The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding Read online

  CHAPTER II

  BED-TIME CONFIDENCES

  THAT night a series of interesting shadows trooped across the littleDutch mirror, in the moonlight, but nobody watched beside it to see howfaithfully it reflected the procession of guests, straggling up the pathbelow. After the first pleased glance Gay had flown down-stairs to throwopen the front door and bid them welcome. It was almost more than shehad dared to hope that the old Colonel would come, and "Papa Jack" andKitty's Grandmother MacIntyre. But they had needed no urging. Gay wasreaping the aftermath now, of her first visit to the Valley. They hadnot forgotten the obliging little guest who had entertained them withher violin playing, amused them with her quaint unexpected speeches, andcharmed old and young alike with her enthusiastic interest in everythingand everybody.

  Ranald had more than that to remember, for he had carried on a vigorouscorrespondence with Gay for the last six months, started by a "dare"from Allison. Alex Shelby's memory of her dated back only to thatmorning, but the picture of a sunny little head up among the roses, andthat line "Sandalphon the angel of glory" had been in his thoughts allday.

  Their effort to show the newcomers how cordial a Lloydsboro welcomecould be, was met by a hospitality which held them in its spell tillafter midnight. Lucy was in her element. As the popular daughter of apopular army officer, she had played gracious hostess ever since she hadlearned to talk. As for Gay, so anxious was she that her friends shouldbe pleased with her family and her family with her friends, that shethrew herself with all her might into the task of making each show offto the other.

  An outside fire-place on the broad front porch was one of the featuresof the Cabin. The June night was cool enough to make the blaze on itshearth acceptable, and Lucy turned the picturesque old kettle, bubblingon the crane, to practical use, making coffee to serve with themarsh-mallows, which Jameson handed around on long sticks, that each onemight toast his own over the glowing coals.

  The informality of it all, and the good cheer, made every one relax intohis jolliest mood, and Gay, hearing the old Colonel's laugh, asstretched out on the settle by the fire, he told stories and toastedmarsh-mallows with a zest, felt that they had struck the right key-notein this first evening's entertainment. It was the harbinger of manyothers that would follow during the summer.

  It was her violin that held them longest. Standing just inside the doorwhere Kitty could accompany her on the piano, she played one afteranother of the favourite tunes that were called for in turn, till thefire burned low on the porch hearth, and even the voices of the nightwere stilled in the dense beech woods around the Cabin.

  It was later than any one had supposed when Mrs. Sherman made thediscovery that the hall clock had stopped.

  "She didn't know that I stopped it on purpose," confessed Gay, when thelast carriage had driven away, and Lloyd was following her sleepilyup-stairs. She paused to bolt the bed-room door behind them.

  "This has been a lovely evening for me. It gives one such a comfortableI-told-you-so sort of feeling to have everything turn out as youprophesied it would. Of course I knew that Lucy would feel the charm ofthe Valley, and like it a thousand times better than the mountains orseashore or anywhere else, but I wasn't so sure of Jameson. Now my mindis completely at rest for the summer. I stopped worrying when I saw himhobnobbing with the Colonel and your father about those Lexington horseshe wants to buy. He was so tickled over those letters of introductionthey gave him. And he was so charmed to air his knowledge of thePhilippines to Mrs. Walton. He spent a month there you know. I fairlypatted myself on the back all the time he was talking. Somehow I feel soresponsible for this household. There! I forgot to remind them to bringthat bothersome old silver pitcher upstairs!"

  Hastily unbolting the door she called out in sepulchral tones thatechoed through the dark house, "_Remember the Maine!_"

  There was a laugh in the room across the hall, then her brother-in-lawwho had just come up-stairs, shuffled down again in his slippers.

  "I suppose I'll have to remind them every night this summer," continuedGay. "I don't like to call out 'remember the silver pitcher that was ourgreat-great-grandmother Melville's, and the soup ladle that some oldSpanish grandee gave to one of Jameson's Castilian ancestors,' for if aburglar were prowling around he would be all the more anxious to breakin. So the month I visited them, before we came here, I adopted thatslogan for my war-cry: '"_Remember the main_" thing in life to be savedfrom burglars!' It always sends one or the other of them skipping, forthey feel the responsibility of preserving such heirlooms for posterity.I used to wish that I were the oldest daughter, so that that pitcherwould be handed down to me on my wedding day. I didn't realize what abore it would be to be tied for life to such a responsibility. I askedJameson why he didn't put it and the ladle in a safety vault and be donewith it, and he read me such a lecture on the sacredness of oldassociations and family ties that I somehow felt that his old soup-ladleexpected me to send it a written apology."

