimes--sometimes--"
+
+He held his breath and waited.
+
+But she did not finish it.
+
+"We should never get on," she said argumentatively, "we quarrel all the
+time. At least you do--I've an angelic disposition," complacently.
+
+"I quarrel with you? How could I!" endeavoring to fall in with her mood.
+"It is you who say shocking things to me, you bad thing; and sometimes,
+ah! sometimes, dear, you do hurt."
+
+She touched him impulsively. "It is only teasing. I never mean to
+hurt--I wouldn't do it intentionally for the world." How penitent and
+sweet her voice was!
+
+"Then won't you be kind to me, please, and love me a little bit?"
+
+"A little bit? Would that satisfy you?"
+
+"No," honestly, "it would not. Oh! my dear, I will be very patient if
+only you will try."
+
+"I don't have to," she said.
+
+"No," despairingly, "you don't have to.'
+
+"Because--because--I do."
+
+The ambiguity of this might have been mystifying to any but a drowning
+man ready to clutch at a straw. Kenneth was raised to a seventh heaven
+of bliss and promptly kissed her; at which she blushed furiously and
+pushed him away.
+
+"You must not believe everything I say," she protested.
+
+"But I do and I want to and I shall," exultantly. "Oh, my dear, my dear,
+will you say it all over again?"
+
+"Certainly not," with pretended severity. And then with a light happy
+laugh, "Do you remember how I snubbed you on the street corner the day
+you met me at Dr. Ware's?"
+
+"Do I? Well, I should say I did! But you were even worse at Jack's. You
+plunged me into the depths of despair, from which I never should have
+arisen if you hadn't been so charming at Mrs. Lennox's musicale. That
+night I began to take notice again, as it were."
+
+"Notice of Jessie Davis? I heard you were in love with her."
+
+"As if I had eyes for any one but you! I used to fairly haunt dear old
+Jack's place in the hope of running across you, but you always managed
+to elude me."
+
+"I used to think at first," she said seriously, "that you were just
+curious about us, because we were poor and earned our own living and
+were not like the girls in your set, and I resented it. That made me
+nasty to you, though I liked you all the time. Then, well,--do you know
+what I believe made me care for you? If you laugh," earnestly, "I'll
+never forgive you. It was because you took such care of me at the
+wedding and never offered me a bit of cake! You suspected we had made
+it, didn't you? And I thought any man who had tact enough for that would
+be my undoing and I should not wonder," with a swift look from under her
+long lashes, "if it were true, but you will never tell a soul I told
+you, will you?" beseechingly. "It's a secret--the undoing, you know."
+
+"Darling," he said, "I knew more about you and your work than you
+thought and that is why it was like wrenching my heart out to come away.
+I wanted to stay there where I could work for you and wait and hope that
+I might make your life easier. Then when you talked to me that night I
+knew that whether you ever loved me or not you would want me to go."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"And now if you only loved me enough to marry me I might at least leave
+you my name and the protection of my father, whose home would gladly
+open to you and Julie if he knew. _Couldn't_ you do it, dear heart?"
+
+"I--I don't know," she said so low that he could scarcely hear her. "I
+do love you, but it is all so new and strange that I cannot realize what
+it means or even if it means as much as it should to the man I marry. I
+want to be honest--and you offer me so much that I don't know what to
+say. I don't love you as I love Julie, and perhaps after that you will
+not want me to love you at all."
+
+"Yes, dear, I shall. If you care for me in any sort of way I am thankful
+and love is a thing that grows and grows. Some day I believe you will
+love me as much as you do Julie, but in a different way. There is room
+in your heart, dear, for both of us if you will only let me in."
+
+"That is just the way Julie puts it," she answered. "She is going to
+marry Dr. Ware."
+
+"She is? Jove! what an ideal match!"
+
+"That's what I think. I would not have believed that I could contemplate
+sharing Julie and be as happy about it as I am. The night she told me I
+danced for joy! She needs a man to take care of her, and I love him with
+all my heart; it changes nothing inwardly and everything outwardly. I am
+going to live with them but I shall not mind being dependent on them for
+awhile. At first I thought I couldn't, but they have made me promise.
+Dr. Ware is so dear. He says what is his, is Julie's, and what's Julie's
+is mine, and," laughing, "there is no getting around that, is there?
+Julie and I have always gone shares. Besides, I'm going to study to be a
+trained nurse when Julie is married. I couldn't just sit down and be
+idle the rest of my days."
+
+"Thank God your work is over!"
+
+"Not my work but that work. No one will ever know how hard it was; there
+was so little profit in most of the things we made that we could not
+afford to hire the necessary assistance and had to take the brunt of
+everything ourselves. We should have kept on until we 'died in our
+tracks,' to quote Bridget, if it had been necessary, but I thank God,
+too, that we are not obliged to. It taught us a great many things, the
+poverty and hardship and all," she continued, feeling his interest, "and
+we shall be able to understand life and help people a great deal better
+because of it. Julie and I have had so many talks together both with Dr.
+Ware here and since he went North about all the things we mean to do. We
+look forward to a very busy life."
+
+"I am supremely glad that things have come out this way, dear," he said,
+"only," wistfully, "all these plans make me feel as if you had little
+need of me. Won't you please," gazing pleadingly in her eyes which shone
+steadfastly into his, "won't you please see if you can't make a place
+somewhere for me?"
+
+Far off through the woods came the note of a bugle. Hester drew in her
+breath.
+
+"Perhaps," she said softly as they turned in the avenue, "I do need you
+and want you, too. Will you wait and see?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+There was no announcement of Julie's engagement except to the household
+of Wavertree Hall. Her marriage was likely to take place early in the
+summer, for Dr. Ware was to attend a medical convention in California
+and wanted to take her with him. In the event of his doing this, Hester
+and Bridget would join them later, for Mrs. Driscoe wanted to be off, as
+was her custom, to the Springs and Hester shrank from going into a scene
+of gayety. There seemed to be no reason why this plan should not be
+carried out, for Julie had entirely recovered and except for the shadow
+of sadness left by her father's death, was quite herself again. She knew
+it would be their beloved Daddy's wish that she should shape herself to
+the events of her life in just the way she would have done had he been
+actually among them, and many and many a time her new happiness was
+glorified by the thought that he knew and was rejoicing too.
+
+When Hester came and told her of that ride through the woods with
+Kenneth, her cup was filled to overflowing. For Julie understood her
+sister better than the girl understood herself and she knew the love she
+now bore Kenneth would "grow and grow," as he had said, until it became
+a powerful factor in her life.
+
+So finally Julie's wedding day was fixed and the day before, Dr. Ware
+with the Lennoxes and, as a joyful surprise above all things, Jack,
+arrived on the scene. The Doctor told her that this was the Driscoes'
+idea--to bring them down and surprise her, as Cousin Nancy's guests. As
+Mrs. Driscoe said to Mrs. Lennox, who laughingly protested against such
+an invasion:
+
+"Virginia is the heart of the country, my dear Mrs. Lennox, and we are
+the heart of Virginia--welcome to Wavertree Hall." She was heard to
+remark afterward to the Colonel that that charming individual looked
+like a thorough-bred Virginian.
+
+As for Jack, a more ecstatic boy never trod on earth. The girls laughed
+and cried over him. So did Bridget, who gave him such a hearty smack
+that he nearly hugged the head off her.
+
+There were other arrivals also, that day at Dunn Loring, for Mr. Landor
+had come down to have a look at Kenneth, and Sidney Renshawe was once
+more at the Blakes' plantation.
+
+The latter called at Wavertree Hall that afternoon and Mrs. Driscoe was
+in such a good humor over the charming, aristocratic Mrs. Lennox and the
+little excitement of guests which delighted her hospitable soul that she
+actually shook hands with him and asked him to join their party that
+afternoon--they were going over to camp to see Mr. Landor. That bit of
+cordiality was enough for Renshawe. Enough, too, for dear little Nannie,
+who had witnessed this meeting with mingled fear and delight.
+
+They arrived at camp just before parade and at Kenneth's tent was an
+elderly man who proved to be his father. In the general introductions
+which followed, Kenneth's pleasure was very great in this meeting of
+Hester and his father. She began talking to him at once in her bright,
+vivacious way, and what was really remarkable,--for he never had the
+faintest idea what to say to girls and seldom encountered them, he
+talked to her quite at his ease. But then, this wily young woman touched
+now and then on Kenneth--just enough to start him on the subject nearest
+his heart. It was very near her heart, too. But when had the stern,
+impassive Caleb Landor talked so freely of his son before?
+
+As they sat under the "fly" which made a shelter in front of the tent,
+the girls observed down the line the colors standing in front of the
+Captain's quarters and it thrilled them with the pride of patriotism to
+see all the men and officers in going to and fro lift their hats and
+pass bare-headed before the flag.
+
+The routine of camp was very interesting to Dr. Ware who had lived
+through it, to the girls who had all their lives heard of it, and to
+Jack, who still hoped to be a part of it in spite of his years. So it
+was a very talkative if somewhat weary party that returned to Wavertree
+Hall.
+
+Late that evening there came tearing up the avenue a mounted orderly. He
+brought a note for Miss Hester Dale which required an immediate answer.
+She opened it quickly. At the end she leaned against the pillar as if
+for support. Then she called Julie out from the garden where she and Dr.
+Ware were strolling and said unsteadily:
+
+"Read that, Julie dear. I want you to know before I send my answer."
+
+Julie read:
+
+  "Sweetheart, my orders have come. Since you left I have heard
+  officially. I am to be transferred and leave for Tampa to-morrow
+  afternoon to join the Rough Riders, who embark in a few days for
+  Santiago. Do you think, dear--could you, would you marry me before I
+  go? Would that dear little Julie let you and me go with her and the
+  Doctor to-morrow and make our lives one in the sight of God? Oh, say
+  yes, say yes! But not unless you are sure, dear. I had rather wait a
+  dozen years than have you give yourself to me under protest.
+  Whatever you say, dear, I shall believe is for the best. But, oh! if
+  you could--KENNETH."
+
+Julie took her sister in her arms.
+
+"Hester, darling, have you decided?"
+
+"Yes, Julie."
+
+"You and Kenneth will come to-morrow with Philip and me?"
+
+"Yes, Julie."
+
+"Oh! Hester, my blessed, blessed girlie, it is the most beautiful thing
+in the world!"
+
+There was very little sleep for the girls that night. They sat for a
+long while in the window-seat up in their room where the scent of the
+honeysuckle came drifting in, talking softly of the past and laying
+plans whereby their happiness should go out into the world like a strong
+search-light to illumine dark places.
+
+"It is not always those commonly called the poor who are most in need,
+Hester. It is the refined, sensitive people who have seen better days,
+who suffer most. And we have learned, too, dear, how super-sensitive
+adversity makes one. I am glad we know these things, aren't you, even
+though the learning of them nearly tore our hearts out? It has broadened
+and developed us and is going to make us helpful women in the world."
+
+"And oh! Julie dear," replied Hester, "isn't it beautiful to think how
+we shall be able, both of us, through our--our husbands," stumbling over
+the word, "to do things for people. Little things and big things to
+lighten people's burdens and give them courage, just as so many times
+courage was given to us."
+
+"Yes, darling. God is putting the power in our hands--it is for us to
+use it wisely."
+
+Presently Hester said, "I am glad we won our own place in Radnor before
+going back there again under different circumstances. It makes me feel
+that we amounted to something and that if it ever happened that
+misfortune of that sort came again we should be able to keep our heads
+above water, to turn our fingers to account. Look at them, Julie,"
+holding up her hands for inspection, "they are not the same things at
+all."
+
+"No dear, they have lost their porcelain transparency which used to be
+such a pride and delight but I like them better as they are. They are
+strong, capable hands, now, for all their daintiness which you never can
+lose. I have been thinking lately, that one's hand can be as indicative
+of character as one's face. I hope yours and mine will not belie us."
+
+"We did not much think when we came out of the flat that day that we
+should never go back there, did we, old girl? I can't realize it yet. It
+seems as if all those pots and kettles and pans and bottles would swoop
+down and whisk us off to 'The Hustle' when we get back to Radnor. Oh! my
+dear, we _did_ 'hustle'! The name did not belie that place! Down here in
+this drowsy Virginia I sometimes wonder if it was really we who worked
+like that."
+
+"I know," Julie said, "I know, too, that we should have worked right on
+there to the best of our ability all our lives if it had been so
+ordered, but I am thankful, thankful that our energies can act in
+another way. We shall have a great deal to do, dear, and the wisdom of
+an older experience than ours to help us do it and all the time Daddy
+watching over his little girls."
+
+And so at last they lay down to rest, these two little comrades whose
+heads and hearts were full of joyous anticipation of a broader field of
+action, a glorious life campaign.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the wedding that lovely June
+morning. Flanked on either side by Dr. Ware and Kenneth, the girls
+walked down the avenue to the gate and across the road with those
+nearest and dearest in attendance, to the little chapel where for
+generations the Fairleighs had worshiped and where the previous autumn
+their father had put in a memorial window to their mother. The gardens
+and the woods for miles around had been stripped of flowers to decorate
+the chancel, which took on a thousand lights as the mellow sunshine
+poured in through the stained glass windows.
+
+Little Nannie stood up with them--she and Sidney Renshawe, and the dear
+old Colonel during the ceremony was forced more than once to take off
+his glasses and wipe them carefully. The girls were without ornament
+save that each carried a great bunch of white roses gathered in the
+garden at Wavertree Hall. Julie wore a certain white mulle gown that the
+Doctor loved while Hester, to please Kenneth, the simple muslin frock in
+which she had picked blackberries.
+
+"A bride in a frock just out of the wash-tub!" cried Cousin Nancy
+aghast. She had never dreamed of such a total disregard of the
+conventionalities. But when she found Mrs. Lennox was on Hester's side
+she demurred no longer.
+
+Mr. Landor sat with the Lennoxes and many a strange sensation took hold
+of him as he gazed first at Kenneth and then at Hester and back again at
+his stalwart son.
+
+Bridget occupied a front seat in a state of perfect beatitude. She was
+the first to receive a kiss from the brides when the ceremony was over.
+Jack was there, of course, immensely relieved at this satisfactory
+arrangement whereby all three of his friends were happily married. And
+Peter Snooks was there, solemn and dignified, decorated with a gorgeous
+red, white and blue bow but indignant at this touch of femininity and
+resentful that he was not allowed to go up and stand with the bridal
+party. George Washington and the other servants were in the rear of the
+chapel.
+
+After the ceremony they all trooped back again to Wavertree Hall where,
+on the lawn under a cluster of superb oak trees, where the stars and
+stripes were waving, a lunch was spread for their refreshment.
+
+Cousin Nancy, aided by Mrs. Lennox, was the presiding genius of the
+feast, while Mr. Lennox, also, came to the front with jests and stories
+to relieve the solemnity of the past half hour.
+
+Kenneth, radiantly happy and looking handsomer than ever in his uniform,
+was here, there and everywhere, but with always his first thought for
+Hester. She was unusually quiet--subdued by happiness and the thought of
+the parting so near at hand. It was Julie that day whose laugh was the
+merriest, but then Julie knew something which Hester did not.
+
+In accordance with a tradition of Wavertree Hall Mrs. Driscoe had brewed
+a punch, a mild but delicious concoction famous at all the Fairleigh
+weddings.
+
+Mr. Lennox proposed the health of the brides and then the bridegrooms.
+Dr. Ware toasted the mistress of Wavertree Hall. And so it went around
+from one to the other, until, having cheered the President, the army,
+the navy and the flag, Dr. Ware excited the wildest enthusiasm by bowing
+low to Mrs. Driscoe and saying:
+
+"We lived through other days in Virginia, you and I, Mrs. Driscoe. Three
+cheers now for a reunited country!"
+
+How they did shout! There was not a dry eye among them. Then Jack's thin
+voice called out:
+
+"Won't somebody please cheer for the boys that want to be soldiers and
+can't?" At which they all laughed and cheered again.
+
+There were other people who had a secret that day besides Julie. Indeed
+they were all in it except Hester--in fact they knew much more about it
+than Julie herself, who only knew half. It had been arranged that Hester
+and Kenneth should drive with Julie and the Doctor to the station; then,
+as Hester supposed, she and Kenneth were to have an hour together before
+he took his departure. He had told her that he had left everything at
+camp ready to send on, so that it would not be necessary for him to
+return there.
+
+She was a little surprised when they took such an affectionate farewell
+of her as well as Julie and before she got into the carriage Mr. Landor
+had asked her to step aside a moment with him.
+
+[Illustration: THE WEDDING BREAKFAST]
+
+"I shall be gone when you return," he said, speaking with some
+difficulty, "and it is proper you should know that I approve of
+Kenneth's marriage. He talked at some length about you last night and
+it's a good thing--a good thing. I never had a daughter--"
+
+Hester kissed him. Caleb Landor had not been kissed for thirty years.
+
+"Kenneth belongs to us both," the girl said simply, "and we are both
+giving him up but it must be the hardest for you, because you have had
+him the longest."
+
+"I don't know, I don't know," gruffly, to hide his emotion, "we can't go
+into that. I want you to take this," slipping something in her hand. "I
+hear your sister requested there should be no wedding gifts for her.
+Mrs. Lennox tells me that she asked those who wished to remember her to
+turn the money instead into the Red Cross Fund. No doubt you feel as she
+does. I understand you are much alike. If you will keep that paper and
+use it for the sick and wounded later--for we are bound to have them--as
+a gift from yourself, I shall be much obliged to you. No, don't thank
+me, say nothing about it. And remember that my house is open to you
+whenever you care to come." It is doubtful if Caleb Landor had ever made
+so long a speech in his life.
+
+She did thank him, choking back her tears. Then she thrust the paper in
+her pocket and later when she had a chance to examine it she found a
+check of a thousand dollars, made payable to her, Hester Dale Landor!
+
+All the way to the station she roused herself and chatted gayly to make
+Julie's last moments with her a bright remembrance. Julie was so excited
+she could scarcely contain herself and in order to sit still was fairly
+rigid in her seat.
+
+When they reached the station the train was not yet in sight but on a
+side track stood a car.
+
+"What is that?" asked Julie curiously, as they left the carriage.
+
+"That is yours," quietly answered Dr. Ware, watching the effect of his
+words.
+
+"Mine? What _are_ you talking about?"
+
+"Come and see," cried the Doctor who felt like a boy of twenty.
+
+She ran down the platform, stood still and trembled from head to foot.
+
+"Hester," she gasped, turning with the old habit to her sister, "Hester,
+it is 'The Hustle!'"
+
+"What!"
+
+"It is, it is!"
+
+Bridget with Peter Snooks in her arms was waving out the car window.
+
+"Oh, Philip!" Julie cried. And without another word he took her in his
+arms and carried her in the car.
+
+"If the days to come here," he whispered as he put her down, "are as
+happy as the old ones, little wife, I shall be satisfied."
+
+Hester and Kenneth, who had not known whether or not to follow were
+called peremptorily in and all exclaimed over by Bridget, who having
+been appointed by the Doctor a reception committee of one, felt this the
+proudest and happiest moment of her life.
+
+"Now tell us all about it," said Julie, "but first I am going to make
+Hester as 'comfy as comfy can be.' You poor little thing, you are not
+going to lose Kenneth to-day. You are both coming South with us. We are
+going to do escort duty to the distinguished young officer, Lieutenant
+Landor."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the bewildered Hester.
+
+"We are all going down in 'The Hustle' together, Hester," explained Dr.
+Ware, while she was made to sit down, Kenneth tucking a cushion under
+her feet and Julie perching on the arm of her chair. "Julie did not know
+about 'The Hustle'--that was my surprise for her--but she did know that
+we meant to go West by the way of Tampa--we settled that last night
+after you heard from Kenneth--and have you and him go along with us so
+that we could all see the last of him. Kenneth and the people at
+Wavertree Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into my secret so he
+could send his things aboard. Bridget packed your trunks while you were
+at luncheon and got them off without your knowing it and here we all
+are, as snug as possible, with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in
+order."
+
+"Kenneth," said Hester with brimming eyes but in the old bantering tone
+which always made them laugh, "how dare you have secrets from your wife?
+How dare you! It's a perfectly scandalous beginning!"
+
+"Please, you were not my wife then, and I won't any more," he said
+penitently. "Will you forgive me, please?"
+
+"I don't understand how you did it," said Julie to her husband, who
+leaned over the back of the chair on the arm of which she was perching,
+his head on a level with hers.
+
+"It was not difficult, dear. I had been on the track of 'The Hustle' for
+some time. I always intended to capture you all sometime and take you
+off for a vacation in her. That was one of my dreams, but I never
+mentioned it to certain little girls I knew for fear it would never come
+true. Early this spring I learned that the car had been relegated to a
+car shed on a Western road--it was not considered modern enough for use.
+So I ordered it on to Radnor, had it overhauled and thought it would be
+an ideal place for a honeymoon, eh, little wife?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she said shyly.
+
+"And Hester," slipping his hand down over the chair and resting it on
+her shoulder, "it is your honeymoon, too, dear. I am so glad. And 'The
+Hustle' is yours as much as it is Julie's. Will you always remember
+that? Kenneth, old man," with a change of tone, "will you come with me
+and see that everything is aboard? I hear the train, which means that we
+shall be picked up and taken on in a few minutes."
+
+Left to themselves, the girls, half-dazed by these astonishing events,
+wandered slowly about the dear old familiar car, which had suffered
+scarcely an alteration. Julie felt it was Dr. Ware's exquisite
+forethought which had kept the interior so nearly as they had left it.
+There was the piano at which she had so often played and sang for Daddy
+and the great leather chair drawn up close in which he had spent many a
+restful hour listening to her. Over the piano in its old place hung a
+portrait of her mother and at one end of the car, looking down benignly,
+hung their favorite picture of their father--the Major in full uniform
+with that spirited look of action which so distinguished him. Over the
+picture were crossed two swords, his and the Doctor's; over these higher
+up was draped Old Glory hanging in splendid folds.
+
+"Miss Nannie and Mr. Renshawe and Jack, they come over this mornin' an'
+fixed the flag an' all the flowers you see around everywheres. Jack said
+to tell you he done the swords. Didn't he get 'em up fine? They had a
+great time over here all unbeknownst to yez," explained Bridget.
+
+The girls stood hand in hand before the picture. "Oh! Daddy," they
+whispered, "dear Daddy, help us to be worthy of all this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+They made the run to Tampa in two days. The transports were being loaded
+with ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia of war as they
+arrived and Kenneth went on board with the last detachment of Rough
+Riders.
+
+Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she was. There was never a
+tear, though she clung at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let
+him go. That was for but a moment. The next she stood erect and smiling
+on the rear platform of "The Hustle" waving him off. The picture Kenneth
+carried away with him cheered all the hours of all the days to come. He
+had only to close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with head
+thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes smiling and smiling into his
+very heart. And all through the desperate fight before San Juan when the
+bullets hissed and all was deafening, blinding chaos, rang her last
+words, "Fight for your country and me--be as brave an officer as Daddy."
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party reached there, was found
+an accumulation of mail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A letter
+from his sister was read and handed to Julie with a smile.
+
+  "My Dear Philip," it began:--"Your letter telling me of your
+  engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie Dale was no
+  surprise to me. I had always known you were in love with her or you
+  would never have been so idiotically approving of all the crazy
+  things she did. I will say, though, that if you intended to marry
+  you might have done worse. I understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie,
+  whom I saw last week in London (they have just been presented at
+  Court) that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set
+  before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some campaigning!
+  However, people quickly forget things, and all that vulgar cooking
+  may be regarded merely as the freakishness of two headstrong girls.
+  I hope you will remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight
+  rein over her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will
+  be unimpeachable.
+
+  "Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself of
+  invitations from English friends and remain here into the winter
+  when I shall probably join Lord and Lady Wynne in a trip into Egypt.
+  I may decide to make England my home. I prefer it to the States and
+  should not under any circumstances think of returning while that
+  tiresome war is going on.
+
+  "The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer, left hand end.
+  Tell Julie I am most particular that the linen, especially that not
+  in constant use, should be frequently aired, and the blankets must
+  go down on the line in the yard once a week. There are other things
+  which a flighty young person should know and which I shall write her
+  at length later. I hope that dog is not to be allowed the freedom of
+  the house. I shudder to think of it!
+
+                                                      "Affectionately,
+                                                                Mary."
+
+Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
+
+"Poor Miss Ware!" she said, "she still regards us as monsters of
+iniquity. Am I a headstrong young thing?"
+
+"Of course," quizzically. "Don't you feel the tight rein I hold over
+you?" taking her face in his hands.
+
+For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment of Bridget who had
+knocked unheard and entered the room at that moment.
+
+Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and succeeded in keeping her
+busy and diverted. Hester's great wish had been to follow Kenneth to
+Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced both by him and the others
+that it would be an unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and nothing
+of nursing beyond the limited experience she had gained in caring for
+her father, and it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her
+vitality having been greatly exhausted by the strain of the previous
+winter, she would be dangerously susceptible. But the old wish to become
+a Red Cross nurse was more than ever strong within her and this desire
+they all encouraged and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were to be
+long in the field Hester's happiness would lie in being near him and
+administering to the sick and wounded men. So she plunged into Spanish
+with an excellent teacher in San Francisco while Dr. Ware brought her
+books on nursing, gave her practical talks on surgery and promised to
+get her into a training school for nurses as soon as they returned to
+Radnor at the end of July.
+
+The newspapers were her solace and despair--they said so little and so
+much! With heads together she and Julie devoured them, reading every
+word. The newsboys' cry, "Extra, Extra!" filled her with apprehension.
+She had had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they were about to
+land with General Shafter at Baiquiri. Before there was time to hear
+again, the papers blazed with the news of the desperate attack on San
+Juan, and the Rough Riders became the heroes of the nation.
+
+Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes, searched for the list of dead
+and wounded. With beating heart her finger went down the line and
+stopped.
+
+"Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant, Troop--, Roosevelt's Rough Riders,
+wounded in the thigh."
+
+She lived through the next ten days of suspense like a person in a
+dream. Her impulse had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr.
+Landor wrote that he was going down and would take her with them. But
+Dr. Ware, the far-seeing, advised them both to wait. News would soon
+come direct from Kenneth and it was probable that he would be sent home
+on sick leave before they could get down to him. Seeing the wisdom of
+this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that he should wait. And Hester waited.
+Julie never left her. She buoyed her up night and day with the belief
+that Kenneth would not die.
+
+The papers in their later and more detailed accounts of the attack and
+capture of San Juan, spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of
+Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to the highest pitch of
+enthusiasm by his unflinching spirit, which carried everything before
+him. Later in the official report from General Shafter, Kenneth Landor,
+wounded before San Juan, was given honorable mention.
+
+Then one day came to Hester a letter in an unknown hand. It was written
+from the field hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband was
+recovering; that the operation upon his thigh had been successful; that
+Mr. Landor's cable to send the Lieutenant home had been received and
+that already at headquarters arrangements were being made to get the
+wounded who could be moved aboard a transport off by the end of the
+week. That Landor himself knew nothing of all this, for he was too weak
+to be consulted, but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no cause for
+alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor was safely home again she would get
+him well and return him speedily--the troop could not afford to spare
+for long so gallant an officer.
+
+Hester read this precious document until it was worn to shreds. And
+Julie and her husband took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper
+informed them that the transport had started.
+
+Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the dock to meet him. Mr. Landor
+was too unnerved to leave the house and Julie remained with him, helping
+him through the tedious hours that intervened between the time when a
+clerk had telephoned from the office to the house that the transport was
+sighted down the harbor and the moment when the carriage stopped at the
+door.
+
+They brought him into his father's house on a stretcher, Hester walking
+by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning
+from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father
+choke and leave the room.
+
+What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited,
+but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed
+it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a
+suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
+
+It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one's family. So at least
+thought the Dale girls, even though it was a very refractory hero, who
+sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction
+whatever.
+
+Under Dr. Ware's guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was
+home on a two-months' sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to
+rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he
+said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be
+sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time
+the war might be over. Who could tell?
+
+Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly
+while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband,
+who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at
+that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of
+Hester's sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to
+find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
+
+Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero.
+Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie
+on Kenneth's bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege
+and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth's hand, as much as to say
+he knew how to behave in a sick room--had he not spent hours at a time
+with Major Dale?
+
+Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things
+for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near
+neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware's
+on the water side of Crana Street.
+
+And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory,
+"those Dale girls" began a new life.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
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+<head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+    <meta content="Those Dale Girls" name="DC.Title"/>
+    <meta content="Frances Weston Carruth" name="DC.Creator"/>
+    <meta content="en" name="DC.Language"/>
+    <meta content="1899" name="DC.Created"/>
+    <meta name="generator" content="ppgen (1.20) generated Sep 02, 2011 09:42 PM" />
+    <title>Those Dale Girls</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+                                 font-size:1.2em; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:2em;}
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Those Dale Girls
+
+Author: Frank Weston Carruth
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2011 [EBook #37304]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE DALE GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i001' id='i001'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-cvr.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div><a name='ifpc' id='ifpc'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i002' id='i002'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" alt="SHE SHOOK A WIRE CAGE ENERGETICALLY OVER THE COALS" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>SHE SHOOK A WIRE CAGE ENERGETICALLY OVER THE COALS</span>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.6em;font-weight:bold;'>Those Dale Girls</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>BY</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em;'>Frances Weston Carruth</span></p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<table class='c' summary='centered block'><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In&#160;the&#160;world’s&#160;broad&#160;field&#160;of&#160;battle,</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In&#160;the&#160;bivouac&#160;of&#160;Life,</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Be&#160;not&#160;like&#160;dumb,&#160;driven&#160;cattle!</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Be&#160;a&#160;hero&#160;in&#160;the&#160;strife!</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:right'>—<em>Longfellow.</em></p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>Chicago</p>
+<p>A. C. McClurg &amp; Co.</p>
+<p>1899</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span class='sc'>Copyright</span></p>
+<p>By A. C. McCLURG &amp; CO.</p>
+<p>A. D. 1899</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>TO EDITH,</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>MY SISTER AND COMRADE, THE BRAVEST</p>
+<p>OF SOLDIER GIRLS</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:larger;'>ILLUSTRATIONS</span></p>
+</div>
+<table class='c' summary='loi'>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>She Shook a Wire Cage Energetically over the Coals</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#ifpc'>Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>The Girl Sat Down on the Arm of His Chair</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#i048'>48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>“May I Have a Guess, Miss Dale?”</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#i114'>114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>There Were the Girls in Their Cotton Gowns</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#i188'>188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>Julie Was in Bed When Hester Came In That Night</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#i232'>232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:1em;'>The Wedding Breakfast</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#i304'>304</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<h1>THOSE DALE GIRLS</h1>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1'></a>1</span>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<p>
+“Julie Dale, you’re the laziest thing in
+creation! Come down from that window-seat
+and help.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can’t, my dear,” a gay young voice responded.
+“I’m as ‘comfy as comfy can be.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look at her, Peter Snooks,” said Hester to
+a fox-terrier at her side; “just look at her!
+She’s curled up in a heap, reveling in that fascinating
+Kipling, with her mouth all screwed up
+for this popcorn, which she thinks we will take
+in state to her ladyship. But we’ll fool her—eh,
+Snooks? We’ll fool her completely. We’ll just
+sit complacently on the floor and eat it all up
+ourselves.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The dog jumped about rapturously. The girl,
+who was kneeling before an open fire, shook a
+wire cage energetically over the coals, and watched
+the corn burst into great white flakes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It does <em>smell</em> delicious,” came in an insinuating
+tone from the window-seat across the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester maintained a lofty silence, and tipping
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2'></a>2</span>
+the corn into a bowl, sprinkled it with salt, adding
+dabs of butter. She then tossed a piece to
+the dog, and began to sample it herself with
+apparent satisfaction, for she smacked her lips
+and said, reflectively, as she put her hands to her
+burning cheeks: “I believe it is quite worth
+ruining my complexion over.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly she whisked up bowl and dog, and
+crossing the room, dropped both on the seat
+beside her sister. “There!” she exclaimed,
+“you knew I would never eat it alone, even if
+you are a duffer!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Duffer’ is most inelegant” (this from Julie
+in an assumption of stern reproach); “I do not
+see wherever you picked up such a word.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Read it in a book,” quoted Hester, laughing.
+This was a joke of longstanding between them—to
+hold literature responsible for any suspicious
+scraps of knowledge. It was a phrase
+they used also with much frequency in argument,
+particularly when the subject was beyond the
+range of their experience. “Don’t know a thing
+about it, read it in a book,” one of them would
+say facetiously, by way of backing up some
+remarkable statement, and feel herself at once
+relieved from personal responsibility.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You need not put on such frills,” Hester
+now said to her sister. “You know you adore
+slang yourself.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie was gazing out of the window. “Look,
+Hester, quick! There go the crew! How they
+are skimming down the river! I’d no idea they
+trained out here, had you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Both girls watched intently as the narrow shell
+shot by, the men pulling the long, steady stroke
+which was the pride of their university.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aren’t they splendid?” Hester exclaimed,
+enthusiastically. “I wish we knew some of the
+college men, Julie, don’t you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It would be fun. I’d like to see something
+of college life. Perhaps we may meet an occasional
+senior if Miss Ware takes us about any this
+winter.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you suppose he’d be nice?” inquired
+Hester, quizzically. “I don’t think we know
+much about very young men, do you? All
+we’ve known have been so much older than we
+are.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie puckered up her forehead and gazed
+after the vanishing crew. She was trying to
+classify an unknown species.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It does seem odd,” continued Hester, “<em>our</em>
+contemplating formal society, doesn’t it? I believe
+I shall hate it. We have roamed around
+with Daddy too much to be quite like pattern
+society girls.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I tell you what we’ll do, Hester; we’ll go
+out with Miss Ware, meet loads of people and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4'></a>4</span>
+pick out a nice congenial few whom Dad will
+like, too, and just cultivate them informally.
+You know how Dad dislikes society in the conventional
+sense, but he wants us to take our
+proper place; and of course we ought to know
+people, now that we have really settled down in
+Radnor to live.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Heavens! but you’re clever, Julie! We
+might set up a salon; only the wise, the witty
+and the beautiful need apply. Which class
+would we come under ourselves, do you think?
+We can begin with Dr. Ware and all the old
+dears—only he never seems old a bit—that Dad
+is always bringing home to dinner, and add any
+new dears we meet and think eligible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie laughed. “It sounds like a herd or something.”
+Then, with sudden gravity, she said:
+“Hester, dear, I’m anxious about Dad. I can’t
+just explain it, but somehow he’s been different
+ever since we’ve been here. Haven’t you
+noticed how preoccupied he is and tired all the
+time, so unlike Dad? The other day I spoke to
+him about it, and he shook his head and said I
+mustn’t be so observant, that he happened to
+have an unusual stress of business, that was all.
+But I don’t know,” she continued, meditatively;
+“I can’t seem to throw off this queer feeling
+about him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester regarded her with wide-open eyes.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span>
+“You frighten me, Julie.” Then leaning toward
+her sister, she shook her finger admonishingly.
+“How dare you go on having worries by yourself
+and not letting me know a thing about them?”
+she said, lightly. “I think it is all your imagination.
+I dare say Daddy has heaps of extra
+things on his hands because of all the time he
+spent gadding with us in Europe. Of course,
+that’s it, you goosey,” the idea gaining strength
+in her mind, “<em>of course</em>. You and I and Peter
+Snooks must be more amusing, and make him
+laugh and forget the ‘stress of business.’ Ugh!
+what a horrid expression that is! Now I think
+of it, he hasn’t laughed lately, Julie, has he?”
+She looked up with an evident desire to be contradicted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie shook her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester sprang up from her seat, and seizing
+the dog by the forepaws, danced him violently
+about the room. “We need a shaking up, Peter
+Snooks, or we’ll not be allowed to jingle our
+bells any longer at the court of his majesty Dad
+the Great! Who ever heard of jesters neglecting
+their duties! His royal highness must
+laugh,” she said gayly, “or he’ll cry, ‘Off with
+their heads!’ like Alice’s fierce old queen.” She
+emphasized this possible calamity by swinging
+the dog up in the air and herself executing a daring
+<em>pas seul</em> before she dropped breathless in a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>
+chair. “I had rather die than be stupid, hadn’t
+you, Julie?” she gasped, between breaths.
+</p>
+<p>
+“In that case I think you will be spared to us
+a while yet,” replied her sister, with quiet humor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So glad you think we’re a success,” Hester
+said, cheerfully. “Peter Snooks, do you hear?
+we’re a success—she approves!” The dog lay
+panting on the floor, and wagged his tail in
+understanding of the compliment. “We’ll give
+a private exhibition to his majesty to-night after
+dinner. How he will laugh! We will elaborate
+this feeble effort and call it ‘The Dance of Joy.’
+Things are always more interesting with names,”
+she said, decisively. “Julie, you be showman
+and introduce us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie took her cue immediately, and rising,
+bowed low. “Ladies and gentlemen (that
+means Dad)—ladies and gentlemen, I shall now
+have the honor of presenting to your astonished
+vision the wonderful and original ‘Dance of
+Joy’—”
+</p>
+<p>
+The library door opened suddenly, and a middle-aged
+woman entered and closed the door
+after her. She stopped just inside the threshold,
+and looking from one to the other with a scared
+face, stood wringing her hands helplessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good gracious! what is the matter, Bridget?”
+Julie ejaculated. “Tell us—you look frightened
+to death.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The woman opened her lips and closed them
+with a moan. No word escaped her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Both girls were beside her in an instant, and
+Julie gave her a little shake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is it Daddy? What has happened? Bridget,
+Bridget, speak!” Her beseeching young voice
+cried out with instinctive fear.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’re bringing him in,” Bridget gasped at
+last. “He took sick in the office with a stroke.
+Dr. Ware’s with them. He sez you’re not to
+see him yet. He sez I’m to keep you in here
+till he comes—the Doctor, I mean.” Her words
+came in a tumult of confusion.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is—he—dead?” Julie asked. “Bridget, tell
+me the truth.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It seemed to the girls that they lived an eternity
+in the second before the woman said: “No,
+no, he’s not dead. Whatever made you say such
+a fearful thing?” She buried her face in her
+apron and wept bitterly. “He’s tired out and
+sick altogether, the dear man. I’ve seen it comin’
+this long time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester looked at Julie with a sort of awe.
+The sound of footsteps in the hall outside penetrated
+with ominous distinctness into the library.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie said tremulously, “Hester, dear, I am
+going to Dad; they shall not keep us away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, they shall not. We are not babies; we
+must go and help.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s what I wus after tellin’ the Doctor
+you’d say,” Bridget sobbed, “an’ it’s not for
+me to be lavin’ you here all alone, an’ me all over
+the house to onct. But if yez wouldn’t go now,
+darlin’s. Just wait till he’s took to his room,
+an’ ’twould be better—indeed, believe your old
+Bridget, it would!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The impetuosity of youth in the shock of joy
+or sorrow is not to be checked. The girls went
+into the hall, to see a stretcher, on which lay
+their father, being borne up the stairs, while Dr.
+Ware and two men, who proved to be trained
+nurses, brought up the rear of the little procession.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dr. Ware,” whispered the girls, slipping up
+close to him with blanched faces, “we know—we
+must help, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He took them each by the hand, as if they
+were little children, and turned them back before
+they could reach their father’s side.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dear little girls,” he said, gently, “you can
+help your father most by doing as I ask. It is
+hard to be shut out, I know, but you can do
+nothing now. Later, perhaps, you can do—everything.
+I will tell you frankly, he is a very
+sick man. I have no wish to hide anything
+from you, but we shall try and get him better—much.
+I have two experienced men, and Bridget
+here, and when we get him comfortably in bed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>
+you may come in for a moment. He may not
+regain consciousness for many hours. Will you
+trust me and be guided by my better judgment?”
+looking down at them earnestly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, yes,” they both sobbed through the
+tears, now falling fast; “go to Dad—don’t think
+of us. We will do everything you say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That pleases me—my brave little girls.”
+He went on into Mr. Dale’s chamber.
+</p>
+<p>
+Left to themselves, they huddled together
+outside their father’s door, each trying to comfort
+the other. Peter Snooks, fully conscious
+that his young mistresses were in trouble, climbed
+into Julie’s lap and stuck his wet nose into her
+hand in true canine sympathy. Though they
+did not put it into words, both girls were conscious
+of a curious sense of remoteness from their
+father in being thus kept from him. This immediate,
+poignant grief stung them bitterly and
+prevented for the moment any thought of what
+the future might hold.
+</p>
+<p>
+They never knew how long they had sat there
+on the stairs when Dr. Ware opened the bedroom
+door and beckoned them in. But they
+carried ever after a vivid impression of creeping
+stealthily to their father’s bed, stooping to kiss
+the dear face, from which there was no answering
+sign of recognition, and stealing softly out again.
+And in Julie’s mind there flashed always an
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>
+accompanying picture—the remembrance of how,
+when they had reached the hall again, Hester
+had picked up a woe-begone, shivering little dog,
+and burying her face in his neck, whispered,
+brokenly: “Oh, Peter Snooks, how we were
+going—to—make—him—laugh!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<p>
+It was said of Mr. Dale by those of his friends’
+wives who felt at liberty to discuss his
+affairs with their husbands, that his bringing up
+of his daughters was radically wrong. These
+whispers of feminine disapproval were occasionally
+wafted to the seemingly heedless father, who
+always smiled good-naturedly, yet was apparently
+blind to the advantages to be derived from the
+conventional course of training the young, for he
+continued to pursue his own methods with bland
+serenity.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Dale had died when the girls were six and
+seven years old respectively. Up to that time
+they had lived quite like other children, going
+regularly to school and finding recreation in the
+pleasures common to their age and condition.
+The house in which at that time they lived was a
+somewhat pretentious mansion on the water side
+of Crana Street. Now to live in this sacred
+precinct, as every one in Radnor knows, gives an
+immediate claim to distinction. In the eyes of
+their neighbors, however, the Dales were not
+distinguished beyond the matter of their locality,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span>
+for the family was not Radnor-bred, and this is
+an offense tolerated but never condoned in
+Radnor society.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Dales had drifted there from some unheard-of
+(to Radnor) western town soon after
+the Civil War, while the country was still in a
+state of upheaval. Major Dale brought to the
+readjustment of his business the force and skill
+which won for him distinction on the battlefield,
+gradually transferred his interests from the western
+town eastward, and took root in Radnor,
+where he proceeded to build up a fortune. Not
+there, however, but back in Mrs. Dale’s old home,
+some years later, the girls were born. They came
+to Radnor as babies, and like their father took
+root; but Mrs. Dale, a semi-invalid, spent much
+of her time wearily traversing the country in
+search of health. She disliked Radnor, and made
+no attempt to cultivate the people. During her
+prolonged absences the children remained at
+home under the care of Bridget, a faithful servant
+who had come with them from the west.
+</p>
+<p>
+With Mrs. Dale’s death the quiet placidity of
+the children’s life ceased. The house was
+closed, and Mr. Dale started immediately for
+California, taking the girls and Bridget with him.
+While there he became interested in railroad enterprises,
+which eventually extended through
+remote and varied sections of the country and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>
+kept him a bird of passage for many years. He
+built a private car and took his daughters everywhere
+with him, to the consternation of Radnor,
+which was kept informed of the magnate’s movements
+through the medium of the press.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls grew up in an atmosphere of devoted
+companionship, among scenes that were ever
+changing. They lived much in hotels, and for
+weeks at a time in their private car, “The Hustle,”
+which they never ceased to regard as a
+fascinating playhouse, and where their father, in
+the midst of his multitudinous cares, found time
+to watch their developing natures and teach them
+to grow in grace and spirit, as became the daughters
+of a soldier.
+</p>
+<p>
+They were not wholly without lessons, for
+when they remained for any length of time in
+one place Mr. Dale’s private secretary was dispatched
+to find a good school, in which they
+were immediately placed; while Mr. Dale, who
+had theories of his own, trained their eyes to
+keen observation of what they saw and their
+minds to reason out the obscure according to
+their own lights. He was full of wisdom and
+patience and counsel, but he had a way of turning
+on them when they came for advice and
+saying, “What do <em>you</em> think?” in a manner that
+would have been startling to the average child,
+who is apt to think what he is told. This turning the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>
+tables began in their teens, whereby they
+came to have opinions without being opinionated,
+for, though requiring them to think out
+every subject carefully, he yet guided them with
+a firm hand, giving them in every sort of discussion
+the wisdom of his wide experience. He
+was a loving, indulgent father, and the girls
+adored him, but no sterner disciplinarian ever
+held sway. Implicit and immediate obedience
+he demanded—no questioning of his higher
+authority.
+</p>
+<p>
+He taught them, too, much of the old-world
+philosophy, which he had imbibed from extensive
+reading. They listened to him wonderingly, their
+eager young minds drinking in the beauty of what
+he said, but failing at that age to grasp the breadth
+and depth of all the truths he told them. Sometimes
+he almost forgot that they were children.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Julie was twenty and Hester nineteen
+he took them to Europe. Bridget and Peter
+Snooks completed the party. They roamed
+about for a year, and just before they were to sail
+for home late in the summer Mr. Dale informed
+the girls that he intended to sell out his large
+railroad interests; he was tired of their unsettled
+life, and thought they would all enjoy the novelty
+of opening their house and taking up their abode
+in Radnor. Radnor had long ceased to be anything
+more than a name to the girls, but the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span>
+proposition opened up joyous possibilities of
+“making a home for Dad.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will take you down to Cousin Nancy’s in
+Virginia when we land,” he had said to them in
+London, “and leave you there a few weeks; she
+has been begging for a visit from us this long
+while. Bridget and I will open the house in
+Radnor and get everything in order; then you
+can come up and run the establishment and
+queen it over your old Dad in royal fashion.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This program had been successfully carried out,
+except that it could scarcely be said that the
+girls ran the establishment, for the responsibility
+lay with Bridget, who assumed the duties of
+housekeeper—duties she guarded jealously and
+performed with such skill that there was not a
+better managed house on the water side of Crana
+Street. This Radnor people knew through that
+mysterious agency by which a neighborhood
+keeps in touch with itself.
+</p>
+<p>
+After years spent in the narrow confines of a
+car, however luxurious, and the necessarily limited
+quarters of hotels, the girls reveled in the
+spacious house, over which they spread themselves
+in an amusing fashion, sleeping in turn
+in the various bedrooms by way of getting
+acquainted with them all over again, Julie said,
+and with reckless prodigality hanging some portion
+of their wardrobe in every closet in the house.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+At the end of their first week in Radnor, Hester
+amused her father by telling him she thought
+she should enjoy housekeeping exceedingly if
+they had an elevator, a menu and “The Hustle”
+side-tracked in the back yard. Reluctantly she
+admitted that the yard could scarcely be made
+to hold it, but at least, she suggested airily, he
+might build a float and anchor the car at their
+back door on the river. The new life really
+seemed to her incomplete without it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester at twenty was a laughing, dancing
+sprite, yet with a certain quaintness and matureness
+of mind that amused and delighted her
+father’s friends. She was slim and dark, with a
+piquant face and fascinating hazel eyes that shot
+out mischievous lights. They were unusual
+eyes, and very beautiful with their fringe of long
+dark lashes; but she did not think so, and compared
+them scornfully to a cat’s—the only animal
+she hated. If she could be said to have any
+vanity it was for her hands, which came in for a
+considerable share of her attention, and she went
+to bed in gloves every night of her life.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie, whose hands were not a matter of comment,
+dispensed with this bed-time ceremony,
+and usually devoted most of her time before
+retiring to a vigorous brushing of her rebellious
+yellow hair, which, when it was let alone, rioted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>
+all over her head in such babyish curls that her
+father always called her “Curly Locks.” Her
+eyes were violet—her lashes and brows dark, like
+Hester’s, which gave her a most remarkable contrast
+of coloring. From her mother she had
+inherited a delicate constitution, and lacked the
+buoyancy of Hester’s gay spirits; nevertheless,
+she had a keen sense of humor and laughed immoderately
+on all occasions at her sister, whom
+she considered altogether the cleverest and most
+amusing person she knew. And they knew
+many delightful people from one end of the
+country to the other—everywhere except in Radnor,
+where society was waiting for Mr. Dale formally
+to present his daughters before setting the
+seal of its approval upon them.
+</p>
+<p>
+The second day following that on which Mr.
+Dale was brought home ill, Dr. Ware stayed
+longer than usual with his patient and came out
+of the sickroom with a grave face. In the hall
+the girls were waiting for him as usual.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dears,” he said, abruptly, drawing them
+into the library, “you have to know the worst,
+and there is no one but me to tell you.” For a
+moment he hesitated. “Your father’s illness is
+caused by his financial ruin—his entire fortune
+has been swept away. He has lost everything,
+and the shock of his failure has paralyzed him.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>
+For a moment neither spoke; each girl felt
+that she could hear her heart beat in the awful
+silence of the room. Then Julie said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Won’t Daddy soon be better? Oh, you
+can’t mean he will always be sick like this?”
+Her eyes were black with pain and apprehension.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He will never move about again. Physically
+he may suffer very little; the anguish will come
+through the consciousness of his helplessness——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will not let him feel that,” interrupted
+Julie, throwing up her head. “Hester and I are
+strong.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor cleared his throat. “Thank God
+for that, for you’ve a hard fight ahead of you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester crept close to his side. “Will you tell
+us more about it, please,” she whispered in a
+strange, tense voice; “it’s so—so difficult to
+understand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course it is, dear,” putting his arm
+around her. “Things began to go wrong a year
+ago. Your father felt it, and nearly abandoned
+the European trip, then went after all, feeling
+absolute need of rest and hoping he had left the
+snarl sufficiently straightened out to go on without
+him. But things went from bad to worse,
+and he came back to more complications than
+any one man could manage. Even then he
+might have pulled through somehow if that
+western road in which he had so largely invested
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span>
+had not smashed and carried him down with it.
+You don’t want the details, Hester.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” she answered, “it is enough that the
+thing is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He looked at her intently, as if astonished that
+so philosophic a statement should come from so
+young a person.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shall we have to give up the house, and—and
+‘The Hustle,’ and—everything?” asked
+Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m afraid so, Julie dear. That is especially
+what I want to talk to you about to-day—your
+future. I want you to leave it all to me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no, no!” she cried, “you’re good, so
+good, but we can’t do that. We must look the
+future squarely in the face, and bravely, must we
+not, Hester?” turning appealingly to her sister.
+“I’m sure that is what Daddy would say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie, don’t you be afraid; we’ll just do
+everything—somehow!” Hester flung out her
+young arms with a sweeping movement as if she
+meant to gather in all their perplexities and conquer
+them. “If Dr. Ware will help us and
+advise us, we’ll try to get our feet down on
+something—somewhere. Yours aren’t very big,”
+she said, with a piteous attempt at her old lightness,
+“but mine are. I feel just now as if I were
+standing on my head, it is all so sudden and so
+terrible!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Ware rose and put on his coat. “I think
+you have heard enough for one day,” he said.
+“You seem to be such surprisingly independent
+young women that I do not know just how I am
+going to deal with you. But you are to remember
+this, mind, that whatever I have is yours—everything—though
+I shall not thrust it upon
+you. If you have ideas of your own and wish to
+carry them out, I will help you in every way in
+my power. Now I am off,” he added, briskly,
+“and don’t you worry too much. We have
+many days yet to talk things over and decide
+what is best to do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie tried to say something, but ended by
+burying her face in his coat sleeve and sobbing
+quietly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester fiercely bit her lip and gulped down
+the tears that threatened to choke her. “You
+are the kindest, best—” she began.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tut, tut, nonsense!” said the Doctor. “Not
+a word like that, or I shall desert you entirely.”
+And with a frown on his face that was half a
+smile he left the room.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<p>
+“Julie, it is too absolutely appalling to
+realize!” Hester pressed her nose against
+the window and looked out over the river dejectedly.
+A fresh September gale was blowing,
+ruffling the surface of the water into miniature
+waves and rattling the window panes with a suggestion
+of autumn days to come. Julie shivered
+a little, and crossed to the fireplace, where a few
+pine logs sputtered on the hearth. She looked
+down without seeing them. Her thoughts were
+turned within.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie! do say something!” exclaimed her
+sister. “I can’t bear to have you so still.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am thinking, dear; trying to grasp what it
+all means.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie, what can we do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do? Well, we will do something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course we will, old girl.” Hester left the
+window, and crossing the room put her arms
+around her sister. “The two main things are
+to take care of Dad and earn our own living.
+We couldn’t be dependent on Dr. Ware, Julie.
+Do you suppose he meant he wanted to give us
+a home and everything?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know, Hester. He is so generous
+and so fond of Dad I believe he would; but
+that would not be right. I wonder what we can
+do to be self-supporting? We have the usual
+accomplishments, and I suppose we have average
+intelligence, don’t you?” she asked, anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I would back the intelligence against the
+accomplishments any day,” said Hester, sagely.
+“We have not had the usual sort of bringing up,
+so we can’t do the usual thing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Like teaching, you mean, or—or things like
+that? No, we can’t. We are not trained or
+qualified for any sort of position, and only one
+of us could work away from home anyway, for
+we can’t both leave Daddy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester’s forehead was creased into little wrinkles
+of perplexity. “If only I were a man!” she
+exclaimed, “I might stand some chance—I know
+how to do such a lot of mannish things. Why,
+I could be an engineer if I were put to it, Julie!
+You know I’ve run the engine attached to ‘The
+Hustle’ many a time; the men used to let me do
+it.” She drew in her breath with a little gasp
+of remembrance. “As it is,” she continued, “I
+suppose I’ll have to be a companion or something
+equally commonplace and ladylike,” she
+ended in a tone of disgust.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I suppose so,” agreed her sister reluctantly;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>
+“but, dear, the worst of that is it will separate
+us, and I don’t believe either one of us could
+stand that.” Julie’s lip quivered. “Isn’t it
+humiliating to have such a feeling of utter helplessness?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, it is.” Hester gave herself a shake.
+“I cannot seem to take it all in yet, Julie—what
+it all means. It seems to me we must be some
+other girls talking, not ourselves at all. Somehow
+it never entered my mind that dreadful
+things could happen to us—not while we had
+Dad to take care of us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that is just it now, Hester dear; we
+haven’t Dad to take care of us—it is we who
+must take care of him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll do it, too,” said Hester, with a ring
+in her voice. “I’m going down now to the
+kitchen to see about making him some wine
+jelly. Bridget said she did not believe Dr. Ware
+would let him eat it, but I feel as if I must be
+doing something. Come, Peter Snooks,” to the
+dog that was never far out of sight, “we’ll at
+least make a pretense of being useful. Now
+don’t you sit there and cry,” she said from the
+door to her sister. “You just hold tight on to
+yourself, and think out something clever—I’m
+sure you can,” convincingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie acknowledged this flattery by a wan
+little smile, and following Hester out of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>
+room, went in to see her father. The nurse was
+sitting near the bed, but moved aside as she
+entered.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Dale partially opened his eyes as his
+daughter drew near, but closed them again
+instantly. His drawn, haggard face showed the
+strain he had undergone in the months before
+the final collapse of his business had stricken him
+down. A look of tender pity came into Julie’s
+face as she knelt by the bed and laid her hand
+over his. He was breathing heavily, as if asleep,
+and she dared not speak. It seemed to her
+inconceivable that her bright, energetic father
+could be lying there as helpless as a little child!
+She put her head down on the bed, while her
+mind reverted to their recent conversation with
+Dr. Ware and the subsequent talk which had
+half stunned their senses. They must think,
+Hester said, and she was right; but it almost
+seemed to her it would be a relief to stop thinking
+for a moment, so rapidly had the events of
+the past two days been crowded in upon them.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this passed through her mind in a tumult
+of confused ideas, through which ran the predominating
+thought of work, in obtaining which
+she knew Dr. Ware would help them. But how,
+and what and where? In the first shock of their
+trouble it was not possible to see the way clearly,
+nor, indeed, to half understand the problems
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>
+confronting them. Julie felt this and knew she
+must be patient, though inwardly a wave of resentment
+that such things should be, surged in
+her heart rebelliously. The next instant she
+thrust down this feeling with a fierce determination
+to control herself, and spreading out her
+hands, for the first time in her life regarded them
+critically. They were not beautiful, like Hester’s,
+but they were slender and white, and she suddenly
+felt a contempt for their delicacy, while a
+consciousness that she had never exacted anything
+from them caused her to view them in a
+new light. Why not work with her hands!
+Why not put her fingers to some use and see
+what they were capable of, making each one a
+vital thing full of strength and character. The
+idea delighted her, and she closed her fingers in
+a tight grip as if testing their possibilities. “Oh,
+Daddy, dear!” she half whispered, with her
+head pressed close against him, “we will amount
+to <em>something</em>.” Then rising from the bed, she
+stooped to kiss him, and went in search of Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Dr. Ware came again they convinced
+him of their determination to work, and he
+promised to look about and see what opening
+could be found for them. He had only a moment
+to give them that morning, but said he
+should return in the evening to have a long talk.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span>
+When Hester kept him a second longer to display,
+with considerable pride, the wine jelly she
+had made for her father, he shook his head.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not just yet, my dear,” he said, kindly.
+Her disappointment was so evident that the good
+Doctor felt inclined to eat it himself by way of
+proving his admiration of her culinary skill, and
+then—he had an inspiration.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester,” he said, “will you do me a favor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I will.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should like to carry that jelly off with me;
+it fairly makes my mouth water. If you’ll give
+it to me, my dear, I will allow your father to eat
+an unlimited amount of it later on; and then
+think how busy you will be! Come, is it a bargain?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dr. Ware! As if you need ask! Why, you
+know I’d just love to give it to you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She had arranged the jelly in a dainty dish,
+and now ran into the dining-room for a doily,
+which she wrapped about it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Won’t you let us send it over to you, Dr.
+Ware?” Julie asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, thank you, Julie; I’m going to drive
+right home,” and the Doctor went off with the
+dish in his hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he reappeared that evening he astonished
+the girls by approaching them silently,
+while he bowed with great ceremony before
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>
+Hester, to whom he held out a package and
+said: “Allow me to congratulate you, my dear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Greatly mystified, Hester took the package and
+unwrapped it, to find the glass jelly dish she had
+given him that morning, in the bottom of which
+lay a two-dollar bill. She looked up at him
+wonderingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is yours, Hester,” he said. “I plead
+guilty. I took that jelly to a crotchety old
+patient of mine who is boarding, and reviles all
+the jelly his nurse buys for him. I told him I
+thought I had found some that would please
+him, and I was right. He devoured half of it
+while I was there. Then he insisted on paying
+for it. I did not tell him where it came from, but
+he wants some more, and he said that was what
+it was worth.” He was watching her closely.
+</p>
+<p>
+She had taken up the bill, and was handling it
+nervously, a deep flush on her bewildered young
+face. “Julie,” she exclaimed, breathlessly,
+turning instinctively to her sister, “Julie, I’ve
+<em>earned</em> some money!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How splendid!” Julie stared at the bill as
+if it were different from any she had seen before.
+Hester threw her arms impulsively around Dr.
+Ware’s neck. “This is the only way I know
+how to thank you,” she cried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall instantly create a demand for your
+jelly, my dear, if I am always to get a commission
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span>
+like this,” the Doctor laughingly remarked, delighted
+at the success of his venture.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you serious, Dr. Ware? Do you suppose
+I could make jelly to sell?” she asked, anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not, Hester?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl was silent for a moment then suddenly
+she cried, “Julie Dale, we’ll <em>cook</em> for a
+living!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Cook!” repeated Julie, incredulously, “I
+don’t know a thing about cooking.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, but I do. Don’t you know how Cousin
+Nancy was always fussing because I would haunt
+the kitchen down there? I learned how to make
+jelly from her old colored mammie, and heaps of
+things beside. Of course, I never actually put
+my hand into anything—old Rachel wouldn’t
+let me, but I saw how she did lots of things,
+and her cakes were famous all through the
+County, you know they were. If we can sell
+wine jelly we ought to be able to sell other
+things, don’t you think so, Dr. Ware?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do indeed, my dear; I think your idea is
+excellent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester, I will learn, I am sure I can,” cried
+Julie hurriedly. “I’m aching to get my fingers
+into something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you’ll learn—we’ll both have to
+learn as we go along, and even if we don’t succeed
+it’s worth trying.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“As for that,” said the Doctor, “anything
+you may attempt will be more or less in the
+nature of an experiment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” acquiesced Hester, “and if we do succeed
+it means working together, Julie dear, in
+a place of our own, and being with Dad. Just
+think what that would mean!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Everything!” assented her sister. “I believe
+you’ve hit upon a way—there always is a
+way, if one keeps looking!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“One of the first things to ascertain,” said Dr.
+Ware, “is the cost of materials and the market
+price of such things as you suggest making.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” confessed Hester. It had never
+occurred to her in the whole course of her young
+life to consider the cost of anything.
+</p>
+<p>
+From this the talk went on to other things
+relative to the change about to take place, and
+Dr. Ware remained several hours in earnest conversation
+with them. At the end of that time,
+when he rose to take his departure, there was,
+added to the affection already in his heart, a tremendous
+feeling of admiration and respect for
+these girls, whose spirits flashed undaunted;
+while they, on their part, were experiencing
+through him the depths of human kindness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We mean to be worthy of all you are doing
+for us,” said Julie, stopping a moment to steady
+her voice, “and we mean to make our fight as
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>
+bravely as you and Daddy did years ago, when
+you tramped through the Wilderness together.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor straightened his shoulders and
+made a military salute. “On to victory!” was
+all he said.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<p>
+“George Washington! G-e-o-r-g-e
+W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ma’am?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why don’t you answer the first time I call
+you? Come here and go hunt the Colonel and
+tell him I want him directly. He is around the
+house somewhere.”
+</p>
+<p>
+George Washington, aged ten, his woolly head
+full of sticks, his blue-jeans sadly perforated
+and the lower portion of his ebony limbs guiltless
+of covering, came out from behind the kitchen
+quarters and shambled off in search of his master.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That boy shows old Rachel’s blood,” soliloquized
+the mistress of Wavertree Hall; “he
+would not run if there were a bomb under him!”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was one of those balmy days in Virginia,
+when the sly, deceptive October sun kisses one
+into the belief that summer will remain always.
+Mrs. Driscoe sat down on the back steps of the
+verandah and watched two cocks fighting in the
+yard, as she awaited the appearance of her husband.
+She looked, herself, not unlike a bird of
+ruffled plumage, for the bit of lace and pink ribbon
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>
+with which she ornamented her scanty locks was
+awry, while her crocheted shawl—pink to match
+the ribbon—hung off one shoulder, and her whole
+aspect presented a disheveled appearance which
+in her indicated a perturbed state of mind. Now
+and then she glanced at an open letter in her
+hand, the contents of which seemed to displease
+her, for she shook the paper as if it were a live
+thing she were chastising and tapped her foot
+impatiently.
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently a voice behind her said mildly:
+“Did you want me, my dear?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Want you? Certainly I wanted you! What
+do you suppose I sent for you for if I didn’t want
+you?” Mrs. Driscoe drew up her pink shawl
+with a gesture that spoke volumes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Won’t you get a headache, Nancy, sitting
+out there in the sun?” asked the Colonel solicitously.
+</p>
+<p>
+Concern for her physical welfare touched his
+wife’s vanity and appealed to her heart. She
+softened perceptibly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Maybe I had better come up and sit in a
+chair,” she said. “It’s those girls that have
+upset me. I believe they’re clean daft.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He helped her up and pulled a chair into a
+shady part of the verandah, waiting until she was
+comfortably ensconced before seating himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was a gallant, the Colonel, full of little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>
+courtesies which endeared him to the hearts of
+women. That was why the Widow Chisholme
+married him, the County said. She wanted—but
+does it matter after all these years what the
+County said?
+</p>
+<p>
+He sat down now beside her and waited for
+her to begin. She usually did begin and end
+everything.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The girls refuse to come—I’ve just had a
+letter from Julie; she is the most independent,
+ungrateful young minx I ever heard of!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh—ah—not that, Nancy, not that, I am
+sure—ahem—you must be mistaken. She
+impressed me as a very gentle, sweet young creature.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gentle fiddlesticks! Do you call that gentle?”
+flaunting the letter in his face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Possibly, my dear, if I were to know the
+contents of the letter I might be better able to
+form an opinion.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She handed it over and watched him read it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah,” he commented at the end, “what remarkably
+original girls!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give that letter to me, Driscoe,” (she had
+always called him Driscoe from the beginning)
+“I don’t believe you half understand it—you are
+always way off in the clouds somewhere when you
+haven’t got your nose buried in a book. Those
+girls are going to work—to cook! They actually
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span>
+prefer to cook for a living when they might come
+down here and live like ladies the rest of their
+lives. They have moved into rooms their
+Doctor found for them—I expect it is one of
+those nasty little places they call flats, in some
+horrid neighborhood and I am sure no one will
+go near them and they’ll die of loneliness with
+their crazy notions.” “Cook!” she repeated
+scornfully, “who ever heard of a lady doing a
+servant’s work!” The little pink bow on the
+top of her head fairly quivered in outraged sympathy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sure the girls appreciate your offer to
+give them a home,” Colonel Driscoe said when
+he was allowed to speak, “Julie’s letter speaks
+very feelingly about it. If they think it wise to
+try and be independent I must say I can’t help
+but admire their spirit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is all you know about it! In my day
+girls did not do odd, independent things—they
+did as they were told!”
+</p>
+<p>
+It occurred to the Colonel that her day was
+past, but he wisely refrained from giving the
+thought utterance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A lot of your foolish Northern notions still
+cling to you Driscoe,” she said resentfully.
+“It is my opinion that those Dale girls have disgraced
+the family—there is too much of their
+father in them—a true Fairleigh would never
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>
+stoop to menial labor; and yet their mother and
+I had the same Fairleigh grandmother. Oh, it is
+too trying—their behavior—too trying for anything!
+It terrifies me to think what they may
+come to!” She stopped rocking in her chair
+and sniffed audibly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There, there, Nancy, don’t take it so to
+heart,” comforted her husband, “it may be
+best as it is—we’ll see if we can’t raise a little
+money somewhere to send them—the poor young
+things must be in sore straits these days with
+poverty to face and an invalid father to take care
+of.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Umph! they don’t act like it—and as for
+money, I don’t see it lying round loose on the
+plantation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This was a sore point with the Colonel, who
+was known since his marriage to have swallowed
+up a considerable portion of his small income
+patenting farming implements that were impracticable.
+He had been a bachelor with an inventive
+turn of mind and only one lung when he met
+the Widow Chisholme at the Springs. Upon
+marrying her it seemed most desirable for her
+convenience (for she would never have tolerated
+life outside of Virginia) and his health, that they
+should live on the Chisholme property, which
+was somewhat extensive and kept them land
+poor. Mr. Driscoe, New Hampshire born and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>
+bred, settled down into a country gentleman
+and turned his attention to agriculture; but his
+mind, half inventive, half scholarly, wholly
+visionary, had made rather a sorry mess of it,
+and his wife, who had never relinquished the
+reins of government, now held them with a
+firmer hand. He was Colonel only by courtesy,
+the servants having dubbed him that immediately.
+It was impossible for them to recognize
+a real gentleman without a title.
+</p>
+<p>
+He said no more about money, but shaded his
+eyes and looked down the long avenue leading
+out to the road. In the distance he could see a
+small darky open a gate, while down the road
+came a horse with a swift gallop.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Here comes Nannie, my dear. She will not
+be pleased with your news, will she?” the Colonel
+said regretfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl brought the horse up with a sharp
+turn at the steps, thereby causing consternation
+to a brood of chickens, which scattered in every
+direction. Then she threw the bridle to George
+Washington and slipped to the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My,” she exclaimed, fanning herself with
+her hat, “it is pretty warm riding.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now don’t sit down there and take cold,”
+expostulated her mother; “here, put my shawl
+around you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nannie, who had dropped down on the steps,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>
+laughed and shook her head. “A shawl in
+October! who ever heard of such a thing. I
+am all right, mummie; don’t take it off—it looks
+so pretty on you.” She smiled at her mother,
+who was not proof against this bit of flattery,
+though her only manifestation was a closer drawing
+of the shawl around her shoulders. “Don’t
+you feel very well, mummie?” the girl asked,
+conscious that the atmosphere was not altogether
+salubrious.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well enough,” replied the older woman,
+flipping a letter nervously between her fingers as
+she rocked to and fro.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your mother has heard from your cousin
+Julie,” volunteered the Colonel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me see the letter, quick, mummie.
+When are they coming?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They are not coming at all,” replied Mrs.
+Driscoe, with a resentful toss of her head, meanwhile
+thrusting the obnoxious letter into her
+pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nan’s face fell. “Oh, mummie, can’t I see
+the letter, please?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly not. It is full of crazy ideas that
+are most unbecoming in a young girl, and I don’t
+consider such things proper for you to read.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Colonel Driscoe gave an apologetic cough and
+opened his lips as if to speak, but apparently
+thought better of it and studied his finger nails
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>
+with unwonted interest. Nan drew cabalistic
+signs on the steps with her riding crop, and for
+some moments the silence was unbroken save for
+the half chuckling singing of George Washington,
+who was turning somersaults near by. Then
+Nannie said wistfully:
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I know why the girls are not coming,
+please?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Colonel started to explain, but was overruled
+by his wife, who preferred to give her own
+interpretation of the case. Accordingly she
+poured out a torrent of abuse, in which her own
+individual woes over what she called their “disobedience”
+were so involved with a mixed statement
+of facts that Nan might have been led to
+believe that her cousins were lost to all sense of
+propriety had she not thoroughly understood her
+mother. As it was she listened quietly, sympathized
+with and petted her, and told her not
+to bother her head any more about two naughty
+girls in the North. She was a girl of considerable
+tact, this Nannie, for all that the whole
+establishment “babied” her, and she knew just
+how to smooth down her mother’s ruffled plumage;
+so that Mrs. Driscoe, after a good, comfortable
+cry, which was a great relief to her
+overwrought feelings, was persuaded to go
+indoors and lie down to recover from the shock
+of the morning.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Nannie remained on the verandah with her
+father. “Will <em>you</em> tell me about it now?” she
+said, when her mother was well out of hearing.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Colonel’s version, as he understood it from
+Julie’s letter was expressed in five minutes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear!” Nannie exclaimed, when he had
+finished, “I wish they did not feel that way
+about things. I did so hope they were going to
+bring their father here and let us nurse him, and
+live with us, and be just like my own sisters—I’ve
+always wanted a sister so! I can’t seem to
+make it out exactly, pa, how girls like that who
+have always had every mortal thing on earth, can
+work just like poor girls.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, you can’t understand, kitten,” stroking
+her head affectionately; “it’s against all the traditions
+of your bringing up that you should, for
+your mother takes such extreme views. But for
+my part, I think they are very noble and
+deserve tremendous credit for taking the stand
+they have.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! so do I,” echoed the girl enthusiastically.
+“I just love them for it. I think it is
+grand to be so heroic and brave. Why, just
+think, pa, they are not very much older than I,
+and yet all of a sudden it seems as if they were
+women and I only a baby.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We want to keep our little girl a while yet,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>
+he said. “I have no fear but she will be womanly
+enough when the time comes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We did have the loveliest times when the
+girls were here, didn’t we?” she said reminiscently.
+“They could ride as well as any girl
+in the county, and Julie was the prettiest thing
+I ever saw. Do you remember the funny tricks
+Hester did—springing on a horse bareback, and
+riding backward, and things she’d learned from
+the cowboys? Oh! I did miss them terribly
+when they went away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They were unusually companionable to us
+all, I think, Nannie. I am sure I missed them
+unspeakably.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl sat down on the arm of his chair and
+as she leaned her head against his, two tears
+trickled down the end of her nose and into his
+neck. He put his arms about her and drew her
+into his lap, where she lay, a dejected little heap,
+sobbing bitterly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There, there, kitten, don’t cry; Mr. Dale
+may get better, and the girls may be able to bring
+him down for a long visit some time—who
+knows?” said the kindly Colonel, who was
+already planning in his mind how he could defray
+the expenses, should such a journey be possible.
+“We will all have some happy times together
+again, Nannie; you’ll see, little girl.”
+</p>
+<div><a name='i048' id='i048'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i003' id='i003'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-048.jpg" alt="THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span></div>
+<p>
+Nan heaved a sigh and was comforted. It is
+easy to be sanguine at seventeen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly she exclaimed: “Do you know
+what?” sitting up and revealing a tear-stained
+face and two brimming brown eyes which she
+rubbed with the Colonel’s handkerchief, her
+own having long since been reduced to a damp
+little ball; “I’m going to write to the girls not to
+mind a thing mummie writes them, for she really
+loves them just the same, and you and I love
+them heaps more—if such a thing is possible—and
+think about them and just hope with all our
+might and main that Cousin Dale will be better,
+and they won’t have to work themselves to
+death. Oh, don’t I just wish I could help
+them!” “Pa!” she cried in a sudden inspiration,
+“you know the new saddle you were going to
+give me for my birthday?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Nannie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you have not bought it, have you?
+and I don’t want it—I want you to send the
+money to the girls instead.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But, Nannie, child, you have talked of that
+saddle for months. Are you sure you want to
+do this?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes,” she cried, rapturously with a
+childish clap of her hands; “I’d love to do it
+more than anything. Can you see about it to-day?” Her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>
+soft brown eyes were not brimming
+now, but full of eagerness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am almost afraid,” said the Colonel,
+shaking his head, “that your mother will not
+consent and that the girls might refuse to let
+you do it if they knew.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, they must not know,” said Nannie with
+an air of importance borne of the project in
+hand. “No one must know, not even mummie;
+it is a secret between you and me. We will send
+an anonymous letter the way they do in books.
+Oh! won’t it be fun?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who ever would have suspected we had an
+arch-conspirator in our midst,” said the Colonel
+slyly, “and that she would victimize an old man
+like me?” In his heart he was rejoicing over her
+pretty exhibition of girlish love and unselfishness.
+Then more seriously, he added: “I am afraid
+we shall have to wait until your birthday really
+comes round, Puss. I have not the money just
+now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you are going to let me do it, aren’t
+you? No matter if we do have to wait, come
+and begin the letter now. We must make it very
+mysterious, and manage to get it to them somehow
+so they will never suspect. How do you
+suppose we can?” She looked at him, confident
+that he would suggest something.
+</p>
+<p>
+And he did. But what he said was whispered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span>
+so low that even we cannot hear. The effect
+on her was instantaneous, and caused her to
+dance about delightedly. Then suddenly remembering
+that her mother was sleeping in an
+adjacent room, she became subdued and catching
+her father by the arm drew him quietly into
+the house.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<p>
+It is not until a great crisis is past that one
+comprehends with any clearness of vision
+the multitudinous events that whirl about the
+one supreme fact. Stunned by the first shock,
+one wakes to learn that close on the heels of disaster
+come the consequences—pell-mell, helter-skelter,
+pushing, crowding with a grim insistence
+from which there is no escape. It was small
+wonder, then, that to the Dale girls the world
+seemed topsy-turvy.
+</p>
+<p>
+A change being inevitable, their one desire was
+to get it over quickly, the first of October, therefore,
+saw them moved into new quarters. The
+arrangements had been made by Dr. Ware, who
+effected a compromise with the girls—he offering
+them a vacant apartment in a house he owned,
+they gladly accepting this home if he would allow
+them to pay rent when they became successful
+wage-earners. The good Doctor sighed and
+consented; he recognized there was no thwarting
+their earnest purpose. In the first discussion
+of plans, he had suggested a little house in the
+suburbs; but Hester, with her practical nature
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>
+fast developing, had said that to do business
+they must be within reach of people—in the
+midst of things. She did not quite know how
+she knew this—perhaps it was more that she felt
+it instinctively; but it met with Dr. Ware’s
+approval and had great weight with Julie, who
+secretly longed for the country, but put aside
+all personal inclination and voted with her sister.
+The result was a flat in a quiet, unpretentious
+neighborhood, which yet took on a semblance of
+gentility from its proximity to Crana Street.
+</p>
+<p>
+By methods known only to himself, Dr. Ware
+saved furniture enough to make the place comfortable,
+while Bridget, who assumed mysterious
+airs for days before their departure, saw to it
+that there was no lack of household necessities.
+Bridget was no small factor in those days. She
+came to the front with tremendous energy,
+backed up her young mistresses in all their
+plans, and vowed she would never leave them.
+So the little family held together, which was the
+main thing, and the girls settled themselves in
+the new quarters with brave spirits—was not
+this, after all, the real meaning of “making a
+home for Dad”?
+</p>
+<p>
+All the choicest things were brought to the
+furnishing of his room; the gayest pictures to
+relieve the tedium of the weary hours, his best
+loved books near at hand, though he could no
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>
+longer read or even reach out his hand to touch
+them. In the window-sill Julie had set up a
+miniature conservatory of potted plants that
+promised to bloom gayly, for down upon them
+poured the morning sun, filling the room with
+golden light. This was their resting-place in the
+new life—their father the center about whom
+they gathered in every spare moment—the room
+a little shrine from which in the midst of their
+attendance upon him many a silent prayer for
+strength and courage went up to God.
+</p>
+<p>
+The other sleeping-rooms were bedrooms by
+courtesy—mere closets, one of which was given
+to Bridget and in the other the girls managed
+to squeeze a double bed. Hester suggested that
+berths would be much more convenient, and
+only the lack of money prevented her having
+that sort of sleeping arrangement constructed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie!” she exclaimed, in the first days of
+squeezing themselves in, “it is something like
+living in the car again, isn’t it? only it is so—so
+different. I believe I’ll call the flat ‘The Hustle’—only
+instead of <em>its</em> hustling like the car,
+we’ll be the ones. Oh, Julie dear, to think of
+never racing around the country like that again!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t Hester; I can’t bear to think of it.”
+In spite of her good resolutions Julie’s courage
+sometimes failed her.
+</p>
+<p>
+A few days later Hester came into the kitchen
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>
+one morning, her arms full of paper bags strongly
+suggestive of the corner grocery. “There!”
+she cried, “I’ve invested my last dollar in things
+for the cake.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is it to-day you are going to see Miss Ware?”
+Julie asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, if the cake comes out all right. Roll
+up your sleeve, old girl, and we’ll begin.” Hester
+suited the action to the words by weighing
+the ingredients and turning the butter into a
+bowl. But ah! how hard it was to put her
+pretty hand into it—how greasy the butter felt
+and how sandy the sugar, and how unpleasant
+the general stickiness! But she worked it
+through her fingers energetically, while Julie beat
+the eggs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is going to be death on our hands, my
+dear,” remarked Hester, picking up a knife with
+which she scraped the dough from her fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish you would always let me do that part,
+Hester. I know how you will feel it to hurt your
+hands.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, as if I’d be likely to! No one part is
+worse than another. We’ll get used to it after
+a while, though I know our hands will spread out
+to twice their natural size.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps even if they do get big and not quite
+so fine as they are now, <em>perhaps</em> we won’t mind,
+Hester, if we just think of it as scars in the battle,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span>
+you know. Don’t you know how Daddy
+has often talked of the honorable scars in the
+battle of life? We’re just finding out what that
+means, old girl.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, if you haven’t a most blessed faculty
+for putting a comfortable construction on everything!”
+Hester emphasized her words by a last
+vigorous beat of the dough and held out the
+spoon to her sister. “Just taste this, will you,
+Julie? I think it’s fine.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Umph, it is,” agreed Julie, who had disdained
+the spoon, and dabbed her finger in the
+mixture after the manner of cooks. “But, my
+dear, if we create a demand for cake like that
+which requires only the whites of eggs, what
+shall we do with the yolks? Eat them, I suppose,”
+making up a wry face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They are better than nothing and I do not
+see chickens hopping in the window, do you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” reluctantly. “We have fifteen dollars
+in the house,” she announced solemnly. “How
+long do you suppose we can live on that?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sure I don’t know, Julie. We must
+learn to eat less, and that is no joke. I’ll tell
+you what, one of the hardest things is learning to
+do without what has always seemed absolutely
+necessary.” There was a husky sound in Hester’s
+voice which Julie did not like to hear.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No matter, dear, we are young and strong,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span>
+and we will accomplish something before we get
+through. Why, if you stop to think of it, nearly
+every one who has made a success of life has
+started in the smallest kind of way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester nodded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you say you were going to see Miss
+Ware to-day?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I think I had better take her this loaf if
+it bakes properly. Will you come with me,
+Julie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, dear, I think you will manage better
+alone, though I’ll go of course, if you want me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I had rather go alone,” said Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+But no expedition to Miss Ware’s took place
+that day, for the cake was spoiled in the baking
+and four succeeding attempts shared the same
+tragic fate. Toward night, when the failures of
+the day had reduced them to the verge of
+despondency, Dr. Ware came in and carried them
+off for a long drive which wonderfully freshened
+up their spirits. On the way home he asked
+their assistance in sending out a thousand circulars
+in regard to some medical matters, telling
+them it would be a tremendous help to him if
+they would write them. They acquiesced delightedly
+and accordingly that evening a huge
+bundle of stationery was left at their door.
+Inside, stuck in a package of envelopes, was a
+slip on which was written: “Here’s the paper
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>
+and the form to be copied. Don’t keep at this
+too persistently, little girls, or you’ll bring
+down the wrath of your faithful friend, Philip
+Ware.”
+</p>
+<p>
+More than glad to have an opportunity of
+being of use to the Doctor, the girls set to work
+early the next morning writing industriously.
+Julie, after a few smirched and blotted copies,
+got well under way; she had considerable precision
+in her character, which made a task like this
+simple. But Hester during the first day or two
+spoiled so many sheets that she viewed her rapidly
+filling waste-basket with dismay. Finally, in
+supreme disgust she threw down her pen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I believe I could build a house easier!” was
+her impatient exclamation. “Who ever saw such
+daubs as I’m making!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie looked up and smiled. Her wrist ached,
+and she shook her hand to limber the muscles.
+“If you did not dig your pen in the ink with
+such a high-tragedy, Scott-Siddons air, maybe
+you’d get on better,” she suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“High-tragedy fiddlesticks! I <em>like</em> a lot of
+ink. I am sure you’re a sight,” she commented,
+with sisterly frankness; “all doubled
+up and your forehead screwed into knots. How
+many have you done?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know; there they are,” pointing to
+a box-cover piled high.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester surveyed them with lofty scorn.
+“Mercy! That is nothing! I’ve done heaps!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where are they, you airy young person?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“In the waste-basket, mostly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go to work, you ridiculous infant, or you
+will be stuck to that chair the rest of your natural
+days.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When Dr. Ware attempted to pay them for
+the work they remonstrated, telling him in the
+most convincing language at their command that
+it was a pleasure to feel they could do even so
+small a thing for him. To this he refused to
+agree, finally persuading them to take the money
+if on no other ground than to convince him of
+their business principles; while he refrained
+from mentioning that he had himself deviated
+somewhat from business methods when he ordered
+the circulars written instead of printed in the
+usual way.
+</p>
+<p>
+A week later the almond cake for Miss Ware
+was baked successfully and an admiring group
+stood about the kitchen table taking a last look
+at it before Hester did it up in a box preparatory
+to setting forth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Faith, it’s a beauty,” cried Bridget, arms
+akimbo. “Any lady’d be proud to eat it.
+Shure it’s your mother’s own fingers ye’ve got,
+the both of yez. Ther’ warn’t nothin’ she
+couldn’t make when she put her hand to it, before she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>
+got so ailin’, an’ the Major, God bless
+him, got so well off she didn’t have ter.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor, dear mamma!” said Julie, wistfully.
+“I only remember her ill and not able to bear us
+noisy children about.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sufferin’ made her a changed woman, the
+Saints preserve her! But I seen the day, Miss
+Julie, when she slaved for the Major before you
+was born an’ there warn’t nobody could beat
+her at anythin’. It looks like her knack was
+croppin’ out in yez, shure as my name’s Bridget
+Maloney.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps it is, Bridget,” said Hester, who
+had heard this conversation from the next room,
+where she was putting on her coat and hat.
+“We have often heard Daddy tell people mamma
+was a practical genius, that would mean nimble
+fingers, wouldn’t it? Maybe she has left them
+to us as a legacy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not after understandin’ your words
+exactly, dearie, but the meanin’s clear an’ it’s
+right yez are.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As Hester picked up the box, Peter Snooks
+sprang down from the window-sill jumping
+wildly about, the sight of her hat being conclusive
+evidence to him that she was going out.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor little Snooks, not this time,” the girl
+said, stooping to pat him. “I am going in the
+car to-day.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+His stump of a tail drooped dejectedly as he
+looked at her with big reproachful eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It does seem mean not to take him, doesn’t
+it, Julie?—but it is not worth while, for it is so
+stormy I thought I had better ride both ways.”
+It was only dire extremity that permitted the
+extravagance of car-fares these days.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you must ride,” said Julie.
