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diff --git a/40024-8.txt b/40024-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b909872..0000000 --- a/40024-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7670 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rebecca's Promise, by Frances R. Sterrett - -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: Rebecca's Promise - -Author: Frances R. Sterrett - -Illustrator: E. C. Caswell - -Release Date: June 18, 2012 [EBook #40024] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REBECCA'S PROMISE *** - - - - -Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from -scanned images of public domain material from the Google -Print archive. - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: Book Cover] - - - - -REBECCA'S PROMISE - - - - -By Frances R. Sterrett - - - Rebecca's Promise - Jimmie the Sixth - William and Williamina - Mary Rose of Mifflin - Up the Road with Sallie - The Jam Girl - - * * * * * - -D. APPLETON AND COMPANY -Publishers New York - - - - -[Illustration: SHE THRUST THE VIOLETS INTO REBECCA'S HAND [page 4]] - - - - -REBECCA'S -PROMISE - - -BY -FRANCES R. STERRETT - -AUTHOR OF "JIMMIE THE SIXTH," "MARY ROSE OF MIFFLIN," -"THE JAM GIRL," ETC. - - -[Illustration] - - -ILLUSTRATED BY -E. C. CASWELL - - -D. APPLETON AND COMPANY -NEW YORK LONDON -1919 - - - - -COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY -D. APPLETON AND COMPANY - - - - -TO -LILIAN JOSEPHA STERRETT - -who believes in memory insurance -for you and for me. - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - FACING - PAGE - She thrust the violets into Rebecca's hand _Frontispiece_ - "Do you mean to tell us that we can't go?" 152 - "Hello, Kitty!" 302 - "I love you, Rebecca Mary" 324 - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -"I never should have brought you here," murmured Cousin Susan Wentworth, -as she looked across the table at young Cousin Rebecca Mary Wyman, who -sat on the other side of the white cloth like a small gray mouse with -bright expectant eyes, a pretty pink flush on her cheeks and her head -with its crown of soft yellow brown hair held high. "I should have saved -my money for new kitchen curtains. The curtains in my kitchen are a -disgrace to any housekeeper. But life wouldn't be worth much if we -didn't occasionally do something we shouldn't, would it?" And she smiled -at pink-cheeked Rebecca Mary. "The memory of this pretty room with the -gay crowds of people, the music, the good things to eat will last longer -than any curtains. And I can cut down the old bedroom curtains for the -kitchen. Rebecca Mary, did you ever think that is what life really is, -cutting down our desires to fit our necessities?" - -Rebecca Mary sniffed. She had known that for twenty-two years. She did -not have to be thirty-nine like Cousin Susan to learn that necessities -always crowd out desires. And anyway she did not wish to talk of -necessities, they were stupid and uninteresting, when for once in her -life she was a part of what no one in the wide world could ever consider -a necessity. - -She let Cousin Susan study the card the attentive waiter handed to her, -and while Cousin Susan tried to keep her mind from prices and on names, -Rebecca Mary's bright eyes roved over the big brilliant room. She had -never expected to enter it. She had scarcely believed her two pink ears -when they told her that Cousin Susan had said, quite casually, "Rebecca -Mary, suppose we go to the Waloo for tea?" Rebecca Mary had given a -startled gasp, but here she was at the Waloo trying to forget that her -old blue serge suit was wide where it should be narrow and narrow where -it should be wide, and that her hat had only been given a good brushing -to make it ready for another season. - -Afternoon tea was served at the Waloo in the Viking room, a beautiful -place with its scenes from the old Norse sagas on the walls above a -wainscoting of dark wood and with lights like old ship lanterns hanging -from the beamed ceiling. The chairs and tables were suggestive of long -ago days, also, but the linen, the silver, the dainty china, the music -and the guests were very much of to-day. - -Rebecca Mary watched the young people almost enviously as Cousin Susan -hesitated over _foie gras_ sandwiches, which were expensive and -therefore suitable for an occasion which was to cost her kitchen its new -curtains, and lettuce sandwiches which were cheap and which she made -herself every time the Mifflin Fortnightly Club met with her. Rebecca -Mary could easily imagine what joy it would be to come to the Viking -room in smart new clothes and with a young man like--like that tall -young fellow who was with the girl in the wistaria taffeta. It made the -pink in Rebecca Mary's cheeks turn to rose just to think of what joy -that would be. - -There were any number of girls in the Viking room with whom Rebecca Mary -would have changed places in the twinkling of an eye. It hurt almost as -much as an ulcerated tooth to watch those radiant young people. And when -you have an ulcerated tooth you don't, unless you are strong-minded or -philosophical or stoical, laugh and chatter gayly; you know you don't. -Rebecca Mary wasn't strong-minded nor philosophical nor stoical, she was -just a girl who had never had anything and, oh, how she did want -something, and she wanted it right away. That was why her eyebrows -frowned yellow-brownly, and the corners of her mouth drooped a bit. - -"Oh, Cousin Susan!" she groaned, "why did we ever come here? Why didn't -you take me to Childs'?" - -"Eh?" murmured Cousin Susan, still hovering between expense and -curiosity. - -But before she could say another word a little girl ran up to them, an -elflike little thing, who held a huge bunch of violets in her hand. She -had been following a man from the room when she had seen Rebecca Mary -and dashed around the tables, just missing a disastrous collision with a -fat waiter, to arrive breathless beside her. - -"Oh, Miss Wyman!" she whispered, her small face aglow with importance. -"I'm so glad I saw you. This is my birthday, and my daddy brought me -here for tea just as if I were all grown up. He bought me these violets, -too, and I've had them all afternoon so I'd like to give them to you now -because," her face grew crimson, and her voice rang out above the hum of -voices, "I love you!" She thrust the violets into Rebecca Mary's hand -and ran away without giving Rebecca Mary a chance to say one word. - -Rebecca Mary just saw a portion of her father's back as he disappeared -through the door, and she looked down at the violets with an odd flash -in her gray eyes. No one ever had given her violets before. She had -always picked them herself on the sunny slope of the bluff at Mifflin. - -"What a dear child," smiled Cousin Susan. "Who is she?" - -"One of my pupils, Joan Befort. Yes, she is a dear." Rebecca Mary buried -her hot cheeks in the cool fragrance of the violets for a moment. - -When she lifted her head she met the amused glance of an elderly woman -at the next table. She must be a grandmother woman, Rebecca Mary thought -swiftly, although she did not look like any grandmother Rebecca Mary -knew with her smart and expensive hat and blue gown, on the front of -which was pinned a bunch of violets and an orchid encircled with -foliage. The smile which lurked around the lips of this most -ungrandmotherly looking grandmother made Rebecca Mary remember little -Joan Befort's fervent declaration of affection, and she smiled, too. How -funny it must have sounded in the crowded tea room. "I love you!" -Rebecca Mary giggled, she couldn't help it, even if she was most -dreadfully embarrassed. - -At the table beside the ungrandmotherly looking grandmother was a young -man the very sight of whom sent Rebecca Mary into a quiver of delight. -She had seen his picture in the Gazette too many times not to recognize -him. He was young Peter Simmons, who had left college in his sophomore -year to drive an ambulance in France during the second year of the great -war. He had been awarded a _croix de guerre_ for "unusual bravery under -fire," and later had gone into the French flying service until he could -fight under his own flag. He had been with the American Army of -Occupation in Germany and had only recently returned to Waloo. No wonder -Rebecca Mary thrilled all down her back bone as she realized that she -was looking at a hero. She stared and stared for she might never see one -again, and the hero raised his eyes and saw awed admiration written in -huge letters all over her flushed face. - -Evidently young Peter Simmons did not care for awed admiration, perhaps -he had had too much of it, perhaps it made him unpleasantly -self-conscious, for he scowled blackly and murmured an impatient -something to the grandmother which made her look at Rebecca Mary again. -Rebecca Mary turned a deep crimson and was horribly uncomfortable. She -knew very well what they were saying, that such a shabby girl had no -business among the fine birds in the Viking room, and she scowled, too. -She could give scowl for scowl as well as any one. Peter's black frown -made you laugh, but there was something rather pathetic about Rebecca -Mary's bent yellow-brown brows, perhaps it was because her lower lip -quivered as she hastily averted her shamed eyes. - -On the other side of young Peter was a girl no older than Rebecca Mary, -and she was so prettily and smartly clothed that she made Rebecca Mary -feel like Cousin Susan's kitchen curtains, old and ragged. But every one -in the room made her feel like that, she thought miserably, and she -tossed her head higher to show how little she cared as her glance roamed -on to the man on the other side of the grandmother. Of course the -grandmother must be old Mrs. Peter Simmons, and old Mrs. Peter Simmons -was one of the most important women in Waloo, so important that a poor -little school teacher like Rebecca Mary could never hope to know her. -Rebecca Mary rather liked the face of the man on the other side of Mrs. -Peter Simmons. He was older than young Peter, and the most doting friend -could not have called him handsome, but he had something much better -than perfect features. He was the type of man who would do things, she -decided, and then she saw Mrs. Simmons turn to speak to him and with a -little shrinking feeling of horror Rebecca Mary knew that they were -talking of her, for the man who could do things raised his head and -looked directly at her. For a moment their eyes met. Rebecca Mary was -furious to feel her cheeks burn and her heart thump. She scowled before -she turned her head quickly. She wouldn't look at that table again. I -should say not! - -There were other tables and other family parties, and, oh, dear! other -couples. Old Samuel Johnson knew exactly what he was talking about when -he said that "envy is almost the only vice which is practicable at all -times and in every place." Rebecca Mary did find it so very very easy to -be envious. About the only person she did not envy that afternoon was a -short, stout, middle-aged man with a red face, who sat at a table by -himself and consumed vast quantities of hot buttered toast. - -Rebecca Mary had never imagined there were so many gay, light-hearted -people in the world as there were in the Viking room that May afternoon -and more would have entered if it had not been for the silken barrier -which was held in front of the door by two very haughty waiters. Rebecca -Mary felt blue and depressed to the very toes of her common-sense -little shoes. She felt so hopelessly out of the gay and brilliant -picture. She almost wished that Cousin Susan had not asked her to the -Waloo for tea. - -"Which shall we have, Rebecca Mary?" Cousin Susan found herself quite -incapable of making such a momentous decision without assistance. -"Lettuce or _foie gras_." - -Rebecca Mary did not hesitate a second. She knew. "_Foie gras_," she -said promptly. "I've never tasted them, and I've made hundreds of -lettuce sandwiches, just thousands of them. What is the use of going to -new places if you don't try new things?" There was just a trace of -impatience in her low voice as if she thought that Cousin Susan should -have known that without being told. - -"H-m," murmured Cousin Susan. "The _foie gras_, then. They certainly -sound mysterious and adventurous." And having given her order, Cousin -Susan looked about her. "Isn't this an attractive place? I've read in -the Gazette about the afternoon teas in the Viking room and how popular -they were. I suppose all these people are very rich and important. None -of them will pay for tea with kitchen curtains." And Cousin Susan's eyes -twinkled. - -Rebecca Mary's eyes twinkled, too, although really there was nothing -very amusing to her in paying for tea with ten yards of any kind of -material. It was rather sordid to her and poor and generally horrid, -like her very existence. - -Cousin Susan looked at her frowning little face and fingered the silver -in front of her with hands which although well cared for showed that -they were more for use than ornament. Cousin Susan's hands exactly -illustrated Cousin Susan's heart, which was so big and generous and -helpful that the hands were often overworked. As she looked at Rebecca -Mary Cousin Susan took a sudden determination and followed an impulse, -which was nothing new for her, and which sometimes brought her great -satisfaction and sometimes nothing but dissatisfaction. - -"Don't frown like that, Rebecca Mary," she commanded like a general -speaking to a very small private. "It is a lot easier to put a wrinkle -in your forehead than it is to get one out as you'll learn some day. And -while we are on the subject of your looks I'm going to take an old -cousin's privilege and tell you what I think of you. It's a shame to do -it here," she acknowledged ruefully, "but if I take the six-twenty train -I shan't have another chance. You know," she went on in a firm low -voice, "I don't like the way you live, and your mother wouldn't like it -if she knew. Why, you don't get a thing out of your life, Rebecca Mary, -not a thing!" - -"I don't see what I can do," murmured Rebecca Mary with a twist of her -shoulders and a rebellious flash in her gray eyes. "You needn't think I -like my life, Cousin Susan. It isn't one I should ever choose. I should -say not! But I try to make the best of it." - -"But you don't make the best of it. That is just the point. You make -such a horrid worst of it. Yes, you do!" as Rebecca Mary indignantly -declared that she didn't. "Listen. I've watched you and I never imagined -a girl could detach herself from life, real life, as you have done. You -haven't any friends, you don't go anywhere but to school, you don't do -anything but teach the third grade in the Lincoln school." - -At that Rebecca Mary did interrupt and there was a bright red spot on -each of her cheeks, like a poppy in a bed of lilies. "It costs money to -have a share in real life," she said in a suppressed voice which made -you think how very thin the crust of earth around a volcano must be. -"And I haven't any money. You know how awfully little we have and how -much it costs to live now. I have to send something home every month and -there are always taxes and insurance. And I have to provide for my old -age! You have no idea what a nightmare that is," tragically. "I wake up -in the night thinking what will happen when I'm too old to teach. -It's--it's ghastly!" It was so ghastly that she shivered, and the -poppies left her face so that it was just a field of white lilies. - -"You are thinking entirely too much of your old age. You are robbing -your youth for it. It is perfectly ridiculous for you to make such a -nightmare of the future. I know it isn't entirely your fault. Your -mother is rabid on the subject. She has brought you and Grace up to -think of old age as a blood-thirsty old beast who has to be fed with -youth. Yes, I know all about your Aunt Agnes and your second Cousin -Lucy. But, my dear, they could have saved and saved and their money -might have been lost just when they needed it. You can't be sure of -keeping money no matter how you save it. That's why I spend mine." She -looked at the dainty expensive sandwiches the waiter placed before her -and laughed. "It's gospel truth, my dear," she went on soberly, "that -the only thing you can be sure of taking into the future is what you can -remember, the memory of the good times you have had, the people you have -met, the places you have seen, the books you have read, the music you -have heard. Don't you know that youth should enjoy things for old age -to remember? And take it from me, Rebecca Mary, that the old find their -greatest pleasure in recalling their youth. Will you have cream or lemon -in your tea? Lemon always seems more like a party to me." - -Rebecca Mary took the lemon while a puzzled frown appeared between her -two eyebrows. "It isn't that I don't like my work, Cousin Susan," she -said slowly, "for I do. I love children, and I love to teach. If I had a -million I should want to teach somewhere, in a settlement or a mission, -you know. But I'll admit that the future does scare me blue. Suppose I -should be ill, suppose----" - -"Suppose fiddlesticks!" Cousin Susan broke in impatiently. - -"It's all very well for you to talk. You have some one to take care of -you, a husband, and----" - -"My dear, you can't guarantee a husband any more than you can a savings -account. Women are left penniless widows every day. Don't misunderstand -me, Rebecca Mary. I believe in a certain amount of saving, but I don't -believe in sacrificing everything in the present to a future you may -never have. How do you know you will live to grow old? How do you know -that a grateful pupil won't leave you an income?--that has happened if -you can believe the newspapers. How do you know that you won't make -your own fortune in some marvelous way? That's the loveliest part of -life, Rebecca Mary. You don't know what is waiting for you around the -corner so you might as well expect riches as poverty; better in my -opinion. I'd always rather look forward to a fried chicken than a soup -bone hashed." - -Rebecca Mary had to giggle when Cousin Susan suggested that a grateful -pupil might leave her an income. That was even more improbable than that -she would make a fortune for herself. - -"Cousin Susan," she giggled scornfully, "You are a perfect silly!" - -"That may be," admitted Cousin Susan, "but I'm telling you good solid -sense. A proper amount of pleasure is as necessary to the real -development of human beings as bread or boots. Every one admits that -now. And you're not getting a proper amount, my dear. You aren't getting -any! Why, you aren't living, you only breathe, and life is more than -breathing. You are naturally impulsive. Can't you let yourself enjoy -life instead of fear it? Yes, you are afraid of it. I've watched you. -And from what you say I imagine that your room-mate was just another -like you. I'm glad she has gone home. And your clothes are a scandal. -How many years have you worn that suit?" - -Rebecca Mary's face turned a bright crimson to match the red-hot -indignation inside of her. How dared Cousin Susan talk to her like that? -She was doing the best she could. She shouldn't tell Cousin Susan how -old her blue serge was. It was none of Cousin Susan's business. - -"You wouldn't feel so shut out of the world if you looked like other -people and went where other people go. I don't suppose you speak an -unprofessional word all day," went on Cousin Susan with growing -indignation at what she considered the waste of a perfectly good girl. -"It's a crime, Rebecca Mary Wyman! A crime! And you needn't boast about -your old age provision when you haven't the brains to make a sensible -one. I'm as poor as a church mouse myself. Your Cousin Howard will never -make more than a decent living, and we have two children to feed and -clothe and educate. I hadn't any more business to come here for tea than -I would have to go to the Zoo and buy a baboon for a parlor ornament. -But if I don't do something occasionally to make a day stand out, -something that it is a pleasure to remember, I never should be able to -keep on patching Elsie's petticoats, and darning Kittie's stockings. I -know,--I know!--Rebecca Mary, that when you are young you live in the -future, and when you are old you live in the past. Some one has said -that memories are the only real fountain of youth. And that's true. A -girl is young such a short time that she has to cram the days full if -she wants to be sure of a happy old age. I can't imagine anything more -awful than to have no good times to remember. And all pleasures aren't -like the tea here. Such a lot of them can be had for nothing. You can -get such fun just out of companionship, and the world is full of people -with whom we were meant to be friends. Why, life now means helping other -people to have a good time instead of moping off by yourself. You should -know that, Rebecca Mary. I know I sound like a sermon, but it is all so -true. You must not turn your back to people and hide in a corner. You -must face the world and take what you can and give what you can. I wish -you would promise me something?" she asked eagerly. - -Rebecca Mary didn't look as if she would promise any one anything, but -she asked politely: "What would you like me to promise, Cousin Susan?" - -"Just to say 'Yes, thank you' instead of 'No, I can't possibly,' when -you are asked to do something or go somewhere," begged Cousin Susan, -refusing to be discouraged by the scornful toss of Rebecca Mary's head. -"Please, Rebecca Mary! You talk so much about insurance and that sort of -thing that I'm going to ask you to take out some,"--she hesitated and -then laughed,--"memory insurance. We can't all hope to be money rich -when we are old, but we can all plan to be memory rich. Please promise?" - -Rebecca Mary put her violets on the table and stared at her. "Your tea -is getting cold, Cousin Susan," she said stiffly. She shouldn't promise -anything so foolish. Cousin Susan was the most irresponsible old silly, -but Rebecca Mary couldn't be irresponsible. There was too much dependent -upon her. She drank her own tea and ate her sandwiches and even had a -bit of French pastry when Cousin Susan said she was going to try some -even if it did mean going without the new magazine she had planned to -buy to read on the way home. - -"I can make the evening paper last longer," she said as she hesitated -between a strawberry tart and a cream-filled cornet. "I've read about -French pastry for years, but we don't have it in Mifflin, and I never -had a chance to taste it before. Isn't it good?" - -Rebecca Mary said it was good, but inwardly she sniffed again and tried -to think that it was ridiculous for a woman of Cousin Susan's age to -become hysterical over a piece of pie. She could not understand Cousin -Susan's enjoyment of little things. She never would have dared to spend -her kitchen curtains and new magazine for tea and French pastry. It -would have been too foolishly extravagant. But she had enjoyed her tea. -And it was exhilarating to be a part, even a shabby part, of a world she -had never penetrated before and never would again, she thought -mournfully. That was the trouble with pleasant experiences, they came -all too seldom and were over far too soon. But Cousin Susan had said -when you had had a pleasant experience once you had it for ever. Perhaps -there was something in that thought. Rebecca Mary evidently thought -there was for her eyes were like stars as, with the violets pinned to -her shabby coat, she followed Cousin Susan from the room. - -She found herself in a crush at the door. Beside her was young Peter -Simmons. Rebecca Mary thrilled as he brushed against her arm. - -"Beg your pardon," he murmured absently, but he never looked at her. - -It made Rebecca Mary so furious to be so coolly ignored that she did not -see that Joan Befort and her father pushed by her and that close on -their heels were Mrs. Simmons and the man who looked as if he would do -things. The chattering laughing throng pressed closer. A hand even -touched Rebecca Mary's fingers. She drew them away with a shrug of her -shoulders. She did hate to be jostled. - -"My dear, I must fly!" exclaimed Cousin Susan when they had emerged a -trifle breathless from the crowd. "But first give me that promise? -Please, Rebecca Mary! What is that in your hand?" she broke off to ask -suddenly, for something green hung from Rebecca Mary's worn brown glove. - -"Why--why----" stammered Rebecca Mary as she opened her hand and found, -of all things, a four-leaf clover. She stared from it to Cousin Susan. - -"Where did you get that?" Like Rebecca Mary, Cousin Susan scanned the -faces hurrying by. Not one of them looked as if it belonged to a person -who would thrust a four-leaf clover into the fingers of a girl in a -shabby blue serge. Four-leaf clovers had been no part of the table -decorations. They never are. They belong in meadows and are only found -by patient seekers. Even Rebecca Mary had to admit that it was odd and -that it gave her a strange shivery sort of a feeling. - -"My, but I'm glad I didn't buy curtains!" Cousin Susan was enchanted -with the mystery. "You simply will have to give me that promise now, -Rebecca Mary. You are sure to have adventures if you do. There's the -sign." She pointed to the crumpled clover leaf. "There's magic in it!" -she whispered. Really, Cousin Susan was a silly. - -"I wonder!" Rebecca Mary looked at the talisman. Where could it have -come from? Perhaps there was magic in it. There must have been, for -suddenly Rebecca Mary laughed softly. She straightened her shoulders and -looked into Cousin Susan's kind blue eyes. "Yes, Cousin Susan," she said -swiftly, as if the spell of the clover leaf might be broken if she -didn't speak in a hurry, "I promise to say 'Yes, thank you' instead of -'No, I can't possibly.'" - -And then before Cousin Susan could say how glad she was, right there on -the crowded avenue, Rebecca Mary put her arm around Cousin Susan and -hugged her. - -"I haven't been a bit nice this afternoon," she confessed frankly and -with considerable regret. "I've been horrid, but it was because I did -feel so out of place. But I do love you and--and I shall try and be more -decent to people. And if you really want me to take one of your old -memory insurance policies," she giggled as she thought of Cousin Susan -as an insurance agent, "why, of course I shall. Perhaps--" she looked -down at the mysterious clover leaf, and her eyes crinkled--"perhaps this -might make a first payment." - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -Rebecca Mary walked home on air. If she didn't hippity-hop outside, she -did inside. She held her head high, and her gray eyes were almost black -with excitement. A delightful mystery tingled through her. Usually when -Rebecca Mary walked home from down town she had to wonder whether she -might have bought her gloves cheaper if she had gone to the Big Store or -if the shoes at Ballok's were better for the money. But as she walked -swiftly home from the Waloo that May afternoon she never once remembered -what might have been saved. She had pleasanter things than saving to -think of. - -I doubt very much if Rebecca Mary would have kept her promise to Cousin -Susan if it had not been for that mysterious four-leaf clover. Not that -Rebecca Mary was the sort of girl to regard a promise as a new laid egg, -easily broken, for she wasn't. When Rebecca Mary made a promise it was -generally as solid and unbreakable as a block of concrete. But she did -think that Cousin Susan was such a sentimental old silly, and anyway her -old age could never be Cousin Susan's old age and consequently it -didn't really matter a copper cent to Cousin Susan how poor and -dependent Rebecca Mary was when she was fifty. Rebecca Mary shuddered at -the mere thought of being fifty. Looking back, she saw a long stretch of -yesterdays, an awful gray and uninteresting distance, and if she didn't -wish to have it fifty years long, fifty times three hundred and -sixty-five stupid gray days, why, really it was time to do something, as -Cousin Susan had said, to introduce another color. The four-leaf clover -presented quite a touch of another color, and the bright green was as -puzzling as it was brightening for it never hinted in any curve or -crumple where it came from. - -But some one must have deliberately thrust it into her hand. It never -could have reached her fingers by any kind of an accident. And who was -the thruster? How Rebecca Mary would like to have that question answered -in the way she imagined it might be answered! She wanted to be told in -short convincing words that young Peter Simmons had given her the -talisman, but Common Sense jumped to her shoulder and whispered in her -ear that that was not only ridiculous, it was impossible. Impossible may -be, as Mirabeau insisted, a stupid word, and yet it is a word which -quite frequently stands like a stone wall in front of people. Rebecca -Mary did not need Common Sense to tell her that young aviator heroes do -not carry four-leaf clovers carelessly in their pockets. But then who -does in a town like Waloo where patches of four-leaf clovers are as -scarce as paving stones are plenty? It was curious and irritating and -altogether amazingly delightful. Rebecca Mary scarcely thought of the -third grade of the Lincoln school that evening, and she most certainly -did not dream of the third grade of the Lincoln school that night. - -You can easily imagine how disappointed Rebecca Mary was when she -received the first invitation to which she was to say "Yes, thank you," -instead of the "I can't possibly" which had always slipped so -automatically over her lips. By all the rules of romance she had every -right to expect that it would be to some gathering which would bring her -at least in sight of young Peter Simmons, and so when Olga Klavachek -begged her to come and see their new baby she did have to make an effort -to keep the old negative phrase from popping out of her mouth, for what -on earth would she get for her old age meditation, what memory -insurance, Cousin Susan had called it, at Klavachek's? - -But she had promised Cousin Susan so she let Olga take her hand and went -to see the new baby. Mrs. Klavachek was as round-faced and as plump as -Olga, and although she spoke no English, and Rebecca Mary spoke no -Slavic, they managed to understand each other very well. A baby is a -baby and even a baby tied in a big feather pillow cannot be mistaken for -a new hat or a new arm chair. The Klavachek baby was as round as a -butter ball and had eyes like bright brown beads. Rebecca Mary could -honestly admire him, and Mrs. Klavachek beamed on "Olga's teacher lady." - -Besides the new baby Olga showed Rebecca Mary her mother's new shoes and -her father's new boots and the wonderful earrings her mother had brought -from Serbia and the new broom she had bought up on Poplar Avenue and the -flag her papa had got off the place where he worked, the Peter Simmons -Factory, and the calendar which the butcher had given her and the -picture of George Washington which she had begged from the grocer -because George Washington was her father now that she was an American -and George Washington was the father of America. - -At last Olga had nothing more to show, and while she tried to think of -some other way to entertain and surprise "teacher" Rebecca Mary told -Mrs. Klavachek again what a dear roly-poly baby she had, and Mrs. -Klavachek caught Rebecca Mary's hand and said in her best Slavic that -she would never forget her from-heavenly-goodness to Olga, and she -kissed Rebecca Mary's fingers with warm grateful lips. No one had ever -kissed Rebecca Mary's hand before, and the caress gave her an odd -sensation quite as if she were a feudal lady with castles and steel -uniformed retainers. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin -and looked like a feudal lady as she said good-by to the Klavacheks and -went up the street, a smile on her lips, a laugh in her eyes. She never -would forget how funny the Klavachek baby had looked tied up in the big -feather pillow. - -She turned down Poplar Avenue where the broom had lived before it moved -to the Klavachek kitchen and waited for her street car, thanking -goodness that she was not Mrs. Klavachek. She would rather be a shabby -worked-to-death teacher with a threatening old age which shows that she -had already benefited from social intercourse. It so often makes one -more satisfied with one's own lot to take a look at the lot of some one -else. Rebecca Mary was still thanking goodness when a limousine drew up -beside her. She stepped back as if she thought it intended to run right -over her. - -"I beg your pardon," called a soft voice through the open window. "But -can you tell me where River Street is?" The owner of the soft voice must -have thought that Rebecca Mary was a settlement worker or an Associated -Charities visitor and so would know where any street was. "I am looking -for a family by the name of Klavachek." - -"Why, I've just come from Klavacheks'!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary. She -could scarcely believe that it was the ungrandmotherly grandmother of -the Waloo tea room who was leaning forward to speak to her. -Involuntarily she looked for young Peter Simmons, but unless he had been -transformed into a card board box he was not in that limousine. - -"Then you can tell me exactly how to find them. I understand there is a -new baby, and I am taking Mrs. Klavachek a few things. Mr. Klavachek -works for my husband at the Peter Simmons Factory," she explained as if -she could read the question which darted into Rebecca Mary's mind. "I am -interested in all the new babies that come to our men." - -Rebecca Mary looked at the few things. They filled the seat, and Mrs. -Simmons had the grace to blush. - -"I hope you are not a settlement worker who will scold me for -indiscriminate giving? Perhaps it is dreadful, but it is good for me, -and really I don't believe that it could be bad for Mrs. Klavachek. It -can't be bad for a woman in a strange country to know that another woman -is interested in her, can it?" - -"Indeed, it can't!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary, as if she knew anything -about it. "It would be splendid for any woman to think that you were -interested in her!" she added impulsively as she looked into the sweet -old face of Mrs. Peter Simmons. And she explained that if the limousine -would turn the corner and go two blocks and stop at the little purple -house it would surely find Mrs. Klavachek and her new baby. "The new -baby is a love!" Rebecca Mary's eyes crinkled as she told how dear the -new baby had looked tied in a big feather pillow. - -"Thank you so much." Mrs. Simmons seemed very grateful for the careful -direction. "Didn't I see you at the Waloo the other afternoon?" she -asked suddenly. "Didn't you love that new fox trot?" She smiled as she -drove away before Rebecca Mary could say whether she did or didn't love -the new fox trot. - -Rebecca Mary had time to gaze after her before a long yellow street car -came and picked her up, and she thought again how very ungrandmotherly -Mrs. Peter Simmons was with her twinkling face and her love of new fox -trots. The grandmothers Rebecca Mary knew were staid, sedate women with -aprons and knitting. - -The second invitation to which Rebecca Mary had an opportunity to say -"Yes, thank you" came the very next evening when one of the teachers in -the Lincoln school offered her a ticket to a travel talk in an -auditorium not three blocks from Rebecca Mary's "one room, kitchenette -and bath." There must have been seven or eight hundred people there so -that Rebecca Mary might be excused for looking for--old Mrs. Simmons, -she told herself. But Mrs. Simmons was not there so far as Rebecca Mary -could see, neither was her grandson. They were not at the school social, -which was Rebecca Mary's next festal affair, nor at the concert to which -she went with a woman who lived in the next apartment, and who was -scared to death to go out after dark alone. Rebecca Mary began to lose -faith in the crumpled clover leaf which she had put in an old locket and -carried in her pocket, and no wonder. A talisman which was worth its -salt should have brought better luck. - -It was not as easy for Rebecca Mary to change the point of view which -she had carefully cultivated for so many years as it would have been for -her to change a blouse. There were many times when it seemed as if she -just couldn't say "Yes, thank you." It would have been so much easier if -she could have wrapped her old point of view in brown paper and carried -it to a clerk at Bullok's or the Big Store and explained that it didn't -fit at all, that it was far too narrow and too tight, and she should -like to exchange it for one that was much larger and broader and which -had some mystery in its frills. It seemed such bad management on the -part of some one that there wasn't an exchange department for points of -view at one of the big stores. But as there wasn't she did her best, and -she had to see that the second time was easier than the first and the -third time was easier than the second. - -"If I live to be a hundred," she told herself a little impatiently one -day, "I shall probably say 'Yes, thank you' mechanically. But by that -time I won't care what I say, and no one else will care. Oh, dear, I -almost wish Cousin Susan hadn't taken me to the Waloo for tea that day -and stirred me all up. What's the use of thinking about things I can't -ever have?" - -And then because Cousin Susan had stirred her all up she threw out her -little chin and clicked her white teeth together and murmured that she -would have the things she thought about, yes, she would! She wouldn't be -all stirred up for nothing. She just would have some good times to -remember when she was an old woman and had nothing to do but remember -the past. - -In her eagerness to find the good times she forgot to frown and to -scowl. Even the walk to school became interesting when she thought that -romance might lurk around the corner, and as Rebecca Mary bravely -struggled to forget her cares and see only her opportunities she began -to look more like a real live girl, a girl who might have adventures. -The sullen frown left her face, indeed, a little smile often tilted the -corners of her lips as she let her imagination run riot. There was a new -spring in her step because there was a new hope in her heart. Perhaps -the four-leaf clover would bring something into her life besides taxes -and insurance premiums. - -At the Lincoln school where Rebecca Mary taught the third grade the -principal believed firmly in a close relation between the home and the -school, and to bring about this closer relation each teacher was -expected to visit the family of each pupil at least once a term. Rebecca -Mary was appalled when she discovered that it was the next to the last -week of the term and she remembered how many calls she owed. While she -was making out a list to be paid that very afternoon the principal came -in to tell her that an urgent telephone message had just asked Joan -Befort's teacher to come to Beforts' as soon as she possibly could. - -"I said you would be down at once," went on Miss Weir. "Was Joan at -school to-day?" - -No, Rebecca Mary remembered that Joan hadn't been at school either that -morning or that afternoon. - -"Probably measles or mumps," prophesied Miss Weir, who had been made -wise by years of experience. "Foreigners are so helpless at times. You -will have to explain that the quarantine laws must be obeyed. What do -you know about the Beforts?" - -Rebecca Mary blushed, for when Miss Weir asked her she discovered that -she knew very very little about the Beforts. - -"Joan's mother is dead, and she and her father live with an old woman -who keeps house for them." Rebecca Mary tried her best to make a -complete garment out of her very small pattern. "Joan is devoted to her -father. He took her to the Waloo for tea the other afternoon. It was -Joan's birthday, and she gave me the violets her father had given her." -Rebecca Mary's chin tilted a bit as she told her principal that she, -too, had been at the popular Waloo for tea. "Joan is an odd child, -different from the others. It isn't only that she is a foreigner, -you know she has only been in this country a short time, and she -has picked up a very American way of expressing herself, but -underneath--underneath--" she floundered helplessly. - -"Yes?" Miss Weir waited for her to explain that "underneath," and when -Rebecca Mary just stammered on she said gently, but, oh, so firmly: -"That is why I ask you to visit the homes, so that you can understand -the 'underneath.'" - -"Yes," murmured Rebecca Mary meekly, but when Miss Weir had gone with -Disapproval shouting, "Fie, fie, Rebecca Mary Wyman," from her unbending -back Rebecca Mary was anything but meek. She stamped her foot and threw -a book on the floor and murmured rebelliously that the days would have -to be three times as long as they were if she were to get "underneath" -the forty children in her room. - -She found the house, a modest frame cottage, in a block which held only -one other house. Joan was sitting on the steps, and she looked very -small and very forlorn until she saw Rebecca Mary. She jumped to her -feet and stood waiting, her arms full of what Rebecca Mary naturally -thought were playthings. She wore her hat and had a suit case on the -steps beside her. - -"Oh dear Miss Wyman!" she called joyously. "I thought you'd never come. -Mrs. Lee, over there," she nodded toward the next house, "said you -couldn't be here a minute before half-past three." She looked at the -small silver clock which was one of the things she held and shook it for -the clock said plainly that in its opinion it was a quarter to four. -"This must be an ignorant clock," she decided with a frown, "for I know -you wouldn't wait a minute when you knew I wanted you. It doesn't matter -now, and I'm to tell you that I'm to be your little girl!" She was quite -enchanted by the prospect, and she expected Rebecca Mary to be -enchanted, too. - -"My goodness gracious!" And Rebecca Mary frowned. Old habits are hard to -break. "What do you mean, Joan?" - -Joan was only too ready to explain. "You see my father has gone away for -a long long time, we don't know how long, and Mrs. Muldoon, who keeps -our house for us, has gone, too. She said I was to stay with you until -she came back because at Mrs. Lee's they have scarlet fever upstairs and -the mumps downstairs." Rebecca Mary could see for herself that Mrs. Lee -had scarlet fever. A card on the house was actually red in the face with -its efforts to tell her that Mrs. Lee had scarlet fever. "Mrs. Muldoon -said she guessed my teacher was an all right person to leave me with, -and so she's loaned me to you. Yes, she has!" as Rebecca Mary seemed -unable to believe it. "I'm loaned to you until my father or Mrs. Muldoon -comes home again. Aren't you glad?" Her lip quivered for Rebecca Mary -looked anything but glad. - -Rebecca Mary couldn't say she was glad, either. She seemed to have lost -her tongue for she just stood there and looked down at black-haired, -black-eyed Joan and wondered what in the world she would do if Joan's -absurd story was true. - -"Are you Joan's teacher?" called Mrs. Lee from next door. "Mrs. Muldoon -was sure that you would look after Joan while she was away. Her son in -Kansas City is sick. She went as soon as she got the telegram, and she -said she didn't know a living soul who would look after Joan until she -thought of you. I'd be glad to take her in here if the health officer -would let me. If you can't look after her I suppose the Associated -Charities could find some one," she suggested. - -"Oh, no!