"oh, dear! oh, dear!" fretted nan wallace, twisting herself about uneasily on the sofa in her pretty room. "i never thought before that the days could be so long as they are now."
"poor you!" said her sister maude sympathetically. maude was moving briskly about the room, putting it into the beautiful order that mother insisted on. it was nan's week to care for their room, but nan had sprained her ankle three days ago and could do nothing but lie on the sofa ever since. and very tired of it, too, was wide-awake, active nan.
"and the picnic this afternoon, too!" she sighed. "i've looked forward to it all summer. and it's a perfect day—and i've got to stay here and nurse this foot."
nan looked vindictively at the bandaged member, while maude leaned out of the window to pull a pink climbing rose. as she did so she nodded to someone in the village street below.
"who is passing?" asked nan.
"florrie hamilton."
"is she going to the picnic?" asked nan indifferently.
"no. she wasn't asked. of course, i don't suppose she expected to be. she knows she isn't in our set. she must feel horribly out of place at school. a lot of the girls say it is ridiculous of her father to send her to miss braxton's private school—a factory overseer's daughter."
"she ought to have been asked to the picnic all the same," said nan shortly. "she is in our class if she isn't in our set. of course i don't suppose she would have enjoyed herself—or even gone at all, for that matter. she certainly doesn't push herself in among us. one would think she hadn't a tongue in her head."
"she is the best student in the class," admitted maude, arranging her roses in a vase and putting them on the table at nan's elbow. "but patty morrison and wilhelmina patterson had the most to say about the invitations, and they wouldn't have her. there, nannie dear, aren't those lovely? i'll leave them here to be company for you."
"i'm going to have more company than that," said nan, thumping her pillow energetically. "i'm not going to mope here alone all the afternoon, with you off having a jolly time at the picnic. write a little note for me to florrie hastings, will you? i'll do as much for you when you sprain your foot."
"what shall i put in it?" said maude, rummaging out her portfolio obligingly.
"oh, just ask her if she will come down and cheer a poor invalid up this afternoon. she'll come, i know. and she is such good company. get dickie to run right out and mail it."
"i do wonder if florrie hamilton will feel hurt over not being asked to the picnic," speculated maude absently as she slipped her note into an envelope and addressed it.
florrie hamilton herself could best have answered that question as she walked along the street in the fresh morning sunshine. she did feel hurt—much more keenly than she would acknowledge even to herself. it was not that she cared about the picnic itself: as nan wallace had said, she would not have been likely to enjoy herself if she had gone among a crowd of girls many of whom looked down on her and ignored her. but to be left out when every other girl in the school was invited! florrie's lip quivered as she thought of it.
"i'll get father to let me to go to the public school after vacation," she murmured. "i hate going to miss braxton's."
florrie was a newcomer in winboro. her father had recently come to take a position in the largest factory of the small town. for this reason florrie was slighted at school by some of the ruder girls and severely left alone by most of the others. some, it is true, tried at the start to be friends, but florrie, too keenly sensitive to the atmosphere around her to respond, was believed to be decidedly dull and mopy. she retreated further and further into herself and was almost as solitary at miss braxton's as if she had been on a desert island.
"they don't like me because i am plainly dressed and because my father is not a wealthy man," thought florrie bitterly. and there was enough truth in this in regard to many of miss braxton's girls to make a very uncomfortable state of affairs.
"here's a letter for you, flo," said her brother jack at noon. "got it at the office on my way home. who is your swell correspondent?"
florrie opened the dainty, perfumed note and read it with a face that, puzzled at first, suddenly grew radiant.
"listen, jack," she said excitedly.
"dear florrie:
"nan is confined to house, room, and sofa with a sprained foot. as she will be all alone this afternoon, won't you come down and spend it with her? she very much wants you to come—she is so lonesome and thinks you will be just the one to cheer her up.
"yours cordially,
"maude wallace."
"are you going?" asked jack.
"yes—i don't know—i'll think about it," said florrie absently. then she hurried upstairs to her room.
