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diff --git a/37304.txt b/37304.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2401ce --- /dev/null +++ b/37304.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8038 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE DALE GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 37304.txt or 37304.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/0/37304/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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