+“Peter Snooks,” to the still hopeful little fellow,
+“you must not tease. Go find your ball
+and we’ll have a play.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He trotted off and Hester picked up the box
+and started.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell Miss Ware that is only a hundredth part
+of the nice things you can make, you clever
+girl,” Julie called after her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“An’ good luck to you, dearie,” from Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+The wind and rain blew about Hester unpleasantly
+when she reached the street, but a car
+soon overtook her and afforded her a welcome
+shelter from the storm. She found all the seats
+occupied, but some of the passengers moved up
+to make room for her, and being a trifle tired
+from the nervousness of the cake-making, she
+thankfully squeezed into the bit of space allotted
+her, and laid the box in her lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+Her thoughts as the car sped along were not
+of the most cheerful, for she dreaded this visit
+to Miss Ware. That individual, who kept house
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span>
+for her brother, had expressed herself in terms
+of strong disapproval of the girls when he had
+told her their plans. She considered cooking
+greatly beneath them and would have thoroughly
+agreed with the views of their Cousin
+Nancy in Virginia, had she known that person.
+As it was, she thought her brother should interest
+himself in finding suitable positions for them,
+and she refused to recognize the fact that these
+were not to be had for the asking. “There
+were plenty of ladylike things girls could do,”
+she said, but did not give herself the trouble to
+specify.
+</p>
+<p>
+To the girls themselves she had talked at some
+length, endeavoring to explain to them that they
+were laying out for themselves a path of social
+ostracism by their extraordinary choice of work,
+never doubting that this argument alone would
+convince them. But when Julie gently put it
+aside with the assurance that she and Hester
+were sufficient to themselves if the world chose
+to look askance at them; and when Hester
+flushed angrily, and said the people whose friendship
+was worth anything would not fail them,
+Miss Ware shrugged her shoulders and gave them
+up as social heretics. She was not, however,
+allowed to wash her hands of them, for her
+brother sang their praises perpetually. She
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span>
+therefore forced herself to take a negative interest
+in them which carried her so far as to order
+from them a loaf of cake.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester, gazing abstractedly out of the car window,
+felt it a momentous errand on which she
+was going that day; it involved so much. If
+the cake met with the critical approval of Miss
+Ware she intended to ask her to solicit orders
+for it. It would not be easy to approach her
+on this subject, but she should do it—oh! yes,
+she did not intend to be frightened out of her
+purpose. A curious little ache came into her
+heart as she braced herself for the coming ordeal.
+It was all so new and so strange, to be put in the
+position of asking favors—to be looked down
+upon from frigid heights—she and Julie, whose
+world hitherto had been all sunshine and approval.
+For a second something came between
+her and the window, blurring her vision. Then
+she brought herself up with a sharp mental rebuke
+for allowing her thoughts for one moment to
+revert to the past, and forced herself to look
+down with satisfaction on the neatly wrapped
+box she was carrying.
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time the car had become crowded, and
+directly in front of Hester stood a woman of
+amazing breadth, clinging in a limp, swaying
+fashion to the strap. Just as the girl observed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>
+her and was wondering if she could squeeze into
+her seat should she offer it to her, the car jerked
+round a corner, the stout woman screamed
+and landed with a thud on the box in Hester’s
+lap!
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<p>
+Comfortably ensconced in a victoria,
+two men were bowling out through the
+suburbs of Radnor in the rapidly approaching
+dusk of a winter afternoon. One, wrapped to
+the chin in furs, sat well back in the corner of
+the carriage as if desirous of all possible protection
+from the cold; the other leaned forward in
+a somewhat restive attitude and looked like a
+man occupying his position under protest. Each
+was immersed in his own thoughts, but from
+time to time the younger man took a surreptitious
+glance in the direction of the older as if
+he were endeavoring to make some important discovery.
+He was, in truth, trying to decide if
+the moment were propitious for laying before his
+father a project which he had been for some time
+considering, but the impassive face of Mr. Landor
+told him nothing, and they continued to ride
+on in silence. Finally, in a tone of annoyance
+the older man said: “I wish, Kenneth, you
+would oblige me by leaning back and appearing
+as if you were enjoying yourself. I must confess
+it is no particular pleasure to me to drive
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>
+with a man who looks as if he might leap from
+the carriage at any moment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then why do you insist on my going, father?
+You know I detest this sort of thing—it is only
+fit for women. If you would come out with me
+now in my trap, it would be very different.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your breakneck method of driving does not
+suit me at all. I suppose I may be allowed to
+take my pleasures in my own way, and it occurs
+to me that it is not altogether unreasonable to
+request you to accompany me occasionally.”
+</p>
+<p>
+To this Kenneth made no reply, while he
+decided that the moment was not propitious
+for introducing the subject uppermost in his
+mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+He conceded, however, to his father’s wishes
+in so far as to relax from his objectionable posture,
+though there was about him a suggestion of
+martyrdom that was irritating.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What have you been doing to-day?” asked
+the senior Landor, abruptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing special, sir.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you ever do anything special?” turning
+two penetrating eyes upon him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, yes; I suppose so. I was thinking of
+something special just now.” After all, it
+might as well come out.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If it is of any importance, I should like to
+hear about it.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+This was encouraging.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was thinking of a trip around the world,
+sir. To start in a month, say, and be gone two
+or three years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Landor received this proposition with a
+quick drawing down of his shaggy eyebrows
+and a closer upturning of his fur collar about his
+chin. His face now was almost hidden from
+view.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you propose to go alone?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No; two fellows at the Aldine Club have
+talked me into joining them. Of course, sir, I
+realize you may object to so long an absence,”
+said Kenneth, who felt that a storm was brewing,
+“and I might be able to make it a year or
+so if you preferred.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Inasmuch as you have scarcely been at
+home a month in the past year or so, I should
+prefer that you dismiss the project altogether.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That seems rather surprising, sir,” said Kenneth,
+with a laugh his father did not like, “when
+I have been going and coming without comment
+ever since I left college.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All the more reason why you should begin
+to think of settling down,” replied his father
+testily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Settling down?” repeated the son; “what
+do you want me to do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will come to that later. The main thing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>
+is, that you are to give up this notion and remain
+here with me. If you force me to it I shall
+refuse to give you the money for such an expedition.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have some property of my own,” Kenneth
+said, his whole nature rising in rebellion.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You wouldn’t be such a fool as to squander
+that pittance on a pleasure trip! Be careful,
+Kenneth! I am in no mood to be thwarted to-day!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then why do you thwart me? It is not a
+remarkable thing for a man to want to travel,”
+trying to speak calmly, “and I don’t see why
+you should take it in this unexpected way—it is
+unreasonable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mr. Landor, being a quick-tempered man,
+was beyond reason and had too little comprehension
+of his son to realize that his opposition
+tended to fan into a fixed resolve what had up
+to this time been only a pleasing possibility.
+There was a stern look about his mouth as he
+said to Kenneth, “You will do as I say, and
+remain for the present in Radnor. I have other
+plans for you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As he had never been dictated to in his life,
+this emphatic order fell with considerable astonishment
+upon Kenneth’s ears, even though he
+knew his father to be in an irascible frame of
+mind. He thought, however, that the thing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span>
+might blow over, as many a quarrel between
+them had blown over, after which, in all these
+contests of will, the younger man had invariably
+gained the day.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth was not of an ugly disposition;
+indeed, his nature was most lovable, while his
+peculiar exemption from responsibility had produced
+an inconsequential, happy-go-lucky attitude
+toward life that was one of his greatest charms.
+And the selfishness that sometimes cropped out
+in his character was not viciousness, but the
+natural outcome of over-indulgence. It had
+never occurred to him that his father would make
+any demands upon him, though in a vague,
+unformed sort of way he intended ultimately to
+make demands upon himself. Just how he
+should do this gave him occasional delightfully
+introspective moments in which he played with
+possibilities. In his father’s eyes that was Kenneth’s
+great weakness—that he played with all
+the abandon of a vagabond; but to blame the
+man for this was a great injustice, since his father
+had not suggested or encouraged his taking up
+any business or profession, and had supplied him
+with a liberal income dating back to the beginning
+of his college career.
+</p>
+<p>
+To this indolent, pleasure-loving son, nothing
+could be in greater contrast than the father.
+Caleb Landor took life hard, but life had been
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span>
+hard on him. Born of poor parents in a Maine
+village, he had been inured to poverty from his
+infancy. His schooling had been meager, and
+sandwiched in between long periods when he was
+required to lend a hand in the saw-mill where his
+father was employed. But the habit of industry
+thus acquired proved useful, and stimulated his
+desire to get into the world of business, so that
+he made his way eventually to Radnor, the goal
+of his ambition. Then followed years of hard
+work and small pay, during which the greater
+part of his earnings went down to the large family
+in the Maine village. At thirty he was looked
+upon as a man of ability; at forty he was a prosperous
+merchant, with Fortune beckoning him
+on. By all the laws of compensation this should
+have been his turning point to happiness, but he
+had the misfortune to be married for his money
+at this period of his career, by a frivolous Radnor
+girl of good position, whose beauty turned his
+head. As after the first months of marriage she
+took no pains to conceal her indifference to him,
+he received a bitter blow, from which he was
+many years recovering. He was spared, however,
+the anguish of protracted disappointment,
+for she had died in the second year of their marriage,
+leaving him a baby son. And so Caleb,
+giving all, lost what he had never won.
+</p>
+<p>
+This episode in his life did not tend to soften
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span>
+a nature somewhat morose and caused him to
+draw more and more within himself, devoting his
+energies to his business, and almost forgetting at
+times that he was a father.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he did think of Kenneth, it was to
+realize that he had his mother’s beauty; but even
+at an early age there was no indication that he
+had inherited her smallness of mind, for which
+his father felt devoutly grateful, though there
+were times when he could scarcely bear the boy
+about, so forcibly did his likeness to his mother
+bring back the past. So he left him to grow up
+among the servants in the dreary house, sent
+him at fourteen to a preparatory school and then
+to college. He intended that Kenneth should
+have everything he himself had missed. In the
+matter of money it pleased him to provide generously
+for the lad, who grew to manhood the
+envy and favorite of all his associates, but almost
+a stranger to his father, who was equally a
+stranger to him. It did not occur to Caleb Landor
+that this was because he had given to the
+boy lavishly of everything except himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the carriage drew up before their door
+on the evening with which this chapter opens,
+Kenneth sprang out with a feeling of relief and
+turned to help his father. It struck him suddenly
+that he looked old and feeble, which would
+not be strange, inasmuch as he was fast approaching
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>
+his seventieth birthday, but Kenneth had
+never been impressed by this before.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You had better take my arm, sir,” he said,
+pleasantly, “the sidewalk is slippery to-night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Landor refused the proffered aid and went
+on ahead into the house. He had yet to learn
+that Kenneth could be leaned upon.
+</p>
+<p>
+Through dinner there was little conversation
+between them, not from any constraint arising
+out of the recent disagreement, but because each
+was in the habit of carrying on his own inward
+train of thought without so much as a suspicion
+that the outward expression of it would have
+been of interest to the other. But it would have
+been of interest. Kenneth often wondered what
+his father’s opinions were on the topics of the
+day and many times would have broken the oppressive
+silence if the idea had not become fixed
+in his mind that his father built up this barrier
+of reserve from choice. It was a natural impression,
+but a wrong one, and led to many misunderstandings,
+for though he gave his son no
+encouragement to be communicative he secretly
+longed for his companionship and was beginning
+to feel a need of his presence in the house.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth went to a couple of receptions that
+evening and looked in at a dance later on; but
+did not remain long, for things of this sort bored
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>
+him, albeit he was very popular in Radnor
+society.
+</p>
+<p>
+As he entered the house after midnight he
+noticed a bright light in his father’s room. This
+was so unusual an occurrence that he feared something
+might be wrong and ventured to knock at
+the door. There was no response, which was
+not reassuring, so he opened the door and walked
+in. In a big chintz-covered chair sat Mr.
+Landor asleep before the fire. He had undressed
+and was enveloped in a heavy dressing-gown
+that fell away at the neck, disclosing the
+throat upon which Time lays such relentless
+fingers. He stirred a little and Kenneth was
+about to leave the room satisfied that his father
+was all right and would probably resent this
+intrusion, when the older man woke with a
+start, and accosting him in a tone more curious
+than resentful, said, “What are you doing in
+here?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I noticed your light, and thought you might
+be ill. Is there anything I can do for you
+before I turn in?” replied Kenneth, looking
+down from the height of his six feet upon the
+shrunken figure of his father.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing at all, nothing at all,” waving him
+off; “I am reading.” He picked up the newspaper
+that had fallen to the floor, and became
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>
+suddenly absorbed in it, after the manner of
+persons who object to being caught napping.
+</p>
+<p>
+A smile flickered about Kenneth’s well-shaped
+mouth but was properly suppressed. There
+was something pathetic, almost appealing to him
+to-night about his father.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you are not in any particular hurry to
+finish your paper may I stop a moment?” he
+said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is a chair—make yourself comfortable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I would like to talk about those plans you
+spoke of this afternoon,” began Kenneth as soon
+as he was seated. “I wish very much you would
+tell me more about them—what your idea is for
+my immediate future.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where are your own ideas? At twenty-eight
+a man must have a few.” Mr. Landor
+kicked a log impatiently, sending up a shower
+of sparks.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We were speaking of your ideas, were we
+not, sir? Mine can come later.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So you have some, have you? Good!
+After all, with your education and advantages it
+is to be expected. But as your ideas are to be
+kept to yourself, so are mine. We will talk no
+further on this subject.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We <em>will</em> talk on this subject,” said Kenneth,
+rising and standing with head erect and flashing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>
+eyes. “I am not a boy, father, as you very well
+know, and I shall not consent to this sort of
+thing for a moment. If you have anything in
+your mind regarding me it is my right to know
+it, and your duty to tell me. You spoke to-day
+of my settling down. I have been thinking of
+it a good deal since, and I am inclined to think
+you are right about it; but I would like to know
+just what you mean—just what it is you want
+me to do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kenneth, I want you around.” The words
+came in a muffled tone that was scarcely audible.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Want me around?” repeated Kenneth
+incredulously; “why, I thought I drove you to
+desperation with my lazy ways and erratic hours
+and general worthlessness.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So you do, so you do,” gruffly, “but I like
+it. I like to know you are in the house. Stay
+around, Kenneth and you can have things pretty
+much your own way. We will say no more
+about settling down to business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! that is all right, father; I’ll stay.” It
+was a new sensation to find that he was wanted.
+Moved by a sudden impulse he drew near
+meaning to grip his father’s hand—the desire
+was strong within him to get close to the old
+man. But when he neared the chair he turned
+sharply on his heel and crossed to the door,
+withheld by the habit of years.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Landor was watching him through half-closed
+lids, and made no sign.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good night, father; glad I found you up.
+I have something in mind I would like to discuss
+with you later if I am to stay on here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Any time, any time. I have leisure enough
+for anything of importance. Come in again
+some time—good night.” His head was turned
+away as he spoke.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor old governor,” thought Kenneth, as he
+went to his room; “I believe he is lonely.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When the door had closed, Caleb Landor sat
+some moments in deep meditation. Then he
+rose and slowly crossed the room to a table on
+which stood a box-shaped rosewood writing-desk
+curiously inlaid with pearl—the most treasured
+possession of his mother long since dead. This
+he unlocked, and lifting the lid pressed a small
+knob by means of which a secret drawer flew
+open. In this shallow receptacle lay an oval
+miniature which the man took out and held
+under the strong light of the gas jet. It was
+the face of a woman, young and very beautiful,
+and for a long while the image held the man
+transfixed. Once he lifted his head suddenly, as
+if he thought some one was approaching but it
+was only the noise of Kenneth’s boots flung
+upon the floor in an adjoining room. On the
+mantel a clock ticked solemnly, warning him of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>
+the flight of time, and at last he sighed wearily,
+and with unsteady hands dropped the miniature
+into its hiding place and locked the desk. For
+a moment he leaned heavily on the table and
+appeared to be listening, but all was still in
+Kenneth’s room. Over the stern impassive
+features of Caleb Landor came a look of yearning
+tenderness. Then he put out the gas and
+went to bed.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<p>
+Hester never remembered leaving the car
+or how she got home after the fatal
+catastrophe, but indelibly printed on Julie’s
+mind would always be the picture of a wide-eyed
+breathless girl who rushed in upon her
+and threw a mangled package on the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, my dear! what is the matter?” cried
+Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Hester could not speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie picked up the battered box, disclosing
+the cake within crushed to a pancake. She
+turned to find Hester’s head buried in her arms;
+the girl was sobbing convulsively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never mind, dear,” said Julie, stroking her
+head sympathetically, “it would be much worse
+if you were hurt too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am not crying,” the younger girl asserted
+stoutly; “not crying at all.” She spoke in
+short gasps that were strangely like sobs, but
+Julie ignored them. “I am all out of breath
+from running, that is all, and I did not fall, you
+goose! A woman sat on me!” She broke into
+a peal of hysterical laughter.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+It was Julie’s turn to be speechless now.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If she had just sat on <em>me</em> it wouldn’t have
+mattered but she tumbled in the car before I
+knew it and there is the result!” She waved
+her hand tragically toward the table and wiped
+her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll make another one right away, dear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course we will,” responded Hester, pulling
+off her hat and coat and flinging them down
+impatiently; “but it breaks my heart to see
+such a ruin of all our work not to mention the
+waste of materials!”
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Humpty&nbsp;&nbsp;Dumpty&nbsp;&nbsp;sat&nbsp;&nbsp;on&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;wall;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Humpty&nbsp;&nbsp;Dumpty&nbsp;&nbsp;had&nbsp;&nbsp;a&nbsp;&nbsp;great&nbsp;&nbsp;fall;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;&nbsp;all&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;king’s&nbsp;&nbsp;horses&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;all&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;king’s&nbsp;&nbsp;men—<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+sang Julie, suggestively, but was not allowed to
+finish the ditty, for Hester said, with a thump
+on the table:
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will put this together again double
+quick and I will get it to Miss Ware before dark,
+you see if I don’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You had better let me go next time, Hester,”
+said Julie, getting out the cooking utensils,
+“you will be tired to death.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I won’t; I have undertaken to do this
+thing, and I’ll put it through if it takes forever,”
+with which characteristic remark she set to work
+again.
+</p>
+<p>
+The second effort in the culinary line was, if
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span>
+possible, more successful than the first and immediately
+after their simple lunch of bread and
+milk, Hester set forth again. The storm had
+ceased, and to the immense delight of Peter
+Snooks, Hester confided to him that she should
+walk and a certain good little dog that she
+knew should go too. Julie laughed at this
+determination to avoid the car and called her
+superstitious. She laughed, too, but refused to
+analyze her sensations.
+</p>
+<p>
+She found Miss Ware, when she was ushered
+into her presence, in rather an aggressive mood,
+which caused the girl to look on with some nervousness
+as she opened the box and surveyed the
+loaf critically.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Umph!” she said, examining it through her
+lorgnette, “did you do that, or Bridget?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We did it, Miss Ware. Bridget knows
+nothing of fancy cooking.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you do, it seems. It was an odd trick
+for a girl to pick up in Virginia, and an undesirable
+one.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We look at things differently, Miss Ware,”
+Hester said, with considerable asperity. “I
+don’t call it undesirable if it proves a way of
+supporting ourselves. I would not choose it—to
+cook for a living—but we’ve no choice in the
+matter whatever.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your father is very much to blame, Hester.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>
+He should have looked after your interests better
+when he saw the crash coming. There was no
+need that you should be left absolutely penniless.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester sprang to her feet and confronted Miss
+Ware like a young tigress. “You shall not say
+such things about Dad. I will not listen—I—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hoighty toighty!” broke in Miss Ware,
+“what a temper! You will have to curb that,
+my dear Hester, if you expect to get on in the
+world—as cooks!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl flushed crimson, and bit her lip in an
+effort to regain her self-control.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I beg your pardon,” she faltered. “I—I
+never knew I had a temper before. It’s—it’s
+one of the new things I am learning.” A sudden
+mist came before her, and drawing near she
+laid her hand on the older woman with an appealing
+touch. “Don’t say unkind things about
+Daddy, please, Miss Ware; they are not true,
+and I—I can’t bear it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let’s get to business,” said Miss Ware, who
+dreaded a scene above everything. “What do
+you mean to charge for your cake?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fifty cents.” Hester was now quite herself
+again, and went on rapidly, “I want to ask you
+if you will speak about our work to your friends.
+I know it is asking a great deal under the circumstances,
+but we are such strangers here in Radnor we really
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span>
+do not know any one to ask such a
+favor of but you and Dr. Ware.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“At least you have a champion in him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester’s eyes shone. “Next to Dad we love
+him better than any one in the world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then why don’t you behave sensibly, and
+come here and live, and let me take you about
+in society, as I meant to do this winter? I really
+looked forward to chaperoning you and Julie—you’re
+very unusual girls. Now give up this
+nonsense of yours and behave properly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Miss Ware, must we go all over that
+again? Won’t you try to see it our way, as—as
+your brother does? He never even talked of
+our coming here to live, he understands so well
+that we want to be independent. I know we
+must be a great disappointment to you. Cousin
+Nancy in Virginia feels just as you do, too.
+Ever so many persons have offered us a home.
+You can’t think what beautiful letters we’ve had
+from Dad’s friends through the west. If it were
+possible to move him we’d go out there to try
+our fortune; there are so many splendid out-of-door
+kinds of work a girl can do in that big
+country. But Dad can’t be moved, and we’ve
+got to do the best we can right here in Radnor.”
+She spoke convincingly and with a certain submissiveness
+that sat oddly on her young shoulders.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Ware, twisting her rings round on her
+fingers with a contemplative air was wondering
+where the child got that dignity and poise.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve no patience with you whatever,” she
+said finally, after a long pause, in which Hester
+imagined she had been waging an inward conflict.
+“I am wholly out of sympathy with your
+ideas, but you cannot be allowed to starve
+to death, and if cooking is the height of your
+ambition—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It isn’t the height of our ambition,” interrupted
+Hester, for youth is impatient of being
+misunderstood; “it is only the thing that is
+nearest at hand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your education must be sadly deficient,”
+regarding the girl critically. “I always told
+Philip the harum-scarum way you were being
+brought up was perfectly ruinous. If you had
+gone to school like other girls, you would be
+qualified for some lady-like position.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This was too much for Hester. “You need not
+trouble to do anything about the cake, Miss
+Ware,” she said, proudly, “and I shan’t come
+here again to hear my father insulted. And
+we are not going to starve either,” she cried, her
+girlish wrath rising. “We are going to succeed
+and be a credit to the best education in the
+world!”
+</p>
+<p>
+She threw back her head and gazed straight
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>
+into the older woman’s eyes with a fearless look
+that was hard to meet. Only the fingers curled
+tight into the palms of her hands, betrayed the
+mighty effort she was making to hold herself in
+check, and this Miss Ware did not see, for Hester’s
+unflinching eyes held her with a strange
+fascination. In another moment the girl had
+turned and left the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+For a while after her departure Miss Ware sat
+motionless like a person who has received a
+shock. Presently she began to toy with her
+lorgnette, dangling it back and forth on its
+chain with a swinging movement as if keeping
+time to a rhythmic train of thought. This was
+not, indeed, the case, and the action arose from
+nervousness, for the usual calm placidity of her
+mind was sadly ruffled. She was not in the
+habit of being contradicted, particularly by what
+she was pleased to call “a young person”; but
+she was one of those women who having said
+their worst, proceed to contradict themselves by
+an interest in that which they have most condemned,
+and she was now speculating as to
+whether it would not be expedient to take Hester’s
+cake to the meeting of her sewing class the
+following day, and possibly get an order or two
+there for it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Only a true Radnorite could realize the possibilities
+that opened up to one who was introduced as a subject
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span>
+of discussion at <em>the</em> Sewing
+Class of Radnor. For in the fashionable and
+exclusive set in which Miss Ware had her being
+it was a function of tremendous importance, with
+sacred rites known only to the initiated. In one
+another’s drawing-rooms, on two mornings of
+the month, forty chosen spirits met to sew for
+the poor—that great, clamorous, all-devouring
+body from which there is no escape. This was
+ostensibly the purpose; in reality sewing was a
+minor consideration, albeit much work was
+accomplished. The chief end of its existence
+was to discuss, direct and control the movements
+of that exclusive portion of Radnor society of
+which it was a part and upon which it sat in fortnightly
+judgment. Following this arduous but
+important morning duty came the luncheon, and
+it was of that Miss Ware was thinking in connection
+with the cake.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Hester left Miss Ware she ran down the
+stairs to the lower hall, where she had left Peter
+Snooks with strict orders to remain until her
+return. There she found him waiting to greet
+her with joyous caperings of delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Ware and a tall, clean-shaven, athletic-looking
+man came out from the office and
+encountered her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah, you, Hester?” said the Doctor. “Wait
+a moment, my dear. I have a book here
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>
+that I want you to take round to read to your
+father.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He vanished, and the stranger glanced at the
+girl, hesitated, and then stooping patted the dog.
+“You’ve a fine fox-terrier,” he said in a deep,
+rich voice, looking up.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We think so,” replied Hester, who couldn’t
+for the life of her conceal her pleasure at hearing
+Peter Snooks praised.
+</p>
+<p>
+At that moment the Doctor came out again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Landor,” he said, “I beg your pardon;
+I forgot all about you when I saw Hester. That
+is a way the minx has—of driving everything
+else out of my head. Hester, my dear, this is
+Kenneth Landor, just up from Texas to have a
+look at effete civilization—you have heard me
+speak of him often—Mr. Landor, Miss Dale.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The young people bowed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t let him pose as a cowboy or anything
+interesting like that,” continued the Doctor,
+“for he isn’t really—he only plays at things.
+Takes a peep here and there over the continent,
+and pretends he is this and that and the other,
+as the mood seizes him. A rolling stone, eh,
+Landor?” turning with an affectionate, quizzical
+look at the man beside him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! go on, Doctor; pile it on—don’t leave
+me a shred of character. His veracity is absolutely
+unquestioned, of course, Miss Dale?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course! He has made you interesting
+already.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor laughed. “How one’s motives
+are mistaken. That was the last thing I meant
+to do!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester looked up at the Doctor, gleams of mischief
+in her eyes. “You being you,” she said,
+“it couldn’t be otherwise.” With which ambiguous
+remark she went out the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor followed her down the steps. “Miss
+Dale,” he asked, “may I walk along with you?
+I fancy I am going your way.” Landor’s way
+was usually where he chose to make it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester acquiesced simply. She had been
+accustomed to the society of men since she
+could toddle, and felt no embarrassment in the
+presence of a stranger. Landor noted the free,
+swinging motion with which she kept step with
+him as they went down the street.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are not a true Radnorite,” he said
+abruptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I am not. Why?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Radnor girls do not walk as you do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am half inclined to believe you are a cowboy,
+after all, Mr. Landor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are we playing twenty questions? You have
+bad manners, a habit of dealing in personalities—we
+call it impertinence.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Twenty questions,” he repeated, ignoring
+her rebuke. “Why, I have not heard that
+mentioned for years. It is a favorite game in
+Radnor, isn’t it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sure I don’t know,” she said wearily;
+“I know very little about Radnor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I less,” he said. “I’ve been away so
+much of the time. But there were certain things
+taken into my innermost being in my youth,
+along with the air I breathed, I suppose, that no
+amount of absence will eradicate.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“For instance?” she said, with feigned interest,
+for her mind kept wandering off to her
+recent interview with Miss Ware, and she wished
+she had not allowed him to accompany her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, the question of residence, you know.
+The few acres of sacred soil in Radnor on which
+it is permissible to live. I remember as a little
+boy how my nurse only allowed me to play with
+children whose parents lived on the water side
+of Crana Street or the sunny side of Belton
+Avenue. Any other than those and the streets
+immediately intersecting was beyond the pale of
+civilization, even to her. It is odd, isn’t it?”
+smiling down at her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What is odd, the fact or your acceptance of
+it?” There was a little ring in her voice which
+struck the man’s alert ear.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+A look of surprise came into his handsome
+dark face. “Am I walking too fast for you,
+Miss Dale?” he asked, pleasantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+That was the second time he had put aside a
+thrust of hers with some trifling, irrelevant remark,
+and it tended to heighten rather than
+soothe her growing irritation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think,” she said, stopping abruptly on the
+corner, “that I shall say good morning to you
+here. I do not happen to live in that sacred
+locality you mention, and I would not for worlds
+take you beyond the pale.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Dale,” he gasped, “you don’t think I
+abide by any such nonsense—you are doing me
+a great injustice. Surely you are not going to
+dismiss me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” she said, smiling, and showing her
+dimples in a sudden access of pleasure at the
+thought of getting rid of him, “I really believe I
+am.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He lifted his hat, and stood for some moments
+on the corner watching her vanish from sight.
+How slender she was, and graceful, and what
+a sweet little smile had accompanied her nod of
+farewell! Now he thought of it, her eyes had
+queer lights in them, baffling, as if she were
+laughing at him all the time. And her tone
+was half mocking, too, though he had taken it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span>
+seriously enough in all conscience. Was she
+serious, or had he made an idiot of himself?
+This latter contingency was not one which presented
+itself with marked frequency to the mind
+of Kenneth Landor, and therefore gave him
+much food for reflection as the day wore on.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<p>
+“Whom in the world do we know in New
+Hampshire?” asked Julie one morning,
+glancing askance at an envelope in her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Suppose you open it and find out,” meekly
+suggested Hester, peeping over her shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, see, it is addressed to us both—it’s
+probably an invitation or something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not,” asserted Julie; “I can tell by
+the look of it. It’s—why, Hester Dale, it’s a
+fifty dollar bill.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” ejaculated Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is, and a note. Think of daring to trust
+such a thing by mail! Look at it yourself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester seized both the bill and the letter, and
+unfolding the latter found the following mysterious
+communication in typewriting:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“From one some love to those one loves, Greetings:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“A conspiracy having been formed for the purpose of circumventing
+fate, the initial step is herewith taken in the
+form of the enclosed paltry bill, intending it to be the forerunner
+of many a happy hour in which, though absent, will
+be ever present
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'>“<span class='sc'>The Arch-Conspirator</span>.”</p>
+<p>
+“Whoever could have done such a thing?”
+queried Hester in astonishment, “Dr. Ware?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I don’t think so, though he might—is
+capable of doing anything. But, Hester, just
+think of it—fifty dollars! Why, it is almost a
+fortune!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should think it was, and it is the kindest,
+most generous thing I ever heard of. It couldn’t
+be from Virginia, could it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t believe so, Hester. Cousin Nancy
+disapproves of us too much to do such a
+thing. I think it is from some one who loves
+Daddy and feels sorry for us all, and takes
+this way of showing it. Oh, how good people
+are!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Some people,” corrected Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If it had come from almost any other place
+than New Hampshire it wouldn’t be quite so
+puzzling,” said Julie. “I am sure we don’t
+know a soul in the whole state.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I say let’s stop guessing and be thankful
+we have it,” advised Hester. “It is some one
+who does not want to be known, and I don’t
+suppose we really ought to try to guess, but I
+just hope we will get a chance sometime to do
+something for that somebody, whoever he is.
+You can see the person has had great fun doing
+it, by the way it is written, Julie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.” softly, still puzzling over the unexpected
+windfall.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve got another letter in your lap, Julie.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span>
+Have you forgotten its existence? It looks like
+Nannie’s writing—do read it aloud.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie took up the forgotten letter, and opening
+it began:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“<span class='sc'>My Sweetest, Preciousest Girls</span>” (Isn’t that just like
+Nan?) “You owe me a letter, both of you; but it’s such ages
+since we’ve heard that I just can’t wait any longer. I’m <em>so</em>
+afraid mummie’s last letter hurt you, though I wrote you at
+the time just not to mind anything she said. She was
+awfully cross and put out for several days, but father and I
+played backgammon with her until we actually played her
+into a good humor—you know how she’d play backgammon
+until she couldn’t sit up another minute; and I know she
+loves you girls nearly as much as she does me, though she
+sputters away about you now and then; but that is just
+mummie’s way.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“How I do wish you were here! I say that a dozen times
+a day, and whenever father hears me he says you will be,
+sometime. He’s got just the loveliest scheme for bringing
+you all down here on a visit, since you’re so proud and
+haughty and won’t come and live with us! I shan’t tell you
+a thing about it but you just wait until dear Cousin Dale
+gets better, and then you’ll see!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie’s voice got suspiciously husky here, and
+it was a moment before she went on:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“We’ll have the grandest old times that ever happened,
+just like we did when you were here before.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Do you know I’d almost forgotten to tell you the thing
+I began this letter for—my birthday party. I know you
+want to hear about it! It was a surprise party, and such
+fun! To begin with, it was such a pretty day that I wanted
+to be out every minute, so I took a long ride with father in
+the morning, and spent most of the afternoon in the pasture
+with George Washington, he and I trying to do tricks on
+Gypsie the way you did, Hester. I said we were <em>on</em> Gypsie,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>
+but it was mostly <em>off</em>, for she didn’t take to our circus performance
+at all and threw me twice, way over her head, and
+George Washington no end of times. He just loved it, and
+capered around and grinned and made absurd remarks until
+my sides ached with laughing. Just as I was actually succeeding
+in standing upon Gyp bareback, mummie spied me
+from her window, and of course that put an end to everything.
+She said she saw no reason why I should celebrate
+my eighteenth birthday by breaking my neck, and I expect
+she was right—but oh, it was fun!
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“When I came in to dress for supper, father called me one
+side and told me to put on my pink organdie (the one you liked
+so much, you know), because it would please mummie; so I
+did and mummie wore her claret-colored velvet and I picked
+two of my pet pink roses—one for Mummie’s hair and the
+other for father’s buttonhole, and we all looked very gay and
+festive and I thought it was lovely to be eighteen, especially
+as mummie had given me that beautiful pearl ring of hers
+which she always said I should have when I was a young
+lady.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Well, about nine o’clock, when mummie and I were in
+the midst of a game of backgammon, there was a crunching
+noise out in the driveway and I thought some one was coming
+to call. Then I heard laughter and a lot of people talking,
+and father went to the door, and let in a whole crowd
+calling for me. I was too surprised to understand, even
+when father explained that the neighborhood was giving me
+a surprise party. (I found out afterward, girls, that he
+got up the whole thing—he vowed them all to secrecy, because
+he didn’t want me to know he had a hand in it, but
+Lillie Blake told me—Lil never has secrets from me.)
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Well, we danced in the big hall most of the evening,
+while the older people played cards, and we did have a jolly
+time, and there was a stranger here—he was staying with
+the Blakes and you’d never guess where he’s from—Radnor!
+He’s very fascinating, but he’s old—he must be at least
+thirty! I know that wouldn’t seem old to you, but it does to
+me, and I felt very shy with him at first until I found out he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>
+came from Radnor, and then I just pelted him with questions
+about you, and he didn’t know you at all! I could
+have wept! But I talked on about you just the same, and I
+was dying to tell him about your work, for I think it’s so
+noble of you, but mummie has forbidden my mentioning it
+to any one, and, of course, I wouldn’t disobey her. He got
+the ring in my birthday cake, girls; wasn’t that the funniest
+thing? Lillie Blake teased him to give it to her, but he
+wouldn’t, and slipped it in his pocket out of sight. I know
+he enjoyed hearing me talk about you, because he stayed
+with me a good part of the evening, and Teddie Carroll got
+cross and sulked in the corner. Isn’t he the silliest thing?
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Good-by, you old darlings, and don’t forget your little
+cousin,
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'>“<span class='sc'>Nannie</span>.”</p>
+<p>
+Julie smiled as she put down the letter.
+“Isn’t she a darling, Hester? I don’t wonder
+they call her ‘Kitten,’ she purrs so. And she’s
+so ingenuous! Imagine her thinking that a man
+stayed about with her because she talked about
+us. He evidently took a fancy to her—the dear
+little thing! I wonder who he was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has forgotten to mention his name,” said
+Hester, “but it does not much matter. Come,
+Julie, we must switch our thoughts up from Virginia,
+or we’ll never get to work to-day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie went over to a shelf and stuck the two
+letters behind a clock. “It is an inspiration to
+work,” she said, “when we know people are
+thinking of us and loving us. That money, dear,
+is a godsend. We had scarcely enough left to
+market another day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie, who was self-appointed buyer, had been
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>
+racking her brains to know how they should
+get through another day without running into
+debt—a contingency of which they had a horror.
+They had stopped all their father’s accounts and
+were unanimous in agreeing that they would go
+without that for which they could not pay cash.
+Accordingly they went without a great deal.
+</p>
+<p>
+In her first experience of marketing Julie was
+aghast to find that meats which she regarded as
+a common necessity cost so much that she was
+forced to act upon the butcher’s suggestion that
+it was “stew meat” she wanted. It was <em>not</em>
+what she wanted, but she took it meekly and
+ate it with pretended relish, for Bridget took
+pride in serving a genuine Irish stew.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was characteristic of the Dales that they
+never did things by halves, and they threw themselves
+with tremendous energy into their work,
+which was developing, though still slowly.
+Orders for wine jelly and cake came in from people
+unknown to them, and they knew that Dr.
+Ware’s influence was working for their good.
+Miss Ware, too, though outwardly antagonistic,
+had carried out her intention of taking Hester’s
+cake to the Sewing Class, with the result that the
+hostess of the next meeting had ordered all her
+cake from them for that occasion.
+</p>
+<p>
+This order they were getting to work on now,
+and Julie remarked that she wished white cake
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>
+were not so much in demand, for the continued
+increase of left-over yolks was appalling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bridget has made them into omelette at least
+twice a day lately, until it seems to me I can’t
+stand the sight of them, Hester. And the more
+we have to make frosting the worse it gets.
+Either we’ve got to throw them away in rank
+extravagance or keep on eating them and die.
+I wish we could think of something to do with
+them!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If we only could afford to buy oil, Bridget
+would make us some salad-dressing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But we can’t afford it. Poor Bridget, that
+is her one accomplishment. She says she learned
+it from mamma, who was famous for it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good gracious, Julie!” the practical Hester
+ejaculated, “don’t take to ‘reminiscing’ with
+that far-away look in your eyes. You’ll be
+weighing salt instead of sugar.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am not ‘reminiscing’—I am thinking.
+Why can’t we make mayonnaise and sell it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t drop dead with astonishment, you
+chief cook and bottle-washer, because <em>I</em> have an
+idea. What do you think of it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ye gods, but wouldn’t that be a scheme!
+Bridget could teach us—you know how Daddy’s
+friends always said they never got such salads at
+any other table!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t ‘reminisce,’ my dear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll get the grocers to sell it,” disdaining
+to notice the pretended rebuke, “just as they
+do pickles and things. We’ll put it up in nice
+bottles, and——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wouldn’t it be rather clever to learn how to
+make it first?” interrupting this flight into future
+possibilities.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bridget, Bridget, come here!” called Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget, who was brushing up the sick-room,
+came down the little hall and entered the
+kitchen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you see all those?” cried Hester, pointing
+to a bowl full of yolks standing on the table.
+“Now if you had your own way, what would
+you do with them?’
+</p>
+<p>
+“Make ’em into mayonnaise, miss.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you would, you extravagant
+creature! Well, that is just what we want you
+to do. Tell her, Julie—it is your scheme.”
+</p>
+<p>
+An amazed and delighted Bridget heard the
+girl unfold her plan.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shure it’s a wonder yez are, Miss Julie, the
+two of yez, an’ my dressin’ can’t be beat.
+Could I be after showin’ yez how this mornin’?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll go straight into the grocery now and get
+a bottle of oil,” exclaimed Julie, and calling Peter
+Snooks, she was off in five minutes.
+</p>
+<p>
+She noticed as she went down the stairs that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span>
+the door of the apartment underneath them was
+ajar, and to her astonishment Peter Snooks, that
+most well-behaved of dogs, thrust his nose into
+the crack and vanished.
+</p>
+<p>
+She stood a moment irresolute; then called
+peremptorily: “Snooks, Peter Snooks! come
+here this minute!”
+</p>
+<p>
+No dog appeared, and she was about to raise
+her voice for the second time when from the
+darkness of the inner hall she heard some one
+say—“Do you mind coming in just a minute?
+Your little dog is making friends with me, and I
+can’t come to you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She followed the voice to the front room,
+where a boy lay in a wheeled chair, while beside
+him sat Peter Snooks on his hind legs, putting
+out his paw to shake hands in his most approved
+manner. At sight of his mistress he curled his
+tail under and crawled to her guiltily. “Don’t
+scold him, please,” said the boy; “it’s my fault.
+I’ve been wanting to know him this ever so
+long.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was something so appealing in the
+boy’s voice and so penitent in the way Peter
+Snooks looked up at her that she patted the little
+rascal, and said brightly:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never knew him to play truant before; but
+if you and he have made friends I shan’t apologize
+for his intrusion or mine.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh no! don’t,” said the boy. “I’ve
+watched you from the window ever since you
+came here to live, and I feel somehow as if I sort
+of knew you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you ill?” she asked, gently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Broke my hip two months ago,” he said.
+“It’s a long time mending.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I am so sorry—I know how hard it
+must be—my father is—is ill, too.” She
+never could bring herself to put into words her
+father’s actual condition.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish you would sit down,” the boy said.
+“Mother may be in any moment. You can’t
+think how it cheers a fellow up to see somebody.”
+He spoke hesitatingly, as if he feared
+to show too great pleasure lest he give her
+offense.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t stop, thank you,” said Julie, suddenly
+remembering her errand, “but if you are
+lonely and would like to have me, I will leave
+Peter Snooks awhile with you—he’s no end of
+company.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! would you, really?” The boy’s eyes
+glistened. “I wish mother were here; she’d
+know how to—to thank you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+At that moment a small, frail woman, gowned
+in black, entered the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, mother,” exclaimed the boy, turning
+to her a flushed, eager face, “I was just wishing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span>
+for you. This is the young lady that lives
+upstairs, you know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you do?” the woman said, holding
+out her hand with quaint simplicity, neither face
+nor manner betraying any surprise at finding
+Julie there. “You are Miss Dale, are you not?
+I am Mrs. Grahame. It was kind of you to
+come in and see Jack.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My little dog ran in here, and I followed in
+search of him and found your son,” Julie explained.
+“I really did not intend to be intrusive.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is a great pleasure to see you.” The
+older woman smiled at her. “You must pardon
+the seeming liberty, but Jack and I have long
+been acquainted with you. You see I am at
+work down-town most of the day, and the boy
+spends long hours by the window watching his
+neighbors go in and out, and he amuses himself
+by weaving little stories about them until he
+comes to regard them as personal friends.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jack dropped his eyes. “You’ll think I’m
+the one who’s intrusive,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not think anything of the kind,” replied
+Julie; “I think it is a very clever, happy idea.”
+She went over to the chair and called the dog up
+in his lap. “Mrs. Grahame,” she said, “if you
+are not too busy, will you come up some evening
+and see us? We are working girls, and we have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span>
+an invalid father, and we don’t expect to pay
+visits, but I would like to come down here again,
+if I may, and bring my sister. Your son would
+weave the most beautiful stories in the world
+if he really knew Hester.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you for suggesting so much happiness
+for my boy,” said Mrs. Grahame, earnestly.
+“You make me want to go to see you immediately.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just as Hester’s lively imagination was picturing
+all sorts of calamities which might have overtaken
+her sister, that individual came hurriedly
+in with a bottle of salad oil in her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, where on earth have you been?” cried
+Hester; “I thought you must have dropped
+dead or been kidnaped or something fearful.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was I so long? I am sorry, dear, but you
+see I made a call en route.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A call! who ever heard of such a thing!
+Where is Peter Snooks?” suddenly missing him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is finishing the visit for me.” Julie
+laughed with a provokingly mysterious air.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester, who had been working on alone and
+diving her head into a hot oven every five minutes
+to anxiously watch the evolution of bothersome
+little dabs of thin dough into small puffy
+cakes, was feeling decidedly cross and resented
+her sister’s apparent indifference to the business
+at hand.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’m glad if <em>you</em> have time to gad
+about,” she said, witheringly. “I <em>thought</em> we
+were going to take a lesson in making mayonnaise.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You goose!” exclaimed Julie, pushing her
+away from the hot oven and herself kneeling
+down to peer in. “I’ll watch these cakes—you
+sit down and draw a breath and the cork of the
+oil at the same time, while I tell you what happened.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Somewhat mollified, Hester obeyed, and even
+deigned to show interest when Julie graphically
+described their neighbors.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wasn’t it odd, Hester, just walking right
+into the midst of things like that? And the boy
+was so pathetic, and his mother was so quaint,
+with such a sweet face and pretty, wavy hair,
+and I only stayed a moment, dear, really, for all
+the time I knew you’d be wondering what had
+become of me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, all I’ve got to say is,” remarked Hester,
+with decided emphasis, “that if you were
+willing to leave Peter Snooks with them, they
+must be very remarkable people indeed.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<p>
+The weeks passed rapidly to the young workers,
+who found each day full of experiments,
+sometimes developing into satisfactory
+results and again filled with bitter discouragement.
+There were days when the battle for
+existence threatened to overweigh and submerge
+them; days when from morning till night their
+work seemed possessed by evil demons, and
+everything went wrong; days when despair
+tugged at their hearts, and the old happy life
+forced itself in upon their thoughts with clamorous
+persistence. And ah! how they felt the sorrow
+of their father’s helplessness, the loss of his
+companionship causing an ache that nothing
+could assuage! But through it all they fought
+their way, upheld by the longing to show a spirit
+worthy of their father’s daughters, sustained
+by the consciousness that by their own endeavor
+they were “making a home for Dad.” This was
+the dominant note of the new life—like a bugle-call
+stirring them to action!
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie, who had been reading aloud to her
+father one day, suddenly went into the next
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>
+room to find Hester, and exclaimed, “Thackeray
+says, ‘I would not curse my fortune—I’d
+make it!’ I think that’s great, Hester! We’ll
+take it for a motto.” And by that motto ever
+after they abided.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Dale had not awakened to any definite consciousness
+of his condition, as Dr. Ware had
+anticipated, but remained in a passive, tranquil
+state, taking little heed and no part in any conversation,
+though his face brightened perceptibly
+whenever any one entered the room. Much of
+the day he slept, but during his waking hours
+one of the girls was constantly with him, hovering
+about with a tender protective air.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Ware, who devoted all his spare time to
+his old friend, was a frequent and most welcome
+visitor. He was a man of distinguished presence,
+tall and well-knit, with the military bearing
+of a soldier and some ten years younger than Mr.
+Dale, although they had served in the War of
+the Rebellion together. Streaks of gray showed
+plentifully in his hair and pointed beard, throwing
+into greater contrast his black brows and
+blue-black eyes, while his face was marked with
+strong lines indicative of character. It was an
+interesting face and one that inspired immediate
+confidence, and in addition there was about him
+an indefinable charm which made itself felt both
+professionally and socially, so that there was not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>
+a more popular man in Radnor. This was perhaps
+an unusual position for a man of strong
+convictions, expressed fearlessly and freely on all
+subjects. To be thoroughly popular commonly
+requires an adaptable temperament not compatible
+with strong individuality.
+</p>
+<p>
+He watched over “his girls” as he called them,
+with affectionate solicitude mingled with an
+admiration and respect which knew no bounds.
+“They are going to succeed,” he would frequently
+say to himself after leaving them,
+“every failure only makes them more determined—it’s
+fine to watch the growth of such spirit.”
+And then he would drive off on his round of
+visits with a preoccupied air and vague longings
+would steal in upon him, softening the lines
+about his mouth and eyes and lingering deliciously
+in his mind even after he had roused himself
+impatiently from such day-dreams.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls’ experiments in making mayonnaise
+resulted in Julie’s screwing up her courage one
+day and going to the leading grocery of Radnor.
+She asked for the proprietor and laid before him
+her scheme, at the same time showing him a
+sample of the mayonnaise. Poor Julie, who did
+not know what it meant to cry her wares in open
+market, felt very uncomfortable and flushed quite
+red as she talked; but she struggled to overcome
+her timidity and succeeded in interesting the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span>
+man, who told her to leave her sample for him
+to try at home and gave her some valuable information
+about putting up such an article in the
+regulation form, suggesting that she follow his
+directions and bring in the mayonnaise again,
+bottled and labeled for his inspection.
+</p>
+<p>
+Busy days those were indeed in “The Hustle,”
+for in addition to trying varieties of cake, the
+mayonnaise suggested making salads and one
+thing led to another with surprising rapidity.
+</p>
+<p>
+It gradually began to be recognized in Radnor
+that if one wanted any delicacy in the way of
+fancy cooking, one should order it from “those
+Dale girls,” and this recognition was in no small
+part due to Mrs. Lennox, the President of <em>the</em>
+Sewing Class. It was she who had sent them
+their first order and shown a marked interest in
+their work which was not without its immediate
+effect, for people occupied in their relation to
+Mrs. Lennox a position similar to that of
+“Mary’s little lamb.” Mrs. Lennox was a
+beautiful woman and in the fashionable world her
+word was law; but society amused rather than
+interested her, and her keen intellect and strong
+individuality led her into devious paths. Above
+all she was a philanthropist in that broad and
+humanitarian sense which sees promise in all
+gradations of men and women.
+</p>
+<p>
+She followed her first order to the girls with a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span>
+second by mail; then a little correspondence
+ensued, in which she suggested their sending her
+any new thing they might be trying. A few
+weeks later she “blew over,” as she expressed it,
+and said in her charming way to Julie, as if she
+had known her intimately for years:
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear, are you busy enough?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No indeed, Mrs. Lennox, we never could be
+busy enough—we want to do so much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So I thought.” She threw back her furs and
+unclasping a big bunch of violets tossed them
+into the girl’s lap. “You like them, don’t you?
+So do I. I adore violets. I am raising white
+ones now and I will send you over some if
+I may.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, how good of you! Daddy loves them
+too. We always used to have flowers wherever
+we were and we do miss them so. I don’t see
+how you suspected it, Mrs. Lennox.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am rather keen about human nature, my
+dear, and it occurs to me that even though you
+do cook, you may have a love and longing for
+the beautiful.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie smiled. It was so comfortable to talk
+with some one who understood them. “Miss
+Ware would not agree with you,” she said.
+“She considers us lost to the finer things, beyond
+redemption. She dislikes us, you know, and we
+never go there; but she comes here sometimes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>
+and asks us all sorts of questions and wants to
+know about our recipes and things as if we could
+not comprehend any other subject. Hester calls
+it ‘talking shop’ and we hate it—not the work
+but the being excluded from other things.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I understand perfectly. Miss Ware is a bit,
+well, narrow, like most Radnor people. So you
+are not busy enough?” eyeing her curiously;
+“well then, I have a suggestion. If you want
+to cater for the town, send out cards.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie gasped. “Business cards, you mean,
+soliciting orders?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Exactly. You do a variety of things already—think
+up and experiment with more until you
+get an imposing little list, have cards printed and
+send them about—at least five hundred, I should
+say. Radnor is a large place and cliquey—there
+must be numbers of persons unknown to me who
+have never heard of you girls, yet would be
+likely to give you their custom. If my name on
+the cards by way of indorsement would be of
+any advantage, you are more than welcome to
+use it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! thank you, of course it would be a great
+advantage, Mrs. Lennox, for no one knows us
+at all, you see. I’m—I’m dazed by your idea—it
+seems so pretentious—so bold to advertise
+ourselves. I don’t believe we should ever have
+thought of it, but it <em>is</em> the thing to do.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Decidedly. I know something about business
+and you have one of the most necessary
+qualifications for success—indefatigable zeal—and
+I want to push you along. But you must
+not overtax your strength. I suppose you have
+heard that before, eh, Miss Dale?” She laughed
+musically. “No doubt kindly disposed persons
+come here to leave orders and tell you not to
+work too hard.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, they do,” Julie earnestly replied. “I
+wish they would not. Just as if we did not
+have to work with all our might and main,
+and it is not easy—always.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Easy! I should think not!” Mrs. Lennox
+rose and smiled into Julie’s grave eyes as she
+held out her hand to say good-by. “I am
+going now, but I want to come again and meet
+your sister too. May I? I should so like to
+know you and be your friend.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie impulsively kissed her. “It is so good
+to find some one who wants to know us—in
+spite of everything,” she faltered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is because of everything, my dear,” giving
+the girl an impetuous little hug. Which demonstration
+would greatly have astonished the smart
+set of Radnor to whom this side of their leader
+was unknown and unsuspected.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was about this time that the girls got the
+mayonnaise put up to their satisfaction, for innumerable
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span>
+perplexities had arisen in the matter of
+suitable bottles, corks and labels. When finally
+Julie had submitted the result to the grocer and
+that all-powerful man had ordered a dozen bottles
+to sell on commission, the girls felt that they
+were working to some purpose, and a glow akin
+to honest pride surged in their hearts. But the
+sensation swelled to overwhelming proportions
+when late one afternoon Julie, passing the store,
+spied in the great show-window a group of their
+bottles standing boldly alongside the firm’s best
+fancy articles. She gasped, scarcely daring to
+look at them, and rushed home to tell Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when she got home she did not tell Hester.
+Instead she said: “Put on your things and
+come out before it grows dark—the air will do
+you good.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can’t,” said Hester, deep in a book, “I’m
+too tired to move.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want to show you something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where?” reading on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“In a shop window.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie Dale, what’s the matter?” she exclaimed,
+dropping her book. “I’m sure you’ve
+got a crazy look about you—your hat’s on
+crooked!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t care, I think you would want to
+throw <em>your</em> hat in the air if you had seen it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Seen what? A shop window? I hate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>
+them—they’re just full of tantalizing things one
+wants and can’t have!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, this isn’t—or perhaps it is—I am sure
+I don’t know, but I came way back after you and
+oh! do come.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are responsible for great expectations,”
+said Hester, reluctantly getting up from the bed.
+“I call it a most unchristian act to rout me out
+like this.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But she took another view of it when she found
+herself out in the brisk wintry air, and she caught
+some of the exhilaration of her sister’s gay spirits
+as they went along, Peter Snooks racing wildly
+about them.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they approached the window of the
+grocery Julie’s heart beat rapidly in anticipation
+of Hester’s surprise. As they reached it she
+suddenly pulled her arm and led her close to the
+window. “Look!” she said excitedly but in a
+low voice, for many persons were passing and
+some few stood near them.
+</p>
+<p>
+There it was, the mayonnaise into which they
+had put their best endeavor, standing in so conspicuous
+a place that it could not fail to attract
+the attention of the passers-by.
+</p>
+<p>
+“New thing, that mayonnaise, isn’t it?” they
+heard a man say to his companion, “well put up—let’s
+go in and look at it.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester gazed speechless into the window, her
+eyes nearly bulging out of her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Would you ever have believed it!” whispered
+Julie, poking her. “Let’s wait,” as she saw a
+clerk lean into the window and take down a bottle,
+“let’s wait and see if those people buy it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No we won’t,” said Hester, finding her
+voice at last. She clutched her sister’s arm
+convulsively. “We’ll go straight home before I
+scream with joy right here on the corner.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t like shop windows, do you?” said
+Julie with a happy laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the exuberance of their spirits and with a
+desire to impart the good news to their neighbors,
+whom they now counted as friends, the
+girls stopped at the Grahame’s on their way
+upstairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jack,” exclaimed Hester the impetuous,
+“Jack, what do you suppose has happened?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By the look of you I should say you’d inherited
+a fortune.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pouf!” disdainfully, “that is commonplace.”
+She clapped her hands together while her eyes
+danced merrily. “Try again, Jack.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I have a guess, Miss Dale?” said a voice
+that made the girl start, while a long, lazy form
+emerged from the corner.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester’s manner changed instantly, and her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>
+eyes sought Jack’s questioningly, as if she were
+asking some explanation. Then she turned to
+the man who stood quietly watching her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you do, Mr. Landor?” she said with
+a stiff little formality that was unlike Hester, “I
+did not know you and Jack were friends.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I be presented?” asked Julie, coming
+forward; “I seem to be quite out of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jack from his chair in his capacity of host performed
+the introduction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will <em>you</em> let me guess?” said the man,
+addressing Julie as if there had been no interruption.
+“Your sister refuses to answer me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You certainly will not let him guess,”
+promptly replied Hester. “Curiosity is a shockingly
+reprehensible trait and besides,” with a
+little toss of her head, “our affairs cannot possibly
+be of interest to Mr. Landor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The man flushed and picked up his hat. “I
+am off, old fellow,” he said to Jack. “I’ll be in
+again before a great while.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, don’t let us drive you away, please, Mr.
+Landor,” protested Julie, who was secretly marveling
+over that cool little sarcastic voice which
+she had scarcely recognized as Hester’s. “We
+had only a moment to stop and we can come down
+again any time; we know what a great pleasure
+it is to Jack to have visitors, don’t we, Hester?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie had her hand on the door.
+</p>
+<div><a name='i114' id='i114'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i004' id='i004'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-114.jpg" alt="“MAY I HAVE A GUESS, MISS DALE?”" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“MAY I HAVE A GUESS, MISS DALE?”</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span></div>
+<p>
+“You will do what she asks, I am sure, Mr.
+Landor,” said Hester. It did not escape him
+that she shifted the responsibility to her sister.
+“Julie always arranges things perfectly. We
+really should be at home this very minute.”
+And waving her hand at the astonished Jack, she
+followed in the wake of her sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester,” exclaimed Julie, in the seclusion of
+their own apartment, “what made you so rude
+to Mr. Landor? I never heard you speak like
+that to any one before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Julie,” cried the younger girl, flinging
+herself down in a chair, “I’ve the most disgusting,
+beastly temper!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve nothing of the sort!” denied her sister
+indignantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have. You don’t know anything about it,
+it’s—it’s just developing. I get all hot inside;
+sometimes it breaks out the way it did at Miss
+Ware’s and to-day it made me nasty and sarcastic.
+I’ve always hated sarcastic people!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What has Mr. Landor done, dear, to make
+you dislike him so? I thought he seemed most
+charming and agreeable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you?” indifferently, leaning back in her
+chair. Suddenly she sat bolt upright and
+exclaimed vehemently, “Julie Dale, if you dare
+to take to singing his praises as Dr. Ware does
+I’ll—I’ll—well, I don’t know what I’ll do! I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span>
+hate him, with his smiling, masterful air and his
+prying into affairs which are none of his business.”
+(This seemed rather strong language,
+but Julie did not interrupt her.) “He is an idle
+society man and we are hard-working girls.
+He has nothing in common with us whatever.
+We’ve no use for men, anyway—they don’t
+belong to the sort of life we live, they—they
+don’t fit into our scheme of things. Rather neat,
+that last phrase, eh, Julie? Read it in a book.”
+As usual, Hester’s outburst ended in a laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you twenty years old,” said Julie stooping
+down to kiss the flushed face, “or two hundred,
+Hester?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m an end-of-the-century idiot, that’s what
+I am!” she replied, pulling Julie over to give her
+a suffocating hug. Then in that irrelevant fashion
+so characteristic of her she threw back her
+head and sniffed the air suspiciously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie!”
+</p>
+<p>
+But Julie had slipped away.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester chased her into the little dining-room.
+“Julie Dale! do I smell steak?” Hester’s nostrils
+fairly quivered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You do. I plunged into that wild extravagance
+on the strength of the mayonnaise, and I
+don’t care what you say!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say!” gasped Hester as Bridget brought in
+this unheard of luxury, “I only want to eat!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<p>
+“I’m sorry, old fellow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sorry for what, Mr. Landor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“To have driven your little friends away.
+They evidently had some good news to tell you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! that’s all right,” said Jack cheerily, “it
+will keep, you know, and they were in a hurry—they
+said they could only stop a moment.” Jack
+was puzzling his young brain over their abrupt
+departure, but his loyalty to all three friends
+made him wish to hide from Landor the fact that
+he was apparently the cause. “I’m so sorry
+they <em>were</em> in a hurry,” he continued, “for I’m
+always wishing you knew one another—you’d
+get on like a house afire.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Should we, Jack? I don’t know. Recent
+events don’t seem to prove it, do they?” laughing
+good-naturedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! that doesn’t count. You just wait until
+some day when they have more time—I don’t
+know when that’ll be, though, for they’re regular
+hustlers. What do you suppose?” confidentially.
+“They call their flat ‘The Hustle’—isn’t that
+great?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should say so—it sounds enterprising.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They named it after the private car they used
+to live in—they’ve told me all about it. Gee!
+wouldn’t I like to get aboard of her once! She
+must have been a beauty!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What became of the car? Did you ever happen
+to hear, Jack?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s out west somewhere—some railroad’s
+got it, I think, but I’m not sure. They never
+spoke of it but once—I could see it went kind of
+hard talking about it, though Miss Hester
+laughed and joked about its being they who did
+the hustling now, instead of the car. It must be
+fine to be rich and travel all around,” exclaimed
+the boy, “but I’d hate to have had it and then
+have to give it all up the way they have. Say,
+Mr. Landor, shall I tell you something?” He
+clasped the arms of the reclining chair with his
+thin hands and drew himself up to a sitting posture.
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor nodded and drew his seat closer. He
+encouraged the boy in his confidences.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I slumped the other night—clean went all to
+pieces. I’m fourteen, you know, but if I’d been
+four I couldn’t have acted more kiddish. Mother
+was out and I’d been thinking how I wanted to
+go to college and couldn’t, because mother can’t
+afford it, and how I wanted to travel around and
+couldn’t, and how I even wanted to walk and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span>
+couldn’t—not for a long time yet—and I just lay
+here and thought there wasn’t much sense in
+getting any better anyway—I’d just have to go
+back and be nothing better than an office boy
+where I was before I got hurt and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you succeeded in working yourself up
+into a fine frenzy of discontent, didn’t you,
+Jack? I understand, my boy. We all have our
+rebellious moments.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was crying like a baby when Miss Julie
+came in.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor old Jack,” patting his hand sympathetically.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor nothing!” exclaimed the boy in a tone
+of infinite disgust, “it makes me hot all over to
+think about it and that wasn’t the worst! I
+<em>kept on</em> crying.” Jack’s honest nature was
+abasing itself before his friend. “I kept on crying
+till she shamed me out of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor did not speak, feeling silence at that
+moment would better harmonize with the boy’s
+mood. Jack and he understood each other, and
+the boy feeling his sympathetic interest drew a
+long breath and went on again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She made me tell her all about it and I felt
+so cut up and blue that I said a lot of things I
+didn’t mean and I told her it was easy enough
+for her to be brave—she didn’t know what it
+was to lie still and perhaps be crippled all your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span>
+life—the doctor can’t tell. <em>Think of my telling
+her that!</em>” The boy shuddered. “I believe if
+I’d struck her, Mr. Landor, I couldn’t have
+hurt her more, for there’s her father, you see, a
+million times worse off than I am, and I’d forgotten
+all about him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor pushed back his chair and as if he
+found action of some kind necessary paced the
+room quietly while the boy talked on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Her face got so white and her eyes got so
+dark that it frightened me, but do you know
+what she did? I was lying on the couch and
+she came over and knelt down beside me and
+talked to me a long time about her father.”
+Jack’s voice was awed and Landor’s hands went
+deeper down into his pockets—a way he had
+when he was moved.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She called him ‘Daddy’ and you could see
+just the way she said it that she worshiped him,
+and she told me that when you loved a person
+very much it was harder to see him stricken down
+than if you were ill and helpless yourself. I
+hadn’t thought of that, but it must be so,
+mustn’t it, Mr. Landor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Jack, it must be so.” No cloud had
+ever darkened Kenneth Landor’s pleasure-loving,
+pleasure-giving life.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then she told me that she wasn’t brave
+really. That many a night she cried herself to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>
+sleep because she was heart-broken about her
+father and discouraged about their work and
+tired. I think she just told me that so I
+wouldn’t feel as if I were a coward because I
+cried too. I’d stopped by that time, I can tell
+you! And then she said she wanted me to help
+her and her sister be bright and jolly by being
+bright and jolly, too. That made me laugh—to
+think I could help them! We both laughed and
+I felt better. After that she talked a long time
+about trouble and how it came to some people
+very young and how it was a sort of test—did
+you ever think of that, Mr. Landor?” gazing
+earnestly into the man’s face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, Jack, there are many things I have
+never thought of!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You would if you knew them, you couldn’t
+help it. She wasn’t a bit preachy—I hate that—but
+she said the way we took things showed
+the kind of characters we had and when we got
+discouraged we must just remember we were
+soldiers—Christ’s soldiers—that’s what she
+said.” The boy’s voice sank to a whisper.
+“And that no soldier amounted to shucks till he
+was knocked about and disciplined and taught to
+obey his superiors.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is the truth, my boy.” In his heart
+Landor was marveling at what he heard.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And do you know what, Mr. Landor? I’m
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span>
+going to march in the ranks too—a double-quick
+step to try to catch up with them and if ever I
+do catch up and can march alongside of them,
+won’t I be proud, just!” Julie’s little sermon
+had sunk deep into his receptive mind and kindled
+his imagination to deeds of valor like some
+knight of old. He leaned back on his cushions
+exhausted by this unusual talk, his frail body in
+pitiful contrast to the strength of the spirit that
+had awakened within him and glowed in his face
+with a transfiguring light.
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor came over to his chair and took his
+hand in a grip that hurt. “I am going to enter
+the ranks too, old fellow,” said he, carrying out
+the illusion partly to please the boy’s fancy and
+partly because he had never before been so in
+earnest in his life.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You!” said the boy, to whom Landor was a
+hero, “you don’t have to fight—why you can
+kill buffaloes and Indians and everything!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor smiled. “Perhaps I have more dangerous
+foes nearer at hand, Jack. Who knows?
+Well, I must be going. Shall I lift you onto
+the couch first?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jack always enjoyed the feeling of Landor’s
+strong arms about him and gave the man a
+grateful look as he was laid gently down. The
+couch was in reality Jack’s bed and the change
+to the reclining chair had been brought about by
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>
+Landor, who sent the chair to him in the early
+days of their acquaintance, but laughingly denied
+any previous knowledge of it when Jack endeavored
+to thank him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You seem to have a lot of paper about,”
+commented Landor, picking up some sheets from
+the floor. “What are you up to these days?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jack blushed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Out with it, old fellow; you look guilty.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m—I’m trying to write out the stories I
+make about the people I see out of my window.
+You know I like to imagine things about them.
+<em>She</em> said if I’d write them down the way I tell
+them they’d entertain her father very much, but
+I’ve gotten sort of disgusted—it seems such
+awful rot when it’s down on paper.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor ran his eye over the sheets Jack indicated.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They are not rot, Jack, they are pretty good.
+I am not much of a literary chap, but I know
+when a thing is interesting. When you have
+taken this way of introducing the neighborhood
+to Mr. Dale why don’t you send him a weekly
+bulletin—a regularly gotten up paper with all
+the neighborhood news? When there isn’t
+news you can invent it, you know,” smiling;
+“that is allowable in the newspaper trade.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say, that’s great!” cried Jack. “I’ll call it
+the—‘In the Ranks’ and make a great big heading for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>
+my first column ‘News from the Front’
+(that means front window) and I know, that’ll
+please Mr. Dale, for mother told me he was a
+distinguished officer in the Civil War and Miss
+Julie says they were brought up on military
+principles.” Jack snatched paper and pencil
+eager to begin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Keep on with your stories first, Jack. Why,
+we shall be setting up a printing-press here
+next,” and with this delightfully suggestive
+remark Landor departed.
+</p>
+<p>
+He did not go on to the club, as was his wont
+at that hour, but lighted a cigar and walked out
+of the little court and down through Crana Street
+to the river, where on the bridge he paused and
+gazed across to the city with a rapt, preoccupied
+air. Then, as if the noise of the ever-whirring
+electric cars disturbed him, he retraced his steps
+and took a road in the opposite direction which
+brought him into the quiet and seclusion of the
+park. The air was keen and crisp and blew in
+his face in gusty whiffs as he strode on, while all
+about him in their winter nakedness the trees
+cast spectral shadows. Usually, from long training
+and association with western plains and
+mountain trails, he took note of everything as he
+passed, but to-night he gazed far on ahead,
+engrossed in thought. To his annoyance, twice
+his cigar went out—which was in itself significant.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>
+Finally he threw it away and lighted a
+little bull-dog pipe, his solace and companion in
+many a solitary stroll.
+</p>
+<p>
+So those were the Dale girls, he was thinking,
+of whom Dr. Ware had said so much but of
+whom, all unconsciously, Jack had revealed more
+than years of intercourse with them might tell.
+He thought of Julie as he had seen her, quiet
+and fair-haired, with that gracious little plea that
+he should not let them drive him away, to prevent
+which they had themselves made a hasty
+exit from the room. And then there was
+another Julie as Jack had pictured her, turning
+her heart out for a boy that he might be comforted!
+He thought of her with reverence. A
+profound solemnity possessed him, giving him a
+strangely subdued sensation as of a man emerging
+from a sanctuary. What was he to whom life
+was an idle pastime, that he should draw the
+same breath with her!
+</p>
+<p>
+Then from out this solemn train of thought
+danced another picture—two baffling eyes mocking
+him. Who was she, this will-o’-the-wisp,
+that she should hold him at arm’s length in that
+imperious fashion! He stopped and half closed
+his lids as if the better to conjure up a vision of
+her, then shook himself and went on—were not
+those eyes enough and that light ironical voice in
+his ears? Why had she snubbed him so—him,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>
+who was surely unoffending? And she was a
+soldier too, marching in the ranks. That pretty,
+piquant, fascinating sprite had shouldered her
+knapsack and was fighting a battle royal. Dr.
+Ware had told him so long ago, but somehow he
+only now began to realize it since Jack had
+expressed it in Julie’s simple way. Jove! the
+very simplicity of it was impressive! Thoughts
+like these carried Landor out into the country
+and brought him back to the club two hours later
+in an unusually quiet frame of mind. The men
+with whom he habitually fraternized found him
+dull and unresponsive and to his inexpressible
+relief they left him to finish the evening alone.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<p>
+Mrs. Lennox was giving one of those
+little dinners for which she was justly
+famous. To-night it was in honor of Monsieur
+Jules Grémond, the young African explorer who
+was paying a flying visit to the States. To meet
+him were Miss Davis, a débutante whose prettiness
+could always be counted on to make a picture;
+Miss Marston, whose cleverness it was
+thought would interest him; and Kenneth Landor,
+whose attentions to Miss Davis had been
+rather pronounced during the season. Opposite
+his wife across the round table sat Mr. Lennox,
+than whom there was no more delightful host.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had not been long gathered about the
+table before Mrs. Lennox was conscious that her
+guests were lacking in that subtle attraction
+toward one another which is absolutely indispensable
+to the success of a small dinner. Monsieur
+Grémond, between her and Miss Marston,
+appeared to be listening in a most politely conventional
+manner to the girl who was making
+commonplace conversation with frequent pauses
+during which he turned to Mrs. Lennox, with
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>
+whom he immediately fell into interesting talk.
+Kenneth Landor was singularly distrait. At first
+he had appropriated Miss Davis with his usual
+devoted air, but after a bit this languished and
+he, too, turned so often to Mrs. Lennox, next
+whom he sat, that Miss Davis first pouted and
+then in a fit of pique plunged into a violent flirtation
+with Mr. Lennox, much to that person’s
+amusement. Mrs. Lennox found it necessary
+to throw herself into the breach here, there and
+everywhere, but under her skillful manipulation
+the talk at last became general and animated.
+</p>
+<p>
+The interest of the table naturally centered on
+Grémond, who managed adroitly to keep the conversation
+off himself, thereby winning the admiration
+of his hostess—she rather enjoyed a lion
+who did not roar. Finally, with the arrival of
+the savory which followed the dessert—for Mrs.
+Lennox had adopted this English custom, she
+had the satisfaction of seeing Miss Marston and
+her husband deep in talk, Miss Davis and Kenneth
+“frivoling” as was their wont and was herself
+free to enjoy a tête-à-tête with her guest of honor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your country is a source of endless interest
+to me, Madame,” the Frenchman was saying,
+“but it is as nothing to your women. They
+rival ours—even surpass them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am afraid we are in danger of being told
+that too often,” laughed his hostess, gaily.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Some things bear repetition, Madame.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you known many of us, Monsieur?”
+she asked, interested. “I think you said you had
+been over here before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, nearly two years ago, before I started
+off to Africa. It was indeed the cause of my
+immediate start for Africa,” he said with a retrospective
+air. “Then, too, Madame, America
+became very dear to me through my friendship
+with Sidney Renshawe—we were like brothers
+together in Paris.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah, yes, I know, he speaks of you with great
+affection. He will be up from Virginia in a day
+or two, will he not?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not before I am off. I go to New Orleans
+on important business and from there to California,
+but I shall stay with him here on my
+return. Ah! you cannot dream what he has been
+to me,” he cried with Gallic enthusiasm, “he—and
+one other.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you come and tell me about it later,
+Monsieur, when you have finished your cigars?”
+she said softly, picking up her gloves and giving
+the signal to rise.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Madame is very good,” he murmured, bowing
+low as he stood aside for her to pass.
+</p>
+<p>
+Left together, the three men drew near and by
+a common interest caused Grémond to talk of
+his explorations for fully half an hour, which
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>
+time was all too short to his listeners, who were
+greatly interested in the man as well as in what
+he had done. Though they had just met him
+within the week he was well known to them
+through Renshawe, a warm friend of Kenneth
+and the Lennoxes and the half hour over their
+cigars would unquestionably have lengthened out
+indefinitely had the women not been waiting for
+them in the drawing-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+The party had expected to go to the opera
+together, but when the men rejoined the women
+they found a change of plan, Miss Marston having
+secretly confided to Mrs. Lennox that she had
+been “on the go” so steadily for weeks that it
+would be bliss to keep still, and “Couldn’t we all
+spend the evening here instead?” Pretty, disdainful
+Miss Davis, seeing in this suggestion possibilities
+of a prolonged tête-à-tête with Kenneth
+Landor, was enthusiastic in seconding it; while
+Mrs. Lennox acquiesced gladly—she had put in
+an exhausting day at various charitable organizations
+and was more tired than she cared to admit.
+As for the men, they were loud in their acclamations
+of delight over what Mr. Lennox called
+“the joy of a home evening.” Accordingly they
+left the formal drawing-room and repaired to
+Mrs. Lennox’s sanctum, a unique room finished
+in ebony, the dark wood relieved from somberness
+by a deep frieze of Pompeiian figures done
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>
+in red, while bits of this vivid color were everywhere
+conspicuous in the furnishing. In all its
+appointments it showed the touch of a strong
+individuality and expressed in its way the
+æsthetic side of Mrs. Lennox’s nature. It had
+also what in a woman’s room made it distinctive—space.
+Mrs. Lennox was a person who
+liked free scope for her body as well as her mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+The guests, therefore, distributed themselves
+about comfortably and Miss Davis found herself
+exercising her fascinations upon the distinguished
+foreigner, who encouraged her by undisguised
+admiration, which indeed he had given her
+throughout dinner by glances meant to convey
+what the distance of the table between them
+made it impossible to say. But the paying of
+excessive compliments to a girl like Miss Davis,
+who cares only for that sort of thing from the
+masculine sex, sometimes palls and Grémond was
+just thinking a bit longingly of his charming
+hostess when that individual approached them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Davis,” she said, “Mr. Landor has
+been proposing a game of billiards. He wants
+you to help him beat Miss Marston and my husband—they
+have already begun to play, I believe.
+Will you join them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do Miss Davis, will you?” urged Kenneth,
+who always enjoyed the game.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Davis looked at him and rose by way of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>
+answer. She had long ago discovered that her
+eyes did considerable execution. Then with a
+glance at Grémond which said that he too might
+follow her, she went with Kenneth across the
+hall into the billiard room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Lennox sank into a curiously carved old
+ebony chair, against which her bare arms and
+shoulders gleamed white. She was gowned in
+black, unrelieved except for the rope of pearls
+wound twice around her throat and hanging in a
+loose chain to her waist; but the severity of outline
+was exceedingly becoming to her slender
+figure and the absence of color emphasized the
+beauty of her skin, which was as fair and soft as
+if she were twenty instead of forty. She sighed
+a little as she leaned back in her chair, and
+Grémond reaching for some cushions from a divan
+near by tucked them in behind her comfortably.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Madame is tired to-night,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Monsieur Grémond,” turning her head the
+better to see him, “I feel as if I should offer you
+a thousand apologies. I had planned a gay
+evening for you and instead you are becoming
+initiated into intimate home life. We are
+already treating you like one of the family.
+Fancy!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A privilege not accorded to many; is it not
+so, Madame? I feel flattered beyond all telling.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It pleased her that he was quick to recognize
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>
+this as unusual treatment of the stranger within
+her gates and she said cordially, “I felt when I
+saw you that we should not make the usual beginning.
+It is a little peculiarity of mine that I
+steal into people’s lives in the middle—when I
+like them. I have never analyzed it, but I trust
+to my instincts and I am not often mistaken.
+Now you,” she said, leaning languidly back on
+her cushions, “you interest me and I’ve sent
+them all off to play billiards that we may have
+a quiet little talk together. I want to hear more
+of what you were telling me at dinner, if I may.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Madame is very good,” he said again. “We
+were speaking of Sidney Renshawe, were we
+not?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of him—‘and one other,’” she quoted,
+watching his eloquent face.
+</p>
+<p>
+His black eyes softened and he leaned forward
+a little, using his hands in frequent gesticulation
+as he began to talk. “I am reminded, Madame,
+of a certain witty English author who said that
+Columbus discovered America but America discovered
+him. To paraphrase him, I should say
+that two Americans discovered me—dear old
+Renshawe and the most charming little girl I
+ever knew.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes?” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But for those two, Madame, I might have
+been—anything!” He shrugged his shoulders
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>
+expressively. “The one had faith in me, the
+other taught me to have faith in myself. She
+was my inspiration.” It seemed as natural to him
+to confide in this charming woman as if he had
+known her all his life, and in this he was not
+unlike the majority of people in whom Mrs. Lennox
+showed an interest, for she had that divine
+gift which for lack of an English word we call
+“simpatica”—an open sesame to all hearts.
+</p>
+<p>
+She was listening very quietly, but the look on
+her face was one of absorbed attention as Grémond
+went on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“For several years, Madame, I had been formulating
+my African plans, but I lacked distinct
+purpose until I knew her. She had the American
+idea that a man must accomplish something
+in the world. She thought I should prove myself
+capable of the great things I talked about.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She can scarcely have reason to find fault
+with you now,” the woman said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hope not, Madame, when she knows what
+I have tried to do and how much more I shall do
+when I return.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you going to tell her—soon?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Soon?” with a quick indrawing of his breath,
+“as soon as I can get to California, but alas!
+that will not be for many weeks. I am not sure
+that she will want to listen to me, Madame, but
+I shall make her; I must.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You met her in Europe, I fancy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“On the contrary, I met her in Southern
+California in one of the big hotels where I was
+stopping. She was living there and we were
+thrown together constantly, laughing, dancing,
+riding—a gay life. Now and then when we
+touched on serious subjects I was amazed and
+moved by her great comprehension and high
+ideals.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Does she not know what a powerful factor
+she has been in your life?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not yet, Madame. I went away with my
+heart full of her, but said no word. I felt I had
+not the right on so short an acquaintance and
+before I had really accomplished anything.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps not, my friend, but I am not sure
+that I altogether agree with you. I feel that she
+liked you, with possibly more than the ordinary
+liking, and a girl wants some sign.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wrote her once, asking her to hold me in
+remembrance; was that a sign, Madame? It
+was all I dared to make. It seemed to me it was
+deeds and not words that were wanted.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was both, Monsieur, if you will allow
+me to say so, for without words how could a
+girl know that deeds were done for her sake
+alone?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought she would know it all because I
+loved her so,” he faltered.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you men, you men!” Mrs. Lennox cried
+impatiently, “how you do expect a woman to
+take things for granted! Forgive me, Monsieur
+Grémond”—leaning forward and touching his
+arm—“but sometimes I get very cross over
+it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh Madame, Madame!” he exclaimed impetuously,
+“you cannot think, you cannot mean I
+have made a mistake?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, no,” she replied reassuringly, seeing
+how his confident manner had changed to despair,
+“but I do mean that the ways of women are not
+more enigmatical than those of men—<em>some</em> men,”
+she qualified.
+</p>
+<p>
+He laughed, glad to have the tension of the
+past moment broken by her light tone. For a
+moment neither spoke. Across the hall came
+the faint clicking of the billiard-balls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We must join the others, Monsieur,” the
+woman said at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I thank you for the pleasantest hour I
+have spent since my arrival?” he said earnestly
+as he rose.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The pleasantest—as yet. Eh, Monsieur?”
+with a charming smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+“As yet, Madame,” bowing gravely over her
+hand which he had taken in his.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then will you come to me again, when you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span>
+return and tell me <em>all</em> about it?” with a faint
+pressure of her fingers in his.
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I, Madame? Ah, that will be a privilege
+indeed!” and stooping he kissed her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+A moment later they had joined the others.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<p>
+“Those Dale girls are certainly remarkable!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have always maintained that, Mary.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Remarkably surprising, I mean,” corrected
+Miss Ware, fingering the coffee-cups noisily in
+rather an irritating manner as it seemed to her
+brother, who was running over his voluminous
+morning mail.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What have they done now?” he asked looking
+up at her over his glasses.
+</p>
+<p>
+“To my mind a most unlady-like, vulgar thing.
+Here it is if you want to see.” A second look
+at a card in her hand before passing it over
+caused her to exclaim, “No! Is it possible!
+Mrs. Lennox has taken them up! Her name is
+actually printed on the card—it is the most
+astonishing thing I ever heard of!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you mean their business cards, Mary, I
+was consulted and saw the original draft and
+recommended the printer. Um,” examining
+the card critically, “he has turned out an excellent
+piece of work, artistic and quiet in tone. I
+thought he could be relied upon.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Philip, you are too exasperating! I believe
+if those girls sold papers on the street corner
+you would think it the finest thing ever
+done!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I probably should,” he rejoined imperturbably.
+“As for these cards, they are something
+to be proud of! ‘Salads, croquettes, fancy sandwiches,
+jellies, salted nuts, etc., etc.,’” he went
+on, running his eye down the list. “Gad! how
+they have pushed ahead! They mailed five hundred
+of these yesterday,” looking over at his
+sister, “and I fancy Radnor people will not be
+slow in responding.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Mrs. Lennox’s name will be an alluring
+bait,” she said. “People will patronize them
+because she does, for a time, but they make a
+great mistake in relying upon her; this is just
+one of her fads.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t understand, Mary, how you take such
+delight in imputing disagreeable motives to people.
+Mrs. Lennox is not patronizing the girls—she
+has great respect for them. Neither are they
+relying on her in the least. They rely only on
+their own skill and ability to do their work to the
+satisfaction of their customers. Mrs. Lennox
+has kindly allowed them to add her name by way
+of reference or indorsement for those people
+who know nothing about them. It places them
+before the public in an unassailable position.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are they going to open a shop?” asked Miss
+Ware, a little superciliously, interested in spite of
+herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, they mean to keep right on as they are,
+making things only to order. They will have no
+stock on hand. It is the best they can do under
+the circumstances, for it is impossible to branch
+out to any considerable extent while their father
+needs them close at hand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good gracious, Philip! you wouldn’t advise
+a shop?” She made a wry face over her coffee,
+in which, in the excitement of the discussion,
+she had neglected to put any sugar.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know,” the Doctor replied, stroking
+his beard thoughtfully, “I am not sure. Being
+conducted in their home, a business such as
+theirs must of necessity be limited, and the
+profits small. One must do things in large quantities
+to make money. I have thought a good
+deal about a little shop—it may come to that
+eventually, but I am not sure that I want it to.
+They are not going to hold out forever; as it is
+they are living on their nerves,—they have been
+too delicately reared to stand such work.” He
+pushed his plate away and folding his arms on the
+table leaned forward confidentially. “Mary,”
+he said, “I wish I could get you to care for those
+girls—to love all that is so sweet and lovable in
+them.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps I’d care more for them, Philip, if
+you did not care so much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” in astonishment, “why you aren’t—you
+can’t be jealous of them, Mary?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know,” she replied, looking away
+from him, “women are queer, even we old ones—perhaps
+we’re queerest of all!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Mary, what nonsense to be jealous of
+two little girls who regard me in the light of a
+venerable uncle.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should not call a fine-looking man in the
+prime of life ‘venerable,’” said his sister resentfully,
+for she was immensely proud of her distinguished
+brother. “I am sure it would be
+very odd if they did not admire you for more
+reasons than one!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not a question of their admiring me,
+Mary, but of my admiring them. And I am not
+the only one. People are beginning to talk about
+them aside from Mrs. Lennox. Mary, I want
+them to marry!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Marry!” she exclaimed. “No eligible man
+would marry girls who cook and deliver boxes at
+people’s doors and do goodness knows what besides.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are very much mistaken, and while you
+cling to your absurd opinions I don’t think it is
+desirable to continue the conversation.” He
+rose with dignity and passed into his office.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Ware followed him. “Philip,” she
+queried with feminine curiosity, “had you any
+one special in mind?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor was lost in the depths of the morning
+paper.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Philip, I—I dare say I expressed myself
+rather strongly;” (this from Miss Ware was a
+great concession). “<em>Was</em> there any one special in
+your mind?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And what if there was, Mary?” answered the
+Doctor, slightly appeased but not wholly mollified,
+“would you really care to know?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I should. It is so unusual for you to
+be developing match-making proclivities.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is true. I seldom think of such matters
+and, mind you, I do not by any means think
+that girls should marry just for the sake of marrying—that
+it is the end and aim of their existence—but
+in the case of the Dales my heart is set
+upon it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought you approved of women who
+were self-supporting,” remarked his sister, considerably
+surprised at the view he presented.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So I do, when circumstances require it or
+their temperaments demand independence and
+they are properly trained to stand shoulder to
+shoulder with men in business or professional life.