"shall i go?" she thought. "yes, i will. i dare say nan has asked me just out of pity because i was not invited to the picnic. but even so it was sweet of her. i've always thought i would like those wallace girls if i could get really acquainted with them. they've always been nice to me, too—i don't know why i am always so tongue-tied and stupid with them. but i'll go anyway."
that afternoon mrs. wallace came into nan's room.
"nan, dear, florrie hamilton is downstairs asking for you."
"florrie—hamilton?"
"yes. she said something about a note you sent her this morning. shall i ask her to come up?"
"yes, of course," said nan lamely. when her mother had gone out she fell back on her pillows and thought rapidly.
"florrie hamilton! maude must have addressed that note to her by mistake. but she mustn't know it was a mistake—mustn't suspect it. oh, dear! what shall i ever find to talk to her about? she is so quiet and shy."
further reflections were cut short by florrie's entrance. nan held out her hand with a chummy smile.
"it's good of you to give your afternoon up to visiting a cranky invalid," she said heartily. "you don't know how lonesome i've been since maude went away. take off your hat and pick out the nicest chair you can find, and let's be comfy."
somehow, nan's frank greeting did away with florrie's embarrassment and made her feel at home. she sat down in maude's rocker, then, glancing over to a vase filled with roses, her eyes kindled with pleasure. seeing this, nan said, "aren't they lovely? we wallaces are very fond of our climbing roses. our great-grandmother brought the roots out from england with her sixty years ago, and they grow nowhere else in this country."
"i know," said florrie, with a smile. "i recognized them as soon as i came into the room. they are the same kind of roses as those which grow about grandmother hamilton's house in england. i used to love them so."
"in england! were you ever in england?"
"oh, yes," laughed florrie. "and i've been in pretty nearly every other country upon earth—every one that a ship could get to, at least."
"why, florrie hamilton! are you in earnest?"
"indeed, yes. perhaps you don't know that our 'now-mother,' as jack says sometimes, is father's second wife. my own mother died when i was a baby, and my aunt, who had no children of her own, took me to bring up. her husband was a sea-captain, and she always went on his sea-voyages with him. so i went too. i almost grew up on shipboard. we had delightful times. i never went to school. auntie had been a teacher before her marriage, and she taught me. two years ago, when i was fourteen, father married again, and then he wanted me to go home to him and jack and our new mother. so i did, although at first i was very sorry to leave auntie and the dear old ship and all our lovely wanderings."
"oh, tell me all about them," demanded nan. "why, florrie hamilton, to think you've never said a word about your wonderful experiences! i love to hear about foreign countries from people who have really been there. please just talk—and i'll listen and ask questions."
florrie did talk. i'm not sure whether she or nan was the more surprised to find that she could talk so well and describe her travels so brightly and humorously. the afternoon passed quickly, and when florrie went away at dusk, after a dainty tea served up in nan's room, it was with a cordial invitation to come again soon.
"i've enjoyed your visit so much," said nan sincerely. "i'm going down to see you as soon as i can walk. but don't wait for that. let us be good, chummy friends without any ceremony."
when florrie, with a light heart and a happy smile, had gone, came maude, sunburned and glowing from her picnic.
"such a nice time as we had!" she exclaimed. "wasn't i sorry to think of you cooped up here! did florrie come?"
"one florrie did. maude, you addressed that note to florrie hamilton today instead of florrie hastings."
"nan, surely not! i'm sure—"
"yes, you did. and she came here. was i not taken aback at first, maude!"
