II
Dalton found them all at dinner when he reached Huntersfield. He was not in the least prepared for the scene which met his eyes--shining mahogany, old silver and Sheffield, tall white candles, Calvin in a snowy jacket, Mrs. Beaufort and Mrs. Paine in low-necked gowns, the Judge and Randy in dinner-coats somewhat the worse for wear, Becky in thin, delicate blue, with a string of pearls which seemed to George an excellent imitation of the real thing.
He had thought that the trail of Mrs. Paine"s boarding-house might be over it all. He had known boarding-houses as a boy, before his father made his money. There had been bas.e.m.e.nt dining-rooms, catsup bottles, and people pa.s.sing everything to everybody else!
"I"m afraid I"m early," he said in his quick voice.
"Not a bit. Calvin, place a chair for Mr. Dalton."
There were fruit and nuts and raisins in a great silver epergne, with fat cupids making love among garlands. There was coffee in Sevres cups.
Back among the shadows twinkled a priceless mirror; shutting off Calvin"s serving table was a painted screen worth its weight in gold.
It was a far cry from the catsup bottles and squalid service of George"s early days. The Bannisters of Huntersfield wore their poverty like a plume!
The Judge carried Dalton off presently to the Bird Room. George went with reluctance. This was not what he had come for. Becky, slim and small, with her hair peaked up to a topknot, Becky in pale blue, Becky as fair as her string of imitation pearls, Becky in the golden haze of the softly illumined room, Becky, Becky Bannister--the name chimed in his ears.
Dalton had had some difficulty in getting away from Hamilton Hill.
"It"s my last night," Madge had said; "shall we go out in the garden and watch the moon rise?"
"Sorry," George had told her, "but I"ve promised Flora to take a fourth hand at bridge."
"And after that?" asked Madge softly.
"What do you mean?"
"Who is the new--little girl?"
It was useless to pretend. "She"s a beauty, rather, isn"t she?"
"Oh, Georgie-Porgie, I wish you wouldn"t."
"Wouldn"t what?"
"Kiss the girls--and make them--cry----"
"You"ve never cried----"
She laughed at that. "If I haven"t it is because I know that afterwards you always--run away."
He admitted it. "One can"t marry them all."
"I wonder if you are ever serious," she told him, her chin in her hand.
"I am always serious. That"s what makes it interesting----"
"But the poor little--hearts?"
"Some one has to teach them," said George, "that it"s a pretty game----"
"Will it be always a game--to you--Georgie?"
"Who knows?" he said. "So far I"ve held trumps----"
"Your conceit is colossal, but somehow you seem to get away with it."
She smiled and stood, up. "I"m going to bed early. I have been losing my beauty sleep lately, Georgie."
He chose to be gallant. "You are not losing your beauty, if that"s what you mean."
Her dinner gown was of the same shade of mauve that she had worn in the afternoon. But it was of a material so sheer that the gold of her skin seemed to shine through.
"Good-night, Golden Girl," said Dalton, and kissed the tips of her fingers as she stood on the stairs. Then he went off to join the others.
Madge did not go to bed. She went out alone and watched the moon rise.
Oscar Waterman"s house was on a hill which gave a view of the whole valley. Gradually under the moon the houses of Charlottesville showed the outlines of the University, and far beyond the shadowy sweep of the Blue Ridge. What a world it had been in the old days--great men had ridden over these red roads in swaying carriages, Jefferson, Lafayette, Washington himself.
If she could only meet men like that. Men to whom life was more than a game--a carnival. From the stone bench where she sat she had a view through the long French windows of the three tables of bridge--there were slender, restless girls, eager, elegant youths. "Perhaps they are no worse than those who lived here before them," Madge"s sense of justice told her. "But isn"t there something better?"
From her window later, she saw Dalton"s car flash out into the road.
The light wound down and down, and appeared at last upon the highway.
It was not the first time that George had played the game with another girl. But he had always come back to her. She had often wondered why she let him come. "Why do I let him?" she asked the moon.
III
It really was a great moon. It shone through the windows of the Bird Room at Huntersfield, wooing George out into the fragrant night. He could hear voices on the lawn--young Paine"s laugh--Becky"s. Once when he looked he saw them on the ridge, silhouetted against the golden sky.
They were dancing, and Randy"s clear whistle, piping a modern tune, came up to him, tantalizing him.
But the Judge held him. It took him nearly an hour to get through with the Bob-whites and the sandpipers, the wild turkeys, the ducks and the wild geese. And long before that time George was bored to extinction.
He had little imagination. To him the Trumpeter was just a stuffed old bird. He could not picture him as blowing his trumpet beside the moon, or wearing a golden crown as in "The Seven Brothers." He had never heard of "The Seven Brothers," and n.o.body in the world wore crowns except kings. As for the old eagle, it is doubtful whether George had ever felt the symbolism of his presence on a silver coin, or that he had ever linked him in his heart with G.o.d.
Then, suddenly, the whole world changed. Becky appeared on the threshold.
"Grandfather," she said, "Aunt Claudia says there is lemonade on the lawn."
"In a moment, my dear."
George rose hastily. "Don"t let me keep you, Judge----"
Becky advanced into the room. "Aren"t birds wonderful?"
"They are," said George, seeing them wonderful for the first time.
"I always feel," she said, "as if some time they will flap their wings and fly away--on a night like this--the swans going first, and then the ducks and geese, and last of all the little birds, trailing across the moon----" Her hands fluttered to show them trailing. Becky used her hands a great deal when she talked. Aunt Claudia deplored it as indicating too little repose. The nuns, she felt, should have corrected the habit. But the nuns had loved Becky"s descriptive hands, poking, emphasizing, and had let her alone.
The three of them, the Judge and Becky and Dalton, went out together.
The little group which sat in the wide moonlighted s.p.a.ce in front of the house was dwarfed by the great trees which hung in ma.s.ses of black against the brilliant night. The white dresses of the women seemed touched with silver.
The lemonade was delicious, and Aunt Claudia forced herself to be gracious. Caroline Paine was gracious without an effort. She liked Dalton. Not in the same way, perhaps, that she liked Major Prime, but he was undoubtedly handsome, and of a world which wore lovely clothes and did not have to count its pennies.