The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary Page 20

  CHAPTER TWENTY - JACK'S JOY

  About the first of July many agreeable things happened.

  One was that Mr. Stebbins found it advisable to address a discreet letterto John Watkins, Jr., Denham, conveying the information that although hemust not count unduly upon the future, still, if he behaved himself, hemight with safety allow his expenditures to mount upward monthly to acertain limit. This was the way in which Aunt Mary salved her conscienceand saved her pride all at once.

  "I don't want him to think that I don't mean things when I say 'em," shehad carefully explained to Mr. Stebbins, "but I can't bear to think thatthere's anybody in New York without money enough to have a good timethere."

  Mr. Stebbins had made a note of the sum which the allowance was to compassand had promised to write the letter at once.

  "What did you do the last time you were in the city?" Aunt Mary asked.

  "I was much occupied with business," said the lawyer, "but I found time tovisit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and--"

  "Good gracious!" exclaimed Aunt Mary, "who was takin' you 'round! I neverhad a second for any museums or arts;--you ought to have seen a vaudeville,or that gondola place! I was ferried around four times and the musiclasted all through." She stopped and reflected. "I guess you can make thatmoney a hundred a month more," she said slowly. "I don't want the boy toever feel stinted or have to run in debt."

  Mr. Stebbins smiled, and the result was that Jack began to pay up thebills for his aunt's entertainment very much more rapidly than he hadanticipated doing.

  Another pleasant thing was that a week or so later--very soon after Mrs.Rosscott had given up her town house and returned to the protection of theparental slate-tiles--Burnett's father, a peppery but jovial old gentleman(we all know the kind), suddenly asked why Bob never came home any more.This action on the part of the head of the house being tantamount to thecompletest possible forgiveness and obliviousness of the past, Burnett'smother, of whom the inquiry had been made, wept tears of sincerest joy andwrote to the youngest of her flock to return to the ancestral fold just assoon as he possibly could. He came, and as a result, a fortnight laterJack came, and Mitchell came, and Clover came. Mrs. Rosscott, as we havepreviously stated, was already there, and so were Maude Lorne and a greatmany others. Some of the others were pretty girls and Burnett and two ofhis friends found plenty to amuse them, but Burnett's dearest friend, hisbosom friend, his Fidus Achates, found no one to amuse him, because he wasin earnest, and had eyes for no feminine prettiness, his sight beingdazzled by the radiance of one surpassing loveliness. He had workedtremendously hard the first month of daily laboring, and felt he deserveda reward. Be it said for Jack that the reward of which Aunt Mary had thebestowing counted for very little with him except in its relation to thefar future. The real goal which he was striving toward, the real laurelsthat he craved--Ah! they lay in another direction.

  Middle July is a lovely time to get off among the trees and grass, and liearound in white flannels or white muslins, just as the case may be. It wastoo warm to do much else than that, and Heaven knows that Jack desirednothing better, as long as his goddess smiled upon him.

  It was curious about his goddess. She seemed to grow more beautiful everytime that he saw her. Perhaps it was her native air that gave her thatcharming flush; perhaps it was the joy of being at home again; perhaps itwas--no, he didn't dare to hope that. Not yet. Not even with all that shehad done for him fresh in his memory. The humility of true love was soheavy on his heart that his very dreams were dulled with hopelessness, themajority of them seeming too vividly dyed in Paradise hues for theirfulfillment in daily life to ever appear possible. But still he was very,very happy to be there with her--beside her--and to hear her voice and lookinto her eyes whenever the trouble some "other people" would leave themalone together. And she did seem happy, too. And so rejoiced that the tideof Aunt Mary's wrath had been successfully turned. And so rejoiced that hewas at work, even in the face of her hopes as to his college career. Andalso so rejoiced to take up the gay, careless thread of their mutualpleasure again.

  The morning after the gathering of the party was Saturday and an idealday--that sort of ideal day when house parties naturally sift into pairsand then fade away altogether. The country surrounding our particularparty was densely wooded and not at all settled, the woods were laid outin a fascinating system of walks and benches which in no case commandedviews of one another, and the shade overhead was the shade of July and aspropitious to rest as it was to motion. Mitchell took a girl in gray andtwo sets of golf clubs and started out in the opposite direction from thelinks, Clover took a girl in green and a camera and went another way,Burnett took a girl in a riding habit and two saddle horses and followedthe horses' noses whither they led, and Jack--Jack smoked cigarettes on thepiazza and waited--waited.

  Mrs. Rosscott came out after a while and asked him why he didn't go towalk also.

  "Just what I was thinking as to yourself," he said, very boldly as tovoice, and very beseechingly as to eyes.

  "Oh, I'm so busy," she said, laughing up into his eyes and then laughingdown at the ground--"you see I'm the only married daughter to help mamma."

