If Father Davy rejoiced within himself that the days of "left-overs" for Georgiana were all but past and that there was to be no more "turning and twisting," at least with material things, he did not say so. Instead he surveyed the contents of the small packages with eyes which were nearly as bright as hers, and made her supremely content with his approval.
The climax of the shopping came on the morning of the third day.
Georgiana returned to the car after a more than usually long absence, during which, for the first time, Mr. Warne had become slightly weary of using his eyes in watching the ever-moving throng, and had dropped off, in his warm corner, into a little refreshing nap. He wakened to find Georgiana beside him, the car moving uptown by a less congested route than they had taken before, and his daughter"s hand firmly clasping his.
He looked round at her and saw, to his surprise and dismay, that her heavy lashes were thick with tears. But she smiled through them, and bade him wait to hear the reason until they were in the Park, where each morning a drive, according to Doctor Craig"s suggestion, was taken before the swift run back to the downtown square.
The moment they were well within the precincts and had entered upon the less frequented drive which she had asked for, Georgiana turned to her father. She held up something before him, and, looking at it, he discovered the little old bag of dark blue silk which her mother had fashioned from her own wedding gown, and which had contained the treasured gold pieces which had made it possible for Georgiana to have a wedding gown of her own.
"It"s nearly empty now," said the girl softly. "It"s bought so much, Father Davy; I"ve begun to think it was magic gold! Everybody--all the shopgirls and women--have helped me spend it. It was as if they knew I must make it go a long way and wanted to do it. I really think"--she gave a tremulous little laugh--"it was a good thing I wasn"t dressed to match the car I came in, or they never would have taken the trouble to hunt up the things I wanted--at the prices I could pay. The fact that I looked like a shopgirl, too, was such a help!"
"A shopgirl!" repeated her father. "You, my dear? What would Jefferson say to that? No matter how you were dressed you could not possibly look anything but what you are."
"Oh, but, Father Davy, dear, you don"t know what many and many of the shopgirls, especially these city girls, look like. There are such beautiful faces among them, such soft voices, such really charming manners. Of course there are plenty of the other kind, the cheap and common sort, but so many of the nice kind! I don"t mind looking like some of them, indeed I don"t. And the fact that I"m wearing this little old summer serge suit, now in December, with this hat, which any clever girl would know I made myself--well, it has helped me to interest their sympathies in my search. And now I"ve found"--her voice sank--"I"ve found what I couldn"t have expected to find in all New York. And I"m so glad--so glad--I can"t tell you. Look!"
She slowly unwrapped a long, slim, cylinderlike parcel, and brought to view what it contained. Inclosed in its pasteboard protector, to keep it unwrinkled in its soft perfection, lay a roll of dark blue silk, of a small brocaded pattern.
Georgiana silently laid the little blue-silk bag upon it, and held up the two so that her father could see how close was the resemblance. The colour was precisely the same, making allowances for the slight dimming of age; while the design of the brocade was so similar that the two might have been made in the same period, if not by the same hand.
Mr. Warne studied the two fabrics intently for a moment, then looked into his daughter"s eyes. He was too moved to speak. When she herself could talk again composedly she told him what she meant to do. The blue silk, made by her own hands in the three days left her, was to be her wedding gown. She had bought a little fine lace, fit for such a use, with which to make the finishing; and no matter what Doctor Jefferson might think of such a subst.i.tute for the customary bridal attire, for herself she should be far happier than in the finest white silk or satin that could be bought.
"G.o.d bless you, my little girl!" Father Davy murmured, wiping his eyes, their clear blue depths misty.
His thin hand clasped the little blue bag again, his heart ached with the sorrow which is part joy and with the joy which is part sorrow.
Nothing his Phoebe"s daughter could have done would have proclaimed her so truly the child of her mother as this unexpected act. He looked again and again at the roll of blue silk in Georgiana"s lap.