+But these little girls are wrestling with the bare
+problems of existence, working with the nervous
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>
+tension of a high-bred race-horse, using up their
+vitality over pots and kettles and pans and smiling,
+smiling all the time as if they liked it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I thought they did like it!” Verily
+this was a morning of surprises.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Like it!” cried the Doctor, trying to keep
+down the anger in his voice, “would you like it
+to be taken out of a life of keen enjoyment—a
+life crowded with incidents and continuous
+change of scene such as the Dales lived and
+be put down in a comparatively strange place,
+unrecognized socially, without young companionship
+and, worse still, to see a father whom they
+adore perfectly helpless and dependent on them
+for every mouthful of bread! It is a wonder to
+me the spirit is not crushed out of them!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never quite thought of it like that, Philip.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you didn’t, Mary. You thought
+they were rebellious, head-strong young things
+who liked being cramped up in a kitchen all day,
+beating their arms off over batches of dough and
+stirring mayonnaise until they are ready to fall
+into the bowl from sheer exhaustion! But I
+want you to look at it differently, I do indeed,
+and I want you to help me put a new interest
+in their lives.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will, Philip, there is my hand on it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor clasped it warmly. “What do
+you think of Landor?” he said.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kenneth Landor? Does he know them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He met Hester here one day and was immensely
+taken with her. Afterward he ran
+across them in my house in the apartment below
+them. There is an invalid boy there whom Kenneth
+heard of—you know he is always finding
+out-of-the-way people and going to see them.
+He told me he only saw the girls there a moment,
+but he’s taken a violent fancy to the boy,
+who talks about Julie and Hester by the hour
+together. Landor wants to meet the girls
+again—he has asked me to ask him here to meet
+them, but I have always put him off on one pretext
+or another, knowing it was useless to try to
+do anything while you felt as you did, but now
+you will arrange something, won’t you, Mary?
+You have such a talent for little parties.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The girls won’t come. Have you heard
+them speak of Kenneth?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Only casually, most casually. Hester always
+gets the talk off on something else when I mention
+him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s a good sign.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A good sign!” said the Doctor, much puzzled,
+“I thought it was a bad one.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! you men,” laughed Miss Ware, “you
+don’t know anything. When a girl does not
+discuss a man it is usually because he interests
+her. Do you think,” she said seriously, “the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>
+girls, if they knew, would like your disposing of
+one of them in this calm fashion?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mary, I beg of you, do not misunderstand
+me. I have no wish to dispose of them. Kenneth
+may not fall in love with either of them,
+though I don’t see how he can help it” (this
+under his breath), “and neither of them may
+care in the least for him, but it would gladden
+my heart if the thing could be. He is an admirable
+fellow in every way, and during the past
+month he has gone into business with his father.
+Did you know that? There is no doubt that he
+could make a comfortable home for them all.
+Even if nothing comes of it I want him to know
+them—he’ll be a better man all his life for knowing
+them—and I want them to have a little diversion,
+a little outside interest to take them out of
+the rut. I’ll leave it all to you, Mary,” he
+ended, with a comfortable feeling of security.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I suppose, you know,” she said as she was
+leaving, “that both the girls have had several
+offers of marriage.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I didn’t know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Dale mentioned it when he was discussing
+the question of my chaperoning them this
+winter. He said he wanted me to understand
+that the girls were in some ways much older
+than their years and that having been, through
+their constant companionship with him, thrown
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span>
+much into the society of men, it was natural they
+should have had that experience. He also said
+that neither girl had the slightest desire to marry
+for the present or had ever shown any preference
+for one man above another. I fancied from what
+he said that their manner toward men was frank,
+rather a sort of ‘camaraderie’ than the silly sentimental
+attitude some girls affect.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are perfectly right, Mary, they have a
+most engaging frankness of manner.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I ask you one thing, Philip?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly,” suddenly apprehensive of the
+question coming.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you know they are beating their
+arms off over batches of dough”—the phrase
+seemed to have stuck in her mind—“I mean how
+did you realize it? Did they tell you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not they;” secretly relieved, “I hear it from
+Bridget. She worries her faithful old heart out
+about them and vows me to secrecy when she
+confides in me, for she says they would never
+forgive her if they knew she took it so hard.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good old Bridget,” he said to himself, for
+his sister had vanished without another word,
+“how my little girls would scold her!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Good old Bridget indeed, who told much,
+but was far too loyal to tell all she knew!
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<p>
+“Hester, ‘we have arrived,’ as they say
+in France. This has been a momentous
+month. We’ve sent out our cards and
+bought our first groceries at wholesale.” Julie
+leaned her elbows on the kitchen table and gazed
+with a rapt meditative air at their first barrel of
+sugar.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget stood in the doorway openly admiring.
+“It’s like old times, Miss Julie dear, to be seein’
+things come in quantities agen.” She had
+secretly harbored a grudge against the miserable
+little paper bags.
+</p>
+<p>
+Peter Snooks sniffed at the unfamiliar barrel
+and then sat down beside it with a comical air of
+importance, but Hester did not leave him long
+undisturbed, for in wild exuberance of spirits she
+executed a war-dance in which he joined, at the
+end of which she mounted the barrel and with
+arms extended made a speech.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ladies and gentlemen (the gentlemen’s <em>you</em>,
+Snooks);
+</p>
+<p>
+“This is the proudest moment of my life!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Having delivered herself of this burst of eloquence
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span>
+she paused a moment dramatically, then
+plunged into such a torrent of nonsense that
+Bridget buried her head in her apron to stifle her
+laughter, Peter Snooks barked frantically in a fit
+of delight and Julie pulled the young orator down
+ignominiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come into the other room,” she said.
+“Daddy is asleep and I don’t want you to wake
+him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Instantly subdued, Hester tip-toed down the
+hall, following her sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are we going to discuss affairs of state?”
+she whispered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, but we must come to some decision
+about Mrs. Lennox’s invitation for Thursday
+night. I think we ought to go.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I don’t. I object to being patronized.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! my dear, don’t look at it like that; it
+is not kind of you. You regard Mrs. Lennox as
+a friend, do you not?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A business friend, yes; the kindest and best
+we have, but that is not knowing her socially.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, dear, but she wants to know us socially
+or she would not have invited us to her house.
+Don’t you see that is what it means, Hester? It
+is not patronizing us, but placing us on an equal
+footing—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where we belong,” interrupted Hester,
+“though I don’t think we need feel overwhelmed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>
+by Radnor’s recognition of the fact.” She spoke
+bitterly in a tone that cut her sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester dear, it does hurt to be utterly
+ignored by the people who used to know us
+when we were children, but there are enough
+outside of Radnor who have stood by us loyally
+and we will make headway here eventually when
+people get a little more used to us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you suppose I care a snap of my finger
+about these Radnor girls,” said Hester savagely.
+“They’re a narrow snobbish lot and I’m glad I’ve
+escaped knowing them! Just yesterday, as I
+was delivering that great box of sandwiches at
+Mrs. Crane’s I met Jessie Davis on the steps—she’d
+been calling there. Don’t you remember
+how we always played together when we were
+little tots at school? Well, of course I knew her
+immediately—she hasn’t changed a bit, and she
+knew me, but it was surprising how absorbed
+she suddenly became in looking for her carriage
+which was standing right under her nose! Think
+how disgraced she would have been before her
+footman if I—nothing better than a parcel-delivery
+girl—had spoken to her! She needn’t have
+been afraid,” scornfully, giving full vent to her
+smothered wrath, “I wouldn’t have spoken to
+her to have saved her life!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is not worth getting angry about, dear.
+You ought to pity her for not knowing any better.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“She knows better, well enough,” said the
+irate Hester, who rather liked to nurse her wrath.
+“She’s a nasty little snob!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, she is,” agreed Julie, “but I can’t help
+pitying her for all she has missed in not knowing
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester smiled. “It is wicked of me to spit
+out at you, Julie dear. You did not make snobs
+and you have to encounter them just as much as
+I do. I dare say if we go to Mrs. Lennox’s we
+shall run up against some, but a party does sound
+pleasant, doesn’t it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think, dear,” said Julie with that quiet little
+matronly air she unconsciously assumed when
+she was trying to win over her sister, “I think
+that even though parties are not at all in our line
+these days, we should go. It is not a party,
+really, only an informal little musicale. It will
+freshen us up tremendously to get into a different
+atmosphere and it will please Mrs. Lennox,
+who has gone out of her way to be kind.” She
+looked at her sister entreatingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie, you are a saint! Sometimes you talk
+just like Daddy!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie’s eyes moistened. “I am not a saint,”
+she protested. “Think what Miss Ware will say
+when she hears of it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester’s eyes gleamed. “That settles it—I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span>
+am going, and if you want to know my honest
+opinion, I love Mrs. Lennox for asking us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There were many orders that week and their
+working capacity was taxed to its utmost to
+meet the demand. Had it not been for their
+systematic arrangement of everything it would
+have been impossible to accomplish so much.
+They had learned that the early hours of the
+morning are the best and got to work by six,
+continuing on through the day as long as there
+was anything to do. They had laid down stringent
+rules for work hours and strenuously endeavored
+to live by them.
+</p>
+<p>
+By Thursday they were absorbed in the largest
+order they had yet received, embracing as it did
+croquettes, patties and other elaborate things
+which in an unguarded moment they had agreed
+to send hot to some club-rooms in the neighborhood.
+Hester thought they could do this by
+packing the things in a big steamer they had recently
+purchased. The steamer was a large tin
+affair built in sections of trays and would pack to
+great advantage, besides holding a considerable
+amount of boiling water at the bottom whereby
+the things could be kept hot. They had engaged
+an expressman to deliver this promptly at quarter
+past eight and it was with anxious hearts and
+nervous fingers they made the final preparations
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>
+for packing. The cooking of all these elaborate
+things had been in itself no light achievement,
+but even that was as nothing to their fear
+lest the steamer should not reach its destination
+safely. They had been at work since five
+that morning and wrapped and boxed and
+packed securely was the last thing when the
+clock struck eight that evening. Five minutes
+past eight and no expressman! Quarter after,
+and two excited girls stared at each other across
+the steamer! Then Hester fled to the basement.
+The janitor was out but she pounced upon the
+engineer and got him upstairs before he realized
+what it was all about. “You’re to go on an
+errand,” was all she had vouchsafed him, leaving
+Julie to explain the rest.
+</p>
+<p>
+The man when he reached their kitchen eyed
+the big steamer curiously and said he could carry
+it. Whereupon Julie wanted to fall upon his
+neck with joy, but showed him the address tied
+to the cover instead.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Be’gorra miss,” he said in evident embarrassment,
+“I ain’t been in the city a week. Not
+the name of a street am I after knowin’ entirely.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Here was a dilemma.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll go with him,” said Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Julie,
+“you have been half dead with rheumatism for
+two days and it is pouring in torrents. We’ll
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>
+go, Hester and I—we can get there in fifteen
+minutes. Hustle, Hester!”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was an incongruous little procession that
+went out into the storm, the girls leading, the
+man keeping close to his guides, who encouraged
+him by a word now and then. He walked firmly
+and with head erect, not because this was his
+habitual gait, but because he had been warned
+that any undue motion of his body would bring
+showers of scalding water down his back. An
+admonition like this was not to be disregarded
+and he picked his way gingerly to the basement
+door of the club where the girls rang the bell and
+the supper was safely left in the hands of the
+housekeeper. Then having lavishly rewarded
+their cavalier two light-hearted girls rushed home
+through the night to Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+She welcomed them as if they had returned
+from some great peril, petted and scolded them
+because of their wet things and fussed about like
+a hen whose goslings have swam safely back to
+shore.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve made you a pot of coffee to warm your
+blessed selves,” she said. “It’s a wonder you
+don’t kill yourselves entirely.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You Bridget!” said Julie affectionately as she
+kicked off her wet shoes, “won’t you put me to
+bed just as if I were a little bit of a girl?” With
+those tired eyes and that pathetic droop to her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>
+mouth she did not look much of anything else as
+she said it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie Dale! are you crazy! Mrs. Lennox’s
+carriage is coming at nine o’clock to take us to
+the musicale! You’ve ten minutes to dress!”
+Hester made this announcement with a high
+tragedy air.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie jumped as if she had been shot. “I had
+completely forgotten it, Hester. Oh! my dear,
+I am so dead tired I don’t feel as if I could
+move.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you’ve got to,” remarked Hester,
+who, having made up her mind to do a thing,
+was not easily turned from her purpose; “you
+got me into this thing and we’ll go if it kills us!
+I know I just about struck it when I called this
+place ‘The Hustle’” she ruminated. “I am
+sure I don’t feel as if I’d drawn a long breath
+since we came here!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What shall we wear?” asked Julie who
+scrambled after her sister, shedding her wet
+things as she went.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I got out your light silks, dearie,” came from
+Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you suppose we ought to wear hats?”
+This from Hester, who was wishing they had
+planned their costumes the night before.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps we ought,” ruefully. “Good gracious!
+I haven’t any—not a small one, Hester.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“A trifle inconvenient, isn’t it? I might lend
+you the rose toque I bought in Paris.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed you won’t, it exactly matches your
+gown and you look dear in it. I’ll wear a bow
+in my hair or something.” A bow, to Julie,
+always filled any discrepancy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester arrested her in the act of trying this
+effect before the mirror and sat her down
+brusquely in a chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give me that bow,” she commanded, “and
+keep still. <em>I’ll make a hat on your head!</em>
+Bridget, you get down her picture hat quick, and
+rip off the tips and the band of jet and some lace
+and we’ll fix her up in a jiffy!”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a wonderful creation—just a bit of lace
+and jet and ribbon with never a stitch in it, all
+fastened with hairpins to Julie’s curly head.
+Two white ostrich tips stood up saucily at the
+side, a few violets were coquettishly stuck in the
+back and the effect was immensely modish and
+becoming.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hold your head high all the evening and
+don’t toss it about for your life!” warned Hester.
+“If you do, the whole thing will fall to pieces.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s a cheerful prospect,” commented
+Julie, surveying herself in the glass. “Can’t
+you put in more hairpins?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve got about a million now.” Hester’s
+imagination never failed her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shure you look beautiful, Miss Julie, dear,”
+said Bridget, “and it ain’t goin’ to come to
+pieces—Miss Hester’s only teasin’ yer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Five minutes later they were rolling through
+the storm in Mrs. Lennox’s brougham.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester,” whispered Julie from the depths of
+her luxurious corner, “<em>I</em> never tramped out in
+the wet to-night to deliver a club supper, did you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly not,” squeezing her hand hard,
+“who ever heard of such a thing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Something very like a tremor of nervous
+excitement pervaded the girls as their names
+were announced on the threshold of Mrs. Lennox’s
+drawing-room. Their entrance attracted
+immediate attention. Mrs. Lennox received
+them as Mrs. Lennox would, with most charming
+cordiality, yet not too pronounced lest they
+be made to feel that their coming was not a matter
+of common occurrence. She made a mental
+note of the fact that her protégés had never
+looked prettier and was immensely pleased with
+their poise and perfect self-possession under what
+she knew must be for them something of an
+ordeal. If she could have looked into Julie’s
+heart she would have discovered a shyness in
+coming among these people that amounted to
+positive pain; but who would ever have suspected
+it from that smiling exterior and that
+proud tilt of the head?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Hester, from the moment a woman who
+was one of their customers bowed to her in a
+puzzled sort of way and then whispered so loud
+that every one about her could hear, “Why it’s
+those Dale girls!”—from that moment Hester’s
+spirit of deviltry awoke and she determined to
+outshine every girl in the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Lennox immediately presented half a
+dozen men who formed a little group about them
+and presently she steered them all toward some
+chairs preparatory to settling down to hear the
+music. As they crossed the room several women
+with whom they had had business dealings,
+bowed to them cordially. In a corner on a tête-à-tête
+seat sat Jessie Davis with Kenneth Landor.
+Both looked up as the party approached
+and Landor gave a half-stifled exclamation.
+Hester’s luminous eyes swept by the girl and
+into the man’s face with such a distracting smile
+that he was on his feet in a second.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you do?” she said sweetly, just the
+suspicion of a smile still lurking about the corners
+of her mouth while she extended her hand cordially.
+</p>
+<p>
+The man took it in an eager clasp and blessed
+the Fates for this propitious moment. “This is
+charming,” he said. “It is a great pleasure to
+see you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, is it not?” naïvely. “Julie, here is Mr.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span>
+Landor,” bringing him into the circle quite as if
+he were an old friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+Genuinely glad to see him, Julie showed it
+unreservedly. All the men knew him and envied
+him his luck as the little party found seats together.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You must not let us break up your tête-à-tête,”
+remonstrated the wicked Hester with a
+glance in the direction of the divan where Miss
+Davis sat deserted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Davis, gazing into space, heard and bit
+her lip with vexation. She thought the airs the
+little upstart gave herself were intolerable. What
+could Mrs. Lennox be thinking of to bring those
+Dale girls into society?
+</p>
+<p>
+But Landor did not go back to her. Man
+fashion, he pleased himself by becoming Hester’s
+shadow during the remainder of the evening,
+though he was not allowed to monopolize her—far
+from it. He had to content himself with
+scraps of conversation, for every man in the
+room wanted to be presented and each found her
+so diverting and original that there was constantly
+a little crowd about her, while in the
+intervals of the music peals of merry laughter
+came from her corner of the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie, who was holding a little court of her
+own, could hear her and rejoice, and she was
+especially glad that this should be so when later
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>
+in the evening Miss Ware, escorted by her
+brother, entered the room. She recognized the
+girls and was conscious of their success five minutes
+after her arrival and there was within her
+something like envy of Mrs. Lennox who had
+been the first to take into the elect these social
+renegades.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Dr. Ware, he threw himself with enthusiasm
+into the gayety of Hester’s corner,
+vying with the younger men in jests and laughter.
+Later he sauntered down the room, stopping
+on the way to chat with this person and
+that, and sought out Julie, who, though she
+greeted him so smilingly seemed to him suddenly
+remote. It was as if she had slipped away into
+a younger world than his and an indefinable sensation
+awoke within him, filling him with unrest.
+Partly because of this and partly because the
+pleasure in her evident pleasure was so great, he
+lingered near her, giving her that quiet, unobtrusive
+attention which his old friendship warranted.
+And Julie liked to have him near. She was glad
+that he smiled so approvingly upon her, happy
+that this little frivolity was given the additional
+delight of his presence. For it was all delightfully
+frivolous and gay, though Julie’s excitement
+and animation were naturally somewhat tempered
+by her headgear, especially as every now and
+then when she forgot herself and nodded her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span>
+head emphatically over something, Hester would
+give her a warning glance. Poor Julie! the
+“proud and haughty” tilt became very trying,
+but it <em>was</em> distinguished and caused Mr. Lennox,
+who was most critical, likewise somewhat horsey,
+to confide to his wife afterward that she was a
+thoroughbred.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hope you’ll have them often,” he said,
+when the last guest had departed and they had
+settled down before the library fire to talk it over.
+“After the cut-and-dried young people one usually
+meets they are perfectly refreshing. I had
+a long talk with the blonde one—is she Julie?—during
+supper about Arizona. Found myself
+telling her all about my irrigation schemes out
+there. Fancy finding a young girl who understands
+such things! She knows that country well
+and gave me an idea or two worth considering.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should like to have them often, John, but
+they won’t come. Their work engrosses them
+to the exclusion of everything; it has to be so—they
+need all their strength to get through the
+days. I understand it perfectly. Did you
+notice how people were all in a flutter about
+them? I fancy I have given Radnor something
+to talk about!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! well, that is not unusual. Do you mean
+to say people have cut them? It seems incredible
+in these enlightened days.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is true, nevertheless, though Julie told me
+the other day that their customers were showing
+the kindest possible interest in their work and
+encouraging them by renewed orders; that every
+one showed them courtesy and consideration in
+a business way, but I happen to know, though
+she did not say so, that there it stops. The line
+is distinctly drawn. None of the daughters of
+those women show any inclination to renew their
+acquaintance with the girls, though many of
+them were their playfellows years ago.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, they’re a disgrace to their sex, that is
+all I’ve got to say—I’ve no patience with that
+sort of thing!” Mr. Lennox put down a half-smoked
+cigar and pushed back his chair. “They
+were the success of the evening, Mabel, and I
+am proud to know them. It strikes me,” slyly,
+“there were others who succumbed to their
+fascinations. Landor, for instance, and Dr.
+Ware—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, he is their father’s oldest friend.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And Renshawe, who displayed surprising
+interest in Arizona when he found us talking
+about it. Have you ever known him to care a
+hang about Arizona before?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” laughed his wife, “but Sidney Renshawe
+always rises to the occasion when he is
+interested. Principally it is Virginia he talks
+about now. By the way, he is expecting Monsieur Grémond
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>
+back from California any day.
+Did you know?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was glad to have a chance to speak to her
+of her father, too,” said Mr. Lennox, who
+apparently had not heeded his wife’s last remarks.
+“I knew Mr. Dale somewhat at the club and
+regretted his collapse as we all did. She had
+such a pretty proud look when I spoke of him,
+as if I couldn’t say too much. I felt as if I
+would like to take her off to some quiet corner
+and talk to her by the hour together.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So you shall, my dear. Together we will
+lay siege and capture them again. I should like
+to give a dinner for them soon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! ask them informally when we are not
+entertaining,” remonstrated her husband who
+evidently desired to monopolize them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Very well, dear, and if it pleases you to
+watch Julie’s eloquent face—and I assure you
+Hester’s is equally so—Mr. Dale shall be the
+chief topic of conversation. I never knew him,
+but it is a great deal to know his daughters,
+John.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Which sentiment being shared by the master
+of the house the mistress called the midnight
+session off and they went upstairs.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<p>
+It was a dismal rainy afternoon, and the work
+of the day having been finished early the
+girls were ensconced in their little sitting-room
+reveling in a well-earned rest. By the way of
+unusual dissipation a teakettle was hissing on the
+table, while the freshly filled sugar bowl and bits
+of lemon told of preparations for the cup that
+cheers. Stretched out at full length on the floor
+lay Hester in her favorite attitude. At her feet
+sprawled Peter Snooks, chewing frantically at a
+piece of rubber tire which was at once his solace
+and despair, defying as it did his most strenuous
+efforts to tear it to bits. Julie, who had donned
+a negligé and shaken the pins out of her curly
+hair, was buried in a book, yet with one ear alert
+lest her father in the adjoining room should stir
+and want something. Bridget, remarkable to
+relate, had taken an afternoon out.
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently Julie dropped her book and curling
+herself into the depths of the chair was dozing
+off when Hester said abruptly, “There’s a
+stranger coming!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie started up and gazed about as if expecting
+some one to loom up before her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is,” reiterated Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is what?” sleepily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A stranger coming.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you know?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My nose itches,” announced the younger
+Dale, rubbing the tip of that saucy feature.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense! That’s an old granny’s reason.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can’t help it if it is. There is only one
+alternative and that is to kiss a fool. You would
+not exactly class yourself in that category, would
+you?” turning on her elbow to look at her sister.
+“Of course if you insist—” and Hester leaned
+toward her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie gave her a push. “You idiot! go kiss
+yourself in a mirror.” But the doorbell rang.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie bounced from her chair and fled down
+the hall. Hester stifled her desire to laugh and
+opened the door on a tall, well-built man who
+stared as he beheld her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—this is Mr. Renshawe, is it not?” the
+girl said with perfect composure though inwardly
+amazed at seeing him. “Won’t you come in?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you do—thanks—I—that is—” he
+stammered helplessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You wish to see my sister, of course,” ushering
+him in. “We did not meet the other night
+at Mrs. Lennox’s, did we? but you see I heard
+about you afterward. I’ll go and call my sister.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! no, don’t, please, I beg of you. I must
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>
+apologize for this impertinent intrusion—I’ve
+made some abominable mistake!” In the hand
+in which he was nervously twisting his hat, Hester
+caught a glimpse of one of their business
+cards and in a flash the whole purport of his visit
+was made clear to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not think it is a mistake,” she said
+naturally. “I imagine you have come to see us
+on business, have you not? Won’t you sit
+down, Mr. Renshawe?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, may I? Thanks. Do you do business?”
+he gasped incredulously, glancing from the
+piquant girl about the pretty room where no
+suggestion of anything like work was visible.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” replied Hester, “all kinds of fancy
+cooking. Possibly you’ve seen our cards,” she
+suggested in a desire to help him out.
+</p>
+<p>
+He produced the one in his hand with the air
+of a guilty culprit. “Yes, I have,” he confessed.
+“It was given me this afternoon by the manager
+of Heath &amp; Co. He knows I give a good many
+bachelor parties in my chambers and recommended
+these things. But Miss Dale,” he
+protested, “I had no idea it was you and your
+sister—it never occurred to me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why should it?” asked Hester, “but it is,
+just the same, and we shall be very glad to fill
+your order.” She went to a desk and brought
+forth a pad and pencil in a business-like manner.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+He sat watching her with a puzzled, utterly
+perplexed expression drawing his eye-brows
+together. Suddenly as she returned to her chair
+opposite him he cried,
+</p>
+<p>
+“By Jove! I know now, exactly—that’s just
+who you are!” looking into her face with evident
+relief.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester wanted to laugh and say “Is it?” to
+this ambiguous remark but having assumed her
+formal business manner she maintained a discreet
+silence and waited for him to explain.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are little Miss Driscoe’s cousin!” he
+announced.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you the Radnor man who has been visiting
+at the Blake’s plantation?” cried Hester
+impulsively, forgetting in her excitement that he
+was to be kept on a strictly business footing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shouldn’t wonder,” was his smiling reply.
+“I’ve been there several times this past winter;
+in fact I came up from there only last week.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! did you? Long ago Nannie wrote us
+that there had been a Radnor man at her birthday
+party but she quite forgot to mention his
+name. Oh! I wish Julie had known this the
+other night! She would have loved a chance to
+ask you all about the Driscoes. Isn’t Nannie
+the dearest little thing?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I hadn’t been a duffer, Miss Dale, I might
+have placed your sister immediately when I met
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>
+her, for I have had the minutest descriptions of
+you both, I assure you. There was something
+very baffling about her that night, as if I must
+have known her or at least seen her before somewhere,
+but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you did not expect to see us in society,
+perhaps?”
+</p>
+<p>
+He glanced at her as if the better to understand
+if her tone were cynical, but her bland little
+smile told him nothing and before he could
+make any reply she said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am afraid we have strayed too far from
+important things, Mr. Renshawe. It is shocking
+of me to encroach upon your time. Is there
+anything we can do for you in a business way?”
+She told Julie afterward she was quite proud of
+this little speech, for she had been consumed
+with a desire to ask him a thousand questions
+about the Driscoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Renshawe interpreted it to mean that the chat
+was at an end and he feared that in some clumsy
+way he had offended her, but she steered him into
+a discussion of the order he had come to leave
+with such a calm matter-of-fact air that he found
+himself consulting her about salads and cakes
+with an ease he would not have believed possible
+when he entered the room. He had never been
+brought into business relations with a young girl
+of her position and he admired exceedingly her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>
+manner. The order having been arranged quite
+to his satisfaction he dismissed the subject and
+made up his mind to have his say in spite of the
+cue Hester had given him. So as he rose to
+leave he said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hope you will forgive me, Miss Dale, if I
+tell you I feel quite as if I knew you and your
+sister and I am immensely glad to meet you.
+You see the Blakes took me frequently to Wavertree
+Hall and Miss Nannie spoke of you so
+often; she—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dear little Nan,” the girl said musingly,
+“how I should love to see her!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The man looked as if he would like to echo that
+sentiment, but he only said as he moved toward
+the door:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you be very kind, Miss Dale, and let
+Mrs. Lennox bring me some time to see you and
+your sister? I have so many messages from Virginia,
+for Miss Nannie was confident I should
+meet you and you see she was right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed you may come,” said Hester frankly,
+“we—we do not receive many visitors, but I
+know Julie will be glad to see you—I shall too,”
+genuinely, and not as if politeness prompted
+this after-thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you. For the next few weeks I am
+owned body and soul,” smiling, “by Jules Grémond
+who is stopping with me. Perhaps you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span>
+know of him, Miss Dale? He’s made considerable
+of a stir since he came out of Africa. An
+old chum of mine whom I think you might enjoy
+meeting—perhaps after awhile you will allow me
+to arrange it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester always says she acted like a fool at this
+juncture and stammered out some unintelligible
+reply, and that he immediately departed, she
+thinks without any special consciousness of her
+idiocy—or at least she hopes so, for she frankly
+confesses she was in no state of mind to know.
+However that may be, the door had no sooner
+closed after him than the dignified junior Dale,
+caterer, became metamorphosed into an excited
+young girl who flew down the hall to the room
+where her sister had taken refuge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come back to the sitting-room where we can
+talk without waking Daddy, quick!” she cried,
+pulling Julie down the hall. “Now what do you
+suppose?” when they had reached the little
+room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Some one has left an extra fine order,” seeing
+several pieces of paper clutched nervously
+in Hester’s hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t be so everlastingly material!” pinning
+the papers with a vicious stab to the back of the
+chair. “It has nothing to do with work, whatever—that
+is not exactly. Oh! do guess who
+has been here—and who <em>is</em> here?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester, are you hiding some one to surprise
+me?” looking eagerly about. “I know it is a
+man—I heard him. It can’t be Dr. Ware; it
+wasn’t his step. It’s—it’s—oh! Hester Dale, is
+it cousin Driscoe?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re getting hot,” cried Hester encouragingly,
+reveling in her sister’s excited curiosity.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell me this minute,” demanded Julie, shaking
+her. “What other man would be coming
+here?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, there <em>are</em> others,” laughed Hester,
+teasingly. “Mr. Renshawe, for instance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Honor bright! And who do you suppose he
+is?” mysteriously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t be so tantalizing! What on earth do
+I know about him?” wrathfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you ought to. He hung around you
+the whole evening at Mrs. Lennox’s, you know
+he did. I simply wasn’t in it. I don’t believe
+he even knew I was there!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You idiot! I had no personal talk with him
+whatever. As for you, you flirted shockingly
+with Mr. Landor. I was astonished at you!”
+severely.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I <em>was</em> nice to him, wasn’t I?” admitted Hester,
+“but that was all for Jessie Davis’ benefit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So I thought, you depraved wretch! Will
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>
+you kindly tell me what all this has to do with
+your present excitement?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester sat on the edge of her chair and delivered
+her next speech in italics.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Renshawe is the man who went to Nannie’s
+party and got the ring in her birthday
+cake!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not really!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And he came here not knowing who we
+really were, because the manager at Heath’s
+gave him one of our cards and recommended us
+as caterers. You ought to have seen him, Julie!
+He was embarrassed almost to death and I felt
+flustered myself, to say the least, but we managed
+to get through the business part nicely and
+then at the end he just floored me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester!” Words other than ejaculations
+seemed to have failed Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+The younger girl came over and stood in front
+of her to get the full effect of her next speech,
+the most important piece of news, which she
+had had hard work to keep until the last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jules Grémond is in this country, staying
+with Mr. Renshawe now,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie was rendered wholly inarticulate, but
+the color spread in a crimson wave over her face
+and she made a grab at her sister, pulling her
+down beside her.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are guying me!” she cried when she
+could speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is the solemn truth; ‘cross my heart, hope
+to die,’” maintained Hester dramatically.
+“Moreover the things Mr. Renshawe has ordered
+are for a tea he is giving for Monsieur Grémond
+to-morrow and the Fates decree that we shall
+tickle the palate of the distinguished African
+explorer with sandwiches and things! Oh! Julie,
+what a funny world!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you know he is distinguished?”
+asked Julie, clasping her hands behind her head
+that her nervous fingers might not betray her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Because I do. Mr. Renshawe as much as
+said so. I wouldn’t have believed he had it in
+him, would you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know; we really hardly knew him
+well enough to judge.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Umph! I don’t know about that. What
+do you suppose he is doing here, Julie? Do you
+think he’ll look us up?” hesitatingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not,” with more asperity than the
+innocent questions seemed to justify. “He will
+never dream of our being in Radnor. You know
+we had been some weeks at the hotel in Los
+Angeles when he came, and for all he knew we
+might have been going to spend the rest of our
+days there. Probably he has ceased to remember
+that we exist—a man would find his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>
+ <em>affaires du cœur</em> rather clumsy baggage in the wilds of
+Africa!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If he carried them all, yes. One or two
+might be consoling,” suggested Hester airily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! bother Jules Grémond! I don’t want to
+think of him! He belongs to a life that is
+past!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, it is queer, anyway,” insisted Hester,
+“and I want to scream with laughter when I
+think of a divinity like you—didn’t he call you a
+divinity, Julie?—coming down from your
+pedestal to cater for his serene highness, the one
+and only Jules Grémond!”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was something so inimitable about Hester’s
+manner coupled with the graphic picture
+she drew that Julie went off into a paroxysm of
+laughter that ended in hysterical sobbing which
+Hester put an end to by shaking her vigorously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are so funny,” said Julie faintly, wiping
+her eyes. “You are almost as funny as the situation!”
+and then she buried her face in Hester’s
+arm and laughed again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shut up!” said Hester with more force than
+elegance for she was getting frightened at Julie’s
+unusual behavior. “Stop this minute or you’ll
+go all to pieces and besides, I’ve an awful confession
+to make!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! not anything more,” protested Julie,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>
+leaning back exhausted. “My dear, don’t!
+Another shock will certainly be the death of
+me!” piteously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well I’ll die if I don’t get it off my conscience,
+so there you are!” cried Hester, thumping
+down in Julie’s lap and beginning to finger
+the hair that strayed in little curls about her
+temples.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go on,” resignedly from Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Playing with your hair? I know you love to
+have me do it so you need not put on such a
+martyred air.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go on with your confession, you goose!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I told Mr. Renshawe he might come to
+call on us. You see he asked if we would let
+Mrs. Lennox bring him and he was so nice I
+couldn’t refuse.”
+</p>
+<p>
+An amused smile crept into Julie’s eyes. “I
+thought we had nothing in common with men
+whatever—that they did not fit into the present
+scheme of things—that we had no use for them
+in the life we live! <em>Wasn’t</em> it some such explosive
+theory you expounded to me ages ago?”
+she asked teasingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is true, you know it is,” pulling Julie’s
+curls to emphasize her words, “but I did it for
+Nannie’s sake. I know he is just dying to come
+here and talk about her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You mean you are just dying to have him!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span>
+So am I, for the matter of that. Won’t it be
+nice to hear all about them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know something?” said Hester who
+had a trick of beginning a speech with a question,
+“I believe he is in love with her!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What gave you that idea, you precocious
+infant?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! nothing special, only the way he looked
+when her name was mentioned and his wanting
+to come here to talk about her—there is no other
+possible reason why he should want to come—and
+he got the ring in her cake you know.
+Wouldn’t it be romantic if she married him?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester Dale! The way you allow your
+imagination to run riot is something perfectly
+fearful! You put one and one together and make
+a thousand things! I never saw such a girl!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are not cross, are you, Julie? You
+don’t think I did wrong to say he might come?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not, you baby, I think you did
+perfectly right. Now go and make me a cup of
+tea if the kettle has not boiled dry. We need a
+brace after all this excitement.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester busied herself with the tea things and
+Julie sat staring at her, wrapt in thought. If
+Hester was conscious of this preoccupation she
+gave no sign, but hummed a gay tune and talked
+to Peter Snooks, who came and sat pressed close
+to her knees in true dog fashion.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know, Peter Snooks,” she said speculatively,
+“we have one very important feature
+in common—our noses.” At this he thrust his
+up in her lap. “Yes,” she continued, patting
+him, “we have. Yours denotes your state of
+health—mine the arrival of a stranger within our
+gates. A certain proud and haughty person
+jeers at mine but you know how it is, don’t you,
+old man?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The dog pawed her lap by way of showing
+that he understood perfectly and with his big
+eloquent eyes fixed on the sugar bowl, thrust out
+his tongue suggestively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What! is that sensitive too! Oh! you scalawag!”
+and she tossed him a lump of sugar.
+</p>
+<p>
+This conversation had stolen in through Julie’s
+reverie and she pulled up her chair and leaned
+over to her sister as she took her cup of tea.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I dare say I did jeer at that saucy nose of
+yours,” she began, “but in token of my future
+awe and respect I am going to kiss it now,”
+suiting the action to the words. “It may be a
+precaution against its owner’s kissing me as
+an alternative in the next emergency! Peter
+Snooks, I call upon you to witness that I hereto
+set my seal,” with another kiss, “having at this
+moment solemnly declared that I consider the
+aforesaid feature infallible.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<p>
+Radnor society was all agog over the second
+appearance of Monsieur Grémond,
+and no sooner was his coming made known than
+Renshawe was fairly deluged with invitations for
+his guest.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Ware took that occasion to give a big
+reception to which magnanimously, “those Dale
+girls” were invited. This was the only outcome
+of the after breakfast talk many weeks before
+with her brother. To tell the truth, the interest
+in them kindled at the moment by his enthusiasm,
+waned, and she never arranged the little
+party for which he had told her she had such a
+talent. Not that she altogether meant to waive
+her promise; she compromised with her conscience
+by telling herself that she had not yet
+gotten around to it. Here then was her opportunity
+and the girls were invited to the reception
+not only by card but personally. She only succeeded,
+however, in extracting a half promise
+from them to come, for they were having an
+anxious time over a new departure in their work
+and were little inclined for social dissipation.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth Landor gave a stag dinner at his club
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>
+in honor of the Frenchman on the night of his
+arrival and Dr. Ware entertained Renshawe,
+Grémond and Landor at the same place later in
+the week, dining them informally before his sister’s
+reception. Dr. Ware greatly enjoyed the
+society of younger men, who sought him in
+many capacities and as a counselor found in his
+quick comprehension of their difficulties many a
+solution of problems which to the young so often
+seem insurmountable. Then it was that the wisdom
+grown out of his vast experience of life gave
+itself freely to those who came to him, and many
+a man and woman left his presence cheered by
+the grip of his hand, strengthened by the
+kindliness that looked out from his eyes and pervaded
+his whole personality. On his lighter side,
+as a delightfully congenial companion, he had no
+equal in Radnor and this rubbing up continually
+against a younger point of view tended to
+freshen his mind and keep him in touch with
+much that otherwise, through the exigencies of
+his profession, would have escaped him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not want to seem inhospitable,” he was
+saying that evening as the four men sat together
+at dinner, “but we must not linger too long over
+our cigars, or my sister will hold me responsible
+for keeping you away from her.” He had his
+own reasons for wanting to arrive fairly early.
+</p>
+<p>
+“In that case we’d better move along, Landor,” said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>
+Renshawe rising. “Dr. Ware,” turning
+to his host, “will you take Grémond with
+you or wait a few moments while we look in at a
+committee meeting upstairs. We will not be
+long if you both care to wait.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am in the hands of my friends,” said Grémond.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will wait, by all means,” replied the
+Doctor, consulting his watch. “It is not much
+after nine now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thought transference was a psychological phenomenon
+over which Dr. Ware had pondered
+much, and a startling instance of it was borne in
+upon him when after the other men had departed,
+Monsieur Grémond turned to him and said
+abruptly, without any preamble:
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I ask, Dr. Ware, if you know in this
+city a family of Dales? In particular a Mademoiselle
+Julie Dale?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why yes, I believe so,” said the Doctor
+who was nothing if not non-committal, “do
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+He was totally unprepared for the effusive
+manner in which the Frenchman literally fell
+upon his neck, exclaiming, “Oh! my friend, I
+thank you, I thank you!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Masculine demonstration is not particularly
+pleasing to a man of Anglo-Saxon blood and Dr.
+Ware, in order to prevent a further exhibition of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>
+it, drew away slightly and offered his guest a
+fresh cigar.
+</p>
+<p>
+Monsieur Grémond shook his head. “I will
+not smoke—I will do nothing but ask you questions—if
+I may. Oh! you cannot think what it
+means to know I have found her!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you been searching for Miss Julie
+Dale?” asked the Doctor, puffing clouds of smoke
+into the air.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Searching? Ah, if you but knew! I have
+been across your continent to California only to
+learn that she had long ago left there and come
+to your eastern coast, presumably here, though
+no one at the hotel knew definitely about her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are especially interested in Miss Dale,
+I take it,” said the Doctor quietly. “In that
+case perhaps I should tell you that I stand somewhat
+in the relation of a guardian to her and her
+sister. You may talk quite frankly with me if
+you care to do so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was impossible to restrain or even resent the
+hand-shake with which the younger man expressed
+his appreciation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Fates have been kind!” was his exclamation.
+“I am rewarded for my bitter disappointment.
+Is Monsieur Dale dead?” he asked
+suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not dead, but so ill that he is no longer able
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>
+to look out for their interests—the privilege,
+therefore, devolves upon me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish to marry Mademoiselle Julie,” said
+the Frenchman with a directness Dr. Ware liked.
+“I came to this country chiefly for the purpose
+of taking her back with me. I knew them at
+Los Angeles two years ago and Monsieur Dale
+liked me—at least I do not think he disliked me,
+for he allowed me to be much in his daughters’
+society. I realize that to you I am quite unknown,
+but Renshawe will vouch for me and any
+questions you may care to ask about my family
+or my future I shall be most happy to answer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you.” There was silence for a moment
+and then the Doctor said slowly, “Have
+you reason to suppose that Miss Dale will marry
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah! that I do not know,—but she will—she
+must! Our intercourse was so perfect that life
+without her is incomplete. And she seemed
+always very happy with me. Has she never
+spoken of me or those days?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think not,” replied the Doctor, remembering
+that according to his sister that was in a
+man’s favor. “But it is not at all unnatural,”
+he hastened to say kindly, “we have gone little
+into the past since they have been living here—for
+many reasons.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you tell me where they live and have I
+your permission to call on them to-morrow?”
+asked the Frenchman eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Better than that, Monsieur, Miss Dale and
+her sister will be at my sister’s reception this
+evening. It will give me great pleasure to see
+that you meet her at once. Many changes have
+taken place since you last saw her, but of all that
+she will prefer herself to tell you. You will find
+her developed from a winsome, lovable girl into a
+noble young woman whose attractions in every
+way are greater—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not greater than when I knew her—that cannot
+be possible,” interrupted the Frenchman.
+“To think that within the hour I shall see her!
+How can I express to you my intense gratitude
+for all this?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By making her future all she has a right to
+expect from the man to whom she entrusts it,”
+said the Doctor earnestly. “For the rest, we
+will talk things over more thoroughly in a day or
+two. I think,” he said rising, “that Renshawe
+and Landor have forgotten us. Suppose after
+all we go on and let them follow at their leisure.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And Monsieur Grémond readily assenting, Dr.
+Ware called a cab, which soon left them at his
+door.
+</p>
+<p>
+The house was already crowded and Miss Ware
+gave her brother a look of displeasure which she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>
+considered his tardy appearance merited. It was
+not more than a fleeting frown, however, for
+Monsieur Grémond followed close at his heels
+and what hostess could fail to wreathe her countenance
+in other than most charming smiles to
+greet so distinguished a guest! Dr. Ware presented
+a number of persons to him and saw him
+well launched before he left him to go in search
+of the Dale girls. He rubbed up against Kenneth
+Landor presently and secured his aid as a
+scout to reconnoiter, for in his semi-capacity of
+host he found it difficult to ignore the people
+about him in pursuit of two elusive young
+women.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth appeared at the Doctor’s elbow in the
+course of half an hour and confided to him that
+they were nowhere visible—“upstairs or downstairs
+or in my lady’s chamber.” He wore such
+a dejected look that the Doctor laughed and
+asked him why he wasn’t up to his old tricks—weren’t
+there dozens of pretty girls in the room?
+Kenneth merely raised his eyebrows expressively
+and the Doctor laughed again and reminded him
+that suspense was stimulating. Then he bethought
+him of Monsieur Grémond and discovering
+that individual, answered the questioning
+look in his eyes with an encouraging nod and
+managed to go over and say, in spite of the people
+by whom the Frenchman was surrounded,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span>
+“She has not come yet but you shall know the
+instant she does.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When an hour passed and they did not appear
+he accosted his sister who was still standing at
+her post receiving.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where are the girls?” with difficulty getting
+her attention.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Girls? what girls? It seems to me there is
+no lack of them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I mean the Dale girls. Didn’t you send the
+carriage for them as I directed?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course I did. They—how <em>do</em> you do,
+Mrs. Smartset—and Mr. Smartset, charmed I’m
+sure.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor stood back and patiently waited
+while an influx of guests passed before her.
+When an opportunity offered he spoke again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They are not here, Mary. If you can give
+me a moment I would like to know why.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You wouldn’t have me neglect my guests to
+discuss those Dale girls would you? <em>Must</em> you
+be going, Mrs. Marston, and your daughter too—so
+good of you to come—goodnight. They
+are not coming,” she said in an aside to her
+brother, “the carriage came back with a note.
+I had no time to read it and I do not remember
+where I put it. Now for pity’s sake go and look
+after people and don’t worry me any more about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>
+them! Ah, Mrs. Lennox, this is really charming
+to see you,” as that individual entered.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was no easy matter to escape to his office
+but Dr. Ware did it and sent for Kenneth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have just learned that my little girls are
+not coming,” he said when Kenneth had joined
+him there. “I fear, my boy, that something is
+wrong and I am off. If people miss me say I
+was called away to a patient. Every one knows
+I am not to be counted on socially. Then there
+is Grémond. He knew the girls long ago and
+has been looking forward to meeting them to-night.
+Tell him they were prevented at the last
+moment from coming and give him their address
+so he can call if he likes.” It was characteristic
+of Dr. Ware that he left nothing undone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are not apprehensive of anything very
+serious, are you?” asked Kenneth who himself
+felt more concern than he cared to show.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, no; why should I be? They may
+merely be tired out and have gone to bed or
+they may need me—I can’t take any chances
+where they are concerned, my boy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not,” said Kenneth with unusual
+emphasis. “If you are going to walk over,
+Doctor, I’d like to go along with you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Take you away from the festivities? Nonsense!
+The girls in there would never forgive
+me!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! hang the whole business! I beg your
+pardon, Doctor, I forgot it was your sister’s
+function.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor laughed. “Come along with me.
+You need ozone to restore your placidity, but go
+back again later, like an obliging chap, if only
+to give my message to poor Grémond.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They had been swinging along for several
+blocks in the cool night air when Landor broke
+the silence by exclaiming savagely, “What in
+thunder has Jules Grémond to do with them!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“With the Dales?” asked the Doctor innocently,
+inwardly amused at Landor’s resentful
+tone. “He met them in California, I believe.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Umph!” grunted Kenneth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Here we are,” said the Doctor presently as
+they reached the house, “and there are lights in
+their rooms, so they are up about something
+and it is well I came. Goodnight, and thank
+you for walking over with me, Kenneth.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dr. Ware,” said the younger man wistfully,
+detaining him a moment on the steps, “if there
+is anything wrong up there,” with a motion of
+his head toward the top story, “you’ll let me
+know, won’t you? And if I could be of the
+slightest service you’ll call on me without hesitation,
+won’t you? Of course I know they’ve no
+possible use for a chap like me but I’d move
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span>
+heaven and earth to do anything—to feel that I
+was really of service to them in any way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You could not be better employed, Kenneth,”
+said the Doctor, looking down on him
+affectionately. “I shall remember what you say
+and I like you the better for saying it. Good-night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Ware hastened into the house and up the
+long flights of stairs leading to the Dales’ apartment
+and knocked at the door, hesitating at so
+late an hour to startle them by ringing the bell.
+Evidently they were expecting him, for steps
+came down the little hall and the door was opened
+almost immediately by Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The saints be praised!” she exclaimed, “but
+it’s the Doctor!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You were expecting me, of course, Bridget,”
+as she helped him off with his coat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bless your heart but I can’t say as we wus,
+sir, glad though they’ll be to see your blessed
+face.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course I would come. Don’t they know
+that by this time? Who is ill? Is the Major
+worse? I should have been here long ago had I
+not been expecting them at the house every
+moment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They ain’t ill, sir, they’re workin’”, was her
+reply. “Maybe you’d better come right out to
+the kitchen an’ see for yourself their carryin’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>
+on. We’re all at it to-night an’ it’s the fearful
+time they’ve had but it’s all plain sailin’ to the
+end now,” she wound up hopefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+Somewhat mystified, Dr. Ware followed and
+stood speechless on the threshold of the kitchen.
+For there were the girls in their cotton gowns
+with sleeves rolled up to the shoulders working
+away at what were to him inexplicable things,
+while over in a corner sat Jack half buried in a
+pile of small white boxes. The whole room
+presented the bustle of eleven in the morning
+rather than eleven in the evening.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bad Dr. Ware,” said Julie playfully
+when she saw him, “what made you come?”
+She stopped her work a moment and whisking
+her apron over the chair Bridget had drawn out
+for him, motioned him to sit down. “We’re
+just daubed with frosting from one end of the
+place to the other, but we can’t stop working a
+moment, so if you dare, risk a chair?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor sat down. He would have taken
+the chair with the same equanimity if it had been
+caked with frosting.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now what does this mean, at this hour?” he
+said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Didn’t Miss Ware get our note? Oh! I am
+so sorry. We are terribly sorry to miss the
+reception, aren’t we, Hester?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Um-um,” said Hester absorbed in making
+elaborate frosting designs on small pieces of
+cake.
+</p>
+<div><a name='i188' id='i188'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i005' id='i005'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-188.jpg" alt="THERE WERE THE GIRLS IN THEIR COTTON GOWNS" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>THERE WERE THE GIRLS IN THEIR COTTON GOWNS</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span></div>
+<p>
+“We wrote her,” continued Julie, “that we
+were detained by our work and I suppose if she
+did not get it that you thought when we did not
+appear something was the matter with Daddy.
+What a shame you had that anxiety for nothing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You must go straight back,” said Hester.
+“We are getting on famously and you must not
+miss another minute of the reception.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You want to get me out of the way, I suppose,
+so you can keep up this orgy until all
+hours. I know you, you minx! I shan’t budge
+until I know all about it so you may as well begin.”
+He surveyed the group with a smiling
+imperturbable manner that was impossible to
+withstand. Jack, gazing at him out of the corner
+of his eye, thought he had never seen so
+splendid a gentleman and indeed his evening
+clothes became the Doctor tremendously so that
+he had never looked more handsome nor distinguished
+than at that moment as he sat among
+them leaning back in the kitchen chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is all this wedding-cake,” said Hester disgustedly.
+“It has acted like Sam Patch!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is the first we have ever done,” explained
+Julie. “We took an order for two hundred
+boxes of cake and a big loaf, all for a wedding,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>
+and we made the cake a month ago. Oh! such
+a time as we had! You see, we are such ignoramuses
+that we have to wade through endless
+wrong ways before we discover the right one and
+we thought we had all the loaves properly
+frosted to cut for the boxes; but when we tried
+to cut the slices all the frosting fell off and so we
+had to begin all over again. Then we decided
+it would be better to cut the cake up into pieces
+for the boxes first and frost each one separately
+and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>We</em> didn’t any such thing!” interrupted Hester.
+“That was Julie’s brilliant inspiration and
+she worked out all the frosting designs too. The
+big loaf and the bride’s cake are perfect beauties.
+Did you know the bride’s cake always had a ring
+and a thimble and a coin hidden in it for luck?
+Just look at the cakes over there,” waving her
+hand toward a side table, “aren’t they distinctly
+professional? Julie’s been hanging around caterers’
+windows with her nose pressed against the
+glass studying their fancy frosted show pieces
+until I wonder she hasn’t been arrested for a suspicious
+character. Of course that childlike and
+bland countenance of hers was greatly in her favor
+but,” resignedly, “I was prepared for the worst.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Hester will have her laugh,” said
+Bridget, “but ’tain’t no laughin’ matter this job
+they’re putting through!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now Bridget, you keep still,” expostulated
+Julie. “She has been scolding us all the evening,”
+to Dr. Ware, “and frightening poor Jack to
+death, hasn’t she, Jack? Jack came to bring
+Daddy’s paper, you know, which he prints in
+great style since Mr. Landor has given him a
+printing press, and when he found we were busy
+he begged so hard to come out to the kitchen
+and help that we just had to let him. He’s
+been helping Bridget cut paraffine paper into
+squares—for each piece of cake has to be
+wrapped separately before it goes into its box—and
+they have cut all the white ribbon into
+pieces the right length to tie around the boxes
+and now they’re uncovering the boxes and getting
+them ready for the cake as soon as the
+frosting dries. Jack has been invaluable, hasn’t
+he, Bridget?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph!” grunted Bridget, with whom,
+nevertheless, the boy was a prime favorite.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good heavens! Julie,” cried the Doctor,
+“does one little box of wedding-cake mean all
+that?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Two hundred do,” smiling, “but another
+time we’ll know better how to go at it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+All during this conversation she and Hester
+had been bending over the big work-table making
+curious evolutions with frosting bags over
+the pieces of cake spread everywhere about the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>
+room. Presently Hester dropped her bag and
+sat down.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” she exclaimed, “I believe they are
+done—that part. Dr. Ware,” turning to him
+suddenly, “doesn’t it strike you as funny that
+instead of disporting ourselves gayly in the festivities
+of the town we should be wasting our
+youth and beauty—doesn’t that sound just like
+a book!—our youth and beauty over aggravating
+old things like these?” with a disgusted look at
+the wedding-cake. “You do not seem to laugh
+but I think it’s tremendously funny. Dear me!”
+to the air, reflectively, “how trying it must be
+to get on without a sense of humor!” Then
+with an entire change of tone, “We did want to
+go awfully, especially as we had a suspicion that
+some one might be there. I wonder,” dreamily,
+“if he was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I fancy so,” said the Doctor, hardly knowing
+whether or not to take her seriously. “Come
+back with me now and find out.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can’t,” said Hester, “but you might be an
+angel and tell us if we knew any one there.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me see, there was Landor—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! bother Mr. Landor!” with a toss of her
+head. “He’s omnipresent!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Um,” thought the Doctor, “I’ve struck the
+nail on the head.” Outwardly he said, “Then
+there was Renshawe,—you know him, do you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>
+not, and a guest of his who was tucked under
+my wing—apparently for protection against the
+wiles of the women who are trying systematically
+to spoil him with adulation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know him,” said Hester, “that is Monsieur
+Jules Grémond.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” replied the Doctor, “I thought you
+would guess. He told me he knew you girls and
+I believe he is hunting my house over for you
+at this moment.” He was talking to Hester but
+watching Julie narrowly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There! Julie Dale,” exclaimed her sister
+triumphantly, “what did I tell you! I knew
+he would not forget us. She swore, Dr. Ware,
+that he would have forgotten our very existence
+and I vowed that he carried her image around on
+his heart and all sorts of high-sounding things.
+Shouldn’t wonder if they were true, too,” to
+Dr. Ware confidingly, “and you needn’t blush
+so furiously about it, either, Julie Dale?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am not blushing,” protested poor Julie who
+was crimson, “and I’ll have Bridget carry you
+off bodily if you don’t stop talking such nonsense.
+Don’t you mind what she says, will
+you Dr. Ware?” pleadingly. “She would rather
+tease than eat any day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie’s embarrassment did not escape the
+Doctor and there was a twinge of pain in his
+heart as he said to her gently, “She is a naughty
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span>
+little girl, Julie, but she is right when she says
+your old friend Monsieur Grémond has not forgotten
+you. He inquired with great interest
+about you all and asked my permission to call
+upon you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+To this Julie made no reply and for some moments
+there was silence, when at last Hester
+sidled up to her and in her most wheedling voice
+said, “Forgive me, please, I did not mean to be
+naughty.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie gave her a hearty kiss and in the laugh
+that followed they all joined, even including Jack,
+who had found the situation almost painful a
+moment before when he thought his adored Miss
+Julie’s feelings had been hurt. Perhaps the
+good Doctor did not laugh with his accustomed
+zest but if so no one detected it, least of all Hester
+who gave him a big hug by way of magnanimously
+forgiving him for being cross to her and
+said emphatically:
+</p>
+<p>
+“You <em>must</em> go home. Miss Ware will be
+having a thousand fits, not to mention all the
+guests who are probably looking everywhere for
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have been called out to see a patient,”
+replied the Doctor. “Every one knows it by this
+time, only they do not know that instead of one
+I find four,” with a sweeping glance that embraced
+them all, “and not an inch do I stir until
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>
+I see this case through. So you might as well
+make up your mind to put up with me and I
+want something to do. Come, Jack, show me
+how to take hold with you. I needn’t be condemned
+as utterly worthless just because I am a
+man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In spite of their protestations Dr. Ware was as
+good as his word, busying himself in Jack’s corner,
+and with so many hands the work went forward
+swiftly. It was all smooth sailing now, as
+Bridget said, for the critical and difficult part was
+done and the next two hours in which the little
+group sat about the kitchen table wrapping, boxing
+and tying the cake was immeasurably shortened
+by Dr. Ware, who told them interesting
+anecdotes, experiences of his life that made Jack
+long to have the night lengthen out indefinitely.
+But that which the Doctor most dwelt upon,
+knowing well it was what the girls most liked to
+hear, were stories of the days when he and Major
+Dale fought side by side for the Union of the
+country in that war which was as much of a reality
+to these girls as if they had taken part in
+every military engagement.
+</p>
+<p>
+And Dr. Ware went home in the wee small
+hours with his mind in a tumult of thought.
+Distress that the girls had had such a night of it
+formed only a part of his disturbance, for above
+this fact, which in more tranquil moments would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>
+have been pre-eminent, was the consciousness
+that a new and central figure had arisen on the
+scene—yesterday a stranger to him, to-day the
+hero of a drama which was to the Doctor as his
+very life.
+</p>
+<p>
+He sat a long while in his study when he
+reached home, pondering over the future and the
+change that seemed imminent to the girls and
+he wondered what the outcome would be should
+Grémond take Julie’s life into his keeping.
+Was he worthy of her—<em>was</em> he? How on so
+short an acquaintance could he tell? And did
+she love him—<em>did</em> she? Beset by all these unanswerable
+questions he paced up and down the
+room, his slow measured tread like an accompaniment
+strengthening the minor harmonies in
+which his thoughts that night were set.
+</p>
+<p>
+His Julie! His little girl! Ah! she was no
+child to choose her lover lightly and if she loved
+him, trusted him to make her future, all would
+be well. He thought of her as he had left her,
+sweet and dainty in spite of the little dabs of
+sugar and frosting that stuck to the quaint blue
+apron which nearly covered her from head to
+foot. He remembered her embarrassment when
+Grémond’s name came up and kept that picture
+of her long before his eyes as if to accustom himself
+to this new aspect. He remembered too
+how flushed her cheeks were over the work and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span>
+the tired shadows under her eyes told him plainly
+enough the relentless demand she was making
+upon her strength. Gad! those girls had been
+working eighteen hours at a stretch! Eighteen
+hours! It wasn’t the first time, either! And
+he, who would give his life to make things easier,
+was powerless—to another man would be given
+the right! Good heavens! Did Grémond realize
+his privilege? As if suddenly weary the Doctor
+flung himself down in his chair and heaved a
+sigh. Presently his lids drooped heavily. When
+he opened his eyes the room was flooded with
+sunlight.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<p>
+The order for the wedding-cake which had
+been a cause of such tribulation to the
+girls had come through Mrs. Lennox for a young
+cousin of her husband’s in whose marriage she
+was much interested. The order consisted of a
+bride’s cake, a round wedding-cake, two hundred
+boxes and in addition some thirty dozen
+small assorted cakes to be served with the supper.
+The bride’s mother had given the girls a
+fruit-cake recipe which had been many years in
+her family and had asked them to make the cake
+at least a month before the wedding that it
+might “age,” as the saying is. Hours easily
+counting into days had gone into the preparation
+of the fruit alone for this large order before
+the work of putting the cake together began;
+and then to make the twenty loaves, each of
+which when done resembled in size a two-quart
+brick of ice-cream, it was necessary to mix and
+cook the dough in installments. But as Julie
+told Dr. Ware, that was as child’s play to the
+intricacies of the frosting and the catastrophe that
+ensued; and the nervous as well as the physical
+strain of that, coming on top of all the rest of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>
+the work which the order entailed, told severely
+on the girls, especially Julie, though she was
+up with Hester at six the next morning packing
+the boxes into the wooden case which was to
+take the cake to its destination.
+</p>
+<p>
+The round loaf over which Julie had expended
+so much anxious thought was wrapped in sheet
+after sheet of cotton wadding to protect the
+elaborate frosting from breaking, and resembled
+when laid in its box a small-sized snow drift.
+Hester printed “handle with care” in so many
+places on the wooden box cover that the expressman
+when he came could with difficulty distinguish
+the address; while Bridget cautioned him
+with such emphasis to carry it “like it wuz a
+baby, shure,” that the man finally turned on her
+and asked if she thought he played football with
+his packages. It was an intense relief to them
+all when he had carried down the boxes and
+driven away, though their suspense would not
+really end until they learned of its safe arrival in
+the country town twenty miles away. And that
+they would know that same afternoon, for the
+mother of the bride had asked them to the wedding
+and Mrs. Lennox had been most urgent in
+insisting upon their going out with her, just, as
+she put it, for a “little country spree.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Lennox had arranged a charming program
+whereby the girls should be of the party
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>
+she and Mr. Lennox were to take out on their
+coach, but as the morning wore on and Julie
+found each hour’s work more difficult she finally
+told Hester she felt too tired to consider such an
+expedition and should remain at home. It was
+so unusual for Julie to admit fatigue that Hester
+felt alarmed and attempted to order her immediately
+to bed, saying she and Bridget could
+easily get through the rest and she should not go
+to the wedding without her. But Julie insisted,
+not only in working on into the afternoon when
+the orders for the day were at last completed,
+but in persuading Hester to consent to go to the
+wedding—a consent reluctantly given, for she
+was loath to go off without her sister. Having
+gained it, however, Julie dispatched a note to
+Mrs. Lennox begging to be excused from the
+party and turned her attention to helping Hester
+get ready when their work was done.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whereas, owing to her delicate constitution,
+Julie’s fatigue usually showed itself in complete
+physical exhaustion, Hester’s frequently took
+the form of intense mental excitement, when the
+chords of her buoyant nature were strung to their
+highest pitch. At such times she talked incessantly,
+laughed immoderately and was so restless
+that Julie always threatened to tie a string to
+her. She was in such a mood this afternoon,
+laughing and capering about, performing such
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span>
+ridiculous antics that Peter Snooks, who aided
+and abetted these moods, was barking with joy
+while Julie despaired of ever getting her clothed,
+not to mention restoring her to her right mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are a darling to help me but I don’t love
+you at all for making me go when you are too ill
+to budge. I’ve a good notion not to mind you,
+anyway! Why should I? I’m bigger ’an you!”
+dancing about on her toes to increase her
+height, which possibly measured some two inches
+more than her sister’s.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie caught her on the fly and thrust a dress
+skirt over her head, hooking it together without
+loss of time. “I’m going to have a nice quiet
+rest with Daddy,” she said, “and will be all
+right when you come home. I want to hear
+all about the wedding and whether the cake got
+there and everything, so do go, there’s a dear
+girl, and you’ll have a beautiful drive and a good
+time into the bargain.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And feel like a pig because you are not there.
+That will be pleasant, won’t it! Is that the
+doorbell? Do peek out the window like a dear
+and see if the coach is there.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie did as she was requested and reported
+the arrival of the coach just as Bridget appeared
+and announced that Mrs. Lennox had sent Mr.
+Landor up to ask if she were ready.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you suppose he is going?” whispered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>
+Hester. “Oh! Julie dear, can’t you go in and
+see him?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not much! Here are your gloves and have
+you got a handkerchief? Can’t find one? Never
+mind, here is one of mine. Now run along and
+kiss Daddy and hurry—it is dreadful to keep
+people waiting. You look as fresh as a lark but
+don’t talk yourself black in the face,” admonishingly.
+“Remember ‘silence is golden,’” she
+called out when she had recovered her breath
+from Hester’s parting hug.
+</p>
+<p>
+She heard Mr. Landor expressing regret that
+the elder Miss Dale was not to be of the party
+and then she heard nothing more; but in most
+plebeian fashion she and Bridget and Peter
+Snooks peeped out of the window watching their
+departure, as did also Jack from the floor beneath.
+They saw Mr. Landor help her up to
+the box seat of the coach beside Mr. Lennox
+and sent down answering smiles to the parting
+wave of her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Belikes I bet the young gentleman’s disappointed
+he ain’t got her hisself,” commented
+Bridget. “She’s the prettiest of the whole
+lot!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Didn’t she look lovely, Bridget! She always
+does when she is so excited.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a lot more excited she’ll be when she
+gets back an’ finds you no better, Miss Julie, so
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>
+I’m just goin’ to put you to bed. You do look
+in a way as I don’t like, an’ small wonder, the
+way you whip your poor frail little body along to
+do the work of ten!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense, Bridget! I am not frail, you must
+not talk that way. I am just tired out to-day
+and I couldn’t brace up and be agreeable to people—I
+don’t want to be agreeable—I want to be
+cross, so I advise you to keep out of the way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget acted upon this suggestion by picking
+her up in her great muscular arms and marching
+into her bedroom. There laying her down she
+left to brew her a cup of tea—faithful Bridget’s
+panacea for every woe. Having returned and
+administered this she proceeded to undress her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was going to lie down with Daddy,” expostulated
+Julie feebly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll do nothin’ of the sort,” commanded
+Bridget. “You ain’t fit to be seen with that
+look in your face. I’m goin’ to tuck you into
+bed an’ darken the room an’ we’ll see what
+sleep’ll do for yez.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As if this petting were more than she could
+bear, Julie buried her head in the pillow with a
+movement that made the woman suspicious.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What is it, darlint?” she cried, smoothing
+her hair. “Can’t you tell your old Bridget about
+it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing,” said a muffled voice.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shure it’s rest yez want, darlint. I seen
+how yez kep’ up all day so Miss Hester’d not be
+after knowin’ how dead beat yez wuz an’ now
+ye’ve clean gone all to pieces. Jus’ cry it all
+out dearie, an’ it’s like a new person you’ll be.
+’Taint no small wonder yer wore out, with the
+worryin’ an’ frettin’ that goes on inside yer an’
+always a cheery smile outside. Yer old Bridget
+knows! And may the blessed saints take yez
+out of this business before yez drop dead in yer
+tracks, sez I, every night on my knees—an’ I
+don’t care who’s after knowin’ it!” She gave
+the girl a loving motherly kiss and thus encouraged
+Julie cried her heart out on her shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was an unusual proceeding, for Julie seldom
+cried in these days. She had learned when
+her emotions threatened to overcome her to
+stiffen her chin and swallow hard, hard, hard,—until
+the tears were forced back and only a drawn
+look about the mouth told of the battle royal.
+She valued each victory, however trifling, for
+tears are weakening and self-control is a mighty
+weapon in the equipment of a soldier. To-day
+she was weak bodily and the petting utterly
+unnerved her, so that she cried until she could
+cry no longer and finally fell asleep from sheer
+exhaustion.
+</p>
+<p>
+When she awoke it was with a confused sense
+that it must be the middle of the night and that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>
+something was wrong, for Bridget stood over
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are yez wakin’? That’s right, dearie.
+You’ve bin sleepin’ these two hours an’ there’s
+a gentleman to see yez.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” dazedly, rubbing her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A gentleman to see yez—he didn’t give no
+name.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Probably he has come to give an order.
+Couldn’t you look after him, Bridget?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, miss,” with an air of suppressed excitement,
+“his business is particular with you. Go
+bathe your face, Miss Julie, an’ I’ll have you
+dressed in a jiffy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I am a pretty looking object,” commented
+the girl with a glance in the mirror as
+Bridget let some light into the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never you mind, you’re feelin’ much better
+an’ you souse your eyes good with hot water—they’ll
+look natural enough—an’ it’s gettin’
+kinder twilight in the parlor now anyhow,” consolingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What is the matter with you, Bridget, are
+you daft?” seeing her bring forth from the closet
+a French gown she had never worn in Radnor.
+“You know I never would put on such a thing to
+go in to see a customer. Get me a fresh shirt
+waist like the old dear you are.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Miss Julie, just this once, please,” in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>
+such a coaxing tone that Julie found it hard to
+refuse her but she simply said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t, Bridget, not even to please you,”
+and checked her inclination to smile at the
+vicious manner in which Bridget got out a shirt-waist
+and jabbed in the studs and cuff-buttons.
+</p>
+<p>
+Immensely refreshed by her nap she went
+down the hall with a light heart and entered the
+little sitting-room to be greeted by a stranger
+who eagerly seized both her hands and cried:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle, this is indeed a
+joy to find you!”
+</p>
+<p>
+At the sound of his voice she trembled from
+head to foot and endeavored to withdraw her
+hands but he held them in a firm clasp and led
+her over to the window.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want the light to shine on your face, Mademoiselle,
+as it did in sunny California. Am I
+too bold—have I startled you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Still she did not speak and he dropped her
+hands as moving back a little he said penitently,
+“Forgive me, I am rough and have frightened
+you. May I sit down, Mademoiselle?”
+</p>
+<p>
+She dropped into the nearest chair and waved
+him to another as she said: “I did not expect
+you here, Monsieur Grémond.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not expect me! Did you not know I was
+in Radnor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes,” laughing a little for she was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>
+beginning to recover herself, “but the two are
+not synonymous.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are jesting, Mademoiselle. Surely you
+know—you must know that only one thing
+would bring me to this country as soon as I came
+out of the wilderness.” There was a world of
+meaning in his eyes, but Julie chose to ignore it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your friendship with Mr. Renshawe has been
+of long standing, has it not?” she asked evasively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Mademoiselle Julie, it was not Renshawe—do
+not hold me aloof—have you forgotten
+the dear old California days?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“One might have been led to suppose you
+had,” she said quietly, “you disappeared so suddenly
+and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I wrote,” he interrupted, “and though
+you never replied I meant always to return when
+I had accomplished something. Did you not
+feel that instinctively, Mademoiselle? Many
+things have happened to me since then and to
+you, also, your guardian said.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My guardian?” she repeated. “Do you mean
+Dr. Ware?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He gave me permission to call and said you
+might have many things to say to me,” looking
+at her rather perplexedly. “Will you tell me
+all about it, Mademoiselle?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell you,” she cried springing up and confronting
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>
+him, “tell you as if it were a book I were
+reading all the sorrow and wretchedness and misery
+of these past eight months! No, a thousand
+times no! It would not interest you!” She
+threw back her head defiantly. “Why,” she
+demanded fiercely, “did you find us out? We
+have no part in the world to which you belong!
+Could you not know that to see you would bring
+back the past, intensify the contrast between
+then and now—hurt us like the thrust of a
+sword? Oh! how could you come?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I came because I—” and then breaking off
+suddenly he said gravely, “If you think your
+affairs are of no interest to me you would perhaps
+prefer that I ask no questions, even though
+I do not understand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I did not mean to be rude,” she exclaimed,
+her burst of resentment over, “how
+could you understand and how can I explain?
+Dear Daddy is enduring a living death—everything
+is changed—we are professional caterers—working
+women—you will not begin to comprehend
+that and no doubt it shocks you. The
+dignity of labor is not a popular theme on the
+other side!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mademoiselle, have you only unkind things
+to say to me—me, who would have given my life
+to have averted them or helped you through all
+this? You do not seem to comprehend that I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>
+love you—love you—have journeyed out to Los
+Angeles and back to find you and now,”—he
+drew in his breath, “ah! now I never mean to
+let you go.” He took a step toward her but
+she eluded him, standing well back in the room
+where he could not see how her lips trembled as
+she said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“You must not talk to me like this; I—I cannot
+bear it. I am all unstrung to-day and you
+startle me with your calm air of taking things for
+granted.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do I, chérie?” tenderly. “But you see I love
+you and you are going to love me, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” she replied, drawing still further back,
+“no, Monsieur Grémond, I am not.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Something unflinching about the girl’s quiet
+tone made the man say beseechingly, “Ah!
+Mademoiselle Julie, do not kill me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kill you? You never thought whether you
+would kill me or not, did you, when you almost
+taught me to love you in those old days and then
+rode away? Many a man does that, expecting a
+girl to take everything for granted and receive
+him with open arms when he returns. And
+many a girl waits and waits, eating her heart out
+meanwhile. But I am not that kind, Monsieur!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Mademoiselle!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was very fond of you—so fond that when
+I knew you were in town I wondered whether I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>
+cared to see you—wondered whether I would
+have loved you had you loved me and last night
+I thought perhaps I should see you at the
+Wares’; but we did not go, and now you come
+to me and at the first sight of you I know it is
+not love—could never have been love under any
+circumstances!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you sure you know what love is, Mademoiselle?”
+and seeing the color spread in a crimson
+wave over her face he cried, “Some one has
+stolen you away from me! Tell me, is it not true?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What right have you to ask questions?” she
+demanded, angered by his assumption of authority.
+And then more quietly, “We must not
+quarrel, Monsieur, we have been altogether too
+good friends for that. I want to tell you that
+we are interested in your explorations and how
+proud we are to know that so many of your
+plans have been accomplished.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is nothing to me now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fie, Monsieur! Are you going to cry baby
+because you can’t have the world all your way?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are all my world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie had heard this from other men under
+similar conditions, and though she believed his
+disappointment to be genuinely bitter she knew
+that life could still hold out some hope even in
+the face of unrequited love. But how make him
+see it her way? In a moment she said:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am only a girl, Monsieur Grémond, but I
+think you want me to respect you, don’t you,
+and I certainly shall not be apt to if you are
+going to be vanquished right before my very
+eyes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a strange girl you are, Mademoiselle,”
+he said, roused to a critical survey of her.
+“Most girls like their lovers to be inconsolable,
+but you threaten me with everlasting disgrace for
+refusing to be consoled. I don’t understand it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, you would not understand me, ever,”
+said Julie cheerfully, glad to have roused him at
+last. “You must go back to France and marry
+some nice sweet little thing who will perfectly
+adore you and you’ll be ‘happy ever after,’ as
+the story books say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish you would not dispose of me in
+such an off-hand fashion,” aggrievedly. “I am
+tempted to kidnap you and carry you off this
+moment to the steamer. She sails in the morning.
+Oh! couldn’t you do it, <em>ma petite</em>?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The vehemence of his tone really startled Julie
+who laughed to herself afterward as she remembered
+how she had shrank back in her corner as
+if she expected him to snatch her up bodily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Leave Hester,” she cried aghast, “and Daddy
+and Bridget—and Peter Snooks and—and
+every-body to go away with you? Monsieur
+Grémond, you must be mad.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then you do not know what love is.” He
+rose and came over to her. “Will you put your
+hands in mine, Mademoiselle? I am going—good-by.
+I suppose I have been a selfish brute
+to dwell altogether on my own troubles and not
+sympathize with yours, but the truth is I am
+knocked out. I undoubtedly, as you say, took
+too much for granted.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do not put us out of your life altogether,”
+said Julie gently. “Some day perhaps you will
+really care for my interest and respect and all the
+things I would gladly give you if you would have
+them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you put it that way, perhaps—but it seems
+to me there is only one thing,” he said disconsolately.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then you are not half the man I take you to
+be!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will be,” asserted Grémond, his better
+nature responding to this rebuke. “It is good
+at least to have been with you. Good-by,
+Mademoiselle, good-by.”
+</p>
+<p>
+For some time after he had gone Julie sat
+with closed lids trying to forget the last look of
+his eyes into hers, so persistently did it haunt
+her; but within her heart surged a feeling of
+gratitude that there is an all-wise Providence who
+shapes our ends.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<p>
+Madame Grundy was saying that
+winter that at last Kenneth Landor had
+settled down, though why he should take the
+trouble to burden himself with business cares
+when he had a rich, indulgent father was, from
+her point of view, wholly incomprehensible.
+Other people who knew Kenneth better saw that
+his life had become full of purpose and regarded
+it as the natural outcome of a nature like his—rich
+in possibilities. To the father who was just
+learning to know the son, there was much that
+was surprising in the intelligent way in which he
+grasped the great commission business and little
+by little made himself familiar with every detail,
+showing that in his composition was much practical
+ability—talents unquestionably inherited.
+Of any ulterior motive which had led him on to
+these things Mr. Landor had no suspicion nor
+indeed had any one save Dr. Ware, who kept his
+own counsel, and possibly Jack, whose fanciful
+imagination wove endless romances, the thread
+of which became wretchedly entangled, for what
+could a poor boy do with two heroines to one
+hero?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+That was the stumbling block of our young
+author, for he never could make up his mind to
+choose between the Dale girls. First he would
+write out a beautiful story in which his hero (and
+there was only one hero to him) married Julie
+and was as happy as the day is long. This
+would have been eminently satisfactory if it had
+not been for a sort of feeling of slighting Hester,
+who seemed to be lurking in the background of
+his tale gazing at him with reproachful eyes.
+Jack the tender-hearted could not stand that, so
+zip!—would go all the paper, torn to shreds, and
+he would patiently start all over again to give
+Hester a chance. But however he arranged it,
+one was left out. He couldn’t have it on his
+conscience to make his hero a Mormon and so to
+one and one alone could he belong. This was
+all wrong, from Jack’s point of view, but he did
+not know how to make it any different and as it
+seemed to be a subject he could not discuss with
+any of the three persons most concerned the poor
+boy gave it up in despair.
+</p>
+<p>
+But if Jack was racked with indecision it was
+not so with Kenneth Landor, who had fallen in
+love with Hester at first sight. One hears that
+to fall in love at first sight is an experience belonging
+to bygone days, and is quite unknown
+to the practical common-sense young people of
+whom in this generation one hears so much. Be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span>
+that as it may, Kenneth, in spite of his worldly
+experience, was old-fashioned enough to be full
+of sentiment and treasured in his mind every
+meeting with Hester down to their first walk
+when she had dismissed him so summarily under
+the lamp-post. He could count them on the
+fingers of one hand, the actual hours he had
+spent with her, but between Dr. Ware and Jack
+he managed to keep as well informed concerning
+her life as if he were in daily intercourse with
+her; and it was his sole aim and ambition to put
+her struggles to an end. The generous fellow
+had not Grémond’s idea of taking one of them
+away—he could not conceive of the little family
+being separated and his admiration of Julie was
+rapidly growing into an affection that made him
+long to cast her life, too, in sunny places and
+make a snug little home for them all. These
+were Kenneth’s hopes and dreams—air-castles
+which sometimes took grim, fantastic shapes and
+often tottered to the ground when he remembered
+that Hester might not deign to look at him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly into all this work and dreaming
+entered a new element, threatening to disturb
+the future with a terrible upheaval, for the necessity
+that our country should go to war with
+Spain was talked of openly throughout the land.
+Rumors that war would be, had been, never
+would be declared were rife, suggested and contradicted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span>
+in a breath, while the uncertainty of
+national affairs produced an excitement that
+pervaded all classes and conditions of men.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth was one of those who believed in the
+war and whose whole spirit was fired with a
+desire to do his part toward jealously guarding
+his country’s honor. At the same time, if he
+hoped to win Hester and make a home for her it
+scarcely seemed as if it would accrue to his
+advantage to go away. These things were so in
+his mind that he longed for a chance to see and
+talk with her, and then, as always, in his thoughts
+of her he was confronted by the fearful consciousness
+that she might take no interest in so
+unimportant a thing as himself. Nevertheless,
+he meant to make himself important to her and
+it was therefore to him as to Grémond, a great
+disappointment that the girls had not put in an
+appearance at Miss Ware’s reception and he had
+spent an anxious night speculating as to the
+cause of their non-appearance.
+</p>
+<p>
+He managed by rising earlier than usual to get
+around to Dr. Ware’s office on his way to business
+the morning after the reception; but, contrary
+to habit, that individual was already off.
+Much perturbed he worked harder than ever at
+the office and regretted that he had promised to
+drive out of town to a wedding. He was in no
+mood for society, even so charming as that of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>
+the Lennoxes. He was not a man who broke
+his engagements, however, and therefore went
+home about three o’clock to dress. When the
+Lennoxes called for him he sauntered out in his
+usual charming manner and made the greater
+effort to be agreeable to each member of the
+party from the mere fact that it <em>was</em> an effort.
+This is a form of unselfishness, trivial perhaps,
+but necessitating a willingness to put aside one’s
+personal inclination, to thrust aside one’s mood
+for the general good. Some people call it adaptability,
+some tact, some a desire to please, but
+in Kenneth Landor, as in many others, it was
+an unselfish wish to contribute his share to the
+general entertainment. He was a man who
+recognized the duty of a guest to his hostess and
+did not look upon it as being all the other way.
+Having adjusted himself to a purely impersonal
+philosophical attitude toward the expedition,
+imagine his revulsion of feeling when Mrs. Lennox
+told him that the party would not be complete
+until they had picked up Miss Hester Dale
+whose sister, unfortunately, was unable to go
+with them. As we know, she delegated him to
+escort Hester down and we may know too,
+though no one on the coach suspected it, that he
+went up the four flights of stairs two steps at a
+time and nearly ran down Jack who was hobbling
+up on his crutches.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+What if, when he and Hester went into the
+street together she was immediately appropriated
+by their host and given the seat of honor beside
+him. Couldn’t Kenneth <em>see</em> her—every turn of
+her pretty head—and wasn’t he inwardly proud
+that she was chosen for this distinction and
+didn’t he know that it would be his own fault if
+he did not monopolize her later on?
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Hester, she had never been in a merrier
+mood and chattered on like a little magpie, forgetful
+of her sister’s warning “not to talk herself
+black in the face.” Every now and then she
+would heave a little sigh and audibly wish Julie
+were there—a wish promptly seconded by her
+host, who nevertheless was amply satisfied with
+his companion.
+</p>
+<p>
+The mere sensation of bowling along over
+smooth roads and through the beautiful environs
+of Radnor was in itself a novelty and delight to
+Hester but she was raised to the seventh heaven
+of bliss when Mr. Lennox, after a talk they had
+had about horses, said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wouldn’t you like to take the ribbons, Miss
+Dale?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh!” she gasped, “but my gloves—I can’t
+drive in these,” holding up two white kid hands.
+She did not think it necessary to add that they
+were her only pair.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Take them off and I’ll give you mine. You
+can manage even if they are big. Try.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She tried and in another moment the gloves
+were on, the ribbons slipped into her fingers and
+the control of four superb horses lay within her
+hands. Ah! how delicious it was to feel their
+strength and hers!
+</p>
+<p>
+“What would Mrs. Lennox say if she knew I
+were driving?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She would not mind, but the others might.
+We’ll never tell.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They swung along at an even pace, but presently,
+as if conscious that the ribbons had
+changed hands, the horses became restive and
+finally taking fright at an imaginary object, the
+leaders shied and plunged forward madly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give them their heads!” commanded Mr.
+Lennox peremptorily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t drive at quite such a mad pace, please
+Mr. Lennox,” cried a girl from the rear, “you
+frighten us nearly to death.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! it’s all right,” reassuringly, “they’ll
+quiet down in a moment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester with set lips and feet firmly planted
+was struggling to get them under control. She
+did not speak nor did Mr. Lennox again, but he
+watched her narrowly, alert and ready in a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span>
+second to relieve her. He thought her equal to the
+emergency and she was, for after half a mile of
+tearing madly over the ground, she succeeded in
+regaining control of them and the horses, recognizing
+the strength of an experienced hand,
+quieted down into the old habit of obedience.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good!” cried Mr. Lennox, “you’re a crack
+whip, as I thought.”
+</p>
+<p>
+A little color came back into Hester’s white
+face. “I’m so grateful to you for not taking
+them away from me,” she said. “I should have
+died of humiliation if you had.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought I could trust you to pull through,
+but now that you have proved your prowess—and
+I believe you just got the animals to playing
+tricks to show what you <em>could</em> do, you sly
+young person—aren’t you a bit tired? Shan’t I
+drive?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! thank you, yes, but I—I enjoyed it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She was very quiet after that, and presently
+when they reached the house and Landor sprang
+off and turned to lift her down, the two bright
+red spots in her cheeks did not escape him nor
+the subdued manner so unusual to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+As they passed into the house Hester saw in
+the hall a large table piled high with small white
+boxes and she shuddered as she thought how
+they had spent half the night over the completion
+of those innocent looking things. The
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span>
+satin bows actually had a “perky” look as if the
+ribbon had just tied itself without any trouble
+whatever! Turning her back on them abruptly
+she followed Mrs. Lennox into the drawing-room,
+where the ceremony took place a few moments
+after their arrival.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a simple wedding with no bridesmaids
+nor ushers nor adjuncts of any kind, and the
+bridegroom had so large a family connection that
+only intimate friends had been added to the list
+so that the reception took on the informal character
+of a large family gathering. When the
+bride had been kissed all around, including every
+male cousin, in spite of the laughing protests of
+the bridegroom, she led the way into the dining-room
+for supper.
