the highwoods and trewmans started for new york a few hours after the lunch-party ended, and jermyn accompanied them. he had wanted to do so, from the first, but found many difficulties in the way of saying so; for when women are intent upon a journey they find so much to do and talk about that a man, no matter how dear he may be to any member of the party, learns to his mortification that there are times when man is utterly uninteresting to woman.
jermyn finally found himself so manifestly in the way that he begged trixy, whose dolls were packed within ten minutes of the first announcement of the impending departure, to go upon the verandah with him and take a long look seaward. a friend of his had been promising to sail a yacht down from new york, and the verandah was as good as any place in the fort from which to view the offing. besides, the lieutenant did not care to be seen again at his quarters. he feared that a secret which several of his comrades shared with him might not be as safe as it should be, and he was in no humor to be joked about the most serious interest of his life.
in the angle of the verandah they sat, jermyn and trixy, the child looking seaward through her mother's opera-glass, and the officer looking into the sky, his thoughts that afternoon having a somewhat heavenly tinge.
"oh, i believe there's the yacht—way out there! don't you see it?"
"where? what?" asked jermyn, dreamily.
"why, the yacht, of course. don't you see that great big boat with lots of sails! that's the way yachts are, ain't it?"
"i suppose so."
"you don't look as i feel when folks is comin' to see me; though, to be sure, they don't come in yachts."
"i beg your pardon, trixy. i fear i was thinking about something else."
"say!" remarked trixy, suddenly dropping the glass. "do you know what i wish? i wish you was goin' to new york with us."
"trixy," said jermyn earnestly, "so do i."
"well, why don't you?"
"hem! i suppose it is because i haven't been asked."
"that's a funny reason! i thought big men could do anything they wanted to, without anybody tellin' 'em they could or they couldn't. when i get to be a big woman, mamma says i won't have to ask her what i can do before i do it. won't that be lovely?"
jermyn did not reply, so the child began again to scan the offing with the glass. then she wanted to do something else, and jermyn was reminded amusingly of some ways of his sisters, when those estimable women were very young.
"say," remarked trixy, suddenly, "mamma says you great big soldiers are just like little children in one way. you never can go any place without askin' somebody to let you."
"your mamma is entirely right about it," said jermyn, with a laugh.
"how funny!" said trixy, as if talking to herself.
the child finally disappeared, but jermyn remained. he wondered how he could explain his reappearance at the fort, after taking a week's leave only twenty-four hours before, should any awkwardness on the part of any one prevent him joining the party. he wished he might see trif alone for a moment or two, but he knew better than to disturb a woman absorbed in the duties of packing. he was uncomfortable; he felt that he was in the way, but he pulled himself together by saying that he might as well be a thousand miles away from trif and kate as he was at that moment, while they were occupied as they were. he could still make a pretense of looking for that yacht, for trixy had left the glasses in her chair. perhaps, after their work was done, one or other of the ladies might accidentally find him, and something might be said that would give him the opportunity for which he longed.
"mamma," said trixy, entering the room and stumbling over trunks, "why don't mr. jermyn go to new york with us?"
"oh, i do wish he could!" exclaimed trif. "fenie, wouldn't it be be delightful?"
"indeed, yes," the girl replied, "but don't say anything about it to kate, for the mention of it, when it can't be done, would simply break her heart."
trixy propounded some more questions, but was told that her mother was very busy, and must not be bothered, so the child started in search of other company, and when she reached the beach she found the admiral, whom she asked:
"who is it that officers like mr. jermyn have to ask when they want to do somethin'?"
"oh," said the admiral, who was discussing the naval topic of the day with a brother officer, "why, the commandant of the fort!"
trixy hung upon the admiral's chair a moment or two, but what she heard was as bad as greek to her, so she strayed away, and asked questions of other acquaintances, and she was gone so long that her mother wondered what had become of her.
when the packing was finished, to the very last article which had been overlooked, and for which the trunks had to be reopened, kate and fenie sat down to rest, and naturally each began to talk of the subject which was uppermost in the minds of both, and finally they became so confidential that fenie exclaimed:
"wouldn't it be lovely if jermyn were going north with us?"
"oh, fenie!" murmured kate, looking as mother eve probably looked when the gates of eden closed behind her.
