Nance got up and kissed her hostess. "Oh, Molly, you are too lovely!
Don"t you know that I know that Andy and I have not fooled you one moment? Don"t I see brandy peaches on the side table all ready for dessert, and don"t you know that I know that those precious articles are only brought out on highdays and holidays? Isn"t that fruit cake I smell, that you know perfectly well you made and put away for next Christmas so it would be ripe and get better and better?"
"Well, I had to express my feelings somehow, and how did I know that you and Andy were going to tell your secret this very evening? I knew I mustn"t say a thing until you two said something, and if I could not say anything, I could at least feed you."
"All I can say, Andy, is that if your experience in choosing a girl from that cla.s.s of 19-- is as fortunate as mine, you will be a pretty happy man, and by Jove, I believe you are running me a mighty close second,"
and to the astonishment of his wife, as Edwin Green was certainly a far from demonstrative man, he actually jumped from his seat and embraced Nance. Then Andy felt that he must kiss Molly, and Kizzie coming in at this juncture almost dropped the dish she was carrying.
"Sich a-carryin"s on I never seed. I"m a-thinking you folks had better sort yo"selves," and the girl went off chortling.
"Now tell me your plans!" demanded Molly when they settled down to dinner. Strange to say, they had got rather mixed up in the promiscuous embracing that had been going on, and Edwin and Andy had changed places.
Edwin found himself seated at Molly"s side while Andy had greatly disarranged the table by plumping himself down by his Nance.
"We are to be married immediately," announced Andy stoutly.
Nance gasped. The fact was they had been so busy explaining the past and living in the present while the fire had died so low in the library, that the future had not been touched upon.
"Of course I may start for France at any time now, but before I go I mean to get me a war bride. It will be pretty bad leaving her, but then the war can"t last forever, and I have decided it is my duty to go help, and I fancy it still is. When Uncle Sam steps in, maybe he can finish up things in a hurry. Then I can get back to Nance."
"Get back to me, indeed! If you think you are going without me, Andy McLean, you are vastly mistaken. If it is your duty to go help, it is my duty, too. Oh, I know I am no trained nurse, but I can do lots of other things. Dr. Flint says I am better than most trained nurses----"
Nance stopped short. She should not have mentioned Dr. Flint. Only suppose it had hurt Andy"s feelings! Not a bit of it!
"Bully for Flint!" cried the accepted lover. "Oh, Nance, would you go with me?"
"I can scrub and cook and take care of babies."
"I don"t know about that," teased Andy.
"But you will always be near and pull them out of the water when I let them fall in," suggested Nance. "Won"t you?"
"That I will! Just as near as I can get!" and Andy hitched his chair a little closer, thereby disarranging the table even more than he had done before. But although Molly was a very careful housekeeper and most particular about the looks of her table, she cared not one whit, but beamed on Andy as though he were the pink of propriety instead of a naughty boy.
What a change a little lovering had made in the appearance of both Nance and Andy! The girl"s clear skin was flushed and her eyes sparkling. The corners of her mouth had no trace of downward tendency now. The years of sadness and confinement spent in nursing her father and mother were forgotten. Nance had come into her own--her woman"s heritage: to be beloved, to be guarded and cherished; at the same time to know that she was to be the companion, the helpmeet. As for Andy,--he beamed with joy. His face had lost the stern lines that had so distressed his mother. He looked again like the boy he was, not like the tired, disappointed man she had known of late.
Nance had no romantic notions of what life in France meant in that early spring of 1917. She knew that there was no room for drones and unproductive consumers in that war-worn country. She knew that in marrying Andy and going with his unit she was to face work, privations, danger, even death; but with her eyes open she was determined to see it through.
"I would enlist in the United States army," Andy said to his host after dinner, as they lounged in the den and puffed away at their comforting pipes, "but I feel that I can be of more good right now in France where they are crying out for surgeons."
"It can"t be many days now before war is declared," sighed Edwin. "By jiminy! I hate myself for not being able to get in the game."
"Too bad, old man! A fellow with a wife and two children has to think of them."