  Gay had bolted the door again, and as she talked, drew the curtainsacross the casement windows. Now she sat on the edge of the bed, shakingout her wealth of sunny hair, to brush and braid it for the night. Itwas a cosy room, with low ceiling and old-fashioned wall paper. With thecurtains drawn and the candles in the quaint pewter sticks lighting upthe claw-footed mahogany furniture, it was an ideal place for theexchanging of bedtime confidences. Gay was the first to break thesilence.

  "What was the matter with Betty tonight? She was as quiet as a mouse.Hardly had a word to say, and all the time I was playing, she satlooking out into the night as if she were ready to cry."

  "No wondah! They were so beautiful, some of those nocturnes and things,that we all had lumps in our throats. Nothing's the mattah with Betty.It's just the last chaptah she can't get to suit her. She's gone aroundin a sawt of dream all day."

  "Who's playing the devoted to her now?"

  "Nobody as far as I know. _All_ the boys love Betty. They've beenperfectly devoted to her ever since she came to Locust to live; butnot--not in the sentimental way you mean; for instance the way that AlexShelby cares for Kitty."

  "Oh _don't_ tell me there is anything in that," wailed Gay, "at least onKitty's part, for I've set my heart on her marrying a friend of mine inSan Antonio, so she'll always be near me. You know when Mammy Eastertold her fortune, it was that her fate would come through running waterwhen the weather vane points _West_. I'm wild to have her visit me atFort Sam Houston next year, and this Frank Percival is the very one ofall others for her. He's a banker and as good as gold and--oh well,there's no use wasting time singing his praises to _you_ when I want himfor Kitty! But about this Alex Shelby, Kitty told me this very afternoonthat it is _you_ he admires so much. She told me all about that BerniceHowe affair, and said that ever since Katie Mallard up and told him howhonourably you acted in the matter, he has put you on a pedestal andgiven you a halo. She said you could have him crazy about you if you'dso much as lift an eyelash in encouragement."

  "Don't you believe it!" cried Lloyd. "That's just Kitty's way ofthrowing you off the track. We've been unusually good friends evah sincehe found out why I broke my engagement to go riding with him, but he isat The Beeches every bit as much as he is at The Locusts, and it's youhe'll be in love with befoah the summah is ovah. He was the first onereflected in yoah looking glass, for he confessed this evening how hesat and watched you on the laddah, and how he'd thought of you all day;and he even quoted poetry about it, and that's a very serious symptomfor Alex to show. He nevah was known to do such things befoah! Thentonight he was simply carried away by yoah playing. He adores a violinand you played all his favourites. Oh I see yoah finish!"

  There was a pause in which Gay kicked off her slippers and sat absentlygazing at them, while Lloyd tied the ribbons which fastened the lace inthe collar of her dainty gown. Again it was Gay who spoke first.

  "Doesn't it seem queer to think of Allison's being engaged? It is such alittle while since we were all school girls together. Nobody knows whoseturn
will come next. It makes me feel like a soldier on a battlefield--comrades being shot down all around you right and left and younever knowing how soon it'll be your turn to fall. It's awful! Lloyd,what's become of that boy out in Arizona, the one who sent you thoseorange-blossoms in Joyce's letter when I was here before? He was bestman at Eugenia Forbes' wedding."

  "Oh, you mean Phil Tremont!" answered Lloyd placidly, without theconscious blush that Gay had expected to see. "He is out West again,doing splendidly, Eugenia writes."

  "I thought you wrote to him yourself."

  Lloyd, stooping to pick up her dress and hang it over a chair, did notsee with what keen interest Gay watched her as she questioned.

  "Oh, we still keep up a sawt of hit and miss correspondence. He writesevery few weeks and I manage to reply once in two months or so. It'sdreadfully uphill work for me to write to people whom I nevah see. It'sbeen two yeahs since he was heah, and I nevah know what he'll beinterested in."

  "I suppose it's easier writing to some one you've known all your life,like Malcolm MacIntyre for instance. I'm so sorry he and Keith areabroad this summer."

  Lloyd's face dimpled mischievously as she began to see the drift ofGay's questioning. "I can't tell you how easy it is to write to Malcolm,because I've nevah done it. Now it's my turn to ask questions. Where didyou get this new photograph of Ranald Walton on yoah dressing table? Begit from Kitty as you did that one at Warwick Hall, when he was a littlecadet, or get it from headquartahs?"

  "Direct from headquarters," confessed Gay with a laugh. "He isn't soafraid of girls as he used to be. Wasn't he charming tonight?"

  So the questioning and answering went on for quarter of an hour longer,each anxious to find how far the other had drifted into the unexploredcountry of their dreams. Then Gay blew out the candles and climbed intothe high four-posted bed beside Lloyd, where they lay looking outthrough the open window into the starlight. The moon had been down forsome time. It was so still here in the heart of the beech woods that thesilence could almost be felt. The girls spoke in whispers.