+</p>
+<p>
+“May I take you out, Miss Dale?” asked a
+dapper young fellow who had just been presented
+to Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you, I—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can’t walk off with Miss Dale in that
+calm fashion, Charley,” said a voice back of
+them, “she’s promised to come to supper with
+me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester had no recollection of any such compact
+so she looked up and said mischievously,
+“What a wonderful memory you have, Mr.
+Landor,” turning the while as if to move off
+with the younger man.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You come with me, won’t you?” urged
+Charley Bemis, “Landor always claims the earth
+and never gives us younger fellows a chance.
+We’ll have to hurry a bit, Miss Dale,” looking
+at her entreatingly, “if we want to see the bride
+cut the cake.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The cake!” she repeated, suddenly shrinking
+back. “Oh! Mr. Bemis, you go on without me,
+will you? I—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Run along, Charley,” said Landor. “Miss
+Dale and I will follow. The dining-room will
+never begin to hold us all anyway, so if we do
+not get in you look us up and tell us who got the
+ring. You may get it yourself if you hurry,
+who knows!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh!” said Hester when the man had departed,
+“I couldn’t go in there—I just couldn’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not,” emphatically, “it is much
+too crowded. They’ve covered in the piazza by
+the dining-room. Won’t you let me bring you
+something to eat out there?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How could you fib to that boy so!” exclaimed
+the girl at the same time signifying her
+willingness to be led to some less crowded spot.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth laughed. “You drove me to it. Do
+you suppose I intended to let him walk off with
+you under my very eyes?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not? I’m sure he seemed a very <em>nice</em>
+boy,” with marked emphasis.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes, he’s nice enough,” cheerfully,
+“quite nice, now you mention it, but I’m not
+just yearning for his society at the present moment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps I am,” getting a wistful far-away
+expression in her eyes that was tantalizing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Here we are,” said the man abruptly as they
+reached a semi-circular piazza where tables and
+chairs had been placed. “If you will sit down,
+Miss Dale, I’ll look up Mr. Bemis immediately.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you,” demurely, “but if it <em>should</em>
+happen that you found the supper first, would
+you mind bringing that instead? I am <em>so</em> hungry,”
+with a pathetic droop at the corners of her
+mouth.
+</p>
+<p>
+He went off on air, returning followed by a
+waiter almost before she had a chance to miss him.
+</p>
+<p>
+And what a gay little supper that was! They
+had a small table quite to themselves, where
+Landor played host and was solicitous in providing
+for all her wants. Mr. Lennox, wandering
+about with an eye to his party, smiled across the
+piazza at her and reported to his wife that Hester
+was being well taken care of. Half unconsciously
+the girl herself was aware that her
+slightest wish was anticipated and she caught
+herself wondering as she played with her ice,
+whether it was chance or design that led Mr.
+Landor to avoid having any cake served at their
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span>
+table. It was everywhere else in abundance;
+hundreds of colored frosted cakes that seemed to
+Hester like so many little imps grinning at her
+and crying, “You made me—you made me!”
+This fantastic notion wrought itself into her tired
+brain until she wanted to scream out from very
+nervousness and caused Kenneth to say, as if
+divining her thoughts:
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are tired, Miss Dale. I am afraid you
+had an anxious night of it. I hope your father
+is better this morning.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How did you know?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We—we missed you at the reception,”
+evasively, “and when Dr. Ware went off I had
+my suspicions.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was not Daddy,” she said quietly, “it
+was—other things.” Then in a lighter tone,
+“Don’t look so solemn, please, I want to be gay
+and forget last night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What would happen, Miss Dale, if I were to
+lecture you?” smiling at her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Try and see,” teasingly. “Probably I shall
+laugh. I usually do when Julie scolds me and
+then she laughs too and that spoils the effect.
+Well, begin. What is the greatest of my enormities?
+Have you made out a list?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you promise me something?” earnestly,
+leaning forward with a pleading expression on
+his handsome face.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps. I am in a most docile mood at
+this moment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then promise me you will do no more driving.
+You are not equal to it to-night, indeed
+you are not, and it takes all the strength out of
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you know I drove? Did Mr. Lennox
+tell you?” regarding him with raised eyebrows.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No—but I knew.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you are one of those mysterious persons
+who always know everything, I am going to
+avoid you,” she laughed, feeling herself flush
+under his earnest scrutiny.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have not promised,” he persisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did I promise to promise?” with a swift provoking
+glance from under her long lashes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Dale,” pleading, “I never asked a
+favor of you before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why should you?” wrinkling up her forehead
+and wishing he had not so persuasive a voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know—probably you think it is impertinent,
+but” coaxingly, “if you would just this
+once,—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, is this where you sneaked off to?”
+cried a voice beside them; “a pretty chase
+you’ve led me!” and Charley Bemis dropped
+into the nearest chair and held out a plate to
+Hester. “See here, Miss Dale, you wouldn’t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>
+go to the mountain, so I’ve brought the mountain
+to you. The bride cut the cake long ago
+but I saved my piece to eat with you. Landor
+doesn’t get a crumb.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Landor looked as if he would like to stuff the
+whole slice down the man’s throat. The girl
+smiled and resigned herself to at least make a
+pretense of eating the thing she had tried so
+desperately to avoid.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is something in your half,” suggested
+young Bemis significantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is there?” replied Hester, wishing his
+enthusiasm were less. “You find it for me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He cut her piece and pulled out something
+wrapped in paraffine paper which proved to be a
+shining gold dollar.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! you’ve got it!” he cried. “Miss Dale’s
+got the money,” turning to announce it to the
+whole piazza, “she’s going to be rich!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How nice of you to prophesy such good fortune,”
+she replied picking up the coin and rising.
+“Won’t you come and help me find Mrs. Lennox
+and tell her about it? I am sure Mr. Landor
+will excuse us?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth, who had risen, bowed low and
+wondered how so adorably pretty a girl could be
+so stony-hearted. He was utterly confounded
+when, as she brushed by him she slipped something
+in his hand with a whispered “That’s for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span>
+luck,” and vanished with Bemis in attendance.
+A quick indrawing of his fingers into the palm
+of his hand told Landor a little coin lay within his
+grasp. A half-smothered ejaculation escaped
+him! Her luck she had passed on to him! Did
+he dare attribute to it any significance? No outward
+sign betrayed his inward perturbation as he
+sauntered into the house to join the other
+guests.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whether it was Kenneth’s skillful management
+or a preconceived arrangement on Mrs. Lennox’s
+part or just Fate, deponent saith not, but the
+fact remains that when the coach started off again
+that evening, Hester found herself ensconced on
+the back seat with Landor, the rest of the party
+chatting gayly in front of them, the guards well
+in the rear.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Dale,” Landor said when they had
+ridden some moments in silence, “are you too
+tired to-night to let me talk to you a little, seriously?”
+He had no desire to lose any time.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then you think I can be serious?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know you can, only you never choose to be
+with me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I <em>am</em> an awful tease,” she admitted, touched
+by his wistful tone, “but I can be the most serious
+person in the world and I should like to have
+you to talk to me, only—you are not going to
+scold me any more, are you, Mr. Landor? I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span>
+think I am really too tired for that.” Her low
+musical voice seemed to drift to him plaintively
+through the darkness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was going to be selfishly egotistical and
+talk about—about a friend of mine,” hoping she
+had not detected how near he had come to blundering.
+“I wanted to ask your advice about
+him if you are quite sure you are not too tired
+to listen, Miss Dale.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course I am not. I should like to hear
+about your friend, Mr. Landor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Was there ever a voice so sweet, he thought,
+or a girl so full of contradictions? One moment
+bewitchingly, aggravatingly whimsical, the next
+revealing unfathomable depths of a nature which
+to him seemed the purest and noblest in the
+world. Aloud he said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“My friend is torn by a divided duty. He
+wants to go to the war but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You think there will be war? Can’t he go?”
+she interrupted. “It seems to me every man
+must go who can.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, he can, but there are people whom he
+loves whom he hates to leave—more than that
+whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if
+his whole future were at stake—not only his but
+theirs, and he can’t seem to see his way clear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are they old and dependent on him for support,
+these people?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, but he wants them to become dependent
+on him and how can that be if he goes away?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If they love him,” the girl said emphatically,
+“they will not stand in his way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But he does not know that they love him
+or that they will ever love him. He only knows
+that he loves them and—oh! Miss Dale,” sweeping
+aside this strangely complicated case, “if you
+had a brother in times like these, what would
+you do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do?” she cried; “why, I’d help him off
+to the front without a moment’s hesitation!
+Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the
+world if we had a brother to go to the war! If
+Daddy were well he would go—there never was
+a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor,
+you know us so little that you’ve no idea how
+strongly we feel about these things. We’ve tried
+in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers
+ourselves and we think no sacrifice too great to
+make for one another and for our country.” In
+her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside
+her, the friend and everything save the inspiration
+of those principles which were as the very
+air she breathed.
+</p>
+<p>
+He made no reply, fearing to break the spell
+and startle her back into her old elusiveness.
+This revelation of her inner self was very precious
+to him.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently she said: “Perhaps I know a little
+how your friend feels, because I have always
+thought if ever I lived in war times I should go
+as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a
+thing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You? You are too young,” he gasped,
+never dreaming of this possibility.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I am not too young, but Julie could
+not carry on our business and take care of Daddy,
+too, all alone, and my duty is here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are doing active service in a field much
+harder than anything they may see in Cuba,”
+he said intently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! no, don’t say that; I do not deserve it;
+but you have talked to me so frankly about your
+friend that I wanted you to know I understand a
+little, though I do not believe I have been of any
+help. But this much I know, if I were one of
+those people whom he loves, however much I
+might need him and perhaps want him,”—was
+her voice faltering?—“I should urge him to go
+and love him the better for going and believe
+that his future and all connected with him would
+be the richer and the brighter for the personal
+sacrifice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was an exultant ring in her low voice
+that set the man’s heart to throbbing with a pain
+strangely new and exquisite and so great was
+his emotion that for some time he did not trust
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span>
+himself to speak. When he did he said very
+gently:
+</p>
+<p>
+“You <em>have</em> helped my friend, Miss Dale, more
+than you have any idea and I thank you for him.
+Some day, perhaps, you will let him thank you
+himself. I—I shall always remember your kindness
+to-night” (poor fellow, it was not easy to
+pick his words calmly when he longed to pour
+his heart out to her). “I may not see you again
+for awhile; I—I am going away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The coach drew up at her door and she was
+brought to a sudden realization of her surroundings
+by the laughing salutations of the party as
+they said goodnight. Kenneth had sprung to
+the ground and was waiting to assist her
+to alight. She was not conscious of the gentle,
+almost tender manner in which he lifted her
+down, but as he stood with bared head holding
+the door open, for her, she stopped a moment
+and put out her hands impulsively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is this good-by?” she said, her beautiful
+eyes looking full into his.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” with her hands close in his, “I shall
+go out with the first regiment from Radnor.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<p>
+Julie was in bed, but not asleep, when Hester
+came in that night, and propped herself
+up on her elbow to listen with absorbed interest
+while she gave an account of herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie dear,” the younger girl began, “never
+urge me again to go anywhere where I am to be
+confronted by the fruit of our labor. I can’t stand
+it. I thought I should die when I first saw the
+boxes of cake piled up in the hall—of course in
+a way it was a relief to know they were safely
+there, but it gave me an actual pain to remember
+how we nearly killed ourselves over them.
+Then a man I met nearly dragged me out to see
+the bride cut the cake. That was too much and
+Mr. Landor came to the rescue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How nice of him!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” admitted Hester, “he <em>was</em> nice and
+we were having a jolly time when that awful man
+pounced down upon us, bride cake in hand, and
+I was actually forced to eat some of it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor child! Couldn’t you have intimated
+that you had tasted it just a few times before?”
+</p>
+<div><a name='i232' id='i232'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i006' id='i006'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-232.jpg" alt="JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span></div>
+<p>
+“I was tempted to, but out of consideration
+for Mrs. Lennox I spared him the shock. And
+then what do you suppose? I got the gold dollar!
+I would not have bothered to put such a
+polish on it yesterday if I had known it was coming
+back to me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you throw it out of the window in your
+best high-tragedy style?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I gave it to Mr. Landor. He looked so
+cross when Mr. Bemis joined us that he was
+absolutely funny, so I thought I’d just give him
+a little present—‘for a good boy on his birthday’
+or something of that sort, you know, only he
+wasn’t so alarmingly good and it wasn’t his
+birthday,—at least I don’t suppose it was, do
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester, you do talk the most idiotic nonsense!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do I? Well, I’ve been pretty serious the
+past hour,” she said soberly as she slipped off
+her gown and seated herself on the edge of the
+bed preparatory to taking down her hair. “Julie,
+we are going to have war!”
+</p>
+<p>
+To Julie, who could not be expected to know
+her sister’s train of thought, this announcement
+seemed so irrelevant that she looked at her wonderingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was not in to-night’s paper,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, but it is in the air. Mr. Landor thinks
+it is inevitable. He talked with me to-night
+about a friend of his who’s crazy to go. I did
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span>
+not suspect a thing at first but afterward I did—it’s
+himself, Julie—he means to volunteer with
+the first call for troops.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is just what I should expect of him,
+Hester.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Y-e-s,” reluctantly, “but do you know from
+things he said it is evidently going to be a tussle
+for him to make up his mind to leave. He is all
+upset about it and oh! Julie dear, how I did
+wish you were there to talk to him—you always
+say such beautiful, helpful things. It is some
+one he cares about—perhaps it is his father. Do
+you suppose it <em>could</em> be any one else, Julie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know, dear”—certain suspicions in
+regard to Landor gaining ground every minute—“perhaps
+it is Jessie Davis,” wickedly, for Julie
+could do her share of teasing too.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That fashion plate!” scornfully. “I don’t
+believe a word of it! She’s not fit to button
+his shoes!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Probably she would not care to,” remarked
+Julie, intensely amused at this taking up of the
+cudgels in Landor’s behalf; and then, thinking
+it best—this wise Julie!—not to prolong the jest,
+she said, “It is probably his father. He is old,
+you know, and Mr. Landor may hesitate to go
+off and leave him. I am glad he talked with
+you, dear, about anything he had so much at
+heart, for it shows how much he appreciates and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span>
+values your opinion and you probably talked to
+him twice as well as I could, you funny little
+baby owl!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester’s reply to this was to fling herself down
+on the foot of the bed and cry in a muffled tone,
+“I’m so tired—so dead tired! I didn’t realize
+it until I kept so still coming home and then I
+ached so I wanted to scream while Mr. Landor
+was talking to me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie’s arms were around her in a moment.
+“The strain has been too much, dear. You cannot
+stand the work and play too,—it is no use
+trying.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I like to play,” cried Hester rebelliously,
+“and sometimes I feel so wicked—as if I couldn’t
+keep up my end another minute, and then I want
+to run away—all of us run away—to have ‘The
+Hustle’ again and go racing out of all this, and
+then,”—her voice broke,—“Oh! then Julie darling,
+I am so ashamed of such thoughts—so
+humiliated to think I can’t be as patient as you
+are!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know, dear,” stroking her sister’s hair
+softly, “and I am not patient—not half as patient
+as I try to be—only I hold myself with a fearfully
+tight rein for fear I’ll go all to pieces. We
+are both pretty much knocked out now, dear,
+with the strain of the winter, the newness of
+things and—”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not to mention being half fed,” inserted
+Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But we have paid all our expenses as we’ve
+gone along and kept out of debt even if we have
+half starved to do it. You see, dear, up to
+now,” said Julie, the accountant, “we have had
+to put such a large amount of our earnings back
+into the business for all sorts of things.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Imagine what cousin Nancy would say if
+she knew how we wriggled along on almost nothing,
+you and I!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’d say we were fools not to have accounts
+with the butcher, the baker and candlestick-maker
+but we do not agree with her, and Daddy,
+bless his heart! does not want for anything.
+Thank heaven, we’ve accomplished that much!
+Isn’t it a mercy, dear, that he does not realize
+things? It would break his heart!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes, but how I do long to have our
+darling old Daddy back!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie said nothing. Her chin was very rigid
+but in a few moments she said cheerfully, “I
+think the spring promises a good deal. Our
+work increases every day and we can soon begin
+to live better. Bridget says marketing is much
+cheaper in the summer, and if we only make
+enough now to carry Daddy comfortably
+through the dull season when people are away
+and we are not earning much, we’ll get on famously.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span>
+Just think what magnificent times we’ll
+have this summer just loafing around Daddy’s
+room!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester, who seldom allowed herself such
+luxury of woe as she had just been indulging
+in, sat up, wiped her eyes on the corner of the
+sheet and said emphatically, “I’m a fiend and I
+ought to be cow-hided!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll paddle you instead,” said Julie, picking
+up the hair-brush Hester had dropped and making
+as if to apply the back of it vigorously.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester dodged but Julie caught her and,
+springing out of bed, planted her firmly in a
+chair and said, “I’ll brush that crazy head of
+yours and help you to bed or you’ll never get
+there! It must be all hours of the night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll catch your death of cold,” remonstrated
+Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I won’t, and if you’ll keep as still as a mouse
+and not scream when I comb your hair—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You pull like the dickens; you know you
+do!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not and I wish you’d stop talking and
+give me a chance. I declare you get worse
+every day—I tremble to think what you’re coming
+to!—and I’ve, oh! such a piece of news to
+tell you!”
+</p>
+<p>
+She was wholly unprepared for the clutch of
+Hester’s arms about her neck as she cried,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span>
+“Don’t tell me to-night, Julie dear, I—I know—all—about—it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you?” holding her fast. “Then aren’t you
+glad it has all come out this way?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Julie darling,” stifling a sob.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Hester, what is it? You must not
+cry, dear. I can’t think what is the matter!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m a selfish brute, but oh, I’m not really,
+Julie—not really. I think it is the most beautiful
+thing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What is ‘the most beautiful thing’?” wondering
+if the child were losing her mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That he’s been here. I knew it the moment
+you spoke. As if he’d fail to come!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester! do you mean you think that I—I—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester nodded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I don’t dear, not the least little bit in
+the world!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Julie!”
+</p>
+<p>
+For a moment they clung together. Then
+Julie gave a hysterical laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a silly old goose you were to go having
+absurd thoughts about me, and how dared
+you, how <em>dared</em> you think I was in love with any
+one?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did not know,” penitently, “you kept so
+still about Monsieur Grémond and he <em>was</em> in love
+with you, wasn’t he?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes dear. He came this afternoon and I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span>
+sent him away. We do not want to have secrets
+from each other, do we, old girl, but I never
+talked to you much about him because there was
+a time when I did not quite know whether I
+cared for him or not. Perhaps back in the old
+days, if he had asked me, I might have said yes,
+but I doubt it—it was more a sort of fascination
+he exercised over me for awhile and now I am
+truly thankful he has come and gone. He has
+removed every particle of doubt as to my attitude
+toward him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I am so glad. I couldn’t bear the
+thought of his carrying you off to France.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie’s eyes opened wide. “Did you suppose
+I’d go away and leave you and Daddy and the
+rest?” in a tone of astonishment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Some Prince Charming is coming along to
+carry you off some day, Julie dear,” said Hester,
+who could bring herself to regard such an
+event with some degree of complacency now
+that it was not an immediate fact. “I’m not
+quite such a selfish pig” (she never spared herself
+in the matter of epithets), “as to expect to
+have you always.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think we are sufficient unto each other
+now, dear,” said Julie seriously, “and we may
+always be, for all the years to come; but if some
+day our lives should change—a new interest
+enter in—we’ll share it and make it beautify the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span>
+lives of both of us just as we’ve always shared
+every joy and sorrow ever since we were babies.”
+She kissed her sister solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You blessed Julie!” was the response.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the gas was out and Hester, the irrepressible,
+finally in bed, the light of the full
+moon came streaming into the little room. And
+lingering with a caressing touch it fell upon a
+white pillow on which a curly golden head and
+a sleek dark one lay pressed close together. In
+the solemn stillness the breathing of two slender
+forms told that the excitement of the past forty-eight
+hours had at last ended in much needed
+sleep.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<p>
+Mrs. Driscoe was not a reasonable
+woman, never had been reasonable, had
+no desire to be reasonable; it was therefore not
+to be expected that she would take a reasonable
+attitude toward Sidney Renshawe when he went
+down to Virginia early that spring and asked
+her for her Nannie. In vain did he argue and
+cajole, in vain did the dear Colonel remonstrate,
+in vain did little Nannie cry and plead; to one
+and all she turned a deaf ear. It was no—no—no
+then and forever.
+</p>
+<p>
+The County discussed the situation freely and
+wondered that so worldly a mother should frown
+upon so eligible a <em>parti</em>. Sidney Renshawe was
+well born, fairly rich, rising steadily in his profession;
+all the County knew that much, though
+it is doubtful if any one of them had ever been
+in Radnor. What if Renshawe’s hair was red
+and his mustache a trifle bristly? Didn’t that
+add a touch of strength to his face and suggest a
+resemblance to a certain Prisoner of Zenda, who,
+though only a man in a book, as every one said,
+was, nevertheless, the most idolized of heroes.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span>
+As for poor little Nannie, it was plainly to be
+seen she was losing flesh over the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+As she wrote the girls, she was “torn by conflicting
+emotions,” using the well-worn phrase
+because the poor little thing had no words of her
+own in which to express her feelings. She had
+never had complex feelings before. Hitherto
+her life had consisted in loving and being loved,
+which led her naturally enough into a similar
+state of things with Sidney Renshawe, who
+came, saw and conquered her girlish heart. The
+Colonel was her stanch friend and ally. He
+liked Renshawe and felt he was just the man to
+whom he could trust his little girl when the time
+came to give her up. And that was not necessarily
+imminent, for if Mrs. Driscoe was unreasonable
+Renshawe certainly was not and was
+willing to wait one, two, three years if need be.
+But Mrs. Driscoe remained obdurate and the
+household was plunged into a state of strained
+atmospheric conditions such as had never been
+known before.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t help loving him and it isn’t wrong to
+love him, is it?” little Nannie would say appealingly
+to the Colonel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, no, Puss, be patient. We’ll win her
+over soon.” It is doubtful if the Colonel believed
+this cheerful prophecy, but the child had
+to be comforted.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Renshawe had remained two weeks with his
+friends at the plantation adjacent to the Driscoes,
+seeing Nannie every day. Mrs. Driscoe did not
+refuse him this boon but, declined to receive him
+herself and intimated so plainly that the man’s
+room was preferable to his company that the girl
+took little pleasure in his visits and agreed with
+him that it was far better he should go away.
+Without her mother’s permission she refused to
+become engaged but the night previous to his
+departure she allowed him to slip on her finger a
+certain simple little ring which he reminded her
+he had been carrying in his pocket since the night
+they met. The next day he went north leaving
+his heart in Virginia, with a delicious sense of
+its security in Nannie’s keeping. The consciousness
+was strong within him that the winning
+of such as she was worth the waiting.
+</p>
+<p>
+And Mrs. Driscoe all this while went about
+with the aggrieved air of one whose troubles were
+scarcely to be understood by an unsympathetic
+world. If she had been put to it she could have
+given no reason for her opposition to Renshawe,
+for she had none and had shown him marked
+favor at the beginning. But that was before, as
+she told the Colonel, “her suspicions were
+aroused.” From the moment they were, Renshawe
+was made unpleasantly conscious of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+While Nannie, sustained by the Colonel and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span>
+the County’s backing, got what solace she could
+out of the days that were so long and oh! so
+lonely after Sidney left her, he, back in Radnor,
+turned for comfort to the Dale girls, who took
+him into their hearts for Nannie’s sake and soon
+learned to like him for his own. He became a
+frequent visitor, calling usually Sunday afternoons
+when he felt he would be less likely to
+disturb them, and he wrote Nannie that except a
+certain little girl in Virginia whose name he
+would never divulge, they were the sweetest girls
+he had ever known and the bravest. But he did
+not tell Nannie how as he came to observe them
+more closely he discovered in their faces little
+careworn lines which told a tale their lips never
+would have disclosed and how about Julie,
+especially, there was a subdued, almost intense
+manner, as if she were holding herself in a vise.
+They never spoke of their work or their cares to
+him or any one else and made light of any passing
+reference to their business. Indeed, as far as
+Sidney might have known from them, they lived
+quite like other girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+In regard to his friend Grémond’s previous connection
+with them or of his call on Julie, Renshawe
+knew nothing. The Frenchman left town
+the day following that on which he had seen
+Julie and had not referred to the Dales in any
+way either to him or Dr. Ware, who was left to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span>
+draw his own conclusions. This was not so
+simple as might be supposed, for while in one
+light the man’s sudden disappearance looked as
+if Julie might have given him his congé, viewed
+from another point, especially taken in connection
+with a certain happy light in Julie’s eyes
+these days when he caught her glance, it led him
+to believe that perhaps the girl had given him her
+promise but required that he should wait yet
+a longer time to claim her. The Doctor longed
+to know and wearied himself with imagining why
+she did not confide in him. But since she did
+not, delicacy forbade his mentioning Grémond’s
+name.
+</p>
+<p>
+Another person who did some speculating
+over Grémond was Mrs. Lennox, but being a
+woman she arrived at her conclusions quickly
+and decided that his precipitous flight to France
+when he had been booked for some weeks in
+Radnor, argued ill for the result of his trip across
+the country. She was not at home the one time
+he had called on her and the fact that he was not
+at more pains to seek her out and continue the
+confidential relations established in her sanctum
+on his previous visit, satisfied her that he could
+not have found what he was so eagerly seeking.
+Being a sympathetic woman she was sorry, but
+she would have thought more of him had he
+chosen to tell her the outcome of his affairs. As
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span>
+he did not, she dismissed him from her mind
+altogether, having agreed with Miss Marston
+one day when they were discussing him, that he
+was a clever man but after all a trifle too self-centered.
+To tell the truth Mrs. Lennox had
+been mistaken in her analysis of his character
+and it annoyed her.
+</p>
+<p>
+A fortnight after the wedding the Dale girls
+were devouring with eager eyes one morning a
+very small note and a very large check which
+they could scarcely read, so great was their excitement.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, what a relief!” cried Julie, “to know
+that everything pleased Mrs. Truxton, and how
+good she was to write such a kind appreciative
+note to people like us whom she scarcely knows!
+Let’s go and read it to Bridget.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget, when she heard it, was reduced to
+tears and presently they were all laughing and
+crying together, for the work of this first big
+order had been more of an anxiety than any one
+of them cared to acknowledge, while its success
+expressed so kindly by their thoughtful customer
+meant as much in its way as the accompanying
+check, which fairly dazzled them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“One hundred and twenty-five dollars!” cried
+Hester ecstatically. “We’re millionaires! Oh—
+oh—oh! to think of our <em>earning</em> so much
+money!” She waved the check wildly over her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span>
+head and even insisted that Peter Snooks should
+have a sniff at it before she said, “Wouldn’t you
+just like to frame it and keep it forever?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know what I should like best of all to do
+with it,” said Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I bet Miss Hester can guess by the knowin’
+look in her eyes,” said Bridget. “It’s meself
+that knows too, what your blessed selves is
+thinkin’.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you both know,” Julie said
+quietly, “we want to begin to pay Dr. Ware
+rent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They went the next afternoon to his office.
+On the doorsteps they encountered Miss Ware,
+who turned about as she saw them approach.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t let us detain you,” said Julie politely,
+“we have just come for a little business talk with
+your brother.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah!” she replied, “I fancied you got about
+all of that sort of thing you wanted at home.
+You’d better come upstairs and let me make you
+some tea—you look peaked, both of you. Philip
+ought to give you a tonic. Tell him I said so,
+and come up afterward. I insist upon it and
+shall have the tea ready. It will not do you any
+harm to sit down in a different atmosphere for a
+while. I suppose you do get sick to death of
+a kitchen.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was no doubt that Miss Ware possessed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span>
+to perfection the faculty of rubbing one the
+wrong way, but Julie deemed it wise not to
+decline these overtures and made no further protest
+against her going in with them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Horrid old thing! How I hate her!” whispered
+Hester, as Miss Ware went on upstairs and
+they waited a moment in the Doctor’s ante-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So do I, but she’s <em>his</em> sister and she means
+well.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’d find excuses for the old boy himself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I wouldn’t,” laughed Julie, “but—here’s
+Dr. Ware.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He bowed to them as he entered from the
+private office and passed by with an elderly man,
+with whom he was in deep conversation. In a
+moment he returned and greeted the girls
+warmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” he said, giving each a hand, “this is
+delightful. Come into the other room. That
+was old Mr. Landor—Kenneth’s father, by the
+way—did you notice him? He is about half
+Kenneth’s size, but he has force enough for a
+dozen men. I wish you girls knew him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He pulled out chairs as he talked and ensconced
+the girls comfortably, then stood against
+the table facing them with arms folded and the
+smile on his face which Bridget vowed was “like
+the blessed sun for warmin’ the cockles of your
+heart.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is good to have you here,” he said
+heartily, “I wish you came more often. Perhaps,”
+with a laugh that showed the gleam of
+his white teeth, “I do not give you a chance—I
+go so often to see you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you came every hour of the day it
+wouldn’t be too often,” exclaimed Hester, who
+never loved people by halves. “But Julie is
+going to do the talking to-day. I intend to keep
+still.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“As if you could! Well, Julie?” smiling at
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We have come to have a little business talk
+with you,” she said, twisting her fingers together
+nervously and finding it a little difficult to begin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Delighted to be so honored,” he replied
+lightly, bowing low.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is about the—the rent,” said Julie, who
+wished her words would not stick in her throat.
+“We are getting on so well with our work that
+we want to begin to pay you. We thought if
+you would let us begin this month and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And not object or scold us or anything,”
+broke in Hester who never could remain out of a
+conversation, “but just take the money, we’d
+feel a thousand times happier, though no money
+or anything else could ever express our gratitude
+for all you are doing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He still leaned against the table with folded
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span>
+arms but the smile had given place to an expression
+of sadness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you both quite finished?” he asked
+when Hester had stopped for lack of breath.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We never could finish talking about your
+kindness,” put in Julie.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor raised his hand as if to waive that
+aside. “I have listened to your proposition,”
+he said, “because I am a practical business man
+and I understand your spirit. It is the height of
+your ambition to be independent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” they assented.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When your father broke down,” he continued,
+“I longed to take you all home and look
+after you. I was amply able to do it and he is
+my oldest and best friend. I would have done
+it, too, if you girls had not astonished me by
+displaying so much courage and such a determination
+to fight your own battles that I could
+only stand aside and watch you work out your
+own salvation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have made the way easier all the time,”
+said Julie tremulously.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Doctor cleared his throat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have been so glad to share a bit of the
+responsibility, but now my faithful little comrades
+want to shoulder it all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Dr. Ware, you don’t think—” began
+Hester impulsively.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I do think,” he interrupted, “that
+you have the right idea and whatever my personal
+inclination may be, I like your spirit of
+independence and it shall be as you say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester flung her arms about his neck and
+kissed him. “Do you know,” she said brokenly,
+“Julie and I are getting so puffed up with
+conceit over our business prosperity that presently
+you will disown us altogether.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shall I?” holding her fast. “What do you
+think, Julie?” with a searching gaze into the
+face of the older girl who stood a little apart
+from them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie flushed and turned her eyes away—tell-tale
+eyes like hers were not to be trusted. “I
+think,” she said with a supreme effort to speak
+calmly, “I think we had better go upstairs for
+tea. Miss Ware will be wondering what has
+become of us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When the Doctor learned that tea was brewing
+in the library he followed them upstairs and
+electrified his sister by handing about tea and
+taking a cup himself with as much complacency
+as if he were in the habit of dawdling around a
+tea-table every afternoon of his life. Miss Ware
+wished he hadn’t come, for she had intended to
+ply the girls with questions about their work;
+questions which in the presence of her brother
+she hesitated to ask, standing, as she did, in considerable
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span>
+awe of him. She did manage, while
+he was talking to Hester, to catechise Julie a
+little, but that young woman’s answers were so
+evasive, yet withal so sweetly polite that Miss
+Ware felt very much as if she were hitting a
+rubber ball, which, while showing the imprint of
+her attack, bounded back every time to the starting
+point. It happened also that Dr. Ware
+having some notion of what his sister might be
+up to, rescued Julie from too prolonged a tête-à-tête
+and with infinite tact kept the conversation
+in such general channels that personalities were
+forgotten and Miss Ware quite shone in her
+desire to be agreeable. There are many persons
+who, given their own conversational way, manage
+in the course of an hour to reduce to a state of
+irritation every person in the room, yet who,
+guided and steered by a stronger force, rise to
+the best that is in them and produce such a
+favorable impression that one wonders how one
+ever thought them other than agreeable. It was
+thus with Miss Ware, who under the guidance
+of her brother, appeared to the girls in a new
+light, and she herself had the unusual sensation
+of regretting that they had taken so early a
+departure.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish I had asked them to stay on to dinner,”
+she said when they had gone.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish you had,” said the Doctor, accustomed
+to her after thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why didn’t you suggest it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was not sure that it would be agreeable
+to you, Mary.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph!” she said. Then critically, “Hester
+<em>is</em> extraordinarily pretty—and what an air!
+She’s almost conspicuous. How is your scheme
+about Kenneth getting on?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not a ‘scheme,’ Mary. I wish you
+would not express it just that way. And I have
+concluded I am not the right person to go in for
+match-making. Think no more about it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph!” she said again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I doubt if either of the girls will care to
+marry,” he volunteered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Girls are queer,” she said sententiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are they?” he rejoined wearily. “I do not
+think I know.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<p>
+That spring would always be a memorable
+one both to the girls and the country at
+large, for momentous events followed one upon
+another in rapid succession. War was declared
+with Spain, as Kenneth had prophesied, and all
+the bustle and activity attendant upon the preparations
+of hostilities with a foreign power were
+felt throughout the nation.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth, believing such a crisis inevitable,
+had prepared to respond promptly to the first
+call for troops.
+</p>
+<p>
+There had been a fierce tussle with his father
+when first he broached the subject, but by that
+time Mr. Landor had learned that Kenneth’s
+was not a nature to be forced into subjection and
+heard him out with far more respect than would
+have been accorded him a year ago. Mr. Landor
+suggested, in the course of the talk, that it
+was a pity to leave the business just as he was
+mastering it; and Kenneth agreed with him.
+But all the patriotism in his nature was aroused
+and this, combined with Hester’s inspiration and
+his naturally adventurous spirit, held him proof
+against his father’s arguments. This strength
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span>
+and decision were not lost upon the older man,
+who, having put forth every argument to keep
+his son at home, ended the discussion by saying,
+somewhat abruptly:
+</p>
+<p>
+“When the call came in ’61 I could not
+go. I had a father and mother dependent on
+me. I’m—I’m not dependent on you, Kenneth,
+and your country needs you. I should
+have been disappointed in you if you had not
+wanted to go.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you, father,” with a hearty grip of
+the hand for he thought he understood the personal
+sacrifice his father was making, though,
+man-fashion, he said no word.
+</p>
+<p>
+And so Kenneth used his influence toward the
+end he had in view, with the good result that
+when on that twenty-third day of April the
+President issued his first call for troops, he was
+given a commission as lieutenant in the crack
+cavalry troop of Radnor and ordered into the
+State camp to await developments.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls saw the troopers go. They happened
+to be in the business part of the city that
+afternoon and were attracted by groups of people
+standing about and talking excitedly. Further
+investigation, coupled with the sound of a
+bugle in the distance, caused them to take
+refuge on the nearest steps and wait with bated
+breath for the militia to appear. Electric cars
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span>
+had stopped running, wagons rattled off into the
+side streets, leaving the main thoroughfare clear,
+and presently they came—a troop of cavalry followed
+by a regiment of infantry, the splendid
+column swinging along to the gay music of the
+band, whose medley of martial airs wound up
+suggestively with “The Girl I Left Behind Me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The crowd broke into a great spontaneous
+cheer and cheered and cheered again, shouting
+until they were hoarse. On the sidewalks, steps,
+from windows all about, people craned their
+necks for a last look at the departing soldiers.
+Women waved their handkerchiefs and wept.
+Men raised their hats—aye, flung them high in
+the air—while every man, woman and child who
+could lay hand on a flag waved it in frantic
+demonstration. For staid decorous Radnor it
+was an ovation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Dale girls thrilled with excitement. Just
+as the cavalry passed their steps Julie grabbed
+Hester and said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look at that officer just back of the men—isn’t
+he stunning! And see how beautifully he
+manages that prancing horse! No, not over
+there, Hester,—this way, nearer us,” excitedly,
+“the horse is dancing to the music and oh!—why,
+Hester Dale, it’s Mr. Landor! Wave to
+him, quick! I want him to see us!”
+</p>
+<p>
+They both waved, standing on tip-toe, and,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span>
+as if impelled by the instinct that warns us when
+those we love are near, he turned and saw them.
+There was a quick interchange of glances, a
+slight wave of the hand and he was gone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He <em>did</em> see us,” exclaimed Julie. “I am so
+glad even if it is against the regulations for an
+officer to recognize people. Oh, aren’t you glad
+we were down town! It is really living in war
+times and seeing for ourselves the things Daddy
+has described a thousand times!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t realize it,” said Hester, looking
+rather flushed, “but I would not have missed it
+for anything in the world!”
+</p>
+<p>
+When they got back to the house they found
+Jack in a fever of impatience waiting to waylay
+them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you see him? Did you see him?” he
+cried, stopping them at his door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Landor? yes,” laughed Julie. “Did
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where were you? I was down at the
+Armory. Oh, please stop in here a moment till
+I tell you about it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus urged, they went in.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was here,” cried Jack, to whom there
+was only one he, “early this afternoon in his
+uniform and he asked for you; he wanted to say
+good-by, but I said you’d just gone out. I
+saw you both going up the street before he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span>
+came—and he could only stay a second ’cause
+the troops were ordered out and he thought I’d
+like to get around to the Armory and see them
+start off. And didn’t I, just! I went lickety-split
+on my crutches nearly as fast as a boy could
+run,” he cried, immensely proud of this achievement,
+“and I was there in time and got a front
+seat. A fellow on a grocery wagon asked me to
+sit up with him and I saw—everything,” with a
+comprehensive sweep of his arms. “The horses
+and the officers and the men and all their friends
+crowding around the Armory and hanging on to
+some of them tight, and some of the ladies crying
+and gee! but it was great!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you certainly were right in it, Jack,”
+commented Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Should say I was! And pretty soon out
+came Mr. Landor—Lieutenant Landor,” corrected
+Jack with great emphasis, “and an orderly
+was standing alongside the curb with his horse
+and before he mounted he saw me sitting in the
+wagon on the corner of the street and he came
+down and saluted as though I was his superior
+officer,” Jack’s eyes were fairly dancing out of
+his head, “and said good-by all over again. I
+wish you could have seen the crowd! They just
+gaped! and the boys nearly had a fit seeing me
+talking to an officer. And when he went off
+one of them said, ‘Gee! he’s a corker—he’ll
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span>
+knock the spots out of the Spaniards,’ and I
+said, ‘You bet!’ That’s awful slang, Miss Julie,”
+apologetically, “but it’s the truth.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie smiled. “We are getting our first
+glimpse of war, Jack, and it is pretty exciting
+for all of us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m crazy to go—I bet they’d take me for a
+drummer-boy if I could get rid of these,” with a
+disgusted glance at his crutches. “I told Mr.
+Landor so and he said of course I wanted to go—every
+boy wanted to serve his country—but
+sometimes there was just as much to do for those
+who stayed at home as those who went. That
+the women and children must be looked after”
+(the air of protection which the superiority of
+his sex gave him would have been funny had
+he not been in such deadly earnest), “and,” he
+continued, “he appointed me a guard of honor.
+I’m to take care of you!” He made this announcement
+with positive triumph.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How splendid!” said Julie, realizing how
+much this feeling of importance meant to the
+restless boy who was longing to be off for
+the front.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m to go and see his father too, and print
+a weekly bulletin full of what we’re all doing and
+anything I can make up—just like the one I do
+for your father and he’s going to write me from
+camp. Think of that! And I’m to get well as
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span>
+fast as I can and study very hard and try to be a
+man when he gets back. And what do you suppose?
+No more office for me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jack, you are inventing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” delighted at her incredulity, “he had
+a talk with mother last week and I’m to go to
+school and then to college.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is the best news I’ve heard for many a
+day,” said Julie, affectionately regarding the
+happy boy. “If you work hard and go to college
+I prophesy great things for you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If the war’s still on, though, when I’m old
+enough and well enough, maybe I’d get to be a
+drummer-boy.” In his present state of military
+ardor life held the promise of nothing greater
+than that.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they had left him and were nearly at
+their own door they were stopped by the sound
+of his crutches on the stairs below. Hester ran
+back to see what he wanted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t come up, Jack,” she called, running
+down to meet him. “Did we leave something
+behind?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s this, Miss Hester,” reaching out a note.
+“He gave it to me—I nearly forgot. Please
+forgive me,” penitently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, Jack,” taking it from him and
+turning again she went upstairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was only a thin sheet of paper, folded
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span>
+three-cornered, on which in pencil was scrawled her
+name. But she opened it on the stairs with a
+mixture of curiosity and tenderness which she
+would have been at a loss to define had any
+analysis of her feelings been required of her.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“I had hoped to see you,” it said, without any other
+beginning, “but that failing, I have stolen a moment here at
+the Armory to say good-bye. It was not a friend but I, myself,
+to whom you were such a help and inspiration that
+evening. When I come back will you let me thank you for
+that and—more? The bit of gold you gave me I am carrying
+with me as a mascot. Do you mind? And if I prove as
+fearless and brave a soldier as you I shall thank God for
+making me of the right stuff. Will you pray that it may be
+so? Good-bye.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She stood quite still for a moment when she
+had finished reading, then brushed her hand
+quickly over her eyes and went on into their
+apartment. Finding Julie she handed her the
+bit of paper and said gayly, though Julie thought
+there was a suspicious huskiness in her voice,
+“See, Julie dear, a note from a really, truly
+soldier.” And before Julie could speak she
+whisked out of the room and until Bridget called
+her to dinner, was seen no more.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+A month passed, during which, in spite of the
+excitement over war and the subsequent depression
+along certain lines of business, their work
+increased from day to day. And in the midst of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span>
+all this bustle and rush when each hour exacted
+of them the very limit of their endurance, Mr.
+Dale died. He went to sleep with God as
+peacefully as a little child. At first the girls
+could not believe it. They had grown so used to
+the long hours in which he slept, so accustomed
+to the paralysis which kept his mind and body
+apathetic, that they could not conceive that he
+would not wake again and turn his eyes fondly
+on them as before. When finally he was carried
+out of the little home and laid in his last resting
+place they began to realize that God had released
+him from his earthly thraldom and given them
+another saint in heaven. With characteristic
+courage they lived through those first days when
+the awful loneliness pressed so heavily upon
+them, and with characteristic determination
+took up their work struggling to go on as if
+nothing had happened. But it was hard—harder
+than any other sorrow which had come to them—for
+the whole incentive of their work was gone.
+It was as if the very mainspring of their lives had
+snapped and broken.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the long solemn talks the girls had together
+at this time Julie urged that they must be as faithful
+to their father’s precepts as they had tried to
+be while he was with them. And she dwelt
+very much on the fact that he was still with
+them, guiding and loving them as much as during all
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span>
+those years before he was stricken down.
+And Hester believed this too for they had been
+taught the beauty of the inner, spiritual life that
+counts for immortality and makes all separation
+merely a transitory thing bridged over by love.
+So they felt their beloved father still with them,
+though Hester often brokenly whispered that
+working was robbed of its incentive now that they
+were no longer “making a home for Dad.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It must not be supposed that they were left
+alone in their affliction. On the contrary, friends
+sprang up in every direction. Women whom
+hitherto they had only regarded as customers
+and known most formally, now came forward
+with kindest words and thoughtful suggestions,
+while expressions of sympathy in the form of
+cards and flowers threatened to well-nigh deluge
+them. It was evident to the most casual
+observer that “those Dale girls” were persons
+of considerable importance. Unique as it was,
+they had made their place in Radnor, and the
+fact was given wide recognition. They themselves
+were fairly bewildered and overcome by so
+much demonstration from people from whom
+they expected nothing. That they were not
+insensible to its meaning was shown in their
+grateful appreciation of every word and act.
+Even the haughty Miss Davis, desiring to make
+reparation, chose this time to come and see them,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span>
+and Hester out of the fullness of her sorrowful
+heart accepted her repentant kiss and fell to talking
+of childish days.
+</p>
+<p>
+Next to Dr. Ware there was no one so
+keenly conscious of or who so rejoiced over this
+capitulation of exclusive Radnor as the Lennoxes.
+As Mrs. Lennox wrote Kenneth Landor,
+most girls were what their position made
+them, but they had made their own position,
+winning the respect and admiration and at last
+the friendship of every one who knew them.
+He, hard at work drilling raw recruits in Virginia
+(for his troop had been ordered into a
+Southern camp) found time to write how glad of
+this he was and to the girls he sent a joint note
+of deepest sympathy.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Driscoes wrote, of course, each in their
+own way. The girls half smiled over Cousin
+Nancy’s letter—it was such a mixture of a belief
+in the retribution that overtakes the willful and
+an evident grief that the Major was no more.
+Colonel Driscoe wrote little but did much which
+developed later through Dr. Ware who unwarily
+let the cat out of the bag. And Dr. Ware, as
+might have been expected, did everything. This
+time the girls allowed him to plan and arrange
+and perform with them and for them the last
+loving offices for their father, feeling that it was
+his right.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Ware was at this time in England and
+as the Doctor was living at his club, his time was
+more than ever at their disposal. Miss Ware had
+taken flight at this first note of war, indeed before
+the bugle sounded, for she had a very indifferent
+regard for her country and at all times
+preferred England. So the Doctor came and
+went without comment, and a month after Mr.
+Dale’s death he was summoned hastily one
+morning by Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie lay ill. He could not find that she was
+in any great pain and he had not expected that
+she would be. He knew immediately that the
+thing he had been so long dreading had taken
+place. Her tired nerves refused to do their work
+at last—the delicate mechanism of her body had
+stopped.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester hovered about, wide-eyed and solicitous
+and then it was that more than ever Dr.
+Ware took things into his own hands and said a
+few things to Hester which caused that young
+woman to gasp with astonishment and fling her
+arms about his neck in her usual impetuous
+fashion.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<p>
+Under the most favorable auspices a military
+camp entails labor, but to the volunteers
+who assembled in Virginia that spring and
+broke ground for what afterward became known
+as Camp Alger, it was a tremendous undertaking.
+The hewing of wood and clearing
+of underbrush which it entailed was scarcely bargained
+for by the enlisted man fresh from civilian
+life, who, nevertheless, went at it with the energy
+characteristic of Uncle Sam’s boys the country
+over, as a result of which, by the end of May,
+many of the regiments were as well quartered as
+if they were enjoying the customary summer outing
+at their State camp-grounds at home. These,
+of course, were the militia now mustered into the
+United States service and awaiting orders to
+follow the regulars into Spanish territory.
+</p>
+<p>
+Troop D of Kenneth Landor’s squadron had
+unquestionably the finest site on the reservation;
+a wooded knoll stretching down into a field of
+grass—green when the troopers came but worn
+down to bare earth in the first month of their
+encampment. Beneath the shade trees on the hillside
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span>
+the officers pitched their conical tents, the
+men stretching out through the field below in
+two troop streets, back of which on either side
+were picketed their horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a warm June afternoon, but a little
+breeze stirred the branches of the trees and blew
+with delicious freshness over the knoll, on which,
+stretched out at full length, lay Kenneth Landor.
+It was an off hour in camp and, barring
+the sentries who were tramping up and down
+their posts, every man was taking advantage of
+it, some comfortably lounging like Kenneth on
+the grass, others laboriously writing home letters
+filled with their latest exploit. For they were
+just back from a three days’ practice march along
+the Potomac, during which they had spent their
+time in fighting the infantry they met on the
+road and swimming their horses in the river; and
+this first bit of mimic warfare could not fail to be
+of interest to the home people.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth had enjoyed the march hugely. He
+liked action and chafed, as did all the men,
+under the monotony of their enforced encampment,
+although realizing full well that the troop
+would be sent to the front as soon as was
+deemed expedient. He was thinking, as he lay
+on his back gazing skyward, of what he had once
+heard a veteran say,—that war was largely made
+up of soldier housekeeping. That might be true,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span>
+but he hoped he should come in for some stiff
+fighting before he got through. These interesting
+speculations so engrossed him that he scarcely
+noticed the mail orderly going the rounds until
+turning suddenly on his elbow he saw the man
+coming toward him. This trooper, detailed as
+mail orderly, was no other than Charley Bemis,
+whom we last saw at the Earle-Truxton wedding,
+but so strictly was the etiquette of military
+life maintained in camp that the man on approaching,
+saluted his superior officer, received an
+acknowledging salute, delivered a letter and
+turned away without a word.
+</p>
+<p>
+The envelope was addressed in Jack’s round
+sprawling hand and Kenneth prepared himself
+for a comfortable perusal of the weekly bulletin
+which the boy wrote, edited and printed with
+faithful regularity and which never failed to be
+of absorbing interest to the man who received it.
+This time, however, there was no printed sheet,
+but a letter written apparently at fever heat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“<span class='sc'>Dear Lieutenant</span>,” (it began, with military terseness),
+“I’m too upset to do the paper, though I’ll try to soon, but
+you won’t wonder when I tell you. <em>They’re gone!</em> I can’t
+realize it myself and I wish I didn’t have to—it’s all so sudden
+and so lonesome I just want to go off and die!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dr. Ware did it. He and Bridget packed them off before
+they could say Jack Robinson. She’s gone, too, so has he—down
+to Wavertree Hall, their cousin’s plantation in Virginia.
+You see, Miss Julie broke down, though she wouldn’t
+let any of us say she was ill, and Mrs. Driscoe urged them
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span>
+to come there and Colonel Driscoe wrote Dr. Ware and sent
+him the money to buy their tickets and said he mustn’t tell
+and he should rely upon him to get them off. Miss Hester
+told me all that. She laughed, the way she always does,
+you know, and said their cousin Driscoe and Dr. Ware together
+were too much for them. She said they meant to
+have a good rest and get Miss Julie strong and then come
+back to their work again but Gee! I wish they didn’t have
+to—it’s such a fearful grind.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s awful without them, and Peter Snooks gone too!
+Lieutenant Landor, what’s a guard of honor to do with
+nothing to guard? There’s mother, of course, and Mr. Landor,
+but they don’t like me bothering around the way those
+girls did. They never minded. I’ve left off my crutches
+and I’m digging at my books, but I’m going to be a drummer
+boy yet, you bet!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Please send me the latest news from the front. I think
+it’s <em>great</em> to be a soldier!
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>“<span class='sc'>Jack.</span>”</p>
+<p>
+“P.S.—Mother says it’s a girl’s trick to add a postscript,
+but they’re down there near you somewhere. Wouldn’t you
+love to see them, just! They went to Dunn Loring the way
+you did and had to drive a ways into the country. Thought
+you’d like to know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The varied sensations which surged through
+Kenneth as he finished reading are difficult to
+describe. Paramount was the joyful surprise
+that Hester was somewhere in the vicinity, followed
+by the overwhelming desire to see her
+without loss of time. This he knew as he came
+to think it over quietly, was impossible. He
+could not take the initiative or seem to thrust
+himself upon her uninvited. She, of course,
+must know that his troop was still at Camp Alger
+and if she cared to see him—but did she care?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+That baffling question haunted him a week.
+Then came one day a note brought by a small
+darky who was inclined to ride rough-shod over
+the sentries because, as he condescended to explain
+to them, he had a note from the young missis
+to deliver right into the Lieutenant’s own hand.
+A formal, brief little note Hester had written, but
+it was enough, for it told him where they were
+and that their cousin Mrs. Driscoe would be
+most happy to have him ride over and call.
+</p>
+<p>
+He went that evening, inquiring the way in
+Dunn Loring and soon found himself riding up
+a long avenue between rows of locust trees, at
+the end of which he could just distinguish a
+large brick mansion with a square portico and
+broad verandahs at either end. When he drew
+up at the house he discovered a small cavalcade
+ahead of him. At least half a dozen horses were
+standing hitched in various parts of the driveway,
+and following the custom of the place he tied
+his own with the rest. Then he rapped vigorously
+at the knocker to announce his arrival. By
+that general factotum George Washington he was
+ushered immediately across a huge square hall
+and out onto a verandah where a gay group of
+people were laughing and chatting together.
+His first impression was a vivid effect of blue
+uniforms and white muslin gowns while from out
+of this medley a dignified, matronly figure came
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span>
+forward with his card in her hand and said in
+hearty Southern fashion:
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you do, Mr. Landor? It is a pleasure
+to welcome you to Wavertree Hall. Hester,
+my dear, here is one of your Radnor friends.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester slipped down from the railing where
+she had been sitting and shyly gave him her
+hand. Somehow, for a moment he scarcely
+knew her with that strange light in her eyes.
+Then there was a general interchange of greetings,
+for Julie called him over to the hammock
+where she was half reclining and Dr. Ware rose
+up from his seat beside her and nearly shook the
+arm off him; and there was dear little Nannie
+waiting to have him presented and the Colonel,
+who laughingly consented to wait his turn, and
+all the guests who enviously regarded this brother
+officer upon whom, for the moment, all interest
+centered.
+</p>
+<p>
+He saw very little of Hester that night. She
+was the gayest of the gay and seemed to evade
+him with the old elusiveness which had been so
+marked in the first days of their acquaintance.
+So he turned for comfort to Julie, whose convalescence
+kept her a little apart from the lively
+group and whose genuine interest in him seemed
+to the distracted fellow almost the sweetest thing
+in the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+He rode off rather early, in company with the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span>
+other officers, whom he found belonged to a Virginia
+regiment encamped at Alger, and when the
+gay little cavalcade had waved their hands in
+parting and were lost to sight Dr. Ware said to
+Julie:
+</p>
+<p>
+“There was not a man of them who could
+compare with Kenneth—he is superb!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” she assented, “he is. I never saw
+him look so handsome as he does in his uniform.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The others had strayed into the great hall, and
+they were alone on the verandah.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie,” he said gently, “you begin to feel
+more like your old self now, do you not, dear?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes,” she said, “I feel stronger and
+stronger every day. But,” with a little laugh,
+“I am in danger of being spoiled—you all wait
+on me so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is a good thing to get that independent
+young spirit of yours into subjection,” he
+laughed. “We are all making the most of the
+opportunity.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you notice how cousin Nancy has
+changed?” she asked. “She does not eye Hester
+and me so curiously as she did at first. When
+we came she scarcely took her eyes off us for
+days. I think she was prepared to see freaks and
+could not readjust her mind to the fact that we
+looked and behaved just as usual. To cook for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span>
+a living and still be a lady was an anomaly beyond
+her comprehension, but she is beginning to realize
+such things can be, though she wouldn’t
+acknowledge it for the world. Dear cousin
+Nancy! She’s so good and so contradictory!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall never forget her kindness in keeping
+me here,” he said heartily. “Think of my
+merely meaning to see you safe at Wavertree
+Hall, and being taken possession of by her and
+made one of the family! Her hospitality is
+unbounded.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently he said: “I have been waiting for
+you to feel strong enough to have a little serious
+talk, Julie. What would you say if you were
+not to go back to your work for another year?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, we must go back,” she said. “Please
+don’t think we’ll allow ourselves to get demoralized
+or unfitted for work because of all this!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not likely to think that, dear, but your
+cousin Driscoe has had a long talk with me and
+he urges me to persuade you all to remain with
+them a year, at least. He says now they’ve got
+you here they want to keep you and you’ll be all
+the better fitted to work, he thinks, for a long
+rest. He says he has not mentioned this to your
+cousin Nancy because he will not have her bothering
+you to do what you don’t want to—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The dear, blessed man,” she exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And he didn’t want to bother you himself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span>
+but he thought if I threw the weight of my influence
+on his side you might be persuaded. He
+doesn’t know, does he?” wistfully, “what little
+influence I really have with you two independent
+girls!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, don’t say that!” she protested; “it isn’t
+fair! And I do not believe way down deep in
+your heart you would urge our staying on here
+so long. You know too well how hard we have
+struggled to get started to advise our letting the
+work all slip away. Besides, what would you
+do without us all that time, I’d like to know,”
+she said playfully. “You’d be terribly lonesome,
+you know you would and—oh no,” suddenly
+growing serious again, “we must go back
+and take up the work and push on with it, but
+it isn’t the same—it just can’t be without Daddy!”
+She turned her face away but not before
+he had detected the brimming eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dear,” he said, putting out his arms, “if only
+you would let me”—he stopped, pulling himself
+together with a mighty effort. “I—I—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are so good to me,” she faltered, “so
+good!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m far from good to let you get excited to-night,”
+he said, struggling to speak calmly.
+“You are not strong yet, dear, but I wanted to
+speak to you about your cousin Driscoe’s proposition
+before I went away!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Away?” she repeated as if scarcely understanding,
+“must you go away?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think so, dear, in a day or two. Tell me
+what I can do for you in Radnor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Radnor?” musingly, “how far away that
+seems! Yes, you can do something for me
+there—two things. See Jack and tell him all
+about us and hunt up Mr. Renshawe and tell
+him we’ve nearly won the day. Hester and I
+have been maneuvering in his behalf on all occasions.
+Tell him Nannie treads on air and that
+any day he may expect a little flag of truce, for
+cousin Nancy shows signs of surrendering. Will
+you tell him all that?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie dear,” bending toward her with a
+world of tenderness in his voice, “Julie dear, do
+you never want anything for yourself?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” very faintly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can you tell me, little girl?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” reaching out her hands with a little
+childish gesture,—“you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie!”
+</p>
+<p>
+He took her in his arms and for a moment
+there was silence while out in the moonlit trees
+a mocking-bird called to its mate.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My little girl,” he said at last tremulously,
+“is it really true?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, how could I do it,” she whispered,
+“how could I!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Love me? I am sure I don’t know and I
+scarcely dare believe it. Look at me, sweetheart
+and tell me it is true.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She raised her beautiful honest eyes and let
+him look into the depths of her pure soul. “It
+is so natural to love you and so beautiful,” she
+said simply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I am no longer a young man, dear.
+What right have I to ask you to give your young
+life to me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You didn’t ask me,” with a little fluttering
+laugh, “I asked you. It is very humiliating for
+you to remind me of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Julie!” He was holding her fast as if he
+never meant to let her go.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are not old,” she protested. “It is
+not years but the spirit that counts, and you are
+young—just as I am old for my years, and there
+is no one like you but Hester in the world. I
+have been loving you so long unconsciously,
+that I don’t know when it began.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Neither do I, dear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I knew you so well,” she continued, “I
+was afraid you would have some mistaken sense
+of honor that would prevent your ever telling me
+you loved me and I just couldn’t bear that.”
+Julie’s head was hidden on his shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You little saint,” stroking her hair tenderly,
+“you always seemed to belong to me, as if you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span>
+were a part of my very life, but I have never
+felt I was worthy of such a blessing and I have
+reminded myself a thousand times this past winter
+that I could only have one place in your
+affections—the old family friend. When Monsieur
+Grémond came along I realized more than
+ever that I had no right to daydreams—that
+some other man would claim you and carry you
+away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you want me to marry him?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wanted your happiness above everything.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do <em>you</em> never want anything for yourself?”
+she asked saucily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You,” was his answer, at which they both
+laughed with the delicious sense of their own
+humor which only lovers know.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they had a long quiet talk together about
+the future, and he told her how he thanked God
+she was willing to give herself into his keeping;
+how he wanted to flood her life with sunshine
+and how blessed he should be if she and Hester
+would make for him such a home as they had
+made for Dad. And they spoke long and tenderly
+of the man who had been as noble a friend
+as a father and who would always be a loved
+memory to them both. Then she slipped away
+from him and leaving him to dream of a reality
+that was beyond all imagining, went up to her
+room in search of Hester.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<p>
+The change to Virginia was perhaps appreciated
+by no one more than Peter Snooks,
+that by no means unimportant member of the
+Dale family, whose activity knew no bounds.
+He raced madly about the plantation, to the
+consternation of the chickens and the terror of
+Mrs. Driscoe, who, never having owned dogs,
+fancied he was going to take up everything by
+the roots. But Peter Snooks behaved admirably.
+To be sure, he chased chickens, but what canine
+could resist that temptation? And it was
+recorded to his credit that he never hurt one of
+them. With Julie not well and Bridget and the
+two younger girls scarcely leaving her, Peter
+Snooks was forced to seek companionship out of
+the family—quite a new order of things—and
+chose George Washington, greatly to the delight
+of that ebony mite. What games they had out
+in the carriage-house and what antics the two
+cut upon the lawn playing circus for the edification
+of the people on the verandah! Hester herself
+was sometimes inspired to go into the ring
+and put Snooks through his tricks, which were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span>
+many, herself performing some ridiculous caper
+which was received with wild applause. But
+Snooks had the best time when Hester and Nannie
+went riding, and he raced alongside and often
+way ahead, to his own evident delight though
+not always to the comfort of the horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nannie, these days, was the happiest girl in
+the County, for she had her two cousins whom
+she adored and every prospect of a speedy adjustment
+of her love affair. She nearly hugged Julie
+to death whenever she thought of it and confided
+to Hester when they went off together that being
+engaged was just the loveliest thing in the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+It would have been impossible to find two girls
+in greater contrast than Hester and Nannie, for
+all they were such chums. Nannie, in her white
+frocks and big sun hats, was a sweet little maiden
+whose soft brown eyes did not belie her disposition.
+She had a soft, drawling voice and dear
+little clinging ways that made the Colonel’s
+sobriquet of “Puss” seem most fitting. She was
+fast growing to womanhood, but was in all things
+childishly appealing, though that she was not
+without character was shown in various ways,
+culminating in her loyalty to Sidney Renshawe
+in spite of the painful opposition.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester wore white muslin frocks and big hats,
+too—relics of their last year’s Paris shopping.
+It had always been the avowed wish of their
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span>
+father that in the event of his dying before
+them they should not wear black. He had the
+strongest aversion to the garb of mourning and
+the girls remembered and respected his wishes.
+So they had made no change in their wardrobe,
+though since they had come down to Virginia
+they confined themselves almost wholly to white.
+</p>
+<p>
+Simple enough these frocks were, but Hester
+wore hers with an air that gave them something
+of her personality and made her distinctive
+wherever she appeared. There was never anything
+nondescript about Hester. And her moods
+were so many and so varied that her cousin
+Nancy, who did not in the least understand her,
+told the Colonel despairingly that she must be a
+witch—there certainly was not a drop of Fairleigh
+blood in her. Julie, forced to be quiet
+through indisposition, was regarded by her
+cousin as really quite patrician and not in the
+least—and this was a wonderful admission—not
+in the least vulgarized by work. Colonel Driscoe
+agreed to her last statement and let the rest go.
+He found that the simplest way to avoid argument.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth Landor became a frequent caller and
+grew to be an immense favorite with the household,
+but he seldom had the satisfaction of more
+than a few words with Hester. One morning he
+rode over and deemed the Fates more than kind
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span>
+when, finding Julie on the porch, she sent him
+down into the garden, where she said he would
+find Hester helping George Washington pick
+blackberries.
+</p>
+<p>
+His first glimpse of her was a sun-bonnet;
+then two sadly stained hands reaching up among
+the bushes, then a white figure in sharp relief
+against the green; then Peter Snooks barked and
+she turned and saw him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good morning,” she said sweetly, from out
+of her sun-bonnet, giving him a look that seemed
+propitious. “Have a blackberry?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thanks, don’t mind if I do. May I help
+pick?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you like. I can’t stop, you know, for old
+Aunt Rachael is expecting them for dinner.
+We’re great cronies, she and I. I steal out to
+the kitchen quarters often to see her when
+Cousin Nancy is not looking.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you mind pushing back that sun-bonnet?”
+he asked beseechingly. “I know you’re
+inside of it somewhere and I should like to see
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She laughed and pushed it half way back.
+“If that does not suit you I’ll take it off altogether.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, don’t do that, it’s so—so nice,” not
+daring to say how adorable he thought she was
+in it. “I like it the way you have it now. I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span>
+never knew sun-bonnets could be so frilled and
+furbelowed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is Nannie’s—she is making Julie and me
+each one. She says they are a fad this year.
+They are pretty, aren’t they? But somehow
+they feel hot and then I just tie the strings loose
+and let it hang down my back like that. Cousin
+Nancy says a girl who will do that has absolutely
+no regard for her complexion. It would
+be funny, wouldn’t it, if I took to worrying
+about things like that? Why, where is George
+Washington? Gone? And you’re shockingly
+lazy! You haven’t picked a berry since you
+came!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I beg your pardon,” scarcely able to take
+his eyes off her, “I really mean to help.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How is Captain Loomis?” she asked, seeing
+that he seemed unable to do much of anything
+but stare at her. “Have you seen him to-day?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That little Virginian? He haunts our camp
+and talks to me by the hour about you! He is
+madly in love with you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is too silly to be anything else,” munching
+a berry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not like your way of putting it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I mean,” she explained, swinging her sun-bonnet
+by one string, “that he does not know
+how to be sensible and I do not like him well
+enough to bother to teach him, so, as he is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275'></a>275</span>
+around a good deal I have to politely put up
+with him. I should think you knew me well
+enough by this time to know how I hate silly
+people.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you ever politely put up with me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sometimes,” teasingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester, Hester,” called a fresh young voice,
+“are you down there? Come up out of the garden
+quick! It’s so cool this morning father says
+he’ll take us over to camp to see that fascinating
+Mr. Landor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester ducked her head in her sunbonnet and
+fled.
+</p>
+<p>
+When she reappeared half an hour later she
+was in her riding habit, looking so trig and
+tailor-made and altogether conventional that
+Kenneth wondered if she could be the same mischievous
+sprite who had run away from him in
+the garden.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was arranged that Landor should escort them
+over, and the adroit Hester managed that he
+should start off in advance with Nannie, she and
+the Colonel bringing up the rear. Julie and Mrs.
+Driscoe waved them off, then returned to their
+work of sewing for the soldiers. For Mrs. Driscoe
+was the president of a ladies’ patriotic aid
+society and found plenty for herself and the girls
+to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester looked forward with eagerness to reaching Camp
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span>
+Alger, which, though only six miles distant
+from Wavertree Hall, they had not yet
+visited. She rode along at first chatting gayly to
+the Colonel but at last was forced to keep her
+mouth closed on account of the dust. And who
+that experienced it, will ever forget the dust
+of that June in Virginia! Inches deep on the roads
+it lay in a thick brown powder which, at the slightest
+disturbance from man or beast, rose in choking
+waves, covering and submerging everything;
+while in the immediate vicinity of Alger, where
+the sentries warned every one that a gait other
+than a walk was not permitted in and about the
+camp, it smothered them to the verge of suffocation.
+</p>
+<p>
+They approached their destination by way of
+the little village of Falls Church, where over the
+rough and winding road traveled a constant procession.
+It was said by the darkies in Virginia
+that spring, that all the “poor white trash” in
+Fairfax County had abandoned their farms and
+taken to “toting” people to Camp Alger. Vehicles
+of every description were going back and
+forth carrying people from the station to the
+camp, sometimes officers, sometimes soldiers,
+often visitors; in every case the seating capacity
+of buggy, carryall or wagon was stretched to its
+utmost capacity. Intermingled with this motley
+array were the army wagons loaded with camp
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277'></a>277</span>
+provisions and paraphernalia, on the top of which
+usually perched two or more soldiers. These,
+drawn by four mules and driven by an antiquated
+darky, seemed to Hester the most interesting
+thing on the road, though possibly she made an
+exception in favor of the mounted orderlies flashing
+in and out through the crowd or an occasional
+mounted officer who saluted Kenneth and
+stared at the girls in open admiration.
+</p>
+<p>
+As they crossed the picket lines, the camp lay
+before them—row after row of tents (reminding
+Hester of the card houses she used to build when
+she was little) not “gleaming white” like the
+tents of story but brown with the dust. Desiring
+to show them about before dismounting Kenneth
+took them on by his troop and through the
+roads leading by the various regiments. Of
+the thirty thousand men, more than half were encamped
+in the fields, now resembling arid plains,
+so destitute were they of vegetation; while the
+rest, more fortunate, were scattered through
+the surrounding woods, lost to sight except
+for the flutter of a flag above the trees.
+</p>
+<p>
+The party did not attempt to cover the full
+length of the camp, for the sun was getting very
+hot and Kenneth was anxious to get them back
+to his troop in time for dinner. This, her first
+meal at an officer’s mess and in a tent, was one
+of the most novel and delightful Hester had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span>
+ever known. Kenneth counted it the second
+time they had broken bread together and was
+blissfully happy. When it was over, in a fit of
+excessive magnanimity he hunted up Charley
+Bemis who he knew would like to see Hester
+again and brought him up to his tent, where the
+Colonel and the girls were resting. A little
+later they all strolled together over to the troopers’
+quarters, young Bemis being anxious to
+show them the troop mascot, a stunning bull-terrier.
+Down here, too, were the horses, picketed
+back of the tents, while working among
+them were several troopers, one of whom Hester
+especially noticed tall and very blonde, his skin
+tanned to a deep brown. He wore the regulation
+campaign outfit, but his shirt was sleeveless.
+About his neck was knotted a yellow handkerchief,
+his soft hat was pushed well back with an
+upward turn to the front and he was busily
+engaged grooming his horse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That man,” said Kenneth, seeing that Hester
+observed him, “is the president of our coaching
+club at home and drives the best horses in
+Radnor. It’s great the way he, and in fact all
+the fellows have buckled down to work. He’s a
+chum of mine and I’d like immensely to have
+him meet you; I think you would enjoy him,
+too, but I won’t call him over. It would embarrass
+him to death to be caught like that.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester looked at the trooper in admiration.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let’s get out of the way before he discovers
+us,” she said tactfully, “though I’d like to
+march straight over there and tell him how
+proud I am of him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nannie, who had ideas of her own, rode off
+with her father when they started home. A
+mile or two on, the Colonel stopped and waited
+for them to overtake them, when he said, if
+Hester and Landor would excuse them he and
+Nannie would stop at the house in front of which
+they had halted and make a call. So the girl
+and man rode on alone through the beautiful
+woods which led to—was it happiness or only
+Wavertree Hall?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you enjoyed it?” he asked when they
+had gone a little way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! so much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Even if you had to politely put up with me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, there were others, you see. Mr. Bemis,
+and all those charming officers at dinner. Now
+I think of it, you never took us to the Virginia
+camp. Is Captain Loomis away?” looking up at
+him as if the whereabouts of that individual was
+the thing which most concerned her.
+</p>
+<p>
+He laid his hand for a moment over hers.
+“It’s no use,” he said, “you can’t put me off
+with Loomis or any other man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The intense subdued manner in which he said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280'></a>280</span>
+it deepened the color in her cheeks, but her dimples
+played mischievously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What are you going to do about it?” she
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester,” he replied, “do you remember a
+night in April when you and I talked together
+and you were kind and said things that would
+inspire a man to do anything? It was the first
+time you had ever been serious with me and you
+thought it was the first time I knew of the serious
+side of you, but that was not true. You
+turned my life into a new, better channel from
+the moment I first set eyes on you, dear. And
+I loved you so that night on the coach that I
+didn’t know how I was ever going to get
+through without telling you, but I didn’t want
+to take advantage of your goodness and I knew
+you cared nothing for me, though I was determined
+you should some day.” His voice rang
+out in the masterful way she had so often berated
+to Julie. “I am telling you this now
+because my opportunities of seeing you are so
+few and soon they may end altogether. Oh!
+Hester,” he cried, finding it impossible to
+restrain himself any longer, “couldn’t you learn
+to love me a little before I go away?”
+</p>
+<p>
+She had listened with eyes gazing straight
+ahead of her. As he finished she turned and
+looked at him fearlessly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you quite sure I have not learned
+already?” she said. And then as he was about
+to speak, “No, no, do not answer me. I cannot
+answer the question myself. Sometimes I like
+you and sometimes I want to run away from you
+and sometimes—sometimes—”
+</p>
+<p>
+He held his breath and waited.
+</p>
+<p>
+But she did not finish it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We should never get on,” she said argumentatively,
+“we quarrel all the time. At least
+you do—I’ve an angelic disposition,” complacently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I quarrel with you? How could I!” endeavoring
+to fall in with her mood. “It is you who
+say shocking things to me, you bad thing; and
+sometimes, ah! sometimes, dear, you do hurt.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She touched him impulsively. “It is only
+teasing. I never mean to hurt—I wouldn’t do
+it intentionally for the world.” How penitent
+and sweet her voice was!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then won’t you be kind to me, please, and
+love me a little bit?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A little bit? Would that satisfy you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” honestly, “it would not. Oh! my
+dear, I will be very patient if only you will try.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t have to,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” despairingly, “you don’t have to.’
+</p>
+<p>
+“Because—because—I do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The ambiguity of this might have been mystifying to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282'></a>282</span>
+any but a drowning man ready to
+clutch at a straw. Kenneth was raised to a
+seventh heaven of bliss and promptly kissed her;
+at which she blushed furiously and pushed him
+away.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You must not believe everything I say,” she
+protested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I do and I want to and I shall,” exultantly.
+“Oh, my dear, my dear, will you say it
+all over again?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly not,” with pretended severity.
+And then with a light happy laugh, “Do you
+remember how I snubbed you on the street corner
+the day you met me at Dr. Ware’s?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do I? Well, I should say I did! But you
+were even worse at Jack’s. You plunged me
+into the depths of despair, from which I never
+should have arisen if you hadn’t been so charming
+at Mrs. Lennox’s musicale. That night I
+began to take notice again, as it were.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Notice of Jessie Davis? I heard you were
+in love with her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“As if I had eyes for any one but you! I
+used to fairly haunt dear old Jack’s place in the
+hope of running across you, but you always
+managed to elude me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I used to think at first,” she said seriously,
+“that you were just curious about us, because we
+were poor and earned our own living and were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283'></a>283</span>
+not like the girls in your set, and I resented it.
+That made me nasty to you, though I liked you
+all the time. Then, well,—do you know what I
+believe made me care for you? If you laugh,”
+earnestly, “I’ll never forgive you. It was because
+you took such care of me at the wedding
+and never offered me a bit of cake! You suspected
+we had made it, didn’t you? And I
+thought any man who had tact enough for that
+would be my undoing and I should not wonder,”
+with a swift look from under her long lashes,
+“if it were true, but you will never tell a soul I
+told you, will you?” beseechingly. “It’s a
+secret—the undoing, you know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Darling,” he said, “I knew more about you
+and your work than you thought and that is why
+it was like wrenching my heart out to come
+away. I wanted to stay there where I could
+work for you and wait and hope that I might
+make your life easier. Then when you talked
+to me that night I knew that whether you ever
+loved me or not you would want me to go.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And now if you only loved me enough to
+marry me I might at least leave you my name
+and the protection of my father, whose home
+would gladly open to you and Julie if he knew.
+<em>Couldn’t</em> you do it, dear heart?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I don’t know,” she said so low that he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span>
+could scarcely hear her. “I do love you, but it
+is all so new and strange that I cannot realize
+what it means or even if it means as much as it
+should to the man I marry. I want to be honest—and
+you offer me so much that I don’t
+know what to say. I don’t love you as I love
+Julie, and perhaps after that you will not want
+me to love you at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, dear, I shall. If you care for me in any
+sort of way I am thankful and love is a thing
+that grows and grows. Some day I believe you
+will love me as much as you do Julie, but in a
+different way. There is room in your heart,
+dear, for both of us if you will only let me in.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is just the way Julie puts it,” she
+answered. “She is going to marry Dr. Ware.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is? Jove! what an ideal match!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s what I think. I would not have believed
+that I could contemplate sharing Julie and
+be as happy about it as I am. The night she told
+me I danced for joy! She needs a man to take
+care of her, and I love him with all my heart; it
+changes nothing inwardly and everything outwardly.
+I am going to live with them but I
+shall not mind being dependent on them for
+awhile. At first I thought I couldn’t, but they
+have made me promise. Dr. Ware is so dear.
+He says what is his, is Julie’s, and what’s Julie’s
+is mine, and,” laughing, “there is no getting
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285'></a>285</span>
+around that, is there? Julie and I have always
+gone shares. Besides, I’m going to study to be
+a trained nurse when Julie is married. I couldn’t
+just sit down and be idle the rest of my days.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank God your work is over!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not my work but that work. No one will
+ever know how hard it was; there was so little
+profit in most of the things we made that we
+could not afford to hire the necessary assistance
+and had to take the brunt of everything ourselves.
+We should have kept on until we ‘died
+in our tracks,’ to quote Bridget, if it had been
+necessary, but I thank God, too, that we are not
+obliged to. It taught us a great many things,
+the poverty and hardship and all,” she continued,
+feeling his interest, “and we shall be able
+to understand life and help people a great deal
+better because of it. Julie and I have had so
+many talks together both with Dr. Ware here
+and since he went North about all the things we
+mean to do. We look forward to a very busy
+life.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am supremely glad that things have come
+out this way, dear,” he said, “only,” wistfully,
+“all these plans make me feel as if you had little
+need of me. Won’t you please,” gazing pleadingly
+in her eyes which shone steadfastly into
+his, “won’t you please see if you can’t make a
+place somewhere for me?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Far off through the woods came the note of a
+bugle. Hester drew in her breath.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps,” she said softly as they turned in
+the avenue, “I do need you and want you, too.
+Will you wait and see?”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<p>
+There was no announcement of Julie’s engagement
+except to the household of
+Wavertree Hall. Her marriage was likely to
+take place early in the summer, for Dr. Ware
+was to attend a medical convention in California
+and wanted to take her with him. In the event
+of his doing this, Hester and Bridget would join
+them later, for Mrs. Driscoe wanted to be off, as
+was her custom, to the Springs and Hester
+shrank from going into a scene of gayety. There
+seemed to be no reason why this plan should not
+be carried out, for Julie had entirely recovered
+and except for the shadow of sadness left by her
+father’s death, was quite herself again. She
+knew it would be their beloved Daddy’s wish
+that she should shape herself to the events of her
+life in just the way she would have done had he
+been actually among them, and many and many
+a time her new happiness was glorified by the
+thought that he knew and was rejoicing too.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Hester came and told her of that ride
+through the woods with Kenneth, her cup was
+filled to overflowing. For Julie understood her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288'></a>288</span>
+sister better than the girl understood herself and
+she knew the love she now bore Kenneth would
+“grow and grow,” as he had said, until it
+became a powerful factor in her life.
+</p>
+<p>
+So finally Julie’s wedding day was fixed and
+the day before, Dr. Ware with the Lennoxes
+and, as a joyful surprise above all things, Jack,
+arrived on the scene. The Doctor told her that
+this was the Driscoes’ idea—to bring them down
+and surprise her, as Cousin Nancy’s guests. As
+Mrs. Driscoe said to Mrs. Lennox, who laughingly
+protested against such an invasion:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Virginia is the heart of the country, my dear
+Mrs. Lennox, and we are the heart of Virginia—welcome
+to Wavertree Hall.” She was heard
+to remark afterward to the Colonel that that
+charming individual looked like a thorough-bred
+Virginian.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Jack, a more ecstatic boy never trod
+on earth. The girls laughed and cried over him.
+So did Bridget, who gave him such a hearty
+smack that he nearly hugged the head off her.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were other arrivals also, that day at
+Dunn Loring, for Mr. Landor had come down to
+have a look at Kenneth, and Sidney Renshawe
+was once more at the Blakes’ plantation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The latter called at Wavertree Hall that afternoon
+and Mrs. Driscoe was in such a good
+humor over the charming, aristocratic Mrs. Lennox
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289'></a>289</span>
+and the little excitement of guests which
+delighted her hospitable soul that she actually
+shook hands with him and asked him to join
+their party that afternoon—they were going over
+to camp to see Mr. Landor. That bit of cordiality
+was enough for Renshawe. Enough, too,
+for dear little Nannie, who had witnessed this
+meeting with mingled fear and delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+They arrived at camp just before parade and
+at Kenneth’s tent was an elderly man who
+proved to be his father. In the general introductions
+which followed, Kenneth’s pleasure was
+very great in this meeting of Hester and his
+father. She began talking to him at once in her
+bright, vivacious way, and what was really remarkable,—for
+he never had the faintest idea
+what to say to girls and seldom encountered them,
+he talked to her quite at his ease. But then, this
+wily young woman touched now and then on
+Kenneth—just enough to start him on the subject
+nearest his heart. It was very near her
+heart, too. But when had the stern, impassive
+Caleb Landor talked so freely of his son
+before?
+</p>
+<p>
+As they sat under the “fly” which made a
+shelter in front of the tent, the girls observed
+down the line the colors standing in front of the
+Captain’s quarters and it thrilled them with
+the pride of patriotism to see all the men and officers
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290'></a>290</span>
+in going to and fro lift their hats and pass
+bare-headed before the flag.
+</p>
+<p>
+The routine of camp was very interesting to
+Dr. Ware who had lived through it, to the girls
+who had all their lives heard of it, and to Jack,
+who still hoped to be a part of it in spite of
+his years. So it was a very talkative if somewhat
+weary party that returned to Wavertree
+Hall.
+</p>
+<p>
+Late that evening there came tearing up the
+avenue a mounted orderly. He brought a note
+for Miss Hester Dale which required an immediate
+answer. She opened it quickly. At the end
+she leaned against the pillar as if for support.
+Then she called Julie out from the garden where
+she and Dr. Ware were strolling and said unsteadily:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Read that, Julie dear. I want you to know
+before I send my answer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie read:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Sweetheart, my orders have come. Since you left I
+have heard officially. I am to be transferred and leave for
+Tampa to-morrow afternoon to join the Rough Riders, who
+embark in a few days for Santiago. Do you think, dear—could
+you, would you marry me before I go? Would that
+dear little Julie let you and me go with her and the Doctor
+to-morrow and make our lives one in the sight of God? Oh,
+say yes, say yes! But not unless you are sure, dear. I had
+rather wait a dozen years than have you give yourself to
+me under protest. Whatever you say, dear, I shall believe
+is for the best. But, oh! if you could—<span class='sc'>KENNETH</span>.”
+</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span></div>
+<p>
+Julie took her sister in her arms.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester, darling, have you decided?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Julie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You and Kenneth will come to-morrow with
+Philip and me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Julie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Hester, my blessed, blessed girlie, it is
+the most beautiful thing in the world!”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was very little sleep for the girls that
+night. They sat for a long while in the window-seat
+up in their room where the scent of the
+honeysuckle came drifting in, talking softly of
+the past and laying plans whereby their happiness
+should go out into the world like a strong
+search-light to illumine dark places.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not always those commonly called the
+poor who are most in need, Hester. It is the
+refined, sensitive people who have seen better
+days, who suffer most. And we have learned,
+too, dear, how super-sensitive adversity makes
+one. I am glad we know these things, aren’t
+you, even though the learning of them nearly
+tore our hearts out? It has broadened and developed
+us and is going to make us helpful
+women in the world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And oh! Julie dear,” replied Hester, “isn’t
+it beautiful to think how we shall be able, both
+of us, through our—our husbands,” stumbling
+over the word, “to do things for people. Little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span>
+things and big things to lighten people’s burdens
+and give them courage, just as so many times
+courage was given to us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, darling. God is putting the power in
+our hands—it is for us to use it wisely.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Presently Hester said, “I am glad we won our
+own place in Radnor before going back there
+again under different circumstances. It makes
+me feel that we amounted to something and
+that if it ever happened that misfortune of that
+sort came again we should be able to keep our
+heads above water, to turn our fingers to account.
+Look at them, Julie,” holding up her hands for
+inspection, “they are not the same things at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No dear, they have lost their porcelain transparency
+which used to be such a pride and
+delight but I like them better as they are. They
+are strong, capable hands, now, for all their
+daintiness which you never can lose. I have
+been thinking lately, that one’s hand can be as
+indicative of character as one’s face. I hope
+yours and mine will not belie us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We did not much think when we came out
+of the flat that day that we should never go back
+there, did we, old girl? I can’t realize it yet.
+It seems as if all those pots and kettles and pans
+and bottles would swoop down and whisk us off
+to ‘The Hustle’ when we get back to Radnor.
