"Yes," said Tavia simply, and the next moment she had both arms around that beautiful neck.
The woman held the girl to her breast for a moment. Tavia"s heart was beating wildly.
"My dear," said Mrs. White, "I do hope you have enjoyed yourself," and she kissed her again. "But you must promise me not to paint with mullen leaves any more. Sometimes such jokes lead to habits--one looks pale you know when the blaze dies away."
Tavia felt as if her blaze never would die away. Why had she been so foolish? She would have given anything now to rub those horrid, p.r.i.c.kly leaves off forever.
"I never will paint--" she stammered.
"I hope you will not, dear, you should be grateful for such coloring as you have. But let me warn you in all kindness. It is usually pretty girls who make such mistakes--they want to be more and more attractive and so spoil it all. Think right, and of pleasant things, and the glory of happiness will be all the cosmetic you will ever need," and again she pressed her own white cheek to the burning face of the girl she still held in her arms.
Later, when Tavia was thinking it all over, she pondered seriously upon those words. No one had ever spoken to her just that way before--at home it was taken for granted she knew so much more than those around her, that such counsel as she needed was withheld. Alas, how many girls lose valuable advice by appearing to be over-smart for their years! And then the awakening is always doubly sad. So it was with this mistake of Tavia"s, trivial enough, yet for her--it appeared like a crime to have put those mullen leaves to her cheeks; to be thought vain; to have Mrs.
White warn her about other girls!
It seemed a very short time indeed, from the arrival of the special message at the Cedars until the train was speeding back toward Dalton.
And the journey had lost all its novelty, for Dorothy and Tavia were so intent upon the possible happenings when they should reach home, that the wait, even on a flying train, seemed tiresome.
"Do you suppose," ventured Tavia, as she laid her book down, after a number of unsuccessful efforts to become interested in the story, "they have captured that Anderson?"
"I am sure I cannot guess," answered Dorothy, "but I feel certain it is about that affair that we are called home in such a hurry. I wish I could soon keep the promise I made to poor Mr. Burlock. I said I would some day find his daughter Nellie, and it does seem the detectives have been a long time in finding any tangible clew. Father hired two of the best he could get to trace the child--that was her mother who died, the one you told me of, you know. I did not talk about it because father thought it was best to say nothing that might possibly give Anderson a hint that they were on his track."
"And have they tracked him?" asked Tavia.
"Yes, they know he left Mr. Burlock in Rochester. He cashed a check there that Mr. Burlock gave him for what the poor man thought would be a possible clew to little Nellie"s whereabouts, and to think that the disappointment killed the disheartened father!"
"Well, I only hope they have him now," said Tavia, "I would like to have another chance at his--hat."
Then the conversation drifted back to North Birchland. Both girls looked much benefited by their visit, and even Tavia"s short hair and unnatural red cheeks did not detract from the noticeable improvement.
Dorothy"s face had rounded some too, and the Lake air had given a ruddiness to her naturally delicate tinting, that was most becoming to her as a summer girl.
"I never saw such nice boys," remarked Tavia, "I think, after all, it takes money to polish people."
"Not at all," insisted Dorothy. "It is not money but good breeding.
There are plenty of poor persons who are just as polished as you call it. Father often told us about a family he visited when he was abroad.
They were so poor in clothes--pathetically shabby, and yet they went in the very best society. Father used to make us laugh by his funny descriptions of the ladies at dinners. At the same affairs would be Thomas Carlyle, and just think, these poor people--he was a parson, lived on the very ground that was once part of the garden of Sir Thomas Moore. Father saw the famous mulberry trees there, that so much has been written about. I hope I may be able to go there some time--we have relatives in England."
"I would not care to travel," said Tavia impatiently. "This seems a long enough trip for me."
"Only two more stops," said Dorothy as the train rattled past the stations. "Oh, I shall be so glad to see them all."
"And lonesome for the Cedars after you have seen them all," Tavia hinted. "That"s the worst of it, home is always with us--"
"Get your hat box down," Dorothy interrupted. "We are slackening up now."
"Dalton! Dalton!" called the brakeman at the door, and the next minute the girls were being kissed heartily by Joe, Roger and Johnnie, "the committee on arrival," as Tavia said. The lads were fully qualified to carry off the honors in the way of boxes and small bundles.
"How is Aunt Libby?" asked Dorothy as soon as she could say anything relevant.
"Better," said Joe, "but father does not feel well--you are not to worry--" seeing how her face clouded, "he is only tired out. He has been working at the office and writing so many letters--"
"That I should have written. Poor dear father! I hope he is not going to have another spell," and Dorothy sighed.
"No, the doctor said he would be all right if he would only stay quiet, but he is about as quiet as my squirrel in its new cage," said Joe.
"Home again," called Dorothy, waving her hand to the major who now appeared on the piazza. "Here we are, bag and baggage," and then it seemed all the "pain of separation" was made up for in that loving embrace--the major had the Little Captain in his arms again.
CHAPTER XXVI
DOROTHY"S COURAGE
"Dorothy," said the major, when all the news from Aunt Winnie"s had been told and retold to Joe and Roger, "I want you to come to my study after tea. I have something to say to you."
The major was seated in his favorite chair at the open window. Dorothy thought he looked handsomer every day, as his hair became whiter, and now as she came to him for the business talk, she wondered who in all the world could have so loving and so n.o.ble a father.
"I had expected to go to Rochester in the morning," he began, as Dorothy dropped to the stool at his feet, "but that dear old meddling doctor says no. I feel well enough--"
"But you are not, daddy dear," interrupted Dorothy. "You have been working too hard, I should not have left you."
"Tut, tut, child, it is you who have been working too hard. I did not realize it until I picked up the loose ends. But we must not play pot and kettle. We must talk business."
Major Dale went across the room and opened his desk. The letter he wanted was at his hand and he glanced at it hurriedly.
"Yes, it is to-morrow morning," he said. "I was to appear in court to identify Anderson."
"They have him then?" Dorothy could not refrain from asking.
"Yes, your man--Squire Travers--refunded him up, so you see he has returned your compliment, he has captured your enemy."
"But how could you identify Anderson? You have never seen him."
"Yes, I had that pleasure once. I saw him with Burlock and I could identify him. Travers did some fine work on the case, walked right over the detectives, and he deserves credit. He will get it too, in the way of a second term as squire, for he has completely broken up the factions--it seems like one party now."
"I am so glad," said Dorothy. "They did have such a hard time of it."
"Yes, but about to-morrow. Do you think Ralph could identify Anderson?
Ralph is out of town and I have wired him to be back to-night."
"I don"t think he ever saw the man," Dorothy answered thoughtfully.
"But I saw him very distinctly. Wouldn"t I do?"
"You? Why, child, could you go into a big police court and say: "There, that"s the man;" without fainting from fright?"
"Indeed, I could," declared the girl. "I could do more than that to find Nellie Burlock."