"i was thinking about her when i addressed it, and i must have put her name down by mistake. i'm so sorry—"
"you needn't be. i haven't been entertained so charmingly for a long while. why, maude, she has travelled almost everywhere—and is so bright and witty when she thaws out. she didn't seem like the same girl at all. she is just perfectly lovely!"
an unpremeditated ceremonytoc
selwyn grant sauntered in upon the assembled family at the homestead as if he were returning from an hour's absence instead of a western sojourn of ten years. guided by the sound of voices on the still, pungent autumnal air, he went around to the door of the dining room which opened directly on the poppy walk in the garden.
nobody noticed him for a moment and he stood in the doorway looking at them with a smile, wondering what was the reason of the festal air that hung about them all as visibly as a garment. his mother sat by the table, industriously polishing the best silver spoons, which, as he remembered, were only brought forth upon some great occasion. her eyes were as bright, her form as erect, her nose—the carston nose—as pronounced and aristocratic as of yore.
selwyn saw little change in her. but was it possible that the tall, handsome young lady with the sleek brown pompadour and a nose unmistakably and plebeianly grant, who sat by the window doing something to a heap of lace and organdy in her lap, was the little curly-headed, sunburned sister of thirteen whom he remembered? the young man leaning against the sideboard must be leo, of course; a fine-looking, broad-shouldered young fellow who made selwyn think suddenly that he must be growing old. and there was the little, thin, grey father in the corner, peering at his newspaper with nearsighted eyes. selwyn's heart gave a bound at the sight of him which not even his mother had caused. dear old dad! the years had been kind to him.
mrs. grant held up a glistening spoon and surveyed it complacently. "there, i think that is bright enough even to suit margaret graham. i shall take over the whole two dozen teas and one dozen desserts. i wish, bertha, that you would tie a red cord around each of the handles for me. the carmody spoons are the same pattern and i shall always be convinced that mrs. carmody carried off two of ours the time that jenny graham was married. i don't mean to take any more risks. and, father——"
something made the mother look around, and she saw her first-born!
when the commotion was over selwyn asked why the family spoons were being rubbed up.
"for the wedding, of course," said mrs. grant, polishing her gold-bowed spectacles and deciding that there was no more time for tears and sentiment just then. "and there, they're not half done—and we'll have to dress in another hour. bertha is no earthly use—she is so taken up with her bridesmaid finery."
"wedding? whose wedding?" demanded selwyn, in bewilderment.
"why, leo's, of course. leo is to be married tonight. didn't you get your invitation? wasn't that what brought you home?"
"hand me a chair, quick," implored selwyn. "leo, are you going to commit matrimony in this headlong fashion? are you sure you're grown up?"
"six feet is a pretty good imitation of it, isn't it?" grinned leo. "brace up, old fellow. it's not so bad as it might be. she's quite a respectable girl. we wrote you all about it three weeks ago and broke the news as gently as possible."
"i left for the east a month ago and have been wandering around preying on old college chums ever since. haven't seen a letter. there, i'm better now. no, you needn't fan me, sis. well, no family can get through the world without its seasons of tribulations. who is the party of the second part, little brother?"
"alice graham," replied mrs. grant, who had a habit of speaking for her children, none of whom had the carston nose.
"alice graham! that child!" exclaimed selwyn in astonishment.
leo roared. "come, come, sel, perhaps we're not very progressive here in croyden, but we don't actually stand still. girls are apt to stretch out some between ten and twenty, you know. you old bachelors think nobody ever grows up. why, sel, you're grey around your temples."
"too well i know it, but a man's own brother shouldn't be the first to cast such things up to him. i'll admit, since i come to think of it, that alice has probably grown bigger. is she any better-looking than she used to be?"
"alice is a charming girl," said mrs. grant impressively. "she is a beauty and she is also sweet and sensible, which beauties are not always. we are all very much pleased with leo's choice. but we have really no more time to spare just now. the wedding is at seven o'clock and it is four already."
"is there anybody you can send to the station for my luggage?" asked selwyn. "luckily i have a new suit, otherwise i shouldn't have the face to go."
"well, i must be off," said mrs. grant. "father, take selwyn away so that i shan't be tempted to waste time talking to him."
in the library father and son looked at each other affectionately.
