"He gave my left hand a big grip and said: "Good!--and you"ll win out this time.""
"Of course you will," nodded Billy, again, though still a little feverishly. "And this time I sha"n"t mind a bit if you do stay to luncheon, and break engagements with me, sir," she went on, tilting her chin archly, "for I shall know it"s the portrait and not the sitter that"s really keeping you. Oh, you"ll see what a fine artist"s wife I"ll make!"
"The very best," declared Bertram so ardently that Billy blushed, and shook her head in reproof.
"Nonsense! I wasn"t fishing. I didn"t mean it that way," she protested.
Then, as he tried to catch her, she laughed and danced teasingly out of his reach.
Because Bertram could not paint, therefore, Billy had him quite to herself these October days; nor did she hesitate to appropriate him.
Neither, on his part, was Bertram loath to be appropriated. Like two lovers they read and walked and talked together, and like two children, sometimes, they romped through the stately old rooms with s.p.u.n.kie, or with Tommy Dunn, who was a frequent guest. s.p.u.n.kie, be it known, was renewing her kittenhood, so potent was the influence of the dangling strings and rolling b.a.l.l.s that she encountered everywhere; and Tommy Dunn, with Billy"s help, was learning that not even a pair of crutches need keep a lonely little lad from a frolic. Even William, roused from his after-dinner doze by peals of laughter, was sometimes inveigled into activities that left him breathless, but curiously aglow. While Pete, polishing silver in the dining-room down-stairs, smiled indulgently at the merry clatter above--and forgot the teasing pain in his side.
But it was not all nonsense with Billy, nor gay laughter. More often it was a tender glow in the eyes, a softness in the voice, a radiant something like an aura of joy all about her, that told how happy indeed were these days for her. There was proof by word of mouth, too--long talks with Bertram in the dancing firelight when they laid dear plans for the future, and when she tried so hard to make her husband understand what a good, good wife she intended to be, and how she meant never to let anything come between them.
It was so earnest and serious a Billy by this time that Bertram would turn startled, dismayed eyes on his young wife; whereupon, with a very Billy-like change of mood, she would give him one of her rare caresses, and perhaps sigh:
"Goosey--it"s only because I"m so happy, happy, happy! Why, Bertram, if it weren"t for that Overflow Annex I believe I--I just couldn"t live!"
It was Bertram who sighed then, and who prayed fervently in his heart that never might he see a real shadow cloud that dear face.
Thus far, certainly, the cares of matrimony had rested anything but heavily upon the shapely young shoulders of the new wife. Domestic affairs at the Strata moved like a piece of well-oiled machinery.
Dong Ling, to be sure, was not there; but in his place reigned Pete"s grandniece, a fresh-faced, capable young woman who (Bertram declared) cooked like an angel and minded her own business like a man. Pete, as of yore, had full charge of the house; and a casual eye would see few changes. Even the brothers themselves saw few, for that matter.
True, at the very first, Billy had donned a ruffled ap.r.o.n and a bewitching dust-cap, and had traversed the house from cellar to garret with a prettily important air of "managing things," as she suggested changes right and left. She had summoned Pete, too, for three mornings in succession, and with great dignity had ordered the meals for the day.
But when Bertram was discovered one evening tugging back his favorite chair, and when William had asked if Billy were through using his pipe-tray, the young wife had concluded to let things remain about as they were. And when William ate no breakfast one morning, and Bertram aggrievedly refused dessert that night at dinner, Billy--learning through an apologetic Pete that Master William always had to have eggs for breakfast no matter what else there was, and that Master Bertram never ate boiled rice--gave up planning the meals. True, for three more mornings she summoned Pete for "orders," but the orders were nothing more nor less than a blithe "Well, Pete, what are we going to have for dinner to-day?" By the end of a week even this ceremony was given up, and before a month had pa.s.sed, Billy was little more than a guest in her own home, so far as responsibility was concerned.
Billy was not idle, however; far from it. First, there were the delightful hours with Bertram. Then there was her music: Billy was writing a new song--the best she had ever written, Billy declared.
"Why, Bertram, it can"t help being that," she said to her husband, one day. "The words just sang themselves to me right out of my heart; and the melody just dropped down from the sky. And now, everywhere, I"m hearing the most wonderful harmonies. The whole universe is singing to me. If only now I can put it on paper what I hear! Then I can make the whole universe sing to some one else!"
Even music, however, had to step one side for the wedding calls which were beginning to be received, and which must be returned, in spite of the occasional rebellion of the young husband. There were the more intimate friends to be seen, also, and Cyril and Marie to be visited.
And always there was the Annex.
The Annex was in fine running order now, and was a source of infinite satisfaction to its founder and great happiness to its beneficiaries.
