On the afternoon of the second day, as they neared the old home village, to which Georgiana had returned only once since her marriage, she found herself noting with quickening pulse every familiar landmark.
"It seems so strange to think of my going away from such scenes for good and all, and Jean"s coming to them," she said to herself more than once.
"How little either of us would have believed it, just two short years ago!"
When they pa.s.sed the old manse she gazed at it with affectionate eyes.
"Oh, how shabby and poor it looks!" she said under her breath to Craig.
"Did it look like that when you first saw it?"
He nodded, smiling. "Just like that. But the moment the door opened the first time I knew its shabbiness was just a blind to mislead the traveler, who might otherwise stop and try to steal the treasure that it held."
Her eyes were searching next for the chimney tops that should mark the other home for which they were bound. How often had she looked at those chimney tops, because they told her where was her best friend during those solitary days that were already so far past. A moment more and Georgiana"s first exclamation of surprise broke from her lips. There were to be many before the day was done.
"Look! All those ugly little buildings at the back are gone, and the house stands all by itself at the top of the slope. Isn"t that an improvement? It"s freshly painted, too; how that clear white brings out the beauty of the old house! It used to be such a dingy slate! I always knew it was a pleasant place, but I didn"t fully appreciate it. The lawn is as trim as can be, and there"s a border of shrubs and flowers all along the drive. How little real change to make so much! That"s Jean, I know. Oh, and there"s Jean herself, running down the steps! She sees us!"
"Is that really Jeannette Crofton?" Craig doubted. "Yes--for a fact!
Well, well!"
They might easily doubt the evidence of their eyes, for the slim figure they had known so well had rounded until it showed softly blooming curves, and colouring which put to blush the cosmetics which the society girl had not altogether eschewed, though it had been long before the less sophisticated cousin had found this out. No need for rouge or powder now, for nature had laid on the lovely face her own unrivalled tints of rose overlying the soft browns of summer tan.
"Oh, you darlings, to come and bring the baby! Do let me look at him--the blessed thing! Isn"t he a beauty?--but, of course, how could he help it? Jimps! O Jimps! Here they are!"
Thus cried Jeannette out of sheer exuberance, though the fact of the arrival was obvious enough, and James Stuart was already dashing across the lawn from the opposite direction.
As she looked at her cousin, Georgiana"s first impression was the one she had hardly dared hope for, that of Jeannette"s entire content and well-being. Not only was the physical improvement noteworthy but a certain worn and worldly look had vanished--one which had not affected her beauty and had been discernible only to the closely observing eye, but which had been there none the less and was gone now.
This change grew more and more apparent as Georgiana continued to regard her young hostess. From the moment the party first entered the wide-thrown front door, it was easy to discover that both Stuart and his wife were eager as two children for the approval of their guests. Such approval was not long in appearing.
"How pleasant--how charming!" cried Georgiana, as her quick eye took in attractive effect after effect. "Oh, you clever things, to do it like this! How absolutely in keeping it all is, and how quiet, yet how beautiful!"
"She"s done it," vowed James Stuart proudly. "I was a duffer at it till she showed me what she was after. I wanted to buy brocaded silk furniture, like that in her home--while my money held out. But she would have nothing but this sort of thing. Homelike, isn"t it?"
It was the word which described it, if one qualified the term by making it apply only to homes built on foundations of good taste and suitability to environment. As she looked about her Georgiana saw everywhere evidences of the use of abundant means, and she realized that Jeannette had been clever indeed to supply so much without impressing Stuart with the undoubted fact that she had contributed more than he to the final result.
The whole effect of the house"s interior was one of well-chosen but unostentatious comfort, and the materials and furnishings used were all so nicely adapted to their setting that only to more discerning eyes than those of the Stuarts" neighbours would they have expressed unusual resources of supply.
"It"s an achievement!" Craig declared.
His enlightened gaze traveled from one point to another of the long, low-ceilinged living-room, sunny with new windows, and with walls and hangings of soft browns and golden yellows. He noted that Jeannette had had the good sense to make use of the old furniture the house possessed wherever it was fit for preservation, and that she had dignified the walls by retaining certain dim old portraits, done in fading oils, of Stuart"s ancestors. Everywhere could be seen similar interesting blending of the new and the old, though it was often difficult to tell which was which.
The elder Stuarts were living in a wing of the house, that being the portion where they had spent their lives, making little use of the upright and the corresponding wing, which were now turned over to the son and his wife. Since the elder people wisely preferred this semi-independence, the younger were able to be much by themselves, Stuart explained, though always near and ready to lend a hand at any hour. Since the stalwart son could not be entirely spared by the somewhat feeble old couple, the arrangement seemed an admirable one, and thus far it had worked very well.
"Jean"s such a dear with them," Stuart said covertly to Georgiana, leading her aside for a moment to look at a curious old buffet which had been long in the family. "They adore her, and she really seems very fond of them. Of course they have old Eliza to look after them, as they have had for so long; but we ask them in to dinner every few days, and often have them sitting by the fire with us here on cool evenings. The funny part, though, is when Mother Crofton comes. She can"t get over it, or get used to it; she sits and looks at Jean as if she were an actress in a play, and by and by would take off her make-up and be herself again."
