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diff --git a/old/13209-8.txt b/old/13209-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b41074 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13209-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8350 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second Violin, by Grace S. Richmond + +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: The Second Violin + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13209] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECOND VIOLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE SECOND VIOLIN + +BY GRACE S. RICHMOND + +Author of +"Red Pepper Burns," "Mrs. Red Pepper," +"The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet in +England," Etc. + +A. L. BURT COMPANY +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + +Copyright, 1905, 1906, by +Perry Mason Company. + +Copyright, 1906, by +Doubleday, Page & Company +Published, September, 1906. + + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + BOOK I The Second Violin + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + CHAPTER IX + CHAPTER X + + BOOK II The Churchill Latch-string + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + CHAPTER IX + CHAPTER X + + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOK I + + +THE SECOND VIOLIN + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Crash! Bang! Bang! "_The March of the Pilgrims_" came to an abrupt end. +John Lansing Birch laid down his viola and bow, whirled about, and flung +out his arms in despair. "Oh, this crowd is hopeless!" he groaned. +"Never mind any other instrument, providing _yours_ is heard. This march +is supposed to die away in the distance! You murder it in front of the +house. That second violin--" + +Here his wrath centered upon the red-cheeked, black-eyed young player. + +The second violin returned his gaze with resentment. "What's the use of +my playing like a midsummer zephyr when Just's sawing away like mad on +the bass?" she retorted. + +The first violin smiled pleasantly on the little group. "Let's try it +again," she suggested, "and see if we can please John Lansing better." + +"You're all right," said Lansing, with a wave of his hand at Celia, "if +the rest of the strings wouldn't fight to drown you out. Charlotte plays +as if second violin were a solo part, with the rest as accompaniment." + +Charlotte tucked her instrument under a sulky, round chin, raised her +bow and waited, her eyes on the floor. Celia, smiling, softly tried her +strings. + +"That's it, precisely," began the leader, still with irritation. "Celia +tunes between practice; Charlotte takes it for granted she's all right +and fires ahead. Your E string is off!" + +The second violin grudgingly tightened the E string; then all her +strings in turn, lengthening the process as much as possible. The 'cello +did the same--the 'cello always stood by the second violin. Jeff gave +Charlotte a glance of loyalty. His G string had been flatter than her E. + +Lansing wheeled about and picked up his instrument, carefully trying its +pitch. He gave the signal, and the "_March of the Pilgrims_" began--in +the remote distance. The double-bass viol gripped his bow with his +stubby twelve-year-old fingers, and hardly breathed as he strove to keep +his notes subdued. The 'cello murmured a gentle undertone; the first +violin sang as sweetly and delicately as a bird, her _legato_ perfect. +The second violin fingered her notes through, but the voice of her +instrument was not heard at all. + +The leader glanced at her once, with a frown between his fine eyebrows, +but Charlotte played dumbly on. The Pilgrims approached--_crescendo_; +drew near--_forte_; passed--_fortissimo_; marched away--_diminuendo_; +were almost lost in the distance--_piano_--_pianissimo_. Uplifted +bows--and silence. + +"Good!" said a hearty voice behind them. Everybody looked up, +smiling--even the second violin. His children always smiled when Mr. +Roderick Birch came in. It would have been a sour temper which could +have resisted his genial greeting. + +"Mother would like the _'Lullaby'_ next," he said. "She's rather tired +to-night. And after the _'Lullaby'_ I want a little talk with you all." + +Something in his voice or his eyes made his elder daughter take notice +of him, as he dropped into a chair by the fire. "Play your best," she +warned the others, in a whisper. But they needed no warning. Everybody +always played his best for father. And if mother was tired-- + +The notes of the second violin fell daintily, caressing those which +wrought out the melody enveloping but never overwhelming them. As the +music ceased, the leader, turning to the second violin, met her +reluctant eyes with a softening in his own keen ones. The hint of a +laugh curved the corners of her lips as his smiled broadly. It was all +the truce necessary. Charlotte's sulks never lasted longer than Lanse's +impatience. + +They laid aside their instruments and gathered round their father. +Graceful, brown-eyed Celia sat down beside him; Charlotte's curly black +hair mingled with his heavy iron-gray locks as she perched upon the arm +of his chair, her scarlet flannel arm under his head. The youngest boy, +Justin, threw himself flat on the hearth-rug, chin propped on elbow, +watching the fire; sixteen-year-old Jeff helped himself to a low stool, +clasping long arms about long legs as his knees approached his head in +this posture; and the eldest son, pausing, drew up a chair and sat down +to face the group. + +"Now for it," he said. "It looks serious--a consultation of the whole. +Mayn't we have mother to back us?" + +"I've sent mother to bed," Mr. Birch explained. "She wanted to come down +to hear you play, but I wouldn't let her. And indeed there are +moments--" He glanced quizzically at his eldest son. + +"Yes, sir," Lansing responded, promptly. "There are moments when the +furnace pipes convey up-stairs as much din as she can bear." + +Mr. Birch sat looking thoughtfully into the fire for a minute or two. + +He began at last, gently, "Celia--has mother seemed quite strong to you +of late?" + +"Mother--strong?" asked Celia, in surprise. "Why, father, isn't she? +She--had that illness last winter, and was a long time getting about, +but she has seemed well all summer." + +Their eyes were all upon his face. Even young Justin had swung about +upon his elbows and was regarding his father with attention. They +waited, startled. + +"I took her to Doctor Forester to-day, and he--surprised me a good deal. +He seemed to think that mother must not spend the coming winter in this +climate. Don't be alarmed; I don't want to frighten you, but I want you +to appreciate the necessity. He thinks that if mother were to have a +year of rest and change we need have no fears for her." + +"Fears!" repeated Lansing, under his breath. Was it possible that +anything was the matter with mother? Why, she was the central sun about +which their little family world moved! There could not--must not--be +anything wrong with mother! + +"Tell us plainly, father," urged Celia's soft voice. She was pale, but +she spoke quietly. + +Charlotte, at the first word of alarm, had turned her face away. Jeff's +bright black eyes--he was Charlotte's counterpart in colouring and +looks--rested anxiously on the second violin's curly mop of hair, tied +at the neck with a big black bow of ribbon. It was always most +expressive to Jeff, that bow of ribbon. + +Lansing repeated Celia's words. "Yes, tell us plainly, sir. We'd rather +know." + +"I am alarming you," Mr. Birch said, quickly. "I knew I could not say +the slightest thing about her without doing that. But I need to talk it +over with you all, because if we carry out the doctor's prescription it +means much sacrifice for every one. I had no doubt that you would make +it, but I think it is better for you to understand its importance. +Doctor Forester says New Mexico is an almost certain cure for such +trouble as mother's, if taken early. And we are taking it early." + +Justin and Jeff looked puzzled, but Celia caught her breath, and +Lansing's ruddy colour suddenly faded. Charlotte buried her head in her +father's shoulder and drew the scarlet flannel arm tighter about his +neck. + +The iron-gray head bent over the curly black one for a moment, as if the +strong man of the household found it hard to face the anxious eyes which +searched his, and would have liked, like his eighteen-year-old daughter, +to run to cover. But in an instant, he looked up again and spoke in the +cheery tone they knew so well. + +"Now listen, and be brave," he said. "Mother's trouble is like a house +just set on fire. A dash of Water and a blanket--and it is out. Wait +till a whole room is ablaze, and it's a serious matter to stop it. Now, +in our case, we've only the little kindling corner to smother, and the +New Mexico air is water and blanket--a whole fire department, if need +be. The doctor assures me that with mother's good constitution, and the +absence of any hereditary predisposition to this sort of thing, we've +only to give her the ten or twelve months of rest and reënforcement--the +winter in New Mexico, the summer in Colorado--to nip the whole thing in +the bud. I believe him, and you must believe him--and me. More than all, +you must not show the slightest change of front to her. She knows it +all, but she doesn't want you to know. I think differently about that. + +"Three of you are men and women now, and the other two," he smiled into +the upturned, eager faces of Jeff and Justin, "are getting to be men. +Even my youngest can be depended upon to act the strong part." + +Justin scrambled to his feet at that, and gravely laid a muscular boy's +hand in his father's. + +"I'll stand by you, sir," he said. + +Nobody laughed. Charlotte's black bow twitched and a queer sound burst +from the shoulder where her head was buried. Jeff's thick black lashes +went down for a moment; Celia shook two bright drops from brimming eyes +and patted Just's sturdy shoulder. Mr. Birch shook the hand vigorously +without speaking, and only Lansing found words to express what they +felt. + +"He speaks for us all, I know, sir. And now if you'll tell us our part +we'll take hold. I think I know what it means. Trips to New Mexico, from +New York, are expensive." + +"They are very expensive," Mr. Birch replied, slowly. "I must go with +her. We must travel in the least fatiguing fashion, which means +state-rooms on trains and many extras by the way. She has kept up +bravely, but this unusual exhaustion after one day in town shows me how +careful I must be of her on the long journey. Then, once away, no +expense must be spared to make the absence tell for all there is in it. +And most of all to be considered, while I am away there will be--no +income." + +They looked at each other now, Celia at Lansing, and Lansing at Jeff, +and Jeff at both of them. Charlotte sat up suddenly, her cheeks and eyes +burning, and stared hard at each in turn. + +The income would stop. And what would that mean? The family had within +three years suffered heavy financial losses from causes outside of their +control, and the father's income, that of attorney-at-law in a large +suburban town, had since become the only source of support. So far it +had sufficed, although Charlotte and Celia had been sent away to school, +and both Celia and Lansing were now in college. + +It was the remembrance of these heavy demands upon the family purse +which now caused the young people to look at one another with startled +questioning. Lansing was about to begin his senior year at a great +university; Celia had finished her first year at a famous women's +college. Within a fortnight both were expecting to begin work. + +Charlotte did not care about a college course, but she had planned for +two years to go to a school of design, for she was a promising young +worker in things decorative. As for Jefferson, sixteen years old, +captain of the high-school football team, six feet tall, and able to +give his brother Lansing a hard battle for physical supremacy, his +dearest dream was a great military school. Even Justin--but Justin was +only twelve--his dreams could wait. His was the only face in the group +which remained placid during the moments succeeding Mr. Birch's mention +of the astonishing fact about the income. + +The father's observant eyes noted all that his children's looks could +tell him of surprise, disappointment and bewilderment; and of the +succeeding effort they made to rally their forces and show no sign of +dismay. + +Lansing made the first effort. "I can drop back a year," he said, +thoughtfully. "Or I--no--merely working my way through this year +wouldn't do. It wouldn't help out at home." + +"Why, Lanse!" began Celia, and stopped. + +He glanced meaningly at her, and the colour flashed back into her +cheeks. In the next instant she had followed his lead. + +"If Lanse can stay out of college, I can, too," she said, with decision. + +"If I could get some fairly good position," Lanse proposed, "I ought to +be able to earn enough to--well, we're rather a large family, and our +appetites----" + +"I could do something," began Charlotte, eagerly. "I could--I could do +sewing----" + +At that there was a general howl, which quite broke the solemnity of the +occasion. "Charlotte--sewing!" they cried. + +"Why not take in washing?" urged Lanse. + +"Or solicit orders for fancy cooking?" + +"Or tutor stupid little boys in languages? Come! Fiddle--stick to your +specialty." + +Charlotte's face was a study as she received these hints. They +represented the things she disliked most and could do least well. Yet +they were hardly farther afield than her own suggestion of sewing. +Charlotte's inability with the needle was proverbial. + +"What position do you consider yourself eminently fitted for, Mr. +Lansing Birch?" she inquired, with uplifted chin. + +"You have me there," her brother returned, good-humouredly. "There's +only one thing I can think of--to go into the locomotive shops. +Mechanics' wages are better than most, and a little practical experience +wouldn't hurt me." + +It was his turn to be met with derision. It could hardly be wondered at, +for as he stood before them, John Lansing looked the personification of +fastidiousness, and his face, although it surmounted a strongly +proportioned and well developed body, suggested the mental +characteristics not only of his father, but of certain +great-grandfathers and uncles, who had won their distinction in +intellectual arenas. Even his father seemed a little daunted at this +proposal. + +"That's it--laugh!" urged Lanse. "If I'd proposed to try to get on the +'reportorial staff' of a city newspaper you'd all smile approval, as at +a thing suited to my genius. I'd have to live in town to do that, and +what little I earned would go to fill my own hungry mouth. Now at the +shops--you needn't look so top-lofty! Dozens of fellows who are taking +engineering courses put on the overalls, shoulder a lunch-pail and go to +work every morning during vacation at seven o'clock. They come grinning +home at night, their faces black as tar, their spirits up in Q, jump +into a bath-tub, put on clean togs, and come down to dinner looking like +gentlemen--but _not_ gentlemen any more thoroughly than they have been +all day." + +Jeff looked at his brother seriously. "Lanse," he said, "if you go into +one of the locomotive shops won't you get a place for me?" + +But Celia interposed. "Whatever the rest of us do," she said, "Jeff and +Just must keep on with school." + +Jeff rebelled with a grimace. "Not much!" he shouted. "I guess one +six-footer is as good as another in a boiler-shop. You don't catch me +swallowing algebra and German when I might be developing muscle. If +Lanse puts on overalls I'm after him." + +Celia looked at her father. "What do you think of all this, sir?" she +asked. "If I stay at home, dismiss Delia, and do the housework myself, +and Lanse finds some suitable position, can't we get on? Charlotte can +put off the school of design another year. We will all be very +economical about clothes----" + +"Being economical doesn't bring in cash to pay bills," interrupted Jeff. +"Do the best he can, Lanse won't draw any hair-raising salary the first +year. He could probably get clerical work at one of the banks, but +what's that? He'd fall off so in his wind I could throw him across the +room in three months." + +They all laughed. Jeff's devotion to athletics dominated his ideals at +all times, and his disgust at the thought of such a depletion of his +brother's physical forces was amusing. + +Celia was still looking at her father. He spoke in the hearty tone to +which they were accustomed, his face full of satisfaction. + +"You please me very much, all of you," he said. "It will be the best +tonic I can offer your mother. Her greatest trial is this very +necessity, which she foresaw the instant the plan was formed--so much +sacrifice on the part of her children. Yet she agreed with me that the +experience might not be wholly bad for you, and she said"--he paused, +smiling at his elder daughter--"that with Celia at the helm she was sure +the family ship wouldn't be wrecked" + +Then he told them that they might plan the division of labour and +responsibility as they thought practicable. He agreed with Celia that +the younger boys must remain in school, but added--since at this point +it became necessary to mollify his son Jefferson--that a fellow with a +will might find any number of remunerative odd jobs out of school and +study hours. He commended Lansing's idea, but advised him to look around +before deciding; and he passed an affectionate hand over Charlotte's +black curls as he observed that young person sunk in gloom. + +"Cheer up, little girl!" he said. "The second violin is immensely +important to the music of the family orchestra. The hand that can design +wall-papers can learn to relieve the mistress of the house of some of +her cares. Celia, without a maid in the kitchen, will find plenty of use +for such a quick brain as lies under this thatch." + +But at this moment something happened--something to which the family +were not unused. Charlotte suddenly wriggled out from under the +caressing hand, and in half a dozen quick movements was out of the room. +They had all had a vision of brilliant wet eyes, flushing cheeks, and +red, rebellious mouth. + +"Poor child!" murmured Celia. "She thinks we find her of no use." + +"She is rather a scatterbrain," Lanse observed. "The year may do her +good, as you say, father--as well as the rest of us," he added, with +modesty. + +"There's a lot of things she can do, just the same,"--Jeff fired up, +instantly--"things the rest of us are perfect noodles at. When she gets +to earning more money in a day than the rest of us can in a month maybe +we'll let up on that second-fiddle business." + +"Good for you, you faithful Achates!" said Lanse. Then he turned to his +father. "You haven't told us yet when you go, sir." + +"If we can, two weeks from to-day," said Mr. Birch. Then he went +up-stairs to tell his wife that she might go peacefully to sleep, for +her children were ready to become her devoted slaves. Justin followed +Jeff out of the room, and Jeff broke away from this younger brother and +hastened to rap a familiar, comforting signal of comradeship on +Charlotte's locked door. + +Left alone, Lanse and Celia looked at each other. + +"Well, old girl--" began Lansing, gently. + +"O Lanse!" breathed Celia. + +He patted her shoulder. "Bear up, dear. It's tough to give up college +for a year--" + +"Oh, _that's_ not it!" cried the girl, and buried her face in a sofa +pillow. + +"No, that's not it," he answered, under his breath. He shook his +shoulders and walked away to the fire, stood staring down into it for a +minute with sober eyes, then drew a long breath and came back to his +sister. + +"It's a relief that there's something we can do to help her get well," +he said, slowly. "And she will get well, Celia--she will--_she must_!" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"Where's the shawl-strap?" + +"Charlotte, wait just a moment; are you perfectly sure that mother's +dressing sack and knit slippers are in the case? Nobody saw them put in, +and I don't--" + +"Justin, run down-stairs, please, and get that unopened package of +water-biscuit. You'll find it on the pantry shelf, I think." + +"Lanse, if the furnace runs all night with the draught on, your fire +will be burned out in the morning, and it will take an extra amount of +coal to get it started again." + +"Where's Jeff? He must be told about--" + +"Put mother's overshoes to warm." + +"I have left two hundred dollars to your credit at the bank, Lansing, +and I--" + +"Lanse, did you telephone for--" + +"Where did Celia put the--" + +"Listen, all of you. I--" + +"What did Jeff do with that small white--" + +"_Silence!_" shouted Lansing, above the din. "Can't you people get these +traps together without all yelling at once? You will have mother so used +up she can't start." + +Mrs. Birch smiled at her tall son from the easy chair where she had been +placed ten minutes before, her family protesting that they could finish +the numberless small tasks yet to be done. It was nine o'clock in the +evening, and it lacked but an hour of train-time. + +They all looked at the slender figure in the easy chair. They had +learned in these last two weeks to take note of their mother's +appearance as, with easy confidence in her exhaustless strength, they +had never done before. Since the night when they had learned that she +was not quite well, they had discovered for themselves the delicacy of +the smiling face, the thinness of the graceful body, the many small +signs by which those who run may read the evidences of lessened +vitality, if their eyes are once opened. They wondered that they had not +seen it all before, and found the only explanation in the cheery, +undaunted spirit which had covered up every sign of fatigue. + +"She is too tired already," declared Celia. "Run away, and let father +and me finish." + +But they would not go. How could they, with only an hour left? They +subdued their voices, and ran whispering about. Jeff held a long +conference in an undertone with his mother. Justin perched on the arm of +her chair, with his head on her shoulder, and she would not have him +taken away, her own heart sick within her at thought of the long absence +from them all. Altogether, when one took into account the preceding +fortnight of making ready for the trip, it was not strange that in this +last hour of preparation she gave out entirely. + +The first they knew of it was when Mr. Birch, with a low exclamation, +sprang across the room, and catching up his wife in his arms, carried +her to a couch. + +"Water!" he said. "And open the window!" + +Startled, they obeyed him. It was only a brief unconsciousness, and the +lovely brown eyes when they unclosed were as full of bravery as ever, +but Mr. Birch spoke anxiously to Lansing in the hall outside. + +"I don't like to start with her, as worn-out as this," he said. "Yet +everything is engaged--the state-room and all--and I don't want to delay +without reason. There's not time to send to the city for Doctor +Forester. Suppose you telephone Doctor Ridgway to come around and tell +us what to do about starting. If he is out, try Sears or Barton. Have +him hurry. We've barely forty-five minutes now." + +In three minutes Lansing came back and beckoned his father out of the +room. + +"They're all out," he said, "I tried old Doctor Hitchcock, too, but he's +sick in bed. How about that new doctor that's just moved in next door? I +like his looks. He certainly will know enough to advise about this." + +Mr. Birch hesitated a moment. "Well, call him," he decided. + +Lansing was already down the stairs. Three minutes later he returned +with the young doctor. Mr. Birch met them in the hall. + +"Doctor Churchill, father." Mr. Birch looked keenly into a pair of eyes +whose steady glance gave him instantly the feeling that here was a man +to trust. + +The young people waited impatiently outside while Doctor Churchill spent +fifteen quiet minutes with their father and mother. When Mr. Birch came +to the door again with the physician, he was looking relieved. + +Doctor Churchill paused before the little group, his eyes glancing +kindly at each in turn, as he spoke to Lansing. He certainly was young +but there was about him an air of quiet confidence and decision which +one felt instinctively would be justified by further acquaintance. + +"Don't be anxious," he said. "All this hurry of preparation has been a +severe test on her, taken with her reluctance to leave her home. She is +feeling stronger now, and it will be better for her to get the +leave-taking over than to postpone and dread it longer. You will all +make it easy for her--No breakdowns," he cautioned, with a smile. "New +Mexico is a great place, and you are doing the best thing in the world +in getting her off before cold weather." + +He was gone, but they felt as if a reviving breeze had passed over them, +and when they went back to their mother's room it was with serene faces. +If Charlotte swallowed hard at a lump in her throat, and Celia lingered +an instant behind the rest to pinch the colour back into her cheeks, +nobody observed it. Perhaps each was too occupied with acting his own +light-hearted part. Somehow the minutes slipped away, and soon the +travellers were at the door. + +Into Mrs. Birch's face, also, the colour had returned, summoned there, +it may be, not only by the doctor's stimulating draught, but by the +insistence of her own will. + +"Good-by! good-by! God be with you all!" murmured Mr. Birch, breaking +with difficulty away from Justin's frantic hug. + +Mrs. Birch, on Lansing's arm, had gone down the steps to the carriage. +The father followed, surrounded by an eager group. Only Lansing was to +go to the train. The others, as they crowded round the carriage door, +were incoherently mingling parting messages. Then presently they were +left behind, a suddenly quiet, sober group. + +Inside the carriage Mrs. Birch, with her hand in her eldest son's, was +saying to him things he never forgot, while his father looked steadily +out of the window. + +"I leave them in your care, dear," she told Lansing, in the quiet, +confident tones to which he was used from her. "I could never go, I +think, if I hadn't such a strong, brave, trustworthy son to leave in +care of the younger ones. Celia will do her part, and do it beautifully, +I know, but it's on you I rely." + +"I'll do my best," he answered, cheerfully, although he felt, even more +than before, the heavy responsibility upon him. + +"I know you will. Don't let Celia overdo. She will be so ambitious to +run the household economically that she will set herself tasks she's not +fit for. See that Jeff keeps steadily at his studies, and be lenient +with Justin. He adores you--you can make the year do much for him if you +take thought. And with my little Charlotte--be very patient, Lanse. She +will miss us most--and show it least." + +"I doubt that," thought Lanse, but aloud he said, "We'll all hang +together, mother, you may count on that. We have our differences and +our, eccentricities, but we've a lot of family spirit, and no one of us +is going to sacrifice alone while the rest fail to take notice. And +you're going to know all that goes on. We've planned to take turns +writing so that at least every other day a letter will start for New +Mexico." + +"And if anything should go wrong?" + +"Nothing will," asserted Lansing. + +"That you don't know, dear," said the gentle voice, not quite so +steadily as before. "If anything should come we must know." + +"I'll remember," he promised, reluctantly, his hand under pressure from +hers. But inwardly he vowed, "Anything short of real trouble you'll not +know, little mother. Your children are stronger than you now, and they +can bear some things for you." + +At the train it took all Lansing's determination, sturdy fellow though +he was, to keep up his cheerful front. The colour had ebbed away from +Mrs. Birch's face once more, and as she put up her arms to her tall son, +in the little state-room, she seemed to him all at once so small and +frail that he could not endure to see her go away from them all, facing +even the remote possibility that in the new land she might fail to find +again her old vigour. + +It had to be done, however. Lansing received her clinging good-by, +whispered in her ear something which would have been unintelligible to +any but a mother's intuition, so choky was his voice, gripped his +father's hand with both his own, turned and smiled back at the two as he +pulled open the door, and swung off the train just as it began to move. + +He raced away over the streets to take a trolley-car for home, having +dismissed the carriage, and craving nothing so much as a long walk in +the cool September night. + +At home he found everybody gone to bed except Celia, who met him at the +door. She smiled at him, but he could see that she had been crying. +Although he had carried home a heavy heart, he braced himself to begin +his task of keeping the family cheered up. + +"Off all right!" he announced, in a casual tone, as if he had just sent +away the guests of a week. "Splendid train, jolly state-room, porter one +of the '_Yassir, yassir_' kind. Judge and Mrs. Van Camp were taking the +same train as far as Chicago. That will do a lot toward making things +pleasant to start with." + +"I'm so glad!" Celia agreed. "How did mother get off? Did her strength +keep up?" + +"Pretty well--better than I'd have thought possible after all the fuss +of that last hour. The new doctor braced her up in good shape. He seems +all right. Didn't you like the way he acted? Neither like an old family +physician nor a new johnny-jump-up; just quiet and cool and pleasant. +Glad he lives next door. I mean to know him." + +Lansing was turning out lights as he talked, looking after window +fastenings, and examining things generally. Celia watched him from her +place on the bottom stair. He was approaching her with the intention of +putting out the hall light and joining her to proceed up-stairs, when he +stopped still, wheeled, and made for the back of the hall, where the +cellar stairs began. + +"I'm forgetting the furnace!" he cried. + +"It's all right," Celia assured him. "Jeff took care of it. He says +that's his work, since you're to be away all day." + +"Think he can manage it?" + +"Of course he can. The way to please Jeff is to give him responsibility. +He's old enough, and even having to look after such small matters +regularly will help to develop him." + +Lansing laughed; then, extinguishing the light, he came up to her on the +stair, and putting his arm about her shoulders, began to ascend slowly +with her. + +"Shouldering your cares already, aren't you? Got to keep us all +straight, and develop all our characters. Poor girl, you'll have a hard +tussle!" + +"I'm afraid I shall. Do you go to work at the shops in the morning?" + +"Yes. Breakfast at six. Did you tell Delia?" + +"Yes, but I'm going to let her go afterward. I arranged with her, when +father first told us, to stay just till they had gone, and then leave +things to me. I can't be too busy from now on, and I don't want to wait +a day to begin." + +"Wise girl. Sorry, though, that I have to get you up every morning so +early. Couldn't you leave things ready so I could manage for myself +about breakfast, somehow?" + +"No, indeed! If I'm to have a day-labourer for a brother, I shall see +that he has a good hot breakfast and the heartiest kind of a lunch in +his pail every-day." + +"You're the right sort!" murmured Lansing, patting his sister's shoulder +as he paused with her in front of her door. "I must admit I shall prefer +the hot breakfast. Better sleep late to-morrow morning, though." + +"I shall be up when you are," Celia declared. + +"Look here, little girl," said Lansing, speaking soberly in the +darkness. "You know you haven't got this household on your shoulders all +alone. It's a partnership affair, and don't you forget it. Now, good +night, and take care you sleep like a top." + +Celia held him tight for a minute, and answered bravely: + +"You're a dear boy, and a great comfort." + +Lansing tiptoed away to his own room, farther down the hall, feeling a +strong sense of relief that the determination of the young substitute +heads of the house to begin the new regime without a preliminary hour of +wailing had been successfully carried through. + +"We've got the worst over," he thought, as he fell asleep. "Once fairly +started, it won't be so bad. Celia's clear grit, that's sure." + +Alone in her room, Celia had it out with herself, and spent a wakeful +night. But she brought a cheerful face to Lansing's early breakfast, and +when the younger members of the family came down later she was ready for +them with the sunshine they had dreaded not to find. + +Everybody spent a busy day. Jeff and Justin went off to school. +Charlotte announced with meekness that she was ready for whatever work +Celia might find for her, and was given various rooms up-stairs to sweep +and dust, her sister being confident that vigorous manual labour would +be the best tonic for a mind dispirited. + +As for Celia herself, she dismissed Delia, the maid of all work, with a +kindly farewell and the letters of recommendation her mother had +prepared, and plunged eagerly into business. She was a born manager, and +loved many of the details of housework, particularly the baking and +brewing, and she was soon enthusiastically employed in putting the small +kitchen to rights. + +At noon Charlotte and the boys were served with a light luncheon, with +the promise of greater joys to come, and by five in the afternoon the +house was filled with the delightful odours of successful cookery. + +At that hour Charlotte, whose labours had been enlarged by herself to +cover a thorough overhauling of the entire house--such tasks being her +special aversion, and therefore to be discharged without mitigation on +this first day of self-sacrifice--wandered disconsolately into the +kitchen with broom and dust-pan, looking sadly weary. She gazed with +envious eyes at her sister, flying about in a big apron, with sleeves +rolled up, her cheeks like carnations, her eyes bright with triumph. + +"Well, you do start in with vim," the younger sister observed, dropping +into a chair with a long sigh. + +"Yes; and the work has gone better than I had hoped," declared Celia, +whisking a tinful of plump rolls into the oven. "It's really fun." + +"I'm glad you like it." + +"Poor child," said Celia, pausing to glance at the dejected figure in +the chair, its dark curls a riot of disorder, a smudge of black upon its +forehead, and its pinafore disreputable with frequent use as a duster, +"I gave you too much to do! Didn't I hear you in Delia's room? You +needn't have touched that to-day." + +"Wanted to get through with it. Delia may be a good cook, but she left a +mess of a closet up-stairs. Please give me one of those warm cookies. +I'm so used up and hungry I can't wait for supper." + +"Justin came in half an hour ago so famished there wouldn't have been a +cookie left if I hadn't filled him up with a banana. By the way, I sent +him down cellar after some peach pickles, and I haven't seen him since. +I'll run down and get some. I've hot rolls and honey for supper, and +Lanse always wants peach pickles with that combination." + +Celia took a bowl from the cupboard, opened the cellar door and started +down, turning on the second step to say: + +"Go and take a bath and put on a fresh frock; you won't feel half so +tired. Wear the scarlet waist, will you? I want things particularly +bright and cheery to-night, for I know Lanse will come home fagged with +the new work. Mrs. Laurier sent over some red carnations. I've put them +in the middle of the table; they look ever so pretty. I'm going to----" + +What she intended to do Celia never told, if she ever afterward +remembered. What she did do was to slip upon the third step of the steep +stairway, and, with no outcry whatever, go plunging heavily to the +bottom. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +"Celia--Celia--are you hurt?" cried Charlotte, and dashed down the +stairs. + +There was no answer. With trembling hands she felt for her sister's +head. It lay close against the cellar wall, and she instantly understood +that Celia must be unconscious. But whether there might be more to be +feared than unconsciousness she could not tell in the dark. Her first +thought was to get a light, the next that she must have help at once. + +She rushed up the stairs, calling Jeff and Justin, but neither boy was +to be found. Then she ran to the telephone, with the idea of summoning +one of the suburban physicians, but turned aside from this purpose with +the further realisation that first of all Celia must be brought up from +the cold, dark place in which she lay, and restored to consciousness. + +She ran to the front door to summon the nearest neighbour, and she +remembered then, with relief, that the nearest neighbour was Doctor +Churchill, the young physician who had been called in to see her mother +the evening before. + +She flew across the narrow lawn between her own house and that where the +new doctor had set up his office, and rang imperatively. The door +opened, and Doctor Churchill, hat and case in hand, evidently on his way +to a patient, stood before her. + +What he thought of the figure before him, with its riotous curly black +hair, brilliant eyes, pale dark cheeks, dusty pinafore, a singular +smudge upon the forehead, and sleeves rolled up to the elbows, nobody +would have known from his manner, which instantly expressed a friendly +concern. + +Charlotte could only gasp, "Oh, come--quick!" + +He followed her, stopping to ask no questions. At the open cellar door +Charlotte stood aside to let him pass. + +"Down there--my sister!" she breathed. + +"Bring a light, please," said the doctor, and he disappeared down the +stairs. Charlotte lighted a little kitchen lamp and came after him. He +bade her stand by while he made his first brief examination. + +"I think the blow on her head isn't serious," he said, presently, "but I +can't tell where else she may be hurt till I get her up-stairs." + +He was strong, and he lifted Celia as if she had been a child, and +carried her easily up the steep stairs. + +Charlotte led the way to a wide couch in the living-room. As Celia was +laid gently upon it she opened her eyes. + +Half an hour later, John Lansing Birch, in his oldest clothes and +wearing a rather disreputable soft hat pulled down over his forehead, +with his hands and face excessively dirty and a lunch-pail on his arm, +pushed open the kitchen door. "_Phew-w!_ Something's burning!" he +shouted. "Celia--Charlotte--where are you all? Great Scott, what a +smudge!" + +He strode across the room and lifted from the stove a kettle of +potatoes, from which the water had boiled away some minutes before. + +"First returns from the amateur cooking district!" he muttered, glancing +critically about the kitchen. + +Something else in the way of overcooked viands seemed to assail his +nostrils, and he jerked open the oven door. A tin of blackened rolls +puffed out at him their pungent smoke. + +"Well, what--" he was beginning with the natural irritation of the +hungry man, who has been anticipating his supper all the way home, and +sees it in ruin before his eyes, when Charlotte appeared in the doorway. + +"O Lanse!" she cried, and ran to him. + +"Well, what is it? Celia got a headache and left you in charge? +Everything's burnt up--I can tell you that----" + +"Celia is--she's broken her knee!" + +"_What_?" + +"She fell down the cellar stairs and----" + +"Where is she?" Lunch-pail and hat went down on the floor as Lanse got +rid of them and seized Charlotte's arm. + +"Up in her room. Doctor Churchill's there. He's sent for Doctor +Forester." + +"Churchill--Forester," repeated Lanse, as if dazed. "Poor old girl--is +she much hurt?" + +"She's broken her knee, I tell you," Charlotte repeated. "Of course +she's much hurt. She's suffering dreadfully. She hit her head, too. She +was unconscious at first. I was all alone with her." + +Lanse started for the door, then hesitated. "Shall I go up?" + +"The doctor wants to see you as soon as you are home. He's waiting for +Doctor Forester. He's made Celia as comfortable as he can, but wants our +regular doctor here, he says, before he does up her knee. I don't see +why. I wanted him to fix it himself." + +"That's all right," said Lanse. "Doctors always do that kind of +thing--the honourable ones do. It's better to have Doctor Forester see +it, too. Did you get him? Will he be here right off?" + +"The doctor got him. He'll be here soon." + +"Go tell Doctor Churchill I'm here, will you? Maybe I'd better not see +Celia till I'm cleaned up a bit. She's not used to me like this. Poor +little girl! poor little girl!" he groaned, as he made his rapid way to +the bath-room. "The cellar stairs--they're dark and steep enough, but +how could a light-footed girl like Celia get a fall like that? And +father and mother--how are we going to fix it with them?" + +In the midst of his splashing and scrubbing he heard Jeff and Justin +come shouting in for supper and Charlotte hushing them and telling them +the news. The next instant Jeff was upon him. + +"Say, but this is awful, Lanse! She was getting up a rattling good +dinner, too--been at it all day. Her one idea was to please you, your +first day at the shops. Been up to see her? Charlotte says I'd better +not go yet--nor Just. Just's all broken up, poor youngster! Says Celia +told him to go after the pickles, and he forgot it. If he'd gone she +wouldn't have got her tumble. What'll father and mother say? What are we +going to do, anyhow? Second Fiddle's no good on earth in the kitchen; +she couldn't boil an egg. Say, breaking your knee-pan's no joke. Price +Williston did it a year ago August, and he hasn't got good use of it +yet,--'fraid he never will----" + +"Oh, let up on that,"--Lanse cut him short,--"and don't mention it again +to anybody. Doctor Forester and Churchill will fix her up all right, +only it's an awful shame it should have happened. I'm going up to see +Doctor Churchill." + +At the foot of the stairs he met that person coming down, shook hands +with him eagerly, and listened to a brief and concise account of his +sister's injury. As it ended, Doctor Forester's automobile rolled up to +the door. + +"Did the five and a half miles in precisely twenty minutes," said Doctor +Forester, as he came up the steps, watch in hand; "slow speed within +limits and all. Lanse, my boy, this is too bad. Doctor Churchill--very +glad to see you again. Decided to settle out here, eh? Well, on some +accounts I think you're wise. Charlotte, little girl, cheer up! There +are worse things than a fractured patella--I believe that's what you +called the injury, Doctor Churchill." + +In such genial fashion the surgeon and old friend of the family made his +entry, bringing with him that atmosphere which men of his profession +carry about with them, making the people who have been anxiously +awaiting them feel that here is somebody who knows how to take things +coolly, and is not upset at the notion of a broken bone. + +He moved deliberately up-stairs toward Celia's room, listening to the +younger physician's statement of the conditions under which he had been +called, turning at the door to smile and nod back at Charlotte, who +watched him from the top of the staircase with serious eyes. + +At the end of what seemed like a long period of time the two physicians +came down-stairs together, meeting Lanse at the foot. + +"Well, sir," said Doctor Forester, "so far, so good. Celia is as +comfortable as such cases usually are an hour or two afterward, which is +not saying much from her point of view, though a good deal from ours. +She has a long siege of inactivity before her to put that knee into a +strong condition, but it will not be a great while before she can be +about on crutches, I hope. Doctor Churchill, at my insistence, has put +up the knee in the best possible shape, and I am going to leave it in +his care. I'll drop in now and then, but the doctor is right beside you, +and I've full confidence in him. I knew his father, and I know enough +about him to be sure that you're all right in his hands." + +Lanse drew a long breath of relief. "I'm very thankful it's no worse," +he said. "But, Doctor Forester, what are we to do about father and +mother? We can't tell them----" + +"Tell them! No!" said Doctor Forester, with decision. "I wouldn't have +your mother told under any consideration, so long as the girl does well. +She would be back here on the next train and then we'd have something +worse than a broken patella on our hands. If there is any way by which +you can let your father know I should do that." + +"I can, I think," said Lanse, thoughtfully. "We're to send them +general-delivery letters until they're settled, and father will get +those at the post-office and read them first." + +"As to your other problems--housekeeping and all that, over which Celia +is several times more worried than over her own condition--can you +figure those out?" + +"Yes, somehow." + +"Good! Go up and tell her so. She thinks the house is going to +destruction without her. Good chance for the second violin. Too bad that +clever little orchestra will have to drop its practice for a few weeks. +I meant to run in some evening soon and hear you play. Well, I'm overdue +at the hospital. Good-by, Lanse--Doctor Churchill. Keep me posted +concerning the knee." + +Then the busy surgeon, who had put off several engagements to come out +to the suburban town and look after the family of his old friend, whom +he had known and loved since their college days, was off in his +runabout, his chauffeur getting promptly under as much headway as the +law allows, and rushing him out of sight in a hurry. + +Lanse turned to Doctor Churchill, who stood upon the porch beside him, +hat and case in hand. + +"I'm mighty thankful you were so near," he said. + +"Doctor Forester hasn't given you much choice," said the other man, +smiling. "I did my best to give you the chance of having some one of the +physicians you know here in town take charge of the case, but he +insisted on my keeping it. I should like, however, to be sure that you +are satisfied. You don't know me at all, you know." + +The steady eyes were looking keenly at Lanse, and he felt the sincerity +in the words. He returned the scrutiny without speaking for an instant; +then he put out his hand. + +"Somehow I feel as if I do," he said, slowly. "Anyhow, I'm going to know +you, and I'm glad of the chance." + +"Thank you." Doctor Churchill shook hands warmly and went down the +steps. "I will come over for a minute about ten o'clock," he added, "to +make sure that Miss Birch is resting as quietly as we can hope for +to-night." + +Lanse watched the broad-shouldered, erect figure cross the lawn and +disappear in the office door of the old house near by; then he turned. + +"Well, we're in a sweet scrape now, that's certain," he said gloomily to +himself, as he marched up-stairs. + +At the top he encountered his young brother Justin. That twelve-year-old +stood awaiting him, his face so disconsolate that in spite of himself +Lanse smiled. + +"Cheer up, youngster," he said. "It's pretty tough, but as Doctor +Forester says, it might be worse. Want to go in with me and see sister a +minute?" + +But Justin got hold of his arm and held him back. "Lanse, I've got to +tell you something," he begged. "Please come here, in your room a +minute." + +Lanse followed, wondering. Justin, although a healthy and happy boy +enough, was apt to take things seriously, and sometimes needed to be +joked out of singular notions. In Lanse's room Justin carefully locked +the door. + +"It's all my fault, Celia's knee," he said, going straight to the point, +as was his way. His voice shook a little, but he went steadily on. "She +sent me down cellar after pickles, and I sat on the top of the stairs +finishing up a banana before I went. I've been down there to look, +and--and the banana skin was there--all mashed. It was what did it." + +He choked, and turned away to the window. + +"You left a banana skin on those stairs?" Lanse half-shouted. + +"Yes." + +"Right there, at the top--when Delia almost broke her neck more than +once going down those stairs only last winter, just because they're so +steep and narrow?" + +Just nodded. + +"And you fell on a banana skin once yourself, and wanted to thrash the +fellow who left it!" + +Just's chin sank lower and lower. + +Lanse eyed him a moment, struggling with a desire to seize the boy and +punish him tremendously. But as his quick wrath cooled a trifle in his +effort to control himself and act wisely, something about Just's brave +acknowledgment, where silence would have covered the whole thing, +appealed to him. The thought of the way the absent father and mother had +met every confession of his own that he could remember in a life of +prank-playing softened the words which came next to his lips. + +"Well, it's pretty bad," he said, in a deep voice of regret. "I don't +wonder it breaks you up. Such a little thing to do so much mischief--and +so easy to have avoided it all. I reckon you'll take care of your banana +skins after this. But I like the way you own up, Just, and so will +Celia. That's something. You haven't been a sneak in addition to being +thoughtless. It would have been hard to forgive you if I had found it +out while you kept still. It's pretty hard as it is," he could not help +adding, as his imagination pictured Celia spending her winter as a +cripple. + +Just said not a word, but the outline of his profile against the fading +light at the window was so suggestive of boyish despair that the elder +brother walked over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"It gives you a chance to make it up to her in every way you can," he +said. "There are a lot of things you can do for her, and I shall expect +you to try to square the account a little." + +"I will! Oh, I will!" cried poor Just, who had longed for his mother in +this crisis, and had found facing the elder brother, whom he both +admired and feared, harder than anything he had ever had to do. "I'll do +anything in the world for her, if she'll only forgive me." + +"She'll forgive you, for she's made that way. It's forgiving yourself +that can't be done." + +"I never shall." + +"Don't. If I thought you would, I'd thrash you on the spot," said Lanse, +grimly, sure that a wholesome remorse was to be encouraged. Then he +relented sufficiently to say in a tone considerably less severe: + +"Go and wash up, and begin your good resolutions by getting down and +seeing to the kitchen fire. It's undoubtedly burnt itself out by this +time. There's probably no dinner for anybody, but we can't mind little +things like that to-night." + +He went to Celia's room at last, feeling many cares upon him, a +sensation which an empty, stomach did not tend to relieve. He found his +sister able to give him a very pale-faced but courageous smile, and to +receive his earnest sympathy with a faint: + +"Never mind, dear. Don't worry. It might have been worse." + +"That seems to be everybody's motto, so I'll accept it. We'll take +courage, and you shall have us all on our knees, since yours are laid up +for repairs." + +"You haven't had your dinner, Lanse," murmured Celia. She was suffering +severely, but she could not relax anything of her anxiety for the family +welfare. + +"Oh, I forgot there was such a thing as dinner in the world!" cried +Charlotte, and was hurrying to the door when Celia called her back. +"_Please_ wash that smudge off your face," she whispered, and covered +her eyes. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Coming down-stairs from Celia's room, Dr. Andrew Churchill made his way +through what had now become somewhat familiar ground to the little +kitchen. As he looked in at the door he beheld a slim figure in a big +Turkey-red apron, bending over a chicken which lay, in a state of +semi-dissection, upon the table. As he watched for a moment without +speaking, Charlotte herself spoke, without turning round. + +"You horrid thing!" she said, tragically, to the chicken. "I hate +you--all slippery and bloody. Ugh! Why won't your old windpipe come out? +How anybody can eat you who has got you ready I don't know!" + +"May I bother you for a pitcher of hot water?" asked an even voice from +the doorway. + +Charlotte turned with a start. Her cheeks, already flushed, took on a +still ruddier hue. + +"Yes, if you'll please help yourself," she answered, curtly, turning +back to her work. "I am--engaged." + +"I see. A congenial task?" + +"Very!" Charlotte's tone was expressive. + +"Did I gather that the fowl's windpipe was the special cause of your +distress?" asked the even voice again. + +Charlotte faced round once more. + +"Doctor Churchill," she said, "I never cleaned a chicken in my life. I +don't know what I'm doing at all, only that I've been doing it for +almost an hour, and it isn't done. I presume it's because I take so much +time washing my hands." + +She smiled in spite of herself as the doctor's hearty laugh filled the +little kitchen. + +"I think I can appreciate your feelings," he remarked. + +He walked over to the table. "Get a good hold on the offending windpipe, +shut your eyes and pull." + +"I'm afraid of doing something wrong." + +"You won't. The trachea of the domestic fowl was especially designed for +the purpose, only the necessary attachment for getting a firm grip on it +was accidentally omitted." + +"It certainly was." Charlotte tugged away energetically for a moment, +and drew out the windpipe successfully. The doctor regarded the bird +with a quizzical expression. + +"I should advise you to cut up the chicken and make a fricassée of it," +he observed. + +"I want to roast it. I've got the stuffing all ready." She indicated a +bowlful of macerated bread-crumbs mixed with milk and butter, and +liberally seasoned with pepper. + +"I see. But I'm a little, just a little, afraid you may have trouble in +getting the stuffing to stay in while the chicken is roasting. You +see--" He paused. + +"I suppose I've cut it open too much." + +"Rather--unless you're a very good amateur surgeon. And even then--" + +"I'm no surgeon--I'm no cook--I never shall be! I--don't want to be!" +Charlotte burst out, suddenly, beginning to cut up the chicken with +vigorous slashes, mostly in the wrong places. + +"Yes, you do. Hold on a minute! That joint isn't there: it's farther +down. There. See? Once get the anatomy of this bird in your mind, and it +won't bother you a bit to cut it up. Pardon me, Miss Charlotte, but I +know you do want to be a good cook--because you want to be an +accomplished woman." + +Charlotte put down her knife, washed her hands with furious haste, got +out a pitcher, poured it full of hot water, and handed it silently to +Doctor Churchill without looking at him. He glanced from it to her with +amusement as he received it "Thank you," he said, politely, and walked +away. + +When he came down-stairs fifteen minutes later, he found the slim figure +in the Turkey-red apron waiting for him at the bottom. As the girl +looked up at him he noted, as he had done many times already in the +short two weeks he had known her, the peculiar, gipsy-like beauty of her +face. It was a beauty of which she herself, he had occasion to believe, +was absolutely unconscious, and in this he was right. + +Charlotte disliked her dark skin, despised her black curls, and +considered her vivid colouring a most undesirable inheritance. She +admired intensely Celia's blonde loveliness, and lost no chance of +privately comparing herself with her sister, to Celia's infinite +advantage. + +"Doctor Churchill," she said, as he approached her, hat in hand, "I was +very rude to you just now. I am--sorry." + +She held out her hand. Doctor Churchill took it. Charlotte's thick black +lashes swept her cheek, and she did not see the look, half-laughing, +half-sympathetic, which rested on her downcast face. + +"It's all right," said Doctor Churchill's low, clear voice. "Don't think +I fail to understand what it means for the cares of a household like +this to descend upon a girl's shoulders. But I want you to know that +I--that they are all immensely pleased with the pluck you are showing. I +have seen your sister's lunch tray several times since I have been +coming here; it was perfect." + +"I burned her toast just this morning," said Charlotte, quickly. "And +poached the egg too hard. Lanse says the coffee is better, but--oh, no +matter--I'm just discouraged this morning, I--shall learn something some +time, perhaps, but----" She turned away impulsively. Doctor Churchill +followed her a step or two. + +"See here, Miss Charlotte," he said, "how many times have you been out +of the house since your sister was hurt?" + +"Not at all," owned Charlotte, "except evenings, after everything is +done. Then I steal out and run round and round the house in the +moonlight, just running it off, you know--or maybe you don't know." + +"Yes, I do. Will you do something now if I ask you to very humbly?" + +Charlotte looked at him doubtfully. "If you mean go for a walk--which is +what doctors always mean, I believe--I haven't time." + +Doctor Churchill looked at his watch. "It is half past ten. Is that +chicken for luncheon?" + +"No, for supper--or dinner--I don't know just what it is we have at +night now. I simply began to get it ready this morning because I hadn't +the least idea in the world how long it takes to cook a chicken." She +was smiling a little at the absurdity of her own words. + +"And you didn't want to ask your sister?" + +"I meant to surprise her." + +"Well, of one thing I am fairly confident," said Doctor Churchill, with +gravity. "If you take a run down as far as the old bridge and back, +there will still be time to see to the chicken. What is more, by the +time you get back, all big obstacles will look like little ones to you. +Go, please. I am to be in the office for the next hour, and if the house +catches fire I will run over and put it out. I could even undertake to +steal in the back door and put coal on the kitchen fire, if it is +necessary." + +"It won't be." + +"Then will you go?" + +"Perhaps--to humour you," promised Charlotte. + +"Thank you! And remember, please, Miss Charlotte, if you are to do +justice to yourself and to your family, you must not plod all the time. +Plan to get away every day for an hour or two. Go to see your +friends--anything--but don't cultivate 'house nerves' at eighteen." + +"I'm older than that," said Charlotte, as she watched him go down the +steps. He turned, surprised. "But I shall not tell you how much," said +she, and closed the door. + +Doctor Churchill went straight through his small bachelor house to the +kitchen. Here a tall, thin woman, with sharp eyes and kindly mouth, was +energetically kneading bread. + +"Mrs. Fields," said he, "I wish you would find it necessary to-morrow +morning to run in at that door over there"--he indicated the little back +porch of the Birch house--"and borrow something." + +Mrs. Fields eyed him as if she thought he had taken leave of his senses. +"Me--borrow?" she said. "Doctor Andrew--are you----" + +"No, I'm not crazy," the doctor assured her, smiling. "I know it's +tremendously against your principles, but never mind the principles, for +once--since by ignoring them you can do a kindness. Run in and borrow a +cup of sugar or something, and get acquainted." + +"Who with? That curly-haired girl with the red cheeks? She don't want my +acquaintance." + +"She would be immensely grateful for it if it came about naturally. Take +over some of your jelly for Miss Birch, if that way suits you better, +but get to know Miss Charlotte, and show her a few things about cookery. +She's trying to do all the work for the whole family, and she knows very +little about it." + +"I suspected as much. You haven't told me about 'em, and of course, +being a doctor's housekeeper, I'm too well trained to ask." + +The doctor smiled, for Mrs. Fields had been housekeeper in his mother's +family in the days of his boyhood, and she felt it her right to tell +him, now and then, what she thought. She was immensely proud of her own +ability to hold her tongue and her curiosity in check. + +"So I know only what I've seen. You told me the oldest girl had broke +her knee, and that's all you've said. But I see this girl a-hanging +dish-towels, and opening the kitchen door to let out the smoke each time +she's burned up a batch of something, and I guessed she wasn't what you +might call a graduate of one of those cooking-schools." + +"You must be a bit tactful," warned the doctor. "The young lady is a +trifle sensitive, as is natural, over her inefficiency, but she's very +anxious to learn, and there's nobody to teach her. She is too +independent to go to the other neighbours, but I've an idea you could be +a friend to her." + +"She looks pretty notional," Mrs. Fields said, doubtfully. "Shakes out +her dust-cloth with her chin in the air----" + +"To avoid the dust." + +"And pulls down the shades the minute the lamp is lighted----" + +"So do you." + +"I saw her lock the kitchen door in the face of that Mis' Carter the +other day, when she caught sight of her coming up the walk." + +"See here, Fieldsy, you've been spying on your neighbours," said Doctor +Churchill severely. "You despise that sort of thing yourself, so you +mustn't yield to it. Go over and be neighbourly, as nobody knows how +better than yourself, but don't judge people by their chins or their +curls." + +He gave her angular shoulder an affectionate pat, looked straight into +her sharp eyes for a moment, until they softened perceptibly, said, +"You're all right, you know,"--and went whistling away. + +"That's just like your impudence, Andy Churchill," said Mrs. Hepsibah +Fields to herself, as she laid her smooth loaves of bread-dough into +their tins and proceeded energetically to scrape the board. "You always +did have a way with you, wheedling folks into doing what they didn't +want to just to please you. Now I've got to go meddling in other +people's business and getting snubbed, most likely, just because you're +trying to combine friendship and doctoring." + +But Mrs. Fields, when her work was done, went to look up her best jelly, +as Doctor Churchill had known she would do. And twenty-four hours had +not gone by before she had made friends with Charlotte Birch. + +It was not hard to make friends with the girl if one went at it aright. +Mrs. Fields came in as Charlotte was stirring up gingerbread. + +"I don't think much of back-door neighbours," Mrs. Fields said, "but I +didn't want to come to the front door with my jelly. I thought maybe +your sister would relish my black raspberry." + +"That's very kind of you," said Charlotte. "You are--I think I've seen +you across the way. Won't you come in?" + +"No, thank you. You're busy, and so am I. Yes, I'm Doctor Churchill's +housekeeper, and his mother's before that." + +The sharp eyes noted with approval, in one swift glance as Charlotte +turned away with the jelly, the fact that the little kitchen was in +careful order. To be sure, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, an hour +when kitchens are supposed to be in order, if ever, yet it was a relief +to Mrs. Fields to find this one in that condition. Brass faucets gleamed +in the afternoon sunlight, the teakettle steamed from a shining spout, +the linoleum-covered floor was spotless, and the table at which +Charlotte was stirring her gingerbread had been scrubbed until it was as +nearly white as pine boards can be made. + +"Gingerbread?" said the housekeeper, lingering in the doorway. "I always +like to make that. It seems the biggest result for the smallest labour +of anything you can make, and it smells so spicy when it comes out of +the oven." + +"Yes, when it isn't burned," agreed Charlotte, with a laugh. Things had +gone fairly well with her that day, and her spirits had risen +accordingly. + +"Burning's a thing that will happen to the best cooks once in a while. +'Twas just day before yesterday I blacked a pumpkin pie so the doctor +poked his fun at me all the time he was eating it," said the +housekeeper, with a tactful disregard for the full truth, which was that +a refractory small patient in the office had driven the doctor to +require her assistance for a longer period than was consistent with +attention to her oven. + +"Oh, did you?" asked Charlotte, eagerly. "That encourages me. Doctor +Churchill told me he had the finest cook in the state, and I've been +envying you ever since." + +"Doctor Churchill had better be careful how he brags," Mrs. Fields +declared, much gratified. "Well, now, I'll tell you what you do. It +ain't but a step across the two back yards. When you get in a quandary +how to cook anything--how long to give it or whether to bake or +boil--you just run across and ask me. I ain't one o' the prying +kind--the doctor'll tell you that--and you needn't be afraid it'll go +any further. I know how hard it must be for a young girl like you to +take the care of a house on yourself, and I'll be pleased to show you +anything I can." + +"That's very good of you," said Charlotte, gratefully, as Mrs. Fields +went briskly down the steps; and she really felt that it was. She would +have resented the appearance of almost any of her neighbours at her back +door with an offer of help, suspecting that they had come to use their +eyes, and afterward their tongues, in criticism. But something about +Mrs. Hepsibah Fields disarmed her at once. She could not tell why. + +"This gingerbread is perfect," said Celia, an hour later, when Charlotte +had brought up her supper. "You are improving every day. But it frets me +not to have you come to me for help. I could plan things for you, and +teach you all the little I know. I'm doing so well now, the doctor says +I may get down-stairs on the couch by next week. Then you certainly must +let me do my part." + +But Charlotte shook her head obstinately. "I'm going to fight it through +myself. I'd rather. You've enough to do--writing letters." + +When Lanse came into Celia's room that evening, his first words were +merry. + +"What I'm anxious to know," he said, "is what you did with your rice +pudding. Charlotte says you ate it--and the inference was that it was +good to eat. So I ate mine--manfully, I assure you. But it was a bitter +dose." + +"Poor little girl! She tries so hard, Lanse. And the gingerbread was +very good." + +"So it was. It helped take out the taste of the pudding. Did you +honestly eat that pudding?" + +"See here." Celia beckoned him close. She reached a cautious hand under +her pillow and drew out her soap-dish. "Please get rid of it for me," +she whispered, "and wash the dish. I couldn't bear not to seem to eat +it, so I slipped it in there." + +Striving to smother his mirth, Lanse bore the soap-dish away. Returning +with it, he carefully replaced the soap and set the dish on the stand, +where it had been within Celia's reach. "I wish I had had a soap-dish at +the table," he remarked, "but the cook's eye was upon me, and I had to +stand up to it. But see here. I've a letter for you--from Uncle +Rayburn." + +Celia stretched an eager hand, for a letter from Uncle John +Rayburn--middle-aged, a bachelor, and an ex-army officer, retired by an +incurable injury which did not make him the less the best uncle in the +world--could not fail to be welcome. But she had not read a page before +she dropped the sheet and stared helplessly and anxiously at Lanse. + +"What's up?" he asked. + +"Why, Uncle Rayburn writes that he would like to come to spend the +winter with us," answered Celia. + +"What luck!" + +"Luck--with Charlotte in the kitchen?" + +"Uncle Ray is a crack-a-jack of a cook himself. His board bill will help +out like oil on a dry axle, and if we don't have a lot of fun, then +Uncle Ray has changed as--I know he hasn't." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Two cripples," declared Capt. John Rayburn--honourably discharged from +active service in the United States Army on account of permanent +disability from injuries received in the Philippines,--"two cripples +should be able to keep a household properly stirred up. I've been here +five days now, and my soul longs for some frivolity." + +He leaned back in his big wicker armchair and looked quizzically across +at his niece Celia, who lay upon her couch at the other side of the +room. She gave him a somewhat pale-faced smile in return. Four weeks of +enforced quiet were beginning to tell on her. + +"Some frivolity," repeated Captain Rayburn, as Charlotte came to the +door of the room. "What do you say, Charlie girl? Shall we have some +fun?" + +"Dear me, yes, Uncle Ray," Charlotte responded, promptly, "if you can +think how!" + +"I can. Is there a birthday or anything that we may celebrate? I've no +compunction about getting up festivities on any pretext, but if there +happened to be a birthday handy--" + +"November--yes. Why, we had forgotten all about it! Lanse's birthday is +the fourth. That's--" + +"Day after to-morrow. Good! Can you make him a birthday-cake? If not, +I--" + +"Oh, yes, I can!" cried Charlotte, eagerly. "I've just learned an +orange-cake." + +"All right. Then we'll order a few little things from town, and have a +jollification. Not a very big one, on account of the lady on the couch +there, who reminds me at the moment of a water-lily whom some one has +picked and then left on the stern seat in the sun. She looks very sweet, +but a trifle limp." + +Celia's smile was several degrees brighter than the previous one had +been. Nobody could resist Uncle Ray when he began to exert himself to +cheer people up. + +He was a young, or an old, bachelor, according to one's point of view, +being not yet forty, and looking, in spite of the past suffering which +had brought into his chestnut hair two patches of gray at the temples, +very much like a bright-faced boy with an irrepressible spirit of energy +and interest in the life about him. It could hardly be doubted that +Capt. John Rayburn, apparently invalided for life and cut off from the +activity which had been his dearest delight, must have his hours of +depression, but nobody had ever caught him in one of them. + +"I should like some music at this festival," Captain Rayburn went on. +"Is the orchestra out of practice?" + +"We haven't played for six weeks," Charlotte said. "And Celia's first +violin--" + +"You couldn't play, bolstered up?" + +Celia shook her head. "I should be tired in ten minutes." + +"I'm not so sure of that, but we'll see. Anyhow, I've the old flute +here--" + +"Oh, fine!" cried Charlotte. + +"Suppose we ask Doctor Forester out, and your young doctor here next +door, and two or three of your girl friends, and a boy and girl or two +for Jeff and Just." + +"What a funny mixture, Uncle Ray! Doctor Forester and Norman Carter, +Just's chum, and Carolyn Houghton?" + +"Funny, is it?" inquired Captain Rayburn, undisturbed. "Now do you know, +that's my ideal of a well-planned company, particularly when all the +family are to be here. Invite somebody for each one, mix 'em all up, +play some jolly games, and you'll find Doctor Forester vying with Norman +Carter for the prize, and enjoying it equally well. It sharpens up the +young wits to be pitted against the older ones, and it--well, it +burnishes the elder rapiers and keeps them keen." + +"All right, this is your party," agreed Charlotte, and she went back to +her duties. + +"You're not afraid it will be too much for you, little girl?" Captain +Rayburn asked Celia, whose smile had faded, and who lay with her head +turned away. + +"Oh--no." + +"Mercury a little low in the tube this morning?" + +"Just a little." + +"Any good reason why?" + +"N-no." + +"Except the best reason in the world--heavy atmospheric pressure. Knee a +trifle slow to become a solid, capable, energetic knee, such as its +owner demands. Owner a bit restless, physically and mentally. Plans for +the winter upset--second lieutenant winning spurs while the colonel lies +in the hospital tent, fighting imaginary battles and trying to keep cool +under the strain." + +Celia looked round and smiled again, but her head went back to its old +position, and tears forced themselves out from under the eyelids which +she shut tightly together. + +"And a little current of anxiety for the inhabitants of New Mexico keeps +flowing under the edge of the tent and makes the colonel fear it's not +pitched in the right place?" + +Celia nodded. + +"Well, that's not warranted in the face of the facts. Latest advices +from New Mexico report improvement, even sooner than we could have +expected. Then at home--Lanse is conquering the situation in the +locomotive shops very satisfactorily. Doctor Churchill told me yesterday +that he's won the liking of nearly all the men in his shop--which means +more than a girl like you can guess. Jeff and Just are prospering in +school, according to Charlotte, who is herself working up in her new +profession, and whose last beefsteak was broiled to a turn, as her +critical soldier guest appreciates. As for Celia--" + +He got to his feet slowly, grasped his two stout hickory canes and +limped across the room to the couch, showing as he went a pitiful +weakness in the tall figure, whose lines still suggested the martial +bearing which it had not long ago presented, and which it might never +present again. Captain Rayburn sat down close beside Celia and took her +hand. + +"In one thing I made a misstatement," he said, softly. "They're not +imaginary battles that the colonel lies fighting in the hospital tent. +They're real enough." + +There was a short silence; then Celia spoke unsteadily from the depths +of her pillow: + +"Uncle Ray, were you ever mean enough to be jealous?" + +The captain looked quickly at the fair head on the pillow. "Jealous?" +said he, without a hint of surprise in his voice. "Why, yes--jealous of +my colonel, my lieutenants, my orderlies, my privates, my doctors, my +nurses--jealous of the very Filipino prisoners themselves--because they +all had legs and could walk." + +"Oh, I know--I don't mean that!" cried Celia, "Of course you envied +everybody who could walk. Poor Uncle Ray! But you weren't small enough +to mind because the officers under you had got your chance?" + +"Wasn't I, though? Well, maybe I wasn't," said the captain, speaking +low. "Perhaps I didn't lie and grind my teeth when they told me about +the gallant work Lieutenant Garretson had done with my men at Balangiga. +A mere boy, Garretson! The whole world applauded it. If I'd not been +knocked out so soon it would have been my name that would have gone into +history. Yes, I chewed that to shreds many a sleepless night, and hated +the fellow for getting my chance." + +Captain Rayburn drew a long breath, while his fingers relaxed for an +instant; and it was Celia's hand which tightened over his. + +"But I got past that," he said, quietly. "It came to me all at once that +Garretson and the other fellows in active service weren't the only ones +with chances before them. I had mine--a different commission from the +one I had coveted, to be sure, but a broader one, with infinite +possibilities, and no fear of missing further promotion if I earned it." + +There was a little stillness after that. When the captain looked down at +Celia again he found her eyes full of pity, but this time it was not +pity for herself. He comprehended instantly. + +"No, I don't need it, dear," he said, very gently. "I've learned some +things already in the hospital tent I wouldn't have missed for a year's +pay. And you, who are to be only temporarily on the sick-leave list, you +don't need to mind that the little second lieutenant--" + +But the second lieutenant was rushing into the room, bearing on a plate +a great puffy, round loaf, brown and spicy. + +"Look," she cried, "at my steamed brown bread! I've tried it four times +and slumped it every time. Now Fieldsy has shown me what was the +matter--I hadn't flour enough. Fieldsy is a dear--and so are you!" + +She plunged at Celia, brown bread and all, and kissed the top of her +head, tweaked a lock of Captain Rayburn's thick hair, and was flying +away when Celia spoke. "You're the biggest dear of anybody," she said, +with a smile. + + * * * * * + +It was getting up a party in a hurry, but somehow the thing was +accomplished. Whether Lanse remembered his own birthday at all was a +question. When he came home at six o'clock on that day, Charlotte told +him that she had special reasons for seeing him in his best. + +"Why, you're all dressed up yourself," he observed. "What's up?" + +"Doctor Forester's coming out to hear us play," was all she would tell +him, and Lanse groaned over the fact that the little orchestra was so +out of practice. + +When the guests arrived, they found the man with the birthday anxiously +looking over scores. He greeted them with enthusiasm. + +"Doctor Forester, this is good of you, if we can't play worth a copper +cent. Miss Atkinson! Well this is a surprise--a delightful one! Miss +Carolyn, how goes school? How are you, Norman? You'll find Just in a +minute. Miss Houghton, now you and I can settle that little question we +were discussing. Charlotte, you rogue, you and Uncle Ray are at the +bottom of this! Ah, Doctor Churchill! This wouldn't have been complete +without our neighbour. Miss Atkinson, allow me to present Doctor +Churchill." + +Thus John Lansing Birch accepted at once and with his accustomed ease +the rôle of host, and enjoyed himself immensely. Celia, watching him +from her couch, said suddenly to Captain Rayburn, who sat beside her: + +"This is just what the family needed. If you hadn't come we should +probably have gone drudging on all winter without realising what was the +matter with us. No wonder poor Lanse appreciates it. He's had a month of +hard labour without an enlivening hour. And Charlotte--doesn't she look +like a fresh carnation to-night?" + +"Very much," agreed the captain, with approving eyes on his younger +niece, who wore her best frock of French gray, a tint which set off her +warm colouring to advantage. Celia had thrust several of Captain +Rayburn's scarlet carnations into her sister's belt, with a result +gratifying to more than one pair of eyes. + +"Still," remarked the captain, his glance returning to Celia, "I'm not +sure that I can say whether a fresh carnation is to be preferred to a +newly picked rose. That pale pink gown you are wearing is certainly a +joy to the eye." + +Celia blushed under his admiring glance. There could be no question that +she was very lovely, if a trifle frail in appearance from her month's +quiet, and it was comforting to be assured that she was not looking like +a "limp water-lily" to-night. + +"When are we to hear the orchestra?" cried Doctor Forester, after an +hour of lively talk, a game or two, and some remarkable puzzles +contributed by Just. The distinguished gentleman from the city was +enjoying himself immensely, for he was accustomed to social functions of +a far more elaborate and formal sort, and liked nothing better than to +join in a frolic with the younger people when such rare opportunities +presented. + +"Of course we're horribly out of practice and all that," explained +Lanse, distributing scores, and helping to prop up Celia so that she +might try to play, "but since you insist we'll give you all you'll want +in a very few minutes. Here's your flute, Uncle Ray. If you'll play +along with Celia it will help out." + +It was not so bad, after all. Lanse had chosen the most familiar of the +old music, everybody did his and her best, and Captain Rayburn's flute, +exquisitely played, did indeed "help out." + +Celia, her cheeks very pink, worked away until Doctor Churchill gently +took her violin from her, but after that the music still went very well. + +"Good! good!" applauded Doctor Forester. "Churchill, you're in luck to +live next door to this sort of thing." + +"Now that I know what I live next door to," remarked the younger +physician, "I shall know what to prescribe for the entire family on +winter evenings." + +There could be no question that Doctor Churchill also was enjoying the +evening. Helping Charlotte and the boys serve the sandwiches and +chocolate, which appeared presently--the chocolate being made by Mrs. +Fields in the kitchen--he said to the girl: + +"I haven't had such a good time since I came away from my old home." + +"It was so nice of Fieldsy to make the chocolate," Charlotte replied, +somewhat irrelevantly. Then as the doctor looked quickly at her and +laughed, she flushed. "Oh, I don't call her that to her face!" she said, +hurriedly. + +"I don't think she would mind. That's what Andy Churchill called her, +and calls her yet, when he forgets her newly acquired dignity as a +doctor's housekeeper. I'm mighty glad Fieldsy can be of service to you. +You've won her heart completely and I assure you that's a bigger triumph +than you realise." + +"She's the nicest neighbour we ever had," said Charlotte, gaily. The +doctor paused, delayed them both a moment while he rearranged a pile of +spoons and forks upon his tray, and said: + +"If you talk of neighbours, Miss Charlotte, there's a certain homesick +young doctor who appreciates having neighbours, too." + +Charlotte answered as lightly as he had spoken: "With Mrs. Fields in the +kitchen and you in here with a tray full of hospitality, I'm sure you +seem very much like one of our oldest neighbours." + +"Thank you!" he answered, with such a glad little ring in his voice that +Charlotte could not be sorry for the impulsive speech. But she found +herself wondering more than once during the evening what he had meant by +calling himself "homesick." + +"See here, Mrs. Fields," called Jeff, hurrying out for fresh supplies, +"this is the best chocolate ever brewed! Doctor Forester wants another +cup, and all the fellows looked sort of wistful when they heard him ask +for it. May everybody have another cup?" + +"Well, I must say, Mr. Jefferson!" said Mrs. Fields, in astonishment. "I +thought Miss Charlotte was going clean crazy when she would have three +double-boilers made. But it seems she knew her friends' appetites. Don't +you know it ain't considered proper to pass more than one cup--light +refreshments like these?" + +"Oh, this isn't any of your afternoon-tea affairs, I can tell you that!" +declared Jeff, watching with pleasure the filling of the tall +blue-and-white chocolate pot. "People know they are going to get +something good when they come here. I warned the fellows not to eat too +much supper before they came. Any more of those chicken sandwiches?" + +"For the land's sake, Mr. Jeff!" cried Mrs. Fields. + +"What's the matter, Jeffy?" asked Charlotte, coming out. Doctor +Churchill was behind her, bearing an empty salad bowl. + +"I want more sandwiches," demanded Jeff. + +"Everybody fall to quick and make them," commanded Charlotte. "Norman +Carter and Just have had seven apiece. That makes them go fast." + +"Well, I never!" breathed the housekeeper once more. But Charlotte was +slicing the bread with a rapid hand. The doctor, laughing, undertook to +butter the slices, and Jeff would have spread on the chicken if Mrs. +Fields had not taken the knife from his hand. + +Ten minutes later Jeff was able to announce that everybody seemed to be +satisfied. + +"That's a mercy," said Mrs. Fields, handing him a tray full of pink and +white ices, Captain Rayburn's contribution to the festivities. "You'd +have to give 'em sody-crackers now if they wasn't. Carry that careful, +and tell Miss Charlotte to send out for the cake. I'll light the +candles." + +Doctor Churchill came out alone for the cake. It stood ready upon the +table, Charlotte's greatest success--a big, old-fashioned orange +"layer-cake," with pale yellow icing, twenty-three pale yellow candles +surrounding it in a flaming circle, and one great yellow Maréchal Niel +rose in the centre. + +"Whew-w, that's a beauty!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Did you make it, +Fieldsy?" + +"Indeed I didn't," denied Mrs. Fields, with great satisfaction. "Miss +Charlotte made it herself, and I didn't know but she'd go crazy over it, +first for fear it wouldn't turn out right, and then for joy because it +had." + +The doctor handed it about with a face so beaming that Doctor Forester +leaned back in his chair and regarded his young colleague quizzically. + +"You make this cake, Churchill?" he asked. + +The doctor laughed. "It was joy enough to bring it in," he said. + +"Who did make it?" demanded Forester. "It was no caterer, I know." + +Charlotte attempted to escape quietly from the room, but Lanse barred +the way. "Here she is," he said, and turned his sister about and made +her face the company. A friendly round of applause greeted her, mingled +with exclamations of surprise. They all knew Charlotte, or thought they +did. To most of them this was a new and unlooked-for accomplishment. + +"It's not half so good as the sort Celia makes," murmured Charlotte, and +would hear no more of the cake. But Celia, in her corner, said softly to +Doctor Forester: + +"It's going to be worth while, my knee, for the training Charlotte is +getting. She'll be a perfect little housekeeper before I'm about again." + +"It's going to be worth while in another way too," returned her friend, +with an appreciative glance at the face which always reminded him of her +mother's, it was so serenely sweet and full of character. + +"It is? How?" she asked, eagerly, for his tone was emphatic. + +"I have few patients on my list who learn so soon to bear this sort of +thing as quietly as you are bearing it," he said. "Don't think that +doesn't count." Then he rose to go. + +Celia hardly heard the leave-takings, her mind was so happily busy with +this bit of rare praise from one whose respect was well worth earning. +And half an hour afterward, as Lanse stooped to gather her up and carry +her up-stairs to bed, she looked back at Captain Rayburn, who still sat +beside her couch, and said, with softly shining eyes: + +"The colonel _almost_ wouldn't be the second lieutenant if he could, +Uncle Ray." + +Lanse, lifting his sister in his strong arms, remarked, "I should say +not. Why should he?" + +Celia and Captain Rayburn, laughing, exchanged a sympathetic, +comprehending glance. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Three times Jefferson Birch knocked on his sister Charlotte's door. Then +he turned the knob. The door would not open. "Fiddle!" he called, +softly, but got no reply. + +"You're not asleep, I know," he said, firmly, at the keyhole. "I can see +a light from outside, if you have got it all plugged up here. Let me in. +I've some important news for you." + +Charlotte's lock turned and she threw the door open. "Well, come in," +she said. "I didn't mean anybody to know, but I'm dying to tell +somebody, and I can trust you." + +"Of course!" affirmed Jeff, entering with an air of curiosity. "What's +doing? Painting?" + +The table by the window was strewn with artist's materials, drawings, +sheets of water-colour paper and tumblers of coloured water. In the +midst of this confusion lay one piece of nearly finished work--the +interior of an unfurnished room, showing wall decoration and nothing +more. The colouring caught Jeff's eye. + +"That's stunning!" he commented, catching up the board upon which the +colour drawing was stretched. "What's it for? Going to put in some +furniture?" + +Charlotte laughed. "No, I'm not going to put in any furniture," she +said. "This is just to show a scheme for decorating a den--a man's den. +Do you really like it?" + +"It's great!" Jeff stood the board up against the wall and backed away, +studying it with interest. "Those dull reds and blues will show off his +guns and pictures and things in fine shape. How did you ever think it +up?" + +Charlotte brought out some sheets of wall-paper, as Jeff thought, but he +saw at once that they were hand-work. They represented in full-size +detail the paper used upon the den walls. Jeff studied them with +interest. + +"So this is where you are evenings, after you slip away. You're sitting +up late, too. See here, this won't do!" + +"Oh, yes, it will. Don't try to stop me, Jeff. I'm not up late, really +I'm not--only once in awhile." + +"I thought people couldn't paint by artificial light." + +"They can when they get used to the difference it makes. But I do only +the drudgery, evenings--outlines and solid filling in and that sort of +thing." + +"Going to show this to somebody?" + +"Oh, don't talk about it!" said Charlotte, breathlessly. "If I can get +my courage up. You know Mr. Murdock, with that decorating house where +the Deckers had their work done? Well, some day I'm going to show him. +But I'm so frightened at my own audacity!" + +"If he doesn't like this, he's a fool!" declared Jeff, vigorously, and +although Charlotte laughed she felt the encouragement of his boyish +approval. Putting away her work, she suddenly remembered the excuse her +brother had given for forcing his way into her room. + +"You said you had important news for me. Did you mean it, or was that +only to get in?" + +"Oh," said Jeff sitting down suddenly and looking up at her, his face +growing grave. "You put it out of my head when I came in. I met the +doctor just now. He'd been to see Annie Donohue. She's worse." + +Charlotte dropped her work instantly. "Worse?" she said, all the +brightness flying from her face. "Why, I was in yesterday, and she +seemed much better. Jeff, I must go down there this minute." + +"It's after ten--you can't. Wait till morning." + +"Oh, no!" The girl was making ready as she spoke. "You'll go with me. +Think of the baby. There'll be a houseful of women, all wailing, if +anything goes wrong with Annie. They did it before, when they thought +she wasn't doing well. The baby was so frightened. She knows me. Of +course I must go. Think what mother would do for Annie--after all the +years Annie was such a faithful maid." + +That brought Jeff round at once. In ten minutes he and Charlotte had +quietly left the house. A rapid walk through the crisp January night +brought them to the poorer quarter of the town and the Donohue cottage. +A woman with a shawl over her head met them just outside. + +"Annie's gone," she said, at sight of Charlotte. "Took a turn for the +worse an hour ago. I never thought she'd get well, she's had too hard a +life with that brute of a man of hers." + +Charlotte stood still on the door-step when the woman had gone on. She +was thinking hard. Jeff remained quiet beside her. Charlotte had known +more of Annie than he; Annie had been Charlotte's nurse. + +All at once Charlotte turned and laid a hand on his arm. "Jeff," she +said, very softly and close to his ear, "we must take little Ellen home +with us to-night." + +"What!" + +"Yes, we must. She's such a shy little thing. Every time I've been here +I've found her frightened half to death. It worried Annie dreadfully." + +"Well--but, Charlotte--some of these women can take care of her--Annie's +friends." + +"They are not Annie's friends; they're just her neighbours. Not Annie's +kind at all. They're good-hearted enough, but it distressed Annie all +the time to have any of them take care of Ellen. They give her all sorts +of things to eat. She's only a baby. She was half-sick when I was here +Thursday. Oh, don't make a fuss, Jeff! Please, dear!" + +"But you don't know anything about babies." + +"I know enough not to give them pork and cabbage. I can put the little +thing to sleep in Just's crib. It's up in the attic. You can get it +down. Jeff, we must!" + +But Jeff still held her firmly by the arm. "Girl, you're crazy! If you +once take her, you've got her on your hands. Annie has no relations. You +told me that yourself. The child'll have to go to an asylum. It's a good +thing that husband of hers is dead. If he wasn't, you'd have some cause +to be worried." + +"Jeff," said Charlotte, pleadingly, "you must let me do what I think is +right. I couldn't sleep, thinking of little Ellen to-night. Besides, +when Annie was worrying about her Thursday, I as much as promised we'd +see that no harm came to the baby." + +Jeff relaxed his hold. "I never saw such a girl!" he grumbled. "As if +you hadn't things enough on your shoulders already, without adopting +other people's kids!" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Andrew Churchill opened the door which led from the room of one of +his patients into the small, slenderly furnished living-room of the tiny +house which had been her home. It was her home no longer. Doctor +Churchill had just lost his first patient in private practice. + +In the room were several women, gathered about a baby not yet two years +old. Over the child a subdued but excited discussion was being held, as +to who should take home and, for the present, care for poor Annie +Donohue's orphan baby. + +Doctor Churchill closed the door behind him and stood for a moment, +looking down at the baby, a pretty little girl with a pair of big +frightened blue eyes. + +"Well, I guess I'll have to be the one," said the youngest woman of the +company, with a sigh. "You're all worse fixed than I am, and I guess we +can make room for her somehow, till it's decided what to do with her. +Poor Mis' Donohue's child has got to stay somewhere to-night besides +here, that I do say." + +"Well, that's kind of you, Mary, and we'll all lend a hand to help you +out. I'll bring over some extra milk I can spare and----" + +A sudden draft of January air made everybody turn. A girlish figure, in +a big dark cape with a scarlet lining which seemed to reflect the colour +from a face brilliant with frost-bloom, stood in the outer door. The +next instant Charlotte Birch, closing the door softly behind her, had +crossed the room and was addressing the women, in low quick tones. The +doctor she did not seem to notice. + +"I've come for the baby," she said, with a gentle imperiousness. "I've +just heard about poor Annie. Of course we are the ones to see to little +Ellen. If mother were here she would insist upon it. Where are her +wraps, please? And has one of you an extra shawl she can lend me? It's a +sharp night." + +As she spoke, Charlotte knelt before the child and held out her arms. +Baby Ellen stared at her for an instant, then seemed to recognise a +friend and lifted two little arms, her tiny lips quivering. Charlotte +drew her gently up, and rising, walked away across the room with her, +the small golden head nestling in her neck. The women looked after her +rather resentfully. + +"I suppose the child wouldn't be sufferin' with such as us," said one, +"if we ain't got no silk quilts to put over her." + +"Neither have I," said Charlotte, with a smile, as she caught the words. +"But I'm so fond of her. Annie was my nurse, you know." + +"May I carry her home for you?" asked the doctor, at her elbow. + +"Jeff is here," she answered. + +But it was the doctor who carried the baby, after all, for she cried at +sight of Jeff. She was ready to cry at sight of any strange face, poor +little frightened child! But Doctor Churchill held her so tenderly and +spoke so soothingly that she grew quiet at once. + +It was a silent walk, and it was only as they reached the house that the +doctor said softly to Charlotte, "If you need advice or help, don't +hesitate to call on Mrs. Fields. She's a wise woman, and her heart is +warm, you know." + +"Yes, I know, thank you! And thank you, doctor, for--not scolding me +about this!" + +"Scold you?" he said, as Charlotte took the baby from him at the door. +"Why should I do that?" + +"Jeff did, and I didn't dare tell Lanse." + +"If you hadn't brought the baby home," whispered the doctor, "I should +have." And Charlotte, looking quickly up at him as Jeff opened the door +and the light streamed out upon them, surprised upon his face, as his +eyes rested upon the baby's pink cheek, an expression which could hardly +have been more tender if he had been Ellen's father. + +"Now, Jeffy, get the crib down, please, as softly as you can," begged +Charlotte, when she had laid the baby on her own white bed and +noiselessly closed the door. Jeff tried hard to do her bidding, but the +crib did not get down-stairs without a few scrapings and bumpings, which +made Charlotte hold her breath lest they rouse a sleeping household. + +"Now go down and warm some milk for her in the blue basin. Don't get it +hot--just lukewarm. Put the tiniest pinch of sugar in it." + +"You seem to know a lot about babies," Jeff murmured, pausing an instant +to watch his sister gently pulling off the baby's clothes. + +"I do. Didn't I have the care of you?" answered Charlotte, with a +mischievous smile. + +"Two years younger than yourself? Oh, of course, I forgot that," and +Jeff crept away down-stairs after the milk. It took him some time, and +when he came tiptoeing back he found the baby in her little coarse +flannel nightgown, her round blue eyes wide-awake again. + +"She seems to accept you for a mother all right," he commented, as +Charlotte held the cup to the baby's lips, cuddling her in a blanket +meanwhile. But the girl's eyes filled at this, remembering poor Annie, +and Jeff added hastily, "What'll happen if she wakes up and cries in the +night? Babies usually do, don't they?" + +"Annie has always said Ellen didn't, much, and she's getting to sleep so +late I hope she won't to-night. I don't feel equal to telling the others +what I've done till morning," and Charlotte smiled rather faintly. Now +that she had the baby at home she was beginning to wonder what Lanse and +Celia would say. + +"Never mind. I'll stand by you. You're all right, whatever you do--if I +did think you were rather off your head at first," promised Jeff, +sturdily. He was never known to fail Charlotte in an emergency. + +Whether it was the strange surroundings or something wrong about the +last meal of the day cannot be stated, but Baby Ellen did wake up. It +was at three o'clock in the morning that Charlotte, who, excited by the +strangeness of the situation, had but just fallen asleep, was roused by +a small wail. + +The baby seemed not to know her in the trailing blue kimono, with her +two long curly braids swinging over her shoulders, and in spite of all +that Charlotte could do, the infantile anguish of spirit soon filled the +house. + +Charlotte walked the floor with her, alternately murmuring consolation +and singing the lullabies of her own childhood; but the uproar +continued. It is astonishing what an amount of disturbance one small +pair of lungs can produce. It was not long before the anxious nurse, +listening with both ears for evidences that the family were aroused, +heard the tap of Celia's crutches, which the invalid had just learned to +use. And almost at the same moment Lanse's door opened and shut with a +bang. + +"Here they come!" murmured Charlotte, trying distractedly to hush the +baby by means which were never known to have that effect upon a startled +infant in a strange house. + +Her door swung open. Celia stood on the threshold, her eyes wide with +alarm. Lanse, lightly costumed in pink-and-white pajamas, gazed over her +shoulder. + +"Charlotte Birch!" cried Celia, and words failed her. But Lanse was +ready of speech. + +"What the dickens does this mean?" he inquired, wrathfully. "Have we +become an orphanage? I thought I heard singular sounds just after I got +to bed. Is there any good reason why the family shouldn't be informed of +what strange intentions you may have in your brain before you carry them +out? Whose youngster is it, and what are you doing with it here?" + +Charlotte's lips were seen to move, but the baby's fright had received +such an accession from the appearance of two more unknown beings in the +room that nothing could be distinguished. What Charlotte said was, +"Please go away! I'll tell you in the morning." But the visitors, +failing to catch the appeal, not only did not go away, but moved nearer. + +"Why, it's Annie Donohue's baby!" cried Celia, and shrieked the +information into Lanse's ear. His expression of disfavour relaxed a +degree, but he still looked preternaturally severe. Celia hobbled over +to the baby, and sitting down in a rocking-chair, held out her arms. But +Charlotte shook her head and motioned imperatively toward the door. + +At this instant Jeff, in a red bathrobe, appeared in the doorway, +grasped the situation, nodded assurance to Charlotte, and hauled his +elder brother across the hall into his own room, where he closed the +door and explained in a few terse sentences: + +"Annie died last night--to-night. We heard of it late, and Charlotte +thought she wouldn't disturb anybody. The doctor was there. He carried +the baby home. We couldn't leave her there. She was scared to death. She +knows Fiddle, and she'll grow quiet now if you people don't stand round +and insist on explanations being roared at you." + +"But we can't keep a baby here," began Lanse, who had come home late, +unusually tired, and was feeling the customary masculine displeasure at +having his hard-earned rest broken--a sensation which at the moment took +precedence over any more humanitarian emotions. + +"We don't have to settle that to-night, do we?" demanded Jeff, with +scorn. "Hasn't the poor girl got enough on her hands without having you +scowl at her for trying to do the good Samaritan act--at three o'clock +in the morning?" + +Jeff next turned his attention to Celia. He went into Charlotte's room, +picked up his elder sister without saying "by your leave," and carried +her off to her own bed. + +"But, Jeff, I could help Charlotte," Celia remonstrated. "The poor baby +may be sick." + +"Don't believe it. She's simply scared stiff at kimonos and pajamas and +bathrobes stalking round her in a strange house. Charlotte can cool her +down if anybody can. If she can't, I'll call the doctor. Now go to +sleep. Charlotte and I will man the ship to-night, and in the morning +you can go to work making duds for the baby. It didn't have anything to +wear round it but a summer cape and Mrs. O'Neill's plaid shawl." + +This artful allusion touched Celia's tender heart and set her mind at +work, as Jeff had meant it should; so putting out her light, he slipped +away to Charlotte, exulting in having so promptly fixed things for her. + +But Charlotte met him with anxious eyes. The baby was still screaming. + +"See how she stiffens every now and then, and holds her breath till I +think she'll never breathe again!" she called in his ear. "I do really +think you'd better call Mrs. Fields. You can wake her with a knock on +her window. She sleeps in the little wing down-stairs." + +As he hurried down the hall, the door of Captain Rayburn's room opened, +and Jeff met the quiet question, "What's up, lad?" + +He stopped an instant to explain, encountered prompt sympathy, and laid +a hasty injunction upon his uncle not to attempt to assist Charlotte in +her dilemma. That gentleman hobbled back to bed, smiling tenderly to +himself in the dark--why, if he had seen him, Jeff never would have been +able to guess. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got a sewing-machine that I know the kinks of," said Mrs. Fields +to Celia and Charlotte and the baby, who regarded her with interest from +the couch, where they were grouped. "The doctor's going to be away all +day to-morrow, and if you'll all come over, we can get through a lot of +little clothes for the baby. Land knows she ain't anyway fixed for going +outdoors in all kinds of weather, the way the doctor wants her to." + +This was so true that it carried weight in spite of the difficulties in +the way. So before he went off to school on a certain February morning, +Jeff had carried Celia across to Mrs. Field's sitting-room, and by ten +o'clock three busy people were at work. Captain Rayburn had begged to be +of the party, and although Mrs. Fields received with skepticism his +declaration that he could do various sorts of sewing with a sufficient +degree of skill, she allowed him to come, on condition that he look +after the baby. + +"Well, for the land's sake!" cried the forewoman of the sewing brigade, +as she opened the big bundle Captain Rayburn had brought with him. "I +should say you haven't left much for us to do!" + +The captain regarded with complacency the finished garments she was +holding up. + +"Yes," said he, "I telephoned the big children's supply shop to send me +what Miss Ellen would need for out-of-doors. It seemed a pity to have +her stay in another day, waiting to be sewed up. Aren't they right? I +thought the making of her indoor clothes would be enough." + +Celia and Charlotte were exclaiming with delight over the pretty, wadded +white coat which Mrs. Fields held aloft. There was a little furry hood +to match, mittens, and a pair of leggings of the sort desirable for +small travellers. + +"If he hasn't remembered everything!" cried Mrs. Fields, when this last +article of apparel came to view. "Well, sir, I won't say you haven't +saved us quite a chore. I've got the little flannel petticoats all cut +out. Doctor Churchill bought flannel enough to keep her covered from now +till she's five years old. Talk about economy--when a man goes +shopping!" + +Mrs. Fields plunged into business with a will. The sewing-machine hummed +ceaselessly. Celia, with rapid, skillful fingers, kept pace with her in +basting and putting together, and Charlotte--well, Charlotte did her +best. Meanwhile Captain Rayburn and the baby explored together +mysterious realms of pockets and picture-books. + +"For the land's sake, Miss Charlotte!" cried Mrs. Fields, suddenly, in +the middle of the morning. "If you ain't made five left sleeves and only +one right!" + +Charlotte looked up, crimsoning. "How could I have done it?" + +"Easy enough." Mrs. Field's expression softened instantly at sight of +the girl's dismay. "I've done it a good many times. Something about +it--sleeves act bewitched. They seem bound to hang together and be all +one kind or all the other, anything but pairs." + +"Why don't you rest a little, and take baby outdoors in her new coat?" +Celia suggested. "Sewing is such wearisome work, if one isn't used to +it." + +So Charlotte and her charge gladly went out. A neighbour had lent an old +baby sled, and in it Miss Ellen Donohue, snuggled to the chin in the +warmest of garments and wrappings, took her first airing since the +night, a week before, when she had been brought home in Doctor +Churchill's arms. + +She was a shy but happy baby, and had already won all hearts. Nobody was +willing to begin the steps necessary to place her in any of the +institutions designed for cases like hers. Charlotte, indeed, would not +hear of it; and even the practical John Lansing, who had learned to +figure the family finances pretty closely since he himself had become +the wage-earner, succumbed to the touch of baby fingers on his face and +the glance of a pair of eyes like forget-me-nots. + +As for Captain Rayburn, he was the baby's devoted slave at all times, +his most jealous rival being Dr. Andrew Churchill, who was constantly +inventing excuses for coming in for a frolic with Baby Ellen. + +"If the doctor could look in on us now," observed Mrs. Fields, suddenly, +in the middle of the afternoon, when Charlotte was again bravely trying +to distinguish herself at tasks in which she was by no means an adept, +"he'd be put out with me for having this party a day when he was away. +He sets great store by anything that looks like a lot of people at +home." + +"Is he one of a large family?" Celia asked. + +"He was two years ago. Since then he's lost a brother and a sister and +his mother. His father died five years ago. He has a married brother in +Japan, and an unmarried one in South Africa. There ain't anybody in the +old home now. It broke up when his mother died, two years ago. He hasn't +got over that--not a bit. She was going to come and live with him here. +It was a town where she used to visit a good deal, and since he couldn't +settle near the old home, because it wasn't a good field for young +doctors, she was willing to come here with him. That's why he's here +now, though I suppose it don't begin to be as advantageous a place for +him as it would be in the city itself. He thought a terrible lot of his +mother, Andy did. Seems as if he wanted to please her now as much as +ever. And he has some pretty homesick times, now and then, though he +doesn't show it much." + +It was the first time the doctor's housekeeper had been so +communicative, and her three hearers listened with deep interest, +although they asked few questions, made only one or two kindly comments, +and did not express half the sympathy they felt. Only Captain Rayburn, +thoughtfully staring out of the window, gave voice to a sentiment for +which both his nieces, although they said nothing in reply, inwardly +thanked him. + +"Doctor Churchill is a rare sort of fellow," he said. "Doctor Forester +considers him most promising, I know. But better than that, he is one +whose personality alone will always be the strongest part of his +influence over his patients, winning them from despair to courage--how, +they can't tell. And the man who can add to the sum total of the courage +of the human race has done for it what it very much needs." + +A few minutes after this little speech the subject of it quite +unexpectedly came dashing in, bringing with him a great breath of +February air. He stopped in astonishment upon the threshold. + +"If this isn't the unkindest trick I ever heard of!" he cried, his +brilliant eyes flashing from one to another. "I suppose that +arch-traitor of a Fieldsy planned to have you all safely away before I +came home. I'm thankful I got here two hours before she expected me. See +here, you've got to make this up to me somehow." + +"Sit down!" invited Captain Rayburn. "You may hem steadily for two hours +on flannel petticoats. If that won't make it up to you I don't know what +will." + +"No, it won't," retorted the doctor. "Sewing's all right in its way, but +I've just put up my needle-case, thank you, and no more stitching for me +to-day. I want--a lark! I want to go skating. Who'll go with me?" + +"By the process of elimination I should say you would soon get at the +answer to that," remarked the captain. "There seems to be just one +candidate for active service in this company--unless Mrs. Fields--I've +no doubt now that Mrs. Fields----" + +"Will you go?" Doctor Churchill turned to Mrs. Fields. She glanced up +into his laughing eyes. + +"Run along and don't bother me," she said to him. "Take that child +there. She's about got her stent done, I guess." + +Doctor Churchill looked at the curly black head bent closely over the +last of the little sleeves. + +"You don't deceive me, Miss Charlotte," said he. "You're not as wedded +to that task as you look. Please come with me. There's time for a +magnificent hour before you have to put the kettle on. Miss Birch, I +wish we could take you, too. Next winter--well, that knee is doing so +well I dare to promise you all the skating you want." + +Celia looked up at him, smiling, but her eyes were wistful. + +"Doctor," cried Captain Rayburn, "telephone to the stables for a +comfortable old horse and sleigh, will you? Celia, girl, we'll go, too." + +"And I'll look after Ellen," said Mrs. Fields, before anybody could +mention the baby. "Go on, all of you." + +"May we all come back to supper with you?" asked Doctor Churchill, +giving her a glance with which she was familiar of old. + +"If you'll send for some oysters I'll give you all hot stew," she said, +and received such a chorus of applause that she mentally added several +items to the treat. + +"Now I can enjoy my fun," whispered Charlotte to Celia, as she brought +her sister's wraps, and pulled on her own rough brown coat. "Such a +jolly uncle, isn't he?" + +"The best in the world. Wear your white tam, dear, and the white +mittens. They look so well with your brown suit. Tie the white silk +scarf about your neck--that's it. Now run. I'm so afraid somebody will +call the doctor out and spoil it all." + +Charlotte ran, and found the doctor waiting impatiently, two pairs of +skates on his arm. He hurried her away down the street. + +"We must get all there is of this," he said. "I feel as if I could skate +fifty miles and back again. Do you?" + +"Indeed I do. I've wanted to get up and run round the block between +every two stitches all day." + +"They say the river is good for three miles up. That will give us just +what we want--a sensation of running away from the earth and all its +cares. And when we get back we'll be ready for Fieldsy's stew." + +They found everybody on the river; Charlotte was busy nodding to her +friends while the doctor put on her skates. In a few moments the two +were flying up the course. + +"Oh, this is great!" exulted Doctor Churchill. "And this is the first +time you've been on the ice this winter--in February!" + +"This is fine enough to make up. I do love it. It takes out all the +puckers." + +"Doesn't it? I thought you'd been cultivating puckers to-day the minute +I saw you--or else I interpreted your mood by my own. Talk about +puckers--and nerves! Miss Charlotte, I've done my first big operation in +a certain line to-day. I mean, in a new line--an experiment. It was--a +success." + +She looked up at him, her face full of sympathy. "Oh, I'm so glad!" she +said. + +"Are you? Thank you! I wanted somebody to be glad--and I hadn't anybody. +I had to tell you. It's too soon to be absolutely sure, but it promises +so well I'm daring to be happy. It's the sort of operation in which the +worst danger is practically over if the patient gets through the +operation itself. She's rallied beautifully. And whatever happens, I've +proved my point--that the experiment is feasible. Some of the men +doubted that--all thought it a big risk. But I had to take it, and +now--Ah, come on, Miss Charlotte! Let's fly!" + +Away they went, faster and faster--long, swinging strokes in perfect +unison; two accomplished skaters with one object in view; working off +healthy young spirits at a tension. They did not talk; they saved their +breath; they went like the wind itself. + +At the farthest extremity of the smooth ice, which ended at a little +frost-bound waterfall, they came to a stop. Churchill looked down at a +face like a rose, black eyes that were all alight, and lips that smiled +with the fresh happiness of the fine sport. + +"I've skated at Copenhagen and at St. Petersburg," he said gaily, "to +say nothing of Fresh Pond and Lake Superior and other such home grounds. +But it's safe to say I never enjoyed a mile of them like that last one. +You--you were really glad, weren't you, that it went so well with me +to-day?" + +"How could I help it, Doctor Churchill?" she answered, earnestly. Ever +since coming out she had been remembering the little revelation his +housekeeper had made of his life, and it had touched her deeply to know +why he had come to settle in the suburban town instead of in the much +more promising city field--a question which had occurred to her many +times since she had known him. + +"I always expected," he went on, in a more quiet way, "to be able to +come home and tell my mother about my first triumphs. She would have +been so proud and happy over the smallest thing. Her father was a +distinguished surgeon--Marchmont of Baltimore. He died only four years +ago--his books are an authority on certain subjects. My other +grandfather was Dr. Andrew Churchill of Glasgow--an old-school physician +and a good one. So you see I come honestly by my love for it all. And +mother--how we used to talk it all over--" + +He stopped abruptly, with a tightening of the lips, and stood staring +off over the frozen fields, his eyes growing sombre. Charlotte's own +eyes fell; her heart beat fast with sympathy. She laid the lightest of +touches on his arm. + +"I know," she said, softly. "Fieldsy told me--a little bit. I'm so +sorry." + +He drew a long breath and looked down at her, his eyes searching her +face. "You _are_ a little comrade," he said, and his voice was low and +moved. Then with a quick motion he seized her hands again and they were +off, back down the river. Not so fast as before, and silently, the two +skaters covered the miles, and only as they came within sight of the +crowd of people at the beginning of the course did Doctor Churchill +speak. + +"This has been a fine hour, hasn't it?" he said. "Your face looks as if +you had lost all the puckers. Have you?" + +"Indeed I have! Haven't you?" + +"It has done me a world of good. I was wrought up to a high pitch--now +I'm cool again. I have to go back to the hospital as soon as supper is +over. I shall stay all night." + +"When you get back," said Charlotte, "will you telephone me how the case +is doing?" + +"May I?" he answered, eagerly. + +"Of course you may. I shall be anxious till I know." + +"I have no business to add one smallest item of anxiety to your list of +worries," he admitted. "But it seems so good to me to have somebody +care, just now. Fieldsy's a dear soul--I couldn't get on without her, +but--Never mind, that's enough of Andrew Churchill for one afternoon. +Shall we make a big spurt to the finish? Let's show them what skating +is--no little cutting of geometrical spider-webs in a forty-foot +square!" + +They drew in with swift, graceful strokes, threaded their course through +the crowd of skaters, and were soon on their way home. Captain Rayburn +and Celia passed them, called back that it was a great day for invalids +and children, and reached home just in time for the doctor to carry +Celia into the little brick house. Charlotte ran to summon her three +brothers, for it was after six o'clock. + +Never had an oyster stew such enthusiastic praise. Not an appetite was +lacking, not a spoon flagged. Mrs. Fields, moved to lavish hospitality, +in which she was upheld by the doctor, produced a chicken pie, which had +been originally intended for his dinner alone, and which she had at +first designed, when she proposed the oysters, to keep over until the +morrow. This was flanked by various dishes, impromptu but delectable, +and followed by a round of winter fruit and spongecake--the latter the +pride of the housekeeper's heart, and dear to her master from old +association. + +"If you live like this all the time, Doctor Churchill," said John +Lansing Birch, leaning back in his chair at last with the air of a man +who asks no more of the gods, "I advise you to keep up a bachelor +establishment to the end of your days." + +"How would that suit you, Mrs. Fields?" asked the doctor, laughing. + +Mrs. Fields, from her place at the end of the table--they had insisted +on having her sit down with them--answered deliberately: + +"As long as a man's a man I suppose nothing on earth ever will make him +feel so satisfied with himself and all creation as being set down in +front of a lot of eatables. Now what gives me most peace of mind +to-night is knowing that that little Ellen Donohue, asleep on my bed, +has got enough new clothes, by this day's work, to make a very good +beginning of an outfit." + +"Now, how do you old bachelors feel?" cried Celia, amidst laughter, and +the party broke up. + +At ten o'clock that evening, when Charlotte had seen her sister +comfortably in bed--for Celia still needed help in undressing--had +tucked in Just and warned Jeff that it was bedtime, the telephone-bell +rang. + +Lanse and Captain Rayburn sat reading in the living-room, where the +telephone stood upon a desk, and Lanse, who was near it, moved lazily to +answer it. But before he could lift the receiver to his ear Charlotte +had run into the room and was taking it from him, murmuring, "It's for +me--I'm sure it is." + +"Well, I could have called you," said Lanse, looking curiously at her +as, with cheeks like poppies, she sat down at the desk and answered. +With ears wide open, although he had again taken up the magazine he had +laid down, he listened to Charlotte's side of the conversation. It was +brief, and no more remarkable than such performances are apt to be, but +Lanse easily appreciated the fact that it was giving his sister immense +satisfaction. + +"Hullo--yes--yes!" she called. "Yes--oh, _is_ she? Yes--yes, I'm so +glad! Yes--of course you are. I'm _so_ glad! Thank you. Yes--Good +night!" Charlotte hung up the receiver and swung round from the desk, +her face radiant, her eyes like stars. + +"Is she, indeed?" interrogated Lanse, lifting brotherly, penetrating +eyes to her face. "Engagement just announced? When is she to be married? +I'm glad you're glad--you might so easily have been jealous." + +Charlotte laughed--a ripple of merriment which was contagious, for +Captain Rayburn smiled over the evening paper, and Lanse himself grinned +cheerfully. + +"Mind telling us the occasion of such heartfelt joy?" he inquired. But +Charlotte came up behind him, laid a warm velvet cheek against his for a +moment, patted her uncle on the shoulder, cried, "Good night to you, +gentlemen dear!" and ran away to bed. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Charlotte let little Ellen slide down from her lap, washed and brushed. + +"Now, Ellen, be a good girl," she said as she set about picking up the +various articles she had been using in the baby's bath and dressing. +"Charlotte's in a hurry." + +The door-bell rang. Celia was in the kitchen, stirring up a pudding. It +was April now, and Celia's knee was so far mended that she could be +about the house without her crutches, with certain restrictions as to +standing, or using the knee in any way likely to strain it. + +It was Charlotte who did the running about, and it was she who started +for the door now, after casting one hasty look around the bath-room to +make sure that the baby could do herself no harm. + +Left to herself, Ellen investigated the resources of the bath-room and +found them wanting. After she had thrown two towels, the soap and her +own small tooth brush back into the tub from which she had lately +emerged, and which Charlotte had not yet emptied, she found her means of +entertainment at an end. The other toilet articles were all beyond her +reach. She gazed out of the window; there was nothing moving to be seen +but a row of Mrs. Fields's dish-towels waving in the wind. + +She turned to the door. Charlotte had meant to latch it, but it was a +door with a peculiar trick of swinging slowly open an inch after it had +apparently been closed, and it had not been latched. Ellen pushed one +small hand into the crack and pulled it open. + +Charlotte was nowhere to be seen or heard Across the hall was the door +of her room, ajar; and since doors ajar have somehow a singular charm +for babies, this one crossed to it and swung it wide. + +Here was richness. This was Charlotte's workshop. She slept in a smaller +room adjoining, the baby in the crib by her side; and with that smaller +room little Ellen was familiar, but not with this. The tiny feet +travelled eagerly about, from one desirable object to another. And +presently she remembered the big, porcelain-lined bath-tub, There was +nothing Ellen liked so well as to throw things into that tub and see +them splash. + +Two books crossed the hall and made the plunge, one after the other, +into the soapy water. Ellen gurgled with delight. Two more journeys +deposited a shoe, a hair-brush and a small box, contents unknown, in the +watery receptacle. Then Ellen made a discovery which filled her small +soul with joy. + +Just two days before, Charlotte had completed the set of colour drawings +which delineated the wall decoration of four rooms--a "den," a +dining-room and two bedrooms. They represented the work of the winter, +pursued under the exceeding difficulties of managing a household, and, +for the last three months, caring in part for a little child. + +But Charlotte had toiled faithfully, with the ardour of one who, having +only a small portion of time to give to a beloved pursuit, works at it +all the more zealously. And she had gone on from one room to another, in +her designing, with the hope that if in one she failed to please those +upon whom her success depended, some one of the series might appeal to +them, and give her the desired place in their interest. + +It was her intention on this very day, after luncheon should be over and +she should be free for a few hours, to make the much-dreaded, +wholly-longed-for visit to the great manufacturing house where she was +to show her wares. + +The drawings lay in a pile upon Charlotte's table, ready to be wrapped. +Baby Ellen, spying the pile of drawings, with an edge or two of +brilliant colour showing, trotted gaily over to the table. She stood on +tiptoe and pulled at the corner nearest her. The drawings fell from the +table in a disordered heap on the floor. + +The sight of them pleased Ellen immensely. She held one up and shook it +in her small fists, slowly and carefully tore a corner off it, and cast +the sheet down in favour of the next in order. This she tore cleanly in +two in the middle. The paper was tough, to be sure, but the little fists +were strong. + +Then she remembered that seductive bath-tub. A patter of little feet, a +laugh of pleasure--"Da!" cried Ellen, gleefully---and the first sheet +was in. + +Seven trips, pursued with vigour and growing hilarity, and Charlotte's +work had received its initial plunge into a new state of being. Four of +the drawings had been torn in two. The bath-tub was a mass of softly +blending colours. + +Charlotte came running back up the stairs, her mind, which had been held +captive by a young caller, reverting with some anxiety to the small +person whom she had left, as she thought, shut up in the safe bath-room. +She expected to hear Ellen crying, as was likely to be the case when +left alone without sufficient means of amusement; but the silence, as +she flew up-stairs, alarmed her. Silence was almost sure to mean +mischief. + +The bath-room door was ajar. Charlotte pushed it open and looked in. One +glance showed her he havoc which had been wrought. She stopped short, +staring with wild eyes into the bath-tub; then she caught her treasures +out of it, held them dripping before her for an instant, and let them +drop on the floor. She turned and ran out of the room to look for Ellen. + +The baby sat calmly on a rug, in the middle of Charlotte's room, engaged +in pulling the leaves, one by one, out of a small sketch-book which had +been on the table with the drawings. She looked up, a most engaging and +innocent expression on her round face, and smiled at Charlotte. But she +met no smile in return. + +"You little wretch!" breathed Charlotte, between her teeth, as she +seized the sketch-book and whirled the baby to her feet. "_Oh!_ Is this +the way you pay me for all I've done for you? You +_wicked--cruel--heartless_----" + +It was the explosion of a blind wrath which made the girl shake the tiny +form until Baby Ellen roared lustily. Charlotte set her upon the floor +again, and stood looking down at her with blazing eyes. The small head +was clasped in two little fists, as the child tore at her yellow curls, +her infant soul stirred to indignation and fright at this most +unexpected treatment. Suddenly Charlotte seized her again and bore her +swiftly away to Captain Rayburn's room. + +"Take care of her for an hour? Surely. But what's the matter?" + +It was small wonder he asked, for Charlotte's face was white, her eyes +brilliant, and her lips quivering as she spoke: + +"It's nothing--only baby has spoiled something of mine, and I'm so angry +I don't dare trust myself with her." + +She dropped little Ellen in his arms and fled, leaving her uncle to +think what he might. He looked grave as he soothed the baby, whose small +breast still heaved convulsively. + +"Are you conscientiously trying to do your full share in developing our +little second fiddle's capacity to play first?" he asked the baby, with +his face against hers. "Never mind, little one, never mind. Baby doesn't +know--but John Rayburn does--that this being a means of education to +other people is a thankless task sometimes. Don't cry. Aunty Charlotte +will kiss her hard and fast by and by, to make up for losing her temper +with the little maid. I suspect you were very, very trying, to make +Aunty Charlotte look like that." + +Charlotte came down-stairs after a time and attended to the luncheon, +her lips pressed tight together, her eyes heavy--although not with +tears. She would not let herself cry. + +Celia had a headache and did not notice, being herself disinclined to +talk, and Captain Rayburn forbore to look at Charlotte. But Jeff, when +he came in, observed at once that something was amiss. As soon as the +meal was over he drew Charlotte into a corner. + +"You haven't been to Murdock with the pictures and been--turned down?" +he asked. + +"No." + +"Going this afternoon, aren't you?" + +"No." + +"Why not? Thought that was the plan." + +Charlotte turned away, fighting hard for self-control. Jeff caught her +arm. + +"See here, Fiddle, you've got to tell me. You look like a ghost. No bad +news--from New Mexico?" + +"Oh, no--no! Please go away." + +"I won't till you tell me what's up. You're not sick?" + +Charlotte ran off up-stairs, Jeff following. "Charlotte," he cried, as +he pursued her into her room before she could turn and close the door, +"what's the use of acting like this? Something's happened, and I'm going +to know what it is." + +Charlotte sat down in a despairing heap on the floor and hid her face in +her hands. Jeff glanced helplessly from her to the table in the corner. +Then he observed that it was bare of the pile of drawings. + +"Nothing's happened to the wall-paper?" he asked, eagerly. + +Charlotte nodded. + +"What?" + +"Go look up in the attic, if you must know." + +Jeff dashed up-stairs, and surveyed the havoc. He came back breathless +with dismay. + +"How did it happen?" + +"Baby--bath-tub." + +"The little--_imp_! Are they spoiled?" + +"You saw." + +"Yes; colours run together a bit on some, others torn in two. Yet they +show what they were, Fiddle--I vow they do. I'd take them just as they +are, explain the whole thing, and see what comes of it." + +Charlotte raised her head to shake it vigorously. "Offer work in such +shape as that? I'm not such a goose." + +"Got to do them all over?" + +Her head sank again. "If I can get the courage." + +"Of course you can," declared Jeff, more cheerfully. "You never lack +pluck. Poor girl, I'm mighty sorry, though. It's simply tough to have it +happen at the last minute. You're all tired out, too--I know you are; +you ought never to have to do it all over again." + +"If I could just have shown them to Mr. Murdock," said Charlotte, +heavily, "and have found out that it was the sort of thing they would +like, it wouldn't seem so hard to do them all over again. But to work +for weeks more--and then perhaps have it a failure, after all----" + +"I know. Well, I've got to be off, or I'll be late. Mid-term exams this +week. Cheer up, Fiddle, maybe you can fix 'em up easier than you think." + +Late in the afternoon Charlotte came to her uncle for the baby. He had +cared for her all day. + +"She's safe with you now?" he asked, with a keen look up into her quiet +face. + +"I hope so." Charlotte's cheek was against the little head; she held the +baby tenderly. + +"When she is in bed to-night will you come and tell me what she did?" + +Charlotte shook her head, with a faint smile. "She wasn't to blame. I +left her alone for ten minutes." + +"But I should like to know about it," he said, coaxingly. "I have had +rather a busy day with Ellen-baby--why not reward me with your +confidence?" + +But she would not promise; neither did she come. This was exceedingly +characteristic of the girl, but Captain Rayburn, his sharp eyes +observing in her aspect the signs of misery in spite of a brave attempt +to seem cheerful, made up his mind to find out for himself. Twice he +encountered her coming down from the attic, and each time she avoided +speaking to him. + +That night, after everybody was in bed, Captain Rayburn, his canes held +under his arm, crept slowly up-stairs, a little electric candle of his +own in his pocket. By means of this he soon discovered Charlotte's +ruined work, which she had not yet found heart to remove from the place +where she had first laid it, trusting to the privacy of a place which +was seldom invaded by anybody. + +He sat down on a convenient box and studied the coloured plates and +sketches. As he looked, his lips drew into a whistle of surprise and +admiration, followed by a long breath of pity for what he was sure he +understood. + +Jeff, having just dropped off into the sound sleep of the healthy boy, +found himself gently punched into wakefulness. + +"Come to, Jeff, and tell me what I want to know," said Captain Rayburn, +smiling at his nephew in the dim white light from the candle. Jeff +raised himself on his pillow. + +"Wh-what's up?" he grunted, blinking like an owl. + +"Nothing serious. What was Charlotte going to do with her colour +drawings? Show them to some wall-paper manufacturers?" + +"What--er--yes--no. What do you know about it?" Jeff was up on his elbow +now, staring at his uncle. + +"All about it--except that." + +"Charlotte tell you? I didn't think she----" + +"She didn't. I guessed--and found out. You may as well tell me the +rest." + +"Isn't it a shame? Poor girl's worked months on those things; just got +'em done. You ought to have seen them; they were great. I told her she +could take them as they were, but she wouldn't hear of it." + +"But where were they going?" + +"To Mr. Murdock, at Chrystler & Company's office. He saw something of +Charlotte's once by chance, through a niece of his who's Charlotte's +friend, and he sent word to Fiddle that she ought to cultivate that +colour sense, or whatever it was, I forget what he called it--for she +had it to an unusual degree. Charlotte has cultivated it for two years +since then, and now--oh, confound that baby! That's what you get for +trying to be a missionary. I wish we'd sent her to an orphanage right +off. What's the use?" + +"You don't feel that 'sweet are the uses of adversity'? Sometimes they +are, though, son. The little second violin hasn't given in and wailed +about it; I saw no traces of tears." + +"No, you're right you haven't," agreed Jeff, proudly. "She's not that +sort. She's all broken up, though, inside, and I don't blame her." + +"No. Jeff, to-morrow--it's Saturday, isn't it? You must get those +drawings early in the morning, while Charlotte is busy with her Saturday +baking. We'll have a livery outfit, and you shall drive me down to +Chrystler's." + +"Uncle Ray! You're a trump! It's just what I said should be done. The +work shows perfectly well what she intended, and if a chap like you +explains it----" + +Captain Rayburn limped away, laughing, his hand red with the tremendous +grip his nephew had just given it. It gave him great pleasure to see the +way the boy invariably stood by his sister. It was a characteristic of +the Birch family, as a whole, which, it may be said, was worth more both +to themselves and to the world at large than the possession of almost +any other trait. + +It was not until dinner was over that Captain Rayburn and his nephew +returned, begging pardon for their tardiness, and explaining that they +had taken luncheon in the city. + +"Fiddle," Jeff said, with a face of preternatural gravity, "come up to +Uncle Ray's room when the dishes are done, will you?" + +He vanished before his sister could ask why, and before she could see +the grin which overspread his ruddy countenance as he turned away. But +something he could not keep out of his voice roused her curiosity, and +she made quick work of the dishes. + +"Come in, come in!" invited Captain Rayburn, and Jeff rose from the +couch, where his nose had been buried among some of his uncle's +periodicals. + +There were always books and magazines by the Score wherever Captain +Rayburn settled himself for any length of time. + +The ex-soldier and the schoolboy eyed each other doubtfully for an +instant as Charlotte dropped into a chair. Her usually bright face was +still very sober, and her eyelashes swept her cheek as she waited. + +Captain Rayburn nodded at Jeff. The boy stood on one foot, then on the +other, pushed his hands deep into his pockets, pulled them out again, +cleared his throat, laughed nervously, and strode suddenly across the +room to his sister. He thrust out his hand as he came to a halt before +her. "Congratulations to the distinguished decorator!" he cried, and +came to the end, temporarily, of his eloquence. + +Charlotte looked up in amazement. Jeff seized her hand and pumped it up +and down. She glanced in bewilderment at her uncle, and met his smile of +encouragement. + +"Mine, too," he said. + +"What--" she began, and her voice stuck in her throat. Her heart began +to thump wildly. Then Jeff told it all in one burst: + +"Uncle Ray found your stuff in the attic--thought it great--woke me up +and ground it out of me what you meant to do with it. He was sure, as I +was, it was fit to show, and you ought not to do it all over first. Got +a horse, drove into Chrystler's, saw Murdock. He would look at anything, +listened to the story about the baby, looked at the stuff. Face +changed--didn't it, Uncle Ray?--from politeness to interest, and all the +rest of it. Said the work had faults, of course--you expected that, +Fiddle--but it showed promise--'great promise,' that's just what he +said. He wants to see everything you do. He wants you to come and see +him. He thinks he can use at least two of your rooms, after you've made +them over. Oh, he was great! You've done it, Fiddle, you've done it!" + +But he was not prepared for the way his sister took the good news. She +sat looking solemnly at him for a minute; then she jumped up, turned +toward Captain Rayburn with a face on fire with conflicting and +uncontrollable emotions, then whirled about and was out of the room like +a flash. + +"Well, if I ever!" declared Jeff, in intense displeasure, staring at his +uncle. But Captain Rayburn's face was the picture of satisfaction. + +"It's all right, Jeff," said his uncle. "You never can tell what a woman +will do, but you can count on one thing--it won't be what you expect." + +"You don't suppose she was angry, do you?" + +The captain smiled. "No, I don't think she was angry," he said +confidently. + +The door flew open again. Two impetuous arms were around Jeff's neck +from behind, nearly strangling him. A breezy swirl of skirts, and +Captain Rayburn feared for the integrity of his head upon his shoulders. +And then the two were alone again. + +"Christopher Columbus!--discovered America in 1492!" ejaculated +Jefferson, an expression of great delight irradiating his countenance. +Then he looked at his uncle with an air of superior wisdom. "_Now_ +she'll cry," he said. + +"I shouldn't wonder if she did," agreed the captain, nodding. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Lanse stood in the kitchen door, lunch-pail in hand. It lacked ten +minutes of seven of a June morning; therefore he wore his working +clothes. He glanced down at them now with an expression of extreme +distaste, then from Celia to Charlotte, both of whom wore fresh print +dresses covered with the trim pinafore aprons which were Celia's pride. + +"When this siege is over," he remarked, "maybe I won't appreciate the +privilege of wearing clean linen from morning till night every day in +the week." + +"Poor old Lanse!" said Celia, with compassion. "That's been the part +that has tried your soul, hasn't it! You haven't minded the work, but +the dirt----" + +"I hope I'm not a Nancy, either," Lanse went on. "I'm sure I don't feel +that my wonderful dignity is compromised by my occupation. Better men +than I soil their hands to more purpose every day, but--well, I must be +off." + +He departed abruptly, leaving Celia standing in the door to wave a hand +to him as he turned the corner. + +"John Lansing is tired," she said to Charlotte, sisterly sympathy in her +voice. "I don't think we've half appreciated what all these months in +the shops have meant to him. It isn't as if he were training for one of +the engineering specialties, and were interested in his work as +practical education in his own line. He'll never have the least use for +anything he's learning now." + +"He may," Charlotte suggested. "He may marry a girl who will want him to +do odd jobs about the house. A mechanic in the family is an awfully +desirable thing. Mrs. Fields says there's nothing Doctor Churchill can't +do in the way of repairing; and when I told that to Uncle Ray he said +that all good surgeons needed to be born mechanics, and usually were. +And even though Lanse makes a lawyer, like father, he may need to get +out of the automobile he'll have some day, and crawl under it and make +it over inside before he can go on." + +Celia laughed, and went to call the rest of the family from their beds, +early hours having now perforce become the habit of the Birch family. + +It was some three hours later that Charlotte sat down for a moment to +rest on the little vine-covered back porch. The breakfast work and the +bed-making were over, the kitchen was in order, and there was time to +draw breath before plunging into the next set of duties. + +Celia had gone up-stairs to some summer sewing she had on hand; Captain +Rayburn had taken the baby around the corner to a pretty park, where the +two spent long hours now, in the perfect June weather; the boys were at +school, and the house was very still. + +Charlotte stretched her arms above her head, drawing a long breath. + +"How long ago it seems that I was free after breakfast to do what I +wanted to!" she said to herself. "And how little I realised all the +cares that were always on mother! Oh, if it were only time for them to +come back--this day--this hour--this minute! I wouldn't mind the work +now, if they were only here." + +The girl's gaze, fixed wistfully on the leafy treetops above her, +suddenly dropped to earth. A man's figure was stumbling along the little +path which led diagonally from the back of the Birch premises through a +gateway and off toward a back street, the route by which Lanse was +accustomed to take an inconspicuous short cut toward the locomotive +shops, by the river. + +For an instant, only the similarity of the figure to Lanse's struck her, +for the wavering walk and bandaged head, with hand pressed to the +forehead, did not suggest her brother. At the next instant the man +lifted a white face, and Charlotte gave a startled cry as she saw that +it was John Lansing himself, in a sorry plight. + +She ran to him. His head was clumsily tied up in a soiled cloth, which +the blood was beginning to stain. As she put her arm about him he smiled +wanly down at her, murmuring, "Thought I couldn't make it--glad I have. +No--not the house--Doctor's office. Don't want to scare Celia. It's +nothing." + +It might be nothing, but he was leaning heavily on his sister's strong +young shoulder as they crossed the threshold of Doctor Churchill's +little office, Charlotte having flung open the door without waiting to +ring. Nobody was there. + +"No, don't try to sit up in a chair. Here, lie down on the couch," she +insisted, and Lanse yielded, none too soon. His face had lost all colour +by the time he had stretched his tall form on the wide leather couch +which stood ready for just such occupants. + +Charlotte went back to the door and rang the bell; then, as nobody +appeared, she explored the lower part of the house for Mrs. Fields in +vain. + +Returning, she caught sight for the first time of a little memorandum on +the doctor's desk: "_Out. Return 10:30 A.M._" She glanced at the clock. +It was exactly quarter past ten. + +She studied her brother's face anxiously. The stain upon the cloth was +rapidly growing larger. She was sure he ought not to lie there with the +bleeding unchecked. She went to the door of the small private office; +her eyes fell upon a package labeled "Absorbent Cotton." She opened it, +pulled out a handful, and went back to her brother. + +She lifted the cloth from his head, and saw a long, uneven gash, from +which the blood was freely oozing. Taking two rolls of cotton, she laid +one on each side of the wound, forcing the edges together. After a +little experimenting she found that by holding her cotton very firmly +and pressing in a certain way, the flow of the blood was almost +completely checked. + +"Does that hurt?" she asked Lanse. He nodded without speaking, but she +did not lighten her pressure. She saw that he was very faint. + +"I'm sorry it hurts you, dear," she said, "but it stops the blood when I +press this way, and I'm sure that's better for you. The doctor will be +here soon, and I think I'd better hold it till he comes." + +Lanse nodded again, his brows contracting with pain, not only from the +pressure upon the wound, but from the reaction from the blow which had +caused it. + +Charlotte's eyes watched the clock, her hands never relinquishing their +task. + +"What next?" she was thinking. "Will the time ever be up and father and +mother come back to find us all safe? Three more months--three more +months----" + +Dr. Andrew Churchill came whistling softly across the lawn, glancing at +his watch, and noting that he was fifteen minutes later than he had +expected to be. In the doorway of his office he came to a surprised +halt. + +"Miss Charlotte! What's happened?" + +Lanse spoke faintly for himself: "Got hit at the shop--wrench slipped +out of man's hands above me--nothing much----" + +"No--I see," the doctor answered, surveying the situation. + +He lifted Charlotte's cotton rolls, noted the character and extent of +the injury, and lost no time in getting at work. + +"Keep up that pressure just as you were doing, please, Miss Charlotte, +while I make things ready. We'll have you all right in a jiffy, Birch." + +Two minutes later the doctor had Lanse stretched on a narrow white table +in an inner office. "I've got to hurt you quite a bit," he said to his +patient. "I don't want to give you an anesthetic, but somebody must hold +your head. Shall I call Mrs. Fields?" + +He glanced at Charlotte, and met what he had counted on--her help. "No, +I can manage," she said quietly. + +The doctor was soon ready, with arms, surgically clean, bared to the +elbows. + +It was rather a bad ten minutes for Lanse that followed, although he +bore it bravely, without a sound. The strong, steady support of his +sister's hands on the sides of his head never varied, and her eyes +watched the doctor's rapid movements with absorbed attention. Doctor +Churchill glanced at her two or three times, but met only quiet resolve +in her face, which, although pale, showed no sign of weakness. + +The injury was a severe one, being no clean cut, but a jagged gash +several inches in length, caused by a heavy blow with a rough tool. +Charlotte observed that the worker seemed never at a loss what to do, +that his touch was as light as it was practised, and that his eyes were +full of keen interest in his work. At length Doctor Churchill finished +his manipulations and put on the smooth bandages, which, he remarked +with a laugh, were to turn Lanse into the image of the Terrible Turk. + +"You show all the Spartan attributes of the real martyr," declared the +doctor, as he helped his patient back to a couch. "It took pluck to get +home here alone. How was it they sent no man with you?" + +"Everybody busy. A man was coming with me if I'd let him, but I didn't +care for his company so I slipped out. It was farther home than I +thought," Lanse explained. "How long will this lay me up? I can go back +to-morrow, can't I?" + +"Suppose we say the day after. That hammock on your front porch behind +the vines strikes me as a restful place for you. A bit of vacation won't +hurt you." + +By afternoon the ache in John Lansing's head had reached a point where +he gladly lay quietly in the hammock and submitted to be waited on by +two devoted feminine slaves. The doctor came over to see him after +supper, and found him in a high state of restlessness. He got him to +bed, stayed with him until he fell into an uneasy slumber, then left him +in charge of Celia, and came so quietly down to the front porch again +that he startled Charlotte, who lay in the hammock Lanse had lately +quitted. + +"Do you need me?" she asked eagerly. "I thought Lanse would rather have +Celia with him, and I was sure she wanted to take care of him, so I +stayed. But I'm ready, if I'm wanted." + +"You're wanted," returned Doctor Churchill, gently, "but not up-stairs +just now. Lie still in that hammock; let me fix the pillows a bit. Yes, +do, please. Do you know it's positively the first time I've seen you +appearing to rest since I've known you?" + +"Why, Doctor Churchill!" + +"It's absolutely so. You're growing thin under the cares you've assumed. +And I suspect, besides the cares, you keep yourself busy when you ought +to be resting. Am I right?" + +Charlotte coloured in the twilight of the porch, which the thick vines +of the wisteria screened from the electric light on the corner, except +for a few feet at the end nearest the door. She had been working harder +than ever all the spring over her designs for Chrystler & Company, and +her cheeks were of a truth somewhat less round and her colour less vivid +of hue. She was tired, although she had not owned it, even to herself. + +"You see, Doctor Churchill," she said, slowly, "until father and mother +went away I had been the lazy one of the family, the +good-for-nothing--the drone--and I've not yet learned to work in the +quiet way my sister does, which accomplishes so much without any fuss. +Now that she can get about again she does twice as much as I do, but she +doesn't make such a clatter of tools, and doesn't get the credit for +being as busy as I." + +"I see. Of course I had a feeling all along that this dish-washing and +dinner-getting and baby-tending were mere pretense, and I'm relieved to +have you own up to it!" + +Charlotte laughed. "After all, one doesn't like to be taken at one's own +estimate," she admitted. "I confess I feel a pang to have you agree with +me, even in jest." + +"Do you know," he said, abruptly, after an instant's silence, "you gave +me great pleasure this morning?" + +"I? How?" + +"By the way you stood by your brother." + +"Oh!" said Charlotte, astonished. "But I didn't do anything. + +"Nothing at all, except keep cool and hold steady. Those are the hardest +things a surgeon can set a novice at, you know." + +"But you needed me; and Mrs. Fields was out. You didn't know that, but I +did. And I don't think I'm one of the fainting-away kind." + +"No, you can stand fire. I think sometimes--do you know what I think?" + +Charlotte waited, her cheeks warm in the darkness. Praise is always +sweet when one has earned it. + +"I believe you would stand by a friend--to the last ditch." + +Charlotte was silent for a minute; then she answered, low and honestly, +"If he were a friend at all worth having I should try." + +"And expect the same loyalty in return?" + +"Indeed I should." + +"I should like," said Doctor Churchill's steady voice, "to try a +friendship like that--an acknowledged one. I always was a fellow who +liked things definite. I don't like to say to myself, 'I think that man +is my friend--I'm sure he is--he shows it.' No, I want him to say so--to +shake hands on it. I had such a friend once--the only one. When he died +I felt I had lost--I can't tell you what, Miss Charlotte. I never had +another." + +There was a long silence this time. The figure in the hammock lay still. +But Charlotte's heart was beating hard. She knew already that Doctor +Churchill was the warm friend of the family. Could he mean to single her +out as the special object of his regard--her, Charlotte--when people +like Lanse and Celia were within reach? + +Charlotte rose to her feet, the doctor rising with her. She held out her +hand, and he could see that she was looking steadily up at him. He gazed +back at her, and a bright smile broke over his face. + +"Do you mean it?" he said, eagerly. "Oh, thank you!" + +He grasped the firm young hand as Charlotte fancied he might have +grasped that of the comrade he had lost. + +"Can't we take a little walk in this glorious moonlight?" he asked, +happily. "Just up and down the block once or twice? Or are you too +tired?" + +Charlotte was not too tired; her weariness had vanished as if by magic. +The two strolled slowly up and down the quiet street, talking earnestly. +The doctor told his companion about several interesting cases he had +among the children, and of one little crippled boy upon whom he had +recently operated. The girl listened with an unaffected interest and +sympathy very grateful to the man who had long missed companionship of +that sort. An hour went by as if on wings. + +Celia came to the door as the two young people were saying good-night at +the foot of the steps. The doctor looked up at her with a smile. + +"Is the patient quiet?" he asked. + +"Yes, only he mutters in his sleep." + +"That's not strange. He's bound to be a bit feverish after that blow; +but I don't anticipate serious trouble. Let Jeff sleep on the couch in +his room; that will be all that's necessary." + +Celia stood looking down at the doctor as her sister came up the steps. +"It's strange," she said, "for I know Lanse isn't badly hurt, but all I +can think of to-night is how I wish father and mother were here." + +"That's been in my head all day," said Charlotte, with her arm around +Celia's shoulder. + +"I can understand," Doctor Churchill answered them both, and they knew +he could. "But just remember that though they were on the other side of +the world to stay for years, they can still come back to you. Just to +know that seems to me enough." + +They understood him. Celia would have made warm-hearted answer, but at +that instant the sound of heavy carriage-wheels rapidly rounding the +corner and coming toward them made all three turn to look. The carriage +came on at a great pace, swerved toward them, and drew in to the curb, +the driver pulling in his horses at their door. + +"Who can it be?" breathed Celia. "Nobody has written. It must be a +mistake." + +Charlotte gasped. "It couldn't be--Celia--it _couldn't_ be----" + +The driver leaped from the box and flung open the door. A tall figure +stepped out, turned toward them as if trying to make sure who they were, +then waved its arm. The familiar gesture brought two cries of rapture as +Charlotte rushed and Celia hurried down the steps. + +The doctor stood still and watched, his pulse quickening in sympathy. He +saw the tall figure grasp in turn both the slender ones, heard two eager +cries of "_Mother!"_ and beheld the second occupant of the carriage +fairly dragged out, to be smothered in two pairs of impetuous young +arms. Then he went quietly away over the lawn to his own house, feeling +that he had as yet no right to be one of the group about the +home-comers. + +In his room, an hour later, he stood before the portrait of a woman, no +longer young, but beautiful with the beauty which never grows old. He +stood looking up at it, then spoke gently to it. + +"She's just your sort, dear," he said, his keen eyes soft and bright. +"It's only friendship now, for she's not much more than a child, and I +wouldn't ask too much too soon. But some day--give me your blessing, +mother, for I've been lonely without you as long as I can bear it." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"The gentle art of cooking in a chafing-dish," discoursed Captain John +Rayburn, lightly stirring in a silver basin the ingredients of the cream +sauce he was making for the chopped chicken which stood at hand in a +bowl, "is one particularly adapted to the really intelligent masculine +mind. No noise, no fuss, no worry, no smoke, everything +systematic,"--with a practised hand he added the cream little by little +to the melted butter and flour--"business-like and practical. It is a +pleasure to contemplate the delicate growth of such a dish as this which +I am preparing. It is----" + +"You _may_ have thickening enough for all that cream," Celia +interrupted, doubtfully, watching her uncle's cookery with an anxious +eye. + +"And you _may_ have sufficient mental poise to be able to lecture on +cookery and do the trick at the same time," supplemented Doctor +Churchill, his eyes also on the chafing-dish. In fact, everybody's eyes +were on the chafing-dish. + +The entire Birch family, Doctor Churchill, Lanse's friend, Mary +Atkinson; Jeff's comrade, Carolyn Houghton; and Just's inseparable, +Norman Carter--Just scorned girls, and when asked to choose whom he +would have as a guest for Captain Rayburn's picnic, mentioned Norman +with an air of finality--sat about a large rustic table upon a charming +spot of greensward among the trees of a little island four miles down +the river. + +A great bowl of pond-lilies decorated the centre of the table; and +bunches of the same flowers, tied with long yellow ribbons, lay at each +plate. + +When Captain Rayburn entertained he always did it in style. And since +this picnic had been especially designed to celebrate the home-coming of +the travellers, a week after their arrival, no pains had been spared to +make the festival one to be remembered. + +Mrs. Birch was in the seat of honour, a position which she graced. In a +summer gown of white, her face round and glowing as it had not been in +years, she seemed the central flower of a most attractive bouquet. Mr. +Birch looked about him with appreciative eyes. + +"I don't think _I_ could attend to the chafing-dish with any certainty +of result," he remarked. "I am too much occupied in observing the +guests. It strikes me that nowhere, either in New Mexico or Colorado, +did I see any people approaching those before me in interest and +attractiveness. Except one," he amended, as a general laugh greeted this +extraordinary statement, "and even she never seemed to me quite so----" +He hesitated. + +"Say it, sir!" cried Lanse. "We're with you whatever it is. I think +'beautiful' is the word you want." + +Mr. Birch's face lighted with a smile. "Thank you, that is the word," he +said. + +The captain stirred his chopped chicken into his cream sauce with the +air of a chef. "Now here you are," he said. + +The captain would not allow everything upon the table at once, picnic +fashion, but kept the viands behind a screen a few feet away, and with +Jeff's and Just's assistance, served them according to his ideas of the +fitness of things. + +Toward the end of the feast a particularly fine strawberry shortcake +appeared, which was followed by ice-cream. Altogether, the captain's +guests declared no picnic had ever been so satisfactory. + +"Isn't the captain great?" said Doctor Churchill, enthusiastically, to +Celia, when they had all left the table and were beginning to stroll +about. "Cut off from the sort of thing he would like best to do--that he +aches to do--he occupies himself with what comes in his way. He would +deceive any one into thinking him completely satisfied." + +"I'm so glad you understand him," Celia answered. "Everybody doesn't. +Just the other day a caller said to me, 'Isn't it lovely that Captain +Rayburn is so contented with his quiet life? Whenever I see him sitting +in the park with the baby and a book, I think what a mercy it is that he +isn't like some men, or he never could take it so calmly.' Calmly! Uncle +Ray would give his life to-morrow night if he could have a day at the +head of his company over there in the Philippines." + +"I don't doubt it for an instant. Since I've known him I've learned more +admiration for the way he keeps himself in hand than I ever had for any +single quality in any human being. I'm mighty sorry he's going away. +It's for a year in France and Italy, he tells me." + +"Yes. He's very fond of travel, and I imagine he's a little restless +after the winter here. Do you know what I suspect? That he came just so +that mother might feel somebody was keeping an eye on us." + +"That would be like him. He's immensely fond of you all." + +Celia caught sight of her uncle beckoning to her, and went to him. +Doctor Churchill saw Mrs. Birch, lying among the gay striped pillows in +a hammock which had been brought along for her special use, and went +over to her. His eyes noted the direction in which Charlotte was +vanishing, but he sat down on a log by the hammock as if he had no other +thought than for the gracious lady who looked up at him with a smile. + +And indeed he had thought for her. It was impossible to be with her and +not give oneself up to her charm. + +"I have been wanting to see you alone for a minute, Doctor Churchill," +she said. "It has been such a busy week I haven't had half a chance to +express to you how I appreciate your care for my little family. And +especially I am grateful to you for the perfect recovery of Celia's +knee. Doctor Forester has assured me that the knee might easily have +been a bad case." + +"I am very thankful that the results were good, Mrs. Birch," Doctor +Churchill answered. + +Nobody interrupted the two for a long half-hour. At the end of it Doctor +Churchill rose, his eyes kindling. + +"Thank you!" he said fervently. "Thank you! More than that I won't +ask--yet. But if you will trust me--I promise you may trust me, little +as you know me--you may be sure I shall keep my word, not only to you, +but to my mother I know her ideals, and if I can be fit to be the friend +of one who fills them----" + +Mrs. Birch held out her hand. + +"I do trust you, Doctor Churchill," she said. "Not only from what Doctor +Forester has told me of your family, but from what I have seen and heard +for myself." + +With a light heart the doctor went away over the hill to the path which +descended to the river. Far down the bank, near the pond-lilies, he had +caught a glimpse of a blue linen gown. + +Captain Rayburn and Celia came over to establish themselves upon rugs +and cushions by the side of the hammock. Mr. Birch, who had been out +with Just and Norman in a boat, appeared, sunburned and warm, and joined +the party. + +"I've been wanting to get just this quartet together," remarked the +captain, when his brother-in-law had cooled off and was lying +comfortably stretched along a mossy knoll. + +"Go ahead, Jack, we are ready to listen. Your plans are always +interesting," Mr. Birch replied. "What now?" + +"In the first place," began the captain, "I want you people to +understand that the person who has had least fun out of this absence of +yours is the young woman before you." + +"O Uncle Ray!" protested Celia, instantly. "Haven't I had as much fun as +you?" + +"Hardly. Between Mrs. Fields and Miss Ellen Donohue I don't know when +I've been so enlivened. I hardly know which of the two has afforded me +more downright amusement, each in her way. But Celia, I tell you, +Roderick and Helen, has been one brave girl, and that's all there is of +it." + +"You'll find no dissenting voice here," Celia's father declared, and her +mother added: + +"Nobody who knows her could expect her to be anything else." + +Celia looked away, her cheeks flushing. + +"So now I want her to have her reward," said Captain Rayburn. "Let me +take her with me for the year abroad." + +Celia started, glancing quickly from her father to her mother, neither +of whom looked so surprised as she would have expected. Both returned +her gaze thoughtfully. + +"How about the going to college?" Mr. Birch questioned. "I thought that +was the great ambition." + +"She shall have a four year's course in one if she comes with me. I +shall spend much time in the libraries and art collections. My friends +in several cities are people it is worth a long journey to meet. +Undoubtedly such a year would be valuable at the end of a college +course, and it may appear to you that the studies within the scholastic +walls in this country had better come first. The point is that I am +going now. I may not be, at the moment Celia takes her diploma. And the +question of her health seems to me also one to be considered. Months of +enforced quiet haven't been any too good for her." + +"There's not much need to ask Celia what she would like," Mr. Birch +observed. + +The girl studied his face anxiously. "But could you spare me?" she +asked. "If it means that mother would have to take my place again----" + +"It won't mean that," said Captain Rayburn, stoutly. "My plans cover two +maids in the Birch household, the most capable to be obtained." + +"See here Jack," said Mr. Roderick Birch, quickly, "you can't play good +fairy for the whole family--and it's not necessary. As soon as I am at +work in the office again this close figuring will be over." + +"I want my niece Charlotte to go to her school of design," the captain +went on, imperturbably. + +"We mean that she shall." + +"I wish you people would let me alone!" he cried. "Here I am, your only +brother, without a chick or a child of my own. Am I to be denied what is +the greatest delight I can have? By a lucky accident my money was safe +in the panic that swept away yours. Pure luck or providence, or whatever +you choose to call it--certainly not because my business sagacity was +any greater than yours. You wouldn't take a cent from me at the time, +but you've got to let me have my way now. Celia goes with me--if you +agree. Charlotte goes to her art school, and if you refuse me the fun of +assuming both expenses, I'll be tremendously offended--no joke, I +shall." + +He looked so fierce that everybody laughed--somewhat tremulously. There +could be no doubt that he meant all he said. Celia's cheeks were pink +with excitement; Mrs. Birch's were of a similar hue, in sympathy with +her daughter's joy. + +"I tell you, that girl Charlotte," began the captain again, "deserves +all anybody can do for her. She has developed three years in one. Fond +as I've always been of her, I hadn't the least idea what was in the +child. She's going to make a woman of a rare sort. Look here!" A new +idea flashed into his mind. + +He considered it for the space of a half-minute, then brought it forth: + +"Let me take her, too. Not for the year--don't look as if I'd hit you, +Helen--just till October. I mean to sail in ten days, you know. I've +engaged plenty of room. There'll be no trouble about a berth----" + +"O Uncle Ray!" Celia interrupted him. There could be no question about +her unselfish soul. If she had been happy before, she was rapturous now. + +"Three months will give her quite a journey," the captain hurried on, +leaving nobody any time for objections. "I'll see that she gets art +enough out of it to fill her to the brim with inspiration. And there +will surely be somebody she can come back with. May I have her?" + +"What shall we do with you?" his sister said, softly. "I can't deny +you--or her. If her father agrees----" + +"If I didn't know your big heart so well, Jack," said Roderick Birch, +slowly, "I should be too proud to accept so much, even from my wife's +brother. But I believe it would be unworthy of me--or of you--to let +false pride stand in my girls' way." + +From the distance two figures were approaching, one in blue linen, the +other in white flannel--Charlotte and Doctor Churchill. + +They were talking gaily, laughing like a pair of very happy children, +and carrying between them a great bunch of daisies and buttercups that +would have hid a church pulpit from view. + +"Let's tell her now," proposed Celia. "I can't wait to have her know." + +"Go ahead," agreed her uncle. "And let the doctor hear it, too. If he +isn't a brother of the family, it's because the family doesn't know one +of the finest fellows on the face of the earth when it sees him." + +"You're a most discerning chap, Jack Rayburn," said his brother-in-law, +heartily, "but there are other people with discernment. I have liked +young Churchill from the moment I saw him first. All that Forester says +of him confirms my opinion." + +"How excited you people all look!" called Charlotte, merrily, as she +drew near. "Tell us why." + +Captain Rayburn nodded to Celia. She shook her head vigorously in +return. He glanced at Mr. and Mrs. Birch, both of whom smilingly refused +to speak. So he looked up at Charlotte, and put his question as he might +have fired a shot. + +"Will you sail for Europe with Celia and me week after next, to stay +till October? Celia will stay the year with me; you I shall ship home as +useless baggage in the fall." + +Charlotte stood still, her arms tightening about the daisies and +buttercups, as if they represented a baby whom she must not let fall. A +rich wave of colour swept over her face. She looked from one to another +of the group as if she could not believe her good fortune. Then suddenly +she dropped her flowers in an abandoned heap, clasped her hands tightly +together, and drew one long breath of delight. + +"Can you spare me?" she murmured, her eyes upon her mother. + +Mrs. Birch nodded, smiling. "I surely can," she said. + +"Turn about is fair play," said Mr. Birch, "and your uncle seems to +consider himself a person of authority." + +"I want," declared Captain Rayburn, his bright eyes studying each +niece's winsome young face in turn, "in the interest of the family +orchestra, to tune the violins." + + * * * * * + +"Speaking of violins," said the captain, half an hour later, quite as if +no interval of busy talk and plan-making had occurred, "suppose we see +about how far off the key they are at present. Jeff--Just----" + +Everybody stared, then laughed, for Jeff and Just instantly produced, +from behind that same screen, five green-flanneled, familiar shapes. The +entire company had reassembled under the oak-trees, drawn together by a +secret summons from the captain. + +"Now see here, Uncle Ray," remonstrated his eldest nephew, "this is +stealing a march on us with a vengeance." + +"I'm entirely willing you should let a march steal on me," retorted the +captain, disposing himself comfortably among his rugs and cushions, "or +a waltz, or a lullaby, or anything else you choose. But music of some +sort I must have." + +Laughing, they tuned their instruments, and the rest of the company +settled down to listen. Lanse, his eyes mischievous, passed a whispered +word among the musicians, and presently, at the signal, the well-known +notes of "_Hail to the Chief_" were sounding through the woods, played +with great spirit and zest. And as they played, the five Birches marched +to position in front of the captain, then stood still and saluted. + +"Off with you, you strolling players!" cried the captain. "The spectacle +of a 'cello player attempting to carry his instrument and perform upon +it at the same time is enough to upset me for a week. Sit down +comfortably, and give us '_The Sweetest Flower That Blows_.'" + +So they played, softly now, and with full appreciation of the fact that +the melodious song was one of their mother's favourites. + +But suddenly they had a fresh surprise, for as they played, a voice from +the little audience joined them, under his breath at first, then--as the +captain turned and made vigorous signs to the singer to let his voice be +heard--with tunefully swelling notes, which fell upon all their ears +like music of a rare sort: + + "The sweetest flower that blows + I give you as we part. + To you it is a rose, + To me it is my heart." + +The captain knew, as the voice went on, that those barytone notes were +very fine ones--knew better than the rest, as having a wider +acquaintance with voices in general. But they all understood that it was +to no ordinary singer they were listening. + +When the song ended the captain reached over and laid a brotherly arm on +Doctor Churchill's shoulder. "Welcome, friend," he said, with feeling in +his voice. "You've given the countersign." + +But the doctor, although he received modestly the words of praise which +fell upon him from all about, would sing no more that day. It had been +the first time for almost three years. And "_The Sweetest Flower That +Blows_" was not only Mrs. Birch's favourite song; it had been Mrs. +Churchill's also. + +"See here, Churchill," said Lanse, as the orchestra rested for a moment, +"do you play any instrument?" + +"Only as a novice," admitted the doctor, with some reluctance. + +"Which one?" + +"The fiddle." + +"And never owned up!" chided Lanse. "You didn't want to belong to such +an amateurish company?" + +"I did--very much," said Churchill, with emphasis. "But you needed no +more violins." + +"If I'm to be away all next year," said Celia, quickly, "they will need +you. Will you take my place?" + +"No, indeed, Miss Celia," the doctor answered, decidedly. "But if you +would let me play--second." + +He looked at Charlotte, smiling. She returned his smile, but shook her +head. "I'm Second Fiddle," she said. "I'll never take Celia's place." + +The eyes of the two sisters met, affectionately, comprehendingly. + +"I should like to have you, dear," said Celia, softly. + +But Charlotte only shook her head again, colouring beneath the glances +which fell on her from all sides. "I'd rather play my old part," she +answered. + +Jeff caught up and lifted high in the air an imaginary glass. + +"Here's to the orchestra!" he called out. "May Doctor Churchill read the +score of the first violin. Here's to the First Violin! May she hear +plenty of fine music in the old country, and come back ready to coach us +all. And here's--" + +He paused and looked impressively round upon the company, who regarded +him in turn with interested, sympathetic eyes. "I say we've called her +'Second Fiddle' long enough," he said, and hesitated, beginning to get +stranded in his own eloquence. "Anyhow, if she hasn't proved this year +that she's fit to play anything--dishes or wall-paper or babies--" He +stopped, laughing. "I don't know how to say it, but as sure as my name's +Jefferson Birch she--er--" + +"Hear! hear!" the captain encouraged him softly. + +"Here's,"--shouted the boy, "here's to the Second Violin!" + +Through the friendly laughter and murmurs of appreciation, Charlotte, +dropping shy, happy eyes, read the real love and respect of everybody, +and felt that the year's experiences had brought her a rich reward. But +all she said, as Jeff, exhausted by his effort at oratory, dropped upon +the grass beside her, was in his ear: + +"If anybody deserves a toast, Jeffy boy, I think it's you. You've eaten +so many slices of mine--burnt to a cinder--and never winced! If that +isn't heroism, what is?" + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOK II + +THE CHURCHILL LATCH-STRING + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Here's another, Charlotte!" + +Young Justin Birch's lusty shout rang through the house from hall to +kitchen, vibrating even as far as the second-story room in the rear, +where Charlotte herself happened at that moment to be. In response +people appeared from everywhere. The bride-elect was the last to put in +an appearance, and when she came, there was a certain reluctance in her +aspect. + +"Hurry up, there!" admonished Just, already busy with chisel and hammer +at the slender, flat box which lay upon the hall floor, in the centre of +an interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had +stopped upon the landing. "You act as if you didn't want to see what's +in it," he remonstrated, whacking away vigorously. + +"Indeed I do," Charlotte declared, coming on down the staircase, smiling +at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back, every one. +"But I'm beginning to feel as if I--as if they--as if--" + +"It must seem odd to feel like that," John Lansing agreed, quizzically. +Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for the wedding, +from the law-school at which he had been for two years. + +Celia slipped her arm about her younger sister's shoulders. "I know what +she means," she said, in her gentle way. "It's so unexpected to her, +after sending out no invitations at all, that gifts should keep pouring +in like this. But it's not unexpected to us." + +"Oh, I know how many of them come from father's and mother's friends, +and how many from Andy's grateful patients. It's all the more +overwhelming on that account." + +"Look out there, Just!" The admonition came from Jeff, and consequently +was delivered from some six feet in the air, where that +nineteen-year-old's head was now carried. "Don't split those pieces; +they'll be fine for the Emerson boys building." + +"That's so." Just wielded his tools with more care. Presently he had the +long parcel lying on the floor. At this moment Mr. Roderick Birch opened +the outer hall door. + +"As usual," was his smiling comment, as he laid aside hat and overcoat +and joined the circle. "Charlotte's latest?" + +Charlotte herself undid the wrappings, wondering what the gift could be. +She disclosed a long piece of dingy-looking metal. + +"A new shingle for Andy!" cried Jeff. + +Just turned the heavy slab over, and it proved to be of copper. Words +came into view, hammered and beaten into the glinting metal. An +effective conventionalised border surrounded the whole. + +"'Ye Ornaments of a House are ye Guests who Frequent it,'" read the +assembled company, in chorus. + +"Oh, isn't that beautiful!" cried Charlotte. + +Jeff glanced at her suspiciously. "She says that about everything," he +remarked. "Don't think much of it myself. The sentiment may be awfully +true--or otherwise; but what's the thing for? If anybody wanted to hint +at an invitation to visit Andy and Charlotte, he might have done it +without putting himself on record on a slab of copper four feet long. +Who sent it, anyway?" + +Celia hunted carefully through the wrappings, and everybody finally +joined in the search, but no card appeared. + +"I'm so sorry!" lamented Charlotte. "I shall never know whom to thank." + +"It lets you out, anyhow," Jeff said, soothingly. "You won't have to +tell any lies. The thing is of about as much use as a bootjack." + +"Why, but it's lovely!" protested Charlotte, with evident sincerity. +"Copper things are very highly valued just now, and the work on that is +artistic. Don't you see it is?" + +"Can't see it," murmured Jeff. "But of course my not seeing it doesn't +count. I can't see the value of that idiotic old battered-up copper pail +you cherish so tenderly, but that's because I lack the true, heaven-born +artist's soul. Where are you going to put this, Fiddle?" + +Charlotte's eyes grew absent. She was sending them in imagination across +the lawn to the little old brick house next door, which was soon to be +her home, as she had done every time a new gift arrived. There were a +good many puzzles of this sort in connection with her wedding gifts. +Where to put some of them she knew, with a thrill of pleasure, the +instant she set eyes on them; where in the world others could possibly +go was undoubtedly a serious question. + +"Hello, here comes Andy!" called Just, from the window. "Give him a +chance at it. Perhaps he can use it somewhere in the surgery--as a +delicate way of cheering the patients when they feel as if perhaps +they'd better not have come." + +Charlotte turned as the hall door swung open, admitting Dr. Andrew +Churchill and a fresh breath of October air. + +Everybody turned about also. Into everybody's face came a look of +affectionate greeting. Even the eyes of the father and mother--and this, +just now, was the greatest test of all--showed the welcome to which +their own children were happily used. + +The figure on the threshold was one to claim attention anywhere. It was +a strong figure with a look of life and intense physical vigour. The +face matched the body: it was fresh-coloured and finely molded; and +nobody who looked at it and into the clear gray eyes of Andrew Churchill +could fail to recognise the man behind. + +Lanse, who was nearest, shook hands warmly. "It seems good to see you, +old fellow," he said, heartily. "If this whirl of work they tell me you +are in had kept up much longer, I should have turned patient myself and +sent for you. Going to find time to be married in, think, Andy?" + +"I rather expect to be able to manage it," responded Doctor Churchill, +laughing. "How long have you been home, Lanse--two hours? Just promised +to let me know when you came." + +"I started, but you were whizzing up the street in the runabout," +protested Just, picking up the débris of the unpacking and carrying it +away. "There was a trail of steam behind you sixteen feet long. I think +you were running beyond lawful speed." + +"Here's your latest acquisition." Jeff pointed it out, picking up the +copper slab and holding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection. +Doctor Churchill turned and regarded it with interest. Then his bright +glance shifted to Charlotte, and he smiled at her. + +"That's great, isn't it?" he said, and she nodded, smiling. + +Just, returning, shouted. "Trust 'em both to get round anything that may +turn up! 'That's great!' is certainly safe and non-committal of a +four-foot motto that's of no earthly use." + +"Well, but I like it," Doctor Churchill asserted, and came over to +Charlotte's side, where he examined the copper slab with attention. +"Don't you believe that will pretty nearly fit the depression in the +fireplace just above the shelf?" + +Her interested look responded to his. "Why, I believe it will!" she +answered. + +"Who sent it?" + +"We can't find out." + +"No card? That's odd. But there may be something about it to show. It +looks to me as if it had been made for that place. If it proves to fit, +we can narrow the mystery down to the few people who have seen the new +fireplace. Let's go over and try, shall we? Come on--everybody!" + +Accordingly, the whole company streamed out across the lawn--Charlotte +and Doctor Churchill, Celia, her pretty blond head shining in the +October sunlight, Lanse and Jeff and Just, three stalwart fellows, +ranging in ages from twenty-six to sixteen, Mr. and Mrs. Birch, the +happy possessors of this happy clan. + +They hurried up the two steps of the small front porch, into the brick +house, and stampeded into the front room. They stopped opposite the +fireplace, where Doctor Churchill was already triumphantly inserting the +copper panel--for that is what it instantly became--in the long, +horizontal depression in the fireplace. + +"It fits to a hair!" he exclaimed, and a general murmur of approbation +arose. Now that the odd gift was where it so clearly belonged, its +peculiar beauty became evident even to the skeptical Jeff and Just. + +The new fireplace was the heart of the little old house. Moreover, so +cunningly had it been designed and built that it seemed to have been in +its place from the beginning. + +Doctor Churchill and Charlotte had made a certain distant field the +object of many walks and drives, and had personally selected the +"hardheads" of which the fireplace was constructed. A small bedroom, +opening off the square little parlour, had had its partition removed, +and in this alcove-like end of the room the fireplace had been built. + +The effect was very good, and the resulting apartment, the only one on +the lower floor which could be spared for general use, had become at +once the place upon which Charlotte was concentrating most of her +efforts, meaning to make it a room where everybody should wish to come. + +The usual interruption of a summons for Doctor Churchill to the office +in the wing sent the assembled company off again. Just as Charlotte was +leaving the room, however--the last of all, because she could not bring +herself to desert the joy of the copper panel in its setting of gray +stone--Doctor Churchill hurriedly returned. + +Seeing Charlotte alone and about to vanish, he ran after her and drew +her back. + +"I have to go right away, dear," he said. "But I want to look at the new +gift alone with you a minute. It's really a fine addition, isn't it?" + +"Oh, beautiful! In the firelight and the lamplight how that copper will +gleam!" + +"I wish we knew to whom we owe such a thought of us. I like the +sentiment, too, don't you, Charlotte? I hope--do you know, it's one of +my pleasantest hopes--that our home is going to be one that knows how to +dispense hospitality. The real sort--not the sham." + +Charlotte looked up at him and smiled. + +"As if I need tell you what I wish!" he said, with gay tenderness. "You +know every thought I have about it." + +"We'll make people happy here," said Charlotte. "Indeed, I want to, Andy +Churchill. This room--they shall find a welcome always--rich and poor. +Especially--the poor ones." + +"Especially the poor ones. Won't old Mrs. Wilsey think it's pleasant +here? And Tom Brannigan--he'll be scared at first, but we'll show him +it's a jolly place--Charlotte, I musn't get to dreaming day-dreams now, +or I never can summon strength of purpose to wait another week. One week +from to-day! What an age it seems!" + +"Run and make your calls," advised Charlotte, laughing, as she escaped +from him and hurried to the door. "The busier you keep, the shorter the +time will seem." + +The week went by at last. To the young man, one of a large family long +since scattered--many members of it, including both father and mother, +in the old Virginia churchyard--the time could not come too soon. He had +lived alone with his housekeeper almost four years now, and during +nearly all that time he had been waiting for Charlotte. + +She was considerably younger than he, and when he had been, after two +years of acquaintance, allowed to betroth himself to her, he had been +asked to wait yet another two years while she should "grow up a little +more," as her wise father put it. + +As for Charlotte herself, she still seemed to those who loved her at +home hardly grown up enough at twenty-two to go to a home of her own. + +Yet father and mother, brothers and sister, were all ready to +acknowledge that those two years had resulted in the early budding of +very sweet and womanly qualities; and nobody, watching Charlotte with +her lover, could possibly fear for either that they were not ready for +the great experiment. + +The autumn leaves were bright, the white fall anemones were in blossom, +when Charlotte's wedding-day came; and with leaves and anemones the +little stone church was decorated. + +Not an invitation of the customary sort had been sent out. But, as is +usual in a comfortable, un-aristocratic suburb, the news that Doctor +Churchill and Miss Charlotte Birch wanted everybody who knew and cared +for them to come to the church and see them married had spread until all +understood. + +The result was that no one of Doctor Churchill's patients--and he had +won a large and growing practice among all classes of people--felt left +out or forgotten, and that, as the clock struck the hour of noon, the +church was crowded to the doors with those who were real friends of the +young people. + +"Somehow I don't feel a bit like a bride," said Charlotte, looking, +however, very much like one, as she stood in the centre of her mother's +room in bridal array. + +Four elegant male figures, two in frock coats, two in more youthful but +equally festive attire, were surveying her with satisfaction. + +Near by hovered Celia, the daintiest of maids of honour: Mrs. Birch, as +charming as a girl herself in her pale gray silken gown: and little +Ellen Donohue, a six-year-old protégée of the family, her hazel eyes +wide with gazing at Charlotte, whom she hugged intermittently and adored +without cessation. + +"You don't feel like a bride, eh?" was Lanse's reply to Charlotte's +statement. "Well, I shouldn't think you would--an infant like you. You +look more suitable for a christening than for a marriage ceremony. +Father's likely, when Doctor Elder asks who gives the bride away, to +murmur, 'Charlotte Wendell,' thinking he's inquiring the child's name." + +Charlotte threw him a glance, half-shy, half-merry. "As best man you +should be saying complimentary things about your friend's choice." + +"I am. The trouble is you're not old enough to enjoy being mistaken for +a babe in arms." + +"I don't think she looks like a child. I think she's the stunningest +young woman I ever saw!" declared Just, with enthusiasm. "If her hair +was done up on top of her head she'd be a regular queen." + +Celia laughed. Her own beautiful blond locks were piled high, and the +style became her. But Charlotte's dusky braids were prettier low on the +white neck, in the girlish fashion in which they had long been worn, and +Celia announced this fact with a loving touch on the graceful _coiffure_ +her own hands had arranged for her sister. + +"You can't improve her," she said. "She looks like our Charlotte, and +that's just the way we want her to look. That's what Andy wants, too." + +"Of course he does. And I can tell you, he looks like Andy," Lanse +asserted. "Did you know he'd been making calls all the morning, the same +as usual? Made 'em till the last minute, too. It isn't fifteen minutes +since I saw his machine roll in. Hope he wasn't rattled when he wrote +his prescriptions." + +It was the Birches' custom to make as little as possible of family +crises. Talk and laugh as lightly as they would, however, every one of +them was watching Charlotte with anxiety, for it was the first break in +the dear circle, and it seemed almost as if they could have better +spared any other. + +Yet Charlotte was going to live no farther away than next door--this was +the comfort of the situation. + +"Well, I must be off to look after my duties to the groom," Lanse +announced presently, with a precautionary glance into his mother's +mirror to make sure that not a hair of his splendour was disturbed. "I +ought to have been with him before this, only my infatuation for the +bride makes my case difficult. You've heard of these fellows who hang +about another chap's girl till the last minute, doing the forsaken act. +I feel something like that. Good luck, little girl. Keep cool, and trust +Andy and Doctor Elder to get you safely married." + +He stooped to kiss her, and Charlotte held him close for an instant. But +he made the brotherly embrace a short one, comprehending that much of +that sort of thing would be unsafe both for Charlotte and her family, +and went gaily away to the house next door. + +"Nerve good?" Lanse asked Doctor Churchill, an hour later as they waited +in the vestry for the summons of the organ. + +Doctor Churchill smiled. "Pretty steady," he answered. "Still--I'm aware +something is about to happen." + +Lanse eyed him affectionately. + +"Do you know it's a good deal to me to be gaining three brothers by this +day's work?" the doctor added; and Lanse felt a sudden lump in his +throat, which he had to swallow before he could answer: + +"I assure you we're feeling pretty rich, to-day, too, old fellow." + +It was all over presently--a very simple, natural sort of affair, with +the warm October sunlight streaming through the richly coloured windows +upon the figures at the altar, touching Celia's bright hair into a halo, +and sending a ruby beam across the trailing folds of Charlotte's bridal +gown. + +There was no display of any sort. The whole effect was somehow that of a +girl being married in the enclosing circle of her family, without +thought of the hundreds of eyes upon her. A quiet wedding breakfast +followed, at which Doctor Forester and his son, the latter lately +returned from a long period of study abroad, were the only guests. +Doctor Churchill's housekeeper, Mrs. Fields, although invited to be +present as a guest insisted on remaining in the kitchen. + +"Just as if," she said, when everybody in turn remonstrated with her, +"when I've looked after that boy's food from the days when he ate +nothing but porridge and milk, I was going to let anybody else feed him +with his wedding breakfast!" + +But this part of the business of getting married was also soon over. +Doctor Churchill was to take his bride away for a month's stay in a +little Southern resort among the mountains, dear to him by old +association. It was the first vacation he had allowed himself during +these four years of his practice, and his eyes had been sparkling as he +planned it. They were sparkling again now, as he stood waiting for +Charlotte to say good-bye and come away with him, but his face spoke his +sympathetic understanding of those who were finding this the hardest +moment which had yet come to them. + +"Take care of her, Andy," was what, in almost the same words, they all +more or less brokenly said to him at last; and to each and all he +answered, in that way of his they loved and trusted, "I will." + +From Andrew Churchill it was assurance enough. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"There! Doesn't that look like a 'Welcome Home'?" + +Celia stood in the doorway and surveyed her handiwork. Mrs. Birch, from +an opposite threshold, nodded, smiling. + +"It does, indeed. You have given the whole house a festival air which +will captivate Andy's heart the instant he sets eyes on it. As for our +little Charlotte--" + +She paused, as if it were not easy to put into words that which she knew +Charlotte would think. But Celia went on gleefully: + +"Charlotte will be so crazy with delight at getting home she will see +everything through a blur at first. But when we have all gone away and +left them here, then Charlotte will see. And she'll be glad to find +traces of her devoted family wherever she looks." + +She pointed from the little work-box on the table by the window, just +equipped and placed there by her mother's hand, to the book-shelf made +and put up in the corner by Jeff. She waved her hand at a great wicker +armchair with deep pockets at the sides for newspapers and magazines, +which had been Mr. Birch's contribution to the living-room, and at the +fine calendar which Just had hung by the desk. Her own offerings were +the dressing-table furnishings up-stairs. + +All these were by no means wedding gifts, but afterthoughts, inspired by +a careful inspection of the details of Doctor Churchill's bachelor home, +and the noting of certain gaps which only love and care would be likely +to fill. + +In four hours now the travellers would be at home, in time, it was +expected, for the late dinner being prepared by Mrs. Hepzibah Fields. + +For the present, at least, Mrs. Fields was to remain. "I've had full +proof of Charlotte's ability to cook and to manage a house," Doctor +Churchill had said, when they talked it over, "and I want her free this +first year, anyway, to work with her brush and pencil all she likes, and +to go about with me all I like." + +Mrs. Fields, although a product of New England, had spent nearly half +her life in Virginia, in the service of the Churchills. She had drawn a +slow breath of relief when this decision had been made known to her, and +had said fervently to Doctor Churchill: + +"I expect I know how to make myself useful without being conspicuous, +and I'm sure I think enough of both of you not to put my foot into your +housekeeping. That child's worked pretty hard these four years since +I've known her, and a little vacation won't hurt her." + +So it had been settled, and Mrs. Fields was now getting up a dinner for +her "folks," as she affectionately termed them, which was to be little +short of a feast. + +Charlotte had written that she and Andy wanted the whole family to come +to dinner with them that first night. All day Celia and her mother had +been busy getting the little house, already in perfect order, into that +state of decorative cheer which suggests a welcome in itself. Now, with +Just's offering of ground-pine, and Celia's scarlet carnations all about +the room, a fire ready laid in the fireplace, and lamps and candles +waiting to be lighted on every side, there seemed nothing to be desired. + +"I suppose there's really not another thing we can do," said Celia. + +"Absolutely nothing more, that I can see," agreed Mrs. Birch, taking up +her wraps from the chair on which they lay. "You can run over and light +up at the last minute. Really, how long it seems yet to seven o'clock!" + +"Doesn't it? And how good it will be to get the dear girl back! Well, +the first month has gone by, mother dear. The worst is over." + +Celia spoke cheerfully, but her words were not quite steady. Mrs. Birch +glanced at her. + +"You've been a brave daughter," she said, with the quiet composure which +Celia understood did not always cover a peaceful heart. "We shall all +grow used to the change in time. I think sometimes we're not half +thankful enough to have Charlotte so near." + +"Oh, I think we are!" Celia protested. + +"The children have had a beautiful month. Haven't their letters +been--What's that?" + +It was nothing more startling than the front door-bell, but this was so +seldom rung at the bachelor doctor's house, where everybody who wanted +him at all wanted him professionally at the office, that it sent Celia +hastily and anxiously to the door. It was so impossible at this hour, +when the travellers were almost home, not to dread the happening of +something to detain them. At the same moment Mrs. Field put her head in +at the dining-room door. "Land, I do hope it ain't a telegram!" she +observed, in a loud whisper. + +It was not a telegram. It was a pale-faced little woman in black, with +two children, a boy and a girl, beside her. Celia looked at them +questioningly. + +"This is Doctor Churchill's, isn't it?" asked the stranger, with a +hesitating foot upon the threshold. "Is he at home?" + +"He is expected home--he will be in his office to-morrow," Celia +answered, thinking this a new patient, and feeling justified in keeping +Doctor Churchill's first evening clear for him if she could. But the +visitor drew a sigh of relief, and came over the threshold, drawing her +children with her. Celia gave way, but the question in her face brought +the explanation: + +"I reckon it's all right, if he's coming so soon. I'm his cousin, Mrs. +Peyton. These are my children. I haven't seen Andrew since he was a boy +at college, but he'll remember me. Are you--" She hesitated. + +Mrs. Birch came forward. "We are the mother and sister of Mrs. +Churchill," she said, and offered her hand. "Doctor Churchill was +expecting you?" + +"Well, maybe not just at this time," admitted the newcomer, without +reluctance. "I didn't know I was coming myself until just as I bought my +ticket for home. I happened to think I was within sixty miles of that +place in the North where I knew Andrew settled. So I thought we'd better +stop and see him and his new wife." + +There was nothing to do but to usher her in. With a rebellious heart +Celia led Mrs. Peyton into the living-room and assisted her and the +children out of their wrappings. All sorts of strange ideas were +occurring to her. It was within the bounds of possibility that these +people were not what they claimed to be--she had heard of such things. +She was unwilling to show them to Charlotte's pretty guest-room, to +offer them refreshment, even to light the fire for them. + +It was too bad, it was unbearable, that the home-coming for which she +and her mother had made such preparation should be spoiled by the +presence of these strangers. To be sure, if she was Andrew's cousin she +was no stranger to him, yet Celia could not recollect that he had ever +spoken of her, even in the most casual way. + +But her hope that in some way this might prove to be a case of mistaken +identity was soon extinguished. When she had slipped away to the +kitchen, at a suggestion from her mother that the guests should be +served with something to eat, she found that information concerning Mrs. +Peyton was to be had from Mrs. Fields. + +"Peyton? For the lands' sake! Don't tell me she's here! Know her? I +guess I do! Of all the unfortunate things to happen right now, I should +consider her about the worst calamity. What is she? Oh, she ain't +anything--that's about the worst I can say of her. There ain't anything +bad about her--oh, no. Sometimes I've been driven to wish there was, if +I do say it! She's just what I should call one of them characterless +sort of folks--kind of soft and silly, like a silk sofy cushion without +enough stuffing in it. Always talking, she is, without saying anything +in particular. I don't know about the children. They were little things +when I saw 'em last. What do you say they look like?" + +"The girl is about fourteen, I should think," said Celia, getting out +tray and napkins. "She's rather a pretty child--doesn't look very +strong. The boy is quite a handsome fellow, of nine or ten. Oh, it's all +right, of course, and I've no doubt Doctor Churchill will be glad to see +any relatives of his family. Only--if it needn't have happened just +to-day!" + +"I know how you feel," said the housekeeper. "Here, let me fix that +tray, Miss Celia; you've done enough. I suppose we've got to feed 'em +and give 'em a room. Ain't it too bad to put them in that nice spare +room? No, I don't believe the doctor'll be powerful pleased to see 'em, +though I don't suppose he'll let on he ain't. Trouble is, she's a +stayer--one of the visiting kind, you know. Mis' Churchill, doctor's +mother, used to have her there by the month. _There_ was what you may +call a genuine lady, Miss Celia. She'd never let a guest feel he wasn't +welcome, and I guess Andy--I guess the doctor's pretty much like her. +Well, well!" + +Mrs. Fields sighed, and Celia echoed the sigh. Nevertheless, the little +hint about Doctor Churchill's mother took hold. + +Celia knew what Southern hospitality meant. If Mrs. Peyton had been +accustomed to that, it must be a matter of pride not to let her feel +that Northern homes were cold and comfortless places by comparison. By +the time she had shown the visitors to Charlotte's guest-room, and had +made up a bed for the boy on a wide couch there, Celia had worked off a +little of her regret. Nevertheless, when Jeff and Just heard the news, +their disgust roused her to fresh rebellion. + +"I call that pretty nervy," Jeff declared, indignantly, "to walk in on +people like this, without a word of warning! Nobody but an idiot would +expect people just coming home from their honeymoon to want to find +their house filled up with cousins." + +"Oh, Andy's relatives'll turn up now," said Just, cynically. "People he +never heard of. I'll bet he won't know this woman till he's introduced." + +"Yes, he will. I've found her name on the list we sent announcements +to," Celia said, dismally. "I didn't notice at the time, because there +were ever so many friends of his, people in all parts of the world. +'Mrs. Randolph Peyton,' that's it." + +"Hope Mr. Randolph Peyton'll get anxious to see her, and send for her to +come home at once!" growled Jeff. + +"She's in mourning. I presume she's a widow," was all the comfort Celia +could give him. + +"Then she'll stay all winter!" cried Just with such hopeless inflection +that his sister laughed. + +When she went over at half past six o'clock, to light the fire, she +found the three visitors gathered in the living-room. She had hoped they +might stay up-stairs at least until the first welcome had been given to +Charlotte and Andrew. But it turned out that Mrs. Peyton had inquired of +Mrs. Fields the exact hour of the expected arrival, and presumably had +considered that since the Peytons represented Doctor Churchill's side of +the house, their part in his welcome home was not to be gainsaid. + +Mr. Birch, Jeff, Just, and Mrs. Birch with little Ellen, presently +appeared. Lansing had gone back to his law school, but a great bunch of +roses represented him. It had been Charlotte's express command that +nobody should go to the station to meet the returning travellers, but +that everybody should be in the little brick house to welcome them when +they should drive up. + +"Here they are! Here they are!" shouted Just, from behind a window +curtain, where he had been keeping close watch on the circle of radiance +from the nearest arc-light. There was a rush for the door. Jeff flung it +open, and he and Just raced to the hansom which was driving up. The rest +of the party crowded the doorway, Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and Randolph +being of the group. + +"How are you, everybody?" called Doctor Churchill's eager voice, as he +and Charlotte ran up the walk to the door, Jeff and Just following. +"Well, this is fine! Father--mother--Celia--my little Ellen--bless your +hearts, but it's good to see you!" + +How could anybody help loving a son-in-law like that? One would have +thought they were indeed his own. While Charlotte remained wrapped in +her mother's embrace, Doctor Churchill was greeting them all twice over, +with apparently no eyes for the three he had not expected to see. For +the moment it was plain that he had not recognized them, and supposed +them to be strangers to whom he would presently be made known. + +But now, as somebody moved aside and the light struck upon her, he +caught the smile on Mrs. Peyton's face. He left off shaking Jeff's hand, +and made a quick movement toward the little figure in black. + +"Why, Cousin Lula!" he exclaimed. + +Charlotte, at the moment hugging little Ellen with laughter and kisses, +turned at the cry, and saw her husband greeting with great cordiality +these strange people whom she, too, had supposed to be the guests of her +mother. + +"Charlotte," said Doctor Churchill, turning about, "this is my cousin, +Mrs. Peyton, of Virginia--and her children." + +Charlotte came forward, cordially greeted Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and +Randolph, and led them into the living-room as if the moment were that +of their arrival instead of her own. + +"She has the stuff in her, hasn't she?" murmured Just to Jeff, as the +two stood at one side of the fireplace. + +"Could you ever doubt it?" returned Jeff, with as much emphasis as can +be put into a mumbled retort. Jeff had been Charlotte's staunchest +champion all his life. + +"Ah, Fieldsy, but I'm glad to be back!" Doctor Churchill assured his +housekeeper, in the kitchen, to which he had soon found his way. "We've +had a glorious time down in the Virginia mountains, but this is home +now, as it never was before, and it's great fun to be here. How are you? +You're looking fine." + +"And I'm feeling fine," assented Mrs. Fields, her spare face lighted +into something like real comeliness by the pleasure in her heart. "Just +one thing, Doctor Andy. I'm terrible sorry them relatives of yours +happened along just now. If I'd gone to the door--well--I don't believe +but I'd have seen my way clear to--" + +Churchill shook his head, smiling. "No, Fieldsy, you know you wouldn't. +Besides, Cousin Lula looks far from well, and she's had a lot of +trouble. It's all right, you know. My, but this is a good dinner we have +coming to us!" + +He went off gaily. Mrs. Fields looked after him affectionately. + +"Oh, yes, Andy Churchill, it's plain to be seen your heart's in the +right place as much as ever it was, if you have got married," she +thought. + +"O Fieldsy,"--and this time it was Charlotte who invaded the kitchen and +grasped the housekeeper's hands--"how good it seems to be back! But I +can't realise a bit I'm at home over here, can you?" + +"You'll soon get used to it, I guess, Mis' Churchill." + +"Oh, and _that_ sounds strange--from you!" declared Charlotte, laughing. +"I'd begun to get a little bit used to it down in Virginia. If you don't +say 'Miss Charlotte' once in a while to me I shall feel quite lost." + +"I guess Doctor Churchill 'd have something to say about that, if I +should. I don't believe but what he's terrible proud of that name." + +It was certainly a name nobody seemed able to "get used to." Just called +his sister by the new title once during the evening. They were at the +table when he thus addressed her, and there followed a succession of +comments. + +"Don't you dare call her that when I'm round!" remarked Jeff. + +"I actually didn't understand at first whom you meant," said Celia. + +"I've not forgotten how long it took me to learn that my name was +Birch," said Charlotte's mother, with a smile so bright that it covered +the involuntary sigh. + +"Is Aunty Charlotte my Aunty Churchill now?" piped little Ellen. Lucy +and Randolph Peyton laughed. + +"Of course, she is, dumpling, only you can keep on calling her Aunty +Charlotte. And I'm your Uncle Andy. How do you like that?" + +"Oh, I like that!" agreed Ellen, and edged her chair an inch nearer +"Uncle Andy." + +Dinner over, Celia bore Ellen home to bed. Charlotte suggested the same +possibility for the Peyton children, but although it was nearing nine +o'clock, both refused so decidedly that after a glance at their mother, +who took no notice, Charlotte said no more. + +Randolph grew sleepy in his chair, and Doctor Churchill presently took +pity on him. He sat down beside the lad and told him a story of so +intentionally monotonous a character that Randolph was soon half over +the border. Then the doctor picked him up, and with the drooping head on +his shoulder observed, pleasantly: + +"This lad wants his bed, Cousin Lula. May I take him to it?" + +Mrs. Peyton, engaged in telling Mr. Birch her opinion of certain +Northern institutions she had lately observed, nodded absently. Doctor +Churchill ascended the stairs, and Charlotte, slipping from the room, +ran up ahead of him to get Randolph's cot in readiness. + +"That's it, old fellow! Wake up enough to let me get your clothes off," +Churchill bade the sleep-heavy child. "Can you find his nightclothes, +Charlotte? Cousin Lula seems to have unpacked. That's it. Thank you! +Now, Ran, you'll be glad to be in bed, won't you? Can you wake up enough +to say your prayers, son? No? Well that's not altogether your fault," he +said, softly, and smiled at Charlotte. "I think we'd better invite Lucy +up, too, don't you?" + +"Won't she--Mrs. Peyton--think we're rather cool?" Charlotte suggested, +as they tucked the boy in. + +"Not a bit. She'll be glad to have the job off her hands. The youngsters +are tired, and ought to have been in bed an hour ago. Stay here, and +I'll run down after Lucy." + +On the stairs, as they descended, after Charlotte had seen Lucy to her +quarters, they met Jeff. + +"Been putting the kids to bed?" he questioned curiously, under his +breath. "Well, you're great. Their mother doesn't seem much worried +about it. She's quite a talker. Guess she didn't notice what happened. +Say, I'm going. It's ten o'clock. You two ought to have a chance to look +'round without any more company to-night. Justin slipped off while you +were up-stairs. Told me to say good-night. Father and mother are only +waiting for a pause in your cousin's conversation long enough to throw +in a word of their own before they get up." He made an expressive +gesture. + +"You know mother's invariable rule," he chuckled, "never to get up to go +at the end of one of your guest's conversational sprints, but always to +wait until you can interrupt yourself, so to speak. Well--I don't mean +any disrespect to the lady from Virginia, Andy, but I'm afraid mother'll +have to make an exception to that rule, or else remain for the night." + +The three laughed softly, Charlotte's hand on her brother's shoulder, as +she stood on the step above him. + +"You mustn't say any saucy things, Jeffy," said she, with a soft touch +on his thick locks. + +"I won't. I'm too tickled to have you back--both of you. We missed +Fiddle pretty badly," he said to Doctor Churchill, "but we found time to +miss you almost as much. There have been several times while you've been +gone that I'd have welcomed the _chug_ of your runabout under my window, +waking me up in the middle of the night." + +"Thank you, old fellow!" said Doctor Churchill with a hand on Jeff's +other shoulder. "That's mighty pleasant to hear." + +In spite of Jeff's prediction, Mrs. Birch soon managed, in her own +tactful way, to follow her sons home. Mrs. Peyton went up to her room at +last, a cordial good night, following her from the foot of the stairs. +Then Doctor Churchill drew his wife back into the living-room and closed +the doors. He stood looking at Charlotte with eyes in which were mingled +merriment and tenderness. + +"It wasn't just as we planned it, was it, little girl?" he said. "But +there's always this to fall back upon. People we want, and people we +don't want so much, may be around us, to the right of us, and the left +of us, but even so, nobody can ever--come between." + +The door-bell rang. + +"Oh, I hoped nobody would know you were home to-night!' cried Charlotte, +the smile fading from her lips. Doctor Churchill went quickly to the +door. A messenger boy with a telegram stood outside. The doctor read the +dispatch and dismissed the boy. Then he turned to Charlotte. + +"No, it's no bad news," he said, and came close. "It's just--can you +bear up?--another impending guest! Charlotte, I've done a lot of talking +about hospitality, and I meant it all. I certainly want our latch-string +always out, but--_don't you think we rushed that copper motto into place +just a bit too soon_?" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +"Charlotte, what are we going to do? It turns out Lee has his sister +with him!" + +Mrs. Andrew Churchill, engaged in making up a fresh bed with linen +smelling faintly of lavender, dropped her sheets and blankets and stood +up straight. She gazed across the room at Andy, whose face expressed +both amusement and dismay. + +"Andy," said she, "haven't I somewhere heard a proverb to the effect +that it never rains but it pours?" + +"There's an impression on my mind that you have," said her husband. "You +are now about to have a practical demonstration of that same proverb. I +wrote Lee, as you suggested after his second telegram, and this is his +answer. He was detained by the illness of his sister Evelyn, who is with +him. It seems she was at school up here in our state, but overworked and +finally broke down, and he has come to take her home. But you see home +for them means a boarding-house. The family is broken up, mother dead, +father at the ends of the earth; and Lee has Evelyn on his hands. The +worst of it is, he wants me to see her professionally, so I can't very +well suggest that we're too full to entertain her." + +"Of course you can't," agreed Charlotte, promptly. "But it means that we +must find another room somewhere in the house. Of course mother +would--but I don't want to begin right away to send extra guests over +there." + +"Neither do I," said Doctor Churchill. "Do you suppose we could put a +cot into my private office for Lee? Then the sister could have this." + +"How old is she?" + +"Sixteen, he says." + +"Oh, then this will do. And we can put a cot in your private +office--after office hours. If Mr. Lee is an old friend he won't object +to anything." + +"You're a dear girl! And they won't stay long, of course--especially +when they see how crowded we are. You'll like Thorne Lee, Charlotte; +he's one of the best fellows alive. I haven't seen the sister since she +was a small child, but if she's anything like her brother you'll have no +trouble entertaining her, sick or well. All right! I'll answer Lee's +letter, and say nothing about our being full-up." + +"Of course not; that wouldn't be hospitality. When will they come?" + +"In a day or two--as soon as she feels like travelling again." + +"I'll be ready for her," and Charlotte gave him her brightest smile as +he hurried off. + +She finished her bed-making, put the little room set apart for her own +private den into guest-room condition as nearly as it was possible to do +with articles of furniture borrowed from next door, and went down to +break the news to Mrs. Fields. She found that person explaining with +grim patience to the Peyton children why they could not make candy in +her kitchen at the inopportune hour of ten in the morning. + +"But we always do at home!" complained Lucy, with a frown. + +"Like as not you don't clear up the muss afterward, either," suggested +Mrs. Fields, with a sharp look. + +"Course we don't," Randolph asserted, with a curl of his handsome upper +lip. "What's servants for, I'd like to know?" + +"To make friends with, not to treat impolitely," said a clear voice +behind the boy. + +Randolph and Lucy turned quickly, and Mrs. Fields's face, which had +grown grim, softened perceptibly. Both children looked ready to make +some tart reply to Charlotte's interpolation, but as their eyes fell +upon her they discovered that to be impossible. How could one speak +rudely when one met that kind but authoritative glance? + +"This is Mrs. Fields's busiest time, you know," Charlotte said, "and it +wouldn't do to bother her now with making candy. In the afternoon I'll +help you make it. Come, suppose we go for a walk. I've some marketing to +do." + +"Ran can go with you," said Lucy, as Charlotte proceeded to make ready +for the trip. "It's too cold for me. I'd rather stay here by the fire +and read." + +Charlotte looked at her. Lucy's delicate face was paler than usual this +morning; she had a languid air. + +"The walk in this fresh November breeze will be sure to make you feel +ever so much better," said Charlotte. "Don't you think so, Cousin Lula?" + +Mrs. Peyton looked up reluctantly from her embroidery. + +"Why, I wouldn't urge her, Charlotte, if she doesn't want to go," she +said, with a glance at Lucy, who was leaning back in a big chair with a +discontented expression. "You mustn't expect people from the South to +enjoy your freezing weather as you seem to. Lucy feels the cold very +much." + +Charlotte and Randolph marched away down the street together, the boy as +full of spirits as his companion. + +She had found it easy from the first to make friends with him, and was +beginning, in spite of certain rather unpleasant qualities of his, to +like him very much. His mother had done her best to spoil him, yet the +child showed plainly that there was in him the material for a sturdy, +strong character. + +When Charlotte had made several small purchases at the market, she did +not offer to give Randolph the little wicker basket she carried, but the +boy took it from her with a smile and a proud air. + +"Ran," said Charlotte, "just round this corner there's a jolly hill. I +don't believe anybody will mind if we have a race down it, do you?" + +It was a back street, and the hill was an inviting one. The two had +their race, and Randolph won by a yard. Just as the pair, laughing and +panting, slowed down into their ordinary pace, a runabout, driven by a +smiling young man in a heavy ulster and cap, turned the corner with a +rush. Amid a cloud of steam the motor came to a standstill. + +"Aha! Caught you at it!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Came down that hill +faster than the law allows. Get in here, both of you, and take the run +out to the hospital with me. I shall not be there long. I've been out +once this morning. This is just to make sure of a case I operated on two +hours ago." + +"Shall we, Ran?" asked Charlotte. + +"Oh, let's!" said the boy, with enthusiasm. So away they went. The +result of the expedition came out later in the day. Before dinner the +entire household was grouped about the fire, Doctor Churchill having +just come in, after one of his busiest days. + +"Been out to the hospital again, Cousin Andy?" Ran asked. + +"Yes; twice since the noon visit." + +"How was the little boy with the broken waist? + +"Fractured hip? Just about as you saw him. He's got to be patient a good +while before he can walk again, and these first few days are hard. He +asked me when you would come again." + +"Oh, I'll go to-morrow!" cried Randolph, sitting up very straight on his +cushion. "And I'll take him a book I've got, with splendid pictures." + +"Good!" Doctor Churchill laid a hand on the boy's thick locks. "That +will please him immensely." + +Mrs. Peyton was looking at him with dismay. "Do I understand you have +taken him to a hospital?" she asked. + +Doctor Churchill nodded. "To the boys' surgical ward. Nothing contagious +admitted to the hospital. It's a wonderful pleasure to the little chaps +to see a boy from outside, and Ran enjoyed it, too, didn't you?" + +"Oh, it was jolly!" said the boy. + +"I shouldn't think that was exactly the word to describe such a spot," +said Mrs. Peyton, and she looked displeased. "I think there are quite +enough sad sights in the world for his young eyes without taking him +into the midst of suffering. I should not have permitted it if you had +consulted me." + +It was true that Doctor Churchill possessed a frank and boyish face, +wearing ordinarily an exceedingly genial expression; but the friendly +gray eyes were capable of turning steely upon provocation, and they +turned that way now. He returned his cousin's look with one which +concealed with some difficulty both surprise and disgust. + +"I took Ran nowhere that he would see any extreme suffering," he +explained. "This ward contains only convalescents from various injuries +and operations. The graver cases are elsewhere, and he saw nothing of +those. A visit to this ward is likely to excite sympathy, it is true, +but not sympathy of a painful sort. The boys have very good times among +themselves, after a limited fashion, and I think Ran had a good time +with them. How about it, Ran?" + +"Oh, I did! I taught two of 'em to play waggle-finger. Their legs were +hurt, but their hands were all right, and they could play waggle-finger +as well as anybody. They liked it." + +"Nevertheless, Randolph is of a very sensitive and delicate make-up," +pursued his mother, "and I don't think such associations good for him. +He moaned in his sleep last night, and I couldn't think what it could +be." + +"It couldn't have been the candy we made this afternoon, could it, +Cousin Lula?" Charlotte asked, in her gentlest way. A comprehending +smile touched the corners of Doctor Churchill's lips. + +"Why, of course not!" said Mrs. Peyton, quickly. "Candy made this +afternoon--how absurd, Charlotte! It was last night his sleep was +disturbed." + +"But the hospital visit was this morning," Charlotte said. "I should +think the one might as easily be responsible as the other." + +Mrs. Peyton looked confused. "I understood you to say the visit to the +hospital occurred yesterday," she said, with dignity, and Doctor +Churchill smothered his amusement. "I certainly do not approve of taking +children to such places," she repeated. + +Charlotte adroitly turned the conversation into other channels, and +nothing more was said about hospitals just then. Only the boy, when he +had a chance, whispered in Doctor Churchill's ear: + +"You just wait. I'll tease her into it." + +His cousin smiled back at him and shook his head. "Teasing's a mighty +poor way of getting things, Ran," he said. "Leave it to me." + +Toward the end of the following day Jeff, crossing the lawn at his usual +rapid pace, was hailed from Doctor Churchill's office door by Mrs. +Fields. The housekeeper waved a telegram as he approached. + +"Here, Mr. Jeff," said she. "Would you mind opening this? There ain't a +soul in the house, and I don't want to take such a liberty, but it ought +to be read. I make no manner of doubt it's from those extry visitors +that are coming." + +"Where are they all?" Jeff fingered the envelope reluctantly. "I don't +like opening other people's messages." + +"I don't know where they are, that's it. Doctor took Miss Charlotte and +Ranny off after lunch in his machine, and Mis' Peyton and Lucy have gone +to town with your mother. Doctor Andy wouldn't like it if his friends +came without anybody to meet 'em." + +Jeff tore open the dispatch. "The first two words will tell me, I +suppose," he said. "Hello--yes, you're right! They'll be here on the +five-ten. That's"--he pulled out his watch--"why, there's barely time to +get to the station now! This must have been delayed. You say you don't +know where anybody is?" + +"Not a soul. Doctor usually leaves word, but he didn't this time." + +"I'll telephone the hospital," and Jeff hurried to Doctor Churchill's +desk. In a minute he had learned that the doctor had come and gone for +the last time that day. He looked at Mrs. Fields. + +"You'll have to go, Mr. Jeff," said she. "I know Doctor Andy's ways. +He'd as soon let company go without their dinners as not be on hand when +their train came in. He wasn't expecting the Lees till to-morrow." + +"Of course," said Jeff, "I'll go, since there's nobody else. How am I to +know 'em? Young man and sick girl? All right, that's easy," and he was +off to catch a car at the corner. + +As he rode into town, however, he was rebelling against the situation. +"This guest business is being overdone," he observed to himself. "These +people are probably some more off the Peyton piece of cloth. An invalid +girl lying round on couches for Fiddle to wait on--another Lucy, +probably, only worse, because she's ill. Well, I'm not going to be any +more cordial than the law calls for. I'll have to bring 'em out in a +carriage, I suppose. She'll be too limp for the trolley." + +He reached the station barely in time to engage a carriage before the +train came in. He took up his position inside the gates through which +all passengers must pass from the train-shed into the great station. + +"Looking for somebody?" asked a voice at his elbow. + +He glanced quickly down at one of his old schoolmates, Carolyn Houghton. +"Yes, guests of the Churchills," he answered, his gaze instantly +returning to the throng pouring toward him from the train. "Help me, +will you? I don't know them from Adam. It's a man and his invalid +sister, old friends of Andy's." + +"There they are," said Carolyn, promptly, indicating an approaching +pair. + +Jeff laughed. "The sister isn't quite so antique as that," he objected, +as a little woman of fifty wavered past on the arm of a stout gentleman. + +"You said 'old' friends," retorted Carolyn. "Look, Jeff, isn't that she? +The sister's being wheeled in a chair by a porter, the brother's walking +beside her. They _look_ like Doctor Churchill's friends, Jeff." + +"Think you can tell Andy's friends by their uniform?" + +"You can tell anybody's intimate friends in a crowd--I mean the same +kind of people look alike," asserted Carolyn, with emphasis. "These are +the ones, I'm sure. I'll just watch while you greet them and then I'll +slip off. I'm taking this next train. What a sweet face that girl has, +but how delicate--like a little flower. She's a dear, I'm sure. The +brother looks nice, too. They're the ones, I know. See, the brother's +looking hard at us all inside the gates." + +"Here goes, then. Good-by!" Jeff turned away to the task of making +himself known to the strangers. But he was forced to admit that if +Charlotte must meet another onslaught of visitors, these certainly did +look attractive. + +"Yes, I'm Thorne Lee," the young man answered, with a straight look into +Jeff's eyes and a grasp of the outstretched hand as Jeff introduced +himself. He motioned the porter to wheel the chair out of the pressing +crowd. + +Jeff explained about the delayed telegram. Mr. Lee presented him to the +young girl in the chair, and Jeff looked down into a pair of hazel eyes +which instantly claimed his sympathy, the shadows of fatigue lay on them +so heavily. But Miss Evelyn Lee's smile was bright if fleeting, and she +answered Jeff's announcement that he had a carriage waiting with so +appreciative a word of gratitude that he found his preconceived +antipathy to Doctor Churchill's guests slipping away. + +So presently he had them in a carriage and bowling through the streets +which led toward the suburbs. Thorne Lee sat beside his sister, +supporting her, and talked with Jeff. By the time they had covered the +long drive to the house Jeff was hoping Lee would stay a month. + +The hazel eyes of Lee's young sister had closed and the lashes lay +wearily sweeping the pale cheeks as the carriage drove up. + +"Are we there?" Lee asked, bending over the slight figure. "Open your +eyes, dear." + +Jeff jumped out and ran to the house. He burst in upon Charlotte and +Andy. "Your friends are here!" he shouted. "I had to meet 'em myself." + +Doctor Churchill and Charlotte were at the door before the words were +out of Jeff's mouth, and in a moment more Andy was lifting Evelyn Lee's +light figure in his arms, thanking heaven inwardly as he did so for his +young wife's wholesome weight. At the same moment words of of eager, +cheery welcome for his old friend were on his lips: + +"Thorne Lee, I'm gladder to see you than anybody in the world! Miss +Evelyn, here's Mrs. Churchill. She's not an old married woman at +all--she's the dearest girl in the world. She's going to seem to you +like one of your schoolfellows. Charlotte, here she is; take good care +of her." + +Thorne Lee stood looking on, a relieved smile on his lips as his old +friend's wife took his sick little sister into her charge. It was not +two minutes before he saw Evelyn, lying pale and mute on the couch, yet +smiling up at Charlotte's bright young face. + +Charlotte administered a cup of hot bouillon talking so engagingly +meanwhile that Evelyn was beguiled into taking without protest the whole +of the much-needed nourishment. Then he saw the young invalid carried +off to bed, relieved of the necessity of meeting any more members of the +household. He learned, as Charlotte slipped into the room after an +hour's absence, that Evelyn had already dropped off to sleep. He leaned +back in his chair with a long breath. + +"What kind of a girl is this you've married, Andy?" he asked, with a +smile and a look from one to the other. The three were alone, Mrs. +Peyton and her children having gone out to some sort of entertainment. + +"Just what she seems to be," replied Doctor Churchill, smiling back, +"and a thousand times more." + +"I might have known you would care for no other," Lee said. "And you two +'live in your house at the side of the road, to be good friends to +man,'--if I may adapt those homely words." + +"We haven't been at it very long, but we hope to realize an ambition of +the sort. It doesn't take much philanthropy to welcome you." + +"You can't think what a relief it is to me to get that little sister of +mine under your wing, even for a few hours." + +"Tell us all about her." + +Lee had not meant to begin at once upon his troubles, but his friend +drew him on, and before the evening ended the doctor and Charlotte had +the whole long, hard story of Lee's guardianship of several young +brothers and sisters, his struggle to get established in his profession +and make money for their support, his many anxieties in the process, and +this culminating trouble in the breakdown of the younger sister, just as +he thought he had her safely established in a school where she might +have a happy home for several years. + +Lee stopped suddenly, as if he had hardly known how long he had been +talking. "I'm a pleasant guest!" he said, regret in his tone. "I meant +to tell you briefly the history of Evelyn's illness, and here I've gone +on unloading all my burdens of years. What do you sit there looking so +benevolent and sympathetic for, beguiling a fellow into making a +weak-kneed fool of himself? My worries are no greater than those of +millions of other people, and here I've been laying it on with a trowel. +Forget the whole dismal story, and just give me a bit of professional +advice about my little sister." + +"Look here, old boy," said his friend, "don't go talking that way. +You've done just what I was anxious you should do--given me your +confidence. I can go at your sister's case with a better chance of +understanding it if I know this whole story. And now I'm going to thank +you and send you off to bed for a good night's sleep. To-morrow we'll +take Evelyn in hand." + +"Bless you, Andy! You're the same old tried and true," murmured Thorne +Lee, shaking hands warmly. + +Then Charlotte led him away up-stairs to see his sister, who had waked +and wanted him. Stooping over her bed, he felt a pair of slender arms +round his neck and heard her voice whispering in his ear: + +"Thorny, I just wanted you to know that I think Mrs. Churchill is the +dearest person I ever saw, and I'm going to sleep better to-night than I +have for weeks." + +"Thank God for that!" thought Lee, and kissed the thin cheek of the girl +with brotherly fervor. + +Down-stairs in the hall a few minutes later Andrew Churchill advanced to +meet his wife, as she returned to him after ministering to Evelyn Lee's +wants. + +"Do you know," said he, looking straight down into her eyes as she came +up to him, "those words of Stevenson's--though they always fit you--seem +particularly applicable to you to-night? + + "Steel-true and blade-straight + The great artificer + Made my mate.'" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"I think," said Doctor Churchill, leaning back in his office chair, with +a mingling of the professional and the friendly in his air, "that we can +get at the bottom of Evelyn's troubles without very much difficulty." He +had just sent Evelyn back to Charlotte, after an hour in the office, +during which he had subjected her to a minute and painstaking +examination into the cause of her ill health. And now to her brother, +anxiously awaiting his verdict, he spoke his mind. + +"If you'll let me be very frank with you, Thorne," he said, "I'll tell +you just what I think about Evelyn, and just what it seems to me is the +proper course for us to take with her." + +"Go ahead; it's exactly that I want," Lee declared. "I know well enough +that my care of her has been seriously at fault." + +"Never in intention," said Doctor Churchill, "only in the excess of your +tenderness. Evelyn has lived in overheated rooms, with hot baths, +insufficient exercise, and improper food. In the kindness of your heart +you have been nourishing a little hot-house plant, and there's no +occasion for surprise that it wilts at the first blast of ordinary air." + +Lee looked dismayed. + +"I'm mighty sorry, Andy," he said, remorsefully. + +"Don't feel too badly," was his friend's reply. "After a winter with us +Evelyn will be another girl." + +"What?" Lee started in his chair. "Andy, what are you thinking about?" + +"Just what I say. Charlotte and I have talked it all over. We've both +taken an immense liking to Evelyn and we'd honestly enjoy having her +here for the winter. It only remains for you to convince Evelyn herself +that we are to be trusted, and to secure her promise that we may have +our way with her from first to last, and the thing is done." + +"You are sure that's really all there is to it? You're not keeping +anything from me?" + +"Not a thing. And I'm as sure as a man can well be. That's why I don't +prescribe a sanatorium for her, or anything of that sort. All she needs +is a rational, every-day life of the health-making kind, such as +Charlotte and I can teach her--Charlotte even more effectively than I. +Evelyn needs simply to build up a strong physical body; then these +troublesome nerves will take care of themselves. Believe me, Thorne, +it's refreshingly simple. I've not even a drug to suggest for your +sister. She doesn't need any." + +"But, Andy, it doesn't seem to me I can let Evelyn stay here with you +all winter--the first winter of your married life. You two ought to be +alone together." + +"No. Charlotte and I haven't set out to go through life--even this first +year of it--alone together. We are together, no matter how many we have +about us. It will be only in the day's work if we keep Evelyn with us, +and it's a sort of work that will pay pretty well, I fancy." + +"It certainly will--in more than one kind of coin," and Lee gripped his +friend's hand. + +So it was settled. Evelyn agreed so joyously to the plan that her +brother's last doubt of its feasibility was removed, and he went away a +day later with a heart so much lighter than the one he had brought with +him that it showed in his whole bearing. + +"God bless you and your sweet wife, Andy Churchill," he wrote back from +his first stopping-place, and when Churchill showed the letter to +Charlotte she said, happily: + +"We'll make the copper motto come true with this guest, won't we? Evelyn +will be a very pretty girl when she loses that fragile look. Her eyes +and expression are beautiful. Do you know, she accepts everything I say +as if I were the Goddess of Wisdom herself." + +"Charlotte," said Mrs. Peyton, a few days later, coming hurriedly into +Charlotte's own room, where that young woman was busy with various +housewifely offices, "I've had a telegram. I'm so upset I don't know +what to do. My sister is sick and her husband is away, and she's sent +for me. I'm not able to do nursing--I'm not strong enough--but I don't +see but that I must go." + +"I'm very sorry your sister is ill," said Charlotte. "Tell me about +her." + +Mrs. Peyton told at length. "And what I'm to do with the children," she +said, mournfully, "I don't know. Sister doesn't want them to come. But +here I'm away up North and sister's out West, and the children couldn't +go home alone. Besides, there's nowhere for them to go. I am their only +home. Dear, dear, what shall I do?" + +The front door-bell, ringing sharply, sent Charlotte down-stairs. At +this moment she saw her husband coming up the street in his runabout. +When Doctor Churchill ran into his office after a case of instruments he +had forgotten, his wife cast herself into his arms, in such a state of +emotion that he held her close, bewildered. + +"What on earth is it, dear?" he asked. "Are you laughing or crying? +Here, let me see your face." + +"O Andy"--Charlotte would not let her face be seen--"it's Cousin Lula! +She's--she's--oh, she's--_going away_!" + +Churchill burst into smothered laughter. "It can't be you're crying," he +murmured. "Charlotte, I don't blame you. Look up and smile. I know how +you must be feeling. You've been a regular heroine all these weeks." + +"I'm awfully ashamed," choked Charlotte, on his shoulder, "but, O Andy, +what it will seem not to have to--oh, I mustn't say it, but--" + +"I know, I know!" He patted her shoulder. + +"Her sister is ill, in the West somewhere. She has to go to her at once. +She wants the children to stay with us." + +"She does!" + +"Her sister doesn't want them there, and she can't send them home. Andy, +I wouldn't mind that so awfully. I'd almost like the chance to see what +we could do with them." + +"Well, don't answer definitely till I have time to talk it over with you +and with her. I must go now." + +They talked it over, together, and with Mrs. Peyton. The result of these +conferences was that two days later that lady took her departure, +leaving her children in the care of the Churchills. + +"On one condition, Cousin Lula," Doctor Churchill had said to her with +decision. "That you put them absolutely in our care and trust our +judgment in the management of them." + +Mrs. Peyton tried to make a few reservations. Her cousin would have none +of them. At last she submitted, understanding well enough in her heart +that Andrew Churchill would be the safest sort of a guardian for her +children, and admitting to herself, if she did not to anybody else, that +Charlotte would give them care of the sort which money cannot buy. + +"That woman gone?" asked Jeff, coming into his sister Celia's room. +"Well, I'm delighted to hear it. But I must say I think Charlotte's +taken a good deal of a contract. I didn't mind so much about their +agreeing to keep Evelyn Lee, for she's a mighty nice sort of a girl, and +will make a still nicer one when she gets strong. But these Peyton +youngsters--I certainly don't think taking care of them ought to have +been on the bill. That idiot Lucy--" His expressive face finished the +sentence for him. + +Celia smiled. "I know. I feel as you do, and I think father and mother +are a little anxious lest Charlotte has taken too much care on her +shoulders. But Charlotte and Andy have set out to make everybody happy, +and they're seizing every chance that offers. They're so enthusiastic +about it one can't bear to dampen their ardour. The least we can do is +to help them whenever we can." + +Jeff made a wry face. "I don't mind assisting in the boy's education, +but I draw the line at the girl. She's a silly. Why, she--" His face +coloured with resentment. "It sounds crazy to say, but she does, for a +fact, make eyes at every man or boy she sees." + +Celia laughed. "I hadn't noticed. But she can't mean to, Jeff. She's +only fifteen." + +"That's the idiocy of it. She's only fifteen, but you watch her the next +time any of us fellows come into the room. Just can tell you; he's in a +chronic state of laugh over it. She thinks she's a beauty, and she +thinks we're all impressed with the fact." + +"She is pretty." + +"I don't think so. I don't call any girl pretty who's so struck with +herself that she can't get by a mirror without a glance and a pat of +that big fluff of front hair. You don't catch Eveyln looking into a +glass or acting as if she thought everybody was about to fall in love +with her. I'm going to take her skating when she gets strong enough." + +"That won't be for some time, I'm afraid. But she certainly is looking +better already." + +So she was. Charlotte had begun very gently with Evelyn, reducing the +temperature of the daily bath only by a degree at a time, lessening the +heat in the sleeping room, opening the windows for outside air an inch +more each night, coaxing her out for a short walk of gradually +increasing length each day, and generally luring her toward more +healthful ways of living than those to which she had been accustomed. + +Bedtime found Evelyn exceedingly weary, but it was healthful weariness, +and she was beginning to be able to sleep. + +A tinge of colour was growing in the pale cheeks, a brighter expression +in the large eyes, and altogether the young guest was showing a +gratifying response to the new methods. + +"I think," said Charlotte to Evelyn one morning, when three weeks had +gone by, "we shall have to celebrate your improvement by a little +concert this evening. Would you like to hear the Birch-Churchill +orchestra?" + +"Orchestra? How lovely! Indeed I should!" cried Evelyn, with a display +of enthusiasm quite unusual. "What do you play?" + +"Strings. We're badly out of practice, but there are always a few old +things we can get up fairly well at a minute's notice. The truth is, we +haven't played together since long before my wedding-day, and I resolved +the minute we were married we'd begin again. We will begin, this very +night. I know they'll all be glad." + +The performers did, indeed, show their pleasure by arriving early, +flannel-shrouded instruments under their arms. Doctor Churchill came in +just as they were tuning. Since Lanse had been away, Andy, who was +something of a violinist had taken up Lanse's viola, and was now able to +occupy his brother-in-law's place. Celia, however, had been chosen to +fill the vacant rôle of leadership. + +"The rest of us are only imitators," Jeff declared to Evelyn, as he +stood near her, softly trying his strings. "Charlotte's the best, and +Andy's very good indeed; but it's only Celia who goes to hear big music +and sits with the tears rolling down her cheeks, while the rest of us +are wondering what on earth it all means." + +Evelyn, leaning back among the pillows of the wide couch, called Lucy +softly, motioning her to a seat by her side. + +Lucy came quickly, pleased by Evelyn's notice. She in her turn had been +regarding Evelyn as a monopolist of everybody's attention and had made +up her mind not to like her. But now she sank into the place by Evelyn's +side, and accepted the delicate touch of Evelyn's hand on hers as +recognition at last that here was another girl fit to make friends with. + +"Don't they play well?" whispered Evelyn, as the music came to a sudden +stop that Celia might criticise the playing of a difficult passage. + +"She doesn't think so," called Just, softly, having caught the whisper. +He indicated his elder sister. "She won't let me boom things with my +viol the way I'd like to. What's the use of playing the biggest +instrument if you can't make the biggest noise?" + +"Solo, by the double-bass!" cried Andy; and the whole orchestra, except +the first violin of the leader, burst into a boisterous rendering of a +popular street song, in which Just sawed forth the leading part, while +the others kept up a rattling staccato accompaniment. Evelyn and Lucy +became breathless with laughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Birch, who had just +slipped into the room, joined in the merriment. + +"There you are," chuckled Jeff. "That's what you get when you give the +donkey the solo part among the farmyard performers." + +"He can sing as well as the peacock," retorted Just, with spirit. + +"We were right in the middle of the _'Hungarian Intermezzo,'_" explained +Celia to the newcomers. "I stopped them to tell them why they needed to +look more carefully to their phrasing, and the children burst into this +sort of thing. What shall I do with them?" + +"It's a great relief to feel that they're not altogether grown up, after +all," said Mr. Birch, helping himself to his favourite easy chair near +the fireplace. "There are times when we feel a strong suspicion that we +haven't any children any more. Moments like these assure us that we are +mistaken. Go on with your '_Intermezzo,_' but give us another nursery +song before you are through." + +"Nursery song! That's pretty good," said Jeff, in Just's ear, and that +sixteen-year-old mumbled in reply, "I can throw you over my shoulder +just the same." + +"Boys, come! We're ready!" called Celia, and the music began again. + +"Are you getting tired, dear?" asked Mrs. Birch of Evelyn, when the +"_Intermezzo_" was finished, noting the flush on the delicate cheek. +Evelyn looked up brightly. + +"Not enough to hurt me. I'm enjoying it so! Aren't large families +lovely? I was so much younger than my brothers and sisters that by the +time I was old enough to care about having good times like this on +winter evenings they were all away at school or married. We never had +anything so nice as a family orchestra, either. I wish I could play +something." + +"How about the piano?" asked Charlotte, who sat near. Evelyn's flush +grew pinker. + +"I can play a little," she said. "But you don't need the piano." + +"Yes, we do. A piano would add ever so much. Next time we'll have our +practice at home, and give you a part." + +Then she glanced at Lucy, and saw what might have been expected, a look +of envy and discontent. "Is there anything you can play, Lucy?" she +asked. "It would be very nice to have everybody in. Perhaps Ran could +have a triangle." + +"I play the piano," said Lucy. + +"Oh, give Lucy the piano," Evelyn said, quickly,--also as might have +been expected. + +"We'll try you both," put in Doctor Churchill, "as they always do +aspirants for such positions." + +"I've had lessons from the best master in our state," said Lucy to Just. + +"That so? Then you may win out," was his opinion. "But you can't be +sure. Evelyn's not much of a bragger, but she seems to be a pretty +well-educated girl." + +"Just, be careful!" warned Charlotte, in his ear, as she drew him gently +to one side. "I know you don't like her, but you must be considerate of +her." + +"I don't feel much like it." + +"You know I want your help about Lucy." Charlotte had drawn him still +farther away, so that she could speak with safety. "But you know, too, +that snubbing isn't a way to get hold of anybody." + +"It's the only way with conceited softies," began Just. + +But Charlotte caught his hand and squeezed it. "No, it isn't. I'm sure +she's worth being friends with, and if she can learn certain things you +can teach her in the way of athletics, and reading, and all that, you +can do her lots of good." + +"Don't feel a bit like being a missionary!" growled Just. "Suppose I've +got to try it, to please you. Evelyn's all right, isn't she?" + +"Yes, she's a dear. I'm so glad we kept her. That makes me realise she's +had quite enough excitement for to-night. I must carry her off to bed. +Perhaps you'd all better--" + +"No, you don't!" said Just, with a rebellious laugh. "Just because +you've set up a sanatorium and a kindergarten you can't send your +brothers off to bed at nine o'clock. I want a good visit with you after +the infants and invalids are in bed." + +"All right, big boy," promised Charlotte, rejoicing in the affectionate +look he gave her. + +She had been anxious that her marriage should in no way interfere with +the old brotherly and sisterly relations, and it was a long time since +she had had a confidential talk with her youngest brother. Jeff was +always coming to her precisely as in the old days, with demands for +interest and advice; but Just had seemed a little farther away. + +So when she had seen the "infants and invalids" happily gone to rest, +and after a quiet hour of family talk about the fireside had said +good-night to all the others, Charlotte turned to Just with a look of +welcome as fresh and inviting as if the evening had but now begun. +Doctor Churchill had gone to make a bedtime call upon a patient +critically ill, and the two were quite alone. + +"This is jolly," said Just, settling himself on a couch pillow at her +feet, his long legs stretched out to the fire, his head resting against +his sister's knee. "Now I'm going to tell you everything that's happened +to me since you were married. Not that there's anything wonderful to +tell, or that I'm in any scrape, you know, but I'd like to feel I've got +my sister and that she cares--just as much as ever." He twisted his head +about till he could look up into the warm, sweet face above him. "_Does_ +she care as much as ever?" + +It was an unusual demonstration from the big boy, now at the age when +sisterly companionship is often despised, and Charlotte appreciated it. +More than Justin Birch could understand was in her voice as her fingers +rested upon his hair, but what she said gave him great satisfaction, +although it was only a blithe: + +"Just as much--and a little more, dear. Tell me the whole story. There's +nothing I'd like so much to hear." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Evelyn! Miss Evelyn Lee! Where are you?" + +Jeff's shout rang up the stairs, and in obedience to its imperative +summons Evelyn immediately appeared at the head. + +"Yes, Mr. Jefferson Birch," she responded. "Is the house on fire?" + +"Not a bit, but I'm anxious for your hearing. I've been roaring gently +all over the house without a result, except to scare three patients in +Andy's office. Won't you come down?" + +She descended slowly, but she neither clung to the rail nor sat down to +rest half-way, as she had done when she first came under the Churchill +roof. + +Her face was acquiring the soft bloom of a flower, her eyes were full of +light and interest. She still looked slim and frail, but she was +beginning to show signs of waxing health very pleasant to see for those +who had grown as interested in her as if she were a young sister of +their own. + +"I've an invitation for you from Carolyn Houghton for an impromptu +sleigh-ride to-night. Don't you suppose you can go? I'll take all sorts +of care of you and see that you don't get too tired. You've met Carolyn; +she's a jolly girl to know, and she told me to bring you if possible." + +Evelyn dropped into a chair. "Oh, how I should love to go!" she said. "I +never went on a sleigh-ride like that in my life. Do you go all together +in a big load?" + +"Yes--a regular prairie-schooner of a sleigh. Holds a dozen of us, +packed like sardines, so nobody can get cold. We take hot soapstones and +rugs and robes, and we go only twelve miles, to a farmhouse where we get +a hot supper--oysters and hot biscuit and maple-syrup, and all sorts of +good things. You must go." + +"If I only could!" sighed Evelyn. "I'm so afraid they won't think I +can." + +"They will, if _you_ think you can," asserted Jeff. "You're up to it, +aren't you? You needn't do a thing. Six of the crowd are going to give a +little play. I'll get the load started home early, and we'll come back +flying. Be here by midnight at the latest. It'll do you good, I know it +will." + +"O Mrs. Churchill!" breathed Evelyn, as Charlotte appeared from the +hall. + +"O Evelyn Lee!" answered Charlotte, smiling back at the eager face. +"Yes, I heard most of it, Jeff, for I was coming down-stairs, and you +weren't exactly whispering. It's an enticing plan, isn't it?" + +"Of course it is. And it's magnificent weather for the affair. Not cold +a bit and no wind; moonlight due if no clouds come up. Evelyn can't get +cold. I'll keep her done up to the tip of her nose, and be so devoted +nobody else will have a chance to worry her. Say she may go. Don't you +see the disappointment would be worse for her than the trip?" + +"You artful pleader, I'm not sure but it would. If Doctor Churchill +agrees, Evelyn, I'll let you try it. On one condition, Jeff--that you +really do get back by midnight. For a girl who has been put to bed for +weeks at nine that's late enough." + +Evelyn went about all day with a lighter step than her friends had yet +seen her assume. + +"Now remember, I trust her absolutely to your care," Charlotte said to +Jeff that evening, as he appeared, his arms full of accessories for +making his charge comfortable. + +Evelyn, in furs and heavy coat, smiled at her escort. "I'm not a bit +afraid," she said. "Oh, what a beautiful night! The moon is out. Is that +the sleigh coming up the street now, with all those horns? What fun!" + +"I want to put Miss Lee right in the middle of everything!" Jeff called +out, as the sleighload stopped. "I'm particularly requested not to let a +breath of frost strike her." + +"Come on, here's just the spot," answered Carolyn Houghton, holding out +a welcoming hand; and then the girl from the South, who had never known +the sleighing-party of the North, found herself being whirled away over +the road, to an accompaniment of youthful merriment, bursts of songs and +tooting of horns. + +Before it seemed possible the twelve miles of fine sleighing had been +covered, and the old farmhouse, its door flung hospitably open at the +sound of the horns, was invaded by the gay band. + +Evelyn, in a quaint up-stairs bedroom, lighted by kerosene lamps and +warmed by a roaring wood fire in an old-fashioned box stove, was +attended by Carolyn Houghton, who was, as Jeff had said, a "jolly girl +to know." Herself a blooming maid with black locks and carnation cheeks, +Carolyn admired intensely Evelyn's auburn hair and fair complexion. + +"Don't you think she's the dearest thing?" she whispered to a friend, as +they descended the stairs. "There's something so soft and sweet and +ladylike about her, as if nobody could be slangy or loud before her, you +know. Yet she isn't a bit dull; she just _sparkles_ when you get her +interested and happy. I do want her to have a good time to-night." + +There could be no doubt that Evelyn was having a good time. Everything +pleased her, everybody interested her. It seemed to her that she had +never seen such charming young people before. + +The little play made her laugh till she was as flushed and gay as a +child. Those with whom Evelyn showed herself so delighted became equally +delighted with her, and before the evening was over she was feeling that +she had always known these young friends, had forgotten that she had +ever been an invalid, and was indeed "sparkling," as Carolyn Houghton +had said, in a way that drew all eyes toward her in admiration. + +Jeff, indeed, stared at her as if he had never seen her before. + +"I'm sure this isn't hurting you a bit," he said in her ear, as the +evening slipped on. "You must be feeling pretty well, for I've never +seen you so jolly. I'm going to do the prescribing after this. I know +what's good for little girls." + +"I believe you do," Evelyn answered. "No, I'm not a bit tired. Why, is +it almost eleven?" + +"Yes, and time to go, if we live up to our promises. Seems a pity, +doesn't it? But it doesn't pay to break your word, so as soon as you +girls can get into your toggery we'll be off." + +"Of course, we must keep our promise," agreed Evelyn, with decision, and +straightway she went up-stairs for her wraps. The other girls followed +more reluctantly. + +"'Goodness, girls, look out!" cried somebody from the window. "Did you +ever see it so thick? The barns are just down there, where that glimmer +is, but you can't see them at all." + +"All the more fun," said another girl. + +"We're pretty far out in the country, and the road's awfully winding. I +hope we get home all right." + +"Oh, nonsense!" said some one else, with great positiveness. "I should +know the way with my eyes shut. Besides, it was as clear as a bell when +we came. It can't have been snowing long enough to block things in the +least." + +They found it had done so however, when they descended to the sleigh. +That vehicle had been brought close to the porch, that the girls might +not have to walk through the deep snow. The air was so full of the +whirling white particles that from the farther end of the sleigh one +could barely see the horses. + +"I declare, I don't feel just easy about you folks starting out," said +the farmer whose guests they had been. "Better watch the road some +careful, you driver. I suppose you know it pretty well." + +"He doesn't, but I do!" called a tall youth from the driver's seat. +"I'll keep him straight. We'll be all right. We're due home at midnight, +and we'll be there, unless the roads are too heavy to keep the pace we +came in." + +"No, sir, we can't ever keep the pace we come in," presently averred the +man from the livery-stable, who was driving. "The road's pretty heavy. I +declare, I don't know as I ever see snow so thick. Do I turn a little to +the right here or do I keep straight ahead?" + +"Straight ahead," answered the boy beside him, confidently. "I've been +over this road a thousand times, and it doesn't bend to the right for +half a mile yet." + +"It's lucky you know," said the driver. "I'm all at sea already. Can't +see the fences only now and then. I'd ha' swung off there, sure, if you +hadn't said not." + +As the rising wind began to whirl snowily about their ears and necks, +the party turned up their coat-collars and tucked in their fur robes. +The horses were plowing with increasing difficulty through the heavily +drifted roads, and more than once their driver found himself obliged to +make a long detour around a drift which had not been in the road when +they first came over it. Moreover, in spite of the snow, the air seemed +to have grown colder and to be acquiring a penetrating, icy quality +which at last made Jeff declare to Evelyn: + +"You may say you're not cold, but I'm going to insist on your letting me +wrap this steamer rug found your shoulders, with the corner over your +head, so. Now doesn't that keep off a lot of wind?" + +"Indeed it does, thank you," admitted Evelyn, with a little shiver she +could not quite conceal. + +"You _are_ cold!" Jeff said, anxiously. + +"No colder than anybody else. Please don't worry about me." + +But he did worry, and with reason. Indeed, although nobody was willing +yet to admit it, the situation was becoming a little unpleasant. In +spite of the stout confidence of the boy on the seat with the driver, +others who were somewhat familiar with the road were beginning to +question his leading. + +"That clump of trees doesn't look natural just there," said one, +standing up in the sleigh and trying to peer through the wall of +snowflakes. "It's too near. It ought to be a hundred feet away." + +"No. You're thinking we're farther back than We are," declared Neil +Ward, from the front seat. "We're almost at the turn by the railroad." + +"Why, we can't be! We haven't passed the Winters farm. I tell you, +you're off the road." + +"I think we are," agreed the driver, uneasily, pulling his cap farther +over his snow-hung eyebrows. "I've been thinking so for quite a spell." + +"We're all right. You people just keep cool!" cried Neil. + +"No trouble about keeping cool in this blizzard!" growled somebody, and +there was a general laugh. + +One of the girls started a song, and they all joined cheerily in. A +proposition to toot the horns, forgotten in the bottom of the sleigh, +with a hope of attracting attention from some one, was adopted, and a +hideous din followed, and was kept up till every one was weary--with no +result. + +All at once, without warning, the horses plunged heavily and solidly to +their steaming shoulders into an undreamed-of ditch, and the sleigh +stopped, well into the same hole. + +"Will you admit now that we're off the road, Neil Ward?" cried some one, +fiercely; and Neil, without contention but with evident chagrin, +admitted it. There was no ditch that he was aware of within a mile of +the highway. + +Jeff drew the rugs tighter about Evelyn, then lifted a corner to peer +in. "Don't be frightened, little girl. We'll get out of this all right," +he said, as cheerfully as he could, although he was alarmed for her +safety more than he would have dared to admit, even to himself. + +The other girls were all strong, healthy specimens of young womanhood, +presumably able to endure a good deal of cold and exposure without +danger of serious harm. But this little sensitive plant! Jeff waited in +suspense for her answer. + +It came in a clear, sweet voice, without a particle of fright in it: "Of +course we shall. And won't it be fun to tell about it afterward?" + +"You're right, it will!" he responded, with enthusiasm. Inwardly he +said, "You're a plucky one, all right." Then, with the other fellows, he +leaped out of the sleigh, and went to trampling down the snow around the +imprisoned horses. + + * * * * * + +Alone together, after Randolph and Lucy had gone to bed, Andrew and +Charlotte passed the long evening. Charlotte was not willing to let +Evelyn come home to a closed and silent house, so the two awaited her +arrival. + +"Why, Andy, it's snowing furiously!" said Charlotte, from the window, +whither she had gone at the stroke of twelve. Doctor Churchill put down +the book from which he had been reading aloud, and came to her side. + +"So it is. Blowing, too. But it can't have been at it long or we should +have noticed." + +"I've been noticing the wind now and then for the last hour. I hope it's +not grown cold. I wouldn't have anything happen to upset Evelyn's +improvement for the world." + +"Nothing will. They'll be home before the half-hour. Come back and +listen to the rest of this chapter." + +Charlotte came back, but as the quarter-hours went slowly by she became +restless, and vibrated so continually between fireplace and window that +Andy finally put away the book and kept her company. + +"It's growing worse every minute." Charlotte's face was pressed close +against the frosty pane. "If they don't come by one it will look as if +something had happened." + +"Oh, they're at the irresponsible age. When they come they'll say, 'Why, +we didn't dream it was so late!'" + +"Jeff's not irresponsible when he gives a promise. He never breaks one," +Charlotte answered, confidently. + +"This storm would make the roads heavy. Even if they started on time, +they would have to travel twice as slowly as when they went. Stop +worrying, dear; it's not in character for you." + +Charlotte closed her lips, but when the clock struck one her eyes spoke +for her. "Evelyn is so delicate," they said, mutely, and Andy answered +as if she had spoken. + +"Evelyn is wrapped too heavily to be cold. Besides, they'll all take +care of her. She won't come to any harm, I'm sure of it. They'll be here +before half-past-one, I'm confident, and then we can antidote any chill +she may have got." + +But at half-past-one there was still no sign of the sleighing party. +Moreover, the storm was steadily increasing; it had become what is known +as a "blizzard." Even in the protected suburban street the drifts were +beginning to show size, and the arc-light at the corner was almost lost +to view through the downfall. + +Charlotte turned to her husband with something like imperiousness in her +manner, and met the same decision in his look. Before she could speak he +said: + +"Yes, I'll go to meet them. It does look as if they might be stalled +somewhere. It's rather a lonely road till they reach the railroad, and +it's possible they've missed the way." + +He went to the telephone. + +"Andy," cried Charlotte, following him, "order a double sleigh, please! +I must go with you." + +He turned and looked at her, hesitating. "It isn't necessary, dear. I'll +go over and wake up Just, I think. We two will be--" + +"I must go," she interrupted. "I couldn't endure to wait here any +longer. And if Evelyn should be very much chilled she'll need me to look +after her. Besides--" + +He smiled at her. "You won't let me get lost in a snow-drift myself +without you." + +She nodded, and ran away to make ready. By the time the livery-stable +had been awakened from its early morning apathy, and had sent round the +double sleigh with the best pair of horses in its stalls, the party was +ready. + +Just, awakened by snowballs thrown in at his open window, had joyfully +dressed himself. At the last moment Charlotte had thought of the +automobile headlight, and this, hurriedly filled and lighted, streamed +out over the snow as the three jumped into the sleigh. All were warmly +dressed, and Charlotte had brought many extra wraps, as well as a supply +of medicines for a possible emergency of which she did not like to +think. + +"Julius Caesar, but this is a night!" came from between Just's teeth, as +the sleigh reached the end of the suburban streets and made the turn +upon the open country road. He clutched at his cap, pulling it still +farther down over his ears. "What a change in six hours!" + +"This is a straight nor'easter," answered Doctor Churchill, slapping +hands already chilled, in spite of his heavy driving gloves. Then he +turned his head. "Can't you keep well down behind us, Charlotte?" he +called over his shoulder. + +"I'm all right!" she called back. One had to shout to be heard in the +roar of the wind. + +After that nobody talked, except as Just from time to time offered to +drive, to give Andrew's hands a chance to warm. That young man, however, +would not give over the reins to anybody. It was not for nothing that he +had been driving over this country, under all possible conditions of +weather, for nearly five years. + +When they had crossed the railroad which marked the end of the main +highway between two towns and the beginning of the narrow side road +which led off across country to the farmhouse of the sleighing party, +conviction that the young people had been stalled somewhere on the great +plain they were crossing became settled. + +It was with the utmost difficulty that Doctor Churchill kept the road. +Only the fact that the storm was showing signs of decreasing, and that +now and then came moments when he could see more clearly the outlying +indications of fence and tree and infrequent habitation assured him that +he had not lost the way. + +"Hark!" cried Charlotte, suddenly, as they plowed along. + +For the instant the wind had lulled. Doctor Churchill stopped his +horses, and the three held their breath to listen. After a brief +interval came the faint, far toot of a horn. Then, away to the left, a +light suddenly flashed, vanished, and flashed again. + +"There they are!" cried three exultant voices. + +"But how shall we get to them?" shouted Just, instantly alive with +excitement. "Why, they're a mile away! There's no road over there, nor +any houses. They're right out in the fields." + +Then the sifting snow shut down again. The three looked at one another +in the yellow glare from the automobile headlight. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Don't they see our light?" Charlotte asked, eagerly. + +"I think perhaps they have seen it," Doctor Churchill answered, "and +that's why they were blowing their horns. Probably some of them will +start toward us. If they're not stuck, they'll begin to drive this way. +I believe the thing to do will be for Charlotte to stay here in the +sleigh, keeping the headlight pointed just to the left of that big +tree--I noticed that was where the flash of their fire came--and for +Just and me to start across the fields. I'll turn the horses with their +backs to the wind and blanket them. Then--hold on, I've a better plan. +Let's make a fire of our own. That will insure Charlotte's keeping +warm." + +"Everything's too wet," objected Just. "That crowd must have had a time +getting green wood to burn." + +"We can do it." Doctor Churchill was feeling among the robes at his +feet. "I thought of it before we started, and put in a kerosene-can and +some newspapers. Hatchet, too." + +Just got out of the sleigh and waded away toward a thick growth of +underbrush along the side of the road. + +In ten minutes a roaring fire was leaping into the descending snowfall. +A pile of brush and some broken fence-rails were left with Charlotte, +the horses made as snug as possible, and then the two others jumped the +fence and plunged off into the snow. + +Guided by glimpses of the apparently fitful fire of the sleighing party, +Doctor Churchill and Just made their way. Sometimes the course was +comparatively free from drifts; again they had to wallow nearly to their +waists. + +"Confounded long way!" grunted Just. "Good thing we're both tough and +strong. Except for Jeff, there aren't any athletes in the Houghton +party." + +"Don't I see somebody coming toward us?" Doctor Churchill asked, +presently. + +The snowfall was lightening again, and the small flame in the distance +looked nearer. He put his hands to his mouth and gave a long, clear +hail. He was answered by a similar one. Then followed a peculiar musical +call, which Just, recognising, answered ecstatically. + +"It's Jeff!" he shouted. "_Whoop!_ I'll bet he's glad to hear us!" + +He was. He came plunging through the last big drift toward them, a +snow-encrusted figure. "Well, well!" he cried, in tones of pleasure and +relief. "I knew you'd come. Where are we, anyhow?" + +"A mile off the road. Are you all right? I see you've got a fire. +How's--" + +"Evelyn's all right, I think. Since we managed the fire she's fairly +warm again. Plucky as any girl in the crowd, and they're all plucky. How +are we to get our load down to the road?" + +"I brought ropes, and we've a strong pair back there. We'll go and get +them, now that we know where you are. You go back to your party and +prepare them to be rescued." + +"No, Just can go to the camp, and I'll keep on with you." + +Just, being entirely willing to accept the part of rescuer, plowed on +through the big holes Jeff had left in his track. Doctor Churchill and +Jeff made their way back to Charlotte. + +"Yes, we had rather a bad time for a while," admitted Jeff, as he helped +Andy make the horses ready to start. "We got pretty cold, and I thought +we'd never make the fire go. Found the inside of an old stump at last, +and got her started. Yes, all the girls looked after Evelyn--came pretty +near smothering her. I don't believe she's taken cold. The snow's +letting up. I can see our fire back there. No, we didn't see yours; we +were just tooting on general principles. Evelyn insisted she caught a +glimmer, and I started out to climb a tree to find out. I saw it then, +for a minute, and was sure it was you. Keep this fire going, Charlotte. +The storm may close down again, and we want to make straight tracks +across the fields." + +By the time they reached the camp in the fields both Jeff and Doctor +Churchill were pretty well wearied. But they greeted the party there +with an enthusiasm which matched the welcome they received. + +The spirits of the whole company had risen with a jump the instant they +had caught sight of Just, and now, with four horses to pull the +ponderous sleigh through the drifts, the boys walking by its side and +the girls tucked snugly in among the robes, the whole aspect of things +was changed. The situation lost seriousness, and although each was +prepared to make a thrilling tale of it for the various family circles +when daylight came, nobody except Jeff really regretted the experience +of the night. When they reached Charlotte and the smaller sleigh, there +was a great chorus of explanations. She swiftly extracted Evelyn and +took her in beside herself. + +"Indeed, yes, I'm warm, Mrs. Churchill," protested the girl. Her voice +showed that she was very tired, but her inflection was as cheerful as +ever. With a hot soapstone at her feet, a hot-water bag in her lap and +Charlotte's arm about her, she leaned back on the fur-clad shoulder +beside her and rejoiced. One thing was certain. She had had a real +Northern good time, with an exciting ending, and she was quite willing +to be tired. + +With the wind at their backs and the fall of snow nearly ceased, the +party was not a great while in getting back to town. The clocks were +striking five when Charlotte, having put her charge to bed, and fed her +with hot food and spicy, steaming drinks, administered the last pat and +tuck. "Now you're not to open your eyes and stir until four o'clock this +afternoon," she admonished her, with decisive tenderness. "Then if +you're very good, you may get up and dress in time for dinner." + +"I'll be good, Mrs. Churchill," promised Evelyn, smiling rather faintly. +She fell asleep almost before the door closed. + +"You must feel a load off your shoulders," Just observed to Jeff, as the +two made ready for slumber for the brief time remaining before breakfast +and the school and college work which would then claim them both. + +"I do. But if Evelyn comes out all right I shall be glad I took her. I +tell you that girl's a mighty good sort." + +"I wish Lucy was like her. What do you think I'm in for? Our class +reception is for Friday night, at the head-master's house. Doctor +Agnew's daughters have met Lucy, and I'm sure she gave 'em a hint to +invite her to come with me. Anyhow, they've done it, and of course I've +got to take her." + +"Oh, well, a fellow has to be civil to a lot of girls he doesn't +particularly admire. Lucy's not so bad. She's rather pretty--when she's +feeling amiable--and she certainly dresses well." + +Jeff's assertion in the matter of Lucy's appearance was proved true. +When Just, on Friday evening, marched across to the other house, +inwardly raging at his fate, he had an agreeable surprise. As he stood +by the fireplace with Charlotte, Lucy came down-stairs and floated in at +the door. Just stopped in the middle of a sentence and stared. + +Being really a very pretty girl, and feeling, at the present moment, the +height of fluttering expectation, her face was illumined into an +attractiveness that was quite a revelation to her friends. For the first +time Lucy felt herself to be in the centre of things, and it made +another girl of her. In addition, the evening frock she wore was so +charming in style and colouring that it contributed not a little to the +general effect. + +Altogether, Just experienced quite a revulsion of feeling in regard to +the painful duty before him, and came forward to assist Lucy into her +long coat with considerable alacrity and cheerfulness. + +"Oh, I do love parties so," she declared, as they hurried along the +streets. "I'm not used to being so dull as I've been here. It seems to +me that you have mighty few doings for young people. I don't call +candy-pulls and fudge parties real _parties_." + +"Probably you won't call this to-night a real party, then. There's never +much that's exciting at Doctor Agnew's. He always has an orchestra +playing, and we walk round and talk, and usually somebody does something +to entertain us--a reading or songs. Maybe you won't think it's as +festive as you expect." + +"Oh, well, I reckon it will be a nice change," said she, with quite +unexpected good humour. + +In the dressing-room Chester Agnew, the son of the head-master, came up +to Just with an expression of mingled pleasure and chagrin. + +"Awfully glad to see you, Birch," he said, "I suppose you noticed that +we have no music going to-night. It's a shame, isn't it? Lindmann's men +have been delayed by a freight wreck on the P. & Q. They were coming +home from a wedding down the line somewhere, and telephoned us they +couldn't get out here before midnight. We've tried to get some other +music, but everything's engaged somewhere." + +"Too bad, but it's no great matter," Just replied, comfortably. "We can +worry along without the orchestra." + +"No, you can't. Mother's plans for to-night were for a series of +national dances, in costume, by sixteen of the juniors, and that's all +up without the music." + +"Why won't the piano do?" + +"We haven't a piano in the house. Yes, I know, but it was Helena's, and +when she was married in November she took it with her. Father hasn't +bought a new one yet, because the other girls don't play. Now do you +see? You're in for the stupidest evening you've had this winter, for +it's too late to get anybody here to do any sort of entertaining." + +"That is too bad," admitted Just, thinking of Lucy, and finding himself +caring a good deal that she should not think the affair dull. He walked +along the hall with Chester to the point where he should meet Lucy, +thinking about the situation. Then an idea popped into his head. + +"Isn't your telephone in that little closet off the dining-room?" he +asked. + +"Yes. Want to use it?" + +"Yes. Take Lucy down, will you? You know her. I've just thought of +something." + +Just slipped down to the dining-room. He carefully closed the door of +the closet and called up Doctor Churchill. To him he rapidly explained +the situation and the remedy which had occurred to him. Doctor +Churchill's voice came back to him in a tone of amused surprise. + +"Why, Just, do you think we could carry it through decently? We don't +know the music at all. Oh, play our own and make it fit? What sort will +do--ordinary waltzes and two-steps? I shouldn't mind helping them out, +of course, if I thought we could manage it. Better than nothing? +Well--possibly. Better consult Mrs. Agnew before we do anything rash." + +Just ran up the rear staircase and down the front one. He found Chester +and whispered his plan. Interrupting Chester's eager gratitude, he asked +for somebody who could tell him what music would be needed. + +"Mother's receiving, and so are the girls. Carolyn Houghton will know, I +think. She's been at the rehearsals. I'll get her." + +"Well, are you going to leave me to myself much longer?" Lucy inquired, +reproachfully, as Just waited silently beside her for Carolyn. + +"Why, I'm awfully sorry," he said, remembering his duties, which in the +excitement of the moment he realised he was forgetting. "I hope you'll +excuse me, but I've got to help the Agnews out if I can." And he +hurriedly told her his plan. She stared at him in astonishment. + +"You don't mean you would come and take the place of a hired orchestra +for a reception?" she cried, under her breath. + +It was Just's turn to stare. Then he straightened shoulders which were +already pretty square. "Would you mind telling me why not? That is, +provided we can do it well enough." + +"I think it's a mighty queer thing to do," insisted Lucy, with +disapproval. + +Carolyn Houghton appeared and beckoned Just and Chester out into the +hall. Lucy followed, not liking to be left alone. Everybody seemed to be +forgetting her, although Chester had turned, and said cordially, "That's +right, Miss Lucy! Come and help us plan." + +Carolyn lost no time. "It's fine of you," she said eagerly. "Yes, I'm +sure you can do it. Not one person in fifty will know whether the tunes +you play are national or not. Something quaint and queer for the +Hungarian, and jigsy and gay for the Irish. Castanets in the Spanish +dance--have you them?" + +"Young Randolph Peyton can work those," began Just, looking at Lucy. + +She frowned. "Really, I don't believe you'd better have him in it," she +said, with such an air that Carolyn glanced at her in amazement, and +Chester coughed and turned away. + +"Oh, very well!" Just answered, instantly. "You can do 'em yourself, +then, Ches." + +"All right," said Chester. "There is a big screen of palms and ferns for +the orchestra," he explained, with satisfaction, to Lucy. "Nobody'll +know who's performing, anyhow." + +"Oh!" said Lucy. + +Carolyn had soon convinced Just that the little home orchestra could +undertake the music without much fear of failure. + +"Of course there's a chance that the change may put the dancers out, yet +I don't think so. I noticed it was rather simple music, and they're so +well drilled they're not very dependent on the music. Anyhow, people +will be too interested in the costumes and the steps to notice whether +the music is strictly appropriate. As long as you give them something in +precisely the right time, I don't believe the change will bother them. I +can coach you on that." + +"All right," and Just hurried back to the telephone. + +Within three-quarters of an hour he had them all there, a laughing crew, +ready for what struck them as a frolic for themselves. Chester Agnew +carried the instruments behind the screen, and managed to slip the +members of the new orchestra one by one from the dining-room doorway to +the shelter of the palms without anybody's being the wiser. In ten +minutes more soft music began to steal through the crowded rooms. + +"The orchestra has come, after all," said Mrs. Agnew to her husband, in +the front room. Her voice breathed relief. + +He nodded satisfaction. "So I hear. I don't know how they managed it, +but I accept the fact without question." + +"Do you think it's always safe to do that?" queried his son Chester, +coming up in time to hear. + +"Accept facts without question? What else can you do with facts?" + +"But if they should turn out not to be facts?" + +"In this case I have the evidence of my ears," returned the learned man, +comfortably, and Chester walked away again, his eyes dancing. + +"Nobody can tell you from Lindmann," he whispered, behind the screen, +during an interval. + +"That's good. Hope the delusion keeps up. We don't feel much like +Lindmann," returned Churchill, hastily turning over a pile of music. +"Get your crowd to talking as loud as it can--then we're comparatively +safe. Where's the second violin part of 'King Manfred'? Look out, +Just--you hit my elbow twice with your bow-arm last time. These quarters +are a bit--There you are, Charlotte. Now take this thing slow, and look +to your phrasing. All ready!" + +The costume dances did not come until after supper. By that time the +Churchills and Birches, behind the screen, had settled down to steady +work. During supper a violin, with the 'cello and bass, carried on the +music, while Doctor Churchill, Celia and Carolyn Houghton planned a +substitute programme for the dances. + +In two cases they found the original music familiar; in most of the +others it proved not very difficult to adapt other music. The leaders of +the dances were told that whatever happened they were to carry through +their parts without showing signs of distress. + +"It's a pretty big bluff," murmured Jeff, leaning back in his chair and +mopping a perspiring brow. "Phew-w. but it's hot in here! I expect to +see several of those crazy dances go all to pieces on our account. That +Highland Fling! Mind you keep up a ripping time on that. It ought to be +piped, not stringed." + +Nevertheless, in spite of a good deal of perturbation on the part of +both dancers and orchestra, the entertainment went off well enough to be +applauded heartily. Certain numbers, notably the South Carolina +breakdown, the Irish jig, and the minuet of Washington's time, "brought +down the house," presumably because the music fitted best and bothered +the dancers least. + +When it was over, the musicians expected to escape before they were +found out, thinking the fun Would be the greater if the Agnews did not +learn to whom they were indebted until later. But young Chester Agnew +defeated this. He instructed half-a-dozen of his friends, and as the +final strains were coming to a close, these boys laid hold of the wall +of palms and pulled it to pieces. The musicians, laughing and +protesting, were shown to the entire company. + +A great murmur of surprise was followed by a burst of applause and +laughter, in the midst of which Doctor and Mrs. Agnew hurried to the +front, followed by their daughters, who had already discovered the +truth, but had been warned by their brother to keep quiet about it. + +"My dear friends!" exclaimed the head-master. "Is it possible that it is +you who have filled the gap so successfully? Well, really, what shall we +say to such kindness?" + +"Mrs. Churchill--Doctor Churchill--Miss Birch--all of you," Mrs Agnew +was saying, in her surprise, "what a very lovely thing to do! It has +been too kind of you. We appreciate it more than we can tell you. You +must come out at once and have some supper." + +"The evening would have been spoiled without you!" cried Jessica Agnew, +and Isabel said the same thing. Chester was loud in his praises, and +indeed, the orchestra received an ovation which quite overwhelmed it. It +went out to supper presently, escorted by at least twenty young people. + +"Here, come and sit by me, Lucy," invited Just, in good humour at the +success of his plan. "You can keep handing me food as I consume it. I +never was so starved in my life. Well, have you had a good time? Sorry I +had to desert you, but I've no doubt the others introduced you round and +saw that you weren't neglected." + +"I think Chester Agnew is one of the handsomest boys I ever met," +whispered Lucy. "Hasn't he the loveliest eyes? He was just devoted to +me." + +Just turned, his mouth full of chicken _pâté_, and regarded her with +interest. "Yes, his eyes are wonders," he agreed, his own twinkling. +"Full of soul, and all that, you mean? Yes, they are, though I never +noticed it till you pointed it out." + +Lucy looked at him suspiciously. + +"He liked my dress," she went on. + +"Did, eh? Ches must be coming on. Never knew him to notice a girl's +dress before." + +"I saw him looking at it,"--Lucy's tone was impressive--"and asked if he +liked pink. He said it was his favourite colour." + +"H'm! I must take lessons of Ches." + +"He looked at me so much I was awfully embarrassed," said Lucy, under +her breath, with drooping eyes. + +Just favoured her with another curious glance. "Maybe he's never seen +just your kind before," he suggested. "Lucy, by the time you're twenty +you'll be quite an old hand at this society business, won't you?" + +"What makes you think so?" she asked, not sure whether to be gratified +or not. + +"Oh, your small talk is so--well, so--er--interesting. A fellow always +likes to hear about another fellow--about his eyes, and so on." + +"Oh, you mustn't be jealous," said Lucy, with a glance which finished +Just. He choked in his napkin, and turned his attention to Carolyn +Houghton, on his other side. + +But when he went to bed that night he once more gave vent to his +feelings on the subject of his sister's guest. + +"Jeff," said he, "if a girl has absolutely no brains in her head, what +do you suppose occupies the cavity?" + +"Give it up," returned Jeff, sleepily. + +"I think it must be a substance of about the consistency of a +marshmallow," mused Just, thoughtfully. "I detest marshmallows," he +added, with some resentment. + +"Oh, go to bed!" murmured Jeff. