"No, I must hurry and go brace up Milly for a pair of minutes. She wouldn"t promise to come until I insisted on sending a trained nurse to sit with old Mammy Betty and the babies until she got back to "em. Billy Bob is as wild as a kid about coming, he hasn"t been anywhere for so long. I talked a week before I could persuade Milly, but she"s got her glad rags and is as excited as Billy Bob. I tried to buy that boy twin for Phoebe"s present but Milly said I had better get an old silver and amethyst bracelet. It"s on my table in the white box. Bye!" and Kildare departed as far as the front door, but returned to stick his head in the door and say:
"You"d better put Hob by Caroline Darrah on the other side; he"s savage when he"s crossed. And tack in Payt opposite her. I invited Polly the Fluff for you--she is a debutante and such a coo-child that she"ll just suit a poet."
He dodged just in time to escape the lighted pipe that was hurled upon him, and he couldn"t have suspected that a hastily-formed plan to place himself opposite Caroline Darrah had gone up in the smoke that followed the death of life in Andrew"s pipe.
Then following the urgent instructions of David, Andrew began to right up the papers in his den which opened off the living-room. His desk was littered with ma.n.u.script, for the three days past had been golden ones and he had written under a strong impetus. The thought suddenly shot through him that he had been writing as he had once read, to eyes whose "depths on depths of l.u.s.ter" had misted and glowed and answered as he turned his pages in the twilight. Can ice in a man"s breast burn like fire? Andrew crushed the sheets and thrust them into a drawer.
Then came Eph and the cook to lay the cloth in the dining-room, and a man brought up the flowers. For a time he worked away with a strange excitement in his veins.
When they had finished and he was alone in the apartment he walked slowly through the rooms. Where David happened to keep his household G.o.ds had been home to Andrew for many years. His books were in the dark Flemish oak cases and some of the prints on the walls were his. Most of the rugs he had picked up in his travels upon which his commissions led him, and some interesting skins had been added since his jungle experiences. It was all dark and rich and right-toned--the home of a gentleman. And David was like the rooms, right-toned and clean.
Andrew found himself wondering if there would be men like David in the next generation, happy David with his cavalier nature and modern wit. The steady stream of wealth that was pouring into the South, down her mountain sides and welling up under her pasture lands, would it bring in its train death to the purity and sanity of her social inst.i.tutions?
Would swollen fortunes bring congestion of standards and grossness of morals? Suddenly he smiled for Billy Bob and Milly and a lot of the industrious young folks seemed to answer him. He had found eleven little new cousins on the scene of action when he had returned after five years--clear-eyed young Anglo-Americans, ready to take charge of the future.
And he, what was his place in the building of his native city? His trained intelligence, his wide experience, his genius were being given to cutting a ca.n.a.l thousands of miles away while the streets of his own home were being cut up and undermined by half-trained bunglers. The beautiful forest suburbs were being planned and plotted by money-mad schemers who neither pre-visioned, nor cared to, the city of the future which was to be a great gateway of the nation to its Panama world-artery. He knew how to value the force of a man of his kind, with his reputation and influence, and he would gage just what he would be able to do for the city with the munic.i.p.al backing he could command if he set his shoulder to the wheel.
A talk he had had with the major a day or two ago came back to him. The old fellow"s eyes had glowed as he told him the plan they had been obliged to abandon in the early seventies for a boulevard from the capitol to the river because of the lack of city construction funds.
Andrew"s own father had formulated the plan and gone before the city fathers with it, and for a time there had been hope of its accomplishment. And the major had declared emphatically that a time was coming when the city would want and ask for it again. That other Andrew Sevier of the major"s youth had conceived the scheme; the major had repeated the fact slowly. Did he mean it as a call to him?
Andrew"s eyes glowed. He could see it all, with its difficulties and its possibilities. He rested his clenched hand on the table and the artist in him had the run of his pulses. He could see it all and he knew in all humbleness that he could construct the town as no other man of his generation would be able to do; the beautiful hill-rimmed city!