+Oh! my dear, we <em>did</em> ‘hustle’! The name did
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span>
+not belie that place! Down here in this drowsy
+Virginia I sometimes wonder if it was really we
+who worked like that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know,” Julie said, “I know, too, that we
+should have worked right on there to the best of
+our ability all our lives if it had been so ordered,
+but I am thankful, thankful that our energies
+can act in another way. We shall have a great
+deal to do, dear, and the wisdom of an older experience
+than ours to help us do it and all the
+time Daddy watching over his little girls.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And so at last they lay down to rest, these two
+little comrades whose heads and hearts were
+full of joyous anticipation of a broader field of
+action, a glorious life campaign.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the
+wedding that lovely June morning. Flanked
+on either side by Dr. Ware and Kenneth, the
+girls walked down the avenue to the gate and
+across the road with those nearest and dearest in
+attendance, to the little chapel where for generations
+the Fairleighs had worshiped and where the
+previous autumn their father had put in a memorial
+window to their mother. The gardens and
+the woods for miles around had been stripped of
+flowers to decorate the chancel, which took on a
+thousand lights as the mellow sunshine poured
+in through the stained glass windows.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294'></a>294</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Little Nannie stood up with them—she and
+Sidney Renshawe, and the dear old Colonel during
+the ceremony was forced more than once to
+take off his glasses and wipe them carefully. The
+girls were without ornament save that each carried
+a great bunch of white roses gathered in the
+garden at Wavertree Hall. Julie wore a certain
+white mulle gown that the Doctor loved
+while Hester, to please Kenneth, the simple
+muslin frock in which she had picked blackberries.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A bride in a frock just out of the wash-tub!”
+cried Cousin Nancy aghast. She had never
+dreamed of such a total disregard of the conventionalities.
+But when she found Mrs. Lennox
+was on Hester’s side she demurred no longer.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Landor sat with the Lennoxes and many
+a strange sensation took hold of him as he gazed
+first at Kenneth and then at Hester and back
+again at his stalwart son.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget occupied a front seat in a state of perfect
+beatitude. She was the first to receive a
+kiss from the brides when the ceremony was
+over. Jack was there, of course, immensely
+relieved at this satisfactory arrangement whereby
+all three of his friends were happily married.
+And Peter Snooks was there, solemn and dignified,
+decorated with a gorgeous red, white and
+blue bow but indignant at this touch of femininity
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295'></a>295</span>
+and resentful that he was not allowed to go
+up and stand with the bridal party. George
+Washington and the other servants were in the
+rear of the chapel.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the ceremony they all trooped back
+again to Wavertree Hall where, on the lawn
+under a cluster of superb oak trees, where the
+stars and stripes were waving, a lunch was spread
+for their refreshment.
+</p>
+<p>
+Cousin Nancy, aided by Mrs. Lennox, was the
+presiding genius of the feast, while Mr. Lennox,
+also, came to the front with jests and stories to
+relieve the solemnity of the past half hour.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kenneth, radiantly happy and looking handsomer
+than ever in his uniform, was here,
+there and everywhere, but with always his
+first thought for Hester. She was unusually
+quiet—subdued by happiness and the thought of
+the parting so near at hand. It was Julie that
+day whose laugh was the merriest, but then Julie
+knew something which Hester did not.
+</p>
+<p>
+In accordance with a tradition of Wavertree
+Hall Mrs. Driscoe had brewed a punch, a mild
+but delicious concoction famous at all the Fairleigh
+weddings.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Lennox proposed the health of the brides
+and then the bridegrooms. Dr. Ware toasted
+the mistress of Wavertree Hall. And so it went
+around from one to the other, until, having
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296'></a>296</span>
+cheered the President, the army, the navy and
+the flag, Dr. Ware excited the wildest enthusiasm
+by bowing low to Mrs. Driscoe and saying:
+</p>
+<p>
+“We lived through other days in Virginia, you
+and I, Mrs. Driscoe. Three cheers now for a
+reunited country!”
+</p>
+<p>
+How they did shout! There was not a dry
+eye among them. Then Jack’s thin voice called
+out:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Won’t somebody please cheer for the boys
+that want to be soldiers and can’t?” At which
+they all laughed and cheered again.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were other people who had a secret that
+day besides Julie. Indeed they were all in it
+except Hester—in fact they knew much more
+about it than Julie herself, who only knew half.
+It had been arranged that Hester and Kenneth
+should drive with Julie and the Doctor to the
+station; then, as Hester supposed, she and Kenneth
+were to have an hour together before
+he took his departure. He had told her that he
+had left everything at camp ready to send on,
+so that it would not be necessary for him to
+return there.
+</p>
+<p>
+She was a little surprised when they took such
+an affectionate farewell of her as well as Julie and
+before she got into the carriage Mr. Landor had
+asked her to step aside a moment with him.
+</p>
+<div><a name='i304' id='i304'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i007' id='i007'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-304.jpg" alt="THE WEDDING BREAKFAST" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>THE WEDDING BREAKFAST</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297'></a>297</span></div>
+<p>
+“I shall be gone when you return,” he said,
+speaking with some difficulty, “and it is proper
+you should know that I approve of Kenneth’s
+marriage. He talked at some length about you
+last night and it’s a good thing—a good thing.
+I never had a daughter—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester kissed him. Caleb Landor had not
+been kissed for thirty years.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kenneth belongs to us both,” the girl said
+simply, “and we are both giving him up but it
+must be the hardest for you, because you have
+had him the longest.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know, I don’t know,” gruffly, to
+hide his emotion, “we can’t go into that. I
+want you to take this,” slipping something in
+her hand. “I hear your sister requested there
+should be no wedding gifts for her. Mrs. Lennox
+tells me that she asked those who wished to
+remember her to turn the money instead into the
+Red Cross Fund. No doubt you feel as she
+does. I understand you are much alike. If you
+will keep that paper and use it for the sick and
+wounded later—for we are bound to have them—as
+a gift from yourself, I shall be much obliged
+to you. No, don’t thank me, say nothing about
+it. And remember that my house is open to
+you whenever you care to come.” It is doubtful
+if Caleb Landor had ever made so long a
+speech in his life.
+</p>
+<p>
+She did thank him, choking back her tears.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298'></a>298</span>
+Then she thrust the paper in her pocket and
+later when she had a chance to examine it she
+found a check of a thousand dollars, made payable
+to her, Hester Dale Landor!
+</p>
+<p>
+All the way to the station she roused herself
+and chatted gayly to make Julie’s last moments
+with her a bright remembrance. Julie was so
+excited she could scarcely contain herself and in
+order to sit still was fairly rigid in her seat.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they reached the station the train was
+not yet in sight but on a side track stood a car.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What is that?” asked Julie curiously, as they
+left the carriage.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is yours,” quietly answered Dr. Ware,
+watching the effect of his words.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mine? What <em>are</em> you talking about?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come and see,” cried the Doctor who felt
+like a boy of twenty.
+</p>
+<p>
+She ran down the platform, stood still and
+trembled from head to foot.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hester,” she gasped, turning with the old
+habit to her sister, “Hester, it is ‘The Hustle!’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is, it is!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Bridget with Peter Snooks in her arms was
+waving out the car window.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Philip!” Julie cried. And without another word
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299'></a>299</span>
+he took her in his arms and carried
+her in the car.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If the days to come here,” he whispered as
+he put her down, “are as happy as the old ones,
+little wife, I shall be satisfied.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester and Kenneth, who had not known
+whether or not to follow were called peremptorily
+in and all exclaimed over by Bridget, who having
+been appointed by the Doctor a reception committee
+of one, felt this the proudest and happiest
+moment of her life.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now tell us all about it,” said Julie, “but
+first I am going to make Hester as ‘comfy as
+comfy can be.’ You poor little thing, you are
+not going to lose Kenneth to-day. You are
+both coming South with us. We are going to
+do escort duty to the distinguished young officer,
+Lieutenant Landor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed the bewildered Hester.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We are all going down in ‘The Hustle’ together,
+Hester,” explained Dr. Ware, while she
+was made to sit down, Kenneth tucking a cushion
+under her feet and Julie perching on the arm of
+her chair. “Julie did not know about ‘The
+Hustle’—that was my surprise for her—but she
+did know that we meant to go West by the way
+of Tampa—we settled that last night after you
+heard from Kenneth—and have you and him go
+along with us so that we could all see the last of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300'></a>300</span>
+him. Kenneth and the people at Wavertree
+Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into
+my secret so he could send his things aboard.
+Bridget packed your trunks while you were at
+luncheon and got them off without your knowing
+it and here we all are, as snug as possible,
+with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in
+order.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kenneth,” said Hester with brimming eyes
+but in the old bantering tone which always made
+them laugh, “how dare you have secrets from
+your wife? How dare you! It’s a perfectly
+scandalous beginning!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Please, you were not my wife then, and I
+won’t any more,” he said penitently. “Will
+you forgive me, please?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t understand how you did it,” said
+Julie to her husband, who leaned over the back
+of the chair on the arm of which she was perching,
+his head on a level with hers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was not difficult, dear. I had been on the
+track of ‘The Hustle’ for some time. I always
+intended to capture you all sometime and take
+you off for a vacation in her. That was one of
+my dreams, but I never mentioned it to certain
+little girls I knew for fear it would never come
+true. Early this spring I learned that the car
+had been relegated to a car shed on a Western
+road—it was not considered modern enough for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301'></a>301</span>
+use. So I ordered it on to Radnor, had it overhauled
+and thought it would be an ideal place
+for a honeymoon, eh, little wife?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! yes,” she said shyly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And Hester,” slipping his hand down over
+the chair and resting it on her shoulder, “it is
+your honeymoon, too, dear. I am so glad.
+And ‘The Hustle’ is yours as much as it is
+Julie’s. Will you always remember that? Kenneth,
+old man,” with a change of tone, “will
+you come with me and see that everything is
+aboard? I hear the train, which means that we
+shall be picked up and taken on in a few minutes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Left to themselves, the girls, half-dazed by
+these astonishing events, wandered slowly about
+the dear old familiar car, which had suffered
+scarcely an alteration. Julie felt it was Dr.
+Ware’s exquisite forethought which had kept
+the interior so nearly as they had left it. There
+was the piano at which she had so often played
+and sang for Daddy and the great leather chair
+drawn up close in which he had spent many a
+restful hour listening to her. Over the piano in
+its old place hung a portrait of her mother and
+at one end of the car, looking down benignly,
+hung their favorite picture of their father—the
+Major in full uniform with that spirited look of
+action which so distinguished him. Over the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302'></a>302</span>
+picture were crossed two swords, his and
+the Doctor’s; over these higher up was draped
+Old Glory hanging in splendid folds.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Nannie and Mr. Renshawe and Jack,
+they come over this mornin’ an’ fixed the flag
+an’ all the flowers you see around everywheres.
+Jack said to tell you he done the swords. Didn’t
+he get ’em up fine? They had a great time over
+here all unbeknownst to yez,” explained Bridget.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls stood hand in hand before the picture.
+“Oh! Daddy,” they whispered, “dear
+Daddy, help us to be worthy of all this!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303'></a>303</span>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<p>
+They made the run to Tampa in two days.
+The transports were being loaded with
+ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia
+of war as they arrived and Kenneth went on
+board with the last detachment of Rough Riders.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she
+was. There was never a tear, though she clung
+at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let him
+go. That was for but a moment. The next
+she stood erect and smiling on the rear platform
+of “The Hustle” waving him off. The picture
+Kenneth carried away with him cheered all the
+hours of all the days to come. He had only to
+close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with
+head thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes
+smiling and smiling into his very heart. And all
+through the desperate fight before San Juan
+when the bullets hissed and all was deafening,
+blinding chaos, rang her last words, “Fight for
+your country and me—be as brave an officer as
+Daddy.”
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party
+reached there, was found an accumulation of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304'></a>304</span>
+mail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A
+letter from his sister was read and handed to
+Julie with a smile.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“<span class='sc'>My Dear Philip</span>,” it began:—“Your letter telling me of
+your engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie
+Dale was no surprise to me. I had always known you were
+in love with her or you would never have been so idiotically
+approving of all the crazy things she did. I will say, though,
+that if you intended to marry you might have done worse. I
+understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie, whom I saw last
+week in London (they have just been presented at Court)
+that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set
+before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some
+campaigning! However, people quickly forget things, and
+all that vulgar cooking may be regarded merely as the
+freakishness of two headstrong girls. I hope you will
+remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight rein over
+her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will be
+unimpeachable.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself
+of invitations from English friends and remain here
+into the winter when I shall probably join Lord and Lady
+Wynne in a trip into Egypt. I may decide to make England
+my home. I prefer it to the States and should not under any
+circumstances think of returning while that tiresome war is
+going on.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer,
+left hand end. Tell Julie I am most particular that the
+linen, especially that not in constant use, should be frequently
+aired, and the blankets must go down on the line in
+the yard once a week. There are other things which a
+flighty young person should know and which I shall
+write her at length later. I hope that dog is not to be
+allowed the freedom of the house. I shudder to think of it!
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'>“Affectionately,</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'><span class='sc'>Mary</span>.”</p>
+<p>
+Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305'></a>305</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Miss Ware!” she said, “she still regards
+us as monsters of iniquity. Am I a headstrong
+young thing?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course,” quizzically. “Don’t you feel
+the tight rein I hold over you?” taking her face
+in his hands.
+</p>
+<p>
+For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment
+of Bridget who had knocked unheard and
+entered the room at that moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and
+succeeded in keeping her busy and diverted.
+Hester’s great wish had been to follow Kenneth
+to Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced
+both by him and the others that it would be an
+unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and
+nothing of nursing beyond the limited experience
+she had gained in caring for her father, and
+it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her
+vitality having been greatly exhausted by the
+strain of the previous winter, she would be dangerously
+susceptible. But the old wish to
+become a Red Cross nurse was more than ever
+strong within her and this desire they all encouraged
+and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were
+to be long in the field Hester’s happiness would
+lie in being near him and administering to the
+sick and wounded men. So she plunged into
+Spanish with an excellent teacher in San Francisco
+while Dr. Ware brought her books on nursing, gave her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306'></a>306</span>
+practical talks on surgery and
+promised to get her into a training school for
+nurses as soon as they returned to Radnor at the
+end of July.
+</p>
+<p>
+The newspapers were her solace and despair—they
+said so little and so much! With heads
+together she and Julie devoured them, reading
+every word. The newsboys’ cry, “Extra,
+Extra!” filled her with apprehension. She had
+had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they
+were about to land with General Shafter at Baiquiri.
+Before there was time to hear again, the
+papers blazed with the news of the desperate
+attack on San Juan, and the Rough Riders
+became the heroes of the nation.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes,
+searched for the list of dead and wounded.
+With beating heart her finger went down the line
+and stopped.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant,
+Troop—, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, wounded
+in the thigh.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She lived through the next ten days of suspense
+like a person in a dream. Her impulse
+had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr.
+Landor wrote that he was going down and would
+take her with them. But Dr. Ware, the far-seeing,
+advised them both to wait. News would
+soon come direct from Kenneth and it was probable that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307'></a>307</span>
+he would be sent home on sick leave
+before they could get down to him. Seeing the
+wisdom of this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that
+he should wait. And Hester waited. Julie
+never left her. She buoyed her up night and
+day with the belief that Kenneth would not die.
+</p>
+<p>
+The papers in their later and more detailed
+accounts of the attack and capture of San Juan,
+spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of
+Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to
+the highest pitch of enthusiasm by his unflinching
+spirit, which carried everything before him.
+Later in the official report from General Shafter,
+Kenneth Landor, wounded before San Juan, was
+given honorable mention.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then one day came to Hester a letter in an
+unknown hand. It was written from the field
+hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband
+was recovering; that the operation upon his thigh
+had been successful; that Mr. Landor’s cable to
+send the Lieutenant home had been received
+and that already at headquarters arrangements
+were being made to get the wounded who could
+be moved aboard a transport off by the end of
+the week. That Landor himself knew nothing
+of all this, for he was too weak to be consulted,
+but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no
+cause for alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor
+was safely home again she would get him well
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308'></a>308</span>
+and return him speedily—the troop could not
+afford to spare for long so gallant an officer.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hester read this precious document until it
+was worn to shreds. And Julie and her husband
+took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper
+informed them that the transport had started.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the
+dock to meet him. Mr. Landor was too unnerved
+to leave the house and Julie remained
+with him, helping him through the tedious hours
+that intervened between the time when a clerk
+had telephoned from the office to the house that
+the transport was sighted down the harbor
+and the moment when the carriage stopped
+at the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+They brought him into his father’s house on
+a stretcher, Hester walking by his side, her hand
+in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling,
+turning from one to the other with a hungry
+devouring gaze that made his father choke and
+leave the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+What a home-coming that was! Very still,
+lest the invalid be excited, but very impressive,
+and always to be remembered by those who witnessed
+it; for hearts spoke through eyes what
+tongues dared not utter and a suppressed sense
+of exaltation mingled in their love.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in
+one’s family. So at least thought the Dale girls,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309'></a>309</span>
+even though it was a very refractory hero, who
+sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any
+claim to distinction whatever.
+</p>
+<p>
+Under Dr. Ware’s guidance, Hester and
+Bridget took care of him. He was home on a
+two-months’ sick leave and hoped at the end of
+that time to rejoin his troop wherever they then
+might be; but Dr. Ware, though he said nothing,
+thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth
+would be sufficiently recovered to go into
+the field before October. By that time the war
+might be over. Who could tell?
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick
+room listening quietly while Hester, close to the
+bed, read the papers to her soldier husband, who
+never took his eyes off her. And the father did
+much thinking at that time. His stern repellent
+nature was softening under the warmth of Hester’s
+sunny presence and more than once she
+had looked up suddenly to find him gazing at
+them with misty eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely
+to gaze at his hero. Now and then, as a mark
+of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie on
+Kenneth’s bed. The little rascal seemed to
+appreciate the privilege and kept very still,
+sometimes licking Kenneth’s hand, as much as to
+say he knew how to behave in a sick room—had
+he not spent hours at a time with Major Dale?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310'></a>310</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Julie was in and out many times a day, doing
+a thousand little things for the comfort and happiness
+of the invalid. She and Hester were near
+neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two
+doors down from Dr. Ware’s on the water side
+of Crana Street.
+</p>
+<p>
+And here in Radnor where they had fought
+and won so great a victory, “those Dale girls”
+began a new life.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Those Dale Girls
+
+Author: Frank Weston Carruth
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2011 [EBook #37304]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE DALE GIRLS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SHE SHOOK A WIRE CAGE ENERGETICALLY OVER THE COALS]
+
+
+
+
+                            Those Dale Girls
+
+                                   BY
+
+                         Frances Weston Carruth
+
+                 In the world's broad field of battle,
+                 In the bivouac of Life,
+                 Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
+                 Be a hero in the strife!
+                                        --_Longfellow._
+
+                                Chicago
+                          A. C. McClurg & Co.
+                                  1899
+
+
+
+
+                               Copyright
+                         By A. C. McCLURG & CO.
+                               A. D. 1899
+
+
+
+
+                               TO EDITH,
+
+                   MY SISTER AND COMRADE, THE BRAVEST
+                            OF SOLDIER GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+                             ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+She Shook a Wire Cage Energetically over the Coals         Frontispiece
+
+The Girl Sat Down on the Arm of His Chair                            48
+
+"May I Have a Guess, Miss Dale?"                                    114
+
+There Were the Girls in Their Cotton Gowns                          188
+
+Julie Was in Bed When Hester Came In That Night                     232
+
+The Wedding Breakfast                                               304
+
+
+
+
+THOSE DALE GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"Julie Dale, you're the laziest thing in creation! Come down from that
+window-seat and help."
+
+"Can't, my dear," a gay young voice responded. "I'm as 'comfy as comfy
+can be.'"
+
+"Look at her, Peter Snooks," said Hester to a fox-terrier at her side;
+"just look at her! She's curled up in a heap, reveling in that
+fascinating Kipling, with her mouth all screwed up for this popcorn,
+which she thinks we will take in state to her ladyship. But we'll fool
+her--eh, Snooks? We'll fool her completely. We'll just sit complacently
+on the floor and eat it all up ourselves."
+
+The dog jumped about rapturously. The girl, who was kneeling before an
+open fire, shook a wire cage energetically over the coals, and watched
+the corn burst into great white flakes.
+
+"It does _smell_ delicious," came in an insinuating tone from the
+window-seat across the room.
+
+Hester maintained a lofty silence, and tipping the corn into a bowl,
+sprinkled it with salt, adding dabs of butter. She then tossed a piece
+to the dog, and began to sample it herself with apparent satisfaction,
+for she smacked her lips and said, reflectively, as she put her hands to
+her burning cheeks: "I believe it is quite worth ruining my complexion
+over."
+
+Suddenly she whisked up bowl and dog, and crossing the room, dropped
+both on the seat beside her sister. "There!" she exclaimed, "you knew I
+would never eat it alone, even if you are a duffer!"
+
+"'Duffer' is most inelegant" (this from Julie in an assumption of stern
+reproach); "I do not see wherever you picked up such a word."
+
+"Read it in a book," quoted Hester, laughing. This was a joke of
+longstanding between them--to hold literature responsible for any
+suspicious scraps of knowledge. It was a phrase they used also with much
+frequency in argument, particularly when the subject was beyond the
+range of their experience. "Don't know a thing about it, read it in a
+book," one of them would say facetiously, by way of backing up some
+remarkable statement, and feel herself at once relieved from personal
+responsibility.
+
+"You need not put on such frills," Hester now said to her sister. "You
+know you adore slang yourself."
+
+Julie was gazing out of the window. "Look, Hester, quick! There go the
+crew! How they are skimming down the river! I'd no idea they trained out
+here, had you?"
+
+Both girls watched intently as the narrow shell shot by, the men pulling
+the long, steady stroke which was the pride of their university.
+
+"Aren't they splendid?" Hester exclaimed, enthusiastically. "I wish we
+knew some of the college men, Julie, don't you?"
+
+"It would be fun. I'd like to see something of college life. Perhaps we
+may meet an occasional senior if Miss Ware takes us about any this
+winter."
+
+"Do you suppose he'd be nice?" inquired Hester, quizzically. "I don't
+think we know much about very young men, do you? All we've known have
+been so much older than we are."
+
+Julie puckered up her forehead and gazed after the vanishing crew. She
+was trying to classify an unknown species.
+
+"It does seem odd," continued Hester, "_our_ contemplating formal
+society, doesn't it? I believe I shall hate it. We have roamed around
+with Daddy too much to be quite like pattern society girls."
+
+"I tell you what we'll do, Hester; we'll go out with Miss Ware, meet
+loads of people and pick out a nice congenial few whom Dad will like,
+too, and just cultivate them informally. You know how Dad dislikes
+society in the conventional sense, but he wants us to take our proper
+place; and of course we ought to know people, now that we have really
+settled down in Radnor to live."
+
+"Heavens! but you're clever, Julie! We might set up a salon; only the
+wise, the witty and the beautiful need apply. Which class would we come
+under ourselves, do you think? We can begin with Dr. Ware and all the
+old dears--only he never seems old a bit--that Dad is always bringing
+home to dinner, and add any new dears we meet and think eligible."
+
+Julie laughed. "It sounds like a herd or something." Then, with sudden
+gravity, she said: "Hester, dear, I'm anxious about Dad. I can't just
+explain it, but somehow he's been different ever since we've been here.
+Haven't you noticed how preoccupied he is and tired all the time, so
+unlike Dad? The other day I spoke to him about it, and he shook his head
+and said I mustn't be so observant, that he happened to have an unusual
+stress of business, that was all. But I don't know," she continued,
+meditatively; "I can't seem to throw off this queer feeling about him."
+
+Hester regarded her with wide-open eyes. "You frighten me, Julie." Then
+leaning toward her sister, she shook her finger admonishingly. "How dare
+you go on having worries by yourself and not letting me know a thing
+about them?" she said, lightly. "I think it is all your imagination. I
+dare say Daddy has heaps of extra things on his hands because of all the
+time he spent gadding with us in Europe. Of course, that's it, you
+goosey," the idea gaining strength in her mind, "_of course_. You and I
+and Peter Snooks must be more amusing, and make him laugh and forget the
+'stress of business.' Ugh! what a horrid expression that is! Now I think
+of it, he hasn't laughed lately, Julie, has he?" She looked up with an
+evident desire to be contradicted.
+
+Julie shook her head.
+
+Hester sprang up from her seat, and seizing the dog by the forepaws,
+danced him violently about the room. "We need a shaking up, Peter
+Snooks, or we'll not be allowed to jingle our bells any longer at the
+court of his majesty Dad the Great! Who ever heard of jesters neglecting
+their duties! His royal highness must laugh," she said gayly, "or he'll
+cry, 'Off with their heads!' like Alice's fierce old queen." She
+emphasized this possible calamity by swinging the dog up in the air and
+herself executing a daring _pas seul_ before she dropped breathless in a
+chair. "I had rather die than be stupid, hadn't you, Julie?" she gasped,
+between breaths.
+
+"In that case I think you will be spared to us a while yet," replied her
+sister, with quiet humor.
+
+"So glad you think we're a success," Hester said, cheerfully. "Peter
+Snooks, do you hear? we're a success--she approves!" The dog lay panting
+on the floor, and wagged his tail in understanding of the compliment.
+"We'll give a private exhibition to his majesty to-night after dinner.
+How he will laugh! We will elaborate this feeble effort and call it 'The
+Dance of Joy.' Things are always more interesting with names," she said,
+decisively. "Julie, you be showman and introduce us."
+
+Julie took her cue immediately, and rising, bowed low. "Ladies and
+gentlemen (that means Dad)--ladies and gentlemen, I shall now have the
+honor of presenting to your astonished vision the wonderful and original
+'Dance of Joy'--"
+
+The library door opened suddenly, and a middle-aged woman entered and
+closed the door after her. She stopped just inside the threshold, and
+looking from one to the other with a scared face, stood wringing her
+hands helplessly.
+
+"Good gracious! what is the matter, Bridget?" Julie ejaculated. "Tell
+us--you look frightened to death."
+
+The woman opened her lips and closed them with a moan. No word escaped
+her.
+
+Both girls were beside her in an instant, and Julie gave her a little
+shake.
+
+"Is it Daddy? What has happened? Bridget, Bridget, speak!" Her
+beseeching young voice cried out with instinctive fear.
+
+"They're bringing him in," Bridget gasped at last. "He took sick in the
+office with a stroke. Dr. Ware's with them. He sez you're not to see him
+yet. He sez I'm to keep you in here till he comes--the Doctor, I mean."
+Her words came in a tumult of confusion.
+
+"Is--he--dead?" Julie asked. "Bridget, tell me the truth."
+
+It seemed to the girls that they lived an eternity in the second before
+the woman said: "No, no, he's not dead. Whatever made you say such a
+fearful thing?" She buried her face in her apron and wept bitterly.
+"He's tired out and sick altogether, the dear man. I've seen it comin'
+this long time."
+
+Hester looked at Julie with a sort of awe. The sound of footsteps in the
+hall outside penetrated with ominous distinctness into the library.
+
+Julie said tremulously, "Hester, dear, I am going to Dad; they shall not
+keep us away."
+
+"No, they shall not. We are not babies; we must go and help."
+
+"That's what I wus after tellin' the Doctor you'd say," Bridget sobbed,
+"an' it's not for me to be lavin' you here all alone, an' me all over
+the house to onct. But if yez wouldn't go now, darlin's. Just wait till
+he's took to his room, an' 'twould be better--indeed, believe your old
+Bridget, it would!"
+
+The impetuosity of youth in the shock of joy or sorrow is not to be
+checked. The girls went into the hall, to see a stretcher, on which lay
+their father, being borne up the stairs, while Dr. Ware and two men, who
+proved to be trained nurses, brought up the rear of the little
+procession.
+
+"Dr. Ware," whispered the girls, slipping up close to him with blanched
+faces, "we know--we must help, too."
+
+He took them each by the hand, as if they were little children, and
+turned them back before they could reach their father's side.
+
+"Dear little girls," he said, gently, "you can help your father most by
+doing as I ask. It is hard to be shut out, I know, but you can do
+nothing now. Later, perhaps, you can do--everything. I will tell you
+frankly, he is a very sick man. I have no wish to hide anything from
+you, but we shall try and get him better--much. I have two experienced
+men, and Bridget here, and when we get him comfortably in bed you may
+come in for a moment. He may not regain consciousness for many hours.
+Will you trust me and be guided by my better judgment?" looking down at
+them earnestly.
+
+"Yes, yes," they both sobbed through the tears, now falling fast; "go to
+Dad--don't think of us. We will do everything you say."
+
+"That pleases me--my brave little girls." He went on into Mr. Dale's
+chamber.
+
+Left to themselves, they huddled together outside their father's door,
+each trying to comfort the other. Peter Snooks, fully conscious that his
+young mistresses were in trouble, climbed into Julie's lap and stuck his
+wet nose into her hand in true canine sympathy. Though they did not put
+it into words, both girls were conscious of a curious sense of
+remoteness from their father in being thus kept from him. This
+immediate, poignant grief stung them bitterly and prevented for the
+moment any thought of what the future might hold.
+
+They never knew how long they had sat there on the stairs when Dr. Ware
+opened the bedroom door and beckoned them in. But they carried ever
+after a vivid impression of creeping stealthily to their father's bed,
+stooping to kiss the dear face, from which there was no answering sign
+of recognition, and stealing softly out again. And in Julie's mind there
+flashed always an accompanying picture--the remembrance of how, when
+they had reached the hall again, Hester had picked up a woe-begone,
+shivering little dog, and burying her face in his neck, whispered,
+brokenly: "Oh, Peter Snooks, how we were going--to--make--him--laugh!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was said of Mr. Dale by those of his friends' wives who felt at
+liberty to discuss his affairs with their husbands, that his bringing up
+of his daughters was radically wrong. These whispers of feminine
+disapproval were occasionally wafted to the seemingly heedless father,
+who always smiled good-naturedly, yet was apparently blind to the
+advantages to be derived from the conventional course of training the
+young, for he continued to pursue his own methods with bland serenity.
+
+Mrs. Dale had died when the girls were six and seven years old
+respectively. Up to that time they had lived quite like other children,
+going regularly to school and finding recreation in the pleasures common
+to their age and condition. The house in which at that time they lived
+was a somewhat pretentious mansion on the water side of Crana Street.
+Now to live in this sacred precinct, as every one in Radnor knows, gives
+an immediate claim to distinction. In the eyes of their neighbors,
+however, the Dales were not distinguished beyond the matter of their
+locality, for the family was not Radnor-bred, and this is an offense
+tolerated but never condoned in Radnor society.
+
+The Dales had drifted there from some unheard-of (to Radnor) western
+town soon after the Civil War, while the country was still in a state of
+upheaval. Major Dale brought to the readjustment of his business the
+force and skill which won for him distinction on the battlefield,
+gradually transferred his interests from the western town eastward, and
+took root in Radnor, where he proceeded to build up a fortune. Not
+there, however, but back in Mrs. Dale's old home, some years later, the
+girls were born. They came to Radnor as babies, and like their father
+took root; but Mrs. Dale, a semi-invalid, spent much of her time wearily
+traversing the country in search of health. She disliked Radnor, and
+made no attempt to cultivate the people. During her prolonged absences
+the children remained at home under the care of Bridget, a faithful
+servant who had come with them from the west.
+
+With Mrs. Dale's death the quiet placidity of the children's life
+ceased. The house was closed, and Mr. Dale started immediately for
+California, taking the girls and Bridget with him. While there he became
+interested in railroad enterprises, which eventually extended through
+remote and varied sections of the country and kept him a bird of passage
+for many years. He built a private car and took his daughters everywhere
+with him, to the consternation of Radnor, which was kept informed of the
+magnate's movements through the medium of the press.
+
+The girls grew up in an atmosphere of devoted companionship, among
+scenes that were ever changing. They lived much in hotels, and for weeks
+at a time in their private car, "The Hustle," which they never ceased to
+regard as a fascinating playhouse, and where their father, in the midst
+of his multitudinous cares, found time to watch their developing natures
+and teach them to grow in grace and spirit, as became the daughters of a
+soldier.
+
+They were not wholly without lessons, for when they remained for any
+length of time in one place Mr. Dale's private secretary was dispatched
+to find a good school, in which they were immediately placed; while Mr.
+Dale, who had theories of his own, trained their eyes to keen
+observation of what they saw and their minds to reason out the obscure
+according to their own lights. He was full of wisdom and patience and
+counsel, but he had a way of turning on them when they came for advice
+and saying, "What do _you_ think?" in a manner that would have been
+startling to the average child, who is apt to think what he is told.
+This turning the tables began in their teens, whereby they came to have
+opinions without being opinionated, for, though requiring them to think
+out every subject carefully, he yet guided them with a firm hand, giving
+them in every sort of discussion the wisdom of his wide experience. He
+was a loving, indulgent father, and the girls adored him, but no sterner
+disciplinarian ever held sway. Implicit and immediate obedience he
+demanded--no questioning of his higher authority.
+
+He taught them, too, much of the old-world philosophy, which he had
+imbibed from extensive reading. They listened to him wonderingly, their
+eager young minds drinking in the beauty of what he said, but failing at
+that age to grasp the breadth and depth of all the truths he told them.
+Sometimes he almost forgot that they were children.
+
+When Julie was twenty and Hester nineteen he took them to Europe.
+Bridget and Peter Snooks completed the party. They roamed about for a
+year, and just before they were to sail for home late in the summer Mr.
+Dale informed the girls that he intended to sell out his large railroad
+interests; he was tired of their unsettled life, and thought they would
+all enjoy the novelty of opening their house and taking up their abode
+in Radnor. Radnor had long ceased to be anything more than a name to the
+girls, but the proposition opened up joyous possibilities of "making a
+home for Dad."
+
+"I will take you down to Cousin Nancy's in Virginia when we land," he
+had said to them in London, "and leave you there a few weeks; she has
+been begging for a visit from us this long while. Bridget and I will
+open the house in Radnor and get everything in order; then you can come
+up and run the establishment and queen it over your old Dad in royal
+fashion."
+
+This program had been successfully carried out, except that it could
+scarcely be said that the girls ran the establishment, for the
+responsibility lay with Bridget, who assumed the duties of
+housekeeper--duties she guarded jealously and performed with such skill
+that there was not a better managed house on the water side of Crana
+Street. This Radnor people knew through that mysterious agency by which
+a neighborhood keeps in touch with itself.
+
+After years spent in the narrow confines of a car, however luxurious,
+and the necessarily limited quarters of hotels, the girls reveled in the
+spacious house, over which they spread themselves in an amusing fashion,
+sleeping in turn in the various bedrooms by way of getting acquainted
+with them all over again, Julie said, and with reckless prodigality
+hanging some portion of their wardrobe in every closet in the house.
+
+At the end of their first week in Radnor, Hester amused her father by
+telling him she thought she should enjoy housekeeping exceedingly if
+they had an elevator, a menu and "The Hustle" side-tracked in the back
+yard. Reluctantly she admitted that the yard could scarcely be made to
+hold it, but at least, she suggested airily, he might build a float and
+anchor the car at their back door on the river. The new life really
+seemed to her incomplete without it.
+
+Hester at twenty was a laughing, dancing sprite, yet with a certain
+quaintness and matureness of mind that amused and delighted her father's
+friends. She was slim and dark, with a piquant face and fascinating
+hazel eyes that shot out mischievous lights. They were unusual eyes, and
+very beautiful with their fringe of long dark lashes; but she did not
+think so, and compared them scornfully to a cat's--the only animal she
+hated. If she could be said to have any vanity it was for her hands,
+which came in for a considerable share of her attention, and she went to
+bed in gloves every night of her life.
+
+Julie, whose hands were not a matter of comment, dispensed with this
+bed-time ceremony, and usually devoted most of her time before retiring
+to a vigorous brushing of her rebellious yellow hair, which, when it was
+let alone, rioted all over her head in such babyish curls that her
+father always called her "Curly Locks." Her eyes were violet--her lashes
+and brows dark, like Hester's, which gave her a most remarkable contrast
+of coloring. From her mother she had inherited a delicate constitution,
+and lacked the buoyancy of Hester's gay spirits; nevertheless, she had a
+keen sense of humor and laughed immoderately on all occasions at her
+sister, whom she considered altogether the cleverest and most amusing
+person she knew. And they knew many delightful people from one end of
+the country to the other--everywhere except in Radnor, where society was
+waiting for Mr. Dale formally to present his daughters before setting
+the seal of its approval upon them.
+
+The second day following that on which Mr. Dale was brought home ill,
+Dr. Ware stayed longer than usual with his patient and came out of the
+sickroom with a grave face. In the hall the girls were waiting for him
+as usual.
+
+"My dears," he said, abruptly, drawing them into the library, "you have
+to know the worst, and there is no one but me to tell you." For a moment
+he hesitated. "Your father's illness is caused by his financial
+ruin--his entire fortune has been swept away. He has lost everything,
+and the shock of his failure has paralyzed him." For a moment neither
+spoke; each girl felt that she could hear her heart beat in the awful
+silence of the room. Then Julie said:
+
+"Won't Daddy soon be better? Oh, you can't mean he will always be sick
+like this?" Her eyes were black with pain and apprehension.
+
+"He will never move about again. Physically he may suffer very little;
+the anguish will come through the consciousness of his helplessness----"
+
+"We will not let him feel that," interrupted Julie, throwing up her
+head. "Hester and I are strong."
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat. "Thank God for that, for you've a hard
+fight ahead of you."
+
+Hester crept close to his side. "Will you tell us more about it,
+please," she whispered in a strange, tense voice; "it's so--so difficult
+to understand."
+
+"Of course it is, dear," putting his arm around her. "Things began to go
+wrong a year ago. Your father felt it, and nearly abandoned the European
+trip, then went after all, feeling absolute need of rest and hoping he
+had left the snarl sufficiently straightened out to go on without him.
+But things went from bad to worse, and he came back to more
+complications than any one man could manage. Even then he might have
+pulled through somehow if that western road in which he had so largely
+invested had not smashed and carried him down with it. You don't want
+the details, Hester."
+
+"No," she answered, "it is enough that the thing is."
+
+He looked at her intently, as if astonished that so philosophic a
+statement should come from so young a person.
+
+"Shall we have to give up the house, and--and 'The Hustle,'
+and--everything?" asked Julie.
+
+"I'm afraid so, Julie dear. That is especially what I want to talk to
+you about to-day--your future. I want you to leave it all to me."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" she cried, "you're good, so good, but we can't do that. We
+must look the future squarely in the face, and bravely, must we not,
+Hester?" turning appealingly to her sister. "I'm sure that is what Daddy
+would say."
+
+"Julie, don't you be afraid; we'll just do everything--somehow!" Hester
+flung out her young arms with a sweeping movement as if she meant to
+gather in all their perplexities and conquer them. "If Dr. Ware will
+help us and advise us, we'll try to get our feet down on
+something--somewhere. Yours aren't very big," she said, with a piteous
+attempt at her old lightness, "but mine are. I feel just now as if I
+were standing on my head, it is all so sudden and so terrible!"
+
+Dr. Ware rose and put on his coat. "I think you have heard enough for
+one day," he said. "You seem to be such surprisingly independent young
+women that I do not know just how I am going to deal with you. But you
+are to remember this, mind, that whatever I have is
+yours--everything--though I shall not thrust it upon you. If you have
+ideas of your own and wish to carry them out, I will help you in every
+way in my power. Now I am off," he added, briskly, "and don't you worry
+too much. We have many days yet to talk things over and decide what is
+best to do."
+
+Julie tried to say something, but ended by burying her face in his coat
+sleeve and sobbing quietly.
+
+Hester fiercely bit her lip and gulped down the tears that threatened to
+choke her. "You are the kindest, best--" she began.
+
+"Tut, tut, nonsense!" said the Doctor. "Not a word like that, or I shall
+desert you entirely." And with a frown on his face that was half a smile
+he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+"Julie, it is too absolutely appalling to realize!" Hester pressed her
+nose against the window and looked out over the river dejectedly. A
+fresh September gale was blowing, ruffling the surface of the water into
+miniature waves and rattling the window panes with a suggestion of
+autumn days to come. Julie shivered a little, and crossed to the
+fireplace, where a few pine logs sputtered on the hearth. She looked
+down without seeing them. Her thoughts were turned within.
+
+"Julie! do say something!" exclaimed her sister. "I can't bear to have
+you so still."
+
+"I am thinking, dear; trying to grasp what it all means."
+
+"Julie, what can we do?"
+
+"Do? Well, we will do something."
+
+"Of course we will, old girl." Hester left the window, and crossing the
+room put her arms around her sister. "The two main things are to take
+care of Dad and earn our own living. We couldn't be dependent on Dr.
+Ware, Julie. Do you suppose he meant he wanted to give us a home and
+everything?"
+
+"I don't know, Hester. He is so generous and so fond of Dad I believe he
+would; but that would not be right. I wonder what we can do to be
+self-supporting? We have the usual accomplishments, and I suppose we
+have average intelligence, don't you?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+"I would back the intelligence against the accomplishments any day,"
+said Hester, sagely. "We have not had the usual sort of bringing up, so
+we can't do the usual thing."
+
+"Like teaching, you mean, or--or things like that? No, we can't. We are
+not trained or qualified for any sort of position, and only one of us
+could work away from home anyway, for we can't both leave Daddy."
+
+Hester's forehead was creased into little wrinkles of perplexity. "If
+only I were a man!" she exclaimed, "I might stand some chance--I know
+how to do such a lot of mannish things. Why, I could be an engineer if I
+were put to it, Julie! You know I've run the engine attached to 'The
+Hustle' many a time; the men used to let me do it." She drew in her
+breath with a little gasp of remembrance. "As it is," she continued, "I
+suppose I'll have to be a companion or something equally commonplace and
+ladylike," she ended in a tone of disgust.
+
+"I suppose so," agreed her sister reluctantly; "but, dear, the worst of
+that is it will separate us, and I don't believe either one of us could
+stand that." Julie's lip quivered. "Isn't it humiliating to have such a
+feeling of utter helplessness?"
+
+"Yes, it is." Hester gave herself a shake. "I cannot seem to take it all
+in yet, Julie--what it all means. It seems to me we must be some other
+girls talking, not ourselves at all. Somehow it never entered my mind
+that dreadful things could happen to us--not while we had Dad to take
+care of us."
+
+"But that is just it now, Hester dear; we haven't Dad to take care of
+us--it is we who must take care of him."
+
+"We'll do it, too," said Hester, with a ring in her voice. "I'm going
+down now to the kitchen to see about making him some wine jelly. Bridget
+said she did not believe Dr. Ware would let him eat it, but I feel as if
+I must be doing something. Come, Peter Snooks," to the dog that was
+never far out of sight, "we'll at least make a pretense of being useful.
+Now don't you sit there and cry," she said from the door to her sister.
+"You just hold tight on to yourself, and think out something clever--I'm
+sure you can," convincingly.
+
+Julie acknowledged this flattery by a wan little smile, and following
+Hester out of the room, went in to see her father. The nurse was sitting
+near the bed, but moved aside as she entered.
+
+Mr. Dale partially opened his eyes as his daughter drew near, but closed
+them again instantly. His drawn, haggard face showed the strain he had
+undergone in the months before the final collapse of his business had
+stricken him down. A look of tender pity came into Julie's face as she
+knelt by the bed and laid her hand over his. He was breathing heavily,
+as if asleep, and she dared not speak. It seemed to her inconceivable
+that her bright, energetic father could be lying there as helpless as a
+little child! She put her head down on the bed, while her mind reverted
+to their recent conversation with Dr. Ware and the subsequent talk which
+had half stunned their senses. They must think, Hester said, and she was
+right; but it almost seemed to her it would be a relief to stop thinking
+for a moment, so rapidly had the events of the past two days been
+crowded in upon them.
+
+All this passed through her mind in a tumult of confused ideas, through
+which ran the predominating thought of work, in obtaining which she knew
+Dr. Ware would help them. But how, and what and where? In the first
+shock of their trouble it was not possible to see the way clearly, nor,
+indeed, to half understand the problems confronting them. Julie felt
+this and knew she must be patient, though inwardly a wave of resentment
+that such things should be, surged in her heart rebelliously. The next
+instant she thrust down this feeling with a fierce determination to
+control herself, and spreading out her hands, for the first time in her
+life regarded them critically. They were not beautiful, like Hester's,
+but they were slender and white, and she suddenly felt a contempt for
+their delicacy, while a consciousness that she had never exacted
+anything from them caused her to view them in a new light. Why not work
+with her hands! Why not put her fingers to some use and see what they
+were capable of, making each one a vital thing full of strength and
+character. The idea delighted her, and she closed her fingers in a tight
+grip as if testing their possibilities. "Oh, Daddy, dear!" she half
+whispered, with her head pressed close against him, "we will amount to
+_something_." Then rising from the bed, she stooped to kiss him, and
+went in search of Hester.
+
+When Dr. Ware came again they convinced him of their determination to
+work, and he promised to look about and see what opening could be found
+for them. He had only a moment to give them that morning, but said he
+should return in the evening to have a long talk. When Hester kept him a
+second longer to display, with considerable pride, the wine jelly she
+had made for her father, he shook his head.
+
+"Not just yet, my dear," he said, kindly. Her disappointment was so
+evident that the good Doctor felt inclined to eat it himself by way of
+proving his admiration of her culinary skill, and then--he had an
+inspiration.
+
+"Hester," he said, "will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Indeed, I will."
+
+"I should like to carry that jelly off with me; it fairly makes my mouth
+water. If you'll give it to me, my dear, I will allow your father to eat
+an unlimited amount of it later on; and then think how busy you will be!
+Come, is it a bargain?"
+
+"Dr. Ware! As if you need ask! Why, you know I'd just love to give it to
+you."
+
+She had arranged the jelly in a dainty dish, and now ran into the
+dining-room for a doily, which she wrapped about it.
+
+"Won't you let us send it over to you, Dr. Ware?" Julie asked.
+
+"No, thank you, Julie; I'm going to drive right home," and the Doctor
+went off with the dish in his hand.
+
+When he reappeared that evening he astonished the girls by approaching
+them silently, while he bowed with great ceremony before Hester, to whom
+he held out a package and said: "Allow me to congratulate you, my dear."
+
+Greatly mystified, Hester took the package and unwrapped it, to find the
+glass jelly dish she had given him that morning, in the bottom of which
+lay a two-dollar bill. She looked up at him wonderingly.
+
+"It is yours, Hester," he said. "I plead guilty. I took that jelly to a
+crotchety old patient of mine who is boarding, and reviles all the jelly
+his nurse buys for him. I told him I thought I had found some that would
+please him, and I was right. He devoured half of it while I was there.
+Then he insisted on paying for it. I did not tell him where it came
+from, but he wants some more, and he said that was what it was worth."
+He was watching her closely.
+
+She had taken up the bill, and was handling it nervously, a deep flush
+on her bewildered young face. "Julie," she exclaimed, breathlessly,
+turning instinctively to her sister, "Julie, I've _earned_ some money!"
+
+"How splendid!" Julie stared at the bill as if it were different from
+any she had seen before. Hester threw her arms impulsively around Dr.
+Ware's neck. "This is the only way I know how to thank you," she cried.
+
+"I shall instantly create a demand for your jelly, my dear, if I am
+always to get a commission like this," the Doctor laughingly remarked,
+delighted at the success of his venture.
+
+"Are you serious, Dr. Ware? Do you suppose I could make jelly to sell?"
+she asked, anxiously.
+
+"Why not, Hester?"
+
+The girl was silent for a moment then suddenly she cried, "Julie Dale,
+we'll _cook_ for a living!"
+
+"Cook!" repeated Julie, incredulously, "I don't know a thing about
+cooking."
+
+"No, but I do. Don't you know how Cousin Nancy was always fussing
+because I would haunt the kitchen down there? I learned how to make
+jelly from her old colored mammie, and heaps of things beside. Of
+course, I never actually put my hand into anything--old Rachel wouldn't
+let me, but I saw how she did lots of things, and her cakes were famous
+all through the County, you know they were. If we can sell wine jelly we
+ought to be able to sell other things, don't you think so, Dr. Ware?"
+
+"I do indeed, my dear; I think your idea is excellent."
+
+"Hester, I will learn, I am sure I can," cried Julie hurriedly. "I'm
+aching to get my fingers into something."
+
+"Of course you'll learn--we'll both have to learn as we go along, and
+even if we don't succeed it's worth trying."
+
+"As for that," said the Doctor, "anything you may attempt will be more
+or less in the nature of an experiment."
+
+"Yes," acquiesced Hester, "and if we do succeed it means working
+together, Julie dear, in a place of our own, and being with Dad. Just
+think what that would mean!"
+
+"Everything!" assented her sister. "I believe you've hit upon a
+way--there always is a way, if one keeps looking!"
+
+"One of the first things to ascertain," said Dr. Ware, "is the cost of
+materials and the market price of such things as you suggest making."
+
+"Yes," confessed Hester. It had never occurred to her in the whole
+course of her young life to consider the cost of anything.
+
+From this the talk went on to other things relative to the change about
+to take place, and Dr. Ware remained several hours in earnest
+conversation with them. At the end of that time, when he rose to take
+his departure, there was, added to the affection already in his heart, a
+tremendous feeling of admiration and respect for these girls, whose
+spirits flashed undaunted; while they, on their part, were experiencing
+through him the depths of human kindness.
+
+"We mean to be worthy of all you are doing for us," said Julie, stopping
+a moment to steady her voice, "and we mean to make our fight as bravely
+as you and Daddy did years ago, when you tramped through the Wilderness
+together."
+
+The Doctor straightened his shoulders and made a military salute. "On to
+victory!" was all he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+"George Washington! G-e-o-r-g-e W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n!"
+
+"Ma'am?"
+
+"Why don't you answer the first time I call you? Come here and go hunt
+the Colonel and tell him I want him directly. He is around the house
+somewhere."
+
+George Washington, aged ten, his woolly head full of sticks, his
+blue-jeans sadly perforated and the lower portion of his ebony limbs
+guiltless of covering, came out from behind the kitchen quarters and
+shambled off in search of his master.
+
+"That boy shows old Rachel's blood," soliloquized the mistress of
+Wavertree Hall; "he would not run if there were a bomb under him!"
+
+It was one of those balmy days in Virginia, when the sly, deceptive
+October sun kisses one into the belief that summer will remain always.
+Mrs. Driscoe sat down on the back steps of the verandah and watched two
+cocks fighting in the yard, as she awaited the appearance of her
+husband. She looked, herself, not unlike a bird of ruffled plumage, for
+the bit of lace and pink ribbon with which she ornamented her scanty
+locks was awry, while her crocheted shawl--pink to match the
+ribbon--hung off one shoulder, and her whole aspect presented a
+disheveled appearance which in her indicated a perturbed state of mind.
+Now and then she glanced at an open letter in her hand, the contents of
+which seemed to displease her, for she shook the paper as if it were a
+live thing she were chastising and tapped her foot impatiently.
+
+Presently a voice behind her said mildly: "Did you want me, my dear?"
+
+"Want you? Certainly I wanted you! What do you suppose I sent for you
+for if I didn't want you?" Mrs. Driscoe drew up her pink shawl with a
+gesture that spoke volumes.
+
+"Won't you get a headache, Nancy, sitting out there in the sun?" asked
+the Colonel solicitously.
+
+Concern for her physical welfare touched his wife's vanity and appealed
+to her heart. She softened perceptibly.
+
+"Maybe I had better come up and sit in a chair," she said. "It's those
+girls that have upset me. I believe they're clean daft."
+
+He helped her up and pulled a chair into a shady part of the verandah,
+waiting until she was comfortably ensconced before seating himself.
+
+He was a gallant, the Colonel, full of little courtesies which endeared
+him to the hearts of women. That was why the Widow Chisholme married
+him, the County said. She wanted--but does it matter after all these
+years what the County said?
+
+He sat down now beside her and waited for her to begin. She usually did
+begin and end everything.
+
+"The girls refuse to come--I've just had a letter from Julie; she is the
+most independent, ungrateful young minx I ever heard of!"
+
+"Oh--ah--not that, Nancy, not that, I am sure--ahem--you must be
+mistaken. She impressed me as a very gentle, sweet young creature."
+
+"Gentle fiddlesticks! Do you call that gentle?" flaunting the letter in
+his face.
+
+"Possibly, my dear, if I were to know the contents of the letter I might
+be better able to form an opinion."
+
+She handed it over and watched him read it.
+
+"Ah," he commented at the end, "what remarkably original girls!"
+
+"Give that letter to me, Driscoe," (she had always called him Driscoe
+from the beginning) "I don't believe you half understand it--you are
+always way off in the clouds somewhere when you haven't got your nose
+buried in a book. Those girls are going to work--to cook! They actually
+prefer to cook for a living when they might come down here and live like
+ladies the rest of their lives. They have moved into rooms their Doctor
+found for them--I expect it is one of those nasty little places they
+call flats, in some horrid neighborhood and I am sure no one will go
+near them and they'll die of loneliness with their crazy notions."
+"Cook!" she repeated scornfully, "who ever heard of a lady doing a
+servant's work!" The little pink bow on the top of her head fairly
+quivered in outraged sympathy.
+
+"I am sure the girls appreciate your offer to give them a home," Colonel
+Driscoe said when he was allowed to speak, "Julie's letter speaks very
+feelingly about it. If they think it wise to try and be independent I
+must say I can't help but admire their spirit."
+
+"That is all you know about it! In my day girls did not do odd,
+independent things--they did as they were told!"
+
+It occurred to the Colonel that her day was past, but he wisely
+refrained from giving the thought utterance.
+
+"A lot of your foolish Northern notions still cling to you Driscoe," she
+said resentfully. "It is my opinion that those Dale girls have disgraced
+the family--there is too much of their father in them--a true Fairleigh
+would never stoop to menial labor; and yet their mother and I had the
+same Fairleigh grandmother. Oh, it is too trying--their behavior--too
+trying for anything! It terrifies me to think what they may come to!"
+She stopped rocking in her chair and sniffed audibly.
+
+"There, there, Nancy, don't take it so to heart," comforted her husband,
+"it may be best as it is--we'll see if we can't raise a little money
+somewhere to send them--the poor young things must be in sore straits
+these days with poverty to face and an invalid father to take care of."
+
+"Umph! they don't act like it--and as for money, I don't see it lying
+round loose on the plantation."
+
+This was a sore point with the Colonel, who was known since his marriage
+to have swallowed up a considerable portion of his small income
+patenting farming implements that were impracticable. He had been a
+bachelor with an inventive turn of mind and only one lung when he met
+the Widow Chisholme at the Springs. Upon marrying her it seemed most
+desirable for her convenience (for she would never have tolerated life
+outside of Virginia) and his health, that they should live on the
+Chisholme property, which was somewhat extensive and kept them land
+poor. Mr. Driscoe, New Hampshire born and bred, settled down into a
+country gentleman and turned his attention to agriculture; but his mind,
+half inventive, half scholarly, wholly visionary, had made rather a
+sorry mess of it, and his wife, who had never relinquished the reins of
+government, now held them with a firmer hand. He was Colonel only by
+courtesy, the servants having dubbed him that immediately. It was
+impossible for them to recognize a real gentleman without a title.
+
+He said no more about money, but shaded his eyes and looked down the
+long avenue leading out to the road. In the distance he could see a
+small darky open a gate, while down the road came a horse with a swift
+gallop.
+
+"Here comes Nannie, my dear. She will not be pleased with your news,
+will she?" the Colonel said regretfully.
+
+The girl brought the horse up with a sharp turn at the steps, thereby
+causing consternation to a brood of chickens, which scattered in every
+direction. Then she threw the bridle to George Washington and slipped to
+the ground.
+
+"My," she exclaimed, fanning herself with her hat, "it is pretty warm
+riding."
+
+"Now don't sit down there and take cold," expostulated her mother;
+"here, put my shawl around you."
+
+Nannie, who had dropped down on the steps, laughed and shook her head.
+"A shawl in October! who ever heard of such a thing. I am all right,
+mummie; don't take it off--it looks so pretty on you." She smiled at her
+mother, who was not proof against this bit of flattery, though her only
+manifestation was a closer drawing of the shawl around her shoulders.
+"Don't you feel very well, mummie?" the girl asked, conscious that the
+atmosphere was not altogether salubrious.
+
+"Well enough," replied the older woman, flipping a letter nervously
+between her fingers as she rocked to and fro.
+
+"Your mother has heard from your cousin Julie," volunteered the Colonel.
+
+"Let me see the letter, quick, mummie. When are they coming?"
+
+"They are not coming at all," replied Mrs. Driscoe, with a resentful
+toss of her head, meanwhile thrusting the obnoxious letter into her
+pocket.
+
+Nan's face fell. "Oh, mummie, can't I see the letter, please?"
+
+"Certainly not. It is full of crazy ideas that are most unbecoming in a
+young girl, and I don't consider such things proper for you to read."
+
+Colonel Driscoe gave an apologetic cough and opened his lips as if to
+speak, but apparently thought better of it and studied his finger nails
+with unwonted interest. Nan drew cabalistic signs on the steps with her
+riding crop, and for some moments the silence was unbroken save for the
+half chuckling singing of George Washington, who was turning somersaults
+near by. Then Nannie said wistfully:
+
+"May I know why the girls are not coming, please?"
+
+The Colonel started to explain, but was overruled by his wife, who
+preferred to give her own interpretation of the case. Accordingly she
+poured out a torrent of abuse, in which her own individual woes over
+what she called their "disobedience" were so involved with a mixed
+statement of facts that Nan might have been led to believe that her
+cousins were lost to all sense of propriety had she not thoroughly
+understood her mother. As it was she listened quietly, sympathized with
+and petted her, and told her not to bother her head any more about two
+naughty girls in the North. She was a girl of considerable tact, this
+Nannie, for all that the whole establishment "babied" her, and she knew
+just how to smooth down her mother's ruffled plumage; so that Mrs.
+Driscoe, after a good, comfortable cry, which was a great relief to her
+overwrought feelings, was persuaded to go indoors and lie down to
+recover from the shock of the morning.
+
+Nannie remained on the verandah with her father. "Will _you_ tell me
+about it now?" she said, when her mother was well out of hearing.
+
+The Colonel's version, as he understood it from Julie's letter was
+expressed in five minutes.
+
+"Oh, dear!" Nannie exclaimed, when he had finished, "I wish they did not
+feel that way about things. I did so hope they were going to bring their
+father here and let us nurse him, and live with us, and be just like my
+own sisters--I've always wanted a sister so! I can't seem to make it out
+exactly, pa, how girls like that who have always had every mortal thing
+on earth, can work just like poor girls."
+
+"No, you can't understand, kitten," stroking her head affectionately;
+"it's against all the traditions of your bringing up that you should,
+for your mother takes such extreme views. But for my part, I think they
+are very noble and deserve tremendous credit for taking the stand they
+have."
+
+"Oh! so do I," echoed the girl enthusiastically. "I just love them for
+it. I think it is grand to be so heroic and brave. Why, just think, pa,
+they are not very much older than I, and yet all of a sudden it seems as
+if they were women and I only a baby."
+
+"We want to keep our little girl a while yet," he said. "I have no fear
+but she will be womanly enough when the time comes."
+
+"We did have the loveliest times when the girls were here, didn't we?"
+she said reminiscently. "They could ride as well as any girl in the
+county, and Julie was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Do you remember
+the funny tricks Hester did--springing on a horse bareback, and riding
+backward, and things she'd learned from the cowboys? Oh! I did miss them
+terribly when they went away."
+
+"They were unusually companionable to us all, I think, Nannie. I am sure
+I missed them unspeakably."
+
+The girl sat down on the arm of his chair and as she leaned her head
+against his, two tears trickled down the end of her nose and into his
+neck. He put his arms about her and drew her into his lap, where she
+lay, a dejected little heap, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"There, there, kitten, don't cry; Mr. Dale may get better, and the girls
+may be able to bring him down for a long visit some time--who knows?"
+said the kindly Colonel, who was already planning in his mind how he
+could defray the expenses, should such a journey be possible. "We will
+all have some happy times together again, Nannie; you'll see, little
+girl."
+
+[Illustration: THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR]
+
+Nan heaved a sigh and was comforted. It is easy to be sanguine at
+seventeen.
+
+Suddenly she exclaimed: "Do you know what?" sitting up and revealing a
+tear-stained face and two brimming brown eyes which she rubbed with the
+Colonel's handkerchief, her own having long since been reduced to a damp
+little ball; "I'm going to write to the girls not to mind a thing mummie
+writes them, for she really loves them just the same, and you and I love
+them heaps more--if such a thing is possible--and think about them and
+just hope with all our might and main that Cousin Dale will be better,
+and they won't have to work themselves to death. Oh, don't I just wish I
+could help them!" "Pa!" she cried in a sudden inspiration, "you know the
+new saddle you were going to give me for my birthday?"
+
+"Yes, Nannie."
+
+"Well, you have not bought it, have you? and I don't want it--I want you
+to send the money to the girls instead."
+
+"But, Nannie, child, you have talked of that saddle for months. Are you
+sure you want to do this?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she cried, rapturously with a childish clap of her hands;
+"I'd love to do it more than anything. Can you see about it to-day?" Her
+soft brown eyes were not brimming now, but full of eagerness.
+
+"I am almost afraid," said the Colonel, shaking his head, "that your
+mother will not consent and that the girls might refuse to let you do it
+if they knew."
+
+"Oh, they must not know," said Nannie with an air of importance borne of
+the project in hand. "No one must know, not even mummie; it is a secret
+between you and me. We will send an anonymous letter the way they do in
+books. Oh! won't it be fun?"
+
+"Who ever would have suspected we had an arch-conspirator in our midst,"
+said the Colonel slyly, "and that she would victimize an old man like
+me?" In his heart he was rejoicing over her pretty exhibition of girlish
+love and unselfishness. Then more seriously, he added: "I am afraid we
+shall have to wait until your birthday really comes round, Puss. I have
+not the money just now."
+
+"But you are going to let me do it, aren't you? No matter if we do have
+to wait, come and begin the letter now. We must make it very mysterious,
+and manage to get it to them somehow so they will never suspect. How do
+you suppose we can?" She looked at him, confident that he would suggest
+something.
+
+And he did. But what he said was whispered so low that even we cannot
+hear. The effect on her was instantaneous, and caused her to dance about
+delightedly. Then suddenly remembering that her mother was sleeping in
+an adjacent room, she became subdued and catching her father by the arm
+drew him quietly into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+It is not until a great crisis is past that one comprehends with any
+clearness of vision the multitudinous events that whirl about the one
+supreme fact. Stunned by the first shock, one wakes to learn that close
+on the heels of disaster come the consequences--pell-mell,
+helter-skelter, pushing, crowding with a grim insistence from which
+there is no escape. It was small wonder, then, that to the Dale girls
+the world seemed topsy-turvy.
+
+A change being inevitable, their one desire was to get it over quickly,
+the first of October, therefore, saw them moved into new quarters. The
+arrangements had been made by Dr. Ware, who effected a compromise with
+the girls--he offering them a vacant apartment in a house he owned, they
+gladly accepting this home if he would allow them to pay rent when they
+became successful wage-earners. The good Doctor sighed and consented; he
+recognized there was no thwarting their earnest purpose. In the first
+discussion of plans, he had suggested a little house in the suburbs; but
+Hester, with her practical nature fast developing, had said that to do
+business they must be within reach of people--in the midst of things.
+She did not quite know how she knew this--perhaps it was more that she
+felt it instinctively; but it met with Dr. Ware's approval and had great
+weight with Julie, who secretly longed for the country, but put aside
+all personal inclination and voted with her sister. The result was a
+flat in a quiet, unpretentious neighborhood, which yet took on a
+semblance of gentility from its proximity to Crana Street.
+
+By methods known only to himself, Dr. Ware saved furniture enough to
+make the place comfortable, while Bridget, who assumed mysterious airs
+for days before their departure, saw to it that there was no lack of
+household necessities. Bridget was no small factor in those days. She
+came to the front with tremendous energy, backed up her young mistresses
+in all their plans, and vowed she would never leave them. So the little
+family held together, which was the main thing, and the girls settled
+themselves in the new quarters with brave spirits--was not this, after
+all, the real meaning of "making a home for Dad"?
+
+All the choicest things were brought to the furnishing of his room; the
+gayest pictures to relieve the tedium of the weary hours, his best loved
+books near at hand, though he could no longer read or even reach out his
+hand to touch them. In the window-sill Julie had set up a miniature
+conservatory of potted plants that promised to bloom gayly, for down
+upon them poured the morning sun, filling the room with golden light.
+This was their resting-place in the new life--their father the center
+about whom they gathered in every spare moment--the room a little shrine
+from which in the midst of their attendance upon him many a silent
+prayer for strength and courage went up to God.
+
+The other sleeping-rooms were bedrooms by courtesy--mere closets, one of
+which was given to Bridget and in the other the girls managed to squeeze
+a double bed. Hester suggested that berths would be much more
+convenient, and only the lack of money prevented her having that sort of
+sleeping arrangement constructed.
+
+"Julie!" she exclaimed, in the first days of squeezing themselves in,
+"it is something like living in the car again, isn't it? only it is
+so--so different. I believe I'll call the flat 'The Hustle'--only
+instead of _its_ hustling like the car, we'll be the ones. Oh, Julie
+dear, to think of never racing around the country like that again!"
+
+"Don't Hester; I can't bear to think of it." In spite of her good
+resolutions Julie's courage sometimes failed her.
+
+A few days later Hester came into the kitchen one morning, her arms full
+of paper bags strongly suggestive of the corner grocery. "There!" she
+cried, "I've invested my last dollar in things for the cake."
+
+"Is it to-day you are going to see Miss Ware?" Julie asked.
+
+"Yes, if the cake comes out all right. Roll up your sleeve, old girl,
+and we'll begin." Hester suited the action to the words by weighing the
+ingredients and turning the butter into a bowl. But ah! how hard it was
+to put her pretty hand into it--how greasy the butter felt and how sandy
+the sugar, and how unpleasant the general stickiness! But she worked it
+through her fingers energetically, while Julie beat the eggs.
+
+"It is going to be death on our hands, my dear," remarked Hester,
+picking up a knife with which she scraped the dough from her fingers.
+
+"I wish you would always let me do that part, Hester. I know how you
+will feel it to hurt your hands."
+
+"Well, as if I'd be likely to! No one part is worse than another. We'll
+get used to it after a while, though I know our hands will spread out to
+twice their natural size."
+
+"Perhaps even if they do get big and not quite so fine as they are now,
+_perhaps_ we won't mind, Hester, if we just think of it as scars in the
+battle, you know. Don't you know how Daddy has often talked of the
+honorable scars in the battle of life? We're just finding out what that
+means, old girl."
+
+"Well, if you haven't a most blessed faculty for putting a comfortable
+construction on everything!" Hester emphasized her words by a last
+vigorous beat of the dough and held out the spoon to her sister. "Just
+taste this, will you, Julie? I think it's fine."
+
+"Umph, it is," agreed Julie, who had disdained the spoon, and dabbed her
+finger in the mixture after the manner of cooks. "But, my dear, if we
+create a demand for cake like that which requires only the whites of
+eggs, what shall we do with the yolks? Eat them, I suppose," making up a
+wry face.
+
+"They are better than nothing and I do not see chickens hopping in the
+window, do you?"
+
+"No," reluctantly. "We have fifteen dollars in the house," she announced
+solemnly. "How long do you suppose we can live on that?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know, Julie. We must learn to eat less, and that is
+no joke. I'll tell you what, one of the hardest things is learning to do
+without what has always seemed absolutely necessary." There was a husky
+sound in Hester's voice which Julie did not like to hear.
+
+"No matter, dear, we are young and strong, and we will accomplish
+something before we get through. Why, if you stop to think of it, nearly
+every one who has made a success of life has started in the smallest
+kind of way."
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+"Did you say you were going to see Miss Ware to-day?"
+
+"Yes, I think I had better take her this loaf if it bakes properly. Will
+you come with me, Julie?"
+
+"No, dear, I think you will manage better alone, though I'll go of
+course, if you want me."
+
+"No, I had rather go alone," said Hester.
+
+But no expedition to Miss Ware's took place that day, for the cake was
+spoiled in the baking and four succeeding attempts shared the same
+tragic fate. Toward night, when the failures of the day had reduced them
+to the verge of despondency, Dr. Ware came in and carried them off for a
+long drive which wonderfully freshened up their spirits. On the way home
+he asked their assistance in sending out a thousand circulars in regard
+to some medical matters, telling them it would be a tremendous help to
+him if they would write them. They acquiesced delightedly and
+accordingly that evening a huge bundle of stationery was left at their
+door. Inside, stuck in a package of envelopes, was a slip on which was
+written: "Here's the paper and the form to be copied. Don't keep at this
+too persistently, little girls, or you'll bring down the wrath of your
+faithful friend, Philip Ware."
+
+More than glad to have an opportunity of being of use to the Doctor, the
+girls set to work early the next morning writing industriously. Julie,
+after a few smirched and blotted copies, got well under way; she had
+considerable precision in her character, which made a task like this
+simple. But Hester during the first day or two spoiled so many sheets
+that she viewed her rapidly filling waste-basket with dismay. Finally,
+in supreme disgust she threw down her pen.
+
+"I believe I could build a house easier!" was her impatient exclamation.
+"Who ever saw such daubs as I'm making!"
+
+Julie looked up and smiled. Her wrist ached, and she shook her hand to
+limber the muscles. "If you did not dig your pen in the ink with such a
+high-tragedy, Scott-Siddons air, maybe you'd get on better," she
+suggested.
+
+"High-tragedy fiddlesticks! I _like_ a lot of ink. I am sure you're a
+sight," she commented, with sisterly frankness; "all doubled up and your
+forehead screwed into knots. How many have you done?"
+
+"I don't know; there they are," pointing to a box-cover piled high.
+
+Hester surveyed them with lofty scorn. "Mercy! That is nothing! I've
+done heaps!"
+
+"Where are they, you airy young person?"
+
+"In the waste-basket, mostly."
+
+"Go to work, you ridiculous infant, or you will be stuck to that chair
+the rest of your natural days."
+
+When Dr. Ware attempted to pay them for the work they remonstrated,
+telling him in the most convincing language at their command that it was
+a pleasure to feel they could do even so small a thing for him. To this
+he refused to agree, finally persuading them to take the money if on no
+other ground than to convince him of their business principles; while he
+refrained from mentioning that he had himself deviated somewhat from
+business methods when he ordered the circulars written instead of
+printed in the usual way.
+
+A week later the almond cake for Miss Ware was baked successfully and an
+admiring group stood about the kitchen table taking a last look at it
+before Hester did it up in a box preparatory to setting forth.
+
+"Faith, it's a beauty," cried Bridget, arms akimbo. "Any lady'd be proud
+to eat it. Shure it's your mother's own fingers ye've got, the both of
+yez. Ther' warn't nothin' she couldn't make when she put her hand to it,
+before she got so ailin', an' the Major, God bless him, got so well off
+she didn't have ter."
+
+"Poor, dear mamma!" said Julie, wistfully. "I only remember her ill and
+not able to bear us noisy children about."
+
+"Sufferin' made her a changed woman, the Saints preserve her! But I seen
+the day, Miss Julie, when she slaved for the Major before you was born
+an' there warn't nobody could beat her at anythin'. It looks like her
+knack was croppin' out in yez, shure as my name's Bridget Maloney."
+
+"Perhaps it is, Bridget," said Hester, who had heard this conversation
+from the next room, where she was putting on her coat and hat. "We have
+often heard Daddy tell people mamma was a practical genius, that would
+mean nimble fingers, wouldn't it? Maybe she has left them to us as a
+legacy."
+
+"I'm not after understandin' your words exactly, dearie, but the
+meanin's clear an' it's right yez are."
+
+As Hester picked up the box, Peter Snooks sprang down from the
+window-sill jumping wildly about, the sight of her hat being conclusive
+evidence to him that she was going out.
+
+"Poor little Snooks, not this time," the girl said, stooping to pat him.
+"I am going in the car to-day."
+
+His stump of a tail drooped dejectedly as he looked at her with big
+reproachful eyes.
+
+"It does seem mean not to take him, doesn't it, Julie?--but it is not
+worth while, for it is so stormy I thought I had better ride both ways."
+It was only dire extremity that permitted the extravagance of car-fares
+these days.
+
+"Of course you must ride," said Julie. "Peter Snooks," to the still
+hopeful little fellow, "you must not tease. Go find your ball and we'll
+have a play."
+
+He trotted off and Hester picked up the box and started.
+
+"Tell Miss Ware that is only a hundredth part of the nice things you can
+make, you clever girl," Julie called after her.
+
+"An' good luck to you, dearie," from Bridget.
+
+The wind and rain blew about Hester unpleasantly when she reached the
+street, but a car soon overtook her and afforded her a welcome shelter
+from the storm. She found all the seats occupied, but some of the
+passengers moved up to make room for her, and being a trifle tired from
+the nervousness of the cake-making, she thankfully squeezed into the bit
+of space allotted her, and laid the box in her lap.
+
+Her thoughts as the car sped along were not of the most cheerful, for
+she dreaded this visit to Miss Ware. That individual, who kept house for
+her brother, had expressed herself in terms of strong disapproval of the
+girls when he had told her their plans. She considered cooking greatly
+beneath them and would have thoroughly agreed with the views of their
+Cousin Nancy in Virginia, had she known that person. As it was, she
+thought her brother should interest himself in finding suitable
+positions for them, and she refused to recognize the fact that these
+were not to be had for the asking. "There were plenty of ladylike things
+girls could do," she said, but did not give herself the trouble to
+specify.
+
+To the girls themselves she had talked at some length, endeavoring to
+explain to them that they were laying out for themselves a path of
+social ostracism by their extraordinary choice of work, never doubting
+that this argument alone would convince them. But when Julie gently put
+it aside with the assurance that she and Hester were sufficient to
+themselves if the world chose to look askance at them; and when Hester
+flushed angrily, and said the people whose friendship was worth anything
+would not fail them, Miss Ware shrugged her shoulders and gave them up
+as social heretics. She was not, however, allowed to wash her hands of
+them, for her brother sang their praises perpetually. She therefore
+forced herself to take a negative interest in them which carried her so
+far as to order from them a loaf of cake.
+
+Hester, gazing abstractedly out of the car window, felt it a momentous
+errand on which she was going that day; it involved so much. If the cake
+met with the critical approval of Miss Ware she intended to ask her to
+solicit orders for it. It would not be easy to approach her on this
+subject, but she should do it--oh! yes, she did not intend to be
+frightened out of her purpose. A curious little ache came into her heart
+as she braced herself for the coming ordeal. It was all so new and so
+strange, to be put in the position of asking favors--to be looked down
+upon from frigid heights--she and Julie, whose world hitherto had been
+all sunshine and approval. For a second something came between her and
+the window, blurring her vision. Then she brought herself up with a
+sharp mental rebuke for allowing her thoughts for one moment to revert
+to the past, and forced herself to look down with satisfaction on the
+neatly wrapped box she was carrying.
+
+By this time the car had become crowded, and directly in front of Hester
+stood a woman of amazing breadth, clinging in a limp, swaying fashion to
+the strap. Just as the girl observed her and was wondering if she could
+squeeze into her seat should she offer it to her, the car jerked round a
+corner, the stout woman screamed and landed with a thud on the box in
+Hester's lap!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Comfortably ensconced in a victoria, two men were bowling out through
+the suburbs of Radnor in the rapidly approaching dusk of a winter
+afternoon. One, wrapped to the chin in furs, sat well back in the corner
+of the carriage as if desirous of all possible protection from the cold;
+the other leaned forward in a somewhat restive attitude and looked like
+a man occupying his position under protest. Each was immersed in his own
+thoughts, but from time to time the younger man took a surreptitious
+glance in the direction of the older as if he were endeavoring to make
+some important discovery. He was, in truth, trying to decide if the
+moment were propitious for laying before his father a project which he
+had been for some time considering, but the impassive face of Mr. Landor
+told him nothing, and they continued to ride on in silence. Finally, in
+a tone of annoyance the older man said: "I wish, Kenneth, you would
+oblige me by leaning back and appearing as if you were enjoying
+yourself. I must confess it is no particular pleasure to me to drive
+with a man who looks as if he might leap from the carriage at any
+moment."
+
+"Then why do you insist on my going, father? You know I detest this sort
+of thing--it is only fit for women. If you would come out with me now in
+my trap, it would be very different."
+
+"Your breakneck method of driving does not suit me at all. I suppose I
+may be allowed to take my pleasures in my own way, and it occurs to me
+that it is not altogether unreasonable to request you to accompany me
+occasionally."
+
+To this Kenneth made no reply, while he decided that the moment was not
+propitious for introducing the subject uppermost in his mind.
+
+He conceded, however, to his father's wishes in so far as to relax from
+his objectionable posture, though there was about him a suggestion of
+martyrdom that was irritating.
+
+"What have you been doing to-day?" asked the senior Landor, abruptly.
+
+"Nothing special, sir."
+
+"Do you ever do anything special?" turning two penetrating eyes upon
+him.
+
+"Why, yes; I suppose so. I was thinking of something special just now."
+After all, it might as well come out.
+
+"If it is of any importance, I should like to hear about it."
+
+This was encouraging.
+
+"I was thinking of a trip around the world, sir. To start in a month,
+say, and be gone two or three years."
+
+Mr. Landor received this proposition with a quick drawing down of his
+shaggy eyebrows and a closer upturning of his fur collar about his chin.
+His face now was almost hidden from view.
+
+"Do you propose to go alone?" he asked.
+
+"No; two fellows at the Aldine Club have talked me into joining them. Of
+course, sir, I realize you may object to so long an absence," said
+Kenneth, who felt that a storm was brewing, "and I might be able to make
+it a year or so if you preferred."
+
+"Inasmuch as you have scarcely been at home a month in the past year or
+so, I should prefer that you dismiss the project altogether."
+
+"That seems rather surprising, sir," said Kenneth, with a laugh his
+father did not like, "when I have been going and coming without comment
+ever since I left college."
+
+"All the more reason why you should begin to think of settling down,"
+replied his father testily.
+
+"Settling down?" repeated the son; "what do you want me to do?"
+
+"We will come to that later. The main thing is, that you are to give up
+this notion and remain here with me. If you force me to it I shall
+refuse to give you the money for such an expedition."
+
+"I have some property of my own," Kenneth said, his whole nature rising
+in rebellion.
+
+"You wouldn't be such a fool as to squander that pittance on a pleasure
+trip! Be careful, Kenneth! I am in no mood to be thwarted to-day!"
+
+"Then why do you thwart me? It is not a remarkable thing for a man to
+want to travel," trying to speak calmly, "and I don't see why you should
+take it in this unexpected way--it is unreasonable."
+
+But Mr. Landor, being a quick-tempered man, was beyond reason and had
+too little comprehension of his son to realize that his opposition
+tended to fan into a fixed resolve what had up to this time been only a
+pleasing possibility. There was a stern look about his mouth as he said
+to Kenneth, "You will do as I say, and remain for the present in Radnor.
+I have other plans for you."
+
+As he had never been dictated to in his life, this emphatic order fell
+with considerable astonishment upon Kenneth's ears, even though he knew
+his father to be in an irascible frame of mind. He thought, however,
+that the thing might blow over, as many a quarrel between them had blown
+over, after which, in all these contests of will, the younger man had
+invariably gained the day.
+
+Kenneth was not of an ugly disposition; indeed, his nature was most
+lovable, while his peculiar exemption from responsibility had produced
+an inconsequential, happy-go-lucky attitude toward life that was one of
+his greatest charms. And the selfishness that sometimes cropped out in
+his character was not viciousness, but the natural outcome of
+over-indulgence. It had never occurred to him that his father would make
+any demands upon him, though in a vague, unformed sort of way he
+intended ultimately to make demands upon himself. Just how he should do
+this gave him occasional delightfully introspective moments in which he
+played with possibilities. In his father's eyes that was Kenneth's great
+weakness--that he played with all the abandon of a vagabond; but to
+blame the man for this was a great injustice, since his father had not
+suggested or encouraged his taking up any business or profession, and
+had supplied him with a liberal income dating back to the beginning of
+his college career.
+
+To this indolent, pleasure-loving son, nothing could be in greater
+contrast than the father. Caleb Landor took life hard, but life had been
+hard on him. Born of poor parents in a Maine village, he had been inured
+to poverty from his infancy. His schooling had been meager, and
+sandwiched in between long periods when he was required to lend a hand
+in the saw-mill where his father was employed. But the habit of industry
+thus acquired proved useful, and stimulated his desire to get into the
+world of business, so that he made his way eventually to Radnor, the
+goal of his ambition. Then followed years of hard work and small pay,
+during which the greater part of his earnings went down to the large
+family in the Maine village. At thirty he was looked upon as a man of
+ability; at forty he was a prosperous merchant, with Fortune beckoning
+him on. By all the laws of compensation this should have been his
+turning point to happiness, but he had the misfortune to be married for
+his money at this period of his career, by a frivolous Radnor girl of
+good position, whose beauty turned his head. As after the first months
+of marriage she took no pains to conceal her indifference to him, he
+received a bitter blow, from which he was many years recovering. He was
+spared, however, the anguish of protracted disappointment, for she had
+died in the second year of their marriage, leaving him a baby son. And
+so Caleb, giving all, lost what he had never won.
+
+This episode in his life did not tend to soften a nature somewhat morose
+and caused him to draw more and more within himself, devoting his
+energies to his business, and almost forgetting at times that he was a
+father.
+
+When he did think of Kenneth, it was to realize that he had his mother's
+beauty; but even at an early age there was no indication that he had
+inherited her smallness of mind, for which his father felt devoutly
+grateful, though there were times when he could scarcely bear the boy
+about, so forcibly did his likeness to his mother bring back the past.
+So he left him to grow up among the servants in the dreary house, sent
+him at fourteen to a preparatory school and then to college. He intended
+that Kenneth should have everything he himself had missed. In the matter
+of money it pleased him to provide generously for the lad, who grew to
+manhood the envy and favorite of all his associates, but almost a
+stranger to his father, who was equally a stranger to him. It did not
+occur to Caleb Landor that this was because he had given to the boy
+lavishly of everything except himself.
+
+When the carriage drew up before their door on the evening with which
+this chapter opens, Kenneth sprang out with a feeling of relief and
+turned to help his father. It struck him suddenly that he looked old and
+feeble, which would not be strange, inasmuch as he was fast approaching
+his seventieth birthday, but Kenneth had never been impressed by this
+before.
+
+"You had better take my arm, sir," he said, pleasantly, "the sidewalk is
+slippery to-night."
+
+Mr. Landor refused the proffered aid and went on ahead into the house.
+He had yet to learn that Kenneth could be leaned upon.
+
+Through dinner there was little conversation between them, not from any
+constraint arising out of the recent disagreement, but because each was
+in the habit of carrying on his own inward train of thought without so
+much as a suspicion that the outward expression of it would have been of
+interest to the other. But it would have been of interest. Kenneth often
+wondered what his father's opinions were on the topics of the day and
+many times would have broken the oppressive silence if the idea had not
+become fixed in his mind that his father built up this barrier of
+reserve from choice. It was a natural impression, but a wrong one, and
+led to many misunderstandings, for though he gave his son no
+encouragement to be communicative he secretly longed for his
+companionship and was beginning to feel a need of his presence in the
+house.
+
+Kenneth went to a couple of receptions that evening and looked in at a
+dance later on; but did not remain long, for things of this sort bored
+him, albeit he was very popular in Radnor society.
+
+As he entered the house after midnight he noticed a bright light in his
+father's room. This was so unusual an occurrence that he feared
+something might be wrong and ventured to knock at the door. There was no
+response, which was not reassuring, so he opened the door and walked in.
+In a big chintz-covered chair sat Mr. Landor asleep before the fire. He
+had undressed and was enveloped in a heavy dressing-gown that fell away
+at the neck, disclosing the throat upon which Time lays such relentless
+fingers. He stirred a little and Kenneth was about to leave the room
+satisfied that his father was all right and would probably resent this
+intrusion, when the older man woke with a start, and accosting him in a
+tone more curious than resentful, said, "What are you doing in here?"
+
+"I noticed your light, and thought you might be ill. Is there anything I
+can do for you before I turn in?" replied Kenneth, looking down from the
+height of his six feet upon the shrunken figure of his father.
+
+"Nothing at all, nothing at all," waving him off; "I am reading." He
+picked up the newspaper that had fallen to the floor, and became
+suddenly absorbed in it, after the manner of persons who object to being
+caught napping.
+
+A smile flickered about Kenneth's well-shaped mouth but was properly
+suppressed. There was something pathetic, almost appealing to him
+to-night about his father.
+
+"If you are not in any particular hurry to finish your paper may I stop
+a moment?" he said.
+
+"There is a chair--make yourself comfortable."
+
+"I would like to talk about those plans you spoke of this afternoon,"
+began Kenneth as soon as he was seated. "I wish very much you would tell
+me more about them--what your idea is for my immediate future."
+
+"Where are your own ideas? At twenty-eight a man must have a few." Mr.
+Landor kicked a log impatiently, sending up a shower of sparks.
+
+"We were speaking of your ideas, were we not, sir? Mine can come later."
