THE MAJOR OBEYS ORDERS.
"He"s going fast." So the nurse whispered to Miss Stannard, as with Mr.
Dilke and Old G. A. R., she came in that December afternoon. As the three neared the little bed, shut off by the screens from the rest of the ward, they found the Angel already there in the arms of a tall, dark gentleman, while by Joey"s pillow knelt a slender lady with shining hair and grave, sweet eyes like the Angel"s.
The Major tried to smile a welcome. "They"ve come--ter--carry--Angel home, they have," he whispered, "her dad--an" her--mammy."
The white hand of the Angel"s "Mammy," took Joey"s softly and her eyes were full of tears. "Joey is going home too," she said.
The Major"s eyes wandered questioningly "The big--Angel"s--come to get th" little Angel--but--my Mammy--ain"t come--to get me?"
"She has not come, Joey dear," the soft voice explained, "because she is waiting for you. Joey is going to her."
The little voice was very weak now,--very wistful. "Goin"--now?" asked the Major.
"Yes, Joey."
His whisper could hardly be understood when after a long pause, he spoke again. "I--want--th" Cap"n--ter--gimme--th"--order,--"cause-- I--b"long--ter--th" Reg"ment."
"What order, Major?" came from the Captain huskily.
"Old--G.--A.--R.--he knows--" the Major"s voice could just be caught now.
Old G. A. R. who had given the order to those little feet so many times, knew and understood, and his big voice rolled out with suspicious unsteadiness now,--"Attention--Company!--Forward--" then the old soldier"s voice broke as the little eyelids fluttered. Old G. A. R.
could not go on.
"--March!" came softly from Van Alstine Dilke, and with a ghost of his old, roguish smile the Major"s eyes closed, as he obeyed orders.
CHAPTER XI.
TELLS OF THE TENEMENT"S CHRISTMAS.
The Angel had but a week in which to prepare Christmas for the Tenement, but with the help of her marshaled forces she did it. With such a company of grateful a.s.sistants as her Father, her Mother, and the pretty young Aunt or "Tante" as the Angel called her, all things seemed possible.
A Christmas Tree it was decreed by her small ladyship her Tenement should have, and Mrs. O"Malligan"s first floor front, failing entirely in height or breadth to accommodate it, Mr. Dilke came forward and offered Miss Angelique the Armory in the name of the Fourth Regiment.
And such a Tree! How it towered to the oaken roof and lost itself among the beams, and laden, festooned, and decorated, how proudly it spread its great branches out to the balconies!
Mrs. O"Malligan, alone, of all the Tenement, was let into the secret, and when it was finally disclosed, how the hearts of the favored fluttered as the Angel delivered her invitations,--every lady, every lady"s husband, and every son and daughter of the Tenement being bidden to come. Not to steal in at the back door, as if the Armory was ashamed of its guests, but to walk proudly around the square and enter boldly in at the front doors of the building. All of which tended to raise the self-respect of the Tenement, whose spirits went up very high indeed.
And on that eventful Christmas Day, when the guests who were bidden had arrived, it was discovered that the object most desired of each good lady"s heart, was to be found on, or around the base of that Tree.
Perhaps if Mrs. O"Malligan had explained the meanings of the many mysterious conferences that had taken place lately in her first floor front, the ladies might better have understood.
There was a pretty carpet, as well as lace curtains, long the desire of little Mrs. Tomlins" ambition, the set of "chiny" dishes dear to another good lady, a dress for this one, a bonnet, a nice rocking chair for that,--with new hats, pipes and tobacco around for the men,--and in addition for Mr. Tomlin, an entire suit of clothes and an overcoat, did that wonderful Tree shed upon his proud shoulders.
Candy, nuts, and fruit were there in abundance, open to all, while the children paused,--awed, under a deluge of toys such as their eyes had never beheld the likeness of before.
Nor was this all,--for somewhere about that Tree, hung a doc.u.ment, which being delivered, revealed to Miss Norma Bonkowski that she was now the owner and proprietor of that same Costumer"s establishment she had so coveted,--while a most innocent and ordinary looking little book bearing Mary Carew"s name told the secret of a sum of money safely in bank, so sufficient that never again need that grim phantom, the poor-house, threaten to overshadow the end as it had the beginning of Mary"s life.
As for Mrs. O"Malligan,--who had so successfully betrayed the secrets of her neighbors, she was the most surprised of all to find her own discovered. For, learning that the O"Malligans" savings toward "a house of our own over th" river wid a goat an" a bit of a pig-sty," still lacked a small sum of being sufficient, the Angel had accordingly completed the amount.
And then the Tenement, weary with the acc.u.mulations of pleasure and surprise, had taken itself home.
No one had been forgotten. Even the sixty little Kindergartens, through the combined munificence of Mr. Dilke and the Angel, were, according to the gloomy prophecies of "Tildy Peggins as she waited upon them at the feast, "a stuffed to their little stomicks" heverlastin" undoin"." And Old G. A. R., from the depths of a new arm-chair, tried to solace his lonely old heart with whiffs of fragrant tobacco from a wonderful new pipe.