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary. Joan did not seem at all like an -Associated Charities case. Bewildered as Rebecca Mary was she could see -that. - -"That's what I thought, and Mrs. Muldoon thought so, too. Mr. Befort is -away on business she said. They're nice people, used to much better -days, I'd say. You won't have a mite of trouble with Joan." - -"Not a mite!" promised Joan, winking fast to keep the tears in her black -eyes. It wasn't pleasant to be loaned to a teacher who didn't want to -borrow. "I'll be so good you'll never know I'm there!" - -"Shan't I?" Rebecca Mary visualized the tiny apartment she had shared -with a fellow teacher until Miss Stimson had been called home by the -illness of her mother. At first Rebecca Mary had liked to be alone, but -even before Cousin Susan talked to her as only a relative can talk to -one, she had wished for a companion, not an eight-year-old companion she -thought quickly as she looked at Joan. Goodness knows, she had enough of -children during school hours. But what could she do? Plainly Mrs. Lee -and Joan expected her to take Joan home and keep her indefinitely. It -was absurd. But if she didn't take her there was only the Associated -Charities. - -A little hand clutched her arm. "You aren't h-happy because I-I'm loaned -to you," faltered a trembling little voice. - -Rebecca Mary was almost unkind enough to say she wasn't and to ask how -she could be, but the sob in Joan's voice made her ashamed of herself -and her frown. She dropped down on the top step and put her arms around -Joan and her clock and a framed picture and a potato masher which she -discovered made the odd collection in Joan's arms. The potato masher hit -her nose and she frowned again. - -Joan leaned against her with a tired sigh. "It's--it's very hard when no -one wants you," she hiccoughed. - -Rebecca Mary knew just how hard it was, but she didn't say so. Her back -was toward the street so that she did not see a limousine coming toward -them. It stopped in front of the cottage, and if it hadn't been for the -four-leaf clover in her pocket Rebecca Mary would have been very much -surprised to hear Mrs. Peter Simmons' voice. - -"Does Mr. Frederick Befort live here? Upon my word!" as Rebecca Mary -jumped up and faced her. "I wondered if we should meet again. Mr. Befort -is one of the men at the factory so I have come to get acquainted with -his family," she explained with a friendly smile. - -"That's me!" Joan was on her toes with importance. "I'm all the family -Mr. Frederick Befort has, but I'm loaned to Miss Wyman!" - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -Fifteen minutes later Rebecca Mary and Joan with Joan's suit case and -the picture and the clock and the potato masher were driving away with -Mrs. Simmons, while Mrs. Lee waved her apron and promised to let them -know the very first minute that Mr. Befort or Mrs. Muldoon returned. - -"This is the picture of my very own father and my very own mother," Joan -explained as she showed Mrs. Simmons and Rebecca Mary the photograph of -a man in a very gorgeous uniform and with an order on his breast -standing beside a beautiful young woman in a smart evening gown, a long -string of pearls about her neck. There was a coat of arms emblazoned on -the silver frame, and Mrs. Simmons touched it with her fingers to call -Rebecca Mary's attention to the splendor of it. - -"This clock was my mother's, too," Joan chattered on. "And I've wound it -myself every night since she went away so I had to bring it with me, and -this," she looked at the potato masher doubtfully. "I don't know why I -like it, but I do." - -"Then I'm glad you brought it with you." Mrs. Simmons patted the small -fingers which clutched the wooden potato masher and wondered if the -pictured father was dressed for a costume ball or if his every-day -clothes were so gorgeous. "Did you ever see her father?" she asked -Rebecca Mary. - -Rebecca Mary quite forgot the brief glimpse she had had of Mr. Befort's -back as he was leaving the Viking room with Joan. "Never!" she exclaimed -with an emphasis which made Mrs. Simmons laugh. It sounded so fierce, as -though if Rebecca Mary ever had seen Mr. Befort she would have told him -a thing or two. - -"He has only been at the factory for a few months," Mrs. Simmons -explained. "We'll stop at my house and telephone to the office. It will -be interesting to hear where he has gone and why he has gone." - -But when they stopped at Mrs. Simmons' house, a big sprawling mansion of -brick and plaster and brown timbers, and telephoned to the office all -they learned was that Frederick Befort had gone away on special business -and could not be reached by any one--not by any one at all. - -"Well, upon my word!" Mrs. Simmons was quite taken aback by the decisive -answer from the office. "I've half a mind to show that man that I can -reach Frederick Befort if I want to. It's ridiculous, perfectly -ridiculous, to think that any business is more important than his child. -What will you do?" she asked Rebecca Mary. - -"I suppose I shall have to keep her until her father comes back," sighed -Rebecca Mary. "I really can't turn her over to the Associated Charities, -but it seems to me that a good deal is expected of a teacher." - -"She might stay here," suggested Mrs. Simmons. "One of my maids could -look after her. How would you like that?" she asked Joan, who stood -beside her. - -"It would be like home." Joan looked about the big spacious rooms with -their rich rugs and hangings, the attractive furnishings and beautiful -pictures. "Our old home, I mean. But I wasn't loaned to you. I was--I -was loaned to Miss Wyman." Her lips quivered and tears hung perilously -near the edge of each black eye. - -"So you were, honey." Suddenly Rebecca Mary realized that a great deal -was being expected of Joan, too, and she hugged her. She felt almost as -sorry for Joan as she did for herself. It couldn't be pleasant to be -left on the door step with a picture and a clock and a potato masher. -"It's ever so kind of you, Mrs. Simmons, but we'll manage some way." - -"I'm sure she wouldn't bother me as much as she will you, and I have an -obligation toward her as long as her father works for my husband. Don't -go yet," as Rebecca Mary rose and took Joan's hand. "We'll have a cup of -tea, and then I'll take you home in the car." - -"I like to ride in cars," dimpled Joan, all smiles again. "I always used -to." - -Over her head Mrs. Simmons looked at Rebecca Mary and raised her -eyebrows questioningly, but Rebecca Mary could only shake her head. -Rebecca Mary began to see that there might be something in her -principal's wish to have her teachers know more of their pupils than -their ability to read and cipher. There was such a lot more about Joan -that Rebecca Mary would like to have known that very minute. - -"Where was your old home, my dear?" Mrs. Simmons did not hesitate to ask -for any information she wished to have. - -"Over the sea--at Echternach." Joan turned an eager face toward her, -quite willing to talk of that old home where she had lived with her -daddy and her mother until she had come to the United States with her -mother. Her mother had died suddenly, leaving Joan with a grandmother -who had lived only long enough to give the little girl back to her -father when he came a year later. And as she chattered Mrs. Simmons and -Rebecca Mary looked at the coat of arms on the silver frame and at the -photograph of the gorgeously uniformed man and the beautiful woman. - -"Tell me about your father?" Mrs. Simmons asked as soon as she could -slip a word in edgeways. - -Joan looked up, a trifle puzzled by the question. "Daddy?" she repeated. -"Why, he's just--daddy. He's like--well, his eyes always look at me so -lovingly and his mouth talks to me so sweetly and his ears hear -everything I say and his hands work for me and his feet bring him to -me." She kept her eyes on the photograph to make sure she left nothing -out. "That's my daddy!" she finished triumphantly, and she looked up as -if she dared them to find fault with such a daddy. - -Mrs. Simmons patted her shoulder, and Rebecca Mary hugged her. - -"That's a very good working description of a daddy," smiled Mrs. -Simmons. "And here is Sako with the tea." - -When the Japanese butler had placed the tray on the low table beside -Mrs. Simmons, Joan handed cups and passed sandwiches quite as if she -were accustomed to that pleasant task. - -"I'm consumed with curiosity," Mrs. Simmons whispered to Rebecca Mary. -"She is a most unusual child. You must tell me anything you learn about -her. Echternach sounds German, doesn't it? And although the war is over -and we're told we are to forgive our enemies, I can't quite forgive the -Germans for all the dreadful things they did. Nor the Turks. Of course -the children aren't to be blamed, but--That's my grandson," she told -Joan, who was looking at a large framed photograph on the table. "Young -Peter Simmons, and I'm sinfully proud of him. He was my first -grandchild, and even when he was a fat bald-headed baby I knew that some -day he would do wonderful things. I suppose all grandmothers think that, -just as all mothers do. But I really didn't think Peter would do as -wonderful things as he has," she went on more to Rebecca Mary than to -Joan. "You know he has a _croix de guerre_?" She drew a quick breath and -looked at Rebecca Mary with a smile which was not at all a laughing -smile. "I'm apt to be a bit foolish when I talk of young Peter Simmons," -she admitted as she wiped her eyes. - -"I don't wonder!" Rebecca Mary drew a quick breath, too. "I should think -you would be proud!" She knew she should be proud if young Peter -Simmons belonged to her. She didn't care if he had scowled at her. - -"My daddy has one of those." Joan's pink finger pointed to the cross on -young Peter Simmons' tunic. "Only his is an eagle." She showed it to -them on her pictured father. "He doesn't wear it every day." - -"Neither does my Peter," complained Peter's grandmother. "Listen! -Doesn't that sound like Peter now?" For a car had stopped before the -house, and there was a rush of young feet and a chatter of young -tongues. "Don't you hope it is?" - -Rebecca Mary must have hoped it was for she turned a deep crimson, and -when young Peter Simmons did actually come in she gazed at him as if he -were the most wonderful, the most amazing, man in the world. Rebecca -Mary had never met a hero before and although Peter looked like any -young man of twenty-three, big and brave and jolly, she knew that he was -a hero and that the French government had given him a cross to prove -that he was a hero. No wonder she drew a quick breath and that her eyes -were full of awe as she looked at him. She quite forgot that once he had -scowled at her, and she had scowled at him. - -Peter was not alone, and Rebecca Mary and Joan were introduced to Doris -Kilbourne and Martha Farnsworth and Stanley Cabot. The girls rushed -across the room to kiss Granny Simmons and tell her about their golf at -the Country Club and to ask her if Peter wasn't a perfect brute to beat -them. - -And Peter chuckled. "You must expect to be beaten," he told them in a -lordly manner. "Golf is no game for a girl, is it, Miss Wyman?" - -Rebecca Mary colored to have him appeal to her, and she stammered a bit -as she answered. "I thought it was a game for men, fat bald-headed old -men." - -The girls shrieked at that. "There, Peter Simmons! I reckon that will -hold you for a while!" - -"May we have some tea, Granny?" drawled Doris in her soft rich voice. -"Or is it all gone?" She would have peeped into the tea pot to see but -Granny kept her brown fingers in her soft white hands. - -"Is it, Miss Wyman? Do you think you can find any tea for these thirsty -children?" - -Rebecca Mary was glad to pour tea. It gave her something to do while the -others laughed and chattered of golf and tennis and the Country Club -dances and a hundred other things about which she knew nothing. Doris -and Martha wore smartly cut skirts of heavy white piqué. Doris had a -green sweater and a soft green hat and green stockings while Martha -wore purple. Rebecca Mary could scarcely decide which she liked the best -as she sat back in her low chair, her hands loosely clasped on her knee. -She wore a white skirt herself and a white blouse but they were a little -rumpled from spending the day in school. But in her white hat and -clothes and with a red rose in each cheek she had only a faint family -resemblance to the girl in the shabby blue serge who had scowled at -Peter that day in the Viking room. Peter looked at her curiously. There -was something familiar about the rosy little face, but he could not -remember where he had seen it as he refused tea and lounged back in a -chair to smoke a cigarette. - -"Hello, who's the chap in the Prussian uniform?" he asked suddenly, and -he lifted the photograph of Joan's father and mother from the table -where it lay beside the clock and the potato masher. - -"That's my father!" Joan ran across to look at the picture with him. -"And he has a medal, too." She pointed to it as she nodded at Peter. - -"So he has, a real German eagle." Peter was as astonished as she could -wish, and he lifted his eyebrows inquiringly at Granny as if he would -ask where the German eagle came from. - -"He showed it to me," Joan hinted delicately, and when Peter only -grinned, she went on not quite so delicately; "I love to see medals." - -"Joan!" Rebecca Mary was mortified to death. What would Peter think? - -"You'd like to see it, too. You told the grandmother you would," -insisted Joan. - -"Would you?" teased Peter, who had already discovered how easy it was to -make Rebecca Mary blush, and what fun it was, also. - -She blushed then, all the way from the brim of her hat to the V of her -blouse, but she had to say, "Yes, thank you." Goodness, if she had -imagined half the embarrassment her promise to Cousin Susan would cause -her she never would have made it. - -"All right, I'll show it to you, but it will be no treat to you, young -woman," he pinched Joan's cheek, "if you have a German eagle in your -family. Where is your father now?" - -"He's gone." Her eyes filled with tears, and Peter imagined that he knew -what she meant, that her father was dead, and he patted her shoulder -sympathetically. "And I'm loaned to Miss Wyman!" The tears disappeared -as she jubilantly announced what had happened. - -"I hope Miss Wyman is as pleased as you are." Peter grinned at Rebecca -Mary. - -Rebecca Mary laughed softly and said that Miss Wyman was, and she only -told the truth, for if it had not been for Joan she knew very well that -she never would be in Mrs. Peter Simmons' lovely room with young Peter -Simmons laughing at her. - -Joan had to ask him again before young Peter pulled a small box from his -pocket and showed her and Rebecca Mary the _croix de guerre_. Rebecca -Mary had never seen anything which brought such a lump into her throat -as that bronze cross on the red and green ribbon. She could not keep her -voice steady as she said: - -"How proud you must be of it!" - -"Huh," grunted young Peter, closing the box with a snap and thrusting it -back into his pocket. "It makes me feel like a sweep. Why, every man in -the section deserved a cross more than I did!" - -"The French general didn't think so!" Granny was indignant. - -"It's true!" insisted Peter, red and embarrassed. - -"Oh!" breathed Rebecca Mary. She liked to see Peter red and embarrassed. -She hadn't supposed that heroes ever were that way, but she knew that -school teachers were. - -Stanley Cabot watched her face brighten. Stanley had been an artist -before the war and now that the war was over he was an artist again, -and the vivid expression of her face held his attention. - -"She looks as if she had just wakened up," he said to himself. - -But suddenly the bright color faded from Rebecca Mary's cheeks. "We must -go home," she said quickly. "Come, Joan." - -"Not yet," begged Granny. "You can't stay? Peter, will you see if Karl -is waiting? He will drive them home. Yes, my dear," as Rebecca Mary -protested that it was not necessary, they could go home in the street -car. "You have too much luggage," she laughed as Joan gathered her -photograph and her clock and her potato masher. "The suit case is in the -car, isn't it? I hope you will come very soon again," she said -cordially, as she went into the hall with them. "I want to see more of -you and of Joan. I love young people, and I love to have them with me. -It makes me feel young. I hate to be old, but I am old, and the only way -I can cheat myself is to have young people with me. You and Joan must -come to dinner some night. Come Thursday. Perhaps we shall have heard -something from Mr. Befort by then." - -Joan, struggling with the potato masher and the clock, heard her. "My -father's name," she said quickly, "isn't Mr. Befort. It's Count Ernach -de Befort." - -"What!" exclaimed Granny, who had no idea that she had been entertaining -a young countess. - -"Joan!" cried Rebecca Mary very much surprised, indeed, to learn that a -young countess was in the third grade of the Lincoln school. - -They were so amazed that Joan flushed and her fingers flew to her guilty -lips. "Oh," she cried, "I forgot! I wasn't to tell. They don't have -counts in this country." - -"Ernach de Befort," murmured Granny in Rebecca Mary's ear. "That sounds -like a queer Franco-German combination. I'd like it better if it were -one thing or another, if it were French. Never mind, Joan," as Joan -began to whimper that she had forgotten that she wasn't to tell. "We'll -keep the secret, won't we, Miss Wyman? Do you believe her?" she -whispered to Rebecca Mary. - -Rebecca Mary shook her head. Not for a second did she believe that -Joan's father was Count Ernach de Befort. She had met the active -imagination of a child too often, and she whispered that Joan was only -playing a little game of "let's pretend" before she said good-by to -Granny and promised to come Thursday to dinner. - -Peter was waiting beside the luxurious limousine. - -"I hope I shall see you again soon, Miss Wyman," he said pleasantly, and -Rebecca Mary devoutly hoped he would, too. "Good-by, Miss Loan Child." -He grinned at Joan as she sat with her arms full of her treasures. - -"Good-by." Joan released one hand to wave it at him as they drove away. -"He's very nice, don't you think so, Miss Wyman? And awfully brave or he -wouldn't have that cross. My father is as brave as a lion, too." And she -held the photograph up so that Rebecca Mary could see how brave her -father looked. - -After Joan was tucked into Miss Stimson's abandoned bed Rebecca Mary sat -by the window in the soft darkness and recalled the astonishing events -of the day. How amazing they had been! And how jolly! She hoped she -would see Peter Simmons again, but there wasn't much chance. He didn't -go to the Lincoln school. - -She laughed softly and jumped up and went to her desk to take out the -insurance policy which was such a bugbear to her now and which was to be -such a comfort to the old age that always had loomed so blackly before -her. She read it over and then giggled as she took a sheet of paper and -wrote across the top in large letters--"The Memory Insurance Company." -And below in smaller letters she copied and adapted the form of her old -policy--"by this policy of insurance agrees to pay on demand to Rebecca -Mary Wyman such memories as she may have paid into the said company." -And below that she wrote in large letters again just one -word--"Payments." - -She pressed her fountain pen against her lips and studied that one word -before she chuckled and began to enter her payments. - -"Kitchen curtains. - -"A four-leaf clover, origin unknown. - -"One loan child of mysterious parentage. - -"A hero and his _croix de guerre_." - -What a lot there were! Why, it was only ten days since she had promised -to take out a memory insurance policy. Cousin Susan would be pleased at -the number of payments she had made on it already. Her whole face -twinkled as she read the list. A hero and a _croix de guerre_! H-m! And -that four-leaf clover! Where had it come from? That list--why, that list -represented securities that she couldn't lose and which no one could -take from her. So long as she could remember anything she would remember -Cousin Susan's kitchen curtains which never would be bought now. She -could scarcely wait to make another payment, and she felt in each of her -two hundred and eight bones that there would be other payments,--many of -them. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -The very next day was Saturday so that Rebecca Mary was at home when the -postman made his first round. He brought her a letter from her mother, -and Rebecca Mary never suspected what a wonderful surprise was packed in -the square envelope. - -Mrs. Wyman's favorite aunt, a woman of some wealth and many years, had -decided to give a few of her friends the legacies she had meant to leave -them at her death so that she could hear how they were enjoyed. She had -sent Mrs. Wyman a check for five thousand dollars and a check for a -thousand dollars to each of the Wyman girls. Rebecca Mary's eyes fairly -popped from her head when she saw her check and read the letter. She -couldn't believe that it was her check. - - "I want you to spend at least a part of it on yourself," wrote Mrs. - Wyman. "You have been so splendid and unselfish in sharing - everything with us that you have earned the right to be a little - foolish with some of this money. You never expected to have it and - so we never planned to use any of it for a new roof or a kitchen - stove. Take a little trip in your vacation, dear, or buy some - other pleasure. If you put it in the bank the interest would pay - your insurance premium, but you have sacrificed so much to the - future. Perhaps I have been wrong in making so much of it for - after all you are young but once. I do want my girls to have some - good times to remember. Write Aunt Ellen a little note, and tell - her that you are going to buy a lot of pleasure which you will - remember all of your life with her generous gift." - -Rebecca Mary had to read that letter twice before she could quite -understand it, and then she looked at her loan child. - -"Joan," she exclaimed breathlessly, "let us give three rousing cheers -for a four-leaf clover!" - -And after they had given three of the rousingest sort of cheers they put -on their hats and went down to the First National Bank, where Rebecca -Mary deposited the most beautiful check that she ever hoped to see. And -there they met Stanley Cabot, who was very much pleased to see Rebecca -Mary again and who introduced her to his older brother, Richard Cabot, -who was the youngest bank vice-president that Waloo had ever had. -Rebecca Mary had never expected to know a vice-president of the First -National Bank, and as soon as she saw him her eyes changed from saucer -size to service plates, for she recognized him at once. He was the man -who had been with old Mrs. Peter Simmons that afternoon at the Waloo, -the man who had looked as if he could do things, the man who had made -her cheeks burn and her heart thump. She had never thought that already -he had done enough to make him a bank vice-president. He looked too -young. Rebecca Mary had always thought of a banker, vice-president or -president, as an old man with gray hair and plenty of figure. Richard -Cabot hadn't a gray hair in his head and he was as slim and straight as -an athlete. He seemed wonderful to Rebecca Mary, who gazed at him with a -surprise and interest which amused and flattered him. He did not -recognize her at all for she had changed her face. At the Waloo tea room -she had worn a yellow brown scowl and at the bank she had on a pink -smile. It was not strange that Richard did not recognize her until she -had agreed that it was a gorgeous day and that Mrs. Simmons was a -perfect old dear. Then it was Richard who opened his eyes wide. - -"That's it!" he exclaimed, and the puzzled look in his face was chased -away by a slight flush, which seemed rather strange to be on the face of -a banker. "I thought I had seen you before, Miss Wyman. And it was at -the Waloo the afternoon Granny took me there for tea. She would accept -no refusal although I told her that bankers had no time and little use -for tea. But I was glad I went." - -He liked Rebecca Mary's pink smile and self-conscious manner. Richard -knew any number of girls, all of those with whom he had grown up and all -the relatives and friends of the older men with whom he was associated -and who regarded him as Waloo's most promising young man, and those -girls had always met him considerably more than half way. It was -refreshing to meet a girl who blushed and hesitated over the first steps -to his acquaintance. It made him feel big and mannish and important, -which is exactly the way you like to feel if you are a man. That is why -when he met Rebecca Mary at the bank door, after she had loaned that -most beautiful check in the world to the cashier, that he said more -impulsively than he usually spoke to a girl: - -"If you have finished your banking, may I walk up the avenue with you?" - -"My banking never takes long." Rebecca Mary was all in a flutter at the -thought of walking up the avenue with Mr. Richard Cabot. Why, it would -be like taking a stroll with the ten story bank building. "I just put a -little in, and it seems to come out by itself," she explained sadly. - -The walk up the avenue was a royal progress for Richard seemed to know -every one. His hat was never on his head. Rebecca Mary was rather -tongue-tied, but Joan's tongue was not tied. Before they were out of the -bank she had told Richard that she had been loaned to Rebecca Mary and -that they were going to dinner at Mrs. Simmons' house on Thursday -evening. - -"I've never been to a party dinner in all my life," she finished with -great importance, "so I hope nothing will happen." - -"What could happen?" asked Richard with a smile for Rebecca Mary, who -gave him a shy smile in exchange. - -"Lots of things. Scarlet fever or mumps or----" - -"My goodness gracious, Joan! I hope you haven't been neighborly enough -to take mumps or scarlet fever!" The mere hint that Joan might have been -that neighborly was startling to Rebecca Mary. - -"But I'm not going to think of them because they aren't going to happen, -and there isn't any good in thinking of what never will happen, is -there?" went on Joan. - -"Not a bit," agreed Richard. "Are you going in here?" For Rebecca Mary -had stopped before the very smartest shop in Waloo. - -"We're going to buy clothes for the dinner," Joan whispered -confidentially. "My father said that ladies, even as little ladies as I -am, can't ever go anywhere without buying new clothes. He thinks it's -very strange." - -"So it is. No wonder their money won't stay in the bank. I am very glad -to have met you, Miss Wyman, and I hope to see those new clothes some -time soon." He looked straight into Rebecca Mary's gray eyes as he told -her what he hoped to do before he said good-by and went on up the -avenue. - -"Joan, you are an awful chatterbox," rebuked Rebecca Mary. - -"I only talk because my head is so full of words that they just tumble -off my tongue. Don't the words want to tumble from your tongue?" Joan -asked curiously as they went into the smartest shop. - -Rebecca Mary looked at the beautiful frocks about her. Oh, Cousin Susan -was right, and her clothes were a disgrace. They weren't clothes at all, -they were only covering. She sent a little thank you message to Aunt -Ellen by telepathy before she began that easiest of all tasks for a -woman, to spend money. - -She had an odd feeling that she was not herself as she went up Park -Terrace with Joan on Thursday evening, and she surely did not look like -her old shabby self. How could she when she wore a smart white Georgette -crepe frock under a smart beige cape and her big black hat had been -designed by a real milliner and not copied by a "make over person?" -Rebecca Mary had spent an hour with a hair dresser that afternoon after -school so that from the wave in her yellow brown hair to the sole of her -white pumps she was absolutely new. She felt as new as she looked, for -there is nothing which will take the tired discouraged feeling from a -woman, or a man either, quicker or more effectively than new clothes. -Festal garments had been found for Joan in the suit case which Mrs. -Muldoon had packed so that any one who saw Rebecca Mary and Joan walk up -Park Terrace knew at once that they were going out to dine. - -They were early, and Rebecca Mary was dreadfully mortified. It looked so -eager, so hungry, she told herself crossly, to be early. Joan was not -mortified at all for in her small mind a guest could not go to a party -too early. Mrs. Simmons joined them in a very few minutes. Joan curtsied -prettily and kissed Granny's wrinkled white hand. - -"Did you teach her to do that in the Lincoln school?" Granny asked -Rebecca Mary after Joan had gone into the sun room to see the gold fish -in their crystal globe. "Have you heard anything from her father yet? If -Mr. Simmons were here we would soon know all about Mr. Frederick Befort, -Count Ernach de Befort," she corrected herself with a chuckle of -amusement. "But he isn't here, and I don't like to make trouble at the -office. I hope Mr. Befort comes back soon for your sake. Here is Richard -Cabot. He asked himself," she explained as Richard came toward them. "He -called me up and asked if I would give him some dinner. He often drops -in when Mr. Simmons is away to keep me from being lonesome. I'm glad he -came to-night." - -Richard looked a trifle conscious himself as he took Rebecca Mary's hand -and told her that he was very glad to see her again. - -"And her new clothes, Mr. Cabot," whispered an anxious little voice at -his elbow. Joan was desperately afraid that Richard would not see -Rebecca Mary's new frock. "You said you wanted to see her new clothes -soon, and here they are. Aren't they beautiful? And they were marked -down from sixty-nine fifty! Doesn't she look like a princess?" - -"I've never seen a princess," laughed Richard, his eyes telling Rebecca -Mary more than his lips how very much he liked her marked down frock. - -"Haven't you?" Joan looked quite surprised and sorry. "I have. I've seen -the Belgian princess and some of the English ones and, of course, all of -the German ones." - -Rebecca Mary and Granny looked at each other as Joan spoke of the many -princesses she had seen. They couldn't help it. And Rebecca Mary began -to think that perhaps Joan had too much imagination. - -It was a very gay little dinner, and before they had finished their -coffee young Peter Simmons and his mother ran in to ask what Granny had -heard from grandfather. They were followed almost at once by Sallie -Cabot and her husband, young Joshua Cabot, and close on their heels came -young Mrs. Hiram Bingham with her adoring father-in-law. Richard drew -Rebecca Mary to the other side of the grand piano and told her how -Sallie Cabot had eloped with her great aunt and found a husband and of -the jam rivalries which had threatened the romance of Hiram and Judith -Bingham. It was like reading two volumes from the public library to hear -Richard, and Rebecca Mary's eyes sparkled. So there really was some -romance in the world. She had been afraid there wasn't any left. She had -thought it must all be shut up in books. - -"You ask Sallie," advised Richard, when she said that. "She'll tell you -that there will be romance in the world as long as there are people in -it. I used to laugh at her but, by George, I'm beginning to think that -she is right!" - -"Of course, I'm right," declared Sallie, who had strolled near enough to -hear herself quoted. "Wherever did you find that child?" she asked -Rebecca Mary with a nod toward Joan. "Granny said she was a mystery, but -she is also a darling. She talks like an American kiddie, but she -doesn't act like an American. She acts more like a--like a French -child," she decided. Sallie Cabot had been at a French convent so she -thought she knew what French children were like. - -"Her mother was an American, from New Orleans." Rebecca Mary didn't know -what Joan's father was so she couldn't tell Sallie. "She is a dear, -isn't she? When she told me she had been loaned to me I was scared to -death and furious, too, but she really is fun. I expect I was in a rut," -she confessed with a shamed little face and voice which quite enchanted -Richard. - -"A rut? What an unpleasant place for a pretty girl to be. May I tell you -that I love your frock?" - -Rebecca Mary glowed with pleasure to hear young Mrs. Joshua Cabot admire -her marked down frock. Every one in Waloo knew that Mrs. Joshua Cabot -could have a new frock every day and two for Sunday if she wanted them. - -"I like it," Rebecca Mary admitted with adorable shyness. - -"So do I!" Richard did not speak at all shyly but very emphatically. - -Sallie smiled as she moved away. "Any new fox trots, Granny?" she asked. -"I depend upon you to keep me up to the minute. Put on a record, Peter, -and let us jig a bit. You like to trot, don't you, Miss Wyman?" - -Rebecca Mary admitted that she did, and Richard asked her to have one -with him as if he were afraid that some one would claim her before he -could. He was a perfect partner for he extended just far enough above -her five feet and three inches to hold her right, and their steps suited -perfectly. Rebecca Mary had never enjoyed a dance more, she thought -breathlessly, when at last they stopped because the music stopped. - -"Here's your next partner," announced Peter, when he had changed the -record and another fox trot called them to dance. - -If Rebecca Mary had been thrilled to dance with Waloo's youngest bank -vice-president you may imagine how bubbly she was inside to fox trot -with Waloo's hero. Peter smiled as he looked at the flushed face so near -his own. Lordy, but he hadn't realized what a jolly little thing Granny -had found. Nothing school marmish about her with her shining gray eyes, -which were almost black now, and her yellow-brown hair and her pink -cheeks and her smart new frock. Absolutely nothing. - -Looking up to make a little remark about the call of the fox trot, -Rebecca Mary caught the admiration in Peter's face, and she was so -astonished that she lost the step. That made her furious, and she -frowned impatiently. - -"By thunder!" exclaimed Peter in quick surprise, and he stopped dancing -to look at her. "Now I know where I saw you before! It was at the Waloo, -and you scowled at me like a pirate. I was scared to death for fear you -didn't like me." - -"You scowled at me first!" Rebecca Mary's defense of her scowl was more -emphatic than logical. - -"Oh, come now!" Peter wouldn't believe that he had been that culpable. -"I couldn't scowl at you. My old Granny was quite broken hearted to see -you frown. She said if you were her daughter she'd lock you up until you -had learned to smile. Granny's strong for the grins. Give one and you'll -get one is her motto. You can see for yourself how it works. You -scowled at me,--sure it was that way!--and I scowled at you, although I -don't see now how I ever did it." - -"It's a very bad habit," Rebecca Mary told him severely. Her mouth was -as sober as a judge's mouth ever was, but her eyes crinkled joyously. -"You should break yourself of it." - -"I shall," Peter told her promptly. "Just how should I go to work? You -seem to have broken yourself of it." His eyes were full of boyish -admiration. - -"Not entirely." Rebecca Mary sighed, "I wish I could. A frowning face is -horrid. If you ever see me scowl again I wish you would shout 'Pirate' -at me as loud as you can. I'm afraid I do it unconsciously." And sure -enough her eyebrows did begin to bend together unconsciously. - -"Pirate!" shouted Peter instantly. "I can see it's going to be some work -to be monitor of your eyebrows," he chuckled. - -Rebecca Mary was sorry when the dance with Peter was over although she -turned politely to Joshua Cabot when he spoke to her. - -"Peter's a lucky chap," he said as he swung her out into the room. "All -girls love a hero, and he's a hero all right. I'd like a decoration -myself, but I don't know as I'd care to be kissed on both cheeks by a -hairy French general. That duty should have been delegated to fat Madame -General or better still to pretty Mademoiselle General. Peter is a good -old scout, and modest. He blushes like a girl when any one speaks of -what he has done." - -Rebecca Mary nodded. She had seen him blush. She colored delicately -herself, and Joshua looked wisely over her head to his wife. Hello, -another victim for old Peter, his glance seemed to tell Sallie Cabot. - -Joan danced, too, with old Mr. Bingham, who was not as light on his feet -as he had been once. - -"I do it for exercise," he explained to Granny. "Judy thinks it's good -for me." - -"You needn't make any excuse to me, Hiram Bingham. I take exercise -myself, don't I, Peter? And if old Peter Simmons comes home in time we -shall dance nothing but fox trots at our golden wedding." - -"A golden wedding!" Joan had never heard of such a thing. "What does -that mean, dear Granny Simmons? Would I like one?" - -Granny patted her rosy cheeks. "If you have any kind of a wedding I hope -you will have a golden one, too. It stands, Joan, for fifty years of -self-control and unselfishness and forbearance and----" - -"And love," interrupted Sallie Cabot quickly. "Don't leave out the love, -Granny. No man and woman could live together for fifty years without -love." - -"I reckon you're right, Sallie," agreed Granny meekly. - -"I've never been to a golden wedding," ventured Joan, playing with the -black ribbon which kept Granny's glasses from losing themselves. "I've -never been invited to one!" - -"You are invited to mine this minute," Granny told her with beautiful -promptness. - -"Oh!" Joan balanced herself on her toes and exclaimed rapturously: "A -golden wedding! What good times I've had since I was loaned!" - -"I suppose you young people think you are having good times," murmured -Granny wistfully, "but they aren't a patch on the good times we had, are -they, Hiram? I like to take my memories out and gloat over them when I -hear you young people talk. I have a lot of them, too. Why, Joan, if I -should take all my memories out and put them end to end I expect they -would reach around the world, and if they were piled one on top of the -other they would be higher than the Waloo water tower." She named the -highest point in Waloo. - -Joan was not the only one impressed by the vast number of Granny's -memories. - -"Imagine," Rebecca Mary turned to Richard, who was at her elbow, "having -so many things you want to remember. Most of my experiences I want to -forget." And she shivered. - -"Have they been so unpleasant?" Richard had never imagined he could be -so sympathetic. "But I've heard that the hard experiences are the very -ones that people like best to remember." - -Rebecca Mary shook her head. "How can they?" She didn't see how any one -would want to remember unpleasant experiences. - -"But you aren't going to have any more disagreeable times," promised -Richard confidently, as if he knew exactly what the future had in store -for her. "You are going to walk on Pleasant Avenue from now on." - -"I hope so." But Rebecca Mary was not so confident, although she looked -up and smiled at him. "I surely have been on Pleasant Avenue this -evening, but now I must run back to Worry Street. I'm like Cinderella, -only out on leave." And she laughed at his prophecy before she went -over to tell Granny that she had never had such a good time. - -"Must you go?" Granny held her hand in a warm friendly clasp and thought -that the child looked as if she had had a good time. "Wait a minute. -Peter----" - -Rebecca Mary's heart thumped. Was Granny going to ask Peter to take her -home? But if Granny was she didn't for Richard interrupted her. - -"Let me take Miss Wyman home. I have my car." - -"I have mine, too," grinned Peter. - -"But you have your mother. I'm alone." - -Beggars cannot be choosers and although she would far rather have gone -with Peter it was pleasant to ride with Richard in his big car, Joan -tucked between them. Richard bent forward. - -"Tired?" he asked gently. - -"I'm glad to be tired to-night." Rebecca Mary spoke almost fiercely. -"I've been dead tired from work and from disappointment, but it hasn't -been often that I've been tired from pleasure." And then she amazed -herself and charmed Richard by telling him something of her life, which -had been so full of work and disappointment and so empty of pleasure. -She even told him of Cousin Susan and the price she had paid for their -tea at the Waloo, and Richard, banker though he was, had never heard of -kitchen curtains buying tea for two. - -"You were there that afternoon," she reminded him after she had decided -that she would not tell him about the four-leaf clover. It would sound -too foolish to a bank vice-president. - -"I know," Richard said hastily before he went on in his usual -matter-of-fact voice. "You modern girls are wonderful. You are as brave -as a man, braver than lots of men I know." - -"That's because we have to be brave," Rebecca Mary explained. "I don't -know why I've bored you with my stupid past," she said, rather ashamed -of her outburst. "I've never spilled all my troubles on any one before." - -"I'm mighty flattered that you told them to me. It means that we are -going to be friends, doesn't it?" He bent forward to see as well as to -hear that she would be friends with him. It was not often that Richard -had asked for a girl's friendship. - -Rebecca Mary felt that in some occult feminine fashion, and she offered -him a warm little hand and said indeed she should be glad to be friends -with him. If her voice shook a trifle when she said that it must have -been because Richard was such a very important young man in Waloo. - -Before she went to bed Rebecca Mary took out her memory insurance policy -and entered another payment. - -"A fox trot with the hero of Waloo." - -So far as her memory insurance went the most promising young man in -Waloo did not seem to exist although she liked him very very much. But -Rebecca Mary was like everybody else, she would rather have what she -wanted than what she could get. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -"I can't blame any one but myself because I don't know all about Joan." -Rebecca Mary was an honest little thing and she made no attempt to shift -the blame to any one else. She packed it all on her own slim shoulders. -"If I had been a good teacher according to my principal I should have -called at the house long ago and heard the whole story from Mrs. -Muldoon. But I didn't. I kept putting it off, and so I don't know much." - -Granny had stopped at the Lincoln school at the close of the afternoon -session to inquire if Rebecca Mary had learned anything more about -Joan's father. But Rebecca Mary hadn't learned a thing. Joan was an odd -mixture of frankness and reserve. There were times when Rebecca Mary -thought that she must have been forbidden to speak of her old life in -the town with the German name. The whole situation was puzzling. Rebecca -Mary could not understand it at all. - -If you imagine that Joan's company was a constant joy to Rebecca Mary -you imagine all wrong. Rebecca Mary liked to have Joan with her well -enough at times, but there were other times when she was perfectly -indifferent to her guest and still other times when Joan was almost an -irritation, and Rebecca Mary could not see why of all the teachers in -the Lincoln school she should be the one to have to borrow a child -whether she wanted one or not. She had not had a chance to say "Yes, -thank you." - -"I've learned that Frederick Befort is on the factory pay-roll and as -Frederick Befort," Granny said slowly. "There is no record of any Count -Ernach de Befort. Of course now that the war is over I don't suppose it -matters if he is a German. There wouldn't be any secrets for him to -learn. Germany wouldn't be interested now in what is being done at the -factory." - -"But de Befort sounds French," objected Rebecca Mary, who could not see -that Joan bore any resemblance to any German child she had ever taught. -"Joan was born in Yokohama but that doesn't tell us anything. She -certainly isn't a Japanese. It's funny but she doesn't seem to want to -tell me what country she did come from. I was stupid enough to lose her -nativity card, and when I made out another and asked her what -nationality her father was she said he was going to be an American. I -told her I wanted to know what he was now and she said he had told her -that they would forget what they were before they came to this country. -That seemed rather queer. But Joan talks of Paris as much as she does of -Berlin. I wish I spoke French half as well as she does." - -"She speaks very good German, too. And as you say there is something -suspicious in the way she avoids any reference to her nationality. It -does seem as if she had been told not to speak of it. I suppose I am a -silly prejudiced old woman, but I should rather have Joan and her father -almost anything but German. Are you through? Don't you want to take a -spin down the River Road before you go home? It's perfect out, a real -June day. Do come with me." - -Rebecca Mary had no trouble at all to say "Yes, thank you" to that -invitation. She called Joan, and they went with Granny to the limousine -which was waiting at the curb. - -"I wonder if Cinderella's coach went as fast as this?" Joan said as they -flew toward the River Road. "We read about Cinderella this very day," -she explained to Granny. "It would be more interesting to have rats than -engines, wouldn't it? I'd like a pair of glass slippers, too, even if -they would break so easy. Wooden ones would be the strongest. That's -what they wear at home, you know, wooden ones." - -"In Germany, you mean?" asked Granny quickly. - -Joan wriggled. "Yes, in Germany they wear wooden ones," she said as -quickly, "I've never seen glass slippers, not in London nor Paris nor -Vienna nor anywhere. Aren't they any place but in fairy land?" she -twisted around to ask. - -"Nowhere. No matter how much money you have you can't buy Cinderella's -slippers anywhere but in fairy land," Rebecca Mary told her with a sigh -as if she, too, would like to find glass slippers somewhere else. - -For a while Joan was silent, meditating perhaps on the shoe shops in -fairy land with their glass slippers of every size and color. - -Granny and Rebecca Mary were silent, also, but they were not thinking of -glass slippers as the car swung into the River Road, which is quite the -prettiest drive about Waloo. Never before had Rebecca Mary driven over -it in a smart limousine with a liveried chauffeur at the wheel. She had -walked there times without number, but walking is not like riding in a -pneumatic-tired machine, and Rebecca Mary did enjoy the change. She was -afraid that there was the making of a snob in her for she did like to -ride with Mrs. Peter Simmons better than she liked to walk with a -teacher as shabby as she had been. Yes, she was a perfect snob. She -laughed as if she found it funny to be a snob. Joan looked up and -laughed, too. - -"I like you best when you laugh." She squeezed Rebecca Mary's fingers. -"Of course I like you always, days and nights and every minute, but when -you let your face break into little holes," she reached up and touched -Rebecca Mary's one dimple, "why I just love you!" - -"So do I," said Granny. "And it makes my old face break into little -holes, too. Dear me, that makes it very serious, doesn't it? It is our -own fault when people frown at us. Don't ever forget that, Joan. If you -smile at people they will smile at you." - -"Will they? But I like to have people frown at me sometimes. It makes me -shiver all down my back. Don't you like to have your back shiver?" - -"My back is too old to like to shiver. It's far too old and too stiff." - -Rebecca Mary caught the note of sadness in Granny's voice and ventured -to touch her hand. "It's the heart not the back which should be young," -she said softly. "I read that somewhere so it must be true. And your -heart, dear Mrs. Simmons, will never in the world be old. Gracious, I -should say it wouldn't!" she added emphatically as she remembered how -far from old Granny's enthusiasm was. - -"Don't call me Mrs. Simmons," begged Granny, and she took Rebecca Mary's -hand in hers. "I'm Granny to all of my young friends. I'd like to be -Granny to you." - -Rebecca Mary caught her breath. Just imagine calling Mrs. Peter -Simmons,--Mrs. Peter Simmons of Waloo--, Granny! - -"I'm not going to let my heart grow old either," exclaimed Joan before -Rebecca Mary could tell Mrs. Simmons how glad she would be to call her -Granny. "I want to keep it young for ever. But how can I when it gets -older every year? To-day my heart's eight and next May it will be nine! -How can I keep it young for ever?" Joan's voice was a wail. - -"Yes, Miss Wyman, how can we keep our hearts young when there is always -a birthday before us?" - -"You know. No one can give a better rule than you can." - -But Granny shook her head. She declared that there wasn't any rule, that -was why there were so many old hearts. People didn't know how to keep -their hearts young. They weren't taught in any school she knew of. - -"I'll ask daddy," promised Joan. "I expect he'll know. I'll ask him just -as soon as I see him. But I hope he won't come for me before the golden -wedding." She turned pale at the mere thought of missing a golden -wedding. - -"The golden wedding won't be until July," Granny told her. "Imagine any -one being married in July. It was the most scorching day. I thought I -should melt and that old Peter Simmons would melt and there wouldn't be -any one left to be married. We went to New York and the sea shore on our -wedding trip, and Peter ate too many lobsters and was ill. Such times as -we had!" She smiled at their memory. "The twenty-second of July," she -said dreamily. "Will you keep Joan until then, Miss Wyman? Oh, I have a -plan! This is the last week of school, isn't it?" - -Rebecca Mary nodded to the last question before she answered the first. -"I'll take Joan down home with me, to Mifflin, if Mrs. Muldoon doesn't -come back." - -"No, I want you both to come to me. Please," as Rebecca Mary looked at -her in surprise. "I'm so lonely in that big house by myself. Mr. -Simmons is away so much, I never know when he will be home. It would -keep my old heart young," she hinted, "to have two young things in the -house again. Do, please take pity on a crabbed old woman." - -"You're not a crabbed old woman!" Rebecca Mary said fiercely. - -"I shall be if you don't come and stay with me. We might motor up to -Seven Pines, that's our country place, for a few days. Most people think -it's very pretty there. You want to come, don't you, Joan?" - -"Yes, I do." Joan did not hesitate a breath. "I want to help you keep -your heart young. Don't you want to help too, Miss Wyman?" She didn't -see how Miss Wyman could refuse to help. - -"But my mother and sister will expect us in Mifflin." - -"We can run down Saturday and tell them," suggested Granny. "We can -motor down and back in a day. I know your mother will be willing." - -But still Rebecca Mary hesitated although it would be fun to go rolling -into Mifflin in the big limousine, and it would be fun, too, to stay -with Mrs. Simmons in her big house, but---- Her fingers touched her -pocket and felt a hard round object, the locket which held the four-leaf -clover. The locket reminded Rebecca Mary that she couldn't refuse -Granny Simmons' kind invitation if she kept her promise to Cousin Susan. -She blushed and stammered a bit as she said "Yes, thank you." And then -impulsively she showed Granny the locket and told her what a mystery it -contained. - -"Well, upon my word!" Granny seemed as surprised and interested as -Rebecca Mary could wish. "How romantic! We must find who gave it to you. -I do hope it wasn't that fat old waiter who sniffs. Haven't you any -clue? Who was in the tea room that afternoon?" - -"I was there with daddy, wasn't I, Miss Wyman?" Joan pulled her sleeve. -"But I gave you violets. I didn't give you any lucky clover." - -"Did you see her father?" Granny asked immediately. She was surprised -that Rebecca Mary hadn't told her she had seen Frederick Befort. - -Rebecca Mary shook her head. "You can't really say you have seen a man -when you have had only a fleeting glimpse of a back. You were there, -Mrs. Simmons. And your grandson!" To save her soul Rebecca Mary could -not keep the crimson wave from her cheeks when she just the same as put -a wish in words. - -But Granny shrieked with delight. "If it was Peter!" she chuckled. "If -it only was Peter! He is such a matter of fact old boy. I'd love to -think he went around giving girls four-leaf clovers." - -"Matter of fact!" Rebecca Mary stared at Granny. Peter was anything but -matter of fact to her. Her voice told Granny so. - -Granny stopped in the very middle of another chuckle. "Perhaps my eyes -are as old as my heart," she admitted. "You'll have to come and help me -see Peter as you do, help me change my old eyes." - -"Can you do that?" Joan wanted to know at once. "Can you change your -eyes and your heart if you don't like the ones you have, like Mrs. -Muldoon changed the bread one day? She said it was stale." - -"Indeed you can change a stale heart, Joan. It is wrong and foolish to -keep such a useless thing as a stale heart. You should change it at -once." - -"Where?" - -Granny looked helplessly at Rebecca Mary. Joan's endless questions were -sometimes hard to answer. Rebecca Mary laughed and answered for her. - -"Wherever there is anything to love," she suggested. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -When Richard heard that Granny was going to take Rebecca Mary and Joan -to Mifflin in her limousine he discovered that he had to call on the -Mifflin National Bank, and he suggested that they should make the trip -together. - -"I'll drive you in my big car," he said. "We could stop at the River -Club for lunch and come home by way of Spirit Lake for dinner. You'll -like the River Club," he told Rebecca Mary. "It's on an island in the -Mississippi and the dining room hangs over the river. You can catch your -lunch from the window." - -"What fun!" dimpled Rebecca Mary. "It sounds like a most beautiful pink -plan." - -"Pink plan?" Richard didn't understand what she meant, but he thought -she looked rather beautiful and pink herself as she stood beside him. - -"Whenever I hear of anything that is absolutely all right," Rebecca Mary -explained, "I seem to see it as the most lovely rose color. And so I -always think of absolutely all right things as pink. How lucky it is -for us that you owe the Mifflin Bank a call." - -"It's lucky for me," insisted Richard with a smile. - -So on Saturday Richard brought his big car to Rebecca Mary's door, and -Joan and Rebecca Mary ran down from the window where they had been -watching for him for hours. Rebecca Mary wore another portion of Aunt -Ellen's gift, a new motor coat--to tell the truth it was the only motor -coat she had ever had--and a fascinatingly small hat demurely veiled. -She looked just exactly right for a motor trip, and Richard told her so -with his eyes while Granny, who was already in the tonneau, admired her -with her lips as well as her eyes. - -"That's a very smart and becoming coat and hat, Rebecca Mary," she said -at once. "Suppose you sit in front with Richard? Riding in an open car -always makes me sleepy and if you are back here you will talk to me and -keep me awake." - -"Won't I talk to you?" Joan didn't know how she was going to keep from -talking all the way from Waloo to Mifflin, but she obediently nestled -down beside Granny. - -"I rather think you will." Granny smiled at her and patted her fat -little hand. "But before you begin to talk you must help me plan how we -shall persuade Mrs. Wyman to loan us her daughter. That will take a lot -of thinking, and you can't talk very well while you are thinking." - -On the front seat Rebecca Mary laughed joyously. "It sounds as if this -was going to be a very important expedition," she said. - -"It is," Richard told her with a flash of his eyes. "All ready? Quite -comfortable?" - -And when Rebecca Mary had said she was quite ready and comfortable he -took the seat beside her and did something to buttons and levers and -they were off. - -Rebecca Mary felt like one of the princesses Joan talked about so -intimately as they rolled down the street, through the suburbs and into -the real country. Richard called her attention to this old house, a -relic of pioneer days, or to that new public library, and to the white -sign boards which told them that they were on the Jefferson Highway. The -name was between a palmetto and a towering pine to show them that New -Orleans was at one end and that Minnesota was at the other end of that -ribbon-smooth road. Richard seemed to know the way and there was nothing -which Rebecca Mary should have seen which he did not show her. - -"Want to go faster?" he asked when she leaned forward to look at the -speed indicator. He touched a button again and they went faster. - -"It's like flying!" she exclaimed with shining eyes. "Oh, I do think -there are such wonderful things in the world! Aren't you glad that you -are living now!" - -He laughed at her enthusiasm. What a jolly little thing she was! And he -told her that he most certainly was glad to be living that moment in a -way which deepened the vivid color in Rebecca Mary's cheeks. - -"Of course it's an old story to you," she went on quickly. "But this is -the very first time I ever motored from Waloo to Mifflin. I've always -gone in a stuffy day train and had cinders get into my eyes. Once the -train was held up four hours by a wash-out on the road and an old -Norwegian gave me some cookies. They did taste good," she assured him -for he seemed as interested in the cakes as if he were a baker instead -of a banker. - -"Norwegian women are good cooks, and Norway is a beautiful country." - -"I suppose you've been there? Every country will be beautiful to me -unless I am so old when I start on my travels that I can't see. My -favorite castle is a railroad ticket. I've never been farther than -Waloo in all my life. I don't know why I tell you that for of course you -know it. Any one can see that I've never been anywhere nor seen -anything." - -"Yes." Richard agreed with her so promptly that she felt as if he had -pinched her for naturally she had expected that he would say that any -one to see her would think she had been everywhere and seen everything. -The sting was taken from the pinch when he went on: "If you had been -everywhere you wouldn't be so jolly and enthusiastic as you are. Girls -who have been everywhere and seen everything aren't satisfied with -anything." - -"I wonder," meditated Rebecca Mary. "Then you think it's better not to -have and want, than to have and not care for?" - -"Much better. Very much better!" - -"M-m," murmured Rebecca Mary doubtfully. "I don't believe you know a -thing about it," she exclaimed suddenly. "You've had all of your life!" - -"Not everything," Richard insisted. "There is at least one thing I've -never had." But he did not tell her what that one thing was, and she did -not ask him. - -The River Club was all that Richard had said it would be. They crossed -a bridge to the island at one end of which was the rambling shingled -club house which really did overhang the river. Richard was quite right, -and Rebecca Mary could easily have fished from the window of the big -dining room, but she preferred to let Richard order her lunch from the -club pantries. A dozen or more men were lunching at the little tables, -and Rebecca Mary heard scraps of their talk--"fifteen pounds"--"the -brute got off with my best fly"--"that darned pike couldn't have weighed -less than six pounds." She looked at Richard and laughed. - -"I suppose more lies are told in this room than anywhere in the state," -she whispered. - -"I expect you are right," he whispered back. - -They had a most delicious luncheon of black bass fresh from the river, -of new potatoes and peas and salad and strawberries from the club -garden. Many of the fishermen who had nodded to Richard came over to -speak to Granny, and Richard introduced them to Rebecca Mary, and told -her in an undertone that this one was a lumber king and that one was an -iron king and the other one was a flour king. Rebecca Mary had never -been in a room with so many kings in her life, and she looked after them -curiously as she said so. - -"Yes," Granny murmured. "They call this the millionaires' retreat, don't -they, Richard?" - -"I prefer the River Club, myself," was all Richard would say. - -The club with its royal members seemed to make Richard even more -important to Rebecca Mary, and she looked at him a trifle oddly as they -left the island and went on to Mifflin. She had known that Richard was -very clever and important--Granny had told her that old Mr. Simmons -considered Richard Cabot quite the most promising young man in -Waloo--but she hadn't thought these elderly kings of lumber and iron and -flour would listen to him as they had listened. Richard seemed too young -to belong with those bald-headed white-haired pudgy kings and yet they -had greeted him as if they were very glad to see him. Rebecca Mary stole -a shy glance at Richard. He was looking at her instead of twenty feet in -front of his car as a motor driver should look, and he smiled. - -"Like it?" - -"Love it!" And she smiled, too, and forgot all about kings. How splendid -it was to have Richard for a friend. And if he hadn't been a friend he -never would have smiled at her like that. It gave her such a warm cozy -little feeling to have a man like Richard for a friend. "Oh, isn't this -the most wonderful day that was ever made out of blue sky and golden -sunshine!" she cried suddenly. "And we're coming to Mifflin. There's -Peterson's farm!" - -And now it was Rebecca Mary who pointed out the points of interest, the -old mill, the spire of the Episcopal church and the new starch factory, -which was going to make the fortunes of the farmers, she told Richard -with a serious little air which he liked enormously. - -"What do you know about starch?" he teased. - -"Lots. I know that the farmers have planted loads of potatoes, and they -are going to sell them to the starch factory for enormous prices." - -"Farmers always expect to sell for enormous prices, but if they have all -planted enormous crops some of them will be disappointed. There is a -little old law of supply and demand which regulates that sort of thing, -you know." - -"That's just it," Rebecca Mary exclaimed triumphantly. "The demand for -Mifflin starch is going to be so great that there will be a huge demand -for potatoes. I have a tiny bit of money that I might invest myself -now," she told him a little proudly as she remembered how much was left -of Aunt Ellen's gift. "I might become a starch queen," she giggled. - -"You might. But you might become a starch bankrupt, too. Don't you put -any of your money into anything until I have a chance to look into it," -he said firmly. - -"I never should have dared to ask you for advice," she began, but he -interrupted her. - -"You haven't asked, I've offered, and I want you to promise you won't -buy shares in anything until you have talked to me. I've had more -experience in picking out good investments than you have." - -Rebecca Mary laughed. "You couldn't have had less. It's awfully good of -you, Mr. Cabot, to be willing to bother about my pennies, and when I -have enough to do anything with I'll remember your very kind offer. Turn -down this street if you want to find my home. Perhaps you would like to -know whom you will see there. There is only my mother and sister. Mother -is a dear, and she has had an awfully hard time. Grace is a dear, too. -She is a year and a half older than I am and looks after the public -library for Mifflin. There is the house, the big frame one on the -corner. Why----" for the big frame house on the corner had just been -treated to a coat of fresh white paint, and Rebecca Mary scarcely knew -it when it shone forth so resplendent with its green-blinded windows. - -"What an attractive place!" Granny woke up to lean forward and tell -Rebecca Mary how much she liked her old home. "It looks as if it had -been a home for more than one generation." - -"It has!" Rebecca Mary twisted around to tell her its history. "My -grandfather built it when he brought my grandmother here a bride just -after the Civil War. It's grown since then, of course; that wing on the -right and the L. It's really too big for mother and Grace but we -couldn't sell it if we wanted to. I'd hate to sell it if we could." -Rebecca Mary really loved the old house and she loved it more than ever -now that it was repaired and painted. It really looked imposing. She had -no reason to be ashamed of her home, and she was very grateful to Aunt -Ellen as she slipped her arm through Granny's and led her up the bricked -walk as Mrs. Wyman and Grace hurried out to meet them. - -Rebecca Mary's eyes widened as she saw the pretty summer frocks which -her mother and Grace were wearing and when she kissed Grace she -whispered in her ear: "Hurrah for Aunt Ellen!" They all stood talking -and laughing on the wide porch. - -"So this is where you grew to be such a big girl?" Richard looked at the -ample lawn which the white fence enclosed. He seemed to find it of great -interest. - -"Yes," nodded Rebecca Mary. "That is where I made mud pies, and there is -the apple tree I climbed. I pretended it was a ship which was taking me -to the Equator. I had the wildest interest in the Equator when I was -ten. And that is the gate I was always running out of until mother tied -me to the apple tree." - -"Why, Miss Wyman!" Joan's very foundations seemed to totter. "Were you -ever a bad little girl?" She couldn't believe it. Miss Wyman was her -teacher and teachers,--could they ever have been bad little girls? - -"Very bad!" Rebecca Mary's laughing answer did not sound at all -convincing. "At least that is what my mother said, and she should know." - -Joan might have carried her investigation of this startling statement -further if Grace had not called to her to come and see the new brown -cocker puppy and help choose a name for him. Richard and Rebecca Mary -were left alone to talk of the days when Rebecca Mary had to be tied to -the gnarled old apple tree. - -"Richard!" It was Granny who interrupted them. "If you are to call on -the Mifflin Bank don't you think you had better go?" Granny's voice -almost sounded as if she didn't quite believe that Richard owed the -Mifflin Bank a call. - -Richard jumped up and looked at her in a dazed sort of a way for he had -completely forgotten the business which had brought him to Mifflin. -Rebecca Mary walked to the gate with him and gave him careful directions -as to how he should find the Mifflin Bank. When he had driven away she -went with Grace to the kitchen, where she mixed sprays of mint, fresh -from the garden, with sugar and lemons and ice and ginger ale until she -had a most delicious drink. Grace arranged the little cakes she had made -on one of Grandmother Wyman's old plates. - -"A new recipe of Anne Wellman's," she said, giving one to Rebecca Mary -to sample. "An after the war recipe. There is nothing conserved in these -cakes. Rebecca Mary, do you know what mother and I planned last night? -Neither of us has ever seen the Atlantic Ocean. I suppose you will think -we have lost our minds but we are going to take a part of Aunt Ellen's -present and go to the sea shore." - -"I don't!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary quickly. "I think you've just found -your minds. As a family we should have lost the art of spending if Aunt -Ellen hadn't sent her present just when she did. I'm glad you and mother -are going to have some fun. Good old Aunt Ellen! You must send her a -post card. Send her two post cards!" And the two girls laughed joyously. -"That's all right," Rebecca Mary went on more soberly, "but just let me -tell you what her present has done for me. I wrote you that I'd met the -wonderful Peter Simmons, didn't I?" - -"Seven pages. You do have the luck, Rebecca Mary! Why didn't you bring -the wonderful Peter with you to-day instead of the First National Bank?" - -Rebecca Mary chuckled. "The First National Bank is really splendid," she -insisted. "And awfully important. He's been perfectly corking to me. But -Peter Simmons, Grace, Peter Simmons!" - -"M-m," murmured Grace enviously. - -Granny was enthusiastic over the old mahogany and walnut furniture which -filled the house and which Grandfather Wyman had brought from his -grandfather's old home in Pennsylvania. - -"It's beautiful," she exclaimed. "You don't seem to have anything but -old mahogany and walnut, Mrs. Wyman. This is a real museum piece." And -she ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the old Sheraton -sideboard and looked at the old Chippendale chairs. - -Rebecca Mary had come in with her big crystal pitcher and she placed the -tray on the old Chippendale table. "And the reason we have nothing but -old stuff," she confessed frankly, "is that we never could buy new. I -suppose it is lucky we couldn't, but it just about broke my heart a few -years ago that we didn't have anything but four post beds and gate -legged tables. I yearned for a davenport upholstered in green velours -instead of that ancient sofa. I wanted less old mahogany and more new -clothes. Is that Mr. Cabot?" The sound of a motor car drew her to the -window. "I hope he found the Mifflin Bank at home." - -It was Richard, and when he came in he had a big box of candy under his -arm. He gave it to Mrs. Wyman. - -"This isn't Mifflin candy," Grace exclaimed when she saw the tempting -contents. "You never found this in Mifflin!" - -And Richard had to confess that he hadn't, that he had brought the box -from Waloo for Mrs. Wyman, and Grace looked at Rebecca Mary -significantly. "Very thoughtful of your First National Bank," she -seemed to say. - -Mrs. Wyman drew Rebecca Mary from the little group to ask her if she -wouldn't rather go east and be introduced to the Atlantic Ocean than -accept Granny Simmons' invitation. She and Grace would love to have -Rebecca Mary with them, but they wanted her to do exactly as she wished. - -"I think I'll stay with Mrs. Simmons," Rebecca Mary said after a -moment's frowning thought. "You see there is Joan. I couldn't take her -east very well. And, anyway, the Atlantic Ocean will keep. It has been -there for some years, and Mrs. Simmons may never ask me again. I should -like to visit in a big house like hers, and she said she would take us -to her country place, Seven Pines. I can board at a sea shore hotel -whenever I have the money, but I can't always visit an old dear like -Granny Simmons." - -"That is true. I hope you don't think we are foolishly extravagant, -Rebecca Mary? Aunt Ellen said we were to use the money for pleasure. And -then you wrote me what Cousin Susan said to you about memories. I do -want Grace and you to have some good times to remember. I hope it isn't -foolish," Mrs. Wyman repeated, for deep down in her heart she was -almost sure it was foolish to spend Aunt Ellen's present for a trip when -she could buy a mortgage with it. - -"If I told you what I honestly think we'd never save another cent, and -we'd have to take our memories to the poor house some day. Really, -mother, it is the wisest thing to do. Cousin Susan convinced me that -sometimes you can pay too big a price when you save and scrimp. Do get -some pretty clothes, lots of them. They make you feel all new and--and -efficient," she laughed at her choice of a word. "That's a love you have -on now. You never got it in Mifflin. And if Joan's father comes for her -and Mrs. Simmons gets tired of me I'll come east and join you. I should -like to meet the Atlantic Ocean. I've heard quite a lot about it." - -Her mother looked at her and smiled. The last time Rebecca Mary had been -home she had not laughed like that. She had frowned over the bills and -talked of the future as of a barren desert. If taking out a memory -insurance policy would change a girl as Rebecca Mary had changed, Mrs. -Wyman was going to advocate memory insurance policies for every one. - -Granny was delighted that no objections were made to her invitation, and -she asked Mrs. Wyman and Grace to spend a few days with her on their -way east. But Mrs. Wyman thanked her and said that they had planned to -do their shopping in Chicago and it would be out of their way to go to -Waloo. Altogether it was a very satisfactory visit, and every one was -sorry when it was over and Granny and Joan were once more in the tonneau -of Richard's big car. - -"I like your mother and your sister and your home so much, Rebecca -Mary," Granny said when they had waved a last good-by before they turned -the corner. - -"So do I!" exclaimed Richard heartily. - -"I do, too," repeated that echo, Joan. "Am I to talk to you on the way -home, Granny, dear?" - -"If you think it will make the ride pleasanter," Granny obligingly told -her. "But you must not be surprised if I doze in the middle of your -story. Motor riding does make me sleepy." - -The way to Mifflin had led them down the river and the way to Spirit -Lake took them back through a rich farming country. Richard astonished -Rebecca Mary by the ease with which he could distinguish young wheat -from oats and oats from barley or buckwheat when he was passing a field -at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The fields were only a green -blur to Rebecca Mary. They reached Spirit Lake just at sunset and were -pleasantly surprised to find Stanley Cabot perched on the railing of the -hotel veranda smoking a cigarette. He jumped up and threw his cigarette -away as he came to meet them. - -"How pretty it is!" Rebecca Mary looked around with shining eyes. "What -is that down by the lake?" And she nodded toward a screened pavilion -which wore a gay necklace of colored lanterns. - -"That's the dancing pavilion," Stanley told her eagerly. "Want to run -over and have a fox trot? There's just time before your dinner will be -ready." - -Rebecca Mary's eyes sparkled. "Shall we?" But she said it to Richard -instead of to Stanley. - -"Sure. Come along." And Richard held out his hand. - -"The dickens!" Stanley looked after them as they ran to the pavilion. "I -thought I issued the invitation. She seems to have made an impression on -old Dick, Granny? I thought he was immune to girls. What is it?" - -Granny, comfortably settled in a big rocking chair, looked mysterious. -"I expect it was her scowl. She frowned at Richard, and Richard, you -know, Stanley, isn't used to frowns. Girls have always smiled at him. I -expect Rebecca Mary's scowl interested him." - -"That might be. A girl has to offer a man new stuff to interest him. You -may be right." - -"Of course I'm right. What are you doing here, Stanley?" - -And while Stanley told Granny and Joan about the sketching trip which -had brought him to Spirit Lake, where he had found some corking effects, -Rebecca Mary and Richard danced on a floor which was far from smooth and -to the music of a piano and a violin which were not as harmonious as you -would wish a piano and a violin to be, but both Rebecca Mary and Richard -said that it was the jolliest dance they had ever had when it was over, -and hand in hand they ran back to the hotel and the waiting dinner. It -seemed the most natural thing in the world for them to go hand in hand, -but Rebecca Mary was quite breathless when she came up the steps after -she had pulled her fingers from Richard's hand. - -"I hope we haven't kept you waiting," she cried. "But it was such fun." - -"Much you care about us when you scorned my invitation and went off with -my brother," Stanley said, as if cut to the very quick. "I don't know -what reparation you can make unless you sit beside me and talk -exclusively to me." - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary was pinkly embarrassed. "I didn't hear you deliver -any invitation," she stammered, but her explanation only made matters -worse. - -"Granny heard it and so did Joan." Stanley quite enjoyed teasing Rebecca -Mary into pink embarrassment. Perhaps he wanted to see the scowl which -had interested Richard, but if he did he was disappointed for Rebecca -Mary never frowned once. She was too happy and too contented. She could -only laugh and smile as she promised to sit beside him and talk -exclusively to him. That wasn't so easy to do as to promise for there -were other girls on the screened porch where the dinner tables were -arranged, and they smiled and nodded to Richard until he had to go and -speak to them. - -"My brother Richard is very popular with the girls," Stanley told -Rebecca Mary with a twinkle. "He's quite a boy, is my brother Richard." - -"M-m," was all that Rebecca Mary would say to that, but she watched his -brother Richard out of the tail of her eye. - -Although Stanley was jolly and Richard was as devoted as those other -girls would permit, Rebecca Mary was glad when they were in the car -again and had said good-by to Stanley and the other girls and were -speeding over a road which was quite as perfect as the Jefferson -Highway. - -"You drive awfully well!" Rebecca Mary told Richard. - -"Want to learn? It wouldn't be any trick at all to teach you." - -"You shan't teach her now," exclaimed Granny, who was not so drowsy but -she had overhead him. "This is no time to teach any one. You can hold -your automobile class, Richard Cabot, some time when I'm not with you." - -"All right. Miss Wyman, I'll hold a class limited to one, in motor -driving some other time. Want to be the one?" He smiled down at her. - -"Do I?" Rebecca Mary was almost speechless. She could only look at -Richard until he flushed and murmured that he knew it would be no -trouble at all to teach her, absolutely no trouble at all. - -"It's been the most wonderful day!" Rebecca Mary was almost at a loss to -tell them how wonderful it had been when at last they stopped at her -door again. Words seemed too inadequate. - -"As pink as you expected?" asked Richard. - -"Pinker. The most beautiful shade imaginable. I'll never forget how pink -it has been." - -"If you liked it so much we'll go again," promised Richard, eager to -give Rebecca Mary another good time. Her enthusiasm made him feel very -generous. "And don't forget that motor class of mine!" - -"Forget!" Rebecca Mary stared at him. How could she ever forget. She -expected to remember his motor class as long as she lived, but she -didn't tell him that. She just thanked him sedately and told him to let -her know when his motor class would meet and she would try to be on -time. She did dislike tardy scholars. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - -Rebecca Mary could never believe that the next two weeks really -happened. They were far too wonderful. They couldn't have happened to -her for nothing but influenza and moths and insurance premiums had come -to her. She felt as if she were in the middle of the very nicest dream a -girl could have when she stood in the most attractive bed room she had -ever seen and looked around her. It certainly was going to be jolly to -perch in the lap of luxury for a while. - -No wonder Rebecca Mary liked Mrs. Peter Simmons' guest room. It was so -very different from the dingy rectangle which was her sitting room by -day and her sleeping room by night. Mrs. Simmons' guest room, with its -flower strewn chintz whose roses were repeated in the garlands on the -ivory bed and dresser, overlooked Mrs. Simmons' garden from which the -roses seemed to have strayed. A white bathroom opened from this rose -bower and beyond it was a blue room among whose forget-me-nots and -bachelor buttons Joan had found a place for her family portrait, her -clock and her potato masher. - -And Rebecca Mary's days were as different as her bed room. Instead of -going to school Rebecca Mary went about with Granny and met a lot of -pleasant people of all ages. Granny was a favorite with the young -people, and as there was no end to what she would do for them she was -always the center of a jolly little group. - -"It's the prescription I'm trying to keep my heart young," she told -Rebecca Mary wistfully. - -So there were luncheons and teas with girls Rebecca Mary had never -imagined she would ever know, and informal dinners and dances at the -Country Club and long automobile drives. One morning Granny took her -guests to see Mrs. Hiram Bingham's small sons, and Joan hung enraptured -over the dimpled twins. - -"Horatio and Hiram!" How Granny laughed at the names. "What should you -have done, Judith, if there had been but one baby? Which father would -you have honored?" - -"Thank goodness I didn't have to make a choice!" Judith shivered at the -mere thought of honoring but one father. "Providence was mighty good to -send me two sons. Horatio and Hiram are dreadful names, aren't they? -But I just had to name the boys for my daddy and for Father Bingham." - -"If there had been but one you could have named him for the jam which -brought you and Hiram together," suggested Granny with a twinkle. - -"They name babies for kaisers but do they ever name them for jam?" Joan -could not believe that a jar of preserves would furnish a suitable name -for any child. "My daddy was named for a kaiser, not this kaiser but -another one. His name is Frederick William Gaston Johan Louis," she -announced proudly. - -"Mercy me, what a mouthful! What does he do with so many?" Granny had -emphasized each name with a squeeze of Rebecca Mary's arm. Surely Joan -could never have imagined such a combination. - -"He doesn't use them all now." Joan was almost apologetic. "In Waloo he -only uses the Frederick one. Isn't it funny how your names change? In -Germany I'm Johanna. '_Ein gutes Kind, Johanna_,' the kaiser said I was -himself, and in France and America I'm Joan. Oh, did you see that?" For -young Horatio had seized a handful of Joan's black hair. "Isn't he a -darling! He's--he's a lot better than a potato masher, isn't he?" - -They all laughed, and names were forgotten for the moment although -Granny gave Rebecca Mary an extra hard squeeze when she heard what the -kaiser had called Joan. - -"They must be German," Granny said, when she and Rebecca Mary were -alone. "I thought so all the time. No one but a German would go away and -leave a little girl as Joan was left. I shouldn't be surprised if Count -Ernach de Befort never came back," she added cheerfully. - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary was stunned at such a thought. "Of course he will -come back. And Joan didn't say she was a German." - -"Joan doesn't say she is anything. I don't believe she knows even if she -did say she was from Echternach. Never mind, Rebecca Mary, if she is -left on your hands I'll help you take care of her. She amuses me with -her contradictory statements. I like a mystery now that the war is -over." - -"I'm not sure that I do," murmured bewildered Rebecca Mary. - -She really didn't have much time to wonder about Joan for Granny's -friends seemed to have entered into a delightful conspiracy to make much -of Rebecca Mary. Sallie Cabot gave a dinner dance for her and Rose -Horton, who had been Rose Cabot, gave a tea and even Madame Cabot, who -was Richard's great aunt, gave a theater party, after which she took her -guests to the Waloo for supper and to dance. You can't really blame -Rebecca Mary for rubbing her eyes and wondering if she could be Rebecca -Mary Wyman. - -Stanley Cabot was at several of these affairs, and he watched Rebecca -Mary with an amused smile. - -"I thought you said she scowled at old Dick," he said to Granny. -"Perhaps I don't know a scowl when I see one, but I didn't think it was -like that." And he nodded toward Rebecca Mary, who was smiling at -Richard Cabot. - -"Dear child," murmured Granny. "When you are my age, Stanley, you will -hate to see anything but smiles on young faces. I hope Rebecca Mary has -forgotten how to frown. But it was a scowl, Stanley, I know it was, -which first attracted Richard." - -It almost seemed as if Rebecca Mary had forgotten how to do anything but -smile, and young Peter had no occasion to shout "Pirate." He was in and -out of the house at all hours and so had every opportunity to see what -Rebecca Mary was doing. It was not often that she could persuade him to -talk to her of his experiences in France. - -"Of course a man can't get it out of his thoughts," he did say one day, -"but it isn't anything he wants to talk about. It was just luck that got -me up to the front. If I hadn't been lucky I shouldn't have gone any -farther than Dick Cabot. You know he tried to get into the service, any -service? Yep. But he broke his arm when he was a kid and it's a little -stiff. The doctors wouldn't pass him. Then he tried for the Red Cross -and Uncle Sam said, 'No, you're a banker, Dick Cabot, and the work you -can do is to sell Liberty bonds.' I'd hate to tell you how many bonds -Dick did sell. It was owing to him that this district went over the top -as soon as the sales were on. He's a corker, Dick Cabot, all right, all -right. And he did as much at home to win the war as I did in France." - -"Oh!" breathed Rebecca Mary, trying to grasp this point of view which -Peter was offering her. It was splendid of Peter to talk that way but -she couldn't really think that Richard at home had done as much as Peter -in France, and she said so. - -"That shows what an ignorant little girl you are," Peter retorted. "But -don't let's talk about the war. There are a lot of pleasanter subjects." - -"Such as?" If he wouldn't talk about the war he could choose his own -subject. - -"You," Peter told her as she should have known he would tell her. And he -chuckled when she flushed as he had known she would flush. Peter loved -to make Rebecca Mary blush and stammer although it was not as easy as it -had been. Rebecca Mary was acquiring poise. - -Richard's class in motor driving met as he had planned, and his one -pupil would never forget the first time that she had her hands on the -wheel and felt the pull of the sixty horses harnessed under the hood. - -"It makes you feel like a--like a god!" she gasped, not daring to take -her eyes from the road. - -"It makes you look like a goddess," laughed Richard. "You're going to -make a good driver, Miss Wyman. You can follow instructions and keep -your mind on what you are doing. You don't try a dozen things at once." - -"That was what I was trained to do. A school teacher has to keep her -mind on her work, and, goodness knows, she is given plenty of -instructions to follow." - -"You won't be a school teacher long," prophesied Richard, reaching over -to show her something, and his hand covered hers. - -A thread of fire seemed to start from his fingers and run all over -Rebecca Mary. She couldn't speak for a second, and when she did speak -her voice was not as steady as she wanted it to be. - -"Gracious me, I hope not," she stuttered. "Who would want to teach -school for ever?" - -"You won't do it for ever!" Richard said again, and no seventh daughter -of a seventh daughter could have been more emphatic about the future. He -smiled at Rebecca Mary as she sat beside him, her cheeks pink, her eyes -black with excitement, her hair blowing about her face. She wore another -small portion of Aunt Ellen's present, an old rose silk sweater, and it -was wonderfully becoming. - -"I'd like to do this for ever," she murmured. "I've at last found an -occupation which suits me right down to the very ground." - -"Would you like to do it for me for ever?" The question did not surprise -Rebecca Mary half as much as it did Richard. It was not often that he -uttered soft nothings to a girl. He was more accustomed to talk of -stocks and bonds, and he thought it was strange that he never wanted to -talk of stocks and bonds to Rebecca Mary. "You must have another lesson -very soon," he went on in a more matter of fact voice as she did not -tell him whether she would like to drive for him for ever. "Practice is -the only thing that will make you perfect. You must have a lot of -practice." - -When Peter heard that Richard was teaching Rebecca Mary to drive his big -car he pretended to be vastly indignant. - -"Why didn't you tell me you wanted to learn?" he demanded. - -"I didn't have to tell Mr. Cabot," she answered triumphantly. - -"Great old mind reader, Dick Cabot is, isn't he? Well, if you're -learning to drive his big car you had better let me teach you how to -manage a roadster and Granny's small car and the limousine." - -"And then I can stop teaching school and open a garage," dimpled Rebecca -Mary. "Very well, bring out your roadster." - -"You drive very well," Peter was good enough to say when Rebecca Mary -had demonstrated what she could do. "A little more practice and you can -drive anywhere." - -"Really!" Rebecca Mary liked his words so much that she wanted to hear -them again. - -"Really." - -And then Rebecca Mary killed her engine and couldn't remember how to -start it again. Peter put his hand on the button at the same moment she -did, and his five fingers closed over Rebecca Mary's five fingers. -Rebecca Mary quivered to her toes, but she tried to be very matter of -fact. - -"Granny said I might have to drive for her," she said quickly. "Karl is -going to leave, and she hasn't found a new chauffeur yet." - -That evening she actually did drive Richard through the traffic which -surged around the pavilion where the weekly band concert was given. If -Peter had been there he would have had to shout "Pirate" several times -for Rebecca Mary did scowl yellow brownly, but that was because she was -so anxious to drive well. - -"Aren't you shaking in your shoes?" she asked when they were held up at -a very busy crossing. "No one can question your bravery now. You've -certainly earned a medal." - -Richard looked at her sparkling eyes, and his staid invulnerable heart -gave a flop which startled him, and a flash appeared in his dark eyes. - -"I'm a man who always collects what he earns," he told her in a way -which made her heart thump a bit, too, although she would not let him -know that, not for worlds. "There isn't a better collector in all Waloo -than I am." - -"My goodness gracious AND my gracious goodness!" Rebecca Mary seemed -much impressed by Richard, the bill collector. "But you must not read -the future by the past," she cautioned gravely. "I seem to remember that -at college I was told that even Napoleon had his Waterloo." - -"We are not discussing Napoleon Bonaparte but one Richard Deane Cabot," -Richard reminded her severely. - -"Vice president of the First National Bank of Waloo," she nodded as if -to make sure that they were talking of the same Richard Deane Cabot. -"That sounds very important, doesn't it? Important and rich and--and -solid. How does it feel?" she asked with a certain gay insouciance which -was as new to Rebecca Mary as it was becoming. - -He laughed. "Just at present it feels mighty good. I'm very grateful to -the First National Bank. I owe my present job as a motor teacher to that -same bank." - -Rebecca Mary's sober face made a desperate attempt to conceal her amused -smile. "That's true," she said, but her voice was as much of a failure -as a disguise as her sober face. "The two most important buildings in -Waloo are undoubtedly the First National Bank and the Waloo Hotel. At -last!" as the traffic policeman gave them the right of way. "I hope I -don't do the wrong thing now and mortify my teacher as well as myself. -You never can tell what a pupil will do." - -"I'm not afraid of my pupil." Richard was stimulatingly confident. - -"I told you that you were a brave man. There!" Rebecca Mary drew a long -breath. "We are on our way again." She turned impulsively to Richard and -exclaimed from the very depths of her heart: "I can't ever tell you, Mr. -Cabot, how happy you have made me!" - -"I'm glad," was all Richard said, but his eyes flashed again. "It -doesn't take much to make some little girls happy." - -"Don't belittle your own generosity," scolded Rebecca Mary. "You've -given me a lot and you know it." - -Joan ran out to meet them when they returned. - -"Granny is going to let me have a party!" she cried, scarcely able to -believe her news herself. "I'm to choose the guests and the dinner and -everything. I'm going to have you and the Bingham twins and Mr. Peter. -And I can't think whether to have little pig sausages and waffles like -we did the other morning for breakfast or nightingales' tongues like in -the story you read me, Miss Wyman. Granny said sausage and waffles -didn't belong to dinner, but if we had them for dinner they would, -wouldn't they? And she said she was afraid there weren't any -nightingales' tongues in the market, and if there were did I think the -Bingham twins could eat them. Once at home we had a swan with all its -feathers on, and another time, at Echternach, when the kaiser came, we -had a boar's head. Do you think you'd like one of those?" doubtfully. - -Rebecca Mary looked up quickly to see Richard's face when Joan spoke of -the kaiser as a dinner guest at Echternach, but he only looked amused so -Rebecca Mary stooped and kissed the flushed little face. "What I should -like best would be a little spring chicken," she said. - -"Odd little thing, isn't she?" Richard said when Joan had danced away to -ask Granny if the three months' old Bingham twins could eat spring -chicken. "Have you heard from her father?" - -"Not a word. Nor from Mrs. Muldoon. We drove over yesterday, but Mrs. -Lee hadn't heard anything." - -"It was mighty good of you to take her in." Richard spoke as if no one -in the world but Rebecca Mary would have taken charge of a child who -had been left on the door step with a clock, a portrait and a potato -masher. - -"What else could I do?" Rebecca Mary would like to be told how she could -have done anything else. "She was--loaned to me." And she laughed. It -was so easy to laugh at the loan now. - -"All the same it was mighty good of you." He wished she would laugh -again. Like Joan, Richard did admire Rebecca Mary's face when it "broke -into little holes." "I don't know many girls who would have taken care -of a child who had no claim on them." - -"But she did have a claim on me. I was her teacher." And Rebecca Mary -did laugh again. - -Granny was just hanging up the telephone receiver when Rebecca Mary went -into the house. - -"I've been talking to Seven Pines," she said. "Is there any reason why -we shouldn't drive out there to-morrow, Rebecca Mary? Mrs. Swanson just -called me up to tell me that Otillie is going to be married and she -wants me to come out and see her wedding things." - -"A wedding!" Joan jumped up and down on delighted toes. "You'll take me, -Granny Simmons? You'll never leave me in Waloo? You know I've never -been to a wedding. I've only been to church and school and a moving -picture show." - -"Then you certainly shall go to Otillie's wedding. We'll start in the -morning and take our time," Granny suggested to Rebecca Mary. "What do -you say?" - -"I say goody, goody!