+
+"So you have some, have you? Good! After all, with your education and
+advantages it is to be expected. But as your ideas are to be kept to
+yourself, so are mine. We will talk no further on this subject."
+
+"We _will_ talk on this subject," said Kenneth, rising and standing with
+head erect and flashing eyes. "I am not a boy, father, as you very well
+know, and I shall not consent to this sort of thing for a moment. If you
+have anything in your mind regarding me it is my right to know it, and
+your duty to tell me. You spoke to-day of my settling down. I have been
+thinking of it a good deal since, and I am inclined to think you are
+right about it; but I would like to know just what you mean--just what
+it is you want me to do."
+
+"Kenneth, I want you around." The words came in a muffled tone that was
+scarcely audible.
+
+"Want me around?" repeated Kenneth incredulously; "why, I thought I
+drove you to desperation with my lazy ways and erratic hours and general
+worthlessness."
+
+"So you do, so you do," gruffly, "but I like it. I like to know you are
+in the house. Stay around, Kenneth and you can have things pretty much
+your own way. We will say no more about settling down to business."
+
+"Oh! that is all right, father; I'll stay." It was a new sensation to
+find that he was wanted. Moved by a sudden impulse he drew near meaning
+to grip his father's hand--the desire was strong within him to get close
+to the old man. But when he neared the chair he turned sharply on his
+heel and crossed to the door, withheld by the habit of years.
+
+Mr. Landor was watching him through half-closed lids, and made no sign.
+
+"Good night, father; glad I found you up. I have something in mind I
+would like to discuss with you later if I am to stay on here."
+
+"Any time, any time. I have leisure enough for anything of importance.
+Come in again some time--good night." His head was turned away as he
+spoke.
+
+"Poor old governor," thought Kenneth, as he went to his room; "I believe
+he is lonely."
+
+When the door had closed, Caleb Landor sat some moments in deep
+meditation. Then he rose and slowly crossed the room to a table on which
+stood a box-shaped rosewood writing-desk curiously inlaid with
+pearl--the most treasured possession of his mother long since dead. This
+he unlocked, and lifting the lid pressed a small knob by means of which
+a secret drawer flew open. In this shallow receptacle lay an oval
+miniature which the man took out and held under the strong light of the
+gas jet. It was the face of a woman, young and very beautiful, and for a
+long while the image held the man transfixed. Once he lifted his head
+suddenly, as if he thought some one was approaching but it was only the
+noise of Kenneth's boots flung upon the floor in an adjoining room. On
+the mantel a clock ticked solemnly, warning him of the flight of time,
+and at last he sighed wearily, and with unsteady hands dropped the
+miniature into its hiding place and locked the desk. For a moment he
+leaned heavily on the table and appeared to be listening, but all was
+still in Kenneth's room. Over the stern impassive features of Caleb
+Landor came a look of yearning tenderness. Then he put out the gas and
+went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Hester never remembered leaving the car or how she got home after the
+fatal catastrophe, but indelibly printed on Julie's mind would always be
+the picture of a wide-eyed breathless girl who rushed in upon her and
+threw a mangled package on the table.
+
+"Oh, my dear! what is the matter?" cried Julie.
+
+But Hester could not speak.
+
+Julie picked up the battered box, disclosing the cake within crushed to
+a pancake. She turned to find Hester's head buried in her arms; the girl
+was sobbing convulsively.
+
+"Never mind, dear," said Julie, stroking her head sympathetically, "it
+would be much worse if you were hurt too."
+
+"I am not crying," the younger girl asserted stoutly; "not crying at
+all." She spoke in short gasps that were strangely like sobs, but Julie
+ignored them. "I am all out of breath from running, that is all, and I
+did not fall, you goose! A woman sat on me!" She broke into a peal of
+hysterical laughter.
+
+It was Julie's turn to be speechless now.
+
+"If she had just sat on _me_ it wouldn't have mattered but she tumbled
+in the car before I knew it and there is the result!" She waved her hand
+tragically toward the table and wiped her eyes.
+
+"We'll make another one right away, dear."
+
+"Of course we will," responded Hester, pulling off her hat and coat and
+flinging them down impatiently; "but it breaks my heart to see such a
+ruin of all our work not to mention the waste of materials!"
+
+  Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall;
+  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
+  And all the king's horses and all the king's men--
+
+sang Julie, suggestively, but was not allowed to finish the ditty, for
+Hester said, with a thump on the table:
+
+"We will put this together again double quick and I will get it to Miss
+Ware before dark, you see if I don't."
+
+"You had better let me go next time, Hester," said Julie, getting out
+the cooking utensils, "you will be tired to death."
+
+"No, I won't; I have undertaken to do this thing, and I'll put it
+through if it takes forever," with which characteristic remark she set
+to work again.
+
+The second effort in the culinary line was, if possible, more successful
+than the first and immediately after their simple lunch of bread and
+milk, Hester set forth again. The storm had ceased, and to the immense
+delight of Peter Snooks, Hester confided to him that she should walk and
+a certain good little dog that she knew should go too. Julie laughed at
+this determination to avoid the car and called her superstitious. She
+laughed, too, but refused to analyze her sensations.
+
+She found Miss Ware, when she was ushered into her presence, in rather
+an aggressive mood, which caused the girl to look on with some
+nervousness as she opened the box and surveyed the loaf critically.
+
+"Umph!" she said, examining it through her lorgnette, "did you do that,
+or Bridget?"
+
+"We did it, Miss Ware. Bridget knows nothing of fancy cooking."
+
+"And you do, it seems. It was an odd trick for a girl to pick up in
+Virginia, and an undesirable one."
+
+"We look at things differently, Miss Ware," Hester said, with
+considerable asperity. "I don't call it undesirable if it proves a way
+of supporting ourselves. I would not choose it--to cook for a
+living--but we've no choice in the matter whatever."
+
+"Your father is very much to blame, Hester. He should have looked after
+your interests better when he saw the crash coming. There was no need
+that you should be left absolutely penniless."
+
+Hester sprang to her feet and confronted Miss Ware like a young tigress.
+"You shall not say such things about Dad. I will not listen--I--"
+
+"Hoighty toighty!" broke in Miss Ware, "what a temper! You will have to
+curb that, my dear Hester, if you expect to get on in the world--as
+cooks!"
+
+The girl flushed crimson, and bit her lip in an effort to regain her
+self-control.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," she faltered. "I--I never knew I had a temper
+before. It's--it's one of the new things I am learning." A sudden mist
+came before her, and drawing near she laid her hand on the older woman
+with an appealing touch. "Don't say unkind things about Daddy, please,
+Miss Ware; they are not true, and I--I can't bear it."
+
+"Let's get to business," said Miss Ware, who dreaded a scene above
+everything. "What do you mean to charge for your cake?"
+
+"Fifty cents." Hester was now quite herself again, and went on rapidly,
+"I want to ask you if you will speak about our work to your friends. I
+know it is asking a great deal under the circumstances, but we are such
+strangers here in Radnor we really do not know any one to ask such a
+favor of but you and Dr. Ware."
+
+"At least you have a champion in him."
+
+Hester's eyes shone. "Next to Dad we love him better than any one in the
+world."
+
+"Then why don't you behave sensibly, and come here and live, and let me
+take you about in society, as I meant to do this winter? I really looked
+forward to chaperoning you and Julie--you're very unusual girls. Now
+give up this nonsense of yours and behave properly."
+
+"Oh, Miss Ware, must we go all over that again? Won't you try to see it
+our way, as--as your brother does? He never even talked of our coming
+here to live, he understands so well that we want to be independent. I
+know we must be a great disappointment to you. Cousin Nancy in Virginia
+feels just as you do, too. Ever so many persons have offered us a home.
+You can't think what beautiful letters we've had from Dad's friends
+through the west. If it were possible to move him we'd go out there to
+try our fortune; there are so many splendid out-of-door kinds of work a
+girl can do in that big country. But Dad can't be moved, and we've got
+to do the best we can right here in Radnor." She spoke convincingly and
+with a certain submissiveness that sat oddly on her young shoulders.
+
+Miss Ware, twisting her rings round on her fingers with a contemplative
+air was wondering where the child got that dignity and poise.
+
+"I've no patience with you whatever," she said finally, after a long
+pause, in which Hester imagined she had been waging an inward conflict.
+"I am wholly out of sympathy with your ideas, but you cannot be allowed
+to starve to death, and if cooking is the height of your ambition--"
+
+"It isn't the height of our ambition," interrupted Hester, for youth is
+impatient of being misunderstood; "it is only the thing that is nearest
+at hand."
+
+"Your education must be sadly deficient," regarding the girl critically.
+"I always told Philip the harum-scarum way you were being brought up was
+perfectly ruinous. If you had gone to school like other girls, you would
+be qualified for some lady-like position."
+
+This was too much for Hester. "You need not trouble to do anything about
+the cake, Miss Ware," she said, proudly, "and I shan't come here again
+to hear my father insulted. And we are not going to starve either," she
+cried, her girlish wrath rising. "We are going to succeed and be a
+credit to the best education in the world!"
+
+She threw back her head and gazed straight into the older woman's eyes
+with a fearless look that was hard to meet. Only the fingers curled
+tight into the palms of her hands, betrayed the mighty effort she was
+making to hold herself in check, and this Miss Ware did not see, for
+Hester's unflinching eyes held her with a strange fascination. In
+another moment the girl had turned and left the room.
+
+For a while after her departure Miss Ware sat motionless like a person
+who has received a shock. Presently she began to toy with her lorgnette,
+dangling it back and forth on its chain with a swinging movement as if
+keeping time to a rhythmic train of thought. This was not, indeed, the
+case, and the action arose from nervousness, for the usual calm
+placidity of her mind was sadly ruffled. She was not in the habit of
+being contradicted, particularly by what she was pleased to call "a
+young person"; but she was one of those women who having said their
+worst, proceed to contradict themselves by an interest in that which
+they have most condemned, and she was now speculating as to whether it
+would not be expedient to take Hester's cake to the meeting of her
+sewing class the following day, and possibly get an order or two there
+for it.
+
+Only a true Radnorite could realize the possibilities that opened up to
+one who was introduced as a subject of discussion at _the_ Sewing Class
+of Radnor. For in the fashionable and exclusive set in which Miss Ware
+had her being it was a function of tremendous importance, with sacred
+rites known only to the initiated. In one another's drawing-rooms, on
+two mornings of the month, forty chosen spirits met to sew for the
+poor--that great, clamorous, all-devouring body from which there is no
+escape. This was ostensibly the purpose; in reality sewing was a minor
+consideration, albeit much work was accomplished. The chief end of its
+existence was to discuss, direct and control the movements of that
+exclusive portion of Radnor society of which it was a part and upon
+which it sat in fortnightly judgment. Following this arduous but
+important morning duty came the luncheon, and it was of that Miss Ware
+was thinking in connection with the cake.
+
+When Hester left Miss Ware she ran down the stairs to the lower hall,
+where she had left Peter Snooks with strict orders to remain until her
+return. There she found him waiting to greet her with joyous caperings
+of delight.
+
+Dr. Ware and a tall, clean-shaven, athletic-looking man came out from
+the office and encountered her.
+
+"Ah, you, Hester?" said the Doctor. "Wait a moment, my dear. I have a
+book here that I want you to take round to read to your father."
+
+He vanished, and the stranger glanced at the girl, hesitated, and then
+stooping patted the dog. "You've a fine fox-terrier," he said in a deep,
+rich voice, looking up.
+
+"We think so," replied Hester, who couldn't for the life of her conceal
+her pleasure at hearing Peter Snooks praised.
+
+At that moment the Doctor came out again.
+
+"Why, Landor," he said, "I beg your pardon; I forgot all about you when
+I saw Hester. That is a way the minx has--of driving everything else out
+of my head. Hester, my dear, this is Kenneth Landor, just up from Texas
+to have a look at effete civilization--you have heard me speak of him
+often--Mr. Landor, Miss Dale."
+
+The young people bowed.
+
+"Don't let him pose as a cowboy or anything interesting like that,"
+continued the Doctor, "for he isn't really--he only plays at things.
+Takes a peep here and there over the continent, and pretends he is this
+and that and the other, as the mood seizes him. A rolling stone, eh,
+Landor?" turning with an affectionate, quizzical look at the man beside
+him.
+
+"Oh! go on, Doctor; pile it on--don't leave me a shred of character. His
+veracity is absolutely unquestioned, of course, Miss Dale?"
+
+"Of course! He has made you interesting already."
+
+The Doctor laughed. "How one's motives are mistaken. That was the last
+thing I meant to do!"
+
+Hester looked up at the Doctor, gleams of mischief in her eyes. "You
+being you," she said, "it couldn't be otherwise." With which ambiguous
+remark she went out the door.
+
+Landor followed her down the steps. "Miss Dale," he asked, "may I walk
+along with you? I fancy I am going your way." Landor's way was usually
+where he chose to make it.
+
+Hester acquiesced simply. She had been accustomed to the society of men
+since she could toddle, and felt no embarrassment in the presence of a
+stranger. Landor noted the free, swinging motion with which she kept
+step with him as they went down the street.
+
+"You are not a true Radnorite," he said abruptly.
+
+"No, I am not. Why?"
+
+"Radnor girls do not walk as you do."
+
+"I am half inclined to believe you are a cowboy, after all, Mr. Landor."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Are we playing twenty questions? You have bad manners, a habit of
+dealing in personalities--we call it impertinence."
+
+"Twenty questions," he repeated, ignoring her rebuke. "Why, I have not
+heard that mentioned for years. It is a favorite game in Radnor, isn't
+it?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know," she said wearily; "I know very little about
+Radnor."
+
+"And I less," he said. "I've been away so much of the time. But there
+were certain things taken into my innermost being in my youth, along
+with the air I breathed, I suppose, that no amount of absence will
+eradicate."
+
+"For instance?" she said, with feigned interest, for her mind kept
+wandering off to her recent interview with Miss Ware, and she wished she
+had not allowed him to accompany her.
+
+"Well, the question of residence, you know. The few acres of sacred soil
+in Radnor on which it is permissible to live. I remember as a little boy
+how my nurse only allowed me to play with children whose parents lived
+on the water side of Crana Street or the sunny side of Belton Avenue.
+Any other than those and the streets immediately intersecting was beyond
+the pale of civilization, even to her. It is odd, isn't it?" smiling
+down at her.
+
+"What is odd, the fact or your acceptance of it?" There was a little
+ring in her voice which struck the man's alert ear.
+
+A look of surprise came into his handsome dark face. "Am I walking too
+fast for you, Miss Dale?" he asked, pleasantly.
+
+That was the second time he had put aside a thrust of hers with some
+trifling, irrelevant remark, and it tended to heighten rather than
+soothe her growing irritation.
+
+"I think," she said, stopping abruptly on the corner, "that I shall say
+good morning to you here. I do not happen to live in that sacred
+locality you mention, and I would not for worlds take you beyond the
+pale."
+
+"Miss Dale," he gasped, "you don't think I abide by any such
+nonsense--you are doing me a great injustice. Surely you are not going
+to dismiss me!"
+
+"Yes," she said, smiling, and showing her dimples in a sudden access of
+pleasure at the thought of getting rid of him, "I really believe I am."
+
+He lifted his hat, and stood for some moments on the corner watching her
+vanish from sight. How slender she was, and graceful, and what a sweet
+little smile had accompanied her nod of farewell! Now he thought of it,
+her eyes had queer lights in them, baffling, as if she were laughing at
+him all the time. And her tone was half mocking, too, though he had
+taken it seriously enough in all conscience. Was she serious, or had he
+made an idiot of himself? This latter contingency was not one which
+presented itself with marked frequency to the mind of Kenneth Landor,
+and therefore gave him much food for reflection as the day wore on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+"Whom in the world do we know in New Hampshire?" asked Julie one
+morning, glancing askance at an envelope in her hand.
+
+"Suppose you open it and find out," meekly suggested Hester, peeping
+over her shoulder.
+
+"Why, see, it is addressed to us both--it's probably an invitation or
+something."
+
+"It is not," asserted Julie; "I can tell by the look of it. It's--why,
+Hester Dale, it's a fifty dollar bill."
+
+"What?" ejaculated Hester.
+
+"It is, and a note. Think of daring to trust such a thing by mail! Look
+at it yourself."
+
+Hester seized both the bill and the letter, and unfolding the latter
+found the following mysterious communication in typewriting:
+
+  "From one some love to those one loves, Greetings:
+
+  "A conspiracy having been formed for the purpose of circumventing
+  fate, the initial step is herewith taken in the form of the enclosed
+  paltry bill, intending it to be the forerunner of many a happy hour
+  in which, though absent, will be ever present
+
+                                               "The Arch-Conspirator."
+
+"Whoever could have done such a thing?" queried Hester in astonishment,
+"Dr. Ware?"
+
+"No, I don't think so, though he might--is capable of doing anything.
+But, Hester, just think of it--fifty dollars! Why, it is almost a
+fortune!"
+
+"I should think it was, and it is the kindest, most generous thing I
+ever heard of. It couldn't be from Virginia, could it?"
+
+"I don't believe so, Hester. Cousin Nancy disapproves of us too much to
+do such a thing. I think it is from some one who loves Daddy and feels
+sorry for us all, and takes this way of showing it. Oh, how good people
+are!"
+
+"Some people," corrected Hester.
+
+"If it had come from almost any other place than New Hampshire it
+wouldn't be quite so puzzling," said Julie. "I am sure we don't know a
+soul in the whole state."
+
+"Well, I say let's stop guessing and be thankful we have it," advised
+Hester. "It is some one who does not want to be known, and I don't
+suppose we really ought to try to guess, but I just hope we will get a
+chance sometime to do something for that somebody, whoever he is. You
+can see the person has had great fun doing it, by the way it is written,
+Julie."
+
+"Yes." softly, still puzzling over the unexpected windfall.
+
+"You've got another letter in your lap, Julie. Have you forgotten its
+existence? It looks like Nannie's writing--do read it aloud."
+
+Julie took up the forgotten letter, and opening it began:
+
+  "My Sweetest, Preciousest Girls" (Isn't that just like Nan?) "You
+  owe me a letter, both of you; but it's such ages since we've heard
+  that I just can't wait any longer. I'm _so_ afraid mummie's last
+  letter hurt you, though I wrote you at the time just not to mind
+  anything she said. She was awfully cross and put out for several
+  days, but father and I played backgammon with her until we actually
+  played her into a good humor--you know how she'd play backgammon
+  until she couldn't sit up another minute; and I know she loves you
+  girls nearly as much as she does me, though she sputters away about
+  you now and then; but that is just mummie's way.
+
+  "How I do wish you were here! I say that a dozen times a day, and
+  whenever father hears me he says you will be, sometime. He's got
+  just the loveliest scheme for bringing you all down here on a visit,
+  since you're so proud and haughty and won't come and live with us! I
+  shan't tell you a thing about it but you just wait until dear Cousin
+  Dale gets better, and then you'll see!"
+
+Julie's voice got suspiciously husky here, and it was a moment before
+she went on:
+
+  "We'll have the grandest old times that ever happened, just like we
+  did when you were here before.
+
+  "Do you know I'd almost forgotten to tell you the thing I began this
+  letter for--my birthday party. I know you want to hear about it! It
+  was a surprise party, and such fun! To begin with, it was such a
+  pretty day that I wanted to be out every minute, so I took a long
+  ride with father in the morning, and spent most of the afternoon in
+  the pasture with George Washington, he and I trying to do tricks on
+  Gypsie the way you did, Hester. I said we were _on_ Gypsie, but it
+  was mostly _off_, for she didn't take to our circus performance at
+  all and threw me twice, way over her head, and George Washington no
+  end of times. He just loved it, and capered around and grinned and
+  made absurd remarks until my sides ached with laughing. Just as I
+  was actually succeeding in standing upon Gyp bareback, mummie spied
+  me from her window, and of course that put an end to everything. She
+  said she saw no reason why I should celebrate my eighteenth birthday
+  by breaking my neck, and I expect she was right--but oh, it was fun!
+
+  "When I came in to dress for supper, father called me one side and
+  told me to put on my pink organdie (the one you liked so much, you
+  know), because it would please mummie; so I did and mummie wore her
+  claret-colored velvet and I picked two of my pet pink roses--one for
+  Mummie's hair and the other for father's buttonhole, and we all
+  looked very gay and festive and I thought it was lovely to be
+  eighteen, especially as mummie had given me that beautiful pearl
+  ring of hers which she always said I should have when I was a young
+  lady.
+
+  "Well, about nine o'clock, when mummie and I were in the midst of a
+  game of backgammon, there was a crunching noise out in the driveway
+  and I thought some one was coming to call. Then I heard laughter and
+  a lot of people talking, and father went to the door, and let in a
+  whole crowd calling for me. I was too surprised to understand, even
+  when father explained that the neighborhood was giving me a surprise
+  party. (I found out afterward, girls, that he got up the whole
+  thing--he vowed them all to secrecy, because he didn't want me to
+  know he had a hand in it, but Lillie Blake told me--Lil never has
+  secrets from me.)
+
+  "Well, we danced in the big hall most of the evening, while the
+  older people played cards, and we did have a jolly time, and there
+  was a stranger here--he was staying with the Blakes and you'd never
+  guess where he's from--Radnor! He's very fascinating, but he's
+  old--he must be at least thirty! I know that wouldn't seem old to
+  you, but it does to me, and I felt very shy with him at first until
+  I found out he came from Radnor, and then I just pelted him with
+  questions about you, and he didn't know you at all! I could have
+  wept! But I talked on about you just the same, and I was dying to
+  tell him about your work, for I think it's so noble of you, but
+  mummie has forbidden my mentioning it to any one, and, of course, I
+  wouldn't disobey her. He got the ring in my birthday cake, girls;
+  wasn't that the funniest thing? Lillie Blake teased him to give it
+  to her, but he wouldn't, and slipped it in his pocket out of sight.
+  I know he enjoyed hearing me talk about you, because he stayed with
+  me a good part of the evening, and Teddie Carroll got cross and
+  sulked in the corner. Isn't he the silliest thing?
+
+  "Good-by, you old darlings, and don't forget your little cousin,
+
+                                                             "Nannie."
+
+Julie smiled as she put down the letter. "Isn't she a darling, Hester? I
+don't wonder they call her 'Kitten,' she purrs so. And she's so
+ingenuous! Imagine her thinking that a man stayed about with her because
+she talked about us. He evidently took a fancy to her--the dear little
+thing! I wonder who he was."
+
+"She has forgotten to mention his name," said Hester, "but it does not
+much matter. Come, Julie, we must switch our thoughts up from Virginia,
+or we'll never get to work to-day."
+
+Julie went over to a shelf and stuck the two letters behind a clock. "It
+is an inspiration to work," she said, "when we know people are thinking
+of us and loving us. That money, dear, is a godsend. We had scarcely
+enough left to market another day."
+
+Julie, who was self-appointed buyer, had been racking her brains to know
+how they should get through another day without running into debt--a
+contingency of which they had a horror. They had stopped all their
+father's accounts and were unanimous in agreeing that they would go
+without that for which they could not pay cash. Accordingly they went
+without a great deal.
+
+In her first experience of marketing Julie was aghast to find that meats
+which she regarded as a common necessity cost so much that she was
+forced to act upon the butcher's suggestion that it was "stew meat" she
+wanted. It was _not_ what she wanted, but she took it meekly and ate it
+with pretended relish, for Bridget took pride in serving a genuine Irish
+stew.
+
+It was characteristic of the Dales that they never did things by halves,
+and they threw themselves with tremendous energy into their work, which
+was developing, though still slowly. Orders for wine jelly and cake came
+in from people unknown to them, and they knew that Dr. Ware's influence
+was working for their good. Miss Ware, too, though outwardly
+antagonistic, had carried out her intention of taking Hester's cake to
+the Sewing Class, with the result that the hostess of the next meeting
+had ordered all her cake from them for that occasion.
+
+This order they were getting to work on now, and Julie remarked that she
+wished white cake were not so much in demand, for the continued increase
+of left-over yolks was appalling.
+
+"Bridget has made them into omelette at least twice a day lately, until
+it seems to me I can't stand the sight of them, Hester. And the more we
+have to make frosting the worse it gets. Either we've got to throw them
+away in rank extravagance or keep on eating them and die. I wish we
+could think of something to do with them!"
+
+"If we only could afford to buy oil, Bridget would make us some
+salad-dressing."
+
+"But we can't afford it. Poor Bridget, that is her one accomplishment.
+She says she learned it from mamma, who was famous for it."
+
+"Good gracious, Julie!" the practical Hester ejaculated, "don't take to
+'reminiscing' with that far-away look in your eyes. You'll be weighing
+salt instead of sugar."
+
+"I am not 'reminiscing'--I am thinking. Why can't we make mayonnaise and
+sell it?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"Don't drop dead with astonishment, you chief cook and bottle-washer,
+because _I_ have an idea. What do you think of it?"
+
+"Ye gods, but wouldn't that be a scheme! Bridget could teach us--you
+know how Daddy's friends always said they never got such salads at any
+other table!"
+
+"Don't 'reminisce,' my dear."
+
+"We'll get the grocers to sell it," disdaining to notice the pretended
+rebuke, "just as they do pickles and things. We'll put it up in nice
+bottles, and----"
+
+"Wouldn't it be rather clever to learn how to make it first?"
+interrupting this flight into future possibilities.
+
+"Bridget, Bridget, come here!" called Hester.
+
+Bridget, who was brushing up the sick-room, came down the little hall
+and entered the kitchen.
+
+"Do you see all those?" cried Hester, pointing to a bowl full of yolks
+standing on the table. "Now if you had your own way, what would you do
+with them?'
+
+"Make 'em into mayonnaise, miss."
+
+"Of course you would, you extravagant creature! Well, that is just what
+we want you to do. Tell her, Julie--it is your scheme."
+
+An amazed and delighted Bridget heard the girl unfold her plan.
+
+"Shure it's a wonder yez are, Miss Julie, the two of yez, an' my
+dressin' can't be beat. Could I be after showin' yez how this mornin'?"
+
+"I'll go straight into the grocery now and get a bottle of oil,"
+exclaimed Julie, and calling Peter Snooks, she was off in five minutes.
+
+She noticed as she went down the stairs that the door of the apartment
+underneath them was ajar, and to her astonishment Peter Snooks, that
+most well-behaved of dogs, thrust his nose into the crack and vanished.
+
+She stood a moment irresolute; then called peremptorily: "Snooks, Peter
+Snooks! come here this minute!"
+
+No dog appeared, and she was about to raise her voice for the second
+time when from the darkness of the inner hall she heard some one
+say--"Do you mind coming in just a minute? Your little dog is making
+friends with me, and I can't come to you."
+
+She followed the voice to the front room, where a boy lay in a wheeled
+chair, while beside him sat Peter Snooks on his hind legs, putting out
+his paw to shake hands in his most approved manner. At sight of his
+mistress he curled his tail under and crawled to her guiltily. "Don't
+scold him, please," said the boy; "it's my fault. I've been wanting to
+know him this ever so long."
+
+There was something so appealing in the boy's voice and so penitent in
+the way Peter Snooks looked up at her that she patted the little rascal,
+and said brightly:
+
+"I never knew him to play truant before; but if you and he have made
+friends I shan't apologize for his intrusion or mine."
+
+"Oh no! don't," said the boy. "I've watched you from the window ever
+since you came here to live, and I feel somehow as if I sort of knew
+you."
+
+"Are you ill?" she asked, gently.
+
+"Broke my hip two months ago," he said. "It's a long time mending."
+
+"Oh! I am so sorry--I know how hard it must be--my father is--is ill,
+too." She never could bring herself to put into words her father's
+actual condition.
+
+"I wish you would sit down," the boy said. "Mother may be in any moment.
+You can't think how it cheers a fellow up to see somebody." He spoke
+hesitatingly, as if he feared to show too great pleasure lest he give
+her offense.
+
+"I can't stop, thank you," said Julie, suddenly remembering her errand,
+"but if you are lonely and would like to have me, I will leave Peter
+Snooks awhile with you--he's no end of company."
+
+"Oh! would you, really?" The boy's eyes glistened. "I wish mother were
+here; she'd know how to--to thank you."
+
+At that moment a small, frail woman, gowned in black, entered the room.
+
+"Why, mother," exclaimed the boy, turning to her a flushed, eager face,
+"I was just wishing for you. This is the young lady that lives upstairs,
+you know."
+
+"How do you do?" the woman said, holding out her hand with quaint
+simplicity, neither face nor manner betraying any surprise at finding
+Julie there. "You are Miss Dale, are you not? I am Mrs. Grahame. It was
+kind of you to come in and see Jack."
+
+"My little dog ran in here, and I followed in search of him and found
+your son," Julie explained. "I really did not intend to be intrusive."
+
+"It is a great pleasure to see you." The older woman smiled at her. "You
+must pardon the seeming liberty, but Jack and I have long been
+acquainted with you. You see I am at work down-town most of the day, and
+the boy spends long hours by the window watching his neighbors go in and
+out, and he amuses himself by weaving little stories about them until he
+comes to regard them as personal friends."
+
+Jack dropped his eyes. "You'll think I'm the one who's intrusive," he
+said.
+
+"I do not think anything of the kind," replied Julie; "I think it is a
+very clever, happy idea." She went over to the chair and called the dog
+up in his lap. "Mrs. Grahame," she said, "if you are not too busy, will
+you come up some evening and see us? We are working girls, and we have
+an invalid father, and we don't expect to pay visits, but I would like
+to come down here again, if I may, and bring my sister. Your son would
+weave the most beautiful stories in the world if he really knew Hester."
+
+"Thank you for suggesting so much happiness for my boy," said Mrs.
+Grahame, earnestly. "You make me want to go to see you immediately."
+
+Just as Hester's lively imagination was picturing all sorts of
+calamities which might have overtaken her sister, that individual came
+hurriedly in with a bottle of salad oil in her hand.
+
+"Well, where on earth have you been?" cried Hester; "I thought you must
+have dropped dead or been kidnaped or something fearful."
+
+"Was I so long? I am sorry, dear, but you see I made a call en route."
+
+"A call! who ever heard of such a thing! Where is Peter Snooks?"
+suddenly missing him.
+
+"He is finishing the visit for me." Julie laughed with a provokingly
+mysterious air.
+
+Hester, who had been working on alone and diving her head into a hot
+oven every five minutes to anxiously watch the evolution of bothersome
+little dabs of thin dough into small puffy cakes, was feeling decidedly
+cross and resented her sister's apparent indifference to the business at
+hand.
+
+"Well, I'm glad if _you_ have time to gad about," she said, witheringly.
+"I _thought_ we were going to take a lesson in making mayonnaise."
+
+"You goose!" exclaimed Julie, pushing her away from the hot oven and
+herself kneeling down to peer in. "I'll watch these cakes--you sit down
+and draw a breath and the cork of the oil at the same time, while I tell
+you what happened."
+
+Somewhat mollified, Hester obeyed, and even deigned to show interest
+when Julie graphically described their neighbors.
+
+"Wasn't it odd, Hester, just walking right into the midst of things like
+that? And the boy was so pathetic, and his mother was so quaint, with
+such a sweet face and pretty, wavy hair, and I only stayed a moment,
+dear, really, for all the time I knew you'd be wondering what had become
+of me."
+
+"Well, all I've got to say is," remarked Hester, with decided emphasis,
+"that if you were willing to leave Peter Snooks with them, they must be
+very remarkable people indeed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The weeks passed rapidly to the young workers, who found each day full
+of experiments, sometimes developing into satisfactory results and again
+filled with bitter discouragement. There were days when the battle for
+existence threatened to overweigh and submerge them; days when from
+morning till night their work seemed possessed by evil demons, and
+everything went wrong; days when despair tugged at their hearts, and the
+old happy life forced itself in upon their thoughts with clamorous
+persistence. And ah! how they felt the sorrow of their father's
+helplessness, the loss of his companionship causing an ache that nothing
+could assuage! But through it all they fought their way, upheld by the
+longing to show a spirit worthy of their father's daughters, sustained
+by the consciousness that by their own endeavor they were "making a home
+for Dad." This was the dominant note of the new life--like a bugle-call
+stirring them to action!
+
+Julie, who had been reading aloud to her father one day, suddenly went
+into the next room to find Hester, and exclaimed, "Thackeray says, 'I
+would not curse my fortune--I'd make it!' I think that's great, Hester!
+We'll take it for a motto." And by that motto ever after they abided.
+
+Mr. Dale had not awakened to any definite consciousness of his
+condition, as Dr. Ware had anticipated, but remained in a passive,
+tranquil state, taking little heed and no part in any conversation,
+though his face brightened perceptibly whenever any one entered the
+room. Much of the day he slept, but during his waking hours one of the
+girls was constantly with him, hovering about with a tender protective
+air.
+
+Dr. Ware, who devoted all his spare time to his old friend, was a
+frequent and most welcome visitor. He was a man of distinguished
+presence, tall and well-knit, with the military bearing of a soldier and
+some ten years younger than Mr. Dale, although they had served in the
+War of the Rebellion together. Streaks of gray showed plentifully in his
+hair and pointed beard, throwing into greater contrast his black brows
+and blue-black eyes, while his face was marked with strong lines
+indicative of character. It was an interesting face and one that
+inspired immediate confidence, and in addition there was about him an
+indefinable charm which made itself felt both professionally and
+socially, so that there was not a more popular man in Radnor. This was
+perhaps an unusual position for a man of strong convictions, expressed
+fearlessly and freely on all subjects. To be thoroughly popular commonly
+requires an adaptable temperament not compatible with strong
+individuality.
+
+He watched over "his girls" as he called them, with affectionate
+solicitude mingled with an admiration and respect which knew no bounds.
+"They are going to succeed," he would frequently say to himself after
+leaving them, "every failure only makes them more determined--it's fine
+to watch the growth of such spirit." And then he would drive off on his
+round of visits with a preoccupied air and vague longings would steal in
+upon him, softening the lines about his mouth and eyes and lingering
+deliciously in his mind even after he had roused himself impatiently
+from such day-dreams.
+
+The girls' experiments in making mayonnaise resulted in Julie's screwing
+up her courage one day and going to the leading grocery of Radnor. She
+asked for the proprietor and laid before him her scheme, at the same
+time showing him a sample of the mayonnaise. Poor Julie, who did not
+know what it meant to cry her wares in open market, felt very
+uncomfortable and flushed quite red as she talked; but she struggled to
+overcome her timidity and succeeded in interesting the man, who told her
+to leave her sample for him to try at home and gave her some valuable
+information about putting up such an article in the regulation form,
+suggesting that she follow his directions and bring in the mayonnaise
+again, bottled and labeled for his inspection.
+
+Busy days those were indeed in "The Hustle," for in addition to trying
+varieties of cake, the mayonnaise suggested making salads and one thing
+led to another with surprising rapidity.
+
+It gradually began to be recognized in Radnor that if one wanted any
+delicacy in the way of fancy cooking, one should order it from "those
+Dale girls," and this recognition was in no small part due to Mrs.
+Lennox, the President of _the_ Sewing Class. It was she who had sent
+them their first order and shown a marked interest in their work which
+was not without its immediate effect, for people occupied in their
+relation to Mrs. Lennox a position similar to that of "Mary's little
+lamb." Mrs. Lennox was a beautiful woman and in the fashionable world
+her word was law; but society amused rather than interested her, and her
+keen intellect and strong individuality led her into devious paths.
+Above all she was a philanthropist in that broad and humanitarian sense
+which sees promise in all gradations of men and women.
+
+She followed her first order to the girls with a second by mail; then a
+little correspondence ensued, in which she suggested their sending her
+any new thing they might be trying. A few weeks later she "blew over,"
+as she expressed it, and said in her charming way to Julie, as if she
+had known her intimately for years:
+
+"My dear, are you busy enough?"
+
+"No indeed, Mrs. Lennox, we never could be busy enough--we want to do so
+much."
+
+"So I thought." She threw back her furs and unclasping a big bunch of
+violets tossed them into the girl's lap. "You like them, don't you? So
+do I. I adore violets. I am raising white ones now and I will send you
+over some if I may."
+
+"Oh, how good of you! Daddy loves them too. We always used to have
+flowers wherever we were and we do miss them so. I don't see how you
+suspected it, Mrs. Lennox."
+
+"I am rather keen about human nature, my dear, and it occurs to me that
+even though you do cook, you may have a love and longing for the
+beautiful."
+
+Julie smiled. It was so comfortable to talk with some one who understood
+them. "Miss Ware would not agree with you," she said. "She considers us
+lost to the finer things, beyond redemption. She dislikes us, you know,
+and we never go there; but she comes here sometimes and asks us all
+sorts of questions and wants to know about our recipes and things as if
+we could not comprehend any other subject. Hester calls it 'talking
+shop' and we hate it--not the work but the being excluded from other
+things."
+
+"I understand perfectly. Miss Ware is a bit, well, narrow, like most
+Radnor people. So you are not busy enough?" eyeing her curiously; "well
+then, I have a suggestion. If you want to cater for the town, send out
+cards."
+
+Julie gasped. "Business cards, you mean, soliciting orders?"
+
+"Exactly. You do a variety of things already--think up and experiment
+with more until you get an imposing little list, have cards printed and
+send them about--at least five hundred, I should say. Radnor is a large
+place and cliquey--there must be numbers of persons unknown to me who
+have never heard of you girls, yet would be likely to give you their
+custom. If my name on the cards by way of indorsement would be of any
+advantage, you are more than welcome to use it."
+
+"Oh! thank you, of course it would be a great advantage, Mrs. Lennox,
+for no one knows us at all, you see. I'm--I'm dazed by your idea--it
+seems so pretentious--so bold to advertise ourselves. I don't believe we
+should ever have thought of it, but it _is_ the thing to do."
+
+"Decidedly. I know something about business and you have one of the most
+necessary qualifications for success--indefatigable zeal--and I want to
+push you along. But you must not overtax your strength. I suppose you
+have heard that before, eh, Miss Dale?" She laughed musically. "No doubt
+kindly disposed persons come here to leave orders and tell you not to
+work too hard."
+
+"Yes, they do," Julie earnestly replied. "I wish they would not. Just as
+if we did not have to work with all our might and main, and it is not
+easy--always."
+
+"Easy! I should think not!" Mrs. Lennox rose and smiled into Julie's
+grave eyes as she held out her hand to say good-by. "I am going now, but
+I want to come again and meet your sister too. May I? I should so like
+to know you and be your friend."
+
+Julie impulsively kissed her. "It is so good to find some one who wants
+to know us--in spite of everything," she faltered.
+
+"It is because of everything, my dear," giving the girl an impetuous
+little hug. Which demonstration would greatly have astonished the smart
+set of Radnor to whom this side of their leader was unknown and
+unsuspected.
+
+It was about this time that the girls got the mayonnaise put up to their
+satisfaction, for innumerable perplexities had arisen in the matter of
+suitable bottles, corks and labels. When finally Julie had submitted the
+result to the grocer and that all-powerful man had ordered a dozen
+bottles to sell on commission, the girls felt that they were working to
+some purpose, and a glow akin to honest pride surged in their hearts.
+But the sensation swelled to overwhelming proportions when late one
+afternoon Julie, passing the store, spied in the great show-window a
+group of their bottles standing boldly alongside the firm's best fancy
+articles. She gasped, scarcely daring to look at them, and rushed home
+to tell Hester.
+
+But when she got home she did not tell Hester. Instead she said: "Put on
+your things and come out before it grows dark--the air will do you
+good."
+
+"Can't," said Hester, deep in a book, "I'm too tired to move."
+
+"I want to show you something."
+
+"Where?" reading on.
+
+"In a shop window."
+
+"Julie Dale, what's the matter?" she exclaimed, dropping her book. "I'm
+sure you've got a crazy look about you--your hat's on crooked!"
+
+"I don't care, I think you would want to throw _your_ hat in the air if
+you had seen it!"
+
+"Seen what? A shop window? I hate them--they're just full of tantalizing
+things one wants and can't have!"
+
+"Well, this isn't--or perhaps it is--I am sure I don't know, but I came
+way back after you and oh! do come."
+
+"You are responsible for great expectations," said Hester, reluctantly
+getting up from the bed. "I call it a most unchristian act to rout me
+out like this."
+
+But she took another view of it when she found herself out in the brisk
+wintry air, and she caught some of the exhilaration of her sister's gay
+spirits as they went along, Peter Snooks racing wildly about them.
+
+When they approached the window of the grocery Julie's heart beat
+rapidly in anticipation of Hester's surprise. As they reached it she
+suddenly pulled her arm and led her close to the window. "Look!" she
+said excitedly but in a low voice, for many persons were passing and
+some few stood near them.
+
+There it was, the mayonnaise into which they had put their best
+endeavor, standing in so conspicuous a place that it could not fail to
+attract the attention of the passers-by.
+
+"New thing, that mayonnaise, isn't it?" they heard a man say to his
+companion, "well put up--let's go in and look at it."
+
+Hester gazed speechless into the window, her eyes nearly bulging out of
+her head.
+
+"Would you ever have believed it!" whispered Julie, poking her. "Let's
+wait," as she saw a clerk lean into the window and take down a bottle,
+"let's wait and see if those people buy it."
+
+"No we won't," said Hester, finding her voice at last. She clutched her
+sister's arm convulsively. "We'll go straight home before I scream with
+joy right here on the corner."
+
+"You don't like shop windows, do you?" said Julie with a happy laugh.
+
+In the exuberance of their spirits and with a desire to impart the good
+news to their neighbors, whom they now counted as friends, the girls
+stopped at the Grahame's on their way upstairs.
+
+"Jack," exclaimed Hester the impetuous, "Jack, what do you suppose has
+happened?"
+
+"By the look of you I should say you'd inherited a fortune."
+
+"Pouf!" disdainfully, "that is commonplace." She clapped her hands
+together while her eyes danced merrily. "Try again, Jack."
+
+"May I have a guess, Miss Dale?" said a voice that made the girl start,
+while a long, lazy form emerged from the corner.
+
+Hester's manner changed instantly, and her eyes sought Jack's
+questioningly, as if she were asking some explanation. Then she turned
+to the man who stood quietly watching her.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Landor?" she said with a stiff little formality that
+was unlike Hester, "I did not know you and Jack were friends."
+
+"May I be presented?" asked Julie, coming forward; "I seem to be quite
+out of it."
+
+Jack from his chair in his capacity of host performed the introduction.
+
+"Will _you_ let me guess?" said the man, addressing Julie as if there
+had been no interruption. "Your sister refuses to answer me."
+
+"You certainly will not let him guess," promptly replied Hester.
+"Curiosity is a shockingly reprehensible trait and besides," with a
+little toss of her head, "our affairs cannot possibly be of interest to
+Mr. Landor."
+
+The man flushed and picked up his hat. "I am off, old fellow," he said
+to Jack. "I'll be in again before a great while."
+
+"Oh, don't let us drive you away, please, Mr. Landor," protested Julie,
+who was secretly marveling over that cool little sarcastic voice which
+she had scarcely recognized as Hester's. "We had only a moment to stop
+and we can come down again any time; we know what a great pleasure it is
+to Jack to have visitors, don't we, Hester?"
+
+Julie had her hand on the door.
+
+[Illustration: "MAY I HAVE A GUESS, MISS DALE?"]
+
+"You will do what she asks, I am sure, Mr. Landor," said Hester. It did
+not escape him that she shifted the responsibility to her sister. "Julie
+always arranges things perfectly. We really should be at home this very
+minute." And waving her hand at the astonished Jack, she followed in the
+wake of her sister.
+
+"Hester," exclaimed Julie, in the seclusion of their own apartment,
+"what made you so rude to Mr. Landor? I never heard you speak like that
+to any one before."
+
+"Oh! Julie," cried the younger girl, flinging herself down in a chair,
+"I've the most disgusting, beastly temper!"
+
+"You've nothing of the sort!" denied her sister indignantly.
+
+"I have. You don't know anything about it, it's--it's just developing. I
+get all hot inside; sometimes it breaks out the way it did at Miss
+Ware's and to-day it made me nasty and sarcastic. I've always hated
+sarcastic people!"
+
+"What has Mr. Landor done, dear, to make you dislike him so? I thought
+he seemed most charming and agreeable."
+
+"Did you?" indifferently, leaning back in her chair. Suddenly she sat
+bolt upright and exclaimed vehemently, "Julie Dale, if you dare to take
+to singing his praises as Dr. Ware does I'll--I'll--well, I don't know
+what I'll do! I hate him, with his smiling, masterful air and his prying
+into affairs which are none of his business." (This seemed rather strong
+language, but Julie did not interrupt her.) "He is an idle society man
+and we are hard-working girls. He has nothing in common with us
+whatever. We've no use for men, anyway--they don't belong to the sort of
+life we live, they--they don't fit into our scheme of things. Rather
+neat, that last phrase, eh, Julie? Read it in a book." As usual,
+Hester's outburst ended in a laugh.
+
+"Are you twenty years old," said Julie stooping down to kiss the flushed
+face, "or two hundred, Hester?"
+
+"I'm an end-of-the-century idiot, that's what I am!" she replied,
+pulling Julie over to give her a suffocating hug. Then in that
+irrelevant fashion so characteristic of her she threw back her head and
+sniffed the air suspiciously.
+
+"Julie!"
+
+But Julie had slipped away.
+
+Hester chased her into the little dining-room. "Julie Dale! do I smell
+steak?" Hester's nostrils fairly quivered.
+
+"You do. I plunged into that wild extravagance on the strength of the
+mayonnaise, and I don't care what you say!"
+
+"Say!" gasped Hester as Bridget brought in this unheard of luxury, "I
+only want to eat!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+"I'm sorry, old fellow."
+
+"Sorry for what, Mr. Landor?"
+
+"To have driven your little friends away. They evidently had some good
+news to tell you."
+
+"Oh! that's all right," said Jack cheerily, "it will keep, you know, and
+they were in a hurry--they said they could only stop a moment." Jack was
+puzzling his young brain over their abrupt departure, but his loyalty to
+all three friends made him wish to hide from Landor the fact that he was
+apparently the cause. "I'm so sorry they _were_ in a hurry," he
+continued, "for I'm always wishing you knew one another--you'd get on
+like a house afire."
+
+"Should we, Jack? I don't know. Recent events don't seem to prove it, do
+they?" laughing good-naturedly.
+
+"Oh! that doesn't count. You just wait until some day when they have
+more time--I don't know when that'll be, though, for they're regular
+hustlers. What do you suppose?" confidentially. "They call their flat
+'The Hustle'--isn't that great?"
+
+"I should say so--it sounds enterprising."
+
+"They named it after the private car they used to live in--they've told
+me all about it. Gee! wouldn't I like to get aboard of her once! She
+must have been a beauty!"
+
+"What became of the car? Did you ever happen to hear, Jack?"
+
+"It's out west somewhere--some railroad's got it, I think, but I'm not
+sure. They never spoke of it but once--I could see it went kind of hard
+talking about it, though Miss Hester laughed and joked about its being
+they who did the hustling now, instead of the car. It must be fine to be
+rich and travel all around," exclaimed the boy, "but I'd hate to have
+had it and then have to give it all up the way they have. Say, Mr.
+Landor, shall I tell you something?" He clasped the arms of the
+reclining chair with his thin hands and drew himself up to a sitting
+posture.
+
+Landor nodded and drew his seat closer. He encouraged the boy in his
+confidences.
+
+"I slumped the other night--clean went all to pieces. I'm fourteen, you
+know, but if I'd been four I couldn't have acted more kiddish. Mother
+was out and I'd been thinking how I wanted to go to college and
+couldn't, because mother can't afford it, and how I wanted to travel
+around and couldn't, and how I even wanted to walk and couldn't--not for
+a long time yet--and I just lay here and thought there wasn't much sense
+in getting any better anyway--I'd just have to go back and be nothing
+better than an office boy where I was before I got hurt and--"
+
+"And you succeeded in working yourself up into a fine frenzy of
+discontent, didn't you, Jack? I understand, my boy. We all have our
+rebellious moments."
+
+"I was crying like a baby when Miss Julie came in."
+
+"Poor old Jack," patting his hand sympathetically.
+
+"Poor nothing!" exclaimed the boy in a tone of infinite disgust, "it
+makes me hot all over to think about it and that wasn't the worst! I
+_kept on_ crying." Jack's honest nature was abasing itself before his
+friend. "I kept on crying till she shamed me out of it."
+
+Landor did not speak, feeling silence at that moment would better
+harmonize with the boy's mood. Jack and he understood each other, and
+the boy feeling his sympathetic interest drew a long breath and went on
+again.
+
+"She made me tell her all about it and I felt so cut up and blue that I
+said a lot of things I didn't mean and I told her it was easy enough for
+her to be brave--she didn't know what it was to lie still and perhaps be
+crippled all your life--the doctor can't tell. _Think of my telling her
+that!_" The boy shuddered. "I believe if I'd struck her, Mr. Landor, I
+couldn't have hurt her more, for there's her father, you see, a million
+times worse off than I am, and I'd forgotten all about him."
+
+Landor pushed back his chair and as if he found action of some kind
+necessary paced the room quietly while the boy talked on.
+
+"Her face got so white and her eyes got so dark that it frightened me,
+but do you know what she did? I was lying on the couch and she came over
+and knelt down beside me and talked to me a long time about her father."
+Jack's voice was awed and Landor's hands went deeper down into his
+pockets--a way he had when he was moved.
+
+"She called him 'Daddy' and you could see just the way she said it that
+she worshiped him, and she told me that when you loved a person very
+much it was harder to see him stricken down than if you were ill and
+helpless yourself. I hadn't thought of that, but it must be so, mustn't
+it, Mr. Landor?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, it must be so." No cloud had ever darkened Kenneth Landor's
+pleasure-loving, pleasure-giving life.
+
+"Then she told me that she wasn't brave really. That many a night she
+cried herself to sleep because she was heart-broken about her father and
+discouraged about their work and tired. I think she just told me that so
+I wouldn't feel as if I were a coward because I cried too. I'd stopped
+by that time, I can tell you! And then she said she wanted me to help
+her and her sister be bright and jolly by being bright and jolly, too.
+That made me laugh--to think I could help them! We both laughed and I
+felt better. After that she talked a long time about trouble and how it
+came to some people very young and how it was a sort of test--did you
+ever think of that, Mr. Landor?" gazing earnestly into the man's face.
+
+"No, Jack, there are many things I have never thought of!"
+
+"You would if you knew them, you couldn't help it. She wasn't a bit
+preachy--I hate that--but she said the way we took things showed the
+kind of characters we had and when we got discouraged we must just
+remember we were soldiers--Christ's soldiers--that's what she said." The
+boy's voice sank to a whisper. "And that no soldier amounted to shucks
+till he was knocked about and disciplined and taught to obey his
+superiors."
+
+"That is the truth, my boy." In his heart Landor was marveling at what
+he heard.
+
+"And do you know what, Mr. Landor? I'm going to march in the ranks
+too--a double-quick step to try to catch up with them and if ever I do
+catch up and can march alongside of them, won't I be proud, just!"
+Julie's little sermon had sunk deep into his receptive mind and kindled
+his imagination to deeds of valor like some knight of old. He leaned
+back on his cushions exhausted by this unusual talk, his frail body in
+pitiful contrast to the strength of the spirit that had awakened within
+him and glowed in his face with a transfiguring light.
+
+Landor came over to his chair and took his hand in a grip that hurt. "I
+am going to enter the ranks too, old fellow," said he, carrying out the
+illusion partly to please the boy's fancy and partly because he had
+never before been so in earnest in his life.
+
+"You!" said the boy, to whom Landor was a hero, "you don't have to
+fight--why you can kill buffaloes and Indians and everything!"
+
+Landor smiled. "Perhaps I have more dangerous foes nearer at hand, Jack.
+Who knows? Well, I must be going. Shall I lift you onto the couch
+first?"
+
+Jack always enjoyed the feeling of Landor's strong arms about him and
+gave the man a grateful look as he was laid gently down. The couch was
+in reality Jack's bed and the change to the reclining chair had been
+brought about by Landor, who sent the chair to him in the early days of
+their acquaintance, but laughingly denied any previous knowledge of it
+when Jack endeavored to thank him.
+
+"You seem to have a lot of paper about," commented Landor, picking up
+some sheets from the floor. "What are you up to these days?"
+
+Jack blushed.
+
+"Out with it, old fellow; you look guilty."
+
+"I'm--I'm trying to write out the stories I make about the people I see
+out of my window. You know I like to imagine things about them. _She_
+said if I'd write them down the way I tell them they'd entertain her
+father very much, but I've gotten sort of disgusted--it seems such awful
+rot when it's down on paper."
+
+Landor ran his eye over the sheets Jack indicated.
+
+"They are not rot, Jack, they are pretty good. I am not much of a
+literary chap, but I know when a thing is interesting. When you have
+taken this way of introducing the neighborhood to Mr. Dale why don't you
+send him a weekly bulletin--a regularly gotten up paper with all the
+neighborhood news? When there isn't news you can invent it, you know,"
+smiling; "that is allowable in the newspaper trade."
+
+"Say, that's great!" cried Jack. "I'll call it the--'In the Ranks' and
+make a great big heading for my first column 'News from the Front' (that
+means front window) and I know, that'll please Mr. Dale, for mother told
+me he was a distinguished officer in the Civil War and Miss Julie says
+they were brought up on military principles." Jack snatched paper and
+pencil eager to begin.
+
+"Keep on with your stories first, Jack. Why, we shall be setting up a
+printing-press here next," and with this delightfully suggestive remark
+Landor departed.
+
+He did not go on to the club, as was his wont at that hour, but lighted
+a cigar and walked out of the little court and down through Crana Street
+to the river, where on the bridge he paused and gazed across to the city
+with a rapt, preoccupied air. Then, as if the noise of the ever-whirring
+electric cars disturbed him, he retraced his steps and took a road in
+the opposite direction which brought him into the quiet and seclusion of
+the park. The air was keen and crisp and blew in his face in gusty
+whiffs as he strode on, while all about him in their winter nakedness
+the trees cast spectral shadows. Usually, from long training and
+association with western plains and mountain trails, he took note of
+everything as he passed, but to-night he gazed far on ahead, engrossed
+in thought. To his annoyance, twice his cigar went out--which was in
+itself significant. Finally he threw it away and lighted a little
+bull-dog pipe, his solace and companion in many a solitary stroll.
+
+So those were the Dale girls, he was thinking, of whom Dr. Ware had said
+so much but of whom, all unconsciously, Jack had revealed more than
+years of intercourse with them might tell. He thought of Julie as he had
+seen her, quiet and fair-haired, with that gracious little plea that he
+should not let them drive him away, to prevent which they had themselves
+made a hasty exit from the room. And then there was another Julie as
+Jack had pictured her, turning her heart out for a boy that he might be
+comforted! He thought of her with reverence. A profound solemnity
+possessed him, giving him a strangely subdued sensation as of a man
+emerging from a sanctuary. What was he to whom life was an idle pastime,
+that he should draw the same breath with her!
+
+Then from out this solemn train of thought danced another picture--two
+baffling eyes mocking him. Who was she, this will-o'-the-wisp, that she
+should hold him at arm's length in that imperious fashion! He stopped
+and half closed his lids as if the better to conjure up a vision of her,
+then shook himself and went on--were not those eyes enough and that
+light ironical voice in his ears? Why had she snubbed him so--him, who
+was surely unoffending? And she was a soldier too, marching in the
+ranks. That pretty, piquant, fascinating sprite had shouldered her
+knapsack and was fighting a battle royal. Dr. Ware had told him so long
+ago, but somehow he only now began to realize it since Jack had
+expressed it in Julie's simple way. Jove! the very simplicity of it was
+impressive! Thoughts like these carried Landor out into the country and
+brought him back to the club two hours later in an unusually quiet frame
+of mind. The men with whom he habitually fraternized found him dull and
+unresponsive and to his inexpressible relief they left him to finish the
+evening alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Mrs. Lennox was giving one of those little dinners for which she was
+justly famous. To-night it was in honor of Monsieur Jules Gremond, the
+young African explorer who was paying a flying visit to the States. To
+meet him were Miss Davis, a debutante whose prettiness could always be
+counted on to make a picture; Miss Marston, whose cleverness it was
+thought would interest him; and Kenneth Landor, whose attentions to Miss
+Davis had been rather pronounced during the season. Opposite his wife
+across the round table sat Mr. Lennox, than whom there was no more
+delightful host.
+
+They had not been long gathered about the table before Mrs. Lennox was
+conscious that her guests were lacking in that subtle attraction toward
+one another which is absolutely indispensable to the success of a small
+dinner. Monsieur Gremond, between her and Miss Marston, appeared to be
+listening in a most politely conventional manner to the girl who was
+making commonplace conversation with frequent pauses during which he
+turned to Mrs. Lennox, with whom he immediately fell into interesting
+talk. Kenneth Landor was singularly distrait. At first he had
+appropriated Miss Davis with his usual devoted air, but after a bit this
+languished and he, too, turned so often to Mrs. Lennox, next whom he
+sat, that Miss Davis first pouted and then in a fit of pique plunged
+into a violent flirtation with Mr. Lennox, much to that person's
+amusement. Mrs. Lennox found it necessary to throw herself into the
+breach here, there and everywhere, but under her skillful manipulation
+the talk at last became general and animated.
+
+The interest of the table naturally centered on Gremond, who managed
+adroitly to keep the conversation off himself, thereby winning the
+admiration of his hostess--she rather enjoyed a lion who did not roar.
+Finally, with the arrival of the savory which followed the dessert--for
+Mrs. Lennox had adopted this English custom, she had the satisfaction of
+seeing Miss Marston and her husband deep in talk, Miss Davis and Kenneth
+"frivoling" as was their wont and was herself free to enjoy a
+tete-a-tete with her guest of honor.
+
+"Your country is a source of endless interest to me, Madame," the
+Frenchman was saying, "but it is as nothing to your women. They rival
+ours--even surpass them."
+
+"I am afraid we are in danger of being told that too often," laughed his
+hostess, gaily.
+
+"Some things bear repetition, Madame."
+
+"Have you known many of us, Monsieur?" she asked, interested. "I think
+you said you had been over here before."
+
+"Yes, nearly two years ago, before I started off to Africa. It was
+indeed the cause of my immediate start for Africa," he said with a
+retrospective air. "Then, too, Madame, America became very dear to me
+through my friendship with Sidney Renshawe--we were like brothers
+together in Paris."
+
+"Ah, yes, I know, he speaks of you with great affection. He will be up
+from Virginia in a day or two, will he not?"
+
+"Not before I am off. I go to New Orleans on important business and from
+there to California, but I shall stay with him here on my return. Ah!
+you cannot dream what he has been to me," he cried with Gallic
+enthusiasm, "he--and one other."
+
+"Will you come and tell me about it later, Monsieur, when you have
+finished your cigars?" she said softly, picking up her gloves and giving
+the signal to rise.
+
+"Madame is very good," he murmured, bowing low as he stood aside for her
+to pass.
+
+Left together, the three men drew near and by a common interest caused
+Gremond to talk of his explorations for fully half an hour, which time
+was all too short to his listeners, who were greatly interested in the
+man as well as in what he had done. Though they had just met him within
+the week he was well known to them through Renshawe, a warm friend of
+Kenneth and the Lennoxes and the half hour over their cigars would
+unquestionably have lengthened out indefinitely had the women not been
+waiting for them in the drawing-room.
+
+The party had expected to go to the opera together, but when the men
+rejoined the women they found a change of plan, Miss Marston having
+secretly confided to Mrs. Lennox that she had been "on the go" so
+steadily for weeks that it would be bliss to keep still, and "Couldn't
+we all spend the evening here instead?" Pretty, disdainful Miss Davis,
+seeing in this suggestion possibilities of a prolonged tete-a-tete with
+Kenneth Landor, was enthusiastic in seconding it; while Mrs. Lennox
+acquiesced gladly--she had put in an exhausting day at various
+charitable organizations and was more tired than she cared to admit. As
+for the men, they were loud in their acclamations of delight over what
+Mr. Lennox called "the joy of a home evening." Accordingly they left the
+formal drawing-room and repaired to Mrs. Lennox's sanctum, a unique room
+finished in ebony, the dark wood relieved from somberness by a deep
+frieze of Pompeiian figures done in red, while bits of this vivid color
+were everywhere conspicuous in the furnishing. In all its appointments
+it showed the touch of a strong individuality and expressed in its way
+the aesthetic side of Mrs. Lennox's nature. It had also what in a woman's
+room made it distinctive--space. Mrs. Lennox was a person who liked free
+scope for her body as well as her mind.
+
+The guests, therefore, distributed themselves about comfortably and Miss
+Davis found herself exercising her fascinations upon the distinguished
+foreigner, who encouraged her by undisguised admiration, which indeed he
+had given her throughout dinner by glances meant to convey what the
+distance of the table between them made it impossible to say. But the
+paying of excessive compliments to a girl like Miss Davis, who cares
+only for that sort of thing from the masculine sex, sometimes palls and
+Gremond was just thinking a bit longingly of his charming hostess when
+that individual approached them.
+
+"Miss Davis," she said, "Mr. Landor has been proposing a game of
+billiards. He wants you to help him beat Miss Marston and my
+husband--they have already begun to play, I believe. Will you join
+them?"
+
+"Do Miss Davis, will you?" urged Kenneth, who always enjoyed the game.
+
+Miss Davis looked at him and rose by way of answer. She had long ago
+discovered that her eyes did considerable execution. Then with a glance
+at Gremond which said that he too might follow her, she went with
+Kenneth across the hall into the billiard room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox sank into a curiously carved old ebony chair, against which
+her bare arms and shoulders gleamed white. She was gowned in black,
+unrelieved except for the rope of pearls wound twice around her throat
+and hanging in a loose chain to her waist; but the severity of outline
+was exceedingly becoming to her slender figure and the absence of color
+emphasized the beauty of her skin, which was as fair and soft as if she
+were twenty instead of forty. She sighed a little as she leaned back in
+her chair, and Gremond reaching for some cushions from a divan near by
+tucked them in behind her comfortably.
+
+"Madame is tired to-night," he said.
+
+"Monsieur Gremond," turning her head the better to see him, "I feel as
+if I should offer you a thousand apologies. I had planned a gay evening
+for you and instead you are becoming initiated into intimate home life.
+We are already treating you like one of the family. Fancy!"
+
+"A privilege not accorded to many; is it not so, Madame? I feel
+flattered beyond all telling."
+
+It pleased her that he was quick to recognize this as unusual treatment
+of the stranger within her gates and she said cordially, "I felt when I
+saw you that we should not make the usual beginning. It is a little
+peculiarity of mine that I steal into people's lives in the middle--when
+I like them. I have never analyzed it, but I trust to my instincts and I
+am not often mistaken. Now you," she said, leaning languidly back on her
+cushions, "you interest me and I've sent them all off to play billiards
+that we may have a quiet little talk together. I want to hear more of
+what you were telling me at dinner, if I may."
+
+"Madame is very good," he said again. "We were speaking of Sidney
+Renshawe, were we not?"
+
+"Of him--'and one other,'" she quoted, watching his eloquent face.
+
+His black eyes softened and he leaned forward a little, using his hands
+in frequent gesticulation as he began to talk. "I am reminded, Madame,
+of a certain witty English author who said that Columbus discovered
+America but America discovered him. To paraphrase him, I should say that
+two Americans discovered me--dear old Renshawe and the most charming
+little girl I ever knew."
+
+"Yes?" she said.
+
+"But for those two, Madame, I might have been--anything!" He shrugged
+his shoulders expressively. "The one had faith in me, the other taught
+me to have faith in myself. She was my inspiration." It seemed as
+natural to him to confide in this charming woman as if he had known her
+all his life, and in this he was not unlike the majority of people in
+whom Mrs. Lennox showed an interest, for she had that divine gift which
+for lack of an English word we call "simpatica"--an open sesame to all
+hearts.
+
+She was listening very quietly, but the look on her face was one of
+absorbed attention as Gremond went on.
+
+"For several years, Madame, I had been formulating my African plans, but
+I lacked distinct purpose until I knew her. She had the American idea
+that a man must accomplish something in the world. She thought I should
+prove myself capable of the great things I talked about."
+
+"She can scarcely have reason to find fault with you now," the woman
+said.
+
+"I hope not, Madame, when she knows what I have tried to do and how much
+more I shall do when I return."
+
+"Are you going to tell her--soon?"
+
+"Soon?" with a quick indrawing of his breath, "as soon as I can get to
+California, but alas! that will not be for many weeks. I am not sure
+that she will want to listen to me, Madame, but I shall make her; I
+must."
+
+"You met her in Europe, I fancy?"
+
+"On the contrary, I met her in Southern California in one of the big
+hotels where I was stopping. She was living there and we were thrown
+together constantly, laughing, dancing, riding--a gay life. Now and then
+when we touched on serious subjects I was amazed and moved by her great
+comprehension and high ideals."
+
+"Does she not know what a powerful factor she has been in your life?"
+she asked.
+
+"Not yet, Madame. I went away with my heart full of her, but said no
+word. I felt I had not the right on so short an acquaintance and before
+I had really accomplished anything."
+
+"Perhaps not, my friend, but I am not sure that I altogether agree with
+you. I feel that she liked you, with possibly more than the ordinary
+liking, and a girl wants some sign."
+
+"I wrote her once, asking her to hold me in remembrance; was that a
+sign, Madame? It was all I dared to make. It seemed to me it was deeds
+and not words that were wanted."
+
+"It was both, Monsieur, if you will allow me to say so, for without
+words how could a girl know that deeds were done for her sake alone?"
+
+"I thought she would know it all because I loved her so," he faltered.
+
+"Oh, you men, you men!" Mrs. Lennox cried impatiently, "how you do
+expect a woman to take things for granted! Forgive me, Monsieur
+Gremond"--leaning forward and touching his arm--"but sometimes I get
+very cross over it."
+
+"Oh Madame, Madame!" he exclaimed impetuously, "you cannot think, you
+cannot mean I have made a mistake?"
+
+"Indeed, no," she replied reassuringly, seeing how his confident manner
+had changed to despair, "but I do mean that the ways of women are not
+more enigmatical than those of men--_some_ men," she qualified.
+
+He laughed, glad to have the tension of the past moment broken by her
+light tone. For a moment neither spoke. Across the hall came the faint
+clicking of the billiard-balls.
+
+"We must join the others, Monsieur," the woman said at last.
+
+"May I thank you for the pleasantest hour I have spent since my
+arrival?" he said earnestly as he rose.
+
+"The pleasantest--as yet. Eh, Monsieur?" with a charming smile.
+
+"As yet, Madame," bowing gravely over her hand which he had taken in
+his.
+
+"Then will you come to me again, when you return and tell me _all_ about
+it?" with a faint pressure of her fingers in his.
+
+"May I, Madame? Ah, that will be a privilege indeed!" and stooping he
+kissed her hand.
+
+A moment later they had joined the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"Those Dale girls are certainly remarkable!"
+
+"I have always maintained that, Mary."
+
+"Remarkably surprising, I mean," corrected Miss Ware, fingering the
+coffee-cups noisily in rather an irritating manner as it seemed to her
+brother, who was running over his voluminous morning mail.
+
+"What have they done now?" he asked looking up at her over his glasses.
+
+"To my mind a most unlady-like, vulgar thing. Here it is if you want to
+see." A second look at a card in her hand before passing it over caused
+her to exclaim, "No! Is it possible! Mrs. Lennox has taken them up! Her
+name is actually printed on the card--it is the most astonishing thing I
+ever heard of!"
+
+"If you mean their business cards, Mary, I was consulted and saw the
+original draft and recommended the printer. Um," examining the card
+critically, "he has turned out an excellent piece of work, artistic and
+quiet in tone. I thought he could be relied upon."
+
+"Philip, you are too exasperating! I believe if those girls sold papers
+on the street corner you would think it the finest thing ever done!"
+
+"I probably should," he rejoined imperturbably. "As for these cards,
+they are something to be proud of! 'Salads, croquettes, fancy
+sandwiches, jellies, salted nuts, etc., etc.,'" he went on, running his
+eye down the list. "Gad! how they have pushed ahead! They mailed five
+hundred of these yesterday," looking over at his sister, "and I fancy
+Radnor people will not be slow in responding."
+
+"Oh! Mrs. Lennox's name will be an alluring bait," she said. "People
+will patronize them because she does, for a time, but they make a great
+mistake in relying upon her; this is just one of her fads."
+
+"I can't understand, Mary, how you take such delight in imputing
+disagreeable motives to people. Mrs. Lennox is not patronizing the
+girls--she has great respect for them. Neither are they relying on her
+in the least. They rely only on their own skill and ability to do their
+work to the satisfaction of their customers. Mrs. Lennox has kindly
+allowed them to add her name by way of reference or indorsement for
+those people who know nothing about them. It places them before the
+public in an unassailable position."
+
+"Are they going to open a shop?" asked Miss Ware, a little
+superciliously, interested in spite of herself.
+
+"No, they mean to keep right on as they are, making things only to
+order. They will have no stock on hand. It is the best they can do under
+the circumstances, for it is impossible to branch out to any
+considerable extent while their father needs them close at hand."
+
+"Good gracious, Philip! you wouldn't advise a shop?" She made a wry face
+over her coffee, in which, in the excitement of the discussion, she had
+neglected to put any sugar.
+
+"I don't know," the Doctor replied, stroking his beard thoughtfully, "I
+am not sure. Being conducted in their home, a business such as theirs
+must of necessity be limited, and the profits small. One must do things
+in large quantities to make money. I have thought a good deal about a
+little shop--it may come to that eventually, but I am not sure that I
+want it to. They are not going to hold out forever; as it is they are
+living on their nerves,--they have been too delicately reared to stand
+such work." He pushed his plate away and folding his arms on the table
+leaned forward confidentially. "Mary," he said, "I wish I could get you
+to care for those girls--to love all that is so sweet and lovable in
+them."
+
+"Perhaps I'd care more for them, Philip, if you did not care so much."
+
+"What!" in astonishment, "why you aren't--you can't be jealous of them,
+Mary?"
+
+"I don't know," she replied, looking away from him, "women are queer,
+even we old ones--perhaps we're queerest of all!"
+
+"Why, Mary, what nonsense to be jealous of two little girls who regard
+me in the light of a venerable uncle."
+
+"I should not call a fine-looking man in the prime of life 'venerable,'"
+said his sister resentfully, for she was immensely proud of her
+distinguished brother. "I am sure it would be very odd if they did not
+admire you for more reasons than one!"
+
+"It is not a question of their admiring me, Mary, but of my admiring
+them. And I am not the only one. People are beginning to talk about them
+aside from Mrs. Lennox. Mary, I want them to marry!"
+
+"Marry!" she exclaimed. "No eligible man would marry girls who cook and
+deliver boxes at people's doors and do goodness knows what besides."
+
+"You are very much mistaken, and while you cling to your absurd opinions
+I don't think it is desirable to continue the conversation." He rose
+with dignity and passed into his office.
+
+Miss Ware followed him. "Philip," she queried with feminine curiosity,
+"had you any one special in mind?"
+
+The Doctor was lost in the depths of the morning paper.
+
+"Philip, I--I dare say I expressed myself rather strongly;" (this from
+Miss Ware was a great concession). "_Was_ there any one special in your
+mind?"
+
+"And what if there was, Mary?" answered the Doctor, slightly appeased
+but not wholly mollified, "would you really care to know?"
+
+"Yes, I should. It is so unusual for you to be developing match-making
+proclivities."
+
+"That is true. I seldom think of such matters and, mind you, I do not by
+any means think that girls should marry just for the sake of
+marrying--that it is the end and aim of their existence--but in the case
+of the Dales my heart is set upon it."
+
+"I thought you approved of women who were self-supporting," remarked his
+sister, considerably surprised at the view he presented.
+
+"So I do, when circumstances require it or their temperaments demand
+independence and they are properly trained to stand shoulder to shoulder
+with men in business or professional life. But these little girls are
+wrestling with the bare problems of existence, working with the nervous
+tension of a high-bred race-horse, using up their vitality over pots and
+kettles and pans and smiling, smiling all the time as if they liked it!"
+
+"Why, I thought they did like it!" Verily this was a morning of
+surprises.
+
+"Like it!" cried the Doctor, trying to keep down the anger in his voice,
+"would you like it to be taken out of a life of keen enjoyment--a life
+crowded with incidents and continuous change of scene such as the Dales
+lived and be put down in a comparatively strange place, unrecognized
+socially, without young companionship and, worse still, to see a father
+whom they adore perfectly helpless and dependent on them for every
+mouthful of bread! It is a wonder to me the spirit is not crushed out of
+them!"
+
+"I never quite thought of it like that, Philip."
+
+"Of course you didn't, Mary. You thought they were rebellious,
+head-strong young things who liked being cramped up in a kitchen all
+day, beating their arms off over batches of dough and stirring
+mayonnaise until they are ready to fall into the bowl from sheer
+exhaustion! But I want you to look at it differently, I do indeed, and I
+want you to help me put a new interest in their lives."
+
+"I will, Philip, there is my hand on it."
+
+The Doctor clasped it warmly. "What do you think of Landor?" he said.
+
+"Kenneth Landor? Does he know them?"
+
+"He met Hester here one day and was immensely taken with her. Afterward
+he ran across them in my house in the apartment below them. There is an
+invalid boy there whom Kenneth heard of--you know he is always finding
+out-of-the-way people and going to see them. He told me he only saw the
+girls there a moment, but he's taken a violent fancy to the boy, who
+talks about Julie and Hester by the hour together. Landor wants to meet
+the girls again--he has asked me to ask him here to meet them, but I
+have always put him off on one pretext or another, knowing it was
+useless to try to do anything while you felt as you did, but now you
+will arrange something, won't you, Mary? You have such a talent for
+little parties."
+
+"The girls won't come. Have you heard them speak of Kenneth?"
+
+"Only casually, most casually. Hester always gets the talk off on
+something else when I mention him."
+
+"That's a good sign."
+
+"A good sign!" said the Doctor, much puzzled, "I thought it was a bad
+one."
+
+"Oh! you men," laughed Miss Ware, "you don't know anything. When a girl
+does not discuss a man it is usually because he interests her. Do you
+think," she said seriously, "the girls, if they knew, would like your
+disposing of one of them in this calm fashion?"
+
+"Mary, I beg of you, do not misunderstand me. I have no wish to dispose
+of them. Kenneth may not fall in love with either of them, though I
+don't see how he can help it" (this under his breath), "and neither of
+them may care in the least for him, but it would gladden my heart if the
+thing could be. He is an admirable fellow in every way, and during the
+past month he has gone into business with his father. Did you know that?
+There is no doubt that he could make a comfortable home for them all.
+Even if nothing comes of it I want him to know them--he'll be a better
+man all his life for knowing them--and I want them to have a little
+diversion, a little outside interest to take them out of the rut. I'll
+leave it all to you, Mary," he ended, with a comfortable feeling of
+security.
+
+"I suppose, you know," she said as she was leaving, "that both the girls
+have had several offers of marriage."
+
+"No, I didn't know."
+
+"Mr. Dale mentioned it when he was discussing the question of my
+chaperoning them this winter. He said he wanted me to understand that
+the girls were in some ways much older than their years and that having
+been, through their constant companionship with him, thrown much into
+the society of men, it was natural they should have had that experience.
+He also said that neither girl had the slightest desire to marry for the
+present or had ever shown any preference for one man above another. I
+fancied from what he said that their manner toward men was frank, rather
+a sort of 'camaraderie' than the silly sentimental attitude some girls
+affect."
+
+"You are perfectly right, Mary, they have a most engaging frankness of
+manner."
+
+"May I ask you one thing, Philip?"
+
+"Certainly," suddenly apprehensive of the question coming.
+
+"How do you know they are beating their arms off over batches of
+dough"--the phrase seemed to have stuck in her mind--"I mean how did you
+realize it? Did they tell you?"
+
+"Not they;" secretly relieved, "I hear it from Bridget. She worries her
+faithful old heart out about them and vows me to secrecy when she
+confides in me, for she says they would never forgive her if they knew
+she took it so hard."
+
+"Good old Bridget," he said to himself, for his sister had vanished
+without another word, "how my little girls would scold her!"
+
+Good old Bridget indeed, who told much, but was far too loyal to tell
+all she knew!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+"Hester, 'we have arrived,' as they say in France. This has been a
+momentous month. We've sent out our cards and bought our first groceries
+at wholesale." Julie leaned her elbows on the kitchen table and gazed
+with a rapt meditative air at their first barrel of sugar.
+
+Bridget stood in the doorway openly admiring. "It's like old times, Miss
+Julie dear, to be seein' things come in quantities agen." She had
+secretly harbored a grudge against the miserable little paper bags.
+
+Peter Snooks sniffed at the unfamiliar barrel and then sat down beside
+it with a comical air of importance, but Hester did not leave him long
+undisturbed, for in wild exuberance of spirits she executed a war-dance
+in which he joined, at the end of which she mounted the barrel and with
+arms extended made a speech.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen (the gentlemen's _you_, Snooks);
+
+"This is the proudest moment of my life!"
+
+Having delivered herself of this burst of eloquence she paused a moment
+dramatically, then plunged into such a torrent of nonsense that Bridget
+buried her head in her apron to stifle her laughter, Peter Snooks barked
+frantically in a fit of delight and Julie pulled the young orator down
+ignominiously.
+
+"Come into the other room," she said. "Daddy is asleep and I don't want
+you to wake him."
+
+Instantly subdued, Hester tip-toed down the hall, following her sister.
+
+"Are we going to discuss affairs of state?" she whispered.
+
+"No, but we must come to some decision about Mrs. Lennox's invitation
+for Thursday night. I think we ought to go."
+
+"Well, I don't. I object to being patronized."
+
+"Oh! my dear, don't look at it like that; it is not kind of you. You
+regard Mrs. Lennox as a friend, do you not?"
+
+"A business friend, yes; the kindest and best we have, but that is not
+knowing her socially."
+
+"No, dear, but she wants to know us socially or she would not have
+invited us to her house. Don't you see that is what it means, Hester? It
+is not patronizing us, but placing us on an equal footing--"
+
+"Where we belong," interrupted Hester, "though I don't think we need
+feel overwhelmed by Radnor's recognition of the fact." She spoke
+bitterly in a tone that cut her sister.
+
+"Hester dear, it does hurt to be utterly ignored by the people who used
+to know us when we were children, but there are enough outside of Radnor
+who have stood by us loyally and we will make headway here eventually
+when people get a little more used to us."
+
+"Do you suppose I care a snap of my finger about these Radnor girls,"
+said Hester savagely. "They're a narrow snobbish lot and I'm glad I've
+escaped knowing them! Just yesterday, as I was delivering that great box
+of sandwiches at Mrs. Crane's I met Jessie Davis on the steps--she'd
+been calling there. Don't you remember how we always played together
+when we were little tots at school? Well, of course I knew her
+immediately--she hasn't changed a bit, and she knew me, but it was
+surprising how absorbed she suddenly became in looking for her carriage
+which was standing right under her nose! Think how disgraced she would
+have been before her footman if I--nothing better than a parcel-delivery
+girl--had spoken to her! She needn't have been afraid," scornfully,
+giving full vent to her smothered wrath, "I wouldn't have spoken to her
+to have saved her life!"
+
+"She is not worth getting angry about, dear. You ought to pity her for
+not knowing any better."
+
+"She knows better, well enough," said the irate Hester, who rather liked
+to nurse her wrath. "She's a nasty little snob!"
+
+"Well, she is," agreed Julie, "but I can't help pitying her for all she
+has missed in not knowing you."
+
+Hester smiled. "It is wicked of me to spit out at you, Julie dear. You
+did not make snobs and you have to encounter them just as much as I do.
+I dare say if we go to Mrs. Lennox's we shall run up against some, but a
+party does sound pleasant, doesn't it?"
+
+"I think, dear," said Julie with that quiet little matronly air she
+unconsciously assumed when she was trying to win over her sister, "I
+think that even though parties are not at all in our line these days, we
+should go. It is not a party, really, only an informal little musicale.
+It will freshen us up tremendously to get into a different atmosphere
+and it will please Mrs. Lennox, who has gone out of her way to be kind."
+She looked at her sister entreatingly.
+
+"Julie, you are a saint! Sometimes you talk just like Daddy!"
+
+Julie's eyes moistened. "I am not a saint," she protested. "Think what
+Miss Ware will say when she hears of it?"
+
+Hester's eyes gleamed. "That settles it--I am going, and if you want to
+know my honest opinion, I love Mrs. Lennox for asking us."
+
+There were many orders that week and their working capacity was taxed to
+its utmost to meet the demand. Had it not been for their systematic
+arrangement of everything it would have been impossible to accomplish so
+much. They had learned that the early hours of the morning are the best
+and got to work by six, continuing on through the day as long as there
+was anything to do. They had laid down stringent rules for work hours
+and strenuously endeavored to live by them.
+
+By Thursday they were absorbed in the largest order they had yet
+received, embracing as it did croquettes, patties and other elaborate
+things which in an unguarded moment they had agreed to send hot to some
+club-rooms in the neighborhood. Hester thought they could do this by
+packing the things in a big steamer they had recently purchased. The
+steamer was a large tin affair built in sections of trays and would pack
+to great advantage, besides holding a considerable amount of boiling
+water at the bottom whereby the things could be kept hot. They had
+engaged an expressman to deliver this promptly at quarter past eight and
+it was with anxious hearts and nervous fingers they made the final
+preparations for packing. The cooking of all these elaborate things had
+been in itself no light achievement, but even that was as nothing to
+their fear lest the steamer should not reach its destination safely.
+They had been at work since five that morning and wrapped and boxed and
+packed securely was the last thing when the clock struck eight that
+evening. Five minutes past eight and no expressman! Quarter after, and
+two excited girls stared at each other across the steamer! Then Hester
+fled to the basement. The janitor was out but she pounced upon the
+engineer and got him upstairs before he realized what it was all about.
+"You're to go on an errand," was all she had vouchsafed him, leaving
+Julie to explain the rest.
+
+The man when he reached their kitchen eyed the big steamer curiously and
+said he could carry it. Whereupon Julie wanted to fall upon his neck
+with joy, but showed him the address tied to the cover instead.
+
+"Be'gorra miss," he said in evident embarrassment, "I ain't been in the
+city a week. Not the name of a street am I after knowin' entirely."
+
+Here was a dilemma.
+
+"I'll go with him," said Bridget.
+
+"You'll do nothing of the sort," said Julie, "you have been half dead
+with rheumatism for two days and it is pouring in torrents. We'll go,
+Hester and I--we can get there in fifteen minutes. Hustle, Hester!"
+
+It was an incongruous little procession that went out into the storm,
+the girls leading, the man keeping close to his guides, who encouraged
+him by a word now and then. He walked firmly and with head erect, not
+because this was his habitual gait, but because he had been warned that
+any undue motion of his body would bring showers of scalding water down
+his back. An admonition like this was not to be disregarded and he
+picked his way gingerly to the basement door of the club where the girls
+rang the bell and the supper was safely left in the hands of the
+housekeeper. Then having lavishly rewarded their cavalier two
+light-hearted girls rushed home through the night to Bridget.
+
+She welcomed them as if they had returned from some great peril, petted
+and scolded them because of their wet things and fussed about like a hen
+whose goslings have swam safely back to shore.
+
+"I've made you a pot of coffee to warm your blessed selves," she said.
+"It's a wonder you don't kill yourselves entirely."
+
+"You Bridget!" said Julie affectionately as she kicked off her wet
+shoes, "won't you put me to bed just as if I were a little bit of a
+girl?" With those tired eyes and that pathetic droop to her mouth she
+did not look much of anything else as she said it.
+
+"Julie Dale! are you crazy! Mrs. Lennox's carriage is coming at nine
+o'clock to take us to the musicale! You've ten minutes to dress!" Hester
+made this announcement with a high tragedy air.
+
+Julie jumped as if she had been shot. "I had completely forgotten it,
+Hester. Oh! my dear, I am so dead tired I don't feel as if I could
+move."
+
+"Well, you've got to," remarked Hester, who, having made up her mind to
+do a thing, was not easily turned from her purpose; "you got me into
+this thing and we'll go if it kills us! I know I just about struck it
+when I called this place 'The Hustle'" she ruminated. "I am sure I don't
+feel as if I'd drawn a long breath since we came here!"
+
+"What shall we wear?" asked Julie who scrambled after her sister,
+shedding her wet things as she went.
+
+"I got out your light silks, dearie," came from Bridget.
+
+"Do you suppose we ought to wear hats?" This from Hester, who was
+wishing they had planned their costumes the night before.
+
+"Perhaps we ought," ruefully. "Good gracious! I haven't any--not a small
+one, Hester."
+
+"A trifle inconvenient, isn't it? I might lend you the rose toque I
+bought in Paris."
+
+"Indeed you won't, it exactly matches your gown and you look dear in it.
+I'll wear a bow in my hair or something." A bow, to Julie, always filled
+any discrepancy.
+
+Hester arrested her in the act of trying this effect before the mirror
+and sat her down brusquely in a chair.
