"Do you want to be found?"
"I don"t know. I"d rather not talk about it."
William came in with the tea and was told to send the intruder off.
"I done sent him, Miss Lily," he said, with dignity, "but he ain"t gwine to go. He say he ain"t, and I kain"t make him."
She went again to the window, and this time she drew back the faded hangings and stepped out on the balcony.
I heard her utter a cry; then the whole room seemed to whirl about me as she came in, dragging the curtains together behind her. Every drop of blood was drained from her face.
"William," she said, sharply, "that man--is coming toward the house! If he asks for me--I am not--at home."
"Nawm," and William went down to answer the blows of the bra.s.s knocker.
We heard him open the door, we heard the crisp, quick voice. We heard William"s stately response. Then the quick voice said: "Will you tell your mistress that I shall wait?"
William came up with the message. "He"s settin" on the po"ch, an" he looks like he was makin" out to set there all night."
"Let him sit," said Lady Crusoe inelegantly. "Lock all of the doors, William, and serve the tea."
She sat there and drank a cup of it scalding hot, with her head in the air and her foot tapping the floor. But I couldn"t drink a drop. I was just sick with the thought of how he loved her, and of how she had hardened her heart.
At last I couldn"t stand it any longer. The tears rolled down my cheeks.
Lady Crusoe set her cup on the tray and stared at me in amazement.
"What"s the matter?"
"Oh, how can you--when he loves you?"
I don"t know how I dared say it, for her eyes were blazing in her white face, and my heart was thumping, but there was Robinson Crusoe crowing in his hooded cradle, and Robin"s father was on the front step, with the old oak door shut and barred against him.
She leaned forward, and I knew what was coming. "How did you know it was--my husband?"
My eyes met hers squarely. "He came to the store. He was looking for you."
"And you told him that I was here?"
"No. I wanted to. But I had promised."
For a little while neither of us spoke. The silence was broken by a thud, as if a flying squirrel had dropped from the roof to the balcony.
A stick of wood fell apart in the grate, and the crow of the baby in the hooded cradle was answered by the baby on my lap.
Lady Crusoe hugged her knees with her white arms as if she were cold, although the room was hot with the blazing fire. "I think you might have told me. It would have been the friendly thing to have told me--"
"Billy thought it wasn"t best."
"What had Billy to do with it?"
"Billy has everything to do with me. I talked it over with him--and--and Billy"s such a darling to talk things over--"
I broke down and sobbed and sobbed, and the tears dripped on Junior"s precious head. And at last she said, her face softened, "You silly little thing, what do you want me to do?"
"If it were Billy, I should ask him in--and show him--the baby--"
"If it were Billy, you would set your heart under his heel for him to step on. I am not like that--"
Another squirrel dropped to the balcony. The sun was setting, and between the velvet curtains I could see it blood-red behind the hills.
Lady Crusoe rose, pacing the room restlessly. The wind rising rattled the long windows. A shadow blotted out the sun.
"I suppose if you were I," she said at last, "you"d take your baby in your arms, and go down and say to that man on the steps, "Come in and be lord of the manor and the ruler of your wife and child.""
I held Junior close and my voice trembled. "I should never say a thing like that to--Billy--"
"What would you say?"
"I should say"--I choked over it, and broke down at the end--"oh, lover, lover, this is your son--and I am his happy mother--"
She stopped in front of me and stood looking down, with the anger all gone from her eyes. Then, before she could turn or cry out, the long windows were struck open by something that was stronger than the wind.
There had been no flying squirrels on the balcony, and the shadow which had hidden the sun was the breadth and height of the big man who stood between the velvet curtains! He crossed the room at a stride.
"Did you think that bolts and bars could keep me from you?" he asked, and took Lady Crusoe"s hands in a tight grip and drew her toward him.
She resisted for a moment. Then her white slenderness was crushed in his hungry arms.
Well, as soon as I could gather up Junior and his belongings, I went down to wait for Billy. But before I went I saw her drop on her knees beside the hooded cradle and lift out little Robin, and, still kneeling, hold him up toward his father, as the nun holds up Galahad in the Holy Grail.
And what do you think I heard her say?
_"Oh, lover, lover, this is your son--and I am his happy mother!"_
Billy came in glowing from his walk in the sharp air, and I can"t tell you how good it seemed to feel his cold cheek against my cheek, and his warm lips on mine. We were a rapturous trio in front of the library fire, and there we were joined presently by the rapturous trio from above stairs. They treated Billy and me as if we were a pair of guardian angels. Then we had dinner together, with Mandy and William in the background beaming.
And that night I told Billy all about it. "Isn"t it beautiful, Billy?
They are going to live on the old Davenant place, and it is to be their home."
Everybody calls on us now. You see, Lady Crusoe"s family is older than any of the others, and then there"s her husband"s money. And I shine in her reflected light, for our friendship, as she says, is founded on a rock. But Billy says it is founded on a wreck. Yet while he jokes about it, I know that he is proud of his friendship with Robin"s father. And when the spring comes, we are to take old Tid and our blessed Junior and our family effects to an adorable cottage with a garden on all four sides of it and set well back from the road. You see, we feel that we can afford it, for we have the exclusive business of supplying the needs of the Davenant estate, and we are thus financially on our feet.
A REBELLIOUS GRANDMOTHER
Mrs. Cissy Beale and her daughter Cecily sat together in the latter"s bedroom--a bewitching apartment, in which pale-gray paper and pale-gray draperies formed an effective background for the rosewood furniture and the French mirrors and tapestried screens.
Between the two women was a ba.s.sinet and a baby.
"You act," said Cecily, "as if you were sorry about--the baby."