"joshua churchill's dying in california and nanny ainslee's leaving to-night for japan! and there's been a wreck between here and spring road!"
fanny fairly gasped out the astounding news. then she sank down into grandma wentworth's comfortable kitchen rocker and went into details.
"the two telegrams just came through. uncle tony's gone down to the wreck. i happened to be standing talking to him when denny came running out of the station. isn't it too bad denny's so bow-legged? though i don't know as it hinders him from running to any noticeable extent. i had an awful time trying to keep up so's to find out what had happened. i bet you nan's packing right this minute and just loving it. my—ain't some people born lucky? think of having the whole world to run around in!"
the telephone tinkled.
"yes, nan," grandma smiled as she answered, "i know. fanny's just this minute telling me. yes, of course i can. i'll be over as soon as my bread's done baking. yes—i'll bring along some of my lavender to pack in with your things."
"land sakes, grandma," exclaimed fanny, "don't stop for the bread. i'll see to that. just you git that lavender and go. and tell nanny i'll be at the station to see her off."
up-stairs in a big sunny room of the ainslee house grandma wentworth looked reproachfully at a flushed, busy girl who was laughing and singing snatches of droll ditties the while she emptied closets and dresser drawers and tucked things into four trunks, two suitcases and a handbag.
"nanny, are you never going to settle down and stay at home?" sighed grandma.
"yes, ma'am," nanny's eyes danced, "some day when a man makes me fall in love with him and there are no more new places to go to. but so long as i am heartfree and footfree, and there's one alien shore calling, i'll have the wanderlust. i declare, grandma, if that man doesn't turn up soon there will be no new places left for a honeymoon!"
grandma smiled in spite of herself. there were things she wanted very much to say and other things she wanted very much to ask; but the trunks had to get down to the station and already the afternoon sun was low.
the two women worked feverishly and almost in silence so that when the packing was done they might get in the little visit both craved before the months of separation.
nanny finally jumped on the trunks, snapped them shut, locked them and watched the expressman carry them down and out into his waiting dray. then she sat down with a trembling little laugh.
"there—it's over and i'm really going! i have been to just about every country but japan. i believe father would rather have skipped off alone this time. it seems to be some suddenly important international crisis that we are going over to settle. that's why we are going east the roundabout way. we must stop at washington for instructions, then again at london and paris."
"nanny," mused grandma, "there's a good many years difference in our ages but there's only one woman i ever loved as i love you. i think i might have loved your mother but she died the very first year your father brought her here. and she was ailing when she came. the other woman that meant so much to me used to go traveling too. i always helped her with her packing. then one day she packed and went away, never to come back."
"was that cynthia churchill?" nan asked gently.
"yes—cynthia. she was dearer than a sister to me, and neither of us dreamed that a whole wide world would divide us."
"why did she go, grandma?"
"because a green valley man well-nigh broke her heart."
"a green valley man did—that? oh, dear! and here i have been hoping that some day i might marry a green valley man myself."
"nanny, i expect i'm old and foolish but i've been hoping and hoping that you'd marry a home boy and fearing you'd meet up with some one on your travels who would take you away from us forever. it would be hard to see you go."
the last sunbeam had faded away and golden twilight filled the room. outside little day noises were dying out.
"grandma dear, don't you worry about me. i intend to marry a green valley man if possible. but even if i didn't i'd always come back to green valley."
"no, you wouldn't. you couldn't, any more than cynthia could. cynthia loved this town better even than you love it. yet she is lying under strange stars in a foreign land, far from her old home. her father, they say, is dying in california. i suppose the old churchill place will go now unless cynthia's son comes back to take it over. but that isn't likely."
"why—did cynthia churchill leave a son?" wondered nanny.
"yes. he must be a few years older than you. he was born and raised in india. 'tisn't likely he'd come to green valley now that he's a man grown. still, if joshua churchill dies out there in california, that boy will come into all his grandfather's property."
"well," nanny stood up and walked to the window from which she could see the fine old home of the churchills, "if any one willed me a lovely old place like that churchill homestead i'd come from the moon to claim it, let alone india."
"nanny, are you sure there's no boy now in green valley who could keep you from roaming? i thought maybe max longman or ronny deering—"
"no—no one yet, grandma. i like them all—but love—no. love, it seems to me, must be something very different."
"yes, i know," sighed grandma.
when uncle tony returned from viewing the wreck he assured his townsmen that it was a wreck of such beautiful magnitude that traffic on the northwestern would be tied up for twenty-four hours. it was feared that mr. ainslee would not be able to get his train and would have to drive five miles to the other railroad.
however uncle tony was reckoning things from a green valley point of view. as a matter of fact the wreckage was sufficiently cleared away so that the eastbound trains were running on time. it was the westbound ones that were stalled. the los angeles limited pullmans stood right in the green valley station. they were still standing there when nanny and her father came to take the 10:27 east.
perhaps nothing could explain so well nanny ainslee's popularity as the gathering of folks who came to see her off.
fanny had stopped at the drug store and bought some headache pills.
"this excitement and hurry and you not scarcely eating any supper is apt to give you a bad headache. they'll come handy. and here's some seasick tablets. martin says they're the newest thing out. and oh, nanny, when you're seeing all those new places and people just take an extra look for me, seeing as i'll never know the color of the ocean."
uncle tony was tending to nanny's hand luggage and in his heart wishing he could go along, even though he knew that one week spent away from his beloved hardware store would be the death of him.
it was a neighborly crowd that waited for the 10:27. and as it waited jim tumley started singing "auld lang syne." he began very softly but soon the melody swelled to a clear sweetness that hushed the laughing chatter and stilled the shuffling feet of the pullman passengers who crowded the train vestibules or strolled in weary patience along the station platform.
then the 10:27 swung around the curve and the good-bys began.
"so long, dear folks! i shall write. don't you dare cry, grandma. i'll be back next lilac time. remember, oh, just remember, all you green valley folks, that i'll be back when the lilacs bloom again!"
nanny's voice, husky with laughter and tears, rippled back to the cluster of old neighbors waving hats and handkerchiefs. they watched her standing in the golden light of the car doorway until the train vanished from their sight. then they drifted away in twos and threes.
from the dimmest corner of the observation platform a man had witnessed the departure of nanny ainslee. he had heard jim's song, had caught the girl's farewells. and now he was delightedly repeating to himself her promise—"i'll be back when the lilacs bloom again."
then quite suddenly he stepped from the train and made his way to where the magenta-pink and violet lights of martin's drugstore glowed in the night. he bought a soda and some magazines and asked the druggist an odd question.
"when," asked the stranger, smiling, "will the lilacs bloom again in this town?"
martin, who for hours had been rushing madly about, waiting on the thirsty crowd of stalled visitors, stopped to stare. but he answered. something in the mysteriously rich face of the big, brown boy made him eager to answer.
"from the middle of next may on into early june."
the stranger smiled his thanks in a way that made martin look at his clerk with a mournful eye.
"jee-rusalem! now, eddie, why can't you smile like that? say, if i had that fellow behind this soda counter i'd be doing a rushing business every night."
when the limited was again winging its way toward the golden west and train life had settled down to its regular routine, one dining-car waiter was saying to another:
"yes, sah—the gentleman in number 7 is sure the mighty-nicest white man i eber did see. and he sure does like rice. says he comes from india where everybody eats it all the time. i ain' sure but what that man ain' a sure-enough prince."