  "But you've been helping all the morning," he complained, "and besides howcan you help? One would think that your mother was beating eggs or turningmattresses."

  "I have to work harder than that," said Mrs. Rosscott; "I have to makepeople know one another and like one another and not all want to make loveto the same girl."

  "You can't help their all wanting to make love to the same girl," saidJack; "the more you try to convince them of their folly the deeper in lovethey are bound to fall. I'm an illustration of that myself."

  Mrs. Rosscott looked at him then and curved her mouth sweetly.

  "You do say such pretty things," she said. "I don't see how you've learnedso much in so little time. Why, General Jiggs in there is three times yourage and he tangles himself awfully when he tries to be sweet."

  "Perhaps his physician has recommended gymnastics," said Jack.

  "Perhaps," said Mrs. Rosscott laughing, and then she turned as if to goin.

  "Oh, don't," said her lover, barring the way with great suddenness; "youreally mustn't, you know. I've been patient for so long and been good forso long and I must be rewarded--I really must. Do come out with mesomewhere--anywhere--for only a half-hour,--please."

  She looked at him.

  "Won't Maude do?" she asked.

  "No, she won't," he said beneath his breath; "whatever do you suggest sucha thing for? You make me ready to tell you to your face that you want togo as bad as I want you to go, but I shan't say so because I know toomuch."

  "You do know a lot, don't you?" said she, with an expression of greatrespect; "why, if you were to dare to hint to me that I wanted to go outwith you instead of staying in and talking Rembrandt with Mr. Morley, I'dnever forgive you the longest day I live."

  "I know you wouldn't," said he, "and you may be quite sure that I shallnot say it. On the contrary I shall merely implore you to forget your ownpleasure in consideration of mine."

  "I really ought to devote the morning to Mr. Morley," she saidmeditatively; "it's such an honor his coming here, you know."

  "A little bit of a whiskered monkey," said Jack in great disgust; "anhonor, indeed!"

  "He's a very great man," said Mrs. Rosscott; "every sort of institutionhas given him a few letters to put after his name, and some have given himwhole syllables."

  "You must get a straw hat, you know, or a sun-shade; it will be hot inhalf an hour."

  "Oh, I couldn't stay out half an hour; fifteen minutes would be thelongest."

  "All right, fifteen minutes, then, but do hurry."

  "I didn't say that I would go," she said, opening her eyes; "and yet Ifeel myself gone." She laughed lightly.

  "Do hurry," he pleaded freshly; "oh, I am so hungry to--"

  She disappeared within doors and five minutes later came back with one ofthose charming floppy English g
arden hats, tied with a muslin bow beneathher dimpled chin.

  "This is so good of me," she said, as they went down the steps.

  "Very good, heavenly good," said Jack; and then neither spoke again untilthey had crossed the Italian garden and entered the American wood. Shelooked into his eyes then and smiled half-shyly and half-provokingly.

  "You are such a baby," she said; "such a baby! Do ask me why and I'll tellyou half a dozen whys. I'd love to."

  The path was the smoothest and shadiest of forest paths, the hour was thesweetest and sunniest of summer hours, the moment was the brightest andhappiest of all the moments which they had known together--up to now.

  "Do tell me," he said; "I'm wild to know."

  He took her hand and laid it on his arm. For that little while she wascertainly his and his alone, and no man had a better claim to her. "Go onand tell me," he repeated.

  "There is one big reason and there are lots of little ones. Which will youhave first?"

  "The little ones, please."

  "Then, listen; you are like a baby because you are impatient, because youare spoilt, because when you want anything you think that you must haveit, and because you like to be walked with."

  "Are those the little reasons," he said when she paused; "and what's thebig one?"

  "The big one," she said slowly; "Oh, I'm afraid that you won't like thebig one!"

  "Perhaps it will be all the better for me if I don't," he laughed; "at anyrate I beg and pray and plead to know it."

  "What a dear boy!" she laughed. "If you want to know as badly as that, I'dhave to tell you anyhow, whether I wanted to or not. It's because I'm somuch the oldest."

  "Oh!" said Jack, much disappointed. "Is that why?"

  "And then too," she continued, "you seem even younger because of yourbeing so unsophisticated."

  "So I am unsophisticated, am I?" he asked grimly.

  "Yes," she said nodding; "at least you impress me so."

  "I'm glad of that," he said after a little pause.

  She looked up quickly.

  "Truly?"

  "Yes, indeed."

  "Oh," she laughed, "if you say that, then I shall know that you are lessunsophisticated than I thought you were."

  "Why so?" he asked surprised.