  "It settles down on one like a pall," said Gay. "Are you sleepy?"

  "Not very," answered Lloyd, stifling a yawn.

  "Then there's one more person in the valley I want to ask about. Ibelieve I've heard an account of every one else. Where's Rob Moore andwhat is he doing? I thought he would come over with you all tonight."

  "Poah old Rob," answered Lloyd, swallowing another yawn. "His fathahdied a little ovah a yeah ago, and he's nevah been like himself since.He seemed to grow into a man in just a few hours. It was awfullysudden--Mistah Moore's death. The shock neahly killed Rob's mothah, andthe deah old judge, his grandfathah, you know, was simply heartbroken.Rob just gave up his entire time to them aftah that. He was such acomfort. Nevah left the place, and took charge of all the businessmattahs, to spare them every worry. When things were settled up theyfound there wasn't as much left as they had thought there would be, andRob wouldn't touch a cent to finish his law course. He was afraid hismothah would have to deny herself some luxury she had always been usedto, and he didn't want her to miss a single one she had had in hisfathah's lifetime. So he took a position in Louisville, and has beenworking like a dawg evah since. He reads law at night with the oldJudge, so I scarcely evah see him. We've just drifted apart, till itseems as if the little old Bobby I grew up with is dead and gone. Imissed him dreadfully at first, all last summah, for he'd almost livedat our house, and was just like a brothah. I haven't seen him at allthis vacation, though to be suah I've only been home this one day."

  In the dim starlight Lloyd could not see the complacent smile on Gay'sface, but her voice showed that she was well pleased with the answers toher string of questions.

  "Now I'll tell you why I put you through such a catechism," she began."I wanted to make sure that the coast is clear, so that you canundertake a mission that is to be laid at your door this summer.Jameson's brother Leland will be here to-morrow afternoon. If he takes afancy to the place he will probably stay as long as we do, and we areall very anxious for him to stay. He's only three years younger thanJameson, but the two were left alone in the world when they were justlittle tots, and Jameson has been like a father to him. He feels soresponsible for him and so does Lucy. I do too, now, although he's onlymy brother-in-law's brother, because I persuaded them to come here forthe summer, and Jameson wanted to go somewhere where Leland would besatisfied to stay."

  "What's the mattah with him, that he needs so much looking aftah? Ifhe's twenty-three yeahs old it seems to me that he might take theresponsibility of himself on his own shouldahs. Is he wild?"

  "No. Jameson says he's always been too high-minded to do the things menmean when they talk about sowing their wild oats; but he is as utterlyirresponsible as a will-o-the-wisp. He won't stay tied down toanything--just drifts around, here and there, having a good time. It's apity that he isn't as poor as a church mouse. Then he'd have to dosomething. He's so bright he easily could make something splendid ofhimself. Now Jameson has good sensible ideas about not squandering hismoney, and although he doesn't have to work any more than Leland does,he looks after the details of his own business as a man should.

  "He knows all about the mines he has stock in down in Mexico, and hestudies mineralogy and labour problems and investments, and has anoffice that he goes to regularly every morning. He takes after hisfather's side of the house, practical English people. But Leland is likehis mother's family (they were proud old Spaniards just a generation orso back). He is adventurous and roving and romantic, and has the _dolcefar niente_ in the blood. Jameson says that all that Leland needs is tobe kept keyed up to the right pitch, for he is so impetuous andheadstrong that he always gets what he starts after, no matter whatstands in the way; and that if he could just fall heels over head inlove with some girl with great force of character, who wouldn't look athim till he'd measured up to her standards, it would be the making ofhim."

  Lloyd yawned. "Excuse me for saying it," she began teasingly, "but Idon't see how you can get up so much interest in anybody like that, evenif he is yoah brothah-in-law's brothah. It sounds to me as if he is justplain _lazy_ and I nevah did have any use for a man that had to benagged all the time to keep his ambition up to high-watah mark."

  Gay sat up in bed in her earnestness. "Oh Lloyd, don't say that!" sheprotested. "Don't judge him till you've seen him. He's perfectly dear inlots of ways, in spite of his faults. You'll find him fascinating.Everybody does. And I'm going to be entirely honest with you--I'vefairly _prayed_ that you'd like him. You are so strong yourself, thestrongest character of any girl I know, and you influence people soforcibly in spite of themselves, that I've felt from the start it wouldbe the making of Leland if you'd take him in hand this summer."

  Lloyd smothered a laugh in the pillow. "'Why don't you speak foryourself, John,'" she said mischievously. "Why don't _you_ take him inhand? You are already interested so much that you'd only be combiningpleasuah with duty."