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Nobody at home, eh? Well, I'm sorry. I wanted to see somebody very +much. And there's no one at the other house, either. I'm away so much I +see altogether too little of these people, Mrs. Fields." Thus spoke +Doctor Forester of the city--the old friend and family counselor of both +Birches and Churchills. + +His son Frederic--who had managed since his return from study abroad to +see much more of the Birch household than his father--was watching the +conversation on the door-step from his position in the driver's place on +Doctor Forester's big automobile, which stood at the curb. It was a cool +day in May, and a light breeze was blowing. + +"I don't know but Miss Evelyn's in the house somewhere," admitted Mrs. +Fields. "But I don't suppose you'd care to see her?" + +"Miss Evelyn? Why, certainly I should! Please ask her to come down." + +So presently Evelyn was at the door, her slender hand in the big one of +the distinguished gentleman of whom she stood a little in awe. + +"All alone, Miss Evelyn?" said Doctor Forester. "Then suppose you get +your hat and a warm jacket and come with us. Fred and I expected to pick +up whomever we found and take them for a little run down to a certain +place on the river." + +Such an invitation was not to be resisted. Doctor Churchill and +Charlotte were at the hospital; Randolph was with them, visiting his +friends and protégés among the convalescent boys. Lucy had gone to town +with the Birches, and nobody knew where Jeff and Just might be. + +"Suppose you sit back in the tonneau with me," Doctor Forester +suggested. "Fred likes to be the whole thing on the front seat there." + +He put Evelyn in and tucked her up. "Wearing a cap? That's good sense. +It spoils my fun to take in a passenger with all sails spread. Hello, +son, what are you stopping for? Oh, I see!" + +It was Celia Birch beside whom the motor was bringing up with such a +sudden check to its speed. She had appeared at the corner of the street +and had instantly presented to the quick vision of Mr. Frederic Forester +a good and sufficient reason for coming to a stop. + +"Please come with us!" urged that young man, jumping out. "We've been to +the house for you." + +Celia put her hand to her head, "Just as I am?" she asked. + +"Just as you are. That little _chapeau_ will stay on all right. If it +doesn't I'll lend you my cap. Will you keep me company in front? Father +has appropriated Miss Evelyn behind there." + +Celia mounted to the seat, and they were off through the wide streets, +and presently away in the country, spinning along at a rate much faster +than either passenger realised. The machine was a fine one, operating +with so little fuss and fret that the speed it was capable of attaining +was not always appreciated. + +"Oh, this is glorious, isn't it, Evelyn?" cried Celia, over her +shoulder. + +Doctor Forester glanced from her to the young girl on the seat beside +him, smiling at both. "I'm glad you put your trust in the chauffeur so +implicitly. It took me some time to get used to him, but he proves +worthy of confidence. I wouldn't drive my own machine a block--never +have. Yes, it's delightful to go whirling along over the country in this +way. I suppose you don't know where I'm taking you?" + +"I don't think we much care," Celia answered, and Evelyn nodded. Both +were pink-cheeked and bright-eyed with the delight of the motion. + +The doctor did not explain where they were going until they had nearly +reached their destination. They had passed many fine country places all +along the way, and had reached a fork in the river. The broad road +leading on up the river was left behind as they turned to the left, +following the windings of the smaller stream. + +The character of the houses along the way had changed at once. They had +become comfortable farmhouses, with now and then a place of more modern +aspect. + +"This is the sort of thing I prefer," Doctor Forester announced, with +satisfaction. "I wouldn't give a picayune to own one of those castles, +back there. But down here I'm going to show you my ideal of comfort." + +Fred turned in at a gateway and drove on through orchards and grove to a +house behind the trees on the river bank. + +"Doesn't that look like home?" exclaimed the doctor, as they alighted. +"Well, it is home! I bought it yesterday, just as it stands. Nothing +fine about it, outside or in. I wanted it to run away to when I'm tired. +I'm not going to tell anybody about it except---" + +"Except every one he meets," Fred said, gaily, to Celia, leading her +toward the wide porch overlooking the river, about which the May vines +were beginning to cluster profusely. "He can't keep it a secret. I may +as well warn you he's going to invite you and the whole family out here +for a fortnight in June. So if you don't want to come you have a chance +to be thinking up a reasonable excuse." + +"As if we could want one! What a charming plan for us! Does he really +mean to include all of us?" + +"Every one, under both roofs. I assure you it's a jolly plan for us, and +I'm holding my breath till I know you'll come." + +"What a lovely rest it will be for Charlotte!" murmured Celia, thinking +at once, as usual, of somebody else. "She won't own it, but she's really +had a pretty hard winter." + +"So I should imagine, for the first year of one's married life. I'm +afraid I couldn't be as hospitable as she and her husband--not all at +once, you know. Do you think it's paid?" + +"What? Having the three through the winter?" Celia glanced at Evelyn, +who at the other end of the long porch with Doctor Forester was gazing +with happy eyes out over the sunlit river. "Oh, I'm sure Charlotte and +Andy would both say so. In Evelyn's case I think there's no doubt about +it. From being a delicate little invalid she's come to be the healthy +girl you see there. Not very vigorous yet, of course, but in a fair way +to become so, Andy thinks." + +"Yes, I can see," admitted Forester, thoughtfully. "But those other +youngsters--" + +Celia laughed. It was easy to think well of everybody out here in this +delicious air and in the company of people she thoroughly liked. Even +Lucy Peyton seemed less of an infliction. + +"Little Ran has certainly improved very much," she said, warmly. "And +even Lucy--" + +"Has Lucy improved?" Forester looked at her with a quizzical smile. "The +last time I saw her I thought she was rather going backward. I met her +by accident in town one day. Charlotte was shopping, and Lucy was +waiting. She rushed up to me as to a long lost friend. She practically +invited me to invite herself and Charlotte to lunch with me--she +somewhat grudgingly included Charlotte. I was rather taken off my feet +for an instant. Charlotte heard, and came up. I wish you could have seen +the expression on the face of Mrs. Andrew Churchill! I don't know which +felt the more crushed, Lucy or I. I assure you I was anxious to take +them both to lunch after that, Mrs. Andrew had made it so clearly +impossible." + +"The perversity of human desires," laughed Celia. "Poor Lucy! Charlotte +won't stand the child's absurd affectations." + +"Come here, and listen to my plan!" called Doctor Forester, unable to +wait longer to unfold it. So for the next half-hour the plan was +discussed in all its bearings. + +Celia proposed at once that they keep it a secret from Charlotte until +the last possible moment, and this was agreed upon. Then Evelyn +suggested, a little shyly, that it also remain unknown to Jeff. He was +to be graduated from college about the middle of June, was very busy and +hurried, and might appreciate the whole thing better when Commencement +was out of the way. It was finally decided that the party should come +down to "The Banks" upon the evening of Jeff's Commencement Day, and +that to him and Charlotte the whole arrangement should be a complete +surprise. + +The date was only three weeks ahead, and Celia and Evelyn, Mrs. Birch +and the others, found plenty to do in getting ready for the outing, to +say nothing of seeing that neither Charlotte nor Jeff made other +engagements for the period. + +"No, no, let's not get in our camping so early in the season. It'll be +all over too soon, then," argued Just with his brother. Upon Just +devolved the task of heading Jeff off for those prospective two weeks. +"Besides, I've an idea Lanse may prefer July or August." + +"If you'd been boning for examinations the way I have," retorted Jeff, +"your one idea would be to get off into the wilderness just as soon as +your sheepskin was fairly in your hands. I don't see why you argue +against going in June. You were eager enough for it a week ago." + +"Oh, not so awfully eager. I----" + +"You were in a frenzy to go. And I haven't cooled off, if you have." + +"He's hopeless," Just confided to Evelyn. "His granite mind is set on +going camping in June, and I can't get him off it. If you've any little +tricks of persuasiveness all your own now's your time to try 'em on him. +He'll spoil the whole thing." + +"Write your brother Lansing to tell Jeff to put it off on his account," +suggested Evelyn. + +"That won't do, unfortunately, for Lanse has been uncertain about going +all the time." + +"I'll try to think of something," promised Evelyn. + +She had a chance before the day was over. Jeff appeared, late in the +afternoon, and invited her to take a walk with him. + +"I'll tell you what I want," he said, as they went along. "Let's go down +by the old bridge at the pond, and if there's nobody about I'd like to +have you do me the favour of listening while I spout my class-day +oration. Would you mind?" + +"I shall be delighted," answered Evelyn, and this program was carried +out accordingly. Down behind the willows Jeff mounted a prostrate log +and gave vent to a vigorous and sincere discourse. + +"Splendid!" cried his audience, as he finished. "If you do it half as +well as that it will be a great success." + +"Glad you think so." Jeff descended from the log with a flushed brow and +an air of relief. "I'm not the fellow for class orator, I know, but I'm +it, and I don't want to disgrace the crowd. Pretty down here, isn't it?" + +"Beautiful. It makes me very blue to think of leaving it--as if I +oughtn't to be simply thankful I could be here so long. It was lovely of +your sister and brother to insist on my staying when my brother Thorne +had to go to Japan so suddenly." + +"You're not going soon?" Jeff looked dismayed. + +"Two weeks after your Commencement," said Evelyn. "My brother's ship +should be in port by the last of June, and I want to surprise him by +being at home when he reaches there. I shall leave here the minute he +gets into San Francisco." + +"Oh, that's too bad. I'd forgotten there was any such thing as your +going away. You seem--why, you seem one of us, you know!" declared Jeff, +as if there could be no stronger bond of union. + +"Oh, thank you--it's good of you to say so. You've all been so kind I +can't half tell you how I appreciate it. We'll have to make the most of +June, I think," said Evelyn, smiling rather wistfully, and looking away +across the little pond. + +"I should say so. We'll have every sort of lark we can think of the +minute Commencement's--Oh, I was going camping after that--but I'll put +it off. Just was arguing that way only this morning, but I saw no good +reason for waiting, then. Now, I do." + +"I'm sorry to have you put it off," protested Evelyn, with art. "Hadn't +you better go on with your plans, if they're all made? Of course I +should be sorry, but--" + +"Oh, I'll put it off!" said Jeff, decidedly, with the very human wish to +do the thing he need not do. + +So it was settled. Commencement came rapidly on, bringing with it the +round of festivals peculiar to that season. Jeff insisted on the +presence of his entire family at every event, and for a week, as +Charlotte said, it seemed as if they all lived in flowered organdies and +white gloves. + +"I'm really thankful this is the last," sighed Celia, coming over with +her mother and Just to join the party assembling for the final great +occasion on the Churchill's porch. "Evelyn, how dear you look in that +forget-me-not frock! And that hat is a dream." + +"Well, people, we must be off. When it's all over, let's come out here +on the porch in the dark and luxuriate." Charlotte drew a long breath as +she spoke. + +"That will be a rest," agreed Celia, with a private pinch of Evelyn's +arm, and Lucy and Randolph giggled. + +The younger two had been let into the secret only within the last +twenty-four hours, fears being entertained that they might not be safe +repositories of mystery. Celia gave them a warning look as she passed +them, and kept them away from Charlotte during the car ride into the +city. + +"How well the dear boy looks!" whispered his family, one to another, as +the class filed into the University chapel in cap and gown. They were in +a front row, where Jeff could look down at them when he should come upon +the stage for his diploma. + +There was not the slightest possibility of his looking either there or +anywhere else. His oration had been delivered on class day, and his +remaining part in the exercises of graduation was to listen respectfully +to the distinguished gentlemen who took part, and to watch with +interested eyes the conferring of many higher degrees before it was time +for himself and his class to receive the sonorous Latin address which +ended by bestowing upon them the title of Bachelor of Arts. + +It was a proud moment, nevertheless, and many hearts beat high when it +came. Down in that row near the front father and mother, brothers and +sisters and friends, watched a certain erect figure as if there were no +others worth looking at--as all over the hall other affectionate eyes +watched other youthful, manly forms. + +Jeff had worked hard for his degree, being not by nature a student, like +his elder brother Lansing, but fonder of active, outdoor life than of +books. He had been incited to deeds of valour in the classroom only by +the grim determination not to disgrace the family traditions or the +scholarly ancestors to whom he had often been pointed back. + +"Thank heaven it's over!" exulted Jeff, with his classmates, when, after +the last triumphant speech of the evening, the audience was dismissed to +the strains of a rejoicing orchestra. + +"Say, fellows, I'm going to bolt. Hullo, Just! Ask Evelyn for me if she +won't go home flying with me in the Houghton auto--Carolyn's just sent +me word." + +"That will be just the thing," whispered Celia to Evelyn, when the +message came. "Go with him, but don't let him stop at the Houghtons'. +Whisper it to Carolyn, and see that he's safely on the porch with you +when we get there." + +Evelyn nodded and disappeared with Just, who took her to his brother. + +"Now we're off," murmured Jeff, as he and Evelyn followed Carolyn and +her brother out through a side entrance. "What a night! What a moon! My, +but it feels good to be out in the open air after that pow-wow in +there!" + +They had half an hour to themselves in the quiet of the moonlit porch +before the others, coming by electric car, could reach home. + +They filled the time by sitting quietly on the top step, Jeff in the +subdued mood of the young graduate who sees, after all, much to regret +in the coming to an end of the years of getting ready for his life-work. +He was, besides, not a little wearied by the final examinations, +preparation for his part in Commencement, and the closing round of +exercises. Evelyn, herself somewhat fatigued, leaned back against the +porch pillar and gladly kept silence. + +Before the others came Jeff spoke abruptly. "It isn't everybody who +knows when to let a fellow be an oyster," he said, gratefully. "But I'm +getting over the oyster mood now, and feel like talking. Do you know, +you're going to leave an awful vacancy behind you when you go?" + +"Oh, no," Evelyn answered. "There are so many of you, and you have such +good times together, you can't mind much when a stranger goes away." + +"Call yourself that?" Jeff laughed. "Well I assure you we don't. You're +too thoroughly one of us--in the way of liking the things we like and +despising the things we despise. Hullo, here come the people! It was +rather stealing a march on them to race home in an auto and let them +follow by car, wasn't it?' Let's go make 'em some lemonade to cheer +their souls." + +"All right." Evelyn was wondering if this would give her the necessary +chance to change her dress, when the big Forester automobile rounded the +corner and rolled up to the curb, just as the party from the car reached +the steps. Behind it followed a second car of still more ample +dimensions. + +"I've come to take the whole party for a moonlight drive down the +river!" called Frederic Forester. "Go take off those cobweb frocks and +put on something substantial. I'll give you ten minutes. I've the +prettiest sight to show you you've seen this year." + +"I believe I'm too tired and sleepy to go," said Charlotte to Andy, as +he followed her up-stairs. "This week of commencing has about finished +me. Can't you excuse me to Fred? You go with them, if you like." + +"I don't like, without you." Doctor Churchill was divesting himself of +white cravat and collar. "I know you're worn out, dear, but I think the +ride will brace you up. It's hot in the house to-night; it will be +blissfully cool out on the river road. Besides, Forester would be +disappointed. It isn't every night he comes for us with a pair of autos. + +"If I were going all alone with you in the runabout--" sighed Charlotte, +with a languor unusual to her. + +"I know, I'd like that better myself. But you needn't talk on this +trip--there are enough to keep things lively without you. You shall sit +next your big boy, and he'll hold your hand in the dark," urged Doctor +Churchill, artfully. + +"On that condition, then," and Charlotte rose from among the pillows, +where she had sunk. + +There was certainly something very refreshing about the swift motion in +the June air. Leaning against her husband's shoulder, Charlotte began to +rest. + +It had been a busy week, the heat had been of that first unbearable high +temperature of mid-June with which some seasons assault us, and young +Mrs. Churchill had felt her responsibilities more heavily than ever +before. As the car flew down the river road she shut her eyes. + +"Why, where are we turning in?" Charlotte opened her eyes. She had been +almost asleep, soothed by the cool and quiet. + +"Look ahead through the trees," Doctor Churchill said in her ear, and +Charlotte sat up. + +She saw on the river bank, far ahead, a low house with long porches, +hung thickly with Chinese lanterns. Each window glowed with one of the +swinging globes, and long lines of them stretched off among the trees. +At one side gleamed two white tents, and in front of these burned +bonfires. + +"What is it? It must be a lawn party. But we're not dressed for it!" +murmured Charlotte, her eyes wide open now. + +Just then a tremendous shout from the automobile in front rang through +the grove. Their own car ran up to the steps, where stood Doctor +Forester and John Lansing Birch under the lanterns, both dressed from +head to foot in white. + +"Welcome to 'The Banks!'" the doctor cried. "Charlotte, my dear, why +this expression of amazement? You've only come to my house party, my +woods party, my river party--for a fortnight--all of you. Will you stay, +or are you going to sit staring down at us with those big black eyes +forever?" + +"I think I'll stay," said Charlotte, happily, slipping down from the car +into her brother's outstretched arms. "O Lanse! O Lanse! It's good to +see you. _What_ a surprise!" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Charlotte swung herself up into the runabout as Doctor Churchill paused +for her at the gateway of "The Banks." She had met him here at six +o'clock every day since they came, and this was the seventh day. + +It was impossible for him to get through his round of work earlier, but +he was enjoying his evenings and nights in the country with a zest +almost sufficient to make up for the daytime hours he missed. + +Charlotte, however, although she joined merrily in all that went on +through the day, was never so happy as when this hour arrived, and +dressed in cool white for the evening, she could slip away and walk +slowly down this winding road through the orchard and the grove to the +gateway. Here she waited in a shady nook for the first puff of the +coming motor. The moment she heard it she sprang out into the roadway, +and stood waving her handkerchief in response to a swinging cap far up +the road. + +Then came the nearer salutation, the quick climb into the small car, +assisted by the grip of Andy's hand, and the eager greeting of two pairs +of eyes. + +"Do you know this outing is doing you a world of good already?" said +Doctor Churchill, noting with approval the fresh colour in Charlotte's +face. + +"I know it is. I didn't realise that I needed it a bit until I actually +found myself here, with nothing to do except rest and play. It's doing +everybody good. You should have heard the plans at breakfast to-day. +Although it's been so hot, nobody has been idle a minute. I've been +fishing all day with Lanse and Fred and Celia. Andy, do you know what I +think? I admit I didn't think it till Lanse put it into my head, but I +believe he's right. Fred----" + +"Is going to want Celia? Of course. That was a foregone conclusion from +the start." + +"Andy Churchill, you weren't so discerning as all that, when not even I +thought it was serious with either of them! Celia's had so many +admirers, and turned them all aside so coolly--and Mr. Frederic Forester +is such an accomplished person at paying attentions--how could I think +it meant anything? But Lanse insists Celia is different from what she +ever was before, and I don't know but he's right." + +"To be sure he's right. Next to you, I never saw a more attractive young +person than Celia. What a charming colour you have, child! To be sure, +you have burned the tip of that small Greek nose a very little, but I +find even that adorable. Charlotte, stop pinching my arm. If you're half +as glad to have me get here as I am to arrive, you're pretty happy. I +laid stern commands on Mrs. Fields not to telephone, unless it were a +matter of absolute necessity, so I'm pretty sure of not being +disturbed." + +They found supper laid on the piazza, and enjoyed it with keen +appetites. Afterward they spent an hour drifting on the river, followed +by a long and delightful evening on the lawn at the river bank. Celia +and Lanse picked the strings of violin and viola, and the others sang. +Doctor Forester, in his white clothes lay stretched on a rustic seat, +and professed himself to be having "the time of his life." + +"I don't think the rest of us are far behind you," declared Lanse. "If +you people had been digging away at law in a hot old office you'd think +this was Paradise." + +Evelyn, looking out over the moonlit river, drew a little sigh which she +meant nobody to hear, but Jeff divined it, and whispered, under cover of +an extravaganza from Just in regard to the night, the company, and the +occasion, "You're coming again next summer, you know. And all winter +we'll write about it--shall we?" + +"Do you think you will have time to write?" she asked. + +"Have time! I should say I would make time," he murmured. "Think I'm +going to stand having this sort of thing cut off short? I guess +not--unless--you're the one who hasn't time. And even then I don't think +I could be kept from boring you with letters." + +"I shall certainly want to hear what you all are doing," she answered. + +She was thinking about this plan when she went up-stairs to bed an hour +later. Jeff had stopped her at the foot of the stairs to say, "I'd just +like a good secure promise from you about that letter-writing. I'll +enjoy the time that's left a lot better if I know it isn't coming to a +regular jumping-off place at the end. Will you promise to write +regularly?" + +She paused on the bottom step, where she was just on a level with the +straightforward dark eyes, half boy's, half man's, which met hers with +the clear look of good comradeship. There was no sentimentality in the +gaze, but undeniably strong liking and respect. She answered in Jeff's +own spirit: + +"I promise. I really shouldn't know how to do without hearing about your +plans and the things that happen to you. I'm not a very good +letter-writer, but I'll try to tell you things that will interest you." + +"Good! I'm no flowery expert myself, but I fancy we can write as we +talk, and that's enough for me. Good-night! Happy dreams." + +"Good-night!" she responded, and went on up-stairs, turning to wave at +Jeff from the landing, as he stood in the doorway, preparing to go out +to the tents where he and Just, Doctor Forester, Frederic and Lanse were +spending these dry June nights. + +Evelyn went on to the odd old bedroom under the gable, where she and +Lucy were quartered together. She found Lucy lying so still that she +thought her asleep, and so made ready for bed with speed and quiet, +remembering that Lucy had been first to come in, and imagining her tired +with the day's sports. + +Evelyn herself did not go at once to sleep. There were too many pleasant +things to think of for that; and although her eyes began to close at +last, she was yet, at the end of half an hour, awake, when Lucy stirred +softly beside her and sat up in bed. After a moment the younger girl +slipped out to the floor, using such care that Evelyn thought her making +unusual and kindly effort not to disturb her bedfellow. + +After a little, as Lucy did not return, Evelyn opened her eyes and +looked out into the moonlight. Lucy was dressing, so rapidly and +noiselessly that Evelyn watched her, amazed. + +She was on the point of asking if the girl were ill when she observed +that Lucy was putting on the delicate dress and gay ribbons she had worn +during the evening, and was even arranging her hair. Something prompted +Evelyn to lie still, for in all the winter's association she had never +grown quite to trust Lucy or to like her ways. + +More than any one else, however, she herself had won the other girl's +liking, and had come to feel a certain responsibility for her. So when +Lucy, after making wholly ready, had stolen to the door, let herself +out, and closed it silently behind her, Evelyn sprang out of bed. + +Perhaps Lucy simply could not sleep, she said to herself, and had gone +down to sit on the lower porch, or lie in one of the hammocks swinging +under the trees. The night was exceedingly warm, even the usual cooling +breath from the river being absent. + +"That's all there is of it," said Evelyn, reassuringly, to herself, +although at the same time she felt uneasiness enough to send her out +into the hall to a gable window over the porch, which commanded a view +of the camp. Nothing stirring was to be seen, except the dwindling flame +of the evening camp-fire, burned every night for cheer, not for warmth. +Evelyn crept to a side window. As she reached it a white figure could be +seen hurrying away through the orchard. + +Back in her room, Evelyn dressed with as much haste as Lucy had done, if +with less care. Instead of the white frock of the evening, however, she +put on a dark blue linen, for she was sure that she must follow Lucy and +discover what this strange departure, stealthily made at midnight, could +mean. + +She went down to the front door. The moment she opened it a tall figure +started up from one of the long lounging chairs there, and Jeff's voice +said softly, "Charlotte?" + +"No, it's Evelyn," she whispered back. "Don't be surprised. I thought +everybody in the camp was asleep." + +"I wasn't sleepy, and thought I'd lounge here till I was. What's the +matter? Anybody sick?" + +"No. I'm just going for a little walk." + +"Walk? At this hour? Can't you sleep? But you mustn't go and walk alone, +you know. I'll go with you." + +She did not want to tell him, but she saw no other way. + +"It's Lucy," she explained hurriedly. "She's dressed and gone out +somewhere, and I can't think why. It frightened me, and I'm going to +follow her." + +"No, you stay here and I'll follow. Which way did she go? What can she +be up to? That girl's a queer one, and I've thought so from the first." + +"No, no! There's some explanation. It may be she walks in her sleep, you +know--though I'm sure she's never done it this winter. Let me go, Jeff; +she'll get too far. She took the path toward the river. Oh, if it +_should_ be sleep-walking----" + +"I guess it's not sleep-walking." Jeff's tone was skeptical. + +But Evelyn had started away at a run, and Jeff was after her. The two +hastened along with light, noiseless steps. At the bottom of the path, +on the very brink of the river, was an old summer-house, looking out +over the water. It was a favourite retreat, for the boat-house and the +landing were but a rod away, and after a row on the river the shaded +summer-house was a pleasant place in which to linger. + +"Hush!" breathed Evelyn, stopping short as they neared the summer-house. + +They advanced with caution, and presently, as they drew within speaking +distance of the little structure, they saw a white-clad figure emerge +from it and stand just outside. Jeff drew Evelyn quickly and silently +into the shelter of a cluster of hemlocks. + +After a space the dip of oars lightly broke the stillness of the night, +and soon a row-boat pulled quietly into view, with one dark figure +outlined against the gleam of the moonlit water. Evelyn caught a +smothered sound from Jeff, whether of recognition or of displeasure she +could not tell. She felt her own pulses throbbing with excitement and +anxiety. + +The stranger pulled in to the landing, noiselessly shipped his oars, +jumped out and made fast. Lucy came cautiously down to the wharf, and +against the radiance of the moonlight on the river the two behind the +trees could see the greeting. + +The slight, boyish figure which met Lucy had a familiar look to Jeff, +but he could not tell with any certainty whose it might be. That it was +youthful there could be no question. Even in the dim light the +diffidence of both boy and girl could be plainly observed. + +"Young idiots!" exploded Jeff, between his teeth, as the two they were +watching sat down side by side on the steps of the boat-landing, where +only their heads were visible to the watchers--heads decidedly close +together. Then he bent close to Evelyn's ear and whispered, "Come +farther back with me, and we'll decide what to do." + +With the utmost caution the two made their retreat. At a safe distance +Jeff halted, and said rapidly, "I think the best thing will be for you +to go back to bed and to sleep--if you can. At any rate, don't let her +know that you hear her come in. I'll come back here and mount guard. I +won't let them see me. I'll take care that Lucy gets safely back to the +house, and I won't interfere unless she attempts to go off in the boat +with him or do some fool thing like that. You needn't worry. They aren't +going to run away and get married. She's just full of sentimental +nonsense, and thinks it romantic and grown-up to steal out in the night +to meet some idiot of a boy--you can see that's all he is by his build. +Probably somebody we know, don't you think that's the best plan?" + +"Yes, for to-night," agreed Evelyn, in a troubled whisper. "I feel as if +I ought to talk to her when she comes in, though." + +"If you do you'll just make her angry. The thing is to let her go +uncaught until we can think what to do. Little simpleton!" + +"I'll do as you say, but--don't be hard on her, Jeff. She's just silly; +she hasn't been brought up like your sisters." + +"Or like you," thought Jeff, as he watched the figure before him flit +away toward the house. He followed at a distance, till he saw the door +close on Evelyn; then he went back to his post. + +The next morning, as he and Evelyn walked down the road through the +apple-orchard toward the gateway, to open the rural-delivery mail-box, +which stood just outside the gate, Jeff told Evelyn what he had found +out. + +"Nothing more serious than a simple case of spoon," he said, with an +expression at which Evelyn might have laughed if she had not felt so +disturbed. "The boy turned out to be our next neighbour here. They've +made another appointment for to-night. He thinks it a great +lark--probably will brag about it to all the boys. He's got to eat his +little dish of humble pie, too. Evelyn, I've a plan. Will you trust me +to carry it out to-night?" + +She looked at him. In her face was written a concern for Lucy so tender +that Jeff adored her for it. At the same time he hastened to assure her +that it was needless. + +"If you merely talk with her I don't think that will do it," he said, +decidedly. "She's been with you all winter, has seen just how a girl +should behave,"--he did not know what a thrill of happiness this bluntly +sincere compliment gave his hearer--"and she hasn't taken it in a bit. +She needs something to bring her to her senses. I'd rather not tell you +my plan, for if you can assure her afterward that you weren't in it, you +can do her more good than if she's as provoked at you as she's sure to +be at me. But I give you my word of honour I'll not do a thing to +frighten her, or play any fool practical jokes. I'll have to let Just +into the secret, I think, but nobody else. Will you trust me?" + +"Of course, I will," said the girl, quickly. "On just one condition, +Jeff. Think of her as if she were your own sister, and don't--don't----" + +"Be 'as funny as I can'? No, I won't." + +Evelyn observed Lucy all that day with understanding, and found herself +longing to warn the girl that her foolishness was about to meet with its +punishment. She noted with sorrow the strangely excited look in the +young eyes, the light, half-hysterical laugh, the changing colour in the +pretty face. Lucy's promise of beauty had never seemed to her so +characterless, or her words so empty of sense. + +She found her in a corner of their room, reading a worn novel by a +certain author whose very name she had been taught to regard as a +synonym for vapidity and sentimentalism of the most highly flavoured +sort, and she could not keep back a quick exclamation at sight of it. +Lucy looked up with a frown and a flush. + +"I suppose you think it's terrible to read novels," she said, pettishly +flirting the leaves. "Well, I don't." + +"Dear, it's not 'novels' that I've been taught to despise, but the sort +of novel that writer writes. I don't know anything about them myself, +but I saw my brother Thorne once put that one you're reading in the +stove and jam on the cover, as if he were afraid it would get out. Do +you wonder I don't like to see Lucy Peyton reading it?" asked Evelyn +gently, with her cheek against the other girl's. + +"He must be a terrible Miss Nancy, then," said Lucy, defiantly. "There's +not a thing in it that couldn't be in a Sunday-school book. The heroine +is the sweetest thing." + +"If she is she won't mind your putting her down and coming out for a +walk with me," answered Evelyn, with a smile which might have captivated +Lucy if she had seen it. But the younger girl got up and flung away out +of the room, murmuring that she did not feel like walking, and would +take herself and her book where they would not bother people. + +Evelyn looked after her with a little sigh, and owned that Jeff might be +right in thinking that mere gentle argument with Lucy would have scant +effect on a head full of nonsense or a heart whose love for the sweet +and true had had far too little development. + +Half an hour before the time set for the rendezvous at the summer-house +that night Jeff and Just walked down the path, shoulder to shoulder, +talking under their breath. Just, being younger, was even more deeply +interested than his brother in the prospective encounter, and received +his final instructions with ill-concealed glee. + +"All right!" he gurgled. "I'm to give him a good scare, in the shape of +a lecture--with a thrashing promised if he cuts up any more. He's to +give his word, on pain of a lot of things, not to give any of this +little performance of his away to a soul. Then he's to be forbidden the +premises while Miss Peyton is on them. I understand." + +"Well, now, look here," warned Jeff. "I give you leave, but, mind you, I +trust your discretion, too. You never can tell what these Willie-boys +will do. Dignity's your cue. Be stern as an avenging fate, but don't get +to cuffing him round and batting him with language just because you're +bigger. You----" + +"Look here," expostulated Just, aggrieved, "you picked me out for this +job; now leave it to me. I'll have the boy saying 'sir' to me before I +get through." + +Just ran down to the boat-house, got out a slim craft, launched it, and +was about rowing away when he bethought himself of something. He pulled +in to the landing, made fast his painter, and ran like a deer up to the +house. He was back in five minutes. + +"Don't believe I'll go by boat, after all," he whispered to Jeff, +standing in the summer-house door. "It might be simpler not to have a +boat to bother with. I'll just leave the _Butterfly_ tied there, and put +her up when I get back." + +He was off before Jeff could reply. Jeff started toward the boat to put +it up, but stopped, considering. + +Lucy would think it that of her admirer, and would be all the more sure +to keep her appointment. He left it as it was, swinging lightly on the +water, six feet out. It was a habit of Just's to moor a boat at the +length of her painter, to prevent her bumping against the rough old +landing. + +Lucy, coming swiftly down the path fifteen minutes later, saw the boat +and hastened her steps. She did not observe that this was a slimmer, +longer craft than the boat George Jarvis was using. She reached the +landing and looked about. Of course he was in the summer-house. She went +to it, her skirts, which she had of late been surreptitiously +lengthening, held daintily in her hand. + +As she came close, a figure appeared in the doorway. Before she could be +frightened by the realisation that it was not Jarvis's slender young +frame which confronted her, Jeff accosted her in the mildest tones +imaginable: + +"It's only Jefferson Birch. Don't be scared. Fine night, isn't it?" + +"Y-yes," stammered Lucy, in dismay. She stood still, her skirts gathered +close, as if she were about to run. + +"Don't go. Out for a stroll? So am I," said Jeff, pleasantly, as if +midnight promenades were the accustomed thing at "The Banks." "Won't you +sit down?" + +There were seats outside the summer-house as well as within, and he +motioned toward one of them. + +"No, thank you. I think I'll go back," said Lucy, and her voice +trembled. + +"Why, you've only just come! Why not stay a while and have a visit with +me? You must have been intending to stay." + +"Oh, no!" said Lucy, eagerly, and stopped short, listening. What if +George Jarvis should come round the corner at any moment? She must get +Jeff away with her. "Won't you walk along up to the house with me? I +only came down to see if I'd left something in the summer-house." + +Jeff had planned what he would say to her, but at this his disgust got +the better of him. "Lucy," said he--and his voice had changed from +lightness to gravity--"don't you mind a bit _saying what isn't true_?" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +"What do you mean, Jefferson Birch, by saying such a thing?" Lucy's tone +was one of mingled anger and fright. + +"I mean," said Jeff, coolly, "that if coming down here to meet George +Jarvis were what you were proud of doing, you wouldn't try to cover it +up. Do you know, Lu, I'm tremendously sorry you find any fun in a thing +like that." + +"Dear me,"--Lucy tried hard to assume her usual self-confident +manner--"Who appointed you guardian of young ladies?" + +"The trouble is--well--you're not a young lady yet. You're only a girl. +If you were a real grown-up young lady there'd be nothing I could do +about your stealing out at this late hour to meet a young man except to +laugh and think my own thoughts. But since you're only a girl--" + +"You can insult me!" Lucy was very near tears now--angry, mortified +tears. + +"I don't mean to insult you, and I think you know that. If anybody has +insulted you it's the boy who asked you to meet him here. He must have +been the one to propose it, of course, and you thought it would be fun. +Lu, when I found this out I should have gone straight to my sister +Charlotte and told her to come and meet you here instead of myself, if I +hadn't known how it would disappoint her. She would have taken it to +heart much more seriously than you can realise. She's entertained you +all winter and spring, and the responsibilities of looking after you and +Ran have been heavy on her shoulders. She's tried hard to give you a +good time, too." + +Lucy turned and walked deliberately away down the path toward the +boat-landing. + +"I'm bungling it," thought Jeff, uncomfortably, and stood still, +waiting. "Perhaps I ought to have let Evelyn tackle the business, after +all." + +Lucy walked out upon the landing, where the _Butterfly_ swung lazily in +the wash of the current. Suddenly, quite without warning, she ran the +length of the little pier and leaped for the boat. It had looked an easy +distance, but as she made the jump she realised too late that the +interval of water between pier and boat was wider than it had looked in +the moonlight. With a scream and a splash she went down, and an instant +later Jeff, dashing down the pier, saw only a widening circle gleaming +faintly on the water. + +He flung off his coat, tore off his low shoes, and waited. The +river-bottom shelved suddenly just where the pier ended, and the depth +was fully twenty feet. Moment after moment went by while he watched +breathlessly for the appearance of the girl at the surface. The current +was strong a few feet out, and his gaze swept the water for some +distance. When he caught sight of the break in the surface which told +him what he wanted, it was even farther down-stream than he had +calculated. + +"I mustn't risk this alone," he thought, quickly, and gave several +ringing shouts for Just, whom he knew to be only two or three hundred +yards up-shore. Then he made his plunge, swimming furiously to get below +the place where the girl's white-clad form had risen, that he might be +at hand when his chance came again. + +The current helped him, and so did the moonlight on the water. It was in +the very centre of a glinting spot of light that Lucy came to the +surface the second time. Before she had sunk out of sight Jeff had her +by the skirts, and was working desperately to get her head above water. +She was struggling with all her fierce young strength, crazed with +fright and suffocation, and she continually dragged him under in her +blind attempts to pull herself up by him. + +When he could get breath he shouted again, and after what seemed to him +an age, there came a response from two directions. Just running along +the river bank, and Doctor Churchill, plunging down the hill, saw, and +were coming to the rescue. + +"Hold on! Hold on! I'm coming!" both shouted as they ran. + +Doctor Churchill, having the easier course, reached the bank first. +Being clad only in his pajamas, he was unburdened by superfluous +clothing. With a long leap he was in the water, and with a half-dozen +vigorous strokes he had reached Jeff's elbow. + +"Let go! I've got her!" he cried, and Jeff, spluttering and breathing +hard, attempted to let go. + +But Lucy still fought so desperately that it was no easy matter to get +her clutch away from Jeff's clothing. By this time, however, Just was +also in the water, and the three soon had the girl under control. + +"Keep quiet! You're all right! Let us take you in!" called Doctor +Churchill to the struggling, strangling little figure. So in a minute +more they had her on the bank. + +"Why, it's Lucy!" Doctor Churchill cried in astonishment, as he dropped +upon his knees beside her and fell to work. + +"Yes, it's Lucy!" panted Jeff. + +But there was no chance just then for explanations. For the next ten +minutes he and Just were kept busy obeying peremptory orders. As under +Andy's directions they silently and anxiously worked over the young form +upon the grass, they were feeling intensely grateful that the necessary +skill had been so close at hand. But until the doctor's satisfied "She's +coming out all right!" gave them leave, neither dared draw a good breath +for himself. + +Just was wondering what he and Jeff were to say, but his brother was +heaping reproaches upon himself, and sternly holding Jeff Birch +responsible for the whole unfortunate affair. + +By the time Lucy was herself again and able to breathe without distress, +Evelyn had come flying down the path---the only other person roused by +the distant shouts. It had been a day full of active sports, and +everybody was sleeping the sleep of the weary. Even Charlotte had not +been roused by Andy's departure. + +Just ran to the house for blankets; Evelyn, at Doctor Churchill's +direction, followed him to prepare a steaming hot drink for Lucy; and +presently they had her in her bed, warm and dry, although much exhausted +by her experience in the waters of the river, which were cold even on a +June night. Doctor Churchill had insisted on calling Charlotte, but +Evelyn had begged him to arouse nobody else, and after one look into her +face he had agreed. + +At last, Lucy having dropped off to sleep under the soothing influence +of the hot beverage, the others gathered quietly in a lower room. The +three wet ones had acquired dry if informal garments, and a council had +been asked for by Evelyn. + +"It's entirely my fault," began Jeff, promptly, and he plunged into a +brief but graphic account of the accident. + +"It's not in the least your fault," Evelyn interrupted, at last, as Jeff +came to a pause with a repetition of his self-condemnation. "It's mine, +if anybody's. I should have taken the whole thing to Mrs. Churchill at +once, instead of trying to keep it quiet." + +"My meeting her down there alone was entirely my plan," began Jeff +again; but this time it was his sister Charlotte who interrupted. + +"Neither of you is in the least to blame, my dears," she said, smiling +on them both. "You had the best of motives, and the plan might have +worked out well but for the child's sudden mad idea of jumping into that +boat. I suppose she meant to row away." + +"She didn't stop to cast off--she couldn't have got away before I should +have been in the boat, too," objected Jeff. + +"That simply shows how out of her head with excitement she was. But +that's all over. She mercifully wasn't drowned"--a little involuntary +shiver passed over the speaker--"and we'll hope for no serious +consequences. The thing now is to think how to act when she wakes in the +morning." + +"I should say treat the whole thing for what it is, a childish escapade. +Show her the silliness of it, and then let it drop," said Doctor +Churchill. + +Charlotte looked at him appealingly. + +"Lucy and Ran go home next week," she said, slowly. "I hoped--I wanted +so much to send Lucy away with--I can't express it--a little bit higher +ideals than any she has known before. I thought we were succeeding; she +has seemed more considerate and less fault-finding." + +"She certainly has," Evelyn agreed quickly, and the two looked at each +other. There was an instant's silence; then Just spoke: + +"How do you know but you'll find her quite a different proposition when +she wakes up? A plunge like that is a sobering sort of experience, I +should say, for a girl who can't swim. She may be the meekest thing on +earth after this. If it does her as much good as a lively dressing down +did George Jarvis, she's likely to be a changed girl." + +They could not help smiling at the satisfaction in the boy's voice. "He +may be right," admitted Doctor Churchill. + +"At any rate, if Lucy isn't ill to-morrow let's tell nobody what has +happened. The poor child certainly doesn't need any more humiliation +just at present, and I'd like to spare her all I can." Charlotte spoke +decidedly. + +They agreed to this. Evelyn went to her place beside Lucy, planning an +affectionate greeting when the younger girl should wake; and Charlotte, +when she fell asleep, dreamed of Lucy until morning. + +It was quite a different Lucy who met them all in the morning. She +showed no ill effects except a slight languor, and when Charlotte had +established her in a hammock on the porch, she lay there with a quiet, +sober face, which showed that she had been doing some thinking. + +When Jeff approached with his most deferential manner to inquire after +her welfare, she astonished him by saying more simply and sweetly than +he had dreamed possible: + +"I want to tell you I won't forget what you did for me last night. I was +foolish, I suppose. I--I didn't think what I was doing was any harm, but +I--" + +She choked a little and felt for her handkerchief. Jeff grasped her +hand. He had a warm heart, and he had not got over the thought of how he +should have felt if he had not been able to rescue the girl he had +attempted to lecture. His answer to Lucy was very gentle: + +"We'll never think of it again. I'm awfully thankful it all ended well. +If you'll forgive me for frightening you, I'll say that I'm sure you're +really a sensible little girl, and I shan't lie awake nights worrying +over your taking midnight strolls." + +His tone was not priggish, and his smile was so bright that Lucy took +heart of grace, and said, earnestly, "You needn't. I don't want any +more," and buried her face in her pillow. + +But it was not to cry, for Evelyn came by. Jeff called to her, and +between them they soon had Lucy smiling. Before the day was over she had +had a little talk with Charlotte, in which the young married woman came +nearer to the heart of the girl that she had ever succeeded in doing +before, and Lucy had learned one or two simple lessons she never forgot. + +"But it's the first and last time I ever attempt the education of the +young girl," declared Jeff, solemnly, to Evelyn, that afternoon, as they +gathered armfuls of old-fashioned June roses for the decoration of the +porch. + +"Don't feel too badly. Lucy is going to value your respect very much +after this, and I think you'll be able to give it to her. A girl who has +no older brother misses a great deal, I think. I don't know what I +should have done without mine," answered Evelyn, reaching up to pull at +a pink cluster far above her head. + +"Let me get that for you," and Jeff's long arm easily grasped the spray +and drew it down to her. "Well, I owe a lot to my sisters, that's sure." + +With quite a knightly air he cut the fairest bud at hand, and gave it to +her, saying quietly, "You wouldn't like it if I said anything soft and +sentimental, but you won't mind if I tell you that you seem to me a lot +like that bud there--that's going to blossom some day." + +He knew it pleased her, for the ready colour told him so. But she +answered lightly: + +"As yet I'm quite content to be only a bud. Your sister Celia is the +opening rose. Isn't she lovely? Here's one just like her. Take it to her +and tell her I said so, will you?" + +She plucked the rose and motioned to where Celia was coming alone along +the orchard road, Frederic Forester having just left her for a hasty +trip to town. Jeff laughed, took the rose and the message, and brought +back Celia's thanks. Evelyn met him with her full basket, and the +rose-picking was over. + +"She says to tell you you're a flatterer, but being a woman, she likes +it--and you," said Jeff, taking her basket away. + +Doctor Forester's party had lasted eight days now, and his guests were +planning how to make the most of the time remaining, when Doctor +Churchill came spinning out in the middle of a Thursday morning with a +letter. Mrs. Peyton had sent word that Randolph and Lucy were to meet +her in a distant city, thirty-six hours' ride away. From there the trio +were to proceed to their home. + +"They will have to leave this evening in order to make it," Doctor +Churchill announced. "This letter has barely allowed time--a little +characteristic of Cousin Lula which I remember of old. She has an idea +that time and tide--if they wait for no man--can sometimes be prevailed +upon to change their schedule on account of a woman." + +Upon hearing the news Lucy burst into tears. She did not want to go, she +did not want to go so soon--more than all, she was afraid to go alone. + +"Undoubtedly some one can be found who is going the same way," the +letter read, easily, "and in any case, you can put them in charge of the +railroad officials, who will see that they make no mistakes. I cannot +possibly afford to come so far for them." + +"Why can't Evelyn go now, too?" pleaded Lucy, as she and Evelyn, +Charlotte and Celia were being conveyed on a rapid run home by Frederic +Forester. It had been decided necessary for all feminine hands to fall +to work, to accomplish the packing in time to get the young people off +at nine that evening. + +"Evelyn doesn't go until next Tuesday, and this is only Thursday," +Charlotte answered, promptly. + +"Five days isn't much difference," urged Lucy mournfully. "And when +Evelyn's going right over the same road almost to our home, I should +think she'd like to go when we do, if it did cut off a little. She's +been here all winter." + +"So have you, Lu, and you don't want to go," Charlotte reminded her. + +She did not say that nobody could bear to think of Evelyn's departure +any sooner than was absolutely necessary, for it was not possible +honestly to say the same about Lucy. But when they reached the house, +and Charlotte had run up to her room to exchange her dress for a working +frock, Evelyn came to her and softly closed the door. Evelyn had +persuaded herself that she ought to accompany the others. + +"It isn't as if Lucy were a different sort of girl," she argued--against +her own wishes, for she longed to stay more than she dared to own. "But +nobody knows how she might behave--if anybody tried to get to know +her--somebody she oughtn't to know. And besides, she's afraid. It really +doesn't matter. I can use the extra time getting things ready for +Thorne. Please don't urge me, Mrs. Churchill. It won't be a bit easier +next week." + +Gentle as she was, Charlotte had learned that when Evelyn made up her +mind that she ought to do a thing, it was as good as done. So presently +Evelyn, too, was packing, her smiles at the remonstrances of Charlotte +and Celia very sweet, her heart very heavy. + +"Well, dear, I've telephoned the others at 'The Banks,'" said Charlotte, +coming into Evelyn's room, having just left Lucy in an ecstatic +condition over the decision. "You should have heard the dismay. Jeff and +Just have already started home on their wheels, to prevent your going by +main force." + +This was literally true. From Doctor Forester down to his youngest guest +had come regret and remonstrance. Finally, however, Doctor Forester, +having called up Evelyn herself, and been persuaded that she was sure +she was right, had fallen to planning what could be done to make the +girl's leave-taking a pleasant one for her to remember. + +After a little an idea seized him. He chuckled to himself, and fell to +telephoning again. He had Doctor Churchill on the wire, then Charlotte, +Celia and his son Frederic, who had remained at the Birches', finally +the railway-station, the Pullman office, and a certain official of whom +he was accustomed to ask favours and get them granted. + +"Good-by, Mrs. Fields!" said Evelyn Lee, coming out upon the back porch, +where the doctor's housekeeper was resting after a busy days work. "I +shall never forget how good you've been to me, and I hope you won't +forget me." + +"Forget you!" ejaculated Mrs. Fields, her spare, strong hand grasping +tight the slender one held out to her. "Well, there ain't much danger of +that, nor of anybody else's forgetting you. I've been about as pleased +as the doctor and Miss Charlotte to see you pick up. You don't look like +the same girl that came here last fall." + +"I'm sure I don't feel much like her. Ever so much of it is certainly +due to your good cooking, Mrs. Fields." + +"It's so hard to take leave of you all," said Evelyn, on the porch, +where the others were assembled. "I'd almost like to slip away without a +word--only that would look so ungrateful. And I'm the most grateful girl +alive." + +"You needn't say good-by to me," said Doctor Forester, "for I'm going as +far as Washington with you." He smiled at the joy which flashed into her +face. + +"Oh, are you really?" she cried. + +"You needn't say good-by to me, either," said Frederic Forester, as she +turned to him, standing next to his father, "for I'm going, too," + +"I think I'll go along," said Doctor Churchill. + +"Will you take me?" Charlotte was smiling at Evelyn's bewildered face. + +"If Charlotte goes, I shall, too," supplemented Celia. + +Evelyn looked at them. Surely enough, although in the hurry she had not +noticed it before, they were all in travelling dress. She had known they +had meant to go as far as the city station with her; she saw now that +they were fully equipped for the journey. And Washington was nearly +twenty hours away! + +"You dear people!" murmured Evelyn, and rather blindly cast herself into +Mrs. Birch's outstretched arms. + +There was only one thing lacking to her peace of mind. Jeff had not +appeared to bid her good-by. Charlotte observed that Evelyn's voice +trembled a little when she said, "Where's Jeff? Will you tell him +good-by for me?" + +Charlotte answered, "He won't fail, dear. He'll surely be at the +station." + +But when they reached the station no Jeff was there. Nobody seemed to +notice, for the men of the party were busy looking after various details +of the trip. Celia was explaining to Evelyn and Lucy how it had all come +about. + +"Doctor Forester was so upset and sorry over your going," she said, +"that he went to thinking up excuses to go along. He remembered an +important medical convention in Washington, and persuaded Andy that he +could get away for the three days' session. Then he invited Charlotte +and me, and convinced Mr. Frederic that he ought to go, too. We were +only too willing, so here we are." + +"It's the loveliest thing that could happen," said Evelyn, and tried +hard not to let her eyes wander to the doors of the station. + +She had not seen Jeff since early in the afternoon, when, after hot +argument, he had at last given up trying to persuade her that she need +not go until the coming Tuesday. To Just only, however, as he carried +her little travelling bag on board the train for her, did she say a +word. + +"Please tell Jeff for me," she said in his ear, as he established her in +the designated section of the sleeping-car, "that I felt very badly not +to say good-by to him. But give him my best remembrance, and say that +I'm sure he must have been kept from coming by something he couldn't +help." + +"Of course he must have been," agreed Just, heartily, feeling like +pitching into his delinquent brother with both fists for bringing that +hurt little look into the hazel eyes below him. "He'll probably turn up +just as your train gets under headway, and then he'll be the maddest +fellow you ever saw. Hullo, I'll bet that messenger boy is looking for +you!" as he saw Frederic Forester pointing a blue-capped carrier of a +florist's box toward Evelyn. He went forward, claimed the box, and +brought it back to Evelyn. + +She peeped within, saw a great cluster of roses, and drew out a card. +"Of course it's Jeff's?" queried Just, anxiously, and he felt immense +relief when Evelyn nodded. + +"Well, I'm off!" Just gripped her hand as the train began to move. +"Good-by! I'm mighty sorry to have you go," and with lifted hat, and a +hasty farewell to Lucy and Randolph, he was gone. + +Evelyn smiled at him from the window, as he ran down the platform waving +at her, but her heart was still heavy. It was very good of Jeff to send +the flowers, but she would rather have had one hearty grasp of his +friendly hand than all the roses in his Northern state. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"Well, I consider myself pretty lucky to have secured four sections all +together on this train," said Doctor Forester, with satisfaction, as he +and Andrew Churchill and Frederic retired to the smoking-room while +their berths were being made up. + +"Why, what are we slowing down for out here?" Frederic glanced out of +the window. "This is West Weston, isn't it? Yes--we're off again. Some +official, probably." + +A door slammed and a tall figure hurried through the passage, looked in +at the smoking-room, and turned back. "Hullo!" said a familiar voice, +and Jeff's laughing face beamed in upon them. + +"Well, well, did you hold up the train?" they cried. + +"Thought you'd come along, too, did you?" asked Doctor Forester. "Good! +Glad to have you. I thought it was odd you weren't round to see us off. +Go and surprise the girls. They're just back there, waiting for their +berths." + +Jeff hurried eagerly away. A moment later Evelyn, standing in the aisle +beside Charlotte, felt a touch on her arm. She looked up, and met Jeff's +eyes smiling down at her. + +"Did you think I'd let you go like that?" he said in her ear. + +"I'm afraid I thought you had," she admitted, grown happy in an instant. + +"You see, I had an appointment with a man in West Weston on some work +I've been doing for him. After I heard this plan of Doctor Forester's I +had only just time to catch a train and get out there. He kept me so +long I missed the train that would have brought me back in time to see +you off, so I telephoned Chester Agnew to get the flowers for me and +write a card. That was when I was afraid I might not make connections at +all. But when this man I went to see--he's a railroad man--heard what +train I'd wanted to make, he offered to stop it for me. Then it just +came into my mind that I'd join the party, even without an invitation. +Tell me you're not sorry--won't you?" + +"Of course I'm not." She allowed him one of her frank looks, and he +smiled back at her. + +"We'll have a great day to-morrow," he prophesied. "They'll put on a +Pullman with an observation rear in the morning, and if the weather +holds we'll camp out there for the day. We don't get into Washington +till three in the afternoon, and the scenery all the way down will be +fine. I suppose I'll have to go off now and let you be tucked up. Please +get up bright and early in the morning, will you?" + +It was a merry party which entered the dining-car the next morning the +moment the first summons came. The day had risen bright and clear as a +June day could be, and everybody was in a hurry to get out on the +observation platform. + +Doctor Forester, sitting opposite Charlotte and Andy at one table, +glanced across at the rest of the party, on the opposite side of the +car, and said in a low voice: + +"This is literally a case of speeding the parting guest, isn't it? +Captain John Rayburn got you into something of a scrape when he sent you +that copper inscription over your fireplace, didn't he? He didn't +realise that the 'ornaments' it brought you in November would have to be +conveyed away by force in June. It was the only way to give you an +interval when you should, for the first time in the history of your +married life, have no guests at all." + +Charlotte and Andrew were staring at him in amazement. + +"Uncle Ray?" cried Charlotte, under her breath. "Was he the one? Did you +know it all the time, Doctor Forester?" + +"Yes, I knew it all the time" he owned. "In fact, Captain Rayburn wrote +to me after he had heard of the fireplace. You sent him a photograph of +it, didn't you?" + +"So we did," Doctor Churchill answered. "We took it the day the +fireplace was finished, I'd forgotten it completely, but I remember now. +We thought he'd be interested, because something he once said about the +ideal fireplace had put the idea into our heads of collecting the stones +ourselves. So he wrote all the way from Denmark to have that made?" + +"He had it made there, and wrote me for the measurements. He expressed +it to me, and I repacked it and sent it to you," chuckled Doctor +Forester. "He was determined to puzzle you completely." + +"He certainly succeeded. Did he give you leave to tell at this +particular date?" + +"It was left to my discretion after the first six months, provided you +had had any guests. I thought the time was ripe, and you'd earned your +diploma. All that worries me is that you may find a fresh instalment of +ornaments when you get back. The motto strikes me as a sort of uncanny +provider of them." The others laughed. Charlotte glanced across at +Evelyn. + +"It has paid," she said softly. Andy nodded. "It certainly has. All the +thanks we shall need will be in Thorne Lee's letter, after he has seen +his little sister." + +"I rather think it's paid with the others, too," Doctor Forester added. +"Anyhow, you've certainly done your part." + +Out on the back of the train Charlotte found Lucy at her elbow. She +looked into the girl's face, and discovered the blue eyes to be full of +tears. "Why, Lu, dear!" she said, softly. + +"Mrs. Churchill"--Lucy was almost crying--"I just can't bear to think +it's the last day! I wish--oh, I wish--I lived with you!" + +"Do you, dear? That's very pleasant," and Charlotte drew her close, +feeling more warmth toward Lucy than the girl had yet inspired. "But +don't be blue." + +"I can't help it. It's almost ten o'clock now, and at three we shall be +going away from you all." + +"No, you won't," Charlotte whispered in her ear. "It was to have been a +surprise, but I think you'll enjoy it more to know. Only don't tell +Evelyn. Doctor Forester has telegraphed your mother and received her +answer. You're not to go till to-morrow night at six, and we're to have +twenty-eight hours together in Washington." + +"Oh! _Oh_!" Lucy almost screamed, so that the others looked around at +her and smiled. "Oh, I do think Doctor Forester and you are just the +nicest people I ever knew!" + +Doctor Forester's secret was not very well kept, after all. Lucy +whispered the good news to Jeff, and he could not forbear telling it to +Evelyn just as the train was drawing out of Baltimore. His own spirits +had been drooping as time went on, but the reprieve of a day sent them +up with a bound. + +"The question is what we shall do with our time," said Doctor Forester, +looking round at his party in the hotel parlour, where he had taken +them. "Speak up, everybody. We can divide our forces if necessary. Is +there anybody here who hasn't been here before?" + +Lucy and Randolph seemed to be the only ones not more or less familiar +with the capital. On hearing this, Doctor Forester declared that he +should himself take them to as many of the most interesting places as +possible. + +"Whatever we do to-night, I vote for the trip down the Potomac to Mount +Vernon in the morning," said Doctor Churchill, promptly. "We'll get back +in plenty of time for Evelyn's train, and there certainly isn't a better +way to put in the time than that." + +This was heartily agreed upon, and the remainder of the day was used in +various ways, not more than two of which, it may be remarked, were +alike. Charlotte smiled meaningly at her husband as she watched Celia +and Fred Forester, having proceeded half-way across Lafayette Park with +Jeff and Evelyn, leave the two at a cross-path, and walk briskly off by +themselves. + +"That's certainly a sure thing, isn't it?" said he. + +"No question of it, I think." + +"Are you satisfied?" + +"Perfectly. I haven't seen very much of Fred since he--and we--grew up, +but if he's his father's son----" + +"He is, I think," said Doctor Churchill, confidently. "And the doctor +likes it, I'm sure. There's satisfaction in his face whenever he looks +at them. In fact, I can't help thinking he planned both the house party +and this trip with a view of bringing them together all he could." + +"Dear Celia--if she's just half as happy as she deserves to be----" + +"She will be. She loves to travel, hasn't had half enough of it, and +he'll take her round the world. I haven't had a chance to tell you that +he's going to India in the fall, in some important capacity. He received +the appointment just yesterday." + +"Really?" Charlotte looked thoughtful. "Celia--in India! Andy----" + +"Does that startle you? I don't imagine it's for any long stay, but as a +matter of some scientific investigations. Here, don't go to looking +sober. I shall be sorry I told you." + +Charlotte smiled and answered brightly that it was not a thing to look +sober over. Nevertheless, her thoughts were much with her sister. The +next morning, as the party found their places on the little steamer +which was to take them down the river to Mount Vernon, she found herself +watching Celia more closely than she had meant to do, in the anxiety to +discover if the trip to India was really imminent. + +"Isn't Mount Vernon a fascinating spot?" asked Evelyn, as she and Jeff +walked up the long, ascending road from pier to house together. "I've +never forgotten my first visit. I lived in Washington's times in my +dreams for weeks afterward. I never saw it at this season of the year. +The garden must be in its prime now." + +"Let's go and see it first," responded Jeff, quickly. "I don't remember +much about it. My two visits here have all been spent in the house." + +So while the others rambled through the quaint and interesting rooms, +Jeff and Evelyn made their way to the box-bordered paths of Lady +Washington's garden, and wandered about there in the warm June sunshine. +It grew so hot after a while that they betook themselves to the lawn and +banks overlooking the river, and sat there talking, as they watched the +waters of the Potomac. + +"What are you going to do when you get home?" asked Jeff, somewhat +suddenly. + +"Put our rooms in order," Evelyn responded, promptly. + +"All by yourself?" + +"We live in the same house with a lovely little woman, the wife of a +former Confederate general. I shall be with her until Thorne comes." + +"I suppose you've lots of friends of your own age?" Jeff observed. + +"Not as many as I ought to have. You see, I've lived very quietly with +my brother for six years now, except for the time I spent at a girls' +school in Baltimore. Since I came home from there I've not been very +strong, and Thorne has kept me very quiet, until he sent me North to +school last fall." + +"You're so well now you'll be going about a lot. Any young people in the +house with you? It's a boarding-house, isn't it?" + +"Yes, a small one. There are no young people in it except Mrs. +Livingstone's son." + +"How old a fellow?" + +"Twenty-one, I believe." + +"I suppose you're great friends with him?" said Jeff suspiciously. + +Evelyn looked at him quickly and laughed, flushing a little. "Why, we're +naturally very good friends," she said. + +"Evelyn," said Jeff, sitting up straight again, "I'm absolutely bursting +to tell you some news, and I can't seem to lead up to it. I've got to +bring it out flat. The only thing I'm anxious about is whether it's +going to be as good news to you as it is to me." + +She looked at him with a quickening of her pulses, his expression had +become so very eager. "Please don't keep me in suspense," she begged. + +"Well"--Jeff did his best to speak coolly, as if the matter were really +of no great importance, after all--"you know it's been a question with +me all along as to just what I was going to do when I got out of +college. I wanted tremendously to get to work, and a lot of the usual +things didn't seem to appeal to me at all. I haven't enough of a +scientific turn to go into any of the engineering courses. I didn't care +for a mercantile berth. In fact, while my brother Lanse has had his +future cut out for him since he was fourteen, and Just, at sixteen, is +body and soul in for electrical engineering, I've been the family +problem. Father's had the sense not to assert his wishes for a moment. +He saw from the start, I suppose, that the family traditions were not +for me--I could never begin by studying law and end by wearing the +ermine, as a lot of my grandfathers and uncles have done. So--" + +Jeff paused and drew a long breath. He had been looking off down the +river as he talked, but now he brought his eyes back to Evelyn's face, +and his spirits leaped exultantly as he saw with what eager attention +she was listening. + +"You really care to hear all this, don't you?" he asked, happily, and +went on before she could do more than nod. "Well, the short of it is +that through Doctor Forester I got to know a friend of his who is a +railroad magnate--the real thing--and to please the doctor he seemed to +take an interest in me. He's offered me a position in one of his +offices, provided I take a year to study practical railroading first. Of +course I'm only too glad to do that. And now I'm coming to the point of +the whole thing. When my year is up, that office where I'm to begin to +work up in the railroad business is"--he paused dramatically, watching +his hearer's face, as his own, in spite of himself, broke into a +smile--"in your own city, Evelyn Lee!" + +If he had had any lingering doubt that this might not be as good news to +Evelyn as he wanted it to be, his fears were put to rout. + +"O Jeff!" she said, quite breathlessly, and the happy colour surged into +her face. "Why, that's almost too good to be true!" + +"Is it? You're a trump for saying so. Jupiter! I feel like standing up +and shouting. The thing has been sure since that afternoon I went to +Weston, but I didn't mean to tell you of it in this crazy boy fashion, +but write it to you quite calmly after you got home. But--it wouldn't +keep." + +"I shouldn't think it would. Besides, it's so much nicer to hear it now, +when it makes it----" + +She stopped abruptly, and jumped up. Jeff leaped to his feet also. + +"Makes it--what?" he asked, eagerly. + +"Why--it's such a pleasant place to hear good news in." + +"That wasn't what you were going to say." + +"We ought to go back to the house." She began to move slowly away. Jeff +followed. + +"I'd like to hear the end of that sentence," he urged, as they walked up +the grassy slope to the house in the clear sunlight. + +She laughed a little, but shook her head. She was looking very sweet in +her brown travelling dress, her russet hair shaded by a wide brown hat +with captivating curving outlines. Jeff looked at her dainty profile and +realised that the hour for separation was coming fast. + +"Anyhow, I know what I _wish_ you were going to say,"--he was striding +close by her side--"and I can certainly say it if you can't. Telling you +that I'm coming to work near you next year makes it easier for me to say +good-by now. And that's--well--that's going to be a bit tough." + +Evelyn walked on a few steps in silence. Then she turned and spoke +softly over her shoulder. There was not a touch of coquetry in her +simple manner, yet it had an engaging quality all its own. + +"That's what I wanted to say, Jeff." + +"Thank you," he responded. "I'll not forget that," and his tone told +that he appreciated the little concession. + +It seemed but the briefest possible space of time before they had gone +over the house, had been hurried back to the landing by emphatic toots +from the small excursion steamer, and were off for the city again. The +trip back up the river was finished also before it seemed hardly begun. +All too soon for anybody the three young travellers were on their train, +and Doctor Churchill and Fred Forester had taken leave of them and were +out on the platform, ready to jump off. Jeff had lingered till the last. + +"Good-by, Lucy! Good-by, Ran!" he said, and gave each a hearty grip and +smile. Then his hand clasped Evelyn's, his eyes said things his lips +would not have ventured to speak, and his hand wrung hers with a fervour +which made it sting. Then he went away without a backward look, as if he +must get the parting quickly over. + +Outside the train, however, he turned with the others, and as the train +rolled slowly out of the station, and Evelyn strained her eyes to see +the group of her friends waving affectionately to her from the platform, +the last face upon which her gaze rested wore the strong, loyal, +eloquent look of Jefferson Birch. + + * * * * * + +"Home again," said Andrew Churchill, as he set his latch-key in the door +of the brick house four days later. "Fieldsy must be away, or she would +have answered." + +They hurried through the house. It was in absolute order, but empty. On +the office desk was a note in the housekeeper's awkward hand: + +"If you should come to-night, I've had to go to take care of a sick +woman, will be back in the morning, you will find everything cooked up." + +Doctor Churchill read it with a laugh. "Charlotte, we're actually alone +in our own house. Let's run over to the other house and embrace them all +round, and then come back and see how it feels over here." + +So they went across the lawn. + +"We shall be delighted to have you stay with us, my dears," said Mrs. +Birch, after the greetings. + +"Mother Birch," said her son-in-law, with air affectionate hand on her +shoulder, "not even you can charm us out of our own house to-night. Do +you know that we're all alone--that not even Fieldsy is over there? +Charlotte's going to get dinner, and I'm to help her with the clearing +up, and then we're going to sit on our porch. Of course we shall be +constantly looking down the street for a messenger boy with a telegram +announcing the coming of our next guest, but until he comes--" + +Everybody laughed at the expressive breath he drew. + +"Go, you dear children," said Mrs. Birch, and the rest joined in warmly. + +"I'll sit on our doorstone with a rifle, and pick off the visitors as +they come up the street!" cried Just, as the two went off. + +"Don't shoot to kill!" Doctor Churchill called back, gaily. Then the +door closed on the pair. + +When the happy little dinner was over, the dishes put away, and +Charlotte had slipped on a cool frock in which to spend the warm summer +evening, she went out to find her husband lying comfortably in the +hammock behind the vines, his hands clasped under his head. The twilight +was just slipping into evening, and the breath of unseen roses was sweet +upon the shadows. + +Charlotte drew a chair close to her husband's side and sat down. + +"After all, Andy," said she, as they fell to talking of the past year, +"I wouldn't have had it different. One thing is certain--out of our +three guests we entertained at least one angel unawares." + +"Yes, and I like to think that perhaps the others are none the worse for +staying with us," Andrew Churchill answered, thoughtfully. "I'm glad we +did it, glad it's over, and shall be glad to have other people come to +see us--by and by. But--I want a good long honeymoon first. Is that your +mind?" + +"Yes," she answered fervently, smiling. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second Violin, by Grace S. 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Richmond + +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: The Second Violin + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13209] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECOND VIOLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>The Second Violin</h1><br /> +<br /> +<h2>By Grace S. Richmond</h2><br /> +<br /> +<h3>Author of<br /> +"Red Pepper Burns," "Mrs. Red Pepper,"<br /> +"The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet in<br /> +England," Etc.</h3><br /> +<br /> +<h3>A. L. BURT COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</h3><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h3>Copyright, 1905, 1906, by<br /> +Perry Mason Company.</h3><br /> +<br /> +<h3>Copyright, 1906, by<br /> +Doubleday, Page & Company<br /> +Published, September, 1906.</h3> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<a href='#BOOK_I'>BOOK I</a> The Second Violin<br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href='#BOOK_II'>BOOK II</a> The Churchill Latch-string<br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2I'>CHAPTER I</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2II'>CHAPTER II</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2III'>CHAPTER III</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2IV'>CHAPTER IV</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2V'>CHAPTER V</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2VI'>CHAPTER VI</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2VII'>CHAPTER VII</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2VIII'>CHAPTER VIII</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2IX'>CHAPTER IX</a><br /> + <a href='#CHAPTER_2X'>CHAPTER X</a><br /> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='BOOK_I'></a>BOOK I</h1> + + +<h2>THE SECOND VIOLIN</h2> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_I'></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>Crash! Bang! Bang! "<i>The March of the Pilgrims</i>" came to an abrupt +end. John Lansing Birch laid down his viola and bow, whirled about, and +flung out his arms in despair. "Oh, this crowd is hopeless!" he groaned. +"Never mind any other instrument, providing <i>yours</i> is heard. This +march is supposed to die away in the distance! You murder it in front of +the house. That second violin--"</p> + +<p>Here his wrath centered upon the red-cheeked, black-eyed young +player.</p> + +<p>The second violin returned his gaze with resentment. "What's the use of +my playing like a midsummer zephyr when Just's sawing away like mad on the +bass?" she retorted.</p> + +<p>The first violin smiled pleasantly on the little group. "Let's try it +again," she suggested, "and see if we can please John Lansing better."</p> + +<p>"You're all right," said Lansing, with a wave of his hand at Celia, "if +the rest of the strings wouldn't fight to drown you out. Charlotte plays as +if second violin were a solo part, with the rest as accompaniment."</p> + +<p>Charlotte tucked her instrument under a sulky, round chin, raised her +bow and waited, her eyes on the floor. Celia, smiling, softly tried her +strings.</p> + +<p>"That's it, precisely," began the leader, still with irritation. "Celia +tunes between practice; Charlotte takes it for granted she's all right and +fires ahead. Your E string is off!"</p> + +<p>The second violin grudgingly tightened the E string; then all her +strings in turn, lengthening the process as much as possible. The 'cello +did the same--the 'cello always stood by the second violin. Jeff gave +Charlotte a glance of loyalty. His G string had been flatter than her +E.</p> + +<p>Lansing wheeled about and picked up his instrument, carefully trying its +pitch. He gave the signal, and the "<i>March of the Pilgrims</i>" began--in +the remote distance. The double-bass viol gripped his bow with his stubby +twelve-year-old fingers, and hardly breathed as he strove to keep his notes +subdued. The 'cello murmured a gentle undertone; the first violin sang as +sweetly and delicately as a bird, her <i>legato</i> perfect. The second +violin fingered her notes through, but the voice of her instrument was not +heard at all.</p> + +<p>The leader glanced at her once, with a frown between his fine eyebrows, +but Charlotte played dumbly on. The Pilgrims approached--<i>crescendo</i>; +drew near--<i>forte</i>; passed--<i>fortissimo</i>; marched +away--<i>diminuendo</i>; were almost lost in the +distance--<i>piano</i>--<i>pianissimo</i>. Uplifted bows--and silence.</p> + +<p>"Good!" said a hearty voice behind them. Everybody looked up, +smiling--even the second violin. His children always smiled when Mr. +Roderick Birch came in. It would have been a sour temper which could have +resisted his genial greeting.</p> + +<p>"Mother would like the <i>'Lullaby'</i> next," he said. "She's rather +tired to-night. And after the <i>'Lullaby'</i> I want a little talk with +you all."</p> + +<p>Something in his voice or his eyes made his elder daughter take notice +of him, as he dropped into a chair by the fire. "Play your best," she +warned the others, in a whisper. But they needed no warning. Everybody +always played his best for father. And if mother was tired--</p> + +<p>The notes of the second violin fell daintily, caressing those which +wrought out the melody enveloping but never overwhelming them. As the music +ceased, the leader, turning to the second violin, met her reluctant eyes +with a softening in his own keen ones. The hint of a laugh curved the +corners of her lips as his smiled broadly. It was all the truce necessary. +Charlotte's sulks never lasted longer than Lanse's impatience.</p> + +<p>They laid aside their instruments and gathered round their father. +Graceful, brown-eyed Celia sat down beside him; Charlotte's curly black +hair mingled with his heavy iron-gray locks as she perched upon the arm of +his chair, her scarlet flannel arm under his head. The youngest boy, +Justin, threw himself flat on the hearth-rug, chin propped on elbow, +watching the fire; sixteen-year-old Jeff helped himself to a low stool, +clasping long arms about long legs as his knees approached his head in this +posture; and the eldest son, pausing, drew up a chair and sat down to face +the group.</p> + +<p>"Now for it," he said. "It looks serious--a consultation of the whole. +Mayn't we have mother to back us?"</p> + +<p>"I've sent mother to bed," Mr. Birch explained. "She wanted to come down +to hear you play, but I wouldn't let her. And indeed there are moments--" +He glanced quizzically at his eldest son.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," Lansing responded, promptly. "There are moments when the +furnace pipes convey up-stairs as much din as she can bear."</p> + +<p>Mr. Birch sat looking thoughtfully into the fire for a minute or +two.</p> + +<p>He began at last, gently, "Celia--has mother seemed quite strong to you +of late?"</p> + +<p>"Mother--strong?" asked Celia, in surprise. "Why, father, isn't she? +She--had that illness last winter, and was a long time getting about, but +she has seemed well all summer."</p> + +<p>Their eyes were all upon his face. Even young Justin had swung about +upon his elbows and was regarding his father with attention. They waited, +startled.</p> + +<p>"I took her to Doctor Forester to-day, and he--surprised me a good deal. +He seemed to think that mother must not spend the coming winter in this +climate. Don't be alarmed; I don't want to frighten you, but I want you to +appreciate the necessity. He thinks that if mother were to have a year of +rest and change we need have no fears for her."</p> + +<p>"Fears!" repeated Lansing, under his breath. Was it possible that +anything was the matter with mother? Why, she was the central sun about +which their little family world moved! There could not--must not--be +anything wrong with mother!</p> + +<p>"Tell us plainly, father," urged Celia's soft voice. She was pale, but +she spoke quietly.</p> + +<p>Charlotte, at the first word of alarm, had turned her face away. Jeff's +bright black eyes--he was Charlotte's counterpart in colouring and +looks--rested anxiously on the second violin's curly mop of hair, tied at +the neck with a big black bow of ribbon. It was always most expressive to +Jeff, that bow of ribbon.</p> + +<p>Lansing repeated Celia's words. "Yes, tell us plainly, sir. We'd rather +know."</p> + +<p>"I am alarming you," Mr. Birch said, quickly. "I knew I could not say +the slightest thing about her without doing that. But I need to talk it +over with you all, because if we carry out the doctor's prescription it +means much sacrifice for every one. I had no doubt that you would make it, +but I think it is better for you to understand its importance. Doctor +Forester says New Mexico is an almost certain cure for such trouble as +mother's, if taken early. And we are taking it early."</p> + +<p>Justin and Jeff looked puzzled, but Celia caught her breath, and +Lansing's ruddy colour suddenly faded. Charlotte buried her head in her +father's shoulder and drew the scarlet flannel arm tighter about his +neck.</p> + +<p>The iron-gray head bent over the curly black one for a moment, as if the +strong man of the household found it hard to face the anxious eyes which +searched his, and would have liked, like his eighteen-year-old daughter, to +run to cover. But in an instant, he looked up again and spoke in the cheery +tone they knew so well.</p> + +<p>"Now listen, and be brave," he said. "Mother's trouble is like a house +just set on fire. A dash of Water and a blanket--and it is out. Wait till a +whole room is ablaze, and it's a serious matter to stop it. Now, in our +case, we've only the little kindling corner to smother, and the New Mexico +air is water and blanket--a whole fire department, if need be. The doctor +assures me that with mother's good constitution, and the absence of any +hereditary predisposition to this sort of thing, we've only to give her the +ten or twelve months of rest and reënforcement--the winter in New +Mexico, the summer in Colorado--to nip the whole thing in the bud. I +believe him, and you must believe him--and me. More than all, you must not +show the slightest change of front to her. She knows it all, but she +doesn't want you to know. I think differently about that.</p> + +<p>"Three of you are men and women now, and the other two," he smiled into +the upturned, eager faces of Jeff and Justin, "are getting to be men. Even +my youngest can be depended upon to act the strong part."</p> + +<p>Justin scrambled to his feet at that, and gravely laid a muscular boy's +hand in his father's.</p> + +<p>"I'll stand by you, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>Nobody laughed. Charlotte's black bow twitched and a queer sound burst +from the shoulder where her head was buried. Jeff's thick black lashes went +down for a moment; Celia shook two bright drops from brimming eyes and +patted Just's sturdy shoulder. Mr. Birch shook the hand vigorously without +speaking, and only Lansing found words to express what they felt.</p> + +<p>"He speaks for us all, I know, sir. And now if you'll tell us our part +we'll take hold. I think I know what it means. Trips to New Mexico, from +New York, are expensive."</p> + +<p>"They are very expensive," Mr. Birch replied, slowly. "I must go with +her. We must travel in the least fatiguing fashion, which means state-rooms +on trains and many extras by the way. She has kept up bravely, but this +unusual exhaustion after one day in town shows me how careful I must be of +her on the long journey. Then, once away, no expense must be spared to make +the absence tell for all there is in it. And most of all to be considered, +while I am away there will be--no income."</p> + +<p>They looked at each other now, Celia at Lansing, and Lansing at Jeff, +and Jeff at both of them. Charlotte sat up suddenly, her cheeks and eyes +burning, and stared hard at each in turn.</p> + +<p>The income would stop. And what would that mean? The family had within +three years suffered heavy financial losses from causes outside of their +control, and the father's income, that of attorney-at-law in a large +suburban town, had since become the only source of support. So far it had +sufficed, although Charlotte and Celia had been sent away to school, and +both Celia and Lansing were now in college.</p> + +<p>It was the remembrance of these heavy demands upon the family purse +which now caused the young people to look at one another with startled +questioning. Lansing was about to begin his senior year at a great +university; Celia had finished her first year at a famous women's college. +Within a fortnight both were expecting to begin work.</p> + +<p>Charlotte did not care about a college course, but she had planned for +two years to go to a school of design, for she was a promising young worker +in things decorative. As for Jefferson, sixteen years old, captain of the +high-school football team, six feet tall, and able to give his brother +Lansing a hard battle for physical supremacy, his dearest dream was a great +military school. Even Justin--but Justin was only twelve--his dreams could +wait. His was the only face in the group which remained placid during the +moments succeeding Mr. Birch's mention of the astonishing fact about the +income.</p> + +<p>The father's observant eyes noted all that his children's looks could +tell him of surprise, disappointment and bewilderment; and of the +succeeding effort they made to rally their forces and show no sign of +dismay.</p> + +<p>Lansing made the first effort. "I can drop back a year," he said, +thoughtfully. "Or I--no--merely working my way through this year wouldn't +do. It wouldn't help out at home."</p> + +<p>"Why, Lanse!" began Celia, and stopped.</p> + +<p>He glanced meaningly at her, and the colour flashed back into her +cheeks. In the next instant she had followed his lead.</p> + +<p>"If Lanse can stay out of college, I can, too," she said, with +decision.</p> + +<p>"If I could get some fairly good position," Lanse proposed, "I ought to +be able to earn enough to--well, we're rather a large family, and our +appetites----"</p> + +<p>"I could do something," began Charlotte, eagerly. "I could--I could do +sewing----"</p> + +<p>At that there was a general howl, which quite broke the solemnity of the +occasion. "Charlotte--sewing!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Why not take in washing?" urged Lanse.</p> + +<p>"Or solicit orders for fancy cooking?"</p> + +<p>"Or tutor stupid little boys in languages? Come! Fiddle--stick to your +specialty."</p> + +<p>Charlotte's face was a study as she received these hints. They +represented the things she disliked most and could do least well. Yet they +were hardly farther afield than her own suggestion of sewing. Charlotte's +inability with the needle was proverbial.</p> + +<p>"What position do you consider yourself eminently fitted for, Mr. +Lansing Birch?" she inquired, with uplifted chin.</p> + +<p>"You have me there," her brother returned, good-humouredly. "There's +only one thing I can think of--to go into the locomotive shops. Mechanics' +wages are better than most, and a little practical experience wouldn't hurt +me."</p> + +<p>It was his turn to be met with derision. It could hardly be wondered at, +for as he stood before them, John Lansing looked the personification of +fastidiousness, and his face, although it surmounted a strongly +proportioned and well developed body, suggested the mental characteristics +not only of his father, but of certain great-grandfathers and uncles, who +had won their distinction in intellectual arenas. Even his father seemed a +little daunted at this proposal.</p> + +<p>"That's it--laugh!" urged Lanse. "If I'd proposed to try to get on the +'reportorial staff' of a city newspaper you'd all smile approval, as at a +thing suited to my genius. I'd have to live in town to do that, and what +little I earned would go to fill my own hungry mouth. Now at the shops--you +needn't look so top-lofty! Dozens of fellows who are taking engineering +courses put on the overalls, shoulder a lunch-pail and go to work every +morning during vacation at seven o'clock. They come grinning home at night, +their faces black as tar, their spirits up in Q, jump into a bath-tub, put +on clean togs, and come down to dinner looking like gentlemen--but +<i>not</i> gentlemen any more thoroughly than they have been all day."</p> + +<p>Jeff looked at his brother seriously. "Lanse," he said, "if you go into +one of the locomotive shops won't you get a place for me?"</p> + +<p>But Celia interposed. "Whatever the rest of us do," she said, "Jeff and +Just must keep on with school."</p> + +<p>Jeff rebelled with a grimace. "Not much!" he shouted. "I guess one +six-footer is as good as another in a boiler-shop. You don't catch me +swallowing algebra and German when I might be developing muscle. If Lanse +puts on overalls I'm after him."</p> + +<p>Celia looked at her father. "What do you think of all this, sir?" she +asked. "If I stay at home, dismiss Delia, and do the housework myself, and +Lanse finds some suitable position, can't we get on? Charlotte can put off +the school of design another year. We will all be very economical about +clothes----"</p> + +<p>"Being economical doesn't bring in cash to pay bills," interrupted Jeff. +"Do the best he can, Lanse won't draw any hair-raising salary the first +year. He could probably get clerical work at one of the banks, but what's +that? He'd fall off so in his wind I could throw him across the room in +three months."</p> + +<p>They all laughed. Jeff's devotion to athletics dominated his ideals at +all times, and his disgust at the thought of such a depletion of his +brother's physical forces was amusing.</p> + +<p>Celia was still looking at her father. He spoke in the hearty tone to +which they were accustomed, his face full of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"You please me very much, all of you," he said. "It will be the best +tonic I can offer your mother. Her greatest trial is this very necessity, +which she foresaw the instant the plan was formed--so much sacrifice on the +part of her children. Yet she agreed with me that the experience might not +be wholly bad for you, and she said"--he paused, smiling at his elder +daughter--"that with Celia at the helm she was sure the family ship +wouldn't be wrecked"</p> + +<p>Then he told them that they might plan the division of labour and +responsibility as they thought practicable. He agreed with Celia that the +younger boys must remain in school, but added--since at this point it +became necessary to mollify his son Jefferson--that a fellow with a will +might find any number of remunerative odd jobs out of school and study +hours. He commended Lansing's idea, but advised him to look around before +deciding; and he passed an affectionate hand over Charlotte's black curls +as he observed that young person sunk in gloom.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, little girl!" he said. "The second violin is immensely +important to the music of the family orchestra. The hand that can design +wall-papers can learn to relieve the mistress of the house of some of her +cares. Celia, without a maid in the kitchen, will find plenty of use for +such a quick brain as lies under this thatch."</p> + +<p>But at this moment something happened--something to which the family +were not unused. Charlotte suddenly wriggled out from under the caressing +hand, and in half a dozen quick movements was out of the room. They had all +had a vision of brilliant wet eyes, flushing cheeks, and red, rebellious +mouth.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" murmured Celia. "She thinks we find her of no use."</p> + +<p>"She is rather a scatterbrain," Lanse observed. "The year may do her +good, as you say, father--as well as the rest of us," he added, with +modesty.</p> + +<p>"There's a lot of things she can do, just the same,"--Jeff fired up, +instantly--"things the rest of us are perfect noodles at. When she gets to +earning more money in a day than the rest of us can in a month maybe we'll +let up on that second-fiddle business."</p> + +<p>"Good for you, you faithful Achates!" said Lanse. Then he turned to his +father. "You haven't told us yet when you go, sir."</p> + +<p>"If we can, two weeks from to-day," said Mr. Birch. Then he went +up-stairs to tell his wife that she might go peacefully to sleep, for her +children were ready to become her devoted slaves. Justin followed Jeff out +of the room, and Jeff broke away from this younger brother and hastened to +rap a familiar, comforting signal of comradeship on Charlotte's locked +door.</p> + +<p>Left alone, Lanse and Celia looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"Well, old girl--" began Lansing, gently.</p> + +<p>"O Lanse!" breathed Celia.</p> + +<p>He patted her shoulder. "Bear up, dear. It's tough to give up college +for a year--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>that's</i> not it!" cried the girl, and buried her face in a +sofa pillow.</p> + +<p>"No, that's not it," he answered, under his breath. He shook his +shoulders and walked away to the fire, stood staring down into it for a +minute with sober eyes, then drew a long breath and came back to his +sister.</p> + +<p>"It's a relief that there's something we can do to help her get well," +he said, slowly. "And she will get well, Celia--she will--<i>she +must</i>!"</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_II'></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>"Where's the shawl-strap?"</p> + +<p>"Charlotte, wait just a moment; are you perfectly sure that mother's +dressing sack and knit slippers are in the case? Nobody saw them put in, +and I don't--"</p> + +<p>"Justin, run down-stairs, please, and get that unopened package of +water-biscuit. You'll find it on the pantry shelf, I think."</p> + +<p>"Lanse, if the furnace runs all night with the draught on, your fire +will be burned out in the morning, and it will take an extra amount of coal +to get it started again."</p> + +<p>"Where's Jeff? He must be told about--"</p> + +<p>"Put mother's overshoes to warm."</p> + +<p>"I have left two hundred dollars to your credit at the bank, Lansing, +and I--"</p> + +<p>"Lanse, did you telephone for--"</p> + +<p>"Where did Celia put the--"</p> + +<p>"Listen, all of you. I--"</p> + +<p>"What did Jeff do with that small white--"</p> + +<p>"<i>Silence!</i>" shouted Lansing, above the din. "Can't you people get +these traps together without all yelling at once? You will have mother so +used up she can't start."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch smiled at her tall son from the easy chair where she had been +placed ten minutes before, her family protesting that they could finish the +numberless small tasks yet to be done. It was nine o'clock in the evening, +and it lacked but an hour of train-time.</p> + +<p>They all looked at the slender figure in the easy chair. They had +learned in these last two weeks to take note of their mother's appearance +as, with easy confidence in her exhaustless strength, they had never done +before. Since the night when they had learned that she was not quite well, +they had discovered for themselves the delicacy of the smiling face, the +thinness of the graceful body, the many small signs by which those who run +may read the evidences of lessened vitality, if their eyes are once opened. +They wondered that they had not seen it all before, and found the only +explanation in the cheery, undaunted spirit which had covered up every sign +of fatigue.</p> + +<p>"She is too tired already," declared Celia. "Run away, and let father +and me finish."</p> + +<p>But they would not go. How could they, with only an hour left? They +subdued their voices, and ran whispering about. Jeff held a long conference +in an undertone with his mother. Justin perched on the arm of her chair, +with his head on her shoulder, and she would not have him taken away, her +own heart sick within her at thought of the long absence from them all. +Altogether, when one took into account the preceding fortnight of making +ready for the trip, it was not strange that in this last hour of +preparation she gave out entirely.</p> + +<p>The first they knew of it was when Mr. Birch, with a low exclamation, +sprang across the room, and catching up his wife in his arms, carried her +to a couch.</p> + +<p>"Water!" he said. "And open the window!"</p> + +<p>Startled, they obeyed him. It was only a brief unconsciousness, and the +lovely brown eyes when they unclosed were as full of bravery as ever, but +Mr. Birch spoke anxiously to Lansing in the hall outside.</p> + +<p>"I don't like to start with her, as worn-out as this," he said. "Yet +everything is engaged--the state-room and all--and I don't want to delay +without reason. There's not time to send to the city for Doctor Forester. +Suppose you telephone Doctor Ridgway to come around and tell us what to do +about starting. If he is out, try Sears or Barton. Have him hurry. We've +barely forty-five minutes now."</p> + +<p>In three minutes Lansing came back and beckoned his father out of the +room.</p> + +<p>"They're all out," he said, "I tried old Doctor Hitchcock, too, but he's +sick in bed. How about that new doctor that's just moved in next door? I +like his looks. He certainly will know enough to advise about this."</p> + +<p>Mr. Birch hesitated a moment. "Well, call him," he decided.</p> + +<p>Lansing was already down the stairs. Three minutes later he returned +with the young doctor. Mr. Birch met them in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Churchill, father." Mr. Birch looked keenly into a pair of eyes +whose steady glance gave him instantly the feeling that here was a man to +trust.</p> + +<p>The young people waited impatiently outside while Doctor Churchill spent +fifteen quiet minutes with their father and mother. When Mr. Birch came to +the door again with the physician, he was looking relieved.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill paused before the little group, his eyes glancing +kindly at each in turn, as he spoke to Lansing. He certainly was young but +there was about him an air of quiet confidence and decision which one felt +instinctively would be justified by further acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"Don't be anxious," he said. "All this hurry of preparation has been a +severe test on her, taken with her reluctance to leave her home. She is +feeling stronger now, and it will be better for her to get the leave-taking +over than to postpone and dread it longer. You will all make it easy for +her--No breakdowns," he cautioned, with a smile. "New Mexico is a great +place, and you are doing the best thing in the world in getting her off +before cold weather."</p> + +<p>He was gone, but they felt as if a reviving breeze had passed over them, +and when they went back to their mother's room it was with serene faces. If +Charlotte swallowed hard at a lump in her throat, and Celia lingered an +instant behind the rest to pinch the colour back into her cheeks, nobody +observed it. Perhaps each was too occupied with acting his own +light-hearted part. Somehow the minutes slipped away, and soon the +travellers were at the door.</p> + +<p>Into Mrs. Birch's face, also, the colour had returned, summoned there, +it may be, not only by the doctor's stimulating draught, but by the +insistence of her own will.</p> + +<p>"Good-by! good-by! God be with you all!" murmured Mr. Birch, breaking +with difficulty away from Justin's frantic hug.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch, on Lansing's arm, had gone down the steps to the carriage. +The father followed, surrounded by an eager group. Only Lansing was to go +to the train. The others, as they crowded round the carriage door, were +incoherently mingling parting messages. Then presently they were left +behind, a suddenly quiet, sober group.</p> + +<p>Inside the carriage Mrs. Birch, with her hand in her eldest son's, was +saying to him things he never forgot, while his father looked steadily out +of the window.</p> + +<p>"I leave them in your care, dear," she told Lansing, in the quiet, +confident tones to which he was used from her. "I could never go, I think, +if I hadn't such a strong, brave, trustworthy son to leave in care of the +younger ones. Celia will do her part, and do it beautifully, I know, but +it's on you I rely."</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best," he answered, cheerfully, although he felt, even more +than before, the heavy responsibility upon him.</p> + +<p>"I know you will. Don't let Celia overdo. She will be so ambitious to +run the household economically that she will set herself tasks she's not +fit for. See that Jeff keeps steadily at his studies, and be lenient with +Justin. He adores you--you can make the year do much for him if you take +thought. And with my little Charlotte--be very patient, Lanse. She will +miss us most--and show it least."</p> + +<p>"I doubt that," thought Lanse, but aloud he said, "We'll all hang +together, mother, you may count on that. We have our differences and our, +eccentricities, but we've a lot of family spirit, and no one of us is going +to sacrifice alone while the rest fail to take notice. And you're going to +know all that goes on. We've planned to take turns writing so that at least +every other day a letter will start for New Mexico."</p> + +<p>"And if anything should go wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing will," asserted Lansing.</p> + +<p>"That you don't know, dear," said the gentle voice, not quite so +steadily as before. "If anything should come we must know."</p> + +<p>"I'll remember," he promised, reluctantly, his hand under pressure from +hers. But inwardly he vowed, "Anything short of real trouble you'll not +know, little mother. Your children are stronger than you now, and they can +bear some things for you."</p> + +<p>At the train it took all Lansing's determination, sturdy fellow though +he was, to keep up his cheerful front. The colour had ebbed away from Mrs. +Birch's face once more, and as she put up her arms to her tall son, in the +little state-room, she seemed to him all at once so small and frail that he +could not endure to see her go away from them all, facing even the remote +possibility that in the new land she might fail to find again her old +vigour.</p> + +<p>It had to be done, however. Lansing received her clinging good-by, +whispered in her ear something which would have been unintelligible to any +but a mother's intuition, so choky was his voice, gripped his father's hand +with both his own, turned and smiled back at the two as he pulled open the +door, and swung off the train just as it began to move.</p> + +<p>He raced away over the streets to take a trolley-car for home, having +dismissed the carriage, and craving nothing so much as a long walk in the +cool September night.</p> + +<p>At home he found everybody gone to bed except Celia, who met him at the +door. She smiled at him, but he could see that she had been crying. +Although he had carried home a heavy heart, he braced himself to begin his +task of keeping the family cheered up.</p> + +<p>"Off all right!" he announced, in a casual tone, as if he had just sent +away the guests of a week. "Splendid train, jolly state-room, porter one of +the '<i>Yassir, yassir</i>' kind. Judge and Mrs. Van Camp were taking the +same train as far as Chicago. That will do a lot toward making things +pleasant to start with."</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad!" Celia agreed. "How did mother get off? Did her strength +keep up?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well--better than I'd have thought possible after all the fuss +of that last hour. The new doctor braced her up in good shape. He seems all +right. Didn't you like the way he acted? Neither like an old family +physician nor a new johnny-jump-up; just quiet and cool and pleasant. Glad +he lives next door. I mean to know him."</p> + +<p>Lansing was turning out lights as he talked, looking after window +fastenings, and examining things generally. Celia watched him from her +place on the bottom stair. He was approaching her with the intention of +putting out the hall light and joining her to proceed up-stairs, when he +stopped still, wheeled, and made for the back of the hall, where the cellar +stairs began.</p> + +<p>"I'm forgetting the furnace!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," Celia assured him. "Jeff took care of it. He says +that's his work, since you're to be away all day."</p> + +<p>"Think he can manage it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course he can. The way to please Jeff is to give him responsibility. +He's old enough, and even having to look after such small matters regularly +will help to develop him."</p> + +<p>Lansing laughed; then, extinguishing the light, he came up to her on the +stair, and putting his arm about her shoulders, began to ascend slowly with +her.</p> + +<p>"Shouldering your cares already, aren't you? Got to keep us all +straight, and develop all our characters. Poor girl, you'll have a hard +tussle!"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I shall. Do you go to work at the shops in the morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Breakfast at six. Did you tell Delia?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I'm going to let her go afterward. I arranged with her, when +father first told us, to stay just till they had gone, and then leave +things to me. I can't be too busy from now on, and I don't want to wait a +day to begin."</p> + +<p>"Wise girl. Sorry, though, that I have to get you up every morning so +early. Couldn't you leave things ready so I could manage for myself about +breakfast, somehow?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed! If I'm to have a day-labourer for a brother, I shall see +that he has a good hot breakfast and the heartiest kind of a lunch in his +pail every-day."</p> + +<p>"You're the right sort!" murmured Lansing, patting his sister's shoulder +as he paused with her in front of her door. "I must admit I shall prefer +the hot breakfast. Better sleep late to-morrow morning, though."</p> + +<p>"I shall be up when you are," Celia declared.</p> + +<p>"Look here, little girl," said Lansing, speaking soberly in the +darkness. "You know you haven't got this household on your shoulders all +alone. It's a partnership affair, and don't you forget it. Now, good night, +and take care you sleep like a top."</p> + +<p>Celia held him tight for a minute, and answered bravely:</p> + +<p>"You're a dear boy, and a great comfort."</p> + +<p>Lansing tiptoed away to his own room, farther down the hall, feeling a +strong sense of relief that the determination of the young substitute heads +of the house to begin the new regime without a preliminary hour of wailing +had been successfully carried through.</p> + +<p>"We've got the worst over," he thought, as he fell asleep. "Once fairly +started, it won't be so bad. Celia's clear grit, that's sure."</p> + +<p>Alone in her room, Celia had it out with herself, and spent a wakeful +night. But she brought a cheerful face to Lansing's early breakfast, and +when the younger members of the family came down later she was ready for +them with the sunshine they had dreaded not to find.</p> + +<p>Everybody spent a busy day. Jeff and Justin went off to school. +Charlotte announced with meekness that she was ready for whatever work +Celia might find for her, and was given various rooms up-stairs to sweep +and dust, her sister being confident that vigorous manual labour would be +the best tonic for a mind dispirited.</p> + +<p>As for Celia herself, she dismissed Delia, the maid of all work, with a +kindly farewell and the letters of recommendation her mother had prepared, +and plunged eagerly into business. She was a born manager, and loved many +of the details of housework, particularly the baking and brewing, and she +was soon enthusiastically employed in putting the small kitchen to +rights.</p> + +<p>At noon Charlotte and the boys were served with a light luncheon, with +the promise of greater joys to come, and by five in the afternoon the house +was filled with the delightful odours of successful cookery.</p> + +<p>At that hour Charlotte, whose labours had been enlarged by herself to +cover a thorough overhauling of the entire house--such tasks being her +special aversion, and therefore to be discharged without mitigation on this +first day of self-sacrifice--wandered disconsolately into the kitchen with +broom and dust-pan, looking sadly weary. She gazed with envious eyes at her +sister, flying about in a big apron, with sleeves rolled up, her cheeks +like carnations, her eyes bright with triumph.</p> + +<p>"Well, you do start in with vim," the younger sister observed, dropping +into a chair with a long sigh.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and the work has gone better than I had hoped," declared Celia, +whisking a tinful of plump rolls into the oven. "It's really fun."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you like it."</p> + +<p>"Poor child," said Celia, pausing to glance at the dejected figure in +the chair, its dark curls a riot of disorder, a smudge of black upon its +forehead, and its pinafore disreputable with frequent use as a duster, "I +gave you too much to do! Didn't I hear you in Delia's room? You needn't +have touched that to-day."</p> + +<p>"Wanted to get through with it. Delia may be a good cook, but she left a +mess of a closet up-stairs. Please give me one of those warm cookies. I'm +so used up and hungry I can't wait for supper."</p> + +<p>"Justin came in half an hour ago so famished there wouldn't have been a +cookie left if I hadn't filled him up with a banana. By the way, I sent him +down cellar after some peach pickles, and I haven't seen him since. I'll +run down and get some. I've hot rolls and honey for supper, and Lanse +always wants peach pickles with that combination."</p> + +<p>Celia took a bowl from the cupboard, opened the cellar door and started +down, turning on the second step to say:</p> + +<p>"Go and take a bath and put on a fresh frock; you won't feel half so +tired. Wear the scarlet waist, will you? I want things particularly bright +and cheery to-night, for I know Lanse will come home fagged with the new +work. Mrs. Laurier sent over some red carnations. I've put them in the +middle of the table; they look ever so pretty. I'm going to----"</p> + +<p>What she intended to do Celia never told, if she ever afterward +remembered. What she did do was to slip upon the third step of the steep +stairway, and, with no outcry whatever, go plunging heavily to the +bottom.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_III'></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>"Celia--Celia--are you hurt?" cried Charlotte, and dashed down the +stairs.</p> + +<p>There was no answer. With trembling hands she felt for her sister's +head. It lay close against the cellar wall, and she instantly understood +that Celia must be unconscious. But whether there might be more to be +feared than unconsciousness she could not tell in the dark. Her first +thought was to get a light, the next that she must have help at once.</p> + +<p>She rushed up the stairs, calling Jeff and Justin, but neither boy was +to be found. Then she ran to the telephone, with the idea of summoning one +of the suburban physicians, but turned aside from this purpose with the +further realisation that first of all Celia must be brought up from the +cold, dark place in which she lay, and restored to consciousness.</p> + +<p>She ran to the front door to summon the nearest neighbour, and she +remembered then, with relief, that the nearest neighbour was Doctor +Churchill, the young physician who had been called in to see her mother the +evening before.</p> + +<p>She flew across the narrow lawn between her own house and that where the +new doctor had set up his office, and rang imperatively. The door opened, +and Doctor Churchill, hat and case in hand, evidently on his way to a +patient, stood before her.</p> + +<p>What he thought of the figure before him, with its riotous curly black +hair, brilliant eyes, pale dark cheeks, dusty pinafore, a singular smudge +upon the forehead, and sleeves rolled up to the elbows, nobody would have +known from his manner, which instantly expressed a friendly concern.</p> + +<p>Charlotte could only gasp, "Oh, come--quick!"</p> + +<p>He followed her, stopping to ask no questions. At the open cellar door +Charlotte stood aside to let him pass.</p> + +<p>"Down there--my sister!" she breathed.</p> + +<p>"Bring a light, please," said the doctor, and he disappeared down the +stairs. Charlotte lighted a little kitchen lamp and came after him. He bade +her stand by while he made his first brief examination.</p> + +<p>"I think the blow on her head isn't serious," he said, presently, "but I +can't tell where else she may be hurt till I get her up-stairs."</p> + +<p>He was strong, and he lifted Celia as if she had been a child, and +carried her easily up the steep stairs.</p> + +<p>Charlotte led the way to a wide couch in the living-room. As Celia was +laid gently upon it she opened her eyes.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, John Lansing Birch, in his oldest clothes and +wearing a rather disreputable soft hat pulled down over his forehead, with +his hands and face excessively dirty and a lunch-pail on his arm, pushed +open the kitchen door. "<i>Phew-w!</i> Something's burning!" he shouted. +"Celia--Charlotte--where are you all? Great Scott, what a smudge!"</p> + +<p>He strode across the room and lifted from the stove a kettle of +potatoes, from which the water had boiled away some minutes before.</p> + +<p>"First returns from the amateur cooking district!" he muttered, glancing +critically about the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Something else in the way of overcooked viands seemed to assail his +nostrils, and he jerked open the oven door. A tin of blackened rolls puffed +out at him their pungent smoke.</p> + +<p>"Well, what--" he was beginning with the natural irritation of the +hungry man, who has been anticipating his supper all the way home, and sees +it in ruin before his eyes, when Charlotte appeared in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"O Lanse!" she cried, and ran to him.</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it? Celia got a headache and left you in charge? +Everything's burnt up--I can tell you that----"</p> + +<p>"Celia is--she's broken her knee!"</p> + +<p>"<i>What</i>?"</p> + +<p>"She fell down the cellar stairs and----"</p> + +<p>"Where is she?" Lunch-pail and hat went down on the floor as Lanse got +rid of them and seized Charlotte's arm.</p> + +<p>"Up in her room. Doctor Churchill's there. He's sent for Doctor +Forester."</p> + +<p>"Churchill--Forester," repeated Lanse, as if dazed. "Poor old girl--is +she much hurt?"</p> + +<p>"She's broken her knee, I tell you," Charlotte repeated. "Of course +she's much hurt. She's suffering dreadfully. She hit her head, too. She was +unconscious at first. I was all alone with her."</p> + +<p>Lanse started for the door, then hesitated. "Shall I go up?"</p> + +<p>"The doctor wants to see you as soon as you are home. He's waiting for +Doctor Forester. He's made Celia as comfortable as he can, but wants our +regular doctor here, he says, before he does up her knee. I don't see why. +I wanted him to fix it himself."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Lanse. "Doctors always do that kind of +thing--the honourable ones do. It's better to have Doctor Forester see it, +too. Did you get him? Will he be here right off?"</p> + +<p>"The doctor got him. He'll be here soon."</p> + +<p>"Go tell Doctor Churchill I'm here, will you? Maybe I'd better not see +Celia till I'm cleaned up a bit. She's not used to me like this. Poor +little girl! poor little girl!" he groaned, as he made his rapid way to the +bath-room. "The cellar stairs--they're dark and steep enough, but how could +a light-footed girl like Celia get a fall like that? And father and +mother--how are we going to fix it with them?"</p> + +<p>In the midst of his splashing and scrubbing he heard Jeff and Justin +come shouting in for supper and Charlotte hushing them and telling them the +news. The next instant Jeff was upon him.</p> + +<p>"Say, but this is awful, Lanse! She was getting up a rattling good +dinner, too--been at it all day. Her one idea was to please you, your first +day at the shops. Been up to see her? Charlotte says I'd better not go +yet--nor Just. Just's all broken up, poor youngster! Says Celia told him to +go after the pickles, and he forgot it. If he'd gone she wouldn't have got +her tumble. What'll father and mother say? What are we going to do, anyhow? +Second Fiddle's no good on earth in the kitchen; she couldn't boil an egg. +Say, breaking your knee-pan's no joke. Price Williston did it a year ago +August, and he hasn't got good use of it yet,--'fraid he never +will----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, let up on that,"--Lanse cut him short,--"and don't mention it again +to anybody. Doctor Forester and Churchill will fix her up all right, only +it's an awful shame it should have happened. I'm going up to see Doctor +Churchill."</p> + +<p>At the foot of the stairs he met that person coming down, shook hands +with him eagerly, and listened to a brief and concise account of his +sister's injury. As it ended, Doctor Forester's automobile rolled up to the +door.</p> + +<p>"Did the five and a half miles in precisely twenty minutes," said Doctor +Forester, as he came up the steps, watch in hand; "slow speed within limits +and all. Lanse, my boy, this is too bad. Doctor Churchill--very glad to see +you again. Decided to settle out here, eh? Well, on some accounts I think +you're wise. Charlotte, little girl, cheer up! There are worse things than +a fractured patella--I believe that's what you called the injury, Doctor +Churchill."</p> + +<p>In such genial fashion the surgeon and old friend of the family made his +entry, bringing with him that atmosphere which men of his profession carry +about with them, making the people who have been anxiously awaiting them +feel that here is somebody who knows how to take things coolly, and is not +upset at the notion of a broken bone.</p> + +<p>He moved deliberately up-stairs toward Celia's room, listening to the +younger physician's statement of the conditions under which he had been +called, turning at the door to smile and nod back at Charlotte, who watched +him from the top of the staircase with serious eyes.</p> + +<p>At the end of what seemed like a long period of time the two physicians +came down-stairs together, meeting Lanse at the foot.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said Doctor Forester, "so far, so good. Celia is as +comfortable as such cases usually are an hour or two afterward, which is +not saying much from her point of view, though a good deal from ours. She +has a long siege of inactivity before her to put that knee into a strong +condition, but it will not be a great while before she can be about on +crutches, I hope. Doctor Churchill, at my insistence, has put up the knee +in the best possible shape, and I am going to leave it in his care. I'll +drop in now and then, but the doctor is right beside you, and I've full +confidence in him. I knew his father, and I know enough about him to be +sure that you're all right in his hands."</p> + +<p>Lanse drew a long breath of relief. "I'm very thankful it's no worse," +he said. "But, Doctor Forester, what are we to do about father and mother? +We can't tell them----"</p> + +<p>"Tell them! No!" said Doctor Forester, with decision. "I wouldn't have +your mother told under any consideration, so long as the girl does well. +She would be back here on the next train and then we'd have something worse +than a broken patella on our hands. If there is any way by which you can +let your father know I should do that."</p> + +<p>"I can, I think," said Lanse, thoughtfully. "We're to send them +general-delivery letters until they're settled, and father will get those +at the post-office and read them first."</p> + +<p>"As to your other problems--housekeeping and all that, over which Celia +is several times more worried than over her own condition--can you figure +those out?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, somehow."</p> + +<p>"Good! Go up and tell her so. She thinks the house is going to +destruction without her. Good chance for the second violin. Too bad that +clever little orchestra will have to drop its practice for a few weeks. I +meant to run in some evening soon and hear you play. Well, I'm overdue at +the hospital. Good-by, Lanse--Doctor Churchill. Keep me posted concerning +the knee."</p> + +<p>Then the busy surgeon, who had put off several engagements to come out +to the suburban town and look after the family of his old friend, whom he +had known and loved since their college days, was off in his runabout, his +chauffeur getting promptly under as much headway as the law allows, and +rushing him out of sight in a hurry.</p> + +<p>Lanse turned to Doctor Churchill, who stood upon the porch beside him, +hat and case in hand.</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty thankful you were so near," he said.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Forester hasn't given you much choice," said the other man, +smiling. "I did my best to give you the chance of having some one of the +physicians you know here in town take charge of the case, but he insisted +on my keeping it. I should like, however, to be sure that you are +satisfied. You don't know me at all, you know."</p> + +<p>The steady eyes were looking keenly at Lanse, and he felt the sincerity +in the words. He returned the scrutiny without speaking for an instant; +then he put out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Somehow I feel as if I do," he said, slowly. "Anyhow, I'm going to know +you, and I'm glad of the chance."</p> + +<p>"Thank you." Doctor Churchill shook hands warmly and went down the +steps. "I will come over for a minute about ten o'clock," he added, "to +make sure that Miss Birch is resting as quietly as we can hope for +to-night."</p> + +<p>Lanse watched the broad-shouldered, erect figure cross the lawn and +disappear in the office door of the old house near by; then he turned.</p> + +<p>"Well, we're in a sweet scrape now, that's certain," he said gloomily to +himself, as he marched up-stairs.</p> + +<p>At the top he encountered his young brother Justin. That twelve-year-old +stood awaiting him, his face so disconsolate that in spite of himself Lanse +smiled.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, youngster," he said. "It's pretty tough, but as Doctor +Forester says, it might be worse. Want to go in with me and see sister a +minute?"</p> + +<p>But Justin got hold of his arm and held him back. "Lanse, I've got to +tell you something," he begged. "Please come here, in your room a +minute."</p> + +<p>Lanse followed, wondering. Justin, although a healthy and happy boy +enough, was apt to take things seriously, and sometimes needed to be joked +out of singular notions. In Lanse's room Justin carefully locked the +door.</p> + +<p>"It's all my fault, Celia's knee," he said, going straight to the point, +as was his way. His voice shook a little, but he went steadily on. "She +sent me down cellar after pickles, and I sat on the top of the stairs +finishing up a banana before I went. I've been down there to look, and--and +the banana skin was there--all mashed. It was what did it."</p> + +<p>He choked, and turned away to the window.</p> + +<p>"You left a banana skin on those stairs?" Lanse half-shouted.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Right there, at the top--when Delia almost broke her neck more than +once going down those stairs only last winter, just because they're so +steep and narrow?"</p> + +<p>Just nodded.</p> + +<p>"And you fell on a banana skin once yourself, and wanted to thrash the +fellow who left it!"</p> + +<p>Just's chin sank lower and lower.</p> + +<p>Lanse eyed him a moment, struggling with a desire to seize the boy and +punish him tremendously. But as his quick wrath cooled a trifle in his +effort to control himself and act wisely, something about Just's brave +acknowledgment, where silence would have covered the whole thing, appealed +to him. The thought of the way the absent father and mother had met every +confession of his own that he could remember in a life of prank-playing +softened the words which came next to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's pretty bad," he said, in a deep voice of regret. "I don't +wonder it breaks you up. Such a little thing to do so much mischief--and so +easy to have avoided it all. I reckon you'll take care of your banana skins +after this. But I like the way you own up, Just, and so will Celia. That's +something. You haven't been a sneak in addition to being thoughtless. It +would have been hard to forgive you if I had found it out while you kept +still. It's pretty hard as it is," he could not help adding, as his +imagination pictured Celia spending her winter as a cripple.</p> + +<p>Just said not a word, but the outline of his profile against the fading +light at the window was so suggestive of boyish despair that the elder +brother walked over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"It gives you a chance to make it up to her in every way you can," he +said. "There are a lot of things you can do for her, and I shall expect you +to try to square the account a little."</p> + +<p>"I will! Oh, I will!" cried poor Just, who had longed for his mother in +this crisis, and had found facing the elder brother, whom he both admired +and feared, harder than anything he had ever had to do. "I'll do anything +in the world for her, if she'll only forgive me."</p> + +<p>"She'll forgive you, for she's made that way. It's forgiving yourself +that can't be done."</p> + +<p>"I never shall."</p> + +<p>"Don't. If I thought you would, I'd thrash you on the spot," said Lanse, +grimly, sure that a wholesome remorse was to be encouraged. Then he +relented sufficiently to say in a tone considerably less severe:</p> + +<p>"Go and wash up, and begin your good resolutions by getting down and +seeing to the kitchen fire. It's undoubtedly burnt itself out by this time. +There's probably no dinner for anybody, but we can't mind little things +like that to-night."</p> + +<p>He went to Celia's room at last, feeling many cares upon him, a +sensation which an empty, stomach did not tend to relieve. He found his +sister able to give him a very pale-faced but courageous smile, and to +receive his earnest sympathy with a faint:</p> + +<p>"Never mind, dear. Don't worry. It might have been worse."</p> + +<p>"That seems to be everybody's motto, so I'll accept it. We'll take +courage, and you shall have us all on our knees, since yours are laid up +for repairs."</p> + +<p>"You haven't had your dinner, Lanse," murmured Celia. She was suffering +severely, but she could not relax anything of her anxiety for the family +welfare.