  "Don't you know that meek, mild men always try to insinuate that they areregular fire-eaters, and vice versa? Well, it's so--and it's so every time.There was once a man who was kissing me, and he drew my hands up aroundhis neck in such a clever, gentle way that I was absolutely positive thathe had had no end of practice drawing arms up in that way and I justcouldn't help saying: 'Oh, how many women you must have kissed!' What doyou think he answered?--merely smiled and said: 'Not so many as you mightimagine.' He showed how much he knew by the way he answered, for oh! hehad. I found that out afterwards."

  "What did you do then?" he asked, frowning. "Cut him?"

  "No; I married him. Why, of course I was going to marry him when he kissedme, or I wouldn't have let him kiss me. Do you suppose I let men kiss meas a general thing? What are you thinking of?"

  "I was thinking of you," he said. "It's a horrible habit I've fallen intolately. But, never mind; keep on talking."

  "I don't remember what I was saying," she said. "Oh, yes, I do too. Aboutmen, about good and bad men. Now, even if I didn't know how much troubleyou'd made in the world, I'd divine it all the instant that you werewilling to admit being unsophisticated. People always crave to be theopposite of what they are; the drug shops couldn't sell any peroxide ofhydrogen if that wasn't so."

  He laughed and forgot his previous vexation.

  "Now, look at me," she continued. "Oh, I didn't mean really--I meanfiguratively; but never mind. Now, I'm nothing but a bubble and a toy, andI ache to be considered a philosopher. Don't you remember my telling youwhat a philosopher I was, the very first conversation that we ever hadtogether? I do try so hard to delude myself into thinking I am one, thatsome days I'm almost sure that I really am one. Last night, for instance,I was thinking how nice it would be for my Cousin Maude to marry you."

  "Ye gods!" cried Jack.

  "She's so very rich," Mrs. Rosscott pursued calmly; "and you know the lawof heredity is an established scientific fact now, so you could feel quitesafe as to her nose skipping the next generation."

  Jack was audibly amused.

  "It's not anything to laugh over," his companion continued gravely. "It'ssomething to ponder and pray over. If I were Maude I should be on my kneesabout it most of the time."

  "Nothing can help her now," said Jack. "Her parents have been and gone anddone it, as far as she's concerned, forever. Prayer won't change her nose,although age may broaden it still more."

  "Don't you believe that nothing can help her now. A good-looking husbandcould help her lots. I've seen homelier girls than she go justeverywhere--on account of their husbands, you know. That was where myphilosophy came in."

  "I'd quite forgotten your philosophy." He laughed again as he spoke. "Imust apologize. Please tell me more about it."

  She laughed, too.

  "I'm going to. You see, I was lying there, looking out at the moon, andthinking how nice it would be for Maude to marry you."

  "Did you consider me at all?" he interposed.

  "How you interrupt!" she declared, in exasperation. "You never let mefinish."

  "I am dumb."

  "Well, I thought how nice it would be for Maude to marry you. You'd have abaron for a papa-in-law, and an heiress to balance Aunt Mary with. If youwent into consumption and had to retreat to Arizona for a term of years,the climate could not ruin her complexion as it would m--most people's. Andshe's so ready to have you that it's almost pathetic. I can't imagineanything more awful than to be as ready to marry a man who is'nt at alldesirous of so doing, as Maude is of marrying you. But if you would onlythink about it. I thought and thought about it last night and the longer Ithought the more it seemed like such a nice arrangement all around; andthen--all of a sudden--do you know I began to wonder if I was philosopherenough to enjoy being matron-of-honor to Maude and really--"

  "At the wedding I could have kissed you!" he exclaimed, and suddenlysubsided at the look with which she withered his boldness.

  "And really I wasn't altogether sure; and then, it occurred to me thatnothing on the face of the earth would ever persuade you to marry Maude.And I saw my card castle go smashing down, and then I saw that I really ama philosopher, after all, for--for I didn't mind a bit!"

  Jack threw his head back and roared.

  "Oh," he said after a minute, "you are so refreshing. You ruffle me upjust to give me the joy of smoothing me down, don't you?"

  "I do what I can to amuse you," she said, demurely. "You are my father'sguest and my brother's friend, and so I ought to--oughtn't I?"

  "Yes," he said, "I have a two-fold claim on you if you look at it that wayand some day I mean to go to work and unfold still another."

  They had come to a delightful little nook where the trees sighed gently,"Sit down," and there seemed to be no adequate reason for refusing theinvitation.

  "Let's rest, I know you're tired," the young man said gently, and the nextminute found his companion down upon the soft grass, her back against atwisted tree-root and her hands about her knees.

  He threw himself down beside her and the hush and the song of mid-summerwere all about them, filling the air, and their ears, and their hearts allat once.

  Presently he took her hand up out of the grass where its fingers hadwandered to hide themselves, and kissed it. She looked at him reprovinglywhen it was too late, and shook her head.

  "Such a little one!" he said.

  "I call it a pretty big one," she answered.