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary. "You have told me so much -about Seven Pines I'm crazy to see it." - -That night when she went to her room she nodded merrily at the radiant -face of the girl in the big mirror. - -"Well, Rebecca Mary Wyman," she murmured joyously. "You certainly have -turned over a new leaf--a real four-leaf clover leaf. You're having the -time of your young life. You must send Cousin Susan a testimonial for -her memory insurance company!" For she remembered to give the credit for -her new leaf to where credit was due. "You've had more fun since you -took out one of her policies than you ever had before. Gracious, I -should think you had!" - -She was still looking at the happy face in the mirror and dreamily -wondering about the bright new leaf she had turned over when the door -opened and there stood Granny Simmons. She wore her hat and her motor -coat dragged from her arm. In her hand she held a yellow telegram. - -"Come, Rebecca Mary," she said impatiently. "Put on your hat. We'll go -to-night!" - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - -"To-night!" Rebecca Mary swung around to look at her. It was almost -midnight, time to go nowhere but to bed, but Granny was not dressed for -bed. What on earth did she mean? - -"I promised Mrs. Swenson I'd come and see Otillie's things," Granny -spoke almost fretfully. "I know what time it is, Rebecca Mary, but if we -don't go before old Peter Simmons comes we'll never leave. He'll want us -to stay at home until he can go with us, and he can never go. He's -always too busy." - -Rebecca Mary's eyes opened wider. She didn't understand why Granny -should want to leave for Seven Pines in almost the middle of the night -if old Peter Simmons was coming home. Rebecca Mary did not know old -Peter Simmons, she did not know very much about him except that he was -the head of a big manufacturing plant and that he was to have a golden -wedding on the twenty-second of July. Granny had always spoken as if she -adored her husband. It seemed strange for her to leave for Seven Pines -if he was coming home. - -"Just put a few things in a suit case," ordered Granny. "We shan't be -away more than a couple of days." - -Rebecca Mary only stared harder. There was an expression on Granny's -face which she did not understand. - -"We'll go to Seven Pines to-night for several reasons," went on Granny -impatiently. "First because I want to go to Seven Pines before my golden -wedding for a special reason, and I promised to take you and Joan there, -and because Otillie Swenson wants us to see her wedding things. If we -don't go before old Peter Simmons comes we won't go at all, as I said. -When he is in Waloo he wants me to be in Waloo. I can gad as much and as -far as I please when he's away but when he is in town I must be home. I -know very well the way he'll stamp in here and say: 'Hello, Kitty! How -are you?' and kiss me and go to bed and sleep like a log until seven in -the morning and then he'll eat his breakfast and go to the factory and I -shan't see him until dinner time. I might as well be at Seven Pines. And -then--I suppose you'll think I'm crazy, Rebecca Mary, but I never was -saner in my life. You would understand perfectly if you had been married -to old Peter Simmons for almost fifty years." The twinkle died out of -her eyes as she spoke of those fifty years, and she borrowed a frown -from Rebecca Mary. - -Rebecca Mary caught her breath and wondered if there could be any -trouble between Granny and old Peter Simmons. Granny had always talked -so proudly of her husband and what he had done to help win the war, -quite as proudly as she talked of young Peter. - -"Oh!" was all she could say, but Granny seemed dissatisfied with that -startled exclamation. - -"Read that!" She thrust the crumpled telegram into Rebecca Mary's hand. - -"'Will be home on the 11.55 what do you want for the jubilee?'" - -Even after she had read the telegram and mechanically divided it into -two sentences, Rebecca Mary did not seem able to understand. - -Granny took the message from her and read it aloud with an indignant -snort. - -"You see?" She looked at Rebecca Mary as if she defied her to say that -the situation was not spread out before her as clearly as the green -vegetables at the grocer's. "'What do you want for the jubilee?'" she -read scornfully. "If that isn't just like old Peter Simmons! For almost -fifty years, Rebecca Mary, I've told that man what I wanted for -anniversary and birthday and Christmas presents. I've even had to tell -him when the anniversaries and the birthdays were. Never once has old -Peter Simmons remembered them for himself. He has never brought me a -present without first asking me what I wanted. He can't even remember -whether I like white meat or dark when we have chicken for dinner. He -asks me every single time just as if it were the first time. And I'm -tired of doing his thinking for him. He knows very well what I want. -We've talked of it often enough. But I feel in my bones that if I see -him to-night and he asks me what I want for my golden wedding I'll say -something that will make trouble. And I don't want any trouble that will -interfere with my golden wedding. I've earned that, and I'm going to -have it. I'm not going to take any chance of an argument to-night. And -the safest way to avoid an argument is to run away from it. We'll go Out -to Seven Pines and look at Otillie Swenson's wedding clothes and then I -may feel different. Put on your hat, Rebecca Mary. I know Peter does a -lot of this only to tease me, but I don't feel like being teased now. -Isn't there something else you should take with you?" she asked, and she -looked vaguely around the room when at last Rebecca Mary was hatted and -packed. - -Rebecca Mary stopped feeling anxious and giggled. It did seem so absurd -for her to run away with Granny from old Mr. Simmons' frantic question. -She could visualize just how frantic old Mr. Simmons was, and she felt -sorry for him. At the same time she didn't blame Granny. It was -irritating to be asked continually what you wanted a person to give you. -Rebecca Mary's mother was something like old Peter Simmons. For weeks -before Christmas she wrote and asked Rebecca Mary what she wanted when -all the time she knew that Rebecca Mary would have to take what she -needed. - -"Isn't there something else you should take?" Granny asked helplessly as -Rebecca Mary put her in her motor coat and straightened her hat. - -"There's Joan?" suggested Rebecca Mary, trying to keep her face from -breaking into the little holes Joan liked. - -"Of course." Granny pulled herself away before Rebecca Mary could button -her coat. "We can't leave Joan until we find her father. You call her, -while I explain to Pierson." - -Joan was an interrogation point when she was wakened and told that she -was to go to Seven Pines at once. She caught the picture of her father -and mother from the table but Rebecca Mary was glad to see that she left -the potato masher where it was. - -"I don't care as much for it as I did," Joan confessed, a little ashamed -of her fickleness. "But I just have to take the picture and the clock, -too." - -"Aren't you ready?" called Granny. "It's half past now." And as if to -prove that she was right Grandfather clock in the hall boomed the half -hour. It sounded very solemn, and Joan slipped her free hand into -Rebecca Mary's hand. "It is fortunate you have learned to drive the car, -Rebecca Mary," Granny said as they went down the stairs. "Karl left this -morning, you know, and the new man isn't to come until to-morrow. We'll -take the small car, the five passenger. You can drive it, can't you?" -she stopped on the last step to ask. - -"I hope so." That was as much as Rebecca Mary could promise for it was -one thing to drive a car over a smooth boulevard in broad daylight and -with a helping hand at her elbow, and a vastly different thing to drive -a car over an unknown country road in the moonlight and without a -helping hand. Rebecca Mary was really scared to pieces, but Granny was -so confident that Rebecca Mary didn't like to confess how scared she -was. - -She looked to see that there were gasoline and water for Richard had -told her never to take out a car without seeing that it had plenty of -food and drink. "You'll save yourself a lot of trouble in the end," he -had promised, and, goodness knows, Rebecca Mary didn't want any trouble. - -"You're taking a lot of time," fretted Granny from the tonneau where she -sat with Joan. "And we haven't a minute to waste. It's a quarter to -twelve now. If old Peter Simmons finds us in this garage we'll never see -Otillie Swenson's wedding things." - -"I'm ready now." Rebecca Mary wiped her hands on a piece of waste and -slipped in behind the wheel. - -They had to stop at the house for Pierson was waving a small basket. - -"I put up a few sandwiches for you, Mrs. Simmons." She was breathless -from the haste she had made. "You'll be hungry before you get to Seven -Pines." - -"That's very thoughtful of you, Pierson," commended Granny as Pierson -put the basket on the seat beside Rebecca Mary. "Now, remember, you are -not to tell Mr. Simmons when we went. Just say that I am on a motor trip -with a couple of young friends. And don't tell him we are at Seven -Pines. If he doesn't know where I am he can't keep asking me irritating -questions. Now, my dear, straight ahead until you come to the end of the -boulevard. Yes, Joan, it is very wrong to run away from home in the -middle of the night and you are never to do it until you are sixty-eight -years old and not then unless your husband will annoy you by asking what -you want for a golden wedding present." - -"I won't, Granny." Joan promised solemnly, although she knew that she -would never live to be sixty-eight. Why, it would take years and years -and years. But it was enough to make a little girl feel solemn to be -wakened in the middle of the night and told to get up and run away from -a question. No wonder Joan shivered. "And I know why you are running -away," she went on eagerly. "It isn't from any question, is it? It's to -find the young heart you are always talking about. I'm going to look for -my father. Why are you going, Miss Wyman?" she leaned forward to ask. - -Alone on the front seat Rebecca Mary laughed. "I reckon I'll find a -payment on my memory insurance," she said, and over her shoulder she -told Granny of the policy which Cousin Susan had persuaded her to take -out and which was to be payable at any time during her old age. And -Granny, who had reached her old age, thought that it was a most -wonderful and business-like arrangement. - -"Your Cousin Susan is exactly right. Young people begin all their -thoughts with 'I shall,' but old people think 'I did' or 'I had.'" - -"I'm young then," Joan announced with much satisfaction, "for I always -think I shall." - -"So do I!" Rebecca Mary was quite astonished to find that she did. "How -far is it to Seven Pines, Mrs. Simmons?" - -"Sixty-three miles from our front steps. Listen--is that the train? I -reckon we are safe now." And she leaned back with a sigh of relief. - -"Sixty-three miles!" gasped Rebecca Mary, who never had driven one mile -by herself. But there is always a first time, and she remembered that -she would have to drive only a mile at a time, and anyway it would be -Granny who would be responsible for what would happen. - -They did not talk much after the first few miles. Joan fell asleep and -even Granny dozed although she really couldn't sleep for Rebecca Mary -had to ask her every few minutes the way to Seven Pines. Long before -they reached the end of the boulevard Rebecca Mary forgot to be -frightened or nervous. She found it rather thrilling to run away from -old Mr. Simmons' question in the moonlight. They seemed to have the -world to themselves for they met no one. Rebecca Mary thought she should -like to go on for ever and ever. - -She would never forget this ride, and she chuckled to herself. When she -was as old as Granny she would remember how they had fled from old Mr. -Simmons' irritating question. And thinking of old Mr. Simmons, whom she -had never seen, made her remember young Mr. Simmons, whom she admired so -much. What would he think when he came to-morrow, no, to-day, and found -her gone? And Mr. Cabot? She had promised to drive out to the Country -Club with Richard that very afternoon after banking hours. Richard was -going to teach her to play golf. She was sorry that Granny had not given -her time to write a little note, to write two little notes. - -But she would not be away long. Granny had said only a few days. And she -could telephone to Richard and to Peter from Seven Pines the very first -thing, before she even looked at Otillie Swenson's wedding things. She -hoped Peter and Richard would miss her for she knew that she would miss -them. A month ago she had known neither of them. And now---- - -Young Peter Simmons was the most fascinating man. She flushed as her -thoughts strayed back to young Peter, and she wondered if the day ever -would come when he would ask his wife what she wanted for a birthday or -an anniversary present. She knew that Richard Cabot would never ask. He -would never have to ask for he would make a note of the date in his -memorandum book and would be ready with his gift on the proper day. -Young Peter and Richard were as different as a vanilla ice and a cherry -pie. She liked them both. She couldn't think which she did like the -best. Peter had fascinated her ever since she had seen him eating fresh -tomato sandwiches with such gusto at the Waloo, and Richard did give her -such a comfortable, well cared for, warm feeling. It was like being -wrapped in a down comforter on a winter night to be with Richard. Hello, -here they were at another cross road. Should she turn to the right or -the left or keep straight ahead? She would have to ask Granny. - -But when she turned she saw that Granny was fast asleep beside Joan. -Joan's sleek little head was on Granny's shoulder and Granny's gray head -was resting on Joan's black hair. They looked so comfortable cuddled -close together that Rebecca Mary had not the heart to disturb them. And -anyway what difference did it make when they reached Seven Pines? - -"She'll be awake in a few minutes," she thought lazily. "And in the -meantime I'll stretch myself and take a sandwich." - -She slipped from her seat to draw a rug over the two sleepers and then -stretched herself luxuriously before she took the place beside the wheel -where she would have more room to stretch while she ate her sandwich. - -"Chicken salad," she murmured approvingly when she opened a package. - -What a strange world it was, she thought as she lounged back in Mrs. -Peter Simmons' car and ate Mrs. Peter Simmons' chicken salad sandwiches. -A month ago and she would have hooted at the person who would have -suggested that she ever would do either. She never would have had the -chance to do either she acknowledged if it had not been for Joan the -young Countess Ernach de Befort, she laughed. Joan was a dear if she was -sometimes a nuisance. How cross and horrid she had been when Joan had -announced that she had been loaned to her. Why, if it had not been for -Joan she would be fast asleep this minute in her old walnut bed in her -shabby little room in Mifflin. She would never in the world be eating -chicken salad sandwiches in Mrs. Peter Simmons' car, with Mrs. Simmons -and Joan asleep in the tonneau. She was sleepy herself, and she yawned. -But she could not go to sleep. She was on guard and--and what happens -when sentries go to sleep at their post? - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - -"I'm hungry!" - -Joan's plaintive wail woke Rebecca Mary, and she opened her eyes and -then sat up very straight. - -"Why--why----" she stammered, rubbing her sleepy eyes to make sure that -they were telling her the truth. "Where are we?" - -For they were no longer under a star-studded moon-illumined sky. They -were in a rough shed with a roof so close to Rebecca Mary's head that -she could have touched it if she had stretched up her arm. She looked at -hungry Joan and then at Granny, who was rubbing her eyes, too, and -feeling for the glasses which should hang around her neck. - -"This isn't Seven Pines!" Granny declared crossly, as one occasionally -speaks when roused from sound slumber. "Where have you brought us, -Rebecca Mary?" - -Rebecca Mary's bewildered face turned a lovely pink and the corners of -her red mouth tilted up. "Then it wasn't a dream," she said softly. "It -wasn't a dream!" she told Granny triumphantly. - -"What wasn't a dream?" Granny's voice still had a bit of an edge to it. -"Don't ask conundrums the first thing in the morning, Rebecca Mary. What -wasn't a dream?" - -"Well," began Rebecca Mary, and her voice sounded as if she wasn't quite -sure of her story herself. "You know you went to sleep in the car last -night, and when we came to a cross road I didn't know which way to turn. -I hated to waken you, so I ate a couple of sandwiches while I waited for -you to waken yourself. Suddenly I heard some one laugh and say: 'Hello, -I thought I knew this old boat. Where do you think you are going?' And -there was Mr. Simmons----" - -"Not old Peter Simmons?" exclaimed Granny excitedly. "It couldn't be! He -was to be in Waloo at eleven-fifty-five. He couldn't have been at the -cross roads!" - -"It was young Mr. Simmons," Rebecca Mary hastened to explain. "He was in -a roadster with another man. I told him we were going to Seven Pines, -and he wanted to know why we were going at night, why we didn't wait for -morning. And I said it would be so warm in the morning. I didn't know -whether you wanted him to know----" - -"Indeed he may know. I don't care who knows," declared Granny -generously. - -"And he said he knew the way to Seven Pines, and he got in our car and -took the wheel, and we started again. But the road was so long and so -white and the car ran so smoothly and we didn't talk much of any, and I -was so glad to have him drive that I must have dozed off, too. Anyway, I -just remember that we turned in at a big gate where Peter talked to a -man. I thought of course that it was Seven Pines. And then we went a -little further, I suppose into this shed, and Peter got out and said he -would see about something and--That's all I remember," she finished -abruptly. - -"But that's perfect nonsense," insisted Granny. "What would Peter be -doing at the cross roads at that time of night? You must have been -dreaming, Rebecca Mary. And I wasn't asleep all the time. I was awake -off and on, and I remember now, that at one time I thought I heard you -talking to some one. But it couldn't have been to Peter. You must have -been dreaming, Rebecca Mary!" - -She was so very positive that she made Rebecca Mary wonder if she could -have gone to sleep at her post. It didn't seem possible that she would -have closed her eyes when she had the responsibility of Granny and Joan -on her hands but sleep can sometimes be a wily enemy. It isn't always a -helpful friend. But if slumber had stolen insidiously over her how had -they reached the old shed? Her story furnished the only possible -explanation, and yet Granny frowned and said that her story was -nonsense. - -"Are you afraid?" whimpered Joan, suddenly clutching her arm. "Shall I -be afraid, Granny? Are you afraid, Miss Wyman?" - -"I'm scared to death!" But Rebecca Mary laughed softly, and she put her -arm around Joan. "But it is because I went to sleep on guard. Granny -said I did. I should have stayed awake to watch. But you needn't be -frightened, Joan. There is nothing to be afraid of, is there, Granny?" - -"Nothing at all." Granny made the endorsement strong and prompt. "But we -might as well look around and make sure." - -But when she stepped from the car she had to catch hold of the door or -she would have fallen for her limbs were cramped and stiff from spending -the night in the tonneau. - -"If you live to be sixty-eight, Joan," she explained a little -impatiently as she straightened herself, "you will have learned that -there is nothing in the world to be afraid of. Come and let us see if -we can find some breakfast. I don't suppose whoever brought us here -plans to starve us to death." - -They presented rather a disheveled and crumpled appearance as they stood -in the open doorway of the shed and looked across the green grass which -ran without stopping to the green hedge a half of a mile away. What was -on the other side of the hedge was kept a secret by the arbor vitæ. Near -the shed the grass was marked by many wheel tracks. There was no one to -be seen, and Granny went bravely forth with Rebecca Mary on her right -and Joan clinging to her left hand. - -"The grass is wet." Granny looked down at her shoe. "Was there any rain -in your dream?" And she laughed at Rebecca Mary's puzzled face. - -"I don't know." Rebecca Mary's voice was as puzzled as her face. - -They passed a huge stone barn and several small sheds but there was no -one about them. From somewhere they could hear the sound of a gasoline -engine. Puff--puff it said, but the silly words conveyed absolutely no -information to Rebecca Mary. - -When they rounded the corner of the barn they faced a great stone house -which might have begun its existence as a giant's bandbox, it was so -very big and square. But some one had added wings on either side so -that now it looked like a home and sprawled so hospitably among the -shrubbery that it seemed to call: "Come in, come in." - -Granny gave a funny little exclamation when she saw it, and she hurried -around to the front, where she stood and stared at the house and then at -the formal garden with its pool and borders and its pergola, which ran -all the way from the west wing to the river bank. The barn and sheds -were on the other side of the house and, at some distance. In front the -trimly shaven lawn was broken by a driveway which slipped in from the -high road half a mile away to encircle and say "howdydo" to a huge -flower bed which flaunted its red cannas before the wide front terrace. -There were two tennis courts on one side of the driveway, down near the -secretive hedge. - -"God bless my soul!" gasped Granny, as she looked around her. The wind -blew her gray hair about her face, which looked a bit pinched in the -strong morning light. "Whose place do you think this is?" - -"The beautiful princess's!" Joan jumped up and down in delight. "It's -too pretty to belong to an ogre." - -"It's Riverside, Rebecca Mary!" But as that name conveyed nothing to -Rebecca Mary, Granny gave her more information. "Joshua Cabot's -grandfather's old home. Did you ever! It must have been Joshua instead -of Peter who came along and found us. But we certainly haven't anything -to be afraid of now. We'll go right in and ask Joshua for breakfast, and -then we'll scold him for bringing us out of our way, and then we'll go -on to Seven Pines." - -Rebecca Mary did not think that she could have confused young Peter -Simmons and Joshua Cabot, but she did not say so as she followed Granny -and Joan up the steps and in through the open door. There was no one in -the broad hall but Joshua Cabot's great grandfather and grandmother and -they hung quietly on the wall in old gilt frames. No one was in the big -dining room to which Granny turned, but some one had been there for the -table was laid for breakfast. Covers were placed for three. Granny drew -a chair from the table and sat down before a plate of tempting -strawberries. - -"I'm old enough to take privileges," she said. "I hope there are more -strawberries, but if Joshua Cabot has been playing a practical joke on -an old lady he should pay for it. Come, children, and eat your -breakfast." - -Joan obeyed with hungry alacrity, but Rebecca Mary hesitated, wondering -if she dared. But the strawberries looked so delicious, Granny and Joan -enjoyed them so heartily that Rebecca Mary found that she did dare. In a -very few minutes there was not a strawberry left on that table. Then -Granny rang the bell for what was to follow, but no one answered it. She -rang again, and when again there was no response Joan jumped up and ran -into the kitchen. She came back in a minute, big-eyed and important, to -report that there was no one, no one at all, in the kitchen. Granny -pushed back her chair. - -"The maid has probably gone out for the eggs," she said with unruffled -serenity. "I expect Joshua insists that they shall be perfectly fresh. -While we are waiting, Rebecca Mary, come into the parlor. I want to show -you a portrait of Joshua Cabot's great-grandmother. She was Richard -Cabot's great-grandmother, too, you know." - -Rebecca Mary rose obediently and followed Granny and Joan across the -hall and into the parlor, which ran the full length of the house and -whose many French windows opened on the formal garden and furnished many -charming pictures of the river and the low hills beyond. And the -sweet-faced young girl in a gauzy white frock and with a pink rose in -her long slender fingers was Richard Cabot's great-grandmother. Rebecca -Mary quite forgot that the sweet-faced girl was also Joshua Cabot's -great-grandmother as she gazed at her. There were several other pictures -to which Granny called Rebecca Mary's attention, but always Rebecca -Mary's eyes strayed back to the portrait. It seemed to call to her in -some strange fashion. Suddenly they heard a clatter, and a door slammed. - -"There are the eggs!" exclaimed Granny with a sigh of relief. "I suppose -they will be ready in three minutes. Dear, dear, it is very plain that -Sallie isn't here. She would never put up with such careless service, -not for a minute." - -She was interrupted by a roar, a very bellow, which made them draw close -together. - -"Here!" cried a harsh voice which sounded for all the world like the -voice of the Big Bear. "Who has been eating my strawberries?" - -The words rang through the hall and came into the big parlor with -inhospitable roughness. There was a startled, an awed silence. - -"That," whispered Rebecca Mary, as Joan huddled against her, "doesn't -sound a bit like Mr. Cabot." - -"It sounds like an ogre," Joan was sadly disappointed because it hadn't -sounded like a prince. "It sounds exactly like an ogre!" - - - - -CHAPTER X - - -Almost immediately there were steps in the hall, and a man stood in the -doorway. He did not look unlike an ogre for he was short and fat and had -a round red face which was topped with a shock of grizzled hair and -bisected by a bristling grizzled mustache. Between the hair and the -mustache were two piercing blue eyes which seemed to bore right into -Granny and Rebecca Mary and Joan. Behind the short fat man were two tall -slim young men, who seemed very much surprised and pleased to find that -guests had arrived so unexpectedly. The short fat man looked angry as -well as surprised, and he showed no pleasure at all. - -"My country!" he growled, still playing very realistically the role of -Father Bear. "Where did you come from? How the dickens did you get in? -And what the deuce do you want?" - -Granny did not answer him because she never had been spoken to in quite -that tone and manner. Men always approached Mrs. Peter Simmons of Waloo -with courteous deference, and this isolated case of gruff rudeness left -her speechless. Rebecca Mary could not speak because a hot indignation -clutched her by the throat and made it impossible for her to utter a -word. It was Joan who mastered her tongue. She looked fearlessly up at -the frowning ogre and answered his last question to the best of her -knowledge. - -"We want a young heart and a big payment on a memory insurance and my -daddy," she announced clearly and somewhat peremptorily, as if she were -accustomed to receive what she wanted. - -If Joan had not mentioned her daddy the ogre would have thought they -were all three mad, but he could understand a daddy if he could not -comprehend a young heart or a big memory insurance payment. - -"My country!" He breathed heavily and looked first at the young man at -his right shoulder and then at the young man at his left shoulder. But -they never looked at him at all. They were staring at Rebecca Mary in -her crumpled white frock and her pink sweater. - -"How did you get in here?" demanded the ogre, and it was plain to each -one of them that he would have an answer, an intelligent answer, at once -or know the reason why. - -Granny drew herself up and looked at him with cold disdain. She did not -like his manner, and as he wore big round glasses he must have seen that -she didn't. - -"We don't know," she told him in a very frigid voice. - -"Don't know?" he repeated, almost sure now that they were mad. Surely an -old woman and a young woman would know how they had entered a house if a -child didn't. He excused Joan on account of her age but he did not -excuse Granny nor Rebecca Mary. "You must know!" he told them with that -unpleasant dictatorial impatient voice, although the man at his right -touched his arm suggestively. - -"Don't say 'must' to me!" Granny rather lost her temper. There is no -doubt that bad manners are contagious. "Where is Mr. Cabot? I will make -my explanation to him, although I think he owes me an apology." The ogre -might have been but a speck of dust on the threshold from the way she -looked beyond him. - -"Mr. Cabot isn't here." The ogre's high and mighty manner began to slip -from him. - -"This is his house," began Granny, as if a man were always to be found -at home. - -"Not now----" - -"He hasn't sold it?" Granny couldn't wait for him to put a period to his -sentence. "Joshua Cabot never would sell his great-grandfather's house." -She was so sure that he wouldn't that she stopped being indignant or -cold and was just frankly curious. - -The ogre looked as if he were not sure that it was any of her business -what Joshua Cabot would do before he made a grudging explanation. "No, -Mr. Cabot hasn't sold Riverside, but he has turned it over to us. We are -making a very important experiment for the government and we cannot be -disturbed." - -Granny's manner changed at once. It became quite friendly. "In that case -I shall tell you how we happened to disturb you." And she did tell them -that she and Rebecca Mary and Joan had left Waloo in their automobile -the night before and this morning they had found themselves in a shed at -Riverside. But she never said a word of Rebecca Mary's dream. - -"But that's a ridiculous story," objected the ogre. He didn't believe a -word she had said, for he had his own reasons for being suspicious of -strangers at Riverside. "You must know who brought you here. Why should -any one bring you? How did you pass the guard at the gate?" - -Granny looked at Rebecca Mary questioningly, but as Rebecca Mary only -seemed bewildered, she shrugged her shoulders. It was not for her to -explain the whys of other people. "I am Mrs. Peter Simmons of Waloo," -she said with great dignity. "And people believe what I tell them." - -"Mrs. Peter Simmons!" The ogre found it hard to believe that was who -Granny was. "My country!" he muttered under his breath. "Mrs. Peter -Simmons--of Waloo?" Granny nodded stiffly. "Mrs. Peter Simmons!" He -didn't seem able to make himself understand that she was Mrs. Peter -Simmons, and his voice grew more like the voice of a human being with -every word. "My country! Mrs. Simmons, of course. I don't doubt the -truth of what you say," he stumbled on, "but this is strange, very -strange. I can't understand why----" He stopped abruptly and no one said -a word. It was so very plain that he could not understand. "I am -surprised to see you, Mrs. Simmons." He made a fresh start, and no one -questioned the truth of that statement, either. - -"Have you had your breakfast? Ben will make you some fresh----" His -voice choked again and he had to swallow hard before he could bring it -up from his boots. "I am Major Martingale of the engineer corps of the -United States Army," he announced explosively. That was the only fact he -was sure of just then, and he made the most of it. - -Granny was not of the type which bears malice and the strawberries had -not conformed to her old-fashioned idea of what a breakfast should be -nor satisfied her appetite, so she accepted the white flag which he was -holding out so ungraciously. - -"Thank you, we should like some toast and coffee and perhaps a fresh -egg. I rather think we ate your strawberries. We should have eaten the -rest of your breakfast if Ben had answered the bell." - -"Ben went over to the farmhouse with a message to Erickson," ventured -the young man at the left of Major Martingale, glad to have a chance to -speak. "You didn't find any one to answer the bell, did you?" He seemed -quite grieved that he had not been there to answer it. - -"Not a soul. It was most mysterious. I dare say it was all right but I -should never approve of leaving unlocked a house with as many valuable -things in it as this house has." Granny glanced around the room with its -many souvenirs of pioneer days. "The front door stood wide open. I am -sorry if we disturbed you, but if you will give us something more -substantial than strawberries to eat we will go on and leave you to your -experiment." - -Major Martingale tugged at his mustache and looked at her in surprise. -"That's the trouble, you know," he rumbled. "You can't go on." - -"Can't go!" Rebecca Mary found her tongue, and the men behind Major -Martingale smiled pleasantly. They liked Rebecca Mary's voice as soon as -they heard it. They thought it harmonized with her eyes. "Why can't we -go? Is there anything the matter with the car?" She wouldn't be -surprised if there was. She never had driven a car alone by moonlight -over a country road before. Perhaps she had done something to it. - -"I don't know anything about your car," fussed Major Martingale -unhappily. "But you should have known, the guard at the gate could have -told you, that no one is allowed to enter Riverside now without a -permit, and no one who enters is allowed to leave. No one!" He exploded -again. - -Granny and Rebecca Mary stared at him and then at each other. They -didn't believe him. It sounded too ridiculous. - -[Illustration: "DO YOU MEAN TO TELL US THAT WE CAN'T GO?"] - -"Do you mean to tell us that we can't go when it isn't our fault we're -here? We didn't mean to come here. We wanted to go to Seven Pines!" -exclaimed Rebecca Mary when she could speak, which wasn't for a full -second. - -"I mean just that." Major Martingale's voice sounded as if it were made -from the best adamant and was warranted to withstand any pressure. It -would be useless to coax or to cry. "I told you we are making a most -important experiment here for the government." Surely they could -understand the government. "A most important experiment," he repeated, -swelling proudly. "One that will mean a great deal to the whole world. -Germany has heard something about it and has been trying, is still -trying, to get hold of the inventor and his idea. If she could it would -go a long way toward giving her back her place in the commercial world, -for it will be a vital necessity for every country. And we don't propose -to let Germany have it. That is why we came down here to work and why we -have a guard at the gate and why we forbid any one who comes here to go -away. German propaganda hasn't stopped. Any one who employs labor will -tell you that, and the socialists, the I. W. W. and the other agitators -are fighting a new war for Germany. We chose a few loyal workmen, men -whom we could absolutely trust, and brought them down here where they -can't be influenced and coaxed away by any agitator or German spy. You -are an American, I suppose, Mrs. Simmons, but your companions, what are -they?" - -Granny was about to exclaim indignantly that they were Americans, too, -when she glanced at Joan. Just what was Joan? Joan answered for herself. - -"I must be an American," she said slowly, "for I'm honest and brave and -true and free and equal. And that's what Americans are. My daddy said -so." - -"And he's dead right," murmured the man behind Major Martingale's right -shoulder. - -Major Martingale only snorted. "We shall try and make you comfortable as -long as you are here," he promised with a groan. "But you can see we -aren't going to take any chance of a leak. You'll have to stay until we -are through with our work." - -"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Granny with more force than elegance. "We'll -finish our breakfast, and then I'll telephone to Joshua Cabot and ask -him if we can't go to Seven Pines." - -"You can't use the telephone," Major Martingale told her sharply. -"Evidently you don't understand that Riverside is cut off from the world -at present." - -Granny stopped on her way to the dining room. "Does he actually mean -that? Is he telling us the truth?" She appealed to the two young men, -but they only nodded their heads. "Mayn't I even telephone to my maid -for clothes?" Granny asked almost feebly. - -"You may not." Major Martingale was glad that she was beginning to -understand. "You may give me any message, and if I consider it safe and -necessary I may send it on. While you are not actually prisoners you -can't leave Riverside, and you can't communicate with any one. It isn't -my fault," he added hurriedly. "I didn't bring you here. I don't want -you here! Mr. Simmons shouldn't have let you come!" - -"Mr. Simmons doesn't know anything about it." - -"He doesn't!" The major was all suspicion again. "I'll send him word. -I'll----" - -Granny caught his sleeve. "No, you shan't send him word!" she exclaimed -quickly. "He'd--he'd laugh at us," she explained stumblingly, and a red -flush crept into her cheeks. "You see we started for our country place. -Mr. Simmons always said women couldn't be trusted and he'd tease us so. -Please don't tell him. We'll be model prisoners if you won't, won't we?" -She appealed to Rebecca Mary. "If you do tell him you may wish you had -never been born," she prophesied with a smile, but there was something -behind the smile which made Major Martingale mop his brow and look -unhappy. - -"So long as you obey orders I'll keep still," he promised unwillingly. -"I can't say more than that. Mr. Marshall, will you see that these -ladies have breakfast. I can't waste any more time. I shan't wait for -breakfast. I've lost my appetite." And he waddled away before any one -could say a word. - -Granny looked after him all ready to say several words if he would only -stay and listen to them, but as he never looked back, she dropped into -the nearest chair and laughed until the tears stood in her eyes. Rebecca -Mary was frightened and ran to her. - -"There, there," she said soothingly. She was sure that Granny had -hysterics, and she did not know what to do for hysterics. She wished she -had taken the First Aid last winter when she had a chance. "It's all -right," she insisted, although she was not at all sure that it was all -right. - -Granny pushed her away. "It's--it's----" she began, and stopped to wipe -the tears from her eyes. "Oh, my old heart!" And she put her hand to her -side and looked at them helplessly. - -Joan ran to her. "Is your old heart getting younger, Granny?" she asked -anxiously. - -Granny patted her cheek. "I expect that is it. My old heart is getting -younger. No wonder I have a queer feeling in it." - -"Better have some coffee," suggested Mr. Marshall. He was young enough -to regard food as a panacea for every ill. He introduced them to Mr. -George Barton, an electrical engineer, and explained that he was an -engineer, too, a chemical one, before he persuaded Granny to return to -the dining room, where Ben brought fresh coffee and eggs and toast. - -And while they ate their breakfast Mr. Marshall and Mr. Barton told them -that Major Martingale was quite right, most important things were being -done at Riverside. - -"We're all here until the experiment is proved a success or a failure," -went on Mr. Marshall. "It may be for a week and it may be for two -months. No one goes out but the Big Boss. He went away last night." - -"What is this great experiment?" asked Rebecca Mary between two bites of -soft boiled egg. - -"I'm sorry but we can't breathe a word about it. We scarcely speak of it -among ourselves," regretted Mr. Marshall. He looked as if he would be -glad to tell them if he only could. "The Major is right, old Germany is -moving heaven and earth to get it from us." - -Granny sniffed. "H-m," she murmured. "And you think we are going to stay -here indefinitely while this Major Martingale--Major Cross would be a -better name--finds out whether he is a fool or a genius?" - -George Barton laughed joyously. "That isn't exactly the way I'd state -it, but it's the way it is, isn't it, Wallie? You see the thing is -frightfully important. We're scared to death for fear the Germans may -get a hint. We all took an iron clad oath, but the Huns are so -devilishly clever you never can tell how or when they will reach your -workmen. It isn't so bad here. We don't have such worse times, good -quarters, fine eats, plenty to read, a victrola and a grand piano and -tennis. Do you play tennis?" he asked Rebecca Mary, who was staring at -him with big round eyes. She couldn't believe yet that it was true, that -she and Granny and Joan were prisoners in Riverside. - -"You may call yourself prisoners if you wish," it almost seemed as if -Wallace Marshall had read her thoughts. "But we shall think of you as -honored guests. And, believe me, I'm glad you came," he said fervently. -"You've no idea how you will be appreciated." - -Granny pushed back her chair and regarded him with a strange glance. -Evidently she did not care for his appreciation. - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary pushed back her chair, too. She did not know what she -feared Granny might do or say. - -"Rebecca Mary," to her great relief Granny chuckled as she turned to -her, "did you ever hear of such a thing? I reckon I've managed to get -away from that question better than I planned. No one can come here to -ask me what I want for a jubilee present." And she laughed before she -turned to Wallie Marshall and George Barton. "We'll stay for a while," -she went on quite as if she were at the seashore arranging dates with -the manager of a popular hotel instead of in prison talking to an -assistant jailer. "But you will have to finish your experiment by the -twentieth. I have an important engagement on the twenty-second. A very -important engagement. We can't stay a minute after the twentieth. And -Major Martingale will have to explain to Mrs. Swenson why we didn't come -to see Otillie's wedding things." - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - -With a broad smile Ben led the way up the stairs, talking all the time. - -"Ah suah will be glad to hab ladies about agin," he chuckled. "Genelmen -is all right in der way. Ah hain't got nothin' to say agin genelmen as -genelmen, but no one can say they is so picturefying as de ladies. You -better take the fambly rooms, Mrs. Simmons. There hain't nobody been -usin' of 'em an' you'll find 'em mighty pleasant whether you looks out -or in. An' they's allus ready." - -He opened the door of the suite which occupied the west wing, and -Rebecca Mary gave a little exclamation of delight. She quite agreed with -Ben. The rooms were mighty pleasant in their pretty furnishings, while -from the windows one looked over the formal garden to the river which -flowed so peacefully between its two banks. - -"How perfectly beautiful!" she murmured. - -"Yes, they are very good cells," agreed Granny. "I'm sure we shall be as -comfortable as prisoners should be. Bring in our suit cases, please, -Ben. Doesn't it seem restful and quiet, Rebecca Mary? I believe it will -be good for us to rest here for a few days. It is too bad we won't see -Otillie's wedding things, but that isn't our fault as I shall explain to -Mrs. Swenson. You heard me tell that young man that we might stay until -the twentieth? That was just a blind. We'll only stay until we want to -go and then we'll slip away." - -"How?" laughed Rebecca Mary, still hanging enchanted over the garden. -"Shall I twist a sheet and lower you from the window?" - -"I don't think it will be necessary to spoil good sheets," Granny -laughed, too, perhaps at the picture Rebecca Mary had painted of a -golden wedding bride dangling by a twisted sheet from a second story -window. "I shall find a more comfortable way. You know, Rebecca Mary," -she said in an undertone so that Joan, who was trying all of the faucets -in the bathroom, would not hear her, "I'm not just sure about things -here. That story may be all right, it may be true that Major Martingale -has brought a lot of men down here to work out some experiment for the -government and he may be afraid that some hint may leak out to the -Germans, but it sounds very queer to me. I can't imagine what the -experiment could be. And Joshua Cabot has never hinted to me that he -has loaned Riverside to any one. So I think we had better not make any -fuss but just stay quietly until we can learn something definite, and -then if the story isn't true we can slip away and warn Joshua that queer -things are happening here." - -"Why, Granny Simmons!" Rebecca Mary had never thought that Major -Martingale's story could be anything but true. "How shall we find out?" - -"We shall keep our eyes and ears wide open. First we must make them -trust us and then--and then, Rebecca Mary, we can learn the truth. Don't -ask me how again," as she saw the question trembling on Rebecca Mary's -lips, "for I don't know. But we shall, and until we do we'll just forget -about it. I declare I feel younger than I have for years. But I'm tired. -I didn't sleep well last night. If you take my advice now, children, -you'll try these beds and see how soft they are. I am sure I feel the -need of at least forty good winks." - -"Oh, I couldn't sleep now." Rebecca Mary was too excited even to think -of sleep. She would rather go down to the garden where the big pool -showed the blue sky how becoming the fleecy white clouds were. The -garden was far more alluring to her just then than the softest of beds. - -"I couldn't, either!" exclaimed Joan. "Must I?" - -Granny did not insist, and after she was tucked under the silken -comforter Rebecca Mary and Joan went down the stairs hand in hand. They -ran through the open door and found a surprise on the other side, a -surprise over six feet long. - -"Hello!" exclaimed the surprise, all a-grin. - -"Hello!" replied Rebecca Mary somewhat feebly, and then she laughed for -the surprise was young Peter Simmons. If Rebecca Mary's fingers had not -been in her pocket with the four-leaf clover locket she would not have -believed her two gray eyes. "Then it wasn't a dream!" she said -triumphantly. - -"Wasn't it?" Peter looked at Rebecca Mary as she stood before him in her -crumpled white frock and pink sweater. Peter never saw that the frock -was crumpled. He only saw the two shining gray eyes, the smiling red -mouth and the two pink cheeks which helped to make Rebecca Mary's -radiant face. - -"I told Granny that you found us last night and she said I was -dreaming," she explained more soberly. "Have you come to rescue us -again?" It would be so romantic if the four-leaf clover had sent young -Peter Simmons to their rescue a second time. - -"Rescue you?" He looked puzzled, for Rebecca Mary did not look as if she -were in any danger as she stood there in front of the door. "I want to -apologize for leaving you in the old shed," he went on. "It started to -rain just before we turned in here last night and the shed was the -nearest place. Yes, I picked you up, it wasn't any dream. Granny was -wrong. I had received a hurry up call to come out at once and was on my -way in my little gas wagon with a man from the factory when at the cross -roads, a mile and half back, I came across two women and a half----" - -"Was the half me?" demanded Joan, dancing up and down. "Do you mean me -when you say half a woman?" - -"I certainly do," smiled Peter. "One woman and a half were sound asleep -and the other woman was just about asleep. The cross roads didn't seem -the safest place for a nap so I left my machine to the mechanic and took -the wheel of yours. I didn't