Neither was Joey forgotten in this time of rejoicing, for St. Luke"s was made glad that Christmas Day when the Fourth Regiment endowed a child cot"s "In memory of The Little Major."
Even Rosy O"Brien, whose one act of unfaithfulness had been so terribly punished, was made happy by the news her little Angelique brought her, that now since she was freed of her wearing secret, her health would begin to return. And in time it did, and long after, when her tongue could again frame its words, she dictated such a letter of contrition and remorse to Mrs. Breaux, that that gentle heart"s last feelings against her were forgotten. In this letter, too, the poor girl related the happenings of the afternoon when she left the Hotel.
Allured by the shop windows, she and her charge had stopped so often that on reaching the river, they learned of the accident which had just taken place in mid-river. At this, the girl had hurried back and crossed by the bridge.
On reaching the Tenement finally, and finding her sister"s door locked, and beginning to feel anxious about returning, on the impulse of the moment, that she might go down the faster, being breathless with the climb up the steep and broken stairs, she set the tired and sleepy child down on her shawl in the adjoining room, whose door stood open, and hurried down to find Mrs. O"Malligan and beg a sc.r.a.p of paper to write a few lines to put under her sister"s door.
Again Fate was against her. Mrs. O"Malligan"s door was locked, and she determined to run across to the corner grocery to beg a bit of paper and pencil from Mr. Buckley"s brother Bill who clerked there, and learn something of the absent family. And here, while crossing the street in nervous haste, she had been knocked down in a press of vehicles,--and so the long chapter of strange accidents was set going.
A few days after Christmas the prima donna of The Garden Opera House was found in her luxurious sitting-room, by her maid, face downward on the couch,--in tears, the result of a state of mind, caused, as it proved, by a visit from the little Angelique and her beautiful mother.
"How can I ever thank you for your generous impulse," Mrs. Breaux had said, in impulsive, sweet fashion, taking the wayward, beautiful, young creature"s hand in hers, "or how can I ever be grateful enough to the good G.o.d for surrounding my darling with such love and preserving her, as He has done, from the evils of this terrible city," and she had cried and trembled even then, with the child there against her knee, calling and prattling to the green and yellow parrot on his gilded perch.
"If only some one could have understood all the poor child tried to tell," said the prima donna, "but her dear, funny little lisp--"
"It is no wonder they could not," cried the mother in quick exoneration of her child"s Tenement friends, "her speech was a comical mixture of her father"s French, my English, and the nurse"s Irish brogue,--even Mr.
Breaux gave up often in despair, and would turn for me to interpret."
It followed, then, that Angelique had been brought to tell the great singer good-bye, and in speaking of her first meeting with her at the Opera House, the prima donna referred to the child"s wonderful grace, her poise. "She has more than talent," the professional woman said, "she has genius."
"It is a love of motion born in her," replied the mother, "my sisters have it before her. Angelique danced actually before she could talk, and my sister took her to dancing school and kindergarten when she was little more than a baby, because it seemed such a pleasure to the child."
And then it so happened the singer was led to speak of her own life, of her wretched, motherless childhood, her poverty, the discovery of her voice and her subsequent success.
"A success that sometimes seems but ashes in my mouth," she sobbed, as the young mother gathered her in her arms and comforted her with words which to her impulsive, untaught, undisciplined heart were as "apples of gold," and which sank too deep to ever be forgotten. And it was following this visit that her maid found her in tears.
Pretty Miss Stannard sighed, as with Mr. Dilke in attendance, she was walking up from the station, having seen Angelique, her mother, father, and Tante off for their southern home. "How nice," she sighed, "for them to have been able to show their grat.i.tude as they have; money can do anything."
But Mr. Dilke, who, of late had had reason to question the desirability of being a rich young man, since the conscientious and a.n.a.lytical young person by his side had returned an unfavorable answer to a certain matrimonial proposition on his part, alleging her inability to determine how far her affections were biased by sordidness. So Mr. Dilke shook his head and took a sidelong glance at his companion"s pretty profile. "No, money cannot," he returned promptly in refutation of her statement, "all mine cannot give me the one thing that makes the rest seem worth while."
"Nor would you want that one thing if it could," returned Miss Stannard quite as promptly, though what little of her profile Mr. Dilke could catch sight of now, so attractive did something prove across the way--grew a beautiful rosy red as she spoke,--"no, money could not give you that. I"ve thought and thought until I am quite--convinced--of that--though if you just could be poor,--real nice and poverty-stricken long enough to test me,--I"d always feel safer--you know----"
And when, in time, a successor was found to supply Miss Stannard"s place at the Darcy Settlement"s Free Kindergarten, it was to see the Angel in her beautiful southern home that Mr. Van Alstine took his pretty, young wife. And there, whom did they find,--her face all softened and transfigured with happiness, tending her beloved charge with jealous care--but Mary Carew!