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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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