(VALENTINE _laughs and the ladies exchange delighted smiles._)
VALENTINE (_to_ MISS SUSAN). And my other friends, I hope I find them in health? The spinet, ma"am, seems quite herself to-day; I trust the ottoman pa.s.sed a good night?
MISS SUSAN (_beaming_). We are all quite well, sir.
VALENTINE. May I sit on this chair, Miss Phoebe? I know Miss Susan likes me to break her chairs.
MISS SUSAN. Indeed, sir, I do not. Phoebe, how strange that he should think so.
PHOEBE (_instantly_). The remark was humorous, was it not?
VALENTINE. How you see through me, Miss Phoebe.
(_The sisters again exchange delighted smiles_. VALENTINE _is about to take a seat._)
MISS SUSAN (_thinking aloud_). Oh dear, I feel sure he is going to roll the coverlet into a ball and then sit on it.
(VALENTINE, _who has been on the point of doing so, abstains and sits guiltily._)
VALENTINE. So I am dashing, Miss Susan? Am I dashing, Miss Phoebe?
PHOEBE. A--little, I think.
VALENTINE. Well, but I have something to tell you to-day which I really think is rather dashing. (MISS SUSAN _gathers her knitting, looks at_ PHOEBE, _and is preparing to go._) You are not going, ma"am, before you know what it is?
MISS SUSAN. I--I--indeed--to be sure--I--I know, Mr. Brown.
PHOEBE. Susan!
MISS SUSAN. I mean I do not know. I mean I can guess--I mean---- Phoebe, my love, explain. (_She goes out._)
VALENTINE (_rather disappointed_). The explanation being, I suppose, that you both know, and I had flattered myself "twas such a secret. Am I then to understand that you had foreseen it all, Miss Phoebe?
PHOEBE. Nay, sir, you must not ask that.
VALENTINE. I believe in any case "twas you who first put it into my head.
PHOEBE (_aghast_). Oh, I hope not.
VALENTINE. Your demure eyes flashed so every time the war was mentioned; the little Quaker suddenly looked like a gallant boy in ringlets.
(_A dread comes over_ PHOEBE, _but it is in her heart alone; it shows neither in face nor voice._)
PHOEBE. Mr. Brown, what is it you have to tell us?
VALENTINE. That I have enlisted, Miss Phoebe. Did you surmise it was something else?
PHOEBE. You are going to the wars? Mr. Brown, is it a jest?
VALENTINE. It would be a sorry jest, ma"am. I thought you knew. I concluded that the recruiting sergeant had talked.
PHOEBE. The recruiting sergeant? I see.
VALENTINE. These stirring times, Miss Phoebe--he is but half a man who stays at home. I have chafed for months. I want to see whether I have any courage, and as to be an army surgeon does not appeal to me, it was enlist or remain behind. To-day I found that there were five waverers.
I asked them would they take the shilling if I took it, and they a.s.sented. Miss Phoebe, it is not one man I give to the King, but six.
PHOEBE (_brightly_). I think you have done bravely.
VALENTINE. We leave shortly for the Petersburgh barracks, and I go to London tomorrow; so this is good-bye.
PHOEBE. I shall pray that you may be preserved in battle, Mr. Brown.
VALENTINE. And you and Miss Susan will write to me when occasion offers?
PHOEBE. If you wish it.
VALENTINE (_smiling_). With all the stirring news of Quality Street.
PHOEBE. It seems stirring to us; it must have been merely laughable to you, who came here from a great city.
VALENTINE. Dear Quality Street--that thought me dashing! But I made friends in it, Miss Phoebe, of two very sweet ladies.
PHOEBE (_timidly_). Mr. Brown, I wonder why you have been so kind to my sister and me?
VALENTINE. The kindness was yours. If at first Miss Susan amused me-- (_Chuckling._) To see her on her knees decorating the little legs of the couch with frills as if it were a child! But it was her sterling qualities that impressed me presently.
PHOEBE. And did--did I amuse you also?
VALENTINE. Prodigiously, Miss Phoebe. Those other ladies, they were always scolding you, your youthfulness shocked them. I believe they thought you dashing.
PHOEBE (_nervously_). I have sometimes feared that I was perhaps too dashing.
VALENTINE (_laughing at this_). You delicious Miss Phoebe. You were too quiet. I felt sorry that one so sweet and young should live so grey a life. I wondered whether I could put any little pleasures into it.
PHOEBE. The picnics? It was very good of you.
VALENTINE. That was only how it began, for soon I knew that it was I who got the pleasures and you who gave them. You have been to me, Miss Phoebe, like a quiet, old-fashioned garden full of the flowers that Englishmen love best because they have known them longest: the daisy, that stands for innocence, and the hyacinth for constancy, and the modest violet and the rose. When I am far away, ma"am, I shall often think of Miss Phoebe"s pretty soul, which is her garden, and shut my eyes and walk in it.
(_She is smiling gallantly through her pain when_ MISS SUSAN _returns._)
MISS SUSAN. Have you--is it--you seem so calm, Phoebe.
PHOEBE (_pressing her sister"s hand warningly and imploringly_).
Susan, what Mr. Brown is so obliging as to inform us of is not what we expected--not that at all. My dear, he is the gentleman who has enlisted, and he came to tell us that and to say good-bye.
MISS SUSAN. Going away?
PHOEBE. Yes, dear.