"How strange it seems that you could find it," he said, "now when everything is so different from the fashions of twenty-five years ago."
"It"s a revival, the silk man said. He explained that the styles of the moment call for the fabrics and patterns of the past, and that it"s a constant revolution, bringing back every once in so often what is old-fashioned between times. But he himself was surprised that the very newest thing on his shelves was the one that matched the old. I think he was almost as pleased as I was--without knowing anything about it, except that I was very anxious to find the silk. And now to hurry home and make it!"
Her unconscious use of the word "home" struck pleasantly upon Mr.
Warne"s ears. He himself was beginning to feel very much at home in the old square. Small wonder, since he had found there the son he had longed for all his married life.
Back at the house Georgiana fell to work without delay. She had told Mrs. MacFayden her intention, and had enlisted the warm interest of that motherly Scotswoman. She had offered Doctor Craig"s young guest the use of her own sitting-room, with that of the sewing-machine which stood there, and here presently Georgiana unrolled her breadths of silk and laid upon them the pattern she had selected.
And now, indeed, she was glad of the long training in the dressmaker"s trade, glad of the clever art she had cultivated for so many years. It was to her a simple enough matter to fashion herself a dress which should be in form and line all that could be desired. To do it out of unbroken yards of material, without necessity for piecing and patching, was a delightful novelty. To accomplish it in three days was only a matter of working at top speed, with fingers which flew at the behest of a brain which also worked like magic at its task.
During this period Doctor Craig himself was more than ordinarily busy, to judge by his infrequent appearances at his home. For those last three days before his marriage he was out of town, returning only on the evening preceding the date set. But Georgiana found no lack in him as a lover, for during the brief moments when he could be with her he made the most of his opportunity, letting her see plainly that she was always in his thoughts, and giving her every evidence that he was the happiest of expectant bridegrooms. Each day a great box of flowers was brought to her, in which she revelled as she had only dreamed of doing. While he was away he called her up each evening on the telephone, managing to send her somehow, over the wire, a sense of his nearness and his devotion. Altogether those few days brought to Georgiana an experience unique in a lifetime, and one which she would gladly have prolonged.
Then, it seemed quite suddenly, it was Wednesday morning, and the sun was shining brilliantly in at Georgiana"s windows over a thousand roof-tops. The marriage was to occur at noon, because, for a bride whose bridal finery was limited to a little frock of dark blue silk and whose traveling attire was the plainest of ready-to-wear suits and simplest of small hats, without furs or furbelows of any sort, it seemed the only fitting hour.
It had been arranged that the two essential witnesses to the ceremony should be two close friends of Doctor Craig"s, an elderly couple whose name, if the Warnes had known, was one of the old names of the city, standing for the bluest of blue Knickerbocker blood, though for only moderate wealth and for no ostentation whatever. Georgiana had begged that no other guests be asked, being anxious, on her father"s account, to have the whole affair over with the least possible agitation for him.
To this Doctor Craig had cordially agreed.
At eleven o"clock, however, a third guest arrived, a most unexpected guest, who with a ruddy, eager face, came running up the old stone steps of the house, a great florist"s box under his arm. He demanded of the boy Thomas instant entrance, and waved back at a taxicab driver the summons to bring along a much larger box which was nearly filling that vehicle.
Georgiana, peeping out of her father"s window, beheld, and was off and down the stairs before Thomas could fairly begin his explanation that Miss Warne was engaged and could not be intruded upon at this hour.
"O Jimps!"
"Well, well, George! You came pretty near giving me the slip, didn"t you? But not quite--thanks to Doctor Craig."
Georgiana showed her surprise. "Did he let you know?"
She had led him instantly inside the library and had unconsciously closed the door all but in the face of the interested Thomas, ignoring both florist"s box and big package, which that young man would have brought in to her. She had both hands on James Stuart"s shoulders, and was looking him straight in the eyes, which looked as straightly back.