"Of course! I wouldn"t let Molly know how I feel about it for any thing. I am not so young as I was, but I am stronger now than I was as a youth. As for my eyes--they are good enough eyes in gla.s.ses and my bald head would be no drawback." Edwin always would call his spa.r.s.ely covered top "bald," but Molly, by diligent care, had made two blades of gra.s.s grow where only one had grown before, and with a microscope one could see the beginnings of a fuzzy crop of hair, at least so the fond wife insisted.
"I bet she would say go, if it were put to her," said Andy.
"I"ll not do it, though! It wouldn"t be fair."
"Well, if it is put up to her, I bet on Molly Brown!"
CHAPTER X
ALL THE OLD GIRLS
"I"ve got a wonderful scheme, Edwin," said Molly when she had finally engineered her husband out of the den and Nance in.
"I"ll be bound you have. I never saw such a Mrs. Machiavelli!--First I mustn"t go in the library but stick to the den, and now that I had just made myself at home in the den I must flee to the library."
Molly laughed at her husband"s pretended discomfiture as he settled himself to find out what was going on at the front.
"Now read the news to me while I knit. There is no knowing how soon our own boys will be needing sweaters. I feel that every st.i.tch I put in is important. Mercy, what a mess my knitting is in! I do believe that little monkey of a Mildred has been working on it. But she can"t purl at all! Someone else has done it. No one has been here but Andy."
"Well, I can"t think Andy McLean would attempt a sweater," laughed Edwin. "Maybe Nance is responsible."
"But Nance is a past master!"
"She might have been trying a one-handed stunt and failed. I don"t believe even Prussian efficiency could knit and get proposed to and accept all at the same time. Under the circ.u.mstances I think she should be forgiven for purling where she should have knitted and knitting where she should have purled."
"You sound like the prayer book," said Molly, patiently pulling out st.i.tches and deftly picking up where Andy asked to hold Nance"s hand. "I almost feel as though I were committing a sacrilege. This sweater is like a piece of tapestry where the lady has recorded her emotions, using the medium she knew best. I just know dear old Nance tried to go on with her work all the time Andy was making love," and Molly wiped a wee tear off on the ball of yarn.
"I tell you that sweater could tell tales if it could speak," teased Edwin. "Why don"t you sew in one of your golden hairs so that the happy soldier who finally gets it will have some inkling of how the beautiful girl looks who made it?"
"Silly! But don"t you want to hear what my scheme is?"
"Dying to!"
"I am going to try to get the old Queen"s girls, that is our "special crowd, to come to Nance"s wedding. Katherine and Edith Williams are both in New York; Judy is there; Otoyo Sen is in Boston; Margaret Wakefield is in Washington; Jessie Lynch is in Philadelphia----"
"Are there no husbands?"
"Oh, yes, plenty of them, but I"m not going to invite husbands! The babies can come if the mothers can"t leave them, but the husbands are not invited. Katherine Williams and Jessie Lynch are the only ones who are still in single blessedness."
"Are you going to have them all stay here?" asked Edwin in amazement, never having quite accustomed himself to Molly"s wholesale hospitality.
"Of course! I can manage it finely. That will be only six extra ones.
Why, at Chatsworth we had that much company any time. This house is really almost as big as Chatsworth and there we had our huge family to put away besides."
"All I can say is that you are a wonder, but please don"t break yourself down over this wedding. What does Nance say to it?"
"I haven"t asked her, but I know she is dying to see all the girls together. We have often talked about it, and wedding or no wedding I was going to try to get them here this next month. Otoyo has already promised to come, you remember, and now she can just hurry up and get here for the wedding. She will have to bring Cho-Cho-San, who is just a bit older than Mildred. They can have great times together. You don"t mind, do you, honey?"
"Mind! Of course not! You know I like company. I was just afraid you were giving yourself too large an order."
Nance, on being consulted, thought it would be wonderful to see all the old girls again before embarking on her great adventure, so letters were forthwith written and sent to the six friends, who one and all joyfully accepted. Business, husbands, babies, society were to be left behind for this grand reunion of the old Queen"s crowd.