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I forgot there was such a thing as dinner in the world!" cried +Charlotte, and was hurrying to the door when Celia called her back. +"<i>Please</i> wash that smudge off your face," she whispered, and covered +her eyes.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>Coming down-stairs from Celia's room, Dr. Andrew Churchill made his way +through what had now become somewhat familiar ground to the little kitchen. +As he looked in at the door he beheld a slim figure in a big Turkey-red +apron, bending over a chicken which lay, in a state of semi-dissection, +upon the table. As he watched for a moment without speaking, Charlotte +herself spoke, without turning round.</p> + +<p>"You horrid thing!" she said, tragically, to the chicken. "I hate +you--all slippery and bloody. Ugh! Why won't your old windpipe come out? +How anybody can eat you who has got you ready I don't know!"</p> + +<p>"May I bother you for a pitcher of hot water?" asked an even voice from +the doorway.</p> + +<p>Charlotte turned with a start. Her cheeks, already flushed, took on a +still ruddier hue.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you'll please help yourself," she answered, curtly, turning +back to her work. "I am--engaged."</p> + +<p>"I see. A congenial task?"</p> + +<p>"Very!" Charlotte's tone was expressive.</p> + +<p>"Did I gather that the fowl's windpipe was the special cause of your +distress?" asked the even voice again.</p> + +<p>Charlotte faced round once more.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Churchill," she said, "I never cleaned a chicken in my life. I +don't know what I'm doing at all, only that I've been doing it for almost +an hour, and it isn't done. I presume it's because I take so much time +washing my hands."</p> + +<p>She smiled in spite of herself as the doctor's hearty laugh filled the +little kitchen.</p> + +<p>"I think I can appreciate your feelings," he remarked.</p> + +<p>He walked over to the table. "Get a good hold on the offending windpipe, +shut your eyes and pull."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid of doing something wrong."</p> + +<p>"You won't. The trachea of the domestic fowl was especially designed for +the purpose, only the necessary attachment for getting a firm grip on it +was accidentally omitted."</p> + +<p>"It certainly was." Charlotte tugged away energetically for a moment, +and drew out the windpipe successfully. The doctor regarded the bird with a +quizzical expression.</p> + +<p>"I should advise you to cut up the chicken and make a fricassée +of it," he observed.</p> + +<p>"I want to roast it. I've got the stuffing all ready." She indicated a +bowlful of macerated bread-crumbs mixed with milk and butter, and liberally +seasoned with pepper.</p> + +<p>"I see. But I'm a little, just a little, afraid you may have trouble in +getting the stuffing to stay in while the chicken is roasting. You see--" +He paused.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I've cut it open too much."</p> + +<p>"Rather--unless you're a very good amateur surgeon. And even then--"</p> + +<p>"I'm no surgeon--I'm no cook--I never shall be! I--don't want to be!" +Charlotte burst out, suddenly, beginning to cut up the chicken with +vigorous slashes, mostly in the wrong places.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you do. Hold on a minute! That joint isn't there: it's farther +down. There. See? Once get the anatomy of this bird in your mind, and it +won't bother you a bit to cut it up. Pardon me, Miss Charlotte, but I know +you do want to be a good cook--because you want to be an accomplished +woman."</p> + +<p>Charlotte put down her knife, washed her hands with furious haste, got +out a pitcher, poured it full of hot water, and handed it silently to +Doctor Churchill without looking at him. He glanced from it to her with +amusement as he received it "Thank you," he said, politely, and walked +away.</p> + +<p>When he came down-stairs fifteen minutes later, he found the slim figure +in the Turkey-red apron waiting for him at the bottom. As the girl looked +up at him he noted, as he had done many times already in the short two +weeks he had known her, the peculiar, gipsy-like beauty of her face. It was +a beauty of which she herself, he had occasion to believe, was absolutely +unconscious, and in this he was right.</p> + +<p>Charlotte disliked her dark skin, despised her black curls, and +considered her vivid colouring a most undesirable inheritance. She admired +intensely Celia's blonde loveliness, and lost no chance of privately +comparing herself with her sister, to Celia's infinite advantage.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Churchill," she said, as he approached her, hat in hand, "I was +very rude to you just now. I am--sorry."</p> + +<p>She held out her hand. Doctor Churchill took it. Charlotte's thick black +lashes swept her cheek, and she did not see the look, half-laughing, +half-sympathetic, which rested on her downcast face.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," said Doctor Churchill's low, clear voice. "Don't think +I fail to understand what it means for the cares of a household like this +to descend upon a girl's shoulders. But I want you to know that I--that +they are all immensely pleased with the pluck you are showing. I have seen +your sister's lunch tray several times since I have been coming here; it +was perfect."</p> + +<p>"I burned her toast just this morning," said Charlotte, quickly. "And +poached the egg too hard. Lanse says the coffee is better, but--oh, no +matter--I'm just discouraged this morning, I--shall learn something some +time, perhaps, but----" She turned away impulsively. Doctor Churchill +followed her a step or two.</p> + +<p>"See here, Miss Charlotte," he said, "how many times have you been out +of the house since your sister was hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," owned Charlotte, "except evenings, after everything is +done. Then I steal out and run round and round the house in the moonlight, +just running it off, you know--or maybe you don't know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do. Will you do something now if I ask you to very humbly?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked at him doubtfully. "If you mean go for a walk--which is +what doctors always mean, I believe--I haven't time."</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill looked at his watch. "It is half past ten. Is that +chicken for luncheon?"</p> + +<p>"No, for supper--or dinner--I don't know just what it is we have at +night now. I simply began to get it ready this morning because I hadn't the +least idea in the world how long it takes to cook a chicken." She was +smiling a little at the absurdity of her own words.</p> + +<p>"And you didn't want to ask your sister?"</p> + +<p>"I meant to surprise her."</p> + +<p>"Well, of one thing I am fairly confident," said Doctor Churchill, with +gravity. "If you take a run down as far as the old bridge and back, there +will still be time to see to the chicken. What is more, by the time you get +back, all big obstacles will look like little ones to you. Go, please. I am +to be in the office for the next hour, and if the house catches fire I will +run over and put it out. I could even undertake to steal in the back door +and put coal on the kitchen fire, if it is necessary."</p> + +<p>"It won't be."</p> + +<p>"Then will you go?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps--to humour you," promised Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"Thank you! And remember, please, Miss Charlotte, if you are to do +justice to yourself and to your family, you must not plod all the time. +Plan to get away every day for an hour or two. Go to see your +friends--anything--but don't cultivate 'house nerves' at eighteen."</p> + +<p>"I'm older than that," said Charlotte, as she watched him go down the +steps. He turned, surprised. "But I shall not tell you how much," said she, +and closed the door.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill went straight through his small bachelor house to the +kitchen. Here a tall, thin woman, with sharp eyes and kindly mouth, was +energetically kneading bread.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Fields," said he, "I wish you would find it necessary to-morrow +morning to run in at that door over there"--he indicated the little back +porch of the Birch house--"and borrow something."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fields eyed him as if she thought he had taken leave of his senses. +"Me--borrow?" she said. "Doctor Andrew--are you----"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not crazy," the doctor assured her, smiling. "I know it's +tremendously against your principles, but never mind the principles, for +once--since by ignoring them you can do a kindness. Run in and borrow a cup +of sugar or something, and get acquainted."</p> + +<p>"Who with? That curly-haired girl with the red cheeks? She don't want my +acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"She would be immensely grateful for it if it came about naturally. Take +over some of your jelly for Miss Birch, if that way suits you better, but +get to know Miss Charlotte, and show her a few things about cookery. She's +trying to do all the work for the whole family, and she knows very little +about it."</p> + +<p>"I suspected as much. You haven't told me about 'em, and of course, +being a doctor's housekeeper, I'm too well trained to ask."</p> + +<p>The doctor smiled, for Mrs. Fields had been housekeeper in his mother's +family in the days of his boyhood, and she felt it her right to tell him, +now and then, what she thought. She was immensely proud of her own ability +to hold her tongue and her curiosity in check.</p> + +<p>"So I know only what I've seen. You told me the oldest girl had broke +her knee, and that's all you've said. But I see this girl a-hanging +dish-towels, and opening the kitchen door to let out the smoke each time +she's burned up a batch of something, and I guessed she wasn't what you +might call a graduate of one of those cooking-schools."</p> + +<p>"You must be a bit tactful," warned the doctor. "The young lady is a +trifle sensitive, as is natural, over her inefficiency, but she's very +anxious to learn, and there's nobody to teach her. She is too independent +to go to the other neighbours, but I've an idea you could be a friend to +her."</p> + +<p>"She looks pretty notional," Mrs. Fields said, doubtfully. "Shakes out +her dust-cloth with her chin in the air----"</p> + +<p>"To avoid the dust."</p> + +<p>"And pulls down the shades the minute the lamp is lighted----"</p> + +<p>"So do you."</p> + +<p>"I saw her lock the kitchen door in the face of that Mis' Carter the +other day, when she caught sight of her coming up the walk."</p> + +<p>"See here, Fieldsy, you've been spying on your neighbours," said Doctor +Churchill severely. "You despise that sort of thing yourself, so you +mustn't yield to it. Go over and be neighbourly, as nobody knows how better +than yourself, but don't judge people by their chins or their curls."</p> + +<p>He gave her angular shoulder an affectionate pat, looked straight into +her sharp eyes for a moment, until they softened perceptibly, said, "You're +all right, you know,"--and went whistling away.</p> + +<p>"That's just like your impudence, Andy Churchill," said Mrs. Hepsibah +Fields to herself, as she laid her smooth loaves of bread-dough into their +tins and proceeded energetically to scrape the board. "You always did have +a way with you, wheedling folks into doing what they didn't want to just to +please you. Now I've got to go meddling in other people's business and +getting snubbed, most likely, just because you're trying to combine +friendship and doctoring."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Fields, when her work was done, went to look up her best jelly, +as Doctor Churchill had known she would do. And twenty-four hours had not +gone by before she had made friends with Charlotte Birch.</p> + +<p>It was not hard to make friends with the girl if one went at it aright. +Mrs. Fields came in as Charlotte was stirring up gingerbread.</p> + +<p>"I don't think much of back-door neighbours," Mrs. Fields said, "but I +didn't want to come to the front door with my jelly. I thought maybe your +sister would relish my black raspberry."</p> + +<p>"That's very kind of you," said Charlotte. "You are--I think I've seen +you across the way. Won't you come in?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. You're busy, and so am I. Yes, I'm Doctor Churchill's +housekeeper, and his mother's before that."</p> + +<p>The sharp eyes noted with approval, in one swift glance as Charlotte +turned away with the jelly, the fact that the little kitchen was in careful +order. To be sure, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, an hour when +kitchens are supposed to be in order, if ever, yet it was a relief to Mrs. +Fields to find this one in that condition. Brass faucets gleamed in the +afternoon sunlight, the teakettle steamed from a shining spout, the +linoleum-covered floor was spotless, and the table at which Charlotte was +stirring her gingerbread had been scrubbed until it was as nearly white as +pine boards can be made.</p> + +<p>"Gingerbread?" said the housekeeper, lingering in the doorway. "I always +like to make that. It seems the biggest result for the smallest labour of +anything you can make, and it smells so spicy when it comes out of the +oven."</p> + +<p>"Yes, when it isn't burned," agreed Charlotte, with a laugh. Things had +gone fairly well with her that day, and her spirits had risen +accordingly.</p> + +<p>"Burning's a thing that will happen to the best cooks once in a while. +'Twas just day before yesterday I blacked a pumpkin pie so the doctor poked +his fun at me all the time he was eating it," said the housekeeper, with a +tactful disregard for the full truth, which was that a refractory small +patient in the office had driven the doctor to require her assistance for a +longer period than was consistent with attention to her oven.</p> + +<p>"Oh, did you?" asked Charlotte, eagerly. "That encourages me. Doctor +Churchill told me he had the finest cook in the state, and I've been +envying you ever since."</p> + +<p>"Doctor Churchill had better be careful how he brags," Mrs. Fields +declared, much gratified. "Well, now, I'll tell you what you do. It ain't +but a step across the two back yards. When you get in a quandary how to +cook anything--how long to give it or whether to bake or boil--you just run +across and ask me. I ain't one o' the prying kind--the doctor'll tell you +that--and you needn't be afraid it'll go any further. I know how hard it +must be for a young girl like you to take the care of a house on yourself, +and I'll be pleased to show you anything I can."</p> + +<p>"That's very good of you," said Charlotte, gratefully, as Mrs. Fields +went briskly down the steps; and she really felt that it was. She would +have resented the appearance of almost any of her neighbours at her back +door with an offer of help, suspecting that they had come to use their +eyes, and afterward their tongues, in criticism. But something about Mrs. +Hepsibah Fields disarmed her at once. She could not tell why.</p> + +<p>"This gingerbread is perfect," said Celia, an hour later, when Charlotte +had brought up her supper. "You are improving every day. But it frets me +not to have you come to me for help. I could plan things for you, and teach +you all the little I know. I'm doing so well now, the doctor says I may get +down-stairs on the couch by next week. Then you certainly must let me do my +part."</p> + +<p>But Charlotte shook her head obstinately. "I'm going to fight it through +myself. I'd rather. You've enough to do--writing letters."</p> + +<p>When Lanse came into Celia's room that evening, his first words were +merry.</p> + +<p>"What I'm anxious to know," he said, "is what you did with your rice +pudding. Charlotte says you ate it--and the inference was that it was good +to eat. So I ate mine--manfully, I assure you. But it was a bitter +dose."</p> + +<p>"Poor little girl! She tries so hard, Lanse. And the gingerbread was +very good."</p> + +<p>"So it was. It helped take out the taste of the pudding. Did you +honestly eat that pudding?"</p> + +<p>"See here." Celia beckoned him close. She reached a cautious hand under +her pillow and drew out her soap-dish. "Please get rid of it for me," she +whispered, "and wash the dish. I couldn't bear not to seem to eat it, so I +slipped it in there."</p> + +<p>Striving to smother his mirth, Lanse bore the soap-dish away. Returning +with it, he carefully replaced the soap and set the dish on the stand, +where it had been within Celia's reach. "I wish I had had a soap-dish at +the table," he remarked, "but the cook's eye was upon me, and I had to +stand up to it. But see here. I've a letter for you--from Uncle +Rayburn."</p> + +<p>Celia stretched an eager hand, for a letter from Uncle John +Rayburn--middle-aged, a bachelor, and an ex-army officer, retired by an +incurable injury which did not make him the less the best uncle in the +world--could not fail to be welcome. But she had not read a page before she +dropped the sheet and stared helplessly and anxiously at Lanse.</p> + +<p>"What's up?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Rayburn writes that he would like to come to spend the +winter with us," answered Celia.</p> + +<p>"What luck!"</p> + +<p>"Luck--with Charlotte in the kitchen?"</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ray is a crack-a-jack of a cook himself. His board bill will help +out like oil on a dry axle, and if we don't have a lot of fun, then Uncle +Ray has changed as--I know he hasn't."</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_V'></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>"Two cripples," declared Capt. John Rayburn--honourably discharged from +active service in the United States Army on account of permanent disability +from injuries received in the Philippines,--"two cripples should be able to +keep a household properly stirred up. I've been here five days now, and my +soul longs for some frivolity."</p> + +<p>He leaned back in his big wicker armchair and looked quizzically across +at his niece Celia, who lay upon her couch at the other side of the room. +She gave him a somewhat pale-faced smile in return. Four weeks of enforced +quiet were beginning to tell on her.</p> + +<p>"Some frivolity," repeated Captain Rayburn, as Charlotte came to the +door of the room. "What do you say, Charlie girl? Shall we have some +fun?"</p> + +<p>"Dear me, yes, Uncle Ray," Charlotte responded, promptly, "if you can +think how!"</p> + +<p>"I can. Is there a birthday or anything that we may celebrate? I've no +compunction about getting up festivities on any pretext, but if there +happened to be a birthday handy--"</p> + +<p>"November--yes. Why, we had forgotten all about it! Lanse's birthday is +the fourth. That's--"</p> + +<p>"Day after to-morrow. Good! Can you make him a birthday-cake? If not, +I--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I can!" cried Charlotte, eagerly. "I've just learned an +orange-cake."</p> + +<p>"All right. Then we'll order a few little things from town, and have a +jollification. Not a very big one, on account of the lady on the couch +there, who reminds me at the moment of a water-lily whom some one has +picked and then left on the stern seat in the sun. She looks very sweet, +but a trifle limp."</p> + +<p>Celia's smile was several degrees brighter than the previous one had +been. Nobody could resist Uncle Ray when he began to exert himself to cheer +people up.</p> + +<p>He was a young, or an old, bachelor, according to one's point of view, +being not yet forty, and looking, in spite of the past suffering which had +brought into his chestnut hair two patches of gray at the temples, very +much like a bright-faced boy with an irrepressible spirit of energy and +interest in the life about him. It could hardly be doubted that Capt. John +Rayburn, apparently invalided for life and cut off from the activity which +had been his dearest delight, must have his hours of depression, but nobody +had ever caught him in one of them.</p> + +<p>"I should like some music at this festival," Captain Rayburn went on. +"Is the orchestra out of practice?"</p> + +<p>"We haven't played for six weeks," Charlotte said. "And Celia's first +violin--"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't play, bolstered up?"</p> + +<p>Celia shook her head. "I should be tired in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure of that, but we'll see. Anyhow, I've the old flute +here--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, fine!" cried Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we ask Doctor Forester out, and your young doctor here next +door, and two or three of your girl friends, and a boy and girl or two for +Jeff and Just."</p> + +<p>"What a funny mixture, Uncle Ray! Doctor Forester and Norman Carter, +Just's chum, and Carolyn Houghton?"</p> + +<p>"Funny, is it?" inquired Captain Rayburn, undisturbed. "Now do you know, +that's my ideal of a well-planned company, particularly when all the family +are to be here. Invite somebody for each one, mix 'em all up, play some +jolly games, and you'll find Doctor Forester vying with Norman Carter for +the prize, and enjoying it equally well. It sharpens up the young wits to +be pitted against the older ones, and it--well, it burnishes the elder +rapiers and keeps them keen."</p> + +<p>"All right, this is your party," agreed Charlotte, and she went back to +her duties.</p> + +<p>"You're not afraid it will be too much for you, little girl?" Captain +Rayburn asked Celia, whose smile had faded, and who lay with her head +turned away.</p> + +<p>"Oh--no."</p> + +<p>"Mercury a little low in the tube this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Just a little."</p> + +<p>"Any good reason why?"</p> + +<p>"N-no."</p> + +<p>"Except the best reason in the world--heavy atmospheric pressure. Knee a +trifle slow to become a solid, capable, energetic knee, such as its owner +demands. Owner a bit restless, physically and mentally. Plans for the +winter upset--second lieutenant winning spurs while the colonel lies in the +hospital tent, fighting imaginary battles and trying to keep cool under the +strain."</p> + +<p>Celia looked round and smiled again, but her head went back to its old +position, and tears forced themselves out from under the eyelids which she +shut tightly together.</p> + +<p>"And a little current of anxiety for the inhabitants of New Mexico keeps +flowing under the edge of the tent and makes the colonel fear it's not +pitched in the right place?"</p> + +<p>Celia nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's not warranted in the face of the facts. Latest advices +from New Mexico report improvement, even sooner than we could have +expected. Then at home--Lanse is conquering the situation in the locomotive +shops very satisfactorily. Doctor Churchill told me yesterday that he's won +the liking of nearly all the men in his shop--which means more than a girl +like you can guess. Jeff and Just are prospering in school, according to +Charlotte, who is herself working up in her new profession, and whose last +beefsteak was broiled to a turn, as her critical soldier guest appreciates. +As for Celia--"</p> + +<p>He got to his feet slowly, grasped his two stout hickory canes and +limped across the room to the couch, showing as he went a pitiful weakness +in the tall figure, whose lines still suggested the martial bearing which +it had not long ago presented, and which it might never present again. +Captain Rayburn sat down close beside Celia and took her hand.</p> + +<p>"In one thing I made a misstatement," he said, softly. "They're not +imaginary battles that the colonel lies fighting in the hospital tent. +They're real enough."</p> + +<p>There was a short silence; then Celia spoke unsteadily from the depths +of her pillow:</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ray, were you ever mean enough to be jealous?"</p> + +<p>The captain looked quickly at the fair head on the pillow. "Jealous?" +said he, without a hint of surprise in his voice. "Why, yes--jealous of my +colonel, my lieutenants, my orderlies, my privates, my doctors, my +nurses--jealous of the very Filipino prisoners themselves--because they all +had legs and could walk."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know--I don't mean that!" cried Celia, "Of course you envied +everybody who could walk. Poor Uncle Ray! But you weren't small enough to +mind because the officers under you had got your chance?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't I, though? Well, maybe I wasn't," said the captain, speaking +low. "Perhaps I didn't lie and grind my teeth when they told me about the +gallant work Lieutenant Garretson had done with my men at Balangiga. A mere +boy, Garretson! The whole world applauded it. If I'd not been knocked out +so soon it would have been my name that would have gone into history. Yes, +I chewed that to shreds many a sleepless night, and hated the fellow for +getting my chance."</p> + +<p>Captain Rayburn drew a long breath, while his fingers relaxed for an +instant; and it was Celia's hand which tightened over his.</p> + +<p>"But I got past that," he said, quietly. "It came to me all at once that +Garretson and the other fellows in active service weren't the only ones +with chances before them. I had mine--a different commission from the one I +had coveted, to be sure, but a broader one, with infinite possibilities, +and no fear of missing further promotion if I earned it."</p> + +<p>There was a little stillness after that. When the captain looked down at +Celia again he found her eyes full of pity, but this time it was not pity +for herself. He comprehended instantly.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't need it, dear," he said, very gently. "I've learned some +things already in the hospital tent I wouldn't have missed for a year's +pay. And you, who are to be only temporarily on the sick-leave list, you +don't need to mind that the little second lieutenant--"</p> + +<p>But the second lieutenant was rushing into the room, bearing on a plate +a great puffy, round loaf, brown and spicy.</p> + +<p>"Look," she cried, "at my steamed brown bread! I've tried it four times +and slumped it every time. Now Fieldsy has shown me what was the matter--I +hadn't flour enough. Fieldsy is a dear--and so are you!"</p> + +<p>She plunged at Celia, brown bread and all, and kissed the top of her +head, tweaked a lock of Captain Rayburn's thick hair, and was flying away +when Celia spoke. "You're the biggest dear of anybody," she said, with a +smile.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>It was getting up a party in a hurry, but somehow the thing was +accomplished. Whether Lanse remembered his own birthday at all was a +question. When he came home at six o'clock on that day, Charlotte told him +that she had special reasons for seeing him in his best.</p> + +<p>"Why, you're all dressed up yourself," he observed. "What's up?"</p> + +<p>"Doctor Forester's coming out to hear us play," was all she would tell +him, and Lanse groaned over the fact that the little orchestra was so out +of practice.</p> + +<p>When the guests arrived, they found the man with the birthday anxiously +looking over scores. He greeted them with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Forester, this is good of you, if we can't play worth a copper +cent. Miss Atkinson! Well this is a surprise--a delightful one! Miss +Carolyn, how goes school? How are you, Norman? You'll find Just in a +minute. Miss Houghton, now you and I can settle that little question we +were discussing. Charlotte, you rogue, you and Uncle Ray are at the bottom +of this! Ah, Doctor Churchill! This wouldn't have been complete without our +neighbour. Miss Atkinson, allow me to present Doctor Churchill."</p> + +<p>Thus John Lansing Birch accepted at once and with his accustomed ease +the rôle of host, and enjoyed himself immensely. Celia, watching him +from her couch, said suddenly to Captain Rayburn, who sat beside her:</p> + +<p>"This is just what the family needed. If you hadn't come we should +probably have gone drudging on all winter without realising what was the +matter with us. No wonder poor Lanse appreciates it. He's had a month of +hard labour without an enlivening hour. And Charlotte--doesn't she look +like a fresh carnation to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Very much," agreed the captain, with approving eyes on his younger +niece, who wore her best frock of French gray, a tint which set off her +warm colouring to advantage. Celia had thrust several of Captain Rayburn's +scarlet carnations into her sister's belt, with a result gratifying to more +than one pair of eyes.</p> + +<p>"Still," remarked the captain, his glance returning to Celia, "I'm not +sure that I can say whether a fresh carnation is to be preferred to a newly +picked rose. That pale pink gown you are wearing is certainly a joy to the +eye."</p> + +<p>Celia blushed under his admiring glance. There could be no question that +she was very lovely, if a trifle frail in appearance from her month's +quiet, and it was comforting to be assured that she was not looking like a +"limp water-lily" to-night.</p> + +<p>"When are we to hear the orchestra?" cried Doctor Forester, after an +hour of lively talk, a game or two, and some remarkable puzzles contributed +by Just. The distinguished gentleman from the city was enjoying himself +immensely, for he was accustomed to social functions of a far more +elaborate and formal sort, and liked nothing better than to join in a +frolic with the younger people when such rare opportunities presented.</p> + +<p>"Of course we're horribly out of practice and all that," explained +Lanse, distributing scores, and helping to prop up Celia so that she might +try to play, "but since you insist we'll give you all you'll want in a very +few minutes. Here's your flute, Uncle Ray. If you'll play along with Celia +it will help out."</p> + +<p>It was not so bad, after all. Lanse had chosen the most familiar of the +old music, everybody did his and her best, and Captain Rayburn's flute, +exquisitely played, did indeed "help out."</p> + +<p>Celia, her cheeks very pink, worked away until Doctor Churchill gently +took her violin from her, but after that the music still went very +well.</p> + +<p>"Good! good!" applauded Doctor Forester. "Churchill, you're in luck to +live next door to this sort of thing."</p> + +<p>"Now that I know what I live next door to," remarked the younger +physician, "I shall know what to prescribe for the entire family on winter +evenings."</p> + +<p>There could be no question that Doctor Churchill also was enjoying the +evening. Helping Charlotte and the boys serve the sandwiches and chocolate, +which appeared presently--the chocolate being made by Mrs. Fields in the +kitchen--he said to the girl:</p> + +<p>"I haven't had such a good time since I came away from my old home."</p> + +<p>"It was so nice of Fieldsy to make the chocolate," Charlotte replied, +somewhat irrelevantly. Then as the doctor looked quickly at her and +laughed, she flushed. "Oh, I don't call her that to her face!" she said, +hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"I don't think she would mind. That's what Andy Churchill called her, +and calls her yet, when he forgets her newly acquired dignity as a doctor's +housekeeper. I'm mighty glad Fieldsy can be of service to you. You've won +her heart completely and I assure you that's a bigger triumph than you +realise."</p> + +<p>"She's the nicest neighbour we ever had," said Charlotte, gaily. The +doctor paused, delayed them both a moment while he rearranged a pile of +spoons and forks upon his tray, and said:</p> + +<p>"If you talk of neighbours, Miss Charlotte, there's a certain homesick +young doctor who appreciates having neighbours, too."</p> + +<p>Charlotte answered as lightly as he had spoken: "With Mrs. Fields in the +kitchen and you in here with a tray full of hospitality, I'm sure you seem +very much like one of our oldest neighbours."</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" he answered, with such a glad little ring in his voice that +Charlotte could not be sorry for the impulsive speech. But she found +herself wondering more than once during the evening what he had meant by +calling himself "homesick."</p> + +<p>"See here, Mrs. Fields," called Jeff, hurrying out for fresh supplies, +"this is the best chocolate ever brewed! Doctor Forester wants another cup, +and all the fellows looked sort of wistful when they heard him ask for it. +May everybody have another cup?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say, Mr. Jefferson!" said Mrs. Fields, in astonishment. "I +thought Miss Charlotte was going clean crazy when she would have three +double-boilers made. But it seems she knew her friends' appetites. Don't +you know it ain't considered proper to pass more than one cup--light +refreshments like these?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, this isn't any of your afternoon-tea affairs, I can tell you that!" +declared Jeff, watching with pleasure the filling of the tall +blue-and-white chocolate pot. "People know they are going to get something +good when they come here. I warned the fellows not to eat too much supper +before they came. Any more of those chicken sandwiches?"</p> + +<p>"For the land's sake, Mr. Jeff!" cried Mrs. Fields.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Jeffy?" asked Charlotte, coming out. Doctor +Churchill was behind her, bearing an empty salad bowl.</p> + +<p>"I want more sandwiches," demanded Jeff.</p> + +<p>"Everybody fall to quick and make them," commanded Charlotte. "Norman +Carter and Just have had seven apiece. That makes them go fast."</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" breathed the housekeeper once more. But Charlotte was +slicing the bread with a rapid hand. The doctor, laughing, undertook to +butter the slices, and Jeff would have spread on the chicken if Mrs. Fields +had not taken the knife from his hand.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later Jeff was able to announce that everybody seemed to be +satisfied.</p> + +<p>"That's a mercy," said Mrs. Fields, handing him a tray full of pink and +white ices, Captain Rayburn's contribution to the festivities. "You'd have +to give 'em sody-crackers now if they wasn't. Carry that careful, and tell +Miss Charlotte to send out for the cake. I'll light the candles."</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill came out alone for the cake. It stood ready upon the +table, Charlotte's greatest success--a big, old-fashioned orange +"layer-cake," with pale yellow icing, twenty-three pale yellow candles +surrounding it in a flaming circle, and one great yellow Maréchal +Niel rose in the centre.</p> + +<p>"Whew-w, that's a beauty!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Did you make it, +Fieldsy?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I didn't," denied Mrs. Fields, with great satisfaction. "Miss +Charlotte made it herself, and I didn't know but she'd go crazy over it, +first for fear it wouldn't turn out right, and then for joy because it +had."</p> + +<p>The doctor handed it about with a face so beaming that Doctor Forester +leaned back in his chair and regarded his young colleague quizzically.</p> + +<p>"You make this cake, Churchill?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed. "It was joy enough to bring it in," he said.</p> + +<p>"Who did make it?" demanded Forester. "It was no caterer, I know."</p> + +<p>Charlotte attempted to escape quietly from the room, but Lanse barred +the way. "Here she is," he said, and turned his sister about and made her +face the company. A friendly round of applause greeted her, mingled with +exclamations of surprise. They all knew Charlotte, or thought they did. To +most of them this was a new and unlooked-for accomplishment.</p> + +<p>"It's not half so good as the sort Celia makes," murmured Charlotte, and +would hear no more of the cake. But Celia, in her corner, said softly to +Doctor Forester:</p> + +<p>"It's going to be worth while, my knee, for the training Charlotte is +getting. She'll be a perfect little housekeeper before I'm about +again."</p> + +<p>"It's going to be worth while in another way too," returned her friend, +with an appreciative glance at the face which always reminded him of her +mother's, it was so serenely sweet and full of character.</p> + +<p>"It is? How?" she asked, eagerly, for his tone was emphatic.</p> + +<p>"I have few patients on my list who learn so soon to bear this sort of +thing as quietly as you are bearing it," he said. "Don't think that doesn't +count." Then he rose to go.</p> + +<p>Celia hardly heard the leave-takings, her mind was so happily busy with +this bit of rare praise from one whose respect was well worth earning. And +half an hour afterward, as Lanse stooped to gather her up and carry her +up-stairs to bed, she looked back at Captain Rayburn, who still sat beside +her couch, and said, with softly shining eyes:</p> + +<p>"The colonel <i>almost</i> wouldn't be the second lieutenant if he +could, Uncle Ray."</p> + +<p>Lanse, lifting his sister in his strong arms, remarked, "I should say +not. Why should he?"</p> + +<p>Celia and Captain Rayburn, laughing, exchanged a sympathetic, +comprehending glance.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>Three times Jefferson Birch knocked on his sister Charlotte's door. Then +he turned the knob. The door would not open. "Fiddle!" he called, softly, +but got no reply.</p> + +<p>"You're not asleep, I know," he said, firmly, at the keyhole. "I can see +a light from outside, if you have got it all plugged up here. Let me in. +I've some important news for you."</p> + +<p>Charlotte's lock turned and she threw the door open. "Well, come in," +she said. "I didn't mean anybody to know, but I'm dying to tell somebody, +and I can trust you."</p> + +<p>"Of course!" affirmed Jeff, entering with an air of curiosity. "What's +doing? Painting?"</p> + +<p>The table by the window was strewn with artist's materials, drawings, +sheets of water-colour paper and tumblers of coloured water. In the midst +of this confusion lay one piece of nearly finished work--the interior of an +unfurnished room, showing wall decoration and nothing more. The colouring +caught Jeff's eye.</p> + +<p>"That's stunning!" he commented, catching up the board upon which the +colour drawing was stretched. "What's it for? Going to put in some +furniture?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte laughed. "No, I'm not going to put in any furniture," she +said. "This is just to show a scheme for decorating a den--a man's den. Do +you really like it?"</p> + +<p>"It's great!" Jeff stood the board up against the wall and backed away, +studying it with interest. "Those dull reds and blues will show off his +guns and pictures and things in fine shape. How did you ever think it +up?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte brought out some sheets of wall-paper, as Jeff thought, but he +saw at once that they were hand-work. They represented in full-size detail +the paper used upon the den walls. Jeff studied them with interest.</p> + +<p>"So this is where you are evenings, after you slip away. You're sitting +up late, too. See here, this won't do!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, it will. Don't try to stop me, Jeff. I'm not up late, really +I'm not--only once in awhile."</p> + +<p>"I thought people couldn't paint by artificial light."</p> + +<p>"They can when they get used to the difference it makes. But I do only +the drudgery, evenings--outlines and solid filling in and that sort of +thing."</p> + +<p>"Going to show this to somebody?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't talk about it!" said Charlotte, breathlessly. "If I can get +my courage up. You know Mr. Murdock, with that decorating house where the +Deckers had their work done? Well, some day I'm going to show him. But I'm +so frightened at my own audacity!"</p> + +<p>"If he doesn't like this, he's a fool!" declared Jeff, vigorously, and +although Charlotte laughed she felt the encouragement of his boyish +approval. Putting away her work, she suddenly remembered the excuse her +brother had given for forcing his way into her room.</p> + +<p>"You said you had important news for me. Did you mean it, or was that +only to get in?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Jeff sitting down suddenly and looking up at her, his face +growing grave. "You put it out of my head when I came in. I met the doctor +just now. He'd been to see Annie Donohue. She's worse."</p> + +<p>Charlotte dropped her work instantly. "Worse?" she said, all the +brightness flying from her face. "Why, I was in yesterday, and she seemed +much better. Jeff, I must go down there this minute."</p> + +<p>"It's after ten--you can't. Wait till morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" The girl was making ready as she spoke. "You'll go with me. +Think of the baby. There'll be a houseful of women, all wailing, if +anything goes wrong with Annie. They did it before, when they thought she +wasn't doing well. The baby was so frightened. She knows me. Of course I +must go. Think what mother would do for Annie--after all the years Annie +was such a faithful maid."</p> + +<p>That brought Jeff round at once. In ten minutes he and Charlotte had +quietly left the house. A rapid walk through the crisp January night +brought them to the poorer quarter of the town and the Donohue cottage. A +woman with a shawl over her head met them just outside.</p> + +<p>"Annie's gone," she said, at sight of Charlotte. "Took a turn for the +worse an hour ago. I never thought she'd get well, she's had too hard a +life with that brute of a man of hers."</p> + +<p>Charlotte stood still on the door-step when the woman had gone on. She +was thinking hard. Jeff remained quiet beside her. Charlotte had known more +of Annie than he; Annie had been Charlotte's nurse.</p> + +<p>All at once Charlotte turned and laid a hand on his arm. "Jeff," she +said, very softly and close to his ear, "we must take little Ellen home +with us to-night."</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we must. She's such a shy little thing. Every time I've been here +I've found her frightened half to death. It worried Annie dreadfully."</p> + +<p>"Well--but, Charlotte--some of these women can take care of her--Annie's +friends."</p> + +<p>"They are not Annie's friends; they're just her neighbours. Not Annie's +kind at all. They're good-hearted enough, but it distressed Annie all the +time to have any of them take care of Ellen. They give her all sorts of +things to eat. She's only a baby. She was half-sick when I was here +Thursday. Oh, don't make a fuss, Jeff! Please, dear!"</p> + +<p>"But you don't know anything about babies."</p> + +<p>"I know enough not to give them pork and cabbage. I can put the little +thing to sleep in Just's crib. It's up in the attic. You can get it down. +Jeff, we must!"</p> + +<p>But Jeff still held her firmly by the arm. "Girl, you're crazy! If you +once take her, you've got her on your hands. Annie has no relations. You +told me that yourself. The child'll have to go to an asylum. It's a good +thing that husband of hers is dead. If he wasn't, you'd have some cause to +be worried."</p> + +<p>"Jeff," said Charlotte, pleadingly, "you must let me do what I think is +right. I couldn't sleep, thinking of little Ellen to-night. Besides, when +Annie was worrying about her Thursday, I as much as promised we'd see that +no harm came to the baby."</p> + +<p>Jeff relaxed his hold. "I never saw such a girl!" he grumbled. "As if +you hadn't things enough on your shoulders already, without adopting other +people's kids!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Dr. Andrew Churchill opened the door which led from the room of one of +his patients into the small, slenderly furnished living-room of the tiny +house which had been her home. It was her home no longer. Doctor Churchill +had just lost his first patient in private practice.</p> + +<p>In the room were several women, gathered about a baby not yet two years +old. Over the child a subdued but excited discussion was being held, as to +who should take home and, for the present, care for poor Annie Donohue's +orphan baby.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill closed the door behind him and stood for a moment, +looking down at the baby, a pretty little girl with a pair of big +frightened blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I'll have to be the one," said the youngest woman of the +company, with a sigh. "You're all worse fixed than I am, and I guess we can +make room for her somehow, till it's decided what to do with her. Poor Mis' +Donohue's child has got to stay somewhere to-night besides here, that I do +say."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's kind of you, Mary, and we'll all lend a hand to help you +out. I'll bring over some extra milk I can spare and----"</p> + +<p>A sudden draft of January air made everybody turn. A girlish figure, in +a big dark cape with a scarlet lining which seemed to reflect the colour +from a face brilliant with frost-bloom, stood in the outer door. The next +instant Charlotte Birch, closing the door softly behind her, had crossed +the room and was addressing the women, in low quick tones. The doctor she +did not seem to notice.</p> + +<p>"I've come for the baby," she said, with a gentle imperiousness. "I've +just heard about poor Annie. Of course we are the ones to see to little +Ellen. If mother were here she would insist upon it. Where are her wraps, +please? And has one of you an extra shawl she can lend me? It's a sharp +night."</p> + +<p>As she spoke, Charlotte knelt before the child and held out her arms. +Baby Ellen stared at her for an instant, then seemed to recognise a friend +and lifted two little arms, her tiny lips quivering. Charlotte drew her +gently up, and rising, walked away across the room with her, the small +golden head nestling in her neck. The women looked after her rather +resentfully.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the child wouldn't be sufferin' with such as us," said one, +"if we ain't got no silk quilts to put over her."</p> + +<p>"Neither have I," said Charlotte, with a smile, as she caught the words. +"But I'm so fond of her. Annie was my nurse, you know."</p> + +<p>"May I carry her home for you?" asked the doctor, at her elbow.</p> + +<p>"Jeff is here," she answered.</p> + +<p>But it was the doctor who carried the baby, after all, for she cried at +sight of Jeff. She was ready to cry at sight of any strange face, poor +little frightened child! But Doctor Churchill held her so tenderly and +spoke so soothingly that she grew quiet at once.</p> + +<p>It was a silent walk, and it was only as they reached the house that the +doctor said softly to Charlotte, "If you need advice or help, don't +hesitate to call on Mrs. Fields. She's a wise woman, and her heart is warm, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, thank you! And thank you, doctor, for--not scolding me +about this!"</p> + +<p>"Scold you?" he said, as Charlotte took the baby from him at the door. +"Why should I do that?"</p> + +<p>"Jeff did, and I didn't dare tell Lanse."</p> + +<p>"If you hadn't brought the baby home," whispered the doctor, "I should +have." And Charlotte, looking quickly up at him as Jeff opened the door and +the light streamed out upon them, surprised upon his face, as his eyes +rested upon the baby's pink cheek, an expression which could hardly have +been more tender if he had been Ellen's father.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jeffy, get the crib down, please, as softly as you can," begged +Charlotte, when she had laid the baby on her own white bed and noiselessly +closed the door. Jeff tried hard to do her bidding, but the crib did not +get down-stairs without a few scrapings and bumpings, which made Charlotte +hold her breath lest they rouse a sleeping household.</p> + +<p>"Now go down and warm some milk for her in the blue basin. Don't get it +hot--just lukewarm. Put the tiniest pinch of sugar in it."</p> + +<p>"You seem to know a lot about babies," Jeff murmured, pausing an instant +to watch his sister gently pulling off the baby's clothes.</p> + +<p>"I do. Didn't I have the care of you?" answered Charlotte, with a +mischievous smile.</p> + +<p>"Two years younger than yourself? Oh, of course, I forgot that," and +Jeff crept away down-stairs after the milk. It took him some time, and when +he came tiptoeing back he found the baby in her little coarse flannel +nightgown, her round blue eyes wide-awake again.</p> + +<p>"She seems to accept you for a mother all right," he commented, as +Charlotte held the cup to the baby's lips, cuddling her in a blanket +meanwhile. But the girl's eyes filled at this, remembering poor Annie, and +Jeff added hastily, "What'll happen if she wakes up and cries in the night? +Babies usually do, don't they?"</p> + +<p>"Annie has always said Ellen didn't, much, and she's getting to sleep so +late I hope she won't to-night. I don't feel equal to telling the others +what I've done till morning," and Charlotte smiled rather faintly. Now that +she had the baby at home she was beginning to wonder what Lanse and Celia +would say.</p> + +<p>"Never mind. I'll stand by you. You're all right, whatever you do--if I +did think you were rather off your head at first," promised Jeff, sturdily. +He was never known to fail Charlotte in an emergency.</p> + +<p>Whether it was the strange surroundings or something wrong about the +last meal of the day cannot be stated, but Baby Ellen did wake up. It was +at three o'clock in the morning that Charlotte, who, excited by the +strangeness of the situation, had but just fallen asleep, was roused by a +small wail.</p> + +<p>The baby seemed not to know her in the trailing blue kimono, with her +two long curly braids swinging over her shoulders, and in spite of all that +Charlotte could do, the infantile anguish of spirit soon filled the +house.</p> + +<p>Charlotte walked the floor with her, alternately murmuring consolation +and singing the lullabies of her own childhood; but the uproar continued. +It is astonishing what an amount of disturbance one small pair of lungs can +produce. It was not long before the anxious nurse, listening with both ears +for evidences that the family were aroused, heard the tap of Celia's +crutches, which the invalid had just learned to use. And almost at the same +moment Lanse's door opened and shut with a bang.</p> + +<p>"Here they come!" murmured Charlotte, trying distractedly to hush the +baby by means which were never known to have that effect upon a startled +infant in a strange house.</p> + +<p>Her door swung open. Celia stood on the threshold, her eyes wide with +alarm. Lanse, lightly costumed in pink-and-white pajamas, gazed over her +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte Birch!" cried Celia, and words failed her. But Lanse was +ready of speech.</p> + +<p>"What the dickens does this mean?" he inquired, wrathfully. "Have we +become an orphanage? I thought I heard singular sounds just after I got to +bed. Is there any good reason why the family shouldn't be informed of what +strange intentions you may have in your brain before you carry them out? +Whose youngster is it, and what are you doing with it here?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte's lips were seen to move, but the baby's fright had received +such an accession from the appearance of two more unknown beings in the +room that nothing could be distinguished. What Charlotte said was, "Please +go away! I'll tell you in the morning." But the visitors, failing to catch +the appeal, not only did not go away, but moved nearer.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Annie Donohue's baby!" cried Celia, and shrieked the +information into Lanse's ear. His expression of disfavour relaxed a degree, +but he still looked preternaturally severe. Celia hobbled over to the baby, +and sitting down in a rocking-chair, held out her arms. But Charlotte shook +her head and motioned imperatively toward the door.</p> + +<p>At this instant Jeff, in a red bathrobe, appeared in the doorway, +grasped the situation, nodded assurance to Charlotte, and hauled his elder +brother across the hall into his own room, where he closed the door and +explained in a few terse sentences:</p> + +<p>"Annie died last night--to-night. We heard of it late, and Charlotte +thought she wouldn't disturb anybody. The doctor was there. He carried the +baby home. We couldn't leave her there. She was scared to death. She knows +Fiddle, and she'll grow quiet now if you people don't stand round and +insist on explanations being roared at you."</p> + +<p>"But we can't keep a baby here," began Lanse, who had come home late, +unusually tired, and was feeling the customary masculine displeasure at +having his hard-earned rest broken--a sensation which at the moment took +precedence over any more humanitarian emotions.</p> + +<p>"We don't have to settle that to-night, do we?" demanded Jeff, with +scorn. "Hasn't the poor girl got enough on her hands without having you +scowl at her for trying to do the good Samaritan act--at three o'clock in +the morning?"</p> + +<p>Jeff next turned his attention to Celia. He went into Charlotte's room, +picked up his elder sister without saying "by your leave," and carried her +off to her own bed.</p> + +<p>"But, Jeff, I could help Charlotte," Celia remonstrated. "The poor baby +may be sick."</p> + +<p>"Don't believe it. She's simply scared stiff at kimonos and pajamas and +bathrobes stalking round her in a strange house. Charlotte can cool her +down if anybody can. If she can't, I'll call the doctor. Now go to sleep. +Charlotte and I will man the ship to-night, and in the morning you can go +to work making duds for the baby. It didn't have anything to wear round it +but a summer cape and Mrs. O'Neill's plaid shawl."</p> + +<p>This artful allusion touched Celia's tender heart and set her mind at +work, as Jeff had meant it should; so putting out her light, he slipped +away to Charlotte, exulting in having so promptly fixed things for her.</p> + +<p>But Charlotte met him with anxious eyes. The baby was still +screaming.</p> + +<p>"See how she stiffens every now and then, and holds her breath till I +think she'll never breathe again!" she called in his ear. "I do really +think you'd better call Mrs. Fields. You can wake her with a knock on her +window. She sleeps in the little wing down-stairs."</p> + +<p>As he hurried down the hall, the door of Captain Rayburn's room opened, +and Jeff met the quiet question, "What's up, lad?"</p> + +<p>He stopped an instant to explain, encountered prompt sympathy, and laid +a hasty injunction upon his uncle not to attempt to assist Charlotte in her +dilemma. That gentleman hobbled back to bed, smiling tenderly to himself in +the dark--why, if he had seen him, Jeff never would have been able to +guess.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>"I've got a sewing-machine that I know the kinks of," said Mrs. Fields +to Celia and Charlotte and the baby, who regarded her with interest from +the couch, where they were grouped. "The doctor's going to be away all day +to-morrow, and if you'll all come over, we can get through a lot of little +clothes for the baby. Land knows she ain't anyway fixed for going outdoors +in all kinds of weather, the way the doctor wants her to."</p> + +<p>This was so true that it carried weight in spite of the difficulties in +the way. So before he went off to school on a certain February morning, +Jeff had carried Celia across to Mrs. Field's sitting-room, and by ten +o'clock three busy people were at work. Captain Rayburn had begged to be of +the party, and although Mrs. Fields received with skepticism his +declaration that he could do various sorts of sewing with a sufficient +degree of skill, she allowed him to come, on condition that he look after +the baby.</p> + +<p>"Well, for the land's sake!" cried the forewoman of the sewing brigade, +as she opened the big bundle Captain Rayburn had brought with him. "I +should say you haven't left much for us to do!"</p> + +<p>The captain regarded with complacency the finished garments she was +holding up.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he, "I telephoned the big children's supply shop to send me +what Miss Ellen would need for out-of-doors. It seemed a pity to have her +stay in another day, waiting to be sewed up. Aren't they right? I thought +the making of her indoor clothes would be enough."</p> + +<p>Celia and Charlotte were exclaiming with delight over the pretty, wadded +white coat which Mrs. Fields held aloft. There was a little furry hood to +match, mittens, and a pair of leggings of the sort desirable for small +travellers.</p> + +<p>"If he hasn't remembered everything!" cried Mrs. Fields, when this last +article of apparel came to view. "Well, sir, I won't say you haven't saved +us quite a chore. I've got the little flannel petticoats all cut out. +Doctor Churchill bought flannel enough to keep her covered from now till +she's five years old. Talk about economy--when a man goes shopping!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fields plunged into business with a will. The sewing-machine hummed +ceaselessly. Celia, with rapid, skillful fingers, kept pace with her in +basting and putting together, and Charlotte--well, Charlotte did her best. +Meanwhile Captain Rayburn and the baby explored together mysterious realms +of pockets and picture-books.</p> + +<p>"For the land's sake, Miss Charlotte!" cried Mrs. Fields, suddenly, in +the middle of the morning. "If you ain't made five left sleeves and only +one right!"</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked up, crimsoning. "How could I have done it?"</p> + +<p>"Easy enough." Mrs. Field's expression softened instantly at sight of +the girl's dismay. "I've done it a good many times. Something about +it--sleeves act bewitched. They seem bound to hang together and be all one +kind or all the other, anything but pairs."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you rest a little, and take baby outdoors in her new coat?" +Celia suggested. "Sewing is such wearisome work, if one isn't used to +it."</p> + +<p>So Charlotte and her charge gladly went out. A neighbour had lent an old +baby sled, and in it Miss Ellen Donohue, snuggled to the chin in the +warmest of garments and wrappings, took her first airing since the night, a +week before, when she had been brought home in Doctor Churchill's arms.</p> + +<p>She was a shy but happy baby, and had already won all hearts. Nobody was +willing to begin the steps necessary to place her in any of the +institutions designed for cases like hers. Charlotte, indeed, would not +hear of it; and even the practical John Lansing, who had learned to figure +the family finances pretty closely since he himself had become the +wage-earner, succumbed to the touch of baby fingers on his face and the +glance of a pair of eyes like forget-me-nots.</p> + +<p>As for Captain Rayburn, he was the baby's devoted slave at all times, +his most jealous rival being Dr. Andrew Churchill, who was constantly +inventing excuses for coming in for a frolic with Baby Ellen.</p> + +<p>"If the doctor could look in on us now," observed Mrs. Fields, suddenly, +in the middle of the afternoon, when Charlotte was again bravely trying to +distinguish herself at tasks in which she was by no means an adept, "he'd +be put out with me for having this party a day when he was away. He sets +great store by anything that looks like a lot of people at home."</p> + +<p>"Is he one of a large family?" Celia asked.</p> + +<p>"He was two years ago. Since then he's lost a brother and a sister and +his mother. His father died five years ago. He has a married brother in +Japan, and an unmarried one in South Africa. There ain't anybody in the old +home now. It broke up when his mother died, two years ago. He hasn't got +over that--not a bit. She was going to come and live with him here. It was +a town where she used to visit a good deal, and since he couldn't settle +near the old home, because it wasn't a good field for young doctors, she +was willing to come here with him. That's why he's here now, though I +suppose it don't begin to be as advantageous a place for him as it would be +in the city itself. He thought a terrible lot of his mother, Andy did. +Seems as if he wanted to please her now as much as ever. And he has some +pretty homesick times, now and then, though he doesn't show it much."</p> + +<p>It was the first time the doctor's housekeeper had been so +communicative, and her three hearers listened with deep interest, although +they asked few questions, made only one or two kindly comments, and did not +express half the sympathy they felt. Only Captain Rayburn, thoughtfully +staring out of the window, gave voice to a sentiment for which both his +nieces, although they said nothing in reply, inwardly thanked him.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Churchill is a rare sort of fellow," he said. "Doctor Forester +considers him most promising, I know. But better than that, he is one whose +personality alone will always be the strongest part of his influence over +his patients, winning them from despair to courage--how, they can't tell. +And the man who can add to the sum total of the courage of the human race +has done for it what it very much needs."</p> + +<p>A few minutes after this little speech the subject of it quite +unexpectedly came dashing in, bringing with him a great breath of February +air. He stopped in astonishment upon the threshold.</p> + +<p>"If this isn't the unkindest trick I ever heard of!" he cried, his +brilliant eyes flashing from one to another. "I suppose that arch-traitor +of a Fieldsy planned to have you all safely away before I came home. I'm +thankful I got here two hours before she expected me. See here, you've got +to make this up to me somehow."</p> + +<p>"Sit down!" invited Captain Rayburn. "You may hem steadily for two hours +on flannel petticoats. If that won't make it up to you I don't know what +will."</p> + +<p>"No, it won't," retorted the doctor. "Sewing's all right in its way, but +I've just put up my needle-case, thank you, and no more stitching for me +to-day. I want--a lark! I want to go skating. Who'll go with me?"</p> + +<p>"By the process of elimination I should say you would soon get at the +answer to that," remarked the captain. "There seems to be just one +candidate for active service in this company--unless Mrs. Fields--I've no +doubt now that Mrs. Fields----"</p> + +<p>"Will you go?" Doctor Churchill turned to Mrs. Fields. She glanced up +into his laughing eyes.</p> + +<p>"Run along and don't bother me," she said to him. "Take that child +there. She's about got her stent done, I guess."</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill looked at the curly black head bent closely over the +last of the little sleeves.</p> + +<p>"You don't deceive me, Miss Charlotte," said he. "You're not as wedded +to that task as you look. Please come with me. There's time for a +magnificent hour before you have to put the kettle on. Miss Birch, I wish +we could take you, too. Next winter--well, that knee is doing so well I +dare to promise you all the skating you want."</p> + +<p>Celia looked up at him, smiling, but her eyes were wistful.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," cried Captain Rayburn, "telephone to the stables for a +comfortable old horse and sleigh, will you? Celia, girl, we'll go, +too."</p> + +<p>"And I'll look after Ellen," said Mrs. Fields, before anybody could +mention the baby. "Go on, all of you."</p> + +<p>"May we all come back to supper with you?" asked Doctor Churchill, +giving her a glance with which she was familiar of old.</p> + +<p>"If you'll send for some oysters I'll give you all hot stew," she said, +and received such a chorus of applause that she mentally added several +items to the treat.</p> + +<p>"Now I can enjoy my fun," whispered Charlotte to Celia, as she brought +her sister's wraps, and pulled on her own rough brown coat. "Such a jolly +uncle, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"The best in the world. Wear your white tam, dear, and the white +mittens. They look so well with your brown suit. Tie the white silk scarf +about your neck--that's it. Now run. I'm so afraid somebody will call the +doctor out and spoil it all."</p> + +<p>Charlotte ran, and found the doctor waiting impatiently, two pairs of +skates on his arm. He hurried her away down the street.</p> + +<p>"We must get all there is of this," he said. "I feel as if I could skate +fifty miles and back again. Do you?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do. I've wanted to get up and run round the block between +every two stitches all day."</p> + +<p>"They say the river is good for three miles up. That will give us just +what we want--a sensation of running away from the earth and all its cares. +And when we get back we'll be ready for Fieldsy's stew."</p> + +<p>They found everybody on the river; Charlotte was busy nodding to her +friends while the doctor put on her skates. In a few moments the two were +flying up the course.</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is great!" exulted Doctor Churchill. "And this is the first +time you've been on the ice this winter--in February!"</p> + +<p>"This is fine enough to make up. I do love it. It takes out all the +puckers."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it? I thought you'd been cultivating puckers to-day the minute +I saw you--or else I interpreted your mood by my own. Talk about +puckers--and nerves! Miss Charlotte, I've done my first big operation in a +certain line to-day. I mean, in a new line--an experiment. It was--a +success."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him, her face full of sympathy. "Oh, I'm so glad!" she +said.</p> + +<p>"Are you? Thank you! I wanted somebody to be glad--and I hadn't anybody. +I had to tell you. It's too soon to be absolutely sure, but it promises so +well I'm daring to be happy. It's the sort of operation in which the worst +danger is practically over if the patient gets through the operation +itself. She's rallied beautifully. And whatever happens, I've proved my +point--that the experiment is feasible. Some of the men doubted that--all +thought it a big risk. But I had to take it, and now--Ah, come on, Miss +Charlotte! Let's fly!"</p> + +<p>Away they went, faster and faster--long, swinging strokes in perfect +unison; two accomplished skaters with one object in view; working off +healthy young spirits at a tension. They did not talk; they saved their +breath; they went like the wind itself.</p> + +<p>At the farthest extremity of the smooth ice, which ended at a little +frost-bound waterfall, they came to a stop. Churchill looked down at a face +like a rose, black eyes that were all alight, and lips that smiled with the +fresh happiness of the fine sport.</p> + +<p>"I've skated at Copenhagen and at St. Petersburg," he said gaily, "to +say nothing of Fresh Pond and Lake Superior and other such home grounds. +But it's safe to say I never enjoyed a mile of them like that last one. +You--you were really glad, weren't you, that it went so well with me +to-day?"</p> + +<p>"How could I help it, Doctor Churchill?" she answered, earnestly. Ever +since coming out she had been remembering the little revelation his +housekeeper had made of his life, and it had touched her deeply to know why +he had come to settle in the suburban town instead of in the much more +promising city field--a question which had occurred to her many times since +she had known him.</p> + +<p>"I always expected," he went on, in a more quiet way, "to be able to +come home and tell my mother about my first triumphs. She would have been +so proud and happy over the smallest thing. Her father was a distinguished +surgeon--Marchmont of Baltimore. He died only four years ago--his books are +an authority on certain subjects. My other grandfather was Dr. Andrew +Churchill of Glasgow--an old-school physician and a good one. So you see I +come honestly by my love for it all. And mother--how we used to talk it all +over--"</p> + +<p>He stopped abruptly, with a tightening of the lips, and stood staring +off over the frozen fields, his eyes growing sombre. Charlotte's own eyes +fell; her heart beat fast with sympathy. She laid the lightest of touches +on his arm.</p> + +<p>"I know," she said, softly. "Fieldsy told me--a little bit. I'm so +sorry."</p> + +<p>He drew a long breath and looked down at her, his eyes searching her +face. "You <i>are</i> a little comrade," he said, and his voice was low and +moved. Then with a quick motion he seized her hands again and they were +off, back down the river. Not so fast as before, and silently, the two +skaters covered the miles, and only as they came within sight of the crowd +of people at the beginning of the course did Doctor Churchill speak.</p> + +<p>"This has been a fine hour, hasn't it?" he said. "Your face looks as if +you had lost all the puckers. Have you?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I have! Haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"It has done me a world of good. I was wrought up to a high pitch--now +I'm cool again. I have to go back to the hospital as soon as supper is +over. I shall stay all night."</p> + +<p>"When you get back," said Charlotte, "will you telephone me how the case +is doing?"</p> + +<p>"May I?" he answered, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Of course you may. I shall be anxious till I know."</p> + +<p>"I have no business to add one smallest item of anxiety to your list of +worries," he admitted. "But it seems so good to me to have somebody care, +just now. Fieldsy's a dear soul--I couldn't get on without her, but--Never +mind, that's enough of Andrew Churchill for one afternoon. Shall we make a +big spurt to the finish? Let's show them what skating is--no little cutting +of geometrical spider-webs in a forty-foot square!"</p> + +<p>They drew in with swift, graceful strokes, threaded their course through +the crowd of skaters, and were soon on their way home. Captain Rayburn and +Celia passed them, called back that it was a great day for invalids and +children, and reached home just in time for the doctor to carry Celia into +the little brick house. Charlotte ran to summon her three brothers, for it +was after six o'clock.</p> + +<p>Never had an oyster stew such enthusiastic praise. Not an appetite was +lacking, not a spoon flagged. Mrs. Fields, moved to lavish hospitality, in +which she was upheld by the doctor, produced a chicken pie, which had been +originally intended for his dinner alone, and which she had at first +designed, when she proposed the oysters, to keep over until the morrow. +This was flanked by various dishes, impromptu but delectable, and followed +by a round of winter fruit and spongecake--the latter the pride of the +housekeeper's heart, and dear to her master from old association.</p> + +<p>"If you live like this all the time, Doctor Churchill," said John +Lansing Birch, leaning back in his chair at last with the air of a man who +asks no more of the gods, "I advise you to keep up a bachelor establishment +to the end of your days."</p> + +<p>"How would that suit you, Mrs. Fields?" asked the doctor, laughing.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fields, from her place at the end of the table--they had insisted +on having her sit down with them--answered deliberately:</p> + +<p>"As long as a man's a man I suppose nothing on earth ever will make him +feel so satisfied with himself and all creation as being set down in front +of a lot of eatables. Now what gives me most peace of mind to-night is +knowing that that little Ellen Donohue, asleep on my bed, has got enough +new clothes, by this day's work, to make a very good beginning of an +outfit."</p> + +<p>"Now, how do you old bachelors feel?" cried Celia, amidst laughter, and +the party broke up.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock that evening, when Charlotte had seen her sister +comfortably in bed--for Celia still needed help in undressing--had tucked +in Just and warned Jeff that it was bedtime, the telephone-bell rang.</p> + +<p>Lanse and Captain Rayburn sat reading in the living-room, where the +telephone stood upon a desk, and Lanse, who was near it, moved lazily to +answer it. But before he could lift the receiver to his ear Charlotte had +run into the room and was taking it from him, murmuring, "It's for me--I'm +sure it is."</p> + +<p>"Well, I could have called you," said Lanse, looking curiously at her +as, with cheeks like poppies, she sat down at the desk and answered. With +ears wide open, although he had again taken up the magazine he had laid +down, he listened to Charlotte's side of the conversation. It was brief, +and no more remarkable than such performances are apt to be, but Lanse +easily appreciated the fact that it was giving his sister immense +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Hullo--yes--yes!" she called. "Yes--oh, <i>is</i> she? Yes--yes, I'm so +glad! Yes--of course you are. I'm <i>so</i> glad! Thank you. Yes--Good +night!" Charlotte hung up the receiver and swung round from the desk, her +face radiant, her eyes like stars.</p> + +<p>"Is she, indeed?" interrogated Lanse, lifting brotherly, penetrating +eyes to her face. "Engagement just announced? When is she to be married? +I'm glad you're glad--you might so easily have been jealous."</p> + +<p>Charlotte laughed--a ripple of merriment which was contagious, for +Captain Rayburn smiled over the evening paper, and Lanse himself grinned +cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Mind telling us the occasion of such heartfelt joy?" he inquired. But +Charlotte came up behind him, laid a warm velvet cheek against his for a +moment, patted her uncle on the shoulder, cried, "Good night to you, +gentlemen dear!" and ran away to bed.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>Charlotte let little Ellen slide down from her lap, washed and +brushed.</p> + +<p>"Now, Ellen, be a good girl," she said as she set about picking up the +various articles she had been using in the baby's bath and dressing. +"Charlotte's in a hurry."</p> + +<p>The door-bell rang. Celia was in the kitchen, stirring up a pudding. It +was April now, and Celia's knee was so far mended that she could be about +the house without her crutches, with certain restrictions as to standing, +or using the knee in any way likely to strain it.</p> + +<p>It was Charlotte who did the running about, and it was she who started +for the door now, after casting one hasty look around the bath-room to make +sure that the baby could do herself no harm.</p> + +<p>Left to herself, Ellen investigated the resources of the bath-room and +found them wanting. After she had thrown two towels, the soap and her own +small tooth brush back into the tub from which she had lately emerged, and +which Charlotte had not yet emptied, she found her means of entertainment +at an end. The other toilet articles were all beyond her reach. She gazed +out of the window; there was nothing moving to be seen but a row of Mrs. +Fields's dish-towels waving in the wind.</p> + +<p>She turned to the door. Charlotte had meant to latch it, but it was a +door with a peculiar trick of swinging slowly open an inch after it had +apparently been closed, and it had not been latched. Ellen pushed one small +hand into the crack and pulled it open.</p> + +<p>Charlotte was nowhere to be seen or heard Across the hall was the door +of her room, ajar; and since doors ajar have somehow a singular charm for +babies, this one crossed to it and swung it wide.</p> + +<p>Here was richness. This was Charlotte's workshop. She slept in a smaller +room adjoining, the baby in the crib by her side; and with that smaller +room little Ellen was familiar, but not with this. The tiny feet travelled +eagerly about, from one desirable object to another. And presently she +remembered the big, porcelain-lined bath-tub, There was nothing Ellen liked +so well as to throw things into that tub and see them splash.</p> + +<p>Two books crossed the hall and made the plunge, one after the other, +into the soapy water. Ellen gurgled with delight. Two more journeys +deposited a shoe, a hair-brush and a small box, contents unknown, in the +watery receptacle. Then Ellen made a discovery which filled her small soul +with joy.</p> + +<p>Just two days before, Charlotte had completed the set of colour drawings +which delineated the wall decoration of four rooms--a "den," a dining-room +and two bedrooms. They represented the work of the winter, pursued under +the exceeding difficulties of managing a household, and, for the last three +months, caring in part for a little child.</p> + +<p>But Charlotte had toiled faithfully, with the ardour of one who, having +only a small portion of time to give to a beloved pursuit, works at it all +the more zealously. And she had gone on from one room to another, in her +designing, with the hope that if in one she failed to please those upon +whom her success depended, some one of the series might appeal to them, and +give her the desired place in their interest.</p> + +<p>It was her intention on this very day, after luncheon should be over and +she should be free for a few hours, to make the much-dreaded, +wholly-longed-for visit to the great manufacturing house where she was to +show her wares.</p> + +<p>The drawings lay in a pile upon Charlotte's table, ready to be wrapped. +Baby Ellen, spying the pile of drawings, with an edge or two of brilliant +colour showing, trotted gaily over to the table. She stood on tiptoe and +pulled at the corner nearest her. The drawings fell from the table in a +disordered heap on the floor.</p> + +<p>The sight of them pleased Ellen immensely. She held one up and shook it +in her small fists, slowly and carefully tore a corner off it, and cast the +sheet down in favour of the next in order. This she tore cleanly in two in +the middle. The paper was tough, to be sure, but the little fists were +strong.</p> + +<p>Then she remembered that seductive bath-tub. A patter of little feet, a +laugh of pleasure--"Da!" cried Ellen, gleefully---and the first sheet was +in.</p> + +<p>Seven trips, pursued with vigour and growing hilarity, and Charlotte's +work had received its initial plunge into a new state of being. Four of the +drawings had been torn in two. The bath-tub was a mass of softly blending +colours.</p> + +<p>Charlotte came running back up the stairs, her mind, which had been held +captive by a young caller, reverting with some anxiety to the small person +whom she had left, as she thought, shut up in the safe bath-room. She +expected to hear Ellen crying, as was likely to be the case when left alone +without sufficient means of amusement; but the silence, as she flew +up-stairs, alarmed her. Silence was almost sure to mean mischief.</p> + +<p>The bath-room door was ajar. Charlotte pushed it open and looked in. One +glance showed her he havoc which had been wrought. She stopped short, +staring with wild eyes into the bath-tub; then she caught her treasures out +of it, held them dripping before her for an instant, and let them drop on +the floor. She turned and ran out of the room to look for Ellen.</p> + +<p>The baby sat calmly on a rug, in the middle of Charlotte's room, engaged +in pulling the leaves, one by one, out of a small sketch-book which had +been on the table with the drawings. She looked up, a most engaging and +innocent expression on her round face, and smiled at Charlotte. But she met +no smile in return.</p> + +<p>"You little wretch!" breathed Charlotte, between her teeth, as she +seized the sketch-book and whirled the baby to her feet. "<i>Oh!</i> Is +this the way you pay me for all I've done for you? You +<i>wicked--cruel--heartless</i>----"</p> + +<p>It was the explosion of a blind wrath which made the girl shake the tiny +form until Baby Ellen roared lustily. Charlotte set her upon the floor +again, and stood looking down at her with blazing eyes. The small head was +clasped in two little fists, as the child tore at her yellow curls, her +infant soul stirred to indignation and fright at this most unexpected +treatment. Suddenly Charlotte seized her again and bore her swiftly away to +Captain Rayburn's room.</p> + +<p>"Take care of her for an hour? Surely. But what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>It was small wonder he asked, for Charlotte's face was white, her eyes +brilliant, and her lips quivering as she spoke:</p> + +<p>"It's nothing--only baby has spoiled something of mine, and I'm so angry +I don't dare trust myself with her."</p> + +<p>She dropped little Ellen in his arms and fled, leaving her uncle to +think what he might. He looked grave as he soothed the baby, whose small +breast still heaved convulsively.</p> + +<p>"Are you conscientiously trying to do your full share in developing our +little second fiddle's capacity to play first?" he asked the baby, with his +face against hers. "Never mind, little one, never mind. Baby doesn't +know--but John Rayburn does--that this being a means of education to other +people is a thankless task sometimes. Don't cry. Aunty Charlotte will kiss +her hard and fast by and by, to make up for losing her temper with the +little maid. I suspect you were very, very trying, to make Aunty Charlotte +look like that."</p> + +<p>Charlotte came down-stairs after a time and attended to the luncheon, +her lips pressed tight together, her eyes heavy--although not with tears. +She would not let herself cry.</p> + +<p>Celia had a headache and did not notice, being herself disinclined to +talk, and Captain Rayburn forbore to look at Charlotte. But Jeff, when he +came in, observed at once that something was amiss. As soon as the meal was +over he drew Charlotte into a corner.</p> + +<p>"You haven't been to Murdock with the pictures and been--turned down?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Going this afternoon, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Why not? Thought that was the plan."</p> + +<p>Charlotte turned away, fighting hard for self-control. Jeff caught her +arm.</p> + +<p>"See here, Fiddle, you've got to tell me. You look like a ghost. No bad +news--from New Mexico?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no--no! Please go away."</p> + +<p>"I won't till you tell me what's up. You're not sick?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte ran off up-stairs, Jeff following. "Charlotte," he cried, as +he pursued her into her room before she could turn and close the door, +"what's the use of acting like this? Something's happened, and I'm going to +know what it is."</p> + +<p>Charlotte sat down in a despairing heap on the floor and hid her face in +her hands. Jeff glanced helplessly from her to the table in the corner. +Then he observed that it was bare of the pile of drawings.</p> + +<p>"Nothing's happened to the wall-paper?" he asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>Charlotte nodded.</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Go look up in the attic, if you must know."</p> + +<p>Jeff dashed up-stairs, and surveyed the havoc. He came back breathless +with dismay.</p> + +<p>"How did it happen?"</p> + +<p>"Baby--bath-tub."</p> + +<p>"The little--<i>imp</i>! Are they spoiled?"</p> + +<p>"You saw."</p> + +<p>"Yes; colours run together a bit on some, others torn in two. Yet they +show what they were, Fiddle--I vow they do. I'd take them just as they are, +explain the whole thing, and see what comes of it."</p> + +<p>Charlotte raised her head to shake it vigorously. "Offer work in such +shape as that? I'm not such a goose."</p> + +<p>"Got to do them all over?"</p> + +<p>Her head sank again. "If I can get the courage."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can," declared Jeff, more cheerfully. "You never lack +pluck. Poor girl, I'm mighty sorry, though. It's simply tough to have it +happen at the last minute. You're all tired out, too--I know you are; you +ought never to have to do it all over again."</p> + +<p>"If I could just have shown them to Mr. Murdock," said Charlotte, +heavily, "and have found out that it was the sort of thing they would like, +it wouldn't seem so hard to do them all over again. But to work for weeks +more--and then perhaps have it a failure, after all----"</p> + +<p>"I know. Well, I've got to be off, or I'll be late. Mid-term exams this +week. Cheer up, Fiddle, maybe you can fix 'em up easier than you +think."</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon Charlotte came to her uncle for the baby. He had +cared for her all day.</p> + +<p>"She's safe with you now?" he asked, with a keen look up into her quiet +face.</p> + +<p>"I hope so." Charlotte's cheek was against the little head; she held the +baby tenderly.</p> + +<p>"When she is in bed to-night will you come and tell me what she +did?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte shook her head, with a faint smile. "She wasn't to blame. I +left her alone for ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"But I should like to know about it," he said, coaxingly. "I have had +rather a busy day with Ellen-baby--why not reward me with your +confidence?"</p> + +<p>But she would not promise; neither did she come. This was exceedingly +characteristic of the girl, but Captain Rayburn, his sharp eyes observing +in her aspect the signs of misery in spite of a brave attempt to seem +cheerful, made up his mind to find out for himself. Twice he encountered +her coming down from the attic, and each time she avoided speaking to +him.</p> + +<p>That night, after everybody was in bed, Captain Rayburn, his canes held +under his arm, crept slowly up-stairs, a little electric candle of his own +in his pocket. By means of this he soon discovered Charlotte's ruined work, +which she had not yet found heart to remove from the place where she had +first laid it, trusting to the privacy of a place which was seldom invaded +by anybody.</p> + +<p>He sat down on a convenient box and studied the coloured plates and +sketches. As he looked, his lips drew into a whistle of surprise and +admiration, followed by a long breath of pity for what he was sure he +understood.</p> + +<p>Jeff, having just dropped off into the sound sleep of the healthy boy, +found himself gently punched into wakefulness.</p> + +<p>"Come to, Jeff, and tell me what I want to know," said Captain Rayburn, +smiling at his nephew in the dim white light from the candle. Jeff raised +himself on his pillow.</p> + +<p>"Wh-what's up?" he grunted, blinking like an owl.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious. What was Charlotte going to do with her colour +drawings? Show them to some wall-paper manufacturers?"</p> + +<p>"What--er--yes--no. What do you know about it?" Jeff was up on his elbow +now, staring at his uncle.</p> + +<p>"All about it--except that."</p> + +<p>"Charlotte tell you? I didn't think she----"</p> + +<p>"She didn't. I guessed--and found out. You may as well tell me the +rest."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a shame? Poor girl's worked months on those things; just got +'em done. You ought to have seen them; they were great. I told her she +could take them as they were, but she wouldn't hear of it."</p> + +<p>"But where were they going?"</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Murdock, at Chrystler & Company's office. He saw something +of Charlotte's once by chance, through a niece of his who's Charlotte's +friend, and he sent word to Fiddle that she ought to cultivate that colour +sense, or whatever it was, I forget what he called it--for she had it to an +unusual degree. Charlotte has cultivated it for two years since then, and +now--oh, confound that baby! That's what you get for trying to be a +missionary. I wish we'd sent her to an orphanage right off. What's the +use?"</p> + +<p>"You don't feel that 'sweet are the uses of adversity'? Sometimes they +are, though, son. The little second violin hasn't given in and wailed about +it; I saw no traces of tears."</p> + +<p>"No, you're right you haven't," agreed Jeff, proudly. "She's not that +sort. She's all broken up, though, inside, and I don't blame her."</p> + +<p>"No. Jeff, to-morrow--it's Saturday, isn't it? You must get those +drawings early in the morning, while Charlotte is busy with her Saturday +baking. We'll have a livery outfit, and you shall drive me down to +Chrystler's."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ray! You're a trump! It's just what I said should be done. The +work shows perfectly well what she intended, and if a chap like you +explains it----"</p> + +<p>Captain Rayburn limped away, laughing, his hand red with the tremendous +grip his nephew had just given it. It gave him great pleasure to see the +way the boy invariably stood by his sister. It was a characteristic of the +Birch family, as a whole, which, it may be said, was worth more both to +themselves and to the world at large than the possession of almost any +other trait.</p> + +<p>It was not until dinner was over that Captain Rayburn and his nephew +returned, begging pardon for their tardiness, and explaining that they had +taken luncheon in the city.</p> + +<p>"Fiddle," Jeff said, with a face of preternatural gravity, "come up to +Uncle Ray's room when the dishes are done, will you?"</p> + +<p>He vanished before his sister could ask why, and before she could see +the grin which overspread his ruddy countenance as he turned away. But +something he could not keep out of his voice roused her curiosity, and she +made quick work of the dishes.</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in!" invited Captain Rayburn, and Jeff rose from the +couch, where his nose had been buried among some of his uncle's +periodicals.</p> + +<p>There were always books and magazines by the Score wherever Captain +Rayburn settled himself for any length of time.</p> + +<p>The ex-soldier and the schoolboy eyed each other doubtfully for an +instant as Charlotte dropped into a chair. Her usually bright face was +still very sober, and her eyelashes swept her cheek as she waited.</p> + +<p>Captain Rayburn nodded at Jeff. The boy stood on one foot, then on the +other, pushed his hands deep into his pockets, pulled them out again, +cleared his throat, laughed nervously, and strode suddenly across the room +to his sister. He thrust out his hand as he came to a halt before her. +"Congratulations to the distinguished decorator!" he cried, and came to the +end, temporarily, of his eloquence.</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked up in amazement. Jeff seized her hand and pumped it up +and down. She glanced in bewilderment at her uncle, and met his smile of +encouragement.</p> + +<p>"Mine, too," he said.</p> + +<p>"What--" she began, and her voice stuck in her throat. Her heart began +to thump wildly. Then Jeff told it all in one burst:</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ray found your stuff in the attic--thought it great--woke me up +and ground it out of me what you meant to do with it. He was sure, as I +was, it was fit to show, and you ought not to do it all over first. Got a +horse, drove into Chrystler's, saw Murdock. He would look at anything, +listened to the story about the baby, looked at the stuff. Face +changed--didn't it, Uncle Ray?--from politeness to interest, and all the +rest of it. Said the work had faults, of course--you expected that, +Fiddle--but it showed promise--'great promise,' that's just what he said. +He wants to see everything you do. He wants you to come and see him. He +thinks he can use at least two of your rooms, after you've made them over. +Oh, he was great! You've done it, Fiddle, you've done it!"</p> + +<p>But he was not prepared for the way his sister took the good news. She +sat looking solemnly at him for a minute; then she jumped up, turned toward +Captain Rayburn with a face on fire with conflicting and uncontrollable +emotions, then whirled about and was out of the room like a flash.</p> + +<p>"Well, if I ever!" declared Jeff, in intense displeasure, staring at his +uncle. But Captain Rayburn's face was the picture of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Jeff," said his uncle. "You never can tell what a woman +will do, but you can count on one thing--it won't be what you expect."</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose she was angry, do you?"</p> + +<p>The captain smiled. "No, I don't think she was angry," he said +confidently.</p> + +<p>The door flew open again. Two impetuous arms were around Jeff's neck +from behind, nearly strangling him. A breezy swirl of skirts, and Captain +Rayburn feared for the integrity of his head upon his shoulders. And then +the two were alone again.</p> + +<p>"Christopher Columbus!--discovered America in 1492!" ejaculated +Jefferson, an expression of great delight irradiating his countenance. Then +he looked at his uncle with an air of superior wisdom. "<i>Now</i> she'll +cry," he said.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder if she did," agreed the captain, nodding.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>Lanse stood in the kitchen door, lunch-pail in hand. It lacked ten +minutes of seven of a June morning; therefore he wore his working clothes. +He glanced down at them now with an expression of extreme distaste, then +from Celia to Charlotte, both of whom wore fresh print dresses covered with +the trim pinafore aprons which were Celia's pride.</p> + +<p>"When this siege is over," he remarked, "maybe I won't appreciate the +privilege of wearing clean linen from morning till night every day in the +week."</p> + +<p>"Poor old Lanse!" said Celia, with compassion. "That's been the part +that has tried your soul, hasn't it! You haven't minded the work, but the +dirt----"</p> + +<p>"I hope I'm not a Nancy, either," Lanse went on. "I'm sure I don't feel +that my wonderful dignity is compromised by my occupation. Better men than +I soil their hands to more purpose every day, but--well, I must be +off."</p> + +<p>He departed abruptly, leaving Celia standing in the door to wave a hand +to him as he turned the corner.</p> + +<p>"John Lansing is tired," she said to Charlotte, sisterly sympathy in her +voice. "I don't think we've half appreciated what all these months in the +shops have meant to him. It isn't as if he were training for one of the +engineering specialties, and were interested in his work as practical +education in his own line. He'll never have the least use for anything he's +learning now."</p> + +<p>"He may," Charlotte suggested. "He may marry a girl who will want him to +do odd jobs about the house. A mechanic in the family is an awfully +desirable thing. Mrs. Fields says there's nothing Doctor Churchill can't do +in the way of repairing; and when I told that to Uncle Ray he said that all +good surgeons needed to be born mechanics, and usually were. And even +though Lanse makes a lawyer, like father, he may need to get out of the +automobile he'll have some day, and crawl under it and make it over inside +before he can go on."</p> + +<p>Celia laughed, and went to call the rest of the family from their beds, +early hours having now perforce become the habit of the Birch family.</p> + +<p>It was some three hours later that Charlotte sat down for a moment to +rest on the little vine-covered back porch. The breakfast work and the +bed-making were over, the kitchen was in order, and there was time to draw +breath before plunging into the next set of duties.</p> + +<p>Celia had gone up-stairs to some summer sewing she had on hand; Captain +Rayburn had taken the baby around the corner to a pretty park, where the +two spent long hours now, in the perfect June weather; the boys were at +school, and the house was very still.</p> + +<p>Charlotte stretched her arms above her head, drawing a long breath.</p> + +<p>"How long ago it seems that I was free after breakfast to do what I +wanted to!" she said to herself. "And how little I realised all the cares +that were always on mother! Oh, if it were only time for them to come +back--this day--this hour--this minute! I wouldn't mind the work now, if +they were only here."</p> + +<p>The girl's gaze, fixed wistfully on the leafy treetops above her, +suddenly dropped to earth. A man's figure was stumbling along the little +path which led diagonally from the back of the Birch premises through a +gateway and off toward a back street, the route by which Lanse was +accustomed to take an inconspicuous short cut toward the locomotive shops, +by the river.</p> + +<p>For an instant, only the similarity of the figure to Lanse's struck her, +for the wavering walk and bandaged head, with hand pressed to the forehead, +did not suggest her brother. At the next instant the man lifted a white +face, and Charlotte gave a startled cry as she saw that it was John Lansing +himself, in a sorry plight.</p> + +<p>She ran to him. His head was clumsily tied up in a soiled cloth, which +the blood was beginning to stain. As she put her arm about him he smiled +wanly down at her, murmuring, "Thought I couldn't make it--glad I have. +No--not the house--Doctor's office. Don't want to scare Celia. It's +nothing."</p> + +<p>It might be nothing, but he was leaning heavily on his sister's strong +young shoulder as they crossed the threshold of Doctor Churchill's little +office, Charlotte having flung open the door without waiting to ring. +Nobody was there.</p> + +<p>"No, don't try to sit up in a chair. Here, lie down on the couch," she +insisted, and Lanse yielded, none too soon. His face had lost all colour by +the time he had stretched his tall form on the wide leather couch which +stood ready for just such occupants.</p> + +<p>Charlotte went back to the door and rang the bell; then, as nobody +appeared, she explored the lower part of the house for Mrs. Fields in +vain.</p> + +<p>Returning, she caught sight for the first time of a little memorandum on +the doctor's desk: "<i>Out. Return 10:30 A.M.</i>" She glanced at the +clock. It was exactly quarter past ten.</p> + +<p>She studied her brother's face anxiously. The stain upon the cloth was +rapidly growing larger. She was sure he ought not to lie there with the +bleeding unchecked. She went to the door of the small private office; her +eyes fell upon a package labeled "Absorbent Cotton." She opened it, pulled +out a handful, and went back to her brother.</p> + +<p>She lifted the cloth from his head, and saw a long, uneven gash, from +which the blood was freely oozing. Taking two rolls of cotton, she laid one +on each side of the wound, forcing the edges together. After a little +experimenting she found that by holding her cotton very firmly and pressing +in a certain way, the flow of the blood was almost completely checked.</p> + +<p>"Does that hurt?" she asked Lanse. He nodded without speaking, but she +did not lighten her pressure. She saw that he was very faint.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry it hurts you, dear," she said, "but it stops the blood when I +press this way, and I'm sure that's better for you. The doctor will be here +soon, and I think I'd better hold it till he comes."</p> + +<p>Lanse nodded again, his brows contracting with pain, not only from the +pressure upon the wound, but from the reaction from the blow which had +caused it.</p> + +<p>Charlotte's eyes watched the clock, her hands never relinquishing their +task.</p> + +<p>"What next?" she was thinking. "Will the time ever be up and father and +mother come back to find us all safe? Three more months--three more +months----"</p> + +<p>Dr. Andrew Churchill came whistling softly across the lawn, glancing at +his watch, and noting that he was fifteen minutes later than he had +expected to be. In the doorway of his office he came to a surprised +halt.</p> + +<p>"Miss Charlotte! What's happened?"</p> + +<p>Lanse spoke faintly for himself: "Got hit at the shop--wrench slipped +out of man's hands above me--nothing much----"</p> + +<p>"No--I see," the doctor answered, surveying the situation.</p> + +<p>He lifted Charlotte's cotton rolls, noted the character and extent of +the injury, and lost no time in getting at work.</p> + +<p>"Keep up that pressure just as you were doing, please, Miss Charlotte, +while I make things ready. We'll have you all right in a jiffy, Birch."</p> + +<p>Two minutes later the doctor had Lanse stretched on a narrow white table +in an inner office. "I've got to hurt you quite a bit," he said to his +patient. "I don't want to give you an anesthetic, but somebody must hold +your head. Shall I call Mrs. Fields?"</p> + +<p>He glanced at Charlotte, and met what he had counted on--her help. "No, +I can manage," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>The doctor was soon ready, with arms, surgically clean, bared to the +elbows.</p> + +<p>It was rather a bad ten minutes for Lanse that followed, although he +bore it bravely, without a sound. The strong, steady support of his +sister's hands on the sides of his head never varied, and her eyes watched +the doctor's rapid movements with absorbed attention. Doctor Churchill +glanced at her two or three times, but met only quiet resolve in her face, +which, although pale, showed no sign of weakness.</p> + +<p>The injury was a severe one, being no clean cut, but a jagged gash +several inches in length, caused by a heavy blow with a rough tool. +Charlotte observed that the worker seemed never at a loss what to do, that +his touch was as light as it was practised, and that his eyes were full of +keen interest in his work. At length Doctor Churchill finished his +manipulations and put on the smooth bandages, which, he remarked with a +laugh, were to turn Lanse into the image of the Terrible Turk.</p> + +<p>"You show all the Spartan attributes of the real martyr," declared the +doctor, as he helped his patient back to a couch. "It took pluck to get +home here alone. How was it they sent no man with you?"</p> + +<p>"Everybody busy. A man was coming with me if I'd let him, but I didn't +care for his company so I slipped out. It was farther home than I thought," +Lanse explained. "How long will this lay me up? I can go back to-morrow, +can't I?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose we say the day after. That hammock on your front porch behind +the vines strikes me as a restful place for you. A bit of vacation won't +hurt you."</p> + +<p>By afternoon the ache in John Lansing's head had reached a point where +he gladly lay quietly in the hammock and submitted to be waited on by two +devoted feminine slaves. The doctor came over to see him after supper, and +found him in a high state of restlessness. He got him to bed, stayed with +him until he fell into an uneasy slumber, then left him in charge of Celia, +and came so quietly down to the front porch again that he startled +Charlotte, who lay in the hammock Lanse had lately quitted.</p> + +<p>"Do you need me?" she asked eagerly. "I thought Lanse would rather have +Celia with him, and I was sure she wanted to take care of him, so I stayed. +But I'm ready, if I'm wanted."</p> + +<p>"You're wanted," returned Doctor Churchill, gently, "but not up-stairs +just now. Lie still in that hammock; let me fix the pillows a bit. Yes, do, +please. Do you know it's positively the first time I've seen you appearing +to rest since I've known you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Doctor Churchill!"</p> + +<p>"It's absolutely so. You're growing thin under the cares you've assumed. +And I suspect, besides the cares, you keep yourself busy when you ought to +be resting. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte coloured in the twilight of the porch, which the thick vines +of the wisteria screened from the electric light on the corner, except for +a few feet at the end nearest the door. She had been working harder than +ever all the spring over her designs for Chrystler & Company, and her +cheeks were of a truth somewhat less round and her colour less vivid of +hue. She was tired, although she had not owned it, even to herself.</p> + +<p>"You see, Doctor Churchill," she said, slowly, "until father and mother +went away I had been the lazy one of the family, the good-for-nothing--the +drone--and I've not yet learned to work in the quiet way my sister does, +which accomplishes so much without any fuss. Now that she can get about +again she does twice as much as I do, but she doesn't make such a clatter +of tools, and doesn't get the credit for being as busy as I."</p> + +<p>"I see. Of course I had a feeling all along that this dish-washing and +dinner-getting and baby-tending were mere pretense, and I'm relieved to +have you own up to it!"</p> + +<p>Charlotte laughed. "After all, one doesn't like to be taken at one's own +estimate," she admitted. "I confess I feel a pang to have you agree with +me, even in jest."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, abruptly, after an instant's silence, "you gave +me great pleasure this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I? How?"</p> + +<p>"By the way you stood by your brother."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Charlotte, astonished. "But I didn't do anything.</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all, except keep cool and hold steady. Those are the hardest +things a surgeon can set a novice at, you know."</p> + +<p>"But you needed me; and Mrs. Fields was out. You didn't know that, but I +did. And I don't think I'm one of the fainting-away kind."</p> + +<p>"No, you can stand fire. I think sometimes--do you know what I +think?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte waited, her cheeks warm in the darkness. Praise is always +sweet when one has earned it.</p> + +<p>"I believe you would stand by a friend--to the last ditch."</p> + +<p>Charlotte was silent for a minute; then she answered, low and honestly, +"If he were a friend at all worth having I should try."</p> + +<p>"And expect the same loyalty in return?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I should."</p> + +<p>"I should like," said Doctor Churchill's steady voice, "to try a +friendship like that--an acknowledged one. I always was a fellow who liked +things definite. I don't like to say to myself, 'I think that man is my +friend--I'm sure he is--he shows it.' No, I want him to say so--to shake +hands on it. I had such a friend once--the only one. When he died I felt I +had lost--I can't tell you what, Miss Charlotte. I never had another."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence this time. The figure in the hammock lay still. +But Charlotte's heart was beating hard. She knew already that Doctor +Churchill was the warm friend of the family. Could he mean to single her +out as the special object of his regard--her, Charlotte--when people like +Lanse and Celia were within reach?</p> + +<p>Charlotte rose to her feet, the doctor rising with her. She held out her +hand, and he could see that she was looking steadily up at him. He gazed +back at her, and a bright smile broke over his face.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it?" he said, eagerly. "Oh, thank you!"</p> + +<p>He grasped the firm young hand as Charlotte fancied he might have +grasped that of the comrade he had lost.</p> + +<p>"Can't we take a little walk in this glorious moonlight?" he asked, +happily. "Just up and down the block once or twice? Or are you too +tired?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte was not too tired; her weariness had vanished as if by magic. +The two strolled slowly up and down the quiet street, talking earnestly. +The doctor told his companion about several interesting cases he had among +the children, and of one little crippled boy upon whom he had recently +operated. The girl listened with an unaffected interest and sympathy very +grateful to the man who had long missed companionship of that sort. An hour +went by as if on wings.</p> + +<p>Celia came to the door as the two young people were saying good-night at +the foot of the steps. The doctor looked up at her with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Is the patient quiet?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, only he mutters in his sleep."</p> + +<p>"That's not strange. He's bound to be a bit feverish after that blow; +but I don't anticipate serious trouble. Let Jeff sleep on the couch in his +room; that will be all that's necessary."</p> + +<p>Celia stood looking down at the doctor as her sister came up the steps. +"It's strange," she said, "for I know Lanse isn't badly hurt, but all I can +think of to-night is how I wish father and mother were here."</p> + +<p>"That's been in my head all day," said Charlotte, with her arm around +Celia's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I can understand," Doctor Churchill answered them both, and they knew +he could. "But just remember that though they were on the other side of the +world to stay for years, they can still come back to you. Just to know that +seems to me enough."</p> + +<p>They understood him. Celia would have made warm-hearted answer, but at +that instant the sound of heavy carriage-wheels rapidly rounding the corner +and coming toward them made all three turn to look. The carriage came on at +a great pace, swerved toward them, and drew in to the curb, the driver +pulling in his horses at their door.</p> + +<p>"Who can it be?" breathed Celia. "Nobody has written. It must be a +mistake."</p> + +<p>Charlotte gasped. "It couldn't be--Celia--it <i>couldn't</i> be----"</p> + +<p>The driver leaped from the box and flung open the door. A tall figure +stepped out, turned toward them as if trying to make sure who they were, +then waved its arm. The familiar gesture brought two cries of rapture as +Charlotte rushed and Celia hurried down the steps.</p> + +<p>The doctor stood still and watched, his pulse quickening in sympathy. He +saw the tall figure grasp in turn both the slender ones, heard two eager +cries of "<i>Mother!"</i> and beheld the second occupant of the carriage +fairly dragged out, to be smothered in two pairs of impetuous young arms. +Then he went quietly away over the lawn to his own house, feeling that he +had as yet no right to be one of the group about the home-comers.</p> + +<p>In his room, an hour later, he stood before the portrait of a woman, no +longer young, but beautiful with the beauty which never grows old. He stood +looking up at it, then spoke gently to it.</p> + +<p>"She's just your sort, dear," he said, his keen eyes soft and bright. +"It's only friendship now, for she's not much more than a child, and I +wouldn't ask too much too soon. But some day--give me your blessing, +mother, for I've been lonely without you as long as I can bear it."</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_X'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>"The gentle art of cooking in a chafing-dish," discoursed Captain John +Rayburn, lightly stirring in a silver basin the ingredients of the cream +sauce he was making for the chopped chicken which stood at hand in a bowl, +"is one particularly adapted to the really intelligent masculine mind. No +noise, no fuss, no worry, no smoke, everything systematic,"--with a +practised hand he added the cream little by little to the melted butter and +flour--"business-like and practical. It is a pleasure to contemplate the +delicate growth of such a dish as this which I am preparing. It is----"</p> + +<p>"You <i>may</i> have thickening enough for all that cream," Celia +interrupted, doubtfully, watching her uncle's cookery with an anxious +eye.</p> + +<p>"And you <i>may</i> have sufficient mental poise to be able to lecture +on cookery and do the trick at the same time," supplemented Doctor +Churchill, his eyes also on the chafing-dish. In fact, everybody's eyes +were on the chafing-dish.</p> + +<p>The entire Birch family, Doctor Churchill, Lanse's friend, Mary +Atkinson; Jeff's comrade, Carolyn Houghton; and Just's inseparable, Norman +Carter--Just scorned girls, and when asked to choose whom he would have as +a guest for Captain Rayburn's picnic, mentioned Norman with an air of +finality--sat about a large rustic table upon a charming spot of greensward +among the trees of a little island four miles down the river.</p> + +<p>A great bowl of pond-lilies decorated the centre of the table; and +bunches of the same flowers, tied with long yellow ribbons, lay at each +plate.</p> + +<p>When Captain Rayburn entertained he always did it in style. And since +this picnic had been especially designed to celebrate the home-coming of +the travellers, a week after their arrival, no pains had been spared to +make the festival one to be remembered.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch was in the seat of honour, a position which she graced. In a +summer gown of white, her face round and glowing as it had not been in +years, she seemed the central flower of a most attractive bouquet. Mr. +Birch looked about him with appreciative eyes.</p> + +<p>"I don't think <i>I</i> could attend to the chafing-dish with any +certainty of result," he remarked. "I am too much occupied in observing the +guests. It strikes me that nowhere, either in New Mexico or Colorado, did I +see any people approaching those before me in interest and attractiveness. +Except one," he amended, as a general laugh greeted this extraordinary +statement, "and even she never seemed to me quite so----" He hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Say it, sir!" cried Lanse. "We're with you whatever it is. I think +'beautiful' is the word you want."</p> + +<p>Mr. Birch's face lighted with a smile. "Thank you, that is the word," he +said.</p> + +<p>The captain stirred his chopped chicken into his cream sauce with the +air of a chef. "Now here you are," he said.</p> + +<p>The captain would not allow everything upon the table at once, picnic +fashion, but kept the viands behind a screen a few feet away, and with +Jeff's and Just's assistance, served them according to his ideas of the +fitness of things.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the feast a particularly fine strawberry shortcake +appeared, which was followed by ice-cream. Altogether, the captain's guests +declared no picnic had ever been so satisfactory.</p> + +<p>"Isn't the captain great?" said Doctor Churchill, enthusiastically, to +Celia, when they had all left the table and were beginning to stroll about. +"Cut off from the sort of thing he would like best to do--that he aches to +do--he occupies himself with what comes in his way. He would deceive any +one into thinking him completely satisfied."</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you understand him," Celia answered. "Everybody doesn't. +Just the other day a caller said to me, 'Isn't it lovely that Captain +Rayburn is so contented with his quiet life? Whenever I see him sitting in +the park with the baby and a book, I think what a mercy it is that he isn't +like some men, or he never could take it so calmly.' Calmly! Uncle Ray +would give his life to-morrow night if he could have a day at the head of +his company over there in the Philippines."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt it for an instant. Since I've known him I've learned more +admiration for the way he keeps himself in hand than I ever had for any +single quality in any human being. I'm mighty sorry he's going away. It's +for a year in France and Italy, he tells me."</p> + +<p>"Yes. He's very fond of travel, and I imagine he's a little restless +after the winter here. Do you know what I suspect? That he came just so +that mother might feel somebody was keeping an eye on us."</p> + +<p>"That would be like him. He's immensely fond of you all."</p> + +<p>Celia caught sight of her uncle beckoning to her, and went to him. +Doctor Churchill saw Mrs. Birch, lying among the gay striped pillows in a +hammock which had been brought along for her special use, and went over to +her. His eyes noted the direction in which Charlotte was vanishing, but he +sat down on a log by the hammock as if he had no other thought than for the +gracious lady who looked up at him with a smile.</p> + +<p>And indeed he had thought for her. It was impossible to be with her and +not give oneself up to her charm.</p> + +<p>"I have been wanting to see you alone for a minute, Doctor Churchill," +she said. "It has been such a busy week I haven't had half a chance to +express to you how I appreciate your care for my little family. And +especially I am grateful to you for the perfect recovery of Celia's knee. +Doctor Forester has assured me that the knee might easily have been a bad +case."</p> + +<p>"I am very thankful that the results were good, Mrs. Birch," Doctor +Churchill answered.</p> + +<p>Nobody interrupted the two for a long half-hour. At the end of it Doctor +Churchill rose, his eyes kindling.</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" he said fervently. "Thank you! More than that I won't +ask--yet. But if you will trust me--I promise you may trust me, little as +you know me--you may be sure I shall keep my word, not only to you, but to +my mother I know her ideals, and if I can be fit to be the friend of one +who fills them----"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch held out her hand.</p> + +<p>"I do trust you, Doctor Churchill," she said. "Not only from what Doctor +Forester has told me of your family, but from what I have seen and heard +for myself."</p> + +<p>With a light heart the doctor went away over the hill to the path which +descended to the river. Far down the bank, near the pond-lilies, he had +caught a glimpse of a blue linen gown.</p> + +<p>Captain Rayburn and Celia came over to establish themselves upon rugs +and cushions by the side of the hammock. Mr. Birch, who had been out with +Just and Norman in a boat, appeared, sunburned and warm, and joined the +party.</p> + +<p>"I've been wanting to get just this quartet together," remarked the +captain, when his brother-in-law had cooled off and was lying comfortably +stretched along a mossy knoll.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead, Jack, we are ready to listen. Your plans are always +interesting," Mr. Birch replied. "What now?"</p> + +<p>"In the first place," began the captain, "I want you people to +understand that the person who has had least fun out of this absence of +yours is the young woman before you."</p> + +<p>"O Uncle Ray!" protested Celia, instantly. "Haven't I had as much fun as +you?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly. Between Mrs. Fields and Miss Ellen Donohue I don't know when +I've been so enlivened. I hardly know which of the two has afforded me more +downright amusement, each in her way. But Celia, I tell you, Roderick and +Helen, has been one brave girl, and that's all there is of it."</p> + +<p>"You'll find no dissenting voice here," Celia's father declared, and her +mother added:</p> + +<p>"Nobody who knows her could expect her to be anything else."</p> + +<p>Celia looked away, her cheeks flushing.</p> + +<p>"So now I want her to have her reward," said Captain Rayburn. "Let me +take her with me for the year abroad."</p> + +<p>Celia started, glancing quickly from her father to her mother, neither +of whom looked so surprised as she would have expected. Both returned her +gaze thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"How about the going to college?" Mr. Birch questioned. "I thought that +was the great ambition."</p> + +<p>"She shall have a four year's course in one if she comes with me. I +shall spend much time in the libraries and art collections. My friends in +several cities are people it is worth a long journey to meet. Undoubtedly +such a year would be valuable at the end of a college course, and it may +appear to you that the studies within the scholastic walls in this country +had better come first. The point is that I am going now. I may not be, at +the moment Celia takes her diploma. And the question of her health seems to +me also one to be considered. Months of enforced quiet haven't been any too +good for her."</p> + +<p>"There's not much need to ask Celia what she would like," Mr. Birch +observed.</p> + +<p>The girl studied his face anxiously. "But could you spare me?" she +asked. "If it means that mother would have to take my place again----"</p> + +<p>"It won't mean that," said Captain Rayburn, stoutly. "My plans cover two +maids in the Birch household, the most capable to be obtained."</p> + +<p>"See here Jack," said Mr. Roderick Birch, quickly, "you can't play good +fairy for the whole family--and it's not necessary. As soon as I am at work +in the office again this close figuring will be over."</p> + +<p>"I want my niece Charlotte to go to her school of design," the captain +went on, imperturbably.</p> + +<p>"We mean that she shall."</p> + +<p>"I wish you people would let me alone!" he cried. "Here I am, your only +brother, without a chick or a child of my own. Am I to be denied what is +the greatest delight I can have? By a lucky accident my money was safe in +the panic that swept away yours. Pure luck or providence, or whatever you +choose to call it--certainly not because my business sagacity was any +greater than yours. You wouldn't take a cent from me at the time, but +you've got to let me have my way now. Celia goes with me--if you agree. +Charlotte goes to her art school, and if you refuse me the fun of assuming +both expenses, I'll be tremendously offended--no joke, I shall."</p> + +<p>He looked so fierce that everybody laughed--somewhat tremulously. There +could be no doubt that he meant all he said. Celia's cheeks were pink with +excitement; Mrs. Birch's were of a similar hue, in sympathy with her +daughter's joy.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, that girl Charlotte," began the captain again, "deserves +all anybody can do for her. She has developed three years in one. Fond as +I've always been of her, I hadn't the least idea what was in the child. +She's going to make a woman of a rare sort. Look here!" A new idea flashed +into his mind.</p> + +<p>He considered it for the space of a half-minute, then brought it +forth:</p> + +<p>"Let me take her, too. Not for the year--don't look as if I'd hit you, +Helen--just till October. I mean to sail in ten days, you know. I've +engaged plenty of room. There'll be no trouble about a berth----"</p> + +<p>"O Uncle Ray!" Celia interrupted him. There could be no question about +her unselfish soul. If she had been happy before, she was rapturous +now.</p> + +<p>"Three months will give her quite a journey," the captain hurried on, +leaving nobody any time for objections. "I'll see that she gets art enough +out of it to fill her to the brim with inspiration. And there will surely +be somebody she can come back with. May I have her?"</p> + +<p>"What shall we do with you?" his sister said, softly. "I can't deny +you--or her. If her father agrees----"</p> + +<p>"If I didn't know your big heart so well, Jack," said Roderick Birch, +slowly, "I should be too proud to accept so much, even from my wife's +brother. But I believe it would be unworthy of me--or of you--to let false +pride stand in my girls' way."</p> + +<p>From the distance two figures were approaching, one in blue linen, the +other in white flannel--Charlotte and Doctor Churchill.</p> + +<p>They were talking gaily, laughing like a pair of very happy children, +and carrying between them a great bunch of daisies and buttercups that +would have hid a church pulpit from view.</p> + +<p>"Let's tell her now," proposed Celia. "I can't wait to have her +know."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead," agreed her uncle. "And let the doctor hear it, too. If he +isn't a brother of the family, it's because the family doesn't know one of +the finest fellows on the face of the earth when it sees him."</p> + +<p>"You're a most discerning chap, Jack Rayburn," said his brother-in-law, +heartily, "but there are other people with discernment. I have liked young +Churchill from the moment I saw him first. All that Forester says of him +confirms my opinion."</p> + +<p>"How excited you people all look!" called Charlotte, merrily, as she +drew near. "Tell us why."</p> + +<p>Captain Rayburn nodded to Celia. She shook her head vigorously in +return. He glanced at Mr. and Mrs. Birch, both of whom smilingly refused to +speak. So he looked up at Charlotte, and put his question as he might have +fired a shot.</p> + +<p>"Will you sail for Europe with Celia and me week after next, to stay +till October? Celia will stay the year with me; you I shall ship home as +useless baggage in the fall."</p> + +<p>Charlotte stood still, her arms tightening about the daisies and +buttercups, as if they represented a baby whom she must not let fall. A +rich wave of colour swept over her face. She looked from one to another of +the group as if she could not believe her good fortune. Then suddenly she +dropped her flowers in an abandoned heap, clasped her hands tightly +together, and drew one long breath of delight.</p> + +<p>"Can you spare me?" she murmured, her eyes upon her mother.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch nodded, smiling. "I surely can," she said.</p> + +<p>"Turn about is fair play," said Mr. Birch, "and your uncle seems to +consider himself a person of authority."</p> + +<p>"I want," declared Captain Rayburn, his bright eyes studying each +niece's winsome young face in turn, "in the interest of the family +orchestra, to tune the violins."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>"Speaking of violins," said the captain, half an hour later, quite as if +no interval of busy talk and plan-making had occurred, "suppose we see +about how far off the key they are at present. Jeff--Just----"</p> + +<p>Everybody stared, then laughed, for Jeff and Just instantly produced, +from behind that same screen, five green-flanneled, familiar shapes. The +entire company had reassembled under the oak-trees, drawn together by a +secret summons from the captain.</p> + +<p>"Now see here, Uncle Ray," remonstrated his eldest nephew, "this is +stealing a march on us with a vengeance."</p> + +<p>"I'm entirely willing you should let a march steal on me," retorted the +captain, disposing himself comfortably among his rugs and cushions, "or a +waltz, or a lullaby, or anything else you choose. But music of some sort I +must have."</p> + +<p>Laughing, they tuned their instruments, and the rest of the company +settled down to listen. Lanse, his eyes mischievous, passed a whispered +word among the musicians, and presently, at the signal, the well-known +notes of "<i>Hail to the Chief</i>" were sounding through the woods, played +with great spirit and zest. And as they played, the five Birches marched to +position in front of the captain, then stood still and saluted.</p> + +<p>"Off with you, you strolling players!" cried the captain. "The spectacle +of a 'cello player attempting to carry his instrument and perform upon it +at the same time is enough to upset me for a week. Sit down comfortably, +and give us '<i>The Sweetest Flower That Blows</i>.'"</p> + +<p>So they played, softly now, and with full appreciation of the fact that +the melodious song was one of their mother's favourites.</p> + +<p>But suddenly they had a fresh surprise, for as they played, a voice from +the little audience joined them, under his breath at first, then--as the +captain turned and made vigorous signs to the singer to let his voice be +heard--with tunefully swelling notes, which fell upon all their ears like +music of a rare sort:</p> + +<blockquote> +"The sweetest flower that blows<br /> + I give you as we part.<br /> +To you it is a rose,<br /> + To me it is my heart."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>The captain knew, as the voice went on, that those barytone notes were +very fine ones--knew better than the rest, as having a wider acquaintance +with voices in general. But they all understood that it was to no ordinary +singer they were listening.</p> + +<p>When the song ended the captain reached over and laid a brotherly arm on +Doctor Churchill's shoulder. "Welcome, friend," he said, with feeling in +his voice. "You've given the countersign."</p> + +<p>But the doctor, although he received modestly the words of praise which +fell upon him from all about, would sing no more that day. It had been the +first time for almost three years. And "<i>The Sweetest Flower That +Blows</i>" was not only Mrs. Birch's favourite song; it had been Mrs. +Churchill's also.</p> + +<p>"See here, Churchill," said Lanse, as the orchestra rested for a moment, +"do you play any instrument?"</p> + +<p>"Only as a novice," admitted the doctor, with some reluctance.</p> + +<p>"Which one?"</p> + +<p>"The fiddle."</p> + +<p>"And never owned up!" chided Lanse. "You didn't want to belong to such +an amateurish company?"</p> + +<p>"I did--very much," said Churchill, with emphasis. "But you needed no +more violins."</p> + +<p>"If I'm to be away all next year," said Celia, quickly, "they will need +you. Will you take my place?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Miss Celia," the doctor answered, decidedly. "But if you +would let me play--second."</p> + +<p>He looked at Charlotte, smiling. She returned his smile, but shook her +head. "I'm Second Fiddle," she said. "I'll never take Celia's place."</p> + +<p>The eyes of the two sisters met, affectionately, comprehendingly.</p> + +<p>"I should like to have you, dear," said Celia, softly.</p> + +<p>But Charlotte only shook her head again, colouring beneath the glances +which fell on her from all sides. "I'd rather play my old part," she +answered.</p> + +<p>Jeff caught up and lifted high in the air an imaginary glass.</p> + +<p>"Here's to the orchestra!" he called out. "May Doctor Churchill read the +score of the first violin. Here's to the First Violin! May she hear plenty +of fine music in the old country, and come back ready to coach us all. And +here's--"</p> + +<p>He paused and looked impressively round upon the company, who regarded +him in turn with interested, sympathetic eyes. "I say we've called her +'Second Fiddle' long enough," he said, and hesitated, beginning to get +stranded in his own eloquence. "Anyhow, if she hasn't proved this year that +she's fit to play anything--dishes or wall-paper or babies--" He stopped, +laughing. "I don't know how to say it, but as sure as my name's Jefferson +Birch she--er--"</p> + +<p>"Hear! hear!" the captain encouraged him softly.</p> + +<p>"Here's,"--shouted the boy, "here's to the Second Violin!"</p> + +<p>Through the friendly laughter and murmurs of appreciation, Charlotte, +dropping shy, happy eyes, read the real love and respect of everybody, and +felt that the year's experiences had brought her a rich reward. But all she +said, as Jeff, exhausted by his effort at oratory, dropped upon the grass +beside her, was in his ear:</p> + +<p>"If anybody deserves a toast, Jeffy boy, I think it's you. You've eaten +so many slices of mine--burnt to a cinder--and never winced! If that isn't +heroism, what is?"</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='BOOK_II'></a>BOOK II</h1> + +<h2>THE CHURCHILL LATCH-STRING</h2> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2I'></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>"Here's another, Charlotte!"</p> + +<p>Young Justin Birch's lusty shout rang through the house from hall to +kitchen, vibrating even as far as the second-story room in the rear, where +Charlotte herself happened at that moment to be. In response people +appeared from everywhere. The bride-elect was the last to put in an +appearance, and when she came, there was a certain reluctance in her +aspect.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, there!" admonished Just, already busy with chisel and hammer +at the slender, flat box which lay upon the hall floor, in the centre of an +interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had +stopped upon the landing. "You act as if you didn't want to see what's in +it," he remonstrated, whacking away vigorously.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do," Charlotte declared, coming on down the staircase, smiling +at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back, every one. "But +I'm beginning to feel as if I--as if they--as if--"</p> + +<p>"It must seem odd to feel like that," John Lansing agreed, quizzically. +Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for the wedding, from +the law-school at which he had been for two years.</p> + +<p>Celia slipped her arm about her younger sister's shoulders. "I know what +she means," she said, in her gentle way. "It's so unexpected to her, after +sending out no invitations at all, that gifts should keep pouring in like +this. But it's not unexpected to us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know how many of them come from father's and mother's friends, +and how many from Andy's grateful patients. It's all the more overwhelming +on that account."</p> + +<p>"Look out there, Just!" The admonition came from Jeff, and consequently +was delivered from some six feet in the air, where that nineteen-year-old's +head was now carried. "Don't split those pieces; they'll be fine for the +Emerson boys building."</p> + +<p>"That's so." Just wielded his tools with more care. Presently he had the +long parcel lying on the floor. At this moment Mr. Roderick Birch opened +the outer hall door.</p> + +<p>"As usual," was his smiling comment, as he laid aside hat and overcoat +and joined the circle. "Charlotte's latest?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte herself undid the wrappings, wondering what the gift could be. +She disclosed a long piece of dingy-looking metal.</p> + +<p>"A new shingle for Andy!" cried Jeff.</p> + +<p>Just turned the heavy slab over, and it proved to be of copper. Words +came into view, hammered and beaten into the glinting metal. An effective +conventionalised border surrounded the whole.</p> + +<p>"'Ye Ornaments of a House are ye Guests who Frequent it,'" read the +assembled company, in chorus.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't that beautiful!" cried Charlotte.</p> + +<p>Jeff glanced at her suspiciously. "She says that about everything," he +remarked. "Don't think much of it myself. The sentiment may be awfully +true--or otherwise; but what's the thing for? If anybody wanted to hint at +an invitation to visit Andy and Charlotte, he might have done it without +putting himself on record on a slab of copper four feet long. Who sent it, +anyway?"</p> + +<p>Celia hunted carefully through the wrappings, and everybody finally +joined in the search, but no card appeared.</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry!" lamented Charlotte. "I shall never know whom to +thank."</p> + +<p>"It lets you out, anyhow," Jeff said, soothingly. "You won't have to +tell any lies. The thing is of about as much use as a bootjack."</p> + +<p>"Why, but it's lovely!" protested Charlotte, with evident sincerity. +"Copper things are very highly valued just now, and the work on that is +artistic. Don't you see it is?"</p> + +<p>"Can't see it," murmured Jeff. "But of course my not seeing it doesn't +count. I can't see the value of that idiotic old battered-up copper pail +you cherish so tenderly, but that's because I lack the true, heaven-born +artist's soul. Where are you going to put this, Fiddle?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte's eyes grew absent. She was sending them in imagination across +the lawn to the little old brick house next door, which was soon to be her +home, as she had done every time a new gift arrived. There were a good many +puzzles of this sort in connection with her wedding gifts. Where to put +some of them she knew, with a thrill of pleasure, the instant she set eyes +on them; where in the world others could possibly go was undoubtedly a +serious question.</p> + +<p>"Hello, here comes Andy!" called Just, from the window. "Give him a +chance at it. Perhaps he can use it somewhere in the surgery--as a delicate +way of cheering the patients when they feel as if perhaps they'd better not +have come."</p> + +<p>Charlotte turned as the hall door swung open, admitting Dr. Andrew +Churchill and a fresh breath of October air.</p> + +<p>Everybody turned about also. Into everybody's face came a look of +affectionate greeting. Even the eyes of the father and mother--and this, +just now, was the greatest test of all--showed the welcome to which their +own children were happily used.</p> + +<p>The figure on the threshold was one to claim attention anywhere. It was +a strong figure with a look of life and intense physical vigour. The face +matched the body: it was fresh-coloured and finely molded; and nobody who +looked at it and into the clear gray eyes of Andrew Churchill could fail to +recognise the man behind.</p> + +<p>Lanse, who was nearest, shook hands warmly. "It seems good to see you, +old fellow," he said, heartily. "If this whirl of work they tell me you are +in had kept up much longer, I should have turned patient myself and sent +for you. Going to find time to be married in, think, Andy?"</p> + +<p>"I rather expect to be able to manage it," responded Doctor Churchill, +laughing. "How long have you been home, Lanse--two hours? Just promised to +let me know when you came."</p> + +<p>"I started, but you were whizzing up the street in the runabout," +protested Just, picking up the débris of the unpacking and carrying +it away. "There was a trail of steam behind you sixteen feet long. I think +you were running beyond lawful speed."</p> + +<p>"Here's your latest acquisition." Jeff pointed it out, picking up the +copper slab and holding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection. +Doctor Churchill turned and regarded it with interest. Then his bright +glance shifted to Charlotte, and he smiled at her.</p> + +<p>"That's great, isn't it?" he said, and she nodded, smiling.</p> + +<p>Just, returning, shouted. "Trust 'em both to get round anything that may +turn up! 'That's great!' is certainly safe and non-committal of a four-foot +motto that's of no earthly use."</p> + +<p>"Well, but I like it," Doctor Churchill asserted, and came over to +Charlotte's side, where he examined the copper slab with attention. "Don't +you believe that will pretty nearly fit the depression in the fireplace +just above the shelf?"</p> + +<p>Her interested look responded to his. "Why, I believe it will!" she +answered.</p> + +<p>"Who sent it?"</p> + +<p>"We can't find out."</p> + +<p>"No card? That's odd. But there may be something about it to show. It +looks to me as if it had been made for that place. If it proves to fit, we +can narrow the mystery down to the few people who have seen the new +fireplace. Let's go over and try, shall we? Come on--everybody!"</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the whole company streamed out across the lawn--Charlotte +and Doctor Churchill, Celia, her pretty blond head shining in the October +sunlight, Lanse and Jeff and Just, three stalwart fellows, ranging in ages +from twenty-six to sixteen, Mr. and Mrs. Birch, the happy possessors of +this happy clan.</p> + +<p>They hurried up the two steps of the small front porch, into the brick +house, and stampeded into the front room. They stopped opposite the +fireplace, where Doctor Churchill was already triumphantly inserting the +copper panel--for that is what it instantly became--in the long, horizontal +depression in the fireplace.</p> + +<p>"It fits to a hair!" he exclaimed, and a general murmur of approbation +arose. Now that the odd gift was where it so clearly belonged, its peculiar +beauty became evident even to the skeptical Jeff and Just.</p> + +<p>The new fireplace was the heart of the little old house. Moreover, so +cunningly had it been designed and built that it seemed to have been in its +place from the beginning.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill and Charlotte had made a certain distant field the +object of many walks and drives, and had personally selected the +"hardheads" of which the fireplace was constructed. A small bedroom, +opening off the square little parlour, had had its partition removed, and +in this alcove-like end of the room the fireplace had been built.