"That would be pleasant."
"In a year or two," he explains, "the ranch will almost run itself and be making big money--with the right rate on lemons and the tariff as it is. Then we can do almost anything we please--live any place you like."
A pause here. So far it is wholly satisfactory, Milly is thinking, and she wonders what more she wants. Then,--
"Milly?"
She looks at him with kind eyes.
"You won"t make me wait--much longer?"
Milly slowly shakes her head, acceptingly.
"G.o.d, how I have longed for you!"
"Silly man!"
But she is pleased. She is thinking,--
"I"m doing it for Virginia. It"s her only chance--I must do it."
Which was not altogether a falsehood, and she repeats this self-defence to herself again when later on Duncan kisses her for the first time,--"It"s for _her_ sake--I would do anything for her." And with a sigh of unconquerable sentimentalism she seals her bargain on the man"s lips. She has found a new sentimental faith,--a mother"s sacrifice for her child.... But she is really very glad, and quite tender with him.
In this mood she bade her lover good-by at the door and went back into the house to meet her partner. Ernestine, who was not too obtuse to recognize what had happened without the need of many words, listened to Milly"s announcement dumbly. At the end she put her hand on Milly"s shoulder and looked steadily at her for several moments. She was well enough aware how false Milly had been to her, how careless of her stupid heart, how she had betrayed her in the final hour of their tribulations.
Nevertheless, she said quite honestly,--"I"m so glad, dearie, for you!"
and kissed her.
VIII
THE SUNSHINE SPECIAL
A few weeks later a little party gathered in the murky railroad station from which the California trains depart from Chicago. As they approached the waiting train, which bore on its observation platform the bra.s.s sign, "Sunshine Special," the negro porters showed their gleaming teeth and the conductor muttered with an appropriate smile,--"Another of them bridal parties!" At the head of the little procession the Ranchman walked, conversing with Walter Kemp. Duncan had an air of apparent detachment, but one eye usually rested on Milly, who was walking with her father and was followed by a laughing group. Eleanor Kemp was not among them. Somehow since the last evolution of Milly"s affairs there had been a coolness between these two old friends, and Mrs. Kemp had not taken the trouble to leave her summer home "to see Milly off" again. She had sent her instead a very pretty dressing-case with real gold-stoppered bottles, which the new husband now handed over to the porter.
Milly"s arm was caressingly placed on her father"s. Horatio was older, more wizened, than when we first met him, but he was genial and happy, with a boyish light in his eyes.
"You"ll be sure to come, papa!" Milly said, squeezing his arm.
"I won"t miss it this time, daughter," Horatio replied slyly,--"my long-delayed trip to California." He chuckled reminiscently.
"You must bring Josephine with you, of course," Milly added hastily.
Mrs. Horatio, still stern behind her spectacles, even in the midst of a merry bridal party, relented sufficiently to say,--
"I ain"t much on travelling about in cars myself."
Milly, with the amiability of one who has at last "made good," remarked patronizingly,--
"You"ll get used to the cars in three days, my dear."
Horatio meanwhile was playing with little Virginia, teasing her about her "new Papa." The little girl smiled rather dubiously. She had the animal-like loyalty of childhood, and glanced suspiciously at the "New Papa." However, she had already learned from the constant mutations of her brief life to accept the New and the Unexpected without complaint.
At last perceiving Ernestine, who was hurrying breathlessly down the long platform in search of the party, a huge bunch of long-stemmed roses hugged close in her arms, Virginia ran to meet her old friend and clung tight to the Laundryman.
"Take "em!" Ernestine said, breathing hard and thrusting the p.r.i.c.kly flowers into Milly"s arms. "My! I thought I"d miss the train."
"Oh, Ernestine! why did you do that, dear?" Milly exclaimed in a pleased voice.
"It"s the last of the Cake Shop!" Ernestine replied with a grim smile.
And the roses were almost literally the sole remains of that defunct enterprise, having taken the last of Ernestine"s dollars.
"They"re perfectly gorgeous--it was lovely of you to think of bringing them for me. I"ll cut the stems and put them in water and they will keep all the way to the Coast--and remind me of you," Milly said, who had formed the habit of receiving floral offerings.
She handed the awkward bunch over to "Husband," who hastened dutifully to place them in their compartment.
"He"s on his job," Ernestine grinned. The banker laughed.
"That"s what we men are made for, isn"t it, Milly?"
"Of course!"
She was in her right element once more, the centre of the picture,--becomingly dressed in a gray travelling suit, "younger than ever," about to start on a wonderful three days" journey to a strange new land, with her faithful and adoring knight. What more was there in life?
"All aboard!" the conductor droned.
Exclamations and final embraces. Milly came to Ernestine Geyer last.
"Good-by, dear! You"ve been awfully good to me--I can never forget it!"
"Yes, you will--that"s all right," Ernestine replied gruffly, not knowing exactly what she was saying.
"I hope you"ll make a fortune in your new business--"
"Him and me," Ernestine interrupted, nodding jocularly towards the banker, "are going into the laundry business together."
"You must write me all about it!"
"I will."
In a last confidential whisper Milly said,--"And some day marry a good man, dear!"
"Marry!!" Ernestine hooted, so that all could hear. "Me, marry! Not much--I"ll leave the matrimony business to you."