"More than I can tell you."
"And what does she say?"
"She likes the idea."
"Bless my soul! you are going to be my brother-in-law."
"No rose without its thorn, I understand."
The situation was too tempting to the boy"s love of a joke. He seated himself on the top of the ice-box and folded his arms.
"I do not know," he said, "that I should be justified in giving my consent to any such marriage. Would it tend to make my sister happy? The woman who marries above her social position--the man who marries his cook--is bound to regret it. Have you considered, Mr. Crane, that however you may value my sister yourself, many of your proud friends would not receive her?"
"To my mind, Brindlebury, these social distinctions are very unimportant. Even you I should be willing to have to dinner now and then when we were alone."
"The deuce you would," said Brindlebury, and added, "but suppose my sister"s lack of refinement--"
"I can"t let you talk like that even in fun, Revelly," said Crane. "Get off your ice-box and let us go back to Claudia."
"Ah, you knew all along?"
"I have suspected for some time. Reed told me this evening."
But when they reached the dining-room, Claudia was not there. She had gone herself to tell her news to her brother Paul. He was sitting alone in the garret with the remnants of the game of c.o.o.n-Can before him.
Claudia came and put her hand on his shoulder, but he did not move.
"Do you know what I have made up my mind to do?" he said. "I mean to go and make a clean breast of this to Crane. The game is about up, and I don"t think he"s had a square deal. He"s a nice fellow, and I"d like to put myself straight with him."
Claudia remained standing behind her brother, as she asked, "You like him, Paul?"
"Very much indeed. I think he"s behaved mighty well through all this.
Don"t you like him?"
There was an instant"s pause, and then Claudia answered simply:
"I love him, Paul."
Her brother sprang to his feet. "Don"t say that even to yourself, my dear," he said. "You don"t know what men of his sort are like. Spoilt, run after, cold-blooded. He"s not like the men you"ve ruled over all your life--"
"No, indeed, he"s not," said Claudia.
"My dear girl," her brother went on seriously, "this is not like you.
You must put this out of your head. After all, that oughtn"t to be very hard. You"ve hardly known the man more than a few days."
"Paul, that shows you don"t know what love is. It hasn"t anything to do with time, or your own will. It"s just there in an instant. People talk as if it were common, as if every one fell in love, but I don"t believe they do--not like this. Look at me. I"ve only known this man as you say a little while, I"ve only talked to him a few times, and some of those were disagreeable, and yet the idea of spending my life with him not only seems natural, but all the rest of my life--you and my home--seem strange and unfamiliar. I feel the way you do when you"ve been living abroad hearing strange languages and suddenly some one speaks to you in your own native tongue. When Burton--"
"Burton?"
"Didn"t I tell you we"re engaged?"
"My dear Claudia, you must admit we don"t really know anything about him."
"You have the rest of your life for finding out, Paul."
They went downstairs presently to supper--a meal that promised to be a good deal more agreeable than dinner had been. For all Paul"s expressed doubts, he had every disposition to make himself pleasant to his future brother-in-law, and even Lily had felt his charm. Lefferts, the only person in the dark as to the whole situation, served as an excellent audience. All four recounted--together and in turn--the whole story, from the moment when the idea had first occurred to Claudia, at eleven years of age, that she would like to learn to cook, down to the subtlest allusion of that evening"s dinner-table.
Then suddenly there was a loud peal at the front door-bell. Every one knew instantly what it was--Reed returning to make one more effort to save Claudia"s reputation.
"Well," said Paul, sinking down in his chair and thrusting his hands still deeper into his pockets, "I shan"t let him in. My future depends on my getting over the habit of answering bells."
"Same here," said Brindlebury.
"I certainly shan"t open the door for the man," said Crane, "and Claudia shall go only over my dead body."
Again the bell rang.
Lily rose. "I shall let him in," she said, "I think you are all very unjust to Randolph."
Claudia smiled as her sister left the room.
"There," she said, "that"s all right. No one has such a good effect on Randolph as Lily has. In fifteen minutes he will be perfectly calm and polite. In half an hour she will have persuaded him he likes things better the way they are."
"I should think," said Lefferts, glancing at Claudia, "that it might take her a little longer than that."
It did take her a little longer.
THE END