</p> + +<p>The effect was very good, and the resulting apartment, the only one on +the lower floor which could be spared for general use, had become at once +the place upon which Charlotte was concentrating most of her efforts, +meaning to make it a room where everybody should wish to come.</p> + +<p>The usual interruption of a summons for Doctor Churchill to the office +in the wing sent the assembled company off again. Just as Charlotte was +leaving the room, however--the last of all, because she could not bring +herself to desert the joy of the copper panel in its setting of gray +stone--Doctor Churchill hurriedly returned.</p> + +<p>Seeing Charlotte alone and about to vanish, he ran after her and drew +her back.</p> + +<p>"I have to go right away, dear," he said. "But I want to look at the new +gift alone with you a minute. It's really a fine addition, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, beautiful! In the firelight and the lamplight how that copper will +gleam!"</p> + +<p>"I wish we knew to whom we owe such a thought of us. I like the +sentiment, too, don't you, Charlotte? I hope--do you know, it's one of my +pleasantest hopes--that our home is going to be one that knows how to +dispense hospitality. The real sort--not the sham."</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked up at him and smiled.</p> + +<p>"As if I need tell you what I wish!" he said, with gay tenderness. "You +know every thought I have about it."</p> + +<p>"We'll make people happy here," said Charlotte. "Indeed, I want to, Andy +Churchill. This room--they shall find a welcome always--rich and poor. +Especially--the poor ones."</p> + +<p>"Especially the poor ones. Won't old Mrs. Wilsey think it's pleasant +here? And Tom Brannigan--he'll be scared at first, but we'll show him it's +a jolly place--Charlotte, I musn't get to dreaming day-dreams now, or I +never can summon strength of purpose to wait another week. One week from +to-day! What an age it seems!"</p> + +<p>"Run and make your calls," advised Charlotte, laughing, as she escaped +from him and hurried to the door. "The busier you keep, the shorter the +time will seem."</p> + +<p>The week went by at last. To the young man, one of a large family long +since scattered--many members of it, including both father and mother, in +the old Virginia churchyard--the time could not come too soon. He had lived +alone with his housekeeper almost four years now, and during nearly all +that time he had been waiting for Charlotte.</p> + +<p>She was considerably younger than he, and when he had been, after two +years of acquaintance, allowed to betroth himself to her, he had been asked +to wait yet another two years while she should "grow up a little more," as +her wise father put it.</p> + +<p>As for Charlotte herself, she still seemed to those who loved her at +home hardly grown up enough at twenty-two to go to a home of her own.</p> + +<p>Yet father and mother, brothers and sister, were all ready to +acknowledge that those two years had resulted in the early budding of very +sweet and womanly qualities; and nobody, watching Charlotte with her lover, +could possibly fear for either that they were not ready for the great +experiment.</p> + +<p>The autumn leaves were bright, the white fall anemones were in blossom, +when Charlotte's wedding-day came; and with leaves and anemones the little +stone church was decorated.</p> + +<p>Not an invitation of the customary sort had been sent out. But, as is +usual in a comfortable, un-aristocratic suburb, the news that Doctor +Churchill and Miss Charlotte Birch wanted everybody who knew and cared for +them to come to the church and see them married had spread until all +understood.</p> + +<p>The result was that no one of Doctor Churchill's patients--and he had +won a large and growing practice among all classes of people--felt left out +or forgotten, and that, as the clock struck the hour of noon, the church +was crowded to the doors with those who were real friends of the young +people.</p> + +<p>"Somehow I don't feel a bit like a bride," said Charlotte, looking, +however, very much like one, as she stood in the centre of her mother's +room in bridal array.</p> + +<p>Four elegant male figures, two in frock coats, two in more youthful but +equally festive attire, were surveying her with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Near by hovered Celia, the daintiest of maids of honour: Mrs. Birch, as +charming as a girl herself in her pale gray silken gown: and little Ellen +Donohue, a six-year-old protégée of the family, her hazel +eyes wide with gazing at Charlotte, whom she hugged intermittently and +adored without cessation.</p> + +<p>"You don't feel like a bride, eh?" was Lanse's reply to Charlotte's +statement. "Well, I shouldn't think you would--an infant like you. You look +more suitable for a christening than for a marriage ceremony. Father's +likely, when Doctor Elder asks who gives the bride away, to murmur, +'Charlotte Wendell,' thinking he's inquiring the child's name."</p> + +<p>Charlotte threw him a glance, half-shy, half-merry. "As best man you +should be saying complimentary things about your friend's choice."</p> + +<p>"I am. The trouble is you're not old enough to enjoy being mistaken for +a babe in arms."</p> + +<p>"I don't think she looks like a child. I think she's the stunningest +young woman I ever saw!" declared Just, with enthusiasm. "If her hair was +done up on top of her head she'd be a regular queen."</p> + +<p>Celia laughed. Her own beautiful blond locks were piled high, and the +style became her. But Charlotte's dusky braids were prettier low on the +white neck, in the girlish fashion in which they had long been worn, and +Celia announced this fact with a loving touch on the graceful +<i>coiffure</i> her own hands had arranged for her sister.</p> + +<p>"You can't improve her," she said. "She looks like our Charlotte, and +that's just the way we want her to look. That's what Andy wants, too."</p> + +<p>"Of course he does. And I can tell you, he looks like Andy," Lanse +asserted. "Did you know he'd been making calls all the morning, the same as +usual? Made 'em till the last minute, too. It isn't fifteen minutes since I +saw his machine roll in. Hope he wasn't rattled when he wrote his +prescriptions."</p> + +<p>It was the Birches' custom to make as little as possible of family +crises. Talk and laugh as lightly as they would, however, every one of them +was watching Charlotte with anxiety, for it was the first break in the dear +circle, and it seemed almost as if they could have better spared any +other.</p> + +<p>Yet Charlotte was going to live no farther away than next door--this was +the comfort of the situation.</p> + +<p>"Well, I must be off to look after my duties to the groom," Lanse +announced presently, with a precautionary glance into his mother's mirror +to make sure that not a hair of his splendour was disturbed. "I ought to +have been with him before this, only my infatuation for the bride makes my +case difficult. You've heard of these fellows who hang about another chap's +girl till the last minute, doing the forsaken act. I feel something like +that. Good luck, little girl. Keep cool, and trust Andy and Doctor Elder to +get you safely married."</p> + +<p>He stooped to kiss her, and Charlotte held him close for an instant. But +he made the brotherly embrace a short one, comprehending that much of that +sort of thing would be unsafe both for Charlotte and her family, and went +gaily away to the house next door.</p> + +<p>"Nerve good?" Lanse asked Doctor Churchill, an hour later as they waited +in the vestry for the summons of the organ.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill smiled. "Pretty steady," he answered. "Still--I'm aware +something is about to happen."</p> + +<p>Lanse eyed him affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Do you know it's a good deal to me to be gaining three brothers by this +day's work?" the doctor added; and Lanse felt a sudden lump in his throat, +which he had to swallow before he could answer:</p> + +<p>"I assure you we're feeling pretty rich, to-day, too, old fellow."</p> + +<p>It was all over presently--a very simple, natural sort of affair, with +the warm October sunlight streaming through the richly coloured windows +upon the figures at the altar, touching Celia's bright hair into a halo, +and sending a ruby beam across the trailing folds of Charlotte's bridal +gown.</p> + +<p>There was no display of any sort. The whole effect was somehow that of a +girl being married in the enclosing circle of her family, without thought +of the hundreds of eyes upon her. A quiet wedding breakfast followed, at +which Doctor Forester and his son, the latter lately returned from a long +period of study abroad, were the only guests. Doctor Churchill's +housekeeper, Mrs. Fields, although invited to be present as a guest +insisted on remaining in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Just as if," she said, when everybody in turn remonstrated with her, +"when I've looked after that boy's food from the days when he ate nothing +but porridge and milk, I was going to let anybody else feed him with his +wedding breakfast!"</p> + +<p>But this part of the business of getting married was also soon over. +Doctor Churchill was to take his bride away for a month's stay in a little +Southern resort among the mountains, dear to him by old association. It was +the first vacation he had allowed himself during these four years of his +practice, and his eyes had been sparkling as he planned it. They were +sparkling again now, as he stood waiting for Charlotte to say good-bye and +come away with him, but his face spoke his sympathetic understanding of +those who were finding this the hardest moment which had yet come to +them.</p> + +<p>"Take care of her, Andy," was what, in almost the same words, they all +more or less brokenly said to him at last; and to each and all he answered, +in that way of his they loved and trusted, "I will."</p> + +<p>From Andrew Churchill it was assurance enough.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2II'></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>"There! Doesn't that look like a 'Welcome Home'?"</p> + +<p>Celia stood in the doorway and surveyed her handiwork. Mrs. Birch, from +an opposite threshold, nodded, smiling.</p> + +<p>"It does, indeed. You have given the whole house a festival air which +will captivate Andy's heart the instant he sets eyes on it. As for our +little Charlotte--"</p> + +<p>She paused, as if it were not easy to put into words that which she knew +Charlotte would think. But Celia went on gleefully:</p> + +<p>"Charlotte will be so crazy with delight at getting home she will see +everything through a blur at first. But when we have all gone away and left +them here, then Charlotte will see. And she'll be glad to find traces of +her devoted family wherever she looks."</p> + +<p>She pointed from the little work-box on the table by the window, just +equipped and placed there by her mother's hand, to the book-shelf made and +put up in the corner by Jeff. She waved her hand at a great wicker armchair +with deep pockets at the sides for newspapers and magazines, which had been +Mr. Birch's contribution to the living-room, and at the fine calendar which +Just had hung by the desk. Her own offerings were the dressing-table +furnishings up-stairs.</p> + +<p>All these were by no means wedding gifts, but afterthoughts, inspired by +a careful inspection of the details of Doctor Churchill's bachelor home, +and the noting of certain gaps which only love and care would be likely to +fill.</p> + +<p>In four hours now the travellers would be at home, in time, it was +expected, for the late dinner being prepared by Mrs. Hepzibah Fields.</p> + +<p>For the present, at least, Mrs. Fields was to remain. "I've had full +proof of Charlotte's ability to cook and to manage a house," Doctor +Churchill had said, when they talked it over, "and I want her free this +first year, anyway, to work with her brush and pencil all she likes, and to +go about with me all I like."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fields, although a product of New England, had spent nearly half +her life in Virginia, in the service of the Churchills. She had drawn a +slow breath of relief when this decision had been made known to her, and +had said fervently to Doctor Churchill:</p> + +<p>"I expect I know how to make myself useful without being conspicuous, +and I'm sure I think enough of both of you not to put my foot into your +housekeeping. That child's worked pretty hard these four years since I've +known her, and a little vacation won't hurt her."</p> + +<p>So it had been settled, and Mrs. Fields was now getting up a dinner for +her "folks," as she affectionately termed them, which was to be little +short of a feast.</p> + +<p>Charlotte had written that she and Andy wanted the whole family to come +to dinner with them that first night. All day Celia and her mother had been +busy getting the little house, already in perfect order, into that state of +decorative cheer which suggests a welcome in itself. Now, with Just's +offering of ground-pine, and Celia's scarlet carnations all about the room, +a fire ready laid in the fireplace, and lamps and candles waiting to be +lighted on every side, there seemed nothing to be desired.</p> + +<p>"I suppose there's really not another thing we can do," said Celia.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely nothing more, that I can see," agreed Mrs. Birch, taking up +her wraps from the chair on which they lay. "You can run over and light up +at the last minute. Really, how long it seems yet to seven o'clock!"</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it? And how good it will be to get the dear girl back! Well, +the first month has gone by, mother dear. The worst is over."</p> + +<p>Celia spoke cheerfully, but her words were not quite steady. Mrs. Birch +glanced at her.</p> + +<p>"You've been a brave daughter," she said, with the quiet composure which +Celia understood did not always cover a peaceful heart. "We shall all grow +used to the change in time. I think sometimes we're not half thankful +enough to have Charlotte so near."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think we are!" Celia protested.</p> + +<p>"The children have had a beautiful month. Haven't their letters +been--What's that?"</p> + +<p>It was nothing more startling than the front door-bell, but this was so +seldom rung at the bachelor doctor's house, where everybody who wanted him +at all wanted him professionally at the office, that it sent Celia hastily +and anxiously to the door. It was so impossible at this hour, when the +travellers were almost home, not to dread the happening of something to +detain them. At the same moment Mrs. Field put her head in at the +dining-room door. "Land, I do hope it ain't a telegram!" she observed, in a +loud whisper.</p> + +<p>It was not a telegram. It was a pale-faced little woman in black, with +two children, a boy and a girl, beside her. Celia looked at them +questioningly.</p> + +<p>"This is Doctor Churchill's, isn't it?" asked the stranger, with a +hesitating foot upon the threshold. "Is he at home?"</p> + +<p>"He is expected home--he will be in his office to-morrow," Celia +answered, thinking this a new patient, and feeling justified in keeping +Doctor Churchill's first evening clear for him if she could. But the +visitor drew a sigh of relief, and came over the threshold, drawing her +children with her. Celia gave way, but the question in her face brought the +explanation:</p> + +<p>"I reckon it's all right, if he's coming so soon. I'm his cousin, Mrs. +Peyton. These are my children. I haven't seen Andrew since he was a boy at +college, but he'll remember me. Are you--" She hesitated.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Birch came forward. "We are the mother and sister of Mrs. +Churchill," she said, and offered her hand. "Doctor Churchill was expecting +you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe not just at this time," admitted the newcomer, without +reluctance. "I didn't know I was coming myself until just as I bought my +ticket for home. I happened to think I was within sixty miles of that place +in the North where I knew Andrew settled. So I thought we'd better stop and +see him and his new wife."</p> + +<p>There was nothing to do but to usher her in. With a rebellious heart +Celia led Mrs. Peyton into the living-room and assisted her and the +children out of their wrappings. All sorts of strange ideas were occurring +to her. It was within the bounds of possibility that these people were not +what they claimed to be--she had heard of such things. She was unwilling to +show them to Charlotte's pretty guest-room, to offer them refreshment, even +to light the fire for them.</p> + +<p>It was too bad, it was unbearable, that the home-coming for which she +and her mother had made such preparation should be spoiled by the presence +of these strangers. To be sure, if she was Andrew's cousin she was no +stranger to him, yet Celia could not recollect that he had ever spoken of +her, even in the most casual way.</p> + +<p>But her hope that in some way this might prove to be a case of mistaken +identity was soon extinguished. When she had slipped away to the kitchen, +at a suggestion from her mother that the guests should be served with +something to eat, she found that information concerning Mrs. Peyton was to +be had from Mrs. Fields.</p> + +<p>"Peyton? For the lands' sake! Don't tell me she's here! Know her? I +guess I do! Of all the unfortunate things to happen right now, I should +consider her about the worst calamity. What is she? Oh, she ain't +anything--that's about the worst I can say of her. There ain't anything bad +about her--oh, no. Sometimes I've been driven to wish there was, if I do +say it! She's just what I should call one of them characterless sort of +folks--kind of soft and silly, like a silk sofy cushion without enough +stuffing in it. Always talking, she is, without saying anything in +particular. I don't know about the children. They were little things when I +saw 'em last. What do you say they look like?"</p> + +<p>"The girl is about fourteen, I should think," said Celia, getting out +tray and napkins. "She's rather a pretty child--doesn't look very strong. +The boy is quite a handsome fellow, of nine or ten. Oh, it's all right, of +course, and I've no doubt Doctor Churchill will be glad to see any +relatives of his family. Only--if it needn't have happened just +to-day!"</p> + +<p>"I know how you feel," said the housekeeper. "Here, let me fix that +tray, Miss Celia; you've done enough. I suppose we've got to feed 'em and +give 'em a room. Ain't it too bad to put them in that nice spare room? No, +I don't believe the doctor'll be powerful pleased to see 'em, though I +don't suppose he'll let on he ain't. Trouble is, she's a stayer--one of the +visiting kind, you know. Mis' Churchill, doctor's mother, used to have her +there by the month. <i>There</i> was what you may call a genuine lady, Miss +Celia. She'd never let a guest feel he wasn't welcome, and I guess Andy--I +guess the doctor's pretty much like her. Well, well!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fields sighed, and Celia echoed the sigh. Nevertheless, the little +hint about Doctor Churchill's mother took hold.</p> + +<p>Celia knew what Southern hospitality meant. If Mrs. Peyton had been +accustomed to that, it must be a matter of pride not to let her feel that +Northern homes were cold and comfortless places by comparison. By the time +she had shown the visitors to Charlotte's guest-room, and had made up a bed +for the boy on a wide couch there, Celia had worked off a little of her +regret. Nevertheless, when Jeff and Just heard the news, their disgust +roused her to fresh rebellion.</p> + +<p>"I call that pretty nervy," Jeff declared, indignantly, "to walk in on +people like this, without a word of warning! Nobody but an idiot would +expect people just coming home from their honeymoon to want to find their +house filled up with cousins."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Andy's relatives'll turn up now," said Just, cynically. "People he +never heard of. I'll bet he won't know this woman till he's +introduced."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he will. I've found her name on the list we sent announcements +to," Celia said, dismally. "I didn't notice at the time, because there were +ever so many friends of his, people in all parts of the world. 'Mrs. +Randolph Peyton,' that's it."</p> + +<p>"Hope Mr. Randolph Peyton'll get anxious to see her, and send for her to +come home at once!" growled Jeff.</p> + +<p>"She's in mourning. I presume she's a widow," was all the comfort Celia +could give him.</p> + +<p>"Then she'll stay all winter!" cried Just with such hopeless inflection +that his sister laughed.</p> + +<p>When she went over at half past six o'clock, to light the fire, she +found the three visitors gathered in the living-room. She had hoped they +might stay up-stairs at least until the first welcome had been given to +Charlotte and Andrew. But it turned out that Mrs. Peyton had inquired of +Mrs. Fields the exact hour of the expected arrival, and presumably had +considered that since the Peytons represented Doctor Churchill's side of +the house, their part in his welcome home was not to be gainsaid.</p> + +<p>Mr. Birch, Jeff, Just, and Mrs. Birch with little Ellen, presently +appeared. Lansing had gone back to his law school, but a great bunch of +roses represented him. It had been Charlotte's express command that nobody +should go to the station to meet the returning travellers, but that +everybody should be in the little brick house to welcome them when they +should drive up.</p> + +<p>"Here they are! Here they are!" shouted Just, from behind a window +curtain, where he had been keeping close watch on the circle of radiance +from the nearest arc-light. There was a rush for the door. Jeff flung it +open, and he and Just raced to the hansom which was driving up. The rest of +the party crowded the doorway, Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and Randolph being of +the group.</p> + +<p>"How are you, everybody?" called Doctor Churchill's eager voice, as he +and Charlotte ran up the walk to the door, Jeff and Just following. "Well, +this is fine! Father--mother--Celia--my little Ellen--bless your hearts, +but it's good to see you!"</p> + +<p>How could anybody help loving a son-in-law like that? One would have +thought they were indeed his own. While Charlotte remained wrapped in her +mother's embrace, Doctor Churchill was greeting them all twice over, with +apparently no eyes for the three he had not expected to see. For the moment +it was plain that he had not recognized them, and supposed them to be +strangers to whom he would presently be made known.</p> + +<p>But now, as somebody moved aside and the light struck upon her, he +caught the smile on Mrs. Peyton's face. He left off shaking Jeff's hand, +and made a quick movement toward the little figure in black.</p> + +<p>"Why, Cousin Lula!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Charlotte, at the moment hugging little Ellen with laughter and kisses, +turned at the cry, and saw her husband greeting with great cordiality these +strange people whom she, too, had supposed to be the guests of her +mother.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte," said Doctor Churchill, turning about, "this is my cousin, +Mrs. Peyton, of Virginia--and her children."</p> + +<p>Charlotte came forward, cordially greeted Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and +Randolph, and led them into the living-room as if the moment were that of +their arrival instead of her own.</p> + +<p>"She has the stuff in her, hasn't she?" murmured Just to Jeff, as the +two stood at one side of the fireplace.</p> + +<p>"Could you ever doubt it?" returned Jeff, with as much emphasis as can +be put into a mumbled retort. Jeff had been Charlotte's staunchest champion +all his life.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Fieldsy, but I'm glad to be back!" Doctor Churchill assured his +housekeeper, in the kitchen, to which he had soon found his way. "We've had +a glorious time down in the Virginia mountains, but this is home now, as it +never was before, and it's great fun to be here. How are you? You're +looking fine."</p> + +<p>"And I'm feeling fine," assented Mrs. Fields, her spare face lighted +into something like real comeliness by the pleasure in her heart. "Just one +thing, Doctor Andy. I'm terrible sorry them relatives of yours happened +along just now. If I'd gone to the door--well--I don't believe but I'd have +seen my way clear to--"</p> + +<p>Churchill shook his head, smiling. "No, Fieldsy, you know you wouldn't. +Besides, Cousin Lula looks far from well, and she's had a lot of trouble. +It's all right, you know. My, but this is a good dinner we have coming to +us!"</p> + +<p>He went off gaily. Mrs. Fields looked after him affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Andy Churchill, it's plain to be seen your heart's in the +right place as much as ever it was, if you have got married," she +thought.</p> + +<p>"O Fieldsy,"--and this time it was Charlotte who invaded the kitchen and +grasped the housekeeper's hands--"how good it seems to be back! But I can't +realise a bit I'm at home over here, can you?"</p> + +<p>"You'll soon get used to it, I guess, Mis' Churchill."</p> + +<p>"Oh, and <i>that</i> sounds strange--from you!" declared Charlotte, +laughing. "I'd begun to get a little bit used to it down in Virginia. If +you don't say 'Miss Charlotte' once in a while to me I shall feel quite +lost."</p> + +<p>"I guess Doctor Churchill 'd have something to say about that, if I +should. I don't believe but what he's terrible proud of that name."</p> + +<p>It was certainly a name nobody seemed able to "get used to." Just called +his sister by the new title once during the evening. They were at the table +when he thus addressed her, and there followed a succession of +comments.</p> + +<p>"Don't you dare call her that when I'm round!" remarked Jeff.</p> + +<p>"I actually didn't understand at first whom you meant," said Celia.</p> + +<p>"I've not forgotten how long it took me to learn that my name was +Birch," said Charlotte's mother, with a smile so bright that it covered the +involuntary sigh.</p> + +<p>"Is Aunty Charlotte my Aunty Churchill now?" piped little Ellen. Lucy +and Randolph Peyton laughed.</p> + +<p>"Of course, she is, dumpling, only you can keep on calling her Aunty +Charlotte. And I'm your Uncle Andy. How do you like that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I like that!" agreed Ellen, and edged her chair an inch nearer +"Uncle Andy."</p> + +<p>Dinner over, Celia bore Ellen home to bed. Charlotte suggested the same +possibility for the Peyton children, but although it was nearing nine +o'clock, both refused so decidedly that after a glance at their mother, who +took no notice, Charlotte said no more.</p> + +<p>Randolph grew sleepy in his chair, and Doctor Churchill presently took +pity on him. He sat down beside the lad and told him a story of so +intentionally monotonous a character that Randolph was soon half over the +border. Then the doctor picked him up, and with the drooping head on his +shoulder observed, pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"This lad wants his bed, Cousin Lula. May I take him to it?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton, engaged in telling Mr. Birch her opinion of certain +Northern institutions she had lately observed, nodded absently. Doctor +Churchill ascended the stairs, and Charlotte, slipping from the room, ran +up ahead of him to get Randolph's cot in readiness.</p> + +<p>"That's it, old fellow! Wake up enough to let me get your clothes off," +Churchill bade the sleep-heavy child. "Can you find his nightclothes, +Charlotte? Cousin Lula seems to have unpacked. That's it. Thank you! Now, +Ran, you'll be glad to be in bed, won't you? Can you wake up enough to say +your prayers, son? No? Well that's not altogether your fault," he said, +softly, and smiled at Charlotte. "I think we'd better invite Lucy up, too, +don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Won't she--Mrs. Peyton--think we're rather cool?" Charlotte suggested, +as they tucked the boy in.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. She'll be glad to have the job off her hands. The youngsters +are tired, and ought to have been in bed an hour ago. Stay here, and I'll +run down after Lucy."</p> + +<p>On the stairs, as they descended, after Charlotte had seen Lucy to her +quarters, they met Jeff.</p> + +<p>"Been putting the kids to bed?" he questioned curiously, under his +breath. "Well, you're great. Their mother doesn't seem much worried about +it. She's quite a talker. Guess she didn't notice what happened. Say, I'm +going. It's ten o'clock. You two ought to have a chance to look 'round +without any more company to-night. Justin slipped off while you were +up-stairs. Told me to say good-night. Father and mother are only waiting +for a pause in your cousin's conversation long enough to throw in a word of +their own before they get up." He made an expressive gesture.</p> + +<p>"You know mother's invariable rule," he chuckled, "never to get up to go +at the end of one of your guest's conversational sprints, but always to +wait until you can interrupt yourself, so to speak. Well--I don't mean any +disrespect to the lady from Virginia, Andy, but I'm afraid mother'll have +to make an exception to that rule, or else remain for the night."</p> + +<p>The three laughed softly, Charlotte's hand on her brother's shoulder, as +she stood on the step above him.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't say any saucy things, Jeffy," said she, with a soft touch +on his thick locks.</p> + +<p>"I won't. I'm too tickled to have you back--both of you. We missed +Fiddle pretty badly," he said to Doctor Churchill, "but we found time to +miss you almost as much. There have been several times while you've been +gone that I'd have welcomed the <i>chug</i> of your runabout under my +window, waking me up in the middle of the night."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, old fellow!" said Doctor Churchill with a hand on Jeff's +other shoulder. "That's mighty pleasant to hear."</p> + +<p>In spite of Jeff's prediction, Mrs. Birch soon managed, in her own +tactful way, to follow her sons home. Mrs. Peyton went up to her room at +last, a cordial good night, following her from the foot of the stairs. Then +Doctor Churchill drew his wife back into the living-room and closed the +doors. He stood looking at Charlotte with eyes in which were mingled +merriment and tenderness.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't just as we planned it, was it, little girl?" he said. "But +there's always this to fall back upon. People we want, and people we don't +want so much, may be around us, to the right of us, and the left of us, but +even so, nobody can ever--come between."</p> + +<p>The door-bell rang.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hoped nobody would know you were home to-night!' cried Charlotte, +the smile fading from her lips. Doctor Churchill went quickly to the door. +A messenger boy with a telegram stood outside. The doctor read the dispatch +and dismissed the boy. Then he turned to Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"No, it's no bad news," he said, and came close. "It's just--can you +bear up?--another impending guest! Charlotte, I've done a lot of talking +about hospitality, and I meant it all. I certainly want our latch-string +always out, but--<i>don't you think we rushed that copper motto into place +just a bit too soon</i>?"</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2III'></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>"Charlotte, what are we going to do? It turns out Lee has his sister +with him!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Andrew Churchill, engaged in making up a fresh bed with linen +smelling faintly of lavender, dropped her sheets and blankets and stood up +straight. She gazed across the room at Andy, whose face expressed both +amusement and dismay.</p> + +<p>"Andy," said she, "haven't I somewhere heard a proverb to the effect +that it never rains but it pours?"</p> + +<p>"There's an impression on my mind that you have," said her husband. "You +are now about to have a practical demonstration of that same proverb. I +wrote Lee, as you suggested after his second telegram, and this is his +answer. He was detained by the illness of his sister Evelyn, who is with +him. It seems she was at school up here in our state, but overworked and +finally broke down, and he has come to take her home. But you see home for +them means a boarding-house. The family is broken up, mother dead, father +at the ends of the earth; and Lee has Evelyn on his hands. The worst of it +is, he wants me to see her professionally, so I can't very well suggest +that we're too full to entertain her."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't," agreed Charlotte, promptly. "But it means that we +must find another room somewhere in the house. Of course mother would--but +I don't want to begin right away to send extra guests over there."</p> + +<p>"Neither do I," said Doctor Churchill. "Do you suppose we could put a +cot into my private office for Lee? Then the sister could have this."</p> + +<p>"How old is she?"</p> + +<p>"Sixteen, he says."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then this will do. And we can put a cot in your private +office--after office hours. If Mr. Lee is an old friend he won't object to +anything."</p> + +<p>"You're a dear girl! And they won't stay long, of course--especially +when they see how crowded we are. You'll like Thorne Lee, Charlotte; he's +one of the best fellows alive. I haven't seen the sister since she was a +small child, but if she's anything like her brother you'll have no trouble +entertaining her, sick or well. All right! I'll answer Lee's letter, and +say nothing about our being full-up."</p> + +<p>"Of course not; that wouldn't be hospitality. When will they come?"</p> + +<p>"In a day or two--as soon as she feels like travelling again."</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready for her," and Charlotte gave him her brightest smile as +he hurried off.</p> + +<p>She finished her bed-making, put the little room set apart for her own +private den into guest-room condition as nearly as it was possible to do +with articles of furniture borrowed from next door, and went down to break +the news to Mrs. Fields. She found that person explaining with grim +patience to the Peyton children why they could not make candy in her +kitchen at the inopportune hour of ten in the morning.</p> + +<p>"But we always do at home!" complained Lucy, with a frown.</p> + +<p>"Like as not you don't clear up the muss afterward, either," suggested +Mrs. Fields, with a sharp look.</p> + +<p>"Course we don't," Randolph asserted, with a curl of his handsome upper +lip. "What's servants for, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"To make friends with, not to treat impolitely," said a clear voice +behind the boy.</p> + +<p>Randolph and Lucy turned quickly, and Mrs. Fields's face, which had +grown grim, softened perceptibly. Both children looked ready to make some +tart reply to Charlotte's interpolation, but as their eyes fell upon her +they discovered that to be impossible. How could one speak rudely when one +met that kind but authoritative glance?</p> + +<p>"This is Mrs. Fields's busiest time, you know," Charlotte said, "and it +wouldn't do to bother her now with making candy. In the afternoon I'll help +you make it. Come, suppose we go for a walk. I've some marketing to +do."</p> + +<p>"Ran can go with you," said Lucy, as Charlotte proceeded to make ready +for the trip. "It's too cold for me. I'd rather stay here by the fire and +read."</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked at her. Lucy's delicate face was paler than usual this +morning; she had a languid air.</p> + +<p>"The walk in this fresh November breeze will be sure to make you feel +ever so much better," said Charlotte. "Don't you think so, Cousin +Lula?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton looked up reluctantly from her embroidery.</p> + +<p>"Why, I wouldn't urge her, Charlotte, if she doesn't want to go," she +said, with a glance at Lucy, who was leaning back in a big chair with a +discontented expression. "You mustn't expect people from the South to enjoy +your freezing weather as you seem to. Lucy feels the cold very much."</p> + +<p>Charlotte and Randolph marched away down the street together, the boy as +full of spirits as his companion.</p> + +<p>She had found it easy from the first to make friends with him, and was +beginning, in spite of certain rather unpleasant qualities of his, to like +him very much. His mother had done her best to spoil him, yet the child +showed plainly that there was in him the material for a sturdy, strong +character.</p> + +<p>When Charlotte had made several small purchases at the market, she did +not offer to give Randolph the little wicker basket she carried, but the +boy took it from her with a smile and a proud air.</p> + +<p>"Ran," said Charlotte, "just round this corner there's a jolly hill. I +don't believe anybody will mind if we have a race down it, do you?"</p> + +<p>It was a back street, and the hill was an inviting one. The two had +their race, and Randolph won by a yard. Just as the pair, laughing and +panting, slowed down into their ordinary pace, a runabout, driven by a +smiling young man in a heavy ulster and cap, turned the corner with a rush. +Amid a cloud of steam the motor came to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"Aha! Caught you at it!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Came down that hill +faster than the law allows. Get in here, both of you, and take the run out +to the hospital with me. I shall not be there long. I've been out once this +morning. This is just to make sure of a case I operated on two hours +ago."</p> + +<p>"Shall we, Ran?" asked Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let's!" said the boy, with enthusiasm. So away they went. The +result of the expedition came out later in the day. Before dinner the +entire household was grouped about the fire, Doctor Churchill having just +come in, after one of his busiest days.</p> + +<p>"Been out to the hospital again, Cousin Andy?" Ran asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes; twice since the noon visit."</p> + +<p>"How was the little boy with the broken waist?</p> + +<p>"Fractured hip? Just about as you saw him. He's got to be patient a good +while before he can walk again, and these first few days are hard. He asked +me when you would come again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll go to-morrow!" cried Randolph, sitting up very straight on his +cushion. "And I'll take him a book I've got, with splendid pictures."</p> + +<p>"Good!" Doctor Churchill laid a hand on the boy's thick locks. "That +will please him immensely."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton was looking at him with dismay. "Do I understand you have +taken him to a hospital?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill nodded. "To the boys' surgical ward. Nothing contagious +admitted to the hospital. It's a wonderful pleasure to the little chaps to +see a boy from outside, and Ran enjoyed it, too, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was jolly!" said the boy.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think that was exactly the word to describe such a spot," +said Mrs. Peyton, and she looked displeased. "I think there are quite +enough sad sights in the world for his young eyes without taking him into +the midst of suffering. I should not have permitted it if you had consulted +me."</p> + +<p>It was true that Doctor Churchill possessed a frank and boyish face, +wearing ordinarily an exceedingly genial expression; but the friendly gray +eyes were capable of turning steely upon provocation, and they turned that +way now. He returned his cousin's look with one which concealed with some +difficulty both surprise and disgust.</p> + +<p>"I took Ran nowhere that he would see any extreme suffering," he +explained. "This ward contains only convalescents from various injuries and +operations. The graver cases are elsewhere, and he saw nothing of those. A +visit to this ward is likely to excite sympathy, it is true, but not +sympathy of a painful sort. The boys have very good times among themselves, +after a limited fashion, and I think Ran had a good time with them. How +about it, Ran?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I did! I taught two of 'em to play waggle-finger. Their legs were +hurt, but their hands were all right, and they could play waggle-finger as +well as anybody. They liked it."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, Randolph is of a very sensitive and delicate make-up," +pursued his mother, "and I don't think such associations good for him. He +moaned in his sleep last night, and I couldn't think what it could be."</p> + +<p>"It couldn't have been the candy we made this afternoon, could it, +Cousin Lula?" Charlotte asked, in her gentlest way. A comprehending smile +touched the corners of Doctor Churchill's lips.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course not!" said Mrs. Peyton, quickly. "Candy made this +afternoon--how absurd, Charlotte! It was last night his sleep was +disturbed."</p> + +<p>"But the hospital visit was this morning," Charlotte said. "I should +think the one might as easily be responsible as the other."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton looked confused. "I understood you to say the visit to the +hospital occurred yesterday," she said, with dignity, and Doctor Churchill +smothered his amusement. "I certainly do not approve of taking children to +such places," she repeated.</p> + +<p>Charlotte adroitly turned the conversation into other channels, and +nothing more was said about hospitals just then. Only the boy, when he had +a chance, whispered in Doctor Churchill's ear:</p> + +<p>"You just wait. I'll tease her into it."</p> + +<p>His cousin smiled back at him and shook his head. "Teasing's a mighty +poor way of getting things, Ran," he said. "Leave it to me."</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the following day Jeff, crossing the lawn at his usual +rapid pace, was hailed from Doctor Churchill's office door by Mrs. Fields. +The housekeeper waved a telegram as he approached.</p> + +<p>"Here, Mr. Jeff," said she. "Would you mind opening this? There ain't a +soul in the house, and I don't want to take such a liberty, but it ought to +be read. I make no manner of doubt it's from those extry visitors that are +coming."</p> + +<p>"Where are they all?" Jeff fingered the envelope reluctantly. "I don't +like opening other people's messages."</p> + +<p>"I don't know where they are, that's it. Doctor took Miss Charlotte and +Ranny off after lunch in his machine, and Mis' Peyton and Lucy have gone to +town with your mother. Doctor Andy wouldn't like it if his friends came +without anybody to meet 'em."</p> + +<p>Jeff tore open the dispatch. "The first two words will tell me, I +suppose," he said. "Hello--yes, you're right! They'll be here on the +five-ten. That's"--he pulled out his watch--"why, there's barely time to +get to the station now! This must have been delayed. You say you don't know +where anybody is?"</p> + +<p>"Not a soul. Doctor usually leaves word, but he didn't this time."</p> + +<p>"I'll telephone the hospital," and Jeff hurried to Doctor Churchill's +desk. In a minute he had learned that the doctor had come and gone for the +last time that day. He looked at Mrs. Fields.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to go, Mr. Jeff," said she. "I know Doctor Andy's ways. +He'd as soon let company go without their dinners as not be on hand when +their train came in. He wasn't expecting the Lees till to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Jeff, "I'll go, since there's nobody else. How am I to +know 'em? Young man and sick girl? All right, that's easy," and he was off +to catch a car at the corner.</p> + +<p>As he rode into town, however, he was rebelling against the situation. +"This guest business is being overdone," he observed to himself. "These +people are probably some more off the Peyton piece of cloth. An invalid +girl lying round on couches for Fiddle to wait on--another Lucy, probably, +only worse, because she's ill. Well, I'm not going to be any more cordial +than the law calls for. I'll have to bring 'em out in a carriage, I +suppose. She'll be too limp for the trolley."</p> + +<p>He reached the station barely in time to engage a carriage before the +train came in. He took up his position inside the gates through which all +passengers must pass from the train-shed into the great station.</p> + +<p>"Looking for somebody?" asked a voice at his elbow.</p> + +<p>He glanced quickly down at one of his old schoolmates, Carolyn Houghton. +"Yes, guests of the Churchills," he answered, his gaze instantly returning +to the throng pouring toward him from the train. "Help me, will you? I +don't know them from Adam. It's a man and his invalid sister, old friends +of Andy's."</p> + +<p>"There they are," said Carolyn, promptly, indicating an approaching +pair.</p> + +<p>Jeff laughed. "The sister isn't quite so antique as that," he objected, +as a little woman of fifty wavered past on the arm of a stout +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"You said 'old' friends," retorted Carolyn. "Look, Jeff, isn't that she? +The sister's being wheeled in a chair by a porter, the brother's walking +beside her. They <i>look</i> like Doctor Churchill's friends, Jeff."</p> + +<p>"Think you can tell Andy's friends by their uniform?"</p> + +<p>"You can tell anybody's intimate friends in a crowd--I mean the same +kind of people look alike," asserted Carolyn, with emphasis. "These are the +ones, I'm sure. I'll just watch while you greet them and then I'll slip +off. I'm taking this next train. What a sweet face that girl has, but how +delicate--like a little flower. She's a dear, I'm sure. The brother looks +nice, too. They're the ones, I know. See, the brother's looking hard at us +all inside the gates."</p> + +<p>"Here goes, then. Good-by!" Jeff turned away to the task of making +himself known to the strangers. But he was forced to admit that if +Charlotte must meet another onslaught of visitors, these certainly did look +attractive.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm Thorne Lee," the young man answered, with a straight look into +Jeff's eyes and a grasp of the outstretched hand as Jeff introduced +himself. He motioned the porter to wheel the chair out of the pressing +crowd.</p> + +<p>Jeff explained about the delayed telegram. Mr. Lee presented him to the +young girl in the chair, and Jeff looked down into a pair of hazel eyes +which instantly claimed his sympathy, the shadows of fatigue lay on them so +heavily. But Miss Evelyn Lee's smile was bright if fleeting, and she +answered Jeff's announcement that he had a carriage waiting with so +appreciative a word of gratitude that he found his preconceived antipathy +to Doctor Churchill's guests slipping away.</p> + +<p>So presently he had them in a carriage and bowling through the streets +which led toward the suburbs. Thorne Lee sat beside his sister, supporting +her, and talked with Jeff. By the time they had covered the long drive to +the house Jeff was hoping Lee would stay a month.</p> + +<p>The hazel eyes of Lee's young sister had closed and the lashes lay +wearily sweeping the pale cheeks as the carriage drove up.</p> + +<p>"Are we there?" Lee asked, bending over the slight figure. "Open your +eyes, dear."</p> + +<p>Jeff jumped out and ran to the house. He burst in upon Charlotte and +Andy. "Your friends are here!" he shouted. "I had to meet 'em myself."</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill and Charlotte were at the door before the words were +out of Jeff's mouth, and in a moment more Andy was lifting Evelyn Lee's +light figure in his arms, thanking heaven inwardly as he did so for his +young wife's wholesome weight. At the same moment words of of eager, cheery +welcome for his old friend were on his lips:</p> + +<p>"Thorne Lee, I'm gladder to see you than anybody in the world! Miss +Evelyn, here's Mrs. Churchill. She's not an old married woman at all--she's +the dearest girl in the world. She's going to seem to you like one of your +schoolfellows. Charlotte, here she is; take good care of her."</p> + +<p>Thorne Lee stood looking on, a relieved smile on his lips as his old +friend's wife took his sick little sister into her charge. It was not two +minutes before he saw Evelyn, lying pale and mute on the couch, yet smiling +up at Charlotte's bright young face.</p> + +<p>Charlotte administered a cup of hot bouillon talking so engagingly +meanwhile that Evelyn was beguiled into taking without protest the whole of +the much-needed nourishment. Then he saw the young invalid carried off to +bed, relieved of the necessity of meeting any more members of the +household. He learned, as Charlotte slipped into the room after an hour's +absence, that Evelyn had already dropped off to sleep. He leaned back in +his chair with a long breath.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a girl is this you've married, Andy?" he asked, with a +smile and a look from one to the other. The three were alone, Mrs. Peyton +and her children having gone out to some sort of entertainment.</p> + +<p>"Just what she seems to be," replied Doctor Churchill, smiling back, +"and a thousand times more."</p> + +<p>"I might have known you would care for no other," Lee said. "And you two +'live in your house at the side of the road, to be good friends to +man,'--if I may adapt those homely words."</p> + +<p>"We haven't been at it very long, but we hope to realize an ambition of +the sort. It doesn't take much philanthropy to welcome you."</p> + +<p>"You can't think what a relief it is to me to get that little sister of +mine under your wing, even for a few hours."</p> + +<p>"Tell us all about her."</p> + +<p>Lee had not meant to begin at once upon his troubles, but his friend +drew him on, and before the evening ended the doctor and Charlotte had the +whole long, hard story of Lee's guardianship of several young brothers and +sisters, his struggle to get established in his profession and make money +for their support, his many anxieties in the process, and this culminating +trouble in the breakdown of the younger sister, just as he thought he had +her safely established in a school where she might have a happy home for +several years.</p> + +<p>Lee stopped suddenly, as if he had hardly known how long he had been +talking. "I'm a pleasant guest!" he said, regret in his tone. "I meant to +tell you briefly the history of Evelyn's illness, and here I've gone on +unloading all my burdens of years. What do you sit there looking so +benevolent and sympathetic for, beguiling a fellow into making a weak-kneed +fool of himself? My worries are no greater than those of millions of other +people, and here I've been laying it on with a trowel. Forget the whole +dismal story, and just give me a bit of professional advice about my little +sister."</p> + +<p>"Look here, old boy," said his friend, "don't go talking that way. +You've done just what I was anxious you should do--given me your +confidence. I can go at your sister's case with a better chance of +understanding it if I know this whole story. And now I'm going to thank you +and send you off to bed for a good night's sleep. To-morrow we'll take +Evelyn in hand."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, Andy! You're the same old tried and true," murmured Thorne +Lee, shaking hands warmly.</p> + +<p>Then Charlotte led him away up-stairs to see his sister, who had waked +and wanted him. Stooping over her bed, he felt a pair of slender arms round +his neck and heard her voice whispering in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Thorny, I just wanted you to know that I think Mrs. Churchill is the +dearest person I ever saw, and I'm going to sleep better to-night than I +have for weeks."</p> + +<p>"Thank God for that!" thought Lee, and kissed the thin cheek of the girl +with brotherly fervor.</p> + +<p>Down-stairs in the hall a few minutes later Andrew Churchill advanced to +meet his wife, as she returned to him after ministering to Evelyn Lee's +wants.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said he, looking straight down into her eyes as she came +up to him, "those words of Stevenson's--though they always fit you--seem +particularly applicable to you to-night?</p> + +<blockquote> +"Steel-true and blade-straight<br /> + The great artificer<br /> + Made my mate.'"<br /> +</blockquote> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2IV'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>"I think," said Doctor Churchill, leaning back in his office chair, with +a mingling of the professional and the friendly in his air, "that we can +get at the bottom of Evelyn's troubles without very much difficulty." He +had just sent Evelyn back to Charlotte, after an hour in the office, during +which he had subjected her to a minute and painstaking examination into the +cause of her ill health. And now to her brother, anxiously awaiting his +verdict, he spoke his mind.</p> + +<p>"If you'll let me be very frank with you, Thorne," he said, "I'll tell +you just what I think about Evelyn, and just what it seems to me is the +proper course for us to take with her."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead; it's exactly that I want," Lee declared. "I know well enough +that my care of her has been seriously at fault."</p> + +<p>"Never in intention," said Doctor Churchill, "only in the excess of your +tenderness. Evelyn has lived in overheated rooms, with hot baths, +insufficient exercise, and improper food. In the kindness of your heart you +have been nourishing a little hot-house plant, and there's no occasion for +surprise that it wilts at the first blast of ordinary air."</p> + +<p>Lee looked dismayed.</p> + +<p>"I'm mighty sorry, Andy," he said, remorsefully.</p> + +<p>"Don't feel too badly," was his friend's reply. "After a winter with us +Evelyn will be another girl."</p> + +<p>"What?" Lee started in his chair. "Andy, what are you thinking +about?"</p> + +<p>"Just what I say. Charlotte and I have talked it all over. We've both +taken an immense liking to Evelyn and we'd honestly enjoy having her here +for the winter. It only remains for you to convince Evelyn herself that we +are to be trusted, and to secure her promise that we may have our way with +her from first to last, and the thing is done."</p> + +<p>"You are sure that's really all there is to it? You're not keeping +anything from me?"</p> + +<p>"Not a thing. And I'm as sure as a man can well be. That's why I don't +prescribe a sanatorium for her, or anything of that sort. All she needs is +a rational, every-day life of the health-making kind, such as Charlotte and +I can teach her--Charlotte even more effectively than I. Evelyn needs +simply to build up a strong physical body; then these troublesome nerves +will take care of themselves. Believe me, Thorne, it's refreshingly simple. +I've not even a drug to suggest for your sister. She doesn't need any."</p> + +<p>"But, Andy, it doesn't seem to me I can let Evelyn stay here with you +all winter--the first winter of your married life. You two ought to be +alone together."</p> + +<p>"No. Charlotte and I haven't set out to go through life--even this first +year of it--alone together. We are together, no matter how many we have +about us. It will be only in the day's work if we keep Evelyn with us, and +it's a sort of work that will pay pretty well, I fancy."</p> + +<p>"It certainly will--in more than one kind of coin," and Lee gripped his +friend's hand.</p> + +<p>So it was settled. Evelyn agreed so joyously to the plan that her +brother's last doubt of its feasibility was removed, and he went away a day +later with a heart so much lighter than the one he had brought with him +that it showed in his whole bearing.</p> + +<p>"God bless you and your sweet wife, Andy Churchill," he wrote back from +his first stopping-place, and when Churchill showed the letter to Charlotte +she said, happily:</p> + +<p>"We'll make the copper motto come true with this guest, won't we? Evelyn +will be a very pretty girl when she loses that fragile look. Her eyes and +expression are beautiful. Do you know, she accepts everything I say as if I +were the Goddess of Wisdom herself."</p> + +<p>"Charlotte," said Mrs. Peyton, a few days later, coming hurriedly into +Charlotte's own room, where that young woman was busy with various +housewifely offices, "I've had a telegram. I'm so upset I don't know what +to do. My sister is sick and her husband is away, and she's sent for me. +I'm not able to do nursing--I'm not strong enough--but I don't see but that +I must go."</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry your sister is ill," said Charlotte. "Tell me about +her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton told at length. "And what I'm to do with the children," she +said, mournfully, "I don't know. Sister doesn't want them to come. But here +I'm away up North and sister's out West, and the children couldn't go home +alone. Besides, there's nowhere for them to go. I am their only home. Dear, +dear, what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>The front door-bell, ringing sharply, sent Charlotte down-stairs. At +this moment she saw her husband coming up the street in his runabout. When +Doctor Churchill ran into his office after a case of instruments he had +forgotten, his wife cast herself into his arms, in such a state of emotion +that he held her close, bewildered.</p> + +<p>"What on earth is it, dear?" he asked. "Are you laughing or crying? +Here, let me see your face."</p> + +<p>"O Andy"--Charlotte would not let her face be seen--"it's Cousin Lula! +She's--she's--oh, she's--<i>going away</i>!"</p> + +<p>Churchill burst into smothered laughter. "It can't be you're crying," he +murmured. "Charlotte, I don't blame you. Look up and smile. I know how you +must be feeling. You've been a regular heroine all these weeks."</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully ashamed," choked Charlotte, on his shoulder, "but, O Andy, +what it will seem not to have to--oh, I mustn't say it, but--"</p> + +<p>"I know, I know!" He patted her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Her sister is ill, in the West somewhere. She has to go to her at once. +She wants the children to stay with us."</p> + +<p>"She does!"</p> + +<p>"Her sister doesn't want them there, and she can't send them home. Andy, +I wouldn't mind that so awfully. I'd almost like the chance to see what we +could do with them."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't answer definitely till I have time to talk it over with you +and with her. I must go now."</p> + +<p>They talked it over, together, and with Mrs. Peyton. The result of these +conferences was that two days later that lady took her departure, leaving +her children in the care of the Churchills.</p> + +<p>"On one condition, Cousin Lula," Doctor Churchill had said to her with +decision. "That you put them absolutely in our care and trust our judgment +in the management of them."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peyton tried to make a few reservations. Her cousin would have none +of them. At last she submitted, understanding well enough in her heart that +Andrew Churchill would be the safest sort of a guardian for her children, +and admitting to herself, if she did not to anybody else, that Charlotte +would give them care of the sort which money cannot buy.</p> + +<p>"That woman gone?" asked Jeff, coming into his sister Celia's room. +"Well, I'm delighted to hear it. But I must say I think Charlotte's taken a +good deal of a contract. I didn't mind so much about their agreeing to keep +Evelyn Lee, for she's a mighty nice sort of a girl, and will make a still +nicer one when she gets strong. But these Peyton youngsters--I certainly +don't think taking care of them ought to have been on the bill. That idiot +Lucy--" His expressive face finished the sentence for him.</p> + +<p>Celia smiled. "I know. I feel as you do, and I think father and mother +are a little anxious lest Charlotte has taken too much care on her +shoulders. But Charlotte and Andy have set out to make everybody happy, and +they're seizing every chance that offers. They're so enthusiastic about it +one can't bear to dampen their ardour. The least we can do is to help them +whenever we can."</p> + +<p>Jeff made a wry face. "I don't mind assisting in the boy's education, +but I draw the line at the girl. She's a silly. Why, she--" His face +coloured with resentment. "It sounds crazy to say, but she does, for a +fact, make eyes at every man or boy she sees."</p> + +<p>Celia laughed. "I hadn't noticed. But she can't mean to, Jeff. She's +only fifteen."</p> + +<p>"That's the idiocy of it. She's only fifteen, but you watch her the next +time any of us fellows come into the room. Just can tell you; he's in a +chronic state of laugh over it. She thinks she's a beauty, and she thinks +we're all impressed with the fact."</p> + +<p>"She is pretty."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. I don't call any girl pretty who's so struck with +herself that she can't get by a mirror without a glance and a pat of that +big fluff of front hair. You don't catch Eveyln looking into a glass or +acting as if she thought everybody was about to fall in love with her. I'm +going to take her skating when she gets strong enough."</p> + +<p>"That won't be for some time, I'm afraid. But she certainly is looking +better already."</p> + +<p>So she was. Charlotte had begun very gently with Evelyn, reducing the +temperature of the daily bath only by a degree at a time, lessening the +heat in the sleeping room, opening the windows for outside air an inch more +each night, coaxing her out for a short walk of gradually increasing length +each day, and generally luring her toward more healthful ways of living +than those to which she had been accustomed.</p> + +<p>Bedtime found Evelyn exceedingly weary, but it was healthful weariness, +and she was beginning to be able to sleep.</p> + +<p>A tinge of colour was growing in the pale cheeks, a brighter expression +in the large eyes, and altogether the young guest was showing a gratifying +response to the new methods.</p> + +<p>"I think," said Charlotte to Evelyn one morning, when three weeks had +gone by, "we shall have to celebrate your improvement by a little concert +this evening. Would you like to hear the Birch-Churchill orchestra?"</p> + +<p>"Orchestra? How lovely! Indeed I should!" cried Evelyn, with a display +of enthusiasm quite unusual. "What do you play?"</p> + +<p>"Strings. We're badly out of practice, but there are always a few old +things we can get up fairly well at a minute's notice. The truth is, we +haven't played together since long before my wedding-day, and I resolved +the minute we were married we'd begin again. We will begin, this very +night. I know they'll all be glad."</p> + +<p>The performers did, indeed, show their pleasure by arriving early, +flannel-shrouded instruments under their arms. Doctor Churchill came in +just as they were tuning. Since Lanse had been away, Andy, who was +something of a violinist had taken up Lanse's viola, and was now able to +occupy his brother-in-law's place. Celia, however, had been chosen to fill +the vacant rôle of leadership.</p> + +<p>"The rest of us are only imitators," Jeff declared to Evelyn, as he +stood near her, softly trying his strings. "Charlotte's the best, and +Andy's very good indeed; but it's only Celia who goes to hear big music and +sits with the tears rolling down her cheeks, while the rest of us are +wondering what on earth it all means."</p> + +<p>Evelyn, leaning back among the pillows of the wide couch, called Lucy +softly, motioning her to a seat by her side.</p> + +<p>Lucy came quickly, pleased by Evelyn's notice. She in her turn had been +regarding Evelyn as a monopolist of everybody's attention and had made up +her mind not to like her. But now she sank into the place by Evelyn's side, +and accepted the delicate touch of Evelyn's hand on hers as recognition at +last that here was another girl fit to make friends with.</p> + +<p>"Don't they play well?" whispered Evelyn, as the music came to a sudden +stop that Celia might criticise the playing of a difficult passage.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't think so," called Just, softly, having caught the whisper. +He indicated his elder sister. "She won't let me boom things with my viol +the way I'd like to. What's the use of playing the biggest instrument if +you can't make the biggest noise?"</p> + +<p>"Solo, by the double-bass!" cried Andy; and the whole orchestra, except +the first violin of the leader, burst into a boisterous rendering of a +popular street song, in which Just sawed forth the leading part, while the +others kept up a rattling staccato accompaniment. Evelyn and Lucy became +breathless with laughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Birch, who had just slipped into +the room, joined in the merriment.</p> + +<p>"There you are," chuckled Jeff. "That's what you get when you give the +donkey the solo part among the farmyard performers."</p> + +<p>"He can sing as well as the peacock," retorted Just, with spirit.</p> + +<p>"We were right in the middle of the <i>'Hungarian Intermezzo,'</i>" +explained Celia to the newcomers. "I stopped them to tell them why they +needed to look more carefully to their phrasing, and the children burst +into this sort of thing. What shall I do with them?"</p> + +<p>"It's a great relief to feel that they're not altogether grown up, after +all," said Mr. Birch, helping himself to his favourite easy chair near the +fireplace. "There are times when we feel a strong suspicion that we haven't +any children any more. Moments like these assure us that we are mistaken. +Go on with your '<i>Intermezzo,</i>' but give us another nursery song +before you are through."</p> + +<p>"Nursery song! That's pretty good," said Jeff, in Just's ear, and that +sixteen-year-old mumbled in reply, "I can throw you over my shoulder just +the same."</p> + +<p>"Boys, come! We're ready!" called Celia, and the music began again.</p> + +<p>"Are you getting tired, dear?" asked Mrs. Birch of Evelyn, when the +"<i>Intermezzo</i>" was finished, noting the flush on the delicate cheek. +Evelyn looked up brightly.</p> + +<p>"Not enough to hurt me. I'm enjoying it so! Aren't large families +lovely? I was so much younger than my brothers and sisters that by the time +I was old enough to care about having good times like this on winter +evenings they were all away at school or married. We never had anything so +nice as a family orchestra, either. I wish I could play something."</p> + +<p>"How about the piano?" asked Charlotte, who sat near. Evelyn's flush +grew pinker.</p> + +<p>"I can play a little," she said. "But you don't need the piano."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we do. A piano would add ever so much. Next time we'll have our +practice at home, and give you a part."</p> + +<p>Then she glanced at Lucy, and saw what might have been expected, a look +of envy and discontent. "Is there anything you can play, Lucy?" she asked. +"It would be very nice to have everybody in. Perhaps Ran could have a +triangle."</p> + +<p>"I play the piano," said Lucy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, give Lucy the piano," Evelyn said, quickly,--also as might have +been expected.</p> + +<p>"We'll try you both," put in Doctor Churchill, "as they always do +aspirants for such positions."</p> + +<p>"I've had lessons from the best master in our state," said Lucy to +Just.</p> + +<p>"That so? Then you may win out," was his opinion. "But you can't be +sure. Evelyn's not much of a bragger, but she seems to be a pretty +well-educated girl."</p> + +<p>"Just, be careful!" warned Charlotte, in his ear, as she drew him gently +to one side. "I know you don't like her, but you must be considerate of +her."</p> + +<p>"I don't feel much like it."</p> + +<p>"You know I want your help about Lucy." Charlotte had drawn him still +farther away, so that she could speak with safety. "But you know, too, that +snubbing isn't a way to get hold of anybody."</p> + +<p>"It's the only way with conceited softies," began Just.</p> + +<p>But Charlotte caught his hand and squeezed it. "No, it isn't. I'm sure +she's worth being friends with, and if she can learn certain things you can +teach her in the way of athletics, and reading, and all that, you can do +her lots of good."</p> + +<p>"Don't feel a bit like being a missionary!" growled Just. "Suppose I've +got to try it, to please you. Evelyn's all right, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's a dear. I'm so glad we kept her. That makes me realise she's +had quite enough excitement for to-night. I must carry her off to bed. +Perhaps you'd all better--"</p> + +<p>"No, you don't!" said Just, with a rebellious laugh. "Just because +you've set up a sanatorium and a kindergarten you can't send your brothers +off to bed at nine o'clock. I want a good visit with you after the infants +and invalids are in bed."</p> + +<p>"All right, big boy," promised Charlotte, rejoicing in the affectionate +look he gave her.</p> + +<p>She had been anxious that her marriage should in no way interfere with +the old brotherly and sisterly relations, and it was a long time since she +had had a confidential talk with her youngest brother. Jeff was always +coming to her precisely as in the old days, with demands for interest and +advice; but Just had seemed a little farther away.</p> + +<p>So when she had seen the "infants and invalids" happily gone to rest, +and after a quiet hour of family talk about the fireside had said +good-night to all the others, Charlotte turned to Just with a look of +welcome as fresh and inviting as if the evening had but now begun. Doctor +Churchill had gone to make a bedtime call upon a patient critically ill, +and the two were quite alone.</p> + +<p>"This is jolly," said Just, settling himself on a couch pillow at her +feet, his long legs stretched out to the fire, his head resting against his +sister's knee. "Now I'm going to tell you everything that's happened to me +since you were married. Not that there's anything wonderful to tell, or +that I'm in any scrape, you know, but I'd like to feel I've got my sister +and that she cares--just as much as ever." He twisted his head about till +he could look up into the warm, sweet face above him. "<i>Does</i> she care +as much as ever?"</p> + +<p>It was an unusual demonstration from the big boy, now at the age when +sisterly companionship is often despised, and Charlotte appreciated it. +More than Justin Birch could understand was in her voice as her fingers +rested upon his hair, but what she said gave him great satisfaction, +although it was only a blithe:</p> + +<p>"Just as much--and a little more, dear. Tell me the whole story. There's +nothing I'd like so much to hear."</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2V'></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>"Evelyn! Miss Evelyn Lee! Where are you?"</p> + +<p>Jeff's shout rang up the stairs, and in obedience to its imperative +summons Evelyn immediately appeared at the head.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Jefferson Birch," she responded. "Is the house on fire?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit, but I'm anxious for your hearing. I've been roaring gently +all over the house without a result, except to scare three patients in +Andy's office. Won't you come down?"</p> + +<p>She descended slowly, but she neither clung to the rail nor sat down to +rest half-way, as she had done when she first came under the Churchill +roof.</p> + +<p>Her face was acquiring the soft bloom of a flower, her eyes were full of +light and interest. She still looked slim and frail, but she was beginning +to show signs of waxing health very pleasant to see for those who had grown +as interested in her as if she were a young sister of their own.</p> + +<p>"I've an invitation for you from Carolyn Houghton for an impromptu +sleigh-ride to-night. Don't you suppose you can go? I'll take all sorts of +care of you and see that you don't get too tired. You've met Carolyn; she's +a jolly girl to know, and she told me to bring you if possible."</p> + +<p>Evelyn dropped into a chair. "Oh, how I should love to go!" she said. "I +never went on a sleigh-ride like that in my life. Do you go all together in +a big load?"</p> + +<p>"Yes--a regular prairie-schooner of a sleigh. Holds a dozen of us, +packed like sardines, so nobody can get cold. We take hot soapstones and +rugs and robes, and we go only twelve miles, to a farmhouse where we get a +hot supper--oysters and hot biscuit and maple-syrup, and all sorts of good +things. You must go."</p> + +<p>"If I only could!" sighed Evelyn. "I'm so afraid they won't think I +can."</p> + +<p>"They will, if <i>you</i> think you can," asserted Jeff. "You're up to +it, aren't you? You needn't do a thing. Six of the crowd are going to give +a little play. I'll get the load started home early, and we'll come back +flying. Be here by midnight at the latest. It'll do you good, I know it +will."</p> + +<p>"O Mrs. Churchill!" breathed Evelyn, as Charlotte appeared from the +hall.</p> + +<p>"O Evelyn Lee!" answered Charlotte, smiling back at the eager face. +"Yes, I heard most of it, Jeff, for I was coming down-stairs, and you +weren't exactly whispering. It's an enticing plan, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. And it's magnificent weather for the affair. Not cold +a bit and no wind; moonlight due if no clouds come up. Evelyn can't get +cold. I'll keep her done up to the tip of her nose, and be so devoted +nobody else will have a chance to worry her. Say she may go. Don't you see +the disappointment would be worse for her than the trip?"</p> + +<p>"You artful pleader, I'm not sure but it would. If Doctor Churchill +agrees, Evelyn, I'll let you try it. On one condition, Jeff--that you +really do get back by midnight. For a girl who has been put to bed for +weeks at nine that's late enough."</p> + +<p>Evelyn went about all day with a lighter step than her friends had yet +seen her assume.</p> + +<p>"Now remember, I trust her absolutely to your care," Charlotte said to +Jeff that evening, as he appeared, his arms full of accessories for making +his charge comfortable.</p> + +<p>Evelyn, in furs and heavy coat, smiled at her escort. "I'm not a bit +afraid," she said. "Oh, what a beautiful night! The moon is out. Is that +the sleigh coming up the street now, with all those horns? What fun!"</p> + +<p>"I want to put Miss Lee right in the middle of everything!" Jeff called +out, as the sleighload stopped. "I'm particularly requested not to let a +breath of frost strike her."</p> + +<p>"Come on, here's just the spot," answered Carolyn Houghton, holding out +a welcoming hand; and then the girl from the South, who had never known the +sleighing-party of the North, found herself being whirled away over the +road, to an accompaniment of youthful merriment, bursts of songs and +tooting of horns.</p> + +<p>Before it seemed possible the twelve miles of fine sleighing had been +covered, and the old farmhouse, its door flung hospitably open at the sound +of the horns, was invaded by the gay band.</p> + +<p>Evelyn, in a quaint up-stairs bedroom, lighted by kerosene lamps and +warmed by a roaring wood fire in an old-fashioned box stove, was attended +by Carolyn Houghton, who was, as Jeff had said, a "jolly girl to know." +Herself a blooming maid with black locks and carnation cheeks, Carolyn +admired intensely Evelyn's auburn hair and fair complexion.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think she's the dearest thing?" she whispered to a friend, as +they descended the stairs. "There's something so soft and sweet and +ladylike about her, as if nobody could be slangy or loud before her, you +know. Yet she isn't a bit dull; she just <i>sparkles</i> when you get her +interested and happy. I do want her to have a good time to-night."</p> + +<p>There could be no doubt that Evelyn was having a good time. Everything +pleased her, everybody interested her. It seemed to her that she had never +seen such charming young people before.</p> + +<p>The little play made her laugh till she was as flushed and gay as a +child. Those with whom Evelyn showed herself so delighted became equally +delighted with her, and before the evening was over she was feeling that +she had always known these young friends, had forgotten that she had ever +been an invalid, and was indeed "sparkling," as Carolyn Houghton had said, +in a way that drew all eyes toward her in admiration.</p> + +<p>Jeff, indeed, stared at her as if he had never seen her before.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure this isn't hurting you a bit," he said in her ear, as the +evening slipped on. "You must be feeling pretty well, for I've never seen +you so jolly. I'm going to do the prescribing after this. I know what's +good for little girls."</p> + +<p>"I believe you do," Evelyn answered. "No, I'm not a bit tired. Why, is +it almost eleven?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and time to go, if we live up to our promises. Seems a pity, +doesn't it? But it doesn't pay to break your word, so as soon as you girls +can get into your toggery we'll be off."</p> + +<p>"Of course, we must keep our promise," agreed Evelyn, with decision, and +straightway she went up-stairs for her wraps. The other girls followed more +reluctantly.</p> + +<p>"'Goodness, girls, look out!" cried somebody from the window. "Did you +ever see it so thick? The barns are just down there, where that glimmer is, +but you can't see them at all."</p> + +<p>"All the more fun," said another girl.</p> + +<p>"We're pretty far out in the country, and the road's awfully winding. I +hope we get home all right."</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense!" said some one else, with great positiveness. "I should +know the way with my eyes shut. Besides, it was as clear as a bell when we +came. It can't have been snowing long enough to block things in the +least."</p> + +<p>They found it had done so however, when they descended to the sleigh. +That vehicle had been brought close to the porch, that the girls might not +have to walk through the deep snow. The air was so full of the whirling +white particles that from the farther end of the sleigh one could barely +see the horses.</p> + +<p>"I declare, I don't feel just easy about you folks starting out," said +the farmer whose guests they had been. "Better watch the road some careful, +you driver. I suppose you know it pretty well."</p> + +<p>"He doesn't, but I do!" called a tall youth from the driver's seat. +"I'll keep him straight. We'll be all right. We're due home at midnight, +and we'll be there, unless the roads are too heavy to keep the pace we came +in."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, we can't ever keep the pace we come in," presently averred the +man from the livery-stable, who was driving. "The road's pretty heavy. I +declare, I don't know as I ever see snow so thick. Do I turn a little to +the right here or do I keep straight ahead?"</p> + +<p>"Straight ahead," answered the boy beside him, confidently. "I've been +over this road a thousand times, and it doesn't bend to the right for half +a mile yet."</p> + +<p>"It's lucky you know," said the driver. "I'm all at sea already. Can't +see the fences only now and then. I'd ha' swung off there, sure, if you +hadn't said not."</p> + +<p>As the rising wind began to whirl snowily about their ears and necks, +the party turned up their coat-collars and tucked in their fur robes. The +horses were plowing with increasing difficulty through the heavily drifted +roads, and more than once their driver found himself obliged to make a long +detour around a drift which had not been in the road when they first came +over it. Moreover, in spite of the snow, the air seemed to have grown +colder and to be acquiring a penetrating, icy quality which at last made +Jeff declare to Evelyn:</p> + +<p>"You may say you're not cold, but I'm going to insist on your letting me +wrap this steamer rug found your shoulders, with the corner over your head, +so. Now doesn't that keep off a lot of wind?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed it does, thank you," admitted Evelyn, with a little shiver she +could not quite conceal.</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> cold!" Jeff said, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"No colder than anybody else. Please don't worry about me."</p> + +<p>But he did worry, and with reason. Indeed, although nobody was willing +yet to admit it, the situation was becoming a little unpleasant. In spite +of the stout confidence of the boy on the seat with the driver, others who +were somewhat familiar with the road were beginning to question his +leading.</p> + +<p>"That clump of trees doesn't look natural just there," said one, +standing up in the sleigh and trying to peer through the wall of +snowflakes. "It's too near. It ought to be a hundred feet away."</p> + +<p>"No. You're thinking we're farther back than We are," declared Neil +Ward, from the front seat. "We're almost at the turn by the railroad."</p> + +<p>"Why, we can't be! We haven't passed the Winters farm. I tell you, +you're off the road."</p> + +<p>"I think we are," agreed the driver, uneasily, pulling his cap farther +over his snow-hung eyebrows. "I've been thinking so for quite a spell."</p> + +<p>"We're all right. You people just keep cool!" cried Neil.</p> + +<p>"No trouble about keeping cool in this blizzard!" growled somebody, and +there was a general laugh.</p> + +<p>One of the girls started a song, and they all joined cheerily in. A +proposition to toot the horns, forgotten in the bottom of the sleigh, with +a hope of attracting attention from some one, was adopted, and a hideous +din followed, and was kept up till every one was weary--with no result.</p> + +<p>All at once, without warning, the horses plunged heavily and solidly to +their steaming shoulders into an undreamed-of ditch, and the sleigh +stopped, well into the same hole.</p> + +<p>"Will you admit now that we're off the road, Neil Ward?" cried some one, +fiercely; and Neil, without contention but with evident chagrin, admitted +it. There was no ditch that he was aware of within a mile of the +highway.</p> + +<p>Jeff drew the rugs tighter about Evelyn, then lifted a corner to peer +in. "Don't be frightened, little girl. We'll get out of this all right," he +said, as cheerfully as he could, although he was alarmed for her safety +more than he would have dared to admit, even to himself.</p> + +<p>The other girls were all strong, healthy specimens of young womanhood, +presumably able to endure a good deal of cold and exposure without danger +of serious harm. But this little sensitive plant! Jeff waited in suspense +for her answer.</p> + +<p>It came in a clear, sweet voice, without a particle of fright in it: "Of +course we shall. And won't it be fun to tell about it afterward?"</p> + +<p>"You're right, it will!" he responded, with enthusiasm. Inwardly he +said, "You're a plucky one, all right." Then, with the other fellows, he +leaped out of the sleigh, and went to trampling down the snow around the +imprisoned horses.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Alone together, after Randolph and Lucy had gone to bed, Andrew and +Charlotte passed the long evening. Charlotte was not willing to let Evelyn +come home to a closed and silent house, so the two awaited her arrival.</p> + +<p>"Why, Andy, it's snowing furiously!" said Charlotte, from the window, +whither she had gone at the stroke of twelve. Doctor Churchill put down the +book from which he had been reading aloud, and came to her side.</p> + +<p>"So it is. Blowing, too. But it can't have been at it long or we should +have noticed."</p> + +<p>"I've been noticing the wind now and then for the last hour. I hope it's +not grown cold. I wouldn't have anything happen to upset Evelyn's +improvement for the world."</p> + +<p>"Nothing will. They'll be home before the half-hour. Come back and +listen to the rest of this chapter."</p> + +<p>Charlotte came back, but as the quarter-hours went slowly by she became +restless, and vibrated so continually between fireplace and window that +Andy finally put away the book and kept her company.</p> + +<p>"It's growing worse every minute." Charlotte's face was pressed close +against the frosty pane. "If they don't come by one it will look as if +something had happened."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they're at the irresponsible age. When they come they'll say, 'Why, +we didn't dream it was so late!'"</p> + +<p>"Jeff's not irresponsible when he gives a promise. He never breaks one," +Charlotte answered, confidently.</p> + +<p>"This storm would make the roads heavy. Even if they started on time, +they would have to travel twice as slowly as when they went. Stop worrying, +dear; it's not in character for you."</p> + +<p>Charlotte closed her lips, but when the clock struck one her eyes spoke +for her. "Evelyn is so delicate," they said, mutely, and Andy answered as +if she had spoken.</p> + +<p>"Evelyn is wrapped too heavily to be cold. Besides, they'll all take +care of her. She won't come to any harm, I'm sure of it. They'll be here +before half-past-one, I'm confident, and then we can antidote any chill she +may have got."</p> + +<p>But at half-past-one there was still no sign of the sleighing party. +Moreover, the storm was steadily increasing; it had become what is known as +a "blizzard." Even in the protected suburban street the drifts were +beginning to show size, and the arc-light at the corner was almost lost to +view through the downfall.</p> + +<p>Charlotte turned to her husband with something like imperiousness in her +manner, and met the same decision in his look. Before she could speak he +said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll go to meet them. It does look as if they might be stalled +somewhere. It's rather a lonely road till they reach the railroad, and it's +possible they've missed the way."</p> + +<p>He went to the telephone.</p> + +<p>"Andy," cried Charlotte, following him, "order a double sleigh, please! +I must go with you."</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at her, hesitating. "It isn't necessary, dear. I'll +go over and wake up Just, I think. We two will be--"</p> + +<p>"I must go," she interrupted. "I couldn't endure to wait here any +longer. And if Evelyn should be very much chilled she'll need me to look +after her. Besides--"</p> + +<p>He smiled at her. "You won't let me get lost in a snow-drift myself +without you."</p> + +<p>She nodded, and ran away to make ready. By the time the livery-stable +had been awakened from its early morning apathy, and had sent round the +double sleigh with the best pair of horses in its stalls, the party was +ready.</p> + +<p>Just, awakened by snowballs thrown in at his open window, had joyfully +dressed himself. At the last moment Charlotte had thought of the automobile +headlight, and this, hurriedly filled and lighted, streamed out over the +snow as the three jumped into the sleigh. All were warmly dressed, and +Charlotte had brought many extra wraps, as well as a supply of medicines +for a possible emergency of which she did not like to think.</p> + +<p>"Julius Caesar, but this is a night!" came from between Just's teeth, as +the sleigh reached the end of the suburban streets and made the turn upon +the open country road. He clutched at his cap, pulling it still farther +down over his ears. "What a change in six hours!"</p> + +<p>"This is a straight nor'easter," answered Doctor Churchill, slapping +hands already chilled, in spite of his heavy driving gloves. Then he turned +his head. "Can't you keep well down behind us, Charlotte?" he called over +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I'm all right!" she called back. One had to shout to be heard in the +roar of the wind.</p> + +<p>After that nobody talked, except as Just from time to time offered to +drive, to give Andrew's hands a chance to warm. That young man, however, +would not give over the reins to anybody. It was not for nothing that he +had been driving over this country, under all possible conditions of +weather, for nearly five years.</p> + +<p>When they had crossed the railroad which marked the end of the main +highway between two towns and the beginning of the narrow side road which +led off across country to the farmhouse of the sleighing party, conviction +that the young people had been stalled somewhere on the great plain they +were crossing became settled.</p> + +<p>It was with the utmost difficulty that Doctor Churchill kept the road. +Only the fact that the storm was showing signs of decreasing, and that now +and then came moments when he could see more clearly the outlying +indications of fence and tree and infrequent habitation assured him that he +had not lost the way.</p> + +<p>"Hark!" cried Charlotte, suddenly, as they plowed along.</p> + +<p>For the instant the wind had lulled. Doctor Churchill stopped his +horses, and the three held their breath to listen. After a brief interval +came the faint, far toot of a horn. Then, away to the left, a light +suddenly flashed, vanished, and flashed again.</p> + +<p>"There they are!" cried three exultant voices.</p> + +<p>"But how shall we get to them?" shouted Just, instantly alive with +excitement. "Why, they're a mile away! There's no road over there, nor any +houses. They're right out in the fields."</p> + +<p>Then the sifting snow shut down again. The three looked at one another +in the yellow glare from the automobile headlight.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2VI'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>"Don't they see our light?" Charlotte asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I think perhaps they have seen it," Doctor Churchill answered, "and +that's why they were blowing their horns. Probably some of them will start +toward us. If they're not stuck, they'll begin to drive this way. I believe +the thing to do will be for Charlotte to stay here in the sleigh, keeping +the headlight pointed just to the left of that big tree--I noticed that was +where the flash of their fire came--and for Just and me to start across the +fields. I'll turn the horses with their backs to the wind and blanket them. +Then--hold on, I've a better plan. Let's make a fire of our own. That will +insure Charlotte's keeping warm."</p> + +<p>"Everything's too wet," objected Just. "That crowd must have had a time +getting green wood to burn."</p> + +<p>"We can do it." Doctor Churchill was feeling among the robes at his +feet. "I thought of it before we started, and put in a kerosene-can and +some newspapers. Hatchet, too."</p> + +<p>Just got out of the sleigh and waded away toward a thick growth of +underbrush along the side of the road.</p> + +<p>In ten minutes a roaring fire was leaping into the descending snowfall. +A pile of brush and some broken fence-rails were left with Charlotte, the +horses made as snug as possible, and then the two others jumped the fence +and plunged off into the snow.</p> + +<p>Guided by glimpses of the apparently fitful fire of the sleighing party, +Doctor Churchill and Just made their way. Sometimes the course was +comparatively free from drifts; again they had to wallow nearly to their +waists.</p> + +<p>"Confounded long way!" grunted Just. "Good thing we're both tough and +strong. Except for Jeff, there aren't any athletes in the Houghton +party."</p> + +<p>"Don't I see somebody coming toward us?" Doctor Churchill asked, +presently.</p> + +<p>The snowfall was lightening again, and the small flame in the distance +looked nearer. He put his hands to his mouth and gave a long, clear hail. +He was answered by a similar one. Then followed a peculiar musical call, +which Just, recognising, answered ecstatically.</p> + +<p>"It's Jeff!" he shouted. "<i>Whoop!</i> I'll bet he's glad to hear +us!"</p> + +<p>He was. He came plunging through the last big drift toward them, a +snow-encrusted figure. "Well, well!" he cried, in tones of pleasure and +relief. "I knew you'd come. Where are we, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"A mile off the road. Are you all right? I see you've got a fire. +How's--"</p> + +<p>"Evelyn's all right, I think. Since we managed the fire she's fairly +warm again. Plucky as any girl in the crowd, and they're all plucky. How +are we to get our load down to the road?"</p> + +<p>"I brought ropes, and we've a strong pair back there. We'll go and get +them, now that we know where you are. You go back to your party and prepare +them to be rescued."</p> + +<p>"No, Just can go to the camp, and I'll keep on with you."</p> + +<p>Just, being entirely willing to accept the part of rescuer, plowed on +through the big holes Jeff had left in his track. Doctor Churchill and Jeff +made their way back to Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we had rather a bad time for a while," admitted Jeff, as he helped +Andy make the horses ready to start. "We got pretty cold, and I thought +we'd never make the fire go. Found the inside of an old stump at last, and +got her started. Yes, all the girls looked after Evelyn--came pretty near +smothering her. I don't believe she's taken cold. The snow's letting up. I +can see our fire back there. No, we didn't see yours; we were just tooting +on general principles. Evelyn insisted she caught a glimmer, and I started +out to climb a tree to find out. I saw it then, for a minute, and was sure +it was you. Keep this fire going, Charlotte. The storm may close down +again, and we want to make straight tracks across the fields."</p> + +<p>By the time they reached the camp in the fields both Jeff and Doctor +Churchill were pretty well wearied. But they greeted the party there with +an enthusiasm which matched the welcome they received.</p> + +<p>The spirits of the whole company had risen with a jump the instant they +had caught sight of Just, and now, with four horses to pull the ponderous +sleigh through the drifts, the boys walking by its side and the girls +tucked snugly in among the robes, the whole aspect of things was changed. +The situation lost seriousness, and although each was prepared to make a +thrilling tale of it for the various family circles when daylight came, +nobody except Jeff really regretted the experience of the night. When they +reached Charlotte and the smaller sleigh, there was a great chorus of +explanations. She swiftly extracted Evelyn and took her in beside +herself.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, yes, I'm warm, Mrs. Churchill," protested the girl. Her voice +showed that she was very tired, but her inflection was as cheerful as ever. +With a hot soapstone at her feet, a hot-water bag in her lap and +Charlotte's arm about her, she leaned back on the fur-clad shoulder beside +her and rejoiced. One thing was certain. She had had a real Northern good +time, with an exciting ending, and she was quite willing to be tired.</p> + +<p>With the wind at their backs and the fall of snow nearly ceased, the +party was not a great while in getting back to town. The clocks were +striking five when Charlotte, having put her charge to bed, and fed her +with hot food and spicy, steaming drinks, administered the last pat and +tuck. "Now you're not to open your eyes and stir until four o'clock this +afternoon," she admonished her, with decisive tenderness. "Then if you're +very good, you may get up and dress in time for dinner."</p> + +<p>"I'll be good, Mrs. Churchill," promised Evelyn, smiling rather faintly. +She fell asleep almost before the door closed.</p> + +<p>"You must feel a load off your shoulders," Just observed to Jeff, as the +two made ready for slumber for the brief time remaining before breakfast +and the school and college work which would then claim them both.</p> + +<p>"I do. But if Evelyn comes out all right I shall be glad I took her. I +tell you that girl's a mighty good sort."</p> + +<p>"I wish Lucy was like her. What do you think I'm in for? Our class +reception is for Friday night, at the head-master's house. Doctor Agnew's +daughters have met Lucy, and I'm sure she gave 'em a hint to invite her to +come with me. Anyhow, they've done it, and of course I've got to take +her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, a fellow has to be civil to a lot of girls he doesn't +particularly admire. Lucy's not so bad. She's rather pretty--when she's +feeling amiable--and she certainly dresses well."</p> + +<p>Jeff's assertion in the matter of Lucy's appearance was proved true. +When Just, on Friday evening, marched across to the other house, inwardly +raging at his fate, he had an agreeable surprise. As he stood by the +fireplace with Charlotte, Lucy came down-stairs and floated in at the door. +Just stopped in the middle of a sentence and stared.</p> + +<p>Being really a very pretty girl, and feeling, at the present moment, the +height of fluttering expectation, her face was illumined into an +attractiveness that was quite a revelation to her friends. For the first +time Lucy felt herself to be in the centre of things, and it made another +girl of her. In addition, the evening frock she wore was so charming in +style and colouring that it contributed not a little to the general +effect.</p> + +<p>Altogether, Just experienced quite a revulsion of feeling in regard to +the painful duty before him, and came forward to assist Lucy into her long +coat with considerable alacrity and cheerfulness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do love parties so," she declared, as they hurried along the +streets. "I'm not used to being so dull as I've been here. It seems to me +that you have mighty few doings for young people. I don't call candy-pulls +and fudge parties real <i>parties</i>."</p> + +<p>"Probably you won't call this to-night a real party, then. There's never +much that's exciting at Doctor Agnew's. He always has an orchestra playing, +and we walk round and talk, and usually somebody does something to +entertain us--a reading or songs. Maybe you won't think it's as festive as +you expect."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I reckon it will be a nice change," said she, with quite +unexpected good humour.</p> + +<p>In the dressing-room Chester Agnew, the son of the head-master, came up +to Just with an expression of mingled pleasure and chagrin.</p> + +<p>"Awfully glad to see you, Birch," he said, "I suppose you noticed that +we have no music going to-night. It's a shame, isn't it? Lindmann's men +have been delayed by a freight wreck on the P. & Q. They were coming +home from a wedding down the line somewhere, and telephoned us they +couldn't get out here before midnight. We've tried to get some other music, +but everything's engaged somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Too bad, but it's no great matter," Just replied, comfortably. "We can +worry along without the orchestra."</p> + +<p>"No, you can't. Mother's plans for to-night were for a series of +national dances, in costume, by sixteen of the juniors, and that's all up +without the music."</p> + +<p>"Why won't the piano do?"</p> + +<p>"We haven't a piano in the house. Yes, I know, but it was Helena's, and +when she was married in November she took it with her. Father hasn't bought +a new one yet, because the other girls don't play. Now do you see? You're +in for the stupidest evening you've had this winter, for it's too late to +get anybody here to do any sort of entertaining."</p> + +<p>"That is too bad," admitted Just, thinking of Lucy, and finding himself +caring a good deal that she should not think the affair dull. He walked +along the hall with Chester to the point where he should meet Lucy, +thinking about the situation. Then an idea popped into his head.</p> + +<p>"Isn't your telephone in that little closet off the dining-room?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Want to use it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Take Lucy down, will you? You know her. I've just thought of +something."</p> + +<p>Just slipped down to the dining-room. He carefully closed the door of +the closet and called up Doctor Churchill. To him he rapidly explained the +situation and the remedy which had occurred to him. Doctor Churchill's +voice came back to him in a tone of amused surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, Just, do you think we could carry it through decently? We don't +know the music at all. Oh, play our own and make it fit? What sort will +do--ordinary waltzes and two-steps? I shouldn't mind helping them out, of +course, if I thought we could manage it. Better than nothing? +Well--possibly. Better consult Mrs. Agnew before we do anything rash."</p> + +<p>Just ran up the rear staircase and down the front one. He found Chester +and whispered his plan. Interrupting Chester's eager gratitude, he asked +for somebody who could tell him what music would be needed.</p> + +<p>"Mother's receiving, and so are the girls. Carolyn Houghton will know, I +think. She's been at the rehearsals. I'll get her."</p> + +<p>"Well, are you going to leave me to myself much longer?" Lucy inquired, +reproachfully, as Just waited silently beside her for Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Why, I'm awfully sorry," he said, remembering his duties, which in the +excitement of the moment he realised he was forgetting. "I hope you'll +excuse me, but I've got to help the Agnews out if I can." And he hurriedly +told her his plan. She stared at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean you would come and take the place of a hired orchestra +for a reception?" she cried, under her breath.</p> + +<p>It was Just's turn to stare. Then he straightened shoulders which were +already pretty square. "Would you mind telling me why not? That is, +provided we can do it well enough."</p> + +<p>"I think it's a mighty queer thing to do," insisted Lucy, with +disapproval.</p> + +<p>Carolyn Houghton appeared and beckoned Just and Chester out into the +hall. Lucy followed, not liking to be left alone. Everybody seemed to be +forgetting her, although Chester had turned, and said cordially, "That's +right, Miss Lucy! Come and help us plan."</p> + +<p>Carolyn lost no time. "It's fine of you," she said eagerly. "Yes, I'm +sure you can do it. Not one person in fifty will know whether the tunes you +play are national or not. Something quaint and queer for the Hungarian, and +jigsy and gay for the Irish. Castanets in the Spanish dance--have you +them?"</p> + +<p>"Young Randolph Peyton can work those," began Just, looking at Lucy.</p> + +<p>She frowned. "Really, I don't believe you'd better have him in it," she +said, with such an air that Carolyn glanced at her in amazement, and +Chester coughed and turned away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well!" Just answered, instantly. "You can do 'em yourself, +then, Ches."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Chester. "There is a big screen of palms and ferns for +the orchestra," he explained, with satisfaction, to Lucy. "Nobody'll know +who's performing, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Lucy.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had soon convinced Just that the little home orchestra could +undertake the music without much fear of failure.</p> + +<p>"Of course there's a chance that the change may put the dancers out, yet +I don't think so. I noticed it was rather simple music, and they're so well +drilled they're not very dependent on the music. Anyhow, people will be too +interested in the costumes and the steps to notice whether the music is +strictly appropriate. As long as you give them something in precisely the +right time, I don't believe the change will bother them. I can coach you on +that."</p> + +<p>"All right," and Just hurried back to the telephone.</p> + +<p>Within three-quarters of an hour he had them all there, a laughing crew, +ready for what struck them as a frolic for themselves. Chester Agnew +carried the instruments behind the screen, and managed to slip the members +of the new orchestra one by one from the dining-room doorway to the shelter +of the palms without anybody's being the wiser. In ten minutes more soft +music began to steal through the crowded rooms.</p> + +<p>"The orchestra has come, after all," said Mrs. Agnew to her husband, in +the front room. Her voice breathed relief.</p> + +<p>He nodded satisfaction. "So I hear. I don't know how they managed it, +but I accept the fact without question."</p> + +<p>"Do you think it's always safe to do that?" queried his son Chester, +coming up in time to hear.</p> + +<p>"Accept facts without question? What else can you do with facts?"</p> + +<p>"But if they should turn out not to be facts?"</p> + +<p>"In this case I have the evidence of my ears," returned the learned man, +comfortably, and Chester walked away again, his eyes dancing.</p> + +<p>"Nobody can tell you from Lindmann," he whispered, behind the screen, +during an interval.</p> + +<p>"That's good. Hope the delusion keeps up. We don't feel much like +Lindmann," returned Churchill, hastily turning over a pile of music. "Get +your crowd to talking as loud as it can--then we're comparatively safe. +Where's the second violin part of 'King Manfred'? Look out, Just--you hit +my elbow twice with your bow-arm last time. These quarters are a bit--There +you are, Charlotte. Now take this thing slow, and look to your phrasing. +All ready!"</p> + +<p>The costume dances did not come until after supper. By that time the +Churchills and Birches, behind the screen, had settled down to steady work. +During supper a violin, with the 'cello and bass, carried on the music, +while Doctor Churchill, Celia and Carolyn Houghton planned a substitute +programme for the dances.</p> + +<p>In two cases they found the original music familiar; in most of the +others it proved not very difficult to adapt other music. The leaders of +the dances were told that whatever happened they were to carry through +their parts without showing signs of distress.</p> + +<p>"It's a pretty big bluff," murmured Jeff, leaning back in his chair and +mopping a perspiring brow. "Phew-w. but it's hot in here! I expect to see +several of those crazy dances go all to pieces on our account. That +Highland Fling! Mind you keep up a ripping time on that. It ought to be +piped, not stringed."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in spite of a good deal of perturbation on the part of +both dancers and orchestra, the entertainment went off well enough to be +applauded heartily. Certain numbers, notably the South Carolina breakdown, +the Irish jig, and the minuet of Washington's time, "brought down the +house," presumably because the music fitted best and bothered the dancers +least.</p> + +<p>When it was over, the musicians expected to escape before they were +found out, thinking the fun Would be the greater if the Agnews did not +learn to whom they were indebted until later. But young Chester Agnew +defeated this. He instructed half-a-dozen of his friends, and as the final +strains were coming to a close, these boys laid hold of the wall of palms +and pulled it to pieces. The musicians, laughing and protesting, were shown +to the entire company.</p> + +<p>A great murmur of surprise was followed by a burst of applause and +laughter, in the midst of which Doctor and Mrs. Agnew hurried to the front, +followed by their daughters, who had already discovered the truth, but had +been warned by their brother to keep quiet about it.</p> + +<p>"My dear friends!" exclaimed the head-master. "Is it possible that it is +you who have filled the gap so successfully? Well, really, what shall we +say to such kindness?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Churchill--Doctor Churchill--Miss Birch--all of you," Mrs Agnew +was saying, in her surprise, "what a very lovely thing to do! It has been +too kind of you. We appreciate it more than we can tell you. You must come +out at once and have some supper."</p> + +<p>"The evening would have been spoiled without you!" cried Jessica Agnew, +and Isabel said the same thing. Chester was loud in his praises, and +indeed, the orchestra received an ovation which quite overwhelmed it. It +went out to supper presently, escorted by at least twenty young people.</p> + +<p>"Here, come and sit by me, Lucy," invited Just, in good humour at the +success of his plan. "You can keep handing me food as I consume it. I never +was so starved in my life. Well, have you had a good time? Sorry I had to +desert you, but I've no doubt the others introduced you round and saw that +you weren't neglected."</p> + +<p>"I think Chester Agnew is one of the handsomest boys I ever met," +whispered Lucy. "Hasn't he the loveliest eyes? He was just devoted to +me."</p> + +<p>Just turned, his mouth full of chicken <i>pâté</i>, and +regarded her with interest. "Yes, his eyes are wonders," he agreed, his own +twinkling. "Full of soul, and all that, you mean? Yes, they are, though I +never noticed it till you pointed it out."</p> + +<p>Lucy looked at him suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"He liked my dress," she went on.</p> + +<p>"Did, eh? Ches must be coming on. Never knew him to notice a girl's +dress before."</p> + +<p>"I saw him looking at it,"--Lucy's tone was impressive--"and asked if he +liked pink. He said it was his favourite colour."</p> + +<p>"H'm! I must take lessons of Ches."</p> + +<p>"He looked at me so much I was awfully embarrassed," said Lucy, under +her breath, with drooping eyes.</p> + +<p>Just favoured her with another curious glance. "Maybe he's never seen +just your kind before," he suggested. "Lucy, by the time you're twenty +you'll be quite an old hand at this society business, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so?" she asked, not sure whether to be gratified +or not.</p> + +<p>"Oh, your small talk is so--well, so--er--interesting. A fellow always +likes to hear about another fellow--about his eyes, and so on."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mustn't be jealous," said Lucy, with a glance which finished +Just. He choked in his napkin, and turned his attention to Carolyn +Houghton, on his other side.</p> + +<p>But when he went to bed that night he once more gave vent to his +feelings on the subject of his sister's guest.</p> + +<p>"Jeff," said he, "if a girl has absolutely no brains in her head, what +do you suppose occupies the cavity?"</p> + +<p>"Give it up," returned Jeff, sleepily.</p> + +<p>"I think it must be a substance of about the consistency of a +marshmallow," mused Just, thoughtfully. "I detest marshmallows," he added, +with some resentment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, go to bed!" murmured Jeff.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2VII'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>"Nobody at home, eh? Well, I'm sorry. I wanted to see somebody very +much. And there's no one at the other house, either. I'm away so much I see +altogether too little of these people, Mrs. Fields." Thus spoke Doctor +Forester of the city--the old friend and family counselor of both Birches +and Churchills.</p> + +<p>His son Frederic--who had managed since his return from study abroad to +see much more of the Birch household than his father--was watching the +conversation on the door-step from his position in the driver's place on +Doctor Forester's big automobile, which stood at the curb. It was a cool +day in May, and a light breeze was blowing.</p> + +<p>"I don't know but Miss Evelyn's in the house somewhere," admitted Mrs. +Fields. "But I don't suppose you'd care to see her?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Evelyn? Why, certainly I should! Please ask her to come down."</p> + +<p>So presently Evelyn was at the door, her slender hand in the big one of +the distinguished gentleman of whom she stood a little in awe.</p> + +<p>"All alone, Miss Evelyn?" said Doctor Forester. "Then suppose you get +your hat and a warm jacket and come with us. Fred and I expected to pick up +whomever we found and take them for a little run down to a certain place on +the river."</p> + +<p>Such an invitation was not to be resisted. Doctor Churchill and +Charlotte were at the hospital; Randolph was with them, visiting his +friends and protégés among the convalescent boys. Lucy had +gone to town with the Birches, and nobody knew where Jeff and Just might +be.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you sit back in the tonneau with me," Doctor Forester +suggested. "Fred likes to be the whole thing on the front seat there."</p> + +<p>He put Evelyn in and tucked her up. "Wearing a cap? That's good sense. +It spoils my fun to take in a passenger with all sails spread. Hello, son, +what are you stopping for? Oh, I see!"</p> + +<p>It was Celia Birch beside whom the motor was bringing up with such a +sudden check to its speed. She had appeared at the corner of the street and +had instantly presented to the quick vision of Mr. Frederic Forester a good +and sufficient reason for coming to a stop.</p> + +<p>"Please come with us!" urged that young man, jumping out. "We've been to +the house for you."</p> + +<p>Celia put her hand to her head, "Just as I am?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Just as you are. That little <i>chapeau</i> will stay on all right. If +it doesn't I'll lend you my cap. Will you keep me company in front? Father +has appropriated Miss Evelyn behind there."</p> + +<p>Celia mounted to the seat, and they were off through the wide streets, +and presently away in the country, spinning along at a rate much faster +than either passenger realised. The machine was a fine one, operating with +so little fuss and fret that the speed it was capable of attaining was not +always appreciated.</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is glorious, isn't it, Evelyn?" cried Celia, over her +shoulder.</p> + +<p>Doctor Forester glanced from her to the young girl on the seat beside +him, smiling at both. "I'm glad you put your trust in the chauffeur so +implicitly. It took me some time to get used to him, but he proves worthy +of confidence. I wouldn't drive my own machine a block--never have. Yes, +it's delightful to go whirling along over the country in this way. I +suppose you don't know where I'm taking you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think we much care," Celia answered, and Evelyn nodded. Both +were pink-cheeked and bright-eyed with the delight of the motion.</p> + +<p>The doctor did not explain where they were going until they had nearly +reached their destination. They had passed many fine country places all +along the way, and had reached a fork in the river. The broad road leading +on up the river was left behind as they turned to the left, following the +windings of the smaller stream.</p> + +<p>The character of the houses along the way had changed at once. They had +become comfortable farmhouses, with now and then a place of more modern +aspect.</p> + +<p>"This is the sort of thing I prefer," Doctor Forester announced, with +satisfaction. "I wouldn't give a picayune to own one of those castles, back +there. But down here I'm going to show you my ideal of comfort."</p> + +<p>Fred turned in at a gateway and drove on through orchards and grove to a +house behind the trees on the river bank.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't that look like home?" exclaimed the doctor, as they alighted. +"Well, it is home! I bought it yesterday, just as it stands. Nothing fine +about it, outside or in. I wanted it to run away to when I'm tired. I'm not +going to tell anybody about it except---"</p> + +<p>"Except every one he meets," Fred said, gaily, to Celia, leading her +toward the wide porch overlooking the river, about which the May vines were +beginning to cluster profusely. "He can't keep it a secret. I may as well +warn you he's going to invite you and the whole family out here for a +fortnight in June. So if you don't want to come you have a chance to be +thinking up a reasonable excuse."</p> + +<p>"As if we could want one! What a charming plan for us! Does he really +mean to include all of us?"</p> + +<p>"Every one, under both roofs. I assure you it's a jolly plan for us, and +I'm holding my breath till I know you'll come."</p> + +<p>"What a lovely rest it will be for Charlotte!" murmured Celia, thinking +at once, as usual, of somebody else. "She won't own it, but she's really +had a pretty hard winter."</p> + +<p>"So I should imagine, for the first year of one's married life. I'm +afraid I couldn't be as hospitable as she and her husband--not all at once, +you know. Do you think it's paid?"</p> + +<p>"What? Having the three through the winter?" Celia glanced at Evelyn, +who at the other end of the long porch with Doctor Forester was gazing with +happy eyes out over the sunlit river. "Oh, I'm sure Charlotte and Andy +would both say so. In Evelyn's case I think there's no doubt about it. From +being a delicate little invalid she's come to be the healthy girl you see +there. Not very vigorous yet, of course, but in a fair way to become so, +Andy thinks."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can see," admitted Forester, thoughtfully. "But those other +youngsters--"</p> + +<p>Celia laughed. It was easy to think well of everybody out here in this +delicious air and in the company of people she thoroughly liked. Even Lucy +Peyton seemed less of an infliction.</p> + +<p>"Little Ran has certainly improved very much," she said, warmly. "And +even Lucy--"</p> + +<p>"Has Lucy improved?" Forester looked at her with a quizzical smile. "The +last time I saw her I thought she was rather going backward. I met her by +accident in town one day. Charlotte was shopping, and Lucy was waiting. She +rushed up to me as to a long lost friend. She practically invited me to +invite herself and Charlotte to lunch with me--she somewhat grudgingly +included Charlotte. I was rather taken off my feet for an instant. +Charlotte heard, and came up. I wish you could have seen the expression on +the face of Mrs. Andrew Churchill! I don't know which felt the more +crushed, Lucy or I. I assure you I was anxious to take them both to lunch +after that, Mrs. Andrew had made it so clearly impossible."</p> + +<p>"The perversity of human desires," laughed Celia. "Poor Lucy! Charlotte +won't stand the child's absurd affectations."</p> + +<p>"Come here, and listen to my plan!" called Doctor Forester, unable to +wait longer to unfold it. So for the next half-hour the plan was discussed +in all its bearings.</p> + +<p>Celia proposed at once that they keep it a secret from Charlotte until +the last possible moment, and this was agreed upon. Then Evelyn suggested, +a little shyly, that it also remain unknown to Jeff. He was to be graduated +from college about the middle of June, was very busy and hurried, and might +appreciate the whole thing better when Commencement was out of the way. It +was finally decided that the party should come down to "The Banks" upon the +evening of Jeff's Commencement Day, and that to him and Charlotte the whole +arrangement should be a complete surprise.</p> + +<p>The date was only three weeks ahead, and Celia and Evelyn, Mrs. Birch +and the others, found plenty to do in getting ready for the outing, to say +nothing of seeing that neither Charlotte nor Jeff made other engagements +for the period.</p> + +<p>"No, no, let's not get in our camping so early in the season. It'll be +all over too soon, then," argued Just with his brother. Upon Just devolved +the task of heading Jeff off for those prospective two weeks. "Besides, +I've an idea Lanse may prefer July or August."</p> + +<p>"If you'd been boning for examinations the way I have," retorted Jeff, +"your one idea would be to get off into the wilderness just as soon as your +sheepskin was fairly in your hands. I don't see why you argue against going +in June. You were eager enough for it a week ago."</p> + +<p>"Oh, not so awfully eager. I----"</p> + +<p>"You were in a frenzy to go. And I haven't cooled off, if you have."</p> + +<p>"He's hopeless," Just confided to Evelyn. "His granite mind is set on +going camping in June, and I can't get him off it. If you've any little +tricks of persuasiveness all your own now's your time to try 'em on him. +He'll spoil the whole thing."</p> + +<p>"Write your brother Lansing to tell Jeff to put it off on his account," +suggested Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"That won't do, unfortunately, for Lanse has been uncertain about going +all the time."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to think of something," promised Evelyn.</p> + +<p>She had a chance before the day was over. Jeff appeared, late in the +afternoon, and invited her to take a walk with him.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what I want," he said, as they went along. "Let's go down +by the old bridge at the pond, and if there's nobody about I'd like to have +you do me the favour of listening while I spout my class-day oration. Would +you mind?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted," answered Evelyn, and this program was carried +out accordingly. Down behind the willows Jeff mounted a prostrate log and +gave vent to a vigorous and sincere discourse.</p> + +<p>"Splendid!" cried his audience, as he finished. "If you do it half as +well as that it will be a great success."</p> + +<p>"Glad you think so." Jeff descended from the log with a flushed brow and +an air of relief. "I'm not the fellow for class orator, I know, but I'm it, +and I don't want to disgrace the crowd. Pretty down here, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Beautiful. It makes me very blue to think of leaving it--as if I +oughtn't to be simply thankful I could be here so long. It was lovely of +your sister and brother to insist on my staying when my brother Thorne had +to go to Japan so suddenly."</p> + +<p>"You're not going soon?" Jeff looked dismayed.</p> + +<p>"Two weeks after your Commencement," said Evelyn. "My brother's ship +should be in port by the last of June, and I want to surprise him by being +at home when he reaches there. I shall leave here the minute he gets into +San Francisco."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's too bad. I'd forgotten there was any such thing as your +going away. You seem--why, you seem one of us, you know!" declared Jeff, as +if there could be no stronger bond of union.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you--it's good of you to say so. You've all been so kind I +can't half tell you how I appreciate it. We'll have to make the most of +June, I think," said Evelyn, smiling rather wistfully, and looking away +across the little pond.</p> + +<p>"I should say so. We'll have every sort of lark we can think of the +minute Commencement's--Oh, I was going camping after that--but I'll put it +off. Just was arguing that way only this morning, but I saw no good reason +for waiting, then. Now, I do."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to have you put it off," protested Evelyn, with art. "Hadn't +you better go on with your plans, if they're all made? Of course I should +be sorry, but--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll put it off!" said Jeff, decidedly, with the very human wish to +do the thing he need not do.</p> + +<p>So it was settled. Commencement came rapidly on, bringing with it the +round of festivals peculiar to that season. Jeff insisted on the presence +of his entire family at every event, and for a week, as Charlotte said, it +seemed as if they all lived in flowered organdies and white gloves.</p> + +<p>"I'm really thankful this is the last," sighed Celia, coming over with +her mother and Just to join the party assembling for the final great +occasion on the Churchill's porch. "Evelyn, how dear you look in that +forget-me-not frock! And that hat is a dream."</p> + +<p>"Well, people, we must be off. When it's all over, let's come out here +on the porch in the dark and luxuriate." Charlotte drew a long breath as +she spoke.</p> + +<p>"That will be a rest," agreed Celia, with a private pinch of Evelyn's +arm, and Lucy and Randolph giggled.</p> + +<p>The younger two had been let into the secret only within the last +twenty-four hours, fears being entertained that they might not be safe +repositories of mystery. Celia gave them a warning look as she passed them, +and kept them away from Charlotte during the car ride into the city.</p> + +<p>"How well the dear boy looks!" whispered his family, one to another, as +the class filed into the University chapel in cap and gown. They were in a +front row, where Jeff could look down at them when he should come upon the +stage for his diploma.</p> + +<p>There was not the slightest possibility of his looking either there or +anywhere else. His oration had been delivered on class day, and his +remaining part in the exercises of graduation was to listen respectfully to +the distinguished gentlemen who took part, and to watch with interested +eyes the conferring of many higher degrees before it was time for himself +and his class to receive the sonorous Latin address which ended by +bestowing upon them the title of Bachelor of Arts.</p> + +<p>It was a proud moment, nevertheless, and many hearts beat high when it +came. Down in that row near the front father and mother, brothers and +sisters and friends, watched a certain erect figure as if there were no +others worth looking at--as all over the hall other affectionate eyes +watched other youthful, manly forms.</p> + +<p>Jeff had worked hard for his degree, being not by nature a student, like +his elder brother Lansing, but fonder of active, outdoor life than of +books. He had been incited to deeds of valour in the classroom only by the +grim determination not to disgrace the family traditions or the scholarly +ancestors to whom he had often been pointed back.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven it's over!" exulted Jeff, with his classmates, when, after +the last triumphant speech of the evening, the audience was dismissed to +the strains of a rejoicing orchestra.</p> + +<p>"Say, fellows, I'm going to bolt. Hullo, Just! Ask Evelyn for me if she +won't go home flying with me in the Houghton auto--Carolyn's just sent me +word."</p> + +<p>"That will be just the thing," whispered Celia to Evelyn, when the +message came. "Go with him, but don't let him stop at the Houghtons'. +Whisper it to Carolyn, and see that he's safely on the porch with you when +we get there."</p> + +<p>Evelyn nodded and disappeared with Just, who took her to his +brother.</p> + +<p>"Now we're off," murmured Jeff, as he and Evelyn followed Carolyn and +her brother out through a side entrance. "What a night! What a moon! My, +but it feels good to be out in the open air after that pow-wow in +there!"</p> + +<p>They had half an hour to themselves in the quiet of the moonlit porch +before the others, coming by electric car, could reach home.</p> + +<p>They filled the time by sitting quietly on the top step, Jeff in the +subdued mood of the young graduate who sees, after all, much to regret in +the coming to an end of the years of getting ready for his life-work. He +was, besides, not a little wearied by the final examinations, preparation +for his part in Commencement, and the closing round of exercises. Evelyn, +herself somewhat fatigued, leaned back against the porch pillar and gladly +kept silence.</p> + +<p>Before the others came Jeff spoke abruptly. "It isn't everybody who +knows when to let a fellow be an oyster," he said, gratefully. "But I'm +getting over the oyster mood now, and feel like talking. Do you know, +you're going to leave an awful vacancy behind you when you go?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Evelyn answered. "There are so many of you, and you have such +good times together, you can't mind much when a stranger goes away."</p> + +<p>"Call yourself that?" Jeff laughed. "Well I assure you we don't. You're +too thoroughly one of us--in the way of liking the things we like and +despising the things we despise. Hullo, here come the people! It was rather +stealing a march on them to race home in an auto and let them follow by +car, wasn't it?' Let's go make 'em some lemonade to cheer their souls."</p> + +<p>"All right." Evelyn was wondering if this would give her the necessary +chance to change her dress, when the big Forester automobile rounded the +corner and rolled up to the curb, just as the party from the car reached +the steps. Behind it followed a second car of still more ample +dimensions.</p> + +<p>"I've come to take the whole party for a moonlight drive down the +river!" called Frederic Forester. "Go take off those cobweb frocks and put +on something substantial. I'll give you ten minutes. I've the prettiest +sight to show you you've seen this year."</p> + +<p>"I believe I'm too tired and sleepy to go," said Charlotte to Andy, as +he followed her up-stairs. "This week of commencing has about finished me. +Can't you excuse me to Fred? You go with them, if you like."</p> + +<p>"I don't like, without you." Doctor Churchill was divesting himself of +white cravat and collar. "I know you're worn out, dear, but I think the +ride will brace you up. It's hot in the house to-night; it will be +blissfully cool out on the river road. Besides, Forester would be +disappointed. It isn't every night he comes for us with a pair of +autos.</p> + +<p>"If I were going all alone with you in the runabout--" sighed Charlotte, +with a languor unusual to her.</p> + +<p>"I know, I'd like that better myself. But you needn't talk on this +trip--there are enough to keep things lively without you. You shall sit +next your big boy, and he'll hold your hand in the dark," urged Doctor +Churchill, artfully.</p> + +<p>"On that condition, then," and Charlotte rose from among the pillows, +where she had sunk.</p> + +<p>There was certainly something very refreshing about the swift motion in +the June air. Leaning against her husband's shoulder, Charlotte began to +rest.</p> + +<p>It had been a busy week, the heat had been of that first unbearable high +temperature of mid-June with which some seasons assault us, and young Mrs. +Churchill had felt her responsibilities more heavily than ever before. As +the car flew down the river road she shut her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why, where are we turning in?" Charlotte opened her eyes. She had been +almost asleep, soothed by the cool and quiet.</p> + +<p>"Look ahead through the trees," Doctor Churchill said in her ear, and +Charlotte sat up.</p> + +<p>She saw on the river bank, far ahead, a low house with long porches, +hung thickly with Chinese lanterns. Each window glowed with one of the +swinging globes, and long lines of them stretched off among the trees. At +one side gleamed two white tents, and in front of these burned +bonfires.</p> + +<p>"What is it? It must be a lawn party. But we're not dressed for it!" +murmured Charlotte, her eyes wide open now.</p> + +<p>Just then a tremendous shout from the automobile in front rang through +the grove. Their own car ran up to the steps, where stood Doctor Forester +and John Lansing Birch under the lanterns, both dressed from head to foot +in white.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to 'The Banks!'" the doctor cried. "Charlotte, my dear, why +this expression of amazement? You've only come to my house party, my woods +party, my river party--for a fortnight--all of you. Will you stay, or are +you going to sit staring down at us with those big black eyes forever?"</p> + +<p>"I think I'll stay," said Charlotte, happily, slipping down from the car +into her brother's outstretched arms. "O Lanse! O Lanse! It's good to see +you. <i>What</i> a surprise!"</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2VIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>Charlotte swung herself up into the runabout as Doctor Churchill paused +for her at the gateway of "The Banks." She had met him here at six o'clock +every day since they came, and this was the seventh day.</p> + +<p>It was impossible for him to get through his round of work earlier, but +he was enjoying his evenings and nights in the country with a zest almost +sufficient to make up for the daytime hours he missed.</p> + +<p>Charlotte, however, although she joined merrily in all that went on +through the day, was never so happy as when this hour arrived, and dressed +in cool white for the evening, she could slip away and walk slowly down +this winding road through the orchard and the grove to the gateway. Here +she waited in a shady nook for the first puff of the coming motor. The +moment she heard it she sprang out into the roadway, and stood waving her +handkerchief in response to a swinging cap far up the road.</p> + +<p>Then came the nearer salutation, the quick climb into the small car, +assisted by the grip of Andy's hand, and the eager greeting of two pairs of +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do you know this outing is doing you a world of good already?" said +Doctor Churchill, noting with approval the fresh colour in Charlotte's +face.</p> + +<p>"I know it is. I didn't realise that I needed it a bit until I actually +found myself here, with nothing to do except rest and play. It's doing +everybody good. You should have heard the plans at breakfast to-day. +Although it's been so hot, nobody has been idle a minute. I've been fishing +all day with Lanse and Fred and Celia. Andy, do you know what I think? I +admit I didn't think it till Lanse put it into my head, but I believe he's +right. Fred----"</p> + +<p>"Is going to want Celia? Of course. That was a foregone conclusion from +the start."</p> + +<p>"Andy Churchill, you weren't so discerning as all that, when not even I +thought it was serious with either of them! Celia's had so many admirers, +and turned them all aside so coolly--and Mr. Frederic Forester is such an +accomplished person at paying attentions--how could I think it meant +anything? But Lanse insists Celia is different from what she ever was +before, and I don't know but he's right."</p> + +<p>"To be sure he's right. Next to you, I never saw a more attractive young +person than Celia. What a charming colour you have, child! To be sure, you +have burned the tip of that small Greek nose a very little, but I find even +that adorable. Charlotte, stop pinching my arm. If you're half as glad to +have me get here as I am to arrive, you're pretty happy. I laid stern +commands on Mrs. Fields not to telephone, unless it were a matter of +absolute necessity, so I'm pretty sure of not being disturbed."</p> + +<p>They found supper laid on the piazza, and enjoyed it with keen +appetites. Afterward they spent an hour drifting on the river, followed by +a long and delightful evening on the lawn at the river bank. Celia and +Lanse picked the strings of violin and viola, and the others sang. Doctor +Forester, in his white clothes lay stretched on a rustic seat, and +professed himself to be having "the time of his life."</p> + +<p>"I don't think the rest of us are far behind you," declared Lanse. "If +you people had been digging away at law in a hot old office you'd think +this was Paradise."</p> + +<p>Evelyn, looking out over the moonlit river, drew a little sigh which she +meant nobody to hear, but Jeff divined it, and whispered, under cover of an +extravaganza from Just in regard to the night, the company, and the +occasion, "You're coming again next summer, you know. And all winter we'll +write about it--shall we?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think you will have time to write?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Have time! I should say I would make time," he murmured. "Think I'm +going to stand having this sort of thing cut off short? I guess +not--unless--you're the one who hasn't time. And even then I don't think I +could be kept from boring you with letters."</p> + +<p>"I shall certainly want to hear what you all are doing," she +answered.</p> + +<p>She was thinking about this plan when she went up-stairs to bed an hour +later. Jeff had stopped her at the foot of the stairs to say, "I'd just +like a good secure promise from you about that letter-writing. I'll enjoy +the time that's left a lot better if I know it isn't coming to a regular +jumping-off place at the end. Will you promise to write regularly?"</p> + +<p>She paused on the bottom step, where she was just on a level with the +straightforward dark eyes, half boy's, half man's, which met hers with the +clear look of good comradeship. There was no sentimentality in the gaze, +but undeniably strong liking and respect. She answered in Jeff's own +spirit:</p> + +<p>"I promise. I really shouldn't know how to do without hearing about your +plans and the things that happen to you. I'm not a very good letter-writer, +but I'll try to tell you things that will interest you."</p> + +<p>"Good! I'm no flowery expert myself, but I fancy we can write as we +talk, and that's enough for me. Good-night! Happy dreams."</p> + +<p>"Good-night!" she responded, and went on up-stairs, turning to wave at +Jeff from the landing, as he stood in the doorway, preparing to go out to +the tents where he and Just, Doctor Forester, Frederic and Lanse were +spending these dry June nights.</p> + +<p>Evelyn went on to the odd old bedroom under the gable, where she and +Lucy were quartered together. She found Lucy lying so still that she +thought her asleep, and so made ready for bed with speed and quiet, +remembering that Lucy had been first to come in, and imagining her tired +with the day's sports.</p> + +<p>Evelyn herself did not go at once to sleep. There were too many pleasant +things to think of for that; and although her eyes began to close at last, +she was yet, at the end of half an hour, awake, when Lucy stirred softly +beside her and sat up in bed. After a moment the younger girl slipped out +to the floor, using such care that Evelyn thought her making unusual and +kindly effort not to disturb her bedfellow.</p> + +<p>After a little, as Lucy did not return, Evelyn opened her eyes and +looked out into the moonlight. Lucy was dressing, so rapidly and +noiselessly that Evelyn watched her, amazed.</p> + +<p>She was on the point of asking if the girl were ill when she observed +that Lucy was putting on the delicate dress and gay ribbons she had worn +during the evening, and was even arranging her hair. Something prompted +Evelyn to lie still, for in all the winter's association she had never +grown quite to trust Lucy or to like her ways.</p> + +<p>More than any one else, however, she herself had won the other girl's +liking, and had come to feel a certain responsibility for her. So when +Lucy, after making wholly ready, had stolen to the door, let herself out, +and closed it silently behind her, Evelyn sprang out of bed.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Lucy simply could not sleep, she said to herself, and had gone +down to sit on the lower porch, or lie in one of the hammocks swinging +under the trees. The night was exceedingly warm, even the usual cooling +breath from the river being absent.</p> + +<p>"That's all there is of it," said Evelyn, reassuringly, to herself, +although at the same time she felt uneasiness enough to send her out into +the hall to a gable window over the porch, which commanded a view of the +camp. Nothing stirring was to be seen, except the dwindling flame of the +evening camp-fire, burned every night for cheer, not for warmth. Evelyn +crept to a side window. As she reached it a white figure could be seen +hurrying away through the orchard.