dare take you to the house until I spoke to -old Martingale but when I met him he wouldn't listen to my story but -marched me off to the shop for a minute. The minute grew into sixty -before I could get away, and when I went back to the shed you had gone. -How is Granny? The idea of a child of her age going to sleep in a motor -car thirty miles from home. Any one could have come along and carried -you off!" It almost sounded as if Peter was scolding them. - -"I said you brought us here, I remember perfectly now, but Granny -wouldn't believe me. Did you know that we would have to stay for ever?" - -"For ever?" Peter didn't understand. - -With Joan's assistance Rebecca Mary explained that no one who came to -Riverside could leave, and Peter threw back his head and laughed and -laughed. - -"Good work," he chuckled. "I guess I've eliminated old Dick Cabot for a -while. He always was in the way in Waloo. But why in the dickens were -you and Granny and this half woman," he pinched Joan's cheek, "going to -Seven Pines in the middle of the night?" Evidently he had forgotten the -explanation Rebecca Mary had given him in the middle of the night. - -"Your grandmother decided rather suddenly to leave home," Rebecca Mary -dimpled as she remembered how suddenly Granny had decided, "and she -asked me to drive her to Seven Pines. I was scared to pieces but I -couldn't refuse." - -"That's very good as far as it goes, but it doesn't explain why Granny -had to start in the middle of the night, why she couldn't wait until -morning?" - -Rebecca Mary hesitated until she remembered that Granny had said she -didn't care if Peter knew, she didn't care if every one knew. - -"I suppose I may tell you," the corners of her mouth tilted up. "She -wanted to run away from a question." - -"A question?" Peter looked hopelessly bewildered. "Why should any one, -least of all an old woman of sixty-eight, run away from a question?" - -Even when Rebecca Mary had explained what question it was which had made -Granny abandon her comfortable home in Waloo at midnight Peter didn't -seem to understand, and he said so. - -"That's because you're a man!" Rebecca Mary was very scornful of a man's -power of comprehension. "I understand perfectly, and I don't blame -Granny a bit. It must be perfectly maddening to have your husband ask -you whether you want light meat or dark every time a chicken comes to -the table or what you want for a birthday or a Christmas present. I -don't blame Granny," she repeated for fear he had not heard her the -first time she said it. - -"Neither do I when you say it like that," Peter agreed amiably. -"Although I can't see why she didn't go to grandfather and tell him how -she felt. My grandfather, Miss Rebecca Mary Wyman, is the best old scout -in the world. Don't think for a minute that he is a crabbed selfish old -dub because he isn't. He's the head of a big manufacturing plant which -he had ready to turn over to the government before the war because he -saw it coming, and it's been no joke to get it back to a peace basis -since the war. I don't know anything about this chicken meat -proposition, but I do know that granddad has so much on his mind that it -isn't surprising if he has forgotten a little thing like an -anniversary----" - -"Little thing!" Anniversaries were not little things to Rebecca Mary. -They aren't little things to any woman. "A golden wedding a little -thing!" It was perfectly clear to Peter that a golden wedding with all -its tributes and attributes would never be a little thing to Rebecca -Mary. - -"She's going to ask me," Joan broke in excitedly. "I've never been to -one, and I can't think what it will be like. What will be golden? The -bride can't be, can she?" - -"No," Rebecca Mary put an arm around Joan as she explained. "No, honey, -the golden part will be the beautiful memory the bride and bridegroom -will have of the fifty happy years they have spent together." She -stopped suddenly as she remembered that was what Cousin Susan had said, -that memories were golden. "What a long time that is!" she murmured -dreamily. "Fifty years!" - -"Not too long for two people who love each other," suggested Peter in a -voice which sent the ready color to her cheeks. "When you are married -you will want a golden wedding, won't you?" - -"I wonder," her lips murmured perversely, although her heart told her -with one big beat that she would, she most certainly would, want a -golden wedding. - -"I know," insisted Peter. "Come on in and help me find some breakfast. I -haven't had a thing to eat since last night," piteously. - -"We have!" Joan was triumphant. "We had strawberries and toast and eggs -and coffee!" - -"Greedy!" Peter made a face at her. "I hope you didn't eat all the -strawberries, nor all the eggs, nor all the toast!" - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - -Rebecca Mary and Joan sat beside Peter while he ate his strawberries and -his eggs and toast and bacon. Rebecca Mary poured two cups of coffee for -him in a demure little way which Peter found quite enchanting, and his -eyes told her so as they followed her to the other side of the table. -But there was nothing sentimental to Joan in the fact that Rebecca Mary -had poured Peter two cups of coffee. She found it only interesting, and -her eyes grew big when Peter broke a third egg. - -"Gentlemen hold a lot more than ladies, don't they?" she asked with -frank interest. "Granny only ate berries and toast and drank half a cup -of coffee, and you, dear Miss Wyman, had an egg with your toast and -coffee and so did I, but Mr. Simmons already has eaten----" - -"Spare me the list of my victories," begged Peter. "And bear in mind, -Friend Joan, that men are hard working creatures who have to be well -stoked to do their job." - -"But ladies work, too." Joan objected to such sex discrimination. "I've -seen them, haven't I, Miss Wyman?" - -"You have unless you kept your eyes shut, which is what so many of our -busy gentlemen do," twinkled Rebecca Mary. "If you are quite sure you -won't have another cup of coffee, Mr. Simmons, I'll run up and see if -Granny is awake and tell her the surprise that is waiting for her." - -But Granny was still asleep under the rose strewn coverlet, and Rebecca -Mary slipped out as quietly as she had slipped in. - -Peter had finished his breakfast when she returned to the dining room, -and they all walked out to the garden where he smoked a cigarette. - -"But you know Granny can't stay here without sending word to -grandfather," insisted Peter. - -"Why can't she?" - -"Why can't she?" Peter stared as if Rebecca Mary should have known -better than to waste words on such a question. "My grandfather adores my -grandmother, Miss Wyman, although he does tease her to death, and he'll -worry his old gray head off if he doesn't know where she is." - -"Mrs. Simmons left a message with Pierson." - -"That she had gone to Seven Pines. When grandfather calls up Seven -Pines Granny won't be there. No, she must send him a message at once." - -"You can't send any messages from Riverside. Major Martingale told us so -most emphatically." - -"I rather guess we could get a word to old Peter Simmons if we went -about it in the right way." Young Peter seemed much amused to hear that -she imagined that they couldn't. "Don't you know----" he began, and then -he laughed and stopped short. - -Rebecca Mary knew, of course, that he had meant to tell her what an -important man his grandfather was, and she liked him the better for -breaking his sentence off in the middle and not boasting. He chuckled to -himself several times as he walked with Rebecca Mary through the garden -which was such a riot of gorgeous color, around the flower-bordered -pool, by the old lichen-studded sun dial and through the green wreathed -pergola to the river bank, where Peter forgot his grandparents as he -remembered his history and told Rebecca Mary the legend the Indians had -written on the big rock on the other side. It was a gruesome tale, and -Joan shook in her small shoes. Rebecca Mary would have shivered in her -larger oxfords if she had not remembered that the gruesomeness was some -two hundred years old. They had a most delightful morning and strolled -back when they heard the clang of a big bell, a bell which Peter told -Joan talked of absolutely nothing but food. - -"The mechanics are quartered in the farmhouse," he explained. - -There was one word in his sentence which reminded Rebecca Mary that she -was a member of Granny's detective bureau, and she looked up quickly. - -"Just what is this experiment which is going to mean so much to the -world?" she asked with serpent guile. The minute she had seen young -Peter Simmons she knew that Major Martingale's story was true, but she -should like to know more of his experiment. She had no doubt Peter would -tell her more. - -Peter squirmed uneasily. He wanted to tell her what he knew but a man's -tongue is sometimes tied. - -"I'm sorry," he said as Wallie Marshall had said earlier in the morning. -"But we aren't allowed to breathe a word. We're under oath, you know. -Can't run the risk of any leak." - -"You don't trust me?" For just a second Rebecca Mary threatened to be -injured or indignant. Peter held his breath. "Never mind!" She decided -to smile, and Peter drew a sigh of relief. "It must have something to do -with aëroplanes----" - -"I'm not here as an aviator," Peter told her quickly, and then seemed -sorry that he had spoken. - -"You're not?" But as Peter refused to say in what capacity he was at -Riverside she went on rather scornfully; "I suppose it has nothing to do -with chemistry or electricity, either, although Mr. Marshall told me he -was one kind of an engineer and Mr. Barton was the other." - -"The dickens he did!" Peter grinned at her powers of deduction. - -"I dare say I'll know all about it in time." Rebecca Mary tossed her -head with a fair show of indifference. "That is if there is anything to -know. Come, Joan, I'm sure Granny is awake now." - -"I say, you're not angry with me?" Peter did not see why he should be -intrusted with secrets which would make Rebecca Mary angry with him. He -caught her hand. - -She looked down at the five fingers which rested on Peter's broad palm -and then up at his face, and to his delight there was no anger in her -eyes, nothing but the most innocent surprise. - -"Why should I be angry?" And when he didn't tell her she went on -lightly: "Of course, I should want to know anything I shouldn't know, -any girl would, and equally, of course, you must keep your oath, -but----" She shrugged her shoulders and took her fingers away from -Peter. - -"I see," muttered Peter ruefully as he followed her. But he didn't see -at all. - -They found Granny awake, and on the terrace. She was surprised to see -Peter for she had not believed a word of Rebecca Mary's dream, and she -asked him at once if Major Martingale's story were true or should she -and Rebecca Mary run away and warn Joshua Cabot that queer things were -taking place at Riverside? There was no beating about the bush with -Granny. She did not hesitate a second, and she looked very crestfallen -when Peter told her that Major Martingale had told nothing but the -truth. - -"You'd never believe how important the experiment is nor how much -Germany wants it," he said. "Old Martingale has to be suspicious and -careful. He can't trust any one who isn't on oath. You were lucky you -weren't shot at sunrise. No, you can't do a thing but stay until the -Major lets you go. I'm glad you're here. It will make it pleasanter for -me," he explained with a grin. "Although I'll confess that I didn't -realize that things were on quite such a military footing. I didn't -bring you here to be locked up but because I thought it was safer than -to leave you on the high road. I didn't know you would have to stay," he -insisted. "Better send a message to grandfather," he told his -grandmother. - -She shook her head. "I can't. I'm not allowed to send messages to any -one." - -"I'm sure I can get old Martingale to let you write a letter." There was -a funny twinkle in Peter's eyes as he told what he could do. - -But Granny just shook her head again. "It won't do your grandfather any -harm to worry about me for a while. He has been too sure of me, and I've -been too good-natured. You know yourself, Peter, that we never would -have left Waloo if we hadn't gone before he came home. I made allowances -for him during the war, but that is over. No, Peter, I'm just full of -things it wouldn't be safe to say to him now. I want a peaceful golden -wedding, so I'll just stay where Fate has put me. If he were to come -here and ask me what I want for a golden wedding present I'm afraid I -should lose my temper. Why, we've talked of it hundreds of times and he -should know. Perhaps it is a little thing, Peter, but you're old enough -to know that life is made up largely of little things and they must be -right. The big things come so seldom that we can overlook the wrong in -them." - -"Grandfather's an awfully busy man just now," Peter began, but she would -not let him finish. - -"That's what I've been told for fifty years, and I've overlooked a lot -because he was so busy and so important. But I rather think I'll be -important for a while now. No, Peter Simmons, and if you say anything to -Major Martingale I shall be cross. I don't know why I feel this way, I -never did before, but I do feel that I can't be teased now. There is no -use arguing with me. You might as well save your breath." - -"It's all wrong," Peter grumbled to Rebecca Mary the minute they were -alone. "Grandfather shouldn't have this private worry when he has so -much public responsibility. Women have no sense of proportion." - -"How can they have any when men have so much?" Rebecca Mary spoke as if -there was just so much sense of proportion in the world and the men had -taken it all. She showed how sarcastic she could be in a few words. "I -don't blame Granny a bit, but I'll give you a little advice. If you -leave her alone she will agree with you a lot sooner than if you argue -with her. That's the way I manage the children and it succeeds nine -times out of ten." - -"I'll bet it does!" Peter was all admiration as he heard her method. -"All right, I'll stop badgering the old dear--for a while anyway. Come -and have a try at tennis. I'll wager you play a good game." - -Rebecca Mary did not play a good game,--how could she when she had had -so little practice?--but she obediently followed Peter to the court and -let him knock balls toward her. She made up in effort what she lacked in -skill. - -She jumped up to hit a ball, which flew high above her head and struck -it in such a way that it bounded from the court and went off at a -tangent to strike the shoulder of a man who was hurrying to the house. -He stopped and swung around to throw the ball back to the court. - -"Oh!" Joan gave a shriek. "It's my father! It's my own father!" And she -dashed to him as fast as her two feet would take her. He met her half -way and caught her in his arms. - -Rebecca Mary and Peter drifted toward each other. - -"I thought her father was dead!" exclaimed Peter. - -"Oh, no!" Rebecca Mary was dying to turn and look at Count Ernach de -Befort but she was withheld by a fine delicacy from staring at Joan's -father. - -Joan brought him across the court at once, clinging to his hand. - -"I've found him!" She was tremulously triumphant. "I'm the first to find -what we came for. This is my own father, dear Miss Wyman." - -Her own father took the hand which Miss Wyman offered him and clasped it -warmly. Now that she could see more than his back, Rebecca Mary felt -rather than knew that Joan had not drawn him from her imagination. He -was very different from the father in the photograph, older and more -serious. There was a tired, worn look in the face which showed where -Joan had found her black eyes and broad forehead and he had an -absent-minded, detached air which explained how he had been able to -leave his little daughter alone in Waloo with a housekeeper. He drew his -heels together as Rebecca Mary had seen German officers draw their heels -together in the movies, and Rebecca Mary caught her breath for she -remembered the Prussian uniform he had worn in his photograph, the -German eagle on his breast, and she remembered also that Major -Martingale had said no Germans were to be at Riverside. - -"I cannot understand," he said, bewildered and surprised as he tried to -follow Joan's incoherent explanation, and although his English was quite -correct there was a foreign intonation which Rebecca Mary found -fascinating for it told her that Joan might be right and her father -might really be Count Ernach de Befort. Counts of any nationality were a -novelty to Rebecca Mary. She had not met one of them in the third grade -of the Lincoln school. - -She assisted Joan to explain that Mrs. Muldoon had been called away by -the illness of her son and had left Joan with her teacher. - -"She loaned me, daddy," emphasized Joan. "I'm so glad she did." - -But Joan's father frowned as if he were not glad that his only daughter -had been loaned to any one, and the explanation went on to state how -they had come to Riverside. - -"And we're prisoners!" exclaimed Joan. "Are you a prisoner, too, daddy?" - -"The same kind of a prisoner that you are. Isn't that right, Mr. -Befort?" laughed Peter. - -Rebecca Mary breathed easier. If Peter laughed that way it must be all -right for Frederick Befort to be at Riverside. - -Frederick Befort smiled as if he thought it would be very pleasant to -have his daughter and her teacher fellow prisoners at Riverside before -he said that he was one of the men working on the great experiment. - -"I am surprised at Mrs. Muldoon," he went on with a frown. "She has been -so honest and faithful that I was sure I could trust her to take care of -Joan until I returned. My work here I could not leave to another. You -know----" He looked at Peter. - -Peter nodded. "Sure, I know." And he put his hand on the older man's -shoulder. Yes, decided Rebecca Mary, it must be all right. "Funny I -never connected you with the kid, for Befort isn't a common name. I -guess I was so interested in your job I never thought of you as a -father." - -"I have," confessed Rebecca Mary impulsively. "I've thought of you a -lot. Because we knew so little," she hastened to explain when Frederick -Befort looked surprised to hear that he had occupied so many of Rebecca -Mary's thoughts. "Granny Simmons and I have searched the map of Germany -for Echternach, the place Joan said you came from, but we couldn't find -it anywhere. We began to think that Joan had made up the name." - -"You searched all Germany?" asked Frederick Befort, putting his fingers -over Joan's lips as she tried to tell them that she hadn't made up the -name of Echternach. "No wonder you could not find it. It is a small -place, Miss Wyman, but old, very old. One of your English saints, -Willibrod, came there in the seventh century as a missionary. You should -have looked down in the southern part of Germany"--Rebecca Mary was -conscious of a feeling of disappointment. So Granny was right and he was -a German--"to the very edge of Rhenish Prussia until you found the river -Sure, and on the other side of that river you would have discovered -Echternach. But it is not in Prussia, it is in the Grand Duchy of -Luxembourg." He drew himself up proudly as he told her where Echternach -was. - -"Oh?" Rebecca Mary could not say another word to save her soul. She -could only look at him with the pinkest of cheeks. "I was so afraid that -you were a German!" she told him honestly. - -The laughter left his lips and a grave light took the place of the smile -in his eyes. - -"No, Echternach is not in Germany. It is not strange that you thought it -was, Miss Wyman. And if you traveled in our duchy you often would be -puzzled to know whether you were in Germany or in France. German is -spoken almost as much as French and we used German money. But a German -regiment was garrisoned in Luxembourg for fifty years and we have not -forgotten. Germany tried to swallow us as she tried to swallow so many -principalities, but Luxembourg would not be swallowed. Can you repeat -for Miss Wyman our national hymn, _ma petite_?" he said to Joan. "The -words the Cathedral bells ring out every other hour for fear we shall -forget them. Now then." His voice prompted Joan's as they repeated the -Luxembourg anthem: - - "_Mîr welle jô kê Preise gin; - Mîr welle bleime wat mor sin!_" - -"That means we shall never become Prussians. We shall remain what we -are," he translated, and his eyes flashed. - -Rebecca Mary's eyes were larger than any saucer as she gazed at him. She -had known Russians and Italians and Bohemians and Roumanians and -Serbians, she had taught children of almost every nationality, but she -had never met a Luxembourger before, and she tried to remember something -of the grand duchy. But she couldn't remember a thing. - -"Joan should have told you." Frederick Befort did not understand why she -should look so pleased. "You have been away from your native country -many months, _mignonne_, but you have not forgotten which side of the -Sure was your home?" - -"No," wriggled Joan. "But no one knows of Luxembourg and the grand -duchess, and every one knows of Germany and the old kaiser." - -"Alas, that it is so!" Frederick Befort shook his head sadly before he -looked at Rebecca Mary and said, oh, so feelingly: "I cannot understand -how Mrs. Muldoon could desert my little girl, but I am grateful to the -good God that he sent her such a friend in you. I cannot thank you for -your heavenly kindness to my little daughter." And before Rebecca Mary -realized what he was doing he had taken her hand and kissed it. - -If it had thrilled Rebecca Mary to have her fingers kissed by fat Mrs. -Klavachek you may imagine how shaken inwardly she was to have them -kissed by Count Ernach de Befort. - -"It wasn't anything," she stammered, wishing for goodness' sake that she -could think of something clever to say. - -"It was everything!" he insisted, gazing into her eyes. - -"Aren't you glad I found my daddy, Miss Wyman!" Joan was jumping up and -down as she clung to her father's hand. "But I'm sorry you haven't -found any payment for your memory insurance," she went on regretfully. - -"Oh, but I have!" Rebecca Mary forgot to be shy because a Luxembourg -count had kissed her fingers, and she laughed. "I've found a tremendous -payment!" - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - -Granny was very much surprised when they trooped in to tell her that a -tennis ball had just found Joan's father, and that he was not a German -but a good Luxembourger. The width of a river had kept him from being a -German. Granny knew little more of Luxembourg than Rebecca Mary, but she -"oh'd" and "ah'd" before she looked at Frederick Befort and said slowly: - -"You are quite sure you are from the Luxembourg side of that river?" - -Frederick Befort's eyes never wavered as he looked at her. "Quite sure. -There was a time when I regretted that I did not belong on the other -side of the river. You know I went to school in Germany, in Bonn, and I -had many German friends. The old emperor was a friend of my -grandfather's. I was named for him; and the present emperor has visited -us at Echternach." - -"That is why he made you an eagle, isn't it?" Joan broke in, eager to -have a share in these interesting explanations. - -"Indirectly, yes." He smiled at her as she stood beside him. "I was able -to arrange a very successful wild boar hunt and the kaiser was so -pleased that he decorated me. He was with us for several days and made -excursions all over the duchy. It was as if he wished to learn every -road and mountain path. We thought nothing of it then, fools that we -were! I even put on the Prussian uniform of one of the officers and wore -it at the costume ball that my wife gave in his honor." So that was why -he had been photographed in a Prussian uniform. Rebecca Mary's eyes -crinkled. "There always has been a close relation between Luxembourg and -Germany," he went on, and a frown chased the smile from his face. -"Before our present grand duchess came to the throne German influence -was supreme, most of our trade was with Germany, our railroads were -developed with German money and by Germans, but in our hearts we had no -love for Germany. And then came the day when the German army would have -marched through the duchy and our grand duchess, brave little Marie -Louise Adelheid, motored out to forbid them to use her country as a -thoroughfare. She had her car turned across the road to bar their -entrance, and the German officers laughed at her. Laughed at her, -madame! They told her to go home. What could Marie Louise Adelheid do? -We had an army of three hundred, only a palace guard and a military -band," he laughed bitterly. "We were not soldiers, we were farmers. -Germany knew that. And our little grand duchess had to go home. It would -have been useless to resist. Germany would have devastated Luxembourg as -she devastated Belgium. But I have it in my heart to wish that we had -resisted, that we had fought and died as the Belgians did. The Germans -have used Luxembourg as they pleased. For fifty years our capital was -garrisoned by German troops. They left an odious memory and the German -soldiers who have swarmed over the duchy since 1914 are even more -odious. No, madame, you need not ask. No people hate Germany as do we of -Luxembourg." - -His words sounded brave and true, and his face looked brave and true. -His eyes flashed fire. It was easy to believe that he would rather have -fought and died than to have yielded to the German hordes. - -"We are small," he said more quietly, "but we are rich. Germany wanted -us, she wanted our iron, our factories, but she did not get them. No! -You see, madame, I have changed my mind. I no longer believe that I was -born on the wrong side of the Sure. I thank God now that there is no -German blood in my veins!" - -"You should," nodded Granny, "Men of German blood, and women, too, will -have to pay a fearful price for their nationality, the price of a world -hatred. That is a dreadful thing, to be hated by a whole world." She -shivered as she thought what a dreadful thing it would be. - -"How can it be otherwise?" Frederick Befort shrugged his shoulders. "If -you had seen what I have seen----" He broke off with a shudder. - -Granny leaned forward and put her hand on his. "It is strange that we -should find you here," she said after a moment. "Providence has queer -ways of bringing people together. It would have seemed easier to have -introduced us that afternoon we were all in the Viking room at the -Waloo." - -"On my birthday," Joan whispered to her father, "Miss Wyman was there -and Granny Simmons and young Mr. Simmons, and, oh, everybody." - -"It might have been easier but would it have been as thrilling?" Rebecca -Mary was almost faint from the thrills of the afternoon. "We might never -have had such wonderful times if we had met that day at the Waloo." She -drew a long breath as she thought of the wonderful times which had -followed that tea hour. - -Granny smiled at her, so did young Peter and Frederick Befort, and -unconsciously they all promised Rebecca Mary more wonderful times. -Enthusiasm does make people so much more generous than quiet acceptance. - -"Then, perhaps Joan is right and you are really Count Ernach de Befort?" -laughed Granny. "We thought the child was romancing." - -"Yes, in Luxembourg I am a count but in America I like best to be just -Mr. Befort." And Mr. Befort looked almost apologetic. - -For the first time in her life Rebecca Mary knew what it was to be a -popular girl. As she had told Granny, since she had been in Waloo she -had known no men over eight years of age and while the boys in her third -grade were interesting and dear they were young. Here at Riverside, -where she was a prisoner, Rebecca Mary found three most attractive men -of exactly the right age, Peter Simmons, Wallace Marshall and George -Barton, and one very fascinating older man, Frederick Befort, who was a -count in his own country, a country which Rebecca Mary scarcely knew by -name. - -Busy as the men were over the experiment which was to be such a boon to -the world, they found many hours in which to walk with Rebecca Mary, to -play tennis with her, to talk with her, to dance with her while the -victrola played a new fox trot, or to ride with her around the farm on -the fat horses which Peter borrowed from the farmer. Each one of them -showed Rebecca Mary very plainly that there was no other girl in his -world, as indeed there wasn't just then, and Rebecca Mary, to her -undying astonishment, discovered that she could flirt and play one man -against another as well as any woman. She scarcely had time to record -the payments on her memory insurance policy she was so busy making them. - -And if the three younger men admired her for her youth and sex and gay -enthusiasm, Frederick Befort revered her for her kindness to Joan. When -he was not absorbed in the experiment or at the shop, where he worked -with a detached interest to the world around him, which would have made -Granny and Rebecca Mary understand many things about Joan which they had -not understood, he had to think of what might have happened if Rebecca -Mary had not accepted the loan of Joan. His gratitude was sometimes -embarrassing and always thrilling to Rebecca Mary, who often had to -pinch herself to make sure that she really was Rebecca Mary Wyman. She -told herself a dozen times a day that, of course, it was because she was -the only girl at Riverside that every one was so perfectly wonderful to -her, but she liked to pretend that it was because she was so beautiful -and fascinating. At heart Rebecca Mary was not a bit conceited. Her life -never had let her accumulate enough vanity to balance on the point of a -pin. And if you had told her that really she was very pretty and very -charming she would have laughed at you. - -She liked them all, even old Major Martingale, whom she had identified -as the short, stout, red-faced man who had consumed such quantities of -hot buttered toast that afternoon at the Waloo. She discovered that -Wallie Marshall and George Barton had been in the tea room on that -memorable afternoon also and it did seem strange, as Granny had said -that Fate should bring them together again in this fashion. Never for a -moment did Rebecca Mary suspect that Major Martingale had slipped the -four-leaf clover into her hand, but she did wonder if one of the others -had. She did not want to ask them outright, that would have ended, -perhaps spoiled, the delightful mystery. She would have to wait and the -waiting was proving very enjoyable. Once Rebecca Mary had hoped that it -was Peter who had given her the talisman but now she wished it was -Frederick Befort. It would be so romantic when she was sixty to remember -that it had been Count Ernach de Befort. Dear me, but Rebecca Mary was -glad that Cousin Susan had been so foolish as to spend her kitchen -curtains for two cups of tea. - -And while Rebecca Mary was the belle of Riverside, Granny took the rest -cure. - -"It's a heaven sent chance," she told Rebecca Mary and Peter. "I was in -such a whirl all through the war that I'm still wound up in a hard knot. -I'm sorry we didn't get to Seven Pines but I'll just rest here for a few -days and perhaps I'll be in a good condition to enjoy my golden -wedding." - -"Grandfather----" began Peter, but she cut him short. - -"Don't say grandfather to me, Peter Simmons. When you've been married -fifty years less a few weeks you'll understand more than your -grandfather ever understood if I know anything of the modern girl. Won't -he, Rebecca Mary?" - -"I don't know how much his grandfather understands." Rebecca Mary was -proving every day what a help she would be to a diplomatic corps. - -"He doesn't understand anything about women," grumbled Granny. - -She did not come down to breakfast but let Rebecca Mary take a tray to -her room and after she had eaten her berries and toast and drunk her -coffee she exchanged her bed for a couch in the sun room, where she -dozed until luncheon, when she appeared in the dining room to be -received like a queen. A nap over a novel filled the afternoon, and -after dinner she always played three games of double Canfield with Major -Martingale, who frowned blackly over the first game, was puzzled at the -second and smiled broadly at the third, which Granny always let him win. - -"That keeps him in a good humor," she explained to Rebecca Mary. "Men -have to be managed even over a game of cards." - -She took Rebecca Mary over the house and showed her the original part -which had been built by the great grandfather of Richard and Joshua -Cabot. - -"He was one of the big pioneers of the northwest," she said. "He came -from Pennsylvania in the early forties as an Indian trader. Later he -went into the transportation business. He used wagons first, those queer -Red River carts. You've seen them at state celebrations?" Rebecca Mary -nodded. She remembered the quaint two-wheeled squeaky carts if she -didn't remember the Cabots. "Old Mr. Cabot built here when the state was -still a territory, and from an historical standpoint I suppose there -isn't a more interesting house in the northwest. Councils of war, -political rallies, balls, celebrations of every sort were held in these -rooms. He entertained all the important people who came to the -northwest. His wife was the daughter of a rival French trader, and -Joshua Cabot's grandfather was prouder of his French blood than he was -of what his father had done to open up a new country. I think Richard is -like the old Pennsylvanian," she went on thoughtfully. "More so than -Joshua or any of the others. I expect he will do something big some -day." - -"I should say he has done something big already," exclaimed Rebecca -Mary, rather surprised to find herself championing Richard Cabot. "There -aren't many men of his age who are vice-presidents of a bank like the -First National. And Peter told me how splendid he was at selling Liberty -bonds." - -"That's true," admitted Granny soberly, and she carefully hid the -twinkle in her eyes from Rebecca Mary. "And banks and bonds are not the -only things that interest Richard. I used to think they were. But -they're not." - -"Yes?" questioned Rebecca Mary politely, but she was too polite, and too -unconcerned. Granny refused to tell her what, with stocks and bonds, -shared Richard's interest. Rebecca Mary had to guess what Granny meant. -It was astonishing how often they talked of Richard, or would have been -astonishing if they had not been prisoners in Richard's -great-grandfather's old house. - -No one came to Riverside as one day ran after another. They were quiet -and restful days for Granny, but far from quiet or restful to Rebecca -Mary and Joan. Joan made friends with the farmer's wife and the farmer's -eight months' old baby and a maltese cat, and she deserted Rebecca Mary -for the farmhouse. There were chickens at the farmhouse which Joan was -allowed to feed if Mrs. Erickson did not have to say "don't" too many -times, and a shaggy dog and a flock of young turkeys as well as the -baby, which Joan was permitted to hold if she was sure that her hands -were clean. - -Bread and milk may be a healthy change from lobster à la Newburg and -chiffonade salad, but to a palate accustomed to the rich food a simple -fare soon palls. Before many days Granny began to feel so rested that -she was not satisfied to lie in the sun room and doze. She began to -wonder what old Peter Simmons was doing, what he had said when Pierson -delivered her message the night he came home on the eleven fifty-five -and found her gone, and to wonder last of all if she had been wise to -run away. Her conscience began to prick and prick hard. At last she went -to Sallie Cabot's pretty writing table. - - "My dear old Peter," she began, "of course Pierson told you that I - had left for Seven Pines with a couple of young friends. I did not - wait to see you for several reasons. If you take time to think you - will know why I felt that I had to go to Seven Pines just now. Do - take care of yourself. I shall die if anything should happen to - spoil our golden wedding. I've looked forward to it for over fifty - years." - -She signed herself "Your affectionate wife," with a little grunt and -sigh and then she carefully tore the "Riverside" mark from the paper. -She folded her letter and put it in a plain envelop, which she inclosed -in a second envelop, which was addressed to the housekeeper at Seven -Pines. She gave the letter to Peter and told him that as he had -bothered her so unceasingly she had written to his grandfather and the -letter could be sent if it could go by way of Seven Pines. - -Peter seemed quite sure he could have it sent that way. "Good work, -Granny!" He patted her shoulder approvingly. "You won't be sorry," he -promised. - -"I hope I shan't," sighed Granny. - -"She's a good old sport," Peter told Rebecca Mary when he had his turn -for a dance or a walk and they chose a walk down by the river. "I -honestly didn't think she'd do it, but she did. Of course----" He -stopped suddenly and called her attention to the hollyhocks, like pink -and white sentinels. - -Rebecca Mary was not to be diverted by pink or white hollyhocks. "Yes? -You were saying----" - -"Nothing, that is, nothing of any consequence," he told her hurriedly. -"I say what was old Wallie telling you before dinner that made you both -howl? I haven't heard a good joke for some time and that must have been -a scream from the way you two chortled." - -But if Peter wouldn't tell her she wouldn't tell him. "I don't feel at -liberty to repeat Mr. Marshall's jokes," she said very loftily. - -"Now you're testy and it isn't my fault. I say, you know, you're not -the girl you were in Waloo," reproachfully. "You wouldn't have exploded -at nothing in Waloo," he complained. - -It was only the truth. Rebecca Mary was not the same girl she had been -in Waloo. She knew it as well as he did and laughed triumphantly. She -was so glad she was not that old scowling shabby Waloo girl. The soft -low laugh rather went to Peter's head. He put out his hand and took -Rebecca Mary's fingers in his warm palm. - -"I say," he began a bit huskily, "you shouldn't look at a fellow like -that. You--you----" - -"Yes?" Rebecca Mary dared him with a racing heart. - -"Hi there, Simmons! Miss Wyman!" shouted a voice behind them and there -was Wallie Marshall, all indignation. "You think a fat lot of yourself, -don't you?" he said to Peter with some heat, "to run off with all the -partners at this dance. What do you think you are? Come this way, Miss -Wyman. I found a corking place among the willows this afternoon when I -was fishing. Let us see how it looks by moonlight." - -"It looks beautiful," Rebecca Mary told him when they had found the -corking place. She had been rather glad to run away with him from Peter. -As soon as she had dared Peter she was sorry, afraid, for a girl never -knows what will happen when she dares a man. "All shined up with the -best silver polish. It should be inhabited by fairies." - -"I guess there isn't any fairy that has anything on you," stammered -Wallie. "You make a fellow like me feel so clumsy and rough." - -"Clumsy! Rough! You!" The three exclamations told his scarlet ears that -Rebecca Mary did not think he was either the one or the other. - -He drew closer. "I say, you're a wonder, all right. My word!" He drew a -deep breath. "But I'm glad you dropped in here. Just imagine if we had -never met!" He couldn't imagine it. It was too horrible. - -"We might have run across each other somewhere else," suggested Rebecca -Mary. "The Waloo tea room perhaps. Strange things have happened there." -She giggled as she remembered one of the strange things. - -He shook his head. "No other place would be like this, where I can see -such a lot of you. I hope you don't think it's too much?" He was seized -with a sudden fear. "I don't bore you, do I?" - -She assured him that he didn't. He hadn't bored her for a second. He -beamed, but he could not leave well enough alone. - -"Then you like to be with me as much as with Simmons?" he asked -jealously. - -"Don't incriminate yourself, Miss Wyman," advised George Barton, who had -come up behind them. "Cut along, Wallie. You're through." - -"Through!" shouted the indignant Wallie. - -George turned away from him. "Strange effect the moonlight has, Miss -Wyman. See that bush over there? Doesn't it cast a shadow like a -fool's-cap on the head of our friend, Wallie?" - -She laughed, she couldn't help it, and when he heard her Wallie groaned -and walked away. - -"This is better." George twisted himself on the garden seat so that he -could look up into Rebecca Mary's dimpling face. "Gee, but we have had a -day!" - -"Didn't things go well?" Rebecca Mary knew no more about the work which -took the men over to the shop and sent them back to her than she did the -day she had come to Riverside, but she always was interested to hear -them mention it. - -"Oh, yes, well enough, but don't let's talk about that now that I have -found the girl and the time and the place. Moonlight is awfully becoming -to you, Miss Wyman, you should always wear it. It makes you shimmer and -sparkle." - -"Too bad I can't buy a few yards to put away." - -"You don't really need it. I've seen you sparkle quite fetchingly in the -sunlight. You know you're different from any girl I ever knew," he went -on with a curious wonder that he had found Rebecca Mary so different. - -"In what way?" Rebecca Mary always had thought that she was different -and, oh, how she wanted to be like other girls. - -"In what way?" he repeated as if it should be as plain to her as it was -to him. "Why, other girls--other girls are just nowhere beside you!" - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary was quite willing to be unlike other girls in the way -described by his deep drawn breath and flushed face, but she looked at -him provokingly and murmured sadly: "That might be taken in two ways." - -Before he could tell her that it most certainly could be taken in but -one way, Joan pushed through the shrubbery to announce excitedly that -Ben had made some ice cold lemonade and if they wanted any they had -better run, for Mr. Marshall said he was thirsty from his head to his -heels, and Mr. Marshall was six feet three inches tall and the lemonade -pitcher wasn't more than eighteen inches. Mr. Marshall had said so. A -scant eighteen inches, he had said. - -"Mercy, mercy, Joan!" Rebecca Mary caught her hand. "Let's fly!" - -And away they dashed by the snapdragons, by the foxgloves and the -hollyhocks, by the pool to the rose tangled terrace where the -six-foot-three Mr. Marshall waited triumphantly beside the scant -eighteen-inch lemonade pitcher. - -Frederick Befort waited there, too, and when Rebecca Mary, pink and -breathless, murmured something about the roses, he drew her into a -fragrant corner to tell her of the wonderful roses which have made -Luxembourg famous, for there are roses everywhere, climbing the garden -walls, the houses, the battlements and the towers. It made her flush and -sigh to hear of the beauty of that rose garlanded city, and suddenly he -flushed, too, and began hurriedly to talk of the eight hundred primary -schools in which education is compulsory, for education is much thought -of in the little duchy. And later, oh, much later, as Rebecca Mary -brushed her hair before the mirror, she told her smiling reflection that -she never had realized what a fascinating subject education could be. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - -"Do you know what I am going to do?" Peter demanded gloomily when he -found Rebecca Mary in the pergola overlooking the river at the foot of -the garden. - -Rebecca Mary was reading a book which she had found in one of the big -cases in Joshua Cabot's grandfather's library. She flushed guiltily when -Peter discovered her and put her book hurriedly behind her, which was no -way to hide it from him. Peter immediately wanted to know what was the -matter with her book that she should put it behind her back when he came -in sight, and what was her book, anyway? A minute later Rebecca Mary had -yielded to brute force, and Peter read the title of the thick -volume--"The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg," and then he took up a small -volume which was on the bench beside Rebecca Mary and read the title of -that--"French Grammar." - -Then and there Peter had taxed her with giving more of her time and -thoughts to Frederick William Gaston Johan Louis, Count Ernach de -Befort, than she did to him, plain Peter Simmons, a former private in -the Lafayette escadrille. - -"You are always talking education with him. Education!" he sneered. "Or -reading about his blamed little country or studying his blamed,--no, I -can't call the language of the French names. But you know, Rebecca Mary, -that you give him more of your company than you give me." And when -Rebecca Mary just sat there flushed and guilty, Peter went on with great -determination, "Do you know what I am going to do?" - -Rebecca Mary could truthfully say that she didn't, she hadn't the -faintest idea what he was going to do. - -"I'm going to take this many-named count out and drown him. Oh, yes, I -know we're forbidden to go on the river and that Befort is needed at the -shop, but I'm going to drown him just the same. Yes, Rebecca Mary Wyman, -that is what I shall do, I'll take him out on the river and drown him. -What does he mean by butting in, anyway? Doesn't he know that I brought -you here to get you away from old Dick Cabot?" - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary was all in a flutter when he spoke of old Dick Cabot. - -"Doesn't Befort know that you are my girl?" went on Peter with a frown, -although there was a grin lurking around the corners of his mouth. - -"Am I?" dimpled Rebecca Mary, pink to her hair to hear that she was -Peter's girl. - -"Aren't you?" Peter could answer one question with another as well as -any Irishman, and he leaned closer to see if Rebecca Mary agreed that -she was his girl. "And I'm not going to let another fellow cut me out," -he went on sternly. "Marshall and Barton are bad enough, but I can -manage them." - -"How?" interrupted Rebecca Mary, eager to hear how Peter was going to -manage Wallie Marshall and George Barton. - -"I'm a bigger man than they are and a better," Peter explained promptly. -"They don't worry me, but this Befort--I'm bigger than he is, too, but -he's romantic, and all girls fall for romance. I can see that he might -have quite a drag with you. Most girls would rather have a diamond -already cut and polished in their platinum ring than one in the rough. I -like old Befort myself, but I'll have to drown him just the same. -Godfrey!" he jumped to his feet and looked down at her. "There's no time -like the present. I'll hunt him up and ask him politely to come for a -little row on the river, and then I'll drown him." - -Rebecca Mary laughed. "There used to be an old saying that ran something -like this--'First catch your hare.'" Her eyes danced. It was such fun to -hear Peter run on. Not one of the eight-year-old men she had known in -the third grade of the Lincoln school had ever talked to her like this. - -Peter grunted scornfully. "Oh, I'll catch him," he promised confidently. -"I have only to stay here with you, and I'll catch him and drown him." - -Neither of them knew that just behind the vine wreathed pergola Joan was -playing with the farmhouse kitten which she had borrowed without -permission. She had hesitated between the baby asleep in a chair on the -porch and the kitten asleep on the step and then had wisely chosen the -kitten. - -When she first heard Peter talking to Rebecca Mary she had not listened -to him for the kitten was so cunning as it played with the string Joan -held just out of reach of the four paws, but when Peter kept on -insisting that he was going to drown some one she had to listen. When -she heard who Peter was going to drown she jumped to her feet, almost on -the borrowed kitten, and gasped. Her first impulse was to rush to Peter -and tell him that he couldn't, he just couldn't, drown her father for -liking to talk to Rebecca Mary. If he did that he would have to drown -himself and every one at Riverside and a lot of people at Waloo, for -almost every one liked to talk to Rebecca Mary. He even would have to -drown her. And then another plan slipped swiftly into her startled -brain, and her slim legs scarcely touched the ground as they carried her -around the pergola and up through the garden. - -It was the greatest luck that just as she passed the tall clump of -larkspur she should see her father coming leisurely toward her. If Joan -had been older and in less haste she would have seen that her father had -changed since the day the tennis ball had found him. He did not look as -haggard nor quite as absent-minded and his shoulders did not sag. He -looked just then as if he had come from the hands of a very good valet. - -"Eh, Joan," he called when he saw the flash of her bare knees. "What -now? Where are you going in such haste?" - -Joan threw herself against him, clasping his legs in her arms, and -gasped, "You won't let him drown you, will you?" she begged. - -Frederick Befort dropped on the grass beside her and took her in his -arms. "Indeed, no one shall drown me, _ma petite_. Why should they?" - -"Then when he asks you to come for a row on the river you won't go, -will you?" Joan went on. "Say you won't?" She gave him a little shake. -"I--I don't want you to be drowned." - -"And I don't want to be drowned." Frederick Befort laughed gently as he -wiped the tears from her eyes. "Some one has been teasing you, -_mignonne_." - -"It wasn't to me he said it. It was to Miss Wyman. He said he could -manage Mr. Marshall and Mr. Barton, but that you were too romantic and -he would have to drown you." - -To Joan's surprise her father threw back his head and laughed and -laughed. "So," he murmured as he hugged her, "I am romantic, am I? Miss -Wyman----" An odd expression crossed his face as if an odd thought had -just crossed his mind. "You like Miss Wyman, don't you, Joan?" - -Joan nodded as she clung to his hand. If Peter drowned her father he -should drown her, too. Even if she did love Miss Wyman she did not want -to live without her father. - -"He said you were a cut and polished diamond set in platinum," she -hiccoughed. "And he said he was in the rough. That was why he would have -to take you in a boat and drown you, because you were a cut and polished -diamond. So I ran just as fast as I could for I knew if I told you he -never could drown you, could he?" - -Frederick Befort put his fingers under the eager little face and tipped -it up so that he could kiss the trembling lips. "I don't think Peter -wants to drown me, Joan," he explained gently. "He was speaking -figuratively." - -"What's that?" The new word had to be explained at once. "What's figure -speaking?" - -Frederick Befort searched his brain for the right words with which to -explain it. "When you ran races with Miss Wyman and Peter last night you -called out that you were flying because you ran so fast. But you really -weren't flying, you know, you just felt as if you were. Peter Simmons -doesn't really want to drown me, he just wants to pretend that he does." - -"Oh!" The explanation proved satisfactory, and Joan's lips stopped -trembling to smile. "It won't hurt to do it that way, will it?" - -Frederick Befort smiled ruefully. "I'm not so sure. You know, Joan, that -Peter Simmons is young and life is all before him. My life is behind me, -the best part of it." He jumped to his feet as Rebecca Mary and Peter -rounded the larkspur. Peter was carrying the "Grand Duchy of -Luxembourg" and the French grammar. - -Joan jumped to her feet, too. "I heard what you said," she called -triumphantly, "and I ran to tell my father. Yes, I did, and so you can't -drown him now only in your mind." - -Peter looked surprised and crestfallen before he laughed. "You saved his -life," he said, tickling Joan's neck. "If you hadn't told him I'd take -him right out now and drown him." - -Joan shivered and looked quickly from Peter to her "cut and polished" -father, who didn't shiver at all. - -"Only figuratively, _mignonne_," he reminded her. - -"But he could do it truly, perhaps," she said tremulously, for Peter did -seem so big and resourceful. "He has a war cross for being brave, you -know." - -"He received that for saving people, not for drowning them," Frederick -Befort said swiftly. "I envy you that, Peter," he added gravely. - -Peter nodded. "I hadn't thought of it like that. It is good to think -that I helped save, but when you get down to brass tacks that's what all -the fellows were doing," he went on quickly. "They saved the world, -ideals, freedom, everything that makes life worth while." - -"Yes, you are right. Have you been studying your lesson, Miss Wyman?" -Frederick Befort took the French grammar from Peter's hand. "Are you -ready to recite it? Let us go down by the river." - -And before Peter could say "booh" he had taken Rebecca Mary and the -grammar both away from him. - -Peter looked after them and his jaw dropped. "Well, I'll be darned!" he -muttered "You bet I'll have to drown that man." - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - -Rebecca Mary had walked over to the farmhouse for Joan, but Joan was -feeding the chickens and just couldn't come at once, so Rebecca Mary sat -down on the steps and talked with Mrs. Erickson until the last downy -chicken had been given its dinner. - -"My, Miss Wyman, I expect you'll be glad when they're through their work -here and you can leave," Mrs. Erickson remarked sympathetically, as she -offered Rebecca Mary a plate of crispy flaky gooseberry tarts. "It must -have been pretty hard to start for a wedding and find yourself in jail. -I know how it is with me. I never was much of a gadabout, but, land -knows, I'll be glad enough when the guards are taken off, and I can come -and go as I please." - -"It is rather horrid," Rebecca Mary carelessly agreed as she ate a -gooseberry tart. "But I'm not having such a bad time really, Mrs. -Erickson. It might be a lot worse." - -"I wish I could look at it like that. But I ain't one to dwell much on -the cheerful side of things. What's the use, I say, when there's so -much that ain't cheerful. I suppose the old Major knows what he's about, -but there's queer things going on in Riverside, or I miss my guess." - -Rebecca Mary looked up quickly. "What do you mean?" she wanted to know -at once. Mrs. Erickson looked as if she meant such a lot. - -Mrs. Erickson drew a sigh from the sole of her stout shoes and moved -closer to Rebecca Mary, quite ready and willing to tell her what she -meant. - -"Well," she said in a whisper which blew a lock of Rebecca Mary's yellow -brown hair across her face, "as I understand it, Major Martingale -brought all these men down here to work on his experiment and locked us -up with them so he wouldn't be disturbed or interrupted and so he -wouldn't have any Germans nosing around. Wouldn't you think, then, that -he wouldn't want any Germans here? But last night her father," she -nodded to Joan, who was vainly trying to divide the dinner evenly among -the hungry chickens, "was over here talking to one of the mechanics, -George Weiss. He took him down behind the shed there and talked to him -in German. They didn't know I heard them, but I did. There isn't much -that goes on around Riverside that I don't hear something of. Erickson -said talking German don't mean anything but it does to me. Don't it to -you?" - -"Not much." Rebecca Mary helped herself to another tart. "My word, but -these are good, Mrs. Erickson. No, I don't think it means anything for -Mr. Befort to talk German. He was brought up practically in Germany." -And she told Mrs. Erickson of the Luxembourg town which was just across -the river from Rhenish Prussia. "He hates the Germans," she added, and -her white teeth closed over the crispy flaky tart. - -"He didn't sound as if he hated the Germans the way he was talking -German. Maybe you're right, Miss Wyman, you see more of him than I do, -but seems to me if I was trying to keep what I was doing from the -Germans I wouldn't have no Germans working with me. Major Martingale -oughta know his business, but I dunno----" She shook her head dolefully. -"And more than once, Miss Wyman," she went on in almost a whisper, "I've -seen Mr. Befort coming up from the river at sunrise. What's he doing -down there I'd like to know? Why ain't he in bed and asleep like the -rest of folks? Swimming may be excuse enough for you but it ain't for -me. I don't say he ain't what he says he is but I must say that under -the circumstances it's mighty queer. I said to George Weiss myself, -said I, 'You got a name that sounds like sauerkraut to me,' said I. -'What side was you on in the late war?' I said. And he looked at me and -laughed and said, 'Now Mrs. Erickson,' said he, 'you know very well that -I was one of Uncle Sam's boys. It wasn't my fault if I didn't get to -France. Maybe my name does have a German sound but the father what gave -it to me didn't stay in Germany. He brought it to America, and his boys -are a hundred per cent American,' he said. But, land, you dunno whether -to believe him or not. A man'll say 'most anything he wants to." And she -drew a second sigh from the sole of her thick shoe. - -Rebecca Mary should have gasped, but she didn't. She giggled. "You don't -look on the cheerful side of things, do you, Mrs. Erickson?" - -"Well, it ain't so easy to be cheerful when you know the world as it -really is. I've had some experience with these I. W. W. Bolsheviks, Miss -Wyman. Not here at Riverside. Land, no! Erickson keeps too good a watch -on things, and our men have been working here long enough to know which -side of their bread's buttered. But I got a brother up in North Dakota -and last summer his crops was set on fire and a new thrashing machine -ruined by putting nails and other truck into it. I dunno who I do -trust, Miss Wyman, but it ain't a man who talks enemy language and acts -what I can't understand. I don't blame the Major for being afraid of -I. W. W.'s and anarchists, but what I can't see is the way he trusts -some folks. My brother said the Germans was back of all the trouble in -North Dakota, and he's a truthful man if there is one. Do you know -anything about this great work we're doing here, Miss Wyman?" - -"Not a thing." Rebecca Mary looked a trifle puzzled. She was a trifle -dazed, also, at the flood of words which had poured from Mrs. Erickson's -lips. - -"No more do I. And Erickson don't know anything or I'd know. More'n -once I've slipped down beside that shop hoping to pick up a word, but -they don't use language I can understand, and what they're working on -don't look like nothing to me through the window. I don't dare go very -close for if the old Major'd see me he'd be sure to give me a piece of -his mind. He's got a harsh tongue when things don't go his way. I -declare, Miss Wyman, when I got so much to worry me I almost wish Mr. -Cabot hadn't been so free with Riverside. I hope he don't find himself -wishing that, too." But she smacked her lips and there was a greedy look -in her eyes which flatly contradicted her words. Rebecca Mary jumped to -her feet and brushed the crumbs of crispy flaky tart from her fingers. -"It's easy to make mountains out of mole hills, Mrs. Erickson," she said -quickly. "But it's rather a waste of time. Major Martingale knows what -he is doing. He isn't blind nor deaf. Come, Joan. Haven't you finished -yet? We'll be late for our own dinner if you don't hurry." - -"I've just finished." Joan held up the empty pan and spoon. "It's such -fun, Miss Wyman. Isn't it kind of Mrs. Erickson to let me feed them? But -I do think she should teach them better manners. That big white rooster -wants to eat it all. If I hadn't driven him away the weeny little ones -wouldn't have had a bite." - -Mrs. Erickson snorted. "The big white rooster is just like some folks," -she told Joan. "And if you can teach him table manners, Miss Joan, -you're welcome to the job. I've got enough on my hands without showing -roosters how to be polite." - -"Isn't she a funny woman, Miss Wyman?" Joan asked when they had closed -the farmhouse gate behind them. "She is always asking me about daddy. -Every day she asks me if he is an American citizen or if he isn't. And -when I asked daddy he said he couldn't be an American citizen because -he isn't through with being another kind of a citizen yet." - -"He's a Luxembourger, you know, Joan. Why didn't you tell Mrs. Erickson -that?" - -"I did, and she just sniffed and said she never heard of such a country. -She sniffs awfully funny, Miss Wyman, but she's kind, too. She gave me a -doughnut and a piece of cheese as well as a gooseberry tart. She said -they'd probably make me sick but I could eat them if I wanted to. And I -wanted to, and I wasn't sick. She makes awfully good doughnuts. I think -she must be a good cook. The chickens liked their dinner awfully much." - -"Positive proof that Mrs. Erickson is the perfect cook. None but the -best would do for a flock of hungry chickens. Joan, I'll race you to the -house. Wait a minute. Now, one--two--three--Go!" - -And they were off, down the driveway, by the lilac bushes to the old oak -where Peter and Wallie, on their way from the shop, stretched a barrier -across the walk. - -"You must be in a hurry," grinned Peter. "Hold on and we'll ride with -you, but you must have some regard to the speed limit." - -"Tired?" They did look hot and tired. "It must be horrid to spend a -perfectly gorgeous day like this in a stuffy shop with a gasoline -engine that says nothing but puff-puff. Aren't you almost through?" - -"We'll never be through," moaned Wallie. "I expect the Major will keep -us here on the job until we are gray and tottering. You'll be a dear -little old lady then, Miss Wyman." - -"Silly!" Rebecca Mary tilted her nose. "But, honest, won't you be -through soon? Granny and I have been perfect saints. We haven't made any -fuss at all, but we can't stay here forever. Of course, I don't know -anything about your great experiment----" - -"It is great, all right!" interrupted Peter. "The more we work at it the -more sure I am of that. I don't wonder old Germany moved heaven and -earth to get hold of it." - -When Peter spoke of Germany Rebecca Mary remembered Mrs. Erickson's -gloomy fears and she asked impulsively; "Has Germany given up trying to -get your wonderful secret?" - -The two men stared at her in surprise. - -"Don't you know that's why the Major brought the whole works down here?" -Peter asked. "In Waloo the Huns made trouble more than once, through the -mechanics, you know, regular bolshevik work. You'd never believe how -sly they were. That's why Joshua Cabot turned this place over to the -Major, and why the rule was made to bar people, and why you are here to -shed light on our dark way. The Major isn't taking any chances of having -anything stolen from him nor of any dirty sabotage, either, you may -believe me. Every man here had to pass a pretty rigid examination that -went back to his father and his grandfather." - -"Every man?" Rebecca Mary could not help but put a little dash of -significance into those two words. - -"Every one," Peter told her stoutly. "It is only the women who got in -without. When I drove you in here I hadn't any idea how necessary -secrecy was. You should have heard the wigging the Major gave me. -Perhaps you have been bored but you've been a life-preserver just the -same, hasn't she, Wallie?" - -"Sure thing!" Wallie gave a strong and hearty indorsement to Peter's -statement that Rebecca Mary had been a life-preserver. "I wish we could -tell you more about this work, Miss Wyman, you'd be interested, but -we're on oath, you know. You'll just have to trust us and wait." - -"M-m," murmured Rebecca Mary. It is so much easier to ask for trust and -patience than it is to furnish it. "You are sure you can trust your -men?" - -"Why not?" Peter's voice was sharp and quick. "Why not, Rebecca Mary? -What do you mean?" - -Rebecca Mary laughed uneasily. "I don't suppose it is anything but----" -And she told them what Mrs. Erickson had told her, that Frederick Befort -and George Weiss had been heard talking German behind the Erickson -woodshed, and Mrs. Erickson feared the worst. - -"Just like a woman," jeered Peter. "You take my word for it, Rebecca -Mary. I guess I know as much about it as old Mother Erickson. Befort is -all right. So is George Weiss. I suppose if I were to go back of the -chicken run and murmur 'hickory dickory dock' Mrs. Erickson would swear -I was a red Russian. You just keep your hair on, Rebecca Mary, and -listen to me. Some day you'll know that I'm right, won't she, Wallie?" - -"Sure thing," Wallie said again. "We didn't run any chance of a leak, -Miss Wyman. Believe me, we have picked men." - -Rebecca Mary looked from Wallie to Peter. They nodded to her as if to -emphasize what they had told her. Surely they must know more than Mrs. -Erickson, who had only been able to peek through the shop window. Mrs. -Erickson had told her that she always looked on the dark side of things -and naturally she had hunted for a dark side to the great experiment. It -was foolish for Rebecca Mary to look at the dark side when Peter and -Wallie were insisting that there was such a bright and sunny side. - -"Mrs. Erickson makes awful good gooseberry tarts and doughnuts," Peter -said gently. "But she hasn't much of a record as a detective." - -"I didn't really think she had. I'm not a complete idiot," Rebecca Mary -exclaimed with considerable scorn. "But I thought it was only right to -tell you what I heard. Of course, I know that Major Martingale didn't -take any chances. Germany couldn't get a clue now to what you are -doing." - -"Huh," grunted Peter. "I wouldn't go quite as far as that. I think -Germany will still make a try, don't you, Wallie?" - -"I do, but don't let's talk about Germany as if the war was still on; -let's guess what Ben is going to give us for dinner. I'm so hungry I -could eat you, Miss Wyman. You'd better not come near me garnished with -any bunch of mint." - -"Silly!" Rebecca Mary's nose was elevated disdainfully. "Well, you can't -say I have any secrets from you. And Ben is going to give you roast -beef for your dinner, Mr. Marshall. I heard him tell Joan." - -"Trust the kid to find out. I rather thought we might have lamb." And -Wallie grinned impudently. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - - -The days flew by as days will fly whether they are bright with diamonds -or veiled in gray. Granny became rested, Joan was spoiled, and even -Rebecca Mary began to feel the effect of too much attention. There had -been a time when Rebecca Mary had thought that it would be perfect bliss -to have just one man devoted to her, but now that she had four she found -that she never had a minute to herself. Whether she wanted to or not she -had to play tennis with Wallie Marshall, walk with George Barton, ride -the farmhorses with Peter Simmons, recite French verbs to Frederick -Befort or play accompaniments for Major Martingale, who still liked to -hear the young people sing the old war songs. And you know how it is -yourself if you have just had a generous portion of plum pudding you -don't care to see another plum pudding no matter how holly wreathed it -is. In spite of all the admiration and attention which were falling on -Rebecca Mary like an April shower she was not satisfied; she was -conscious of a vague longing for something, she didn't know what, for -she did not analyze the faint discontent which annoyed her. She only -knew that she wanted something which she did not have and she told -herself that she was an ungrateful beast to ask more of her talisman -when already the clover leaf had given her so much. - -It was the same way with Granny, who had looked on Riverside when she -arrived as a haven of rest, but she soon was as surfeited with rest as -Rebecca Mary was with admiration. Granny had so little to occupy her -mind that she just had to think of old Peter Simmons, to wonder uneasily -what he was doing, to ask herself if he were thinking of her instead of -his factory, if he had received her letter, and a thousand other things -all of which had old Peter Simmons for their subject. Twice Major -Martingale found her with her hand on the door of the room which he used -as an office and which held the only telephone at Riverside and to which -he alone had the key. - -"Do you wish to leave any message with me?" he asked each time. - -"If I said what I wanted to say I expect the message would be left with -you," Granny said sadly. "You never would send it on. How much longer -will it be before we may leave, Major Martingale?" - -"You know as much about it as I do." Major Martingale was discouraged -just then and was sadly in need of a word of encouragement. - -But Granny hadn't enough encouragement for herself; she couldn't spare a -word for any man. "The twenty-second is a week from yesterday," she said -significantly. "I told you, you know, that we wouldn't stay a minute -after the twentieth," she added in case he had missed the significance. - -"I hope none of us will have to stay later than the twentieth, but you -should have thought of that before you came." - -"Came!" Granny was indignant. "I didn't come!" - -"Well, I didn't bring you!" He was too exasperated to remember the -courtesy which is ever due a lady. - -"A perfect bear, my dear," Granny told Rebecca Mary five minutes later. -"If he has his way we'll be here for Thanksgiving," she prophesied -gloomily. - -Rebecca Mary sat up on the _chaise longue_ where she had hidden herself -for a quiet half hour and stared at her. "Thanksgiving! We can't stay -that long. Why, school begins the first of September!" The beginning of -school was an event so large in the life of Rebecca Mary that everything -should give away to it. Everything always had. - -"Major Martingale wouldn't care for that. It isn't our wishes nor our -convenience he is thinking of. If we could do anything to help him I -shouldn't say a word. If we even knew anything about this wonderful -experiment it would be different, but we might as well be in New York or -Bombay for all we know of what is going on in that shop. We couldn't -tell anything intelligent enough for even a German to understand. I'm -beginning to feel that the whole thing is nonsense, Rebecca Mary, and so -I don't think that we have to stay. And I'm worried for fear Edith won't -order things the way I want them for my golden wedding. I never meant to -stay away so long. I'm sorry we ever started for Seven Pines. But we can -go back. We'll run away from here." - -"But how can we run away from Riverside?" It didn't sound as easy to -Rebecca Mary as it had to Granny. - -"I'll find a way." Granny was not to be daunted. "I'll have to. I'm tired -being a prisoner." - -"So am I." Joan dropped her doll and came to tell them that she, too, -was ready to leave Riverside. "I'd like to go somewhere else." - -"I'm sorry now," went on Granny, "that I didn't stay at home and let -old Peter Simmons ask his tormenting question and take the -consequences." - -"I'm not!" Indeed, Rebecca Mary wasn't. She had made far too many -payments on her memory insurance policy ever to regret the past few -weeks. "You see, we've helped here," she explained when Granny and Joan -had cried, "You're not!" "The boys say we've been an inspiration to -them, that they have worked a lot better because we were here to cheer -them up." - -"They would have worked a lot faster if we hadn't been here." There was -a dry tone to Granny's soft voice which sent the ready color into -Rebecca Mary's cheeks. "I've no doubt Joan and I have furnished lots of -inspiration. It is pleasant to think so, isn't it, Joan?" - -Joan looked doubtful. "Is it the same as being a nuisance? Mrs. Erickson -said we were all nuisances, but I was the biggest. But she never said we -were inspirations." - -"Let her complain to Major Martingale. Is that only two o'clock?" as the -old clock called to them from the hall. "How many hours are there left -until bedtime?" There was no doubt that Granny was losing patience. - -It was a warm sultry day, the sort of a July day which tries the -disposition in normal conditions, and by evening every one was more or -less on edge. It showed in the increased politeness with which they -spoke and in the silence which fell over them as they sat on the terrace -under the stars and tried to think that there was a breeze blowing up -from the river. Joan had gone to bed most reluctantly, and her father -was sitting beside Rebecca Mary on the broad balustrade. Peter sat on -the other side so that they made a sandwich of her. And in front of her -lounged Wallie in a steamer chair reciting nonsense rhymes to which she -scarcely listened, and not a yard from Wallie was George Barton singing -sentimental verses under his breath as he touched the strings of a -ukelele. - -Not so many days had passed since Rebecca Mary would have thought that -it would be heaven for a girl to sit on the terrace balustrade of a -beautiful old country place with a Luxembourg count on one side of her -and a _croix de guerre_ man on the other while two very likable young -men were in front of her, but now she was only vaguely conscious that -they were not what she wanted at all. She didn't want any more plum -pudding. She wished irritably that they wouldn't sit so close to her. -She wanted all the air she could get. And her wandering thoughts led -her back to where she would be if she were not at Riverside and that -brought her to Cousin Susan and the mysterious talisman and to--Richard -Cabot. When her thoughts reached Richard they loitered there with a -strange little feeling of satisfaction. She knew that Richard would -never have let her remain so uncomfortable on a hot July night. Richard -would have taken her for a swift ride in his big car to some cool place -where ice tinkled in tall glasses. Rebecca Mary was not exactly fair for -it was not the fault of Peter nor Wallie nor George nor even Frederick -Befort that she was not flying over the country road with them. But -Rebecca Mary did not want to be fair. She just wished that Richard were -there--she wished---- - -She startled Peter and Frederick Befort and offended Wallie and George -by jumping to her feet in the middle of Wallie's funniest poem and the -most sentimental of George's songs. But before she could utter a word of -explanation or apology there came the sound of voices and another sound, -sharp and clear like a trumpet. It woke Granny, who was half asleep in -her chair. - -"God bless my soul!" she exclaimed, and she sat up with a bewildered, -almost a frightened, expression on her face. "No one blows his nose -like that but old Peter Simmons. He must have come for me. Run, Peter!" -She was in a panic. "And tell him to stay in the road. Major Martingale -will lock him up if he comes in." - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - - -Before the appearance of old Peter Simmons proved the truth of what had -sent Granny into a panic, that the sonorous trumpet was a part of him, -Granny had disappeared. - -"Where's your grandmother?" old Peter demanded of young Peter at once, -but young Peter couldn't tell him. - -And when Rebecca Mary went in search of Granny she had to come back -alone for her knock on Granny's door brought no answer. There was not a -sound from Granny's room. - -"Perhaps she is asleep," Rebecca Mary suggested, but she stammered for -she was quite sure Granny was not asleep. Why, it was not five minutes -since she had been on the terrace. - -Old Peter Simmons looked at her from under the grizzled eyebrows which -he drew together in a frown so deep that Rebecca Mary almost thought he -was going to dash up the stairs and make Granny open the door. - -"H-m," he said slowly, "I hope she is asleep. She has had a hard time -the last few years; all women have. I'm glad she had sense enough to -come here away from people and things and get a little rest. We must -humor her." He looked at wide-eyed Rebecca Mary for a second and then -turned to young Peter. "If your grandmother has gone to bed we might as -well get to work at once. I want to see just what you men have done. -We'll go right out to the shop. Martingale is already there. Take good -care of my wife!" He stopped in front of Rebecca Mary and spoke in the -tone of a man who was obeyed. - -"Yes, sir, I shall," stuttered bewildered Rebecca Mary as she stared -from him to young Peter and back again to him. Young Peter Simmons had -exactly the same forehead, the same bright blue eyes, the same, oh, the -very same square jaw. Rebecca Mary was positive as she looked from him -to his grandfather that when young Peter had been married fifty years -less a few days he would look exactly like old Peter Simmons, and -probably be exactly like old Peter Simmons, too. Rebecca Mary caught a -startled, a frightened, breath. She was glad to remember that there had -been a twinkle in old Peter Simmons' eye when he had asked for Granny. -She went slowly up the stairs and Joan, like a small ghost in her white -nightie, met her in the hall. - -"Who is it?" she asked eagerly. "Is it Santa Claus or Uncle Sam? Granny -won't tell me. I asked her through the keyhole, but she never said a -word. I looked out of the window and I could see a man as tall as Uncle -Sam but he didn't wear Uncle Sam's pretty striped clothes. He was as big -around as Santa Claus but he didn't have Santa Claus' bushy whiskers. I -should think, Miss Wyman, dear, you would tell me who he is?" she -finished fretfully. - -"I shan't tell you anything unless you are in bed before I count ten," -Rebecca Mary said sternly. - -But when Joan was in bed before Rebecca Mary had counted six she looked -so small and helpless that Rebecca Mary was ashamed of her impatience -and told her quickly that it was not Uncle Sam nor yet Santa Claus who -had arrived with such a flourish of trumpets, but old Mr. Simmons, -Granny's husband and young Peter's grandfather. - -"Shut your eyes, Joan, and go to sleep or it will be morning before you -know it." - -"Oh!" Joan had seldom been more disappointed. "I don't think that's very -interesting, do you? Perhaps it is to Granny," she added with tardy -politeness, "but it isn't to me. I'll shut my eyes, Miss Wyman, but I -can't seem to shut my mind to-night, and so I can't go to sleep. I have -to think of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus and the big Mr. Simmons. It won't -be my fault if it is morning before I know it!" she wailed. - -Altogether it took some time as well as two songs before Joan could shut -her mind as well as her eyes. Rebecca Mary straightened the counterpane -and looked at the flushed little face on the pillow. When she was asleep -Joan looked like an angel. Rebecca Mary could scarcely believe that she -would ever be as irritating as a mosquito as she patted the black head -before she went to her own room. - -She crossed to the window and looked down on the garden. A dull -puff-puff, the foolish chatter of a gasoline engine, was the only sound -which broke the fragrant silence, and Rebecca Mary knew that it came -from the shop where old Peter Simmons was being shown what had been -done. Now that she had time to think of it, Rebecca Mary could not -understand how old Peter Simmons could come trumpeting into Riverside -when no one was allowed to enter Riverside. It was shut off from the -world and protected by a guard. But old Peter Simmons had managed to -pass the guard, and he had come as a general in command. Was that -because he was the head of a large manufacturing plant or was it -because--because---- It couldn't be possible that old Peter Simmons was -the Big Boss of whom the men spoke with such respect! But if he wasn't -the Big Boss why had the men treated him so deferentially and taken him -at once to the forbidden shop? And he had not been at all surprised to -hear that Granny was at Riverside. He had asked for her at once. Rebecca -Mary had to giggle as she stood there in the fragrant silence and -thought what it meant if old Peter Simmons really was the Big Boss of -the Riverside experiment. - -She was interrupted in the very middle of another giggle for the door -into Granny's room opened suddenly and there stood Granny, a much -perplexed but determined Granny. She wore her hat and motor coat and -carried a bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other. Rebecca Mary -wondered where she had found the umbrella and why she carried it as she -stared at her. - -"Aren't you ready, Rebecca Mary?" asked Granny in a stage whisper. - -"Ready for what?" Rebecca Mary had to laugh even though Granny did wear -such a perplexed face for she had to remember that other night when -Granny had come to her in her hat and motor coat. - -Granny frowned. "I told you this morning that we would not stay here any -longer. And now that old Peter Simmons has come I simply must leave at -once. You have no idea, Rebecca Mary, what a tease that man can be. He -never would let me forget that I started for Seven Pines and landed a -prisoner at Riverside. If you had been teased for almost fifty years by -a man like old Peter Simmons you'd understand how I feel. And he would -be sure to ask me what I wanted for my golden wedding present. I've told -you how I feel about that question. If I should hear it again I should -scream. What is old Peter Simmons here for anyway? I didn't ask him to -come for me. I never told him I was here. There must have been a leak, -just what Major Martingale was afraid of." - -But when Rebecca Mary told Granny her suspicions Granny looked at her in -horrified surprise before she nodded her gray head. "I believe you are -right," she said slowly. "That explains a lot of things I haven't been -able to understand. No wonder young Peter was so sure he could get a -letter to his grandfather. But that makes it just impossible for me to -stay another minute, Rebecca Mary. Imagine what old Peter will say when -he hears that I ran away from him only to run right to him. I haven't -the nerves I used to have. The situation is too ridiculous. Come, we'll -just slip away." - -"I'm afraid they will hear me take the car out." Rebecca Mary did not -think it would be as easy to slip away as Granny evidently did. - -"We won't take the car. We each have two feet. We can climb the fence -and once in the road some one is sure to pick us up. I declare I don't -see why we didn't go before. If I had known that old Peter Simmons was -the Big Boss I shouldn't have stayed a minute. We'll go--anywhere!" -Granny flung out her hands, the umbrella and the bag, too, as if she -didn't care a picayune where they went so long as they left Riverside. -"If we stay here old Peter Simmons will be sure to talk to me. He's so -resourceful and determined, and he does have such a way with him. I -don't know why I feel like this, Rebecca Mary!" Her revolt was such a -surprise to her that she had to speak of it whenever the golden wedding -was mentioned. "I suppose this is just the last straw. I've been patient -with old Peter Simmons for almost fifty years, but I can't be patient -over my golden wedding present. And I can't be teased, so we must run -away again." - -"Poor little Granny!" Rebecca Mary slipped an arm around her and hugged -her. Even if she wasn't perfectly contented at Riverside, Rebecca Mary -wasn't sure that she wanted to run away again. She had heard that a bird -in the hand is worth a lot more than one in the bush. If she ran away -with Granny she would leave behind her young Peter and Wallie and George -and--and Count Ernach de Befort. She might never see one of them again. - -Then she straightened her spine and her eyes flashed. If she didn't see -them again it would be because they didn't care to see her. They could -find her if they really wished to find her. They had been wonderful to -her, and it had been splendid to be a popular girl, but perhaps they had -given her so much devotion and so much attention just because she was -the only girl at Riverside. She had spent a great many minutes wondering -which of them she liked the best. It might be as interesting to learn -which of them liked her the best, to prove if there was anything in the -admiration they had expressed so freely. Which would find her first? -Yes, she would run away with Granny and put them to the test, she -decided just as Granny caught her arm between her fingers and her -umbrella and shook her. - -"Come, come, Rebecca Mary! Wake up. We must slip away before the men -come back from the shop." - -"Joan!" exclaimed Rebecca Mary, hesitating, although she had made up her -mind. - -"We'll leave Joan with her father. That is where a child should be, with -her parents. Come, Rebecca Mary, or I'll go alone." And she crossed the -room alone. - -Rebecca Mary did not feel exactly comfortable to leave Joan with her -father although she knew that Granny was right when she said a child -belonged with her parents, but she ran after Granny and took the bag -from her. She couldn't let Granny run away alone. - -The lights were out in the hall, and they felt their way down the -stairs. There was something fearsome in the slow descent for Granny's -hand gripped her hard, and Granny's breath came in short quick gasps. -There was no doubt in Rebecca Mary's mind that Granny really did not -want to be teased by old Peter Simmons. - -The front door stood wide open so that the moonlight made a bright -splash between the dark walls. Rebecca Mary and Granny reached the -threshold in safety. It only remained to dash across the lawn, climb -the fence and turn up their noses at the authority of fat Major -Martingale who had said no one could leave Riverside. The shrubbery -would conceal them for more than half the way. Granny's hand relaxed, -and she stopped breathing like a spent porpoise. - -"I do believe we'll make it," she whispered excitedly. - -And then she gave a little scream, for out of the shadow made by a white -lilac emerged a short fat figure, and a curt voice asked them where they -were going. - -"Oh, Major Martingale!" Granny's voice quavered. "I thought you were at -the shop with the other men. Whoever would have expected to meet you -here!" - -"Evidently you didn't." The Major was all grim suspicion. "May I ask -where you are going?" - -Granny pinched Rebecca Mary's arm. "It was so warm upstairs that we came -down for a breath of air," she explained with a little sniff of -defiance, as though she dared him to object to their desire for air. - -"I'm glad you put on your hats and brought your baggage," remarked the -Major coldly, and he glanced significantly at the umbrella and the bag. -"Night air is so deceptive, you can't tell when you will need an -umbrella." He looked at the cloudless sky. "Or extra clothing." He wiped -the perspiration from his hot forehead. - -"Yes, isn't it!" Granny emulated Moses and was as meek as meek, butter -would not have melted in her mouth just then. "Come, Rebecca Mary. -Good-night, Major Martingale." And with Rebecca Mary's hand in hers she -turned to the terrace as if she really had come down all hatted and -coated for a walk in the moonlight. - -"If it is so warm upstairs I shan't go to bed yet." Major Martingale -fell in at her other hand. "I'll walk with you." - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - - -Granny woke in the morning with a headache. Rebecca Mary found her with -heavy eyes and flushed cheeks when she went in to see if she would get -up for breakfast. - -"I have such a headache," Granny moaned piteously. - -"Poor dear!" Rebecca Mary put her fresh cool hand against Granny's hot -old face. "Then you should stay in bed. You mustn't get up for -breakfast." - -"I shan't." Granny was a model of obedience. "I couldn't," she said with -another moan. "I shan't be any good all day. I always have to stay in -bed when I have one of these attacks, and I just want to be left alone. -I don't want to see any one! You can tell old Peter Simmons that it was -worrying over my golden wedding present that gave me this headache. That -should make him ashamed of himself. No, I don't want a thing but to be -left alone." - -But Rebecca Mary shook up her pillows and smoothed her bed and pulled -down the shades and kissed her hot forehead, and said it was a horrid -shame that she was ill, and she hoped that Granny would be better soon, -and she certainly should tell old Peter Simmons what Granny had said. -Then she tiptoed out and shut the door very softly behind her. - -Old Peter Simmons was very sorry to hear that Granny was ill, and he -thought she was very sensible to stay in bed until she was better; he -knew those headaches and there was nothing for them but quiet and rest, -but as for the golden wedding present---- - -"That's nonsense, perfect nonsense!" he declared stoutly. "Can't she -trust me?" - -Rebecca Mary slowly shook her head. "I think she feels that she has -trusted you and now she isn't sure she can trust herself," she ventured -demurely. It was rather fun for Rebecca Mary to stand before the great -Peter Simmons and find fault with him. - -"And my past is against me." Old Peter Simmons admitted it ruefully. "I -don't know why it is so confoundedly hard to remember some things. You -women! Can't you learn that an anniversary or a holiday is just a day, -just one of the three hundred and sixty-five which make up a year?" - -"Anniversaries and holidays are the decorations of the year," Rebecca -Mary told him quickly. He should have known that without being told. No -one had ever had to tell her. - -Old Peter Simmons looked at her from under his shaggy eyebrows. "You are -all alike, you women," he grumbled. "And I guess men are pretty much -alike, too. Decoration doesn't mean as much to us. But my wife might -remember that I've had a good deal on my mind the last few years. She -has, too," he admitted honestly. "Peter will never know how many nights -his grandmother lay awake worrying about him. She did too much, all that -Red Cross work during the war and all the refugee work after the war. -And now she's worrying over this golden wedding of hers." He spoke as if -the golden wedding belonged exclusively to Granny. "She should be home -where she could look after it herself. She shouldn't be here." - -"She can't help that!" Rebecca Mary was indignant that old Peter Simmons -should blame Granny for what wasn't her fault. "She didn't want to -stay." - -"You made the rule yourself," stammered Major Martingale, who was -waiting fussily to carry old Peter Simmons away. Major Martingale was -indignant, also. "When we had so much trouble with the labor agitators -you said no one was to leave Riverside. Absolutely no one, you said!" He -bristled like an angry turkey cock. - -"Sure, I made the rule," admitted old Peter Simmons. "I made it for you -and the boys and the mechanics. But I didn't make it for my wife and her -friends." - -"How did I know you hadn't sent her?" began the Major bitterly, but old -Peter Simmons wouldn't let him finish. - -"Why should I send a woman, two women, to a place I had chosen for an -important experiment which I wanted to work out in secret? That's -nonsense, Major! At the same time I believe that it has done Mrs. -Simmons good to be here. I'm glad you did keep her. There hasn't been -anything for her to do so she has been able to get some rest. It hasn't -been bad for you, either, young lady." And he nodded his grizzled head -approvingly as he looked at rosy cheeked Rebecca Mary. - -"Women," muttered the Major in a dark dank way, "are always interfering. -They do their best to ruin things for a man." - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary looked at old Peter Simmons for help. - -He gave it to her at once. "My experience, Major Martingale," he said -slowly, "is that women help men more than they hinder them. I've had -fifty years to prove a decision I made on my wedding day, that a woman -perfects a man's life, and I know that I'm correct. Yes, I'll be right -out," as the Major moved hastily and suggestively toward the door. -"Don't wait for me." - -"If you feel that way," Rebecca Mary said impulsively, "why do you tease -Granny?" She was rather scared when she had put the question, but she -looked at him as if she were not scared at all. - -Old Peter Simmons seemed nonplussed for a moment. "On my soul, I don't -know. Mrs. Simmons used to like me to tease her, and so I kept on. But -I'm afraid she doesn't care for it as much as she did," he admitted -ruefully. - -"Indeed, she doesn't!" Rebecca Mary wondered why on earth he kept on -teasing Granny when he knew Granny didn't like to be teased. Rebecca -Mary was beginning to feel sorry for old Peter Simmons, although she did -think that even the head of a big manufacturing plant should have room -in his mind for anniversaries and holidays. His mind shouldn't be filled -entirely with contracts. - -"Does she honestly expect me to remember that golden wedding present?" -The twinkle was more pronounced than ever in old Peter Simmons' blue -eyes. "Can't you give me a clue?" he begged with a chuckle, but Rebecca -Mary couldn't. She hadn't any idea herself what it was that Granny -Simmons and her husband had talked about so many times. Granny Simmons -had never told her. - -So old Peter Simmons had to go away muttering that women were the -dickens, the very dickens. That was exactly what they were. How was he -to know what one of them wanted for a golden wedding present? And even -if his wife had told him what she wanted, if they had talked it over -hundreds of times together, how could he be sure that she would want it -on the golden wedding day? Women changed their minds once a minute. A -man was never sure of them. But his eyes twinkled as he grumbled, and -Rebecca Mary's eyes twinkled, too. There was no doubt that old Peter -Simmons was the greatest kind of a tease. Granny had described him -perfectly. - -They were in the big parlor where the old portrait of Richard Cabot's -great-grandmother hung. Rebecca Mary never thought of that portrait as -Joshua Cabot's great-grandmother, but always as Richard's -great-grandmother. And when old Peter Simmons went grumbling and -twinkling away, Rebecca Mary looked up at the portrait. - -"I wonder if your husband gave you what you wanted on holidays and -anniversaries?" she asked impulsively. "And do you think your -great-grandson will remember his golden wedding without being reminded?" - -"I don't know what it is, but I'm sure this great-grandson will make a -desperate effort to remember anything you want him to remember," -exclaimed a voice behind her. - -Like a red and yellow wooden top, Rebecca Mary swung around and -saw--would wonders ever cease?