"dad, it's a blessing to see you just the same. i'm a little dizzy with all these changes. bertha grown up and leo within an inch of being married! to alice graham at that, whom i can't think of yet as anything else than the long-legged, black-eyed imp of mischief she was when a kiddy. to tell you the truth, dad, i don't feel in a mood for going to a wedding at wish-ton-wish tonight. i'm sure you don't either. you've always hated fusses. can't we shirk it?"
they smiled at each other with chummy remembrance of many a family festival they had "shirked" together in the old days. but mr. grant shook his head. "not this time, sonny. there are some things a decent man can't shirk and one of them is his own boy's wedding. it's a nuisance, but i must go through with it. you'll understand how it is when you're a family man yourself. by the way, why aren't you a family man by this time? why haven't i been put to the bother and inconvenience of attending your wedding before now, son?"
selwyn laughed, with a little vibrant note of bitterness in the laughter, which the father's quick ears detected. "i've been too busy with law books, dad, to find me a wife."
mr. grant shook his bushy grey head. "that's not the real reason, son. the world has a wife for every man; if he hasn't found her by the time he's thirty-five, there's some real reason for it. well, i don't want to pry into yours, but i hope it's a sound one and not a mean, sneaking, selfish sort of reason. perhaps you'll choose a madam selwyn some day yet. in case you should i'm going to give you a small bit of good advice. your mother—now, she's a splendid woman, selwyn, a splendid woman. she can't be matched as a housekeeper and she has improved my finances until i don't know them when i meet them. she's been a good wife and a good mother. if i were a young man i'd court her and marry her over again, that i would. but, son, when you pick a wife pick one with a nice little commonplace nose, not a family nose. never marry a woman with a family nose, son."
a woman with a family nose came into the library at this juncture and beamed maternally upon them both. "there's a bite for you in the dining room. after you've eaten it you must dress. mind you brush your hair well down, father. the green room is ready for you, selwyn. tomorrow i'll have a good talk with you, but tonight i'll be too busy to remember you're around. how are we all going to get over to wish-ton-wish? leo and bertha are going in the pony carriage. it won't hold a third passenger. you'll have to squeeze in with father and me in the buggy, selwyn."
"by no means," replied selwyn briskly. "i'll walk over to wish-ton-wish. ifs only half a mile across lots. i suppose the old way is still open?"
"it ought to be," answered mr. grant drily; "leo has kept it well trodden. if you've forgotten how it runs he can tell you."
"i haven't forgotten," said selwyn, a little brusquely. he had his own reasons for remembering the wood path. leo had not been the first grant to go courting to wish-ton-wish.
when he started, the moon was rising round and red and hazy in an eastern hill-gap. the autumn air was mild and spicy. long shadows stretched across the fields on his right and silvery mosaics patterned the floor of the old beechwood lane. selwyn walked slowly. he was thinking of esme graham or, rather, of the girl who had been esme graham, and wondering if he would see her at the wedding. it was probable, and he did not want to see her. in spite of ten years' effort, he did not think he could yet look upon tom st. clair's wife with the proper calm indifference. at the best, it would taint his own memory of her; he would never again be able to think of her as esme graham but only as esme st. clair.
the grahams had come to wish-ton-wish eleven years before. there was a big family of girls of whom the tall, brown-haired esme was the oldest. there was one summer during which selwyn grant had haunted wish-ton-wish, the merry comrade of the younger girls, the boyishly, silently devoted lover of esme. tom st. clair had always been there too, in his right as second cousin, selwyn had supposed. one day he found out that tom and esme had been engaged ever since she was sixteen; one of her sisters told him. that had been all. he had gone away soon after, and some time later a letter from home made casual mention of tom st. clair's marriage.
he narrowly missed being late for the wedding ceremony. the bridal party entered the parlour at wish-ton-wish at the same moment as he slipped in by another door. selwyn almost whistled with amazement at sight of the bride. that alice graham, that tall, stately, blushing young woman, with her masses of dead-black hair, frosted over by the film of wedding veil! could that be the scrawny little tomboy of ten years ago? she looked not unlike esme, with that subtle family resemblance that is quite independent of feature and colouring.