  Gay was too much in earnest to tolerate any levity, and went on in herintense eager way. "Oh I've already worn myself out trying to influencehim, but it's of no use. He knows me too well. He's called me 'Pug' and'Red-bird' ever since we went to kindergarten together. I'm just one ofthe family. But I've showed him your picture and told him what anunapproachable, unattainable creature you are, and whetted his curiositytill it's as keen as a razor. Oh I've played my little game like anexpert, and he doesn't suspect in the faintest degree what I want. Hethinks I'm trying to interest him in Kitty Walton. I told him she's thedarlingest, jolliest, prettiest thing in ten states, and that I'dguarantee he wouldn't feel bored once this entire summer if he'd makeher acquaintance.

  "But you--I've painted as so indifferent and entirely above his reach,that just to prove to me I'm mistaken, he'll nearly break his neck toput himself on good terms with you. It's just as Jameson says, he'llride rough-shod over everything that stands in his way, to get what hewants."

  Lloyd raised herself on her elbow and turned a prot
esting face towardsher eloquent bed-fellow.

  "Well of all cool things," she began, half inclined to be indignant, yetso amused at Gay's masterly management that the exclamation ended in agiggle. "Where do _I_ come in, pray? You say he always gets what he goesaftah. Did it evah occur to you that I might not want to be takenpossession of in that high-handed way? That _I_ might have something tosay in the mattah? Haven't you as much interest in my welfare as inyoah sistah's husband's brothah?"

  "Of course! you blessed little goose!" exclaimed Gay, giving the armnext hers an impetuous squeeze. "Don't I know the haughty Princess wellenough to be sure that all the king's horses and all the king's mencouldn't budge her against her will? I'm not looking ahead any fartherthan this summer. But if you could just shake him up and put him on hismettle that long, that's all I ask of you. And seriously, dear, youmight go the world over and not find one who measures up to your idealsin more ways. He's well born and talented and rich and fairlygood-looking. He's so entertaining one never tires of his company,good-hearted and generous to a fault, and--Oh Lloyd, _please_ say you'lltake enough interest to keep him keyed up to the right pitch for awhile.It's all he lacks to make a splendid man."

  "Do you know, I think that's a mighty big lack," said Lloyd, honestly."I've had strings on my harp that wouldn't stay strung. It's the mostexasperating thing in the world. You know how it is, with a violin.Right in the midst of the loveliest passages one will begin to slipback--just a trifle, maybe, not more than a hair's breadth, but enoughto make it flat and spoil the harmony. Then you stop and tune it upagain, and go on for awhile, but back it will slip just when you'vegotten to depending on it. You know I couldn't have any respect for aman who had to be kept up to the notch that way. It would spoil thewhole thing to have him flat on a single note when I'd depended on himto ring clear and true."

  Gay had no reply ready for this unexpected argument, and her experiencewith stringed instruments made it very forcible. It was several minutesbefore she answered, then she spoke triumphantly.

  "But you know what a master can do where a novice would fail. He can fitthe keys to hold any position he gives them. Leland has never felt thetouch of a master-hand. No one has ever controlled him. He has alwaysbeen petted and spoiled. He has never known a girl like you. I'm surethat if you were only willing to make the attempt to arouse his prideand ambition, you could do wonders for him."

  It was the most potent appeal Gay could have made. To feel that herinfluence may sway a man to higher, better things, will make even themost frivolous girl draw quicker breath with a sense of power, and to aconscientious girl like Lloyd this seemed an opportunity and aresponsibility that could not be lightly thrust aside.

  "Well," she said finally, after a moment of hesitation, "I'll try."

  Gay reached over with an impulsive kiss. "Oh you _dear_! I knew youwould. Now I can let you go to sleep in peace. 'Something accomplished,something done, has earned a night's repose.' It must be awfully late.Goodnight dear."

  Long after Gay had fallen asleep, Lloyd lay thinking of the mission thusthrust upon her. If this Leland Harcourt had needed reforming, she toldherself, she wouldn't have had anything to do with him. Her poorViolet's experience with Ned Bannon had taught her one lesson--howmistaken any girl is who thinks she can accomplish _that_. But to be themaster-hand that could put in tune some really splendid instrument (ah,Gay's appeal was subtle and strong) _any_ girl would be glad and proudto be _that_: the inspiration, the power for good, the beckoning handthat would lead a man to the noblest heights of attainment.

  There was something exhilarating, uplifting in the thought, thatbanished sleep. Night often brings exalted moods that seem absurd nextday. Lying there, looking out at the stars, the pleasing fancy came toher that each one was a sacred altar-flame, given into the keeping ofsome unseen vestal virgin. Now she too had joined this star-worldSisterhood, and had lighted a vestal fire on the altar of a promise. Inits constant watch, she would keep tryst with all that Life demanded ofher.