--Richard Cabot, himself. It was not the -Richard Cabot she had seen in Waloo for that Richard had always looked -as if he had just stepped from a brand new bandbox and this Richard -didn't look as if he had ever seen a bandbox. His hair was too rumpled -and his clothes too crumpled. Rebecca Mary stared at him, her eyes and -mouth big round O's of astonishment. Her heart suddenly climbed into her -throat and promised to choke her as he crossed the room with quick eager -steps. - -"Aren't you going to say that you are glad to see me?" He took the hand -she was far too surprised to offer him. - -"Where did you come from?" She didn't seem able to find her every-day -voice and had to use her Sunday one, which shook a little. "Are you a -prisoner, too?" Rebecca Mary hoped that he was. Although there were four -men at Riverside all devoted to her, you see she was not satisfied. She -wanted a fifth, even if this fifth man did make her heart beat so -uncomfortably. "There is a very jolly crowd of prisoners here," she -added encouragingly. "I'm sure you will like them." - -Richard looked from her sunburnt fingers to her face, which was a most -adorable pink, and knew that he had not been mistaken--she was just what -he had thought she was. - -"If I had known you were here I should have come long ago," he said -quite as if he could come and go as he pleased. Evidently he had not met -stern Major Martingale. "How could you run away without leaving a word -for me?" he went on reproachfully. "I tried to make old Pierson tell me -where you were, but all she would say was that Granny had taken you on a -motor trip. I thought that meant Seven Pines and called up the house -only to be told by Mrs. Swenson that for the first time in seven years -old Mrs. Simmons had disappointed her. She had promised to come to -Otillie's wedding and the wedding was on and Mrs. Simmons hadn't come. -Mrs. Swenson didn't know whether to be mad or worried. And I was in the -same boat. I wrote to Mifflin, and when I didn't hear a word from you I -thought that perhaps you had decided that you didn't like bankers. I -sure was sore!" He laughed softly as if now, with Rebecca Mary's hand -still in his, it was rather amusing to remember how sore he had been. - -Guilty consciousness was plainly written on Rebecca Mary's pink and -white forehead. "It wasn't my fault." She made the best defense she -could. "I didn't have a minute in which to send any one word. And since -we have been here we couldn't send words. You must remember that I have -been a prisoner." And she laughed as if it were the greatest fun in the -world to be a prisoner. - -"A prisoner in my great-grandmother's old home," smiled Richard, who had -not been half as surprised to see her as Rebecca Mary had expected him -to be. Indeed, he had not seemed surprised at all. "How do you like my -great-grandmother?" he asked in a whisper as if he did not wish his -great-grandmother to hear Rebecca Mary's answer. - -"We're the greatest friends," she whispered back. "And I like your -great-grandfather's old house enormously, but I don't quite like to be -a prisoner." - -"You'll be given your freedom soon," promised Richard, quite as if he -knew all about her case. "Things are moving right along out there." He -nodded in the direction of the shop. "I shouldn't be surprised if you -were released very soon now." - -"Are you interested in this mysterious experiment, too? Granny and I are -dying to know about it for all that we are sure of is that an aviator, a -chemical engineer and an electrical engineer and a United States Army -officer and a Luxembourg count are working on it with a lot of Waloo -mechanics. It is a very confusing combination. Major Martingale insists -that it is, oh, frightfully important and that Germany is reaching out -grabbing hands for it. He scowls like a pirate if we ask any questions -at all. At first we thought it must have something to do with -aëroplanes, on account of Peter, you know, and then we thought of a -wireless something, but when the Luxembourg count was tangled up with it -we stopped trying to imagine what it was. We hear the weirdest noises -and smell the weirdest smells but they don't tell us anything." She -smiled expectantly and waited for him to tell her all about the great -experiment, but when he never told her a word but just smiled at her -she crinkled her nose and went on more slowly: "And now if a banker is -added to the staff we shall be more hopelessly at sea than ever." - -His smile grew into a laugh. "The banker hasn't very much to do with it, -but Major Martingale is right. The thing is tremendously important. And -Germany does want to grab it. It would do a lot to reinstate her -commercially and she is still making every effort to get control of it. -That's why Major Martingale has been so cautious. He didn't want to run -any risk of a leak. Did you know that old Mr. Simmons is the Big Boss?" -Then Rebecca Mary had guessed right. She was sure she had, but she liked -to hear Richard tell her that she had. - -"He brought me down with him last night and old Martingale caught me as -soon as we passed the guard and carried me off to the shop. That is why -I didn't see you last night and why now I'm so suggestive of 'the -morning after.' But you haven't said yet that you were glad to see me," -he said suddenly, and he took Rebecca Mary's other hand. "It has seemed -a thundering long time since I saw you. Has it seemed long to you?" He -bent his tall head so that he could look into her eyes. - -But before Rebecca Mary could tell him whether the days since she had -seen him had dragged or whether they had exceeded the speed limit Major -Martingale's harsh voice was heard in the hall. - -"Cabot!" he bellowed. "Where are you?" - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - - -Rebecca Mary's nose was out of joint. The great experiment proved so -absorbing that at noon Ben carried sandwiches and milk to the shop, and -Frederick Befort was the only man who joined Rebecca Mary and Joan at -the big table in the dining room. Frederick Befort seemed in a strange -mood. At one moment he would be wildly excited and tell some extravagant -story which made the two girls laugh heartily, and the next minute he -would frown at his plate or jump up and go to the window which -overlooked the path which led to the shop. - -"Those may be Luxembourg manners," Rebecca Mary thought disapprovingly. -"But why isn't he at the shop with the others?" - -"If Granny Simmons were here she'd say you had the fidgets," remarked -Joan precociously. "She always tells me that I have the fidgets when I -can't sit still." - -"It is a day to make a man have the fidgets," and her father stopped on -his way back from the window to pat her cheek. "You will never know, -_mignonne_, what this day means to your father." - -"You could tell me?" hinted Joan. - -But he only laughed and patted her cheek again before he went back to -his place. Rebecca Mary looked at him curiously. What a strange man he -was, not a bit like an American, like young Peter or--or Richard. She -wasn't sure she understood him, he was so strange. But she really didn't -bother very much about Frederick Befort then for she, too, was in a -strange mood. She wanted to be by herself and think. She scarcely knew -of what she wanted to think but she was conscious of a little glow of -content. Perhaps if she went down by the river bank she could discover -why she felt so contented and happy when she had been so restless and -unreasonable. She was glad to hear Frederick Befort promise to play ball -with Joan although she wondered again why he did not go to the shop, but -that was his business, not hers. - -She ran upstairs to find Granny asleep and with a sigh of relief she -crossed the terrace on her way to the river bank. But Joan called to her -from the tennis court and ran toward her. Rebecca Mary might have -ignored the childish hail once, but she couldn't do it now, and she -walked slowly toward the court. - -"Look what my father made for me!" Joan demanded breathlessly. She -always spoke of her father with an emphasis as if her father was made of -"sugar and spice and everything nice" while other fathers were -compounded of dust and water without a grain of seasoning. She held up -what was meant to be a ball, but it was made from an old glove stuffed -with--papers. Rebecca Mary could feel them crackle. The glove fingers -were wound around the palm to hold the papers firm. It really wasn't -much of a ball to any one but Joan, who capered proudly and almost -snatched it from Rebecca Mary as if she could not quite trust even her -with it. "My father made it for me," she repeated joyously. - -Her father laughed. "Miss Wyman does not think that was any great feat, -_ma petite_," he teased. "She does not think it is a very good ball." - -Miss Wyman was a true descendant of George Washington, and she horrified -Joan by confessing that Frederick Befort was right, and she had seen -better balls than the one he had made out of an old glove and some -scraps of paper. - -"What do you really think yourself?" She caught a tennis ball from the -court, where it lay neglected, and showed him what a ball could be. - -"But that's a ball from a store!" Joan saw the difference in a flash. -"And my father never made a ball before. He said so. This is the first -one he ever made, and he made it for me." - -"No one else would accept it." He pinched her cheek. "Now, Joan, you -must play by yourself. I must go to the shop, but I tell you again you -cannot throw this ball I made over the hedge. It is not like a store -ball." - -"If you wait I'll show you!" Joan was only too eager to show what she -could do, but he turned impatiently away. - -"This may be the greatest day of my life, Miss Wyman." He stopped in -front of her. "Will you be so very kind as to wish me luck?" He took the -hand which hung at her side and pressed it. - -She looked at him in surprise, and she was more surprised when she saw -the flush on his usually pale face. She wondered why this should be such -a great day, but as he did not tell her she did not ask but prettily -offered her best wishes. He pressed her hand again and went toward the -shop with long eager steps. Rebecca Mary looked after him curiously. She -shook her head. No, she didn't understand him at all, not even a little -bit. And because a closed box is always more fascinating than an open -one she would have continued to think of Frederick Befort if Joan would -have let her. But Joan was pulling her sleeve. - -"I'll show you, then, Miss Wyman. Shall I? Shall I show you that I can -throw my ball over the hedge?" She was on tiptoe to show Miss Wyman. - -Rebecca Mary looked at the only hedge near them, the arbor vitæ which -kept Riverside from spilling into the road, and shook her head. "You'll -lose it if you do. You can't go after it, you know." She reminded Joan -that she was a prisoner. - -"The guard will bring it to me if I ask him." Joan was not a bit afraid -that she would lose her ball even if Rebecca Mary did shake her head and -doubt whether the guard would leave his post by the gate to hunt among -the bushes which edged the road for a ball. She raised her arm to send -the ball flying over the hedge, but Rebecca Mary caught her hand. - -"I fear your father is not a very good ball maker, Joan. See, the -fingers have come unfastened. The stuffing is falling out." She took the -glove from Joan and tried to push the papers back into it. - -"The stuffing is my father's papers. He took them from his pocket," -Joan told her proudly. "Can you put them back?" - -"I'd better sew them in or they will be all over the place. Why----" she -broke off to stare at one of the scraps of papers which had fallen into -her hand. There were figures on it and a tiny drawing and a few German -words. How strange! She pulled a larger piece from the glove and after -she had smoothed it she found more German words. - -Like an express train dashing through a country station many things -dashed through Rebecca Mary's brain as she stood and looked at the bits -of paper. She remembered what Major Martingale had said about the great -experiment, how important it was and how Germany was trying to get -control of it to regain her old position in the commercial world. She -remembered that Frederick Befort had been named for one kaiser and had -been a friend of another kaiser, who had decorated him. She remembered -many things Joan had said about Germany and that the kaiser had called -her "_ein gutes Kind, Johanna_," and Joan's whisper that her father did -not wish her to speak of Germany now, he wanted her to forget Germany. -She remembered also that Frederick Befort had said he was from -Luxembourg where the Germans had had great influence and power, that he -had gone to school in Germany. And Mrs. Erickson had heard him talking -German to one of the mechanics behind the woodshed! - -Rebecca Mary had heard many a spy story during the war, and she shivered -as she looked at the bits of paper in her hand. Oh, it couldn't be -possible that Frederick Befort had come to the Simmons factory, that he -had come to Riverside to obtain possession of the secret of this great -experiment which was to do so much for the world. He couldn't be one of -the German secret agents which the newspapers had had so much to say -about during the war. It wasn't possible, and yet when she had added one -to one and then to two and three she could obtain but one answer. - -The work at Riverside was practically finished. Richard had told her so -that morning. Frederick Befort would have all the information he wanted -by now, and, of course, he would wish to get it to Germany as soon as -possible. That was why he had torn his papers and stuffed them into an -old glove which Joan was to throw over the hedge. If the guard saw it he -would think it was only a child's plaything. A confederate was hiding in -the bushes and would catch the ball when it was tossed out. The whole -plan had been skillfully thought out and was now as plain as print to -Rebecca Mary's horrified mind. - -Joan pulled her sleeve impatiently. "Can't you fix it? Let me take it -and throw it over the hedge as my father told me." She tried to take the -ball from Rebecca Mary. - -"No, no! Leave it alone, Joan, or you'll have the papers all over the -grass." She had to think like chain lightning. "I'll run in and sew it -up. Don't tell your father," she cautioned chokingly. "He wouldn't like -it if he knew that his ball came to pieces so soon." - -With the ball in her hand, and Joan trotting along beside her, she went -back to the house wondering what on earth she should do and how she -could get rid of Joan for a few minutes. Joan found the way herself when -she saw the farmhouse kitten asleep on the steps. - -"It has run away. I'd better take it right back or Mrs. Erickson will be -cross with me again. She said I was always taking her things and -forgetting to bring them back." - -"Yes, run over with the kitten." Rebecca Mary knew if Joan once ran over -she would stay for some time, long enough perhaps to forget about the -ball, for there were wonderful things to interest a child at the -farmhouse. - -Rebecca Mary shut the door of her room and turned the key before she -pulled the rest of the papers from the old glove. Oh, there was no doubt -about it! The papers were covered with drawings and German words. -Rebecca Mary groaned. What should she do? She put her hands over her -eyes to shut out the sight of those German words, but she could not shut -the thought of them from her brain. She felt nauseated. To think that a -man would use his little daughter as Frederick Befort had planned to use -Joan. It was despicable. She never wanted to see Frederick Befort again, -and she had liked him so much. Why, only this noon---- She began to -understand now his extravagant gayety at luncheon, he had thought his -work was done, and he had stayed with them to find a way for Joan to -give the information he had collected to his confederates. No one would -suspect Joan. And she had wished him luck! She groaned again. It was all -so very plain to her that she turned and hid her face against the back -of the chair. - -After a long, long time, five minutes perhaps, she rose suddenly and -with her lips pressed tight together went to the desk and found an -envelop in which she put the scraps of paper. She looked about for a -place to hide the package for it was too bulky to carry in her pocket. - -Where would be a good place? She opened the closet door. Across one end -were several drawers and above them were two shelves. On the top shelf -was a bandbox. Rebecca Mary climbed up to the bandbox and looked into -it. She took out a hat and turning it over, tucked her package inside -the lining. Then she replaced the hat and put the box on the shelf. She -stood in the doorway and gazed anxiously at the box. It looked as -innocent as a box could look. No one ever would imagine that it held a -secret. Rebecca Mary sighed as she shut the closet door. - -Then she took several sheets of Sallie Cabot's best note paper and drew -meaningless lines on them and wrote what might be taken at a careless -glance for German words, and tore the paper into scraps with which she -stuffed the old glove. She would let Joan toss it over the hedge so Joan -could tell her father. If Frederick Befort thought his plans had reached -his confederate he would do nothing more. He couldn't get away himself, -and Rebecca Mary would have a little time in which to think what she -should do. She must tell someone, not Major Martingale, he would be -merciless, but Peter, or, no--Richard! Richard would be the man for her -to tell. But, oh, how she did hate to tell any one. Suppose she should -speak to Frederick Befort himself, persuade him to promise to forget -everything that had happened at Riverside, to remain true to the oath he -had given Major Martingale? If she could do that--if she only could. - -She had liked Frederick Befort. He was so different from any man she had -ever met. He had fascinated her with his talk of courts and grand -duchesses and emperors, she thought now a little bitterly. There was an -air of mystery about him which would pique a girl's interest, but if the -mystery meant that he was a German secret agent she wouldn't be -interested another minute. She would only be horrified and disgusted. -Oh, what should she do? Never had a teacher in the third grade of the -Lincoln school been given such a problem to solve. If only she could -wake up and find that it was a dream she would be so happy to forget it -all. She shouldn't want to remember this when she was sixty, she told -herself drearily. - -But it wasn't a dream. The old glove on the desk told her it wasn't, -and she took it in her hand. "Well, Count Ernach de Befort," she said -under her breath, "I have spoiled your scheme for the present. If Joan -throws this to your confederate he will be puzzled what to make of it." - -Even as she spoke Joan pounded on the door. - -"Are you there, Miss Wyman? Have you mended the ball my father made me? -Can't you be quicker? I want to throw it over the hedge before my father -comes to dinner." - -And she did throw it over the hedge as she stood on the tennis court. It -was a good throw for a little girl, and Joan was jubilant as she ran -across the court and climbed up on the stone wall, behind the arbor vitæ -to see where the ball had fallen. Rebecca Mary ran too, although her -legs did feel too weak to carry her, and her heart was beating so fast. -She caught the toes of her white oxfords in a cranny of the wall and -lifted herself so that she might look. But although they both looked and -looked there was no ball to be seen on that stretch of the road. Down by -the gate the guard was leaning against the fence, but the guard was not -a ball, and they were looking for a ball. - -"It's gone!" Joan was surprised. "Some one must have taken it. Who do -you think it was, Miss Wyman, a fairy or an ogre?" - -"An ogre!" Rebecca Mary said fiercely. She felt so fierce that she was -faint. "A horrid black ogre. Oh, Joan! Why did you throw it?" she -wailed. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - - -Rebecca Mary's feet were as heavy as lead as she went back to the house, -and her heart was far heavier than her feet. Oh, Cousin Susan, Cousin -Susan, what a tangle you caught Rebecca Mary in when you persuaded her -to take out a memory insurance policy! - -It was later than she had thought, but the men had not come up from the -shop. Ben told her that they weren't coming, that he had just taken them -something to eat. He supposed that they would work all night again. - -Rebecca Mary looked at him blankly. She had thought that all she would -have to do would be to return to the house and call Richard aside and -slip her responsibility from her slim shoulders to his broad back. She -was so disappointed that she felt almost sick. What should she do? - -"Is Mr. Befort at the shop?" she asked Ben, trying her best to keep her -voice steady and her chin from trembling. - -"Yas'm, he's there with all the rest of 'em. They's gwine to make a -night ob it fo' suah. Will you gwine have yo' dinner now, Miss Wyman? -It's ready an' it won't be no better fer waitin'." - -Rebecca Mary was so relieved to hear that Frederick Befort was at the -shop that her chin stopped trembling. If Frederick Befort was with the -other men, with Richard and young Peter and old Peter, he wasn't trying -to get in touch with his confederates, and she could draw a long breath. -It didn't seem as if she had had a good breath since she had seen the -scraps of paper fall from the old glove. - -"Just a minute, Ben, until I run up and see if Mrs. Simmons feels well -enough to come down." - -"She don't," grumbled Ben. "Ah asted her an' she said Ah was ter brung -her up a tray. Folks seems to think Ah hain't got nothin' else ter do -but carry dinner here an' there an' yonder. Three in one night is more -than one nigger's job." - -"I know." Rebecca Mary was as sympathetic as she could be with her mind -full of something so much more important than dinner. "But perhaps it -won't happen again. You might serve Mrs. Simmons first. She didn't eat -any luncheon, and she must be hungry." - -As Rebecca Mary's leaden feet carried her up the stairs she wondered if -she should tell Granny and show her the proof of her story which was in -the bandbox in her closet. But as soon as she saw Granny in a thin -lavender negligee on the _chaise longue_ she decided that she wouldn't -tell her. Granny couldn't do anything, and she had enough to bother -about. Indeed, Granny did look pale and tired from spending her day with -the headache. She held out a welcoming hand when Rebecca Mary came in. - -"Where have you been all afternoon? I thought you were lost." - -"Have you missed me?" Rebecca Mary stooped to kiss the pale cheek. "You -were so sound asleep when I looked in that I thought you wouldn't be -awake for hours. I'm a brute that I didn't come in again." - -"I really haven't been awake very long," Granny admitted when she heard -how repentant Rebecca Mary was. "I do wish I were home, Rebecca Mary. It -was so silly to run away as we did. I might have known something would -happen. I'd give anything if we could be back in Waloo before old Peter -Simmons. I shan't mind his teasing so much at home. I shan't feel quite -so foolish there. A woman can't stand up to her husband as well as she -should if she feels foolish. I don't suppose there is any way we could -slip out?" she asked wistfully. - -No, Rebecca Mary didn't think there was any way, and even if there had -been she couldn't take it until she had told her story to Richard and -showed him the scraps of paper. But she would not tell Granny that; she -could only kiss Granny again and pet her and tell her that Richard had -said that they would be free soon to go where they pleased. - -She told Granny also what old Peter Simmons had said, that he had proved -the decision he had made on his wedding day, that his wife had perfected -his life. She made a very pretty speech of it, and it pleased Granny -enormously. - -"He always did have a nimble tongue," she murmured. "And he really does -have a lot of patience with me. Here is Ben with my dinner. I hope you -brought a lot, Ben. You know I didn't have any luncheon." - -"Yas'm. Ah hopes you gwine ter like the lower half of this spring -chicken, Mrs. Simmons? When Ah took the dinner out ter the shop Mr. -Simmons, he sez what you gwine give Mrs. Simmons fer her dinner? An' -when Ah done tell him spring chicken he sez ter brung you de lower half -'cause you gwine ter like de dark meat better'n you do de white." - -"He did?" Granny was surprised. "Well! well! So he does know what I -like. Rebecca Mary, why do you suppose he always asks me? Perhaps he has -remembered other things, too. Didn't I tell you he was a great tease? -Run down to your own dinner, child. I shall do very well. And you and -Joan must be hungry." - -Rebecca Mary had never felt less hungry in her life but she obediently -ran down. She thought she wouldn't eat a mouthful until she saw the -array of good things which Ben had prepared when she suddenly discovered -that she was hungry. Nothing would be gained by starving herself, she -thought, as she patted Joan's shoulder. - -"We shall serve ourselves," she told Ben. "And will you please go over -to the shop and ask Mr. Cabot if I may speak to him at once?" - -"Ah dunno as Ah dares. Old Mr. Simmons said he didn't want ter see any -one 'thin gunshot ob dat shop ter night. Maybe Ah could stand away an' -holler," he suggested helpfully. - -"Never mind then." Rebecca Mary spoke as carelessly as she could. -"Perhaps he'll be up before long." - -"If you ast me Ah'd say they won't be along 'fo' sunrise. Ah'm to take -'em another meal at midnight. That 'speriment suah makes 'em hungry." - -"You can tell Mr. Cabot then that I should like to speak to him at -once." Midnight was better than nothing, than morning. - -"Yas'm. Maybe Ah can. Ah can try." - -"Do you want to tell we why you want to talk to Mr. Cabot?" asked Joan -curiously. "You haven't talked to me very much since we came to dinner." - -"I think I must be tired. Suppose you talk to me? What did Mrs. Erickson -say when you took the kitten back?" It was a safe question for Mrs. -Erickson was sure to say considerable. Joan repeated Mrs. Erickson's -words and added enough of her own to last through dinner. She caught -Rebecca Mary's hand as they rose from the table. - -"Shall we go and play ball, Miss Wyman? I have a new tennis ball I -borrowed from Mr. Marshall." - -Ball! Rebecca Mary never wanted to see another ball in her life. There -had been one ball too many in it as it was. She forced herself to smile -at Joan. "I must go up to Granny, honey," she said slowly. "She has been -alone all day. You will have to play by yourself. If Mr. Cabot comes up -from the shop, or Mr. Peter, or even old Mr. Simmons, will you call me, -please?" - -She stood in the doorway and looked across the lawn in the direction of -the shop. The chatter of the gasoline engine came to her faintly, -puff-puff. She wondered if she should run across and call to Richard -herself, and she decided that she had better wait. She must do nothing -to make Frederick Befort suspect that she knew why he was at Riverside. - -When at last she went upstairs she found that Granny was not inclined -for conversation. - -"If you'll hand me that book, Rebecca Mary, I'll finish it. There is a -silly little heroine in it who can't make up her mind which of three men -she loves." - -"Do you think it is always easy for a girl to know what to do?" Rebecca -Mary asked wistfully. Rebecca Mary was almost overwhelmed at the number -of things she had discovered that a girl should know. - -Granny began a rather scornful speech but as she looked at Rebecca -Mary's troubled little face she changed it for a more sympathetic one. - -"No, I don't. I think it's very hard sometimes for every one, for even -an old lady, to know what is best to do. But if you were in a book, -Rebecca Mary, it would be easy. All you would have to do would be to -wait for your knight of the four-leaf clover," she laughed. - -"Oh, that!" Rebecca Mary had lost all pleasure in her mysterious -talisman; it had brought her all at once such a huge amount of bad luck. -"But how am I going to find him?" she asked impatiently. "It's weeks -since that day at the Waloo, and I don't know any more than I did then." - -"Don't you?" Granny raised quizzical eyebrows. - -"Well, not much." Rebecca Mary didn't wish to talk of clover leaves, but -it would be easier to follow Granny's lead than to offer one of her own. -If she talked of what was really in her thoughts she would frighten -Granny into hysterics. "I know that Peter and Mr. Cabot were there that -afternoon and Wallie Marshall and George Barton. Even old Major -Martingale was there eating hot buttered toast, but I can't make one of -them say that he gave me that clover leaf. You don't think it was Major -Martingale, do you?" Rebecca Mary would rather never know the truth if -fat old Major Martingale had given her the talisman. - -Granny chuckled. "Ask him, Rebecca Mary. Run along and ask him. You are -sillier than this silly heroine." - -Rebecca Mary never passed such an evening in her life. It was long, -endlessly long, and dreary and lonely, for Joan went to bed and Granny -insisted on following the adventures of her silly heroine. Rebecca Mary -thought she would go mad as she stood on the terrace and listened to the -chattering gasoline engine or raced up the stairs to see if the bandbox -was still on the top shelf of her closet. - -At last she couldn't wait another minute. She didn't care what old Peter -Simmons had told Ben. She would go within gunshot of the shop and call -to--she wasn't sure yet whether she would call for Frederick Befort and -beg him to turn over a new leaf and be loyal to the men with whom he was -working, or to Richard and tell him the suspicion which was tormenting -her. She couldn't go to bed until she had told some one. She called -herself names because she hadn't gone to the shop at once. - -Ben had forgotten to turn on the lights and the hall stretched before -her as dark as Egypt. She felt as if she were making her way through a -length of black velvet as she went down the stairs. But as she turned to -run out of the side door, which was the shortest way to the shop, she -saw a thread of light. It came from the right, from the room Major -Martingale used as an office. The door was always kept locked, but now -it was ajar. - -Through the wide crack Rebecca Mary could see a light on the desk beside -which a man was standing as he fumbled among the Major's papers. He was -too tall and not wide enough to be Major Martingale, and even before he -turned so that the light fell on his face Rebecca Mary knew who he was. - -Quickly, without taking even a second to think, Rebecca Mary pulled the -door shut. The key was in the lock, on the outside, and she turned it. -Then she leaned against the door frightened to death and ready to cry. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - - -Rebecca Mary had caught a spy! And, oh, how she wished that she hadn't. -When she turned the key she had felt like Joan of Arc but immediately -she became the most arrant little coward that ever was. She leaned -against the door and trembled in every inch. She didn't know what to do -with her spy now that she had caught him. - -Of course, there was but one thing to do. She would have to tell old -Peter Simmons and give him the key. And now that she had Frederick -Befort locked in Major Martingale's office she was sorry. She had liked -Frederick Befort. He was so different from any man she ever had met. He -had seemed romance to her with his title, his centuries-old château, his -rose-embowered country, his stories of boar hunts and kaisers and grand -duchesses, and all sorts of people such as Rebecca Mary had never met on -her way to and from the Lincoln school. - -But Rebecca Mary had learned a lot of the little grand duchy about which -she had known so little, and she knew that while there were many men in -Luxembourg who had hated and feared German power there were others who -would have welcomed it. Frederick Befort had told her that himself, and -she had read it in a book, also. Frederick Befort had been at school in -Germany, he had been born and raised almost in Germany; only the width -of a river had separated him from Germany. How did they really know -whether he actually had come from the Luxembourg side of the River Sure? -But whether he was in sympathy with Germany or not he had stolen the -secret of the great experiment which Germany wanted. That was the one -thing Rebecca Mary was sure of. She had the proof of that. - -And if he was a traitor he should suffer only--only---- There was Joan! -As she remembered Joan, Rebecca Mary wanted to open the door and plead -with Frederick Befort, make him promise to forget all about Germany, to -keep faith with old Peter Simmons. If he would do that, if he could make -Rebecca Mary trust him again she might--she might---- It would be too -horrible for Joan to be labeled the daughter of a spy. - -It was so horrible to Rebecca Mary that her hand was on the key when she -heard a smothered exclamation and a thud as if a movable body had -suddenly come in contact with an immovable body. Rebecca Mary cowered -down beside the door and held her breath until the hall was flooded with -light, and she raised her frightened eyes and saw Richard Cabot staring -at her. - -"What are you doing there?" He could not believe that she was listening. -Rebecca Mary was not the sort of a girl who would listen at keyholes. - -"H-sh!" She waved a frantic beckoning hand to him. She was so glad that -it was Richard who had found her. He was so sensible, so dependable, he -was Waloo's youngest bank vice-president and so was a man whom many -people trusted. She had never appreciated what it meant to be sure she -could trust a man before. A little glow broke through the smothering -blackness which had enshrouded her as she thought of how she could trust -Richard. Rebecca Mary knew that she was quite incapable of handling this -situation, but she knew that Richard could handle it. She could not -imagine a situation which Richard could not handle. So when Richard -asked her with a compelling mixture of curiosity and determination: -"What's in there?" she stammered painfully, but she told him. "A leak!" - -"A leak?" he repeated stupidly for he had not heard the words Major -Martingale and the others were constantly using and which had impressed -themselves upon Rebecca Mary's brain. He stared at the hand which clung -to the door knob. If there was a leak, although Richard did not see how -that could be for there were no pipes in the office to leak, did Rebecca -Mary think she could stop it by clinging to the door? - -Rebecca Mary put out her other hand and clutched his arm. She had to -feel him as well as see him. "I know Major Martingale has been afraid of -a leak," she faltered, "and as I was coming down the stairs I saw that -this door was open. You know it always has been kept locked." She went -on more hurriedly after she had started as if she wished to finish her -story as soon as possible. "And I saw a man at Major Martingale's desk. -I did! It wasn't my imagination. I really saw him and I shut the door -and--and locked it. He hasn't made a sound so he couldn't have heard me. -But--but I'm frightened!" And indeed she looked frightened. - -Richard frowned, but he put his hands over the fingers on his arm. "Did -you see who he was?" he asked quickly in a hushed voice, almost a -whisper. - -She didn't answer. She simply couldn't tell him that she had, that the -man who was rifling Major Martingale's desk was Frederick Befort, Count -Ernach de Befort. Richard pressed her fingers gently. - -"Was it Befort?" he asked in that same quick whisper. - -Rebecca Mary pulled her fingers from him. "How did you know? Oh, I've -told you! I've just the same as told you!" She covered her face with her -hands. - -Richard reached behind her and turned the key in the lock so that the -door could be opened while Rebecca Mary watched him in cold despair. She -couldn't understand why he did that. Surely Richard could be trusted. -After Richard had unlocked the door he put his arm around Rebecca Mary -and drew her out on the terrace. - -"But--but----" objected Rebecca Mary, who couldn't understand why he -wanted to take her away unless he wished to give Frederick Befort an -opportunity to escape. - -"Rebecca Mary," Richard said most irrelevantly as he drew her out with -him, "you are a goose. A dear little goose," he added as if to explain -to Rebecca Mary exactly what kind of a goose she was. - -Rebecca Mary pulled herself away impatiently. Why should Richard waste -time calling her names when there was a spy in Major Martingale's -office? She stammered as she tried to tell him that there were other -things for him to do now than to call her names. With a laugh Richard -tightened the arm which was still around her. - -"I'm going to tell you something," he said, bending his head so that he -could speak directly into her pink ear. "When you locked Befort in the -office you locked up the man who invented the thing we are working on. -Yes, you did!" as Rebecca Mary pushed him away with a funny little -strangled exclamation. "Wait a minute and listen! Yes, I know that we -have all been afraid of a leak, but there hasn't been one. No, there -hasn't! Listen! You know Befort comes from Luxembourg?" Rebecca Mary -nodded a dazed head. She did know that, from the River Sure. "And how -hot he is at the way the Germans have treated his country and his grand -duchess? He was so mad that he couldn't stay neutral. He joined the -French Foreign Legion and fought until he was wounded and discharged. He -had invented this--this"--evidently Richard didn't know what to call the -great experiment when he was talking to Rebecca Mary--"this thing," he -said at last. "He had talked about it to the kaiser before he perfected -it, and the kaiser wanted him to promise to give the thing to Germany. -Joan and her mother had come to this country. The countess was an -American, you know. She died and Befort came over for Joan. He decided -he couldn't find a safer place to work out his idea than the United -States. He came to Waloo and worked alone for months. Then he discovered -that German agents were watching him, and he was afraid they would steal -his plans. He was in the bank one day and talked to me. He never spoke -of Joan so perhaps it isn't strange that I didn't connect your loan -child with him. I arranged for him to meet Mr. Simmons. The thing was -just in his line, and he could give Befort protection. Mr. Simmons found -him a place in his factory and mechanics to help him and got the -government interested for it is a big thing, a mighty big thing. -Everybody came down here to finish up the job where there would be no -chance of German I. W. W. interference. But you see Befort didn't have -to steal the plans. He had them in the brain that invented them." - -"Oh!" Rebecca Mary couldn't say another word to save her life. Her face -crimsoned. She wished the terrace would open and drop her into Pekin or -Shanghai. She didn't care which. How could she have made such a mistake? -"But the ball!" she exclaimed suddenly, and she told Richard about the -glove which Frederick Befort had turned into a ball and which was -stuffed with drawings and notes for something. - -"I've no doubt it was. Befort has a lot of ideas, and if he took any -papers from his pocket they would be sure to be covered with drawings -and figures. As for German words, you know he was practically brought up -in Germany?" - -"Yes," sighed Rebecca Mary. It was all so clear now that Richard had -explained it to her. "No wonder you called me a goose," she said -ruefully. - -"A dear little goose!" When Richard was quoted he wished to be quoted -exactly. His voice was very tender as he corrected Rebecca Mary. - -"A goose," repeated Rebecca Mary somewhat crossly. She was in no mood -for tenderness, she was too ashamed and mortified. She was almost -inclined to blame Richard for the mistake she had made. If he had only -told her something--anything. But if he hadn't come stumbling over the -hall chair she might have accused Frederick Befort to his face. "Oh," -she wailed, "I never want to see Frederick Befort again! What shall I -do? I never want to see him again!" - -"Don't you?" Richard seemed quite pleased to hear that she had seen -enough of the romantic Luxembourg count. He had feared that Rebecca Mary -might wish to see a lot more of him. "Well, you don't have to see him -again," he said quickly. "I'm going to Waloo in the morning, and I'll -take you with me." - -"Will you?" Rebecca Mary couldn't believe there was such a simple -solution to her puzzle. "Can you?" She remembered that one could not go -from Riverside as one pleased. - -"Sure I can." Richard spoke quite confidently. "I'd take you this minute -but you've worn yourself out over this thing and you need sleep." - -"I don't feel that I shall sleep until I am back in Waloo," sighed -Rebecca Mary, and her lip quivered. - -"Yes, you will. You'll be asleep as soon as your head touches the pillow -now that you have nothing to bother over. You meet me at--is six-thirty -too early? I have to go up and back before noon so I must start early." - -He couldn't start too early to suit her. "There's Granny!" Rebecca Mary -had almost forgotten Granny. - -If Richard had thought he was going to take an early morning ride with -no one but Rebecca Mary he hid his disappointment very well when he -learned that they were to have company. - -"Sure, there's Granny. We'll take her with us." - -"And Joan?" doubtfully. Perhaps Richard would think that Joan should be -left with her father. - -But Richard didn't. "Joan, too. Her father will be too busy for the next -twenty-four hours to look after her. He was so excited we had to send -him away to-day." So that was why Frederick Befort had not been at the -shop. "It has been a great day for him and unless I miss my guess there -will be a greater one to-morrow." And so that was why Frederick Befort -had asked her to wish him luck. Rebecca Mary blushed again as Richard -went on. "Six-thirty, you know. And not a word to any one!" And lowering -his voice, he whispered a few directions. He chuckled as if he were -going to enjoy carrying Rebecca Mary away from Riverside. There seemed -to be more in his mind than he was telling Rebecca Mary. - -But Rebecca Mary was not critical nor observing. She was only grateful. - -"I'll never forget your heavenly goodness!" she exclaimed as she turned -to go in and tell Granny that they were to leave Riverside at six-thirty -in the morning, that Granny was to have her wish and reach home before -old Peter Simmons. "I'll remember it to my dying day!" - -"Will you, Rebecca Mary?" Richard seemed quite pleased to hear how long -he was to be remembered, and he caught her hand and pressed it before he -let her go. "Will you?" - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - - -If Richard was a tower of strength that night he was a veritable -magician the next morning, for he extracted the two women and a half -from a carefully guarded place as easily as most men would take a friend -out for a walk or to a theater or church. Granny had been delighted to -accept Richard's kind invitation to run away to Waloo. Her faded blue -eyes sparkled when Rebecca Mary gave it to her. - -"Of course, I'll go," she said at once. "It's too great a strain to be -under the same roof with old Peter Simmons. I'm crazy to see him, -Rebecca Mary, but I don't dare. Perhaps if I run away again he'll know -that I don't want to be teased. I simply can't discuss a golden wedding -present now. We've done it too often. But I don't know what I'll do, -Rebecca Mary, if he doesn't remember what we planned. If I weren't so -proud I should tell him that it begins with an H. But I can't even do -that, Rebecca Mary. It's funny I should feel this way after fifty -years, but I do. I can't help it even if I do know how silly it is." - -So in the early morning Granny and Rebecca Mary and a very sleepy Joan -left the house as stealthily as if they had been robbing Riverside and -made their way from one clump of shrubbery to another to the gate. It -thrilled Rebecca Mary, whose teeth fairly chattered. It even thrilled -old Granny a bit, but it only puzzled Joan, who could not understand why -she had been wakened so early nor why she was being taken from Riverside -without saying good-by to her father although Granny told her that they -had left a note for her father and one for old Peter Simmons. How -Rebecca Mary did blush when Count Ernach de Befort was mentioned! - -Before they reached the gate Richard came down the driveway in the car -which had brought Granny and Rebecca Mary and Joan to Riverside. He -stopped to speak to the guard, who was on the other side of the car so -that the three prisoners were able to slip by it and hide themselves in -the bushes which were most conveniently placed just outside the gate. - -"Pooh!" exclaimed Granny as she settled herself in the tonneau with -Joan, "if I had known how easy it would be I shouldn't have stayed -twenty-four hours. Oh, well, I don't know as I care so long as I shall -get home before old Peter Simmons. We have had a rest and a change. I -don't often find fault with an experience after it is over. I did want -to go to Seven Pines before the golden wedding, but perhaps it is just -as well. You haven't anything to complain of, have you, Rebecca Mary? -Riverside was more interesting for you than Seven Pines would have been. -Wasn't it?" - -"Much more interesting!" Rebecca Mary had never seen a foot of Seven -Pines and so should not have been so quick to decide that Riverside was -more interesting. "I'm glad that Major Martingale made prisoners of us." -And then she remembered what had happened the last day she had been a -prisoner, and she flushed and stammered. "At least I was glad." She -looked at Richard to see if he remembered the secret that they shared, -and he nodded and smiled. Rebecca Mary did not like to think of that -last night. It made her hot all over, from the top of her head to her -very heels, to remember what she had done. She hoped that no one but -Richard would ever know. - -"We're going home, we're going home," sang Joan to an air of her own -composition. "I'm the only one who has what we came for," she announced -jubilantly. "I came for my father and I found him right away. But you -haven't your young heart, have you, Granny? And dear Miss Wyman hasn't -found the payment for her insurance, have you, Miss Wyman?" How -disappointed Granny and Rebecca Mary must be! - -"Perhaps I didn't find the real young heart I wanted, Joan, but then I -knew that an old body isn't just the place for a real young heart," -Granny confessed honestly. "But my old heart is a lot younger than it -was. It makes an old heart young in just the right way to match an old -body to be with young people, you know." She gave the prescription -gravely to Joan, and Joan received it as gravely. - -"That makes two of us who have what we came for." Joan was even more -jubilant. "I'm sorry you haven't, Miss Wyman." Miss Wyman couldn't know -how sorry she was. - -But Rebecca Mary didn't want sympathy from any one, and she said so at -once. "Indeed I did make a payment on my memory insurance policy, Joan. -I made a lot of payments. Why, at the rate I've been paying I shan't be -able to collect all the payments on that memory insurance policy, not if -I live to be a hundred!" - -Joan bounced up and down on the seat beside Granny. "Then it's time to -go home," she said with funny solemnity. "When you get what you want it -is always time to go home." - -They stopped at a farmhouse to telephone to Pierson to have breakfast -ready for them, and when they reached the house a most delicious -breakfast was waiting in the dining room. - -"I'm glad you're back, Mrs. Simmons," Pierson said. "Young Mrs. Simmons -and I don't agree about the arrangements for your golden wedding." - -"Don't you, Pierson?" smiled Granny. "I wonder if you and I will agree -about them. If we don't you must remember that the golden wedding is -mine. Gracious, but I am glad to be home again where I can look after -things myself! I declare, Rebecca Mary, I can't think now why we ever -went away. I must have been in a panic." - -"Mr. Simmons came about fifteen minutes after you left, ma'am," -explained Pierson, who stood beside Granny, eager to tell her what had -happened. "He was quite put out, I can tell you, when I told him you had -gone on a motor trip. He wanted to know where----" - -"You couldn't tell him that, could you, Pierson?" Granny seemed quite -pleased to think that Pierson couldn't. "You didn't know where we were. -We haven't been near Seven Pines." - -"No, ma'am, I know. Mrs. Swenson called me up to ask where you were. But -when Mr. Simmons asked me the way he did he got me all flustered and -before I knew it I told him you had gone to the Cabot country place. You -often go there, you know, Mrs. Simmons, so it wasn't strange I told him -you were probably at Riverside." - -Granny put down her knife and fork and stared at her. "You never told -him that, Pierson?" She hid her face in her napkin, and her shoulders -shook. "What did he say? What did Mr. Simmons say, Pierson?" - -"He didn't say anything for a minute, ma'am, and then he laughed in a -funny sort of a way. 