</p> + +<p>Back in her room, Evelyn dressed with as much haste as Lucy had done, if +with less care. Instead of the white frock of the evening, however, she put +on a dark blue linen, for she was sure that she must follow Lucy and +discover what this strange departure, stealthily made at midnight, could +mean.</p> + +<p>She went down to the front door. The moment she opened it a tall figure +started up from one of the long lounging chairs there, and Jeff's voice +said softly, "Charlotte?"</p> + +<p>"No, it's Evelyn," she whispered back. "Don't be surprised. I thought +everybody in the camp was asleep."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't sleepy, and thought I'd lounge here till I was. What's the +matter? Anybody sick?"</p> + +<p>"No. I'm just going for a little walk."</p> + +<p>"Walk? At this hour? Can't you sleep? But you mustn't go and walk alone, +you know. I'll go with you."</p> + +<p>She did not want to tell him, but she saw no other way.</p> + +<p>"It's Lucy," she explained hurriedly. "She's dressed and gone out +somewhere, and I can't think why. It frightened me, and I'm going to follow +her."</p> + +<p>"No, you stay here and I'll follow. Which way did she go? What can she +be up to? That girl's a queer one, and I've thought so from the first."</p> + +<p>"No, no! There's some explanation. It may be she walks in her sleep, you +know--though I'm sure she's never done it this winter. Let me go, Jeff; +she'll get too far. She took the path toward the river. Oh, if it +<i>should</i> be sleep-walking----"</p> + +<p>"I guess it's not sleep-walking." Jeff's tone was skeptical.</p> + +<p>But Evelyn had started away at a run, and Jeff was after her. The two +hastened along with light, noiseless steps. At the bottom of the path, on +the very brink of the river, was an old summer-house, looking out over the +water. It was a favourite retreat, for the boat-house and the landing were +but a rod away, and after a row on the river the shaded summer-house was a +pleasant place in which to linger.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" breathed Evelyn, stopping short as they neared the +summer-house.</p> + +<p>They advanced with caution, and presently, as they drew within speaking +distance of the little structure, they saw a white-clad figure emerge from +it and stand just outside. Jeff drew Evelyn quickly and silently into the +shelter of a cluster of hemlocks.</p> + +<p>After a space the dip of oars lightly broke the stillness of the night, +and soon a row-boat pulled quietly into view, with one dark figure outlined +against the gleam of the moonlit water. Evelyn caught a smothered sound +from Jeff, whether of recognition or of displeasure she could not tell. She +felt her own pulses throbbing with excitement and anxiety.</p> + +<p>The stranger pulled in to the landing, noiselessly shipped his oars, +jumped out and made fast. Lucy came cautiously down to the wharf, and +against the radiance of the moonlight on the river the two behind the trees +could see the greeting.</p> + +<p>The slight, boyish figure which met Lucy had a familiar look to Jeff, +but he could not tell with any certainty whose it might be. That it was +youthful there could be no question. Even in the dim light the diffidence +of both boy and girl could be plainly observed.</p> + +<p>"Young idiots!" exploded Jeff, between his teeth, as the two they were +watching sat down side by side on the steps of the boat-landing, where only +their heads were visible to the watchers--heads decidedly close together. +Then he bent close to Evelyn's ear and whispered, "Come farther back with +me, and we'll decide what to do."</p> + +<p>With the utmost caution the two made their retreat. At a safe distance +Jeff halted, and said rapidly, "I think the best thing will be for you to +go back to bed and to sleep--if you can. At any rate, don't let her know +that you hear her come in. I'll come back here and mount guard. I won't let +them see me. I'll take care that Lucy gets safely back to the house, and I +won't interfere unless she attempts to go off in the boat with him or do +some fool thing like that. You needn't worry. They aren't going to run away +and get married. She's just full of sentimental nonsense, and thinks it +romantic and grown-up to steal out in the night to meet some idiot of a +boy--you can see that's all he is by his build. Probably somebody we know, +don't you think that's the best plan?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, for to-night," agreed Evelyn, in a troubled whisper. "I feel as if +I ought to talk to her when she comes in, though."</p> + +<p>"If you do you'll just make her angry. The thing is to let her go +uncaught until we can think what to do. Little simpleton!"</p> + +<p>"I'll do as you say, but--don't be hard on her, Jeff. She's just silly; +she hasn't been brought up like your sisters."</p> + +<p>"Or like you," thought Jeff, as he watched the figure before him flit +away toward the house. He followed at a distance, till he saw the door +close on Evelyn; then he went back to his post.</p> + +<p>The next morning, as he and Evelyn walked down the road through the +apple-orchard toward the gateway, to open the rural-delivery mail-box, +which stood just outside the gate, Jeff told Evelyn what he had found +out.</p> + +<p>"Nothing more serious than a simple case of spoon," he said, with an +expression at which Evelyn might have laughed if she had not felt so +disturbed. "The boy turned out to be our next neighbour here. They've made +another appointment for to-night. He thinks it a great lark--probably will +brag about it to all the boys. He's got to eat his little dish of humble +pie, too. Evelyn, I've a plan. Will you trust me to carry it out +to-night?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him. In her face was written a concern for Lucy so tender +that Jeff adored her for it. At the same time he hastened to assure her +that it was needless.</p> + +<p>"If you merely talk with her I don't think that will do it," he said, +decidedly. "She's been with you all winter, has seen just how a girl should +behave,"--he did not know what a thrill of happiness this bluntly sincere +compliment gave his hearer--"and she hasn't taken it in a bit. She needs +something to bring her to her senses. I'd rather not tell you my plan, for +if you can assure her afterward that you weren't in it, you can do her more +good than if she's as provoked at you as she's sure to be at me. But I give +you my word of honour I'll not do a thing to frighten her, or play any fool +practical jokes. I'll have to let Just into the secret, I think, but nobody +else. Will you trust me?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, I will," said the girl, quickly. "On just one condition, +Jeff. Think of her as if she were your own sister, and +don't--don't----"</p> + +<p>"Be 'as funny as I can'? No, I won't."</p> + +<p>Evelyn observed Lucy all that day with understanding, and found herself +longing to warn the girl that her foolishness was about to meet with its +punishment. She noted with sorrow the strangely excited look in the young +eyes, the light, half-hysterical laugh, the changing colour in the pretty +face. Lucy's promise of beauty had never seemed to her so characterless, or +her words so empty of sense.</p> + +<p>She found her in a corner of their room, reading a worn novel by a +certain author whose very name she had been taught to regard as a synonym +for vapidity and sentimentalism of the most highly flavoured sort, and she +could not keep back a quick exclamation at sight of it. Lucy looked up with +a frown and a flush.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you think it's terrible to read novels," she said, pettishly +flirting the leaves. "Well, I don't."</p> + +<p>"Dear, it's not 'novels' that I've been taught to despise, but the sort +of novel that writer writes. I don't know anything about them myself, but I +saw my brother Thorne once put that one you're reading in the stove and jam +on the cover, as if he were afraid it would get out. Do you wonder I don't +like to see Lucy Peyton reading it?" asked Evelyn gently, with her cheek +against the other girl's.</p> + +<p>"He must be a terrible Miss Nancy, then," said Lucy, defiantly. "There's +not a thing in it that couldn't be in a Sunday-school book. The heroine is +the sweetest thing."</p> + +<p>"If she is she won't mind your putting her down and coming out for a +walk with me," answered Evelyn, with a smile which might have captivated +Lucy if she had seen it. But the younger girl got up and flung away out of +the room, murmuring that she did not feel like walking, and would take +herself and her book where they would not bother people.</p> + +<p>Evelyn looked after her with a little sigh, and owned that Jeff might be +right in thinking that mere gentle argument with Lucy would have scant +effect on a head full of nonsense or a heart whose love for the sweet and +true had had far too little development.</p> + +<p>Half an hour before the time set for the rendezvous at the summer-house +that night Jeff and Just walked down the path, shoulder to shoulder, +talking under their breath. Just, being younger, was even more deeply +interested than his brother in the prospective encounter, and received his +final instructions with ill-concealed glee.</p> + +<p>"All right!" he gurgled. "I'm to give him a good scare, in the shape of +a lecture--with a thrashing promised if he cuts up any more. He's to give +his word, on pain of a lot of things, not to give any of this little +performance of his away to a soul. Then he's to be forbidden the premises +while Miss Peyton is on them. I understand."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, look here," warned Jeff. "I give you leave, but, mind you, I +trust your discretion, too. You never can tell what these Willie-boys will +do. Dignity's your cue. Be stern as an avenging fate, but don't get to +cuffing him round and batting him with language just because you're bigger. +You----"</p> + +<p>"Look here," expostulated Just, aggrieved, "you picked me out for this +job; now leave it to me. I'll have the boy saying 'sir' to me before I get +through."</p> + +<p>Just ran down to the boat-house, got out a slim craft, launched it, and +was about rowing away when he bethought himself of something. He pulled in +to the landing, made fast his painter, and ran like a deer up to the house. +He was back in five minutes.</p> + +<p>"Don't believe I'll go by boat, after all," he whispered to Jeff, +standing in the summer-house door. "It might be simpler not to have a boat +to bother with. I'll just leave the <i>Butterfly</i> tied there, and put +her up when I get back."</p> + +<p>He was off before Jeff could reply. Jeff started toward the boat to put +it up, but stopped, considering.</p> + +<p>Lucy would think it that of her admirer, and would be all the more sure +to keep her appointment. He left it as it was, swinging lightly on the +water, six feet out. It was a habit of Just's to moor a boat at the length +of her painter, to prevent her bumping against the rough old landing.</p> + +<p>Lucy, coming swiftly down the path fifteen minutes later, saw the boat +and hastened her steps. She did not observe that this was a slimmer, longer +craft than the boat George Jarvis was using. She reached the landing and +looked about. Of course he was in the summer-house. She went to it, her +skirts, which she had of late been surreptitiously lengthening, held +daintily in her hand.</p> + +<p>As she came close, a figure appeared in the doorway. Before she could be +frightened by the realisation that it was not Jarvis's slender young frame +which confronted her, Jeff accosted her in the mildest tones +imaginable:</p> + +<p>"It's only Jefferson Birch. Don't be scared. Fine night, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Y-yes," stammered Lucy, in dismay. She stood still, her skirts gathered +close, as if she were about to run.</p> + +<p>"Don't go. Out for a stroll? So am I," said Jeff, pleasantly, as if +midnight promenades were the accustomed thing at "The Banks." "Won't you +sit down?"</p> + +<p>There were seats outside the summer-house as well as within, and he +motioned toward one of them.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. I think I'll go back," said Lucy, and her voice +trembled.</p> + +<p>"Why, you've only just come! Why not stay a while and have a visit with +me? You must have been intending to stay."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" said Lucy, eagerly, and stopped short, listening. What if +George Jarvis should come round the corner at any moment? She must get Jeff +away with her. "Won't you walk along up to the house with me? I only came +down to see if I'd left something in the summer-house."</p> + +<p>Jeff had planned what he would say to her, but at this his disgust got +the better of him. "Lucy," said he--and his voice had changed from +lightness to gravity--"don't you mind a bit <i>saying what isn't +true</i>?"</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2IX'></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>"What do you mean, Jefferson Birch, by saying such a thing?" Lucy's tone +was one of mingled anger and fright.</p> + +<p>"I mean," said Jeff, coolly, "that if coming down here to meet George +Jarvis were what you were proud of doing, you wouldn't try to cover it up. +Do you know, Lu, I'm tremendously sorry you find any fun in a thing like +that."</p> + +<p>"Dear me,"--Lucy tried hard to assume her usual self-confident +manner--"Who appointed you guardian of young ladies?"</p> + +<p>"The trouble is--well--you're not a young lady yet. You're only a girl. +If you were a real grown-up young lady there'd be nothing I could do about +your stealing out at this late hour to meet a young man except to laugh and +think my own thoughts. But since you're only a girl--"</p> + +<p>"You can insult me!" Lucy was very near tears now--angry, mortified +tears.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean to insult you, and I think you know that. If anybody has +insulted you it's the boy who asked you to meet him here. He must have been +the one to propose it, of course, and you thought it would be fun. Lu, when +I found this out I should have gone straight to my sister Charlotte and +told her to come and meet you here instead of myself, if I hadn't known how +it would disappoint her. She would have taken it to heart much more +seriously than you can realise. She's entertained you all winter and +spring, and the responsibilities of looking after you and Ran have been +heavy on her shoulders. She's tried hard to give you a good time, too."</p> + +<p>Lucy turned and walked deliberately away down the path toward the +boat-landing.</p> + +<p>"I'm bungling it," thought Jeff, uncomfortably, and stood still, +waiting. "Perhaps I ought to have let Evelyn tackle the business, after +all."</p> + +<p>Lucy walked out upon the landing, where the <i>Butterfly</i> swung +lazily in the wash of the current. Suddenly, quite without warning, she ran +the length of the little pier and leaped for the boat. It had looked an +easy distance, but as she made the jump she realised too late that the +interval of water between pier and boat was wider than it had looked in the +moonlight. With a scream and a splash she went down, and an instant later +Jeff, dashing down the pier, saw only a widening circle gleaming faintly on +the water.</p> + +<p>He flung off his coat, tore off his low shoes, and waited. The +river-bottom shelved suddenly just where the pier ended, and the depth was +fully twenty feet. Moment after moment went by while he watched +breathlessly for the appearance of the girl at the surface. The current was +strong a few feet out, and his gaze swept the water for some distance. When +he caught sight of the break in the surface which told him what he wanted, +it was even farther down-stream than he had calculated.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't risk this alone," he thought, quickly, and gave several +ringing shouts for Just, whom he knew to be only two or three hundred yards +up-shore. Then he made his plunge, swimming furiously to get below the +place where the girl's white-clad form had risen, that he might be at hand +when his chance came again.</p> + +<p>The current helped him, and so did the moonlight on the water. It was in +the very centre of a glinting spot of light that Lucy came to the surface +the second time. Before she had sunk out of sight Jeff had her by the +skirts, and was working desperately to get her head above water. She was +struggling with all her fierce young strength, crazed with fright and +suffocation, and she continually dragged him under in her blind attempts to +pull herself up by him.</p> + +<p>When he could get breath he shouted again, and after what seemed to him +an age, there came a response from two directions. Just running along the +river bank, and Doctor Churchill, plunging down the hill, saw, and were +coming to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Hold on! Hold on! I'm coming!" both shouted as they ran.</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill, having the easier course, reached the bank first. +Being clad only in his pajamas, he was unburdened by superfluous clothing. +With a long leap he was in the water, and with a half-dozen vigorous +strokes he had reached Jeff's elbow.</p> + +<p>"Let go! I've got her!" he cried, and Jeff, spluttering and breathing +hard, attempted to let go.</p> + +<p>But Lucy still fought so desperately that it was no easy matter to get +her clutch away from Jeff's clothing. By this time, however, Just was also +in the water, and the three soon had the girl under control.</p> + +<p>"Keep quiet! You're all right! Let us take you in!" called Doctor +Churchill to the struggling, strangling little figure. So in a minute more +they had her on the bank.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Lucy!" Doctor Churchill cried in astonishment, as he dropped +upon his knees beside her and fell to work.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's Lucy!" panted Jeff.</p> + +<p>But there was no chance just then for explanations. For the next ten +minutes he and Just were kept busy obeying peremptory orders. As under +Andy's directions they silently and anxiously worked over the young form +upon the grass, they were feeling intensely grateful that the necessary +skill had been so close at hand. But until the doctor's satisfied "She's +coming out all right!" gave them leave, neither dared draw a good breath +for himself.</p> + +<p>Just was wondering what he and Jeff were to say, but his brother was +heaping reproaches upon himself, and sternly holding Jeff Birch responsible +for the whole unfortunate affair.</p> + +<p>By the time Lucy was herself again and able to breathe without distress, +Evelyn had come flying down the path---the only other person roused by the +distant shouts. It had been a day full of active sports, and everybody was +sleeping the sleep of the weary. Even Charlotte had not been roused by +Andy's departure.</p> + +<p>Just ran to the house for blankets; Evelyn, at Doctor Churchill's +direction, followed him to prepare a steaming hot drink for Lucy; and +presently they had her in her bed, warm and dry, although much exhausted by +her experience in the waters of the river, which were cold even on a June +night. Doctor Churchill had insisted on calling Charlotte, but Evelyn had +begged him to arouse nobody else, and after one look into her face he had +agreed.</p> + +<p>At last, Lucy having dropped off to sleep under the soothing influence +of the hot beverage, the others gathered quietly in a lower room. The three +wet ones had acquired dry if informal garments, and a council had been +asked for by Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"It's entirely my fault," began Jeff, promptly, and he plunged into a +brief but graphic account of the accident.</p> + +<p>"It's not in the least your fault," Evelyn interrupted, at last, as Jeff +came to a pause with a repetition of his self-condemnation. "It's mine, if +anybody's. I should have taken the whole thing to Mrs. Churchill at once, +instead of trying to keep it quiet."</p> + +<p>"My meeting her down there alone was entirely my plan," began Jeff +again; but this time it was his sister Charlotte who interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Neither of you is in the least to blame, my dears," she said, smiling +on them both. "You had the best of motives, and the plan might have worked +out well but for the child's sudden mad idea of jumping into that boat. I +suppose she meant to row away."</p> + +<p>"She didn't stop to cast off--she couldn't have got away before I should +have been in the boat, too," objected Jeff.</p> + +<p>"That simply shows how out of her head with excitement she was. But +that's all over. She mercifully wasn't drowned"--a little involuntary +shiver passed over the speaker--"and we'll hope for no serious +consequences. The thing now is to think how to act when she wakes in the +morning."</p> + +<p>"I should say treat the whole thing for what it is, a childish escapade. +Show her the silliness of it, and then let it drop," said Doctor +Churchill.</p> + +<p>Charlotte looked at him appealingly.</p> + +<p>"Lucy and Ran go home next week," she said, slowly. "I hoped--I wanted +so much to send Lucy away with--I can't express it--a little bit higher +ideals than any she has known before. I thought we were succeeding; she has +seemed more considerate and less fault-finding."</p> + +<p>"She certainly has," Evelyn agreed quickly, and the two looked at each +other. There was an instant's silence; then Just spoke:</p> + +<p>"How do you know but you'll find her quite a different proposition when +she wakes up? A plunge like that is a sobering sort of experience, I should +say, for a girl who can't swim. She may be the meekest thing on earth after +this. If it does her as much good as a lively dressing down did George +Jarvis, she's likely to be a changed girl."</p> + +<p>They could not help smiling at the satisfaction in the boy's voice. "He +may be right," admitted Doctor Churchill.</p> + +<p>"At any rate, if Lucy isn't ill to-morrow let's tell nobody what has +happened. The poor child certainly doesn't need any more humiliation just +at present, and I'd like to spare her all I can." Charlotte spoke +decidedly.</p> + +<p>They agreed to this. Evelyn went to her place beside Lucy, planning an +affectionate greeting when the younger girl should wake; and Charlotte, +when she fell asleep, dreamed of Lucy until morning.</p> + +<p>It was quite a different Lucy who met them all in the morning. She +showed no ill effects except a slight languor, and when Charlotte had +established her in a hammock on the porch, she lay there with a quiet, +sober face, which showed that she had been doing some thinking.</p> + +<p>When Jeff approached with his most deferential manner to inquire after +her welfare, she astonished him by saying more simply and sweetly than he +had dreamed possible:</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you I won't forget what you did for me last night. I was +foolish, I suppose. I--I didn't think what I was doing was any harm, but +I--"</p> + +<p>She choked a little and felt for her handkerchief. Jeff grasped her +hand. He had a warm heart, and he had not got over the thought of how he +should have felt if he had not been able to rescue the girl he had +attempted to lecture. His answer to Lucy was very gentle:</p> + +<p>"We'll never think of it again. I'm awfully thankful it all ended well. +If you'll forgive me for frightening you, I'll say that I'm sure you're +really a sensible little girl, and I shan't lie awake nights worrying over +your taking midnight strolls."</p> + +<p>His tone was not priggish, and his smile was so bright that Lucy took +heart of grace, and said, earnestly, "You needn't. I don't want any more," +and buried her face in her pillow.</p> + +<p>But it was not to cry, for Evelyn came by. Jeff called to her, and +between them they soon had Lucy smiling. Before the day was over she had +had a little talk with Charlotte, in which the young married woman came +nearer to the heart of the girl that she had ever succeeded in doing +before, and Lucy had learned one or two simple lessons she never +forgot.</p> + +<p>"But it's the first and last time I ever attempt the education of the +young girl," declared Jeff, solemnly, to Evelyn, that afternoon, as they +gathered armfuls of old-fashioned June roses for the decoration of the +porch.</p> + +<p>"Don't feel too badly. Lucy is going to value your respect very much +after this, and I think you'll be able to give it to her. A girl who has no +older brother misses a great deal, I think. I don't know what I should have +done without mine," answered Evelyn, reaching up to pull at a pink cluster +far above her head.</p> + +<p>"Let me get that for you," and Jeff's long arm easily grasped the spray +and drew it down to her. "Well, I owe a lot to my sisters, that's +sure."</p> + +<p>With quite a knightly air he cut the fairest bud at hand, and gave it to +her, saying quietly, "You wouldn't like it if I said anything soft and +sentimental, but you won't mind if I tell you that you seem to me a lot +like that bud there--that's going to blossom some day."</p> + +<p>He knew it pleased her, for the ready colour told him so. But she +answered lightly:</p> + +<p>"As yet I'm quite content to be only a bud. Your sister Celia is the +opening rose. Isn't she lovely? Here's one just like her. Take it to her +and tell her I said so, will you?"</p> + +<p>She plucked the rose and motioned to where Celia was coming alone along +the orchard road, Frederic Forester having just left her for a hasty trip +to town. Jeff laughed, took the rose and the message, and brought back +Celia's thanks. Evelyn met him with her full basket, and the rose-picking +was over.</p> + +<p>"She says to tell you you're a flatterer, but being a woman, she likes +it--and you," said Jeff, taking her basket away.</p> + +<p>Doctor Forester's party had lasted eight days now, and his guests were +planning how to make the most of the time remaining, when Doctor Churchill +came spinning out in the middle of a Thursday morning with a letter. Mrs. +Peyton had sent word that Randolph and Lucy were to meet her in a distant +city, thirty-six hours' ride away. From there the trio were to proceed to +their home.</p> + +<p>"They will have to leave this evening in order to make it," Doctor +Churchill announced. "This letter has barely allowed time--a little +characteristic of Cousin Lula which I remember of old. She has an idea that +time and tide--if they wait for no man--can sometimes be prevailed upon to +change their schedule on account of a woman."</p> + +<p>Upon hearing the news Lucy burst into tears. She did not want to go, she +did not want to go so soon--more than all, she was afraid to go alone.</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly some one can be found who is going the same way," the +letter read, easily, "and in any case, you can put them in charge of the +railroad officials, who will see that they make no mistakes. I cannot +possibly afford to come so far for them."</p> + +<p>"Why can't Evelyn go now, too?" pleaded Lucy, as she and Evelyn, +Charlotte and Celia were being conveyed on a rapid run home by Frederic +Forester. It had been decided necessary for all feminine hands to fall to +work, to accomplish the packing in time to get the young people off at nine +that evening.</p> + +<p>"Evelyn doesn't go until next Tuesday, and this is only Thursday," +Charlotte answered, promptly.</p> + +<p>"Five days isn't much difference," urged Lucy mournfully. "And when +Evelyn's going right over the same road almost to our home, I should think +she'd like to go when we do, if it did cut off a little. She's been here +all winter."</p> + +<p>"So have you, Lu, and you don't want to go," Charlotte reminded her.</p> + +<p>She did not say that nobody could bear to think of Evelyn's departure +any sooner than was absolutely necessary, for it was not possible honestly +to say the same about Lucy. But when they reached the house, and Charlotte +had run up to her room to exchange her dress for a working frock, Evelyn +came to her and softly closed the door. Evelyn had persuaded herself that +she ought to accompany the others.</p> + +<p>"It isn't as if Lucy were a different sort of girl," she argued--against +her own wishes, for she longed to stay more than she dared to own. "But +nobody knows how she might behave--if anybody tried to get to know +her--somebody she oughtn't to know. And besides, she's afraid. It really +doesn't matter. I can use the extra time getting things ready for Thorne. +Please don't urge me, Mrs. Churchill. It won't be a bit easier next +week."</p> + +<p>Gentle as she was, Charlotte had learned that when Evelyn made up her +mind that she ought to do a thing, it was as good as done. So presently +Evelyn, too, was packing, her smiles at the remonstrances of Charlotte and +Celia very sweet, her heart very heavy.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, I've telephoned the others at 'The Banks,'" said Charlotte, +coming into Evelyn's room, having just left Lucy in an ecstatic condition +over the decision. "You should have heard the dismay. Jeff and Just have +already started home on their wheels, to prevent your going by main +force."</p> + +<p>This was literally true. From Doctor Forester down to his youngest guest +had come regret and remonstrance. Finally, however, Doctor Forester, having +called up Evelyn herself, and been persuaded that she was sure she was +right, had fallen to planning what could be done to make the girl's +leave-taking a pleasant one for her to remember.</p> + +<p>After a little an idea seized him. He chuckled to himself, and fell to +telephoning again. He had Doctor Churchill on the wire, then Charlotte, +Celia and his son Frederic, who had remained at the Birches', finally the +railway-station, the Pullman office, and a certain official of whom he was +accustomed to ask favours and get them granted.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mrs. Fields!" said Evelyn Lee, coming out upon the back porch, +where the doctor's housekeeper was resting after a busy days work. "I shall +never forget how good you've been to me, and I hope you won't forget +me."</p> + +<p>"Forget you!" ejaculated Mrs. Fields, her spare, strong hand grasping +tight the slender one held out to her. "Well, there ain't much danger of +that, nor of anybody else's forgetting you. I've been about as pleased as +the doctor and Miss Charlotte to see you pick up. You don't look like the +same girl that came here last fall."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't feel much like her. Ever so much of it is certainly +due to your good cooking, Mrs. Fields."</p> + +<p>"It's so hard to take leave of you all," said Evelyn, on the porch, +where the others were assembled. "I'd almost like to slip away without a +word--only that would look so ungrateful. And I'm the most grateful girl +alive."</p> + +<p>"You needn't say good-by to me," said Doctor Forester, "for I'm going as +far as Washington with you." He smiled at the joy which flashed into her +face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you really?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"You needn't say good-by to me, either," said Frederic Forester, as she +turned to him, standing next to his father, "for I'm going, too,"</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go along," said Doctor Churchill.</p> + +<p>"Will you take me?" Charlotte was smiling at Evelyn's bewildered +face.</p> + +<p>"If Charlotte goes, I shall, too," supplemented Celia.</p> + +<p>Evelyn looked at them. Surely enough, although in the hurry she had not +noticed it before, they were all in travelling dress. She had known they +had meant to go as far as the city station with her; she saw now that they +were fully equipped for the journey. And Washington was nearly twenty hours +away!</p> + +<p>"You dear people!" murmured Evelyn, and rather blindly cast herself into +Mrs. Birch's outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>There was only one thing lacking to her peace of mind. Jeff had not +appeared to bid her good-by. Charlotte observed that Evelyn's voice +trembled a little when she said, "Where's Jeff? Will you tell him good-by +for me?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte answered, "He won't fail, dear. He'll surely be at the +station."</p> + +<p>But when they reached the station no Jeff was there. Nobody seemed to +notice, for the men of the party were busy looking after various details of +the trip. Celia was explaining to Evelyn and Lucy how it had all come +about.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Forester was so upset and sorry over your going," she said, +"that he went to thinking up excuses to go along. He remembered an +important medical convention in Washington, and persuaded Andy that he +could get away for the three days' session. Then he invited Charlotte and +me, and convinced Mr. Frederic that he ought to go, too. We were only too +willing, so here we are."</p> + +<p>"It's the loveliest thing that could happen," said Evelyn, and tried +hard not to let her eyes wander to the doors of the station.</p> + +<p>She had not seen Jeff since early in the afternoon, when, after hot +argument, he had at last given up trying to persuade her that she need not +go until the coming Tuesday. To Just only, however, as he carried her +little travelling bag on board the train for her, did she say a word.</p> + +<p>"Please tell Jeff for me," she said in his ear, as he established her in +the designated section of the sleeping-car, "that I felt very badly not to +say good-by to him. But give him my best remembrance, and say that I'm sure +he must have been kept from coming by something he couldn't help."</p> + +<p>"Of course he must have been," agreed Just, heartily, feeling like +pitching into his delinquent brother with both fists for bringing that hurt +little look into the hazel eyes below him. "He'll probably turn up just as +your train gets under headway, and then he'll be the maddest fellow you +ever saw. Hullo, I'll bet that messenger boy is looking for you!" as he saw +Frederic Forester pointing a blue-capped carrier of a florist's box toward +Evelyn. He went forward, claimed the box, and brought it back to +Evelyn.</p> + +<p>She peeped within, saw a great cluster of roses, and drew out a card. +"Of course it's Jeff's?" queried Just, anxiously, and he felt immense +relief when Evelyn nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm off!" Just gripped her hand as the train began to move. +"Good-by! I'm mighty sorry to have you go," and with lifted hat, and a +hasty farewell to Lucy and Randolph, he was gone.</p> + +<p>Evelyn smiled at him from the window, as he ran down the platform waving +at her, but her heart was still heavy. It was very good of Jeff to send the +flowers, but she would rather have had one hearty grasp of his friendly +hand than all the roses in his Northern state.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_2X'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>"Well, I consider myself pretty lucky to have secured four sections all +together on this train," said Doctor Forester, with satisfaction, as he and +Andrew Churchill and Frederic retired to the smoking-room while their +berths were being made up.</p> + +<p>"Why, what are we slowing down for out here?" Frederic glanced out of +the window. "This is West Weston, isn't it? Yes--we're off again. Some +official, probably."</p> + +<p>A door slammed and a tall figure hurried through the passage, looked in +at the smoking-room, and turned back. "Hullo!" said a familiar voice, and +Jeff's laughing face beamed in upon them.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, did you hold up the train?" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Thought you'd come along, too, did you?" asked Doctor Forester. "Good! +Glad to have you. I thought it was odd you weren't round to see us off. Go +and surprise the girls. They're just back there, waiting for their +berths."</p> + +<p>Jeff hurried eagerly away. A moment later Evelyn, standing in the aisle +beside Charlotte, felt a touch on her arm. She looked up, and met Jeff's +eyes smiling down at her.</p> + +<p>"Did you think I'd let you go like that?" he said in her ear.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I thought you had," she admitted, grown happy in an +instant.</p> + +<p>"You see, I had an appointment with a man in West Weston on some work +I've been doing for him. After I heard this plan of Doctor Forester's I had +only just time to catch a train and get out there. He kept me so long I +missed the train that would have brought me back in time to see you off, so +I telephoned Chester Agnew to get the flowers for me and write a card. That +was when I was afraid I might not make connections at all. But when this +man I went to see--he's a railroad man--heard what train I'd wanted to +make, he offered to stop it for me. Then it just came into my mind that I'd +join the party, even without an invitation. Tell me you're not sorry--won't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm not." She allowed him one of her frank looks, and he +smiled back at her.</p> + +<p>"We'll have a great day to-morrow," he prophesied. "They'll put on a +Pullman with an observation rear in the morning, and if the weather holds +we'll camp out there for the day. We don't get into Washington till three +in the afternoon, and the scenery all the way down will be fine. I suppose +I'll have to go off now and let you be tucked up. Please get up bright and +early in the morning, will you?"</p> + +<p>It was a merry party which entered the dining-car the next morning the +moment the first summons came. The day had risen bright and clear as a June +day could be, and everybody was in a hurry to get out on the observation +platform.</p> + +<p>Doctor Forester, sitting opposite Charlotte and Andy at one table, +glanced across at the rest of the party, on the opposite side of the car, +and said in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"This is literally a case of speeding the parting guest, isn't it? +Captain John Rayburn got you into something of a scrape when he sent you +that copper inscription over your fireplace, didn't he? He didn't realise +that the 'ornaments' it brought you in November would have to be conveyed +away by force in June. It was the only way to give you an interval when you +should, for the first time in the history of your married life, have no +guests at all."</p> + +<p>Charlotte and Andrew were staring at him in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ray?" cried Charlotte, under her breath. "Was he the one? Did you +know it all the time, Doctor Forester?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew it all the time" he owned. "In fact, Captain Rayburn wrote +to me after he had heard of the fireplace. You sent him a photograph of it, +didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"So we did," Doctor Churchill answered. "We took it the day the +fireplace was finished, I'd forgotten it completely, but I remember now. We +thought he'd be interested, because something he once said about the ideal +fireplace had put the idea into our heads of collecting the stones +ourselves. So he wrote all the way from Denmark to have that made?"</p> + +<p>"He had it made there, and wrote me for the measurements. He expressed +it to me, and I repacked it and sent it to you," chuckled Doctor Forester. +"He was determined to puzzle you completely."</p> + +<p>"He certainly succeeded. Did he give you leave to tell at this +particular date?"</p> + +<p>"It was left to my discretion after the first six months, provided you +had had any guests. I thought the time was ripe, and you'd earned your +diploma. All that worries me is that you may find a fresh instalment of +ornaments when you get back. The motto strikes me as a sort of uncanny +provider of them." The others laughed. Charlotte glanced across at +Evelyn.</p> + +<p>"It has paid," she said softly. Andy nodded. "It certainly has. All the +thanks we shall need will be in Thorne Lee's letter, after he has seen his +little sister."</p> + +<p>"I rather think it's paid with the others, too," Doctor Forester added. +"Anyhow, you've certainly done your part."</p> + +<p>Out on the back of the train Charlotte found Lucy at her elbow. She +looked into the girl's face, and discovered the blue eyes to be full of +tears. "Why, Lu, dear!" she said, softly.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Churchill"--Lucy was almost crying--"I just can't bear to think +it's the last day! I wish--oh, I wish--I lived with you!"</p> + +<p>"Do you, dear? That's very pleasant," and Charlotte drew her close, +feeling more warmth toward Lucy than the girl had yet inspired. "But don't +be blue."</p> + +<p>"I can't help it. It's almost ten o'clock now, and at three we shall be +going away from you all."</p> + +<p>"No, you won't," Charlotte whispered in her ear. "It was to have been a +surprise, but I think you'll enjoy it more to know. Only don't tell Evelyn. +Doctor Forester has telegraphed your mother and received her answer. You're +not to go till to-morrow night at six, and we're to have twenty-eight hours +together in Washington."</p> + +<p>"Oh! <i>Oh</i>!" Lucy almost screamed, so that the others looked around +at her and smiled. "Oh, I do think Doctor Forester and you are just the +nicest people I ever knew!"</p> + +<p>Doctor Forester's secret was not very well kept, after all. Lucy +whispered the good news to Jeff, and he could not forbear telling it to +Evelyn just as the train was drawing out of Baltimore. His own spirits had +been drooping as time went on, but the reprieve of a day sent them up with +a bound.</p> + +<p>"The question is what we shall do with our time," said Doctor Forester, +looking round at his party in the hotel parlour, where he had taken them. +"Speak up, everybody. We can divide our forces if necessary. Is there +anybody here who hasn't been here before?"</p> + +<p>Lucy and Randolph seemed to be the only ones not more or less familiar +with the capital. On hearing this, Doctor Forester declared that he should +himself take them to as many of the most interesting places as +possible.</p> + +<p>"Whatever we do to-night, I vote for the trip down the Potomac to Mount +Vernon in the morning," said Doctor Churchill, promptly. "We'll get back in +plenty of time for Evelyn's train, and there certainly isn't a better way +to put in the time than that."</p> + +<p>This was heartily agreed upon, and the remainder of the day was used in +various ways, not more than two of which, it may be remarked, were alike. +Charlotte smiled meaningly at her husband as she watched Celia and Fred +Forester, having proceeded half-way across Lafayette Park with Jeff and +Evelyn, leave the two at a cross-path, and walk briskly off by +themselves.</p> + +<p>"That's certainly a sure thing, isn't it?" said he.</p> + +<p>"No question of it, I think."</p> + +<p>"Are you satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly. I haven't seen very much of Fred since he--and we--grew up, +but if he's his father's son----"</p> + +<p>"He is, I think," said Doctor Churchill, confidently. "And the doctor +likes it, I'm sure. There's satisfaction in his face whenever he looks at +them. In fact, I can't help thinking he planned both the house party and +this trip with a view of bringing them together all he could."</p> + +<p>"Dear Celia--if she's just half as happy as she deserves to be----"</p> + +<p>"She will be. She loves to travel, hasn't had half enough of it, and +he'll take her round the world. I haven't had a chance to tell you that +he's going to India in the fall, in some important capacity. He received +the appointment just yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Really?" Charlotte looked thoughtful. "Celia--in India! Andy----"</p> + +<p>"Does that startle you? I don't imagine it's for any long stay, but as a +matter of some scientific investigations. Here, don't go to looking sober. +I shall be sorry I told you."</p> + +<p>Charlotte smiled and answered brightly that it was not a thing to look +sober over. Nevertheless, her thoughts were much with her sister. The next +morning, as the party found their places on the little steamer which was to +take them down the river to Mount Vernon, she found herself watching Celia +more closely than she had meant to do, in the anxiety to discover if the +trip to India was really imminent.</p> + +<p>"Isn't Mount Vernon a fascinating spot?" asked Evelyn, as she and Jeff +walked up the long, ascending road from pier to house together. "I've never +forgotten my first visit. I lived in Washington's times in my dreams for +weeks afterward. I never saw it at this season of the year. The garden must +be in its prime now."</p> + +<p>"Let's go and see it first," responded Jeff, quickly. "I don't remember +much about it. My two visits here have all been spent in the house."</p> + +<p>So while the others rambled through the quaint and interesting rooms, +Jeff and Evelyn made their way to the box-bordered paths of Lady +Washington's garden, and wandered about there in the warm June sunshine. It +grew so hot after a while that they betook themselves to the lawn and banks +overlooking the river, and sat there talking, as they watched the waters of +the Potomac.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do when you get home?" asked Jeff, somewhat +suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Put our rooms in order," Evelyn responded, promptly.</p> + +<p>"All by yourself?"</p> + +<p>"We live in the same house with a lovely little woman, the wife of a +former Confederate general. I shall be with her until Thorne comes."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've lots of friends of your own age?" Jeff observed.</p> + +<p>"Not as many as I ought to have. You see, I've lived very quietly with +my brother for six years now, except for the time I spent at a girls' +school in Baltimore. Since I came home from there I've not been very +strong, and Thorne has kept me very quiet, until he sent me North to school +last fall."</p> + +<p>"You're so well now you'll be going about a lot. Any young people in the +house with you? It's a boarding-house, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a small one. There are no young people in it except Mrs. +Livingstone's son."</p> + +<p>"How old a fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-one, I believe."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're great friends with him?" said Jeff suspiciously.</p> + +<p>Evelyn looked at him quickly and laughed, flushing a little. "Why, we're +naturally very good friends," she said.</p> + +<p>"Evelyn," said Jeff, sitting up straight again, "I'm absolutely bursting +to tell you some news, and I can't seem to lead up to it. I've got to bring +it out flat. The only thing I'm anxious about is whether it's going to be +as good news to you as it is to me."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with a quickening of her pulses, his expression had +become so very eager. "Please don't keep me in suspense," she begged.</p> + +<p>"Well"--Jeff did his best to speak coolly, as if the matter were really +of no great importance, after all--"you know it's been a question with me +all along as to just what I was going to do when I got out of college. I +wanted tremendously to get to work, and a lot of the usual things didn't +seem to appeal to me at all. I haven't enough of a scientific turn to go +into any of the engineering courses. I didn't care for a mercantile berth. +In fact, while my brother Lanse has had his future cut out for him since he +was fourteen, and Just, at sixteen, is body and soul in for electrical +engineering, I've been the family problem. Father's had the sense not to +assert his wishes for a moment. He saw from the start, I suppose, that the +family traditions were not for me--I could never begin by studying law and +end by wearing the ermine, as a lot of my grandfathers and uncles have +done. So--"</p> + +<p>Jeff paused and drew a long breath. He had been looking off down the +river as he talked, but now he brought his eyes back to Evelyn's face, and +his spirits leaped exultantly as he saw with what eager attention she was +listening.</p> + +<p>"You really care to hear all this, don't you?" he asked, happily, and +went on before she could do more than nod. "Well, the short of it is that +through Doctor Forester I got to know a friend of his who is a railroad +magnate--the real thing--and to please the doctor he seemed to take an +interest in me. He's offered me a position in one of his offices, provided +I take a year to study practical railroading first. Of course I'm only too +glad to do that. And now I'm coming to the point of the whole thing. When +my year is up, that office where I'm to begin to work up in the railroad +business is"--he paused dramatically, watching his hearer's face, as his +own, in spite of himself, broke into a smile--"in your own city, Evelyn +Lee!"</p> + +<p>If he had had any lingering doubt that this might not be as good news to +Evelyn as he wanted it to be, his fears were put to rout.</p> + +<p>"O Jeff!" she said, quite breathlessly, and the happy colour surged into +her face. "Why, that's almost too good to be true!"</p> + +<p>"Is it? You're a trump for saying so. Jupiter! I feel like standing up +and shouting. The thing has been sure since that afternoon I went to +Weston, but I didn't mean to tell you of it in this crazy boy fashion, but +write it to you quite calmly after you got home. But--it wouldn't +keep."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think it would. Besides, it's so much nicer to hear it now, +when it makes it----"</p> + +<p>She stopped abruptly, and jumped up. Jeff leaped to his feet also.</p> + +<p>"Makes it--what?" he asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Why--it's such a pleasant place to hear good news in."</p> + +<p>"That wasn't what you were going to say."</p> + +<p>"We ought to go back to the house." She began to move slowly away. Jeff +followed.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to hear the end of that sentence," he urged, as they walked up +the grassy slope to the house in the clear sunlight.</p> + +<p>She laughed a little, but shook her head. She was looking very sweet in +her brown travelling dress, her russet hair shaded by a wide brown hat with +captivating curving outlines. Jeff looked at her dainty profile and +realised that the hour for separation was coming fast.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, I know what I <i>wish</i> you were going to say,"--he was +striding close by her side--"and I can certainly say it if you can't. +Telling you that I'm coming to work near you next year makes it easier for +me to say good-by now. And that's--well--that's going to be a bit +tough."</p> + +<p>Evelyn walked on a few steps in silence. Then she turned and spoke +softly over her shoulder. There was not a touch of coquetry in her simple +manner, yet it had an engaging quality all its own.</p> + +<p>"That's what I wanted to say, Jeff."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he responded. "I'll not forget that," and his tone told +that he appreciated the little concession.</p> + +<p>It seemed but the briefest possible space of time before they had gone +over the house, had been hurried back to the landing by emphatic toots from +the small excursion steamer, and were off for the city again. The trip back +up the river was finished also before it seemed hardly begun. All too soon +for anybody the three young travellers were on their train, and Doctor +Churchill and Fred Forester had taken leave of them and were out on the +platform, ready to jump off. Jeff had lingered till the last.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Lucy! Good-by, Ran!" he said, and gave each a hearty grip and +smile. Then his hand clasped Evelyn's, his eyes said things his lips would +not have ventured to speak, and his hand wrung hers with a fervour which +made it sting. Then he went away without a backward look, as if he must get +the parting quickly over.</p> + +<p>Outside the train, however, he turned with the others, and as the train +rolled slowly out of the station, and Evelyn strained her eyes to see the +group of her friends waving affectionately to her from the platform, the +last face upon which her gaze rested wore the strong, loyal, eloquent look +of Jefferson Birch.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>"Home again," said Andrew Churchill, as he set his latch-key in the door +of the brick house four days later. "Fieldsy must be away, or she would +have answered."</p> + +<p>They hurried through the house. It was in absolute order, but empty. On +the office desk was a note in the housekeeper's awkward hand:</p> + +<p>"If you should come to-night, I've had to go to take care of a sick +woman, will be back in the morning, you will find everything cooked +up."</p> + +<p>Doctor Churchill read it with a laugh. "Charlotte, we're actually alone +in our own house. Let's run over to the other house and embrace them all +round, and then come back and see how it feels over here."</p> + +<p>So they went across the lawn.</p> + +<p>"We shall be delighted to have you stay with us, my dears," said Mrs. +Birch, after the greetings.</p> + +<p>"Mother Birch," said her son-in-law, with air affectionate hand on her +shoulder, "not even you can charm us out of our own house to-night. Do you +know that we're all alone--that not even Fieldsy is over there? Charlotte's +going to get dinner, and I'm to help her with the clearing up, and then +we're going to sit on our porch. Of course we shall be constantly looking +down the street for a messenger boy with a telegram announcing the coming +of our next guest, but until he comes--"</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed at the expressive breath he drew.</p> + +<p>"Go, you dear children," said Mrs. Birch, and the rest joined in +warmly.</p> + +<p>"I'll sit on our doorstone with a rifle, and pick off the visitors as +they come up the street!" cried Just, as the two went off.</p> + +<p>"Don't shoot to kill!" Doctor Churchill called back, gaily. Then the +door closed on the pair.</p> + +<p>When the happy little dinner was over, the dishes put away, and +Charlotte had slipped on a cool frock in which to spend the warm summer +evening, she went out to find her husband lying comfortably in the hammock +behind the vines, his hands clasped under his head. The twilight was just +slipping into evening, and the breath of unseen roses was sweet upon the +shadows.</p> + +<p>Charlotte drew a chair close to her husband's side and sat down.</p> + +<p>"After all, Andy," said she, as they fell to talking of the past year, +"I wouldn't have had it different. One thing is certain--out of our three +guests we entertained at least one angel unawares."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I like to think that perhaps the others are none the worse for +staying with us," Andrew Churchill answered, thoughtfully. "I'm glad we did +it, glad it's over, and shall be glad to have other people come to see +us--by and by. But--I want a good long honeymoon first. Is that your +mind?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered fervently, smiling.</p> + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second Violin, by Grace S. 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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: The Second Violin + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13209] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECOND VIOLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE SECOND VIOLIN + +BY GRACE S. RICHMOND + +Author of +"Red Pepper Burns," "Mrs. Red Pepper," +"The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet in +England," Etc. + +A. L. BURT COMPANY +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + +Copyright, 1905, 1906, by +Perry Mason Company. + +Copyright, 1906, by +Doubleday, Page & Company +Published, September, 1906. + + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + BOOK I The Second Violin + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + CHAPTER IX + CHAPTER X + + BOOK II The Churchill Latch-string + CHAPTER I + CHAPTER II + CHAPTER III + CHAPTER IV + CHAPTER V + CHAPTER VI + CHAPTER VII + CHAPTER VIII + CHAPTER IX + CHAPTER X + + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOK I + + +THE SECOND VIOLIN + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Crash! Bang! Bang! "_The March of the Pilgrims_" came to an abrupt end. +John Lansing Birch laid down his viola and bow, whirled about, and flung +out his arms in despair. "Oh, this crowd is hopeless!" he groaned. +"Never mind any other instrument, providing _yours_ is heard. This march +is supposed to die away in the distance! You murder it in front of the +house. That second violin--" + +Here his wrath centered upon the red-cheeked, black-eyed young player. + +The second violin returned his gaze with resentment. "What's the use of +my playing like a midsummer zephyr when Just's sawing away like mad on +the bass?" she retorted. + +The first violin smiled pleasantly on the little group. "Let's try it +again," she suggested, "and see if we can please John Lansing better." + +"You're all right," said Lansing, with a wave of his hand at Celia, "if +the rest of the strings wouldn't fight to drown you out. Charlotte plays +as if second violin were a solo part, with the rest as accompaniment." + +Charlotte tucked her instrument under a sulky, round chin, raised her +bow and waited, her eyes on the floor. Celia, smiling, softly tried her +strings. + +"That's it, precisely," began the leader, still with irritation. "Celia +tunes between practice; Charlotte takes it for granted she's all right +and fires ahead. Your E string is off!" + +The second violin grudgingly tightened the E string; then all her +strings in turn, lengthening the process as much as possible. The 'cello +did the same--the 'cello always stood by the second violin. Jeff gave +Charlotte a glance of loyalty. His G string had been flatter than her E. + +Lansing wheeled about and picked up his instrument, carefully trying its +pitch. He gave the signal, and the "_March of the Pilgrims_" began--in +the remote distance. The double-bass viol gripped his bow with his +stubby twelve-year-old fingers, and hardly breathed as he strove to keep +his notes subdued. The 'cello murmured a gentle undertone; the first +violin sang as sweetly and delicately as a bird, her _legato_ perfect. +The second violin fingered her notes through, but the voice of her +instrument was not heard at all. + +The leader glanced at her once, with a frown between his fine eyebrows, +but Charlotte played dumbly on. The Pilgrims approached--_crescendo_; +drew near--_forte_; passed--_fortissimo_; marched away--_diminuendo_; +were almost lost in the distance--_piano_--_pianissimo_. Uplifted +bows--and silence. + +"Good!" said a hearty voice behind them. Everybody looked up, +smiling--even the second violin. His children always smiled when Mr. +Roderick Birch came in. It would have been a sour temper which could +have resisted his genial greeting. + +"Mother would like the _'Lullaby'_ next," he said. "She's rather tired +to-night. And after the _'Lullaby'_ I want a little talk with you all." + +Something in his voice or his eyes made his elder daughter take notice +of him, as he dropped into a chair by the fire. "Play your best," she +warned the others, in a whisper. But they needed no warning. Everybody +always played his best for father. And if mother was tired-- + +The notes of the second violin fell daintily, caressing those which +wrought out the melody enveloping but never overwhelming them. As the +music ceased, the leader, turning to the second violin, met her +reluctant eyes with a softening in his own keen ones. The hint of a +laugh curved the corners of her lips as his smiled broadly. It was all +the truce necessary. Charlotte's sulks never lasted longer than Lanse's +impatience. + +They laid aside their instruments and gathered round their father. +Graceful, brown-eyed Celia sat down beside him; Charlotte's curly black +hair mingled with his heavy iron-gray locks as she perched upon the arm +of his chair, her scarlet flannel arm under his head. The youngest boy, +Justin, threw himself flat on the hearth-rug, chin propped on elbow, +watching the fire; sixteen-year-old Jeff helped himself to a low stool, +clasping long arms about long legs as his knees approached his head in +this posture; and the eldest son, pausing, drew up a chair and sat down +to face the group. + +"Now for it," he said. "It looks serious--a consultation of the whole. +Mayn't we have mother to back us?" + +"I've sent mother to bed," Mr. Birch explained. "She wanted to come down +to hear you play, but I wouldn't let her. And indeed there are +moments--" He glanced quizzically at his eldest son. + +"Yes, sir," Lansing responded, promptly. "There are moments when the +furnace pipes convey up-stairs as much din as she can bear." + +Mr. Birch sat looking thoughtfully into the fire for a minute or two. + +He began at last, gently, "Celia--has mother seemed quite strong to you +of late?" + +"Mother--strong?" asked Celia, in surprise. "Why, father, isn't she? +She--had that illness last winter, and was a long time getting about, +but she has seemed well all summer." + +Their eyes were all upon his face. Even young Justin had swung about +upon his elbows and was regarding his father with attention. They +waited, startled. + +"I took her to Doctor Forester to-day, and he--surprised me a good deal. +He seemed to think that mother must not spend the coming winter in this +climate. Don't be alarmed; I don't want to frighten you, but I want you +to appreciate the necessity. He thinks that if mother were to have a +year of rest and change we need have no fears for her." + +"Fears!" repeated Lansing, under his breath. Was it possible that +anything was the matter with mother? Why, she was the central sun about +which their little family world moved! There could not--must not--be +anything wrong with mother! + +"Tell us plainly, father," urged Celia's soft voice. She was pale, but +she spoke quietly. + +Charlotte, at the first word of alarm, had turned her face away. Jeff's +bright black eyes--he was Charlotte's counterpart in colouring and +looks--rested anxiously on the second violin's curly mop of hair, tied +at the neck with a big black bow of ribbon. It was always most +expressive to Jeff, that bow of ribbon. + +Lansing repeated Celia's words. "Yes, tell us plainly, sir. We'd rather +know." + +"I am alarming you," Mr. Birch said, quickly. "I knew I could not say +the slightest thing about her without doing that. But I need to talk it +over with you all, because if we carry out the doctor's prescription it +means much sacrifice for every one. I had no doubt that you would make +it, but I think it is better for you to understand its importance. +Doctor Forester says New Mexico is an almost certain cure for such +trouble as mother's, if taken early. And we are taking it early." + +Justin and Jeff looked puzzled, but Celia caught her breath, and +Lansing's ruddy colour suddenly faded. Charlotte buried her head in her +father's shoulder and drew the scarlet flannel arm tighter about his +neck. + +The iron-gray head bent over the curly black one for a moment, as if the +strong man of the household found it hard to face the anxious eyes which +searched his, and would have liked, like his eighteen-year-old daughter, +to run to cover. But in an instant, he looked up again and spoke in the +cheery tone they knew so well. + +"Now listen, and be brave," he said. "Mother's trouble is like a house +just set on fire. A dash of Water and a blanket--and it is out. Wait +till a whole room is ablaze, and it's a serious matter to stop it. Now, +in our case, we've only the little kindling corner to smother, and the +New Mexico air is water and blanket--a whole fire department, if need +be. The doctor assures me that with mother's good constitution, and the +absence of any hereditary predisposition to this sort of thing, we've +only to give her the ten or twelve months of rest and reenforcement--the +winter in New Mexico, the summer in Colorado--to nip the whole thing in +the bud. I believe him, and you must believe him--and me. More than all, +you must not show the slightest change of front to her. She knows it +all, but she doesn't want you to know. I think differently about that. + +"Three of you are men and women now, and the other two," he smiled into +the upturned, eager faces of Jeff and Justin, "are getting to be men. +Even my youngest can be depended upon to act the strong part." + +Justin scrambled to his feet at that, and gravely laid a muscular boy's +hand in his father's. + +"I'll stand by you, sir," he said. + +Nobody laughed. Charlotte's black bow twitched and a queer sound burst +from the shoulder where her head was buried. Jeff's thick black lashes +went down for a moment; Celia shook two bright drops from brimming eyes +and patted Just's sturdy shoulder. Mr. Birch shook the hand vigorously +without speaking, and only Lansing found words to express what they +felt. + +"He speaks for us all, I know, sir. And now if you'll tell us our part +we'll take hold. I think I know what it means. Trips to New Mexico, from +New York, are expensive." + +"They are very expensive," Mr. Birch replied, slowly. "I must go with +her. We must travel in the least fatiguing fashion, which means +state-rooms on trains and many extras by the way. She has kept up +bravely, but this unusual exhaustion after one day in town shows me how +careful I must be of her on the long journey. Then, once away, no +expense must be spared to make the absence tell for all there is in it. +And most of all to be considered, while I am away there will be--no +income." + +They looked at each other now, Celia at Lansing, and Lansing at Jeff, +and Jeff at both of them. Charlotte sat up suddenly, her cheeks and eyes +burning, and stared hard at each in turn. + +The income would stop. And what would that mean? The family had within +three years suffered heavy financial losses from causes outside of their +control, and the father's income, that of attorney-at-law in a large +suburban town, had since become the only source of support. So far it +had sufficed, although Charlotte and Celia had been sent away to school, +and both Celia and Lansing were now in college. + +It was the remembrance of these heavy demands upon the family purse +which now caused the young people to look at one another with startled +questioning. Lansing was about to begin his senior year at a great +university; Celia had finished her first year at a famous women's +college. Within a fortnight both were expecting to begin work. + +Charlotte did not care about a college course, but she had planned for +two years to go to a school of design, for she was a promising young +worker in things decorative. As for Jefferson, sixteen years old, +captain of the high-school football team, six feet tall, and able to +give his brother Lansing a hard battle for physical supremacy, his +dearest dream was a great military school. Even Justin--but Justin was +only twelve--his dreams could wait. His was the only face in the group +which remained placid during the moments succeeding Mr. Birch's mention +of the astonishing fact about the income. + +The father's observant eyes noted all that his children's looks could +tell him of surprise, disappointment and bewilderment; and of the +succeeding effort they made to rally their forces and show no sign of +dismay. + +Lansing made the first effort. "I can drop back a year," he said, +thoughtfully. "Or I--no--merely working my way through this year +wouldn't do. It wouldn't help out at home." + +"Why, Lanse!" began Celia, and stopped. + +He glanced meaningly at her, and the colour flashed back into her +cheeks. In the next instant she had followed his lead. + +"If Lanse can stay out of college, I can, too," she said, with decision. + +"If I could get some fairly good position," Lanse proposed, "I ought to +be able to earn enough to--well, we're rather a large family, and our +appetites----" + +"I could do something," began Charlotte, eagerly. "I could--I could do +sewing----" + +At that there was a general howl, which quite broke the solemnity of the +occasion. "Charlotte--sewing!" they cried. + +"Why not take in washing?" urged Lanse. + +"Or solicit orders for fancy cooking?" + +"Or tutor stupid little boys in languages? Come! Fiddle--stick to your +specialty." + +Charlotte's face was a study as she received these hints. They +represented the things she disliked most and could do least well. Yet +they were hardly farther afield than her own suggestion of sewing. +Charlotte's inability with the needle was proverbial. + +"What position do you consider yourself eminently fitted for, Mr. +Lansing Birch?" she inquired, with uplifted chin. + +"You have me there," her brother returned, good-humouredly. "There's +only one thing I can think of--to go into the locomotive shops. +Mechanics' wages are better than most, and a little practical experience +wouldn't hurt me." + +It was his turn to be met with derision. It could hardly be wondered at, +for as he stood before them, John Lansing looked the personification of +fastidiousness, and his face, although it surmounted a strongly +proportioned and well developed body, suggested the mental +characteristics not only of his father, but of certain +great-grandfathers and uncles, who had won their distinction in +intellectual arenas. Even his father seemed a little daunted at this +proposal. + +"That's it--laugh!" urged Lanse. "If I'd proposed to try to get on the +'reportorial staff' of a city newspaper you'd all smile approval, as at +a thing suited to my genius. I'd have to live in town to do that, and +what little I earned would go to fill my own hungry mouth. Now at the +shops--you needn't look so top-lofty! Dozens of fellows who are taking +engineering courses put on the overalls, shoulder a lunch-pail and go to +work every morning during vacation at seven o'clock. They come grinning +home at night, their faces black as tar, their spirits up in Q, jump +into a bath-tub, put on clean togs, and come down to dinner looking like +gentlemen--but _not_ gentlemen any more thoroughly than they have been +all day." + +Jeff looked at his brother seriously. "Lanse," he said, "if you go into +one of the locomotive shops won't you get a place for me?" + +But Celia interposed. "Whatever the rest of us do," she said, "Jeff and +Just must keep on with school." + +Jeff rebelled with a grimace. "Not much!" he shouted. "I guess one +six-footer is as good as another in a boiler-shop. You don't catch me +swallowing algebra and German when I might be developing muscle. If +Lanse puts on overalls I'm after him." + +Celia looked at her father. "What do you think of all this, sir?" she +asked. "If I stay at home, dismiss Delia, and do the housework myself, +and Lanse finds some suitable position, can't we get on? Charlotte can +put off the school of design another year. We will all be very +economical about clothes----" + +"Being economical doesn't bring in cash to pay bills," interrupted Jeff. +"Do the best he can, Lanse won't draw any hair-raising salary the first +year. He could probably get clerical work at one of the banks, but +what's that? He'd fall off so in his wind I could throw him across the +room in three months." + +They all laughed. Jeff's devotion to athletics dominated his ideals at +all times, and his disgust at the thought of such a depletion of his +brother's physical forces was amusing. + +Celia was still looking at her father. He spoke in the hearty tone to +which they were accustomed, his face full of satisfaction. + +"You please me very much, all of you," he said. "It will be the best +tonic I can offer your mother. Her greatest trial is this very +necessity, which she foresaw the instant the plan was formed--so much +sacrifice on the part of her children. Yet she agreed with me that the +experience might not be wholly bad for you, and she said"--he paused, +smiling at his elder daughter--"that with Celia at the helm she was sure +the family ship wouldn't be wrecked" + +Then he told them that they might plan the division of labour and +responsibility as they thought practicable. He agreed with Celia that +the younger boys must remain in school, but added--since at this point +it became necessary to mollify his son Jefferson--that a fellow with a +will might find any number of remunerative odd jobs out of school and +study hours. He commended Lansing's idea, but advised him to look around +before deciding; and he passed an affectionate hand over Charlotte's +black curls as he observed that young person sunk in gloom. + +"Cheer up, little girl!" he said. "The second violin is immensely +important to the music of the family orchestra. The hand that can design +wall-papers can learn to relieve the mistress of the house of some of +her cares. Celia, without a maid in the kitchen, will find plenty of use +for such a quick brain as lies under this thatch." + +But at this moment something happened--something to which the family +were not unused. Charlotte suddenly wriggled out from under the +caressing hand, and in half a dozen quick movements was out of the room. +They had all had a vision of brilliant wet eyes, flushing cheeks, and +red, rebellious mouth. + +"Poor child!" murmured Celia. "She thinks we find her of no use." + +"She is rather a scatterbrain," Lanse observed. "The year may do her +good, as you say, father--as well as the rest of us," he added, with +modesty. + +"There's a lot of things she can do, just the same,"--Jeff fired up, +instantly--"things the rest of us are perfect noodles at. When she gets +to earning more money in a day than the rest of us can in a month maybe +we'll let up on that second-fiddle business." + +"Good for you, you faithful Achates!" said Lanse. Then he turned to his +father. "You haven't told us yet when you go, sir." + +"If we can, two weeks from to-day," said Mr. Birch. Then he went +up-stairs to tell his wife that she might go peacefully to sleep, for +her children were ready to become her devoted slaves. Justin followed +Jeff out of the room, and Jeff broke away from this younger brother and +hastened to rap a familiar, comforting signal of comradeship on +Charlotte's locked door. + +Left alone, Lanse and Celia looked at each other. + +"Well, old girl--" began Lansing, gently. + +"O Lanse!" breathed Celia. + +He patted her shoulder. "Bear up, dear. It's tough to give up college +for a year--" + +"Oh, _that's_ not it!" cried the girl, and buried her face in a sofa +pillow. + +"No, that's not it," he answered, under his breath. He shook his +shoulders and walked away to the fire, stood staring down into it for a +minute with sober eyes, then drew a long breath and came back to his +sister. + +"It's a relief that there's something we can do to help her get well," +he said, slowly. "And she will get well, Celia--she will--_she must_!" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"Where's the shawl-strap?" + +"Charlotte, wait just a moment; are you perfectly sure that mother's +dressing sack and knit slippers are in the case? Nobody saw them put in, +and I don't--" + +"Justin, run down-stairs, please, and get that unopened package of +water-biscuit. You'll find it on the pantry shelf, I think." + +"Lanse, if the furnace runs all night with the draught on, your fire +will be burned out in the morning, and it will take an extra amount of +coal to get it started again." + +"Where's Jeff? He must be told about--" + +"Put mother's overshoes to warm." + +"I have left two hundred dollars to your credit at the bank, Lansing, +and I--" + +"Lanse, did you telephone for--" + +"Where did Celia put the--" + +"Listen, all of you. I--" + +"What did Jeff do with that small white--" + +"_Silence!_" shouted Lansing, above the din. "Can't you people get these +traps together without all yelling at once? You will have mother so used +up she can't start." + +Mrs. Birch smiled at her tall son from the easy chair where she had been +placed ten minutes before, her family protesting that they could finish +the numberless small tasks yet to be done. It was nine o'clock in the +evening, and it lacked but an hour of train-time. + +They all looked at the slender figure in the easy chair. They had +learned in these last two weeks to take note of their mother's +appearance as, with easy confidence in her exhaustless strength, they +had never done before. Since the night when they had learned that she +was not quite well, they had discovered for themselves the delicacy of +the smiling face, the thinness of the graceful body, the many small +signs by which those who run may read the evidences of lessened +vitality, if their eyes are once opened. They wondered that they had not +seen it all before, and found the only explanation in the cheery, +undaunted spirit which had covered up every sign of fatigue. + +"She is too tired already," declared Celia. "Run away, and let father +and me finish." + +But they would not go. How could they, with only an hour left? They +subdued their voices, and ran whispering about. Jeff held a long +conference in an undertone with his mother. Justin perched on the arm of +her chair, with his head on her shoulder, and she would not have him +taken away, her own heart sick within her at thought of the long absence +from them all. Altogether, when one took into account the preceding +fortnight of making ready for the trip, it was not strange that in this +last hour of preparation she gave out entirely. + +The first they knew of it was when Mr. Birch, with a low exclamation, +sprang across the room, and catching up his wife in his arms, carried +her to a couch. + +"Water!" he said. "And open the window!" + +Startled, they obeyed him. It was only a brief unconsciousness, and the +lovely brown eyes when they unclosed were as full of bravery as ever, +but Mr. Birch spoke anxiously to Lansing in the hall outside. + +"I don't like to start with her, as worn-out as this," he said. "Yet +everything is engaged--the state-room and all--and I don't want to delay +without reason. There's not time to send to the city for Doctor +Forester. Suppose you telephone Doctor Ridgway to come around and tell +us what to do about starting. If he is out, try Sears or Barton. Have +him hurry. We've barely forty-five minutes now." + +In three minutes Lansing came back and beckoned his father out of the +room. + +"They're all out," he said, "I tried old Doctor Hitchcock, too, but he's +sick in bed. How about that new doctor that's just moved in next door? I +like his looks. He certainly will know enough to advise about this." + +Mr. Birch hesitated a moment. "Well, call him," he decided. + +Lansing was already down the stairs. Three minutes later he returned +with the young doctor. Mr. Birch met them in the hall. + +"Doctor Churchill, father." Mr. Birch looked keenly into a pair of eyes +whose steady glance gave him instantly the feeling that here was a man +to trust. + +The young people waited impatiently outside while Doctor Churchill spent +fifteen quiet minutes with their father and mother. When Mr. Birch came +to the door again with the physician, he was looking relieved. + +Doctor Churchill paused before the little group, his eyes glancing +kindly at each in turn, as he spoke to Lansing. He certainly was young +but there was about him an air of quiet confidence and decision which +one felt instinctively would be justified by further acquaintance. + +"Don't be anxious," he said. "All this hurry of preparation has been a +severe test on her, taken with her reluctance to leave her home. She is +feeling stronger now, and it will be better for her to get the +leave-taking over than to postpone and dread it longer. You will all +make it easy for her--No breakdowns," he cautioned, with a smile. "New +Mexico is a great place, and you are doing the best thing in the world +in getting her off before cold weather." + +He was gone, but they felt as if a reviving breeze had passed over them, +and when they went back to their mother's room it was with serene faces. +If Charlotte swallowed hard at a lump in her throat, and Celia lingered +an instant behind the rest to pinch the colour back into her cheeks, +nobody observed it. Perhaps each was too occupied with acting his own +light-hearted part. Somehow the minutes slipped away, and soon the +travellers were at the door. + +Into Mrs. Birch's face, also, the colour had returned, summoned there, +it may be, not only by the doctor's stimulating draught, but by the +insistence of her own will. + +"Good-by! good-by! God be with you all!" murmured Mr. Birch, breaking +with difficulty away from Justin's frantic hug. + +Mrs. Birch, on Lansing's arm, had gone down the steps to the carriage. +The father followed, surrounded by an eager group. Only Lansing was to +go to the train. The others, as they crowded round the carriage door, +were incoherently mingling parting messages. Then presently they were +left behind, a suddenly quiet, sober group. + +Inside the carriage Mrs. Birch, with her hand in her eldest son's, was +saying to him things he never forgot, while his father looked steadily +out of the window. + +"I leave them in your care, dear," she told Lansing, in the quiet, +confident tones to which he was used from her. "I could never go, I +think, if I hadn't such a strong, brave, trustworthy son to leave in +care of the younger ones. Celia will do her part, and do it beautifully, +I know, but it's on you I rely." + +"I'll do my best," he answered, cheerfully, although he felt, even more +than before, the heavy responsibility upon him. + +"I know you will. Don't let Celia overdo. She will be so ambitious to +run the household economically that she will set herself tasks she's not +fit for. See that Jeff keeps steadily at his studies, and be lenient +with Justin. He adores you--you can make the year do much for him if you +take thought. And with my little Charlotte--be very patient, Lanse. She +will miss us most--and show it least." + +"I doubt that," thought Lanse, but aloud he said, "We'll all hang +together, mother, you may count on that. We have our differences and +our, eccentricities, but we've a lot of family spirit, and no one of us +is going to sacrifice alone while the rest fail to take notice. And +you're going to know all that goes on. We've planned to take turns +writing so that at least every other day a letter will start for New +Mexico." + +"And if anything should go wrong?" + +"Nothing will," asserted Lansing. + +"That you don't know, dear," said the gentle voice, not quite so +steadily as before. "If anything should come we must know." + +"I'll remember," he promised, reluctantly, his hand under pressure from +hers. But inwardly he vowed, "Anything short of real trouble you'll not +know, little mother. Your children are stronger than you now, and they +can bear some things for you." + +At the train it took all Lansing's determination, sturdy fellow though +he was, to keep up his cheerful front. The colour had ebbed away from +Mrs. Birch's face once more, and as she put up her arms to her tall son, +in the little state-room, she seemed to him all at once so small and +frail that he could not endure to see her go away from them all, facing +even the remote possibility that in the new land she might fail to find +again her old vigour. + +It had to be done, however. Lansing received her clinging good-by, +whispered in her ear something which would have been unintelligible to +any but a mother's intuition, so choky was his voice, gripped his +father's hand with both his own, turned and smiled back at the two as he +pulled open the door, and swung off the train just as it began to move. + +He raced away over the streets to take a trolley-car for home, having +dismissed the carriage, and craving nothing so much as a long walk in +the cool September night. + +At home he found everybody gone to bed except Celia, who met him at the +door. She smiled at him, but he could see that she had been crying. +Although he had carried home a heavy heart, he braced himself to begin +his task of keeping the family cheered up. + +"Off all right!" he announced, in a casual tone, as if he had just sent +away the guests of a week. "Splendid train, jolly state-room, porter one +of the '_Yassir, yassir_' kind. Judge and Mrs. Van Camp were taking the +same train as far as Chicago. That will do a lot toward making things +pleasant to start with." + +"I'm so glad!" Celia agreed. "How did mother get off? Did her strength +keep up?" + +"Pretty well--better than I'd have thought possible after all the fuss +of that last hour. The new doctor braced her up in good shape. He seems +all right. Didn't you like the way he acted? Neither like an old family +physician nor a new johnny-jump-up; just quiet and cool and pleasant. +Glad he lives next door. I mean to know him." + +Lansing was turning out lights as he talked, looking after window +fastenings, and examining things generally. Celia watched him from her +place on the bottom stair. He was approaching her with the intention of +putting out the hall light and joining her to proceed up-stairs, when he +stopped still, wheeled, and made for the back of the hall, where the +cellar stairs began. + +"I'm forgetting the furnace!" he cried. + +"It's all right," Celia assured him. "Jeff took care of it. He says +that's his work, since you're to be away all day." + +"Think he can manage it?" + +"Of course he can. The way to please Jeff is to give him responsibility. +He's old enough, and even having to look after such small matters +regularly will help to develop him." + +Lansing laughed; then, extinguishing the light, he came up to her on the +stair, and putting his arm about her shoulders, began to ascend slowly +with her. + +"Shouldering your cares already, aren't you? Got to keep us all +straight, and develop all our characters. Poor girl, you'll have a hard +tussle!" + +"I'm afraid I shall. Do you go to work at the shops in the morning?" + +"Yes. Breakfast at six. Did you tell Delia?" + +"Yes, but I'm going to let her go afterward. I arranged with her, when +father first told us, to stay just till they had gone, and then leave +things to me. I can't be too busy from now on, and I don't want to wait +a day to begin." + +"Wise girl. Sorry, though, that I have to get you up every morning so +early. Couldn't you leave things ready so I could manage for myself +about breakfast, somehow?" + +"No, indeed! If I'm to have a day-labourer for a brother, I shall see +that he has a good hot breakfast and the heartiest kind of a lunch in +his pail every-day." + +"You're the right sort!" murmured Lansing, patting his sister's shoulder +as he paused with her in front of her door. "I must admit I shall prefer +the hot breakfast. Better sleep late to-morrow morning, though." + +"I shall be up when you are," Celia declared. + +"Look here, little girl," said Lansing, speaking soberly in the +darkness. "You know you haven't got this household on your shoulders all +alone. It's a partnership affair, and don't you forget it. Now, good +night, and take care you sleep like a top." + +Celia held him tight for a minute, and answered bravely: + +"You're a dear boy, and a great comfort." + +Lansing tiptoed away to his own room, farther down the hall, feeling a +strong sense of relief that the determination of the young substitute +heads of the house to begin the new regime without a preliminary hour of +wailing had been successfully carried through. + +"We've got the worst over," he thought, as he fell asleep. "Once fairly +started, it won't be so bad. Celia's clear grit, that's sure." + +Alone in her room, Celia had it out with herself, and spent a wakeful +night. But she brought a cheerful face to Lansing's early breakfast, and +when the younger members of the family came down later she was ready for +them with the sunshine they had dreaded not to find. + +Everybody spent a busy day. Jeff and Justin went off to school. +Charlotte announced with meekness that she was ready for whatever work +Celia might find for her, and was given various rooms up-stairs to sweep +and dust, her sister being confident that vigorous manual labour would +be the best tonic for a mind dispirited. + +As for Celia herself, she dismissed Delia, the maid of all work, with a +kindly farewell and the letters of recommendation her mother had +prepared, and plunged eagerly into business. She was a born manager, and +loved many of the details of housework, particularly the baking and +brewing, and she was soon enthusiastically employed in putting the small +kitchen to rights. + +At noon Charlotte and the boys were served with a light luncheon, with +the promise of greater joys to come, and by five in the afternoon the +house was filled with the delightful odours of successful cookery. + +At that hour Charlotte, whose labours had been enlarged by herself to +cover a thorough overhauling of the entire house--such tasks being her +special aversion, and therefore to be discharged without mitigation on +this first day of self-sacrifice--wandered disconsolately into the +kitchen with broom and dust-pan, looking sadly weary. She gazed with +envious eyes at her sister, flying about in a big apron, with sleeves +rolled up, her cheeks like carnations, her eyes bright with triumph. + +"Well, you do start in with vim," the younger sister observed, dropping +into a chair with a long sigh. + +"Yes; and the work has gone better than I had hoped," declared Celia, +whisking a tinful of plump rolls into the oven. "It's really fun." + +"I'm glad you like it." + +"Poor child," said Celia, pausing to glance at the dejected figure in +the chair, its dark curls a riot of disorder, a smudge of black upon its +forehead, and its pinafore disreputable with frequent use as a duster, +"I gave you too much to do! Didn't I hear you in Delia's room? You +needn't have touched that to-day." + +"Wanted to get through with it. Delia may be a good cook, but she left a +mess of a closet up-stairs. Please give me one of those warm cookies. +I'm so used up and hungry I can't wait for supper." + +"Justin came in half an hour ago so famished there wouldn't have been a +cookie left if I hadn't filled him up with a banana. By the way, I sent +him down cellar after some peach pickles, and I haven't seen him since. +I'll run down and get some. I've hot rolls and honey for supper, and +Lanse always wants peach pickles with that combination." + +Celia took a bowl from the cupboard, opened the cellar door and started +down, turning on the second step to say: + +"Go and take a bath and put on a fresh frock; you won't feel half so +tired. Wear the scarlet waist, will you? I want things particularly +bright and cheery to-night, for I know Lanse will come home fagged with +the new work. Mrs. Laurier sent over some red carnations. I've put them +in the middle of the table; they look ever so pretty. I'm going to----" + +What she intended to do Celia never told, if she ever afterward +remembered. What she did do was to slip upon the third step of the steep +stairway, and, with no outcry whatever, go plunging heavily to the +bottom. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +"Celia--Celia--are you hurt?" cried Charlotte, and dashed down the +stairs. + +There was no answer. With trembling hands she felt for her sister's +head. It lay close against the cellar wall, and she instantly understood +that Celia must be unconscious. But whether there might be more to be +feared than unconsciousness she could not tell in the dark. Her first +thought was to get a light, the next that she must have help at once. + +She rushed up the stairs, calling Jeff and Justin, but neither boy was +to be found. Then she ran to the telephone, with the idea of summoning +one of the suburban physicians, but turned aside from this purpose with +the further realisation that first of all Celia must be brought up from +the cold, dark place in which she lay, and restored to consciousness. + +She ran to the front door to summon the nearest neighbour, and she +remembered then, with relief, that the nearest neighbour was Doctor +Churchill, the young physician who had been called in to see her mother +the evening before. + +She flew across the narrow lawn between her own house and that where the +new doctor had set up his office, and rang imperatively. The door +opened, and Doctor Churchill, hat and case in hand, evidently on his way +to a patient, stood before her. + +What he thought of the figure before him, with its riotous curly black +hair, brilliant eyes, pale dark cheeks, dusty pinafore, a singular +smudge upon the forehead, and sleeves rolled up to the elbows, nobody +would have known from his manner, which instantly expressed a friendly +concern. + +Charlotte could only gasp, "Oh, come--quick!" + +He followed her, stopping to ask no questions. At the open cellar door +Charlotte stood aside to let him pass. + +"Down there--my sister!" she breathed. + +"Bring a light, please," said the doctor, and he disappeared down the +stairs. Charlotte lighted a little kitchen lamp and came after him. He +bade her stand by while he made his first brief examination. + +"I think the blow on her head isn't serious," he said, presently, "but I +can't tell where else she may be hurt till I get her up-stairs." + +He was strong, and he lifted Celia as if she had been a child, and +carried her easily up the steep stairs. + +Charlotte led the way to a wide couch in the living-room. As Celia was +laid gently upon it she opened her eyes. + +Half an hour later, John Lansing Birch, in his oldest clothes and +wearing a rather disreputable soft hat pulled down over his forehead, +with his hands and face excessively dirty and a lunch-pail on his arm, +pushed open the kitchen door. "_Phew-w!_ Something's burning!" he +shouted. "Celia--Charlotte--where are you all? Great Scott, what a +smudge!" + +He strode across the room and lifted from the stove a kettle of +potatoes, from which the water had boiled away some minutes before. + +"First returns from the amateur cooking district!" he muttered, glancing +critically about the kitchen. + +Something else in the way of overcooked viands seemed to assail his +nostrils, and he jerked open the oven door. A tin of blackened rolls +puffed out at him their pungent smoke. + +"Well, what--" he was beginning with the natural irritation of the +hungry man, who has been anticipating his supper all the way home, and +sees it in ruin before his eyes, when Charlotte appeared in the doorway. + +"O Lanse!" she cried, and ran to him. + +"Well, what is it? Celia got a headache and left you in charge? +Everything's burnt up--I can tell you that----" + +"Celia is--she's broken her knee!" + +"_What_?" + +"She fell down the cellar stairs and----" + +"Where is she?" Lunch-pail and hat went down on the floor as Lanse got +rid of them and seized Charlotte's arm. + +"Up in her room. Doctor Churchill's there. He's sent for Doctor +Forester." + +"Churchill--Forester," repeated Lanse, as if dazed. "Poor old girl--is +she much hurt?" + +"She's broken her knee, I tell you," Charlotte repeated. "Of course +she's much hurt. She's suffering dreadfully. She hit her head, too. She +was unconscious at first. I was all alone with her." + +Lanse started for the door, then hesitated. "Shall I go up?" + +"The doctor wants to see you as soon as you are home. He's waiting for +Doctor Forester. He's made Celia as comfortable as he can, but wants our +regular doctor here, he says, before he does up her knee. I don't see +why. I wanted him to fix it himself." + +"That's all right," said Lanse. "Doctors always do that kind of +thing--the honourable ones do. It's better to have Doctor Forester see +it, too. Did you get him? Will he be here right off?" + +"The doctor got him. He'll be here soon." + +"Go tell Doctor Churchill I'm here, will you? Maybe I'd better not see +Celia till I'm cleaned up a bit. She's not used to me like this. Poor +little girl! poor little girl!" he groaned, as he made his rapid way to +the bath-room. "The cellar stairs--they're dark and steep enough, but +how could a light-footed girl like Celia get a fall like that? And +father and mother--how are we going to fix it with them?" + +In the midst of his splashing and scrubbing he heard Jeff and Justin +come shouting in for supper and Charlotte hushing them and telling them +the news. The next instant Jeff was upon him. + +"Say, but this is awful, Lanse! She was getting up a rattling good +dinner, too--been at it all day. Her one idea was to please you, your +first day at the shops. Been up to see her? Charlotte says I'd better +not go yet--nor Just. Just's all broken up, poor youngster! Says Celia +told him to go after the pickles, and he forgot it. If he'd gone she +wouldn't have got her tumble. What'll father and mother say? What are we +going to do, anyhow? Second Fiddle's no good on earth in the kitchen; +she couldn't boil an egg. Say, breaking your knee-pan's no joke. Price +Williston did it a year ago August, and he hasn't got good use of it +yet,--'fraid he never will----" + +"Oh, let up on that,"--Lanse cut him short,--"and don't mention it again +to anybody. Doctor Forester and Churchill will fix her up all right, +only it's an awful shame it should have happened. I'm going up to see +Doctor Churchill." + +At the foot of the stairs he met that person coming down, shook hands +with him eagerly, and listened to a brief and concise account of his +sister's injury. As it ended, Doctor Forester's automobile rolled up to +the door. + +"Did the five and a half miles in precisely twenty minutes," said Doctor +Forester, as he came up the steps, watch in hand; "slow speed within +limits and all. Lanse, my boy, this is too bad. Doctor Churchill--very +glad to see you again. Decided to settle out here, eh? Well, on some +accounts I think you're wise. Charlotte, little girl, cheer up! There +are worse things than a fractured patella--I believe that's what you +called the injury, Doctor Churchill." + +In such genial fashion the surgeon and old friend of the family made his +entry, bringing with him that atmosphere which men of his profession +carry about with them, making the people who have been anxiously +awaiting them feel that here is somebody who knows how to take things +coolly, and is not upset at the notion of a broken bone. + +He moved deliberately up-stairs toward Celia's room, listening to the +younger physician's statement of the conditions under which he had been +called, turning at the door to smile and nod back at Charlotte, who +watched him from the top of the staircase with serious eyes. + +At the end of what seemed like a long period of time the two physicians +came down-stairs together, meeting Lanse at the foot. + +"Well, sir," said Doctor Forester, "so far, so good. Celia is as +comfortable as such cases usually are an hour or two afterward, which is +not saying much from her point of view, though a good deal from ours. +She has a long siege of inactivity before her to put that knee into a +strong condition, but it will not be a great while before she can be +about on crutches, I hope. Doctor Churchill, at my insistence, has put +up the knee in the best possible shape, and I am going to leave it in +his care. I'll drop in now and then, but the doctor is right beside you, +and I've full confidence in him. I knew his father, and I know enough +about him to be sure that you're all right in his hands." + +Lanse drew a long breath of relief. "I'm very thankful it's no worse," +he said. "But, Doctor Forester, what are we to do about father and +mother? We can't tell them----" + +"Tell them! No!" said Doctor Forester, with decision. "I wouldn't have +your mother told under any consideration, so long as the girl does well. +She would be back here on the next train and then we'd have something +worse than a broken patella on our hands. If there is any way by which +you can let your father know I should do that." + +"I can, I think," said Lanse, thoughtfully. "We're to send them +general-delivery letters until they're settled, and father will get +those at the post-office and read them first." + +"As to your other problems--housekeeping and all that, over which Celia +is several times more worried than over her own condition--can you +figure those out?" + +"Yes, somehow." + +"Good! Go up and tell her so. She thinks the house is going to +destruction without her. Good chance for the second violin. Too bad that +clever little orchestra will have to drop its practice for a few weeks. +I meant to run in some evening soon and hear you play. Well, I'm overdue +at the hospital. Good-by, Lanse--Doctor Churchill. Keep me posted +concerning the knee." + +Then the busy surgeon, who had put off several engagements to come out +to the suburban town and look after the family of his old friend, whom +he had known and loved since their college days, was off in his +runabout, his chauffeur getting promptly under as much headway as the +law allows, and rushing him out of sight in a hurry. + +Lanse turned to Doctor Churchill, who stood upon the porch beside him, +hat and case in hand. + +"I'm mighty thankful you were so near," he said. + +"Doctor Forester hasn't given you much choice," said the other man, +smiling. "I did my best to give you the chance of having some one of the +physicians you know here in town take charge of the case, but he +insisted on my keeping it. I should like, however, to be sure that you +are satisfied. You don't know me at all, you know." + +The steady eyes were looking keenly at Lanse, and he felt the sincerity +in the words. He returned the scrutiny without speaking for an instant; +then he put out his hand. + +"Somehow I feel as if I do," he said, slowly. "Anyhow, I'm going to know +you, and I'm glad of the chance." + +"Thank you." Doctor Churchill shook hands warmly and went down the +steps. "I will come over for a minute about ten o'clock," he added, "to +make sure that Miss Birch is resting as quietly as we can hope for +to-night." + +Lanse watched the broad-shouldered, erect figure cross the lawn and +disappear in the office door of the old house near by; then he turned. + +"Well, we're in a sweet scrape now, that's certain," he said gloomily to +himself, as he marched up-stairs. + +At the top he encountered his young brother Justin. That twelve-year-old +stood awaiting him, his face so disconsolate that in spite of himself +Lanse smiled. + +"Cheer up, youngster," he said. "It's pretty tough, but as Doctor +Forester says, it might be worse. Want to go in with me and see sister a +minute?" + +But Justin got hold of his arm and held him back. "Lanse, I've got to +tell you something," he begged. "Please come here, in your room a +minute." + +Lanse followed, wondering. Justin, although a healthy and happy boy +enough, was apt to take things seriously, and sometimes needed to be +joked out of singular notions. In Lanse's room Justin carefully locked +the door. + +"It's all my fault, Celia's knee," he said, going straight to the point, +as was his way. His voice shook a little, but he went steadily on. "She +sent me down cellar after pickles, and I sat on the top of the stairs +finishing up a banana before I went. I've been down there to look, +and--and the banana skin was there--all mashed. It was what did it." + +He choked, and turned away to the window. + +"You left a banana skin on those stairs?" Lanse half-shouted. + +"Yes." + +"Right there, at the top--when Delia almost broke her neck more than +once going down those stairs only last winter, just because they're so +steep and narrow?" + +Just nodded. + +"And you fell on a banana skin once yourself, and wanted to thrash the +fellow who left it!" + +Just's chin sank lower and lower. + +Lanse eyed him a moment, struggling with a desire to seize the boy and +punish him tremendously. But as his quick wrath cooled a trifle in his +effort to control himself and act wisely, something about Just's brave +acknowledgment, where silence would have covered the whole thing, +appealed to him. The thought of the way the absent father and mother had +met every confession of his own that he could remember in a life of +prank-playing softened the words which came next to his lips. + +"Well, it's pretty bad," he said, in a deep voice of regret. "I don't +wonder it breaks you up. Such a little thing to do so much mischief--and +so easy to have avoided it all. I reckon you'll take care of your banana +skins after this. But I like the way you own up, Just, and so will +Celia. That's something. You haven't been a sneak in addition to being +thoughtless. It would have been hard to forgive you if I had found it +out while you kept still. It's pretty hard as it is," he could not help +adding, as his imagination pictured Celia spending her winter as a +cripple. + +Just said not a word, but the outline of his profile against the fading +light at the window was so suggestive of boyish despair that the elder +brother walked over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"It gives you a chance to make it up to her in every way you can," he +said. "There are a lot of things you can do for her, and I shall expect +you to try to square the account a little." + +"I will! Oh, I will!" cried poor Just, who had longed for his mother in +this crisis, and had found facing the elder brother, whom he both +admired and feared, harder than anything he had ever had to do. "I'll do +anything in the world for her, if she'll only forgive me." + +"She'll forgive you, for she's made that way. It's forgiving yourself +that can't be done." + +"I never shall." + +"Don't. If I thought you would, I'd thrash you on the spot," said Lanse, +grimly, sure that a wholesome remorse was to be encouraged. Then he +relented sufficiently to say in a tone considerably less severe: + +"Go and wash up, and begin your good resolutions by getting down and +seeing to the kitchen fire. It's undoubtedly burnt itself out by this +time. There's probably no dinner for anybody, but we can't mind little +things like that to-night." + +He went to Celia's room at last, feeling many cares upon him, a +sensation which an empty, stomach did not tend to relieve. He found his +sister able to give him a very pale-faced but courageous smile, and to +receive his earnest sympathy with a faint: + +"Never mind, dear. Don't worry. It might have been worse." + +"That seems to be everybody's motto, so I'll accept it. We'll take +courage, and you shall have us all on our knees, since yours are laid up +for repairs." + +"You haven't had your dinner, Lanse," murmured Celia. She was suffering +severely, but she could not relax anything of her anxiety for the family +welfare. + +"Oh, I forgot there was such a thing as dinner in the world!" cried +Charlotte, and was hurrying to the door when Celia called her back. +"_Please_ wash that smudge off your face," she whispered, and covered +her eyes. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Coming down-stairs from Celia's room, Dr. Andrew Churchill made his way +through what had now become somewhat familiar ground to the little +kitchen. As he looked in at the door he beheld a slim figure in a big +Turkey-red apron, bending over a chicken which lay, in a state of +semi-dissection, upon the table. As he watched for a moment without +speaking, Charlotte herself spoke, without turning round. + +"You horrid thing!" she said, tragically, to the chicken. "I hate +you--all slippery and bloody. Ugh! Why won't your old windpipe come out? +How anybody can eat you who has got you ready I don't know!" + +"May I bother you for a pitcher of hot water?" asked an even voice from +the doorway. + +Charlotte turned with a start. Her cheeks, already flushed, took on a +still ruddier hue. + +"Yes, if you'll please help yourself," she answered, curtly, turning +back to her work. "I am--engaged." + +"I see. A congenial task?" + +"Very!" Charlotte's tone was expressive. + +"Did I gather that the fowl's windpipe was the special cause of your +distress?" asked the even voice again. + +Charlotte faced round once more. + +"Doctor Churchill," she said, "I never cleaned a chicken in my life. I +don't know what I'm doing at all, only that I've been doing it for +almost an hour, and it isn't done. I presume it's because I take so much +time washing my hands." + +She smiled in spite of herself as the doctor's hearty laugh filled the +little kitchen. + +"I think I can appreciate your feelings," he remarked. + +He walked over to the table. "Get a good hold on the offending windpipe, +shut your eyes and pull." + +"I'm afraid of doing something wrong." + +"You won't. The trachea of the domestic fowl was especially designed for +the purpose, only the necessary attachment for getting a firm grip on it +was accidentally omitted." + +"It certainly was." Charlotte tugged away energetically for a moment, +and drew out the windpipe successfully. The doctor regarded the bird +with a quizzical expression. + +"I should advise you to cut up the chicken and make a fricassee of it," +he observed. + +"I want to roast it. I've got the stuffing all ready." She indicated a +bowlful of macerated bread-crumbs mixed with milk and butter, and +liberally seasoned with pepper. + +"I see. But I'm a little, just a little, afraid you may have trouble in +getting the stuffing to stay in while the chicken is roasting. You +see--" He paused. + +"I suppose I've cut it open too much." + +"Rather--unless you're a very good amateur surgeon. And even then--" + +"I'm no surgeon--I'm no cook--I never shall be! I--don't want to be!" +Charlotte burst out, suddenly, beginning to cut up the chicken with +vigorous slashes, mostly in the wrong places. + +"Yes, you do. Hold on a minute! That joint isn't there: it's farther +down. There. See? Once get the anatomy of this bird in your mind, and it +won't bother you a bit to cut it up. Pardon me, Miss Charlotte, but I +know you do want to be a good cook--because you want to be an +accomplished woman." + +Charlotte put down her knife, washed her hands with furious haste, got +out a pitcher, poured it full of hot water, and handed it silently to +Doctor Churchill without looking at him. He glanced from it to her with +amusement as he received it "Thank you," he said, politely, and walked +away. + +When he came down-stairs fifteen minutes later, he found the slim figure +in the Turkey-red apron waiting for him at the bottom. As the girl +looked up at him he noted, as he had done many times already in the +short two weeks he had known her, the peculiar, gipsy-like beauty of her +face. It was a beauty of which she herself, he had occasion to believe, +was absolutely unconscious, and in this he was right. + +Charlotte disliked her dark skin, despised her black curls, and +considered her vivid colouring a most undesirable inheritance. She +admired intensely Celia's blonde loveliness, and lost no chance of +privately comparing herself with her sister, to Celia's infinite +advantage. + +"Doctor Churchill," she said, as he approached her, hat in hand, "I was +very rude to you just now. I am--sorry." + +She held out her hand. Doctor Churchill took it. Charlotte's thick black +lashes swept her cheek, and she did not see the look, half-laughing, +half-sympathetic, which rested on her downcast face. + +"It's all right," said Doctor Churchill's low, clear voice. "Don't think +I fail to understand what it means for the cares of a household like +this to descend upon a girl's shoulders. But I want you to know that +I--that they are all immensely pleased with the pluck you are showing. I +have seen your sister's lunch tray several times since I have been +coming here; it was perfect." + +"I burned her toast just this morning," said Charlotte, quickly. "And +poached the egg too hard. Lanse says the coffee is better, but--oh, no +matter--I'm just discouraged this morning, I--shall learn something some +time, perhaps, but----" She turned away impulsively. Doctor Churchill +followed her a step or two. + +"See here, Miss Charlotte," he said, "how many times have you been out +of the house since your sister was hurt?" + +"Not at all," owned Charlotte, "except evenings, after everything is +done. Then I steal out and run round and round the house in the +moonlight, just running it off, you know--or maybe you don't know." + +"Yes, I do. Will you do something now if I ask you to very humbly?" + +Charlotte looked at him doubtfully. "If you mean go for a walk--which is +what doctors always mean, I believe--I haven't time." + +Doctor Churchill looked at his watch. "It is half past ten. Is that +chicken for luncheon?" + +"No, for supper--or dinner--I don't know just what it is we have at +night now. I simply began to get it ready this morning because I hadn't +the least idea in the world how long it takes to cook a chicken." She +was smiling a little at the absurdity of her own words. + +"And you didn't want to ask your sister?" + +"I meant to surprise her." + +"Well, of one thing I am fairly confident," said Doctor Churchill, with +gravity. "If you take a run down as far as the old bridge and back, +there will still be time to see to the chicken. What is more, by the +time you get back, all big obstacles will look like little ones to you. +Go, please. I am to be in the office for the next hour, and if the house +catches fire I will run over and put it out. I could even undertake to +steal in the back door and put coal on the kitchen fire, if it is +necessary." + +"It won't be." + +"Then will you go?" + +"Perhaps--to humour you," promised Charlotte. + +"Thank you! And remember, please, Miss Charlotte, if you are to do +justice to yourself and to your family, you must not plod all the time. +Plan to get away every day for an hour or two. Go to see your +friends--anything--but don't cultivate 'house nerves' at eighteen." + +"I'm older than that," said Charlotte, as she watched him go down the +steps. He turned, surprised. "But I shall not tell you how much," said +she, and closed the door. + +Doctor Churchill went straight through his small bachelor house to the +kitchen. Here a tall, thin woman, with sharp eyes and kindly mouth, was +energetically kneading bread. + +"Mrs. Fields," said he, "I wish you would find it necessary to-morrow +morning to run in at that door over there"--he indicated the little back +porch of the Birch house--"and borrow something." + +Mrs. Fields eyed him as if she thought he had taken leave of his senses. +"Me--borrow?" she said. "Doctor Andrew--are you----" + +"No, I'm not crazy," the doctor assured her, smiling. "I know it's +tremendously against your principles, but never mind the principles, for +once--since by ignoring them you can do a kindness. Run in and borrow a +cup of sugar or something, and get acquainted." + +"Who with? That curly-haired girl with the red cheeks? She don't want my +acquaintance." + +"She would be immensely grateful for it if it came about naturally. Take +over some of your jelly for Miss Birch, if that way suits you better, +but get to know Miss Charlotte, and show her a few things about cookery. +She's trying to do all the work for the whole family, and she knows very +little about it." + +"I suspected as much. You haven't told me about 'em, and of course, +being a doctor's housekeeper, I'm too well trained to ask." + +The doctor smiled, for Mrs. Fields had been housekeeper in his mother's +family in the days of his boyhood, and she felt it her right to tell +him, now and then, what she thought. She was immensely proud of her own +ability to hold her tongue and her curiosity in check. + +"So I know only what I've seen. You told me the oldest girl had broke +her knee, and that's all you've said. But I see this girl a-hanging +dish-towels, and opening the kitchen door to let out the smoke each time +she's burned up a batch of something, and I guessed she wasn't what you +might call a graduate of one of those cooking-schools." + +"You must be a bit tactful," warned the doctor. "The young lady is a +trifle sensitive, as is natural, over her inefficiency, but she's very +anxious to learn, and there's nobody to teach her. She is too +independent to go to the other neighbours, but I've an idea you could be +a friend to her." + +"She looks pretty notional," Mrs. Fields said, doubtfully. "Shakes out +her dust-cloth with her chin in the air----" + +"To avoid the dust." + +"And pulls down the shades the minute the lamp is lighted----" + +"So do you." + +"I saw her lock the kitchen door in the face of that Mis' Carter the +other day, when she caught sight of her coming up the walk." + +"See here, Fieldsy, you've been spying on your neighbours," said Doctor +Churchill severely. "You despise that sort of thing yourself, so you +mustn't yield to it. Go over and be neighbourly, as nobody knows how +better than yourself, but don't judge people by their chins or their +curls." + +He gave her angular shoulder an affectionate pat, looked straight into +her sharp eyes for a moment, until they softened perceptibly, said, +"You're all right, you know,"--and went whistling away. + +"That's just like your impudence, Andy Churchill," said Mrs. Hepsibah +Fields to herself, as she laid her smooth loaves of bread-dough into +their tins and proceeded energetically to scrape the board. "You always +did have a way with you, wheedling folks into doing what they didn't +want to just to please you. Now I've got to go meddling in other +people's business and getting snubbed, most likely, just because you're +trying to combine friendship and doctoring." + +But Mrs. Fields, when her work was done, went to look up her best jelly, +as Doctor Churchill had known she would do. And twenty-four hours had +not gone by before she had made friends with Charlotte Birch. + +It was not hard to make friends with the girl if one went at it aright. +Mrs. Fields came in as Charlotte was stirring up gingerbread. + +"I don't think much of back-door neighbours," Mrs. Fields said, "but I +didn't want to come to the front door with my jelly. I thought maybe +your sister would relish my black raspberry." + +"That's very kind of you," said Charlotte. "You are--I think I've seen +you across the way. Won't you come in?" + +"No, thank you. You're busy, and so am I. Yes, I'm Doctor Churchill's +housekeeper, and his mother's before that." + +The sharp eyes noted with approval, in one swift glance as Charlotte +turned away with the jelly, the fact that the little kitchen was in +careful order. To be sure, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, an hour +when kitchens are supposed to be in order, if ever, yet it was a relief +to Mrs. Fields to find this one in that condition. Brass faucets gleamed +in the afternoon sunlight, the teakettle steamed from a shining spout, +the linoleum-covered floor was spotless, and the table at which +Charlotte was stirring her gingerbread had been scrubbed until it was as +nearly white as pine boards can be made. + +"Gingerbread?" said the housekeeper, lingering in the doorway. "I always +like to make that. It seems the biggest result for the smallest labour +of anything you can make, and it smells so spicy when it comes out of +the oven." + +"Yes, when it isn't burned," agreed Charlotte, with a laugh. Things had +gone fairly well with her that day, and her spirits had risen +accordingly. + +"Burning's a thing that will happen to the best cooks once in a while. +'Twas just day before yesterday I blacked a pumpkin pie so the doctor +poked his fun at me all the time he was eating it," said the +housekeeper, with a tactful disregard for the full truth, which was that +a refractory small patient in the office had driven the doctor to +require her assistance for a longer period than was consistent with +attention to her oven. + +"Oh, did you?" asked Charlotte, eagerly. "That encourages me. Doctor +Churchill told me he had the finest cook in the state, and I've been +envying you ever since." + +"Doctor Churchill had better be careful how he brags," Mrs. Fields +declared, much gratified. "Well, now, I'll tell you what you do. It +ain't but a step across the two back yards. When you get in a quandary +how to cook anything--how long to give it or whether to bake or +boil--you just run across and ask me. I ain't one o' the prying +kind--the doctor'll tell you that--and you needn't be afraid it'll go +any further. I know how hard it must be for a young girl like you to +take the care of a house on yourself, and I'll be pleased to show you +anything I can." + +"That's very good of you," said Charlotte, gratefully, as Mrs. Fields +went briskly down the steps; and she really felt that it was. She would +have resented the appearance of almost any of her neighbours at her back +door with an offer of help, suspecting that they had come to use their +eyes, and afterward their tongues, in criticism. But something about +Mrs. Hepsibah Fields disarmed her at once. She could not tell why. + +"This gingerbread is perfect," said Celia, an hour later, when Charlotte +had brought up her supper. "You are improving every day. But it frets me +not to have you come to me for help. I could plan things for you, and +teach you all the little I know. I'm doing so well now, the doctor says +I may get down-stairs on the couch by next week. Then you certainly must +let me do my part." + +But Charlotte shook her head obstinately. "I'm going to fight it through +myself. I'd rather. You've enough to do--writing letters." + +When Lanse came into Celia's room that evening, his first words were +merry. + +"What I'm anxious to know," he said, "is what you did with your rice +pudding. Charlotte says you ate it--and the inference was that it was +good to eat. So I ate mine--manfully, I assure you. But it was a bitter +dose." + +"Poor little girl! She tries so hard, Lanse. And the gingerbread was +very good." + +"So it was. It helped take out the taste of the pudding. Did you +honestly eat that pudding?" + +"See here." Celia beckoned him close. She reached a cautious hand under +her pillow and drew out her soap-dish. "Please get rid of it for me," +she whispered, "and wash the dish. I couldn't bear not to seem to eat +it, so I slipped it in there." + +Striving to smother his mirth, Lanse bore the soap-dish away. Returning +with it, he carefully replaced the soap and set the dish on the stand, +where it had been within Celia's reach. "I wish I had had a soap-dish at +the table," he remarked, "but the cook's eye was upon me, and I had to +stand up to it. But see here. I've a letter for you--from Uncle +Rayburn." + +Celia stretched an eager hand, for a letter from Uncle John +Rayburn--middle-aged, a bachelor, and an ex-army officer, retired by an +incurable injury which did not make him the less the best uncle in the +world--could not fail to be welcome. But she had not read a page before +she dropped the sheet and stared helplessly and anxiously at Lanse. + +"What's up?" he asked. + +"Why, Uncle Rayburn writes that he would like to come to spend the +winter with us," answered Celia. + +"What luck!" + +"Luck--with Charlotte in the kitchen?" + +"Uncle Ray is a crack-a-jack of a cook himself. His board bill will help +out like oil on a dry axle, and if we don't have a lot of fun, then +Uncle Ray has changed as--I know he hasn't." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Two cripples," declared Capt. John Rayburn--honourably discharged from +active service in the United States Army on account of permanent +disability from injuries received in the Philippines,--"two cripples +should be able to keep a household properly stirred up. I've been here +five days now, and my soul longs for some frivolity." + +He leaned back in his big wicker armchair and looked quizzically across +at his niece Celia, who lay upon her couch at the other side of the +room. She gave him a somewhat pale-faced smile in return. Four weeks of +enforced quiet were beginning to tell on her. + +"Some frivolity," repeated Captain Rayburn, as Charlotte came to the +door of the room. "What do you say, Charlie girl? Shall we have some +fun?" + +"Dear me, yes, Uncle Ray," Charlotte responded, promptly, "if you can +think how!" + +"I can. Is there a birthday or anything that we may celebrate? I've no +compunction about getting up festivities on any pretext, but if there +happened to be a birthday handy--" + +"November--yes. Why, we had forgotten all about it! Lanse's birthday is +the fourth. That's--" + +"Day after to-morrow. Good! Can you make him a birthday-cake? If not, +I--" + +"Oh, yes, I can!" cried Charlotte, eagerly. "I've just learned an +orange-cake." + +"All right. Then we'll order a few little things from town, and have a +jollification. Not a very big one, on account of the lady on the couch +there, who reminds me at the moment of a water-lily whom some one has +picked and then left on the stern seat in the sun. She looks very sweet, +but a trifle limp." + +Celia's smile was several degrees brighter than the previous one had +been. Nobody could resist Uncle Ray when he began to exert himself to +cheer people up. + +He was a young, or an old, bachelor, according to one's point of view, +being not yet forty, and looking, in spite of the past suffering which +had brought into his chestnut hair two patches of gray at the temples, +very much like a bright-faced boy with an irrepressible spirit of energy +and interest in the life about him. It could hardly be doubted that +Capt. John Rayburn, apparently invalided for life and cut off from the +activity which had been his dearest delight, must have his hours of +depression, but nobody had ever caught him in one of them. + +"I should like some music at this festival," Captain Rayburn went on. +"Is the orchestra out of practice?" + +"We haven't played for six weeks," Charlotte said. "And Celia's first +violin--" + +"You couldn't play, bolstered up?" + +Celia shook her head. "I should be tired in ten minutes." + +"I'm not so sure of that, but we'll see. Anyhow, I've the old flute +here--" + +"Oh, fine!" cried Charlotte. + +"Suppose we ask Doctor Forester out, and your young doctor here next +door, and two or three of your girl friends, and a boy and girl or two +for Jeff and Just." + +"What a funny mixture, Uncle Ray! Doctor Forester and Norman Carter, +Just's chum, and Carolyn Houghton?" + +"Funny, is it?" inquired Captain Rayburn, undisturbed. "Now do you know, +that's my ideal of a well-planned company, particularly when all the +family are to be here. Invite somebody for each one, mix 'em all up, +play some jolly games, and you'll find Doctor Forester vying with Norman +Carter for the prize, and enjoying it equally well. It sharpens up the +young wits to be pitted against the older ones, and it--well, it +burnishes the elder rapiers and keeps them keen." + +"All right, this is your party," agreed Charlotte, and she went back to +her duties. + +"You're not afraid it will be too much for you, little girl?" Captain +Rayburn asked Celia, whose smile had faded, and who lay with her head +turned away. + +"Oh--no." + +"Mercury a little low in the tube this morning?" + +"Just a little." + +"Any good reason why?" + +"N-no." + +"Except the best reason in the world--heavy atmospheric pressure. Knee a +trifle slow to become a solid, capable, energetic knee, such as its +owner demands. Owner a bit restless, physically and mentally. Plans for +the winter upset--second lieutenant winning spurs while the colonel lies +in the hospital tent, fighting imaginary battles and trying to keep cool +under the strain." + +Celia looked round and smiled again, but her head went back to its old +position, and tears forced themselves out from under the eyelids which +she shut tightly together. + +"And a little current of anxiety for the inhabitants of New Mexico keeps +flowing under the edge of the tent and makes the colonel fear it's not +pitched in the right place?" + +Celia nodded. + +"Well, that's not warranted in the face of the facts. Latest advices +from New Mexico report improvement, even sooner than we could have +expected. Then at home--Lanse is conquering the situation in the +locomotive shops very satisfactorily. Doctor Churchill told me yesterday +that he's won the liking of nearly all the men in his shop--which means +more than a girl like you can guess. Jeff and Just are prospering in +school, according to Charlotte, who is herself working up in her new +profession, and whose last beefsteak was broiled to a turn, as her +critical soldier guest appreciates. As for Celia--" + +He got to his feet slowly, grasped his two stout hickory canes and +limped across the room to the couch, showing as he went a pitiful +weakness in the tall figure, whose lines still suggested the martial +bearing which it had not long ago presented, and which it might never +present again. Captain Rayburn sat down close beside Celia and took her +hand. + +"In one thing I made a misstatement," he said, softly. "They're not +imaginary battles that the colonel lies fighting in the hospital tent. +They're real enough." + +There was a short silence; then Celia spoke unsteadily from the depths +of her pillow: + +"Uncle Ray, were you ever mean enough to be jealous?" + +The captain looked quickly at the fair head on the pillow. "Jealous?" +said he, without a hint of surprise in his voice. "Why, yes--jealous of +my colonel, my lieutenants, my orderlies, my privates, my doctors, my +nurses--jealous of the very Filipino prisoners themselves--because they +all had legs and could walk." + +"Oh, I know--I don't mean that!" cried Celia, "Of course you envied +everybody who could walk. Poor Uncle Ray! But you weren't small enough +to mind because the officers under you had got your chance?" + +"Wasn't I, though? Well, maybe I wasn't," said the captain, speaking +low. "Perhaps I didn't lie and grind my teeth when they told me about +the gallant work Lieutenant Garretson had done with my men at Balangiga. +A mere boy, Garretson! The whole world applauded it. If I'd not been +knocked out so soon it would have been my name that would have gone into +history. Yes, I chewed that to shreds many a sleepless night, and hated +the fellow for getting my chance." + +Captain Rayburn drew a long breath, while his fingers relaxed for an +instant; and it was Celia's hand which tightened over his. + +"But I got past that," he said, quietly. "It came to me all at once that +Garretson and the other fellows in active service weren't the only ones +with chances before them. I had mine--a different commission from the +one I had coveted, to be sure, but a broader one, with infinite +possibilities, and no fear of missing further promotion if I earned it." + +There was a little stillness after that. When the captain looked down at +Celia again he found her eyes full of pity, but this time it was not +pity for herself. He comprehended instantly. + +"No, I don't need it, dear," he said, very gently. "I've learned some +things already in the hospital tent I wouldn't have missed for a year's +pay. And you, who are to be only temporarily on the sick-leave list, you +don't need to mind that the little second lieutenant--" + +But the second lieutenant was rushing into the room, bearing on a plate +a great puffy, round loaf, brown and spicy. + +"Look," she cried, "at my steamed brown bread! I've tried it four times +and slumped it every time. Now Fieldsy has shown me what was the +matter--I hadn't flour enough. Fieldsy is a dear--and so are you!" + +She plunged at Celia, brown bread and all, and kissed the top of her +head, tweaked a lock of Captain Rayburn's thick hair, and was flying +away when Celia spoke. "You're the biggest dear of anybody," she said, +with a smile. + + * * * * * + +It was getting up a party in a hurry, but somehow the thing was +accomplished. Whether Lanse remembered his own birthday at all was a +question. When he came home at six o'clock on that day, Charlotte told +him that she had special reasons for seeing him in his best. + +"Why, you're all dressed up yourself," he observed. "What's up?" + +"Doctor Forester's coming out to hear us play," was all she would tell +him, and Lanse groaned over the fact that the little orchestra was so +out of practice. + +When the guests arrived, they found the man with the birthday anxiously +looking over scores. He greeted them with enthusiasm. + +"Doctor Forester, this is good of you, if we can't play worth a copper +cent. Miss Atkinson! Well this is a surprise--a delightful one! Miss +Carolyn, how goes school? How are you, Norman? You'll find Just in a +minute. Miss Houghton, now you and I can settle that little question we +were discussing. Charlotte, you rogue, you and Uncle Ray are at the +bottom of this! Ah, Doctor Churchill! This wouldn't have been complete +without our neighbour. Miss Atkinson, allow me to present Doctor +Churchill." + +Thus John Lansing Birch accepted at once and with his accustomed ease +the role of host, and enjoyed himself immensely. Celia, watching him +from her couch, said suddenly to Captain Rayburn, who sat beside her: + +"This is just what the family needed. If you hadn't come we should +probably have gone drudging on all winter without realising what was the +matter with us. No wonder poor Lanse appreciates it. He's had a month of +hard labour without an enlivening hour. And Charlotte--doesn't she look +like a fresh carnation to-night?" + +"Very much," agreed the captain, with approving eyes on his younger +niece, who wore her best frock of French gray, a tint which set off her +warm colouring to advantage. Celia had thrust several of Captain +Rayburn's scarlet carnations into her sister's belt, with a result +gratifying to more than one pair of eyes. + +"Still," remarked the captain, his glance returning to Celia, "I'm not +sure that I can say whether a fresh carnation is to be preferred to a +newly picked rose. That pale pink gown you are wearing is certainly a +joy to the eye." + +Celia blushed under his admiring glance. There could be no question that +she was very lovely, if a trifle frail in appearance from her month's +quiet, and it was comforting to be assured that she was not looking like +a "limp water-lily" to-night. + +"When are we to hear the orchestra?" cried Doctor Forester, after an +hour of lively talk, a game or two, and some remarkable puzzles +contributed by Just. The distinguished gentleman from the city was +enjoying himself immensely, for he was accustomed to social functions of +a far more elaborate and formal sort, and liked nothing better than to +join in a frolic with the younger people when such rare opportunities +presented. + +"Of course we're horribly out of practice and all that," explained +Lanse, distributing scores, and helping to prop up Celia so that she +might try to play, "but since you insist we'll give you all you'll want +in a very few minutes. Here's your flute, Uncle Ray. If you'll play +along with Celia it will help out." + +It was not so bad, after all. Lanse had chosen the most familiar of the +old music, everybody did his and her best, and Captain Rayburn's flute, +exquisitely played, did indeed "help out." + +Celia, her cheeks very pink, worked away until Doctor Churchill gently +took her violin from her, but after that the music still went very well. + +"Good! good!" applauded Doctor Forester. "Churchill, you're in luck to +live next door to this sort of thing." + +"Now that I know what I live next door to," remarked the younger +physician, "I shall know what to prescribe for the entire family on +winter evenings." + +There could be no question that Doctor Churchill also was enjoying the +evening. Helping Charlotte and the boys serve the sandwiches and +chocolate, which appeared presently--the chocolate being made by Mrs. +Fields in the kitchen--he said to the girl: + +"I haven't had such a good time since I came away from my old home." + +"It was so nice of Fieldsy to make the chocolate," Charlotte replied, +somewhat irrelevantly. Then as the doctor looked quickly at her and +laughed, she flushed. "Oh, I don't call her that to her face!" she said, +hurriedly. + +"I don't think she would mind. That's what Andy Churchill called her, +and calls her yet, when he forgets her newly acquired dignity as a +doctor's housekeeper. I'm mighty glad Fieldsy can be of service to you. +You've won her heart completely and I assure you that's a bigger triumph +than you realise." + +"She's the nicest neighbour we ever had," said Charlotte, gaily. The +doctor paused, delayed them both a moment while he rearranged a pile of +spoons and forks upon his tray, and said: + +"If you talk of neighbours, Miss Charlotte, there's a certain homesick +young doctor who appreciates having neighbours, too." + +Charlotte answered as lightly as he had spoken: "With Mrs. Fields in the +kitchen and you in here with a tray full of hospitality, I'm sure you +seem very much like one of our oldest neighbours." + +"Thank you!" he answered, with such a glad little ring in his voice that +Charlotte could not be sorry for the impulsive speech. But she found +herself wondering more than once during the evening what he had meant by +calling himself "homesick." + +"See here, Mrs. Fields," called Jeff, hurrying out for fresh supplies, +"this is the best chocolate ever brewed! Doctor Forester wants another +cup, and all the fellows looked sort of wistful when they heard him ask +for it. May everybody have another cup?" + +"Well, I must say, Mr. Jefferson!" said Mrs. Fields, in astonishment. "I +thought Miss Charlotte was going clean crazy when she would have three +double-boilers made. But it seems she knew her friends' appetites. Don't +you know it ain't considered proper to pass more than one cup--light +refreshments like these?" + +"Oh, this isn't any of your afternoon-tea affairs, I can tell you that!" +declared Jeff, watching with pleasure the filling of the tall +blue-and-white chocolate pot. "People know they are going to get +something good when they come here. I warned the fellows not to eat too +much supper before they came. Any more of those chicken sandwiches?" + +"For the land's sake, Mr. Jeff!" cried Mrs. Fields. + +"What's the matter, Jeffy?" asked Charlotte, coming out. Doctor +Churchill was behind her, bearing an empty salad bowl. + +"I want more sandwiches," demanded Jeff. + +"Everybody fall to quick and make them," commanded Charlotte. "Norman +Carter and Just have had seven apiece. That makes them go fast." + +"Well, I never!" breathed the housekeeper once more. But Charlotte was +slicing the bread with a rapid hand. The doctor, laughing, undertook to +butter the slices, and Jeff would have spread on the chicken if Mrs. +Fields had not taken the knife from his hand. + +Ten minutes later Jeff was able to announce that everybody seemed to be +satisfied. + +"That's a mercy," said Mrs. Fields, handing him a tray full of pink and +white ices, Captain Rayburn's contribution to the festivities. "You'd +have to give 'em sody-crackers now if they wasn't. Carry that careful, +and tell Miss Charlotte to send out for the cake. I'll light the +candles." + +Doctor Churchill came out alone for the cake. It stood ready upon the +table, Charlotte's greatest success--a big, old-fashioned orange +"layer-cake," with pale yellow icing, twenty-three pale yellow candles +surrounding it in a flaming circle, and one great yellow Marechal Niel +rose in the centre. + +"Whew-w, that's a beauty!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Did you make it, +Fieldsy?" + +"Indeed I didn't," denied Mrs. Fields, with great satisfaction. "Miss +Charlotte made it herself, and I didn't know but she'd go crazy over it, +first for fear it wouldn't turn out right, and then for joy because it +had." + +The doctor handed it about with a face so beaming that Doctor Forester +leaned back in his chair and regarded his young colleague quizzically. + +"You make this cake, Churchill?" he asked. + +The doctor laughed. "It was joy enough to bring it in," he said. + +"Who did make it?" demanded Forester. "It was no caterer, I know." + +Charlotte attempted to escape quietly from the room, but Lanse barred +the way. "Here she is," he said, and turned his sister about and made +her face the company. A friendly round of applause greeted her, mingled +with exclamations of surprise. They all knew Charlotte, or thought they +did. To most of them this was a new and unlooked-for accomplishment. + +"It's not half so good as the sort Celia makes," murmured Charlotte, and +would hear no more of the cake. But Celia, in her corner, said softly to +Doctor Forester: + +"It's going to be worth while, my knee, for the training Charlotte is +getting. She'll be a perfect little housekeeper before I'm about again." + +"It's going to be worth while in another way too," returned her friend, +with an appreciative glance at the face which always reminded him of her +mother's, it was so serenely sweet and full of character. + +"It is? How?" she asked, eagerly, for his tone was emphatic. + +"I have few patients on my list who learn so soon to bear this sort of +thing as quietly as you are bearing it," he said. "Don't think that +doesn't count." Then he rose to go. + +Celia hardly heard the leave-takings, her mind was so happily busy with +this bit of rare praise from one whose respect was well worth earning. +And half an hour afterward, as Lanse stooped to gather her up and carry +her up-stairs to bed, she looked back at Captain Rayburn, who still sat +beside her couch, and said, with softly shining eyes: + +"The colonel _almost_ wouldn't be the second lieutenant if he could, +Uncle Ray." + +Lanse, lifting his sister in his strong arms, remarked, "I should say +not. Why should he?" + +Celia and Captain Rayburn, laughing, exchanged a sympathetic, +comprehending glance. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Three times Jefferson Birch knocked on his sister Charlotte's door. Then +he turned the knob. The door would not open. "Fiddle!" he called, +softly, but got no reply. + +"You're not asleep, I know," he said, firmly, at the keyhole. "I can see +a light from outside, if you have got it all plugged up here. Let me in. +I've some important news for you." + +Charlotte's lock turned and she threw the door open. "Well, come in," +she said. "I didn't mean anybody to know, but I'm dying to tell +somebody, and I can trust you." + +"Of course!" affirmed Jeff, entering with an air of curiosity. "What's +doing? Painting?" + +The table by the window was strewn with artist's materials, drawings, +sheets of water-colour paper and tumblers of coloured water. In the +midst of this confusion lay one piece of nearly finished work--the +interior of an unfurnished room, showing wall decoration and nothing +more. The colouring caught Jeff's eye. + +"That's stunning!" he commented, catching up the board upon which the +colour drawing was stretched. "What's it for? Going to put in some +furniture?" + +Charlotte laughed. "No, I'm not going to put in any furniture," she +said. "This is just to show a scheme for decorating a den--a man's den. +Do you really like it?" + +"It's great!" Jeff stood the board up against the wall and backed away, +studying it with interest. "Those dull reds and blues will show off his +guns and pictures and things in fine shape. How did you ever think it +up?" + +Charlotte brought out some sheets of wall-paper, as Jeff thought, but he +saw at once that they were hand-work. They represented in full-size +detail the paper used upon the den walls. Jeff studied them with +interest. + +"So this is where you are evenings, after you slip away. You're sitting +up late, too. See here, this won't do!" + +"Oh, yes, it will. Don't try to stop me, Jeff. I'm not up late, really +I'm not--only once in awhile." + +"I thought people couldn't paint by artificial light." + +"They can when they get used to the difference it makes. But I do only +the drudgery, evenings--outlines and solid filling in and that sort of +thing." + +"Going to show this to somebody?" + +"Oh, don't talk about it!" said Charlotte, breathlessly. "If I can get +my courage up. You know Mr. Murdock, with that decorating house where +the Deckers had their work done? Well, some day I'm going to show him. +But I'm so frightened at my own audacity!" + +"If he doesn't like this, he's a fool!" declared Jeff, vigorously, and +although Charlotte laughed she felt the encouragement of his boyish +approval. Putting away her work, she suddenly remembered the excuse her +brother had given for forcing his way into her room. + +"You said you had important news for me. Did you mean it, or was that +only to get in?" + +"Oh," said Jeff sitting down suddenly and looking up at her, his face +growing grave. "You put it out of my head when I came in. I met the +doctor just now. He'd been to see Annie Donohue. She's worse." + +Charlotte dropped her work instantly. "Worse?" she said, all the +brightness flying from her face. "Why, I was in yesterday, and she +seemed much better. Jeff, I must go down there this minute." + +"It's after ten--you can't. Wait till morning." + +"Oh, no!" The girl was making ready as she spoke. "You'll go with me. +Think of the baby. There'll be a houseful of women, all wailing, if +anything goes wrong with Annie. They did it before, when they thought +she wasn't doing well. The baby was so frightened. She knows me. Of +course I must go. Think what mother would do for Annie--after all the +years Annie was such a faithful maid." + +That brought Jeff round at once. In ten minutes he and Charlotte had +quietly left the house. A rapid walk through the crisp January night +brought them to the poorer quarter of the town and the Donohue cottage. +A woman with a shawl over her head met them just outside. + +"Annie's gone," she said, at sight of Charlotte. "Took a turn for the +worse an hour ago. I never thought she'd get well, she's had too hard a +life with that brute of a man of hers." + +Charlotte stood still on the door-step when the woman had gone on. She +was thinking hard. Jeff remained quiet beside her. Charlotte had known +more of Annie than he; Annie had been Charlotte's nurse. + +All at once Charlotte turned and laid a hand on his arm. "Jeff," she +said, very softly and close to his ear, "we must take little Ellen home +with us to-night." + +"What!" + +"Yes, we must. She's such a shy little thing. Every time I've been here +I've found her frightened half to death. It worried Annie dreadfully." + +"Well--but, Charlotte--some of these women can take care of her--Annie's +friends." + +"They are not Annie's friends; they're just her neighbours. Not Annie's +kind at all. They're good-hearted enough, but it distressed Annie all +the time to have any of them take care of Ellen. They give her all sorts +of things to eat. She's only a baby. She was half-sick when I was here +Thursday. Oh, don't make a fuss, Jeff! Please, dear!" + +"But you don't know anything about babies." + +"I know enough not to give them pork and cabbage. I can put the little +thing to sleep in Just's crib. It's up in the attic. You can get it +down. Jeff, we must!" + +But Jeff still held her firmly by the arm. "Girl, you're crazy! If you +once take her, you've got her on your hands. Annie has no relations. You +told me that yourself. The child'll have to go to an asylum. It's a good +thing that husband of hers is dead. If he wasn't, you'd have some cause +to be worried." + +"Jeff," said Charlotte, pleadingly, "you must let me do what I think is +right. I couldn't sleep, thinking of little Ellen to-night. Besides, +when Annie was worrying about her Thursday, I as much as promised we'd +see that no harm came to the baby." + +Jeff relaxed his hold. "I never saw such a girl!" he grumbled. "As if +you hadn't things enough on your shoulders already, without adopting +other people's kids!" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Andrew Churchill opened the door which led from the room of one of +his patients into the small, slenderly furnished living-room of the tiny +house which had been her home. It was her home no longer. Doctor +Churchill had just lost his first patient in private practice. + +In the room were several women, gathered about a baby not yet two years +old. Over the child a subdued but excited discussion was being held, as +to who should take home and, for the present, care for poor Annie +Donohue's orphan baby. + +Doctor Churchill closed the door behind him and stood for a moment, +looking down at the baby, a pretty little girl with a pair of big +frightened blue eyes. + +"Well, I guess I'll have to be the one," said the youngest woman of the +company, with a sigh. "You're all worse fixed than I am, and I guess we +can make room for her somehow, till it's decided what to do with her. +Poor Mis' Donohue's child has got to stay somewhere to-night besides +here, that I do say." + +"Well, that's kind of you, Mary, and we'll all lend a hand to help you +out. I'll bring over some extra milk I can spare and----" + +A sudden draft of January air made everybody turn. A girlish figure, in +a big dark cape with a scarlet lining which seemed to reflect the colour +from a face brilliant with frost-bloom, stood in the outer door. The +next instant Charlotte Birch, closing the door softly behind her, had +crossed the room and was addressing the women, in low quick tones. The +doctor she did not seem to notice. + +"I've come for the baby," she said, with a gentle imperiousness. "I've +just heard about poor Annie. Of course we are the ones to see to little +Ellen. If mother were here she would insist upon it. Where are her +wraps, please? And has one of you an extra shawl she can lend me? It's a +sharp night." + +As she spoke, Charlotte knelt before the child and held out her arms. +Baby Ellen stared at her for an instant, then seemed to recognise a +friend and lifted two little arms, her tiny lips quivering. Charlotte +drew her gently up, and rising, walked away across the room with her, +the small golden head nestling in her neck. The women looked after her +rather resentfully. + +"I suppose the child wouldn't be sufferin' with such as us," said one, +"if we ain't got no silk quilts to put over her." + +"Neither have I," said Charlotte, with a smile, as she caught the words. +"But I'm so fond of her. Annie was my nurse, you know." + +"May I carry her home for you?" asked the doctor, at her elbow. + +"Jeff is here," she answered. + +But it was the doctor who carried the baby, after all, for she cried at +sight of Jeff. She was ready to cry at sight of any strange face, poor +little frightened child! But Doctor Churchill held her so tenderly and +spoke so soothingly that she grew quiet at once. + +It was a silent walk, and it was only as they reached the house that the +doctor said softly to Charlotte, "If you need advice or help, don't +hesitate to call on Mrs. Fields. She's a wise woman, and her heart is +warm, you know." + +"Yes, I know, thank you! And thank you, doctor, for--not scolding me +about this!" + +"Scold you?" he said, as Charlotte took the baby from him at the door. +"Why should I do that?" + +"Jeff did, and I didn't dare tell Lanse." + +"If you hadn't brought the baby home," whispered the doctor, "I should +have." And Charlotte, looking quickly up at him as Jeff opened the door +and the light streamed out upon them, surprised upon his face, as his +eyes rested upon the baby's pink cheek, an expression which could hardly +have been more tender if he had been Ellen's father. + +"Now, Jeffy, get the crib down, please, as softly as you can," begged +Charlotte, when she had laid the baby on her own white bed and +noiselessly closed the door. Jeff tried hard to do her bidding, but the +crib did not get down-stairs without a few scrapings and bumpings, which +made Charlotte hold her breath lest they rouse a sleeping household. + +"Now go down and warm some milk for her in the blue basin. Don't get it +hot--just lukewarm. Put the tiniest pinch of sugar in it." + +"You seem to know a lot about babies," Jeff murmured, pausing an instant +to watch his sister gently pulling off the baby's clothes. + +"I do. Didn't I have the care of you?" answered Charlotte, with a +mischievous smile. + +"Two years younger than yourself? Oh, of course, I forgot that," and +Jeff crept away down-stairs after the milk. It took him some time, and +when he came tiptoeing back he found the baby in her little coarse +flannel nightgown, her round blue eyes wide-awake again. + +"She seems to accept you for a mother all right," he commented, as +Charlotte held the cup to the baby's lips, cuddling her in a blanket +meanwhile. But the girl's eyes filled at this, remembering poor Annie, +and Jeff added hastily, "What'll happen if she wakes up and cries in the +night? Babies usually do, don't they?" + +"Annie has always said Ellen didn't, much, and she's getting to sleep so +late I hope she won't to-night. I don't feel equal to telling the others +what I've done till morning," and Charlotte smiled rather faintly. Now +that she had the baby at home she was beginning to wonder what Lanse and +Celia would say. + +"Never mind. I'll stand by you. You're all right, whatever you do--if I +did think you were rather off your head at first," promised Jeff, +sturdily. He was never known to fail Charlotte in an emergency. + +Whether it was the strange surroundings or something wrong about the +last meal of the day cannot be stated, but Baby Ellen did wake up. It +was at three o'clock in the morning that Charlotte, who, excited by the +strangeness of the situation, had but just fallen asleep, was roused by +a small wail. + +The baby seemed not to know her in the trailing blue kimono, with her +two long curly braids swinging over her shoulders, and in spite of all +that Charlotte could do, the infantile anguish of spirit soon filled the +house. + +Charlotte walked the floor with her, alternately murmuring consolation +and singing the lullabies of her own childhood; but the uproar +continued. It is astonishing what an amount of disturbance one small +pair of lungs can produce. It was not long before the anxious nurse, +listening with both ears for evidences that the family were aroused, +heard the tap of Celia's crutches, which the invalid had just learned to +use. And almost at the same moment Lanse's door opened and shut with a +bang. + +"Here they come!" murmured Charlotte, trying distractedly to hush the +baby by means which were never known to have that effect upon a startled +infant in a strange house. + +Her door swung open. Celia stood on the threshold, her eyes wide with +alarm. Lanse, lightly costumed in pink-and-white pajamas, gazed over her +shoulder. + +"Charlotte Birch!" cried Celia, and words failed her. But Lanse was +ready of speech. + +"What the dickens does this mean?" he inquired, wrathfully. "Have we +become an orphanage? I thought I heard singular sounds just after I got +to bed. Is there any good reason why the family shouldn't be informed of +what strange intentions you may have in your brain before you carry them +out? Whose youngster is it, and what are you doing with it here?" + +Charlotte's lips were seen to move, but the baby's fright had received +such an accession from the appearance of two more unknown beings in the +room that nothing could be distinguished. What Charlotte said was, +"Please go away! I'll tell you in the morning." But the visitors, +failing to catch the appeal, not only did not go away, but moved nearer. + +"Why, it's Annie Donohue's baby!" cried Celia, and shrieked the +information into Lanse's ear. His expression of disfavour relaxed a +degree, but he still looked preternaturally severe. Celia hobbled over +to the baby, and sitting down in a rocking-chair, held out her arms. But +Charlotte shook her head and motioned imperatively toward the door. + +At this instant Jeff, in a red bathrobe, appeared in the doorway, +grasped the situation, nodded assurance to Charlotte, and hauled his +elder brother across the hall into his own room, where he closed the +door and explained in a few terse sentences: + +"Annie died last night--to-night. We heard of it late, and Charlotte +thought she wouldn't disturb anybody. The doctor was there. He carried +the baby home. We couldn't leave her there. She was scared to death. She +knows Fiddle, and she'll grow quiet now if you people don't stand round +and insist on explanations being roared at you." + +"But we can't keep a baby here," began Lanse, who had come home late, +unusually tired, and was feeling the customary masculine displeasure at +having his hard-earned rest broken--a sensation which at the moment took +precedence over any more humanitarian emotions. + +"We don't have to settle that to-night, do we?" demanded Jeff, with +scorn. "Hasn't the poor girl got enough on her hands without having you +scowl at her for trying to do the good Samaritan act--at three o'clock +in the morning?" + +Jeff next turned his attention to Celia. He went into Charlotte's room, +picked up his elder sister without saying "by your leave," and carried +her off to her own bed. + +"But, Jeff, I could help Charlotte," Celia remonstrated. "The poor baby +may be sick." + +"Don't believe it. She's simply scared stiff at kimonos and pajamas and +bathrobes stalking round her in a strange house. Charlotte can cool her +down if anybody can. If she can't, I'll call the doctor. Now go to +sleep. Charlotte and I will man the ship to-night, and in the morning +you can go to work making duds for the baby. It didn't have anything to +wear round it but a summer cape and Mrs. O'Neill's plaid shawl." + +This artful allusion touched Celia's tender heart and set her mind at +work, as Jeff had meant it should; so putting out her light, he slipped +away to Charlotte, exulting in having so promptly fixed things for her. + +But Charlotte met him with anxious eyes. The baby was still screaming. + +"See how she stiffens every now and then, and holds her breath till I +think she'll never breathe again!" she called in his ear. "I do really +think you'd better call Mrs. Fields. You can wake her with a knock on +her window. She sleeps in the little wing down-stairs." + +As he hurried down the hall, the door of Captain Rayburn's room opened, +and Jeff met the quiet question, "What's up, lad?" + +He stopped an instant to explain, encountered prompt sympathy, and laid +a hasty injunction upon his uncle not to attempt to assist Charlotte in +her dilemma. That gentleman hobbled back to bed, smiling tenderly to +himself in the dark--why, if he had seen him, Jeff never would have been +able to guess. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got a sewing-machine that I know the kinks of," said Mrs. Fields +to Celia and Charlotte and the baby, who regarded her with interest from +the couch, where they were grouped. "The doctor's going to be away all +day to-morrow, and if you'll all come over, we can get through a lot of +little clothes for the baby. Land knows she ain't anyway fixed for going +outdoors in all kinds of weather, the way the doctor wants her to." + +This was so true that it carried weight in spite of the difficulties in +the way. So before he went off to school on a certain February morning, +Jeff had carried Celia across to Mrs. Field's sitting-room, and by ten +o'clock three busy people were at work. Captain Rayburn had begged to be +of the party, and although Mrs. Fields received with skepticism his +declaration that he could do various sorts of sewing with a sufficient +degree of skill, she allowed him to come, on condition that he look +after the baby. + +"Well, for the land's sake!" cried the forewoman of the sewing brigade, +as she opened the big bundle Captain Rayburn had brought with him. "I +should say you haven't left much for us to do!" + +The captain regarded with complacency the finished garments she was +holding up. + +"Yes," said he, "I telephoned the big children's supply shop to send me +what Miss Ellen would need for out-of-doors. It seemed a pity to have +her stay in another day, waiting to be sewed up. Aren't they right? I +thought the making of her indoor clothes would be enough." + +Celia and Charlotte were exclaiming with delight over the pretty, wadded +white coat which Mrs. Fields held aloft. There was a little furry hood +to match, mittens, and a pair of leggings of the sort desirable for +small travellers. + +"If he hasn't remembered everything!" cried Mrs. Fields, when this last +article of apparel came to view. "Well, sir, I won't say you haven't +saved us quite a chore. I've got the little flannel petticoats all cut +out. Doctor Churchill bought flannel enough to keep her covered from now +till she's five years old. Talk about economy--when a man goes +shopping!" + +Mrs. Fields plunged into business with a will. The sewing-machine hummed +ceaselessly. Celia, with rapid, skillful fingers, kept pace with her in +basting and putting together, and Charlotte--well, Charlotte did her +best. Meanwhile Captain Rayburn and the baby explored together +mysterious realms of pockets and picture-books. + +"For the land's sake, Miss Charlotte!" cried Mrs. Fields, suddenly, in +the middle of the morning. "If you ain't made five left sleeves and only +one right!" + +Charlotte looked up, crimsoning. "How could I have done it?" + +"Easy enough." Mrs. Field's expression softened instantly at sight of +the girl's dismay. "I've done it a good many times. Something about +it--sleeves act bewitched. They seem bound to hang together and be all +one kind or all the other, anything but pairs." + +"Why don't you rest a little, and take baby outdoors in her new coat?" +Celia suggested. "Sewing is such wearisome work, if one isn't used to +it." + +So Charlotte and her charge gladly went out. A neighbour had lent an old +baby sled, and in it Miss Ellen Donohue, snuggled to the chin in the +warmest of garments and wrappings, took her first airing since the +night, a week before, when she had been brought home in Doctor +Churchill's arms. + +She was a shy but happy baby, and had already won all hearts. Nobody was +willing to begin the steps necessary to place her in any of the +institutions designed for cases like hers. Charlotte, indeed, would not +hear of it; and even the practical John Lansing, who had learned to +figure the family finances pretty closely since he himself had become +the wage-earner, succumbed to the touch of baby fingers on his face and +the glance of a pair of eyes like forget-me-nots. + +As for Captain Rayburn, he was the baby's devoted slave at all times, +his most jealous rival being Dr. Andrew Churchill, who was constantly +inventing excuses for coming in for a frolic with Baby Ellen. + +"If the doctor could look in on us now," observed Mrs. Fields, suddenly, +in the middle of the afternoon, when Charlotte was again bravely trying +to distinguish herself at tasks in which she was by no means an adept, +"he'd be put out with me for having this party a day when he was away. +He sets great store by anything that looks like a lot of people at +home." + +"Is he one of a large family?" Celia asked. + +"He was two years ago. Since then he's lost a brother and a sister and +his mother. His father died five years ago. He has a married brother in +Japan, and an unmarried one in South Africa. There ain't anybody in the +old home now. It broke up when his mother died, two years ago. He hasn't +got over that--not a bit. She was going to come and live with him here. +It was a town where she used to visit a good deal, and since he couldn't +settle near the old home, because it wasn't a good field for young +doctors, she was willing to come here with him. That's why he's here +now, though I suppose it don't begin to be as advantageous a place for +him as it would be in the city itself. He thought a terrible lot of his +mother, Andy did. Seems as if he wanted to please her now as much as +ever. And he has some pretty homesick times, now and then, though he +doesn't show it much." + +It was the first time the doctor's housekeeper had been so +communicative, and her three hearers listened with deep interest, +although they asked few questions, made only one or two kindly comments, +and did not express half the sympathy they felt. Only Captain Rayburn, +thoughtfully staring out of the window, gave voice to a sentiment for +which both his nieces, although they said nothing in reply, inwardly +thanked him. + +"Doctor Churchill is a rare sort of fellow," he said. "Doctor Forester +considers him most promising, I know. But better than that, he is one +whose personality alone will always be the strongest part of his +influence over his patients, winning them from despair to courage--how, +they can't tell. And the man who can add to the sum total of the courage +of the human race has done for it what it very much needs." + +A few minutes after this little speech the subject of it quite +unexpectedly came dashing in, bringing with him a great breath of +February air. He stopped in astonishment upon the threshold. + +"If this isn't the unkindest trick I ever heard of!" he cried, his +brilliant eyes flashing from one to another. "I suppose that +arch-traitor of a Fieldsy planned to have you all safely away before I +came home. I'm thankful I got here two hours before she expected me. See +here, you've got to make this up to me somehow." + +"Sit down!" invited Captain Rayburn. "You may hem steadily for two hours +on flannel petticoats. If that won't make it up to you I don't know what +will." + +"No, it won't," retorted the doctor. "Sewing's all right in its way, but +I've just put up my needle-case, thank you, and no more stitching for me +to-day. I want--a lark! I want to go skating. Who'll go with me?" + +"By the process of elimination I should say you would soon get at the +answer to that," remarked the captain. "There seems to be just one +candidate for active service in this company--unless Mrs. Fields--I've +no doubt now that Mrs. Fields----" + +"Will you go?" Doctor Churchill turned to Mrs. Fields. She glanced up +into his laughing eyes. + +"Run along and don't bother me," she said to him. "Take that child +there. She's about got her stent done, I guess." + +Doctor Churchill looked at the curly black head bent closely over the +last of the little sleeves. + +"You don't deceive me, Miss Charlotte," said he. "You're not as wedded +to that task as you look. Please come with me. There's time for a +magnificent hour before you have to put the kettle on. Miss Birch, I +wish we could take you, too. Next winter--well, that knee is doing so +well I dare to promise you all the skating you want." + +Celia looked up at him, smiling, but her eyes were wistful. + +"Doctor," cried Captain Rayburn, "telephone to the stables for a +comfortable old horse and sleigh, will you? Celia, girl, we'll go, too." + +"And I'll look after Ellen," said Mrs. Fields, before anybody could +mention the baby. "Go on, all of you." + +"May we all come back to supper with you?" asked Doctor Churchill, +giving her a glance with which she was familiar of old. + +"If you'll send for some oysters I'll give you all hot stew," she said, +and received such a chorus of applause that she mentally added several +items to the treat. + +"Now I can enjoy my fun," whispered Charlotte to Celia, as she brought +her sister's wraps, and pulled on her own rough brown coat. "Such a +jolly uncle, isn't he?" + +"The best in the world. Wear your white tam, dear, and the white +mittens. They look so well with your brown suit. Tie the white silk +scarf about your neck--that's it. Now run. I'm so afraid somebody will +call the doctor out and spoil it all." + +Charlotte ran, and found the doctor waiting impatiently, two pairs of +skates on his arm. He hurried her away down the street. + +"We must get all there is of this," he said. "I feel as if I could skate +fifty miles and back again. Do you?" + +"Indeed I do. I've wanted to get up and run round the block between +every two stitches all day." + +"They say the river is good for three miles up. That will give us just +what we want--a sensation of running away from the earth and all its +cares. And when we get back we'll be ready for Fieldsy's stew." + +They found everybody on the river; Charlotte was busy nodding to her +friends while the doctor put on her skates. In a few moments the two +were flying up the course. + +"Oh, this is great!" exulted Doctor Churchill. "And this is the first +time you've been on the ice this winter--in February!" + +"This is fine enough to make up. I do love it. It takes out all the +puckers." + +"Doesn't it? I thought you'd been cultivating puckers to-day the minute +I saw you--or else I interpreted your mood by my own. Talk about +puckers--and nerves! Miss Charlotte, I've done my first big operation in +a certain line to-day. I mean, in a new line--an experiment. It was--a +success." + +She looked up at him, her face full of sympathy. "Oh, I'm so glad!" she +said. + +"Are you? Thank you! I wanted somebody to be glad--and I hadn't anybody. +I had to tell you. It's too soon to be absolutely sure, but it promises +so well I'm daring to be happy. It's the sort of operation in which the +worst danger is practically over if the patient gets through the +operation itself. She's rallied beautifully. And whatever happens, I've +proved my point--that the experiment is feasible. Some of the men +doubted that--all thought it a big risk. But I had to take it, and +now--Ah, come on, Miss Charlotte! Let's fly!" + +Away they went, faster and faster--long, swinging strokes in perfect +unison; two accomplished skaters with one object in view; working off +healthy young spirits at a tension. They did not talk; they saved their +breath; they went like the wind itself. + +At the farthest extremity of the smooth ice, which ended at a little +frost-bound waterfall, they came to a stop. Churchill looked down at a +face like a rose, black eyes that were all alight, and lips that smiled +with the fresh happiness of the fine sport. + +"I've skated at Copenhagen and at St. Petersburg," he said gaily, "to +say nothing of Fresh Pond and Lake Superior and other such home grounds. +But it's safe to say I never enjoyed a mile of them like that last one. +You--you were really glad, weren't you, that it went so well with me +to-day?" + +"How could I help it, Doctor Churchill?" she answered, earnestly. Ever +since coming out she had been remembering the little revelation his +housekeeper had made of his life, and it had touched her deeply to know +why he had come to settle in the suburban town instead of in the much +more promising city field--a question which had occurred to her many +times since she had known him. + +"I always expected," he went on, in a more quiet way, "to be able to +come home and tell my mother about my first triumphs. She would have +been so proud and happy over the smallest thing. Her father was a +distinguished surgeon--Marchmont of Baltimore. He died only four years +ago--his books are an authority on certain subjects. My other +grandfather was Dr. Andrew Churchill of Glasgow--an old-school physician +and a good one. So you see I come honestly by my love for it all. And +mother--how we used to talk it all over--" + +He stopped abruptly, with a tightening of the lips, and stood staring +off over the frozen fields, his eyes growing sombre. Charlotte's own +eyes fell; her heart beat fast with sympathy. She laid the lightest of +touches on his arm. + +"I know," she said, softly. "Fieldsy told me--a little bit. I'm so +sorry." + +He drew a long breath and looked down at her, his eyes searching her +face. "You _are_ a little comrade," he said, and his voice was low and +moved. Then with a quick motion he seized her hands again and they were +off, back down the river. Not so fast as before, and silently, the two +skaters covered the miles, and only as they came within sight of the +crowd of people at the beginning of the course did Doctor Churchill +speak. + +"This has been a fine hour, hasn't it?" he said. "Your face looks as if +you had lost all the puckers. Have you?" + +"Indeed I have! Haven't you?" + +"It has done me a world of good. I was wrought up to a high pitch--now +I'm cool again. I have to go back to the hospital as soon as supper is +over. I shall stay all night." + +"When you get back," said Charlotte, "will you telephone me how the case +is doing?" + +"May I?" he answered, eagerly. + +"Of course you may. I shall be anxious till I know." + +"I have no business to add one smallest item of anxiety to your list of +worries," he admitted. "But it seems so good to me to have somebody +care, just now. Fieldsy's a dear soul--I couldn't get on without her, +but--Never mind, that's enough of Andrew Churchill for one afternoon. +Shall we make a big spurt to the finish? Let's show them what skating +is--no little cutting of geometrical spider-webs in a forty-foot +square!" + +They drew in with swift, graceful strokes, threaded their course through +the crowd of skaters, and were soon on their way home. Captain Rayburn +and Celia passed them, called back that it was a great day for invalids +and children, and reached home just in time for the doctor to carry +Celia into the little brick house. Charlotte ran to summon her three +brothers, for it was after six o'clock. + +Never had an oyster stew such enthusiastic praise. Not an appetite was +lacking, not a spoon flagged. Mrs. Fields, moved to lavish hospitality, +in which she was upheld by the doctor, produced a chicken pie, which had +been originally intended for his dinner alone, and which she had at +first designed, when she proposed the oysters, to keep over until the +morrow. This was flanked by various dishes, impromptu but delectable, +and followed by a round of winter fruit and spongecake--the latter the +pride of the housekeeper's heart, and dear to her master from old +association. + +"If you live like this all the time, Doctor Churchill," said John +Lansing Birch, leaning back in his chair at last with the air of a man +who asks no more of the gods, "I advise you to keep up a bachelor +establishment to the end of your days." + +"How would that suit you, Mrs. Fields?" asked the doctor, laughing. + +Mrs. Fields, from her place at the end of the table--they had insisted +on having her sit down with them--answered deliberately: + +"As long as a man's a man I suppose nothing on earth ever will make him +feel so satisfied with himself and all creation as being set down in +front of a lot of eatables. Now what gives me most peace of mind +to-night is knowing that that little Ellen Donohue, asleep on my bed, +has got enough new clothes, by this day's work, to make a very good +beginning of an outfit." + +"Now, how do you old bachelors feel?" cried Celia, amidst laughter, and +the party broke up. + +At ten o'clock that evening, when Charlotte had seen her sister +comfortably in bed--for Celia still needed help in undressing--had +tucked in Just and warned Jeff that it was bedtime, the telephone-bell +rang. + +Lanse and Captain Rayburn sat reading in the living-room, where the +telephone stood upon a desk, and Lanse, who was near it, moved lazily to +answer it. But before he could lift the receiver to his ear Charlotte +had run into the room and was taking it from him, murmuring, "It's for +me--I'm sure it is." + +"Well, I could have called you," said Lanse, looking curiously at her +as, with cheeks like poppies, she sat down at the desk and answered. +With ears wide open, although he had again taken up the magazine he had +laid down, he listened to Charlotte's side of the conversation. It was +brief, and no more remarkable than such performances are apt to be, but +Lanse easily appreciated the fact that it was giving his sister immense +satisfaction. + +"Hullo--yes--yes!" she called. "Yes--oh, _is_ she? Yes--yes, I'm so +glad! Yes--of course you are. I'm _so_ glad! Thank you. Yes--Good +night!" Charlotte hung up the receiver and swung round from the desk, +her face radiant, her eyes like stars. + +"Is she, indeed?" interrogated Lanse, lifting brotherly, penetrating +eyes to her face. "Engagement just announced? When is she to be married? +I'm glad you're glad--you might so easily have been jealous." + +Charlotte laughed--a ripple of merriment which was contagious, for +Captain Rayburn smiled over the evening paper, and Lanse himself grinned +cheerfully. + +"Mind telling us the occasion of such heartfelt joy?" he inquired. But +Charlotte came up behind him, laid a warm velvet cheek against his for a +moment, patted her uncle on the shoulder, cried, "Good night to you, +gentlemen dear!" and ran away to bed. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Charlotte let little Ellen slide down from her lap, washed and brushed. + +"Now, Ellen, be a good girl," she said as she set about picking up the +various articles she had been using in the baby's bath and dressing. +"Charlotte's in a hurry." + +The door-bell rang. Celia was in the kitchen, stirring up a pudding. It +was April now, and Celia's knee was so far mended that she could be +about the house without her crutches, with certain restrictions as to +standing, or using the knee in any way likely to strain it. + +It was Charlotte who did the running about, and it was she who started +for the door now, after casting one hasty look around the bath-room to +make sure that the baby could do herself no harm. + +Left to herself, Ellen investigated the resources of the bath-room and +found them wanting. After she had thrown two towels, the soap and her +own small tooth brush back into the tub from which she had lately +emerged, and which Charlotte had not yet emptied, she found her means of +entertainment at an end. The other toilet articles were all beyond her +reach. She gazed out of the window; there was nothing moving to be seen +but a row of Mrs. Fields's dish-towels waving in the wind. + +She turned to the door. Charlotte had meant to latch it, but it was a +door with a peculiar trick of swinging slowly open an inch after it had +apparently been closed, and it had not been latched. Ellen pushed one +small hand into the crack and pulled it open. + +Charlotte was nowhere to be seen or heard Across the hall was the door +of her room, ajar; and since doors ajar have somehow a singular charm +for babies, this one crossed to it and swung it wide. + +Here was richness. This was Charlotte's workshop. She slept in a smaller +room adjoining, the baby in the crib by her side; and with that smaller +room little Ellen was familiar, but not with this. The tiny feet +travelled eagerly about, from one desirable object to another. And +presently she remembered the big, porcelain-lined bath-tub, There was +nothing Ellen liked so well as to throw things into that tub and see +them splash. + +Two books crossed the hall and made the plunge, one after the other, +into the soapy water. Ellen gurgled with delight. Two more journeys +deposited a shoe, a hair-brush and a small box, contents unknown, in the +watery receptacle. Then Ellen made a discovery which filled her small +soul with joy. + +Just two days before, Charlotte had completed the set of colour drawings +which delineated the wall decoration of four rooms--a "den," a +dining-room and two bedrooms. They represented the work of the winter, +pursued under the exceeding difficulties of managing a household, and, +for the last three months, caring in part for a little child. + +But Charlotte had toiled faithfully, with the ardour of one who, having +only a small portion of time to give to a beloved pursuit, works at it +all the more zealously. And she had gone on from one room to another, in +her designing, with the hope that if in one she failed to please those +upon whom her success depended, some one of the series might appeal to +them, and give her the desired place in their interest. + +It was her intention on this very day, after luncheon should be over and +she should be free for a few hours, to make the much-dreaded, +wholly-longed-for visit to the great manufacturing house where she was +to show her wares. + +The drawings lay in a pile upon Charlotte's table, ready to be wrapped. +Baby Ellen, spying the pile of drawings, with an edge or two of +brilliant colour showing, trotted gaily over to the table. She stood on +tiptoe and pulled at the corner nearest her. The drawings fell from the +table in a disordered heap on the floor. + +The sight of them pleased Ellen immensely. She held one up and shook it +in her small fists, slowly and carefully tore a corner off it, and cast +the sheet down in favour of the next in order. This she tore cleanly in +two in the middle. The paper was tough, to be sure, but the little fists +were strong. + +Then she remembered that seductive bath-tub. A patter of little feet, a +laugh of pleasure--"Da!" cried Ellen, gleefully---and the first sheet +was in. + +Seven trips, pursued with vigour and growing hilarity, and Charlotte's +work had received its initial plunge into a new state of being. Four of +the drawings had been torn in two. The bath-tub was a mass of softly +blending colours. + +Charlotte came running back up the stairs, her mind, which had been held +captive by a young caller, reverting with some anxiety to the small +person whom she had left, as she thought, shut up in the safe bath-room. +She expected to hear Ellen crying, as was likely to be the case when +left alone without sufficient means of amusement; but the silence, as +she flew up-stairs, alarmed her. Silence was almost sure to mean +mischief. + +The bath-room door was ajar. Charlotte pushed it open and looked in. One +glance showed her he havoc which had been wrought. She stopped short, +staring with wild eyes into the bath-tub; then she caught her treasures +out of it, held them dripping before her for an instant, and let them +drop on the floor. She turned and ran out of the room to look for Ellen. + +The baby sat calmly on a rug, in the middle of Charlotte's room, engaged +in pulling the leaves, one by one, out of a small sketch-book which had +been on the table with the drawings. She looked up, a most engaging and +innocent expression on her round face, and smiled at Charlotte. But she +met no smile in return. + +"You little wretch!" breathed Charlotte, between her teeth, as she +seized the sketch-book and whirled the baby to her feet. "_Oh!_ Is this +the way you pay me for all I've done for you? You +_wicked--cruel--heartless_----" + +It was the explosion of a blind wrath which made the girl shake the tiny +form until Baby Ellen roared lustily. Charlotte set her upon the floor +again, and stood looking down at her with blazing eyes. The small head +was clasped in two little fists, as the child tore at her yellow curls, +her infant soul stirred to indignation and fright at this most +unexpected treatment. Suddenly Charlotte seized her again and bore her +swiftly away to Captain Rayburn's room. + +"Take care of her for an hour? Surely. But what's the matter?" + +It was small wonder he asked, for Charlotte's face was white, her eyes +brilliant, and her lips quivering as she spoke: + +"It's nothing--only baby has spoiled something of mine, and I'm so angry +I don't dare trust myself with her." + +She dropped little Ellen in his arms and fled, leaving her uncle to +think what he might. He looked grave as he soothed the baby, whose small +breast still heaved convulsively. + +"Are you conscientiously trying to do your full share in developing our +little second fiddle's capacity to play first?" he asked the baby, with +his face against hers. "Never mind, little one, never mind. Baby doesn't +know--but John Rayburn does--that this being a means of education to +other people is a thankless task sometimes. Don't cry. Aunty Charlotte +will kiss her hard and fast by and by, to make up for losing her temper +with the little maid. I suspect you were very, very trying, to make +Aunty Charlotte look like that." + +Charlotte came down-stairs after a time and attended to the luncheon, +her lips pressed tight together, her eyes heavy--although not with +tears. She would not let herself cry. + +Celia had a headache and did not notice, being herself disinclined to +talk, and Captain Rayburn forbore to look at Charlotte. But Jeff, when +he came in, observed at once that something was amiss. As soon as the +meal was over he drew Charlotte into a corner. + +"You haven't been to Murdock with the pictures and been--turned down?" +he asked. + +"No." + +"Going this afternoon, aren't you?" + +"No." + +"Why not? Thought that was the plan." + +Charlotte turned away, fighting hard for self-control. Jeff caught her +arm. + +"See here, Fiddle, you've got to tell me. You look like a ghost. No bad +news--from New Mexico?" + +"Oh, no--no! Please go away." + +"I won't till you tell me what's up. You're not sick?" + +Charlotte ran off up-stairs, Jeff following. "Charlotte," he cried, as +he pursued her into her room before she could turn and close the door, +"what's the use of acting like this? Something's happened, and I'm going +to know what it is." + +Charlotte sat down in a despairing heap on the floor and hid her face in +her hands. Jeff glanced helplessly from her to the table in the corner. +Then he observed that it was bare of the pile of drawings. + +"Nothing's happened to the wall-paper?" he asked, eagerly. + +Charlotte nodded. + +"What?" + +"Go look up in the attic, if you must know." + +Jeff dashed up-stairs, and surveyed the havoc. He came back breathless +with dismay. + +"How did it happen?" + +"Baby--bath-tub." + +"The little--_imp_! Are they spoiled?" + +"You saw." + +"Yes; colours run together a bit on some, others torn in two. Yet they +show what they were, Fiddle--I vow they do. I'd take them just as they +are, explain the whole thing, and see what comes of it." + +Charlotte raised her head to shake it vigorously. "Offer work in such +shape as that? I'm not such a goose." + +"Got to do them all over?" + +Her head sank again. "If I can get the courage." + +"Of course you can," declared Jeff, more cheerfully. "You never lack +pluck. Poor girl, I'm mighty sorry, though. It's simply tough to have it +happen at the last minute. You're all tired out, too--I know you are; +you ought never to have to do it all over again." + +"If I could just have shown them to Mr. Murdock," said Charlotte, +heavily, "and have found out that it was the sort of thing they would +like, it wouldn't seem so hard to do them all over again. But to work +for weeks more--and then perhaps have it a failure, after all----" + +"I know. Well, I've got to be off, or I'll be late. Mid-term exams this +week. Cheer up, Fiddle, maybe you can fix 'em up easier than you think." + +Late in the afternoon Charlotte came to her uncle for the baby. He had +cared for her all day. + +"She's safe with you now?" he asked, with a keen look up into her quiet +face. + +"I hope so." Charlotte's cheek was against the little head; she held the +baby tenderly. + +"When she is in bed to-night will you come and tell me what she did?" + +Charlotte shook her head, with a faint smile. "She wasn't to blame. I +left her alone for ten minutes." + +"But I should like to know about it," he said, coaxingly. "I have had +rather a busy day with Ellen-baby--why not reward me with your +confidence?" + +But she would not promise; neither did she come. This was exceedingly +characteristic of the girl, but Captain Rayburn, his sharp eyes +observing in her aspect the signs of misery in spite of a brave attempt +to seem cheerful, made up his mind to find out for himself. Twice he +encountered her coming down from the attic, and each time she avoided +speaking to him. + +That night, after everybody was in bed, Captain Rayburn, his canes held +under his arm, crept slowly up-stairs, a little electric candle of his +own in his pocket. By means of this he soon discovered Charlotte's +ruined work, which she had not yet found heart to remove from the place +where she had first laid it, trusting to the privacy of a place which +was seldom invaded by anybody. + +He sat down on a convenient box and studied the coloured plates and +sketches. As he looked, his lips drew into a whistle of surprise and +admiration, followed by a long breath of pity for what he was sure he +understood. + +Jeff, having just dropped off into the sound sleep of the healthy boy, +found himself gently punched into wakefulness. + +"Come to, Jeff, and tell me what I want to know," said Captain Rayburn, +smiling at his nephew in the dim white light from the candle. Jeff +raised himself on his pillow. + +"Wh-what's up?" he grunted, blinking like an owl. + +"Nothing serious. What was Charlotte going to do with her colour +drawings? Show them to some wall-paper manufacturers?" + +"What--er--yes--no. What do you know about it?" Jeff was up on his elbow +now, staring at his uncle. + +"All about it--except that." + +"Charlotte tell you? I didn't think she----" + +"She didn't. I guessed--and found out. You may as well tell me the +rest." + +"Isn't it a shame? Poor girl's worked months on those things; just got +'em done. You ought to have seen them; they were great. I told her she +could take them as they were, but she wouldn't hear of it." + +"But where were they going?" + +"To Mr. Murdock, at Chrystler & Company's office. He saw something of +Charlotte's once by chance, through a niece of his who's Charlotte's +friend, and he sent word to Fiddle that she ought to cultivate that +colour sense, or whatever it was, I forget what he called it--for she +had it to an unusual degree. Charlotte has cultivated it for two years +since then, and now--oh, confound that baby! That's what you get for +trying to be a missionary. I wish we'd sent her to an orphanage right +off. What's the use?" + +"You don't feel that 'sweet are the uses of adversity'? Sometimes they +are, though, son. The little second violin hasn't given in and wailed +about it; I saw no traces of tears." + +"No, you're right you haven't," agreed Jeff, proudly. "She's not that +sort. She's all broken up, though, inside, and I don't blame her." + +"No. Jeff, to-morrow--it's Saturday, isn't it? You must get those +drawings early in the morning, while Charlotte is busy with her Saturday +baking. We'll have a livery outfit, and you shall drive me down to +Chrystler's." + +"Uncle Ray! You're a trump! It's just what I said should be done. The +work shows perfectly well what she intended, and if a chap like you +explains it----" + +Captain Rayburn limped away, laughing, his hand red with the tremendous +grip his nephew had just given it. It gave him great pleasure to see the +way the boy invariably stood by his sister. It was a characteristic of +the Birch family, as a whole, which, it may be said, was worth more both +to themselves and to the world at large than the possession of almost +any other trait. + +It was not until dinner was over that Captain Rayburn and his nephew +returned, begging pardon for their tardiness, and explaining that they +had taken luncheon in the city. + +"Fiddle," Jeff said, with a face of preternatural gravity, "come up to +Uncle Ray's room when the dishes are done, will you?" + +He vanished before his sister could ask why, and before she could see +the grin which overspread his ruddy countenance as he turned away. But +something he could not keep out of his voice roused her curiosity, and +she made quick work of the dishes. + +"Come in, come in!" invited Captain Rayburn, and Jeff rose from the +couch, where his nose had been buried among some of his uncle's +periodicals. + +There were always books and magazines by the Score wherever Captain +Rayburn settled himself for any length of time. + +The ex-soldier and the schoolboy eyed each other doubtfully for an +instant as Charlotte dropped into a chair. Her usually bright face was +still very sober, and her eyelashes swept her cheek as she waited. + +Captain Rayburn nodded at Jeff. The boy stood on one foot, then on the +other, pushed his hands deep into his pockets, pulled them out again, +cleared his throat, laughed nervously, and strode suddenly across the +room to his sister. He thrust out his hand as he came to a halt before +her. "Congratulations to the distinguished decorator!" he cried, and +came to the end, temporarily, of his eloquence. + +Charlotte looked up in amazement. Jeff seized her hand and pumped it up +and down. She glanced in bewilderment at her uncle, and met his smile of +encouragement. + +"Mine, too," he said. + +"What--" she began, and her voice stuck in her throat. Her heart began +to thump wildly. Then Jeff told it all in one burst: + +"Uncle Ray found your stuff in the attic--thought it great--woke me up +and ground it out of me what you meant to do with it. He was sure, as I +was, it was fit to show, and you ought not to do it all over first. Got +a horse, drove into Chrystler's, saw Murdock. He would look at anything, +listened to the story about the baby, looked at the stuff. Face +changed--didn't it, Uncle Ray?--from politeness to interest, and all the +rest of it. Said the work had faults, of course--you expected that, +Fiddle--but it showed promise--'great promise,' that's just what he +said. He wants to see everything you do. He wants you to come and see +him. He thinks he can use at least two of your rooms, after you've made +them over. Oh, he was great! You've done it, Fiddle, you've done it!" + +But he was not prepared for the way his sister took the good news. She +sat looking solemnly at him for a minute; then she jumped up, turned +toward Captain Rayburn with a face on fire with conflicting and +uncontrollable emotions, then whirled about and was out of the room like +a flash. + +"Well, if I ever!" declared Jeff, in intense displeasure, staring at his +uncle. But Captain Rayburn's face was the picture of satisfaction. + +"It's all right, Jeff," said his uncle. "You never can tell what a woman +will do, but you can count on one thing--it won't be what you expect." + +"You don't suppose she was angry, do you?" + +The captain smiled. "No, I don't think she was angry," he said +confidently. + +The door flew open again. Two impetuous arms were around Jeff's neck +from behind, nearly strangling him. A breezy swirl of skirts, and +Captain Rayburn feared for the integrity of his head upon his shoulders. +And then the two were alone again. + +"Christopher Columbus!--discovered America in 1492!" ejaculated +Jefferson, an expression of great delight irradiating his countenance. +Then he looked at his uncle with an air of superior wisdom. "_Now_ +she'll cry," he said. + +"I shouldn't wonder if she did," agreed the captain, nodding. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Lanse stood in the kitchen door, lunch-pail in hand. It lacked ten +minutes of seven of a June morning; therefore he wore his working +clothes. He glanced down at them now with an expression of extreme +distaste, then from Celia to Charlotte, both of whom wore fresh print +dresses covered with the trim pinafore aprons which were Celia's pride. + +"When this siege is over," he remarked, "maybe I won't appreciate the +privilege of wearing clean linen from morning till night every day in +the week." + +"Poor old Lanse!" said Celia, with compassion. "That's been the part +that has tried your soul, hasn't it! You haven't minded the work, but +the dirt----" + +"I hope I'm not a Nancy, either," Lanse went on. "I'm sure I don't feel +that my wonderful dignity is compromised by my occupation. Better men +than I soil their hands to more purpose every day, but--well, I must be +off." + +He departed abruptly, leaving Celia standing in the door to wave a hand +to him as he turned the corner. + +"John Lansing is tired," she said to Charlotte, sisterly sympathy in her +voice. "I don't think we've half appreciated what all these months in +the shops have meant to him. It isn't as if he were training for one of +the engineering specialties, and were interested in his work as +practical education in his own line. He'll never have the least use for +anything he's learning now." + +"He may," Charlotte suggested. "He may marry a girl who will want him to +do odd jobs about the house. A mechanic in the family is an awfully +desirable thing. Mrs. Fields says there's nothing Doctor Churchill can't +do in the way of repairing; and when I told that to Uncle Ray he said +that all good surgeons needed to be born mechanics, and usually were. +And even though Lanse makes a lawyer, like father, he may need to get +out of the automobile he'll have some day, and crawl under it and make +it over inside before he can go on." + +Celia laughed, and went to call the rest of the family from their beds, +early hours having now perforce become the habit of the Birch family. + +It was some three hours later that Charlotte sat down for a moment to +rest on the little vine-covered back porch. The breakfast work and the +bed-making were over, the kitchen was in order, and there was time to +draw breath before plunging into the next set of duties. + +Celia had gone up-stairs to some summer sewing she had on hand; Captain +Rayburn had taken the baby around the corner to a pretty park, where the +two spent long hours now, in the perfect June weather; the boys were at +school, and the house was very still. + +Charlotte stretched her arms above her head, drawing a long breath. + +"How long ago it seems that I was free after breakfast to do what I +wanted to!" she said to herself. "And how little I realised all the +cares that were always on mother! Oh, if it were only time for them to +come back--this day--this hour--this minute! I wouldn't mind the work +now, if they were only here." + +The girl's gaze, fixed wistfully on the leafy treetops above her, +suddenly dropped to earth. A man's figure was stumbling along the little +path which led diagonally from the back of the Birch premises through a +gateway and off toward a back street, the route by which Lanse was +accustomed to take an inconspicuous short cut toward the locomotive +shops, by the river. + +For an instant, only the similarity of the figure to Lanse's struck her, +for the wavering walk and bandaged head, with hand pressed to the +forehead, did not suggest her brother. At the next instant the man +lifted a white face, and Charlotte gave a startled cry as she saw that +it was John Lansing himself, in a sorry plight. + +She ran to him. His head was clumsily tied up in a soiled cloth, which +the blood was beginning to stain. As she put her arm about him he smiled +wanly down at her, murmuring, "Thought I couldn't make it--glad I have. +No--not the house--Doctor's office. Don't want to scare Celia. It's +nothing." + +It might be nothing, but he was leaning heavily on his sister's strong +young shoulder as they crossed the threshold of Doctor Churchill's +little office, Charlotte having flung open the door without waiting to +ring. Nobody was there. + +"No, don't try to sit up in a chair. Here, lie down on the couch," she +insisted, and Lanse yielded, none too soon. His face had lost all colour +by the time he had stretched his tall form on the wide leather couch +which stood ready for just such occupants. + +Charlotte went back to the door and rang the bell; then, as nobody +appeared, she explored the lower part of the house for Mrs. Fields in +vain. + +Returning, she caught sight for the first time of a little memorandum on +the doctor's desk: "_Out. Return 10:30 A.M._" She glanced at the clock. +It was exactly quarter past ten. + +She studied her brother's face anxiously. The stain upon the cloth was +rapidly growing larger. She was sure he ought not to lie there with the +bleeding unchecked. She went to the door of the small private office; +her eyes fell upon a package labeled "Absorbent Cotton." She opened it, +pulled out a handful, and went back to her brother. + +She lifted the cloth from his head, and saw a long, uneven gash, from +which the blood was freely oozing. Taking two rolls of cotton, she laid +one on each side of the wound, forcing the edges together. After a +little experimenting she found that by holding her cotton very firmly +and pressing in a certain way, the flow of the blood was almost +completely checked. + +"Does that hurt?" she asked Lanse. He nodded without speaking, but she +did not lighten her pressure. She saw that he was very faint. + +"I'm sorry it hurts you, dear," she said, "but it stops the blood when I +press this way, and I'm sure that's better for you. The doctor will be +here soon, and I think I'd better hold it till he comes." + +Lanse nodded again, his brows contracting with pain, not only from the +pressure upon the wound, but from the reaction from the blow which had +caused it. + +Charlotte's eyes watched the clock, her hands never relinquishing their +task. + +"What next?" she was thinking. "Will the time ever be up and father and +mother come back to find us all safe? Three more months--three more +months----" + +Dr. Andrew Churchill came whistling softly across the lawn, glancing at +his watch, and noting that he was fifteen minutes later than he had +expected to be. In the doorway of his office he came to a surprised +halt. + +"Miss Charlotte! What's happened?" + +Lanse spoke faintly for himself: "Got hit at the shop--wrench slipped +out of man's hands above me--nothing much----" + +"No--I see," the doctor answered, surveying the situation. + +He lifted Charlotte's cotton rolls, noted the character and extent of +the injury, and lost no time in getting at work. + +"Keep up that pressure just as you were doing, please, Miss Charlotte, +while I make things ready. We'll have you all right in a jiffy, Birch." + +Two minutes later the doctor had Lanse stretched on a narrow white table +in an inner office. "I've got to hurt you quite a bit," he said to his +patient. "I don't want to give you an anesthetic, but somebody must hold +your head. Shall I call Mrs. Fields?" + +He glanced at Charlotte, and met what he had counted on--her help. "No, +I can manage," she said quietly. + +The doctor was soon ready, with arms, surgically clean, bared to the +elbows. + +It was rather a bad ten minutes for Lanse that followed, although he +bore it bravely, without a sound. The strong, steady support of his +sister's hands on the sides of his head never varied, and her eyes +watched the doctor's rapid movements with absorbed attention. Doctor +Churchill glanced at her two or three times, but met only quiet resolve +in her face, which, although pale, showed no sign of weakness. + +The injury was a severe one, being no clean cut, but a jagged gash +several inches in length, caused by a heavy blow with a rough tool. +Charlotte observed that the worker seemed never at a loss what to do, +that his touch was as light as it was practised, and that his eyes were +full of keen interest in his work. At length Doctor Churchill finished +his manipulations and put on the smooth bandages, which, he remarked +with a laugh, were to turn Lanse into the image of the Terrible Turk. + +"You show all the Spartan attributes of the real martyr," declared the +doctor, as he helped his patient back to a couch. "It took pluck to get +home here alone. How was it they sent no man with you?" + +"Everybody busy. A man was coming with me if I'd let him, but I didn't +care for his company so I slipped out. It was farther home than I +thought," Lanse explained. "How long will this lay me up? I can go back +to-morrow, can't I?" + +"Suppose we say the day after. That hammock on your front porch behind +the vines strikes me as a restful place for you. A bit of vacation won't +hurt you." + +By afternoon the ache in John Lansing's head had reached a point where +he gladly lay quietly in the hammock and submitted to be waited on by +two devoted feminine slaves. The doctor came over to see him after +supper, and found him in a high state of restlessness. He got him to +bed, stayed with him until he fell into an uneasy slumber, then left him +in charge of Celia, and came so quietly down to the front porch again +that he startled Charlotte, who lay in the hammock Lanse had lately +quitted. + +"Do you need me?" she asked eagerly. "I thought Lanse would rather have +Celia with him, and I was sure she wanted to take care of him, so I +stayed. But I'm ready, if I'm wanted." + +"You're wanted," returned Doctor Churchill, gently, "but not up-stairs +just now. Lie still in that hammock; let me fix the pillows a bit. Yes, +do, please. Do you know it's positively the first time I've seen you +appearing to rest since I've known you?" + +"Why, Doctor Churchill!" + +"It's absolutely so. You're growing thin under the cares you've assumed. +And I suspect, besides the cares, you keep yourself busy when you ought +to be resting. Am I right?" + +Charlotte coloured in the twilight of the porch, which the thick vines +of the wisteria screened from the electric light on the corner, except +for a few feet at the end nearest the door. She had been working harder +than ever all the spring over her designs for Chrystler & Company, and +her cheeks were of a truth somewhat less round and her colour less vivid +of hue. She was tired, although she had not owned it, even to herself. + +"You see, Doctor Churchill," she said, slowly, "until father and mother +went away I had been the lazy one of the family, the +good-for-nothing--the drone--and I've not yet learned to work in the +quiet way my sister does, which accomplishes so much without any fuss. +Now that she can get about again she does twice as much as I do, but she +doesn't make such a clatter of tools, and doesn't get the credit for +being as busy as I." + +"I see. Of course I had a feeling all along that this dish-washing and +dinner-getting and baby-tending were mere pretense, and I'm relieved to +have you own up to it!" + +Charlotte laughed. "After all, one doesn't like to be taken at one's own +estimate," she admitted. "I confess I feel a pang to have you agree with +me, even in jest." + +"Do you know," he said, abruptly, after an instant's silence, "you gave +me great pleasure this morning?" + +"I? How?" + +"By the way you stood by your brother." + +"Oh!" said Charlotte, astonished. "But I didn't do anything. + +"Nothing at all, except keep cool and hold steady. Those are the hardest +things a surgeon can set a novice at, you know." + +"But you needed me; and Mrs. Fields was out. You didn't know that, but I +did. And I don't think I'm one of the fainting-away kind." + +"No, you can stand fire. I think sometimes--do you know what I think?" + +Charlotte waited, her cheeks warm in the darkness. Praise is always +sweet when one has earned it. + +"I believe you would stand by a friend--to the last ditch." + +Charlotte was silent for a minute; then she answered, low and honestly, +"If he were a friend at all worth having I should try." + +"And expect the same loyalty in return?" + +"Indeed I should." + +"I should like," said Doctor Churchill's steady voice, "to try a +friendship like that--an acknowledged one. I always was a fellow who +liked things definite. I don't like to say to myself, 'I think that man +is my friend--I'm sure he is--he shows it.' No, I want him to say so--to +shake hands on it. I had such a friend once--the only one. When he died +I felt I had lost--I can't tell you what, Miss Charlotte. I never had +another." + +There was a long silence this time. The figure in the hammock lay still. +But Charlotte's heart was beating hard. She knew already that Doctor +Churchill was the warm friend of the family. Could he mean to single her +out as the special object of his regard--her, Charlotte--when people +like Lanse and Celia were within reach? + +Charlotte rose to her feet, the doctor rising with her. She held out her +hand, and he could see that she was looking steadily up at him. He gazed +back at her, and a bright smile broke over his face. + +"Do you mean it?" he said, eagerly. "Oh, thank you!" + +He grasped the firm young hand as Charlotte fancied he might have +grasped that of the comrade he had lost. + +"Can't we take a little walk in this glorious moonlight?" he asked, +happily. "Just up and down the block once or twice? Or are you too +tired?" + +Charlotte was not too tired; her weariness had vanished as if by magic. +The two strolled slowly up and down the quiet street, talking earnestly. +The doctor told his companion about several interesting cases he had +among the children, and of one little crippled boy upon whom he had +recently operated. The girl listened with an unaffected interest and +sympathy very grateful to the man who had long missed companionship of +that sort. An hour went by as if on wings. + +Celia came to the door as the two young people were saying good-night at +the foot of the steps. The doctor looked up at her with a smile. + +"Is the patient quiet?" he asked. + +"Yes, only he mutters in his sleep." + +"That's not strange. He's bound to be a bit feverish after that blow; +but I don't anticipate serious trouble. Let Jeff sleep on the couch in +his room; that will be all that's necessary." + +Celia stood looking down at the doctor as her sister came up the steps. +"It's strange," she said, "for I know Lanse isn't badly hurt, but all I +can think of to-night is how I wish father and mother were here." + +"That's been in my head all day," said Charlotte, with her arm around +Celia's shoulder. + +"I can understand," Doctor Churchill answered them both, and they knew +he could. "But just remember that though they were on the other side of +the world to stay for years, they can still come back to you. Just to +know that seems to me enough." + +They understood him. Celia would have made warm-hearted answer, but at +that instant the sound of heavy carriage-wheels rapidly rounding the +corner and coming toward them made all three turn to look. The carriage +came on at a great pace, swerved toward them, and drew in to the curb, +the driver pulling in his horses at their door. + +"Who can it be?" breathed Celia. "Nobody has written. It must be a +mistake." + +Charlotte gasped. "It couldn't be--Celia--it _couldn't_ be----" + +The driver leaped from the box and flung open the door. A tall figure +stepped out, turned toward them as if trying to make sure who they were, +then waved its arm. The familiar gesture brought two cries of rapture as +Charlotte rushed and Celia hurried down the steps. + +The doctor stood still and watched, his pulse quickening in sympathy. He +saw the tall figure grasp in turn both the slender ones, heard two eager +cries of "_Mother!"_ and beheld the second occupant of the carriage +fairly dragged out, to be smothered in two pairs of impetuous young +arms. Then he went quietly away over the lawn to his own house, feeling +that he had as yet no right to be one of the group about the +home-comers. + +In his room, an hour later, he stood before the portrait of a woman, no +longer young, but beautiful with the beauty which never grows old. He +stood looking up at it, then spoke gently to it. + +"She's just your sort, dear," he said, his keen eyes soft and bright. +"It's only friendship now, for she's not much more than a child, and I +wouldn't ask too much too soon. But some day--give me your blessing, +mother, for I've been lonely without you as long as I can bear it." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"The gentle art of cooking in a chafing-dish," discoursed Captain John +Rayburn, lightly stirring in a silver basin the ingredients of the cream +sauce he was making for the chopped chicken which stood at hand in a +bowl, "is one particularly adapted to the really intelligent masculine +mind. No noise, no fuss, no worry, no smoke, everything +systematic,"--with a practised hand he added the cream little by little +to the melted butter and flour--"business-like and practical. It is a +pleasure to contemplate the delicate growth of such a dish as this which +I am preparing. It is----" + +"You _may_ have thickening enough for all that cream," Celia +interrupted, doubtfully, watching her uncle's cookery with an anxious +eye. + +"And you _may_ have sufficient mental poise to be able to lecture on +cookery and do the trick at the same time," supplemented Doctor +Churchill, his eyes also on the chafing-dish. In fact, everybody's eyes +were on the chafing-dish. + +The entire Birch family, Doctor Churchill, Lanse's friend, Mary +Atkinson; Jeff's comrade, Carolyn Houghton; and Just's inseparable, +Norman Carter--Just scorned girls, and when asked to choose whom he +would have as a guest for Captain Rayburn's picnic, mentioned Norman +with an air of finality--sat about a large rustic table upon a charming +spot of greensward among the trees of a little island four miles down +the river. + +A great bowl of pond-lilies decorated the centre of the table; and +bunches of the same flowers, tied with long yellow ribbons, lay at each +plate. + +When Captain Rayburn entertained he always did it in style. And since +this picnic had been especially designed to celebrate the home-coming of +the travellers, a week after their arrival, no pains had been spared to +make the festival one to be remembered. + +Mrs. Birch was in the seat of honour, a position which she graced. In a +summer gown of white, her face round and glowing as it had not been in +years, she seemed the central flower of a most attractive bouquet. Mr. +Birch looked about him with appreciative eyes. + +"I don't think _I_ could attend to the chafing-dish with any certainty +of result," he remarked. "I am too much occupied in observing the +guests. It strikes me that nowhere, either in New Mexico or Colorado, +did I see any people approaching those before me in interest and +attractiveness. Except one," he amended, as a general laugh greeted this +extraordinary statement, "and even she never seemed to me quite so----" +He hesitated. + +"Say it, sir!" cried Lanse. "We're with you whatever it is. I think +'beautiful' is the word you want." + +Mr. Birch's face lighted with a smile. "Thank you, that is the word," he +said. + +The captain stirred his chopped chicken into his cream sauce with the +air of a chef. "Now here you are," he said. + +The captain would not allow everything upon the table at once, picnic +fashion, but kept the viands behind a screen a few feet away, and with +Jeff's and Just's assistance, served them according to his ideas of the +fitness of things. + +Toward the end of the feast a particularly fine strawberry shortcake +appeared, which was followed by ice-cream. Altogether, the captain's +guests declared no picnic had ever been so satisfactory. + +"Isn't the captain great?" said Doctor Churchill, enthusiastically, to +Celia, when they had all left the table and were beginning to stroll +about. "Cut off from the sort of thing he would like best to do--that he +aches to do--he occupies himself with what comes in his way. He would +deceive any one into thinking him completely satisfied." + +"I'm so glad you understand him," Celia answered. "Everybody doesn't. +Just the other day a caller said to me, 'Isn't it lovely that Captain +Rayburn is so contented with his quiet life? Whenever I see him sitting +in the park with the baby and a book, I think what a mercy it is that he +isn't like some men, or he never could take it so calmly.' Calmly! Uncle +Ray would give his life to-morrow night if he could have a day at the +head of his company over there in the Philippines." + +"I don't doubt it for an instant. Since I've known him I've learned more +admiration for the way he keeps himself in hand than I ever had for any +single quality in any human being. I'm mighty sorry he's going away. +It's for a year in France and Italy, he tells me." + +"Yes. He's very fond of travel, and I imagine he's a little restless +after the winter here. Do you know what I suspect? That he came just so +that mother might feel somebody was keeping an eye on us." + +"That would be like him. He's immensely fond of you all." + +Celia caught sight of her uncle beckoning to her, and went to him. +Doctor Churchill saw Mrs. Birch, lying among the gay striped pillows in +a hammock which had been brought along for her special use, and went +over to her. His eyes noted the direction in which Charlotte was +vanishing, but he sat down on a log by the hammock as if he had no other +thought than for the gracious lady who looked up at him with a smile. + +And indeed he had thought for her. It was impossible to be with her and +not give oneself up to her charm. + +"I have been wanting to see you alone for a minute, Doctor Churchill," +she said. "It has been such a busy week I haven't had half a chance to +express to you how I appreciate your care for my little family. And +especially I am grateful to you for the perfect recovery of Celia's +knee. Doctor Forester has assured me that the knee might easily have +been a bad case." + +"I am very thankful that the results were good, Mrs. Birch," Doctor +Churchill answered. + +Nobody interrupted the two for a long half-hour. At the end of it Doctor +Churchill rose, his eyes kindling. + +"Thank you!" he said fervently. "Thank you! More than that I won't +ask--yet. But if you will trust me--I promise you may trust me, little +as you know me--you may be sure I shall keep my word, not only to you, +but to my mother I know her ideals, and if I can be fit to be the friend +of one who fills them----" + +Mrs. Birch held out her hand. + +"I do trust you, Doctor Churchill," she said. "Not only from what Doctor +Forester has told me of your family, but from what I have seen and heard +for myself." + +With a light heart the doctor went away over the hill to the path which +descended to the river. Far down the bank, near the pond-lilies, he had +caught a glimpse of a blue linen gown. + +Captain Rayburn and Celia came over to establish themselves upon rugs +and cushions by the side of the hammock. Mr. Birch, who had been out +with Just and Norman in a boat, appeared, sunburned and warm, and joined +the party. + +"I've been wanting to get just this quartet together," remarked the +captain, when his brother-in-law had cooled off and was lying +comfortably stretched along a mossy knoll. + +"Go ahead, Jack, we are ready to listen. Your plans are always +interesting," Mr. Birch replied. "What now?" + +"In the first place," began the captain, "I want you people to +understand that the person who has had least fun out of this absence of +yours is the young woman before you." + +"O Uncle Ray!" protested Celia, instantly. "Haven't I had as much fun as +you?" + +"Hardly. Between Mrs. Fields and Miss Ellen Donohue I don't know when +I've been so enlivened. I hardly know which of the two has afforded me +more downright amusement, each in her way. But Celia, I tell you, +Roderick and Helen, has been one brave girl, and that's all there is of +it." + +"You'll find no dissenting voice here," Celia's father declared, and her +mother added: + +"Nobody who knows her could expect her to be anything else." + +Celia looked away, her cheeks flushing. + +"So now I want her to have her reward," said Captain Rayburn. "Let me +take her with me for the year abroad." + +Celia started, glancing quickly from her father to her mother, neither +of whom looked so surprised as she would have expected. Both returned +her gaze thoughtfully. + +"How about the going to college?" Mr. Birch questioned. "I thought that +was the great ambition." + +"She shall have a four year's course in one if she comes with me. I +shall spend much time in the libraries and art collections. My friends +in several cities are people it is worth a long journey to meet. +Undoubtedly such a year would be valuable at the end of a college +course, and it may appear to you that the studies within the scholastic +walls in this country had better come first. The point is that I am +going now. I may not be, at the moment Celia takes her diploma. And the +question of her health seems to me also one to be considered. Months of +enforced quiet haven't been any too good for her." + +"There's not much need to ask Celia what she would like," Mr. Birch +observed. + +The girl studied his face anxiously. "But could you spare me?" she +asked. "If it means that mother would have to take my place again----" + +"It won't mean that," said Captain Rayburn, stoutly. "My plans cover two +maids in the Birch household, the most capable to be obtained." + +"See here Jack," said Mr. Roderick Birch, quickly, "you can't play good +fairy for the whole family--and it's not necessary. As soon as I am at +work in the office again this close figuring will be over." + +"I want my niece Charlotte to go to her school of design," the captain +went on, imperturbably. + +"We mean that she shall." + +"I wish you people would let me alone!" he cried. "Here I am, your only +brother, without a chick or a child of my own. Am I to be denied what is +the greatest delight I can have? By a lucky accident my money was safe +in the panic that swept away yours. Pure luck or providence, or whatever +you choose to call it--certainly not because my business sagacity was +any greater than yours. You wouldn't take a cent from me at the time, +but you've got to let me have my way now. Celia goes with me--if you +agree. Charlotte goes to her art school, and if you refuse me the fun of +assuming both expenses, I'll be tremendously offended--no joke, I +shall." + +He looked so fierce that everybody laughed--somewhat tremulously. There +could be no doubt that he meant all he said. Celia's cheeks were pink +with excitement; Mrs. Birch's were of a similar hue, in sympathy with +her daughter's joy. + +"I tell you, that girl Charlotte," began the captain again, "deserves +all anybody can do for her. She has developed three years in one. Fond +as I've always been of her, I hadn't the least idea what was in the +child. She's going to make a woman of a rare sort. Look here!" A new +idea flashed into his mind. + +He considered it for the space of a half-minute, then brought it forth: + +"Let me take her, too. Not for the year--don't look as if I'd hit you, +Helen--just till October. I mean to sail in ten days, you know. I've +engaged plenty of room. There'll be no trouble about a berth----" + +"O Uncle Ray!" Celia interrupted him. There could be no question about +her unselfish soul. If she had been happy before, she was rapturous now. + +"Three months will give her quite a journey," the captain hurried on, +leaving nobody any time for objections. "I'll see that she gets art +enough out of it to fill her to the brim with inspiration. And there +will surely be somebody she can come back with. May I have her?" + +"What shall we do with you?" his sister said, softly. "I can't deny +you--or her. If her father agrees----" + +"If I didn't know your big heart so well, Jack," said Roderick Birch, +slowly, "I should be too proud to accept so much, even from my wife's +brother. But I believe it would be unworthy of me--or of you--to let +false pride stand in my girls' way." + +From the distance two figures were approaching, one in blue linen, the +other in white flannel--Charlotte and Doctor Churchill. + +They were talking gaily, laughing like a pair of very happy children, +and carrying between them a great bunch of daisies and buttercups that +would have hid a church pulpit from view. + +"Let's tell her now," proposed Celia. "I can't wait to have her know." + +"Go ahead," agreed her uncle. "And let the doctor hear it, too. If he +isn't a brother of the family, it's because the family doesn't know one +of the finest fellows on the face of the earth when it sees him." + +"You're a most discerning chap, Jack Rayburn," said his brother-in-law, +heartily, "but there are other people with discernment. I have liked +young Churchill from the moment I saw him first. All that Forester says +of him confirms my opinion." + +"How excited you people all look!" called Charlotte, merrily, as she +drew near. "Tell us why." + +Captain Rayburn nodded to Celia. She shook her head vigorously in +return. He glanced at Mr. and Mrs. Birch, both of whom smilingly refused +to speak. So he looked up at Charlotte, and put his question as he might +have fired a shot. + +"Will you sail for Europe with Celia and me week after next, to stay +till October? Celia will stay the year with me; you I shall ship home as +useless baggage in the fall." + +Charlotte stood still, her arms tightening about the daisies and +buttercups, as if they represented a baby whom she must not let fall. A +rich wave of colour swept over her face. She looked from one to another +of the group as if she could not believe her good fortune. Then suddenly +she dropped her flowers in an abandoned heap, clasped her hands tightly +together, and drew one long breath of delight. + +"Can you spare me?" she murmured, her eyes upon her mother. + +Mrs. Birch nodded, smiling. "I surely can," she said. + +"Turn about is fair play," said Mr. Birch, "and your uncle seems to +consider himself a person of authority." + +"I want," declared Captain Rayburn, his bright eyes studying each +niece's winsome young face in turn, "in the interest of the family +orchestra, to tune the violins." + + * * * * * + +"Speaking of violins," said the captain, half an hour later, quite as if +no interval of busy talk and plan-making had occurred, "suppose we see +about how far off the key they are at present. Jeff--Just----" + +Everybody stared, then laughed, for Jeff and Just instantly produced, +from behind that same screen, five green-flanneled, familiar shapes. The +entire company had reassembled under the oak-trees, drawn together by a +secret summons from the captain. + +"Now see here, Uncle Ray," remonstrated his eldest nephew, "this is +stealing a march on us with a vengeance." + +"I'm entirely willing you should let a march steal on me," retorted the +captain, disposing himself comfortably among his rugs and cushions, "or +a waltz, or a lullaby, or anything else you choose. But music of some +sort I must have." + +Laughing, they tuned their instruments, and the rest of the company +settled down to listen. Lanse, his eyes mischievous, passed a whispered +word among the musicians, and presently, at the signal, the well-known +notes of "_Hail to the Chief_" were sounding through the woods, played +with great spirit and zest. And as they played, the five Birches marched +to position in front of the captain, then stood still and saluted. + +"Off with you, you strolling players!" cried the captain. "The spectacle +of a 'cello player attempting to carry his instrument and perform upon +it at the same time is enough to upset me for a week. Sit down +comfortably, and give us '_The Sweetest Flower That Blows_.'" + +So they played, softly now, and with full appreciation of the fact that +the melodious song was one of their mother's favourites. + +But suddenly they had a fresh surprise, for as they played, a voice from +the little audience joined them, under his breath at first, then--as the +captain turned and made vigorous signs to the singer to let his voice be +heard--with tunefully swelling notes, which fell upon all their ears +like music of a rare sort: + + "The sweetest flower that blows + I give you as we part. + To you it is a rose, + To me it is my heart." + +The captain knew, as the voice went on, that those barytone notes were +very fine ones--knew better than the rest, as having a wider +acquaintance with voices in general. But they all understood that it was +to no ordinary singer they were listening. + +When the song ended the captain reached over and laid a brotherly arm on +Doctor Churchill's shoulder. "Welcome, friend," he said, with feeling in +his voice. "You've given the countersign." + +But the doctor, although he received modestly the words of praise which +fell upon him from all about, would sing no more that day. It had been +the first time for almost three years. And "_The Sweetest Flower That +Blows_" was not only Mrs. Birch's favourite song; it had been Mrs. +Churchill's also. + +"See here, Churchill," said Lanse, as the orchestra rested for a moment, +"do you play any instrument?" + +"Only as a novice," admitted the doctor, with some reluctance. + +"Which one?" + +"The fiddle." + +"And never owned up!" chided Lanse. "You didn't want to belong to such +an amateurish company?" + +"I did--very much," said Churchill, with emphasis. "But you needed no +more violins." + +"If I'm to be away all next year," said Celia, quickly, "they will need +you. Will you take my place?" + +"No, indeed, Miss Celia," the doctor answered, decidedly. "But if you +would let me play--second." + +He looked at Charlotte, smiling. She returned his smile, but shook her +head. "I'm Second Fiddle," she said. "I'll never take Celia's place." + +The eyes of the two sisters met, affectionately, comprehendingly. + +"I should like to have you, dear," said Celia, softly. + +But Charlotte only shook her head again, colouring beneath the glances +which fell on her from all sides. "I'd rather play my old part," she +answered. + +Jeff caught up and lifted high in the air an imaginary glass. + +"Here's to the orchestra!" he called out. "May Doctor Churchill read the +score of the first violin. Here's to the First Violin! May she hear +plenty of fine music in the old country, and come back ready to coach us +all. And here's--" + +He paused and looked impressively round upon the company, who regarded +him in turn with interested, sympathetic eyes. "I say we've called her +'Second Fiddle' long enough," he said, and hesitated, beginning to get +stranded in his own eloquence. "Anyhow, if she hasn't proved this year +that she's fit to play anything--dishes or wall-paper or babies--" He +stopped, laughing. "I don't know how to say it, but as sure as my name's +Jefferson Birch she--er--" + +"Hear! hear!" the captain encouraged him softly. + +"Here's,"--shouted the boy, "here's to the Second Violin!" + +Through the friendly laughter and murmurs of appreciation, Charlotte, +dropping shy, happy eyes, read the real love and respect of everybody, +and felt that the year's experiences had brought her a rich reward. But +all she said, as Jeff, exhausted by his effort at oratory, dropped upon +the grass beside her, was in his ear: + +"If anybody deserves a toast, Jeffy boy, I think it's you. You've eaten +so many slices of mine--burnt to a cinder--and never winced! If that +isn't heroism, what is?" + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOK II + +THE CHURCHILL LATCH-STRING + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Here's another, Charlotte!" + +Young Justin Birch's lusty shout rang through the house from hall to +kitchen, vibrating even as far as the second-story room in the rear, +where Charlotte herself happened at that moment to be. In response +people appeared from everywhere. The bride-elect was the last to put in +an appearance, and when she came, there was a certain reluctance in her +aspect. + +"Hurry up, there!" admonished Just, already busy with chisel and hammer +at the slender, flat box which lay upon the hall floor, in the centre of +an interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had +stopped upon the landing. "You act as if you didn't want to see what's +in it," he remonstrated, whacking away vigorously. + +"Indeed I do," Charlotte declared, coming on down the staircase, smiling +at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back, every one. +"But I'm beginning to feel as if I--as if they--as if--" + +"It must seem odd to feel like that," John Lansing agreed, quizzically. +Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for the wedding, +from the law-school at which he had been for two years. + +Celia slipped her arm about her younger sister's shoulders. "I know what +she means," she said, in her gentle way. "It's so unexpected to her, +after sending out no invitations at all, that gifts should keep pouring +in like this. But it's not unexpected to us." + +"Oh, I know how many of them come from father's and mother's friends, +and how many from Andy's grateful patients. It's all the more +overwhelming on that account." + +"Look out there, Just!" The admonition came from Jeff, and consequently +was delivered from some six feet in the air, where that +nineteen-year-old's head was now carried. "Don't split those pieces; +they'll be fine for the Emerson boys building." + +"That's so." Just wielded his tools with more care. Presently he had the +long parcel lying on the floor. At this moment Mr. Roderick Birch opened +the outer hall door. + +"As usual," was his smiling comment, as he laid aside hat and overcoat +and joined the circle. "Charlotte's latest?" + +Charlotte herself undid the wrappings, wondering what the gift could be. +She disclosed a long piece of dingy-looking metal. + +"A new shingle for Andy!" cried Jeff. + +Just turned the heavy slab over, and it proved to be of copper. Words +came into view, hammered and beaten into the glinting metal. An +effective conventionalised border surrounded the whole. + +"'Ye Ornaments of a House are ye Guests who Frequent it,'" read the +assembled company, in chorus. + +"Oh, isn't that beautiful!" cried Charlotte. + +Jeff glanced at her suspiciously. "She says that about everything," he +remarked. "Don't think much of it myself. The sentiment may be awfully +true--or otherwise; but what's the thing for? If anybody wanted to hint +at an invitation to visit Andy and Charlotte, he might have done it +without putting himself on record on a slab of copper four feet long. +Who sent it, anyway?" + +Celia hunted carefully through the wrappings, and everybody finally +joined in the search, but no card appeared. + +"I'm so sorry!" lamented Charlotte. "I shall never know whom to thank." + +"It lets you out, anyhow," Jeff said, soothingly. "You won't have to +tell any lies. The thing is of about as much use as a bootjack." + +"Why, but it's lovely!" protested Charlotte, with evident sincerity. +"Copper things are very highly valued just now, and the work on that is +artistic. Don't you see it is?" + +"Can't see it," murmured Jeff. "But of course my not seeing it doesn't +count. I can't see the value of that idiotic old battered-up copper pail +you cherish so tenderly, but that's because I lack the true, heaven-born +artist's soul. Where are you going to put this, Fiddle?" + +Charlotte's eyes grew absent. She was sending them in imagination across +the lawn to the little old brick house next door, which was soon to be +her home, as she had done every time a new gift arrived. There were a +good many puzzles of this sort in connection with her wedding gifts. +Where to put some of them she knew, with a thrill of pleasure, the +instant she set eyes on them; where in the world others could possibly +go was undoubtedly a serious question. + +"Hello, here comes Andy!" called Just, from the window. "Give him a +chance at it. Perhaps he can use it somewhere in the surgery--as a +delicate way of cheering the patients when they feel as if perhaps +they'd better not have come." + +Charlotte turned as the hall door swung open, admitting Dr. Andrew +Churchill and a fresh breath of October air. + +Everybody turned about also. Into everybody's face came a look of +affectionate greeting. Even the eyes of the father and mother--and this, +just now, was the greatest test of all--showed the welcome to which +their own children were happily used. + +The figure on the threshold was one to claim attention anywhere. It was +a strong figure with a look of life and intense physical vigour. The +face matched the body: it was fresh-coloured and finely molded; and +nobody who looked at it and into the clear gray eyes of Andrew Churchill +could fail to recognise the man behind. + +Lanse, who was nearest, shook hands warmly. "It seems good to see you, +old fellow," he said, heartily. "If this whirl of work they tell me you +are in had kept up much longer, I should have turned patient myself and +sent for you. Going to find time to be married in, think, Andy?" + +"I rather expect to be able to manage it," responded Doctor Churchill, +laughing. "How long have you been home, Lanse--two hours? Just promised +to let me know when you came." + +"I started, but you were whizzing up the street in the runabout," +protested Just, picking up the debris of the unpacking and carrying it +away. "There was a trail of steam behind you sixteen feet long. I think +you were running beyond lawful speed." + +"Here's your latest acquisition." Jeff pointed it out, picking up the +copper slab and holding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection. +Doctor Churchill turned and regarded it with interest. Then his bright +glance shifted to Charlotte, and he smiled at her. + +"That's great, isn't it?" he said, and she nodded, smiling. + +Just, returning, shouted. "Trust 'em both to get round anything that may +turn up! 'That's great!' is certainly safe and non-committal of a +four-foot motto that's of no earthly use." + +"Well, but I like it," Doctor Churchill asserted, and came over to +Charlotte's side, where he examined the copper slab with attention. +"Don't you believe that will pretty nearly fit the depression in the +fireplace just above the shelf?" + +Her interested look responded to his. "Why, I believe it will!" she +answered. + +"Who sent it?" + +"We can't find out." + +"No card? That's odd. But there may be something about it to show. It +looks to me as if it had been made for that place. If it proves to fit, +we can narrow the mystery down to the few people who have seen the new +fireplace. Let's go over and try, shall we? Come on--everybody!" + +Accordingly, the whole company streamed out across the lawn--Charlotte +and Doctor Churchill, Celia, her pretty blond head shining in the +October sunlight, Lanse and Jeff and Just, three stalwart fellows, +ranging in ages from twenty-six to sixteen, Mr. and Mrs. Birch, the +happy possessors of this happy clan. + +They hurried up the two steps of the small front porch, into the brick +house, and stampeded into the front room. They stopped opposite the +fireplace, where Doctor Churchill was already triumphantly inserting the +copper panel--for that is what it instantly became--in the long, +horizontal depression in the fireplace. + +"It fits to a hair!" he exclaimed, and a general murmur of approbation +arose. Now that the odd gift was where it so clearly belonged, its +peculiar beauty became evident even to the skeptical Jeff and Just. + +The new fireplace was the heart of the little old house. Moreover, so +cunningly had it been designed and built that it seemed to have been in +its place from the beginning. + +Doctor Churchill and Charlotte had made a certain distant field the +object of many walks and drives, and had personally selected the +"hardheads" of which the fireplace was constructed. A small bedroom, +opening off the square little parlour, had had its partition removed, +and in this alcove-like end of the room the fireplace had been built. + +The effect was very good, and the resulting apartment, the only one on +the lower floor which could be spared for general use, had become at +once the place upon which Charlotte was concentrating most of her +efforts, meaning to make it a room where everybody should wish to come. + +The usual interruption of a summons for Doctor Churchill to the office +in the wing sent the assembled company off again. Just as Charlotte was +leaving the room, however--the last of all, because she could not bring +herself to desert the joy of the copper panel in its setting of gray +stone--Doctor Churchill hurriedly returned. + +Seeing Charlotte alone and about to vanish, he ran after her and drew +her back. + +"I have to go right away, dear," he said. "But I want to look at the new +gift alone with you a minute. It's really a fine addition, isn't it?" + +"Oh, beautiful! In the firelight and the lamplight how that copper will +gleam!" + +"I wish we knew to whom we owe such a thought of us. I like the +sentiment, too, don't you, Charlotte? I hope--do you know, it's one of +my pleasantest hopes--that our home is going to be one that knows how to +dispense hospitality. The real sort--not the sham." + +Charlotte looked up at him and smiled. + +"As if I need tell you what I wish!" he said, with gay tenderness. "You +know every thought I have about it." + +"We'll make people happy here," said Charlotte. "Indeed, I want to, Andy +Churchill. This room--they shall find a welcome always--rich and poor. +Especially--the poor ones." + +"Especially the poor ones. Won't old Mrs. Wilsey think it's pleasant +here? And Tom Brannigan--he'll be scared at first, but we'll show him +it's a jolly place--Charlotte, I musn't get to dreaming day-dreams now, +or I never can summon strength of purpose to wait another week. One week +from to-day! What an age it seems!" + +"Run and make your calls," advised Charlotte, laughing, as she escaped +from him and hurried to the door. "The busier you keep, the shorter the +time will seem." + +The week went by at last. To the young man, one of a large family long +since scattered--many members of it, including both father and mother, +in the old Virginia churchyard--the time could not come too soon. He had +lived alone with his housekeeper almost four years now, and during +nearly all that time he had been waiting for Charlotte. + +She was considerably younger than he, and when he had been, after two +years of acquaintance, allowed to betroth himself to her, he had been +asked to wait yet another two years while she should "grow up a little +more," as her wise father put it. + +As for Charlotte herself, she still seemed to those who loved her at +home hardly grown up enough at twenty-two to go to a home of her own. + +Yet father and mother, brothers and sister, were all ready to +acknowledge that those two years had resulted in the early budding of +very sweet and womanly qualities; and nobody, watching Charlotte with +her lover, could possibly fear for either that they were not ready for +the great experiment. + +The autumn leaves were bright, the white fall anemones were in blossom, +when Charlotte's wedding-day came; and with leaves and anemones the +little stone church was decorated. + +Not an invitation of the customary sort had been sent out. But, as is +usual in a comfortable, un-aristocratic suburb, the news that Doctor +Churchill and Miss Charlotte Birch wanted everybody who knew and cared +for them to come to the church and see them married had spread until all +understood. + +The result was that no one of Doctor Churchill's patients--and he had +won a large and growing practice among all classes of people--felt left +out or forgotten, and that, as the clock struck the hour of noon, the +church was crowded to the doors with those who were real friends of the +young people. + +"Somehow I don't feel a bit like a bride," said Charlotte, looking, +however, very much like one, as she stood in the centre of her mother's +room in bridal array. + +Four elegant male figures, two in frock coats, two in more youthful but +equally festive attire, were surveying her with satisfaction. + +Near by hovered Celia, the daintiest of maids of honour: Mrs. Birch, as +charming as a girl herself in her pale gray silken gown: and little +Ellen Donohue, a six-year-old protegee of the family, her hazel eyes +wide with gazing at Charlotte, whom she hugged intermittently and adored +without cessation. + +"You don't feel like a bride, eh?" was Lanse's reply to Charlotte's +statement. "Well, I shouldn't think you would--an infant like you. You +look more suitable for a christening than for a marriage ceremony. +Father's likely, when Doctor Elder asks who gives the bride away, to +murmur, 'Charlotte Wendell,' thinking he's inquiring the child's name." + +Charlotte threw him a glance, half-shy, half-merry. "As best man you +should be saying complimentary things about your friend's choice." + +"I am. The trouble is you're not old enough to enjoy being mistaken for +a babe in arms." + +"I don't think she looks like a child. I think she's the stunningest +young woman I ever saw!" declared Just, with enthusiasm. "If her hair +was done up on top of her head she'd be a regular queen." + +Celia laughed. Her own beautiful blond locks were piled high, and the +style became her. But Charlotte's dusky braids were prettier low on the +white neck, in the girlish fashion in which they had long been worn, and +Celia announced this fact with a loving touch on the graceful _coiffure_ +her own hands had arranged for her sister. + +"You can't improve her," she said. "She looks like our Charlotte, and +that's just the way we want her to look. That's what Andy wants, too." + +"Of course he does. And I can tell you, he looks like Andy," Lanse +asserted. "Did you know he'd been making calls all the morning, the same +as usual? Made 'em till the last minute, too. It isn't fifteen minutes +since I saw his machine roll in. Hope he wasn't rattled when he wrote +his prescriptions." + +It was the Birches' custom to make as little as possible of family +crises. Talk and laugh as lightly as they would, however, every one of +them was watching Charlotte with anxiety, for it was the first break in +the dear circle, and it seemed almost as if they could have better +spared any other. + +Yet Charlotte was going to live no farther away than next door--this was +the comfort of the situation. + +"Well, I must be off to look after my duties to the groom," Lanse +announced presently, with a precautionary glance into his mother's +mirror to make sure that not a hair of his splendour was disturbed. "I +ought to have been with him before this, only my infatuation for the +bride makes my case difficult. You've heard of these fellows who hang +about another chap's girl till the last minute, doing the forsaken act. +I feel something like that. Good luck, little girl. Keep cool, and trust +Andy and Doctor Elder to get you safely married." + +He stooped to kiss her, and Charlotte held him close for an instant. But +he made the brotherly embrace a short one, comprehending that much of +that sort of thing would be unsafe both for Charlotte and her family, +and went gaily away to the house next door. + +"Nerve good?" Lanse asked Doctor Churchill, an hour later as they waited +in the vestry for the summons of the organ. + +Doctor Churchill smiled. "Pretty steady," he answered. "Still--I'm aware +something is about to happen." + +Lanse eyed him affectionately. + +"Do you know it's a good deal to me to be gaining three brothers by this +day's work?" the doctor added; and Lanse felt a sudden lump in his +throat, which he had to swallow before he could answer: + +"I assure you we're feeling pretty rich, to-day, too, old fellow." + +It was all over presently--a very simple, natural sort of affair, with +the warm October sunlight streaming through the richly coloured windows +upon the figures at the altar, touching Celia's bright hair into a halo, +and sending a ruby beam across the trailing folds of Charlotte's bridal +gown. + +There was no display of any sort. The whole effect was somehow that of a +girl being married in the enclosing circle of her family, without +thought of the hundreds of eyes upon her. A quiet wedding breakfast +followed, at which Doctor Forester and his son, the latter lately +returned from a long period of study abroad, were the only guests. +Doctor Churchill's housekeeper, Mrs. Fields, although invited to be +present as a guest insisted on remaining in the kitchen. + +"Just as if," she said, when everybody in turn remonstrated with her, +"when I've looked after that boy's food from the days when he ate +nothing but porridge and milk, I was going to let anybody else feed him +with his wedding breakfast!" + +But this part of the business of getting married was also soon over. +Doctor Churchill was to take his bride away for a month's stay in a +little Southern resort among the mountains, dear to him by old +association. It was the first vacation he had allowed himself during +these four years of his practice, and his eyes had been sparkling as he +planned it. They were sparkling again now, as he stood waiting for +Charlotte to say good-bye and come away with him, but his face spoke his +sympathetic understanding of those who were finding this the hardest +moment which had yet come to them. + +"Take care of her, Andy," was what, in almost the same words, they all +more or less brokenly said to him at last; and to each and all he +answered, in that way of his they loved and trusted, "I will." + +From Andrew Churchill it was assurance enough. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +"There! Doesn't that look like a 'Welcome Home'?" + +Celia stood in the doorway and surveyed her handiwork. Mrs. Birch, from +an opposite threshold, nodded, smiling. + +"It does, indeed. You have given the whole house a festival air which +will captivate Andy's heart the instant he sets eyes on it. As for our +little Charlotte--" + +She paused, as if it were not easy to put into words that which she knew +Charlotte would think. But Celia went on gleefully: + +"Charlotte will be so crazy with delight at getting home she will see +everything through a blur at first. But when we have all gone away and +left them here, then Charlotte will see. And she'll be glad to find +traces of her devoted family wherever she looks." + +She pointed from the little work-box on the table by the window, just +equipped and placed there by her mother's hand, to the book-shelf made +and put up in the corner by Jeff. She waved her hand at a great wicker +armchair with deep pockets at the sides for newspapers and magazines, +which had been Mr. Birch's contribution to the living-room, and at the +fine calendar which Just had hung by the desk. Her own offerings were +the dressing-table furnishings up-stairs. + +All these were by no means wedding gifts, but afterthoughts, inspired by +a careful inspection of the details of Doctor Churchill's bachelor home, +and the noting of certain gaps which only love and care would be likely +to fill. + +In four hours now the travellers would be at home, in time, it was +expected, for the late dinner being prepared by Mrs. Hepzibah Fields. + +For the present, at least, Mrs. Fields was to remain. "I've had full +proof of Charlotte's ability to cook and to manage a house," Doctor +Churchill had said, when they talked it over, "and I want her free this +first year, anyway, to work with her brush and pencil all she likes, and +to go about with me all I like." + +Mrs. Fields, although a product of New England, had spent nearly half +her life in Virginia, in the service of the Churchills. She had drawn a +slow breath of relief when this decision had been made known to her, and +had said fervently to Doctor Churchill: + +"I expect I know how to make myself useful without being conspicuous, +and I'm sure I think enough of both of you not to put my foot into your +housekeeping. That child's worked pretty hard these four years since +I've known her, and a little vacation won't hurt her." + +So it had been settled, and Mrs. Fields was now getting up a dinner for +her "folks," as she affectionately termed them, which was to be little +short of a feast. + +Charlotte had written that she and Andy wanted the whole family to come +to dinner with them that first night. All day Celia and her mother had +been busy getting the little house, already in perfect order, into that +state of decorative cheer which suggests a welcome in itself. Now, with +Just's offering of ground-pine, and Celia's scarlet carnations all about +the room, a fire ready laid in the fireplace, and lamps and candles +waiting to be lighted on every side, there seemed nothing to be desired. + +"I suppose there's really not another thing we can do," said Celia. + +"Absolutely nothing more, that I can see," agreed Mrs. Birch, taking up +her wraps from the chair on which they lay. "You can run over and light +up at the last minute. Really, how long it seems yet to seven o'clock!" + +"Doesn't it? And how good it will be to get the dear girl back! Well, +the first month has gone by, mother dear. The worst is over." + +Celia spoke cheerfully, but her words were not quite steady. Mrs. Birch +glanced at her. + +"You've been a brave daughter," she said, with the quiet composure which +Celia understood did not always cover a peaceful heart. "We shall all +grow used to the change in time. I think sometimes we're not half +thankful enough to have Charlotte so near." + +"Oh, I think we are!" Celia protested. + +"The children have had a beautiful month. Haven't their letters +been--What's that?" + +It was nothing more startling than the front door-bell, but this was so +seldom rung at the bachelor doctor's house, where everybody who wanted +him at all wanted him professionally at the office, that it sent Celia +hastily and anxiously to the door. It was so impossible at this hour, +when the travellers were almost home, not to dread the happening of +something to detain them. At the same moment Mrs. Field put her head in +at the dining-room door. "Land, I do hope it ain't a telegram!" she +observed, in a loud whisper. + +It was not a telegram. It was a pale-faced little woman in black, with +two children, a boy and a girl, beside her. Celia looked at them +questioningly. + +"This is Doctor Churchill's, isn't it?" asked the stranger, with a +hesitating foot upon the threshold. "Is he at home?" + +"He is expected home--he will be in his office to-morrow," Celia +answered, thinking this a new patient, and feeling justified in keeping +Doctor Churchill's first evening clear for him if she could. But the +visitor drew a sigh of relief, and came over the threshold, drawing her +children with her. Celia gave way, but the question in her face brought +the explanation: + +"I reckon it's all right, if he's coming so soon. I'm his cousin, Mrs. +Peyton. These are my children. I haven't seen Andrew since he was a boy +at college, but he'll remember me. Are you--" She hesitated. + +Mrs. Birch came forward. "We are the mother and sister of Mrs. +Churchill," she said, and offered her hand. "Doctor Churchill was +expecting you?" + +"Well, maybe not just at this time," admitted the newcomer, without +reluctance. "I didn't know I was coming myself until just as I bought my +ticket for home. I happened to think I was within sixty miles of that +place in the North where I knew Andrew settled. So I thought we'd better +stop and see him and his new wife." + +There was nothing to do but to usher her in. With a rebellious heart +Celia led Mrs. Peyton into the living-room and assisted her and the +children out of their wrappings. All sorts of strange ideas were +occurring to her. It was within the bounds of possibility that these +people were not what they claimed to be--she had heard of such things. +She was unwilling to show them to Charlotte's pretty guest-room, to +offer them refreshment, even to light the fire for them. + +It was too bad, it was unbearable, that the home-coming for which she +and her mother had made such preparation should be spoiled by the +presence of these strangers. To be sure, if she was Andrew's cousin she +was no stranger to him, yet Celia could not recollect that he had ever +spoken of her, even in the most casual way. + +But her hope that in some way this might prove to be a case of mistaken +identity was soon extinguished. When she had slipped away to the +kitchen, at a suggestion from her mother that the guests should be +served with something to eat, she found that information concerning Mrs. +Peyton was to be had from Mrs. Fields. + +"Peyton? For the lands' sake! Don't tell me she's here! Know her? I +guess I do! Of all the unfortunate things to happen right now, I should +consider her about the worst calamity. What is she? Oh, she ain't +anything--that's about the worst I can say of her. There ain't anything +bad about her--oh, no. Sometimes I've been driven to wish there was, if +I do say it! She's just what I should call one of them characterless +sort of folks--kind of soft and silly, like a silk sofy cushion without +enough stuffing in it. Always talking, she is, without saying anything +in particular. I don't know about the children. They were little things +when I saw 'em last. What do you say they look like?" + +"The girl is about fourteen, I should think," said Celia, getting out +tray and napkins. "She's rather a pretty child--doesn't look very +strong. The boy is quite a handsome fellow, of nine or ten. Oh, it's all +right, of course, and I've no doubt Doctor Churchill will be glad to see +any relatives of his family. Only--if it needn't have happened just +to-day!" + +"I know how you feel," said the housekeeper. "Here, let me fix that +tray, Miss Celia; you've done enough. I suppose we've got to feed 'em +and give 'em a room. Ain't it too bad to put them in that nice spare +room? No, I don't believe the doctor'll be powerful pleased to see 'em, +though I don't suppose he'll let on he ain't. Trouble is, she's a +stayer--one of the visiting kind, you know. Mis' Churchill, doctor's +mother, used to have her there by the month. _There_ was what you may +call a genuine lady, Miss Celia. She'd never let a guest feel he wasn't +welcome, and I guess Andy--I guess the doctor's pretty much like her. +Well, well!" + +Mrs. Fields sighed, and Celia echoed the sigh. Nevertheless, the little +hint about Doctor Churchill's mother took hold. + +Celia knew what Southern hospitality meant. If Mrs. Peyton had been +accustomed to that, it must be a matter of pride not to let her feel +that Northern homes were cold and comfortless places by comparison. By +the time she had shown the visitors to Charlotte's guest-room, and had +made up a bed for the boy on a wide couch there, Celia had worked off a +little of her regret. Nevertheless, when Jeff and Just heard the news, +their disgust roused her to fresh rebellion. + +"I call that pretty nervy," Jeff declared, indignantly, "to walk in on +people like this, without a word of warning! Nobody but an idiot would +expect people just coming home from their honeymoon to want to find +their house filled up with cousins." + +"Oh, Andy's relatives'll turn up now," said Just, cynically. "People he +never heard of. I'll bet he won't know this woman till he's introduced." + +"Yes, he will. I've found her name on the list we sent announcements +to," Celia said, dismally. "I didn't notice at the time, because there +were ever so many friends of his, people in all parts of the world. +'Mrs. Randolph Peyton,' that's it." + +"Hope Mr. Randolph Peyton'll get anxious to see her, and send for her to +come home at once!" growled Jeff. + +"She's in mourning. I presume she's a widow," was all the comfort Celia +could give him. + +"Then she'll stay all winter!" cried Just with such hopeless inflection +that his sister laughed. + +When she went over at half past six o'clock, to light the fire, she +found the three visitors gathered in the living-room. She had hoped they +might stay up-stairs at least until the first welcome had been given to +Charlotte and Andrew. But it turned out that Mrs. Peyton had inquired of +Mrs. Fields the exact hour of the expected arrival, and presumably had +considered that since the Peytons represented Doctor Churchill's side of +the house, their part in his welcome home was not to be gainsaid. + +Mr. Birch, Jeff, Just, and Mrs. Birch with little Ellen, presently +appeared. Lansing had gone back to his law school, but a great bunch of +roses represented him. It had been Charlotte's express command that +nobody should go to the station to meet the returning travellers, but +that everybody should be in the little brick house to welcome them when +they should drive up. + +"Here they are! Here they are!" shouted Just, from behind a window +curtain, where he had been keeping close watch on the circle of radiance +from the nearest arc-light. There was a rush for the door. Jeff flung it +open, and he and Just raced to the hansom which was driving up. The rest +of the party crowded the doorway, Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and Randolph +being of the group. + +"How are you, everybody?" called Doctor Churchill's eager voice, as he +and Charlotte ran up the walk to the door, Jeff and Just following. +"Well, this is fine! Father--mother--Celia--my little Ellen--bless your +hearts, but it's good to see you!" + +How could anybody help loving a son-in-law like that? One would have +thought they were indeed his own. While Charlotte remained wrapped in +her mother's embrace, Doctor Churchill was greeting them all twice over, +with apparently no eyes for the three he had not expected to see. For +the moment it was plain that he had not recognized them, and supposed +them to be strangers to whom he would presently be made known. + +But now, as somebody moved aside and the light struck upon her, he +caught the smile on Mrs. Peyton's face. He left off shaking Jeff's hand, +and made a quick movement toward the little figure in black. + +"Why, Cousin Lula!" he exclaimed. + +Charlotte, at the moment hugging little Ellen with laughter and kisses, +turned at the cry, and saw her husband greeting with great cordiality +these strange people whom she, too, had supposed to be the guests of her +mother. + +"Charlotte," said Doctor Churchill, turning about, "this is my cousin, +Mrs. Peyton, of Virginia--and her children." + +Charlotte came forward, cordially greeted Mrs. Peyton and Lucy and +Randolph, and led them into the living-room as if the moment were that +of their arrival instead of her own. + +"She has the stuff in her, hasn't she?" murmured Just to Jeff, as the +two stood at one side of the fireplace. + +"Could you ever doubt it?" returned Jeff, with as much emphasis as can +be put into a mumbled retort. Jeff had been Charlotte's staunchest +champion all his life. + +"Ah, Fieldsy, but I'm glad to be back!" Doctor Churchill assured his +housekeeper, in the kitchen, to which he had soon found his way. "We've +had a glorious time down in the Virginia mountains, but this is home +now, as it never was before, and it's great fun to be here. How are you? +You're looking fine." + +"And I'm feeling fine," assented Mrs. Fields, her spare face lighted +into something like real comeliness by the pleasure in her heart. "Just +one thing, Doctor Andy. I'm terrible sorry them relatives of yours +happened along just now. If I'd gone to the door--well--I don't believe +but I'd have seen my way clear to--" + +Churchill shook his head, smiling. "No, Fieldsy, you know you wouldn't. +Besides, Cousin Lula looks far from well, and she's had a lot of +trouble. It's all right, you know. My, but this is a good dinner we have +coming to us!" + +He went off gaily. Mrs. Fields looked after him affectionately. + +"Oh, yes, Andy Churchill, it's plain to be seen your heart's in the +right place as much as ever it was, if you have got married," she +thought. + +"O Fieldsy,"--and this time it was Charlotte who invaded the kitchen and +grasped the housekeeper's hands--"how good it seems to be back! But I +can't realise a bit I'm at home over here, can you?" + +"You'll soon get used to it, I guess, Mis' Churchill." + +"Oh, and _that_ sounds strange--from you!" declared Charlotte, laughing. +"I'd begun to get a little bit used to it down in Virginia. If you don't +say 'Miss Charlotte' once in a while to me I shall feel quite lost." + +"I guess Doctor Churchill 'd have something to say about that, if I +should. I don't believe but what he's terrible proud of that name." + +It was certainly a name nobody seemed able to "get used to." Just called +his sister by the new title once during the evening. They were at the +table when he thus addressed her, and there followed a succession of +comments. + +"Don't you dare call her that when I'm round!" remarked Jeff. + +"I actually didn't understand at first whom you meant," said Celia. + +"I've not forgotten how long it took me to learn that my name was +Birch," said Charlotte's mother, with a smile so bright that it covered +the involuntary sigh. + +"Is Aunty Charlotte my Aunty Churchill now?" piped little Ellen. Lucy +and Randolph Peyton laughed. + +"Of course, she is, dumpling, only you can keep on calling her Aunty +Charlotte. And I'm your Uncle Andy. How do you like that?" + +"Oh, I like that!" agreed Ellen, and edged her chair an inch nearer +"Uncle Andy." + +Dinner over, Celia bore Ellen home to bed. Charlotte suggested the same +possibility for the Peyton children, but although it was nearing nine +o'clock, both refused so decidedly that after a glance at their mother, +who took no notice, Charlotte said no more. + +Randolph grew sleepy in his chair, and Doctor Churchill presently took +pity on him. He sat down beside the lad and told him a story of so +intentionally monotonous a character that Randolph was soon half over +the border. Then the doctor picked him up, and with the drooping head on +his shoulder observed, pleasantly: + +"This lad wants his bed, Cousin Lula. May I take him to it?" + +Mrs. Peyton, engaged in telling Mr. Birch her opinion of certain +Northern institutions she had lately observed, nodded absently. Doctor +Churchill ascended the stairs, and Charlotte, slipping from the room, +ran up ahead of him to get Randolph's cot in readiness. + +"That's it, old fellow! Wake up enough to let me get your clothes off," +Churchill bade the sleep-heavy child. "Can you find his nightclothes, +Charlotte? Cousin Lula seems to have unpacked. That's it. Thank you! +Now, Ran, you'll be glad to be in bed, won't you? Can you wake up enough +to say your prayers, son? No? Well that's not altogether your fault," he +said, softly, and smiled at Charlotte. "I think we'd better invite Lucy +up, too, don't you?" + +"Won't she--Mrs. Peyton--think we're rather cool?" Charlotte suggested, +as they tucked the boy in. + +"Not a bit. She'll be glad to have the job off her hands. The youngsters +are tired, and ought to have been in bed an hour ago. Stay here, and +I'll run down after Lucy." + +On the stairs, as they descended, after Charlotte had seen Lucy to her +quarters, they met Jeff. + +"Been putting the kids to bed?" he questioned curiously, under his +breath. "Well, you're great. Their mother doesn't seem much worried +about it. She's quite a talker. Guess she didn't notice what happened. +Say, I'm going. It's ten o'clock. You two ought to have a chance to look +'round without any more company to-night. Justin slipped off while you +were up-stairs. Told me to say good-night. Father and mother are only +waiting for a pause in your cousin's conversation long enough to throw +in a word of their own before they get up." He made an expressive +gesture. + +"You know mother's invariable rule," he chuckled, "never to get up to go +at the end of one of your guest's conversational sprints, but always to +wait until you can interrupt yourself, so to speak. Well--I don't mean +any disrespect to the lady from Virginia, Andy, but I'm afraid mother'll +have to make an exception to that rule, or else remain for the night." + +The three laughed softly, Charlotte's hand on her brother's shoulder, as +she stood on the step above him. + +"You mustn't say any saucy things, Jeffy," said she, with a soft touch +on his thick locks. + +"I won't. I'm too tickled to have you back--both of you. We missed +Fiddle pretty badly," he said to Doctor Churchill, "but we found time to +miss you almost as much. There have been several times while you've been +gone that I'd have welcomed the _chug_ of your runabout under my window, +waking me up in the middle of the night." + +"Thank you, old fellow!" said Doctor Churchill with a hand on Jeff's +other shoulder. "That's mighty pleasant to hear." + +In spite of Jeff's prediction, Mrs. Birch soon managed, in her own +tactful way, to follow her sons home. Mrs. Peyton went up to her room at +last, a cordial good night, following her from the foot of the stairs. +Then Doctor Churchill drew his wife back into the living-room and closed +the doors. He stood looking at Charlotte with eyes in which were mingled +merriment and tenderness. + +"It wasn't just as we planned it, was it, little girl?" he said. "But +there's always this to fall back upon. People we want, and people we +don't want so much, may be around us, to the right of us, and the left +of us, but even so, nobody can ever--come between." + +The door-bell rang. + +"Oh, I hoped nobody would know you were home to-night!' cried Charlotte, +the smile fading from her lips. Doctor Churchill went quickly to the +door. A messenger boy with a telegram stood outside. The doctor read the +dispatch and dismissed the boy. Then he turned to Charlotte. + +"No, it's no bad news," he said, and came close. "It's just--can you +bear up?--another impending guest! Charlotte, I've done a lot of talking +about hospitality, and I meant it all. I certainly want our latch-string +always out, but--_don't you think we rushed that copper motto into place +just a bit too soon_?" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +"Charlotte, what are we going to do? It turns out Lee has his sister +with him!" + +Mrs. Andrew Churchill, engaged in making up a fresh bed with linen +smelling faintly of lavender, dropped her sheets and blankets and stood +up straight. She gazed across the room at Andy, whose face expressed +both amusement and dismay. + +"Andy," said she, "haven't I somewhere heard a proverb to the effect +that it never rains but it pours?" + +"There's an impression on my mind that you have," said her husband. "You +are now about to have a practical demonstration of that same proverb. I +wrote Lee, as you suggested after his second telegram, and this is his +answer. He was detained by the illness of his sister Evelyn, who is with +him. It seems she was at school up here in our state, but overworked and +finally broke down, and he has come to take her home. But you see home +for them means a boarding-house. The family is broken up, mother dead, +father at the ends of the earth; and Lee has Evelyn on his hands. The +worst of it is, he wants me to see her professionally, so I can't very +well suggest that we're too full to entertain her." + +"Of course you can't," agreed Charlotte, promptly. "But it means that we +must find another room somewhere in the house. Of course mother +would--but I don't want to begin right away to send extra guests over +there." + +"Neither do I," said Doctor Churchill. "Do you suppose we could put a +cot into my private office for Lee? Then the sister could have this." + +"How old is she?" + +"Sixteen, he says." + +"Oh, then this will do. And we can put a cot in your private +office--after office hours. If Mr. Lee is an old friend he won't object +to anything." + +"You're a dear girl! And they won't stay long, of course--especially +when they see how crowded we are. You'll like Thorne Lee, Charlotte; +he's one of the best fellows alive. I haven't seen the sister since she +was a small child, but if she's anything like her brother you'll have no +trouble entertaining her, sick or well. All right! I'll answer Lee's +letter, and say nothing about our being full-up." + +"Of course not; that wouldn't be hospitality. When will they come?" + +"In a day or two--as soon as she feels like travelling again." + +"I'll be ready for her," and Charlotte gave him her brightest smile as +he hurried off. + +She finished her bed-making, put the little room set apart for her own +private den into guest-room condition as nearly as it was possible to do +with articles of furniture borrowed from next door, and went down to +break the news to Mrs. Fields. She found that person explaining with +grim patience to the Peyton children why they could not make candy in +her kitchen at the inopportune hour of ten in the morning. + +"But we always do at home!" complained Lucy, with a frown. + +"Like as not you don't clear up the muss afterward, either," suggested +Mrs. Fields, with a sharp look. + +"Course we don't," Randolph asserted, with a curl of his handsome upper +lip. "What's servants for, I'd like to know?" + +"To make friends with, not to treat impolitely," said a clear voice +behind the boy. + +Randolph and Lucy turned quickly, and Mrs. Fields's face, which had +grown grim, softened perceptibly. Both children looked ready to make +some tart reply to Charlotte's interpolation, but as their eyes fell +upon her they discovered that to be impossible. How could one speak +rudely when one met that kind but authoritative glance? + +"This is Mrs. Fields's busiest time, you know," Charlotte said, "and it +wouldn't do to bother her now with making candy. In the afternoon I'll +help you make it. Come, suppose we go for a walk. I've some marketing to +do." + +"Ran can go with you," said Lucy, as Charlotte proceeded to make ready +for the trip. "It's too cold for me. I'd rather stay here by the fire +and read." + +Charlotte looked at her. Lucy's delicate face was paler than usual this +morning; she had a languid air. + +"The walk in this fresh November breeze will be sure to make you feel +ever so much better," said Charlotte. "Don't you think so, Cousin Lula?" + +Mrs. Peyton looked up reluctantly from her embroidery. + +"Why, I wouldn't urge her, Charlotte, if she doesn't want to go," she +said, with a glance at Lucy, who was leaning back in a big chair with a +discontented expression. "You mustn't expect people from the South to +enjoy your freezing weather as you seem to. Lucy feels the cold very +much." + +Charlotte and Randolph marched away down the street together, the boy as +full of spirits as his companion. + +She had found it easy from the first to make friends with him, and was +beginning, in spite of certain rather unpleasant qualities of his, to +like him very much. His mother had done her best to spoil him, yet the +child showed plainly that there was in him the material for a sturdy, +strong character. + +When Charlotte had made several small purchases at the market, she did +not offer to give Randolph the little wicker basket she carried, but the +boy took it from her with a smile and a proud air. + +"Ran," said Charlotte, "just round this corner there's a jolly hill. I +don't believe anybody will mind if we have a race down it, do you?" + +It was a back street, and the hill was an inviting one. The two had +their race, and Randolph won by a yard. Just as the pair, laughing and +panting, slowed down into their ordinary pace, a runabout, driven by a +smiling young man in a heavy ulster and cap, turned the corner with a +rush. Amid a cloud of steam the motor came to a standstill. + +"Aha! Caught you at it!" cried Doctor Churchill. "Came down that hill +faster than the law allows. Get in here, both of you, and take the run +out to the hospital with me. I shall not be there long. I've been out +once this morning. This is just to make sure of a case I operated on two +hours ago." + +"Shall we, Ran?" asked Charlotte. + +"Oh, let's!" said the boy, with enthusiasm. So away they went. The +result of the expedition came out later in the day. Before dinner the +entire household was grouped about the fire, Doctor Churchill having +just come in, after one of his busiest days. + +"Been out to the hospital again, Cousin Andy?" Ran asked. + +"Yes; twice since the noon visit." + +"How was the little boy with the broken waist? + +"Fractured hip? Just about as you saw him. He's got to be patient a good +while before he can walk again, and these first few days are hard. He +asked me when you would come again." + +"Oh, I'll go to-morrow!" cried Randolph, sitting up very straight on his +cushion. "And I'll take him a book I've got, with splendid pictures." + +"Good!" Doctor Churchill laid a hand on the boy's thick locks. "That +will please him immensely." + +Mrs. Peyton was looking at him with dismay. "Do I understand you have +taken him to a hospital?" she asked. + +Doctor Churchill nodded. "To the boys' surgical ward. Nothing contagious +admitted to the hospital. It's a wonderful pleasure to the little chaps +to see a boy from outside, and Ran enjoyed it, too, didn't you?" + +"Oh, it was jolly!" said the boy. + +"I shouldn't think that was exactly the word to describe such a spot," +said Mrs. Peyton, and she looked displeased. "I think there are quite +enough sad sights in the world for his young eyes without taking him +into the midst of suffering. I should not have permitted it if you had +consulted me." + +It was true that Doctor Churchill possessed a frank and boyish face, +wearing ordinarily an exceedingly genial expression; but the friendly +gray eyes were capable of turning steely upon provocation, and they +turned that way now. He returned his cousin's look with one which +concealed with some difficulty both surprise and disgust. + +"I took Ran nowhere that he would see any extreme suffering," he +explained. "This ward contains only convalescents from various injuries +and operations. The graver cases are elsewhere, and he saw nothing of +those. A visit to this ward is likely to excite sympathy, it is true, +but not sympathy of a painful sort. The boys have very good times among +themselves, after a limited fashion, and I think Ran had a good time +with them. How about it, Ran?" + +"Oh, I did! I taught two of 'em to play waggle-finger. Their legs were +hurt, but their hands were all right, and they could play waggle-finger +as well as anybody. They liked it." + +"Nevertheless, Randolph is of a very sensitive and delicate make-up," +pursued his mother, "and I don't think such associations good for him. +He moaned in his sleep last night, and I couldn't think what it could +be." + +"It couldn't have been the candy we made this afternoon, could it, +Cousin Lula?" Charlotte asked, in her gentlest way. A comprehending +smile touched the corners of Doctor Churchill's lips. + +"Why, of course not!" said Mrs. Peyton, quickly. "Candy made this +afternoon--how absurd, Charlotte! It was last night his sleep was +disturbed." + +"But the hospital visit was this morning," Charlotte said. "I should +think the one might as easily be responsible as the other." + +Mrs. Peyton looked confused. "I understood you to say the visit to the +hospital occurred yesterday," she said, with dignity, and Doctor +Churchill smothered his amusement. "I certainly do not approve of taking +children to such places," she repeated. + +Charlotte adroitly turned the conversation into other channels, and +nothing more was said about hospitals just then. Only the boy, when he +had a chance, whispered in Doctor Churchill's ear: + +"You just wait. I'll tease her into it." + +His cousin smiled back at him and shook his head. "Teasing's a mighty +poor way of getting things, Ran," he said. "Leave it to me." + +Toward the end of the following day Jeff, crossing the lawn at his usual +rapid pace, was hailed from Doctor Churchill's office door by Mrs. +Fields. The housekeeper waved a telegram as he approached. + +"Here, Mr. Jeff," said she. "Would you mind opening this? There ain't a +soul in the house, and I don't want to take such a liberty, but it ought +to be read. I make no manner of doubt it's from those extry visitors +that are coming." + +"Where are they all?" Jeff fingered the envelope reluctantly. "I don't +like opening other people's messages." + +"I don't know where they are, that's it. Doctor took Miss Charlotte and +Ranny off after lunch in his machine, and Mis' Peyton and Lucy have gone +to town with your mother. Doctor Andy wouldn't like it if his friends +came without anybody to meet 'em." + +Jeff tore open the dispatch. "The first two words will tell me, I +suppose," he said. "Hello--yes, you're right! They'll be here on the +five-ten. That's"--he pulled out his watch--"why, there's barely time to +get to the station now! This must have been delayed. You say you don't +know where anybody is?" + +"Not a soul. Doctor usually leaves word, but he didn't this time." + +"I'll telephone the hospital," and Jeff hurried to Doctor Churchill's +desk. In a minute he had learned that the doctor had come and gone for +the last time that day. He looked at Mrs. Fields. + +"You'll have to go, Mr. Jeff," said she. "I know Doctor Andy's ways. +He'd as soon let company go without their dinners as not be on hand when +their train came in. He wasn't expecting the Lees till to-morrow." + +"Of course," said Jeff, "I'll go, since there's nobody else. How am I to +know 'em? Young man and sick girl? All right, that's easy," and he was +off to catch a car at the corner. + +As he rode into town, however, he was rebelling against the situation. +"This guest business is being overdone," he observed to himself. "These +people are probably some more off the Peyton piece of cloth. An invalid +girl lying round on couches for Fiddle to wait on--another Lucy, +probably, only worse, because she's ill. Well, I'm not going to be any +more cordial than the law calls for. I'll have to bring 'em out in a +carriage, I suppose. She'll be too limp for the trolley." + +He reached the station barely in time to engage a carriage before the +train came in. He took up his position inside the gates through which +all passengers must pass from the train-shed into the great station. + +"Looking for somebody?" asked a voice at his elbow. + +He glanced quickly down at one of his old schoolmates, Carolyn Houghton. +"Yes, guests of the Churchills," he answered, his gaze instantly +returning to the throng pouring toward him from the train. "Help me, +will you? I don't know them from Adam. It's a man and his invalid +sister, old friends of Andy's." + +"There they are," said Carolyn, promptly, indicating an approaching +pair. + +Jeff laughed. "The sister isn't quite so antique as that," he objected, +as a little woman of fifty wavered past on the arm of a stout gentleman. + +"You said 'old' friends," retorted Carolyn. "Look, Jeff, isn't that she? +The sister's being wheeled in a chair by a porter, the brother's walking +beside her. They _look_ like Doctor Churchill's friends, Jeff." + +"Think you can tell Andy's friends by their uniform?" + +"You can tell anybody's intimate friends in a crowd--I mean the same +kind of people look alike," asserted Carolyn, with emphasis. "These are +the ones, I'm sure. I'll just watch while you greet them and then I'll +slip off. I'm taking this next train. What a sweet face that girl has, +but how delicate--like a little flower. She's a dear, I'm sure. The +brother looks nice, too. They're the ones, I know. See, the brother's +looking hard at us all inside the gates." + +"Here goes, then. Good-by!" Jeff turned away to the task of making +himself known to the strangers. But he was forced to admit that if +Charlotte must meet another onslaught of visitors, these certainly did +look attractive. + +"Yes, I'm Thorne Lee," the young man answered, with a straight look into +Jeff's eyes and a grasp of the outstretched hand as Jeff introduced +himself. He motioned the porter to wheel the chair out of the pressing +crowd. + +Jeff explained about the delayed telegram. Mr. Lee presented him to the +young girl in the chair, and Jeff looked down into a pair of hazel eyes +which instantly claimed his sympathy, the shadows of fatigue lay on them +so heavily. But Miss Evelyn Lee's smile was bright if fleeting, and she +answered Jeff's announcement that he had a carriage waiting with so +appreciative a word of gratitude that he found his preconceived +antipathy to Doctor Churchill's guests slipping away. + +So presently he had them in a carriage and bowling through the streets +which led toward the suburbs. Thorne Lee sat beside his sister, +supporting her, and talked with Jeff. By the time they had covered the +long drive to the house Jeff was hoping Lee would stay a month. + +The hazel eyes of Lee's young sister had closed and the lashes lay +wearily sweeping the pale cheeks as the carriage drove up. + +"Are we there?" Lee asked, bending over the slight figure. "Open your +eyes, dear." + +Jeff jumped out and ran to the house. He burst in upon Charlotte and +Andy. "Your friends are here!" he shouted. "I had to meet 'em myself." + +Doctor Churchill and Charlotte were at the door before the words were +out of Jeff's mouth, and in a moment more Andy was lifting Evelyn Lee's +light figure in his arms, thanking heaven inwardly as he did so for his +young wife's wholesome weight. At the same moment words of of eager, +cheery welcome for his old friend were on his lips: + +"Thorne Lee, I'm gladder to see you than anybody in the world! Miss +Evelyn, here's Mrs. Churchill. She's not an old married woman at +all--she's the dearest girl in the world. She's going to seem to you +like one of your schoolfellows. Charlotte, here she is; take good care +of her." + +Thorne Lee stood looking on, a relieved smile on his lips as his old +friend's wife took his sick little sister into her charge. It was not +two minutes before he saw Evelyn, lying pale and mute on the couch, yet +smiling up at Charlotte's bright young face. + +Charlotte administered a cup of hot bouillon talking so engagingly +meanwhile that Evelyn was beguiled into taking without protest the whole +of the much-needed nourishment. Then he saw the young invalid carried +off to bed, relieved of the necessity of meeting any more members of the +household. He learned, as Charlotte slipped into the room after an +hour's absence, that Evelyn had already dropped off to sleep. He leaned +back in his chair with a long breath. + +"What kind of a girl is this you've married, Andy?" he asked, with a +smile and a look from one to the other. The three were alone, Mrs. +Peyton and her children having gone out to some sort of entertainment. + +"Just what she seems to be," replied Doctor Churchill, smiling back, +"and a thousand times more." + +"I might have known you would care for no other," Lee said. "And you two +'live in your house at the side of the road, to be good friends to +man,'--if I may adapt those homely words." + +"We haven't been at it very long, but we hope to realize an ambition of +the sort. It doesn't take much philanthropy to welcome you." + +"You can't think what a relief it is to me to get that little sister of +mine under your wing, even for a few hours." + +"Tell us all about her." + +Lee had not meant to begin at once upon his troubles, but his friend +drew him on, and before the evening ended the doctor and Charlotte had +the whole long, hard story of Lee's guardianship of several young +brothers and sisters, his struggle to get established in his profession +and make money for their support, his many anxieties in the process, and +this culminating trouble in the breakdown of the younger sister, just as +he thought he had her safely established in a school where she might +have a happy home for several years. + +Lee stopped suddenly, as if he had hardly known how long he had been +talking. "I'm a pleasant guest!" he said, regret in his tone. "I meant +to tell you briefly the history of Evelyn's illness, and here I've gone +on unloading all my burdens of years. What do you sit there looking so +benevolent and sympathetic for, beguiling a fellow into making a +weak-kneed fool of himself? My worries are no greater than those of +millions of other people, and here I've been laying it on with a trowel. +Forget the whole dismal story, and just give me a bit of professional +advice about my little sister." + +"Look here, old boy," said his friend, "don't go talking that way. +You've done just what I was anxious you should do--given me your +confidence. I can go at your sister's case with a better chance of +understanding it if I know this whole story. And now I'm going to thank +you and send you off to bed for a good night's sleep. To-morrow we'll +take Evelyn in hand." + +"Bless you, Andy! You're the same old tried and true," murmured Thorne +Lee, shaking hands warmly. + +Then Charlotte led him away up-stairs to see his sister, who had waked +and wanted him. Stooping over her bed, he felt a pair of slender arms +round his neck and heard her voice whispering in his ear: + +"Thorny, I just wanted you to know that I think Mrs. Churchill is the +dearest person I ever saw, and I'm going to sleep better to-night than I +have for weeks." + +"Thank God for that!" thought Lee, and kissed the thin cheek of the girl +with brotherly fervor. + +Down-stairs in the hall a few minutes later Andrew Churchill advanced to +meet his wife, as she returned to him after ministering to Evelyn Lee's +wants. + +"Do you know," said he, looking straight down into her eyes as she came +up to him, "those words of Stevenson's--though they always fit you--seem +particularly applicable to you to-night? + + "Steel-true and blade-straight + The great artificer + Made my mate.'" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"I think," said Doctor Churchill, leaning back in his office chair, with +a mingling of the professional and the friendly in his air, "that we can +get at the bottom of Evelyn's troubles without very much difficulty." He +had just sent Evelyn back to Charlotte, after an hour in the office, +during which he had subjected her to a minute and painstaking +examination into the cause of her ill health. And now to her brother, +anxiously awaiting his verdict, he spoke his mind. + +"If you'll let me be very frank with you, Thorne," he said, "I'll tell +you just what I think about Evelyn, and just what it seems to me is the +proper course for us to take with her." + +"Go ahead; it's exactly that I want," Lee declared. "I know well enough +that my care of her has been seriously at fault." + +"Never in intention," said Doctor Churchill, "only in the excess of your +tenderness. Evelyn has lived in overheated rooms, with hot baths, +insufficient exercise, and improper food. In the kindness of your heart +you have been nourishing a little hot-house plant, and there's no +occasion for surprise that it wilts at the first blast of ordinary air." + +Lee looked dismayed. + +"I'm mighty sorry, Andy," he said, remorsefully. + +"Don't feel too badly," was his friend's reply. "After a winter with us +Evelyn will be another girl." + +"What?" Lee started in his chair. "Andy, what are you thinking about?" + +"Just what I say. Charlotte and I have talked it all over. We've both +taken an immense liking to Evelyn and we'd honestly enjoy having her +here for the winter. It only remains for you to convince Evelyn herself +that we are to be trusted, and to secure her promise that we may have +our way with her from first to last, and the thing is done." + +"You are sure that's really all there is to it? You're not keeping +anything from me?" + +"Not a thing. And I'm as sure as a man can well be. That's why I don't +prescribe a sanatorium for her, or anything of that sort. All she needs +is a rational, every-day life of the health-making kind, such as +Charlotte and I can teach her--Charlotte even more effectively than I. +Evelyn needs simply to build up a strong physical body; then these +troublesome nerves will take care of themselves. Believe me, Thorne, +it's refreshingly simple. I've not even a drug to suggest for your +sister. She doesn't need any." + +"But, Andy, it doesn't seem to me I can let Evelyn stay here with you +all winter--the first winter of your married life. You two ought to be +alone together." + +"No. Charlotte and I haven't set out to go through life--even this first +year of it--alone together. We are together, no matter how many we have +about us. It will be only in the day's work if we keep Evelyn with us, +and it's a sort of work that will pay pretty well, I fancy." + +"It certainly will--in more than one kind of coin," and Lee gripped his +friend's hand. + +So it was settled. Evelyn agreed so joyously to the plan that her +brother's last doubt of its feasibility was removed, and he went away a +day later with a heart so much lighter than the one he had brought with +him that it showed in his whole bearing. + +"God bless you and your sweet wife, Andy Churchill," he wrote back from +his first stopping-place, and when Churchill showed the letter to +Charlotte she said, happily: + +"We'll make the copper motto come true with this guest, won't we? Evelyn +will be a very pretty girl when she loses that fragile look. Her eyes +and expression are beautiful. Do you know, she accepts everything I say +as if I were the Goddess of Wisdom herself." + +"Charlotte," said Mrs. Peyton, a few days later, coming hurriedly into +Charlotte's own room, where that young woman was busy with various +housewifely offices, "I've had a telegram. I'm so upset I don't know +what to do. My sister is sick and her husband is away, and she's sent +for me. I'm not able to do nursing--I'm not strong enough--but I don't +see but that I must go." + +"I'm very sorry your sister is ill," said Charlotte. "Tell me about +her." + +Mrs. Peyton told at length. "And what I'm to do with the children," she +said, mournfully, "I don't know. Sister doesn't want them to come. But +here I'm away up North and sister's out West, and the children couldn't +go home alone. Besides, there's nowhere for them to go. I am their only +home. Dear, dear, what shall I do?" + +The front door-bell, ringing sharply, sent Charlotte down-stairs. At +this moment she saw her husband coming up the street in his runabout. +When Doctor Churchill ran into his office after a case of instruments he +had forgotten, his wife cast herself into his arms, in such a state of +emotion that he held her close, bewildered. + +"What on earth is it, dear?" he asked. "Are you laughing or crying? +Here, let me see your face." + +"O Andy"--Charlotte would not let her face be seen--"it's Cousin Lula! +She's--she's--oh, she's--_going away_!" + +Churchill burst into smothered laughter. "It can't be you're crying," he +murmured. "Charlotte, I don't blame you. Look up and smile. I know how +you must be feeling. You've been a regular heroine all these weeks." + +"I'm awfully ashamed," choked Charlotte, on his shoulder, "but, O Andy, +what it will seem not to have to--oh, I mustn't say it, but--" + +"I know, I know!" He patted her shoulder. + +"Her sister is ill, in the West somewhere. She has to go to her at once. +She wants the children to stay with us." + +"She does!" + +"Her sister doesn't want them there, and she can't send them home. Andy, +I wouldn't mind that so awfully. I'd almost like the chance to see what +we could do with them." + +"Well, don't answer definitely till I have time to talk it over with you +and with her. I must go now." + +They talked it over, together, and with Mrs. Peyton. The result of these +conferences was that two days later that lady took her departure, +leaving her children in the care of the Churchills. + +"On one condition, Cousin Lula," Doctor Churchill had said to her with +decision. "That you put them absolutely in our care and trust our +judgment in the management of them." + +Mrs. Peyton tried to make a few reservations. Her cousin would have none +of them. At last she submitted, understanding well enough in her heart +that Andrew Churchill would be the safest sort of a guardian for her +children, and admitting to herself, if she did not to anybody else, that +Charlotte would give them care of the sort which money cannot buy. + +"That woman gone?" asked Jeff, coming into his sister Celia's room. +"Well, I'm delighted to hear it. But I must say I think Charlotte's +taken a good deal of a contract. I didn't mind so much about their +agreeing to keep Evelyn Lee, for she's a mighty nice sort of a girl, and +will make a still nicer one when she gets strong. But these Peyton +youngsters--I certainly don't think taking care of them ought to have +been on the bill. That idiot Lucy--" His expressive face finished the +sentence for him. + +Celia smiled. "I know. I feel as you do, and I think father and mother +are a little anxious lest Charlotte has taken too much care on her +shoulders. But Charlotte and Andy have set out to make everybody happy, +and they're seizing every chance that offers. They're so enthusiastic +about it one can't bear to dampen their ardour. The least we can do is +to help them whenever we can." + +Jeff made a wry face. "I don't mind assisting in the boy's education, +but I draw the line at the girl. She's a silly. Why, she--" His face +coloured with resentment. "It sounds crazy to say, but she does, for a +fact, make eyes at every man or boy she sees." + +Celia laughed. "I hadn't noticed. But she can't mean to, Jeff. She's +only fifteen." + +"That's the idiocy of it. She's only fifteen, but you watch her the next +time any of us fellows come into the room. Just can tell you; he's in a +chronic state of laugh over it. She thinks she's a beauty, and she +thinks we're all impressed with the fact." + +"She is pretty." + +"I don't think so. I don't call any girl pretty who's so struck with +herself that she can't get by a mirror without a glance and a pat of +that big fluff of front hair. You don't catch Eveyln looking into a +glass or acting as if she thought everybody was about to fall in love +with her. I'm going to take her skating when she gets strong enough." + +"That won't be for some time, I'm afraid. But she certainly is looking +better already." + +So she was. Charlotte had begun very gently with Evelyn, reducing the +temperature of the daily bath only by a degree at a time, lessening the +heat in the sleeping room, opening the windows for outside air an inch +more each night, coaxing her out for a short walk of gradually +increasing length each day, and generally luring her toward more +healthful ways of living than those to which she had been accustomed. + +Bedtime found Evelyn exceedingly weary, but it was healthful weariness, +and she was beginning to be able to sleep. + +A tinge of colour was growing in the pale cheeks, a brighter expression +in the large eyes, and altogether the young guest was showing a +gratifying response to the new methods. + +"I think," said Charlotte to Evelyn one morning, when three weeks had +gone by, "we shall have to celebrate your improvement by a little +concert this evening. Would you like to hear the Birch-Churchill +orchestra?" + +"Orchestra? How lovely! Indeed I should!" cried Evelyn, with a display +of enthusiasm quite unusual. "What do you play?" + +"Strings. We're badly out of practice, but there are always a few old +things we can get up fairly well at a minute's notice. The truth is, we +haven't played together since long before my wedding-day, and I resolved +the minute we were married we'd begin again. We will begin, this very +night. I know they'll all be glad." + +The performers did, indeed, show their pleasure by arriving early, +flannel-shrouded instruments under their arms. Doctor Churchill came in +just as they were tuning. Since Lanse had been away, Andy, who was +something of a violinist had taken up Lanse's viola, and was now able to +occupy his brother-in-law's place. Celia, however, had been chosen to +fill the vacant role of leadership. + +"The rest of us are only imitators," Jeff declared to Evelyn, as he +stood near her, softly trying his strings. "Charlotte's the best, and +Andy's very good indeed; but it's only Celia who goes to hear big music +and sits with the tears rolling down her cheeks, while the rest of us +are wondering what on earth it all means." + +Evelyn, leaning back among the pillows of the wide couch, called Lucy +softly, motioning her to a seat by her side. + +Lucy came quickly, pleased by Evelyn's notice. She in her turn had been +regarding Evelyn as a monopolist of everybody's attention and had made +up her mind not to like her. But now she sank into the place by Evelyn's +side, and accepted the delicate touch of Evelyn's hand on hers as +recognition at last that here was another girl fit to make friends with. + +"Don't they play well?" whispered Evelyn, as the music came to a sudden +stop that Celia might criticise the playing of a difficult passage. + +"She doesn't think so," called Just, softly, having caught the whisper. +He indicated his elder sister. "She won't let me boom things with my +viol the way I'd like to. What's the use of playing the biggest +instrument if you can't make the biggest noise?" + +"Solo, by the double-bass!" cried Andy; and the whole orchestra, except +the first violin of the leader, burst into a boisterous rendering of a +popular street song, in which Just sawed forth the leading part, while +the others kept up a rattling staccato accompaniment. Evelyn and Lucy +became breathless with laughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Birch, who had just +slipped into the room, joined in the merriment. + +"There you are," chuckled Jeff. "That's what you get when you give the +donkey the solo part among the farmyard performers." + +"He can sing as well as the peacock," retorted Just, with spirit. + +"We were right in the middle of the _'Hungarian Intermezzo,'_" explained +Celia to the newcomers. "I stopped them to tell them why they needed to +look more carefully to their phrasing, and the children burst into this +sort of thing. What shall I do with them?" + +"It's a great relief to feel that they're not altogether grown up, after +all," said Mr. Birch, helping himself to his favourite easy chair near +the fireplace. "There are times when we feel a strong suspicion that we +haven't any children any more. Moments like these assure us that we are +mistaken. Go on with your '_Intermezzo,_' but give us another nursery +song before you are through." + +"Nursery song! That's pretty good," said Jeff, in Just's ear, and that +sixteen-year-old mumbled in reply, "I can throw you over my shoulder +just the same." + +"Boys, come! We're ready!" called Celia, and the music began again. + +"Are you getting tired, dear?" asked Mrs. Birch of Evelyn, when the +"_Intermezzo_" was finished, noting the flush on the delicate cheek. +Evelyn looked up brightly. + +"Not enough to hurt me. I'm enjoying it so! Aren't large families +lovely? I was so much younger than my brothers and sisters that by the +time I was old enough to care about having good times like this on +winter evenings they were all away at school or married. We never had +anything so nice as a family orchestra, either. I wish I could play +something." + +"How about the piano?" asked Charlotte, who sat near. Evelyn's flush +grew pinker. + +"I can play a little," she said. "But you don't need the piano." + +"Yes, we do. A piano would add ever so much. Next time we'll have our +practice at home, and give you a part." + +Then she glanced at Lucy, and saw what might have been expected, a look +of envy and discontent. "Is there anything you can play, Lucy?" she +asked. "It would be very nice to have everybody in. Perhaps Ran could +have a triangle." + +"I play the piano," said Lucy. + +"Oh, give Lucy the piano," Evelyn said, quickly,--also as might have +been expected. + +"We'll try you both," put in Doctor Churchill, "as they always do +aspirants for such positions." + +"I've had lessons from the best master in our state," said Lucy to Just. + +"That so? Then you may win out," was his opinion. "But you can't be +sure. Evelyn's not much of a bragger, but she seems to be a pretty +well-educated girl." + +"Just, be careful!" warned Charlotte, in his ear, as she drew him gently +to one side. "I know you don't like her, but you must be considerate of +her." + +"I don't feel much like it." + +"You know I want your help about Lucy." Charlotte had drawn him still +farther away, so that she could speak with safety. "But you know, too, +that snubbing isn't a way to get hold of anybody." + +"It's the only way with conceited softies," began Just. + +But Charlotte caught his hand and squeezed it. "No, it isn't. I'm sure +she's worth being friends with, and if she can learn certain things you +can teach her in the way of athletics, and reading, and all that, you +can do her lots of good." + +"Don't feel a bit like being a missionary!" growled Just. "Suppose I've +got to try it, to please you. Evelyn's all right, isn't she?" + +"Yes, she's a dear. I'm so glad we kept her. That makes me realise she's +had quite enough excitement for to-night. I must carry her off to bed. +Perhaps you'd all better--" + +"No, you don't!" said Just, with a rebellious laugh. "Just because +you've set up a sanatorium and a kindergarten you can't send your +brothers off to bed at nine o'clock. I want a good visit with you after +the infants and invalids are in bed." + +"All right, big boy," promised Charlotte, rejoicing in the affectionate +look he gave her. + +She had been anxious that her marriage should in no way interfere with +the old brotherly and sisterly relations, and it was a long time since +she had had a confidential talk with her youngest brother. Jeff was +always coming to her precisely as in the old days, with demands for +interest and advice; but Just had seemed a little farther away. + +So when she had seen the "infants and invalids" happily gone to rest, +and after a quiet hour of family talk about the fireside had said +good-night to all the others, Charlotte turned to Just with a look of +welcome as fresh and inviting as if the evening had but now begun. +Doctor Churchill had gone to make a bedtime call upon a patient +critically ill, and the two were quite alone. + +"This is jolly," said Just, settling himself on a couch pillow at her +feet, his long legs stretched out to the fire, his head resting against +his sister's knee. "Now I'm going to tell you everything that's happened +to me since you were married. Not that there's anything wonderful to +tell, or that I'm in any scrape, you know, but I'd like to feel I've got +my sister and that she cares--just as much as ever." He twisted his head +about till he could look up into the warm, sweet face above him. "_Does_ +she care as much as ever?" + +It was an unusual demonstration from the big boy, now at the age when +sisterly companionship is often despised, and Charlotte appreciated it. +More than Justin Birch could understand was in her voice as her fingers +rested upon his hair, but what she said gave him great satisfaction, +although it was only a blithe: + +"Just as much--and a little more, dear. Tell me the whole story. There's +nothing I'd like so much to hear." + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Evelyn! Miss Evelyn Lee! Where are you?" + +Jeff's shout rang up the stairs, and in obedience to its imperative +summons Evelyn immediately appeared at the head. + +"Yes, Mr. Jefferson Birch," she responded. "Is the house on fire?" + +"Not a bit, but I'm anxious for your hearing. I've been roaring gently +all over the house without a result, except to scare three patients in +Andy's office. Won't you come down?" + +She descended slowly, but she neither clung to the rail nor sat down to +rest half-way, as she had done when she first came under the Churchill +roof. + +Her face was acquiring the soft bloom of a flower, her eyes were full of +light and interest. She still looked slim and frail, but she was +beginning to show signs of waxing health very pleasant to see for those +who had grown as interested in her as if she were a young sister of +their own. + +"I've an invitation for you from Carolyn Houghton for an impromptu +sleigh-ride to-night. Don't you suppose you can go? I'll take all sorts +of care of you and see that you don't get too tired. You've met Carolyn; +she's a jolly girl to know, and she told me to bring you if possible." + +Evelyn dropped into a chair. "Oh, how I should love to go!" she said. "I +never went on a sleigh-ride like that in my life. Do you go all together +in a big load?" + +"Yes--a regular prairie-schooner of a sleigh. Holds a dozen of us, +packed like sardines, so nobody can get cold. We take hot soapstones and +rugs and robes, and we go only twelve miles, to a farmhouse where we get +a hot supper--oysters and hot biscuit and maple-syrup, and all sorts of +good things. You must go." + +"If I only could!" sighed Evelyn. "I'm so afraid they won't think I +can." + +"They will, if _you_ think you can," asserted Jeff. "You're up to it, +aren't you? You needn't do a thing. Six of the crowd are going to give a +little play. I'll get the load started home early, and we'll come back +flying. Be here by midnight at the latest. It'll do you good, I know it +will." + +"O Mrs. Churchill!" breathed Evelyn, as Charlotte appeared from the +hall. + +"O Evelyn Lee!" answered Charlotte, smiling back at the eager face. +"Yes, I heard most of it, Jeff, for I was coming down-stairs, and you +weren't exactly whispering. It's an enticing plan, isn't it?" + +"Of course it is. And it's magnificent weather for the affair. Not cold +a bit and no wind; moonlight due if no clouds come up. Evelyn can't get +cold. I'll keep her done up to the tip of her nose, and be so devoted +nobody else will have a chance to worry her. Say she may go. Don't you +see the disappointment would be worse for her than the trip?" + +"You artful pleader, I'm not sure but it would. If Doctor Churchill +agrees, Evelyn, I'll let you try it. On one condition, Jeff--that you +really do get back by midnight. For a girl who has been put to bed for +weeks at nine that's late enough." + +Evelyn went about all day with a lighter step than her friends had yet +seen her assume. + +"Now remember, I trust her absolutely to your care," Charlotte said to +Jeff that evening, as he appeared, his arms full of accessories for +making his charge comfortable. + +Evelyn, in furs and heavy coat, smiled at her escort. "I'm not a bit +afraid," she said. "Oh, what a beautiful night! The moon is out. Is that +the sleigh coming up the street now, with all those horns? What fun!" + +"I want to put Miss Lee right in the middle of everything!" Jeff called +out, as the sleighload stopped. "I'm particularly requested not to let a +breath of frost strike her." + +"Come on, here's just the spot," answered Carolyn Houghton, holding out +a welcoming hand; and then the girl from the South, who had never known +the sleighing-party of the North, found herself being whirled away over +the road, to an accompaniment of youthful merriment, bursts of songs and +tooting of horns. + +Before it seemed possible the twelve miles of fine sleighing had been +covered, and the old farmhouse, its door flung hospitably open at the +sound of the horns, was invaded by the gay band. + +Evelyn, in a quaint up-stairs bedroom, lighted by kerosene lamps and +warmed by a roaring wood fire in an old-fashioned box stove, was +attended by Carolyn Houghton, who was, as Jeff had said, a "jolly girl +to know." Herself a blooming maid with black locks and carnation cheeks, +Carolyn admired intensely Evelyn's auburn hair and fair complexion. + +"Don't you think she's the dearest thing?" she whispered to a friend, as +they descended the stairs. "There's something so soft and sweet and +ladylike about her, as if nobody could be slangy or loud before her, you +know. Yet she isn't a bit dull; she just _sparkles_ when you get her +interested and happy. I do want her to have a good time to-night." + +There could be no doubt that Evelyn was having a good time. Everything +pleased her, everybody interested her. It seemed to her that she had +never seen such charming young people before. + +The little play made her laugh till she was as flushed and gay as a +child. Those with whom Evelyn showed herself so delighted became equally +delighted with her, and before the evening was over she was feeling that +she had always known these young friends, had forgotten that she had +ever been an invalid, and was indeed "sparkling," as Carolyn Houghton +had said, in a way that drew all eyes toward her in admiration. + +Jeff, indeed, stared at her as if he had never seen her before. + +"I'm sure this isn't hurting you a bit," he said in her ear, as the +evening slipped on. "You must be feeling pretty well, for I've never +seen you so jolly. I'm going to do the prescribing after this. I know +what's good for little girls." + +"I believe you do," Evelyn answered. "No, I'm not a bit tired. Why, is +it almost eleven?" + +"Yes, and time to go, if we live up to our promises. Seems a pity, +doesn't it? But it doesn't pay to break your word, so as soon as you +girls can get into your toggery we'll be off." + +"Of course, we must keep our promise," agreed Evelyn, with decision, and +straightway she went up-stairs for her wraps. The other girls followed +more reluctantly. + +"'Goodness, girls, look out!" cried somebody from the window. "Did you +ever see it so thick? The barns are just down there, where that glimmer +is, but you can't see them at all." + +"All the more fun," said another girl. + +"We're pretty far out in the country, and the road's awfully winding. I +hope we get home all right." + +"Oh, nonsense!" said some one else, with great positiveness. "I should +know the way with my eyes shut. Besides, it was as clear as a bell when +we came. It can't have been snowing long enough to block things in the +least." + +They found it had done so however, when they descended to the sleigh. +That vehicle had been brought close to the porch, that the girls might +not have to walk through the deep snow. The air was so full of the +whirling white particles that from the farther end of the sleigh one +could barely see the horses. + +"I declare, I don't feel just easy about you folks starting out," said +the farmer whose guests they had been. "Better watch the road some +careful, you driver. I suppose you know it pretty well." + +"He doesn't, but I do!" called a tall youth from the driver's seat. +"I'll keep him straight. We'll be all right. We're due home at midnight, +and we'll be there, unless the roads are too heavy to keep the pace we +came in." + +"No, sir, we can't ever keep the pace we come in," presently averred the +man from the livery-stable, who was driving. "The road's pretty heavy. I +declare, I don't know as I ever see snow so thick. Do I turn a little to +the right here or do I keep straight ahead?" + +"Straight ahead," answered the boy beside him, confidently. "I've been +over this road a thousand times, and it doesn't bend to the right for +half a mile yet." + +"It's lucky you know," said the driver. "I'm all at sea already. Can't +see the fences only now and then. I'd ha' swung off there, sure, if you +hadn't said not." + +As the rising wind began to whirl snowily about their ears and necks, +the party turned up their coat-collars and tucked in their fur robes. +The horses were plowing with increasing difficulty through the heavily +drifted roads, and more than once their driver found himself obliged to +make a long detour around a drift which had not been in the road when +they first came over it. Moreover, in spite of the snow, the air seemed +to have grown colder and to be acquiring a penetrating, icy quality +which at last made Jeff declare to Evelyn: + +"You may say you're not cold, but I'm going to insist on your letting me +wrap this steamer rug found your shoulders, with the corner over your +head, so. Now doesn't that keep off a lot of wind?" + +"Indeed it does, thank you," admitted Evelyn, with a little shiver she +could not quite conceal. + +"You _are_ cold!" Jeff said, anxiously. + +"No colder than anybody else. Please don't worry about me." + +But he did worry, and with reason. Indeed, although nobody was willing +yet to admit it, the situation was becoming a little unpleasant. In +spite of the stout confidence of the boy on the seat with the driver, +others who were somewhat familiar with the road were beginning to +question his leading. + +"That clump of trees doesn't look natural just there," said one, +standing up in the sleigh and trying to peer through the wall of +snowflakes. "It's too near. It ought to be a hundred feet away." + +"No. You're thinking we're farther back than We are," declared Neil +Ward, from the front seat. "We're almost at the turn by the railroad." + +"Why, we can't be! We haven't passed the Winters farm. I tell you, +you're off the road." + +"I think we are," agreed the driver, uneasily, pulling his cap farther +over his snow-hung eyebrows. "I've been thinking so for quite a spell." + +"We're all right. You people just keep cool!" cried Neil. + +"No trouble about keeping cool in this blizzard!" growled somebody, and +there was a general laugh. + +One of the girls started a song, and they all joined cheerily in. A +proposition to toot the horns, forgotten in the bottom of the sleigh, +with a hope of attracting attention from some one, was adopted, and a +hideous din followed, and was kept up till every one was weary--with no +result. + +All at once, without warning, the horses plunged heavily and solidly to +their steaming shoulders into an undreamed-of ditch, and the sleigh +stopped, well into the same hole. + +"Will you admit now that we're off the road, Neil Ward?" cried some one, +fiercely; and Neil, without contention but with evident chagrin, +admitted it. There was no ditch that he was aware of within a mile of +the highway. + +Jeff drew the rugs tighter about Evelyn, then lifted a corner to peer +in. "Don't be frightened, little girl. We'll get out of this all right," +he said, as cheerfully as he could, although he was alarmed for her +safety more than he would have dared to admit, even to himself. + +The other girls were all strong, healthy specimens of young womanhood, +presumably able to endure a good deal of cold and exposure without +danger of serious harm. But this little sensitive plant! Jeff waited in +suspense for her answer. + +It came in a clear, sweet voice, without a particle of fright in it: "Of +course we shall. And won't it be fun to tell about it afterward?" + +"You're right, it will!" he responded, with enthusiasm. Inwardly he +said, "You're a plucky one, all right." Then, with the other fellows, he +leaped out of the sleigh, and went to trampling down the snow around the +imprisoned horses. + + * * * * * + +Alone together, after Randolph and Lucy had gone to bed, Andrew and +Charlotte passed the long evening. Charlotte was not willing to let +Evelyn come home to a closed and silent house, so the two awaited her +arrival. + +"Why, Andy, it's snowing furiously!" said Charlotte, from the window, +whither she had gone at the stroke of twelve. Doctor Churchill put down +the book from which he had been reading aloud, and came to her side. + +"So it is. Blowing, too. But it can't have been at it long or we should +have noticed." + +"I've been noticing the wind now and then for the last hour. I hope it's +not grown cold. I wouldn't have anything happen to upset Evelyn's +improvement for the world." + +"Nothing will. They'll be home before the half-hour. Come back and +listen to the rest of this chapter." + +Charlotte came back, but as the quarter-hours went slowly by she became +restless, and vibrated so continually between fireplace and window that +Andy finally put away the book and kept her company. + +"It's growing worse every minute." Charlotte's face was pressed close +against the frosty pane. "If they don't come by one it will look as if +something had happened." + +"Oh, they're at the irresponsible age. When they come they'll say, 'Why, +we didn't dream it was so late!'" + +"Jeff's not irresponsible when he gives a promise. He never breaks one," +Charlotte answered, confidently. + +"This storm would make the roads heavy. Even if they started on time, +they would have to travel twice as slowly as when they went. Stop +worrying, dear; it's not in character for you." + +Charlotte closed her lips, but when the clock struck one her eyes spoke +for her. "Evelyn is so delicate," they said, mutely, and Andy answered +as if she had spoken. + +"Evelyn is wrapped too heavily to be cold. Besides, they'll all take +care of her. She won't come to any harm, I'm sure of it. They'll be here +before half-past-one, I'm confident, and then we can antidote any chill +she may have got." + +But at half-past-one there was still no sign of the sleighing party. +Moreover, the storm was steadily increasing; it had become what is known +as a "blizzard." Even in the protected suburban street the drifts were +beginning to show size, and the arc-light at the corner was almost lost +to view through the downfall. + +Charlotte turned to her husband with something like imperiousness in her +manner, and met the same decision in his look. Before she could speak he +said: + +"Yes, I'll go to meet them. It does look as if they might be stalled +somewhere. It's rather a lonely road till they reach the railroad, and +it's possible they've missed the way." + +He went to the telephone. + +"Andy," cried Charlotte, following him, "order a double sleigh, please! +I must go with you." + +He turned and looked at her, hesitating. "It isn't necessary, dear. I'll +go over and wake up Just, I think. We two will be--" + +"I must go," she interrupted. "I couldn't endure to wait here any +longer. And if Evelyn should be very much chilled she'll need me to look +after her. Besides--" + +He smiled at her. "You won't let me get lost in a snow-drift myself +without you." + +She nodded, and ran away to make ready. By the time the livery-stable +had been awakened from its early morning apathy, and had sent round the +double sleigh with the best pair of horses in its stalls, the party was +ready. + +Just, awakened by snowballs thrown in at his open window, had joyfully +dressed himself. At the last moment Charlotte had thought of the +automobile headlight, and this, hurriedly filled and lighted, streamed +out over the snow as the three jumped into the sleigh. All were warmly +dressed, and Charlotte had brought many extra wraps, as well as a supply +of medicines for a possible emergency of which she did not like to +think. + +"Julius Caesar, but this is a night!" came from between Just's teeth, as +the sleigh reached the end of the suburban streets and made the turn +upon the open country road. He clutched at his cap, pulling it still +farther down over his ears. "What a change in six hours!" + +"This is a straight nor'easter," answered Doctor Churchill, slapping +hands already chilled, in spite of his heavy driving gloves. Then he +turned his head. "Can't you keep well down behind us, Charlotte?" he +called over his shoulder. + +"I'm all right!" she called back. One had to shout to be heard in the +roar of the wind. + +After that nobody talked, except as Just from time to time offered to +drive, to give Andrew's hands a chance to warm. That young man, however, +would not give over the reins to anybody. It was not for nothing that he +had been driving over this country, under all possible conditions of +weather, for nearly five years. + +When they had crossed the railroad which marked the end of the main +highway between two towns and the beginning of the narrow side road +which led off across country to the farmhouse of the sleighing party, +conviction that the young people had been stalled somewhere on the great +plain they were crossing became settled. + +It was with the utmost difficulty that Doctor Churchill kept the road. +Only the fact that the storm was showing signs of decreasing, and that +now and then came moments when he could see more clearly the outlying +indications of fence and tree and infrequent habitation assured him that +he had not lost the way. + +"Hark!" cried Charlotte, suddenly, as they plowed along. + +For the instant the wind had lulled. Doctor Churchill stopped his +horses, and the three held their breath to listen. After a brief +interval came the faint, far toot of a horn. Then, away to the left, a +light suddenly flashed, vanished, and flashed again. + +"There they are!" cried three exultant voices. + +"But how shall we get to them?" shouted Just, instantly alive with +excitement. "Why, they're a mile away! There's no road over there, nor +any houses. They're right out in the fields." + +Then the sifting snow shut down again. The three looked at one another +in the yellow glare from the automobile headlight. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Don't they see our light?" Charlotte asked, eagerly. + +"I think perhaps they have seen it," Doctor Churchill answered, "and +that's why they were blowing their horns. Probably some of them will +start toward us. If they're not stuck, they'll begin to drive this way. +I believe the thing to do will be for Charlotte to stay here in the +sleigh, keeping the headlight pointed just to the left of that big +tree--I noticed that was where the flash of their fire came--and for +Just and me to start across the fields. I'll turn the horses with their +backs to the wind and blanket them. Then--hold on, I've a better plan. +Let's make a fire of our own. That will insure Charlotte's keeping +warm." + +"Everything's too wet," objected Just. "That crowd must have had a time +getting green wood to burn." + +"We can do it." Doctor Churchill was feeling among the robes at his +feet. "I thought of it before we started, and put in a kerosene-can and +some newspapers. Hatchet, too." + +Just got out of the sleigh and waded away toward a thick growth of +underbrush along the side of the road. + +In ten minutes a roaring fire was leaping into the descending snowfall. +A pile of brush and some broken fence-rails were left with Charlotte, +the horses made as snug as possible, and then the two others jumped the +fence and plunged off into the snow. + +Guided by glimpses of the apparently fitful fire of the sleighing party, +Doctor Churchill and Just made their way. Sometimes the course was +comparatively free from drifts; again they had to wallow nearly to their +waists. + +"Confounded long way!" grunted Just. "Good thing we're both tough and +strong. Except for Jeff, there aren't any athletes in the Houghton +party." + +"Don't I see somebody coming toward us?" Doctor Churchill asked, +presently. + +The snowfall was lightening again, and the small flame in the distance +looked nearer. He put his hands to his mouth and gave a long, clear +hail. He was answered by a similar one. Then followed a peculiar musical +call, which Just, recognising, answered ecstatically. + +"It's Jeff!" he shouted. "_Whoop!_ I'll bet he's glad to hear us!" + +He was. He came plunging through the last big drift toward them, a +snow-encrusted figure. "Well, well!" he cried, in tones of pleasure and +relief. "I knew you'd come. Where are we, anyhow?" + +"A mile off the road. Are you all right? I see you've got a fire. +How's--" + +"Evelyn's all right, I think. Since we managed the fire she's fairly +warm again. Plucky as any girl in the crowd, and they're all plucky. How +are we to get our load down to the road?" + +"I brought ropes, and we've a strong pair back there. We'll go and get +them, now that we know where you are. You go back to your party and +prepare them to be rescued." + +"No, Just can go to the camp, and I'll keep on with you." + +Just, being entirely willing to accept the part of rescuer, plowed on +through the big holes Jeff had left in his track. Doctor Churchill and +Jeff made their way back to Charlotte. + +"Yes, we had rather a bad time for a while," admitted Jeff, as he helped +Andy make the horses ready to start. "We got pretty cold, and I thought +we'd never make the fire go. Found the inside of an old stump at last, +and got her started. Yes, all the girls looked after Evelyn--came pretty +near smothering her. I don't believe she's taken cold. The snow's +letting up. I can see our fire back there. No, we didn't see yours; we +were just tooting on general principles. Evelyn insisted she caught a +glimmer, and I started out to climb a tree to find out. I saw it then, +for a minute, and was sure it was you. Keep this fire going, Charlotte. +The storm may close down again, and we want to make straight tracks +across the fields." + +By the time they reached the camp in the fields both Jeff and Doctor +Churchill were pretty well wearied. But they greeted the party there +with an enthusiasm which matched the welcome they received. + +The spirits of the whole company had risen with a jump the instant they +had caught sight of Just, and now, with four horses to pull the +ponderous sleigh through the drifts, the boys walking by its side and +the girls tucked snugly in among the robes, the whole aspect of things +was changed. The situation lost seriousness, and although each was +prepared to make a thrilling tale of it for the various family circles +when daylight came, nobody except Jeff really regretted the experience +of the night. When they reached Charlotte and the smaller sleigh, there +was a great chorus of explanations. She swiftly extracted Evelyn and +took her in beside herself. + +"Indeed, yes, I'm warm, Mrs. Churchill," protested the girl. Her voice +showed that she was very tired, but her inflection was as cheerful as +ever. With a hot soapstone at her feet, a hot-water bag in her lap and +Charlotte's arm about her, she leaned back on the fur-clad shoulder +beside her and rejoiced. One thing was certain. She had had a real +Northern good time, with an exciting ending, and she was quite willing +to be tired. + +With the wind at their backs and the fall of snow nearly ceased, the +party was not a great while in getting back to town. The clocks were +striking five when Charlotte, having put her charge to bed, and fed her +with hot food and spicy, steaming drinks, administered the last pat and +tuck. "Now you're not to open your eyes and stir until four o'clock this +afternoon," she admonished her, with decisive tenderness. "Then if +you're very good, you may get up and dress in time for dinner." + +"I'll be good, Mrs. Churchill," promised Evelyn, smiling rather faintly. +She fell asleep almost before the door closed. + +"You must feel a load off your shoulders," Just observed to Jeff, as the +two made ready for slumber for the brief time remaining before breakfast +and the school and college work which would then claim them both. + +"I do. But if Evelyn comes out all right I shall be glad I took her. I +tell you that girl's a mighty good sort." + +"I wish Lucy was like her. What do you think I'm in for? Our class +reception is for Friday night, at the head-master's house. Doctor +Agnew's daughters have met Lucy, and I'm sure she gave 'em a hint to +invite her to come with me. Anyhow, they've done it, and of course I've +got to take her." + +"Oh, well, a fellow has to be civil to a lot of girls he doesn't +particularly admire. Lucy's not so bad. She's rather pretty--when she's +feeling amiable--and she certainly dresses well." + +Jeff's assertion in the matter of Lucy's appearance was proved true. +When Just, on Friday evening, marched across to the other house, +inwardly raging at his fate, he had an agreeable surprise. As he stood +by the fireplace with Charlotte, Lucy came down-stairs and floated in at +the door. Just stopped in the middle of a sentence and stared. + +Being really a very pretty girl, and feeling, at the present moment, the +height of fluttering expectation, her face was illumined into an +attractiveness that was quite a revelation to her friends. For the first +time Lucy felt herself to be in the centre of things, and it made +another girl of her. In addition, the evening frock she wore was so +charming in style and colouring that it contributed not a little to the +general effect. + +Altogether, Just experienced quite a revulsion of feeling in regard to +the painful duty before him, and came forward to assist Lucy into her +long coat with considerable alacrity and cheerfulness. + +"Oh, I do love parties so," she declared, as they hurried along the +streets. "I'm not used to being so dull as I've been here. It seems to +me that you have mighty few doings for young people. I don't call +candy-pulls and fudge parties real _parties_." + +"Probably you won't call this to-night a real party, then. There's never +much that's exciting at Doctor Agnew's. He always has an orchestra +playing, and we walk round and talk, and usually somebody does something +to entertain us--a reading or songs. Maybe you won't think it's as +festive as you expect." + +"Oh, well, I reckon it will be a nice change," said she, with quite +unexpected good humour. + +In the dressing-room Chester Agnew, the son of the head-master, came up +to Just with an expression of mingled pleasure and chagrin. + +"Awfully glad to see you, Birch," he said, "I suppose you noticed that +we have no music going to-night. It's a shame, isn't it? Lindmann's men +have been delayed by a freight wreck on the P. & Q. They were coming +home from a wedding down the line somewhere, and telephoned us they +couldn't get out here before midnight. We've tried to get some other +music, but everything's engaged somewhere." + +"Too bad, but it's no great matter," Just replied, comfortably. "We can +worry along without the orchestra." + +"No, you can't. Mother's plans for to-night were for a series of +national dances, in costume, by sixteen of the juniors, and that's all +up without the music." + +"Why won't the piano do?" + +"We haven't a piano in the house. Yes, I know, but it was Helena's, and +when she was married in November she took it with her. Father hasn't +bought a new one yet, because the other girls don't play. Now do you +see? You're in for the stupidest evening you've had this winter, for +it's too late to get anybody here to do any sort of entertaining." + +"That is too bad," admitted Just, thinking of Lucy, and finding himself +caring a good deal that she should not think the affair dull. He walked +along the hall with Chester to the point where he should meet Lucy, +thinking about the situation. Then an idea popped into his head. + +"Isn't your telephone in that little closet off the dining-room?" he +asked. + +"Yes. Want to use it?" + +"Yes. Take Lucy down, will you? You know her. I've just thought of +something." + +Just slipped down to the dining-room. He carefully closed the door of +the closet and called up Doctor Churchill. To him he rapidly explained +the situation and the remedy which had occurred to him. Doctor +Churchill's voice came back to him in a tone of amused surprise. + +"Why, Just, do you think we could carry it through decently? We don't +know the music at all. Oh, play our own and make it fit? What sort will +do--ordinary waltzes and two-steps? I shouldn't mind helping them out, +of course, if I thought we could manage it. Better than nothing? +Well--possibly. Better consult Mrs. Agnew before we do anything rash." + +Just ran up the rear staircase and down the front one. He found Chester +and whispered his plan. Interrupting Chester's eager gratitude, he asked +for somebody who could tell him what music would be needed. + +"Mother's receiving, and so are the girls. Carolyn Houghton will know, I +think. She's been at the rehearsals. I'll get her." + +"Well, are you going to leave me to myself much longer?" Lucy inquired, +reproachfully, as Just waited silently beside her for Carolyn. + +"Why, I'm awfully sorry," he said, remembering his duties, which in the +excitement of the moment he realised he was forgetting. "I hope you'll +excuse me, but I've got to help the Agnews out if I can." And he +hurriedly told her his plan. She stared at him in astonishment. + +"You don't mean you would come and take the place of a hired orchestra +for a reception?" she cried, under her breath. + +It was Just's turn to stare. Then he straightened shoulders which were +already pretty square. "Would you mind telling me why not? That is, +provided we can do it well enough." + +"I think it's a mighty queer thing to do," insisted Lucy, with +disapproval. + +Carolyn Houghton appeared and beckoned Just and Chester out into the +hall. Lucy followed, not liking to be left alone. Everybody seemed to be +forgetting her, although Chester had turned, and said cordially, "That's +right, Miss Lucy! Come and help us plan." + +Carolyn lost no time. "It's fine of you," she said eagerly. "Yes, I'm +sure you can do it. Not one person in fifty will know whether the tunes +you play are national or not. Something quaint and queer for the +Hungarian, and jigsy and gay for the Irish. Castanets in the Spanish +dance--have you them?" + +"Young Randolph Peyton can work those," began Just, looking at Lucy. + +She frowned. "Really, I don't believe you'd better have him in it," she +said, with such an air that Carolyn glanced at her in amazement, and +Chester coughed and turned away. + +"Oh, very well!" Just answered, instantly. "You can do 'em yourself, +then, Ches." + +"All right," said Chester. "There is a big screen of palms and ferns for +the orchestra," he explained, with satisfaction, to Lucy. "Nobody'll +know who's performing, anyhow." + +"Oh!" said Lucy. + +Carolyn had soon convinced Just that the little home orchestra could +undertake the music without much fear of failure. + +"Of course there's a chance that the change may put the dancers out, yet +I don't think so. I noticed it was rather simple music, and they're so +well drilled they're not very dependent on the music. Anyhow, people +will be too interested in the costumes and the steps to notice whether +the music is strictly appropriate. As long as you give them something in +precisely the right time, I don't believe the change will bother them. I +can coach you on that." + +"All right," and Just hurried back to the telephone. + +Within three-quarters of an hour he had them all there, a laughing crew, +ready for what struck them as a frolic for themselves. Chester Agnew +carried the instruments behind the screen, and managed to slip the +members of the new orchestra one by one from the dining-room doorway to +the shelter of the palms without anybody's being the wiser. In ten +minutes more soft music began to steal through the crowded rooms. + +"The orchestra has come, after all," said Mrs. Agnew to her husband, in +the front room. Her voice breathed relief. + +He nodded satisfaction. "So I hear. I don't know how they managed it, +but I accept the fact without question." + +"Do you think it's always safe to do that?" queried his son Chester, +coming up in time to hear. + +"Accept facts without question? What else can you do with facts?" + +"But if they should turn out not to be facts?" + +"In this case I have the evidence of my ears," returned the learned man, +comfortably, and Chester walked away again, his eyes dancing. + +"Nobody can tell you from Lindmann," he whispered, behind the screen, +during an interval. + +"That's good. Hope the delusion keeps up. We don't feel much like +Lindmann," returned Churchill, hastily turning over a pile of music. +"Get your crowd to talking as loud as it can--then we're comparatively +safe. Where's the second violin part of 'King Manfred'? Look out, +Just--you hit my elbow twice with your bow-arm last time. These quarters +are a bit--There you are, Charlotte. Now take this thing slow, and look +to your phrasing. All ready!" + +The costume dances did not come until after supper. By that time the +Churchills and Birches, behind the screen, had settled down to steady +work. During supper a violin, with the 'cello and bass, carried on the +music, while Doctor Churchill, Celia and Carolyn Houghton planned a +substitute programme for the dances. + +In two cases they found the original music familiar; in most of the +others it proved not very difficult to adapt other music. The leaders of +the dances were told that whatever happened they were to carry through +their parts without showing signs of distress. + +"It's a pretty big bluff," murmured Jeff, leaning back in his chair and +mopping a perspiring brow. "Phew-w. but it's hot in here! I expect to +see several of those crazy dances go all to pieces on our account. That +Highland Fling! Mind you keep up a ripping time on that. It ought to be +piped, not stringed." + +Nevertheless, in spite of a good deal of perturbation on the part of +both dancers and orchestra, the entertainment went off well enough to be +applauded heartily. Certain numbers, notably the South Carolina +breakdown, the Irish jig, and the minuet of Washington's time, "brought +down the house," presumably because the music fitted best and bothered +the dancers least. + +When it was over, the musicians expected to escape before they were +found out, thinking the fun Would be the greater if the Agnews did not +learn to whom they were indebted until later. But young Chester Agnew +defeated this. He instructed half-a-dozen of his friends, and as the +final strains were coming to a close, these boys laid hold of the wall +of palms and pulled it to pieces. The musicians, laughing and +protesting, were shown to the entire company. + +A great murmur of surprise was followed by a burst of applause and +laughter, in the midst of which Doctor and Mrs. Agnew hurried to the +front, followed by their daughters, who had already discovered the +truth, but had been warned by their brother to keep quiet about it. + +"My dear friends!" exclaimed the head-master. "Is it possible that it is +you who have filled the gap so successfully? Well, really, what shall we +say to such kindness?" + +"Mrs. Churchill--Doctor Churchill--Miss Birch--all of you," Mrs Agnew +was saying, in her surprise, "what a very lovely thing to do! It has +been too kind of you. We appreciate it more than we can tell you. You +must come out at once and have some supper." + +"The evening would have been spoiled without you!" cried Jessica Agnew, +and Isabel said the same thing. Chester was loud in his praises, and +indeed, the orchestra received an ovation which quite overwhelmed it. It +went out to supper presently, escorted by at least twenty young people. + +"Here, come and sit by me, Lucy," invited Just, in good humour at the +success of his plan. "You can keep handing me food as I consume it. I +never was so starved in my life. Well, have you had a good time? Sorry I +had to desert you, but I've no doubt the others introduced you round and +saw that you weren't neglected." + +"I think Chester Agnew is one of the handsomest boys I ever met," +whispered Lucy. "Hasn't he the loveliest eyes? He was just devoted to +me." + +Just turned, his mouth full of chicken _pate_, and regarded her with +interest. "Yes, his eyes are wonders," he agreed, his own twinkling. +"Full of soul, and all that, you mean? Yes, they are, though I never +noticed it till you pointed it out." + +Lucy looked at him suspiciously. + +"He liked my dress," she went on. + +"Did, eh? Ches must be coming on. Never knew him to notice a girl's +dress before." + +"I saw him looking at it,"--Lucy's tone was impressive--"and asked if he +liked pink. He said it was his favourite colour." + +"H'm! I must take lessons of Ches." + +"He looked at me so much I was awfully embarrassed," said Lucy, under +her breath, with drooping eyes. + +Just favoured her with another curious glance. "Maybe he's never seen +just your kind before," he suggested. "Lucy, by the time you're twenty +you'll be quite an old hand at this society business, won't you?" + +"What makes you think so?" she asked, not sure whether to be gratified +or not. + +"Oh, your small talk is so--well, so--er--interesting. A fellow always +likes to hear about another fellow--about his eyes, and so on." + +"Oh, you mustn't be jealous," said Lucy, with a glance which finished +Just. He choked in his napkin, and turned his attention to Carolyn +Houghton, on his other side. + +But when he went to bed that night he once more gave vent to his +feelings on the subject of his sister's guest. + +"Jeff," said he, "if a girl has absolutely no brains in her head, what +do you suppose occupies the cavity?" + +"Give it up," returned Jeff, sleepily. + +"I think it must be a substance of about the consistency of a +marshmallow," mused Just, thoughtfully. "I detest marshmallows," he +added, with some resentment. + +"Oh, go to bed!" murmured Jeff. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Nobody at home, eh? Well, I'm sorry. I wanted to see somebody very +much. And there's no one at the other house, either. I'm away so much I +see altogether too little of these people, Mrs. Fields." Thus spoke +Doctor Forester of the city--the old friend and family counselor of both +Birches and Churchills. + +His son Frederic--who had managed since his return from study abroad to +see much more of the Birch household than his father--was watching the +conversation on the door-step from his position in the driver's place on +Doctor Forester's big automobile, which stood at the curb. It was a cool +day in May, and a light breeze was blowing. + +"I don't know but Miss Evelyn's in the house somewhere," admitted Mrs. +Fields. "But I don't suppose you'd care to see her?" + +"Miss Evelyn? Why, certainly I should! Please ask her to come down." + +So presently Evelyn was at the door, her slender hand in the big one of +the distinguished gentleman of whom she stood a little in awe. + +"All alone, Miss Evelyn?" said Doctor Forester. "Then suppose you get +your hat and a warm jacket and come with us. Fred and I expected to pick +up whomever we found and take them for a little run down to a certain +place on the river." + +Such an invitation was not to be resisted. Doctor Churchill and +Charlotte were at the hospital; Randolph was with them, visiting his +friends and proteges among the convalescent boys. Lucy had gone to town +with the Birches, and nobody knew where Jeff and Just might be. + +"Suppose you sit back in the tonneau with me," Doctor Forester +suggested. "Fred likes to be the whole thing on the front seat there." + +He put Evelyn in and tucked her up. "Wearing a cap? That's good sense. +It spoils my fun to take in a passenger with all sails spread. Hello, +son, what are you stopping for? Oh, I see!" + +It was Celia Birch beside whom the motor was bringing up with such a +sudden check to its speed. She had appeared at the corner of the street +and had instantly presented to the quick vision of Mr. Frederic Forester +a good and sufficient reason for coming to a stop. + +"Please come with us!" urged that young man, jumping out. "We've been to +the house for you." + +Celia put her hand to her head, "Just as I am?" she asked. + +"Just as you are. That little _chapeau_ will stay on all right. If it +doesn't I'll lend you my cap. Will you keep me company in front? Father +has appropriated Miss Evelyn behind there." + +Celia mounted to the seat, and they were off through the wide streets, +and presently away in the country, spinning along at a rate much faster +than either passenger realised. The machine was a fine one, operating +with so little fuss and fret that the speed it was capable of attaining +was not always appreciated. + +"Oh, this is glorious, isn't it, Evelyn?" cried Celia, over her +shoulder. + +Doctor Forester glanced from her to the young girl on the seat beside +him, smiling at both. "I'm glad you put your trust in the chauffeur so +implicitly. It took me some time to get used to him, but he proves +worthy of confidence. I wouldn't drive my own machine a block--never +have. Yes, it's delightful to go whirling along over the country in this +way. I suppose you don't know where I'm taking you?" + +"I don't think we much care," Celia answered, and Evelyn nodded. Both +were pink-cheeked and bright-eyed with the delight of the motion. + +The doctor did not explain where they were going until they had nearly +reached their destination. They had passed many fine country places all +along the way, and had reached a fork in the river. The broad road +leading on up the river was left behind as they turned to the left, +following the windings of the smaller stream. + +The character of the houses along the way had changed at once. They had +become comfortable farmhouses, with now and then a place of more modern +aspect. + +"This is the sort of thing I prefer," Doctor Forester announced, with +satisfaction. "I wouldn't give a picayune to own one of those castles, +back there. But down here I'm going to show you my ideal of comfort." + +Fred turned in at a gateway and drove on through orchards and grove to a +house behind the trees on the river bank. + +"Doesn't that look like home?" exclaimed the doctor, as they alighted. +"Well, it is home! I bought it yesterday, just as it stands. Nothing +fine about it, outside or in. I wanted it to run away to when I'm tired. +I'm not going to tell anybody about it except---" + +"Except every one he meets," Fred said, gaily, to Celia, leading her +toward the wide porch overlooking the river, about which the May vines +were beginning to cluster profusely. "He can't keep it a secret. I may +as well warn you he's going to invite you and the whole family out here +for a fortnight in June. So if you don't want to come you have a chance +to be thinking up a reasonable excuse." + +"As if we could want one! What a charming plan for us! Does he really +mean to include all of us?" + +"Every one, under both roofs. I assure you it's a jolly plan for us, and +I'm holding my breath till I know you'll come." + +"What a lovely rest it will be for Charlotte!" murmured Celia, thinking +at once, as usual, of somebody else. "She won't own it, but she's really +had a pretty hard winter." + +"So I should imagine, for the first year of one's married life. I'm +afraid I couldn't be as hospitable as she and her husband--not all at +once, you know. Do you think it's paid?" + +"What? Having the three through the winter?" Celia glanced at Evelyn, +who at the other end of the long porch with Doctor Forester was gazing +with happy eyes out over the sunlit river. "Oh, I'm sure Charlotte and +Andy would both say so. In Evelyn's case I think there's no doubt about +it. From being a delicate little invalid she's come to be the healthy +girl you see there. Not very vigorous yet, of course, but in a fair way +to become so, Andy thinks." + +"Yes, I can see," admitted Forester, thoughtfully. "But those other +youngsters--" + +Celia laughed. It was easy to think well of everybody out here in this +delicious air and in the company of people she thoroughly liked. Even +Lucy Peyton seemed less of an infliction. + +"Little Ran has certainly improved very much," she said, warmly. "And +even Lucy--" + +"Has Lucy improved?" Forester looked at her with a quizzical smile. "The +last time I saw her I thought she was rather going backward. I met her +by accident in town one day. Charlotte was shopping, and Lucy was +waiting. She rushed up to me as to a long lost friend. She practically +invited me to invite herself and Charlotte to lunch with me--she +somewhat grudgingly included Charlotte. I was rather taken off my feet +for an instant. Charlotte heard, and came up. I wish you could have seen +the expression on the face of Mrs. Andrew Churchill! I don't know which +felt the more crushed, Lucy or I. I assure you I was anxious to take +them both to lunch after that, Mrs. Andrew had made it so clearly +impossible." + +"The perversity of human desires," laughed Celia. "Poor Lucy! Charlotte +won't stand the child's absurd affectations." + +"Come here, and listen to my plan!" called Doctor Forester, unable to +wait longer to unfold it. So for the next half-hour the plan was +discussed in all its bearings. + +Celia proposed at once that they keep it a secret from Charlotte until +the last possible moment, and this was agreed upon. Then Evelyn +suggested, a little shyly, that it also remain unknown to Jeff. He was +to be graduated from college about the middle of June, was very busy and +hurried, and might appreciate the whole thing better when Commencement +was out of the way. It was finally decided that the party should come +down to "The Banks" upon the evening of Jeff's Commencement Day, and +that to him and Charlotte the whole arrangement should be a complete +surprise. + +The date was only three weeks ahead, and Celia and Evelyn, Mrs. Birch +and the others, found plenty to do in getting ready for the outing, to +say nothing of seeing that neither Charlotte nor Jeff made other +engagements for the period. + +"No, no, let's not get in our camping so early in the season. It'll be +all over too soon, then," argued Just with his brother. Upon Just +devolved the task of heading Jeff off for those prospective two weeks. +"Besides, I've an idea Lanse may prefer July or August." + +"If you'd been boning for examinations the way I have," retorted Jeff, +"your one idea would be to get off into the wilderness just as soon as +your sheepskin was fairly in your hands. I don't see why you argue +against going in June. You were eager enough for it a week ago." + +"Oh, not so awfully eager. I----" + +"You were in a frenzy to go. And I haven't cooled off, if you have." + +"He's hopeless," Just confided to Evelyn. "His granite mind is set on +going camping in June, and I can't get him off it. If you've any little +tricks of persuasiveness all your own now's your time to try 'em on him. +He'll spoil the whole thing." + +"Write your brother Lansing to tell Jeff to put it off on his account," +suggested Evelyn. + +"That won't do, unfortunately, for Lanse has been uncertain about going +all the time." + +"I'll try to think of something," promised Evelyn. + +She had a chance before the day was over. Jeff appeared, late in the +afternoon, and invited her to take a walk with him. + +"I'll tell you what I want," he said, as they went along. "Let's go down +by the old bridge at the pond, and if there's nobody about I'd like to +have you do me the favour of listening while I spout my class-day +oration. Would you mind?" + +"I shall be delighted," answered Evelyn, and this program was carried +out accordingly. Down behind the willows Jeff mounted a prostrate log +and gave vent to a vigorous and sincere discourse. + +"Splendid!" cried his audience, as he finished. "If you do it half as +well as that it will be a great success." + +"Glad you think so." Jeff descended from the log with a flushed brow and +an air of relief. "I'm not the fellow for class orator, I know, but I'm +it, and I don't want to disgrace the crowd. Pretty down here, isn't it?" + +"Beautiful. It makes me very blue to think of leaving it--as if I +oughtn't to be simply thankful I could be here so long. It was lovely of +your sister and brother to insist on my staying when my brother Thorne +had to go to Japan so suddenly." + +"You're not going soon?" Jeff looked dismayed. + +"Two weeks after your Commencement," said Evelyn. "My brother's ship +should be in port by the last of June, and I want to surprise him by +being at home when he reaches there. I shall leave here the minute he +gets into San Francisco." + +"Oh, that's too bad. I'd forgotten there was any such thing as your +going away. You seem--why, you seem one of us, you know!" declared Jeff, +as if there could be no stronger bond of union. + +"Oh, thank you--it's good of you to say so. You've all been so kind I +can't half tell you how I appreciate it. We'll have to make the most of +June, I think," said Evelyn, smiling rather wistfully, and looking away +across the little pond. + +"I should say so. We'll have every sort of lark we can think of the +minute Commencement's--Oh, I was going camping after that--but I'll put +it off. Just was arguing that way only this morning, but I saw no good +reason for waiting, then. Now, I do." + +"I'm sorry to have you put it off," protested Evelyn, with art. "Hadn't +you better go on with your plans, if they're all made? Of course I +should be sorry, but--" + +"Oh, I'll put it off!" said Jeff, decidedly, with the very human wish to +do the thing he need not do. + +So it was settled. Commencement came rapidly on, bringing with it the +round of festivals peculiar to that season. Jeff insisted on the +presence of his entire family at every event, and for a week, as +Charlotte said, it seemed as if they all lived in flowered organdies and +white gloves. + +"I'm really thankful this is the last," sighed Celia, coming over with +her mother and Just to join the party assembling for the final great +occasion on the Churchill's porch. "Evelyn, how dear you look in that +forget-me-not frock! And that hat is a dream." + +"Well, people, we must be off. When it's all over, let's come out here +on the porch in the dark and luxuriate." Charlotte drew a long breath as +she spoke. + +"That will be a rest," agreed Celia, with a private pinch of Evelyn's +arm, and Lucy and Randolph giggled. + +The younger two had been let into the secret only within the last +twenty-four hours, fears being entertained that they might not be safe +repositories of mystery. Celia gave them a warning look as she passed +them, and kept them away from Charlotte during the car ride into the +city. + +"How well the dear boy looks!" whispered his family, one to another, as +the class filed into the University chapel in cap and gown. They were in +a front row, where Jeff could look down at them when he should come upon +the stage for his diploma. + +There was not the slightest possibility of his looking either there or +anywhere else. His oration had been delivered on class day, and his +remaining part in the exercises of graduation was to listen respectfully +to the distinguished gentlemen who took part, and to watch with +interested eyes the conferring of many higher degrees before it was time +for himself and his class to receive the sonorous Latin address which +ended by bestowing upon them the title of Bachelor of Arts. + +It was a proud moment, nevertheless, and many hearts beat high when it +came. Down in that row near the front father and mother, brothers and +sisters and friends, watched a certain erect figure as if there were no +others worth looking at--as all over the hall other affectionate eyes +watched other youthful, manly forms. + +Jeff had worked hard for his degree, being not by nature a student, like +his elder brother Lansing, but fonder of active, outdoor life than of +books. He had been incited to deeds of valour in the classroom only by +the grim determination not to disgrace the family traditions or the +scholarly ancestors to whom he had often been pointed back. + +"Thank heaven it's over!" exulted Jeff, with his classmates, when, after +the last triumphant speech of the evening, the audience was dismissed to +the strains of a rejoicing orchestra. + +"Say, fellows, I'm going to bolt. Hullo, Just! Ask Evelyn for me if she +won't go home flying with me in the Houghton auto--Carolyn's just sent +me word." + +"That will be just the thing," whispered Celia to Evelyn, when the +message came. "Go with him, but don't let him stop at the Houghtons'. +Whisper it to Carolyn, and see that he's safely on the porch with you +when we get there." + +Evelyn nodded and disappeared with Just, who took her to his brother. + +"Now we're off," murmured Jeff, as he and Evelyn followed Carolyn and +her brother out through a side entrance. "What a night! What a moon! My, +but it feels good to be out in the open air after that pow-wow in +there!" + +They had half an hour to themselves in the quiet of the moonlit porch +before the others, coming by electric car, could reach home. + +They filled the time by sitting quietly on the top step, Jeff in the +subdued mood of the young graduate who sees, after all, much to regret +in the coming to an end of the years of getting ready for his life-work. +He was, besides, not a little wearied by the final examinations, +preparation for his part in Commencement, and the closing round of +exercises. Evelyn, herself somewhat fatigued, leaned back against the +porch pillar and gladly kept silence. + +Before the others came Jeff spoke abruptly. "It isn't everybody who +knows when to let a fellow be an oyster," he said, gratefully. "But I'm +getting over the oyster mood now, and feel like talking. Do you know, +you're going to leave an awful vacancy behind you when you go?" + +"Oh, no," Evelyn answered. "There are so many of you, and you have such +good times together, you can't mind much when a stranger goes away." + +"Call yourself that?" Jeff laughed. "Well I assure you we don't. You're +too thoroughly one of us--in the way of liking the things we like and +despising the things we despise. Hullo, here come the people! It was +rather stealing a march on them to race home in an auto and let them +follow by car, wasn't it?' Let's go make 'em some lemonade to cheer +their souls." + +"All right." Evelyn was wondering if this would give her the necessary +chance to change her dress, when the big Forester automobile rounded the +corner and rolled up to the curb, just as the party from the car reached +the steps. Behind it followed a second car of still more ample +dimensions. + +"I've come to take the whole party for a moonlight drive down the +river!" called Frederic Forester. "Go take off those cobweb frocks and +put on something substantial. I'll give you ten minutes. I've the +prettiest sight to show you you've seen this year." + +"I believe I'm too tired and sleepy to go," said Charlotte to Andy, as +he followed her up-stairs. "This week of commencing has about finished +me. Can't you excuse me to Fred? You go with them, if you like." + +"I don't like, without you." Doctor Churchill was divesting himself of +white cravat and collar. "I know you're worn out, dear, but I think the +ride will brace you up. It's hot in the house to-night; it will be +blissfully cool out on the river road. Besides, Forester would be +disappointed. It isn't every night he comes for us with a pair of autos. + +"If I were going all alone with you in the runabout--" sighed Charlotte, +with a languor unusual to her. + +"I know, I'd like that better myself. But you needn't talk on this +trip--there are enough to keep things lively without you. You shall sit +next your big boy, and he'll hold your hand in the dark," urged Doctor +Churchill, artfully. + +"On that condition, then," and Charlotte rose from among the pillows, +where she had sunk. + +There was certainly something very refreshing about the swift motion in +the June air. Leaning against her husband's shoulder, Charlotte began to +rest. + +It had been a busy week, the heat had been of that first unbearable high +temperature of mid-June with which some seasons assault us, and young +Mrs. Churchill had felt her responsibilities more heavily than ever +before. As the car flew down the river road she shut her eyes. + +"Why, where are we turning in?" Charlotte opened her eyes. She had been +almost asleep, soothed by the cool and quiet. + +"Look ahead through the trees," Doctor Churchill said in her ear, and +Charlotte sat up. + +She saw on the river bank, far ahead, a low house with long porches, +hung thickly with Chinese lanterns. Each window glowed with one of the +swinging globes, and long lines of them stretched off among the trees. +At one side gleamed two white tents, and in front of these burned +bonfires. + +"What is it? It must be a lawn party. But we're not dressed for it!" +murmured Charlotte, her eyes wide open now. + +Just then a tremendous shout from the automobile in front rang through +the grove. Their own car ran up to the steps, where stood Doctor +Forester and John Lansing Birch under the lanterns, both dressed from +head to foot in white. + +"Welcome to 'The Banks!'" the doctor cried. "Charlotte, my dear, why +this expression of amazement? You've only come to my house party, my +woods party, my river party--for a fortnight--all of you. Will you stay, +or are you going to sit staring down at us with those big black eyes +forever?" + +"I think I'll stay," said Charlotte, happily, slipping down from the car +into her brother's outstretched arms. "O Lanse! O Lanse! It's good to +see you. _What_ a surprise!" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Charlotte swung herself up into the runabout as Doctor Churchill paused +for her at the gateway of "The Banks." She had met him here at six +o'clock every day since they came, and this was the seventh day. + +It was impossible for him to get through his round of work earlier, but +he was enjoying his evenings and nights in the country with a zest +almost sufficient to make up for the daytime hours he missed. + +Charlotte, however, although she joined merrily in all that went on +through the day, was never so happy as when this hour arrived, and +dressed in cool white for the evening, she could slip away and walk +slowly down this winding road through the orchard and the grove to the +gateway. Here she waited in a shady nook for the first puff of the +coming motor. The moment she heard it she sprang out into the roadway, +and stood waving her handkerchief in response to a swinging cap far up +the road. + +Then came the nearer salutation, the quick climb into the small car, +assisted by the grip of Andy's hand, and the eager greeting of two pairs +of eyes. + +"Do you know this outing is doing you a world of good already?" said +Doctor Churchill, noting with approval the fresh colour in Charlotte's +face. + +"I know it is. I didn't realise that I needed it a bit until I actually +found myself here, with nothing to do except rest and play. It's doing +everybody good. You should have heard the plans at breakfast to-day. +Although it's been so hot, nobody has been idle a minute. I've been +fishing all day with Lanse and Fred and Celia. Andy, do you know what I +think? I admit I didn't think it till Lanse put it into my head, but I +believe he's right. Fred----" + +"Is going to want Celia? Of course. That was a foregone conclusion from +the start." + +"Andy Churchill, you weren't so discerning as all that, when not even I +thought it was serious with either of them! Celia's had so many +admirers, and turned them all aside so coolly--and Mr. Frederic Forester +is such an accomplished person at paying attentions--how could I think +it meant anything? But Lanse insists Celia is different from what she +ever was before, and I don't know but he's right." + +"To be sure he's right. Next to you, I never saw a more attractive young +person than Celia. What a charming colour you have, child! To be sure, +you have burned the tip of that small Greek nose a very little, but I +find even that adorable. Charlotte, stop pinching my arm. If you're half +as glad to have me get here as I am to arrive, you're pretty happy. I +laid stern commands on Mrs. Fields not to telephone, unless it were a +matter of absolute necessity, so I'm pretty sure of not being +disturbed." + +They found supper laid on the piazza, and enjoyed it with keen +appetites. Afterward they spent an hour drifting on the river, followed +by a long and delightful evening on the lawn at the river bank. Celia +and Lanse picked the strings of violin and viola, and the others sang. +Doctor Forester, in his white clothes lay stretched on a rustic seat, +and professed himself to be having "the time of his life." + +"I don't think the rest of us are far behind you," declared Lanse. "If +you people had been digging away at law in a hot old office you'd think +this was Paradise." + +Evelyn, looking out over the moonlit river, drew a little sigh which she +meant nobody to hear, but Jeff divined it, and whispered, under cover of +an extravaganza from Just in regard to the night, the company, and the +occasion, "You're coming again next summer, you know. And all winter +we'll write about it--shall we?" + +"Do you think you will have time to write?" she asked. + +"Have time! I should say I would make time," he murmured. "Think I'm +going to stand having this sort of thing cut off short? I guess +not--unless--you're the one who hasn't time. And even then I don't think +I could be kept from boring you with letters." + +"I shall certainly want to hear what you all are doing," she answered. + +She was thinking about this plan when she went up-stairs to bed an hour +later. Jeff had stopped her at the foot of the stairs to say, "I'd just +like a good secure promise from you about that letter-writing. I'll +enjoy the time that's left a lot better if I know it isn't coming to a +regular jumping-off place at the end. Will you promise to write +regularly?" + +She paused on the bottom step, where she was just on a level with the +straightforward dark eyes, half boy's, half man's, which met hers with +the clear look of good comradeship. There was no sentimentality in the +gaze, but undeniably strong liking and respect. She answered in Jeff's +own spirit: + +"I promise. I really shouldn't know how to do without hearing about your +plans and the things that happen to you. I'm not a very good +letter-writer, but I'll try to tell you things that will interest you." + +"Good! I'm no flowery expert myself, but I fancy we can write as we +talk, and that's enough for me. Good-night! Happy dreams." + +"Good-night!" she responded, and went on up-stairs, turning to wave at +Jeff from the landing, as he stood in the doorway, preparing to go out +to the tents where he and Just, Doctor Forester, Frederic and Lanse were +spending these dry June nights. + +Evelyn went on to the odd old bedroom under the gable, where she and +Lucy were quartered together. She found Lucy lying so still that she +thought her asleep, and so made ready for bed with speed and quiet, +remembering that Lucy had been first to come in, and imagining her tired +with the day's sports. + +Evelyn herself did not go at once to sleep. There were too many pleasant +things to think of for that; and although her eyes began to close at +last, she was yet, at the end of half an hour, awake, when Lucy stirred +softly beside her and sat up in bed. After a moment the younger girl +slipped out to the floor, using such care that Evelyn thought her making +unusual and kindly effort not to disturb her bedfellow. + +After a little, as Lucy did not return, Evelyn opened her eyes and +looked out into the moonlight. Lucy was dressing, so rapidly and +noiselessly that Evelyn watched her, amazed. + +She was on the point of asking if the girl were ill when she observed +that Lucy was putting on the delicate dress and gay ribbons she had worn +during the evening, and was even arranging her hair. Something prompted +Evelyn to lie still, for in all the winter's association she had never +grown quite to trust Lucy or to like her ways. + +More than any one else, however, she herself had won the other girl's +liking, and had come to feel a certain responsibility for her. So when +Lucy, after making wholly ready, had stolen to the door, let herself +out, and closed it silently behind her, Evelyn sprang out of bed. + +Perhaps Lucy simply could not sleep, she said to herself, and had gone +down to sit on the lower porch, or lie in one of the hammocks swinging +under the trees. The night was exceedingly warm, even the usual cooling +breath from the river being absent. + +"That's all there is of it," said Evelyn, reassuringly, to herself, +although at the same time she felt uneasiness enough to send her out +into the hall to a gable window over the porch, which commanded a view +of the camp. Nothing stirring was to be seen, except the dwindling flame +of the evening camp-fire, burned every night for cheer, not for warmth. +Evelyn crept to a side window. As she reached it a white figure could be +seen hurrying away through the orchard. + +Back in her room, Evelyn dressed with as much haste as Lucy had done, if +with less care. Instead of the white frock of the evening, however, she +put on a dark blue linen, for she was sure that she must follow Lucy and +discover what this strange departure, stealthily made at midnight, could +mean. + +She went down to the front door. The moment she opened it a tall figure +started up from one of the long lounging chairs there, and Jeff's voice +said softly, "Charlotte?" + +"No, it's Evelyn," she whispered back. "Don't be surprised. I thought +everybody in the camp was asleep." + +"I wasn't sleepy, and thought I'd lounge here till I was. What's the +matter? Anybody sick?" + +"No. I'm just going for a little walk." + +"Walk? At this hour? Can't you sleep? But you mustn't go and walk alone, +you know. I'll go with you." + +She did not want to tell him, but she saw no other way. + +"It's Lucy," she explained hurriedly. "She's dressed and gone out +somewhere, and I can't think why. It frightened me, and I'm going to +follow her." + +"No, you stay here and I'll follow. Which way did she go? What can she +be up to? That girl's a queer one, and I've thought so from the first." + +"No, no! There's some explanation. It may be she walks in her sleep, you +know--though I'm sure she's never done it this winter. Let me go, Jeff; +she'll get too far. She took the path toward the river. Oh, if it +_should_ be sleep-walking----" + +"I guess it's not sleep-walking." Jeff's tone was skeptical. + +But Evelyn had started away at a run, and Jeff was after her. The two +hastened along with light, noiseless steps. At the bottom of the path, +on the very brink of the river, was an old summer-house, looking out +over the water. It was a favourite retreat, for the boat-house and the +landing were but a rod away, and after a row on the river the shaded +summer-house was a pleasant place in which to linger. + +"Hush!" breathed Evelyn, stopping short as they neared the summer-house. + +They advanced with caution, and presently, as they drew within speaking +distance of the little structure, they saw a white-clad figure emerge +from it and stand just outside. Jeff drew Evelyn quickly and silently +into the shelter of a cluster of hemlocks. + +After a space the dip of oars lightly broke the stillness of the night, +and soon a row-boat pulled quietly into view, with one dark figure +outlined against the gleam of the moonlit water. Evelyn caught a +smothered sound from Jeff, whether of recognition or of displeasure she +could not tell. She felt her own pulses throbbing with excitement and +anxiety. + +The stranger pulled in to the landing, noiselessly shipped his oars, +jumped out and made fast. Lucy came cautiously down to the wharf, and +against the radiance of the moonlight on the river the two behind the +trees could see the greeting. + +The slight, boyish figure which met Lucy had a familiar look to Jeff, +but he could not tell with any certainty whose it might be. That it was +youthful there could be no question. Even in the dim light the +diffidence of both boy and girl could be plainly observed. + +"Young idiots!" exploded Jeff, between his teeth, as the two they were +watching sat down side by side on the steps of the boat-landing, where +only their heads were visible to the watchers--heads decidedly close +together. Then he bent close to Evelyn's ear and whispered, "Come +farther back with me, and we'll decide what to do." + +With the utmost caution the two made their retreat. At a safe distance +Jeff halted, and said rapidly, "I think the best thing will be for you +to go back to bed and to sleep--if you can. At any rate, don't let her +know that you hear her come in. I'll come back here and mount guard. I +won't let them see me. I'll take care that Lucy gets safely back to the +house, and I won't interfere unless she attempts to go off in the boat +with him or do some fool thing like that. You needn't worry. They aren't +going to run away and get married. She's just full of sentimental +nonsense, and thinks it romantic and grown-up to steal out in the night +to meet some idiot of a boy--you can see that's all he is by his build. +Probably somebody we know, don't you think that's the best plan?" + +"Yes, for to-night," agreed Evelyn, in a troubled whisper. "I feel as if +I ought to talk to her when she comes in, though." + +"If you do you'll just make her angry. The thing is to let her go +uncaught until we can think what to do. Little simpleton!" + +"I'll do as you say, but--don't be hard on her, Jeff. She's just silly; +she hasn't been brought up like your sisters." + +"Or like you," thought Jeff, as he watched the figure before him flit +away toward the house. He followed at a distance, till he saw the door +close on Evelyn; then he went back to his post. + +The next morning, as he and Evelyn walked down the road through the +apple-orchard toward the gateway, to open the rural-delivery mail-box, +which stood just outside the gate, Jeff told Evelyn what he had found +out. + +"Nothing more serious than a simple case of spoon," he said, with an +expression at which Evelyn might have laughed if she had not felt so +disturbed. "The boy turned out to be our next neighbour here. They've +made another appointment for to-night. He thinks it a great +lark--probably will brag about it to all the boys. He's got to eat his +little dish of humble pie, too. Evelyn, I've a plan. Will you trust me +to carry it out to-night?" + +She looked at him. In her face was written a concern for Lucy so tender +that Jeff adored her for it. At the same time he hastened to assure her +that it was needless. + +"If you merely talk with her I don't think that will do it," he said, +decidedly. "She's been with you all winter, has seen just how a girl +should behave,"--he did not know what a thrill of happiness this bluntly +sincere compliment gave his hearer--"and she hasn't taken it in a bit. +She needs something to bring her to her senses. I'd rather not tell you +my plan, for if you can assure her afterward that you weren't in it, you +can do her more good than if she's as provoked at you as she's sure to +be at me. But I give you my word of honour I'll not do a thing to +frighten her, or play any fool practical jokes. I'll have to let Just +into the secret, I think, but nobody else. Will you trust me?" + +"Of course, I will," said the girl, quickly. "On just one condition, +Jeff. Think of her as if she were your own sister, and don't--don't----" + +"Be 'as funny as I can'? No, I won't." + +Evelyn observed Lucy all that day with understanding, and found herself +longing to warn the girl that her foolishness was about to meet with its +punishment. She noted with sorrow the strangely excited look in the +young eyes, the light, half-hysterical laugh, the changing colour in the +pretty face. Lucy's promise of beauty had never seemed to her so +characterless, or her words so empty of sense. + +She found her in a corner of their room, reading a worn novel by a +certain author whose very name she had been taught to regard as a +synonym for vapidity and sentimentalism of the most highly flavoured +sort, and she could not keep back a quick exclamation at sight of it. +Lucy looked up with a frown and a flush. + +"I suppose you think it's terrible to read novels," she said, pettishly +flirting the leaves. "Well, I don't." + +"Dear, it's not 'novels' that I've been taught to despise, but the sort +of novel that writer writes. I don't know anything about them myself, +but I saw my brother Thorne once put that one you're reading in the +stove and jam on the cover, as if he were afraid it would get out. Do +you wonder I don't like to see Lucy Peyton reading it?" asked Evelyn +gently, with her cheek against the other girl's. + +"He must be a terrible Miss Nancy, then," said Lucy, defiantly. "There's +not a thing in it that couldn't be in a Sunday-school book. The heroine +is the sweetest thing." + +"If she is she won't mind your putting her down and coming out for a +walk with me," answered Evelyn, with a smile which might have captivated +Lucy if she had seen it. But the younger girl got up and flung away out +of the room, murmuring that she did not feel like walking, and would +take herself and her book where they would not bother people. + +Evelyn looked after her with a little sigh, and owned that Jeff might be +right in thinking that mere gentle argument with Lucy would have scant +effect on a head full of nonsense or a heart whose love for the sweet +and true had had far too little development. + +Half an hour before the time set for the rendezvous at the summer-house +that night Jeff and Just walked down the path, shoulder to shoulder, +talking under their breath. Just, being younger, was even more deeply +interested than his brother in the prospective encounter, and received +his final instructions with ill-concealed glee. + +"All right!" he gurgled. "I'm to give him a good scare, in the shape of +a lecture--with a thrashing promised if he cuts up any more. He's to +give his word, on pain of a lot of things, not to give any of this +little performance of his away to a soul. Then he's to be forbidden the +premises while Miss Peyton is on them. I understand." + +"Well, now, look here," warned Jeff. "I give you leave, but, mind you, I +trust your discretion, too. You never can tell what these Willie-boys +will do. Dignity's your cue. Be stern as an avenging fate, but don't get +to cuffing him round and batting him with language just because you're +bigger. You----" + +"Look here," expostulated Just, aggrieved, "you picked me out for this +job; now leave it to me. I'll have the boy saying 'sir' to me before I +get through." + +Just ran down to the boat-house, got out a slim craft, launched it, and +was about rowing away when he bethought himself of something. He pulled +in to the landing, made fast his painter, and ran like a deer up to the +house. He was back in five minutes. + +"Don't believe I'll go by boat, after all," he whispered to Jeff, +standing in the summer-house door. "It might be simpler not to have a +boat to bother with. I'll just leave the _Butterfly_ tied there, and put +her up when I get back." + +He was off before Jeff could reply. Jeff started toward the boat to put +it up, but stopped, considering. + +Lucy would think it that of her admirer, and would be all the more sure +to keep her appointment. He left it as it was, swinging lightly on the +water, six feet out. It was a habit of Just's to moor a boat at the +length of her painter, to prevent her bumping against the rough old +landing. + +Lucy, coming swiftly down the path fifteen minutes later, saw the boat +and hastened her steps. She did not observe that this was a slimmer, +longer craft than the boat George Jarvis was using. She reached the +landing and looked about. Of course he was in the summer-house. She went +to it, her skirts, which she had of late been surreptitiously +lengthening, held daintily in her hand. + +As she came close, a figure appeared in the doorway. Before she could be +frightened by the realisation that it was not Jarvis's slender young +frame which confronted her, Jeff accosted her in the mildest tones +imaginable: + +"It's only Jefferson Birch. Don't be scared. Fine night, isn't it?" + +"Y-yes," stammered Lucy, in dismay. She stood still, her skirts gathered +close, as if she were about to run. + +"Don't go. Out for a stroll? So am I," said Jeff, pleasantly, as if +midnight promenades were the accustomed thing at "The Banks." "Won't you +sit down?" + +There were seats outside the summer-house as well as within, and he +motioned toward one of them. + +"No, thank you. I think I'll go back," said Lucy, and her voice +trembled. + +"Why, you've only just come! Why not stay a while and have a visit with +me? You must have been intending to stay." + +"Oh, no!" said Lucy, eagerly, and stopped short, listening. What if +George Jarvis should come round the corner at any moment? She must get +Jeff away with her. "Won't you walk along up to the house with me? I +only came down to see if I'd left something in the summer-house." + +Jeff had planned what he would say to her, but at this his disgust got +the better of him. "Lucy," said he--and his voice had changed from +lightness to gravity--"don't you mind a bit _saying what isn't true_?" + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +"What do you mean, Jefferson Birch, by saying such a thing?" Lucy's tone +was one of mingled anger and fright. + +"I mean," said Jeff, coolly, "that if coming down here to meet George +Jarvis were what you were proud of doing, you wouldn't try to cover it +up. Do you know, Lu, I'm tremendously sorry you find any fun in a thing +like that." + +"Dear me,"--Lucy tried hard to assume her usual self-confident +manner--"Who appointed you guardian of young ladies?" + +"The trouble is--well--you're not a young lady yet. You're only a girl. +If you were a real grown-up young lady there'd be nothing I could do +about your stealing out at this late hour to meet a young man except to +laugh and think my own thoughts. But since you're only a girl--" + +"You can insult me!" Lucy was very near tears now--angry, mortified +tears. + +"I don't mean to insult you, and I think you know that. If anybody has +insulted you it's the boy who asked you to meet him here. He must have +been the one to propose it, of course, and you thought it would be fun. +Lu, when I found this out I should have gone straight to my sister +Charlotte and told her to come and meet you here instead of myself, if I +hadn't known how it would disappoint her. She would have taken it to +heart much more seriously than you can realise. She's entertained you +all winter and spring, and the responsibilities of looking after you and +Ran have been heavy on her shoulders. She's tried hard to give you a +good time, too." + +Lucy turned and walked deliberately away down the path toward the +boat-landing. + +"I'm bungling it," thought Jeff, uncomfortably, and stood still, +waiting. "Perhaps I ought to have let Evelyn tackle the business, after +all." + +Lucy walked out upon the landing, where the _Butterfly_ swung lazily in +the wash of the current. Suddenly, quite without warning, she ran the +length of the little pier and leaped for the boat. It had looked an easy +distance, but as she made the jump she realised too late that the +interval of water between pier and boat was wider than it had looked in +the moonlight. With a scream and a splash she went down, and an instant +later Jeff, dashing down the pier, saw only a widening circle gleaming +faintly on the water. + +He flung off his coat, tore off his low shoes, and waited. The +river-bottom shelved suddenly just where the pier ended, and the depth +was fully twenty feet. Moment after moment went by while he watched +breathlessly for the appearance of the girl at the surface. The current +was strong a few feet out, and his gaze swept the water for some +distance. When he caught sight of the break in the surface which told +him what he wanted, it was even farther down-stream than he had +calculated. + +"I mustn't risk this alone," he thought, quickly, and gave several +ringing shouts for Just, whom he knew to be only two or three hundred +yards up-shore. Then he made his plunge, swimming furiously to get below +the place where the girl's white-clad form had risen, that he might be +at hand when his chance came again. + +The current helped him, and so did the moonlight on the water. It was in +the very centre of a glinting spot of light that Lucy came to the +surface the second time. Before she had sunk out of sight Jeff had her +by the skirts, and was working desperately to get her head above water. +She was struggling with all her fierce young strength, crazed with +fright and suffocation, and she continually dragged him under in her +blind attempts to pull herself up by him. + +When he could get breath he shouted again, and after what seemed to him +an age, there came a response from two directions. Just running along +the river bank, and Doctor Churchill, plunging down the hill, saw, and +were coming to the rescue. + +"Hold on! Hold on! I'm coming!" both shouted as they ran. + +Doctor Churchill, having the easier course, reached the bank first. +Being clad only in his pajamas, he was unburdened by superfluous +clothing. With a long leap he was in the water, and with a half-dozen +vigorous strokes he had reached Jeff's elbow. + +"Let go! I've got her!" he cried, and Jeff, spluttering and breathing +hard, attempted to let go. + +But Lucy still fought so desperately that it was no easy matter to get +her clutch away from Jeff's clothing. By this time, however, Just was +also in the water, and the three soon had the girl under control. + +"Keep quiet! You're all right! Let us take you in!" called Doctor +Churchill to the struggling, strangling little figure. So in a minute +more they had her on the bank. + +"Why, it's Lucy!" Doctor Churchill cried in astonishment, as he dropped +upon his knees beside her and fell to work. + +"Yes, it's Lucy!" panted Jeff. + +But there was no chance just then for explanations. For the next ten +minutes he and Just were kept busy obeying peremptory orders. As under +Andy's directions they silently and anxiously worked over the young form +upon the grass, they were feeling intensely grateful that the necessary +skill had been so close at hand. But until the doctor's satisfied "She's +coming out all right!" gave them leave, neither dared draw a good breath +for himself. + +Just was wondering what he and Jeff were to say, but his brother was +heaping reproaches upon himself, and sternly holding Jeff Birch +responsible for the whole unfortunate affair. + +By the time Lucy was herself again and able to breathe without distress, +Evelyn had come flying down the path---the only other person roused by +the distant shouts. It had been a day full of active sports, and +everybody was sleeping the sleep of the weary. Even Charlotte had not +been roused by Andy's departure. + +Just ran to the house for blankets; Evelyn, at Doctor Churchill's +direction, followed him to prepare a steaming hot drink for Lucy; and +presently they had her in her bed, warm and dry, although much exhausted +by her experience in the waters of the river, which were cold even on a +June night. Doctor Churchill had insisted on calling Charlotte, but +Evelyn had begged him to arouse nobody else, and after one look into her +face he had agreed. + +At last, Lucy having dropped off to sleep under the soothing influence +of the hot beverage, the others gathered quietly in a lower room. The +three wet ones had acquired dry if informal garments, and a council had +been asked for by Evelyn. + +"It's entirely my fault," began Jeff, promptly, and he plunged into a +brief but graphic account of the accident. + +"It's not in the least your fault," Evelyn interrupted, at last, as Jeff +came to a pause with a repetition of his self-condemnation. "It's mine, +if anybody's. I should have taken the whole thing to Mrs. Churchill at +once, instead of trying to keep it quiet." + +"My meeting her down there alone was entirely my plan," began Jeff +again; but this time it was his sister Charlotte who interrupted. + +"Neither of you is in the least to blame, my dears," she said, smiling +on them both. "You had the best of motives, and the plan might have +worked out well but for the child's sudden mad idea of jumping into that +boat. I suppose she meant to row away." + +"She didn't stop to cast off--she couldn't have got away before I should +have been in the boat, too," objected Jeff. + +"That simply shows how out of her head with excitement she was. But +that's all over. She mercifully wasn't drowned"--a little involuntary +shiver passed over the speaker--"and we'll hope for no serious +consequences. The thing now is to think how to act when she wakes in the +morning." + +"I should say treat the whole thing for what it is, a childish escapade. +Show her the silliness of it, and then let it drop," said Doctor +Churchill. + +Charlotte looked at him appealingly. + +"Lucy and Ran go home next week," she said, slowly. "I hoped--I wanted +so much to send Lucy away with--I can't express it--a little bit higher +ideals than any she has known before. I thought we were succeeding; she +has seemed more considerate and less fault-finding." + +"She certainly has," Evelyn agreed quickly, and the two looked at each +other. There was an instant's silence; then Just spoke: + +"How do you know but you'll find her quite a different proposition when +she wakes up? A plunge like that is a sobering sort of experience, I +should say, for a girl who can't swim. She may be the meekest thing on +earth after this. If it does her as much good as a lively dressing down +did George Jarvis, she's likely to be a changed girl." + +They could not help smiling at the satisfaction in the boy's voice. "He +may be right," admitted Doctor Churchill. + +"At any rate, if Lucy isn't ill to-morrow let's tell nobody what has +happened. The poor child certainly doesn't need any more humiliation +just at present, and I'd like to spare her all I can." Charlotte spoke +decidedly. + +They agreed to this. Evelyn went to her place beside Lucy, planning an +affectionate greeting when the younger girl should wake; and Charlotte, +when she fell asleep, dreamed of Lucy until morning. + +It was quite a different Lucy who met them all in the morning. She +showed no ill effects except a slight languor, and when Charlotte had +established her in a hammock on the porch, she lay there with a quiet, +sober face, which showed that she had been doing some thinking. + +When Jeff approached with his most deferential manner to inquire after +her welfare, she astonished him by saying more simply and sweetly than +he had dreamed possible: + +"I want to tell you I won't forget what you did for me last night. I was +foolish, I suppose. I--I didn't think what I was doing was any harm, but +I--" + +She choked a little and felt for her handkerchief. Jeff grasped her +hand. He had a warm heart, and he had not got over the thought of how he +should have felt if he had not been able to rescue the girl he had +attempted to lecture. His answer to Lucy was very gentle: + +"We'll never think of it again. I'm awfully thankful it all ended well. +If you'll forgive me for frightening you, I'll say that I'm sure you're +really a sensible little girl, and I shan't lie awake nights worrying +over your taking midnight strolls." + +His tone was not priggish, and his smile was so bright that Lucy took +heart of grace, and said, earnestly, "You needn't. I don't want any +more," and buried her face in her pillow. + +But it was not to cry, for Evelyn came by. Jeff called to her, and +between them they soon had Lucy smiling. Before the day was over she had +had a little talk with Charlotte, in which the young married woman came +nearer to the heart of the girl that she had ever succeeded in doing +before, and Lucy had learned one or two simple lessons she never forgot. + +"But it's the first and last time I ever attempt the education of the +young girl," declared Jeff, solemnly, to Evelyn, that afternoon, as they +gathered armfuls of old-fashioned June roses for the decoration of the +porch. + +"Don't feel too badly. Lucy is going to value your respect very much +after this, and I think you'll be able to give it to her. A girl who has +no older brother misses a great deal, I think. I don't know what I +should have done without mine," answered Evelyn, reaching up to pull at +a pink cluster far above her head. + +"Let me get that for you," and Jeff's long arm easily grasped the spray +and drew it down to her. "Well, I owe a lot to my sisters, that's sure." + +With quite a knightly air he cut the fairest bud at hand, and gave it to +her, saying quietly, "You wouldn't like it if I said anything soft and +sentimental, but you won't mind if I tell you that you seem to me a lot +like that bud there--that's going to blossom some day." + +He knew it pleased her, for the ready colour told him so. But she +answered lightly: + +"As yet I'm quite content to be only a bud. Your sister Celia is the +opening rose. Isn't she lovely? Here's one just like her. Take it to her +and tell her I said so, will you?" + +She plucked the rose and motioned to where Celia was coming alone along +the orchard road, Frederic Forester having just left her for a hasty +trip to town. Jeff laughed, took the rose and the message, and brought +back Celia's thanks. Evelyn met him with her full basket, and the +rose-picking was over. + +"She says to tell you you're a flatterer, but being a woman, she likes +it--and you," said Jeff, taking her basket away. + +Doctor Forester's party had lasted eight days now, and his guests were +planning how to make the most of the time remaining, when Doctor +Churchill came spinning out in the middle of a Thursday morning with a +letter. Mrs. Peyton had sent word that Randolph and Lucy were to meet +her in a distant city, thirty-six hours' ride away. From there the trio +were to proceed to their home. + +"They will have to leave this evening in order to make it," Doctor +Churchill announced. "This letter has barely allowed time--a little +characteristic of Cousin Lula which I remember of old. She has an idea +that time and tide--if they wait for no man--can sometimes be prevailed +upon to change their schedule on account of a woman." + +Upon hearing the news Lucy burst into tears. She did not want to go, she +did not want to go so soon--more than all, she was afraid to go alone. + +"Undoubtedly some one can be found who is going the same way," the +letter read, easily, "and in any case, you can put them in charge of the +railroad officials, who will see that they make no mistakes. I cannot +possibly afford to come so far for them." + +"Why can't Evelyn go now, too?" pleaded Lucy, as she and Evelyn, +Charlotte and Celia were being conveyed on a rapid run home by Frederic +Forester. It had been decided necessary for all feminine hands to fall +to work, to accomplish the packing in time to get the young people off +at nine that evening. + +"Evelyn doesn't go until next Tuesday, and this is only Thursday," +Charlotte answered, promptly. + +"Five days isn't much difference," urged Lucy mournfully. "And when +Evelyn's going right over the same road almost to our home, I should +think she'd like to go when we do, if it did cut off a little. She's +been here all winter." + +"So have you, Lu, and you don't want to go," Charlotte reminded her. + +She did not say that nobody could bear to think of Evelyn's departure +any sooner than was absolutely necessary, for it was not possible +honestly to say the same about Lucy. But when they reached the house, +and Charlotte had run up to her room to exchange her dress for a working +frock, Evelyn came to her and softly closed the door. Evelyn had +persuaded herself that she ought to accompany the others. + +"It isn't as if Lucy were a different sort of girl," she argued--against +her own wishes, for she longed to stay more than she dared to own. "But +nobody knows how she might behave--if anybody tried to get to know +her--somebody she oughtn't to know. And besides, she's afraid. It really +doesn't matter. I can use the extra time getting things ready for +Thorne. Please don't urge me, Mrs. Churchill. It won't be a bit easier +next week." + +Gentle as she was, Charlotte had learned that when Evelyn made up her +mind that she ought to do a thing, it was as good as done. So presently +Evelyn, too, was packing, her smiles at the remonstrances of Charlotte +and Celia very sweet, her heart very heavy. + +"Well, dear, I've telephoned the others at 'The Banks,'" said Charlotte, +coming into Evelyn's room, having just left Lucy in an ecstatic +condition over the decision. "You should have heard the dismay. Jeff and +Just have already started home on their wheels, to prevent your going by +main force." + +This was literally true. From Doctor Forester down to his youngest guest +had come regret and remonstrance. Finally, however, Doctor Forester, +having called up Evelyn herself, and been persuaded that she was sure +she was right, had fallen to planning what could be done to make the +girl's leave-taking a pleasant one for her to remember. + +After a little an idea seized him. He chuckled to himself, and fell to +telephoning again. He had Doctor Churchill on the wire, then Charlotte, +Celia and his son Frederic, who had remained at the Birches', finally +the railway-station, the Pullman office, and a certain official of whom +he was accustomed to ask favours and get them granted. + +"Good-by, Mrs. Fields!" said Evelyn Lee, coming out upon the back porch, +where the doctor's housekeeper was resting after a busy days work. "I +shall never forget how good you've been to me, and I hope you won't +forget me." + +"Forget you!" ejaculated Mrs. Fields, her spare, strong hand grasping +tight the slender one held out to her. "Well, there ain't much danger of +that, nor of anybody else's forgetting you. I've been about as pleased +as the doctor and Miss Charlotte to see you pick up. You don't look like +the same girl that came here last fall." + +"I'm sure I don't feel much like her. Ever so much of it is certainly +due to your good cooking, Mrs. Fields." + +"It's so hard to take leave of you all," said Evelyn, on the porch, +where the others were assembled. "I'd almost like to slip away without a +word--only that would look so ungrateful. And I'm the most grateful girl +alive." + +"You needn't say good-by to me," said Doctor Forester, "for I'm going as +far as Washington with you." He smiled at the joy which flashed into her +face. + +"Oh, are you really?" she cried. + +"You needn't say good-by to me, either," said Frederic Forester, as she +turned to him, standing next to his father, "for I'm going, too," + +"I think I'll go along," said Doctor Churchill. + +"Will you take me?" Charlotte was smiling at Evelyn's bewildered face. + +"If Charlotte goes, I shall, too," supplemented Celia. + +Evelyn looked at them. Surely enough, although in the hurry she had not +noticed it before, they were all in travelling dress. She had known they +had meant to go as far as the city station with her; she saw now that +they were fully equipped for the journey. And Washington was nearly +twenty hours away! + +"You dear people!" murmured Evelyn, and rather blindly cast herself into +Mrs. Birch's outstretched arms. + +There was only one thing lacking to her peace of mind. Jeff had not +appeared to bid her good-by. Charlotte observed that Evelyn's voice +trembled a little when she said, "Where's Jeff? Will you tell him +good-by for me?" + +Charlotte answered, "He won't fail, dear. He'll surely be at the +station." + +But when they reached the station no Jeff was there. Nobody seemed to +notice, for the men of the party were busy looking after various details +of the trip. Celia was explaining to Evelyn and Lucy how it had all come +about. + +"Doctor Forester was so upset and sorry over your going," she said, +"that he went to thinking up excuses to go along. He remembered an +important medical convention in Washington, and persuaded Andy that he +could get away for the three days' session. Then he invited Charlotte +and me, and convinced Mr. Frederic that he ought to go, too. We were +only too willing, so here we are." + +"It's the loveliest thing that could happen," said Evelyn, and tried +hard not to let her eyes wander to the doors of the station. + +She had not seen Jeff since early in the afternoon, when, after hot +argument, he had at last given up trying to persuade her that she need +not go until the coming Tuesday. To Just only, however, as he carried +her little travelling bag on board the train for her, did she say a +word. + +"Please tell Jeff for me," she said in his ear, as he established her in +the designated section of the sleeping-car, "that I felt very badly not +to say good-by to him. But give him my best remembrance, and say that +I'm sure he must have been kept from coming by something he couldn't +help." + +"Of course he must have been," agreed Just, heartily, feeling like +pitching into his delinquent brother with both fists for bringing that +hurt little look into the hazel eyes below him. "He'll probably turn up +just as your train gets under headway, and then he'll be the maddest +fellow you ever saw. Hullo, I'll bet that messenger boy is looking for +you!" as he saw Frederic Forester pointing a blue-capped carrier of a +florist's box toward Evelyn. He went forward, claimed the box, and +brought it back to Evelyn. + +She peeped within, saw a great cluster of roses, and drew out a card. +"Of course it's Jeff's?" queried Just, anxiously, and he felt immense +relief when Evelyn nodded. + +"Well, I'm off!" Just gripped her hand as the train began to move. +"Good-by! I'm mighty sorry to have you go," and with lifted hat, and a +hasty farewell to Lucy and Randolph, he was gone. + +Evelyn smiled at him from the window, as he ran down the platform waving +at her, but her heart was still heavy. It was very good of Jeff to send +the flowers, but she would rather have had one hearty grasp of his +friendly hand than all the roses in his Northern state. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"Well, I consider myself pretty lucky to have secured four sections all +together on this train," said Doctor Forester, with satisfaction, as he +and Andrew Churchill and Frederic retired to the smoking-room while +their berths were being made up. + +"Why, what are we slowing down for out here?" Frederic glanced out of +the window. "This is West Weston, isn't it? Yes--we're off again. Some +official, probably." + +A door slammed and a tall figure hurried through the passage, looked in +at the smoking-room, and turned back. "Hullo!" said a familiar voice, +and Jeff's laughing face beamed in upon them. + +"Well, well, did you hold up the train?" they cried. + +"Thought you'd come along, too, did you?" asked Doctor Forester. "Good! +Glad to have you. I thought it was odd you weren't round to see us off. +Go and surprise the girls. They're just back there, waiting for their +berths." + +Jeff hurried eagerly away. A moment later Evelyn, standing in the aisle +beside Charlotte, felt a touch on her arm. She looked up, and met Jeff's +eyes smiling down at her. + +"Did you think I'd let you go like that?" he said in her ear. + +"I'm afraid I thought you had," she admitted, grown happy in an instant. + +"You see, I had an appointment with a man in West Weston on some work +I've been doing for him. After I heard this plan of Doctor Forester's I +had only just time to catch a train and get out there. He kept me so +long I missed the train that would have brought me back in time to see +you off, so I telephoned Chester Agnew to get the flowers for me and +write a card. That was when I was afraid I might not make connections at +all. But when this man I went to see--he's a railroad man--heard what +train I'd wanted to make, he offered to stop it for me. Then it just +came into my mind that I'd join the party, even without an invitation. +Tell me you're not sorry--won't you?" + +"Of course I'm not." She allowed him one of her frank looks, and he +smiled back at her. + +"We'll have a great day to-morrow," he prophesied. "They'll put on a +Pullman with an observation rear in the morning, and if the weather +holds we'll camp out there for the day. We don't get into Washington +till three in the afternoon, and the scenery all the way down will be +fine. I suppose I'll have to go off now and let you be tucked up. Please +get up bright and early in the morning, will you?" + +It was a merry party which entered the dining-car the next morning the +moment the first summons came. The day had risen bright and clear as a +June day could be, and everybody was in a hurry to get out on the +observation platform. + +Doctor Forester, sitting opposite Charlotte and Andy at one table, +glanced across at the rest of the party, on the opposite side of the +car, and said in a low voice: + +"This is literally a case of speeding the parting guest, isn't it? +Captain John Rayburn got you into something of a scrape when he sent you +that copper inscription over your fireplace, didn't he? He didn't +realise that the 'ornaments' it brought you in November would have to be +conveyed away by force in June. It was the only way to give you an +interval when you should, for the first time in the history of your +married life, have no guests at all." + +Charlotte and Andrew were staring at him in amazement. + +"Uncle Ray?" cried Charlotte, under her breath. "Was he the one? Did you +know it all the time, Doctor Forester?" + +"Yes, I knew it all the time" he owned. "In fact, Captain Rayburn wrote +to me after he had heard of the fireplace. You sent him a photograph of +it, didn't you?" + +"So we did," Doctor Churchill answered. "We took it the day the +fireplace was finished, I'd forgotten it completely, but I remember now. +We thought he'd be interested, because something he once said about the +ideal fireplace had put the idea into our heads of collecting the stones +ourselves. So he wrote all the way from Denmark to have that made?" + +"He had it made there, and wrote me for the measurements. He expressed +it to me, and I repacked it and sent it to you," chuckled Doctor +Forester. "He was determined to puzzle you completely." + +"He certainly succeeded. Did he give you leave to tell at this +particular date?" + +"It was left to my discretion after the first six months, provided you +had had any guests. I thought the time was ripe, and you'd earned your +diploma. All that worries me is that you may find a fresh instalment of +ornaments when you get back. The motto strikes me as a sort of uncanny +provider of them." The others laughed. Charlotte glanced across at +Evelyn. + +"It has paid," she said softly. Andy nodded. "It certainly has. All the +thanks we shall need will be in Thorne Lee's letter, after he has seen +his little sister." + +"I rather think it's paid with the others, too," Doctor Forester added. +"Anyhow, you've certainly done your part." + +Out on the back of the train Charlotte found Lucy at her elbow. She +looked into the girl's face, and discovered the blue eyes to be full of +tears. "Why, Lu, dear!" she said, softly. + +"Mrs. Churchill"--Lucy was almost crying--"I just can't bear to think +it's the last day! I wish--oh, I wish--I lived with you!" + +"Do you, dear? That's very pleasant," and Charlotte drew her close, +feeling more warmth toward Lucy than the girl had yet inspired. "But +don't be blue." + +"I can't help it. It's almost ten o'clock now, and at three we shall be +going away from you all." + +"No, you won't," Charlotte whispered in her ear. "It was to have been a +surprise, but I think you'll enjoy it more to know. Only don't tell +Evelyn. Doctor Forester has telegraphed your mother and received her +answer. You're not to go till to-morrow night at six, and we're to have +twenty-eight hours together in Washington." + +"Oh! _Oh_!" Lucy almost screamed, so that the others looked around at +her and smiled. "Oh, I do think Doctor Forester and you are just the +nicest people I ever knew!" + +Doctor Forester's secret was not very well kept, after all. Lucy +whispered the good news to Jeff, and he could not forbear telling it to +Evelyn just as the train was drawing out of Baltimore. His own spirits +had been drooping as time went on, but the reprieve of a day sent them +up with a bound. + +"The question is what we shall do with our time," said Doctor Forester, +looking round at his party in the hotel parlour, where he had taken +them. "Speak up, everybody. We can divide our forces if necessary. Is +there anybody here who hasn't been here before?" + +Lucy and Randolph seemed to be the only ones not more or less familiar +with the capital. On hearing this, Doctor Forester declared that he +should himself take them to as many of the most interesting places as +possible. + +"Whatever we do to-night, I vote for the trip down the Potomac to Mount +Vernon in the morning," said Doctor Churchill, promptly. "We'll get back +in plenty of time for Evelyn's train, and there certainly isn't a better +way to put in the time than that." + +This was heartily agreed upon, and the remainder of the day was used in +various ways, not more than two of which, it may be remarked, were +alike. Charlotte smiled meaningly at her husband as she watched Celia +and Fred Forester, having proceeded half-way across Lafayette Park with +Jeff and Evelyn, leave the two at a cross-path, and walk briskly off by +themselves. + +"That's certainly a sure thing, isn't it?" said he. + +"No question of it, I think." + +"Are you satisfied?" + +"Perfectly. I haven't seen very much of Fred since he--and we--grew up, +but if he's his father's son----" + +"He is, I think," said Doctor Churchill, confidently. "And the doctor +likes it, I'm sure. There's satisfaction in his face whenever he looks +at them. In fact, I can't help thinking he planned both the house party +and this trip with a view of bringing them together all he could." + +"Dear Celia--if she's just half as happy as she deserves to be----" + +"She will be. She loves to travel, hasn't had half enough of it, and +he'll take her round the world. I haven't had a chance to tell you that +he's going to India in the fall, in some important capacity. He received +the appointment just yesterday." + +"Really?" Charlotte looked thoughtful. "Celia--in India! Andy----" + +"Does that startle you? I don't imagine it's for any long stay, but as a +matter of some scientific investigations. Here, don't go to looking +sober. I shall be sorry I told you." + +Charlotte smiled and answered brightly that it was not a thing to look +sober over. Nevertheless, her thoughts were much with her sister. The +next morning, as the party found their places on the little steamer +which was to take them down the river to Mount Vernon, she found herself +watching Celia more closely than she had meant to do, in the anxiety to +discover if the trip to India was really imminent. + +"Isn't Mount Vernon a fascinating spot?" asked Evelyn, as she and Jeff +walked up the long, ascending road from pier to house together. "I've +never forgotten my first visit. I lived in Washington's times in my +dreams for weeks afterward. I never saw it at this season of the year. +The garden must be in its prime now." + +"Let's go and see it first," responded Jeff, quickly. "I don't remember +much about it. My two visits here have all been spent in the house." + +So while the others rambled through the quaint and interesting rooms, +Jeff and Evelyn made their way to the box-bordered paths of Lady +Washington's garden, and wandered about there in the warm June sunshine. +It grew so hot after a while that they betook themselves to the lawn and +banks overlooking the river, and sat there talking, as they watched the +waters of the Potomac. + +"What are you going to do when you get home?" asked Jeff, somewhat +suddenly. + +"Put our rooms in order," Evelyn responded, promptly. + +"All by yourself?" + +"We live in the same house with a lovely little woman, the wife of a +former Confederate general. I shall be with her until Thorne comes." + +"I suppose you've lots of friends of your own age?" Jeff observed. + +"Not as many as I ought to have. You see, I've lived very quietly with +my brother for six years now, except for the time I spent at a girls' +school in Baltimore. Since I came home from there I've not been very +strong, and Thorne has kept me very quiet, until he sent me North to +school last fall." + +"You're so well now you'll be going about a lot. Any young people in the +house with you? It's a boarding-house, isn't it?" + +"Yes, a small one. There are no young people in it except Mrs. +Livingstone's son." + +"How old a fellow?" + +"Twenty-one, I believe." + +"I suppose you're great friends with him?" said Jeff suspiciously. + +Evelyn looked at him quickly and laughed, flushing a little. "Why, we're +naturally very good friends," she said. + +"Evelyn," said Jeff, sitting up straight again, "I'm absolutely bursting +to tell you some news, and I can't seem to lead up to it. I've got to +bring it out flat. The only thing I'm anxious about is whether it's +going to be as good news to you as it is to me." + +She looked at him with a quickening of her pulses, his expression had +become so very eager. "Please don't keep me in suspense," she begged. + +"Well"--Jeff did his best to speak coolly, as if the matter were really +of no great importance, after all--"you know it's been a question with +me all along as to just what I was going to do when I got out of +college. I wanted tremendously to get to work, and a lot of the usual +things didn't seem to appeal to me at all. I haven't enough of a +scientific turn to go into any of the engineering courses. I didn't care +for a mercantile berth. In fact, while my brother Lanse has had his +future cut out for him since he was fourteen, and Just, at sixteen, is +body and soul in for electrical engineering, I've been the family +problem. Father's had the sense not to assert his wishes for a moment. +He saw from the start, I suppose, that the family traditions were not +for me--I could never begin by studying law and end by wearing the +ermine, as a lot of my grandfathers and uncles have done. So--" + +Jeff paused and drew a long breath. He had been looking off down the +river as he talked, but now he brought his eyes back to Evelyn's face, +and his spirits leaped exultantly as he saw with what eager attention +she was listening. + +"You really care to hear all this, don't you?" he asked, happily, and +went on before she could do more than nod. "Well, the short of it is +that through Doctor Forester I got to know a friend of his who is a +railroad magnate--the real thing--and to please the doctor he seemed to +take an interest in me. He's offered me a position in one of his +offices, provided I take a year to study practical railroading first. Of +course I'm only too glad to do that. And now I'm coming to the point of +the whole thing. When my year is up, that office where I'm to begin to +work up in the railroad business is"--he paused dramatically, watching +his hearer's face, as his own, in spite of himself, broke into a +smile--"in your own city, Evelyn Lee!" + +If he had had any lingering doubt that this might not be as good news to +Evelyn as he wanted it to be, his fears were put to rout. + +"O Jeff!" she said, quite breathlessly, and the happy colour surged into +her face. "Why, that's almost too good to be true!" + +"Is it? You're a trump for saying so. Jupiter! I feel like standing up +and shouting. The thing has been sure since that afternoon I went to +Weston, but I didn't mean to tell you of it in this crazy boy fashion, +but write it to you quite calmly after you got home. But--it wouldn't +keep." + +"I shouldn't think it would. Besides, it's so much nicer to hear it now, +when it makes it----" + +She stopped abruptly, and jumped up. Jeff leaped to his feet also. + +"Makes it--what?" he asked, eagerly. + +"Why--it's such a pleasant place to hear good news in." + +"That wasn't what you were going to say." + +"We ought to go back to the house." She began to move slowly away. Jeff +followed. + +"I'd like to hear the end of that sentence," he urged, as they walked up +the grassy slope to the house in the clear sunlight. + +She laughed a little, but shook her head. She was looking very sweet in +her brown travelling dress, her russet hair shaded by a wide brown hat +with captivating curving outlines. Jeff looked at her dainty profile and +realised that the hour for separation was coming fast. + +"Anyhow, I know what I _wish_ you were going to say,"--he was striding +close by her side--"and I can certainly say it if you can't. Telling you +that I'm coming to work near you next year makes it easier for me to say +good-by now. And that's--well--that's going to be a bit tough." + +Evelyn walked on a few steps in silence. Then she turned and spoke +softly over her shoulder. There was not a touch of coquetry in her +simple manner, yet it had an engaging quality all its own. + +"That's what I wanted to say, Jeff." + +"Thank you," he responded. "I'll not forget that," and his tone told +that he appreciated the little concession. + +It seemed but the briefest possible space of time before they had gone +over the house, had been hurried back to the landing by emphatic toots +from the small excursion steamer, and were off for the city again. The +trip back up the river was finished also before it seemed hardly begun. +All too soon for anybody the three young travellers were on their train, +and Doctor Churchill and Fred Forester had taken leave of them and were +out on the platform, ready to jump off. Jeff had lingered till the last. + +"Good-by, Lucy! Good-by, Ran!" he said, and gave each a hearty grip and +smile. Then his hand clasped Evelyn's, his eyes said things his lips +would not have ventured to speak, and his hand wrung hers with a fervour +which made it sting. Then he went away without a backward look, as if he +must get the parting quickly over. + +Outside the train, however, he turned with the others, and as the train +rolled slowly out of the station, and Evelyn strained her eyes to see +the group of her friends waving affectionately to her from the platform, +the last face upon which her gaze rested wore the strong, loyal, +eloquent look of Jefferson Birch. + + * * * * * + +"Home again," said Andrew Churchill, as he set his latch-key in the door +of the brick house four days later. "Fieldsy must be away, or she would +have answered." + +They hurried through the house. It was in absolute order, but empty. On +the office desk was a note in the housekeeper's awkward hand: + +"If you should come to-night, I've had to go to take care of a sick +woman, will be back in the morning, you will find everything cooked up." + +Doctor Churchill read it with a laugh. "Charlotte, we're actually alone +in our own house. Let's run over to the other house and embrace them all +round, and then come back and see how it feels over here." + +So they went across the lawn. + +"We shall be delighted to have you stay with us, my dears," said Mrs. +Birch, after the greetings. + +"Mother Birch," said her son-in-law, with air affectionate hand on her +shoulder, "not even you can charm us out of our own house to-night. Do +you know that we're all alone--that not even Fieldsy is over there? +Charlotte's going to get dinner, and I'm to help her with the clearing +up, and then we're going to sit on our porch. Of course we shall be +constantly looking down the street for a messenger boy with a telegram +announcing the coming of our next guest, but until he comes--" + +Everybody laughed at the expressive breath he drew. + +"Go, you dear children," said Mrs. Birch, and the rest joined in warmly. + +"I'll sit on our doorstone with a rifle, and pick off the visitors as +they come up the street!" cried Just, as the two went off. + +"Don't shoot to kill!" Doctor Churchill called back, gaily. Then the +door closed on the pair. + +When the happy little dinner was over, the dishes put away, and +Charlotte had slipped on a cool frock in which to spend the warm summer +evening, she went out to find her husband lying comfortably in the +hammock behind the vines, his hands clasped under his head. The twilight +was just slipping into evening, and the breath of unseen roses was sweet +upon the shadows. + +Charlotte drew a chair close to her husband's side and sat down. + +"After all, Andy," said she, as they fell to talking of the past year, +"I wouldn't have had it different. One thing is certain--out of our +three guests we entertained at least one angel unawares." + +"Yes, and I like to think that perhaps the others are none the worse for +staying with us," Andrew Churchill answered, thoughtfully. "I'm glad we +did it, glad it's over, and shall be glad to have other people come to +see us--by and by. But--I want a good long honeymoon first. Is that your +mind?" + +"Yes," she answered fervently, smiling. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second Violin, by Grace S. 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