+
+"Give me that bow," she commanded, "and keep still. _I'll make a hat on
+your head!_ Bridget, you get down her picture hat quick, and rip off the
+tips and the band of jet and some lace and we'll fix her up in a jiffy!"
+
+It was a wonderful creation--just a bit of lace and jet and ribbon with
+never a stitch in it, all fastened with hairpins to Julie's curly head.
+Two white ostrich tips stood up saucily at the side, a few violets were
+coquettishly stuck in the back and the effect was immensely modish and
+becoming.
+
+"Hold your head high all the evening and don't toss it about for your
+life!" warned Hester. "If you do, the whole thing will fall to pieces."
+
+"That's a cheerful prospect," commented Julie, surveying herself in the
+glass. "Can't you put in more hairpins?"
+
+"You've got about a million now." Hester's imagination never failed her.
+
+"Shure you look beautiful, Miss Julie, dear," said Bridget, "and it
+ain't goin' to come to pieces--Miss Hester's only teasin' yer."
+
+Five minutes later they were rolling through the storm in Mrs. Lennox's
+brougham.
+
+"Hester," whispered Julie from the depths of her luxurious corner, "_I_
+never tramped out in the wet to-night to deliver a club supper, did
+you?"
+
+"Certainly not," squeezing her hand hard, "who ever heard of such a
+thing!"
+
+Something very like a tremor of nervous excitement pervaded the girls as
+their names were announced on the threshold of Mrs. Lennox's
+drawing-room. Their entrance attracted immediate attention. Mrs. Lennox
+received them as Mrs. Lennox would, with most charming cordiality, yet
+not too pronounced lest they be made to feel that their coming was not a
+matter of common occurrence. She made a mental note of the fact that her
+proteges had never looked prettier and was immensely pleased with their
+poise and perfect self-possession under what she knew must be for them
+something of an ordeal. If she could have looked into Julie's heart she
+would have discovered a shyness in coming among these people that
+amounted to positive pain; but who would ever have suspected it from
+that smiling exterior and that proud tilt of the head?
+
+As for Hester, from the moment a woman who was one of their customers
+bowed to her in a puzzled sort of way and then whispered so loud that
+every one about her could hear, "Why it's those Dale girls!"--from that
+moment Hester's spirit of deviltry awoke and she determined to outshine
+every girl in the room.
+
+Mrs. Lennox immediately presented half a dozen men who formed a little
+group about them and presently she steered them all toward some chairs
+preparatory to settling down to hear the music. As they crossed the room
+several women with whom they had had business dealings, bowed to them
+cordially. In a corner on a tete-a-tete seat sat Jessie Davis with
+Kenneth Landor. Both looked up as the party approached and Landor gave a
+half-stifled exclamation. Hester's luminous eyes swept by the girl and
+into the man's face with such a distracting smile that he was on his
+feet in a second.
+
+"How do you do?" she said sweetly, just the suspicion of a smile still
+lurking about the corners of her mouth while she extended her hand
+cordially.
+
+The man took it in an eager clasp and blessed the Fates for this
+propitious moment. "This is charming," he said. "It is a great pleasure
+to see you."
+
+"Yes, is it not?" naively. "Julie, here is Mr. Landor," bringing him
+into the circle quite as if he were an old friend.
+
+Genuinely glad to see him, Julie showed it unreservedly. All the men
+knew him and envied him his luck as the little party found seats
+together.
+
+"You must not let us break up your tete-a-tete," remonstrated the wicked
+Hester with a glance in the direction of the divan where Miss Davis sat
+deserted.
+
+Miss Davis, gazing into space, heard and bit her lip with vexation. She
+thought the airs the little upstart gave herself were intolerable. What
+could Mrs. Lennox be thinking of to bring those Dale girls into society?
+
+But Landor did not go back to her. Man fashion, he pleased himself by
+becoming Hester's shadow during the remainder of the evening, though he
+was not allowed to monopolize her--far from it. He had to content
+himself with scraps of conversation, for every man in the room wanted to
+be presented and each found her so diverting and original that there was
+constantly a little crowd about her, while in the intervals of the music
+peals of merry laughter came from her corner of the room.
+
+Julie, who was holding a little court of her own, could hear her and
+rejoice, and she was especially glad that this should be so when later
+in the evening Miss Ware, escorted by her brother, entered the room. She
+recognized the girls and was conscious of their success five minutes
+after her arrival and there was within her something like envy of Mrs.
+Lennox who had been the first to take into the elect these social
+renegades.
+
+As for Dr. Ware, he threw himself with enthusiasm into the gayety of
+Hester's corner, vying with the younger men in jests and laughter. Later
+he sauntered down the room, stopping on the way to chat with this person
+and that, and sought out Julie, who, though she greeted him so smilingly
+seemed to him suddenly remote. It was as if she had slipped away into a
+younger world than his and an indefinable sensation awoke within him,
+filling him with unrest. Partly because of this and partly because the
+pleasure in her evident pleasure was so great, he lingered near her,
+giving her that quiet, unobtrusive attention which his old friendship
+warranted. And Julie liked to have him near. She was glad that he smiled
+so approvingly upon her, happy that this little frivolity was given the
+additional delight of his presence. For it was all delightfully
+frivolous and gay, though Julie's excitement and animation were
+naturally somewhat tempered by her headgear, especially as every now and
+then when she forgot herself and nodded her head emphatically over
+something, Hester would give her a warning glance. Poor Julie! the
+"proud and haughty" tilt became very trying, but it _was_ distinguished
+and caused Mr. Lennox, who was most critical, likewise somewhat horsey,
+to confide to his wife afterward that she was a thoroughbred.
+
+"I hope you'll have them often," he said, when the last guest had
+departed and they had settled down before the library fire to talk it
+over. "After the cut-and-dried young people one usually meets they are
+perfectly refreshing. I had a long talk with the blonde one--is she
+Julie?--during supper about Arizona. Found myself telling her all about
+my irrigation schemes out there. Fancy finding a young girl who
+understands such things! She knows that country well and gave me an idea
+or two worth considering."
+
+"I should like to have them often, John, but they won't come. Their work
+engrosses them to the exclusion of everything; it has to be so--they
+need all their strength to get through the days. I understand it
+perfectly. Did you notice how people were all in a flutter about them? I
+fancy I have given Radnor something to talk about!"
+
+"Oh! well, that is not unusual. Do you mean to say people have cut them?
+It seems incredible in these enlightened days."
+
+"It is true, nevertheless, though Julie told me the other day that their
+customers were showing the kindest possible interest in their work and
+encouraging them by renewed orders; that every one showed them courtesy
+and consideration in a business way, but I happen to know, though she
+did not say so, that there it stops. The line is distinctly drawn. None
+of the daughters of those women show any inclination to renew their
+acquaintance with the girls, though many of them were their playfellows
+years ago."
+
+"Well, they're a disgrace to their sex, that is all I've got to
+say--I've no patience with that sort of thing!" Mr. Lennox put down a
+half-smoked cigar and pushed back his chair. "They were the success of
+the evening, Mabel, and I am proud to know them. It strikes me," slyly,
+"there were others who succumbed to their fascinations. Landor, for
+instance, and Dr. Ware--"
+
+"Oh, he is their father's oldest friend."
+
+"And Renshawe, who displayed surprising interest in Arizona when he
+found us talking about it. Have you ever known him to care a hang about
+Arizona before?"
+
+"No," laughed his wife, "but Sidney Renshawe always rises to the
+occasion when he is interested. Principally it is Virginia he talks
+about now. By the way, he is expecting Monsieur Gremond back from
+California any day. Did you know?"
+
+"I was glad to have a chance to speak to her of her father, too," said
+Mr. Lennox, who apparently had not heeded his wife's last remarks. "I
+knew Mr. Dale somewhat at the club and regretted his collapse as we all
+did. She had such a pretty proud look when I spoke of him, as if I
+couldn't say too much. I felt as if I would like to take her off to some
+quiet corner and talk to her by the hour together."
+
+"So you shall, my dear. Together we will lay siege and capture them
+again. I should like to give a dinner for them soon.
+
+"Oh! ask them informally when we are not entertaining," remonstrated her
+husband who evidently desired to monopolize them.
+
+"Very well, dear, and if it pleases you to watch Julie's eloquent
+face--and I assure you Hester's is equally so--Mr. Dale shall be the
+chief topic of conversation. I never knew him, but it is a great deal to
+know his daughters, John."
+
+Which sentiment being shared by the master of the house the mistress
+called the midnight session off and they went upstairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+It was a dismal rainy afternoon, and the work of the day having been
+finished early the girls were ensconced in their little sitting-room
+reveling in a well-earned rest. By the way of unusual dissipation a
+teakettle was hissing on the table, while the freshly filled sugar bowl
+and bits of lemon told of preparations for the cup that cheers.
+Stretched out at full length on the floor lay Hester in her favorite
+attitude. At her feet sprawled Peter Snooks, chewing frantically at a
+piece of rubber tire which was at once his solace and despair, defying
+as it did his most strenuous efforts to tear it to bits. Julie, who had
+donned a neglige and shaken the pins out of her curly hair, was buried
+in a book, yet with one ear alert lest her father in the adjoining room
+should stir and want something. Bridget, remarkable to relate, had taken
+an afternoon out.
+
+Presently Julie dropped her book and curling herself into the depths of
+the chair was dozing off when Hester said abruptly, "There's a stranger
+coming!"
+
+Julie started up and gazed about as if expecting some one to loom up
+before her.
+
+"There is," reiterated Hester.
+
+"Is what?" sleepily.
+
+"A stranger coming."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"My nose itches," announced the younger Dale, rubbing the tip of that
+saucy feature.
+
+"Nonsense! That's an old granny's reason."
+
+"Can't help it if it is. There is only one alternative and that is to
+kiss a fool. You would not exactly class yourself in that category,
+would you?" turning on her elbow to look at her sister. "Of course if
+you insist--" and Hester leaned toward her.
+
+Julie gave her a push. "You idiot! go kiss yourself in a mirror." But
+the doorbell rang.
+
+Julie bounced from her chair and fled down the hall. Hester stifled her
+desire to laugh and opened the door on a tall, well-built man who stared
+as he beheld her.
+
+"Why--this is Mr. Renshawe, is it not?" the girl said with perfect
+composure though inwardly amazed at seeing him. "Won't you come in?"
+
+"How do you do--thanks--I--that is--" he stammered helplessly.
+
+"You wish to see my sister, of course," ushering him in. "We did not
+meet the other night at Mrs. Lennox's, did we? but you see I heard about
+you afterward. I'll go and call my sister."
+
+"Oh! no, don't, please, I beg of you. I must apologize for this
+impertinent intrusion--I've made some abominable mistake!" In the hand
+in which he was nervously twisting his hat, Hester caught a glimpse of
+one of their business cards and in a flash the whole purport of his
+visit was made clear to her.
+
+"I do not think it is a mistake," she said naturally. "I imagine you
+have come to see us on business, have you not? Won't you sit down, Mr.
+Renshawe?"
+
+"Oh, may I? Thanks. Do you do business?" he gasped incredulously,
+glancing from the piquant girl about the pretty room where no suggestion
+of anything like work was visible.
+
+"Yes," replied Hester, "all kinds of fancy cooking. Possibly you've seen
+our cards," she suggested in a desire to help him out.
+
+He produced the one in his hand with the air of a guilty culprit. "Yes,
+I have," he confessed. "It was given me this afternoon by the manager of
+Heath & Co. He knows I give a good many bachelor parties in my chambers
+and recommended these things. But Miss Dale," he protested, "I had no
+idea it was you and your sister--it never occurred to me."
+
+"Why should it?" asked Hester, "but it is, just the same, and we shall
+be very glad to fill your order." She went to a desk and brought forth a
+pad and pencil in a business-like manner.
+
+He sat watching her with a puzzled, utterly perplexed expression drawing
+his eye-brows together. Suddenly as she returned to her chair opposite
+him he cried,
+
+"By Jove! I know now, exactly--that's just who you are!" looking into
+her face with evident relief.
+
+Hester wanted to laugh and say "Is it?" to this ambiguous remark but
+having assumed her formal business manner she maintained a discreet
+silence and waited for him to explain.
+
+"You are little Miss Driscoe's cousin!" he announced.
+
+"Are you the Radnor man who has been visiting at the Blake's
+plantation?" cried Hester impulsively, forgetting in her excitement that
+he was to be kept on a strictly business footing.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," was his smiling reply. "I've been there several
+times this past winter; in fact I came up from there only last week."
+
+"Oh! did you? Long ago Nannie wrote us that there had been a Radnor man
+at her birthday party but she quite forgot to mention his name. Oh! I
+wish Julie had known this the other night! She would have loved a chance
+to ask you all about the Driscoes. Isn't Nannie the dearest little
+thing?"
+
+"If I hadn't been a duffer, Miss Dale, I might have placed your sister
+immediately when I met her, for I have had the minutest descriptions of
+you both, I assure you. There was something very baffling about her that
+night, as if I must have known her or at least seen her before
+somewhere, but--"
+
+"But you did not expect to see us in society, perhaps?"
+
+He glanced at her as if the better to understand if her tone were
+cynical, but her bland little smile told him nothing and before he could
+make any reply she said:
+
+"I am afraid we have strayed too far from important things, Mr.
+Renshawe. It is shocking of me to encroach upon your time. Is there
+anything we can do for you in a business way?" She told Julie afterward
+she was quite proud of this little speech, for she had been consumed
+with a desire to ask him a thousand questions about the Driscoes.
+
+Renshawe interpreted it to mean that the chat was at an end and he
+feared that in some clumsy way he had offended her, but she steered him
+into a discussion of the order he had come to leave with such a calm
+matter-of-fact air that he found himself consulting her about salads and
+cakes with an ease he would not have believed possible when he entered
+the room. He had never been brought into business relations with a young
+girl of her position and he admired exceedingly her manner. The order
+having been arranged quite to his satisfaction he dismissed the subject
+and made up his mind to have his say in spite of the cue Hester had
+given him. So as he rose to leave he said:
+
+"I hope you will forgive me, Miss Dale, if I tell you I feel quite as if
+I knew you and your sister and I am immensely glad to meet you. You see
+the Blakes took me frequently to Wavertree Hall and Miss Nannie spoke of
+you so often; she--"
+
+"Dear little Nan," the girl said musingly, "how I should love to see
+her!"
+
+The man looked as if he would like to echo that sentiment, but he only
+said as he moved toward the door:
+
+"Will you be very kind, Miss Dale, and let Mrs. Lennox bring me some
+time to see you and your sister? I have so many messages from Virginia,
+for Miss Nannie was confident I should meet you and you see she was
+right."
+
+"Indeed you may come," said Hester frankly, "we--we do not receive many
+visitors, but I know Julie will be glad to see you--I shall too,"
+genuinely, and not as if politeness prompted this after-thought.
+
+"Thank you. For the next few weeks I am owned body and soul," smiling,
+"by Jules Gremond who is stopping with me. Perhaps you know of him, Miss
+Dale? He's made considerable of a stir since he came out of Africa. An
+old chum of mine whom I think you might enjoy meeting--perhaps after
+awhile you will allow me to arrange it."
+
+Hester always says she acted like a fool at this juncture and stammered
+out some unintelligible reply, and that he immediately departed, she
+thinks without any special consciousness of her idiocy--or at least she
+hopes so, for she frankly confesses she was in no state of mind to know.
+However that may be, the door had no sooner closed after him than the
+dignified junior Dale, caterer, became metamorphosed into an excited
+young girl who flew down the hall to the room where her sister had taken
+refuge.
+
+"Come back to the sitting-room where we can talk without waking Daddy,
+quick!" she cried, pulling Julie down the hall. "Now what do you
+suppose?" when they had reached the little room.
+
+"Some one has left an extra fine order," seeing several pieces of paper
+clutched nervously in Hester's hand.
+
+"Don't be so everlastingly material!" pinning the papers with a vicious
+stab to the back of the chair. "It has nothing to do with work,
+whatever--that is not exactly. Oh! do guess who has been here--and who
+_is_ here?"
+
+"Hester, are you hiding some one to surprise me?" looking eagerly about.
+"I know it is a man--I heard him. It can't be Dr. Ware; it wasn't his
+step. It's--it's--oh! Hester Dale, is it cousin Driscoe?"
+
+"You're getting hot," cried Hester encouragingly, reveling in her
+sister's excited curiosity.
+
+"Tell me this minute," demanded Julie, shaking her. "What other man
+would be coming here?"
+
+"Well, there _are_ others," laughed Hester, teasingly. "Mr. Renshawe,
+for instance."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Honor bright! And who do you suppose he is?" mysteriously.
+
+"Don't be so tantalizing! What on earth do I know about him?"
+wrathfully.
+
+"Well, you ought to. He hung around you the whole evening at Mrs.
+Lennox's, you know he did. I simply wasn't in it. I don't believe he
+even knew I was there!"
+
+"You idiot! I had no personal talk with him whatever. As for you, you
+flirted shockingly with Mr. Landor. I was astonished at you!" severely.
+
+"I _was_ nice to him, wasn't I?" admitted Hester, "but that was all for
+Jessie Davis' benefit."
+
+"So I thought, you depraved wretch! Will you kindly tell me what all
+this has to do with your present excitement?"
+
+Hester sat on the edge of her chair and delivered her next speech in
+italics.
+
+"Mr. Renshawe is the man who went to Nannie's party and got the ring in
+her birthday cake!"
+
+"Not really!"
+
+"And he came here not knowing who we really were, because the manager at
+Heath's gave him one of our cards and recommended us as caterers. You
+ought to have seen him, Julie! He was embarrassed almost to death and I
+felt flustered myself, to say the least, but we managed to get through
+the business part nicely and then at the end he just floored me!"
+
+"Hester!" Words other than ejaculations seemed to have failed Julie.
+
+The younger girl came over and stood in front of her to get the full
+effect of her next speech, the most important piece of news, which she
+had had hard work to keep until the last.
+
+"Jules Gremond is in this country, staying with Mr. Renshawe now," she
+said.
+
+Julie was rendered wholly inarticulate, but the color spread in a
+crimson wave over her face and she made a grab at her sister, pulling
+her down beside her.
+
+"You are guying me!" she cried when she could speak.
+
+"It is the solemn truth; 'cross my heart, hope to die,'" maintained
+Hester dramatically. "Moreover the things Mr. Renshawe has ordered are
+for a tea he is giving for Monsieur Gremond to-morrow and the Fates
+decree that we shall tickle the palate of the distinguished African
+explorer with sandwiches and things! Oh! Julie, what a funny world!"
+
+"How do you know he is distinguished?" asked Julie, clasping her hands
+behind her head that her nervous fingers might not betray her.
+
+"Because I do. Mr. Renshawe as much as said so. I wouldn't have believed
+he had it in him, would you?"
+
+"I don't know; we really hardly knew him well enough to judge."
+
+"Umph! I don't know about that. What do you suppose he is doing here,
+Julie? Do you think he'll look us up?" hesitatingly.
+
+"Of course not," with more asperity than the innocent questions seemed
+to justify. "He will never dream of our being in Radnor. You know we had
+been some weeks at the hotel in Los Angeles when he came, and for all he
+knew we might have been going to spend the rest of our days there.
+Probably he has ceased to remember that we exist--a man would find his
+_affaires du coeur_ rather clumsy baggage in the wilds of Africa!"
+
+"If he carried them all, yes. One or two might be consoling," suggested
+Hester airily.
+
+"Oh! bother Jules Gremond! I don't want to think of him! He belongs to a
+life that is past!"
+
+"Well, it is queer, anyway," insisted Hester, "and I want to scream with
+laughter when I think of a divinity like you--didn't he call you a
+divinity, Julie?--coming down from your pedestal to cater for his serene
+highness, the one and only Jules Gremond!"
+
+There was something so inimitable about Hester's manner coupled with the
+graphic picture she drew that Julie went off into a paroxysm of laughter
+that ended in hysterical sobbing which Hester put an end to by shaking
+her vigorously.
+
+"You are so funny," said Julie faintly, wiping her eyes. "You are almost
+as funny as the situation!" and then she buried her face in Hester's arm
+and laughed again.
+
+"Shut up!" said Hester with more force than elegance for she was getting
+frightened at Julie's unusual behavior. "Stop this minute or you'll go
+all to pieces and besides, I've an awful confession to make!"
+
+"Oh! not anything more," protested Julie, leaning back exhausted. "My
+dear, don't! Another shock will certainly be the death of me!"
+piteously.
+
+"Well I'll die if I don't get it off my conscience, so there you are!"
+cried Hester, thumping down in Julie's lap and beginning to finger the
+hair that strayed in little curls about her temples.
+
+"Go on," resignedly from Julie.
+
+"Playing with your hair? I know you love to have me do it so you need
+not put on such a martyred air."
+
+"Go on with your confession, you goose!"
+
+"Well, I told Mr. Renshawe he might come to call on us. You see he asked
+if we would let Mrs. Lennox bring him and he was so nice I couldn't
+refuse."
+
+An amused smile crept into Julie's eyes. "I thought we had nothing in
+common with men whatever--that they did not fit into the present scheme
+of things--that we had no use for them in the life we live! _Wasn't_ it
+some such explosive theory you expounded to me ages ago?" she asked
+teasingly.
+
+"It is true, you know it is," pulling Julie's curls to emphasize her
+words, "but I did it for Nannie's sake. I know he is just dying to come
+here and talk about her."
+
+"You mean you are just dying to have him! So am I, for the matter of
+that. Won't it be nice to hear all about them?"
+
+"Do you know something?" said Hester who had a trick of beginning a
+speech with a question, "I believe he is in love with her!"
+
+"What gave you that idea, you precocious infant?"
+
+"Oh! nothing special, only the way he looked when her name was mentioned
+and his wanting to come here to talk about her--there is no other
+possible reason why he should want to come--and he got the ring in her
+cake you know. Wouldn't it be romantic if she married him?"
+
+"Hester Dale! The way you allow your imagination to run riot is
+something perfectly fearful! You put one and one together and make a
+thousand things! I never saw such a girl!"
+
+"You are not cross, are you, Julie? You don't think I did wrong to say
+he might come?"
+
+"Of course not, you baby, I think you did perfectly right. Now go and
+make me a cup of tea if the kettle has not boiled dry. We need a brace
+after all this excitement."
+
+Hester busied herself with the tea things and Julie sat staring at her,
+wrapt in thought. If Hester was conscious of this preoccupation she gave
+no sign, but hummed a gay tune and talked to Peter Snooks, who came and
+sat pressed close to her knees in true dog fashion.
+
+"Do you know, Peter Snooks," she said speculatively, "we have one very
+important feature in common--our noses." At this he thrust his up in her
+lap. "Yes," she continued, patting him, "we have. Yours denotes your
+state of health--mine the arrival of a stranger within our gates. A
+certain proud and haughty person jeers at mine but you know how it is,
+don't you, old man?"
+
+The dog pawed her lap by way of showing that he understood perfectly and
+with his big eloquent eyes fixed on the sugar bowl, thrust out his
+tongue suggestively.
+
+"What! is that sensitive too! Oh! you scalawag!" and she tossed him a
+lump of sugar.
+
+This conversation had stolen in through Julie's reverie and she pulled
+up her chair and leaned over to her sister as she took her cup of tea.
+
+"I dare say I did jeer at that saucy nose of yours," she began, "but in
+token of my future awe and respect I am going to kiss it now," suiting
+the action to the words. "It may be a precaution against its owner's
+kissing me as an alternative in the next emergency! Peter Snooks, I call
+upon you to witness that I hereto set my seal," with another kiss,
+"having at this moment solemnly declared that I consider the aforesaid
+feature infallible."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Radnor society was all agog over the second appearance of Monsieur
+Gremond, and no sooner was his coming made known than Renshawe was
+fairly deluged with invitations for his guest.
+
+Miss Ware took that occasion to give a big reception to which
+magnanimously, "those Dale girls" were invited. This was the only
+outcome of the after breakfast talk many weeks before with her brother.
+To tell the truth, the interest in them kindled at the moment by his
+enthusiasm, waned, and she never arranged the little party for which he
+had told her she had such a talent. Not that she altogether meant to
+waive her promise; she compromised with her conscience by telling
+herself that she had not yet gotten around to it. Here then was her
+opportunity and the girls were invited to the reception not only by card
+but personally. She only succeeded, however, in extracting a half
+promise from them to come, for they were having an anxious time over a
+new departure in their work and were little inclined for social
+dissipation.
+
+Kenneth Landor gave a stag dinner at his club in honor of the Frenchman
+on the night of his arrival and Dr. Ware entertained Renshawe, Gremond
+and Landor at the same place later in the week, dining them informally
+before his sister's reception. Dr. Ware greatly enjoyed the society of
+younger men, who sought him in many capacities and as a counselor found
+in his quick comprehension of their difficulties many a solution of
+problems which to the young so often seem insurmountable. Then it was
+that the wisdom grown out of his vast experience of life gave itself
+freely to those who came to him, and many a man and woman left his
+presence cheered by the grip of his hand, strengthened by the kindliness
+that looked out from his eyes and pervaded his whole personality. On his
+lighter side, as a delightfully congenial companion, he had no equal in
+Radnor and this rubbing up continually against a younger point of view
+tended to freshen his mind and keep him in touch with much that
+otherwise, through the exigencies of his profession, would have escaped
+him.
+
+"I do not want to seem inhospitable," he was saying that evening as the
+four men sat together at dinner, "but we must not linger too long over
+our cigars, or my sister will hold me responsible for keeping you away
+from her." He had his own reasons for wanting to arrive fairly early.
+
+"In that case we'd better move along, Landor," said Renshawe rising.
+"Dr. Ware," turning to his host, "will you take Gremond with you or wait
+a few moments while we look in at a committee meeting upstairs. We will
+not be long if you both care to wait."
+
+"I am in the hands of my friends," said Gremond.
+
+"We will wait, by all means," replied the Doctor, consulting his watch.
+"It is not much after nine now."
+
+Thought transference was a psychological phenomenon over which Dr. Ware
+had pondered much, and a startling instance of it was borne in upon him
+when after the other men had departed, Monsieur Gremond turned to him
+and said abruptly, without any preamble:
+
+"May I ask, Dr. Ware, if you know in this city a family of Dales? In
+particular a Mademoiselle Julie Dale?"
+
+"Why yes, I believe so," said the Doctor who was nothing if not
+non-committal, "do you?"
+
+He was totally unprepared for the effusive manner in which the Frenchman
+literally fell upon his neck, exclaiming, "Oh! my friend, I thank you, I
+thank you!"
+
+Masculine demonstration is not particularly pleasing to a man of
+Anglo-Saxon blood and Dr. Ware, in order to prevent a further exhibition
+of it, drew away slightly and offered his guest a fresh cigar.
+
+Monsieur Gremond shook his head. "I will not smoke--I will do nothing
+but ask you questions--if I may. Oh! you cannot think what it means to
+know I have found her!"
+
+"Have you been searching for Miss Julie Dale?" asked the Doctor, puffing
+clouds of smoke into the air.
+
+"Searching? Ah, if you but knew! I have been across your continent to
+California only to learn that she had long ago left there and come to
+your eastern coast, presumably here, though no one at the hotel knew
+definitely about her."
+
+"You are especially interested in Miss Dale, I take it," said the Doctor
+quietly. "In that case perhaps I should tell you that I stand somewhat
+in the relation of a guardian to her and her sister. You may talk quite
+frankly with me if you care to do so."
+
+It was impossible to restrain or even resent the hand-shake with which
+the younger man expressed his appreciation.
+
+"The Fates have been kind!" was his exclamation. "I am rewarded for my
+bitter disappointment. Is Monsieur Dale dead?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"Not dead, but so ill that he is no longer able to look out for their
+interests--the privilege, therefore, devolves upon me."
+
+"I wish to marry Mademoiselle Julie," said the Frenchman with a
+directness Dr. Ware liked. "I came to this country chiefly for the
+purpose of taking her back with me. I knew them at Los Angeles two years
+ago and Monsieur Dale liked me--at least I do not think he disliked me,
+for he allowed me to be much in his daughters' society. I realize that
+to you I am quite unknown, but Renshawe will vouch for me and any
+questions you may care to ask about my family or my future I shall be
+most happy to answer."
+
+"Thank you." There was silence for a moment and then the Doctor said
+slowly, "Have you reason to suppose that Miss Dale will marry you?"
+
+"Ah! that I do not know,--but she will--she must! Our intercourse was so
+perfect that life without her is incomplete. And she seemed always very
+happy with me. Has she never spoken of me or those days?"
+
+"I think not," replied the Doctor, remembering that according to his
+sister that was in a man's favor. "But it is not at all unnatural," he
+hastened to say kindly, "we have gone little into the past since they
+have been living here--for many reasons."
+
+"Will you tell me where they live and have I your permission to call on
+them to-morrow?" asked the Frenchman eagerly.
+
+"Better than that, Monsieur, Miss Dale and her sister will be at my
+sister's reception this evening. It will give me great pleasure to see
+that you meet her at once. Many changes have taken place since you last
+saw her, but of all that she will prefer herself to tell you. You will
+find her developed from a winsome, lovable girl into a noble young woman
+whose attractions in every way are greater--"
+
+"Not greater than when I knew her--that cannot be possible," interrupted
+the Frenchman. "To think that within the hour I shall see her! How can I
+express to you my intense gratitude for all this?"
+
+"By making her future all she has a right to expect from the man to whom
+she entrusts it," said the Doctor earnestly. "For the rest, we will talk
+things over more thoroughly in a day or two. I think," he said rising,
+"that Renshawe and Landor have forgotten us. Suppose after all we go on
+and let them follow at their leisure."
+
+And Monsieur Gremond readily assenting, Dr. Ware called a cab, which
+soon left them at his door.
+
+The house was already crowded and Miss Ware gave her brother a look of
+displeasure which she considered his tardy appearance merited. It was
+not more than a fleeting frown, however, for Monsieur Gremond followed
+close at his heels and what hostess could fail to wreathe her
+countenance in other than most charming smiles to greet so distinguished
+a guest! Dr. Ware presented a number of persons to him and saw him well
+launched before he left him to go in search of the Dale girls. He rubbed
+up against Kenneth Landor presently and secured his aid as a scout to
+reconnoiter, for in his semi-capacity of host he found it difficult to
+ignore the people about him in pursuit of two elusive young women.
+
+Kenneth appeared at the Doctor's elbow in the course of half an hour and
+confided to him that they were nowhere visible--"upstairs or downstairs
+or in my lady's chamber." He wore such a dejected look that the Doctor
+laughed and asked him why he wasn't up to his old tricks--weren't there
+dozens of pretty girls in the room? Kenneth merely raised his eyebrows
+expressively and the Doctor laughed again and reminded him that suspense
+was stimulating. Then he bethought him of Monsieur Gremond and
+discovering that individual, answered the questioning look in his eyes
+with an encouraging nod and managed to go over and say, in spite of the
+people by whom the Frenchman was surrounded, "She has not come yet but
+you shall know the instant she does."
+
+When an hour passed and they did not appear he accosted his sister who
+was still standing at her post receiving.
+
+"Where are the girls?" with difficulty getting her attention.
+
+"Girls? what girls? It seems to me there is no lack of them."
+
+"I mean the Dale girls. Didn't you send the carriage for them as I
+directed?"
+
+"Of course I did. They--how _do_ you do, Mrs. Smartset--and Mr.
+Smartset, charmed I'm sure."
+
+The Doctor stood back and patiently waited while an influx of guests
+passed before her. When an opportunity offered he spoke again.
+
+"They are not here, Mary. If you can give me a moment I would like to
+know why."
+
+"You wouldn't have me neglect my guests to discuss those Dale girls
+would you? _Must_ you be going, Mrs. Marston, and your daughter too--so
+good of you to come--goodnight. They are not coming," she said in an
+aside to her brother, "the carriage came back with a note. I had no time
+to read it and I do not remember where I put it. Now for pity's sake go
+and look after people and don't worry me any more about them! Ah, Mrs.
+Lennox, this is really charming to see you," as that individual entered.
+
+It was no easy matter to escape to his office but Dr. Ware did it and
+sent for Kenneth.
+
+"I have just learned that my little girls are not coming," he said when
+Kenneth had joined him there. "I fear, my boy, that something is wrong
+and I am off. If people miss me say I was called away to a patient.
+Every one knows I am not to be counted on socially. Then there is
+Gremond. He knew the girls long ago and has been looking forward to
+meeting them to-night. Tell him they were prevented at the last moment
+from coming and give him their address so he can call if he likes." It
+was characteristic of Dr. Ware that he left nothing undone.
+
+"You are not apprehensive of anything very serious, are you?" asked
+Kenneth who himself felt more concern than he cared to show.
+
+"No, no; why should I be? They may merely be tired out and have gone to
+bed or they may need me--I can't take any chances where they are
+concerned, my boy."
+
+"Of course not," said Kenneth with unusual emphasis. "If you are going
+to walk over, Doctor, I'd like to go along with you."
+
+"Take you away from the festivities? Nonsense! The girls in there would
+never forgive me!"
+
+"Oh! hang the whole business! I beg your pardon, Doctor, I forgot it was
+your sister's function."
+
+The Doctor laughed. "Come along with me. You need ozone to restore your
+placidity, but go back again later, like an obliging chap, if only to
+give my message to poor Gremond."
+
+They had been swinging along for several blocks in the cool night air
+when Landor broke the silence by exclaiming savagely, "What in thunder
+has Jules Gremond to do with them!"
+
+"With the Dales?" asked the Doctor innocently, inwardly amused at
+Landor's resentful tone. "He met them in California, I believe."
+
+"Umph!" grunted Kenneth.
+
+"Here we are," said the Doctor presently as they reached the house, "and
+there are lights in their rooms, so they are up about something and it
+is well I came. Goodnight, and thank you for walking over with me,
+Kenneth."
+
+"Dr. Ware," said the younger man wistfully, detaining him a moment on
+the steps, "if there is anything wrong up there," with a motion of his
+head toward the top story, "you'll let me know, won't you? And if I
+could be of the slightest service you'll call on me without hesitation,
+won't you? Of course I know they've no possible use for a chap like me
+but I'd move heaven and earth to do anything--to feel that I was really
+of service to them in any way."
+
+"You could not be better employed, Kenneth," said the Doctor, looking
+down on him affectionately. "I shall remember what you say and I like
+you the better for saying it. Good-night."
+
+Dr. Ware hastened into the house and up the long flights of stairs
+leading to the Dales' apartment and knocked at the door, hesitating at
+so late an hour to startle them by ringing the bell. Evidently they were
+expecting him, for steps came down the little hall and the door was
+opened almost immediately by Bridget.
+
+"The saints be praised!" she exclaimed, "but it's the Doctor!"
+
+"You were expecting me, of course, Bridget," as she helped him off with
+his coat.
+
+"Bless your heart but I can't say as we wus, sir, glad though they'll be
+to see your blessed face."
+
+"Of course I would come. Don't they know that by this time? Who is ill?
+Is the Major worse? I should have been here long ago had I not been
+expecting them at the house every moment."
+
+"They ain't ill, sir, they're workin'", was her reply. "Maybe you'd
+better come right out to the kitchen an' see for yourself their
+carryin's on. We're all at it to-night an' it's the fearful time they've
+had but it's all plain sailin' to the end now," she wound up hopefully.
+
+Somewhat mystified, Dr. Ware followed and stood speechless on the
+threshold of the kitchen. For there were the girls in their cotton gowns
+with sleeves rolled up to the shoulders working away at what were to him
+inexplicable things, while over in a corner sat Jack half buried in a
+pile of small white boxes. The whole room presented the bustle of eleven
+in the morning rather than eleven in the evening.
+
+"You bad Dr. Ware," said Julie playfully when she saw him, "what made
+you come?" She stopped her work a moment and whisking her apron over the
+chair Bridget had drawn out for him, motioned him to sit down. "We're
+just daubed with frosting from one end of the place to the other, but we
+can't stop working a moment, so if you dare, risk a chair?"
+
+The Doctor sat down. He would have taken the chair with the same
+equanimity if it had been caked with frosting.
+
+"Now what does this mean, at this hour?" he said.
+
+"Didn't Miss Ware get our note? Oh! I am so sorry. We are terribly sorry
+to miss the reception, aren't we, Hester?"
+
+"Um-um," said Hester absorbed in making elaborate frosting designs on
+small pieces of cake.
+
+[Illustration: THERE WERE THE GIRLS IN THEIR COTTON GOWNS]
+
+"We wrote her," continued Julie, "that we were detained by our work and
+I suppose if she did not get it that you thought when we did not appear
+something was the matter with Daddy. What a shame you had that anxiety
+for nothing!"
+
+"You must go straight back," said Hester. "We are getting on famously
+and you must not miss another minute of the reception."
+
+"You want to get me out of the way, I suppose, so you can keep up this
+orgy until all hours. I know you, you minx! I shan't budge until I know
+all about it so you may as well begin." He surveyed the group with a
+smiling imperturbable manner that was impossible to withstand. Jack,
+gazing at him out of the corner of his eye, thought he had never seen so
+splendid a gentleman and indeed his evening clothes became the Doctor
+tremendously so that he had never looked more handsome nor distinguished
+than at that moment as he sat among them leaning back in the kitchen
+chair.
+
+"It is all this wedding-cake," said Hester disgustedly. "It has acted
+like Sam Patch!"
+
+"It is the first we have ever done," explained Julie. "We took an order
+for two hundred boxes of cake and a big loaf, all for a wedding, and we
+made the cake a month ago. Oh! such a time as we had! You see, we are
+such ignoramuses that we have to wade through endless wrong ways before
+we discover the right one and we thought we had all the loaves properly
+frosted to cut for the boxes; but when we tried to cut the slices all
+the frosting fell off and so we had to begin all over again. Then we
+decided it would be better to cut the cake up into pieces for the boxes
+first and frost each one separately and--"
+
+"_We_ didn't any such thing!" interrupted Hester. "That was Julie's
+brilliant inspiration and she worked out all the frosting designs too.
+The big loaf and the bride's cake are perfect beauties. Did you know the
+bride's cake always had a ring and a thimble and a coin hidden in it for
+luck? Just look at the cakes over there," waving her hand toward a side
+table, "aren't they distinctly professional? Julie's been hanging around
+caterers' windows with her nose pressed against the glass studying their
+fancy frosted show pieces until I wonder she hasn't been arrested for a
+suspicious character. Of course that childlike and bland countenance of
+hers was greatly in her favor but," resignedly, "I was prepared for the
+worst."
+
+"Miss Hester will have her laugh," said Bridget, "but 'tain't no
+laughin' matter this job they're putting through!"
+
+"Now Bridget, you keep still," expostulated Julie. "She has been
+scolding us all the evening," to Dr. Ware, "and frightening poor Jack to
+death, hasn't she, Jack? Jack came to bring Daddy's paper, you know,
+which he prints in great style since Mr. Landor has given him a printing
+press, and when he found we were busy he begged so hard to come out to
+the kitchen and help that we just had to let him. He's been helping
+Bridget cut paraffine paper into squares--for each piece of cake has to
+be wrapped separately before it goes into its box--and they have cut all
+the white ribbon into pieces the right length to tie around the boxes
+and now they're uncovering the boxes and getting them ready for the cake
+as soon as the frosting dries. Jack has been invaluable, hasn't he,
+Bridget?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Bridget, with whom, nevertheless, the boy was a prime
+favorite.
+
+"Good heavens! Julie," cried the Doctor, "does one little box of
+wedding-cake mean all that?"
+
+"Two hundred do," smiling, "but another time we'll know better how to go
+at it."
+
+All during this conversation she and Hester had been bending over the
+big work-table making curious evolutions with frosting bags over the
+pieces of cake spread everywhere about the room. Presently Hester
+dropped her bag and sat down.
+
+"Well," she exclaimed, "I believe they are done--that part. Dr. Ware,"
+turning to him suddenly, "doesn't it strike you as funny that instead of
+disporting ourselves gayly in the festivities of the town we should be
+wasting our youth and beauty--doesn't that sound just like a book!--our
+youth and beauty over aggravating old things like these?" with a
+disgusted look at the wedding-cake. "You do not seem to laugh but I
+think it's tremendously funny. Dear me!" to the air, reflectively, "how
+trying it must be to get on without a sense of humor!" Then with an
+entire change of tone, "We did want to go awfully, especially as we had
+a suspicion that some one might be there. I wonder," dreamily, "if he
+was."
+
+"I fancy so," said the Doctor, hardly knowing whether or not to take her
+seriously. "Come back with me now and find out."
+
+"Can't," said Hester, "but you might be an angel and tell us if we knew
+any one there."
+
+"Let me see, there was Landor--"
+
+"Oh! bother Mr. Landor!" with a toss of her head. "He's omnipresent!"
+
+"Um," thought the Doctor, "I've struck the nail on the head." Outwardly
+he said, "Then there was Renshawe,--you know him, do you not, and a
+guest of his who was tucked under my wing--apparently for protection
+against the wiles of the women who are trying systematically to spoil
+him with adulation."
+
+"I know him," said Hester, "that is Monsieur Jules Gremond."
+
+"Yes," replied the Doctor, "I thought you would guess. He told me he
+knew you girls and I believe he is hunting my house over for you at this
+moment." He was talking to Hester but watching Julie narrowly.
+
+"There! Julie Dale," exclaimed her sister triumphantly, "what did I tell
+you! I knew he would not forget us. She swore, Dr. Ware, that he would
+have forgotten our very existence and I vowed that he carried her image
+around on his heart and all sorts of high-sounding things. Shouldn't
+wonder if they were true, too," to Dr. Ware confidingly, "and you
+needn't blush so furiously about it, either, Julie Dale?"
+
+"I am not blushing," protested poor Julie who was crimson, "and I'll
+have Bridget carry you off bodily if you don't stop talking such
+nonsense. Don't you mind what she says, will you Dr. Ware?" pleadingly.
+"She would rather tease than eat any day."
+
+Julie's embarrassment did not escape the Doctor and there was a twinge
+of pain in his heart as he said to her gently, "She is a naughty little
+girl, Julie, but she is right when she says your old friend Monsieur
+Gremond has not forgotten you. He inquired with great interest about you
+all and asked my permission to call upon you."
+
+To this Julie made no reply and for some moments there was silence, when
+at last Hester sidled up to her and in her most wheedling voice said,
+"Forgive me, please, I did not mean to be naughty."
+
+Julie gave her a hearty kiss and in the laugh that followed they all
+joined, even including Jack, who had found the situation almost painful
+a moment before when he thought his adored Miss Julie's feelings had
+been hurt. Perhaps the good Doctor did not laugh with his accustomed
+zest but if so no one detected it, least of all Hester who gave him a
+big hug by way of magnanimously forgiving him for being cross to her and
+said emphatically:
+
+"You _must_ go home. Miss Ware will be having a thousand fits, not to
+mention all the guests who are probably looking everywhere for you."
+
+"I have been called out to see a patient," replied the Doctor. "Every
+one knows it by this time, only they do not know that instead of one I
+find four," with a sweeping glance that embraced them all, "and not an
+inch do I stir until I see this case through. So you might as well make
+up your mind to put up with me and I want something to do. Come, Jack,
+show me how to take hold with you. I needn't be condemned as utterly
+worthless just because I am a man."
+
+In spite of their protestations Dr. Ware was as good as his word,
+busying himself in Jack's corner, and with so many hands the work went
+forward swiftly. It was all smooth sailing now, as Bridget said, for the
+critical and difficult part was done and the next two hours in which the
+little group sat about the kitchen table wrapping, boxing and tying the
+cake was immeasurably shortened by Dr. Ware, who told them interesting
+anecdotes, experiences of his life that made Jack long to have the night
+lengthen out indefinitely. But that which the Doctor most dwelt upon,
+knowing well it was what the girls most liked to hear, were stories of
+the days when he and Major Dale fought side by side for the Union of the
+country in that war which was as much of a reality to these girls as if
+they had taken part in every military engagement.
+
+And Dr. Ware went home in the wee small hours with his mind in a tumult
+of thought. Distress that the girls had had such a night of it formed
+only a part of his disturbance, for above this fact, which in more
+tranquil moments would have been pre-eminent, was the consciousness that
+a new and central figure had arisen on the scene--yesterday a stranger
+to him, to-day the hero of a drama which was to the Doctor as his very
+life.
+
+He sat a long while in his study when he reached home, pondering over
+the future and the change that seemed imminent to the girls and he
+wondered what the outcome would be should Gremond take Julie's life into
+his keeping. Was he worthy of her--_was_ he? How on so short an
+acquaintance could he tell? And did she love him--_did_ she? Beset by
+all these unanswerable questions he paced up and down the room, his slow
+measured tread like an accompaniment strengthening the minor harmonies
+in which his thoughts that night were set.
+
+His Julie! His little girl! Ah! she was no child to choose her lover
+lightly and if she loved him, trusted him to make her future, all would
+be well. He thought of her as he had left her, sweet and dainty in spite
+of the little dabs of sugar and frosting that stuck to the quaint blue
+apron which nearly covered her from head to foot. He remembered her
+embarrassment when Gremond's name came up and kept that picture of her
+long before his eyes as if to accustom himself to this new aspect. He
+remembered too how flushed her cheeks were over the work and the tired
+shadows under her eyes told him plainly enough the relentless demand she
+was making upon her strength. Gad! those girls had been working eighteen
+hours at a stretch! Eighteen hours! It wasn't the first time, either!
+And he, who would give his life to make things easier, was powerless--to
+another man would be given the right! Good heavens! Did Gremond realize
+his privilege? As if suddenly weary the Doctor flung himself down in his
+chair and heaved a sigh. Presently his lids drooped heavily. When he
+opened his eyes the room was flooded with sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+The order for the wedding-cake which had been a cause of such
+tribulation to the girls had come through Mrs. Lennox for a young cousin
+of her husband's in whose marriage she was much interested. The order
+consisted of a bride's cake, a round wedding-cake, two hundred boxes and
+in addition some thirty dozen small assorted cakes to be served with the
+supper. The bride's mother had given the girls a fruit-cake recipe which
+had been many years in her family and had asked them to make the cake at
+least a month before the wedding that it might "age," as the saying is.
+Hours easily counting into days had gone into the preparation of the
+fruit alone for this large order before the work of putting the cake
+together began; and then to make the twenty loaves, each of which when
+done resembled in size a two-quart brick of ice-cream, it was necessary
+to mix and cook the dough in installments. But as Julie told Dr. Ware,
+that was as child's play to the intricacies of the frosting and the
+catastrophe that ensued; and the nervous as well as the physical strain
+of that, coming on top of all the rest of the work which the order
+entailed, told severely on the girls, especially Julie, though she was
+up with Hester at six the next morning packing the boxes into the wooden
+case which was to take the cake to its destination.
+
+The round loaf over which Julie had expended so much anxious thought was
+wrapped in sheet after sheet of cotton wadding to protect the elaborate
+frosting from breaking, and resembled when laid in its box a small-sized
+snow drift. Hester printed "handle with care" in so many places on the
+wooden box cover that the expressman when he came could with difficulty
+distinguish the address; while Bridget cautioned him with such emphasis
+to carry it "like it wuz a baby, shure," that the man finally turned on
+her and asked if she thought he played football with his packages. It
+was an intense relief to them all when he had carried down the boxes and
+driven away, though their suspense would not really end until they
+learned of its safe arrival in the country town twenty miles away. And
+that they would know that same afternoon, for the mother of the bride
+had asked them to the wedding and Mrs. Lennox had been most urgent in
+insisting upon their going out with her, just, as she put it, for a
+"little country spree."
+
+Mrs. Lennox had arranged a charming program whereby the girls should be
+of the party she and Mr. Lennox were to take out on their coach, but as
+the morning wore on and Julie found each hour's work more difficult she
+finally told Hester she felt too tired to consider such an expedition
+and should remain at home. It was so unusual for Julie to admit fatigue
+that Hester felt alarmed and attempted to order her immediately to bed,
+saying she and Bridget could easily get through the rest and she should
+not go to the wedding without her. But Julie insisted, not only in
+working on into the afternoon when the orders for the day were at last
+completed, but in persuading Hester to consent to go to the wedding--a
+consent reluctantly given, for she was loath to go off without her
+sister. Having gained it, however, Julie dispatched a note to Mrs.
+Lennox begging to be excused from the party and turned her attention to
+helping Hester get ready when their work was done.
+
+Whereas, owing to her delicate constitution, Julie's fatigue usually
+showed itself in complete physical exhaustion, Hester's frequently took
+the form of intense mental excitement, when the chords of her buoyant
+nature were strung to their highest pitch. At such times she talked
+incessantly, laughed immoderately and was so restless that Julie always
+threatened to tie a string to her. She was in such a mood this
+afternoon, laughing and capering about, performing such ridiculous
+antics that Peter Snooks, who aided and abetted these moods, was barking
+with joy while Julie despaired of ever getting her clothed, not to
+mention restoring her to her right mind.
+
+"You are a darling to help me but I don't love you at all for making me
+go when you are too ill to budge. I've a good notion not to mind you,
+anyway! Why should I? I'm bigger 'an you!" dancing about on her toes to
+increase her height, which possibly measured some two inches more than
+her sister's.
+
+Julie caught her on the fly and thrust a dress skirt over her head,
+hooking it together without loss of time. "I'm going to have a nice
+quiet rest with Daddy," she said, "and will be all right when you come
+home. I want to hear all about the wedding and whether the cake got
+there and everything, so do go, there's a dear girl, and you'll have a
+beautiful drive and a good time into the bargain."
+
+"And feel like a pig because you are not there. That will be pleasant,
+won't it! Is that the doorbell? Do peek out the window like a dear and
+see if the coach is there."
+
+Julie did as she was requested and reported the arrival of the coach
+just as Bridget appeared and announced that Mrs. Lennox had sent Mr.
+Landor up to ask if she were ready.
+
+"Do you suppose he is going?" whispered Hester. "Oh! Julie dear, can't
+you go in and see him?"
+
+"Not much! Here are your gloves and have you got a handkerchief? Can't
+find one? Never mind, here is one of mine. Now run along and kiss Daddy
+and hurry--it is dreadful to keep people waiting. You look as fresh as a
+lark but don't talk yourself black in the face," admonishingly.
+"Remember 'silence is golden,'" she called out when she had recovered
+her breath from Hester's parting hug.
+
+She heard Mr. Landor expressing regret that the elder Miss Dale was not
+to be of the party and then she heard nothing more; but in most plebeian
+fashion she and Bridget and Peter Snooks peeped out of the window
+watching their departure, as did also Jack from the floor beneath. They
+saw Mr. Landor help her up to the box seat of the coach beside Mr.
+Lennox and sent down answering smiles to the parting wave of her hand.
+
+"Belikes I bet the young gentleman's disappointed he ain't got her
+hisself," commented Bridget. "She's the prettiest of the whole lot!"
+
+"Didn't she look lovely, Bridget! She always does when she is so
+excited."
+
+"It's a lot more excited she'll be when she gets back an' finds you no
+better, Miss Julie, so I'm just goin' to put you to bed. You do look in
+a way as I don't like, an' small wonder, the way you whip your poor
+frail little body along to do the work of ten!"
+
+"Nonsense, Bridget! I am not frail, you must not talk that way. I am
+just tired out to-day and I couldn't brace up and be agreeable to
+people--I don't want to be agreeable--I want to be cross, so I advise
+you to keep out of the way."
+
+Bridget acted upon this suggestion by picking her up in her great
+muscular arms and marching into her bedroom. There laying her down she
+left to brew her a cup of tea--faithful Bridget's panacea for every woe.
+Having returned and administered this she proceeded to undress her.
+
+"I was going to lie down with Daddy," expostulated Julie feebly.
+
+"You'll do nothin' of the sort," commanded Bridget. "You ain't fit to be
+seen with that look in your face. I'm goin' to tuck you into bed an'
+darken the room an' we'll see what sleep'll do for yez."
+
+As if this petting were more than she could bear, Julie buried her head
+in the pillow with a movement that made the woman suspicious.
+
+"What is it, darlint?" she cried, smoothing her hair. "Can't you tell
+your old Bridget about it?"
+
+"Nothing," said a muffled voice.
+
+"Shure it's rest yez want, darlint. I seen how yez kep' up all day so
+Miss Hester'd not be after knowin' how dead beat yez wuz an' now ye've
+clean gone all to pieces. Jus' cry it all out dearie, an' it's like a
+new person you'll be. 'Taint no small wonder yer wore out, with the
+worryin' an' frettin' that goes on inside yer an' always a cheery smile
+outside. Yer old Bridget knows! And may the blessed saints take yez out
+of this business before yez drop dead in yer tracks, sez I, every night
+on my knees--an' I don't care who's after knowin' it!" She gave the girl
+a loving motherly kiss and thus encouraged Julie cried her heart out on
+her shoulder.
+
+This was an unusual proceeding, for Julie seldom cried in these days.
+She had learned when her emotions threatened to overcome her to stiffen
+her chin and swallow hard, hard, hard,--until the tears were forced back
+and only a drawn look about the mouth told of the battle royal. She
+valued each victory, however trifling, for tears are weakening and
+self-control is a mighty weapon in the equipment of a soldier. To-day
+she was weak bodily and the petting utterly unnerved her, so that she
+cried until she could cry no longer and finally fell asleep from sheer
+exhaustion.
+
+When she awoke it was with a confused sense that it must be the middle
+of the night and that something was wrong, for Bridget stood over her.
+
+"Are yez wakin'? That's right, dearie. You've bin sleepin' these two
+hours an' there's a gentleman to see yez."
+
+"What?" dazedly, rubbing her eyes.
+
+"A gentleman to see yez--he didn't give no name."
+
+"Probably he has come to give an order. Couldn't you look after him,
+Bridget?"
+
+"No, miss," with an air of suppressed excitement, "his business is
+particular with you. Go bathe your face, Miss Julie, an' I'll have you
+dressed in a jiffy."
+
+"Well, I am a pretty looking object," commented the girl with a glance
+in the mirror as Bridget let some light into the room.
+
+"Never you mind, you're feelin' much better an' you souse your eyes good
+with hot water--they'll look natural enough--an' it's gettin' kinder
+twilight in the parlor now anyhow," consolingly.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Bridget, are you daft?" seeing her bring
+forth from the closet a French gown she had never worn in Radnor. "You
+know I never would put on such a thing to go in to see a customer. Get
+me a fresh shirt waist like the old dear you are."
+
+"Oh! Miss Julie, just this once, please," in such a coaxing tone that
+Julie found it hard to refuse her but she simply said:
+
+"I couldn't, Bridget, not even to please you," and checked her
+inclination to smile at the vicious manner in which Bridget got out a
+shirt-waist and jabbed in the studs and cuff-buttons.
+
+Immensely refreshed by her nap she went down the hall with a light heart
+and entered the little sitting-room to be greeted by a stranger who
+eagerly seized both her hands and cried:
+
+"Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle, this is indeed a joy to find you!"
+
+At the sound of his voice she trembled from head to foot and endeavored
+to withdraw her hands but he held them in a firm clasp and led her over
+to the window.
+
+"I want the light to shine on your face, Mademoiselle, as it did in
+sunny California. Am I too bold--have I startled you?"
+
+Still she did not speak and he dropped her hands as moving back a little
+he said penitently, "Forgive me, I am rough and have frightened you. May
+I sit down, Mademoiselle?"
+
+She dropped into the nearest chair and waved him to another as she said:
+"I did not expect you here, Monsieur Gremond."
+
+"Not expect me! Did you not know I was in Radnor?"
+
+"Oh! yes," laughing a little for she was beginning to recover herself,
+"but the two are not synonymous."
+
+"You are jesting, Mademoiselle. Surely you know--you must know that only
+one thing would bring me to this country as soon as I came out of the
+wilderness." There was a world of meaning in his eyes, but Julie chose
+to ignore it.
+
+"Your friendship with Mr. Renshawe has been of long standing, has it
+not?" she asked evasively.
+
+"Oh! Mademoiselle Julie, it was not Renshawe--do not hold me aloof--have
+you forgotten the dear old California days?"
+
+"One might have been led to suppose you had," she said quietly, "you
+disappeared so suddenly and--"
+
+"But I wrote," he interrupted, "and though you never replied I meant
+always to return when I had accomplished something. Did you not feel
+that instinctively, Mademoiselle? Many things have happened to me since
+then and to you, also, your guardian said."
+
+"My guardian?" she repeated. "Do you mean Dr. Ware?"
+
+"He gave me permission to call and said you might have many things to
+say to me," looking at her rather perplexedly. "Will you tell me all
+about it, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"Tell you," she cried springing up and confronting him, "tell you as if
+it were a book I were reading all the sorrow and wretchedness and misery
+of these past eight months! No, a thousand times no! It would not
+interest you!" She threw back her head defiantly. "Why," she demanded
+fiercely, "did you find us out? We have no part in the world to which
+you belong! Could you not know that to see you would bring back the
+past, intensify the contrast between then and now--hurt us like the
+thrust of a sword? Oh! how could you come?"
+
+"I came because I--" and then breaking off suddenly he said gravely, "If
+you think your affairs are of no interest to me you would perhaps prefer
+that I ask no questions, even though I do not understand."
+
+"Oh! I did not mean to be rude," she exclaimed, her burst of resentment
+over, "how could you understand and how can I explain? Dear Daddy is
+enduring a living death--everything is changed--we are professional
+caterers--working women--you will not begin to comprehend that and no
+doubt it shocks you. The dignity of labor is not a popular theme on the
+other side!"
+
+"Mademoiselle, have you only unkind things to say to me--me, who would
+have given my life to have averted them or helped you through all this?
+You do not seem to comprehend that I love you--love you--have journeyed
+out to Los Angeles and back to find you and now,"--he drew in his
+breath, "ah! now I never mean to let you go." He took a step toward her
+but she eluded him, standing well back in the room where he could not
+see how her lips trembled as she said:
+
+"You must not talk to me like this; I--I cannot bear it. I am all
+unstrung to-day and you startle me with your calm air of taking things
+for granted."
+
+"Do I, cherie?" tenderly. "But you see I love you and you are going to
+love me, too."
+
+"No," she replied, drawing still further back, "no, Monsieur Gremond, I
+am not."
+
+Something unflinching about the girl's quiet tone made the man say
+beseechingly, "Ah! Mademoiselle Julie, do not kill me!"
+
+"Kill you? You never thought whether you would kill me or not, did you,
+when you almost taught me to love you in those old days and then rode
+away? Many a man does that, expecting a girl to take everything for
+granted and receive him with open arms when he returns. And many a girl
+waits and waits, eating her heart out meanwhile. But I am not that kind,
+Monsieur!"
+
+"Oh, Mademoiselle!"
+
+"I was very fond of you--so fond that when I knew you were in town I
+wondered whether I cared to see you--wondered whether I would have loved
+you had you loved me and last night I thought perhaps I should see you
+at the Wares'; but we did not go, and now you come to me and at the
+first sight of you I know it is not love--could never have been love
+under any circumstances!"
+
+"Are you sure you know what love is, Mademoiselle?" and seeing the color
+spread in a crimson wave over her face he cried, "Some one has stolen
+you away from me! Tell me, is it not true?"
+
+"What right have you to ask questions?" she demanded, angered by his
+assumption of authority. And then more quietly, "We must not quarrel,
+Monsieur, we have been altogether too good friends for that. I want to
+tell you that we are interested in your explorations and how proud we
+are to know that so many of your plans have been accomplished."
+
+"It is nothing to me now."
+
+"Fie, Monsieur! Are you going to cry baby because you can't have the
+world all your way?"
+
+"You are all my world."
+
+Julie had heard this from other men under similar conditions, and though
+she believed his disappointment to be genuinely bitter she knew that
+life could still hold out some hope even in the face of unrequited love.
+But how make him see it her way? In a moment she said:
+
+"I am only a girl, Monsieur Gremond, but I think you want me to respect
+you, don't you, and I certainly shall not be apt to if you are going to
+be vanquished right before my very eyes."
+
+"What a strange girl you are, Mademoiselle," he said, roused to a
+critical survey of her. "Most girls like their lovers to be
+inconsolable, but you threaten me with everlasting disgrace for refusing
+to be consoled. I don't understand it."
+
+"No, you would not understand me, ever," said Julie cheerfully, glad to
+have roused him at last. "You must go back to France and marry some nice
+sweet little thing who will perfectly adore you and you'll be 'happy
+ever after,' as the story books say."
+
+"I wish you would not dispose of me in such an off-hand fashion,"
+aggrievedly. "I am tempted to kidnap you and carry you off this moment
+to the steamer. She sails in the morning. Oh! couldn't you do it, _ma
+petite_?"
+
+The vehemence of his tone really startled Julie who laughed to herself
+afterward as she remembered how she had shrank back in her corner as if
+she expected him to snatch her up bodily.
+
+"Leave Hester," she cried aghast, "and Daddy and Bridget--and Peter
+Snooks and--and every-body to go away with you? Monsieur Gremond, you
+must be mad."
+
+"Then you do not know what love is." He rose and came over to her. "Will
+you put your hands in mine, Mademoiselle? I am going--good-by. I suppose
+I have been a selfish brute to dwell altogether on my own troubles and
+not sympathize with yours, but the truth is I am knocked out. I
+undoubtedly, as you say, took too much for granted."
+
+"Do not put us out of your life altogether," said Julie gently. "Some
+day perhaps you will really care for my interest and respect and all the
+things I would gladly give you if you would have them."
+
+"If you put it that way, perhaps--but it seems to me there is only one
+thing," he said disconsolately.
+
+"Then you are not half the man I take you to be!"
+
+"I will be," asserted Gremond, his better nature responding to this
+rebuke. "It is good at least to have been with you. Good-by,
+Mademoiselle, good-by."
+
+For some time after he had gone Julie sat with closed lids trying to
+forget the last look of his eyes into hers, so persistently did it haunt
+her; but within her heart surged a feeling of gratitude that there is an
+all-wise Providence who shapes our ends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Madame Grundy was saying that winter that at last Kenneth Landor had
+settled down, though why he should take the trouble to burden himself
+with business cares when he had a rich, indulgent father was, from her
+point of view, wholly incomprehensible. Other people who knew Kenneth
+better saw that his life had become full of purpose and regarded it as
+the natural outcome of a nature like his--rich in possibilities. To the
+father who was just learning to know the son, there was much that was
+surprising in the intelligent way in which he grasped the great
+commission business and little by little made himself familiar with
+every detail, showing that in his composition was much practical
+ability--talents unquestionably inherited. Of any ulterior motive which
+had led him on to these things Mr. Landor had no suspicion nor indeed
+had any one save Dr. Ware, who kept his own counsel, and possibly Jack,
+whose fanciful imagination wove endless romances, the thread of which
+became wretchedly entangled, for what could a poor boy do with two
+heroines to one hero?
+
+That was the stumbling block of our young author, for he never could
+make up his mind to choose between the Dale girls. First he would write
+out a beautiful story in which his hero (and there was only one hero to
+him) married Julie and was as happy as the day is long. This would have
+been eminently satisfactory if it had not been for a sort of feeling of
+slighting Hester, who seemed to be lurking in the background of his tale
+gazing at him with reproachful eyes. Jack the tender-hearted could not
+stand that, so zip!--would go all the paper, torn to shreds, and he
+would patiently start all over again to give Hester a chance. But
+however he arranged it, one was left out. He couldn't have it on his
+conscience to make his hero a Mormon and so to one and one alone could
+he belong. This was all wrong, from Jack's point of view, but he did not
+know how to make it any different and as it seemed to be a subject he
+could not discuss with any of the three persons most concerned the poor
+boy gave it up in despair.
+
+But if Jack was racked with indecision it was not so with Kenneth
+Landor, who had fallen in love with Hester at first sight. One hears
+that to fall in love at first sight is an experience belonging to bygone
+days, and is quite unknown to the practical common-sense young people of
+whom in this generation one hears so much. Be that as it may, Kenneth,
+in spite of his worldly experience, was old-fashioned enough to be full
+of sentiment and treasured in his mind every meeting with Hester down to
+their first walk when she had dismissed him so summarily under the
+lamp-post. He could count them on the fingers of one hand, the actual
+hours he had spent with her, but between Dr. Ware and Jack he managed to
+keep as well informed concerning her life as if he were in daily
+intercourse with her; and it was his sole aim and ambition to put her
+struggles to an end. The generous fellow had not Gremond's idea of
+taking one of them away--he could not conceive of the little family
+being separated and his admiration of Julie was rapidly growing into an
+affection that made him long to cast her life, too, in sunny places and
+make a snug little home for them all. These were Kenneth's hopes and
+dreams--air-castles which sometimes took grim, fantastic shapes and
+often tottered to the ground when he remembered that Hester might not
+deign to look at him.
+
+Suddenly into all this work and dreaming entered a new element,
+threatening to disturb the future with a terrible upheaval, for the
+necessity that our country should go to war with Spain was talked of
+openly throughout the land. Rumors that war would be, had been, never
+would be declared were rife, suggested and contradicted in a breath,
+while the uncertainty of national affairs produced an excitement that
+pervaded all classes and conditions of men.
+
+Kenneth was one of those who believed in the war and whose whole spirit
+was fired with a desire to do his part toward jealously guarding his
+country's honor. At the same time, if he hoped to win Hester and make a
+home for her it scarcely seemed as if it would accrue to his advantage
+to go away. These things were so in his mind that he longed for a chance
+to see and talk with her, and then, as always, in his thoughts of her he
+was confronted by the fearful consciousness that she might take no
+interest in so unimportant a thing as himself. Nevertheless, he meant to
+make himself important to her and it was therefore to him as to Gremond,
+a great disappointment that the girls had not put in an appearance at
+Miss Ware's reception and he had spent an anxious night speculating as
+to the cause of their non-appearance.
+
+He managed by rising earlier than usual to get around to Dr. Ware's
+office on his way to business the morning after the reception; but,
+contrary to habit, that individual was already off. Much perturbed he
+worked harder than ever at the office and regretted that he had promised
+to drive out of town to a wedding. He was in no mood for society, even
+so charming as that of the Lennoxes. He was not a man who broke his
+engagements, however, and therefore went home about three o'clock to
+dress. When the Lennoxes called for him he sauntered out in his usual
+charming manner and made the greater effort to be agreeable to each
+member of the party from the mere fact that it _was_ an effort. This is
+a form of unselfishness, trivial perhaps, but necessitating a
+willingness to put aside one's personal inclination, to thrust aside
+one's mood for the general good. Some people call it adaptability, some
+tact, some a desire to please, but in Kenneth Landor, as in many others,
+it was an unselfish wish to contribute his share to the general
+entertainment. He was a man who recognized the duty of a guest to his
+hostess and did not look upon it as being all the other way. Having
+adjusted himself to a purely impersonal philosophical attitude toward
+the expedition, imagine his revulsion of feeling when Mrs. Lennox told
+him that the party would not be complete until they had picked up Miss
+Hester Dale whose sister, unfortunately, was unable to go with them. As
+we know, she delegated him to escort Hester down and we may know too,
+though no one on the coach suspected it, that he went up the four
+flights of stairs two steps at a time and nearly ran down Jack who was
+hobbling up on his crutches.
+
+What if, when he and Hester went into the street together she was
+immediately appropriated by their host and given the seat of honor
+beside him. Couldn't Kenneth _see_ her--every turn of her pretty
+head--and wasn't he inwardly proud that she was chosen for this
+distinction and didn't he know that it would be his own fault if he did
+not monopolize her later on?
+
+As for Hester, she had never been in a merrier mood and chattered on
+like a little magpie, forgetful of her sister's warning "not to talk
+herself black in the face." Every now and then she would heave a little
+sigh and audibly wish Julie were there--a wish promptly seconded by her
+host, who nevertheless was amply satisfied with his companion.
+
+The mere sensation of bowling along over smooth roads and through the
+beautiful environs of Radnor was in itself a novelty and delight to
+Hester but she was raised to the seventh heaven of bliss when Mr.
+Lennox, after a talk they had had about horses, said:
+
+"Wouldn't you like to take the ribbons, Miss Dale?"
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, "but my gloves--I can't drive in these," holding up
+two white kid hands. She did not think it necessary to add that they
+were her only pair.
+
+"Take them off and I'll give you mine. You can manage even if they are
+big. Try."
+
+She tried and in another moment the gloves were on, the ribbons slipped
+into her fingers and the control of four superb horses lay within her
+hands. Ah! how delicious it was to feel their strength and hers!
+
+"What would Mrs. Lennox say if she knew I were driving?"
+
+"She would not mind, but the others might. We'll never tell."
+
+"Never."
+
+They swung along at an even pace, but presently, as if conscious that
+the ribbons had changed hands, the horses became restive and finally
+taking fright at an imaginary object, the leaders shied and plunged
+forward madly.
+
+"Give them their heads!" commanded Mr. Lennox peremptorily.
+
+"Don't drive at quite such a mad pace, please Mr. Lennox," cried a girl
+from the rear, "you frighten us nearly to death."
+
+"Oh! it's all right," reassuringly, "they'll quiet down in a moment."
+
+Hester with set lips and feet firmly planted was struggling to get them
+under control. She did not speak nor did Mr. Lennox again, but he
+watched her narrowly, alert and ready in a second to relieve her. He
+thought her equal to the emergency and she was, for after half a mile of
+tearing madly over the ground, she succeeded in regaining control of
+them and the horses, recognizing the strength of an experienced hand,
+quieted down into the old habit of obedience.
+
+"Good!" cried Mr. Lennox, "you're a crack whip, as I thought."
+
+A little color came back into Hester's white face. "I'm so grateful to
+you for not taking them away from me," she said. "I should have died of
+humiliation if you had."
+
+"I thought I could trust you to pull through, but now that you have
+proved your prowess--and I believe you just got the animals to playing
+tricks to show what you _could_ do, you sly young person--aren't you a
+bit tired? Shan't I drive?"
+
+"Oh! thank you, yes, but I--I enjoyed it."
+
+She was very quiet after that, and presently when they reached the house
+and Landor sprang off and turned to lift her down, the two bright red
+spots in her cheeks did not escape him nor the subdued manner so unusual
+to her.
+
+As they passed into the house Hester saw in the hall a large table piled
+high with small white boxes and she shuddered as she thought how they
+had spent half the night over the completion of those innocent looking
+things. The satin bows actually had a "perky" look as if the ribbon had
+just tied itself without any trouble whatever! Turning her back on them
+abruptly she followed Mrs. Lennox into the drawing-room, where the
+ceremony took place a few moments after their arrival.
+
+It was a simple wedding with no bridesmaids nor ushers nor adjuncts of
+any kind, and the bridegroom had so large a family connection that only
+intimate friends had been added to the list so that the reception took
+on the informal character of a large family gathering. When the bride
+had been kissed all around, including every male cousin, in spite of the
+laughing protests of the bridegroom, she led the way into the
+dining-room for supper.
+
+"May I take you out, Miss Dale?" asked a dapper young fellow who had
+just been presented to Hester.
+
+"Thank you, I--"
+
+"You can't walk off with Miss Dale in that calm fashion, Charley," said
+a voice back of them, "she's promised to come to supper with me."
+
+Hester had no recollection of any such compact so she looked up and said
+mischievously, "What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Landor," turning
+the while as if to move off with the younger man.
+
+"You come with me, won't you?" urged Charley Bemis, "Landor always
+claims the earth and never gives us younger fellows a chance. We'll have
+to hurry a bit, Miss Dale," looking at her entreatingly, "if we want to
+see the bride cut the cake."
+
+"The cake!" she repeated, suddenly shrinking back. "Oh! Mr. Bemis, you
+go on without me, will you? I--"
+
+"Run along, Charley," said Landor. "Miss Dale and I will follow. The
+dining-room will never begin to hold us all anyway, so if we do not get
+in you look us up and tell us who got the ring. You may get it yourself
+if you hurry, who knows!"
+
+"Oh!" said Hester when the man had departed, "I couldn't go in there--I
+just couldn't."
+
+"Of course not," emphatically, "it is much too crowded. They've covered
+in the piazza by the dining-room. Won't you let me bring you something
+to eat out there?"
+
+"How could you fib to that boy so!" exclaimed the girl at the same time
+signifying her willingness to be led to some less crowded spot.
+
+Kenneth laughed. "You drove me to it. Do you suppose I intended to let
+him walk off with you under my very eyes?"
+
+"Why not? I'm sure he seemed a very _nice_ boy," with marked emphasis.
+
+"Oh! yes, he's nice enough," cheerfully, "quite nice, now you mention
+it, but I'm not just yearning for his society at the present moment."
+
+"Perhaps I am," getting a wistful far-away expression in her eyes that
+was tantalizing.
+
+"Here we are," said the man abruptly as they reached a semi-circular
+piazza where tables and chairs had been placed. "If you will sit down,
+Miss Dale, I'll look up Mr. Bemis immediately."
+
+"Thank you," demurely, "but if it _should_ happen that you found the
+supper first, would you mind bringing that instead? I am _so_ hungry,"
+with a pathetic droop at the corners of her mouth.
+
+He went off on air, returning followed by a waiter almost before she had
+a chance to miss him.
+
+And what a gay little supper that was! They had a small table quite to
+themselves, where Landor played host and was solicitous in providing for
+all her wants. Mr. Lennox, wandering about with an eye to his party,
+smiled across the piazza at her and reported to his wife that Hester was
+being well taken care of. Half unconsciously the girl herself was aware
+that her slightest wish was anticipated and she caught herself wondering
+as she played with her ice, whether it was chance or design that led Mr.
+Landor to avoid having any cake served at their table. It was everywhere
+else in abundance; hundreds of colored frosted cakes that seemed to
+Hester like so many little imps grinning at her and crying, "You made
+me--you made me!" This fantastic notion wrought itself into her tired
+brain until she wanted to scream out from very nervousness and caused
+Kenneth to say, as if divining her thoughts:
+
+"You are tired, Miss Dale. I am afraid you had an anxious night of it. I
+hope your father is better this morning."
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"We--we missed you at the reception," evasively, "and when Dr. Ware went
+off I had my suspicions."
+
+"It was not Daddy," she said quietly, "it was--other things." Then in a
+lighter tone, "Don't look so solemn, please, I want to be gay and forget
+last night."
+
+"What would happen, Miss Dale, if I were to lecture you?" smiling at
+her.
+
+"Try and see," teasingly. "Probably I shall laugh. I usually do when
+Julie scolds me and then she laughs too and that spoils the effect.
+Well, begin. What is the greatest of my enormities? Have you made out a
+list?"
+
+"Will you promise me something?" earnestly, leaning forward with a
+pleading expression on his handsome face.
+
+"Perhaps. I am in a most docile mood at this moment."
+
+"Then promise me you will do no more driving. You are not equal to it
+to-night, indeed you are not, and it takes all the strength out of you."
+
+"How do you know I drove? Did Mr. Lennox tell you?" regarding him with
+raised eyebrows.
+
+"No--but I knew."
+
+"If you are one of those mysterious persons who always know everything,
+I am going to avoid you," she laughed, feeling herself flush under his
+earnest scrutiny.
+
+"You have not promised," he persisted.
+
+"Did I promise to promise?" with a swift provoking glance from under her
+long lashes.
+
+"Miss Dale," pleading, "I never asked a favor of you before."
+
+"Why should you?" wrinkling up her forehead and wishing he had not so
+persuasive a voice.
+
+"I know--probably you think it is impertinent, but" coaxingly, "if you
+would just this once,--"
+
+"Well, is this where you sneaked off to?" cried a voice beside them; "a
+pretty chase you've led me!" and Charley Bemis dropped into the nearest
+chair and held out a plate to Hester. "See here, Miss Dale, you wouldn't
+go to the mountain, so I've brought the mountain to you. The bride cut
+the cake long ago but I saved my piece to eat with you. Landor doesn't
+get a crumb."
+
+Landor looked as if he would like to stuff the whole slice down the
+man's throat. The girl smiled and resigned herself to at least make a
+pretense of eating the thing she had tried so desperately to avoid.
+
+"There is something in your half," suggested young Bemis significantly.
+
+"Is there?" replied Hester, wishing his enthusiasm were less. "You find
+it for me."
+
+He cut her piece and pulled out something wrapped in paraffine paper
+which proved to be a shining gold dollar.
+
+"Oh! you've got it!" he cried. "Miss Dale's got the money," turning to
+announce it to the whole piazza, "she's going to be rich!"
+
+"How nice of you to prophesy such good fortune," she replied picking up
+the coin and rising. "Won't you come and help me find Mrs. Lennox and
+tell her about it? I am sure Mr. Landor will excuse us?"
+
+Kenneth, who had risen, bowed low and wondered how so adorably pretty a
+girl could be so stony-hearted. He was utterly confounded when, as she
+brushed by him she slipped something in his hand with a whispered
+"That's for luck," and vanished with Bemis in attendance. A quick
+indrawing of his fingers into the palm of his hand told Landor a little
+coin lay within his grasp. A half-smothered ejaculation escaped him! Her
+luck she had passed on to him! Did he dare attribute to it any
+significance? No outward sign betrayed his inward perturbation as he
+sauntered into the house to join the other guests.
+
+Whether it was Kenneth's skillful management or a preconceived
+arrangement on Mrs. Lennox's part or just Fate, deponent saith not, but
+the fact remains that when the coach started off again that evening,
+Hester found herself ensconced on the back seat with Landor, the rest of
+the party chatting gayly in front of them, the guards well in the rear.
+
+"Miss Dale," Landor said when they had ridden some moments in silence,
+"are you too tired to-night to let me talk to you a little, seriously?"
+He had no desire to lose any time.
+
+"Then you think I can be serious?"
+
+"I know you can, only you never choose to be with me."
+
+"I _am_ an awful tease," she admitted, touched by his wistful tone, "but
+I can be the most serious person in the world and I should like to have
+you to talk to me, only--you are not going to scold me any more, are
+you, Mr. Landor? I think I am really too tired for that." Her low
+musical voice seemed to drift to him plaintively through the darkness.
+
+"I was going to be selfishly egotistical and talk about--about a friend
+of mine," hoping she had not detected how near he had come to
+blundering. "I wanted to ask your advice about him if you are quite sure
+you are not too tired to listen, Miss Dale."
+
+"Of course I am not. I should like to hear about your friend, Mr.
+Landor."
+
+Was there ever a voice so sweet, he thought, or a girl so full of
+contradictions? One moment bewitchingly, aggravatingly whimsical, the
+next revealing unfathomable depths of a nature which to him seemed the
+purest and noblest in the world. Aloud he said:
+
+"My friend is torn by a divided duty. He wants to go to the war but--"
+
+"You think there will be war? Can't he go?" she interrupted. "It seems
+to me every man must go who can."
+
+"Yes, he can, but there are people whom he loves whom he hates to
+leave--more than that whom he wants to stay and protect. It is as if his
+whole future were at stake--not only his but theirs, and he can't seem
+to see his way clear."
+
+"Are they old and dependent on him for support, these people?"
+
+"No, but he wants them to become dependent on him and how can that be if
+he goes away?"
+
+"If they love him," the girl said emphatically, "they will not stand in
+his way."
+
+"But he does not know that they love him or that they will ever love
+him. He only knows that he loves them and--oh! Miss Dale," sweeping
+aside this strangely complicated case, "if you had a brother in times
+like these, what would you do?"
+
+"Do?" she cried; "why, I'd help him off to the front without a moment's
+hesitation! Julie and I would be the proudest girls in the world if we
+had a brother to go to the war! If Daddy were well he would go--there
+never was a finer officer than Daddy. Oh! Mr. Landor, you know us so
+little that you've no idea how strongly we feel about these things.
+We've tried in our own small way, Julie and I, to be soldiers ourselves
+and we think no sacrifice too great to make for one another and for our
+country." In her earnestness she had forgotten the man beside her, the
+friend and everything save the inspiration of those principles which
+were as the very air she breathed.
+
+He made no reply, fearing to break the spell and startle her back into
+her old elusiveness. This revelation of her inner self was very precious
+to him.
+
+Presently she said: "Perhaps I know a little how your friend feels,
+because I have always thought if ever I lived in war times I should go
+as a nurse, but now I could not consider such a thing."
+
+"You? You are too young," he gasped, never dreaming of this possibility.
+
+"No, I am not too young, but Julie could not carry on our business and
+take care of Daddy, too, all alone, and my duty is here."
+
+"You are doing active service in a field much harder than anything they
+may see in Cuba," he said intently.
+
+"Oh! no, don't say that; I do not deserve it; but you have talked to me
+so frankly about your friend that I wanted you to know I understand a
+little, though I do not believe I have been of any help. But this much I
+know, if I were one of those people whom he loves, however much I might
+need him and perhaps want him,"--was her voice faltering?--"I should
+urge him to go and love him the better for going and believe that his
+future and all connected with him would be the richer and the brighter
+for the personal sacrifice."
+
+There was an exultant ring in her low voice that set the man's heart to
+throbbing with a pain strangely new and exquisite and so great was his
+emotion that for some time he did not trust himself to speak. When he
+did he said very gently:
+
+"You _have_ helped my friend, Miss Dale, more than you have any idea and
+I thank you for him. Some day, perhaps, you will let him thank you
+himself. I--I shall always remember your kindness to-night" (poor
+fellow, it was not easy to pick his words calmly when he longed to pour
+his heart out to her). "I may not see you again for awhile; I--I am
+going away."
+
+The coach drew up at her door and she was brought to a sudden
+realization of her surroundings by the laughing salutations of the party
+as they said goodnight. Kenneth had sprung to the ground and was waiting
+to assist her to alight. She was not conscious of the gentle, almost
+tender manner in which he lifted her down, but as he stood with bared
+head holding the door open, for her, she stopped a moment and put out
+her hands impulsively.
+
+"Is this good-by?" she said, her beautiful eyes looking full into his.
+
+"Yes," with her hands close in his, "I shall go out with the first
+regiment from Radnor."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Julie was in bed, but not asleep, when Hester came in that night, and
+propped herself up on her elbow to listen with absorbed interest while
+she gave an account of herself.
+
+"Julie dear," the younger girl began, "never urge me again to go
+anywhere where I am to be confronted by the fruit of our labor. I can't
+stand it. I thought I should die when I first saw the boxes of cake
+piled up in the hall--of course in a way it was a relief to know they
+were safely there, but it gave me an actual pain to remember how we
+nearly killed ourselves over them. Then a man I met nearly dragged me
+out to see the bride cut the cake. That was too much and Mr. Landor came
+to the rescue."
+
+"How nice of him!"
+
+"Yes," admitted Hester, "he _was_ nice and we were having a jolly time
+when that awful man pounced down upon us, bride cake in hand, and I was
+actually forced to eat some of it!"
+
+"Poor child! Couldn't you have intimated that you had tasted it just a
+few times before?"
+
+[Illustration: JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT]
+
+"I was tempted to, but out of consideration for Mrs. Lennox I spared him
+the shock. And then what do you suppose? I got the gold dollar! I would
+not have bothered to put such a polish on it yesterday if I had known it
+was coming back to me!"
+
+"Did you throw it out of the window in your best high-tragedy style?"
+
+"No, I gave it to Mr. Landor. He looked so cross when Mr. Bemis joined
+us that he was absolutely funny, so I thought I'd just give him a little
+present--'for a good boy on his birthday' or something of that sort, you
+know, only he wasn't so alarmingly good and it wasn't his birthday,--at
+least I don't suppose it was, do you?"
+
+"Hester, you do talk the most idiotic nonsense!"
+
+"Do I? Well, I've been pretty serious the past hour," she said soberly
+as she slipped off her gown and seated herself on the edge of the bed
+preparatory to taking down her hair. "Julie, we are going to have war!"
+
+To Julie, who could not be expected to know her sister's train of
+thought, this announcement seemed so irrelevant that she looked at her
+wonderingly.
+
+"It was not in to-night's paper," she said.
+
+"No, but it is in the air. Mr. Landor thinks it is inevitable. He talked
+with me to-night about a friend of his who's crazy to go. I did not
+suspect a thing at first but afterward I did--it's himself, Julie--he
+means to volunteer with the first call for troops."
+
+"That is just what I should expect of him, Hester."
+
+"Y-e-s," reluctantly, "but do you know from things he said it is
+evidently going to be a tussle for him to make up his mind to leave. He
+is all upset about it and oh! Julie dear, how I did wish you were there
+to talk to him--you always say such beautiful, helpful things. It is
+some one he cares about--perhaps it is his father. Do you suppose it
+_could_ be any one else, Julie?"
+
+"I don't know, dear"--certain suspicions in regard to Landor gaining
+ground every minute--"perhaps it is Jessie Davis," wickedly, for Julie
+could do her share of teasing too.
+
+"That fashion plate!" scornfully. "I don't believe a word of it! She's
+not fit to button his shoes!"
+
+"Probably she would not care to," remarked Julie, intensely amused at
+this taking up of the cudgels in Landor's behalf; and then, thinking it
+best--this wise Julie!--not to prolong the jest, she said, "It is
+probably his father. He is old, you know, and Mr. Landor may hesitate to
+go off and leave him. I am glad he talked with you, dear, about anything
+he had so much at heart, for it shows how much he appreciates and values
+your opinion and you probably talked to him twice as well as I could,
+you funny little baby owl!"