where was esme? selwyn cast his eyes furtively over the assembled guests while the minister read the marriage ceremony. he recognized several of the graham girls but he did not see esme, although tom st. clair, stout and florid and prosperous-looking, was standing on a chair in a faraway corner, peering over the heads of the women.
after the turmoil of handshakings and congratulations, selwyn fled to the cool, still outdoors, where the rosy glow of chinese lanterns mingled with the waves of moonshine to make fairyland. and there he met her, as she came out of the house by a side door, a tall, slender woman in some glistening, clinging garment, with white flowers shining like stars in the coils of her brown hair. in the soft glow she looked even more beautiful than in the days of her girlhood, and selwyn's heart throbbed dangerously at sight of her.
"esme!" he said involuntarily.
she started, and he had an idea that she changed colour, although it was too dim to be sure. "selwyn!" she exclaimed, putting out her hands. "why, selwyn grant! is it really you? or are you such stuff as dreams are made of? i did not know you were here. i did not know you were home."
he caught her hands and held them tightly, drawing her a little closer to him, forgetting that she was tom st. clair's wife, remembering only that she was the woman to whom he had given all his love and life's devotion, to the entire beggaring of his heart.
"i reached home only four hours ago, and was haled straightway here to leo's wedding. i'm dizzy, esme. i can't adjust my old conceptions to this new state of affairs all at once. it seems ridiculous to think that leo and alice are married. i'm sure they can't be really grown up."
esme laughed as she drew away her hands. "we are all ten years older," she said lightly.
"not you. you are more beautiful than ever, esme. that sunflower compliment is permissible in an old friend, isn't it?"
"this mellow glow is kinder to me than sunlight now. i am thirty, you know, selwyn."
"and i have some grey hairs," he confessed. "i knew i had them but i had a sneaking hope that other folks didn't until leo destroyed it today. these young brothers and sisters who won't stay children are nuisances. you'll be telling me next thing that 'baby' is grown up."
"'baby' is eighteen and has a beau," laughed esme. "and i give you fair warning that she insists on being called laura now. do you want to come for a walk with me—down under the beeches to the old lane gate? i came out to see if the fresh air would do my bit of a headache good. i shall have to help with the supper later on."
they went slowly across the lawn and turned into a dim, moonlight lane beyond, their old favourite ramble. selwyn felt like a man in a dream, a pleasant dream from which he dreads to awaken. the voices and laughter echoing out from the house died away behind them and the great silence of the night fell about them as they came to the old gate, beyond which was a range of shining, moonlight-misted fields.
for a little while neither of them spoke. the woman looked out across the white spaces and the man watched the glimmering curve of her neck and the soft darkness of her rich hair. how virginal, how sacred, she looked! the thought of tom st. clair was a sacrilege.
"it's nice to see you again, selwyn," said esme frankly at last. "there are so few of our old set left, and so many of the babies grown up. sometimes i don't know my own world, it has changed so. it's an uncomfortable feeling. you give me a pleasant sensation of really belonging here. i'd be lonesome tonight if i dared. i'm going to miss alice so much. there will be only mother and baby and i left now. our family circle has dwindled woefully."
"mother and baby and you!" selwyn felt his head whirling again. "why, where is tom?"
he felt that it was an idiotic question, but it slipped from his tongue before he could catch it. esme turned her head and looked at him wonderingly. he knew that in the sunlight her eyes were as mistily blue as early meadow violets, but here they looked dark and unfathomably tender.
"tom?" she said perplexedly. "do you mean tom st. clair? he is here, of course, he and his wife. didn't you see her? that pretty woman in pale pink, lil meredith. why, you used to know lil, didn't you? one of the uxbridge merediths?"
to the day of his death selwyn grant will firmly believe that if he had not clutched fast hold of the top bar of the gate he would have tumbled down on the moss under the beeches in speechless astonishment. all the surprises of that surprising evening were as nothing to this. he had a swift conviction that there were no words in the english language that could fully express his feelings and that it would be a waste of time to try to find any. therefore he laid hold of the first baldly commonplace ones that came handy and said tamely, "i thought you were married to tom."