And just as potent he felt the call of the half-awakened spirit of art and letters that had lain among them poverty-bound for forty reconstructive years. For what had he been so richly dowered? To sing his songs from the camp of a wanderer and write his plays with a foreign flavor, when he might voice his own people in the world of letters, his own with their background of traditions and tragedy and their foreground of rough-hewn possibilities? Was not the meed of his fame, small or large, theirs?
Suddenly the tension snapped and sadness chilled through his veins. Here there would always be that memory which brought its influences of bitterness and depression to kill the creative in him. The old mad desire to be gone and away from it beat up into his blood, then stilled on the instant. What was it that caught his breath in his breast at the thought of exile? Could he go now, _could_--
Just at this moment he was interrupted by Mrs. Matilda who came hurrying into the room with ribbons and veil aflutter. She evidently had only the moment to stay and she took in his decorative schemes with the utmost delight.
"Andrew," she said with enthusiasm in every tone, "it is all lovely, lovely. You boys are wonders! These bachelor establishments are threatening to make women wonder what they were born for. And what do you think? The major is coming! The first place he has gone this winter--and he wants to sit between Phoebe and Caroline Darrah. I just ran over to tell you. Good-by! We must both dress."
And Andrew smiled as he rearranged the place-cards.
And it happened that in more ways than one David Kildare found himself the perturbed host. He rushed home and dressed with lightning-like rapidity and whirled away in the limousine for Milly and Billy Bob.
He went for them early, for he had bargained to come for Phoebe as late as possible so as to give her time to reckon with her six-thirty freckled-faced devil at the office. But at the Overtons he found confusion confounded.
"I"m so sorry, David," Milly almost sobbed, "but Mammy Betty"s daughter has run away and got married and she has gone to see about it, and the trained nurse can"t come. There has been an awful wreck up the road and all the doctors in town have gone and taken all the nurses with them. She didn"t consider the babies serious, so she just had some one telephone at the last minute that she had gone. I can"t go; but please make Billy go with you! There is no use--" and she turned to Billy Bob who stood by in pathetically gorgeous array, but firm in his intention not to desert the home craft.
"We just can"t make it, Dave, old man," he said manfully, as he caught his tearful wife"s outstretched hand in his. "Go on before we both cry!"
"Go on, nothing--with Milly looking like a lovely pink apple-blossom!
You"ve got to come. I wouldn"t dare face Phoebe without you. It"s the whole thing to her to have you there. It"s been so long since you"ve gladded with the crowd once and it"s her birthday and--" David"s voice trailed off into a perfect wail.
"But what can we do?" faltered Milly, dissolved at the mention of the new frock. "We certainly can"t leave them and we can"t take them and--"
"Glory, that"s the idea, let"s _take_ the whole bunch!" exclaimed David with radiant countenance. "I ought to have invited them in the first place. Come on and let"s begin to bundle!" and he made a dive in the direction of the door of the nursery.
"Oh, no, indeed we can"t!" gasped Milly while Billy Bob stood stricken, unable to utter a word.
"I"ll show you whether we will or not," answered David. "Catch me losing a chance like this to ring one on Phoebe for several reasons. Hurry up!"
and as he spoke he had lifted little Mistake from his cot and was dextrously winding him in his blanket. The youngster opened his big dewy eyes and chuckled at the sight of his side partner, David Kildare.
"That"s all right, he"s all for his Uncle Davie. Here, you take him Billy Bob and I"ll help Milly roll up the twins. She can bring down Crimie while I bring them," and as he spoke he began a rapid swathing of the two limp little bodies from the white crib.
"But, David," gasped Milly, "it is _impossible_! They are not dressed--they will take cold--"
"The limousine is as hot as smoke--can"t hurt "em--plenty of blankets,"
with which he thrust the nodding young Crimie into her arms and lifted carefully the large bundle which contained both twins in his own. "Go on!" he commanded the paralyzed pair. "I will pull the door to with my free foot." And he actually forced the helpless parents of the four to embark with him on this most unusual of adventures.
When they were all seated in the car Milly looked at Billy Bob and burst into a gale of hysterical laughter. But Billy Bob"s s.p.u.n.k was up by this time and he was all on the side of the resourceful David.