Tommy Dunn was there, learning wonderful things from books and still more wonderful things from the piano in the living-room. Alice Greggory and her mother were there, too--the result of much persuasion. Indeed, according to Bertram, Billy had been able to fill the Annex only by telling each prospective resident that he or she was absolutely necessary to the welfare and happiness of every other resident. Not that the house was full, either. There were still two unoccupied rooms.
"But then, I"m glad there are," Billy had declared, "for there"s sure to be some one that I"ll want to send there."
"Some _one_, did you say?" Bertram had retorted, meaningly; but his wife had disdained to answer this.
Billy herself was frequently at the Annex. She told Aunt Hannah that she had to come often to bring the happiness--it acc.u.mulated so fast.
Certainly she always found plenty to do there, whenever she came. There was Aunt Hannah to be read to, Mrs. Greggory to be sung to, and Tommy Dunn to be listened to; for Tommy Dunn was always quivering with eagerness to play her his latest "piece."
Billy knew that some day at the Annex she would meet Mr. M. J.
Arkwright; and she told herself that she hoped she should.
Billy had not seen Arkwright (except on the stage of the Boston Opera House) since the day he had left her presence in white-faced, stony-eyed misery after declaring his love for her, and learning of her engagement to Bertram. Since then, she knew, he had been much with his old friend, Alice Greggory. She did not believe, should she see him now, that he would be either white-faced, or stony-eyed. His heart, she was sure, had gone where it ought to have gone in the first place--to Alice. Such being, in her opinion, the case, she longed to get the embarra.s.sment of a first meeting between themselves over with, for, after that, she was sure, their old friendship could be renewed, and she would be in a position to further this pretty love affair between him and Alice. Very decidedly, therefore, Billy wished to meet Arkwright. Very pleased, consequently, was she when, one day, coming into the living-room at the Annex, she found the man sitting by the fire.
Arkwright was on his feet at once.
"Miss--Mrs. H--Henshaw," he stammered
"Oh, Mr. Arkwright," she cried, with just a shade of nervousness in her voice as she advanced, her hand outstretched. "I"m glad to see you."
"Thank you. I wanted to see Miss Greggory," he murmured. Then, as the unconscious rudeness of his reply dawned on him, he made matters infinitely worse by an attempted apology. "That is, I mean--I didn"t mean--" he began to stammer miserably.
Some girls might have tossed the floundering man a straw in the shape of a light laugh intended to turn aside all embarra.s.sment--but not Billy.
Billy held out a frankly helping hand that was meant to set the man squarely on his feet at her side.
"Mr. Arkwright, don"t, please," she begged earnestly. "You and I don"t need to beat about the bush. I _am_ glad to see you, and I hope you"re glad to see me. We"re going to be the best of friends from now on, I"m sure; and some day, soon, you"re going to bring Alice to see me, and we"ll have some music. I left her up-stairs. She"ll be down at once, I dare say--I met Rosa going up with your card. Good-by," she finished with a bright smile, as she turned and walked rapidly from the room.
Outside, on the steps, Billy drew a long breath.
"There," she whispered; "that"s over--and well over!" The next minute she frowned vexedly. She had missed her glove. "Never mind! I sha"n"t go back in there for it now, anyway," she decided.
In the living-room, five minutes later, Alice Greggory found only a hastily scrawled note waiting for her.
"If you"ll forgive the unforgivable," she read "you"ll forgive me for not being here when you come down. "Circ.u.mstances over which I have no control have called me away." May we let it go at that?
"M. J. ARKWRIGHT."
As Alice Greggory"s amazed, questioning eyes left the note they fell upon the long white glove on the floor by the door. Half mechanically she crossed the room and picked it up; but almost at once she dropped it with a low cry.
"Billy! He--saw--Billy!" Then a flood of understanding dyed her face scarlet as she turned and fled to the blessedly unseeing walls of her own room.
Not ten minutes later Rosa tapped at her door with a note.
"It"s from Mr. Arkwright, Miss. He"s downstairs." Rosa"s eyes were puzzled, and a bit startled.
"Mr. Arkwright!"
"Yes, Miss. He"s come again. That is, I didn"t know he"d went--but he must have, for he"s come again now. He wrote something in a little book; then he tore it out and gave it to me. He said he"d wait, please, for an answer."
"Oh, very well, Rosa."
Miss Greggory took the note and spoke with an elaborate air of indifference that was meant to express a calm ignoring of the puzzled questioning in the other"s eyes. The next moment she read this in Arkwright"s peculiar scrawl:
"If you"ve already forgiven the unforgivable, you"ll do it again, I know, and come down-stairs. Won"t you, please? I want to see you."
Miss Greggory lifted her head with a jerk. Her face was a painful red.
"Tell Mr. Arkwright I can"t possibly--" She came to an abrupt pause. Her eyes had encountered Rosa"s, and in Rosa"s eyes the puzzled questioning was plainly fast becoming a shrewd suspicion.
There was the briefest of hesitations; then, lightly, Miss Greggory tossed the note aside.