"why don't you make him?" asked the younger woman.
"make him? he is an officer of the government, and has his duties to perform. do you suppose i would dare ask him to neglect them?"
"i'm sure i can't see what duties there can be to embarrass him, for there isn't any war going on."
"no, but there seems to be so much else. don't you remember that mysterious mission that took him and the admiral north a few days ago? jermyn must be of great importance, despite his modest rank, or he never would have been associated with an admiral, on public business."
"i'd ask him, any way, if he were my lover, if only to make him happy for a moment," said fenie.
"would you?" asked kate. should she be outdone in affectionate impulse by a mere girl like fenie? she wondered what had become of jermyn; then she said so.
"he's out at the angle of this verandah, or was a half hour ago, trixy told me; he was looking for the yacht of a friend. and kate," continued fenie hurriedly, for kate had already started, "you needn't be afraid to talk to him, for there are no occupants of those rooms."
kate tripped out to the piazza and saw jermyn with a face so sober that it shocked her. she approached him softly and touched his arm; he looked up quickly, but with an entirely different face.
"am i to go to new york all alone?" kate asked, with a look which set jermyn's well-controlled heart dancing, although its owner said,
"what? your brother, and mrs. highwood and miss wardlow—aren't they going?"
"you know very well what i mean, you consummate hypocrite."
"and you know very well, or you ought to," said jermyn, "that i'd gladly follow you all over the earth. still, i can't force myself upon the remainder of the party."
"then trif shall invite you, at once," said kate.
"trif," fenie was saying at almost the same moment, as her sister returned from an unsuccessful search for trixy, "kate has gone out to ask jermyn to accompany us north; wouldn't it be the graceful thing for you, as the head of the party, to add your request to hers?"
"where is he?" asked trif. she was on the piazza soon after fenie told her where the lieutenant was.
"how kind and thoughtful of you!" said jermyn. "i suppose," he continued hypocritically, "that i might possibly get permission to be absent a few days longer if——"
"that's all right," intruded the voice of trixy. "you can go, and that ain't all—you'll get into a lot of trouble if you don't go. i've been to see the head man about it."
"the head man?" echoed jermyn, while the others looked inquiringly at the child.
"yes. don't you know? i mean the man up at the fort, that all you soldiers have to ask when you want to do anything. i told him all about it, although he kept on interruptin', and sayin' 'yes, yes,' as if he wanted me to stop [pg 177]talkin'. i didn't stop, though, so at last he said, 'little girl, i've already heard something about the matter. please say to lieutenant jermyn, with my compliments, that he is to go to new york at once, and that he isn't to show his face here again for several days, and that if he dares to do so i may have him held to account for getting a leave of absence on false pretenses.' there!—i think i've told it just like he said it, so you see you'll have to go if you don't want to catch it."
"trixy," exclaimed jermyn, utterly aghast, "do you mean to say that you have actually called upon the post commandant and told him that i was here, and that——"
"yes, i told him everything i could, so he'd be sure to let you go; told him about your bein' here to lunch with mamma—he looked awful s'prised then, 'cause he thought you'd gone to new york, so i told him what you went for, and how the admiral brought you back, and then he told me he wished i'd find the admiral and say he'd be glad to have him come up to the fort to dinner. then he looked as if he didn't know what to think, and i got afraid that mebbe he'd change his mind and not let you go after all, so i told him that 'twas real important, and about last night up by the lighthouse—don't you remember? oh, mamma! i promised you real solemn that i wouldn't say a word about that to anybody, didn't i! i wonder how i came to do it?"
kate looked at jermyn, and jermyn blushed; then he looked at kate, and kate blushed; as [pg 178]to the others, they looked at both of them and laughed merrily. but kate wasn't going to let the dear fellow feel uncomfortable, so she said softly—
"you'll go with us?"
"you've heard my orders, my dear, although i must say that they did not come through the customary official channels, but as i got a week's leave last night for this very purpose——"
"you shall have a blissful week," interrupted trif, "with no one to disturb or make trouble."
"but you forget that the general commanding this department has headquarters at new york, and if trixy should——"
"sh—h—" whispered kate. "that dreadful child might appeal to the president of the united states, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the army and navy."
"do be quiet," said jermyn. "the child is listening with all her might."