"Why not?" he asked brazenly. "Nine-tenths of the people in the world take the kids with them on all the frolics they get, why not we? _They_ know it"s all right, _they_ haven"t objected." And indeed there had not been a single chirp from any of the swathings. Big Brother was the only one awake and he was, as usual, entranced at the very sight of his Uncle David, who held the twins with practised skill on his knees.
"Now," he said jubilantly, "don"t anybody warn Phoebe and I"m going to put them on the big divan with her presents. You"ll see something crash, I"m thinking."
And it was worth it all when Phoebe did see her unexpected guests. Big Brother, divested of his blanket and clad in a pink Teddy Bear garment, sat bolt upright in the center of the divan, and Crimie lay snuggled against him with his thumb in his mouth and entranced eyes on the brilliant chandelier. The twins were nestled contentedly down in the corner together like two little kittens in a basket. Before them knelt Polly with one finger clasped by the one whose golden fuzz declared her to be Little Sister, while Caroline Darrah leaned over Big Brother who was fingering a string of sapphires that fell from her neck, with obvious delight. The rest of the party stood in an admiring and uproarious circle.
"Why," exclaimed Phoebe in blank astonishment, "why David Kildare!"
"You said you wanted your most intimate friends to-night, Phoebe, and here they are," he answered with pride in every tone of his voice.
"Oh, dearie," said Milly as she clasped Phoebe"s hand, "we couldn"t come without them--everything happened wrong. I know it"s awful and I ought to take them right back now and--"
"David Kildare," said Phoebe as she divined in an instant the whole situation, "I love--I love you for doing it," and she sank on her knees by Caroline. Mistake let go the chain and bobbed forward to bestow a moist kiss on this, his friend of long standing; and as he chuckled and snuggled his little nose under her white chin Phoebe"s echo was a sigh of such absolute rapture that the whole circle shouted with glee.
And late as it was dinner was announced three times before the host or the guests could be persuaded to think of food. And not until David"s bed was made ready for the little guests did they begin to make their way into the dining-room. It was Andrew who finally insisted on carrying the babes away and tucking them in--only Caroline went with him with Little Sister in her arms and laid her gently on the pillow. She refused to lift her eyes to him for so much as a half-second until he drew her chair from the table for her; but then her shy glance was deep with innocent tenderness.
"Now," said the major as they settled laughingly into their places, "everybody"s gla.s.s high to the silent guests!" And they drank his toast with enthusiasm.
"And," added David Kildare as he set down his gla.s.s, "they needn"t be "silent guests" unless it suits them. When they want to rough-house they know Uncle David"s is the place to come to do it in."
"But let"s hope they won"t want to, David," laughed Milly, radiant with excitement.
"I tell you what let"s do," said the enlivened Hobson from the coveted seat next Caroline Darrah Brown, "let"s all give them hard sleeping suggestions, all at the same time.... Maybe they won"t wake up for a week."
"Andrew," said Mrs. Buchanan as she looked with delight in his direction, "these are delicious things you and David have to eat. I am so glad you are well again and can enjoy them."
"Better go slow, Andy," called David from down the table. "Sure you don"t need a raw egg? Phoebe has a couple up her sleeve here she can lend you.
The major has persuaded her to take a bit of duck and some asparagus and a brandied peach and--"
"David Kildare," said Phoebe in a coolly dangerous voice, "I will get even with you for that if it takes me a week. This is the first thing I have had to eat since meal before last and I lost two and a half pounds last week. So I"ll see that you--"
"Please, please, Phoebe, I"ll be good! Just let me off this time. I"m giddy from looking at you!" And before a delighted audience David Kildare abased himself.
"Anyway, I"ve got news to relate," he hastened to offer by way of propitiation. "What do you think has happened to Andrew? I didn"t promise not to tell," he drawled, prolonging the agony to its limit.
"Hurry, David, do!" exclaimed Phoebe with suspended fork. Caroline leaned forward eagerly, while Andrew began a laughing protest.
"It"s only that Hetherton is going to put the great Mainwright on in Andy"s new play in the fall--letter came to-day. Now, doesn"t he shove his pen to some form--some?" he demanded as he beamed upon his friend with the greatest pride.
"Oh," said Caroline Darrah, "Mainwright is great enough to do it--almost!"