"you—thought—i—was—married—to—tom!" repeated esme slowly. "and have you thought that all these years, selwyn grant?"
"yes, i have. is it any wonder? you were engaged to tom when i went away, jenny told me you were. and a year later bertha wrote me a letter in which she made some reference to tom's marriage. she didn't say to whom, but hadn't i the right to suppose it was to you?"
"oh!" the word was partly a sigh and partly a little cry of long-concealed, long-denied pain. "it's been all a funny misunderstanding. tom and i were engaged once—a boy-and-girl affair in the beginning. then we both found out that we had made a mistake—that what we had thought was love was merely the affection of good comrades. we broke our engagement shortly before you went away. all the older girls knew it was broken but i suppose nobody mentioned the matter to jen. she was such a child, we never thought about her. and you've thought i was tom's wife all this time? it's—funny."
"funny. you mean tragic! look here, esme, i'm not going to risk any more misunderstanding. there's nothing for it but plain talk when matters get to such a state as this. i love you—and i've loved you ever since i met you. i went away because i could not stay here and see you married to another man. i've stayed away for the same reason. esme, is it too late? did you ever care anything for me?"
"yes, i did," she said slowly.
"do you care still?" he asked.
she hid her face against his shoulder. "yes," she whispered.
"then we'll go back to the house and be married," he said joyfully.
esme broke away and stared at him. "married!"
"yes, married. we've wasted ten years and we're not going to waste another minute. we're not, i say."
"selwyn! it's impossible."
"i have expurgated that word from my dictionary. it's the very simplest thing when you look at it in an unprejudiced way. here is a ready-made wedding and decorations and assembled guests, a minister on the spot and a state where no licence is required. you have a very pretty new dress on and you love me. i have a plain gold ring on my little finger that will fit you. aren't all the conditions fulfilled? where is the sense of waiting and having another family upheaval in a few weeks' time?"
"i understand why you have made such a success of the law," said esme, "but—"
"there are no buts. come with me, esme. i'm going to hunt up your mother and mine and talk to them."
half an hour later an astonishing whisper went circulating among the guests. before they could grasp its significance tom st. clair and jen's husband, broadly smiling, were hustling scattered folk into the parlour again and making clear a passage in the hall. the minister came in with his blue book, and then selwyn grant and esme graham walked in hand in hand.
when the second ceremony was over, mr. grant shook his son's hand vigorously. "there's no need to wish you happiness, son; you've got it. and you've made one fuss and bother do for both weddings, that's what i call genius. and"—this in a careful whisper, while esme was temporarily obliterated in mrs. grant's capacious embrace—"she's got the right sort of a nose. but your mother is a grand woman, son, a grand woman."
"well, i'm glad you had such a nice time together. do you know, some of the girls were very much vexed because she wasn't asked to the picnic. they said that it was sheer rudeness not to ask her, and that it reflected on us all, even if patty and wilhelmina were responsible for it. i'm afraid we girls at miss braxton's have been getting snobbish, and some of us are beginning to find it out and be ashamed of it."
"just wait until school opens," said nan—vaguely enough, it would seem. but maude understood.
however, they did not have to wait until school opened. long before that time winboro girlhood discovered that the wallace girls were taking florrie hamilton into their lives. if the wallace girls liked her, there must be something in the girl more than was at first thought—thus more than one of miss braxton's girls reasoned. and gradually the other girls found, as nan had found, that florrie was full of fun and an all-round good companion when drawn out of her diffidence. when miss braxton's school reopened florrie was the class favourite. between her and nan wallace a beautiful and helpful friendship had been formed which was to grow and deepen through their whole lives.
"and all because maude in a fit of abstraction wrote 'hamilton' for 'hastings,'" said nan to herself one day. but that is something florrie hamilton will never know.