If there had ever been the beginning of romance between these two, clearly it was far in the background now. Never did brother and sister face each other with their relationship more clearly defined.
"I should say he did--since you didn"t! What did you mean by trying to steal a march on us all like this? Jeannette is furious, though of course she isn"t strong enough to come, wild though she is to do it. She wanted me to tell you that she"ll have revenge when she gets about, and that you won"t escape her wedding presents. Meanwhile she"s sent you something she had on hand, because there was no time to get anything else. She thought you would find a use for it somehow. She sent her love with it--and I can tell you that"s pretty valuable."
"Of course it is! Jimps, I"m so pleased, so wonderfully pleased that you are here--I can"t tell you!"
"Then, why in the name of old friendship didn"t you send for me?" Stuart demanded, for plainly this still rankled. "Evidently Doctor Craig had more belief in that than you did."
"I wanted to, indeed I did, Jimps, dear, but I thought--I was sure--well----"
Stuart laughed. "Thought I wanted to save every penny for my own wedding, eh? I rather guess I can squander a few on yours. I wouldn"t have missed it for worlds, though I"d give a good deal if _my_ sweetheart could have been here, too--and so would she, bless her! She"s coming on splendidly, George--looks almost herself again. In a month more her doctor will let up on restrictions."
They talked fast, with an eye on the library clock, and when its deep, slow chime proclaimed the half-hour Georgiana rose.
"I must go now. Come and stay with father till the hour arrives, will you? It will steady him to see you. Not but that he seems as serene as ever, but I know inside it"s a pretty big strain for him."
"All right, I"d like nothing better, since I can"t see you any longer.
Where"s the princ.i.p.al man for this occasion, anyhow? Can he take the time to be married, or is he liable to send up word he"s detained? You can"t put your finger on these popular surgeons till they"re here."
"I had a telephone message from him an hour ago," Georgiana a.s.sured him, with a conscious little smile. "I really think he"ll be here, though not till the last minute, probably."
"If he isn"t I"ll go after him with a gun. If he doesn"t show up I"d marry you myself if it wasn"t for a previous engagement," dared Stuart, with a happy laugh.
"Never! If I couldn"t have my man I"d never marry anybody," she whispered, as she turned to look back at him for an instant, her hand on the library door.
Stuart caught the hand, and whispered back: "George, is it like that with you, too?" She nodded. His face flamed. "It"s wonderful, isn"t it?
Unbelievable!"
She nodded again. They looked into each other"s faces, smiling through a mist of happiness, then Georgiana flung open the door and ran out into the hall.
Stuart followed, caught up the big box and ran after her up the stairs.
"Here," he said under his breath, as they reached the top, "be sure to open this before you go. Jean wanted you to wear it away with you; she said you"d be sure to need it, traveling. It"s a beauty; it just came home for her."
He gave her the big box at the door of her room, while she pointed him down the hall to her father"s door. He patted her arm with a brotherly gesture, and hurried along.
Inside her room, with a glance at the clock, she opened the box. Under the tissue lay a soft, luxurious-feeling ma.s.s, all dark blue cloth of a velvety texture, with glimpses of dark fur. She opened it, with a sigh of pleasure, for it meant that now she might look fit to be Dr.
Jefferson Craig"s traveling companion, with this cloak, fur-lined, all-enveloping, to slip on over the plain little suit which was not half warm enough for severe winter weather.
"It"s the last of my "Semi-Annuals,"" she said to herself, "and the best. How dear of her! And oh, how good it is that Jimps is here! Now I have a family, a real family to see me married--a father and a brother!"
The clock again--warning her to fly. She had ever been rapid at dressing--she had never been quicker. A cold plunge--the second that morning, bringing the blood leaping--the donning of fair garments lying ready to her hand--the arrangement of hair in the old way, simplicity itself--then the slipping over her white shoulders of the blue silk gown. When it was fastened Georgiana went to stand by her window, looking out with eyes which did not see.