'At Riverside?' he said, ma'am. 'Well, I'll be -darned! The devil she is!' That's exactly what he said. But you often go -there as Mr. Simmons knows, and yet he seemed surprised as anything to -hear you might have gone there now. But I had to tell him something, -Mrs. Simmons, when he asked me like he did." - -Granny was laughing so that she almost choked. "Pierson," she said when -she could control her voice, "I shall raise your wages. I never -suspected that you had an imagination. No wonder Mr. Simmons wasn't -surprised to find us at Riverside. I dare say Major Martingale told him, -too, and young Peter, in spite of their promise to me. Dear, dear! Mr. -Simmons always seems to get the best of me." She shook her head -ruefully. "I wonder what he said when he found that we had run away from -Riverside." - -"He probably said 'Well, I'll be darned' again," laughed Richard as he -repeated a phrase which was often on old Peter Simmons' lips when he was -surprised. "You mustn't be too hard on him, Granny. You know this -experiment is frightfully important and--you know him," he finished -rather lamely. - -"I do," nodded Granny. "If I didn't know him I should never have done a -lot of things that I have. You must put off fireworks to make old Peter -Simmons see anything besides his business. If men weren't so queer women -wouldn't have to be so peculiar," she sighed. "You might remind old -Peter Simmons that he was married at noon. It would be just like him to -come in at night," she prophesied gloomily. - -"Mr. Simmons won't be late," Richard promised somewhat rashly. "I'll see -myself that he is here by noon." - -"You always were a good dependable boy. I can trust you. It is a great -thing, Rebecca Mary, to have a man about whom you can trust." There was -something so significant in the way she spoke that Rebecca Mary turned -pink until she matched the sweet peas in the center of the table. - -She looked so pretty in her self-conscious confusion that Richard had to -stop eating omelet and muffins and look at her. - -Granny went to telephone to young Mrs. Simmons about the golden wedding, -and Joan ran after Pierson to tell her all that they had found at -Riverside. Rebecca Mary pushed back her chair and rose, too. She just -couldn't sit there and let Richard stare at her as he was doing. It made -her feel--she could scarcely tell you how it did make her feel when she -remembered the way Richard had comforted her the night before. She could -still feel the pressure of his arm about her when he had told her that -she was a goose. She slipped out on the porch where Richard found her in -the swing beside the rambler rose. - -She looked up with a smile. "It doesn't seem as if it could be true that -we are free again. I think it was wonderful the way you got us out of -Riverside." - -He smiled, too. "Can you keep a secret?" he asked impulsively. - -"I can!" She turned a curious face toward him. "I'm a perfect wonder at -keeping secrets. I love 'em so I just can't give them away. Do tell me -one!" - -"I hate to be told how wonderful I am when I haven't been wonderful at -all," he said honestly. "So I'll confess that Mr. Simmons asked me to -bring you and Granny and Joan home." - -"He did?" Rebecca Mary couldn't believe it. She visualized the caution -with which Granny had slipped from bush to bush, how stealthily she had -crept to the gate. And there had been no need of caution. How old Peter -Simmons could tease Granny now! By running away from his teasing she had -only given him more material with which to tease her. "She'll be -furious," she said, not sure but she was a little furious herself. - -"She must never know." Richard reminded her that what he had given her -was a secret. "Mr. Simmons said if Granny could slip out of Riverside -and get home before he did she would think she was getting the better of -him and be a lot happier." - -"The dear old man," breathed Rebecca Mary, forming a new opinion of old -Peter Simmons instantly. "What next?" - -"And he asked me to bring her to Waloo. That's all, but you see you -can't pin any cross on me. I was just obeying orders. I thought you -would enjoy the joke, but we won't tell Granny. Let her think that she -did get ahead of Mr. Simmons." - -"I should say so. That dear old Peter Simmons to let Granny retreat with -honor! He's not such a bad sort if he does forget his anniversaries and -presents and things. Dear me, how long ago it seems since we ran away -from here! Otillie Swenson must be an old married woman by now." - -"I don't suppose you thought of me once while you were at Riverside," -Richard said jealously. - -"Well," a perverse imp appeared in Rebecca Mary's cheek just above the -corner of her lip, and there was a perverse imp in her voice, also, "I -was rather busy you know. I was the only girl there and four, no, five, -men, for old Major Martingale had to have a word now and then, five men -in the hand didn't leave much time for one in----" - -"The heart," suggested Richard quickly and eagerly, and he dropped into -the swing beside her. "If you tell me you kept me in your heart, -Rebecca Mary, I shan't mind how many men there were in your hand?" - -But Rebecca Mary wouldn't tell him that although the question sent her -into the strangest flutter she had ever been in in her life, and Richard -frowned. He remembered how the men at Riverside had hung about Rebecca -Mary. - -"You girls are all alike," he said bitterly, and he jumped up from the -swing. "I thought that day at the Waloo you would be different----" - -"At the Waloo!" interrupted Rebecca Mary. "I should say I was different -that day! Why, nothing had ever happened to me then; every day was just -like every other day, gray and stupid, but now----" she stopped, -appalled at all that had happened since that day at the Waloo, at the -few gray stupid days there had been and the many many rosy interesting -ones. "Just suppose Cousin Susan had bought kitchen curtains!" she -exclaimed with what Richard considered irritating irrelevance. - -"Never mind about curtains." Richard wasn't interested in anything -connected with the kitchen just then. "They aren't important----" - -"Oh, but they were! Frightfully important. Why, there was a moment when -my whole future was wrapped up in ten yards of cheap swiss?" She looked -almost frightened as she thought of her future in a neat parcel with ten -yards of cheap swiss. "You know I was a very selfish self-centered -disagreeable person,--yes, I was!--before I went to the Waloo with -Cousin Susan that day. But there must have been magic in the tea or--or -in the favors," she laughed tremulously as she remembered the favor she -had received. "I haven't been the same since," she confessed in a way -which told him that she was very glad that she hadn't been the same. - -"If you would only be the same for two minutes in succession," begged -Richard helplessly. He never felt helpless before a man at the bank, no -matter who he was, but he felt absolutely helpless as he stood before -Rebecca Mary and looked into her rosy face. There was so much he wanted -to tell her, and yet he didn't seem able to form an intelligent -sentence. He could only stand there like a silly fool and look at the -rosy face in which two gray eyes sparkled so adorably. His own face -reddened, and his heart seemed to miss a beat. - -"Better change your mind and stay for luncheon, Richard." Granny came -out with a cordial invitation. "My, Rebecca Mary, but it does seem good -to be at home again!" And she said, as she had said so many times in -the past few days; "I don't understand now why I ever ran away. But if -you won't stay, Richard, you must be sure and tell Mr. Simmons that he -should be here by twelve o'clock at the latest. If he isn't here--if he -isn't here----" she stopped aghast at the possibility she had voiced. -"If he isn't here I don't know what I shall do," she finished truthfully -if weakly. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - - -Granny had no opportunity to know what would happen if old Peter Simmons -was late for his golden wedding for he came striding in long before the -clock struck twelve on the twenty-second of July. Young Mrs. Simmons -with Mrs. Hiram Bingham and Mrs. Joshua Cabot were assisting the maids -in the pleasant task of arranging the quantities of yellow and white -flowers which came pouring in. - -Rebecca Mary in a pretty pink gingham, lent a hand wherever she could, -but she really wasn't of very much help for her thoughts would stray to -Richard and to Count Ernach de Befort. She couldn't keep them on the -yellow and white flowers, and every time her thoughts strayed the color -in her cheeks grew pinker than the color in her frock. She was, oh, so -ashamed and mortified when she remembered that she had locked Count -Ernach de Befort in Major Martingale's office and she told herself that -she hated Richard Cabot when she remembered that he had found her -clinging to the door. She should have been grateful to Richard, but she -insisted that she wasn't, not a bit. Richard had diagnosed her case as -that of a goose, a dear little goose, but she did not agree with him at -all. She told herself that she had been a fool, a perfectly idiotic -fool. And she told herself, also, that she hoped she would never see -either Richard or Frederick Befort again for she wanted to forget what a -perfectly idiotic fool she had been. She wanted to see young Peter and -Wallie and Ben. The line of her lips softened when she thought of them. -What fun they had had at Riverside! She wondered if they had thought of -her at all or if they had been too busy with the great experiment to -think of any girl. With her thoughts roving from Waloo to Riverside it -was no wonder that Rebecca Mary was not of more assistance and that she -put the white flowers where Judy Bingham had planned to place the yellow -flowers. - -When old Peter Simmons came striding in like a conqueror, Granny was -just coming down the stairs, and she looked more like an old saint in -her white linen house gown than she did like a woman who had ever run -away from her husband's question. - -[Illustration: "HELLO, KITTY!"] - -"Where's Mrs. Simmons? Where's my bride?" demanded old Peter Simmons -almost before he crossed the threshold, and then he saw her on the -stairs. "Hello, Kitty!" He met her at the foot of the stairs with -outstretched hands. "You don't look a day older than you did fifty years -ago. And you don't act half as old. Aren't you ashamed of the way you've -been running about the country?" He gave her a little shake before he -kissed her. - -"You need stronger glasses, Peter, dear, if you think I don't look older -than I did when we were married. Goodness knows I don't feel as old! I -should say I didn't! Then I was eighteen on the outside and felt at -least seventy on the inside, and now I'm sixty-eight on the outside, and -I don't feel more than eighteen on the inside. But I look sixty-eight. -Yes, Peter, I do, and you look seventy-one. Perhaps a person can cheat -old Time on the inside, but he can't do it on the outside. There are -tattle tales here--and here." And her finger touched the wrinkles which -separated old Peter Simmons' two grizzled eyebrows and the lines which -ran from the corners of his nose to the corners of his mouth. "You -didn't have those when you married me, Peter Simmons!" - -Old Peter Simmons laughed as if it were a huge joke to have wrinkles on -his golden wedding day. "I've a lot now that I didn't have when I -married you, old lady. Well, we've had fifty pretty fair years -together, haven't we?" He looked down at her fondly. "Want fifty more?" - -Granny never hesitated the fraction of a second. "Mercy, no!" she -declared quickly. "That would be far too much of a good thing, a regular -gilding of a beautiful lily. Just a few more years, Peter, dear, and -we'll be through. We've earned our rest." - -"Rest!" roared old Peter. "What does a flighty young thing like you want -of a rest? I heard of your scandalous doings, Mrs. Simmons, running off -in the middle of the night, being locked up by the government. I came -very near letting you celebrate your golden wedding by yourself." He -pinched her cheek. "But Dick Cabot told me a man couldn't do that." He -roared again as he remembered the worried face Richard had worn when he -told him that he must, he simply must, be on time for his own golden -wedding; he couldn't leave Granny to go through that alone. "So I came -back." - -"You didn't come empty handed?" demanded Granny quickly. "Don't tell me -you came empty handed, Peter Simmons?" - -"No, I didn't do that. I didn't dare. I was afraid you would run away -again, and I need you in this big old house. The only way to keep some -wives is to give 'em trinkets." He bent to kiss Granny again before he -put his hand in his pocket. "I hadn't any idea what you wanted." His -eyes twinkled. "You wouldn't tell me----" - -Granny watched him eagerly, anxiously. "I did tell you," she -interrupted. "We've talked it over together a hundred times since our -silver wedding. You know we have. You didn't forget, Peter?" Her voice -told him that she could forgive almost anything but his failure to -remember what they had planned first on their silver wedding day. - -"Twenty-five years is a long time for a man to remember a little thing -like a golden wedding present," went on old Peter Simmons in a teasing -voice, and he winked at Rebecca Mary over his wife's head. "I haven't -lost it, have I?" He was feeling in all of his pockets. "I was -sure--Dick saw that I had---- No, here it is!" And from one of the many -pockets he took a long envelop. - -Granny gave a little scream which made the decorators draw closer. They -were all interested in Granny's golden wedding present for Granny had -made the gift seem so important. - -"And here's mine," she said, and she took a long envelop from the pocket -of her skirt. It was tied with yellow ribbon while old Peter Simmons' -long envelop had a practical rubber band around it. Granny fairly -thrust her envelop into her husband's hands and snatched his from him in -a way which was quite inexcusable in any one, in even a bride of fifty -years. "Peter, you never----you did! If this isn't the greatest! You old -darling!" And she laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks. - -Old Peter looked at what was in his envelop, and he laughed, too, until -the tears stood in his eyes. "You didn't trust me, old lady!" He shook -his head at Granny. "You thought I had forgotten!" - -"I did!" Granny frankly admitted her thought. "You just the same as told -me you had forgotten when you kept asking that foolish question--'What -do you want?' I didn't trust you, and I made up my mind that I shouldn't -be disappointed even if I had to carry out alone the plan we made -together so I went down to Judge Graham yesterday and had him fix things -up. I was so afraid that you'd give me a diamond necklace or a string of -pearls." She sighed happily because he hadn't given her either diamonds -or pearls. - -He stopped in the middle of another laugh, and looked at her with a -funny expression as if he wasn't sure, not at all sure. "H-m," was all -he said. - -"H-m," replied Granny. "Why did you pester me so if you remembered?" - -Old Peter finished his interrupted laugh and had another one before he -pulled her gray hair as he undoubtedly had pulled her brown hair in the -days when she was eighteen on the outside and felt seventy on the -inside. "Because I like to tease you, old lady. You go up in the air -quicker than any one I ever knew, and I like to see you rise. It's meat -and drink to me. You always come down gracefully. I must say that for -you," he added admiringly. - -"Not this time," she told him honestly. "I didn't land gracefully this -time, Peter. You got the better of me all around. But whoever would have -imagined that when I ran away from you I should run right into you?" - -"It was Fate," old Peter told her emphatically. "And it means that you -can't get away from me, no matter where you run." - -Granny kissed his brown wrinkled cheek. "Yes," she said soberly. "I -guess that's what it means. And I'm glad of it!" she went on firmly, "I -could go farther and fare worse even if you are the biggest tease on -earth, Peter Simmons!" - -Young Mrs. Simmons and Judy Bingham and Sallie Cabot could bear the -suspense no longer. They had heard so much about the golden wedding -present which Granny wished to receive that they just had to see it. - -"What did father give you, Mother Simmons?" Young Mrs. Simmons was an -impatient spokeswoman. "What did she give you, Father Simmons?" - -"Yes, what did you give her?" Sallie Cabot drew Rebecca Mary into the -ring around Granny and old Peter Simmons. - -Joan did not wait to be drawn, she ran in herself for she, too, was -eager to see what Granny had wanted so much that she had run away from -old Mr. Simmons so that he would be sure to give it to her. It was a -funny way to obtain a present. Joan did not understand the method. -Perhaps she would if she could see the gift. - -Granny was laughing so that she could scarcely tell them what it was. So -was old Peter Simmons. - -"You see, dears," began Granny, breaking a laugh in two and wiping the -tears from her eyes, "we felt older twenty-five years ago than we do -now, didn't we, Peter? And we wanted to do something for the world that -had been so good to us. We had had twenty-five as perfect years as a man -and woman could have together, and we wanted to show that we appreciated -them. Peter thought of a trade school, and I thought of a children's -home because women naturally think of children, you know, and then we -had an inspiration. I don't remember which thought of it first, do you, -Peter?" - -"I expect you did," old Peter suggested handsomely. - -"Well, perhaps I did, but it doesn't matter, for when two people live -together for twenty-five years they grow to think the same things. Yes, -they do, Rebecca Mary, as you'll see some day. I often catch myself -thinking of contracts. But this time we thought of a home for old -couples. We were so sorry for the old couples who couldn't grow older -together that we decided that we'd give them a home when we had been -married fifty years and were an old couple ourselves. A home for -friendless old couples. We shouldn't wait until we were dead and some -one would look after it for us. We'd do it ourselves and get to know -some of the old couples. That was why we bought Seven Pines, wasn't it, -Peter? And that was why I wanted to take you to Seven Pines, Rebecca -Mary. I wanted to go there to stay for a few days before my golden -wedding. We've talked and planned a lot about it, and I was a silly old -fool to let Peter tease me with his question. I should have known you, -Peter, but perhaps it was because it meant so much to me that I was -frightened to death for fear you had forgotten or changed your mind. But -you hadn't for---- See!" She held up the envelop old Peter had given -her, and her face was radiant as she told them what was in it. "Here is -the deed all ready for me to sign for the Katherine Simmons Home for Old -Couples." - -"And here," old Peter Simmons held up the envelop which had been given -to him, "here is the deed for the Peter Simmons Home for Old Couples all -ready for me to sign. We'll have to compromise on the name, Kitty, and -merge it into the Simmons Home." - -"Is that all the present is?" Joan had never been more disappointed in -her life. She could not join in the chorus of admiring approval. But she -could understand why Granny cried. She would want to cry if old Peter -Simmons gave her an old home for old people. There was only one thing -which would make it right to Joan, and she pulled Granny's sleeve. "Will -you give the old couples young hearts, Granny?" she whispered eagerly. - -"We'll try," Granny whispered back. "That's exactly what we are going to -try to do, Joan, to make tired old hearts younger. The world would be so -much happier if there were not so many old hearts in it. You keep yours -young, Joan, as long as you live," she advised quite confidentially. -"Bless my soul!" she exclaimed as she heard a machine puff up the -driveway. "Is that young Peter with our jailor? I've been so taken up -with our golden wedding presents, Peter, dear, that I never asked how -your experiment worked. Was it a success?" - -"It was a big success." Old Peter Simmons looked as if he was more than -satisfied with the way the great experiment had worked. "We've given it -every sort of try out and it can't go wrong. If we hadn't made sure of -that I couldn't have come to your golden wedding, Kitty. I should have -had to send my regrets." He winked at Rebecca Mary and tickled Joan -under her chin. "Some day, Miss Wyman," he told her more soberly, "you -will be proud to remember that you were a prisoner at Riverside when -Befort's big idea was worked out." - -"What will it do?" Joan wanted to know at once. "What can you do with my -father's idea, Mr. Simmons?" - -Mr. Simmons tickled her under her chin again. "That would be telling," -he whispered with a great show of secrecy. "And then you wouldn't be -curious any longer. There is only one way to keep people interested and -that is to keep them guessing," he went on with a twinkle. "If you knew -what to-morrow was going to bring you wouldn't care whether you had a -to-morrow or not. You'd never want to go to bed to-night." - -"I'm not going to bed to-night, anyway not until the old people do. -Granny said I needn't, that I could stay up until the last minute of the -golden wedding!" Joan drew herself up with proud importance. "But I'll -tell my father what you said about the way to keep people interested, -and I'll tell Miss Wyman, too," as if she thought old Peter Simmons -wanted his recipe circulated as rapidly as possible. - -Old Peter Simmons chuckled. "You may tell your father if you want to, -but I rather think that Miss Wyman knows. The knowledge is born in some -girls. That's what makes them such a puzzle to us men. How about it, -Miss Wyman?" he said teasingly to Rebecca Mary. "You don't need to be -told, do you?" - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - - -Granny's golden wedding celebration was a very informal affair although -many important people came to offer their congratulations and to ask -Granny where on earth she had been and to tell her how much she had been -missed. Although she had been married at noon Granny had chosen to have -her party in the evening, and July the twenty-second offered her a -wonderful evening, cool and pleasant as a July evening can be -occasionally. - -Old Peter Simmons was continually leaving his place beside Granny to -draw Rebecca Mary into a corner and ask her if she thought that Granny -really was satisfied to have a home for old couples for her golden -wedding present or if Rebecca Mary thought Granny would rather have had -something more personal. - -"I always have given her something personal," he explained, "ever since -the Christmas when she gave me a carpet sweeper. For years before that -I'd showered her with rugs and library tables and a brass bed and other -household furniture. She said then she guessed the house was mine as -much as it was hers and it was only fair for me to take my share of the -stuff. And she was right. But that made me suspicious ever after. And -now--of course, she planned this aged home herself, but women do change -and you heard what she said. Do you think she would rather have had a -string of pearls?" Granny had given old Peter Simmons something to think -of when she had said she was so afraid that he was going to give her -pearls or diamonds for a golden wedding present. - -"What is that about pearls?" And there was Granny herself. She had -followed them to ask old Peter Simmons why he couldn't stand beside her -and say thank you when people told him how lucky he had been to have had -her to live with for fifty years instead of rushing off into corners -with Rebecca Mary. "Indeed, I do want that Simmons Home for Old -Couples," she declared when old Peter Simmons had stammered "Why." "I -should have been broken-hearted if you had brought me anything but that -deed. Pearls!" she sniffed scornfully. "What would I do with a string of -pearls? I should only put it away for young Peter's wife." - -"But young Peter hasn't any wife!" objected Joan, who, of course, was at -Rebecca Mary's elbow. - -"He will have some day," laughed young Peter, who had been drawn to the -little group in the corner. "Won't he, Rebecca Mary?" - -Rebecca Mary was furious because she colored when Peter asked her if he -wouldn't have a wife some day, and she was more furious when she -stammered in her answer. Why should she always be so horribly -self-conscious? If she had known how charming she was as she colored and -stammered she wouldn't have been so angry. - -"Most men have," was all she said. - -"Not all men," insisted Joan. "There's my father. He hasn't any wife." - -"He has had one, and one is enough for any man," Peter told her. - -"I don't think it's enough for my father. He always wants two of -everything, roast beef and ice cream and handkerchiefs and pencils -and--and everything," she declared, and Peter pulled her hair and asked -her how she dared to compare a wife to roast beef before he went away to -dance with Doris. - -Rebecca Mary looked across the room at the man who wanted two of -everything. He was standing by the window, and he wore the absent-minded -detached expression which Rebecca Mary and Granny had seen him wear at -Riverside. Only a part of Frederick Befort was at that moment at -Granny's golden wedding party. But as Rebecca Mary looked at him he -raised his head and their eyes met. Rebecca Mary blushed again. Oh, -dear, wouldn't she ever overcome that silly conscious habit? But she -just had to blush as she remembered that she had thought he was a spy. -The absent-minded expression slipped from Frederick Befort's face as all -of him came to the party, and he started toward Rebecca Mary. She turned -away quickly. She couldn't speak to him. She was glad to have Sallie -Cabot stop beside her, although Sallie Cabot's words were far from -quieting. - -"What have you done to my Cousin Richard?" Sallie demanded with a laugh. -"I used to say he was like a piano, grand, upright and square, but -lately he has quite a ukelele look. What have you done to him?" - -Rebecca Mary blushed a third time as she involuntarily looked at Richard -as he stood talking to two most important men. She couldn't detect any -ukelele look, she thought indignantly. He looked as he had always -looked, perfectly splendid, to her. What did Mrs. Cabot mean? But Mrs. -Cabot drifted away, she did not wait to explain, and Rebecca Mary was -left alone with her question. - -She felt rather forlorn and neglected for it was a long time since she -had been left alone. There had been a young man to ask her to do this -and another young man to ask her to do that. But now young Peter was -dancing with Doris and Wallie was talking to Martha Farnsworth and -George was in a corner with Helen Lester. So they had been devoted to -her at Riverside just because she was the only girl there. She had known -that all the time, she told herself, but it did hurt a bit to have it -proved so conclusively. But there was one thing she did have, she -thought stoutly, and that was the memory of the good time she had had at -Riverside. That couldn't be taken from her--ever! And as if the memory -of a good time had soothed the little feeling of neglect which had hurt -her she slipped out of her corner and made herself very pleasant to the -people she found neglected in other corners. Many eyes followed Rebecca -Mary as she moved here and there, for she wore a new crisp organdie -frock with pink ribbons exactly where pink ribbons should be and tiny -blue forget-me-nots tied in with the pink rosebuds. It was a very -charming frock and Rebecca Mary was very charming in it. Young Peter -told her so as soon as his dance with Doris was finished. - -"Rebecca Mary," he said sternly, "I hope you are as good as you are good -looking." - -Rebecca Mary laughed and then she sighed. "I'm not," she said with a -little quiver of her lower lip. "At least, I'm not good, Peter. I'm -envious and jealous and all sorts of horrid things." - -"Glad of it." Peter did not seem at all shocked to hear how horrid she -was behind her good looks. "If you weren't a few of those things you -wouldn't be down here with me. You would be up in the blue sky tuning -your harp. I like a girl, especially a pretty girl, to be human." - -"I guess I'm awfully human." And Rebecca Mary sighed again. - -"Who is calling you names?" And Wallie and George stopped to ask her -what she had meant by running away from Riverside and leaving them -without a girl to play with. They never could tell her how they had -missed her--every hour. - -"Pooh," laughed Rebecca Mary. "You were too busy with your great -experiment to miss me for a minute." - -They pretended to be cut to the quick by her doubt of their veracity, -and Rebecca Mary was once again the center of a merry chattering group. -It was such fun to laugh and joke with them again. She hoped they had -missed her. And then she caught her breath with a frightened little gasp -for Frederick Befort was coming toward her again, and this time he did -not look as if he could be evaded. - -"May I speak to you?" he asked Rebecca Mary with a serious directness -which made Peter and Wallie and George murmur a few words and drift -away, although Rebecca Mary did try to clutch Peter's sleeve. - -Rebecca Mary did not wish to be alone with Frederick Befort for a -minute. She was so afraid that he knew that she had locked him in Major -Martingale's office at Riverside, that she had taken him for a spy. She -had avoided him all day, and she would have avoided him now if it had -been possible. She was very uncomfortable as she went with him to the -porch and dropped down among the pillows of the swinging seat. Her heart -was beating so loud that she was sure he would hear it. - -Frederick Befort stood in front of her and looked down at her. He did -not say a word. Rebecca Mary shivered among the cushions and tried to -say something. - -"It is a lovely golden wedding, isn't it?" she said, and she could have -slapped herself when she heard her voice shake. - -Frederick Befort drew himself up, clicking his heels together in the way -which had roused Rebecca Mary's suspicions, and looked straight into her -eyes. - -"Miss Wyman," he said very formally, "I beg that you will honor me by -becoming my wife?" - -"Wh-a-t?" Rebecca Mary slipped from among the cushions and stood staring -at him with wide-open-startled eyes. She had expected him to berate her -for taking him for a spy and he had asked her to marry him. She had -never been more astonished in her life. She dropped weakly back among -the cushions. - -"You touched my heart at once by your kindness to my little Joan," -Frederick Befort went on swiftly, and his voice was like a caress as he -took her hand and raised it to his lips. "Whenever I think of Mrs. -Muldoon I am in such a rage that it is well that she is not near me. -What would have happened to my little girl if it had not been for your -heavenly sweetness and generosity!" He shivered as he thought of what -might have happened to Joan. - -Rebecca Mary shivered, too. "Oh," she gasped faintly. She couldn't say -another word. She could only stare at him with big unbelieving eyes. - -"And always you were kind to every one," Frederick Befort went on in -that soft low voice which was so like a caress. "Kindness means much to -me now. I have seen so much--unkindness. To-morrow I go to Washington -with Mr. Simmons and Major Martingale to make a report on our work at -Riverside, and then I must go home. I did not think I ever would go -back. I thought I was through with empires and kings. I wanted to live -where a man could be himself and not just one of a pattern. But I have a -duty over there, I must go back. May I come for you first, and will you -go with me and Joan to my poor changed Luxembourg? Will you?" His grave -eyes searched her face. - -Rebecca Mary kept her eyes on the fingers which fumbled so nervously -with an end of pink ribbon. It couldn't be true that this man, who had -once been to her like the prince in the fairy tale, really had asked her -to marry him. She must be dreaming. Countess Ernach de Befort! That -didn't sound a bit like Rebecca Mary Wyman. She couldn't make it sound -like Rebecca Mary Wyman. And then she remembered that he never once had -said a word which is usually mentioned in a proposal of marriage. With a -relief so great that it almost choked her, Rebecca Mary understood that -Frederick Befort had asked her to marry him because she had been, as he -had said, heavenly kind to Joan, and not because he loved her so that -he could not live without her. Rebecca Mary believed firmly that love is -the only reason for marriage. And she did not love Count Ernach de -Befort. There had been a time when he had fascinated her, when she had -dreamed that perhaps he might some day ask her to marry him, but that -time was past, and anyway fascination was not love. She tried to think -how she could tell him that it wasn't without hurting his--his pride, -for she felt that she had done him an almost irreparable injury in -questioning his honor. Oh, she never could be grateful enough to Richard -Cabot if he hadn't told Frederick Befort that she had questioned his -honor. Perhaps it was the thought of Richard which gave her courage to -raise her eyes to the grave face above her. - -"I'm--I'm so sorry," she stammered, and she put her little hand on his -sleeve. "But you don't really want me. It's just for Joan. You don't -care for me and--I don't care for you. You know you don't really care?" - -Frederick Befort drew his heels together again and bowed ceremoniously -over the small white hand he had taken from his sleeve. "I, too, am -sorry," and his voice sounded sorry, so sorry that just for a second -Rebecca Mary thought she might have been mistaken. "But if I cannot -have your love I hope always to have your friendship?" - -"You shall!" she promised quickly, glad that she could give him -something that he wanted. "You shall always have my friendship--you and -Joan." - -He raised her hand to his lips again and went away, taking with him the -only chance Rebecca Mary ever would have to be a countess. - -Richard passed him as he came looking for Rebecca Mary, and he stopped -to regard him with suspicion. "What did he want? Did he ask you to marry -him, Rebecca Mary?" he demanded so anxiously that Rebecca Mary could not -resent the question. - -"He was just telling me how grateful he was for what I did for Joan." -Rebecca Mary quite truthfully translated what Frederick Befort had said -to her, and which she had been clever enough to understand. "I couldn't -marry him," she went on quickly. "We belong to different countries -and--and everything. Once I thought I should like to," she confessed -with an adorable blush. "It would have been so romantic to be a -countess. He has taught me a lot about--about Luxembourg and things, but -he doesn't want me to marry him. He is just grateful for what I did for -Joan, you know." - -[Illustration: "I LOVE YOU, REBECCA MARY"] - -The jealousy died out of Richard's face and in its place was an eager -expectation. "Well, I love you, Rebecca Mary," he said quickly. "I care -for you a lot. Could you--do you care for me?" He took her hands and -lifted her to her feet so that she stood before him. - -And Rebecca Mary confessed that she did, that she cared a lot for him, -she had ever since that day at the bank. - -"You were always so--so good to me," she murmured as if she just had to -have a reason. - -"Good to you!" Richard choked as he took her in his arms and kissed her. -"Good to you, sweetheart! How could a man be anything but good to you? I -want to be good to you all the rest of your life!" - -Through the open window they could hear Granny's voice; evidently she -was giving a toast for she said--"To all those who keep their hearts -young for they shall live forever!" - -"That means me," Joan said shrilly. "For I have a young heart, and I'm -going to keep it young forever." - -"That means us, too," Richard whispered, his lips very close to Rebecca -Mary's pink ear. "Our hearts are young, aren't they?" - -"Yes." Rebecca Mary spoke dreamily, for she felt as if she must be in -a dream world. She couldn't be wide awake and be in Richard's arms. "As -long as we have love in our hearts they can't grow old." - -"I'm going to live forever!" Joan danced out to tell them her news. -"Granny said I should. Are you, dear Miss Wyman? Do you like the golden -wedding? I'm disappointed in it," she confessed loudly. "It's just like -any grown-up party. I don't see exactly why Granny wanted it so much." - -"Oh, don't you, miss?" And there was Granny. "It wasn't like any -grown-up party to me, not a bit! You just have one wedding, Joan, and -then you'll understand why I've wanted fifty. You understand, don't you, -Rebecca Mary?" She put her arm around Rebecca Mary and hugged her after -her keen eyes had searched Rebecca Mary's tell-tale rosy face. - -"But Miss Wyman hasn't had one wedding." Joan didn't see why Rebecca -Mary should understand so much more than she could. - -"No, but Miss Wyman is engaged," Granny told her as if it were a great -secret. - -But every one heard her, and every one was astonished. No one was more -astonished than Rebecca Mary unless perhaps it was Richard. - -"Rebecca Mary engaged!" Young Peter couldn't believe it. "That wasn't -fair, Rebecca Mary, not to tell a fellow." - -"What is she engaged to?" asked Joan jealously, although she didn't -understand what being engaged meant. - -Granny told them that, too, before Rebecca Mary could open her mouth. - -"To a four-leaf clover. Aren't you, Rebecca Mary?" And then she told -them what had happened to Rebecca Mary the afternoon when she went to -the Waloo for tea, that some one had thrust a four-leaf clover into -Rebecca Mary's hand. Consequently by all the laws of romance Rebecca -Mary was engaged to that some one. - -"But who was it?" Joan expressed the curiosity which was on every face. - -"I wish I knew!" Rebecca Mary had quite forgotten the mystery of the -four-leaf clover in the greater mystery of Richard's love. - -"Don't you know?" Richard asked in a queer sort of a voice. Was he -jealous? - -She shook her head. No, she didn't know. She never had known where that -clover leaf had come from but it had brought her luck. Yes, it had! And -she would keep it to her dying day. But she should like to know who had -given it to her. - -Richard laughed. "Granny," he said, "come and confess." - -"Granny!" What had Granny to do with it? A gray-haired old Granny was -not according to the laws of romance. - -Granny realized that, and she made her explanation apologetically as if -she understood that it might not be wholly satisfactory. - -"You were such a dear scowling thunder cloud that afternoon that I was -sorry for you. It seemed such a wicked waste of a perfectly good girl -that I simply had to offer a little first aid. Richard and I talked you -over"---- - -"Richard!" Rebecca Mary remembered very vividly how curiously Richard -had regarded her over his sandwich. - -"And we decided, I did at least, that you needed a little mystery in -your life. You looked as if you had been fed entirely too long on stern -reality. It was easy enough to diagnose your case, but we didn't know -how to get the prescription to you until we were all jammed together at -the door. I had the clover leaves in my corsage bouquet, old Peter -Simmons had sent them to me, and I made Richard push one into your hand. -He didn't want to do it. He said it was silly and impertinent." Oh, the -scorn in Granny's soft voice. "But I have a very persuasive way with me -at times," she added as Rebecca Mary stared at her, her mouth and eyes -all wide open. "I told him if he didn't do it I should, and I'd tell you -that he did it." - -Rebecca Mary swung around to look at Richard. "Then you--you----" but -words failed her. It was so altogether as she wanted it to be. - -"Yes, I did," admitted Richard with some shame, for there are those who -might think it unseemly for a bank vice-president to slip four-leaf -clovers into the hands of strange scowling girls. "Granny has, as she -said, a very persuasive way with her. I never before did such a thing," -he explained unnecessarily. "And I shouldn't have done it then if I -hadn't been so sure that she would make her threat good." His voice -sounded as if even yet he could not understand how he had let Granny -coerce him. "I'll never do it again," he promised with a rare twinkle in -his eyes. "But I did do it that afternoon. Are you sorry?" - -Rebecca Mary looked from him to Granny and then back at him again. But -before she could find breath with which to tell him that she was -anything but sorry Granny said slowly, as if she were still visualizing -the Waloo tea room: - -"You were with such a dear looking woman that afternoon." - -"Yes," dimpled Rebecca Mary, all flushed and sparkling at the -astonishing news she had heard. "My insurance agent. She was trying to -persuade me to take out a policy," she giggled. - -"And did you?" Joan always wanted to know whether one did or didn't. - -"Did I!" Rebecca Mary drew a deep breath as she thought of the policy -she had taken out and the long record of payments she had made on it. "I -should say I did!" - -"That's all very interesting," Richard broke in after she had told them -a little more about her memory insurance and they had laughed and -trooped away again, "but it interrupted a question that I wish to ask -you. What I want to know is, are you going to marry me?" He put the -question in his best vice-presidential manner, although there was a -twinkle in the far corner of his eyes. - -Rebecca Mary laughed and twinkled, too. The old negative phrase never -came near her lips. Her cheeks were as pink as pink and her eyes were -like stars as Richard's arm slipped around her shoulders and drew her -closer. - -"Will you marry me, sweetheart?" he asked her again, very gently this -time, not a bit like a bank vice-president. - -Rebecca Mary caught her breath. She put up her hand and clutched the -edge of his coat with trembling fingers as if to keep him near her until -she could answer him. Her eyes crinkled and the corners of her mouth -tilted up. My! but she was glad that Cousin Susan had told her what she -should say. - -"Y-yes," she stuttered, half laughing, half crying. "Y-yes, thank you!" - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Rebecca's Promise, by Frances R. Sterrett - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REBECCA'S PROMISE *** - -***** This file should be named 40024-8.txt or 40024-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/0/2/40024/ - -Produced by Annie R. McGuire. 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