  "I mean the hand--not the kiss," he said smiling.

  "You really are sophisticated," she told him. "Only fancy if you hadreversed those nouns!"

  "I know," he said; "but I've kissed hands before. You see, I'm moretalented than you think."

  "Don't be silly,"
she said smiling. "I really am beginning to think verywell of you. You don't want me to cease to, do you?"

  "Why do women always say 'Don't be silly'?" he queried. "I wish I couldfind one who wanted to be very original, and so said, 'Do be silly', justfor a change."

  "Dear me, if women were to beg men to be silly what would happen?" Mrs.Rosscott exclaimed. "The majority are so very foolish without any specialegging on."

  "But it is so dreadfully time-worn--that one phrase."

  "Oh, if it comes to originality," she answered, "men are not original,either. Whenever they lie down in the shade, they always begin to talknonsense. You reflect a bit and see if that isn't invariably so."

  "But nonsense is such fun to talk in the shade," he said, spreading herfingers out upon his own broad palm. "So many things are so next toheavenly in the shade."

  "You ought not to hold my hand."

  "I know it."

  "I am astonished that you do not remember your Aunt Mary's teaching youbetter."

  "She never forbade my holding your hand."

  "Suppose anyone should come suddenly down the path?"

  "They would see us and turn and go back."

  "To tell everyone--"

  "What?"

  "A lie."

  Jack laughed, folded her hand hard in his, and drew himself into a sittingposture beside her knee.

  "Now, don't be silly," she said with earnest anxiety. "I won't have it.It's putting false ideas in your head, because I'm really only playing,you know."

  "The shadow of love," he suggested.

  "Quite so."

  "And if--" He leaned quite near.

  "Not by any means," she exclaimed, springing quickly to her feet."Come--come! It's quite time that we were going back to the house."

  "Why must we?" he remonstrated.

  "You know why," she said. "It's time we were being sensible. When a mangets as near as you are, I prefer to be _en promenade_. And don't let usbe foolish any longer, either. Let us be cool and worldly. How much moneyhas your aunt, anyhow?"

  Jack had risen, too.

  "What impertinence!" he ejaculated.

  "Not at all," she said. "Maude has so much money of her own that I ask ina wholly disinterested spirit."

  "She's very rich," said Jack. "But if your spirit is so disinterested,what do you want to know for?"

  "This is a world of chance, and the main chance in a woman's case isalimony; so it's always nice to know how to figure it."

  "It's a slim chance for your cousin," said Jack. "Do tell her that I saidso."

  "No, I shan't," said she perversely. "I won't be a go-between for you andher. Besides, as to that alimony, there are more heiresses than Maude inour family."

  "Yes," said he; "I know that. But I know, too, that there is one amongthem who need never figure on getting any alimony out of me. If I ever getthe iron grasp of the law on that heiress, I can assure you that only herdeath or mine will ever loosen its fangs."

  "How fierce you are!" said Mrs. Rosscott. "Why do you get so worked up?"

  "Oh," he exclaimed, with something approaching a groan, "I don't mean tobe--but I do care so much! And sometimes--" he caught her quickly in hisarms, drew her within their strong embrace, and kissed her passionatelyupon the lips that had been tantalizing him for five interminable months.

  He was almost frightened the next second by her stillness.

  "Don't be angry," he pleaded.

  "I'm not," she murmured, resting very quietly with her cheek against hisheart. "But you'll have to marry me now. My other husband did, you know."

  "Marry you!" he exclaimed. "Next week? To-morrow? This afternoon? You needonly say when--"

  "Oh, not for years and years," she said, interrupting him. "You mustn'tdream of such a thing for years and years!"

  "For years and years!" he cried in astonishment.

  "That's what I said," she told him.

  He released her in his surprise and stared hard at her. And then he seizedher again and kissed her soundly.

  "You don't mean it!" he declared.

  "I do mean it!" she declared.

  And then she shook her head in a very sweet but painfully resolute manner.

  "I won't be called a cradle-robber," she said, firmly; and at that hercompanion swore mildly but fervently.

  "You're so young," she said further; "and not a bit settled," she added.

  "But you're young, too," he reminded her.

  "I'm older than you are," she said.

  "I suppose that you aren't any more settled than I am, and that's why youhesitate," he said grimly.

  "Now that's unworthy of you," she cried; "and I have a good mind--"

  But the direful words were never spoken, for she was in his armsagain--close in his arms; and, as he kissed her with a delicious sensationthat it was all too good to be true, he whispered, laughing:

  "I always meant to lord it over my wife, so I'll begin by saying: 'Have ityour own way, as long as I have you.'"

  Mrs. Rosscott laid her cheek back against his coat lapel, and looked upinto his eyes with the sweetest smile that even he had ever seen upon evenher face.

  "It's a bargain," she murmured.