+
+Hester's reply to this was to fling herself down on the foot of the bed
+and cry in a muffled tone, "I'm so tired--so dead tired! I didn't
+realize it until I kept so still coming home and then I ached so I
+wanted to scream while Mr. Landor was talking to me!"
+
+Julie's arms were around her in a moment. "The strain has been too much,
+dear. You cannot stand the work and play too,--it is no use trying."
+
+"But I like to play," cried Hester rebelliously, "and sometimes I feel
+so wicked--as if I couldn't keep up my end another minute, and then I
+want to run away--all of us run away--to have 'The Hustle' again and go
+racing out of all this, and then,"--her voice broke,--"Oh! then Julie
+darling, I am so ashamed of such thoughts--so humiliated to think I
+can't be as patient as you are!"
+
+"I know, dear," stroking her sister's hair softly, "and I am not
+patient--not half as patient as I try to be--only I hold myself with a
+fearfully tight rein for fear I'll go all to pieces. We are both pretty
+much knocked out now, dear, with the strain of the winter, the newness
+of things and--"
+
+"Not to mention being half fed," inserted Hester.
+
+"But we have paid all our expenses as we've gone along and kept out of
+debt even if we have half starved to do it. You see, dear, up to now,"
+said Julie, the accountant, "we have had to put such a large amount of
+our earnings back into the business for all sorts of things."
+
+"Imagine what cousin Nancy would say if she knew how we wriggled along
+on almost nothing, you and I!"
+
+"She'd say we were fools not to have accounts with the butcher, the
+baker and candlestick-maker but we do not agree with her, and Daddy,
+bless his heart! does not want for anything. Thank heaven, we've
+accomplished that much! Isn't it a mercy, dear, that he does not realize
+things? It would break his heart!"
+
+"Oh! yes, but how I do long to have our darling old Daddy back!"
+
+Julie said nothing. Her chin was very rigid but in a few moments she
+said cheerfully, "I think the spring promises a good deal. Our work
+increases every day and we can soon begin to live better. Bridget says
+marketing is much cheaper in the summer, and if we only make enough now
+to carry Daddy comfortably through the dull season when people are away
+and we are not earning much, we'll get on famously. Just think what
+magnificent times we'll have this summer just loafing around Daddy's
+room!"
+
+Hester, who seldom allowed herself such luxury of woe as she had just
+been indulging in, sat up, wiped her eyes on the corner of the sheet and
+said emphatically, "I'm a fiend and I ought to be cow-hided!"
+
+"I'll paddle you instead," said Julie, picking up the hair-brush Hester
+had dropped and making as if to apply the back of it vigorously.
+
+Hester dodged but Julie caught her and, springing out of bed, planted
+her firmly in a chair and said, "I'll brush that crazy head of yours and
+help you to bed or you'll never get there! It must be all hours of the
+night."
+
+"You'll catch your death of cold," remonstrated Hester.
+
+"I won't, and if you'll keep as still as a mouse and not scream when I
+comb your hair--"
+
+"You pull like the dickens; you know you do!"
+
+"I do not and I wish you'd stop talking and give me a chance. I declare
+you get worse every day--I tremble to think what you're coming to!--and
+I've, oh! such a piece of news to tell you!"
+
+She was wholly unprepared for the clutch of Hester's arms about her neck
+as she cried, "Don't tell me to-night, Julie dear, I--I
+know--all--about--it!"
+
+"Do you?" holding her fast. "Then aren't you glad it has all come out
+this way?"
+
+"Yes, Julie darling," stifling a sob.
+
+"Why, Hester, what is it? You must not cry, dear. I can't think what is
+the matter!"
+
+"I'm a selfish brute, but oh, I'm not really, Julie--not really. I think
+it is the most beautiful thing!"
+
+"What is 'the most beautiful thing'?" wondering if the child were losing
+her mind.
+
+"That he's been here. I knew it the moment you spoke. As if he'd fail to
+come!"
+
+"Hester! do you mean you think that I--I--"
+
+Hester nodded.
+
+"But I don't dear, not the least little bit in the world!"
+
+"Oh, Julie!"
+
+For a moment they clung together. Then Julie gave a hysterical laugh.
+
+"What a silly old goose you were to go having absurd thoughts about me,
+and how dared you, how _dared_ you think I was in love with any one?"
+
+"I did not know," penitently, "you kept so still about Monsieur Gremond
+and he _was_ in love with you, wasn't he?"
+
+"Yes dear. He came this afternoon and I sent him away. We do not want to
+have secrets from each other, do we, old girl, but I never talked to you
+much about him because there was a time when I did not quite know
+whether I cared for him or not. Perhaps back in the old days, if he had
+asked me, I might have said yes, but I doubt it--it was more a sort of
+fascination he exercised over me for awhile and now I am truly thankful
+he has come and gone. He has removed every particle of doubt as to my
+attitude toward him."
+
+"Oh, I am so glad. I couldn't bear the thought of his carrying you off
+to France."
+
+Julie's eyes opened wide. "Did you suppose I'd go away and leave you and
+Daddy and the rest?" in a tone of astonishment.
+
+"Some Prince Charming is coming along to carry you off some day, Julie
+dear," said Hester, who could bring herself to regard such an event with
+some degree of complacency now that it was not an immediate fact. "I'm
+not quite such a selfish pig" (she never spared herself in the matter of
+epithets), "as to expect to have you always."
+
+"I think we are sufficient unto each other now, dear," said Julie
+seriously, "and we may always be, for all the years to come; but if some
+day our lives should change--a new interest enter in--we'll share it and
+make it beautify the lives of both of us just as we've always shared
+every joy and sorrow ever since we were babies." She kissed her sister
+solemnly.
+
+"You blessed Julie!" was the response.
+
+When the gas was out and Hester, the irrepressible, finally in bed, the
+light of the full moon came streaming into the little room. And
+lingering with a caressing touch it fell upon a white pillow on which a
+curly golden head and a sleek dark one lay pressed close together. In
+the solemn stillness the breathing of two slender forms told that the
+excitement of the past forty-eight hours had at last ended in much
+needed sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Mrs. Driscoe was not a reasonable woman, never had been reasonable, had
+no desire to be reasonable; it was therefore not to be expected that she
+would take a reasonable attitude toward Sidney Renshawe when he went
+down to Virginia early that spring and asked her for her Nannie. In vain
+did he argue and cajole, in vain did the dear Colonel remonstrate, in
+vain did little Nannie cry and plead; to one and all she turned a deaf
+ear. It was no--no--no then and forever.
+
+The County discussed the situation freely and wondered that so worldly a
+mother should frown upon so eligible a _parti_. Sidney Renshawe was well
+born, fairly rich, rising steadily in his profession; all the County
+knew that much, though it is doubtful if any one of them had ever been
+in Radnor. What if Renshawe's hair was red and his mustache a trifle
+bristly? Didn't that add a touch of strength to his face and suggest a
+resemblance to a certain Prisoner of Zenda, who, though only a man in a
+book, as every one said, was, nevertheless, the most idolized of heroes.
+As for poor little Nannie, it was plainly to be seen she was losing
+flesh over the situation.
+
+As she wrote the girls, she was "torn by conflicting emotions," using
+the well-worn phrase because the poor little thing had no words of her
+own in which to express her feelings. She had never had complex feelings
+before. Hitherto her life had consisted in loving and being loved, which
+led her naturally enough into a similar state of things with Sidney
+Renshawe, who came, saw and conquered her girlish heart. The Colonel was
+her stanch friend and ally. He liked Renshawe and felt he was just the
+man to whom he could trust his little girl when the time came to give
+her up. And that was not necessarily imminent, for if Mrs. Driscoe was
+unreasonable Renshawe certainly was not and was willing to wait one,
+two, three years if need be. But Mrs. Driscoe remained obdurate and the
+household was plunged into a state of strained atmospheric conditions
+such as had never been known before.
+
+"I can't help loving him and it isn't wrong to love him, is it?" little
+Nannie would say appealingly to the Colonel.
+
+"No, no, Puss, be patient. We'll win her over soon." It is doubtful if
+the Colonel believed this cheerful prophecy, but the child had to be
+comforted.
+
+Renshawe had remained two weeks with his friends at the plantation
+adjacent to the Driscoes, seeing Nannie every day. Mrs. Driscoe did not
+refuse him this boon but, declined to receive him herself and intimated
+so plainly that the man's room was preferable to his company that the
+girl took little pleasure in his visits and agreed with him that it was
+far better he should go away. Without her mother's permission she
+refused to become engaged but the night previous to his departure she
+allowed him to slip on her finger a certain simple little ring which he
+reminded her he had been carrying in his pocket since the night they
+met. The next day he went north leaving his heart in Virginia, with a
+delicious sense of its security in Nannie's keeping. The consciousness
+was strong within him that the winning of such as she was worth the
+waiting.
+
+And Mrs. Driscoe all this while went about with the aggrieved air of one
+whose troubles were scarcely to be understood by an unsympathetic world.
+If she had been put to it she could have given no reason for her
+opposition to Renshawe, for she had none and had shown him marked favor
+at the beginning. But that was before, as she told the Colonel, "her
+suspicions were aroused." From the moment they were, Renshawe was made
+unpleasantly conscious of it.
+
+While Nannie, sustained by the Colonel and the County's backing, got
+what solace she could out of the days that were so long and oh! so
+lonely after Sidney left her, he, back in Radnor, turned for comfort to
+the Dale girls, who took him into their hearts for Nannie's sake and
+soon learned to like him for his own. He became a frequent visitor,
+calling usually Sunday afternoons when he felt he would be less likely
+to disturb them, and he wrote Nannie that except a certain little girl
+in Virginia whose name he would never divulge, they were the sweetest
+girls he had ever known and the bravest. But he did not tell Nannie how
+as he came to observe them more closely he discovered in their faces
+little careworn lines which told a tale their lips never would have
+disclosed and how about Julie, especially, there was a subdued, almost
+intense manner, as if she were holding herself in a vise. They never
+spoke of their work or their cares to him or any one else and made light
+of any passing reference to their business. Indeed, as far as Sidney
+might have known from them, they lived quite like other girls.
+
+In regard to his friend Gremond's previous connection with them or of
+his call on Julie, Renshawe knew nothing. The Frenchman left town the
+day following that on which he had seen Julie and had not referred to
+the Dales in any way either to him or Dr. Ware, who was left to draw his
+own conclusions. This was not so simple as might be supposed, for while
+in one light the man's sudden disappearance looked as if Julie might
+have given him his conge, viewed from another point, especially taken in
+connection with a certain happy light in Julie's eyes these days when he
+caught her glance, it led him to believe that perhaps the girl had given
+him her promise but required that he should wait yet a longer time to
+claim her. The Doctor longed to know and wearied himself with imagining
+why she did not confide in him. But since she did not, delicacy forbade
+his mentioning Gremond's name.
+
+Another person who did some speculating over Gremond was Mrs. Lennox,
+but being a woman she arrived at her conclusions quickly and decided
+that his precipitous flight to France when he had been booked for some
+weeks in Radnor, argued ill for the result of his trip across the
+country. She was not at home the one time he had called on her and the
+fact that he was not at more pains to seek her out and continue the
+confidential relations established in her sanctum on his previous visit,
+satisfied her that he could not have found what he was so eagerly
+seeking. Being a sympathetic woman she was sorry, but she would have
+thought more of him had he chosen to tell her the outcome of his
+affairs. As he did not, she dismissed him from her mind altogether,
+having agreed with Miss Marston one day when they were discussing him,
+that he was a clever man but after all a trifle too self-centered. To
+tell the truth Mrs. Lennox had been mistaken in her analysis of his
+character and it annoyed her.
+
+A fortnight after the wedding the Dale girls were devouring with eager
+eyes one morning a very small note and a very large check which they
+could scarcely read, so great was their excitement.
+
+"Oh, what a relief!" cried Julie, "to know that everything pleased Mrs.
+Truxton, and how good she was to write such a kind appreciative note to
+people like us whom she scarcely knows! Let's go and read it to
+Bridget."
+
+Bridget, when she heard it, was reduced to tears and presently they were
+all laughing and crying together, for the work of this first big order
+had been more of an anxiety than any one of them cared to acknowledge,
+while its success expressed so kindly by their thoughtful customer meant
+as much in its way as the accompanying check, which fairly dazzled them.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars!" cried Hester ecstatically. "We're
+millionaires! Oh-- oh--oh! to think of our _earning_ so much money!" She
+waved the check wildly over her head and even insisted that Peter Snooks
+should have a sniff at it before she said, "Wouldn't you just like to
+frame it and keep it forever?"
+
+"I know what I should like best of all to do with it," said Julie.
+
+"I bet Miss Hester can guess by the knowin' look in her eyes," said
+Bridget. "It's meself that knows too, what your blessed selves is
+thinkin'."
+
+"Of course you both know," Julie said quietly, "we want to begin to pay
+Dr. Ware rent."
+
+They went the next afternoon to his office. On the doorsteps they
+encountered Miss Ware, who turned about as she saw them approach.
+
+"Don't let us detain you," said Julie politely, "we have just come for a
+little business talk with your brother."
+
+"Ah!" she replied, "I fancied you got about all of that sort of thing
+you wanted at home. You'd better come upstairs and let me make you some
+tea--you look peaked, both of you. Philip ought to give you a tonic.
+Tell him I said so, and come up afterward. I insist upon it and shall
+have the tea ready. It will not do you any harm to sit down in a
+different atmosphere for a while. I suppose you do get sick to death of
+a kitchen."
+
+There was no doubt that Miss Ware possessed to perfection the faculty of
+rubbing one the wrong way, but Julie deemed it wise not to decline these
+overtures and made no further protest against her going in with them.
+
+"Horrid old thing! How I hate her!" whispered Hester, as Miss Ware went
+on upstairs and they waited a moment in the Doctor's ante-room.
+
+"So do I, but she's _his_ sister and she means well."
+
+"You'd find excuses for the old boy himself."
+
+"No, I wouldn't," laughed Julie, "but--here's Dr. Ware."
+
+He bowed to them as he entered from the private office and passed by
+with an elderly man, with whom he was in deep conversation. In a moment
+he returned and greeted the girls warmly.
+
+"Well," he said, giving each a hand, "this is delightful. Come into the
+other room. That was old Mr. Landor--Kenneth's father, by the way--did
+you notice him? He is about half Kenneth's size, but he has force enough
+for a dozen men. I wish you girls knew him."
+
+He pulled out chairs as he talked and ensconced the girls comfortably,
+then stood against the table facing them with arms folded and the smile
+on his face which Bridget vowed was "like the blessed sun for warmin'
+the cockles of your heart."
+
+"It is good to have you here," he said heartily, "I wish you came more
+often. Perhaps," with a laugh that showed the gleam of his white teeth,
+"I do not give you a chance--I go so often to see you."
+
+"If you came every hour of the day it wouldn't be too often," exclaimed
+Hester, who never loved people by halves. "But Julie is going to do the
+talking to-day. I intend to keep still."
+
+"As if you could! Well, Julie?" smiling at her.
+
+"We have come to have a little business talk with you," she said,
+twisting her fingers together nervously and finding it a little
+difficult to begin.
+
+"Delighted to be so honored," he replied lightly, bowing low.
+
+"It is about the--the rent," said Julie, who wished her words would not
+stick in her throat. "We are getting on so well with our work that we
+want to begin to pay you. We thought if you would let us begin this
+month and--"
+
+"And not object or scold us or anything," broke in Hester who never
+could remain out of a conversation, "but just take the money, we'd feel
+a thousand times happier, though no money or anything else could ever
+express our gratitude for all you are doing."
+
+He still leaned against the table with folded arms but the smile had
+given place to an expression of sadness.
+
+"Have you both quite finished?" he asked when Hester had stopped for
+lack of breath.
+
+"We never could finish talking about your kindness," put in Julie.
+
+The Doctor raised his hand as if to waive that aside. "I have listened
+to your proposition," he said, "because I am a practical business man
+and I understand your spirit. It is the height of your ambition to be
+independent."
+
+"Yes," they assented.
+
+"When your father broke down," he continued, "I longed to take you all
+home and look after you. I was amply able to do it and he is my oldest
+and best friend. I would have done it, too, if you girls had not
+astonished me by displaying so much courage and such a determination to
+fight your own battles that I could only stand aside and watch you work
+out your own salvation."
+
+"You have made the way easier all the time," said Julie tremulously.
+
+The Doctor cleared his throat.
+
+"I have been so glad to share a bit of the responsibility, but now my
+faithful little comrades want to shoulder it all."
+
+"Oh, Dr. Ware, you don't think--" began Hester impulsively.
+
+"Yes, I do think," he interrupted, "that you have the right idea and
+whatever my personal inclination may be, I like your spirit of
+independence and it shall be as you say."
+
+Hester flung her arms about his neck and kissed him. "Do you know," she
+said brokenly, "Julie and I are getting so puffed up with conceit over
+our business prosperity that presently you will disown us altogether."
+
+"Shall I?" holding her fast. "What do you think, Julie?" with a
+searching gaze into the face of the older girl who stood a little apart
+from them.
+
+Julie flushed and turned her eyes away--tell-tale eyes like hers were
+not to be trusted. "I think," she said with a supreme effort to speak
+calmly, "I think we had better go upstairs for tea. Miss Ware will be
+wondering what has become of us."
+
+When the Doctor learned that tea was brewing in the library he followed
+them upstairs and electrified his sister by handing about tea and taking
+a cup himself with as much complacency as if he were in the habit of
+dawdling around a tea-table every afternoon of his life. Miss Ware
+wished he hadn't come, for she had intended to ply the girls with
+questions about their work; questions which in the presence of her
+brother she hesitated to ask, standing, as she did, in considerable awe
+of him. She did manage, while he was talking to Hester, to catechise
+Julie a little, but that young woman's answers were so evasive, yet
+withal so sweetly polite that Miss Ware felt very much as if she were
+hitting a rubber ball, which, while showing the imprint of her attack,
+bounded back every time to the starting point. It happened also that Dr.
+Ware having some notion of what his sister might be up to, rescued Julie
+from too prolonged a tete-a-tete and with infinite tact kept the
+conversation in such general channels that personalities were forgotten
+and Miss Ware quite shone in her desire to be agreeable. There are many
+persons who, given their own conversational way, manage in the course of
+an hour to reduce to a state of irritation every person in the room, yet
+who, guided and steered by a stronger force, rise to the best that is in
+them and produce such a favorable impression that one wonders how one
+ever thought them other than agreeable. It was thus with Miss Ware, who
+under the guidance of her brother, appeared to the girls in a new light,
+and she herself had the unusual sensation of regretting that they had
+taken so early a departure.
+
+"I wish I had asked them to stay on to dinner," she said when they had
+gone.
+
+"I wish you had," said the Doctor, accustomed to her after thoughts.
+
+"Why didn't you suggest it?"
+
+"I was not sure that it would be agreeable to you, Mary."
+
+"Humph!" she said. Then critically, "Hester _is_ extraordinarily
+pretty--and what an air! She's almost conspicuous. How is your scheme
+about Kenneth getting on?"
+
+"It is not a 'scheme,' Mary. I wish you would not express it just that
+way. And I have concluded I am not the right person to go in for
+match-making. Think no more about it."
+
+"Humph!" she said again.
+
+"I doubt if either of the girls will care to marry," he volunteered.
+
+"Girls are queer," she said sententiously.
+
+"Are they?" he rejoined wearily. "I do not think I know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+That spring would always be a memorable one both to the girls and the
+country at large, for momentous events followed one upon another in
+rapid succession. War was declared with Spain, as Kenneth had
+prophesied, and all the bustle and activity attendant upon the
+preparations of hostilities with a foreign power were felt throughout
+the nation.
+
+Kenneth, believing such a crisis inevitable, had prepared to respond
+promptly to the first call for troops.
+
+There had been a fierce tussle with his father when first he broached
+the subject, but by that time Mr. Landor had learned that Kenneth's was
+not a nature to be forced into subjection and heard him out with far
+more respect than would have been accorded him a year ago. Mr. Landor
+suggested, in the course of the talk, that it was a pity to leave the
+business just as he was mastering it; and Kenneth agreed with him. But
+all the patriotism in his nature was aroused and this, combined with
+Hester's inspiration and his naturally adventurous spirit, held him
+proof against his father's arguments. This strength and decision were
+not lost upon the older man, who, having put forth every argument to
+keep his son at home, ended the discussion by saying, somewhat abruptly:
+
+"When the call came in '61 I could not go. I had a father and mother
+dependent on me. I'm--I'm not dependent on you, Kenneth, and your
+country needs you. I should have been disappointed in you if you had not
+wanted to go."
+
+"Thank you, father," with a hearty grip of the hand for he thought he
+understood the personal sacrifice his father was making, though,
+man-fashion, he said no word.
+
+And so Kenneth used his influence toward the end he had in view, with
+the good result that when on that twenty-third day of April the
+President issued his first call for troops, he was given a commission as
+lieutenant in the crack cavalry troop of Radnor and ordered into the
+State camp to await developments.
+
+The girls saw the troopers go. They happened to be in the business part
+of the city that afternoon and were attracted by groups of people
+standing about and talking excitedly. Further investigation, coupled
+with the sound of a bugle in the distance, caused them to take refuge on
+the nearest steps and wait with bated breath for the militia to appear.
+Electric cars had stopped running, wagons rattled off into the side
+streets, leaving the main thoroughfare clear, and presently they came--a
+troop of cavalry followed by a regiment of infantry, the splendid column
+swinging along to the gay music of the band, whose medley of martial
+airs wound up suggestively with "The Girl I Left Behind Me."
+
+The crowd broke into a great spontaneous cheer and cheered and cheered
+again, shouting until they were hoarse. On the sidewalks, steps, from
+windows all about, people craned their necks for a last look at the
+departing soldiers. Women waved their handkerchiefs and wept. Men raised
+their hats--aye, flung them high in the air--while every man, woman and
+child who could lay hand on a flag waved it in frantic demonstration.
+For staid decorous Radnor it was an ovation.
+
+The Dale girls thrilled with excitement. Just as the cavalry passed
+their steps Julie grabbed Hester and said:
+
+"Look at that officer just back of the men--isn't he stunning! And see
+how beautifully he manages that prancing horse! No, not over there,
+Hester,--this way, nearer us," excitedly, "the horse is dancing to the
+music and oh!--why, Hester Dale, it's Mr. Landor! Wave to him, quick! I
+want him to see us!"
+
+They both waved, standing on tip-toe, and, as if impelled by the
+instinct that warns us when those we love are near, he turned and saw
+them. There was a quick interchange of glances, a slight wave of the
+hand and he was gone.
+
+"He _did_ see us," exclaimed Julie. "I am so glad even if it is against
+the regulations for an officer to recognize people. Oh, aren't you glad
+we were down town! It is really living in war times and seeing for
+ourselves the things Daddy has described a thousand times!"
+
+"I can't realize it," said Hester, looking rather flushed, "but I would
+not have missed it for anything in the world!"
+
+When they got back to the house they found Jack in a fever of impatience
+waiting to waylay them.
+
+"Did you see him? Did you see him?" he cried, stopping them at his door.
+
+"Mr. Landor? yes," laughed Julie. "Did you?"
+
+"Where were you? I was down at the Armory. Oh, please stop in here a
+moment till I tell you about it."
+
+Thus urged, they went in.
+
+"He was here," cried Jack, to whom there was only one he, "early this
+afternoon in his uniform and he asked for you; he wanted to say good-by,
+but I said you'd just gone out. I saw you both going up the street
+before he came--and he could only stay a second 'cause the troops were
+ordered out and he thought I'd like to get around to the Armory and see
+them start off. And didn't I, just! I went lickety-split on my crutches
+nearly as fast as a boy could run," he cried, immensely proud of this
+achievement, "and I was there in time and got a front seat. A fellow on
+a grocery wagon asked me to sit up with him and I saw--everything," with
+a comprehensive sweep of his arms. "The horses and the officers and the
+men and all their friends crowding around the Armory and hanging on to
+some of them tight, and some of the ladies crying and gee! but it was
+great!"
+
+"Well, you certainly were right in it, Jack," commented Hester.
+
+"Should say I was! And pretty soon out came Mr. Landor--Lieutenant
+Landor," corrected Jack with great emphasis, "and an orderly was
+standing alongside the curb with his horse and before he mounted he saw
+me sitting in the wagon on the corner of the street and he came down and
+saluted as though I was his superior officer," Jack's eyes were fairly
+dancing out of his head, "and said good-by all over again. I wish you
+could have seen the crowd! They just gaped! and the boys nearly had a
+fit seeing me talking to an officer. And when he went off one of them
+said, 'Gee! he's a corker--he'll knock the spots out of the Spaniards,'
+and I said, 'You bet!' That's awful slang, Miss Julie," apologetically,
+"but it's the truth."
+
+Julie smiled. "We are getting our first glimpse of war, Jack, and it is
+pretty exciting for all of us."
+
+"I'm crazy to go--I bet they'd take me for a drummer-boy if I could get
+rid of these," with a disgusted glance at his crutches. "I told Mr.
+Landor so and he said of course I wanted to go--every boy wanted to
+serve his country--but sometimes there was just as much to do for those
+who stayed at home as those who went. That the women and children must
+be looked after" (the air of protection which the superiority of his sex
+gave him would have been funny had he not been in such deadly earnest),
+"and," he continued, "he appointed me a guard of honor. I'm to take care
+of you!" He made this announcement with positive triumph.
+
+"How splendid!" said Julie, realizing how much this feeling of
+importance meant to the restless boy who was longing to be off for the
+front.
+
+"I'm to go and see his father too, and print a weekly bulletin full of
+what we're all doing and anything I can make up--just like the one I do
+for your father and he's going to write me from camp. Think of that! And
+I'm to get well as fast as I can and study very hard and try to be a man
+when he gets back. And what do you suppose? No more office for me!"
+
+"Jack, you are inventing!"
+
+"Nope," delighted at her incredulity, "he had a talk with mother last
+week and I'm to go to school and then to college."
+
+"That is the best news I've heard for many a day," said Julie,
+affectionately regarding the happy boy. "If you work hard and go to
+college I prophesy great things for you."
+
+"If the war's still on, though, when I'm old enough and well enough,
+maybe I'd get to be a drummer-boy." In his present state of military
+ardor life held the promise of nothing greater than that.
+
+When they had left him and were nearly at their own door they were
+stopped by the sound of his crutches on the stairs below. Hester ran
+back to see what he wanted.
+
+"Don't come up, Jack," she called, running down to meet him. "Did we
+leave something behind?"
+
+"It's this, Miss Hester," reaching out a note. "He gave it to me--I
+nearly forgot. Please forgive me," penitently.
+
+"Of course, Jack," taking it from him and turning again she went
+upstairs.
+
+It was only a thin sheet of paper, folded three-cornered, on which in
+pencil was scrawled her name. But she opened it on the stairs with a
+mixture of curiosity and tenderness which she would have been at a loss
+to define had any analysis of her feelings been required of her.
+
+  "I had hoped to see you," it said, without any other beginning, "but
+  that failing, I have stolen a moment here at the Armory to say
+  good-bye. It was not a friend but I, myself, to whom you were such a
+  help and inspiration that evening. When I come back will you let me
+  thank you for that and--more? The bit of gold you gave me I am
+  carrying with me as a mascot. Do you mind? And if I prove as
+  fearless and brave a soldier as you I shall thank God for making me
+  of the right stuff. Will you pray that it may be so? Good-bye."
+
+She stood quite still for a moment when she had finished reading, then
+brushed her hand quickly over her eyes and went on into their apartment.
+Finding Julie she handed her the bit of paper and said gayly, though
+Julie thought there was a suspicious huskiness in her voice, "See, Julie
+dear, a note from a really, truly soldier." And before Julie could speak
+she whisked out of the room and until Bridget called her to dinner, was
+seen no more.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month passed, during which, in spite of the excitement over war and
+the subsequent depression along certain lines of business, their work
+increased from day to day. And in the midst of all this bustle and rush
+when each hour exacted of them the very limit of their endurance, Mr.
+Dale died. He went to sleep with God as peacefully as a little child. At
+first the girls could not believe it. They had grown so used to the long
+hours in which he slept, so accustomed to the paralysis which kept his
+mind and body apathetic, that they could not conceive that he would not
+wake again and turn his eyes fondly on them as before. When finally he
+was carried out of the little home and laid in his last resting place
+they began to realize that God had released him from his earthly
+thraldom and given them another saint in heaven. With characteristic
+courage they lived through those first days when the awful loneliness
+pressed so heavily upon them, and with characteristic determination took
+up their work struggling to go on as if nothing had happened. But it was
+hard--harder than any other sorrow which had come to them--for the whole
+incentive of their work was gone. It was as if the very mainspring of
+their lives had snapped and broken.
+
+In the long solemn talks the girls had together at this time Julie urged
+that they must be as faithful to their father's precepts as they had
+tried to be while he was with them. And she dwelt very much on the fact
+that he was still with them, guiding and loving them as much as during
+all those years before he was stricken down. And Hester believed this
+too for they had been taught the beauty of the inner, spiritual life
+that counts for immortality and makes all separation merely a transitory
+thing bridged over by love. So they felt their beloved father still with
+them, though Hester often brokenly whispered that working was robbed of
+its incentive now that they were no longer "making a home for Dad."
+
+It must not be supposed that they were left alone in their affliction.
+On the contrary, friends sprang up in every direction. Women whom
+hitherto they had only regarded as customers and known most formally,
+now came forward with kindest words and thoughtful suggestions, while
+expressions of sympathy in the form of cards and flowers threatened to
+well-nigh deluge them. It was evident to the most casual observer that
+"those Dale girls" were persons of considerable importance. Unique as it
+was, they had made their place in Radnor, and the fact was given wide
+recognition. They themselves were fairly bewildered and overcome by so
+much demonstration from people from whom they expected nothing. That
+they were not insensible to its meaning was shown in their grateful
+appreciation of every word and act. Even the haughty Miss Davis,
+desiring to make reparation, chose this time to come and see them, and
+Hester out of the fullness of her sorrowful heart accepted her repentant
+kiss and fell to talking of childish days.
+
+Next to Dr. Ware there was no one so keenly conscious of or who so
+rejoiced over this capitulation of exclusive Radnor as the Lennoxes. As
+Mrs. Lennox wrote Kenneth Landor, most girls were what their position
+made them, but they had made their own position, winning the respect and
+admiration and at last the friendship of every one who knew them. He,
+hard at work drilling raw recruits in Virginia (for his troop had been
+ordered into a Southern camp) found time to write how glad of this he
+was and to the girls he sent a joint note of deepest sympathy.
+
+The Driscoes wrote, of course, each in their own way. The girls half
+smiled over Cousin Nancy's letter--it was such a mixture of a belief in
+the retribution that overtakes the willful and an evident grief that the
+Major was no more. Colonel Driscoe wrote little but did much which
+developed later through Dr. Ware who unwarily let the cat out of the
+bag. And Dr. Ware, as might have been expected, did everything. This
+time the girls allowed him to plan and arrange and perform with them and
+for them the last loving offices for their father, feeling that it was
+his right.
+
+Miss Ware was at this time in England and as the Doctor was living at
+his club, his time was more than ever at their disposal. Miss Ware had
+taken flight at this first note of war, indeed before the bugle sounded,
+for she had a very indifferent regard for her country and at all times
+preferred England. So the Doctor came and went without comment, and a
+month after Mr. Dale's death he was summoned hastily one morning by
+Bridget.
+
+Julie lay ill. He could not find that she was in any great pain and he
+had not expected that she would be. He knew immediately that the thing
+he had been so long dreading had taken place. Her tired nerves refused
+to do their work at last--the delicate mechanism of her body had
+stopped.
+
+Hester hovered about, wide-eyed and solicitous and then it was that more
+than ever Dr. Ware took things into his own hands and said a few things
+to Hester which caused that young woman to gasp with astonishment and
+fling her arms about his neck in her usual impetuous fashion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Under the most favorable auspices a military camp entails labor, but to
+the volunteers who assembled in Virginia that spring and broke ground
+for what afterward became known as Camp Alger, it was a tremendous
+undertaking. The hewing of wood and clearing of underbrush which it
+entailed was scarcely bargained for by the enlisted man fresh from
+civilian life, who, nevertheless, went at it with the energy
+characteristic of Uncle Sam's boys the country over, as a result of
+which, by the end of May, many of the regiments were as well quartered
+as if they were enjoying the customary summer outing at their State
+camp-grounds at home. These, of course, were the militia now mustered
+into the United States service and awaiting orders to follow the
+regulars into Spanish territory.
+
+Troop D of Kenneth Landor's squadron had unquestionably the finest site
+on the reservation; a wooded knoll stretching down into a field of
+grass--green when the troopers came but worn down to bare earth in the
+first month of their encampment. Beneath the shade trees on the hillside
+the officers pitched their conical tents, the men stretching out through
+the field below in two troop streets, back of which on either side were
+picketed their horses.
+
+It was a warm June afternoon, but a little breeze stirred the branches
+of the trees and blew with delicious freshness over the knoll, on which,
+stretched out at full length, lay Kenneth Landor. It was an off hour in
+camp and, barring the sentries who were tramping up and down their
+posts, every man was taking advantage of it, some comfortably lounging
+like Kenneth on the grass, others laboriously writing home letters
+filled with their latest exploit. For they were just back from a three
+days' practice march along the Potomac, during which they had spent
+their time in fighting the infantry they met on the road and swimming
+their horses in the river; and this first bit of mimic warfare could not
+fail to be of interest to the home people.
+
+Kenneth had enjoyed the march hugely. He liked action and chafed, as did
+all the men, under the monotony of their enforced encampment, although
+realizing full well that the troop would be sent to the front as soon as
+was deemed expedient. He was thinking, as he lay on his back gazing
+skyward, of what he had once heard a veteran say,--that war was largely
+made up of soldier housekeeping. That might be true, but he hoped he
+should come in for some stiff fighting before he got through. These
+interesting speculations so engrossed him that he scarcely noticed the
+mail orderly going the rounds until turning suddenly on his elbow he saw
+the man coming toward him. This trooper, detailed as mail orderly, was
+no other than Charley Bemis, whom we last saw at the Earle-Truxton
+wedding, but so strictly was the etiquette of military life maintained
+in camp that the man on approaching, saluted his superior officer,
+received an acknowledging salute, delivered a letter and turned away
+without a word.
+
+The envelope was addressed in Jack's round sprawling hand and Kenneth
+prepared himself for a comfortable perusal of the weekly bulletin which
+the boy wrote, edited and printed with faithful regularity and which
+never failed to be of absorbing interest to the man who received it.
+This time, however, there was no printed sheet, but a letter written
+apparently at fever heat.
+
+"Dear Lieutenant," (it began, with military terseness), "I'm too upset
+to do the paper, though I'll try to soon, but you won't wonder when I
+tell you. _They're gone!_ I can't realize it myself and I wish I didn't
+have to--it's all so sudden and so lonesome I just want to go off and
+die!
+
+"Dr. Ware did it. He and Bridget packed them off before they could say
+Jack Robinson. She's gone, too, so has he--down to Wavertree Hall, their
+cousin's plantation in Virginia. You see, Miss Julie broke down, though
+she wouldn't let any of us say she was ill, and Mrs. Driscoe urged them
+to come there and Colonel Driscoe wrote Dr. Ware and sent him the money
+to buy their tickets and said he mustn't tell and he should rely upon
+him to get them off. Miss Hester told me all that. She laughed, the way
+she always does, you know, and said their cousin Driscoe and Dr. Ware
+together were too much for them. She said they meant to have a good rest
+and get Miss Julie strong and then come back to their work again but
+Gee! I wish they didn't have to--it's such a fearful grind.
+
+"It's awful without them, and Peter Snooks gone too! Lieutenant Landor,
+what's a guard of honor to do with nothing to guard? There's mother, of
+course, and Mr. Landor, but they don't like me bothering around the way
+those girls did. They never minded. I've left off my crutches and I'm
+digging at my books, but I'm going to be a drummer boy yet, you bet!
+
+"Please send me the latest news from the front. I think it's _great_ to
+be a soldier!
+
+                                                                 "Jack."
+
+"P.S.--Mother says it's a girl's trick to add a postscript, but they're
+down there near you somewhere. Wouldn't you love to see them, just! They
+went to Dunn Loring the way you did and had to drive a ways into the
+country. Thought you'd like to know."
+
+The varied sensations which surged through Kenneth as he finished
+reading are difficult to describe. Paramount was the joyful surprise
+that Hester was somewhere in the vicinity, followed by the overwhelming
+desire to see her without loss of time. This he knew as he came to think
+it over quietly, was impossible. He could not take the initiative or
+seem to thrust himself upon her uninvited. She, of course, must know
+that his troop was still at Camp Alger and if she cared to see him--but
+did she care?
+
+That baffling question haunted him a week. Then came one day a note
+brought by a small darky who was inclined to ride rough-shod over the
+sentries because, as he condescended to explain to them, he had a note
+from the young missis to deliver right into the Lieutenant's own hand. A
+formal, brief little note Hester had written, but it was enough, for it
+told him where they were and that their cousin Mrs. Driscoe would be
+most happy to have him ride over and call.
+
+He went that evening, inquiring the way in Dunn Loring and soon found
+himself riding up a long avenue between rows of locust trees, at the end
+of which he could just distinguish a large brick mansion with a square
+portico and broad verandahs at either end. When he drew up at the house
+he discovered a small cavalcade ahead of him. At least half a dozen
+horses were standing hitched in various parts of the driveway, and
+following the custom of the place he tied his own with the rest. Then he
+rapped vigorously at the knocker to announce his arrival. By that
+general factotum George Washington he was ushered immediately across a
+huge square hall and out onto a verandah where a gay group of people
+were laughing and chatting together. His first impression was a vivid
+effect of blue uniforms and white muslin gowns while from out of this
+medley a dignified, matronly figure came forward with his card in her
+hand and said in hearty Southern fashion:
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Landor? It is a pleasure to welcome you to Wavertree
+Hall. Hester, my dear, here is one of your Radnor friends."
+
+Hester slipped down from the railing where she had been sitting and
+shyly gave him her hand. Somehow, for a moment he scarcely knew her with
+that strange light in her eyes. Then there was a general interchange of
+greetings, for Julie called him over to the hammock where she was half
+reclining and Dr. Ware rose up from his seat beside her and nearly shook
+the arm off him; and there was dear little Nannie waiting to have him
+presented and the Colonel, who laughingly consented to wait his turn,
+and all the guests who enviously regarded this brother officer upon
+whom, for the moment, all interest centered.
+
+He saw very little of Hester that night. She was the gayest of the gay
+and seemed to evade him with the old elusiveness which had been so
+marked in the first days of their acquaintance. So he turned for comfort
+to Julie, whose convalescence kept her a little apart from the lively
+group and whose genuine interest in him seemed to the distracted fellow
+almost the sweetest thing in the world.
+
+He rode off rather early, in company with the other officers, whom he
+found belonged to a Virginia regiment encamped at Alger, and when the
+gay little cavalcade had waved their hands in parting and were lost to
+sight Dr. Ware said to Julie:
+
+"There was not a man of them who could compare with Kenneth--he is
+superb!"
+
+"Yes," she assented, "he is. I never saw him look so handsome as he does
+in his uniform."
+
+The others had strayed into the great hall, and they were alone on the
+verandah.
+
+"Julie," he said gently, "you begin to feel more like your old self now,
+do you not, dear?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she said, "I feel stronger and stronger every day. But," with
+a little laugh, "I am in danger of being spoiled--you all wait on me
+so."
+
+"It is a good thing to get that independent young spirit of yours into
+subjection," he laughed. "We are all making the most of the
+opportunity."
+
+"Do you notice how cousin Nancy has changed?" she asked. "She does not
+eye Hester and me so curiously as she did at first. When we came she
+scarcely took her eyes off us for days. I think she was prepared to see
+freaks and could not readjust her mind to the fact that we looked and
+behaved just as usual. To cook for a living and still be a lady was an
+anomaly beyond her comprehension, but she is beginning to realize such
+things can be, though she wouldn't acknowledge it for the world. Dear
+cousin Nancy! She's so good and so contradictory!"
+
+"I shall never forget her kindness in keeping me here," he said
+heartily. "Think of my merely meaning to see you safe at Wavertree Hall,
+and being taken possession of by her and made one of the family! Her
+hospitality is unbounded."
+
+Presently he said: "I have been waiting for you to feel strong enough to
+have a little serious talk, Julie. What would you say if you were not to
+go back to your work for another year?"
+
+"Oh, we must go back," she said. "Please don't think we'll allow
+ourselves to get demoralized or unfitted for work because of all this!"
+
+"I'm not likely to think that, dear, but your cousin Driscoe has had a
+long talk with me and he urges me to persuade you all to remain with
+them a year, at least. He says now they've got you here they want to
+keep you and you'll be all the better fitted to work, he thinks, for a
+long rest. He says he has not mentioned this to your cousin Nancy
+because he will not have her bothering you to do what you don't want
+to--"
+
+"The dear, blessed man," she exclaimed.
+
+"And he didn't want to bother you himself but he thought if I threw the
+weight of my influence on his side you might be persuaded. He doesn't
+know, does he?" wistfully, "what little influence I really have with you
+two independent girls!"
+
+"Oh, don't say that!" she protested; "it isn't fair! And I do not
+believe way down deep in your heart you would urge our staying on here
+so long. You know too well how hard we have struggled to get started to
+advise our letting the work all slip away. Besides, what would you do
+without us all that time, I'd like to know," she said playfully. "You'd
+be terribly lonesome, you know you would and--oh no," suddenly growing
+serious again, "we must go back and take up the work and push on with
+it, but it isn't the same--it just can't be without Daddy!" She turned
+her face away but not before he had detected the brimming eyes.
+
+"Dear," he said, putting out his arms, "if only you would let me"--he
+stopped, pulling himself together with a mighty effort. "I--I--"
+
+"You are so good to me," she faltered, "so good!"
+
+"I'm far from good to let you get excited to-night," he said, struggling
+to speak calmly. "You are not strong yet, dear, but I wanted to speak to
+you about your cousin Driscoe's proposition before I went away!"
+
+"Away?" she repeated as if scarcely understanding, "must you go away?"
+
+"I think so, dear, in a day or two. Tell me what I can do for you in
+Radnor."
+
+"Radnor?" musingly, "how far away that seems! Yes, you can do something
+for me there--two things. See Jack and tell him all about us and hunt up
+Mr. Renshawe and tell him we've nearly won the day. Hester and I have
+been maneuvering in his behalf on all occasions. Tell him Nannie treads
+on air and that any day he may expect a little flag of truce, for cousin
+Nancy shows signs of surrendering. Will you tell him all that?"
+
+"Julie dear," bending toward her with a world of tenderness in his
+voice, "Julie dear, do you never want anything for yourself?"
+
+"Yes," very faintly.
+
+"Can you tell me, little girl?"
+
+"Yes," reaching out her hands with a little childish gesture,--"you."
+
+"Julie!"
+
+He took her in his arms and for a moment there was silence while out in
+the moonlit trees a mocking-bird called to its mate.
+
+"My little girl," he said at last tremulously, "is it really true?"
+
+"Oh, how could I do it," she whispered, "how could I!"
+
+"Love me? I am sure I don't know and I scarcely dare believe it. Look at
+me, sweetheart and tell me it is true."
+
+She raised her beautiful honest eyes and let him look into the depths of
+her pure soul. "It is so natural to love you and so beautiful," she said
+simply.
+
+"But I am no longer a young man, dear. What right have I to ask you to
+give your young life to me?"
+
+"You didn't ask me," with a little fluttering laugh, "I asked you. It is
+very humiliating for you to remind me of it."
+
+"Julie!" He was holding her fast as if he never meant to let her go.
+
+"You are not old," she protested. "It is not years but the spirit that
+counts, and you are young--just as I am old for my years, and there is
+no one like you but Hester in the world. I have been loving you so long
+unconsciously, that I don't know when it began."
+
+"Neither do I, dear."
+
+"But I knew you so well," she continued, "I was afraid you would have
+some mistaken sense of honor that would prevent your ever telling me you
+loved me and I just couldn't bear that." Julie's head was hidden on his
+shoulder.
+
+"You little saint," stroking her hair tenderly, "you always seemed to
+belong to me, as if you were a part of my very life, but I have never
+felt I was worthy of such a blessing and I have reminded myself a
+thousand times this past winter that I could only have one place in your
+affections--the old family friend. When Monsieur Gremond came along I
+realized more than ever that I had no right to daydreams--that some
+other man would claim you and carry you away."
+
+"Did you want me to marry him?" she asked.
+
+"I wanted your happiness above everything."
+
+"Do _you_ never want anything for yourself?" she asked saucily.
+
+"You," was his answer, at which they both laughed with the delicious
+sense of their own humor which only lovers know.
+
+Then they had a long quiet talk together about the future, and he told
+her how he thanked God she was willing to give herself into his keeping;
+how he wanted to flood her life with sunshine and how blessed he should
+be if she and Hester would make for him such a home as they had made for
+Dad. And they spoke long and tenderly of the man who had been as noble a
+friend as a father and who would always be a loved memory to them both.
+Then she slipped away from him and leaving him to dream of a reality
+that was beyond all imagining, went up to her room in search of Hester.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The change to Virginia was perhaps appreciated by no one more than Peter
+Snooks, that by no means unimportant member of the Dale family, whose
+activity knew no bounds. He raced madly about the plantation, to the
+consternation of the chickens and the terror of Mrs. Driscoe, who, never
+having owned dogs, fancied he was going to take up everything by the
+roots. But Peter Snooks behaved admirably. To be sure, he chased
+chickens, but what canine could resist that temptation? And it was
+recorded to his credit that he never hurt one of them. With Julie not
+well and Bridget and the two younger girls scarcely leaving her, Peter
+Snooks was forced to seek companionship out of the family--quite a new
+order of things--and chose George Washington, greatly to the delight of
+that ebony mite. What games they had out in the carriage-house and what
+antics the two cut upon the lawn playing circus for the edification of
+the people on the verandah! Hester herself was sometimes inspired to go
+into the ring and put Snooks through his tricks, which were many,
+herself performing some ridiculous caper which was received with wild
+applause. But Snooks had the best time when Hester and Nannie went
+riding, and he raced alongside and often way ahead, to his own evident
+delight though not always to the comfort of the horses.
+
+Nannie, these days, was the happiest girl in the County, for she had her
+two cousins whom she adored and every prospect of a speedy adjustment of
+her love affair. She nearly hugged Julie to death whenever she thought
+of it and confided to Hester when they went off together that being
+engaged was just the loveliest thing in the world.
+
+It would have been impossible to find two girls in greater contrast than
+Hester and Nannie, for all they were such chums. Nannie, in her white
+frocks and big sun hats, was a sweet little maiden whose soft brown eyes
+did not belie her disposition. She had a soft, drawling voice and dear
+little clinging ways that made the Colonel's sobriquet of "Puss" seem
+most fitting. She was fast growing to womanhood, but was in all things
+childishly appealing, though that she was not without character was
+shown in various ways, culminating in her loyalty to Sidney Renshawe in
+spite of the painful opposition.
+
+Hester wore white muslin frocks and big hats, too--relics of their last
+year's Paris shopping. It had always been the avowed wish of their
+father that in the event of his dying before them they should not wear
+black. He had the strongest aversion to the garb of mourning and the
+girls remembered and respected his wishes. So they had made no change in
+their wardrobe, though since they had come down to Virginia they
+confined themselves almost wholly to white.
+
+Simple enough these frocks were, but Hester wore hers with an air that
+gave them something of her personality and made her distinctive wherever
+she appeared. There was never anything nondescript about Hester. And her
+moods were so many and so varied that her cousin Nancy, who did not in
+the least understand her, told the Colonel despairingly that she must be
+a witch--there certainly was not a drop of Fairleigh blood in her.
+Julie, forced to be quiet through indisposition, was regarded by her
+cousin as really quite patrician and not in the least--and this was a
+wonderful admission--not in the least vulgarized by work. Colonel
+Driscoe agreed to her last statement and let the rest go. He found that
+the simplest way to avoid argument.
+
+Kenneth Landor became a frequent caller and grew to be an immense
+favorite with the household, but he seldom had the satisfaction of more
+than a few words with Hester. One morning he rode over and deemed the
+Fates more than kind when, finding Julie on the porch, she sent him down
+into the garden, where she said he would find Hester helping George
+Washington pick blackberries.
+
+His first glimpse of her was a sun-bonnet; then two sadly stained hands
+reaching up among the bushes, then a white figure in sharp relief
+against the green; then Peter Snooks barked and she turned and saw him.
+
+"Good morning," she said sweetly, from out of her sun-bonnet, giving him
+a look that seemed propitious. "Have a blackberry?"
+
+"Thanks, don't mind if I do. May I help pick?"
+
+"If you like. I can't stop, you know, for old Aunt Rachael is expecting
+them for dinner. We're great cronies, she and I. I steal out to the
+kitchen quarters often to see her when Cousin Nancy is not looking."
+
+"Do you mind pushing back that sun-bonnet?" he asked beseechingly. "I
+know you're inside of it somewhere and I should like to see you."
+
+She laughed and pushed it half way back. "If that does not suit you I'll
+take it off altogether."
+
+"Oh, don't do that, it's so--so nice," not daring to say how adorable he
+thought she was in it. "I like it the way you have it now. I never knew
+sun-bonnets could be so frilled and furbelowed."
+
+"It is Nannie's--she is making Julie and me each one. She says they are
+a fad this year. They are pretty, aren't they? But somehow they feel hot
+and then I just tie the strings loose and let it hang down my back like
+that. Cousin Nancy says a girl who will do that has absolutely no regard
+for her complexion. It would be funny, wouldn't it, if I took to
+worrying about things like that? Why, where is George Washington? Gone?
+And you're shockingly lazy! You haven't picked a berry since you came!"
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," scarcely able to take his eyes off her, "I
+really mean to help."
+
+"How is Captain Loomis?" she asked, seeing that he seemed unable to do
+much of anything but stare at her. "Have you seen him to-day?"
+
+"That little Virginian? He haunts our camp and talks to me by the hour
+about you! He is madly in love with you."
+
+"He is too silly to be anything else," munching a berry.
+
+"I do not like your way of putting it."
+
+"I mean," she explained, swinging her sun-bonnet by one string, "that he
+does not know how to be sensible and I do not like him well enough to
+bother to teach him, so, as he is around a good deal I have to politely
+put up with him. I should think you knew me well enough by this time to
+know how I hate silly people."
+
+"Do you ever politely put up with me?"
+
+"Sometimes," teasingly.
+
+"Hester, Hester," called a fresh young voice, "are you down there? Come
+up out of the garden quick! It's so cool this morning father says he'll
+take us over to camp to see that fascinating Mr. Landor."
+
+Hester ducked her head in her sunbonnet and fled.
+
+When she reappeared half an hour later she was in her riding habit,
+looking so trig and tailor-made and altogether conventional that Kenneth
+wondered if she could be the same mischievous sprite who had run away
+from him in the garden.
+
+It was arranged that Landor should escort them over, and the adroit
+Hester managed that he should start off in advance with Nannie, she and
+the Colonel bringing up the rear. Julie and Mrs. Driscoe waved them off,
+then returned to their work of sewing for the soldiers. For Mrs. Driscoe
+was the president of a ladies' patriotic aid society and found plenty
+for herself and the girls to do.
+
+Hester looked forward with eagerness to reaching Camp Alger, which,
+though only six miles distant from Wavertree Hall, they had not yet
+visited. She rode along at first chatting gayly to the Colonel but at
+last was forced to keep her mouth closed on account of the dust. And who
+that experienced it, will ever forget the dust of that June in Virginia!
+Inches deep on the roads it lay in a thick brown powder which, at the
+slightest disturbance from man or beast, rose in choking waves, covering
+and submerging everything; while in the immediate vicinity of Alger,
+where the sentries warned every one that a gait other than a walk was
+not permitted in and about the camp, it smothered them to the verge of
+suffocation.
+
+They approached their destination by way of the little village of Falls
+Church, where over the rough and winding road traveled a constant
+procession. It was said by the darkies in Virginia that spring, that all
+the "poor white trash" in Fairfax County had abandoned their farms and
+taken to "toting" people to Camp Alger. Vehicles of every description
+were going back and forth carrying people from the station to the camp,
+sometimes officers, sometimes soldiers, often visitors; in every case
+the seating capacity of buggy, carryall or wagon was stretched to its
+utmost capacity. Intermingled with this motley array were the army
+wagons loaded with camp provisions and paraphernalia, on the top of
+which usually perched two or more soldiers. These, drawn by four mules
+and driven by an antiquated darky, seemed to Hester the most interesting
+thing on the road, though possibly she made an exception in favor of the
+mounted orderlies flashing in and out through the crowd or an occasional
+mounted officer who saluted Kenneth and stared at the girls in open
+admiration.
+
+As they crossed the picket lines, the camp lay before them--row after
+row of tents (reminding Hester of the card houses she used to build when
+she was little) not "gleaming white" like the tents of story but brown
+with the dust. Desiring to show them about before dismounting Kenneth
+took them on by his troop and through the roads leading by the various
+regiments. Of the thirty thousand men, more than half were encamped in
+the fields, now resembling arid plains, so destitute were they of
+vegetation; while the rest, more fortunate, were scattered through the
+surrounding woods, lost to sight except for the flutter of a flag above
+the trees.
+
+The party did not attempt to cover the full length of the camp, for the
+sun was getting very hot and Kenneth was anxious to get them back to his
+troop in time for dinner. This, her first meal at an officer's mess and
+in a tent, was one of the most novel and delightful Hester had ever
+known. Kenneth counted it the second time they had broken bread together
+and was blissfully happy. When it was over, in a fit of excessive
+magnanimity he hunted up Charley Bemis who he knew would like to see
+Hester again and brought him up to his tent, where the Colonel and the
+girls were resting. A little later they all strolled together over to
+the troopers' quarters, young Bemis being anxious to show them the troop
+mascot, a stunning bull-terrier. Down here, too, were the horses,
+picketed back of the tents, while working among them were several
+troopers, one of whom Hester especially noticed tall and very blonde,
+his skin tanned to a deep brown. He wore the regulation campaign outfit,
+but his shirt was sleeveless. About his neck was knotted a yellow
+handkerchief, his soft hat was pushed well back with an upward turn to
+the front and he was busily engaged grooming his horse.
+
+"That man," said Kenneth, seeing that Hester observed him, "is the
+president of our coaching club at home and drives the best horses in
+Radnor. It's great the way he, and in fact all the fellows have buckled
+down to work. He's a chum of mine and I'd like immensely to have him
+meet you; I think you would enjoy him, too, but I won't call him over.
+It would embarrass him to death to be caught like that."
+
+Hester looked at the trooper in admiration.
+
+"Let's get out of the way before he discovers us," she said tactfully,
+"though I'd like to march straight over there and tell him how proud I
+am of him."
+
+Nannie, who had ideas of her own, rode off with her father when they
+started home. A mile or two on, the Colonel stopped and waited for them
+to overtake them, when he said, if Hester and Landor would excuse them
+he and Nannie would stop at the house in front of which they had halted
+and make a call. So the girl and man rode on alone through the beautiful
+woods which led to--was it happiness or only Wavertree Hall?
+
+"Have you enjoyed it?" he asked when they had gone a little way.
+
+"Oh! so much."
+
+"Even if you had to politely put up with me?"
+
+"Well, there were others, you see. Mr. Bemis, and all those charming
+officers at dinner. Now I think of it, you never took us to the Virginia
+camp. Is Captain Loomis away?" looking up at him as if the whereabouts
+of that individual was the thing which most concerned her.
+
+He laid his hand for a moment over hers. "It's no use," he said, "you
+can't put me off with Loomis or any other man."
+
+The intense subdued manner in which he said it deepened the color in her
+cheeks, but her dimples played mischievously.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" she asked.
+
+"Hester," he replied, "do you remember a night in April when you and I
+talked together and you were kind and said things that would inspire a
+man to do anything? It was the first time you had ever been serious with
+me and you thought it was the first time I knew of the serious side of
+you, but that was not true. You turned my life into a new, better
+channel from the moment I first set eyes on you, dear. And I loved you
+so that night on the coach that I didn't know how I was ever going to
+get through without telling you, but I didn't want to take advantage of
+your goodness and I knew you cared nothing for me, though I was
+determined you should some day." His voice rang out in the masterful way
+she had so often berated to Julie. "I am telling you this now because my
+opportunities of seeing you are so few and soon they may end altogether.
+Oh! Hester," he cried, finding it impossible to restrain himself any
+longer, "couldn't you learn to love me a little before I go away?"
+
+She had listened with eyes gazing straight ahead of her. As he finished
+she turned and looked at him fearlessly.
+
+"Are you quite sure I have not learned already?" she said. And then as
+he was about to speak, "No, no, do not answer me. I cannot answer the
+question myself. Sometimes I like you and sometimes I want to run away
+from you and sometimes--sometimes--"
+
+He held his breath and waited.
+
+But she did not finish it.
+
+"We should never get on," she said argumentatively, "we quarrel all the
+time. At least you do--I've an angelic disposition," complacently.
+
+"I quarrel with you? How could I!" endeavoring to fall in with her mood.
+"It is you who say shocking things to me, you bad thing; and sometimes,
+ah! sometimes, dear, you do hurt."
+
+She touched him impulsively. "It is only teasing. I never mean to
+hurt--I wouldn't do it intentionally for the world." How penitent and
+sweet her voice was!
+
+"Then won't you be kind to me, please, and love me a little bit?"
+
+"A little bit? Would that satisfy you?"
+
+"No," honestly, "it would not. Oh! my dear, I will be very patient if
+only you will try."
+
+"I don't have to," she said.
+
+"No," despairingly, "you don't have to.'
+
+"Because--because--I do."
+
+The ambiguity of this might have been mystifying to any but a drowning
+man ready to clutch at a straw. Kenneth was raised to a seventh heaven
+of bliss and promptly kissed her; at which she blushed furiously and
+pushed him away.
+
+"You must not believe everything I say," she protested.
+
+"But I do and I want to and I shall," exultantly. "Oh, my dear, my dear,
+will you say it all over again?"
+
+"Certainly not," with pretended severity. And then with a light happy
+laugh, "Do you remember how I snubbed you on the street corner the day
+you met me at Dr. Ware's?"
+
+"Do I? Well, I should say I did! But you were even worse at Jack's. You
+plunged me into the depths of despair, from which I never should have
+arisen if you hadn't been so charming at Mrs. Lennox's musicale. That
+night I began to take notice again, as it were."
+
+"Notice of Jessie Davis? I heard you were in love with her."
+
+"As if I had eyes for any one but you! I used to fairly haunt dear old
+Jack's place in the hope of running across you, but you always managed
+to elude me."
+
+"I used to think at first," she said seriously, "that you were just
+curious about us, because we were poor and earned our own living and
+were not like the girls in your set, and I resented it. That made me
+nasty to you, though I liked you all the time. Then, well,--do you know
+what I believe made me care for you? If you laugh," earnestly, "I'll
+never forgive you. It was because you took such care of me at the
+wedding and never offered me a bit of cake! You suspected we had made
+it, didn't you? And I thought any man who had tact enough for that would
+be my undoing and I should not wonder," with a swift look from under her
+long lashes, "if it were true, but you will never tell a soul I told
+you, will you?" beseechingly. "It's a secret--the undoing, you know."
+
+"Darling," he said, "I knew more about you and your work than you
+thought and that is why it was like wrenching my heart out to come away.
+I wanted to stay there where I could work for you and wait and hope that
+I might make your life easier. Then when you talked to me that night I
+knew that whether you ever loved me or not you would want me to go."
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"And now if you only loved me enough to marry me I might at least leave
+you my name and the protection of my father, whose home would gladly
+open to you and Julie if he knew. _Couldn't_ you do it, dear heart?"
+
+"I--I don't know," she said so low that he could scarcely hear her. "I
+do love you, but it is all so new and strange that I cannot realize what
+it means or even if it means as much as it should to the man I marry. I
+want to be honest--and you offer me so much that I don't know what to
+say. I don't love you as I love Julie, and perhaps after that you will
+not want me to love you at all."
+
+"Yes, dear, I shall. If you care for me in any sort of way I am thankful
+and love is a thing that grows and grows. Some day I believe you will
+love me as much as you do Julie, but in a different way. There is room
+in your heart, dear, for both of us if you will only let me in."
+
+"That is just the way Julie puts it," she answered. "She is going to
+marry Dr. Ware."
+
+"She is? Jove! what an ideal match!"
+
+"That's what I think. I would not have believed that I could contemplate
+sharing Julie and be as happy about it as I am. The night she told me I
+danced for joy! She needs a man to take care of her, and I love him with
+all my heart; it changes nothing inwardly and everything outwardly. I am
+going to live with them but I shall not mind being dependent on them for
+awhile. At first I thought I couldn't, but they have made me promise.
+Dr. Ware is so dear. He says what is his, is Julie's, and what's Julie's
+is mine, and," laughing, "there is no getting around that, is there?
+Julie and I have always gone shares. Besides, I'm going to study to be a
+trained nurse when Julie is married. I couldn't just sit down and be
+idle the rest of my days."
+
+"Thank God your work is over!"
+
+"Not my work but that work. No one will ever know how hard it was; there
+was so little profit in most of the things we made that we could not
+afford to hire the necessary assistance and had to take the brunt of
+everything ourselves. We should have kept on until we 'died in our
+tracks,' to quote Bridget, if it had been necessary, but I thank God,
+too, that we are not obliged to. It taught us a great many things, the
+poverty and hardship and all," she continued, feeling his interest, "and
+we shall be able to understand life and help people a great deal better
+because of it. Julie and I have had so many talks together both with Dr.
+Ware here and since he went North about all the things we mean to do. We
+look forward to a very busy life."
+
+"I am supremely glad that things have come out this way, dear," he said,
+"only," wistfully, "all these plans make me feel as if you had little
+need of me. Won't you please," gazing pleadingly in her eyes which shone
+steadfastly into his, "won't you please see if you can't make a place
+somewhere for me?"
+
+Far off through the woods came the note of a bugle. Hester drew in her
+breath.
+
+"Perhaps," she said softly as they turned in the avenue, "I do need you
+and want you, too. Will you wait and see?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+There was no announcement of Julie's engagement except to the household
+of Wavertree Hall. Her marriage was likely to take place early in the
+summer, for Dr. Ware was to attend a medical convention in California
+and wanted to take her with him. In the event of his doing this, Hester
+and Bridget would join them later, for Mrs. Driscoe wanted to be off, as
+was her custom, to the Springs and Hester shrank from going into a scene
+of gayety. There seemed to be no reason why this plan should not be
+carried out, for Julie had entirely recovered and except for the shadow
+of sadness left by her father's death, was quite herself again. She knew
+it would be their beloved Daddy's wish that she should shape herself to
+the events of her life in just the way she would have done had he been
+actually among them, and many and many a time her new happiness was
+glorified by the thought that he knew and was rejoicing too.
+
+When Hester came and told her of that ride through the woods with
+Kenneth, her cup was filled to overflowing. For Julie understood her
+sister better than the girl understood herself and she knew the love she
+now bore Kenneth would "grow and grow," as he had said, until it became
+a powerful factor in her life.
+
+So finally Julie's wedding day was fixed and the day before, Dr. Ware
+with the Lennoxes and, as a joyful surprise above all things, Jack,
+arrived on the scene. The Doctor told her that this was the Driscoes'
+idea--to bring them down and surprise her, as Cousin Nancy's guests. As
+Mrs. Driscoe said to Mrs. Lennox, who laughingly protested against such
+an invasion:
+
+"Virginia is the heart of the country, my dear Mrs. Lennox, and we are
+the heart of Virginia--welcome to Wavertree Hall." She was heard to
+remark afterward to the Colonel that that charming individual looked
+like a thorough-bred Virginian.
+
+As for Jack, a more ecstatic boy never trod on earth. The girls laughed
+and cried over him. So did Bridget, who gave him such a hearty smack
+that he nearly hugged the head off her.
+
+There were other arrivals also, that day at Dunn Loring, for Mr. Landor
+had come down to have a look at Kenneth, and Sidney Renshawe was once
+more at the Blakes' plantation.
+
+The latter called at Wavertree Hall that afternoon and Mrs. Driscoe was
+in such a good humor over the charming, aristocratic Mrs. Lennox and the
+little excitement of guests which delighted her hospitable soul that she
+actually shook hands with him and asked him to join their party that
+afternoon--they were going over to camp to see Mr. Landor. That bit of
+cordiality was enough for Renshawe. Enough, too, for dear little Nannie,
+who had witnessed this meeting with mingled fear and delight.
+
+They arrived at camp just before parade and at Kenneth's tent was an
+elderly man who proved to be his father. In the general introductions
+which followed, Kenneth's pleasure was very great in this meeting of
+Hester and his father. She began talking to him at once in her bright,
+vivacious way, and what was really remarkable,--for he never had the
+faintest idea what to say to girls and seldom encountered them, he
+talked to her quite at his ease. But then, this wily young woman touched
+now and then on Kenneth--just enough to start him on the subject nearest
+his heart. It was very near her heart, too. But when had the stern,
+impassive Caleb Landor talked so freely of his son before?
+
+As they sat under the "fly" which made a shelter in front of the tent,
+the girls observed down the line the colors standing in front of the
+Captain's quarters and it thrilled them with the pride of patriotism to
+see all the men and officers in going to and fro lift their hats and
+pass bare-headed before the flag.
+
+The routine of camp was very interesting to Dr. Ware who had lived
+through it, to the girls who had all their lives heard of it, and to
+Jack, who still hoped to be a part of it in spite of his years. So it
+was a very talkative if somewhat weary party that returned to Wavertree
+Hall.
+
+Late that evening there came tearing up the avenue a mounted orderly. He
+brought a note for Miss Hester Dale which required an immediate answer.
+She opened it quickly. At the end she leaned against the pillar as if
+for support. Then she called Julie out from the garden where she and Dr.
+Ware were strolling and said unsteadily:
+
+"Read that, Julie dear. I want you to know before I send my answer."
+
+Julie read:
+
+  "Sweetheart, my orders have come. Since you left I have heard
+  officially. I am to be transferred and leave for Tampa to-morrow
+  afternoon to join the Rough Riders, who embark in a few days for
+  Santiago. Do you think, dear--could you, would you marry me before I
+  go? Would that dear little Julie let you and me go with her and the
+  Doctor to-morrow and make our lives one in the sight of God? Oh, say
+  yes, say yes! But not unless you are sure, dear. I had rather wait a
+  dozen years than have you give yourself to me under protest.
+  Whatever you say, dear, I shall believe is for the best. But, oh! if
+  you could--KENNETH."
+
+Julie took her sister in her arms.
+
+"Hester, darling, have you decided?"
+
+"Yes, Julie."
+
+"You and Kenneth will come to-morrow with Philip and me?"
+
+"Yes, Julie."
+
+"Oh! Hester, my blessed, blessed girlie, it is the most beautiful thing
+in the world!"
+
+There was very little sleep for the girls that night. They sat for a
+long while in the window-seat up in their room where the scent of the
+honeysuckle came drifting in, talking softly of the past and laying
+plans whereby their happiness should go out into the world like a strong
+search-light to illumine dark places.
+
+"It is not always those commonly called the poor who are most in need,
+Hester. It is the refined, sensitive people who have seen better days,
+who suffer most. And we have learned, too, dear, how super-sensitive
+adversity makes one. I am glad we know these things, aren't you, even
+though the learning of them nearly tore our hearts out? It has broadened
+and developed us and is going to make us helpful women in the world."
+
+"And oh! Julie dear," replied Hester, "isn't it beautiful to think how
+we shall be able, both of us, through our--our husbands," stumbling over
+the word, "to do things for people. Little things and big things to
+lighten people's burdens and give them courage, just as so many times
+courage was given to us."
+
+"Yes, darling. God is putting the power in our hands--it is for us to
+use it wisely."
+
+Presently Hester said, "I am glad we won our own place in Radnor before
+going back there again under different circumstances. It makes me feel
+that we amounted to something and that if it ever happened that
+misfortune of that sort came again we should be able to keep our heads
+above water, to turn our fingers to account. Look at them, Julie,"
+holding up her hands for inspection, "they are not the same things at
+all."
+
+"No dear, they have lost their porcelain transparency which used to be
+such a pride and delight but I like them better as they are. They are
+strong, capable hands, now, for all their daintiness which you never can
+lose. I have been thinking lately, that one's hand can be as indicative
+of character as one's face. I hope yours and mine will not belie us."
+
+"We did not much think when we came out of the flat that day that we
+should never go back there, did we, old girl? I can't realize it yet. It
+seems as if all those pots and kettles and pans and bottles would swoop
+down and whisk us off to 'The Hustle' when we get back to Radnor. Oh! my
+dear, we _did_ 'hustle'! The name did not belie that place! Down here in
+this drowsy Virginia I sometimes wonder if it was really we who worked
+like that."
+
+"I know," Julie said, "I know, too, that we should have worked right on
+there to the best of our ability all our lives if it had been so
+ordered, but I am thankful, thankful that our energies can act in
+another way. We shall have a great deal to do, dear, and the wisdom of
+an older experience than ours to help us do it and all the time Daddy
+watching over his little girls."
+
+And so at last they lay down to rest, these two little comrades whose
+heads and hearts were full of joyous anticipation of a broader field of
+action, a glorious life campaign.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the wedding that lovely June
+morning. Flanked on either side by Dr. Ware and Kenneth, the girls
+walked down the avenue to the gate and across the road with those
+nearest and dearest in attendance, to the little chapel where for
+generations the Fairleighs had worshiped and where the previous autumn
+their father had put in a memorial window to their mother. The gardens
+and the woods for miles around had been stripped of flowers to decorate
+the chancel, which took on a thousand lights as the mellow sunshine
+poured in through the stained glass windows.
+
+Little Nannie stood up with them--she and Sidney Renshawe, and the dear
+old Colonel during the ceremony was forced more than once to take off
+his glasses and wipe them carefully. The girls were without ornament
+save that each carried a great bunch of white roses gathered in the
+garden at Wavertree Hall. Julie wore a certain white mulle gown that the
+Doctor loved while Hester, to please Kenneth, the simple muslin frock in
+which she had picked blackberries.
+
+"A bride in a frock just out of the wash-tub!" cried Cousin Nancy
+aghast. She had never dreamed of such a total disregard of the
+conventionalities. But when she found Mrs. Lennox was on Hester's side
+she demurred no longer.
+
+Mr. Landor sat with the Lennoxes and many a strange sensation took hold
+of him as he gazed first at Kenneth and then at Hester and back again at
+his stalwart son.
+
+Bridget occupied a front seat in a state of perfect beatitude. She was
+the first to receive a kiss from the brides when the ceremony was over.
+Jack was there, of course, immensely relieved at this satisfactory
+arrangement whereby all three of his friends were happily married. And
+Peter Snooks was there, solemn and dignified, decorated with a gorgeous
+red, white and blue bow but indignant at this touch of femininity and
+resentful that he was not allowed to go up and stand with the bridal
+party. George Washington and the other servants were in the rear of the
+chapel.
+
+After the ceremony they all trooped back again to Wavertree Hall where,
+on the lawn under a cluster of superb oak trees, where the stars and
+stripes were waving, a lunch was spread for their refreshment.
+
+Cousin Nancy, aided by Mrs. Lennox, was the presiding genius of the
+feast, while Mr. Lennox, also, came to the front with jests and stories
+to relieve the solemnity of the past half hour.
+
+Kenneth, radiantly happy and looking handsomer than ever in his uniform,
+was here, there and everywhere, but with always his first thought for
+Hester. She was unusually quiet--subdued by happiness and the thought of
+the parting so near at hand. It was Julie that day whose laugh was the
+merriest, but then Julie knew something which Hester did not.
+
+In accordance with a tradition of Wavertree Hall Mrs. Driscoe had brewed
+a punch, a mild but delicious concoction famous at all the Fairleigh
+weddings.
+
+Mr. Lennox proposed the health of the brides and then the bridegrooms.
+Dr. Ware toasted the mistress of Wavertree Hall. And so it went around
+from one to the other, until, having cheered the President, the army,
+the navy and the flag, Dr. Ware excited the wildest enthusiasm by bowing
+low to Mrs. Driscoe and saying:
+
+"We lived through other days in Virginia, you and I, Mrs. Driscoe. Three
+cheers now for a reunited country!"
+
+How they did shout! There was not a dry eye among them. Then Jack's thin
+voice called out:
+
+"Won't somebody please cheer for the boys that want to be soldiers and
+can't?" At which they all laughed and cheered again.
+
+There were other people who had a secret that day besides Julie. Indeed
+they were all in it except Hester--in fact they knew much more about it
+than Julie herself, who only knew half. It had been arranged that Hester
+and Kenneth should drive with Julie and the Doctor to the station; then,
+as Hester supposed, she and Kenneth were to have an hour together before
+he took his departure. He had told her that he had left everything at
+camp ready to send on, so that it would not be necessary for him to
+return there.
+
+She was a little surprised when they took such an affectionate farewell
+of her as well as Julie and before she got into the carriage Mr. Landor
+had asked her to step aside a moment with him.
+
+[Illustration: THE WEDDING BREAKFAST]
+
+"I shall be gone when you return," he said, speaking with some
+difficulty, "and it is proper you should know that I approve of
+Kenneth's marriage. He talked at some length about you last night and
+it's a good thing--a good thing. I never had a daughter--"
+
+Hester kissed him. Caleb Landor had not been kissed for thirty years.
+
+"Kenneth belongs to us both," the girl said simply, "and we are both
+giving him up but it must be the hardest for you, because you have had
+him the longest."
+
+"I don't know, I don't know," gruffly, to hide his emotion, "we can't go
+into that. I want you to take this," slipping something in her hand. "I
+hear your sister requested there should be no wedding gifts for her.
+Mrs. Lennox tells me that she asked those who wished to remember her to
+turn the money instead into the Red Cross Fund. No doubt you feel as she
+does. I understand you are much alike. If you will keep that paper and
+use it for the sick and wounded later--for we are bound to have them--as
+a gift from yourself, I shall be much obliged to you. No, don't thank
+me, say nothing about it. And remember that my house is open to you
+whenever you care to come." It is doubtful if Caleb Landor had ever made
+so long a speech in his life.
+
+She did thank him, choking back her tears. Then she thrust the paper in
+her pocket and later when she had a chance to examine it she found a
+check of a thousand dollars, made payable to her, Hester Dale Landor!
+
+All the way to the station she roused herself and chatted gayly to make
+Julie's last moments with her a bright remembrance. Julie was so excited
+she could scarcely contain herself and in order to sit still was fairly
+rigid in her seat.
+
+When they reached the station the train was not yet in sight but on a
+side track stood a car.
+
+"What is that?" asked Julie curiously, as they left the carriage.
+
+"That is yours," quietly answered Dr. Ware, watching the effect of his
+words.
+
+"Mine? What _are_ you talking about?"
+
+"Come and see," cried the Doctor who felt like a boy of twenty.
+
+She ran down the platform, stood still and trembled from head to foot.
+
+"Hester," she gasped, turning with the old habit to her sister, "Hester,
+it is 'The Hustle!'"
+
+"What!"
+
+"It is, it is!"
+
+Bridget with Peter Snooks in her arms was waving out the car window.
+
+"Oh, Philip!" Julie cried. And without another word he took her in his
+arms and carried her in the car.
+
+"If the days to come here," he whispered as he put her down, "are as
+happy as the old ones, little wife, I shall be satisfied."
+
+Hester and Kenneth, who had not known whether or not to follow were
+called peremptorily in and all exclaimed over by Bridget, who having
+been appointed by the Doctor a reception committee of one, felt this the
+proudest and happiest moment of her life.
+
+"Now tell us all about it," said Julie, "but first I am going to make
+Hester as 'comfy as comfy can be.' You poor little thing, you are not
+going to lose Kenneth to-day. You are both coming South with us. We are
+going to do escort duty to the distinguished young officer, Lieutenant
+Landor."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the bewildered Hester.
+
+"We are all going down in 'The Hustle' together, Hester," explained Dr.
+Ware, while she was made to sit down, Kenneth tucking a cushion under
+her feet and Julie perching on the arm of her chair. "Julie did not know
+about 'The Hustle'--that was my surprise for her--but she did know that
+we meant to go West by the way of Tampa--we settled that last night
+after you heard from Kenneth--and have you and him go along with us so
+that we could all see the last of him. Kenneth and the people at
+Wavertree Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into my secret so he
+could send his things aboard. Bridget packed your trunks while you were
+at luncheon and got them off without your knowing it and here we all
+are, as snug as possible, with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in
+order."
+
+"Kenneth," said Hester with brimming eyes but in the old bantering tone
+which always made them laugh, "how dare you have secrets from your wife?
+How dare you! It's a perfectly scandalous beginning!"
+
+"Please, you were not my wife then, and I won't any more," he said
+penitently. "Will you forgive me, please?"
+
+"I don't understand how you did it," said Julie to her husband, who
+leaned over the back of the chair on the arm of which she was perching,
+his head on a level with hers.
+
+"It was not difficult, dear. I had been on the track of 'The Hustle' for
+some time. I always intended to capture you all sometime and take you
+off for a vacation in her. That was one of my dreams, but I never
+mentioned it to certain little girls I knew for fear it would never come
+true. Early this spring I learned that the car had been relegated to a
+car shed on a Western road--it was not considered modern enough for use.
+So I ordered it on to Radnor, had it overhauled and thought it would be
+an ideal place for a honeymoon, eh, little wife?"
+
+"Oh! yes," she said shyly.
+
+"And Hester," slipping his hand down over the chair and resting it on
+her shoulder, "it is your honeymoon, too, dear. I am so glad. And 'The
+Hustle' is yours as much as it is Julie's. Will you always remember
+that? Kenneth, old man," with a change of tone, "will you come with me
+and see that everything is aboard? I hear the train, which means that we
+shall be picked up and taken on in a few minutes."
+
+Left to themselves, the girls, half-dazed by these astonishing events,
+wandered slowly about the dear old familiar car, which had suffered
+scarcely an alteration. Julie felt it was Dr. Ware's exquisite
+forethought which had kept the interior so nearly as they had left it.
+There was the piano at which she had so often played and sang for Daddy
+and the great leather chair drawn up close in which he had spent many a
+restful hour listening to her. Over the piano in its old place hung a
+portrait of her mother and at one end of the car, looking down benignly,
+hung their favorite picture of their father--the Major in full uniform
+with that spirited look of action which so distinguished him. Over the
+picture were crossed two swords, his and the Doctor's; over these higher
+up was draped Old Glory hanging in splendid folds.
+
+"Miss Nannie and Mr. Renshawe and Jack, they come over this mornin' an'
+fixed the flag an' all the flowers you see around everywheres. Jack said
+to tell you he done the swords. Didn't he get 'em up fine? They had a
+great time over here all unbeknownst to yez," explained Bridget.
+
+The girls stood hand in hand before the picture. "Oh! Daddy," they
+whispered, "dear Daddy, help us to be worthy of all this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+They made the run to Tampa in two days. The transports were being loaded
+with ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia of war as they
+arrived and Kenneth went on board with the last detachment of Rough
+Riders.
+
+Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she was. There was never a
+tear, though she clung at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let
+him go. That was for but a moment. The next she stood erect and smiling
+on the rear platform of "The Hustle" waving him off. The picture Kenneth
+carried away with him cheered all the hours of all the days to come. He
+had only to close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with head
+thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes smiling and smiling into his
+very heart. And all through the desperate fight before San Juan when the
+bullets hissed and all was deafening, blinding chaos, rang her last
+words, "Fight for your country and me--be as brave an officer as Daddy."
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party reached there, was found
+an accumulation of mail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A letter
+from his sister was read and handed to Julie with a smile.
+
+  "My Dear Philip," it began:--"Your letter telling me of your
+  engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie Dale was no
+  surprise to me. I had always known you were in love with her or you
+  would never have been so idiotically approving of all the crazy
+  things she did. I will say, though, that if you intended to marry
+  you might have done worse. I understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie,
+  whom I saw last week in London (they have just been presented at
+  Court) that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set
+  before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some campaigning!
+  However, people quickly forget things, and all that vulgar cooking
+  may be regarded merely as the freakishness of two headstrong girls.
+  I hope you will remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight
+  rein over her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will
+  be unimpeachable.
+
+  "Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself of
+  invitations from English friends and remain here into the winter
+  when I shall probably join Lord and Lady Wynne in a trip into Egypt.
+  I may decide to make England my home. I prefer it to the States and
+  should not under any circumstances think of returning while that
+  tiresome war is going on.
+
+  "The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer, left hand end.
+  Tell Julie I am most particular that the linen, especially that not
+  in constant use, should be frequently aired, and the blankets must
+  go down on the line in the yard once a week. There are other things
+  which a flighty young person should know and which I shall write her
+  at length later. I hope that dog is not to be allowed the freedom of
+  the house. I shudder to think of it!
+
+                                                      "Affectionately,
+                                                                Mary."
+
+Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
+
+"Poor Miss Ware!" she said, "she still regards us as monsters of
+iniquity. Am I a headstrong young thing?"
+
+"Of course," quizzically. "Don't you feel the tight rein I hold over
+you?" taking her face in his hands.
+
+For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment of Bridget who had
+knocked unheard and entered the room at that moment.
+
+Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and succeeded in keeping her
+busy and diverted. Hester's great wish had been to follow Kenneth to
+Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced both by him and the others
+that it would be an unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and nothing
+of nursing beyond the limited experience she had gained in caring for
+her father, and it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her
+vitality having been greatly exhausted by the strain of the previous
+winter, she would be dangerously susceptible. But the old wish to become
+a Red Cross nurse was more than ever strong within her and this desire
+they all encouraged and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were to be
+long in the field Hester's happiness would lie in being near him and
+administering to the sick and wounded men. So she plunged into Spanish
+with an excellent teacher in San Francisco while Dr. Ware brought her
+books on nursing, gave her practical talks on surgery and promised to
+get her into a training school for nurses as soon as they returned to
+Radnor at the end of July.
+
+The newspapers were her solace and despair--they said so little and so
+much! With heads together she and Julie devoured them, reading every
+word. The newsboys' cry, "Extra, Extra!" filled her with apprehension.
+She had had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they were about to
+land with General Shafter at Baiquiri. Before there was time to hear
+again, the papers blazed with the news of the desperate attack on San
+Juan, and the Rough Riders became the heroes of the nation.
+
+Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes, searched for the list of dead
+and wounded. With beating heart her finger went down the line and
+stopped.
+
+"Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant, Troop--, Roosevelt's Rough Riders,
+wounded in the thigh."
+
+She lived through the next ten days of suspense like a person in a
+dream. Her impulse had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr.
+Landor wrote that he was going down and would take her with them. But
+Dr. Ware, the far-seeing, advised them both to wait. News would soon
+come direct from Kenneth and it was probable that he would be sent home
+on sick leave before they could get down to him. Seeing the wisdom of
+this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that he should wait. And Hester waited.
+Julie never left her. She buoyed her up night and day with the belief
+that Kenneth would not die.
+
+The papers in their later and more detailed accounts of the attack and
+capture of San Juan, spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of
+Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to the highest pitch of
+enthusiasm by his unflinching spirit, which carried everything before
+him. Later in the official report from General Shafter, Kenneth Landor,
+wounded before San Juan, was given honorable mention.
+
+Then one day came to Hester a letter in an unknown hand. It was written
+from the field hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband was
+recovering; that the operation upon his thigh had been successful; that
+Mr. Landor's cable to send the Lieutenant home had been received and
+that already at headquarters arrangements were being made to get the
+wounded who could be moved aboard a transport off by the end of the
+week. That Landor himself knew nothing of all this, for he was too weak
+to be consulted, but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no cause for
+alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor was safely home again she would get
+him well and return him speedily--the troop could not afford to spare
+for long so gallant an officer.
+
+Hester read this precious document until it was worn to shreds. And
+Julie and her husband took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper
+informed them that the transport had started.
+
+Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the dock to meet him. Mr. Landor
+was too unnerved to leave the house and Julie remained with him, helping
+him through the tedious hours that intervened between the time when a
+clerk had telephoned from the office to the house that the transport was
+sighted down the harbor and the moment when the carriage stopped at the
+door.
+
+They brought him into his father's house on a stretcher, Hester walking
+by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning
+from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father
+choke and leave the room.
+
+What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited,
+but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed
+it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a
+suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
+
+It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one's family. So at least
+thought the Dale girls, even though it was a very refractory hero, who
+sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction
+whatever.
+
+Under Dr. Ware's guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was
+home on a two-months' sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to
+rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he
+said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be
+sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time
+the war might be over. Who could tell?
+
+Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly
+while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband,
+who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at
+that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of
+Hester's sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to
+find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
+
+Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero.
+Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie
+on Kenneth's bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege
+and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth's hand, as much as to say
+he knew how to behave in a sick room--had he not spent hours at a time
+with Major Dale?
+
+Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things
+for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near
+neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware's
+on the water side of Crana Street.
+
+And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory,
+"those Dale girls" began a new life.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth
+
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