Jeff caught up and lifted high in the air an imaginary gla.s.s.
"Here"s to the orchestra!" he called out. "May Doctor Churchill read the score of the first violin. Here"s to the First Violin! May she hear plenty of fine music in the old country, and come back ready to coach us all. And here"s--"
He paused and looked impressively round upon the company, who regarded him in turn with interested, sympathetic eyes. "I say we"ve called her "Second Fiddle" long enough," he said, and hesitated, beginning to get stranded in his own eloquence. "Anyhow, if she hasn"t proved this year that she"s fit to play anything--dishes or wall-paper or babies--" He stopped, laughing. "I don"t know how to say it, but as sure as my name"s Jefferson Birch she--er--"
"Hear! hear!" the captain encouraged him softly.
"Here"s,"--shouted the boy, "here"s to the Second Violin!"
Through the friendly laughter and murmurs of appreciation, Charlotte, dropping shy, happy eyes, read the real love and respect of everybody, and felt that the year"s experiences had brought her a rich reward. But all she said, as Jeff, exhausted by his effort at oratory, dropped upon the gra.s.s beside her, was in his ear:
"If anybody deserves a toast, Jeffy boy, I think it"s you. You"ve eaten so many slices of mine--burnt to a cinder--and never winced! If that isn"t heroism, what is?"
BOOK II
THE CHURCHILL LATCH-STRING
CHAPTER I
"Here"s another, Charlotte!"
Young Justin Birch"s l.u.s.ty shout rang through the house from hall to kitchen, vibrating even as far as the second-story room in the rear, where Charlotte herself happened at that moment to be. In response people appeared from everywhere. The bride-elect was the last to put in an appearance, and when she came, there was a certain reluctance in her aspect.
"Hurry up, there!" admonished Just, already busy with chisel and hammer at the slender, flat box which lay upon the hall floor, in the centre of an interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had stopped upon the landing. "You act as if you didn"t want to see what"s in it," he remonstrated, whacking away vigorously.
"Indeed I do," Charlotte declared, coming on down the staircase, smiling at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back, every one.
"But I"m beginning to feel as if I--as if they--as if--"
"It must seem odd to feel like that," John Lansing agreed, quizzically.
Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for the wedding, from the law-school at which he had been for two years.
Celia slipped her arm about her younger sister"s shoulders. "I know what she means," she said, in her gentle way. "It"s so unexpected to her, after sending out no invitations at all, that gifts should keep pouring in like this. But it"s not unexpected to us."
"Oh, I know how many of them come from father"s and mother"s friends, and how many from Andy"s grateful patients. It"s all the more overwhelming on that account."
"Look out there, Just!" The admonition came from Jeff, and consequently was delivered from some six feet in the air, where that nineteen-year-old"s head was now carried. "Don"t split those pieces; they"ll be fine for the Emerson boys building."
"That"s so." Just wielded his tools with more care. Presently he had the long parcel lying on the floor. At this moment Mr. Roderick Birch opened the outer hall door.
"As usual," was his smiling comment, as he laid aside hat and overcoat and joined the circle. "Charlotte"s latest?"
Charlotte herself undid the wrappings, wondering what the gift could be.
She disclosed a long piece of dingy-looking metal.
"A new shingle for Andy!" cried Jeff.
Just turned the heavy slab over, and it proved to be of copper. Words came into view, hammered and beaten into the glinting metal. An effective conventionalised border surrounded the whole.
""Ye Ornaments of a House are ye Guests who Frequent it,"" read the a.s.sembled company, in chorus.
"Oh, isn"t that beautiful!" cried Charlotte.
Jeff glanced at her suspiciously. "She says that about everything," he remarked. "Don"t think much of it myself. The sentiment may be awfully true--or otherwise; but what"s the thing for? If anybody wanted to hint at an invitation to visit Andy and Charlotte, he might have done it without putting himself on record on a slab of copper four feet long.
Who sent it, anyway?"
Celia hunted carefully through the wrappings, and everybody finally joined in the search, but no card appeared.
"I"m so sorry!" lamented Charlotte. "I shall never know whom to thank."
"It lets you out, anyhow," Jeff said, soothingly. "You won"t have to tell any lies. The thing is of about as much use as a bootjack."
"Why, but it"s lovely!" protested Charlotte, with evident sincerity.
"Copper things are very highly valued just now, and the work on that is artistic. Don"t you see it is?"
"Can"t see it," murmured Jeff. "But of course my not seeing it doesn"t count. I can"t see the value of that idiotic old battered-up copper pail you cherish so tenderly, but that"s because I lack the true, heaven-born artist"s soul. Where are you going to put this, Fiddle?"
Charlotte"s eyes grew absent. She was sending them in imagination across the lawn to the little old brick house next door, which was soon to be her home, as she had done every time a new gift arrived. There were a good many puzzles of this sort in connection with her wedding gifts.
Where to put some of them she knew, with a thrill of pleasure, the instant she set eyes on them; where in the world others could possibly go was undoubtedly a serious question.
"h.e.l.lo, here comes Andy!" called Just, from the window. "Give him a chance at it. Perhaps he can use it somewhere in the surgery--as a delicate way of cheering the patients when they feel as if perhaps they"d better not have come."
Charlotte turned as the hall door swung open, admitting Dr. Andrew Churchill and a fresh breath of October air.
Everybody turned about also. Into everybody"s face came a look of affectionate greeting. Even the eyes of the father and mother--and this, just now, was the greatest test of all--showed the welcome to which their own children were happily used.
The figure on the threshold was one to claim attention anywhere. It was a strong figure with a look of life and intense physical vigour. The face matched the body: it was fresh-coloured and finely molded; and n.o.body who looked at it and into the clear gray eyes of Andrew Churchill could fail to recognise the man behind.
Lanse, who was nearest, shook hands warmly. "It seems good to see you, old fellow," he said, heartily. "If this whirl of work they tell me you are in had kept up much longer, I should have turned patient myself and sent for you. Going to find time to be married in, think, Andy?"
"I rather expect to be able to manage it," responded Doctor Churchill, laughing. "How long have you been home, Lanse--two hours? Just promised to let me know when you came."
"I started, but you were whizzing up the street in the runabout,"
protested Just, picking up the debris of the unpacking and carrying it away. "There was a trail of steam behind you sixteen feet long. I think you were running beyond lawful speed."
"Here"s your latest acquisition." Jeff pointed it out, picking up the copper slab and holding it at the stretch of his arms for inspection.
Doctor Churchill turned and regarded it with interest. Then his bright glance shifted to Charlotte, and he smiled at her.