"I wonder how far that is from the real truth," thought Georgiana to herself, as she watched the young mistress of the place with fascinated eyes.
Certainly if Jeannette were acting it was very skilfully done. As she led her guests about the house, and then established them on the lawn, beneath the great elms which furnished a grateful shade at this afternoon hour over nearly the whole expanse, she seemed the embodiment of health and happiness.
By and by, when the Crofton car arrived, bearing Uncle Thomas and Aunt Olivia, with Rosalie and Chester following a few moments later in Chester"s roadster, Jeannette grew fairly radiant.
CHAPTER x.x.x
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
It was not until late that evening that Georgiana had a chance really to learn the whole state of the case.
During the intervening hours had occurred the event for which they had all been invited--the entertaining of at least two hundred people from the surrounding country and the village. For this event, which Stuart navely called a "party," Jeannette a "lawn fete," and the guests themselves, for the most part, a "picnic," porches, lawn and trees had been hung with gay lanterns, bonfires had been built, the small village band engaged, a light but delectable supper provided, and as much jollity planned as could be crowded into the hours between five o"clock and eleven.
From the standpoint of those entertaining, at least, the affair had been a success, for Stuart, long accustomed to the ways of his fellow countrymen, considered himself fully able to tell from their manner, if not from their expressions of pleasure, whether they had really found enjoyment in the efforts of their hosts.
"They had a mighty good time, no doubt about it!" he declared, when the last reluctant guest had departed in the last small car which had waited at the edge of the roadway. (Not the least of young Chester Crofton"s enjoyment had been occasioned by the sight of the long row of vehicles, from two-seated wagons to smart and even expensive motors, which had lined the road for many rods.) "And a lot of them are well worth knowing," Stuart added.
His eye chanced to fall on his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas Crofton, as he made this a.s.sertion. The party were sitting in a group upon the lantern-lighted porch and its steps, and the senior Crofton"s face was plainly visible.
That gentleman nodded. "You"re quite right, Jim," he said. "I don"t know when I"ve had a more interesting conversation with any man than I did with one of your neighbours, nor found a more intelligent set of opinions on every subject we touched on. He wasn"t the only one, either.
As a rule I found the people who came here to-night possessed of rather more than the average amount of brains. I should like to try living among them--for a change, at least."
"I struck a tongue-tied dolt or two," remarked his son Chester, "but dolts aren"t uncommon anywhere, even when not tongue-tied. And I did run up against some chaps I liked jolly well. One of them invited me up for a week-end; I nearly fell over when he did it. I didn"t know country people ever talked about week-ends. I thought they called it "staying over Sunday.""
"You mean Wells Lawson," Stuart informed him. "If you could see the list of newspapers and magazines, not to mention books, that the Lawsons take, you"d open your eyes. He and his family have traveled a lot more than I have, and their home is one of the finest model farms in the county. There"s no hayseed in their hair."
"I didn"t discover much hayseed in anybody"s hair," observed Dr.
Jefferson Craig. "I think it"s gone out of fashion."
"There were some of the prettiest girls here to-night I ever saw," was Rosalie"s contribution to the list of comments. A figure of exquisite modishness, she perched upon the porch rail near Chester. "I did want to tell them not to let any one young man stick by them every minute the way they did, but I could hardly blame the young men for wanting to stick, the girls were so sweet, and some of them were quite stunning."
"You certainly gave them an example of how to make eyes at fifteen or twenty fellows, one after another," laughed her brother, at her side.
"You"d have had them all coming, Rosy, if they hadn"t been tied up to their respective girls. A lesson or two from you, and those girls would begin to play "round in proper shape."
"Rosy"s going to stay and take a few lessons herself," insinuated Jeannette, who sat with her shapely young arm resting upon her father"s knee, as she occupied the step below him. "I"ll promise to put some flesh on her little bones if she"s here a month. She"s too thin, after only her second season."
"Oh, I"ll stay," promised Rosalie promptly. "I simply love it here; I"m crazy to stay!"
"It"s all very well now," came Aunt Olivia"s low murmur in Georgiana"s ear--there had been many of such murmurs in the same ear during the afternoon and evening, though why, Georgiana herself could not guess, since the elder woman knew the younger to be unreservedly committed to upholding Jeannette"s whole course--"very well now, in June, with flowers blooming and friends about, but how the poor child is going to face a second winter I can"t imagine."
"She faced the first one very happily," Georgiana reminded her.
"The first one was a novelty and of course she was determined not to acknowledge how lonely she must often have been. I do not say that James Stuart is not a very attractive and trustworthy young man; I am fond of him myself--very. But I shall always feel that Jeannette has made a terrible mistake. Brought up as she has been, it is not conceivable that she should continue to find this sort of life possible."
It was with this moan in her ears that, a few minutes later, Georgiana listened to James Stuart. He had drawn her away from the group and was strolling with her across the lawn.
"Well, George, tell me your honest opinion. Is my wife happy?"
It was a blunt question, but Georgiana understood. He asked it not to be rea.s.sured but because he was confident of the answer.
She spoke guardedly: "I never saw her seem more so, Jimps. You are sure of it yourself?"